796 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 2 
What They Say. 
Shipper’s Pride Plum. —H. C. W., asks in The R. 
N.-Y. about the Shipper's Pride plum. I planted two 
trees six years ago ; three years later they had two or 
three quite inferior plums. Two years ago, they bore 
heavily of nice fruit, last year they were so heavily 
laden that I had to remove a great many to keep the 
tree from breaking. I sold the crop for 25 cents per 
bushel more than any other variety I had. I have 12 
kinds. I think they are rightly named and wish that 
I had more of them. H. L. b. 
Caro, Mich. 
Hold on to Shippers Pride. —K. C. W., of Massa- 
chusets, inquires about Shippers Pride plum. It is 
one of the many sorts I have fruited. It is large, very 
hardy and productive on my grounds, but slow in 
coming into bearing ; in other words like many other 
plums, it requires age. When I first saw it in Cayuga 
County, its productiveness was such that I was cap^ 
tivated with it; but all plums are more or less capri¬ 
cious in their habits and will notin all cases do equally 
well. Soil and climate are important factors. I would 
advise K. C. W. to give his trees a further test before 
digging them up. 8. D. w. 
Geneva, N. Y. 
The Japanese Climbing Cucumber. —I see in The 
It. N.-Y. of November 4, an article condemning the 
Japanese Climbing cucumber as a first-class humbug. 
With me, it was all that the introducer ever claimed 
for it. It grew finely, clung well to brush and poles, 
bore profusely of long, smooth cucumbers of the best 
quality I ever tasted, and so pronounced by a score of 
others to whom I gave samples for testing. With me 
it is a first-class luxury, and I don’t intend to grow 
any others. I grew mine Indian Tepee fashion. 
Excelsior, Minn. peter m. gideon. 
Plowing Clover Stubble. —Last August, I ran the 
A harrow over some heavy clover and weed stubble, 
taking the direction which the plow would run this 
fall. This, while a great help, did not quite do the 
work to suit my man, and he went over it in the same 
direction with the disc harrow, setting the gauge at 
greatest angle. This last chopped up all the long 
stuff, which would clog under the beam, and enabled 
one to plow with no trouble. w. s. 
Winchester Ky. 
The No. 2 Potato Keeps Well. —There has been 
much said, one way and another, about the merits of 
the Rural No. 2 potato, but I have never seen any 
mention made of its long-keeping qualities. We con¬ 
sider it one of the best for spring use. In the spring 
of 1893, when new potatoes came on we had a few on 
hand that were left in a crate in the wagon shed, and 
were closely covered with a blanket. As we were 
not using them they were not thought of again until 
midsummer, when they were found in good condition 
and but little wilted. I then sprouted the best ones 
and left them in the same place. On September 15 
wife cooked a mess and found them as good in quality 
as in May. We cooked another mess the last week in 
September, and the flavor was still unimpaired. They 
were wilted but were all right after boiling. We 
have formerly found the Rural Blush of good quality 
in July, but I must confess that No. 2 takes the lead 
as a heavy yielder, nearly scab-proof, even in size, of 
extra good quality, and now as a long keeper. 
Sodus, Mich. o B. 
Great Future for Crimson Clover. —I am trying 
to learn more about Crimson clover. I had about one- 
fourth acre in peas and oats, which were cut for hay. 
As soon as the ground was cleared, manure was ap¬ 
plied with a Kemp spreader, the ground was chopped 
with a Cutaway harrow, the surface smoothed with a 
“ Zephaniah Breed weeder and cultivator,” and the 
seed was brushed iD with the same tool. I have a fine 
stand of clover and also considerable oats. I fear the 
oats may smother the clover on a few small spots as 
they are very rank. Where the oats are not too large 
or thick on the ground to injure the clover, they may 
protect it in the winter. I sowed Crimson clover in a 
piece of late sweet corn at the last cultivation. The 
corn stood from 8 to 18 inches in height. The surface 
wts stirred with a narrow tooth cultivator, and 
smoothed and mellowed with Breed’s weeder, and 
the seed brushed in with the weeder, and now 
(November 8) we are using green corn right out of a 
clover field and cutting off the fodder and feeding it 
to the cows. The clover is from three to seven inches 
in height, and so thick that it is like a heavy carpet 
to walk on. Both pieces were sowed in August, but I 
do not know the exact date. I hope it will stand the 
winter all right. I imagine I see big things ahead if 
it does. j. w. d. 
Baden, Pa. 
Where the Champion Quince Dies.— In The Rural 
of November 11th I notice that C. W. K., of Taunton, 
Mass , reports the ripening of the' Champion quince 
in his locality. Here in the Merrimack Valley, we 
do not have it any colder than he mentions, yet with 
me the Champion has to be picked before it has 
colored. I certainly would not risk any more of them 
here and may graft what I have with an earlier kind, 
Orange for instance. Almost any kind of fruit succeeds 
here, especially pears. It was a surprise to me to learn 
that the Kelsey plum could be grown anywhere in 
Massachusetts. If it succeeds in Tauntcn, I think it 
would here. 1 have never seen anything in The 
Rural about the Oreely plum, a large, wine-colored 
fruit, originated in Maine, and sent oat by Gerish. It 
certainly looked fine on paper. j. h. c. 
Bradford, Mass. 
Potato Vinks as a Mulch for Strawberries.—I 
have tried many different materials as a winter mulch 
for the strawberry beds, but find some fault with most 
of them. They are full of weed seeds, pack too closely 
or are too coarse and do not afford sufficient protec¬ 
tion. Something is wanted that will not shut out the 
air, but will keep the ground from thawing every 
warm spell. Last fall, 1892, having a lot of potato 
tops that were very free from weeds, it struck me 
that they would make the best kind of mulch. So I 
had them gathered with a horse rake and, when the 
ground was frozen hard, had them spread six inches 
deep over the beds. After freezing weather was over 
in the spring, I raked them between the rows. I never 
had vines do so well. In the potato vines there is a 
good deal of potash, and they are quite woody, so that 
they keep down the weeds, and, as they rot, they fer¬ 
tilize the plants. I was delighted with the result; such 
a crop of berries I never before raised. The Parker 
Earle, especially, was a sight to see, I have the vines 
again gathered ready for the freeze up. 
_j. s. WOODWARD. 
A TRAP FOR AMMONIA. 
THE GERMANS USE TEAT FOR BAIT. 
The R. N.-Y. has, with a most laudable persistency, 
dwelt upon the immense losses to farmers arising from 
the want of proper care bestowed on barnyard or 
stable manure. I can hardly think of a subject that 
will withstand being tackled more frequently, or one 
that should more urgently be brought home to all 
tillers of the soil that requires feeding. My belief is, 
that all soil that is cropped should receive a replenish¬ 
ment of its forces, no matter what its strength be, be¬ 
cause the using up of this strength is simply a theft 
and a robbery committed against coming generations, 
albeit sanctioned now by our perverse and immoral 
ideas on private ownership of land. Here in Germany, 
where mortgages are weighing heavily on the entire 
farming population, and the most sanguine estimates 
predict an absolute collapse, a certain degradation to 
beggary, for all farmers inside of the next fifty years, 
it has been calculated by the best authorities that the 
annual waste and loss of ammonia'through the neglect 
of the farmer would go a long way towards paying in¬ 
terest and principal, and give a new lease of life to 
the entire class, thereby opening a way towards the 
solution of our social problems, whose sole source and 
origin is the misuse of the soil. 
1 should judge the ability of every farmer by the 
way he handles the mainstay of the farm ; the manure 
produced by the farm animals. Straw is used and has 
been used by the great majority of farmers as bedding 
for all classes of stock ; and in many districts grain is 
grown merely because the straw is absolutely wanted 
for bedding ; but this is quite a losing business, because 
the value of the straw as a food is about $10 a ton, 
while as an absorbent in the bedding, and as a manure 
in itself it can be rated at only $2 per ton. To quit 
growing grain, which, to a considerable extent, has 
become unprofitable here as well as in your Eastern 
States, is occupying the mind of many a farmer. 
Summer grain, oats and barley excepted, which are 
indispensable either as a feed for the horses or for the 
shelter of young clover, the cultivation of wheat and 
rye would be greatly reduced if a suitable substitute 
for bedding could be furnished. Sand, dry earth, pine 
tree twigs and forest leaves are being used in different 
localities, but all these make very poor substitutes for 
straw, as they are very inferior absorbents and very 
poor in humus matter, consequently also poor retainers 
of ammonia. Several years ago experiments were 
made with dried moss peat and it was found that it 
could be used to great advantage in the place of 
straw, yet it was but slowly that farmers could be 
convinced that this hitherto valueless stuff which is 
found in considerable tracts all over the country where 
it has previously been considered of no value whatso¬ 
ever and its existence as a drawback.to every farm, 
should be called upon to revolutionize old-established 
usages and to be suddenly considered of immense value 
as a regular mine of plant food and an unrivaled 
absorbent of ammonia. It will absorb three times the 
weight of liquid droppings that the best straw will, 
and as a producer of humus it also gives the soil, 
weight for weight, three times the amount of humus 
that straw' does. Its application is attended with less 
trouble and the manure is in better shape and can be 
handled immediately and spread by means of a shovel 
if required, as finely as one could spread sand or earth 
enabling its use as winter top-dressing where straw 
manure would not do. I use this peat bedding for 
cattle, horses and pigs at the rate of five pounds a day 
for every full-grown animal and find that they are 
more easily kept clean than by the most liberal allow¬ 
ance of straw. Besides, this peat has valuable hygienic 
properties, no bacteria being able to live in it.—[? Eds ] 
The first step necessary to bring a peat bog into use¬ 
ful condition is its drainage, which should at once be 
laid to the very lowest level of the peat; a network of 
ditches should then be cut in the bog, which is gener¬ 
ally most tenacious in holding its water. The main 
drain should be governed by a gate or sluice, so that 
the bog can be kept moist during the season one in¬ 
tends doing the cutting or digging of peat, as it does 
not cut easily when dry and would also be too much 
exposed, to be fired and burned out if it becomes too 
dry. I cut the peat with a common square-edged 
spade kept perfectly sharp, in chunks about 15 inches 
long by 8 inches broad and 3 to 4 inches thick, which 
are carted away in a hand-cart as fast as pitched out 
of the ditch, to be spread on the ground on both sides 
of the ditch for a distance of 20 yards. The best time 
to do this is late autumn ; the chunks are then frozen 
in winter, which tends to loosen their structure and 
facilitates their subsequent drying. In spring or 
early summer they may be turned to hasten this pro¬ 
cess, although this is not absolutely necessary. At 
home, they are dumped into a shed until used, when 
they pass through a grinding mill, a kind of gin, that 
has two iron cylinders running towards each other at 
different speeds, studded with 1^-inch steel fingers. 
This mill can be operated by hand or by horse power. 
The peat comes out in a mass of exquisite softness and 
is ready for use. The manure from my cows and 
horses is dumped into a large stall in the same stable 
occupied by a number of young cattle running loose, 
and is there trodden down to a compact mass to be 
carted out every month or six weeks. 
I keep no manure whatsoever in the open air Not 
a drop of liquid manure has ever found its way out of 
this stable, whose floor is cement concrete, into the 
manure cistern ; in fact, the gutters in the stable be¬ 
hind the animals are perfectly dry, and the absolute 
absence of stable smell is a proof that the peat is an 
effective trap for ammonia. This manure is so strong 
that it has to be used very sparingly for all cereals or 
they will lodge badly. Hundreds of thousands of 
tons of this peat bedding are now annually turned 
out in Holland and different parts of Germany—prin¬ 
cipally Bavaria, pressed in bales of about 300 pounds 
each, and the supply has this year not been equal to 
the demand, a 10-ton car-load selling now for about 
$60 at the peat works. I send The Rural a few sam¬ 
ples of peat for the benefit of such as would desire to 
compare them with material they may have at their 
disposal. j. F . sarg. 
Hessenhof, Germany. 
R. N.-Y.—The samples sent are quite different from 
the ordinary “ muck ” that is found on many of our 
farms. They are soft and fibrous and ought to make 
an excellent absorbent. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of the 
writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please see if it is 
not answered in our advertising columns. A6k only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
THE VALUE OF AN ACRE OF FRUIT. 
J. J., Toronto, Out —1. What is the value of an acre 
of apple orchard, including the land, of the following 
varieties: summer—Early Harvest, Red Astrachan, 
Sweet Bough; autumn—Alexander, Duchess of Olden¬ 
burg, Fall Pippin, Gravenstein, Maiden’s Blush, Fall 
Jenneting; winter—Baldwin, Golden Russet, Rox- 
bury Russet, King, Newtown Pippin, Northern Spy, 
Rhode Island Greening, Talman Sweet, Esopus Spitz- 
enburg ? The orchard has been planted 25 years, is 
in full bearing and thrifty. 2. What is the value of 
an acre of Cuthbert and Marlboro raspberries, planted 
four years, healthy and in a high state of cultivation? 
3. What is the value of an acre of strawberries the 
second year after planting, of the following varieties: 
Wilson, Bubach, Gandy, Haverland, Lovett’s Early, 
Shuster’s Gem, Warfield, Parry, Sharpless, Michel's 
Early, Parker Eirle, Miami, Cumberland Triumph, all 
in a high state of cultivation ? 
Ans —The R. N.-Y. does not feel competent to 
answer this question. The following answers are 
sent us by experts: 
1. The value of an acre of apple orchard with land 
in Canada I do not know. If the orchard is on suit- 
