946 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 22, 
Ruralisms ; 
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NOTES FROM THE RURAL GROUNDS 
“Dishorned" Fruit Trees. —We weie 
so nearly worsted last year in our battle 
with San Jose scale that it appeared best 
to behead certain trees in order to ex¬ 
terminate the pest by drenching the stubs 
with insecticide, hoping to grow new 
heads free from infection, under proper 
conditions of treatment. These “dis¬ 
horned” trees are mostly peaches, though 
some pears and plums were included in 
the experiment. About half were cut 
back in March, 1905, and the others im¬ 
mediately after fruiting in the Fall of the 
same year. Soluble oils, diluted to the 
proportions recommended by the makers, 
were thoroughly sprayed over the stubs in 
March and October, respectively, in al¬ 
most every instance killing all the scales. 
The trees were of seven years’ growth 
and an effort was made in cutting back 
to start the new head as low as possi¬ 
ble, the larger branches being shortened 
to six or eight inches from their junc¬ 
tions. Healthy small branches a fo >t or 
more long were allowed to remain. 
When the dishorning was done after 
fruiting longer branches and more twigs 
were retained. Fig. 427, page 942, shows 
the new heads formed on peach trees this 
season that were cut back in September, 
1905. The photograph was taken in early 
November as the foliage was ripening. 
The branches are well covered with un¬ 
usually plump flower buds, and may bear 
a •mod crop next year. There is no ap¬ 
pearance of living scales on these trees at 
this time, though they were densely crust¬ 
ed when treated last year. Peach trees 
cut back in the Spring of 1905, almost 
without exception, had good crops for 
the extent of the new head this year, 
though the fruits were scarcely as lar^e 
or well colored as would be expected 
from normal trees, and have gone to their 
Winter rest well set with buds. It is the 
general experience that peach fruits from 
cut-back trees are not likely to be of com¬ 
mercial standard in size and appearance, 
though otherwise of good quality. Onlv 
a few plums were borne on the dishorned 
trees, but the heads are being ranidlv re¬ 
newed. Tt is, of course, a matter of years 
to build up new heads on pear trees, 
though it, can be done. Apples and cher¬ 
ries, however, do not take kindly to the 
dishorning treatment. If they are so 
badly injured by accident, disease, frost 
or insects that the head must come off 
thev might as well be replaced by new 
trees. 
Don’t Thin the First Year. —Peach 
trees bear, cutting back so well that dis¬ 
horning may almost be considered a rou¬ 
tine practice to be resorted to in the ab¬ 
sence of disease or injury whenever the 
bearing wood gets too far from the trunk. 
If the root system is good a new com¬ 
pact head is grown in a season, and in 
two years an almost normal crop may be 
looked for. Many minor diseases and 
weaknesses seem to be got rid of with the 
feeble and half-dead wood always to be 
found on trees that have borne heavy 
crops. 'Methodical pruning goes far tow¬ 
ard keeping the heads compact and the 
fruiting wood within reach, but the time 
is almost sure to come with every vig¬ 
orous peach tree when wholesale excision 
of the main branches is likely to benefit. 
The removal of even a portion of the 
head of trees weakened by full bearing, 
inst after the crop is gathered, is often 
followed by visible improvement in the 
appearance of the remainder. The anaemic 
foliage darkens, flaccid buds swell and 
occasionally a moderate new growth starts 
in time to mature before Winter. When 
beheaded in Winter or early Spring the 
crowded new branches are likely to tempt 
the grower to thinning and midsummer 
pruning, but experience shows that this 
vigorous new growth would best be left 
alone. Too many buds start, but if un¬ 
duly thinned the remaining ones grow so 
rapidly that there is danger of blowing off 
bv Summer storms. If left to themselves 
a few get the necessary lead and outgrow 
the others, at the same time being 
checked from over development. The 
illustrated trees show growths of four 
to five feet, which is about all that will 
endure the storms of an average season. 
Cautious thinning should be commenced 
the second year, and the head finally 
formed the third season by cutting out 
weak branches and shortening in the main 
ones. As an adjunct to scale treatment 
on peach trees the dishorning process 
finds a useful place. 
Mechanical Irrigation of Green¬ 
houses. —One of the great advantages of 
plant culture under glass is the absolute 
control over the supply of moisture. 
Water can be given or entirely withheld 
at the option of the grower. The time- 
honored means of annlving water in glass¬ 
house gardening were the sprinkling can 
and the syringe. The}’- are yet used in a 
small way by careful operators. Next 
came the rubber hose, backed by suffi¬ 
cient water pressure. Endless styles of 
nozzles and sprinklers have been devised 
to assist in the distribution of water on 
soil and foliage, but nothing has ever 
been found as efficient as the thumb of 
an intelligent waterman over an ordinary 
coupling. The force and direction of the 
.discharge may thus be graded to a nicety 
and fine or coarse spray or solid current 
allowed to flow at will. It is, however, 
chill and rheumatic work in Winter, when 
the water comes in at little more than 
freezing temperature. The large green¬ 
house establishments cover many acres 
of glasshouse space, running the labor 
cost of the daily watering to surprisingly 
high figures. Attempts have been made 
to install mechanical devices to distribute 
the water, thus greatly lessening the 
labor and exposure of the attendants. 
Success is now claimed for some of the 
new mechanical systems as applied to 
vegetable gardening, both under glass and 
in the open. Extensive installations num¬ 
bering miles of pipe, hundreds of fixed 
nozzles, and powerful pumps where grav¬ 
ity pressure is lacking, are in use, and 
are claimed to work efficiently and with 
great economy. Flower growers, iow- 
ever, do not as yet regard mechanical 
irrigation with much favor. They say 
that while water is furnished in plenty 
and at a minimum labor cost the distribu¬ 
tion is faulty from their exacting point of 
view. The management and application 
of moisture is of the utmost importance 
in growing the high-class blooms now de¬ 
manded by the public. Skill and intelli¬ 
gence are needed by the man at the nozzle 
when watering blooming and ornamental 
plants. It is not a question of turning a 
valve and leaving the mechanical device 
do the rest. Discrimination, not floods of 
water, is needed to satisfy the requirements 
of individual plants. One wants mere— 
another less—here a fine mist to moisten 
foliage lightly, there a full current to 
wash away red spider or dislodge mealy 
bug—the soil on this bench requires a 
slight spray and the next may only be 
satisfied with a thorough drenching. The 
thumb of the waterman, guided by brains 
and experience, controls the supply in a 
way that no mechanical fixtures have -et 
competed with, though inventive ingen¬ 
uity may win in the end. Vegetables are 
generally more uniform in their needs 
and development. The desired crop is 
either the fruit, as in cucumbers and 
tomatoes, or some portion of the young, 
rapidly growing plant, like the tubers of 
radishes or foliage of lettuce. Blossoms 
are either lacking, or play only an inci¬ 
dental part in the development, so that the 
uniform supply of water furnished by the 
mechanical irrigators answers well, when 
applied as needed. 
Successful as Frost Guards. —Their 
labor-saving feature is particularly evi¬ 
dent when applied to open air trucking 
onerations. Acres of land intensively 
planted with profitable vegetables may be 
quickly showered if the installation is ex¬ 
tensive enough and the grower thus made 
entirely independent of drought, but a 
rather unlooked-for additional advantage 
is the prevention of frosts. A showering 
with water, even a few degrees above the 
freezing point, will offset a very sharp de¬ 
cline in temperature. In practice the me¬ 
chanical irrigators are found exceedinglv 
effective in preventing injury from night- 
frosts. We hear of a plant in Florida 
covering six or more acres with a net¬ 
work of elevated pipes, furnished with 
900 sprinkling nozzles, and supplied with 
a nowerful centrifugal pump run by a 
six-horse gasoline engine. The vegetable 
beds can be continually showered during 
frosty weather, and the plants tided over 
freezes that would be unmanageable with 
other means. In watering for growth the 
idea is to imitate natural rain, but the 
character of the spray may be adjusted 
from the finest mist to coarse and heavy 
drops. Such installations doubtless are 
expensive but are likely to become an es¬ 
tablished feature of well-equipped market 
gardens, under glass in the North, and 
outside in the South. They also possess 
advantages for economically supplying 
water to delicate young nursery stock 
that is commonly grown close together. 
w. v. F. 
SAVE YOUR HORSE 
£Br Sw 
Luxeubour*, Wls., R. F. D. No. 4, Jan. 30, 05 
DB.B. J. KENDALL CO., 
Gontlomen :—Please send me a copy of your “Treat 
tM on the Horse and his Diseases.” I handloand keep 
a good many horses all tho time; hare used Kendall’i 
Spavin Cure and had great success with it, having re¬ 
moved some bad Spavins of long standing that the vet¬ 
erinary pronounced incurable. 
Tours respectfully, Antoine Wery. 
A Tried, World-wide Remedy, 
Spavins, Ringbones, Curbs, Splints, 
Swellings, Sores and all Lameness 
are permanently cured by 
Kendall’s 
Spavin 
Cure 
Belman, N. J.,July 19,05. 
DR. B. J. KENDALL CO., 
Dear Sirs;—I have used your Kendall's Spavin Cure 
and find that it will do all that you say it will, if used 
as directed. I have cured a Blood Spavin on one of our 
best horses, and would not be without I tin the stable. 
Please send me a copy of vour “Treatise on the Horse 
and his Diseases.” Very truly yours, 
Clarence Hart, Coachman for B. Strauss. 
Price $1; Gfcr $5. Greatest liniment known 
for family use. All druggists sell it. Accept no 
substitute. The great book, “A Treatise on 
the Horse,” free from druggists or 
Dr. B. J. Kendall Co., 
Enosburg Falls, Vermont. 
ABS0RBINE 
Cures Strained Puffy Ankles, 
Lymphangitis, Bruises and 
Swellings, Lameness and 
Allays Pain Quickly 
without Blistering, removing the 
hair, or laying the horse up. §2.00 
per bottle, delivered, with full 
directions. Book 9 B free. 
ABSORB1NE, JR., formankind, 
$1.00 Bottle. Cures Strains, Gout, 
Varicose Veins, Etc. Mfd. only by 
W. F,YOUNG, P.D.F. 88 Monmouth St , Springfield.Mass. 
Tuttle’s Elixir 
ments. When we say cure, and it 
fails, 1100. reward. Never claimed 
yet. Get free "Veterinary Experi¬ 
ence.100 pages. Makes you mas¬ 
ter of horse ailments and diseases. 
Write for copy. 
Tuttle's Elixir Co.. 
30 Beverly St., Boston, Mass. 
CANADIAN BRANCH: 
82 St. Gabriel Street, Montreal, Quebec. 
<T As 4 ^te° quick 
STAND BY 
l/i 
kSTOOLSlN 
One 
Hammer 
Hatchet 
Screw Driver 
8taple Puller 
Nall Claw 
Wire Cotter 
Leather Punch 
Pinchers 
DEATH TO HEAVES 
NEWTON’S Heave and Cough Cure 
a veterinary specific. 
14yearssale. Onetu two cans 
cure Heaves. SI .00 per 
can. Of dealers, or express 
prepaid. Send for booklet. 
TheNew ton Remedy Co., Toledo, O. 
WHAT DO YOU SAY? 
Several hundred thousand farmers say that 
the best investment they ever made was 
when they bought an 
Electric Ha $5 B0 „ 
Low wheels, wide tires; easy work, light draft. 
We’ll sell you a set of the best eteel wheels 
made for your old wagon. Spoke united with 
hub, guaranteed not to break nor work loose. 
Send for our catalogue and save money. 
ELECTRIC WHEEL CO.. Box 88.Quincy, III. 
ICE 
CUTTING *V1S r 
Made 
In Three 
Size*. 
_ - "HU 
DOR8CII All Steel, Double- 
Row ICK PLOWS. Marks aud 
cuts two rows at a time; cuts any size cake 
and any depth, and does it with ease and economy. 
Does the work of twenty men sawing by hand. Pays for ItselftP 
Jwo days. No farmer, dairyman, hotel man or other can afford to 
be without it. Ask for catalogue and introductory prices 
4ohnl>or«clufcSon& 226 WelU St-Milwaukee*WU» 
o Every Farmer Wants One at Sight 
P One of our agents says he will make f1500 next year. We be¬ 
lieve he can. This is tho heat seller we ever saw. Write for 
DO Special Ofthb and plan to Aoncre. Make money now. 
J.B. Foote (Dept. 531 Fdry. Co. Tredericktown, Q 
The Great Agents Supply House. 
BEATS THE 
Grindstone 
TEN TIMES OVER /, 
No pressure, no drawing * ' 
temper, if you use the 
Practical 
Alundum 
Grinder 
with wheel revolving 
3,000 times a minute. 
Far superior to emery 
or stone. Grinds any 
tool, knife to sickle. 
Different sizes. Foot 
power attachment. 
Write for circular of particu¬ 
lars. Good agents wanted. Address, 
ROYAL MIO. CO., 226 E. Walnut St., Lancaster, Pa. 
Banner Root Gutter 
in 7 sizes for hand and power. 
Cuts ail roots and vegetables 
fine—no choking. No matter 
what other feed you have. Cut 
roots will increase its value. 
Root cutters are indispensa¬ 
ble to dairymen, sheep, hog and cat¬ 
tle feeders. “Banners” shake out all 
dirt and gravel, cut fast and easy and 
last Indefinitely. Our free book tells. 
Write for it today. 
0. E. THOMPSON S SONS, Ypsilanti, Mich. 
iWE LEAD THE WORLD 
I We are the largest manufac¬ 
turers of Grooved and Plain 
Tire Steel Farm Wagon 
Wheels in America. We 
guarantee our patent 
Grooved Tire Wheels to 
be the best made by anybody 
anywhere. Write us. 
HAYANA METAL WHEEL GO. 
BOX 17 HAVANA. ILL. 
♦ IOC T00LS '\ t 
♦ Ilf C elevators^vJkV ice king plow ’ $2S ♦ 
X Tiniu piit ni nut ♦ 
TWIN CUT PLOW, $14 
CO. 
♦ 
♦ 
: 
♦ 
♦ 
♦ 
♦ 
♦ 
♦ Send for Catalog R. ^ 
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦J 
GIFFORD-WOOD 
Hudson, N. Y. 
Arlington, Mass. 
TILE DRAINED LAND IS MORE PRODUCTIVE 
- creases the value. Acres oi swampy lanu reclaimed anil made fertile 
tfY T11 C 1 Jackson’s Round Drain Tile meets every requirement. We also make Sewe 
1 u A l t—«— j pipe. Red and Fire Brick, Chimney Tops, Encaustic Side Walk Tile, etc. Writ: 
-g/ for what you want and prices. joiui u. jaikso.N, ;« Third Are., Albany, N \ 
Earliest and easiest worked 
Carries off surplus water 
admits air to the soil.® In 
Acres of swampy land reclaimed and made fertile 
m “‘ , “ “voro \y e ;llgo , llake Sew g, 
Jayne's Tonic Ye rmifutfe 
gives rosy cheeks and active health to pale, sickly children.*® 
And it is good for their elders, too. 
Ask your druggist for it 
