626 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 5 
l/flN DEMRN’S FRUIT NOTES. 
Almond Culture; Keeping Apples. 
I am told that almond growing in California is yearly 
Increasing. Would the climate of New York be suitable 
for almond culture? I would also like to know the 
best means of keeping apples In good condition from one 
crop till the time the rest comes, or near It, and a list 
of a few of the names of the best-keeping apples. 
New York. f'. a. z. 
The sweet almonds will not grow in the climate of 
New York or anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains 
with any degree of success, except rather indifferently 
In Western Texas. The trees are too tender for the 
North and in the South they bloom so early as to be 
killed by frost. The hard-shelled varieties are hitter 
and worthless, but they may he grown anywhere that 
peaches succeed. In California and all the regions 
west of the Continental Divide, where the climate 
is mild, the soil fertile and water abundant the best 
of almonds may he grown. At present there are very 
extensive and profitable almond orchards in some 
places. The varieties being grown are the best ones 
from Europe and a number of choice seedlings of 
California origin. The famous Jordan almond has 
been Imported from Spain recently and is now being 
tested in California, where it gives every evidence of 
being a success. The best means of keeping Winter 
apples from one Fall until the next crop ripens is 
in a good cold storage house and at a temperature 
of 32 degrees F., but probably it is desired to know 
how to keep them best under ordinary conditions on 
the farm. In the first place, it Is a mistake to gather 
Winter apples before they are fully grown or so 
Immature as to lack the color that they should 
naturally have at that stage. When they are really 
mature but not yet mellow or ripe enough to be 
eatable, they should be gathered and at once put in 
the coolest place at command, and never in the open 
air, where they are subject to all the natural changes 
of temperature. If they are in closed boxes or barrels 
they will keep better than in exposed conditions. 
They hold their moisture and maintain a more even 
temperature. For the State of New York there are 
many good Winter apples, and of these the Sutton, 
R. I. Greening, Esopus (Spitzenburg) and Roxbury 
Russet are among the latest keepers that are of good 
quality. 
Budded Trees vs. Root Grafts. 
Are budded trees of the Oldenburg and Alexander 
apples any better than those from root grafts of the same 
varieties? Can grape posts be made of cement? Tf so, 
give full directions for making. t. n. 
Benton Harbor, Mich. 
In my opinion the trees that are grown from buds 
of these or any other varieties of the apple are no 
better than those grow from root grafts, if the work 
is properly done. In the former case the buds are 
usually set In seedlings as they stand where they were 
grown, but sometimes the seedlings are transplanted 
before budding. In either case the stocks are sup¬ 
posed to have their entire roots. In the case of a 
root graft there is generally only a portion of the 
seedling root, with a scion grafted to it that reaches 
into the ground several inches, and the most of these 
scions eventually strike root and become almost inde¬ 
pendent of the ori.glnal root. While there la a theo¬ 
retical difference in the minds of some good fruit 
growers and nurserymen in favor of the budded trees 
I have never seen practical assurances of it. There 
may be cases where others have seen such difference. 
I have never heard of making vineyard posts of 
cement and do not believe it can be done profitably. 
I have seen fence posts made of long pieces of quar¬ 
ried stone, and from their quite general use in some 
sectlonis, where the stone was easy to work, I imagine 
they might be used for vineyards. Posts of cement 
and sand could be molded in long, narrow boxes and 
tried, but I fear the expense would be too great. 
H. 
Sun-Scalded Apple Trees. 
T have about TOO apple trees planted two years last 
Spring. Some of them turned almost black about half 
way up their bodies, on a, level with the snow line, after 
which the bark opened. Should T scrape the dead bark 
off and cover the wood with something, or let them alone? 
Hotighton. Mich. J. 8. 
These trees were evidently badly hurt by what Is 
commonly called “bark-bursting,” or as some would 
say. “sun-scalding.” When there was a great ine¬ 
quality of temperatures in the different parts of the 
trunk, from the hard freezing and then warming 
from the shining of the sun just above the snow, 
the bark was loosened and finally dried in such 
patches. All that can now be done is to help nature 
heal the wounds. Scraping off the dead bark and 
covering with wax or good paint will prevent decay 
in some measure. Bridge grafting with short 
branches, so as to carry the sap over these dead 
patches would be a decided advantage, especially if 
they are large. This can be done next Spring. 
Ka V^a Da 
HOW TO HANDLE MUCK.. 
The handling of raw muck is expensive on account 
of its weight. My advice to A. C. of New Hampshire, 
page 689, would be to haul direct from the swamp 
and dump in piles as much muck as he can afford to 
spread over the field. When the piles have dried out 
somewhat or at any convenient time spread evenly. 
Rain an’d sunshine, heat and cold will in a year or 
two make it a valuable addition to the humus and 
fertilizer content of the field. This would be the na¬ 
ture process and not Involve cash outlay beyond the 
10 to 15 cents per load. As a business proposition, 
however, if the market is calling for the products of 
that field the addition of 10 bushels of lime or of one- 
half to one ton of ashes per acre, or of some form of 
commercial potash, sown broadcast over the spread 
muck, would disintegrate and put it into business 
sooner. This plan obviates two or three extra manipu- 
MOVABkC MU«DkC CNOSUPPORT. 
PORTABLE SHEEP PENCE. Fig. 237. See Page 637. 
lations of the muck and saves labor. I have carted a 
good deal of muck to the barnyard—50 loads a year 
and more sometimes—composted with manure, turned 
the pile and carted back to the field, but I would not 
do it again unless after fine manure for garden farm¬ 
ing. I would spread the muck on the field at the first 
handling and the manure on top of it. e. c. birge. 
Connecticut. 
THE GRADE LINE FOR LAYING TILE. 
“A stream of water at bottom of a ditch is a better 
index for grading a ditch than a level.” This state¬ 
ment by one who wrote on drainage matters takes us 
back to primitive methods when guesswork and waste 
of energy prevailed. To wait for a wet time in order 
to have water to level by would be to Invite corre¬ 
sponding disadvantages. To work in the mud and 
water with the sticky earth clinging to the tools is 
something to be avoided if possible. As to the grade 
line made by digging after water it will be uneven, 
and, although it may do where there Is plenty of fall, 
it is not at all to be depended upon when one is work¬ 
ing within close limits. Every practical ditcher 
knows, who has attemped to “grade himself” from 
stake to stake by water in the bottom of the ditch, 
that he will rise too fast in those cases where the 
engineer has found it necessary to fix a grade verging 
towards the least fall allowable. Many drains are 
put in nowadays with as small a fall as one inch per 
100 feet. A small fall like this often saves great ex¬ 
pense in digging or it may be that it is not possible 
to get more. Digging such ditches by water in the 
bottom would be wholly impracticable and it is only 
by the help of an experienced engineer with a good 
level that successful results can be assured. He will 
ful cases the drainage engineer alone is able to tell 
whether a system of drainage Is possible. He will 
adjust the grades, mark the cuts on each stake and 
put the work in such a shape that the work can be 
executed properly either with contract or day labor. 
Even in cases where there is plenty of fall it will be 
economy to have a ditch or system of drains dug with 
a perfectly uniform grade. Digging beneath the grade 
line in places is not only a waste of work but in cases 
will cause injury to the successful operation of the 
finished drain by causing accumulation of silt, etc. 
Having the level stakes set with the cuts given for 
each place the problem remaining Is to get a uni¬ 
formly finished bottom from one stake to the next. 
The best method of accomplishing this is to set up 
targets at'two or better three stakes on a straight 
course to be ditched. The target consists of a ver¬ 
tical pole set at the stake alongside the ditch with a 
horizontal arm movable up and down the pole and 
fastened at any point by a thumb screw. Fix the 
horizontal arms of the targets at a uniform distance 
above the established grade line of the ditch, say six 
feet. Then the operator with a six-foot pole in his 
hands can readily determine the proper depth to dig 
at any point by sighting along the targets. Suppose 
at stake No. 2 the required cut is 2.6 feet, at No. 6 
the cut is 3.1 feet, at No. 10 it is 2.8 feet, then the 
targets will be set above the surface of the ground at 
the respective stations named, 3.4 feet, 2.9 feet and 3.2 
feet. The three targets will then indicate a line paral¬ 
lel to and six feet above the required bottom of the 
ditch. GRANT DAVIS. 
BUNCHING HAY WITH HORSE RAKE. 
In a recent R. N.-Y., a correspondent narrates his 
excellent way of bunching hay in the field. It is no 
doubt a plan that secures the hay, but it involves too 
much labor, and carrying of material; takes far too 
long a time to bunch an acre, and too much tucking 
in corners, for the value received. For several years 
we have bunched our hay in the field, and let it take 
its time to cure out, and with the result we get the 
brightest and greenest colored hay, and with the least 
loss of weathering while in the bunches. As soon as 
the cut grass Is nicely wilted, it is raked with a two- 
horse rake into fair sized windrows. The rake is then 
turned into the end of a windrow and the team driven 
astride it as far as the rake will carry and rake clean, 
bringing usually together about 250 to 300 pounds. 
The head is then made to release the hay, and without 
again setting, the rake is driven as far as the distance 
rawed when it is again set and another bunch made, 
and so on. Returning over the same windrow, the un¬ 
raked hay is pulled up to the bunches and the rake 
wheeled so to leave this load at angles with the other 
bunch. The last rakeful is quickly pitched upon the 
first bunch, the bottom forked out to top it with, this 
bunch containing 500 to 600 pounds, is made by two 
men in a minute and a half by the watch, and not a 
forkful of hay has been carried ten feet. In these 
large bunches, the hay cures out without bleaching, 
they are so large that it Is impossible for any amount 
of rain to wet into them, and when they are loaded 
upon the wagons, four of them make a full load for a 
15 foot hay rack. About here, it is a common way to 
“rope” a windrow its full length, which makes a 
bunch of a ton or more, is easily topped out and is a 
stack in Itself, protecting Itself in any weather. 
Where hay is stacked in the field, it Is very common 
to see these bunches of roped hay drawn up, first on 
one side and then on another of the stack until hay 
enough has been brought for a five or six ton stack, 
the stack making going on while the hay is being 
brought, some of the last being thrown up into a 
wagon, to “give length” to the fork stale in topping 
out the stack, in this way avoiding all intermediate 
handling of the hay, and bringing it at the same time 
in wholesale lots. In curing millet and Hungarian, 
I have for years practiced this plan of rake bunching 
or “roping,” raking the millet as green as possible, 
making It Into these 600-pound bunches, or ton rope 
loads, topping them out and letting them cure, often 
for three or four weeks without any further attention. 
Then I draw into the barn and have always had the 
best of success, the millet coming out bright green 
color, and being eaten by the stock with a relish never 
seen with the ordinary sun-cooked, bleached and 
teddered-to-death process. In clover curing, we have 
found these great bunches far better than the usual 
little bunch that wets through if a good dew falls. 
Hay caps and all bother are dispensed with and clover 
cutting it not an affair of dread. john goiti.d. 
Ohio. 
Tell the man that had his hay-stack spoiled to set a 
pole firmly in the ground, the pole should be 12 or 14 feet 
long, four or five Inches through at the bottom, sharpened 
at the top so the hay will settle down on it. It does not 
take a very straight eye to keep at an equal distance 
on each side from the stack pole so that the stack can 
be true. Then top it out well and the stack will keep all 
right. The pole need not necessarily come out of the top 
of the stack. J. J- e- 
“PUSLEY” GREENS.—The Hope Farm man hates the 
sight of “pusley.” To be sure It Is a troublesome plant 
out of place, and has two serious vices—It will continue 
to grow right along In dry weather, when valuable vege¬ 
tables wilt, and stand still. Tt Is hard to get hold of with 
thumb and fingers to pull up, and as Mr. Gregory, of 
Marblehead, says, the seeds will remain in the ground 
seven years and then grow. On the other hand, it has one 
Inherent virtue that almost redeems its character—It Is 
the richest plant for greens that grows out of the ground. 
Spinach cannot be compared with It, and young beets 
should not be mentioned the same day. The wife of one 
of the first settlers in Bradford County, Pa., said that 
one year there was a famine in the settlement, and not 
a peck of grain to be obtained In 60 miles “for love or 
money,” and the only thing they had to eat (besides 
meat) was “pusley” greens. “But,” said she, “the wo¬ 
men got so weak from starvation It took two of them to 
pull up a bunch, and when It did come, they fell over 
backwards.” J. w. i. 
