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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NEW YORK STATE FRUIT GROWERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
Part I. 
The most successful Summer meeting in 
the history of the association was held at 
Sodus August 5-G; over six hundred were 
present. It was an immense undertaking 
for a little town like Sodus, with only 
one hotel to entertain such a crowd of 
visitors, hut that they were fully equal to 
the occasion was conceded by all. 
Prof. Cavanaugh of Cornell University 
spoke on “A Phase of the Fertilizer Prob¬ 
lem.” Seventy-five to one hundred mil¬ 
lion dollars are spent annually in the 
United States for fertilizers. What is 
needed is soluble plant food and the plant 
food already in the soil must be made 
available or available plant food added. 
There are two ways in which plant food 
can be. made available, and to make it 
plain he gave the following illustration: 
if you wish to make a solution of sugar 
and water, having lump sugar and cold 
water with which to work, there are two 
ways by which the process can be hastened. 
One is by crushing the sugar and thereby 
increr. itig the surface to be acted upon; 
the other by heating the water. Good 
tillage represents the crushing process, and 
the increased dissolving action of the 
water by decaying vegetable matter in the 
soil accomplished by adding humus repre¬ 
sents heating the water. Available plant 
food not used by the plants the first sea¬ 
son reverts to forms no more available than 
the same elements already in the soil, 
and must be again changed to soluble plant 
food before the growing plant can use it. 
On Long Island, where the annual appli¬ 
cations exceed the amounts removed by the 
crops, heavier fertilizing is necessary from 
year to year to get the same production. 
Clover fails from lack of soluble plant food 
rather than from an acid condition of the 
soil, the acidity only being a symptom of 
the more serious trouble. lie gave com¬ 
parative values of different forms of lime 
to help those buying lime to understand 
the relative values of the different forms. 
Pure or nearly limestone will yield not 
over 50 pounds of quicklime for each 100 
pounds of stone burned. This 56 pounds of 
quicklime slaked with just enough water 
to reduce it to a powder will increase in 
weight to 74 pounds, and when air-slaked 
will take up enough water to make a hun¬ 
dred pounds. Thus 50 pounds of quick¬ 
lime equals 74 pounds of hydrated lime, or 
100 pounds of air-slaked lime, and buyers 
should apply these values to the different 
forms, remembering to figure in the in¬ 
creased freight caused by the extra weights 
in the slaked limes. Experiments at the 
Ohio Station, covering a period of 12 years 
Show that 40 or 50 pounds of either acid 
phosphate or floats added to a ton of 
stable manure doubles its yalue. 
Prof. Reach of Iowa spoke on ‘‘Recent 
Developments in the Prevention of Frost 
Injury.” Smudging to prevent frost injury 
was practiced centuries ago. The recent 
developments in orchard heating and 
smudging was started in California in the 
orange orchards. Three years ago it was 
taken up in Colorado, and d year ago they 
saved a crop of four thousand carloads. 
In Iowa this year a few orchards were 
protected in this way and with a tempera¬ 
ture of 23 degrees to 24 degrees outside 
the orchards-the crop was saved. The oil 
pots cost from 20 to 80 cents apiece, and 
to afford sufficient protection during the 
coldest weather from 80 to 120 arc re¬ 
quired per acre. The question of what 
fuel to use is a local one depending on 
prices. He also took up the subject of 
tree and lmd resistance. I)r. Whitten of the 
Missouri Station has made careful studies 
on the rest periods of different plants, and 
found a great difference in this respect in 
different species. The peach has a rest 
period of six weeks, and if growth is car¬ 
ried as late as safe into tin* Winter the rest 
period following will extend farther into 
the Winter and lessen liability to frost 
injury. Poorly nourished trees suffer more 
from frosts and Winter injury. Open tops 
offer more bud resistance than dense tops. 
Experiments to determine the temperature 
inside of twigs have been carefully carried 
on and it was found by boring small holes 
in the twigs and inserting delicate ther¬ 
mometers that inside twig temperatures ran 
much higher in dark-barked twigs than in 
those of lighter color, and in some cases 
they showed a temperature 15 degrees high¬ 
er than the surrounding air. Following 
this out the trees have been whitened dur¬ 
ing the Winter with beneficial results. 
Lime-sulphur has been used for the whiten¬ 
ing, but with concentrated commercial mix¬ 
tures lime would have to be added to se¬ 
cure- the desired effect. 
The evening session was started with a 
question-box which took the form of a gen¬ 
eral discussion rather than direct questions 
and answers. A speciment of Alfalfa in¬ 
fested with dodder was brought in and a 
remedy asked for. The advice was to 
sprinkle infested spots with kerosene, then 
cover with dry hay and burn. Some dis¬ 
eased peach foliage was found on the table 
and Prof. Whetzel recognized the trouble as 
peach mildew. lie said it was seldom seri- 
ous, and could be controlled by some of the 
sulphur compounds. This, unlike most 
plant diseases can be cured. Spraying for 
most of these troubles must be as a pre¬ 
ventive rather than a cure. “Is it best 
to force peach trees one to four years old?” 
Mr. Taber said yes, if cultivation is stopped 
early in the season. Prof. Beach said keep 
growing thriftily with heads open and stop 
cultivation early. Mr. Case thought it un¬ 
wise to force any fruit tree too fast. The 
pruning of the peach was then brought up. 
Prof. Fraser starts with three branches 
and tlnm lets them go. Mr. Wellman prunes 
every year from the start. Teats Bros, 
prune but little the first few years, but 
keep head down so fruit is all picked with 
a six-foot ladder. “Is it safe to prune dur¬ 
ing Fall and Winter?” Teats Bros, prune 
all Winter. Others reported favorably on 
Winter pruning. “What is the best cover 
crop to fertilize a young peach orchard?” 
Mr. Wellman said Mammoth clover sown 
the last of July or first of August. Mr. 
King tries to get all the growth possible 
the first three or four years and uses 
stable manure applied in the Winter. 
G. r. s. 
DEMONSTRATION IN VIRGINIA FARMING 
On August 11 I visited the model farm 
at Ivor. Va., during the meeting of the 
Virginia State Farmers' institute. A dem¬ 
onstration was given by the DuPont Pow¬ 
der Co., of plowing out stumps and drains, 
and of loosening hard subsoil by dynamite. 
This will be worth much to our people. We 
have many stumps to be removed iu order 
to bring our farm lands into successful 
operation. Many drains are necessary in 
order to get best results, and much of our 
extremely hard subsoil can be materially 
improved by the use of dynamite to open 
up seams through it. All this may be ac¬ 
complished at a moderate expense of time, 
labor and money by a judicious use of ex¬ 
plosives. A demonstration was also given 
of plowing with a gas tractor and a gang 
of eight plows. The trial was in a Tim¬ 
othy sod, and the usefulness of this heavy 
machinery on large farms was clearly 
shown. While the land was quite uneven 
on the surface, and the crowd continually 
in the way of the operatives, tin' test 
showed clearly that fine work and a great 
amount of it can be done by this method. 
The land was well turned, and all trash 
buried. Some of the furrows were as much 
as 15 or 1i! inches deep, and the pipe¬ 
clay subsoil was turned completely, leaving 
a nice surface behind the great plow. I 
have seen steam plowing in the great 
prairies of the West under very favorable 
conditions, and with but little better re¬ 
sults than were obtained at Ivor under ad¬ 
verse conditions presented. 
Other demonstrations of value to our 
farmers were given. Many crops are grown 
upon this model farm which prove that we 
can grow a great variety of crops on our 
Virginia soils. The trip was one full of 
interest and instruction, and ought to be 
of value to those who were present. I 
have lived in the broom-corn district of 
Illinois, and have seen but little if any 
better brush than that growing upon the 
experimental plot at Ivor. While this 
could not be said of all crops growing 
there, yet the showing was a creditable 
one, and proves that with proper manage¬ 
ment we can compete favorably with other 
States on most crops and excel in some. 
Jetersville, Va. a. l. g. 
Curing Sunflower Seeds. 
Will you tell the best method for curing 
sunflower seeds for hens? c. a. m. 
Massachusetts. 
It is a hard job at best to dry these 
oily seeds. We let them stand until dead 
ripe, then cut off the heads and spread out 
under cover. In damn weather they are 
liable to mould even with the greatest care. 
When thoroughly dry the seed may be 
knocked off with a flail or club. 
» C* C* 
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The rooster does the crowing, 
but it's the hens that meet the 
demand for eggs 
I'm not knocking the rooster. I’m defending him. Somebody has to crow and surely it 
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