Vol. LXII. No. 2795. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 22, 1903. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
SHORT STORIES WELL TOLD. 
Trying to Cure Cow Peas. 
J. H. B., page 546, with 40 acres of cow peas and 
Soy beans to harvest, has my sympathy. Two years 
ago we had an acre of cow peas alone. They grew 
very rank, and when a rain came they fell down and 
failed to rise. They were too tangled, and the ground 
was too soft to use a mower, and so they were mown 
by hand. An old scythe, cut off to about half Its 
length, and used on an ordinary snath, proved to be 
the best tool to cut them with. After some experi¬ 
menting we found that the best way to cure them was 
to let the vines lie in the swath till wilted, then make 
them up into very small cocks and let them dry in 
the cock. If the bunches are too large 
the hay will heat and get musty, but as 
the bunches dry out they can be doubled 
up. It took a good while for the hay to 
make, but by doing It this way we lost 
comparatively few of the leaves. 1 
wrote something about this cow-pea ex¬ 
periment in The R. N.-Y. some time 
ago, but I did not tell of the after effect 
on the land. After the peas were taken 
off the ground was plowed, harrowed, 
manured with muriate of potash and 
dissolved bone black and seeded very 
heavily to grass. The grass came up 
nicely and the acre looked very promis¬ 
ing. Clover was sown early the next 
Spring, and we looked for a good cut of 
hay. But we got hardly more than a 
third of a crop. That Fall the piece had 
a heavy dressing of stable manure, with 
a sowing of clover seed again this 
Spring. This year the grass is rather 
thin, though better than last year, and 
there is quite a little clover. As a means 
of enriching the soil, the cow-pea ex¬ 
periment was a failure. The peas form¬ 
ed no nodules on the roots, and the 
vines had barely begun to blossom when 
cut. They grew so rampantly that it 
seems they must have drawn very 
heavily upon the fertility of the soil. If 
they had been left to grow till frost cut 
them down, and then plowed under the 
soil might have been benefited, but it 
would then have been too late to seed 
the piece to grass. An earlier variety 
might possibly have formed nodules. If 
we were going to try cow peas again we 
should—to use an Irishism—get Soy 
beans, as they are able to stand alone. 
S. B. BOBBINS. 
R. N.-Y.—We will stay on record as 
opposed to the plan of cutting cow peas 
for hay at the North. Far better put 
them in the poorest soil and plow them 
under. In this way they are of real ser¬ 
vice to the soil. For fodder or hay 
there are other crops that are more profitable and 
easier to handle. 
Luther Burbank on Root-Pruning. 
Every experienced nurseryman trims all the small 
side roots off his nursery stock before planting. This 
is a universal custom, and in my experiments I have 
found that seedlings and very young trees should al- 
w’ays be treated in this way under a]l circumstances. 
A young seedling tree which has had its roots cut off 
to within a few inches of the collar, and the top al¬ 
most wholly removed, will in all cases make a far bet¬ 
ter growth than the one planted with all its roots, 
even if the top should be removed. Of course it is 
necessary to remove the top in proportion to the 
amount of roots removed, and strange as it may seem, 
it is especially necessary to prune the roots short 
when they are to be planted on land that has little 
moisture near the surtace. For the trees having 
many side roots divide their forces in starting in all 
directions, instead of making a good, substantial 
main tap-root, which the closely pruned seedling will 
always proceed to do. Though of universal applica¬ 
tion, these facts are especially applicable to dry 
climates like California and Texas, 
California. uuthicb burbank. 
R. N.-Y.—Our own results with several thousand 
trees show that Mr. Burbank is right in his statement 
regarding the root growth of trees. It is a wonder 
to us why some of our scientific men have not ob¬ 
served this. We think they have formed their judg¬ 
ment as to the value of root-pruning from the growth 
of the tree above ground. They do not seem to ex¬ 
amine the roots as they grow. 
Lime and Sulphur Wash on Peaches. 
What would be the effect of using lime, salt and 
sulphur wash mixed with caustic potash on peach 
trees? I used the mixture as given me by The R. 
N.-Y. last Spring, and was very successful, but the 
few scale insects that remain are multiplying very 
rapidly; I would like to check them before they go 
too far, and I do not wish to wait until the trees get 
dormant, as it is so very late here in the South. I 
would like Mr. Van Deman’s opinion as to what 
would be the result if used now. I expect it would 
kill the leaves or the peach trees, and am anxious to 
know what would be the effect on next year’s crop of 
peaches. I would like an early reply, as we are about 
through gathering a heavy crop of fruit, and would 
have the time to devote to the orchard. j, d. 
Leavitt, N. C. 
My opinion is that it would be very injurious to the 
peach trees to apply the lime, salt and sulphur mix¬ 
ture to them, as it would almost defoliate them. The 
defoliation would cause the buds for next year’s fruit 
crop to be very feeble and would probably cause a late 
growth of wood that would be tender. The only way 
that I see is to wait until the leaves have fallen, when 
the same remedy should again be applied. Spraying 
with kerosene and water also injures the foliage, and 
should not be done now. Very late in Winter is the 
only safe time to use oil sprays. 
H. E. V. D. 
Beardless Barley for Stock Feeding. 
A friend of mine who lives in Los 
Angeles, Cal., tells me the principal 
stock food in that part of the country is 
beardless barley as a grain ration, and 
further says that all kinds of stock 
relish and thrive on it, especially hogs 
and horses. He suggested lo me that we 
could substitute it for corn, as the yield 
of corn on the worn lands of the South 
was decreasing, and the time would 
soon come when we would be obliged to 
find a substitute. I would like to get 
all the information I can on the subject 
as to probable yield per acre, time to 
sow, quantity of seed per acre, quality 
of land required, etc. Can it be put in 
with an ordinary wheat drill with ferti¬ 
lizer same as wheat or oats? f. m. r. 
Hamlet, Ga. 
R- N.-Y. The California Experiment 
Station (Berkeley) will probably send 
you bulletins describing this crop. The 
seed is sold by most northern seedsmen, 
and by farmers who advertise in The 
R. N.-Y. Our experience with beardless 
barley was not such as to induce us to 
try it again. It gave a short straw— 
with a smaller yield of fodder than 
either oats or wheat. It makes a good 
crop for seeding to grass, but for hay, 
oats and peas are far superior with us. 
The barley requires strong soil or a good 
dressing of manure or fertilizer. It can 
be drilled like other small grain and, 
with us, is sown with oats or a little later. 
On the “worn-out soils” it would sure¬ 
ly fail unless heavily fertilized. Sow 
cow peas on that soil with potash and 
acid phosphate, and you will get better 
corn and more forage than with beard¬ 
less barley. 
Soaking Clover Hay. 
I observe that on page 519 the Hope 
Farmer got his three tons of clover hay into the barn 
after it had been well washed by rain after rain, and 
“it looks like poor stuff.” I should say it is like a 
singed cat, “better than it looks.” If it was cut at 
the proper stage of its growth, when the flowers were 
in full bloom, and the stalks full of juice, it may not 
be beautiful to the eye, but the cows will accept it 
with thanks, and no questions asked. I once had 
three loads of clover hay wetted several times by rain 
until it looked “black as an old hat,” and supposing 
it had become worthless, except for manure, I drew 
it and rolled it off in the barnyard. In the Winter 
following I was astonished to see the cattle, when 
turned out into the yard, dig down into that pile and 
eat a great deal of it without being forced by hunger. 
Had that hay been properly stacked in a rail-pen in 
