RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
than the commercial fertilizers that now throng 
our markets. (?—Eds.) a. g. 
Staunton, Augusta Co, Va, 
Industrial dopirs. 
SNOW DRIFTS. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
HOW NOT TO MAKE THEM. 
The snow is beautiful, indeed, but mighty. 
As light as down, at first, the fleecy crystals 
fall. A single one, even on the delicate bal¬ 
ances of the chemist, scarcely makes its pres¬ 
ence felt. But gathered in countless millions 
by the thickening storm and swept onward by 
the gale, they become a force resistless, They 
block the path of the belated traveler. They 
fill the deepest railway •• cuts,” and bury the 
on-rushing trains. They crash in huge ioofs 
by their accumulated weight. 
So long as “ the fleecy mantle of the earth” 
lies soft and still, it is poetic. But when the 
winds rise and “cock it up” in piles like 
mown hay in the meadows ; when it takes bold 
possession of the broad highway, and drives 
the traveling public into the adjacent fields, 
then it becomes the most prosaic of facts, to be 
accounted for and overcome. It is in this as¬ 
pect that T wish now to speak of it. 
Recently in driving five miles on a southerly 
road, we were compelled five different times to 
turn out luto the adjacent fields. The snow 
had taken complete possession of the road, by 
huge drifts filling it up from fence to fence—in 
one place for a lull half mile at a single stretch. 
So great a hindrance to travel have the drifts 
been here this winter (and often before), that 
it has become a serious question how we shall 
prevent or overcome the difficulty. Here, as 
elsewhere, an " ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure.” I fiud that ouuce of preven¬ 
tion in the wire fence. 
Some years ago I had a laue running south¬ 
east from my barn, with a good board "fence on 
each side of it. Our prevailing winter winds 
are from the southwest, and every winter that 
lane would drift, so full of suow that it was al¬ 
most impossible for cattle and horses to get 
through it at all. Nearly four years ago the 
agent for one form of wire fence offered to 
build one on the westerly side of the lane on 
these conditions : I was to test it as bug as I 
chose. If then it proved effective to “turn 
stock” perfectly and prevent the drifting of 
snow in the laue, I was to pay for the labor 
and material. If not, not a cent; and I was 
to be the judge. The offer seemed to he so 
fail that 1 stripped the feuce of its hoards, 
took up each alternate post (leaving them a 
rod apart, which is near enough for wire 
fence), braced the end posts, aud had wires 
stretched and the “barbed strips ” of wood at¬ 
tached to the second wire from the top, aud 
the feuce was completed. It was in August, 
aud a fine crop of “ rowan ” or “ aftermath ” 
grew temptingly in the meadow just over the 
wire leuce. I yarded my whole dairy iu the 
laue for Beveral nights to give the thing a 
thorough test. The fence was too much for 
the cows. They wanted the nice grass, prick¬ 
ed their necks a few times on the barbed strips 
while reaching after it, and then quit the busi¬ 
ness in disgust. An unruly horse came up to 
it, didn’t notice the top wire, but saw the barb¬ 
ed wooden strip a foot below it, aud seemed to 
say to himself. “Pooh! do they call that a 
fence,” reared and threw his front feet easily 
over the strip, aud thought he was in the 
meadow. He was soon disabused of the idea, 
dhe top wire he didn’t see. threw his legs dowu 
on the barbed strip which gave them a good 
pricking. The old fellow retreated a rod or 
so, came up in good order for a second attack, 
and—retreated, as before. This time he tipped 
his head to one side, pricked up his ears in a 
comical way, aud looked at the feuce, as If he 
said, “Beaten at last, as sure as I live! A 
plague on this telegraph business, any way !” 
And he lias not learned telegraphing yet! 
Wiuter came, and the first storm of snow and 
wind said to itself. “Now I'll fill up that laue 
toz the cow's 1 ” But not a drift could find har¬ 
bor behind the Wires any more than iu the open 
field At the end of a year I paid for the fence, 
and have since put up more than half a mile 
more. One strip of it keeps my neighbor’s forty 
cows out of my grain fields and orchard, and 
another keeps my own dairy out of valuable 
crops. The cows aud horses have not learned 
to jump it or break it dowu, or the snow to 
lodge aud drift behind it. 
ibis is not a puft or an advertisement of 
Wire fences. I am not qu agent, aud have not 
(he slightest pecuniary interest iu their intro¬ 
duction. There are some objections to them, 
especially to the kind that uses a t wisted, jagged, 
barbed wire instead of the wooden strip. But 
they have advantages. They are far cheaper 
than board fences, and seem to be durable and 
effective. But the point I urge here is that 
snow cannot bilge and drift behind them. Hedges 
#tone walls, rail fences and board fences, all 
barbor bilge drifts. Titue after time this wiu- 
tei.as l have turned luto the fields to avoid 
sticli drifts that blocked the highway, I have 
said to myself, “ A wire fence here would have 
prevented all this.’ And I have even ques¬ 
tioned whether a law could uot be justified, re¬ 
quiring owners of laud bordering on the road 
in exposed localities subject to heavy driftin'', 
to build there such fences us will uot harbor 
snow drifts, or else keep the road shoveled 
clear. The fences that do the mischief iu Ohio, 
with our westerly winds, are those on the west 
side of roads leading iu a northerly and south¬ 
erly direction. 
Summit Co., Ohio. 
Request. —TV ill any of our friends who have 
tried the Billings’ patent horse-shoe tell us 
just what they think of it? 
Industrial jlorirtus, 
WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
Paris-green and sheep versus the codling-moth ; 
culture and manure for the Pear , Peach and 
Quincp ; paper bands against the c. rn. : trim¬ 
ming trees ; Pears free from blight; sod for 
bearing orchards, culture for young orchards, 
manure for old ; drainage for all orchards, 
sandy soil for Apples, clayey for Pears ; ob¬ 
jection to culti vation of orchards ; Apples set 20 
feet apart in the largest orchard in the world : 
no fear of too much fruit; a couple of excep¬ 
tions : disagreement; warm soil for early and 
heavy soil for late Apples ; everlasting cide 1 ': 
rider jelly ; small fruit packages and the kind 
°J f>''td for them; marketing fruit abroad: 
extra-quality fruit: keeping fruit: destruction 
of insect pests; good new Peaches and Grapes; 
cider pomace ; yellows ; a selection of Plums. 
The twenty-fourtli annual meeting of this 
Society was held at Rochester on the 22d Jan¬ 
uary, President Barry presiding. H. T. Jones 
read a brief report upon Ornithology and was 
followed by the reports of the County Com¬ 
mittees on visiting Orchards. 
Mr. Woodward, of Niagara Co., told us the 
receipts from fruits in his county were as much 
as from auy other crop, and those who eared 
for their orchards received remunerative re¬ 
turns. For the Apple lie preferred clean cult¬ 
ure-grass was conducive to the apple-tree 
borer. Their successful fruit growers all prac¬ 
ticed cleau culture. The codling-moth was 
doing great damage, but his ravages were 
greatly checked by the use of the different 
moth traps—as many as 30,000 having been 
caught in one season by one party. He had 
tried bands, but preferred letting sheep run in 
the orchard. They were better than swine. 
Iu one instance Paris-green had been applied 
to destroy the canker-worm, quite earlv in the 
season, just after the fruit had formed. The 
trees thus treated bore fruit perfectly sound; 
whereas the rest of the orchard was badly iu 
fested with the codling-moth. The Peach re¬ 
quired cultivation and responded liberally to 
generous treatment, barnyard manure being 
the best fertilizer for it. Pears could be grown 
without cultivation, but those orchards which 
were well manured gave the largest crops and 
the finest fruit. He recommended the use of 
ashes, salt, bone meal aud lime. For Quinces 
be would add a little barnyard manure. 
C. M. Hooker, of Monroe Co., to secure the 
best results thought the main thing was to 
keep the trees well cultivated till 25 years old 
and feed them well. lie advocated the use of 
paper bauds for destroying the codling-moth. 
The patent bauds were no better than the 
paper, aud cost more. It was his experience 
that a second bund, near the branches, paid as 
well as the first. He had always had plenty of 
wormy apples, although he had used the bands 
constantly, in many instances much damage 
was done by trimming—which is generally 
done too irregularly and unmethodically to be 
of much value, lie formed the head seveu 
feet high and trimmed a little every year. We 
never hear but cue side—the bright ouc_of 
fruitgrowing. Failures are seldom recorded. 
It takes longer for au apple orchard to come 
iuto profitable bearing tliau is generally sup¬ 
posed, He would look for profits after 20 
years rather than before; and many orchards, 
for various reasons, would never pay. 
W. Brown Smith, of Onondaga Co., said the 
apple crop was unusually large. The Quince 
crop, too, was large aud the fruit very nice. 
Pears were the poorest crop of any—the cause 
being the blight. Some varieties were compa¬ 
ratively exempt—among them the Seckd. 
Tyson, Bonne D’Aujou, Duchesse, Winter 
Nelis, Josephine De Malines aud Duchesse De 
Bordeaux, and he would recommend the plant¬ 
ing of these sorts in districts afflicted with the 
pest. Godfrey Zimmerman, of Erie Co., 
thought younger trees might need cultivation! 
hut for bearing orchards a sod was preferable, 
but the trees needed manure. 
J. J. Thomas, of Cayuga Co., said that al¬ 
though their county had a soil well adapted 
for the Apple—they had no large orchards, and 
farmers generally complained this year be¬ 
cause they had so many apples. Only those 
M ho had iu previous years established a trade 
made money from their large crops. In every 
case cultivation or manure lias been rewarded 
by fine fruit. lie would recommend that 
young orchards be cultivated and old ones 
cropped short or manured. The Amsden Juuc 
aud Alexander, both large, handsome peaches, 
had ripened with him July 20th. Prof. TV. R. 
Luzenby, of Tompkins Co., said the apple pro¬ 
duct M as not a staple one with them. Some 
orchards were very productive, but iu many 
cases there was a lack of thorough draiuage— 
which should be the foundation of every orch¬ 
ard. Apples preferred a sandy soil, while 
Pears do well on heavy clay. He recommend¬ 
ed the use of decomposed stable manure, re¬ 
fuse salt, lime aud ashes. He would prime 
yearly it' necessary, and never remove a limb 
larger than one inch in diameter. Iu his sec¬ 
tion he would plant the trees uot more than 25 
feet apart each way. aud not allow them to 
grow more than 18 feet high. H. T. Brooks, 
of Wyoming Co., would advise uot to plow 
orchards, although mauy of our best growers 
cultivate as much as they do corn. Salt gives 
stability to products and he Mould advise its 
use. The President llieu read an interesting 
letter he had received from R, McKinstry, of 
Hudson, N. V’. lie planted Ids apples 20 feet 
apart each way, thiukiug the limbs would uot 
interlace seriously before reaching the age of 
25 years. He is satisfied with his course, aud 
is confident the extra trees will amply repay 
for themselves before he is obliged to move 
them. 
Questions for discussion were then present¬ 
ed, the first being, "Over-production: Are we 
in danger from an over-production of fruit, 
and how can we secure a steady supply ?” 8. 
D. Willard opened the discussion, advancing 
the theory that consumption increases more 
rapidly than production, aud we need have no 
fears of overstocking the market. New mark¬ 
ets were being constantly opened to us; in¬ 
sect enemies are Increasing rapidly, and tilt we 
supply tlie whole world, we may increase our 
production and rely upon findiug a good 
market. Mr. Younglove, of Vine Valley, 
M ould answer to the first part oi the question, 
" No—except it may be of Apples aud Straw¬ 
berries—but of tlie Grape and Peach— never." 
The demand for grapes is increasing rapidly. 
People are becoming educated to the every-day 
use of fruit, and they buy it. Would answer 
the second part oi the question by advising the 
selection of favorable localities along our 
lakes, where there is a reasonable certainty of 
a crop every year. “ Plant orchards even if 
the locality is seemingly unfavorable. One 
crop of peaches will pay for al) care and ex¬ 
pense. It is so of other fruits. They will 
oftcu succeed where success is not looked for.” 
Mr. Barry: "Fruit growing is not yet re¬ 
duced to a system. It is mainly carried on by 
those who sell their surplus fruit at such 
prices as they may be able to get. I believe 
that fruit growing iu Western New York will 
never be overdone—u*e have a favorable cli¬ 
mate aud good land, but our whole soil is uot 
fa \ oi able for orchards. Any good dry soil is 
suitable for Apples, but sand is not so durable 
as clay and requires more manure.” 
Mr. Lay found that ou his warm sunny soil 
the early Apples succeed the best: whereas the 
late winter varieties were more perfect when 
grown ou heavy soil. Mr. Hooker stated that 
the history of almost any fruit-growing is that 
we have grown too much. It is no use to ac¬ 
cumulate large crops unless we can find better 
markets. Reduce tbe area under fruit and 
take better care of what is left. 
Mr. \\ oodward thought it would be impossi¬ 
ble to over-supply our markets with prime 
fruit, but very easy to overstock it with second- 
quality fruit. The export of fruit this year 
Mas teu times our last year's exportations. 
The only way to produce a steady supply is to 
manure and cultivate our orchards better tbau 
we do. 
“How can we enlarge and supply a home 
market for fruit?” was uext discussed. Prof. 
Lazenby advocated the use of smaller packages 
for apples, as it would be more convenient for 
a portion of the consumers. Mr. Woodward 
spoke of a method of preparing eider, by pass¬ 
ing it through saud, so that it would keep per¬ 
fectly sweet auy leugtii of time. Mr. Thomas 
mentioned the successful experiment of evap¬ 
orating cider to a jelly-like consistency. Mr. 
Hooker valued the home market more than 
the foreign. The beauty of our fruit sells it. 
If we add quality to tills, the demaud will in¬ 
crease. Make the grade even, both in beauty 
aud quality. Mr. Green thought that beauty 
was more important than quality in securing 
the sale of fruit. 
“Foreign market: Can we expect a large 
foreign demand for fresh aud dried fruit, aud 
how can we increase the demand ?” formed 
the first topic for discussion at the evening 
session. Mr. Root thought that all that is 
necessary is to ship the fruit iu au attractive 
form. Mr. Ellwanger lustauced the high prices 
obtained in Paris for apples, aud stated that 
neither that nor the German market was sup¬ 
plied. Mr. Hooker thought it would be a great 
advantage if we could establish direct commu¬ 
nication with the European markets. Mr. 
Green said tlie Baldwin is a favorite iu Europe. 
Mr. Woodward thought tfmt honest packing 
Mas necessary. Mr. Hoag told of a gentleman 
who hud shipped apples to Russia aud obtained 
seven dollars per bbl. Mr. Beadle told of an 
American gentleman wbo had established a 
good trade in Scotland. He had done it by 
dealing honestly with his customers. Prof. 
Lazenby stated that in MLchigau the Northern 
Spy M’as their best apple for exportation. Mr. 
Barry bad successfully shipped apples to Eu- 
iope, wrapping each one in paper aud packing 
them in barrels. 
Extra quality of fruit: To what extent can 
the production of fruit of au extra quality be 
profitably carried ?” was uext considered. 
Mi. Woodward said that the best only paid, 
especially in peaches and pears. He advised 
the practice of thinning. Mr. Younglove 
thought it M’as not so much tlie thinning as the 
time of thinning. Peaches should be at least 
five or six inches apart. 
Fruit packages: What description of fruit 
packages, etc., have been found most satisfac¬ 
tory, especially for small fruit, peaches and 
grapes?” Mas next discussed. Mr. Hubbard 
had found baskets holding six, twelve and 
eighteen quarts, very satisfactory: besides, 
they were very cheap. Mr. Younglove thought 
if market baskets holding about a bushel each 
aud strongly made could be procured, they 
would be in demand. Mr. Hooker stated that 
Canadians put up apples iu larger barrels than 
ouis, aud get a better price iu consequence. 
Keeping fruit: Is there auy new experi¬ 
ence of value in regard to drying aud canning 
fruits, aud iu the construction of refrigerator 
fruit houses aud ears, or new method of keep¬ 
ing fruit?” was then debated. 
Mr. Hoag spoke of tbe establishments re¬ 
cently put up uoar him as experiments, but 
which are working successfully. 
"Insects. What progress lias been made in 
preventing tlie ravages of insects, especially 
the codling-moth, tlie borers, aud which of 
the several kinds of traps iu use, have been 
fouud most effective ?” 
Prof. Lazeuby said tlie codling-moth laid 
about 200 eggs in the course of the season, 
showing the necessity of destroying as many 
as we could. He did not believe it would do to 
rely upon medicated bands. He said the bands 
should be applied about the time the Wilson 
Albany Strawberry blooms, and should be fre¬ 
quently examined during the summer. Mr. 
TVoodward spoke of the utility of bogs in au 
orchard for destroying the canker-worm, and 
sheep for destroying the codling-moth. Mr. 
Fish would be cautious iu turniug sheep into 
tlie orchard. Mr. Chapin thought the birds 
were our cheapest insect destroyers. Mr. 
Woodward advised washing the bodies of the 
trees with Mliale oil soap, to prevent sheep 
gnawing the bark. Mr. Hoag iudoised Mr. 
Chapin’s views. He had bands last summer al¬ 
most entirely destroyed by birds searching for 
the worms. Mr. Chapin destroyed tbe canker- 
worm by applying tar to bis trees and sprink¬ 
ling Paris-green on it. Mr. Zimmerman said 
tin re was a beetle that destroyed tbe chrysalis 
of the codling-moth. Mr. Beadle thought a 
soft soap preparation applied to apple trees in 
the spring, would keep the borers out. Prof. 
Lazeuby knew of two- orchards in which this 
preparation had been used with success. They 
used the soft soap undiluted. Mr. Harris 
thought, from his experience, it was unsafe to 
use ashes as a preventive for the borer. 
New Peaches ; Are auy of the now early va¬ 
rieties of peaches worthy of beiug extensively 
planted for market ? 
Mr. lounglove would recommeud the Alex 
under and Ainsdeu Juue for near market. 
Mr. Hooker thinks it is premature to recom¬ 
meud any oi the neM’ varieties for extensive 
planting; Mr. \ouuglove likes the Sal way for 
a \er\ late peach. Mr. W oodwaid would be 
careful about recommending the Sulwuy for 
general cultivation. It does well iu ouly a 
few favored looalties. Mr. Barry noted that 
the many new varieties brought out during 
the past year were mainly of Hate’s Early 
parentage, and enumerated some 30 new’ 
varieties of Peaches brought out last year. 
Mr. Green spoke highly of the Forest Rose 
Strawberry, Glemiale, Captain Jack, Cumber¬ 
land Triumph, Sharpless and Duchesse aud re¬ 
commended liieh culture if satisfactory results 
were desired. 
" What has been the experience the past year 
Mith the new varieties oi Grapes?” was the 
next subject haudled. Mr. Prentiss gave a 
brief account of the Prentiss Grape which he 
has hadiu bearing for 14 years. It is a seedling 
ot tlie Isabella ; about as early as tlie Con¬ 
cord; a strong grower aud very productive- 
foliage healthy: rather Luc-lined to overbear;’ 
a good keeper and commands a high price in 
market. Specimens exhibited showed a hand¬ 
some bunch of excellent keeping qualities aud 
fair lluvor. Mr. Farley described the Duchesse 
as a very promising sort from the Hudson 
River. He had fruited it two years at Union 
Springs: vine the most vigorous of any he 
grew out of 50 varieties. The form of clus- 
