546 
THE RURAL 
NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 25 
Treatment of Young Orchards. 
Sowing clover; wheat better; sherp vs. 
hogs; killing borers. 
J. S. Woodward, Niagara County, N. 
Y.—I cannot quite agree with Mr. H. Stew¬ 
art in his answer to the questions in The 
Rural New-Yorker of July 4, page 497, 
put by S. H. H., Rayville, Md. It is not 
always safe, even in Maryland, to sow 
clover as late as the middle of July. I 
think a safer way would be to sow the or¬ 
chards in wheat, applying as much fertil¬ 
izer as the wheat would take from the soil, 
and sow clover early in spring upon the 
wheat. This would be much more effectual 
in preventing washing than would the 
young clover, even if it did not winter-kill. 
The wheat should be sown quite early and 
in the corn ; or if the corn has come off be¬ 
fore wheat-seeding time, sow on the corn 
stubble, and run over it with the Cutaway 
harrow, which will put it in deep enough. 
With the clover sow a few pounds of Blue 
Grass and also Orchard Grass. I am ut¬ 
terly opposed to his plan of cutting the 
grass that grows on these orchards for hay. 
It is far better to pub in stock enough- 
sheep and hogs—to more than eat the grass 
that grows upon it, and then keep the 
stock thriving by a grain ration every day. 
I can’t see how we can manure our orchards 
by removing a crop of hay each year and 
depending upon the aftermath. It may be 
that my friend Stewart can do it in North 
Carolina ; but I know it can’t be done in 
western New York; nor do I believe 
it can in North Carolina, unless he has 
discovered some way of getting some¬ 
thing from nothing. No one has ever 
claimed that clover puts anything into 
the soil by its growth, except it may 
be a little nitrogen, while the growing trees 
should have a full supply of potash and 
phosphoric acid, particularly the former, 
neither of which could the clover put into 
the so 1 in ever so small a quantity. My 
method of feeding all the grass that grows 
in the orchard, and with it grains, like 
bran, both wheat and rye, cotton seed meal, 
linseed meal and dried brewers’ grains, will 
add very largely to the fertility of the soil, 
and, by bang done judiciously, can be done 
at a profit. 
I have found that if I would have my or¬ 
chards profitable I must fertilize con¬ 
stantly, and I have never yet found the 
limit where on application it ceases to be 
profitable. Will Mr. Stewart tell us 
whence the soil would derive the large 
quantity of potash necessary to grow a crop 
of potatoes, by five years’ growth of clover 
and the removal of five crops of clover hay, 
with the large amount of potash removed 
in it f Mr. Stewart’s advice is not sound in 
this. 
Nor do I agree with him that hogs are 
the best stock to graze an orchard. Colonel 
Curtis used to say that hogs were own 
cousins to the human family, and that is 
just what “ ails” the hog. It is by far too 
much like its cousin and when it gets asleep 
it sleeps so soundly that a wormy apple may 
fall within a yard of its nose and it would 
be unconscious of the fact until awakened 
and by that time the worm would be out 
of the apple and in a safe place. Not so 
with regard to a sheep; it never sleeps with 
both eyes at the same time, and if the or¬ 
chard is, as it should be, overstocked, no 
apple will more than strike the ground 
until it with the Inhabiting worm is on its 
road down the sheep’s throat, and that is a 
bourne whence no worm ever returns to 
curse the orchardist. But in order to get the 
full benefit from a flock of sheep we should 
put in o the orchard at least 50 per cent more 
than it would feed and then depend upon 
keeping them thriving, as I have already 
said, by a supplemental feed of grain. The 
grain food may make the sheep ravenous 
for green food and they will keep the grass 
eaten down like a roadside and scatter the 
manure over the orchard much better than 
the Kemp or any other manure spreader. 
To prevent the attacks of borers on all 
kinds of fruit trees I have found a wash 
made of water-lime (hydraulic cement) and 
skim-milk, with a little crude carbolic acid 
very efficacious. The soil should be re¬ 
moved an inch or two below its natural 
surface and the trunk be washed from the 
bottom of the excavation up to two or 
more feet above the surface. This mixture 
should be made as thick as it can be put on 
handily and will harden so solidly that no 
borer can penetrate it and will stay on 
until the growing trunk will cause it to 
crack. 
To prevent the sheep from eating the 
bark from young trees I have found it best 
to surround the latter with a case of gal¬ 
vanized “chicken wire” having a mesh 
about two inches in diameter and about 
three feet wide. No sheep will even rub 
against it. 
Can We Compete With California 
Fruit? 
S. A Little, Seneca County, N. Y.— 
The Rural is wholly right when it affirms 
(on page 478) that handsome packages go a 
long way in selling fruit to good advantage; 
but no package, no matter how attractive, 
would put cherries raised in our moist 
Eastern climate into successful competition 
with California fruit. The present season 
has been one of unprecedented dryness, 
and cherries which escaped the effects of 
frost, were unusually fine and their keeping 
qualities were wonderful. We rarely see 
cherries which are fully ripe on Saturday 
In any condition for picking on Monday, 
but this exceptional year has permitted the 
beautiful fruit to grow and ripen in the 
trees in a manner very rare. In California 
the fruit is gathered and packed day after 
day and the last picking is as fine and free 
from decay as the first. The air is so dry 
that it gathers nothing but sweetness when 
left upon the tree*. This perfectly ripened 
delicious fruit is packed with the care be¬ 
stowed upon grape packing here, and hav¬ 
ing to combat with no germs of mold it 
often reaches the Eastern market in better 
condition than our fruit leaves the trees. 
There is no doubt about the California 
style of packing paying here, but we could 
not be sure, no matter how carefully the 
fruit was assorted and packed, that an ugly 
moldy cherry might not appear in the 
shapely front which the trim boxes present. 
I do not wish to be understood as saying 
one word against the attractive cherry 
boxes, but I know that we who are 12 hours 
from New York’s commission men cannot 
compete in many ways with those who send 
their fruit across the continent. 
Tested Agricultural Methods. 
W. L. H., Brooklyn, N. Y.—“Science 
in agriculture” is quite a “modern im¬ 
provement,” which prevents soil exhaus¬ 
tion and Increases fertility and crop pro¬ 
duction at a less cost of money and labor 
than was necessary when intelligent expe¬ 
rience and custom alone guided the soil til¬ 
ler’s operations. It is, perhaps, somewhat 
natural in a new country to exaggerate a tri¬ 
fle the doings of this new helper in agricult¬ 
ure in comparison with those of its immemo¬ 
rial guides; but, while it has doubtless done 
much to maintain and restore the fertility 
of a few sections here which have been 
under cultivation for a century r two, it 
should not be forgotten that the old guides 
have done the same for many lands which 
have been under cultivation for decades, or 
even scores of centuries. While the new¬ 
comer is doing much for the New Jersey 
land which fed Washington’s starving Con¬ 
tinentals, the old standbys have for ages 
been doing as much for the lands that fed 
the dusky warriors of Menes, over 6,000 
years ago, along the Nile ; or the almond- 
eyed hordes of Yau, over 4,200 years ago, 
in far Cathay; or the swarthy horsemen of 
Rama over 4,000 years ago in Hlndostan, 
or the invincible legions of Caesar in France, 
Spain or Italy, or the hosts led to victory 
and death by hundreds of famous warriors 
since the great Roman’s day. All honor t j 
the newcomer in agriculture, but in laud¬ 
ing its deeds let us not be ungratefully for¬ 
getful of the great achievements of the 
“ old reliables.” 
About Our Grape Bagging. 
W. G., Blair County, P 4..—After dis¬ 
budding the tomato plants, (taking off every 
side shoot, and tj ing them to their seven 
or eight-foot stakes) I go to bagging grapes. 
These are now like half-grown small peas, 
and the bags are more easily put on, as well 
as more effective, than later. There is the 
advantage, too, that where stray tendrils 
have got into a bunch, and in the way they 
are, as yet, tender enough to be pinched off 
with the thumb nail. One-pound grocery 
bags serve for most bunches, but my apron 
has four pouches, one for two-pound bags, 
one for half-pounds, and one for mere 
squares of paper, often more easily used 
than bags. My favorite and securest fasten¬ 
ing is a pin passed through the lapping side 
folds of the top of the bag close to the stem 
of the bunch (done by feel) and then up 
through the folds on the other side of the 
stem. Some bags that accidemally got 
oiled, are so much better to handle and 
slip over a bunch and to pin, that it is worth 
while for some of our experiment station 
testers to find out what the effect of using 
such bags would be, giving the cost of dip¬ 
ping them into some different toughening, 
and at the same time anti-rot sulphurous 
n: edicaments. I have used some bags wholly 
covered with black printer’s ink for three 
successive years, and have found the grapes, 
as it seemed, more perfect in color and 
other qualities than in bags admitting some 
light, and the bags remain serviceable. 
I have had unusual and most welcome ex¬ 
emption from insect troubles. One helle- 
boring seemed to finish currant worms, and 
nearly all the rose slugs. The latter have 
been less voracious than usual. Not a po¬ 
tato 1 eetle has been seen yet. Plums, a 
very heavy crop, are unmarked by curcu- 
lios so far as seen. The entire failure of 
fruit here last year perhaps starved out the 
little ' turks.’ 
Care of Horse Manure. 
C. H. F., Wango, N. Y. —My method of 
saving horse manure is a simple one and it 
is strange that more farmers do not adopt 
a similar plan and save their manure piles 
from heating, after which they are worth 
no more than so much saw dust. Here is 
the recipe: Just dump your horse manure 
in the hog yard and thus preserve both it 
and the hog manure in a perfect state. I 
manured four acres of corn last season with 
the manure from three hogs and a few loads 
of horse manure treated in this way. 
Another good way to dispose of horse 
manure is to draw it out and spread it on 
the wheat field as fast as made. In this 
way it will afford an excellent protection 
against frost in winter and drought in 
summer. In a dry season, used as a top¬ 
dressing for oats, It will double the crop. 
Whatever may be done with this kind 
of manure it should not be permitted to 
burn up. 
Needed! A Science of Weather. 
W. C., Springfield, O.—The importance 
of the weather to the agriculturist makes 
the recent change in the Signal Service of 
the United States one of no small interest. 
However useful may be the present system 
of the Signal Service, it is evident that ere 
long it will be improved upon and supple¬ 
mented by written knowledge which will 
find its way into the hands of many per¬ 
sons to whom it will be useful. The annual 
almanac has lost much of its interest to 
farmers from a neglect to improve it and 
place in it the practical information of scien¬ 
tific value which of late years has been 
accumulating. We have political almanacs 
like those published by the Tribune and 
other papers, which are valuable for the 
statistics, etc. they contain; but nothing 
in the almanac form which contains prac¬ 
tical scientific knowledge of much real 
value. Weather rules are a loose and 
disjointed collection without coherence, 
based upon atmospheric conditions and 
ignoring the higher science of astronomy. 
The great center of the solar system 
(Continued on next page.) 
$Uj$uUa»«iu;9i 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention The Rural New- 
Yorker. 
Summer 
Weakness 
Loss of Appetite, Sick 
Headache, and That Tired 
Feelinu, are cured by 
Hood’s 
Sarsaparilla 
fvER y M° THER 
Should Have It in The House. 
Dropped on Sugar, Children Love 
to take Johnson’s Axodyne Liniment for Croup.Colds, 
Sore Throat, Tonsllitis, Colie, Cramps and Pains. Re¬ 
lieves all Summer Complaints, Cuts and Bruises like 
magic. Sold every where. Price 35c. by mail; 6 bottles 
Express Raid, $2. LS. JOHNSON &CO.,Boston,1Iass. 
EVERYBODY WHO BUYS.’ONE BOX 
OF RAPID 
HARNESS MENDERS 
WANTS ANOTHER,SO DO YOU. 
They do the work Quickly, are 
Strong and Cheap, if you Break: 
your Harness when at work in 
the Held you can mend It in half 
a minute and 
IT ONLY COSTS HALF A CENT, 
ANI) IT IS I)ONK BETTER 
THAN ANY HARNESS MAKER 
CAN HO IT 
JZ^OO^nEQujREri 
Just Drive ’Em In anil CLINCH 'Em, 
THEY’LL DO THE REST. 
SHOWS HOW IT IS DONE. 
For Sale by Grocer and Hardware Dealer. 
Price, 525c per box of one gross, containing 
three sizes or sent to the Patentees and 
Manufacturers. 
BUFFALO SPECIALTY MFG. CO., 
BUFFALO, N. Y. 
ENSILAGE 
The SILO is rapidly being adopted in all 
sections of the U. S. and portions of Canada as 
the cheapest possible means of harvesting and 
feeding the corn crop; no waste, no husking, 
no grinding, no toll to pay. nor time tolose,and 
a reserve of green feed for all seasons of the 
year when pasturage and other crops may fail. 
Double the number of stock can be kept on the 
same number of acres under cultivation. 
Our Catalogue embraces valuable Information 
and detailed Instructions on the subject, as well 
as description and prices of the FAMOUS 
“OHIO” 
Ensilage and Fodder Cutters 
THE SILVER MFG. CO., SALEM, Ohio. 
WIRE ROPE SELVAGE the BEST. 
PRICES REDUCED. Sold by dealers. FREIGHT PAID. 
MeMULLEN’8 POULTRY NETTING. Newthlng. 
No sagging! No bagging! 6 Extra Heavy.Melvase. 
‘The McMullen Woven Wire Fence Co., Chicago. Ill, 
"MFENCINC 
Woven Wire. 
OSGOOD gff SCALES 
3 Tor^_~ ■■£=$:::/ $ 35 . 
U.S. STANDARD. FULLY WARRANTED. 
Delivered at your R. R. Station and ample time for 
building and testing allowed before acceptance. 
OSGOOD & THOMPSON, Binghamton, N. Y. 
COME TO VIRGINIA 
For Cheap Homes, Fine Estates, Sheep Ranches, 
Stock Farms, Trucking Lands, Vineyards, Fruit 
Farms. Labor cheap ; climate unsurpassed ; health 
perfect: the worst land easily reclaimed ; good mar¬ 
kets accessible: taxation low; every social and 
domestic convenience within easy reach. 
H or information apply to 
THOMAS WHITEHEAD, 
Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration, 
RICHMOND, VA. 
THE PE COS V ALLEY. 
THE FRUIT BELT OP NEW MEXICO 
Over 100 miles of irrigating canals now completed, 
-ach from 18 to 60 feet wide and carrying 5 to 7 feet of 
"'Over 300,000 acres of the richest lands in the world 
already available for irrigation and farming under 
‘hese canals, twenty-five per cent, of which are still 
iubject to entry under the homestead laws. 
Other lands for sale at $15 to $30 an acre and on 
The Pecos River being fed by never-falling spring* 
af immense size, the water supply for all the canals 
can carry is assured. In this resi>ect the Pecos is 
unequiled for irrigating purposes by any river on the 
continsnt. ... , 
Climatic and soil conditions here are .superior to 
those of Southern California. All the fruits that are 
grown there can be produced here, except oranges and 
lemons, while the Pecos Valley grows ull the cereals, 
vegetables and grasses that can be grown anywhere on 
this continent. .. , , . .. 
Ootton.tobacco and hemp also grow here luxuriant ly. 
while the neighboring mines afford a home market for 
all products. .. . ,. ... .. v, .. 
Direct and easy rail communication with the North 
and East. .... , ... 
Send for maps and illustrated pamphlets, giving 
full particulars. 
PECOS IRRIGATION & IMPROVEMENT CQ-, 
Eddy. New Mexico. 
WESLEYAX ACADEMY. 
One of the best academic and classical schools in 
New England. The payment of #200, One-half in 
advance and the remainder January 15th, will cover 
ordinary tuition with board for the year, beginning 
September 2. Send for Catalogue to 
G. M. STEELE, l’rin., Wilbrahain, Mass. 
