8i4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 8 
naming a man now to carry on the experiment we will 
wait until we hear from readers. There may be per¬ 
sons who would like to try the experiment. If there 
are any such we would like to near from them at 
once, as we would like to have a wide range of ter¬ 
ritory to select from. 
SWAMP MUCK; HOW TO HANDLE IT. 
I am a firm believer in muck or peat as a fertilizer, 
if it is of good quality. I believe that it differs a great 
deal in value. From little experiments made many 
years ago I am satisfied that good swamp muck is 
valuable, especially for the grass crop. What most 
impressed me in these experiments was the lasting 
quality of the muck as compared with the stable 
manure. The plot to which lime alone was applied 
showed no benefit; the stable-manure plot was the 
quickest to act, and caused a rank growth of clover 
the first year, to the disadvantage of the Timothy 
and other grasses. The grass soon ran out on this 
plot. The plot on which muck alone was applied 
caused the grasses to grow best from the start, and 
could be plainly seen for many years. The muck ap¬ 
plied was taken from a shallow pile about a foot 
deep, where it had passed at least one Winter freez¬ 
ing and thawing. I would not use raw muck direct 
from the swamp without its having been spread out 
for the action of the frost, for at least part of one 
Winter. The most satisfactory way to handle it with 
the least labor, and with good results, is to haul it 
out on sleds when there is snow during the Winter, 
by having two or more sleds, one loading while the 
other is off to the field to unload. For this purpose 
we use a large hook, like a pronged hoe, made from 
a spading fork bent for the purpose. By taking off 
the loose sideboards one can with very little labor 
very quickly unload a sled, placing the muck in small 
heaps all over the field. In this way a large quantity 
can be got out with the least labor, and if the muck 
beds are not too far away, or too difficult to get at, 
it ought to pay handsomely for the labor it costs. The 
tops of these small heaps should be flat, and not more 
than a foot deep; six or eight inches is better. It 
gives the frost a better chance to act upon it. 
Some time early in the Spring drive through the 
field witn lime, or if wood ashes can be had they are 
better, and scatter a few shovelfuls of it over each 
heap. The Spring rains will carry this into the pul¬ 
verized and softened muck much better then than when 
it was first hauled out of the swamp. I believe in 
composting muck with stable manure, and in using it 
in many ways to absorb and hold liquids of fertilizing 
value that would otherwise be lost, but to compost 
all that is to be used, and on a large scale, makes a 
great deal of heavy work, which I cannot believe 
would be paid for in the additional value of plant 
food to the soil. I cannot give a fair comparison of 
the value of swamp muck, or peat, and stable manure, 
for they both vary so much in their actual fertilizing 
value; each has its proper place, and can never take 
tne place of, or be a substitute for the other, except 
in a limited way, perhaps. I should use both on the 
same field, or plot, and expect to get better results 
than when each was used on separate fields, even if 
only one-half the quantity of each was useu where 
both were applied. The muck would certainly outlast 
the stable manure by many years. The best way for 
anyone in doubt as to the value of swamp muck is 
to test it in a small way on different fields and in dif¬ 
ferent ways, and note the results. Light soils lacking 
in humus or vegetable matter are no doubt benefited 
most by swamp muck. levi bell. 
Rockland Co., N. Y. 
WHAT IS A FAIR PRICE FOR GRAFTING? 
Doubtless there are prices asked and paid that 
range from $1 to $10 or more per day, according to 
the customs, places and plans of doing the work. 
Where the material is all furnished by the person 
having the grafting done, and the grafter has no 
responsibility beyond merely doing the work, the 
price should be and I think is always the least. It 
is, however, not unskilled labor, such as anyone might 
be hired to do. It is about as skillful work as can 
be done on a farm, and has lasting results for the 
goou or ill of the trees that may be grafted. If the 
work is so poorly done that not more than half of the 
grafts grow it might almost as well not be done at 
all. Or, if the trees are injudiciously cut, especially 
if they are large, so that they are, and must always 
be, ugly and distorted in shape, it is even worse. 
Such grafting at any price, or at none, is costly. 
Or, if the grafter selects the varieties for inserting 
and uses poor judgment, or cheats as some do, by 
putting in anything that comes handy, the conse¬ 
quences may be ruinous, and prosecution for damages 
should take the place of payment by the owner. 
To answer the question squarely, it may be safe 
to say that from $2 to $5 per day of 10 hours or more 
is about fair for the labor alone, if skillfully done, 
Last Spring one of the readers of The R. N.-Y. ap¬ 
plied to me to graft over his apple orchards of about 
20 acres. The trees were from four to 10 years old, 
and in fair condition. I asked him $5 per day and 
my traveling expenses to and from his place, about 
150 miles distant, and he to furnish scions and all 
material. He accepted my offer, although he might 
have thought my price a little high at first. He was 
entirely ignorant of the practical part of grafting, 
but very anxious to learn. My determination was to 
teach him while he helped me do the work. We be¬ 
gan by making a lot of grafting wax and waxed 
cloth. The scions he had ordered from a nursery, 
and they were excellent. I furnished the tools, which 
consisted of a medium-sized butcher’s saw, changed 
so as to cut wood, and grafting and trimming 
knives. I did the cutting off of the branches at first, 
having him watch me carefully, so as to learn what 
to cut and where and how to do it. I trimmed and 
set the grafts and he did all the waxing, which was 
not hard to learn. He soon got expert enough to 
wax faster than I could cut and set, so he did much 
of the cutting off ahead of me, having me criticise 
his work all the while. If he did not cut the right 
branches or make the stubs right I found fault and 
showed him how to do it better. After a few days 
there was no trouble. Then I practiced him at trim¬ 
ming and setting the grafts, while. I followed, doing 
the waxing and watching that he did right. This 
he soon learned, and now he can do as good a job 
of grafting as anyone I ever saw do it. That alone 
was worth $100 to him, which was less than the 
three weeks’ wages he paid me, for he can now do 
A NEW PEAR FROM WASHINGTON. Fig. 314. See Page 818. 
all styles of ordinary grafting in the very best man¬ 
ner. We set about 50 grafts per day, many of them 
in large trees, and did it so well that very few died, 
and now the trees have beautiful heads and are in 
a fair way to be a source of profit at an early day. 
Perhaps others could have done more work for less 
money, but it was done right and worth far more 
than it cost the owner. By the job or by the graft, 
especially where the scions are furnished and grafts 
insured to grow the price is usually much more than 
at the rate of $5 per day. I have made more than 
$10 per day at it in this way, but I think this is 
more than the owner should usually pay, unless he is 
a banker or some other disciple of Nicodemus and 
wishes to shift the responsibility of the work en¬ 
tirely on the grafter. Spring is the grafter’s harvest 
time, and does not last long. Grafting is both hard 
and skillful work when well done and deserves good 
pay. H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
HOW CANADIAN FARMERS FEED ROOTS. 
Stock farmers, as a general rule, partition off one 
corner of the basement of their barns, where they 
store as much as 1,000 bushels of roots, and if venti¬ 
lation is good, there is no waste from keeping them 
this way, as long as required. The temperature, how¬ 
ever, must be much lower for turnips than mangels. 
Some feed roots to their stock morning, noon, and 
night, prepared in this way: Put down a layer of 
cut straw on the floor, four or five inches deep, then 
a layer of pulped roots two inches deep, then another 
of cut straw, and so on, until there is sufficient 
quantity to feed the stock, three times a day. If left 
standing a few hours, the pulp will moisten the entire 
mess, and the animals will relish this better than - 
any feed given them. There is no market for roots 
here, and if offered for sale, probably would not bring 
more than $3 per ton. Your readers may probably 
be aware that mangels should not be fed in the Fall. 
This root never matures until midwinter or Spring, 
unlike turnips and carrots, which are at their best 
when taken from the ground. Mangels keep im¬ 
proving the longer tney are kept, but if fed now will 
certainly give the scours. Feed turnips and carrots 
in the Fall and Winter, mangels in the Spring. 
Esquesing, Canada. J. J. 
A NEW HESSIAN-FLY PROBLEM. 
Will The R. N.-Y. or some of Its readers tell me whether 
I have any chance for a wheat crop next year, under the 
following circumstances? I sowed a strip around the 
field I was to sow the latter part of August as advo¬ 
cated to catch the fly. September 20 there was no fly in 
the strip at all, and I commenced then to sow the field, 
finishing it five days later. When wheat was well up the 
fly seemed to come all at once, and I am satisfied every 
stalk in the 50 acres had from 15 to 30 larvae, or egg, as 
we call it. The wheat began to die very fast, and the 
ground to get dry. Then we had a good rain, and the 
wheat sprouted out from the root and has made new 
plants, and now the field looks fine; no eggs in the new 
plants. The old plants are about all dead. Will the eggs 
lie in the old plant (that is dead) all Winter, or will they 
die with the plant? s. s. l. 
Bluff Springs, Ill. 
All predictions or tneories regarding the time of 
appearance and disappearance of the Hessian fly in 
the Autumn have been upset by this unusually late 
and warm season. After many years of observation 
and investigation, Mr. Webster has mapped Ohio into 
areas over which the adult Hessian flies, of the Fall 
brood, should have developed and disappeared by a 
certain date given for each area. As S. S. L. is near¬ 
ly 41 degrees north latitude, according to Webster’s 
map, the flies should have disappeared (after laying 
their eggs, of course) at Bluff Springs, 111., by Sep 
tember 20, if the season had been a normal one. Evi¬ 
dently the Fall brood of flies emerged and continued 
to work considerably later than usual, doubtless due 
to climatic conditions. One must take risks in grow¬ 
ing any crop, anu no one could have predicted just 
what this Hessian fly would do this Autumn in any 
locality. Hence, while it is well to know about when 
the flies normally disappear in average seasons, and 
then sow wheat after that date, yet there will in¬ 
evitably come seasons like the present, when all 
maps, tables or predictions are of no avail in pre¬ 
venting the pest from infesting the crop. Undoubted¬ 
ly if S. S. L. follows the same good plan of sowing a 
catch strip early and his main crop later than Sep 
tember 20, and if he can get his neighbors to do like¬ 
wise he will win against the fly more years than he 
will lose. This very unusual season’s experience 
with this pest should discourage no one from continu¬ 
ing to grow wheat. 
Again, it is possible that wheat which was badly 
infested with the fly and much injured this Fall may 
tiller out sufficiently to produce a fair crop next year. 
But this will depend, of course, somewhat on how ex¬ 
tensively the fly works in the plants in the Spring. 
Another very important factor which may turn the 
scale in the farmer’s favor yet, is the vast numbers 
of the pest that are often killed oy parasites. It is 
quite possible that nine-tenths of the “flaxseeds" in 
which the insect passes the Winter may now be para¬ 
sitized, and hence will not develop into flies next 
Spring. In regard to the Fall treatment of wheat 
fields where the crop has been seriously infested by 
the Hessian fly Mr. Webster, of Ohio, has recently 
given the following good advice: 
"In ail cases where the first sowing has been de¬ 
stroyed by the fly the ground should be replowed be¬ 
fore resowing. In fact, it may be said that if fields 
have been ravaged past all possibility of securing a 
profitable crop next year, such fields should be plowed 
this Fall, or very early next Spring, preferably the 
former. It is probably too late, now (November 6), 
to risk resowing this Fall, but it must be understood 
that if left above ground, the fly will develop in these 
fields next Spring and go to other fields to work its 
ravages. As to how seriously a field must be infested 
to warrant plowing under this Fall, that is a matter 
that each farmer must settle for himself. If the soil 
is rich anu the weather during Fail and Spring very 
favorable for plant growth, the grain will send up a 
second growth of tillers this Fall, which, if they with¬ 
stand the Winter, with a very favorable Spring will 
supply enough straw to produce a part of a crop. But 
the risk is great, and no one, not on the ground, can 
safely advise in the matter.” As S. S. L.’s plants have 
tillered well and seem now to be in good condition, I 
would run all risks and let nature take its course. 
Doubtless most of the maggots got into me “flaxseed” 
stage soon enough, so that the death of the plants 
would not injure the insect, as it hibernates in this 
stage. M. V. 8LINGERLAND. 
