1906. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
423 
Melon blight. Our plants may come up nicely, and we 
are pleased with their apparent health and thrift, only 
to find them in a short time beyond any chance of recov¬ 
ery by an unexpected attack of this enemy. It makes 
its appearance about the first of August, or when the 
vines begin to set fruit, and it is then we see the small 
brown spots on the leaves, and we are compelled to 
admit our utter defeat. I have been asked more ques¬ 
tions about this pest than I am able to answer. Col¬ 
umns on the subject have of late been published by the 
agricultural press, and the problem how to get rid of the 
foe is yet puzzling the ingenuity of even the best gar¬ 
deners. As a general rule it may be said that the most 
satisfactory and only effectual measures are those of a 
preventive character. Wherever circumstances will 
allow the crop should be planted at a considerable dis¬ 
tance from any place where the same or a similar one 
was grown the year before. As soon as the plants show 
indications of bloom we should begin spraying with a 
weak solution of Bordeaux Mixture. This should be 
repeated once every eight or 10 days during the season, 
increasing the strength of the mixture as the season 
advances. This appears to be the only remedy or pre¬ 
ventive with which I am acquainted, and it has proven 
very effectual with some of the most successful melon 
growers of Monmouth County. t. m. white. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
MARKING AN ORCHARD BY WHEEL POWER 
The diagram below shows wheel for laying out ground 
for orchard that I have used for some years. The 
drawing shows for itself how made; two boards 10 feet 
long, 1x4, put together as shown, with wheel at one end, 
and wide enough apart at the other for a man to stand 
inside and draw it. An old wheelbarrow wheel is what 
I use. When you have your ground, say 10 acres more 
or less, ready, establish base lines. Then draw this 
wheel from one tree point to one on opposite side of 
field back and forth, until marked one way. Then mark 
the field the other way, and at the point where the wheel 
marks cross is the place for a tree. The hole is to be 
dug there, and the tree to be set on a line each way with 
the mark. Not a stake need be set except to go by in 
marking. One man can work ground for 1,000 trees in 
eight hours, and the trees will be in perfect line each 
way Any man who can follow the line of two stakes 
can do the marking. A variation of a man’s body from 
side to side does not affect the wheel eight or 10 feet 
back, and the wheel mark is so unlike any other mark 
that there is no danger of losing the line. In setting 
1.400 peach trees I saved at least $!() by this method, be¬ 
side having ever}' tree exactly in line. F. gowdy. 
Berrien Co., Mich. 
JAPAN CLOVER FOR ORCHARD MULCH. 
I think I can give the “Hope Farm man” a pointer 
of value in regard to growing a mulch crop in bis bill- 
side orchards. I have been growing pear and apple 
orchards for some time by this method, and I think I 
have found the ideal plant for the purpose. Blue grass 
grows readily on our hills here, but has one serious 
drawback as a mulch crop in an orchard. It forms a 
dense sod, and starts very early in the Spring, and is 
drawing the heaviest on the soil just at the time the 
trees should make their best growth; other grasses and 
clovers have the same fault. The plant I refer to is the 
Japan clover, a plant which has become naturalized in 
this part of Illinois. It is an annual and rarely grows 
over 15 inches high, on thin soil not over eight or 10, 
and almost literally grows “as thick as the hair on a 
dog’s back.” When a plant has room it spreads and 
sprawls over the soil, but as it seeds abundantly the 
plants grow about as close together as the before-men¬ 
tioned hair, and make only a single stem. The plant 
is a self-feeder, and needs only to be sown once; it 
grows on the thinnest of soils, absolutely prevents wash¬ 
ing of the soil and rapidly increases the fertility of the 
land. 
As it is an annual it dies with the first frosts of 
Autumn; the great coat of stems protects the soil during 
Winter. By Spring the roots have decayed, or the 
frosts have loosened them, and one can lift the mass 
of vines from the ground like a sheared fleece of wool. 
I have recently run the hay rake over my orchards and 
raked the mass into windrows, which were then placed 
about the trees. It turns off an immense quantity of 
mulching, which is the best for the purpose of anything 
I know; also unexcelled for bedding horses. I consider 
one of its greatest points of value to be the condition in 
which the soil is left around the trees in the Spring; 
loose and mellow, with no sod to interfere with the 
growth of the trees. The young clover plants come up 
early in April, but it is the last of June or first of July 
before they have made a sod of any depth. It makes 
a beautiful even growth, and is often used as a lawn 
grass in the South, but is not very desirable for that 
purpose, as it is green only during the growing season. 
It makes a good pasture; my horses prefer it to Blue 
grass or clover. I generally run a mower over my 
orchards about midsummer to cut the coarse-growing 
weeds which spring up among the clover; all smaller¬ 
growing weeds it kills out. It is in no manner a pest 
and never intrudes on cultivated ground. 
Union Co., Ill. m. l. benson. 
THE CROP OF RHUBARB. 
Cumberland County, New Jersey, has of recent years 
developed a new industry, particularly a Winter indus- 
A LOAD OF 1 RHUBARB FOR TIIE CANNERY. Fig. 170. 
try with many people. The raising of rhubarb increases 
each season. For the Winter market the roots are 
left in the ground until after they are frozen, and then 
carted like so many chunks of rock and put in an espe¬ 
cially prepared house. A man at Greenwich, N. J., has 
a house 37 feet wide by 224 feet long, where he raises 
over $1,600 worth of rhubarb in a Winter. The one- 
year-old roots do the best. The building is kept warm 
with three heaters, and no light allowed, as the light 
causes the leaves to develop, and it is stalks that are 
desired instead of leaves. A tin roof assures darkness; 
if under glass one-half of the growth goes to leaves. 
The frozen clods containing the roots are placed as 
GROWING THE WINTER CROP. Fig. 171. 
close together as possible, then filled in with dirt. This 
house can be filled twice during the Winter. The first 
crop can be marketed for the Christmas trade and the 
next crop for the early Spring market. The plants sell 
for 7 /i cents per hill, or $200 per acre. 
For the Summer market, when it is raised in the open 
field, the rhubarb is Carted to the factories by great 
wagon, loads, as shown in Fig. 170. This load contains 
about two tons, and at the factory it is worth about 
$5 per ton. 
I have an idea a little might be raised in our heater 
cellar. Let the fire do double duty, heating the house 
SCENE ON AN ONION SET FARM. Fig. 172. 
and raising a crop. Who is there who is not hungry 
for the first green things of Spring? Unless one sets 
a table fit for a millionaire’s pocketbook all the green 
and early produce which comes from the South is not 
obtainable, and we have to wait patiently with our poor 
appetites until something green can be procured from 
our_own gardens. I never remember a Spring on the 
farm when T did not long for rhubarb and asparagus, 
which were the first greens the ground of our section 
produced for the table. cora j. sheppard. 
COLD STORAGE FOR FARM APPLES . 
Will some one tell me how I can best keep 500 barrels of 
apples successfully in storage on the farm? reader. 
Illinois. 
I have had no experience with the successful storage 
of apples except by the direct expansion ammonia pro¬ 
cess used in conjunction with a ventilating fan. I see 
no reason why ice should not be used successfully in 
such a house as you mention. I will not attempt to 
give dimensions of the building further than to say 
that it will require for each barrel eight to 10 cubic 
feet, including aisle and unavoidable waste space. Ice 
bunkers may occupy quite an amount of space that 
should be allowed for in the construction of the build¬ 
ing. These bunkers should be near the top or over the 
space where the fruit is stored to get the best results. 
I would prefer to build the outside wall of concrete. 
However, a frame building will do. The foundation 
must be good, and the bottom of the floor far enough 
from the ground to allow good ventilation underneath. 
All dimension lumber should be well sprayed with a 
very strong solution of copper sulphate and water as 
a preservative against fungi and vermin. I use this 
copper sulphate solution in making the cheapest anti 
best insulating material that I know of, by saturating 
sawdust with the solution, then drying the sawdust 
and filling the spaces between the joists and studding. 
Sawdust thus treated docs not cake or settle in the 
walls where I have observed it, neither does it decay 
or change where it has been accidentally moistened, 
nor is it affected in any way by heat or cold. The 
great difficulty with it is getting it dry after it has been 
wet with the copper sulphate solution. I spread it 
out on the floors, and every two or three days skim off 
the top the small amount that has dried. If it could 
be dried in the sunshine or by artificial means it would 
be much quicker done. It took me several months to 
get enough of this material dry to fill my walls and 
floors. It takes from 3J4 to four ounces of copper 
sulphate to the cubic foot of sawdust. It must not be 
made too wet, as the water running out carries out 
the copper sulphate. 
To insulate the floor I would nail cleats 1 x iy 2 inch 
to each side of the lower edge of each joist, then cut 
boards to fit and lay in a solid floor on the cleats, and 
put two sheets of insulating paper on the boards; then 
fill the space to the top edge of the joist with the dry 
sterilized sawdust and put a tongued and grooved floor 
on top of the joists in the usual way. I would cover 
this floor with two layers of medium weight asphalt 
insulating paper, or any paper as nearly impervious to 
air and water as could be had, then lay another tongued 
and grooved floor on top of this. I would make the 
walls by setting up 12-inch studding, putting two layers 
of the paper on the outside, covering this with tongued 
and grooved flooring, and weatherboarding the out¬ 
side in the usual way. Inside two sheets of the paper 
and ceiled with flooring, filling all spaces between the 
studding with the sawdust. The joists overhead would 
be papered and ceiled as was the inside of the walls, 
with the spaces between joists filled and enough more 
if necessary to make 12 or 14 inches of the dry steri¬ 
lized sawdust on top. I would spray thoroughly the 
inside of this storage room with the copper sulphate 
solution, and when the moisture was gone would put 
on a lime whitewash. A good roof is quite necessary, 
as moisture is an enemy of insulation. All condensed 
water, as well as that from the melting water, must 
be conducted out of the building, as dampness and 
mold are detrimental to apples in cold storage. One 
of the things I consider most necessary in any kind of 
a cold storage building is a turbine fan, put in the wall 
opposite the door for the purpose of ventilation, forc¬ 
ing the impure air from the building, and bringing in 
the pure air from the outside. This is quite necessary 
even if the outside is warm. After the Winter weather 
has set in this fan, by the process of ventilation, will 
keep the fruit at a sufficiently low temperature. I 
consider a fan of about 34 inches diameter, when run 
at a low rate of speed, say 800 or 900 revolutions per 
minute, by a five or six horse-power gasoline engine, 
to be a very cheap and satisfactory method of refriger¬ 
ation after the outside temperature is sufficiently cooled. 
We use a fan of this kind. We put a tub full of water 
in the aisle or any vacant place on the floor to use as a 
test of the temperature of the apples in the closed 
packages. No difference how cold the weather is on 
the outside, we open the doors and run the fan until 
ice forms on this tub of water. The thermometer that 
hangs on the wall may indicate 15 or 20 or 25 degrees, 
but no matter; the forming of the ice on the water is 
a better indicator of the temperature of the fruit than 
is the thermometer. If the weather is very cold, we 
fasten a canvas at the door so as to direct the current 
of incoming air against the ceiling and over the fruit 
to the fan, instead of allowing it to sweep directly 
through on the floor. The apples must be stored in 
closed packages to prevent wilting, and because of this 
give off the heat slowly. The door into storage vault 
and the opening where the fan is set in must be closed 
with tight-fitting and well-insulated doors. If possible 
apples should be placed in the cold room 24 to 48 hours 
before the heads are put in the barrels, as the rapid 
thorough cooling is very necessary. 
Missouri. w. t. flournoy. 
