776 
THE IN URAL NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
Corn Planting. —Tom and Broker 
will testify that the week ending June 7 
was a strenuous one. We all made a 
struggle to finish corn planting before 
berry picking came on in earnest. All 
our corn is planted between rows of ap¬ 
ple trees on the hills. We use a flint corn 
which has been bred and trained for 
quick work—like a racehorse bred for 
speed. We can plant this variety later 
than the dents could start and get through 
before the flag fell. There were big cover 
crops on all this land to be turned under. 
Then about GOO pounds of lime to the 
acre were spread and chopped in with 
the big Cutaway. Then the Acme fin¬ 
ished and the marker ran one way. Wide 
strips are left along the rows of trees to 
prevent injury from cultivating and hold 
back the water in case of a flooding rain. 
A small amount of fertilizer is put in the 
hill later, but we depend mostly on the 
cover crops and lime to do the feeding. 
No one can expect any prize yields with 
this plan, but we get good corn and fod¬ 
der and a good tree growth at moderate 
expense. While it is good economy to 
use a fair amount of capital in develop¬ 
ing an orchard it will be folly for most 
of us to blow in labor and money just to 
see how much we can spend. Corn pays 
us better than truck crops, as we are 
now situated, and I do not know of a bet¬ 
ter crop to use in an orchard where cover 
crops are wanted. You can sow the cover 
crop right in the corn during August and 
let it grow until late in May before plant¬ 
ing corn once more. 
Cultivation. —Another thing about 
corn in the young orchard is that the 
necessary cultivation suits the trees well 
—for this cultivation stops just about the 
time we would naturally stop working the 
trees. Then comes the corn with its 
heaviest draft upon the soil and the trees 
quit producing wood and harden up for 
Winter. We seldom hear much about 
the weeder as a farm tool in these days. 
A few years ago all were discussing this 
tool—now we seldom hear of it. We 
have one and find it a great help in the 
youth of the corn crop. There may be 
some who do not know that a “weeder” 
is a good imitation of the human hand or 
a hen’s foot done up in steel. There are 
over three dozen flexible steel teeth fitted 
so that they drag over the ground, the 
sharp points dodging and jerking as they 
go. This light tool covers about three 
times the space of an ordinary cultivator 
and does not gouge deep into the soil. It 
is a seratcher, ripping out the baby weeds 
and leaving a light mulch on the surface. 
We plan to start the weeder about as 
the corn starts to push out of the soil— 
working lightly at first and holding down 
harder as the corn gets larger. First we 
go one way, then another and then in 
another direction, keeping the soil well 
scratched up until the corn is nearly knee 
high. Then it is time to use the regular 
cultivator between the rows, but in the 
earlier growth the weeder does wonderful 
work in pulling out baby weeds and mel¬ 
lowing the surface. 
To many farmers cultivating seems a 
simple operation. They just hitch to 
the cultivator, gauge it so as to work 
deep into the soil and go ahead. While 
the crop is small or in very wet seasons 
this is all right, but in dry times such 
cultivating does more harm than good. 
I have seen a farmer reach the end of a 
row with half a peck of corn roots hang¬ 
ing to the cultivator teeth. This ripping 
and tearing injured the crop because 
the soil was too dry to enable the corn 
plants to recover by sending out new 
roots. This cultivating requires nice 
judgment, and in a medium season it is 
a mistake to gouge and dig between the 
rows after the corn is knee high. A 
light working—not over two inches deep 
—will pay better. Many experiments 
have been made with deep and ordinary 
culture compared with no culture at all. 
In the latter case the weeds were cut 
off or pulled, but no working of the sur¬ 
face was done. The uncultivated corn 
yielded just as much as the cultivated, 
but most of us cannot afford the hand 
labor required to cut or pull the weeds. 
The early weeding and the light culti¬ 
vating until the crop shades the ground is 
the reasonable plan. With us if the 
weeds get past us and grow to good 
size we plan to pull them after haying 
and throw them around the trees. 
Strawberries. —The Marshall straw¬ 
berry will give a longer picking season 
than any other I know of. W e had 
ripe berries on Decoration Day—a few 
big ones only. By July 4th there will 
still be a few of small size, but good 
enough to eat. The variety is not a 
heavy bearer, however, and I would never 
advise it for an ordinary shipping trade. 
For beauty, size and flavor it still leads 
the procession with us. We have them 
this year fully the size of Astrachan ap¬ 
ples. I made this statement once and 
a man bought a few plants. When 
they came in bearing he found fault, 
claiming I said they would grow as large 
as Baldwins! Of course I never said 
any such thing, and he grew the plants 
in matted rows—just exactly what we 
told him not to do. I have had con¬ 
siderable sympathy for nurserymen ever 
since that experience. 
Our first real picking was made on 
May 7. We took almost four crates and 
the little boys sold them on our local 
route. It was the first time these little 
fellows had been permitted to pick for 
the regular trade, and they were very 
important over it. We train our pickers 
with great care, for you cannot pull off 
these great beauties as you would the 
smaller and tougher berries. The picker 
must not touch the berry at all with his 
fingers, but take hold of the stem and 
lift the berry up to see that the tip is 
well colored. Our trade calls for the 
dead ripe berry—picked a few hours be¬ 
fore it is to be eaten. Instead of hand¬ 
ling the berry the picker nips off the 
stem with his thumb nail and uses the 
stem for a handle. Our boys quickly 
learned the trick. It was harder to 
make them pick clean and take off the 
medium-sized berries. Anyone who tries 
to raise these fine berries must under¬ 
stand before he begins that extra work 
is required from planting to plowing up. 
We have one four-year-old bed that is 
still giving profitable crops. 
Many of our readers know well the 
nerve strain which goes with strawberry 
time. The crop will not keep, and it 
must be picked and hustled away in a 
hurry. Our ’phone is kept ringing and 
people come driving for berries. We try 
to make every crate of these big beauties 
an advertisement for more. All sorts of 
people come after fruit, for strawberry 
time makes all men equal—who have the 
price. I looked across the lawn and 
saw Merrill and the Jew peddler having 
an argument in the barnyard. There 
was Massachusetts matched against Jeru¬ 
salem with all the gestures coming from 
the latter. We could grow other varieties 
in matted rows for less money and ob¬ 
tain larger yields, but it is a great satis¬ 
faction to put out these big bunches of 
red pulp and lead the procession for 
quality. These fancy berries are quoted 
at 14 cents a quart wholesale in New 
York. That is for quick, short ship¬ 
ment, but our fruit is sold mostly at 
home for 12*4 and 15 cents. 
A Hillside Orchard.—H ere is a 
problem somewhat like ours in the 
earlier days: 
Last Fall I cleared off about 10 acres 
hillside which had grown up in sumach, 
persimmon, and other small trees, and 
after plowing it, set out about 500 fruit 
trees, principally apples and peaches. 
This Summer I am growing a crop of 
corn and potatoes between the rows. I 
have sent samples of the soil to our ex¬ 
periment station, and was advised that 
it needed lime, but did not apply it this 
year. I would like your advice as to 
treatment this Summer and Fall, follow¬ 
ing corn and potatoes with recommenda¬ 
tions as to some desirable crop to hold 
the land and to improve it. The soil is 
of a sandy loam. j. w. E. 
West Virginia. 
You should have used lime where you 
have corn—either last Fall or this Spring. 
Of course you would not put lime on 
potatoes. If this soil had been limed 
you could sow cover crops in the corn, 
but our experience in using lime on top 
of the ground is not favorable. I would 
cut the corn and dig the potatoes and 
turn it up with a disk, or plow it and 
spread lime, and work it in. Then seed 
to rye and Winter vetch. It may be 
too lute for the latter to get through, 
but we would try it. Of course if you 
are to plant potatoes again next year 
you should not use lime just ahead of 
them. Plow the rye and vetch under 
next Spring and plant corn. Then sow 
the cover crops in the corn and so on 
year after year, using say GOO pounds of 
lime to the acre when plowing each 
cover crop in. If you prefer to do so 
you can sow the rye and vetch right in 
the corn this Summer, plow under next 
Spring and use lime. 
In a general way this is what we have 
done in our hilly orchards. As a result 
we have seen our hard and tough soil 
slowly grow mellow and open—capable of 
holding moisture, so that it does not 
bake in Summer as formerly. Most of 
such soil is sour and very much lacking 
in organic matter. Lime and cover 
crops give the best and cheapest treat¬ 
ment if we wish to make anything like 
orchard soil out of it. There are a 
dozen different ways of combining the lime 
and the cover crops. Let each man think 
out his best plan. 
The Fly Nuisance. —This plan of 
using chemicals in the horse manure to 
stop fly breeding is calling out great dis¬ 
cussion. Here is one letter: 
On page 724 is an article on “Horse 
Manure and Flies.” To my mind you do 
not seem to answer the question put very 
conclusively. lie asks if flies could 
breed in manure treated with nitrate 
of soda, potash, acid-phosphate and 
gypsum. You answer the fly crop will be 
greatly reduced by using acid phosphate 
or kainit, or a mixture of both, two 
pounds every day. Does it make no 
difference how many horses anyone 
keeps? I have only two, a driving horse 
and a workhorse. Does the acid-phos¬ 
phate and kainit prevent fermentation in 
any way? I have usually kept a couple of 
pigs on my horse manure to trample it 
down and work it over, having been 
brought up in the belief that manure so 
treated is much better and doesn't fer¬ 
ment and burn. But of course using 
chemicals would debar the pigs, and so 
I would like to know about the fermen¬ 
tation. How about throwing the cow 
manure on the same heap? Any advan¬ 
tage or disadvantage? B. G. Y. 
New Hampshire. 
We thought the answer covered the 
ground. I do not understand that nitrate 
of soda in the manure will repel the flies. 
Equal parts of acid phosphate and 
kainit is considered the best mixture, but 
I do not think this will prevent the 
trouble entirely. It will greatly reduce 
it as has been stated. It makes no dif¬ 
ference how many horses you keep if 
you use enough of the chemicals. Of 
course you can do a more complete job 
when you have only one or two horses. 
The best way to prevent fly breeding is 
to keep the manure in a room or pit with 
screen doors and windows so the flies 
cannot get in. The kainit acts to pre¬ 
vent fermentation, while the acid phos¬ 
phate acts somewhat like plaster to pre¬ 
vent the loss of ammonia. While it is 
not very likely that the pigs would get 
enough of the chemicals to hurt them 
there would be some danger from care¬ 
less use. We should keep them off the 
pile. The cow manure may well be 
mixed with the other. The flies will 
sometimes breed in cow manure, but not 
at all as frequently as in horse manure. 
We would rather have the two well 
mixed together. Let it be understood 
that we do not guarantee that where 
these chemicals are used in the stable 
there cannot be any flies. That would be 
impossible, but this practice is one of the 
things which will prevent the flies from 
breeding freely and therefore will help. 
II. w. c. 
Lime on Potatoes. 
Will lime injure potatoes in any way? 
How much to the acre for sandy gravelly 
soil? This ground was gardened for 
several years, and is very rich, but seems 
to be a little sour. It was just red with 
sorrel. Which is the more profitable to 
sow, lime or good fertilizer with the fol¬ 
lowing analysis: Ammonia, 2 per cent.; 
available phosphoric acid, 8 per cent.; 
potash, 10 per cent. The lime is burnt 
limestone ready prepared for the land, 
supposed to be 10 per cent, wood ashes. 
Copley, Ohio. G. J. 
We have answered this question so 
many time that it seems as if the ma¬ 
jority of our readers must know the 
answer by heart. The way lime injures 
potatoes is by increasing the amount of 
scab. This is a germ disease which 
develops and spreads best in an alkaline 
or “sweet soil.” The lime “sweetens” 
the soil and thus makes a good condition 
for the scab germs to spread. That is 
the story of lime on potatoes. The 
best, practice is to use the lime on 
clover or grass and to use fertilizer on 
potatoes. ____________ 
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