1911. 
THIS RUR-A.I* NEW-YORKER 
11^17 
Ruralisms 
The Picquet’s Late Peach. 
Having in a way indorsed this peach 
myself in my late article, and seeing 
D. V. P. of Maryland speak so highly 
of it, a little further explanation con¬ 
cerning it ought to be of interest to 
your readers. The 'writer has been 
familiar with this peach since 1879. 
Under normal conditions, years ago, 
this peach paid right well in Texas. 
It is of the Columbia (Squaw) type, 
is of good quality and at its best is 
excellent for home use and nearby mar¬ 
kets. It is rather of a dull, yellow 
color, not inviting to the eye. But a 
more serious fault is its being too free, 
there being a cavity between pit and 
flesh, and in dry weather this often re¬ 
sults in decided cracks about the stem, 
letting in water and thus ruining the 
fruit for anything but hog feed. Some 
years the largest part of a crop is lost 
in this way, and for this reason it has 
been discarded years ago by our intel¬ 
ligent planters. A peach to be first 
class for market should be of bright 
color, be smooth of outline, fair qual¬ 
ity at least, and then it must be firm, 
the meat packed tight around the pit, 
yet separating freely from it when cut 
open. Such peaches as a rule carry 
well and keep nicely where exposed 
for sale. Mr. Hale’s new peach ap¬ 
pears to be of such a type, and the 
Bell’s October and Elberta crosses that 
I have been fortunate in producing are 
of a similar character. There ought to 
be always room for something better. 
I have one more desire, and that is to 
bring about some new sorts with ex¬ 
ceptional hardiness; in other words, get 
some that bear in off years or when 
others fail. 
The past season was a general fail¬ 
ure, so to speak, in peaches in this 
section. I had not a single Elberta on 
the place, though two of my seedlings 
bore a full crop. One is the Frank, ripe 
a week after Elberta, and the other is 
Lizzy, ripening two weeks after Salway. 
I expect to cross these two and find if it 
is possible to produce a line of more 
regular bearers. The Frank is a peach 
the size of a good Carman, bright yel¬ 
low with much red, high, quality cling. 
Lizzy is a freestone, full size of Elberta, 
rounder, high quality, color yellow and 
nice red. I may hardly expect to live 
long enough to see the outcome of this 
combination, yet I deem the object of 
such importance as to make it well 
worth while for me to undertake it. It 
may be of some little interest to your 
readers to learn as to what names have 
been chosen for the rest of my new 
comers. Ripe a week ahead of Elberta 
is a fine, large yellow cling (Mamh 
Ross—Elberta cross) named Joe. A 
week after Elberta comes Frank, Tena 
(freestone), Kirk (cling), then come 
Barbara (free), Millard (cling) and 
Katie (free), while a week after Katie 
comes Lizzy. Of course time only can 
tell as to which or how many of them 
may become standards. All of them are 
yellow, of good form and high quality. 
Texas. j. w. stubenrauch. 
Top-working the Kieffer Pear. 
I noted on page 1137 an answer to a 
question of one of your readers in 
which it was stated that the Kieffer 
tree made an excellent stock for top¬ 
working other varieties of pears. I 
think in a majority of cases where the 
Kieffers have been used as a stock for 
other varieties they have proved un¬ 
satisfactory. In several instances I have 
myself top-worked Clapp’s Favorite, 
Bose and Bartlett upon them. The re¬ 
sulting growth for the first two or three 
years was satisfactory, but the growth 
did not continue, the grafts remaining 
at practically the same size as at three 
years old and evidently unthrifty. 
Twelve or 15 years ago some agents 
selling nursery stock pushed the sale of 
several varieties of pears top-worked 
upon Kieffer stock. In one instance 
which I have in mind about 50 Seckel 
and 50 Bartlett were bought and these 
trees made a satisfactory growth for 
four or five years, and then began to 
die, and when 12 years had passed only 
an occasional one was yet alive, whereas 
the same varieties budded as usually 
grown in the nursery are yet living, 
bearing satisfactory crops. 
B. D. VAN BUREN. 
Sub-Irrigation in Greenhouse. 
S. C. S., Dalton, O .—I have a bottom 
center bed in a greenhouse about seven 
feet wide and 60 feet long that I wish to 
arrange for sub-irrigation by using three- 
inch drain tile. Please give me full partic¬ 
ulars how to arrange it from start to finish. 
Ans. —It is the opinion of those ex¬ 
perimenting with greenhouse sub-irriga¬ 
tion that solid beds on the ground have 
not been successful unless there was an 
impervious clay bottom. As lumber 
used in benches swells and warps, 
benches of tile and cement seem the only 
practical construction. The laying of 
the tile should be on the same principle 
as for tile draining, perfect level being 
maintained, and the lines of tile must 
be straight, so as not to impede the 
water. The results are better when the 
tile run across the bed than when length¬ 
wise, as it is difficult to maintain an 
even flow in a long line of tile. The 
tile are usually laid two feet apart, 
though some experimenters approve of 
laying them close enough to touch, thus' 
covering the bottom of the bench. A 
little cement or mortar is put at each 
joint merely to hold the tile together 
when the bed is being filled, but not 
enough to interfere with the flow of 
water through the joints. The first 
tile, where the water is applied, lies at 
an angle, resting up against the side 
of the bench: a curved sewer pipe 
is desirable for this inlet, but if 
this is not available the wide open¬ 
ing left where a straight tile is rested 
up against the edge of bench should 
be closed with cement. Where the 
tile are laid so close together that 
they touch every part of the soil is 
evenly moistened, and for this reason 
the plan is approved though the tile 
two feet apart seem to give good results 
and are naturally cheaper to install. 
Grafting Chestnut Sprouts. 
B. B., Piqna, 0 .—We have just pur¬ 
chased 100 acres of choice apple land in 
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Part 
of this is covered with chestnut sprouts 
five to eight feet high, from fine old 
stumps. We wish to clear away all sprouts 
and bushes except two to each stump 
within a radius of 15 to 25 feet; then to 
work these to Paragon or other early Jap¬ 
anese varieties and keep headed low. Is It 
feasible? We are quite expert in top-work¬ 
ing apples, but never did any nut trees. 
Can we do it or should we get an experi¬ 
enced man? Where can we get dependable 
scions? They must come from a section 
free of blight. There is no blight near our 
place as yet. Very fine native chestnuts 
were on the few standing trees, and even 
the sprouts had many burrs, but no nuts. 
Ans. —The theory of growing chest¬ 
nuts profitably on wild stump sprouts is 
very good, and it has been worked out 
satisfactorily in a few cases, but in 
many it has not been so. Grafting the 
choice varieties on native stocks can be 
done with reasonable success. It should 
be done in the usual grafting season, 
but with scions that have been kept per¬ 
fectly dormant. The ordinary cleft 
method of grafting is very good, but 
the stumps should be cut with sloping 
tops and not square-cut ones, because 
they heal over much better. The tongue 
graft is also a very good one, and on 
rather small to medium stocks this is the 
preferable style. The variety that is best 
of all is the Rochester. This is a pure 
native American seedling but of large 
size, and has the usual rich flavor and 
freedom from the bitter skin that all 
foreign species have. This choice va¬ 
riety originated in a lot of chance seed¬ 
lings grown from native nuts in a nur¬ 
sery at Rochester, N. Y., and was sent 
to Alton, Illinois, where it proved its 
true value. The tree is a very heavy 
bearer and the growth is vigorous and 
the foliage health}'. But the dreaded 
chestnut blight may devastate the chest¬ 
nut forests of Virginia as it has those 
of New England and regions farther 
south. It is steadily moving southwest- 
ward. Another trouble that all chestnut 
growers in the Eastern States must 
meet is the weevil or worms that infest 
the nuts. They are worse where the 
native trees are abundant than where 
they are not. There is no known way 
to prevent them from laying their eggs 
in the nuts and it is impossible to kill 
the beetles that lay the eggs. The young 
larvae can be killed by scalding the nuts 
and by the fumes of bisuplphide of car¬ 
bon in a tight barrel or box. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
The Mexican Pecan Crop. 
The pecan crop in Mexico this year will 
amount to about 00 cars, averaging 35,000 
pounds each. The nuts are selling this 
year at 6% to 7% cents gold per pound, 
the latter price predominating. The pecan 
season in Mexico lasts from September to 
March. Of the total crop, Mexico will use 
about three cars, practically all of the rest 
going to the United States. During the 
season many American buyers come to Mex¬ 
ico, chiefly from Texas, and secure the 
nuts from the growers or commission men 
by direct purchase.—Consular Reports. 
The pecan grows wild along the 
streams in northern Mexico, and the 
nuts are gathered in the Fall, as they 
are everywhere else, but do not all get 
into the trade before Spring. The price 
there is very low, and dealers take ad¬ 
vantage of it and make a big profit. 
The smallest and poorest seedlings are 
bringing 10 cents per pound in Louis¬ 
iana and all over the pecan region this 
year. I had to pay that for several 
barrels to plant. One of our choice 
trees bore 400 pounds this year, worth 
50 cents per pound, or $200 for the crop. 
The young trees I planted five years ago 
bore their first few nuts this year, which 
is the beginning of hundreds of crops 
to COme. H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE. 
Dahlias for Cut Flowers. 
We have been growing Dahlias for cut 
flowers for a good many years and every 
year we grow more. We sell them through 
a commission house, and find it very satis¬ 
factory. We do not think there is any 
great fortune in it for anyone, althougn 
we know of a number of people who are 
making a comfortable living out of Dahlias 
and other cut flowers, wm. f. bassett. 
New Jersey. 
Gladiolus as a Side Line. 
Regarding a farmer trying to grow Gladi¬ 
olus as a side line I hardly know what to 
say I don’t believe much in side lines. 
Gladioli are now being grown everywhere 
in quantity. We make a little money out 
of the business, but we do it mostly out 
of varieties of our own origin, while they 
are new and bring a fancy price, but in 
order to do this we have had to give up 
our general florist’s business and make a 
specialty of Gladioli alone. We do no 
business with commission men; have tried 
it, but it does not pay. In my opinion 
it pays best to do one thing and do it well. 
Ohio. FRANK BANNING. 
Boxwood as Florist’s Greens. 
Boxwood for greens is supplied from the 
old plants at the present time but we are 
informed that a number of parties are plant¬ 
ing for the purpose of supplying the traae. 
It is a slow grower indeed, but we are sure 
that cuttings could be made every few 
years, if the young plants were properly 
cultivated and fertilized. We advocate the 
culture of this plant from a commercial 
standpoint, and are sure that it would pay 
handsomely. Care must he taken in Its 
early growth. We would suggest that 
wheat or rye be planted around it to pro¬ 
tect It from the sun. charl.es g. jones. 
Delaware. 
Transplanting Wild Stock, 
I have transplanted dogwood trees from 
two feet to 15, and been successful witn 
all sizes up to 15 feet. Dogwood is like 
all other trees; when taken from their na¬ 
tive soil great care should be observed In 
digging them so as not to damage the small 
roots. When I dig any plant I use nothing 
but the large nurseryman’s spade and use 
all care possible to hold all the fiber roots. 
Then if anyone packs the trees carefully, 
using plenty of swamp moss and water, 
they will stand the transplanting all right, 
and be out of the ground for two weeks. 
This has been my experience. I have been 
in this business for the last nine years. In 
that time I have shipped about 500 cars 
of different kinds of plants. I have sup¬ 
plied all the native plants used on the large 
estate of .Tames B. Duke at Somerville, 
N. J., which is the largest private estate 
in the country. Anyone must have experi¬ 
ence in the business, and use all proper care; 
then he can handle almost any native 
shrub or tree. If they are given the same 
attention in planting they will grow. An¬ 
other point must be considered : that is the 
change of soil. If the person who is going 
to plant the trees has not the right soil 
he would better have some of the native 
soil shipped with the plants. 
Sullivan Co., N. Y. chas. g. curtis. 
Snapdragons for Florist’s Use. 
Snapdragons are used almost all the year, 
although the greatest demand comes for 
Decoration Day. The choice varieties are 
fine for cut flowers, and now that seed 
of the separate colors can be obtained they 
are especially useful. Many florists use 
them to come in as the other flowers grow 
scarce. Seed sown the latter part of July 
will be ready to pot into 214-inch pots 
when they are 1 % inches tall, and from 
these can be planted directly into the beds. 
This sowing will be in bloom for the early 
Spring trade. 
THE MOSBAEK GREENHOUSE COMPANY. 
Illinois. 
Kill the 
Scale 
with the one most re¬ 
liable remedy against 
the San Jose Scale. 
Spray NOW with 
BOWKER’S 
LIME-SULPHUR 
Write for Book and Price List to 
BOWKER INSECTICIDE CO. 
BOSTON, MASS. 
Spray Trees Now 
while you’ve time to do a thorough job 
Don’t put off till busy spring. Use 
Target Brand 
Scale Destroyer 
A miscible oil that destroys San Jos6 Scale 
and all other scales. It spreads on contact 
with the tree, thus covering every part, even 
those missed by the direct spray. 
Endorsed by every experiment station where 
tested. Sold by good dealers everywhere. Write 
for free booklet, “ Fall and Winter Spraying.” 
HORTICULTURAL CHEMICAL COMPANY 
131 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
SPRAT 
r Rigs of 
All Sizes 
For All Uses 
The Leader Sprayer 
for up-to-date orchard- 
ists keeps 10 nozzles go¬ 
ing with 200 lbs. pres¬ 
sure. Most satisfactory 
of all orchard spray rigs. 
Engine suited to gener¬ 
ating power for all farm 
work. Buokot, Barrel, 
Mounted 4-Row Potato 
Sprayers, etc. Free 
catalogue describes en¬ 
tire line. Write for it. 
Also spraying formula, 
calendar and complete 
spraying directions. 
Address 
FIELD FORCE PUMP CO.. 2 11th St.. Elmira. N.Y 
Our No. 190 Horizontal Barrel 
_ Sprayer, solidly built on skids, is shipped 
ready ior work in orchard, garden or field. 
Pump outside —all parts easy to get at. No 
waste of time; no unpleasant work with the 
hands in the solution trying to fix valves or 
f acking. No corrosion. Heavy pressure. 
horoughly serviceable and satisfactory, a 
Four row attachment. 
You must see this spraver to know its 
value. Ask your dealer to show 
f it. Write us for special book¬ 
lets. Complete line of 
farm, garden and or¬ 
chard tools backed by 
76 years’ experience. 
Bateman M’fg Co., 
Box, 102-B Grenloch, M.J. 
on FREE TRIAL 
No money in advance—no bank deposit. 
Horse and Man Power Sprayers for field and 
orchard, Barrel and Power Sprayers. All have 
• thorough agitation and are built to 
for 5 years. We pay freight, 
pays for the machine. Write to-day for 
catalog, spraying guide and special free 
in each locality. 
PRIZE 
APPLES 
OR CIDER 
APPLES!? 
For the past four years the great state of rennsylvanfa has made a special appropriation of from $30,000 to $40,000 annually to 
teach the fruit grower how to use Lime-Sulfur washes, and incidentally, to warn them against the use of “Scalecidein spite of 
■which the demand for “Scalecide” has increased from year to year and apples from trees sprayed with “Scalecide” for live 
years took all the first prizes at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society meeting in 1910; three silver cups, the Adams County 
sweepstakes and 20 first prizes at the meeting of the same society in 1911. Which pays best? Frize apples or cider apples? 
“Scalecide” has no substitute. A postal request to Dept N will bring you by return mail, free, our book, “Modern Methods 
of Harvesting, Grading and Packing Apples,” and new booklet, “SCALECIDE, the Tree-Saver.” If your dealer cannot sup 
you with “SCALECIDE” we.will deliver it to any R. R. Station in the United States east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio 
Rivers on receipt of the price; 5G-gal. bbls., $25.00 ; 30-gal. bbls *. — 
B. G. PRATT COMPANY, 50 Church Street, tfew York City. 
_ _Ijppi i_ 
$16.00; 10-gal, cans, $6.75; 5-gaL cans, $3.75. Address, 
