1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
321 
must use (500 pounds of nitrate of soda to the ton. If 
you use other ordinary mixtures, so much nitrate 
would be likely to “ cake ” or harden so that your fer¬ 
tilizer would not drill well. You would much better 
use cotton seed meal, dried fish or tankage to provide 
part of the nitrogen. This will not only give a better 
fertilizer, but a better mechanical mixture. 
Tobacco Stems and Fish Offal; Leather Scraps. 
J. McO., Havana, III— What i9 the manurial value of a ton of 
tobacco stems and fish offal—heads, skins, scales, fat, eggs, etc. ? 
Would either be a good fertilizer for sweet potatoes, on a sandy 
soil or a sandy, clay-loam soil ? 
P. II. II, Virgilina, Va.— What is new scrap-leather worth per 
ton as a mulch and fertilizer for fruit trees ? 
Ans.—R aw leather has a high content of nitrogen, 
sometimes reaching as high as 12 per cent, but it is 
very slowly made available, when used in its raw 
condition. Applied in large quantities as a mulch, 
as suggested, it might furnish nitrogen as fast as fruit 
trees would require it. Many fruit growers use hair 
and similar nitrogenous materials, claiming that they 
receive very good results from their use. I have 
never had any experience with the use of leather for 
this purpose, and should not recommend it unless it 
can be purchased at a very low price, or even obtained 
for the carting. 
In reference to the value of tobacco stems and fish 
offal, these products vary in their composition, the 
tobacco stems largely according to their content of 
moisture ; with 25 to 30 per cent of water, there would 
be contained in tobacco stems from 2% to 3 per cent 
of nitrogen, one-half to one per cent of phosphoric 
acid, and to (5 per cent of potash. The nitrogen in 
tobacco stems is partly in the form of nitrate, and the 
potash is free from chlorides, hence, so far as constit¬ 
uents go, they are in good forms, and a ton contains 
from $10 to $12 worth of fertilizing constituents. Fish 
offal is, also, a variable product, depending both upon 
the content of moisture and the source of the waste. 
Analyses of dried fish waste show as high as seven 
per cent of nitrogen and six per cent of phosphoric 
acid. In the wet condition, the content of nitrogen 
and phosphoric acid would naturally be reduced to, 
probably, one-quarter of these amounts. Tobacco 
stems and dried fish waste would be good sources of 
nitrogen and phosphoric acid for sweet potatoes, 
though they should have added to them phosphoric 
acid in the form of acid phosphate, k. b. voorhees. 
Little Hope for Frozen Peaches. 
C. F. P., Swan, Te.ras. —We had a severe cold snap March 22, 
doing much damage to all kinds of fruit. Many peaches dropped 
off, and some on the trees have grown since and look all right, 
but on pinching them open, they are found to be brown in the 
center, and the seed is decaying. Wil those peaches mature 
fruit under favorable conditions ? Some good local authorities 
say that they will make good peaches with faulty seeds. Is this 
possible ? 
Ans. —I have never seen peaches injured in this 
way, neither do I remember hearing that the peach 
will sometimes develop perfect fruit after the ovule 
has been killed by frost. It is not infrequent, how¬ 
ever, for apples and pears to grow to maturity and 
bear no seeds, after the young fruit has been severely 
frozen. In a letter from Benj. F. Ilawes to Prof. 
Bailey, in 1895, he says, “ The freeze of May, 1895, 
froze the fruit solid. The center of each pear turned 
black, yet all persisted in growing. There were 80 
barrels. I doubt whether there was a seed or core in 
the whole lot. The quality was the best I have ever 
seen.”—(The Principles of Fruit Growing, Bailey, 
page 325.) I should expect many of the fruits to fall 
later in the season, as the development of the ovule 
has a stimulating effect on the development of the 
fruit itself, and this injury to the ovule will take away 
the stimulus. Yet if the season is particularly favor¬ 
able to vegetable growth, it would be possible for the 
peaches to grow and mature. Peaches and plums 
especially frequently attain considerable size with 
only imperfect or no fertilization, but the fruit gener¬ 
ally falls in the June drop,” with the curculio-stung 
fruit, or still later in the season. 
Delaware Ex. Station. g. hakold i'owkll. 
The Oyster-Shell Bark-louse. 
./. 8. F. 11., (No address). —I inclose a twig cut from one of my 
neighbor’s apple trees. The limb from which it was cut was 
nearly dead. He said that, when the trouble once started on a 
limb, it would kill it, and he did not know of any way to stop it. 
What is the cause, and a remedy ? 
ANSWERED BY M. V. 8LINGERL AND. 
The branch was quite badly infested with the Oyster- 
shell bark-louse, which is, probably, the most com¬ 
mon and widespread of any of the scale insects in 
orchards all over the country. It infests many of our 
orchard and garden fruits besides the apple, and is 
also found on a large variety of forest trees. If, dur¬ 
ing the Winter, one of the long, narrow, brownish 
scales be lifted, it will be found packed nearly full 
of minute white eggs; the scales contain no other 
life, the shriveled body of the dead mother being 
tucked into the more pointed end of the scale. The 
entire Winter is passed in the egg stage ; there may 
be from 40 to 90 eggs under the scale, all laid by one 
mother. These eggs usually begin to hatch, in the 
latitude of New York, about May 15. The young lice 
are minute, yellow creatures that can crawl over the 
bark at quite a lively rate. They wander over the 
bark for a few hours, until they find a suitable spot, 
when they work their piercing, beak-like mouth-parts 
through the bark and into the soft tissue. When once 
thus established, the females never leave the spot; 
those that develop into males acquire wings, and then, 
of course, move about again. Soon after establishing 
themselves, the little lice begin to secrete their scaly 
covering, and this is completed about August 1, and 
by September 1, most of the eggs are laid. It is no 
uncommon thing for a tree to bear millions of these 
tiny little pumps sucking out the sap. 
If the scales were scraped off, as many thousands of 
them could easily be, at any time when the tree is 
dormant, many of the eggs under them would be 
crushed or would perish in some other manner. The 
scale-covering is so impervious to insecticides that the 
eggs cannot be reached successfully. But the young 
lice which hatch in May are very tender, are not pro¬ 
tected by a scale, and are thus easily killed. Fruit 
growers having trees infested with this long, narrow, 
oyster-shaped scale, should watch their trees in May, 
and when the young lice, looking like minute white 
specks on the bark, are seen, then drench the bark 
with a whale-oil soap solution—one pound in about 10 
gallons of water. As these lice are sucking insects, it 
is essential that every louse be hit with the liquid. 
Prompt and thorough work in May will check this 
most common of all scales in eastern orchards If very 
numerous, repeat the spraying a week after the first 
one. 
Grafting and Budding Stone Fruits. 
J. L. II., Crosswicks, N. .1. —Which are better, plum trees propa¬ 
gated by budding on plum stocks, or those grafted on little peach 
trees at the collar? Will the scions of the Japan varieties, 
grafted on the peach, and planted with the union of scion and 
stock three or four inches below the surface, take root and 
eventually be on their own roots ? I understand that the native 
varieties will do this. Should the young peach trees to be grafted 
be dug up or left standing where they grew, when the operation 
is performed ? 
Ans. —Grafting the peach is a very difficult thing to 
do. This method of propagation does not succeed as 
well with stone-fruit stocks as with most others, and 
this seems to be especially true of the peach. How¬ 
ever, I have done it, and in some climates and soils, it 
is practicable. But in New Jersey, I would not 
attempt to graft either peach or plum on peach 
stocks, if I may be guided by my own experience and 
observation. It would do no harm to try it in an ex¬ 
perimental way. Budding is the best method to use 
in working on peach stocks. There is a division of 
opinion among both orchardists and nurserymen as to 
the advisability of working the plum on peach stocks, 
but the majority are against it. The Marianna plum 
stock is now quite generally preferred for the Japan 
plums, and for our native kinds, too. It does not 
sprout, grows vigorously, and stock and scion make a 
good union. The Japan kinds will strike root above 
the union when deeply set, and do not sprout from 
the root, so far as I know ; but the native kinds do, 
therefore should not be deeply set. Stocks of any 
kind difficult to graft that are not moved, but grafted 
where they stand, will succeed better when grafted 
than those taken up. H. E. v. D. 
Grass Culture in Illinois. 
C. II., Bristol, III.— Referring to the article in Tue R. N.-Y. of 
April 2, headed Intense Cultivation of Grass, I wish to say that 
Mr. Clark, in making out a good case for his method of grass 
culture, is very fortunate in being situated so that he can figure 
a profit at $15 per ton for his hay. In this part of the country, 
we can get $8.50 per ton by hauling eight miles, or we can ship 
to Chicago and realize not more than $7. If we followed his 
methods, we would find ourselves heavy losers, since th'e expense 
of treating land as he advocates would, probably, be as great 
here as in the East. I am interested in knowing hew Mr. Clark 
would proceed if he were confronted with our conditions ? 
ANSWERED BY GEO. M. CLARK. 
I wish to call C. H.’s attention more closely to the 
article on page 238. The illustration in part there 
given is of a single acre under the most unfavorable 
circumstances, with liberal prices allowed for every 
part of the work. In the review, however, if he will 
examine with care, he will find the actual cost outside 
of home labor to have been but $42.50 for the first 
two years, and that he would have received for his 
home labor $25.50, at his figures ($8.50) per ton. Not 
very bad pay for pioneer work, especially when the 
acre of land is worth fourfold more than when the 
work was started. 
One step farther. If he had carefully gone over the 
results found from my total 16-acre field last year, 
when moving in the regular order of business, he 
would have found a profit at $8.50 per ton, viz. : 
First crop.... 155,409 lbs. 
Second crop.. 53,020 lbs. 
208,409 lbs. at $8.50 per ton.$931.50 
Total cost. 575.87 
Net profit.$358.63 
In other words, the total cost of my last year’s crop 
upon the 16-acre field was $5.53 per ton. My work in 
this direction has partly been to show the boys of 
New England that they could make a living upon our 
small, worn farms. When we leave the farm that has 
been sub-divided and cultivated nearly 300 years, and 
go west on to the newer fields where the farms are large 
and the soil strong, where six to twelve-horse teams 
handled by one driver are as common as one-horse 
teams are here, we will then have an improved set of 
facts to figure from. Instead of one, we will take 100 
acres, use larger machines, and drop two-thirds of the 
cost. With these larger plows, harrows and grass tools, 
a man and team can easily cover 20 acres per day. This 
will reduce this part of the work to a minimum cost. 
The land being new and strong, will require but little, 
if any, fertilizers except such as can be obtained from 
the atmosphere. 
I now have in mind a large number of sections in 
the West that have produced wonderful results, and 
without the aid of any fertilizers. In New England, 
upon the one-horse, worn farms, it costs $5.53 to pro¬ 
duce a ton of hay, and if then sold at $7, it would pro¬ 
duce a profit of $1.47 per ton upon this high cost, or 
$9.55 per acre. My last year’s crop, if sold at $8.50, 
would have given a net profit per acre of over $19. You 
can thus see that, even with our large cost of produc¬ 
tion, C. H. could easily make $1,000 per annum on 
each 100 acres around his home, which would be a 
fair profit. Intense cultivation and care will work 
wonders. 
Butter Will Not Come. 
Mrs. J. A., Beaver, Pa.— What ails my milk ? When the butter 
begins to come, it will be in little balls, none larger than clover 
seed, and if I churn for an hour longer, it will not change it. I 
just gather and skim off what I can get, but do not get all the 
butter. I churn at 68 to 70 degrees. Our three cows are grade 
Jerseys, which will be fresh next October. It does not get better, 
but worse each time I churn. 
Ans. —There are many conditions that result in 
difficult churning. Usually, the trouble comes in 
Winter when cows are on dry feed and are late in the 
period of lactation, which results in a hard condition 
of the butter granules. Often an improper ripening, 
resulting in a viscous cream, is the cause of the trouble. 
When whole milk is churned, it is hard to gather the 
granules, and a thin cream, containing a small per 
cent of butter fat, is slow churning. Any and all these 
difficulties disappear readily with proper treatment. 
Observe as nearly as possible, the following conditions: 
1. Allow the cows access to salt. 2. Provide some 
succulent food. 3. Allow the milk to stand longer, 
and take off the cream with as little milk as possible. 
4. Allow the cream to become quite sour or acid, by 
holding at a temperature of 65 degrees F. 5. Churn 
at a low temperature. 6. Add a large handful of salt 
to the churn when the butter granules appear. 
Seeding Hard Clay Soil. 
J. E. W., South Haven, Mich.—I have two acres of white clay 
land which, after a rain, bakes so hard that nothing will grow. 
How can I get it seeded ? How will it do, after it has been plowed 
and well pulverized, to sow to oats, seed to Timothy, and then 
cover the ground with strawy horse manure ? Will it bake under 
the straw ? 
Ans. —We have seen such land restored by subsoil¬ 
ing and the use of lime. The stiff, hard clay was 
plowed with a subsoil plow following in the furrow to 
a depth of nearly two feet. The upper surface was 
then harrowed, and a ton to the acre of lime broad¬ 
casted. This was thoroughly harrowed in, and the 
upper soil crushed with Acme and roller. Just before 
a gentle rain, the grass seed was sown and brushed in 
with a light harrow. The subsoiling opened the 
ground, making it more porous and better able to hold 
moisture. The lime had the effect of enlarging the 
particles of soil, and preventing the hard, brick-like 
baking. We do not believe that such soils can be 
profitably seeded down without deep working, and in 
many cases, the use of lime will gradually help the 
upper surface soil. Such soils are usually strong, and 
do not particularly need fertilizer. They need chiefly 
opening up, so that they will hold and retain moisture. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
Mulberries from Seed.—O. K. T., Vermillion, O.—Both Teas’ 
Weeping mulberry and Paulownia imperialis can be grown from 
seed. The best way is to sow the seeds in boxes as soon as the 
seeds are ripe, and let them sprout under glass. They may, how¬ 
ever, be planted outside In drills of mellow soil treated much the 
same as we would treat strawberry seeds. 
Pruning and Cultivating California Privet.—C. H. II., James- 
burg, N. Y.—It does not matter how one prunes the Privet. He 
may prune it just to suit himself, and the plants will be suited. 
The Privet will stand any amount of pruning. The plants m;»* r 
be cut to the ground every Fall, and the stumps will make 
a vigorous growth the next Spring. The only objection is that 
they will not bloom. The soil must be desperately poor if it needs 
fertilizer to help along a Privet. Raw bone flour, two parts, 
muriate of potash, one part, would answer very well. 
The Sir Waiter Raleigh Potato.—J. P. H., Livermore Centre, 
Me.—It is not characteristic of the Sir Walter Raleigh potato to 
scatter its tubers all through the ground. J. P. H. made eight 
hills of the potato sent him, one eye to a hill. They made a good 
growth and were satisfactory in every way, except that he had 
to dig the ground all over to get them; most of the tubers 
were on the end of long white roots, some of which were 18 inches 
or more in length. We never before had such a complaint. It is 
a characteristic of all the Carman potatoes to produce tubers 
close to the vine—in a bunch. 
