838 
fact that a weakling tree is not ready to bear fruit 
we can eliminate that undesirable class from this dis¬ 
cussion. Winter prune then. It is only with the 
stocky, vigorous tree that is at least three years old 
that we should deal. Such a tree will make a good, 
long growth, three feet at least, and sometimes in 
various districts of this section, over five feet for the 
seaspn. This growth, then, can be shortened in se¬ 
verely without injury to the health of the young tree. 
From one-half to two-thirds is usually cut away. 
When that statement is made at farmers’ institutes 
one frequently hears the exclamation, “Glory! Cutting 
off all the top!” Yes—cutting off all the top that we 
do not need. That it is not an injury is shown by the 
continued vigor of the trees and the profitable crops 
they bear. 
When should the work be done? Well, that is a 
question that can be answered in general only. To 
set a definite date might prove suitable for one man 
and prove severely injurious for another. If the 
orchardist will examine his trees in late July or August 
or even in September, he will find a time when the 
leaf buds for the next year are plumping up, and when 
the leaves will break away clean with just a little down¬ 
ward pull. That is approximately the right time to 
begin work. It may be one time on high ground and 
another on low ground, and different on different 
soils, and under different culture methods, different 
with the kind of tree, the variety, and the season. If 
the orchardist will select a dozen trees of the same 
variety under similar conditions, and, on the indication 
of this bud development, prune three, then wait a 
week or 10 days and prune another three, and prune 
each set of three in succession he can determine for 
himself the proper time for the work much more ac¬ 
curately than anyone else can tell him. 
What are the indications that the work has been 
successful or not? We are dealing with leaf buds. If 
we prune too early, these buds will push out the same 
season and form a weak, watery, growth that does not 
mature and is killed back by frost. If we prune too 
late we do Winter pruning and get a stimulated wood 
development the following season. If the pruning is 
done at the right time the majority of the lateral 
buds on the shoots will develop, not into blossoms as is 
often mistakenly supposed, but into a fruit spur which 
will form its bud for the year following. Of course 
some of the upper buds necessarily develop into new 
wood growth and not into fruit spurs, or we would 
develop a tree bristling all over with fruit spurs and 
at a standstill as far as growth is concerned. 
Washington. w. G. brierley. 
“AERATED HUMUS” OR AIRED MUCK. 
What about the enclosed circular of “Aerated Humus 
Leaf Mold?” What is it and is it worth the price? 
J. B. K. 
The circular states that at Quogue, L. I., there is 
“a basin of about three acres in extent and 15 inches 
deep” containing a deposit of organic matter. As to 
price the circular states: 
In order that you may try a small quantity of this 
material for testing we have hanged several hundred tons 
of it, and have it for sale at $1 per hundred-pound 
bag, or .$15 per ton of 20 bags. Of course for effective 
use the material should be bought by the carload and 
apply five or 10 tons to the acre at .$10 per ton. In 
bulk carloads $7 per ton. 
This means $70 to $100 per acre. The “deposit” is 
evidently swamp muck, very much like what thou¬ 
sands of farmers have on their own farms. The 
chances are it is sour and unavailable, and 10 tons of 
it without lime to sweeten it might increase the acid 
in the soil so as to injure it. As for the claim that 
this “humus” is of such great value Dr. W. H. Jordan 
of the Geneva Experiment Station says: 
There are several reasons why the farmers of Long 
Island or of any other section cannot afford to pay $15 
to $20 a ton for such material. I suppose the claim is 
that its value lies in adding humus to the soil. Swamp 
muck is not humus in the active sense. It is inert mate¬ 
rial that is the result of decomposition through many 
years, and the unoxidized residue is entirely different from 
the active humus resulting from the decay of vegetable 
matter that is turned into the soil. There is no compari¬ 
son between the two. If a farmer needs to incorporate 
more humus with his soil he can do it much more effi¬ 
ciently and certainly much more cheaply than by the use 
of this material. 
There is no use paying $10 or $7 per ton for the 
name “aerated humus.” You can put swamp muck 
into a pile, let it air, and have the same thing. We 
understand that but little of this material is being 
sold. General farmers do not use much of it. Gar¬ 
deners, florists and city people are the chief buyers. 
If any farmer has a swamp or muck bed on his farm 
he does not need this “aerated humus.” 
The Niagara County (N. Y.) fruit growers have induced 
the International Traction Company to carry placards on 
their cars through Buffalo reading: “Fruit from Niagara 
, 'County’s Famous Orchards.” 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MINNESOTA IN THE CREAMERY BUSINESS. 
The daily papers reported the opening or dedication of 
a State creamery at Albert Lea, Minn. It is an unusual 
thing for a State to go into the business of butter making, 
and we wrote the Minnesota State Dairy Commissioner 
for information. lie says : 
The Experimental Creamery at Alberta Lea was 
provided for by the last Legislature of Minnesota in 
1911. Appropriations made for this purpose were 
$10,000 for building and location, $5,000 for equip¬ 
ment, available immediately, and $5,000 for each of the 
two succeeding years. This Experimental Creamery 
was provided for by purchasing the co-operative 
creamery from the farmers at Albert Lea and the 
business was taken over August 1 of this year, so 
that we have here a plant operating under actual 
creamery conditions. These conditions will be ad¬ 
hered to strictly during the operation of the Experi¬ 
ment Station. 
The plans for the experimental work in the future 
are first to observe carefully conditions as they exist, 
and from these observations arrive at a definite con¬ 
clusion as to what is beneficial or injurious to the 
creameries as we find them in actual operation 
today. 
Whenever any information of this kind is obtained 
it will be printed in as concise form as possible and 
sent out to the buttermakers and managers of State 
creameries for their information. Secondly, we shall 
A HANDFUL OF HONEY BEES. Fio. 309. 
take up actual experimental work outside of the daily 
operation of the creamery, and buy our material from 
this plant with which to conduct these experiments. 
Since the information sought is determined to be of 
a practical nature, this determination will be applied 
in the actual operation of the creamery. In the third 
place, this creamery will be used for educational pur¬ 
poses, and buttermakers from any part of the State 
can make arrangements for a certain period of work 
in the creamery for their practical training. This 
educational work will be carried out in operation with 
the dairy instruction given by Prof. T. L. Haecker 
at the State Agricultural School, and all students in 
this line will be directed by Prof. T. L. Haecker of 
that institution. These, in short, are the general 
plans for carrying on the work. More detailed parts 
of these plans are laid out, but at the present time 
it would be unwise to mention any of them, inasmuch 
as variations may be made at any time. 
joel g. winkjer, Commissioner. 
A HUMAN SKUNK AND HIS “ MORTGAGE.” 
I inclose for your inspection and publication, if you 
think worthy of space, a sample of “mortgage” worked 
upon an old lady 84 years of age by a man who first pre¬ 
vailed upon her to sign to him a warranty deed, and gave 
to her this paper without note or bond, which it might 
be supposed to secure. He has failed to pay the $100 
per year which he herein agreed to pay her. Is this mort¬ 
gage of any value? If not. would she have sufficient 
grounds to have her deed set aside? If there is no re¬ 
course, then it looks like the old lady had open but one 
road to travel—the road to the old ladies’ home. Is this 
right? AN OHIO FARMER. 
Washington County, O. 
The “mortgage” so-called is a fraud and a snare. 
The man who drew it up we will call A, the woman 
September 23, 
B. In this paper A acknowledges the receipt of $1,000 
from B, and in consideration agrees to “grant, bargain, 
sell and convey” a certain property fully described. 
Then comes the following remarkable statement: 
Provided, nevertheless, that if the following contract 
be carried out, to wit, B shall have privilege of living on 
and using this farm as long as she shall desire, by paying 
or causing to be paid to A annually a sum equaling the 
taxes on the property and four per cent, interest on the 
amount of this mortgage. Second, A shall pay four per 
cent interest land shall pay or cause to be paid to B on 
demand such sum or sums as shall be equal to $100 an¬ 
nually if she desires it. Third, on decease of B. said A 
agrees that the balance unpaid are then due and payable. 
It is evident that the person who drew that up was 
either ignorant or dishonest, or both. If A has really 
secured a deed from B on any such representation as 
you state the deed can be set aside. A bill should be 
filed with the court at once. In the trial of this case 
it is quite possible that evidence would come out 
which would show that A may be criminally prose¬ 
cuted. If he did what you slate he ought to be jailed. 
Some one should take this up at once in the old lady’s 
behalf and push it through. There are too many of 
these human skunks who live by robbing and 
deceiving the poor. The world would be better off if 
good men in the community where the crime is com¬ 
mitted would run these fellows down and expose 
them. 
DO LIGHTNING RODS PROTECT ? 
I read with much interest the reply of Prof. King 
on page 833 to the questions of S. E. L. concerning 
lightning rods. If there is a place where the light¬ 
ning rod business has been carried to the limit it is 
my home section. There, during the past four years, 
after a severe storm or two had burned a score or 
more of buildings, farmers to a great extent have put 
up lightning rods. In fact, but few barns remain 
unrodded. Our local dealer won a prize offered by 
one of the most noted makers of rods to the dealer 
selling the greatest number of feet of rodding dur¬ 
ing the season. 
As to the efficiency of rods as a protection against 
damage by lightning there is, I believe, no certain 
proof. Many barns are now standing which were 
built 50 years or more ago. There are cases where 
buildings have been struck by lightning but not 
burned, some siding or roofing having merely been 
torn off. This is true also of rodded buildings. But 
it is a fact that to my knowledge no buildings have 
been burned that were rodded. Two years ago I saw 
a barn with a strip of new shingles near the end 
running from the comb to the eaves. At first I was 
at a loss to account for this. It then occurred to me 
that sometimes rods were carried down the roof near 
the end to the ground, instead of down the end of 
the barn. Investigation showed such to be the case 
in this instance. During a severe storm lightning 
following the cable had torn off a strip of shingles. 
I have in mind two other barns without rods which 
had considerable siding and shingles torn off without 
any further damage. However, so certain are the 
people of that section of the protection afforded by 
lightning rods that they have organized a rodded 
insurance company which insures rodded buildings at 
a lower rate than charged by the local mutual com¬ 
pany. 
A word concerning some of the rods upon the 
market may save prospective buyers some money. 
Four years ago two barns upon the home farm were 
rodded by the proverbial lightning rod agent. Less 
than two years afterward one of the barns was re¬ 
modeled, and it was found that the rod at the ground 
was nearly corroded off. This rod consisted of a 
tube of very thin copper enclosing two common gal¬ 
vanized wires separated by a thin strip of sheet iron. 
That kind of rodding was bought because, as they 
said, they supposed all rods were practically alike. 
The old rodding was put back upon the barn but a 
pure copper cable was spliced onto each end and 
properly grounded. The rodding on the other barn 
was cut off a short distance above the ground and 
treated in the same manner. 
Agents advise grounding to a depth of eight feet, 
and charge for the eight feet of rodding. The 
advice is evidently all right, but in many cases it will 
be well to know that the eight feet consist of 96 
inches. When competition is sharp as well as the 
agent it is pretty easy to make a fair day’s wages 
by not going down the prescribed eight feet, as it 
is needless to mention the fact that they invariably 
charge for that 16 feet of rodding supposed to be 
under the ground. 
Put a first-class rod upon the barn and, during the 
next electrical storm, watch the escaping electricity 
flowing from the points in the form of a blue blaze 
and your faith in the lightning rod will be sufficient 
to make you feel that the cost is repaid many times 
in the feeling of security. A neighbor rodded his 
own barn with small gas pipe. The points of course 
he had to purchase from dealers in rodding supplies. 
I might add that this same farmer installed his own 
milking machine and a litter carrier, the latter at a 
very low cost, using an old wood track hay carrier. 
Ohio. J- »• prickett. 
