1900 
527 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
“NEW PLAN’’ FOR SOUTHERN FARMING. 
I notice in your issue of July 7 an article headed 
A New Plan for Southern Farming, called the Wade 
system. It may be that this system has been put in 
operation in some of the Southern States, but I do 
not believe it. In the first place colored labor is not 
employed in factories, or to a very limited extent. In 
the next place no colored boy or girl would be worth 
anything unless the money was paid to such boy or 
girl. They would soon run off and hire themselves 
to other persons unless they were paid their wages 
or at least a part of them. In the third place, the 
scheme looks improbable from the fact that nothing 
is said about the number employed on the farm. Let 
us make an illustration. Suppose a man has a family 
of say five children. By this system, if he lets the 
owner of the land have the service of one of these 
children he gets two-thirds of the crop where he only 
got one-third. The bare statement of this fact shows 
the improbability of any such system, for another 
man may have two children, one of which he lets the 
owner of the land have for one-third of the crop. Do 
you not see at once how unequal would be the dis¬ 
tribution of the crops made to the man with a large 
family and the man with a smaller one? I have 
known colored men to work eight or 10 children. 
Certainly the hire of one of those children would not 
make the difference between one-third and two-thirds 
of the crop. The whole thing, in my opinion, is a 
farce that has no foundation in fact, and certainly no 
merit, and is unworthy of the consideration of any 
sensible man. In the State of Tennessee, where the 
farmer furnishes the team and tools and feeds the 
team, he only gets one-half that the laborer makes; 
when the laborer furnishes the team and tools and 
feeds the team he gets two-thirds of the crop. Houses 
and fuel are always supplied by the owner of the land 
free. jr. b. killebrew. 
Nashville, Tenn. 
CULLING AND HONEST PACKING. 
In sending you a synopsis of operations in peach 
growing here in Texas (see page 509), I omitted to 
mention the most important point, viz., the proper 
grading and honest packing of the fruit. Unless 
prices rule high, we drop everything right under the 
trees while picking that is not up to standard. No 
peach, showing defects from any cause, goes into a 
package. All too ripe to ship are readily sold in local 
markets. “Jimmie Essex” gets all not up to grade. 
When peaches are properly thinned, there is but a 
small amount that will not class 0. K. With the hogs 
as partners, there is no need of the packers having to 
handle any of those not wanted. People who ship 
good fruit only, and honestly packed, have not near as 
much occasion to complain aibout crooked commission 
men, as have many who ship crooked goods them¬ 
selves. Of course a man must always know whom he 
ships to. It will never do to give up a well-known, 
reliable firm for an unknown concern 
that makes big promises in the way of 
quotations above regular prices, etc. 
There are just about as many dishon¬ 
est shippers as commission men, and 
wbat right has the man who tries to 
cheat to expect that he be treated hon • 
estly? The R. N.-Y. has pounded 
away on this subject so long, and has 
shown the advantages of honest pack¬ 
ing and shipping to only reliable men, 
that you may say, that in my opera¬ 
tions, to a considerable extent, I am 
only following the advice so often and 
generously given by you. But I ven¬ 
ture to say that there are not 10 per 
cent of the dishonest shippers of our 
country who are regular readers of 
such papers as The R. N.-Y., because, 
if they were, they would know better. 
But, not reading, how can they be reached? 
J. w. stubenkauch. 
LATE CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 
I always read the Hope Farm Notes with interest, 
both for what you say and how you put it. You say 
some things that are open to criticism, possibly to in¬ 
vite it. You say or suggest that the cultivation of 
the potato should stop with the dropping of the blos¬ 
soms. On my farm, and on the character of my soil, 
your position is wrong, for I know that the light sur¬ 
face cultivation as long as the vines remained green 
has given me better returns in seasons of deficient 
moisture than any work done previously. In seasons 
of drought it is absolutely necessary to keep a dust 
blanket over your potato ground to conserve the mois¬ 
ture. The plant itself evaporates or elaborates im¬ 
mense quantities of water through the leaves, but 
the loss by reason of surface tension and capillarity 
all over the field is still greater. By frequent stir¬ 
ring of the surface this upward flow of moisture 
through the soil is largely controlled and checked 
Two years ago we were caught in a very dry spell 
lasting for weeks and weeks. Once in a while we 
had a little shower, aJbout enough to penetrate the 
dust mulch and to my surprise I found that this rain¬ 
fall formed a sort of connection with the moisture 
lower down, and accelerated the capillary action. I 
kept the steel at work, broke the capillary tubes, 
checked evaporation; this kept my vines green, and 
with later rains in August secured a fair crop of po¬ 
tatoes. These potatoes were planted in April, and 
were not ready to take up before September 10 or 15. 
They were R. N.-Y. No. 2. It must be borne in mind 
FRUIT-EATING INSECTS. Flo. 181. 
that not all varieties can be kept green to get the 
benefits of the latter rains, but the R. N.-Y. No. 2 
and Carman No. 3, and possibly the Sir Walter 
Raleigh, will hold out in a dry season if one con¬ 
serves the moisture by shallow tillage. h. c. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
HORSE SHOE FARM NOTES. 
Some Points About Potatoes. 
Our potatoes were covered with a hoe, harrow and 
plow. The hoe put on a little soil; they were soon 
up. The after dragging tore out the tubers, and the 
Potato beetles soon covered them with eggs. The 
shallow covering requires hilling, and that with the 
drought is turning the vines yellow. The harrow 
drew all the stone into the trench, did not cover 
them uniformly, and owing to extremely dry weather, 
many hills are missing where lightly covered. The 
plow turned a good big six inches of earth every bit 
of the way, and formed a bank mostly on the lower 
side of the row. On our hillside we cannot work soil 
up to the hill, and the cultivator is always rolling it 
away down the hill. So we turn the furrow over by 
running the plow rather close to the seed. The 
weeder teeth rub down this ridge, barely striking be¬ 
tween the rows, and keep the hills clean. The pota¬ 
toes were three weeks coming up, and this portion 
has had no bugs or flea-beetles so far. Although so 
long coming, they have the largest vines now. The 
plants seem to be in the edge of a bank, and the 
cultivator makes the dirt flow from the upper side 
into and around the stems, covering weeds and filling 
the depressions beautifully. Every tuber grew. Give 
me a plow for covering potatoes. 
Many people have no spray pump and only small 
areas of potatoes. I tnink, all things considered, one 
can use hand atomizers as economically, a.n<J (Jo $ 
better job. We do five acres in a day if we have to. 
Hope Farm people require three persons, a horse, and 
waste a good deal of time going after water and ma¬ 
terial on the ground between the rows. A man who 
will walk behind and keep the nozzles poked around 
in place with a fork could not be found in this sec¬ 
tion. The horse and cart damage the foliage some¬ 
what, and on our side hills are simply out of the 
question. Usually the team and men are needed cul¬ 
tivating, or mowing and “bugging” makes a job for 
the odd man without stopping the general work. 
Blight does not appear here till August 1, or later, 
but the copper must be applied before, not after it 
appears. How to apply it cheaply and get the time 
has puzzled me, but I have solved the problem. I 
dissolve all the copper that water will hold in solu¬ 
tion, which I believe is about three pounds per 
gallon. I slaike stone lime, and get a pailful of lime 
water. I add two quarts of lime water to a gallon of 
the copper water, and use this mixture to wet the 
Paris-green. I used a level tablespoonful of Paris- 
green to a quart of copper and lime water, and spray 
it on full strength. By this method I get on the cop¬ 
per, which is all that does any good, free of cost. It 
works as well as clear water in the atomizer, and as 
none is wasted, we probably get as much on as we 
would with the big spray pump using a diluted mix¬ 
ture. There has been no damage to foliage from this 
excessive amount of green and copper, the spray being 
so fine, but fit's sure death to bugs. It seems to drive 
away the flea-beetles, and I am not sure but the 
leaves look greener. It’s hard to tell whether the 
copper stimulates or the plants suffer less from de¬ 
pleted leaves. Some claim that Bordeaux Mixture is 
a fertilizer. c. e. chapman. 
A DEFENSE OF SWEET CLOVER. 
I wish to enter a most vigorous protest against 
what L. A. Clinton says in The R. N.-Y. of July 7 
about Sweet clover being a very “obnoxious” weed, 
also that it is not relished by stock. I have had con¬ 
siderable experience with Sweet clover, both as a 
fertilizer and feed for stock. It is undoubtedly the 
most vigorous and heaviest producer of all the clovers, 
and will, as Mr. Clinton truly says, grow where other 
clovers will not live. It starts growing very early in 
the Spring, and produces a heavy growth in time to 
turn under for corn, potatoes, or any other crop. It 
will also produce two heavy crops of extra good hay 
in one season, and cows fed on it will produce the 
very finest-flavored milk and butter, and surely all 
stock like it very much. I have known cows to leave 
other grasses and feed on the clover. We have win¬ 
tered our horse on Sweet-clover hay two Winters 
with great success, never having done better. I 
would suggest sowing the seed in the Spring, like 
other clover, and thoroughly work it in the ground 
and roll with heavy roller. It will make a nice 
growth the first season, and blossom but very little; 
the next season will give two good 
crops, and never freeze out or die out 
like other clovers unless allowed to 
go to seed. In that case the old stalk 
and root will die. but the seed that 
ripens will fall to the ground and get 
so nice a start that they will give two 
crops the next season, so that after the 
first year it will reseed, or, in other 
words, will take care of itself. If any 
one wish to discontinue growing it, 
just plow it under as a green manure, 
and that will be the end of it as a 
growing plant. I am unable to see 
where the “obnoxious” principle comes 
in. If farmers would sow Sweet clover 
seed freely they could soon get rid of 
many weeds, such as ragweed, daisies, 
etc., because it is such a strong grower 
that it will kill or run out almost any 
other plant, so you can see that, instead of having 
the fields covered with “obnoxious” weeds, you can 
have them covered with a very valuable forage plant 
that Will build up the land wonderfully. a. s. 
Kingston, N. Y._ 
Mr. Moody used to say that those who say they can 
forgive but not forget an injury are simply burying the 
hatchet and leaving the handle sticking out ready to grab 
at any time. 
I have never had any experience with black ants in 
the orchard. A person once applied to me for a remedy 
for an "encampment” of them around an elm tree. I 
told to sprinkle the ground thoroughly with kerosene, 
which he did, and it proved successful. I am inclined to 
think fresh slaked lime or good wood ashes would help 
the matter. I think if I were bothered with them I 
would try nitrate of soda and muriate of potash, mixed, 
say half and half, and sow a light coat over the ground 
infested; I mean 1,000 or 1,200 pounds per acre. This 
would help the trees and, I think, would sicken or burn 
the antg. Algo keep the ground well harrowed. 
EDWIN HOYT. 
