1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
643 
USING THE FARM ROLLER. 
The roller is an implement which should be upon 
every farm, and yet if it is used without an under¬ 
standing of its operations it may be productive of 
harm instead of good. Now that land is being pre¬ 
pared for wheat the farm roller should be hauled 
from its resting place, and should be used in fitting 
the wheat ground. Ordinarily the roller is looked 
upon as an implement with which to crush clods, and 
with which to press the stones into the ground upon 
the meadow land. But when used upon wheat land 
it becomes something more than a clod crusher. It 
compacts the surface soil, it firms the seed bed, and 
as a result of its action upon soils the harrow is made 
far more effective in its action. That this last state¬ 
ment is true can be easily proven if one will take a 
freshly plowed field and roll a portion of it before 
harrowing. The truth of the statement is especially 
seen on sandy or loamy soils. By the use of the roller 
the surface particles of soil are pressed closely to¬ 
gether, and surface capillarity is greatly increased, A 
short time ago in conversation with a farmer who 
was rolling a piece of plowed land, I asked him why 
he was rolling the land. He replied: “I do not know; 
to make it more moist I suppose.” He hau noticed 
that where the soil was compacted at the surface it 
was darker in appearance, indicating that the mois¬ 
ture was rising from below. It had never occurred 
to him, however, that the moisture was passing off 
into the atmosphere and was being lost from the soil. 
It should be made a principle in farm practice that 
whenever the roller is used upon plowed land it 
should be followed with the harrow so that the sur¬ 
face soil may be again loosened and the escape of 
moisture be prevented. See Fig. 287. 
Where the roller is to be used at the time of drill¬ 
ing in grain, the roller should precede the drill. After 
the plants have appeared above ground and are from 
one to two inches high the roller may be frequently 
used to advantage. It serves to firm the soil about 
the plant roots, and gives them a firm contact with 
the soil; it pushes the small stones which may be up¬ 
on the surface into the ground, and thus prepares the 
way for the reaper or mower. In fitting the land for 
wheat this Fall the roller should be used to firm the 
subsurface soil, for wheat does best in our latitude 
when made to feed near the surface of the ground 
in the Fall. A precaution which should always be 
observed is never to roll land when it is so moist as 
to be sticky, for then harm will be done. Sandy, 
gravelly soils may be rolled often, but the harrow 
should follow soon after. n. a. clinton. 
A MYSTERIOUS BEAN TROUBLE. 
1 mall you under another cover some beanstalks, as 
specimens of the work done by some Insect, the grub 
of which I think you will And in some of them. I could 
not find the Insect that lays the eggs, but perhaps you 
can tell what It Is. They do the most damage In the 
best beans; the eggs are laid from the surface of ground 
up to the branches, and sometimes where the branches 
Join the stalk. When the pods get heavy, they bend 
over and break the stalks, and the beans wither up. 
1 have seen a little fly, like the Hessian fly, in the field, 
but do not know whether they are the guilty ones. 
Shortsville, N. Y. J. R. w. 
Bean growing has come to be a very important in¬ 
dustry in western New York, and until this season we 
have had few complaints of their being seriously in¬ 
jured by pests or other troubles. But during the past 
month reports have come in from several localities 
that the bean stems were being cut off by some insect, 
so that the top of the plant, with its pods, fell over 
and shriveled or died. From the specimens of the 
stems sent to us we were unable to diagnose the trou¬ 
ble. We were wishing for a favorable opportunity to 
inspect some of the injured fields when J. R. W.’s 
query came in with one or two others the same day. 
We at once went to Shortsville, and made a close in¬ 
spection of the field conditions. In Fig. 288 are pic¬ 
tured some of the injured stems that we found. The 
common white beans usually were not affected notice¬ 
ably, but the Yellow Six-Weeks kidney beans often 
suffered seriously. Some of our correspondents re¬ 
port that it is the work of a maggot or grub, and 
once in a while a broken stem will be found in which 
there are a few minute maggots, but we are quite 
sure that the little mother fiy was attracted to the 
spot by the decay or rot going on; hence the maggots 
are not the cause, but may be secondary accompani¬ 
ments of the trouble. Some thought that it was the 
work of the Hessian fiy, but no trace of this insect 
can be found in or about the stems, and it has never 
been known to attack beans. Others found many 
large black beetles on and around the plants. We 
found these also, and as they are ground beetles which 
feed upon other insects, and sometimes on the seeds 
of weeds, we are sure they have nothing to do with 
the stem trouble. In fact, the general appearance of 
the break Indicates that it is not the work of a biting 
or chewing insect, like a beetle or a cutworm. We 
doubt whether any insect has any connection with the 
trouble, but it is possible that a sucking bug may, 
in puncturing the stem, so poison the wound as to 
cause a cracking of the stem, which would let in rot 
spores; this is scarcely probable, however. 
We noted that the stems always broke over at a 
joint, and there was always more or less rotting of 
the tissues at the break, and often at other joints 
above. Growers state that in many cases the fields 
were so wet that they could not cultivate down the 
weeds, so that with the shade of the weeds and the 
continued wet weather the bean fields are reeking 
with just those moist conditions which are most fa¬ 
vorable for the growth of the rots and other fungi. 
In many cases, also, it is said that the beans have 
grown too fast, so that the stems may be weaker and 
the tops heavier than usual. Thus, when the stem 
was weakened at a joint by a wound or rot, the 
swaying of the heavy top might easily cause the 
break, which suggested insect attack. 
From our observations in J. R. W.’s field we believe 
that the trouble is largely due to the above unusual 
natural conditions, aided by some rot disease. The 
trouble seems to begin in a slit or crack in the stem 
at a joint, as shown on the stem marked A in Fig. 288. 
Whether the unusual conditions of quick growth 
cause this first slit in the skin of the stem or not, we 
cannot say with certainty; we do not believe it was 
done by an insect. But some disease or rot spores 
apparently soon find this ideal place of lodgment, 
and chance to work in the tissues, and a rot begins 
which weakens the stem at a joint until the heavy- 
topped plant in its swayings at last breaks the hol¬ 
low stem. Sometimes the rot continues and girdles 
the stem at the break, and the top of the plant shriv¬ 
els and dies. Oftentimes, however, the break is not 
complete, and the top, bent over on to the ground, 
continues to get enough sustenance through the 
other unbroken side to enable it to mature its crop, 
so that but little damage is done. From what we 
saw, we are inclined to believe that if there had been 
less moisture and weeds in the injured fields, but 
few of the stems would have broken over. Too much 
moisture and too fast a growth, which induced un¬ 
usually favorable conditions for rot spores and other 
BEANSTALKS BROKEN BY ROT. Fia. 288. 
fungous troubles, seem to us to be the principal 
causes of this new and widespread bean-stem trouble. 
M. V. SLINGERLAND. 
WHAT GOOD APPLES MEAN. 
I am thankful for remarks on page 566 on Baldwin 
apples in New England. I have never seen or heard 
of any apple of its season as good as the Baldwin, 
grown where it belongs. All these Winesaps, Ganos, 
York Imperials and the host of other red apples make 
me long for a good Baldwin when ours are all eaten, 
and I have to buy in the market. And there is a 
turnip apple, the B-D-, and a turnip pear, the 
K-. How can these claim any better place in the 
list of products than oleomargarine? They ship well 
and they look wen, and they are not what they seem. 
I imagine St. Peter has many a surprise in store for 
the man who cries fraud at oleomargarine, and plants 
and ships fruit to market which looks like good hon¬ 
est flavor and is not. Our fruit stands in the great 
cities all Winter are loaded with this wretched stuff. 
which no sane man would ever buy twice, and many 
have to throw away when bought. The result is that 
but few of our 75,000,000 people eat apples. We are 
six in my family, and all enjoy good health, thanks 
to an apple orchard my father planted, Baldwins, 
Russets and Greenings, down in Rhode Island. We 
never sit down to any meal without baked apples or 
apple sauce on the table, of which all partake three 
times a day, 365 days a year, as freely as one would 
eat bread or potatoes or drink milk. We always keep 
a barrel of apples open in the cellar from August 1 
until strawberries come in. All the children eat all 
they want whenever they want, morning, noon and 
night. I personally will easily average four to five 
raw apples a day for 10 months of the year. 
Why do we do this? Because we have been taught 
to know what apples have good flavor and are diges¬ 
tible. I could not eat two King or Porter apples in 
succession; they are not digestible. But Baldwins, 
Greenings and Pall Pippins are. Now I wish some of 
your readers who are planting B- D- apples 
which no one can eat, would think what it would 
mean to their apple market if one-half our popula¬ 
tion were as well posted on the food value of apples 
as I happen to be, and I wish you would take this 
question up on its merits—and as long as fruit is 
shipped solely on its looks and keeping qualities, 
teach those men who ship it that that is precisely 
what oleomargarine comes in on. w. n. w. 
APPLES IN CALIFORNIA. 
We are feasting on apples this year. Red Astra- 
chan, our earliest variety, came along about July 4, 
followed quickly by Yellow Harvest. As there were 
more of these than we could use, we made some cider, 
but found It too poor to use. Next to ripen was 
Wealthy, about August 1. Wealthy is a very accept¬ 
able early apple here, always bearing some, and gen¬ 
erally a good crop of medium-sized tender juicy 
apples, and besides, I have a soft spot in my organism 
somewhere for the originator, Peter Gideon, having 
known him in my boyhood days, and how he found 
only one good apple out of 10,000 seedlings, and 
named it Wealthy. Out of my boyhood’s earnings I 
paid $1 for a Wealthy tree only about a foot high, and 
planted it with great expectations in a choice place 
in our garden in the suburbs of Minneapolis. The 
place where it was planted is now covered with 
buildings, but my expectations are realized here in 
California. August 8 I picked one apple from a two- 
year-old Red Harvest tree in the experimental or¬ 
chard. It was a better apple than the Yellow Har¬ 
vest, and will doubtless come earlier when the tree 
is old enough to bear a crop. August 9 I picked the 
first Gravenstein, and we are still eating this most 
delicious Summer apple. While the Gravenstein has 
the fault of bearing irregular crops of various-sized 
apples from the size of crab apples up to four inches 
in diameter, its fine quality makes it a very desirable 
apple for the family orchard. Its thin skin and small 
core are good recommendations, and I write from 
practical observation, for to me falls the pleasant 
task of preparing the apples for table use. The next 
apple to ripen is the Skinner’s Seedling—called by 
some nurserymen Skinner’s Pippin. This apple is 
now in its prime and is in demand for eating from 
the hand, cooking, canning or drying. It is very ten¬ 
der and thin-skinned, but has a rather large core. It 
originated in this county and is named for Its origi¬ 
nator. The tree is a strong healthy grower and is 
one variety that resists the effects of Paris-green 
spray excellently. In my experiment orchard several 
varieties are bearing enough apples this year to 
give a test as to quality. Stark has borne two crops, 
and although large and attractive, the quality is poor. 
It will probably be one of many to be grafted to some 
more desirable sort. Arkanasas Black and Delaware 
Red produced a few apples last year and this. They 
do not promise well, but will have a fair trial. 
We have few worms this year. We sprayed three 
times, and now have bands around the trunks of the 
trees, which we examine every week and destroy the 
worms found there. We have found that the foliage 
of some varieties is very tender and easily Injured 
by Paris-green, Jonathan and Newtown Pippin show¬ 
ing the most injury in our orchard. The windfalls 
are picked up every week, the best ones are used for 
drying, and the poorest sent to the hogs. A few weeks 
ago I passed through the famous apple district near 
Watsonville, and saw evidences of a large crop of 
apples. The varieties raised are almost entirely 
Newtown Pippin and Yellow Bellflower in the pro¬ 
portion of three of the former to one of the latter. 
These apples are almost all of them shipped to east¬ 
ern markets and to iKJndon. Prices paid by the buy¬ 
ers range from 80 cents to ?1 per box on the trees 
for sound apples large enough to pack five tiers in 
the box. These prices yielu handsome profits to the 
owners of apple orchards. H. o. keeslinq. 
Santa Clara Co. Cal. 
