1911 . 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
4ol 
Sprouting Potatoes; Starting Melons. 
J. F. F., Bedminster, Pa. —1. On page 
800 are illustrations of “sun-sprouted" pota¬ 
to seed. Would there be any gain and 
would it be practicable to cut tubers two 
eyes to a piece and allow to sprout simi¬ 
larly the same way? 2. Would you con¬ 
sider It advisable to plant an early variety 
of cantaloupe in paper pots, then set out 
In plot where desired to grow when dan¬ 
ger of frost is past? My desire is to cap¬ 
ture local market for early cantaloupes. 
Please give nature of soil, method of fer¬ 
tility and kind of cantaloupe best adapted 
for this purpose. 
Ans. —1 . No—do not cut the seed be¬ 
fore “sun sprouting.” It will dry out 
too much and if the season turns dry it 
will not do well. “Sun sprout” the en¬ 
tire seed. 2. If you handle them right 
the melons started in pots or on sods in 
the hotbed will give you an earlier crop. 
Do not let them get “pot bound” or 
stay in the pots so long that the roots 
are cramped. 
Baldwin Apples Every Year. 
Since we have been spraying our or¬ 
chards I am pretty fully convinced that 
if they are sprayed as much as they 
should be and properly manured, and 
not allowed to overbear, they will be 
quite sure to bear every year, unless 
they are injured by frost. There is a 
Baldwin orchard on the farm we last 
sold that produced its fifth annual crop 
last season without a skip. But it is 
on a deep chestnut loam soil, one with 
no hardpan subsoil, and has been thor¬ 
oughly sprayed every year, and used as 
a sheep pasture, the sheep being fed 
plenty of supplemental food. The fact 
is trees must have lots of healthy foliage 
in order to keep up the growth of tree 
and grow a crop of fruit, and then if 
allowed to overbear the whole energy- 
goes to the production of fruit, and it 
takes the next year for the tree to re¬ 
cuperate. This orchard has large rugose 
leaves, dark and healthy, and is care¬ 
fully pruned so as not to overbear. 
Being so well sprayed it holds its leaves 
away along weeks after other orchards 
all around are as bare as Winter. 
j. s. WOODWARD. 
Grafting in the Fall. 
C. C. M., Lunenburg, Mass .—What about 
Fall grafting? There was quite a lot of 
top-grafting done on apple trees here last 
Fall. Will they keep moist and start all 
right in the Spring, or will the wind dry 
the scions out until they will die? I have 
some large apple trees that I should like 
to top-graft. Will it do to graft a very 
early variety, such as Gravensteiu or Red 
Astrachan and a very late variety, such as 
Baldwin or Wagener, on the same tree, 
grafting half to early and half to late? 
Ans. —I have never done any grafting 
in the Fall, and cannot tell from ex¬ 
perience what would be the result, but 
I have been told by those who have 
done it on stocks near the ground that 
it has succeeded. The plan is to cover 
the graft to the top with soil and trash 
and thus protect it from the weather. 
It is my belief that if the grafts are left 
exposed to the weather over Winter in 
any northern climate that they would 
die or be very seriously injured. In a 
very mild climate there would be no 
such danger. Grafting early and late 
varieties will not affect them, is what I 
believe after many years of experience 
and observation. h. e. van deman. 
Transplanting Large Grapevines. 
On page 816 G. O. A. asks about moving 
old grapevines. I have moved at differ¬ 
ent times old grapevines, with good suc¬ 
cess. I dig a trench 18 inches deep by 
about 12 inches wide, according to the 
size of the vine. I dig a place about at 
the center of the trench, a place large 
enough for the -roots, press the branches 
down to the bottom of the trench. If some 
branches are not lying down well I give 
them a twist; they will take root there 
quicker, then from place to place I leave 
some young shoots sticking out above 
ground four or five inches. The branches 
must lie about eight or 10 inches below 
the surface of the ground. The first year 
there will be no showing, but the second 
year will make surprising growth because 
all these old branches will have made 
roots the whole length. The third and 
fourth years will be far ahead of a vine 
two years old, planted at the same time. 
T. G. M. 
Use of Wood Ashes. 
Would it be a good plan to spread fresh 
hard-wood ashes on land that was plowed 
last Fall, and is to be seeded to Alfalfa 
this Spring? Will the lime in the ashes 
be as good as air-slaked lime? How much 
should there be used? I can get all the 
ashes I have use for, and I intend to put 
a liberal amount on, so it would not be 
necessary to spread more for some years. 
•For what crops will ashes be good? 
Iron Mountain, Mich. j. j. e. 
Yes, the lime in the ashes will be as 
good as air-slaked lime. On an average a 
ton of the ashes will carry about 600 
pounds of lime. A fair dressing of lime is 
2.000 pounds, therefore about three tons of 
ashes would be needed. The ashes contain 
also about 100 pounds of potash to the 
ton. They are most useful in grain, grass, 
garden crops and all fruits except straw¬ 
berries. 
Mulching to Retard Buds. 
Would a heavy mulch of straw, etc., 
around bearing trees retard the blossoming 
period, enough to make the mulching worth 
while? Would the buds start even if the 
roots were kept dormant? If so, would not 
that injure the tree by drying out? Do you 
advise painting the trunks of peach trees, 
when planting, with common tar, to keep 
out borers? w. p. k. 
Illinois. 
Such mulching has not made any great 
difference with us. The buds will start re¬ 
gardless of root conditions if the sun and 
rain are warm enough. In case of such 
early starting we think a mulch heavy 
enough to hold frost too long in the soil 
would hurt rather than help. No, we do 
not advise painting with tar. So far as 
we are concerned those who do it take their 
own risk. 
Self-sown Oats; Fertilizer for Truck. 
If a field is sown to oats and let get over¬ 
ripe so that they thrash out in cutting, so 
bad that when they come up again it looks 
like a new stand, will they come on the 
next year and put off a crop, or is it better 
to plow for another crop of some kind? 
Having my place worked on shares, the 
above is my case (12 acres). Do you ap¬ 
prove of commercial fertilizers for truck 
farming, and what kind would you advise 
for rolling sandy soil? F. c. a. 
Jackson, Mich. 
It is not likely that these oats will make 
a fair stand next Spring. We would plow 
the land for another crop. The right kind 
of chemicals will give results on truck 
crops. The greatest needs for a sandy 
6oil are available nitrogen and potash. Un¬ 
less you have had some experience with 
chemicals you will do well to get some re¬ 
liable brand containing at least three per 
cent nitrogen, seven of phosphoric acid and 
eight of potash. 
Cotton Boi.i.-wokm “Conspiracy."— Dur¬ 
ing the Winter report was printed of a 
“conspiracy" concocted by two bad men 
from Texas to scatter the deadly cotton 
boll-weevil through the cotton-growing coun¬ 
tries of Georgia. The stated object of this 
was to ruin the crop of Georgia and South 
Carolina, and thus torce up the price. We 
wrote the director of the Georgia Experi¬ 
ment Station about this and received the 
following reply : 
“It is my opinion that the veriest pervert 
could not have concocted so perfect a fake 
as the boll-weevil distribution story to 
which you refer. The boll-weevil will 
meander this way by and by, but the people 
now know that to plant the earlier varieties 
of cotton and to adopt and religiously prac¬ 
tice high fertilization, rapid, light, level cul¬ 
tivation will be to outwit the pesky pest.” 
MARTIN V. CALVIN. 
Don’t use an immense tank, either 
elevated or buried, for storing 
water. Stored watoris unhealthful 
for your family and yonr stock. 
Pump the water direct, with com- 
„ , , . , „ , pressed air, as you use it. Supply 
Equipment may be placed at any distance the home with water fresh from 
from the weH. Outfits supplied for any lift. the well by using the 
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What Can Be Done With Swamplands 
Swamplands can be reclaimed and made profitable by intelligent fertilization. 
They will produce good corn, onions, potatoes and hay. Their productiveness is 
not only increased, but maintained 
By Using POTASH on Them 
Use ioo to 200 pounds of Muriate per acre for corn, and the same amount of 
Sulphate for onions, potatoes or celery. Drill in 75 pounds of Kainit with seed 
to drive away root-lice or cut-worms. 
Send for FREE literature on this interesting subject. • Get our prices on any amount of Potash from 200 lbs, up. 
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Continental Bldg., Baltimore Atonadnock Block, Chicago Whitney Central Bank Bldg., New Orleans 
FRUIT GROWERS FAVORITE SAW 
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Because it saves time and labor and is so easy to 
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Write today for Descriptive Circular and Prices. 
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