65 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 31 
not been favorable to that plan, for setting the buds 
in young stocks, but I have succeeded quite well in 
setting them in older wood soon after the bark began 
to peel. It can be done with almost any kind of fruit 
trees. 2. In top-working apple trees I would prefer 
that they be two or even three years old before setting 
the buds. They need not be set in wood of the current 
year, as many suppose, but on older wood if it is 
thrifty and the bark not very thick. Then the buds 
will make vigorous growth the following year. I 
would set one bud each in several of the main 
branches, and near their junction with the main stem 
of the tree. The Ben Davis trees mentioned ought to 
be in prime condition to graft next Spring or bud the 
following August. 3. The Red June plum trees, being 
set five years ago, ought to be quite big trees now. 
They can be grafted next Spring, and on all the 
stumps where the grafts fail about two sprouts may 
be allowed to grow, and these ought to be in very 
good condition for budding in July or August. 
H. E. V. D. 
Apples for Western Washington. 
I have been growing apples here In Kittitas Valley on 
a small scale for the past 15 years, and am now going 
Into the business much more extensively for commercial 
purposes. Most of the hardy varieties do well here; In 
fact, so many do well that I find It quite difficult to select 
what I want; say two. three or four of the best, that will 
be likely to bear well, sell well, look well and bring In 
most money. Our principal market, Sound cities and 
Alaska, now demand large red apples. The following do 
well; Spltzenburg, Jonathan, Gano, Lawver, Missouri 
Pippin, Vandevere, Blue Pearrnaln, Northern Spy, Wag- 
ener, Rome Beauty, King, Arkansas and many others. 
Kittitas Valley Is about 20 x 30 miles traversed length¬ 
wise by the Yakima River, surrounded by mountains 
from 2,500 to 4.000 feet high; valley elevation ],.500 to 2,000 
feet. Climate seml-arid with cool Summers and tolerably 
cold Winters; all crops Irrigated. I have read The R. 
N.-Y. for many years with much profit. Will you advise 
w'hat varieties of apples to plant? No apples have been 
growm here on a large commercial scale. e. g. g. 
Kllensburg, Wash. 
Although I have never been in the Yakima Valley 
yet I have been in the Palouse country and some other 
parts of western Washington, and in Oregon as well, 
and know something of the conditions there from ob¬ 
servation. I have seen many of the apples and some 
other fruits from the Yakima Valley, and they were 
among the best of those grown in all that country. 
To select a very few varieties from the large number 
that succeed well is indeed a serious and difficult mat¬ 
ter, As I now understand the matter I would plant 
Jonathan, Rome Beauty, Esopus (Spltzenburg) and 
Gano for permanent trees, with Wagener and Mis¬ 
souri for fillers; the latter to be cut out in 10 years 
from planting in that region. All varieties bear so 
early and abundantly there that fillers are hardly 
necessary, yet the other trees will do well for about 
10 years after they are removed. In this way the trees 
may be set 20 feet, or even one rod apart. Lawver is 
a most beautiful apple when grown in that country, 
and may be profitable there, which is not the case 
generally. h. e. v. p. 
Peach Varieties. 
Will you giv'C the merits and demerits of the following 
varieties of peaches: Greensboro, Carman, Mountain 
Rose, Elberta, Oldmixon Free, Stump, Beers Smock, 
Fox, Early Crawford, Late Crawford? It seems the 
nurserymen do not tell the demerits of varieties until 
their stock is sold. After I have planted Triumph I find 
they are practically worthless on account of rotting just 
before ripening. f. w. 
Greensboro is one of the very earliest of peaches, 
of fair size, rather pale creamy, and of fair quality. 
It bears very well and is desirable for that season. 
Carman is much like Greensboro in appearance, ex¬ 
cept that there is more red on the sunny side, and 
runs a little larger. The quality is very fine. This is 
one of the very best second early peaches. Mountain 
Rose is rather small, beautifully colored with red 
over a white flesh and skin, and of very good quality. 
It is as sure a bearer as any variety. Elberta is the 
best of all peaches for market, all things considered. 
It is large, oblong, yellow with a bright red blush, 
of only fair quality and one of the best and most 
regular bearers. Oldmixon Free is of medium size, 
red and white, of excellent quality and a good bearer. 
For a peach of mid-season this is one of the best, and 
has long held this position. Stump is of almost the 
same character in all respects as Oldmixon Free. 
Beers Smock is a good late peach. It is of medium 
size, yellow, not brilliant, and of only fair quality. 
The fruit seems quite subject to scab and crack as it 
nears maturity. Fox is a red and white peach of me¬ 
dium size and fair quality, but is by no means of 
special value. Early Crawford is an old favorite, and 
is well worthy of culture where it succeeds; which is 
not in all of the peach regions, owing to the tree be¬ 
ing somewhat tender. It is large, yellow, and of good 
quality. However, the Niagara, which is of the same 
season, is thought to be superior in point of hardi¬ 
ness and bearing. Late Crawford is much the same 
as the former, except in point of season. It, too, has 
a superior rival in the Chairs, which is a little larger 
and ripens more evenly. This is, indeed, a very good 
list of peaches. h. e. v, d. 
Peaches, Crabs and Ailing Apples. 
1. Are the Late Crawford and Chairs peaches one and 
the same? I sent m’y order to a certain prominent nur¬ 
sery firm in Missouri for Chairs, and they labeled them 
Chairs Choice or CrawTord’s Late. 2. Are not the Flor¬ 
ence crab and Whitney, sometimes called Whitney’s No. 
20, identical? 3. What Is the matter with my apple trees? 
At the crown of the trees there seems to be a whitish 
gray woolly mildew and trees seem stunted in growth. 
What would you recommend as a remedy? e. s. k. 
Reddick, III. 
1. No, Chairs is a distinct and better peach than 
Late Crawford, although of about the same season. 
It is larger in fruit and ripens more evenly. I have 
seen the two tested in the same commercial orchards 
and under the same treatment, and the Chairs was 
decidedly the more profitable. The trees should not 
have been labeled with both names, and I hope Late 
Crawford was not substituted for Chairs. 2. Florence 
is a distinct variety of crab apple from Whitney, the 
latter being the larger. The latter had “No. 20’’ as 
a part of the name until it was very properly dropped 
because of it being entirely needless and cumbersome 
as well. 3. Woolly aphis is the trouble with the apple 
trees that have something at their bases that looks 
like mildew. This is the stage of the insect that 
shows above ground. The feeble condition of the 
trees is another evidence of the sapping of their vi¬ 
tality through their roots. Tobacco will kill them, 
and by the way, that and the killing of chicken lice 
are about the only good uses that I know of for this 
vile weed. Early next Spring spade off the earth 
about each tree, by sections, down to where the roots 
are found. Spread on tobacco dust or stems half an 
inch deep and cover with earth as before. By using 
STAMPING A STAMP ON THE GOVERNOR ! Fig. 29. 
the soil from one part to cover the other the work 
can be done with little labor. The tobacco will kill 
the aphis and at the sarne time enrich the soil, being 
worth in the latter way all that it costs. 
_ H. E. v. D. 
MEAT AND CREAM FARMING IN IOWA. 
We have been told that beef and butter in the same 
carcass will not pay. This account of the methods fol¬ 
lowed on an Iowa farm gives a new view of the subject. 
This interesting story is taken from a personal letter: 
Our farm (the deeds are in my name, but every 
member of the family has an interest) is run for the 
production of meat and cream. The cream is sold at 
the farm to a creamery in town, the meat is sold on 
foot either in our town or Chicago. Of the 160 acres 
110 are in permanent Blue-grass pasture, on which 
we keep from 70 to 90 head of cattle, all ages, four 
or five horses and colts, and from 50 to 100 hogs and 
pigs, from early Spring until Winter sets in, this year 
December 1. We buy some corn and sometimes bran. 
Cows and growing cattle are fed corn and fodder, not 
husked, cut up together with hay and sheaf oats; two 
feeds of the fodder and one of oats and hay each daily 
fed morning and night, as long as the fodder lasts, 
then more corn and hay. We had better success so 
far with Alfalfa than you; sowed two acres on Blue 
grass sod plowed in the Fall before, without nurse 
crop. The land is what we call bottom land, but not 
subject to overflow. The land being clean, weeds did 
not bother much. We cut two crops of about l^/^ ton 
per acre each. The first crop was hardly worth barn 
room on account of rainy weather after it was cut. 
The next cutting was better, but we let that stand too 
long waiting for the weather to clear up. It made a 
good growth after that, which was liked by the calves 
and pigs, and is still green, although covered with 
snow. To make a success it will have to withstand 
freezing and thawing with the ground full of water. 
A Colorado friend says it will not. We shall see. An 
unused barnyard was sown to oats and rape that 
produced wonderfully. We have been trying to solve 
the labor question for 30 years. We did it one way 
this year by doing the work ourselves, which is not 
entirely satisfactory as far as I am concerned, as 
there are not many of us. Except in vacation there 
are only four of us evenly divided between the house 
and farm. _ 
MACHINES FOR TRANSPLANTING CELERY. 
We expect to plant several acre’s of celery the coming 
season, and wish to know whether there is a machine 
which will successfully transplant celery plants. 
Espy, Pa. A. p. F. 
We have experimented considerably with the ordi¬ 
nary transplanter on celery, but it is not a success. 
It is impossible to set close enough. Our most ex¬ 
perienced help could not handle the plants so as 
to get them in closer than 10 to 15 inches apart in 
the row. Early celery is usually set about four inches 
and late six to eight inches. The only celery plants 
that we could handle at all were large stocky trans¬ 
planted stock. Ordinary plants from the seed beds, 
as are used in late and main crop, are so small we 
could not handle them. a. g. miller. 
Elmira, in. Y. 
There is no such machine in use in Kalamazoo, nor 
do we think there is for 10 or 20 miles around, so we 
cannot say how such a machine will operate. We 
would like for ourselves to see or know how it would 
work. Our opinion, however, is it may do in open 
land, but not very well where other crops with celery 
are raised. kalamazoo celery co. 
Kalamazoo, Mich. 
WHEAT RUST AND BARBERRY BUSHES. 
What is the latest information in regard to the propa¬ 
gation and dissemin.ilion of grain rust? Is it a recog¬ 
nized fact among scientific men that the rust is bred on 
the barberry? I have noticed that the rust on gr.ain, 
especially oats, is much worse in the neighborhood of 
a barberry hedge than in those sections where there are 
no barberry bushes, and I have been informed by some of 
the old residents that before the planting of the barberry 
a rusty field of oats was a rarity then instead of the 
rule now. n. j, s. 
Lower Montague, P. E. I. 
Wheat rust, a fungus parasite, varieties of which 
cause rusts on rye, barley, oats and a number of the 
grasses, is called a polymorphic or many-formed fun¬ 
gus. It is so designated because there are at least 
three well-known kinds of spores connected with its 
life cycle. One form (vEcidiospores) lives on bar¬ 
berry in Spring, another (Uredospores) on wheat in 
early Summer, and a third (Telentospores) on wheat 
in late Summer. At first it was thought that no rela¬ 
tionship existed between them, and they were named 
distinct species. There is no doubt that the barberry 
is used by the rust as a second host, but it is not 
necessary to the life of the parasite, for in Australia 
the form (.®cidial) which inhabits the barberry is 
not founji, though ordinary Wheat rust is prevalent. 
An eminent English authority says: “In this coun¬ 
try the absence of barberry bushes from certain re¬ 
gions does not appear to diminish the prevalence of 
rust from such districts.” Another scientist reports 
that he obtained rusted plants in six to eight weeks 
from grain sown in sterilized soil and carefully pro¬ 
tected from outside infection. He concludes that the 
fungus may be transmitted by a germ “plasm” which 
lives a latent life in the cells of the embryo. This 
would account for the appearance of rust early in the 
season. We can conclude, therefore, that scientists 
have not yet unraveled the whole story. If a farmer 
is growing both wheat and barberries and both rust 
badly, he can spray or cut down the suspected bar 
berries, whichever he chooses. The barberry may, and 
probably does, help, but it is not necessary to the 
appearance of Wheat rust. john oraig. 
LONG STRAWBERRY ROOTS.—Fig. 28, first page, 
shows a strawberry plant which T. C. Kevitt of New 
Jersey dug on January 10. Mr. Kevitt claims that 
this plant is a strong argument in favor of his pian 
of mulching before the ground is frozen. He put on 
a heavy coat of stable manure before a crust formed 
on the soil. This prevented the ground from freezing 
solid and the plants kept on growing. Of course this 
is an unusual Winter and the soil would have frozen 
solid in most seasons, yet the early mulching will 
keep the soil open for some weeks in any season. 
The strawberry is called a “cold-blooded” plant be¬ 
cause it endures much hard weather, but that is no 
sign that long-continued freezing does it any good. 
The old idea was to mulch so as to keep the frost in 
the ground and prevent the heave and settle which 
goes with freeze and thaw. It is pretty evident that 
considerable damage will be done by the light freez¬ 
ing in Autumn—before the ground freezes solid. By 
putting the mulch on early we prevent this, and this 
plant which Mr. Kevitt shows is evidently in pos-. 
session of “all its faculties.” 
