82 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 30, 
he too great distance between them. Like getting a 
hired man, you select where you think you are getting 
the most good features and the least poor ones. I 
once knew a man to select and buy a farm in Winter, 
depending upon the seller's representations and the 
evident productiveness of the land of one or two 
neighbors. He did not even ask the neighbors about 
his prospective purchase. He bought a poor farm in 
a run-down condition, and paid too much for it. He 
has a home, but it has cost him a lot of hard labor. 
It is also risky to take the representations of real 
estate agents. They are working for a fee; besides 
few of them know very much about the land they are 
selling, or how to handle land as a farmer. The 
real estate agent may be the most available means of 
getting at a farm, but' the buyer should make the 
final decision for himself. There are a good many 
farms listed by the State Department of Agriculture, 
and some of these might prove to be good bargains. 
Some of the railroad companies also list farms, along 
their lines, that arc for sale. The representations of a 
good farmer, who is disinterested, may be as valuable 
as any that can be got at from a distance, but even he 
may be in error. It is a somewhat uncertain task to 
select a farm without having made a trial of that par¬ 
ticular farm. Did not some one say that to select a 
friend you must summer with him and winter with 
him, and then you might not be perfectly certain 
about him? It is so with farms. However, one takes 
these things expecting there will be imperfections, 
and then, if wise, he makes the best of his bargain. 
H. H. LYON. 
TOO MUCH MANURE FOR BERRIES. 
About eight years ago I purchased seven acres of ground 
near the limits of a city of about 00,000 population. I 
purchased this ground with the intention of getting it in 
shape that I would make a living on it later on. I 
neglected doing anything for several years, as I am not 
living on the piece of ground, but In the city, and am 
working in a steel rolling mill. Four years ago I decided 
to prepare this ground for planting fruit and berries. 
I then found out that 1 knew nothing about planting 
fruit, for my first attempt was a total failure. I planted 
r.00 blackberries in the Fall, and neglected to mulch, with 
tbo results that not a dozen plants were left in the 
ground the following Spring. Then I decided to replant 
iu the Spring. I knew the ground was extra poor, and 
decided to give my plants a good start by applying a 
good dose of hone meal at the roots. 1 was again rewarded 
with a total failure, as nearly all plants were killed by 
using too much hone meal at the roots. The following 
Spring I tried the planting once more after satisfying my¬ 
self that my ground needed nitrate of soda and potash, 
which T had been reading so much about. This time I 
planted the same way as I did with the bone meal, and 
I received another failure, all dying except a few plants. 
Then I began to wake up, and planted again in the Fall 
of 1007. This time I plowed and harrowed the ground, 
and as my manure was scarce I covered it on the ground 
• where I intended to plant the berries, in rows about 12 
feet, apart, and plants about three feet apart in rows, I 
spread the manure about three feet wide in the rows, and 
after I planted my berries I mulched each plant with a 
good forkful of manure. From this planting I did not 
lose a single plant, and I now have the finest black¬ 
berry field I ever saw and the prospects are good for an 
immense yield next year. I am now driving between 
the rows of berries and unloading manure, and will pre¬ 
pare the ground between the rows for strawberries. I can 
get all the manure for the hauling, and as I have very 
little work in the mill at present I am hauling as much 
as possible. Since April 1. 1008. I have hauled 410 large? 
one-horse loads, which I have put on about four acres of 
ground and expect to make it 000 loads by May 1. This 
is principally horse manure and mostly shavings used for 
bedding, but after rotting I find it makes the ground 
much more mellow than straw, bo you think there is 
danger of getting too much manure on the ground? I 
also expect to lime in the Spring. My strawberries are 
looking fine, and I expect, a good yield next year. f. ii. 
Pennsylvania. 
Not being acquainted with the inquirer's surround¬ 
ings,‘except in a very general way, makes it very 
hard to give any definite advice on the question 
asked. However, I anr afraid that after so many 
failures up to this time the inquirer is starting an- 
ot-hef.' It is one proposition to grow rank blackberry 
wood, and another to have it so ripen itself that it 
will withstand the vicissitudes and low temperatures 
of a Pennsylvania Winter. Heavy application of ani¬ 
mal manures, as the inquirer says he lias applied to 
his blackberry plantation is quite sure to cause a 
rank and late growth of wood that does not ripen 
well before freezing weather occurs, thus causing it to 
freeze during the Winter. My idea is that the soil 
in which these blackberries are planted is a fairly 
heavy clay; if so, that together with the amount of 
manure used is an ideal place to grow blackberry 
wood and thorns, but a poor one in which to grow 
heavy crops of fruit and ripen them properly. The 
inquirer proposes liming his soil in the Spring. In 
this I believe he is right, except on his strawberries. 
This crop appears to do better if there is a little acidity 
in the soil. Stable manure, where shavings are used 
for bedding, has a tendency toward souring the soil. 
This the lime ought to correct. If the blackberry 
field in question is so located that the cold freezing 
winds of Winter blow over it unbroken, there is a 
further danger of winter-killing. The only way of 
obviating this, to the writer’s knowledge, is to press 
the canes to the ground and cover them with soil. 
Here in New Jersey blackberries are grown on the 
lightest sands available. The plant is fed with 
soluble fertilizer, very little stable manure being used, 
and yet with a less rigorous Winter, being only a 
few feet above the sea level, the blackberry canes 
very often winter-kill. If I were the inquirer I would 
desist from applying such heavy dressings of manure, 
and apply in much more moderate quantities and 
that only in the Fall. With the strawberry conditions 
are different. This plant will stand heavy applications 
of stable manure, but where these are given I would 
supplement them with a liberal dressing of acid phos¬ 
phate and muriate of potash, to insure a sufficient 
amount of mineral matter to overcome the excess of 
nitrogen obtained in the stable manure. For this 
crop I would prefer the manure broadcast very early 
in the Spring, and well worked into the soil before 
plowing; after plowing apply the mineral elements re¬ 
ferred to above. Without this application of minerals 
we are apt to got too rank a growth of leaf and stem 
at the expense of fruit, and what fruit is produced 
is apt to be too soft. My practice has always been to 
give somewhat light applications annually, rather than 
heavy applications at wider intervals. I am satisfied 
I get better results from this practice; however, on 
tenacious clays much heavier applications of stable 
manure can be used with beneficial results than can 
be here on our New Jersey sandy soils. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. c. c. hulsart. 
AN EDIBLE MUSHROOM. 
In this latitude, usually about April 20, there ap¬ 
pears in our orchards the mushroom shown in Fig. 39. 
These grow under apple, peach and crab apple trees, 
except where the orchards are cultivated, when of 
THE MOREL, AN EDIBLE FUNGUS. Fig. 39. 
course the mycelium or spawn of this fungus is de¬ 
stroyed. Late in April every year lots of people in 
both town and country eagerly hunt these mushrooms, 
for they are all considered a great delicacy when 
properly cooked. The}^ are cut open, soaked in brine 
over night and then prepared like oysters; when so 
prepared they are excellent, as I know from experi¬ 
ence. These mushrooms vary from one to four or 
five inches high and from one to two inches or more 
broad; they are convoluted on the outside, as shown 
in the picture, and are hollow inside. They push 
through the ground and expand to full size in 24 
hours or less, depending upon the temperature, and if 
allowed to stand after maturing they turn dark and 
deteriorate as shown in the second one from the right 
in the picture. The one at the extreme left is young 
and white looking and so is in the proper stage for 
eating, while the one at the extreme right is older and 
tougher, but still edible. When dark and shrivelled in 
appearance they should not be cooked, for very likely 
they will be very tough. The common name of this 
fungus is the morel, botanically Morchella esculenta. 
There are several other varieties of morel, all highly 
esteemed for food, especially in Europe. While this 
fungus is most often found in old sodded apple or¬ 
chards, I have found them in open fields and fence 
corners. 
There are a few highly poisonous mushrooms, the 
Amanitas for instance, but they resemble the culti¬ 
vated Agaricus campestris, 'the mushroom of the hot¬ 
bed and of the pasture fields in October, much more 
than they do the kind under discussion here, and if 
once known the Morchella esculenta or morel need 
never be mistaken for any other kind. By some they 
are mistakenly called truffles, hut it should be re¬ 
membered that truffles grow entirely underground, at 
a depth of a few inches or even a foot, and are located 
by means of trained pigs or dogs, which scent them 
out, when they are dug up by the animal’s master. 
The Agaricus campestris is a profitable market vege¬ 
table and if possible of similar culture these morels 
should be profitable also. w: e. d. 
Hillsboro, Ohio. - ' - : — 
PEACH BORERS IN CALIFORNIA. 
Replying to J. H. L. and H. W. C., page 975, the 
practice here is to dig trenches around the tree 
trunk in the Fall, and dig out the borers, and some 
follow this up again in the Spring. So far no wash 
or preparation has proved "all sufficient;” this seems 
hard work, but it certainly pays, for one can know 
that where there are miles and miles of bearing 
fruit it means eternal fighting to keep even with 
these and other insect foes. As to the value of coal 
tar, in the orchard adjoining mine this was tried, 
and in three years that tar had hardened so it was 
girdling the tree, and had to be all dug off to save 
the trees. You can know what this meant on 
18 acres, 10S trees to the acre. Since then the owner 
has been satisfied to dig like the rest of us. 
I have a record of 80 borers taken from -one 
cherry tree; have no desire to pedigree this tree", 
but wish only to give an actual occurrence of typical 
neglect that soon breaks up the slovenly farmers in a 
fruit country, and to call attention to the facts that 
the old-time orchard of the East must give up to 
the get-up-and-git of the western fruit grower and 
to indorse heartily your line-up of the “Bashful 
State” on page 987. l. r. c. 
Saratoga, Cal. _ 
THE BOOSTER STATE-WASHINGTON. 
In your article on the "Bashful State” page 987, 
you did considerable boosting for Vermont and at 
the same time did some injustice to the more for¬ 
ward States of Oregon and Washington. In regard 
to those 2GG boxes of picked apples exhibited in 
Philadelphia, carloads -equally as fine as- those in. 
every way can he taken from single orchards in this 
vicinity; not as many varieties, as usually only two 
or three different varieties are grown in single com¬ 
mercial orchards. Your statement that those 266 
boxes were picked apples, one out of every 50,000, is 
not correct. The good commercial orchards here 
produce from 90 to 98 per cent good commercial 
apples. The trees are well cultivated, sprayed and 
thinned, and the fruit is packed by expert packers. 
The unions will not handle any fruit unless they 
have supervised the packing. Washington. Oregon 
and Idaho will have apples on exhibition at the AlasKA 
Yukon Exposition at Seattle in the Summer of 1909. 
They will be pleased to have you bring out some of 
the picked apples from Vermont or Pennsylvania to 
compete with theirs. We have several thousand 
acres of wild, good apple land, and would be glad 
to have some of your industrious citizens come and 
make their homes with us, as we consider our scil 
and climate is ideal for the raising of apples. 
Washington. chas. d. moore. 
THE VALUE OF SWAMP MUCK. 
A m-iglibor of mine lias a bed of mack which lie is offer¬ 
ing for sale by the load, and which he lias had analyzed 
b.v a reputable chemist, who found 30 per cent water, but 
the sample was taken near the end of the prolonged 
drought we had last. Summer, and probably it would show 
much more water now. lie found humus, 58 per cent ; 
organic nitrogen, 2.1 per cent; magnesia, 0.2 per cent, 
and a little less of lime and one pound per ton of potash 
and two pounds phosphoric acid; ferric oxide, eight 
pounds per ton. Will you give me the actual or probable 
value In cash of this muck, placing a proper value on the 
humus as well as on the fertilizing elements? The soil 
we shall apply it on runs from sandy to sandy loam, 
and needs humus, and all the elements of fertilization 
including lime. We intend to apply this material direct I v 
to the land, and not compost it, and do not wish to us'- 
lime because of fear of Potato seal). Now, considering this 
analysis and our local conditions what will be a fair 
valuation to place on this muck in dollars and cents? We 
shall use it on all general farm crops, including truck. 
Ixmg Island. p. 
We submitted this question to some of the best 
agricultural chemists in the country. Here are some 
of their estimates: 
"My judgment would be that if the haul was a dis¬ 
tant one it would not be worth the hauling. If it were 
nearby one might, perhaps, pay a dollar a load on 
the dry basis and find it worth while. I should not 
want to pay more than that.” 
"It would not surprise me if under a most advan¬ 
tageous condition it might prove from one-third to 
one-half as valuable as stable manure, though I can 
conceive of conditions under which it might not be 
worth more than the cost of hauling for a moderate 
distance.” 
“I should hazard a guess that the .muck might he 
worth 25 to 50 cents a ton in the swamp, and I should 
think a farmer might find it economical to pay that 
price for it, provided the expense of getting it out was 
not too great.” 
It will not do to value the muck by the amount of 
nitrogen it contains, because that nitrogen is inert, and 
when spread on the soil without fermenting will be of 
little use this season. One of the worst frauds in the 
fertilizer business comes through selling so-called 
organic nitrogen with the value figured at the price 
of available nitrates. If this muck could be composted 
so that the pile would heat up and ferment and then 
spread and plowed under it would be worth much 
more. For all crops except potatoes lime could be 
added to advantage. If used on potatoes the lime 
would increase the scab. We think these chemists are 
right in putting a low value on raw muck which is to 
be spread and plowed under without fermenting. 
