1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
885 
VAN DEMAN'S FRUIT NOTES. 
(CONTINUED.) 
Age of Bearing Apples. 
At what age will the following apples be¬ 
gin to bear: Jonathan, Smith, Stark and 
Sutton. H. 
Curwensville, Pa. 
The age at which any fruit tree begins 
to bear varies somewhat with the sec¬ 
tion of country in which it stands. In 
the Far West apple trees come into bear¬ 
ing in about half the time that they do 
in the Eastern States. It would be safe 
to say that in Pennsylvania the Jona¬ 
than, Smith, Stark and Sutton will all 
begin to bear a little at six to eight 
years from setting. By the time that 
they are 10 years set they should begin 
to be profitable. 
Hardiness of Nut Trees. 
1. A few weeks ago directions were given 
to a New Hampshire inquirer in regard to 
growing the Paragon chestnut. Are we 
to understand by this that the Paragon 
will thrive in New Hampshire? If so, 
would it not also be hardy in Maine? We 
are. situated on a hill 30 miles from Mt. 
Washington, 520 feet above sea level, and 
the thermometer rarely goes below zero. 
2. Would there be any use in trying the 
Knelish walnuts, dw'arfed? f. c. c. 
Bridgton, Me. 
1. It is not yet fully determined how 
hardy the Paragon chestnut is. I know 
of some trees of it that have safely 
passed through 15 degrees below zero. 
It may be that the climate of the milder 
parts of Maine would be suitable to its 
growth, and I would advise tnat it be 
tested there. There are wild chestnut 
trees in Maine, but they are, perhaps, 
more hardy than the Paragon, which is 
of the European species, many varieties 
of which are not so hardy as our native 
kinds. 2. The Persian (English, so- 
called) walnut would not be hardy in 
Maine. There are trees growing and 
bearing in and near New York City, and 
there are some kinds which may be 
hardy enough to withstand a greater de¬ 
gree of cold than is found there, but it 
would seem to me useless to expect them 
to succeed in Maine. 
Apple Districts in Virginia. 
What are the very best counties in Vir¬ 
ginia for commercial apple growing, mostly 
Winter varieties? Is there a better county 
than Albemarle? Is Virginia as good as 
the Ozark region of southwest Missouri 
and northwest Arkansas for apple growing, 
and is it not nearer better markets? 
Warsaw, Ky. J. J. p. 
to the large eastern and foreign mar¬ 
kets, and the apples will keep longer, 
but the land does not lie so well for cul¬ 
tivation, is usually more rocky, and has 
larger and more lasting stumps to stand 
in the way. In either section pluck and 
good sense will give ample returns. 
Value of Tan Bark Ashes. 
F. E. G., Couse, N. Y .—Have tan-bark 
ashes any fertilizing value? Through the 
process of tanning, does the bark absorb 
any chemicals which would be of value as 
a fertilizer? 
Ans. —Tan bark varies considerably in 
its composition, but probably a fair 
average analysis would show about 35 
pounds of potash and something over 20 
pounds of phosphoric acid to the ton. 
There will also be 500 or 600 pounds of 
lime. At the average prices paid for 
chemicals, such ashes will be worth at 
least $2.50, and are well worth hauling 
at that price, for the lime will more than 
pay the cost of hauling. The process of 
tanning, or, in fact, any other process, 
does not absorb the fertilizing elements. 
Whenever tan bark is thoroughly burn¬ 
ed, all the nitrogen is driven away in 
the form of a gas. This is true of saw¬ 
dust, or any other wood. The phos¬ 
phoric acid, potash and lime, cannot be 
destroyed by burning, nor will they be 
absorbed in the process of tanning. We 
must bear in mind that it is impossible 
to destroy these minerals by burning. 
They will remain in the form of ash, 
while the nitrogen, in every case, es¬ 
capes as a gas When an organic sub¬ 
stance is burned. 
BOYS AS STONE BREAKERS. 
Hard Way for Transgressors. 
Slipping off the train at Owego, N. Y., 
I saw a little way from the depot a long, 
high pile of stone. It was not large 
quarry or building stone, but thin, flat 
chunks and hardheads from the sur¬ 
rounding farms. “Who could want such 
a great pile of poor stones, and what 
could they do with them?” I thought to 
myself. “Oh! a stone crusher, likely,” 
for beyond a long narrow building, I 
saw another pile of broken stone. As I 
neared the building, the door opened, 
and two men came out, pushing heavily- 
loaded wheelbarrows. Across the road 
up the plank walk to the top, about 15 
feet, they toiled, and then dumped the 
load of stone. Inside I could hear the 
“How much do you pay them?” I 
asked. 
“Ten cents per week and board.” 
“What! Ten cents a week?” 
“Yes; they are prisoners in for 10 days 
to six months, and have to work. If 
they refuse to work they are chained up 
to a post during the day and fed bread 
and water.” 
I was surprised to see them so steady 
and constant at their work. “Why do 
you work so hard?” I asked one. 
“So I can get tired and sleep better. I 
do not like to lie awake and think. Just 
think of my being here. My thoughts 
are hell!” 
“What brought you here?” 
“Drink! These stones make hard 
reads, but the road I traveled is harder.” 
Many of my farmer-boy friends, no 
doubt, hate to get out and work these 
cold mornings, but here is a boy who 
wants to work eight hours per day for 
nothing, because he cannot bear to 
think. A second and a third was asked 
the same question. The same answer 
was given every time. They were nerv¬ 
ous, sullen, ragged and pitiful-looking 
boys, but no happy ones. Said one: “I 
never thought that I would get here. 
My poor mother—I cannot eat any 
Thanksgiving dinner with her this year. 
She won’t want any. I wish I had never 
tasted the stuff.” I wish every R. N.-Y. 
boy could have stood there for a moment 
and seen the tears run down this poor 
fellow’s face. They would not forget it 
soon. Every one of them had a mother 
somewhere, sorrowing for her son. 
Do we as parents and teachers do our 
duty by the children we might influence? 
Do we make them realize the danger? 
To read about it is not enough. They 
must comprehend it. Do you laugh at a 
drunken man in the presence of your 
Children, or regard it as a calamity? 
Children’s ideas should be so formed 
that they will regard the practice of 
using liquor with contempt and sorrow. 
Our schools are teaching the evils of in¬ 
temperance and the effect of alcohol on 
the system, but a wise mother’s teach¬ 
ings are much more effective. This gang 
has broken over 3,000 tons of stone, for 
which the farmers receive 40 cents per 
ton. The roads have been benefited, and 
the boys kept out of mischief, but these 
are small results compared with the 
3,000 tons of misery caused by this 
cursed habit. Stones are not the only 
things crushed. c. e. chapman. 
For the land’s sake—use Bowker’s 
Fertilizer.— Ackv. 
1,000 SAMPLES FREE 
of our new Success fence ratchet 
which tightens any wire fence, new 
or old. Grips automatically as wire 
is wound on. No holes to bore In posts. Attaches 
midway of the fence. We wiU mail you a sample to 
test If you will send us 12o. to cover postage only. 
Clr. free. W. H. MASON <fc CO., Box 67, Leesburg, O. 
The Best Food 
for Infants 
Nature planned that infants 
should have only milk for at 
least the first year of life. But 
j thin milk, skimmed milk, will 
I not nourish. It’s the milk that 
I is rich in cream, or fat, that 
I does the work. This is be- 
I cause fat is positively neces¬ 
sary for the growing body. 
Scott’s Emulsion 
contains the best fat, in the 
form of Cod-Liver Oil, for all 
delicate children. 
They thrive greatly under its use. 
Soon they weigh more, eat more, 
play better and look better. It’s just 
the right addition to their regular 
food. The hypophosphites of lime 
and soda in it are necessary to the 
growth and formation of bone and 
teeth. 
At all druggists; 50 c. and $ 1 . 00 . 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
.4H— 
Do you want to go South ? If so, 
write to-day for our Journal, free. 
It tells you about our great Chi- 
cora Colony and the finest of land 
for trucking, fruit and stock rais¬ 
ing ; the land of figs and tea. 
Land $5 per acre. Houses built 
and sold on $5 monthly payments. 
Cheap excursions weekly. D. L. 
Risley, 211 South Tenth Street, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 
How Would You Like 
to have a farm fence that would turn ALL KINDS of 
stock? Try ours. Send for Catalogue. 
PAGE WOVEN WIRE PENCE CO., ADRIAN, MICH. 
The entire region lying along the base 
and up into the mountain chains, run¬ 
ning from western Pennsylvania to 
Georgia, is a famous Winter-apple belt. 
Virginia has a goodly share of it, and 
Albemarle County is about in the cen¬ 
ter. I have been over the entire length 
of this great belt, with but a few skips, 
and know from observation that it is 
one of the best regions in which to grow 
Winter apples in the entire United 
States. The land is rough, and in some 
places extremely so, and very rocky. In 
others, it lies so as to make tillage very 
convenient and cheap. But the best ap¬ 
ple lands lie in the mountain coves, 
which are little else than steep slopes 
and narrow valleys surrounded by 
mountains that often shut them from 
sight until ond is almost into them. 
There the famous Newtown (often called 
Albemarle) apple orchards are usually 
found. It would hardly be worth while 
to specify counties, for if one will be¬ 
gin where the mountain chains enter 
Virginia on the north, and follow them 
to the southern line, he will always be 
in a good apple county, and the same 
may be said of North Carolina. The 
best apple lands are not strictly con¬ 
tinuous, but are brok n by mountains 
and sometimes by wide valleys that are 
not suitable for growing the best apples. 
The elevation should be from about 
2,000 feet above sea level to 4,000 feet. 
The higher the fruit will grow the long¬ 
er it will keep. Compared with the 
Ozark regions of Missouri and Arkansas, 
over which I have been repeatedly, it is 
more favorably situated as to nearness 
clickety-clack of many hammers, and 
wondered what kind of a crusher it was. 
I noticed that the two men were accom¬ 
panied by another one, dressed in blue, 
and a second blue-coat stood in >’ i 
door. 
“What have you got in there?”^ 
asked. 
“Oh, the boys are exercising. Come 
in.” 
The building was evidently an old 
shop or molding room, long, narrow 
and gloomy, with a row of double dirty 
windows on each side, which were up 
so high that one could not see out, and 
they but half-lighted the room. It 
chilled me as I entered. Piled against 
each side the whole distance was a wall 
of stone four feet high and three feet 
wide. A few feet farther in was a plank 
set on edge on the dirt floor, forming a 
walk between the stone wall and the 
center. Dirt had been heaped againsr. 
the plank on the inside, forming a hard 
ridge. A few planks laid in the center 
completed the furniture of the room. I 
wish I could make you feel how dark 
and lonesome a place it was. Standing 
side by side in the walk, close to each 
other, were 20 or more boys and men. 
each with a long-handled hammer. 
They would reach back of them, and get 
a stone, place it in front of them on 
the dirt mound, and crack away at it till 
it was broken fine. No stop, no rest, no 
talking, not much room; they could not 
swing the hammer around, but machine¬ 
like, lift it up straight, time after time, 
without changing the position. It must 
be hard work. Nothing to be seen, or 
heard, but the steady whack of the ham¬ 
mers. I think that I would soon go 
crazy in such a place. 
M. M. S. 
POULTRY FENCE 
q 
cabled selvage ana a cable every foot in height of fence 
Requires fewer posts and No Top or Bottom Rail— 
PLEASING-SERVICABLE PRACTICAL- 
ECONOMICAL SA TISFACTORY. 
Saves 50 per cent, in cost ot completed fence. 
NOTE—Even It netting be donated, the complete fence 
will cost more than where M. M. 8. POULTRY FENCING 
1 h uxed at regular priee. Deduet price of netting from 
Estimate No. 2, and nee. 
We ulso make Hog, Field and Lawn Fencing. 
zyzrv/y 
VTVvrv 
~ ^ ~ v y " v ~ y 
A A AVY 
5SSS 
Pat. July 21 , ’96. 
ESTIMATE No. 1. 
6 # rods 4-foot M. M. S. Poultry Fence made of 
No. 19 galvanized steel wire, @ 65c per rod t 39.00 
61 posts, @ 20 cents 
Setting posts, 5 cents each .... 
No Top or Bottom Rail Required. 
No Labor Putting Rail on Posts Required 
No Nulls to Attach Ralls Required. 
5 lbs. staples, @ 7 cents - 
4 hours labor stretching up fence, @ 25 cents 
Total cost 
12.20 
3.05 
.35 
1.00 
. $ 55.60 
Draw your own conclusions 
ESTIMATE No. 2. 
60 rods old-fashioned diamond netting. 4 feet 
in height, made of No. 19 galvanized steel 
wire, @ 65 cents per rod * 39.00 
121 posts, @ 20 cents - ... 24.20 
Setting posts, @ 5 cents each - - 6.05 
1,320 sq. ft. in top and hot. rail, $20.00 per 51 - 26.40 
30 lbs. 20d nails. @ 5 cents ... 1.50 
8 hours labor putting up rail,® 25c. per hour 2.00 
10 hours labor stretching netting,@ 25c prhour 2.50 
10 lbs. staples. @ 7 cents ... 
Total cost ... 
and then write us for circulars. 
.70 
$102.35 
DE KALB FENCE CO., Box S, De Kalb, III. 
Top and bottom wires No. 9. Intermediate main wires No. 11. Up and down wires No. 12. 
With heaviest galvanizing this is 
THE FENCE THAT FENCES. 
More of our fences sold and put up in 1899 than of all other woven wire fences combined. 
Sold by our ageuts everywhere. If no agent in your town write-to 
AMERICAN STEEL & WIRE CO., Chicago or New York. 
