THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 7 
82 
V/\RIOUS FRUIT QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 
Apples for Central Illinois. 
We wish to set a small apple orchard of eating apples 
to eat out of hand in the orchard for our own individual 
use; must ripen June, July, August, September and Octo¬ 
ber; must be sweet, or at least not sour or tart. I..and 
level white soil on a line with St. l.ouis. What do you 
advLse? n. p. y. 
Crossville, Ill. 
From some unexjtlainable reason most tastes pre¬ 
fer an apple with more or less acidity, and conse- 
ciiiently sweet apples have been neglected, and are not 
usually grown in most orchards. But if your corre¬ 
spondent will allow subacid apples to come in I can 
give a list perhaps that will be fairly satisfactory. 
Some of the varieties I may name cannot be easily 
found in most nurseries. 1 take it that eating quality, 
and not size and appearance, is what our friend wants. 
As to bearing, blighting, liability to scab, short sea¬ 
son, etc., that often make a failure out of a good 
apple, these I,shall omit entirely from lack of space 
as well as lack of knowledge. No one can certainly 
foretell how a variety not widely planted will thrive 
under all conditions. It is not always so, but as a rule 
Fall and Winter apples, especially the early Winter 
ones, ripen here earlier than they are said to in the 
East. Our first “very good” apple here is the Early 
Harvest, a subacid apple of fair size. Ripening later 
are Early Joe, Summer Rose and Early Strawberry, 
all small red subacid apples of excellent quality. 
Summer Rambo and Early Queening are a little later, 
both of good quality and subacid. Jersey Sweet ripens 
in the last of July and is very good if not allowed to 
get overripe. Sharp is a rather small yellowish-white 
sweet apple that is tender, juicy and rich, and should 
be better known; it matures about the middle of Au¬ 
gust. Ricter, a bright red and mildly subacid little 
apple, ripens a week or two later; it is fully “vei’y 
good” in quality. Perkins is one of the best nearly 
sweet apples I tasted last year. It is above medium 
in size and has something of the appearance of 
Grimes Golden, but it ripens in the last of August and 
should receive the grade of “best” as I taste it. I 
think this new apple hails from Virginia, but am not 
certain. Hawley, an old kind, has a mild subacid 
flavor that should suit anyone. This is also a late 
August apple. The new apples, Palouse and Watrous, 
are both worthy of planting for home use and pos¬ 
sibly for market. They are mildly subacid and are 
good enough for anybody to eat. The former is about 
as large as Yellow Bellflower; fine yellow and some 
red, and matures here early in September, while the 
latter may be called sweet and ripens a little later. 
Both are of western origin. Pulton Strawberry is a 
beautiful red-fleshed September apple that is very 
juicy and desirable for home use. Magnet, from Kan¬ 
sas, can hardly be surpassed in quality by any Sep¬ 
tember variety I know. It is of medium size, fine 
dark red, fine grained, juicy, mild and very rich. 
Princess Louise conies in later in the month, and has 
a flavor somewhat like Fameuse. Grimes Golden, 
Paradise Winter Sweet and Higby Sweet are all fine 
for Autumn, the former being a good late Fall mar¬ 
ket sort, and well-known probably to the inquirer. 
Shiawasse Beauty is of the mild-flavored soft white- 
fleshed Fameuse type that is popular with most apple 
eaters, and ripens here in October, and I think that 
both Hendrick Sweet and Jacob will suit the taste 
of the inquirer. Sweet Bellflower is not a bad early 
Winter apple here. Northampton is flaky, tender, 
rich, and nearly sweet; ripens here in October. The 
quality of Sutton is excellent, the fruit is of good size 
and showy, but it is an October to November apple 
here, and has so far been a poor bearer. It might do 
better on the thin soils east of St. Louis. Stayman, I 
fear, will be a little too early for a good Winter 
apple here. I really hope that your inquirer will not 
be able to eat well ripened specimens in November, 
but I fear that too early maturity will be the fault of 
this excellent variety. benj. buckman. 
Illinois. 
Mr. Hitchings on Fruit Crowing. 
We intend to mulch our home orchard this Winter and 
coming Spring, and had thought of using a layer of ma¬ 
nure on bottom and then to put on three or four Inches 
of sawdust or coal ashes. We wish to know whether 
there is liable to be any injury from the use of the saw¬ 
dust if it is put up close to trunk of trees. Would the 
coal ashes be injurious if in contact with trunks of trees? 
Johnstown, Pa. O- m. 
I would not use the sawdust on top of the manure; 
It is not necessary. Also, it is slow to decay, and it is 
decayed vegetable matter that you need. One bushel 
of sawdust to a tree when first set will hold moisture 
until you can grow vegetable matter that is better. 
I have not had any experience with coal ashes, but do 
not think they would injure the trees. 
I have just come into possession of a farm on which 
there is a rather steep hillside with surface too irregular 
for satisfactory cultivation. It faces the north, with an 
inclination to the east. The soil is a gravelly loam, and 
appears to be fertile, for Timothy. Orchard grass and 
White clover grow rankly on it. We think of setting it 
to fruit, practicing tbe Hitchings method. From descrip¬ 
tion, would you recommend doing so? There is a maple 
grove in one corner and woods upon neighbors’ farms on 
two sides. How near to such forest growths would it be 
advisable to set fruit trees? How near to fence next to 
neighbor’s cultivated field? In setting such varieties as 
Jonathan, Grimes Golden, Greening, Northern Spy, Grav- 
enstein, etc., would there be any choice of location in 
jilacing them on that hillside—that is, in reference to alti¬ 
tude? The same question is asked as to fillers: Olden¬ 
burg, Wealthy, Yellow Transparent, Wagener, Hubbard- 
ston and pears. e. f. c. 
Watervliet, Mich. 
The mulch method aims to supply plant food to 
trees by means of decaying vegetable matter in the 
so'l. You will find by leaving all grass that grows in 
orchard to decay on surface of soil that each succeed¬ 
ing year your soil grows richer in available plant 
food. I would not set any closer than 20 feet from 
the forest or 15 feet from ray neighbor’s land. I would 
place the Grimes Golden and Jonathan on the higher 
elevation; the Wagener and Northern Spy on the 
heaviest clay, the Wealthy on the driest portion, for 
its root-system is deepest, and the other varieties on 
the intermediate soil. 
I have followed very carefully the discussion In The 
R. N.-Y. about the Hitchings method of growing an apple 
orchard. Do you think it would be all right to plant 
cherries in grass and mulch the same as he does? I 
would like to set out 200 cherry trees. My land is high, 
a medium heavy clay, and stony, and it is hard to get 
manure to it. g. g. 
Hornellsville, N. Y. 
Cherries will do fully as well as apples in sod. The 
same principle of supplying available plant food ap¬ 
plies to both. Do not crowd your trees too close with¬ 
out you have plenty of manure to help out the grass. 
GBANT G. IIITOHINGS. 
ACRE OF STRAWBERRIES VS. 10 COWS. 
The figures that show the original cost of an acre of 
strawberries up to the time of fruiting are disappoint¬ 
ing to look at by a man about to begin the culture of 
the strawberry. It is hard to convince him that he 
can ever get his money back. The same is true in the 
dairying business. If the farmer could be shown what 
it cost him to grow up a cow to the age of full milk 
production, and again what he has to put into that 
cow ever}" year in the form of material that could be 
converted into cash without feeding it to the cow, it 
would discourage him, and yet there are many men 
who make more than a living from dairying. I have 
milked cows ever since I w'as nine years old, and have 
been in the strawberry business for 20 years now. I 
can truthfully say that I would rather have the net 
profits, on an average from year to year, from an acre 
of strawberries, cared for as I know how to care for 
them, than the actual net profits from tbe best 10 
■cows in the State of New York. When you get above 
10 cows you either have to hire a man or have your 
wife milk. If you hire a man it takes all 10 more 
cows will make, the best you can do, to pay for the 
hired man. 
I have always advised the farmer to keep the cows 
because they are necessary to preserve the fertility of 
the soil; keep 20 of them if possible and a hired man 
also, but in order to get ahead he should have an 
acre or so of either strawberries, raspberries or some 
similar crop to bring in a lump of money all at one 
time to use in paying for the place,' to pay debts or 
whatever luxuries the farmer can afford. I contend 
that no farmer can be up-to-date in his manner of 
living and make it from a dairy alone. You can go 
without things that a farmer ought to have, and pay 
for a farm with a dairy, but you cannot live as farm¬ 
ers ought to live in this age unless you get money 
from some other source than the dairy. I have a 
dairy of 15 cows, two silos, feed cotton-seed meal, 
gluten, etc., and get 25 cents the year around for 
butter. B. J. FABMER. 
Oswego Co., N. Y. 
FRUIT TREE COMMENTS BY STRINGFELLOW 
As you have said several times after planting root- 
pruned trees, it looked all right but the trees them¬ 
selves must “tell the tale,” I send you an instance 
where the trees have been telling the tale for the past 
eight years. Referring to R. H. Price’s remarks about 
my old orchard, page 1, I would say the ground was 
cultivated for eight years in vegetables, then put to 
grass and has thus remained for the past 12 years. 
Prof. Waite, the blight specialist, saw it last year and 
pronounced it the finest in the South; no blight to 
hurt, while all around orchards have been ruined. 
My experiment here was a failure because after plant¬ 
ing we had only a total rainfall of 11 inches the first 
year and 15 the second. All crops an entire failure. 
For dry climates the ground should be first plowed 
and cultivated afterwards until trees begin to bear, 
when even here I would put to grass, mow and mulch. 
But I would mow twice a year, once in early Summer 
and again in Fall, leaving clippings where they fall. 
For most sections the danger from fire would be too 
great to risk Mr. Hitchings’s tall grass in Fall and 
Winter. Even where mowed in Fall the mulch should 
be raked from around the trees. As to Mr. Chap¬ 
man’s barren trees in sod, the cause is plainly a soil 
over-rich in nitrogen but lacking potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid. Instead of cultivating, why not put the 
money in a good fertilizer containing those elements, 
or give a heavy top-dressing of hard-wood ashes? It 
will interest your readers to read what H. M. Wallace 
of Missouri recently said in the Practical Fruit 
Grower: 
I see that you desire information from those who have 
had experience setting trees by the Strlngfellow plan. 
In the Spring of 1895 I planted 1,500 Ben Davis apple 
trees, 500 of which were pruned to a straight whip, both 
root and branch, and set in holes made with a crow¬ 
bar. These trees had been growing in the nursery row 
two years. The first year’s growth had been cut off to 
the ground, making the tree a one-year-old with a two- 
year-old root, hence were not so desirable for that kind 
of planting as a straight one-year-old. The land on 
which they were planted was one of the Ozark flint hills, 
which had been cleared the year before and cultivated 
in corn. In some places the land was so hard and flinty 
that I could hardly make a hole with a heavy crowbar. 
No surface soil was placed in the holes. The hole was 
made just large enough to admit the roots; the tree was 
placed therein and the bar then driven down a few 
inches away as deep as the hole in which the tree was 
set. The top of the bar was then pulled away from the 
tree, which movement closed in the dirt around the lower 
end of the root very firmly. A movement back towards 
tree closed the upper part of the hole. The bar was then 
withdrawn, the hole tamped and the work was done in 
less time than it takes to tell it. 
Now for the result: Those set in crowbar holes did not 
make quite as much growth the first year as those set 
by the old plan, but they have outdone them every year 
since, and are now the best trees I have. They bore 
considerable fruit this year and last and promise well 
for the future. I would not set trees any other way. It 
saves labor, which is money, and it makes a better tree, 
which is also money. I would say to those who try the 
plan: Never put any surface soil or anything else in the 
hole. Be sure that the lower end of the hole is closed 
firmly around the root and the result will be satisfactory. 
IL M. STRINGFELLOW. 
FRUIT NOTES. 
BORDEAUX CURES SCAB.—I have noticed your re¬ 
marks on the inefficiency of Bordeaux Mixture to prevent 
the Apple scab. Your demand in the last issue for some¬ 
thing more reliable inpels me to write you. My experi¬ 
ence, during the past season in an exceedingly bad Apple- 
scab infested region of western New York, was that the 
Bordeaux Mixture is an absolute preventive. Can the 
scientific man give us a preventive or cure that will make 
up for lack of thoroughness in application? I want to 
encourage those who failed with the Mixture last year 
to try again. F. a. Salisbury. 
Ithaca, N. Y. 
MULCHING IN FLORIDA.—Mulching is considered a 
proper thing in orange culture except for the ever-present 
danger of fire and the necessity of continuing it after 
once started: also the frost danger Is nearer in a 
mulched grove. Of two prominent Florida growers, near 
neighbors and on the same kind of land, one practiced 
mulching and the other cultivating; after 20 years of the 
two systems it was agreed there was no difference in the 
results. It needs to be stated, however, that the mulched 
grove was more expensive than the other, for, as the land 
was poor, it was necessary to move the mulch yearly to 
fertilize. F. H. 
GRAFTING NOTES.—I have a farm on which are many 
old seedling apple trees. I tried a grafter one Spring, 
but the trees were so old that the grafts had to be put 
in too far from the trunk and too high to look well or 
be useful. The next year I let some sprouts grow where 
they started in likely places as near the ground as pos¬ 
sible, and one or two on each branch. The next year I 
budded these. I find it is very easy to make apple buds 
“take.” I noticed some “took” when they were not wrap¬ 
ped at all. I use common cotton twine for wrapping. 
The next Fall, to try the experiment, I cut off the 
branches of an old seedling or so; not all of them, but 
left enough to keep the tree thrifty, and tried to leave 
a small branch or sucker on each limb cut off. The next 
Spring I slaughtered a few more old trees, cutting the 
branches off a foot or so longer than I intended to have 
them. I tried to leave a branch on each to graft, and 
when not large enough to graft I budded the same Sum¬ 
mer, and many sprouts grew large enough to bud in 
August. I could see no difference in the behavior of the 
trees cut off in Fall or Spring. F. h. 
■Vermont. 
After a long, beautiful spell of weather up to Thanks¬ 
giving, we have been having snow, sleet, rain and hall 
almost continuously. Many farmers of the easy kind 
seemed to think the pleasant days would never end, and 
so used them to take in the side shows always waiting 
to tempt the loiterers. The result is that much corn re¬ 
mains unhusked, and much fodder stands bleaching in 
the fields. This, too, in a season when every shred of 
forage is needed. A few men with advanced views on 
agriculture are hauling the damp stuff to the barn to be 
run through a husker and shredder. This, after being 
packed away for a few days, will be unfit for any decent 
animal to eat. Many residents have, from the high price 
of coal, gone back to the old-time habit of using wood 
for fuel. As a result, wood has doubled in price, but is 
still considered the cheaper. Last "Winter the greatest 
sleet within memory, reaching from the Delaware to the 
Susquehanna, occurred on February a. Many thousands 
of cords of wood were broken down and ruined for any 
other purpose than fuel. This is now being utilized, and 
saves many dollars to those who own timber. It makes 
work to prepare it for use, and more work to attend the 
fires, but gives a much pleasanter heat than coal. 
Pennsylvania. w. t. s. 
