1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
339 
and do produce, trees and fruits of different charac¬ 
teristics, each having been fertilized or vivified by a 
different grain of pollen, and perhaps, from different 
trees. Each pollen grain has its own individual pre¬ 
potency, and this has more or less effect upon the in¬ 
dividuality of the living structure which is to result 
from its action upon the ovule, into which it pene¬ 
trates its cellular growth. This is sexual fertiliza¬ 
tion. This is conception, as we call it in the animal 
kingdom. 
The plumpness and fullness of development of 
a seed come from the largeness of the deposit 
of food or starchy matter in it. This is not the 
true embryonic germ, but only the store of food 
that is to sustain the plantlet when it shall have 
started into independent development. It is like the 
yolk of the egg that is finally inclosed within the 
chick, to sustain its life, just as the other food will 
do, that it will take in through its mouth a little 
later. The plantlet will soon become independ¬ 
ent of the starch, sugar, etc., within the cotyledons 
of the seed, when its rootlets have taken hold upon 
the food elements of the soil. 
ANTI-COLOR LEGISLATION. 
The little map shown at Fig. 136 is taken from the 
report of the Dairy and Food Commissioner of Michi¬ 
gan. It indicates the States in which laws have been 
passed especially prohibiting the manufacture and 
sale of oleomargarine, when colored in imitation of 
butter. Commissioner Grosvenor, of Michigan, re¬ 
views the subject of oleo legislation, showing that the 
object was to protect the public from fraud and de¬ 
ception. Oleo being a much cheaper article than 
butter, was manufactured in imitation thereof, and 
sold to a large extent as pure butter. He says that 
the first attempts to regulate the sale, were various 
State enactments, requiring that all oleo be properly 
labeled. Experience soon demonstrated that such 
legislation was weak. It was not understood at first 
that, with ease, deception and fraud could be carried 
on. By means of artificial coloring matter, oleo was 
made to resemble the more costly article, known as 
butter, and dishonest dealers had little difficulty in 
palming off the imitation for the genuine. Tactics 
were adopted similar to the methods employed by 
those who sell liquors illegally. When it was seen 
how deficient these laws were in protecting the people, 
it became necessary to secure more effective legisla¬ 
tion. 
The Comm ! ssioner says that 25 States of the Union 
forb'd coloring o’eo to imitate butter. One State has 
absolutely prohibited its sale. Four States have re¬ 
quired oleo to be colored a bright pink, and one State 
imposes a tax of 10 cents a pound on its sale The 
auti-color regulation has proved to be the most ap¬ 
propriate and effective system. The constitutionality 
of these color laws has been attacked. The oleo people 
have claimed that it is a violation of the commerce 
clause of the United States Constitution, and is in 
excess of the police power of the State. No court, 
therefore, either State or Federal, has yet declared 
any anti-color statute void or constitutional, except in 
one case in Michigan, where the act was destroyed by 
irregularities in its passage. Many courts of last re¬ 
sort in the various States, have affirmed the right of 
the legislature to prohibit the coloring of oleo in 
imitation of butter. 
ODD THINGS ABOUT THE SOIL. 
A THOROUGH PREPARATION OF THE SEED BED MAKES 
THE SOIL MORE FERTILE. 
Cultivating Nitrates.— To prepare the ground 
thoroughly for a crop before the seed is put in the 
soil, is extremely helpful in other ways than that of 
modifying the soil temperature, and of controlling the 
soil moisture. It secures the right texture of the soil, 
which is more important than we yet sufficiently re¬ 
alize ; and it develops plant food. 
During the late Fall, Winter and early Spring, the 
life processes in the soil, which develop available 
nitrogen for crops, are at a standstill, and soil leach¬ 
ing during this time has carried away, in the drain¬ 
age, most of the nitrates which the soil contained 
after the plants of the season before had taken what 
they found available. It is necessary, therefore, each 
Spring, to develop anew a fresh supply of nitrates for 
the crop which is to occupy the ground. These 
nitrates must be derived from the nitrogen contained 
in the comparatively insoluble humus, from whatever 
may be in the farmyard manure applied to the soil, 
and from that contained in the stubble, leaves and 
roots left on and in the soil by the last crop. 
But it is frequent, thorough tillage when the soil is 
moist and warm, which gives the best conditions for 
developing available nitrogen in the form of nitrates 
in the soil, and there is no time when this can be done 
so thoroughly, so cheaply, and so effectively as when 
there is nothing on the ground in the way. 
Raise the Temperature —Plenty of soil moisture 
is indispensable to the formation of nitrates ; an 
abundance of air and a high temperature are, also, 
essential. There is no time when the surface soil has 
the abundance of moisture that it has early in the 
Spring, and there is no time when this moisture is 
less needed for other purposes. 
As soon as the ground is dry enough in the Spring 
to permit the movement of the soil without injuring 
its texture, this work should begin, and should be 
pushed as vigorously as practicable. Doing this will 
prevent the formation of clods on soils which have a 
tendency to bake; it will conserve the moisture 
needed later; it practically fertilizes the field by 
changing unavailable nitrogen into nitrates ; and for 
all hoed crops which are to go in the ground later, it 
starts the germination of weed seeds, and permits, at 
least one crop of weeds, and sometimes two, to be 
killed before there is anything on the ground to be 
injured by deep cultivation, or to be in the way of 
doing the work in the most expeditious and most 
thorough manner. 
Nitrates Rise and Fall. —The nitrates formed early 
in the Spring may sink by percolation to a depth of 
two or three feet, and so be below the early roots, but 
this is an advantage rather than a disadvantage so 
long as they do not pas3 below root action, because 
the roots will later reach the depth of even four and 
five feet, when these nitrates will become available 
at a time when they can no longer form rapidly in 
the surface soil, for the reason that it has become too 
dry, and there are pre3ent in the soil too many roots 
which need both the water and the free oxygen to 
permit nitrification to go forward rapidly. 
Capillarity, too, will gradually bring the nitrates 
back toward the surface when they have been washed 
downward. It must be kept in mind that, when the 
A HAYRAKE WEEDER. Flo. 138. 
surface soil has become rich in nitrates, and a rain 
comes which washes these to a lower level and leaves 
the soil charged with a supply of fresh water, this 
very change is needed in order to permit nitrification 
to go on, because when the soil moisture becomes too 
heavily charged with salts including the nitrates, 
nitrification is checked. Early, thorough tillage is, 
therefore, equivalent to applying a heavy dressing 
of some mineral nitrate as a fertilizer to the soil, 
provided there is available humus in the soil which 
may be transformed. f. h. king. 
Wisconsin Experiment Station. 
A HAYRAKE WEEDER. 
The weeder shown at Fig. 138 is a wheel rake with 
an extra set of teeth. It is owned by Mr. Rhodes, a 
farmer of Portage County, O. The axle is shortened, 
so that the wheels are about seven feet apart. This 
width is suited to Mr. Rhodes’s three-foot rows of corn. 
The right-handed lever is a lock-lever, and is just as 
it was on the original hayrake. The lever directly in 
front of the seat was taken from a sulky cultivator, 
and is attached by a chain to the back set of teeth. 
Both sets of teeth are ra'sed with this lever. The 
extra set of teeth is an exact duplicate of the other 
one except that the timber representing the axle may 
be a trifle lighter. The two axles are hinged together 
by means of irons about a foot long, properly shaped 
so that the back set of teeth stand at the same angle 
as the front set. Different makes of rakes would, 
probably, require different treatment. 
Mr. Rhodes says: “ All weeders with teeth slant¬ 
ing backward are wrong in principle. They tend to 
pack the soil. This weeder with the teeth pointing 
forward will lift the soil and keep it loose on top. I 
have tried other weeders right by the side of this, 
but this one beats them all. I would not take §25 for 
it if I could not get another.” 
This tool did not cost Mr. Rhodes a great deal, as 
he purchased the different parts at public sales, and 
did most of the work himself. He has used it princi¬ 
pally on corn and potatoes. He does not allow his 
cal ivator to become rusty because he has a weeder, 
but uses them together in an intelligent manner. 
Wnere corn is grown in rows four feet apart, it is 
possible that the hayrake with an extra set of teeth, 
could be used as a weeder, without much extra expense. 
Tuen the rake would not be dead property 11 months 
in the year. G. M. barber. 
Portage County, O. 
SHORT STORIES. 
Coining 1 Americans —“ A herd of Italians struck 
our place last Summer,” said an Ohio man. “They 
were building a railroad. One Sunday in early Sum¬ 
mer, I saw them working a great game. They formed 
at one side of a field about two rods apart and walked 
slo wly across Now and then a bird would fly up, and 
there would be a rush for her nest. It was soon evi¬ 
dent what the Italians were after—egg3. They rob¬ 
bed every nest they could find, and swallowed the 
egg3 at once. It didn’t seem to make much difference 
what per cent of bird the egg had developed into. 
They cleaned that field of eggs ! Nice people to make 
American citizens out of! Unless some element in 
this country can improve mighty fast, such rascals 
will soon pull down the average.” 
English Sparrows and Currants.— At the meet¬ 
ing of the New Jersey Horticultural Society last 
January, Mr C L. Jones, of Newark, stated that the 
English sparrow is so troublesome that it is almost 
impossible to grow currants. In the early Spring, 
they practically disbudded the currant bushes, pick¬ 
ing the buds out as they appeared, and destroying 
them. He was obliged to put a net over the bushes 
in order to protect his currants. In front of a row of 
12 or 15 bushes, he hung a net about two feet wide. 
They, evidently, took this for a trap, and did not 
touch a single bush on that or the adjoining row. He 
picked nine quarts from one of these bushes. Another 
year, without any protection, he had only half a pint 
on the same bush. It was stated at this meeting, that 
a remedy to protect currant bushes from the spar¬ 
rows, is the use of air-slaked lime and soot. This is 
sprinkled on the wood when damp from rain or dew. 
It seems to make the buds taste so that the sparrow 
lets them alone. Mr. Jones, however, said that he 
has tried everything but the soot, without success. 
Spraying lor Apple Scab.—During a recent talk 
with Prof. S. A. Beach, of the Geneva Experiment 
Station, he spoke of spraying for apple scab. Some 
people advocate spraying for the scab in Winter or in 
March before the buds really open. The argument 
seems to be that the fungus is to be found on the 
fallen leaves, and to some extent, on the bark. There¬ 
fore, by spraying early, we are supposed to kill the 
f tiDgus, and save the fruit. Prof. Beach does not be¬ 
lieve this is a good policy. He says it is bitter to put 
the fungicide on the green foliage rather than to try 
to kill the dormant spores in Winter and Spring. If 
the late spraying is given, it is evident that the earlier 
spraying is wasted and will not pay. It will be prae- 
tica’ly impossible to kill all the spore3 in the Winter, 
and late spraying in any event will be necessary. 
P -of. Beach advocates spraying once or twice if the 
scab is very bad, just before the blossom buds open 
and after the leaf buds begin to show green. Follow 
when the blossoms fall, and again 10 or 14 days later. 
This seems to be the latest and best idea about spray¬ 
ing for the Apple scab. The older theory was ad¬ 
vanced when less was known about this disease. 
Modern investigations show that the late spraying is 
more likely to be effective. 
Spraying Kerosene.—In the Fifteenth Annual 
Report of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, Prof. E. 
S. Goff describes a simple attachment for spraying 
kerosene in water. The chief difficulty heretofore 
has been that the kerosene and water would not pass 
out in uniform proportions. It was found necessary 
to keep the surface of the two liquids practically on 
a level. Fig. 137 shows how Prof. Goff has met this 
difficulty. A small tin can holding a gallon or more 
holds th'e kerosene. A A is a strip of heavy tin, with 
a 516-inch hole near the outer end. A K-inch rod, 
B B, is fastened at the bottom of the barrel, passing 
up through the holes in the tin; thus, when 
water is placed in the barrel, the can of kerosene 
will rise or fall on the rod with the level of the 
water. When filled with kerosene, the can will 
settle into the water, so as to bring the kerosene 
about at the water’s level. As the kerosene is poured, 
the can rises so that the level is kept nearly uniform. 
The picture clearly shows how the kerosene and water 
are used. The stop-cock at E is closed, and the one 
at D is partly opened. This opening is regulated so 
as to allow about one part of kerosene to 10 or 12 of 
water To test the proportion, pour the spraying 
mixture into a tall, straight-walled bottle, after hav¬ 
ing pumped a few strokes ; then stand the bottle on 
a level place for 10 minutes to let the kerosene rise. 
This will show the proportion of oil and water, and 
D can be opened or shut until the right proportion is 
reached. 
