RURAL NEW-YORKER 
423 
RURALISMS 
Culture of Garlic 
Will you give information on the plant¬ 
ing and cultivation of garlic? It is not 
gro'.v; in this section, though there are 
frequent calls for it. W. H. S. B. 
Grand Junction, Mich. 
Garlic is grown commercially in the 
Gulf States, but a large part of that 
which is used in this country is imported. 
This crop thrives best in a well-enriched 
sandy loam. Each garlic bulb is made up 
of many little sections called cloves. The 
large clove is thus broken up into many 
little sections, corresponding to onion sets. 
These are set one inch deep, four inches 
apart, in rows 16 inches apart during 
April for Michigan. The soil should be 
kept well tilled and free from weeds. 
When the tops have partly died down the 
garlic should be harvested. The common 
practice is to braid the tops together in 
long ropes, with the bulbs on the outside. 
These should be suspended in dry, airy 
places, where frost will not touch the 
garlic. Under these conditions it should 
keep a long time. Sometimes as the 
garlic grows it will throw up seed stalks 
which will produce a cluster of little 
bulbs, which are excellent for propaga¬ 
tion. E. W. D. B. 
Jack-knife Remedy for Squash Borers 
Regarding the squash borer, here is a 
method of s.aving the vines which I prac¬ 
ticed successfully this Summer. I was 
called on for a remedy by some friends 
whose vines were dying, and went to 
work with a jack-knife, splitting the vines 
lengthwise at the points of swelling, 
where the appearance of the vines showed 
the presence of the borer, opening the 
stalks a little to allow of the removal of 
the white larva, and then on to the next 
one. In two hours’ time I destroyed over 
200 of the borers, often finding from four 
to five in one vine, and once as many as 
14, practically every joint being infested, 
and some points between joints. You cau 
see from this that the patch was very bad¬ 
ly infested; in fact, the worst case I ever 
saw; but in practically every case the 
vines I’ecovered, and matured a good crop 
of squashes, and one vine which was so 
badly gone as to be nearly dead to all ap¬ 
pearances, put forth a new shoot from the 
roots, this being after the middle of 
August, and matured a large squash on 
that. This shows that the vines can be 
saved even after wilting badly, though it 
means a little work -vyhich might not pay 
on a large commercial scale, but for a 
small garden it would be well worth while 
to save the family crop of squashes for 
the Winter. ciiari.ks E. PRESCOTT. 
Xew York. 
Talks With"a King Bee 
We find great interest this year in the 
statement that honey may be used to take 
the place of sugar in preparing many 
kinds of food. People are coming to the 
idea that the bee is one of those use¬ 
ful creatures that work for nothing and 
pay for their boai’d, and there is likely to 
be a great revival of interest in bee keep¬ 
ing next year as a war economy. Sugar 
is already a scarce article, and the sup¬ 
ply is not likely to increase. Therefore 
many of us turn to the honey-bee for 
sweetness. We have been talking to a 
prominent bee man who knows all about 
these things, and he has given ns many 
interesting facts about honey. 
How many bees will generally be need¬ 
ed to supply a family with its sweetness? 
In fair years, three colonies of bees will 
give the sweets needed for canning and 
supplying the table with honey. 
Do you call honey a full substitute for 
sugar? 
While honey does not supply all de¬ 
mands for sugar, it comes very near it. 
It is a partially digested sweet; namely, 
it has gone through one of the stages of 
digestion. The human system, before it 
can appropriate raw sugar, as we find it 
in granulated sugar, .must first change the 
sucrose into invert sugar. Honey is al¬ 
ready inverted, and therefore saves the di¬ 
gestive organs some work. 
Has honey any value except for its 
sweet side? 
Honey has value, for besides its sweet 
it has certain food elements in the line 
of inorganic matter in exactly the same 
proportions that we find them in the hu¬ 
man body. 
Can honey be used as a sugar substitute 
in cooking? 
Honey can be used in cakes and can¬ 
dies; but on account of the fact that it is 
not chemically the same as granulated 
sugar (sucrose) it requires a little dif¬ 
ferent treatment. 
As a business investment for a farmer, 
d.- you think three colonies of bees would 
pay? 
There is hardly anything on the farm 
that will pay a larger dividend from the 
initial cost of investment than bees. Ex¬ 
tracted honey Is now retailing at 25 cents 
a pound, and comb honey at 40 cents. 
With the absolute shortage of sugar there 
is every indication that these prices will 
climb. In the European countries honey 
is being peddled at 50 cents, and it is of a 
very poor quality at that. 
How much work does a bee actually do 
during the season; that is, how much 
honey could we expect to obtain from a 
good colony? 
The average production of a colony of 
bees, taking 10 years together, would be 
about 50 pounds. This would mean $12.50 
for the honey. Usually bees can be bought 
from some farmer for about $5, including 
the hive, such as it is. A modern equip¬ 
ment and Italianizing would bring the 
initial cost of the colony up to $10 for 
the first year. There is then left $2.50 
to the good, with the further advantage 
that the first cost, with a very slight ad¬ 
ditional outlay for foundation, with honey 
containers, would go on giving a large re¬ 
turn. In a good year a colony can pro¬ 
duce as high as 100 pounds. 
Would it be possible for a person on a 
small place of the class known as “back- 
lotters,” to keep bees at a profit? 
Surely: there are thousands of them 
who are already doing it to their great 
profit and advantage. Bee-keeping is a 
business, and must be learned like any 
other important thing connected with 
farming. A man can read up on the sub¬ 
ject, and get a fair knowledge of ^bee 
culture, but it is just like any other job; 
practical experience is the final teacher. 
There is, however, a better supply of lit- 
* erature for bee-keeping than for any other 
line of farm endeavor. 
Care of Spraying Machinery 
After the spraying season is over, gen¬ 
erally the spraying machine is run into 
a shed and left until next spraying time 
again. But the condition of the ma¬ 
chine when you next attempt to use it is 
going to be all wrong unless it W'as prop¬ 
erly cleaned out after last using. More 
than one fruit grower and marketman 
has lost money because he waited until 
he wanted to spray to see if his machine 
was in working order. While he lost 
time working on the machine, opening 
up clogged nozzles, etc., the bugs were 
getting started on the crop. 
Spray materials act on the interior 
of the spraying machine, corroding it 
more or less, especially in the case of 
dime-sulphur mixtures in iron pumps. 
Paris green is especially bad, since it 
does not readily dissolve in the spray 
mixture and tends to settle out of solu¬ 
tion, clogging the pump or nozzles. One 
case of an unworkable field sprayer which 
came to my attention this season was 
caused by the compression chamber being 
completely filled Avith Paris green ac¬ 
cumulations of the previous season. 
When the last spraying is given, a 
couple of tankfuls of water should be 
run through the pumps at high pressure 
before putting it away. This will take 
the spray material out of the pump, and 
prevent the formation of scale on the 
inside of the pipes which wonld give 
much trouble clogging nozzles next sea¬ 
son. The nozzles should be removed and 
stored away where they will not be lost. 
(’olumbia. Mo. J. T. R. 
A Veteran Seed Fraud 
Now and then we run upon some seed 
humbug or fraud, and think w'e have 
struck something new. “There is no new 
thing under the sun,” and this refers to 
seeds as well as sons of men. Dr. Fred¬ 
eric V. Coville sends us the following 
passage, taken from an old book entitled 
“The Garden of Eden,” printed in Lon¬ 
don, England, in the year 1675. Evident¬ 
ly the unscrupulous seed dealer wa . one 
of the serpents in the Garden of Eden: 
“I did sow some Staves-acre in a place 
AA'hose mold Avas cast up in wet weather, 
and consisting of earth and clay, it did 
so clod together, as that the seeds which 
were soav<S the 26 of March did not ap¬ 
pear above ground until the latter end of 
May, and then also they came very thin¬ 
ly. I had the like success in the same 
earth with Artichok-seeds, whereof the 
hundredth one came not up (although 
peradventure I might be abused in the 
seeds which is an ordinary practice in 
these days, Avith all such as follow that 
Avay, either to deliver the seeds which they 
sell mingled with such as are old and 
withered, or else without any mingling 
at all to sell such as are stark naught) ; 
I Avould there were some fit punishment 
devised for these petit coseners, by whose 
means many poor men in Englwid do 
oftentimes lose, not only the charge of 
of thdr ground, after they have bestowed 
the best part of their AA'ealth upon it.” 
Wm. L. Gilbert Clock Co* 
Good Clockm«k*n Sine* 1307 at 8tt Mala 
Wintted* Coiuiootlcat 
JWo Need to Set Your Alarm Clock 
Every Night When the 
GILBERTTilNE 
c:l_o 
If youVe ever climbed out of 
bed on a zero night because you 
forgot to set your alarm, you 
know what this means. 
With the Gilbert “Nine,” you auto¬ 
matically set your alarm for the 
nine days this clock runs accurate¬ 
ly at one winding. No fuss—no 
bother. Has 24 hour dial—can be 
set for a. m. or p. m. 
Have your dealer shovr you this nine-day 
Clock. Write us direct giving his name 
should he not have them in stock. 
Booklet " I Speak For Myself" sent upon 
request to yourself and friends. 
CbCC POR A 
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CHATHAM 
SEED GRADER AND CLEANER 
Also set ^cte about this wonderful Gas Power or Hand 
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Brades. separatea and sacks any srain seedl Any grass 
seedl or. rankest mlxturesl All In a slnsle operatloiil 
Takes out all dust and traab and tacked weed eeedi Sea* 
an^s the poor sickly seed—sacks big hsalthy fellows, 
readj Mwingor inarket. Hnndles^up to 60 bushela peg 
Thoutandt,____ 
least 
tow. 
V*l>*' 2S2 Kansas City 
Dept. 292 Minneapolis 
nantnnnnnmiBiHB 
E PLOWS 
O Cuts two rowA Equals 30 
men with saws. Write to¬ 
day tor catalog and prioea. 
WM. U. PRAY, UGrangeville, N. Y. 
I Small California Farm f.""™” "Sli'i 
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Ce SEAGRAVES* Industrial Commissioner A. T« &S«r* RYaa 
1963 RAILWAY EXCHANGE CHICAGO. * 
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until you see this 78-acre general^lalry farm. 10-room 
stone dwelling. Extra bank bam 40 head. Spring water-. 
Village a. mile. t4,300. Particulars, catalogue 300 Mont- 
goniery-Bucks County bargains Burrouiidlng Philadel- 
piiia, on request. 
H. C. REESE a SON 
6 East Airy Street Norristown, Pa. 
The Farm Brokers* Association, Inc. 
farms and other country real estate everywhere in New 
York State, Pei-sonaUy Inspected properties. Careful 
descriptions. Right prices. CENTRAL OFFICE AT 
ONEIDA, N. y., other offices throughout the State. 
349-Acre Farm 
to all crops. lOO acres ot acorn orchard fenced for 
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Harry VaU, Owner. NEW MILFORD, Orano* Co., N. Y. 
Have For Sale Seven (7) Farms 0 ?/.^ nTZl 
a E have books on 
all subjects of 
farming by rec¬ 
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Write us and we will 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Fertilizers Pay Better Than Ever 
T oday a bushel of com or wheat buys more fertilizer 
(potash excepted, of course) than at any time during 
the past three years. Note how much cheaper you can 
buy a 2-10 fertilizer now than before the 
In 1914 
would buy 
buy 
In terms of farm products, fertilizers cost lest today than in 1914, 
Fertilizers paid you then — they will pay you better now. 
Fertilizers are today more profitable and more necessary to efficient 
production than before the war. Boost crop production, grow more 
per acre and increase your profits by using fertilizer. 
Help both the railroads and yourself by ordering Spring Fertilizers 
NOW. 
Send for literature to Department 19 
So3 Improvement Committee 
of the National Fertilizer Association 
Postal Telegraph Bldg,, Chicago The Munsey Bldg., Baltimore 
