7ht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1403 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
It has been raining daily for more than 
three weeks, and with the temperature in 
the nineties humanity has suffered and 
the weeds have gloried in the tropical 
conditions. By the time we can safely 
get at the weeds another thunderstorm 
comes. Then now while slightly cooler, 
we are having a three-day northeaster, and 
it drips and showers all day instead of 
the evening shower. But the lawn grass 
thrives as well as weeds, and we can cut 
it as fast as we choose. Many people let 
their lawn grass get too tall, and then the 
mass is so heavy they have to rake the 
cut grass off. I never rake it, for it soon 
disappears, and the sod is mulched and 
helped by the cut grass. 
The Dahlias are enjoying the moisture 
and are blooming as heavily as in the 
Fall, and the Cannas are simply glorious. 
They do not care if soaked all the time. 
I do not know if it is the wet weather 
spoiling the bloom, but I never had a 
finer growth of eggplants nor less fruit on 
them. With 25 plants we usually have 
a surplus, but I have this number now, 
and we are short of eggplants. My 
cantaloupes are now over, and the crop 
was small, but of good quality. The mar¬ 
ket growers had fine prices for a while, 
getting $3.50 to $4 for crates of 45. But 
last week the South Jersey crop started 
in. and there was a great slump, and 
crates sold as low as 40 cents at the 
auction stand. 
The tomato growers are in the worst 
fix. There are thousands of acres planted, 
and the packers seem entirely indifferent 
as to whether they pack or not. They 
claim that their last year’s pack is still 
unsold and they cannot sell it at any 
remunerative price, and that they must 
get low prices for this year or not pack. 
On the other hand, the growers refuse to 
take less than 35 cents a basket, and say 
they will let the crop rot if they cannot 
get that much, and in some counties they 
will not sell for less than 40 cents. In 
the meantime nothing is doing, and the 
tomatoes are rotting in the fields. Both 
have their troubles, and the prospect is 
that the cron will be lost to a great ex¬ 
tent. The Irish potatoes which started 
off at such astonishing prices have also 
slumped. The railroad did not furnish 
cars to take the Virginia crop off in time, 
and it was more than half left till Mary¬ 
land and South Jersey came in and the 
market broke fiat. The papers spiff that 
eight carloads had been dumped into the 
river at Wilmington, Del., but this was not 
true. The city consumers will benefit if 
the retailers find out what the prices are 
now. A Virginian who has cabbages at 
home was in Baltimore, and went into 
a retail grocery where he bought a head 
of cabbage weighing nine pounds. The 
grocer told him the price was three cents 
a pound, but he could have that head for 
a quarter. He then went to the wharf 
and asked a commission merchant what 
cabbages were worth. He told him 40 
cents a barrel. Since it would cost him 
more than that to buy barrels and pay 
freight, he sent word to Virginia to feed 
the cabbages to the pigs. The grocer was 
selling the cabbages at $2.70 a barrel and 
buying them at 40 cents. And yet there 
are those who say that the farmer’s dollar 
is more than 35 cents. The farmer is 
always the first one hit when prices fall. 
The weather is too wet for sweet pota¬ 
toes, and they now need a long sunny and 
dry spell. Some are being shipped, but 
it seems to me that the price now should 
be very high to pay for shipping half- 
grown potatoes. I have some Nancy 
Halls which would look very well on the 
table, but they do not get their sweetness 
till mature, and we have too few to waste 
them. w. F. MASSEY. 
Spread of Potato Scab 
Can you advise me whether potatoes 
scab in the ground after they have done 
growing? They are Irish Cobblers, and 
the vines are not all dead yet. I have 
been digging some; at first they appeared 
smooth, but now they are a little rough, 
only skin deep. ’ II. G. 
New Jersey. 
Bur experience is that potato scab does 
spread in the soil—faster than above 
ground. We have known cases where a 
crop with only a little scab in early Au¬ 
gust was quite bad by September. A 
warm, moist soil seems a good place for 
the scab germs to grow, and we think they 
euu spread through the soil water. 
There was once 
a man called 
“farmhand” 
Unhitching the horses 
by the light of a West - 
ern Electric Lamp 
If farmhands grow much scarcer, we will 
soon forget what the word means. Help is 
certainly hard to get. But I have found help 
in another form—an electric power and light 
outfit. I want to tell you what these plants 
can do for you, and some of the things they 
cant do." 
Mr. Bowman’s farm is located 
near Ames, Oklahoma. 
N' 
r OT being able to get any 
steady help, I have been do¬ 
ing most of my work myself. 
It worried me to think that every 
hour I spent milking cows, turning 
a grindstone or chopping wood 
was just so much time taken away 
from necessary work in 
the fields. 
“Last spring I be¬ 
came interested in the 
question of a farm plant. 
But I delayed buying 
one, because those I 
first saw were not 
much more than light¬ 
ing plants. They didn’t 
show up well in a power 
test for heavy work. 
“Now my idea of a 
piece of farm machinery is that it 
must be useful first of all. 
Carry the motor 
right to the job 
you nsiant done 
An outfit that does a 
man’s work 
‘I kept on looking till I found the 
plant that came nearest to satis¬ 
fying my need for power — 
Western Electric Power and 
Light Outfit. I’m not saying that 
this outfit can mow the hay or do 
any plowing. But it certainly is do¬ 
ing some real, honest-to-goodness 
work for me, saving time and labor. 
In the first place the Western 
Electric Outfit has an engine that 
can operate pretty near all the 
machinery on the average farm. 
It runs my fanning-mill, feed- 
mixer and milking ma¬ 
chine. 
“Then with the gen¬ 
erator and. batteries in 
action—or the batteries 
alone — I let electricity 
milk the cows. The 
utility motor, which I 
can carry around and 
connect to any lamp 
socket, is mighty handy 
for such jobs as run¬ 
ning the churn or 
the grindstone, or in fact, turning 
any machine I used to turn by 
hand, 
“All this means time saved— 
and time is money when a man 
is in the middle of his planting 
or harvesting.’ 
Long life to your 
battery 
You may be interested to 
know that the engine to which 
Mr. Bowman refers is of the 
dependable valve - in - head, air¬ 
cooled type, burning gasoline or 
kerosene. 
The battery lasts long because 
of the famous “tapering charge”, 
a Western Electric feature. An 
automatic control very gradually 
decreases the rate of flow as the 
battery fills, till the current stops 
gently by itself. This takes all 
strain off the battery. 
A postcard for booklet RN5 will 
bring you more facts about the 
powerful Western Electric Out¬ 
fit. Write to the distributor 
nearest you- 
A 12-year-old boy 
can operate the 
Western Electric Outfit 
Western Electric distributors in your neighborhood: 
C. //. <5- J. T. Kelly, D. G. Babcock, Amos Barnes, 
Elmira, N. Y. Lake Huntington, N. Y. Ithaca, N. Y. 
C. U. DeVoc, Perry L. Young, Miller & Wait, 
Syracuse. N. Y. Green. N. Y. Oswego, N, Y. 
Theodore M. Gunther <S- Ruslerhollz Electric Co., L. C. Beers Electric Store. 
Sons, Buffalo. N. Y. Erie. Pa. Rochester, N. Y. 
Warden & Smith, D. S- F. Engineering Co.. 
. Catskill. N. Y. Ogdensburg. N. Y. 
For territory still available write to Western lvUctric Co.. New York 
Western Electric 
“BROOKLYN Of T| DOI T13 
brand” o U ILi n U K 
COMMERCIAL FLOUR SULPHUR, 99/4% pure, for making Lime-Sul¬ 
phur solution. 
SUPERFINE C OMMERCIAL SULPHUR, 99 > 4 % pure for dusting purposes. 
FLOWERS OF SULPHUR, 100% pure. Also Crude Nitrate Soda, Saltpetre 
and Muriate Potash. 
BATTELLE & RENWICK 
80 Maiden Lane, New York 
Write for price lists 
SMOOTH-ON 
Putty 
Cement No. 6 
Is a plastic Iron Ce¬ 
ment. prepared and 
soM in putty form. 
1 udispens a-b 1 e for 
making tight joints 
around chimney flash¬ 
ings, gutters, etc. Makes 
a tight joint and gives 
equal protection on 
iron, tin or wood roofs. 
Sold in 1, s and Id-lb. tins, at 
hardware anu goueral stores. 
Sand for illustrated booklet K— 
ITS t-'KEli ! 
SM00TH-0N MANUFACTURING CU. 
Jersey City. N. J.. U S A. 
1 
SMOOTH-ON 
VoTFREE BOOK 
REPAIR 
BOOK 
