1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
695 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH MULCHING TREES. 
I would like the opinion of the Hope Farm man, also 
of Grant G. Hitchings, on the following: In the 
Spring of 1902 1 manured a small piece of sod ground 
very heavily, plowed and planted to corn. The crows 
took all the corn, and it was sown to millet, and a very 
light crop harvested. In the Spring of 1903 I planted 
upon this ground 05 apple trees, 20 feet apart each 
way, using R. I. Greening for permanent trees and 
Wagener and Ben Davis as fillers. The ground was 
sown with oats and seeded very soon after the trees 
were planted, and some coarse manure placed around the 
trees. A very heavy growth of oats followed, which was 
cut as soon as headed, before the trees had suffered, and 
the entire crop placed around the trees. The trees made 
a fine growth and all were alive in the Autumn. The 
following Winter was extremely cold, and the following 
Spring, 1904, half the Greenings were dead. The trees 
were very fine, one year old, when planted. In the 
Spring of 1904 280 trees were planted on adjoining 
ground prepared in the same way, except that the corn 
was harvested instead of millet, using the same varie¬ 
ties, also McIntosh Red, Wealthy and a few each of 
King, Spy, Hubbardston and Sutton. Oats were sown 
as before, cut, and placed around the trees. The trees 
made excellent growth, some as much as two feet. The 
Greenings, King, Spy, Hubbardston and Sutton are 
now dead, almost without exception. A few of these 
Greenings were two years old when set, while the Ben 
Davis, Wagener, McIntosh and Wealthy are nearly all 
alive. The trees were all bought from a nearby nurs¬ 
ery. I also planted, Spring of 1904, 40 two-year-old R. 
I. Greening and a few Jonathan and Gravenstein 
bought in Rochester. These were planted in sod in an 
old orchard where a part of the old trees 
had been removed. A fair crop of grass 
was cut and placed around the trees. 
Poultry ran in this orchard, and during 
the latter part of the Summer scratched 
this hay all away from the trees. The 
trees made a fine growth, and now 36 of 
the Greenings and all the others arc 
alive and growing finely. One Greening 
tree bought with the first lot and planted 
in the henyard was not mulched; made 
a good growth, but is now dead. 
Gilboa, N. Y. d. w. s. 
It is my opinion that the loss of trees 
was caused by the extreme cold of Win¬ 
ter of 1903-4. Manuring the ground 
heavily and plowing under, then cultivat¬ 
ing, no doubt forced a late growth, and 
I have observed that Greenings and Bald¬ 
wins are most apt to be injured from 
this cause, and especially so if trees were 
grown rapidly in nursery. Last Spring 
1 replaced 12 Greenings in the test plot of 
cultivation versus mulch, replacing some 
in each method of culture, proving that 
the mulch was not the cause of the trou¬ 
ble. In mulching I always keep mulch 
a short distance from trees; it guards 
from danger of mice and is as much ben¬ 
efit to tree as close up. With the ground in as good 
condition as D. W. S. describes I should cut the grass 
and let it lie where cut, and not place around trees. 
GRANT G. HITCHINGS. 
My first thought was that the mulch was left close 
up around the trees, and that mice gnawed them. I). W. 
S. says the trouble was not due to mice. I regard 
the Greening tree as tender when forced too fast in the 
nursery and grown late in the season. I have a num¬ 
ber of trees that have not yet recovered from the fear¬ 
ful Winter of 1903-4. Some of them have sent out 
shoots close to the ground, and I am cutting off the 
tops so as to make new stems. It is a mistake, I think, 
to leave the mulch close up around the trees through 
the Winter—aside from the danger from mice. I 
would pull it away from the tree late in November. 
Last Winter I let the mulch remain piled close around 
the trees until nearly Christmas. When we pulled it 
away we found the soil under it moist and open, though 
outside the mulch it was frozen solid. Those trees 
did not suffer, but on a few that were left we had 
trouble. They were not thrifty the next Spring, and 
at the collar I found on the bark what looks like sun- 
scald. I reasoned that the mulch kept the bark open 
and not fully matured, and that the unusual cold caught 
them thus unprepared—injuring the soft wood. I would 
keep the mulch at least a foot from the tree, and if pos¬ 
sible put a little mound of coal ashes or sand around 
the trunk. When handled in this way I rarely lose a 
tree. hope farm man. 
A TALK ABOUT ALFALFA. 
In reading what the Alfalfa growers say on page 631, 
many questions and thoughts come up. In this section 
we have no need of inoculation, for Sweet clover seems 
to thrive everywhere that it has an opportunity. Two 
days ago I saw a fine stand of Alfalfa from last 
Spring’s sowing, and just across the fence on the road¬ 
side there were Sweet clover stems from three to five 
feet high. There are very few farmers 1 know who 
will need to apply lime. If they own freestone land, 
they, most of them, have sufficient limestone land for 
an Alfalfa field. Now this question comes to me; if 
necessary to apply lime to get a start, must the appli¬ 
cation of lime be continued to keep the Alfalfa healthy, 
and keep it growing? Much is said about the neces¬ 
sity of nodules on the roots as nitrogen gathers. In my 
own field, now five years old, 1 have made several ex¬ 
aminations, and have never been able to find them. 
Possibly my land is too solid and I destroy the nodules 
getting the soil away from the roots. Still, I am unable 
to find them when the roots have fallen out of the soil 
on account of water erosion beneath them. Still I grow 
good crops considering the quality of the soil; this year 
at three cuttings, four tons per acre. Must 1 take my 
reading glass to find the nodules? 
I find a very wide difference of opinion as to the 
amount of seed that should be sown per acre. A friend 
who has 30 acres on land worth $150 per acre, sowed 
18 pounds per acre, and thinks 10 pounds of first-class 
seed, properly seeded, would be sufficient. In my own 
experience in seeding 31 acres, I have used 14 to 10 
pounds of seed per acre, and secured what is thought 
to be a first-class stand. I know of a number of farm¬ 
ers here who have sown 20 pounds per acre, and deem 
it sufficient. From the best information I can get, no 
difference how close a stand is secured, the plants will 
gradually disappear, as though stronger plants get a 
hold on the soil, till at the end of four or five years 
the plants will stand five or six inches apart, and this 
way they will remain for years. Now, is it required 
to sow such a large quantity of seed to secure 
this normal stand? Throughout this section this 
year, as far as I am informed, the farmers 
who sowed seed last Spring without a nurse crop are 
the most successful, if they have attended to clipping. 
Those who sowed oats have had trouble, and some have 
lost the Alfalfa on account of the oats lodging, being 
unable on account of the wet weather to get the oats 
off at the proper time. I am sure it is the safer plan 
to find some way to make the seeding sure without a 
nurse crop to help kill the weeds. It is much better 
to kill the weeds before the Alfalfa is sown. The 
various conditions under which the plant will succeed 
or fail, are being worked out in southern Ohio. I can 
name over 30 farmers, any one of whom I can reach 
in one hour’s drive from my farm. These are trying 
it on various kinds of soil and under many conditions 
as to its use and value as a hay and pasture plant. 
Every man must search out the treatment of the plant 
that will best suit his farm management that the plant 
will respond to. John m. jamison. 
PRAISE FOR SUTTON BEAUTY APPLE. 
I note the opinions of the most excellent authorities 
who have passed judgment on the Sutton Beauty apple, 
which differ quite widely from my own experience. 
Mr. Willard was most enthusiastic over the Sutton 12 
years ago, and he believed it to contain at that time 
more virtues than any known variety. 1 was impressed 
by his statements and I studied the variety upon my 
own judgment, and upon Mr. Willard’s home grounds. 
I observed first that the fruit was abundant and uni¬ 
formly fair; second that it was a vigorous grower, and 
third, that the foliage was very strong and healthy, 
three most important requisites in a variety for suc¬ 
cess. I purchased from Mr. Willard a quantity of 
Northern Spy trees, upon which I top-worked selected 
scions from this Sutton tree. In three years they were 
bearing fruit, which was so superior in every way that 
Mr. Willard, as superintendent at the State Fair, did 
not recognize them, and ruled them out on day of 
entrance as not true to name, but later reinstated them. 
I have extended the planting of Sutton largely, and 
have three generations of trees from special selections 
of stock and buds, all of which are bearing within 12 
years. One of the highest values in the Sutton is its 
strong luxuriant foliage, which resists scab, and this 
is the greatest weakness of the Baldwin. With the 
low temperature of the Winter of 1904 Baldwin trees 
in many sections were ruined, and very generally in¬ 
jured. It was not over-bearing of previous years, but 
the weakness of foliage, easily affected by scab, that 
was the real cause of the loss of Baldwin trees. The 
Baldwin is one of the best apples grown, in its right 
place. On Long Island and in the Hudson Valley it 
developed high quality and flavor, but the sections are 
limited where this quality is obtained. The Sutton is at 
its best near the holidays. It has special value in being 
ready for use at that time, as the Baldwin is not suffi¬ 
ciently ripe to go on the market so early in the Winter. 
It always sells above market quotations, and the present 
year it will rank in value with King in the English 
markets. Prof. Gulley is right when he says the Sut¬ 
ton should be top-worked and headed low. Mr. Willard 
was right in his advocacy of the Sutton, and he should 
now stick to his first love, but recently he has hedged, 
and has been carried off by some other fair charmer 
untried. The lesson is, and the advice should be that 
in the selection of varieties, local conditions should be 
considered and studied. Varieties are purely local, and 
there is no variey that is adapted to all sections and 
to all conditions of soil, climate and treat¬ 
ment. With seven years of continuous 
bearing, and with many of the trees load¬ 
ed again to their utmost capacity at the 
present time with apples of the highest 
market value, 1 defend the Sutton Beauty 
as it develops at Orchard Farm. 
GEORGE T. POWELL. 
A CITY FLAT DWELLER ON 
VEGETABLES. 
Your item on fruit sales, page 635, at 
last explains where the apologies for ap¬ 
ples which we have been getting lately 
come from. I am writing from the view¬ 
point of the other end of the line, as it 
were, but you will wonder why on earth 
a dweller on the sixth floor of a 52-family 
flat house, on the great East Side of New 
York City, should be a subscriber of The 
R. N.-Y., but that, as they say, is another 
story. Now to the farm products (which 
as you probably know we are compelled 
to buy from the small corner vegetable 
stands, all now owned by Italians), we 
get them probably many days after they 
have left the farm, and in many cases 
their condition is such that you would feed 
them to your cattle. Corn, fairly good, 
and old enough to hold its own in any company, four 
ears for 10 cents. Carrots, poor little things that look 
as though they should still be in the nursery, five cents 
for two bunches containing six carrots the size of a 
large finger. Beans, all colors, eight cents per quart, 
but I wander; these did not come from a farm, they are 
turned out bv a rubber factory. Tomatoes, 10 cents 
per quart, five fair-sized ones, tasted right nice to us; 
your pigs would probably not consider them extra 
quality. Apples, 15 cents a uart, but as you have so 
accurately described them on page 635, I need say no 
more. Peaches beautifully colored, and “fair but 
false,” at 65 cents for a basket size of medium grape 
basket. You also know of the large department 
stores, which sell any and everything, including 
vegetables. My wife asked me to send home a 
few days ago some tomatoes, Lima beans and pota¬ 
toes, and having purchases to make at the largest of 
them all, I thought to save time and money by buying 
everything at the one place. Tomatoes when they got 
home, five small ones for 10 cents, were so soft all 
went right into the garbage pail; Lima beans, 10 cents 
for the smallest quart, but little more than a handful 
when shelled; the potatoes at 30 cents a peck were 
passable, so we are continuing to patronize our Italian 
stands. Eggs not quite out of the shell are 12 for 25 
cents; real fresh ones (about two to three weeks old) 
II for 25 cents. They are not sold by the dozen here, so 
many for a quarter of a dollar. 
Yearning for a Spring chicken, and not caring for 
one from Kansas, possibly two or three months in a 
cold storage vault, and to make quite sure, I had to 
go to a kosher butcher (Jewish) where it was killed, 
picked, “drawn Mid quartered” in 10 minutes whilst I 
waited; it weighed with head and feet off. and drawn, 
just one pound, two ounces; 40 cents, please. When, 
however, the wife and I, very hungry, on the beach at 
Coney Island, lit into that chicken, we forgave you 
farmers much; you know how it tasted to us. Can’t 
you turn them out a little cheaper though? We would 
really like to become bettet acquainted with these tooth¬ 
some birds, but it is too far to go to the Zoo to see 
what a chicken looks like I presume to you farmers, 
the prices I have quoted seem high for the quality. How 
much of it do you get? s. friedlaender. 
SHROPSHIRE SHEEP IN WESTERN NEW YORK. Fig. 296.’ See Page 697 
