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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 5 
PROPAGATION OF THE PECAN. 
I have read with much interest the articles that have 
appeared from time to time on the pecan. About six 
years ago I planted some pecan nuts, and I have now 
four trees that are growing nicely, but 1 have been in¬ 
formed that if they were grafted they would produce nuts 
sooner than they will if left as they are. Will some 
one who has had experience come to my assistance with 
the way to do the grafting? J. ii. d. 
Virginia. 
R. N.-Y.—Send to the Department of Agriculture 
at Washington, D. C., and also to the Louisiana Ex¬ 
periment Station at Baton Rouge, La., and the Mary¬ 
land Station, College Park P. O. Ask them for bulle¬ 
tins on nut culture. All these will help you. Some 
years ago Mr. James wrote an article on the subject 
which fully covered it. We give below a synopsis of 
what he said and the picture he used—see Fig. 435. 
Any pecan tree can be budded from the age of two 
to 25 years, the younger the tree the easier the job. 
Where the tree is large it must be topped just above 
the lower branches in order to get young, vigorous 
shoots to bud on. The annular method is used in 
budding; that is, the bark is taken off clear around 
the scion that has the bud, and inserted on the stock 
just as it stood on the scion. If it does not reach 
entirely around the stock enough of the stock’s own 
bark should be left to complete the circuit. 
There are three essentials to the successful propaga¬ 
tion of the pecan and if one be lacking the budding 
will be a failure. First, the bud must have reached a 
stage of maturity. Yet the sap must be flowing suffi¬ 
ciently to cause it to slip. Second, there must be a 
sufficient flow of sap in the stock to cause the bark 
to slip easily. Third, the bud must be tied very 
tightly with cotton cloth so as to keep out rain and 
air, and not be disturbed under four weeks. After 
the bud is taken off the scion, with the bark all the 
way around (a length of one inch is best) it should 
be placed over the stock; a piece of the bark of the 
stock of exactly the same size should be taken out, 
and the bud with its bark inserted in this place. 
When large trees are topped in order to get new 
shoots on which to bud, these shoots must be at least 
three months old before you can bud them and are 
better if six months old. Young trees can be budded 
whenever there is a shoot not over \y 2 inch in diam¬ 
eter near the top. Never bud on outer limbs, but 
always at a point near the trunk so that all the sap 
can be thrown into the bud and a new trunk formed. 
It is well for the first few years to leave some 
lower limbs to take up the extra sap, otherwise the 
bud will grow so rapidly as to be brittle and snap off. 
The bud should be tied and supported in some way 
for the first few months, or the wind will blow it 
out. One method is to leave a portion of the stock, 
about eight inches, above the bud and tie the bud 
to it. Success depends upon maturity in the bud 
and a goodly flow of sap in the stock. In Louisiana, 
the time is August and early September. In other 
localities the time will vary and each must study it out 
for himself. 
LIME-SULPHUR INSTEAD OF BORDEAUX. 
As most fruit growers know, Bordeaux Mixture 
has for many years been considered the best fungicide 
for treating plant diseases. Apple growers, where 
scab, bitter rot and similar diseases abound, have 
considered Bordeaux a necessity. Of late years, 
however, it has been found that the Bordeaux caused 
considerable injury to both tree and fruit. At prac¬ 
tically all of the fruit meetings are to be seen speci¬ 
mens of apples scalded or scarred by Bordeaux. In 
some cases, however, this Bordeaux injury is con¬ 
sidered by growers nearly as bad as the Apple scab, 
although it is very doubtful if this is really so. Most 
growers are familiar with this russet color on the 
fruit and the yellow spots on the foliage of apples 
caused by this ■ Bordeaux injury. Something must be 
used to check the spread of apple diseases, and in view 
of this injury from the Bordeaux our scientists have 
been at work trying to devise a new fungicide. 
Prof. W. M. Scott, of the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C., gave before the American Apple 
Growers’ Congress a brief outline of the work which 
the Department has been doing along this line. It 
has long been known that the lime and sulphur wash, 
though effective in fighting scale insects, was also 
useful as a fungicide, yet many growers know to 
their sorrow that it cannot be used in full strength 
during the growing season, as it scalds or burns the 
foliage severely. 
Efforts were made to see if this wash could be 
prepared in some way, so that it would hold the dis¬ 
eases in check and at the same time not injure the 
foliage and fruit. Working along this line it was 
found that the self-boiled mixture of lime and sul¬ 
phur, that is the mixture boiled by the heat of the 
lime alone, gave excellent results, and thus in various 
parts of the country experiments were made in com¬ 
paring this self-boiled mixture with the Bordeaux 
Mixture. These results seem to indicate that some 
form of sulphur may be substituted for Bordeaux. It 
was also found that this wash gave excellent results 
in treating brown rot and scab in the peach. After 
some experience it was further found that the self- 
boiled wash when made with good lime and hot 
water injured the foliage, and this injury was very 
pronounced when the hot mixture was allowed to 
stand several minutes after the lime had slaked be¬ 
fore diluting it. Such a mixture, and also one that 
was boiled thoroughly, did damage to young apple 
foliage, and also gave the russet color which came 
from strong Bordeaux. When the mixture was made 
with cold water poured upon the lime and diluted 
at once after the lime was slaked there was no injury 
to either apples or peaches, but this wash gave prac¬ 
tically as good results against diseases as the Bor¬ 
deaux Mixture. These experiments were carried on 
in Arkansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois and Georgia, 
and with practically the same results in each case. 
In some cases Paris-green and arsenate of lead were 
added to the self-boiled wash without injury to the 
tree and with satisfactory results. Briefly stated, the 
results of these important investigations are given as 
follows by Prof. Scott. We think he is probably 
too conservative in his statements, as we feel very 
confident that his mixture properly made will be 
found useful in fighting these plant diseases. 
Definite conclusions cannot be drawn from these experi¬ 
ments until the crop is picked and sorted at the end of 
the season. The results, however, show that the self- 
boiled lime-sulphur wash is a good fungicide, though not 
as good as Bordeaux, and that it can he used with very 
little injury to the fruit or foliage when prepared with 
cold water and diluted as soon as the lime is slaked. 
The proprietary lime-sulphur solutions are also promising, 
hut will have to be used very much more diluted 
than recommended by the manufacturers. It is certainly 
advisable for the apple growers who are troubled with 
Bordeaux injury to try both the self-boiled and the boiled 
mixtures. In preparing the mixture we have found a 
great excess of lime is not necessary and that a satis¬ 
factory wash is obtained from the use of equal parts of 
lime and sulphur. To prepare 100 gallons of this mix¬ 
ture place 20 pounds of lime and 20 pounds of sulphur in 
a barrel, and add enough cold water, from 8 to 12 gal¬ 
lons, to slake the lime thoroughly. If the lime is good 
the mixture will boil violently for a few minutes. As 
soon as the violent boiling is over a couple of buckets or 
more of cold water should be added in order to prevent 
further cooking. The mixture is then ready to he poured 
through a strainer into the spray tank and diluted to 100 
gallons. ' _ 
THE DEALERS ARE RESPONSIBLE. 
During the last two and more years I have seen a 
good many statements in regard to the putting up of 
poor apples by the farmer, and you wanted to find the 
fruit grower who put those small apples in the middle, 
of the barrel. I think you will find him, if you ever 
find him, in some dealer’s packing house. My conten¬ 
tion is that a few years ago nearly every fruit grower 
had a stencil with which he put his name and post 
office address and the variety of apple on each barrel, 
and they went into the market in that way. Each man 
packed his own apples, or looked after that part of 
the work. But now it is altogether different. The 
buyer comes to the orchard and buys the crop at so 
much per barrel, and when picking time comes he 
sends a man to pack the apples, and only a letter or 
mark is put on the barrel to know who grew them. 
That letter or mark is taken off before the barrel 
goes out of the possession of the dealer, and if by 
some means the grower puts his name on the barrel 
it is always taken off by the dealer before those 
apples go on to the market. As you find the apples 
on the market you cannot trace those apples back of 
the last man who sold them at the most, and, in 
fact, nearly all of the barreled apples go in that way 
and are repacked in the dealer’s packing house. One 
year I sold to a dealer near here. It was a season 
when apples were under size generally. Mine were 
rather above the average, and I was told by some 
cf the men who worked in the packing house for 
the dealer that they used nearly all of my apples for 
stemmers for the other barrels. The men who are 
sent out to do the packing many times are men who 
do not know much about apples or anything else, and 
this year was no exception with us. A man from 
Cincinnati bought our apples, and had a man come 
from there to pack, and I am sure we got pay for 50 
or more barrels of No. 1 apples more than we would 
if we had packed them ourselves. Of course we 
have “no kick coming” along that line, but I do not 
like to hear people keep whacking away at the fruit 
grower for sins he is not guilty of. I was talking a 
few days ago with a dealer about these things, and he 
said: “You are right; we used to do the same thing, 
but we found we could get better apples, and better 
put up by letting the farmer do the work, so this year 
we have let the farmer do the packing.” Now, in 
justice to the western New York fruit grower, won’t 
you get these statements before the people? This is 
not only my own opinion, but the knowledge of nearly 
every fruit grower in this section, and I have talked 
with many of them about it. They all agree with 
each other, and if they had an opportunity would be 
willing to subscribe to these statements that the 
trouble is with the dealer and not with the grower. 
I might add that the dealers who come here from 
away do not want the name of the grower on the 
barrel, so that he can sell anything for western New 
York apples. 1 was at one time in Des Moines, Iowa. 
I saw a large sign up, “Headquarters for Western 
New York Apples.” I went in to look things over, 
and I would say I don’t believe there was a barrel 
of western New York apples in the place. They all 
looked to me as though they had never been within 
500 miles of western New York, so you can readily 
see why they do not want the name and address of 
the grower on the barrel. It was so last Winter at 
Nashville, Tenn. Apples came there by the carload 
marked “Choice Western New York Apples,” and 
shipped from other States. wm. h. outwater. 
Niagara Co., N, Y. _ 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH MELONS. 
Last Spring I reported an experiment in pouring 
strong Bordeaux Mixture around the hills of melons 
to prevent the wilt disease. I promised to try it again 
this year. But—yes, there are buts with me—the 
principal two were hired help and the wet cold Spring 
weather. I got all my melon hills made in good shape 
except about 75 out of 1,000. About GOO were planted 
to Hoodoo melons, remainder on a different plot of 
ground to Gems. Gems made a perfect stand, some 
planted in ground that had Hoodoo in it last year. 
About 75 hills of the Hoodoo missed fire owing to the 
wet condition of the ground when plowed. All were 
planted on a knoll of sandy loam. None of the plants 
seemed to act just right; hired man “busted” auto¬ 
matic sprayer by overcharging with air; neighbors’ 
were also out of order. I had a lot of air-slaked lime 
put on sickliest-looking plants. A light rain soon fol¬ 
lowed the application of lime, and a great change for 
the better soon took place in those plants. After the 
weather got warm and earth dry very few plants died 
of the wilt disease. Another change I made was to 
cross-cultivate the ground as often as possible during 
all of the great drought and heat. The vines that 
were planted in well-prepared ground were thrifty, 
the average being about 95 melons to a flour barrel, 
graded large size. I got $G for all but the first two 
barrels; small size from $3 to $4 per barrel sold in 
Cincinnati markets. No complaint was made about 
quality at any time. Pickle vines were also very 
healthy the past season, while cabbage, tomatoes and 
turnips simply dried up. Money realized from sale 
of melons was about $225, carried to city three times 
per week and gathered every morning as long as 
weather was hot. In the future all of my melon hills 
will be planted on the square, about 6 x / 2 feet apart; 
hills at least 10 inches high, so that the melon’s “feet” 
remain as dry as possible. I also had a fine lot of 
peaches on trees that my neighbors long since agreed 
that I ruined by heading them back severely every 
year. The only thing I felt bad about when I gath¬ 
ered those peaches was why did I not treat all my 
trees the same way at that time. But I certainly will 
in the future. louis fischer. 
Ohio. _ 
HYDRATED LIME.—You ask “Why is ‘hydrated’ 
lime better than slaked lime?” Mainly because if 
enables the promoters to get a big price for a lot of 
lime and water. Big words catch suckers, you know, 
and if they called it simply water-slaked lime the 
fanners would understand them, and know just what 
the stuff is. There is a strong effort being made to 
persuade farmers that lime is a fertilizer simply, and 
that all they need to buy to enrich their soil is some 
of the special lime the advertisers have to sell. A 
correspondent asked my opinion in regard to a cer¬ 
tain lime that is claimed to have two per cent of 
potash mixed with it, and is offered to him for $13 
a ton. The two per cent of potash is worth about $2. 
This would leave him 1,960 pounds of slaked lime for 
$11. As I can buy fresh lump builders’ lime in bulk 
by the carload for $3.50 per ton, and from my past 
experience with this lime I know that it will slake 
over two bushels for one, is there any sense in paying 
$11 for 1,960 pounds of slaked lime, and freight both 
about the same distance? When one gets the fresh 
lump lime he only has to freight the 440 bushels that 
are put in a carload, and 440 bushels of the lime made 
from the 95 per cent rock will generally slake nearly 
1.000 bushels with water, and the farmer does not 
have to freight all that water. If one needs lime he 
would better buy the fresh unslaked article, and if 
potash is needed buy the potash salts, and do not pay 
a big price for lime ■ simply because it has a little 
p'otash in it. w. f. massey. 
Maryland. 
