1904. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
525 
lEVERYBODY'S GARDEN. 
Brussels Sprouts. —In the culture of 
Brussels sprouts suould the lower leaves he 
clipped off to induce the sprouts to grow? 
All seed catalogues show a towering plant 
with bunch of leaves at the top and myriads 
of heads underneath, but their cultural direc¬ 
tions make no mention of the above point. 
New York. f. n. b. 
We have at this writing, June 16, sev¬ 
eral thousand plants under cultivation 
which we expect to plant out about July 
15 or a little later. We shall give them 
precisely the same care as the late cabbage, 
which will be plenty of manure, thorough 
culture and plenty of moisture. For best 
results they require much water, and this 
we hope to be prepared to give them 
whether it rains or shines. When the 
sprouts begin to form the lower leaves 
should be broken down, leaving only the 
crown at the top of the stalk. We hope 
to fulfil the above requirements and shall 
look for a fair crop at least. 
Ungrateful Rhubarb. —Four years ago I 
planted out a number of good healthy rhu¬ 
barb roots, the Strawberry variety. They 
were set in trenches two feet deep, filled with 
sods and coarse manure, and have since been 
highly fertilized from year to year. 1 get 
only a generous growth of small stalks, for 
the most part not more than half an inch 
through, measured near the butt. Why is 
this? J. c. c. 
Falmouth Foreslde, Me. 
The Strawberry variety does not grow 
nearly so large a stalk as some other sorts, 
but surely they should grow much larger 
than you describe. It may be, however, 
that you have injured them with kindness. 
A few years ago I had a bed that had 
been planted where a barn had been re¬ 
moved, and there was more manure than 
soil. Yet the rhubarb never amounted to 
much until the roots were removed to an¬ 
other bed. It requires any amount of fer¬ 
tility, but your roots would have done bet¬ 
ter had the mulch been applied above. 
Suppose you take them up this Fall or 
very early next Spring, divide the roots 
and set them in rich soil, and put most of 
the manure on top. 
Celery and Cabbage Worms. —1. I have re¬ 
cently read with interest reports from differ¬ 
ent persons published in The It. N.-Y. about 
the raising and care of celery. Will you give 
a practical and convenient way to protect 
celery in Winter? After it blanches it is 
easily frozen; then it is lost. Growing it is 
an easy job. If banked up with earth suffi¬ 
ciently to secure it from freezing, when the 
mercury stands at zero, it is difficult to get 
out. Some have said “move it to the cellar 
it there wilts and toughens. 2. The Cabbage 
worms are very troublesome here. What 
shall I do to get rid of them?. M. c. p. 
Clarksville, Tenn. 
1. You can keep celery fresh and tender 
by removing it to the cellar and packing 
the roots in moist soil. Stand the 
bunches upright in boxes, or on the cellar 
bottom and pack the roots in damp soil. 
Keep them moist by occasional watering, 
wetting only the roots and not the stalks. 
Darken the cellar and I think your celery 
will keep all right. Another good way is 
to set in trenches. Select a spot where 
water will not stand or run into the trench. 
Dig deeply enough so that the bunches 
when set in will come a little above the 
ground and cover with leaves or straw. 
When cold weather comes nail boards to¬ 
gether V-shaped and turn over them, and 
cover with straw, manure or earth accord¬ 
ing to the weather. 2. The cabbage worms 
are very troublesome in nearly all sections 
of the country, but their depredations are 
far more noticeable in small plots than 
larger fields. Many remedies are sug¬ 
gested and all are more or less helpful, as 
tobacco dust, black pepper and flour, salt 
and wood ashes mixed equal parts or 
either alone, Paris-green, etc. Wood 
ashes and salt sprinkled on when the 
plants are damp with dew will rid a patch 
pretty thoroughly. Fine salt sprinkled on 
quite plentifully may turn the leaves black 
in spots, but it will kill the worms, and is 
also good for the cabbage. Paris-green 
may be used without fear until the heads 
are half grown, and will effectually clean 
out the worms. An ounce to 12 or 15 
gallons of water is sufficient, or it may be 
mixed with flour or road dust. 
Michigan. J. e. morse. 
ROBINS AND FRUIT GROWERS. 
It was not my intention to write again on 
this bird question, but the personal remarks 
of my opponents have called me out. Now, I 
think I have a right to be personal also. If 
the knowledge and intuition displayed in crit¬ 
icising my personal qualities be a criterion, 
one might judge that all they know of bird 
food and habits has been hastily guessed. I 
will give a sketch to prove my right to take 
part in this discussion. I was born on a 
150-acre farm, where cherry orchards llour- 
ished on three sides of the old stone home¬ 
stead. I am very fond of cherries, and a 
sailor at climbing. I am now the wife of a 
farmer, fruit-grower and nurseryman. I have 
picked cherries on a 30-foot ladder all day, 
superintended the picking of strawberries, 
currants, gooseberries, blackberries and 
peaches for market. When younger I picked 
with the pickers. I do not defend robins be¬ 
cause I think them “pretty or cute,” nor even 
because they have cheered, with other birds, 
each day of my many years of farm work, 
but because I have learned to appreciate 
their service. I would like to see a sys¬ 
tematic study of this subject, and am not 
afraid of the result. The robin, as I said, is 
a heavy feeder, but he is a ground bird and 
angleworms are not the only animal food he 
devours in quantity. Out of 13 birds shot in 
a tree of ripe cherries, eight of the number 
had more insects than cherries in their crops. 
Cutworms, grasshoppers and March-fly grubs 
are eaten as well as ants and bugs. About 
one-half his food is found to be fruit, and in 
general but five per cent of this is cultivated. 
Of course, this varies in different localities. 
In a place where there are no wild cherries, 
mulberries, poke haw, Virginia creeper and 
wild grapes allowed to show themselves the 
birds, Uickers, red-heads and orioles as well as 
robins, take to the gardens and orchards. 
There is no doubt they prefer the wild fruits, 
especially strawberries and cherries, as they 
are juicy and tender. There is nothing cul¬ 
tivated that will call them from a mulberry 
tree. 
It has amused me that three or four little 
birds who like fruit are so little known, 
though plenty as orioles, that no one accuses 
them. A word for the oriole here: I stood 
on a ladder some years ggo picking bag- 
worms from my arbor vitie hedge about two 
mornings. I had a pail full and let many go. 
In 1902 and 1903 1 sat on the piazza and 
watched four orioles clean the trees for me. 
We seldom notice these things except we are 
in the habit of using a good glass. I watched 
them grasp the basket or bag with the foot, 
forcing the worm out at the top, when the 
bill took it by the head. They worked on 
those trees for a week; we could see them 
any time a day. Had there been fruit there, 
and I had not used the glass, I should have 
accused them of stealing. I give this as an 
instance. I trust the writers on this subject 
will study a little before they speak. It will be 
too late to save the birds after they are gone, 
laist year was a “starve to death” for the 
birds, and 1 really hope the New York fruit 
men will have enough Insects this year to 
make them see things in a different light 
There is a cherry-raising locality close to us 
that ships as large quantities annually as 
any part of the Fast, and I never hear a 
word of the robin. This is perhaps due to 
wild fruits. The problem is to find out how 
to keep both birds and fruits. We do not 
lose so much here by birds as we pay out to 
fight insects. The main trouble here is to 
raise the trees. There seems no tree but 
has its insect pest. We should not decry 
the scientist who gives us knowledge because 
he happens not to be a farmer. Few of us 
have the time requisite to give this thing. 
If he examines the food in the bird’s stomach 
and tells us he eats noxious insects, we should 
listen, thankful for the information we could 
get in no other way. One writer compares 
the birds with dogs, and another with a neigh¬ 
bor's children. Did either dog or neighbor’s 
child pay for what they took as the bird does? 
I really think the country could spare 90 per 
cent of the dogs, and cats too. I know a man 
who feeds his dog on tender steak daily, and 
shoots a Redtailed hawk every chance he gets 
for fear it will take a chicken, when it has 
beaten the dog 20 times over hunting mice. 
KATHARINE R. STYBR. 
How to Handle Muck. 
J. II. L., Stony Greek, Ont .—I have a 
swamp containing about three acres of de¬ 
cayed and undecayed vegetable matter; it is 
covered with brush and very wet, as there is 
no natural drainage outlet. Oj. what value, 
as manure, would this material from swamp 
be on upland? Could it be spread on the 
fields as soon as hauled out, or would it have 
to be mixed with something else? 
Ans.— The muck from such a swamp 
contains nearly as much fertility as a 
poor sample of manure—yet if put on the 
fields right from the swamp it would 
probably do more harm than good. It 
is sour, and the plant food in it is not 
available. The swamp has received for 
years the drainage from the upland fields. 
This drainage contains much plant food 
which was leached out of the higher land. 
There are two ways of making use of this 
plant food. You may drain and dear the 
swamp, and thus raise good crops there. 
We know of cases where such swamps 
have been drained so that corn and grass 
were grown. This was fed to stock, and 
the manure hauled to the upper land— 
thus bringing back part of the plant food 
that was drained away. After the swamp 
has been drained and cleared so that it 
can be plowed, celery may be grown at 
once, with a dressing of lime or wood 
ashes. Another way is to haul the muck 
or upper black soil out of the swamp and 
use it for manure. This muck is sour, 
and is lacking in potash and phosphoric 
acid. To “sweeten” it we compost it so 
that it will ferment, and use lime or wood 
ashes. Muck may be hauled out of the 
swamp and left in low heaps to dry out 
and air. This will help fit it, but in 
order to make it most useful fermenta¬ 
tion should be started in the heap. If 
possible to do so, it is a good plan to mix 
stable manure with the muck in making 
the compost heap. If wood ashes are 
cheap we would mix 200 pounds with 
each load of muck, scattering the ashes 
all through. This adds potash and a small 
amount of phosphoric acid, while the 
lime in the ashes overcomes the acid. If 
it can be obtained, we would also use 30 
pounds of acid phosphate with each large 
load of the muck. A heap made in this 
way will in a few months crumble up and 
become fine. To get best results from it 
the heap should be forked over at least 
once before using. While this is the best 
way to make the muck valuable the plan 
is not often carried out, as it requires con¬ 
siderable work. A plan followed by many 
is to haul the muck to the barnyard and 
let the stock trample over it and mix it 
with the manure. 
Propagating Hawthorn. 
It. E„ Roseton, N. Y.—We have an English 
hawthorn tree in our yard. Could you tell 
me how to start a young tree? 
Ans.— Your hawthorn may be propa¬ 
gated by grafting on young seedlings of 
any of the common thorn apple trees 
grown in your locality. This is the only 
certain method of reproducing the variety 
you have. The English hawthorn is also 
grown from seeds, which may be rubbed 
from the fruit as soon as ripe and mixed 
with moist sand and buried over Winter 
in some place where they will remain 
damp, and yet receive the benefit of frost; 
then sown in the Spring in rich soil. 
Hawthorn seeds often require two or three 
years to germinate, and propagation by 
this method is quite slow. The seedlings 
are not very uniform when they come 
into bloom, so the best way after all will 
be to duplicate your specimen by grafting 
on congenial stock. 
For the land’s sake, use "Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Adv. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
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