602 
TILED RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
April 20, 
THE CULTURE OF CURRANTS. 
Part II. 
The raising of currant bushes from 
cuttings is not a' difficult undertaking, 
and is the same as practiced by the 
nurserymen in their work of propa¬ 
gating their fancy shrubs and small 
fruit. As the bushes are trimmed the 
cuttings are taken from the present 
year's growth, and are made about 
seven inches long; the trimming should 
be done in the late Fall or Spring be¬ 
fore spraying. Cuttings are cither 
buried in trenches dug about a foot in 
depth, and a little wider than the cut¬ 
tings are long and covered with earth 
which is well tramped down to keep out 
the water and hilled up for the Winter. 
The place should be on high land. 
Another method often used is storing 
them away in the cellar in sawdust or 
sand, but care must be taken not to 
allow them to become dry or get too 
damp, or they might be spoiled. Be 
sure to mark the spot by a stick placed 
at either end, as anyone might have the 
same experience that I had, when a 
colored man who worked for me did 
the trimming, and buried them care¬ 
fully in a good place in the garden 
which was a large one, but neglected 
to mark the place where they were, 
During the Fall he told me several 
times that when he quit working that 
Winter, he would never come back 
again, but as he had said the same be¬ 
fore I only made fun of him and 
thought it only an * old man’s notion. 
But sure enough he kept his word this 
time, and during the Winter died. 
When Spring came I had another man 
to help. We hunted all over for those 
cuttings to plant them, but could not 
find where they had been buried. When 
several weeks later my man started to 
plow the garden, almost the first thing 
he saw was a row of green, and upon 
digging there, found what we had 
sought for so long, but as the season 
was then so late more than half of them 
died. 
The ground for the cuttings should 
be well plowed and harrowed, and the 
rows marked with a string the same 
way a gardener does when planting 
seed; by doing this the ( rows are kept 
in a straight line, and much time saved 
when they are worked later, besides 
making it much easier while planting, 
which requires that they should, be 
pushed down four to five inches leav¬ 
ing about two inches above the ground. 
The spacing between them is about two 
inches and the rows eight to 10 inches 
from each other if hand worked, and 
if worked by horse wide enough to 
permit a cultivator to pass between the 
plants. It is a good plan to put some 
well-rotted manure along the rows, and 
hill them up a little with the plow or 
hoe, but before doing this go along the 
rows and tramp them in firmly. This 
is all that is done if Fall planting; in 
the Spring cultivate them and when 
they get a good growth a little good 
fertilizer cultivated in will be of great 
benefit. 
Spraying. —Currrant bushes require 
thorough spraying during the dormant 
season, but it should not be done dur¬ 
ing freezing weather, as it will freeze 
on the bushes, doing damage, besides 
the canes are then very brittle. The 
proper spray to be used for the scale 
and fungus diseases is five gallons of 
concentrated lime sulphur to 50 gallons 
of water, and should stand at about 
4 on the Beaume scale when ready to 
use. I prefer the commercial make as 
it is nearly always of a standard 
strength of 32° Beaume, while the home¬ 
made article varies all the way from 20° 
to 32°, and each barrel should be tested 
so as to know how many gallons are 
required for a barrel of water. If only 
a small quantity get a back sprayer and 
use the proportion of one gallon to 10 
of water. 
It will pay to get a good outfit which 
will cost $10 to $12, also get five to six 
feet of one-half-inch rubber hose and 
one of the newer make of nozzles. 
There are several makes. The work 
must be thoroughly done to get the 
best results. There is not much use 
spraying the plants the first year, as 
they are generally free from scale and 
disease. The concentrated lime-sul¬ 
phur can be bought from the men 
handling the pumps and supplies. We 
use large pumps which are either 
worked by hand, but most generally by 
a small gasoline engine attached direct 
to the pump, and placed upon a wagon, 
also carrying a tank holding 100 to 200 
gallons of spray mixture, or sometimes 
two or three barrels. For the Summer 
spray which is put on when the cur¬ 
rant worms first appear, we use 1/ gal¬ 
lons of the lime-sulphur to the barrel 
and add when nearly full three pounds 
of arsenate of lead. It is imoortant 
that the poison should not be put in 
until the barrel is nearly full, for if 
added to the strong lime-sulphur a com¬ 
pound is formed which destroys to a 
very great extent the efficiency of the 
poison. ^ 
Care must be taken to spray the leaves 
and at the same time get at the under 
side of them, where the worms are hid¬ 
den. Do not spray long enough in one 
place, so that the leaves are white when 
dry, for it also gets on the fruit and 
makes them unmarketable, if the worms 
appear the second time, use hellebore 
sprinkled on fully by using a cheese¬ 
cloth bag. The lime-sulphur is applied 
to prevent fungus diseases and at the 
same time to carry the poison, for by 
mixing both operations can be done at 
the same time. The picking and market¬ 
ing is done in the regular manner of 
all small fruit and sold in quart cups, 
a crate contains 32 of these quarts. 
A. E. BELL. 
Buckwheat and Crimson Clover. 
D., Anne Arundel Co., Aid .—Iteferring to 
tV. F. Massey’s comments, page 400, “Cow 
l'eas and Crimson Clover,” would say my 
soil is a sandy loam ot fair fertility. The 
piece I have in view is an orchard (apple) 
in bearing, is on decline. Fruit is not an 
object, as trees are about played out. The 
piece of land is near my dwelling. My ob¬ 
ject is to feed and furnish chicken range. 
Your suggestion of buckwheat and Crimson 
clover struck me favorably. I would like 
to hear from you as follows: When and 
how much buckwheat to acre, and when, 
and how much clover to acre? Would last 
week in .Tilly or first week in August, lie too 
soon or too late for both crops if both are 
sown at same time? Clover does not do 
very well here if sown too early. I am 
not clear as to whether you mean buck¬ 
wheat and clover are to be sown at same 
time. 
Ans. —Buckwheat, when sown entirely 
for grain, is sown in varying amounts 
according to the fertility of the soil, the 
smaller amount on the stronger soil, or 
from three to five pecks. On soil of 
fair fertility I would sow not more than 
a bushel an acre where clover is to be 
sown. Drill in the buckwheat seed and 
then sow the Crimson clover seed at 
rate of 15 pounds an acre, and brush 
over a smoothing harrow, and if the 
land is dry roll it at once to better 
insure germination of both seed. The 
sowing can be done up to last of July. 
If the weather is very dry and hot you 
can wait till the buckwheat is up and 
then sow the clover seed so that it will 
have a little shade, in August. But the 
germination of the clover will usually 
be better if it is brushed in with smooth¬ 
ing harrow running lightly, and sowing 
after the buckwheat is up you will have 
to depend on the rains giving it some 
cover. If you get a good stand of 
the clover you will have a fine crop 
to turn under in Spring for corn, tobac¬ 
co or sweet potatoes. w. f. massey. 
Fruits for Saratoga County, N. Y. 
D. D. D., Elmora, N. Y .—I am thinking of 
setting a small orchard of about AO trees of 
either cherries or plums. It is sandy land, 
with a good sod at present, located in Sara¬ 
toga Co., N. Y. What kind or kinds would 
you advise me to set cherries or plums? 
Would it be all right to set both cherries 
and plums in same orchard? Tell me some¬ 
thing about the care of them. 
Ans. —Whether D. D. D. would better 
plant cherries or plums, or for that mat¬ 
ter either, depends on his own ability 
to realize what must be done to insure 
profitable production and then in prompt 
action in doing the right thing in the 
right way at the right time. Marketing 
is often more difficult than growing, and 
lie must realize that both cherries and 
plums must be disposed of on the gen¬ 
eral local markets, as there are no can¬ 
ning factories in this part of the State, 
and he is not contemplating growing on 
a large enough scale to make shipping to 
distant markets profitable. Sour cher¬ 
ries or Japanese plums would be my 
preference, without knowing more par¬ 
ticulars, with a strong leaning toward 
the cherries. The price on cherries 
usually ranges from five to 10 cents a 
quart by the crate. The average is 
probably seven cents. Montmorency is 
undoubtedly the best variety with Early 
Richmond taking second place. Sweec 
cherries are as uncertain in this climate 
as peaches, and are very susceptible to 
aphids and brown rot. Japanese plums 
would probably prove more successful 
than the European varieties on this 
sandy soil, but the planting of this type 
has been rather overdone, and unless 
D. D. D. is willing to give them extra 
care and produce extra fancy fruit he 
would better go slowly. Abundance, 
Burbank and Red June are the best va¬ 
rieties, with Satsuma, Climax, Shiro and 
October Purple worthy of trial. Many 
of the other varieties are too tender for 
this climate not only in bud but many 
also in tree. . c. R. s. 
Monitor dTs'! Drill 
“The Drill That Pays for Itself ” 
Drops 
Deposits Seed inTwo Rows 
at Uniform Depth 
Have you ever thought what a big advantage it would 
be if you could sow seed evenly—at just the right depth 
— and cover each grain uniformly with moist soil? 
Of course you have. You know it would save seed, 
and give you bigger and better crops. Butlikemany 
other farmers you probably believed such sowing to 
be impossible. 
And it was impossible until the Monitor Double Disc 
Drill was invented. But with this wonderful drill 
you can now put every grain at the same 
depth, so that it all germinates and 
comes up at the same time — 
ripening evenly. 
Saves One-fifth the Seed 
Increases the Yield 
Improves the 
Grade 
>s in 
FRONT of Bearing 
Other drills sow BEHIND 
the bearing. That sounds like a 
small difference, but it gives the Monitor 
this great advantage: The grain is carried 
into the groundon the DOWNWARD insteadofthe 
upward turn of the discs. In this way every grain is de¬ 
posited at the bottom ofaclean wide furrow, in two rows, one 
inch apart, and covered uniformly with moist soil. None of it is j 
dragged to the surface to shrivel in the sun or to be eaten by the birds. 
So the Monitor saves you one-fifth of your seed, improves the grade, and in¬ 
creases the yield from 10 to 20%. 0 « .. A v 
J 1 haves it* Lost in One Year 
Hundreds of farmers have paid for a Monitor out of the increased 
yield and the seed saved the first season. It doesn’t require a big 
acreage to do this either. Would you not 
like to know more about a drill that will 
earn that much extra money 
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Look for the Flying Dutchman Dealer 
He will show you this wonderful 
drill and explain how it will make 
money for you. Or, if you will 
write us at once we will send you 
an interesting illustrated booklet 
that tells all about the M'onitor. 
Address Dept. 128 
Moline Plow Co.,. 
Moline, li 
Eastern Branch: 
LI* Adriance, Platt & Co., Poughkeepsie, NX 
\ 
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Saves a Man and Team 
Operated 
by the man 
on the load. 
Operated with 
gasoline 
engine. 
Drum holds 
240 ft. of rope. 
Ireland Hay Hoist 
A powerful machine that saves time and labor in 
storing hay and in other hoisting. Used in con¬ 
nection with harpoon fork or sling. Attach it to 
your own engine. Works slrongly and steadily. 
Safe and easy to operate. Under instant control. 
Pulley lo suit your engine. Guaranteed as rep¬ 
resented. Write for circular and prices. 
IRELAND MACHINE <fe FOUNDRY CO., Ino. 
Box 14, Norwich, New York. 
MAKE PLOWING A BOV'S JOB 
Kit your walking plow—no 
matter what kind— with the 
Winner Plow Truck 
land let the hoy 
ride. Works in 
any gronml. Turns 
even furrows. Eas¬ 
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dragging the plow, 
weight on the wheels. 
If 1 O Days' Froo Trial 
dnen't convince you of Us merit return tbs Winner. Ws'll 
return your money and pay freight both ways. If the Winner 
Isn't known in your vicinity we'll give you Special Introduc¬ 
tory Offer. Write for it today, lie lirat. 
LEWIS MF«. CO., Box C, Cortland, N. Y. 
BUY NEW YORK FARMS NOW 
Best lands. Best crops. Best homes. Biggest 
barns. Finest schools, churches, roads and trans¬ 
portation. For list of farms address : 
B. f McBURNEY 8 CO . Bastable Bluck, SYRACUSE. N Y. 
YOUR OPPORTUNITY 
is NOW ,n the Province of 
SASKATCHEWAN 
Western Canada 
Do yon desire to get a Free 
Homestead of l(iO Acres of 
that well known Wheat Land! 
The area Is becoming moro lim¬ 
ited but no less valuable. 
New Districts have recently 
been opened up for settlement, 
and into these railroads are now 
being built. The day will soon 
come when there will bo no Free Home¬ 
steading land left. 
A Swift Current. Saskatchewan farmer 
wrlteB:—"I came hero on my homestead. 
March, 1906, with about *1000 worth of 
horses and machinery, and just *30 In cash. 
Today I havo 900 acres of wheat, 300 acres 
of oats, and 60 acres of flax.” Not bad for 
six years, but only an Instance of what 
may be done in Western Canada, In Mani¬ 
toba, Saskatchewan or Alberta. 
Send at once for Literature, Maps. Rail- 
|way Kates, etc., to 
J. S. CRAWFORD, 
301 E. Genesee Street, 
Syracuse, X. Y, 
[or Address. Superintendent of Immigration 
Ottawa. Ont.. Canada 
for the soil only. Our Agri¬ 
cultural Lime can be applied 
at the time of seeding and 
will not burn anything. Will 
drill, broadcast or scatter. 
We guarantee immediate 
shipment, analysis, mechani¬ 
cal condition, fineness, quick 
results and no burning. 
Litmus paper free. Write us. 
CALEDONIA MARL CO., Caledonia, N. Y. 
Now Is fhe Time io Increase 
This Year’s Crons 
Ten pounds of good fertilizer now are worth a 
toil of regrets in August. Now is the time to dress 
your land with 
Hubbard’s 
Fertilizers 
Both laboratory and actual field tests show them to contain the maximum amount of 
plant food per dollar invested. 
practical farmers have found many useful suggestions in our I!)i;i Almanac as well 
as in our booklets, "Soil Fertility.’' "The Gras* Crop” and "The Apple.” They will he 
mailed to you free upon request. 
I HE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO., Department A, Middletown, Conn. 
