1017 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Trouble With Raspberries; Greenhouse 
Compost. 
1. What was the matter with my black 
raspberries? They were loaded with ber¬ 
ries, but just before they began to get 
ripe the leaves on top began to turn yel¬ 
low, then black and died. It gradually 
extended down the cane, so I did not 
gather any berries. The new canes ap¬ 
pear all healthy and all right. What 
would be the remedy to prevent its hap¬ 
pening again? 2. How do they make 
compost, or rich dirt, such as is used in 
greenhouses? G. A. n. 
Fairfax, Va. 
1. I do not know of any disease that 
the black-cap raspberry is subject to that 
would affect the plants in. the manner 
described. Cane borers sometimes cause 
considerable loss from boring into and 
eating the heart out of the cane; their 
presence is easily noticeable, as the leaves 
soon turn yellow and gradually dry up 
as the life is sapped out of the cane by 
the borer. The remedy lies in cutting 
out and burning of all the old dead and 
infested canes, which will usually keep 
these enemies under control. I have 
known extremely dry weather to affect 
raspberries in the manner described. They 
are not a deep-rooted plant and always 
suffer more or less during a drought, es¬ 
pecially if carrying a heavy crop of fruit. 
I have- on two or three different occa¬ 
sions seen whole fields become almost a 
total loss from a severe drought coming 
on three or four weeks before and ex¬ 
tending over the ripening period. When 
this occurred the green berries began to 
dry up, the leaves to turn yellow and 
finally the whole plantation assumed a 
dry, parched appearance as the fruiting 
canes died. The remedy of course in a 
case of this kind, is moisture, in suffi¬ 
cient amount to meet the plants’ require¬ 
ments. If rains fail and it is not prac¬ 
tical to irrigate, then there is no remedy, 
and the plants must suffer and perhaps 
the fruiting canes perish, resulting in 
either a partial or total loss of the crop. 
2. The very best soil obtainable for 
general use in the greenhouse is that 
made by composting sods cut from an 
old pasture field and partially decom¬ 
posed stable manure, in the proportions 
of two loads of sod to one load of ma¬ 
nure. The sods may be cut in any 
length and width desired and about two 
inches thick. The location selected for 
the compost heap should be slightly de¬ 
pressed so the water will not drain away 
from the heap. When the heap is made, 
first lay two thicknesses of sod as a foun¬ 
dation, turning them upside down; then 
a layer of manure two inches deep, and 
so on until the heap reaches a height of 
three or four feet, leaving it flat on top 
so the rains will penetrate it readily. 
When the sod becomes partially decayed, 
take a sharp garden spade, start at one 
end of the compost heap, cutting it 
straight down. This will sever the sods 
into small pieces. When a quantity has 
thus been cut down it is a good plan to 
pulverize and mix it with the garden hoe 
before forming into another heap. Con¬ 
tinue this cutting and mixing until the 
entire heap is gone over, and formed into 
a new heap similar to the old. This cut¬ 
ting and mixing should be repeated every 
three or four weeks until the whole is 
well rotted and fined, when it is reidy 
for use. Soil thus made will contain an 
abundance of organic matter, and will be 
well suited for almost all kinds of vege¬ 
table and flowering plants. k. 
Stockyards Manure. 
Would it pay me to buy manure at 
the stockyard horse stables at .$1 a ton 
loaded on car in 20-ton lots, and pay $10 
a car in freight, for putting on my land 
to raise the general fertility of the farm, 
which is in good cultivation and fair fer¬ 
tility, but is clay and needs a solvent? 
I could do the carting without paying 
extra money for it. What would be the 
best way of using the manure on the land 
this Fall? I have a manure spreader, 
f arting would be a mile and a half over 
good road. I can get other stockyard 
manures, but they cost more per ton. 
Should I be likely to get a bad lot of 
western weeds in such manure? 
Buffalo, N. Y. a. e. c. 
The price mentioned is fair for stock- 
yard manure of good quality. In New 
■Jersey a ton of such manure put on the 
•:urm will cost at least $2.50 per ton. The 
soil you speak of probably needs organic 
matter and the manure will supply it. 
Usually on such soils we think the ma¬ 
nure gives quicker results than green 
crops plowed under. We should put the 
manure on with a spreader as hauled 
f rom the car, if the land is reasonably 
level. It will be better to put it on sod 
ground which is to be plowed next 
bpring. It is often a hard question to 
decide whether it pays better to buy 
manure than to rely upon chemicals and 
green crops to keep up fertility. We 
think a quantity of manure with the 
green crop helps. In this case the use 
of the manure prepares the ground for 
use next Spring without waiting for 
green crops to be grown and plowed un¬ 
der. The greatest objection to the use 
of manure is the danger of bringing in 
weed seeds. You get millions of seeds in 
this way, often starting new and danger¬ 
ous kinds. In orchards this is not so ob¬ 
jectionable, since any growth may be 
plowed under to provide organic matter. 
In cultivated fields the new weeds be¬ 
come a nuisance. 
Right of Telephone Companies. 
Will you advise me whether an out-of- 
State telephone and telegraph company 
can run a trunk line 40 feet in width 
through any part of our farms and wood¬ 
lands they may dictate and compel us to 
sell to them? Have they obtained a legal 
right in Maine to cut up our farms this 
way? s . 
Waldoboro, Me. 
Maine has been a haj>py hunting 
ground for predatory corporations so 
long that even a telephone attorney 
would have trouble to answer the above 
question offhand. It calls for informa¬ 
tion to be found only among the special 
acts and resolves, that are passed by the 
hundreds at every biennial session. How¬ 
ever, it is highly probable that a tele¬ 
phone company engaged in building trunk 
lines does possess the right of eminent 
domain to some degree. To obviate ac¬ 
tual holdups by greedy land owners, it is 
generally necessary to give public service 
corporations the privilege of taking rights 
of way at a valuation fixed by commis¬ 
sioners appointed by the courts. As a 
rule such corporations prefer to pay 
something more than the actual value of 
the land, to avoid the expense and delay 
of legal proceedings. Their agents are 
generally well posted as to land values, 
and also inclined to meet the wishes of 
owners regarding exact locations. 
C. M. G. 
Killing Out Quack Grass. 
Quack grass is one of the worst of all 
robber plants, because of its shallow 
horizontal root system. It forms a mat 
of roots about six inches below the sur¬ 
face, absorbing all moisture and fertility 
that should go to the production of cul¬ 
tivated crops. Although it appears so 
aggressive, it can easily be outflanked an® 
eradicated—much more easily than most 
of our other weed pests. The ground 
should be plowed in the Spring about six 
or seven inches deep and immediately 
fitted and planted to some cultivated 
crop. The quack will come on bravely, 
but keep the cultivator going and very 
little will be left in the rows or hills as 
the case may be. It is not necessary to 
hoe, although the crop will be shortened 
by the quack somewhat. After the crop 
is harvested and along in November plow 
again the same depth as in the Spring; 
this throwing that mass of roots out of 
the ground and on the surface just before 
the freezing weather of late Fall and 
Winter, is stealing a march on the 
enemy. In the Spring it should be run 
over with a good harrow and plowed 
again eight inches deep, and again plant¬ 
ed to a cultivated crop. This crop can 
be hoed, but it will be found a light job 
as only an occasional spear will appear, 
and these should be kept down. The 
enemy is now vanquished and no loss 
of crops has occurred in so doing. This 
process not only subdues the nuisance, 
but returns the whole mass to supply 
humus to the soil that the quack had been 
robbing. The second plowing in the 
Spring will also prove a profitable fac¬ 
tor in soil preparation. n. E. cox. 
Treatment of Alfalfa. 
I would like your advice on a piece 
of Alfalfa sown this season. Owing to 
the short season we have here in the 
mountains, and so as to give it a good 
start, I sowed one acre to Alfalfa the 
last week in June, and the weather has 
been very favorable, more so the last 
month. I have a very even stand 
throughout the field of from 12-15 inches 
of growth. Do you thing it is advisable 
to cut and cure, or just to cut the same, 
and let it lie for a mulch? m. g. 
Monticello, N. Y. 
We should clip over this Alfalfa now 
and leave the clippings as a mulch. Then 
let a new growth start and leave it to 
die down as a Winter cover. 
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Phosphorus is the limiting element m crop production in the Central and 
x * te .u T . he , v “ lue 0,1 f"ra land depends on its productive 
h a v e th * n ,sn 4 * eTlde “* that an increase of the supply of the 
been told -ffr^Phosphorous m your soil will give a corresponding increase 
that Rock producu a nd ah* e? The average value of tillable 
PhosDha’e will i dl ! section is $150, and the average amount 
rnospna.e Will of Phosphorus is 1,200 pounds per acre One 
flT ? °°h fT’ m ton of Rock Phosphate, costing^bout $fb 
Illinois, but it is no good will add 20% to the total Phosphoruil 
for your state.” Here are a *^5^- in each acre of your land, and 
few facts: This company sup- ||?Ithe consequent increase 
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Phosphate used. Only 30 % of our total 
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uses as much as Illinois. We are now shipping Rock -s 
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add $30.00 per 
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