206 
THED RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 15, 
SWEET POTATO FAILURE. 
W. M. S.J Maryland .—Last year I planted 
a large patch of sweet potatoes, Yellow 
Nansemond. The plants looked fine and 
full of roots. I set them in a good sandy 
soil, used a complete fertilizer, fish and 
potash. They grew finely, made a medium 
crop of vines and when I went to dig 
them 1 found from 20 to 30 potatoes the 
size of my finger and up ; from one to two 
large ones. Can you tell me anything about 
the cause? 
'Ans. —I cannot tell certainly as to the 
cause of N. M. S. having so large a 
setting of small sweet potatoes. There 
are a number of things that might aid 
in bringing about such a condition. 
First, his particular strain of the Y el- 
low Nansemond might have something 
to do with the extra heavy set of 
tubers. I have seen various strains of 
Beauty, Wagener or Duchess as fillers. 
The McIntosh, which you mention, is 
not a good filler, since it makes a large 
tree and comes in bearing rather late— 
much later than the sorts named above. 
I cannot advise you to use dwarf apples 
in a commercial plantation, experience 
and experiments very generally showing 
that standard apples make more profita¬ 
ble trees. The Winesap, about which 
you ask, cannot be grown profitably in 
New York. The trees do not bear well, 
the fruits are small and the apples do 
not color well. This variety belongs to 
the South and Southwest.” 
U. HEDRICK. 
Fruitgrower. Celebrated “Friend’ 
hand power sprayers—special inducements. 
“ Friend ” Co. of Gasport, N. Y.— Advertisement. 
CQTH ANNUAL STRAWBERRY CATA- 
wwloGCE, June andFall fruiting. Large st.oekof 
“ Superb ” and others. S. H. Warren, Aubnrndale, Mass. 
Yellow Jerseys grown here under the 
same conditions, and it is often surpris¬ 
ing to note the difference in the set of 
tubers. One strain would have two to 
six large potatoes per plant which would 
mature early, while others would have 
a dozen or more. Where this latter 
condition existed the potatoes were in¬ 
variably small and required a longer 
growing season in which to mature than 
those having a lighter set. There is a 
probability that W. M. S.’s potatoes did 
not have a sufficiently long growing sea¬ 
son in which to bring to maturity a fair 
proportion of the potatoes set. For the 
past three years we have grown sweets 
from seed which had been selected with 
a view to increase the yield. We find 
that these potatoes set very heavily, but 
we cannot dig in August or early Sep¬ 
tember, as do other growers with pota¬ 
toes that do not set so heavily. By 
holding them until late September and 
October, however, we find that a fair 
proportion of the tubers have attained 
a sufficient size to grade as No. 1. We 
also find that these potatoes must have 
plenty of plant food in order to bring 
out a full yield. Possibly W. M. S. 
has an over supply of nitrogen in his 
soil. He does not give the analysis of 
the fertilizer used, nor state whether 
manure had been used. We find that 
too much nitrogen and a heavy applica¬ 
tion of manure, made directly for 
sweets, will tend to make the tubers 
rooty, rough, and if set heavily, small 
in size. Sometimes, just after sweets 
have been cultivated for the last time, 
a heavy rain will come and wash soil 
over the vines and cause them to take 
root or “cap” about the top of the hill. 
Small potatoes will set where these 
roots enter the ground, and these, of 
course, grow at the expense of the 
larger tubers set from the main stem 
of the plant. To prevent this many 
growers go over the field and loosen 
the vines to prevent them from rooting 
at the top of the hill or ridge. 
TRUCKER, JR. 
Questions About an Apple Orchard. 
C. J. F; Yonkers, N. Y.—l have a farm 
in Wavae County, nearly all of which I 
recently set out to fruit. The apple trees 
are set at a spacing of 44 feet, in the 
center of each four apple trees a pear tree, 
and in the rows between each two apple 
trees, a cherry tree, the pears and cherries 
beiug- used as fillers. The entire width of 
one of the lots consists of a grade which 
is very steep, extending upward probably 
a distance of from 20 to 30 rods, sloping 
to the north. On this slope the pear trees 
do not seem to do well and we are con¬ 
sidering whether it would not be better to 
replace them with a dwarf apple, possibly 
the Wealthy or the McIntosh, but I am 
not familiar with either of these apples 
as to bearing, selling or keeping qualities. 
Would you suggest filling in with a dwarf 
apple tree or would it be better to use 
cherries entirely for filling in on this side 
hill? It has also been suggested to me 
that the Winesap is about the best mar¬ 
ketable apple at the present time, but I 
do not know whether it would be suitable 
for a filler, or, in fact, whether it is a 
dwarf apple. 
Ans. —This question was referred to 
Prof. U. P. Hedrick of the Geneva Sta¬ 
tion, who says: 
“In my opinion, you have made a 
mistake in using pears and cherries as 
fillers in an apple orchard. The experi¬ 
ence of the great majority of fruit 
growers is the different fruits cannot be 
mixed to advantage, since each requires 
quite different treatment.' Therefore, 
since you say your pears are not doing 
well in the apple orchard, 1 should re¬ 
plant with apples, using Wealthy, Rome 
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38 A Park PI. (Fa) New York 
Proprietor 
of 
W. L. McKAY 
THE VAN DUSEN NURSERIES 
GENEVA, 
NEW YORK 
NEW 
19 13 
Descriptive Catalogue 
FREE on 
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Mr. McKay is perhaps best known here 
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All the leading' varieties of Dwarf and Standard Apple Trees, also Pear, Plum, 
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CATALOGUE TO 
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Box R, 
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73rd 
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115 Reilly Road. l)an>vtile, N. Y.J 
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=== MAGNATE (New)== 
BEST PRODUCTION OF THE LATE DR. STAVMAN 
The most beautiful, uniformly Red Apple ever originated. Prices 
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carry a general line of Nursery Stock. 
SCHEER NURSERY, - - - LEAVENWORTH, KAN. 
