October 1 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
672 
FARMING AMONG WESTCHESTER HILLS. 
AGRICULTURE IN A ROCK-BOUND COUNTRY. 
Hens and Fruits, With Vegetables to Pave the Way. 
[EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. | 
Part IV. 
A Rejuvenated Apple Orchard. —The most prom¬ 
ising part of the farm is the old apple orchard. A few 
years ago, this was in the same condition as thousands 
of other orchards throughout the country. The trees 
were not so extremely old as to be useless, but neglect 
of pruning, cultivating and fertilizing had done its 
work, and the orchard was in a condition that would 
have tempted many men to root it out entirely. But 
instead of doing this, it was thoroughly pruned, the 
ground cultivated and fertilized, and above all, the 
trees were thoroughly sprayed every year. Mr. 
Rice says that the most profitable labor on the farm, 
after good cultivation, is thorough spraying, and all 
trees here receive frequent applications of the Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture. This old orchard gave a good crop 
last year, and this year, many of the trees are again 
loaded, and the orchard will make a good report for 
itself at picking time. A month after my visit, Mr. 
Rice wrote me saying that he wished I could see the 
apple oi-chard now, as the apples had colored up beau¬ 
tifully, and were very large and fair. The success 
attained with this old orchard ought to be an encour¬ 
agement to others having similar orchards to deal with. 
Plum Favorites. —A good many plum trees have 
been set, of several different varieties, but the Abund¬ 
ance and Burbank seem to be the leaders. White & 
Rice like the Abundance better than the Burbank, 
although both yielded fine crops this year. So far as 
the growth of the tree is concerned, the Abundance 
is far ahead of the Burbank. The latter makes a very 
sprawling, irregular growth, and it seems almost im¬ 
possible to plow or cultivate near to the trees. On 
the other hand, the Abundance is a very trim, upright, 
shapely grower, and makes a beautiful tree. Some 
Abundance trees which I noticed, had been set about 
five years, and were at least a foot in diameter of 
trunk two or three feet above the ground. The firm 
likes the Japan plums bitter than the natives, 
for one reason, because they are less subject to black- 
knot. They are not, however, entirely free from it. 
An occasional knot has been found on their trees, and 
we discovered one while looking them over at the 
time of my visit. 
Promising Peacli Trees. —Hundreds of peach 
trees have been set, and some of them have come into 
bearing, although not a very extensive crop has been 
gathered as yet. All of them had a very thrifty, 
healthy appearance, and gave evidence of good care. 
Mr. Rice called my attention to several rows of trees 
which have been set three or four years, and asked 
whether I could see any difference between them. 
The only noticeable difference was in size of trees, the 
trees of one plot being considerably larger than those 
of the other. They were set at the same time, were 
of the same age, and had been cared for exactly alike, 
with one exception. The year they were set, the 
ground had been sown to oats and peas for hay. A 
part of the plot had been mowed at the proper time, 
that is, while green, before the seeds had ripened to 
any extent. Stress of weather prevented the cutting 
of the other part, and this part had been left to ripen, 
with the result that the trees had been robbed of 
needed moisture and fertility, and never have recov¬ 
ered the loss sustained during their first and most try¬ 
ing year. This is a good object lesson, and ought to 
enforce the fact that young trees must not be starved 
or stunted, by the endeavor to get an exlra crop 
from the soil. 
Blackberries and Dewberries. —The blackber¬ 
ries were loaded with fruit and were yielding immense 
pickings at that time, which would, evidently, be con¬ 
tinued for a long time afterward. The variety is the 
Minnewaski. This variety seems especially adapted 
to their soil and conditions, and is, withal, an excel¬ 
lent berry for the market. The plants are very thrifty 
and strong-growing. Posts were set at the ends of 
the long rows, and wires stretched to keep them from 
straggling. The plants are shortened in severely. A 
few at one end of a row, which had been left to see 
what growth they would make, were 12 to 15 feet long. 
A few rows of Lucretia dewberries supply a trade 
that prefers these to blackberries, and is willing to 
pay an extra price for them. Mr. White says that 
they are terrible things to grow and work among, 
they have such long, sharp spines. They are trellised, 
but it is almost impossible to keep them off the ground, 
and any such thing as working among them in any 
other way than by hand, is out of the question. But 
so long as those who want them are willing to pay 
higher prices than for blackberries, it pays to cater to 
this trade. 
Raspberries and Strawberries. —The variety of 
raspberries grown is Marlboro, which succeeds admir¬ 
ably in certain localities but fails in most places. It 
grows thriftily, is very productive, and the fruit suits 
the customers. Some Cuthberts are grown, but the 
larger part are Marlboros. 
Strawberries form an important part of the fruit 
supply. White & Rice have tried various distances 
for rows and plants in the row, but have finally de¬ 
cided that about four feet apart is the proper distance 
for the rows. The distance in the rows depends some¬ 
what upon the variety, stronger-growing plants re¬ 
quiring a greater distance apart. The system of grow¬ 
ing is what might be called a modified matted row. 
They endeavor to go over the beds several times dur¬ 
ing the season when they are setting runners, restrict 
the number of runners somewhat, and so place them 
that each plant shall stand by itself, that is as an in¬ 
dividual instead of being massed together into a mat 
with others. This gives each plant an opportunity to 
do its best, and to produce the best fruit of which it is 
capable. The varieties grown are the Gandy and 
Bubach. They say that they do not attempt to grow 
early berries for market. A few Michels are grown 
early, for home use, but the southern berries come in 
so freely, and are sold at such low prices, that it is 
useless to try to compete with them. The later varie¬ 
ties come in after the southern berries are out of 
SPRAY OF GOLDEN MAYBERRY. Fig. 311. 
See Ruralisms, Page 674. 
market, and being such fine fruit and delivered in such 
perfect condition, bring good prices. 
Currants are Profitable. —A few currants are 
grown and prove very remunerative. Spraying came 
near being disastrous with the fruit this year, how¬ 
ever. They began spraying the patch after the 
fruit was of good size, but were stopped by heavy 
rains, and had no opportunity to finish before the 
fruit began to ripen. The last spraying proved too 
much, as the spraying compound was not washed off 
the fruit, and it came near being unsalable. Still, 
one could tell in a minute, by the looks of the foliage, 
where the spraying had ceased, and there could be 
little doubt of its value in preserving the foliage. 
Many valuable lessons are to be learned from a study 
of the methods on this farm. The combination of 
hard work and skill, with an application of approved 
scientific methods, is working wonders. A large num¬ 
ber of young apple trees have been set, some of them 
with peach trees between the rows, and more ground 
is being fitted for orchards. The corn crop is a good 
one to subdue the old pastures and change the hard 
and unpromising soil into a fit receptacle for the 
young trees and plants. The selling directly to con¬ 
sumers, is an important point. Mr. Rice says that he 
can make big wages in doing this work. In short, the 
production of the best possible, and putting it in the 
hands of consumers in the finest and freshest con¬ 
dition, are bringing their reward. F. h. v 
SUCCESS WITH MARSHALL STRAWBERRY. 
WirAT IT MEANS TO STUDY A VARIETY. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Marshall at Its Best. —Mr. F. G. Tice, of Oswego, 
N. Y., understands about every in-and-out of the 
Marshall strawberry. As most of our readers know, 
this variety is the subject of much controversy among 
growers. A few praise it highly, while most of them 
cannot find even “ faint praise’’with which to con¬ 
demn it. This seems to indicate that the Marshall is 
one of those finely-bred berries that need not only a 
special soil but special care to make them do their 
best. With most growers, Marshall is ranked as a 
poor shipper, yet Mr. Tice has shipped crates of fancy 
berries over 300 miles, and had them arrive in perfect 
condition. Why. he grows the Marshall so that it 
makes a skin almost like a varnished shell to protect 
it from bruises. Mr. Tice makes a specialty of filling 
long-distance orders for fine fruit. Dozens of rich 
men at a distance from Oswego are glad to pay him 
long prices for extra-fine fruit to be shipped to them 
daily. Some of his crates shipped from Oswego to 
Boston came back from Dover, N. n., thus showing 
that they had been reshipped from Boston. The 
baskets were in good shape, not soiled as they would 
certainly have been had the fruit become soft. 
Narrow Row and Potash. —The Marshall is 
usually considered a hill variety. I think most of 
those who praise it grow the plants in large hills, 
keeping the runners well cut off. It ranks with Par¬ 
ker Earle in its habit of growth. Mr. Tice had one 
patch in hills, but most of his crop was in narrow 
rows. You might call his system a continuous hill, 
or a series of hills crowded close together into a row. 
This gives better Marshalls than the distinct hill 
system. Plants are set out in the usual way, and the 
runners trained along the row, those that start' out 
between the rows being kept down. The plants are 
kept thoroughly cleaned with cultivator and hoe, and 
are carefully mulched with straw. Mr. Tice says that 
he is quite sure that the difficulty with the growers 
who have complained of the Marshall is that they 
grow them in the wide matted row, which caused 
much of the fruit to ripen in the shade ; this, when 
picked and brought out to light and air, rapidly dis¬ 
colors and breaks down, while fruit grown and ripened 
in the air and full sunlight, and lying on straw mulch, 
has a dry, tough, glossy, varnished-like surface, and 
shows but little change for many hours. This will 
apply to other large, heavy-foliaged berries. 
The soil is naturally strong and inclined to be heavy. 
It is evidently a potash soil, naturally rich in that 
element, yet Mr. Tice uses a fertilizer mixture high in 
potash. He uses the sulphate entirely, as that form 
of potash gives him best results in every way. He 
finds cotton-seed meal his best source of organic nitro¬ 
gen. One may judge of the care with which these 
Marshalls are grown, when it is said that Mr. Tice has 
devised an implement for putting the fertilizer right 
around the plant. This is a tin tube with a funnel- 
shaped end, inside of which is a smaller cone, which 
sits down over the plant, leaving an open space inside 
the outer funnel. When this is put over the plant, 
fertilizer is dropped into the tube, and it falls in a 
ring just around the plant. Mr. Tice is right in say¬ 
ing that it is a mistake to broadcast fertilizer for 
strawberries. The roots of the plant extend out but 
little farther than the leaves, and if fertilizer is to 
benefit them it must be close up to the plant—espe¬ 
cially in a dry time. Speaking of the use of nitrogen, 
Mr. Tice says that, with average growers, none of 
the large varieties will stand nitrogenous fertilizers, 
as barnyard manure, nitrate of soda, or high-grade 
fertilizers; he uses dissolved South Carolina rock and 
sulphate of potash. 
Handling the Marshalls. —The greater part of 
Mr. Tice’s five acres of berries is the Marshall. What 
berries did he grow before he discovered the good 
qualities of Marshall ? Chiefly Parker Earle and 
Bubach. The Marshall was not fully" satisfactory at 
first. He had to learn how to grow and handle it. 
He says that growers often reject a variety after a 
single trial, when if they had studied it longer and 
given it different care it would have proved far more 
satisfactory. 
It isn’t all in producing the Marshalls. The fruit 
must be picked and handled just right if they are to 
be sent long distances. Fur Mr. Tice’s trade the 
Marshalls must be picked every day when just ready. 
The pickers are not permitted to take hold of the 
berry. They must grasp the stem and break it off 
just right. “Too much bother”, some people will 
say, but it’s the only way to insure perfect fruit for 
shipment. I should think that it would pay to cool 
the fruit before long shipment, but Mr. Tice does not 
attempt it. He gets perfect berries without bruising, 
handles them carefully, and ships in ordinary crates. 
This success with the Marshall strawberry shows 
what a man can do who makes a careful study of the 
