488 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August' 4 
The question is not how, or how much, fruit can be 
produced in these great valleys ; for the orchards and 
vineyards which are so superior to any which I have 
ever seen in this or any other country, make it evident 
that the orchardists have learned how. A very little 
computation reveals the fact that cne-half of the land 
suited to fruit in these great ancient ocean beds, would 
suffice to produce all the fruit of the kinds now raised, 
to furnish a liberal supply for the entire civilized 
world. The great unsolved question is, where can a 
market be found, and how can it be reached, without 
losing the value of the fruit in transportation charges? 
A fruit car to Chicago costs $300; ice and other charges, 
from $100 to $125. If the car is well cared for and 
gets through in six days, all is well; but when it is 
en route 10 to 14 days, the chances are that the fruit 
will not pay for the transportation, notwithstanding 
the car may have started with 1,200 boxes of 20 pounds 
each, of as fine cherries as can be produced. One man 
received $17,000 last year for the fruit sent to Chicago; 
he paid the railroads $13,000 of it for carrying the 
fruit. Out of the remainder must come the commis¬ 
sion, the boxes, the cost of picking, packing and de¬ 
livery at the car. How much did he receive for the 
fruit ? All did not fare so badly, but I instance this 
as one of the possibilities of fruit raising in California. 
Those who dry their fruit—prunes, peaches and 
grapee—are doing a safer business, and seldom fail to 
realize fair returns. 
It is estimated that less than one-fourth of the trees 
now set are in full bearing. Fifteen thousand car¬ 
loads of green and dried fruits sent East last year ap¬ 
peared to fill the demand. In four years, there will 
be 60,000 car-loads to send. I have these figures from 
a conservative nurseryman and orchardist. If the 
fruit could reach the East quickly and cheaply, the 
consumption would be largely increased, but the rail¬ 
roads say that they are now doing the work as cheaply 
as it can be done without loss. 
The newcomer would better rent an orchard at first, 
as the outlay necessary to bring one into bearing is 
large. The following figures are largely from my 
friend’s books, only a few of them being founded on 
estimates; 
100 acres of land.t7,500 
Trees, preparing; ground and culture flrst jear. 1.750 
Care and culture second rear. 500 
Care and trimming third year. 1,000 
Picking fruit, care, fourth year. 5.000 
Interest and taxes four years. 5,000 
Total.$20,750 
Fruit the fourth year.110.000 
Balance.$10,750 
Interest on above the fifth year. 752 
Taxes—trees are taxed. 400 
Picking and care . 5,000 
Total .$16 902 
Fruit the fifth year.$12,500 
Balance end fifth year.$4,402 
Interest. 308 
Taxes. 400 
Care and picking. 6,000 
Total. $10,110 
Fruit sixth year.$12,500 
Credit balance. $2,S90 
As yet nothing has been said of the living of the 
proprietor for the six years ; he has really had noth¬ 
ing but the credit balance, but be has an orchard if 
all has gone well, and the prices of the last few years 
are maintained, worth $50,000, or at least it will easily 
rent for 10 per cent on that amount. Forty acres of 
peaches—dried—from trees five years from setting, 
brought last year, according to my friend’s bank book, 
$4,785.07, notwithstanding the fact that each interval 
between the rows had been used to raise a row of 
nursery trees, which had materially interfered with 
the growth of the bearing trees. 
All trees are inclined to overbear in this valley ; at 
least three-fourths of the peaches were being stripped 
from the trees as I passed through the orchards, by 
Japs, who I find are much preferred to Chinamen. 
Fourteen to twenty trees are all one man can get 
through with in 10 hours. It is the American story 
over again. Too much ! Too much ! When will the 
time come when an “overment” will not be ever 
present in the principal food products, so that econ¬ 
omy and thrift may take the place of careless, igno¬ 
rant squandering, that we may learn again the lesson 
exemplified by our sturdy New England ancestors: 
“ Waste not, want not!” [pkof.] i. p. koberts. 
PROPAGATING FRUIT IN TEXAS. 
The best way to propagate apples is to use a long 
six to nine-inch scion of vigorous growth, from a 
healthy bearing tree, grafted upon a two-inch piece of 
healthy root, preferably of the same variety, if to be 
had; if not, then of thrifty seedlings. The second cut 
from the collar is preferred, as the first is more likely 
continually to throw up sprouts about the base of the 
tree, which take some nourishment from the tree, and 
entail perpetual labor in “sprouting” the trees, or 
else are an eyesore in the orchard. 
The above is based upon the principle in the physi¬ 
ology of plant growth, especially in tree growth, with 
few exceptions, that the tree su.ceeds better upon its 
own root than upon any other, unless some disease— 
fungous or insect in the soil—does not prey upon its 
own root more than upon a congenial stock used. 
Then, to succeed, a resistant root to the disease, such 
as American grape roots as stock for Vinifera kinds, 
are used to resist phylloxera. Hence, in the apple, at 
least, that method which puts it upon its own root in 
a healthy condition in the least time, is the best; and 
that method is the long scion on a short piece of a 
healthy root, as a foster root, until the scion throws 
out roots of its own. The graft should be set deeply. 
If apple trees could be readily grown from cuttings, 
no one would be found grafting them, as all regard 
such as better than grafted trees, and the grafted bet¬ 
ter than budded, as the budded stock suckers out¬ 
rageously in the apple. The same principle holds in 
the pear, but as the French pears generally are grown 
from grafts with considerable difficulty, they are prob¬ 
ably oftener budded. In that case they should be 
budded low down on the collar, even at or below the 
surface of the soil. But where the pear can be grown 
from cuttings, as the Le Conte and Keiffer in the Gulf 
coast region, it is greatly preferred to the grafted or 
budded trees, as any one will find by communicating 
with the orchardists of southern Georgia and Texas. 
But away from the constantly moist Gulf breeze, these 
pears cannot be readily grown from cuttings. 
The stone fruits, budded upon peach or Mariana 
plum stocks, as is the almost general practice, quickly 
unite and thrive well without sprouting from the 
stock. As the peach and plum are short-lived in the 
South—eight to sixteen years—either on peach or 
plum stocks, less attention is given to selecting stocks, 
yet in budding, all spindling, poor stocks should be, and 
generally are, rejected by responsible growers. In 
all probability, the persons having poor success with 
apples grafted upon short pieces of root, hs d used 
trees grown by using a weakly, short scion in graft¬ 
ing, and it had never been grafted properly upon its 
own root. __ t. v. munson. 
THE PERIODICAL CICADA OR IT-YEAR LOCUST. 
THE STORY OF A WONDERFUL INSECT. 
(Concluded.) 
The life history of this curious and wonderful insect 
is of especial interest. The adult insect, roughly 
shown natural size at c in Fig. 122 of last week’s issue, 
has large, strong wings with which it goes buzzing 
about among the branches; the male possesses a musical 
(?) apparatus consisting of two large ribbed and plaited 
parchment sacs, furnished with powerful muscles, 
and situated in large cavities at the base of the abdo¬ 
men. The sound is produced by air being driven with 
great force against the ribbed surfaces, and vibrations 
are thus set up in the membrane. The noise produced 
has been compared to that of a sawmill, a mowing 
machine, and so loud and shrill is it at times as to 
drown the human voice. In this latitude, the adults 
begin to appear above ground in the latter part of 
May (May 25 this year), and their screech is heard 
until into the fore part of July. The adult insect is 
provided with a long, slender beak with which it 
punctures the bark of trees, and sucks its nourish¬ 
ment ; but little time is spent in feeding, however, so 
but little harm is done to vegetation in this manner. 
The adult cicadas seem to exist for the sole purpose of 
propagating their kind. Soon after their song is 
heard in the spring, the mothers may be seen busily at 
work cutting slits in the tender twigs of fruit and forest 
trees with a curious instrument especially adapted 
to the purpose. The slits are about one-fourth of an 
inch long, made obliquely to the pith, and from 10 to 20 
eggs are deftly packed in each slit. One mother thus 
securely 'deposits from 400 to 500 eggs. It is in this 
operation of egg laying that this insect does most of 
its damage. In large forest or orchard trees, this 
damage is not often serious, but when the insects 
emerge in or near an orchard of small trees, or a 
nursery, the injury is sometimes great. Field crops 
never suffer from the cicadas. Ordinarily, the injury 
done is not so great as to necessitate the use of 
remedial measures. Such measures would be the 
cutting off and burning of the twigs containing the 
eggs, and, better still, the collection and destruction 
of the adults, as described by the correspondent. 
The eggs hatch in from four to six weeks; at a, Fig. 
122, is shown a newly-hatched cicada greatly magni¬ 
fied, the hair line below indicating its natural size. 
This curious creature, so unlike its mother, drops to 
the ground, and burrowing therein, begins its 17 years 
of underground life ; it feeds upon the roots of plants, 
often going to a depth of several feet. The damage 
they do in this manner during the 17 years has never 
been serious, in fact is scarcely noticeable. The years 
roll on. What sort of a calendar do you suppose these 
little buried nymphs have ? What a Rip Van Winkle 
sort of an awakening it must be when, after nearly 
two decades have passed, with all the marvelous 
changes in this busy world above them, the curious 
crab-like creatures push their way to the surface, 
crawl up the trunk of some nearby tree, and there 
undergo their final transformation to the winged state ! 
They can now fly about and view the changes that 
have taken place since their mothers confided their 
embryonic forms to a slit in a twig, nearly a score of 
years before. At b, Fig. 122, is represented in outline 
the empty skin, split down the back, from which the 
winged cicada emerged; these cast-off skins are a 
familiar object during a “ locust year,” for hundreds 
of them may be seen attached to the trunks of trees 
and other objects in a locality where the cicadas occur. 
Ordinarily, the 17-year-old nymph comes from its 
underground home through a smooth, round hole of 
the diameter of the tip of the little finger, which opens 
directly on the surface of the ground. Sometimes, 
however, as was discovered 25 years ago, but which 
has not been observed since until this year, they con¬ 
tinue their gallery from four to six inches above the 
ground, thus forming a sort of a mud chimney, in the 
top of which the full-grown insects may be found in 
May. This year, at New Baltimore, N. Y., the ground 
was almost covered with these curious chimneys ; in 
some places 25 could be counted to the square foot. 
They were quite irregular in shape. At d, Fig. 122, 
is an outline of one of these about two-thirds natural 
size. They are two to four inches long, with a smooth, 
round passageway connected with the underground 
one. They were made from clay brought up from ap¬ 
parently a considerable depth. At e and /, Fig. 122, 
are shown the chimneys found 25 years ago; these 
were more regular in form than those found this year, 
and in emerging from them the insect made a hole 
near the surface of the ground, as shown in the figure, 
while in those found near Albany, they emerged from 
a round hole broken near the top of the chamber. No 
satisfactory conjecture has yet been offered as to why 
the cicadas make these cones in some localities and not 
in others. I believe they have also been seen in New 
Jersey this year. No one knows when or how they 
are made. They were seen all complete as early as 
the last week in April this year. 
As the adult insects live but a few weeks at the 
most, it seems strange that they should require nearly 
a score of years of toil beneath the surface to prepare 
them for their brief residence among Nature’s beauti¬ 
ful things above ground. But such are the mysteries 
of Nature ; the lives of our commonest insects are full 
of such mysteries. This story of the 17-year cicada, 
which has a longer life-period than any insect on the 
globe, serves well to illustrate the fact that nowhere 
can one find these mysteries of Nature more interest¬ 
ingly, curiously and variously displayed than in the 
insect world. m. v. slingerland. 
Cornell University. 
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IS DUCK RAISING PROFITABLE? 
THE QUESTIONS. 
1. How much does It cost per pound to raise a duck to 10 weeks old ? 
2. What Is the best breed for raising market ducks 7 3. In how large 
flocks can old ducks be profitably kept? Young ducks? 4. What are 
the best and cheapest bulky feeds to fill up the dncks 7 6. Is It profit¬ 
able to keep ducks for eggs 7 6. Have you ever had any experience In 
feeding ducks on celery or other special foods to give a fine flavor to 
the flesh 7 
Ducks Must Have Cheap Food. 
1. I estimate that it costs me about 25 cents per 
duck. 2. Pekin, by all odds. 3. Old ducks about 35, 
and young ones 50 to 75. 4. Green corn cut fine when 
obtainable ; otherwise clover hay, grass, turnips, beets, 
or other green food—about one-half to two-thirds of 
this green stuff mixed with ground grain. 5. I do not 
think so. 6. No. I don’t think it practicable, though 
some claim they do so. The great secret of success 
with ducks is cheap food so that they will not eat 
their heads off, and to put it into them so that they 
will grow quickly. Our ducks at nine weeks weigh 
nine bo ten pounds per pair. I take no stock in feed¬ 
ing for flavor, though some claim they do so and get a 
superior article ; but we get the highest market price 
for our ducks, which we do not claim to be any better 
than others. w. h. ordway. 
Duck Egg Season too Short. 
1. The cost per pound depends on the locality ; in 
Ohio it is less than on Uong Island, but with corn at 
50 cents a bushel and wheat products—No. 2 flour, 
bran, middlings, etc.,—at present prices, we can pro¬ 
duce a duck for eight cents a pound. 2. The best 
breed is the Pekin. 3. Forty ducks make a large 
flock ; in flocks of 25, they will do better. 4. Clover 
is the best bulky food, boiled and mixed with meal. 
No. 2 flour, bran, middlings and eight per cent of beef 
scraps. 5. I would prefer to keep hens for eggs. As 
the ducks’ eggs are not worth much after June 15, the 
