1120 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
September  1,  1923 
lest  of 
Simply  this:  Tires  that  do  a 
farmer’s  work  at  the  least  ulti¬ 
mate  cost;  tires  that  meet  the 
road  conditions  he  must  meet; 
tires  that  will  take  him  back 
and  forth  between  his  farm 
and  town. 
Silvertowns  meet  his  test. 
Stop,  and  think  it  over.  The 
first  tire  had  to  meet  road  con¬ 
ditions  now  found  in  the  coun¬ 
try.  Goodrich,  the  pioneer  tire 
maker,  couldn’t  choose  the 
roads  for  its  tires  any  more  than 
a  farmer  can  choose  his.  So 
Goodrich  built  tires  to  meet 
them. 
Your  dealer  sells  Silvertowns, 
Goodrich  ”55”  Clincher  Fab¬ 
rics,  and  Goodrich  inner  tubes. 
THE  B.  F.  GOODRICH  RUBBER  CO. 
ESTABLISHED  1870 
Silvertown  Cord 
“  <3B&st>  in  the  Long  Run? 
IN  ALL  SIZES  FROM  30X314  UP 
Organized  Co-operation 
A  NEW  BOOK 
By  JOHN  J.  DILLON 
This  book  is  written  in  three 
parts. 
PART  ONE. — 7  Pe  '  Develop¬ 
ment  of  the  Agricultural  Indus¬ 
try.  In  five  chapters. 
PART  TWO.  —  Fundamental 
Principles  and  Adaptable  Forms 
of  Co-operative  Organization.  In 
ten  chapters. 
PART  THREE.  —  Application 
of  Co-operation  to  Efficient  and 
Economic  Distribution  of  Farm 
Products.  In  seven  chapters. 
This  is  a  new  treatment  of  the 
co-operative  subject.  Heretofore 
writers  of  books  have  contented 
themselves  with  accounts  of  co¬ 
operative  work  where  established. 
It  has  been  mostly  propaganda 
and  exhortation.  This  was  all 
good  in  its  time.  But  we  have 
grown  beyond  it.  Farmers  are 
now  committed  to  co-operation. 
Once  shy  of  it,  they  are  at  last  a 
unit  for  it.  What  they  want  now 
is  principles  and  definite  policies 
that  have  pn  ved  successful.  This 
book  is  the  first  real  attempt  to 
supply  this  want.  Other,  and  it 
is  to  be  hoped  better,  books  will 
follow  on  this  line;  but  for  the 
present  there  is  no  other  book 
seriously  treating  the  subject  of 
organized  co-operation. 
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Horticultural  Notes 
Fruit  Notes  from  Missouri 
A  Remedy  for  Chiggers — Chiggers,  the 
minute  insects  that  attach  themselves  to 
the  shoes  or  trousers  as  you  walk  through 
grass  or  weeds,  and  thence  find  their  way 
to  your  flesh,  into  which  they  burrow, 
producing  a  distracting  itching  and 
smarting,  began  their  irritating  work 
early  and  in  unusually  large  numbers. 
Some  attribute  this  activity  to  the  rainy 
Spring.  A  little  experience  with  the  chig- 
ger  teaches  that  it  is  well  worth  while 
to  arm  against  his  attacks.  I  have  found 
these  measures  good  :  Before  putting  on 
the  shoes  in  the  morning,  sprinkle  in 
them  a  little  sulphur  or  crumbled  tobacco 
leaf ;  rub  the  body  after  the  morning  bath 
from  the  waist  down  with  some  kind  of 
oil,  such  as  eoeanut  or  olive,  and  slightly 
perfumed.  Citronella  or  cedar  oil  dabbed 
on  the  flesh  or  clothing  will  repel.  I  have 
seen  children’s  bodies  peppered  with  the 
red  spots  of  chigger  bites,  and  if  they 
yield  to  the  temptation  to  scratch  their 
affliction  becomes  greater. 
Fruit  Failures. — We  must  grant  now 
that  peaches  throughout  a  large  region 
are  a  failure.  There  is  a  sprinkle  of  them 
on  the  trees  in  favored  localities,  but 
that  is  all.  The  first  bushel  we  could 
collect  sold  for  $4,  and  the  fruit  was  of 
poor  quality.  Apples  were  also  damaged 
by  the  late  freezes,  but  our  orchard  of 
Jefferis  comes  up  with  the  largest  crop  on 
record.  They  begin  ripening  from  July 
15.  Yellow  Transparent,  Duchess,  Har¬ 
vest,  all  bore  good  crops  and  good  apples 
sold  at  $1.50  per  bushel.  For  the  first 
time  in  their  history  here  the  hybrid 
blackberry-dewberries  failed  to  show  a 
wealth  of'bloom  and  were  a  failure.  The 
cold  wave  that  descended  upon  us  one 
warm  Sunday  afternoon  in  late  March 
and  sent  the  mercury  down  to  six  de¬ 
grees,  was  no  doubt  responsible.  The 
main  crop  of  late  blackberries  is  good,  but 
all  the  earlies  were  damaged.  The  rasp¬ 
berry  crop,  just  now  at  its  end,  has  been 
good.  The  Cuthbert  runs  a  week  or  so 
later  than  the  blacks.  The  weakness  of 
all  raspberries  here,  both  red  and  black, 
is  that  the  canes  die  back  during  the 
Winter,  not  from  the  cold,  but  apparently 
from  drying  out.  Gooseberries  were  a 
good  crop  with  some  exceptions.  The 
Oregon  and  Houghton  are  always  at  the 
head  for  yield  and  reliability.  I  was  hop¬ 
ing  great  things  from  the  Poorman,  but 
must  now  reluctantly  pronounce  it  a  fail¬ 
ure  here.  Of  course  this  is  too  far  south 
for  the  gooseberry  or  currant  to  do  its 
best.  A  Dr.  Van  Fleet  hybrid,  a  cross  be¬ 
tween  the  wild  and  large  English,  may  be 
called  a  success.  It  yields  a  fair  crop  of 
berries  about  as  large  as  Downing,  but  its 
branches  are  stiff  and  well  protected  with 
large  thorns.  Its  most  remarkable  fea¬ 
ture  is  the  mammoth  proportions  to 
which  it  grows.  My  short  row,  grown 
from  cuttings,  I  should  now  estimate  at 
10  ft.  in  height  and  perhaps  12  ft.  wide. 
Grown  as  a  hedge  around  a  field  or  farm, 
it  would  be  far  more  formidable  than  a 
barbed  wire  fence. 
The  Virtues  of  Vetch. — Last  Sum¬ 
mer,  in  August,  in  the  hottest  and  driest 
weather,  I  scattered  vetch  seed  on  a  steep 
bank  about  25  ft.  high.  There  was  al¬ 
ready  a  growth  of  various  grasses  and 
weeds  and  the  soil  was  hard  as  rock.  This 
Spring  that  unlovely  bank  was  clothed  in 
a  thick  mantle  of  green  vetch  that  later 
covered  itself  with  blue  flowers,  a  beauti¬ 
ful  sight.  And  yet  this  valuable  legume 
that  makes  .a  splendid  hay  or  pasture  or 
soil  enrieher,  is  practically  unknown  in 
this  county  and  probably  in  many  other 
parts  of  this  and  other  States.  It  is  not 
even  necessary  to  cover  the  seed.  Merely 
dropping  it  on  the  hard  ground  is  enough. 
It  will  also  reseed  itself  and  act  the  part 
of  a  perennial  for  an  unlimited  time.  I 
have  seen  it  go  through  a  farm  fence  and 
bravely  start  across  an  abandoned  field  to 
redeem  it  from  its  poverty  and  hide  its 
sprouts,  its  weeds  and  oases  of  tough 
grass  under  its  own  luxuriant  carpet  of 
tendril-like  growth.  Why  not  scatter 
vetch  seed  over  thousands  of  gullied  fields 
and  waste  lands  that  are  producing  noth¬ 
ing  and  let  this  most  generous  of  plants, 
without  aid  from  man,  clothe  them  year 
after  year,  covering  up  their  naked  ugli¬ 
ness,  checking  destructive  erosion  and  ac¬ 
cumulating  a  mulch  of  vegetable  matter 
through  the  decay  of  its  annual  growth, 
as  well  as  filling  the  soil  with  air-gath¬ 
ered  nitrogen?  Here  is  a  legume  that  in 
some  respects  is  superior  to  Alfalfa  in  its 
value  to  the  farmer.  Why  should  not  the 
agricultural  colleges  and  county  farm 
agents  start  a  campaign  to  introduce  and 
popularize  it?  I  have  not  found  it  neces¬ 
sary  to  inoculate  the  soil. 
L.  R.  JOHNSON. 
Cape  Girardeau  Co.,  Mo. 
Growing  Pansies  and  Pinks 
I  am  interested  in  growing  pansies  and 
hardy  pinks.  When  should  they  be  sown, 
and  when  transplanted?  c.  D.  j. 
Pansy  seed  may  be  sown  indoors  in 
February  or  March,  in  the  open  ground 
in  April  or  May,  or  in  open  beds  from 
the  second  week  in  July  to  the  latter  part 
of  August.  These  Summer-sown  plants 
are  wintered  over  and  provide  early 
blooming  plants  for  the  following  season. 
Soil  for  pansies  should  be  well  cultivated, 
fine  and  friable.  Ground  that  was  well 
manured  for  a  previous  crop,  or  that  has 
been  well  enriched  with  old  rotted  cow 
manure  is  desirable.  Sow  the  seed  in 
drills  3  in.  apart,  covering  only  about 
one-sixteenth  inch.  The  soil  should  be 
moistened,  and  germination  will  be  has¬ 
tened  by  covering  the  row's  with  sacking 
or  newspapers.  The  August  sown  beds 
may  be  wmtered  fiirough  the  sacking,  so 
that  the  tiny  seedlings  are  not  dried  our. 
In  very  hot,  dry  weather  shading  is  an 
advantage.  As  soon  as  the  seedlings  can 
be  pricked  out  they  should  be  transplanted 
to  a  distance  of  7  in.  to  9  in.  apart,  and 
given  clean  cultivation.  Summer  plants 
can  be  carried  over  Winter,  with  no  other 
protection  than  a  mulch,  put  on  after  the 
ground  is  frozen,  but  many  plants  are 
carried  over  commercially  in  cold  frames, 
so  as  to  have  them  in  bloom  or  bud  for 
early  sales. 
Seed  sowrn  in  April  or  May  will  give 
plants  blooming  the  end  of  June,  when 
the  early  blooming  plants  are  over.  If 
transplanted  the  first  time  into  the  place 
where  they  are  to  remain,  larger  flowers 
are  obtained  than  if  they  are  moved 
again ;  further  disturbance  of  the  roots 
lessens  the  size  of  the  flowers.  When  left 
in  open  beds  during  the  Winter  the  loca¬ 
tion  should  be  well  drained ;  a  place 
w'here  water  will  stand  at  the  roots,  or 
where  ice  will  form  over  the  plants,  is 
very  detrimental. 
Hardy  pinks  may  be  sowTn  indoors  in 
February  or  March,  or  in  the  open  gar¬ 
den  as  soon  as  frost  is  gone,  thinning 
them  out  as  soon  as  large  enough  to  han¬ 
dle.  They  can  also  be  sown  later,  like 
the  pansies,  if  the  weather  is  not  too 
dry,  and  canned  over  Winter  with  a  cov¬ 
ering  of  mulch.  They  like  a  light  soil 
enriched  with  old  manure,  and  an  open, 
sunny  situation. 
Sweet  Clover  a  Blessing  in  Disguise 
I  am  afraid  I  cannot  give  you  much 
information  a,bout  Sweet  clover,  as  it  is 
not  grown  to  any  extent  for  any  purpose 
in  this  immediate  locality.  This  south¬ 
western  corner  of  North  Dakota  was 
virgin  prairie  16  or  17  years  ago,  and 
opened  for  homesteading  about  that  time. 
My  people  came  here  from  Wisconsin  in 
1909.  The  prairie  sod  was  turned  over 
and  sown  first  to  flax,  then  to  wheat  and 
oats.  These  last  years  people  are  begin¬ 
ning  to  milk  cows  and  grow  the  grains 
to  feed  them,  supplementing  the  prairie 
hay  with  millet.  We  need  a  drought- 
resisting  perennial  grass  that  will  make 
good  hay  for  both  horses  and  cattle. 
Alfalfa  is  being  tried.  My  husband 
sow'ed  a  small  patch  of  Sweet  clover  in  a 
hog  lot.  It  grew  just  fine  (is  certainly 
drought-resistant)  but  the  hogs  did  not 
seem  to  like  it  very  well,  and  it  grew  up 
and  went  to  seed  and  spread  even  to  ad¬ 
joining  sod.  We  thought  it  almost  a 
nuisance.  mre.  e.  s. 
Paradise,  N.  D. 
Very  likely  you  will  find  that  Sweet- 
clover  is  an  angel  in  disguise  that  has 
entered  Paradise.  In  many  sections  the 
Sweet  clover  is  regarded  as  a  weed  until 
it  proved  its  value  as  a  pasture  and 
manurial  crop.  As  your  section  grows 
older  it  will  need  a  crop  that  can  grow 
in  a  dry  time  and  add  organic  matter 
and  nitrogen  to  the  soil.  Sweet  clover 
will  do  all  of  that. 
