1260 
Tshe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
“Now you can ride in real comfort!” 
“No more chills or frost-bites for you! This Taplex Foot 
Wanner will keep your whole body warm and comfortable— 
you won’t know or care whether it’s a cold day or not.” 
You can always be cozily comfortable — in your carriage or 
auto—in camp—anywhere—if you have a 
TAPLEX 
FOOT WARMER 
€ < 
Lights with a match** 
The Taplex Fool Warmer is the senior member of the Taplex Family. 
The others are the Bed Waumer, Body Warmer and Handy Warmer. 
Taplex Warmers are the only kind that can be put in operation anywhere 
at any time by applying a match. They are simple, 
safe, economical, efl&cicnt. They all give from 6 to 8 
hours of generous, comforting heat without needing 
any attention whatever! All Taplex Warmers are 
guaranteed satisfactory or money is refunded. 
Sold by general, hardware, auto-accessory, sportlni 
goods, drug and department stores. lllustratei 
booklet with prices free on request. Please mention 
dealer’s address. 
Taplex 
Bed Warmer, $1. OO 
No flame, smoke or odor; has 
a hundred household uses. 
TAPLEX CORPORATION, 47 W. 34th St., New York City 
MR. BUSINESS FARMER 
Grasp This Money 
Making Opportunity 
READ! READ! 
Coal is going: to be higher and hard to 
obtain In many cases at any price. 
This means a big market for wood. 
Every business farmer should now 
clean up all the salable firewood he 
has. Get ready for the big demand 
that is coming and the way to do this 
is to buy a HEAVI-DUTI sawing 
outfit—the most simple, the most dur¬ 
able and compact engine ever built—and a yaw ontfiit that has no equal anywhere. Full information and 
catalog free. WRITE TODAY. R. CONSOLIDATED GASOLINE ENGINE CO., 202 Fulton Street. New York City 
OVER HERE 
The w«rk of 
The 
Salvation 
Army 
must continue 
to have your 
support 
Will You Help 
our Christmas 
and 
Winter Relief 
Work? 
This ii oar 
ANNUAL 
APPEAL 
Send Donations to Commander Miss Booth! 
118 West Fourteenth Street, New York City 
Western Dept, Commissioner Estill, 108 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago 
6,000 KIEFFER PEAR, 2 and S-year. 
5,000 YEI.LOW TKANSP. APPLE, 3-year. 
6,000 DELICIOUS “ 2 and 3-year. 
600 MONTMORENCY CHERRY, 3-year. 
BRIDGEVILLE NURSERIE.S, Mjer 8 Son. Buidgeville, Del 
RASPBERRY—BLACKBERRY—STRAWBERRY 
GOOSKBERUY, CURRANT, GUAI’E, ASPARAGUS, Kill BARK, 
WITLOOK CHICORY PLANTS, KBUIT TREES. SHRUBS for fall 
planting. Catalogue free. HARRY L. SQUIRES, Good Ground, N.Y. 
Two Excellent Vegetable Books 
By R. L Watts 
Vegetable Gardening.$1.75 
Vegetable Forcing.2.00 
For sale by 
THe Rural New-Yorker 
333 W. 30tli St., New York 
What Will You Build? 
You doubtless need some new farm buildingthis 
season. Perhaps, it will be a dairy barn, dwell¬ 
ing, garage, silo, hog house, or other outbuild¬ 
ing Whatever it may be, you will get some 
mighty helpful ideas from our new book, 
“Natco on the Farm” 
It tells you how to have buildings that are dry, clean, 
and sanitary—warm in winter yet cool in summer. It 
shows you how to save on repairs, insurance and coal 
bills. It illustrates scores of fire-safe farm buildings that 
will "stand for generations.” It’s trueeconomy to build 
with'Natco Hollow Tile — makes every building a per¬ 
manent investment. Write for your copy now. Ask also 
tor plans—free if you intend to build. 
National Fire Proofing Company 
1121 Fulton Building - • Pittsburgh, Pa. 
SS Factories assure a wide and ecomonicai distribution 
riT7rrD l FI adjustable self- 
F 11 Zjvf£ill.il.LLll Aligning Shaft Hanger 
A New Hanger Just Patented 
Used with almost all milking machines- 
Weighs less; costs less. More strength 
and more adjustment than other hang¬ 
ers. Nothing like it for any purpose 
where Shafting isuseil. 2 to 12 in. adjust¬ 
ment. GUARANTEED. Write for circular and 
prices, F. O. B. Batavia, N. Y. 
FITZGERALD MFC. CO., Kilboum, Wis- 
Notes From a Maryland Garden 
Our first white frost came ou the morn¬ 
ing of Oct. 2.3. It was hardly a killing 
frost, for it seemed merely to nip the ten¬ 
der leaves and the blossoms of the string 
beans and Lima beans. But, all the same, 
the string beans continued to die back, 
while the weather has been very warm. 
It is evident that the first of September 
is too late to risk string beans. But we 
had plenty of the green beans from earlier 
planting np to the 24th and had our last 
sweet corn on the 25th. Now w.e are 
right down on the Winter vegetables. The 
Drumhead cabbages are heading and the 
Savoys are in their prime. 
I find it harder to get a perfectly uni¬ 
form cabbage seed than almost any other 
vegetable. Our Drumhead cabbages, for 
instance, are evidently from a badly 
rogued stock, for we have now this 2Sth 
of October some splendid hard heads, and 
in the same row others that are just 
starting to form a head, and still others 
which do not look as though they ever 
intend to head. This, again, w’as an ex¬ 
periment with the box seed on the store 
counter. Not that I depend on them, but 
simply as a matter of compai’ison to em¬ 
phasize the warning I have given be¬ 
fore, to send to the seedsmen of the best 
reputation for seed and not to deal with 
the box seed sent out on commission. I 
have never had any faith in this class of 
seeds, hut wanted to know from actual 
test that they are not to he relied upon. 
It seems aggravating after tender things 
have been damaged or killed to have such 
glorious weather, and warm enough for 
•Inly. But it is the case every Fall that 
: Nature seems to apologize for the first 
damage done when it is too late to rem¬ 
edy it. We have plenty of leeks, salsify, 
lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach and tur¬ 
nips, and the big Celestial radishes, and 
will have enough of all these to last 
through the Winter. 
Of potatoes we grow none for Winter 
use, for the great fields all round us can 
produce these more cheaply than we can 
in the garden. The tops have been mown 
from the asparagus bed and the bed heav¬ 
ily covered with manure. The growth of 
the tops has been so large this Fall that 
I shall look for extra large spikes in the 
Spring. I find little difference in the so- 
called varieties of asparagus. Heavy 
feeding will make any kind fine. 
Our Pimiento peppers tvere started 
with the tomato plants last February, 
and set out from the frames at same 
time. These peppers have been loaded all 
Slimmer, have given us all we needed all 
the time, and we sold bushels of them, 
and now the frosted plants stand full 
of half-grown and ripe pods. I never got 
any such cropping from the old sorts of 
sweet peppers like the Ruby King or 
Neapolitan, and never had a crop worth 
the growing from the Chinese Giant, 
which I dropped as worthless several 
years ago. In fact, for a sweet pepper, 
I can see no 'heed for any but the 
Pimiento. 
In the last hard Winter, the like of 
which we may not see for a generation, 
my Cannas and Dahlias were badly dam¬ 
aged and destroyed when buried out as 
usual. I have now lifted these again, 
and have again buried the Dahlias in the 
open ground, but the Cannas, 25 varieties 
of the newest ones, I have not trusted to 
the open ground, but have buried them 
under the bench in my little greenhouse. 
The hot-water pipes are hung vertically 
on the wall and there was plenty of room 
for burying the Cannas. There will be no 
artificial heat used till near the last of 
February, for to save coal I am not keep¬ 
ing any tender stuff in the house now, 
hut have emptied the pipes and boiler till 
I want to start the tomato seed in late 
Winter. I was fortunate enough to store 
my Winter coal in July, and now the 
sweet-potato growers are very uneasy 
about their curing houses, for it is esti¬ 
mated that in this county alone those 
houses demand 300 tons of coal, and they 
have not yet been able to get it. The 
result will be rushing the crop on the 
market too fast in the Fall. • 
The new varieties of Cannas do not 
set seed naturally like the old small- 
flowered sorts, and to get seed one has to 
look earefully after the varieties used and 
then use the camcl’s-hair brush to set the 
blooms to make seed. Accidentally grow¬ 
ing close under the edge of the porch is 
a plant of the double scarlet Zinnia now 
resplendent in color of leaf and flower, 
while a foot or two further out in the 
beds all the plants have leaves and flow¬ 
ers scorched by the frost. A few news¬ 
papers scattered over the bed would prob¬ 
ably have saved the others. But the 
Chrysanthemums are still gay and are 
now about the only thing in perfect bloom 
outside. The large early flowering sorts 
are nearly over, while the hardy Pom¬ 
pous are just fairly coming in. Most of 
the large-flowerod sorts were killed last 
Winter, though all kinds usually stand 
the Winter here with the slight protection 
November 9, 191.S 
of the fallen leaves which we do not 
rake up till Spring. 
The scarlet Anemones are now in full 
leaf. These seldom bloom well when 
planted in the Fall along with other 
things that come from Holland unless 
they can be had earlier than usual. While 
I lift and cure the Narcissus and tulips 
and hyacinths I never disturb the scarlet 
Anemones until they get too badly 
crowded, and then I prejiare a new bed 
and replant at once and keep them clean 
with some ever-blooming Begonias plant¬ 
ed above them, and by the time the 
Anemones are pushing their leaves above 
the ground, the frost has stopped the 
Begonias. This frost caught me napping, 
for had I expected it I could easily have 
saved the beds of Begonias which now 
look so pitiful. W. F. MA.SSEY. 
A Market For “Cat-Tails” 
This is a semi-aquatic plant, pretty well 
distributed in marshes throughout the 
greater part of the United States. It con¬ 
sists of a number of long, narrow, thin 
blades, united at the base and somewhat re¬ 
sembling Gladiolus leaves. From the center 
of the bunches there rises a single 
straight, slender, rigid stem, around the 
upper end of which the seeds are ar¬ 
ranged. To each seed is attached a num¬ 
ber of fine, downy hairs, white in color, 
but tipped with brown. Until the seeds 
become perfectly ripe and are loosened by 
the winds, this down is so compressed as 
to form a cylindrical spike about an inch 
in diameter and four or five inches in 
length. From a fancied resemblance of 
this seed-spike fo the tail of a cat the 
plant derives its name. 
In the early history of New England 
the plant had considerable economic im¬ 
portance blit the industries which created 
a demand for it have either .passed away 
or have found a more desirable substi- 
tute. The Indians used the slender stems 
for shafts for 'their lighter arrows and 
the whites used them for rods for dipping 
their tallow’ candles, while the down was 
largely used for filling mattresses, pillows 
and cushions. The leaves, which are from 
three to five or six feet long and half an 
inch in width, were woven into horse col¬ 
lars. They were also used to make chair 
seats, baskets, rugs and slippers and even 
at the present time one occasionally sees 
a door mat woven of cat-tail flags; but 
there are very few people now living who 
can fashion them into a horse collar or a 
pair of slippers, or who can even so weave 
them as to form a chair seat. For more 
than one hundred years they were used 
almost exclu.sively for binding cornstalks 
and even at the present time many far¬ 
mers use them for this purpose. They 
are useil quite generally in certain locali¬ 
ties in some of the Prairie States for 
thatching the roofs of stables and other 
outbuildings. The Standard Oil Company 
at one time made extensive use of them, 
not as a filling between the staves, hut as 
a caulking between the pieces which con¬ 
stitute the heads of oil barrels and, at 
the time when that company was conserv¬ 
ing its resources to the utrnost, it bought 
a swamp in Michigan for the express pur¬ 
poses of supplying itself with cat-tail 
flags. At the present time many nursery 
companies use the flags as packing for 
shrubs and small trees, and it is quite 
possible that a limited trade might be 
Avorked up along this line, provided the 
flags can be furnished at a low enough 
price. 
A report is.sued by the Department of 
Agriculture gives the fertilizer constitu¬ 
ents of cat-tail flags as follows: Nitro¬ 
gen, 2.02 per cent; phosphoric acid. .81 
per cent; potash. 3.4.3 per cent. This is 
very nearly equal to the fertilizing valu¬ 
ation of the seaweed of the Atlantic 
coast, which is largely used as a fer¬ 
tilizing material, and it suggests a strong 
probability tliat cat-tail flags might bo 
profitably utilized in the manure pile. 
C. 0. ORMSBEE. 
The Fireplace a Luxury 
By all means, an open fireplace—if you 
can afford it. It adds much to the at- 
tractivene.ss of a room, and if properly 
constructed is a delight when in use. But 
unless one has ivood not suitable for use 
m other ways I find the fireplace a de¬ 
lightful luxury. Ninety-five cords of wood 
Avere cut last Winter to supply the fire¬ 
places and furnaces and ranges on this 
place. It will just about carry through. 
The toughest crotches, that would be hard 
to work into furnace or heater size, were 
left long, for the fireplaces, and Avood too 
light for real Winter heating made good 
fireplace material, furnishing a big blaze 
for cool CA’cninge in early Fall. The 
house in which I live has a beautiful fire¬ 
place, provided with a damper for opening 
or closing the throat of the fireplace at 
will. Occasionally we ha\’e a fire in it, 
as a treat. But a load of wood goes so 
much farther used in the furnace; and it 
takes so much less time that, being busy 
people, we do not use the fireplace very 
often. The furnace, by the way, has a 
fire-door 12x1.3 inches; large enough to 
take in good-sized chunks, and the fire- 
pot is extra large for the size of the 
house. A piece of sheet iron covers most 
of the grate Avhen burning Avood. 
In one of the houses, used only in Sum¬ 
mer, and heretofore heated only by a huge 
fireplace, a furnace for burning chunks 
was installed this Fall. This was for the 
double purpo.se of conserving fuel, and of 
making the large building really comfort¬ 
able on cool evenings. geo. Arnold. 
New York. 
