702 
It is a good plan to dig down several feet with a 
spade or post-hole digger. Sometimes soil that looks 
good is quite unproductive and this can generally be 
detected by the growth of weeds and grass, if sour 
there is' likely to be sorrel, plantain, bog grass, etc., 
besides other indications. Some farms seem to sell 
well that are covered with quack grass, and other 
foul stuff, but I should consider it a serious draw¬ 
back. Some sandy .farms are very productive, and 
others that look much the same are. practically worth¬ 
less. The only way to determine which are good is 
to watch a growing crop. 
It is well to know something of the soil formation. 
Much of the soil in this A’icinity is a morainic deposit, 
and changes very suddenly from good to almost 
worthless land. Because one farm is good is no sign 
the next one is, especially in a rolling section. 
If a person has already secured a farm he should 
study it carefully and raise such crops as are adapted 
to it. If he has not purchased he should study him¬ 
self to find out for what he is best adapted and then 
buy a farm suitable to his needs. A German near 
here bought a low, swampy farm, not well drained, 
that many people would hardly have taken as a gift. 
He lowered the water a little and raised onions and 
celery and made more clear money than any of his 
neighbors on their good farms. J. post. 
Kent Co., Mich. 
Hunt for Limestone Land. 
Perhaps I would better try to tell how to select a 
farm in Ohio where I am somewhat acquainted with 
the conditions. However there are certain general 
rules that apply to all States. It goes without saying 
that the topography lends itself to suggestion at a 
glance, and if the buyer wishes pasture lands, rolling 
lands, or even steep hillsides may serve his purpose 
as well as level lands. For tilling purposes compara¬ 
tively level lands are better for a variety of reasons. 
Then the question of drainage arises. A farm thor¬ 
oughly tiled should be worth from $15 to $30 an acre 
more than one that needs tiling and is wet. It costs 
us here in Ohio somewhere around those figures to 
tile thoroughly. Some lands could not be tiled at all 
owing to the outlet; this should be taken note of. 
But what the buyer wishes to know, I take it, is 
how to tell fertile land from poor land, and what 
lands may easily be made fertile that are now poor. 
I would wish to buy if possible a limestone farm. 
When my father came to Ohio from New York State 
he could have likely bought a farm out of the lime¬ 
stone part of the State for one-half what he paid 
for this farm or even less. But when he bought 
this farm he bought in the top foot of soil from 
two to five per cent of limestone pebbles. This rep¬ 
resents from 40 to 100 tons of pebbles to the acre, 
and had he bought this lime in its cheapest form 
from the nearest point it would have cost on track 
here $2.50 per ton or from $100 to $150 an acre, be¬ 
side the cost of applying. Of course he bought a 
farm that had more lime than he needed, but the 
five or six tons to the acre that Joe Wing recom¬ 
mends will cost something by the time it has been 
applied, and this lime we should have if we are 
really to farm. It goes with the clovers and the 
Alfalfa, the legumes that may go on and build up 
our soils with beneficent bacteria. It goes with the 
Blue grass. Also it furnishes the bone to our farm 
animals that makes for good stock as against scrubs 
when not furnished. So we see that one of the 
fundamentals is lime. 
In Ohio our soils are mostly of glacial drift forma¬ 
tion. The bedrock at Woodland Farm is several 
hundred feet below the surface. But some of our 
clays in this State contain limestone pebbles, others 
do not contain them. It took me a long time to 
learn that a soil might be formed from limestone rock 
and still have the lime all leached out of the soil. 
It puzzled me to see yellow Alfalfa in Kentucky 
growing on such soil. Applications of bone have since 
proven that such was the case, as when Alfalfa had 
turned yellow and went out on such farms, applica¬ 
tions of lime restored the color and caused the Al¬ 
falfa to thrive. Limestone soils are sweet. Soils 
deficient are likely acid. With us when Blue grass 
luxuriates along the roadside and right up to the 
trunks of the trees in the wood pastures, it is a good 
sign. Black walnut, Bur oak and maple grow on good 
soils. Chestnut trees will not live, I think, on our 
farm. Father tried many times to start them and 
failed. Chestnut and beech and the conifers would 
likely be found on thin soils in New York. 
Even more significant, however, would be the 
broom sedge of northern Ohio, or the sorrel of New 
York, or moss on the lands of either State, especially 
cleared lands. Crab grass thrives on acid soils in 
Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia. Heavy applications of 
lime help the legumes on such lands and hurt the crab 
grass. As to the mechanical condition, I should pre¬ 
fer a heavy clay to a soil too sandy or gravelly. 
When the right man buys a farm, he makes it his 
bank. A heavy clay soil is a safe bank to put your 
fertility in and its clovers add fertility so that you 
can check on it without undue effort. 
Ohio. WILUS o. WING. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FRUIT TREES WITH CROWN GALL. 
The picture shown at Fig. 251 is from a photograph 
taken from peach trees sent by one of our subscrib¬ 
ers. This man bought a number of trees from a well 
known nurseryman. The trees were in good condi¬ 
tion except that a number of them showed warts or 
galls on the root or crown. The tree shown is one 
of the worst of the lot, the others were not so bad, 
but perhaps one-quarter of the trees showed the 
disease more or less. These warts are unquestionably 
the disease known as root or crown gall. We have 
been brought up to believe that such trees should 
not be planted, as our conviction has been that the 
disease is likely to spread over the root system and 
kill it or stunt it for life. This opinion has been 
held in the past by most of our scientific men and it 
appears to be the belief of most planters. We think 
that the majority of successful fruit growers reject 
such trees and refuse to plant them. 
Our advice to this subscriber was not to plant the 
trees. On reporting this to the nurseryman he was 
informed that a number of scientific and practical 
growers have claimed that such trees are perfectly 
safe to plant. It appears that last year in Massachu¬ 
setts a suit was brought as the result of complaint re¬ 
garding root gall. In this case the man who bought 
the trees refused to pay for the stock on the ground 
that it was badly afflicted with crown gall and root 
A CASE OF CROWN GALL. Fig. 251. 
gall so as to be worthless. He also claimed that by 
planting the trees as he did the soil was infected 
with the germs of the disease so as to make it dan¬ 
gerous for planting further orchards. The case came 
up before a board of arbitration. The main point 
was whether stock affected with crown gall was 
worthless or whether this disease was harmful. Con¬ 
siderable evidence was given on both sides and as a 
result of it the arbitrators decided as follows: 
We find some evidence that the stock was affected with 
crown gall and mot gall, though it is difficult to judge 
of the extent of the presence of these diseases. The ex¬ 
pert evidence submitted, however, showed such a wide di¬ 
vergence of opinion as to the harmfuiness of these diseases 
as to render it an open question as to just what the effect 
of their presence was on nursery stock. We find therefore 
they suffered no appreciable damage from the nursery 
stock in question being affected with crown gall or root 
gall, and that he is not entitled to set off any claim of 
damage on this ground. 
The nurseryman referred to thinks that this shows 
that root gall is harmless and he offers a large 
amount of testimony to show that trees with gall 
and also bush fruits showing the same disease have 
lived for years, giving good crops, and without show¬ 
ing any perceptible increase in the size of the galls 
or any weakening of the tree. We do not think the 
decision in this local case proved anything in par¬ 
ticular except that the parties who made the claim 
were not able by their witnesses to sustain it. We 
do not see that it proves crown gall or root gall will 
always be harmless. There can be no question but 
that in some cases these galls have grown so rapidly 
that they have ruined the trees and we feel that 
June 24, 
whenever a diseased tree is put into the ground the 
planter runs the danger of losing that tree, there¬ 
fore we still advise our readers not to plant trees 
with galls on the roots. At the same time we 
recognize the fact that some of these galls would 
very likely be harmless and we would not hold a 
nurseryman guilty of any attempt to deceive who sold 
such trees fully believing that they were all right. 
We would, however, prefer to be on the safe side and 
we would reject them. At the same time this matter 
ought to be thoroughly thrashed out as we have no 
desire to do any injustice to the nurserymen. We 
shall be glad to have the experience of practical men 
and the result of scientific research, but from our 
present knowledge we repeat that our advice is to re¬ 
ject the galled trees. 
PLOWING UNDER PEA VINES. 
We have urged farmers to grow Canada field peas. We 
cut and feed the vines and plow under the stubble, but 
in some cases it seems better to plow the entire growth 
under. How can this be done without clogging and lifting 
the plow out? Roiling the vines and using a rolling 
coulter help. 
I have never tried to turn under a crop of Canada 
peas, but two years ago we plowed under a large 
growth of Telephone pea vines after harvesting the 
crop. It was a hard job to get them under in very 
good shape, and I do not think it will be possible to 
plow under the vines and get a smooth job of plow¬ 
ing, but the value of the crop will well compensate 
for the extra work of fitting. If my land was en¬ 
tirely free from stones, so a rolling coulter could be 
used, I should use one, and I should expect to get a 
fair result. If that cannot be done I think the wise 
thing to do would be to roll them down and cut them 
up thoroughly with a disk harrow. There will be 
some difficulty with which to contend, but as I said 
before, a crop of pea vines will pay richly for the 
work of getting them under. 
I am much interested in the vetch discussion. I 
grew some a few years ago, but got out of it be¬ 
cause it was hard to get seed. I think I made a mis¬ 
take. I have had it come up on the ground where we 
grew it from that time until this, which must be 15 
years. It comes on and makes a large growth for the 
time it is growing. I want to try sowing in corn at 
the last working and also in cucumbers. I had some 
several years ago come up in a field of squash. We 
took pains not to hoe it up when hoeing, and it did 
no harm to the squash, because it was kept back by 
the more powerful growing plant, but after the squash 
vines were nipped by the frost the vetch had its 
inning, and the first of December there were some 
very large plants. One I know made a perfect mat 
over a space six feet across. It froze back in the 
Winter, but the crowns were not hurt, and in the 
Spring it made a fine growth again. I think there is 
no trouble to grow the seed. We had six acres one 
year with rye. It was very large, and it was quite a 
chore to cut it with a binder, because it hung together 
so badly, but we got it done, and we were foolish 
enough to have the grain ground and fed it to our 
cows. It was great feed. c. R. white. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. 
I have plowed under several heavy crops of 
Canada peas, and have never had any difficulty. My 
plan is, if they are heavy and tangled, to precede the 
plow with the roller, rolling in lands, so that the peas 
will lie from the plow. We have not found it neces¬ 
sary to use a rolling coulter, as an ordinary jointer 
is sufficient. When the peas were not extra heavy, 
all I have found necessary to do is to fasten a heavy 
chain from the plow beam to the evener, at a point a 
little beyond the outside of the furrow, letting the 
chain hang slack. There is a little danger of plowing 
under a heavy crop of green matter early in the sea¬ 
son, to which it will do well to take heed. First, 
such a crop has pumped a lot of water from the 
ground, which is likely to be needed. Second, there 
is apt to be a fermentation, and consequent soil acidity. 
Third, the mass of green material will form a mat 
between the subsoil and the bottom of the furrow, 
completely cutting off the moisture from below. Thus 
while much vegetable matter is obtained, the injury 
is greater than the benefit, if one wishes to grow a 
crop immediately after turning under his green ma¬ 
terial. One would better sacrifice somewhat of bulk, 
rather than .obtain the above injuries. This does not 
apply to peas or any other crop turned under in the 
Fall. Following the plow with the roller, after turning 
under green matter at a dry time, is always wise. Fur¬ 
ther, if one has stock of any kind, the pea is so 
valuable for forage that it is usually more economical 
to cut it for feed, and get the fertility from the roots 
and stubble, and the manure from the animals fed 
on it. edw’d van alstyne. 
