402 
THE) RURAb NKW-YORRER 
April 5, 
FARMERS’ CLUB 
[ Every query must be accompanied by the 
namo and address of the writer to insure 
attention. Before asking a question, please see 
whether it is not answered in our advertising 
columns. Ask only a few questions at one time. 
Put (questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
i - _ . . - - — 
Work of Soil Bacteria. 
C. A. C., Hollis, N. H. —Is there anything 
to take the place of barn manure to apply 
to the soil to start useful bacteria to work? 
Ans. —Without question manure con¬ 
tains a value beyond its plant food or 
the organic matter which produces 
humus. When we plow a crop under 
we put organic matter into the soil, 
and in time it will decay and form 
humus, yet if that crop were fed to live 
stock and the manure used it would 
have a new value. The manure would 
contain forms of bacteria not found in 
the sod, clover, rye, vetch or other crops 
plowed directly under. If even a small 
quantity of manure can be spread and 
plowed in with the cover crop the result 
will be useful. For food-bearing crops 
like clover, Alfalfa, beans, etc., the 
needed bacteria are separated, propa¬ 
gated in a laboratory and sold for use 
on the seed or in the soil. This plan 
succeeds in many cases. Again, soil 
from a field in which clover or Alfalfa 
have been successfully grown may be 
used with a new seeding to introduce 
these bacteria. In like manner the soil 
from a well manured field can be used 
when a green crop is plowed under. We 
think there is to be a great future de¬ 
velopment in this use of bacteria—not 
only to supply different crops with what 
they need, but to literally set both ma¬ 
nure and soil at work. 
Fertility in Blood and Hair. 
H. L. F., Rome, A 7 . Y. —I am getting 
the blood from a slaughter house for draw¬ 
ing it away, get anywhere from six to 15 
barrels a week. I only have to draw it 
about a quarter of a mile. Is it worth file 
hauling? If so, what is the best way to 
apply it to get the best results? I also 
get a large quantity of hogs’ hair. Has it 
any value as a fertilizer? Would you plow 
it under or burn it? 
Ans. —This blood is valuable as a 
source of nitrogen. You can pour it 
directly upon the manure pile, or better, 
upon a compost heap of muck, sods and 
manure. Work it thoroughly into the 
heap and spread all together upon the 
land. To keep it separate dry the blood 
by mixing it thoroughly with land 
plaster. Sifted coal ashes will also help 
with this. The object is to mix enough 
with the blood to absorb the moisture 
and make the mass dry. Never use lime 
or wood ashes for this purpose, as the 
lime will act to set free the ammonia. 
The hair also contains much nitrogen, 
but it is unavailable to plants and there 
is no simple way of decomposing it. 
You might mix it with horse manure 
or put it in barrels with wood ashes 
or quick-lime and keep the mass wet. 
If we had such hair we would spread 
it out around apple trees, scatter lime 
over it and then a little soil on top. Do 
not burn it, since this will drive away 
the nitrogen—all the fertilizer value the 
hair has. 
Squirrels and Birds’ Nests. 
J. H. R., Portland, Ale.- —I write to ask 
your opinion regarding the gray squirrel 
and the red squirrel. It is said that each 
destroys birds’ nests. There have been a 
few red squirrels at my place this Winter 
for the first time, and a few gray squirrels 
have been there for years. It is a pleasure 
to see them running up and down the 
trees. Would you recommend that I should 
destroy one or both kinds? 
Ans. —There is no doubt of the fact 
that the gray squirrel is an occasional 
offender in this respect, but so far as I 
have been able to learn by somewhat 
extensive correspondence and inquiry 
damage done by the gray squirrel in 
the destruction of eggs and young of 
birds amounts to comparatively little, 
and I should not for a moment advise 
its elimination from city parks on this 
account. The case is otherwise with its 
smaller relative, the red squirrel, which 
is a far more frequent offender in this 
respect. In some localities where, per¬ 
haps, food to its liking is very abundant 
the red squirrel is comparatively inno¬ 
cent, but in other regions the species 
inflicts much damage, not only actually 
hunting for birds’ nests for the sake of 
the eggs, but destroying many young 
nestlings. I am inclined, however, to 
think that in no locality are all of the 
resident red squirrels concerned in this 
destruction but the habit is limited to 
a few offenders. If these are destroyed 
the harm done by survivors will be 
inconsiderable. w. h. henshaw. 
Chief, Biological Survey. 
Starting Permanent Grass. 
H. M. R„ Guilford, Conn, —I have three 
acres of dry light sandy soil which I wish 
to get into grass as soon as possible. Would 
it be practicable to sow it this Spring with 
Timothy and clover, together with oats? 
Which shall I cut for fodder? I have not 
had good success with Spring grass seed¬ 
ing, but I thought maybe the oats might 
act as a nurse crop, besides furnishing a 
crop for this year. Do you think it would 
be enough better to pay to wait until 
August before sowing the grass? In that 
case, when would I sow the clover? 
Ans. —We would not advise you to 
seed the grass this Spring. Wait until 
late Summer and get the soil in better 
condition. We should sow as early as 
the sod can be properly worked a 
combination of oats and Canada field 
peas, as we have so often described. 
Use fertilizer with this crop. You will 
have better grass if you plow this 
entire crop under in July. If you must 
have the fodder cut when the little peas 
are forming in the pods and cure about 
as you would clover. Then plow or 
disk up the sod and work it all through 
August—keeping it fine and free from 
weed growth. In early September seed 
to grass and clover together. Use a 
fair amount of fertilizer for your corn. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
The Dee it Ncisaxce. —I believe that any 
court will decide that a farmer has a 
right to protect his crops from wild ani¬ 
mals, and that if Mr. Hope shoots the 
deer when damaging his crops he could 
be cleared of any costs. Down here it is 
the rabbits that are protected part of the 
year and then come into my garden and 
I do not hesitate to shoot them when 
they eat my cantaloupes. 
One-year-old Trees. —For many years I 
have planted no fruit trees of any kind 
older than one year. Down here a one- 
year tree grown from a bud is a good- 
sized switch, and much larger than the 
one-year trees grown from root-grafts by 
the Northern nurserymen. But the great 
advantage of the one-year tree is that it 
has live buds through its whole length, and 
the planter is able t<* start a head where 
it should start, low down, while the older 
trees in the nurseries have all started 
heads too high above ground, for the 
nurserymen know that the average small 
planter wants a tall tree. A nurseryman 
near here told me that a few years ago a 
man planting apples in the western part 
of this State applied to him for some 
thousands of a certain variety of apple. 
He replied that he could only furnish them 
in one-year-old plants, which the planter 
finally took, though he had wanted two- 
year trees. The nurseryman said that this 
large planter had since been increasing his 
orchards and now would not buy a tree 
over a year old, since he had found the 
advantage of being able to start the head 
just where he wants it, and getting trees 
for less money and less freight. At a 
farmers’ institute which I attended, a nur¬ 
seryman brought a three-year apple tree 
to show the character of his stock. It had 
a stem about four feet high and a well- 
developed head. I told him that I would 
not plant a tree like that if it was given 
to me, as the head was entirely too high 
from the ground, and in these spraying 
days we need low trees. And we can 
not get the proper low head if we plant 
anything older than one year. 
Pear Blight. —It is perfectly practicable 
to save a great deal more of the wood of 
pear trees if the growers would watch the 
limbs carefully in the early part of the 
season. The bacteria get in usually from 
the bloom and work downward and by 
watching closely one cas detect the slight 
shrivelling of the bark before the leaves 
turn brown, and then by cutting out 
ahead of it the limb may be saved that 
would otherwise be completely blighted. 
Starting Sweet Potatoes. —I aban¬ 
doned all under-heated beds years ago. 1 
use an ordinary cold frame and hotbed 
sashes. I place a layer of clean sand two 
inches thick in the frame and bed the 
potatoes on this and then cover them two 
inches with clean sand. I then water well 
with tepid water and put on the sashes 
and keep them close till signs of sprouting 
show. After this some air nr.- t be given 
in sunny days. I get good churt healthy 
plants with an abundance of roots in this 
way. I never bed a potato that shows 
brown blotches on the skin, as that is the 
start of the rot. Many.growers bed in the 
same place year after year and use the 
old soil, and always have trouble from the 
rot. Bedding the last of March we have 
plenty of sunshine to raise the heat in the 
bed, and the sprouting is usually uniform 
and all right. If single glazed sashes are 
used it may be necessary to use mats if a 
cold night comes, but I use double glazed 
sashes with a dead air space between tiie 
two layers of glass and no cover is needed. 
At the home of a Delaware grower he 
showed me his potato bed. He had a pit 
in which was a hot-water boiler and he 
had pipes circulating in the soil of the 
bed and no cover over it. I told him 
that it looked like an effort to heat all 
out doors, and that I would put a green¬ 
house over it. Some make fire-heated beds 
and run the flue right through the soil, 
and the result is a hot dry streak through 
the middle of the bed and cold on each 
side, and a poor sprouting from two much 
heat and too little. 
Making a Battery.— What is said on 
page 431 about Bordeaux mixture in gal¬ 
vanized buckets reminds me of a funny 
incident in my own experience. I told 
my negro helper to put in some copper 
sulphate to dissolve over night that I 
intended to use in making Bordeaux the 
next day. He did so, but put it in a 
galvanized tub, and when I arrived the 
next morning his battery was defunct, for 
the bottom was out of the tub and part of 
the sides as far as the liquid extended. 
The negro said “Dat stuff must be awful 
strong, boss.” And it was. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
If you read this advertisement you will take advantage of my 
April Clearance Sale Sheet 
of TREES AND PLANTS 
This is April ; there are only 4 to 6 weeks more of the nursery shipping 
season left. In most of our varieties and sizes of trees vre have just about a 
normal stock for our trade, but we are over on several others. It’s these 
“Others ’’ that’s worrying me; we have got to stimulate sales on just a few 
thousand of these trees, or transplant them out and keep them for another year. 
Now, I am going to sell them, and they go on my April Clearance Sheet. 
The Price is Cheap but the Trees are Not 
They are in perfect condition, can be shipped on a day or two notice, and a 
few hundred lucky people who 
Write For My April Clearance Sheet 
are going to get some bargains in these particular sizes and varieties. 
By the Way, Have You Seen My 1913 Catalogue? 
Some mighty interesting things offered this year, especially a beautiful lot of 
Dwarf Apple and Buerre Bose Pear Trees 
Write for April Clearance \\T I 
Sheet and Catalogue to W. L. lVlCl\A I 
Proprietor of The Van Dusen Nurseries, Box J, Geneva, N. Y. 
Certified Fruit Trees 
I 
Roots Fresh from the Soil 
Guaranteed true to name, and to reach 
you in perfect condition. Not a dissatis¬ 
fied customer last year. One-half tree 
agents’ prices. Freight paid on orders of 
$7.00 and over. WRITE for catalogue. 
Wm. P. Rupert a Son. Box 20. Seneca, N. Y. 
I 
TREES -J PUNTS 
Largo assortment of APPLE and PEACH. 
500,000 BLACKBERRIES—Eldorado, Merse- 
reau, Snyder, etc., grown from root cuttings— 
the best way to grow blackberries, free from 
disease. 
W. B. COLE, Avenue Nurseries, Painesville, 0. 
FRUIT TREES and PLANTS 
AT WHOLESALE PRICES 
Apples.$12.00 per lOO 
Plums. 8.00 “ 100 
Pears. 11.00 “ 100 
Cherries. 9.00 ” 100 
Peaches. 5.00 *‘ 100 
Strictly First Class Government Inspected 
Stock. Buds selected from bearing trees. 
Write today for oar Pree Catalog which 
contains fifty pages of valuable information. 
We sell direct from our Nurseries to you. 
ONTARIO NURSERY CO., Inc. 
Nurserymen and Fruit Growers, Box21, Geneva, N. Y. 
CATALPA 
Trees 
I am the only grower who sells 
I direct to farmers under a guarantee to 
refund ten times the cost price, if trees 
| prove not to be true speciosa. 
Write for FREE booklet telling about 
my 160 acre grove I am growing for Tele¬ 
phone poles. Satisfied customers every¬ 
where. Write today. Planting time is here 
H. C. ROGERS BOX 11 MECHAN1CSBURB, 0.' 
“BLACK’S QUALITY” 
FRUIT TREES 
NONE BETTER 
None Give Better Returns when They Fruit 
Send for our list that we can ship by 
Parcel Post 
which delivers to your door. 
PEaCH and APPLE TREES 
a specialty. CATALOGUE FREE 
JOS. H. BLACK, SON CO. 
HIGHTSTOWN, N. J. 
Hill’s Evergreens Grow 
All hardy stock—twice trans-^ 
planted—root pruned. Pro¬ 
tect buildings, stock, crops. 
Hill’s Evergreen Book, illustra-J 
ted in colors, Free. Write todays 
1). IIIII Nursery Co. ,Ioc., 212 Cedar St .,,A 
Dundee, 111. Evergreen Specialists, 
Ask for Catalog 
REE 
C ESTABLISHED 1869) 
GEO. A. SWEET NURSERY CO. 
26 MAPLE STREET, DANSVILLE, 
n. v. y 
BGRAPEVINES 
C9 Varieties. Also Small Fruits, Trees, etc. Best Rooted 
Stock. Gonuino, cheap. 2 sample vines mailed for 10c. Pesc. 
price-list free. LEWIS K0ESC1I A. SON, Box it, Fredoniu, N. Y. 
YOUR HOME 
—can lie made beautiful by planting my California 
privet, evergreens and magnificent decorative 
shrubs on grounds. Costs little, creates pride 
and pleasure. Write for FKEK copy of my book, 
describing my shrubs, trees, berrios, small fruits, 
plants, otc. livery grower needs it. Free on roquost. 
Arthur J. Collins, Box It., Jloorestown, N. J. 
This boohletwili save mone y for you. It tells all J 
about our LAKESHORE GROWN Nursery Stock c 
Hardy—Early Bearing Guaranteed. L/XKESHORE NURSERIES, Box IIO, Girard, Pa, 
1847 
FRUIT TREES 
1913 
Our Free catalog shows why successful Fruit Growers plant our troos. 
SUGGESTIONS —On choice of varieties for various localities, after eare, etc., 
booklet form, sent free on request 
It’s all in the care 
Watch Wiley's trees l/ear 
get our catalog now H. S. Wiley & Son, 27 Beach St., Cayuga, N. Y. 
In 
HERE IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY 
To ltuy the Famous Kelly Quality Peach and 
Apple Trees at low Prices, 
n order to introduce Kelly Quality to growers in all sections of the country, we make 
very special prices on all orders for Poach and Apple Trees received immediately. 
This will give every fruit grower in the land a chance to find out for bimseir tnat 
KKLLY QUALITY is real QUALITY ; that KKLLY VAKIKT1KS are MONEY MAK1SH3 
Write at once for catalogue and take advantage of this offer. 
Kelly Bros. Nurseries 
55 MAIN STREET, - - - IJANSVILLE. NEW YOKK 
You’ll Never Regret Planting Kelly Trees 
