1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
115 
do not think that I am getting any more milk than I 
would if I fed only the six quarts of ground feed 
without the six quarts of potatoes. One great ad¬ 
vantage with cooked potatoes is that cattle will not 
choke on them. M. w. s. 
Forestville, N. Y. 
Making a Hog Pasture. —I have an orchard of 
young growing, bearing trees which, for several 
years, has been in cultivation with berries. I wish 
now to change it to a hog pasture in order to dispose 
of the drop apples, and at the same time to bring it 
to a better state of fertility. Will it not be practical 
to harrow thoroughly each spring, and sow to Crim¬ 
son clover with cow peas or oats and peas ? Our soil 
is gravel—hillside—oak and chestnut timber. In 
raising grain, we think a fertilizer that will produce 
a good growth of straw, more necessary than that 
which feeds the berry, as our straw always tills well 
with a plump kernel. Has any one a better suggestion 
for an orchard on this soil ? s. c. B. 
Burdett, N. Y. _ 
SIMPLE HORTICULTURE WORTH REMEM¬ 
BERING. 
The last two sentences of Mr. Munson’s instructive 
remarks respecting plum stocks, on page 50, carry a 
matter of great moment. Most of the leading ques¬ 
tions in plant culture require years of 
careful experiment and observation be¬ 
fore safe opinions can be formed. The 
changefulness that prevails so gener¬ 
ally in all American offices, prevents the 
carrying out of tests requiring length of 
time. In Europe, officials keep their 
places, and are generally faithful and 
diligent ; but our questions rest mostly 
on different conditions of climate, and 
should be worked out here to prove 
serviceable to us. 
Strawberry plants should not have 
their winter blanketing of litter removed 
till growth begins. If the covering has 
been packed down by snow and rain, it 
may be shaken up to admit free air and 
some light, as soon as bare. To have the 
berries look appetizing, nip the stem off 
with the thumb nail. If the berry is 
laid hold of in order to pull it off, it 
will look bruised and distasteful soon 
after. This applies to large berries, 
such as every garden should grow. 
Where there are many, it is well to 
cultivate the thumb nails a little as 
well as the berry bed, as a preparation 
for gathering one of the most welcome, 
rich, and enjoyable of all garden crops. 
Skillful pruning is absolutely neces¬ 
sary for securing continued crops of 
good, handsome fruit of any sort. Here 
is an epitome of the main require¬ 
ments : a. Thin out annually all the 
old exhausted wood, all weakly young 
shoots, and all that cannot reach full 
light. b. Cut off no healthy young 
shoots that have open room and light, 
or that can be tied or braced into open 
light, c. Prevent crowding and shading 
and waste of growth as much as possi¬ 
ble, by rubbing off superfluous shoots 
while yet in the bud. d. Apply this disbudding to 
weak and crowding buds of low plants as currants, 
gooseberries, raspberries, roses and other flowers, 
rhubarb and strawberries, e. When a cut is made 
in a tree which cannot heal over with new bark 
within a year, protect the exposed wood from drying 
out by a coat of some waterproof paint or varnish. 
Thickened gas tar or asphalt serves this use well. 
A bulletin of the experiment station at Lafayette, 
Ind., on the improvement of certain soils (No. 57, 
November, 1895) gives an instructive and interesting 
account of the investigation, and the method of cure. 
Analysis of the soils in question proved them rich in 
all the essential elements of fertility, yet they yielded 
no crops. Any student of soil culture, and especially 
such as have low lands to manage, will find this 
bulletin by Prof. H. A. Huston, chemist, very good 
reading. It is in plain language and has good illus¬ 
trations. w. G. w. 
A Carman Potato. —My specimen was a poor, little, 
shriveled-up thing. I laid it on a shelf, and forgot it 
until it had sprouts on as long as my penholder. I cut 
it in five pieces, a sprout to each piece, and stuck it 
in the ground ; that was all I did to it. About the 
last of July, the tops were dead. October 1 I dug 
them, and got 16 nice potatoes and four about the 
size of the one I planted. ,t. w. 
Olympia, Wash. 
17-YEAR LOCUSTS AND THE APPLE CROP. 
The Locust is a Cultivator. 
In regard to the question on page 253, as to the re¬ 
lation between 17-year locusts and big apple crops, I 
think that Prof. Slingerland is mistaken in treating 
as a mere local superstition, the belief that the cicada 
exercises a beneficial influence on vegetation. 
The R. N.-Y. has often told us that, to improve the 
quality and increase the quantity of fruit, we must 
drain, mulch, cultivate and fertilize the land. The 
locusts take that advice, and do all these things, and 
do them thoroughly. In coming from and returning 
to the earth, they bore under the apple tree as far as 
its branches extend, a large number of holes, deep 
down in the subsoil, forming channels in which fluids 
descend and gases rise—that's drainage. In time, 
these holes choke with loose material, and permit the 
water saturated with plant food to ascend to the sur¬ 
face by capillary attraction—that’s the best part of 
mulching. Sunlight enters the holes and air circulates 
around the roots—that’s about all there is to cultiva¬ 
tion. The hard subsoil is perforated like a sponge, 
and the fertilizing materials that The R. N.-Y teaches 
have been for years washing down below the reach of 
plow or roots, imprisoned in the subsoil, are released 
and all in solution and ready for immediate use are 
conducted to the surface and absorbed by the earth 
surrounding every rootlet—and that’s fertilization, 
the best possible. The locusts have done everything 
that The R. N.-Y. says is necessary. The effect must 
follow the cause, and reason helps tradition prove 
that locusts make an “apple year.” A. w. h. 
Irvington, N. J. 
What Do “ Locusts” Live On ? 
Prof. Slingerland fails to see any connection be¬ 
tween the visitation of 17-year locusts and a large 
crop of apples. The only possible, and probable 
connection, lies in the fact that, where the insects are’ 
numerous, their incisions kill a large proportion of 
the smaller branches or twigs and the extension of 
wood growth being thus checked, the result is the 
formation of an unusual number of fruit buds. The 
Cicada appeared in large numbers in this locality last 
June, and a casual examination of my orchard—10 to 
13 years planted—reveals the conditions above indi¬ 
cated. The yield of apples here was quite large in 
1895, and the abundance of plump fruit buds presages 
a large crop this year ; yet I would gladly lose one 
crop if, by that means, we might dispense with the 
“ locusts.” Seventeen years is a long time, yet our 
experience during the past season leads to the belief 
that once in 17 years is quite as often as we desire to 
see, or hear, the Cicada. 
In this connection, occurs a more abstruse question, 
which I think many readers of The R. N.-Y. would 
like to have Prof. Slingerland answer. Upon what 
do the larvae of the Cicada feed during the 17 years 
they remain in the ground, and at what depth do they 
remain during the greater portion of that period ? 
About five years ago, when digging out the decayed 
stump of a Red elm tree, I found a large number, 
—perhaps 100—of the larvae, and they were then 
nearly full-grown. If, in the absence of decaying 
roots, the larvae feed upon the live roots of trees and 
plants, may not serious injury result therefrom? 
During the past five years, many forest trees, particu¬ 
larly the White or “Pig nut” hickory have died, and 
their destruction has been attributed to drought; but 
as the tap roots of these trees extend to great depth 
in the soii, frequently where permanent moisture is 
known to exist, may not the loss have been caused by 
the larvae feeding upon the roots ? m. j. g. 
Adel, Iowa. _ 
THE SUTTON BEAUTY APPLE. 
HOW DOES IT COMPARE WITH STANDARD SORTS ? 
Sutton Beauty was received, • nearly or quite 50 
years since, from the late Charles Downing, and 
fruited in my trial orchard at Plymouth, Mich. As 
grown there, the trees were very upright in habit, 
and the fruit beautiful, but quite acid. So far as I 
recollect, it was neither an early nor a profuse bearer. 
Within a few years, an apple bearing this name is re¬ 
ceiving favorable notice, and trees of it are on trial at 
the Michigan Experiment Station. These 
trees are, to all appearance, identical in 
habit with those above mentioned. Cir¬ 
cumstances have begotten the inference, 
however, that the two are distinct; 
though these last have not yet fruited ; 
hence the question of identity cannot 
yet be determined. t. t. lyon. 
Michigan. 
The Sutton Beauty is a Massachusetts 
apple, and its season there is December. 
Of course it would be later or earlier 
according to latitude. It is above me¬ 
dium in size, form round, colors yellow 
and crimson, flavor, brisk subacid. Very 
good at its home, but so far as my knowl¬ 
edge extends, not very much cultivated 
elsewhere. t. h. iioskins. 
Vermont. 
I have no knowledge of the Sutton 
Beauty apple gained from experience in 
growing it, and have only had limited 
opportunities for judging it. Its best 
qualities (as a market fruit) are its fair 
size, beautiful color, fine quality, and 
good keeping qualities. I think that it 
would outsell the Baldwin—would prob¬ 
ably rank with the Jonathan, which it 
excels in size, though their quality is 
much alike. e. g. fowler. 
New York. 
1 have this variety in bearing, but, like 
the Baldwin and other standard winter 
varieties for more northern climates, 
it is practically of no value whatever 
here. Blooming earlier in the year, a 
longer and hotter summer, later fall, 
etc., find the fruit of such varieties ripe 
and rotten before gathering time with 
us. For winter, and even late fall ap¬ 
ples, we are compelled to select such 
kinds as are slow to mature, hang well 
and tight to the trees, in short, such as are suited 
to our long, hot summers, such as Paragon, Mat- 
tamusket, Shockley, Virginia Greening, McNash, 
etc. There is, by no means, any scarcity of varieties 
that do well here as winter apples that are at the 
command of well-informed planters. There are anti- 
“ book-larnin’ ” fruit growers to some extent, as well 
as farmers. J. w. kerr. 
Maryland. 
The Sutton Beauty has not been fruited to any 
extent in this State, that I know of, except in a small 
way by Ellwanger & Barry and myself. I have found 
it to be an annual bearer, every other year setting an 
enormous crop of fruit, which requires thinning, and 
being one of the few varieties that seem to be entirely 
free from the scab; in short, it is a variety that I 
never spray for this disease. With me, it keeps well 
into March, and I have had it in fine eating condition 
the first of April. It prebably is at its best along in 
February or March. I regard it as one of the most 
promising apples of recent introduction, not only for 
house use, but for commercial purposes, and after 
fruiting it in a small way, I have grafted over a good 
many trees with it in my orchard. s. D. willard. 
New York. 
Book Rewards. —Don’t forget the books that are 
offered as rewards for new subscriptions. The Busi¬ 
ness Hen, New Potato Culture, Nursery Book, etc., 
for new names for The R, $L'Y- H^ve you booked ope ? 
JAPAN TREE LILAC. Fig. 43. 
See Catalogue Reviews. Page. 120. 
