374 
May 4, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
the mint is in good condition, but if not properly dried 
or wet by rain sometimes two hours are required for 
distillation. The amount of oil obtained from one 
REMOVING MINT STRAW FROM A STILL. Fig 171. 
filling of the vat varies greatly, 10 to 12 pounds being 
perhaps the average. In new mint as much as 32 
pounds is sometimes obtained, while old mint that is 
very weedy may not yield more than two ,or three 
pounds, although so low a yield is very unusual. 
The mint straw is removed from the vat after the 
oil is distilled by attaching a crane to the chains of he 
frame on which the mint was placed; it is then lifted 
by machinery and placed on a wagon to be drawn to 
a vacant space and spread out to dry. When thoroughly 
dry it may be stacked in the open or placed under 
cover to be fed to stock during the Winter. Some 
farmers believe cattle and horses prefer this hay to 
Timothy, though but one feeding is given a day, usu¬ 
ally at night. It is not considered as good as clover 
hay for cattle. The straw is a good fertilizer, although 
it is difficult to plow linger. 
The main source of profit to the farmer is the oil, 
and the crop would not be grown if it did not yield a 
profitable return in oil. A careful farmer may expect 
on the average a yield of 35 pounds an acre from new 
mint, about 25 pounds the second year, and 12 pounds 
the third, an average yield of 24 pounds. At $2.12 per 
pound, the average price during the last 10 years, the 
income from an acre of mint is $51.28. It is not 
unusual, however, to have a yield of 50 pounds from an 
acre of new mint, and at $3 a pound, the price pre¬ 
vailing during the early part of the season of 1906, the 
crop is- one of the most profitable that can be grown 
on muck land. The expense of marketing too is much 
less than with some crops. I have in mind one farmer 
who a year or two ago drew to market the year’s 
product of oil at a single load, receiving over $7,000 
for it. Figs. 168, 169, 170 and 171 show scenes 
about a peppermint farm. w. J. w. 
KEEP HOLD OF YOUR OWN PROPERTY. 
A form of fraud and disaster, no less dreadful in its 
consequences than that of investing in mining or oil 
stock, rubber plantations or air-line railways, is that 
indulged in by many prosperous farmers who on reach¬ 
ing the age when they desire to lay aside the burdens 
of life deed their property to a child, friend or rela¬ 
tive, on the understanding that they are to receive 
care for the remainder of life in return. These arrange¬ 
ments seldom if ever prove satisfactory, and after the 
fatal step has been taken, regrets only bring more 
sorrow. They will not restore title to property. 
A farmer spent 48 years improving and developing a 
Pennsylvania estate; he raised and educated a family, 
erected buildings and made improvements which indi¬ 
vidualized himself and his farm. When above 70 years 
of age he deeded his real estate to a son, but at once 
the aged parents regretted their act, and begged the son 
to restore to them their property. He saw in it a value 
of thousands; to him this outweighed his parents’ 
wishes, and he refused to comply with their request. 
The aged mother could not bear up under the load of 
sorrow, and soon her remains were carried to the 
country graveyard. The father was ordered to leave 
the old home, a home built by his own industry. His 
bed was torn down and he was driven out on a Winter 
day with no place to lay his head. Fifty years from 
the day he married and established his own fireside, 
living in a cheap tenant house on a nearby farm, depend¬ 
ing on the labor of his aged hands for his daily bread, 
he looked over upon the luxurious equipment on the old 
farm, a son enjoying—no, not enjoying, for pleasure 
never accompanies ill-gotten gains—but living on the 
results of an aged parent’s toil. Cannot this true pen 
picture of an actual condition existing to-day deter 
others from making a like mistake? o. o. w. 
MAKING BORDEAUX FOR POTATOES. 
In spraying 15 acres of potatoes, is it possible to make 
in one barrel a solution of lime and in another barrel blue- 
stone in suflicieut quantity, so that when diluted with the 
right amount of water you could cover the vines once? 
The vines generally grow very large. 
I doubt if it will be found practical to dissolve all 
stock at once for a thorough spraying of 15 acres of 
potatoes. I have made up stock enough at a time to 
spray 20 to 25 acres twice. The care and time necessary 
to keep the stock in good condition will more than 
offset the bother of making as it is needed. The method 
that I have found most satisfactory to me is to slake 
enough lime for half a day in a new flour barrel and 
have two half barrels (saw a kerosene barrel in two) 
and put the blue vitriol (copper of sulphate) into a bran 
or middlings sack. Suspend the sack near the top of 
the half barrel and fill with water. Use one pound of 
the vitriol to every 10 gallons of the completed mixture. 
By using from the blue vitriol solution alternately no 
waiting will be necessary. We aim to be liberal with 
the amount of lime we use, but do not leave until we 
test every lot with the acid. If by chance we have not 
enough lime in the mixture, which is readily shown by 
the brown spots as soon as acid touches the solution 
in the spray tank, we add lime water until the test is 
satisfactory. We endeavor to get enough lime in the 
barrel or tank before the vitriol is added, for by so 
doing mixture will be better. We use a homemade 
strainer, clean strainer cloth, fastened in a small wooden 
funnel. Have cloth to slope at an angle of 45 degrees 
in the funnel, as in a strainer so made but little diffi- 
THE PECAN IN BLOOM. Fig 172. 
culty will be experienced in straining the lime. If your 
mixture makes nozzle trouble something is wrong, and 
almost always can be traced to poor straining or care¬ 
less mixing of lime and vitriol. We usually spray first 
time when blossom buds first show and spray later 
whenever the potatoes lose their previous coat, be it 
two days or three weeks, using from 50 to 60 gallons 
per acre each application. H. L. beadle. 
Washington Co., N. Y. 
PEACH GROWING IN NEW ENGLAND. 
A well-known recipe for rabbit pie begins: “First 
catch your rabbit.” The best recipe for raising peaches 
in a cold climate is, first get a hill, the poorer the soil 
the better. We usually spread the ground with barn¬ 
yard manure, plow early in Spring, then harrow well 
and set the trees at once. The trees should be set 
about' 15 feet apart each way, and so as to show 
parallel lines (or rows) two ways. I believe it pays 
to set the largest grade trees, and care should be taken 
that they come from a reliable nursery and have been 
fumigated. Set the trees in good, large holes and 
pack the roots snuglv with good soil until the hole is 
half full, then dump in a peck of wood ashes and more 
soil. Above all else cultivate. We plant beans, melons 
or tomatoes in our orchard until the trees get large, 
and after that cultivate by means of shallow plowing or 
deep harrowing, until late in June, then sow the ground 
with cow peas or vetch. Insurance is needed in the 
shape of the knife to dig out borers, Spring and Fall, 
and Bordeaux Mixture to destroy fungus. We spray 
with the 3-6-50 formula (three pounds copper sulphate, 
six pounds lime, 50 gallons water), just as the buds are 
swelling, and again as soon as the calyx drops from the 
fruit, using 2-2-50 Bordeaux with 1)4 pound of Dis- 
parene added. This can be repeated—without the 
Disparene—in 10 days. The first spraying settles the 
leaf-curl and the last two will greatly lessen the dam¬ 
age by brown rot. We have found it absolutely neces¬ 
sary to thin the fruit thoroughly about July 1. When 
the trees come to bearing age we use little stable 
manure, but apply 600 pounds basic slag meal and 50 
bushels wood ashes per acre. This with thorough 
thinning, will make good trees and fine fruit. 
All young trees should be headed in by cutting off 
one-third the new growth about the last of August, 
using hedge pruners for this. All dead branches and 
other unnecessary limbs should be cut off in March. 
For this we use a saw and the “Rhodes double cut" 
pruners which are indispensable. Nothing else will cut 
as clean and quickly as these shears. Keep the trees 
headed down low. For the open market a large, pre¬ 
ferably yellow, peach is the best; while for family trade 
a medium size is often preferable. The four-quart 
carriers are the best fo- early city trade, but for later 
trade or local custom the standard—14-quart for New 
England—is the best. We grade all fruit carefully ex¬ 
cept the culls—it is the honest way. 
Below is a list of the varieties we have found to be 
hardy and otherwise valuable—hardiness to be sought 
first, last and always. The order of ripening is about 
as given: Greensboro, good size and color, no rot. 
Carman, splendid in size, color and quality. Mountain 
Rose, almost perfect except for its medium size. Hieley, 
large, handsome; rots somewhat. Fitzgerald, fine ex¬ 
cept that the wood is not very vigorous. Elb^rta, very 
best yellow, fairly hardy. Oldmixon, very fine except 
for a spotted appearance of the skin. Kalamazoo, fine 
yellow, very thrifty. Bequett Free, a white Elberta, 
fine, no rot. Stump, the best late white peach. Cham¬ 
pion, ripening with Mountain Rose, is the ideal peach 
for the family, but rots very badly; large, very hardy. 
The Crawfords are very tender and unreliable. 
Essex Co., Mass._ a. f. tenney. 
“PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR FARMERS.” 
We have been making some use of the farmers’ bulle¬ 
tins issued by the Department of Agriculture at Wash¬ 
ington, and find some of them quite useful. Last year, 
preparing the first hams we ever cured, we followed the 
directions given in Farmers’ Bulletin No. 183, and they 
were excellent. This year we thought we would try 
the yellow wash recommended in this bulletin for safe 
keeping of the meat. The recipe as given in the bulle¬ 
tin is: Three pounds barytes (barium sulphate) ; 0.06 
pound glue; 0.08 pound chrome yellow (lead chromate), 
and 0.40 pound flour. Recently, while in the city, I 
took it to an old reliable druggist who has been putting 
up prescriptions for humans to take for years. The 
proprietor took it, and after studying awhile, he went to 
one of the younger clerks and asked him how much 
6-100 of a pound is? They said there were 16 ounces 
in a pound, and after figuring some time, the older man 
said it was just 1)4 pound. “The recipe called for 1)4 
pound of glue,” he said, and he started to weigh it for 
me. The young man did not seem to be satisfied, and 
before he got through weighing he told the proprietor 
he was wrong, for 6-100 of a pound would be less, not 
more than a pound, so they began to figure again. I 
realized that they were going to give me plenty of glue, 
and being in a hurry told them I would call for the 
prescription later in the day, and told them to keep the 
articles separate, as I preferred to do my own mixing 
and would furnish the flour myself. When I returned 
they had the prescription ready and nicely tied up with 
my name on it. While driving home I began to wonder 
how much .06 of a pound was, anyhow. It is a little 
puzzling to one not used to figuring in that way, but I 
soon decided the recipe called for 24-25 of an ounce of 
glue, and 1 7-25 ounce of chrome yellow. When I 
reached home I found they had given me three pounds 
barytes, 9)4 ounces of glue and 13 ounces chrome 
yellow. Now, if the writer of the above bulletin (An¬ 
drew Boss), meant it for farmers to use, why didn’t 
he put it one ounce of glue and 1)4 ounce of chrome 
yellow instead of .06 and .08 pounds? Do you think 
1-25 of an ounce of glue, or J4 of an ounce of chrome 
yellow added to that mixture would spoil those hams, 
when applied on the outside of muslin or canvas? All 
YOUNG BEARING PECAN. Fig 173. 
farmers are not prepared to divide an ounce in 25 
parts, and the druggist does not know how when it is 
given to him in a decimal fraction of a pound. M, F. 
Waterford, N. Y. 
