5io 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 28 
shotes as partners we have hardly 10 per cent so 
affected. The hog-proof fence consists only of five 
strands of barbed wire, three feet high, in all. 
Fancy peaches cannot be grown where trees are 
planted so close that they starve one another; starva¬ 
tion, especially for the want of moisture, often makes 
all the difference between a good profit and entire loss 
in the crop. Our oldest trees were planted 17 years 
ago, and are 24x22 feet; they interlock both ways, and 
are perfect pictures of health to-day. Some of these 
old fellows are good for 10 bushels of the finest 
peaches this present crop. I am a strong heliever 
in vegetable matter to turn under for orchards. It 
prevents washing of the soil, and assists in keeping 
it open and porous. For this reason, I never plow 
orchards before a good growth of native weeds and 
grasses has sprung up in Spring. About the middle 
of May generally all is turned under, and the ground 
is thoroughly harrowed both ways; this is nearly all 
the cultivation our orchards get, the hogs keeping 
down, more or less, what grass appears after that. In 
case of a really dry spell, preparations are at hand to 
open the flood gates from reservoir built for the 
purpose, and carry the water through furrows along 
the rows of trees in need of a drink. This makes it 
possible for us to have first-class peaches, when all 
the country around us is drying up. The profit now¬ 
adays in the business is only in high-grade goods, and 
the nearer we come to producing this class, the more 
satisfactory and prosperous all will be. 
Texas. J. w. stubenkauch. 
THE QUESTION OF ORCHARD CULTIVATION. 
The question of cultivating the orchard is no 
nearer a final solution than it was 50 years ago, as 
•the discussion by Mr. Buckman in a recem 
R. N.-Y. shows. But my experience and ob¬ 
servation during the 50 years have convinced 
me that cultivation, while the orchard is 
young, is beneficial, but is destructive after the 
orchard comes into bearing. I had 250 apple 
•trees, of over 30 varieties, on a northern slope, 
and until they began to bear they were as 
thrifty as trees in a nursery. Then they be¬ 
gan to decline—dead limbs began to appear— 
dead patches came on the bodies—and after a 
hard Winter, half the trees died, and now, after 
30 years, there are only a dozen trees left, arid 
they are all on the outside next to the fence, 
where the land was not cultivated. 
A part of the orchard was plotted and sold 
in town lots of about half an acre, just as the 
trees began to bear. All that were cultivated in 
the gardens are dead, but a few trees that were 
left in grass on the lawns, and three that were 
too near the fence to be cultivated, are perfect¬ 
ly healthy, and bear fine crops. When I was 
a boy in Whitehall, N. Y., my father and all 
our neighbors had orchards of natural fruit 
planted on land that was too rocky for cultiva¬ 
tion, and there was such an abundance of ap¬ 
ples that we scarcely ever gathered them all. 
Some of the fruit was very fine, and my father 
had the others top-grafted to the best varieties 
known. That must have been about 1837, and 
•two years ago my sister Visited the old homestead, 
and found nearly all the trees in healthy condition, 
and the old “Rock Sweets” and “Long Stems” were 
as high-flavored as when she was a barefooted girl. 
Btit an orchard that was planted later and cultivated, 
had entirely disappeared. When I first came to Illi¬ 
nois in 1857, there were quite a number of orchards 
that in hurry of farm work had been neglected, and 
many of the trees were broken down by tlhe weight of 
apples. Afterwards some of these orchards were 
pruned and cultivated, and in every instance the cul¬ 
tivated orchards have disappeared, while the trees 
that stood around the houses and the orchards that 
have been pastured are in tolerably good condition. 
Every old settler that I have talked with in the vi¬ 
cinity of Marshall, Mic!h., tells the same story of 
apples, peaches and pears. There must be some rea¬ 
son for this, and to me the reason is plafn. The deep 
roots are for the support of the tree, while the side 
roots, with their ramifications, are the feeders. These 
feeders come to the surface, where the soil is richest 
in plant food, and when the ground around the tree 
is plowed and cultivated these feeders are destroyed, 
and the tree is starved. gkove weight. 
Illinois. 
r N.-Y.—Mr. Wright’s conclusions are scarcely 
justified by general experience, which has satisfied 
the majority of practical fruit growers that reasonable 
cultivation and high fertilization are best for the 
popular market varieties of apples now most largely 
grown. There are many old orchards of seedling and 
top-grafted trees of the older varieties growing well 
in sod and pasture in favorable situations that con¬ 
tinue to bear good crops of tolerable fruit for a long 
time, but these cases are the exception rather than 
the rule. To develop the high grades of fruit de¬ 
manded by our best markets requires great functional 
activity in the trees, and this can best be maintained 
by frequent and judicious cultivation, and the appli¬ 
cation of sufficient amounts of plant food to replenish 
the drain on the soil. It is true that modern or¬ 
chard trees die young, but the cause may often be 
attributed to overbearing, and the weak root system 
thrown out by some of the seedling stocks on which 
the grafts were made. It 'is probable that the sur¬ 
face or feeding roots of orchard trees are renewed even 
more rapidly than destroyed by surface cultivation. 
ARRANGING A GRIND WINDMILL. 
I wish to put up a windmill to saw wood, grind corn, 
etc. How shall I do it? c. w. s. 
Mt. Pleasant, S. C. 
One of the best plans is to secure, in the first place, 
a good windmill, and second, a good thoroughly- 
automatic feed grinder, which will regulate the 
amount of feed strictly in proportion to the speed at 
which the mill is being driven, and which will stop 
empty whenever the mill stops. With such a feed 
grinder as this, arranged preferably directly upon 
the driving shaft of the geared mill, a large amount of 
feed may be ground wherever there is any consider¬ 
able amount of steady wind above a velocity of 12 to 
15 miles per hour. In order to get the maximum 
amount of work out of the mill in the way of feed 
grinding, it is necessary to provide a large bin above 
the grinder, in whicn the grain to be ground can be 
placed, and then have this arranged in such a way 
that the grain feeds directly into the mill whenever 
the mill is running. With this arrangement must also 
of course be provided a bin into which the ground 
meal can fall out of the way of the grinder. Such an 
arrangement is shown at Fig. 175, taken from the 
Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 
No. 82. The grinder there shown is arranged directly 
on the driving shaft of a 12-foot geared windmill, and 
upon the same shaft is shown a driving pulley, lo 
which a belt may be attached for the purpose of saw¬ 
ing wood or driving any other piece of machinery 
which the mill has the capacity of handling. This 
driving pulley can be used to drive a machine set 
anywhere on the circumference of a circle surround¬ 
ing the shaft and without disturbing the feed grinder; 
it only being necessary to throw the grinder out of 
use when the driving shaft is desired for some other 
purpose. f. H. KING. 
WINDMILL NOTES.—In theory, it would not be 
wise to expect much of so uncertain a factor as wind 
power. In practice, 12-foot geared wheels are re¬ 
markably satisfactory, as I have learned during the 
last five years. I know of no implement in use on 
farms more practical and satisfactory than a good 
geared windmill, where properly erected, with or¬ 
dinary judgment and foresight in the arrangements 
for its use. In the first place: 12-foot is the smallest 
size that should be put up, as that requires a stiff 
breeze to develop two-horse power, which is necessary 
to do profitable work sawing wood. It has, probably, 
quite double the power of the 10-foot, not in area 
alone, but with the increase of leverage. From 
November to March, inclusive, when the greater por¬ 
tion of such work is usually done, there is hardly 
ever a week without at least one day in which wood 
can be sawed profitably. With a centrifugal-force 
feed^grinder and suitable bins, the wheel can be left 
in gear, and will do good work grinding feed and 
take care of itself in any wind, light or heavy. There 
is rarely a week in the year in which it will not grind 
at least 50 bushels, generally in one day. The idea of 
storing up compressed air is very attractive, but a 
correspondence with the leading manufacturers of 
compressed-air machinery is not encouraging for its 
practicability. n. 
Marshalltown, Iowa. 
SWEET CLOVER; SLICING A TREE. 
In answer to T. J. B.’s inquiry about Sweet clover, 
on page 464, I may give some information, as I have 
a patch of about one-half acre. It came in as a vol¬ 
unteer crop along the edge of the lake that adjoins 
my place. It was once a large hill, but has now been 
drawn away. The present surface of the soil is a red 
clay mixed with coarse and fine limy gravel, and 
at this time of year is so hard that I can hardly work 
a sharp iron bar into it, but the clover grows very 
thick and tall, now just in blossom. Two years ago I 
sowed some of the seed on some light sandy soil. It 
grew very nicely, and went to seed. The next year, 
I plowed the field in late Spring, and as the land was 
off by itself, and work was getting the start of me, I 
did nothing more with the field that year. Last 
Spring I plowed the field again, and have seen noth¬ 
ing more of the clover. I should not be afraid to sow 
the seed anywhere. 
I did a very smart thing to one of my nice apple 
trees last Summer to make it bear. Some one in 
The R. N.-Y. stated that to run a crease diagonally 
around the tree would bring it into bearing sooner. 
The tree was 10 years set, and 1 began to be impa¬ 
tient for it to bear. I thought anything to 
hasten a crop of those delicious Early Straw¬ 
berry apples would be just the thing, so ac¬ 
cordingly I took out about one-quarter inch of 
bark, diagonally around the tree, from the 
ground to the first limbs. The result is a very 
thin light foliage, with a big crop of apples, but 
alas for the poor tree! There are only about 
two inches of live bark on that strip around the 
tree from -top to oottom of body. It may come 
out all right. I wrapped the body with a thick 
coating of cow manure, by putting a good sup¬ 
ply on to a heavy cloth and tying firmly around 
the body. I have picked the apples all off. It 
would have been all right if I had only run the 
knife around the tree, instead of taking out a 
strip, as I did some of my other trees, so I say 
to others, go slow when you begin a new thing. 
I shall let you all know how that apple tree 
comes out. 1 have an apple tree that has been 
bothered with the twig blight for a number of 
years. It stands in sod. Last Fall I manured it 
very heavily with scrapings from the barnyard; 
also put on last Spring two bushels of hen ma¬ 
nure. It is making a big growth, is loaded with 
fruit, and only about half the blighted twigs of 
last year. 1 am putting those hens on a big 
corn diet again this year; perhaps I shall miss 
it, but I guess not, when I can get an average of 
30 eggs a day from 50 hens. j. c. n. 
Grass Lake, Mich. 
R. N.-Y.—The experience given above indorses Mr. 
Clinton’s statement regarding the way this plant 
flourishes in the most forbidding soil. It is a roadside 
weed in some localities in New Jersey, growing on 
shaly hillsides, where it furnishes welcome provision 
for the wild bees. 
THE STAYMAN APPLE—Prof. Van Deman’s ac¬ 
count of this choice apple, in The R. N.-Y. of July 7, 
should receive special attention. When it first began 
to bear here, eight or 10 years ago, I was not alto¬ 
gether pleased with t; it was too large, but with full 
bearing it is just right. The tree is a most vigorous 
grower—scarcely equaled by any other variety—and 
a profuse Dearer. The qualify of the fruit is away 
above Ben Davis and York Imperial, and it keeps 
about as well; in fact, is a first-rate apple. If any 
fault could be found with it, it might be said that 
the red stripes are not quite brilliant enough, and yet 
it has a good color. Our original graft being on a tree 
of good size, nothing could be decided, heretofore, 
about its early bearing, but the present season there 
is a young tree, four years old from the bud, which 
has never been moved, and which has fruit on it. 
Here in central Ohio, considering everything, we can 
hardly place it second to any other variety. Dr. Stay- 
man, now at a very advanced age, and having spent 
many years in pomological investigations, can rest 
satisfied with having raised such a fine apple as this 
one, which justly bears his name. »• J- black. 
Fairfield Co.. Ohio. 
