i86 
March 16- 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ment I sowed a small portion of the piece with Crim¬ 
son clover among the peas, but sown so early it would 
not live over Winter. I shall try Medium Red in this 
way next time. The peas made a heavy growth, but 
not having an early variety they ripened very little 
seed. They were killed by frost early in October. 
They were not plowed under in the Fall; this was a 
mistake. The Fall was warm so long after they were 
killed that it would have been much better to plow 
them in and sow to rye as a cover crop. By Spring 
they were so brittle that going over them twice -with 
a Cutaway harrow completely mixed them with the 
surface soil. The piece was then plowed seven inches 
deep, harrowed several times, marked off and planted 
to Beauty of Hebron potatoes in drills feet apart. 
I applied 1,200 pounds of a fertilizer containing 2.50 
per cent of nitrogen, seven per cent of phosphoric 
acid, and eight per cent of potash in the drills, on the 
whole 2% acres, using 13 bushels of cut seed per acre. 
The fertilizer was mixed with a small plow in the 
drills, and the seed covered with a cultivator, after 
which the piece was harrowed over both ways. This 
prevents loss of moisture, covers seed at a uniform 
depth, and leaves the surface in the best condition 
for the use of the weeder. This harrowing was con¬ 
tinued once a week with an adjustable spike-tooth 
harrow until they began to break ground; then omit¬ 
ted until the rows could be plainly seen, then har¬ 
rowed with the rows, slanting the teeth backward, 
and then the weeder was used until they were six 
inches high. I cultivated them six times shallow, the 
last with hillers attached; later the largest weeds 
were pulled by hand. The yield was 466 bushels 
from the 2^4 acres. The potatoes were very smooth 
and clean, which was due, I think, to the new soil. 
The piece was then gone over with a Cutaway harrow 
until the surface soil was like an ash heap; then 
plowed eight inches deep; 600 pounds of dissolved 
rock phosphate applied, and again harrowed as be¬ 
fore; sown to Gold Coin Winter wheat, seeded very 
lightly with Timothy, The following Spring, March 
24, it was seeded heavily to Medium Red clover. The 
yield of wheat from the piece, 2 % acres, was 68 
bushels. The stand of clover is good, and promises 
well at this writing. Lot No. 2 was broken up last 
Summer and sown to cow peas (Early Black), from 
which were gathered all the seed needed the coming 
season. Lot No. 3 has just been cleared this Winter 
and will be broken up as soon as the frost is out, and 
in June will be treated to a feed of nitrogen a la cow 
peas, the results of which I shall give an account of 
later. bell. 
Rockland Co., N. Y. 
TWf BL/tC/r HOT IN SWEET POTATOES. 
For the past two years we have been troubled greatly 
with what is often called black rot with our sweet pota¬ 
toes. Some report a loss in plants equal to 50 per cent 
of the entire lot transplanted. They often become well 
established after being transplanted, grow small potatoes 
half an inch or an inch in diameter, then the plant would 
show brown spots on the leaf, changing to yellow after 
a few days, and die. Last Spring I pulled from the sprout¬ 
ing bed one plant, the root discolored, and splitting it 
lengthwise, found the lower part very much darker 
color than a healthy plane. I then took up the potato 
from the bed, finding no discoloring of the remaining 
plants upon this one seed potato. Would a treatment of 
the seed, prior to bedding in hotbed, be the better way, 
or would treating the plants either before pulling from 
potato or after pulling, be the better method? I have 
thought to fumigate the seed with strong sulphur smoke 
before bedding; then after pulling the plants more or less 
of the potato would adhere to them. Spraying with sul¬ 
phur or something known to be better might lessen the 
mortality of plants considerably. Is there any preventive 
known, and how applied? w. h. h. 
Montrose, Iowa. 
From the investigation of the subject, it is seen that 
the black-rot fungus is abundantly supplied with 
spores, and they may be found in one or more forms 
in every patch of diseased substance in the root or 
sprout. These spores, being formed under ground, as 
a rule, tend to charge the soil with the germs of in¬ 
fection. How long the spores can remain alive and 
inactive is not known, but very likely for many years, 
and the roots of one crop may become inoculated from 
the fungus of a previous crop upon the same soil. In 
like manner, the spores being light as dust can be 
carried from one field to another by the winds. The 
difficulties of applying a satisfactory remedy are not 
easily overcome, for the trouble is so largely under 
ground. In the first place, there is no doubt that only 
healthy sets should be used, which means the careful 
selection of perfectly sound roots for the hotbed. In 
order to get the best plants, it is possible to use some 
remedy in the hotbed, as, for example, a compound 
of copper, the Bordeaux Mixture, or similar substance, 
which will tend to keep the sprouts from outside con¬ 
tamination. There is also something in the setting of 
the plants, for if they get a poor start, as from chilling 
rains, they are weakened, and thereby made more 
susceptible to the attacks of the black rot. It is not 
to be considered that the circumstances of the season 
or conditions of the soii are in any sense the cause 
of the black rot, as a specific fungus is necessary for 
that; but it, like all other living things, is dependent 
upon its surroundings. It is possible that certain 
kinds of manure, as heavy cow dung, for example, are 
more conducive to the development of the rot than 
horse manure, and a commercial fertilizer may be 
better than either. Such questions must be settled by 
a thorough testing made in the field. It seems im¬ 
practicable to apply any substances to the soil to kill 
the germs that have accumulated there. As a rule, 
the only way is to let the fungus starve out by with- 
CURRANT BUSH TWO YEARS FROM PLANTING. FiG. 79. 
holding the crop upon which it feeds, until the germs 
become extinct. While a grower with superior sweet- 
potato land may be loath to set aside his best crop, 
there is no doubt that in some cases, in the long run, 
it would be the most economical. The idea has been 
advanced that some varieties are almost rot-proof. 
Conversations held among the growers do not 
strengthen this opinion, and while there may be dif¬ 
ferences, they are not sufficient to be the foundation 
for a general practice in selecting “seed.” 
New Jersey Exp. Station. byron d. halsted. 
TBIMMINO THE CURRANT. 
Our method of trimming currant bushes differs very 
materially from the plan usually followed and ad¬ 
vised. Our first trimming is done before planting; if 
our plants are one year old we simply cut back to a 
single stem, and allow only enough of this to remain 
for a start of three or four eyes from which starts the 
young growth for the first crop. If our plants ai'e 
two years old we allow two or three of the most vig¬ 
orous branches to remain, but stub each back to three 
or four eyes, being careful to cut all other branches 
very close to the main stem, so as not to be troubled 
again by sprouting from the eyes that would other- 
TWO-YEAR PL4NT TRIMMED. Fie. 80. 
wise be left. We endeavor to get a good stout plant 
as quickly as possible after planting. We allow from 
three to four good, strong stalks to grow in each hill; 
then carefully cut out all others as they appear. We 
do not favor the plan of keeping the fruiting hill to a 
single stem for several reasons. All currants are sub¬ 
ject to the attack of borers after a few years from 
planting, which kill out the stalks they attack. When 
only one stalk is left to the hill, and the attack is 
made that destroys that hill, it creates a vacancy 
v/hich in a few years often amounts to one-fourth to 
one-half of the plantation, while if the hill contained 
three or four stalks there would yet be left sufficient, 
wood to produce a crop. A bush kept pruned to a 
single stem is also more liable in Winter to be affected 
by the freezing and thawing of the ground than when 
the bush is formed by a number of stalks. So too,, 
the single-stem bush cannot so well support its load 
of fruit in time of high wind and rainstorms. 
Our system of pruning is very simple; in fact, we 
do not believe in the wholesale butchery of a currant 
bush as advocated by so many. We want plenty of 
bearing wood, which is at its best from three to four 
years old. We never shorten in the branches at all. 
We want them to grow as tall as they will. We find 
the foliage on the top branches a great protection to 
the fruit, as in the shade thus afforded it will hang, if 
necessary, several weeks after being fully ripened, 
which is sometimes of great importance when labor 
might be scarce, or is needed in gathering more per¬ 
ishable products, or in case the market becomes tem¬ 
porarily overloaded. Bushes closely cropped back at 
the ends, and exposing the fruit to the direct rays of 
the sun, are in danger of total loss of crop in case of 
wet weather followed directly by hot sun, which will 
scald the fruit as effectually as if hot water is poured 
upon it. Our trimming is simply a thinning process. 
We cut close to the ground all unnecessary young 
growth, retaining three or four main fruiting stems, 
and treat the remainder as so many weeds. After the- 
third or fourth year from planting we allow several 
of the strongest young shoots to grow each year for 
the purpose of renewing the bush, and when these be¬ 
come old enough to bear we then cut out the weaker 
of the old stalks, and let the new ones take their place 
as rapidly as the old ones become partially exhausted 
and show signs of decay. Thus by properly fertiliz¬ 
ing and caring for the soil we could run a plantation 
through a long period of years, and have wood of four 
to six years’ growth, thus keeping the bush in prime, 
condition all the while. 
The more we grow fruit the plainer it becomes that 
there are a whole lot of pet hobbies, that have been 
handed down for years, that must go. We do not have 
time, and it is too expensive if we had it, to stand at 
a currant bush for half an hour each Spring and cliP’ 
a sprig here and there, and shorten back all growth 
to a certain fixed rule, and when we are through find 
we get no better fruit and no more of it than by a 
simple, common-sense method that requires so little 
labor, besides making our fruit liable to injury from 
sun and rain, and the bush itself becomes a prey to- 
borers through the process of pruning too closely. 
Understand, our idea is simply to thin out all un¬ 
necessary young growth, retaining three or four good, 
strong-bearing stalks, which are allowed to grow as 
tall as they will without any restraint whatever, and 
after they have given several good crops, and show 
signs of weakening, cut them out and have others 
coming on to fill their places without loss of time. 
Having done this much, let nature do the remainder 
and the results will be satisfactory. The pictures. 
Figs. 79 and 80, show our idea of it. 
Ohio. 
BARN FOR A DAIRY FARMER. 
The picture at Fig. 78, first page, shows a barn that 
we built the past season, and also plans of basement 
and first floor. Dairying is the principal business 
here, our milk being shipped to New York, and we 
produce most of our milk in the Winter, so that the 
barn is the most important part of the outfit. The 
barn stands on sloping ground, so that it is an easy 
grade to the first floor from the road. On the upper 
side there is a wall half way up; the rest of the base¬ 
ment is of wood, two thicknesses of planed and 
matched lumber, with tarred board between, the first 
thickness of lumber being horizontal and the next per¬ 
pendicular. There are eight windows, 12-paned, 9x14 
glass, and five six-paned in basement, making it al¬ 
most as light as outdoors. The windows are double. 
The floor is cement, the drive being four inches lower 
than where the cows stand. The gutter is 18 inches 
wide and 10 inches deep on the side next to the cows, 
and six inches next to the drive. We put in the Scott 
self-closing stanchion, and the Foster system of water 
buckets, with tub silos 13l^x27 feet. Whatever may 
be said against tub silos for outside we know that they 
are all right for inside. 
A granary 12x24, 10 feet high on first flooi', is a 
necessary part of a barn for Winter dairying. A hop¬ 
per-bottom bin with spout into basement saves much 
work; four tubes 14 inches square carried from base¬ 
ment up inside of barn with an opening outside just 
under the eaves seem to do the ventilating in good 
shape. We furnished all of the coarse lumber and 
about half of the siding from our own woods, and the 
total amount that it cost, including extra labor, was 
$990, not counting our own labor or lumber furnished. 
We are much surprised to find how much manure we 
have lost by not being able to save the liquid, 
Madison Co., N. Y. D. b. utter and son. 
