574 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 29 
crop is handled so quickly and economically, and by 
thrashing oats at the same time, fodder and grain 
both save nicely. We pay $10 a day for a machine 
with three men, and the cost is less than two cents 
per bushel.” 
So far as I can learn, this scheme was originated 
not far from Pontiac. It is gaining in popularity, and 
seems to be a practice worthy of extended introduc¬ 
tion. When thrashing the field above mentioned, 
three teams, wagons and drivers hauled, and three 
men pitched on. Two men ordinarily could pitch a 
shock, but, sometimes, all three boosted together. 
The secret of loading is to load from behind forward ; 
not treading down at all. Howard b cannon. 
HOW IS WET HAY INJURED ? 
How, or in what particular quality, is hay injured, that has 
been wet by a severe storm ? I often hear it said of hay or grain 
that has been wet, “That hay is spoiled,” or, “That hay isn’t 
worth more than one-half as much as it was before the rain.” 
But with all my experience in handling and feeding hay, I have 
never yet learned in what the injury consists. I have just put in 
some three or four tons of oat hay that was wet twice, once when 
lying spread, and once when heaped, and I have heard people 
remark, “ It’s too bad those oats were spoiled.” They were not 
soaked enough to leach, and they were dried out so quickly and 
thoroughly that they did not mildew. Were they injured, or does 
wetting hay injure its quality, and if so, how ? c. p. a. 
New Haven County, Conn. 
“ Haying " Is Hot a Mere Drying. 
If nearly cured, securely cocked, and handled aright 
as soon as the rain is over, I imagine that hay can be 
carried through pretty severe rains without any great 
loss of nutritive matter. The chief loss will be from 
the leaching of the outside of the cocks. But when 
the grass is only half cured and, therefore, quite damp 
when put in the cocks, it ferments in a very short 
time with great loss of “ carbohydrates,” probably, 
and very likely, too, with changes in the proteids 
which greatly damage them, with the development of 
molds and other fungi which make the hay “musty ” 
and unpalatable and, in some cases, distinctly injuri¬ 
ous. But the changes which naturally go on when 
grass is converted into hay—it is not a mere drying, I 
think—have not been studied, and we know nothing 
very definite about the fermentations which are in¬ 
duced by wetting half-cured hay, or about the extent 
to which valuable matter may be leached out by rain. 
Connecticut Ex. Station. E. h. jenkins. 
Both Chemical and Mechanical. 
Hay that has been wet by a severe storm, is in¬ 
jured, mainly, in two directions. First, in a loss of 
the aromatic qualities, or those properties which 
give flavor and aroma to well-cured hay, and increase 
its palatability. The losses in this direction, per¬ 
haps, do not materially reduce the food value of the 
hay, though they certainly affect the food value in¬ 
directly, because the animals will waste more of any 
product which has been reduced in palatability. The 
wetting, also, causes a loss of the soluble constitu¬ 
ents of the hay ; these are quite considerable if it is 
harvested before entirely ripe, and falls mainly upon 
the class carbohydrates, which include sugar. These 
losses may be regarded as chemical. The second 
source of loss is mechanical, and is very heavy in 
case of the various clovers, as after they are wet 
once, the leaves and the stems are very brittle, and 
the handling necessary to cure them will measure 
the losses in this respect. I doubt very much whether 
the loss is equal to three-quarters of the food value 
of the hay from both these sources, even under very 
unfavorable circumstances, though it must be remem¬ 
bered that the mechanical losses fall more largely 
upon the better and more digestible parts of the hay. 
The less digestible woody fiber suffers the least loss. 
There is no possible means of bringing back the 
original quality of the hay after it has been once 
thoroughly soaked. e. b. voorhees. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. 
What Changes Take Place ? 
Certain of the compounds of all fodder plants are 
not only susceptible to being leached out of the 
tissues by a severe wetting, but they are also prone 
to rapid chemical change. This is true of some of the 
carbohydrates, like sugar, as well as of certain of the 
protein compounds. It is somewhat difficult, under 
the best of conditions, to dry out a plant from the 
green condition to an air-dried state, without the 
Qccurrence of chemical change ; but such destructive 
fermentations become all the more extensive when 
the plant is wet by rain, and remains in a moist 
condition, or is a long time drying out. These 
changes, in a general way, are largely oxidation 
processes, and consequently, th? possible leediug 
value of the plant is diminished to just the extent 
that they occur. The dry matter is oxidized and 
broken up in other ways before it enters the 
animal, rather than after. It happens that these 
compounds which are so liable to destruction under 
unfavorable conditions, are among the most digestible 
and useful compounds which enter into cattle foods, 
and their breaking up constitutes a distinct loss. 
Such changes have an influence upon palatableness 
as well, consequently, hay that has been wet is not 
as attractive to the animal as hay that has been cured 
under the best conditions. It would be possible so to 
treat the hay, perhaps, as to restore its palatableness 
to some extent; but I cannot conceive of any way in 
which its original feeding value could be restored. 
New York Ex. Station. w. h. .tobdan. 
WHEN TO PLOW AND FERTILIZE AN ORCHARD 
One of our readers on Long Island says that be has an orchard 
which he wishes to fertilize with a dressing of kainit, lime and 
salt, so as to get the best possible results from it. He has been 
told that it is a bad practice to plow a sod orchard in the fall, 
and wishes to know whether it will be best to put on his fertilizer 
in October, and let it lie there until spring, when it can be plowed 
in, or whether he would better apply the whole thing in the spring, 
and then plow it. Will you tell us what you think about this 
matter, whether you would advise fall or spring plowing, and fall 
or spring fertilizing under these circumstances, and under what 
conditions you would advise him to use the fertilizers this fall ? 
Shallow Plowing in Fall. 
I can see no reason for including common salt in 
this list of fertilizers, when he has kainit, which is 
partly composed of salt. If he will sow the lime and 
kainit bioadcast, in liberal quantity soon after the 
fruit crop is off in the fall, and plow up the soil very 
shallow, only deep enough to turn it well, and let it 
lie until spring, he will act wisely. Then, if he will 
work the top of the soil over every week all spring 
and summer with any kind of harrow or other tool 
that will make it very loose and fine for about two 
inches deep, he will see his trees grow and bear (pro¬ 
vided they have a fruit crop), as they have not done 
lately. I have never seen any bad results from plow¬ 
ing an orchard in the fall, except where it was stirred 
so deep as to tear up the roots badly. A grass sod is 
always bad for an orchard, but clover does it good, 
especially if it is plowed under every two years, and 
never made into hay. A meadow or pasture and an 
orchard of any kind, should never be on the same 
ground at the same time ; neither will prosper as 
they ought. As to the time to apply manures, there 
is little danger of loss from dissipation before the 
trees can receive their benefits, except in case of those 
which are nitrogenous. It is possible that a small 
portion of the potash and phosphoric acid may revert, 
or unite chemically with other elements, and make 
insoluble compounds that are not available plant food. 
But it has been proved over and over again, that pot¬ 
ash and phosphoric acid do not leach away, and that 
they show the effects of their application on crops for 
more than five years afterwards, h. e. van deman. 
The Why and the Wherefore. 
So much depends upon location and character of 
soil, that it is hard to answer, in a general way, to fit 
all cases. In fact, I don’t believe that any rigid rule 
can be laid down. Each orchard must be studied and 
treated according to the environments and conditions. 
As a rule, it is bad policy to plow an orchard that has 
not been worked for some time, and has become 
sodded over, in the fall, until after the leaves have 
fallen. It should be known that the feeding roots of 
apple trees are of the present year’s growth, and 
that they die and are shed each autumn, and new 
ones grow each year. If the orchard has lain long, 
the roots have come quite largely to, or very near, the 
surface, and the whole top six or eight inches of 
soil will be a network of these young, active feeding 
roots. If the orchard be plowed, these will be de¬ 
stroyed, and the tree must suffer. If, however, the 
same orchard were to be plowed in the following 
spring, quite early, very few of these roots would 
have begun to form, and even if quite a number of 
the larger roots should be cut away, the remaining 
ones would be the more densely covered with the 
small feeders, new roots would be thrown out in 
place of those cut away, and the tree would get no 
shock at all. 
Another thing should be known : The early growth 
of roots, leaves and branches is made from material 
prepared the previous summer, and stored away fn 
the sap-wood ready to be so used, and no substance 
beneficial to the tree is taken by the roots from the 
soil until the leaves become full grown. An apple 
tree may have nearly all the top cut away as in 
grafting, and the tree make all the ranker growth 
for it, while the same tree, cut to the same extent in 
August, would be nearly killed. I would, then, very 
strongly advise that this orchard be left until early 
spring, and then be plowed. It might be plowed in 
late October or November, perhaps, without injury ; 
but I don’t like to have my land lie bare during the 
winter, and would prefer the early spring plowing. 
I can see no use in applying kainit and salt to the 
same land. Very much of the kainit is simply salt, 
and as salt has no manurial effect, the trees would 
get all that could be profitably applied in putting on 
sufficient kainit to furnish the requisite amount of 
potash. If the orchard is of bearing age, it should 
receive not less than 100 or 200 pounds of actual pot¬ 
ash per acre, providing it has had no previous appli¬ 
cation. To get this in kainit would require from 800 
to 1,600 pounds of kainit, and in using this quantity, 
all the salt desirable would be applied. The appli¬ 
cation of lime would be all right, and could do no 
harm, although most soils have all the lime needed. 
I believe that many soils are deficient in phosphoric 
acid ; in old orchards, this is almost sure to be lack¬ 
ing, and I would advise the application of fine bone 
or dissolved South Carolina rock, not less than 200 
pounds per acre. 
As to the best time to apply these, if the land is 
not subject to overflow, by all means, put them all 
on this fall ; scatter them over the entire surface, 
and the rains will take them into the soil. They will 
become diffused, and be available for the trees at the 
earliest start in spring. If he wait until spring to 
apply, it will not get all through the soil next sum¬ 
mer, unless there should be an unusual amount of 
rain. In any case, the trees would not get full benefit 
from the manure in time to do them the most good. 
As to the depth to plow the orchard, no fixed rule 
can be given. On some soils, the orchard can’t be 
plowed at all; they are so rocky and the soil so shal¬ 
low that, if plowed at all, they would be ruined ; still 
those orchards are healthy and productive. On other 
soils, the roots run deep, and they may be plowed 
from four to six inches deep with but little injury to 
the roots. But still I think it better never to plow 
any orchard (no matter how deep the soil) over four 
inches. A safe 4 »ile is to plow just deep enough to 
get down the grass, and depend upon the Cutaway 
harrow to do all the rest of the cultivation. 
I have, this year, two orchards, not 20 rods apart, 
upon the same kind of soil. The one has been con¬ 
stantly cultivated for years, the other was never 
plowed or cultivated, and both are loaded with fine 
apples, although it must be admitted that the orchard 
always under sheep and hogs has the most abundant 
crop, of the best quality, and does bear good crops 
more often. Still, when I go about the country and 
see orchard after orchard in grass and the grass up to 
the branches, or has been mowed and made into hay 
and the orchard looks starved, and fruit scanty and 
poor, I am afraid to recommend the leaving of orchards 
in pasture. 
So I think that the Long Island man would better 
make his application of kainit, lime and bone dust this 
fall, plow his orchard two inches deep very early in 
spring, keep it cultivated often enough from then to 
August to keep down all weeds, keep enough sheep 
or hogs in it to eat all fallen fruit, judiciously use 
the sprayer to keep down scab and fungus, and he 
will have no cause of complaint about the barrenness 
of his orchard. J. s. woodward. 
POTATO BEETLES ON TOMATO VINES. 
In response to the call for help from the Maryland reader 
printed last week, the following bits of advice are at hand: 
Would Try Hellebore. 
I think that hellebore could be safely used on the 
tomato vines, but whether it would kill the potato 
beetle I cannot say. Dust it, undiluted with any¬ 
thing, on a plant or two, and see whether it will kill. 
If this will not check them, the only thing that can 
be done, as far as I know, is to hand pick. This, of 
course, seems like a big job, but when one realizes 
that it is a question of a crop or no crop at all, then 
the work required to hand pick does not cut so much 
of a figure. It would not cost nearly so much as the 
crop will bring to hand pick, and if the bugs are not 
soon killed, it means a total loss of crop. People do 
not realize this point as they should. 
Cornell Ex. Station. m. y. slingerland. 
Try Paris-Green in Whitewash. 
I have known the potato beetle to do some slight 
injury to tomatoes, but never sufficient to warrant 
notice. This instance of their attacking the tomato 
vines in a serious manner is quite new to me, and I 
have had no experience whatever in treating them 
for such an attack. However, I would not hesitate, 
in the least, to use Paris-green on the tomatoes. The 
fruit of the tomato is always washed before it is used 
in any manner, and the poison will not penetrate the 
tissues of the plant or of the fruit at all. In using 
the Paris-green on the tomatoes, I would, most cer¬ 
tainly, use it in a thin whitewash, say, four pounds of 
lime slaked in 50 gallons of water, and to this add 
eight ounces of Paris-green. This I know is a heavy 
dose, but the potato beetle requires strong treatment 
in order to check it, Poison used in this manner will 
