1912 . 
665 
Ruralisms 
WEED SEEDS IN ALFALFA. 
L. B. M., Pine Bush, N. Y.—I do not re¬ 
member where I saw the advertisement 
of Griswold who advertised Alfalfa free 
from weed seeds. But I do know I sent to 
him for a pound, and we sowed some of it 
last Summer. A short time ago I sent a 
teaspoon of this seed to Washington to be 
tested for weed seeds and the following is 
the result, approximate number weed seeds 
per pound of sample: “Russian thistle, 
2,400; green foxtail, 480; dodder, 240; 
curled dock, 240 ; spreading Panicum, 120 ; 
I’anicum hirticaulis, 120; total, 3,600. In 
sowing this seed at the rate of 16 pounds 
per acre, 360 weed seeds including 24 dod¬ 
der seeds would be sown on each square 
rod.” I am very much disturbed over this, 
as I have read in your paper that dodder 
is very obnoxious. Please tell me how to 
recognize it, and how to kill it. I sent a 
sample of seed from Philadelphia, and it had 
approximately 224 Fremont’s goosefoot; 
112 Sweet clover to a pound. Is the goose- 
foot obnoxious? 
Ans. —It is a difficult matter to grow 
Alfalfa, clover and grass seeds com¬ 
mercially even reasonably free from 
weed seed contamination, but 3,600 
weed seeds, 2,400 of which are of the 
detested Russian thistle, Salsola tragus, 
to the pound of Alfalfa seeds, is entirely 
too much. The Russian thistle is the 
only species enumerated that is included 
in the list of “Twenty-five Most Harm¬ 
ful Weeds” published in the Year Book 
of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
for 1897. It has, however, never be¬ 
come well established east of the Ohio 
River and is not likely to cause serious 
trouble in New York State. In the 
prairie States it has long been a for¬ 
midable pest. Dodder may be recognized 
by its thread-like, leafless, twining 
growth, entangling the Alfalfa shoots 
in masses of orange-yellow fibres. It 
is an annual and may be destroyed by 
mowing young Alfalfa over which it 
runs before the dodder has seeded, thus 
preventing a renewed growth next year. 
The curled dock seeds are probably 
the same as our common yellow dock, 
Rumex crispus, already well naturalized 
in New York meadows. Green foxtail 
and two Panicums are annual grasses 
of no great staying powers and may be 
disregarded as pests. 
The Philadelphia sample of Alfalfa 
containing 224 seeds of Fremont’s 
goosefoot and 112 Sweet clover to the 
pound would be regarded as a very safe 
one to plant, if nothing worse could 
be found. Fremont’s goosefoot is a 
western weed allied to the familiar 
lamb’s-quarters or pigweed, Chenopo- 
dium album, and being practically annual 
in growth is easily controlled. Sweet 
clover is nearly as useful as Alfalfa 
itself, the few plants that might become 
established could not be regarded as 
specially objectionable. There is conso¬ 
lation in the thought that every weed 
seed sown with grass and forage plants 
does not germinate, as many are 
harvested in immature stages of de¬ 
velopment. Always purchase seed from 
dealers of established reputation rather 
than from sensational advertisers, v. 
THE SALE OF CUT FLOWERS. 
E. 8., Bringhurst, Ind .—How could I put 
cut flowers on the market? For years I have 
grown beautiful flowers, sweet peas (a spe¬ 
cialty), roses, Asters, etc., but am a little 
distance from large markets, within three 
hours’ train distance from our State capital. 
When placed by express or mail products can 
reach Chicago by 3 p. m. of same day they 
are sent out. Could you tell me how to 
reach buyers at either or any place, as I 
wish to grow flowers for profit as well as 
pleasure on my own farm some distance 
from cities? I am after both profit and 
pleasure but do not have to depend on 
them for a living. 
Ans. —The customary method of selF 
ing flowers is through a commission 
man, for though flower growers, like 
farmers, complain of many abuses in 
the commission business, it is not now 
possible to return to the old conditions, 
when the grower, with a big oilcloth- 
lined basket on his arm, went the rounds 
of the retailers, delivering orders or 
seeking new buyers. A list of Chicago 
and Indianapolis firms given to E. S. 
will doubtless be helpful. We are not 
told, however, whether this inquirer ex¬ 
pects to grow outdoor flowers only, or 
is planning to use glass also. Outdoor 
flowers reach the market at a time 
when slow trade makes prices low in 
all cities; many of the florists’ regular 
patrons are out of town, and the bulk 
of the business, after commencements 
are over, is transient and funeral trade. 
Still, the lack of glass-grown flowers 
makes a market for sweet peas, Gladi¬ 
olus, Asters, Dahlias, Coreopsis, Gail- 
lardias, pseonies, Irises, larkspurs, etc. 
—only the grower must not start with 
the idea that “there’s millions in it.” 
The inquirer refers to “express or 
mail,” but until we have an adequate 
parcels post there can be no satisfactory 
THE) RURAb NEW-YORKER 
transmission of flowers by mail. In 
Great Britain there is a very large mail 
order trade in flowers, and many coun¬ 
try people supply city customers direct 
in this way, as well as great commer¬ 
cial growers. It is a disadvantage not 
reaching Chicago until three in the 
afternoon, as the retail florists do all 
their heavy buying in the morning, and 
we think icing (ice placed across the 
stems in packing) would often be nec¬ 
essary. All flowers deteriorate rapidly 
in hot Summer weather, and very care¬ 
ful packing would be needed in any 
case. We could not offer much encour¬ 
agement for shipment of outdoor roses 
in hot weather for this long distance; 
in fact, the distance alluded to is some¬ 
thing of a disadvantage, unless the ex¬ 
press service is unusually good. We 
can only advise cautious experiments 
at first, say with well-selected Asters, 
Gladiolus and sweet peas, and some 
conservative planting of pseonies and 
Irises, German and Japanese. It is fas¬ 
cinating work, and many small begin¬ 
ners have in time built up extensive 
lines of trade, but it means hard work 
and much optimism, and is no get-rich- 
quick scheme at any time. 
CULTURE OF THE BANANA. 
IF. <7. H., Ford , Idaho .—How are bananas 
grown and on what kind of trees or bushes? 
How large do the trees grow, and bow 
often have they to be plowed? Are they 
cultivated like corn ? 
Ans. —The bananas or plantains, mem¬ 
bers of the Musa family, are neither 
trees nor shrubs, botanically speaking, 
but perennial herbs having long verti¬ 
cal sheathing leaf-stalks overlapping 
one another, and forming soft stems or 
trunks four to 15 feet high; from the 
top of the sheath broad undivided 
leaves expand, six to 10 feet in length. 
The fruit is produced in a bunch from 
the top of the sheathing stem, follow¬ 
ing a strange-looking mass of purplish 
bracts enclosing flowers; each bunch of 
fruit weighs from 40 to 60 pounds, or 
even more. The banana provides food 
for millions of tropical people, far sur¬ 
passing in quantity that of any other 
plant in proportion to the space occu¬ 
pied. Bananas are grown from suck¬ 
ers, planted eight to 10 feet apart in 
rich soil. Each trunk-like stalk pro¬ 
duces but one cluster, after which it 
dies and is replaced by sprouts at the 
base. To obtain large bunches the off¬ 
sets are chopped out as they appear, and 
only three or four stalks of different 
ages left, so as to keep up a succession 
as each stalk dies out after fruiting. 
Ashes and stable manure are used for 
increased fertility, and hoe culture given 
to keep down weeds. From long culti¬ 
vation and offset propagation seed has 
almost entirely disappeared from ba¬ 
nanas, though it is occasionally found, 
and new varieties are obtained from it. 
Several of the bananas produce textile 
fiber, the Manila hemp, Musa textilis 
being especially valuable for this, and 
the large leaves are also used for 
thatching. The plantain, Musa para- 
disiaca, the common banana, M. sapien- 
tum, and the dwarf Chinese banana, M. 
Cavendishii, are the leading varieties for 
food production, while there are a num¬ 
ber of beautiful ornamental sorts. The 
handsomest of these is the Abyssinian 
banana, Musa Ensete, which attains a 
height of 30 feet, with leaves 20 feet 
long and three feet wide. This is often 
used for Summer gardening in this 
latitude; it does not produce edible 
fruit, but the inner stems are boiled as 
a vegetable in its native home, the 
mountains of Abyssinia. This plant 
produces no suckers, and requires 
several years to come to the fruiting 
period; after ripening seed it dies, like 
some tropical palms. 
Cutworms and Flowers. —Cutworms 
are annoying enough outside, but im¬ 
agine what they mean to a florist who 
is growing single-stem Chrysanthemums. 
He has disbudded the plant to one 
single bloom, which is to crown a tall 
stem three or four feet or more in 
length, and, if season and flower are 
fortunate, the cut bloom may wholesale 
for 75 cents or a dollar. Along comes 
a cutworm which appears to have no 
ambition in life except to climb to the 
top of that tall stem and eat its way 
through that one high-priced bud. All 
the florist can do is to tear out the 
useless plant and hunt around in the 
manure mulch for the ruffianly cut¬ 
worm. Cutworm hunting is a regular 
part of the work, hours being spent in 
hunting for them in the mulch. A 
variety of applications are used on soil 
and plant to discourage them, some 
with fairly good results, but destruction 
of the cutworm by hand still remains a 
necessary part of the work. 
Poison Ivy is so common and should 
be so well known that warning against 
it seems almost an impertinence, yet 
many people who avoid it as a vine seem 
unaware that it often grows in an erect 
rather than trailing form. However, its 
variable three-foliate leaves, somewhat 
like box elder, and aerial rootlets are 
sufficiently distinct, and it is easy to re¬ 
member that the harmless Virginia 
creeper always has five leaflets, instead 
of three. While a solution of sugar of 
lead is usually a satisfactory lotion for 
poison ivy eruption, frequent and copi¬ 
ous use of pure olive oil can be very 
highly recommended. Rubbing the 
hands and face with this oil before 
working among infested thickets is a 
wise precaution. Sometimes a sensitive 
person exposed to this plant becomes 
poisoned internally, without any exter¬ 
nal eruption, a general malaise, accom¬ 
panied by disorder of the digestive tract 
and extreme exhaustion ensuing; such 
symptoms, following exposure, call for 
intelligent medical care. Occasionally 
we meet with severe Winter outbreaks 
of ivy poisoning as a result of using 
firewood which has been overgrown 
with the vine. In one case a distressing 
inflammation of the eyes, affecting sev¬ 
eral families, was traced to this cause, 
and there is every reason for the Sum¬ 
mer camper to avoid such firewood.. Of 
course every eruptive poisoning suffered 
upon a plant-hunting expedition is 
credited to poison ivy, but similar symp¬ 
toms are sometimes caused by handling 
the lady’s-slipper orchid or moccasin 
flower (Cypripedium). These plants 
bear glandular hairs along the stem 
and leaves, containing a poisonous oil 
very similar in character to toxicoden- 
drol, the active principle of poison ivy. 
The poison is especially abundant at 
the fruiting season. 
When you write advertisers mention Tub 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
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CARBONDALE INSTRUMENT CO., Carbondale, Pa. 
The Tree System—The Bell System 
A NOBLE tree thrives be- 
cause the leaves, twigs, 
branches, trunk and roots are 
all working together, each 
doing its part so that all may 
live. 
Neither the roots nor the 
branches can live without the 
other, and if the trunk is gir¬ 
dled so that the sap cannot 
flow, the tree dies. 
The existence of the tree 
depends not only on the ac¬ 
tivity of all the parts, but upon 
their being always connected 
together in the “tree system.” 
This is true also of that 
wonderful combination of 
wires, switchboards, tele¬ 
phones, employes and sub¬ 
scribers which helps make 
up what is called the Bell 
Telephone System. 
It is more than the vast 
machinery of communication, 
covering the country from 
ocean to ocean. Every part 
is alive, and each gives ad¬ 
ditional usefulness to every 
other part. 
The value of telephone ser¬ 
vice depends not only on the 
number of telephones, but 
upon their being always con¬ 
nected together, as in the Bell 
System. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy 
One System 
Universal Service 
