OCT. 2 
656 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
I asked if he had seen the analyses made by 
the N. J. Experiment Station, and published 
in the Rural of August 2S, and noticed the 
difference between the cost and estimated val¬ 
ues there giveD. lie replied that be had seen 
and read them, but did not recollect the fea¬ 
ture referred to. Reaching for a Rural, I 
called h's attention to Bulletin No. 5, giving 
analyses of seven brands of bone, three of which 
cost more than their estimated value, the most 
notable of which, No. 31, costs over $10per ton 
more than it is worth, while, on the other hand, 
No 43 is worth $14.25 more than it costs. How 
many superficial readers of the Rural would 
reply as he did : “Well, now! I never under¬ 
stood this before and am glad I have learned 
something! I shall read these reports here¬ 
after with increased interest.” It is always 
unpleasant to be told we have "paid too dear 
for the whistle,” and equally gratifying to learn 
that we get more than our money’s worth; 
but it will be remembered that this is the 
scientific view and the query arises—Is it not 
possible for the market value of these ingre¬ 
dients to be higher than their actual worth 
for fertilizing purposes? You perceive that 
both of these samples are valuable chiefly for 
their phosphoric acid, as each contains less 
than one per cent, of nitrogen. It is a ques¬ 
tion with me whether some soils are as much 
benefited by phosphoric add as by nitrogen, 
or whether those brands in which phosphoric 
acid largely predominates give as good re¬ 
sults as they would if the amount of nitrogen 
was increased, or whether phosphoric acid alone 
is as beneficial as when combined with nitro¬ 
gen, potash, etc., to a greater degree. I have 
used this latter brand, and, from first to last, 
a good deal of many others of like character 
on poor land, and I confess my faith has not 
been strengthened from the visible results, 
for I have failed to see the benefits which have 
been so apparent to my friends elsewhere. 
The question above all others that needs an¬ 
swering is—Does the use of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers pay ? Will the actual and positive 
fads sustain an affirmative answer? If so 
“let’s have ’em;” if not “let’s have ’em” 
all the same. Kit. 
Jfarm (fnraomg. 
Poor Cow Manure. 
“Commercials are high; freight on them 
is higher, and then they are not sure, any 
way”—so said one of my neighbors the other 
evening at a little “farm chatter” we were 
having at my bouse. “ You don’t know how 
to apply them,” said I, “ and there’s where all 
the trouble arises. Why, you don’t even use 
stable manure, but wade through it knee-deep 
seven times a day, instead of hauling it out 
on to your land, Your grain crops are poor, 
your horses are poor, your cattle are poor, 
your grass land is poor, your cows are poor, 
and all your manure is poorer still. What’s 
the use of buying fertilizers till yon have put 
your land in good order with the means you 
have at home ? Fertilizcis have no effect on 
sand, gravel or stones, but strawy manure ha r . 
Now first make soil, then you will make crops, 
then cattle, then manure, then more soil, more 
crops, more cattle, and as you will make good 
cattle, you’ll make good manure, and so on 
till the crack of doom—that is to say, day¬ 
break on dooins-day morning, I suppose.” 
“ Well, but I don’t want to haul manure till 
then!” “ No matter, somebody else will. Yon 
do your duty now or there will be no last 
man when day breaks. Poor cow manure is a 
mighty weak article and very 6low in Its effect 
on crops.” s. r, m . 
-- 
Reclaiming a Wet Flat. 
In the Rural of September 4,1 notice that 
A. M. of Bay City, Michigan, inquires about 
the merits of the mole plow. In Iowa it is 
worthless as a ditcher or drain-maker. We 
have a ditchiog machine here, however, which 
is worked by two yoke of oxen and cuts a ditch 
30 inches deep, 24 inches at the top, and 10 
inches at the bottom, making an open ditch, 
for 20 cents per rod. Instead of plowing his 
fiat, wet land after getting the surface water 
off in the Spring, 1 would suggest to him to go 
over it with a heavy Scotch harrow, giving it a 
good hatcheling, sow on it Timothy seed and 
after it is up, turn in his cattle and keep it fed 
off close. Then bow Timothy and clover and 
let the cattle tread it. In seeding Borne wet 
land here in Iowa, I first burned the old grass 
off, and after it was free from surface water 1 
sowed Timothy and clover and turned in my 
cattle and let them eat it and tread it in—I did 
not even harrow it. Auyone who never saw any¬ 
thing of the kind would hardly believe what 
progress can be made in reclaiming the land 
by seeding it in this way. Not only can a 
good stand of grass be obtained, but a better 
sod, if the old wild grass sod is not turned up. 
This does well here, but perhaps it might not 
on the marshes of Michigan, but I am under 
the impression that it would prove satisfactory 
at least on some of them. j. b. b. 
Quasq^eton, Iowa, 
fomolojjiral. 
ARTIFICIAL FRUITING OF TREES. 
In the Rural of July 24th, W. I. Chamber- 
lain gives an interesting account of Mr. 
Spaulding’s experiments in inducing fruitful¬ 
ness in trees that would be otherwise unfruit¬ 
ful, by girdling or disbarking. Mr. S. Parsons, 
in the i6Bue of Ang. 28, gives another method, 
by incisions at or near the top of the branch 
to be made fruitful. Both methods as well as 
tnauy others have been tried, and the best of 
them practised here for yeaiB; still the sub¬ 
ject appears not to be generally understood 
among those who have practised it. 
A tree or plant may be made more fruitful 
in three different ways: 
1st. Extra food and cultivation will induce 
fruitfulness by supplying a surplus of albur¬ 
num, which changes what would otherwise be 
leaf buds into fruit buds. Everybody is sup¬ 
posed to understand this method and it needs 
no comment from me. 
2d. When the vitality of a tree is injured, it 
will immediately make an effort tp reproduce 
itself by seed. Of this method theie are many 
minor forms or variations. Thus, greenhouse 
men cramp the roots of their plants in small 
pots to produce an extra-large number 
of flowere; orchardists sometimes bore 
holes in the trunks of trees that are making 
a strong growth of wood but do not pro¬ 
duce fruit; nails are driven into the trunks, 
and root-pruning by deep cultivation is also 
practised for the purpose of forcing trees to 
fruit; all of which will be successful if done at 
the proper time; but if continued too long or 
employed too freely, they will ultimately 
destroy the tree. When a tree or plant re¬ 
ceives an injury shortly after the young 
shoots have commenced to grow, the growth 
will be stopped while there is still a quantity 
of crude and prepared sap in the body of the 
tree and branches. Theie is thus a surplus 
which will change leaf budB into fruit buds. 
An unusual example of this I saw some years 
ago:—Mice had girdled an apple tree in June, 
and, of course, gnawed all the new wood com¬ 
pletely off. The growth was stopped, but the 
tree perfected its fruit, and was alive the fol¬ 
lowing Spring, the fruit buds partially opened, 
but there was not a leaf bud to be seen. This 
tree must have received a limited quantity of 
sap through the body of the trunk—there was 
no bark whatever. 
3d. This method is the principal one we 
have to deal with, and consists in a partial 
6toppageof the alburnum from being deposited 
as new wood, so that the surplus thus formed 
may be diverted to forming fruit buds. After 
the bulk of the crude sap has ascended into 
the leaves and been assimilated, or changed 
into alburnum, it is then distributed into the 
different partB of the tree, a portion to form 
new wood, a portion to support and mature 
the fruit, “if there should be any,” and the 
remainder, “if any,” to form new fruit bads. 
Now where all, or nearly all, this prepared 
sap is takeu to form new wood, there will be 
no fruit, but if we by any means prevent a 
portion of this 6ap from being deposited as 
new wood, there will be a surplus which will 
force fruit buds into existence. These means 
must be used, when, or shortly before, the 
greatest amount of alburnum is being deposi¬ 
ted, and shortly before the proper time for 
fruit buds to form, or else we shall have noth¬ 
ing but a plentiful crop of suckers, latent leaf 
buds being rushed into shoots. 
The minor forms or variations of this 
method, that are most successful and most 
generally used here, are binding a cord or wire 
tightly around the branch or trunk of the tree 
we wish to fruit; Mr. Spaulding's method of 
girdling, “ but not disbarking.” simply cut¬ 
ting through the bark around the tree or 
branch “sometimes more than once” just be¬ 
low the point you wish to be fruitful; and 
pruning and cutting back the young shoots. 
These will all answer the purpose, and where 
properly done will never inj are the tree. One 
orchard, now eighty years old, after having 
been girdled or bound more or less for 30 
years, shows no ill effects from the usage. No 
doubt some of the trees have died, but, if from 
this usage, their case was something like that 
of the poor colored woman down South, who 
died from smoking, at the age of 10G. 
Yesterday I examined a peculiar phase of 
artificial fruiting: a Bartlett pear, in the 
orchard of Mr. W. Carmichael, had been 
pruned when the young shoots had made a 
few inches of growth. Very hot weather had 
then set in for some days ; the pruuing had 
stopped the growth of the shoots; the exces¬ 
sive heat had forced the latent budB not only 
into fruit buds but into blossoms, and there 
are now two crops of fruit on the single tree- 
pears nearly ripe and half grown. 
Disbarking will not injure a tree if done 
just as the greatest amount of alburnum is 
being deposited, unless this new wood is 
scraped, or dried by excessive heat. I have 
seen three trees completely disbarked. The 
first was in the orchard of Mr. John Ferguson, 
and was a scabby, gnarly tree that had nev.er 
made any growth. The bark was carefully 
taken off, from the roots to the small branches; 
in a couple of hours it was covered by a sap¬ 
like froth, and by the next morning this had 
become more firm, la three days I saw it 
again, and the new bark was quite firm. Next 
year It had a crop of apples, and made a good 
growth, and is now as healthy a tree as any in 
the orchard. The next tree wa6 one that grew 
in a fence corner, and was disbarked by using 
a spade. It also lived, but wherever the spade 
touched there was a dead spot. The third was 
disbarked in tbe morning of a very hot day. 
No bark formed, and it dried up, but the 
brauehes lived for some time. 
Where incisions are made in the bark they 
should be made immediately betoio the part 
we wish to fruit, as it is the prepared Bap we 
wish to divert, not the crude. 1 think Mr. 
Parsons is mistaken in claiming his method as 
the most logical and scientific, as the girdling 
is certainly the most successful. If the idea 
in his method is to divert the crude sap from 
forming wood, it is a mistake, as it will simply 
go into other branches or push latent leaf buds 
into young shoots or suckers. If the idea is to 
prevent the alburnum from ascending to the 
young shoots, then all will have to be served 
alike, which would be a great deal of trouble, 
and even then would sometimes fail to produce 
the desired effect, bnt the young branches 
above the incisions would fruit. 
I have not tried fruiting grape-vines or any¬ 
thing that fruits on the new wood, but some 
of my neighbors say that it can be done in the 
same way as apples or pears. In conclusion. 
I would like to hear through the Rural from 
some more of its contributors on this subject, 
and if I am wrong, I should like to be put right. 
Ont., Canada, Thomas Fork ail 
-- 
THE MINER PLUM IN VERMONT. 
This variety of plum referred to by Mi 1 . 
Prince of North Carolina, in Rural of July 31, 
page 488, is one of the few sorts that are en¬ 
tirely hardy in Northern Vermont. My tree is 
double the size of Mr. Prince’s, and has bloomed 
full three years in succession, only to have the 
fruit cut off by late frosts. A few specimens 
have remained on the tree, but I cannot say they 
have ripened. Though well colored, they are 
not soft enough to eat late in October. They 
are, however, excellent for cooking. We have 
many garden varieties of our native red Canada 
plum, that are much larger than the Miner, 
and some which are better for eating than 
that is described as being. As these red plums 
in their wild state are far better than the orig¬ 
inal of the European plum (the Sloe), and as 
they show in the garden great susceptibility 
of improvement, besides being iron-clad against 
Winter’s cold, I have great hopes that we may 
get something from them soon that will equal 
the better class of plums from imported stock. 
The curculio hurts this family of plums far 
less than the common cultivated sorts. We 
rarely fail of good crops in favorable years. 
T. H. H., M. D. 
The Waterloo Peach Again. 
I am in receipt of a letter from Charles 
Downing, in which he denies having written 
any commendation of the Waterloo Peach. (See 
issue of Aug. 28th.) I penned the article with 
the impression—which I still have—that I had 
seeu somewhere the statement that some one 
had sent specimens to Mr. D., upon which he 
had bestowed a measure of commendation. 
My recollection of having seen this is quite 
vivid, but I am unable to recall the exact cir¬ 
cumstances, and inasmuch as this may have 
appeared without the approval or even assent 
of Mr. Downing, l take occasion to recall what 
I said in the article in question, so far as Mr. 
Downing is concerned. T. T. Lyon. 
THE NORTHERN OHIO FAIR. 
(Rural Special Report) 
This large, and in many respects excellent, 
lair is a private enterprise, managed by a 
stock company and board of directors. It has 
so happened for several years that the weather 
has been anything but fair during the days 
on which this fair has been held. It has rained 
a part or all of the time. One of the directors 
told the writer he had a bet of two to one that 
it would rain every day of the fair this year. 
He lost his bet—as he hoped to do. The fair 
was a success. 
The grounds of the Association are splendid 
—the finest but one or two in the country. 
They are well located within the city limits of 
Cleveland, and reached by the Lake Shore 
Railroad, which runs its freight for the fan- 
right into the grounds, and its passenger trains 
right alongside. The writer attended both the 
State fair at Columbus, and this at Cleveland, 
and desires to make no comparisons that are 
untruthful or invidious to either. The former 
seemed more clearly agricultural. The show of 
live stock and agricultural machinery was 
probably in tbe aggregate three times as large. 
The Bhow in both these departments was im¬ 
mense at Columbus, and thoroughly credit¬ 
able at Cleveland. There were acres of 
machinery and implements at Columbus, and 
a really good show at Cleveland. At Colum¬ 
bus there Were about 30 portable aud traction 
engines competing and running machinery, 
and six or eight at Cleveland. There were 
five or six machines making tiles on the 
grounds at the former place, and one or two 
at the latter. 
But in its city aspects the Northern Ohio 
fair was far ahead. Cleveland i6 a much larger 
city and her merchants, and manufacturers, 
and florists, and gaidcnsrs, and artists, and 
musicians, and citizens take great interest in 
the fair. The schools close and the children 
go, and it does them good. The stores and 
shops close (many of them), and the clerks 
and employes and proprietors go, and it does 
them good. The gronuds are finer, as I have 
said, and the speed-ring is far better—iudeed 
one of tho best in the land. The raciug is 
better, too, and is made a far more prominent 
feature. The “ irotting park ” is separated 
from the fair grounds proper by St. Clair 
Street, but connected by a bridge. The 
“ Pumpkin Show ” is on one Bide and the 
races on the other, and the sober-minded 
needn’t cross the bridge. But they usually do. 
They go to show their children the evils of 
racing! And they can see the whole show. 
Pools are sold before the races and between 
the heats at a club bouse close at hand, and on 
the grounds in front of the judges’ stand. The 
races are regular races and don’t pretend to 
have a specially agricultural or Presbyterian 
leaning. 
But, on the whole, the fair is good agricul¬ 
turally, and there is room for it aud for the 
“tri-State,” at Toledo, and the “SouthernOhio,” 
at Dayton. They do not serve to injure the 
regular State fair at Columbus. They are be¬ 
yond Its “ suction range," as Holmes calls it, 
and have constituencies of their own, and the 
result of tbeir existence will probably be to 
locate the Slate fair permanently at Columbus, 
at least if it receives proper local and railway 
encouragement there. For there is no real 
necessity for it to rotate or migrate, with a 
good aud large fair in every corner of the 
State. There is room for them all. Agricul¬ 
ture cannot have too much stimulus and en¬ 
couragement. The State Board, too, that has 
charge of the State fair, has other work, aud 
is just inaugurating a system of Farmers’In¬ 
states for the Winter, and monthly crop aud 
Btock reports for the Summer, that will take 
much time and labo* They will therefore 
doubtless be glad of the help of independent 
societies in the exhibition work. Oculus. 
--♦ - 
THE INTERNATIONAL SHEEP EXHIBI¬ 
TION, 
(Rural Special Report.) 
The erewhile " gorgeous palaces” of the Cen¬ 
tennial Exhibition were last week made to serve 
in a somewhat incongruous association. One 
who remembers the main building, then grand 
in its brilliant coloring of new paint, with its 
crowded aisles aud its infinite display of attrac¬ 
tive articles, but now dingy with dust, neg¬ 
lected and deserted, can scarcely help the wish 
that all that magnificence had disappeared 
as swiftly as it arose, as a passing fairy crea¬ 
tion, leaving its brilliance fixed upon the 
mind aB a pleasant memory, rather than to 
see it once more in its present condition of 
decay and helplessness. The sheep exhibition, 
although a decidedly useful thing, did not seem 
in place there, and the shrill bleat of tbe 
diminutive Merino mixed with the sonorous 
bass of the huge Cotswoldsand Oxford-Dowus, 
by no means mingled harmoniously with the 
rattle of a grand piano at a near-by music 
stall, and the pealing of the large organ in 
the distance. So the rough wooden pens of 
the sheep, the odor of trampled cabbages, aud 
the-long-drawn-out arrangement of the ex¬ 
hibition stalls around two sides and one end 
of the vast building, dwarfed into very incon¬ 
siderable proportions what would have mude a 
creditable display elsewhere. “ To what base 
uses may we not return ?”—But, not to criticise 
a good thing too closely, “ let us return to our 
muttons.” 
This exhibition was intended to be interna¬ 
tional ; but tbe international part was absent; 
unless an enterprise belonging to several of 
the Sovereign States may be held in a sense to 
be international; or it maybe tbe new arrivals 
from a foreign country shown by an enterpris¬ 
ing importer may furnish an excuse for admit¬ 
ting that it was truly international. But it is 
a beginning, and as such was a good one. The 
energetic and capable Agricultural Commis¬ 
sioner, General Le Due, has been a moving 
Bpiritinthis enterprise, and to him the duty 
of opening the entertainment was entrusted. 
The Commissioner has the true idea of the 
importance of this interest to a nation which 
uses 250,000,000 pounds of wool, and possesses 
unexcelled facilities for producing twice this 
quantity, and yet imports one-fifth of it, thus 
