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NEW YORK, AUGUST 
$1.00 PER YEAli 
CROWDING THE PLANTS TOGETHER. 
THE DOUBLE-CHOPPING SYSTEM AT I T S I? K S T. 
Intensive Culture of Fruits . 
[editorial correspondence*] 
That is certainly the method employed by VV. I). 
Barns & Son, of Middle Hope, N. Y. Their farm con¬ 
tains 90 acres, and their crops are cherries, peaches, 
apples, pears, plums, strawberries, blackberries, rasp¬ 
berries, currants, grapes and potatoes. This year, 
they are growing a good many carrots and cabbages 
between the rows of young trees, and have already 
sowed three bushels of Crimson clover seed. From 
the first strawberries till the last grapes, at least one 
load of fruit is shipped each working day. 
The characteristic features of this farm are heavy 
manuring and close planting. The methods now to 
be described are very successful there ; they may not 
answer so well elsewhere. That is for the 
In setting out a peach orchard, pear trees are set at 
proper distances among the peaches, so that when the 
latter fail and are taken out, the pears are of good 
size and well along to bearing. In the vineyards, 
the roots of three different crops are constantly 
reaching out for plant-food. Of course, with this 
method of close cropping, the grape crop is not so 
large as it would be if the vines were given all the 
ground. The combined value of grapes, currants, 
strawberries and potatoes is greater than that of 
grapes alone would be, and the four crops give a 
market succession, and provide continuous work for 
the hands. 
Mr. Barns has a new currant in bearing this year, 
with which he is greatly pleased. This is the Wilder, 
sent out by S. D. Willard. As we found it growing 
on Mr. Barns’s farm, this currant is a decided acqui¬ 
sition. The quality is excellent, with a peculiar, 
Of course, to keep all these fruits thriving and 
growing, an immense amount of plant food is needed. 
The manure from a Newburgh stable, in which 300 
horses are kept, is hauled to the farm as fast as it 
accumulates. A local fertilizer dealer makes an ex¬ 
cellent mixture of bone and tankage from refuse 
bones and dead animals found in the city. This mix¬ 
ture analyzes over four per cent nitrogen and 20 per 
cent phosphoric acid. Potash is bought in the form 
of kainit. It is bought in bulk—a wagon-load hauled 
at a time and stored in a brick cellar. The practice 
is to use the bone and tankage and a part of the kainit 
in the spring—broadcasted and worked into the soil 
for all crops. As fast as the manure is hauled, it is 
piled under the shade of a large tree, and for each 
load, a peck of kainit is scattered over the surface. 
This has a double effect. It adds needed putash to 
the manure, fixes and retains the ammonia, and at¬ 
tracts moisture so that the pile is kept cool 
reader to determine for himself. 
The grape crop covers more space than 
any other. The vines are trained on the 
Kniffin system, and along the rows are set 
currant bushes, a bush between each two 
vines and at the stakes, while in between the 
rows are planted strawberries, so that three 
distinct crops are always growing in the 
vineyard. At the time of my visit (July 30), 
I noticed some potatoes growing between 
the grapes. They were planted after the 
berries were picked. 
This year, the potatoes were planted 
July 1, in the following way : After the last 
picking of berries, the vines were plowed ; 
one good furrow being plowed each way, so 
as to leave an open dead furrow. In this the 
potatoes were planted and covered by run¬ 
ning the cultivator and narrow along the 
row above them. This leveled off the ground, 
and killed the weeds and vines. But you 
will say, the potatoes could not grow with 
so little plowing. Shortly after they were 
planted, an old-fashioned subsoil plow was 
run deep on either side about a foot away 
from the row. This left the potatoes on a 
little ridge, and with open and porous soil on 
both sides of them. In a short time, the sub¬ 
soil plow will be used again — this time 
further away, thus still further loosening up 
the soil for the potato roots to work in. Two 
varieties of potatoes were used—Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2 and Monroe Seedling. They 
were kept in the fruit cooling room until 
ready to plant, and were thus unsprouted. 
Last year, potatoes were planted in this way T 
on July 5, and dug after election. The ground 
was frozen above them, and they were dug 
out of the mud ; yet after drying, they proved of ex¬ 
cellent quality, and yielded a good crop. It is far 
better to use the ground in this way than to let it 
remain idle. If the currants were not in the rows, 
Crimson clover might follow the strawberries ; but to 
get it all under around the currants and grapes, 
would require too much hand work. 
On the land where the potatoes are now growing, 
strawberries will be set next spring. After the 
ground freezes in the fall, these berries will be heavily 
mulched with manure. This work is done while the 
ground is frozen hard enough to bear up a wagon 
which is driven right through the rows, two men 
throwing out the manure and another following on 
foot to spread it over the berries. These beds will be 
picked one or two years, as their productiveness war¬ 
rants. After the last picking, they will be plowed 
under, and the ground planted to potatoes as de¬ 
scribed. A similar plan is followed in the young 
orchards—the open space between the rows being 
utilized fop berries, potatoes, cabbages or carrots. 
HE BEAUTIFUL “QUEEN OF THE NIGHT.” Fig. 1 
(See page 553.) 
rich flavor that is very agreeable. In size and color, 
it is fully equal to Fay, which was found growing 
beside it. The bush is a strong and thrifty grower. 
One point which the introducer does not seem to have 
made much of, is its ability to hold its ripened fruit 
on the vine. At the time of my visit it was hard to 
find good specimens of Fay. Those left by the pick¬ 
ers were mostly shelled off or dried up. The Wilder, 
however, was still fresh, and good pickings could still 
be made from the bushes. Mr. Barns made his first 
shipment of Fays on June 20. then not fully ripe. 
They were ripe July 6, and the last shipment was made 
July 18—the currants then being a little over-ripe. 
The Wilders ripened with the Fays, and were still firm 
and ready for shipping on July 30, with every pros¬ 
pect of continuing so fully 10 days longer. Mr. Barns 
is so much pleased with this variety that he will plant 
it hereafter in preference to any other. His bushes 
are not yet old enough to show how productive the 
variety is at its best. Thus far, the indications are 
that it is fully equaj, if not superior, to Fay- 
and moist. Kainit is used in preference to 
other forms of potash, because it gives such, 
excellent results in the manure pile. It seems 
to give all the results claimed for plaster, 
and, in addition, seems to conserve more 
moisture and, of course, adds potash to the 
manure. This addition of potash is a very 
important matter in fruit growing. Where 
stable manure is used almost exclusively, one 
is sure to grow too much wood, so that not 
only is the crop of fruit lessened, but the 
danger of injury from frost and cold is in¬ 
creased. One of Mr. Barns’s orchards has 
yielded five crops of peaches in succession. 
He attributes it chiefly to the increased ap¬ 
plication of phosphoric acid and potash, 
which has been made of late years. 
I would like to call special attention to this 
matter of adding potash to stable manure. 
It is one of the most rational of modern farm 
practices, yet one that many farmers have 
not seriously considered. Mr. Barns studied 
this art carefully, and saw that the manure 
was a one-sided fertilizer, unless more pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid were put with it. 
The latter is best used by itself in the -form 
of bone and tankage, because the nitrogen 
that goes with it is needed in the spring— 
while most of the manure is needed for fall 
and winter mulching. The potash goes best 
with the manure, and with the phosphoric 
acid already in the ground, makes a “ bal¬ 
anced ration” for the fruits. We would be 
glad if we could stir farmers up to realize 
the importance and value of this practice. 
L. All the manure made on this farm is care¬ 
fully saved. The liquid manure runs into 
a barrel placed under the stable. Kaiuit is 
used freely about the stable, so that this liquid con¬ 
tains considerable dissolved potash. It is now pro¬ 
posed to use this liquid as a forcing manure. The 
plan is to dilute it by using four barrels of water to 
one of stable liquid, and sprinkle it over the ground 
close to some crop like cabbage or carrots. This could 
be readily done from a barrel on wheels. A field close 
to the barn is well suited to growing carrots or cab¬ 
bage, and the liquid applied in this way would force 
them like hothouse plants. That is a good idea, and 
it is just such ideas that make the difference between 
profit and loss, or interest and discontent in farming. 
So it is with looking ahead and preparing for 
changes that are likely to occur in farming. Many of 
our farmers to-day are doing business at a loss, be¬ 
cause they do not realize that new things have pushed 
the old aside. For example—one of the most profit¬ 
able things on this place is the supply of cheap horse 
manure. Suppose the development of electric, petro¬ 
leum and other motors keeps on for the next 10 years 
as it has in the past. That means fewer horses, 
