59 o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 1 
haul in covered spring wagons—each holding 20 
bushels, for which we pay for the hauling $1.25. As 
soon as we get 20 bushels picked in the morning we 
load it and start it on the way to town, and average a 
load about every two hours during the day—never 
holding a load an hour longer than possible. In this 
w’ay we often have five and six wagons on the road 
at once. The secret of hauling perishable goods is to 
do it quickly. By our method much of the fruit is 
consumed the same day it was gathered, and what we 
pick in the afternoon is ready for market early the 
next morning. Our customers appreciate fresh fruit, 
and we have but little trouble in finding markets for 
our entire crops. We know exactly what we are 
doing at any time, as the fruit is picked by the 
quart, hauled by the bushel, and sold for cash. At 
■the end of the season we always give our pickers a 
picnic, have a big day of it, treat them to watermelon, 
lemonade, etc. In fact we try to treat them just as 
well as we possibly can through the season, and have 
as much pleasure as we can along with the work. 
Many evenings while on their way home in the open 
wagons they get caught in the rain, which they seem 
to enjoy. There are many pleasures connected with 
it, as well as much hard work and anxiety, which 
part falls largely to the grower. 
Ohio. w. N. SCAR IF. 
A SOY BEAN HARVESTER. 
We have had quite a number of questions from 
those who desire to get a cheap machine for harvest¬ 
ing beans. There are several machines made for this 
purpose, most of them using a knife, which reaches 
out under the beans and cute and slices off the roots. 
At Fig. 206 is shown a device used at the Kansas Ag¬ 
ricultural College for harvesting Soy beans. With 
this crop the pods grow so close to the ground that no 
grain harvester can be used without wasting many 
of the beans. A knife cutter should run slightly be¬ 
low the surface of the ground in order to work 
properly. The picture shows a knife made from strap 
steel two inches wide and 3-16 of an inch thick. The 
strap should be 2V 2 feet long, six inches of one end 
being bent at right angles to bolt to the shank of a 
walking cultivator with shovels removed. The hori¬ 
zontal part of the steel should be sharpened on the 
front side and bent backward at an angle of about 30 
degrees so that the trash will not collect on it. The 
knife is set to run slightly underground. If two 
knives are used, two rows may be cut at a time, pro¬ 
vided the rows are not too wide. But it will require 
one man at each knife. This simple device is said to 
work well in cutting off Soy beans and might be 
made to work with the ordinary field bean. 
PLANTING A FRUIT ORCHARD. 
How and When ; tne Varieties. 
Part I. 
Mr. T. J. Dwyer, of Orange Co., N. Y., makes a business 
of piarting orchards on private grounds on contract. 
Last year he planted an orchard of nearly 100 acres for 
Mr. A. J. Miller, of Brewster, N. Y r . We have though! 
that some notes of a recent conversation with Mr. Dwyer 
would interest our readers: 
“Is the object to make a commercial orchard for 
profitable purposes?” w'e asked. 
“Well, yes, together with a natural inclination and 
love for fruit growing. Mr. Miller does not depend 
on this for his living, but he wants to make expenses. 
He is a practical horticulturist and I believe he will 
make a good profit from the investment.” 
“The orchard was set out last Fall?” 
“It was set out in the months of October and No¬ 
vember.” 
“What was your idea in setting it in the Fall, most 
people are talking about Spring planting as being 
better?” 
“Spring planting is all right; I am in favor of it, 
but have advocated Fall planting for a number of 
years. I did all my own planting, or at least 90 per 
cent of my own planting, during the Fall months. 
The things that we do not plant in the Fall are ever¬ 
greens, blackcaps and a few other things of 
less importance. There is a common belief that 
peaches should not be set in the Fall. We practiced 
setting peaches in the Fall months for several years, 
always with good results. S. D. Willard, at the meet¬ 
ing of the Eastern New York Horticultural Society 
at Newburgh, in 1898, advocated the planting of all 
fruit trees, including peach trees, during the Fall, 
and that is good authority. The principal reasons for 
planting fruit trees during the Fall months are first, 
that, as a rule, fruit growers and others have more 
time during this season of the year to attend to this 
work; second, trees planted in the Fall and protected 
with a mound of earth about a foot high about the 
body of the trees, to keep them from swaying and 
moving, will perform the process of root-callusing 
during the Winter, so that they are in condition to 
begin growing at once in the Spring. Another good 
reason is that our Springs are uncertain, sometimes 
we cannot possibly work the soil until very late in 
the season. By this time young trees have begun to 
bud in the nursery row, and very often they have 
made some leaf growth. A tree in this condition is 
apt to be more or less injured by transplanting. An¬ 
other good reason for planting in the Fall is that 
trees set at that period of the year are sure to get 
■the benefit of the Spring rains. For these reasons, 
the trees will make root growth sooner than trees 
planted late in the Spring, and necessarily are much 
better fortified against the severe droughts that we 
often have during May. However, we always advise 
early Spring planting, and the great majority do tneir 
planting in the Spring.” 
“Would you give that as general advice for all parts 
of the country, south as well as north?” 
“Yes, as far as my knowledge gees.” 
A SOY BEAN HARVESTER. Flo. 206 
“You think that even as far south as Virginia or 
Tennessee?” 
“Well, I cannot say positively as to Tennessee, but 
I would say that I would not hesitate to do it.” 
“In what condition was the ground, that is, was it 
in sod or had it been in some cultivated crop?” 
“This land was in light sod, very loose sandy soil, 
sod that went to pieces at once; in fact, it was not 
necessary to cross-plow it. On stiff clay ground 
where the sod would be intact, 1 would not advise 
planting in new sod-plowed ground, some of this 
land we did not even harrow.” 
“When and how was the ground prepared? That 
is, what did you do and when was it done?” 
“The ground was plowed the latter part of August, 
September and October.” 
“Then was it harrowed at once?” 
“Yes, most of it, and our intention was to cross- 
CO LOR ADO BLUE SPRUCE. Fia. 207. 
See Ritualisms, Page 594. 
plow it before I went down there and saw the condi¬ 
tion of affairs.” 
“That brings us to the setting of the trees. 
What varieties -were put in the orchard?” 
“Mr. 'Miller planted about 500 Ben Davis, 100 Bald¬ 
win, and 25 King apple trees and about 36 trees of 
dwarf apples, as a sort of plaything. The dwarf ap¬ 
ples were Ben Davis, Baldwin, R. I. Greening and 
York Imperial. In peaches, 600 trees of Elberta, 700 of 
Crosby, 300 trees of Wonderful. The peach trees 
were Mr. Miller’s own selection, and the varieties 
named were planted because he had found the buds 
of them hardier than those of other varieties that he 
had experimented with in that section of the country. 
This is particularly true of Crosby, which gave him 
fruit one year in a small way when several other 
varieties failed to produce any at all.” 
“What was your object in selecting those varieties, 
so many of Ben Davis, for example?” 
“The object in selecting the Ben Davis was to get 
fruit for market as quickly as possible. These trees 
were planted 20 feet apart each way with the inten¬ 
tion of moving every other tree 15 years from now, 
w r hen they become crowded.” 
“Were those varieties all mixed up through the 
orchard, or planted in blocks together?” 
“All in blocks; but they are in large fields to¬ 
gether.” 
“Was Mr. Miller satisfied to plant the uen Davis?” 
“Yes, he was up at our place, this season and saw 
a seven-year-old row of Ben Daviis trees bearing two 
barrels of apples. That induced him to set them out, 
although he is particularly interested in fruit of 
the best quality. I sent him a few Keiffer pears to 
plant as an experiment, but he had not a single tree 
on his list. Mr. Miller does not like the Keiffer. He 
has a. large fruit farm in California. The first car¬ 
load of Kelsey plums that came from California into 
this market was shipped by him.” 
GENERAL LAW CONCERNING FENCLS. 
PARTITION FENCE.—A partition fence is one built 
along the boundary line between adjoining proper¬ 
ties. If the parties are jointly bound to maintain a 
partition fence, and neither is severally bound either 
by agreement or statute, to maintain any particu 
lar part, the defectiveness of such fence is no de¬ 
fence to an action of trespass by the cattle of one up¬ 
on the other, and the parties are remitted to their 
common-law rights and obligations as to keeping 
their cattle from straying beyond their own land in 
those States where the common-law rule is recog¬ 
nized. And in order to escape liability for trespass 
committed through the insufficiency of such fence, it 
must appear to have been divided either according to 
the statute or by a binding agreement, as to throw up¬ 
on each owner tne obligation of maintaining some 
particular part of it, and that the defect by reason of 
which the injury arose w r as on the plaintiff’s part. 
The fact that each owner has built and maintained a 
specific part of the fence is not enough, unless such 
several maintenance lias been so long continued as to 
raise a legal presumption of a binding agreement 
therefor. A joint maintenance, however long con¬ 
tinued, is not sufficient to give rise to any prescriptive 
obligation by either to maintain any particular por¬ 
tion. Where two persons own adjoining lands, sep¬ 
arated by a division fence, one part of which oneowner 
is bound to repair, and the remainder the other is to 
maintain, neither party can recover damages occa¬ 
sioned by reason of a defect in his own part of the 
fence, but may collect for damages occasioned by 
cattle breaking through his neighbor’s part, although 
his own is equally defective. If cattle enter through 
a defect in that part of a partition fence which the 
owner of the cattle is bound to repair, he is of course 
liable. If both parts of the fence are out of repair, 
and it cannot be shown through what part the cat¬ 
tle entered, there can be no recovery. 
STATUTORY REGULATIONS—The subject of 
partition fences is generally regulated by statutes and 
it may be stated, in general term's, that such statutes 
ordinarily require adjacent owners of improved lands 
to contribute equally to the maintenance of partition 
fences, provide for the assignment, by fence viewers, 
or other proper officers, of the portion of fence which 
each owner is to build and maintain, and for the ap¬ 
praisement by such officers, when necessary to the 
adjustment of the mutual rights of the parties, of the 
value of fences erected or repairs made, and prescribe 
suitable methods of enforcing the adjudications of 
those officers. These Statutes are in the nature of 
police regulations. 
WAIVER OF STATUATORY RIGHTS.—Adjoining 
owners may waive statuatory requirements and agree as 
belween themselves that they will build no fence and 
each will keep his own stock; there is upon both a 
like obligation, which, the law will enforce by an ac¬ 
tion for damages. And such an agreement would be 
valid, though not in writing. Either party may put 
an end to such an agreement by giving reasonable 
notice, unless there is something in the agreement to 
stop him. 
AGREEMENT.—A partition fence may be estab¬ 
lished by agreement of adjacent landowners, and 
they may respectively bind themselves to maintain 
particular port ons of such fence, or one of them may 
agree to maintain the entire fence. The fact that 
there is a statute providing for the erection and ap¬ 
portionment of partition fences will not preclude the 
parties from controlling the matter by private agree¬ 
ment. 
DEFECTIVE FENCES.—Before a cause of action 
can accrue in favor of one adjoining landowner 
against the other, he must make a sufficient fence 
along the whole line, or have a portion of it assigned 
to the other, so that the duty would rest exclusively 
on the latter to keep that part in repair. Neither can 
claim the statutory protection until the fence has 
been apportioned between them for repairs. Until 
the fence is apportioned between the adjoining own¬ 
ers, it is equally the duty of each to keep up every 
part of it. Hence, if it is defective it is as much the 
fault of one as of the other, and being equally at fault, 
neither can recover of the other on account of its con¬ 
dition. 
