8i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
December 7 
weed seeds or not. F'rom his testimony it was not 
clear that he knew that the oats were really a new 
variety—or where they came from originally. He had 
no experience with wild mustard, and did not know 
how to get rid of it. He had advised pulling it be¬ 
cause he knew that w'ould get rid “of ail that you 
pull.” On the whole the defence seemed a very lame 
one—^the lawyers evidently thinking that Mills had 
given no guaranty and therefore that Bell would be 
non-suited. 
The judge, however, charged the jury that Mills had 
given in his catalogue an implied guaranty that the 
oats were “free from noxious weed seed that was not 
discoverable on an examination and inspection.” The 
farmer was bound to give the oats a fair examination, 
and the jury must decide whether what he did do was 
fair. The judge also said that if the farmer was en¬ 
titled to any verdict at all he could claim the value of 
the seed oats, and also the damage to the farm. The 
jury finally brought in a verdict for the farmer for 
$900 and $92.50 costs. The case has been appealed. 
We have given full space to this matter because it 
is an important one to farmers generally. Every year 
we receive hundreds of complaints from farmers w'ho 
have received grain and other seeds simply filthy with 
weeds and trash. These complaints seldom refer to the 
older and well-established seed houses, but the dam¬ 
age is usually done by the concerns that offer cheap 
seeds and are most extravagant in their claims for 
“novelties.” Many of the.se people are mere jobbers, 
who buy seeds of others, and often sell them to their 
customers without opening the packages for inspec¬ 
tion or recleaning. Several of them have admitted to 
us when an explanation was demanded that they 
bought grain or potatoes of some one else, and filled 
their orders from such bulk lots without even an ex¬ 
amination to know whether the varieties were true 
to name or free from weeds or disease. They merely 
open the package to put their so-called “guaranty” 
inside! Such business is a contemptible crime and 
nothing else, and we rejoice to learn that there is now 
a legal precedent for action against such people. The 
trouble is that comparatively few farmers can affoixi 
to bring a lawsuit, and fewer still can make out a 
case as clear and strong as this one was. 
It must be said too that farmers themselves are 
often at fault. They will often hunt for the cheapest 
seeds they can find, when they must know that the 
danger of buying weed seed and damaged goods is 
always increased by doing so. It costs money to 
clean and test seeds so that they may carry a guaranty 
that means something. Again, some farmers will 
wait until the last moment before sending their order. 
The seedsman is rushed, bad weather sets in, and 
danger of mistakes and delay is doubled. If when 
the seeds do finally come, there is anything wrong 
about them, it is too late to change. Most farmers, 
too, do not know the different weed seeds by sight. 
In buying clover seed they are often deceived through 
their inability to pick out the foul stuff. There is at 
the National Department of Agriculture at Washing¬ 
ton a special department for seed testing. They will 
take a sample of seeds from any farmer and test it 
for quality and vitality. They will sort out the weed 
seeds and tell what per cent of the seeds will sprout. 
If a farmer will buy his seed early and send a sample 
of it to Washington for analysis he may know just 
what he is doing._ 
A TALK ABOUT FERTILIZERS. 
Part II. 
Are there any trees, jihints, grains, or grasses, that are 
usually grown by farmers, that show by their condition 
of growth what plant food they have a surplus of or 
what they are deficient in? If not, what can be planted 
as an experimental plant in cultivated crops that would 
indicate whaf the soil needed? If the soil is acid, what 
crop removes this acid more than others? I have heard 
a strawberry grower say clover always came in the 
ground profusely where he grew strawberries. Did the 
straw'berries take an acid out of the soil and make It 
sweeter for clover? Is there not a work on clover and 
its uses? G. R- n. 
West Chester, Pa. 
There is no sure way of telling what the soil needs 
from the growtli of different crops. At the Rhode 
Island Experiment Station many experiments have 
been made to learn what plants, if any, do best on an 
acid soil. Lime was carefully used, and close watch 
w'as kept to see w'hich crops were benefited by the 
lime, and which were injured. The list of those which 
gave a smaller crop when lime was used is most to 
our purpose. Common white beans, millet, Hungar¬ 
ian, cow peas, radish, carrots, watermelons, pumpkin, 
sorrel, rye and Red-top grass were the most common 
crops that seemed to prefer an acid soil. Most other 
farm and garden crops were helped by liming. Dr. 
Wheeler says that a test with beet seed will show 
the soil’s need of lime, as the beet quickly responds 
when lime is added to an acid soil. Two plots or 
strips are used—each to receive the same fertilizer 
and preparation. On one strip lime at the rate of 2^4 
tons per acre is to be used, and beet seed pranted in 
the usual w’ay. If the soil is very sour the beet seed 
will often germinate, but will not make a full stand 
or grow properly. This test will indicate a sour soil, 
but so will the experiment outlined last week. Beets, 
turnips, cabbage or rape will in like manner show 
any need of phosphoric acid, but we do not consider 
such tests equal to the actual use of the fertilizing 
elements, mentioned last week. 
Cranberries are much injured by liming, and black¬ 
berries are slightly helped if at all. Strawberries 
seem to do best on a neutral soil. Lime used when 
the soil was very sour would doubtless help the crop, 
but where there was only a small amount of acid it 
SUPPOSED JDGLANS—HICORIA HYBRID NUT. FlO. 370. 
See Page 822. 
would do more harm than good. Sorrel is found on 
acid soil, and either disappears or is greatly weak¬ 
ened by liming. Red-top and Rhode Island Bent grass 
thrive well on acid soils, while Timothy and Ken¬ 
tucky Blue grass do not. This may explain why, in 
some sour, low fields the Timothy finally runs out 
and Red-top remains. Prof. Wheeler thinks that this 
ability of Rhode Island Bent to live on sour soils 
fully explains why Rhode Island became so celebrated 
for its grass. The soil being generally acid the other 
grasses could not succeed, and so the Bent occupied 
the land. On a natural lime soil other grasses would 
have crowded it out. Our own experience has been 
that cow peas do not respond to lime, and we would 
lime them when plowing under rather than when 
seeding. We have no evidence to show that a crop 
like cranberries or strawberries will “take an acid 
out of the soil” and thus leave it in better condition 
for clover seeding. Clover sometimes grows as a vol¬ 
unteer crop after lime or wood ashes are used. The 
explanation of this is that the clover seed remained 
in the soil for several years not germinating because 
the soil was too acid. When this acid was neutralized 
by the lime or ashes the seed sprouted and grew. The 
same explanation might be given for the appearance 
of the clover after strawberries. This berry usually 
receives a good quantity of stable manure plowed in 
before the plants are set or used for a Winter mulch. 
Manure is alkaline, and, when plowed into a sour soil 
would very likely fit it so that the clover will start. 
A little book by Henry Wallace, of Iowa, discusses 
clover culture in a very readable way. 
THE NORTHERN SPY FOR TOP-WORKING. 
The experts often say that the Northern Spy apj)le 
gives the best stock for top-working other varieties. 
The reasons for this claim are not often explained, and 
the following article by Geo. T. Powell will be peculiarly 
interesting to many of our readers: 
Nine years ago I began growing the King apple by 
selecting buds from strong individual trees and top¬ 
working them on Spy trees. The King is a weak tree 
constitutionally, is easily attacked by canker, and is 
short-lived, but when grotvn in this manner it gives 
promise of being a very profitable variety. The man¬ 
ner in which I arrived at this process of propagation 
was this: In pruning different kinds of trees in the 
orchard I found the King, Oreening, Baldwin and 
other varieties cut easily, but when the Spy rows were 
reached it was very different work. The wood cut 
much harder. It seemed like cutting steel, the wood 
was so hard and fine grained. From this I reasoned 
that the Spy would be a valuable stock to work the 
King upon, as its vigor and freedom from disease 
might infiuence the scion when worked upon it. I 
feel quite sure that this will be the result, as thus 
far no Apple canker has appeared upon the King. 
Believing there would be value in selecting buds 
with reference to individuality, I sent to Tompkins 
County for buds from the best trees to be found, that 
were not only free from disease, but that produced 
fine fruit, bore annually, and showed in every way 
superiority. The Spy does have a much stronger root 
system. The roots run deeper, and they are far more 
numerous. Colonel Evans, of the Olden fruit farm of 
Missouri, has also top-worked extensively on the Spy, 
and the strong root system was what led him to use 
this variety. He found in plowing out rejected trees 
in nursery blocks that one mule could plow out all 
other varieties readily, but when the Spy blocks were 
reached it took two to plow those out. I am planting 
only upon this principle, and have .Jonathans top- 
worked but three years that bore fine specimens of 
that choice variety the present season. 
CEO. T. POWELU. 
TWO INSECT FRIENDS FROM ABROAD. 
On entering the office of Dr. L. 0. Howard, Chief 
Entomologist of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, recently, he said to me: “You know that 
it is said, that it never rains but it pours, and this 
seems to be true of our insect friends from abroad 
just now.” Only two days before news came from 
China of the finding of the parasite of the San Josd 
scale, and now we have two importations from Eu¬ 
rope in one day, November 18. of the present year, of 
parasites of more of our enemies belonging to the 
insect world. There is an insect known as the Black 
scale, that has for ages been one of the chief enemies 
of the olive in Italy, France and Spain, and it has 
been brought to America and is at present the prin¬ 
cipal obstacle to the culture of the olive in California. 
It also is a pest upon oleander plants in greenhouses. 
There is a little moth in Europe, known by the scien¬ 
tific name of Erastria scitula, which is a persistent 
enemy of the Black scale. Its larva, or the grub stage 
of this moth, eats its way under the scales and liter¬ 
ally devours the minute insects that live there, and 
suck the sap of the olive trees, thus destroying them. 
Its introduction in America has often been attempted 
before, but in every case those little friends have died 
before arrival. This time they came in excellent con- 
d:tion, and are now in the insectary at Washington, 
D. C., in the larval or grub sta;te, and will be promptly 
forwarded to California. In fact, one lot was sent 
there the next day after arriving in Washington. 
Other shipments will follow, and there is every rea¬ 
son to expect that this tiny friend of the olive grow¬ 
ers, and of those who love the culture of oleander 
bushes, will soon be well established in America. 
Another friend of the gardener and farmer has the 
distinction of arriving in healthy condition from Eu¬ 
rope the same day, November 18. This is a species 
of ladybird beetle known as Coccinella septempunc- 
tata. it preys upon the larva of the Asparagus beetle; 
the latter being a very annoying and difficult enemy 
to fight. This parasite of the Asparagus beetle also 
destroys the Grain plant-louse that has done serious 
damage to the wheat fields of Texas the past year, and 
that is occasionally destructive to the wheat crop 
elsewhere. It was never before possible to get any¬ 
one to hunt this parasite out in Europe and send it 
over, but now it is here in perfect condition. It will 
be especially welcome to the asparagus growers, who 
are often sorely troubled by the beetle that defoliates 
their crops. This importation will be followed from 
time to time by others from the same source. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
