260 
THE RURAL/ NEW-YORKER 
Air Chamber in Sprayer. 
R. C. If., Michigan. —In buying a sprayer 
is it policy to buy one with large air 
chamber? 
Ans.—A spray pump, run by a very 
regular power, like a gasoline engine 
or steam pump, does not need a very 
large air cylinder, but a hand pump, or 
traction pump or sprayer, where you 
might want to spray for a minute or 
few seconds after the pump stops, 
works much better with a good-sized air 
chamber, as you can get a good spray 
for a few seconds after the pump has 
stopped, having as a reserve power 
quite a lot of air under compression. 
In using a pump with a large air cham¬ 
ber it is a good plan to pump up 20 to 
30 pounds air pressure before you starf 
pumping the spray liquid, as it will give 
you more elasticity. 
Hillside Peach Orchard. 
J. K., Milton, N. Y. —What fertilizer 
should I use on my peach orchard? It is on 
hilly ground, quite stony soil, very light, 
with hardpan stony subsoil. I have sown 
clover in orchard, but get a poor stand on 
the hills; it grows well in hollows. This 
Winter I applied five tons of manure to 
the acre on the hills. 'Peaches ripen two 
weeks before time; trees do not make wood 
growth enough on the hills. 
Ans. —It is almost impossible to force 
as large a wood growth in trees upon 
the hilltops as one gets in the hollows 
and depressions, because the soil of the 
hollows is usually deep, moister and 
also receives more or less fertility in the 
wash and drainage from the hilltops. 
Cultivation and application of stable 
manure will improve both the wood 
growth and stand of clover upon the 
hills. Peaches of same variety should 
ripen a little earlier upon the dry hill¬ 
tops, but there should not be two weeks 
difference. I should be suspicious of 
yellows if they ripened so far in ad¬ 
vance. b. d. v. B. 
Value of Pedigree Strawberry Plants. 
Reader, Frankford, Pa.—I am at sea re¬ 
garding the proper or safe method of se¬ 
curing strawberry plants for setting out 
I have many catalogues of growers, also 
several books on strawberry cultivation, but 
all seem to differ. One firm says that a fruit 
(strawberry) grower cannot set out any 
plants formed from runners which a fruit¬ 
ing plant sends out. They lay great stress 
on the fact that such plants would go al¬ 
most to runners and foliage, producing very 
little fruit, and that very inferior, and poor 
in appearance. As. I am no expert, I do not 
wish to be quoted, but in another part of 
their book they say they “propagate con¬ 
tinuously from bearing plants.” In my 
mind, this is a contradiction of the former 
assertion. I have a good-sized bed of 
Michel’s Early (New Jersey), which needs 
resetting. Could I, to raise a fair or good 
crop for market purposes, get plants from 
runners from this same patch, and set them 
out as a new bed? My plan is as follows: 
Last September I set about 600 plants 
(young) from this patch, which put out 
runners of their own. By pinching off 
blossoms, then cut the runners, take the 
rooted plants from same, and set them in 
a bed of themselves, for fruiting, also keep¬ 
ing down runners, this plan, by my 
theory, would give me bearing plants the 
season following the coming one. Am I 
right? 
Ans. —As I understand it, “Reader” 
has a bed of Michel’s Early straw¬ 
berries set in the Fall of 1907. He 
wants to set a new bed from young 
runner plants made the past Fall on 
this bed, but from much reading of 
theories he is somewhat confused and 
uncertain what course to pursue. 
These plants that have attained fair 
size and a good foot system will in 
my opinion be as good or nearly so as 
any so-called pedigree plants he can ob¬ 
tain, but as the parent plants were set 
so late last season there will be many 
plants that will be under size and the 
smallest plants should be discarded. If 
he will take the stroYig young plants 
from this September set bed and set 
where he wants them to fruit, just as 
early in Spring as ground can be worked 
in good condition, keeping blossoms off 
and giving good care throughout the 
season, I see no reason why he should 
not get a good crop of berries in 1909. 
If when digging the young plants he 
will leave the plants set last September 
and keep blossoms off these and work 
thoroughly he can produce a fine lot of 
plants for setting a new bed in the 
Spring of 1909. I would say, however, 
that unless extreme earliness is the 
main object sought he would do well to 
try some other varieties. Also that this 
Fall-set bed might pay him enough in 
fruit, if left, to more than purchase a 
like number of plants for setting his 
new bed. The directions for growing 
fine berries in this catalogue the reader 
speaks of are very good indeed, and 
always remind me of the directions on 
patent medicines and proprietary stock 
foods. It is a close following of these 
directions that produce results rather 
than taking the medicine or giving the 
stock food or in other words by ex- 
plicitly following directions you can 
dispense with the medicine or stock food 
and get equally good results. Not that 
I do not believe that something is to 
be gained by selection, but there is a 
vast difference between this misapplied 
claim of plant breeding of strawberries 
and the breeding of animals, or even 
the breeding of plants that are pro¬ 
duced from seed, even if this aforemen¬ 
tioned catalogue would lead readers to 
believe them analogous. There is a 
great difference in strawberry plants 
but as far as pedigree goes it would 
better be applied to the grower than 
the plants. * G. R. s. 
Twig Blight in Apple Orchard. 
TV. S. TV., Kendall, N. Y .—What would 
cause twig hlight in my apple orchard? 
Some of the twigs blight entirely, others 
for two or three inches from the end; the 
Baldwin trees seem to blight the most; the 
orchard is about 30 years old, and has been 
in sod for years until two years ago, when 
I bought it and started to feed and work 
it with a disk harrow. Do you think the 
Oyster-shell louse might cause it, or might 
there be something lacking in the soil which 
the tree requires? 
Ans. —I do not think that the Oyster- 
shell scale caused the blighting of the 
twigs, but think it was a bad outbreak 
of Apple twig-blight, affecting the 
young growth of the apple in a way 
similar to the so-called fire blight of 
pears; however in apple trees it rarely 
affects more than the young growth and 
sometimes the blossom clusters; it sel¬ 
dom affects the two and three-year-old 
apple wood, and often almost completely 
disappears the following year. I have 
seen trees severely injured by Oyster- 
shell scale; lower partly shaded 
branches are usually first killed. It has 
been more troublesome in Western New 
York the past two years than for some 
time previous. When thick enough to 
prove injurious, infested trees should be 
sprayed with a 10-per-cent kerosene 
emulsion, or a whale oil soap solution, 
one pound to seven gallons water. This 
spraying should be done within 10 days 
after the eggs hatch, usually from June 
1 to June 10 in Western -New York. 
If the grower keeps a close watch of a 
badly infested branch he will readily de¬ 
tect them at time of hatching, a very 
small minute crawling louse, just yisible 
without a magnifier. They spend the 
Winter in the egg stage, protected 
under the old mother scale, and in that 
stage are hard to kill. b. d. v. b. 
Scaly Peach Trees. 
I bave a few hundred peach trees ready 
to set. They have San Jos<5 scale on them. 
How should I proceed? Are they worth 
setting? F. v. s. 
Columbus, Ga. 
If they are of good size we would set 
them—first dipping to kill the scale. Make 
a mixture of Scalecide and water, one part 
to about 18. Shake the bundles of trees 
open and dip them into the mixture. Stir 
them in it and then let them drain off 
and plant. 
Spraying Peach Trees. 
Having no San Jost* scale will it pay to 
spray four-year-old peach trees? What 
would you spray with and how often? 
Arnold, Pa. w. h. l. 
ITow do you know you have no scale? 
Perhaps some expert lias examined the or¬ 
chard, or perhaps you depend on your own 
examinaton. We thought there was no 
scale in one of our orchards, neglected to 
spray and met with serious damage. Now 
we spray on general principles. In your 
case a good spraying with lime and sulphur 
will insure against the scale, and also help 
peach curl. 
Brush for Mulching Trees. 
Would it be advisable to use brush in ad¬ 
dition to the grass and weeds in the or¬ 
chard for mulching purposes, cutting the 
brush with the leaves on? I may locate 
where I can have stones in plenty to mulch 
with. R. 
Connecticut. 
We have tried brush, but do not find it 
satisfactory. The grass grows up through 
it and is hard to - cut. Mice and other 
vermin live under the brush, and cause con¬ 
siderable damage. There is great danger 
in case of fire with brush close to the tree. 
While stones keep the soil moist and well 
shaded they harbor vermin. 
Plowing Close to Rows. 
I was planning to do ns you have done, 
plow three or four furrows each sfde of 
the trees and leave the rest in grass, to be 
cut and left on the ground, but right here 
comes a mail who leaves the sod and cul¬ 
tivates the middle. My conditions are 
like your own, stony side hills. I planted 
a new orchard, one of apples and one as¬ 
sorted cherries, plums and pears. The 
fields are, poor. I dug holes with a grub 
hoe, put the tree in carefully, packed down 
hard, mulched' with stones and then put 
a shovelful of manure close to the tree 
on the upper side. Out of 200 six or eight 
have died. Maybe they will come up new 
from the roots. This Spring I was going 
to dig around each tree with grub hoe and 
dig in two shovelfuls of manure from 
cow stable, then mulch with stones, cut 
the weeds and what grass comes (not 
much) and throw around the trees, with 
all the other trash I can get. What shall 
I do? What shall decide when doctors 1 dis¬ 
agree? I expect to spray with Bordeaux 
and Paris-green about three times, whether 
necessary or not, as a matter of precau¬ 
tion. w. L. 
Orange Co., N. Y, 
Our experience with such trees is that 
they make a slow, solid growth—not as 
large as cultivated trees, but healthy and 
well shaped. We would not depend on 
manure alone for a poor soil. These trees 
need both potash and phosphoric acid. If 
you can use wood ashes in addition to the 
manure it would help; if not ground bone 
and potash. As to which is belter—to 
plow near the trees or to leave a strip 
there—we are yet undecided. We have 
both methods under way. If we were sure 
that the trees would not be barked by 
plow or cultivator our choice for the first 
four or five years would be plowing close 
to trees—seeding down later. The safer 
plan in this respect is to leave a strip of 
sod along the row. We hope to know 
more about this by Fall. Why use-l'arls- 
green with the Bordeaux? Such young 
trees cannot bear apples, and the only 
reason for usiug Paris-green would be to 
kill the apple worms. We would use 
Bordeaux alone. 
“Now, Willie, why should we all love 
George Washington?” “’Cause we 
don’t have ter go ter school on his 
birthday.”—Harper’s Bazaar. 
March 21, 
Berry Baskets 
ALL SIZES 
ALL SIZES 
GRAPE BASKETS 
Best quality goods. Factory prices. 
Berry, Peach and Grape (’rates, etc. 
Write for Illustrated Catalogue. 
COLES & COMPANY 
109 & 111 Warren St., New York 
Established 1884 
I AM HEADQUARTERS for the Cumberland 
and Kansas Black Cap and Miller Red Rasp¬ 
berry, Lucretia Dewbeny and Rathbtin Black¬ 
berry Plants. 500.000 Bubach, 500.000 Gandy, 800,000 
Success. Lots of other Strawberry Plants for 
sale; two farms for sale, all in fruit,41 acres in one, 
70 acres in the other; nice buildings on both farms. 
Before placingyour order get my catalogue; it is 
free. I). W. MOSLEY, Dover, Del. 
The Best Strawberries 
grow from Farmer’s plants. Introducer of 
“Oswego” strawberry ami “Plum Farmer” 
raspberry. Fruit plants, all kinds. Catalog, 
free. L. J. FARMER, Box 820, Pulaski, N.Y. 
r\un!ap Strawberry Plants. Special low prices for 
rge orders. Address G. S. Pickett & Son,Clyde,O. 
Lombardy Poplarsc^Mtet.VIS 
2 yrs, fine, bushy, shrubbery in variety. Nice lot 
FcaeliTrees.J. A.Roberts, Malvern.ChesterCo., Pa 
FOR SAI F - Dewberry. Blackberry, and 
" Strawberry Plants. Best value 
M. N. BORGO. Vineland. N. J. 
Catalog free. 
CTRA WIIERRY PLANTS— Reliable, money 
vj making varieties, only $1 50 and $1.75 per 1000 
New illus. cat. Frke. S. A. VIRDIN, Hartly, Del 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS-S^-,™,': 
eight of the older varieties. Catalogue free; postal 
will bring it. J. K. LOSEE, Elnora, Sar. Co.. N.Y. 
P EAS—Alaska $4 bush; Long Island Mammoth 
$4 bu. Onion Seed—Prize Taker $1.75 lb.; Phila. 
Silver Skin $2 lb. MINCH BROS., Bridgeton. N. J. 
LUCRETIA DEWBERRY PLANTS 
Clean healthy plants from root cuttings. Send for 
lowest price. JOHN CASAZZA, Vineland, N.,). 
CALIFORNIA PRIVET, Strawberry plants 
^ fruit trees,etc. Sam’l C.DeCou.Moorestown.N.J. 
Ml AC If A pCAQ $3.75W; Long Island, $3.50 
rtHOj and Prize Taker Onion Seed, 
$ 1.50 lb., choice stock. E. Rigg.Jr.,Burlington,N.J. 
VEGETABLE PLANTS 
*»° FLOWERS. 
The J. E. HUTTON CO., Conynghum, Pa. 
Send for Price List. 
THE 
"Friend” "Angie” 
Spray Nozzle. 
Something new, entirely 
different than others. Price 
$1.55, postpaid. 
'‘FRIEND” MFG. CO. 
GASPORT, N. Y. 
THE NIAGARA 
GAS SPRAYER 
The Power Sprayer without a pump. Over 
fourteen hundred now in use in the United 
States. Lightest, least complicated, most durable 
and cheapest power sprayer on the market. We 
make power sprayers for every purpose. 
We also manufacture ‘ 
Niagara Brand Lime-Sulphur Solution 
The latent, be^t and mo^t effective spray material for San Jose and other 
scale insects, and for Apple Scab, bitter and brown rots of Apple. Peach and 
Grape. This wash has been fully tested for both summer and winter spray, in 
California, Oregon and Washington where it is very popular. 
It completely controls Apple Scab with no injury to fruit or leaves, as is 
so often the case with Bordeaux Mixture. 
If you have suffered from Bordeaux injury, why don’t you try this new 
wash for your summer Spray? Read what Professor Cordley of Oregon says 
in the issue of Rural New-Yorker of March the 7th, page 202, then write us 
at once. Eastern growers supplied from our New York factory. 
. Niagara Brand Arsenate of Lead for codling moth. 
Ready Bordeaux for preventing fungus. 
Our machines and materials are used and endorsed by over one fourth of the 
Experimental Stations in the United States 
SEND FOR COMPLETE CATALOGUE OF SPRAYERS AND MATERIALS. 
NIAGARA SPRAYER COMPANY, middleport.n.y. 
EDWIN C. TYSON, Flora Dale, Pa„ agent for sprayers only, in the State of Pennsylvania. 
