5i8 
June 30, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
frost on the night of May 20 are beginning to ripen 
(June 8). I think the fires must have done some good 
for only a few of the blossoms were injured, while 
our neighbor’s garden just over the fence was hurt 
severely. Our earliest berries, Excelsior, have failed 
on account of the dry weather this year. They have 
only a few small berries which are the sourest I ever 
tasted. To-day we sent our first berries to market, 
Senator Dunlap and Bubach. The)’’ were fine berries 
and sold for 17 cents per quart at wholesale. The 
largest part of the berries are doing nicely and still 
promise to meet all deficiencies. M. e. b. 
SEEDING ALFALFA WITH BUCKWHEAT. 
I have just finished reading Mr. Cottrell’s third article 
on “Alfalfa for Eastern Farmers” and am almost converted 
to trying it. Almost no Alfalfa has been grown in our 
county (Clearfield), Pa. On this farm, which I took pos¬ 
session of this Spring, I have a field in which I have had the 
stumps blown, but not yet rid of nor plowed, in which I 
intend growing buckwheat, which is usually sown the last 
of June or July 1 to 4, fertilizing with my special mixture of 
nitrate soda 200 pounds; dried blood, 300 pounds; 16 per 
cent acid phosphate, 1180 pounds; muriate potash, 320 
pounds. There are about six acres and I have intended 
using one ton of this mixture for the field. The mixture is 
about 4-9-8. Mr. Cottrell in one place speaks of plowing 
early and harrowing and preparing till about July 1, then 
sowing Alfalfa. I would like some advice about sowing the 
Alfalfa with buckwheat as indicated, also in regard to ftf<? 
fertilizer mentioned and if it will be effective for both 
crops. Also I need information as to where I can pur¬ 
chase seed of the proper kind. Should I sow the buckwheat 
early or late for’ the benefit of the Alfalfa? The field men¬ 
tioned is, I think, not over rich, has had no lime that I 
know of, and it is rather late to get it now. Will it be 
best for me to try the Alfalfa under the circumstances? 
The subsoil in field it not very hard, and land is sloping 
and generaly well drained—lying pretty well up. t. l. 
I have known of but two instances where Alfalfa was 
seeded with buckwheat. In both cases the buckwheat 
killed out the young Alfalfa so badly that no stand was 
secured. Late-seeded Alfalfa needs to be pushed right 
along and is usually badly checked in growth if it has to 
share the plant food in the soil with another crop. 
Young Alfalfa needs an easily, quickly available supply 
of nitrogen and the formula mentioned supplies this. 
In old soils it needs phosphoric acid and in sandy soils 
a generous supply of potash. With a clay subsoil less 
potash is necessary. I know nothing about the fertility 
of the inquirer’s soil. To be safe, if I had to use fer¬ 
tilizer on it without any more information than is given 
above, I would apply 500 pounds of his mixture per acre 
at the time of seeding. Some time during the Winter 
when the ground was frozen I would top-dress with 10 
to 15 loads of manure per acre made if possible from 
stock fed western Alfalfa hay or meal. 
For the location mentioned I would use Kansas grown 
Alfalfa seed raised without irrigation in the northern 
part of the State. Barteldes & Co., Lawrence, Kansas, 
who advertise in The R. N.-Y., can be depended upon 
to furnish the quality of seed you want, and if you men¬ 
tion it in your order will probably secure the seed from 
the desired locality. If your soil is acid and needs lime, 
Alfalfa will not succeed on it, no matter how good the 
seed, the preparation of the land or the fertilizer. I 
would get the land well worked into shape and then any 
time between July 1 and August 1 after a good soaking 
rain would sow the seed without other crop. 
_ H. M. COTTRELL. 
HYBRIDIZING CUCURBITS. 
The hybridization or intentional crossing of curcur- 
bitous garden plants such as squashes, melons and cu¬ 
cumbers is very simple if care is first taken to prevent 
accidental transference of pollen by bees or other in¬ 
sects. These plants are monoecious—that is, the male 
or pollen-bearing and the female or seed-bearing blooms 
are separately borne on the same plants, the former 
usually greatly outnumbering the latter. By inclosing 
the stigmatic or seed-bearing flower in a paper bag or 
covering it with thin-textured cloth just before it opens 
accidental pollenization may be prevented and the 
operator may apply pollen from staminate blossoms 
of his own choosing. Fig. 209 shows a section of a 
male squash bloom, the columnar organ in the center 
being made up of three united pollen-bearing anthers, 
while Fig. 210 represents a similar preparation of the 
female or seed-bearing bloom. The stigmas are seen 
ir. the center and the ovary in the form of a miniature 
squash just below the colored part of the flower. Both 
illustrations are much reduced in size. The pollen may 
be transferred with a soft brush or by rubbing the 
staminate column directly against the stigmas, after 
stripping back or cutting away the colored portions of 
both blooms . When receptive the stigmas are moist 
with a sticky solution, to which the pollen adheres. 
The covering should immediately be replaced on the 
female bloom and not removed until it withers. When 
pollinating melons or cucumbers under glass many oper¬ 
ators simply strip back the corollas of the staminate 
blooms and insert the column in the open stigmatic flow¬ 
er, leaving it there to wither, but for accurate results 
it is best to cover before and after pollen is applied, 
CULTURE OF CORN AND POTATOES. 
As to cultivating corn and potatoes half the work is 
done before planting. The disk harrow is used on the 
ground before plowing; corn stubble and all other stuff 
on the ground is cut up and ground torn up, so that 
everything goes under, and makes deep plowing easy. 
The plank drag is used each day or twice a day before 
the ground dries out. The disk harrow is used again 
before planting, man walking behind, as ground is too 
loose to permit a man to ride. I use a five-foot disk, 
which works easy for two horses. The drag is again 
used for planting corn. I check-row, so it can be cul¬ 
tivated both ways. First and second cultivation is done 
with Planet, Jr., 12-tooth cultivator, a very light instru¬ 
ment; it rolls no dirt to cover the corn and not more 
than a two-inch strip in the row is left untouched. 
After that I use the Planet, Jr., No. 8 horse hoe with 
MALE BLOSSOM OF SQUASH. Fm. 209. 
sweeps attached, two shovels in front, eight or it)-ittch 
sweep on each side, 12-inch sweep in center, going once 
in the row. It can be set wide or narrow, and does the 
work as fast as a two-horse cultivator, and does much 
better work. I would not plow ground too wet, neither 
would I cultivate when too wet; at times the rains keep 
me out of the field too long, and grass and weeds get 
thick, but the sweeps will clean everything out. I cul¬ 
tivate corn till it tassels out; at last cultivation I sow 
cow peas and rape in the corn. Where I want to plant 
potatoes the* next June I sow clover and Sand vetch. 
The clover does not always stick, but the vetch comes 
sure. The cow peas and rape sometimes make corn 
cutting a hard job, but it keeps down weeds. It takes 
up fertility that would leach out of the ground before 
another crop grows, and it makes fertility for the next 
year’s crop. I never hill up corn with a plow or any 
other tool. 
The treatment of the ground for potatoes is the same 
as for corn. The ground is marked one way three 
feet four inches. Planting is done with Acme hand 
planter, a man to use the planter and a boy to drop them 
in the planter. This is done very rapidly when a man 
understands his business. The planter leaves a hole in 
FEMALE SQUASH BLOSSOM. Fig. 210. 
the ground at each setting; we go over the ground after 
planting and pull a hoe full of dirt over each hole. I his 
indicates the row plainly for a long distance. When 
potatoes have been planted 10 days, the 12-tooth cultiva¬ 
tor is used, the handles set to the left, moving the right 
wing out so it reaches over the row. The cultivator is 
tilted to the left, keeping the right wing at any depth re¬ 
quired. In this way all the ground is cleaned and 
sprouts come out in clean ground. I cultivate potatoes 
as well as corn six or seven times. When potato tops 
are about a foot high I use the horse hoe with hillers 
attached, raising the ground in the row two or three 
inches. This prevents the potatoes from poking their 
noses out of the ground. All after work is done with 
sweeps cutting about two inches deep. Potatoes are 
planted in the same ground once in three years. Manure 
is applied once in three years. I put on about 40 two- 
horse loads of manure per acre, planting to corn two 
years, and the third year potatoes. I practice shallow 
cultivation always; if any one would want to know why 
I would tell him to cultivate deep, and see the amount 
of corn roots hanging on his cultivator shovels. I have 
seen men hilling corn and potatoes with the plow; it 
covers much grass and weeds. They say it keeps corn 
from blowing down and makes more potatoes in the 
hill. I will not dispute it. A. M. 
Macon, Mo. 
KILLING OUT WILD GARLIC. 
Can you tell me how I can remove garlic from land? 
Will lime help to kill it, or must a man dig it out? 
Waynesboro, Pa. c. A. h. 
Garlic is a difficult plant to eradicate from pasture 
fields, and even will resist extermination when growing 
in cultivated fields to a surprising extent. The roots are 
perennial in habit, and possess a great degree of vital¬ 
ity. Turning them over in the soil under ordinary con¬ 
ditions does them very little harm. If the land is plowed 
very late in the season, or very early in the Spring, so 
as to expose the roots to freezing and thawing, they are 
more likely to perish. Aside from this nothing short of 
absolutely clean culture throughout the season seems to 
be effective. Any plant, if absolutely prevented from 
making green growth above ground throughout a season, 
must succumb, but culture that will secure this is difficult 
to give. If the garlic is in patches in the field and not 
too extensive, probably the best way would be to dig 
out the roots by hand, but if widely distributed this is v 
out of the question. Probably no treatment by lime or 
other chemicals will destroy it that is not so heroic as to 
destroy all the other vegetation as well. 
LIME AND SULPHUR IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
In reply to the qtiery “Why did Lime and Sulphur Fail’’ 
on page 254, I beg to suggest that the failure Was caused 
applying the preparation at the wrong time of yeau 
Our experience With the wash teaches Us that the 
application should be as late ill the Spring as possible; 
that is* towards the time for the bursting of the buds. 
We believe it to have very iittle action on the scale in¬ 
sects that are present at the time. It is the progeny 
that are affected. We have no San Jose scale, but have the 
West Indian Peach Diaspis and others that are really 
less easily affected than the San Jose. 1 he action is 
the same on the Bryobia mite (Bryobia pratensis), 
which lives over Winter in the egg state on the bark. 
The young appear in myriads after the trees leaf out, 
but practically all soon perish if the trees have the pro¬ 
tection of a recently applied, strong sulphide wash. The 
necessity for long boiling or exact proportions of the 
ingredients is all bunkum. The necessities are (l), that 
the application be as near the time for the new brood 
as possible and (2), that there be no scamping of the 
work. Every twig should be coated to its tip, and the 
chief advantage of an excess of lime over the quantity 
necessary to dissolve the sulphur is that of exposing 
lack of thoroughness in the application. Soda sul¬ 
phide seems to act as well as lime sulphide, but our 
experience with it is much more limited. It appears 
more caustic and the lime sulphide is as near the limit 
of the sprayers’ endurance as we care to go. 
CHAS. P. LOUNSBURY. 
Government Entomologist, Cape of Good Hope. 
NO CHINESE LABOR FOR TEXAS. 
We believe a repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 
Congress, or a modification of it so as to permit the 
admission of common laborers from that country would 
be harmful to the extent of encouraging an increase of 
the number of large cotton plantations here in the South. 
There can be no question that already large individual 
estates would receive an impetus to further extension 
and that direct encouragement to the formation of cot¬ 
ton-growing companies would result. The writer’s 
father was a slaveholder, and his boyhood was spent 
with negroes on a southern plantation, and the memory 
of those days impresses him now with the belief that 
cheap labor under modern business- methods of control 
combined with an intelligent system of selling would 
mean the driving of small farmers out of business here. 
It is, therefore, in my opinion, the lack of the ability 
of money to control labor here that makes hundreds 
of thousands of small farms possible, and the industry 
of cotton growing profitable to men of small holdings. 
To deny the present advantage of conditions to this 
class would mean the aggregation of capital and the 
final passage of the homes of the people into the hands 
of the fortunate few. Personally I would feel pleased 
with cheaper and especially with more tractable labor, 
but would we not sooner or later feel the soddening 
influence that would come of making a purely money¬ 
getting business of our calling, which seems about the 
only thing left to bind us back to Nature and to Nature’s 
God? Cheap labor then of the kind mentioned would 
in my opinion mean ruin to the higher development of 
southern farm life. I am anxious to place myself on 
record as opposed to any further legislative experi¬ 
menting with cheap labor, no matter of what color or 
where from. As a matter of justice, however, to China, 
and a fair interpretation of the common rights of 
humanity, I cannot see why any reasonably intelligent 
Chinaman bearing a good character in the ordinary 
acceptation of the term, should be denied a home among 
us. Let Congress take this view of the matter and act 
fairly and in the interest of a common humanity, pro¬ 
hibiting any importation of labor under contract under 
the severest penalty of law, and in my opinion the labor 
question will solve itself in the most helpful and natural 
Way. DAN MC RAE. 
Texas, 
