1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
767 
WHAT THEY SAY. 
Oyster-Scale Bark-Lice. —We may state, for the 
benefit of orchardists who are troubled with the 
Oyster-scale Bark-louse on apple trees, that our young 
apple trees, now five years old, have been badly in¬ 
fested previous to this season, but now none is to be 
found. IVe sprayed the trees last April with a solu¬ 
tion of sulphate of copper, one pound to 25 gallons of 
water. This, we suppose, is what has destroyed them. 
Connecticut. geo. f. platt & sons. 
Road Improvement. —The wheelmen of Georgetown, 
Mass., have banded together to do a little practical 
roadmaking on their own account. Each one agrees 
to keep the street in his immediate vicinity free from 
stones and other loose obstructions. This is direct, 
practical and not laborious, and, if carried out thor¬ 
oughly, will insure an improved condition of the 
streets, in, at least, one respect. If carried out thor¬ 
oughly, it will, also, show the value of such work, and 
may lead to larger and better things. 
Teeth and Peaches. —The California Fruit Grower 
tells the following story : 
A cannery maid near Fresno who was “ breaking in ” a new 
set of store teeth, placed them in a can near her one day to “ let 
her mouth rest.” She became interested in her work, and forgot 
her teeth. The can was filled with peaches, sealed up, stacked 
away and, doubtless, is now labeled, cased, and on the way 
to a large distributing center. 
We have found some pretty tough specimens in Cali¬ 
fornia fruit cans, but it seems hardly necessary to 
send along a set of teeth with every can ! We will 
can our own fruit—thank you ! 
Minister of Agriculture. —They seem to have 
some singular ideas in Australia. Flow is this from 
Farm and Dairy : 
There are rumors galore about who is to be the new Minister 
for Agriculture—the Hon. Joseph Cook is one, and about first on 
the list; he doesn’t know sorghum from maize, a turnip from 
a pumpkin, a Kerry cow from a Short-horn bull, or a Leicester 
ewe from an Argyle Cut goat. But that’s a mere trifle! He’s 
worked in a coal mine, lectured in the pulpit, and been the figure 
head of the post office for the past four years. 
Therefore, we suppose he is just the man for a Min¬ 
ister of Agriculture. The great point is whether he 
is to minister to himself or to farmers ! 
Second-Crop Raspberries. —A recent note in The 
R. N.-Y. describes an everbearing raspberry, and asks 
for information of other cases in which two crops of 
red raspberries have been secured during the season. 
A letter from northern Pennsylvania states that a 
second crop has appeared on the wild red raspberry 
bushes of that region this year, three quarts having 
been obtained from one farm, and in another ease, 
five quarts having been gathered and brought to a 
village for sale. The autumn has been warm, with 
plenty of rain, and frost has held off unusually late. 
So far as I am aware, this occurrence of a second crop 
on wild bushes is not common. frf.d w. card. 
Rhode Island Agricultural College. 
Michigan Pine-Stripped Land. —In The R. N.-Y. 
of October 22 is a communication from S. C. Post, 
Monroe County, Mich., in regard to stripped pine 
timber land. I cannot agree with him as regards 
lands formerly timbered with pine in this county. I 
can show him land here that was covered with pine, 
that raise as good crops of corn, wheat or potatoes as 
any average farm in the United States, and for fruit 
is as good as any in the world. I can show him farms 
that were largely timbered with pine that netted $30 
per acre from peas, the present year, and any number 
of farms that realized from $15 to $40 per acre from 
the pea crop for the past three years, e. d. Richmond. 
Oceana County, Mich. 
Storing Vegetables —The chimney from our kitchen, 
sitting-room and bed-room extends through the attic. 
There, close beside the chimney, we stored pumpkins 
and Hubbard squashes last Winter. They kept well. 
The last pumpkin used for pies was cut in April; it was 
entirely sound and in as perfect condition as when taken 
from the vines. The plan of covering either with damp 
moss or with sand or earth in the cellar, such vege¬ 
tables as beets, carrots, turnips, etc., is a good one. 
They are greatly improved by being thus kept crisp 
and fresh through the Winter. I would urge farmers 
to try it the present season. Also store in like man¬ 
ner a portion of the crop of parsnips, salsify, etc., 
that it may be used in Winter when it could not be 
dug from the open ground. gardener. 
Delaware County, N. Y. 
Trees Brought From a Distance. —A New Jersey 
reader is told that apple trees brought from a distance 
will not hold their fruit as well as trees raised in New 
Jersey. We find a number of people who believe that 
northern or southern trees contract bad habits from 
the soil in which they are grown. It does not make 
any particular difference where the tree was produced 
so long as it has good, strong roots, and firm, well- 
ripened wood. The region that will produce the best 
roots and the strongest growth above ground is the 
region to go to after good trees. After the tree has 
been dug from the nursery row, it leaves its child¬ 
hood's home behind it, and its success will depend 
upon the care it gets in its new home. Of course it 
may carry insects or fungous disease with it, but that 
is the fault of the man who raised the tree in the 
nursery, and not the fault of the region or country in 
which it was grown. 
Taxing Entertainments. —The new revenue law, 
among other things, calls for a special tax of $10 as 
a license for entertainments. A Grange in Massa¬ 
chusetts held a harvest home Summer meeting with 
an evening programme by local talent. The managers 
were in a quandary as to whether they would be 
forced to pay the $10 tax. The New England Home¬ 
stead obtained the following opinion from the Com¬ 
missioner of Internal Revenue, which would seem to 
settle the case definitely : 
It has been held that an entertainment of this kind is not 
among the public exhibitions or shows contemplated by that 
paragraph; and further, that, as at present advised, this office 
would not regard any of the entertainments, from time to time 
given by Granges, churches, schools and village societies, as 
coming within the me.aning of that paragraph. 
An Iowa Subscription Agent. —Last year, when a 
young man from Massachusetts won one of our sub¬ 
scription prizes, we were glad to show our readers 
what he looked like. No doubt many of them were 
glad to get a look at this hustling young fellow and 
the wheel that carried him to victory. Now we are 
glad to show the picture of an older man, who cap¬ 
tured one of the prizes in our last contest. Mr. A. T. 
Crane, of Iowa, is 69 years old. He is an old Jersey- 
man, having gone to Iowa from Newark, N. J., in 
1857. When he started out to attempt to get subscrip¬ 
tions for an eastern paper, some of his friends thought 
it was a hopeless task ; but he kept at it, and finally 
MR. A. T. CRANE—AN IOWA SUBSCRIPTION AGENT! Fig. 348. 
came in with 275 subscriptions as a reward for his 
labors. Mr. Crane said that, among others, he asked 
the Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa to subscribe, and 
this was the reply he received, accompanied by a dol¬ 
lar bill: “ Crane, I do not consider that I am doing 
you any favor whatever, in taking The Rural New- 
Yorker. It is an old friend of mine, and is well 
worth the money.” As will be seen from Mr. Crane's 
picture, at Fig. 348, he bears a closer resemblance to 
Santa Claus than young Mr. Johnson, our Massachu¬ 
setts prize-winner. It won't do, after this, to say 
that the great West is a country for young men en¬ 
tirely. Here is a man who listened to Horace Greeley 
in the old days when he said : “ Go West, young man, 
go West!” This young man is no longer young in 
one sense of the word, yet he is still doing good mis¬ 
sionary service, by showing his Iowa friends some of 
the good things that are to be found in agricultural 
journalism. 
Gas Lime and Tomatoes. —Mr. G. Y. Benjamin, of 
Brown County, Mass., says he has heard that gas lime 
broadcasted and plowed under in the Fall, on land in¬ 
fested with Witch grass, will destroy the grass with¬ 
out hurting other crops. Fresh gas lime will, prob¬ 
ably, kill almost any living plant, but it will not dis¬ 
criminate between the Witch grass and the plants 
that we wish to save. We would never advise the use 
of gas lime until it has been thoroughly weathered. 
Spread out and expose to the air and ra ; n, at least 
four months before the application. Mr. Benjamin is 
greatly pleased with the Honor Bright tomato. He 
says that it is a heavy cropper, and a good seller. 
This year, out of seven kinds, the Honor Bright was 
the only one that did not blight. The vines of all the 
rest were picked clean by the middle of September. 
On October 3, he was still selling Honor Bright, ripen¬ 
ing them in straw, under glass. The only fault he 
finds with it is that there are no green tomatoes. 
Next year he will make it his main crop, with the 
Dwarf Champion for early. He trains the Champion 
tomatoes upon poles, leaving only the main shoots. 
Wine Making. —The Western Fruit Grower says 
that the people of Arkansas will soon vote on the 
question of permitting the sale of native wine in that 
State. It says further : 
Leaving reside all questions of morality, is it good policy even 
for fruit growers to encourage the use of wine ? The use of wine 
creates a taste for alcoholic drink, and there can be but one 
result, as a rule—poverty, wretchedness, misery. We would look 
with horror on a carpenter who would advocate the burning of 
houses that he might have work in rebuilding them. What shall 
we say of fruit growers who advocate the use of wine which 
destroys, that there may be a market for their grapes ? Better 
let them rot on the vines. One cause of the low prices for fruit is 
the inability of the consumers—the town people—to buy. In many 
cases, this inability to buy is caused by the use of money which 
should go for fruit, to buy drink. The encouragement of the wine 
industry, it seems to us, will have a tendency to increase this in¬ 
ability to buy fruits. 
WHAT IS A FIRST-CLASS TREE? 
NO SAFE RULE FOR INEXPERIENCED BUYERS. 
No safe rule can be laid down by which a person 
inexperienced in nursery stock could know, when he 
saw a tree or shrub, whether it is first-class or not. 
Some think that a first-class tree is one of large size. 
A tree may be one year old, and be first-class for its 
age. The same is true of a two-year or a three-year 
tree. There are many trees of these different ages, 
which are not first-class. There is as much in know¬ 
ing how to grow a first-class tree as in knowing how 
to grow the various kinds of farm animals, and every 
grower of trees, to grow good trees, should know his 
business. 
A good, first-class tree suitable for transplanting 
should be thrifty, well-formed and of apple, pear, 
cherry or plum, should be not less than three-fourths 
to one inch in diameter at two or three years old, and 
free from insects (San Jos6 scale especially). A peach 
tree should be one year old from the bud, from four 
to six feet high, and one-half to three-fourths inch in 
diameter to be strictly first-class. A peach tree may, 
however, be one year old, three to four feet high, and 
first-class for its size and class, but of course, not worth 
so much money as those four to five or six feet high ; 
yet such trees may make just as fine an orchard at 
three years as the larger trees. 
Then again, there is so much difference in the 
growth of the different varieties of trees that an inex¬ 
perienced person might call a tree inferior or not first- 
class when it really is so. If one order three pear trees, 
one each of Bartlett, Bose, and Sheldon, he would be 
likely to condemn the Bose, while perfectly satisfied 
with the other two. The Bose might be equally as 
fine for a Bose as the Bartlett or Sheldon is for that 
kind. The same difference exists between varieties of 
apple trees. The Baldwin, Hurlbut, and many other 
varieties might be large, straight, thrifty and very 
fine, while the Williams Favorite, Swaar, Fameuse, 
and many other varieties grown in the same soil 
and with the same care, would be small, crooked 
and inferior-looking, yet might be first-class for 
those kinds. Trees do not all grow alike any more 
than the different breeds of cattle. A person inex¬ 
perienced in the habits of the growth of the various 
varieties of trees, might think that, perhaps, he was 
misused by the nurseryman, because the trees he re¬ 
ceived were not all of the same size and appearance. 
If such were the case, where several different varie¬ 
ties of apples or pears, for instance, were ordered, the 
buyer might find, to his regret when they come into 
bearing, that he had not the kinds he had ordered. 
All this requires much experience to learn, so that it 
is impossible to lay down any rule by which the great 
majority of buyers may know just what a first-class 
tree is. edwin hoyt. 
Connecticut. 
Louisiana should be a paradise for the stock feeder. 
The Sugar Planter tells how oats may be sown in 
November so as to give good pasture in February. 
Bermuda grass is cut until December, and again in 
May, while cane tops are good until January. An¬ 
other great food stuff is waste molasses. Mules have 
been known to consume 10 to 12 pounds of this molas¬ 
ses, day after day, for months. With all that sweet¬ 
ness, such mules certainly should never kick. 
A reader in western New York wants to know 
whether it would be advisable to plant the American 
Blush apple and Winesap in his locality for a com¬ 
mercial orchard. Mr. S. D. Willard understands that 
the American Blush is really the Hubbardston Non¬ 
such, which makes a very nice upright growth. Wine- 
sap is not very well adapted to western New York. 
It is a poor grower and has never been grown to any 
extent by nurserymen in that part of the State. 
