1909. 
NEW SEEDLING PEACH FROM TEXAS. 
A Precocious Fruit That Ships Well. 
The new seedling tree from which the two peaches 
are shown in Figs. 440 and 443, is a most remarkable 
one. It conies from a seed of Bell’s Octo¬ 
ber, crossed with Elberta. Both parents are 
yellow freestones, while it itself is a cling of 
great toughness. Even after fully ripe it may 
be shipped a considerable distance with per¬ 
fect safety . But most remarkable of all, that the 
tree, now six years old from the seed, is this year 
bearing its fifth regular crop. It bore the second 
year from the seed about half a dozen nice peaches, 
and since it has not missed once bearing a fine crop. 
Two years ago, when practically all peaches failed, 
it had to be thinned to prevent it breaking to pieces. 
Then I gave cr*edit to an ant bed that was under the 
tree as being the cause of its bearing. But the ant 
bed has been gone for over a year, and again the 
tree is bearing another fine crop, while near about 
every other variety is failing, or bearing but very 
little. From Elberta trees of same age as this, we 
are not getting a single peach. 
'I he tree is standing in a regular orchard row 
among the seedlings of its class, none, out of about 
75, coming near it as regards regularity of bearing; 
otherwise there are several that resemble it. The 
specimens shown are yet somewhat green; I had to 
send them this way on account of birds. Our ground 
is very dry; fruit and other bird food scarce. A 
regular army of mocking and other birds attack wnat 
fruit we have as soon as it shows color. Under 
normal conditions this peach is of a beautiful yellow, 
covered with a bright red on sunny side while ripen¬ 
ing, while in size it will compare well with an 
average Elberta. The tree itself is all that could be 
wished for, thrifty and of fine shape. If this tree 
will maintain its regular habit of bearing ip the fu- 
STUBENRAUCH PEACH, Cross Section. Fig. 440. 
ture that it has shown in the past, I cannot help 
thinking that it will become one of our profitable 
standard varieties of the future. 
It might be of interest to our readers to know as 
to how those seedlings were produced. The almost 
accidental production of the Carman had set me to 
thinking. The Carman came from a seed of either 
Elberta or Family Favorite (both of the North¬ 
ern Chinese type). Two trees of those varieties 
had stood side by side from which seeds 
had been planted; thus a cross between these kinds 
is quite probable. The general characteristics of the 
Carman peach also would indicate this cross or par¬ 
entage. The seedlings, of which Carman was one, 
were planted at a year old into regular orchard 
rows, and the following Summer all those least prom¬ 
ising, with small leaves, etc., were budded to regular 
standard varieties. The Carman seedling, showing 
such a thrifty and healthy appearance, with its fine 
foliage, was allowed to stand unbudded. Your 
readers are aware what it turned out to be. I con¬ 
cluded that if nature could cross-pollinate blossoms 
on adjoining trees, as must have been the case in the 
Carman seedling, I could facilitate the work of 
nature by planting a strong healthy seedling alone 
by itself and budding such varieties into iit as 
1 wished to cross. This was done, the buds being 
taken from the healthiest trees, bearing the best fruit. 
Such varieties blooming together on one stock, closely 
intermingled, more or less cross pollination is bound 
to take place. If the seeds are then taken from the 
finest specimens of fruit produced this way and 
planted, new varieties of value are very apt to re¬ 
sult. 1 he lot of seedlings the writer has now 
under test have been produced in this identical way. 
Ihere is some pleasure in this business; besides 
THIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
there is some satisfaction in knowing that if we arc 
once gone from this world, we are leaving it some¬ 
thing to benefit mankind in days to come. 
Texas. j. w. stubenrauch. 
CLOVER FIELD FROM AN OLD PASTURE. 
A Good Stand Without Lime or Fertilizer. 
I am sending you two views of my clover field, 
Figs. 441 and 442, taken about July 7, which may be of 
interest to you, inasmuch as the crop was raised with¬ 
out any lime or commercial fertilizer. The field was 
in pasture for two years; a heavy application of sheep 
manure was plowed under in the Spring of 1907, 
CLOVER AFTER OATS. Fig. 441. 
when corn was planted. Last years oats were raised 
and I am glad that clover seed at 22 cents per pound 
was not too much for our credit. I have been fol¬ 
lowing the above given line of farming for four years, 
and for three years have had good crops of clover, 
that of 1907 being heavier than the one here shown. 
Eagle Bridge, N. Y. c. c. 
R- N.-Y. These pictures show what may be done 
with some of our pastures it" they are handled prop¬ 
erly. We have for the past few years urged Eastern 
farmers to plow some of these old fields and plant 
corn, to be followed by other crops suited to the sec¬ 
tion. A good coat of sheep manure did the work 
here, but there are many places where lime would be 
needed. _ 
HANDLING HAY IN THE WEST. 
Labor Saving Methods With Alfalfa. 
The picture in the last R. N.-Y. leads me to say that 
haymaking west of the Missouri River is almost as 
different from the same work in the humid States as 
daylight is from darkness. In the latter section we 
anxiously watch the clouds, cut small amounts of 
hay at a time, and work with feverish haste to get 
it into barn or stack before the inevitable rain comes. 
In the Western States the rancher is almost totally 
indifferent to the weather. He cuts an acreage that 
he thinks will keep his gang of men busy for a num¬ 
ber of days at a time, the amount depending entirely 
upon the number of men he employs. Eastern farm¬ 
ers who try farming in the Western States find the 
freedom from care attendant upon perfect weather 
very gratifying. The writer was no exception to this 
during the years that he spent on western ranches. 
If time permitted, I should like to stop right here, 
and make some statements which would cause men 
to call me a descendant of Ananias, because I think 
A FINE CLOVER CROP. Fig. 442. 
that even with the unsatisfactory conditions prevail¬ 
ing in the humid States, we frequently if not usually 
make Alfalfa hay that is more palatable to our live 
stock even though it is not as attractive in appearance 
as that which the western rancher makes. The rea¬ 
son for it is partly in the fact that our farms are 
smaller, and that hay is cut more nearly at its proper 
time and is cured largely in the shock, while the 
western ranchmen cure theirs largely either in the 
swath or windrow, or in very small bunches contain¬ 
ing about a forkful. The object of this article, how¬ 
ever, is not to criticize, but to give an outline of a 
TOT 
few methods used in handling Alfalfa west of the 
Missouri River, a task requiring more time and space 
than would be wise to devote to an article of this 
character. 
Different methods prevail in different sections. In 
some places the Alfalfa is cut at its proper time, or 
approximately so. In other places the writer has 
seen fields purple with bloom, bearing more flowers 
than they ever do in the Eastern States, each stalk 
carrying six or more racemes in full bloom. In the 
Eastern States we think it best to mow when but a 
portion of the plants show bloom. In many parts, 
after the plant is cut, it is the practice to rake it into 
moderate-sized windrows, and then to collect into 
small bunches, such as a man could easily throw on 
to a wagon with one forkful. The hay is allowed to 
stand in these bunches for three or four days before 
being hauled. In stacking many methods prevail, 
some of them very ingenious. These western ranch¬ 
men are so thrown on their own resources that they 
become inventive to a remarkable degree. The writer 
was surprised to see so many different forms of der¬ 
ricks in use, especially since all of them seemed to 
have been thought out by the ranchmen themselves, 
and not by skillful inventors. In some places, heavy 
cables, varying in length according to the amount of 
hay to be handled, are stretched taut between large 
poles forked at the top. Beginning at one end of 
these cables the rancher starts huge ricks. He 
builds one end, topping out as he goes, the rick 
being both broad and high. In other places derricks 
are used for the same purpose and handled in a simi¬ 
lar way. Sometimes when a man has only a little 
hay to handle, his derrick will be stationary, but 
ordinarily he will have a movable derrick on runners, 
which can be cha*nged in position with but a few 
minutes’ work. These machines are built much more 
strongly than the eastern patented affairs, and they 
show fully as much ingenuity and skill as any pat- 
.4 
THE STUBENRAUCH SEEDLING PEACH. Fi«, 443. 
tented derrick the writer has ever seen. They are 
practically unbreakable. They will handle an enor¬ 
mous amount of hay very rapidly, and place it just 
where it is wanted on the stack or rick. For the 
most part where these derricks are employed, the Cal¬ 
ifornia six-pronged fork is used. These forks, by 
the way, should be on every eastern farm. They 
will carry a great load of hay; they are practically 
unbreakable; they seldom get out of fix, bent or 
sprung as our ordinary harpoon forks do, and, oper¬ 
ate more rapidly than the harpoon forks do, and, es¬ 
pecially with dry hay that is inclined to break or to 
•slip off the harpoon fork, they will carry a much 
larger load than any ordinary double harpoon will. 
An entirely different system, one having a great 
many advantages, is the use of a special stacker and 
western bull rake. These bull rakes are very large. 
They have long wooden teeth and run on trucks. A 
team is hitched to them, and they are run along a 
windrow until they have gathered up a small wagon¬ 
load of hay on their great prongs. The prongs are 
then raised from the ground, carrying the load with 
them, and thus the hay is moved to the derrick. Here 
an ingenious machine takes the entire load direct on 
to the rick, and the man with the bull rake goes back 
for more. A possible disadvantage of the system is 
that the hay becomes so dry before the rake gathers 
it up that some of the leaves are usually lost, but 
the cheapness of the system is incredible. Ranchmen 
handling large amounts of hay will tell you that they 
can do it for only a few cents per ton, while we in 
the East with our most expensive methods feel that 
they must surely be mistaken until we actually watch 
the process of handling the hay. chas. b. wing. 
Ohio. 
