252 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
APRIL i9 
FARMERS’ CLUB—DISCUSSION. 
“The Sap of Trees.” 
B. B., Farmingdale. III.—I note the R. 
N.-Y.’s answer to my question on page 184. 
Perhaps I did not make my meaning clear. 
First as to the maple, Box Elder, etc., 
the sap flows in immense quantities before 
the leaves unfold—in fact, before the buds 
swell, and on the disappearance of frost in 
the ground this flow ceases. The ground 
commences to thaw, the sap starts; when 
fully thawed out the flow ceases. The sur¬ 
face of the ground (not the roots) freezes 
again and when the thaw commences, then 
the sap flows again, only to stop as before, 
and this is repeated through all the late 
winter and spring months. This does not 
seem to meet the requirements of the tree, 
as it should, as far as I can see, need as 
much food after the disappearance of the 
frost as before. I understand an evapora¬ 
tion is going on from the limbs all through 
the winter, and that the loss due to this is 
partly replaced by the roots that have pen¬ 
etrated below the frost line. No doubt if 
the ground is frozen deeply and the tree is 
small, the tree shrinks—loses in weight— 
but the economy of this fitful flow I do not 
comprehend. The grape is another in¬ 
stance, but is not so spasmodic in its work¬ 
ing. It does not seem possible that the 
amount of water that ascends in a vine 
could be discharged through the cane itself 
by evaporation, and I have wondered if the 
sap that arose through the pumping cells 
was not immediately conveyed back again 
by other pores in somewhat the same man¬ 
ner as blood circulates in animals. Some 
grape men hold that pruning when the 
vine “bleeds” does not injure it. This 
may be so, but such pruning certainly 
is not as fatal as one would suppose. Well, 
of what use is this flow ? Is it a purging P 
Where does the sap go ? 
In its answer the R. N.-Y. says that the 
sweet of maple sap comes from sugar al¬ 
ready deposited in the tree. T had supposed 
it was drawn by the roots from the soil by 
the “selection” the Rural mentions. If 
the Rural is right, should there not be 
more sugar in a given quantity of sap taken 
from the top of the tree than from the 
game amount taken from the base ? To an 
unscientific observer the sugar seems all to 
come from below the surface of the ground. 
R. N.-Y.—Undoubtedly the sap flows from 
many species of trees and woody vines be¬ 
fore the leaves unfold, but this is no proof 
that it flows in the unwounded tree. The 
expulsion of the sap from the fresh wounds 
of trees whose sap is watery, like the 
maple, birch, etc., is a different matter, and 
differently controlled from the natural 
movements of the sap. Every one familiar 
with maple sugar-making knows that the 
trees, after tapping, do not run continu¬ 
ously. Often not a drop flows for several 
days, and then, on a change of tempeia- 
ture, there is a “ good run,” which will be 
promptly checked by another change. 
Warmth causes the sap to flow, and cold 
checks it. The causes of this are not vital, 
but mechanical. The warm day causes the 
air, which is always mingled with the sap, 
to expand, and this forces out the sap. As 
night comes on, the flow is arrested, and 
on a cold day stopped, so that there is 
sometimes actually a draft into the tree. 
As Prof. Johnson says, [How Crops Grow, 
New Ed. p. 370.] “A maple in early 
March, without foliage, cannot be supposed 
to have its sap in motion. The juices 
must be nearly or absolutely at rest, and 
when sap runs copiously from an orifice 
made in its trunk, it is simply because the 
tissues are charged with water under pres¬ 
sure.” But, as Prof. Johnson further 
says: “Sap does move in the plant when 
evaporation of water goes on from the sur¬ 
face of the foliage, and this always happens 
when the air is not saturated with vapor. 
The water that thus evaporates from the 
leaves is supplied by the soil, and entering 
the roots more or less rapidly streams up¬ 
ward through the stem, as long as a waste 
is to be supplied.” 
The case of the grape vine is somewhat 
different from that of the maple. The flow 
from the cut vine is almost pure water, 
coming directly from the roots. The vine 
will not “ bleed ” at all at the time the 
maple may [be in full flow. It has but a 
little sap stored in its canes, and the bleed¬ 
ing is consequently a flow of soil water 
through the plant. As the vine loses but lit¬ 
tle or no substance, this flow is not notice¬ 
ably injurious. Of course, the roots of the 
maple are the sole source of water to the tree, 
and tapping the tree may slightly tend to 
start them into activity. But if this is true 
to any extent it must be small, otherwise the 
tree would run in cold weather. We recom¬ 
mend to every r ader a careful "study of 
How Crops Grow. All that is known on 
the subject is clearly yet compactly stated 
in its pages, by an authority than whom 
there is none better. 
Mr. Terry’s Criticism. 
E. S. Goff, Experiment Station, Mad¬ 
ison, Wis. —Referring to Mr. Terry’s criti¬ 
cism of our bulletin No. 22, it seems well 
to add that it was neither claimed nor sup¬ 
posed that 38 inches apart is a proper dis¬ 
tance to plant small cuttings of potatoes. 
On the contrary, the experiment, which 
was only in part reported in the bulletin, 
was designed with the expectation that it 
would show the opposite to be true. Some 
extensive potato growers in central Wis¬ 
consin make a practice of planting two-eye 
cuttings in hills three to 3% feet apart both 
ways, and a few, I believe, use single eyes 
in the same way. I suspected that by 
doubling the amount of seed used, and 
planting at half the distance apart in drills, 
the increased yield would much more than 
compensate for the increased cost of culti¬ 
vation. The experiment compared one cut¬ 
ting or tuber in a hill 38 inches apart, two 
in a hill at the same distance and one in a 
place at half the distance. It was carried 
out precisely as designed, but the differ¬ 
ence in the yields did not exceed the ordin¬ 
ary limits of error, and as the season was a 
remarkably dry one it was thought best to 
postpone the report until the experiment 
could be repeated. 
Where a single tuber or cutting was 
placed in a hill, however, it was believed 
that this was sufficiently remote from its 
neighbors, at least in the case of the lighter 
seedings, to be uninfluenced by the crowd¬ 
ing, and hence the results were offered at 
their worth. One fact was brought out 
more clearly than L had ever seen it appear 
before, viz., that in a dry season, heavy 
seeding, while it does not decrease the 
yield of merchantable potatoes, tends 
greatly to increase the yield of small ones. 
The mixture of the seed referred to could 
hardly have affected the results, for it was 
evenly distributed throughout the plots, as 
clearly appeared by the dying of the tops. 
As in our past experience, the yields of ad¬ 
joining rows planted with the same va¬ 
riety, and treated precisely alike have 
sometimes shown a difference of more than 
20 per cent., the presence of a few hills of 
a foreign variety distributed evenly 
throughout the planting would not be a 
sufficient cause for rejecting the whole. 
Mr. Terry seems to have overlooked the 
fact, clearly mentioned in the bulletin, 
that there were ten duplicates of every row 
in the experiment. The trial extended 
over 120 rows, each 50 feet long, though the 
part reported included but 40 of these. 
The objection to spreading experiments 
over a large amount of ground, is that the 
inequalities of soil thus encountered will 
tend to weaken rather than strengthen the 
results, and, second, the difficulty of carry¬ 
ing out an experiment on a large scale is 
such that the different parts of the plant¬ 
ing can hardly receive the same treatment. 
It would be scarcely practicable to plant 
four experimental acres of potatoes in one 
day. It would be difficult for one person 
to attend to the weighing and supervise 
the assorting of so large a crop. The 
chances of error would be multiplied. 
Many experiments are conducted on too 
small a scale, and undue importance is 
often given to the results of such experi¬ 
ments. There is, however, a golden mean 
which we endeavor to employ. 
The Louisiana Lottery. 
J. H. S., Shreveport, La.— In the R. 
N.-Y. for March 22 the question is asked : 
“ What is the matter with Louisiana? If 
reports are true, she is thinking seriously 
of selling herself for 25 years more to the 
lottery which has so long disgraced her.” 
As a citizen and public man I will answer 
this question by citing a parallel case. 
What endangers the eastern portion of the 
Pelican State ? Is it the accumulation of 
water that falls on Louisiana soil ? No. 
The floods of r 19 States are pouring their 
mighty waters towards Louisiana. Just so 
with the Louisiana Lottery Company : the 
gambling spirit of the nation is concentrated 
here. The lack of public conscience on the 
subject of gambling on the part of the peo¬ 
ple of New York will do more to fasten 
this giant evil on the people of Louisiana 
than any action on the part of the people of 
this State. Ninety per cent, of the tickets 
are sold outside of Louisiana. 
More tickets are sold in New York City 
than in our entire State. Let the remain¬ 
der of the country cease its patronage of 
this monopoly and the people here will 
crush it with [[ease. Z.But when New York 
and California pour in a golden stream, 
which is nearly all profit,there comes a cor¬ 
ruption fund more powerful than the New 
York Capitol appropriations and municipal 
government expenditures, which have 
proved strong enough to corrupt the leg¬ 
islature of the Empire State and the gov¬ 
ernment of its chief city and disgrace the 
State to a greater extent than the Louisi¬ 
ana State Lottery has disgraced our State. 
Again, I find New York when hard pressed 
for funds for its schools in April 1801 
passed a law authorizing four successive 
lotteries of $25,000 each for its literature 
fund. Stop waters from coming from the 
East and West and we are in no danger of 
an overflow: we will take care of the 
Father of Waters. Stop the flow of the 
millions of gamblers’ money from all parts 
of the United States and we will crush out 
the lottery; but if it will come and we go 
down in the battle to save our fair State 
from infamy, remember that the people of 
your city are more responsible than we, for 
they give the sinews of war to the monster. 
Shall We Grow or Buy Fruits. 
E. S. Goff, Madison, Wis.— This ques¬ 
tion raised by Mr. Green, in the article 
“ Fruits for the Home” recalls an incident 
that brought the truth home to my mind 
with unusual force. At the last meeting of 
our Wisconsin State Horticultural Society, 
a farmer who chanced to be present, ex¬ 
pressed the opinion so often maintained, 
that he could better afford to purchase 
than to raise the small fruits used in his 
family. Mr. J. S. Harris, of La Crescent, 
Minn., responded by saying that a farmer 
in his locality is in the habit of driving to 
his place once a year to procure a quantity 
of strawberries for his family. The past 
season he came as usual, and being short 
of cash, brought oats, of which Mr. Harris 
happened to be in need, to exchange for the 
berries. The oats were worth at the time, 
15 cents per bushel, and the strawberries 15 
cents per quart, so that a bushel of oats 
was required to purchase a quart of berries. 
The gentleman had driven 10 miles with 
his oats, and returned an equal distance 
with his berries, the trip consuming the 
greater part of a day. Mr. Harris grew 100 
bushels of strawberries on an acre, while 
the farmer’s acre produced but 35 bushels 
of oats. Mr. Harris is decidedly of the 
opinion that in his own case, he can better 
afford to sell strawberries and buy his 
oats, than to sell oats and buy strawberries. 
Prohibition and Dogs. 
E. P. P., Clinton, N. Y.—I like two 
points in an article in the Rural for March 
29, so well that I comment on them briefly. 
Yes, tax the drinker and let the trade 
alone. But H. S. H., has his hobby. He 
would undertake to prevent the sale to 
minors and on Sundays. If he can stop 
the sale of intoxicants on Sunday he can do 
so oq other days. Will he also tell us how 
an ordinary jury can be induced to decide 
the question of what is drunkenness ? 
Shall a man who cannot stand a tea-spoonful 
be sent to the workhouse, while old Soap- 
Fat can carry a gallon or two and walk 
straight? The trouble with prohibitory 
laws of all sorts is in the juries : they will 
not decide a man guilty of being drunk 
unless it be an extreme case. When all the 
schemes are tried you will find you have 
lost time by not falling back at once on ed¬ 
ucation and moral influence. 
About the dogs, G. W. D. is right. Four 
dogs out of five are worthless for any con¬ 
ceivable purpose—even for being loved. 
They eat the equivalent of the poor man’s 
tax many times over. I have no patience 
with grumbling farmers who support from 
one to three dogs and cannot afford an agri 
cultural paper. 
Which Is the Right Side? 
“Jehu,” Brockport, N. Y.—Referring 
to the question in the R. N.-Y. of the 29th 
March : “ Why do you sit on the right side 
of the cow while milking ?” I reply, sim¬ 
ply and purely from custom. Is there not 
in many cases good reason for reversing 
this custom ? The larger portion of the 
cow’s milk is contained in the hind part of 
the udder. The right hand is generally 
the stronger of the two, hence if the seat of 
the milker is on the left side the right 
hand is where it will find the most labor ; 
but if the milker be left-handed he should 
take the right side because his left hand 
will be the stronger. Should not the seat 
of the driver be on the left side, and is it 
not wrong for him to sit on the right side ? 
The answer in this country almost univer¬ 
sally will be : “ The right side is the right 
side,” but that this is wrong seems to me 
perfectly clear. I always sit on the left 
side when driving [and feel sure that I am 
all right when there. Especially is this 
side the right one when the September fly 
is getting in her work. I hold the reins in 
the left hand and they are out of reach of 
the horse’s tail, whereas if I sat on the side 
on which people commonly sit the reins 
would be, if in the left hand, just where the 
tail could take a firm hold of them, or if I 
held them in the right hand, the whip, 
standing in its socket, would obstruct my 
control of them. If the horse became—as 
is quite common in such cases—frightened 
and tightened his grip on the reins, I would 
be in great danger of “getting left,” on 
account of being on the right, or rather, on 
• the wrong side. Further, it is custom and 
law in this country to turn to the right, 
when meeting teams, and law and custom 
make this right. The left side of the 
vehicle is the one most exposed to danger 
from collision and the driver on the left 
side is in the right position to see the 
danger and guard against it. 
R. N.-Y.—The cows on the R. N.-Y. “ An¬ 
nex ” farm can be milked on either side 
without disturbance. There seems no good 
reason why all cows should not be trained 
to “ stand ” with the milker on either side. 
WIDE AWAKE ITEMS. 
The approved method of propagating 
apple-trees in southern Maine, says Dr. 
Hoskins, in Garden and Forest, is to grow 
seedlings in a nursery up to four or five 
years, to select the most thrifty for plant¬ 
ing in the orchard, to set them out, and 
three or four years later top-work them, 
by grafting or budding in the limbs. This 
produces a tree that satisfies the require¬ 
ments of that region; and the same pro¬ 
cess is in vogue in all southern New Eng¬ 
land, though low-worked trees are not much 
objected to in Massachusetts, Connecticut 
or Rhode Island. 
In northern New England and the east¬ 
ern provinces of Canada the case is again 
quite different. Here experience has shown 
that notone apple-seedling in a hundred, 
grown from seeds of fruit brought from 
lower New England, will survive the test 
winters. In these sections root-grafted or 
very low-budded trees have exclusive pre¬ 
ference, upon quite as solid grounds of ex¬ 
perience as top-worked trees in Southern 
Maine. If top-working is ever successful 
in the “ Cold North,” it must be a double 
working—the stocks being first root-grafted 
or low-budded to some “ iron-clad” variety 
and then reworked in the branches after 
thev have been established in the orchard. 
Mr. Hawkins remembers his friend 
Felch not long ago advocating the Light 
Brahma as the “best fowl on earth.” Mr. 
Hawkins has, however, kept birds of this 
breed for several years and compared them 
carefully with the Plymouth Rock, and 
before the Light Brahmas begin to lay, 
pullets <?f the latter breed will actually lay 
more than eggs enough to pay for the cost 
of raising to that age. Plymouth Rock 
pullets lay, on an average, when six months 
old, while the Brahmas are two months 
older. 
The reason for their tardiness in laying 
is not because they are Brahmas, continues 
Mr. Hawkins in the Massachusetts Plough¬ 
man, but because they are too large, and 
require more time to[develop. If the Light 
Brahma pullet weighed only six pounds at 
maturity, she would lay as soon as the Ply¬ 
mouth Rock, and if her legs were free from 
feathers, would bring as much in market. 
Our Light Brahma breeders pride them¬ 
selves on their 10 and 12-pound pullets, and 
their 12 to 14-pound cockerels, while if they 
were two-thirds of this size, they would be. 
much more profitable and desirable. 
Mr. Hersey says that he has had some 
experience with poultry, covering a period 
of 40 years and he is quite sure that we can 
double the amount of eggs laid by a hen by 
careful breeding and selection. He has had 
hens that would lay 100 eggs without bit¬ 
ting and it was his intention when he start¬ 
ed to get up a breed of hens for laying pur¬ 
poses and he accomplished what he started 
for, but after he got them where he wanted 
them, the fashion changed from a white to 
a dark-colored egg, so he was thrown out. 
It does not pay to live without being in the 
fashion so now he is turning in the direc¬ 
tion of the fashion and if he lives a few 
years he has no doubt that he will be able 
to produce a breed of hens that are good 
layers of fashionable eggs. 
