G7jc  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1417 
and  the  damp  leaves  forked  out  from  time  to  time. 
One  year  we  tried  mulching  the  strawberries  with 
damp  leaves,  but  it  proved  a  failure,  as  the  leaves 
matted  down  over  the  plants  and  smothered  many 
of  them  out.  These  leaves  are  frequently  gathered 
in  the  woods  while  they  are  damp.  In  this  condi¬ 
tion  they  can  usually  be  forked  into  a  wagon  and 
thrown  around  trees  as  a  mulch.  If  this  is  done  it 
Three-phase  Transformer;  Silo  and  Dairy  Barn.  Fig.  572 
will  be  better  to  use  a  quantity  of  lime  along  with 
them  to  overcome  their  acid  condition.  One  of  the 
best  ways  to  handle  the  leaves  is  to  throw  them  into 
the  manure  or  compost  heap,  and  let  them  decay 
with  the  action  of  the  manure.  The  Department  of 
Agriculture  at  Washington  prints  a  pamphlet  on 
“Leaf  Mold”  by  F.  V.  Coville. 
Modern  Farm  Equipment 
THE  writer  was  recently  taking  photographs  on 
the  dairy  farm  of  Jacob  E.  White  of  Highland 
Co.,  O.,  and  was  impressed  with  three  things  in  the 
farm  equipment.  This  farm  is  noted  for  its  up-to- 
dateness  in  every  department,  but  the  large  hollow 
brick  silo  catches  the  eye  first.  Next  we  notice  the 
three-phase  transformers  on  posts  that  transform 
the  high  tension  current  from  the  nearby  town  of 
Greenfield,  for  running  silage  cutter,  separators, 
churn,  pumps,  feed  grinders  and  other  machines. 
Small  electric  motors  are  set  near  the  machine  to 
be  operated  and  the  machinery  can  be  operated  in 
units  or  all  together  if  needed.  Current  for  power 
used  during  daylight  hours  can  be  secured  at  very 
low  rates  from  most  lighting  plants,  and  in  this 
case  at  three  cents  per  kilowatt. 
Out  back  of  the  new  barn,  handy  to  the  corn¬ 
field,  I  found  the  perforated  metal  corncrlb  set  on  a 
continuous  concrete  foundation,  and  it  looks  good 
to  me.  Of  course  there  were  gasoline  engines,  lit¬ 
ter  carriers,  metal  stalls,  stanchion  and  calf  pens, 
but  the  three  tilings  shown  in  the  pictures  gave 
the  really  modern  distinction  to  the  equipment. 
Ohio.  w.  E.  DUCKWATX. 
Feeding  a  Pumpkin  on  Sugar 
The  enclosed  explains  itself.  Am  I  correct  in  think¬ 
ing  that  some  time  ago  you  published  something  in  re¬ 
gard  to  feeding  pumpkin  vines  milk,  or  sweetened 
water?  If  it’s  an  out-and-out  fabrication  the  Ncini- 
li/io  American  ought  to  be  willing  to  correct  it.  It 
is  a  burning  shame  that  our  scientific  periodicals  should 
be  permitted  to  blunder  so  when  they  get  out  of  the 
regular  beat.  a.  i.  root. 
Ohio. 
THIS  refers  to  an  article  in  the  Scientific  Ameri¬ 
can  for  May  20,  1916.  In  this  article  Mr.  S. 
Leonard  Bastin  tells  of  feeding  a  pumpkin  with  a 
solution  of  sugar.  Mr.  Bastin  says  that  a  few  days 
after  the  pumpkin  has  definitely  set  or  started  to 
The  Perforated  Metal  Corncrib.  Fig.  573 
grow  ho  begins  feeding  it  with  the  sugar  in  water. 
One  or  more  jars  will  be  used.  They  are  filled  with 
water  and  raw  sugar  stirred  in.  These  jars  are 
sunk  in  the  ground  close  to  the  pumpkin,  one  on 
each  side  of  the  fruit.  Bound  lamp  wicks  or  little 
rolls  of  cotton  are  vised  to  carry  the  sugar  to  the 
pumpkin.  One  end  of  the  wick  is  put  into  the  jar 
of  sugar  water  and  the  other  end  put  into  the  stalk 
•cf  the  punpkiu  close  to  the  fruit.  Little  holes  are 
made  in  the  stalk  with  a  penknife  and  the  ends  of 
the  wick  pushed  in.  Nothing  more  is  done  except 
to  keep  the  jars  well  supplied  with  sugar  water, 
stirring  this  water  two  or  three  times  a  day.  Then 
follows  this  statement. 
Tim  rate  of  growth  evidenced  by  the  pumpkin  is  as¬ 
tonishing.  It  will  be  found  that  the  fruit  grows  three 
or  four  times  faster  than  those  specimens  which  are 
not  fed  at  all.  It  is  easy  to  find  out  the  increase  in 
weight  by  placing  the  fruit  on  a  pair  of  scales  from 
time  to  time.  Care  must  be  taken  to  avoid  injuring  the 
Stalk  in  any  way.  Within  certain  limits  there  does 
not  seem  to  be  any  reason  why  punfpkins  should  not 
be  grown  in  this  manner  to  almost  any  magnitude. 
The  picture  at  Fig.  571  is  re-engraved  from  the 
Scientific  American .  This  seems  like  a  remarkable 
statement  to  us  and  we  submitted  it  to  some  of  the 
leading  plant  physiologists  in  the  country.  With 
one  accord  they  agree  that  it  is  very  improbable  that 
a  pumpkin  would  take  up  this  food  in  this  way.  The 
following  letter  from  Trof.  J.  W.  Slave  of  New  Jer¬ 
sey  Experiment  Station  states  the  case  briefly  and 
clearly. 
I  am  familiar  with  the  article  appearing  in  the 
Scientific  American,  issue  of  May  20,  to  which  you 
refer.  That  the  artificial  “feeding”  of  a  strong  sugar 
solution  to  a  pumpkin,  could  induce  increased  growth 
as  claimed  by  the  writer  of  this  article,  seems  to  me 
to  bo  entirely  improbable. 
The  writer  of  the  article  in  question  is  undoubtedly 
sincere  iu  presenting  bis  claim,  but  the  facts  of  phy¬ 
siological  processes  in  plants  preclude  the  possibility  of 
inducing  any  “astonishing"  rates  of  growth  by  such 
artificial  means  as  were  here  employed.  Any  increased 
growth  of  the  pumpkin  during  the  time  period  of  the 
experiment  can  scarcely  be  attributed  to  any  nourish¬ 
ment  derived  from  the  cane  sugar  solution,  since  plant 
membranes  are  practically  impermeable  to  cane  sugar. 
j.  w.  shive. 
Personally  we  think  that  this  story  is  just  about 
as  probable  as  the  one  which  we  heard  in  Colorado 
some  years  ago.  A  farmer  in  that  country  threw'  the 
manure  out  of  his  cow'  stable  until  the  pile  became 
larger  than  the  barn,  and  either  the  manure  pile  or 
the  barn  had  to  be  moved.  One  Spring  the  children 
planted  several  seeds  of  a  Connecticut  field  pumpkin 
on  the  manure  pile  near  the  barn.  It  grew'  into 
a  tremendous  vine,  and  not  being  checked,  wound 
itself  around  the  barn,  and  so  great  was  its  strength 
derived  from  the  manure  pile  that  it  finally  picked 
the  barn  up  and  carried  it  three  rods  away  to  a 
new  location.  The  man  who  told  this  story  stated 
positively  that  he  had  seen  the  barn  and  knew  it 
bad  been  moved  and  we  think  liis  statement  is  in 
its  way  just  about  as  probable  as  this  new  idea  that 
the  baby  pumpkin  will  suck  sugar  water  out  of  a 
bottle  and  grow'  into  a  giant  by  doing  so.  There  is 
still  another  fool  story  of  the  man  who  cut  off  a 
pumpkin  vine  and  put  the  cut  end  into  a  pau  of 
milk.  The  pan  was  kept  filled  and  the  pumpkin 
sacked  up  the  milk  from  day  to  day.  When  they 
finally  cut  open  the  pumpkin  they  found  a  big  lump 
of  butter  inside! 
Early  Drop  of  Apples 
I  would  like  to  know  of  any  way  to  prevent  apples 
from  dropping  from  trees.  On  some  trees  nearly  every 
one  comes  off  jnst  as  they  are  almost  ripe.  w.  E.  T. 
Massachusetts. 
IN  order  to  prevent  the  trouble  you  must  know 
what  causes  it,  and  there  are  several  reasons  for 
dropping  apples.  Some  varieties  are  far  more  likely 
to  drop  than  others.  This  year  with  us  Twenty 
Ounce,  Maiden  Blush,  and  Gravenstein  dropped 
badly.  In  some  years  McIntosh,  which  ripens  un¬ 
evenly,  will  drop  part  of  its  fruit  before  the  vest 
is  ready  to  pick.  It  may  be  that  your  trees  are  of 
these  varieties,  or  others  which  are  prone  to  fail. 
Of  course  wormy  fruit  will  fall  before  the  perfect 
fruit.  Were  these  trees  sprayed?  Diseased  fruit 
affected  with  fungus  or  other  troubles  is  likely  to 
fall,  while  fruit  thoroughly  sprayed  and  perfectly 
formed  will  hang  on  hotter.  Trees  of  the  same 
variety  appear  to  differ  in  their  ability  to  hang  to 
the  fruit.  A  tree  badly  afflicted  with  borers,  or  an 
uusprayed  one  which  has  lost  a  part  of  its  foliage, 
or  one  suffering  from  canker  is  likely  to  give  up  its 
fruit  early.  Trees  that  have  been  over-stimulated 
by  stable  manure  or  nitrogen,  with  not  enough 
phosphoric  acid,  will  also  give  trouble  in  this  way. 
Thus  there  are  several  reasons  for  this  early  drop¬ 
ping,  and  we  should  have  to  know  more  about  the 
trees  in  order  to  give  definite  advice. 
Generally  speaking  the  healthier  the  tree,  with 
solid  well-grown  wood,  the  better  the  fruit  will  hang 
to  it.  We  should  look  for  borers  and  get  rid  of 
them.  The  trees  should  be  fully  sprayed,  not  only 
to  kill  the  worms  but  to  take  care  of  scale,  plant 
lice,  and  other  insects.  A  good  application  of  phos¬ 
phoric  acid  iu  addition  to  stable  manure  will  often 
give  the  trees  a  healthier  grip  on  the  fruit,  so  that 
generally  speaking  spraying,  killing  the  borers  and 
a  fair  cultivation  with  an  abundance  of  phosphate 
i?  about  the  best  plan  to  follow  in  order  to  make 
sure  of  the  fruit. 
Experience  in  Raking  Stones 
RAKING  stones  is  a  problem  that  has  been  reg¬ 
ularly  inquired  about  every  few  weeks  for 
many  years  and  in  reply  to  E.  L.  D.,  page  1363,  I 
would  like  to  describe  my  own  experience.  Twenty- 
four  years  ago  I  bought  a  farm  on  the  Blue  Ridge 
in  Virginia,  and  the  day  I  took  possession  but  one 
A  Hollow  Brick  Silo  in  Ohio.  Fig.  574 
quarter  of  an  acre  out.  of  120  was  clear  of  rock. 
That  is,  clear  enough  to  call  clear;  later  I  pried 
out  and  “snigged”  off  with  two  horses  13  big  bould¬ 
ers  anywhere  from  500  pounds  to  a  ton  in  weight 
from  this  quarter  acre,  which  was  the  former  own¬ 
er’s  garden.  I  have  now  50  acres  cleared  of  rock 
so  we  can  use  all  kinds  of  modern  implements.  The 
old  mountaineer  from  whom  I  bought  had  never 
owned  a  moldboard  plow  or  a  wagon. 
My  Alfalfa  fields,  which  I  started  20  years  ago, 
l  have  been  always  very  anxious  to  have  clean,  and 
cnce  I  raked  one  field  of  eight  acres  all  by  hand 
did  hauled  tons  and  tons  of  small  rock  to  make 
a  fine  macadamized  road  from  the  gate  to  the  house. 
But  the  best  work  I  did  was  with  a  horse  rake  I 
made  myself.  I  took  two  pieces  of  angle  iron  3 % 
feet  long  and  drilled  quarter-inch  holes  through  both 
pieces  every  two  inches  apart.  I  then  got  IS  rake 
teeth  of  tool  steel  IS  inches  long  and  turned  a 
short  right  angle  at  one  end.  of  each.  These  I 
bolted  between  the  two  pieces  of  angle  iron,  with 
the  short  turned  angle  on  each  tooth  pinched  be¬ 
tween  the  two  pieces  so  the  teeth  could  not  twist  or 
turn,  and  were  held  absolutely  tight.  Then  I  bolted 
two  shafts  on  one  side  of  the  rake  head  thus  formed, 
and  two  plow  handles  on  the  other  side.  With  one 
horse  this  rake  would  rake  into  windrows  two  or 
three  acres  a  day.  I  held  the  rake  to  the  ground 
until  I  had  about  as  much  as  the  horse  could  well 
pull  and  at  the  same  time  keep  raking,  and  then  I 
lifted  it  up  and  left  the  load  of  rocks  in  a  pile.  By 
lifting  as  nearly  at  the  same  place  on  each  round  the 
rocks  were  left  in  a  windrow  and  these  were  usu¬ 
ally  about  a  rod  apart — sometimes  eight  or  10  feet 
according  to  the  size  and  thickness  of  the  rocks. 
We  hauled  with  a  dump  cart,  one  man  on  each  side 
of  the  cart  and  one  behind,  each  armed  with  oyster 
forks.  It  is  much  easier  to  handle  small  rocks  with 
an  oyster  fork  and  a  good  many  rocks  can  be  hauled 
in  a  day  with  a  cart  and  three  men  with  forks. 
Loudoun  County,  Va.  j.  a.  truesdeix. 
The  Pine  Blister  Disease 
IN  the  cartoon  shown  at  Fig.  570  the  New  York 
“Evening  Telegram ”  tries  to  show  up  the  trouble 
in  the  Hudson  Valley  over  the  White  pine  blister. 
One  Method  of  Packing  Celery  for  Winter.  Fig.  573 
This  pine  disease  passes  part  of  its  life  on  currant 
and  gooseberry.  In  trying  to  keep  it  out  of  New 
York  the  Agricultural  Department  has  ordered  the 
destruction  of  currants  and  gooseberries  in  a  strip 
aiong  the  cast  side  of  the  Hudson  River.  The  truth 
is  that  the  bush  fruits  are  more  important  than  the 
pines  in  the  valley,  and  fruit  growers  ask,  why  not 
destroy  the  pines  to  save  the  currants? 
♦ 
