1022 
THE RURAL* RRW-YORKER 
November 27 
a way that it imbedded itself so firmly that it grew 
fast to the White oak. j. s. 
Drums, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—The question of natural grafting has 
been submitted to a number of horticulturists. Mr. 
Oliver, the plant propagator of the U. S. Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, says: 
“We have no record of anything of this sort. We 
have, however, seen trees of different species of the 
same genus growing together. Whether they were 
united so that one could support the two tops we could 
not say. There is, however, nothing remarkable 
about it.” 
Prof. L. C. Corbett says: 
“Natural grafts among forest trees of the same 
species are not uncommon, but grafts among trees of 
■widely separated families are, so far as I know, quite 
unknown. I have, however, seen instances of trees 
interlocking so that the wood of one was very thor¬ 
oughly imbedded in the other, but I do not think there 
was any cellular connection between the two. I would 
not be surprised to find different species of oaks 
forming natural grafts as is mentioned by the cor¬ 
respondent. I doubt, however, if grafts would result 
from branches of two distinct species such as Lirio- 
dendron and oak coming together. I have, however, 
seen what appealed to be a natural graft of hemlock 
spruce with oak, but I am confident there was no 
union, although no careful examination was made of 
the case last mentioned.” 
ANOTHER NURSERY STORY. 
In 1907 there came to my farm H. G. Beckner, who 
said he was the president of the Capital City Nursery, 
of Indianapolis, Ind. Tie talked me into buying a stock 
and starting a nursery. Then E. B. Shellhouse and B. 
I,. McCarty appeared on the job and proposed to bring 
three or four experienced men to plant the stock, which 
they did and were to receive a half interest. All went 
well for a while; the stock grew and everything seemed 
prosperous. McCarty pulled out, and it was said he sick¬ 
ened and died. In April, 1908, Shellhouse borrowed $140 
and left, taking with him plats of stock, since which time 
I iiave been unable to find either of them, although I 
have written to all of them. You see the predicament I 
am in. with stock of tine trees, small fruits, etc., and 
no moans of distinguishing one from the other. What 
can 1 do? What is the standing or the character of 
the Capital City Nursery? f. h. 
We are unable to find this firm or its representa¬ 
tives. The commercial agencies fail to locate them in 
Indianapolis, and men who have been in the trade 
for years know nothing about them. We believe this 
is an old fake doing business under a new name. 
You do not say what sort of a contract you signed. 
The nursery trees as they stand have little real value. 
A nurseryman might tell some of them by their 
growth and appearance, but most of them could only 
be sold by guessing what they are. This is a new 
game, and we cannot see what the promoters expect 
to get out of it. They have got the $140, and it may be 
a bluff game to accuse you of mixing up the labels 
and trying to make you pay “damages.” We have 
other complaints against this concern. In one case 
they induced an Ohio farmer in Pike Co., to sign a 
contract for 1,210 grapevines, at 22 cents each. Good 
vines of standard varieties are offered by reliable 
growers for $6 per hundred more or less. These 
fellows actually induced the farmer to agree to pay 
them $206.20 for vines to plant one acre. This farmer 
also agreed to plant the vines and give thorough 
culture, “free from weeds” for two years. Then the 
promoters who ran the scheme said they would pay 
one cent a pound or 50 cents a vine for the crop 
and do all the picking and selling. The grape, they 
claimed, was a fine new variety! There was no 
local market for grapes where this farmer lived. 
He was simply talked into the scheme by a slack- 
jawed orator. After signing the order for the vines 
this farmer became uneasy, since the company would 
give him no contract to carry out their part in picking 
and selling the grapes. They explained that they 
would give him the contract when they delivered the 
vines, and the farmer gave his note. On reading 
over the contract we find a clause in small type which 
states that the order may be cancelled by “sending 
50 per cent of the order in cash.” 
Under the circumstances we believe this proposed 
agreement to handle the crop is a deception. We 
advised this farmer to cancel the order and refuse 
the vines if attempt is made to deliver them. It is hard 
to understand why farmers will enter such schemes 
after all that has been said. We have exposed such 
games hundreds of times. They are all alike. Such 
fakes do not intend to trim your vines or trees or to 
pick and sell the fruit. They will pick your pocket 
or sell your note, and that is the end of their interest 
in you. Since the above was written we learn that 
representatives of this company appeared with the 
grapevines for delivery. They offered the contract to 
pick and sell the fruit and demanded that the farmer 
sign a printed note for* the $266.20 payable Jan. 1 with 
privilege of extending to third year. The farmer 
knew that if he once signed that note he was done, 
for it could be cashed or traded off, and the farmer 
would then have to pay it regardless of the contract 
He offered to sign a non-negotiable note payable in 
three years. This kind of a note could not be col¬ 
lected until the nursery firm lived up to its contract. 
Of course they did not want any such note. What 
thej* wanted was something they could cash at a dis¬ 
count and then get out, leaving some one else to col¬ 
lect. The farmer stood firm and the promoters final¬ 
ly got out—taking their vines along with them— 
breathing terrible threats of what they would do when 
they got their lawyers at work! 
THE STUDY OF A MULCHED ORCHARD. 
A Visit to the Hitchings Farm. 
Part V. 
It seems impossible to talk about either sod or cul¬ 
tivated orchards without working into a discussion. 
This is well, provided we can keep the discussion 
good-natured and to the point. In the present case I 
have already received many letters. Let us first take 
this one from Prof. John Craig: 
I have been rending yotir articles on Hitehings’s orchard 
experience with much interest. Do you know, 1 cannot 
help thinking that you seem to be as anxious to prove 
the sod-mulch system, the system, as you think some other 
people are to prove the clean culture plan, the only 
plan? Now. I do not believe that you can make a rule 
or a generalization which will hold good in all eases. II 
has been demonstrated over and over, to my personal 
satisfaction, that, there are soils on which anything hut 
a plain tillage system would he unsatisfactory and un¬ 
profitable. There are other soils, notably the clay loams, 
characterized by abundant moisture but not over wet, 
where a sod system, coupled with an adequate feeding 
system which will supply the mineral constituents, will 
certainly give better results than any kind of clean till¬ 
age, supplemented by cover crops. But then I think there 
are fewer instances of this kind than there are of the 
kind where tillage is required. In other words. I believe 
tillage is the rule and sod methods the exception. Then 
again, I believe that the sod method, successfully con 
ducted, requires more discrimination and better judgment 
than tbe tillage method. There is no question also that 
many orchards have been ruined by a mistaken notion of 
what the sod mulch is. I have not seen many orchards 
ruined by the tillage method. The Alexander apple is 
notably susceptible to blight. If it is seriously attacked 
in Mr. Ilitchiugs's orchard, either under cultivation or in 
sod, the sensible thing in my judgment would be to 
lake the trees out entirely. The establishment of blight 
in an apple orchard is a very serious matter. 
JOHN CRAIG. 
No, I am not anxious to prove the sod-mulch 
system best. I do intend, however, that this system 
shall be fairly treated in the discussion. 1 do not 
think it has been in the past. With a good-sized 
orchard of my own coming on, I want to know how 
to handle it to best advantage. I know that on a 
steep hillside in our country, with the gushing Sum¬ 
mer rains we often have, thorough culture is orchard 
suicide. Granting all that Prof. Craig says is true, 
I think it will pay us to learn just what the con¬ 
ditions are under which sod culture will pay. I 
think it has been demonstrated that Hitchings has 
made it pay, and that it is wise to try to analyze his 
methods. As for the Alexander apple, I do not 
understand that this variety blights in sod but rather 
produces beautiful fruit. That being so I should call 
it better advice to put the trees back in sod and keep 
them there. 
Prof. Craig is disposed to be very fair in this discus¬ 
sion, as his note indicates. Some of the “cultivators,” 
however, carry their zeal too far. If they would see 
themselves as others see them they may read the fol¬ 
lowing note from one of our readers: 
It is really quite curious to notice the well-nigh relig¬ 
ious enthusiasm with which the major part of the scien¬ 
tifically trained agriculturists deify the use of the plow 
in the growing of fruit trees. Within a year I have 
heard a State ofiicial express grave doubts as to the 
sanity of the sod-mulch method of apple growing, and 
upon inquiry he frankly admitted that be had never seen 
a sod-mulehed orchard. The confusion in people’s minds 
between an uncultivated orchard and a sod-mulch orchard 
is quite general, and The R. N.-Y. would like to hear 
from any of its readers who have ever seen an apple 
orchard which has for a period of 10 years had left upon 
it everything that the ground produced except apples. 
Such orchards are exceedingly rare, and I think the read¬ 
ers would like to know how many there are. J. b. s. 
Now that gets right down to business. I feel safe 
in saying that when you find such an orchard with 
10 years’ accumulation of organic matter, you will 
find a good one. And now let us consider this proposi¬ 
tion from the same writer: 
An experiment is not an experiment unless it compares 
two things which are alike in all respects but one. in 
which a difference in cause can. therefore, be fairly traced 
as parent to a difference in effect. Tbe apple business is 
an attempt to make money. The real comparison of the 
two methods of prosecuting it should be considered finally 
in the question of cash cost and cash return. It is. 
therefore, unfair to compare sod-mulch, costing $1 or 
less per acre, and cultivation and cover-cropping costing 
several dollars per acre. To make this comparison fair 
we should spend as much money upon one method as tbe 
other, which would mean, of course, some fertilizer for 
tbe sod-mulch trees to equal in cash cost tbe labor, seeds, 
wear and tear and fertilizer put upon tbe cultivated 
orchard. I ask for information if anybody has ever made 
such a test. J- R- s - 
If there are any such tests on record we would 
like to have the figures. I feel that the experiment in 
that Western New York orchard two years ago would 
have been more practical and useful if fertilizers or 
manure had been used in the sod part in value equal 
to the cost of cultivating and seeding the other part. 
As we tried to explain on page 962, the grass on that 
sod orchard took plant food from the soil and held 
it away from the trees until the hay could decay. 
I have no wish to go back of that experiment, for I 
know it was designed to compare two standard 
0 
methods of working orchards in Western New York. 
We also remember that during that discussion several 
well-known fruit growers reported experiments in 
using manure in sod orchards. What we want now 
is to hear from people who have followed the plan 
of taking nothing but apples out of the orchard. My 
judgment is that when we get all the facts we shall 
find there are more conditions under which sod will 
pay than Prof. Craig mentions. 
When we hunt for the situation best suited to 
“mulching” let us keep in mind the following:— 
My belief is that on rather dry soils with little humus 
the mulch method would not be as valuable as the culture 
method, because there would not lie moisture enough to 
keep up the growth of grass and the best growth of 
tree and fruit, unless tbe supply of humus was increased 
by adding humus-making material, such as stable manure 
or swamp bay, etc., hauled on. Some of the best turf 
orchards I know of are on heavy, natural grass soil, 
where there is an abundance of moisture not far below 
the surface. On such soils the amount of moisture is 
ample to keep up a healthy growth of the trees and 
fruit, and at the same time make a vigorous growth of 
grass. When this grass is cut and allowed to rot on 
the soil it adds greatly to the fertility available for the 
trees. I am rather inclined to the belief that in some 
cases it might pay to haul on some cheap mulch-making 
material to increase the amount of mulch, and increase 
the growth of grass (that is for a few years), until the 
growth of >n'ass was enough to make the amount of 
mulch sufficient to hold the moisture needed by the trees. 
1 believe that in all lines of cropping we need to place 
more weight on the humus question because of its influ¬ 
ence on available water supply and potential fertility. 
CHAS. S. PHELPS. 
I think that comes close to it, for the water supply 
is really more important than plant food. The Gene¬ 
va Experiment Station claims there was more humus 
in the cultivated soil of the Western New York 
orchard than in the mulched soil. h. w. c. 
ROSES FOR WESTERN NEW YORK. 
Ornamental Planting Around the Farm Home. 
Part III. 
PROTECTION.—Even with hardy roses, Winter 
protection or a mulch pays. Our practice is about 
middle of December, or when ground is frozen well, 
to bank the rose bush borders V/ 2 to two feet high 
with coarse horse manure, being extremely careful to 
place only dry material next to and around canes from 
ground up. Short sticks, stove wood or boards will 
hold mulch in place against that old hen and wind. 
Mulch is removed about April 1. This mulch does 
double duty in affording protection and supplying con¬ 
siderable fertility. Practically this is all the direct 
fertilizing the roses receive. Winding the canes with 
burlap, or packing in long straw is a step farther 
in protection against fierce cold zero winds. 
PLANS.—Roses grow and bloom well on the lawn, 
but will give larger and more blooms if put in garden 
where high culture is more practicable. Planting 
plans vary according to taste. If planted in single 
straight rows, they may be somewhat crowded, rang¬ 
ing from 15 to 30 inches apart for the moderate and 
free growers, and two to three feet apart for the 
vigorous ones. But if rowed both ways, V /2 to four 
feet apart would he the extremes for close or wide 
setting. Close planting is not recommended, except for 
experts where space is limited. A round bed of roses 
has some meritorious points, such as compactness 
and affording economy in maintenance, yet is suitab'e 
only for special places. A raised or sunken round bed, 
eight feet in diameter contains 50% square feet and 
is large enough for a dozen roses. Bed is simple to 
lay out and execute. Place a round stake where cen¬ 
ter of bed is wanted and by a double, endless string 
around center stake and marking stick, mark out cir¬ 
cles eight feet, remove sod if bed is to *be sunk, then 
six feet and two feet. The circumference of each is 
respectively 25.13 feet, 18.84 feet and 6.28 feet. 1 he 
inner two-foot circle will take four roses, 18% inches 
apart on circle. The six-foot circle will take eight 
roses, 28% inches apart. The inner circle could be 
climbers or vigorous growers; six-foot circle perpet¬ 
ual s. 
SUPPORTS.—If climbers are set in center of bed, 
a gas pipe, 1%-inch by 10 feet long could be set at 
the center three feet in the ground and strings or 
wires run from holes in top of pipe to each climber 
as supports. Or four pieces of pipe same size and 
length could be set one at each climber. And to go 
a step farther a piece of 1%-inch pipe, 22 feet long, 
bent in U shape, or half round for top,, with sides 
two feet apart and parallel, and set three feetf in the 
ground could be used. Two of these set at right 
angles at and crossing at the top. would furnish ample 
cane space and support. Gas pipe three-quarters-inch 
by 5% feet long, driven two feet into the ground, 
provides satisfactory and permanent support to tie to 
for free and vigorous growers. To go still further 
each p : pe should .be threaded at top and fitted with a 
cap and bottom pointed or sharpened. In setting pipe, 
a crowbar should be used for making starting hole, 
say 1% foot deep, then pipe driven home and to 
posit : on by a sledge hammer. A %-inch iron tri¬ 
angular link, one inch in diameter at one end and 
two inches at other end and four inches long, inside 
measurements, and a double wedging hardwood block, 
which nicely fits both link and pipe, adjustable at any 
height, and instantly adjusted to or removed from 
pipe, is a good sort of a toggle to -strike on with 
sledge in driving pipe._ Th : s toggle arrangement pre¬ 
vents damaging, battering or marring of pipe, threads, 
cap or paint. The Spring, while ground is soft, is 
best time to set pipe. Often second-hand pipe can be 
purchased at a sacrifice and if not damaged it is good 
enough. Pipe should be pamted dark green and re¬ 
touched after driving. While there are several diffi¬ 
culties in rose culture, as in any branch of work, a 
few of these infinitesimal obstacles should not be al¬ 
lowed to cheat or scare you out of the pleasure, glory 
and inspiration derived from home-grown roses. It 
is intellectual advancement, developing a love for 
higher thinking and better living. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. t. e. martin. 
