i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
627 
FARMERS’ CLUB DISCUSSION. 
( Continued.) 
prospect early in the season, 800 pounds of 
plaster were sown, and this has been fol¬ 
lowed with a good deal of rain without 
causing a noticeable growth of clover. 
On another piece of one acre, in some¬ 
what better heart, (also in potatoes last 
year) clover seed alone was sown ; and here 
again it seems perfectly to indicate the 
real condition of the land, being strong on 
the best of it, and thinner and thinner to 
almost entire failure on a few spots. Here 
no plaster has been applied yet, but I am 
expecting to sow a strip through the whole 
length, to see what its effect will be. Now 
on land that will bear clover, either with¬ 
out or by the help of plaster, perhaps clover¬ 
ing for fertility may be made a success. 
But I am inclining to the suspicion that we 
shall find the difficulty rightin this place— 
that there is much land too unfriendly to 
clover, with or without plaster, to be re¬ 
stored by its use. Any light which more 
experienced readers may be able to shed 
on the subject will no doubt be welcome to 
other tyros in the business as well as to my¬ 
self. 
Strawberries Live or Die this Month. 
Fred. Grundy, Christian County, III. 
—How in the world did the absurd idea 
that August is the best time in the whole 
year to set out strawberry plants ever get 
abroad? I know very well how and why 
this idea is kept alive and kicking from 
year to year, but what great mind origin¬ 
ated it has often puzzled me. Only yester¬ 
day a neighbor came to me and said: 
“Grunny, I want to set out a good patch 
of strawberries for home use, and I have 
been repeatedly told that this is the time to 
do it. Now I want to hear what you ,have 
to say. Is this the proper time or not ?” 
“ Have you ever set out strawberry plants 
at this time of the year ?” 
“No.” 
“ Do you know any person who has ?” 
“Yes, several.” 
“What success did they meet with ?” 
“ Well, they lost every plant, but whether 
that was owing to lack of skill in setting or 
to the season, I am unable to say. A few 
years ago Mr. P. set out 1,000 or 2,000 and 
not one lived a month. And I knew Mr. L 
set out a big lot one wet August, and took 
good care of them, too, but frost heaved 
out all t^iat were not covered with mulch, 
while those that were covered rotted.” 
“Who told you that this is the best 
month to set strawberry plants ?” 
“ Mr. C. and Mr. H. both told me so last 
week.” 
“ Have they plants to sell ?” 
“Yes, and both tried to take my order 
right then, but I told them I guessed I’d 
see you about it first.” 
“ Well Brother A. you can put this fact 
in your hat for future reference. No man 
living in this section who knows anything 
about strawberries ever advised another to 
set out plants at this time of the year 
unless he had plants to sell. There is only 
one time to set strawberry plants in this 
section with any show for success, and that 
time is spring—as early as the soil will 
work mellow.” Brother A. will not set out 
any plants this month, and next spring he 
will forget all about it unless some sharp 
agent jogs his memory and sells him a dozen 
plants of the Wonderful Wnopper for $4. 
This month and next is the critical time 
with new plantations of strawberries. If 
ever they are neglected it is at this particu¬ 
lar time, and just as they are making their 
main growth—preparing for the crop of next 
summer. Neglect now means small berries 
and a short crop next summer. It means 
that the grower will convince himself that 
the old varieties have run out, or that his 
soil is lacking in some “ element ” needed 
by this fruit. 
The chief enemy of the strawberry grower 
just now is “ pussley.” To do battle with 
this uncanny foe is a weariness to the flesh 
while the thermometer calmly indicates 98 
in the shade. Bat the one thing that purs¬ 
lane can’t stand is constant cultivation. 
Shallow and oft-repeated cultivation is sure 
destruction to it. Let it get an inch or two 
high and it has 99 lives. You may hack it 
and chop it and otherwise abuse it one day, 
and the next it will be up and a-coming. In 
the rows—that is matted rows—it is safe 
from the cultivator and hoe; but if the 
plants are strong and vigorous they will 
smother most of It in its infancy, and the 
few roots that do creep up are spindling 
and easily extracted. 
If you want big, luscious berries that 
will astonish your neighbors, tickle your 
vanity and enrapture your stomach, look 
out for the plantation right now. 
High Privates Plenty; Captains 
Scarce. 
I can heartily Indorte what W. F. of 
Wake County, N. C. says in a late RURAL 
on the capacity of men in regard to man¬ 
aging large or small farms. I have noticed 
the difference in the executive abilities of 
different men since, as a mere lad, I went 
into the army. One man could handle a 
company, but could do nothing with a reg¬ 
iment, and so it was up along the different 
grades. There were plenty of good company, 
regimental and brigade commanders, but 
few able to handle an army division or 
corps, and but one “ was ever developed ” 
competent to handle the whole United 
States forces, though, like myself, there 
were plenty who were excellent as high 
privates. With farming, too, those that 
have the “ caliber ”—to use an army phrase 
—to plan and execute, ability to handle 
help to the best advantage, will mount to 
the top, a large number will have to stop at 
the different grades to which their capacity 
is adapted, while the majority must stay 
in the ranks. 
Cultivation Does Make a Mulch. 
E. F. Y., West Camp, N. Y.— With re; 
gard to Mr. Hodgman’s notes on page 562, 
although my experience is limited to a 
small garden patch, I know that the fre¬ 
quent stirring and shallow cultivation of 
surface soil causes a great accumulation 
and retention of moisture for the under¬ 
lying soil and is one of our most efficient 
methods of warding off the fatal effects to 
vegetation during the dry season. My soil 
is a black, clay loam, about 18 inches in 
depth, with a heavy, compact, blue clay 
subsoil; the surface soil, after each rain, 
becomes dry and hard, and if the sun 
shines, a hard, thin crust will form, and if 
allowed to remain in this state, cracks will 
appear an inch or more in width and ex¬ 
tending well down to the subsoil. Now, 
how have I been able to counteract these 
difficulties and secure a crop of vegetables 
and fruits, through the prolonged season 
of drought ? How have I secured a large 
crop of Cuthbert Raspberries and Snyder 
Blackberries, now at their best—great, 
luscious fellows that to day supply our 
table and tickle our palates ? Only by the 
use of a four-tined garden hook and deter¬ 
mined elbow action, that each evening 
scratched over my little garden patch, mel¬ 
lowing the soil and keeping the surface for 
an inch in depth in a veritable ash condi¬ 
tion. It must have been a mulch, for the 
soil below remained damp and moist all 
through the long, dry time. Yes, Mr. 
Hodgman, I am a firm believer in frequent 
and shallow cultivation to bridge over the 
dire effects of drought, this season’s expe¬ 
rience furnishing ample proof of its effi¬ 
cacy. Another thing I have noticed—foot¬ 
prints made in the soil newly stirred at 
evening, would, in the morning, show con¬ 
siderable moisture on the surface; let it 
remain compacted and the sun will soon 
evaporate this moisture, and the soil be¬ 
neath will soon bake hard, while under the 
loose, fine soil the moisture will be re¬ 
tained, thus giving proof of the benefits of 
a mulch of fine, loose surface soil. Rela¬ 
tive to Mr. Hodgman’s fact No. 2, if the 
roadway had a covering of fine dust, which 
would be natural if a dry time, would not 
the same effect be produced that shallow 
cultivation produces in the soil ? I think 
so, and would add it as another proof of the 
beneficial effects of shallow cultivation. 
No Wheat In East Tennessee. 
W. H. A., Thompson, Tenn.—The 
Rural’s report from Chattanooga to the 
effect that the farmers, backed by the Alli¬ 
ance, are holding their wheat for higher 
prices, is entirely without foundation. The 
banks here were short of funds owing to 
large loans to farmers, and did not extend 
their usual favors to the mills. The wheat 
here was fine, but it is a thiug of the past, 
as it was rushed to the sea as fast as cars 
could be had. East and also Middle Ten¬ 
nessee will be compelled to go West for her 
wheat, and the time when she must do this 
can be measured by weeks rather than 
months. 
Is the Cost of Living Lessened? 
F. H., Climax, Mich.— In an editorial in 
The Rural for August 15, in speaking of 
the low price of sugar, the writer closes by 
saying: “ It would be interesting to know 
whether the reduction in cost of sugar to 
consumers will balance the increase in cost 
of some other necessaries of life.” For in¬ 
stance, of what ? I have been looking over 
my own expenses since reading that, and I 
do not find that I am piying any more for 
anything I have to buy, except for farm 
products, than I did before the McKinley 
law went into effect. Groceries, as a whole, 
are cheaper; so are dry goods. I have a 
family of five on a three-acre place on which 
I raise all my own potatoes and garden 
stuff and fruit, and nearly enough hay to 
keep a horse. I buy flour and butter. The 
reduction in the price of the sugar that I 
use in a year is about $12 The increase in 
cost of my flour and butter is aboat $6. So 
far as I am concerned, the cost of living is 
less than it was a year ago. 
Fruit Every Day in the Year. 
G. G. G., Lewisburg, Pa.—M r. C. C. 
Warren of Alabama, has had berries of his 
own raising from April 4th to July 15th. 
Can he supply his table the whole year 
from his own fruit garden t That is the 
point to reach. We in Pennsylvania cin 
do it. We are now in the midst of black¬ 
berries, huckleberries, pears, plums, peaches 
and apples. Grapes appear shortly. The 
apple carries us from the time of grapes to 
strawberries in May. 
First of the 400. 
F. M. W., Washington, Pa.— I mail The 
Rural one of my Four Hundred Tomatoes, 
the exact weight of which is \% pound. I 
consider the Four Hundred one of the most 
prolific as well as one of the earliest of all 
the large tomatoes that I have yet tried. It 
is of fine flavor and solid. It will certainly 
be hard to suggest a name that will do full 
credit to the fruit. 
Those Weak Wheat Stems. 
W. M. S., Clackamas County, Oregon. 
—There are in this section other remedies 
for weakness in wheat stems besides those 
mentioned in The Rural on page 545 One 
is to pasture with sheep or calves. Of 
course they should be taken off while the 
land is wet; but they can graze on it until 
April 1 here, and then a good crop will 
grow and mature on good land. Another 
remedy is the selection of certain varieties: 
it is useless to try to grow a variety with 
naturally weak straw, no matter how big a 
cropper it may be. This year I have seen sev¬ 
eral fields of a variety known as the White 
Winter Mole, that will have to be cut with 
a hand sickle they are so badly lodged. 
We had heavy rains in June and that means 
weak straw. A variety grown here and 
known as the Eaton has stood the test this 
year finely without pasturing—none for 
sale. Another variety which a certain West¬ 
ern seedsman is booming this year is the 
Clawson. I have found it lodged badly 
here, and my favorite, the Eaton, was tried 
in Canada last year and rusted badly, be¬ 
sides being too long In growing for the 
short season there. . 
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