1914. 
THE RURAL NEW -YORKER 
147 
The Home Acre. 
Matured Crop in Orchard. 
On page 1297 is a picture (Fig. 509) 
of a peach orchard, whose grain matured 
in it, also where the grain was turned 
under early before maturity. In 1912 
I saw an apple orchard filled in with 
peaches. There were three rows in the 
center of this orchard that did not get 
plowed until the Crimson clover matured. 
This caused the two rows of trees in 
these places to stop growing and get 
very yellow. This orchard was in clay 
soil. The remainder of this orchard was 
moist, and where it was not plowed was 
nearly as hard and dry as a cement walk. 
It is a great drawback to young trees to 
let any cover crop such as rye or Crim¬ 
son clover mature in it. D. s. 
Port Norris, N. J. 
Winter Pruning of Fruit Trees. 
Is it wrong to prune young peach trees 
this time of the year? P. n. A. 
Meriden, Conn. 
It is not wrong, but hardly wise. Bet¬ 
ter wait until March. By that time the 
danger from killing of the wood will be 
over. Should you cut more there may 
be killing later and in such case you 
would have to prune again. 
Sorrel in Lawn. 
My lawn four years old, otherwise well 
seeded, is being overrun with sorrel. I 
suppose it needs lime. Will you advise 
me whether to use burnt or ground lime¬ 
stone and what quantity for about 75x 
100 feet? M. m. a. 
Bernardsville, N. J. 
Evidently this soil needs lime, but we 
doubt if you will find that applying it 
to the surface will prove satisfactory, 
You should use 300 pounds of slaked 
lime on this area of lawn, but the only 
way to obtain best results is to work the 
lime into the soil. Of course this cannot 
be done without spading up and reseed¬ 
ing. The lime will kill out some of the 
sorrel, but not all of it. 
Soil-binding Growth for Henyard. 
My chicken pens are on quite a slope, 
the earth is sandy gravel. The fowls 
keep the vegetation all picked oil'. In 
the Spring, especially, it gullies badly. 
Can you advise me of any planting that 
the hens will leave alive and that will 
chock that wash? I last Spring put out 
three filbert bushes as a feeler. The hens 
cannot reach the top branches and I am 
hoping the roots will hold the earth 
(though the pens would require a much 
larger number planted). What can you 
advise me regarding this or any plant¬ 
ing? VILLAGER. 
It is doubtful if you can get any crop 
securely started in these yards, unless 
you keep the hens out for at least six 
months. No crop can start while the 
hens are actually at work. We will 
turn this over to our readers for ex¬ 
perience. 
Seeding Timothy on Quack Grass. 
I am a green hand at the farm busi¬ 
ness, and would like to know whether 
Timothy and clover seed sown over quack 
grass in early Spring, April or May, will 
come up in time to be cut in July or 
August? I am bothered a good deal with 
quack grass, and that grass by itself 
makes it hard to sell at a fair price. 
I thought by doing this it might help 
out until I get my farm in shape. 
Buffalo, N. Y. R. K. 
As we understand it. you think of seed¬ 
ing Timothy and clover on land that is 
foul with quack grass. You will be 
disappointed, for the chances are that 
the quack grass will come in and crowd 
out the Timothy. We would not seed 
down until the quack grass has been 
killed. Better sow fodder corn in drills 
and give thorough culture, or seed thickly 
to oats and Canada peas, and follow with 
a heavy seeding to buckwheat and rye. 
Mixing Lye and Sulphur. 
While making soap I accidently spilt 
some strong lye water on some powdered 
sulphur. In a short time the sulphur 
seemed to dissolve, so I then took equal 
parts of lye, sulphur and water and 
mixed them up and added a little heat. 
The mixture soon changed to a reddish 
transparent liquid that instantly mixes 
with water without separation. Diluted 
50 to one it has a yellow appearance, and 
feels quite greasy to touch (very similar 
to soluble oil sprays). I sprayed a 
small apple tree with some 25 to one 
and two peach trees with 50 to one, and 
will wait for results. Do you think this 
mixture will make a good spray, and 
what tree ailments will it be good for? 
Somerville, N. J. E. L. C. 
The mixture which you obtained is a 
sodium sulphide, similar in some respects 
to the soluble sulphur now being manu¬ 
factured. We cannot, of course, with¬ 
out having the mixture at hand, give any 
idea as to its strength. If good for any¬ 
thing it should affect San Jose scale and 
fungous disease organisms, but as you 
have no exact means of determining its 
strength you would better go slow with 
this until it has been well tested. 
Homemade Oil Spray. 
I have a few trees to spray and wish 
to use “soluble oil.” Will you tell us 
how to prepare fish oil and others to 
make them soluble in small quantities? 
s. B. R. 
A bulletin issued by the Connecticut 
Experiment Station, Storrs P. O., tells 
in detail how to do this. We do not 
advise you to try it on a small scale. It 
looks easy, but you will not know just 
how strong it is when the job is done, 
and you may have a mixture that will 
injure your trees. This is work for an 
experienced hand, and we would rather 
buy one of the guaranteed brands of oil 
than try to mix a small lot. 
Tar for Tree Wounds. 
Is tar as a covering for wounds made 
in pruning trees objectionable? It sticks 
and covers better than white lead. 
c. E. s. 
We prefer to paint the tree wounds 
with a mixture of pure lead and oil. The 
tar varies somewhat in its composition, 
and we have known cases where it did 
considerable injury, and to be on the safe 
side we should prefer the pure paint. 
Fight the Peach Borer. 
Some of my peach trees are injured. 
The sap is running out through the bark 
at the base of the tree, what can I do? 
New Jersey. f. l. 
The substance you find at the bottom 
of the tree is not the sap running away, 
but a gum caused by the wounds made 
by peach borers. Scrape away this gum 
from the bark, and you will find that it 
contains little pieces of wood like saw¬ 
dust. You will find a hole in the bark, 
with a tunnel running down between the 
bark and the wood toward the root. With 
a sharp knife cut down this tunnel, do J 
not work across the trunk of the tree, 
and at the bottom you will find the borer. 
This is a white insect with a black head. 
Dig him out and kill him. You will 
probably find several borers in the same 
trunk. This insect in the form of moth 
lays its eggs in midsummer at the base of 
the tree. These eggs produce tiny borers, 
which work down toward the root of the 
tree, keeping up their work until very 
cold weather, and resuming it in the 
Spring. When they have completed their 
growth the following year, they spin a 
cocoon around themselves, from which 
later on a moth appears to lay the eggs 
and go through the same performance. 
The peach borer is a worse insect for us 
to handle than the scale. Various washes 
are proposed to paint over the trunk of 
the tree, but the most effective way is to 
dig them out with a sharp knife, or a 
crooked wire. This should be done in the 
early Fall, and once again in May. 
Lantern in Hotbed. 
On page 37 one of your correspond¬ 
ents requested information as to how 
to give warmth to a small hotbed, inas¬ 
much as he could get no fresh manure 
for the purpose. In the answer you gave 
him an excellent method, but one which 
would require considerable expense. I 
had exactly the same difficulty last year 
as did your correspondent in getting the 
necessary warmth, and I purchased two 
large lanterns (for 75 cents each) and 
placed at each end of the hotbed, giving 
just a little space between two of the 
frames for air. The result was perfectly 
satisfactory. Seed was planted about the 
middle of February and was ready fox- 
transplanting at the usual time. 
New York. war. j. youngs.* 
R. N.-Y.—Be careful to give enough 
air. 
Mother: “Now, Willie, put away 
those drumsticks. Don’t you know your 
father has a headache?” Willie: “But, 
ma, when I was going into the parlor 
with my drum, he told me to beat it.”— 
Boston Transcript. 
The 
Mapes Fertilizer 
Company 
A Business Characterized by Stability and Progress 
Under the Same Family Management 
for Three Generations 
N OT only have the Mapeses continued suc¬ 
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the Lanes, who have been associated with the 
Mapeses from the start, show the same identical 
record—grandfather, father and son. 
Could there be a better guarantee than this 
family management, with the element of family 
pride deeply involved, that everything has been 
done and will continue to be done to make the 
Mapes Manures as good as the present knowl¬ 
edge of fertilizer science permits for the crops 
for which they are intended ? 
The Mapes business had its inception in the 
scientific research and experiments of Professor 
James J. Mapes, and scientific research and ex¬ 
periment, coupled with the most exact practical 
experience, have been the dominating factor in 
the Mapes business to the present day. 
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Office and Works, PORTLAND, CONN. 
