1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
LIVING TREES FOR FENCE POSTS. 
To Hold Up Woven Wire. 
WIRE SAVES LUMBER.—With us, good cedar 
posts are delivered where wanted at a price so low 
that the sellers practically get nothing for the posts, 
after allowing a fair price for labor and team. In 
many sections which are still practically a vast wil¬ 
derness, the lumber that is offered by sawmill men 
for fencing purposes is of such an indifferent nature 
that within a very few years, it rots or warps com¬ 
pletely out of shape. On the other hand, good lumber 
is held at a figure so high as to make it prohibitive 
to the farmer of low or only average means. For 
this reason the woven wire fence has made such rapid 
inroads. Only a very short time ago, even a sawmill 
man asked me to build him a wire fence. The infer¬ 
ence is plain. He can realize more for his lumber 
than such a fence will cost, and when the wooden 
structure would have to be replaced, the wire fence 
will still be in its prime. 
I and many of my neighbors prefer the Kitselman 
style of fence. On land of uniform grade, a fairly 
decent job may be made with fencing in the roll. On 
uneven ground, farmers find it decidedly to their in¬ 
terest to weave the fence right where wanted, making 
it conform to the undulations of the surface, thus ob¬ 
viating unsightly bulges, or else tedious repeated cut¬ 
ting and splicing. 
FEWER POSTS NEEDED.—It so happens that the 
wire fence not only completely solves the lumber prob¬ 
lem, but it also, at the same time, solves the greater 
portion of the fence-post problem that has been sub¬ 
mitted to me. If only for appearance sake, one-third 
the posts may be discarded, being altogether unnec- 
cessary. All my outside or line fence is made with 
the posts a rod apart, thus cutting 
down the item of posts over 50 per 
cent. There were quite a number 
of forest trees right in line, so I 
concluded to save time and ex¬ 
pense by using these instead of 
posts. Since then, I have cut them 
down to within a few inches of the 
top of the woven fabric. No mat¬ 
ter how thick a tree may be in 
diameter, it sways considerably 
during a heavy storm, and stretches 
the wire. Further, when a tree to 
which a fence is stapled blows 
down, it does much more damage 
than if it fell on the fence stand¬ 
ing free. In my experience, of all 
trees, the least to be relied upon 
is the Black oak. It will die sud¬ 
denly without warning, rots in a 
jiffy, and then there is trouble in 
store. The best tree for the pur¬ 
pose I have found to be the hick¬ 
ory. Fruit trees are objectionable, 
as they cannot be relied upon to grow straight, usu¬ 
ally become top-heavy, are easily blown down, and 
most of them are comparatively short-lived. I would 
rather not avail myself of any tree, a still further ob¬ 
jection being that, where land is valuable for agri¬ 
cultural purposes, they are too heavy a drain on the 
soil. ; 
SAVE THE POSTS.—Whatever sort of tree one may 
decide upon planting for this purpose, let tne number 
be two or three times as great as actually needed. 
For wire fence, no uniform distance is necessary, and, 
should the tree in regular course die, itsvnext neigh¬ 
bor may answer the purpose fully as efficiently, if not 
uniformly. But, putting aside the question of trees, 
about 75 per cent of the expense of posts may be 
saved by placing the posts 32 feet apart, and using 
No. 6 wire stays every four to six feet apart. Let 
your end posts as they should be, and the intermedi¬ 
ate posts will be of litcle use except to prevent the 
fence from sagging; in doing this, it will lessen the 
strain on the end posts. For my part, I would prefer 
a piece of galvanized inch pipe for intermediate posts, 
to many of the heavy culled railroad ties that some 
are using. In fact, it is beginning to look as though 
metal is about to do for the posts what wire has al¬ 
ready done for boards, and, in the end, it will, probr 
ably, prove the cheapest post that our children, or 
theirs, may be able to get. There can be no doubt 
that, in some places, the pipe is cheapest even now. 
Virginia. J. c. senger. 
After experience with five kinds of potato diggers, 1 
have arrived at the conclusion that, with the present va¬ 
rieties of potatoes used and the method of planting em¬ 
ployed, no digger is as satisfactory as a five-tined fork. 
Bancroft, Mich. e. d. l. 
The Rumford Historical Association has erected a 
monument to mark the spot near which the original 
Baldwin apple was grown. The old Baldwin deserves a 
monument far more than many a small-apple man who 
is thus honored. 
KAINIT ON PEAR TREES. 
Did It Kill Them ? 
II. L. IV., Newborn, Virginia .—In The R. N.-Y. of May 27, 
page 408, a correspondent mentions the disastrous effect 
of the application of lcainit in a pear orchard, but does 
not enter into particulars. I should like to know how 
and in what quantity and when the kainit was applied, 
and in what way it affected the trees. How old were the 
trees? As 1 have been applying kainit to my own trees, 
I should like to know more about results before using any 
more. 
ANSWERED I5Y J. R. CORNELL. 
The use of kainit in moderate quantities as a 
source of potash on different fruits, has given me, in 
past years, good results. I have not used it recently, 
as muriate of potash is more satisfactory and cheaper. 
With my experience, I would not apply kainit to any 
trees, except when they were in a dormant condition. 
With the orchard spoken of where I had such a dis¬ 
astrous experience, it will be necessary to go some¬ 
what into particulars, in order to understand the 
case. For a number of years we have been afflicted 
very badly with the Pear midge, so much so that the 
fruit of Lawrence, which suffers most from its work, 
has been entirely destroyed by it. In my efforts to 
find a remedy for this pest, I saw kainit recommend¬ 
ed, so tried it. I made my first application as an in¬ 
secticide on or about April 15, 1894, on an acre of 
Lawrence trees. The trees were about 20 years old, 
and were in thrifty condition. I spread the kainit 
as evenly as possible, all over the ground by hand, 
using one ton in the application. Some time later, I 
learned that it should not have been applied until the 
midge maggot fell to the ground, which occurs the 
fore part of June. Fearing to use any more that sea¬ 
son, I waited until the following year, 1895, when 
about June 15, I used the same amount in the same 
manner. The next year, I used at the rate of a half¬ 
ton to the acre. During this period, this orchard was 
plowed and harrowed, but was not given absolutely 
clean culture. 
The trees, in the Summer of 1894, looked fine, the 
foliage was exceptionally good, and the trees showed 
great vigor. The growing season of 1895 showed no 
bad results except some fire blight, which was quite 
prevalent with me that year; but the Summer and 
Fall of 1896 showed many trees in a bad condition. 
Late in the Autumn, finding some trees dying, I dug 
them out, when I found the large roots near the sur¬ 
face dead or nearly so, while the deeper roots ap¬ 
peared healthy. I have continued digging up trees to 
the present year. The trees now remaining look 
healthy, with two or three exceptions. The loss of 
trees has amounted to fully 50 per cent. I was 
strongly impressed with this fact. Where the mois¬ 
ture was the greatest, the loss was the greatest. Part 
of this plot is somewhat lower than the rest, and is 
much moister soil; there the loss was nearly total. I 
could not see but grass and weeds thrived well, not¬ 
withstanding this excessive dose of potash salts. 
“OLD HOME WEEK” IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
We have had something to say about the “Old 
Home Week,” which has become a State holiday in 
New Hampshire. From August 26 to September 1, 
old residents of New Hampshire are to return to their 
old homes, and revive the memories which, with 
many of them, have dropped out of mind. The hill 
towns in particular are to organize celebrations, and 
the event promises to be both interesting and useful 
to the State. Town and city men, who have wandered 
far away from the old hillside, are expected to return 
to the scenes of their childhood. The old well, the 
school house on the corner, and the old farm home, 
will be revisited, and there will be a kindling of old 
memories and a revival of old associations that will 
591 
last through life. New Hampshire is particularly rich 
in those natural ties that hold one to the old farm. 
It seems like an excellent thing for the Granite State 
to inaugurate such a holiday. 
Figure 225 shows some of the familiar scenes which 
will be revisited during the Old Home Week. It 
seems to us that this is one of the best of holidays. 
It is bound to benefit New Hampshire, and all her 
wandering sons and daughters may well go back to 
the old homestead, and drink from the Fountain of 
Youth once more. They won’t be likely to take in 
any of the bacteria of discontent, or anarchy, when 
they drink from the home spring. The R. N.-Y. 
hopes to be represented at one of these typical re¬ 
unions, so that we can tell our readers something 
about how the Week was celebrated. 
SELLING SMALL QUANTITIES OF WOOL. 
One of the puzzling problems the farmer with a 
small flock of sheep has to face is how to market his 
clip of wool advantageously. There is far too wide 
a margin between its value at the factory and the 
price he is able to get for it at home. There are so 
many middlemen, each one demanding a profit, and 
such a profusion of market reports, that I sometimes 
wonder that the farmer gets any profit at all. Most 
of the wool in one section of western New York, 
where I am well acquainted, passed through the hands 
of four buyers before it reached the manufacturer. 
Another cause of complaint is that, ordinarily, the 
country buyer will not pay any higher price for wool 
that is put up in extra form. The man who ties up 
a neat, clean fleece with light, fine cord, with no chaff 
or other filth, is obliged to sell at the same price per 
pound as the more careless neighbor who takes rag¬ 
ged fleeces containing burrs and 
dirt, and tied with all the coarse 
wool twine he can get on the fleece. 
It seems to me that the remedy for 
these conditions is for the farmer 
to get nearer the manufacturer. 
There ±s then a chance to get all 
there is in his wool crop. If it is of 
superior quality and put up in pro¬ 
per shape, he will be far more 
likely to reap the benefit, an , will 
be sure to realize more nearly its 
full value. I know it is claimed 
that the wool commission mer¬ 
chants cannot handle small lots of 
wool to advantage, but I think-this 
is a mistaken idea. While it is, 
probably, true that wool in large 
lots will sell better, the difference 
in price between large and small 
lots will not be as great as many 
would suppose.. And the disadvan¬ 
tage of selling in this way, for a 
slightly lower price per pound, is 
not nearly as great as that of submitting to the de¬ 
mands of the ordinary buyer in the country districts. 
Of course, there are commission firms that should 
be avoided, but there are, also, firms that are perfectly 
reliable and trustworthy, and with whom the farmer 
can deal to his profit. I have a friend who usually 
keeps about 100 sheep, who has consigned his wool to 
a Chicago firm every year for 15 years, and says he 
has never had occasion to criticise any act of theirs, 
and has always realized more tor his wool than he 
could have done at home. It might be wise, in some 
instances, for several farmers who have wool of a 
uniform grade, to combine their shipments and sell 
them together, and so overcome, to a degree, any dis¬ 
advantage from selling in small lots. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. frank d. ward. 
New York City authorities are determined to enforce 
the new law concerning the adulteration of fruit syrups, 
and after Sept. 1, the syrups used for soda water will be 
strictly examined, and the street venders of lemonade 
will be held to account, like the owners of elaborate soda 
fountains. Not only will the public health be benefited, 
but the enforcement of the Ford law should be beneficial 
to fruit producers. 
Swedish Firjit Shows.— Sweden is to try a series of 
fruit shows on a new plan this year, which will be of es¬ 
pecial interest to market growers. The fruit is to be 
exhibited packed in suitable receptacles for marketing. 
In judging, both the mode of packing and the quality of 
the fruit will be taken into consideration. The show wi'l 
be a species of market, the exhibits being samples of 
what the exhibitor has for sale. It is under the man¬ 
agement of horticultural and agricultural societies. 
The exhibition of these fruit packages seems an excel¬ 
lent idea. 
Hard Wheat Needed. —Well-informed millers who are 
doing business in a commercial way, have given me to 
understand that the proportion of Spring wheat mixture 
—or blend, as the trade prefers to call it—varies with 
circumstances; for instance, if the local crop is good, a 
smaller quantity of No. 1 hard is required, about 30 per 
cent usually, while under certain circumstances, as much 
as 50 per cent may be necessary to bring their product 
up to the required standard. This year, the home crop 
is somewhat "off” and it would seem as though the blend 
would run about 40 to 60 per cent. M. garrahan. 
Pennsylvania. 
