85o 
December 12 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
manure broadcast. The effect was seen on the corn, 
the oats that followed, also the wheat, and now the 
grass where the manure was put shows a good sod, 
and the other portions of the field are so poor as to 
necessitate plowing again. The manure will show 
once more in the corn owing to the heavy sod, so when 
I get benefit for five crops from a coat of manure 
harrowed in it seems to show at least that it is not 
a bad way of using it. We cannot always take the 
time when we are harrowing; we are generally pretty 
busy then, but I am confident from my own experi¬ 
ence that if some of the land seeded to grain were 
plowed in July and then top-dressed and sown to 
grass alone, it would be a profitable venture. I cut 
two fields one year, one of 20 acres, the grass being 
seeded with wheat, and one of five acres treated prac¬ 
tically as suggested above, and I had more and better 
hay from the five-acre lot than I did from the 20-acre 
field. I have ^op-dressed both grain and grass, and 
have never seen half the benefit as I have from har¬ 
rowing in. I know that may not agree with the views 
of many more successful farmers than I, but I am not 
giving views, but experience. p. u. crosby. 
Maryland. _ 
APPLE GROWING IN OREGON. 
Having recently returned from a visit to the beau¬ 
tiful Hood River Valley in northern Ore.gon, Avhicli 
valley is already famous for the production of apples 
of remarkable keeping and shipping quality, some of 
the facts I gathered may be of interest to the readers 
of The R. N.-Y. Most intere,sting to me was the fact 
that nearly the entire apple crop of that valley was 
sold early in September to the local dealer at the fol¬ 
lowing prices per bushel box, f. o. b., cars at Hood 
River; Spitzenburg, $2; Newtown Pippin, $1.85; Ben 
Davis, 85 cents. The buyer only contracts to take 
3,000 boxes of Ben Davis while of the other two varie¬ 
ties he takes the entire product of the valley that is 
of shipping quality. Of coursS there is a reason why 
the Hood River grower gets $6 per barrel while the 
western New York growler only gets $2 per barrel, and 
it is chiefiy because he growls good apples, keeps them 
good by thorough spraying, and then has them packed 
uniformly so that a box of Hood River apples is a 
staple article in any market to which it may be sent. 
It is of some of the methods which produce this result 
that I wish to speak. 
This valley is far enough inland (about 150 miles 
from the ocean), that there are no fogs to obscure the 
sunlight which is so necessary to ripen and color the 
fruit. The soil is of volcanic origin, of the right tex¬ 
ture to be easily worked, and also containing suffi¬ 
cient mineral salts in an available form that artificial 
fertilizers have not seemed necessary. The growers 
are now planting only those varieties of highest qual¬ 
ity such as Spitzenburg and Newtown, and are plant¬ 
ing them from 24 to 30 feet apart. They spray very 
thoroughly every two weeks from the time the blos¬ 
soms fall until September 1 w'ith Bordeaux Mixture 
and white arsenic, aiming to keep the apples entirely 
covered with a coating of spray to defeat the Codling 
moth. The spraying is mostly done by gasoline engine 
powmr, wdiich is much quicker than the hand pump, 
and in case of a heavy rain w^ashing off the spray the 
orchard can be quickly gone over again before young 
Mr. Codling Moth eats his way In out of sight. 
Thinning the fruit is almost invariably practiced 
in this section because the trees tend to overbearing, 
w'hich is very evident w^hen one can count from eight 
to 12 props under the limbs of each tree in an eight- 
year-old orchard, and because where tw'O apples touch 
each other there is left a spot on each which is free 
from spray and which fact the Codling moth is not 
long in finding out. It is in giving the very closest at¬ 
tention to these seemingly small details that several 
of these orchardists have been able to harvest 95 per 
cent of perfect fruit. In picking the apples, the or¬ 
chards are gone over three or more times, picking 
only the mature fruit each time, which allows all 
fruit to stay on the tree until it is the best possible 
product. 
I was unable to learn of any trouble from the 
Canker worm in Pacific coast orchards, and it is not 
unusual to see only the one branch which contains the 
apples sprayed of a young tree while the rest is left 
bare, thereby saving time and material, but the ma¬ 
terial is not saved wdiere there are apples; in fact, 
when I w'as there (October 1) the apples and leaves 
w’^ere so wdiite with spray that it was hard to distin¬ 
guish them when driving along the road. Of course 
each apple has to be wiped off before packing. The 
trees are headed low, so that the highest branches are 
reached from a low step stool. No ladders are used. 
The apples are packed in the boxes by professional 
packers w'ho are notified beforehand when the grower 
will be ready for them. They receive $2.50 per day. 
and average 50 boxes each per day, which makes the 
cost five cents per box for wrapping in paper and 
packing. The box contains exactly one bushel and 
the usual grade is called the four-tier box containing 
96 apples. How'ever, of the larger varieties it only 
takes three tiers to fill the box (45 apples). The grow¬ 
ers have learned that after gi’owing this kind of apples 
and getting them i)acked uniformly in boxes it is a 
comparatively easy matter to sell them, so this season 
they simply pooled their product and advertised for 
bids W'ith the above mentioned results. Fig. 313 shows 
a four-year-old Wagoner apple tree in the orchard of 
Sears & Porter that yielded over four boxes of apples 
this season w'hich sold for $2 pe^ box. The tree origin¬ 
ally came from a western New York nursery. 
Most of this fruit goes to Asiatic ports, since it can 
be carried across the Pacific at a cost of 20 cents per 
box as compared with 50 cents per box to New York 
and $1.06 to either London or Liverpool via New York. 
It is interesting to note that there are practically no 
FOTJR-YEAB-OLD W^AGENER IN OREGON. Fig. 313. 
Ben Davis being planted now in that section, although 
the orchard acreage is increasing rapidly, and I be¬ 
lieve I have learned som-e of the reasons why Oregon 
Spitzenburgs retail on Broadway at “tw'o for a quar¬ 
ter” each year at holiday time. J. g. ouetis. 
ADVICE ABOUT BARN BUILDING. 
I wish to build a barn with underground stables, and 
would like to know’ how to construct it, with the least 
money advisable, to accommodate 30 cows and six horses, 
and room for 40 tons of hay, granary and room for 
wagons. Would it be well to build a plank barn? Would 
the cost be less? c. n. b, 
Dalton, Pa. 
I would not build an underground barn under any 
circumstances. They cannot be made light. It may 
be, however, that the meaning is a basement or two- 
story barn. If it is there is surely no objection. 
Everyone who intends to build a stable should have 
in mind the same comforts for the animal that one 
desires for himself, and surely there will be a greater 
desire to w'atch out for animal comfort which is after 
all nothing more or less than an index of profit. If 
one has the proper conception of such a building the 
details will easily work out. A plan 36x60 feet, with 
24-foot posts set upon a wall high enough to clear the 
CELLAR FOR FORCING RHUBARB. See Page 853. FIG. 314. 
ground, will, I should say, be ample. Thirty-six feet 
in width is sufficient for tw'o row's of cow's if they 
stand rear ends together, so that one drive passage 
for hauling manure will suffice for both rows. Prob¬ 
ably the most convenient arrangement w'ill be to use 
an equal length upon each side, that is from 50 to 60 
feet, W'hich w'ill accommodate 30 cow'S. These cows 
should have from three to four feet each, depending 
upon their .size. The remainder of the first story, one 
side, can be used for horses, the other side for box 
stalls. The only objection to this arrangement will be 
more difficulty in securing good ventilation. Com¬ 
plete ventilation comes only when a uniform tempera¬ 
ture prevails throughout. This will only be the case 
w'hen animal life is distributed evenly over the stable. 
If therefore it would be as satisfactory in caring for 
the stock to put one row of cows through the entire 
length and another long enough to fill out the re¬ 
quired number, then using the remainder of that side • 
for horses and box stalls, the ventilation would be 
more effective. Use the King system, so frequently 
described in The R. N.-Y. 
Put in a nicely-graded cement floor. For the side 
walls use a good grade of lumber, not over six inches 
w'ide, planed and matched, ceiling inside and out upon 
the studs, providing an air chamber. Another board¬ 
ing W’ith tarred paper half way between would greatly 
increase the insulating efficiency of the wall. The 
ceiling above should be very tight. The drive above 
may be ptit in to best accommodate the location. A 
granary can be put in the second story, piping down 
to boxes below, with covers so that these small boxes 
will always be partly filled. I have no experience in 
building the so-called plank barns. They are, how¬ 
ever, being put up in great number. I saw one re¬ 
cently that called for a bill of 50,000 feet of lumber. 
The old style frame, according to the careful estimate 
of a builder, would have required 70,000 feet, a saving 
of $320 in the first cost of the material. The barn is 
strong, without a mortise in it. If I build again I 
should use the plank frame. I might add that a hay 
carrier can be run the entire length of the barn, and 
the hay put in either at the end or by driving into 
the building u. e, c. 
A PENNSYLVANIA CELERY FARM. 
TAPPING ONE OF NATURE’S POCKETS. 
Heavy Fertilizing in a Swamp. 
Part III. 
Mr. Niles does not believe in home mixing or the 
use of the crude chemicals—he uses various brands 
of the Mapes manures. Growers are sometimes ad¬ 
vised to use nitrate of soda alone when the crop ap¬ 
pears to lag behind, but Mr. Niles says that the ni¬ 
trate alone has not produced the crop which comes 
W’hen a well-balanced mixture of all three elements is 
used. After a long succession of crops this muck soil 
loses something of its open, friable character, and 
becomes sticky and pasty. Then something, must be 
done to it, for celery will not grow at its best in pasty 
soil. AVhen muck is hauled out of a swamp for use 
as manure it is found that lime in some form helps it. 
Either as wood ashes or air-slaked lime a fair applica¬ 
tion separates or loosens up the muck, and makes 
some of the crude nitrogen available. It has been 
found that a fair dressing of lime promotes the growth 
of the celery. Mr. Niles show'ed us one strip whore 
an application of tannery ashes had been made. The 
crop had been very satisfactory on this strip, and a 
hasty examination of the soil seemed to show that 
the lime in the ashes had opened the soil. It is quite 
likely that lime ashes or carbonate of potash used 
every three years will help to keep this muck soil 
open and porous. Mr. Niles is also considering the 
plan of seeding to rye or to cow peas or clover after 
the early celery is taken out in order to obtain a bulky 
crop for plow'ing under—as this w'ould help keep the 
soil open. It may also pay to seed part of the swamp 
down at times. Under the “Clark” system of seeding, 
and W'ith an application of lime, a wonderful crop of 
hay could be grown, while plowing under the sod 
w’ould fit the soil for another round of large celery 
crops. This would not be for the purpose of making 
the soil richer, for the plant food is to be supplied in 
fertilizers. Mr. Niles intends to continue his plan of 
regarding the soil of this swamp, as a feeding lot for 
the celery in much the same way that a western steer 
fattener regards his pasture chiefly as a place for the 
steers to walk in and eat their corn. They might 
make a fair living on the grass, but what they are ex¬ 
pected to do is to stuff themselves on the grain which 
is poured out before them. In like manner Mr. Niles 
says he will continue to fertilize heavily on this rich 
swamp. 
“Mffiat is the economy,” he says, “in trying to save 
a few dollars an acre on fertilizer w'hen the present 
methGfl seems to insure a full crop? It would be a 
mistaken policy to save $10 an acre on fertilizers and 
perhaps lose $100 an acre on the crop!” I wish to re¬ 
peat that I am not w'riting this as an argument in 
favor of what some may call extravagant fertilizing. 
I am simply giving the facts about this successful 
celery farm. It is probably true, however, of all farm¬ 
ing that the overfed crop pays better than the 
underfed. 
Celery is one of the crops that seem naturally 
adapted to large and concentrated operations. Corn, 
potatoes, hay or even wheat can be and always will 
be grow’n in thousands of small fields at a profit. The 
tendency to concentrate their culture on entire farms 
or in the most favorable localities is slow and will 
never be fully carried out. It is different with celery 
—a bulky crop w'hich demands strong land—being 
originally a marsh plant. While it has been tamed 
and made to grow after a fashion in nearly all soils, 
it never forgets ita origin, and does best in a swamp. 
