THE RUR.-A.lv NEW-YORKER 
February 3, 
12 :i 
THE NORTH CAROLINA “THERMAL 
BELT.” 
On page 28, M. R. of West Chester, 
Pa., makes inquiry concerning the Ther¬ 
mal Belt of North Carolina, and H. E. 
Van Deman makes answer. Permit me 
to add the following: The Thermal 
Belt of North Carolina is located on 
southern slope of the Blue Ridge, about 
half way up the mountainside, three 
miles from Tryon, and in plain view of 
the town. It is a strip of land about 
one-half mile in width and several miles 
in length. To say that it is a place 
where it never freezes would not be 
strictly accurate, and no well-informed 
person would intentionally convey that 
impression, but for some reason it is a 
place of such dryness that dews are 
rare and white frosts unknown. It is 
not the lack of cold (to use such an 
expression), but the lack of moisture 
that prevents the damaging effects. It is 
a fact which anyone can verify who 
lives here in the Spring and watches 
the trees leaf out, that the Belt is fully 
two weeks ahead of the land below and 
farther south, and a month ahead of 
that above. I myself have seen it when 
the snow had melted off, leaving a line 
of demarcation so distinct that one 
could almost have staked it off. Snow 
does not lie on the Thermal Belt more 
than three or four hours after the sun 
comes out. What the causes of this 
peculiar condition are has been a matter 
of dispute and varying opinions, but 
that there is something worthy of seri¬ 
ous notice and investigation is evidenced 
by the fact that the Weather Bureau of 
the United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture is now placing a number of spe¬ 
cial instruments for a year’s observation, 
so probably we shall soon know the 
truth about it. c. P. M. 
Tryon, N. C. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
I do not want any more compressed 
air sprayers. 1 have one here which I 
will give to anyone who will pay the 
freight on it. Better depend on the di¬ 
rect force of the pump. 1 have one of 
the little hand tin things, a sort of 
atomizer, that 1 find very handy in the 
garden where a pump sprayer is incon¬ 
venient and the need is only on a small 
scale. So far as my experience goes the 
compressed air does not give force 
enough for good spraying. It is better 
for whitewashing the fences. 
A shading crop of peas will certainly 
kill out Bermuda grass, but 1 have 
doubts about its doing the same for 
quack grass. The Bermuda is a sun- 
loving plant, and will not grow in shade, 
but 1 have had, when living where the 
quack throve, rank growths of quack 
grass in shady places where I know 
Bermuda would not have thriven at all. 
The best smoke house I ever knew 
was built with a brick basement which 
was also used as a storage place for 
wood ashes. The floor above was made 
with T-iron rails as joists, and Lrick 
arched between. A circular man-hole 
was in the centre that could be opened 
when smoking, and the basement had an 
iron door, so that there was no possible 
danger of firing the building when 
smoking. The upper part was framed. 
The fire was made simply on the brick 
floor of the basement, using hard wood 
and corncobs smothered down with 
green cedar brush to make a dense 
smoke. 
I have used all sorts of grafting wax, 
and I have found that the old-fashioned 
mixture of clay and cow dung well 
wrapped with cotton cloth strips, is the 
surest graft that can be made for the 
ordinary cleft grafting. With it I have 
even grafted cherries with a cleft graft, 
and anyone knowing the thin bark of a 
young cherry seedling will understand 
that cleft-grafting a cherry is a difficult 
job. The mass of clay and dung seems 
to keep moisture around the graft and 
make a more certain job than any graft¬ 
ing wax. 
There is additional value in tobacco 
wastes when used as a fertilizer. Use 
the stems or the dust liberally on your 
cabbages and peas and you will not be 
troubled with aphides or lice on the 
plants, while at the same time you get 
a good fertilizer. Stems used in the 
hens’ nests will keep out lice, too. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
Law About San Jose Scale. 
R., Wayne Co., U. Y .—There is au or¬ 
chard next to mine that has the San Jos<5 
scale very badly and they do nothing for it. 
Is there a law that we can compel them to 
spray or cut their trees down? If so, whom 
must we notify? 
Ans. —Section 304 of New York State 
Agricultural Law, puts San Jose scale 
in the same list with black knot or lit¬ 
tle peach as prohibited ailments. The 
State Commissioner of Agriculture, at 
Albany, N. Y., has full authority to act 
in such cases. 
Potatoes Grown Under Mulch. 
J. G. V., Pittsburgh, Pa. — In going over 
some hack numbers of the The It. N.-Y. 1 
notice on page 723, .July 10, 1910, a photo¬ 
graph of a half acre of potatoes growing 
under a straw mulch, and a comment on 
the method by IV. E. Duckwall. I have not 
noticed in any of the latter issues any word 
regarding results obtained from this meth¬ 
od, and would like to know how it ter¬ 
minated. The year 1910 being such a 
droughty one, makes the information all the 
more desirable. 
Ans. —The straw mulched potatoes 
were on an adjoining farm, and I saw 
them several times during the year and 
at digging time. They grew finely and 
kept green well, but at digging time the 
yield was disappointing, though better 
than unmulched potatoes near by. On 
somewhat better soil, and with frequent 
cultivation (shallow) I secured a much 
better yield. I have much greater faitli 
in the dust mulch than in straw mulch, 
and believe the cost to be much less. 
The neighbor who raised these strawed 
potatoes has not repeated the experi¬ 
ment, but I hope he will, and leave an 
unmulched section near by as a check, 
and carefully measure two representa¬ 
tive rOWS. W. E. DUCKWALL. 
The Old Orchard Game. 
I have had a few experiences with 
smooth-tongued men ; some of them try to 
make you believe almost anything. 1 sec 
that some people have trouble with tree 
agents. Two years ago a tree agent was 
through this section and sold orchards. I 
was to plant trees; after that I had noth¬ 
ing to do until the trees bore fruit. The 
agent agreed to prune all trees and replace 
all trees that died in live years, 1 to pay 
for half of the trees now and in live years 
pay for other half, or give first and second 
years’ fruit. 1 did not get a full orchard, 
but a good many did. and 1 do not think 
that 100 of the many thousand trees that 
were delivered ever grew. Those that did 
grow are nothing but scrubs. I know of 
one man who paid $35 and has not a tree 
left. This agent represented a firm from 
Ohio. Of course we never see the agent 
again, as some one else delivered the trees 
at the station at Hornell, N. Y., and if you 
wanted any pruning done you could do it 
yourself. I say keep a good bulldog and 
set him on every agent that steps in your 
yard. 
We had a fair sample of a stock horse 
here, too. An agent sold 10 good farmers a 
Shire stock horse for $1,000, and he was 
not worth $100; he did not earn his keep 
and got poor stock. a. a. 
Hornell, N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—That orchard planting scheme 
is a very old game which has often been 
exposed. It is strange that a reading 
farmer should get caught. 
Hay at $25.00 PerTon 
With liny selling at $25.00 per ton, corn and other 
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