486 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 24, 
after application. Mr. Barnes says that lime in some 
form seems to be specially useful on these hill lands. 
For this reason wood ashes of good quality make a 
very desirable fertilizer. It is planned to use lime in 
the form of ashes or bone at frequent intervals on old 
and young orchards. Mr. Barnes plans to apply the 
fertilizer if possible during the month of May. 
VARIETIES.—Mr. Barnes gives the following state¬ 
ment about the varieties best suited for this sort of 
planting. Thus far Mountain Rose is the earliest va¬ 
riety grown, and this is planted largely to lengthen the 
season so as to hold the pickers: 
“In regard to the Elberta, we have planted it on 
about all grades of soil, from moist or heavy land to 
dry, and by dry I do not mean sand, but dry hill land. 
We get the best colored fruit and much earlier ma¬ 
turity of same (which means being ahead of the bulk 
of the crop in the locality) from our driest, poorest 
ridge land; also smaller sized trees. We do not care 
any more to plant Elberta on heavy soil except enough 
to keep our hold on the market while Elbertas are 
wanted. On the heavier soils varieties of the Crawford 
Late class, as Chairs Choice, Globe, etc., also Reeve’s 
Favorite, do well. Champion bears heavily of very large 
fruit on such soil, but for good colored fruit of this 
variety take the dry soil. We have planted very lightly 
of the early varieties and with results not encouraging 
to us as a rule. Carman—from the few trees we have 
bearing—promises well, and our late planted orchards 
contain quite a few trees of this variety. We are not 
in a position to say that one variety is better than 
some other for rough land planting, but assume not. 
Our position is that certain conditions must prevail in 
producing a successful peach orchard, but not necessar- 
'■* ily a certain method. The tree must have enough food 
to develop itself fully, and also for production of large 
crops of fruit, also enough moisture. If not enough of 
any of the requirements is obtained the productiveness 
of the trees will suffer. Several ways of obtaining 
or maintaining the required conditions we believe ex¬ 
ist, and most economical method may not be the same 
in every case. Mountain Rose is the earliest variety 
that we have produced so far in quantity. It is hand¬ 
some in appearance, and fine in quality, but rather 
■ tender to handle nicely; yet we know of no variety 
better that ripens with it. Carman may be better, but 
we want to go with it further before saying so.” 
CONCLUSION.—It is difficult to describe these 
orchards clearly. They should be seen to be appre¬ 
ciated. It will be quite evident to anyone who can see 
the little trees as they start on those rough hillsides, 
and also the bearing orchards, that this form of cul¬ 
ture is sure to influence American fruit growing. Land 
which brings $100 per acre located 500 miles or more 
from New York cannot long compete with this cheap 
land within 100 miles of a dozen large cities. When the 
apple orchards which have been planted by this method 
come into bearing the beauty and fine flavor of the 
fruit will be so marked that they will command atten¬ 
tion at once. In many cases these rough hills can be 
made to yield larger returns than the level valley farms, 
which have been supposed to be all that is left of New 
England agriculture. H. w. c. 
SOIL FOR INOCULATING ALFALFA. 
What has been the result from using soil from an Alfalfa 
field for inoculation? How is the soil taken from the field? 
Mr. F. E. Dawley says: “We have sent out over 700 
lots of soil from our field, and over 90 per cent of the 
people who have received it report satisfactory results, 
and in some cases wonderful results. If I cared to ship 
as far south as South Carolina I could ship by the 
carload, but there is no profit in it at the price I have 
made on the soil, as I am destroying a field that is 
worth from $150 to $200 an acre. In relation to the 
method of digging soil from a field, I remove the top 
eight inches, then take the next eight inches, which I 
screen to get out the coarse stuff, and start it on. I 
think that is the best method of handling it. The only 
point is to dig it where the inoculation seems most 
abundant.” __ 
SHORT STORIES . 
A PUBLIC SPRAYER.—This is the fourth season 
I have run a power sprayer, and I have sprayed equiva¬ 
lent to from 100 to 360 acres each year. I run the 
engine and do the driving; furnish the gasoline and oil, 
and receive $7 a day. I apply 2,000 gallons a day where 
water is near the orchard; the engine pumps in lime, 
vitriol and water. I maintain about 100 pounds pres¬ 
sure and use three large Friend nozzles, which I think 
are equal to 12 small nozzles. These are all on one 
stem, so only one man is needed to do the spraying. 
I believe the same material will go about one-third 
farther than when applied at about 50 pounds pressure, 
as is often done by hand. As most people spray the 
expense is 50 to 75 cents per acre for large apple 
trees. I run about 30 days each Spring, and do about 
20 jobs, ranging from 25 acres down, doing some twice 
and some only once. The difficulty of several wanting 
to spray at once is not as great as would be supposed. 
The cost for gasoline and batteries is small, but I 
find the expense of hose, nozzles, valves and general 
repairs to be larger than would be expected. Several 
men have said my outfit would cover their orchard in 
one-fourth the time required with a large double-action 
hand pump and a tank holding 250 gallons. It would 
seem to me the hand pump outfit should do it in about 
ri 
THE BOY WITH THE HOE. Fig. 205. 
three times the time required for the power rig. At 
this rate the power sprayer would seem to be the 
cheapest, but the main saving is in the superior work 
done, especially on tall trees. wm. bugbee. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
TALL TOMATOES FAILING.—I would like to 
know if the popularity of the tall-growing varieties of 
tomatoes is waning. It certainly is in our locality. When 
we first grew tomato plants for market the demand was 
almost exclusively for Stone, Acme, Perfection, etc., and 
but very few people would buy the Dwarf Champion 
or Dwarf Aristocrat. When Dr. Van F'leet introduced 
his Quarter Century we commenced to grow it, and 
the result was so satisfactory we added it to our list 
of varieties for market. Now it is very difficult to sell 
a box of a tall variety, and we shall make no attempt 
to grow the tall plants again. Grown side by side with 
the much-advertised Earliana, it proved to be earlier, 
smoother and finer flavor, and outyielded it as least 
five to one, as it did the new Dwarf Stone. Through 
good seasons and bad the Quarter Century has yielded 
splendidly, and I feel sure it is the best variety grown. 
It has seemed to me for some time that The R. N.-Y. 
was altogether too modest about this tomato. Great 
cl: inis are made for the Early Jewell, but there are 
THE ROSE-COLORED CALLA, RICHARDIA REHMANNI, 
MUCH REDUCED. Fig. 206. See Rtiralisms, Page 490. 
many boxes of Quarter Century where the fruit has 
set and some as large as a 25-cent piece, while the 
Jewell is just opening its cluster of bloom. F. c. c.- 
Sandy Creek, Me. 
WHY FARMERS FAIL.— Mr. Goulter, of Michigan, 
ventures the assertion on page 438 that four-fifths 
of our farms are twice as big as the business capacity 
of the owners. This may be true, but I doubt whether 
‘the remedy suggested would be effective. Mankind 
is prone to think that its successes are due to grit 
and its failures to environment. About five years ago 
a farmer in my vicinity whose work was never done 
sold his hundred-acre farm and moved to a 25-acre 
lot, retaining all the help that he had on the larger 
place. His work now is not more nearly in line with 
that of his neighbors than it was. And thus always a 
good farmer will do good work under all ordinary con¬ 
ditions, and vice versa. i. s. H. 
INSECTS CONVEY BROWN ROT. 
In Bulletin 116 of the Kentucky Experiment Station 
Prof. H. Garman gives an interesting study of insects 
and plant diseases. He noticed that the skin of grapes, 
peaches and plums was often cut and that frequently 
brown rot followed the wound. He was, for a time, in¬ 
clined to think that bees were the culprits, but he has 
learned that tree crickets and June bugs do most of 
the cutting. The bees do not cut the fruit at all, but 
follow where other insects have cut it and cat or suck 
the pulp. Regarding his observations, Prof. Garman 
says: 
For some time I have been watching honey bees from my 
hives at work on plums, peaches, and grapes, with a view of 
learning if they actually cut the skins of these fruits. While 
loath to believe ill of so estimable a little busybody, I have 
at times felt that there was no other solution of the ques¬ 
tion. They seem to know the location of every cut skin, 
whether the cut is fresh or otherwise, and once started, 
never rest until every drop of juice of the injured fruit is 
abstracted. But it was observed that plums that were 
perfect in the morning remained so at night, and no matter 
how close a cut plum hung to a sound one they never 
touched the latter. To test them, I more than once re¬ 
moved cut plums from clusters, thinking that when they 
found their forage gone they would cut the next plum. They 
returned again and again, circling through the vacant 
space, but in no case did they show the slightest disposi¬ 
tion to attack the other plums. Then I began to take paper 
sacks from plums that had been enclosed to protect them 
from rot. These plums generally came out of the sacks in 
perfect, condition, and when exposed in the morning, re¬ 
mained perfect the following evening. But the next morn¬ 
ing some of them were generally with small fresh-cut 
holes in their skins, and the bees soon came to them. These 
observations persuaded me finally that some nocturnal insect 
was the culprit. But to test the bees still further ripe 
plums and grapes were placed upon the alighting boards 
of hives, and although in this situation the bees crawled all 
over them, they were never injured. In short it seemed 
never to occur to the bees, under all temptation put in 
their way, to use their jaws on the fruit. This seems quite 
remarkable to one who has witnessed the effective manner 
in which they use these organs against robbers and in 
cutting the caps from cells. 
Further study showed beyond any doubt that tree 
crickets were cutting the fruit, while the bees were fol¬ 
lowing them. It was also found that the Green June- 
bug will at times cut the skin of grapes. Prof. Garman 
shows the peaches at Fig. 207 as evidence of what in¬ 
sects may do in spreading diseases: 
Observations such as have just been recorded with refer¬ 
ence to tree-crickets and June bugs have impressed me with 
the important part taken by these and other insects in the 
dissemination of the brown rot fungus of stone fruits. An 
examination of rotting peaches and plums has very com¬ 
monly. shown the presence of a perforation in the skin from 
which the disease spread. In many cases these breaks are 
traceable to insects, sometimes to curculios, sometimes to 
tree crickets, sometimes to June bugs. But the rot may be in¬ 
troduced by bees following after some one of the preceding, 
and occasionally by wasps and even butterflies that visit 
the breaks to sip the exposed juices. And thus it hap¬ 
pens that the injury actually destroying the fruit is the 
result of inoculation by insects that had no part in cutting 
the skin. Of course any accidental break in the skins of 
such fruits is likely to result in rotting if the fungus is 
about the trees, but excepting in the case of certain varie¬ 
ties that are prone to split when growing rapidly, such 
breaks are not very common. While a plum that has been 
inoculated intentionally will in warm weather show the 
rot the following day, one that is simply punctured but 
not inoculated may lie for a week or 10 days without an 
appearance of the disease. This has been the result at 
times when the skin of a plum was punctured in a half- 
dozen places; from which it appears that rotting on the 
trees would he less frequent if the taint were not carried 
on the mouth-parts of insects. I believe they sometimes 
introduce the rot on trees from which otherwise it would 
be completely absent._ 
A COMPOST FOR TREE PLANTING. 
Wishing to start Citrus and other fruit trees in very light 
soil (nearly pure sand), I purpose digging holes and filling 
with compost. What commercial fertilizers shall I compost 
with stable manure and well-cured muck to make a healthy 
and quick growth of trees? What quantity shall I use of 
each, taking 13 tons (all that is available here) of stable 
manure as the basis, making use of the largest possible pro¬ 
portion of muck, and using chemicals to supply what is 
lacking to make a complete tree food? Give name and price 
of good work on composts. C. P. J. 
Neptune, Fla. 
A book entitled “Manures, How To Make and Use 
Them,” by Sempers. price 50 cents, will help you. If the 
muck has been well cured or fermented you can mix it 
with the manure with three times its weight of muck. 
Both the manure and the muck are deficient in potash 
and phosphoric acid, while fruit trees require a full 
supply of these elements. We should use muriate of 
potash and fine ground bone—the latter in preference to 
acid phosphate for that light soil. For each ton of the 
combined muck and manure we should want at least 100 
pounds of bone and 40 pounds of muriate or sulphate of 
potash. Mix these chemicals thoroughly all through the 
pile as it is put together. After the pile has stood 
awhile work it over thoroughly beginning at one end 
and forking it into a new pile. A mistake is sometimes 
made in using raw muck. It should be thoroughly cured 
or “weathered” before it is used. 
