in  quality  and  not  foxy.  Tested  by  the 
first  year,  it  is  not  the  equal  of  Lneile. 
L.  K.  JOHNSON. 
Cape  Girardeau  Co.,  Mo. 
throughout  the  season  and  the  last  bas¬ 
ket  in  September  brings  the  same  money 
as  the  first  one  in  July.  So  much  for 
Campbell's.  I  speak  with  confidence  be¬ 
cause  it  has  maintained  its  rank  as  pre¬ 
mier  for  10  years  without  a  failure.  Yet 
a  mile  away  a  brother  fruit  grower  pro¬ 
nounces  it  a  failure,  but.  lie  evidently 
failed  to  satisfy  its  two  demands  respect¬ 
ing  which  it  will  take  no  refusal.  These 
are  high  feeding  and  short  pruning. 
These  it  must  and  will  have  before  it  will 
show  you  what  it  is  capable  of.  Every 
year  it  should  be  fed  stable  manure  like 
cabbage,  and  pruned  to  not  over  24  buds, 
with  an  average  of  20.  Even  then  it  will 
steal  a  march  on  you  by  putting  out  two 
shoots  from  one  bud.  Great  is  Camp¬ 
bell’s.  I  could  make  as  much  money  and 
have  the  table  supplied  during  the  whole 
season  from  first  to  last,  with  just  that 
one  grape  and  not  feel  much  deprivation 
at  the  absence  of  the  others.  Probably  I 
could  make  more  money,  for  Campbell’s 
Does  the  Gravenstein  Apple  Drop 
Prematurely 
Conversing  with  a  large  apple  grower 
in  regard  to  the  Gravenstein  he  said  he 
had  practically  abandoned  that  variety, 
on  account  of  the  premature  falling  of 
the  fruit.  I  find  this  difficulty  with  ours 
and  wish  you  would  say  if  it  is  a  charac¬ 
teristic  of  this  kind  and  if  any  method  of 
fertilizing  would  prevent  it?  F.  c.  c. 
Bridgton,  Me. 
I  notice  that  aphis  are  very  prevalent 
on  Gravenstein  apple  trees  wher  sprayed 
with  lime-sulphur  after  the  leaves  appear. 
My  own  theory  is  that  the  lime- 
sulphur  encourages  the  aphis  by  dis¬ 
couraging  the  foliage.  The  remedy 
may  be  to”’  use  100  to  200  lbs.  of  nitrate 
of  soda  per  acre  early  in  the  season  to 
swing  the  leaves  past  the  spray  injury. 
This  would  help  some,  but  the  use  of  a 
Bordeaux  weak  in  copper  sulphate,  and 
very  strong  in  lime  with  or  without  the 
addition  of  Black-leaf  40  (as  per  Prof. 
Parrott’s  experiments)  is  as  important  in 
my  opinion.  I  used  both  the  nitrate  and 
the  Bordeaux  this  year  and  trees  are 
very  little  affected  with  aphis.  The  apiiis 
causes  the  fruit  to  fall  prematurely.  I 
used  over  two  tons  of  quicklime  with  450 
lbs.  of  copper  sulphate  in  making.  18,000 
gallons  of  Bordeaux.  Sly  fruit  is  very 
tine,  Gravensteins  superb,  about  400  bar¬ 
rels  of  them.  JOHN  BUCHANAN. 
Nova  Scotia. 
The  dropping  of  Gravensteins  is  a 
characteristic  of  that  variety,  but  the  loss 
can  he  minimized  by  making  two  or  three 
pickings,  as  the  variety  ripens  continu¬ 
ously  over  a  period  of  several  weeks. 
Many  good  varieties  need  to  be  handled 
in  this  way.  aud  growers  who  wish  to 
harvest  the  full  crop  at  one  picking  are 
steering  shy  of  these  varieties.  I  make 
from  three  to  five  pickings  of  Yellow 
Transparent,  and  it  is  surprising  how  the 
smaller,  greener  apples  develop  fom  pick¬ 
ing  to  picking.  I  know  of  no  particular 
culture  or  method  of  fertilization  that 
will  change  the  ripening  habit  of  the  va¬ 
riety  and  unless  this  is  done  the  early 
ripe  portion  of  the  crop  will  drop  before 
the  late  developing  portion  is  developed. 
Saratoga  Go.,  N.  Y.  GKO.  U.  SC’UAUBICB. 
Gravensteins  are  grown  all  over  the 
fruit  sections  of  Maine,  and  while  in 
some  cases  there  is  complaint  about, 
dropping  in  others  they  hold  until  ready 
to  ship.  Why  the  Gravenstein  does  well 
in  restricted  sections  of  the  State  and 
drops  badly  in  others  is  not  yet  uncov¬ 
ered,  and  theories  count  for  little  to  the 
grower.  In  my  own  work  I  ant  more 
and  more  forced  to  the  conviction  that 
there  must  be  a  closer  study  of  Individual 
trees  and  ther  environment.  I  have  one 
Rhode  Island  Greening  tree  on  which  I 
have  been  at  work  eight  years  digging 
around  it,  fertilizing,  by  different  meth¬ 
ods,  and  with  varying  combinations,  yet 
not  until  this  season  has  it  shown  a  will¬ 
ing  spirit.  It  stands  alone,  in  grass,  and 
I  have  been  determined  to  find  out  what 
was  the  crying  want  of  that  particular 
tree.  Yearly  it  has  been  well  pruned, 
sprayed,  fertilized  and.  as  with  every 
other  tree,  the  borers  are  carefully  looked 
after  in  June  and  hgain  in  August.  Last 
year  I  mulched  in  July,  and  last.  Spring 
gave  it  another  heavy  application  and  the 
response  is  something  wonderful.  New 
wood  18  inches  long,  large,  dark,  strong 
leaves,  and  at  least  four  barrels  of  fine 
apples  with  hardly  a  drop,  in  a  season 
when  dropping  has  been  nearly  universal. 
Other  trees  do  not  resound  in  like  man¬ 
ner  to  the  mulch,  and  this  forces  the  con¬ 
viction  that  I  must  know  more  of  the  in¬ 
dividuality  of  each  tree,  and  make  its  en¬ 
vironment  congenial,  no  matter  what  my 
theory  may  be.  The  tree  is  to  bo  the  final 
arbiter  with  me.  Before  one  can  decide 
any  of  the  vexed  problems  be  must  know 
the  character  of  his  subsoil  and  its  dip  as 
well  as  freedom  from  pockets,  and  then 
comes  the  congeniality  of  the  soil.  There 
is  no  reason  why  the  Gravenstein  should 
not  hold  for  its  season  as  well  as  other 
varieties,  and  if  it  doesn't  something  is 
wrong  with  the  soil,  system  of  fertilizing, 
subsoil,  or  treatment  of  tin-  tree.  If  I 
had  trees  which  dropped  their  fruit  pre¬ 
maturely  I  should  give  them,  late  in  the 
Fall,  a  good  big  application  of  barn  ma¬ 
nure,  one-third  of  a  cord  to  a  tree,  add 
hog,  horse  and  cow  mixed,  if  possible.  In 
the  Spring,  follow  with  a  straw  mulch  a 
foot  deep.  Of  course,  this  is  on  the  as¬ 
sumption  that  the  trees  are  In  grass;  if  in 
cultivation  should  stop  nud  feed  liberally 
on  phosphoric  add,  applied  in  early 
Spring.  The  amount  of  nitrogen  used 
would  depend  entirely  op  the  new  wood 
growth  the  past  season.  If  that  is  liberal 
I  should  rely  for  a  season  on  phosi  boric 
acid,  hoping  to  put  strength  into  the 
wood  fibre.  My  own  Gravensteins. 
Not  only  brilliant  inexpensive  light  for  your  house 
and  barns  —  but  gas  fuel  for  your  kitchen  as  well 
You  simply  fill  the  COLT  generator  with  Carbide  and 
water — then,  without  attention,  it  furnishes  the  whitest 
and  most  beautiful  light  for  your  house  and  bams  —  and 
gas  fuel  to  your  kitchen.  For  seventeen  years  we  have 
been  building — improving  and  marketing  COLT  PLANTS 
in  constantly  increasing  numbers. 
The  reputation  built  by  all  of  these  plants  now  serving  thousands  of 
country  homes  in  this  district  is  our  biggest  asset,  a  reputation  for  depend¬ 
able,  efficient  service  (without  repair  expense). 
Good  light  and  gas  cooking  fuel  are  two  cenveniences 
which  every  city  home  has  found  Indispensable. 
Carbide  Lighting  and  Cooking  Plant 
has  made  both  conveniences  easily  available  and  indis¬ 
pensable  to  the  country  home: 
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if  you  wish,  a  free  estimate  of  cost  -  tell  us  how  many  rooms  you  hare 
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Just  Address  —  Dept.  F 
J.  B.  Colt  Company,  42nd.  Street  Building 
NEW  YORK  CITY 
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Every  farmer  interested  in  increasing  the  pro¬ 
ductiveness  of  his  soil  should  have  this  big  illu¬ 
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labor  costs,  how  to  get  cheaper  plant  food  and  how 
to  protect  crops  from  drought  and  flooding  by  using 
Atlas  Farm  Powder 
Lucile  Grape;  Color,  Red 
would  fill  the  hill  for  every  kind  of  grape 
want  unless  it  be  one  for  white  varieties. 
Moore’s  Early. — This  is  the  Missouri 
market  grape  for  ail  early,  and  gives  sat¬ 
isfaction,  for  it  is  as  easily  grown  as  the 
Concord,  and  no  more  exacting.  At  first 
glance  you  might  think  it  a  peer  of 
Campbell’s,  but  acquaintanceship  would 
show  you  that  Moore's  is  inferior  in 
quality,  beauty,  size  of  bunch,  produc¬ 
tiveness  and  shipping  and  keeping  value. 
1  cut  all  of  Moore's  before  I  cut  Camp¬ 
bell’s.  for  the  latter  will  not  crack  no 
matter  what  the  weather. 
New  Sorts. — A  new  grape  that  may 
have  a  great  future  before  it  is  a  cross 
between  Campbell's  and  Brighton,  made 
by  Prof.  Baehmann  of  Arkansas.  The 
sample  bunches  that  I  saw  seemed  to  he 
the  equal  of  Campbell’s  and  to  resemble 
it  closely,  but  it  may  prove  superior.  The 
one  defect  in  Campbell’s  is  imperfect 
pollination,  which  results  in  many  im¬ 
perfect  flusters  which  require  fashioning 
over  with  the  knife  before  going  into  the 
basket.  Two  new  grapes  that  fruited 
here  for  the  first  time  were  the  Regal  and 
Lucile.  varieties  highly  praised  in  some 
Eastern  catalogues.  I  found  them  both 
to  be  heavy  croppers  of  large,  handsome 
clusters,  quite  superior  in  this  respect. 
The  Lucile  makes  a  very  long  cylindrical 
cluster  without  shoulder;  red  in  color, 
fair  in  flavor,  but  a  little  foxy.  It  has 
kept  well  in  sacks,  but  did  not  color  up  so 
well :  was  not  near  so  rich  in  hue,  I 
consider  it  very  promising.  The  Regal  is 
also  a  red,  has  a  shorter,  more  compact 
cluster  and  rinens  rather  late.  It  is  fair 
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