ISO 
THy RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 20, 
being filled or on the way. I use only one nozzle 
man to each cart in operation. He drives his own 
horse, which is not difficult, as any horse soon 
learns what is wanted of him. A boy takes out the 
full and brings back the empty carts. One minute is 
sufficient time for the nozzle man to uncouple his hose 
from the spent tank and recouple to a full one. I 
use 50-foot lengths of j4-inch hose and a gas pipe rod 
six to 12 or more feet long, according to size of trees. 
I have used every sort of nozzle I could find. The 
great trouble is to find them with capacity enough. 
This system is not like a pump; its power is stored 
ready for use whether you use one or 100 nozzles. 
T now use on each spray rod two of the largest nozzles 
I can get. I use right-angle nozzles and spray all 
from one side; have no trouble in completely covering 
every part of the tree. I could not do it, however, 
with straight nozzles. I consider 80 pounds a very 
good pressure; 1G0 pounds in the air tank to begin 
with gives 80 pounds throughout. I like 50-gallon 
tanks best. The filled cart weighs 850 pounds, and 
can be handled anywhere. We often spray in Spring 
when the nozzle man sinks ankle deep in mud. As I 
have said above, the initial cost is greater than other 
systems, but the capacity is whatever one wants to 
make it, and the operating expenses less than any 
other. I have no trouble in taking care of more 
than 20,000 trees set largely in 1896, besides more than 
30 acres of grapes and several acres of currants and 
gooseberries. It will occur to many readers of The 
R. N.-Y.: “If this is such a good thing why does not 
some one make it and put it on the market?” I know 
why. The Pierce-Loop Sprayer Co. quit, and I think 
their reason sufficient explanation. The manufacture 
of compressed air outfits is simply the assembling of 
some machinery and parts already manufactured which 
the ordinary up-to-date grower can himself purchase 
in the open market. All these machines and parts 
are staple articles of trade. No profit can be made in 
the manufacture of any of them in a small way. 
Sales of spraying outfits are so comparatively few 
that a reasonable profit added would make the selling 
price too high. a. x. loop. 
Pennsylvania. 
APPLES FOR NEW YORK-BUYING TREES. 
1 intern! to set an apple orchard this Spring, I am going 
to plant Kings, Spitzenburg, Baldwin and Snow apples. 
Can you name any better kind of large red Winter 
apples? Above all can you name a grower not too far 
away who will let me have them true to name? j. f. s. 
Auburn, N. Y. 
The varieties above named are all good ones with 
the possible exception of Snow, which is very suscep¬ 
tible to apple scab in some localities, and is a late. 
Fall rather than a Winter apple. Hubbardston Non¬ 
such and Rome Beauty are two very dependable 
varieties, and are good sellers when well grown. The 
question of varieties is largely a local one, and you 
should select those standard varieties which do best 
in your own locality, and upon locations of soil, eleva¬ 
tion, etc., similar to where you intend to plant. 
Given proper soil and location, one would have hard 
work to name four better money-makers for New 
York State than Baldwin, Spy, Greening and King. 
The last question is important. As a general rule 
is is best to buy from, the nurseryman nearest who has 
a good reputation and quite a local trade; go and 
select your own trees if possible. It is quite possible 
even then that some of the trees will not prove true 
to name, even with the best intentions on the part 
of the nurseryman, for the man cutting buds or grafts 
might have got over on the wrong row. The stake 
marking the row might have been pulled out by a 
laborer in plowing or cultivating, and put back on the 
wrong row, or the nurseryman might have gone out 
to an orchardist for buds or grafts and by mistake 
took them from the wrong tree. A case recently came 
to notice' where the nurseryman went to a peach 
grower for buds of Chairs Choice, and by mistake of 
the grower was directed to Stevens Rareripe trees. 
Both men were innocent in the matter, and it was 
done unknowingly. The nurseryman’s own reputation 
must count in this matter and do not discard him for 
one or two small lapses, for men are scarce who have 
been in the nursery business many years without mak¬ 
ing a few mistakes. No nurseryman doing a business 
of any size grows everything, but occasionally has to 
buy, and they generally try to buy varieties true to 
name and from responsible parties. There is a class 
of so-called nurserymen, however, who grow prac¬ 
tically nothing that they sell, buying everything. Many 
of these use every care to have their varieties true to 
name, and buy of some responsible parties as far as 
possible. But there are others in this class who are 
always looking for surplus stock and cheap left-overs 
of any old variety to fill their orders. One of these a 
few years ago bought any available variety of plum to 
fill orders for a wonderful prune the like of which 
probably never grew on this earth. 
PLAV .POR A SPRAYING PLANT. 
I am planing lo build a spraying plant in the near 
future, and >re\ vith send you a general plan and 
ask you and our r ,'yaders to make criticisms or give 
advice. We^ ave { -ound it a hard and disagreeable 
job to fill < ir {an! cs from the hc*ise well. It also, 
leaves a “n^ SP y” :, ce around the well. Poison gets 
spilled, am . t ^ 0 < a uie r if is an unsuitable place. Then 
the droug'’ t was st> / bad last year that when we came 
to do ou_ p a |i spraying we found there was not 
water en ( u gh . r . fill our tank once, so we were 
forced to Q t ,- a nearby creek. The diagram* gives 
a general i „ of what I have in mind. It so hap¬ 
pens that the creek, which is never dry, runs about 
10 rods from the orchard. The water would have to 
be elevated 10 or 15 feet. The plant to be enclosed 
would be 10x18 feet, with an' open platform 6x18 
feet, the whole to be elevated about 30 inches from 
ground, or on a level with spraying wagon. The tank 
to be elevated high enough so water would flow from 
bottom naturally to strainer at top of spraying tank. 
A two-inch rubber hose could be used for this. In 
one end of building a water heater could be placed 
if warm water should be needed. At one side there 
would be room for various barrels of lime, sulphur, 
blue vitriol, oil, etc. No provision is made of course 
in this plant for boiling the lime sulphur solution, 
although the self-boiled could be easily made. I 
plan to have the storage tank hold from 300 to 400 
gallons. The force pump and power for same must 
be at the creek. What size piping would be best to 
go from creek to tank to carry water, say at the 
rate of 300 gallons per hour? Also, what would be 
best power to have at creek, gasoline engine, hot air 
pump, or Aermotor gasoline engine? I thought of 
getting a. gasoline engine, and the same could be used 
for other purposes on the farm when spraying sea¬ 
son was over. w. a. bassett. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
R. N. Y.—Will readers with experience criticise 
this plan ? 
EVEN THOSE FINE PACIFIC APPLES GO TO 
THE MIDDLEMAN. 
In this country, known best as the Palouse country, 
there are annually thousands of tons of good fruit 
that go to waste. Reason, extortion of dealers and 
A NEW DITCHING MACHINE. Fig. 72. 
transportation companies. In 1902 the writer made 
two shipments of boxed apples to a Spokane, Wash., 
commission mart. In October 156 boxes, price 
received $51.60; in November 225 boxes, price re¬ 
ceived $85.30. These boxes contained one bushel, 
fruit tightly packed, free from blemishes and uniform 
size. These shipments by rail 90 miles and in car¬ 
load lots. I waited six months for any returns. In 
1898 I shipped 100 boxes of apples to Tacoma, some 
250 miles by rail, in carload lot. I waited four 
months for returns and received check for $21.50. 
These were four-tier apples (of Twenty Ounce Pippin 
variety), and I think the best apples I ever packed. 
This car was arranged for by a local preacher, who 
had been to Tacoma and said there was a good mar¬ 
ket for this variety. Cost of this shipment was: 100 
boxes, $12; packing 100 boxes, $5; two loads hauling 
10 miles to car, $6; total cost to ship, $23. In 1903 I 
contracted to sell my apples to Shims & Co., of Spo¬ 
kane, they to pack the fruit. This is how I came out: 
I picked 500 boxes, discarding fruit with blemishes. 
Shims’ men packed 349 boxes, discarding the rest. 
Price received, 58J4 cents per box; total, $204.90. Cost 
of shipping, picking, two men eight days, $16; boxes, 
$42; nailing same, $4.50; boarding three men, $6; 
hauling to car, $14. Net receipts for 349 boxes, 
$128.10. 
Now for the cost to consumer on this fruit. Sitting 
in a hotel office at Walla Walla a Spokane acquain¬ 
tance met me and remarked: “I bought a box of your 
apples this Fall, with your name on box. They were 
fine. You fruit growers must be making money. I 
paid $2.50 per box, and day before Chfistmas I wanted 
another box—price $3.” Readers can figure out what 
the producer got and what the consumer paid. Is it 
strange that so much goes ,to waste, and that now the 
orchards are abandoned to the hogs? This is not an 
exceptional case, and some of my neighbors have 
fared worse. henry fowler. 
Whitman Co., Wash. 
THE FACTS ABOUT “FLOATS.” 
Since we began to talk about using “floats” or 
ground raw phosphate in stables or in the manure, 
many farmers have written to ask more about it. 
We do not want to set anyone wrong and therefore 
make this explanation. “Floats” is a name given to 
phosphate rock ground to a fine powder. In making 
acid phosphate the “floats” are mixed with sulphuric 
acid which “cuts” or dissolves them and makes the 
phosphoric acid available. Do not therefore imagine 
that the "floats” will take the place of acid phosphate 
in feeding your crops. This cannot be done until 
the “floats” are acted upon by some chemical action 
that will partly at least do what is done by sul¬ 
phuric acid. It has been claimed that in an acid 
soil, and one full of decaying vegetable matter, 
something of this action does go on. Results ap¬ 
pear to indicate that this is so. It is also claimed 
that when the floats are used to absorb liquids in 
the stable and mixed with the manure, the crops 
show the effect of available phosphoric acid. Chem¬ 
ists state that the chemical action in the manure pile 
would not affect the “floats.” We have considered 
that the use of floats would make a fair experi¬ 
ment. We do not, however, claim that a ton of 
floats will give you results equal to a ton of acid 
phosphate in one year or two. We understand that 
a general effort is being made to push the use of 
these “floats.” A quantity of phosphate rock has 
been found in Tennessee which is not rich enough 
to make into acid phosphate. Therefore the own¬ 
ers will endeavor to sell it in the raw form. This 
is legitimate enough, provided farmers know just 
what they are buying, and realize the difference be¬ 
tween the floats and available phosphoric acid. We 
would not advise any farmer to do more than experi¬ 
ment with the floats. 
We make this statement because it seems evident 
that a good many farmers believe that these “floats” 
will take the place of a complete fertilizer. We have 
a letter from one farmer who asks if he shall buy 
a carload of these floats, having never used them be¬ 
fore He thinks he can use them on sod ground 
that has been limed and get good results from their 
use with no other fertilizer added. The only good 
results we have heard of from the use of floats were 
on acid soil. The limed soil would probably show 
little benefit. It is a great mistake to imagine (hat 
these "floats” alone on any such soil will take the 
place of a complete fertilizer. There is always this 
danger in advocating ihe use of any new and untried 
material. We do not advise large use of these 
floats until they have been fully studied. The great 
majority of soil on our eastern farms needs lime, 
and basic slag gives both lime and phosphoric acid 
at a fair price. Do not forget, however, that the 
slag does not furnish any nitrogen or potash. 
Dr. Jenkins of the Connecticut Station refers to 
some experiments in Ohio where “floats” was used 
with manure: 
"In these experiments 40 pounds of rock phosphate * 
were mixed with each ton of stable manure and com¬ 
parison was made with the same kind of manure un¬ 
mixed with rock phosphate. 
“In 56 separate tests covering 11 years an average 
of $5.68 in increased crop was recovered for every 
dollar spent in rock phosphate which was bought for 
• $S.oo per ton. 
“Of course no such results are to be expected on 
soils like many of our own, where, however deficient 
phosphoric acid may be, nitrogen is much more de¬ 
ficient. But the stocking of land with phosphoric acid 
by use of the amount of floats indicated above, which 
can be strewn in the manure trenches of the stables, 
may be profitable in connection with the growing of 
kgumes and other means of increasing the available 
nitrogen of the farm.” 
