196 
“Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 9, 1!H8 
For the Men Who 
Get Things Done 
O N your busiest days when there are 
certain thin^ that must be done 
reg,ardless of road or weather, then is 
the time you appreciate Firestone Tires. 
They will ^et you to town in comfort 
and on time. Over frozen ruts, sleety 
roads or through deep snow and slush, 
you can depend on 
TIRES 
There is economy as well as safety in 
the Non-Skid lettered tread. Out of that 
added rubber, piled hifeh in the center, 
you ^et g,ood-raeasure wear. Fuel- 
saving will interest you at this time 
especially. Unusually lon^ runs per 
gallon is the rule on Firestone Tires. 
More Rubber Between Fabric Bayers 
reduces internal friction and heat. 
This extra rubber and thick cushion 
layer adds to resiliency and is most 
effective in eliminating stone bruise. 
Special Enforcement ^ives strength at 
the bead and holds the hinj>,e or bend¬ 
ing point in the proper position. 
Firestone Gord Tires will astonish you 
with their combination of lively, com¬ 
fortable ^oin^ with stout resistance 
aj^ainst wear. Your dealer is ready. 
See him today. 
FIRESTONE TIRE AND RUBBER CO. 
Akron, Ohio Branches and Dealers Everywhere 
•MiliiiiiiiiimKiiiiivrE'irirj''*''. 
mrrr.'i’) 
'Tor the Land’s Sake” 
This old New England slogan 
used so long in advertising 
Bowker’s Fertilizers, takes on 
greater meaning this year. 
Our land is at war. 
Our boys “over there’^ will do 
their best; we must do our best to 
supply them with food. Our land 
is productive when rightly handled 
and fertilized. Join the army of 
farmers who are using Bowker*s 
Fertilizers for their **land*s sake. 
ROWKF.R fertilizer co. 
▼ T JJiXV Boston, New York, Phila., Etc. 
SUeSIOIAKY OF THE AMEKICAM AORICULTURAL CHEMICAL COMFANV 
r 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and yoti7/ get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.’* See guarantee editorial page. 
] 
The Vegetable Garden 
Raising Radishes for Market 
A Southern Winter Crop 
Part I. 
The great secret of success iu r<adish 
raising is to lie on time ; plant them on 
time, i>ull them on time, if you would make 
money at it. Naturally, every locality has 
a difi'erent climate and the time for plant¬ 
ing varies with the climate, but here (near 
Wilmington, N. (\) I always start the 
plows going on New Yt'ar's day, or as 
near to that as the weather will permit. 
Radishes require v«‘ry deej) plowing. 
They like best rich, moi.st, sandy loam. 
Have the land thrown up in beds six feet 
across. I find that the beat fertilizer to 
use is a 7-u-o, but hast year I could not 
get this, so I used S-2-2, and added to each 
sack of fertilizer 20 pounds of nitrate of 
soda. It requires about SOO pounds of 
fertilizer- to the acre, though this varies 
with the soil—my land is fairly rich. Tlic 
fei’tilizer is sjjread on the beds by hand 
and afterward harrowed in.. Then the 
beds are smoothed over with garden 
rakes; this can be quickly done as the 
them too large they will meet the 
same fate. ^ The radishes are pulled and 
thrown into piles in the alleys between 
the beds. Then little cedored boys come 
along, pile them into bushel baskets and 
they are carried to the washing place. On 
hot days they should not be thrown into 
the alleyways, but put straight into the 
baskets instead. 
The washing place is composed of a 
series of wooden box-shaped troughs that 
stand about 2if. feet from the ground. 
Ka<‘h one h.as a pipe ajid also a draiiipipe 
running into and out of it, so that the 
water is being constantly renewed. Hito 
these ti-oughs the radishes are thrown. 
They are then t.aken in great handfuls 
and plunged up and down in the water 
three or four times (nnudi as one would 
wash greens before putting them on to 
cook), care being taken not to handle 
them roughly nor to grip them tightly, 
for tlie tops brui.so and I)reak off very 
Citsily and, of cmirse. this ruins the radish. 
As they are waslu'd they are dr<q)ped 
into clean bushel baskets again and taken 
Harvesting Radishes in North Carolina 
harrow breaks up the clods. The beds 
Jire now ready for jilanting, wliicli is 1)C- 
guu about .January 15. 
I use a hand drill and open the slots 
just far enough to let about five or six 
seeds fall to the inch. I’ut six rr>ws to the 
bed. which admits of planting in between 
in case the stand is wejik. The best va¬ 
rieties for market use are (Mncinnati IMar- 
ket, which is a long real radish with a 
small top and Lady Finger, a lotig white 
radi.sh. It would be difficult to say ju.st 
how much seed is required to the acre, as 
it is often necessary to replant on account 
of cold weather, or perhaps too much 7-aln 
just after jdanting avill wash the seed 
away. And then again, while the leaves 
are young and tender the radishes are 
liable to be d»-stroyed by a hejivy freeze, 
which nece.ssitates imm(‘diate nqdauting. 
These possible los.ses make it difficult to 
estimate the (piantity of seed m-eded, but. 
as a rule, I .allow about seven pounds to 
the acre. 
I usually plant successions up to the 
middle of March. Ordinarily, I ))lant 
about three-fifths of my crop in red .and 
two-fifths in white, as the Avhite are more 
difficult to handle and, consequently, re¬ 
quire more labor, but as a rule they bring 
from one-fourth to cents more i>er 
bunch, and often when the I’hiladelphia 
market is glutted on red radishes it will 
still take white. 
The weather being favorable, red rad¬ 
ishes are ready for market six weeks from 
I)lanting, the white take a little longer to 
mature. Sometimes, a frc'eze will come 
along and wipe you out. Then the only 
thing to do is to cheerfully replant imme¬ 
diately, for it is the early bird that catches 
the worm, and it fi-equently happens that 
you don’t get frozen out. I have re¬ 
planted as often as six different times iu 
one Spring and still managed to make a 
nice little profit, but this has only hap¬ 
pened once in the 20 years that I have 
been in the business, though I have some¬ 
times planted twice. One must guard 
against planting the radishes too thick, 
because that retards them and also makes 
them inclined to run iq) to seed early. 
JVhen they are about the size of a man’s 
finger it is time to pull them. Fare must 
be used not to pull them too small, fftr 
then the commission merchants will refer 
to them as rat tails and dumi) 
them in the river, and if one send 
into th<7 tying i-oom and spread on the 
long tables. They are then tied into 
bunche.s of from five to seven each, ac¬ 
cording to size, care always being taken 
not to put .'1 very long radi.sh in a bunch 
with very shoi-t ones, and the reverse. I 
tic them with r.-iflia, which costs 10 to 20 
cents a pound. Alw.ays soak the raffia in 
water .a fiov niinut<“s bt'fore using. J usi* 
raffia Ixa-.ause I find it fai- cbe.aper than 
string and it is not so inclined to cut the 
tops of the radishes or the hamis of tin- 
tiers. I also use I’.'iffi.a in tying iny as¬ 
paragus. After they are tied they are 
counted and thrown into cradles of 1(K) 
and loO bunche.s each. ’J'he cradles are 
made box-sh;iped of light .sl.ats. a handle 
being on each end of cradle. This makes 
the bulk (-asy to handle. Having no re¬ 
frigerator system on my line, I have to 
ice each of my p.'ick.ages individually. In 
the W inter I buy all the flour, apple and 
sugar bai'rels in the community and have 
air holes cut in them. I pack my rad¬ 
ishes in these, laying each bunch in care¬ 
fully and keejiing tally on the outside of 
th<7 number of cradles put in, or, rather, 
of the total number of bunches iu the 
barrels, which runs .'inywlu're from .300 to 
(!00, according to size of barrel. In the 
flour and apple barrels I put in a block of 
ice weighing about .30 pounds. I place 
this near the top and head the barrels 
with tow sacking. In the sugar barrels 
I put two lumps of ice weighing about 20 
pounds each, one near the top and one 
near the bottom. 
’The above descri))tion of washing tin; 
radishes ai)i)lies to red ones only. The 
white ones have to be washed individually 
■before bunching, else the.v will have a 
gray look. If there are any ugly, hairy 
side root.s on them I have them pulled off. 
_ ('. U. 
What Lime Shall I Buy ? 
(Foutinued fi-om page 11)3.) 
shovel. I am fortunate enough to live 
stone, however, analyzing about 08 to 70 
per cent calcium oxide. This form works 
well in a lime sower, but it is absolut<'ly 
necessary to have one in order to apply 
it. This is the most expensive form to 
buy. price being around $7 per ton in 
I)aper bags, f. o. b. factory, or 10 cents 
per one per cent of calcium oxide con¬ 
tent. F. J. HICKEY. 
