762 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
October 22, 
WHEN TO PICK KIEFFER PEARS. 
I find it is important to pick them early if quality is 
wanted. I commence picking about September 20, sort 
them carefully, placing them in new one-half bushel 
peach baskets. I place them in tiers in a dark room, 
built for the purpose, with good ventilation at top. If 
carefully sorted they will ripen perfectly; no rot to 
speak of, and will get sweet and juicy, mellow to the 
core, and are really good eating, closely resembling 
Bartlett in taste. If left on trees until middle of Octo¬ 
ber I find they get hard at the core and never soften. 
About October 10 I commence packing for cold storage, 
packing none but finest in double-head barrels well lined 
with paper. I usually let them remain in storage until 
just before the holidays. I then either sell them myself 
to fancy grocerymen generally or consign them to some 
Baltimore commission merchant for the same purpose. 
I usually obtain $3 per barrel for them. The pears 
ripened on the farm are generally sold to merchants and 
consumers in neighboring towns at an average price of 
35 cents per one-half bushel basket. The windfalls and 
any small or imperfect fruit are made into cider, which 
is either kept for vinegar or sold to distillers. The vin¬ 
egar is very nice and clear, and is sold to grocerymen 
for $7.50 or $S per barrel the following Fall. The dis¬ 
tillers give $3.50 to $4 per barrel from the press. The 
brandy made from this cider is said to be equal to apple 
brandy. I have also for several seasons past been sell¬ 
ing a considerable part of my crop to buyers at $2 per 
double-head barrel at depot. I have managed so far to 
make my orchard net me about $100 per acre per year. 
Maryland. f. e. Matthews'. 
There is a wide difference of opinion as to how and 
when Kieffer pears should be gathered and handled. If 
one intends to put pears in cold storage and keep them 
for a holiday or later market, they should be picked 
as soon as they get their growth and before they turn 
yellow. As soon as possible after taken from the tree 
they should go to cold storage, as a few days may 
greatly affect their keeping qualities. This will apply to 
apples as well. The fruit should be handled with the 
greatest of care, as a slight bruise will show discolora¬ 
tion later on. If it is not intended to cold storage the 
pears, better let them stay upon the trees until they 
start to turn yellow; then pick and double-face the 
package and send to market at once. The ripening 
process can be hastened by placing the fruit in a dark, 
dry place; if kept warm they will ripen still faster. 
Do not let fruit get too ripe, as commission merchants 
are greatly afraid of over-ripe fruit, for they dispose 
of it to retailers who wish to hold it until they can 
dispose of it. If the inquirer wishes to place his pears 
on his local home market, where he can take it on his 
own wagons, then his fruit should be quite ripe, as it 
will go to the consumer much quicker than if he had to 
ship to a distant market. Kieffer pears put in cold 
storage in a green condition will ripen slowly, and will 
come out a beautiful yellow, but then they must be 
quickly disposed of. w. H. s. 
Belle Mead, N. J._ 
HARVESTING AN APPLE CROP. 
Always hand-pick apples from the tree. Picking in 
bags is not to be thought of if you intend to harvest 
a fancy product. The most satisfactory picking basket 
that I have used is a three-peck basket with a stiff 
handle, with a hook for hanging basket on ladder 
rounds or branches attached to handle by a stout leather 
loop that is large enough to slip back and forth easily 
upon the handle. In picking fruit from high trees the 
large basket saves many steps and much time in climb¬ 
ing ladders and carrying fruit to table. About one- 
fourth a picker’s time is spent in doing this the best we 
can arrange it. Impress upon the picker’s mind the 
necessity of care in the handling of the fruit; injury 
of the fruit in picking is more a matter of carelessness 
than hurry. Have ladders long enough to reach top of 
trees, and made as light as safety permits. One or two 
short ones are required for low inside work, and an 
extension ladder for inside of trees and in places where 
the long, straight ladders could not be raised. An ex¬ 
tension ladder is always heavier per foot than the ordi¬ 
nary straight ladder, and not so easily handled except 
in positions before stated. 
Some varieties, like Wealthy, Primate, Red Astra- 
chan, Duchess of Oldenburg, Fameuse, McIntosh, etc., 
should be picked at least twice, and sometimes more, 
the well-colored mature fruit first being picked. Many 
varieties, especially the Fall or early Winter sorts, ripen 
so unevenly that this is necessary, and it is practiced 
by many growers of them on a commercial scale, with 
the result of more barrels of high-grade fruit, both as 
to color and size, and also a larger price per barrel than 
if the entire crop had been picked at once. Pick fruit 
and place on sorting table in orchard, and sort from 
table at once into the package you intend to ship or 
store your fruit. Never place in heaps in the orchard, 
but put in storage as soon as possible. The fruit as 
usually put up is graded into No. 1 and No. 2. No. 1 
are all sound fruit of good color and at least 2 1 / 2 inches 
in diameter. No. 2 what are left, with culls thrown 
out. If the first grade is divided into two sizes it will 
look much more uniform and sell at a slightly higher 
price, but I am uncertain as to its paying in fruit packed 
in barrels. 
The barrels to be filled should be faced with bright- 
colored apples of the grade being put up, and placed on 
planks setting solidly on the ground, so that it can be 
shaken readily several times when being filled. The 
apron-like piece of sacking lets the apples down to the 
bottom of the barrel without bruising and can be 
handled very rapidly. At least twice as many apples 
can be sorted by one man from a table of this kind, 
as from piles on the ground, and with much less ach¬ 
ing of the back and stiffness of knees. Caution all 
pickers to handle the fruit with care. Varieties like 
Northern Spy that have a delicate skin and texture 
should be handled gently if the grower or buyer intends 
to store them with profit. I have not touched on the 
boxing of apples. Not many growers can take the time, 
or are willing to take the pains necessary, but those who 
are putting up a fancy grade find that they are well 
paid for the trouble; and without doubt the packing 
of New York State appl.es in boxes for both the domes¬ 
tic and foreign trade will increase greatly in the future. 
Growers who intend to pack in boxes should remember 
what the western people have already learned by ex¬ 
perience, that only high-colored, first-class, fruit should 
be boxed, graded evenly as to size and well wrapped 
in soft paper and put in boxes of a standard size. We 
can do no better than profit by their experience, and 
remember that it is the choice dessert varieties that are 
going to pay the most profit for this care, in picking and 
packing. __ _ b. d. v. b. 
PLASTER DOES NOT “FIX AMMONIA.” 
I just noticed on page 682 an article by G. H. Davi¬ 
son on “Gypsum as a Nitrogen Preserver.” I think 
some of his ideas are incorrect. When Mr. Van Wormer 
(now chemist for the Pure Food Commission of Mich¬ 
igan) was in his senior year at the Michigan Agricul¬ 
tural College, he took for the subject of his thesis, 
“Gypsum as a Nitrogen Fixer.” He used sulphuric 
A GROUP OP HOTHOUSE LAMBS. Fig. 340. 
acid, specific gravity 1.84, as a perfect fixer. By putting 
five grams gypsum (dry) in a watch glass, five grams 
wet gypsum in another, sulphuric acid in another, water 
in another, and setting all under a bell glass in an ammo¬ 
nia atmosphere, he found that the gypsum possessed 
no virtue as a nitrogen fixer, but that the moist gypsum 
absorbed more ammonia than the dry. On drying the 
gypsum its ammonia left. He set his dishes for 48 
hours in under the horse stalls and his findings were 
the same. Van Wormer’s work was questioned by 
some, and so to test it I (in my senior year at the same 
institution) experimented along the same line for two 
months and got similar results. I put like amounts of 
gypsum in two horse stalls one night and saved the 
manure in the morning, putting that from one stall out 
of doors for two months and the other under cover. 
At the same time I put manure from two other stalls 
untreated with gypsum in similar conditions. The next 
night I reversed the process, putting gypsum in the other 
two stalls and none in those which were treated the 
previous night. The manure was taken care of as 
before, putting the treated manure right in wit'll that 
outside and inside also. This reversing was to prevent 
any error from one horse voiding more urea than the 
other. At the end of two months sample tests were 
carefully taken from each of the four piles of manure 
and carefully analyzed in the laboratory. The manure 
both out of doors and under cover which was treated 
with gypsum contained less nitrogen than the untreated 
manure, to my surprise. These experiments prove to 
my mind that gypsum used in stables or sprinkled oil 
the manure pile is of no use in fixing the ammonia. If 
it has any virtue at all it is because it helps to conserve 
moisture and the moisture helps to hold the ammonia. 
Both these experiments were under tile direction of 
Prof. F. S. Kedzie, of the Michigan Agricultural College. 
A. B. ROGERS. 
R. N.-Y.—We regard kainit or acid phosphate as 
much better than plaster for use in manure. They not 
only hold the nitrogen better, but add needed plant food. 
MORE EXPERIENCE WITH ALFALFA. 
The Hope Farm man and his Alfalfa trials have in¬ 
terested me. Three years ago I put in half an acre on 
rich loam land, also about half the usual quantity of 
White Russian oats. The oats stooled and grew so 
rank they smothered out the largest part of the Alfalfa 
plants. Last Spring, on a small place that I purchased, 
where no stock had been kept and no manure used for 
a number of years, I put in a half acre that was in 
potatoes last year. What the previous crops had been 
I do not know; soil a gravelly loam, somewhat strong. 
I put on a light dressing of purchased manure, mainly 
from horses, disked it twice before plowing at different 
times with a Cutaway disk harrow. About the middle 
of May I plowed it with a sulky disk plow; cultivated 
the piece several times with the Cutaway; used at rate 
of 250 or 300 pounds to the acre of home-mixed fer¬ 
tilizer, potash eight per cent, phosphoric acid 10 per 
cent, nitrogen 3^2 per cent, muriate of potash, acid 
phosphate, nitrate of soda. I had prepared No. 1 of 
the Alfalfa bacteria formerly received from the Agri¬ 
cultural Department at Washington. My wife inad¬ 
vertently threw it out and I had to send to the Depart¬ 
ment for a duplicate. Being ready, ground in fine con¬ 
dition, I put on 15 pounds of seed with about a half 
bushel of common oats put in with the Acme culti¬ 
vator. When No. 1 of the bacteria preparation 
was received I prepared it according to directions, 
mixed it with two or three bushels of sand, and 
scattered it on the piece a week or so after the Alfalfa 
was sown. I got a fine catch, but the way the Barn and 
Pigeon grass came up was a caution. If the Hope Farm 
man has more on his I don’t know how anything else 
could find room to grow. 
I cut the piece with hand scythe when oats were 
about 10 inches high; left the cutting on the ground. 
I cut the second time when oats were headed out, and 
raked them off with machine, cutter bar set high. 
About half a ton of oats and grass. The oats then gave 
up the ghost, but not the grasses; they were after that 
Alfalfa. Some of the Alfalfa was high enough so the 
tops were clipped, and still struggling to live. 
For a couple of rods on one end of the field I scat¬ 
tered nitrate of soda at the rate of 125 pounds to the 
acre. Almost immediately the Alfalfa responded. 1 
cut again with machine when Barn and Pigeon grass 
was well headed. The very last of August I raked off 
about half a ton, put away for the poultry. I used then 
what nitrate I had on about half the piece, 100 pounds 
to acre, and muriate of potash, 125 pounds to acre, on 
the other half. The grass has partly quit at this writ¬ 
ing, September 20; only a small per cent of the roots 
have thrown up seed stalks. I hardly think I shall cut 
it again. The Alfalfa responded so well to the nitrate 
of soda that I ordered more, also bone meal. I shall 
sow 75 pounds of the nitrate on the half not previously 
dressed, and 150 pounds of the bone meal on the whole 
piece. This Winter I shall top-dress with barnyard 
manure. The stand is now good; part of it is small, 
from six to 12 inches high. In spots where for some 
reason the grass did not appear to gain a foothold, espe¬ 
cially on the ridges on the center of the lands, where 
the grass seed was buried so deep, the Alfalfa looks 
and is very much the best. If the nitrate and bone 
meal had been put on September 1, or shortly before, no 
doubt it would have been better. Of course there are 
spots on the piece where the stand is not so good. If 
the piece as a whole looks progressive in the Spring 
I shall put more seed on those spots and rake them in. 
I have been tempted to put the Cutaway over the piece, 
and I am not sure but what it would be a good plan in 
the Spring. e. s. b. 
Canton, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We were tempted to use nitrate of soda 
on the Alfalfa, but gave it up, as we want to make this 
crop grow without nitrogen if possible. We started 
out to see if this could be done on a good soil. Some 
of us may find that it will pay to nurse the Alfalfa ill 
every way during the first year’s growth. 
