926 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
principles of weed destruction have done away^witli Tomatoes and radish are more or less injured by it, 
much—in fact, nearly all—of the laborious hand wbrk and raspberries, blackberries and strawberries are de- 
which formerly accompanied the production of a corirVpdedly injured by lime in any form, even if applied 
several years previous. Stem rot ini sweet potatoes is 
said to be prevented by the use of lime, but I have not 
had any reason to think that it is. 
I use air-slaked lime, applying it broadcast by hand, 
which, of course, is not a very agreeable task. Where 
many acres are limed, a manure spreader may be 
used. 1 apply when the air is still, using about 1,000 
pounds per acre for my garden crops. This amount 
would be about 20 bushels, as 50 pounds are counted 
one bushel. Lime can be bought at reasonable rates. 
I get it in barrels and haul it to the field where it is 
to be used. It is put in piles, remaining long enough 
to become slaked by the action of the air, adding 
water to hasten the process. It is really not necessary 
to plow or harrow the ground before applying, neither 
do I harrow it in after it is applied. I merely scatter 
it on a plowed surface, either in the Fall or early in 
the Spring before the growing season begins. One ap¬ 
plication every five or six years is given. The best 
evidence that the soil needs lime is when large patches 
of sorrel may be seen in clover and pasture fields, the 
sorrel delighting in an acid soil while clover does not 
flourish in such soils. In driving over the country 
during the Summer in this locality, such evidence is 
abundant. D. L. 
Indiana. 
crop. 
For harvesting the crop machinery is rapidly taking 
the place of hand work. The harvester, which cuts 
the corn, ties it in bundles and collects them together, 
makes hand cutting and shocking seem slow and 
laborious. Machines are at hand to meet the re¬ 
quirements of harvesting for whatever purpose. The 
dairyman has his silo and silage cutter. The man 
who uses the stover dry has his husker and shredder. 
The man who leaves the stocks in the field has his 
corn picker. Surely the farmer is getting a wonder¬ 
ful benefit from the use of machinery on the farm. 
So great is this benefit that the Department of Agri¬ 
culture a number of years ago stated that its use had 
reduced the human labor necessary to produce a bushel 
of corn from 58 minutes to 22 minutes. In wheat the 
figures are from 183 minutes to 10 minutes; oats, 90 
to 10 minutes; barley, 116 to seven minutes; potatoes, 
29 to 10 minutes. 
These figures are probably quite accurate, and make 
a wonderful showing for machinery in the reduction 
of human labor on the farm. But there is a vital and 
far-reaching question in regard to its use that has 
never yet been satisfactorily answered, and that is: 
How much does its use decrease the cost of produc¬ 
tion? We hope that The R. N.-Y. will some time be 
able to answer this question. 
The statistics given out showing the average yield 
of corn per acre in the various States of the Union 
provoke a great deal of thought. Why do Connecti¬ 
cut, Massachusetts and Maine—not corn States, and 
where machinery is comparatively little used—head 
the list? How comes it that Vermont and New 
Hampshire produce more corn to the acre than does 
Iowa? Why is it that 33 States are ahead of Kansas 
on a 10-year average ending 1906? Here is food for 
a lot of vigorous thinking. f. l. allen. 
Ohio. 
R. N.-Y.—Remember that in these Eastern States, 
where the large yields of corn are obtained, the fields 
are comparatively small. The greater part of the 
work is done by hand and fertilizers are heavily used. 
One great reason is found in the varieties of corn 
used in New England. Many of these are flints 
•which have been bred and selected for 150 years or 
more. They are, in fact, pure-bred varieties exactly 
suited to the soil and climate. 
LIME AND SCABBY POTATOES. 
Last Spring, on page 337, J. T. H., of Connecticut, 
said lie got a good smooth crop of potatoes as the re¬ 
sult of using lime. There was little or no scab. This 
is against the usual result. He does not state whether 
his seed was smooth or scabby, neither does he say 
whether it was given any special treatment for the 
prevention of scab. Scabby seed is certain to pro¬ 
duce scab on the potatoes in my soil, whether I use 
lime or not, while smooth seed in freshly limed soil 
is sure to result in scab. Smooth seed planted in soil 
that has not been limed for three or four years re¬ 
sults in smooth, clean tubers. 
While in my experience scab has invariably fol¬ 
lowed liming, I have found that the effects of lime 
can be greatly if not entirely prevented by soaking 
the seed for 90 minutes in a solution of corrosive 
sublimate in the proportion of one ounce to six gal¬ 
lons of water. The editor, in commenting on the ex¬ 
periment of J. T. H., says that perhaps his soil may 
have been so sour to begin with that the lime did not 
make it fully alkaline. This may be true, but my ex¬ 
perience leads me to believe that it makes no differ¬ 
ence whether the soil is sweet or sour, acid or alkaline, 
there is danger of scab, unless corrosive sublimate is 
used to treat the seed. 
Lime has no doubt a value as a plant food, yet only 
in a small degree. It is not a fertilizer in the strict 
sense of the term, and its function in the soil is not so 
much to furnish plant food as to liberate other plant 
food, such as potash and phosphoric acid and others. 
This fact has been taught over and over by the dif¬ 
ferent experiment stations and tlie agricultural press, 
yet there are many who keep on applying lime again 
and again, with the notion that it is a fertilizer. In 
this locality there are farmers who have nearly ruined 
their land with lime. Of course, in time their ex¬ 
perience will no doubt teach them the correct usage 
of lime in farming. 
As a market gardener raising all kinds of truck, I 
have had considerable experience in noting the effect 
of lime on the different vegetables. Beets, cabbage, 
celery, lettuce, onions and peas are most benefited by 
it. It has been claimd that lime prevents club root 
in cabbage, but my experience has not proven that it 
does. Sweet corn and carrots show but little effects. 
CARE OF THE SPRAYER. 
As soon as the potato spraying is finished for the 
season it is well to drain the barrel thoroughly and 
then filling it full of clean water, pump until the noz¬ 
zles are well cleaned. These should now be removed 
and the clean water forced through the piping until-the 
barrel is nearly empty. Then drain it again and work 
the pump until no more water comes out of the pipes. 
After running the sprayer under shelter take out all 
the accessible valves and number them and their 
sockets to correspond; a colored pencil is good for 
this. The valves, together with the nozzles, plugs of 
the valve sockets and other loose parts may now be 
put into a little cloth bag and kept in ai safe place 
until Spring. Having the pump thus open will allow 
it to dry, and if made of iron, even though brass 
lined, will prevent rust from settling in the valve seats 
to cause trouble next Spring. A burlap sack should 
be placed over the pump to keep dust and chaff from 
the openings. If any repairs are necessary, get them 
now. In the Spring get the sprayer out a few days 
before it will be needed, replace the valves and fill 
with clean water. This should all be pumped through 
the piping before the nozzles are screwed on. Don’t 
be afraid to use plenty of oil wherever it should go. 
Attention to these points, in addition to carefully 
straining the spray mixture, may not solve every 
sprayer trouble, but it will certainly help. 
R. L. G. 
THAT HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
I was much interested in the article “Are Our 
High Schools ‘High’?” and letter of J. A. F. of 
Griggsville, Ill. I have had considerable experience 
in high school supervision, and consider the course 
as outlined in The R. N.-Y. a very good one 
for a general educational course of study for the 
corps of teachers employed in the high school. J. A. 
F. finds fault because it is prescribed by the State 
University, and thinks it is a college preparatory 
course. This shows the lack of experience on the 
part of J. A. F. A college preparatory or classical 
course of study in the high school necessarily includes 
four full years of Latin, four years of French, and 
three years of Greek or German. If J. A. F. had had 
the experience that some of us have, he would see 
that at least one year of Latin ought to be pre¬ 
scribed as absolutely essential to a good working 
knowledge of English. As to “so much ancient his¬ 
tory,” I cannot see how a well-balanced high school 
course could contain less than one year. The writer 
had three full years of the so-called “ancient history,” 
and only regrets that he did not have more. 
J. A. F. does not state what he thinks a high school 
course should contain. If he is looking for as broad 
an education as four years of study can give, without 
taking up manual training, commercial work, or other 
technical studies, how does he expect to do it with¬ 
out taking Latin, history or modern languages? A 
certain knowledge of history is absolutely necessary 
to every person who desires to be classed as edu¬ 
cated, and if a student is to specialize in technical 
branches of study and has not a foundation in a good 
English, as well as a mathematical training, he cer¬ 
tainly will soon find how he is handicapped when in 
competition with others who are well equipped with 
an all-around education. 
It is this great fault, lack of an all-around educa¬ 
September 7, • 
tion, which is to blame for a large part of the po¬ 
litical troubles in this country today. As the old 
adage has it, “History repeats itself,” and any person 
who knows how “mob dule” affected Rome, and 
France at the time of the French Revolution, must 
almost “shiver in his shoes” concerning certain hap¬ 
penings of the last few months. Who are to decide 
for us as to the requisites of a good education? 
Should it be the uneducated, who do not know what 
they need? Or should it be, a priori, those who 
know through experience? james e. smithson. 
Connecticut. _ 
“ A FIRST-CLASS TREE!” 
If Editor Collingwood succeeds in describing “a 
first-class tree” in definite terms he will succeed be-t- 
ter than anyone else so far has. The writer once 
upon a time applied to the head of the department of 
horticulture of a certain agricultural experiment sta¬ 
tion for a definition of “a first-class tree.” Briefly 
stated his answer was, that a first-class tree is as 
difficult of description as would be a first-class man. 
At best nursery stock cannot be grown with me¬ 
chanical precision, and only in a measure can the 
form or habit be controlled. If we are to have an 
exact “standard of excellence,” we must have a sepa¬ 
rate standard for every variety of apple grown; we 
must do as poultry fanciers, or purebred live stock 
breeders do. It would be as difficult to find a straight¬ 
trunked Rhode Island as it would be rare to see a 
good root system of a Northern Spy. Other things 
being equal the caliper of a Northern Spy would 
necessarily be less than that of a Northwestern Green¬ 
ing, because of the characteristic varietal differences 
in growth and habit. The writer would remind the 
experts that “76” is no longer the standard caliper in 
this State for a standard tree, but that “our friend 
the nurseryman” has considerately shaved off three- 
sixteenths of an inch—considerately because it saves 
freight to the “ultimate consumer”—so that to-day 
and for more than a year past caliper constituted 
the standard caliper of a standard tree—apple tree— 
two-year-old from bud; that is the practice at Ro¬ 
chester, N. Y., and probably the same at Dansville, 
Newark or other points of the industry. Hairy root 
gall is becoming more general, and woolly aphis in¬ 
fested roots are not rare in otherwise well-grown 
stock. 
A word concerning the “tree agent.” That much- 
abused mortal should not be made to bear the sins of 
the nursery trade; if his prices are too high, they are 
still the fixed and scheduled prices of his house—to 
agents. If the house undersells him, it’s no fault of 
his. Should he be held responsible for the substitu¬ 
tion and misfit labels in which he plays no part? On 
the other hand, his calling is no less honorable than is 
that of any other “knight of the road.” And what’s 
more, he should receive credit for his success in caus¬ 
ing much fruit to be grown that would not otherwise 
have been planted. c. f. bley. 
New York. _• 
HELPING NATURE MATURE CORN. 
There is a special prize offered by N. Y. C. It. It. ia the 
shape of a free trip to Ithaca, farmers’ week, for the best 
exhibit of Eight-row Indian corn. I have a fine field of 
Eight-row Longfellow flint. Can you give me any advice 
how to assist the maturing? It has tasseled well (August 
1G), stands from six to 7% feet tall, beginning to silk. 
New York. w. h. b. 
Occasionally a florist can hasten ripening of seed 
artificially by changing his plant to poor soil and 
giving it less water and more sunlight than it should 
have to finish its life cycle in the natural manner. 
Of course what he really does in this case is to pre¬ 
vent the storage of the normal amount of food ma¬ 
terial in the embryo or endosperm of the seed. The 
seed is made to show an apparent ripening before 
its time. It dries up while still immature. A few 
species will produce viable seeds in this manner, 
but in the majority of cases the percentage of germi¬ 
nation is cut down very seriously. And even though 
the seed should comprise the whole fruit, it would 
hardly be of blue ribbon quality. Where accessory 
parts are included in the fruit, such as grapes, 
squashes, etc.—they are noticeably poor in quality. 
When corn has begun to glaze, ripening may be 
hastened without much damage by topping the stalk 
above the ear and removing a few of the outer 
husks if these are very thick. A fe wdays later some 
of the remaining leaves may also be removed ad¬ 
vantageously. If, when the ears are finally harvested, 
the seeds should appear to be too loose on the cob, 
the ears should be dried in a current of air by arti¬ 
ficial heat. This treatment produces shrinkage of the 
cob and keeps the ear from appearing to have been 
harvested prematurely. Flanging the ears from the 
ceiling over the kitchen stove serves well enough. 
E. M. EAST. 
