736 
THE RURAL) NEW-YORKER 
July 8, 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
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A FRUIT GROWERS’ OUTING. 
On Tuesday, June 10, the members of 
the association who have subscribed to pay 
the cost of supervision by the Faculty of 
the State College of Agriculture, of the 
spraying, cultivation and other care of their 
orchards, received notice that there would 
be a trip made to Orleans County orchards 
for the purpose of viewing the work as done 
there, studying their methods, and compar¬ 
ing their processes and crops with those of 
Genesee and Wyoming counties. Professors 
Whctzel, Boucher and Wallace were to ac¬ 
company us, and do the illustrating, and 
direct the route and orchards to be visited. 
The starting place was Hotel Richmond, 
Batavia; 25 automobiles and 105 fruit 
growers responded to the invitation. The 
first orchard to be shown us was the Smith, 
half a mile northerly from Albion, which is 
being run ns an experiment station by the 
State authorities. Here our attention was 
called to the effects of the spraying on the 
foliage, of Bordeaux, lime-sulphur com¬ 
bined with arsenate of lead, and of the ad¬ 
dition of 30 pounds of sulphate of iron to 
the lime-sulphur. The Bordeaux showed 
russeting of the fruit, much in excess of 
the others, the sulphate certainly added 
greatly to the sticking quality of the spray, 
but it seemed to me that it was more dif¬ 
ficult to mist; the solution was apparently 
deposited more coarsely than the others, 
and where it was applied heavily, both wood 
and leaves were painted a deep yellow, giv¬ 
ing the rows so treated a decidedly unique 
appearance. Here also our attention was 
called to one block of trees which had re¬ 
ceived continuous cultivation, and another 
kept in sod. The first block carried con¬ 
siderable fruit; the foliage was luxuriant, 
the trees giving proof of health and growth ; 
the other had little fruit; in fact, none of 
consequence. The leaves were smaller, light 
green in color, and the tree making poor 
growth, and with many dead limbs. Both 
had been thoroughly sprayed, in the same 
manner, and with the same solutions. 
Our next stop was at the A. Wood fruit 
farm, three or four miles northeast, and 
one of the best cared-for orchards in West¬ 
ern New York. Mr. Wood has 105 acres of 
bearing trees, besides many newly set. He 
informed us that he planted a block of trees 
at the birth of every grandchild, and by the 
time wo had walked ovor and inspected his 
orchards, we concluded the Wood name 
would be In evidence any number of years 
yet. Here, too, the Bordeaux caused russet¬ 
ing and lime-sulphur none. Here, too, con¬ 
stant early yearly cultivation seemed to 
favor fruit production, even occasional rests 
lessening fruit; but the foliage was sim- 
plv perfect, the trees healthy and the cul¬ 
ture as nearly ideal as we ever expect to 
see A young orchard of six-year-old trees, 
mostlv Duchess, was showing plenty of 
fruit for its age, and a block of dwarfs 
were bearing well, but did not appeal to us 
as a practical investment. In these or¬ 
chards we were showing the workings of a 
new pest, at least to us; the red bug. Its 
bite disfigures the fruit, something as the 
curculio does. I did not learn if it depos¬ 
ited an egg, but it was difficult to control. 
Mr. Wood and his family earned the grati¬ 
tude and remembrance of our party by 
serving a fine lunch on the lawn, and when 
over 100 hungry fruit growers’ hunger was 
satisfied we sped west, over the Ridge Road 
to Medina, our passing marked by a cloud 
of dust, which happily for us the northerly 
wind drove to our left. , . 
After resting and dining at the M alsh 
House and a consultation, we worked north 
toward Lake Ontario, to the orchards of F. 
Hanlon. Here we found an example which 
every young man, hesitating as to the line 
of agriculture he shall take as his life work, 
should examine and study. Not raised on a 
farm, turning to fruit growing from inher¬ 
ent taste, slight of body and dependent on 
his own judgment and resources, he has 
fought his way to a splendid success. # His 
first investment, a 25-acre farm, which a 
friend described as a dying orchard in a 
frog pond, by drainage, cultivation, trim¬ 
ming and spraying, he made it a money 
maker and has added to his holding until 
they exceed 100 acres. lie explained his 
drainage system, with cement catch basins 
at the intersections, which has been the 
main factor in converting these swampy 
tracts, with their hard red clay soil, into 
as fine orchards as I ever saw; indeed, 
standing in one he purchased only four 
years ago, and seeing the beautiful foliage, 
the well-balanced heads, the clean, perfect 
growing fruit, it seemed a fairy tale, to hear 
that four years ago it was an abandoned 
failure to its former owner. The same 
friend told us that Mr. Hanlon not only 
grow, but packed his fruit right, and last 
year placed in each barrel a letter, telliing 
his name, address, quality of fruit, with the 
result that he had already received orders 
for 500 barrels at $4 per barrel. This ac¬ 
count is reaching a length which makes 
necessary cutting short the description of 
the orchards of Jay Allis and Clark Allis, 
next visited. We must be content to say 
they evinced the same care, culture and 
study of the oest seen, and taught the same 
lessons for cultivation and spraying. 
Now as to the conclusions arrived at by 
the majority of the visitors: First, we 
were disappointed In the crop of fruit. We 
had been led to believe by the press re¬ 
ports that Orleans had a full crop; instead, 
we found barely 40 per cent. We were 
more strongly convinced of the necessity of 
continuous cultivation on the soils of West¬ 
ern New Y T ork. We were satisfied that we 
had plentv of work before us before we 
could compete in treatment, with Orleans’ 
best orchardists, but that they had their 
full proportion of growers, who expected 
figs from thistles. We were puzzled at 
their manner of pruning; they do not cut 
out the centers, open the heads, as we do 
in Genesee. It may be that soil or lake 
proximity makes this unnecessary, but wo 
doubted if we could get color on red 
fruit by their plan. Another thing we 
concluded was that the cost of growing 
good fruit will increase every year; new 
insect enemies, new fungous diseases, fer¬ 
tilization, cultivation and good judgment 
are every year getting more necessary, and 
all costs time and money, but the call for 
good fruit, aid the ability to pay for it, 
increases, and these same enemies will 
weed out the careless, and the day of over¬ 
production looks to be far in the future. 
We also concluded that it wnufd take us 
years to arrive at a degree of skill that 
could produce 24 oarrcls of apples, weigh¬ 
ing 3,400 pounds, mew. ring 72 bushels, 
from a Baldwin tree ; that it was a big load 
for the tree or a big story for the profes¬ 
sor. Finally, we unanimously agrted that 
the trip, with its object lessons and the 
explanation by the exp-.-i'ts, was worth all it 
had cost us to become uviiImms of the asso¬ 
ciation. W. L. B. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Cutworms. —Mr. Hulsart is right as to 
the value of the bran and Paris green. 
Nearly two years ago I bought a piece of 
land adjoining rtiy home for garden purposes. 
It had been lying vacant for years, and 
growing weeds. Last Spring (1910) was 
the first use of it as a garden. The soil 
fairly swarmed with cutworms, and for a 
time I tried hunting them in the morning 
and killed hundreds every day. 1 then fell 
hack on the bran and Paris green, though 
I was very much afraid 1 would kill the 
robins. But I do not think any were killed, 
while the cutworms were destroyed. Next 
to the cutworms the neighbors’ chickens 
were the worst pest, and they, too, seemed 
to let the bran alone, or if they ate any it 
did not hurt them. But I feel sure that 
there will be little trouble from cutworms 
where the garden is kept clean of weeds and 
grass all the time. My garden has been 
kept absolutely clean of weeds, for I work 
the garden for vegetables Summer and Win¬ 
ter, and get something from it every day in 
the year. It was kept clean last year, and 
this Spring the rarest insect is the cutworm, 
and I have not had to use the bran at all. 
The moths choose the grass-grown vacant 
lots around me, and my garden is let alone. 
Plowing Under Green Crops. —Mr. Van 
Alstyne is right in regard to the danger of 
souring the soil and cutting off the capil¬ 
lary moisture. A few weeks ago in directing 
the plowing under of a crop of Crimson clover 
in blooim on land to be planted in corn I 
was careful to see that the plowman did not 
take more furrow than the plow would edge 
up. It was suggested that he was not cov¬ 
ering the clover, as rows of the heads 
showed above every furrow. I said that I 
did not mind that, as the disk liar row would 
soon chop these fine and they would be act¬ 
ing as a mulch, while if the clover had been 
turned under flat there would be a layer of 
the green material that would cut off the 
rise of the soil moisture, while edging the 
furrows left direct connection between each 
furrow and the subsoil. A subsoil plow 
was run in ea-ch furrow after the turning 
plow and lime was harrowed in before plant¬ 
ing the corn. But in a light soil and a 
warm climate I would never turn under any 
green growth in the midsummer, even of 
ragweeds, for I have seen disastrous re¬ 
sults in the South- from such a practice. 
Self-boiled lime-sulphur is all right as a 
fungicide, but is improved by the addition 
of two pounds of copper sulphate to an 
8-8-50 solution. I used this years ago in 
North Carolina, and found it a valuable 
Summer spray. w. F. massey. 
Maryland. 
CROP NOTES. 
We have had a backward season. No 
Summer weather yet (June 17) although 
garden stuff is growing fairly well. Cherry 
picking began about two weeks late. The 
crop is light, but quality good. F.ruit crops 
are very spotted. A heavy frost dropped 
down in spots all over the valley. My apri¬ 
cots and peaches are practically all killed, 
the first time in 30 years, while my neigh¬ 
bors, only across a dry creek, have a good 
crop. H. G. K. 
San Jose, California. 
I find my prediction earlier of the fruit 
crop was too high, rather than too low. 
A’pples and pears are .not 50 per cent; 
peaches very light, with most of them, al¬ 
though mine are good; sour cherries a good 
crop; sweet ones short; plums poor, and 
grapes very short. Bush fruits badly hurt 
with dry weather, and strawberries not over 
25 per cent. Hay and grain the lightest 
I have ever seen in this section. Potatoes 
came up poor and spotted, almost without 
vxception. Corn looking good at this time. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. w. h. 
A FEW FACTS ABOUT 
The Buckeye 
Traction Ditcher 
T he buckeye traction 
DITCHER digs three lineal leet per 
minute, three feet deep, in ordinary • 
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to 50% over the old hand-labor method. 
You earn from $15.00 to $18.00 a day, 
net, on a small amount of capital invented, 
and you can ditch nine to ten months in the 
year. No trouble keeping the machine busy, 
for the ditches are truer and of perfect 
grade, and farmers everywhere insist on the 
Buckeye to do their work. 
The machine is self-propelling in going 
from job to job, and on good roads will 
make three miles per hour. Built Strong 
and always ready to run. Anyone can. 
operate the Buckeye, it is of such simple 
construction. 
Write today for our catalog No. 3 
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. 
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MODERN GARDENING 
Send for 
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FREE 
'Our No. 1 Wheel Hoe provides a way to ' 
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839 Main St., Higganum, Conn. 
AftCUTC UfAIITPn to take orders for otir 
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C ARNAGE PLANTS of all kinds, $1 per 1000: Tomato and Sweet 
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ALFALFA 
All Northern grown, guaranteed to be 99 percent 
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GRAIN AND GRASS SEED 
Northern grown and of .strongest vitality. We 
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All kiutls spraying out- 
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Alfalfa Growers ! 
CARBONATE OF LIME 
(Ground Limestone) for your Soil 
It is the MOST AGREEABLE FORM of lime for summer use. It has none of the disagreeable 
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GENUINE THOMAS PHOSPHATE POWDER 
(BASIC SLAG MEAL)) 
. . . KEY AND TREE BRAND . . . 
THE BEST PHOSPHATE FOR ALFALFA, CLOVER, AND GENERAL MID-SUMMER AND FALL USE 
“It is the belief of the writer that combinations of basic slag meal and sulphates of potash are peculiarly adapted to 
Alfalfa. The slag meal furnishes not only phosphoric acid, but lime, which will help to bring the soil into condition for 
alfalfa and to maintain it in that condition.” Dr. Wm. P. Brooks, Director Massachusetts Experiment Station 
In Massachusetts Crop Report for July 1910. 
Avoid so-called “basic slags" of doubtful origin and uncertain availability 
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A copy is sent free if you mention The Rural New-Yorker 
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int LUt-MUKllMfcK LUMrANl 51 chambers street, newyork city 
