768 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April IT, 10120 
A Little Mistake That Cost a 
Farmer $3,000 Each Year 
A FARMER in Illinois could not un¬ 
derstand why his corn yield per acre 
was only G1 bushels. His soil was 
good and he had always rotated his crops 
and used manure. Yet his average was 
only 61 bushels on land that should pro¬ 
duce nearer SO. In discussing the mat¬ 
ter with a lriend visiting 
him over the 1015 Christ¬ 
mas holidays he learned 
that he was wrong in 
believing that he needed 
no chemical fertilizer on 
laud like his just because 
he rotated his crops and 
used manure. At his 
friend’s suggestion, the 
following reason he again 
rotated his crops, used 
manure but also used 
phosphorus potassium. 
IIis corn crop has now 
reached 80 bushels to the 
acre and next season he 
expects to do still better. 
For several years his lit¬ 
tle mistake has cost this 
farmer well over $.‘>.000 
each year. 
Hundreds of costly lit¬ 
tle mistakes cut into 
profits and force the 
farmer, although some¬ 
times he doesn’t realize 
it, to do much of his work 
for nothing. And hun¬ 
dreds of little “tricks of 
the trade” and better 
methods cut down on 
labor needs. increase 
crops and boost profits. 
Little mistakes rob the 
farmer of his earnings, as 
in the above case—new 
and better ways produce 
results that make a man 
feel that he’s doing valuable work—and 
getting worth-while pay. 
Farming Secrets Now Told by Experts 
For instance, do you know the simple 
methods by which other farmers average, 
per acre, .100 to 125 bush¬ 
els of corn, 47 bushels of 
wheat, 80 bushels of oats, 
240 bushels of potatoes— 
do you know how. through 
easy, sensible methods, but¬ 
ter fat production has been 
brought up to 810 pounds 
per year, and how 800 hens 
bring to their owner, as a 
side line profit, over $2,000 
a year—do yon know how 
not to build barns, hog and 
poultry houses, corn cribs 
and hay sheds—do you 
know the best ways to inoculate alfalfa, 
to locate unprofitable cows, to select breed¬ 
ing stock of pullets, to combine ferilizers 
scientifically—do you know the best meth¬ 
od of dehorning, of improving seed by se¬ 
lection. of making a truck garden yield all 
possible profit? 
A valuable free booklet, “The Secret of 
Success in Farming,” explaining about 
some of these points and 
containing much other im¬ 
portant information, has 
been prepared by Sears, 
Roebuck and Co. This 
booklet also contains many sam¬ 
ple pages from Farm Knowledge 
and explains liow, at a cost of 
over $50,000 for editorial ma¬ 
terial alone, the farming secrets, 
best methods and successful ex¬ 
perience of farming authorities 
in all parts of the country have 
been collected so you can now 
take advantage of the practical 
experience of others, boost jour 
own profits, and avoid the costly 
mistakes and worn-out methods 
which have proved worthless. 
The Discoveries of 
Specialists 
Just as we have the physician 
who specializes on one particular 
branch of medicine, so vve have 
the farmer who specializes on 
one particular branch of farmlnq. 
No one farmer can learn through 
his own experience as much altnut 
all branches of farming as all 
those specialists, together have 
learned. The road to quick suc¬ 
cess in farming is to take fu’l 
advantage of what all those au¬ 
thorities have discovered. 
Never before has a work of the 
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nothing else like it. It contains 
the results of actual exper’encos 
in improving methods anti in¬ 
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every old-time method that has 
nroved Its merit. 
Write for FREE BOOK About 
FARM KNOWLEDGE. 
Farm Knowledge contains over 
2.000 pages and over 3,000 illus¬ 
trations. Kagh of the 4 volumes 
is nearly 2 in. thick. It is impossible to describe so 
important a work in this space. But we .want every¬ 
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valuable booklet. Don't miss reading this booklet. 
Mail coupon, postal or letter. NOW. 
Sears, Roebuck and Co., Dept. 66R86, Chicago, III. 
j Sears, Roebuck and Co., Dept. BCR 86, Chicago, Ill. 
Please send me your free booklet. "The Secret of Success in 
g Farming.” illustrating and describing Farm Knowledge. 
I 
j Name. 
I 
J Post Office. 
■ R. F. D. Box 
I No. No.. State.. 
I 
I Street. 
I and No........ 
Has Doubled the Usual Yield 
of Hit Corn Crop. 
Kviugton, Va. 
For my own personal use as a 
farmer I do not think the real 
value of Farm Knowledge can be 
estimated in dollars. 
Just to note one instance—by fol¬ 
lowing what your Farm Knowledge 
says on Corn, m.v corn crop will 
almost if not douhle its usual 
yield for this year. 
1 would not take twice the 
amount 1 paid for mine if 1 could 
not get another set. 
THOMAS HOOVE. 
Showed Him What Crops to 
Plant on Different Soils. 
Stuart. Okla.. Box 334. 
Farm Knowledge certainly is all 
you claimed for it. It was much 
more than I expected to get at tire 
price paid for these four volumes. 
The chapter in Volume I. on "Hog 
Cholera” was worth many times the 
total price paid for the complete 
set. because at that time hogs were 
dying on all side of me with hog 
cholera. I had just vaccinated my 
hogs with tiie douhle treatment as 
set out in Volume 1. and I didn't 
lose a single hog. 
Volume 11. has been of great as¬ 
sistance to me in knowing what 
crop to plant on tlie different types 
of soil. On this farm there are 
three distinct types of soil, and be¬ 
fore 1 got Farm Knowledge 1 didn't 
understand why certain crops would 
not grow on certain kinds of land. 
Volume III. is great. Volume IV. 
lias been of great help to my wife. 
It shows so many ways of doing 
things different and better, to say 
nothing of saving time. 
(Signed) WILT, SHIRLEY. 
COTT’S SUDAN GRASS 
Sudan grass furnishes a wonderfully large 
amount of hay at a small investment. We 
now have seed of extraordinary quality. Ask 
for prices and onr Field Seed Book. 
G. M. Scott & Sons Co., 670 Main Si., Marysville, Ohio 
S COTTSSWEEI CLOVER 
Ton dollars cheaper than Red and the best 
k substitute. Fits l ight into the rotation. Ask 
■ for onr catalogue telling “How to Know 
■ Good Seed” and sweet clover chart explain- 
" ing all about this wonderful plant. 
0. M. SCOTT & SONS CO., 470 Main St., Marysville, 0 
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SUGAR MAPLES VZ 
re shade and sugar. For city or 
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of your property, xo 4-ft. trees, : 100—#88.60. 
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0 OD J Pnrn EIGHT ROWED FLINT. Huy direct from 
Ooou uulil giower. High tei-t. Great vielder. Write 
at once. C. S. TANNER. Pleasant Valley, N. Y. 
Scarlet CLOVER SEED 
High Test. SiH.40 Bn.; Choice, IS7.XO Hu 
Wilson Early Soy Beans - $8.10 Bu. 
Black Kye Field Peas. $>■! .95 Bu. . 
LAYTON & LAYTON, Inc. Georgetown. Delaware 
Agents 
Wanted 
Active, reliable, on salary, to 
take subscriptions for Rural 
New-Yorker in Ohio. Prefer 
men who have horse or auto. 
ADDRESS 
J. C. MULHOLLAND 
74 North Champion Avenue 
Columbus, Ohio 
OR 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 W. 30th St., New York City 
Feeds and Feeding now $2.75 
This standard book by Henry & Mor¬ 
rison has been advanced to $2.75. at 
which price we can supply it. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West SOtli Street New York 
COUNTRY We supply any book tliat has to do with 
H O O K S country life: the farm, the flower, fruit or 
| vegetable, garden, trees, shrubs, landscape gardening, 
plants under Glass, soils, feitlJizera, plant diseases, iuserl pests, 
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I A. T. DK LA MARK CO. Inc. 448-4 \V. 37th st., New York City 
| Victory Strawberry Plants—hMvi^ a ytoidin°g®UlJd 
i drouth resistcr. rc<1 to the core mid will iiot winter kill. 
I A good shipper and goes to market when berries are 45c 
i a quart. Starts hearing June 1. Supply limited, ti for 
I 85. t3 per 100. 
I Hudson Cladiolus Gardens - - Hudson, Mass. 
RASPBERRY PLANTS 
Special Offer:—For$3.00 I will send you 25 Early 
June, 25 • uthhert. late. 25 Plum Farmer black and 
1 25 Royal Purple. Only one collection toa customer. 
Send for our catalogof Fruits. Berries and Flowers, 
tieo. I>. Aiken : : Putney, Vt. 
American Nut Journal ■.Mfxft 
S elec ted Gold Nugget Seed Porn. Write for sample 
and prices. L. F. NICHOLAS. Alt. Bethel. Penna. 
HardWood Ashes KXvT, f»°£ 
lots or less. W. II. L E I 1> Y, Swnrl hmore, Penn. 
POTATO PLANTS SSi'TS.JSJ 
1000 express collect. S3.00. 
TIFT PLANT COMPANY, Albany, Ca. 
BINDER TWINE 
»/ 
Got our astonishingly low prioe to Granges, Equity Unions, 
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Frostproof Cabbage Plants 
1000 postpaid, $3.00; 1000 express collect, $2.50. 
Potato plants $2.50 per thousand express collect. 
Tomato plants 500 postpaid, $1.50. 1000 express 
collect, $1.75. 
TIFT PLANT COMPANY - ALBANY, GA. 
Farm Legislation at Albany 
DAYLIGHT SAVING ; NEW MILK LEGISLA¬ 
TION 
There has been little legislation so far 
at Albany to interest farmers. At this 
writing the daylight saving repeal bill is 
waiting a final vote in the Assembly after 
passing the Senate. The vote is close 
and the fate of the bill will be known 
after the count of votes. If it passes the 
Assembly an attempt will be made to 
induce the Governor to veto it. There 
are a few other bills of minor importance, 
but none that creates any material con¬ 
cern one way or another. 
The New York City milk bills have not 
been reported out of the committees, and 
are not likely to come out. No one has 
at any time considered them in their 
original form at least seriously; and 
there seems to be a disposition to keep 
them as they are; but we have had about 
all 'the arbitrary price-fixing of food 
products that is wanted. The past ex¬ 
perience has never been a success. But 
the defeat of bad bills is not enough. 
The situation demands some action. 
Legislation introduced at Albany last 
week will settle the milk controversy if 
the people and the Legislature want to 
settle it by the State. The controversy 
for over 40 years is that it costs too much 
tn distribute milk, and that the producer 
does not get the cost of production. It 
is not alone that the dealers make too 
much profit, but that they maintain an 
extravagant system. The proposed legis¬ 
lation makes it the duty of the State 
Commissioner of Markets to buy and re¬ 
ceive consignments of milk, and to sell 
it in sufficient quantities to demonstrate 
efficient and economic methods of distri¬ 
bution. He is directed to take milk from 
the farmer’s wagon, process it and sell it 
in the most economic method he can de¬ 
vise, and pay all the expense of the work, 
just as if he were in private business for 
profit. He is directed to supply stores 
with bottled milk, test out new methods 
to reduce cost and increase consumption 
of milk. He is required to keep full and 
accurate records and to show practically 
just what it costs to deliver milk under 
the most economic methods he can devise. 
Provision is made to elect the Commis¬ 
sioner by popular vote at the next general 
election, as approved by the farm refer¬ 
endum. and an appropriation is provided 
for the necessary equipment. The ex¬ 
periment is to he charged with all ex¬ 
penses. Farmers have already approved 
the principles of this legislation. Now 
let us really see who wants an open and 
economic market and an increased outlet 
for milk. 
Is the Flanders Poppy a Weed? 
Several readers have sent us the ad¬ 
vertisement of a seedsman making a 
prominent offer of seed of the Flanders 
poppy—a flower common to Europe. Our 
soldiers in France saw fields of this flower 
in bloom. Many of our people feel that 
this poppy may develop into a noxious 
weed—as bad in its way as devil’s paint 
brush or Canada thistle, and steps have 
oven been taken to appeal to the Gov¬ 
ernment for protection against the plant. 
We wrote the Department of Agriculture 
about this, and received (lie following note 
from Dr. W. A. Taylor of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry : 
The Flanders or European poppy 
(Pa paver Rhoeas) has grown in the 
Fnited States for at least 50 years, both 
in the wild and cultivated form. The 
plant has been known by such common 
names as field poppy, garden poppy, corn 
poppy and canker rose. 
Although regarded in Europe as a nox¬ 
ious weed, the plant is rarely troublesome 
under American conditions; when grown 
in gardens and other places in which pur¬ 
chased flower seeds are usually planted, 
the danger from this species is practically 
negligible. The promiscuous scattering 
of the seed over the countryside, as was 
recently proposed as a memorial to our 
fallen soldiers, should be discouraged, 
since there is always the potential danger 
that the plant may find a congenial habi¬ 
tat and become troublesome. The species 
has been reported as a weed in parts of 
California and Arizona, but its occurrence 
lias always been incidental .and it has not 
been regarded as particularly trouble¬ 
some. The danger of the European poppy 
becoming a bad weed in the United 
States is probably very slight, since the 
species has had abundant) opportunity in 
the past to establish itself as a weed, but 
has not as yet developed pernicious ten¬ 
dencies in this country. It occurs wild 
in the United States and Canada along 
river banks and roadsides, on rubbish 
heaps, and in fields. It has been fre¬ 
quently introduced into the United States 
by means of impure grass and grain seed 
and in ballast. The seeds of Papaver 
Rhoeas could be purchased freely from 
florists previous to the European war 
and no objection was ever heard against 
their sale. 
The case is hardly comparable to that 1 
presented by the devil’s paint brush, since 
the latter plant has been noxious in the 
United States practically from the time 
it was first introduced. Y’ou are quite 
right that many plants, such as Bouncing 
Bet, devil’s paint brush and Star of Beth¬ 
lehem, were originally garden ornament¬ 
als which escaped their bounds and 
came troublesome weeds. Many seedsmen 
offer for sale the seeds of plants which 
are very apt to become troublesome. Au 
example of this is the Japanese knotweed 
(Polygonum cuspidaturn), the seeds of 
which can be purchased from many seed 
houses. The plant develops heavy root¬ 
stocks, and frequently becomes pestifer¬ 
ous. More widespread interest in the 
prevention of the introduction of weedy 
plants would do much to prevent the es¬ 
tablishing of many troublesome weeds. 
W. A. TAYLOR. 
Handling Asparagus Tops 
Willard B. Kille on page 288 has 
vision of improvement in the pres¬ 
ent methods of destroying the humus 
of the asparagus tops. 1 never mowed 
or burned the tops from a five-acre field ; 
it is so simple to rot the tops over Winter 
by Nature’s aid. In the Fall, after hard 
frosts, when the asparagus tops have 
browned, indicating that growth has 
ceased, the Summer’s cultivation having 
been fairly level. I roll down the aspara¬ 
gus tops in small lands of about four 
rows to a land. Then I bought a two- 
horse. 10-in. six-disk reversible and ad¬ 
justable harrow. I call it my asparagus- 
top coverer. My asparagus rows are 3y> 
ft. apart, and when I have gone over it 
twice I have a perfect job of sweet potato 
rows, tops covered for the Winter to rot. 
In the Spring the spring-tooth and other 
harrows again level the ridges and break 
tiie asparagus tops into vegetable matter 
and humus-forming material, thereby sav¬ 
ing humus, and one-half of mv fertilizer 
bill. 
By measurement I find my inside disks 
which do the most work, are 10-iu. apai-t 
in the rear and 2<i-in. in the front as ad¬ 
justed for perfect work. The operator 
must adjust it to suit. I also found it 
necessary to draw a 20-lb. half-circle bar 
just in front of the covering disks to 
weight the asparagus tops to the ground. 
Another important secret is how to steer 
the disk biller. Wear rubbersoled shoes, 
stand on the disk with your feet wide 
apart; then throw your weight to the 
right or to the left leg, as the case may 
require, to steer the disk. For 4 or 5-ft. 
rows you can buy an eight-disk machine. 
Of course, this disk coverer straddles the 
row and covers the tops from both sides 
at the same time. E. l. longanecker. 
Ohio. 
WANT TO KNOW 
Shade vs. Mulch in Orchard 
I wonder whether any of your readers 
can give experience on the comparative 
benefits of shade versus mulch to apple 
roots as shown in the crop and tree 
growth. I get the idea from those ad¬ 
vanced by Mr. Hartman of Florida. It 
seems to me that spruce and hemlock 
branches do more to shade the ground 
than to mulch it. yet they give me good 
results in the size of leaf. etc. Sawdust 
acted well with plums and pears, but it 
acted as a mulch. Has anyone made ex¬ 
periments with hoards up a foot or so 
from ground versus no boards, or versus 
a mulch of straw? I wish to know how 
much benefit is derived from the increase 
of water content under mulch and the 
lower soil temperature under shade. 
Nova Scotia. joiin buciianan. 
We shall have to put this before our 
readers for answer. We usually find that 
some of our people have tried about 
everything you can mention, and they are 
usually ready to report. 
Protecting Beans Against Woodchucks 
I want to drill in some eatable beaus, 
but the woodchucks eat beans eff after 
up about four or five inches. Would it 
kill the woodchuck® to spray the beans 
with pyrox or arsenate of lead? Would 
it hurt the beans, as long as we want 
them to ripen for Winter use? G. E. H. 
