1007. 
003 
ROOT GRAFTS; ONIONS AND PEPPERS. 
Professor Van Deman puts the matter of so-called 
whole-root grafts just as I have often done it. Some 
years ago a nursery in Texas sent me two trees of 
Nickajack apple to illustrate what they called the dif¬ 
ference between whole-root and piece-root grafts, as 
they claimed to furnish trees grafted on the whole 
root. The piece-root tree was the smaller one, and 
had evidently been selected for that purpose. The 
trees were planted near each other, and the piece-root 
tree soon outstripped the other. The fact is that in 
setting a tree we prune the roots more or less, and 
this talk about using the whole root for grafting is 
all nonsense. No nurseryman would care to be both¬ 
ered with planting such grafts, and there is not a 
particle of need for them. 
Your Jerseyman certainly has a fine crop of Prize- 
takers, and the seed, though variously named by the 
dealers, is probably all the same stock and from the 
same growers. I think that your Jersey correspondent 
would find a great advantage with the Prizetaker to 
sow the seed in a cold frame and transplant them. 
I hey grow much larger treated in this way than they 
do from seed sown outside, and the labor is no more 
than the care and thinning of the plants outside. It 
does not take a great deal of space under glass to 
furnish plants for a large area, and even in upper 
Jersey there should not be the slightest difficulty in 
getting them ready for transplanting May 1 or earlier 
In North Carolina I sowed them in the frame in Jan 
uary, and by carefully hardening them off had them 
in the open ground the first of March. In New Jer¬ 
sey they could certain¬ 
ly be sown in the 
frame in late February 
or early March, and 
should be ready for 
transplanting in late 
April. 
The Prizetaker seed 
that Mr. V. used was 
probably not guaran¬ 
teed, but that did not 
seem to hurt his crop. 
The man who wants 
to pay $10 a pound for 
perfectly pure seed of 
Prizetaker can spend 
that much in breeding 
and rogueing a lot for 
himself, and then when 
he thinks he has them 
perfectly pure and 
stops his careful weed¬ 
ing out of sports, lie 
will find them coming 
back as plentiful as 
ever. No good seed 
grower includes these 
sports in his seed 
stock, but they come in 
all the same, and 
have to be continually 
rogued out. A species of plant of any kind that 
ceases to vary at all is a decadent stock, and has lost 
vitality. Tendency to vary is at the very foundation 
of all selections for improvement. 
What is the use of those monstrous peppers like 
the Chinese and the Magnum Dulce? No house¬ 
keeper would want them for stuffed pickles, but would 
rather have half a dozen to make the same bulk. Put 
a basket of these monsters alongside of a basket of 
Ruby King or even the old Bull Nose, and I will war¬ 
rant that a housekeeper looking for peppers to stuff 
will take the smaller ones at same price. 
It is rather amusing to read the letters that the 
cotton speculators are publishing, begging the farm¬ 
ers to sell cotton to pay for the gold that has been 
coming from Europe. But the cotton farmers have 
learned the power of organization, and are holding 
cotton as never before. It is well known that the 
crop is short, especially in the lower South and there 
is no reason for the depression in the price that has 
been forced. Farmers have only to hold on to their 
cotton and the price will soon advance. Manufac¬ 
tured cotton goods have been advancing for some 
time. w. F. MASSEY. 
THE WORK OF A GASOLINE ENGINE. 
On page 798 an Illinois reader told how one man 
fills a silo by the aid of a corn harvester, gasoline 
engine and cutter. We have asked him for further 
particulars, as this matter of saying farm help is one 
of the most important things in connection with 
farming. 
“Of course all farmers wherever located realize the 
great necessity for machine work, as against the pres¬ 
ent difficult and worthless farm labor; machine work 
THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
must from necessity be applied wherever it is pos¬ 
sible in a practical way. Two years ago when I 
filled my silo for the first time, I realize now that I 
was more than green in employing five extra teams, 
eight men, and a steam thrashing engine, at an ex¬ 
pense of $56. This year one man and team with 
proper farm machinery did the work at the cost of $3 
for gasoline. Of course it required 12 days to do the 
work this year, and not quite two days with the 
above force. Farmers in buying their farm machinery 
should buy direct from the manufacturers, and save 
the middleman’s profit, which averages 25 to 50 per 
cent of cost. There are many makers now who sell 
direct to consumers as low as to anyone. I use my 
gasoline engine also for cutting dry fodder, grinding 
grain and feed, pumping water when the windmill will 
not, and expect to apply and keep it busy in every 
way possible. I regard it as one of the necessary 
and desirable farm requirements.” j. s. p. 
Wheaton, Ill. 
The Hand Man Talks Back. 
On page 798 I find the following: “F. B., page 730, 
who gives experience in silo filling, makes me feel 
sorry for such poor judgment, hard work and un¬ 
doubtedly poor silage.” Then after some more of the 
same comforting talk he tells how he does it, drawing 
the corn himself and using an engine cutter and 
blower of his own. I told The R. N.-Y. readers how 
I put my cornstalks in the silo whole. I said I had 
tried this method several years with success; that 
means, I had good silage several years in succession 
(i. c., five years). As to the hard work J. S. P. feels 
so sorry for, we both do the same “hard” work except 
that he does it all alone, while I have a man to do 
half. Mine is a basement barn with the silo on the 
downhill side. I drive in on the barn floor over the 
basement, and when I stand in the back door of the 
barn with a bundle of corn on my shoulder the corn 
is 15 feet above the bottom of the silo, so you see 
as my silo is 18 feet deep to the roof I have prac¬ 
tically no high lifting, and right here let me say New 
York and New England are dotted with basement 
barns with the silo on the back, and for the benefit 
of that class, and that class only, my article was 
written. It is an easy matter for the man to take 
the corn off the wagon and hand it to me in the silo, 
and we can easily average a load an hour, loading, 
drawing, unloading and all. It costs me 10 to 15 
cents per load for my man, besides myself and team. 
What does it cost J. S. P. to fill his silo? His 
cutter and blower cost $S5; his engine $99, total $184, 
and he has to furnish $3 worth of gasoline. First, 
they should be worth the interest on the money in¬ 
vested, which at six per cent is $11.04; second, they 
must pay enough more each year for wear and tear, 
so that when they arc worn out they will be paid for. 
Will they last 25 years? If so divide the original cost 
$184 by 25, and we have $7.36 wear on machinery per 
year, so it costs for his 73 loads: Interest, $11.04; 
wear and tear, $7.36; gasoline, $3; total, $21.40, or 
29jz$ cents per load, besides himself and team, against 
my 10 to 15 cents per load. Does it pay to buy ma¬ 
chinery when you can do the work by hand for less 
than the interest, to say nothing of storage, breakage, 
wear, etc.? It depends on whether you have use 
enough for a machine to pay for buying it. As I said 
before, my method works best where you can deliver 
the corn from the wagon near the top of the silo, 
though I should have no argument with the man who 
said the grain sling could be used here to advantage. 
I have spoken of putting in silage whole as my 
method, but I am not the originator of it. Several 
persons tried this way with success long before I 
tried it. Of course it may be to J. S. P.’s advantage 
to use his engine and cutter; conditions may make this 
the most reliable help he can get. f. b. 
Hamilton, N. Y. 
SOWING ONION SEED IN FALL. 
I am an onion grower on a large scale, and the last two 
or three years I have had some difficulty in getting the 
crop ripened properly, as up here in Canada our season is 
so short that we cannot get the seed in the ground until 
the first of May, leaving a rather short growing season, 
so that a great number form scallions or thick-necks, 
which are worthless. I have been told by an old Michigan 
gardener to sow the seed the Fall previous, and they are 
sure to come on all right, but as I have never seen this 
done myself I hate to venture it without knowing more 
about it. Will some one who has done this enlighten me 
as to how the erop comes on and about the proper time to 
sow the seed? R- jj. r. 
Ontario. 
For many years I have grown onions in various 
ways, using different methods to suit soil and condi¬ 
tions, but have never had any experience in growing 
them from Fall-sown seed. From a practical stand¬ 
point I hardly think it would prove a success in re¬ 
ducing the per cent of scallions. It is often remarked 
that the onion, unlike many other vegetables, succeeds 
best if planted on the same soil year after year. This 
statement I am inclined to believe is misleading. The 
undesirable and much despised growth known as 
scallions is very often 
the result of continu- 
» ous planting on the 
same soil, or from us¬ 
ing poor and unreliable 
seed. In support of 
this statement I can 
but offer a bit of my 
past experience. Some 
years ago I selected 
the most suitable piece 
of ground on the place 
for an onion bed; it 
was rather low, well 
drained and black 
sandy loam. For three 
successive years the 
onions were fine, all 
that could be desired. 
The fourth year scal¬ 
lions began to appear, 
and on each succeed¬ 
ing year the per cent 
was larger, and the in¬ 
crease of these rogues 
was very perceptible 
and annoying. But 
changing the soil every 
year to a young clover 
sod soop solved the 
problem. Again, in the 
Spring of 1889, after a very mild and pleasant Winter, 
a great many onions came up in our garden on the 
site where they were planted the previous year. These 
grew so fine from the early start they had I was 
induced to save seed from then, for soon indeed did 
they make fine seed stalks, and produce a quantity 
of seed. These were planted the following Spring, 
and as a reward for my valuable time I raised a lot 
of long-necked worthless scrubs. It then occurred to 
me about what I had done. I had planted the seed 
grown from the poor and rejected onions that were 
left in the ground from the previous year. Since these 
costly experiments I have had but little trouble with 
scallions. In preparing the soil for an onion crop it 
is best to seed the ground to Crimson clover early in 
August. Late in the Fall broadcast it with a good 
grade of horse manure at the rate of 10 or 12 tons to 
the acre. The ground should be plowed some time 
during the Winter, or very early in the Spring. It is 
very important that the soil should be left to the 
action of the frost at least three or four weeks before 
harrowing it. As soon as the soil can be worked it 
should be harrowed, several times, or until the ground 
is fine and level. There will then be few holes or 
cavities in the under soil, which should never be 
allowed in soil where small seeds are to be planted. 
Ground thus prepared will usually grow a fine crop 
of onions from either sets or seed. A top-dressing of 
nitrate of soda between the rows will be of great 
advantage in advancing the crop. It has a tendency 
to develop the character of the bulbs in the early 
stages of their growth, which seems to be very im¬ 
portant in onion culture, and to accomplish this early 
development it is very important that the seed be 
sown very early. In this latitude it should be sown 
not later than the first week in April, for if delayed 
later the weather sometimes sets in dry and warm, 
and the seed will be late in starting, thus preventing 
the character development of the bulbs, or rather 
prolongs the growth until Fall, and often the bulbs 
will not ripen. We find that unless the onion tops 
dry off and the bulbs ripen by the 15th of August 
they will hardly do so later, t. m. white. 
Monmouth Co. } N. J. 
FLORIDA SUMATRA TOBACCO UNDER SHADE. Fig. 462. See Page 909. 
