43 o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 10 
as great a fraud as any of the rest can possibly be.’' 
We need an arc used public sentiment and a National 
pure food law. Educate the people, and Bhow them 
what A. Devil & Co. are doing. Let us stop being so 
gentle and polite in naming the nasty and poisonous 
compounds that are flooding the market. It is not a 
legitimate business at all True, the authorities have 
winked at it for years, and our lawmakers almost 
weep when the rascality of A. Devil & Co. is exposed. 
That does not make the trade legitimate, however, and 
it is not entitled to honeBt consideration. Down with 
it! Let us demand a National pure food law, and let 
it be no dead letter either. 
Van Deman’s Fruit Notes 
All Sorts of Questions Answered. 
Grape Shoots After a Freeze. 
In the lower part of my vineyard, about 1,000 old vines of Ives 
were billed down to within six inches or so of the ground by the 
February freeze. From this six inches of stock, an abundance 
of shoots came forth, which I thinned to three or four. I have 
been told that, after June 15,1 could layer the strongest one of 
these shoots, say three feet in length, in the ground one foot 
deep with three buds out, and so renew the vines. Is this cor¬ 
rect? Is it the best way ? Wouldn’t cutting away the old wood 
and letting two of the shoots form new canes on the old stock 
(without layering), do as well ? 8 houldIcut the old de»d wood 
away at once? h. o s. 
Collington, Md. 
In all probability, the canes now growing from the 
old stumps will soon be as good as the old vines were. 
If they are healthy, there will be no need for layer¬ 
ing to make new vines. If it should be necessary, it 
could be done as suggested. I would cut away the 
dead wood at once, and train up the sprouts to take 
its place. 
Infertile Cherry; Strawberry Rust 
1. I have an Early Richmond cherry tree set about 11 years ago. 
It blooms profusely every 8 pring, enough to have a bushel of 
cherries, but only a quart or two set and ripen. Is it because 
no others of this kind are near? 2. When is the proper time to 
spray strawberries for blight ? How strong must the Bordeaux 
Mixture be, and how often applied ? h. e. 
1. The Richmond cherry is self-fertile. Why a tree 
of it in good condition should not bear abundantly at 
11 years old is not easy to explain. It is possible that 
some fuDgous disease may destroy the fruit when it 
is very small, and cause it to drop. Or it may be 
some insect, such as the curculio, that deposits its 
eggs in it. 2 Spraying for Strawberry rust should 
be begun early in Spring, before the blossoms begin to 
open, and be repeated twice at intervals of four weeks 
on young plantations. On old or bearing plants, this 
cannot be done without injuring the fruit, until after 
the ripening season is over. Then the leaves should 
be mown, raked off and burned to kill the germs of 
the disease in them, if the patch is to be left until 
another year. Spraying may then be done to prevent 
the spread of the disease. The ordinary formula for 
Bordeaux Mixture is right for the strawberry, four 
pounds of sulphate of copper to six pounds of lime. 
Raspberries That Winterkill. 
1 am much troubled by naving red raspberry canes winter- 
killed, many of them entirely to the ground. I have Loudon, Mil¬ 
ler, Cuthbert, Marlboro, Golden Queen, and Turner. Turner win¬ 
ters best, but more of this variety kill than I wish. Although I 
have used no fertilizer except wood ashes for three or four years, 
and the soil does not have the appearance of being very rich, 
yet many canes reach the height of seven or eight feet, and are 
three-fourths inch in diameter. The larger the cane, the more 
liable to winterkill. The first Winter after setting, there is no 
trouble, and I also notice that the late growth kills but little. I 
think I once read some experiment station report that recom¬ 
mended letting no new shoots grow until July 1, as their experi¬ 
menting showed that growth made after that date wintered best. 
Can you give me light on this subject ? j. e. p. 
Moosup, Conn. 
The best preventive against winterkilling of berry 
bushes, so far as my experience and observation go, 
is to have the wood well ripened and the earth moist. 
Winterkilling is the effect of* excessive evaporation 
of the sap. There is more or less evaporation of the 
sap going on at all times, and there must be sufficient 
moisture in the soil to keep up the supply. Where the 
rainfall is normal, and the soil is kept loose by fre¬ 
quent cultivation, there ought to be little trouble 
from winterkilling, except when there are such very 
severe and protracted blizzards as we had last Winter. 
This, of course, is based on the supposition that the 
soil contains humus enough to make it porous. It is 
possible that the soil of J. E. P. is deficient in this 
highly necessary material, for he states that he has 
used no fertilizer for several years except wood ashes, 
and that the soil does not look rich. It ought to look 
rich as well as to be rich, for it is humus that gives a 
soil that dark, loamy character that is found in al¬ 
most every virgin soil, where vegetation has been de¬ 
caying for ages. Coarse stable manure would, doubt¬ 
less, be an advantage to soil of J. E. P.’s berry 
patches. If a bushel of cow peas should be sown early 
in July, cultivated in and then the growth plowed 
under in the Fall, there would be a large addition of 
humus. This would make the soil spongy and porous, 
so that it would hold more water than it is now 
capable of holding. 
A late growth is generally considered to be more 
tender than one that has had more time in which to 
mature its wood. The fact that the largest raspberry 
canes on the premises of J. E. P. are hurt most by the 
Winter, is evidence that they are mot so well rhatured 
as the others. An early-matured cane that stands in 
a moist but not wet soil, and if possible with a coat¬ 
ing of mulch on top, would be the one that I would 
expect best to withstand the severity of a dry Fall 
or a severe Winter. 
Slitting the Bark of Fruit Trees. 
A friend tells me to slit the bark on young cherry, apple and 
plum trees, in June, on the north side of the trunk and main 
limbs. He claims that they will grow faster and bear better. Is 
that good advice, or merely a hobby ? p. h. 
Oakland, Me. 
Slitting the bark of fruit trees is more of a fancy 
notion than anything else, as I see it. I have often 
DERRICK FOR STACKING HAY. Fig. 171. 
done it on fruit trees and on trees in the forest, but 
just for fun or to see what would be the result. The 
slits widened into seams of new bark, but I do not 
think the trees grew any faster than those that were 
not slit, neither did the sides where the slitting was 
done grow any more than they would have grown 
without it, judging by other parts of the tree. The 
north side of a tree usually grows more rapidly than 
the south side, and perhaps, because of the drying 
effects of the direct rays of the sun. It has always 
seemed to me that nature provides for the stretching 
of the bark to accommodate the expansion of the 
wood, just as the skin of a pig grows with the rest of 
the animal, and that the slitting of the bark of a tree 
is of no more advantage than would be the slitting of 
the skin on a pig’s back. However, let others try it, 
for it is easily done and will hurt nothing, no matter 
at what time of year it is done. 
HELPS IN HANDLING CLOVER HAY. 
HOW TO PAVE YOUR BACK. 
Scraping the Hay to the Stack. 
[Where clover hay is stacked outside, many farmers use the 
devices described by Mr. Jamison in the following article. The 
derrick revolves in the frame. The high arm permits the sling¬ 
ful of hay to be lifted above the stack. Then by pulling on the 
bar shown near the bottom of the pole, the load is swung over 
the stack, and dropped where it is wanted. The rake slides on 
the ground. A good horse with a smart boy on his back is 
hitched at each end. They drive along the swath and push or pull 
the hay into bunches at the side of the stack.] 
Ticklish Clover Hayiug. —When the weather is 
unfavorable, all available appliances and skill are 
necessary to make a success of clover haying. Those 
that have sufficient storage room in close barns or 
barracks can succeed much better than those that 
must put up a part of the crop in stacks or ricks. It 
needs to be much drier to keep in this manner, than 
if stored in close barns. I usually have more clover 
than I have room for, and as I have several times 
stored out of doors in ricks, I have made an effort to 
have such appliances as can be owned by a farmer 
putting up from 10 to 35 acres of clover, without hav¬ 
ing too much invested in such tools. 
In making clover hay, every effort should be made 
to curtail the manual labor involved. This necessary 
curtailing of the number of men employed, calls for 
the use of all machine help possible to use. 
Put in Stacks. —As clover hay in stacks or ricks, 
to be kept from spoiling, must be covered with some 
other material, they should be as large as possible, or 
the cost of the covering will approximate in cost the 
value of the hay. The risk in allowing it to cure in 
the cock, makes it necessary to put in the rick from 
swath or windrow, or if from the cock, before it has 
thoroughly settled. In this condition, it settles so 
much in the rick, that it is not possible to put up a 
large rick with pitchforks when standing on the 
ground or wagon. Hence a derrick must be used, 
and if put in the rick from the swath, a hay loader or 
large two-horse rake is required. As a loader is tco 
expensive in many ways, I shall use the rake, for a 
time at least. 
By the use of a derrick, with arm swinging 35 feet 
high, a hay-sling instead of horse fork, and the hay 
brought to the rick with a large rake, it can be put 
up very rapidly. This plan will save the cocking, 
but it should be drier to put in rick from the swath, 
than if put in cock. I have learned this in handling 
clover hay. If caught by a hard rain, I prefer to 
have it wet in swath rather than in cock. 
To succeed well in putting up in this way, if a rick 
is two or three days in building, so much the better, 
as it will settle more, and make it possible to get a 
larger quantity in it. If a rick is to be longer in 
building than one day, the former should have two 
large stack covers to cover with. Two for this pur¬ 
pose are better than one, as they are easier handled. 
Making a Derrick. —The material for the der¬ 
rick, as illustrated at Fig. 171, is as follows : If the 
pole can be secured in the near-by woods, only the 
labor in securing it stands aga'nst it. The base is 
eight feet square, built on runneis; frame, 10 feet 
high. The pole for sling use should be 30 feet long ; 
long boom, 17 feet—short end, four feet, long end, 13 
feet; short brace, seven feet long, brace, 14 feet. 
Top of frame should be five feet square. The whole 
should be bolted together, so that it can be taken to 
pieces and stored in shelter when not in use. If built 
to use a sling, the long end of the arm should be 35 
feet high. Lumber needed to construct is as follows : 
F^et. 
14 pieces 2x4 Ineb, 10 feet. «>4 
Runners—two pieces 2x8-inch, eight feet. 2f» 
Base for pole, one piece, 2x10 inch, eight feet . 17 
Long arm 2x5 inch, 17 feet long. 14 
One piece 2 x 8 -inch, 10 feet long. io 
One piece 2x4 inch, eight feet long. 5 
One piece 2x4 inch, 15 feet long. io 
Total... 176 
Here this lumber can be bought, hard wood, first- 
class, for $3.60. Five dollars could cover the cost of 
the whole, ready for the pulleys 
The llake ; I ts Use. —The long rake shown at 
Fig. 172, is 18 feet long, with 12 teeth, six feet long. 
The head-piece is 2x8-inch hard pine. The teeth are 
heart hickory, l%x3-incb, and six feet long. The 
lumber bill is as follow? : 
1 piece 2 x 8 -inch x 18 feet, 22 feet. $0 44 
12 teeth \ % »3 inch x 6 feet, at 3 cents.36 
1 plank 1 x 8 inch x 18 feet, 12 feet. 18 
12 bolts %x4-lnch. 39 
2 bolts * 4*8 inch.08 
Carpenter work. 1 12 
Total cost.$2 48 
The teeth should be set in the head-piece, one inch in 
front, and one-half inch at back, and the teeth sloped 
for about one foot tack from the point on the lower 
Bile. Set in head-piece as directed ; this will cause 
them to follow the ground closely. Over the teeth 
where set in the head-piece, should be placed the 
plank mentioned in bill, lx 8-inch x 18 feet, and 
bolted through teeth, plank and head-piece. The 
teeth should not be set tco rigid, as they will work 
better with some play. The rake should have three 
standards in the head-piece, about two feet high. A 
bolt is put through each end of the head-piece. Two 
small holes are bored in each end the narrow way of 
the piece and sufficient wire run through to make a 
strong loop. 
For hitching, use a light chain, eight feet long, at 
each end, with ring at one end and grab hook at the 
other. Loop the ring end through wire loop, and use 
the other end to attach to single tree. Pull rake 
backwards in going out for a load. With good horses 
and handy boys for riders, the hay can be brought to 
the rick at a very rapid rate. john m. .jamison. 
Ohio. 
California, is working for a uniform fruit package law after 
the plan in force in New York State. 
Mayor Jones, of Toledo, O , says that, when our mustered-out 
volunteers come back, with empty pockets, and ask for a job 
we only give them a banquet. 
It is said that, at least 40 American lawyers are now trying to 
practice in Manila. We can surely spare them, out of the 90,000 
with which the United States is credited. 
A horseman states that he cured one colt of the habit of con¬ 
stantly sha sing its head by removing the long hairs from the 
interior of its nostrils. The movement of these hairs in breathing 
irritated the animal, and caused the nervous shaking of the head. 
I am a little surprised that growers in New Jersey should find 
it necessary to use refrigerator boxes. In Florida, we use very 
little, if any, organic nitrogen in our strawberry fertilizers, but 
grow them hat d on pure chemicals, and they will carry like mlnie- 
balls. How they are for eating purposes at the other end of the 
line, is another matter. s. f. 
Jacksonville, Fla. 
