1910. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
516 
MULCH CULTURE IN COLUMBIA CO., N. Y. 
It would appear as though the questions of J. Rus¬ 
sell Smith (page 441), about my article on page 22, 
were very proper, as no man’s opinion should have 
great weight unless he has reasons for such opinion. 
Mr. Smith wants to know location and brief de¬ 
scription of the places where apples can be profitably 
SIX-YEAR OLD WITHOUT CULTIVATION. Fig. 202. 
grown, yet no system of cultivation will be an en¬ 
tire success. 
In answer I will say the particular place I had in 
mind was in Massachusetts. It is a black, limestone 
soil, moist without being wet, and would, and does, 
grow three tons of hay per acre. There was enough 
fertility and moisture in the soil, that by using occa¬ 
sional dressings of manure and some wood ashes, they 
were growing fine crops of Baldwin apples in addition 
to the hay crops. Some of these fields had not been 
broken for 30 years. I saw the crops of apples and 
know they can be grown in this way. 
Xow, as to why cultivation would not be practical. 
The reasons are twofold. First, the fields were so 
steep, in most cases, cultivating, as an orchard, was 
simply out of the question. Second, had they not 
been, I believe the soil was so rich and heavy that 
red fruit would have failed to color under clean cul¬ 
tivation, and trees run so much to wood that they 
would not bear profitable crops. I saw one instance 
there where partial cultivation had been given. The 
trees were as fine as one could wish for. Yet the 
crops have been smaller for the past two years than 
we would look for here in an off year. These, as I 
said before, were Massachusetts conditions. But I saw 
practically the same conditions in Madison and Onon¬ 
daga counties, N. Y. 
2. Brief statement of conditions that make Colum¬ 
bia County, N. Y., impossible for good success in any 
kind of mulch orchard. 
As to conditions, we are located on an almost abso¬ 
lutely flat tableland, about 300 feet above tide water. 
Soil runs from a light sandy to gravelly loam, and 
cannot be kept in grass (except quack) by any method 
known to the people here for more than a few years. 
I have seen the mulch method tried here in almost 
every manner known, including the application of 
manure and refuse in large quantities, together with 
high-grade fertilizers, and they have all proved fail¬ 
ures, so far as I know. I am enclosing some small 
pictures that I think speak clearly of the two methods 
although these were not taken for this purpose. Fig. 
2()2 is a Stark tree, six years old, the best of many 
grown without cultivation. The outline is not clear, 
but no part of the tree reaches above my head, and it 
has borne two apples. Fig. 203 is a Stark tree, of same 
age and lot of trees that bore two bushels of fine 
fruit at six years, the time the pictures were taken. 
I his tree has always been cultivated. Fig. 204 is a 
Winesap, six years old, cultivated, and loaded with 
fruit, while big. 205 is a Northern Spy, three years 
old and cultivated. 
As to question No. 3, I will say the location and 
soil conditions and condition of trees where I have 
seen the two methods tried in this section, have been 
much the same as I have stated before, except that I 
have seen it tried with trees of different ages, but the 
results never differ materially. As to carrying on such 
an experiment under these conditions for eight years 
(especially if a man was. trying to grow an orchard 
for future use and profit), he would need plenty of 
both money and grit. As to trees being free from 
scale, no one tries to grow good fruit without spray¬ 
ing in this section, yet to say any of our trees are 
free from scale would be a strong statement, but all 
are comparatively free, and all on my place have had 
the same spraying. While we are of about the same 
latitude and have the same rainfall as Mr. Hitchings, 
otherwise our conditions are very dissimilar; in fact, 
aside from the muck soils of Canastota and some 
other ^sections, perhaps none differs much more from 
ours than that of the Onondaga Valley, where they 
have a particular soil and condition much the same 
as the one spoken of at the beginning of this article, 
and one which exists in but few parts of New York 
State. On the whole 1 believe the places in this State 
where the mulch method will prove entirely sat¬ 
isfactory are very scarce. 
And now just a word to Mr. Smith, who claims 
that nothing but the most approved method of mulch¬ 
ing should be considered. What percentage of the so- 
called cultivated orchards are given the most approved 
care, and how many growers do you know who arc 
giving the best of care and cultivation who are look¬ 
ing for a better way, or are considering taking up the 
CULTIVATED SIX-YEAR-OLD TREE. Fig. 203. 
mulch method? And don’t you believe it is a fact that 
if there were any Of the kind described who were doing 
this that no one would have to lay stress on the fact 
that they should do it the best way? Of course, every 
question is supposed to have two sides, but this one 
in our section only has one, and the answer is cul¬ 
tivation. WM. HOTALING. 
Columbia Co., N. Y. 
HORNETS AS FLY CATCHERS. 
On page 545, “F. A.” asks how to catch flies, having 
been disappointed in sticky fly-paper. She will find 
a lively hornet an effective fly catcher. Over the 
SIX-YEAR-OLD WINESAP. Fig. 204. 
path leading to my stables, on the corner limb of a 
shade maple, hardly six feet from our heads, and 
within 50 feet of the house last Summer was a large 
hornets nest. 1 he result was an absence of flies for 
days at a time. Over the doors of my horse stable 
was another large nest, with similar absence of flies. 
A neighbor, a physician, had four nests in his house 
grounds, and no flies. No one of his family, or mine, 
has ever been stung—hornets and children are the 
best of friends. When a lad on the old home farm, in 
Ohio, I would carry a hornets’ nest from the woods 
to the house safely by thrusting a sharpened stick into 
the exit hole. r, s. s. 
Virginia. 
REMARKS.—The observations given in the above 
letter are very interesting. The English entomolo¬ 
gist, Westwood, writing in 1840, quotes from St. John’s 
“Letters to an American Farmer” to the effect that 
“the Americans, aware of their (hornets) service in 
destroying flies, sometimes suspend a hornets’ nest in 
their parlors.” Again, in 1869, Benjamin D. Walsh, 
an American entomologist, writes that “some persons 
in America have turned this insect devouring propen¬ 
sity of the hornets to good purpose by suspending one 
of their nests in a house much infested by the common 
house fly. In such a situation we have been told that 
they soon make a clearance of the obnoxious flies; 
and so long as you do not meddle with them, they will 
not meddle with you.” It has never been my good 
fortune to know any one personally who has used 
this unique method of destroying house flies. Under 
ordinary circumstances we believe the good house¬ 
wife would rather take her chances of happiness 
among the' house flies than with a good big nest of 
hornets as a kitchen companion. 
The young grubs in the nest of hornets are fed on 
the bodies of insects, cut and chewed into fine pieces 
by the worker members of the colony. Whenever flies 
are available they certainly furnish a considerable 
source of food supply, as anyone can determine by 
watching a hornet catching the flies and carrying them 
to the nest. When one recalls that a large hornets’ 
nest may contain several thousand individuals with 
several thousand cells, many of the latter containing 
a hungry grub to be fed, it would not be very surpris¬ 
ing to find the house flies in close proximity to the 
nest kept well under control. It is quite possible that 
the observations mentioned in the letter are true to 
fact and that colonies of hornets in situations close 
to kitchens and stables might be of considerable use 
in controlling this common pest of the household. 
[prof.] G. W. HERRICK. 
FIGURE THE COST OF CROPS. 
I have bought 35 acres more land adjoining. I have 
opened an account with this property, charging 20 
cents per hour for all labor on the different crops 
to be grown, and 40 cents per hour for man and team, 
also charging each crop with fertilizer, seeds, etc., 
and charging six per cent on purchase price for use 
of money invested. The property cost me $2,000. I 
had this money invested at six per cent, and only had 
to get the dividends cashed. I want to see whether 
I know enough to get any more dividends out of 
farming, first paying myself fair wages for actual 
work. If Mr. Brown, of the New York Central, or 
the faculty at Cornell University have any pet theories 
they want proven or exploded, I am at their service. 
I shall, of course, credit the farm with everything 
produced. Your idea of having a large number keep 
track of actual cost in this way and then averaging 
results will be worth more to the real farmer than all 
of the advice that has been handed out to us by so 
many different ones in the last five years. Invite the 
agricultural colleges to take a hand in production and 
name the actual cost of produce. Tell the milk men 
to charge tinnj and one-half for overtime and double 
time for holidays and Sundays, and see what their 
milk costs them, working as city men do. I will keep 
you posted on results in this new venture. I have a 
record of all expense and income of home farm for 
over 40 years. It is interesting. 
Onondaga Co., N. Y. grant g. hitchings. 
R. N.-Y. —Mr. Hitching tells us that he intends 
working the 35 acres as follows: 11 acres to be 
THREE-YEAR-OLD NORTHERN SPY. Fig. 205. 
seeded to Alfalfa, the remainder into a four-year rota¬ 
tion of six acres each wheat, clover, potatoes and 
barley and oats mixed. As the land now stands there 
are 10 acres in wheat, five in Alfalfa, 18 in Timothy 
and six in corn and potato stubble. This last will be 
sown to barley and oats with Alfalfa. 
