54 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 28, 
until sulphur is all dissolved. I use a cut-down oil bar¬ 
rel to slake the lime in; put lime in barrel, having 
heavy blankets handy to cover, then pour on the lime 12 
gallons of boiling water; cover the barrel until boiling 
starts (which will be almost immediately) ; then add the 
sulphur paste. Cover again, inserting a hoe under the 
blanket to stir with, but stir only enough to keep the 
THE YATES APPLE. Fig. 25. 
lime from burning, and I am very careful not to have 
my hands or wrists bare, for the steam is so intensely 
hot it would scald any exposed flesh. T let this mixture 
cook 20 minutes, then add 10 pounds salt, stirring a little. 
Next T strain the mixture into a 50-gallon cask, 
hanging strainer on side of cask. Strainer is a 
homemade affair, consisting of a square wooden frame 
with common wire fly netting nailed on bottom. I his 
strainer must be emptied of its dregs two or three times 
while running the mixture through. All these fixtures 
are on a platform as high as the wagon box, so I can 
stand on platform, and dip mixture easily with metal 
pail and pour in spray barrel on wagon alongside. What 
my mixing tub lacks of the 50 gallons I supply through 
a hose from the kitchen boiler nearby. In handling this 
mixture and the spray poles the operator always wears 
rubber gloves. Great care should be exercised by 
sprayers never to look directly into the nozzle if there 
is any stoppage, as the high pressure of the pumps may 
cause the obstruction to move, then the flow of the hot 
chemicals is sudden and dangerous to the eyes. Spray¬ 
ers should wear goggles to protect the eyes anyway, and 
it is well also to blanket the horses. 
I have used the lime, salt and sulphur on apple, pear, 
peach and plum, spraying each side of the row both 
ways of the orchard, coating the trees thoroughly. 
This is applied in March. 1 spray again with pure kero¬ 
sene in September; still the scales are not all killed, and 
T shall have to repeat again in the Spring. '1 his method 
is quite as good as any for small fruit growers, and that 
is the class of readers you wish to benefit, for the large 
growers have their own devices already. We need fruit 
trees that are of flat-top habit, like Cogswell, Seek, Nero, 
Black apple, etc., or we may adopt the renewal system, 
namely, as soon as the trees become too large to reach 
with the spray cut down and have young trees coming 
on to take their place. I use a very powerful pump, but 
with one 15-foot hose and Mistry nozzle on cannot elevate 
spray more than 25 feet, or with one Masson nozzle 
about 80 feet. C. E. BLACKWELL. 
Mercer Co., N. J. 
CHESTNUTS IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 
There are places where chestnuts succeed and places 
where they fail. Here in the rich prairie soil of central 
Illinois the chestnut, native and foreign, is usually a 
failure, because of the short life of the tree; and in the 
case of native seedlings because of lack of productiveness, 
although individual trees vary much in this respect. 
Single isolated trees of native seedlings seldom if ever 
produce well-filled burs here, but this difficulty is mended 
in a great measure by planting in rows or groves. If 
it be from lack of hardiness that these natives die it 
must be because they grow too rapidly, for T have heard 
much of the “light chestnut rail” of northern New York 
that “lasts till it blows away.” Further, as the poor, 
thin, “chestnut ridges” seem best adapted to this nut 
in Kentucky and Tennessee, I feel like thinking that 
a soil rich in nitrogen is not the soil for the chestnut. 
Here a limb or two dies, or the bark bursts, anywhere 
along the stem; the next year more limbs die, and soon 
the tree is dead. We do not yet have the Chestnut weevil 
nor any other insect to damage tree or fruit seriously. 
There is considerable leaf spot, but no doubt this can 
be controlled with Bordeaux. Most European varieties 
are undoubtedly tender here. Among those I have tried 
the Ridgely seems the most reliable so far and I think 
it possible that it might be planted with profit even here 
if one could find a reasonably expeditious way of sepa¬ 
rating nut from bur. Squirrels, blue jays and flickers 
( yellowhammers) are also to be counted in in chestnut 
growing. I had two trees of the Ridgely; one died, 
but I think that both have paid for the planting, so 
last Spring 1 planted 20 or 30 more. Paragon is larger 
and so are many other varieties, but one after another 
has died until the Ridgely is now the only named vari¬ 
ety on my place large enough to produce nuts in some 
quantity, and 1 shall increase the planting of it. 
Sangamon Co., Illinois. benj. buckman. 
HOW TO HANDLE A MANURE HEAP. 
Can I prevent the loss of ammonia in the following case? 
We are keeping in cows and three horses. The manure is 
thrown together into a covered space 10 x 40 feet, in which 
are kept 20 live-months-old pigs weighing about 100 pounds 
each. The lioor of tlie cow stable is cemented, so that all 
of the manure,is saved. To keep the pigs warm only straw 
and horse manure is spread in one place. We expect some 
loss here, but wish to prevent it over the rest of the heap. 
How can this be done? We notice some ammonia escaping 
now. The cows receive a medium amount of bedding of 
straw and refuse cut stover (straw is scarce). The pigs are 
allowed to work over the cow manure; there is much corn 
in it. due to mature silage fed. The horse manure and straw 
are then spread over the top. Is there any gain or loss in 
mixing the litter from the poultry house with this manure? 
Kingsville, Q. M, o. b. 
You are handling the manure in a way to have it in 
excellent condition for spreading upon the fields in the 
Spring, It is rather unfortunate, however, that the ma¬ 
nure in question cannot be drawn and spread on the land 
once or twice each week, since this is certainly the most 
economical method of handling the manure crop. The 
losses by escaping ammonia and nitrogen gases can be 
reduced to the minimum by proper handling. I his 
manure heap is in a warm place, the pigs root it over, 
thus admitting much air, and probably the heap is lacking 
moisture, all of which tends to rapid fermentation and 
decomposition. 1 suspect the heap is rotting too rapidly, 
faster than the absorbents (litter) can catch the gases. 
All the liquid manure should be put on the heap, and 
then some water sprinkled on to hold the temperature 
down, and thus check the rotting process. If 100 pounds 
CLEANING WINDFALL PEACHES. Fig. 2(i. See Page 58. 
of litter are used daily for the three horses and 10 cows, 
there will be sufficient absorbent's. If you notice am¬ 
monia escaping after keeping the heap moist enough, then 
use 200 to 300 pounds of dry earth daily in the stables 
or on the heap. Kainit or acid phosphate may be used, 
but it is no better than earth except that it is a valuable 
fertilizer of itself. By controlling the temperature with 
water, not sufficient to leach, using enough litter, little 
use will be found for special absorbents. 
1 would not add the hen manure to the heap. It is a 
manure rich in nitrogen compounds, is very dry and 
quickly loses nitrogen by rapid decomposition. There 
seem to be special bacteria in stable manure which 
attack nitrates at once, and cause losses from them. The 
hen manure should be handled separately. There are 
a few points, easily understood, that if kept in mind 
will help anyone properly to care for the manure heap. 
All decomposition in the heap is brought about by two 
species of bacteria, very different from each other. One 
kind works in the presence of air (aerobic), the other 
will not work in the presence of air (anaerobic). These 
last work in the bottom of the heap and in compact 
places where the air is excluded. They work in lower 
temperatures and their function seems to be to break the 
more complex compounds up into the simpler com¬ 
pounds. The first species .(the aerobic) are the most 
important. The function of these is to break the simpler 
compounds down into marsh gas, carbon dioxide, ammo¬ 
nia and water. These require plenty of air, and work 
faster when the temperature is high. Their work is 
done mostly on the outside of the heap and all through 
the loose manure. Water has two effects on these bac¬ 
teria, viz., it lowers the temperature, thus checking their 
action, and it excludes the air, thus further checking 
their action. Keep in mind that anything that controls 
the temperature and air supply controls the rate of 
decomposition in the heap, and when this is not too 
fast the absorbents (litter) will catch and hold all the 
by-products. a. b. Rogers. 
GOOD APPLES FROM GEORGIA. 
Wayman & Riegel, Pomona, Ga., sent us some fine 
specimens of Yates and Terry, southern Winter apples 
of fine quality. They say: “New York is unloading lots 
of second grade apples on us, which are going cheap. 
Our crop is short, but of fine quality this year. We are 
retailing our Terry at $1.50 to $2 per barrel, while New 
York Baldwins are going at $1 to $1.25. The Terry is a 
rather new variety and one of the best for Georgia. 
Yates is an old variety, popular in many parts of the 
South.” 
Both varieties are attractive in color, yellow in differ¬ 
ent shades, almost entirely overlaid and splashed with 
crimson and dark red. The flesh of Yates is white 
tinged with red next the skin, tender, juicy and pleasant. 
'Terry has yellow flesh, crisp and fine-grained and parti¬ 
cularly pleasant flavor; quality excellent. Both are 
enough better than average Baldwins to warrant the 
better price received in Georgia, but probably would 
not be preferred to first-class Baldwins by those accus¬ 
tomed to the special quality of the northern apple. If 
dessert apples like the varieties named illustrated in 
Figs. 25 and 27 can be produced in quantity in the 
Southern States there will be scant demand for our 
staple northern varieties. An excellent colored plate 
with description of the Terry apple appears in the 
Department of Agriculture Yearbook for 1903, pages 
270—271. __ 
THE SELLING END OF FARMING. 
In the Fall of 1897 I began to make butter. I had 
patronized local creameries up to this time, but had come 
to the conclusion that if rightly conducted the manufac- 
ing of my own product would pay the best. I got 
started all right, but when I came to sell I had to find 
a buyer. I hunted up the local dealer, who gave me 
20 cents per pound for what 1 had, and told me to come 
again in a week. I went again; he said the butter was 
off, and would only give me 16 cents for it. I knew that 
was too cheap if the butter was right, and of course I 
was sure it was all right. I brought it home and con¬ 
cluded I had made a mistake after all, and could not 
sell the goods after I had them. I had in the meantime 
packed a crate and sent to New York. I did not hear 
from that in six weeks, when I wrote the firm and got 
a check. Not hearing from this crate, and not selling 
the other about stopped the butter business, as everyone 
had advised me that I could not sell butter if I made it. 
1 had heard' of Binghamton and concluded I would see 
if I could sell the butter that I had on hand at least. I 
drove down on December 18, 1897, and sold the butter 
readily at 21 cents, the same that 1 had refused 16 cents 
for. I also contracted more for the next week at same 
price. 1 kept going, gradually taking more butter, as my 
neighbors found out about the price, and by Spring had 
quite a business started and have made regular trips 
(with the exception of one year) each week since. 1" 
usually have all I can carry each way. I draw buHer, 
eggs, hogs, poultry, and. in fact, everything produced on 
a farm; 1 have found two things necessary successfully 
to hold trade, promptness and honesty. In fact, I have 
never in over seven years missed my regular trip; my 
customers know I shall be there with the goods, and are 
sure to hold their orders. I never misrepresent any¬ 
thing, as one mistake in that line may cost several go r d 
customers. Another necessary thing is to know what 
goods are worth, and also the quality. If the quality 
and price are right the goods will sell themselves. I 
find that the dealers as a rule are honest men, and they 
admire a straightforward, honest man in any line. I do 
not find it so easy to keep the home end of the business 
in a good condition. At certain seasons of the year 
some makes of butter will be off in color or flavor, and 
it will have to be sold accordingly, and when you make 
returns it is hard for the producer to understand why 
he did not get as much as his neighbor, who makes 
first-class goods; however, at this end as well as the 
other strict integrity will hold all desirable business. 
There have usually been two stores in this village, which 
is five miles from a railroad, and I get goods for them 
for load back, usually all that 1 can handle. I get a 
slight advance over railroad rate for hauling produce to 
market, and about the railroad rate with cartage added 
for goods hauled home, and as a rule I give much better 
satisfaction than the railroad, for there are no delays or 
breakages. 1 believe there are many villages within 
driving distance of many of our cities where the right 
man could work up a good business and be a great ben¬ 
efit to the community. In my opinion the ideal method 
for the man who practices mixed farming is to sell his 
goods direct to the consumer. This is a peculiar branch 
of the business, but will give best returns when rightly 
conducted. w. j. b. 
