1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
743 
the cholera or roup break out among his chickens, or 
the aphis destroy his strawberry patch. He would also 
have to be up early to meet the cutworm and the cur- 
culio, for they both begin early and make a full day 
of it. He would also notice that the festive blackbird, 
which some of our city friends do not like to see adorn¬ 
ing ladies’ hats, makes a far better trimming for a hat 
than for a cornfield or a pea patch. The bird which may 
live on cutworms on Broadway, New York, readily 
learns to eat corn and peas in Delaware, and soon 
adapts itself to local conditions. The same may be 
said of the robin, which does not care if the Purple 
Guigne cherries are a bit tart just so they are turning 
red. He will notice a “slow but sure” insect com¬ 
monly known as “’tater bug” is on hand just as the 
potato peeps above ground, and unless he is read}' to 
feed this gentleman a generous supply of Paris-green 
he may not eat fresher or cheaper potatoes here than in 
his fiat. The San Jose scale will also give him time for 
thought if he is interested in insects, or if his mind 
runs towards vegetable pathology he will have food 
for thought in Peach yellows, Pear blight, Apple scab, 
Grape rot, Cantaloupe blight and a thousand other very 
interesting subjects. I haven't mentioned half of the 
ups and downs, but to look on the brighter side, when 
he had made a good meal of “fried chicken,” or a Del¬ 
aware shad right out of the water, or biscuits that are 
made nowhere else half so good, he would be in good 
humor. Then, too, if he is fond of oysters, crabs, 
clams, terrapin, to say nothing of wild duck or quail, 
he could appease this appetite far cheaper than he 
could do in New York. chas. wright. 
Delaware. 
I have just read S. Friedlaender’s article on page 
(595, in which he asks how much of the price of the 
pound and two ounces of chicken he and the good 
wife feasted on we farmers get. We get at this town 
eight cents per pound. Now he may sit down and fig¬ 
ure out where that other part of the price goes. I 
had just finished dressing two Spring chicks for our 
to-morrow’s meat and when I read of Mr. Friedlaen- 
der and his wife feasting on a pound and two ounces 
of chicken, bones and all, I could not help wishing they 
were here to help us eat those I dressed to-night. The 
middle man surely ought to wax fat. c. L. w. 
Zearing, Iowa. 
R. N.-Y.—We know some small middlemen who are 
so squeezed by the big ones that they are very thin. 
In your article on page 700, in reference to city folks 
and fresh vegetables, you devise means similar to the 
man cutting off his dog’s tail by cutting off an inch 
every day; he thought it would not hurt him as much 
to lose a little bit every day as it would to lose the 
whole tail. Why not have a parcels post that would 
handle all sorts of country produce direct to the con¬ 
sumer and do away with those leeches, so that the city 
folks would get their stuff the same day it left the 
producer and with only one handling to the consumer. 
The middleman does not produce anything, and the 
fewer we can have of them the better. Let the pro¬ 
ducer have his customers and send by mail direct as 
they do in London, and Socialism is the only thing that 
will do it.' M. c. M. 
Florida. 
R. N.-Y.—A parcels post would help, but the situa¬ 
tion is harder in New York than in most other cities. 
We are not likely to have Socialism until our people get 
rid of some pretty stiff habits. 
FRUIT NOTES. 
PERRY’S SEEDLING PLUMS.—We have never re¬ 
ceived so many valuable new plums as have been sent 
to us this year. The fruit pictured at Fig. 317 was 
sent by F. L. Perry, of Bridgeport, Conn. The fruit 
as it reached us certainly bore out Mr. Perry’s state¬ 
ments. On September 14 Mr. Perry wrote: “The plum 
is a cross between Burbank and Satsuma, ripening two 
or three weeks earlier than Satsuma, and hanging to 
the branches three or four weeks after it is in perfect 
eating condition. A great advantage over all the other 
Japan plums 1 am growing is that it commences to ripen 
at the pit, and when perfectly green on the outside it 
will he a dark crimson around the pit, which begins to 
sweeten as soon as it begins to color, and when ripe 
it has none of the bitter taste about the pit that most 
of this class of plums have. Another advantage, an 
important one. is its thin skin, covering a mass of the 
richest plum hesh imaginable. No half ripe or rotten 
plums on the tree. No skin cracking or splitting apart, 
but it will hang to the tree until it commences to 
shrivel. It is a strong grower and annual bearer of 
large, high-colored fruit. The tree is perfectly hardy, 
standing seventeen degrees below zero without losing 
a terminal bud.” And again on September 20. “The 
wet season, covering as it did most of the ripening 
period, proves its great value; it never cracks, but shriv¬ 
els on the tree like a prune. Horace Fairchild tells me 
he has kept the fruit two months in a southern window 
before they began to decay, while other varieties de¬ 
cayed before they were ripe, the skin not being elastic 
enough to stand the expansion growth of flesh under 
the skin during the wet, muggy weather that we have 
experienced the past four weeks.” 
LEAD AND OIL ON 1REES.—In the Spring of 
1904 I set an acre of orchard which I was to inclose 
PERRY’S SEEDLING PLUM. Fig. 317. 
for a hen lot, and seeded with oats. Wishing to get 
shade as soon as possible I set in peach, plum and 
pear between. I painted all when set except the peach 
and a few of those to try it. During the Summer the 
oats grew rank and the mice girdled the peaches which 
were not painted, and by close examination 1 could 
not detect the least sign of injury tT> any kind. In the 
Fall you advised painting as late as possible for mice. 
So I painted in November and killed about every peach, 
all Japan plum and most of the pear, but do not think 
I injured the apples, although a few died. I think it 
was from being injured in the nursery by the extreme 
cold. The first I could detect any injury was the first 
warm days in the Spring, when by cutting into bark 
a frothy water would ooze out. just as far as the paint 
and oil went on every tree that died and no farther. 
“GARDEN HUCKLEBERRY” OR BLACK NIGHTSHADE 
FRUITS. Natural Size. Fig. 318. 
See Ruralisms, Page 74ii. 
On those that lived the bark was the same all through. 
The paint and oil were the same batch. The oil was 
raw pure oil such as is given stock, and mice will sam¬ 
ple it. The killed trees all started out below the paint 
and most of them have made a great growth, but 
whether it will stand the Winter is a question. To say 
that I was sadly disappointed is putting it as mildly as 
possible. R. J. R. 
Springwater. N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—We have always been careful not to advise 
painting peach and plum trees. 
CHAIR’S CHOICE PEACH.—I have fruited the 
Chair's Choice in two orchards and have discarded it 
entirely; this peach belongs to the Crawford strain and 
ripens soon after the Late Crawford. It is a large 
yellow peach, almost covered with dark crimson red 
when fully ripe. With me it will not fruit as young as 
many varieties and is greatly given to rot. It is large 
and round in shape, very juicy and good in quality, 
but as a money-maker it is not near as desirable as 
Beers Late (not Beers Smock), which ripens about the 
same time. It is hardly fair to compare it with Cham¬ 
pion and Elberta, as it has an entirely different season 
of ripening, but as a money-maker it cannot anywhere 
near equal either of them. I have found Chair’s Choice 
much more tender in bud than Beers Late, Christiana and 
Elberta (all yellow). Our friend will probably find 
Champion. Christiana, Elberta, Beers Late (last three 
yellow), and Fox’s Seedling (which ripen in order 
named), as near frostproof and as good and productive 
as any varieties he can plant. With me (in central New 
Jersey) they arc the very best of their season; after 
considerable experience I can without hesitation say 
I know of none to equal them. wm. h. skillman. 
Somerset Co., N. J. 
GROWING ONIONS FOR SEED. 
One of our readers lias had such success in raising onions 
this year Hint lie expects to raise his own seed another 
year. He wants us to tell him how many onions lie should 
save to sow one-half acre, the rows It inches apart, and 
also whether he should plant large, medium or small onions. 
How many and what onions would you set out for one half 
acre, and lust exactly how would you handle them to get 
the best seed ? 
I sort out the best-shaped globes, medium-sized, in 
the Fall, and put them in crates and set them in a good, 
cool, dry place where they will not freeze. As early in 
the Spring as I can plow the ground, and set them 
out in rows about three inches deep and six inches 
apart, and the rows about four feet apart, so I can 
cultivate them with a horse and not knock the seed 
heads down. They need to be set in good rich ground. 
I have had good results with using acid rock as a fer¬ 
tilizer at the rate of one-half ton to the acre of 14 
per cent goods. As to the amount of seed to the bushel 
of onions, l have raised from one pound to five pounds 
to the biuhel; about two to three is the average. 
Wayne Co.. N. Y. w. p. Rogers. 
To sow one-half acre would need three pounds of 
seed, and to grow this amount the grower should put 
out two to three bushels of onions. In a good year a 
bushel of onions will make two pounds of seed, but 
to allow for bad luck he should provide a bushel of 
onions for each pound of seed he wants. Choose the 
largest and finest onions by all means, paving particu¬ 
lar attention to form and color. If he is careful in this 
he can work up to an especially fine strain that will 
bring top prices. Keep the onions through the Winter 
in a cool, dry place, and set them out very early in the 
Spring, about six inches apart in the row and deep 
enough so that they can be covered over. Rows can be 
any convenient width for tending. The seed ripens in 
June or July, and the heads should be cut off and spread 
to dry on a sheet or rack. When perfectly dry the seed 
can be easily beaten out. henry field. 
The onion seed crop has been a failure so frequently 
in this section in the last decade that onion growers are 
coming more and more to depend on men who make 
the raising of onion seed a business to supply them with 
what they need. In calculating to raise seed enough 
for one-half acre I would select one bushel of medium 
large onions of the type I wished to produce. This 
should yield seed enough in an unfavorable season and 
a surplus which could be sold in a good year. Open 
a couple of furrows 3 X A or four feet apart in good 
ground, setting the bulbs four inches apart in the fur¬ 
row. Hoe frequently, drawing earth to the plants as 
they advance in growth, taking care not to bruise the 
seed stalks. Cut the seed balls in August on a dry 
day when the kernels have passed the milk stage, 
spreading thinly in a dry room. These can remain in 
this state until Spring, if there is no danger from mice, 
or cleaned ur as soon as thoroughly dry. For best 
results seed should he tested in water before sowing, 
the poor seed floating and the good seed going to the 
bottom. JOSEPH ADAMS. 
The man who wishes to grow half an acre of onions 
• will need 2 Z> pounds of wafer-cleaned seed. A bushel 
of choice onions will grow from nothing at all to eight 
pounds of seed. None but the best should ever be 
planted for seed. The best seed and the largest yield 
is obtained by planting some sets of a choice strain, 
and from the resultant crop select what may be wanted 
for seed purposes: plant them the latter part of August 
or early in September, so as to obtain a good root for¬ 
mation before Winter. I like to apply two tons acid 
phosphate with 500 or 000 pounds muriate of potash per 
acre and strike light on nitrogen; it is apt to cause 
blight. Plant five or six inches apart in rows six inches 
deep and at least three feet from each other. Start the 
cultivator in Spring as soon as ground begins to change 
color, and keep it up when the seed is ripe (which will 
be known by the heads turning yellow). Cut the stalks 
five or six inches helow the head, spread out thinly up¬ 
stairs somewhere, and turn occasionally. When dry 
thrash with a flail and run through the fanning mill a 
couple of times. The man who grows seeds always has 
a full line of sieves, and to finish the onion seed he will 
probably need a No. 12 or No. 14. There is another 
and much more frequently practised method of growing 
onion seed. Just sell vour onions as long as you have 
any fit to sell, then in Spring plant the scallions and 
rotten ones, together with what mav be left of your 
crop. You must issue a catalogue, of course, on cheap 
paper, first consul Ling the dictionary for adjectives suf¬ 
ficiently expressive to describe your product, and if you 
can get the loan of some wood cuts that go to show that 
you had to rent another field to cure your onions on, 
you will, no doubt, be able to hold the right of line in 
the procession. M. garrahan. 
