>80 
THE: RURAb NEW-YORKEfi 
ORCHARD COVER CROP. 
J. P. C.j Spcnccrport, N. Y .—I have an 
apple orchard of 4% acres in good condi¬ 
tion; harvested 450 barrels in 1911, and 
430 in 1912, mostly Baldwins, but 35 trees 
of Twenty Ounce, and 10 trees of Pippins. 
The orchard was given clean cultivation for 
several years until 1911, when I let the 
clover and weeds grow except as the sheep 
kept it eaten down. Last year I culti¬ 
vated it till middle of July, when I seeded 
with Mammoth clover, Winter vetch, and 
Cow-horn turnips with a good catch follow¬ 
ing. I would like to leave it without 
plowing this Rummer and manure. What 
do you advise? The Summer of 1911. when 
it was not plowed gave me a nice yield with 
no great amount of drop. In fact I thinned 
quite a lot. The land is sandy to gravelly 
loam. If I plow would you advise early 
plowing, or wait until the clover and vetch 
has a chance to grow, say knee high? 
Ans. —If this orchard were on our 
farm we would let the clover and vetch 
grow, clipping it off several times during 
the Summer—the clippings to remain on 
the ground. This form of mulching will 
hold the moisture and the growth of 
clover will help the ground. If you de¬ 
cide to plow we should wait until the 
clover is a foot high at least. 
Crab Apples and Quinces in New Jersey. 
V. li., Ramsey, N. J .—Would it pay me 
to plant, say 100 crab apples, and 100 
quinces for market? I know that there is 
a pretty good demand for the crab apples 
in the Paterson, N. J., markets. I want 
to know if there is any drawback in rais¬ 
ing both fruits'. 
Ans. —From our own experience we 
would advise against planting either 
crab apples or quince for market. We 
find but a poor sale for crabs. Prices 
run low. The quince is a very uncertain 
crop. There is a fair demand for the 
fruit, but the trees are uncertain and 
hard to keep in bearing. 
Saving Leaves; Fencing in Possums. 
E. IF., Ch'ay, N. C. —1. On the face of 
the Blue Ridge, where the leaves accumu¬ 
late in coves, how would it do to dig 
trenches and cover them up to get humus 
in the soil? Also to keep them from get¬ 
ting burned up by forest fires? 2. I have 
some rough mountain land that has lots 
of fruit and persimmons, poke berries, that 
1 want to fence for ’possum and skunk 
raising. How can I fence it so as to hold 
them? Can they be raised together? 
Ans. —1. Where the lay of the land 
is right and the forests furnish leaves 
that will stay in quantities there is no 
doubt that they will add humus to the 
soil. But to dig ditches and cover them 
up after being filled with leaves seems 
rather an expensive method of getting 
the humus. To plow them under would 
seem to be a cheaper way, provided the 
leaves will lie on the land in quantities 
to pay for the work. 
2. As to fencing in land on which 
wild fruits grow so that ’possums will 
stay inside and pay for the trouble is 
a brand new thought in the line of fancy 
stock and fruit growing combined. Im¬ 
agine a fence that would be ’possum- 
proof! It would have to be fitted with 
a projecting top like that for a bear 
den, and the ’possums could then hold 
on by their tails and perhaps climb over 
anyhow. Skunk farming is an old myth 
and ’possum farming may be not only a 
newer myth but one even farther 
fetched. H. e. van deman. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Seeding to Clovek.—N oticing what Mr. 
Hardy says (page 104), in regard to seed¬ 
ing to clover, I would say that the only 
failure I ever made in getting a stand of 
clover was in sowing on frosted ground on 
Fall grain. I have often heard that oats 
are a poor crop to seed down with, but 
I never had a failure to get a good stand 
of clover with oats. When I was manag¬ 
ing a large stock farm and growing nothing 
but what I could feed I grew a great many 
oats, and I found that sowing clover seed 
on freshly prepared land after drilling the 
oats made the stand sure. But I always 
sowed 15 pounds of seed an acre. My 
neighbors wondered at what they called a 
waste of seed, but my crops were'always so 
much ahead of their’s that the difference in 
the cost of seed was negligible. I had 
said that I never saw clover sown too 
thickly, but I had once to back down. I 
bad a negro using the Cahoon seeder and 
as I had to go elsewhere for a short time 
I pointed out a certain line across the 
field and told him I estimated that at about 
four acres, and I wanted him to sow there 
a bushel of seed. On my return he had 
finished, and I asked where were the rest 
of the seed. “Why, Boss, you told me to 
sow a sack there,” and he had actually sown 
a bushel of seed an acre. That clover fairly 
lifted the soil and was really too thick, 'i 
always aimed to sow as soon as possible 
after the oats were in, and before any 
rain, and then the fresh land would be well 
covered with the next rain, but if the soil 
was dry I usually ran a smoothing harrow 
over, but did not roll, as my land was 
hilly and inclined to wash and rolling would 
leave loose spots for the rain to start a 
wash. On level land I would roll after 
seeding. 
Game Laws. —Laws for the protection of 
our insectivorous birds are all right, but 
laws for the protection of predatory ani¬ 
mals for the sole benefit of the hunters are 
all wrong. Down here we have no deer 
as they have in Connecticut, but our law 
protects rabbits, that are always a nuis¬ 
ance and would never be exterminated with¬ 
out a close season. The result is that the 
rabbits invade our gardens and eat our 
cantaloupes and we dare not shoot them. 
In North Carolina rabbits are extremely 
plentiful, and yet people are allowed to 
shoot them at any time, and such is their 
prolific nature that the game laws simply 
maintain a nuisance to orchardists and 
gardeners. I live just inside the city lim¬ 
its, and yet the rabbits run all around 
me in the close season, and I have to 
scare them with a Winchester loaded with 
fine shot, but have never killed one at that 
timp. I think that in any section the 
courts would sustain a man in the pro¬ 
tection of his premises from deer or rab¬ 
bits. 
Kilx-Diued Sweet Potatoes. —I was 
rather amused at Trucker Jr. (page 17(5), 
saying that he knew nothing about kiln- 
dried sweet potatoes, and then going right 
on to describe what is commonly known as 
kiln-drying. Here our growers all have 
these curing houses and it has regulated the 
market for sweet potatoes very nicely, and 
yet in the great sweet potato-growing' coun¬ 
ties south of us, Accomac and Northampton, 
Va., they do not seem to have caught the 
idea and still rush their potatoes into 
market in the Fall, and often get poor 
prices, and depend on keeping them in hills 
or mounds in Winter and often at a loss 
of seed. The kiln drying is simply dry¬ 
ing off the sweat after storing at a high 
temperature, and I have found that 45 to 
50 is warm enough afterwards, as 55 would 
start sprouts. 
The Winter. —This is the eighth day of 
February, and we have not had a snow¬ 
flake since Christmas Eve, and then only 
enough to whiten the ground. Not a cloudy 
day since February began, but frosty nights 
and sunny days. The highest temperature 
in January was 72 and the lowest 22 in 
the morning, and soon above the freezing 
point after the sun rose. What late Feb¬ 
ruary and March will do for us remains to 
be seen. But this has been the longest 
spell without any snow in Winter that I 
can remember. 
The Hen Nuisance. —I can sympathize 
with the correspondent of the Hope Farm 
man about the hens. My neighbors let 
chickens run at large and they run into 
my garden. As soon as I see one there I 
bring out my little Winchester and begin 
to shoot, and they run at once after the 
hen, for I do not shoot to kill the poor 
hen but simply to scare the owners, and 
finally of late they seem to have become 
shy of my garden. I have notified them 
that hereafter I shall shoot at the hens to 
kill. 
Cement Silos. —I have tried them and 
want no more of them. When I was man¬ 
aging a large stock farm I had three cement 
silos each holding 200 tons. I found that 
the constant condensation of moisture on 
the cement walls damaged the silage on the 
edges all around. 1 have used wooden 
ones since or had them used by my asso¬ 
ciates in the college and station, and never 
saw anything like this in a wooden silo. 
If a wooden stave Silo is kept coated out¬ 
side with cement wash and inside with 
boiled oil it will last a long time. The 
wooden stave silo is not only cheaper but is 
far better than a cement one. Hollow ce¬ 
ment blocks may do better than the solid 
cement or concrete wails that I had. but 
the difference in cost is a serious item to 
the average farmer. w. F. Massey. 
Maryland. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
1ICHIGAN 
mclover: 
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desc. catalog and price list. 
L S. M. Isbell & Co. 
323 Pearl Street 
Jackson, Mieln^^F' I |«A 
B _ _ _ Need little attention and pay big profits 
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rdrm Box 350. Medina, Ohio. 
Pure Field Seeds 
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A. C. HOYT & CO., FOSTOllIA, Ohio 
WEEDLESS FIELD SEEDS 
Are what we are trylmr harder than ever to furuiah our cus¬ 
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0. M. SCOTT b SON, SO Main Street, MARYSVILLE, OHIO 
ICARFF’S 
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1 Fully describes the 
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W.N. SCAKFF, Now Carlisle, Ohio 
CLOVER s 4ffi 
INVESTIGATE—Bail and Cheapest Seeding Known. 
Alsike Clover and Timothy mixed. Fully 1-3 alsike, a big 
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Write for Free Sample and 76-page catalog and circulars 
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A. A. BERRY SEED CO., Box 560, Clarinda, Iowa 
MELILOTUS 
(SWEET CLOVER) 
One of the very best soil restorers known, excel¬ 
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III r ■ I pj| All northern grown, guaranteed to 
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WING SEED CO., Box 823 ■ Machanicsburg,0. 
Choice Home Grown 
Field Seeds 
direct from the farmer to the 
user. All seeds best possible 
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Write for samples and prices 
N. WERTHEIMER & SONS, 
Ligonier, Ind. 
February 22, 
SEED 
f b 0 'u°r seed potatoes 
Don't look for that heaviest yielder any 
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I. L. WARE, - - Gardiner, Maine 
potatoes, disease-proof# Read’s Goldenflake 
Golden Gem, and PcachMow. New varieties 
wondors. Sold direct. Write for facte. G. A 
READ, Read’s Exp. Farms, Charlotte, Vermont 
ODD SEEDS 
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Prices Below All Others 
I will give a lot of new 
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Over 700 illustrations of vege¬ 
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_ __ j_ and your neighbors’ addresses. 
R. H. SHUMWAY, Rockford, Illinois 
Gregory Vegetables Win 
You will win next fall by grow- 1 r\ 
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Edmond's Beet, Crosby Sweet Corn, 
Mammoth Butter Lettuce, Earliest 
Scarlet Radish, Spinach Swiss Chard, 
‘ also Gregory's Famous Hubbard 4 
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6 Large Packets of Choicest Seeds for 10c J 
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J. J. H. GREGORY & SON £esr 
23G Elm St.. Marblehead, Maas. 
•« FREE BOOK 
ALFALFA 
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‘‘Alfalfa—Wonder Crop,” Is (he title of a new book 
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SEED CORN THAT GROWS 
We have especiallyconstructed buildings 
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-BOX 66- 
Coldwater, N. Y. 
HARRIS 
SEEDS 
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Seed Oats. Two kinds proven best by test. Grain weighing 40-45 lbs. 
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Address EDWARD F. DIBBLE, Seedgrower, Box B, Honeoye Falls, N.Y. 
