1913. 
“ WHIP-GRAFTING” AND SCIONS. 
When is the best time to cut scions from apple trees to 
be used for top-grafting, and how best keep them until 
used? J* *» 
Both questions are answered in a little pamphlet 
issued by the Geneva Experiment Station. The pic¬ 
ture at Fig. 61 is taken from this pamphlet, which 
describes the process: 
“The whip graft used on nursery stock and small 
limbs is easily made, and because of the several 
uniting edges is very apt to form a good union. The 
stock ought to be cut off just above a smooth place 
so that no knots or shoulders will interfere with the 
work, and a section should be cut diagonally from 
one side an inch and one-half to two inches in length. 
About half an inch from the end of the stock cut, 
but do not split, a tongue about half an inch long. 
The objection to splitting the tongue is that it leaves 
a rough surface which will not tit tightly to the scion. 
The base of the scion is prepared in the same way 
as the stock except that the first diagonal cut extends 
clear across the stick. The two are then fitted 
firmly together, care being taken to match the grow¬ 
ing parts along one side. The union should be wound 
with common twine or, if available, waxed string, and 
then thoroughly waxed. After growth is well started, 
usually in June, the strings under the wax should be 
cut to prevent girdling. This may be 
done by drawing a sharp knife up the 
back side of the graft. 
‘‘The whip, or tongue, graft is used 
almost universally in root grafting. The 
roots of apple seedlings are cut into 
pieces about four or five inches long and 
scions are prepared of the same length. 
The process is the same as in top-work¬ 
ing except that no wax is used, the 
grafts being packed away in damp moss 
in sand in a cool cellar until Spring, 
when they are planted in nursery rows, 
leaving only the upper bud above ground. 
Sometimes a whole root is used instead 
of the short pieces.” 
The best time to cut wood for graft¬ 
ing is during the Fall—from mature 
wood—keeping the scions buried in sand 
until needed. 
FIGHTING FROST. 
As Spring approaches each year there 
is always more or less anxiety among 
the farmers and fruit raisers in relation 
to the danger of the fruit being killed 
by frost, and as successful methods of 
saving fruit by means of heat are at¬ 
tracting a great deal of attention I shall 
relate my method of heating orchards, 
and perhaps it may be of value to others. 
Having lived in a coal mining region, 
I was able to procure a number of empty 
powder cans. These were of iron and 
had a capacity of 25 pounds of blasting 
powder. By securing the services of a 
few small boys living at the mines I 
was able, with little trouble, to secure 
all the empty cans required at a cost 
of one cent each. After delivery to me, 
with tinners’ shears I cut out the top 
of the can and attached a wire bail for 
carrying. Our intention, in order to 
heat an orchard, was to build fires in 
these cans and hang them on the lower limbs of the 
fruit trees on the windward side. We prepared these 
cans for orchard heating as follows: Before filling 
with inflammable material a number of holes were 
punched in the sides of the cans for the creation of 
a draft. After cans were prepared a small amount 
of excelsior or shavings was placed in the bottom, 
on which was placed some pine kindling wood, and 
on this nut coal, after which cans were attached to 
lower limbs of trees, but not close enough for the 
heat to injure limbs or foliage. A good plan is to 
use old baled hay wire to hang cans in trees. The 
wire can be easily attached to the bail and limb. 
It is well to have all cans prepared and stored in 
a dry place, and as soon as the temperature reaches 
the danger point the cans should be lighted from a 
hole in the bottom. After all cans are placed and 
fired the nut coal makes a bed of hot coals and the 
attendant should go to each can as soon as a bed of 
hot coals is formed and place thereon slack coal. 
This creates heat and much smoke. The smoke makes 
a blanket over the orchard which retains the heat. 
West Virginia. f. e. peterson. 
R. N.-Y.—A number of readers report success with 
the use of oil heaters—which are cans or little stoves 
for burning oil—placed on the ground throughout the 
orchard. 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
THE NEW YORK OLEOMARGARINE LAW. 
Has there been any change in the State law restricting 
the use of oleomargarine during the last 10 years? I 
would like to know what the law is at the present time 
in regard to this matter. The law has been, and is, a 
shame and disgrace to this commonwealth, inasmuch as it 
in effect allows one class of citizens to prescribe to another 
class of citizens what they shall and what they shall not 
cat, and this solely for the financial benefit of the former 
class. You may say that this is an overdrawn statement 
and cannot be shown to be true in fact, but it is easily 
Substantiated in the actual working of the law. 
I was informed 10 years ago by a State officer that 
the law forbids an employer to place oleo before an 
employe, or to use it on his own table if an employe 
was present, and it was no defense even if the employe 
expressed a desire for it; the fine being .$200 for ach 
and every meal at which it was present, and half to go 
to the informant. This being true, an employer who hires 
a company of laborers by the month with board is robbed 
according to law by the dairy class, who force him to 
buy their product at whatever price it may command, 
when a cheaper article would be equally satisfactory to 
Ids men, and according to high authority would not prove 
injurious to their general health; and furthermore, the 
application of this law falls not only upon the employer 
of laborers or any other person providing board, public 
or private, but upon each and every householder who 
employs a domestic servant. 
We, of course, expect the agricultural papers to uphold 
the laws that work for the benefit of the majority of 
their subscribers, but I have never seen this law pub¬ 
lished in any of them, or its provisions referred to. Such 
an outrage against a large class of the commonwealth 
certainly could not be perpetrated in the light of day. 
It would appear that the dairy class does not hesitate 
to add to the already high cost of living for all other 
classes by an iniquitous tax upon the manufacture of a 
rival product, and for fear that tlds will not fully 
accomplish its purpose, they have actually placed a fine 
upon another class, who are consumers, so heavy that if 
enforced against an innocent transgressor, and there are 
multitudes of them, his earthly effects would vanish like 
the morning dew. I cannot believe that dairymen as a 
class have knowledge of this law. L. h. hallock. 
There is a prevalent misconception of the New 
York State law governing the manufacture and sale 
of oleomargarine; many thinking, as the inquirer ap¬ 
parently does, that this law was framed solely in the 
interests of dairymen who wished to prevent the use 
of a rival product. As a matter of fact, the law is 
designed to protect the public from imposition upon 
the part of manufacturers of butter substitutes, and 
from being compelled unwittingly to partake of a 
substance under the guise of butter which they would 
refuse if its true nature were known to them. The 
manufacture, sale and use of oleomargarine, as oleo¬ 
margarine, is not forbidden, and anyone is at perfect 
liberty to place it before his employes, whether they 
number one or a hundred, without any restrictions 
other than such as have been found necessary to pre¬ 
203 
vent its being palmed off upon those employes as 
genuine butter. Whatever claims for the purity and 
wholesomeness of oleomargarine may be made by its 
manufacturers, the fact remains that it is essentially 
imitation butter, and an imitation which without re¬ 
strictive laws would be sold as butter, instead o£ 
upon its own merits as a substitute for that product 
The law pertaining to the manufacture and sale of 
oleomargarine may be found in Sections 38 to 41* 
and 53 and 54 of Article III of the Agricultural Law. 
These may be summarized as follows: 
Section 38 provides that no person shall make, of 
offer for sale for human food, any substance, other 
than that made from pure, unadulterated milk or 
cream, in semblance, or in imitation of butter. 
Note that this section does not prohibit the manu¬ 
facture and sale of oleomargarine, as oleomargarine 
but that it does prohibit its manufacture in imitation 
or semblance of butter. 
Section 39 provides that no person shall adulterate 
natural butter with other animal fats, or animal or 
vegetable oils not produced from milk or cream, or 
make any oleaginous substance not produced front 
milk and cream, with the intent to sell the same a s 
butter or cheese, the product of the dairy: that n® 
person shall color oleomargarine, or any other 
similar product, so that it shall resemble 
natural butter or cheese, the product of 
the dairy; that no person shall manu¬ 
facture or sell renovated, or “process" 
butter without conspicuously labeling it 
as such, and that no person shall sell 
dairy products containing improper pre¬ 
servatives, or offer for sale any sub¬ 
stance to be used in violation of any of 
the provisions of this chapter. 
Section 40 provides that no keeper of 
a place of public entertainment, or per¬ 
son furnishing board for any others 
than members of his own family, or for 
any employes, where such board forms 
part of their compensation, shall serve 
as food any substance made in violation 
of any of the provisions of this article, 
and it further provides that any keeper 
of a place of public entertainment who 
serves therein oleomargarine, or any 
other substitute for butter, not pro¬ 
hibited by law, shall print upon the bill 
of fare, and post conspicuously in the 
room, the words “Oleomargarine Used 
Here.” 
It is again to be noted that this sec¬ 
tion does not forbid the use of butter 
substitutes, but only of such substitutes 
as are made in imitation of butter, and 
that it does permit tl.c use of oleomar¬ 
garine, or similar substances, under such 
restrictions as shall prevent their being 
•foisted upon employes, or upon the pub¬ 
lic, as genuine butter. 
Section 41 provides that no person 
shall artificially color butter substitutes 
in imitation of butter, or deliver with 
such substitutes any coloring matter 
which might be used for that purpose; 
that no terms indicative of cows, breeds 
of cattle, or of the processes used in the 
dairy, shall be used upon any brand of 
butter substitutes. Such substitutes 
shall not be sold in packages weighing more than five 
pounds each, or without stamping upon each separate 
brick or parcel thereof, by indentation, the word 
“Oleomargarine.” Each separate portion shall be 
placed in a sealed wrapper bearing the word “Oleo¬ 
margarine” in plain letters, and the seal shall bear 
f he name and address of the manufacturer. This 
section also prescribes the penalties for violations of 
the law, these penalties being severe. 
Sections 53 and 54 prohibit the use of butter sub¬ 
stitutes in certain public institutions partially or 
wholly supported by public funds. 
Careful reading of the above provisions of the 
Agricultural Law will show that they are not de¬ 
signed for the purpose of forbidding the manufacture 
and sale of oleomargarine, but for the prevention of 
its fraudulent substitution for butter, particularly in 
places of public entertainment. The use of butter 
substitutes, as such, when not made to resemble 
butter, and under such restrictions as shall prevent 
their being foisted upon the public as genuine butter, 
is not forbidden, and they are so used. 
A bill has recently been introduced into Congress, 
one of the provisions of which would reduce the tax 
upon oleomargarine from 10 cents to one cent per 
pound. This reduction is being advocated in deference 
to the sentiment favoring the reduction of the cost 
of living, and by those who for years have endeavored 
to secure legislation which would prevent the fraudu¬ 
lent substitution of oleomargarine for butter. 
M. B. DEAN, 
PARCEL POST AS IT IS IN CONNECTICUT. Fig. 62 . 
A GUERNSEY BUILT FOR BUSINESS. Fig. 63. 
