37o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
May 16 
planted too close the fruit buds will be on the ends 
of the top limbs. I would not recommend Summer 
pinching for this section. s. e. haxe. 
Illinois. 
There is but one way in which to make peach buds 
dev’elop reasonably close to the ground and that is to 
keep the bearing wood low down by pruning short 
when tree is planted, forcing the laterals to start close 
to the ground. Then as soon as two or three feet long 
stop shoots by pinching out terminal bud. The second 
series of laterals should be stopped by first of August. 
By continuing the pinching out of the terminal buds 
the second and thii*d year fruit buds will be developed 
reasonably low on the trees. This system of Summer 
pruning makes it unnecessary to remove more than 
small surplus or interfering branches in the Spring, 
and makes the building up of desirable shaped low¬ 
headed trees possible. My experience with Spring 
pruning of the peach is that it encourages just the 
conditions that our Nebraska friend complains of, in¬ 
duces excessive growth of wood, which unless stopped 
early in the season will be slow in forming fruit buds. 
Indiana. m. h. ridgeway. 
The severe cutting back in Spring has the effect of 
forcing strong wood growth rather than fruit-bud 
formation. Anything that tends to stunt or dwarf 
the wood growth stimulates to bearing. Summer 
pinching of the tips of the stronger growing shoots 
after the shoots are nearly to their usual full growth 
will have a tendency to set fruit buds on such shoots 
near their bases. But other means are better. In June 
or July tie around the body of the tree where it is 
regularly cylindrical, a small rope wrapped tightly 
around two or three coils and securely tied, not so as to 
bruise, but to check sap movement, and the effect will 
be to cause abundant setting of fiower buds. The rope 
should be removed in Fall before freezing weather. 
To prevent the tree from making too high a growth 
and cause a more spreading top to form, let what 
Winter or early Spring pruning is done be accom¬ 
plished chiefly in heading back the strongest leaders 
half way or more of the last season’s growth, always 
cutting off just above an outer bud on the shoot. This 
outer bud will become the leader of that branch the 
next year, and being on the outer lower side tends to 
spread and lower the top of the tree generally. With 
the cording and this manner of Winter pruning no 
Summer pinching will be necessary. 
Grayson Co., Texas. t. v. munson. 
WHY USE SALT OH ASPARAGUS BEDS? 
There arc few horticultural notions more widely 
entertained than the idea that common salt is espe¬ 
cially suitable as a fertilizer for asparagus. It was 
formerly the custom to empty the brine from pork 
and beef barrels on the garden patch of asparagus, 
often with surprisingly good results, as this home¬ 
made preserving liquid usually contained a high per¬ 
centage of nitrogenous matter dissolved from the 
meats and more or less saltpeter or nitrate of potash 
Is usually included in such formulas, and thus the 
asparagus is supplied with concentrated food ma¬ 
terials, for which the salt or chloride of sodium gets 
all the credit. Established asparagus plants root 
deeply, and are very resistant to the influence of salt, 
which may be put on strong enough to kill out most 
weeds without exerting a particularly harmful influ¬ 
ence. If there are already good supplies of plant food 
in the soil salt may aid in dissolving it out, especially 
in light sandy land, where it probably also aids in 
conserving moisture. In heavy soil it is always likely 
to do more harm than good. To grow asparagus 
profitably it is needful to manure heavily. Most New 
Jersey growers pin their faith to 20-ton applications 
of stable manure to the acre, hauled on in late Win¬ 
ter while the ground is still frozen. This gives good 
satisfaction, but cleaner, surer and better all-’round 
results are likely to be had from using 1,000 to 2,000 
pounds of a good high-grade potato fertilizer to each 
acre applied broadcast just as the cutting season is 
over, and cultivated in the soil. There should be 
about four per cent of nitrogen, five or six of potash 
and eight of available phosphoric acid. Many think 
kainit the best source of potash for asparagus. As 
kainit is about half common salt, at least twice the 
weight of this material should be used as of muriate 
or sulphate of potash in making up the fertilizing 
mixture to secure the necessary potash, and a propor¬ 
tionally larger amount should be applied to the land. 
Asparagus makes its Spring growth in the form of 
edible shoots from material stored in the fleshy roots 
during the previous Summer, and can scarcely he sup¬ 
posed to be affected by fertilizers applied just before 
or during the cutting season, as it requires leaf ac¬ 
tion to assimilate crude materials absorbed from the 
soil, and if the necessary manures can be applied just 
as cutting stops so as to he ready as soon as the fo¬ 
liage is developed, the best and most economical re¬ 
sults are to be expected. If one depends on bulky 
animal manrires it is probably better to get it on 
when hauling Is easy over frozen ground, but it would 
seem that chemicals are most profitably applied when 
r 
true growth is ready to start and root action is al¬ 
ready active. The most successful growers use both 
stable and chemical manures with great liberality. 
A LIGHTNING ROD WINDMILL 
Refeiring to the several articles that have appeared In 
The R. N.-Y. on the subject of lightning, and particu¬ 
larly to the one on page 279, I would like to ask whether 
a galvanized steel windmill mounted on a high tower of 
the same material, and connected to a pump in a well, 
does not afford protection to nearby buildings against 
lightning? c. J. n. 
Pullman, Ill. 
I have not the least doubt that such a structure 
would collect and convey to the earth an immense 
amount of electricity, and if It extended sufficiently 
high above the buildings would afford a large amount 
of protection. If the tower or mill had a large num¬ 
ber of sharp points kept bright extending up its col¬ 
lecting power would be very greatly enhanced, and 
of course it would afford much greater protection, as 
it is these sharp bright points that take the electricity 
so rapidly as to disarm the cloud. There is one mani¬ 
festation of electricity which fortunately is very rare, 
against which It is very difficult to guard by conduc¬ 
tors, the ball or meteoric form. About 10 years ago 
wo had our barns destroyed by this form. During a 
thunderstorm our nearest neighbor sat looking out 
towards our barn, and he say a ball of fire about five 
or six feet m diameter, he says, which went streak¬ 
ing like a meteor through the clouds and struck the 
cupola of our barn, when it seemed to burst, and in 
less than a half minute the flames burst from every 
part of the barn, and in less than an hour the whole 
LOW-HEADED IOWA PEACH TREES. Fig. 132. 
system of five barns about the yard were all con¬ 
sumed. As we had only owned this farm about five 
months, and there were no rods on the barns, I can¬ 
not say whether conductors would have saved it. 
J. s. AVOODWARD, 
VALUE OF CORN-AND-COB MEAL 
What is the real value of cobs? Does it pay to grind 
them with the corn for food? I would like to hear from 
some experiment station. Some people say the combina¬ 
tion is good ground for food and others condemn it. 
Bendersvilie, Pa. w. s. a. 
There is and always has been a wide difference of 
opinion concerning the actual feeding value of corn¬ 
cobs. In the thoroughly dried corn the nutriment 
has been nearly exhausted into the kernel. If corn 
is not fully ripe, the cob will be worth more. Prof. 
Henry gives the digestible protein 0.4 per cent, carbo¬ 
hydrates 52.5, fat 0.3, water 11. This leaves a large 
per cent of fiber, which of course makes for a very 
small feeding value, and yet some pig-feeding experi¬ 
ments in New Hampshire gave 460 pounds of corn- 
and-cob meal equal to 482 pounds of cornmeal. In 
Missouri 634 pounds corn-and-cob equaled 501 of corn, 
and in Kansas 650 pounds corn-and-cob equaled 670 
of corn. The probability is that the cob being ground 
finely with the corn the gastric juices of the stomach 
were able to act more thoroughly upon it, and hence 
the net result of the corn value was greatly increased. 
While I have no authority for the statement I sus¬ 
pect there may be a stimulating effect upon the diges¬ 
tive tract from the mineral matter contained in the 
cob. Before feeding large quantities I should be as¬ 
sured that it could be very finely ground, which is 
difficult to do. If only cracked or granulated it will 
probably not only have no feeding or physiological 
effect, but be a positive damage to the animal. I 
might add that Shelton, in his Kansas steer feeding 
experiments, secured the following results. Column 1 
show.s average weight at beginning; 2, total gain; 3, 
total feed; 4, average gain per steer; 5, meal per 100 
pounds increase; 6, average daily gain per steer: 
Feed. 
(1884) 
Oorn-and-cob 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
.. 815 
11,565 
1,580 
316 
732 
2u25 
Cornmeal . 
.. 847 
11,612 
1,466 
292 
795 
2.08 
(1885) 
Cornmeal . 
. .1,150 
12,6.54 
1,085 
217 
1.166 
1.36 
Corn-and-cob .. 
..1,128 
12,918 
1,052 
205 
1,260 
1.41 
H. 
E. COOK. 
ALL SORTS. 
WHEY FOR CALVES.—This is a well balanced 
food, but the proportion of water is too great to get 
the highest results. I have been boiling the stuff, 
or a temperature of 190 degrees will be sufficient to 
produce a separation of the casein and a portion of 
the other solids remaining, and subsequently a pre¬ 
cipitation. The top, about one-third of the whole, is 
dipped off and thrown away, leaving a more concen¬ 
trated food. Calves drink it mixed with Red Dog 
flour and oil meal, and are making a fairly satis¬ 
factory growth. The cheese farmer alone can make 
use of the plan. It is in the raising of young calves 
that I envy the butter maker. h. e. c. 
DANISH BAI.L-HEAD CABBAGE.—I have grown 
this variety around Chicago for the last 10 years, and 
previous to that for a number of years in Denmark, 
both cabbage and seed, of that variety. I do not won- 
dor that some people are dissatisfied with their crop, 
as I have seen advertisements in American papers 
for several years of firms announcing themselves as 
special growers of and dealers in Danish Ball-head 
cabbage in Denmark. So far I have been unable to 
locate these seed farms, and most likely there has 
been not a single seed of their mixture grown in Den¬ 
mark. Danish Ball-head or Amager cabbage was 
originally, as F. G. Tice states on page 300, a very 
long-stemmed solid ball, rather bluish in Fall, but 
snow white after New Year’s, weighing about from 
eight to 12 pounds. It is the best keeper I have known 
yet; I have generally had some as late as April 15 to 
May 1 in perfect condition. I know growers of this 
variety of seed in Denmark have been working on and 
improving by selection year after year for 20 years, 
and have brought the stem down to half its original 
length and of so uniform a size that I have seen fields 
of several acres in the Fall on rich black soil with 
clay bottom where 1 was hardly able to see a head 
that was either smaller or larger than the rest, and 
with uniform length of stem. I import the seed for 
my cabbage plants from one of these growers; then I 
know what I am getting. I have never failed to rea¬ 
lize from ?!4 to $8 per 100, and it is the best seller 
from December 1, while the flat-headed variety has 
sold in Fall for sauerkraut at $1 to $2 per 100. They 
have never-failed with me until last year, when every¬ 
thing drowned on my 52-acre truck farm. l. m. 
South Chicago, Ill. 
FRUIT NOTES. 
THE LEHIGH GREENING.—On April 27 1 sent by 
mail another Lehigh Greening apple, knowing that you 
could not judge of the quality by the sample sent last 
Fall. A single variety with all of the excellent qualities 
is hard to find, but I was so impressed with the Lehigh 
Greening that I set 139 trees for orchard purposes. It 
there is a better variety I would be tempted to dupli 
cate the 139 trees, but I know of no such variety. I 
hope next Fall to send you another variety, which has 
the red jacket; it is not quite as late a keeper as the 
Lehigh, but its size and quality far outrank Ben Davis, 
and in looks it is not inferior. It is possible that I may 
be just a Ittle sour on the Ben Davis apple, for one time 
boarded in a family by that same name. I only wish 
Ben Davis was as good as it looks; it might be a re¬ 
markable apple. W. B. K. JOHNSON. 
R. N.-Y.—The quality of this apple is much better than 
those tested last Winter. It is more like the old R. I- 
Greening though not so delicate in flavor. The apple is 
certainly a remarkable keeper. As for ‘“getting sour on 
Ben Davis’’—no one seems yet to have become sour 
enough to contribute much acid to the apple Itself. 
A STRAWBERRY CROP.—It cost us $25 per acre to 
keep strawberry plants clean and free from noxious 
weeds each season. In early Spring after plants are set 
we use a Planet Jr. hand cultivator; this machine has a 
large wheel in front and has two steel blades which 
cut under the surface about one inch between the rows. 
This weeder we can set so as to cut as close as half inch 
to each plant, thus leaving only the space to hoe between 
each plant. We continue this work up to July 20, when 
the runners commence to act. After this date our opera¬ 
tions to keep our plants clean cost more figuratively. Our 
space becomes narrow to use the hand machine. After 
this date the hoe comes into play between each growing 
plant. It may seem a low estimate to some of our berry 
growers; we wish to state that never do we grant or 
allow a single weed to go to seed. 'This is the contest 
which saves us labor and money. Each season we do not 
have to battle a new crop of weeds. Such varieties as 
Sample and Glen Mary yield on our plant farm from 12,000 
to 20,000 quarts per acre. New York, Bismarck, Kansas 
and Wm. Belt 10,000 to 12,000 quarts. Sample will pick 
first grade about one-half, Glen Mary three-fourths. Glen 
Mary on our plant farm has paid us better than any 
other variety t. c. kevitt. 
New Jersey. 
