190 ?. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
477 
CLOVER CROPS FOR FLORIDA. 
J. 8■ C-, Miami , Fla .—Do you think to 
plant castor beans close arouind fruit trees 
would prove beneficial or detrimental as a 
fertilizer and shade during hot Summer 
months on thin, thirsty, sandy land? What 
clovers do you think best jto plant around 
fruit trees down here for a Summer shade 
and fertilizer? 
Castor beans grow on a shrub or tree 
known here as castor tree; they grow to 
five inches in diameter and it takes a 
grubbing hoe or stump puller to get them 
out. It takes up all fertilizer and gives 
none. Cow peas are good, but the best 
we have in Florida is beggar weed; it 
gives ammonia to the ground and shade, 
too. Velvet beans are good, but they 
climb on trees and are hard to pull off; 
one vine will grow 40 feet long, and I 
have seen them 60 feet long. Clover of 
any kind is out of the question in Ma¬ 
natee Co.; it has been tried by every 
northern man who comes here without 
even getting the amount of seed he plant¬ 
ed. We have Crab grass for hay and cut 
twice during rainy reason, say three 
months; all other time groves have to be 
kept free from grass or weeds. r. vv. 
Bradentown, Fla. 
My experience with castor beans leads 
me to believe that some benefit can be 
derived from them for shading young 
orange or grape fruit trees. For shading 
the soil I would very much prefer the 
Velvet bean or cow pea. The Velvet 
bean is preferred here, as it gives an im¬ 
mense amount of rich mulching material. 
True, great care must be taken when in 
their rankest growth, or they will smother 
out trees, and for this reason they must 
be guided away from the trees every 10 
days or so. The Soy bean and the 
clovers are not adapted for this soil and 
climate, but excellent hay can be made 
from both Velvet bean and cow peas if 
properly and thoroughly cured. Velvet 
beans will easily grow 50 feet with us 
on rich soil. We do not attempt to cut them 
when harvesting, but simply use a strong 
two-horse sulky rake and turn them every 
other day or so until thoroughly cured, 
then mow away, salting liberally. It gen¬ 
erally takes about eight or 10 days to 
cure them, and mules or horses will grow 
fat on them. We have had no injurious 
effects from them among our animals, but 
think if fed partly green or badly cured 
they would produce such. w. w. 
Miami, Fla. 
,1 do not think the castor bean would 
be of the least benefit to the land, nor to 
the trees. The castor bean itself makes 
a considerable tree with us, sometimes • 
living through the mild Winters and 
growing to be 20 to 25 feet tall, five to six 
inches in diameter. The cow pea or beg¬ 
gar-weed would be better than almost 
anything else that I know of. We use the 
beggar-weed for Summer planting; this 
is a variety of clover, but I have forgot¬ 
ten the botanical name. This is a great 
celery center, and we plant our celery 
lands in cow peas after our crops are 
harvested. h. h. c. 
Sanford, FTa. 
VETCH AS A GREEN MANURE. 
I send with this roots of Winter vetch to 
let you see that growth of nodules. I think 
these roots are not unfair samples of 
plants growing on about 2 l / 2 acres of 
young peach orchard. I had last season, 
on an adjoining piece, an equally good 
growth. The tops of the plants at this 
time have made more than 12 inches 
growth, but the seeding is very thin, 
an 1 the plants sprawl on the ground, so 
it is difficult plowing in the crop. The 
peach trees where I had the vetch last 
year made an enormous growth. I meas¬ 
ured the length of one shoot which I cut 
in trimming this year, and it measured 
nine feet four inches. Very many shoots 
were six or more feet long—too much 
growth altogether. The land where I 
have grown the vetch is gravelly loam, 
not very wet nor very dry. Now I have 
some lots of moister soil that I would 
like to sow to vetch for plowing in when 
grown. I wish to learn if vetch thrives 
on moist soil. Can you tell me? If it 
does I wish to sow it on my present 
strawberry lot after harvesting the crop. 
I,have some on a lot not far from where 
these roots grow, which does not seem 
to thrive and there are not many nodules 
on the roots. Do you suppose the soil 
needs inoculation? I intend now to plow 
the lot and sow with barley and Spring 
vetch, to plow in in August, and seed to 
grass. If you can give me any points on 
the use of vetch for improving soil, I wish 
you would do so. I do all my farming 
with chemical fertilizers, and to maintain 
humus in soil, I have to plow in green 
crops. I use cover crops in my peach 
orchards, which I harrow in. I have 
found barley as satisfactory as anything 
in the older orchards, but my limited ex¬ 
perience with vetch, where trees are small 
enough so I can plow leads me to value 
it for cover. The cold and variable tem¬ 
peratures of Winter have ruined my peach 
crop; there is not a blossom to be found 
on my trees, more than a thousand of 
bearing age. When I found the prospect 
for a crop was nil, I decided to dehorn 
the trees so as to keep the bearing wood 
low and close to the stem of the tree. 
The orchard looks now as if it had been 
through a fierce battle and got worsted. I 
have about one-fourth acre of brush heap 
to burn when it gets dry enough. M. M. 
Medway, Mass. 
R. N-Y.—We find great interest taken 
in Winter and Spring vetch. Since seed 
of cow peas is scarce and high this year, 
many fruit growers are considering vetch. 
We have heard little personal experience 
with it. Prof. Voorhees of New Jersey, 
has obtained excellent results with vetch 
eight inches in depth would be best. Much 
depends on the character of the soil. 
Where it is fairly light and open the air 
penetrates freely to greater depths, and 
tubercles may therefore be found in such 
soils at greater distances from the sur¬ 
face. Because of their openness such 
soils allow the bacteria, which escapes 
from the decaying tubercles, to be car¬ 
ried down to greater depths by the per¬ 
colating surface waters. However, we 
should always remember that tubercle 
formation occurs only near the surface; 
hence, most of the corresponding bacteria 
are found near the surface. The dried 
and sifted soil could be used, but it would 
not be as useful as fresh, moist soil, for 
the bacteria are weakened by drying. It 
would not be worth while to attempt plac¬ 
ing the soil two inches below the sur¬ 
face. It would be fully as effective when 
broadcast and harrowed in; for the or¬ 
ganisms are carried down to some depth 
by the rain that falls on the land. 
King Apple and Scale. —-I have seen an 
article about the King apple being free from 
scale. in my orchard of several different 
kinds of trees the King was the first to be 
affected, next, in order to Ben Davis, which 
seemed to be the most easily affected of any 
apple I have had experience with. The King 
proved an easy mark for the scale im my 
orchard, but may be different for others, h. 
Morris Co., N. J. 
Elbehta Peaches. —I know nothing about 
President strawberry, but if I were sure I 
could have all the Ben Davis and Elbertas I 
could eat the rest of my life I would not 
quarrel. While Elbertas were plentiful last 
Summer I canned 800 quarts, and as I do not 
ex:pect to have any more for several years 
I am not sorry. There are no orchards and 
very few bearing fruit trees of any kind 
for miles around here. You who are fond 
of fruit can imagine liftw we will hoard that 
fruit. K. H. T. 
Sulphur, I. T. 
For the land’s sake use Bowlter’s Fer¬ 
tilizers.^—They enrich the earth — Adv. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” • See guarantee, page 8. 
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GENERAL OFFICES 
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SUPERIOR 
U/|pr Don’t build 
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FrNPF °f fence until 
■ ^ i ’ v c. y 0U get our free 
catalog. We make 114 different 
styles of fence, and standard sizes . 
of gates. We use the Superior Lock , 
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lock made. Freight prepaid. 
THE SUPERIOR FENCE CO., Cleveuid, Ohio 
as a green manure. On the light soils of 
.South Jersey the growth of Winter vetch 
is astonishing. Prof. Voorhees thinks the 
Winter vetch would not do so well on 
moist soils. The Spring vetch, however, 
does better on the heavy, moist soils when 
seeded early. The hot weather of June 
and July (not in sight this year) seems 
to injure the plant. We think in the case 
mentioned above, inoculation, using soil 
from the field where the crop grows well, 
would help. We want all the notes of ex¬ 
perience we can get. That peach orchard 
made too much growth to suit us. 
Care of Seed Potatoes. 
J. R. H., Glen SumnM Springs, Pa .—Will 
you give the best method of handling pota¬ 
toes for seed? They now have sprouts on 
them about three inches long. Should these 
he removed now or not before I am ready to 
plant them? 
Ans. —If you care to take sufficient 
trouble in planting potatoes to avoid 
breaking the sprouts which are already 
three inches long, we would advise you 
to spread the potatoes thinly in some 
warm sunny place and allow the sprouts 
to remain until you are ready to plant 
them. The potatoes will turn green and 
the sprouts grow thick and stronger in¬ 
stead of lengthening if exposed to light, 
but this will increase rather than injure 
their vitality, and they may be planted 
without breaking if sufficient care is 
taken. In case you do not care to go 
to this trouble we would advise you to 
rub off all the sprouts without delay, as 
a new set of eyes will start soon after 
planting. 
Best Soil for Inoculation. 
R. A. Y., Stithton, Ky .—I have read your 
answer which you gave L. C. D., page 229, 
with much interest. You claim the soil from 
an Alfalfa field where it grows well, is 
much superior to nitro-culture. I see no 
reason why it should not lie better than nitro- 
culture, as the bacteria in the soil is in 
contact with the Alfalfa. I am aiming to 
sow Alfalfa this Spring and would like to 
know where the most bacteria is found in the 
soil, close to the surface or down a few 
inches below the surface? I have thought 
that if the soil was dried and fined and put 
in the fertilizer hopper of a wheat drill, drill¬ 
ing would be a good way to apply the in¬ 
oculated soil to get it evenly scattered over 
tlie ground. Should the soil be put in the 
ground or on top? I should think in the 
ground. 
Ans. —Most of the bacteria are found 
from two to eight inches below the sur¬ 
face. Probably the soil between four and 
OV.HALLOCtt &S0NS 
-•York, Pa. * 
1907 
Lightest Draft Potato 
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We want you to try it before you buy, and we 
propose to make it easy for you to get one on trial; We 
will send a machine on approval to any responsible 
farmer in the United States. Try it in your own field, 
if it don’t fulfill every claim we make, don’t keep it— 
if it does, you wouldn’t part with it for twice the 
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Write today for terms of this trail offer and our 
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. Box 813 
York, Pa. 
HUBBARD’S FERTILIZERS SUIT | 
as evinced by many 
letters which this from 
a customer in Rhode 
Island is a fair example 
Send for 1907 Almanac and Prices. 
IT’S A PLEASURE TO HUSK THE CORN. 
The Rogers & Hubbard Co., Middletown, Conn. 
GentlemenThis is my second year with Hubbard’s 
Fertilizers, and I am obliged to say that I cannot find any 
fault with them. 
I am raising an elegant crop of Com on pasture land 
with Hubbard's Soluble Corn and General Crops Manure. 
I find it too strong to use in the hill, but when broadcasted 
t he Corn comes up, and then it grows and matures ears that 
make husking a pleasure. 
I have as fine a crop of Potatoes this year on brush land 
as I would wish to see, raised with SoO lbs. per acre of 
Hubbard’s Market Garden Phosphate. 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO, 
Fertilizer Manufacturers 
MIDDLETOWN, CONN. 
