1D03 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
It is a perishable crop, and must be shipped rapidly. 
Where a steady supply of a large quantity can be pro¬ 
vided all the expenses of washing, packing and ship¬ 
ping are reduced. If a man can ship 1,500 dozen 
bunches a day the cost of a single bunch put into mar¬ 
ket will be less than the single bunch where 100 dozen 
are handled. For these reasons and others commer¬ 
cial celery growing is crowding into such pockets as 
this one in northern Pennsylvania, where the rail¬ 
road is close at hand and a large amount of celery can 
be provided. If this swamp were located on the other 
side of one of the high hills which surround the val¬ 
ley, with the railroad miles away, it might pay farm¬ 
ers to drain it and grow hay or corn or potatoes, but 
the profit in celery culture would be lost in hauling 
it up the steep hills for shipment. 
In such localities we are not surprised to find that 
Golden Self-Blanching is the variety almost entirely 
grown. In a way this variety is to celery what the 
Baldwin is to apples in the eastern orchards or Ben 
Davis is out West. While not of the highest quality 
it is a rugged grower, handsome and easily blanched. 
The market knows it, and it has a standard appear¬ 
ance to customers^_ ir. w c. 
WHY BIG HOLES FOR PLANTING? 
Referring to J. H. Hale’s endorsement of dyna¬ 
miting tree holes, page 786, why go to such expense 
and dangerous trouble when he has had such perfect 
success without it? About ten years ago Mr. Hale 
wrote to my friend. Prof. Thomas Brunk, who had 
recently seen in my pear orchard the benefits of root- 
pruning as follows: 
“Prof. Thos. Brunk, Dear Sir: You will recollect talk¬ 
ing with me at the pomological meeting in Washington 
last September in regard to root-pruning peach trees 
at time of planting. Perhaps it will interest you to 
know that in planting an orchard of more than 100,000 
trees at Fort Valley, Ga., the past Wlntei’, we root- 
pruned the whole of them. Our orchard superintendent 
reports that they are making a wonderful growth, and 
so far not a missing tree.” 
Several years later, curious to know, I wrote Mr. 
Hale as to how the trees had turned out. He replied 
as follows: 
“H. M. Stringfellow, Dear Sir: I am glad to state that 
the close root-pruning, practiced when planting our en¬ 
tire orchard of 100,000 trees at Fort Valley, Ga., proved 
to be the most successful operation we ever practiced, 
less than one-half of one per cent of the trees failing 
to grow, and all making the most vigorous and even 
growth I have ever seen in America. The orchard is 
now three yeai’s old and gave us an enormous crop of 
fruit this past season. I am thoroughly in favor of this 
system of root-pruning.” 
Now, according to Mr. Hale’s own account of that 
huge planting, given at the time, the trees were set 
on land that had been in cotton, without fresh plow¬ 
ing After the stalks were removed a spade was in¬ 
serted slanting, about eight inches deep where the 
tree was to stand, the handle pushed back far enough 
to allow the root-pruned tree to be shoved firmly 
down behind it, when the spade was withdrawn and 
the soil pressed firmly with the foot. Of course the 
stub roots must have rested flat on the so-called hard- 
pan or subsoil which he refers to as .;ommon in 
Georgia. Now, in view of his phenomenal success, I 
unite with “Inquirer” in asking, “Why does he want 
a big, deep hole?” Moreover, if tree roots really need 
a deep, loose soil what are they going to do when 
they get through the small area of dynamited earth 
and strike the hard ground? The fact is, Mr. Editor, 
as you have demonstrated by your success on poor, 
rocky undynamited soil, big holes and loose ground 
for trees as well as conrinual cultivation, are simply 
relics of the so-called* wisdom of our ancestors, the 
“good old ways” Mr. Hale is so fond of praising, 
and should now be laid away to rest in the museum 
of antiquated and mistaken ideas, alongside the no¬ 
tion that the sun went around the world. With com¬ 
mon sense methods New England is destined to be 
the apple orchard of Europe, but never will be if 20-- 
inch drilled holes and a stick of the dangerous dyna¬ 
mite is a necessity for every tree. 
ir. M. STRIN 3 FELLOW. 
DYNAMITE AND STUMPS, 
I note what F. T. says on page 786 about stumps. I 
have just finished blowing out stumps on an eight- 
acre piece. I am afraid F. T. has a large contract 
on hand if he intends to clear up the land as he says. 
Dynamite will do the business and do it quite fast, 
but it is expensive. I do not know, however, how 
the expense would compare with the labor cost of 
digging them out or pulljug with a stump machine. 
Dynamite is much the quickest and easiest. I used 
about 400 pounds on my piece. I find with the help 
of one man I can fire 120 to 150 shots per day, if con¬ 
ditions are favorable. I used from one-third of a 
stick to 10 sticks at a shot, depending on size of 
stump. I prepared all the shots and lighted the fuses. 
My man punched holes and carried water. In all 
cases where one stick or less was used for a shot I 
cut fuses six inches long. This gives time enough 
to get to safe distance. In case of more than one 
stick at a shot I cut fuse 12 to 30 inches, depending 
on depth of hole. We punched holes with as large a 
har as we could use handily, always trying to get 
them under the center of the stump. In case of very 
large stumps we used a light steel bar and a two-inch 
auger welded on a five-foot one-half-inch iron rod 
with crossbar. This auger is useless to bore through 
roots of any size, but it goes rapidly through small 
fibrous roots where one could not force a bar. 
To fix a shot ready for firing we cut a piece of fuse, 
carefully slip on a cap, open the folded paper on end 
of dynamite stick, rim out a small hole in the dyna¬ 
mite for the cap, fold the paper over the cap and fuse 
and tie it firmly so that it is water-tight, split the 
exposed end of the fuse so it can be readily lighted 
with a match. We use wool twine about size of bind¬ 
er twine for this work; it is better than smaller or 
harder string. In case of one-third stick shots the 
center third of course has no paper over end, so we 
wind very tightly half a dozen turns of string over 
end of cap and fuse to make it water tight and then 
tie cap and fuse on side of stick. In firing single stick 
or less shots, take end of fuse between thumb and 
finger, let stick hang in hole, light the fuse, drop It 
and pour in half a pail of water. If the fuse has been 
pnoperly tied there will not be one miss fire in a 
thousand shots. Where more than one stick is used 
we follow each stick with the bar, driving it clear to 
bottom and pressing it to one side so that the last 
DAHLIA TWENTIETH CENTURY. Reduced prom Natural 
Size. Fia. 315. See Ruralisms, Page 854. 
Stick with fuse attached can be carefully shoved to 
bottom of hole. The fuse can then be lighted and hole 
filled with water as before. We find the water is not 
only better than tamping, but very much more rapid. 
Should there be any miss fires the hole is open, no 
digging out necessary. We have about one miss to 
100 shots. To work rapidly and easily the air tem¬ 
perature should not be below 45 degrees. l. 
Pennsylvania. 
A WOMAN TRIES THE CLARK '' METHOD, 
I have just returned from a visit to the farm of 
Mrs. DeLong, of Middlesex County, who is trying to 
imitate in New Jersey the work of Mr. Clark in Con¬ 
necticut. The conditions are different, but the pro¬ 
cess is the same, and the result similar. This farm of 
40 acres is level and wet. Moreover, the railroad em¬ 
bankment hindered drainage, but under Mrs. De- 
Long’s courteous (yet vigorous) remonstrances the 
company is remedying the evil at considerable ex¬ 
pense. The soil is a sandy loam. This will make 
proper cultivation more easy but will doubtless make 
necessary more frequent reseeding. Mr. Clark’s tools 
are used, his methods followed and the same fertilizer 
(1,000 pounds bone, 800 pounds potash and 200 pounds 
nitrate of soda) applied. Gradually the whole farm 
is coming into proper condition, and the experience 
with three acres indicates that in the end it will pay. 
These three acres were seeded three years ago with 
Hungarian grass, which proved a failure, and (as I 
understand) was plowed under. It was then drained, 
limed, manured liberally and sown in 1902 with oats 
851 
and peas, the intent being to plow them under. But 
they grew so well that they were left to ripen and 
then gathered, producing 49 bushels and furnishing 
abundant bedding for the stable. At this time it was 
determined to adopt the Clark method. Accordingly, 
the ground was plowed and harrowed and rolled and 
smoothed until it was in excellent order. It was then 
fertilized with 800 pounds to the acre of the fertilizer 
previously mentioned, and sown (between lines, after 
Mr. Clark’s method) with a mixture of 14 quarts of 
Timothy and 14 quarts of Red-top to the acre. This 
was on August 19, 1902. In the Spring (May 12, 1^03), 
400 pounds more of the same fertilizer were applied. 
The first crop was cut July 1, 1903, and yielded 12 tons 
of hay. The second crop was cut September 10, 1903, 
and yielded more than six tons, making a total of 
more than 18 tons, or six tons to the acre. 
This mixture of Timothy and Red-top contains 
more nourishment and is more palatable to horses 
than Timothy alone, especially if the Timothy has 
been left to become ripe and woody before cutting, as 
is so commonly the case. But such Timothy brings 
more in the market than this mixture! However, 
Mrs. DeLong has a few friends able to appreciate the 
difference, who are glad to buy the mixture at the 
price of good Timothy, and cart it themselves. Of 
course, this first crop does not pay for all the money 
and the labor that has been expended, but the ground 
is now covered with a thick growth of the grass, and 
there is every reason to expect similar crops in fu¬ 
ture. There seems no reason why the total cost in a 
series of years may not be (as in Mr. Clark’s case) 
only $2.25 a ton for the hay produced. I am trying a 
similar experiment upon a couple of acres of clayey 
loam. Owing to the wet nature of the ground I could 
not get it seeded until September 12, but the weather 
has been propitious and the grass has continued to 
grow nicely. .toiin bodine. 
THE FLORISTS AND THE EXPRESS 
COMPANIES. 
Much interest was shown last Winter in the controversy 
over increased express rates on cut flowers. The express 
companies made an arbitrary raise in the tariff on this 
line Of trade. The florists, however, being thoroughly 
oiganized, by local. State and National organizations 
were able to bring an emphatic though unostentatious 
pressure to bear upon the express companies all over the 
country, and the old rates were restored, thereby con¬ 
veying a useful lesson to other producers. As a promi¬ 
nent officer in the National Society of American Florists 
says: The florists approached the express companies in¬ 
dividually and in battalions, and with such arguments 
as best fitted the case locally or generally. The main 
influence in securing a rescinding of the obnoxious tariff 
was, I think, the nagging and protesting that came so 
persistently and continuously to the main offices from 
every section of the country, which made life a burden 
to the officers. This was largely due to the policy of 
the S. A. F. which, through its many channels, reached 
every remote spot, getting its representatives to work 
crystallizing the opposition and keeping up the agitation. 
It was the case of the big man and the little mosquitoes 
over again.” 
The matter in dispute between the florists and -ix- 
press companies last Winter was a restoration of the 
old rate on cut flowers. The express companies 
claimed that they rendered special service, therefore 
they were entitled to special rates on that class of 
goods; they claimed that the losses on cut flowers 
were greater than on anything else they handled; 
therefore it was not such a profitabliC line as ordinary 
merchandise, and for these reasons the rate was ad¬ 
vanced. The florists met these contentions by declar¬ 
ing that they would find other means to market their 
products than the express companies. Meetings were 
held in all the principal cities, and protests sent to the 
express companies. The Society of American Flor¬ 
ists, through its legislative committee, gathered to¬ 
gether its protests, focussing them, and brought pres¬ 
sure to bear upon the heads of the express companies. 
In many instances wagons were used to deliver cut 
flowers where prior to that they had been sent by 
express; the mails were used to deliver small lots, 
and so from necessity rather than from choice the 
express companies restored the old rate. The greatest 
concession obtained from the express companies by 
the florists was when they decided to put plants on 
the preferred list when boxed or packed so that they 
could be handled without extra care, for plants so 
packed a discount of 20 per cent from the regular 
merchandise rate was granted, and where a general 
special rate was in force they went at that rate. That 
concession was obtained by the committee of the 
Society of American Florists, and it hinged largely up¬ 
on the point that the large catalogue dealers would be 
compelled to use the mail and freight lines wherever 
possible unless a rebate was given upon express ship¬ 
ments. PATRICK O’ilARA. 
New York. 
Peruvian guano is coming on the market again: 50 
years ago it was the chief artificial manure. It dropped 
from the market. Now it comes hack. 
