Oie  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
703 
district  where  livestock  is  largely  shipped.  Some¬ 
thing  of  this  sort  ought  to  he  worked  out  in  dairy 
districts  where  milk  is  shipped.  This  principle  is 
sure  to  he  worked  out  in  time,  more  or  less  com¬ 
pletely.  with  all  sorts  of  farm  produce. 
Late  Crop  Cauliflower 
CAULIFLOWER  can  grow  to  perfection  only  in 
the  cool  weather.  The  plants  for  the  Spring 
crop  should  he  well  grown  and  ready  to  go  to  the 
field  at  the  earliest  possible  moment.  The  beginner 
Summer  Spraying  for  Peaches 
WE  are  often  asked  to  state  just  when  Sum¬ 
mer  spraying  for  the  peach  should  be  done, 
and  it  is  difficult  without  a  good  picture  to  tell  just 
when  the  fruit  is  ready.  The  Georgia  State  Board 
of  Entomology  has  issued  an  excellent  bulletin  on 
‘‘The  Parasites  of  the  Peach,”  one  of  the  best  pub¬ 
lications  of  the  sort  we  have  ever  seen.  From  this 
bulletin  we  take  the  picture  shown  at  Fig.  250. 
This  shows  the  right  stage  for  putting  on  the  Sum¬ 
mer  spray.  This  is  made  life  size,  and  we  see  that 
the  little  peaches  are  just  throwing  off  the  covering 
or  shuck,  and  they  are  just  at  the  proper  size  for 
receiving  the  spray  to  best  advantage.  There  seems 
to  he  no  doubt  from  the  experiments  recorded  in  this 
pamphlet  that  this  Summer  spraying  with  the  self- 
cooked  lime-sulpluir  will  greatly  benefit  any  cases 
of  brown  rot,  while  the  addition  of  arsenate  of 
lead  to  the  lime-sulphur  mixture  helps  in  cleaning 
out  the  plum  curculio.  The  notes  in  this  bulletin 
on  self  cooked  lime  sulphur  are  copied  herewith. 
Those  who  are  interested  in  peach  culture,  especial¬ 
ly  at  the  .South,  would  do  well  to  read  this  bulletin. 
A  Late  Crop  of  New  Jersey  Cauliflower.  Fig.  258 
should  first  attempt  to  grow  the  Fall  crop  and  the 
mistake  is  frequently  made  in  the  very  beginning 
by  having  the  plants  too  old  or  by  setting  them  in 
the  field  too  soon.  In  the  latitude  of  New  York 
City,  the  most  successful  growers  plant  their  seed 
in  drills  about  June  10,  so  that  about  July  loth  to 
20th  they  will  have  young  thrifty  plants  which  have 
never  received  a  setback  or  check  in  their  growth. 
The  picture  (Fig.  258)  was  taken  at  Pine  Brook, 
Morris  Co.,  N.  J..  on  Oct,  18  last.  Heavy  frosts  or 
even  light  freezes  do  not  hurt  this  crop;  in  fact, 
when  the  cold  weather  comes  along  all  the  plants 
begin  to  get  busy  forming  a  head.  When  this  form¬ 
ing  head  is  the  size  of  a  silver  dollar,  the  leaves  are 
drawn  together  and  loosely  tied  to  shade  the  head 
and  keep  it  snow  white.  We  realize  that  the  New 
Jersey  product  does  not  compare  in  quantity  nor 
quality  with  that  of  the  Long  Island  Cauliflower 
Association.  However,  there  are  many  growers  in 
our  State  who  are  growing  tins  crop  very  profit¬ 
ably,  but  they  are  the  deep  thinking,  thoroughgoing 
and  experienced  farmers  who  have  found  out  what 
the  particular  requirements  of  this  crop  are.  Then, 
the  soil  is  prepared  accordingly.  The  plants  are  in 
the  proper  condition  and  receive  careful  attention 
during  their  growing  period.  Eternal  vigilance  in 
fighting  the  green  worms  which  eat  the  leaves,  is 
essential,  especially  before  the  crop  is  half  grown. 
We  regret  that  the  price  of  cauliflower  seed  is 
so  very  high,  and  that  the  quality  is  so  variable. 
The  growers  or  growers’  associations,  who  buy  their 
seed  in  the  largest  quantities,  get  the  finest  quality 
usually  at  the  lowest  prices.  The  most  worthless 
stuff  is  sold  in  the  small  packets,  and  this  is  what 
the  beginners  will  usually  buy  to  test  out  the  grow¬ 
ing  of  this  crop.  Failure  is  inevitable,  because  no 
matter  how  ideal  the  growing  conditions  may  be, 
the  product  from  a  poor  strain  of  seed  will  be  dis¬ 
couraging.  The  crop  shown  in  the  picture  returned 
more  than  .$300  per  acre,  and  was  not  planted  until 
a  crop  of  peas  had  been  harvested  from  the  same 
ground.  r.  w.  de  baux. 
New  Jersey. 
Benefits  from  Garden  Peas 
E  are  often  advised  to  plant  Canada  field 
peas.  Soy  beans,  cow  peas  or  clover,  simply 
because  they  are  legumes  and  gather  nitrogen  from 
the  air.  It  is  claimed  that  when  these  are  plowed 
under  the  value  of  the  nitrogen  and  organic  material 
thus  added  to  our  soils  will  be  worth  more  than  the 
cost  of  the  seed  and  all  labor  involved.  Garden 
peas  are  just  as  much  a  legume  as  any  of  these 
crops,  yet  few  people  give  peas  the  credit  which 
they  justly  deserve  as  a  soil  improver,  aside  from 
the  market  value  of  the  crop. 
I  grew  three  short  rows  of  Grad  us  peas  in  my 
kitchen  garden  last  year.  The  crop  was  very  heavy, 
and  their  taste  was  most  delicious.  After  the  last 
picking  T  began  to  dig  up  the  plot  to  prepare  for 
three  short  rows  of  celery  interplanted  with  White 
Strasburg  radishes.  Much  to  my  surprise  I  found 
that  the  roots  of  the  old  pea  vines  were  just  clus¬ 
ters  of  nodules  containing  the  nitrogen-gathering 
bacteria.  The  picture  shown  (Fig.  260)  represents 
five  roots  which  I  pinned  to  the  back  of  my  coat 
for  a  snap. 
The  succeeding  crops  grew  very  luxuriantly,  and 
I  gave  much  of  the  credit  to  the  buried  pea  vines 
which  were  rich  in  plant  food,  especially  nitrogen, 
and  as  they  decayed  the  celery  received  the  benefit. 
r.  w.  D. 
Right  Stage  for  Summer  Spray  on  Peach.  Fig.  259 
which  is  by  W.  W.  Chase,  the  Assistant  State  En¬ 
tomologist  of  Georgia,  and  is  priuted  at  Atlanta. 
How  to  Make  Self-cooked  Lime-Sulphur 
Lime  and  sulphur  are  used  in  equal  proportions — 
eight  pounds  of  each  to  50  gallons  of  water.  The  mix¬ 
ture  is  more  readily  prepared  in  three  or  four-barrel 
lots,  as  follows : 
W  eigli  out,  say,  .82  pounds  of  lime  and  82  pounds 
sulphur.  Place  lour  or  live  gallons  of  water  in  a  50- 
gallon  barrel.  Sift  the  sulphur  into  the  barrel  through 
a  coarse  sieve  and  mix  it  with  the  water.  Next,  add 
the  lime  (it  should  always  he  whole  lump  lime,  free 
of  rock),  and  stir  continuously  after  it  begins  slak¬ 
ing,  to  break  up  lumps.  Water  should  he  added  as 
required,  a  little  at  a  time,  to  prevent  burning,  but  not 
copiously  enough  to  drown  out  the  cooking.  From  five 
to  10  gallons  will  gradually  have  to  he  added  in  this 
way.  After  the  lime  is  slaked,  immediately  add  enough 
cold  water  to  stop  any  further  cooking. 
The  above  formula  will  make  up  200  gallons  of 
spray.  The  mixture  should  be  carefully  strained  into 
the  spray  tank  through  a  brass  sieve  of  30  meshes  to 
the  inch.  Add  arsenate  of  lead  to  the  dilute  mixture 
in  the  spray  tank  and  not  to  the  stock  solution.  Keep 
well  agitated  while  spraying. 
Old  Pasture  Land  for  Potatoes 
A  Thorough  Review  of  the  Subject 
Part  IT. 
FURTHER  EXPERIMENTS.  —  Anyone  accus¬ 
tomed  to  close  analysis  will  recognize  that  the  ex¬ 
periment  described  does  not  justify  a  conclusion  as 
to  whether  the  addition  of  potash  accounted  for  the 
coming  in  of  the  White  clover  and  the  other  improve¬ 
ments  referred  to.  In  the  top-dressing  applied  basic 
slag  meal  supplied  phosphoric  acid  in  available  form 
and  lime,  while  the  low  grade  sulphate  of  potash 
supplied  both  potash  and  magnesia.  The  experi¬ 
ment  did  not  demonstrate  whether  the  change  was 
caused  by  the  phosphoric  acid,  the  lime,  the  mag¬ 
nesia  or  the  potash.  Accordingly  a  new  series  of 
plots  was  laid  out,  top-dressed  for  the  first  time  in 
the  Spring  of  1015.  The  top-dressing  of  these  plots 
was  so  planned  as  to  make  it  possible  to  trace  the 
effect  of  each  of  the  four  constituents  above  referred 
to  and  of  all  their  possible  combinations.  The  re¬ 
sells,  though  not  yet  fully  manifested  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  experiments  have  continued  only  a 
single  season,  already  show  clearly  that  the  potash 
is  the  element  effective  in  bringing  in  the  White 
clover.  So  far  as  it:  goes,  therefore,  this  experiment 
seems  to  confirm  the  conclusion  based  upon  the 
known  facts  concerning  pasture  practice  already  pre¬ 
sented.  It  seems  impossible  to  believe  that  the  pas¬ 
ture  in  which  the  experiments  referred  to  were  tried 
was  unusually  rich  in  available  potash.  Were  that 
the  fact,  then  the  application  of  lime  and  phosphor¬ 
ic  acid  in  available  forms  should  bring  in  White 
clover.  It  has  not  done  so. 
WILL  THE  USE  OF  PLASTER  RENDER  POT¬ 
ASH  AVAILABLE? — Chemical  analysis  of  soils 
similar  to  that  of  the  pasture  above  referred  to  as 
well  as  of  soils  in  most  parts  of  Massachusetts  in¬ 
dicates  the  presence  of  a  large  amount  of  unavail¬ 
able  potash.  The  belief  appears  to  be  quite  general 
that  the  use  of  plaster  will  exercise  a  very  import¬ 
ant  influence  in  the  direction  of  increasing  the  avail¬ 
ability  of  this  potash.  1  would  not  have  it  under¬ 
stood  that  I  do  not  believe  that  plaster  may  exert 
some  influence  in  that  direction,  but  observed  facts 
in  connection  with  a  long  continued  experiment  on 
a  silt  loam  indicate  that  this  action  is  relatively 
small.  Each  of  the  experimental  plots  referred  to 
is  one-twentieth  of  an  acre  in  size,  and  is  part  of  a 
field  in  which  eaeli  plot  has  been  annually  fertilized 
in  the  same  way  for  twenty-eight  years.  Details  will 
be  stated  in  so  far  only  as  is  essential  to  throw  light 
upon  the  question  under  discussion.  The  figures 
presented  are  the  averages  of  12  corn  crops  grown 
in  rotation  with  the  other  common  crops  of  this 
latitude  during  the  progress  of  the  experiment.  The 
entire  field  has  received  three  applications  of  lime 
during  the  28  years,  applied  equally  to  all  plots. 
There  are  four  plots  in  the  field  to  which  no  fertil¬ 
izer  other  than  the  lime  has  been  applied. 
To  one  plot  muriate  of  potash  alone  has  been  ap¬ 
plied.  This  has  given  an  average  increase  of  27.35 
bushels  of  corn  per  acre. 
To  another  plot  muriate  of  potash  in  the  same 
quantity  has  been  used  in  connection  with  nitrate  of 
soda.  Tliis  plot  has  given  a  yield  of  19.98  bushels 
per  acre  more  than  that  obtained  by  the  use  of  ni¬ 
trate  of  soda  alone. 
Another  plot  has  received  the  same  amount  of 
muriate  of  potash  and  acid  phosphate.  This  plot 
has  given  an  average  yield  of  31.30  bushels  per  acre 
more  than  that  obtained  with  acid  phosphate  alone. 
Still  another  plot  lias  received  an  annual  applica¬ 
tion  of  muriate  of  potash  in  connection  with  both 
nitrate  of  soda  and  acid  phosphate.  This  plot  has 
given  an  average  yield  of  32.48  bushels  per  acre  more 
Nodules  on  Gradus  Pea  Roots.  Fig.  260 
than  that  obtained  with  nitrate  of  soda  and  acid 
phosphate,  without  potash.  [prof.]  wm.  p.  brooks. 
One  of  our  readers  wrote  on  beautifying  the  home 
grounds  and  suggested  planting  annuals.  The  type¬ 
writer  got  it  “plant  animals.”  The  wandering  cat  and 
dog  planted  beside  a  shrub  will  surely  make  it  more 
beautiful. 
The  New  Jersey  Station  reports  many  cases  of 
“leg  weakness”  this  year.  It  may  be  hereditary,  or 
caused  by  lack  of  proper  food,  cold  or  too  much  warmth. 
The  need  of  the  world  in  men  as  well  as  chicks  is  log 
strength. 
