1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
297 
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seven of potash. For strawberries, you cannot do 
better than to apply wood ashes and bone as explained 
on page 235. Tne wood ashes at five cents a bushel 
are the cheapest source of potash you can buy. As a 
rule, it is not satisfactory to buy a low-grade fertilizer 
and try to improve it by adding the needed elements 
—unless you are in a position to buy these elements at 
a very low rate. 
Where Free Rural Mail Delivery Stands. 
D. E.2., Sclplo, Mich. —Where, to what extent and 
with what results did Ex-Postmaster General Wana- 
maker try free delivery of mail matter in rural dis¬ 
tricts ? Where tried, has the amount of mail matter 
increased ? Is there likely to be a deficiency in the 
Post Otfiee Department this year, and how much 
approximately ? 
Ans,—E x-Postmaster General Wanamaker states 
that he spent $10,000 in testing the plan in 46 com¬ 
munities. The results were that in the majority of 
cases the mails and revenues increased and the busi¬ 
ness at the post ofiices became so much larger that 
private arrangements were made to have the service 
continued when it became evident that the present 
Administration would not continue it. As to the 
present state of the case, the following letters will ex¬ 
plain : 
while in bloom, they might succeed nearly or quite as 
far North as latitude 40 degrees. 4. I have had several 
of the named Russian varieties on trial since 1888, 
with an abundance of bloom and vigorous growth, 
but no fruit; while most of the older trees are either 
dying or already dead. 5. The apricot blossoms very 
early, and although the lake shore climate somewhat 
delays their bloom, it is open, nevertheless, quite too 
early for the kind of weather most favorable for the 
setting and development of the fruit. In this latitude, 
even in the most favorable localities, some degree of 
protection will probably prove beneficial; although, 
as in the case of most plants, age may be expected to 
improve their hardiness. t. t. lyon. 
TO PLANT OR TRANSPLANT CABBAGE. 
Which Is the better way to sow cabbage seed, directly In the Held 
where It Is to grow, or sow In beds and transplant! 
Objections to Planting. 
The objection to sowing cabbage seed in hills is 
the length of time one has to cultivate the whole 
field before the plants reach the size of those raised in 
a bed with one-tenth of the labor. There are about 80 
acres of cabbage grown near this town. Nearly all the 
late grown is the Danish Round Dead, medium size, 
very hard, and is the best shipper there is. We mark 
out the ground 28 x 28 inches for the Round Danish. 
Larger kinds should be 25x 30. I shall grow Round 
Danish 18 x27 inches this year. J. siupson. 
Why, and When I Transplant. 
There are several reasons why I prefer to sow cab¬ 
bage seed in a bed and transplant afterwards. The 
seed bed can be made very fertile, and the plants 
pushed right along without so much risk from flea 
beetles as if sowed in scattered hills in the fields. The 
labor is much less, and a seed bed can be prepared at 
times when it would be impossible to prepare and sow 
a large field. By selecting a warm, rich place for a 
seed bed all time lost by transplanting can be easily 
made up. I have all I can do in the catching weather 
of April and early May without manuring and prepar¬ 
ing a cabbage field that is not to be used until a month 
or more later. By a system of double transplanting, 
there need be no loss in the final setting of the field. 
Pull the plants at evening and place them in halves of 
soap boxes, thinly in rows with fine rich earth be¬ 
tween, about 100 to a box. Set the box in the shade 
of a bush and water thoroughly. Keep them watered 
and in two or three days there will be a multitude of 
little white feeding roots, which will cling to the 
earth and make it possible to reset the plants in the 
field without loss from wilting, and check in growth. 
Treated in this way, the transplanting may occupy a 
week and no extra hands be needed to take advantage 
of a specially favorable day.The favorable day may 
also be waited for as the heeled in plants do not 
suffer as plants do simply kept wet without soil among 
the roots. All kinds of vegetable plants may be 
treated in the same way, and also raspberry tips and 
strawberry plants. The berry plants, however, should 
be heeled in in the ground. Carefully put in, they may 
be kept six weeks or two months and then planted in 
permanent form without loss of time or plants 
I.. B. PIEKCE. 
Put Them To Bed First. 
I would most certainly sow the seeds in a carefully 
prepared bed, and then transplant to the field when 
the plants are large enough, using only the best and 
most perfectly developed plants for transplanting. I 
believe that such fine seed as cabbage seed, sown in a 
carefully prepared bed, has far more desirable oppor¬ 
tunities for making the best and quickest growth over 
the same seed sown in a field, as fields are ordinarily 
prepared for the cabbage or any other hoed crop. 
The second reason why I prefer planting the cabbage 
seed in beds and transplanting tne plants is, that all 
of the large and successful cabbage growers of my ac¬ 
quaintance do that way; in fact, I have never yet 
seen a crop of cabbage grown by sowing the seeds in 
a hill and then thinning. edw. f. dibble. 
To Nurse Baby Carman Potatoes. 
L. J. C., Baldwinsvllle, N. Y .— The potato The R. 
N.-Y. sent began to rot in the winter, and I planted it 
in a 12-quart pail of earth. It is ripe now, and I have 
three potatoes about the size of large peas. How can 
I cure them so they will grow this summer ? 
Ans. —Place them in the sun and light until they 
begin to sprout. Then plant them in pots until they 
make a growth. Then carefully remove to the open. 
Growing: Beans on Shares. 
M. C. M., Williamsport., Pa .— How are beans gener¬ 
ally grown on shares ? I mean Marrowfats or field 
beans. What share should the land owner receive ? 
Ans. —Throughout western New York, where beans 
are grown very largely, in fact more in four counties 
than in the rest of the United States, many hundred 
acres are grown on shares. The land owner furnishes 
one-half the seed and fertilizer, if fertilizer be used. 
The tenant does all the work, plowing the soil, fitting 
and planting, harvesting and thrashing, furnishes 
one-half the seed and fertilizer, and markets the en¬ 
tire crop. On the Genesee flats, where it is not an un¬ 
common sight to see from 100 to 300 acres of beans in 
one field, the land is rented outright by the owners in 
from 10 to 50-acre tracts, each at a certain fixed price 
per acre. In that case, of course, the tenant runs all 
the risk and has to pay his rental anyway. 
EDWABD F. DIBBLE. 
Buffalo Tree-Hopper on Apples. 
JT. M. R., Muscotah, Kansas. —I send a section of a 
limb from an apple tree which is infested with some 
insect. You will find clusters of eggs in the punctures. 
I have an orchard of 60 acres, containing 2,400 trees 
and most of them are infested with this insect. What 
is it and what will destroy them ? Many of the trees 
are large enough to bear, and are quite full of blossom 
buds. 
Ans —The section of apple branch was literally 
covered with the egg-scars of the Buffalo Tree-hopper 
(Ceresa bubalus). I never saw so many scars on so 
small an area. Many of the scars look as though the 
point of a large knife blade had been forced through 
and slightly under the bark ; others are oval or circular 
in shape. The natural growth of the bark has in each 
case caused a slight spreading, thickening, and eleva¬ 
tion of the bark at the slits. If the bark be carefully 
cut from around these scars, one, or more often two, 
rows of six or eight eggs will be revealed stuck in a 
slanting direction through the bark and even extend¬ 
ing into the woody portion of the branch. These 
eggs are thus neatly put into the slits late in the sum¬ 
mer or early fall by a curious yellowish green insect 
about one-third of an inch long and 
very strikingly resembling a beech¬ 
nut in shape. If one should look 
upon the insect from above, it would 
present the appearance shown at b, 
Fig. 85. At a the little creature is 
looking straight at you in his quaint, 
wise way; the figures are about 
twice as large as the insect itself. 
This insect obtains its food by suck¬ 
ing it through a long, sharp beak 
with which it punctures the bark of 
tender twigs. The scars are made 
by the female with her long sharp 
ovipositor. This insect and its near relatives are called 
Tree-hoppers because they are good leapers and live 
mostly on trees or bushes. The popular name of this 
species refers to the side projections of the body near 
the head which suggest the horns of a buffalo. The 
insect rarely occurs in sufficient numbers to do much 
harm. Most of the injury is done in the laying of 
its eggs in the upper parts of the twigs of apple, 
pear, maple, and other fruit and shade trees. The 
slits are sometimes so numerous as to cause the death 
of the branch, and often the symmetry of branches or 
even the whole of young trees is seriously marred. 
The eggs hatch in May. The recently-hatched nymphs 
resemble the adults in shape and color, but have large 
spines projecting from each segment of the body. 
These nymphs go about sucking the juices from dif¬ 
ferent parts of a tree, and as they increase in size, 
from time to time their skin is shed. Late in the sum¬ 
mer they attain full growth and egg-laying begins. 
There is but one brood during the season. As this in¬ 
sect sucks its food, as it feeds on such a variety of 
plants, and as its eggs are so well protected, it will be 
a difficult pest to fight. The only practicable methods 
that have been recommended are to cut out and burn, 
where practicable, the branches containing the eggs 
early in the spring (before May 1); or to spray the 
tree with kerosene emulsion diluted with 9 or 10 parts 
of water, not later than June 1, or as soon as the 
nymphs are seen to be emerging from the eggs. 
M. V. SLINGEBLAND. 
Makins: Up a Fertilizer. 
A. B. S., {No Address). —I can buy a potato fertilizer 
with a guaranteed analysis of ammonia, 3 to 4 per 
cent; available phosphoric acid, 7 to 9 per cent; sul¬ 
phate of potash, 4 to 5 per cent, delivered here at 
$27.50 per ton. I can have potash added at $1.25 for 
each per cent or can get sulphate of potash, 50 per 
cent potash, at $3 per 100 pounds. Which addition 
would be best to make, to buy sulphate of potash and 
add it or have it added at the price named ? The 
sellers guarantee all to be first-class materials. What 
is the best analysis of a fertilizer for truck and straw¬ 
berries ? I can buy all the unleached hard-wood ashes 
that I can use, at five cents per bushel. Is it best to 
mix these with fertilizer at the time of sowing ? 
Ans.—W e do not fully understand whether the $1.25 
means the cost of each added per cent of potash or of 
sulphate of potash. We advise you to get the sulphate 
and add 150 pounds to each ton of fertilizer. For 
forcing early truck, we want a fertilizer averaging 
five per cent nitrogen, nine of phosphoric acid and 
EniroKS KuttAL Nbw-youkbr : 
Tne PoHtmaster General has nod deemeel It expedient to undertake 
to experiment with Iree mall delivery lor rural districts durloK this 
year, on account of the very small amount that CooKresH allowed to be 
used oiu of the free delivery appropriation for this purpose. ConKress 
has not yet passed the Post Oillce Appropriation Bill and lain not pre¬ 
pared to say whether it has made any other appropriation for Introduc- 
ln,( the free mall delivery In rural districts or experlmentlnK tnerewlth. 
Very respectfully, Frank 11. Jonbs. 
First Assistant Postmaster General. 
Editors Uurai. Nkw-Yorkkr : 
1 bOK leave to inform you tnat Irom the audited returns of postal 
business from all postotlices durlnx the two quarters ending Decem¬ 
ber 81,1898, and estimates made showing the business of the two suo- 
ceeding quarters—ending .Tune 3J, 1894—theie will be a very large 
dellolt In tne postal revenue of the tlscal year. What the amount will 
be cannot be positively stated. Yours very respectfully, 
Madison Davis, 
Acting Third Assistant Postmaster General. 
Stockyard Manure or Fertilizers P 
0. C. H., Buchanan, Mich .—I live 90 miles from 
Chicago. I can get the manure from the stockyards 
at a certain price. The manure is from fat animals, 
fed on grain with a small proportion of hay and litter. 
This manure is carted out and put in piles 10 feet in 
depth, and has been exposed to the rain for two or 
three years. 1 would have to draw it, on an average, 
1% mile from the depOt. 1. Can the fertility of the 
soil be kept up (considering the present and the 
future) by commercial fertilizers as well as by barn¬ 
yard manure ? 2. Wfiat can 1 afford to pay per ton 
for such manure delivered at my depot, as compared 
with commercial fertilizers ? 3. The manure from the 
stockyards, and commercial fertilizers being of equal 
fertilizing and money value, which would The R. 
N.-Y. prefer to use ? 
Guano and Potash for Potatoes. 
O. A. J., Fair ±Caven, N. Y .—Would guano phosphate 
ana kainit mixed, be a good fertilizer for potatoes, or 
does guano contain suificient phosphate and potash? 
In what proportion should they be mixed ? 
Ans.—A good specimen of Peruvian guano is strong 
in nitrogen ana pnosphoric acid, and weak in potash. 
Kainit is not a good form of potash to use for potatoes 
and the guano alone contains too much nitrogen. 
This is not an economical mixture. A mixture of 80U 
pounds guano, 250 pounds muriate or sulphate of 
potash, 200 of dissolved bone black, and 750 of plaster 
or good soil would make a ton of fair potato fertilizer. 
Ans —We have submitted this question to a number 
of good farmers and scientific men. In a general 
way, we answer as follows. This is a very important 
matter and we hope to see it discussed at length. 1. 
Not with fertilizers alone except in a careful rotation 
which gives at least two years in grass so that a heavy 
sod may be plowed under. Otherwise the soil may 
become deficient in humus. With a rotation like the 
following—grass, corn, potatoes, wheat and back to 
grass—the fertilizers put on potatoes will probably 
give better average results than the manure. In this 
rotation, of course, all the home supplies of manure 
would be put on the sod to be plowed under for corn. 
2. It will depend entirely upon the analysis of the 
manure. In a case of tnis kind it will pay very well 
to have a sample of the manure analyzed for compari- » 
son with the fertilizer. We woula not attempt to 
guess at it or take any “ average” analysis. In the 
manurial experiments made at Cornell, values were 
calculated as follows: Nitrogen, 15 cents a pound; 
phosphoric acid, 6 cents, and potash, 4>^ cents. Figure 
the value of the manure at these prices and compare 
that value with tne cost and also with the prices of 
the fertilizers. 3. It would depend very largely on 
the crops to be grown and the soil. We woula not 
use manure on potatoes except on very light and 
sandy soil and then we would broadcast it in the fan 
and plow in. On strawberries for a winter covering 
or on garden truck, some manure would pay. Witn 
every ton of good manure we would use 75 pounds of 
a good superphosphate and 50 pounds of muriate of 
potash. This would make an excellent dressing for 
garden truck. In fact, however cheap manure can 
be bought, it is always economical to use phosphoric 
acid and potash with it. Farther details on this 
question will come in the discussion. 
