8oo 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 1 
Farmers’ Club. 
[Every query must be accompanied by the 
name and address of the -writer to insure atten¬ 
tion. Before asking a question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
Japan Plums in Indiana. 
J. M. C., Madison, Ind .—Are Japan plums 
profitable in any part of the United States? 
If so, where? Will they bear north of 
Tennessee? Would you advise the aban¬ 
donment of an orchard in this locality of 
250 Ogon, Burbank and Abundance, now 
eight years old, that has never borne fruit? 
Ans. —There are thousands of bushels 
of Japan plums grown with profit north 
of Indiana and south of it, too. Why 
they will not bear at Madison, which is 
on the Ohio River and in a good peach 
region, is strange to me. Perhaps the 
Spring frosts kill the fruit in bloom, or, 
it may be rot that is the trouble. 1 
would think that trees eight years old 
ought to have been bearing for about 
five years past. I could not advise dig¬ 
ging up the trees without knowing the 
cause of non-bearing. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Protecting Trees from Borer; Baldwin Cherry 
and Native Plums. 
V. K. P., Dclavan, Wis. —1. How can I best 
protect the trunks of box elders and other 
shade trees from grub or borer eggs in 
moving them from the nursery to open 
ground? In nursery they do not trouble. 
Is painting trunks all over from ground to 
lower limbs a good plan? I have used 
paint for many years for covering tree 
scars and can’t remember a case of harm 
from its use. 2. Is the Baldwin cherry 
worthy? 3. Is not Prunus Americana for 
the -cold Northwest easiest grown and 
soonest fruited from seed of any tree 
fruit? There should be one or better two 
or more native plum trees, because so 
easily and cheaply grown from seed, on 
every farm and in every garden in the 
Northwest. 
Ans. —One of the very cheapest and 
safest methods of protection from bor¬ 
ers tand sunscald, too) is to wrap the 
trunks with manila or some other 
strong paper. This can be tied on with 
strings and will last for at least a year 
if no stock is allowed to rub or tear it 
off. Coarse grass or cat-tail flags are 
also very good to stand upright and tie 
fast with stout strings. Paint will not 
afford much, if any, protection. 2. The 
Baldwin cherry is too new to enable 
anyone to say much of it outside of the 
vicinity where it originated and where 
the bearing trees stand. But it is a 
Morello that seems to promise to be 
valuable. 3. Our wild plum of the North, 
Prunus Americana, is surely a most 
valuable tree fruit for all that country 
where the Winters are cold and change¬ 
able, especially the Prairie States. The 
trees succeed as far north as Manitoba, 
and some of them bear excellent fruit, 
and rarely fail from the time they are 
three or four years set. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Preparing Sod for Alfalfa. 
J. R. T., New York —When I bought the 
addition to my farm a year ago, there was 
one field of gravelly clay loam of about 
four acres. It seemed very poor and stony; 
had not been turned or cultivated for five 
years or more and even the weed growth 
was small and dried off quickly in hot dry 
weather. Land is well drained. I plowed 
early last Spring and sowed it to cow peas, 
with 400 pounds per acre of slag phosphate, 
with a wheat drill, all tubes open. The 
cow peas made a good growth, but not 
excessive, and were well podded by the 
latter part of August, when I turned them 
under and sowed rye, which is also making 
a good stand. I used no fertilizer on the 
rye. My object is to fit the piece for Al¬ 
falfa. Will it be safe to plow the rye 
under in the Spring and sow Alfalfa, or 
would I better give it another dose of cow 
peas and rye? I wish to get a good per¬ 
manent stand of Alfalfa, which does well 
in the neighborhood, as I have found it 
growing wild in old meadows in several 
places, and on my own soil clover of all 
kinds that I have tried grows well. Land 
seems to have lots of potash, but little 
nitrogen; seems to be dead and needs 
warming up, probably owing to lack of 
humus. Should I use any fertilizer on the 
Alfalfa? 
Ans. —If this land were ours we would 
wait another year before seeding to AD 
falfa, and use cow peas and rye as you 
suggest. Plow the rye under in the 
Spring and sow cow peas as before. Af¬ 
ter plowing under the cow peas in the 
P'all we would use at least a ton per acre 
of lime. This may be thrown broadcast 
after plowing, and well harrowed in be¬ 
fore sowing the cow peas. If it is pos¬ 
sible to subsoil this field before sowing 
the rye we would do so, but we find it 
almost impossible to subsoil stony 
fields. The slag phosphate gives a use¬ 
ful form of phosphoric acid for rye and 
cow peas, and you will probably not 
need extra nitrogen to start the Alfalfa. 
After you begin to cut it you should use 
both nitrogen and potash. We do not 
consider it safe to assume that these old 
fields do not need potash. Try it at 
least in a small way, and make sure. A 
mixture of ground bone and muriate of 
potash will keep the Alfalfa in good 
heart. 
Average Yields of Grass. 
E. L. S., North Truro, Ifass.—Clark’s In¬ 
tensive grass culture has always had a 
very great interest for me. One corre¬ 
spondent tells of seeding 100 acres annu¬ 
ally to grass. Next year I wish he would 
tell us the average crop per acre and aver¬ 
age cost per ton for a period of five years 
or more, as Mr. Clark does. Possibly it 
might pay him to work 12 teams instead 
of six. 
Ans. —I could not give a good guess 
even at the average cost; the average 
yield I could do better with. We do not 
sell hay; our object is to cut hay enough 
to feed all our stock. It takes about 300 
tons per annum to do this, and we find 
ourselves seeding about that 100 acres 
every year to get this 500 tons. We 
have to cut over about 200 acres. This 
seems small beans, compared to Mr. 
Clark’s results. But it is pretty good 
average yield, too, I think. Of the 100 
acres we seed about 25 with oats, the 
rest with Winter rye and wheat. We 
use Timothy, Red clover, Red-top,White 
clover, and Alsike, the latter mostly on 
low, heavy, moist soils. Corn, 10 quarts 
to the acre, precedes the oat crop, and 
the ground is heavily manured, with 
barnyard manure, for the corn; the 25 
acres seeded with oats will get a good 
share of this manure, the other 75 acres 
less, as the Winter grain gets in between, 
so on this 75 acres we spread thin, dur¬ 
ing the Winter, large quantities of 
coarse, strawy horse manure; the por¬ 
tion seeded with wheat will also have 
200 or 300 pounds of fertilizer per acre 
sown with wheat. The ground for all 
these crops is what we would call thor¬ 
oughly harrowed and rolled (particu¬ 
larly so when the grass seed is sown), 
although according to Mr. Clark’s meth¬ 
ods it would not be. What are the re¬ 
sults? Well, we always get grass. If 
the weather conditions are right, we get 
good catches all round; if they are not, 
as for the past two years, we yet get 
some good catches. Where there is fail¬ 
ure we stick right to that ground until 
it is in grass. The East generally has 
suffered from two dry Summers, 1899 
and 1900; Jersey has had her share. 
Fn 1899 our 25 acres seeded with oats 
caught well, and gave us a nice crop of 
hay this Summer. The 75 acres seeded 
with Winter grain in 1899 was sickly- 
looking when harvest was off. Most 
of this we harrowed with weighted 
spring-tooth harrow to four horses, and 
reseeded after the harrow. This yielded 
quite a crop of hay, but not what I 
would call a good yield. One field of 
15 acres seeded with rye had no sign of 
grass when grain was off. This we 
plowed soon after harvest, and seeded 
with Hungarian, sowing ihe Hungarian 
very thin. This gave us the finest crop 
of clover I ever saw. The time our grass 
lasts varies much with each field. We 
cut this year one field that has been 
mowed and pastured eight years, an¬ 
other field cut was seeded five years ago, 
and looks to be good for another five. 
This field has 30 acres. An old fence 
line cuts off eight acres; when it was 
cut for the first time we took from the 
eight acres 35 loads, and we draw big 
loads, too. Thir is the biggest yield we 
ever had. The smallest? Well, I can 
remember no smaller yield than that 
stubble harrowed and reseeded last 
year; there were 50 odd acres of it, and 
the yield was less than one ton to the 
acre. It would have paid better to plow 
all that ground and seed over, as we did 
the 15-acre field—if we had the time, 
which we thought we hadn’t. We pas¬ 
ture all our grass land, after first year’s 
mowing. Each Spring, early, we spread 
the droppings. Summing up, I would 
say our practice is never to put grass 
seed on poor ground; always to have 
the ground in what is usually called 
good shape; to use a generous quantity 
of pure seed, of varieties having both 
hay and pasture in view; to keep at a 
field once seeded until it is in grass. The 
average yield I would put at two tons 
per acre the first cutting, gradually di¬ 
minishing until the fifth year, when it 
is time to plow again. This certainly 
seems small, compared with the new 
grass culture; but it must be remem¬ 
bered and considered that there is no 
unusual expense in preparing and seed¬ 
ing the ground; that the grass is pas¬ 
tured each year; and that every farmer 
has the time, tools, and talent to do the 
required work. h. h. m. 
Swamp Muck on Sandy Loam 
K. W. L., Slinong, Wis.—Will some of your 
readers who have had experience tell what 
effect swamp muck and peat in its natural 
state, will have applied at the rate of lb 
or 20 cords to the acre on a sandy loam? 
During the past season the land produced 
a line crop of sweet corn for market and 
100 bushels per acre of potatoes, four-fifths 
of which were of marketable size, and 
grows small fruit of all kinds to perfection. 
Ans.—W e would like to have the ex¬ 
perience of readers with raw muck or 
peat. Our own experience with it has 
not been satisfactory. It is likely to be 
sour and does little good until it is 
cooked” or fermented. We prefer to 
mix the muck with manure over Winter 
or pile it—using lime or wood ashes as 
the pile is made up. This "sweetens” 
the muck and makes the plant food more 
available. Such muck, composted and 
limed, we consider at least half as valu¬ 
able as average stable manure. 
Sowing Clover on Cow Peas 
U. T. C., Ohio.—I have some steep land on 
banks in an orchard that we plowed last 
Spring, sowing cow peas in the whole or¬ 
chard, about 16 acres, three or four of 
which are too steep to cultivate. I think 
of sowing clover on the steep banks when 
the ground is frozen slightly, and not turn 
the cow peas and other litter under. Ii 
will wash the banks more than I like if 
1 have it plowed again. Will not the leaves 
and vines act as a mulch and be worth 
about as much as if they were turned 
under? The trees are small, and only 20 
feet apart. It will be quite difficult to plow' 
in some places. I expect to sow cow peas 
in the remainder of the orchard. 
Choice Vegetables 
always bring high prices. 
To raise them success¬ 
fully, a fertilizer con¬ 
taining at least 8 % 
Potash should be used. 
F armers forge 
The h--_diest thing a man can have on 
his farm. With our ball bearing forge I 
you can make all your repairs and save time 
and blacksmith bills. We pay the freight I 
and give a combined anvil and vise CDC C 
Send at once for free catalogue. I II k C 4 
Forges sold lust year in every state in the Union. 
C. R. Harper Mlg. € 0 ., Box glG.Marshulltown.Iowa.' 
Wanted— 50 bus. prime new American- 
grown apple seed. Mrs. Jas. A. Root, Skaneateles, N. Y 
A ■ ILI Qf UA—Book all'about ft 4c. Tellshow to 
HilOEilulX grow this grent money maker. 
W Write to-day. AMERICAN GINSENG GARDENS, Rose Hill, N. Y. 
California Privet Hedge -100 s,r0Dg plants for 
for 10 cents. 
J2.50. Two samples 
T. C. KEVITT. Athenia, N. .1. 
DOTATOES-Acme. Bovee, Carman. Commercial, 
Delaware, Cobbler, E. Puritan Fortune, Michigan, 
Queen, Market, Six Weeks. Norther, Ohio Jr.. Maggie 
Murphy. 85 kinds. C. W. Ford & Co., Fishers, N. Y. 
AUL.IFi.OWER SEED 
High grade Danish seed by mall, direct from the 
grower in Denmark, to your address, postpaid. 
Danish Snowball, W oz. 50c loz. (1.50 i lb. (13.00 
Dwarf Erfurt. X oz. 65c i oz. 11.85 1 lb. (22.00 
KARL KOLLE. S-IO K. Fullerton Av. Chicago, Ill. 
Dill DC FOR FALL 
DULDO PLANTING. 
Hyacinths, Tulips, Crocus. Narcissus, Lillies, &c. 
Our New Bulb Catalogue is sent free to all. 
Besides giving much interesting information this 
book is bound in beautiful covers, showing the 
Spanish Iris. Jonquils and Narcissus in their natural 
coiors. Write to-day for a copy 
HENKY A. DltKEK, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Grape Vines 
Descriptive and Price List free. 
Currants, Gooseberries and other Small 
Fruit Plants. Extraquality. Warranted true. 
T. S. 11UUUAKD CO., FKEDONIA, N. Y. 
Y ork imperial, peach, 
KIEFFEK. Y'ou get what you order. 
WOODVIEW NUK8EK1ES, B. 100, Uriah, Pa 
m 
K TREES SUCCEED WHERE 
Largest Nursery. OTHERS FAIL. 
Fruit Rook Free, Result of 76 years' experience. 
STARK BROS., Louisiana, Mo.; Dansville, N.Y. 
Ans. —We have never sown clover in 
this way but would not hesitate to try 
it. Many farmers sow clover seed too 
early. Freezing and thawing after the 
seed has sprouted will often destroy it. 
If the seed could be sown when the 
ground is frozen for the last time in 
Spring you will most likely get a fair 
catch. It is better to plow under the 
vines when this is possible, but on steep 
banks or hillsides you might lose more 
than you would gain by such plowing. 
The nitrogen of the cow peas is mostly 
in the leaves. These decay rapidly, and 
Trees. Plants. 
We have all kinds of Nursery Stock. 
Catalogue Free. 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON & CO., 
HIGHTSTOW.N, N. J. 
PEAR POSSIBILITIES 
are only fully realised by those.who plant our 
Standard Kiefer Pears. 
* Our stock is renowned for vigor and rapid 
growth and absolute freedom from disease, etc, 
This pear is enormously productive, large size, 
fine flavor and handsome appearance. A good 
seller. Trees are free from blight; ripens late. 
r Onr stock is the best the growers* art can produce. 
UAltiUftOX’S NURSERIES, Box Berlin, Md. 
usually mat down close to the ground. 
We fruited Green Mountain and found it 
to be a fine yellow-white grape of fine 
quality, and very early for a white grape. 
J. H. BLACK SON & CO. 
For the land's sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth — Adv. 
I am now booking orders for 
LUCRETIA DEWBERRY PLANTS 
I grow sixty acres of this fruit for market, and find 
it the most profitable of all the small fruits. Inci¬ 
dentally, in growing so many for market, L have a 
verv fine lot of plants (no finer can be produced), 
which I am selling for from one-third to one-half 
less than most nurserymen offer them, and I could 
not sell at these prices were I not growing them 
largely for fruit. November is the best time to plant. 
Correspondence solicited. Catalogue free. 
W. F. ALLEN, Salisbury, Md. 
For $i I will send by express or freight, i Alpha, i Paragon 
i Numbo Chestnut Tree grafted, worth $2.20. Full line of 
l^nrspt'v Atopic C*prtifi cfi tp Arthur j. collins, 
i, UI»Ciy .JiULk. VvCl LllltdtC, Moorestown, Burlington County, N. J. 
TUB STORKS & HARRISON CO., PAINRSVILLK, OHIO. 
Leading American Nurserymen, offer one of the Dost Complete Assortment* of 
FRUIT AND ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ROSES, BULBS, ETC. 
_ 47 Yean. 44 Greenhouses. 1000 Acres. Correspondence Solicited. Catalog Free. 
