306 
March 1. 
THE) RURAL NEW-YORKKH 
Hope Farm Notes 
[The third part of the nous on "The Badger 
State ” will he printed next week.'] 
Can you give me the names of several 
nurserymen who will be perfectly sure to 
send me trebs true to name and never make 
mistakes? s. b. k. 
No, I have never met such exalted char¬ 
acters. I would travel many miles just to 
look at a man who never makes mistakes. 
The nursery business is peculiar. It deals 
With living things and with things which 
even an expert has trouble to separate 
when they are starting. Then again the 
work of delivering crowds into a short 
season and the nurseryman cannot always 
obtain skilled labor for sorting and packing. 
He cannot do all his own budding and sort¬ 
ing and digging. The liability to make 
mistakes Is greater in the nursery business 
than in most others even with the best of 
care. 
So I cannot name this new and im¬ 
proved variety of nurseryman. All we can 
do is to name men who really try to handle 
their business carefully and honorably. If 
I met a nurseryman who was willing to 
“guarantee” just about everything I should 
be afraid of him. The worst trouble seems 
to come from the jobbers who buy and sell. 
Sometimes these men do not even ex¬ 
amine the stock they buy. I have known 
them to resbip it without even opening the 
packages—and even at that giving the 
buyer to understand that they grew the 
stock in their own nursery. Others make 
a sort of cunning claim that all their stock 
is budded from bearing trees. They know 
better and so do the real business buyers. 
In some cases we have found that those 
men were buying trees from a distance 
and selling them under their so-called 
claim that all the stock was from bearing 
trees. Another smart trick is to use the 
word “wholesale” so as to give the impres¬ 
sion that even when a man bought half a 
dozen trees he got a low “wholesale” price. 
Still another game is to advertise some few 
varieties at a very low price. This at¬ 
tracts attention but the “suckers” usually 
And that these cheap plants or trees have 
all been sold and he is induced to buy 
something else and pay more than he would 
elsewhere. I could fill a page with the 
tricks which are budded into the average 
nursery tree. I think the buyers are largely 
responsible for this state of affairs. We 
often have people come asking if a certain 
Arm is “reliable.” The “literature" of this 
Arm stamps it as an impossible fake yet 
here are intelligent people chasing after 
it. Sometimes they expect to save a cent 
or two on a tree. In other cases they will 
pay two or three times as much as a wil¬ 
ling tax on guff and wind. It is hard to 
understand how intelligent people can act 
in this way—but they do, and without 
question, most of the fraud and bluff in 
the nursery business is due to the craze 
for “cheap” trees regardless of quality. 
How can I And out what varieties are 
best for my locality? I want a perma¬ 
nent orchard. The “authorities” do not 
seem to agree. j. s. k. 
I am getting so that I dislike to give 
anything but the most general advice about 
varieties. It is too much a matter of soil 
and general situation. I planted my 
orchard on the advice of “authorities,” 
and at least one-third of it ought to be 
worked over. Had I gone to a few of my 
neighbors for advice I should now be much 
better off. There are a few standard va¬ 
rieties which do well in any locality. The 
newer sorts ought to be tested before 
planting freely. I would test by top work¬ 
ing scions into trees now growing. In some 
cases you And apple trees growing near 
school houses or other public buildings. 
They might well be used for public testing 
of new varieties. Let some expert grafter 
put in scions of popular sorts and all watcli 
their growth. I knew a man who was 
brought close to ruin by keeping Brahma 
hens while Leghorns gave him a good profit. 
Some of the apple failures we read about 
are due to planting ill-adapted varieties. 
In all this multitude of advice about 
spraying materials what shall we really 
use? s. M. B. 
The business fruit grower or gardener 
has been obliged to figure this out for him¬ 
self. There are many smaller growers or 
beginners who are still puzzled. In fight¬ 
ing insects we must remember the two 
general classes—eaters and suckers. Tfie 
eating insects chew off the leaves or stems 
and a spray containing poison is needed 
to fight them. Plant lice and scale in¬ 
sects do not each but suck out the juice 
and they must be killed by contact —that 
is. some oily or biting substance which 
will destroy when it hits them. For the 
San Jos6 scale we use both soluble oil and 
lime sulphur. We like the oil as a Winter 
spray for apple trees. It gets into the 
"fuzz” and under the rough bark better 
than other sprays. It has served us well 
without injury. The lime-sulphur properly 
made is very effective and has power over 
some plant diseases as well as over the 
scale. We have thus far used the com¬ 
mercial brands. They cost more than the 
home-boiled mixture but we have found 
them uniform and effective. Some of the 
manufacturers undertake, as I think 
foolishly, to ridicule the plan of making 
lime-sulphur on the farm. The operation 
is not difficult and many farmers have 
boilers or cookers which enable them to 
make just exactly as good a lime-sulphur 
mixture as the manufacturers do at a 
great saving of cost. On the other hand 
it is not sensible to attack the manufac¬ 
turers and urge every man to make the 
mixture at home. I have always felt that 
there is a legitimate place for all these 
“manufactured” insecticides or fertilizers. 
The tendency will be, more and more, to 
buy the separate ingredients and mix or 
make at home. Yet in spite of their extra 
cost the ready made goods will always be 
sold as surely as baker's bread or ready¬ 
made clothing. Recently dry “powders” 
known as soluble sulphur have been put 
on the market. These arc not lime-sul¬ 
phur though many seem to think they are. 
They appear to be compounds of soda and 
sulphur. We have some of this material 
and I believe it will prove a success as 
a scale spray—though we do not know yet 
how strong it should be used. I shall ‘go 
slow with it in spraying trees that are 
in foliage but I believe it will get the scale 
on dormant trees. For potatoes and most 
plant diseases I think we should stay with 
our old friend Bordeaux Mixture or its 
manufactured substitutes. The dry powder 
or "dust spray” has worked quite well with 
us on low vines but not so well in orchards 
I do not think it is gaining in popularity 
except that it saves time. 
How heavily can I afford to invest in 
the high-priced novelties? w. a. e. 
It depends upon how much you are in¬ 
clined to gamble. 
It is a clean, straight gamble and noth¬ 
ing more, when a man buys enough of a 
high-priced new fruit to start an orchard 
or farm operation at once. No man has 
any business to find fault later on if he 
“plunges” on some new fruit and finds it 
to be inferior or no more than equal to 
standard varieties already in cultivation. 
After all that has been said about this 
it would be hard for me to work up much 
sympathy for a man who permitted him¬ 
self to be “stung” in this way. The true 
“sport” would know that he took a chance 
in a lottery and lost. Look at it for a 
moment. The men who are booming the 
new fruit are not great benevolent citizens 
like Dr. Babcock with his milk test. Like 
the great majority of humans they are hard 
after a dollar. They know they have a 
good thing in this new fruit and' the only 
way to make much out of it is to get a 
big price for the first few thousand trees. 
Following natural development within a 
few years the price of these trees will have 
fallen to one-quarter of what is charged 
for them now. The fruit from them will 
not sell for any great advance over the 
price of other similar varieties. What 
then can you gain by spending a lot of 
money in starting orchards at the high 
introduction price? Our advice is to buy a 
few trees of these well attested novelties 
and give them a good tryout. To go be¬ 
yond that is a gamble. We are often asked 
to interfere when people boom such 
“novelties.". It is hard to know how to 
draw the line between evident “guff” and 
sincere statements of high praise. 
Give us in a few lines the chief facts 
about using fertilizers in orchards. 
J. w. c. 
I cannot do it. A book would be needed 
to tell even part of the story. 'The late 
Dr. E. B. Voorhees, prepared what seems 
to me the most sensible statement of the 
plant food needs of the orchard. He sug¬ 
gested a mixture of one-third each, ground 
bone, acid phosphate and muriate of potash. 
This was what he called a “basic formula” 
to meet all food requirements of an 
orchard except possibly nitrogen. If the 
tree showed the need of more nitrogen this 
could be quickly supplied as nitrate of 
soda or dried blood. If a “cover crop” of 
clover, cow peas or vetch could be used 
after the season’s cultivation is over this 
crop would add most of this needed nitro¬ 
gen. There is little in this mixture that 
could be lost out of the soil, and it would 
be admirable for all long lived fruits like 
apples or pears. With extra nitrogen it 
would also serve for peaches and small 
fruits. This is as good a suggestion as 
I can make to those who wish to make 
their own mixtures or apply the chemi¬ 
cals. _ h. w. c. 
IN MEMORY OF PROF. T. V. MUNSON. 
“It is all right, I have not a regret, my 
life has been full and satisfactory and I 
am ready to go.” These were the last 
words of one of America's greatest scientific 
and practical horticulturists, Thomas Vol- 
ney Munson. His spirit passed to the great 
beyond on January 22 last, at his home 
at Denison, Texas. He was born Septem¬ 
ber 20, 1843, on a farm near Astoria, Il¬ 
linois, and was, therefore, nearing 70 years 
of age. He was educated in the public 
schools and higher institutions of learning, 
graduating from the University of Ken¬ 
tucky in 1870 and soon became a member 
of the faculty of the Agricultural College of 
that State, where he taught botany and 
practical horticulture. He married at this 
time and resigned his position to take up 
the work that he followed until his death, 
that of experimental and practical fruit 
growing. lie located on the outskirts of 
Denison, Texas, in the early seventies, 
where he established a nursery and began 
extensive experiments with the grape and 
to some extent with all the fruits suitable 
to that climate. 
It was at a horticultural meeting and 
fruit fair at St. Louis, Mo., that I first met 
Prof. Munson in 1882, where he displayed 
a large colection of grapes, and a few 
years later I began visiting him at his home 
to get a deeper insight of the great work 
he was doing. He did not work by chance 
but used the greatest care and the most 
exact scientific methods in producing seed¬ 
lings of the various species of American 
grapes, for this was the department of 
horticulture that really received the de¬ 
votion of his mature life. He made a spe¬ 
cial study of all the native American grapes 
and was the first to bring many of the 
species under cultivation. Many‘of them 
were crossed by him with each other and 
with the varieties of the Old World species, 
Vitis vinifera. which led him into asso¬ 
ciated work with the vineyardists of France 
in particular. His deep interest and in¬ 
sight into the needs of the French grape 
growers resulted in very material assist¬ 
ance to them in the introduction of phyl¬ 
loxera resistant stocks for their vineyards, 
for this insect had been ravaging there 
for years past, almost to the point of entire 
destruction. For these most useful efforts 
he was awarded all the honors that the 
French people could fittingly bestow and 
among them the decoration of the “Legion 
of Honor” with the title of “Chevalier du 
Merit Agricole.” 
But Mr. Munson was honored in his own 
country as well, for he was one of the 
foremost workers in the field of American 
horticulture. He was vice-president of the 
American Pomological Society and a mem¬ 
ber of many kindred associations in his own 
State and the Nation, fie was a most in¬ 
structive and lucid writer and speaker and 
whatever he wrote or said publicly was re¬ 
ceived with interest and benefit. 
Aside from Prof. Munson’s horticultural 
attainments and abilities he was a most 
lovable friend, lie was a noble man of 
the highest type. n. e. van deman. 
■HAT’S how I can sell such high-grado buggies at such low 
prices. I simply cut out all the middlemen’s profit, sales- 
_ I simply cut out all the middlemen’s profit, sales- \ 
A men’s salaries and expenses and give you the benefit of all 
this saving. The result is you cannot buy a better buggy for 
the same money, nor as good a buggy for any less anywhere in the 
world. I can furnish you exactly the buggy YOU want, giving you 
your choice as to color, finish, upholstery, etc. You take absolutely 
no chances in placing your order with mo because you are fully pro- 
My $30,000 Guarantee 
Under this guarantee I will ship you any buggy or 
harness in my catalog and let you use it right on the 
road for 30 days and submit it to any reasonable 
test in actual use. If it is not exactly as my cat¬ 
alog states I will refund every cent of your *33? 
money and pay the freight both ways besides. And ^ 
there won t be any argument about it eith- 
er. Behind my guarantee is a $30,000 bond 
deposited by mo in the Mercer National 
Bank of this city. That ought to con- ^ 
vince the most skeptical. <--g3SB6>H 
Let me send you my big 
mm of Buggy rrm 
Bargains 
__ This shows you not only the lat¬ 
est styles in buggies but also how they are mado and 
how carefully each one is inspected and tested 
before it is shipped. It shows tests of strength ^ 
for individual parts which no cheap buggy could 
stand. You will find all this explained ia my /jW| 
book together with a lot of other interest- rS B 
ing and valuable information. 
Send for it Today Vfcl® 
I want you to have it whether you buy s£ 
buggy this year or not. I will be glad to I ~l3 J!Sg^5 
send it and pay the postage on it. You \ 
need not write a letter, just nso a postal 
card, but send it TODAY. V/ / \j\ 
*x**;<* v 
D.T. Bohon, 217 Main St.,Harro Jsburg,Ky, 
BOHON’S IKS BUGGIES 
DIRECT 
‘Mk toYOU 
Make the farm house as 
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Complete outfit, including engine, dynamo, 
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according to number of lights desired. Cheaper to 
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THE DAYTON ELECTRICAL MFG. CO. 
Have you ever 
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You must sae this sprayer to know its 
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Write u. for special booklets. 
* 
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Bo.. I02-V Crealoch, N. J. 
Largest man. 
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exclusively 
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I 
r\ 
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Dayton, Ohio 
For a limited time, 
we will give abso¬ 
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It’s a perfect dressing for Riemer’s or any 
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Ttlarlin 
Model 
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Repeating Me 
Shoots all .22 short, .22 long an 
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