796 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Dec.  3 
plowed  at  each  edge  of  the  road  and  the  slag  is  placed 
between,  one  foot  deep  in  the  center,  six  to  eight 
inches  at  the  sides.  Travel  and  rain  soon  firm  the 
slag,  making  an  excellent  road.  The  slag — a  refuse 
product  of  the  iron  mills — costs  nothing  but  the  ex¬ 
pense  of  loading  the  cars  and  the  freight.  This  is  no 
6mall  item,  however.  Communities  within  reasonable 
distance  of  manufacturing  towns  may  find  this  plan 
workable. 
Earn  Room. — Mr.  Chamberlain  has  an  interesting 
picture  showing  the  effects  of  tile  drainage  and  supe¬ 
rior  farming  on  barn  room.  (See  Fig.  303  for  a  copy 
of  it.  Eds.)  His  farm  consists  of  115  acres,  05  of  it 
arable  and  tile-drained.  At  the  time  the  barn  was 
built — 18  years  ago — it  was  thought  to  be  large  enough 
for  a  farm  of  this  size.  It  was  built  of  four  old  ones ; 
size  40  feet  by  72  feet ;  capacity  100  tons  of  hay  and 
grain.  Now  it  is  much  too  small,  and  his  present  ex¬ 
pectation  is  to  take  it  down  and  rebuild,  doubling 
its  capacity. 
As  the  readers  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  know,  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain  has  been  connected  with  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
Ohio  Farmer  the  past  year,  and  his  entire  literary 
work,  aside  from  lecturing  three  months  a  year  at  our 
farmers’  institutes,  is  devoted  to  that  paper.  The  farm 
at  Hudson  is  run  as  an  experiment  farm  for  the  paper. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  spends  half  his  time  in  Cleveland 
looking  after  the  interests  of  the  paper,  the  other 
half  at  Hudson  looking  after  both  paper  and  farm. 
After  having  served  the  agricultural  public  wisely  and 
well  as  Secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Ariculture  and 
College  President,  he  has  settled  down  to  perhaps  the 
most  important  work  of  his  life  and  is  bringing  the 
best  efforts  of  a  scholarly  agriculturist  to  bear  on  the 
problems  which  confront  the  farmer.  Success  to  both 
farmer  and  editor  !  c.  G.  williams. 
SUCCESSFUL  CHERRY  CULTURE. 
Soil  for  Cherries. — It  is  generally  accepted  that 
the  cherry  tree  requires  a  porous,  well  underdrained 
soil.  As  my  farm  is  nearly  all  a  slaty  gravel,  and  the 
surface  hilly,  I  have  cherry  trees  growing  on  nearly 
all  parts  of  it.  I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the 
Morellos  and  Dukes,  or  sour  cherries,  require  some¬ 
what  different  soil  and  treatment  from  those  suitable 
for  the  Hearts  and  Bigarreaus.  For  an  experiment,  I 
set  a  few  of  each  on  low,  heavy  ground,  where  water 
could  be  found  three  feet  from  the  surface.  The  sweet- 
cherry  trees  are  healthy  and  vigorous  and  bear  heavily, 
but  the  fruit  is  inclined  to  rot  more  than  on  higher 
ground.  The  sour  kinds  soon  died  out. 
About  Culture. — The  sour-cherry  trees  should  re¬ 
ceive  continuous  clean  culture.  They  then  mature 
heavy  crops,  even  when  young.  My  sweet-cherry 
trees  1  have  set  along  fences  and  at  the  ends  of  the 
rows  in  my  vineyard.  For  the  first  four  or  five  years, 
the  earth  is  kept  mellow  around  them,  and  they  are 
mulched  with  strawy  manure  each  spring.  Until  they 
have  attained  a  diameter  of  six  or  eight  inches,  the 
trunk  of  each  near  the  ground  is  wrapped  with  tar¬ 
paper  every  fall  to  protect  it  from  mice.  A  few  days’ 
neglect  of  this  after  the  first  snowfall  caused  the  loss 
of  several  trees.  After  four  or  five  years,  the  sod  is 
allowed  to  form  around  them  ;  but  the  fall  wrapping 
is  continued  till  the  bark  becomes  thick  and  rough. 
When  forced  by  high  culture,  the  sweet  cherries  are 
prone  to  crack  the  bark  and  prematurely  decay. 
Shall  We  Manure  ?— So  long  as  the  sweet-cherry 
trees  appear  thrifty,  I  apply  no  manure.  If  the  tree 
seems  to  fail  for  want  of  nourishment,  stable  manure, 
wood  ashes  or  potash  salts  are  applied.  The  sour- 
cherry  trees  are  treated  precisely  like  peach  trees,  with 
light  dressings  of  stable  manure  and  kainit  or  muriate 
of  potash  every  year. 
Pruning  To  Shape. — The  shape  of  the  sweet  cherry 
should  be  left  almost  entirely  to  nature.  Necessary 
pruning  should  be  done  while  the  tree  is  young,  during 
the  first  two  or  three  years  after  setting.  Unless  made 
necessary  by  injury,  no  large  limbs  should  be  cut,  as 
doing  so  is  apt  to  produce  a  rotten  spot.  Most  vari¬ 
eties  of  the  Morello  class  require  annual  thinning  as 
much  as  peach  trees. 
What  Varieties? — I  know  of  no  locality  where  any 
variety  of  sweet  cherry  can  be  relied  on  as  a  sure 
cropper.  Perhaps  Downer’s  Late  Red  comes  the  near¬ 
est  to  it,  as  it  seldom  rots  on  the  tree,  and  is  of  good 
quality.  White  Ox-Heart  or  Yellow  Spanish,  Napoleon 
Bigarreau,  Black  Tartarian,  and  Elkhorn  or  Tra- 
descant’s  Black  Heart  are  good  market  varieties.  The 
Windsor  is  highly  commended,  and  I  have  a  good 
many  trees  of  that  variety  set,  but  they  have  not 
fruited  yet.  Among  the  sour  cherries  none  have  been 
more  profitable  than  Montmorency  Ordinaire,  and 
English  Morello.  The  Early  Richmond  bore  heavily 
when  young,  but  now  trees  that  are  12  or  15  years  old, 
healthy  and  thrifty,  blossom  full  and  bear  but  little 
fruit.  For  five  or  six  years  after  they  came  in  bearing, 
the  Elkhorns  were  my  most  profitable  cherry , but  lately 
they  are  dying  out  without  any  apparent  cause.  The 
May  Duke  seems  a  short-lived  tree.  The  fruit  is  better 
for  family  use  than  for  market;  because  the  crop  ripens 
so  unevenly;  thus  necessitating  several  pickings. 
Packages. — Until  recently  I  used  five  and  ten-pound 
baskets,  now  I  use  a  crate  containing  shallow  boxes 
which  are  filled  from  the  bottom,  thus  expediting 
packing  so  that  the  stems  are  covered  when  the  pack¬ 
age  is  opened  for  inspection. 
General  Remarks. — Sweet  cherries  here  are  not  so 
sure  a  crop  as  the  sour,  but  the  fruit  usually  sells  for 
a  higher  price.  The  main  causes  of  loss  of  crop  are 
cold  storms  or  frost  while  in  bloom,  and  rot.  Moist, 
hot  weather  will  sometimes  destroy  an  entire  crop 
three  days  before  it  is  fit  for  market.  I  have  known 
cherries  to  be  perfectly  sound  when  picked  in  the 
morning,  appear  streaked  when  shipped  at  evening, 
and  nearly  all  rotten  the  next  morning  in  market. 
The  English  Morello,  and  perhaps  some  other  sour 
cherry  trees,  are  subject  to  black  knot.  It  appears  to 
be  identical  with  that  on  the  plum  tree.  The  free  use 
of  the  pruning-knife  has  been  my  only  treatment.  So 
far  it  has  been  successful,  as  I  have  lost  no  trees,  and 
the  disease  is  nearly  eradicated.  w.  d.  barns. 
Orange  County,  N.  Y. 
LEAVINGS. 
An  Acre  of  Blackberries. — M.  A.  Thayer,  of 
Sparta,  Wis.,  is  one  of  the  most  successful  blackberry 
growers  in  the  country.  Last  spring  we  gave  his  es¬ 
timate  of  the  cost  of  fitting  land  for  this  crop.  Now 
he  sends  us  the  cost  of  maintaining  a  plantation  of 
blackberries.  The  figures  given  are  for  one  acre  ;  the 
labor  for  one  man  at  Si.  25  per  day,  and  man  and 
team  at  $2.50 : 
first  year. 
Plowing  ground . 
Harrowing  five  times . 
Rolling  and  marking . 
2,000  Briton  plants . 
Setting  plants . 
Cultivating  10  times . 
Hoeing  six  times . 
Laying  down  for  winter . 
First  year's  expense . 
SECOND  YEAR. 
Taking  up  plants  In  spring . 
400  new  plants  to  replace  dead  ones. . . 
Setting  400  plants . 
00  posts  at  six  cents . 
270  stakes  at  two  cents . 
380  rods  No.  12  wire . 
Setting  posts  and  stakes . 
Stringing  wire . 
Cultivating  10  times . 
Hoeing  four  times . 
Two  loads  clover  mulching . 
Placing  clover  mulching . 
Pinching  back . 
Laying  down  for  winter . 
Use  of  tools,  etc . . 
*1.50 
2.50 
1.00 
40.00 
7.50 
3.75 
6.00 
2.50 
$04.75 
*1.25 
8.00 
2.00 
3.00 
5.40 
12.00 
5.80 
2.50 
3.75 
4.00 
8.00 
3.15 
2.50 
7.50 
6.00 
Total  for  two  years . *140.00 
Of  course  these  estimates  will  vary,  but  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  it  will  cost  from  $125  to  $150  to  bring  an 
acre  of  blackberries  to  first-class  bearing.  After  the 
second  year  Mr.  Thayer  estimates  the  annual  expense 
as  follows  : 
Taking  up  plants  In  the  spring .  *2.50 
Cultivating  and  hoeing .  8.00 
Mulching .  12.00 
Nipping  back  and  trimming .  6.00 
Laying  down  for  winter .  7.50 
Tools,  etc .  6.00 
Total .  *40.00 
To  which  should  be  added — 
For  picking,  per  box . 1/tsC. 
Boxes  and  cases .  1 
Packing  and  selling .  1 
Total  expense  per  quart  . 3J^c. 
How  does  this  compare  with  estimates  of  other 
growers  ?  Mr.  Thayer  adds  : 
The  above  estimate  of  cost  may  s«  em  high  to  most  people,  but  I  am 
satisfied  beyond  a  doubt  that  any  attempt  to  reduce  cost  of  produc¬ 
tion  by  omitting  any  of  the  Items  named,  or  any  part  thereof,  Is 
almost  sure  to  correspondingly  reduce  both  quality  and  quantity  of 
fruit.  By  allowing  a  reasonable  sum  for  the  use  of  land  and  Invest¬ 
ment,  as  above  estimated,  prices  the  same  as  this  year,  we  find  that  a 
yield  of  200  bushels  per  acre  will  give  the  grower  a  net  profit  of  nearly 
*250  per  acre  while  100  bushels  per  acre  would  give  about  *80  profit,  and 
60  bushels  per  acre,  little  or  no  profit  at  all.  If,  then,  you  would  make 
most  money  In  berries,  raise  only  the  best  varieties,  and  cultivate, 
pack  and  market  In  the  best  manner. 
This  corresponds  with  the  experience  of  most  other 
fruit  growers  that  only  well-fed  plants  pay. 
That  Grape  ‘‘  Bug.” — On  page  725  P.  W.  J.,  men¬ 
tions  a  small  bug  that  visits  his  vineyard  early  in  the 
spring  and  eats  the  heart  out  of  the  buds.  I  believe 
it  is  the  Grape  Vine  Flea  Beetle  (Graptodera  chalybea, 
Illiger,)  instead  of  the  Two-spotted  Tree  Hopper 
(Enchenopa  binotata)  as  suggested  in  the  answer.  The 
insect  is  a  steel-blue  jumping-beetle  about  the  size 
mentioned,  and  is  the  worst  pest  the  grape  grower 
meets  here  in  Houston  County,  Minn.  In  some  seasons 
it  nearly  destroys  the  crop  by  eating  into  the  buds 
before  the  leaf  has  expanded.  I  think  its  depredations 
are  confined  chiefly  to  the  grape,  but  one  season  I 
found  it  working  on  the  fruit  buds  of  the  Duchess  of 
Oldenburg  apple.  That  season  the  nuisances  were  so 
plentiful  that  many  vines  were  killed  to  the  ground, 
not  a  bud  being  left  to  induce  a  flow  of  sap.  I  do  not 
know  of  any  method  of  getting  rid  of  them  that  does 
not  require  considerable  hard  work.  Our  German  vine 
growers  keep  them  within  bounds  by  hand-picking  or 
jarring  the  vine  and  letting  them  drop  into  a  pan  held 
underneath,  in  which  is  a  little  kerosene  ;  by  going 
over  the  vineyard  several  times  each  day  until  the 
young  growth  is  well  started,  they  save  the  crop,  but 
do  not  entirely  exterminate  the  insects  which  continue 
to  feast  on  the  leaves,  doing  but  little  damage,  how¬ 
ever.  A  better  method  of  handing  them  would  prob¬ 
ably  be  to  fix  a  sheet  on  a  frame  as  for  capturing  the 
plum  curculio,  and  keep  it  saturated  with  kerosene, 
two  boys  handling  it  and  another  doing  the  jarring. 
The  next  enemy  which  P.  W.  J.  calls  the  grape  slug 
is  piobably  the  larva  of  the  beetle  and  without  doubt 
could  be  destroyed  by  two  or  three  sprayings  with  a 
weak  solution  of  Paris-green,  but  my  method  is  to  keep 
a  sharp  lookout  for  them  and  destroy  them  by  hand, 
and  the  result  is  that  they  are  very  much  less  numer¬ 
ous  than  formerly.  It  is  not  improbable  that  there 
are  two  broods  in  a  year  and  that  if  they  were  looked 
after  later  they  might  be  annihilated.  J.  s.  Harris. 
The  Wheel  Question. — In  The  R.  N.-Y.  on  page 
728,  it  is  said  that  the  big  public  question  for  this  year 
will  be  road  improvement.  I  think  it  should  rather 
be  wheel  improvement.  If  we  used  wide-tired 
wheels  for  three  years  we  would  save  enough  in  road 
expenses  to  pay  for  the  change  of  tires  in  a  whole 
township,  and  would  have  much  better  roads  than  we 
would  with  larger  expenses  and  narrow  tires.  Be¬ 
sides,  there  are  many  miles  of  roads  that  never  need 
to  be  macadamized,  being  smooth  and  good  naturally, 
With  wide  tires  there  would  not  be  so  much  strain  on 
the  wheels  and  no  jerking  and  constant  rattling,  and 
there  would  be  about  75  per  cent  less  wear  on  the 
tires  and  horse  shoes.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  we 
should  first  insist  on  having  a  law  to  compel  all  per¬ 
sons  to  have  wide  tires  on  the  wheels  for  heavy  wagons 
before  incurring  heavy  road  expenses.  w.  k.  d. 
Kutztown,  Pa. 
Wheat. — A  year  ago  last  spring  I  mulched  some 
wheat  very  thinly  with  straw  early  in  March.  The 
effect  was  decidedly  injurious.  Three  years  ago  last 
fall  I  mulched  with  straw  the  next  day  after  drilling 
and  the  effect  seemed  beneficial.  This  conclusion 
was  reached  from  appearances  and  not  from  actual 
test  by  weight  and  measure.  My  judgment  is  that  my 
straw  will  give  more  profit  if  used  for  bedding  stock  ; 
or  exchanged  for  manure  in  the  town  two  miles  away; 
or  if  what  I  cannot  use  for  bedding  is  sold  and  the 
money  spent  for  clover  seed.  I  am  loth,  however,  to 
sell  straw  unless  I  can  purchase  manure.  J.  R.  c. 
Troy,  O. 
An  Acre  of  Potatoes — I  never  gave  much  attention 
to  potato  growing,  especially  in  respect  to  testing  the 
possibilities  of  an  acre  with  exactness,  until  in  1890  I 
fenced  off  an  acre  for  the  purpose  of  doing  so.  The 
soil  was  a  dark  sand  mixed  with  some  clay,  making  it 
slightly  heavy.  For  fifteen  years  it  had  been  in  con- 
stand  use  in  growing,  first,  barley,  then  wheat — seven 
crops  of  the  former  and  eight  of  the  latter  without 
rest.  Some  barnyard  manure  was  applied  and  clover 
seeding  in  wheat. 
My  system  with  the  acre  of  potatoes,  was  to  spread 
twenty  loads  of  stable  manure,  planting  the  potatoes 
in  moderate  trenches,  three  feet  apart,  the  seed  four¬ 
teen  inches  apart  in  the  trench.  The  tubers  for  seed 
were  generally  of  good  size,  and  even  large,  and  they 
were  cut  into  large  pieces,  the  last  year  into  halves, 
lengthwise,  with  the  cut  sides  down.  They  were 
well  covered.  After  they  had  started  to  grow  the 
ground  was  harrowed.  They  were  cultivated  and  hoed 
twice — the  last  time  with  a  horse  hoe — and  hilled  and 
ridged  somewhat.  The  digging  was  done  by  hand. 
The  yield  in  1890  was  300  bushels  ;  in  1891  it  was  208  ; 
and  the  crop  of  1892  was  260.  White  Star  and  Early 
Vermont  were  the  varieties,  except  that  a  smaller  part 
was  set  with  the  Rural  No.  2.  The  latter  has  disap¬ 
pointed  me,  by  yielding  the  least  every  year.  The 
crop  was  grown  with  little  expense  for  labor. 
Wayne  County,  N.  Y.  albert  f.  devereaux. 
R.  N.-Y. — We  would  ask  Mr.  Devereaux  where  he 
procured  his  No.  2  seed  ?  It  will  be  remembered  that 
Mr.  A.  Rose  sold  many  of  his  “  Beauties”  as  the  R. 
N.-Y.  No.  2.  The  color  of  the  skin  is  the  same,  the 
shape  somewhat  similar  ;  but  his  is  not  a  heavy 
yielder. — Ed. 
Old  Time  Chemicals  and  Clover, — As  to  clover  and 
chemicals,  old  readers  of  The  Rural  may  remember 
some  chapters  on  the  history  of  a  poor  farm  published 
12  or  more  years  ago,  in  which  this  same  practice  was 
treated  of  as  the  main  principle  on  which  that  poor 
farm  was  improved.  From  a  beginning,  when  the 
farm  could  not  feed  any  more  stock  than  a  skeleton  of 
a  horse  for  which  the  sheriff  could  not  get  a  bid,  it 
was  got  up  to  yield  a  clear  income  of  $2,500  a  year, 
and  produced  over  100  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre. 
For  this,  it  is  only  just  to  give  the  credit  to  the  Mapes 
fertilizers  which  were  exclusively  used,  and  in  time 
made  the  farm  with  its  herd  of  cows  independent  of 
any  other  source  of  manure.  “  Clover  and  Chemicals” 
has  a  familiar  and  agreeable  sound  and  recollection  to 
me.  I  am  now  farming  on  clover  alone,  because  the 
