The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
If all your tomatoes had been like this one, 
how much more would your crop have been 
worth ? 
Many tomato growers have found that the 
surest way to better crops and larger profits is to 
spray with 
TRACE MARK REGISTERED 
" The Spray That Adds to Your Profits ” 
Blights and bugs have robbed many a tomato 
grower of the extra profit he might have had 
just as well as not if he had protected his crop 
U by spraying with Pyrox. 
Pyrox kills all leaf-chewing insects, and at 
the same time protects the crop against fungous 
Hi diseases, such as blight, etc. 
Pyrox keeps the foliage healthy and green 
throughout the growing season, gives it greater 
vigor, and enables tomatoes, potatoes and other 
vegetables and fruits to produce to the very limit . 
Remember this: The cost of your spraying material is 
the smallest part of the whole expense of growing the crop. 
Labor is high this year. Why not make the labor earn 
twice as much by using Pyrox and increasing the yield. 
Many a man could have saved his crop if he had had a 
spray all mixed and ready to use. He lost the crop because 
== he didn’t have all the materials on hand and time enough 
to do both the mixing and the spraying. 
The Campbell Soup Company of Camden, New Jersey, put 
-up an excellent product, and make every effort to obtain only 
the highest class vegetables. Here is the report of one farmer 
= who grows tomatoes for them: sss 
“I used Pyrox on potatoes last season with a great deal of 
satisfaction and profit. Pyrox saves cost and time of straining for 
there is no clogging of nozzles, as with Bordeaux. I am growing 
tomatoes for the Campbell Soup Company, Camden, N. J.,and 
Hall of Boston, who is superintendent of farms for them, speaks 
very favorably of Pyrox.”— CHARLES H.Tell, Laurel Springs, N.J. 
Pyrox is sold by most hardware, implement and seed 
stores. If your dealer can not supply you, fill in his name 
j|E on the coupon below. 
If you would like to know how to protect your crops 
against the attacks of bugs, worms and disease, send for a 
free copy of the Pyrox Book. The coupon will bring it. 
[ Bowker Insecticide Company | 
43-4 Chatham St. Boston 1002 Fidelity Bldg., Baltimore 
'%V>J SAVE YOUR CROPS — USE THIS COUPON 
WANT TO___ 
I would like to read your Pyrox Crop Book R. x.-Y. 40 
Name . 
P. O. 
State . 
Dealer’s Name 
Dealer’s P. O. 
County 
More Spring Thoughts of a Plain Farm 
Woman 
A High Tribute. —While looking over 
some old magazine files the other day in 
search of a certain remembered article, I 
came across the following editorial about 
farm women in the “Woman’s Home Com¬ 
panion” of 1013, and because this little 
tribute to us seemed so understanding and 
kindly, and because it was printed in a 
May number, perhaps The R. X.-Y. edi¬ 
tor will let me hang it all over again as a 
May basket for the salt of the earth to 
pee: 
“In one way the country woman is in a 
distinct class and a very important one. 
She is pretty sure to be an expert in one 
or more self-supporting businesses—per¬ 
haps poultry raising, perhaps beekeeping, 
perhaps dairying, perhaps gardening, and 
almost always cooking, canning and pre¬ 
serving. She may be, and often is, an 
expert in all of these things. 
"Along with this knowledge of a num¬ 
ber of wholesome occupations,' the country 
woman is, from her environment, the pos¬ 
sessor of a resource so intelligent and 
capable that it behooves those who observe 
it to admire. She can hitch the horse to 
the buggy and drive him, too; she can 
round up the cows that have broken 
through the pasture fence; she can put 
out the fire in. the chimney when the men 
folks are far afield ; she can administer 
first-aid treatment of the very best to bad 
burns or cuts or broken arms, as well as 
such minor ills as hornet stings, chilblains 
and stone bruises; she is apt to be a 
pretty shrewd judge of cattle; she can 
make and mend her own and her chil¬ 
dren’s clothes; she knows how to cure 
meat, to shoot a marauding hawk, to 
prune a rose hush, to make soap, to beat 
a carpet, to scale a fish—and she looks on 
none of these things as an ‘adventure’ or 
a unique experience, but simply as part 
of her day’s work. 
“Her interest in politics is keen and 
clear. Ask her who is sheriff of the coun¬ 
ty. the State's attorney, the county clerk, 
t he register of wills—she will tell you. 
Because she lives with the actualities of 
life, she is not likely to put undue em¬ 
phasis upon its non-essentials. Comfort, 
neatness and cleanliness, above style, are 
desired in her home. Her table is sup¬ 
plied with palatable and wholesome food, 
neatly served. She does not worry about 
the lack of lace centerpieces, or mono- 
grammed linen, or the position ot the 
knives and forks; she knows that if she 
is comfortably dressed in neat, clean 
••lothes befitting the occupation in hand 
and suitable to the weather, she is truly 
a well-dressed woman. She asks. ‘Will it 
wear?” when she goes to buy. and she is a 
very astute purchasing agent, keen at a 
bargain, and knowing exactly what she 
wants and what she wants to pay for it. 
There is just one phrase that fits her— 
‘salt of the earth.’ Let us by all means 
put her in a class apart and yield her the 
respect due her.” 
There! After reading the opinion of 
this editor, I make a bold guess that he 
or she once came from a farm or owns a 
respected relative or friend who accom¬ 
plishes some of the hundred and one odd 
jobs enumerated above in the day of the 
average country woman. We like to read 
a “testimony” to ourselves once in a while, 
hut the modern magazine, with the excep¬ 
tion of the few old reliable farm and dairy 
papers, seems to have forgotten that such 
a thing as isolated country women are 
numbered among their American readers. 
I hope you will like this six-year-old 
“Companion” May basket as well as I 
did. 
Red Cross axo Other Meetings.— 
Our little Red Cross branch, which has 
flourished in the village for two years, 
has given up its weekly meetings, and 
many of us will he lost without going out 
to sew each Friday afternoon. About 20 
women were in the habit of going regu¬ 
larly, and as the town boasts only 200 or 
300 population, this was a goodly number 
to count on. However, the attendance 
was always lightest during the Summer, 
as farm women work outdoors, and horses 
and transportation are at a premium. So 
perhaps it. is just as well to give up the 
work until later, anyway, and many 
larger towns have already done so. 1\ e 
have a home economics department con¬ 
nected with t' e Farm Bureau and the 
woman in charge makes a monthly visit 
or two to each town. These meetings are 
quite largely attended, and will probably 
succeed the Red Cross in community in¬ 
terest. Last n 'nth a woman doctor from 
a nearby city addressed us and delivered 
a very interesting and helpful talk on the 
treatment of all kinds of everyday illness¬ 
es and accidents. This doctor stated that 
there are only three sicknesses for which 
one should call the doctor in the night; 
croup, acute indigestion and convulsions. 
Of course there are others of which any¬ 
one can think without trying where pain 
is unbearable or danger is present, but 
these three were vital in her estimation. 
It is prettv expensive to call a doctor at 
night, as the charge is apt to be doubled, 
but we can’t stop to think of that when 
one of the family is stricken. It costs $1 
a year to belong to the Economics Club, 
and the advice given by one doctor or 
1 nurse is often worth many times the orig¬ 
inal dollar. So while the man of the 
house is consulting the Farm Bureau man- 
1 ager on the best make of silo or what va¬ 
April lfl, 191!) 
riety of seed is best for our locality, we 
women can be learning first aid to the in¬ 
jured. what makes the canned peas spoil, 
or a tactful and practical way to persuade 
the district school teacher into introduc¬ 
ing hot lunches for her pupils in Winter. 
Home Economics.— When this matter 
of a home economics department was first 
agitated in our county there was much 
opposition, the writer being one who “op¬ 
posed.” To secure it in connection with 
the Farm Bureau, the Board of Super¬ 
visors were asked to appropriate $1,500 
annually in addition to members’ dollars. 
But the “ayes” won, and more women 
seem to want the club than disapproved 
it, and that is about the surest and best 
way to find out about a thing—let the ma¬ 
jority rule. 
High-priced Shoes. —I went to buy a 
pair of “best” shoes the other day, and 
the cheapest offered me were $5.50. I 
didn’t buy. Moreover. I longed to shout 
at the very gentlemanly and unoffending 
clerk: ‘“The R. X.-Y. says that shoe 
costs are not evenly divided in this world. 
Perhaps that pair of shoes is made out 
of the identical calfskin my husband sold 
the junkman for a mere pittance. Some¬ 
body’s profiteering!” But of course I said 
nothing of the kind and humbly walked 
out—the well-tailored shoe clerk marking 
me down mentally as a country “tight¬ 
wad.” “Shoes is shoes” this year, but 
what isn’t? Nevertheless, the majority of 
necessities are on the down grade, and 
perhaps by another year the shoe manu¬ 
facturers will have relented enough to 
sell me a fairly decent pair for $4. I am 
sure they would hate to pay me $3 a 
bushel the year round for ordinary po¬ 
tatoes, but it would be comparable to the 
charges made for shoes. Farmers will 
never be millionaires like the shoe, oil and 
meat corporations, because they lack the 
nerve and disposition to hold up a hungry 
public as the men in other big industries 
do. And it's a pretty good tiling we do 
lack the nerve and disposition, for it is 
plain, poor we who hold the world in the 
hollow of our hands. The bloated bond¬ 
holder and the blase little shoe clerk all 
have to eat, and if we were to demand 
fancy prices for what we produce, what 
would such do? But I sometimes enjoy 
working my vivid imagination overtime 
in wondering just what the makers of 
high-priced articles would say if we were 
to treat them to a dose of their own price 
medicine. But if I remember rightly, we 
did do just that here in the Empire State 
in January—for milk—and what a hue 
and cry went up from both classes and 
masses! “It is to laugh,” as Potash and 
Perlmutter remarked. h. s. K. W. 
Controlling an Unwelcome Guest 
Is there any manner in which I can 
eradicate bedbugs from an upstairs, 
one-half of which is ceiled with building 
paper and lath, and the other without 
any inside finish? I have recently moved, 
and find a generous supply of the insects 
here. We cannot have this finished off, 
as we are renters, and the landlord does 
not consider he can afford to do this now. 
I hope to find a fumigator that will help. 
I tried formaldehyde candles on plastered 
rooms, and find them no good. A. S. 
Michigan. 
This is a difficult case, because of the 
harboring places supplied in the unfin¬ 
ished walls and building paper. Formal¬ 
dehyde fumigation is quite useless in such 
a case. Sulphur may be burned in an 
unoccupied house, but the acrid fumes can¬ 
not be us(k 1 in an occupied dwelling; they 
would be dangerous to the inhabitants 
and would also bleach and tarnish fur¬ 
nishings. When used, the proportion is 
one pound of sulphur to 100 cubic feet, 
of space. We consider gasoline the best 
thing that can be used; its one danger 
is its inflammable and explosive nature. 
This must always be remembered; it 
should be applied, early in the day. in 
rooms with open windows, and where 
there is no fire in stove, no light, and no 
person smoking. With these conditions 
observed, it is absolutely safe, and it has 
the advantage of being cleanly, making 
no stains on the walls, draperies or fur¬ 
niture, and evaporating quickly. This is 
its great advantage over kerosene, which 
is equally efficacious, but which leaves 
oily stains and a long pervading odor. 
The gasoline should be sprayed or 
brushed into every crack and crevice. The 
unfinished walls and ceilings should be 
sprayed with it. A reader in Virginia, 
who suffered a similar invasion in rooms 
with walls and ceilings of matched boards, 
used a knapsack sprayer, and after n few 
treatments had the trouble under control. 
Of course a “follow-up” system must he 
used with any form of treatment. It 
must bo done twice a week at first, with 
daily treatment of specially infested 
places, then weekly, and after that at 
longer intervals. There will be reappear¬ 
ances of the plague from time to time, 
but this treatment is sure if persisted in. 
Among insect powders, buliach, one of 
the pyrethrum powders, is excellent when 
fresh, and is a sure destroyer when puffed 
into crevices with a powder gun. It is 
not poisonous to have around, and free 
from the fire danger of gasoline, but it 
does not enter crevices as the gasoline 
does, and the dust is unsightly. We dis¬ 
like mercury preparations, for though 
they destroy the insects, they are “messy, 
and dangerous poisons. As the bedbug 
can live indefinitely sealed away without 
food, and then emerge as voracious as 
ever, it is evident that no half-way 
methods can be used in evicting him. 
