1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
641 
Old Plastering as Fertilizer. 
If. O. T. Lancnster, K. Y .—Is old wall 
plaster that has been on wall a long time 
of any value to put on garden soil? Would 
it take the place of lime, or is the good 
of the lime spoiled by slaking when making 
mortar? If it does no good, will it do any 
harm to crops? Will pigeon manure and 
line cinders, about half and half, which I 
sweep up on a flat roof near railroad yards, 
he worth five cents per loo pounds to get 
it home? Cinders are as tine as sand. 
Axs.—The old plastering contains 
lime and a small amount of nitrogen. 
The lime is mixed in the sand. In 
order to get much value from it the 
plastering should be crushed or ground 
fine, so it can be spread evenly. The 
nitrogen comes from the hair used in 
the plastering. A small amount of ni¬ 
trogen is taken up by plaster in the 
form of nitrate of lime. The best use 
we have found for chunks of plaster¬ 
ing is to put it around trees. The mix¬ 
ture of pigeon manure and cinders is 
a great bargain at the price. 
A Non-bearing Mulberry Tree. 
II. S. J.j McArthur , O .—I have a mul¬ 
berry tree that I found growing in an old 
orchard several years ago. It then lmd a 
few berries on it. The following Spring I 
I ransplanted it near my house. It has 
grown and made a fine tree about in feet 
high. II blooms freely every Spring, but 
the blossoms are all staminate. It lias 
never bad berries on but once since I 
moved it. Can I do anything to make it 
bear fruit, since it has borne a few ber¬ 
ries ? 
Axs.—The mulberry tree is usually 
monoecious: it commonly bears both 
staminate and pistillate flowers. The 
staminate catkins soon drop; while the 
fertile llowcrs develop the edible fruits 
or berries. When the catxins are all, 
or for the most part, staminate (as 
stated by the correspondent) there can 
be no development, at least very re¬ 
stricted development of fruit. A tree 
of this character cannot be depended 
upon to bear prolifically. ft is sterile 
or nearly so; and from the fact that 
its catkins are (as stated) all stami- 
uate, it would not avail anything to 
plant other trees of its kind near it 
for the purpose of fertilization of its 
flowers. The writer several years ago 
discovered a little seedling mulberry 
tree growing by a spring near the 
home. Fearful that stock would de¬ 
stroy it it was transplanted to the or¬ 
chard. It has never failed to bear 
good crops of fruit each year since it 
was two years set. Other trees many 
years of age, fin the neighborhood, 
have never been known to produce 
fruit, or at best but very sparingly. 
The little seedling tree referred to 
proved to be truly and prolifically mon¬ 
oecious. or productive of both perfect 
and imperfect flowers, f. h. baij.ou. 
Girdling Apple Trees. 
»S*. II . West Virginia .—In the matter of 
girdling apple trees to make them bear, 
what is the best method and time to do 
it? I have a large orchard of Mammoth 
Black Twigs, 13 years old, very vigorous 
and flourishing as to tree growth, but they 
are nol bearing at all satisfactorily. I 
planted a filler two years after it of York 
Imperial, so as to make a surer thing of 
it. 1 can take the Black Twig out now 
and in two years the others will take their 
place. But it has been suggested to me 
that I can by girdling the first make them 
•tear a good crop or two before faking 
them out. I have begun this, intending fo 
finish il up during this month, taking out 
abonl one-fourth inch of bark all around 
flu* tree. The suggestion carried with it is 
flic theory that this would cheek off the 
growth of wood by the free and set it to 
growing fruit buds fills season, and that 
h.v ncxl Spring the incision would be healed 
over sufficiently to make the tree able (o 
support the crop that would bo set this 
Summer. is this correct? What other 
methods of girdling are in use? 
Axs.—I have seen the girdling 
method practiced once with some rap¬ 
idly growing cherry trees. The hark,' 
was carefully peeled off in a circle, 
without injuring the sap wood. This! 
was done early in June and the growth) 
came down slowly and covered the 
stripped area that was covered with 
grafting wax. The trees lived, after 
a fashion, but were never the thrifty 
trees they formerly were. While a 
cheek to the rapid growth will throw 
trees into fruiting, I am sure that the 
girdling method is too severe a check. 
On a large scale I hardly think it 
will be profitable at any time. I have 
never seen it tried on apple trees, and 
could not say what the effect will be 
on these. The best way to make a 
reasonable check is to give the trees a 
root pruning. This can he done by 
cutting a trench around • the trees at 
the drip of the limbs deep enough to 
cut the roots. But on a large scale 
this, too, will be expensive, and the 
best thing I could advise will be to 
plow the orchard deeply and follow 
with a subsoil plow, and in this way 
give a good root-pruning. Then give 
tiie orchard a good dressing of acid 
phosphate and muriate of potash, but 
not nitrogen. The growth of the trees 
draws heavily on the mineral elements 
in the soil and the crop of fruit de¬ 
mands a great deal of potash. Then 
seed the orchard down to grass, mow 
it several times during the season, use 
tlie cut grass as a mulch, and dress the 
grass annually with phosphate and pot¬ 
ash. I rees of this rapid-growing habit 
are always more slow in coming into 
bearing than those of slower growth. 
The Northern Spy, for instance, makes 
a very thrifty tree, but is very slow 
in fruiting, while the crooked and slow- 
growing Albemarle Pippin will fruit 
early. Where trees are in very fertile 
' ol and find plenty of nitrogen, they 
use the abundant plant food in the eas¬ 
iest way in making wood growth 
while the making of fruit spurs and 
bloom and fruit is a more complicated 
matter, and is promoted by slower 
growth. T ake out all tillers before the 
trees crowd each other, and whether 
it -hall be the \ ork Imperials or the 
Black Twigs is a matter to be settled 
by yourself. Keep the trees that pay 
best, and do not girdle them. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
Keep Lime from Strawberries. 
F. 11 . C., Cochitnolc. Mass. —Is lime in¬ 
jurious to strawberry plants? Before set¬ 
ting my plants this Spring I spread on 
about one-half ton to the acre of lime; 
the plants started up after sotting, but 
never have made much growth, and many 
have died for no apparent cause that I 
can sec, as the weather has been very 
favorable. 
Axs.—In our experience strawberries, 
like cranberries, and to a less extent, 
apples, do best in a sour soil. Most 
other crops do best where the soil is 
alkaline, but with those mentioned, lime 
in large amounts does more harm than 
good. We have advised against the 
use of lime or wood ashes on strawber¬ 
ries, and most reports agree with this 
advice. In a few cases growers report 
success with wood ashes on berries. A 
ton of ashes will contain about 600 
pounds of lime, and on a very sour soil 
this would not entirely overcome the 
acid. The plants mentioned may have 
been killed by white grubs or other 
causes, but we think the lime was re¬ 
sponsible. 
Mixed Fertilizer and Chemicals. 
G. /'. I... Hast Setauket, T.. I .—I am using 
a fertilizer analyzing 1-10-10, costing $29 
delivered. I want phosphoric acid and pot¬ 
ash. IVhat would one ton acid phosphate 
and 500 pounds sulphate of potash analyze 
and cost? Could it he bought mixed? 
Would it work freely, or be sticky and 
lumpy? If so, what should he mixed with 
it to make it drill freely? 
Axs.—The fertilizer you speak of 
would contain 20 pounds of nitrogen. 
200 pounds of phosphoric acid and 200 
pounds of potash. At the present 
methods of valuation, the nitrogen 
would be worth $4, the phosphoric acid 
and the potash together about $20. You 
do not know, however, what this nitro¬ 
gen is—it may not be available. Per¬ 
sonally we should not buy nitrogen in 
such a fertilizer or in any combination 
with less than three per cent, for the 
most costly way to buy nitrogen is in a 
low-grade mixture.We have New York 
quotations of ton lots of acid phosphate 
at $15. . That means 14 per cent phos¬ 
phoric acid, 2S0 pounds to the ton, or 
about 5IJ cents a pound. Less than ton 
lots cost $16 per ton. In ton lots, sul¬ 
phate of potash is quoted at $5.50 per 
bag of 224 pounds;,for less than half¬ 
ton lots, $6 per bag. A ton of acid 
phosphate costing $15 would give you 
280 pounds of phosphoric acid, and two 
bags of sulphate of potash at $12 would 
give 448 pounds, or 224 pounds actual 
potash. These goods, mixed as they 
are, would be damp or sticky and would 
need a “filler” or some fine, dry matter 
added before they would drill well. The 
fertilizer manufacturers use land plas¬ 
ter, dried peat and other materials for 
this purpose. Nitrate of soda, contain¬ 
ing 16 per cent, or 320 pounds nitrogen 
to the; ton is quoted $50 in ton lots or 
$51 by the half ton. 
Killing Peach Borers. 
G. S. /'•, Stratford, Conn .—I find my 
quince trees, also some peaches, in had 
shape from borers. I have read sevex - al 
remedies to prevent borers, and have seen 
items that claim the aforesaid remedies 
will kill or injure trees. Can you give re¬ 
liable personal experience on the subject? 
Experimenting is sometimes very expensive, 
as well as often a loss of time. The San 
Jose scale appears to lie almost a thing 
of the past on my place; I have sprayed 
very little, and none in the last year. 
Axs.—I have seen none of the pro¬ 
prietary remedies for borers in use and 
so can say nothing as to their respec¬ 
tive merits. Common coal tar has been 
advocated for borers, the dirt being 
slightly removed from base of tree and 
the tar applied with a stiff brush or 
broom. Prof. Slingerland said he had 
never injured a peach tree with coal tar 
applied for borers when the application 
was made in May or early June. I saw 
a peach orchard in vicinity of Union 
Springs, N. Y., some years ago, in 
which coal tar had been applied in the 
above manner about two years previous, 
without any apparent injury, and the 
treated trees were much more free from 
borers than untreated trees in the im¬ 
mediate vicinity. S. W. Wadhams, 
Clarkson, N. Y., reported at one of the 
recent meetings of the New York State 
Fruit Growers’ Association that he' had 
used coal tar as above with success. 
Some growers, especially in the Middle 
West, have reported severe injury from 
its use, so that I should not want to 
recommend it except in an experimental 
way. The practice generally followed 
here is to go over the trees in Spring 
and late Summer and remove the borers 
wherever indications of their presence 
can be seen by a close examination. 
Tools usually used are a sharp knife and 
wire. Many, in addition, use a gouge 
chisel. Care should be taken to make 
cuts up and down rather than crosswise 
the trunk, so as not completely to girdle 
the tree. This is back-aching work, 
and necessitates the spending of many 
hours upon the knees, but is the prac¬ 
tice generally followed by most of the 
western New York fruit growers. 
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