1910. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1093 
PEACH ORCHARDS AND ONIONS. 
Last Winter we received a letter from 
a doctor in a Southern State who asked 
for advice. This man drifted away from 
a West Virginia farm when a boy. He 
now had an idea of growing onions on 
a large scale. He knew nothing about 
the crop, could not attend to the work 
himself, would be obliged to buy all 
manure or fertilizer, yet he thought of 
starting with five acres or more. We 
told him as best we could how to go at 
it, but our advice was to make his mis¬ 
takes on a small area and not try more 
than half an acre the first time. We 
have just received the following letter: 
Last Winter I wrote you concerning 
onion culture; the advice you gave did me 
a lot of good, and has produced results; 
namely, start on a small scale and ob¬ 
serve. As a result I raised at the rate of 
440 bushels of onions to the acre, besides 
a great amount of other vegetables. All 
in all, I hired most of my labor, at $1.50 
per day, yet I am ahead about $76.30 on 
the half acre. My latest dream is to buy 
a poor, thin, shallow, cleared edged slate 
hillside, sloping to the west, east and south, 
about 675 feet above sea level, with a fair 
house and barn on it that will do good 
service for several years; that has no 
timber on it except some scrub oaks, sit¬ 
uated four miles from my office, the same 
lying two miles from express and freight 
oflice. It is quite steep, sloping both east 
and west, moderately to the south, has 
been farmed for ages without improving, 
but it responds to lime very readily. It 
will grow clover if not too dry. My idea 
was to buy this 80 acres for $900, and 
plow it, subsoiling every other furrow, 
leaving the subsoil lying in the furrow, and 
plant 25 acres in peaches; cultivating in 
between the rows with onions, and fol¬ 
lowing the onions with Crimson clover 'and 
Cow-liorn turnips for a cover crop. This 
is, plant about two acres in onions and two 
or more acres in potatoes each year, un¬ 
til the whole orchard was cultivated. Also 
put out a small patch of strawberries and 
raspberries, to help defray the expenses. 
I shall have to borrow all the capital to 
do this, as I must of necessity attend to 
my practice to meet my current expenses 
until 1 can get a paying crop. Would you 
advise me to undertake such a proposition, 
accepting the fact that I measure up to 
the average man in management and abil¬ 
ity? If so would you put a man on the 
place at $25 per month and furnish a pair 
of mules and other necessary tools, or 
would you hire the work and teams by 
the day for two or three years? All man¬ 
ure at first will have to be shipped to the 
nearest point two miles, at $2 per ton, and 
hauled. 
We would never give direct personal 
advice to a stranger, because the suc¬ 
cess of such an enterprise will depend 
entirely upon the man. From the way 
this man wrote last Winter we rather 
doubted his ability to grow a paying 
crop of onions, for we have seen many 
start off with large prospects only to 
fall by the wayside. . He made good, 
however, and that is in his favor for 
the new scheme. Such poor land is not 
ideal onion ground. It must be stuffed 
with manure or heavily fertilized to pro¬ 
duce a crop, and anyway, a peach or¬ 
chard is not a good place for growing 
onions. After two or three years the 
trees will be too large for the onion 
crop to do well. Potatoes will be better, 
and we would not plan for more than 
two crops of onions in the orchard. 
Otherwise the plan is sensible, and if 
this man has good nerve and courage he 
can carry it through. 
Concrete Blocks for Housebuilding. 
N. B., Stonington, Conn .—I intend to 
build a house, the lower story of hollow 
cement blocks, and the upper story of wood. 
I have seen one of those houses in New 
Jersey and was greatly impressed with it. 
Can such a house be built cheaper than 
entirely of wood? IIow could I prevent 
its dampness? Everybody says such houses 
are wet. This is be a dwelling house. 
Ans. —The numerous failures of con¬ 
crete block construction can almost in¬ 
variably be traced to two causes, viz., 
poor workmanship, or improper selec¬ 
tion of materials. The usual method of 
making concrete blocks is to make the 
material so dry that the resulting block 
is porous. The reason for making the 
blocks dry is in order to enable the 
manufacturer to remove them from the 
molds and use them at the earliest pos¬ 
sible date, and the reason for not using 
sufficient cement is of course to reduce 
the cost as much as possible. Concrete 
blocks well made and well laid in place 
make a damp-proof wall. The scheme 
N. B. suggests of building the lower 
story of hollow cement blocks and the up¬ 
per story of wood is quite common, and 
some very artistic results have been ob¬ 
tained. The scheme of plastering di¬ 
rectly to the inside of the blocks without 
using furring and lath has been tried, 
but unless the blocks are exceedingly 
well made there is liability of dampness. 
The practice in the past has been to try 
to imitate rock face with concrete blocks, 
and this has almost always been unsuc¬ 
cessful, and the obvious imitation has 
caused a great deal of criticism of this 
kind of construction. The maker of con¬ 
crete blocks should never try to imitate 
rock but should treat the concrete as 
concrete. In this way much more artistic 
results can be obtained. p. h. w. 
NEW WAY OF CLEANING STRAW¬ 
BERRIES. 
A method of cleaning up strawberry 
beds after fruiting is coming into favor 
in this central Hudson fruit district 
which gives better results than any other 
we have tried. We found that where 
strawberries and currants are set in the 
same row, as is often but not wisely done 
here, considerable work is required at 
the end of their career to free the row 
of strawberry plants. Even after two 
thorough hoeings many clusters of 
strong plants will develop during the 
Fall. The plants are not easily killed or 
weakened by destroying the tops and the 
crowns in their semi-dormant state in 
midsummer. Yet where strawberries are 
grown by themselves and we plow the 
ground away, leaving only a narrow row 
to make new plants, many plants and 
sections of rows will die out if dry 
weather follows. If the row is left 
wider there are too many old plants and 
old weeds for best results. These ob¬ 
servations made the new way seem 
promising. After mowing the tops, we 
plow the ground toward the plants that 
are to be left, completely covering them 
with a good furrow from each side. The 
row of plants covered but not plowed out 
should be not more than a foot wide; 
all the other ground is plowed toward 
it. After five or six days we put on a 
good spike-toothed harrow, and work 
first with the rows, then diagonally or 
across. Keep at it till the field is very 
nearly level and clean. When rightly 
done the ground looks fit for seeding, 
but not like a berry patch. Then put the 
harrow away and forget the field three 
weeks or a month. By that time it will 
look like a good first-year strawberry 
bed, and the cultivator and hoe will 
come in use. 
So thorough a working of the ground 
is not given by any other method. The 
old crowns, weeds, shallow-rooted plants 
and rubbish are all cleared away and 
much hand work is saved. The cost of 
caring for our own acre patch from 
fruiting time till November this year is 
$27. This includes mowing, two spray¬ 
ings, hoeings and full wages for all 
horse work. The field is exceedingly 
stony, but contained very little chick- 
weed or purslane seed, and is left late 
in October free of weeds and in fine 
condition. c. eckerson. 
Ulster Co., N. Y. 
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pay the freight 
both ways. We 
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freight paid 
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rock- bottom 
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upon terms of 
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choice, giving 
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the Instrument 
before you need 
decide to keep It 
and we give you 
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which holds us to 
this offer and also 
insures instru¬ 
ment against 
defect for 25 years. 
Send For 
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whether yon 
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CornisD Co. ^ ! .^2 n bv. N r e ^o Je v r ;.^ 
Teacher: “Now do you see the dif¬ 
ference between animal instinct and hu¬ 
man reason?” Bright Boy: “Yes’m. If 
we had instinct we would know every¬ 
thing we needed to without learning it, 
but we’ve got the reason and have to 
study ourselves mos’ blind or be a fool.” 
-—Good News. 
WITT I drilling 
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WILLIAMS BROS.. Ithaca. N. Y. 
The l atterCom panion 
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Sports and Pastimes; Encounters with Indians; 
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Practical Short Articles about Domestic Manage¬ 
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can be of help in making home more comfortable, 
more beautiful. The Youtli's Companion, Boston, Mass. 
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