142 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 4, 1922 
Ruralisms 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
A little foresight is sometimes of great 
benefit. We are all fond of apples and 
apple sauce. Last Fall it was evident 
that apples were going to be among the 
costly luxuries this Winter, and Fall 
apples were plentiful and comparatively 
cheap. These were not. keeping apples, 
and we bought and made them into apple 
sauce and canned it. And now we have 
apple sauce almost daily, while the only 
apples on our market are the beautiful 
and poor Oregon apples, selling at five 
to seven cents each. Never had such a 
stock of apple sauce, and we manage to 
get along without baked apples, though 
ifc is a privation. 
A correspondent asks what I eat to 
maintain activity at my age. The main¬ 
stay in my diet is milk, sweet milk and 
buttermilk, real buttermilk. The country 
woman who serves us with butter, real 
butter, also brings us some buttermilk. 
Then T eat whole bread, very little meat, 
and always some sort of fruit, either 
canned or fresh. A millionaire business 
man owns a large dairy farm, which is 
run on modern ideas, and he supplies a 
large part of the milk consumed in our 
city, and T drink a quart or more daily. 
Then it is hard to estimate what the 
garden supplies in the filling of the table. 
Wo have today in the open garden cab¬ 
bages buried, spinach in the open ground, 
lettuce in the frames, and stored inside 
the garden products are sweet and Irish 
potatoes and onions, canned tomatoes and 
fruits and apple sauce aforesaid. What 
these things actually cost is another ques¬ 
tion. But the fun of growing them and 
having them is worth a good deal. At 
any rate, it may be like a family keeping 
a pig and fattening it on bought food. 
The meat might have been bought for less 
money, but they have the meat, and it 
has been paid for like savings bank money 
A good garden cannot be estimated in 
dollars of benefit to a family. I would 
have the garden, even if it cost more to 
grow the vegetables than to buy them. 
The pleasure of having nice thiugs, for 
v.bieh one has paid in the sweat of his 
brow, largely is worth to one’s bodily 
health as much almost as the eating of 
them. 
Now in a week the new season begins 
with the sowing of the early toruato seed. 
A friend in Vermont sends seed of several 
sorts, and among them some of the Bur¬ 
bank toumto grown from seed from Mr. 
Burbank direct. He said that bis best 
vines were 16 ft. high, and he sends a 
photograph of the tall ones, and also a 
photo of a bunch which, so far as I can 
count, had over 20 tomatoes. I shall be 
glad to test them this year from pedigree 
seed, for those I bad last year amounted 
to nothing. 
Correspondents have sent me so many 
varieties of tomatoes that it is quite a 
task to try all and do justice to each. 
The Jumbo tomato, which I grew last 
year, has been set down for another sea¬ 
son’s trial. These. 1 believe, are not on 
the market. Again I must remind my 
readers that I am growing nothing fin- 
sale, either of seed or plants. 
W..F. MASSEY. 
Cherries for Western New York 
Heading your article on “An Ideal 
Ranch in Douglas County. Oregon.” in 
the issue of December SI, 1921, 1 notice 
that in regard to sweet cherries you 
recommend three varieties, the Bing. 
Lambert, and Royal Ann. I am consid¬ 
ering planting some sweet cherries this 
Spring, and would like to know whether 
these varieties would grow well in my 
section of the country—Niagara County. 
Western New York. t. M. w. 
L. M. W„ who lives near the lake shore 
in Niagara County, can plant either sweet 
or sour cherries, as both will grow in that 
section. The latter section is nearly as 
far north as Franklin County, but the 
elevation is lower, and the large body of 
water modifies the temperature, so that 
there is little Winter injury in the section 
mentioned. A list of cherries recom¬ 
mended for any section must be general, 
and while the three mentioned by L. M. 
W. are all good, we would add the follow¬ 
ing to the list for New York State: 
Sweet white cherries. Ida. Wood. Na¬ 
poleon (best). Yellow Spanish, Sweet, 
dark: Black Tartarian, Ring, Schmidt, 
Windsor. Sour varieties: Early Rich¬ 
mond. Montmorency (best) English 
Morello. The above are in order of sea¬ 
son. T. H. T. 
Handling Horseradish 
How can I get. rid of a wild bed of 
horseradish which has gained consider¬ 
able headway in my garden? What is the 
proper way to plant and take care of 
n o rsera d i sh ? L. N. 
By telling how horseradish is propa¬ 
gated, as L. N. requests, one can explain 
why this plant is difficult to eradicate. 
Commercially horseradish plants are 
grown from sets, these sets being the side 
roots taken from the large tap roots 
which are prepared for market. In get¬ 
ting rid of old beds one must remove all 
pieces of root, otherwise the broken pieces 
will grow new plants, and the labor is in 
vain. For eradicating horseradish, plow 
the laud, having a boy follow in the fur¬ 
row picking up the roots as they are 
Turned out. If the plowing is done in 
the early Fall, the sections of roots re¬ 
maining in the soil will send up leaves 
at once, and if the area is not too large, 
these can be removed with a spade as they 
show above (he surface. On a large area, 
however, I should plow a second time, 
as the new shoots appear, and harrow 
the ground thoroughly. This will leave 
most of the roots on the surface, where 
they will freeze and die over Winter. 
Roots exposed over Winter are ordinarily 
killed by freezing and thawing, while 
those remaining in the soil are unin¬ 
jured. Pieces of root remaining in the 
soil will sprout before other plants get 
started in the Spring, and can be re¬ 
moved with a spade, being sure to get 
every piece of root, tine must remember 
that any piece of root left in the soil will 
produce a plant. 
In growing horseradish for market, the 
side roots used for sets are taken about 
6 in. long and half an inch through. By 
cutting the top off square and the base 
slanting, mistake in planting is avoided. 
When trimmed in the Fall the roots are 
bunched and stored over Winter in sand 
for Spring planting. The rows are laid 
nut 3 ft. apart, and furrows plowed : then 
the roots are set vertically a foot to 18 in. 
apart: 14.500 sets are needed per acre 
at a foot apart, and 9.680 sets at 18 in. 
apart. Some early cultivated crop, such 
as peas, may be grown in rows between 
the horseradish rows, thus giving a re¬ 
turn on the land early in Ihe season. 
T. H. T. 
French Endive 
I would like to get any information you 
can give me about witloof chicory sold 
as endive. Is there a good market for it? 
When is it in sea sou, and what is the 
price? (’an it be raised on muck land, 
and can muck be used in (he greenhouse 
for forcing it? l)o you know of anyone 
who is now producing it profitably? 
New York. L. H. p. 
To force witloof chicory or French en¬ 
dive. we do not need a rich soil, but 
plenty of moisture, as Ihe forcing simply 
results in a change in the plant food from 
the root to the leaf. The roots are grown 
from seed sown in May in rows 15 in. 
apart, the plants being 0 to 9 in. in the 
row. In the Fall the roots are dug and 
placed in cool cellar, where they cannot 
freeze. Soil is placed over them until 
they are ready to force. It takes from 
two to three weeks to produce the final 
product. To get a head, the roots must 
be covered (i t<> S in., so the head must 
force its way through. A portion of the 
soil is added at a time so the crown bud 
will not be bent by overweight. The 
crown bud from the root is the only good 
one. the outer buds being small, and will 
not produce heads, so they should be re¬ 
moved when planted. We grow our chic¬ 
ory under greenhouse benches, covering 
the open space with dark cloth. The roots 
must be watered heavily daily. 
There is a better market for this prod¬ 
uct in medium-sized cities, such as .Syra¬ 
cuse. Ithaca. Elmira and Binghamton, 
than in the large markets, as New York. 
T. H. T. 
Low Prices Again for Choicest Plant Food 
ll 
MAPES FAMOUS 
| FERTILIZERS 
m The Standard for Generations 
j BASIS BONE AND GUANO NO ROCK USED 
| AVAILABILITY WITHOUT ACIDITY 
= Wholesale market for even choicest materials back to before the war basis. 
g YOU CAN RICHLY AFFORD TO BUY THE BEST 
= For the farmer to make money today, big crops of best quality 
= are absolutely necessary. 
H Send direct co us or to our nearest agent for pamphlet and prices . 
§ The Mapes Formula & Peruvian Guano Co. 
= Hartford Branch 143 Liberty Street 
= 239 State Street, Hartford, Conn. New York City, N. Y. 
