1893 
89 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
POINTS AND PICKINGS. 
From, the recent meeting of the Western New York 
Horticultural Society. 
This was what we must call a successful meeting ! 
In attendance it was simply phenomenal, the large 
hall being filled to its utmost capacity almost all the 
time. The papers were listened to with more than 
usual interest, and the discussions entered into with 
more spirit than ever before. A large measure of this 
success was undoubtedly due to just one little innova¬ 
tion. The proposition to make it came from the prac¬ 
tical S. D. Willard. The reading of the county reports 
in former meetings always consumed the lion’s share 
of the time. These are valuable. Some of them, as 
read or sent in formerly by the late Major Hugh 
Brooks, the veteran J. J. Thomas and a few others, 
were as instructive and entertaining as any papers 
ever presented to a horticultural society; but the great 
majority consist chiefly of dry statistical materials, a 
review of the last fruit crop, and perhaps a recital of 
hopes and disappointments. These things may be of 
great value for future reference ; but nothing of this 
value is lost if they are simply incorporated in the 
annual report without being read before the meeting. 
Like frozen meat, they will keep. What the listening 
members desire are the practical points which come 
fresh and steaming-hot from the fire of informal talks 
and spirited discussions, and practical suggestions in 
methods of culture and marketing, fighting insects 
and fungi, and in the selection of varieties. That is 
about all; the more of these practical points and the 
less of cold, stale figures and ordinary routine matter 
are brought out, the more successful will be the meet¬ 
ing. Horticultural societies often make sad mistakes 
in these respects, and can find much to learn from this 
gratifying little experience with the county reports in 
Rochester. Every hour given up to the reading of 
anything not strictly practical, deprives the society of 
an hour’s chance of picking up practical points, that 
can and will be remembered, during a lively discus¬ 
sion. 
The society was also especially fortunate in the 
quality of the papers which were presented during 
this session, and which always have to serve as a basis 
for discussion. Good judgment and editorial tact are 
in no small measure required in the solicitation of 
papers and the choice of subjects. It might be a de¬ 
sirable, and often is a sadly needed innovation to have 
all the papers to be read at any of these meetings 
handed previously to a good editor for the free 
exercise of editorial privileges. Talks are often still 
preferable to papers, especially when the former are 
of a quality like those of J. H. Hale, of Connecticut. 
They, more than formal essays, bring fresh, pulsating 
life into the proceedings, and serve to stimulate free 
discussion. 
A Prosperous Society. 
For a society without a State subsidy, and which 
has had to pass through a long period of chronic 
struggles in the attempt to bring its income up to its 
necessary expenses, the Western New Yorker is doing 
pretty well. The unusually large attendance has 
given an unusually large increase in paid-up member¬ 
ship. The income from this source, together with 
the cash prizes won by the society for fruit exhibits at 
the State Fair, seem to keep the treasury reasonably 
well supplied. The calls for new members were less 
frequent and frantic, and extra appeals to the gener¬ 
osity of officers and others were entirely absent. In 
other respects the society is favored as hardly any 
other horticultural society is. Look over the list of 
officers and members of committees ! Note the names 
of the essayists and of the participants in the discus¬ 
sions ! What an array of talent and intellectual ma¬ 
terial ! Scientists from the stations and the Depart¬ 
ment in Washington; the cream of the Eastern nursery 
trade ; the most successful of the fruit-growers of the 
great and dense fruit districts of the State ! No won¬ 
der the Western New York Horticultural Society is 
looked to as the foremost of its kind. 
The Officers. —The following are chosen to manage 
the society’s affairs for the current year : President, 
W. C. Barry, Rochester ; Vice-presidents, S. D. Wil¬ 
lard, Geneva, W. R. Smith, Syracuse, G. 0. Sevest, 
Dansville, C. L. Hoag, Lockport; Secretary and Treas¬ 
urer, John Hall, Lockport; Executive Committee, 
C. M. Hooker, Rochester, C. W. Stuart, Newark, Nelson 
Bogue, Batavia, E. A. Powell, Syracuse, H. S. Wiley, 
Cayuga. 
The Spraying Problem. 
The question, “ Does Spraying Pay?” was of course 
touched upon quite frequently during the proceedings. 
Pres. Barry, in his excellent annual address, stated 
that the year’s results, while not up to expectations, 
had proved the merit of the operation. Later on 
Prof. S. A. Beach of the State Experiment Station at 
Geneva, read a paper on spraying for plant diseases, 
and a lengthy discussion followed. As usual, the de¬ 
ductions of the scientific gentlemen are flattering, 
encouraging, and hope-inspiring; but Pres. Barry 
stated the case very mildly, indeed, when saying that 
“the (practical) results had not been up to expecta¬ 
tions.” At least the practical fruit growers assembled 
in the hall by hundreds, failed to come to the support 
of the scientific essayists with examples of fruit crops 
saved by spraying in this year of general failure of 
some kinds of fruit. The whole drift of the discus¬ 
sions should warn us against setting our hopes too 
high. Spraying thus far has proved only a partial 
and often unsatisfactory means of fighting the enemies 
which destroy our crops. Perhaps we have not yet 
found the most effective remedies. The Bordeaux 
Mixture and the ammoniacal solution of copper car¬ 
bonate are yet generally recommended as fungicides. 
Prof. Beach says the diluted Bordeaux Mixture is just 
as good as that in full strength, and combines well 
with Paris-green or London-purple, and it will not 
injure the foliage. The following is a simplified 
formula : Dissolve the copper sulphate in water ; 
slake the lime and strain through burlap into the 
copper solution. Keep stirring, and occasionally add 
a few drops of ferrocyanide of potassium. When color 
ceases to change to brown, enough lime has been added 
Then dilute with the proper amount of water. Keep 
stirring the mixture while applying it. Most manu¬ 
facturers now sell agitators with their machines. The 
true Vermorel nozzle works better for applying Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture than any of its modifications. The 
expense of the treatment for apple-scab is from 15 to 
25 cents per tree for the whole season, according to 
man and season. Spraying should be used as a preven¬ 
tive. Early treatment is most important. There 
should be two applications before the blossoms open, 
and another, with Paris green added to the mixture, 
just when the blossoms fall. 
A valuable suggestion came from Prof. L. H. Bailey, 
who emphasized the importance not only of early 
treatment, but also of treatment whether there is a 
crop of fruit or not. The applications should be 
thorough, year after year, in order to wipe out the 
disease. 
Mr. Lodeman, of Cornell University Station, spoke 
of the connection between pruning and spraying. If 
attention is not paid to the proper pruning, numerous 
branches will be found standing in the way of the 
spray. We must open the tree. It costs time and 
money to spray superfluous branches. 
Mr. Slinger says that the bud moth makes its ap¬ 
pearance when the leaves are just opening. We might 
hit this enemy by adding Paris-green to the first ap¬ 
plication for scab. 
President Barry, in his annual address also spoke of 
spraying with arsenites for the plum curculio, and 
thinks that it is not a success. We must still resort to 
the old jarring process. In this he was contradicted 
both by other practical fruit growers and by scien¬ 
tists. The diluted Bordeaux Mixture, with Paris- 
green added, can be applied to plum trees as well as 
to pears, apples, etc., without fear of hurting the 
foliage, and it will kill many of the beetles. 
Phosphate or Basic Slag. 
Prof. G. C. Caldwell, of Cornell University, in his re¬ 
port on chemistry, had singled out the subject of 
“basic slag” for his text. He thinks it is coming to 
the front as an important source of phosphoric acid, 
which in this form is nearly as readily available as 
reverted phosphoric acid, which again is worth nearly 
as much as the soluble acid. Basic slag is a waste 
product of the manufacture of steel. Most of the iron 
ores in this country are too rich in phosphoric acid to 
be worked up by the old process. The phosphoric 
acid all goes into the slag, and some of this waste con¬ 
tains as much as 30 per cent of phosphoric acid. The 
fertilizer men cannot make use of it because it con¬ 
tains too much iron. Its use, however, is rapidly in¬ 
creasing. No trade value has as yet been placed upon 
phosphoric acid in slag, but Dr. Caldwell evidently 
thinks it ought to be rated nearly as high as the re¬ 
verted, namely at seven cents a pound. 
A member present also spoke in high terms of basic 
slag, glibly giving the whole process of manufacture, 
etc.; but soon, and amid great general merriment, gave 
himself away as a party formerly (and possibly still) 
interested in the sale of the article. Dr. Caldwell’s 
standing, of course, protected him against any suspi¬ 
cion of being in any way interested in the article 
otherwise than from the standpoint of an agricultural 
chemist, but while it was found that the article had 
given good results in some cases, many of the experi¬ 
menting fruit-growers, among them Mr. J. H. Hale, 
who also had given the basic slag a trial—seemed to 
think that Dr. Caldwell’s paper rather unduly boomed 
the new and little tested fertilizer. They thought 
that it should not be recommended in such general 
way until after its value has been proved by further 
tests. The writer is rather inclined to take Dr. 
Caldwell’s side of the question. In his (the writer’s) 
field experiments, in which acid phosphate and basic 
slag were used side by side, the results were no less 
wonderful and immediate from the slag than they 
were from the acid phosphate, and it seems quite safe 
to say that the phosphoric acid in slag is at least in a 
reasonably available form. Dr. Caldwell conceded 
that it was rather slow of action, and, if possible, 
should be applied for spring crops in the fall. It 
might be applied in large doses, to be drawn upon by 
plants, according to their needs, covering a period 
of years. (To he Continued.) g. R. 
HOARD'S HUMOR. 
“I am bound to bo understood,” as Deacon Brown said when he 
called tho man a liar. The 350-pound cow Is the outcomo of thought 
and study. Betwoen her and her 150-pound sister lies the Alpha and 
Omega of dairying. 
Everything rests on the shoulders of the averago man. Civiliza¬ 
tion demands that you and I do our best, both for ourselves and the 
public. What were the luxuries of tho rich In my youth are to-day 
the necessities of the poor. 
No single thing has so modified and reformed the practices of the 
dairyman of to-day as the Babcock tester. 
IF there Is a refuge on earth for a stink, It Is In cream. 
If Intellect Is needed anywhere, It Is In the farm house. 
There Is no trick about learning the laws of banking, and It Is not 
dltllcult to bocome a lawyer. The Intellect of the average lawyer 
demonstrates this. But when we attempt to Interpret tho laws of God 
we must be more than a lawyer or banker, and the cow Is Ills creation 
The error of our lives, not tho truth, costs us the struggle. Tho 
stamping mill expends Its gigantic force to reduce tho rock that the 
particles of gold may be obtained. 
IT Is the small but earnest beginning that succeeds. Bowaro of the 
too auspicious launch. Many a proud ship, over whose graceful prow 
the choicest wine has been poured at launching, has gone down In 
Irretrievable ruin because lacking some ossontlal qualification In her 
build. 
Breeding Is everything. When Phil Sheridan bestrode a horse 
able to put 20 miles behind him In an hour, he was well mounted. 
Where, I ask you, would tho country be to-day If he had straddled a 
Clydesdale ? The thousand years of breeding behind that steed made 
him forge on to victory. We must breed for a purpose. Were I to 
breed statesmen, I would choose men of Intellect, yes, and women, 
too, to stato the matter clearly. 
Stanchions were made for man and not for cows. If we would make 
tho most from our dairy stock, we must build the stable for their com¬ 
fort more than for our own convenience. 
Gov. Hoard before Connecticut Dairymen. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
A professor In Salem, Mass,, is said to have built a house with all 
Its rooms fronting southward, and only a passage on the north. 
Almost all of the southern front of tho house Is made of glass, and 
by means of reflectors, ho Is enabled on sunny days to heat his whole 
house on sunshine alone. At night and on cloudy days ho has hoarth 
fires going. He believes that by this contrivance he has the most 
wholesome heat attainable. 
Prick of New Jersey Mii.k.—O n page 884 of TnK Rural for 1892, 
we are told that the price of milk for November and December was 
four cents per quart, shippers paying the freight. This Is a mistake 
as the price was 4 % cents per quart, shippers paying tho freight, so 
that It netted the producer four cents. The price for January Is also 
fixed at 4>^ cents per quart, but 1 think It Is a mistake, for, In view of 
the usual Increase at this time of the year, the high prlco Is bound to 
give the Dalrv Association a heavy surplus to carry. E. n. a. 
Salem. N. J. 
A Gray-haired Mower.—I have a Buckeye combined mower and 
reaper which was bought In the summer of 18(54, by Robert Waters of 
Flatbush, L. I., and It has been In use every season since, and has cut 
from 100 to 300 acres a year. I bought It of Mr. Waters six years ago 
for use on the highway, and found It In such good running order that 
l have used It to do my own mowing and also some for my neighbors. 
The wheels, axle and frame and all the driving gear are the same that 
were originally bought by Mr. Waters. The guards, pitman and knife 
bar have been renewed. h. H. w. 
About The R. N.-Y.—I am an old reader of The Rural, and this 
Is my second year with American Gaudening. I think my last dollar 
would have to be spent before parting with either, but when the 
managers begin to give two dollars’ worth for one dollar, the paper’s 
course will soon be run. But If we get a half fare price and whole 
fare food, then the greater am I the debtor. thos. hood. 
R. N.-Y.—When the paper begins to fall In Interest or value, wo hope 
our friends will notify us. 
This Is my 10th year with The Rural, and I find that each succeed¬ 
ing year Is an improvement on the last. It Is almost perfect now. 
President South Dakota Horticultural Society. h. c. Warner. 
R. N.-Y.—Our ambition Is to get rid of a largo proportion of that 
"almost.” 
Tough Hemlock Shingles.— Among the Brevities of the Issue of 
January 26 is the following: "The State of Oregon will send to 
the World’s Fair some cedar shingles, etc., etc,” the point made 
being the great durability of the wood. Now. I am In possession of a 
barn roof made of hemlock shingles from green timber in February, 
1838, and laid the following spring on a roof of one-third pitch. They 
were laid on what we call lath 1x3 Inches, six Inches to the weather, 
leaving a space three Inches between the sheeting and the roof. The 
shingles are doing good service yet. I think there are two causes for 
their durability: First they were made from green timber In February; 
second, being laid on lath, the air had free circulation through them. 
In my experience of over 50 years, I know of only very few shingle 
roofs that have worn out, for In almost all cases they rot out, because 
they are laid on a closely sheeted roof of too straight a pitch. 
Sullivan County, N. Y. b. w. Gregory. 
Profit from a Trust.— An Indication was given here last Wednes¬ 
day of tho enormous profits of trusts and of those who speculate In 
their certificates with “ Inside ” knowledge of their operations. The 
Cordage Trust, organized In 1890 with a capitalization of $15,000,000 
and an actual capital of probably half that amount, has controlled the 
output and price of cordage, Including btndlng twine, throughout 
the country. It Is protected from foreign competition by a duty of 
seven-tenths of a cent per pound on binding twine, 1\i cents per pound 
on other twines and hemp cables and cordage and \)4 cent a pound on 
other kinds of the latter. During the past season there has been enor¬ 
mous speculations in the stock and products of the organization, In 
which S. V. White and some associates have taken a prominent 
part. Last Wednesday White distributed among the coterie $1,370,000 
as the result of his operations In their behalf, leaving assets belong¬ 
ing to the combination worth $1,200,000, making the total profits In a 
few months $2,t>00,0001 Remember these were the profits of only a 
single clique whose Investments were manipulated by a shrewd old 
speculator who had the experience acquired by the loss of over 
$5,000,000 and the recapture of nearly aB much on the Stock Exchange. 
