330 
March 27, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
DEER AND MONTANA APPLE ORCHARDS 
We are all interested in the discus¬ 
sion about deer and fruit. Mr. D. C 
Estey lives on the east shore of Flat- 
head Lake, a very large body of water, 
heavily wooded all around. We con¬ 
sider it the finest fruit location in 
Montana. There, however, the wild 
deer arc as thick as or thicker than 
they are in Vermont. Every orchard 
is fenced with a rail fence 12 feet or 
more high. I know that, for as fruit in¬ 
spector in 1897 and 1898 I had many 
times to climb over the fences into 
the orchards , or stay outside. J. C. 
Wood, member of the State Board of 
Agriculture, who has the next orchard 
to Mr. F.stey, told me at the horticul¬ 
tural meeting that it was a common 
thing for him to see 35 or 40 white- 
tail deer in his orchard when he got 
out of bed in the morning. There is 
a common belief, that is not supposed 
to be known by the game wardens, 
that when short of fresh meat the cast- 
siders leave the gates in their fences 
open at night, and live on fresh mut¬ 
ton then for quite a while after. When 
Mr. Wood sees that many in his or¬ 
chard, I presume he is short of fresh 
meat. In fact, as Mr. Walden says 
in The Ranch, we are laughing, and 
have been laughing for some time, at 
your weak excuses for not getting 
those apples on the market at our 
prices. H. c. u. colvill. 
Tapping Maple Trees. 
I). />., Kitchatoan, N. Y .—How should 
maple trees be tapped for maple syrupT 
When, how large hole should be made, with 
what, and can it be done each year? If 
trees are 30 to 35 years old how much 
should bo taken from them? What part 
of them should bo used to harm tree least? 
A ns. —Maple trees should be tapped 
at a time in the Spring when the days 
are so warm that it will thaw readily, 
especially in the sunshine, and when 
there is some freezing at nights. There 
must he this alternation of freezing 
and thawing, either in long or short pe¬ 
riods of time, to cause the maple tree 
to run its sap. This condition of things 
is usually found in this lattitude from 
March 15 to April 1. The hole is bored 
in the tree about waist high, but that 
does not matter materially. The size 
of the hole will vary with the size of 
spout used. We use a spout made 
by G. IT. Grimm, of Rutland, Vt. It 
is made tapering, so that we bore first 
with a three-eighths incli bit, and then, 
after the wound has been seared over 
by drying winds or by a period of 
warm weather, when there is no freez¬ 
ing, we pull the spouts, rim the holes 
with a one-half inch drill and drive in 
the spouts a little deeper. Let the trees 
run as much sap as they will. Large 
trees may be tapped twice each year 
on opposite sides. Plan to bore the 
holes on the warmest side of the tree; 
the south or cast sides. 1 he sap is 
gathered from time to time and boiled 
in a large pan or evaporator, the size 
depending on the number of trees to 
be taken care of. When the trees are 
through running pull the spouts, gather 
the buckets, and the wounds in the 
trees will gradually heal. 
E. S. URIC HAM. 
Plant Food for a Potato Crop. 
h. P. I!., Morriuville, N. Y .—Tills coming 
Spring it is planned to plant three acres of 
late potatoes on a very quacky Hold of 
greensward, which four years ago was 
seeded to clover and Timothy. The first 
crop was heavy clover; the second was 
rather light Timothy, and (he third was a 
very light cutting of quack grass. The soil 
Is naturally productive, but It has not. had 
any manure or fertilizers put on It for at 
least tive years; now it is receiving about 
10 loads per acre of fresh mixed cow and 
horse manure, which in the Spring will be 
plowed under. If the manure applied con¬ 
tains about the following per ton (an 
estimated load) nitrogen. 53 per cent; 
phosphoric acid, .34 per cent; potash, .71 
per cent, under proper tillage, about what 
per cent of the above elements will be 
available? Without any manure or ferlilizcr 
it is estimated that about 40 bushels of 
potatoes per acre can be raised. To Increase 
the crop ICO bushels per acre, what com¬ 
mercial fertilizers should be used to sup¬ 
plement the manure applied. In what form 
should they he, and how much should he 
applied to the acre? There is a saying 
that quack grass will not grow on poor 
soil, what does a rank growl h of quack 
grass indicate as to the condition of the 
soil? 
Ans. —It is impossible to give an 
accurate answer to such a question. 
The most successful farmers do not 
attempt to gauge the amount of plant 
food they apply in manure or fertil¬ 
izer by what the crop takes out. Ex¬ 
perience tells them to manure or fer¬ 
tilize heavily, so as always to l ave a 
surplus of available plant food in the 
soil. If some crop covers the soil 
through the Fall and Winter there 
will be little if any loss. 
Experiments in New Jersey show 
that under average conditions stable 
manure will give up the first year 
about one-fourth of its nitrneen. If 
the analysis given above is correct the 
10 tons of manure give about 100 
pounds of nitrogen and the potato crop 
would use from 25 to 30 pounds of it. 
The proportion of potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid would he about the same, 
This proportion of available nitrogen 
would vary somewhat with the soil 
and the season. A lighter soil, thor¬ 
oughly cultivated would give up more 
than a heavy soil. So would an al¬ 
kaline soil in which bacteria were 
abundant. As compared with stable 
manure nitrate of soda is more than 
twice as available, for 100 pounds of 
nitrogen in nitrate would give up 60 
pounds to the crop. 
A bushel of potatoes will contain 
about two ounces of nitrogen. 1 hus 
if 25 pounds of the nitrogen in the 
10 tons of stable manure should be 
available there would be enough for 
200 bushels of tubers, but one ton of 
potato vines would require 10 pounds 
of nitrogen. If we figured the vines 
when nearly ripe as equal in weight 
to the tubers wc shall find that for 60 
bushels of potatoes we need about 13 
pounds of ni rogen. Tf your natural 
soil will give 40 bushels your 10 tons 
of manure will give nitrogen enough 
for 160. This is one way to figure it, 
but it will not work out in practice, 
for no one expects to get hack in the 
crop all the available plant food that 
is put into the soil. It is not like 
pouring 10 gallons of water into a bar¬ 
rel and then drawing 10 gallons at 
will from the bung. There is always 
some loss of nitrogen in the soil. In 
the case of stable manure a fair share 
of the nitrogen made available during 
the first year would not he ready un¬ 
til the potato crop was laid by. In 
case the potato crop was attacked by 
blight some of this nitrogen would not 
he used at all. In fact, the size of 
the crop will be determined nearly : s 
much by the spraying and cultivation 
as by the plant food. In our own 
country, where farmers grow fair 
crops of potatoes, the plan would be to 
plow under the manure and then use 
600 pounds or more of high-grade po¬ 
tato fertilizer in the drill. These 
farmers do not stop to figure how 
much nitrogen they use, but they know 
from experience how much manure or 
fertilizer is needed for their crops. As 
for quack grass wc consider a heavy 
growth of it an indication of a good 
soil. 
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WHITE,VAN GLAHN &, CO. 19 Barclay SI. New Yorfc City 
Olds*. Mall Order Hottso In America Established 1810 
RUNNING WATER ON FARM 
THE AERMOTOR GASOLINE ENGINE 
In dtmlKHf-d to supply watfr for th© farm 
bull.ling. Thin outfit Itthuroa * supply of 
water at all LItu©a aud tb© price In within 
the reach of ©very Conner. I'ump cap.—lfioo 
gala, per hour, M ft. elevation; «oo gain. ,2f» 
ft.; 400 gain., 50 ft. M2.W red at 
R.K. Kta. Writ* for descrip¬ 
tive Catalogn© No. fc giving 
full Information. 
,J. H. KDWARDS. 
59 Park Place, N. Y. 
II 
II 
One Pound of Fertilizer to 
One Ton of Soil. 
The top soil of an acre of tillage land to the depth of eight inches 
weighs 1000 TONS. The average dressing of concentrated fertilizer 
where no manure or cover crop is ploughed in, is X000 POUNDS. 
This gives only one pound of fertilizer to each ton of soil, or 2( >bd 
of a pound of fertilizer to each POUND of soil. 
Yet this infinitesimal amount, which one can not see, combined 
with the “natural yield of the land” has been known to produce 
under favorable weather conditions, over 400 bushels potatoes, 100 
bushels shelled corn, or 30 tons ensilage per acre; to produce profit 
in place of loss; to turn failure into success, and still leave the soil no 
poorer but in most cases much better. Surely it is a miracle of nature. 
The Stockb ridge Manures 
Does it not stand to reason therefore, that this ^ooo °f a pound of 
fertilizer should be in a fine dry condition in order to be thoroughly 
mixed with its pound of soil and also soluble, available and easily 
diffusible so that the growing crop may find it all ready to feed upon, 
since in this climate the growing season is limited to 60 days for some 
crops and 120 days for other crops, and where also the rainfall is 
often limited. To supply plant food fine, dry and soluble has been 
our problem for 36 years. How well we have succeeded may be 
judged when we say that our customers take from us an output that 
exceeds 100 tons a day for every working day in the year. They 
would not do this if we had failed to “make good”. 
n 
You take no risks; you will 
gut a good crop anyhow, and 
Why not enter our Prize Contest? 
stand a g'ood chance of winning a substantial cash prize. We shall be glad to give you 
particulars, if you will write us or apply to our nearest local agent. 
Bowker Fertilizer Company 
II 
43 CHATHAM ST., BOSTON. 
60 TRINITY PL., NEW YORK. 
