4i6 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
.Tune 11 
should be neatly removed from about each tree — the 
lines of this square running- parallel with the rows of 
trees. This space should not be deeply dug, in after 
cultivation, merely scraped with a keen-edged hoe, 
which may be done very rapidly. This operation 
being repeated, as weeds make their appearance, will 
result in a shallow mulch of clean, fine, mellow earth 
beneath and around each tree. I wish to emphasize 
the importance of not digging the space deeply, after 
the removal of the sod, as it will, especially with plum 
trees, as I have found, injure millions of fibrous roots 
that feed near the surface. Shallow culture is, in all 
cases, just as effective. 
We have a combination lawn and plum orchard of 
50 trees, cared for in this manner, and it attracts the 
attention of every passerby because of the rich con¬ 
trast of the smoothly-shaven surface of green, with 
the dark squares of mellow soil in which the trees 
grow so vigorously. Fig. 182 gives a peep into this 
little orchard which is under our “hoe and lawn- 
mower” cultivation. The trees are now well laden 
with plums the size of a pea, and jarring for cureulio 
is in order. 
For trees planted along fences or roadsides, or any¬ 
where that culture by horse or hoe is impracticable, 
there is nothing so admirable, practical or easily ap¬ 
plied as a mulch ; indeed, in dry seasons especially, it 
is superior to any other plan of culture. Upon many 
farms, I have noticed old straw piles decaying, and 
young fruit trees sod-bound and languishing within a 
stone’s throw of each other. A thorough mulching, 
six inches deep and as many feet in diameter about each 
tree, with such old straw, would promptly bring order 
out of chaos. As an experiment, and for the purpose 
of illustrating the merit there is in mulching young 
trees, I last season selected two two-year-old peach 
trees, as nearly the same size as possible, and upon the 
same kind of soil. These two trees stand but 15 feet 
apart. They had been allowed, through neglect, to 
become thoroughly sod-bound. In May of last season, 
1 placed about one of these trees a heavy mulch of 
straw from an old, decayed stack. The two trees had 
been pruned back severely, as young peach trees 
should, and were identical in size at the time of mulch¬ 
ing. Last autumn, 1 photographed these two trees, 
upon the same day. Fig. 183 shows the tree that re¬ 
ceived the mulching, which made a fine, vigorous 
growth, several shoots making a six-foot growth 
while Fig. 184 exposes the folly of neglect, and shows 
the other tree which was allowed to struggle on with 
the rank-growing grass all about it. This, to me, was 
a valuable object-lesson on the value of mulching. 
There were 25 or 30 other trees about our home 
grounds that also received a similar mulching with 
various materials, such as old fodder, swamp grass, 
green grass, weeds, etc., and in no case did a tree fail 
to respond as has been shown in the illustration. A 
thorough mulch as has been described, will last, at 
least, two seasons, and the results from it, 1 am in¬ 
clined to believe, will be apparent many years after, 
as such treatment gives a discouraged young tree a 
new and firmer grasp on life, and enables it to over¬ 
come many of the petty trials and enemies to which a 
puny, ill-cared-for, “disheartened” youngster would 
succumb. F. u. BA I, I.OU. 
Ohio. 
MULCHING IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
BENEFITS DERIVED FROM IT. 
Last year, I grew my melons and early potatoes 
without any cultivation, and we never had any better 
nor more on the same amount of space. I mulched 
them, as I have done several times before within the 
last 25 years. In Kansas, we had plenty of old prairie 
haystack bottoms, straw and other coarse waste ma¬ 
terial on the farm that made very cheap mulch, and 
I used it on melons and. many other crops there. I 
never knew it to prove otherwise than very profitable 
in that climate, where we often had very dry spells, 
especially in the late Summer. 
Here in Virginia, I use pine leaves for mulch. The 
natives call them “ shats,” which is a contraction of 
shatters, because they shatter off the trees. The 
woods here being mostly pine, it is very easy to rake 
up large quantities of them. There are no weed seeds 
among this material, to cause trouble afterwards. It 
holds the moisture remarkably well, is about the 
cleanest and most satisfactory mulch I ever used, and 
costs only the raking and hauling. 1 use it for bed¬ 
ding in the stables, as does every one here, and when 
enriched with animal manure, it makes things grow 
wonderfully. 
It would be a good plan to try mulching melon 
patches that are now planted, even though the vines 
are beginning to run. It will save all further labor 
of cultivation, and keep the moisture in the soil, so 
that dry spells will be almost without effect upon the 
crop. Another good point about mulching melons is 
that the vines remain undisturbed while growing. If 
the ground must be cultivated and hoed, the vines are 
moved more or less, and their tendrils released from 
anything to which they may have been attached. 
The wind often rolls them over and over, and often 
injures them. On mulch, they are able to fasten the 
vines firmly to it, and grow without any hindrance. 
For several years, I have been mulching the toma¬ 
toes, and find that it not only keeps the fruit clean, 
and in some measure prevents rot, but it increases the 
crop. The matter of the best support for the vines 
has been a puzzle to me. After reading about the 
use of brush for this purpose, it came into my mind 
that pine brush would serve the double purpose of 
supporting the tomato vines, also mulch the ground. 
Therefore, last year, I cut down a lot of little pine 
bushes that were out of place, and put them around 
the tomato plants, just before they were ready to 
spread their branches and lop down. I put on enough 
to smother all weeds. The plan worked like a charm. 
Any one who can easily get any kind of evergreen 
brush, or, for that matter, any kind of brush with 
the leaves attached, as they will be in Summer time, 
may do as well. Almost any one can get brush of 
some sort, except the farmers on the treeless prairies. 
Perhaps some kinds of rank weeds would do there. 
In any case, it pays to save labor, and have clean 
tomatoes up off the ground, with no weeds growing 
beneath or between them. The tomato plants will 
spread, if planted in good soil, over a space from four 
to more than six feet wide ; and the brush must cover 
that space to be fully effective. n. e. van deman. 
A FARM BOUNDED BY WATER. 
FEATHERS AND FUR ON FAMED FISHER’S ISLAND. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
Part I. 
Location and History. —Probably no other poultry 
farm in the country has a wider or better reputation 
than that at Fisher’s Island. This island is 1)4 to 9 
miles long, according to the way it is measured. The 
western end lies opposite to New London, Conn., with 
which city connection is had by boat requiring about 
40 minutes to reach the island. It is a part of New 
York State, though lying much nearer the Connecticut 
shore, and there is no regular means of communication 
with Long Island from the eastern end of which it is 
more widely separated than from Connecticut. In its 
early history, it was granted to Admiral Visher, of 
the Dutch navy, a friend of Captain Block, to whom 
Block Island, 20 miles to the eastward, was granted. 
A change of the initial letter resulted in Fisher’s 
Island. Gov. Winthrop, of Connecticut, under whose 
jurisdiction it afterward came, secured his patent 
from Albany ; thus it became a part of New York 
State at an early date, and still remains. The old 
YVinthrop mansion is still standing near the boat land¬ 
ing, and is now transformed into a Summer hotel. 
The larger part of the island is now owned by E. M. 
and W. Ferguson. The permanent population is not 
large, but there are several Summer hotels and numer¬ 
ous cottages which, during the Summer, shelter a con¬ 
siderable population. The larger part of the island, 
like the Connecticut shore opposite which it lies, is, 
apparently, not well fitted for general farming. It 
has, evidently, a foundation of solid rock which crops 
out in numerous places both from the soil and from 
the surrounding water. It is, also, heavily weighted 
down with rocks on top. A peculiarity of it is the 
almost entire absence of trees of any kind. In the 
days before its discovery by the whites, it was a favor¬ 
ite meeting place for the eastern Indians who came 
thither in their canoes. Manjr legends of Captain 
Kidd flavor are, also, connected with its early history. 
The Government now purposes taking something over 
200 acres of the western end for fortifications, as this 
commands the eastern entrance to Long Island Sound, 
and is an ideal location for defensive purposes. This 
is not likely to please the owners, but Uncle Sam must 
have it if he desires. 
The Three Dairy Farms. —While Fisher’s Island 
is most widely famed for its poultry, especially its 
turkeys, these do not constitute its sole agricultural 
industry. Rocky as it is, three farms known as East 
Farm, Middle Farm, and West Farm, have been es¬ 
tablished, and under wise management, have become 
very fertile ; each supports an excellent herd of dairy 
cows, mostly Holsteins and Jerseys. Mr. E. M. Fer¬ 
guson says that the Jerseys don’t give milk enough 
for a milk trade, but a combination of the two gives 
both quantity and quality. During the Summer, there 
is a demand for all the milk as well as for other prod¬ 
ucts, from the hotels, boai-ding houses and cottages. 
The price is about six or seven cents a quart. During 
the remainder of the year, the cream is made into 
butter at a creamery on one of the farms, all being 
taken to this one. Considerable of the skim-milk is 
fed to the poultry. 
The fertility’ - of the farms is maintained by means of 
the manure made on them and by the use of immense 
quantities of seaweed gathered along the shore. Mr. 
Ferguson tells, with considerable satisfaction, of the 
derisive remarks of some of the natives over the size 
of a great barn which he built on one of these farms. 
“ Now,” he said, “we have it packed full and great 
stacks outside.” Each farm is under the oversight of 
a manager, and one of them is generally overseer for 
all. Silos are used in preserving feed for the cattle. 
Last year, large quantities of corn were raised for the 
poultry, but this had previously been purchased from 
the West 
The Poultry Department of this farm was estab¬ 
lished by Mr. J. F. Crangle, the present efficient man¬ 
ager, about 11 years ago. It has developed along lines 
different from those of most farms, and has incor¬ 
porated into practice many original ideas. It has been 
specially successful in the breeding of turkeys, wild 
geese and ducks, pheasants, squabs and Belgian hares 
as well as of fowls. Something of the methods fol¬ 
lowed out in these different lines will be described in 
succeeding articles f. ii. v. 
LET THE NAME OF THE BEAN BE SOY. 
SCIENTIFIC AND SENSIBLE REASONS FOR IT. 
There has seemed to be some question as to the proper name to 
give the Soy or Soja bean, which is now coming into quite general 
use in this country. We notice that both names are used by dif¬ 
ferent people and would like if possible to have the authorities 
agree upon one name and thus avoid confusion in their descrip¬ 
tion. Will you tell us which of these two names—Soy or Soja— 
you prefer, with the reasons for the choice ? 
I have made use of the word Soy, instead of Soja, 
because people coming here from Japan seemed to 
prefer the use of the word. Another important reason 
why I prefer it is that it is the simpler of the two 
words, and will be correctly pronounced by almost 
anybody, while the other word will be mispronounced 
more often than not. c. 8. PLUMB. 
Indiana. 
In these times, it will not be worth while to try to 
bring every one to the single name, or the same com¬ 
mon name for a plant. The New Englanders and New 
Yorkers call a certain tree whitewood or tulip tree, 
while the Carolina people insist on calling it poplar or 
yellow poplar. The former people call a certain grass 
.June grass, while the people of Kentucky call it Blue 
grass. Examples might be multiplied almost indefi¬ 
nitely. The plant you ask about is Glycine Soja, Sieb. 
and Zuce., at one time known as Soja hispida, Moench 
or Dolichos Soja. The letters J and I were once the 
same, or one took the place of both, so we had Soia as 
a Latin name, which would very readily turn into the 
common name, Soy, as I and Y are often used one for 
the other. A. H. Church, in his Food Grains of India, 
calls the plant under consideration Soy bean. From 
my knowledge of the subject, I think Soy bean prefer¬ 
able, but I do do not see why some may not call it Soja 
bean if they wish, and not violate the propriety of 
good language. w. J. bkal, 
Michigan. 
The common name Soy for the beans of the species 
Glycine hispida ought to lie adopted generally, and 
the term Soja discarded. Soy is commonly used by 
botanical writers in this eouutry and abroad, and 
the bean is referred to as the Soy bean in most horti¬ 
cultural reference works. The term Soy is derived 
from the .Japanese word ShOyu, which is a favorite 
article of diet among the people. Prof. Rein, in his 
Industries of Japan, gives the terms Daidzu and 
O-mame as general names for the beans of the species, 
and he says that the varieties are distinguished “ac¬ 
cording to use, as those which serve principally in 
making shoyu (soy), tofu (bean-cheese), and miso (a 
sort of sauce), and those eaten in any plain shape”. 
The beaus are distinguished further according to 
color, form, and duration of growth. It will thus be 
seen that the common English name is derived from a 
particular class of the beans, the Shoyus. The term 
Soja was adopted by some writers when it was thought 
that these beans belonged to the species Glycine Soja, 
but this species occurs only rarely in Japan. The 
term Soja then is plainly misleading, and should be 
replaced by the term Soy. G. iiarold powell. 
Delaware. 
Preferably Soy, following our recognized authori¬ 
ties, Prof. Scribner, of the Department of Agriculture, 
Prof. Brooks, of Massachusetts, and Prof. Georgeson, 
of Kansas. Until recently, we have been taught to 
say Soja, why change to Soy V It is in order to correct 
an error and avoid worse confusion in the future. 
This bean is a Japanese plant known by the botanical 
name of Glycine hispida. As explained by Prof. Wil¬ 
liams, of the Department of Agriculture, in Farmers’ 
Bulletin 48, there is a related species found in Japan, 
known botanically as Glycine Soja. The latter is 
properly entitled thei’efore to the name Soja bean. 
The bean we have was by mistake introduced under 
the wrong name. Now that it is learned that it is not 
the true Soja bean of Japan (Glycine Soja), but the 
related species (Glycine hispida), we should apply to 
