1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
64i 
Lies are successfully grown upon this, but black, vile¬ 
smelling harbor mud taken alongside the mussel beds 
is found to have no value as a fertilizer. So I infer 
that such mud as you describe on Long Island contains 
no fertilizing ingredients. Here seems to be an in¬ 
stance where something cannot be taken from nothing, 
by any chemical or other methods. 
Massachusetts. benjamin p. wake. 
BAY STATE FRUIT MEN AUVE. 
FIELD MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS FRUIT 
growers’ association. 
More than 100 earnest, progressive Massachusetts 
fruit growers met at Fitchburg, early on the morning 
of August 24, and proceeded thence in barges [a 
“ barge” in New England is a big wagon.—Eds.] on 
a tour of inspection of some of the famous fruit farms 
in that vicinity. Passing many fine bearing apple 
orchards loaded with smooth fruit, a 12-mile ride 
brought the cavalcade to the peach and plum planta¬ 
tions of H. 0. Mead, in Lunenburg. 
Thinning and Feeding Japan Plums. —Here were 
noted the effects of varying severity in thinning 
Japan plums. One orchard of Satsuma and Burbank 
just beginning to ripen, Mr. Mead considered too 
severely thinned and too highly fertilized for such a 
wet season, as the wet weather had caused the plums, 
of immense size, to crack, rot and drop off; so that 
far too great a portion of the crop lay on the ground. 
Another orchard of Abundance more moderately 
thinned and fertilized was loaded with plums of large 
size and fine quality. The Burbanks in this orchard 
were equally fine, though a little later. Mr. Mead 
fertilizes with nitrate of soda, dissolved rock, muriate 
of potash and some bone; gives clean culture with 
Cutaway and Acme; and prunes moderately. His 
peach orchard, while healthy and green, is bearing 
but a light crop this year, the buds having been killed 
in the spring. One block of Wheatland, 12 years old, 
has proved so unproductive that it is to be dug out 
and other varieties planted in its place, nis principal 
varieties are Stump and Oldmixon. Attention was 
called to the vigor and productiveness of the apple 
orchards of Baldwin and Greening. They are well 
fertilized and cultivated, but Mr. Mead has never 
found spraying necessary. Also to some young Japau 
walnut and chestnut seedlings from buther Burbank. 
The walnuts seemed hardy and very thrifty, but 
many of the chestnuts, now two years planted, had 
succumbed to the first Winter. After noting some 
fine nursery rows of Wealthy, York Imperial, McIn¬ 
tosh Red and Gravenstein apples which Mr. Mead is 
growing for his own planting, the expedition again 
took to the barges and were driven eight miles 
farther, nearly to the New Hampshire line, to the 
extensive peach orchards of A. J. and W. D. Hinds. 
A Rocky Peach Farm. — The Hinds orchards are 
situated on the summit of Townsend Hill, the high¬ 
est land in this part of the State, and are models of 
thrift and productiveness. All this land has a hard 
clay subsoil, and is underlaid at no great depth by a 
granite ledge, which frequently crops out at the sur¬ 
face. Opportunity was had to note varying causes of 
premature ripening of the fruit, and unhealthy foli¬ 
age—“symptoms of yellows”, some said. In one 
case, it occurs at a spot where the solid ledge is near 
the surface, directly beneath the tree; at another, 
where a slight hollow and tight subsoil prevent good 
drainage. In no case has the disease seemed to spread 
beyond where the unfavorable conditions exist. The 
Hinds Brothers showed where they once lost almost 
an entire orchard of young trees from this latter 
cause, all excepting two rows which had a stone 
underdrain between them. Since that time, they 
have put tile drains through the entire piece, and set 
another orchard on the same ground. These trees are 
now nearly three years old, and show no trace of ill 
health in any way. They apply ground bone and 
tankage at the rate of 1% ton per acre, in the Autumn 
after the leaves fall, and muriate of potash at the 
rate of 400 to 600 pounds per acre in the Spring. The 
object in applying the tankage in the Fall is to allow 
the fertilizing elements to soak down to the roots by 
Spring. The clay subsoil prevents its going too deep. 
They prefer this practice rather than to compel the 
peach roots to seek the fertilizer nearer the surface, 
where a later drought, the freezing of the ground, or 
even cultivation, might injure them. On a light, 
porous soil, this practice might not work to such 
advantage. 
The Care ; the Varieties. —Clean cultivation is 
given in both directions between the rows, the uncul¬ 
tivated square about the tree being sown with White 
clover. One successful orchard receives cultivation 
one way only, the grass on the uncultivated strip be¬ 
ing mowed and left as a mulch. The Hinds Brothers 
have over 4,000 trees, chiefly Crosby, which, as grown 
and thinned by them, attains a large size. The trees 
are set 12 x 16 feet, so as to allow the passage of a 
wagon between the rows from which to thin the fruit. 
This severe thinning was one of the most important 
points noted. They consider about one peach to the 
foot of limb sufficient, and say that they never saw 
trees thinned too much. One block of Elberta in fine 
condition and loaded with fruit was noted, also a few 
dozen Alexander which they purpose to pull out, as 
they have proved unproductive and inclined to rot on 
the tree before getting ripe. The Hinds orchards are 
of all shapes and sizes, and the ground has all been 
literally wrested from nature. Evidently wherever a 
spot could be found with earth enough between the 
rocks to sustain a tree, an orchard has been estab¬ 
lished. The rocks have been dug, the brush and for¬ 
est growth cut and burned, the ground plowed and 
more rocks dug, and the cleared land sown to rye the 
first season. 
“Fed and Watered.” —The entire party ascended 
to the summit of a high, rocky precipice overlooking 
the surrounding country. A birdseye view was ob¬ 
tained of the various orchards and the Hinds home¬ 
stead, and beyond for more than 100 miles stretched a 
bewildering expanse of green valleys and wooded 
hills with hazy blue mountains in the distance. It 
was the general opinion that, for a live, helpful, 
working organization, the Massachusetts Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association stood the highest in the State. Mr. 
Hinds was converted to the same view a half hour 
later when, ably assisted by the Misses Hinds, he un¬ 
dertook to feed and water the entire aggregation. 
This successfully accomplished and justice done on 
both sides, the barges were again “ manned.” 
Right here occurred one of the most profitable feat¬ 
ures of the trip, when your representative, who had 
passed around sample copies earlier in the day, was 
assisted by all the high and mighty dignitaries of the 
Association in insisting upon the superiority of The 
R. N.-Y. as an up-to-date fruit growers’ paper ; and 
the music made by the “ clink, chink ”, of the quarters, 
STEAM COIL FOR A GREENHOUSE. Fig. 296. 
accompanied by the crashing reverberating roar of a 
terrific thunderstorm encountered on the way home, 
made grander music than a whole brass band on the 
roof. FREDERICK H. JOHNSON. 
The Farmers’ Club 
[Every query must be accompanied by the name and address of 
the writer to insure attention. Before asking a question please 
see whether it is not answered in our advertising columns. Ask 
only a few questions at one time. Put questions on a separate 
piece of paper.l 
Coil Boiler for Heating Greenhouse. 
C. E. R., Wadena , Minn .—I wish to build a brick furnace with a 
coil boiler for heating a greenhouse 20x80 feet, fuel to be four- 
foot wood. Will you give plan of furnace, thickness of wall, 
height and width above the grates, also plan of coil or coils for 
boiler, number of feet (lineal) of l*4-ineh pipe in coil or coils of 
boiler ? 
Ans.—C. E. R. does not state what temperature is 
to be maintained in the greenhouse in question, or 
whether it stands in a very exposed position, and in 
the following notes, it is taken for granted that a 
temperature of 50 degrees in zero weather is all that 
is desired. A rectangular furnace five feet long, 30 
inches wide, and 30 inches high (inside the walls) 
should be large enough for this purpose, the walls 
being not less than nine inches (or two bricks) thick, 
and the inner wall being preferably built of fire 
brick. A bridge of fire brick at the back of the grate 
will tend to hold the heated gases in the combustion 
chamber to some extent, the products of combustion 
following the course indicated in Fig. 296 by arrows. 
It will, also, be noted that the chimney in the diagram 
is separated from the furnace by a short length of 
pipe, the advantage of this arrangement being found 
in the greater convenience of cleaning the furnace at 
the back, an operation likely to be found needful 
quite frequently when using wood as fuel. The chim¬ 
ney for such a furnace should not be less than 12 
inches in diameter, and may be controlled by an or¬ 
dinary sliding damper, if the draught prove too 
strong, the question of draught depending largely on 
the height of the chimney and the proximity of sur¬ 
rounding buildings. To build a furnace of these di¬ 
mensions, will require about 900 bricks, fully one-half 
of which should be fire-bricks, this number being ex¬ 
clusive of the chimney. 
The coil of the simplest construction is in the form 
of a gridiron, an outline of which is shown at Fig. 
296, and would consist of about 36 fe.et (lineal) of 1%- 
inch pipe, in addition to the manifolds at each end, 
the latter being not less than two inches in diameter. 
This coil should rest on stout iron bars that are built 
into the side walls of the furnace over the fire, and 
when the coil is in position, there should be space be¬ 
tween the coil and the roof of the furnace to permit 
cleaning the soot from the top of the coil. The coil 
may be placed in position perfectly level or with a 
slight elevation at the end from which the flow pipe 
is taken, the latter plan having the advantage by al¬ 
lowing the easy escape of air from the coil through 
the pipes and finally out of the expansion pipe. A coil 
of this description will heat rapidly if a steady fire is 
maintained, and with 12 rows of piping (1% inch) in 
the house should give satisfaction, providing the house 
is reasonably well built. w. h. taplin. 
Drilling Wheat Both Ways. 
I. H. T., Kalamazoo County, Mich.—I aui thinking of drilling my 
wheat both ways—the second time at right angles to the first. 
What are the advantages of doing this, and will it pay 1 
Ans. —The objects in double drilling wheat are two¬ 
fold ; first, to get the seed more evenly distributed 
over the ground. The modern drill plants the wheat 
in rows too far apart, but the soil is usually so ill 
prepared that the teeth cannot well be placed close 
together. In Europe, the drill teeth are four to five 
inches apart, in America seven to eight. This crowds 
the plants too close together and leaves the intervals 
so wide apart that weeds are likely to get a foothold. 
The other object in double drilling is to provide for 
conditions which occur very seldom. At rare inter¬ 
vals, the drill marks are filled or partly filled with 
water while the ground is frozen underneath. If the 
weather should chance to change very suddenly and 
become extremely cold, the water will be frozen in 
the drill marks around the crowns of the plants, 
which is almost certain to destroy them. If the 
ground has been double drilled, more or less of the 
plants will stand on the edge or the top of the corru¬ 
gations left by the drill teeth, and all of the plants 
will not be destroyed. On the other hand, if the 
wheat suffers from very windy, cold weather, those 
plants which are on the edge and top of the corruga¬ 
tions are likely to be destroyed, and those which are 
partly protected in the bottom of the drill marks will 
escape. Then, too, double drilling gives the land one 
more cultivation, which usually is beneficial. We 
have tried double drilling, but have, as yet, not seen 
enough benefit resulting from the practice to warrant 
its continuance. i. p. Roberts. 
Discussing a Fertilizer Analysis. 
J. R. D., Arters, Pa .—Here is the analysis of a fertilizer: 
Per cent. 
Nitrogen.82 to 1.65 
Equal to ammonia. 1. to 2. 
Soluble phosphoric acid. 5. to 6. 
Reverted phosphoric acid. 2. to 3. 
Available phosphoric acid. 7. to 9. 
Insoluble phosphoric acid. 1. to 2. 
Total phosphoric acid. 8. to 11. 
Potash (KjO.). 1.08 to 1.63 
Equal to sulphate potash. 2. to 3. 
You see that the insoluble is from one to two per cent. Will that 
be of any value to the soil ? An agent here says that is the tilling 
in the fertilizer. What do they put in for a tilling in fertilizer? 
Ans. —Of course, we cannot tell what this fertilizer 
is made of. For example, there are a dozen forms of 
nitrogen. As a rule, the “ phosphates ” are composed 
of tankage, dissolved phosphate rock and kainit. 
Average tankage contains about 6% per cent nitro¬ 
gen and 10 per cent phosphoric acid. Phosphate rock 
dissolved averages about 12 per cent available phos¬ 
phoric acid,and kainit averages 12% per cent of potash. 
Now this “phosphate” guarantees from .82 to 1.65 
per cent, or 16% to 33 pounds of nitrogen, 140 to 180 
pounds of available phosphoric acid, and 20 to 30 
pounds of potash. If this mixture is tankage, dis¬ 
solved rock and kainit, it will represent for the lowest 
guarantee about 275 pounds of tankage, 1,200 pounds 
dissolved rock and 200 pounds of kainit, or 1,675 pounds 
in all. By adding 325 pounds of plaster, or even fine, 
dry soil, the manufacturer gives you the ton with this 
lowest guaranteed analysis. By using 400 pounds of 
tankage, 1,200 of dissolved rock, and 400 of kainit, you 
would have a mixture close up to the highest analy¬ 
sis and requiring no filler at all. These phosphates 
usually run about half way between high and low 
guarantees. The insoluble phosphoric acid in this 
case probably comes from the tankage and a part of 
the phosphate roek not acted on by the acid, which 
is used to “cut ” or dissolve it. The chemists estimate 
this insoluble phosphoric acid at two cents a pound, 
though it is of little use as plant food. The plaster 
or dry earth will improve the mechanical condition 
of the mixture by drying it so that it will scatter or 
drill better. We do not know, of course, that these 
three substances are used in this case, but probably, 
most of the cheap “phosphates” are made in this 
way. A little figuring ought to show the advantage 
of buying a more concentrated fertilizer with a higher 
analysis, consequently less useless bulk and weight. 
