1029 
of infection for the crop are two, the seed and the 
soil, although doubtless infection does occur other¬ 
wise. The work at the Ohio Station, for instance, 
shows that the scab organism will infect plants at 
blossoming time and cause the typical disease. The 
amount of damage done as a result of this type of 
inoculation is relatively small as compared with that 
from earlier infection, however. The diseases are 
usually carried to new regions by the seed, partly by 
means of spores clinging to the surface of the grains 
and partly by means of infected seeds which con¬ 
tain the living threads of the fungus within. Once 
established in the soil, they can maintain themselves 
on the organic matter there at least for a year or 
so. If wheat be planted on this same soil year after 
year, they are constantly present to attack it; and 
if, as is usually the case, the seed wheat used each 
time is infected, the soil receives a fresh inoculation 
each year. In a few years such soil becomes so 
“sick” that the production of a large crop of first- 
class wheat on it is out of the question. That such 
unproductive soil is not exhausted of its plant food 
materials has been proved by Prof. P.olley by ster¬ 
ilizing a small patch of it with steam. After this 
treatment the patch produced high grade wheat sea¬ 
son after season until the fungi crept in again. It 
is only fair, however, at this point to say that many 
scientists have conducted soil sterilization experi¬ 
ments and a good number of them think that the 
beneficial results of sterilizing soil are due at least 
partly to other things tliau the destruction of para¬ 
sitic fungi. At any rate they demonstrate that the 
plant food materials are not always exhausted wheu 
poor yields I’esult. 
REMEDIES. — Remedial measures should be 
directed toward getting seed and soil which are as 
clean as possible, and then planting under conditions 
favorable to the growth of the wheat and unfavor¬ 
able to the growth of the fungi. 
SECURING CLEAN SEED.—The first thing to do 
is to get a single variety suited to your conditions 
and save your own seed, because seed raised on your 
own farm is better adapted to your conditions than 
any other can be. If your variety is mixed and there 
is no suitable pure one in your vicinity, you can 
purify it by selecting heads of the kind you want 
from your field and planting the wheat so harvested 
by itself in a multiplying plot. Since wheat is self- 
fertilized, the crop in the plot will be pure. When 
selecting seed for the main crop, pick out the best 
part of the field, or have a special patch and harvest 
it without letting it get wet in the shock. Use can¬ 
vas shock covers if necessary. If it gets wet, the 
fungi present as spores or in diseased kernels will 
grow over the sound kernels and infect them. The 
next precautionary measure is to fan the seed. 
Screening is not so important although it will do 
some good and certainly no harm. The essential 
thing, however, is to get rid of the light weight 
grains; and screening will not suffice, because such 
grains are often bulkier than the heavy ones. Use 
a fanning mill and see that the blast is good and 
strong. After fanning, use the formaldehyde treat¬ 
ment in order to kill all spOres clinging to the out¬ 
side of the grains. Spread the grain on the floor or 
canvas and sprinkle with a solution of a pint of for¬ 
maldehyde to fifty gallons of water until all is thor¬ 
oughly moist, shoveling over repeatedly in the mean¬ 
time in order to distribute the moisture thoroughly 
and evenly. Shovel into a pile and cover with sacks 
or canvas for at least two hours. A longer time is 
better and it will not hurt to leave twelve or four¬ 
teen hours, but after that time, the grain should be 
dried thoroughly or planted at once, for the grains 
are apt to start germination. Where large amounts 
are to be treated it is advisable to use a machine, 
several makes of which are now on the market and 
do satisfactory work. 
GETTING CLEAN SOIL.—There is no paying 
method of disinfecting soil on a large scale. For 
getting clean soil, therefore, we must depend, on 
general sanitary measures. (1) Rotate, using crops 
not related to wheat, and kill all quack grass. It 
harbors the wheat parasites. If you are already ro¬ 
tating perhaps you can lengthen your rotation a 
year or two. In a good many sections of the corn 
belt, rotations of corn, oats, wheat, clover, and corn, 
wheat, clover are followed. If now, instead of the 
clover, one year of clover and Timothy followed by 
a year of Timothy be introduced, the rotation is 
made a year longer. At present prices of Timothy 
hay this should be a paying change aside from the 
effect on the wheat crop, especially as it reduces the 
amount of plowing one-fourth or one-fifth. (2) If 
wheat straw is used for bedding, compost the ma¬ 
nure well before applying to the wheat crop. If it 
is desirable to haul manure direct from the stable, 
let it be applied just as far ahead of the wheat crop 
as possible—the best place is on the wheat stubble. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
If scattered thinly, it will not prove as great a 
bother in the hay crop as would be expected, and 
it certainly stimulates the clover and Timothy. (3) 
Have the soil well worked so that it is compact be¬ 
low but mellow on top. A soil which has cavities 
near the bottom of the furrow slice, furnishes a num¬ 
ber of moist chambers, which are ideal for the 
growth of fungi. A well packed soil does not furnish 
this condition. At the surface the sunshine, the 
aeration, and the alternate wetting and drying of 
frequently worked soil tend to kill off the fungi. 
FAVORING THE PLANTS.—Sow thinly. Prof. 
P>olley states that a good plant every three inches 
in the row is enough. When seed containing infected 
kernels is seeded thickly, the fungi from them quick¬ 
ly infect the normal seedlings near. “The root dis¬ 
eases spread most rapidly along the drill row in 
thickly seeded grain.” Use fertilizers where trial 
shows that it pays. Usually phosphatic fertilizers 
increase the yield and improve the quality of pro¬ 
duct by making the plants more tolerant of disease. 
They do not purify the soil. Nitrogenous fertilizers 
usually weaken the straw, and make the plants more 
susceptible to attack, this reducing quality and yield, 
although increasing the yield of straw. Drain wet 
places. Wetness of soil tends to produce rankness 
and softness of straw and added susceptibility to 
disease. 
CONCLUSION.—Several of these practices advised 
for the control of soil and seed-borne diseases of 
wheat have not yet been put to the test of actual 
extensive farm use, although most of the experi¬ 
mental work has been done. Prof. Bolley has been 
accumulating results for several years; other work¬ 
ers have secured results which corroborate his; and 
there seems to be no reasonable doubt that his re¬ 
sults are reliable and his conclusions correct for his 
conditions. But most of Prof. Bolley's work was 
done in North Dakota, where the ravages of these 
fungi are extreme. Further east and south, where 
the attacks are less serious, some of the measures 
advocated may not be so important. In Indiana, for 
instance, the advice given by the Experiment Station 
and the personal observations of the writer indicate 
that top-dressing wheat lightly with manure in the 
Winter and Spring may be profitable in spite of the 
fungus infection. Also, very thin seeding is apt to 
prove unprofitable, due to Winter-killing. The cor¬ 
rect farm practice will vary considerably in the 
different sections of the wheat producing regions. 
It will depend on a proper adjustment to the rela¬ 
tive importance of the diseases, the fertility of the 
soil, the climate, etc.; and must be worked out for 
each section separately. Such precautions, how 
ever, as proper rotations, thorough soil preparation, 
careful seed selection, and the disinfection of the 
outside of the seed can hardly be overemphasized, 
because they are important in all regions, oftentimes 
doubly so due to their beneficial effect for other rea¬ 
sons than disease control. c. a. ludwig. 
WET OR DRY TREE PLANTING. 
WOULD like your opinion on two methods of or¬ 
charding employed by some growers in this section. 
One is the planting of young trees in heavy sod, 
with no working around them. The other is plant¬ 
ing trees in holes dynamited in solid limestone ledge, 
with only one or two feet of surface soil. This method 
is being extensively used on one large commercial or¬ 
chard, the manager of which claims to be an orehardixt. 
and is selling stock in the company. I have had over 
eight years’ practical experience in commercial orchard 
work in the Pacific Northwest, and have just lately 
come East to go into the same fine of work and it may 
be that I do not know enough about eastern conditions 
to pass judgment on such practices. However, I can¬ 
not reconcile planting young trees in shallow soil in 
solid ledge, no matter what preliminary treatment is 
given, to my experience and knowledge of trees. On 
the other hand if there are any virtues in the practice 
which recommend it to commercial orcharding, I would 
like to know it, as I can buy this character of land 
cheap and start a paying venture with little money, or 
I can buy stock in some orchard company following this 
method. a. w. v. 
Vermont. 
As a general proposition we advise you not to buy 
stock in a commercial orchard, either the “unit” sys¬ 
tem or as a general company. There may be local 
exceptions to this advice, but without knowing de¬ 
finitely about them our advice is keep out. The 
plan of planting trees right in a sod without cul¬ 
ture succeeds under favorable conditions. Mr. Ditch¬ 
ings in New York and Mr. Vergon in Ohio have 
clearly demonstrated the possibilities of this method. 
On our own farm we have one block of trees in sod 
that has developed into a fine orchard. With¬ 
in 1,000 feet of this block are trees which 
were at the verge of failure until we plowed 
the sod and gave good culture. The success¬ 
ful block stands at the bottom of a hillside which 
is underlaid by springs. The water works down the 
hill and waters the ground where the sod trees 
stand. On the other location there is none of this 
seepage water; the soil is shallow and thin, and the 
August 22, 
trees suffer from drought. The cultivator was need¬ 
ed to hold the moisture. This sod culture will not 
be likely to pay unless the trees are put in natural 
S/rass land, deep and naturally moist, and in a region 
where the rainfall is heavy. From our experience 
we should consider it poor practice to set trees in 
sod on thin dry land, unless large quantities of 
mulching material can be cut and piled around the 
trees. We know of cases where thin rocky hillsides 
are planted in this way. These hills are not plowed 
or cultivated except in strips along the tree rows. 
In the swamps and valleys near these hills there is 
usually a rank growth of grass and weeds. This is 
cut, hauled out and piled about the trees, and in this 
way a fair growth is obtained. As for the plan of 
blasting holes in a ledge and planting trees in a 
shallow soil, our experience shows that in this way 
you can obtain a somewhat under-sized tree coming 
into bearing early and yielding fruit of very high 
color and fine quality. We cannot imagine a man 
selecting such soil from choice. We should think he 
would be driven to it through necessity—for deeper, 
moister soil is far better. 
RENTS FOR POST OFFICE BOXES. 
T HE box rents at our post office have just been 
raised. Is the postmaster permitted to do this? 
Who has control of this matter, and have these 
rents been raised all over the country? j. s. 
To settle this matter we wrote the Postmaster 
General and received the following letter: 
In reply to your letter, I have to state that for the 
purpose of securing uniformity, box rent rates are based 
upon the gross receipts of the post offices and the size 
and style of the boxes rented. The schedule of rates 
adopted by the Department is enclosed for your infor¬ 
mation. If rates in excess of those by the Department 
are exacted at any particular post office and report 
thereof be submitted to this office, investigation will be 
immediately instituted to correct the rates. 
A. M. DOCKERY, 
Third Ass’t Postmaster-General. 
The schedule of rates fixed by the department is 
printed below. If higher rates are charged in your 
post office the thing to do is to send a report to 
Washington at once. 
Box rent rates have been fixed heretofore upon no 
established basis, with the result that at certain large 
post offices rates are lower than at many small offices; 
that the charge for small boxes is in many cases higher 
than that which should be made for large boxes; that 
rents are sometimes collected at the same rate for boxes 
of all sizes; and that at post offices of like class, in the 
same vicinity, equipped with similar boxes, rents are 
collected at widely different rates. In order to remedy 
these conditions and to provide a definite and satis¬ 
factory rule for the collection of box rents the following 
schedule, based upon the kind and capacity of boxes 
and the gross receipts at post offices, has been adopted 
and will be strictly adhered to by the Department in 
the establishment of all box rent rates, from and after 
Jan. 1, 1907: 
Rate per quarter. 
Gross receipt* of post office. 
Call 
boxes 
small. 
(*) 
Call 
boxes 
large. 
(t) 
Lock 
boxes 
small. 
(*> 
Lock 
boxes 
me¬ 
dium. 
tt) 
Lock 
boxes 
large. 
IS) 
Lock 
boxes 
extra 
large. 
(t) 
Less than 500 . 
f .10 
* .15 
* .20 
$ .25 
* .35 
* .45 
*500 and less than 11.900. 
.15 
.20 
.25 
.35 
.45 
.60 
*1.900 and less than *5.000. 
.20 
25 
.35 
.45 
.60 
.75 
*5.000 and less than *10.000. 
.25 
.35 
.45 
.60 
.75 
1.00 
*10.090 and less than *40.000. 
.35 
.45 
.60 
.75 
1.00 
1.60 
*40,000 and less than *100.000. 
.45 
.60 
.75 
I 00 
1 50 
*100.000 and less than $300.000.... 
.00 
.75 
1.00 
1.50 
2.00 
3.0U 
*300.000 and less than $1,000.000... 
.75 
1.00 
1.50 
2.00 
300 
4.00 
*1,000.000 and less than *5.000.000 
1.00 
1.50 
2.00 
3.00 
4.00 
5.00 
*5,(4)0.000. and less than *15.000.000 
1.50 
2.00 
3.00 
4.00 
5.00 
6.00 
*16.000.000 and upwards. 
2.00 
3.00 
4.00 
5.00 
6.00 
7.00 
) 
* Less than 200 cubic inches in capacity, 
t Capacity 200 cubic inches and upwards, 
t Capacity 200 cubic inches and less than 500 cubic inches. 
5 Capacity 500 cubic inches and less than 900 cubic inches. 
I Capacity 900 cubic inches and upwards. 
A Business Cow. 
T HE picture, Fig. 442, shows a good grade Hol¬ 
stein cow owned by D. G. Heigerd, of Rock¬ 
land County, N. Y. In speaking of her Mr. 
Heigerd says: 
“She is just plain Bess, without a number or pedi¬ 
gree, but producing 4S0 pounds of milk in seven 
days.” 
State Testing Soy Beans. 
T HE New Jersey Experiment Station believes that 
the Soy bean is one of the most valuable forage 
plants. It makes a hay that is nearly as rich 
in protein as Alfalfa. Some disappointment 
with this new legume has been due to the use of varie¬ 
ties that were not adopted to soil and climate. John 
II. Voorhees of the extension department is conducting 
48 experiments in various parts of the State to deter¬ 
mine adaptability of the leading varieties. Mammoth 
Yellow. Medium Green, Wilson, Ito San and Swan are 
being used in this expe iment. Some of them doubtless 
are best adapted to southern Jersey and others to the 
northern half of the State. It is hoped that the results 
obtained next Fall will enable the station to advise far¬ 
mers safely regarding the varieties that they should 
grow. n. t. n. 
To make “big pumpkins” you must first have a va¬ 
riety which grows large naturally. Then piueli off all 
but one flower, so as to throw the full strength of the 
plant into one fruit. Then be sure the plant is fully 
supplied at the hill with plenty of water and available 
food. 
