10-40 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Ortolier 28, 
and molting. We can get a larger late Fall egg 
yield by a free use of these feeds, and the temptation 
is great with eggs at 50 cents per dozen; but they 
are quite sure to cause a partial molt in early Win¬ 
ter, which will check the egg yield, cause inactivity, 
colds and trouble. So we leave out linseed meal, and 
reduce the gluten and beef scrap until real Winter 
weather sets in. We then add linseed meal and in- 
ciease gluten and beef scrap to a point where we see 
a few soft droppings. The droppings are always our 
guide as to quantity of these feeds. They should al¬ 
ways be solid enough to have form. In April, May 
and June we cut out linseed meal, reduce gluten and 
beef scrap. This has but little effect on the egg 
yield in these three natural laying months. Birds 
keep in better health and respond to stimulative 
feeding in late Summer and early Fall when eggs 
aie high. In July when the egg yield begins to drop 
we again increase the beef scrap and gluten; feed 
short sprouted or soaked oats in August; mix a wet 
mash in September, as they eat more of it. In fact, 
we coax every pound of feed into them we can get 
them to eat, as this is what eggs are made of. By 
this way of feeding we have made August and Sep¬ 
tember, two poor months, about equal in profit any 
other two months of the year. Understand, we fool 
away no time mixing feeds. This is done for us free 
of cost in ton lots at the mill, except we keep on hand 
a hag or two of beef scrap, and may add a measure¬ 
ful when filling the mash box if we think it necessary. 
In Winter we add millet seed to the grain ration; it 
is much relished by the birds, and being a small seed, 
it sinks into the litter and keeps the birds active 
scratching over the litter. 
This stretching of the egg yield into the Fall sea¬ 
son, besides the profits of good Fall prices, helps us 
in other ways. Our eggs are taken twice a week at 
the house by a man having customers in New York, 
who wants about the same number each week, re¬ 
gardless of the season. By having eggs in quantity 
at all seasons, better prices are received. A much 
quoted saying of a noted writer and poultry expert 
is that when a poultry man goes forth to feed his 
flock he should take with him more judgment than 
feed. I want no judgment of a kind that will limit 
the quantity of feed as much as One spoonful short 
of what they will consume. Good birds cannot be 
grown or a good egg yield be had on air and a fine 
view. L. B. THATCHER. 
New Jersey. 
makes it more resistant to disease. We have had 
potatoes that were exposed to the dry air in this way 
that became so green and dried out that we .thought 
that all life was gone, yet when we planted them in 
good moist soil, we got practically a perfect stand, 
although some of them were so dry that we could 
hardly cut them in two with a knife. E. p. bennett. 
Colorado Exp. Station. 
PERSIMMONS. 
Aside from regular fruits, I have a small grove 
of persimmons. The trees are annual bearers of 
fair-sized fruit, which after a freeze become quite 
palatable. In the market they bring 10 cents a 
quart, and the demand is always good. The tree is 
a fine grower and rather ornamental when in full 
foliage. In some parts of Indiana, especially in the 
eastern part, where the land is quite hilly, orchards 
of persimmons are common. The fruit is shipped to 
the city markets in wholesale lots. Like the mulberry, 
the trees vary in sex; those having pistillate blooms 
are non-bearers. They grow well on very poor 
soils; seem to prefer dry hills and knobs, rather than 
the moist rich soils. They do not bear transplanting 
well unless small trees are used. A better way is 
to plant the seed where one designs the tree to stand. 
Fig. 420 shows branches taken from one of my 
best bearing trees, the fruit being the size of a large 
hulled walnut. This tree usually bears from one to 
two bushels of fruit. A good plan is to train the 
NEW FACTS ABOUT POTATO SCAB. 
Can I treat potato seed for the scab disease by fumigat¬ 
ing? The potatoes are spread out on the floor of a 
room which can be made airtight. b. s. s. 
Fort Smith, Ark. 
We have never done anything with the fumigation 
of potatoes. The Maine Station has done this work, 
and has issued a bulletin on the subject that gives 
the details of the work. 
We have tried for several years the treating of 
potatoes for scab. We have treated with both cor¬ 
rosive sublimate and formalin, but so far have not 
received any benefit from this work. For the most 
part the results have been entirely negative. In some 
cases we have scab on our treated potatoes and scab 
on the checks, and in most cases we have scab 
neither on the treated nor on the checks. We have, 
we believe, proven quite conclusively that at least in 
the West the scab is not only caused by Oospora 
scabies, but by at least one other fungus, that is 
Rhizotonia. We have demonstrated this by planting 
potatoes that were thoroughly disinfected in pots of 
soil that had been sterilized and have watered with 
boiled water. Then, as the potatoes matured, we 
have inoculated some of the potatoes with the fungus 
Rhizotonia. This has been repeated several times, 
and each time we have produced scabby potatoes, 
where the potato was inoculated, while the checks 
were entirely clean. We have also tried growing the 
supposed scab fungus of the East, but have never 
succeeded in getting anything from it in this district. 
Our German friends claim that scab is caused from 
many different fungi and I am firmly of the opinion 
lhat this is true. Either way, it is certain that most 
of these diseases are different in the alkali soils of 
the West from those of the eastern soils. 
Our potato growers near Greeley, Colo., have a 
system known as the greening, that I believe is just 
as good as treating seed with either formalin or 
corrosive sublimate. They spread their potatoes 
thinly on the bottom of the cellars, as you are doing, 
and in Spring, about a month before planting time, 
allow the light and air to get to the tubers, which 
turns the skin of the tubers green. This green also 
penetrates through the cortical layer of the tuber. 
Of course, this process spoils the potatoes for culinary 
use, but as you know sunlight is death to many fungi 
and not only greens the potato but toughens and 
A BUNCH OF PERSIMMONS. Fig. 420. 
tree low. If left to itself, it grows upright to a con¬ 
siderable height. j. H. HAYNES. 
Indiana. 
MAP OF AN ORCHARD. 
I note what you say on page 988 about losing tree 
labels. We tried labeling our trees at first, and 
have found it to be an almost useless job. The 
labels are sure to be lost, or the wire on which they 
hang is liable to cut the tree in time. When we 
set our last orchard I made a map of the orchard 
in a little book like the following: 
.V. 
Y. 
On the leaves of the book a record is kept o't 
varieties. If a tree dies and we set- another variety 
it is marked in book like this: “Tree 3 x 4\ Rome 
Beauty.” A tree on an outside row next the figures 
would be marked, “2' McIntosh,” etc. We refer to 
this book quite often, and it is not liable to be lost. 
From our experience we are strongly against plant¬ 
ing too many varieties. I think W. V.’s list on 
page 978 is much too long. When we get a gang 
of men packing apples we find much time is lost in 
changing from one variety to another. It is better 
to make a specialty of one or two good varieties. 
You can get your barrels all stenciled and nailed 
ahead of packing time. Every section has its best 
variety. Find it out! w. A. bassett. 
Seneca Co., N. Y. 
ROADSIDE TREES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
On May 2, 1879, an act was passed in Pennsylvania 
allowing 25 cents rebate on trees planted along road¬ 
side. This act was repealed in 1901. The act of 
July 2, 1901, provides that any person liable to road 
tax who shall transplant to the side of the public 
highway, on his own premises, any fruit, shade or 
forest tree of suitable size, shall be allowed by the 
supervisor of roads, where the roads adjoin culti¬ 
vated fields, $1 for every two trees set out, etc. But 
the abatement shall not exceed one-fourth of the tax. 
I am serving my third commission as township 
supervisor. We have 78 miles of road in the town¬ 
ship, more than 1.100 taxables, and during my first 
term one citizen asked 25 cents per tree for some 
apple trees along roadside. We view r ed the trees and 
found them large enough to bear, and properly dis¬ 
tanced, and granted his request. This was the only 
request for tree rebate that year (1905). This man 
died, and the request has not come in since. Soon 
after I bought a few acres of land alongside of our 
house and fronting about 180 feet on the road. I 
planted six poplar trees along road and collected 50 
cents per tree rebate ever since, being the only citizen 
getting rebate in a township containing 78 miles of 
road. The law allowing rebate is not generally 
known, and many trees along roadside are too near 
each other, as the law specifies distance of different 
varieties. Not many farmers transplant trees along 
cultivated fields. There are many locust trees along 
roadside in our township, and also some other varie¬ 
ties of natural growth. My experience is that during 
a wet spell a mud road will not dry off as soon 
under shade trees as where there are none, but the 
comfort to man and beast during warm seasons far 
outweighs the unpleasantness of a little extra mud 
during wet spells. If someone would inform land- 
owners of the law and urge them to plant trees and 
get rebate on road tax, there would be more trees 
planted and maintained. Field crops will not thrive 
near shade trees, and some farmers, priding them¬ 
selves on fine crops, like them to grow to perfection 
up to the highway. Trees along all our roads would 
make a pleasant appearance, but field crops in a rich 
farming section raised to perfection till against the 
highway are also a pleasure to look at. Work done 
by State officials is always very expensive and tree 
planting should be done by land-owners or townships. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. n. g. hess. 
THE KANSAS COMMISSION MAN’S DOLLAR. 
I wish to give the readers of The R. N.-Y. the 
experience I had with a commission man in Topeka, 
so you can see how we are treated out here in 
Kansas. We are 27 miles from the capital city, but 
express and commission charges are so high that we 
cannot afford to ship. The Fall of 1910 I prepared 
a load of my best Jonathan apples for Topeka. They 
were hand picked, large size, free from worm holes 
and nicely colored. They were the finest load of 
apples I ever took to market. I was offered 75 cents 
per bushel by the commission house. As Jonathan 
apples were quoted at $1.50 per box I hardly thought 
it enough, but as it was late I let them go. When my 
turn came to unload 1 found five men and boys and 
an apple grader with apple boxes on the sidewalk. I 
noticed some of the apple boxes were lined with 
paper and some were not. I supposed they were 
making two grades of the apples. When the apples 
were -all unloaded from the wagon they took and 
dumped back all the boxes without paper in them, 14 
in number, and called them culls. I got paid for 16 1 />, 
bushels of apples. The boxes they kept were piled 
with my finest apples, until not another one would 
stick on, and I figured that in every four boxes they 
got about one-half bushel of apples for nothing, as 
they called a box one bushel. I took some of those 
so-called commission culls and gave them to my 
friends in the city, and they said they were as fine 
apples as they ever saw. 
The rest, on account of being handled by com¬ 
mission people so roughly, I sold for 40 cents per 
bushel. I had my wagon box lined and not an apple 
touched the bare wagon box, and I am sure there 
was not one-half bushel of bruised apples in the load. 
The way they handled them you would think they 
were practicing for a baseball game. One poor fel¬ 
low who sold them a load claimed he got back more 
culls than he had apples to start with. Is it any won¬ 
der that the apple grower is getting tired of raising 
fruit for almost nothing? It is only every few years 
that we have an apple crop, and then the prices are 
so low that there is very little in them. One of the 
largest orchards in this part of the country, over 320 
acres, has been grubbed out. You can go for miles 
through the country and not see a new orchard 
started. The old trees are dying fast, and in a few 
more years an apple orchard in this part of Kansas 
will be a curiosity. w. t. b. 
Burlingame, Kan. 
