668 
B/»e R U KAl. NEW-YORKER 
May 11, l»is 
Farm, Garden and Orcbard Toolf 
AnBwiT the farmer’* bite qaeationa: 
How can I irrow more cropa with 
Icaat expenac? How can I cultlvato 
more acrea and have cleaner fielda? 
IRON AGE f'wwitiwlr 
Cultivator 
will he’p von doth!*. Haa pivot wheela and jranira 
with :• iVMih'l motion. Aojoatablo to any width 
of rov. h very tooth can be raised, lowered or turned 
to riffht or left. Lever 
adjoats balance of frame 
to wefitht of driver. 
Ltirht, atronsr and com¬ 
pact—the latest and heat 
of ridinsrcultivatora. Wo 
make a complete line of 
potato -«achinery,(tardcn 
tools, etc. Write oa to¬ 
day for free booklet. 
Bateman M’Pg Co., Box 2D ,GrenIoch,N-f. 
Don’t Buy Just ALFALFA 
DEMAND the HARDY Dakota AL¬ 
FALFA GENUINE GRIMM, BALTIC, 
DISCO 19A, DISCO IIC, and 
DAKOTA commercial ALFALFAS. 
Our stock is complete, thoroughly recleaned 
and tested. Write today for FREE SAMPLES 
of the GUARANTEED SEEDS and your copy 
of the 1918 DISCO Seed Book. 
Dakota Improved Seed Co. 
807 Lawler Street Mitchell, Soatb Dakota 
BEANS 
Every foot of land this year shonid be naed to ita 
fnllott capacity. Soy Beans will profitably take the 
place of corn whore jronr toed corn refuses to ger¬ 
minate; nearly o<)^I to tankage for hogs; also oz- 
eoilont for hay. We have a full line of all choice 
variotiea. Michigan Pea Beans iliould bo planted 
on small plots wnich yon do not want for major 
crops. They are easily carsd for and harvested. At 
present prices a crop is freqnently worth 8100 per 
acre. Ko more expensive to grow than corn. 
THE WIRO SEED CO. 
" Hou*€ of Quality and ModtraU Fritn." 
Bf>z »83, Mochanicabarg, Ohio 
Get Low Prices 
on Berry Boxes 
and 
Baskets 
Write for our 
Ereet’atalogl Showsyouhowyau 
can save money by buying direct 
from the laraegt Berry Box ana 
liaeket Factory tn tlu Country. 
New Albany Box A Basket Co.. Box 111 New Albany .InA. 
Q W C P T leading varieties delivered by 
O II C C I parcel post. 2fi plants, 20c t 60 plants, 30c ( 
nflTafil 100 plants, SOet 600 or more, SOc per IDO. 
rU I A I U By expresB, ehargus ooUect, 1,000 plants, 
Ql JIIITC ai.78t 6,000 or more, 81.80 per 1,000. 
rLAn I O H. ausTiN, rcLTON, pelswar e 
ncl AVf ADC potatoes. Iteal wed. 26lbR. 81.00 
UCLA n A nil bunny vale farm, BnyaNA, n. y. 
•p - . XVUIIliy li'iw. I Ll^e 11131 AWU, 
TnitlAtAPlAntfi Paid. Ontalouiie free, 
lUllldlUridllLa w. 8 . FORD 8 SON, Harlly. Del 
Vetrolahla Planio* ‘'iabbage. Tomato. Cimliflower. 
lOgOTaDIO rlaillS, Sw«tol Potato, Pepper. Egg 
Plant and other plantR. Also transplanted Htraw- 
berr.v and other small Fruit Plants. Haialogne free. 
I.. J. Kariner, Box 820, I'liluski. N. Y. 
SWEET POTATO VINES 
Oanliflo'wor an§ hrussols 
Kprout Plants, Asparagus roots, California Privet. 
Red Kkin Potato, Early and Late Vegetable Plants, 
MICHAEL . . 
Catalogue P'roe. 
N. BORGO. Vineland. N. J. 
Aenaraoiie ROOTS, HORSERADISH SETS, CABBAGE. 
Asparagus bEHS. onion plants, LETfUCE, TOMA, 
TOES EGG PLANTS, PEPPERS and CAULIFLOWER PLANTS. 
Bend for Price List. «J. O. 8chmidt, Hristol, Pa. 
fabbaee 
I.. PUNTS »2 per thousand. 
And 1 onato pepper and 1 
Pepper and Potato, 13. ex- 
reas collect. Poetpaid, 50c per Hundred 
6pe<-lel Prices large lots. Plante are open 
field grown and are stocky, tough and hardy. Full 
count—carefully |>acked—immediate shipment. 
OAKUM FARM, • > SALISBURY, N. C. 
Cabbage Plants 
A B II M E A », WIlIlBmKon, N. V. 
For Sale-White Dent Seed Corn 
teat 90it genninAtion. ffSperbn. Averaged 90 bii. 
shelled corn per sere. G. THOMAS POWELL, Glen Head.L.I. 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
Earliest, latest, largest, moat productive varieties, 
Including the Everbearing. Also lUHl'BKKET, lil.AC'K- 
BKKKV, OtmiUNT, SOtmEBKRHT, flIUFR PL1NT8, rKIHT 
SKD DHNARENTAL TREES, HHRIIBH, PLOWEBINQ I’LiNTH. 
VEGETABLE PLANTS 
OAHRAOK, OAUUELOWKK, OELEHV, BEET, £««, PEPI'EK,TO¬ 
MATO, O.'HION, I.RTTUCK,PAKHI,EI,HWEET POTATO, ASPAIIA- 
Ol/'H, KIIPHAKH, IIOIUEKADISB. Mail or express prepaid. 
Catalogue free. HARRY L. SOUIRES, Peed Oreund, M.Y. 
Strawberry Plants For Sale 
50 varieties to select from, including the fall-bear¬ 
ing. Send for free catalog. 
J.KKJFFOKD HAT-L, R. 2, KhoJeadale, Md. 
Planic MONEY MAKING VARIETIES 
atrawberry riants reasonable prices 
Catalogue Free. Basil Perry, GxoRaicTowN, Del. 
Diillia Ouarantoed blooming size, $1 per 100 
UlaQIOlUS DUIDS pogtpuld. IkfLgw-FarM, Miglaid Park, N. 
Our New Handy Binder 
.Sides are heavy Book Board, Imita¬ 
tion Leather Back and Corners, 
Cloth Sides, Two Tongues Inside. 
Inside of Cover Neat Lining Paper, 
.StAmiH?d In Gold—“R ukal New- 
yoRKEU”—on outside. 
Will hold 52 issues, or more. 
Sent prepaid upon receipt of 
price, SOc. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th St New York City 
like lied clover or Alfalfa. 'I’lie greatest 
ol)je(-tion to the veffli i.s the high <*ost. of 
the Reed. For the last few .vears tlio priee 
has been so high that we have largely 
given np growing vetch, and have tiped 
Alsike clover in its place. 
Plaster for Fertilizer 
Has jdaster, such as is used for the 
white^ finish on hard walls, any value on 
soil in garden? I can get Rix barrels 
free. c. A. J). 
Port .Tervis, X. Y. 
The jilaster that yon speak of is nsn- 
ally a mixture of lime, sand and a small 
quantity of hair to hold it together. The 
hair contains a very small quantity of ni¬ 
trogen. and very old plastering, which 
has remained for .a good while in a damp 
place, sometimes contains small quantities 
of nitrate of lime. In addition to this, 
tlie original lime has about as much value 
as ground limestone. The sand, of course, 
has no plant food value, and about all 
yon can exjiect from the plaster is a slight 
effect of lime uiion the land, and a very 
small quantity of nitrogen. Of course 
the trouble with such plastering is that it 
can be of only limited value as plant 
food until it is crushed or ground up 
fine. Spread over the ground in large 
chunks it would have very little effect. 
The best use that we have found for 
such plaster is to pile it around trees 
in the orchard. There is serves the pur¬ 
pose of a muh'h on the ground and slowly 
gives up its lime. 
Fertilizing Value of Pine Needles 
I have a farm in Columbia County, N. 
Y., 12 acres of which I use as pasture 
which is almost all woods, consisting 
mostly of pines. Under the pine trees I 
notice there is an accumulation of pine 
needles of 40 years. Have these pine 
needles any fertilizing value? Last Sum¬ 
mer I cut one of the pine trees down and 
it lay all Summer. When I removed it 
last Fall I noticed there were about 
three or four inches of green grass under 
it. It appeared to me that there must be 
something in pine needles of a fertilizing 
value. o. R. 
New York. 
If you will go down through the great 
sweet potato growing section in the coun¬ 
ties of Accomuc and Northampton in 
Virginia you will find the farmers busy 
raking up the pine needles and rotten 
trash from the woods and spreading it on 
the land to he jiliiiited in sweet potatoes 
and jilowing it under. Then, with com- 
nien-ial fertilizer added, they make line 
orojis of jiotatoes, I think that so far as 
the pine needles arc concerned, the effect, 
is mainly to keep the soil open and loose, 
as sweet potatoes prefer, and any manu- 
rial effect is due to the completely rotten 
leaf mold taken with the leaves. The 
pine needles, known locally as pine straw 
and jiine shatters, are slow to decay, and 
may finally add a little humus to the 
land, 'fhe crying need of the sweet po¬ 
tato section of Eastern Virginia is humus. 
While the forest trash will make some, 
the great need there is for the legume 
crops. The raking of the forest and the 
hauling and sirreadiiig of the material 
thus secured is a waste of time and labor, 
for it would co.st a great deal less to sow 
Crimson clover or even rye to turn under 
in the Spring, and the clover would be 
worth far more to the land than the pine 
woods trash. It is a common practice 
here to rake np and haul the jiine needles 
for bedding in stable and barnyards. But 
the needles have little absorjitive capac¬ 
ity and decay very slowly, and from ac¬ 
tual experience I find that the manure ac¬ 
cumulated in this way is not worth half 
as much as that made where straw and 
refuse hay are used for bedding. I have 
to buy some manure for my garden every 
year, and I always try to avoid that with 
pine needles used for h^'ldii'K- The use 
of the pine straw has grown up because 
of the neglect of small grain and the lack 
of liettcr bedding materi.-il. '^fhe forest 
waste would he of moi’e value probably if 
jiiled with lime sc-attered through the jiile 
and let stand for six months or more, 
and turned onee or twiee. But its ma- 
nurial value even then would he so small 
that it would not jiay for the labor. The 
fanner who grows plenty of Summer and 
Winter legume crojis, or in .sections too 
cold for ('rimson clover as a Winter 
cover, uses rye, will lie better off without 
the piue straw, for while I would not say 
that it is a positive injury, it has very 
little manurial value as compared with 
the green crops grown on the land. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
n. N.-Y.—It i.q not likely that the pine 
needles on this tree had the effect you 
mention on the grass. That was more 
due to the shade or mulching effect of the 
tree and its hranche.s. We have all no¬ 
ticed that when limbs of a tree or even 
fine wire are thrown on the ground the 
grass comes up green and rank. I^ay a 
board on the ground and let it stay mo.st 
of the season. Next year that spot will 
show nnnsual growth of crops, even when 
all the field is handled alike. A “mulch” 
of straw, manure, w’eeds or trash piled 
under a tree always gives far better re¬ 
sults that we could expect from its ma¬ 
nurial value alone. 
Acid Phosphate on Limed Land 
Will acid phosphate sour my sandy soil 
(subsoil clay) if I use it on my crops, if 
I continue to put HO bushels lump lime to 
an acre every eight years? Will my 
ground bear 50 bushels lime every four 
years? n. o. 
Manchester, Pa. 
On land that has never been limed we 
get a few more clover plants from steamed 
bone meal or basic slag than from acid 
phosphate, but not enough more to have 
any practical significance. Taking all the 
crops in the last two rotations of our five- 
year rotation experiment and rating acid 
phosphate as 1(X), we get the following 
comparative values: 
Value of annual yield per acre: 
Limed land: Actual Relative 
Acid phosphate. . . . 
100 
Basic slag. 
94 
Steamed bonemeal, . 
. ... 22.3« 
93. 
Unlimed land: 
Acid phosphate. 
... . 18.50 
100 
Basic slag. 
- 10.08 
103 
Steamed bonemeal. . 
. . .. 15.76 
85 
We would advise a lighter dressing of 
lime—say 25 bu.shels every four years if 
lump lime is used, or preferably two tons 
of raw ground limestone. With such 
treatment you need not have any fear of 
acid phosphate souring the land. 
Ohio Exp. Station, chab. e. thobne. 
Carbide Refuse as Fertilizer 
I have a large heap of refuse from car¬ 
bide gas plant. Do you think there is 
any value in it to spread on the land 
for a crop of oats? I thought there might 
be enough lime in it to pay for the haul¬ 
ing; it is dry and powders up easily. 
Ilaiippauge, N. Y. m. n. 
The refuse you speak of contains lime, 
and after it has been exposed to the 
weather a short time i.s just about a.s 
elTec-tive as stone lime would he. On, any 
soil that needs lime this refuse Avill show 
results. The trouble with it is that 
some people ajipear to think the refuse 
is a very valuable plant food containing 
complete fertilizer. That is not true, but 
as a carrier of lime alone the refuse is 
worth while. 
Nitkate of Soda.—M any readers have 
asked what has become oB the nitrate of 
soda which was to be sold direct to farm¬ 
ers by the Agricultural Department. We 
gave the jiarticulars about the purchase 
of this nitrate some weeks ago. The 
nitrate was bought through the Farm Bu¬ 
reaus and the demand through the East¬ 
ern States was not as large as was ex¬ 
pected. The last report from the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture says that they 
originally expected to purchase 120,000 
tons of nitrate. Up to the middle of April 
21,538 tons had been unloaded at Sa¬ 
vannah, Charleston and Wilmington, 
South Carolina. About 17,0(K) tons had 
actually been shipped to farmers. There 
were 10,000 tons more to be taken out at 
Mobile, and on that date 20,500 tons 
were on their way from Chili. Thus, out 
of 120,000 tons expected, only 72,000 has 
even been started from South America. 
It does not seem likely, therefore, that 
all farmers who bought the nitrate in Feb¬ 
ruary will have the fertilizer delivered 
this year. One trouble of the matter was 
that farmers were led to expect too much 
from this offer. They got the idea that 
the outcome would he very different. Con¬ 
gress put up the distribution to the De¬ 
partment of Agrieultiire. and it was 
obliged to carry out the plan, which can¬ 
not be said to have been higlily successful. 
We are receiving .$1.25 per IflO pounds 
for potatoes, 50 to 00c for onions, $2.15 
for wheat, $2.80 for rye, $1.15 for oats, 
and from $20 to $30 par ton for hay, ac¬ 
cording to quality. Help is very scarce 
and hard to find; single men command 
$50 to $00 per month and board and 
washing for the season of eight months ; 
married men get about the same jier 
month by the year with hou.se and gar¬ 
den, milk and firewood free. I think 
farmers in this section as a rule are in a 
very prosperous condition, and are hope¬ 
ful of the future. M. G. D. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
Kidnapping Bees 
I would like legal information about 
the riglilH of bee-keepers. During the. 
jiast season or two 1 have been troubled 
by a person trying to get my bees when¬ 
ever a RW’arra lit on adjoining- jiroperty, 
less than five rods from my hives. lie 
did not own the jiroporfy, either This 
Spring he has set up a hive strongly 
baited wdth anise about 400 feet from 
m.v hives He does not own any bees. 
Is there a law against setting up hives 
either on his own or other fieojiles’ jirop- 
erty ? p. 
'File ownership of Jwaniis stra.ved from 
their rightful premises is not, I think, 
Very well defined. My ojiinion is that 
they would he eon.sidered wild game un¬ 
less the owner could prove his ownersliiji 
by following them up and keeping them 
in sight until they had clustered. It 
would be diflicult, if not imjiossihle, to 
identify ,a swarm of bi'cs, for they will 
often go for miles before' entering new 
(piarter.s, and almost any swarm might 
have come from a number of source.s. 
The fact that your neighbor, who has no 
liees, has set trap hives’ is abundant evl- 
deiK’C that he is trying to steal bees and 
would jdace him at a very .serious dis¬ 
advantage in any legal disjmte over the 
ownership of a swarm, but I know of no 
law that would prevent him from setting 
such traps upon any jirojierty controlled 
hy him. If the law does not protect you 
against dishonorable neighbors, your own 
wit will have to If yon are on hand 
when your bees are swarming, you will 
prohalily have little trouble in keeping 
them from entering yonr neighbor’s trap 
hive, and, if you are not, yon are jiretty 
likely to lose the swarms anyway Does 
anise attract bees? It would seem to me 
that some drawn combs in jihusi would he 
far more apt to. m. n. n. 
Making Apple Butter Commercially 
We are interested in the commercial 
manufacture of apjile butter, and will 
appreciate advice as to where we may 
secure information covering the details 
of manufacturing for handling about 
20,000 barrels of raw apples, oontainers, 
cost of plant, machinery, outlets for the 
product, etc. c. F. M. 
Virginia. 
Ajiple butter is made in tlie commercial 
way quite generally hy tlie canneries, 
though not invariably so. As a hy-produet 
to canning it i.s made from the skins and 
cores, while the entire fruit would he 
used if the butter alone was desired. As 
to e()uipment needed, fliere would he one 
“eyejone” macliine for Iiniising tlie aji- 
jiles to a pulp; three copper kettles of 
150-gal]ons capacity each; engine and 
boiler. 'Phis would h(^ sufficient to jiro- 
cess 20,()()0 barrels of ajiples. 'I'lie boiler 
size would depend on the niimlier of hands 
employed ;ind tin* (piantity jiroduction 
per day. The jirocess of manufacture 
<lo<'s not widely vary in essenfials from 
the home jn’oduct. Of course there are 
economies not jio.ssihh’ in kitchen pro¬ 
duction. 
As to the containers used, for small 
(piantity packages, (he No. 3 and No. 10 
cans are preferred. The usual large con¬ 
tainer is the 30-pound pail. To the large 
size, benzoic is added as a iiroservativc. 
The principal outlets for ajiple butter are 
found in the South and Southwest, though 
it has a general sale in most sections. 
Owing to jiresent flnctnations, cost of 
plant could hardly he estimaO’d. The 
con.siderations would mainly he co.st of 
equiimient when needl'd, hnilding material 
and labor. a. ir. r. 
Farmers and Consumers Meet 
The leading farmers of Montgomery 
Co,, N. Y,, held a meeting at Fonda on 
April 11. This meeting included the 
Farm Bureau directors and committee¬ 
men, local officers of the Dairymen’s 
League, Masters of the Orange and many 
others. ’I’hese fai’iners <’ame together for 
a general discussion of important inter¬ 
ests. W. J. Ilugar, the County Bureau 
agent, exiilaincHl the situation and made 
an argument for full organization. A 
local farmer, F. W. Bander, discussi'd the 
farmer’s point of view, ami he explaim'd 
generally the prixlncer’s side of several 
big (piestions. Then Seelc'y Conover, 
mayor of Amsterdam, took the other side 
and discussed the consniner’s point of 
view. Other siihjc'cts discussed by farm¬ 
ers were the labor problem, the milk 
commission, the third Liberty Tman and 
the milk jirohlem. These were gone over 
and thoroughly opened from the farmers’ 
Iioint of view. It was a good meeting, 
and had a good effect in bringing farmers 
and consumers together, and giving the 
farmers a chance to discuss their own 
problems iu their own way. 
