The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1223 
potash and 80 lbs. of nitrate of soda on the corn, 
•same on the wheat, and no lime, lias given best net 
results as far as crops are concerned. 
The foregoing would seem to indicate that as fai¬ 
ns the soil is concerned it paid to buy nitrate of 
soda and leave off the lime, hut the effect on the 
crops is not the only thing involved. These crops 
must he fed to sheep, and without lime we grow 
Timothy and Ited-top hay, while with lime we grow 
clover hay. For best results in feeding sheep the 
Timothy must he supplemented with oilmeal. With 
one cropping system we buy limestone, with the 
other we buy nitrate of soda and oilmeal. 
The cost of getting the lime on the land brings up 
the matter of substituting Soy beans for clover, as 
the Soy beans will grow with less lime than clover, 
and the sheep thrive on the Soy hay as well as on 
clover hay. But it is cpiite doubtful whether the 
Soys are as beneficial to the soil as clover. 
If it may be said that a standard ration for sheep 
is corn silage and clover hay as roughage, with corn, 
oats and cottonseed meal as the grain feed, the 
question arises, can we substitute Soy beaus for oats, 
since oats cannot be profitably grown in this region? 
If so, then the cropping system should be corn. Soy 
beans, wheat. In the bill country fitting the crop¬ 
ping system to the land and to the animals to l>e 
kept is quite a problem, and requires something 
brought in any way you arrange it. But high freight 
rates and expensive haul to the farm makes the 
limestone treatment questionable in many places. 
Ohio Experiment Station, cahy w. moxtuomery. 
Motorists and Milk 
H ERE is a new one in favor of milk. We have 
repeatedly told of its value for children, in¬ 
valids and elderly people. Now there enter a new 
(lass—motorists. Mr. L. E. De Bra tells of a motor 
trip from California to Florida. It was a rough 
trip: 
“Well, we made the trip. Including detours, we 
traveled 3.587 miles in four weeks. We went through 
the worst of the country we could find. We traveled 
roads that never knew a scraper; took little jaunts 
where it was 40 miles to the next water; climbed pre¬ 
cipitous mountains where the rooks were hot enough to 
fry eggs; drove through deserts below sea level where 
the only water obtainable was stinking with sulphur 
and came out of the sand at a temperature of 105.” 
That was had enough with poor drinking water, 
poor food and constant bouncing over rough roads. 
Before they started friends advised them to take 
p'enty of stilts and castor oil. for there would surely 
I e digestive trouble. But these fears proved ground¬ 
less. Mr. De Bra explains in this fashion: 
“Now. although we passed through hardships we never 
dreamed of facing when we started, we were never de 
I \vcd an hour by sickness. Not once did we have to 
resort to the medicine hag. Not once did the children 
have the least indication of stomach or bowel complaint. 
And as for the wife and 1. we Improved in health every 
day and finished the journey feeling like a pair of 
Spring colts. 
"Milk! That tells the story. Milk was our meat, 
our drink, our dessert. Where the water appeared 
d iirhtful we drank milk. Where the food was ques¬ 
tionable we drank more milk, or ate plenty of ice cream. 
When we drove so late into the nighr we were too tired 
to cook a meal, we tilled up on milk, lay down on the 
ground nud slept like children. 
"There Were times of course where milk was not 
easily obtainable, and we had to plan ahead; hut the 
wife managed admirably. We found it possible to 
obtain a supply at least once every day. and to keep it 
cool by tiie use of wet cloths. Very often our midday 
meal consisted of a sandwich apiece and all the milk or 
ice cream we wanted. This made a lunch that we found 
cooling, satisfying and highly nourishing.” 
We have no doubt of it whatever. Milk would be 
the most satisfactory basis for food that one could 
think of on such a trip. During the “excursion sea¬ 
son" many a farmer could do a good business at 
selling milk to motorists if be would put up a good 
sign and sell cold, sweet milk of good quality. There 
is <a good and growing demand for it. and we should 
all work to encourage and develop the trade. 
“Home Raised” Peach Trees 
UCII has been printed on the subject of home- 
raised fruit trees. I enclose a photograph of 
i lie home-raised peach tree at two years from set¬ 
ting. There are many other trees iu this four-acre 
block eq.ua I ly as good. These trees were two-year- 
old roots, one-year-old sprouts when set. 
The trunk of the tree at the date the picture was 
taken (May 7) measured scant 3 in. in diameter. 
The height may he judged, as the writer, standing by 
the side of the tree, measures 5 ft. 5) in. 
The small tree in the background is an apple, two- 
year-old root stub, grafted and set in its permanent 
place as you see it the same time the peaches were 
set. Peach trees cost but little more than raising 
two stalks of corn up to the time of setting. Now, 
how would you like to sell your corn at 35 to 60 
cents a stalk? It being necessary to cultivate peach 
sprouts two years, thus you have a two-year root 
and one-year sprout, budding the first Summer. 
I bought 70 grape stalks two years ago of a nur¬ 
sery in the Middle West. This year about all vines 
bore. I have three or four varieties I did not order, 
and only two and three vines of the same variety to¬ 
gether. 
You may think they were all mixed together when 
* * *. . . 
Home-raised, Peach Tree Tiro Years from Setting 
Fig. 528 
set. but each variety bundle was not opened until 
the writer was ready to set the variety named. It 
is a sad sight to one who stakes his pride on his 
endeavors to get such a layout. It does not cost me 
over five cents per tree to hud and rear a peach tree 
as above described, and a much finer tree than is 
A etc Seedling Tear, from the Department of 
Agriculture. Fig. 529 
ever shipped from a crowded nursery row. Apples 
will cost a trifle more, but not over eight cents. 
Grapes and currants can be grown for about two 
cents. wm. s. collixs. 
Fruit Dealers and Fruit Sales 
I N a recent issue of the Syracuse (N. Y.> Post- 
Standard our old friend John T. Roberts throws 
a spotlight on some of the habits of dealers in fruits 
and vegetables. Mr. Roberts says that he threw 
away six bushels of fine Tyson pears because the 
Syracuse dealers would not handle them on a fair 
proportion. They could have sold these pears at the 
rate of two for a cent, and made 100 per cent profit, 
besides attracting new trade. But they would not 
touch them, even while selling inferior fi*uit at five 
cents each. The trouble about that seemed to be 
that people might form the habit of buying more 
fruit if the price was made right. 
Mr. Roberts also found that these dealers seemed 
to be wholly ignorant us to varieties and names of 
fruits. Some of them did not know the name of a 
single apple in their stock. One was trying to sell 
an apple to a woman who called for a quince: 
Last week I was called upon to name a certain plum 
that was being placed in a store window. I told my 
friend that it was one of the Japanese grotip, probably 
the Burbank. lie sneeringly replied that it wasn't pos¬ 
sible to import fresh plums from Japan; that this lot 
had rump from California. I was in contempt. ’When 
he put up the price card. 15 cents on a pint basket. I 
remarked that he was pretty high, for I was selling 
that same plum at six cents a quart (none now remain¬ 
ing). and his reply was that he couldn't afford to do 
business on any smaller profit. 
This shows something of what we run up against 
iu our efforts to help increase retail sales of good 
fruit. The city people are anxious to buy fruit, but 
they cannot at this time pay high prices. The dealers 
will not make a fair price, with the result that a 
good share of the crop must rot on the ground, be¬ 
cause there is no bridge between the producer and 
the consumer. 
A Big Crop of Second Growth Fodder 
O NE colored man was reading to another the 
account of a child that died from eating too 
much watermelon. His hearer pondered and re¬ 
plied: “Must he some mistake about flat. Cain’t 
be too much watermelon.” So one would think that 
cow pea and sorghum hay would not come amiss on 
a dairy farm, and the more the better. But it is 
rather embarrassing when nature overdoes herself 
and shoves on you a mass of growth beyond your 
wildest imaginings. On land that is producing 60 
barrels to the acre of prime Cobblers, as fast as the 
barrels were removed 1 drilled in six peeks Whip¬ 
poorwill cow peas and one peck sorghum to the acre. 
The dates were July 8,15 and 26. Heat and moisture 
conditions were perfect. In 00 days the peas were 
up to my shoulders, the sorghum higher than I could 
reach, and still going strong. One measured square 
yard cut 11 lbs. Do you know whit that means? 
Over 26 tons to the acre, and every individual pea 
vine twined around a stalk of sorghum. And. re¬ 
member, this hay must be made the last week in 
September and the first part of October, when the 
sun begins to hang low in the heavens, and the dews 
and fogs are plentiful in this seacoast country. How 
will 1 handle it? The most promising plan seems 
to he. if I succeed in inowiug the growth, to set a 
10-ft. pole in the ground with cross arms nailed a 
few inches above ground for a lower support, and 
another set nailed to the pole 6 ft. up after the stack 
is built that high. This stack is built from the 
ground, and going into the small stack half dry will 
cure out to haul in during the Winter as needed. 
Do you know of a better plan? It might be cut in a 
silo. I understand cow peas make a rank, ill-smell¬ 
ing silage, which the sorghum might correct and 
make palatable. Has anyone tried it? 
With my present experience I believe Sudan grass 
should be used with cow peas iu preference to the 
ranker growing, coarse-stalked sorghum. What do 
you say? w. e. bowmax. 
Maryland. 
R. N.-Y.—Some of our readers in the Middle South 
have no doubt had experience with such a crop. It 
is too late now to give advice before cutting, but we 
would like to have a discussion of the question, for 
the plan of growing a hea* r y second crop of fodder 
is a big one in the Middle South. 
A New Seedling Pear 
T ill! pear pictured at Fig. 52P is one of many 
seedlings developed by the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington. The plan has been to cross 
Kieffer with Seckel, Bartlett, Anjou and other pears 
of high quality, in the hope of obtaining varieties 
which will combine the health and vigor of Kieffer 
with the high quality of the other sorts. The pear 
here pictured has good quality—much like Bartlett. 
It is hoped that several superior varieties may be 
obtained from these seedlings. 
