Vol. LXIII. No. 2817. NEW YORK, JANUARY 23, 1904. per year. 
INFLUENCE OF TILLAGE ON APPLE TREES. 
A Western New York Experiment. 
Fig. 21 depicts more vividly than word-painting the 
influence of tillage on apple trees. The photograph 
was taken last August in the orchard of Yeomans & 
Sons, Walworth, N. Y. The trees in the picture are 
of the same variety and over 40 years of age. The 
rows are separated by a distance of about 60 feet. 
The row on the right was set at the same time as that 
on the left, but was neither cultivated nor fertilized. 
That on the left was cultivated annually and received 
periodic fertilizing. At the time the experiment be¬ 
gan many years ago, the Yeomans were in the nur¬ 
sery business, and it was designed to answer the 
question so frequently asked by their customers: “Do 
you advise me to cultivate my orchard?” The differ¬ 
ence in size and vigor of the two rows soon became 
apparent, I am informed, but as the years have gone 
on, the affirmative of the 
question has been more and 
more emphasized. The whole 
orchard has been tilled the 
past year—the experiment 
having been completed—but 
no amount of tillage and 
feeding will even in a small 
measure repair the injury. 
In one row the trees are 
stunted, diseased, debili¬ 
tated, unproductive; in the 
other, large, healthy, vigor¬ 
ous, fruitful, good for an¬ 
other half century at least 
with reasonable care. Ob¬ 
ject lessons of this kind, in¬ 
volving long stretches of 
years, are invaluable. Ex¬ 
periment stations have not 
and will not for a good while 
be able to reach them; 
therefore the locality pos¬ 
sessing men with spirit and 
ability to carry out long- 
period experiments of this 
kind is to be congratulated. 
[Prof.] JOHN CRAIG. 
R. N.-Y.—This is a strik¬ 
ing illustration of the value 
of good care over no care at 
all. Let us suppose, how¬ 
ever that these trees had been fertilized well from the 
first and that the grass as it grew had been cut and 
left on the ground as a mulch! In that case does 
Prof. Craig think they would now be so “stunted, dis¬ 
eased, debilitated, unproductive?” 
THE RURAL MAIL CARRIER’S DUTIES. 
Every few days a wagon goes through the country dis¬ 
tributing sample packages of herb tea or something of 
that kind, and they are left in the mail boxes. Sometimes 
the farmers have letters in the boxes they wish the car¬ 
rier to take. When distributors raise the covers to 
put in their samples the signal falls. If the carrier has 
no mail to leave there and finds the signal down he does 
not stop. Then the carrier is blamed for negligence. I 
wish to ask if every advertising firm has a right to dump 
its stuff in the mail boxes? If not this practice should be 
stopped. g. c. 
Pennsylvania. 
We have received from the Post Office Department the 
following rules covering such a case: 
The use of locks on rural mail boxes, although en¬ 
couraged as a protective measure, is not absolutely 
required by the Department. If patrons of the service 
provide boxes with locks, the rural carrier must carry 
the keys furnished, and he must always unlock and 
lock all such boxes when serving them. The keys to 
such boxes are to be furnished by their owners, but 
should carrier destroy or lose one of them it must be 
replaced at his own expense. The use of signals On 
rural mail boxes is not required by the Department; 
if, however, a patron’s box is provided with a signal, 
the carrier is required to raise same whenever he 
deposits mail in the box. 
A rural carrier is required to open every box on his 
route on each regular trip, whether signal is displayed 
or not, in order to collect any mail that may have 
been deposited therein for dispatch. As patrons are 
not required to use signals, the failure to raise one 
does not justify the carrier in passing the box without 
opening same. 
Rural carriers are not allowed to distribute adver¬ 
tising circulars unless they are addressed to a patron 
of the route, and bear the proper postage. Agents of 
business houses traveling through the country in the 
interest of their employers frequently deposit adver¬ 
tising matter, circulars, etc., in rural mail boxes in 
order to attract the attention of patrons of rural 
routes. This action is not approved by the Depart¬ 
ment, as these boxes are intended solely for the de¬ 
posit of mail. Should such advertising matter become 
an obstruction in the way of mail matter properly de¬ 
liverable to any rural mail box, the carrier is author¬ 
ized to remove it. 
SEEDING CLOVER IN GRASS. 
What Chance Will It Have ? 
I have a field on which the Timothy was too thin to 
cut for hay, and was allowed to ripen and the seed fall. 
Now there is a fine stand of young grass on most of the 
field. Could I sow clover in the Spring and secure a crop 
of hay next year? What fertilizer could I use that would 
pay for itself in the increased hay crop? Would it do to 
apply now, or better wait till Spring? The soil is clay, 
some of it “spouty,” sloping gently to the west, and ap¬ 
parently has been farmed too much. I have had the place 
but a year. o. E. c. 
Newark, O. 
We could not guarantee that any fertilizer would 
pay for itself on such a field. We have found that 
such grass responds to nitrogen quicker than to pot¬ 
ash or phosphoric acid, yet we hesitate to advise the 
use of nitrate of soda where hay brings less than $14 
per ton. With us hay is worth $20 per ton, and we 
could afford at this price to use 200 pounds nitrate of 
soda, 150 pounds muriate of potash and 350 pounds 
acid phosphate per acre. This plant food is all solu¬ 
ble and would take effect at once. We would apply 
it in Spring. This mixture might not pay where hay 
is cheap. The proportion of plant food is suitable, 
though dried blood or tankage might give cheaper 
nitrogen. The seeding question is discussed below: 
Hard to Reseed Meadows. 
It will depend largely upon the season and the 
mechanical condition of the soil as to the chances for 
clover. If there is sufficient vegetable matter in the 
soil to make it loose and porous the chances favor the 
clover making a stand. If the soil is not in good con¬ 
dition it may be aided by a light application of barn¬ 
yard manure spread evenly over the surface with a 
manure spreader, or by hand. I have attempted to 
re-seed meadOAvs several times, and find it easy if 
the conditions are favorable, 
and extremely difficult if the 
soil is packed and the sea¬ 
son dry. We are going over 
some of our last year’s seed¬ 
ing, which in most places 
gave us a very nice stand of 
clover, but here and there 
on one field seeded with oats 
the drought was too much 
for the clover. These places 
are given a light applica¬ 
tion of manure from the 
stables or covered barnyard, 
and then in March or April 
we will seed again to clover. 
When the clover seed was 
hulled, the chaff was hauled 
out oil this same field and 
distributed on the worst 
places. If the season is at 
all favorable in 1904 we 
shall expect to secure a 
magnificent stand of clover 
and at the same time get a 
fair amount of hay. On a 
farm purchased about five 
years ago I found a 16-acre 
field that had been seeded to 
Timothy the preceding year. 
I did not have manure with 
which to top-dress it and 
so seeded to clover without. The first day I seeded 
about eight acres, then several days elapsed before 
the work could be finished. The first seeding made a 
good stand, but the later seeding was almost a total 
failure due to the fact that the condition of the soil 
at time of seeding was not so favorable. We usually 
prefer to make two seedings, one some time in March 
and another early in April. john l. shawver. 
Ohio. 
Advice from Ohio. 
If it were mine I should not risk sowing high- 
priced clover seed all over the field, because he now 
has a fine stand over most of it. These Timothy 
plants, most of them, were sown in nature’s way in 
August and September and got thoroughly establish¬ 
ed last Fall. On my soil (a sandy loam) they would 
rob and choke out any clover sown next Spring. The 
Timothy has too much of a handicap, so to speak. If 
I did anything it would be to sow clover and Timothy 
on the light spots when the ground was opened early 
in the Spring. This subject of successful seeding has 
been one of my hardest problems, as my farm had 
been badly run by continued potato growing when I 
came in possession of it 17 years ago. Some years we 
UNTILLED AND UNFED ORCHARD TREES. Fig. 21 
