The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
?70 
One Hundred 
Bushels More 
' ‘I used Pyrox this season and am more than pleased. 
The vines were green when others were dead and they 
are yielding 75 to 100 bushels to the acre more than those 
not sprayed. 
You 
can 
Its adhesive power can’t be beaten.” 
—Harland Barnes, Gardiner, Maine, 
protect your crops and increase the yields 
if you spray 
with 
t. V • orr. 
I MARK mClIUMD 
“The Spray 
That Adds to 
Your Profits” 
S 
-tox 
Pyrox is a smooth, creamy paste which is all 
ready to use simply by mixing it with cold 
water. Just measure out the proper amount 
and mix it with water for your spray solution. 
Pyrox sticks like paint. Re-spraying is neces¬ 
sary only to cover the later new growth. 
Get this Pyrox Crop Book. It tells how to pro¬ 
tect your crops against bugs, worms and disease. Send 
for a copy today. A postal card will bring it. 
Bowker Insecticide Company 
43-A Chatham St. Boston 100? Fidelity Bldg., Baltimore 
heavy, because some land is used which is 
not well suited to the crop. Good grow¬ 
ers average over 200 bushels per acre, and 
occasional farm averages of .’500 are not 
unusual, while exceptional acres have 
given 450 bushels. 
Cost of the Crop. —The cost of grow¬ 
ing the crop is high and has increased rap¬ 
idly. Conservative growers estimate that 
this year’s crop will cost from .$160 to 
$^00 an acre. Such an outlay and a safe 
margin will require a crop of 200 bushels 
an acre and a price at digging time of at 
least $1.25 a bushel. Small growers are 
at a disadvantage, as a full set of equip¬ 
ment will care for 25 acres, and twice the 
acreage* only adds a little to the outlay. 
One man can raise 15 acres, but four eau 
as easily raise 75. Potato growing is not 
a game for the man'*of small capital or for 
the amateur. The most successful men 
use a capital of from $50,000 up to $150,- 
000, besides a priceless store 'of skill, ex¬ 
perience and initiative. If some of our 
city friends who think the farmer a prof¬ 
iteer because his things “just grow” could 
follow a Long Island potato farmer 
through the labor, worry, planning and 
expense of a year they would have a new 
respect for the profession of farming. 
H. F. BUTTON. 
ADDS NEW VALUES TO COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER USES 
BROWNING 
Circular-Ring Fertilizer Depositor 
MADE UNDER TWO PATENTS 
Has Been Subjected to Practical Test for 4 Years 
Lifting the machine by handle tills the valves and 
setting the machine down discharges the material 
with no further effort. 
Cau be used till plants are over 6 inches high. No 
waste of material. Each plant receives the same 
amount, which can be changed to suit requirements. 
I am told that where this method is used cut¬ 
worms will not attack corn or cabbage. 
“It has paid for itself neaifly twice over in the first 
half acre.” Arthur Marsh, Paris, N. Y. 
$7.50 Parcel Postage - Paid 
GEORGE WILLIAM BROWNING 
CLINTON, N. Y. 
Standard Fruit Books 
American Fruit Culturiat. Thomas.... 2.60 
Citrus Fruits. Hume.2.60 
California Fruits. Wichson.. 3.00 
Plums and Plum Culture. Waugh. 1.60 
Fruit Ranching in British Columbia. 
Bealby . 1.60 
Farm and Garden Rule Book .2.00 
Live Stock — Poultry 
Types and Breeds of Farm Animals. 
Plumb .62.00 
Poultry Feeding and Management. 
Dry den . 1.60 
Swine in America. Coburn. 2.60 
Diseases of Animals. Mayo. 1.76 
Principles of Breeding, Davenport.... 3.00 
FOR SALE BY 
Rnral New-Yorker, 333 W. 30th St., New York 
Light Weight 
Cushman Engines 
Built light, built right—for farmers who want an en¬ 
gine to do many jobs in many places, instead of one 
job m one place. Easy to move around. Very steady 
and quiet—no jumping, no loud or violent explosions, 
but smooth running. Throttle Governed. Schebler 
Carburetor. Friction clutch pulley. Runs at any speed. 
4 H. P. Weighs Only 190 lbs. 
Mounted on light truck, it may be 
pulled around by hand. Be-. ^ 
sides doing all regularfami 
work, it is original and suc¬ 
cessful engine for Binder. 
8 H. P. only 320 lbs. May 
be mounted on hay baler. . 
Not cheap but cheap in the 
long run. Engine Book free, 
CUSHMAN MOTOR WORKS' 
847 N. 21st St., Lincoln, Nebr. 
For All Farm Work 
44o20H.R 
Dibble’s Farm Seeds 
Dibble’s Farm Seeds Are the Best Quality Obtainable 
Dibble’s Seed Corn, grown from selected stock 
seed by experienced seed corn growers, tested in 
our Laboratory for purity, germination and mois¬ 
ture content and sold subject to our famous ten 
day-money-back-if-you-want-it guarantee, in any 
quantity from bushels to carloads, average germi¬ 
nation all lots tested to date above 95%. Luce’s 
Favorite. Dibble’s Mammoth Yellow Flint. Gold 
Nugget. 1-10 bushels at $4*00 per bushel: 10-50 
bushels at $6.75 per bushel; 50 bushels or over 
at $3*50 per bushel. 
The Best Ensilage Corns on Earth —Dibble’s 
Early Yellow Dent, Improved Learning, Dibble’s 
Mammoth White Dent, 1-10 bushels at $3.00 per 
bushel; 10 bushels to 50 bushels at $2.75 per 
bushel; 50 bushels or over at $2.50 per bushel; 
bags free, of course. 
Dibble’s Seed Potatoes —Early Rose, Early Bo- 
vees. Irish Cobblers. New Queen at $6.00 per bbl. 
or $5.75 per sack of 165 lbs. net. Dibble’s Russet. 
Improved Green Mountains, Dibble’s Moneymaker. 
Carman No. 3 and Sir Walter Raleighs at $5.50 
per bbl., or $5.25 per sack of 165 lbs. net. 
Prices are for immediate acceptance and are 
good as long as present stocks last. Order at once. 
. Send for catalog and red letter price list. 
Address—EDWARD F. DIBBLE SEEDCROWER, Honeoye Falls, N.Y., Boi B 
Headquarters for Farm Seeds, Alfalfa. Clover and Grass Seeds, Oats, 
Barley, Peat. Millets, Vetch, Soy Beans, Com and Seed Potatoes 
Prompt shipment 
on receipt of order 
A Talk About Potatoes 
Daniel Dean, Tioga County’s potato 
king, has the following in substance to 
say in “Tioga County Farm Bureau 
News,” concerning seed potato diseases, 
and also lie explains method of treatment, 
lie states that the most profitable pointer 
he has learned* in his lifetime of potato 
growing is the disinfection of the seed 
potatoes. He has found that to give the 
very largest returns for amount of labor 
and money invested, although he says that 
hill selection of seed; the correct use of 
fertilizers and spraying are all profitable. 
Seed has been disinfected for years with 
a formalin solution to kill the germs of 
the common scab, but it is only within 
five or six years it has been known that 
the much worse disease, Rhizoctonia, lias 
caused greater damage to the potato crop. 
Practically all of this damage can* be 
prevented by soaking the seed in a solu¬ 
tion of corrosive sublimate (also known 
as bi-chloride of mercury), a most deadly 
poison and a disinfectant largely used by 
physicians. The solution for the disin¬ 
fection is made by dissolving one ounce 
of corrosive sublimate to seven gallons 
of water. As much of the solution sticks 
on the potatoes, it, is weakened, and should 
not be ust>d over three times, then thrown 
away and a fresh hatch made. The usual 
time for treatment is one and one-half 
hours. 
“Precaution must be taken in keeping 
the children and all stock away from the 
tank or barrels while being used, also 
great care in dumping the solution where 
no harm can possibly come from it. as 
three grains are a deadly dose for an 
adult.” The potatoes must be dried per¬ 
fectly, after treating, or they might heat 
and spoil. If placed back in the cellar 
long white sprouts would start, which 
would weaken them for use as seed. Pil¬ 
ing the crates in the sun loosely, so the 
sun can strike three sides of them, or 
turning them on the ground in the sun, 
spreading thinly, causes the sprouts to 
start short and stubby, and dark green 
in color. These sprouts, if left one or 
two weeks at most, are not liable to break 
oft' in planting. 
Rhizoctonia is present in every soil in 
the United States, and most seed tubers 
are infected with the disease. The germs 
are found on the outside of the skin in 
little black masses. These are best seen 
by washing the potato, when little black 
specks will be found, which will not wash 
off, but they can be easily scraped off 
with the thumb nail. After the seed is 
planted; and the sprouts started, in some 
way the sprouts are infected aud a brown 
spot or rot appears just below the sur¬ 
face of the ground. Soon the sprouts rot 
entirely off, and another sprout starts 
lower down on the parent stem, or from 
the eye. Sometimes the second or oven 
the third sprouts are killed also by this 
disease, and a missing hill results. lie 
has seen fields in which 25 per cent of 
the hills were missing, aud another 25 
per cent where hills came up late and 
made a small weak top. and never pro¬ 
duced a normal yield of potatoes. 
We never know in what years Rhizoc¬ 
tonia will be bad. As a rule, it is worse 
when a period of wet weather is followed 
by another period of hot, dry weather. 
He saw many fields in 1911. 1914. 1915 
and 1918 very bad from Rhizoctonia, and 
Mr. E. IL Zimmer (County Agricultural 
Agent for Farm Bureau) estimates that 
the number of affected hills in all the 
potato fields of Tioga County last year 
was between 10 and 15 per cent. 
Beside tin 1 total loss from the missing 
hills, there is also a reduced yield in the 
hills which come up late, and these hills 
also contain many small potatoes; in 
fact, so many that in some sections Rhiz¬ 
octonia is known under the name of the 
"little potato” disease. This loss cau be 
prevented. The disease is always present 
in the soil, and is sure to infect more or 
less of the seed potatoes. However, it 
is very fortunate that the germs which 
are in the soil at the time of planting 
very seldom attack the sprouts, and the 
germs on the seed must be killed by dis¬ 
infection to prevent loss. 
It costs just as much to plow, harrow, 
plant, cultivate and spray a field of pota¬ 
toes in which the untreated seed has 
allowed the disease to kill a part of the 
May 3. 
plants as it does to have a practically 
perfect stand of plants. It is very easy 
by using untreated seed to have a loss of 
stand, which will turn the result of a 
year’s work in a potato field from a profit 
to a loss. 
Mr. Dean has found the easiest way 
of treating the seed is a tank in which 
10 crates of potatoes can be set at one 
time. This tank is also used for pre¬ 
paring his spraying mixtures, but he says 
anyone can leave the potatoes in sacks, 
and soak them in a barrel. Of course it 
takes more time to disinfect in a barrel 
if many are planted. 
The above from Mr. Dean gives due 
explanation to the situation as we have 
found it. the “little potato” disease, only 
we did not know it was a disease, but 
we knew there was an abundance of 
little potatoes. And these “small black 
specks”—they have always been in more 
or less quantity on all the potatoes—and 
really we supposed that the “black specks” 
were a part of the potato skin, or a kind 
of scab that was of no account, only the 
disagreeable feature of cleaning them off 
when used new, with their jackets on, 
and in deterioration of their looks—not 
m the potato itself or its yield. This 
may throw a light on potato growing to 
many besides myself. 
New York, a tioga county farmer. 
A Sufferer from Rheumatism 
Page 667, F. B.. Ontario, says he lias 
rheumatism, and the experience of other 
rheumatics may help him. A friend of 
mine had. it for years and it would lay 
him up six or eight weeks at a time at 
frequent intervals; inflammatory out- 
hursts that would usually leave him with 
one or two enlarged joints. A few years 
ago he was obliged to be absent from his 
family am’ to live at a university under 
the strictest economy. His health stead¬ 
ily unproved on the very cheap diet he 
had. which he limited in quantity rather 
than in quality or variety; and he*has had 
a remarkable respite from his rheumatic 
attacks. Partial relapses seem well ac¬ 
counted for by his dropping into old hab¬ 
its of wrong eating, and anxiety. Lately 
he has tried as a cure a small and careful¬ 
ly planned diet again, and is now satisfied 
that feeding holds the key to his rheuma¬ 
tism. 
I have “enjoyed” a good many years of 
rheumatism, expressing itself in various 
whimsical ways—sometimes stiffness of 
fingers or wrists, sometimes lame shoul¬ 
der, again sciatica], lumbago, or even in¬ 
flammatory attack. For a number of 
years I have been reforming my diet, sub¬ 
stituting maple sugar and honey for white 
sugar, graham for white flour, and whole 
cereals throughout, for the expurgated pro¬ 
ducts we were getting; preparing vege¬ 
tables and fruits in such ways that the 
soluble mineral elements are retained in 
the food ; aud extending widely the use of 
raw fruits and vegetables. I am sure 
this has saved my life as well as made an 
infinitely more agreeable diet, but I have 
not wholly been released from my rheuma¬ 
tism. 
Lately my friend, mentioned above, got 
a 75-cent book on rheumatism for $2, 
which was the inspiration and guide to 
his recent successful device against his 
foe, and I borrowed the book and by its 
help cut my food in two and proportioned 
the food elements more intelligently than 
I had done before, with astonishing effect 
on my rheumatism and on all the other 
morbid symptoms I had been accepting as 
a matter of course. Later a weak-minded 
relapse to the family customs was fitly re¬ 
buked by some twinges in my wrists. I 
am convinced of the close connection be¬ 
tween rheumatism and wrong feeding, and 
your correspondent from Ontario seems to 
suspect such as he protests that he has 
cut out pie and cakes. His bread and 
milk (probably white bread at that) sug¬ 
gests too little mastication and a lack of 
succulent vegetables and fruit, and prob¬ 
ably overmuch starch. Will you not. ad¬ 
vise him to retire the internal drugs and 
postpone the liniment and make himself 
wiser about, the food that he eats and 
how he eats it? 
The best book I have ever seen for 
practical help on feeding for health is that 
pitifully small but wonderfully explicit 
book that cost my friend $2, and is worth 
for chronic trouble 50 doctors’ visits. It 
is Alsaker’s “Getting Rid of Rheuma¬ 
tism.” At the least, he would get a lot 
more pleasure at his meals while he was 
curing his rheumatism than he is now 
having in his vain self-sacrifice. 
New Hampshire. itarti.ey demetf.h. 
Destroying the Strawberry Weevil 
The New Jersey Experiment Station 
says the strawberry weevil can be fought 
off by dusting the plants as the lnids ap¬ 
pear. The dust is composed of one part 
dry arsenate of lead and five parts pow¬ 
dered sulphur. This does not kill all the 
weevils, but drives them away. As for a 
device for applying the dust, the “News 
Letter’’ says: 
“Cheesecloth bags, the naked hand and 
other devices were used by growers who 
did not care to buy the powder guns, but 
to Tony Rizotte belongs the honor of 
evolving the most ingenious hand device 
for sifting. He covered a common wire 
horse muzzle with one thickness of copper 
mosquito netting and drew the edge's up 
to the rim. The inventor then bent a 3-ft. 
hickory sapling, fastening it to opposite 
ides of the rim. This served as a handle 
by which the improvised basket filled with 
the powder could he twirled with more or 
less force, depending on the width of the 
