1913. 
TH ED RURAL NEW-YORKER 
306 
THE GASOLINE CULTIVATOR. 
Elsewhere in this issue we give a de¬ 
scription of the “Jumbo hen” or a new 
device for applying gasoline power to 
the work usually done by a horse and 
cultivator. In this device there is a 
scratching motion in place of the plow¬ 
ing or scraping usually done by the cul¬ 
tivator. Still another principle is worked 
out in the machine shown in the picture 
here. Here is a heavier machine work¬ 
ing a wider track with teeth somewhat 
like those used on a spring-tooth har¬ 
row. There is no seat for the driver— 
he walks behind with constant control 
over the direction and the motion of 
the machine. The spurs on the wheels 
enable the cultivator to walk off under 
its own power, dragging the teeth be¬ 
hind it. For orchard work a practical, 
light machine of this type would be 
wonderfully useful. It can be driven 
up close to the row of trees and quickly 
turned, while the work would be about 
like that of the spring-tooth harrow— 
perhaps the best orchard tool we have. 
We simply show this machine as a type 
of the new development in orchard tools, 
and the wonderful application of gaso¬ 
line power to practical farm work. 
Apples on Rough Land. 
E. W. B.j Windham, N. Y .—Can a rea¬ 
sonable success be had with apple trees 
planted on rough hill lots where plowing 
is impractical, as long' as they are given 
proper pruning, spraying, and mulching, 
etc., provided the laud is naturally of a 
good character aside from its difficulty of 
being worked? Wild trees on similar land 
are growing and doing very fairly well. 
When I say a “reasonable success” of course 
I mean that I should not expect such abun¬ 
dant crops as might follow with rough 
cultivation, but crops that would be profit¬ 
able when it is considered that the expenses 
are not so great. 
Ans. —Yes, if you are satisfied with 
a “reasonable success” it may be gained 
in this way. The presence of the wild 
seedlings shows that this is natural ap¬ 
ple land—well adapted to the crop. It 
will not do to plant trees on this hill¬ 
side and let them alone or merely prune 
and spray. Some substitute for good 
culture must be given, or the trees will 
not make good growth. A thick mulch 
of manure, hay, beans or weeds piled 
around the base of the tree is a substi¬ 
tute for culture, but on such land as 
you mention it is often hard to obtain 
this mulch. There should be the equiva¬ 
lent of a fair-sized hay-cock piled 
around trees three years old or more 
in order to take the place of culture. 
This mulch has its disadvantages, as 
vermin often nest under it and gnaw 
the trees. Such trees should be pro¬ 
tected by wrapping wire cloth around 
them and the mulch should be pulled 
away during Winter. 
On many such hills while all the 
surface cannot safely be plowed it is 
sometimes possible to plow two or three 
furrows along each side of the rows, 
leaving the middle unplowed. Then 
those narrow strips along the rows can 
be cultivated. Even if this cannot be 
done it will usually pay to hoe or dig 
a space several feet in diameter around 
each tree and keep this space clean of 
grass or weeds. This gives culture to 
the tree and will help protect it in case 
of fire. A fair but slow growth can be 
made without any culture at all if you 
feed the tree and keep mulch material 
around them, but the narrow plowed 
strips or the hoeing will quicken the 
trees and pay well for the labor. 
Planting With Dynamite. 
Perhaps my experience with dynamite 
for tree planting may be of interest. I 
set 500 peaches last Spring on the 
roughest possible piece of mountain 
land never plowed at least for a hun¬ 
dred years. About 10 years ago it had 
been lumbered over and then left to 
grow to brush, principally cedar, dog¬ 
wood and sassafras. A more discourag¬ 
ing site for an orchard it would be dif¬ 
ficult to imagine. We cut out the brush 
and with no small difficulty-staked out 
for the trees 18 feet each way. Then 
without further preparation we blasted 
a hole at each stake, using half a stick 
of 25 per cent dynamite, but even after 
the blast the hole was not ready for the 
tree. The soil had simply been loosened 
and shaken for a radius of two or three 
feet and as deep. It was necessary to 
take a grub hoe, chop out roots and 
half-loosened stumps, dig out stones and 
throw out the soil and then plant the 
tree. It was the first of May before we 
got all the trees in, and some of the 
last set had been waiting heeled in 
nearly a month. From the time the 
trees were set until the first of August 
they were never touched; not an hour’s 
work was put on them. The dogwood 
and other brush cut off in the Spring 
sprouted vigorously in places as high as 
a man’s shoulder. The lot looked like 
a wilderness again. August 1 we put in 
a gang and cut off all that brush close 
to the ground, and to our gratification 
the peaches had made a marvelous 
growth. Twenty-eight out of the 500 
were dead, but that loss I attribute to 
drying out while being held in so long. 
The live trees, most of them, looked as 
well as if they had been cultivated all 
Summer. The dynamite seemed to have 
been both cultivation and fertilizer. 
This Spring we propose to blast and 
dig out as many of the remaining stumps 
and roots as possible and then grub 
around each peach tree by hand. The 
land is still so full of stumps and 
sprouts- no plow could get through. 1 
think we are going to succeed in mak¬ 
ing a peach orchard there, and if we do 
the dynamite will have been a large fac¬ 
tor in our success. I ought to add that 
digging tree holes by dynamite is very 
slow work. It took much more time 
than I supposed, and the labor cost is 
high. Each stick of dynamite has to 
be cut in two, the paper at the end 
opened, a cap put on a piece of fuse, the 
fuse inserted in the dynamite, and then 
the paper at the end wrapped up again 
and tied. G. T. h. 
NEW TYPE GASOLINE CULTIVATOR. 
FIFTY YEARS’ UNPARALLELED RECORD, BOTH IN THE FIELD AND WITH THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
THE MAPES MANURES 
ABSOLUTELY CHOICEST OF MATERIALS. SEASONING. AND BEST METHODS OF MANUFACTURE 
AVAILABILITY WITHOUT ACIDITY NO ROCK OR ACID PHOSPHATES USED 
IN THE FIELD 
The record of The Mapes Manures in the field is too well known among our thousands of customers and friends, and with us we 
are glad to say the terms are practically interchangeable, as most of our good old customers have become our friends to require more than 
a reference to it. 
WITH THE EXPERIMENT STATIONS 
We are equally proud of our Record with the Stations. There may at times have been an occasional chance analysis which was 
not quite what we would have liked to have seen, and not as we believe fairly representative of our goods, but with the grand average we 
have no fault to find. 
This is in spite of the fact that Station methods and valuations from the very nature of the case must be broadly general to ap¬ 
ply to the general average of the class of goods examined, and can therefore never be expected to do entire justice to the user of particularly 
choice materials and unusual methods of manufacture. 
From the Annual Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, FERTILIZERS, 1912: 
“ MAPES FORMULA AND PERUVIAN GUANO CO.’S fifteen brands all fully meet their guarantees, with the exception of No. 553, in which a 
deficiency of 0.37 per cent, of Potash is fully offset by an overrun of 0.7 per cent. Nitrogen.” 
So strong a statement is not and could not be made of any firm which had an equal or greater number of brands. 
From Annual Bulletin No. 143, December, 1912, Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. Inspection of Commercial Fertilizers: 
(It publishes a table giving summary of results of analysis of complete fertilizers as compared with manufacturers’ guarantees). 
“MAPES FORMULA AND PERUVIAN GUANO CO. Number of brands analyzed, IS; number equal to guarantee in commercial value, 18.” 
That is, every one of The Mapes Brands are found to be equal to their guarantee in commercial value, and of no other company 
having an equal or a greater number of brands can this be said. 
It publishes another table bearing on the Nitrogen in the different brands analyzed. The Mapes F. & P. G. Co. show 90.26% 
as their percentage Activity of Total Nitrogen, which is the essential point. No other concern having an equal number or greater 
number of brands analyzed has anything like so high a percentage Activity of Total Nitrogen. 
It is unnecessary to say that The Mapes Manures have always been, and will always continue to be, while under the same man¬ 
agement, far above the average of fertilizers offered for sale. 
In speaking of this management, it is certainly interesting that not only have the Mapeses continued successively in the business 
for three generations, grandfather, father and son, but the Lanes, who have been associated with the Mapeses from the start, follow the 
same identical record in the business, grandfather, father and son, successively, and we ask—can our friends and customers have a better 
guarantee than this family management that everything has been done and will continue to be done to make the Mapes Manures as good 
as the present knowledge of fertilizer science permits for the crops for which they are intended. 
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THE MAPES FORMULA & PERUVIAN GUANO COMPANY, 143 Liberty St., New York 
