nor. 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 275 
STARTING ORCHARDS IN STUMPS .. 
Experience from Pennsylvania and Texas . 
On page 130 questions were asked about starting fruit 
orchards fcn rough land before the brush and stumps were 
cut off. We called for experience. 
My experience in planting fruit trees on rough ground 
where timber was cleared and stumps remained, is one 
year old. I have a tract of sandy loam, naturally 
drained subsoil, sloping directly north; which had been 
covered with chestnut, locust, oak and poplar timber, 
also blackberry canes in abundance. Last April I set 
1,000 peach and 150 quince trees on this ground, 15x15 
feet apart, often setting a tree hard aside of a stump. 
By so doing our rows are in pretty good shape both 
ways. We set these trees about two or three inches 
deeper than they had been in the nursery, tramping the 
soil firm around the roots, then filling the hole loosely 
and placing leaf-mold or rubbish on top, finally scatter¬ 
ing about a pint of dissolved rock, 14 per cent, around the 
tree in about a four-foot circle. These peach trees were 
beheaded at the nursery, that is, the tops cut off, at about 
where the laterals were allowed to grow by the nursery. 
This saved room in packing, but took the dignified ap¬ 
pearance off the tree. These trees were a very light 
grade except a few hundred, because I wanted to head 
them as low as the buds would allow. In latter part of 
May I cut those stubs still shorter, leaving only the 
three lowest buds. By that time I found every tree had 
started to grow. But, alas! the strawberries and Sum¬ 
mer crops were coming and had to be marketed, and no 
help to be had, and it was the last of July 
when I saw these trees again, or tried to 
sec them, for there was a jungle of 
sprouts, blackberries, etc., that man or 
beast could hardly get through. I started 
at it with brush scythe and mattock, split¬ 
ting off the sprouts and cutting the weeds, 
but making little headway. Every now 
and then I got into the home of some 
yellow-jacket, who after getting inside of 
iny trousers legs urged me to go on, but 
for the care of tomatoes and tobacco I 
was compelled to leave half of these trees 
till September, when some were smoth¬ 
ered. These trees made a growth of from 
six inches to four feet, the light grade 
the least, and were headed too low in this 
jungle. Where the brush was cut the 
leaves turned red and dropped early, while 
the others remained green much longer. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. a. g. wanner. 
In reply to J. G., Spring Green, Wis., if 
he has not already planted his trees, he 
will lose no time by waiting another year 
and getting those stumps out, root and 
all. If he intends making a sod orchard 
out of it, lie will necessarily need the 
stumps out of the way of the mower, 
later on. Then some of those stumps will 
be right in the spot where some of the 
trees should be set. From description of 
soil and slope he seems to have the ideal 
conditions for sod orchard, as we know 
the rainfall in that district is far ahead 
of ours here, where I have 10 acres of 
sod and trees firmly established under 
same conditions, and apparently the same 
soil and slope. I would advise close 
attention to mulching and thorough hand work 
with some heavy tool like the grubbing hoe up 
to the third year around the trees in a circle dis¬ 
tant from the tree the length of the handle of 
hoe. The work of the mower should commence as 
soon as a cover crop is established, using it from three 
to five times a season, according to growth. This has 
been my actual experience in establishing my String- 
fellow sod orchard here at Austin, Texas, and I suppose 
it is about the only one in existence in this semi-arid 
climate, grown exclusively under the personal supervi¬ 
sion of H. M. Stringfellow. Walter w. Durham. 
Travis Co., Tex._ 
RECORDS OF BIG HEN FLOCKS. 
January had but four clear days, rainy and foggy up 
to the sixteenth of the month, then heavy snow and 
cold. House No. 3 started on the first with 984 pullets 
and three died or were killed during the month, leaving 
981. In spite of the damp weather they increased from 
183 eggs on the first to 223 on the 16th; then came 
snow, and they were shut in the lower scratching sheds 
and they dropped to 112 on the 26th, and 
then increased again. They laid during the month 
5,576 eggs, which at three cents apiece were 
worth $167.28, and ate 4,476 pounds of feed, 
costing $71.67, leaving a profit of $95.61. No. 4 started 
with 866 pullets and 36 were killed or died during the 
month, leaving 830. -These were the later pullets and 
the mortality was mostly due to killing immature birds, 
and to losses among 300 pullats brought from New 
York State, clean, healthy birds, but not acclimated. If 
you want to buy pullets buy them in August or Sep¬ 
tember, and acclimate them and cull them yourself, and 
you will get much better results. They laid 133 eggs on 
the first and 189 on the 15th, and then dropped to 76 
on the 27th, increasing thereafter. They laid during the 
months 4,140 eggs worth $124.20; ate 5,043 pounds of 
feed, costing $75.65, leaving a profit of $48.55. I have 
told the story of the improper care of these pullets dur¬ 
ing the Fall, and the feeding during December. Our 
engine was not installed until late in the month, so 
that comparatively little green bone was fed. The 
steady and satisfactory increase in egg production con¬ 
tinued until the snow shut them in. What caused the 
decrease? These pullets have no scratching straw in 
the houses, had been on unlimited pasture range, get¬ 
ting their own roughage, and were fed sprouted oats 
for green feed. When shut in they worried like a lot 
of school children kept in after school, and as the 
sprouted oats, though excellent green feed, do not 
supply bulk enough to balance our concentrated ration, 
the egg yield fell until clover hay enough was taken to 
supply the deficiency. That this is fairly probable is 
shown by the No. t house with 1,100 yearling hens for 
our breeding and 200 New York pullets, where, while the 
1,800 pullets in No. 3 and 4 dropped 200 eggs a day the 
hens only dropped 25. They had no green bone but 
plenty of cut hay, and for some days laid more eggs 
than the larger flock of pullets. Does Mr. Mapes 
use litter in his “hen barn,” and feed clover? If so, 
what was his egg record from January 1 to February 8? 
This would be interesting in comparison, and might 
teach us something. Prof. Dryden in his Utah experi¬ 
ments stated that Leghorns did not do any better with 
litter. Next year 1 shall use litter in one house and 
none in the other and see the difference. I am not, as 
Mr. Mapes suggests, experimenting. I know that 2,000 
hens in one house will do better than when in smaller 
flocks, and that a man of average intelligence can make 
from $1.25 to $1.60 per hen per year on them, and not 
work over six hours a day. We will make more money 
in April, May and June on the egg that costs us from 
5^2 to seven cents per dozen than I will on the higher 
priced Winter eggs, and not forcing these pullets too 
hard now, I shall have “egg machines” for next year that 
will lay the large eggs that put a premium on the output 
of this plant, and will have the stamina and constitu¬ 
tion to lay eggs for hatching that will hatch and live. 
The H. O. dry mash that we have used for years is 
changed in its make-up, so we have had to give it up 
and use bran, middlings and meal with the beef scrap 
in the dry mash. Next month (March), I shall try 
shredded wheat (vaste and dried milk for comparison as 
to its egg-making value, as compared to the old mixture. 
RUfHANAN BURR. 
It 1* reported that experts In the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture have perfected a machine for the removal of fuzz from 
cotton seed, and the separation of light from heavy seed. 
This would permit planting with an ordinary gravity drill, 
and would be a great boon to the cotton planter. 
DOUBLE CROPPING ON LONG ISLAND. 
The One-Legged Farmer Talks. 
Some people seem a little incredulous that I should 
have raised so much on 22 acres of land. I would like 
you to state that there was an omission in my crop 
report of 673 barrels of cucumbers. 1 want this re¬ 
ported from the fact that cucumbers play quite an im¬ 
portant part in our double-crop farming. 
C. A., Branford, Conn., writes for information as to 
how we can plant the potatoes so that we can 
plant a crop between them and take care of the 
second crop. In the first place, we cannot use any 
variety of potatoes except an early one. We use now 
on Long Island the Early Ohio for this purpose. Our 
soil seems particularly adapted to this variety, and 
it has yielded as high as 450 bushels to the acre; 300 
bushels is a very usual yield, but it must be remembered 
that the crop is fed abundantly, and it must also be 
remembered that this variety is not adapted to all 
localities. We plant our potatoes the first of April, or 
as soon as the frost is out of the ground. They are 
given thorough cultivation until some time in June, 
whatever date a certain crop is to be planted. For in¬ 
stance, we plant our corn between every other row about 
June 12 and by June 25 the Potato beetles are getting 
in their fine work, so of necessity we must spray with 
Paris-green. The corn is usually up by that time, so 
that in driving through with the sprayer we let the 
horse walk through the row where the corn is, as the 
horse does much less damage than the wheels of the 
sprayer would do; in fact, the horse doos 
no damage to the corn to speak of. This 
one spraying usually is all that is neces¬ 
sary. The alternate rows of potatoes can 
be cultivated as long as one cares to culti¬ 
vate, but where the corn is planted must 
be hoed the same as any corn. We plant 
the corn about two feet apart in the hills, 
and as our potato rows arc planted 2E> 
feet apart that makes the corn 5x2 feet 
We usually dig our potatoes from the 
10 th to the 25th of July, but in some 
cases we let the two crops grow until 
Fall, and then cut the corn, and after it 
is shocked, dig the rows in between the 
shocks. That leaves two rows of pota¬ 
toes where the shocks of corn are; then 
the corn is husked and tjic corn reshockcd 
where the potatoes have been dug, and 
the remainder of potatoes arc dug. It is 
better to dig the potatoes early before the 
corn is too high, using a plow digger, 
throwing the furrow away from the corn, 
after the potatoes are dug affording a 
chance to take care of the corn and also 
a good opportunity to sow grass, clover or 
oats for the purpose of providing a catch 
crop. 
We plant cucumbers in the same way 
to some extent, excepting they are plant¬ 
ed the last of June, so that we can Paris- 
green the potatoes before the cucumbers 
arc planted. In this case the potatoes arc 
dug as soon as possible, allowing the cu¬ 
cumbers to get the full benefit of the sun. 
We cu-t for second crop cucumbers; as 
high as 200 barrels have been grown to 
the acre. Lima beans are also grown 
quite extensively on the same plan. The 
writer last year grew a crop of potatoes, planted 
Lima beans in the potatoes, dug the potatoes 
and set out Brussels sprouts between the rows of Lima 
beans, thereby growing three different crops on the 
same ground. It is easy when you know how, but it 
means that a farmer must have plenty of help and do 
the work at the right time. The majority of farmers 
dig their potatoes first and then plant Brussels sprouts, 
cabbage or cauliflowers for second crop, which is an 
easier method. I hope I have made our method plain 
to inquirers, and later I will explain our system of 
double-cropping smaller crops. fred tabor. 
Long Island. _ 
GRAFTING SEEDLING APPLES. 
I grafted a number of seedling apples; the trees 
have been bearing good crops for some years. These 
were quite small and mostly whip-grafted, wrapped with 
waxed cloth, which was removed as soon as the union 
was formed. I have one objection, the trees not grow¬ 
ing uniform in stem, some having offsets where grafted. 
This is only in appearance. King, Tulpehocken and 
Grimes Golden root-grafted nearly all die here when 
old enough to bear fruit, and only succeed with these 
when top-grafted. No doubt grafted trees from the 
nursery would bear sooner than home grafted if planted 
at same time, the grafting necessarily checking growth 
for a year or two. I have found the following varieties 
desirable in this section, and no doubt in New York 
State they do equally well or better: Jefferis, Smoke¬ 
house, Grimes Golden, Dominie, Baldwin, Spy, King, 
Jonathan and Winesap. W. H. s. 
Pinegrove, Pa. 
THE HOME OF GLADIOLUS PRIMULINUS. Fig. 129. 
See Ruralisms, Page 280. 
