1913. 
THE RURAli NEW-YORKER 
Cold Storage for Kieffers. 
I note on page 1265 an inquiry regard¬ 
ing the storing of Kieffers pears. In 
October, 190.3, I stored several bushels 
of Kieffers for the Indiana exhibit at 
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 
They were shipped to Indianapolis, 140 
miles, held there in cold storage until 
Spring, then reshipped to St. Louis and 
again put in storage. When taken out 
at the opening of the Fair in May, 
1904, 95 per cent, were found to be in 
marketable condition, and 65 per cent, 
were suitable for show fruit, thus dem¬ 
onstrating that they can be kept satis¬ 
factorily for any reasonable length of 
time. 
And now allow me a word of praise 
for this much-maligned pear. I will 
admit that it can never be classed with 
the Seckel and Bose for quality, but in 
sturdy vigor and productiveness it has 
them outclassed, and if properly handled 
it is of very fair quality. The mistake 
most growers make is in leaving them 
on the tree too long. They should be 
picked as soon as the change from the 
flat green color shows that they are 
mature. If allowed to hang longer they 
develop the gritty substance so fre¬ 
quently found which can never be 
ripened out. If well grown, picked 
early and properly ripened, they will 
color a bright lemon yellow, usually with 
a red cheek, and be soft and smooth to 
the core—a very attractive and really 
edible fruit for which there is always 
a place in the market. H. h. s. 
Indiana. 
Phosphate and Manure. 
77. F. II., Bridgehampton, N. y.—I keep 
about 20 milch cows all the time. An 
agent wanted to sell me acid phosphate 
analysis total acid phosphate 16%, availa¬ 
ble acid phosphate 14%, delivered at his 
station for §12.25 per ton cash, in 125 
pound bags. lie told me to mix this with 
manure and apply so that p00 pounds acid 
phosphate is put on an acre. How much 
better would this make the manure? What 
do you think of the price and analysis? 
Ans. —This price is fair for genuine 
phosphate. It will, without question, 
help the manure to add the phosphate, 
for stable manure is deficient in both 
phosphoric acid and potash. We should 
scatter the acid phosphate over the ma¬ 
nure pile as it is made up, and it will 
also pay you to add muriate of potash | 
in the same way. If you can use enough 
of it to give 200 pounds of muriate in 
the manure for each acre you will have 
a good combination. 
“ Baldwin Spot” in Apples. 
iV. .4. 77., Allentown, Pa .—Do you know 
of a cure for the brown spots which form 
beneath the skin of the Baldwin and King 
apples? These spots only show up after 
the apple is peeled and are always found 
on the most highly colored part of the 
apples; look like smallpox, mostly runs one- 
eighth of an inch deep, but some times it 
will run through to the core. It must be 
caused by the sun in some way, for I have 
not found the spots except where the apple 
is mostly colored. 
Ans. —This is a constitutional fault 
that occurs in the Baldwin, Pennock and 
some other varieties of the apple and 
is commonly known as the “Baldwin 
spot.” It is a trouble that comes from 
a constitutional disorder in the cells 
within, and not from a fungus or other 
outside influence, and there is no way 
to stop or prevent it by spraying, as 
there would be if there were germs on 
the outside. There arc no germs of dis¬ 
ease on the inside, but a mere breaking 
down of the normal cellular formation. 
Some seasons and under certain condi¬ 
tions the trouble is worse than at others. 
Warm weather seems to induce it. In 
the cooler States there is less of it than 
in those farther south. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
A Septic Tank Question. 
/>. V. V., Boonton, N. J .—I am contem¬ 
plating building a septic tank for the care 
of the sewage from a household of live, 
with bath, etc. I have read what you have 
printed on the matter with interest; the 
books also tell how to build them. Here 
is my difficulty : I wish to dispose of the 
diluent by sub-surface irrigation in my gar¬ 
den. The books say that the tiles for this 
purpose should be within a foot of the sur¬ 
face—the bottom of the tile—so as to se- 
cure the necessary oxygenizing effect. The 
aerobic bacteria won’t work without air. 
Now will these necessary microbes work at 
such a depth as will permit the use of a 
plow over the tiles? 
Ans. —While it is best to keep drain 
tile carrying the effluent from a septic 
tank within a foot of the surface of the 
soil, to insure the presence of necessary 
air, this depth may be slightly exceeded 
if need be, and you should have no 
trouble if you give the ditches a depth 
of 15 or 16 inches, particularly as you 
are going to place them in a garden 
where the soil is frequently plowed and 
aerated. By using three-inch tile you 
will still have a foot of soil over them, 
and, as few gardens are ever plowed to 
that depth, they should be perfectly safe. 
M. B. D. 
A TREE AGENT TALKS BACK. 
As I am a reader of your paper, which 
1 think is right in every respect, and being 
interested in trees and shrubs, roses, etc., 
I have been very much interested in the 
articles about the tree agents. No doubt 
the stories are ail true, or partly so at 
least. I have sold trees or nursery stock 
in cities, small towns and among the 
farmers for the past 10 years,, sold for 
seven years for one firm of Rochester, N. 
Y., then went into business for myself. I 
am what you would call a dealer at present. 
But I look back over the years I have 
spent canvassing as the pleasantest years 
of my life. I have heard wonderful stories 
about fruit tree agents from the lips of 
farmers, until I asked a farmer’s wife, 
who had said all agents were dishonest, 
if she ever saw a dishonest farmer’s wife. 
And then she commenced about her neigh¬ 
bors. After listening a few minutes I told 
her I would hurry out of the neighborhood. 
I do not believe that anyone has to use 
anything but honest methods to sell nursery 
Stock. But I have felt sometimes like stir¬ 
ring things when the honest farmer gives 
me an order for Spring delivery and adds 
when he signs it that “my money will be 
ready, when my stock is delivered.” But 
at delivery lie asked me to wait until after 
harvest for my pay. Referring to the article 
about the agents called “sprouted” it seems 
strange that farmers are so easy to be¬ 
lieve such line of talk to-day or any other 
day. Farmers a great many times will 
commence to worry me about prices, and 
this is what I tell them: it is not the 
price of the tree they need to worry over, 
but whether they can take^proper care of 
the tree when they get it. If they cannot 
give the tree proper care and are not in 
earnest in regard to raising an orchard 
I will not talk to them any longer. I 
have found out trees given to some people 
cost them time of planting, then when dry 
weather comes the stock dies, whereas I 
have sold first-class apples at §40 per hun¬ 
dred which have been set carefully on good 
plowed ground and then cultivated as corn 
should be cultivated, and in five years have 
a line orchard; to my mind this last ex¬ 
ample got his trees the cheapest. 
The peach tree sold and delivered to a 
farmer’s residence in one-half dozen to 
dozen lots at 25 cents, when properly 
planted and cared for. is a good investment. 
Very often people ask me how long it will 
be before they will get fruit from trees 
bought from me, and my answer always is 
“It all depends on you. If you are in 
earnest and cultivate the tree as you should 
you will get fruit in three to five years. 
But. I have found some people who can’t 
raise anything but mischief, try as hard 
as they can.” I remember when I first 
commenced to take orders I called upon a 
man and tried to sell to him. lie was 
thinking of planting two or three hundred 
peach trees, and asked me about prices and 
33 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
he bad made a great mistake in not giving 
him an order, as ho no doubt would have a 
full Hedged orchard right from the start, 
with trees running from eight to 10 feet 
high. It would seem that this farmer 
would have known better than to believe 
the three and four year story about peach 
trees. Then I told him that I had planted 
pits in the Fall and the third year from 
planting had peaches to eat from the tree. 
I sometimes think that farmers buy nursery 
stock just for the sake of buying. I see 
trees every day planted last Spring In 
fence corners and other out-of-the-way 
places on the farm, very often planted in 
the old orchard between old trees, and in 
an old sod, and pieces of fence rail driven 
into the ground and a few sticks nailed 
on to keep the hogs from destroying the 
young trees. Such planting and such care 
will never get anything, and is a waste of 
money. T talked to one farmer who had 
been planting trees and staking them in an 
old orchard, and was complaining to me 
that they all died. T told him what killed 
them. lie wanted to know and my answer ! 
was they died from homesickness and I 
think I would have died from that 
disease just from staying there and looking 
into the old orchard. It contained the 
hogs, calves, two big horned sheep, chicken 
coops, two worn-out thrashing machines, 
two old worn-out lumber wagons and old 
liay-rake, posts, barrels, boards of all 
lengths and loads of brush and other rub¬ 
bish. He said to me “When was the best 
time to trim his orchard,” and I told 
him there were 52 days in each year which 
I would not advise to trim his trees, and 
then he wanted to know the days and I 
said Sundays. c. a. barnes. 
Michigan. 
Pruning High Heads down. —I have an 
orchard of 70 York Imperials, planted in 
the Spring of 1907. They have been fairly 
well cared for, have had intelligent prun¬ 
ing, and are thrifty. But they were headed 
too high in the beginning. The first 
branches start at 434 feet from the ground 
and the average height of the trees from 
ground to apex is 11% feet. With refer¬ 
ence to future pruning, what would you 
advise? Would you. as has been done in 
the past, continue to cut off a half or a 
third of the season’s growth of all the 
terminals? By careful cutting of laterals 
to outside buds would there be a chance 
of getting a much greater horizontal 
spread and so keeping the heads at least 
as low as they were started? in trees 
that have been planted from three to five 
years does pruning practice varv much as 
between York Imperials, Paragons, Stayman 
Winesap and Grimes Golden? t.' p. 
SKIPPED HILLS RAISE 
NO POTATOES 
Every hill you miss in planting ^ 
means money lost out 
your pocket. No ma¬ 
chine can plant per¬ 
fectly unless there 
is hand cor- 
of 
'<1 
rection 
misses 
and 
doub- 
1 e s. 
10 to 50 
bushels 
more to 
acre, 
using 
A 
seed 
Piece in 
every space 
. and one only. No 
pickers used—no in¬ 
jury to seed. Perfect 
placing of seed and uniform 
spacing. Can’t you see that 
it must pay for itself ? 
Write for new bookler, 
" loo per cent potato 
plantingrWc. make full 
line Potato Machines, 
Garden Tools, Sprayers, 
etc. 
SATEMAN M’F’G CO. 
Pox 1025 6renloch, N. J. 
“ 1 Saved Money on 
that Steel Roof ” 
That is what you will say if 
you buy your roofing from us. 
We deal direct with you—No 
middlemen. We have no agents, 
pay no commissions and cut out all unnec¬ 
essary selling expense. What we save in 
this way is your gain. 
Because of this we do not have to sac¬ 
rifice quality to make the price. We make 
nothing but the highest grade of Galvan¬ 
ized Steel Roofing. It is all guaranteed 
brand new, equal to our samples and ex¬ 
actly as represented.. Wo absolutely guar¬ 
antee satisfaction or your money back and 
We Pay the Freight 
Let us show you that we can put at least one profit 
in your pocket. Send for samples of Galvanized Steel, 
complete roofing book with directions and freight-prepaid 
prico list FREE. 
The Ohio Galvanizing & Manufacturing Company 
25 Ann St., Niles, Ohio 
varieties. I told him, or gave the price, 
then he asked me how old my peach trees 
were, and I told him two-year roots, one 
year from bud, and he seemed surprised 
that I sold such young trees and said that 
there was a man along last week that sold 
■peach trees three and four years old. Then 
I was surprised to think he would believe 
such a story, and I replied that I thought 
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Berliner Gramophone Co., Montreal, Canadian Distributors. 
f 
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