1910. 
• THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
617 
WHEAT FAILURE IN TENNESSEE. 
Reader, Tennessee .—Here in the Sweet¬ 
water Valley our wheat comes out of 
Winter in very poor condition. In some 
cases there is less than half a stand, 
through it was seeded with great care. 
Years ago we were practically sure of a 
good stand and a good crop, but in recent 
years there is usually a failure. What is 
the reason for this? Would ground lime¬ 
stone put on this soil help? 
A Dry Season; Lack of Humus. 
I suspect that your correspondent has 
suffered in his wheat stands for two 
reasons. First, that not since the 
weather records have been kept in this 
section of the State have we had rain¬ 
fall below normal in August, Septem¬ 
ber, October, November and December. 
For this reason wheat went into Win¬ 
ter especially where planted late to avoid 
the Hessian fly, with very short growth. 
The second condition that likely pre¬ 
vailed is that the land is shy of vegeta¬ 
ble matter. As a rule, our wheat grow¬ 
ers do not keep enough cattle or other 
live stock to give them sufficient farm 
manure for their soils, and as the Red 
clover has suffered from anthracnose 
FIXE CUT FEED HOPPER. Fig. 200. 
See First Page. 
have been very much disturbed in their 
usual rotations, and have been succes¬ 
sively corning and wheating their lands 
at the expense of their plant food and 
vegetable matter. While the tempera¬ 
ture of the past Winter did not go 
down as low as that of other Winters 
there was a rather unusual amount of 
freezing and thawing, which is hard 
upon cereals grown upon lands of in¬ 
sufficient vegetable matter. We have 
been recommending green manure 
where the farmer is not feeding suf¬ 
ficient live stock, and unless the practice 
of turning under green manures pre¬ 
vailed in the wheat sections of this 
State the maintaining of good stands of 
cereals throughout the Winter would 
be a serious problem. 
H. A. MORGAN. 
Tenn. Exp. Station. 
Fit the Soil Perfectly. 
The main cause for Winter-killing in 
the South is the lack of perfect prep¬ 
aration in the Fall, and late plowing that 
prevents packing the soil as it should 
be. A farmer will put in wheat after 
corn and will plow the land then too 
late for the best results, when he should 
have let the land remain settled from 
the Spring plowing and the cultivation 
of the corn, and then have used the disk 
harrow only, running it three or four 
inches and going over and over and 
fining the soil and tramping it. Winter- 
killing in the South is mainly caused 
by sowing on loose, rough land. I was 
up through the whole Maryland-Dela- 
ware peninsula on Saturday last, and 
saw no evidence of Winter-killing on 
the beautifully prepared fields of upper 
Delaware, the finest farming section, in 
the Last. Here we had a cold January 
and early February, but have had Spring 
since the middle of February. Not only 
wheat, but Winter oats, have come 
through in fine shape, though the coldest 
night of the Winter caught the field 
without snow. Crushed limestone would 
doubtless help the Sweetwater lands, 
though the weathering of the old Dolo¬ 
mite rocks above the surface should 
keep the land in lime. Thorough fining 
and packing of the soil and no late re¬ 
plowing after a hoed crop is the best 
thing to prevent Winter-killing, pro¬ 
vided, of course, the land is well 
drained. One of the best wheat growers 
in this State plows his land after corn, 
but he then uses the soil packer like 
the dry-farming- people, and packs the 
soil down well and fines the surface, 
and he rarely makes less than 40 bushels 
an acre. ' w. f. massey. 
QUINCE VARIETIES AND CULTURE. 
J. B., Horth Orosvenordale, Conn .—What 
varieties of quinces will be best for me to 
plant? I want them for making preserves 
to sell, and for selling in the raw whole 
state. My catalogue lists the following 
sorts: Bourgeat, Meech’s Prolific, Rea’s 
Mammoth, Orange and Champion, but I 
do not know which to plaut. My soil is 
rather heavy loam, inclined to be wet in 
early Spring. 
Ans. —J. B. will find that quinces, like 
other fruits, will need the right kind of 
soil, fertilizer, pruning and culture, as 
well as the right variety to be profitable. 
The soil should be deep and rich. Start 
with an application of good stable ma¬ 
nure every two years, and a good 
sprinkling broadcast of muriate of pot¬ 
ash every year; or muriate and kainit 
alternately. Potash is very necessary 
to the best development of the quince, 
as with all fruits. The quince requires 
more moisture than most fruits, but do 
not make a common mistake by planting 
in wet undrained land. The bushes 
should be started with a single stem 
about 18 inches from the ground, and 
the head formed from this stem. Down¬ 
ing says that the quince does not re¬ 
quire any pruning except to remove a 
dead or broken branch. Later experi¬ 
ence proves that the quince should be 
carefully and thoroughly pruned every 
year. As to varieties, having fruited 
or tried and failed to fruit very many 
varieties, including Rea’s Mammoth, 
Champion, Meech, Van Deman, Pine¬ 
apple. Fuller, Bourgeat, Pear, Angers 
and others, I would, if planting for 
orchard or profit, plant only the old 
true Orange or Apple quince. One 
of the oldest and most reliable nursery 
firms that advertises in The R. N.-Y. 
lists only the Orange and Rea's Mam¬ 
moth. The planter needs to be careful 
that he gets the variety true. The 
Orange is large, almost round, color 
golden yellow, and is the best for all 
purposes. e. s. b. 
This bids fair to be the best year we 
have had iu years from an agricultural 
standpoint. The rains have been season¬ 
able ; the acreage planted to all crops will 
be large—perhaps greater than ever before. 
The natural gyiss pastures, especially those 
on the hills, never presented a better ap¬ 
pearance. Too often there is a dearth of 
clover on hill and dale; this year there is a 
fine stand of clover everywhere; our com¬ 
mon Burr clover predominates. Hay for 
some years has been very high, mostly due 
to the dealers creating a corner in it. 
Some of them have been badly bitten by 
the way our copious rains have insured a 
big crop for the coming year—some deal¬ 
ers are already losing $4 per ton on the 
better grades of hay. Potatoes are still 
high, though the next crop will be large; 
still, fine prices will be realized. I wish 
I had 20 acres to put in them. w. a. p. 
California. 
This is a potato county, and potatoes are 
only 12 cents per GO pounds on market. 
Farmers' hearts have dropped below their 
ankles. This circumstance is a calamity, 
and L is just as likely to hit us one year 
as another. Is it any wonder that farm¬ 
ers’ hoys want to quit the farm? e. w. s. 
Cedar Springs, Mich. 
Soft Maples for Sap. —As to soft 
maples as sap trees, we always found them 
about worthless. They would often run 
large amounts of sap, but it was seldom 
sweet enough to pay for boiling, and it 
had a way of turning everything a sort of 
purple that it touched, so that all the 
sugar it was in was very dark. Tolerate 
soft maples as shade trees, for thev are 
pretty ; that is about all. j. w , c. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
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