1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
to about level, and then used a board float ("with the 
edges rounded a trifle) to rub down and smooth, off, 
using a trowel but little. About the time this was 
smoothed down another batch was ready. As the 
first strip is finished move over the 2x4, and pro¬ 
ceed. This gave me two inches of solid cement above 
the highest point on the stones; and enough cement 
had worked among the stones to make at least the 
upper course solid. My sand had lots of stones as 
large as a hen’s egg in it, but they all worked down. 
No loam in this sand, nor should there be for cement. 
I put on no second coat, nor would I if I were to lay 
more. I dug a shallow trench about 18 or 20 inches 
wide at the back, or open basement side, and filled 
with cement, to prevent rats from digging under, as 
they will always dig close to a wall to get under. This 
was very effectual. 
This stabling is for 17 cattle, and was built over 
30 years ago. It never has cost a dollar for repairs, 
nor has any animal ever slipped to injure itself to 
my knowledge in the least. I also have same ma¬ 
terial as a hog-pen floor, in use about 25 years, which 
gives perfect satisfaction, unless the nesting part 
should be a little cold when wet (which should not 
be allowed) for young pigs. This can be remedied by 
plank on top. I have another floor to a wagon house 
which has been in 10 years, where every horse driven 
in or going to his stable passes over it, and many 
times hitched, standing on it for half a day at a time. 
This shows but very little marks of t use. Where a 
man can work in his own or farm help, and sand is 
readily available, it costs but little if any more than 
a plank floor, and some of it at least seems good for 
a man’s lifetime. I certainly recommend cement 
floors. C. H. (ROGERS. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
ALL SORTS. 
A FAMILY HORSE.—The three-year-old shown in 
Fig. 29 is a grade Clydesdale mare, which has already 
taken three first premiums at a county fair. The 
photograph was received from William W. Jewett, 
Tioga Co., N. Y., who says that the mare is broken 
to double and single harness, and is an all-’round 
family pet. She is evidently a handsome animal, 
with a look of alert intelligence; one of those horses 
to whose discretion the driver may trust in an emer¬ 
gency with entire safety. 
CURIOUS GROWTH OF FEAR WOOD—Fig. 30 is 
a good representation of mechanical tissue probably 
following arrested development of a fruit on a pear 
twig. Apparently the growth energy that should have 
been expended in forming seeds and enlarging the 
fruit has been stored in the form of woody fiber in 
the fruit spur. In the case of failure to fruit these 
spurs often elongate into little branches, but from 
causes not clearly understood, an enlargement as 
above takes place. It does little harm, but seems to 
be of slight advantage in promoting further fruiting. 
The energy intended to develop flower buds is usually 
stored in the form of sugar and starch, which latter 
is soluble under proper conditions, and the transfor¬ 
mation to cellulose or wood fiber probably unfits it 
for further use. Mechanical tissue is often supposed 
to result from an effort to strengthen the attach¬ 
ment of a heavy fruit or provide for some special 
strain, and in this case may have been formed the 
previous year. The specimen was sent in by E. R. 
Mayhew, Norfolk County, Mass. 
THE 17-YEAR LOCUSTS— Did you ever go to a 
nest of young robins and tap on the side of the nest? 
The young ones would then open their mouths and 
swallow what you put in them. That is the way we 
generally do with the teaching of The R. N.-Y.; we 
swallow all, or nearly all you teach, and ask no ques¬ 
tions. Yet we think the Hope Farm man gave bad 
advice when he recommended to abstain from plant¬ 
ing fruit trees in the large territory that will be vis¬ 
ited the coming year by 17-year locusts. To abstain 
from planting will work loss to the nurserymen, who 
at great expense have raised a good stock of trees, 
and will cause delay to the man who has a new home 
and is anxious to raise his own fruit. I have already 
told how I saved an orchard in 1845. I will now tell 
you how I lost a large per cent of one in 1896. I 
planted 110 trees that year; as I had no rye to tie 
them with I left nearly the entire top on them. The 
locusts bored the limbs from base to the point, and 
then bored the body between the limbs. The result 
was 30 per cent of the trees died. It would not have 
cost two cents per tree to wrap them with building 
paper, and thus save them all. People in the locality 
visited by the locusts the coming Summer will find 
them an interesting study. They emerge from the 
ground in the dusk of the evening. They will make 
for the nearest tree as instinctively as a toper will 
make for a saloon. After ascending the tree a short 
distance they burst their shells and come forth a fly¬ 
ing insect. They shed their entire outside garments, 
even their toe nails and a covering that was over 
their eyes. If they fail to get their shell off before 
the morning sun strikes them they are done for, as 
the shell dries on them. We are still of the opinion 
that they eat nothing after they emerge from the 
ground. It was formerly thought they called the 
name of Pharaoh, but their notes are more like the 
prolonged sound of A-O. If somebody will get up a 
post pole digger that will work on the same principle 
as their boring apparatus his fortune will be sure. 
Their musical apparatus is a wonderful structure, lo¬ 
cated under each wing. They remain on the wing 
about 40 days, during which they appear to live on 
love and music. Although they live in the same home 
for 17 years, I have never discovered any solid void- 
ings in their dwellings. But what good are they? 
A FAMILY HORSE. Fig. 29. 
They answer an important end by boring holes in the 
ground to admit air and water to the roots of trees 
and plants. s. b. 
Crescent, O. 
THE SIGNATURE -SWINDLER.—I have just read 
of the signature swindle perpetrated by Chicago 
sharpers in Indiana, and referred to in The R. N.-Y. 
of January 18. This only adds another one to the 
long list of frauds worked In a similar manner upon 
the unsuspecting, and in some cases so subtle as to 
deceive almost the elect. Instead of continuing to 
lament the fate of the innocent in these matters, let 
us cast about us for a remedy. This is found com- 
OVERGROWN DEVELOPMENT IN PEAR TWIG. Fie. 30. 
paratively easily in the case of these signature 
swindles, which usually turn up later in the shape of 
notes, as in the instance related from Indiana. Let 
a law be enacted requiring that notes in order to be 
valid shall be acknowledged before a notary public 
or justice of the peace, the same as deeds and other 
legal papers, in the manner prescribed by law. Then 
when the receipt given for $5 for a hunting privilege 
in Indiana had been presented for payment in the 
shape of a promissory note for the sum of ?500 it 
would have appeared without the proper acknowledg¬ 
ment before any duly qualified officer, and therefore 
said note would be found null and void, and non-col¬ 
lectable. This requirement would occasion but a 
slight inconvenience, and would afford protection to 
honest society. I believe you would serve, not only 
the agricultural community, but honest, well-disposed 
67 
citizens at large by advocating such reform and pro¬ 
tection from this form of fraudulent schemes. 
Pennsylvania. hijgh m. sherwood. 
FINDING HIDDEN DYNAMITE.—I notice an ar¬ 
ticle on page 20 on dynamite. I handled quite a lot 
of it last Fall and lost track of some stumps by their 
being covered up with dirt from others that were 
blown out, but we found them all when we went over 
the piece afterwards with the stubbing hoe. In re¬ 
moving the dirt around the stumps that had not been 
sent off, if there was dynamite under it we would 
know by finding the fuse. I would advise A. J. M. to 
scratch around his stumps on the surface, not too 
deep. The chances are he would find the fuse. As a 
fuse has a good deal of tar in its make-up I should 
think there would be some of it left in three years 
time, unless the fuse had been fired and had burnt out 
without sending off the dynamite; in that case there 
would be small show of finding a burnt fuse after 
three years, but then the stumps that were blasted 
would have the soil blown from around them, and 
the stump that was not blasted would be untouched, 
unless it happened to be one where a second attempt 
had been made. In that case it would be hard to find. 
Yaphank, N. Y. g. p. 
PALMER GREENING APPLE.—As this apple has 
been grown here for quite a number of years we 
might sum it up as follows: Good specimens, when 
properly grown, are certainly handsome fruit, and 
the quality would be marked high by most experts. 
But the proportion of strictly No. 1 fruit is too small, 
and the tree in growth and foliage does not appear 
to be built for the commercial orchard.. It certainly 
needs good treatment and care, for with neglect 
neither tree nor fruit makes a good showing as com¬ 
pared with most standard varieties. The fruit lacks 
a certain quality hard to express; that is, does not 
wear well. A neighbor put it this way: “The first 
season I raised them we all ate Palmer Greenings; 
afterwards the old standard sorts, mostly Baldwins.” 
I have never been able to raise them so they would 
sell in Boston as high as first-class Baldwins, yet a 
tree for the home market would not come amiss on 
any New England farm, and there may be locations 
where it may prove profitable in a commercial way, 
but I know no one who has tested it here who has set 
it as a commercial variety. h. o. mead. 
THE WORDEN SECKtL PEAR. 
The Worden Seckel has not fruited enough with us 
to gain a place in our markets, and is therefore an 
uncertain quantity as a market fruit. We think 
favorably of it, however. With us it is not very vig¬ 
orous in growth, but this may be due to the particular 
location of the trees. I see no reason why it should 
not become popular and profitable if it is generally a 
good grower. s. t. maynard. 
Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
I have seen the Worden Seckel trees loaded with 
fruit in the nursery rows, trees about five or six years 
from bud. It is a thrifty growing tree, and fruit will 
average a little larger than Seckel, and of brighter 
color. I am of the opinion that quite a large number 
of the common Seckel have been sold as Worden 
Seckel. I found one young orchard just coming in 
bearing the past Summer bought as Worden, but un¬ 
doubtedly Seckel. Whether it is an improvement on 
the ordinary Seckel is a question, but I believe it is 
worthy of extended trial, and from what I have seen 
of it, I think it may prove valuable as a market sort. 
Columbia Co., -N. Y. b. d. van btjren. 
I have always regarded the Worden Seckel pear as 
a fruit of great excellence; this is particularly true 
as regards its fruiting qualities where it originated. 
I am inclined to think it may be somewhat local in 
its habits, and doing better in some places than in 
others. It is quite proper that I should say I have 
been disappointed in it somewhat as fruited upon my 
own place. It has shown a disposition to suffer from 
fungus, in this respect being something like the Ver¬ 
mont Beauty. It is possible that this would not be 
so apparent in other sections, therefore I would ad¬ 
vise testing it only in a moderate way as a commer¬ 
cial fruit until better known. ' s. d. willard. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
In so far as we have grown this variety, it has 
proved itself worthy of the highest commendations 
that have been given it. It is a regular and enormous 
bearer, where properly thinned is of fine size, a good 
shipper and keeper, has the high flavor peculiar to the 
Seckel, and we still think is superior to the Seckel. 
We are having a good sale of the trees of this variety, 
and this would tend to prove that those that had tried 
it were convinced that it is a good and valuable fruit. 
We never have heard anything against it, and much 
in its favor, and as it becomes better known it seems 
to be the better appreciated. We regard it as one of 
the coming dessert pears of this country, and it will 
in time supplant the old Seckel in a very great de¬ 
gree. We are under the impression -that the Worden 
Seckel tree holds its foliage better than the Seckel; 
it certainly is a better and ranker grower. The fruit 
is larger and more highly colored. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y smiths & powell co. 
