456 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
July 
stop all tillage as soon as the vines bloom. It is an 
old tradition that “ taters won’t set if the vines are 
brushed while in bloom or after.” 
I was once running Breed’s weeder through a field 
of potatoes in bloom, and concluded to try to kill two 
rows. They had not got large enough to lop down 
yet, but had heavy tops. On a very hot dry day, just 
before noon, with dust following me, I ran the weeder 
through those two rows four times. The teeth would 
hum as they passed a hill, and the stems went down 
pretty flat, but they turned up the tops and yielded 
by measure practically the same as adjoining rows. 
It is a lazy man’s excuse. As long as one can pass 
through rows without breaking vines, he should stir 
the exposed soil with a surface cultivator. 
Carmel, Ind. _ E. h. c. 
HORSESHOE FARM NOTES. 
GETTING AHEAD OF THE DROUGHT. 
Only one rain in two months, hay one-half a crop, 
everything burning up, make one feel blue. We do 
not purpose to sit down and let things go, by any 
means. The strawberry vines were wilting, and the 
berries laid flat on the ground. A water tank was 
obtained, and a load of 10 barrels put on every three 
rows. Some thin strips of lumber were nailed to¬ 
gether for troughs and set on little stools. By striking 
on them they can be started so that they will leak 
any desired amount their whole length. We drew 100 
barrels per day, and found that nothing short of a 
good soaking was of any use. Throwing the water 
over the plants in a spray wet the fruit and caused it 
to scald in the sun. It took three days to water a 
quarter of an acre enough to do good. The surface 
was heavily mulched with swale hay, and the water 
ran along the row under it. Where the surface was 
exposed to the sun, it soon dried, and the benefit was 
doubtful. 
This watering, if hired labor were used, might not 
pay in immediate returns ; but it kept the plants 
alive, so that the small berries did not wither until 
after rain came, and to-day we have a noble picking. 
How small our efforts appeared after the rain began 
to fall ! In a few minutes, the plants began to lift 
their heads, and the bed to take on a green hue. Unless 
water be near and one make a business of it, drawing 
water will not pay. Our raspberries and blackberries 
are loaded with blossoms and fruit. A sideliill makes 
watering impracticable. Repeated plowings between 
the rows have made the soil so fine and dry that no 
moisture can reach the surface. The cultivator is run 
shallow twice a week in every row. A lot of refuse 
straw, corn stalks, swale hay, etc., has been packed 
around each hill after the surface soil was well stirred 
with a hoe. We cannot get enough mulch, but judg¬ 
ing from the looks of the treated portion, it would 
pay to buy all the buckwheat straw possible this fall, 
and stack for future use. One row had straw packed 
thickly in and around it in November last. No weeds 
have come up in that row, and the soil is black and 
mellow. This method would reduce the expense of 
caring for berries to a minimum, and save enough to 
pay for the straw. The fertility and moisture would 
be profit. 
Our last strawberry beds were set closer and thicker. 
Where they are close enough completely to exclude 
the sun, they are doing best. In the narrow rows and 
thin places, the dust flies as you walk, and the berries 
are about finished. Nitrate of soda applied to the sur¬ 
face around the plants, appears to draw moisture, 
although I am not certain that it does more than to 
color the soil darker. It has to be applied cautiously. 
Plaster has been sown on the fodder corn, and dropped 
on the hills. The corn is greener and growing faster 
where it was used. 
Our potatoes are black, rank, large-leaved, and 
“just jumping.” They seem glad to stretch after 
their long imprisonment by reason of deep planting 
and repeated covering. They have been harrowed 
three times with a spring-tooth harrow, and cultivated 
once with a Planet Jr., set to run deep and within an 
inch of the plants. The soil is mellow ; one will sink 
in to the shoe tops, and weeds are scarce. A neighbor 
said, ‘ ‘ What on earth will you touch them for ; there 
are no weeds ?” That’s it! Very few do any cultiva¬ 
tion or hoeing for any other reason than to kill weeds, 
and that is of the least importance. Moisture and 
fertility made available and saved, should be the 
object. One root 20 inches long, was unearthed from 
a hill where the stalks were only 10 inches high. 
One must cultivate shallow now. After each rain, as 
soon as-the soil is dry enough to work, we go through 
with a smoothing harrow or cultivator, and break 
up the forming crust, so no cracking will occur, 
or moisture escape. The flea-beetles are very bad, 
and are driven away by the cultivation and dust. 
Hay will be so scarce that something must be pro¬ 
vided. The poorer meadows will be mowed in June, 
and plowed at once, sown to corn and millet, and a 
medium crop is probable. A few acres of flat turnips 
will feed all kinds of stock except cows in milk, and 
lessen the drain on the hay mow. They may be sown 
as late as July 15 here. We are building a silo, and 
expect by these means to have nearly all of our hay to 
sell at a good price. Tfie drought may compel us to 
think and hustle enough to make it prove very profit¬ 
able instead of disastrous. C. e. chapman. 
long island horticultural notes. 
The horse-trot strawberry fair at Mineola, came 
off on schedule time ; but the strawberry season was 
a little late to make the best display. Our old friend 
from Montclair, N. J., came to help us out, and 
showed some very fine specimens of the newer varie¬ 
ties of strawberries, prominent among which were 
Brandywine, of fine size, quality and color. Mar¬ 
shall was fairly good, but very dark in color, and 
hardly desirable for market on that account. Epping 
was of medium size, and in other ways everything 
desirable ; the plants show it to be a prolific bearer. 
Timbrell was of fine quality ; its spotted appearance 
would tell against it where not known. Barton’s 
Eclipse made a good show ; so did Van Deman. Day- 
ton has done well, and is in favor here as a market 
sort second early and good. Leader is early, pro¬ 
lific, and of good flavor. Gillespie was one of the 
handsomest berries shown ; large, bright in color, 
and a good keeper ; as show n after two days on the 
exhibition tables, it was one of the best. With me, 
it is a good bearer. Gandy has now my approval. I 
first had a little sour thing for it. The true is very 
fine, large, late, prolific and good, and prolongs the 
season very desirably. 
A display of 85 plates of seedlings from E. Bogart, 
evidently grown from seed of Sharpless, was notable 
as showing how strong the strain is, as not one in ten 
showed the least variation from the parent, plant, 
and were no improvement. Sharpless holds its own 
as the largest berry shown ; also the heaviest, with 
Jersey Queen a good second. 
Thanks for The R. N.-Y.’s advice about the Japanese 
wineberry. I am now growing it only for family 
use, but must have it, for it comes when we have no 
other berries, for one thing, and I like it for another. 
A valued correspondent of mine says, “I walked 
with my husband one-half mile to see our field of 
Crimson clover ; but it was worth the walk. There 
were acres of one unbroken mass of the richest color, 
which looked like nothing I had ever seen before. It 
was the wonder of all who passed, and many stopped 
to ask what it was, and many to gather the flowers to 
take home.” If it grows this way, then why does it 
not solve the problem of Southern farming ? 
I saw a lot of Saghalin a few days ago. I counted 
on a space 2x2% feet, 65 stalks, and on one space 3x3 
feet, 85, averaging from eight to ten feet high, the 
stalks from three-fourths to one inch in diameter. It 
is pretty coarse fodder, but makes a marvelous growth. 
1 took some sprays to a horse in the stable munching 
grass; he smelled it, took a nibble, finally accepted 
it as good, and finished the branch. Some of us may 
have to modify our opinions of it. It showed its 
ability to multiply by coming up all through the 
grounds. Another plant, recently brought to my 
attention by a party who is using it as a forage plant, 
is the Eulalia. Both kinds are grown as ornamental 
plants. The cows are fond of it, and do well on it. 1 
shall get more particulars and report. N. iiai,lock. 
Queens County, N. Y. 
HOW TO TREAT FROSTED GRAPE VINES. 
The old-time readers of The R. N.-Y. will remem¬ 
ber how 1 gave them the results of my practical ex¬ 
periences ; here is another one worth millions. I have 
a friend who writes books, and when lie wishes an 
airing, comes and looks over my flower beds and ex¬ 
perimental seedling grapes. We are both students ; 
he sees Nature through his books, while I study 
books through Nature. We were looking over the 
grape vines a couple of days after the late freeze, and 
noticing the fact that hybrid vines of Labrusca and 
Vinifera crosses were injured much more than vines 
of Riparia and Vinifera parentage. This was illus¬ 
trated by a couple of seedlings standing before us. 
I was telling him that when vines were frozen back 
as those were, it took them two or three years to re¬ 
cover from the shock ; that it was doubtful whether 
they ever did so entirely, and showed him how they 
grew after freezing by pushing out laterals and next 
year’s buds, and how crooked and unhealthy the 
canes grew. He wished to know if there was no rem¬ 
edy. I said that there might be a possible remedy by 
immediately breaking off all the shoots, but I had 
not tried it. He replied, “ Why, that would kill the 
vine.” I replied that grape vines were not so easily 
killed as that, for there were some dormant buds left, 
and if it was so late that none of these would grow, 
the vine would still be able to push out shoots from 
adventitious buds. I believed that either accessory 
or adventitious canes would be more healthy, for it 
seemed unnatural for the vine to be forced to main¬ 
tain its existence by growths from laterals or canes 
from next year buds, whichever happened to grow. 
In order to test the theory, I then and there broke off 
all these frozen canes, and shortened in the wood, for 
there would certainly be no fruit this year on that 
vine. I left one cane for comparison. 
Two weeks afterwards, when my friend inquired 
whether the vine was dead or not, I said, “ Come and 
see.” His surprise when he saw the vine that two 
weeks before had seemed dead, was confirmation 
enough of the success of our experiment. Before us 
stood a perfect grape vine, in all the vigor of early 
springtime, clean, bright leaves and canes of deep rich 
shining color, except the decrepit, crooked, frosted 
cane we had left. There was only a small amount of 
fruit, of course, for most of the canes had grown 
from adventitious instead of from the accessory buds 
at the nodes; before the frost came, I had already 
broken out the surplus shoots. 
The surplus shoots should not have been broken 
out so early in general practice, but this was a favor¬ 
ite seedling that I had named after our old friend 
Warder, and I wished to see its magnificent clusters 
fully developed in its third year of bearing. Of 
course this is impossible now, but I shall have the 
vine in great form for next year’s fruiting, provided 
we do not have July weather the first week in May, 
1896. The frozen sap seems to poison the vine, and in 
this way the trouble is avoided, and healthy canes 
take the place of the decrepit ones. I shall never 
hesitate again to break off all the shoots when I have 
frozen vines, and let them start anew. The grower 
should not hesitate a minute, but break off all the 
frozen canes, and let a new and healthy growth take 
the place of the frosted canes. If breaking out the 
partly dormant accessory shoots be deferred until set¬ 
tled weather, a half crop of fruit may usually be ob¬ 
tained from the shoots of duplicate buds. These buds 
are provided by nature for just this crisis in the life 
of the vine. d. s. marvin. 
Watertown, N. Y. 
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Crimson Clover, Millet and Potatoes. 
G. 8., Middleburg , Pa.— 1. I tried Crimson clover last year, but 
it was almost too dry. Should it be sown at the last cultivation 
of the corn, which will be in a week or so, or would it be better to 
wait till August ? I sowed it last year, then went through with 
the cultivator, and it may have been covered too deep. Of one 
thing I am sure, that with me it is perfectly hardy. 2. I planted 
a commercial orchard of apple trees, planted it to potatoes, and 
expect to keep it in this crop for at least four or five years, and 
feed it well. Would it be an advantage to sow this to Crimson 
clover after the potatoes are dug, and in the spring apply potash 
and no barnyard manure ? 3. Ilow late can I sow millet for hay ? 
Ans. — 1. We would sow the clover at the last culti¬ 
vation and not wait till August. 2. We would cer¬ 
tainly try the plan you suggest. Use the Crimson 
clover after the potatoes, and in the spring plow it 
under and use potash and bone for another potato 
crop ? 3. If the weather conditions be favorable, the 
millet will probably make fair hay sowed up to July 
20. There are many failures reported with millet this 
year. We prefer to plant drilled corn. 
Sowing Crimson Clover Seed. 
Several Subscribers.— What are some simple facts about sowing 
Crimson clover seed ? 
ANSWERED BY E. H. BANCROFT. 
In summer, when the soil is warm, the seed should 
be harrowed in, and in open ground and dry weather, 
the ground should be rolled. If the soil be very dry, 
it should be rolled very hard. In hot weather the 
seed will come up, even though covered quite deep, 
but late in the season, it should be covered very shal¬ 
low. In growing corn, son'; of our farmers sow ahead 
of the cultivator, others sow ifter the cultivator, and 
scratch in the seed with a lignl one-horse harrow. I 
practice the latter plan, but cannot say that it is any 
more successful than the other. Some sow after the 
last cultivation, and do not harrow in. I think this 
plan more liable to failure, though it is generally suc¬ 
cessful. The seeding done in corn may generally be 
repeated if it prove a failure, which it seldom does. 
If the corn has become tall, it will give a more uniform 
distribution of the seed to sow from the back of a 
horse—a very important point in thick, tall corn. This 
seems also to require somewhat more seed than in 
buckwheat or open ground. In the Middle and North¬ 
ern States, my correspondence shows that the lesson 
