1904 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
363 
BIG AND LITTLE STORIES. 
BORDEAUX FOR POTATO BLIGHT.—As throwing 
further light on protecting potato tops from the 
blight by spraying, a recent statement of Prof. 
Brooks, Massachusetts Agricultural College, might 
prove interesting at the present time. In discussing 
the earliness of varieties he says: “In spite of spray¬ 
ing we do not usually get a perfect test as to the 
earliness of varieties, as the leaves almost always 
blight more or less, and there is not any considerable 
difference in the time when the different varieties are 
dead. It seems to be still an open question whether 
an unfavorable season or location can be overcome, 
so as to raise full crops. Certainly it is not done by 
the average grower simply by using Bordeaux. The 
best success will follow him who chooses favorable 
locations and early planting as a rule. 
Massachusetts. 
SPRAYING POTATOES.—As I have successfully 
used Bordeaux on my late potato fields five seasons 
I will give my experience and opinion of the value 
of Bordeaux when faithfully used. The first season of 
spraying I planted one measured acre with northern 
grown Delaware seed, using 2,500 pounds of potato 
fertilizer, and as the season was very showery was 
obliged to spray six or seven times to keep the vines 
fairly well covered with Bordeaux and free from 
blight. In October I harvested from the above acre 
420 bushels of large, smooth tubers. The second year 
of spraying I planted 2 y 2 acres, using one ton of fer¬ 
tilizer per acre; sprayed four times and harvested 
800 bushels. In this, my second year of spraying, I 
succeeded in keeping my vines green much longer 
than desirable, as the tubers were not ripe 
and in good condition to dry and store 
until November, when the soil was very 
moist from the late Fall rains. The third 
season I planted acre, sprayed three 
times and harvested 500 bushels, and the 
following season two acres, yielding 700 
bushels, and last season (1903) 2 y 2 acres, 
from which I harvested 1,000 bushels of 
large, smooth tubers, or an average yield 
of 360 bushels per acre from the 9^ acres 
planted and sprayed in the five above- 
mentioned years, which is fully twice the 
yield received from my fields unsprayed. 
Fall River, Mass. i>. n. 
COW PEAS IN NORTH—In 1900 I 
planted two pieces, one broadcast with no 
cultivation, one in drills cultivated several 
times. Both grew well, 24 to 30 inches 
high, and gave a large amount of forage. 
They were cut so late that I got very little 
second growth to plow under. I failed to 
cure for hay, as a series of rains occurred 
just after cutting. In 1902 they were 
planted on a dry ridge. They made a rank 
growth of dark green, while beans on 
lower and better ground turned yellow and 
were practically a failure for want of 
moisture. Last year I planted one piece 
after rye in drills, cultivated and worked 
with weeder; they grew about 18 inches 
high. Plowed under crossway of row they covered 
ground at bottom of furrow. Another piece was 
planted on Witch-grass sod; both were planted too 
late (in July), the season being cold. Those on grass 
sod gave only about six inches growth. I shall plant 
more largely this season about June 10 to 15, to plow 
under for berries next Spring. j. n. b. 
Tyngsboro, Mass. 
A FLORIDA SCHEME.—I have a scheme that when 
fully developed will outshine Mapes in the ratio of 
the arc light to the tallow candle. Briefly stated, my 
plan is this: I have a 100-acre farm in Florida as 
level as a floor, free from stumps, bushes or other 
vegetation, soil—well, the truth is there is no soil 
at all; just pure white sand, and therein lies the 
merit of the scheme. I have been down there ex¬ 
perimenting, and have demonstrated that eggs first 
treated to a chemical bath, then planted a certain 
depth in the sand, will hatch by spontaneous heat, a 
natural incubator as it were. One man and a mule 
can lay off the whole tract in rows, like marking out 
for corn, then the eggs are dropped and covered. At 
suitable distances apart watermelon seeds are 
dropped in the hills and by the time the chicks are 
hatched the vines have grown sufficiently to afford 
shade by day and shelter by night, a natural brooder 
as it were. But I must not reveal any more of the 
modus operandi, as I expect to organize a colossal 
stock company to control the output, sell State and 
county rights, and in other conservative ways pro¬ 
mote the interests of the stockholders. 
\ ermont. c. scarff. 
^ N.-Y. We print this bit of nonsense be¬ 
cause it is just about as sensible as many of the 
schemes farmers are asked to “take stock” in. Some 
men who would not buy an incubator, would pay 
twice the cost of one for stock in such a game as 
Mr. Scarff outlines! 
NEW TREES; OLD SOIL.—After learning of the 
way the trees grow in thise old fields at Hope Farm, 
I can see very clearly why they made such luxuriant 
growth, although the soil was worked only enough 
to set the trees. It was because of the virgin soil 
in which they were planted, for I know by my own; 
experience with this kind of soil that not only trees 
but all kinds of crops do better in it than on land 
that has been cropped many years. There seems to 
be something in this virgin soil that no kind of fer¬ 
tilizer or manure will quite take its place. One of 
my neighbors plowed an old hillside that was covered 
with huckleberry bushes and shrub oaks and other 
bushes and forest trees; this land had never been 
cultivated before and it was surprising to see how 
the trees and small fruit bushes he planted in this 
soil grew with but little or no fertilizer excepting 
that which was in the soil, that had been collecting 
it for ages. It is on this virgin soil that I have 
grown my largest crops of strawberries with the 
least cost for cultivation after it was once subdued. 
The hill on which I now live was formerly a huckle¬ 
berry pasture full of rocks and stones. This land 
my father set out with apple trees far enough apart 
to admit peach trees between when I was a small 
boy, but the land was plowed and planted between the 
trees while they were small. It was a tough job to 
work it at first, but tve have always had nice fruit 
from this old hill. But if this kind of land can be 
set out with trees in this new way without all this 
hard plowing and removing of rocks and stones, only 
the brush kept down by mowing occasionally and 
keeping the trees mulched, it will be a great saving 
of labor and expense. s. h. waktcen. 
Massachusetts. 
TELEPHONE LINES.—I have read the communi¬ 
cation from J. F. G. in regard to telephones on page 
303. Build the line by all means, and as you wish 
it for the better communication of its members, get 
each one whose premises it passes to subscribe to a 
number not to exceed 25, and then persuade each one 
of the subscribers to put in a ’phone. I say 25, for 
that is about all one line will carry. Some business 
man in each town will attend the line for you for a 
percentage of the fees, no doubt. As soon as your 
line is in operation others will see its benefits, and 
other lines will be built, all starting from the same 
office, reaching over the surrounding country. As 1 
understand you don’t build this line for profit, but 
for convenience, and while you may have some choice 
who you have on the line now, in less than three 
years you will wish all were on. Its first cost is 
something, but its benefits are many. It is worth 
something to know you are in touch with everyone 
in town; in case of fire or other accident you can 
step to the ’phone and call up all the help you need; 
if you wish a physician call him; if you wish to sell 
anything or buy, go to the ’phone, and you can do 
better over the line in many cases than you would 
in a personal interview. No one knows the change 
it makes unless he has seen it It ia less than three 
years since the first line was built in this neighbor¬ 
hood, and now there are but few people anywhere In 
this section without it. We have on the Chenango 
River Norwich, Oxford, Brlsben, Green, Coventry, 
etc.; on the Susquehanna Binghamton Junction, 
Harpursville, Nineveh, Afton, Bainbridge, Sidney, 
etc.; not only these towns, but lines running over 
the hills and through the valleys put ns in touch with 
ail; and all it costs is to keep our line in repair and 
our ’phones in order; for we give and take; free ex¬ 
change is the motto. When you get it, with the 
rural free delivery and parcels post coming you will 
want to throw up your hat and shout. f. m. p. 
Guilford, N. Y. 
WOOD PULP FOR CABBAGE MAGGOTS.—On 
page 305 G. H. S. makes some inquiries concerning 
the use of paper pulp in resisting the ravages of the 
Cabbage maggot. The idea of using it occurred to 
me first year before last. I obtained a package at 
Niagara Falls that had apparently been damaged, and 
cost me nothing but the freight. It was nearly two 
feet long by 14 inches wide and four or more inches 
thick, and appeared like a loose kind of pasteboard 
doubled together many times. My chief difficulty in 
preparing the pulp consisted in grinding it up fine 
enough so that when dissolved in water to the con¬ 
dition of a jelly it would be free from lumps that 
clogged the syringe. I overcame this by putting the 
package on a box, one end extending slightly over 
the edge and kneeling on it and scraping across the 
end with a sharp new currycomb, making a kind of 
sawdust. I used it last year on the early cabbages 
and cauliflowers with almost complete success. For 
late planting I thought I would not bother with the 
use of the pulp, inasmuch as I had not known the 
maggot to injure the late crop to any serious extent. 
It appears to me that I never made a more serious 
mistake. A few days after they had been set I ex¬ 
amined around the stem and there were hundreds of 
the little white eggs ready to hatch and 
ruin my crop. It was too late to apply 
my remedy. The mischief was done. It 
only remained for me to hire boys to 
scrape away the dirt and eggs, replacing 
the earth where needed. Then I comforted 
myself with the thought that my crop was 
saved. But alas! examining the plants a 
few days after, there was a fresh-laid lot 
of eggs. Nothing would do but I must set 
those boys at it again, and would you be¬ 
lieve it, I was compelled to go over the 
ground four times scratching away the 
fresh-laid eggs before I could save my crop, 
and even them I lost about a third of my 
late cauliflowers. It is not necessary to 
use a syringe in applying the pulp around 
the stems. A dessert spoon does the work 
better and more economically. 
New York. h. j. seymour. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Seymour made a thin 
paste of the wood pulp so it would run 
through a syringe. When the plants were 
set a little of the pulp was squirted around 
the plant at the surface of the ground. It 
hardened and prevented the insect from 
laying its eggs where it usually does. 
VEGETABLES WITH STRAWBER¬ 
RIES.—We are not in the habit of raising 
anything between the rows of strawberries, 
and I cannot see where it would be any 
advantage to a large grower, as it would entail too 
much hand cultivation. We keep our rows very nar¬ 
row, run the cultivator through every week or 10 
days, and always after a rain, and faithfully keep all 
surplus runners cut off. All cultivation is done with 
a horse; and with a Planet, Jr., 12-tooth cultivator, 
we are able to run so close to the rows, which we 
keep but one plant in width, that there is but little 
left for the hoe to do. With vegetables between the 
rows we would have to use wheel hoes, which would 
be laborious, when it came to going over five or six 
acres as often as we are in the habit of cultivating. 
The small grower might find it an advantage to raise 
some varieties of vegetables for which he had a ready 
sale at good prices, and even the commercial grower, 
if located where labor did not command too high a 
price. Supposing the rows of strawberries were 32 
inches apart, and that they 'were kept very narrow, 
there should be room between the rows for onions, 
radishes, head lettuce, or some vegetables not in¬ 
clined to occupy too much space, and still not crowd 
the strawberries. Intense culture and high fertiliza¬ 
tion would have to be practiced for best results. As 
suggested before, the value of the extra crop raised, 
and the cost of hand labor, are the factors to be con¬ 
sidered. J. c. N. 
Blue Mound, Ill._ 
OATS IN MUD.—I would sow oats in as wet ground as 
would cover them the least particle. I have planted all 
depths and find that no matter how deep they are plant¬ 
ed, even 10 inches, they come up, but after shoot is up 
two or three inches and begins to spread or bunch, the 
plant sends out side roots within about an inch of the 
surface, and after they make moderate growth the origi¬ 
nal root at the grain and all below the new surface roots 
die, and plant is solely supported by the new surface 
roots. Deep planting I therefore deem time lost. 
Georgia. A. w. s. 
GIRLS PREPARING. STRING BEANS. Fig. 156. 
