1004. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
5o7 
POTATOES LEFT IN THE GROUND. 
The reports of many acres of potatoes that for the 
scarcity of labor were not dug were true, and while but 
few in any one section could be found, in the aggre¬ 
gate it would amount to a good many acres. These 
fields would not be found on 200-acre farms, but on 
those having three, the third one being a little behind 
hand, which is usually useless to the owner. It is noth¬ 
ing unusual for potatoes to freeze and thaw during 
Winter, and come through all right; but the soil must 
be dry, stony and rolling, so the tubers will not rot. On 
the side of a knoll which is covered with snow, which 
protects them somewhat, will be found most of the per¬ 
fect ones. On my side hills that are composed of natu¬ 
ral potato soil they grow wild in the meadows year 
after year, but I rarely see one on the clay flat. A few 
of those that are missed in digging come up every 
year, and if left and cared for give the largest and 
earliest tubers we can get. I have won premiums on 
them. One man in plowing two acres picked up about 
10 bushels of fine, sound tubers, but the rest of the crop 
had vanished. Potatoes wintered in this way are 
the best seed that can be obtained, and will give 
the largest yield before they sprout or dry out, 
but it is a very risky method of storing. Better 
to bury them. We can, however, learn a lesson 
from them, and note that the fresh, early and 
deep-planted tubers, nature’s way, are much 
superior to our artificial methods of using dried 
up, sprout-broken, little pieces, shallow-covered 
apology for seed. I once knew of about 200 
bushels being harvested in the Spring, and sold 
at good prices. 1 ne tubers that are not dis¬ 
turbed will sprout and grow, but would leave 
too many vacant places to be profitable. Those 
I spoke of, my own, had been planted between 
the rows of new-set blackberries, and as the 
ground was mellow and kept cultivated, they had 
a good chance. There would not be anything 
to hinder a man from planting the field to pota¬ 
toes the second year in the regular manner, as 
those that come up between the rows are easily 
killed by cultivating. I doubt any one’s success 
in growing a crop the second year without re¬ 
planting. The ground would be too hard, and 
weedy, unless plowed and worked. It might be 
cut up early in Spring before the tubers started, 
and harrowed often to keep down the weeds, and 
make a partial success of it. c. e. chapman. 
THINNING APPLES BY HAND. 
I have had two years’ experience in thinning 
apples in large quantities, and am satisfied it 
pays when one grows good fruit. Hired men 
take ladders and go over the trees and remove 
the imperfect and surplus fruit with the fingers. 
One must be careful to look at each specimen 
to be left, and see that it is perfect, and all that 
are scabby, stung, wormy or unshapely should 
be pulled off. The picker should place a finger 
and thumb on the twig to keep it from breaking 
off while he breaks sidewise with the other 
hand. The Codling moth is often found be¬ 
tween apples that touch each other, and every 
bunch should be thinned to one, and if there are 
too many fruit spurs along the limbs and all are 
full there may still be too many left for the good 
of the trees. With early apples the thinning 
should begin about ttie first of June, and with 
Winter varieties soon after that; the farther 
north the later it may be done. The grower can 
afford to pay as much per day to thin fruit as he 
can to have it picked when ripe. The fruit must 
be picked when ripe, and if part of it is picked 
when small the remainder can be gathered when 
ripe in much less time than it could be picked if 
none had been removed earlier. The small green ones 
can be taken off and dropped on the ground faster than 
ripe ones can be harvested, so I consider it as cheap to 
pick part of it in the Summer and the remainder when 
ripe, as to leave all on the trees to mature, and pick 
them at one time. 
We will suppose a tree capable of producing five 
barrels of fruit without thinning, and that will run 
1,000 specimens to the barrel, or 5,000 apples to the tree. 
If 2,000 had been thinned off there should still be 3,000; 
that would make five barrels of 600 each, or if 3,000 
had been removed there would be nearly as many bar¬ 
rels that would run about 400 to the barrel. How about 
the price when they are sold? Where they have been 
judiciously thinned nearly all will go in for first-class, 
and bring fancy prices. Where they have not been 
thinned one can count on throwing out as many as one 
barrel that will not be salable, or as cheap stuff. Really 
there will be more good fruit for sale where thinned, 
and it will bring a great deal more money than when 
not thinned. Apples that have been picked from trees 
well sprayed and thinned can be assorted and graded 
in much less time than those not thinned; in fact, it is 
sometimes so difficult to grade unthinned apples that the 
man's time lost in looking over them would have been 
long enough to thin them properly. A person can thin 
fruit at a cost of about five cents per barrel for what 
are left to mature. In severe cases it need not cost 
more than 10 cents per barrel. If I recall the facts cor¬ 
rectly, at the Ohio Experiment Station last year in some 
tests in thinning, the trees that were thinned produced 
more bushels than those not thinned. It is generally 
supposed that there will be fewer bushels. Theoretically 
and practically it pays to thin apples. The grower can 
have some pride when he grows fruit that will nearly 
all do to pack as good, and it will keep far better if it is 
handled properly. Well-grown specimens have better 
flavor than have runts. Trees that have been thinned 
and sprayed well to keep the foliage healthy will form 
fruit buds to bear the following year, and if the tree 
is not overburdened with its crop it will bear every year 
under favorable conditions. We have had trees bear 
full for several years, and they will not do so when 
allowed to bear all that may set on the trees in a good 
year. The best growers will come to it in the future 
and make money, and the ones that do not thin along 
with the spraying will not succeed as well. People who 
do not know about the thinning think a man reckless or 
foolish to see how many apples are pulled off and 
dropped on the ground. It takes courage to have so 
many taken off, and too often there will be twice as 
many left as there should be. In July a tree may look 
as though it has been thinned too severely, and in Octo¬ 
ber it will appear to have twice as many as it should 
on it. u. t. cox. 
Lawrence Co., O. 
FARMING ON A BUSINESS BASIS. 
O. J. B., writing upon the above subject on page 
461, concludes with the statement that he sees no reason 
why such a combination of labor and capital should 
not be successful. I thought just so when the Ver¬ 
mont dairy farm on which I was raised was to be sold. 
I bought it, stocked it with good dairy cows, good 
swine and poultry, engaged a man whom I con¬ 
sidered fairly capable and enterprising to run the farm 
for a fixed sum. The farm should keep 20 cows and 
team. The plan was to do considerable in poultry. 
besides. Three years have flown, and I feel my hail 
grow gray with almost every report I get. I should say 
that I am able to be at the farm during July and 
August and only for an occasional visit besides. The 
enterprise of my man seems to have vanished into thin 
air, and the spirit of a weary hired man has come in 
its place; one who works somewhat with his hands, but 
uses very little his head and heart. The cows have 
been fairly well managed, but both pigs and hens very 
poorly. Economy seems not to be thought of. I have 
kept on hoping things would mend, but I have about 
concluded that what I am asking is beyond any man 
that I could get to take the position. He is expected 
to take a warm, live interest in a farm and in stock 
that he does not own. He feels no serious responsi¬ 
bility about the bills at the end of the month. With 
these props and spurs, that the owner has to urge him 
on, removed, can he be expected to take the patient, 
constant care, exercise the economy and take the deep 
interest in everything that pertains to the farm, that 
will ensure success? I take success to mean a good 
living and something more for himself and a small 
margin for me. 
I am willing to furnish everything necessary. 
The farm is a very good one. But I am not able 
to run it unless it pays expenses. The trouble 
with my man is, as it seems to me, that the 
intellectual side of farming does not appeal to 
him. The same thin; is true in a large measure 
among the farmers of the neighborhood. If I 
could find a young man who would consider the 
running of this farm successfully to be an intel¬ 
lectual problem worth his best efforts, I could 
see success, but I despair of getting such a man 
to take the place. Of course there are many 
conditions that I cannot give in this letter, with¬ 
out making it far too long. I only wish to give 
enough of the conditions to make my point 
clear. s. e. w. 
Massachusetts. 
1 /ETCH WITH RYE. 
On page 462 I note the inquiry in regard to 
vetch with rye. I also would like a little infor¬ 
mation along this line, but a little different from 
that asked for by this inquirer. From the infor¬ 
mation I can gather I hardly think it would 
pay to sow in the Fall and plow under the next 
Spring, as rye to be a success plowed under 
should not be more than one foot to 15 inches 
high. The way I want to use it is this: Sow 
in the Fall with rye that I want to make a 
crop. Pasture all I can not to interfere with the 
rye making a crop, then allow the rye and vetch 
full sway, and when the rye is ripe turn in the 
hogs and sheep, and let them harvest the crop. 
I am told that the vetch does not ripen its seed 
all at once, but that it produces bloom and 
ripens seed for a considerable length of time; 
that it cannot be harvested to save all the seed 
that the continuous blooming will produce. The 
seed that is not saved when an attempt is made 
to harvest the crop falls to the ground, and is 
ready to come on when the weather conditions 
favor its sprouting. 
If it is sown with rye with the object of in¬ 
creasing pasturage, and none of it harvested any 
other way, what will be the result when the 
volunteer crop of rye comes on? From what 1 
can learn the vetch will be very strongly in 
evidence. Still further, when this land is plowed 
for corn the year after the volunteer rye, vetch 
and clover have had full sway, will the vetch 
seed in the soil spring up and embrace the 
corn support, and become a greater pest than 
morning glories in some sections? This query 
is the one that concerns me most. Who can help me 
out? My object is to carry land in rotation and get 
all the pasture possible, and save the expense of har¬ 
vesting the rye crop. john m. jamison. 
Ross Co., Ohio. 
CEMENT IN SILO.—I saw in Tiie R. N.-Y. an in¬ 
quiry about a silo plastered with cement. I helped to 
build one last Summer, about the same plan he has, with 
2 x4 studding one foot apart; 10 feet wide and 26 feet 
high. We made a concrete bed, and the carpenter made 
a ring with notches one for 1 apart. There he set 
the studding in, and then he put 2 x 4 niece between 
each stud every 30 inches, spiked with 20-penny nails 
and two iron bands around the silo ~~*ewed together. 
The inside we used ceiling lata four feet long, soaked to 
bend them in, and a five-penny nail at every stud, and 
two coats cement, the last one flowed down, and the next 
day a cement wash to close every crack. This one gave 
perfect satisfaction. They filled it to the top, and it 
was perfect in every way. We have done the cement 
work; that is my trade, and I will answer any questions. 
Zionsville, Pa. D. b. m. 
A SEEDLING GOOSEBERRY. Fig. 219. 
See Rmallsms, Page 510. 
