a86 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 2(> 
more conveniently when soaking in the formalin solu¬ 
tion, so as to avoid lifting heavy sacks full of pota¬ 
toes in and out of the barrels. However, we had very 
little trouble in this respect. We expect to plant the 
Carman No. 3 again this year for our main crop. 
Michigan. j. n. brown. 
SPRAYING FOR THE SAN JOSE SCALE. 
Crude petroleum was applied to peach trees for the 
San Jos6 scale in the latter part of March. Fruit buds 
are backward and in good condition. The oil is put 
on mostly by kerowater pumps, but occasionally it is 
sprayed with a plain pump or brushed on with a 
brush. Last season’s treatment of the scale was not 
very satisfactory. In no case has it been entirely 
killed, and in many cases not even checked by the 
use of petroleum. This is not because the oil will not 
kill, but because of the virulence of the pest and the 
extreme difficulty of touching all the scale on the 
tree with fatal effect. Another explanation of the 
discouraging results of last Spring’s work is the un- 
usualiy favorable season we had last Fall for the late 
development of the scale. One large peach orchard 
belonging to the president of the Tidewater Oil Co., 
was sprayed with everything favorable to a successful 
job. Now many of the trees are dead with scale, and 
the orchai-d is being sprayed again. A striking test 
of what difficulties are in the way of eradicating the 
San Jos6 scale is seen in the case of a small peach or¬ 
chard near here, two years old last Spring. The own¬ 
er, a careful man, painted the trees with undiluted 
petroleum from the ground to the tips of the 
branches, taking plenty of time, and doing a thorough 
job. I walked through that orchai’d the other day, 
and found every tree healthy, but there were few on 
which scale could not be detected. There seemed to 
be more near or under the buds than anywhere else, 
but there were enough if they are going to spread as 
they did last season, soon to overrun the orchard. 
In four different orchards that came under my no¬ 
tice, trees, in greater or less numbers, were killed by 
the oil, which was due, no doubt, as Prof. Smith has 
explained in The R. N.-Y., to an impure grade of oil. 
I have not learned of any trees being killed by oil 
that was sprayed on. The fruit grower who’spoke of 
the San Jos6 scale as a “bugaboo” is living in a fool’s 
paradise. Constant watchfulness and much labor will 
be required to save our fruit trees from destruction. 
Whitehouse, N. J. a. d. 
A NORTHERN FARMER’S GARDEN. 
How Planted and Cared For. 
BEST OF THE FARM.—I consider the garden the 
best paying part of the farm. I keep the soil rich; 
every year I put on as much barnyard manure as I 
can plow in. I plow it with a sidehill or reversible 
plow, turning the furrows all one way. I plow it 
deep and fine, not cutting a furrow over four or five 
inches wide. This makes the ground light. I do not 
drag it, as the horses walking on it, would make it 
hard. I rake it off well with a garden rake, picking 
out roots, sods and stones if I find any. I begin in 
the middle and rake each way, and when it is raked 
there is not a track upon it. Then I put a line across 
one side, mark it straight, take a homemade “mark¬ 
er ' that marks and makes the drilis at the same time. 
I make this marker and driller out of a piece of 3x3 
timber, about 4^ feet long, I bore four one-inch holes, 
15 inches apart, for the markers, two other holes for 
the handles and two holes for the tongue that I draw 
it by. The markers are one inch thick, four inches 
wide and about 12 inches long, and cut down to a 
point to make the drills. The handles are two feet 
long with a cross piece from one to the other. The 
tongue is about six feet long, of green timber. -I slip 
an iron ring down about 18 inches on one end, split 
that end and spread it to make the tongue bracing. 
It is shown at Fig. 116. Then I get some one to draw 
or hold it for me, run outside leg or driller in straight 
mark I have made and then turn back across the gar¬ 
den, making three drills each time, and running one 
leg in last drill made. This keeps them all even and 
saves a lot of work. 
SOWING THE SEED.—In these drills I sow my 
seeds. Usually in the first drill I sow radishes, next 
drill lettuce, two drills; salsify, two drills; parsnips, 
onions, beets, carrots, mangels, beans, tomatoes, cab¬ 
bage, all in these straight drills 15 inches apart. Then 
I cover carefully with a hoe, patting the drills smooth 
and pressing the earth down on the seeds, and when 
it is all done it looks very well. Sometimes I sow 
fertilizer in the drills; sometimes I use hardwood 
ashes. It makes the plants grow and worms and bugs 
do not like it. In another part of the garden I plant 
melons, cucumbers, sweet corn, more beans. Summer 
squash, etc. I sow the garden peas in straight drills, 
drive stakes, stretch a wire over each drill and hang 
the brush on the wire. Now as I have all this weed¬ 
ing to do, with no heip from the women, I am careful 
not to let the weeds get much start of me. I have a 
hoe that I had the blacksmith make. It is made of 
the point of a cradie scythe with shank riveted on to 
drive into hoe handle. It is thin, and I keep it sharp 
by grinding. It cuts about 10 inches wide, and is 
made like Fig. 116. It is light, the points are sharp 
and you can hoe up to a plant and not touch it. This 
worked so well that I had another made of the wide 
part of the blade for general hoeing. I can do more 
work and do it easier than I can with a common hoe. 
THE CROP.—We dig none of our salsify or pars¬ 
nips until Spring. They are fine. As soon as snow is off 
the chives start up, and cut up in vinegar they are 
a very good substitute for onions. We start tomatoes 
in boxes, but for two years now I nave sown one 
drill when I made my garden; did not transplant, or 
fuss with them much, but got our best crop from 
them—later, of course, but more of them, better and 
firmer. I plant four varieties of sweet corn, and we 
have it untii frost comes. With this marker I can 
put in a large garden in a few hours. 1 can hoe it 
quickly, if taken in time, and not much weeding to do. 
But when I am so busy at other work that I cannot 
POTATOES FROM UNTREATED SEED. FiS. 117. 
attend to it at just the right time I am sorry for my¬ 
self. On one such occasion I made a weeding stool 
that was a source of comfort to a weary spinal col¬ 
umn. I set my cabbage plants about 2x2% feet apart; 
put hen manure mixed with barnyard manure in the 
hills and get good cabbage. If the cutworms trouble 
them, I take a teaspoon and put a row of fertilizer 
around each plant as close as I can and not touch the 
plant. Cutworms do not enjoy it and do not seem to 
crawl over it. It makes the cabbage grow. If the green 
worms appear on the leaves we sprinkle, while dew 
is on, with fine black pepper; use no poison on cab¬ 
bage. In this garden we raise more vegetables than 
we can use; give some to the neighbors and sell some 
and find it profitable as well as pleasurable. Last 
year the worms or maggots commenced on my Black- 
POTATOES FROM TREATED SEED. FlO. 118. 
seed onions. I put unleached ashes upon them, scat¬ 
tered it right on to the tops, and it stopped their 
work. I sow Black-seed thick, and then thin out 
later when we want the little onions to eat. 1 leave 
them pretty thick. I have seen nice onions grow 
where there were five onions in a bunch, four of them 
upon the ground and the fifth on top. only touching 
the ground where the roots went down between the 
others. I have set my cabbage on same ground for 
10 to 12 years, and no club-foot has appeared. I often 
have to pull them a little to keep them from burst¬ 
ing open. s. c. A. 
Riparius, N. Y. 
THE GREAT NEED OF VEGETABLE MATTER 
Great Success with Cowhorn Turnips. 
A great deal of discussion is constantly going on 
in the agricultural papers about the improvement of 
the soil by means of green manuring. Most of the 
writers on the subject advise the use of legumes, to 
the exclusion of other plants. At the farmers’ insti¬ 
tute held here last February, Mr. Seeds, a farmer from 
Juniata County, presented another feature of the sub¬ 
ject, viz., the raising of the potash from the subsoil 
and placing it where surface-growing plants could 
make use of it. Mr. Seeds was crowded into his 
method by the lack of means and the inability to get 
a satisfactory stand of legumes. On a hard clay loam, 
where four inches was the depth that could be plowed, 
he commenced operations. He first used the Purple- 
top Strap-leaved turnip, but discarded it because it 
grew on top of the ground. Something with a long 
root that would mature in the Fall, so that the ground 
could be used in the Spring was desired. A search of 
the catalogues revealed the Cowhorn turnip, which 
bid fair to meet the requirements. Seed was pur¬ 
chased and sowm in the corn at time of the last culti¬ 
vation. This proved successful. Individual specimens 
measured over three feet, with one-half or more be¬ 
neath the surface. Here was a plant breaking up the 
subsoil, raising the potash, and adding humus to the 
soil at the estimated rate of $50 worth of fertility per 
acre at a cost last year of only 54 cents per acre. There 
is no hauling manure or bothering with fertilizers. 
There is no lime or wood ashes to blind one when 
spreading them, but $50 worth of fertility right where 
you want it, to say nothing of the benefits gained by 
loosening up the soil. In five years this farm has 
been raised from a deserted spot to a profitable home. 
With the turnip seed is now sown Crimson clover, 
and Mr. Seeds assured his audience that the one field 
of oats that more than paid expenses last year in the 
Juniata Valley was the one on his own farm, of which 
he exhibited a photograph. He attributes his success 
to “vegetable matter in the soil.” Other photographs 
of a field of Red clover as high as his waist, a field 
of corn, and his field of Cowhorn turnips certainly 
were encouraging to men on run-down farms. If a 
man can’t grow Crimson clover let him grow what 
he can—corn it may be—and keep at it until he can 
get what he wants. I send you these few remarks to 
help others who are perplexed about these problems. 
Look at the woods, they are fertile, and most of the 
farms we have were woods once. What has become 
of their fertility? Nature hauls no manure or lime, 
yet keeps her whole farm in excelient shape. Man 
alone cries that the land is worn out. Put more vege¬ 
table matter in the soil and you double up from both 
ends—less work and more returns. It seems to me 
this method is worthy of the widest application. 
Shawnee, Pa. ciiarles johnson. 
R. N.-Y.—We have heard of cows that tossed a 
mortgage on their horns, but this story of salvation 
by the Cowhorn turnips beats the record. We know 
how this turnip grows. 
Facts About Clover Seeding. 
I do not know of any case of sowing clover seed as 
early as December or January in this latitude. I am 
fuily persuaded that most clover seed is sown too late. 
Ours was put on the ground about middle of March 
and five or six inches of snow have fallen since. No 
heavy rains, as yet, have compacted the surface soil; 
therefore I think the ideal conditions are present with 
us this year for securing good germination. If ground 
designed for seeding with clover is thoroughly pre¬ 
pared and is moist in the last of July or August, the 
best seeding can usually be secured by sowing then. 
Harrow the seed in lightly and roll. The plants will 
usually get large enough before Winter to keep them 
from being injured. I think a part of the trouble we 
have experienced in recent years in securing a good 
catch of clover seed is due to lack of humus in the 
soil. I find that wherever the soil has been kept filled 
with humus by means of manures or cover crops, or 
both, we get good seeding, and in near-by fields that 
are dry and compacted because of this lack of humus 
the seed either failed to germinate or died later be¬ 
cause of the bad physical conditions of the land. 
Cornell University. i. p. Roberts. 
PAT’S CHOICE POTATO.—-W. H. Heald, of San¬ 
born Co., S. D., sends us the odd specimen which is 
pictured on first page. Fig. 115. It weighed 22 ounces 
as we received it. Mr. Heald says that the potato 
was kept in his living room from October until April, 
so that it was badly wilted. He says it is a late va¬ 
riety, of fine quality. We shall plant it this year. We 
have formerly received some tremenaous tubers from 
Dakota. The tendency there seems to produce great 
things, but we have not before seen a tuber that tried 
to sprawl all over as this one has. 
