1 1U0 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKE 
Hope Farm Notes 
C OVER CROPS.—I have talked cover 
crops so much that there may be 
little more to say. This year, however, 
in the Eastern States at least, the cover 
crop question is more important than 
ever before. This crop growing through 
the Call will not only prevent the loss 
of nitrates from the soil and add organic 
matter, but it will help us with the pot¬ 
ash problem. These Fall-growing crops 
and particularly such as rape and 
turnips, have the power to take up large 
quantities of potash. Not only this, but 
their action upon the soil in decaying 
after they are plowed under helps to set 
free 11101 x 3 plant food. Next year, when 
practically all fertilizers will be low in 
potash, we shall be obliged to look to the 
soil for our supply, and these cover crops 
will help us find it. Thus more than 
ever before it will pay to keep the culti¬ 
vated fields covered with some growing 
crop this Fall. It is now too late to 
sow Crimson clover or vetch in our lati¬ 
tude. Rye is our old standby, with equal 
parts of Cow-horn turnips and rape seed 
along with it. This combination has gone 
into our corn. Ragweed is another 
“crop” which helps the potash supply. 
From the analysis of its ashes I believe 
this to be a very useful potash plant. It 
grows abundantly with us whenever cul¬ 
tivation stops, and we cut it and pile 
around the trees. 
Living Coveu Crops. —Questions about 
sowing oats among the strawberries at 
this season—to serve as a Winter mulch 
—are beginning to come. I have often 
explained about this, but people do not 
remember or have not read it. Barley is 
a better grain than oats for the purpose, 
but a combination (half and half of each 1 
will make a closer mat than either alone. 
The plan is to sow the grain about the 
middle of September when the ground is 
moist and after the crop has been well 
cleaned out. A thick seeding is made. 
On rich ground and in a wet Fall the 
grain makes a heavy, short growth among 
and around the plants. Frost usually 
kills the grain crop by December, and it 
mats down over the berry plants giving 
a partial protection and holding the snow. 
We never knew the grain to give enough 
protection to take the place of a good 
coat of manure or straw. In our own 
case we think it a mistake to interfere 
with the growth of the plants during the 
Fall. They are then forming their fruit 
buds f«>r next season, and need good cul¬ 
ture and the entire ground. In a peach 
or apple orchard the object is to stop 
cultivation and start a crop which will 
prevent growth on the trees. I want just 
the reverse of this on the berry plants, 
and instead of seeding something to hold 
them back I would crowd them along. 
Apple Prospects. —We have a good 
crop <>f fine fruit this year, and the prob¬ 
lem of disposing of it to advantage be¬ 
comes a hard one. The early apples have 
been very low thus far. No one has made 
any money shipping culls or windfalls— 
in fact I think the time spent in pick¬ 
ing such stuff has been wasted. There 
is no doubt as to the size of the coun¬ 
try’s apple crop this year. The European 
War will shut off a large foreign demand. 
There seems no way of getting the fruit 
into Germany, and the English people can 
hardly be expected to buy apples while 
the nation is under such a fearful ex¬ 
pense for conducting the war. Some 
shipments have already been made, but 
the future trade will depend on what 
these earlier shipments bring. The Pa¬ 
cific coast fruit has been shipped freely 
to Europe the past few years, but the 
export trade will be small this season, 
and if this trade comes east at all it will 
go into competition with our local fruit. 
If the Western growers can receive the 
cost of package, packing and shipping and 
part of the cost of growing they will do 
well this year. 
Wiiat To Do. —In the face of all these 
facts the Eastern apple grower must do 
some high living and quick thinking. Any 
man who will deliberately try to put 
poor fruit or careless packing on such a 
market as we have this year is worse 
than a dunce. Far better give such fruit 
away as an advertisement—not of what 
you have to sell, but of what an apple 
tastes like. Personally I expect to put 
my apples down to a fair price and work 
them off promptly in our retail market. 
September 12, 
What is a fair price? The cost of pro¬ 
duction and the packing and 15 to 20 per 
cent, above to cover shrinkage and losses. 
When I can get that I let my stuff go. I 
should regard the plan of holding fruit 
for a rise this year as a good gamble and 
no more. I am not trying to depress 
prices, but simply giving what I think 
to be the facts. I think this is one of 
the years when we can well afford to sell 
our apples close to cost in order to adver¬ 
tise them. The orchard business is one 
for a long series of years. We are sure 
to have, now and then, a season like this 
one, when, through a combination of cir¬ 
cumstances. there is a heavy production 
and a curtailed market. That comes as 
a hard lesson for us to standardize and 
do better packing and use our surplus for 
advertising purposes. Sell the high-class 
fruit at the best figure "-e can obtain and 
A IIOFE FARM PLANT GROWER. 
let the culls go for what they will bring 
to people who do not usually eat apples. 
This will make new customers, and an¬ 
other year they will all come hack for 
more. 
Farm Notes. — I call it rather strange 
—this prejudice in favor of a yellow 
peach. The white peaches, like Carman 
or Belle of Georgia, are very much finer 
than Elbcrta, yet most people will hardly 
look at a white peach when “Ben Davis 
with a pit” comes along. That seems to 
me a good name for the Elberta peach, 
Yet most people still eat with their eyes 
and the yellow flesh is what gets them. 
Our Carmans gave a good crop this year. 
The older trees produced more small 
fruit than we like, but we still regard 
Carman as the best of its season for a 
local market. Many people sniff at the 
idea of using Carman for canning, but 
for those who are not color crazy the 
thick creamy preserve which Carman 
makes is about the top-notch. The best 
canning peach I know of, all things con¬ 
sidered, is Crosby. A rather small peach, 
firm and solid, it comes out of the can 
in great gold nuggets of the highest qual¬ 
ity. There can be no doubt that the war 
lias hurt the market for peaches. Prices 
have ranged very low, but our own crop 
has sold freely at a profit to us. 
Several people ask why we put manure 
or grass and weeds around the apple 
trees at this season. We usually plan 
to clean up the manure piles and cut the 
weeds and trash in late August. All this 
is carted out and spread around the older 
apple trees. Just at this season such 
trees are maturing fruit buds or finishing 
a crop of fruit. That is when they need 
most encouragement and help. I would 
not manure young trees at this time if 
they had made a proper wood growth, 
but the older trees need reinforcements 
right now. If a woman had prevailed 
upon her husband to beat the carpet, 
when would she go out with the cup of 
coffee and the plate of doughnuts? Right 
at the beginning of the end of the job 
when the man was prepared to quit and 
say “That’s good enough !” when lie knew 
there was dust still left in the car¬ 
pet.Those late planted potatoes are 
still green and growing. It looks as if 
we should get a fair crop after all—but 
I make no guess until the vines are dead. 
If we can work this scheme in our lati¬ 
tude it will prove a great help. Our 
regular potato crop is good—the best we 
ever had. You remember that we plowed 
under a big crop of green rye, packed it 
firmly, then opened furrows with a shovel 
plow, dropped the seed pieces right into 
the green mass and covered with a culti¬ 
vator. We have had sufficient moisture 
to decay this rye and keep the soil fairly 
wet, and this has proved ideal, handling 
for the potatoes. They were planted in 
a young apple orchard. As the potato 
vines die there comes in a great mat 'ot 
ragweed and smartweed. This will be cut 
and piled around the trees and the potato 
ground harrowed and seeded to rye for 
another crop. h. w. c. 
The Soil Under Trees. 
Rye in Silage. 
I HAVE a field of rye which I am cut¬ 
ting now, and intend to shock. Can 
I mix this load for load with corn in 
the Fall, and fill silo without danger of 
spoiling silage? I would rather do this 
than have it thrashed. J. e. b. 
Our own advice would be against cut¬ 
ting the rye in with the corn. Rye straw 
is very hard and tough. Cut into the 
silo it would carry quite a little air. and 
unless wet and packed down hard it 
would increase the danger of fermenta¬ 
tion and rot. This plan of cutting straw 
in with the corn has been tried a number 
of times, but we understand the general 
opinion is against the practice. What 
we want is actual experience. Can any¬ 
one give it? 
W ILL you give your opinion as to 
what caused my potatoes and corn 
to grow much larger in the portions 
of the lots where I cut down, last Win¬ 
ter, a large oak and a large hard maple 
tree? One of my neighbors claims the 
leaves have added fiber to the soil, but as 
our soil is shallow and underlying a 
heavy liandpan, I believe the roots from 
these trees have broken up the hardpan 
and allowed the moisture to be stored up, 
and the crops mentioned have had the 
benefit. l. ii. a. 
Half a dozen or more reasons can he 
given. The leaves, or a good share of 
them, have for years fallen on the ground 
around these trees. This has added large 
quantities of plant food and organic mat¬ 
ter to the soil. A good share of this 
added plant food was taken out of the 
lower soil, or from parts of (lie surface 
soil 100 feet or more away, as the trees, 
feeding roots run far. It was like bring¬ 
ing plant food and organic matter and 
spreading it around the tree. For years 
little of this was taken away, since the 
shade of these trees prevented crops from 
making a full growth. Very likely the 
feed has been used as a pasture in years 
past The live stock sought the shade of 
these trees, and a good share of the ma¬ 
nure was deposited there. The roots dug 
deep into the soil and brought up some 
plant food from the subsoil, and also 
made better drainage. Other reasons 
might be given to explain why this soil 
contained extra plant food, and was also 
in fine physical and chemical condition. 
Anyone who has ever cleared up an old 
stone wall or fence row, and planted trees 
or other crops, knows how all these things 
have combined to make the soil produc¬ 
tive. 
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