3912. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
543' 
WHIPPING UP GRASS LANDS. 
I am renting a farm, the grassland of which is pretty 
well run out, yielding a very small crop of hay. As I do 
not expect to be here after this season is there anything 
in the way of chemicals it would pay me to apply in order 
to improve the crop this season? w. a. r. 
Yarmouth, Me. 
You may have seen a horseman on the last lap 
of the race lash his horse with the whip to drive 
him ahead. The object was to get the last bit of 
energy out of him in one supreme effort. \Ye once 
saw a man beating a carpet on a cold windy day. He 
was on the point of quitting, though the dust was 
not all out. His wife went out and gave him a cup 
of hot coffee and he finished the carpet. Your sod is 
somewhat like the horse and the man. If you were 
to stay there for some years more you 
should plow it up and reseed, or use a 
fertilizer containing- nitrogen, potash 
and phosphoric acid in soluble forms. 
Yet the potash and phosphoric acid 
would not all be taken out by this year's 
crop of grass and .if you use the com¬ 
plete fertilizer a part of your investment 
will go to benefit the next owner or 
renter. So if you use anything at all 
and want the full benefit yourself it 
must be like the whip driving the horse 
over the line. Nitrate of soda is the 
best thing for this particular purpose. 
It contains available nitrogen and no 
other plant food for which you spend 
money. The nitrogen in the nitrate will 
force the grass into a quick growth—it 
there is any grass to force—but it will 
make the soil poorer by taking out some 
potash and phosphoric acid and putting 
none back. We should use 100 to 12b 
pounds per acre evenly scattered over 
the soil at once. It is a bad practice 
to follow if one has any consideration 
for the land, for the soil may thus be 
whipped into giving up more than it 
should. In England this plan was at 
one time popular with tenants on the 
last year of their lease. The effect was 
so bad that many leases now contain 
a clause which forbids this practice 
while laws give “manure compensation.” 
Under such laws the tenant can claim 
and recover payment for plant food 
used during his last year which would 
naturally remain in the soil. There 
would be no such compensation for 
nitrate of soda, but there would be for 
potash, phosphate, farm manure and for 
purchased feeds which were fed on the 
farm. This will help make clear what 
we have so frequently tried to show— 
that nitrogen alone or nitrogen in too 
large a proportion to the other elements 
of plant food will help too much. 
grow; it has a thin skin and is subject to scab, blotch, 
cloud, and bitter rot, as well as various insect pests. 
All, however, can be successfully combated by the 
proper and constant use of sprays. The work of the 
orchardist is never done. Just after Christmas we 
begin pruning the trees, and keep this up every bright 
day when the weather is not too cold. The trees are 
headed about 30 inches high, and the vase form of 
tree is the ideal. All broken, dead and crossed limbs 
are cut out; the tree by nature is of an upright 
growth, and some of the high branches are'headed 
back. The rough bark is scraped from the body of 
tree, and all wounds of any size are painted with 
white lead and oil. The land is cultivated, plowed 
in Winter and early Spring, and frequently harrowed 
CORN IN A YOUNG APPLE ORCHARD. Fin. 193 
weeks. In order to get the proper dilution it is 
necessary to use a hydrometer; the concentrate may 
vary, but by the use of the instrument the mixture 
as it goes on the trees can be made the same. Just 
after the petals fall we spray again with a very weak 
solution of lime and sulphur, to which is added ar¬ 
senate of lead for the apple worm (Codling moth). 
The last of June or the first of July we spray again 
for the bitter rot; lime-sulphur docs not seem to af¬ 
fect this, and we use lime and bluestone (Bordeaux 
mixture). Compressed air is used as power for spray¬ 
ing, and it has proved satisfactory. The air is com¬ 
pressed by means of a water power near the orchards. 
The tree being a biennial bearer, it often over-bears, 
and to overcome this and at the same time to get 
larger apples, thinning is practised; this 
is a tedious task, but pays well. 
From the time of the last spraying 
until the fruit is ready to gather the 
time is occupied by getting in barrels 
and boxes, making ready for the har¬ 
vest. We begin gathering the apples 
October first; this is done by hand, and 
the greatest care is used to prevent 
bruising the fruit. They are hauled to 
packing sheds where they are graded 
and packed, some in barrels, some in 
boxes. The boxed apples are all wrap¬ 
ped in special paper, stamped with the 
name of the grower. A part of the 
crop is sold to private parties; these go 
to most of the Eastern States. Some 
are exported in car lots, and go To Lon¬ 
don and Glasgow. The boxed apples 
sell from $2.50 to $3 per box and the 
barrels from $5 to $6. f. o. b. The 
Albemarle is in a class by itself, and 
because it can be grown in such limited 
areas there is very little prospect of its 
ever being over-produced. 
Franklin Co., Va. s. s. guerrant. 
THE ALBEMARLE PIPPIN IN FULL BLOOM. Fic. 194. 
GROWING ALBEMARLE PIPPINS. 
Our orchards are situated at the foot 
of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South¬ 
ern Virginia, at an elevation of 1,500 
feet above sea level. In the orchards 
of 5,000 trees more than half are 
Albemarles. The mountain coves are 
peculiarly adapted to the growth of this 
fine-flavored, delicious apple. The 
mountain-grown Albemarle has a fla¬ 
vor and bouquet that is peculiarly its 
own, and is not attained when grown in 
any other situation. They grow to per¬ 
fection in the black mountain soil known 
as Porter’s black loam; this soil is 
found in a very limited area; it is gen¬ 
erally full of loose stones that in dis¬ 
integrating afford abundance of potash. 
Ideal Pippin soil occurs in small 
boundaries; this soil is very fertile, very deep, and 
will produce large crops of corn, wheat, or oats. The 
original growth in these coves was splendid poplars, 
chestnuts, walnuts, and oaks. At this situation a 
spur running off from the main line of the Blue 
Ridge forms a valley about one-half mile wide; this 
valley runs north and south and acts somewhat as 
a funnel for the wind, as there is almost a constant 
air current going one way or the other. This, is 
of great benefit, as it almost entirely does away with 
the danger of frost; the wind is rarely still enough 
for frost to form. The Pippin tree is not a rapid 
grower, and it does not come into full bearing under 
15 to 20 years of age; however, it is of long life; 
there are some old trees in these orchards 75 to 100 
years of age, and still doing business. 
The Pippin is one of the most difficult apples to 
SPRAYING WITH COMPRESSED AIR POWER. Fit;. 195. 
until June, when it is sown to cow peas, and later it 
is sowm to Crimson or Mammoth clover. We often 
work corn in the orchards before bearing, keeping 
the corn a good distance from the trees; this is not 
to be recommended, but in strong land the trees 
grow well under cultivation. There are some old 
Pippin trees in these orchards situated in very rocky 
land that have not been cultivated in 40 years, and 
they bear fine crops every other year, the Pippiq 
being a marked biennial bearer. 
The Winter spraying begins in February, and is 
kept up until the buds swell. The best spray for 
Winter use is the lime-sulphur mixture; it destroys 
all scale insects and acts as a fungicide. The concen¬ 
trate is made by boiling twice as much sulphur as 
lime in a large kettle for an hour; it is then strained 
off into barrels where it can be kept for days or 
THE COMMISSION HOUSE BILL. 
What became of the Collin bill in the 
last New York Legislature? s. b. 
A new bill was introduced by Mr. 
Sullivan. This required all persons and 
firms engaged in farm produce commis¬ 
sion business to be licensed and bonded, 
which was almost identical with the 
Collin bill of last year. This is the his¬ 
tory of this year’s bill: Introduced by 
Assemblyman Sullivan January 17 and 
referred to the agricultural committee; 
[March 6 reported out of committee with 
amendments; March 12 ordered to third 
reading; March 21 passed; March 22 
sent to Senate and referred to the agri¬ 
cultural committee of that body, and 
there it died. It is difficult to under¬ 
stand why, with an entire week in 
which to consider and report, the Senate 
committee failed to take any action 
upon this measure. The committee was 
composed of these Senators: O’Brien, 
Democrat, of New York City, a scale 
manufacturer, chairman; Ferris, Demo¬ 
crat, of Utica, lawyer, banker and owner 
of a farm; Sanner, Democrat, of Brook¬ 
lyn, real estate; Long, Democrat, of 
Oyster Bay, real estate; Roosevelt, 
Democrat, of Hyde Park, Dutchess Co., 
lawyer; Thomas, Republican, of Madi¬ 
son Co., lawyer and educator; Bussey, 
Republican, of Perry, Wyoming Co., 
manufacturer. These members of the 
agricultural committee of the Senate 
are considered high-grade men, all of 
them, but if they permitted "senatorial 
courtesy” to deter them from reporting 
out of committee this bill in which the 
farmers of this State are so deeply interested, then 
the farmers should look to it this Fall that no one 
of them whom they can reach with their ballots should 
be permitted again to occupy a seat in the Senate 
chamber. 
Assemblymen Sullivan and Thomas B. Wilson are 
entitled to great credit for passing the bill in 
the Assembly, but it was only after a warm 
debate and in spite of the strong opposition 
of nearly all the members from Greater New 
York that they succeeded in doing so. Assem¬ 
blyman Wilson stated that the bill had the support 
of Calvin J. Huson, State Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture, of the State Grange, of numerous organiza¬ 
tions of fruit growers and farmers generally, and his 
untiring, earnest work for the bill, together with the 
hearty support of Frank L. Young, leader of the lower 
house, finally prevailed, and the bill passed by a vote 
of 79 to 35—just three more votes than the required 
constitutional majority. 
