mo 
just how and when fruit trees are dug in the nur¬ 
sery. This statement may seem somewhat over¬ 
drawn at first thought, but not so when looked at 
from the viewpoint of a practical nurseryman who 
sees the process of a tree’s development from the 
seedling to the orchard in fruit. Digging up the 
tree and sending it from the nursery to the orchard 
is the worst shock a tree gets in its whole natural 
life history. It was the custom a few years ago to 
get out fruit trees with large spades. Trenches were 
thrown up on either side of the nursery row and the 
tree pried loose with big spades. Four men usually 
did the work, two to pull on the tree, and two to 
pry with the spades. This method is attended with 
considerable damage to the roots, especially if the 
ground should happen to be dry and hard, as is 
often the case in the Fall. The advent of the tree 
digger has been a great boon to nurserymen for it 
has decreased the cost of harvesting the crop very 
considerably, and increased by a large proportion the 
number of trees having their root system preserved 
complete in the process of digging. 
The make of the tree digger is simple. It con¬ 
sists of a big scoop in the form of a semicircle, that 
goes down under the roots, and is pulled along 
through the row like a plow, with suitable wheels so 
as to set it shallow or deep. Anywhere from 12 to 
20 horses are required to draw it. It will work in 
ground that is quite stony, the only difficulty being 
that it is sometimes apt to be thrown up by a stone 
and ruin a number of trees by cutting them off just 
below the collar. Fig. 445 shows a tree digger at 
work running under a block of standard pears in 
some rather stiff ground on one of the hillsides of 
the Genesee Valley. The nurseryman in the fore¬ 
ground is holding up a Duchess two-year-old standard 
I_ear that has just been run under by the digger. 
Down the rows are 14 horses attached to the machine, 
and they move along about as fast as a man would 
go cultivating with one horse. Notice from the pho¬ 
tograph that the leaves are still on the trees, al¬ 
though they are being run under by the digger. It 
is by no means certain that this is the best thing 
to do. Undoubtedly it would be better to strip them 
of their leaves for digging, so as to ward off any 
danger of their shriveling, but this block is in¬ 
tended for late shipment to the cold storage plants 
of retail nurserymen, and the growers find it cheaper 
to run the digger under them and wait for the leaves 
to fall off before pulling them up for shipment. How¬ 
ever, it would be better to strip their leaves before 
disturbing the trees in any way. 
In these days of modern cold storage plants, very 
few trees intended for Spring delivery to planters 
are left in the ground over Winter, for it is cheaper 
to pack them in a frost-proof storage plant where 
they may be handled during the Winter months and 
an exact count taken of the trees on hand. This is 
an important item to remember: the wholesale nur¬ 
serymen very seldom leave a tree in the ground for 
Spring digging unless the market is dull and they 
can find no sale in the Fall at the retail houses for 
the varieties they have. Without going into the ques¬ 
tion of the value of cold storage trees, it is at least 
certain that the man Avho concludes that Spring plant¬ 
ing is best and waits till March or April before plac¬ 
ing his order has no assurance that he will not get 
trees that were dug up the previous October. It 
would be interesting to hear the report of an honest 
experiment made to determine the relative value of 
cold storage trees and trees planted when fresh dug. 
Until such exact data are at hand, it would not do to 
condemn cold storage trees outright; but, when 
everything is said, nature’s method is usually the 
best, and the nearer we can follow it, the more sure 
we are of results. Everybody knows that a tree’s 
natural home is outdoors with its roots in the ground. 
Tree digging therefore plays an important part in 
the nursery problem. When all the trees are stored 
this Winter, the tree agents will get busy selling the 
kinds that their companies have in surplus. At least 
they will do so if they are working for a reliable 
house that makes a distinction between kinds. The 
catalogue firms, on the other hand, must wait till 
March for the bulk of their orders, and that is why 
even reliable firms are forced to substitute who do 
business through catalogue. People wait till Spring 
to order, and the nurseryman has to guess what va¬ 
rieties they will want in making provision ahead of 
time for them. martin j. king, jr. 
In Berlin balloons are used for advertising. They sail 
by night throwing transparencies or moving pictures upon 
a sheet. 
Western Kansas has been holding meetings in honor of 
Kaffir corn. During the past drought this crop saved that 
section by providing stock food when corn dried up. 
The latest .case put up to Dr. Alexander is a polled 
cow reported to have “hollow horn.” It seems that one 
result of catarrh is taken for this disease. It is more 
often due to hollow stomach. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SUBMERGED OUTLET FOR DRAIN. 
I desire to tile-drain all parts of a 20-acre field, but 
it is so situated at its lowest point as not to permit of 
an outlet at the drain level. Are submerged outlets 
practicable? The elevation of three-fourths of this field 
is such that it would force its own drainage to the sur¬ 
face at the end of the main drain. The outflow would 
run off in neighboring property. In such a case as this 
cited would not the drainage from the higher levels be 
as complete as if an outlet was had at the main drain 
level at its lowest point? Would not the movement of 
water from the higher levels so long as it continued 
serve to carry with it to the outlet at least a part of the 
drainage from the lower levels, thus making this lower 
part of the system measurably effective also? It is pro¬ 
posed to end tho main drain line in a built-up silt basin 
made of brick or. concrete. a. h. 
Flushing, N. Y. 
“Submerged outlets” are practicable, but the ef¬ 
fective head of the drain is diminished by the height 
above its outlet that the water must rise to flow 
away, and the line of soil saturation extends back 
on a level until it intersects the drain, or in other 
words all soil lower than the level of the outflow 
of your silt-basin will not be drained. For this rea¬ 
son have the outflow of your basin as low as possible. 
Better put some work into an open ditch here and 
have a topographical survey of the low part of the 
field so as to know just where you are at the com¬ 
mencement. Unless your outlet basin is a large one, 
it would be advisable to give the wall opposite the 
drain outlet an out-slope of one to one to avoid the 
buffer effect that a vertical wall would have if close 
to the discharge of the pipe. Perhaps the accompany¬ 
ing sketch, Fig. ’47, will explain the whole situation 
plainer than words can. j. f. van schoonhoven. 
GOOD NEW PEACHES FROM TEXAS. 
I was quite interested in what Mr. C. A. Hyatt 
of the Hudson Valley has to say as regards a good 
market peach needed to follow Elberta, page 970. 
You people up North evidently have never gotten 
acquainted with the Bell’s October peach, or else you 
would not mention Salway as desirable. This peach 
ripens at same time with Salway and is a decided 
improvement over it, inasmuch as it is of better 
quality, better color and smoother outlines. It is 
also a freestone and has not the deep crease on 
side and stem cavity that Salway has. In size it 
is full up to if not larger than Salway. In sections 
where the brown rot prevails, experience goes to 
prove that the smoother the fruit the less rot, be¬ 
cause these very rot spores find always an easy lodg¬ 
ment on a fuzzy, uneven surface. Thus we find our 
most rot specks in either the stem cavity ’or in the 
crease on the side, or both. Hence, a peach of smooth 
outlines is of greatest importance. Elberta fills this 
bill to a very great extent, just the same as does 
Bell’s October, and for this very reason those two 
were selected by the writer over 15 years ago as 
the parents of a desirable new race of peaches tluif 
would furnish fine market fruit after the Elberta is 
out. Indeed, we have too many varieties already, 
that is, “such as they are,” but not near enough “such 
as they ought to be.” 
I planted my first Elberta trees in Winter of 1884. 
I had at that time about 100 distinct varieties as a 
test orchard on place. To be sure, many of them 
proved worthless, but, being a pioneer in this busi¬ 
ness here, it had to be found out which was which. 
Out of this whole lot there were not more than 
about 15 from first to last that were desirable for 
market. Thurber, Picquet’s Late, Salway, Bell and 
Levy were the ones after Elberta that paid. For 
earlier we had Amsden, Alexander, Rivers, Tillot- 
son, Hale’s Early, etc., every one of which being 
inferior to Early Victor, Swan, Early Wheeler and 
Carman of to-day. While even 15 years ago Elberta 
was by far the best of its season, they, however, 
never brought- as much money as did the inferior 
Thurber, about 10 days later; this for the reason 
that ripening with Elberta we had at that time quite 
a number of other good peaches, such as Mountain 
Rose, Oldmixon Free and Oldmixon Cling, Gen. Lee, 
Chinese Cling, etc., that usually supplied the markets 
without the Elberta. To-day the majority of our 
great orchards have nothing in them besides a few 
earlier ones than Elberta. Thus it happens that many 
of our Texas markets are bare of peaches (that is, 
home grown) after Elbertas are out. Does it not 
appear from this that there would be room for a 
few real good ones to follow Elberta? This is ex- 
November is, 
actly what I thought when starting my experiments 
crossing Elberta with Bell in order to get more, as 
good as either parent, and ripening between the two. 
I succeeded in producing several, all yellow, of fine 
quality and size, both clings and freestones, that 
appear after bearing a number of crops to fill the 
bill. The R. N.-Y. has been kind enough to inform 
its readers of my years of labor on several occasions. 
On page 767, 1909, you give an illustration of one 
of these new seedlings. This very tree has since 
borne two crops more. This past season it bore very 
full when there were but few peaches, not even a 
single Elberta on place. It gets ripe a full week after 
Elberta. In a number of respects this tree is a 
wonder. The first year from seed it grew fully six 
feet in height, forming quite a number of fruit buds 
at the top. In trimming some of them were left, 
and to my surprise two peaches were produced on a 
seedling 20 months after planting of seeds. This was 
in 1904, and ever since this tree has not failed once 
to produce a crop, even in years of total failures with 
other varieties. I have shown it this year at our 
farmers’ congress at College Station, where it at¬ 
tracted a great deal of attention, being not only fine 
but also the only peaches present. It has been named 
“Frank,” for a friend, publisher of a good farm 
paper. Following the Frank in rotation of ripening 
there are yet several sisters (freestone), highly col¬ 
ored, of fine quality, that fully cover the time up to 
September 1 in this latitude. From the foregoing it 
may be assumed that some day in the future our 
planters will have a better line of varieties to select 
from than has ever been possible to any of us in 
the past. j. w. stubenrauch. 
Texas. 
THE STORY OF A COMMISSION MAN. 
I would like to tell my experience with one of the 
Boston commission merchants. I have a farm in 
New Flampshire, which I bought a few years ago, 
and I am trying to make it pay, although I do not 
live on it, but near Boston. This Fall I shipped 
three barrels of apples to a commission house which 
I knew, and after a few days I received returns from 
them stating they had sold my apples for $1.25 per 
barrel and charged me 25 cents per barrel commis- 
, sion, netting me $1 per barrel, or $3 for three barrels. 
With the check and statement a circular was put in 
giving prices for all kinds of produce, and the price 
quoted for apples like mine was $2 to $2.50 per 
barrel. The next day I went by this house and saw 
my three barrels of apples on the sidewalk with my 
tag and marks on them. I had a friend go and price 
these particular barrels and he reported to me that 
they asked $3 per barrel. I then had another party 
go with instructions to buy a barrel and beat them 
down as low as he could, and he came back with a 
receipted bill showing he had bought a barrel for 
$2.50, and the barrel was taken away, which still had 
my mark on it, showing that it was my barrel. I 
then went to a certain party and asked what I should 
do. I wanted to advertise this man and was askecf 
to wait a day until he could see the commission man. 
As my office was not far away, in about an hour I 
was called upon and told that a mistake was made 
in making returns to me and they wanted to fix it 
up. I asked the dealer if he had noticed a mistake 
before the other party had called his attention to it, 
and he could say nothing, only that it was a mistake. 
I told him he had made his returns to me and that 
there was nothing to fix up, but the next day I re¬ 
ceived a corrected statement, stating that two barrels 
had been sold for $2.50 per barrel and one barrel for 
$2, and check to cover the balance. The next day I 
looked over his stand and found apples just like mine 
in peach baskets, and had a friend inquire the price, 
which was 65 cents per basket; apples still going up. 
How could he give me returns before apples were 
sold ? 
Is there any wonder why apples are rotting back 
in the country, when so many people would be glad 
of them? This commission man did not connect the 
name from New Hampshire with one who is in busi¬ 
ness in Boston, but I have the papers, facts, etc., and 
now what can be done? a. o. s 
R. N.-Y.—It is an old trick, though this man was 
bolder than usual. Returns are often made at “mar¬ 
ket prices,” but the apples will not be sold or de¬ 
livered at all. In some cases they are sorted and 
sold in small packages for three times the price given 
the shipper. In other cases they are “sold” to some 
friend or confederate at a low figure, and then sold 
again for twice the price which would appear on the 
commission man’s books. The Collin bill, before the 
last New York Legislature, tried to prevent this 
scheme. Our friend is situated so he can expose such 
a fraud, but what possible chance can a farmer back 
among the hills have against any such game? 
