762 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[ Every query must be accompanied by the 
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attention. Before asking a question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
A Case of Black Knot. 
A. R. B., Dexter, Me .—I have several 
hundred plum trees, some are very large 
trees and have borne heavy crops, but the 
black knot has completely covered them 
this year. I feel the worst about 100 trees 
I set two years ago. They are just cov¬ 
ered with the knot, yet have nice, hand¬ 
some tops. I wish there might be some¬ 
thing I could graft into them, otherwise 
they will all have to be cut down. 
Ans.— Black knot is a fungus disease 
that spreads like smallpox in the human 
family, and there is no more need of it 
being prevalent. The fact that it is 
very hard on the trees is positive evi¬ 
dence that there has been about nothing 
done to stop its ravages for several 
years past. If there had been careful 
attention given to cutting off and burn¬ 
ing every knot that was seen, and with¬ 
out delay, there would now be very 
little or none. There is fresh infection 
from the old knots giving out spores 
that find lodgement and grow, making 
new knots, and so the trouble spreads. 
There is no need to have this to con¬ 
tinue. Cut off all that shows and burn 
it at once. Paring off the knots and 
pasting the places with thick Bordeaux 
Mixture is of considerable benefit in 
saving the branches, but many of them 
must be cut off entirely. All of the 
knots in the vicinity on wild choke 
cherry bushes or elsewhere must be 
cut off and burned. Spraying the clean 
trees with Bordeaux is a help. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Hawkweed in Pasture. 
This pasture problem is a serious one 
here. Acres and acres cannot be plowed, 
and hawkweed is overrunning the whole 
region. I am trying to get Sweet clover or 
vetch started in mine. I could tear it up 
some in the Spring with the spring-tooth. 
In the Spring it is utterly bare until the 
hawkweed starts up. D - p. b. 
The remedy for hawkweed, outside of 
plowing and cultivation, is broadcasting diy 
salt, about 3,000 pounds per acre. Experi¬ 
ments in Vermont show that this will kill 
most of it. We do not believe Sweet clover 
will start willingly in poor soil. Our re¬ 
ports generallv indicate failure except in 
good land. We would rather harrow lime 
into these pastures and seed to the grasses. 
Nitrate on Tomatoes. 
Can anyone tell me when is the best 
time to apply nitrate of soda to late to¬ 
matoes, and about how much to the hill? 
Dias Creek, N. J. e. b. s. 
We should consider 125 pounds of nitrate 
of soda per acre a good-sized dose. Figure 
how much that would make per plant. If 
there are 5,000 hills it would be two-fifths 
of an ounce. Do not put it up close to the 
stem. If the plants are small and back¬ 
ward use the nitrate now. If you want to 
hold back ripening wait until late .Tuly or 
August, and then use the nitrate. We have 
had cases where plants thus fertilized kept 
on producing vine instead of maturing fruit. 
This is an advantage sometimes when the 
market is crowded in August and empty 
later on. 
Wind Power and Electricity. 
I enclose a clipping from a family paper 
on development of wind power. This is a 
subject that I have been thinking of lately, 
wondering if the wind could not be used 
to generate electricity to be used for heat 
and power immediately and stored for use 
at times when there was no wind. I had in 
mind also the novel power windmill which 
appeared in The R. N.-Y. a few years ago. 
Clay, N. Y. l. 8 . 
The clipping referred to suggests that 
cheap wind power can be used to generate 
electricity. The power is to be held in 
storage batteries and used as wanted. The 
theory, like many others, looks well, but 
fails in practice. Many efforts have been 
made to utilize wind power for this pur¬ 
pose, but none has succeeded. In Holland 
special efforts in this line were made with¬ 
out success. Wind power is not steady 
enough for the purpose. 
MORE CROWN GALL EXPERIENCE. 
We have had considerable experience with 
crown or root gall, in one or two instances 
not accepting the trees, and in others, where 
there was but little of it, cutting it all off 
and setting the trees. We pulled up a block 
of 500 peach trees last Spring that were 
nine years old, and I found no evidence of 
gall on them, yet as I remember there was 
some when we set them. I had an apple 
tree blow over last Summer that showed a 
bad specimen of the gall on the large roots 
next to the body and I laid it to that, 
though it might not have been ; the tree was 
over 20 years old. This Spring we set a lot 
of peach trees, and we found about seven 
per cent, of them affected. In one case we 
cleaned it all off and set them out by 
themselves, 123 in all. We want to see 
what they will do. In another my sons 
treated about 40 in a solution of lime-sul¬ 
phur, and in 60 days we will guarantee that 
it is all killed (and the trees, too). I am 
July 15, 
not prepared to give an opinion in regard 
to it. I know that a nurseryman with a 
fine lot of trees with a few of the galls on 
hates to throw them away, so he sets them 
out. I am not sure if it is a bad thing, 
or if some time it should become epidemic, 
that one is any better off if the trees come 
from a nursery where it is bad, whether they 
have it on or not. Come, let us take coun¬ 
sel together, nurserymen, fruit growers, and 
experiment station, and see what we can 
find out. T. H. KING. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
I noticed on page 702 an article about 
root gall on fruit trees, and I will give my 
experiences in regard to it. In the Spring 
of 1907 I helped set 2,000 peach and ap¬ 
ple trees, and I noticed that there was con¬ 
siderable root gall on the trees, but the com¬ 
pany thought they would not hurt and had 
them set. The next Spring I was given the 
job of resetting those trees, and out of 
about 160 trees that died I found but about 
a dozen that did not have root gall. Since 
then I have studied that disease and ob¬ 
served it close, and I have my first tree yet 
to do any good with root gall. 1 would 
advise no one ever to set trees with it, for 
if they live they will do no good, so it is best 
to reject them. l. G. z.. 
Philippi, W. Va. 
The Summer Boarder Business. 
I have never had any experience in that 
line, so what information 1 can give you is 
based on inquiries that I have made. The 
meat used rarely comes directly from the 
farm, but is bought from a butcher in small 
quantities, as the facilities for keeping it 
any length of time ai'e inadequate. The 
farmer’s wife depends largely on the garden 
to furnish articles of food for the table in 
the shape of green peas, string beans, 
shelled beans, green corn and new potatoes, 
although lettuce and the endive are used to 
some extent. The milk, butter and cream 
nearly always come direct from the farm, 
as do the eggs and poultry. The size of the 
flock of hens varies from 20 to 100 ; one 
woman who has from 12 to 20 boarders 
every Summer told me that her flock of 
hens numbered about 80, and she was rais¬ 
ing about 150 chickens. The strawberry is 
the only small fruit cultivated to any ex¬ 
tent Cherries have been grown in the past, 
but the trees have been allowed to die of 
black-rust. Raspberries, blueberries and 
blackberries are found in every pasture. 
New Hampshire. k. k. s. 
CROP NOTES. 
Sour cherries about 25 per cent.; sweet 
cherries, 60 per cent. Winter apples, 25 
per cent., or less. Duchess and Fall fruit 
75 per cent. f. c. w. 
Old Mission, Mich. 
Cherries 40 per cent. Winter apples poor, 
30 per cent.; Fall apples, full crop; pears 
60 per cent. ; peaches full crop. We are 
in need of rain at present although culti¬ 
vated crops are not suffering. d. a. ii. 
Scottsville, Mich. 
Our long continued drought is broken; 
we have had several copious rains the past 
two weeks. We enjoyed our first green 
beans and potatoes June 28. Fruit a fail¬ 
ure, hay and oats not half a crop. Corn' 
growing fine. d. b. r. 
Fall Branch, Tenn. 
Richmond and sweet cherries are three- 
fourths of crop, Montmorency and Morello 
are less than one-fourtli crop. Early ap¬ 
ples are an average crop, Winter apples 
about one-fourth of average. Peaches are a 
very large crop, and pears are also good. 
Traverse City, Mich. w. j. 
We have a good crop of pears and 
peaches, one-fourth crop cherries and plums. 
The Elbertas are not as full as I would 
like to see them, but there will be a good 
crop. The common varieties, such as Gold 
Drops, Barnards and Chili, are too full. 
We got a little rain June 26. which was 
badly needed. p. r. 
So. Franklin. Mich. 
Winter varieties of apples will not be 
over one-fourth crop in this county ; Bald¬ 
wins and Northern Spy very scarce. Fall 
varieties a full crop and quality good. 
Cherries a full crop; quality not the best; 
growers getting 3% cents per pound at the 
canning factories; peaches a full crop. An 
increased acreage of beans has been planted. 
The crop is looking very good. Oats, 
wheat and hay are nearly a full crop. 
The acreage of corn is not so large, due to 
the late, wet Spring, and the crop is not 
very promising. e. v. a 
Newaygo Co., Mich. 
June has been noted for dry hot and 
cold weather. No rain of any account 
has fallen in this township, Hopewell, and 
the crops are beginning to show the ef¬ 
fects of it. Haying has begun, and will 
be a very light crop, and poor in quality. 
Alfalfa has bowed a good crop. Wheat 
will be an early harvest and promises to 
be good. Sweet cherries were a failure, 
as also strawberries; currants are light 
Raspberries are set full; if we only get the 
rain they will be a good crop. Corn is 
above the average year for growth, more 
than knee high now. Potatoes have came 
up very poorly, many rotting in the 
ground, and from first-class seed. Bugs 
worse than usual. Pasturage getting 
short, and also the flow of milk. Small 
acreage of cabbage and a large one ol 
beans. Butter, 18 cents; eggs, 16; pota¬ 
toes, 50 cents; hay, .$18; wheat, 85 cents; 
oats 40; corn, 65; veal, seven cents a 
pound; sheep, four cents per pound. 
Canandaigua, N. Y. e. t. b. 
Yesterday, July 1 , our government ther¬ 
mometer registered 101 degrees, and today 
104. Oats are ripening too fast, corn is 
curling but is not hurt yet, and on an aver¬ 
age the best I ever saw at this time of year, 
large fields of it standing shoulder high, but 
it surely cannot stand this weather long 
without rain. There were quite a dumber 
of pieces of Fall wheat sown last Fall that 
is harvested and part of it thrashed. A 
piece near us thrashed out 27 bushels to 
the acre. Out State got rain in spots a 
week ago, but none here. j. s. 
Corning, Iowa. 
Your drought was broken earlier than 
ours, but we got about one inch of water 
or a trifle over Saturday night, June 24. 
The drought was something fierce, and ex¬ 
tended over nearly the whole of South Da¬ 
kota. Oats and barley practically a fail¬ 
ure, although a few fields can be found that 
will make a fair crop. Wheat not quite so 
bad as the oats and barley ; flax promises 
well, and corn never looked better at this 
time of year in all my 29 years’ experience 
in the State, that is, in this part of the 
State. Mercury has hovered between 85 
and 104 most of the month with some days 
of hot wind. 
Letcher, S. D. w. H. h. 
It is expected that Canada will harvest 
200.000 bushels of wheat this year. About 
35,000 extra laborers will be needed to 
handle the crop, largely in the Saskatche¬ 
wan district. 
Missouri Fruit Outlook.— Apples indi¬ 
cate 35 to 40 per cent, of a full crop, trees 
on low ground showing best. The bloom 
over the whole State was good, but the set 
poor. Peaches run from 30 to 35 per cent, 
in the largest commercial sections. Disease 
and insects are reported scarce. 
Killing Willows. —On page 685, G. W. 
C., Rushville, Vt., gives his remedy for kill¬ 
ing willows in the month of August. I 
would like to ask him if it would not have 
the same effect to cut them off entirely 
above ground. I have a patch of them and 
they are all sizes from the size of a slate 
pencil up to one and a half inches through, 
and would like to know if it would have the 
desired effect to mow these smaller ones off 
and girdle the larger ones. d. d. s. 
South Dakota. 
Chrysanthemums and How to Grow 
Them, by 1. L. Powell.-—There is a grow¬ 
ing interest in Chrysanthemums, naturally 
fostered by the beautiful specimens dis¬ 
played at Autumn exhibitions. There have 
been been many changes, too, in methods 
and culture, as well as choice of varieties. 
This book, clearly written and freely illus¬ 
trated, will be very helpful whether the 
reader is a beginner with an outdoor gar¬ 
den only, or one possessing both experience 
and a greenhouse. Price, including post¬ 
age, .$ 1 . 20 . 
Vines and How to Grow Them b” Will¬ 
iam C. McCollum. Every garden or green¬ 
house manual discusses vines to some ex¬ 
tent, but it is not always easy to get the 
specific knowledge required in easily acces¬ 
sible form. Here we are told how to treat 
vines of all sorts and classes, whether grown 
for flowers, foliage or fruit, with much ex¬ 
cellent advice as to special locations, soil, 
treatment, etc. Price, Including postage, 
$ 1 . 20 . 
How to Know * the Ferns, by Frances 
Theodora Parsons. Numerous illustrations, 
accompanied by clear descriptions, make 
this book a welcome guide to our wild ferns. 
Many persons interested in wild plants 
seem to be puzzled by the ferns, whose bo¬ 
tanical descriptions are not very clear to 
the uninstructed. This book shows the 
same extensive knowledge admirably im¬ 
parted as “How to Know the Wild Flow¬ 
ers,” by the same author. Price, including 
postage, $1.60. 
“For the Land’s Sake, use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the earth and 
those who till it.”— Adv. 
DIGS ALL THE POTATOES 
without rutting them—just enough adjustment to meet 
your conditions without carrying too much soil._ Saves 
enough more potatoes, even in small acreage to pny for 
machine in short time. l’erfect separation. Is as light 
draft as any digger can be. No neck weight. Two styles 
made Prices $75.00 to $105.00. No. 150 is the lighter 
machine, built on strong but very simple lines—a gTcnt 
favorite with growers. Separate bearings, easily removed 
and cheaply replaced. Operates entirely from the Beat 
IWHACE 
PO TA TO 
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are not experiments—rears of actual use in all sorts of 
| conditions have proved their worth. Write to day for 
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. ery, garden wheel hoes and drills, orchard tools.etc. 
BATEMAN M’F'G CO. 
Box 102-D 4* G REN LOCH 
STINGKOUSE 
RES.HING 
l M A C H I NE R Y 
For Grain, Clover,.Ry^. Beans, Peas, Etc. 
'S tea in and Gasoline Engines., Catalog Free 
>' T H E W E S T i.N G H O 0 S E C O. 
4 0* COCK ST..i SCHENECTADY. N. Y. 
2000 Acres in Nurseries- 10 Valuable Farms For Sale. 
■ — ' . Harrison s Nurseries, Berlin, Md 
C ABBAGE PLANTS of all kinds, $1 per 1000: Tomato and Sweet 
Potaxo Plants, $1.50 p«r 1000 ; Cauliflower and Peppei h,$ 2.50 
per 1000. Plants ready for field. J. C. Schmidt, Bristol, Pa. 
AfiPNTQ WAftlTPn to take orders for our 
AUCN I O frftn I CU “High Quality” Nursery 
Products. Liberal commission paid promptly. 
Outfit free. Experience not necessary. PENN¬ 
SYLVANIA NURSERY CO., 30, Girard. Pa. 
COD C A I C —COW HORN TURNIP. 25c lb 
lUn OHLC Crimson Clover and Ra: 
Market. 
Vetch, 
:ape at 
SIEGEL THE SKKDMAN, Erie, Pa. 
SEED WHEAT 
GYPSY WHEAT. Splendid standard variety 
proven by Ohio Experiment Station, test running 
20 years, to be the highest yielder of any variety 
in the State. We can please you if you are looking 
for good seed. Write today. Our Catalog No. 23, 
•'How to Grow Alfalfa,” will be mailed free. 
WING SEED CO., . Box 523 . Mechanicsburg, Ohio 
FRUIT TREES 
We are ready to take orders for Fall Delivery 
for BLACK’S QUALITY TREES. 
. . . Send for Booklet . . . 
JOS. H. BLACK. SON & CO.. HIGHTSTOWN, N. J. 
THREE STANDARD 
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The American Fruit Culturist, by John J. 
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The Nursery Book, by /.. II. Bailey , of 
Cornell University. The standard 
work on propagation in all its details. 
Every one interested in horticulture 
should have it. Price.$1.50. 
Bush Fruits, by Fred IV. Card , a well 
known expert in small fruits. Planting, 
care, diseases, descriptions of vari¬ 
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pages, many illustrations. Price $1.50. 
All these books are for sale by 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
409 PEARL STREET, NEW YORK 
CRIMSON CLOVER 
The great soil improver. Valuable also for 
early green food, grazing and hay crops. 
Special circular free; also sample and price 
of seed on request. 
HENRY A. DREER 
714 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia 
1857 
E. FRANK COE FERTILIZERS 
1811 
HAVE BEEN RAISING THE STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS 
Freedom from Acidity 
You know that an acid condition is obnoxious to nature. 
Acid blood in the human being causes rheumatism, gout and a host of other diseases. 
An acid condition of the soil prevents the growth of the nitro-bacteria that enable alfalfa, clover and other leguminous crops to gather nitrogen from 
the air, and stops the development of the nitrifying bacteria that convert other forms of nitrogen into nitrates which are necessary for plant feeding. 
Timothy (Herd’s Grass), Clover, Alfalfa, Beets, Onions, Asparagus, Tobacco, Spinach, and many other crops cannot succeed on an acid 
soil. You will therefore appreciate the importance of using fertilizers from which the acidity has been removed. 
While many fertilizers contain from 100 to 150 lbs. of free acid to the ton, this has all been removed from the 
E. Frank Coe Fertilizers 
At the same time, the solubility and availability of these famous brands have been improved. No extra charge is made for these brands on 
account of this improved method of manufacture, but you will readily appreciate its great value if you will this season watch the crops in the fields 
raised with ■—. > 
L. trank Coe tertilizers 
Our valuable Fertilizer Memorandum Book will be sent free of charge if you m .ir The Rural New-Yorker. 
THE COE-MORTIMER COMPANY, 51 Chambers Street, NEW YORK CITY 
