454 
July 6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
potash. These concentrated fertilizers are very effect¬ 
ive, and they save much handling as compared with 
the bulkier brands.” 
“What four varieties of pears would you select ? 
“Bartlett. Anjou, Bose and Seckel. They are all 
strong and hardy varieties—good feeders, and least 
inclined to blight. They are also of high quality. 
“But isn’t the Seckel too small for market? ” 
“As generally grown, yes; but by high feeding 
and careful thinning, I find that its size can be 
doubled. At the fairs, 1 have seen Seckel pears 
shown that were so large that the judges thought 
they were Sheldons. Such large pears with their 
delicate flavor, are great favorites in the market. 
Another thing about the Seckel is that this variety 
can safely be fertilized twice as high as any other. 
It will stand a ton to the acre of that concentrated 
fertilizer with piofit, while half a ton would be 
about all that other varieties could give returns for.' 
“ How do you proceed to grow large Seckels?” 
“ Use the fertilizer-lots of it>—early in spring, and 
thin out the fruit by one-half in June.” 
“Is it necessary for apple trees to have an ‘off 
year ’ in bearing ? ” 
“Not unless they have been permitted to overbear, 
and have thus exhausted themselves. There is an 
orchard of Northern Spys that has yielded six fair 
crops in succession. That means that the trees were 
fed each year, carefully pruned and sprayed, and the 
fruit thinned if necessary. Of course, if we were to 
force these trees into bearing a great big crop, far 
above the average, the succeeding crop would be 
light in spite of all our efforts. Those grape vines 
that we are crowding hard this year, will probably 
give a light crop next year, but with proper culture, 
the apples should give a fair crop year after year.” 
“Now about the problem of manuring these fruits. 
“ Well, as you see, we have only our work horses, 
cows for the home dairy, and half a dozen brood sows.” 
“ By the way, what breed of hogs do you keep ? ” 
“ Chesliires. That breed is very satisfactory to us. 
It is quiet, a good ‘ worker ’ in the orchards, makes a 
large quantity of first-class pork, and suits our trade 
better than any other. Out West, the Boland-China 
is very popular. It is the best hog for pasturing or 
for following cattle. Further East, the Berkshire is 
the favorite with those who want a black hog. Most 
of our stock is sold as pigs or sliotes to people who 
live where they can fatten one or two animals to 
make the family supply of pork. These people al¬ 
ways want a white pig, and the Cheshire suits this 
trade exactly. The amount of plowing and rooting 
a drove of hogs will do in an orchard, is something 
remarkable. In hunting for grubs and worms, they 
will tear the whole surface up better than a spring- 
tooth harrow. Most of their food is green clover, 
which we cut in a nearby field and throw over to 
them.” 
“Now what takes the place of stable manure in 
your orchards ? ” 
“Careful tillage, chemical fertilizers and clover. 
We have never made anything like the proper use of 
the fertility that is locked up in the soil. Careful 
tillage will make more and more of this available. 
With our chemical fertilizers, we not only supply 
available plant food, but we are able to produce a 
big crop of clover, which, when plowed under, ahoays 
shows itself in the fruit. Whenever we can plow 
clover into the ground, we can grow anything. In 
working new land into orchards, we always want a 
good clover sod down under the trees. For instance, 
there is a piece of new land designed for a future 
orchard. After a crop like corn last year, this spring 
it was plowed and fined, and well fertilized, sowed 
to oats and seeded to clover. The oats will be clear 
profit. When the clover is large enough, it will be 
plowed under and well worked up with Cutaway, 
spring-tooth and Acme, and then set with young 
trees, with strawberries or currants in between. We 
would like to give our orchards a dose of fertilizer 
and clover every year. In that way, there w T ill be no 
trouble about keeping them up. Thus far we have 
used the Red clover. I have the Crimson now grow¬ 
ing, however, and shall sow a lai-ge area of it this 
fall. I believe that it is destined to be of great serv¬ 
ice in oi’cliards.” 
“ What is new about spi-aying ? ” 
“ We have used the kerosene emulsion success¬ 
fully on cherries and pears to kill the aphis and pear- 
tree psylla. There is room for improvement in spray¬ 
ing appai-atus—that is, the application of power. 
The machines that woi’k from the axle of the wagon, 
are good so long as they are in motion, but on lai-ge 
trees,one must stop and hand pump in order to do a 
thorough job. Where one has spraying enough to 
warx-ant it, a little engine on the wagon would be 
vei*y satisfactory. The time is coming when some¬ 
thing will have to be done to stop careless men from 
using their oi’chards as breeding places for insects or 
diseases. Many a farmer has woi-ked hard to free 
his orchard from insects, only to find fresh millions 
coming from his neighbor’s neglected fields. If the 
State can enter a man’s nursery and compel its owner 
to destroy the San .Jos6 scale, why can it not compel 
a farmer to destroy the codling worm, the tent cater¬ 
pillar, or the various blights and rusts that affect 
fruit? These things cause more local damage than 
the scale, and the time is coming when farmers will 
be forced to destroy them.” H. w. c. 
SHEEP IN THE ORCHARD. 
PUT ENOUGH OF THEM IN. 
Why Orchards Stop Bearing. 
The orchard described by J. R. W., page 328, out¬ 
lines the way the majority of orchards are. and have 
been, treated. He says that his orchard has been 
worked, probably crippled, as he says that he intends 
to so v it to barley and seed it down for a sheep 
pasture. He doesn't say a word about its ever having 
any manure applied, or about giving it any in the 
futux’e. 
In order to ascertain the “ px*obable l’eason’ for 
the unfruitfulness of orchards, it will be necessary to 
ascertain the way in which they have been produced, 
and are now treated. Most of the orchards now of 
bearing age, have been planted on land previously 
cropped for generations, the crops removed and 
lai*gely sold, and very little manure ever retuimed. 
After the trees were planted, the cropping con¬ 
tinued, only it was more severe, as the owners did 
not wish to seed down the young orchard, and they 
had not sufficient manure to give an annual dressing. 
By and by, when the trees wex-e of bearing age, the 
land was seeded, and too often the orchards have 
been mowed and the hay removed. If the orchard 
was pastui’ed, only sufficient stock was put into it to 
consume what was grown, so that nothing was added 
in the way of fertility. More than this, most or¬ 
chards were planted so thickly that soon the trees 
became so large that the tops overlapped, and all 
sunlight was excluded. 
Treated in this manner, is it any wonder that or¬ 
chards do not bear any better? Is it not a wonder 
that they bear as well as they do ? Instead of having 
been given a plenty of food upon which to grow and 
produce fruit, they have been starved—both for food 
and sunlight. Again, what little manure may have 
been put upon the orchard from time to time, has 
been taken from the barnyard, and such manure 
always contains an excess of nitrogen and is very de¬ 
ficient in potash and phosphoric acid. The excess of 
nitrogen has caused a rank, soft, long-jointed wood 
growth, while the trees, to produce fruit, should have 
short-jointed, solid, well-ripened wood. 
It is just as essential that the sun shine upon the 
soil, as upon the surface of the leaves. Any orchard 
in which the trees are set less than 40 feet apart, is 
too thick, and would do better for having a part of 
the trees cut out to let the sunshine in ; 24 trees, 
healthy, robust and well developed, will produce 
more, and much better, fruit, than twice that num¬ 
ber cramped and starving 
I would advise J. R. W. not to put any crop into his 
orchard at all, but to apply potash and phosphoric 
acid liberally, and in varying quantities and combina¬ 
tions to the different trees. I would go as high as 50 
pounds of muriate of potash, and the same amount of 
vex - y fine bone dust or dissolved S. C. rock to the tree 
in some parts of it, and carefully watch the i-esult. 
How. to Use Sheep Among Trees. 
He talks about using his orchard for a sheep pas- 
tux*e ; he couldn’t do better. But the trouble with 
people who use their orchards for sheep pastures, is 
that they don't put on half sheep enough. They don't 
seem to realize that the sheep can add nothing to 
the land but what they get from it ; that really they 
take from the land all the substance added to their 
growth. 
J. R. W. should seed his orchard with a couple of 
bushels of Orchard grass seed per acx-e, and put into 
the eight acres not less than 50 sheep. If in grass, 
it would take half as many more. In fact, about the 
only limit to the number that can be kept upon the 
orchard, will be the amount of food he is willing to 
give in addition to what they will pick from the land. 
Pi-obably in the vicinity of Shoi-tsville, he would have 
to pay $2 per week for the pasture of 50 sheep. If he 
will turn them into this eight-aci*e oi’chard, and feed 
$2 worth of wheat bran per week for 20 weeks, he 
will find them doing much better than in the best of 
pastui-e, and will have scattered in the best possible 
manner at least three tons of bran, which would add 
to the orchard about 134 pounds of niti-ogen, 104 
pounds of phosphoric acid, and 86 pounds of potash. 
By being so crowded, the sheep will keep down all 
weeds, sprouts, and all grass, and will eat every fallen 
apple as soon as it strikes the ground. 
Niagai’a County, N. Y. j. s. woodward. 
A SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM. 
“ WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT ? ” 
A large class of farmers—many of them owning land—in the 
cotton-growing States, mortgage their cotton crops, for supplies, 
as soon as planted; thus they are nine months behind, and pay 
from 25 to 50 per cent more for most things than if they paid cash. 
1 . Is there any remedy except to starve one year, or half starve 
two years ? 2. Does not such a way of living have a tendency to 
make a man thriftless, shiftless and untruthful ? 3. Would not 
raising two crops of white potatoes a year, be a great help? 4. 
Would not Crimson clover and corn, both raised on the ground 
the same year, help to solve the problem ? m. c. 8 . 
Mifflin, Tenn. 
Crimson Clover; The Business Hen; The Butter Cow. 
1. Thousands of Southern farmers would gladly 
welcome the solution of this problem. So much de¬ 
pends on the man and his helpers inside his own 
family, also on location and sui-roundings, of which 
outsiders know nothing, that it can only be solved by 
each individual for himself. Consequently, we can 
only suggest ways and means, which may or may not 
be applicable to the situation. A large part of the 
farmers in this locality are renters, many of whom 
would be vastly better fed and clothed, and have 
more money in their pockets at the end of the year, 
if they would work for wages. The owner of land 
might sell a part, thus obtaining capital sufficient to 
do business above board. When the farmer starts 
down grade, everything seems to help along, even to 
his own inclinations, apparently. The track is greased, 
and the sand box empty. On the first day of January, 
pay day seems a long way off, and many goods are 
purchased that would not be if the terms were cash. 
At the maturity of the mortgage, he is unable to pay, 
and it goes over on the next year’s account. The 
merchant sells $100 worth of goods for $150, and if he 
collects $125, he is usually well satisfied, he lias-made 
a big profit. The mortgage holds good, and he is 
sure of his customer for another year. 2. No doubt 
of it. 3. Yes, wliei’e fair yields can be obtained, and 
there is a good market. 4. Yes, Crimson clover is a 
grand thing for the South. I have grown it for about 
10 years, and have made some of my best crops of corn 
and melons, planted in May after taking off a ci-op of 
clover. It was inti-oduced here some 20 years ago, but 
was not popular at first, and the high price of seed 
pi-evented its general cultivation ; but it has worked 
its way to general favor, and now we “ wonder how 
we ever lived without it.” Crimson clover cannot do 
everything. There is a host of helpers; to enumer¬ 
ate all would be a task, but two which I find among 
the most important are, the Business Hen and the 
Butter Cow. With these two, we need never go to 
town without something to sell ; even though the pro¬ 
ceeds come in trade, we are saved from the 50 per 
cent extra charges for “ accommodation.” Produce 
your home supplies so far as practicable at home, be¬ 
sides some to sell. M. C. S. may be an old-time and 
style planter, who turns up his nose at such small 
products ; but never mind ; these little things can be 
made to do what five-cent cotton never has done. Only 
by steady work, careful management and close econ¬ 
omy, can the desired end be i-eached. m. b. prince. 
Vance County, N. C. 
The Same In a Tobacco Country. 
The condition mentioned, is widespread; it applies 
to this, the tobacco section of North Cax-olina, as well 
as to the cotton gi-owers, and has done more to keep 
down the farming class in the Southeim States than 
evei-ything else combined. The laws enacted in the 
sevei-al States establishing the mortgage system, were 
simply laws to “make the rich richer and the poor 
poorer.” The system is a curse to any land or people, 
and the sine-qua-non of the success of the money 
lender and trader. To illustrate how the law operates 
to oppi’ess the poor, here is a case which recently 
occurred in this neighborhood : A man who has made 
his thousands in just the same way, sold a farmer a 
carriage, and within one year, the money lender 
bought in at his own mortgage sale, the farmei-^s 
hoi’se, wagon, cows, and the carriage, and the sale 
did not settle the debt by sevei’al dollars. 
The l-emedy is to abolish the mortgage system by 
legislative enactment. Let every debt of whatever 
character, stand the same chance of collection ; have 
no preferred creditors, and very soon the mortgage 
taker will be putting his money to better use ; manu¬ 
facturing enterpx-ises will go up all over the country, 
giving employment to idle thousands. Our fai-mei-s 
will not “ starve ” or “ half starve ”, either ; but will 
soon become well-to-do and in a sense independent of 
the other classes. 
2. Certainly, the system is demoralizing in its influ¬ 
ence, and bi-eeds indifference with all of its conse¬ 
quent evils of drunkenness, untruthfulness, and dis¬ 
honesty, making criminals and paupers, filling jails 
and poorhouses. 3. Any change from the prevalent 
custom of scratching over large areas, instead of 
cultivating well a few acres, will better the general 
condition, though many sections will find it tedious 
woi-k raising two crops of potatoes. 4. We can on the 
