466 
June 27 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEVERE ROOT AND TOP-PRUNING 
What the Scientific Men Say. 
enough of the latter can be obtained from home 
sources, so that it is brought from New York by the 
carload; and all this has to be done every year. As 
soon as the crop is picked the plants are taken out, 
root and branch, and thrown away, the soil removed 
from the house and replaced by an entire new supply. 
The best and most practicable way of getting the 
ground ready that I heard of is the method employed 
by John P. Hermance, a R. N.-Y. reader, and one of 
the high-grade farmers of Rhinebeck township. He 
selects early in the Spring a good piece of sod some¬ 
what larger in extent than his houses, and puts on a 
liberal spreading of well-rotted horse manure, then 
plows and harrows and replows and manipulates the 
ground until in early June it is in perfect condition. 
His teams then haul about 75 loads of this finely- 
prepared earth to each violet house, until all the beds 
are solidly filled to a depth of about 15 inches. This 
is ideal preparation for a crop, and ensures success at 
the commencement. There is a disposition, I am told, 
on the part of the village growers to use a less quan¬ 
tity of earth as a matter of economy, but it is not 
wise to do so. 
In the meantime young plants have been propagated 
from runners or shoots taken in March or early April, 
bedded in shallow trays and well cared for so that 
they are in prime condition for setting in the early 
part of June. The plants are placed from nine to 10 
inches apart and a 150-foot house will use about 4,400 
of them. They are cared for by liberal cultivation 
and good watering and ventilation during the Sum¬ 
mer, to give them strong vitality for their Winter 
business. This is a part of the enterprise that re¬ 
quires constant attention, and the closest watchful¬ 
ness to guard against the numerous disease attacks, 
and the depredations of a number of insect enemies— 
pests of the greenhouse which always find entrance, 
and whose ravages for even one day will cause ma¬ 
terial loss. In cold weather additional skill and good 
care are required to keep temperature and all other 
conditions just right. About October 1 some of the 
plants will be affording bloom, and the produce is 
constantly increasing until at holiday time the busi¬ 
ness is at its height. Almost daily pickings can be 
made up till about May 1. It is surprising to know 
that there are instances of single violet plants hav¬ 
ing yielded for the season as many as 100 perfect cut 
flowers. Mr. Hermance permits me to state that his 
average yield for one house last season was 90 blooms 
to the plant: 50 to 60 flowers are said to be about the 
normal yield for the locality. 
Violet growers are becoming handicapped by the 
growing scarcity of help, especially during the rush 
season of preparing and changing soils. After the 
plants are started the house can be readily cared for 
by one individual, and when harvesting time arrives 
the work is participated in by the various members of 
the family. 1 will not go into marketing details, and 
cannot give an average of prices, but .understand the 
sales range from about 40 cents to $2.50 per hundred. 
They have, however, been quoted as low as 25 cents 
per 100 during the past season. It is a difficult mat¬ 
ter to quote flower prices accurately without mislead¬ 
ing, because so many factors enter into the matter. 
Even better prices are sometimes obtained for the 
finest violets during holiday times. Here is where 
quality counts. Of course, expenses are to come out 
of these quotations. It is a business which to the 
faithful is no doubt yielding handsome profits. It is 
pretty generally stated that a $1,200 house can be paid 
for out of the avails of the first crop, though to this 
there are some dissenting views. People here are en¬ 
thusiastic, though there is a natural reticence on the 
part of the growers to discuss the business freely. 
While there are many places in our country where 
the natural advantages are just as good as those 
which rule at Rhinebeck, I am not advising every¬ 
one to engage in violet culture. Though it is a 
delightful Winter business and profitable in these 
days, it must be remembered that it is not a “some- 
thing-for-nothing” enterprise, but that the prizes only 
go to the best caretakers. It means first a good-sized 
investment, and then talent well applied. 
New York. w. s. teiator. 
ANOTHER ORANGE HALL 
Figs. 172 and 173 give picture and plans of the 
Grange hall for which second prize was awarded in 
the recent competition. It belongs to Montcalm 
Grange, Enfield Center, N. H. The dining room will 
accommodate 50 persons at one time. The hall and 
rooms are all well finished and furnished, with run¬ 
ning water, etc. The outside is well painted and in 
first-class repair, and it has stable room for 70 horses. 
The valuation of the buildings is $4,000. The rooms 
are all in the second story, and all of the rooms on 
the same level. The picture does not show all of the 
stables. We own all of the buildings. 
Grafton Co., N. H. lewis t. colby. 
There has been a great deal written about pruning 
young trees in the last few years. Many conflicting 
opinions prevail concerning its efficiency; consequent¬ 
ly one can scarcely write anything upon the subject 
without incurring criticism from some one. My ex¬ 
periments along this line began in 1894 at the Texas 
Experiment Station, and I have followed the investi¬ 
gation up rather closely since then. My experience 
leads me to the conclusion that the discussion about 
root-pruning is very much like most discussions in 
that there is truth brought out on both sides. It is 
time now for us to reach a conclusion in regard to 
l)riTiciple8 involved. The first principle.that, I am sat- 
A JERSEY MOTHER OF ORPHAN LAMBS. FlO. 171. 
isfied, is well settled is that nurserymen should trim 
off the tops and roots of trees considerably before 
wrapping and shipping them. Trees should be cut back 
more for planting in the extreme Southern States than 
for planting in more northern States. If the nursery¬ 
man would do this properly for each locality and spe¬ 
cies of tree it would be a great saving of wrapping 
material, lessen the bulk, and the trees would grow 
more uniformly and show up better for the grower 
and the nurseryman. According to my observation, 
the largest number of trees are left unpruned when 
set out. The grower frequently calls for the most 
slender and tallest trees for planting, which is a great 
mistake. If the nurserymen would advertise their 
trees as being ready pruned before shipping, it might 
//a / I 
& 
0 O M/O 
K L K ^ 
1^0 0 
Lol d-Ee ^ 
0 o ua_ 
7(^1 te K e n 
PLAN OF MONTCALM GRANGE HALL. Fio. 172. 
increase the sales. In our experiments in Texas, the 
peach made the best form of top if pruned back to 12 
or 18 inches of the ground after being set. As far 
north as Virginia I think the top should be cut back 
to 18 or 24 inches of the ground. The apple and pear 
should not be pruned back so severely. 
Now as to root-pruning my experiments lead me to 
believe that the practice should be based upon the 
kind of soil and kind of tree. Severely root-pruned 
trees grow better upon rather moist soils. The peach 
does better than any other tree that I have practiced 
root-pruning upon. I have never grown a first-class 
apple tree that had been root pruned. In fact, several 
claims made in favor of root-pruning will not hold 
good. For instance, new roots seldom grow from the 
callous formed on the surface exposed by cutting oft 
an older root. They grow out from all parts of the 
area of the root surface, especially from that of the 
younger roots, while it is well known that new roots 
nearly always grow out from the callous of a cutting; 
still, a cutting must not be compared with a tree, since 
it has no root area at all. Now, from these facts it 
can be readily seen that as to whether new roots will 
grow downwards or laterally does not depend at all 
upon the way older roots are cut off. Their direction 
does depend upon the natural habit of the tree, me¬ 
chanical condition of the soil, its moisture and fer¬ 
tility. Older trees that had tap roots when young 
cease to grow them when older. When the main tap 
root is cut off a young tree before setting, it will 
usually make another irrespective of the way it was 
cut off. These facts are well known by all who have 
experimented and noticed results along this line. I 
will give here some results obtained by the diffetent 
experiment stations in regard to root pruning: 
Without drawing positive and definite conclusions, it 
seems evident, so far as this soil and climate are con¬ 
cerned, that .severe top and root-pruning are not ad¬ 
visable in this climate.—Bulletin 39, Texas Experiment 
Station. 
The method is a practice with local merit rather than a 
system that is founded on sound principles of plant 
growth. The advocates have based their claims on a 
succession of misconceptions of the laws of plant develop¬ 
ment. The stub-pruning method seems to be meritorious 
chiefly from the economic advantage of handling and 
planting trees, and wherever its value in a given locality 
is determined by experimental efforts, it would seem 
a wise policy to adopt it. Under the conditions in which 
it has been studied in Delaware it has not succeeded, 
neither have the long-rooted trees behaved as well as 
those with roots of medium length. The emphatic value 
of the so-called system is in the study it has awakened 
concerning the principles of root development.—Bulletin 
45, Delaware Experiment Station. 
Stub-root pruning is to be considered a matter of local 
practice, not a matten of general principles. The practice 
may be good and it may not. The explanation or as¬ 
sumed theory is wrong. It will probably be found to be 
best adapted to the South, where plants grow from cut¬ 
tings more readily than in the North; and the nature of 
the land as respects texture and the nearness of the 
water table will probably Influence the result. The kind 
of tree may also be Important.—The Pruning Book, by 
D. H. Bailey. 
The writer is fairly satisfied that peach trees pruned 
by the Stringfellow method will live and flourish in this 
section in stiff clay soil under adverse meteorological 
conditions. This statement may also be extended to 
apples and cherries. That all trees .so treated will thrive 
equally well in all localities he is by no means prepared 
to admit.—Bulletin 40, Georgia Experiment Station. 
The more healthy roots left on a tree at planting time 
the better is likely to be the growth. Making a fresh 
clean cut at the ends of the roots when planting apnc.-ins 
to afford no advantage, provided the root is sound where 
cut in the nur.sery. Trees planted with no root-pruning 
now average decidedly larger than those which had the 
roots shortened, leaving a fresh cut.—Bulletin 56, Ne¬ 
braska Experiment Station. 
Certainly so far no Increased vigor has h< en observed 
in the root-pruned trees; but on the other hand, no dis¬ 
advantage can be detected, and the conditions could 
hardly have been more severe.—Bulletin 98, Ala.bama Ex¬ 
periment Station. 
B. H. PRICE. 
COW-HORN TURNIPS. 
I.ast July, when corn was about horse high. Cow- 
horn turnip seed with a little rape mixed, was sown 
in it for purpose of making a Fall cover and improv¬ 
ing the tilth of the soil. The season was favorable, 
and there was a good stand, but for some reason or 
another the turnips did not make a growth to amount 
to anything. The corn was fairly good, yielding about 
50 bushels of shelled corn per acre, and the shade gave 
the turnips a stunt from which they did not recover 
when corn was removed, as would clovers or rye un¬ 
der similar circumstances. The short-lived nature of 
turnips unfits them for planting with a nurse crop, so 
to speak. As for their soil-enriching qualities, they 
are on the doubtful list. Being mostly water, and 
not belonging to the class of plants that gather nitro¬ 
gen from the air, they do not stand well in compari¬ 
son with the legumes. A portion of the cornfield in 
question was seeded with Crimson clover at the same 
time that the turnip seed was sown, and the former 
proved as decided a success as the latter was a failure. 
In spite of the unfavorable weather this Spring there 
is a covering a foot thick to turn under for corn again. 
Hunterdon Co., N. J. G. bavis. 
R. N.-Y.—We use the Cow-horn turnips and Crimson 
clover together. This, we think, gives better results 
than to use either one alone. With us the turnips root 
deep and do not interfere with the clover. The turnips 
also make use of phosphoric acid, which the clover 
probably could not utilize. We feel certain that they 
more than pay for their cost, but we would not sow 
them alone. 
A COW FOSTER MOTHER.—Fig. 171 shows a pic¬ 
ture of four orphan lambs that I vealed on one Jersey 
cow. The lambs when six weeks old weighed from 10 
to 55 pounds each. They were the fattest lambs that 
I ever saw for their age. h. m. s. 
Watkins, N . Y. 
