388 
May 23 
EVERYBODY'S GARDEN. 
What Next?— At this writing, May 9, 
so many things are crowding one upon 
another that the puzzle is to tell what 
to do first. By this evening we hope the 
grapevines will be all righted up and 
ready for the regular culture of the sea¬ 
son. Some of the trellis posts, becoming 
weary in well doing, had lopped down 
upon the ground to take a rest. They 
had to be straightened up or reset, and 
the vines tied up; hut that is pretty well 
along, and we shall be glad to see them 
all in readiness for the regular prescrip¬ 
tion of dust mulch. From present ap¬ 
pearances, they will have to depend 
chlefiy on that, for spite of all the rain 
and snow of the past few months, the 
ground is very hard and dry. The black¬ 
berries and raspberries still require a 
good deal of work to put them on a 
creditable footing, for the weeds grow 
In spite of dry weather, and never seem 
to want a vacation. Ground must be 
fitted for a larger area of blackberries; 
then there is still some filling out in the 
last year’s planting of raspberries. We 
are short for asparagus, and more must 
be set, and the ground will require much 
work in properly fitting. Ought these 
matters to have been attended to before? 
Yes, I think so, but we have never yet 
been in a position entirely to control the 
elements of weather, and some few other 
contingencies which usually loom up in 
the pathway of mortals. 
By Default. —I have had considerable 
to say previously of the first early vege 
tables, as onions, peas, lettuce, radishes, 
turnips, etc., that could be safely planted 
just as soon as frost would leave sur¬ 
face to work in. But these all had to go 
by default this year. Why? Well, we had 
entirely to change our base of operations 
this Spring, and moDilize our forces up¬ 
on a new line of battle. We hope the 
changes thus made will be for our per¬ 
manent betterment, but it has put the 
first early vegetable work and crops en¬ 
tirely out of business for this year. How¬ 
ever, there is ample time for the medium 
and late crops. Early potatoes might 
have gone in before this, but still 1 
would not care even yet to have them 
above ground, lest they might get cold 
ears. Frost is still persistent and his 
footprints are visible nearly every morn¬ 
ing. Sweet corn would still be liable 
to fare badly were it up, and just how 
our early strawberries are going to 
dodge the cold is still a problem. By 
next week, which will plant us squarely 
in the middle of the month, we hope to 
have some green things growing. We 
shall try to hold the early tomatoes in 
remembrance, and hope to have strong, 
stocky plants ready to go out as soon 
as we can safely transplant. 
Tkaxsplantixg. —It seems pretty late 
to transplant peach trees and shrubbery 
when nearly in full leaf, but in previous 
years I have done it successfully when 
I had to strip the leaves. Our daughters 
are pretty fair gardeners and florists for 
little girls, and they have bee*^ carefully 
tending some peach trees and choice 
lilacs, and waiting until they could have 
a pennanent place for them. When five 
and three years old, they went to plant¬ 
ing out lilacs on their own account. 
Small as they were, they took the prun¬ 
ing shears and root and top-pruned the 
shrubs and planted them according to 
their own ideas. They are large clumps 
now, so that we could only remove a 
portion of them conveniently, but they 
will be carefully transplanted now, as 
we hope to become permanent fixtures. 
Last Spring they planted some peach 
pits, and they grew nicely and are thrif¬ 
ty trees now. They are seedlings, and, of 
course, we cannot tell what the harvest 
will be, but we shall plant them out 
permanently because the girls planted 
the seeds, and we shall hope to impress 
a lesson upon them. If the trees live and 
bear good fruit, the object lesson will be 
doubly profitable, if poor fruit, then we 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
nope the lesson will be also useful. I 
am going to Stringfellow those peach 
trees, and note results, and wish there 
were more of them that I might prove 
the two methods side by side. The girls 
are not quite up to the new way, so I 
shall have to help them in their work. 
Squash-Bugs. —Last year a correspon¬ 
dent wrote that for two seasons in suc¬ 
cession he had lost his entire crop of 
squashes, and that his third crop was 
going the same way, but he could not 
tell from what cause. I betook myself 
out to his plantation. As I haa suspect¬ 
ed, the squash-bugs were there tending 
his crop. He had seen them there, and 
thinking they were the stink-bugs did 
not know they were responsible for the 
damage. There were bugs and bugs, 
hoary-headed old grandfathers and 
grandmothers with descendants to the 
third and fourth generations. I told 
him that the arsenites would do no 
good, as they were sap suckers rather 
than leaf eaters, and contact remedies, 
as kerosene emulsion, tobacco dust, 
cayenne pepper, etc., must be used. 
These would have no effect upon the 
hard coats of the old pioneers, and they 
must be gathered and killed. We laid 
some shingles around the hills, knowing 
that their habit is to quit work early in 
the afternoon, and betake themselves to 
some hiding place, then in the cool of 
the early morning they could easily be 
gathered and destroyed. The younger 
generations could be put out of commis¬ 
sion with the insecticides above men¬ 
tioned, and the eggs, of wnich there were 
scores, could easily be destroyed before 
they had time to hatch. This morning 
I am in receipt of a letter stating that 
he succeeded in getting ahead of the 
bugs and grew some fine squashes. 
Michigan. J. e. morse. 
THE HITCHINGS ORCHARD. 
T have been very much Interested In the 
various opinions that have been expressed 
in the columns of The R. N.-T. regarding 
the Hltchings orchards and methods of cul¬ 
ture. Last September, before the gathering 
of the apple crop was completed, I spent 
three days in the orchards of Mr. Hitch- 
ings. and examined a large proportion of 
the trees carefully. I also made some 
study of the soil and other conditions bear¬ 
ing upon the appearance and behavior of 
the trees, and venture to express some of 
my opinions In addition to those that have 
been previously published. But very little 
remains to be said regarding the large 
crops of fine, high-colored fruit, and the 
early age at which these trees yield profit¬ 
able crops, and many other facts that have 
been mentioned before. Previous to visit¬ 
ing the premises I was very skeptical re¬ 
garding the success of sod culture in other 
localities, and had the opinion that Mr. 
Hitchings’s soil and location were espe¬ 
cially favorable to his methods. I still 
think they are, but I am also fully con¬ 
vinced after my study of his orchards and 
his methods, that a great many other 
localities are just as favorable for obtain¬ 
ing the same good results as is Onondaga 
County. Perhaps on a sandy soil his sys¬ 
tem might not succeed as well. I have 
wished for a long time that our experiment 
stations would take up this line of work 
and conduct experiments in different parts 
of the country, under as many different 
soil and climatic conditions as possible. I 
am experimenting for myself, and hope 
many others will do the same. Many of 
Mr. Hitchings’s methods are directly oppo¬ 
site to the theories and teachings of our 
experiment station and prominent fruit 
growers, but he does not make haphazard 
experiments. He has a well-studied, sound, 
common-sense reason for each and every 
one of his methods. “The proof of the pud¬ 
ding is in the eating,” and Mr. Hitchings is 
getting results that are astonishing. 
One of the strongest evidences to me that 
his trees have unusual vigor, and are get¬ 
ting just what they require, is the fact 
that while they had just matured a large 
crop of fine, large, highly-colored fruit (a 
large crop also in 1901), they had made .a 
fine growth of new wood, the foliage was 
very abundant and vigorous, and the fruit 
buds were very plentiful and unusually 
w.ell dev’eloped, indicating a larger yield for 
this season than they have borne before. 
All who have seen the fruit from this or¬ 
chard on exhibition or in market cannot 
fail to notice its unusually fine color. 
Northern Spy has yielded 1^ bushel per 
tree six years from planting, and annually 
increasing crops thereafter. He sold last 
Fall to the United States Department of 
Agriculture 150 bushels. Including 16 varie¬ 
ties, for experiments in cold storage, and 
chemical analysis at different stages of 
ripening. He set last year 1,000 peach trees 
with every alternate row root-pruned on 
the Stringfellow plan. Seven trees had 
died from the rows planted with roots and 
eight of those without roots. When I saw 
them in September I would defy anyone to 
tell from the appearance of the trees the 
rows that were planted witn roots from 
those without them. I believe, however, 
that last season was unusually favorable 
for that method of planting. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hitchings are growing an¬ 
other very Interesting crop which I have 
not seen mentioned in The R. N.-Y., which 
consists of four boys and a daughter, and 
the good results of the careful culture and 
training which they have received is just 
as apparent as are the results in the or¬ 
chards. They are all wonderfully inter¬ 
ested in their father’s “hobby,” and I pre¬ 
dict, from present indications, that a few 
years hence they will be ready to engage 
in the line of work in which their father 
is so greatly interested, and strive to im¬ 
prove on his methods, and to obtain still 
better results in the orchards than he is 
getting to-day. l. l. w. 
Berwyn, N. Y. 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adr. 
DCAIII lEII hardy white onions 
DCAULIbU Lb., $2.50. Special OSer: The 
New Onion Culture, by T. Greiner, FREE. 
BEAULIEU, Woodhaven, S. Y. 
Seed Buckwheat $i bus?eif;rckfire: 
J. 8. BULL, Cortland, N. T. 
BIG STEM 
Sweet Potato Plants, $1.75 per 1,000; 
Jersey Red and Pierson the same; 
Jersey Yellow, $1.50. Large orders le-ss. 18 kinds. 
Write for price-list. F. S. Newcomb. Vineland, N. J 
1^,000 
Pansies, and all kinds of Bedding 
Plants, in 200 varieties. Price-list 
mailed free. 
L. MOSBA5K, South Chicago, 111. 
POTTED STRlWBERRY PLANTS 'TS rSi 
President for $3. Kevitt’s Plant Farms, Athenia, N. J. 
Western I THE KELLY CO., 
Grown SEED MERCHANTS. 
Clover, 160-152 Sheriff St., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Timothy, All kinds of grass and field seeds and 
Etc. poultry supplies. Seed manual free. 
Reference, this paper, or Park National Bank. 
Vegetable Plants “Sr.'iSTi”; 
$5 per 100. Cabh,age—Wakefield, transplanted, $2.50 
per 1.000 cash. h. MOSHATK, South Chicago, Ill. 
20-Ton “Goshen” 
Low Wagon 
Wheels. 
Cannot be overloaded. Stand up 
under any kind of hard usage. 
Tires never need resetting. Not 
affected by weather, hot or cold, 
■wet or dry. No spokes to get 
loose or gather mud. Save half 
the lifting. Fit any style ofskein 
or steel axle. Very <furable and 
easy running. Wnteforpricellst 
and inetruotloRi for ordering. Best thing 
you over bought. Manufactured by < 
Tho HIckox, Mull & Hill Co., 
Ift^Superior St., Toledo, O. 
Ten Days Trial FREE 
$26 Worth of Machinery for $8.50 
HANDIEST THING ON THE FARM, j mactoes 
in one. Automatic sickle grinder, Tool 
grinder. Polisher for rusty tools and Saw 
gummer. Bl-PEDAL SICKLE & TOOL GRINDER 
'—high speed—4.iM)0 revolutions a minute. 
REMARKABLE OFFER Tp FARMERS-;5'rimler 
on HI days free trial without deposit or ad¬ 
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not, return it at our expense. Write for 
it to-night. AGENTS WANTF.H. 
f.L LUTHER BROS., NORTH MILWAUKEE. WIS. 
WORK ONE HORSE 
Others for other farm work. 
on the hay press 
and save the 
You can doitifyou use tlie 
RED RIPPER HAY PRESS. 
BaUn made to w«lgh 76 to 160 Ibi. as desired. Catol<^ No. 442 will dem¬ 
onstrate to you that the Red Ripper costs less than other hay pi - 
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Mil Address SIKES MFC. CO., Helena, Ge< 
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incln- 
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Bales 10 to 15 tons a day. Sold on 5 days’ trial. Gatalogac 
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WHITMAN’S 
NEW PATENT 
FULL CIRCLE 
STEEL 
B ALIN G 
PRESS. 
complete line in America. Victorious and in 
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any in use. $3’" Send for Circulars and prices. 
New Method 
of BLANCHING CELERY, 
..w.. ......_used with any system of culture. 
Perfect blanching; no rot or rust. No bruising or 
breaking in handling; one-third expense of boards or 
earth. 50c. by mail. for be.st bunch of celery 
by this method. B. L. MADDEN, Mt. Perry, Ohio. 
PREPARE FOR DROUTH-"rBS:..'’i:; 
ghum. Corn. Low prices for seeds. Ifl varieties corn. 
BINGHAMTON SEED CO., Binghamton, N. Y. 
f Q _ I Home-grown Crimson Clover 
B Or Seed. $3.50 per bn.; Cow Peas, 
$1..50perbu. J. E. HOLLAND, Milford, Del. 
COW PEAS. 
Only a few more left, and to close out quick, T quote 
as follows; 75 bushels Clay Peas (Southern grown), 
at $1.30 per bu., .50 bushels Large Southern Black-eye 
(very fine), at $1.40 per bu., f. o. b. Salisbury. ORDER 
QUICK, and address 
W. E. ALLEN, Salisbury, Maryland. 
Cow Peas “t! 
Bammond's Extra Early .Whippoorwill, Clay .Wonderful, 
Black’s, $1.50 per bu., mixed $1.20. Medium Green 
Soja Beans. $2 per bu. Dwarf Essex Rape, 4c. a lb. 
HARRY N. HAMMOND SEED CO. Ltd. 
Box 42. Bay City, Michigan. 
niilCY MADAME PEKKET. Sendforcir- 
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TREES SUCCEED WHERE 
Larfei^ery. OTHERS FAIL 
RGnitlt Of 78 vears* exocTienCi 
BUDDED FRUITS. 
I® 
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I Largest and best assortment in the United States. 
I Write us to-day for the list of varieties & prices, 
g Harrison’s Nurseries, lio.v 39, Herlln, 31d. 
Trees, Plants and Vines 
Ornamentals, Shade Trees, Shrubs, 
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Send for Catalogue. 
STEPHEN HOYT’S SONS, 
New Canaan, Conn. 
QUER^ 
The Deering Reel 
WILL LIFT LODGED GRAIN 
and deliver it to the knife, no matter how badly down and 
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