THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 11, 
198 
ling, four or five inches of good garden soil, sandy loam 
preferred, is evenly spread, well raked and then made 
perfectly even with a board “sweep.” The sash is now 
put in place, the exposed outside parts of the frame well 
banked with manure held in place with a little earth 
The next day the seeds may be sown. Very rich soil 
is usually recommended, but I doubt the wisdom of 
this, as I think better plants can be grown by using soil 
of medium quality, and adding a liberal dressing of fer¬ 
tilizer rich in phosphoric acid and potash. The fer¬ 
menting manure will supply more than enough of 
ammonia. 
SOWING THE SEED.—The proper time for sowing 
the seed depends on location, kind of plants to be grown 
and manner in which plants are to be handled. While 
it is desirable to have vegetables as early as possible, 
sowing the seed too early is likely to cause a loss in 
this direction. As intimated before, to economize hot¬ 
bed space and labor, I grow my early tomato plants, 
ready for the field, right where the seed is sown, 500 
plants to the sash. The seed is usually sown about 
March 15, the plants set in the field from May 1 to 10, 
and in four years the date for selling the first fruits has 
not varied more than a day or two from July 10, early 
enough to dispose of considerable quantities in the 
Harrisburg market at from 10 to 15 cents per berry 
basket retail and at from $1.50 to $2 per bushel crate 
wholesale. The seed is sown in drills eight inches apart 
or five rows to the sash. A liberal amount of seed is 
used, and when well started the plants are thinned to 
about 100 per row. The bed is carefully ventilated with¬ 
out severe drafts during the day, and covered with straw 
SCHIZANTIIUS FLOWER. NATURAL SIZE. Fig. S6. 
See Page 204. 
mats at night. The growth is very rapid during the 
first three or four weeks, and then as the weather 
becomes milder the plants are more and more exposed 
to the open air, and as the time for transplanting draws 
near water is withheld so that on sunny afternoons the 
plants look quite drooping. The result is a fine lot of 
plants from eight to 12 inches tall, with hard, woody 
stems, blossom buds showing and tough leaves that 
will withstand a light frost, if it should occur. 
SETTING THE PLANTS.—In setting these plants 
in the field they are set or rather laid in shallow fur¬ 
rows, tops away from the prevailing winds; a little soil 
is drawn over the roots, a foot pressed on the spot, 
while the rest of the stem is covered all but three or 
four inches of the top, which is turned upward. The 
footprint is left open to receive a pint of water, which 
later is covered to prevent evaporation. Thus treated 
they scarcely droop, and soon the whole stem, under¬ 
ground, is covered with rootlets, causing a vigorous 
growth. But this is '"andering from the subject. With 
sweet potatoes, egg plant and probably peppers, nothing 
is gained here by bedding or sowing before April 1. 
Peppers are treated in the same way as described for 
tomatoes, while egg plants are sown in the same way, 
and as soon as the tomatoes are removed they are trans¬ 
planted to the vacant beds at such distance as space 
will permit. Nothing is gained by planting these in the 
open ground until near June. Before each transplant¬ 
ing the plants are thoroughly hardened. In caring for 
the plants it is well to have a thermometer in the shade 
of a bar near the middle of the bed. During the day 
the temperature may range from 60 to 90 degrees; at 
night it will often fall to 50, and occasional extremes 
of 40 or 100 will do no harm. Special care is necessary 
on those occasional cold, windy days, when bright sun¬ 
shine is interspersed by periods of cloudiness, to pre¬ 
vent either scorching or chilling the plants. In fact, a 
fair degree of vigilance is at all times necessary, as a 
little neglect at a critical time may be disastrous, 
although as yet I have never had the slightest loss. 
This may seem like a long exposition for a simple sub¬ 
ject, but though the details are numerous, they are not 
difficult to understand. d. l. hartman. 
Pennsylvania. _ 
WESTERN FARMERS C0MINC EAST. 
The article on page 114 of The R. N.-Y. entitled “A 
Western Farmer on Eastern Farms,” ought to excite 
considerable interest. He states that “eastern farms 
are the cheapest and best farm propositions on earth,” 
and that “it is rank folly to sell them at the prices we 
do.” I am glad to say that the farmers, in this locality 
at least, are awakening to the fact, and the price of 
farms is at least double what it was 10 years ago when 
I bought here. My neighbor then offered his whole 
farm for $1,000; he has lately sold the wood on it for 
$1,200, and now asks $1,500 for what is left, and it is 
cheap at that. Think of buying a good house and barn, 
200 acres of land, including 1,000 bearing peach trees, 
for $1,500! My own farm bought for less than $1,000 
II years ago, I would hesitate to sell to-day for $2,500. 
This farm can produce an income of $1,000 a year, 40 
per cent on $2,500. I would like to ask what investment 
will pay a like interest with so little risk. But I started 
to write this article to show that the western farms are 
gradually coming East and if the western farmer wants 
to remain with the best part of his farm he has got to 
pull up stakes and move East. The grain dealer at the 
West Willington railway station told me that he had 
paid out for grain last year over $25,000. Not all of 
this is used in Willington, for he has a few customers 
in the adjoining town of Tolland, but grain is also 
bought in Merion on the south and Stafford Springs on 
the north, so it is quite fair to assume that at least 
$30,000 is paid out yearly for grain by the farmers of 
this “decadent New England hill town” with a voting 
population of less than 300. Year after year the fer¬ 
tilizing ingredients in that $30,000 worth of grain are 
added to the soil here, and the western farms to that 
extent depleted, so as I said, the western farmer in time 
will be compelled to come East to find his farm. 
Why don’t we raise our own grain ? Because we 
can buy it cheaper; because it is too difficult to cultivate 
this stony ground; because we can make more money 
raising something else. Good corn is raised here, but 
nearly all of it is cut up for silage, very little saved 
for grain. Many of these cheap farms are passing into 
the hands of foreigners with large families, to whom 
the “hired man" problem is a matter of little or no 
concern. Usually these make good citizens, the children 
especially being rapidly Americanized in the free public 
schools. GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
AN AMATEUR'S EXPERIENCE WITH SAN 
JOSE SCALE. 
Four years ago upon my little lot of ground, 50 x 150 
feet, besides my house, chicken coop and grape trellis, 1 
had found room for a few fruit trees, and had planted 
with care one plum, one pear, one crab apple, two 
cherries and three peach trees. The cherry trees still 
remain in full vigor and bearing while all the others 
have one by one succumbed to the attacks of the San 
Jose scale, and have gone up in smoke. And this is 
the way of it: First the plum tree, at the time of fruitage 
showed remarkable signs of decay. The smaller 
branches, the boughs and tender twigs, appeared to be 
dead or dying. Examining I found their surfaces en¬ 
crusted with something quite peculiar, which caused 
them to resemble what I had observed on dead limbs in 
the woods. Scraping the surface with my thumb-nail 
or with the back of my knife blade, I discovered in the 
stuff signs of life. Upon sending sample twigs so 
affected to the Agricultural Experiment Station at 
Geneva, N. Y., I learned that others had long preceded 
me in finding out my enemy—the enemy of my fruit and 
fruit trees, and that it had already been described and 
named the San Jose scale. Next I sought its destruc¬ 
tion. I first tried the celebrated Bordeaux Mixture, and 
prepared 50 gallons according to formulated directions, 
with great care. It proved ineffective as to the scale, 
but highly damaging to nearby vegetation. I applied it 
by means of a long-handled whisk broom, bending the 
long and slender limbs so as to reach every part of every 
twig and leaf. Another application I made with a small 
force pump, such as is often used in washing carriages. 
This time the material used was whale-oil soap. Still 
another trial was made with 25 per cent emulsion of 
kerosene. The following Spring my plum tree showed 
few leaves and still fewer blossoms. I pruned away 
that which appeared to be positively dead. A week or 
two later there was more to cut away, and so it went 
on till the whole tree was gone. 
Then came along a tree agent. Of course he wanted 
my order for trees. I asked if lie could sell me stock 
that would successfully resist the attacks of the San 
Jose scale. He replied that there was no San Jose scale 
in this State of New Jersey; at least he had not heard 
of any. At any rate, there was none in New York, cer¬ 
tainly not in the region of his nurseries. Had I not 
just read of the work of the experiment station on 
Long Island and in other places up the State com¬ 
bating the scale? I concluded it safe to defer my 
order. I now discovered that my crab apple tree was 
sick, and that my favorite peach tree, which had long 
borne so well such large and beautiful fruit of most 
delicious flavor, showed signs of weakness evidently 
because of the scale. I drenched them thoroughly with 
whale-oil soap, using a strong solution, and toward 
another Spring, having read in some agricultural paper 
that caustic soda was a perfect insecticide for the terri¬ 
ble beast, provided it should be thoroughly applied and 
in sufficient strength, I procured in Newark a quantity 
of the substance said to be 78 per cent strong —at least 
the very strongest there was manufactured. By means 
of whisk broom and step ladder, and by ascending to 
second story window nearby, I thoroughly sprayed the 
crab apple tree, and repeated the operation before the 
young leaves appeared. T served the peach trees in 
much the same way. Also, having discovered that the 
pear tree was infested, I gave it a double dose of the 
caustic soda solution. 
As the result of my investment in materials and tools, 
and of hard and unpleasant work, I found in the suc¬ 
ceeding Autumn my trees all dead or dying, the paint 
on my house near the crab apple tree stained and 
injured by the soda, a tolerably fair suit of clothes well- 
nigh ruined, and, strange to say, 13 of a brood of 14 
A SC 111Z A NT HUS PLANT IN BLOOM. Fio. 87. 
See Page 204. 
choice young chicks poisoned to death by being cooped 
on the ground beneath the pear tree. Conclusion: I 
think it better to do without fruit trees than to indulge 
in difficult and unsafe experiments with insecticides. 
Glen Ridge, N. J. m. n. h. 
PROPAGATING STOCK UNDER GLASS. 
Please explain the method of grafting and propagating new 
or fine varieties of hickory, as practiced under glass, using 
young trees for stock to graft upon. II. B. S. 
Rocky River, O. 
It is by no means certain that there is a practical 
way of grafting the hickory under glass. It has been 
tried by a few experimenters in a limited way, but 
nothing of consequence has come of it as yet. The 
way this is usually done is first to grow seedlings in 
large pots, and when they are the size of a lead pencil 
and in a vigorous state of growth, cut from a tree of 
the variety to be propagated wood that has young 
growth with some buds well matured near the base. 
The part having these mature buds should have all 
leaves cut off, and scions made that are not over two 
buds in length, and one is thought by some grafters 
to be better. Each scion should have a long tapering 
wedge made on the butt end, a long downward gash 
cut near the base of each stock, into which the wedged 
part of the scion should be carefully forced. Strips of 
waxed cloth should be wound about the stock and 
scion, binding the latter firmly in place. The pots with 
the seedlings thus prepared should be put in a cold 
frame, which is a small, glass-covered enclosure, kept 
well watered and partially shaded until union has taken 
place. Another way is to allow the stocks fully to 
mature, graft them in the ordinary way at the collar in 
Spring, and cover each with an inverted glass jar 
until the grafts begin to grow, when they may be set 
in open ground. h. e. van deman. 
