THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
793 
price last year was $3.50 per bushel. 2. No, not in 
equal parts. We would use three parts of the bone to 
one part of the potash, by weight. 3. Willard is 
chiefly valued for earliness. It is among the earliest 
of the Japans, but inferior in quality. Abundance 
ripens next and Satsuma last. The Abundance and 
Satsuma are of good quality. Burbank is somewhat 
better than either, ripening, as we remember, between 
Abundance and Satsuma. 4. Yes, that is a good selec¬ 
tion ; but Campbell’s Early is not yet in the market. 
What About “ The German Grape ?” 
H. R., Valley City, Ind. —I would like to know some¬ 
thing about the German grape. 
Ans. —The German is the York Madeira. Other 
synonyms are Black German, Large German, Marion 
Port, Tryon, Wolfe, Monteith. It is thought to be a 
seedling of Isabella, originating at York, Pa. The 
bunch is medium, berry medium, black with heavy 
bloom. The vine is not hardy, and but moderately 
productive of berries of only fair quality. 
The Draft on a Wagon. 
M. W., Gllbertsville, N. Y. —Does it make any differ¬ 
ence in the draft of a wagon, whether the front and 
back wheels are close together, or spread far apart ? 
That is, will a load draw any easier in an eight-foot 
box than in a 12-foot one—the weight being the same ? 
Ans. —There will be no difference in the draft with 
the sizes of box mentioned, or as long as the load is 
flrmly carried and without spring in the middle, or 
the weight is evenly distributed on each pair of 
wheels. ii. s. 
How to Germinate Gladiolus Seeds. 
E. W. D., TorrinyJ'wd, Conn. —I am interested in 
growing seedling gladioli. I find that the seeds grow 
readily in a hot-bed, but not well in open ground. 
How do the growers germinate the seed in the open 
ground ? 
Ans. —Gladiolus seeds are somewhat oily inside the 
scale-like hulls, and require considerable moisture 
to start germination. They are not very particular as 
to temperature, germinating well anywhere between 
55 and 90 degrees Fahr., providing the moisture be 
sufHcient; though, of course, they start more quickly 
at the higher temperature. They seldom germinate 
evenly ; as under favorable conditions out of a given 
number of seeds, the first ones may come up in three 
weeks and the others at uncertain intervals for several 
months. Hulling the seeds by rubbing between 
cloths, insures a more rapid and even germination, as 
much of the oil is removed by this process. The 
operation is very disagreeable to some individuals ; 
the hulled seeds irritating the skin considerably. 
Gladiolus seeds grow readily in a hot-bed or green¬ 
house, because of the abundant proportion of moisture 
usually found in the air, which is not so easily attained 
in the open ground. 
When grown out-of-doors, the seed should be thickly 
sown in a finely prepared bed of good, light soil, pref¬ 
erably situated where it will receive some shade dur¬ 
ing the middle of the day. Sow in drills, a foot apart, 
and cover half an inch deep, packing the soil well 
down ; water thoroughly. Cover the bed with one or 
two thicknesses of burlap or old fertilizer sacks, pre¬ 
viously well soaked in water. Secure the bagging in 
place with light strips of wood. Examine the ground 
frequently, and water through the covering whenever 
it appears at all dry. While sacks or burlap are 
handy any light mulch will answer, such as freshly 
cut grass, or clean hay. The large growers have of 
late been using excelsior with great success. This 
material is light and entirely free from noxious seeds, 
and is not easily beaten down by heavy rains. Coat 
the beds about three inches thick, and hold in place 
by a web of poultry netting. All coverings should be 
removed when the first plants come up, and the bed 
may be shaded by some other means for a few weeks. 
Gladiolus seeds are quite hardy, and should be sown 
soon after the middle of May. w. van fleet. 
Why We Mix Small Lots of Chemicals. 
C. D. N., Owego, N. Y. —Why does The B. N.-Y, ad¬ 
vise N. W. K., page 680, “The chemicals should be 
thoroughly mixed and, if possible, well crushed and 
fined ” ? I see so much of this advice, which is abso¬ 
lutely a waste of labor, that I am surprised. Nature 
will do the mixing, only put the elements in the soil 
within reach of the plant. 
Ans. —That is all very true, but perhaps our friend 
will tell us how to spread 100 pounds of nitrate of 
soda or sulphate of potash evenly over an acre. Nature 
will not mix these ingredients unless they are put 
close together. By mixing these small amounts of 
chemicals and making one spreading, you will do a 
better job than to spread them separately. 
Questions About Chestnut Culture. 
T. S. D., Oquaga Lake, N. Y.—l have been much in¬ 
terested in improved chestnut culture. I have about 
15 or 20 acres of rough hill-side that is covered with 
young chestnut trees. Thousands of them are the 
size of hop poles, some as large as fence posts. Why 
can’t I graft them ? How large a tree would it do to 
graft ? How many grafts should I put on each tree ? 
Some of the trees are about as broad as they are tall. 
The large timber was cut off about 20 years ago. 
Would it be better to graft a tree five or six inches 
through, or one two inches through ? 
0. W. A., Stepliensville, Wis .—Does The K. N.-Y. think 
that the Paragon chestnut will do well as far north as 
this ? 
Ans. —If T. S. D. can graft chestnuts successfully, 
he can turn his hill-side into a fruitful and profitable 
chestnut grove in a comparatively short time. But it 
will require a vast amount of labor to graft large 
trees, such as he describes. If his were my own case, 
I would graft some large trees at once (in spring), cut 
down the rest of the forest clean, in a few successive 
years, and graft on one-year-old sprouts. As to the 
hardiness of Paragon, A. S. Fuller states that they 
have proved pei*fectly hardy when subjected to a tem¬ 
perature of 20 degrees below zero. h. m. engle. 
An Ironclad Blackberry. 
G. S. P., Winslow, Me. —Has Dr. Hoskins ever found 
a blackberry that will stand his winter climate ? I 
have lost crop after crop of Agawam, and a neighbor 
fares no better with Snyder. It seems to me that the 
buds start too soon in spring, coaxed out by a warm 
day, to be then killed by only a moderate degree of 
cold. If there is anything more ironclad than these, 
I would greatly like to hear of it. Even the wild 
ones here are occasionally killed. 
Ans. —I have tried about all the blackberries here 
during the last 30 years. The only one that has stood 
the climate has been Sable Queen, sent to me 25 years 
ago by J. W. Manning of Reading, Mass. Like the 
wild blackberries, it does not bear every year ; but 
the fruit is large and sweet, with no hard core. We 
had a heavy crop the past season. The plants are 
growing in a long row, on the east side of a high, 
tight fence. They, however, grow and bear well in 
other exposures. It has a rather prostrate habit, 
which tends to keep the stems under the snow. It 
grows, as I say, in the grass, under the apple trees. 
The plants have not spread enough to need any thin¬ 
ning, other than they get in the way of plants sold— 
and that is not much. T. H. hoskins. 
Newport, Vt. 
Hot Enough Potash for Potatoes, 
C. F. K., Stanwood, Mich .—I have used this season a 
“potato grower,” which is claimed to be a pure blood, 
bone and meat fertilizer, with the following guaran¬ 
teed analysis : 
Ammonia. 3 to 4 percent. 
Sol. phos. acid. 3^ to per cent. 
Rev, phos. acid. 314 to 414 per cent. 
Actual potash. 2 to 2*4 per cent. 
The price per ton is $30, f. o. b., in Chicago ; the 
freight to this place is $3 per ton, which makes a total 
of $33. How does it happen that a fertilizer claimed 
to be manufactured from those ingredients, does not 
contain any more ammonia ? What does The R. N.-Y. 
think of it as a potato grower, and of the price ? 
Ans. —According to this analysis, the fertilizer is 
guaranteed to contain in one ton, 60 pounds of ammo¬ 
nia, 140 pounds of available phosphoric acid and 40 
pounds of potash. At the basis of valuation adopted 
by the Ea.stern stations, this is worth about $20. As 
a matter of fact, 100 pounds of muriate of potash, 400 
of dissolved bone black, and 900 of tankage, will give 
you a better potato fertilizer than the one mentioned. 
There is not enough potash in this fertilizer. We 
would not use less than six per cent for potatoes. 
The HarlequiQ^Cabbage Bug in Winter. 
S. M. B., Tlmbemille, Va .—What are the winter 
habits of the Harlequin cabbage bug ? What is a sure 
method of extermination for that troublesome pest 
while in his winter haunts ? 
Ans. —The Harlequin Cabbage bug or Calico Back, 
is one of the most destructive, and is probably the 
hardest to combat, of any of the insects that attack 
cabbage in the South. The pest is slowly spreading 
northward, and has now reached the southern por¬ 
tions of Ohio and New Jersey. It spends the winter 
in the adult state, the stage in which it is the hard¬ 
est to kill. The bugs hibernate in sheltered places, 
under boards and other rubbish in the neighborhood 
of cabbage fields. To destroy them in their winter 
quarters, would first necessitate finding them, which, 
I presume, would prove no easy matter. I doubt if 
the pest can be practicably combated in winter. But 
when it comes out early in the spring, it has been 
found to attack first any cruciferous or mustard-like 
weeds growing about, and the first brood of the pest 
develops on these weeds, or perhaps on radishes that 
may be up at the time. In Mississippi, it has recently 
been found that the most practicable method of fight¬ 
ing the pest was either to hand-pick the bugs from 
these weeds, or to spray the weeds with pure kerosene, 
which will kill the insect in all stages, and it does 
not matter if the weeds are also killed. This method 
of fighting the pest early in the season, is the most 
practicable and successful yet suggested or tried. Prac¬ 
tice clean culture, removing all refuse in the fall, and 
thus drive some of the bugs to find shelter too far 
away from the field to enable them to find their way 
back again in the spring. m. v. slingerlani). 
Pecans and Chestnuts in Vermont. 
T. E. B., Mlddlebury, Vt. —Will pecans and chestnuts 
flourish and produce nuts here in Vermont? 
Ans. —We do not know. The question is submitted 
to our readers. 
Cement for a Stable Floor. 
O. W.A,, Stephensvllle, IFis.—I would like to know 
how A. IL, page 682, built his stable floor—how thick, 
what kind of lime or cement. Could a trench be 
built, say, 10 inches deep, and not break at the edges? 
Would such a floor stand to draw heavy loads on, as I 
draw my manure direct from the stable ? I have my 
basement stable so as to drive directly through the 
stable, between and behind the stock. I have at pres¬ 
ent a ground floor ; my stable is new and not finished. 
I wish to have a trench and use absorbents to save all 
the liquids. I shall use stanchions or Bidwell stalls. 
Would it be a good floor for horses ? 
Ans. —Mine is a basement barn, built in a bank. 
There was a little dampness or seepage from the bank 
soil, so I laid tile inside the wall the whole length of 
the walls on the bank sides. I then picked up and 
filled in six inches of small stones all over the bottom. 
With a sledge I pounded the top so that the stones on 
top were broken up in pieces not larger than 2 or 2 3^ 
inches in diameter, and then were nearly even on top, 
with a slope toward the door of about 1 foot in 50. I 
mixed one part Louisville cement, with three parts of 
sand very thin and poured this on the stones until 
the interstices were all filled. I made a pavement 
maul by taking a stick about six inches in diameter 
and three feet in length, put a handle through one 
end and pounded the stones and cement down until 
they were all level on top. I then put on another 
one-inch coat of the same kind of mortar, only mixed 
thicker. On top of this, I put a coat of mortar mixed in 
the same proportion and same thickness using Portland 
cement instead of the other. This will make a bottom 
that, I think, will hold anything. Still, to make it 
sure, he might use Portland cement for both coats 
where he drives through. 
I have no mangers ; I use stationary stanchions, and 
on the whole think them the best; they hold the cows 
in place and keep them clean behind. Instead of 
mangers, I scooped out a trough in front of the 
stanchions, about three feet wide and six inches deep 
for a manger. I feed from the front, and I like this 
much better as it is so easily cleaned. This is paved 
and cemented the same as the other floor. The trough 
is made in the ground first, and then paved and 
cemented the same as the rest. Where the cows stand 
it is also paved and cemented. I took a 4x6 oak tim¬ 
ber and set it up edgeways for the outside of the drop 
and made my cement come even with the top of this 
timber. I have no gutter back of my cows to catch ' 
the manure, but from the drop to outside, about four 
feet, it is nearly level, with an incline of about four 
inches from the outer wall to the drop. I find it much 
more convenient to clean the stable this way than to 
have a gutter behind. Back of drop is also paved and 
cemented. The 4x6 timber is laid on the stones on 
this lower level, then the two inches of cement come 
up two inches on the timber which holds it in place 
except that at the joints cross-ties should be laid in 
the paving, say, 18 inches long, and the timber toe- 
nailed to them to hold the ends in place. On top of 
this timber, I spike a 2x4 to hold the bedding under 
the cows. It also holds them up and keeps them 
clean ; this is a good thing. The drop should be put 
the right distance back of the cows—in other words, 
their hind feet should stand on the very edge of it. I 
have one end of mine further ^’rom the stanchions 
than the other, and put my larger cows there and so 
grade them according to their length ; they soon learn 
their places. At the lower end of the drop, I have 
catch basin that catches the liquids—as described be¬ 
fore in The R. N.-Y. 
As to building a trench 10 inches deep, it possibly 
could be built, and certainly could be by using the 
Portland cement; but I would not build it so, for two 
reasons : There would be nothing to hold the bedding 
in and the cows up ; and it would be very slippery and 
dangerous for cows, especially those heavy with calf. 
It would be much better if the cows face out and the 
drive be through the center behind them, to lay the 
bottom on an incline so that the liquid will be close to 
the drop and still not have any treacherous gutter be¬ 
hind the cows. My horse stable is paved and cementec. 
also, buti lay planks in the stalls for the horses to stand 
on, on top of the cement, as I like to have them stand 
on wood rather than stone. I think were I building 
over again, I would put in timber about 6x14 for the 
cows’ hind feet to stand on, and fill in between that 
and the stanchion with clay. Austin hekkick. 
