1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
3o3 
EFFECT OF THE OLEO LAW. 
Opinion of Butter Men. 
“Yes,” said a dealer in dairy products, “the oleo 
men will do their best to get rid of tons of their stuff 
before the new law takes effect. Their agents are in 
to see me every day. ‘Why in the world don’t you 
take hold of it,’ they say, ‘there’s lots of money in it.’” 
Various opinions are expressed by the butter deal¬ 
ers here in regard to the possible effect of the enforce¬ 
ment of the new law, but all agree that oleo has 
traveled long enough under the label of pure butter, 
and that the cow has enough to contend with without 
being made responsible for all the dyed grease on the. 
market. The following gives an idea of the views of 
some of these men: 
E. B. Woodward: “I believe that the enforcement 
of this law will give farmers a better chance. Of 
course as much oleo as possible will be put on the 
market before July 1, but after things get settled I 
think a general improvement in the dairy business 
will be noted.” 
Wm. F. Corwin: “It will encourage dairy produc¬ 
tion. If oleo is sold for what it is, so that farmers do 
not have to compete with it under the guise of butter, 
there will be sufficient demand for butter to make it 
an object to increase their dairies instead of selling 
all of their calves.” 
Mr. Vanneman, of S. S. Long & Bro.: “There is a 
decided objection to putting renovated butter in this 
bill, as it is a pure dairy product. The dirt and other 
impurities of roll butter are removed, but no chemi¬ 
cals or other ingredients are added. It certainly 
should not be classed with oleo or “process” butter. 
There is no more reason for taxing renovated butter 
than ‘State dairy’ or ‘western factory.’ There is no 
doubt that this country can produce all the butter 
needed for home and export trade without patching 
up the supply with oleo under a butter mark. By 
using Pasteurized cream butter is made in sections 
which were formerly thought to be no good for dairy 
purposes. We get excellent butter from Missouri and 
other southern States. There should really he only 
one grade of butter, and the price should never go 
below 20 cents or above 25. Take away unfair com¬ 
petition by selling oleo for what it is; encourage the 
making of prime butter, and the inferior qualities 
that have to be cleansed before they are fit for food 
will he weeded out.” 
THE NEW ONION CULTURE. 
Having a plot of ground, a reclaimed swamp with 
deep muck underlaid with marl, we have been rais¬ 
ing onions very successfully. Everyone knows it is 
hardly possible to get land too rich for onions; being 
satisfied by experiment that chemicals cannot take 
the place of stable manure, and finding the applica¬ 
tion of large quantities of this fills the land with 
weed seeds to “beat the band,” and that we could 
most effectually subdue the weeds by frequent culti¬ 
vation before the onions were in the ground, we 
thought to try the new system. We obtained im¬ 
ported seed of genuine Spanish and Gibraltar, and 
home-grown seed of Prizetaker. This was sown in 
ordinary flats, such as are used to grow tomato 
plants, thick enough to get from 800 to 1,000 plants 
in a flat. If the onions got so thick as to show a 
tendency of spindling we cut the tops off to a height 
of iy 2 inch. In this way we could keep them In the 
fiats until we had the ground fitted, having manured 
it in Winter, and plowed it as soon as possible in 
Spring, and by running over it once a week with the 
harrow and cultivator we induced most of the weed 
seeds to germinate. 
About the first of May, or when the onions were 
the size of pencils and the ground was warm we 
transplanted them to open ground. There is no vege¬ 
table that transplants so easily or with such abso¬ 
lute certainty of success as the onion. If you drop 
one on top of the ground when of this size a is sure 
to take root and grow. In transplanting we used a 
marker made of a piece of plank two inches thick and 
three inches wide, 38 inches long, with a handle long 
enough to be reached when standing; into the bottom 
of this marker we put hard-wood pins, four inches 
long, 1 y 2 inch in diameter next marker head, and 
tapered to a point, four inches apart between cen¬ 
ters. We stretched a line across the field, placing the 
marker along this line; by putting the foot on the 
head near the handle the pins are pressed into the 
ground, and by a slight movement of the handle the 
holes are opened so that when the marker is taken 
out they will remain. As 10 holes will be made each 
time the marker is placed one can mark as fast as 
two or three can set onions. The soil in flat should 
be well moistened, and by taking a handful in left 
hand the onions can be picked out with thumb and 
finger of right hand and dropped into the holes deep 
enough to bring the bulb about a half inch below the 
surface of soil, and loose soil filled in and pressed 
down firmly on roots. As all the varieties named 
grow pretty rank we place the rows 16 inches apart. 
Onions sown in open ground are long in coming up, 
and the weeds get such a start, rendering it a very 
slow and tiresome process to weed the first time. 
When sown in this way so many are in such a small 
space that they can be quickly kept clean. They can 
be started early and kept growing while the land is 
being fitted and cleaned from weeds, and they can be 
easily and rapidly transplanted; thus the laborious 
first weeding is avoided, and we find that less labor 
METHOD OF BRIDGING INJURED TREES. Fie. 115. 
will grow the plants, fit the ground and transplant 
the onions on an acre than will be required in the old 
way. Besides this, from the fact that not a plant in 
a row will fail a perfect stand will be secured. Fur¬ 
ther than all this we are enabled to lengthen the sea¬ 
son by two months or more, and thus be able to grow 
those much more valuable sorts, a thing we cannot 
otherwise accomplish. Onions are gross feeders, and 
no matter how rich the ground may be it will pay to 
sow 100 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre in two 
weeks after transplanting, and a like quantity again 
about the middle of July. Mix with twice the quan¬ 
tity of land plaster and sow on a dry day, preferably 
if the wind blows a little. By keeping well cultivated 
but little weeding will be necessary, but of course 
they should be kept clean, and any of the varieties 
named will grow so as to touch each other along the 
row. Many will grow flat by crowding, or push a 
part of them out sideways. From one-fourth to one- 
half more onions can be grown on an acre, and we 
believe with much less labor by the new than by the 
old way. J. s. woodward. 
RUSSET APPLES VS. BEN DAVIS. 
Considerable praise has been given lately in The 
R. N.-Y. to the apples of the russet family, and to my 
mind a little too much. There seems to be much con¬ 
fusion as to russet apple nomenclature, and 1 for one, 
find more trouble in keeping track of the different 
russets than even the “Pippins,” “Pearmains” and 
“Nonpareils.” The Ben Davis group, children and 
CHAIRS CHOICE PEACH. Fie. 116. See Page 306. 
grandchildren, promise a tangle of equal magnitude 
after awhile, unless measures are taken to suppress 
them, but this is for the future. As to quality, I can 
see no reason for assigning to the russets so high a 
place as is generally given them, for among those 
that I have tasted not one-half of them are more 
than “good” in quality. They are inclined to wilt if 
exposed to the air in a dry cellar as is usual. r Ihey 
are generally undersized and the color is not enticing. 
What passes for the English russet in this State is 
one of the poorest apples imaginable. It often rots 
while yet hard on the trees, and, in fact, not a speci¬ 
men ever mellows to be in eating condition before 
rotting—even if it should keep until very late. I 
would as soon think of praising the quality of the 
Ben Davis as the Roxbury Russet. They both seem 
to suit some tastes, but you people in the East who 
tell so much about quality in apples would better stick 
to King, Newtown Pippin, Baldwin, Spy, etc., and not 
say much about Roxbury Russet. By the way, a per¬ 
son has no right to judge of quality in an apple when 
he is particularly apple hungry; if he does he will be 
apt to miss the truth widely. 
Perry Russet is no better. English Russet of Eng¬ 
land (as catalogued by the Illinois Experiment Sta¬ 
tion at. Champaign) is worthy of no praise except that 
the trees grow well. Pomme Gris, as grown here, is 
unsatisfactory, although better in quality than any 
above-named. One locally known as Little Russet, 
which I suppose is Hunt’s Russet of Downing, is the 
best in quality of all I have yet seen, and is really an 
excellent little Winter apple. Pumpkin Russet as re¬ 
ceived from Mr. Downer, of Kentucky, is here a good- 
sized apple of fair quality, but as 1 said, the names 
of the russets are so mixed up that it is very difficult 
to identify the different kinds. I have seen a russet 
that was evidently a sport of Grimes Golden, that 
was a first-rate late Fall apple. The tree was bought 
for Grimes Golden with other trees of that variety, 
and looked exactly like it in tree and fruit except the 
russet of the skin. Many of our russets came from 
England, where the color seems to be a popular one. 
I notice that a nurseryman there catalogues no less 
than 20 different varieties of russet apples. Certain¬ 
ly the rough rasping skin of a russet apple does not 
improve its eating quality, and as our markets give 
a decided preference to a red or fine yellow there 
seems to be no reason for planting most of the russet 
varieties. benj. buckman. 
Illinois. 
The Russet on Slaty Soil: 
In The R. N.-Y. of March 15 Prof. Waugh speaks 
a good word for the russet apple, and in a later issue 
T. J. D. adds a note of praise. Truly a well preserved 
Roxbury Russet at this time of year is a most deli¬ 
cious fruit. The Red Russet is about as good, but 
possesses fewer of the characteristics common to 
other russets. I have two Roxbury Russets here that 
bear good crops nearly every year, but by picking 
time they are rotting on the trees, and within two 
weeks after they are picked fully half of them are at 
least partly decayed, and those not in this condition 
are wilty. Those that do not rot soon continue to 
shrivel until they resemble mummied peaches, and 
are about as palatable. 1 was born nine miles from 
here on a clay farm. There the Roxbury Russet 
would keep till May, plump, crisp and excellent. My 
soil is slaty, and the Russet apple here is no good. I 
ate my first Red Russet 13 years ago, and 12 years 
ago drove 18 miles to get grafts of that variety, with 
which I put new tops on two Northern Spy trees that 
were about 15 years old. When they came into bear¬ 
ing it was found that the fruit would wilt and rot be¬ 
fore it would ripen. One of the trees by being judi¬ 
ciously helped has entirely reverted back to the Spy. 
The Spy, Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening and other 
varieties bear excellent fruit. Is the soil the sole 
cause of my Russets’ behavior? Is there a remedy? 
Sussex Co., N. J. G. g. g. 
TREATING MICE-GIRDLED TREES. 
On page 259 mention is made of bridge-grafting to 
save fruit trees injured by mice. Fig. 115, showing 
how the work is done, is reproduced from a leaflet 
published by the New York Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Geneva. To do this grafting take a twig of 
last year’s growth and sharpen it to a wedge at both 
ends, as shown at 1. The twig should be a little long¬ 
er than the distance across the wound, and stiff 
enough to prevent bending easily. With a half-inch 
chisel, with the bevel outward, make incisions through 
the bark to the wood above and below the girdled 
spot. Press one of the sharpened ends of the twig 
into the lower cut. and, bending the twig, spring the 
other end into the incision above. These twigs should 
be piaced along the wound about an inch apart. If 
just the right length they will be firm, and no tying 
is required. Put a small bit of wax at the points 
where the twigs enter the tree. It is not thought de¬ 
sirable to do this bridge-grafting on any but strong, 
vigorous trees. Girdled trees only a year or two old 
would better be removed and others put in their place. 
BRIDGE GRAFTING—I see on page 219 an article 
on mice-girdled trees, signed J. N. S., which gave 
a doubt as to whether trees of large or medium size 
could be saved by bridging. I claim that it is simply 
a matter of mathematics as to the size of the trees, if 
in a healthy condition otherwise. A tree three inches 
through can be saved by four bridges, say one- 
fourth inch through; 12 quarters of an inch, which 
would be three inches of new bark to draw from, 
which would equal one-third of the original bark. If 
that will save a tree three inches through you see it 
would naturally require for a tree eight inches 
through nearly 11 of the same bridges to do the same 
work, and I should also advise thorough trimming 
besides to lessen the amount of sap required, h. t. 
Gaines, N. Y. 
