1914. 
THE RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
laoe 
NO TES AND COMMENTS. 
S WEET CLOVER IN MARYLAND.— 
Riding recently through the lower sec¬ 
tion of Somerset County, Md., I noticed 
that all along the roadside and on the 
ditch banks there was a rank growth 
of the so-called Sweet clover growing four 
or five feet high. I called the attention 
of a companion from Somerset, who was 
taking me in his automobile, and he 
sceihed surprised that anyone would call 
that rank weed clover. Of course the 
Melilotus is not clover, but people have 
got in the habit of calling all leguminous 
forage crops, clover. But I noticed that 
even in fenced pastures the stock seemed 
to let the Melilotus alone. In fact it is 
the general experience that cattle do not 
take to it readily, but get fond of it after 
they have got to eating it. My own opin¬ 
ion is that here in Maryland we do not 
need the Sweet clover, as we can get 
better forage from cow peas, vetch, Crim¬ 
son clover and Alfalfa. 
Plowing Under Green Crops. —The 
cut on page 1099 shows rye in a stage of 
growth that I would never allow if want¬ 
ed for turning under. I would always 
turn it under when little over knee high. 
It has then done its part as a Winter 
cover, and if a disk harrow is run over 
it both ways it is easy to turn it under 
properly. With a tall headed growth 
turned under in a mass the plant has 
got into the strawy stage, and decays 
much more slowly, and the solid layer of 
straw may cause damage in dry weather 
to a hoed crop by cutting off the rise of 
the capillary moisture, while the green 
rye, well chopped into the soil before 
plowing, will not be in such a solid mass, 
but will be mixed Avith the soil. The 
moisture will not be checked and the 
green rye will decay rapidly. The disk 
harrow beats the chain. 
The John Baer Tomato. —This to¬ 
mato was sent out with the claim that 
it was the earliest of all, ar.d that good 
plants set in the open ground would give 
ripe fruit in 30 days. Now I had fine 
plants, started early in the greenhouse 
and hardened off in cold frames. They 
were set in the open ground the last of 
April, rather later than we usually set 
here. The first ripe fruit was after the 
middle of July, while the Earliana was 
ripe the last of June. I have not said 
that it is not a good tomato, but it re¬ 
sembles Chalk’s Jewel very closely, but 
here was later than Chalk’s. My plants 
made a fine crop of smooth and good 
fruits, and I shall grow it another season 
right alongside of Chalk’s Jewel. All 
tomatoes were a little later here this sea¬ 
son on account of the extremely dry 
weather, but all varieties were alike af¬ 
fected by this, and the John Baer ripened 
at same time with the big Brimmer, which 
seems to be a selection from the Ponder- 
osa, and we all know that Ponderosa is 
not early. The John Baer is a good 
smooth and solid tomato, but here it can¬ 
not be called early. The fruit is certain¬ 
ly better than Earliana. but the Langdon 
strain of the Earliana is quite smooth, 
and coming in so much earlier is far 
more profitable for the market grower. 
In fact the market here was well supplied 
with Earliana before there was a single 
ripe fruit on my John Baer plants. I 
am glad to know that it seemed earlier 
with Mr. Weaver and I shall grow it, 
early or not, because of its good cropping 
and smooth fruit. At the Louisiana sta¬ 
tion they considered it identical with the 
Chalk’s Jewel. 
Green Onions. —The Egyptian top 
onions may be best in New Jersey, as 
stated by Trucker, Jr., but here I plant 
sets in September of the onion sold by 
Norfolk seedsmen under the name of 
Queen. This is not the Early Queen 
of the Northern catalogues, but is 
more like the Pearl, but is better and 
earlier than the Pearl. I have often had 
them ready for bunching the last of Feb¬ 
ruary, and have never found any onion 
better suited for the green bunching crop. 
Then I plant the Yellow Potato onion 
sets at same time, and after the Queen 
plants are used up the offsets of the Po¬ 
tato onion come in very nicely for green 
onions, as they clean off perfectly white, 
and the main bulb can be left to mature, 
and coming in ripe long before the North- 
° rn seed crop will pay very well. In fact 
I sold them for $2 a bushel this Sum- 
mor - W. F. MASSEY. 
Maryland. 
Defective Ears of Corn. 
I SHOULD be glad to know whether the 
absence of any particular constituent 
of soil fertility is indicated by the 
failure of ears of sweet corn to fill out at 
the end uf the ear. My corn, Golden Ban¬ 
tam, which I have raised for a number of 
years, is of uniformly excellent flavor and 
the ears well filled out over, say, three- 
quarters of their length. The remaining 
quarter, however, is practically devoid of 
kernels, or at least they are so small at 
the time the remainder of the ear is fit 
for picking that there is a wastage of 
that end of the ear. j. b. 
On general principles this indicates a 
lack of both phosphoric acid and potash. 
The cob of the corn is very high in pot¬ 
ash while phosphoric acid is the vital 
principle in all seeds. In such case we 
should use a mixture of three parts fine 
bone and one part muriate of potash. 
Dodder on Alfalfa. 
T HERE is an air plant, which we call 
in this locality “dodder,” which is de¬ 
stroying the Alfalfa. It seems to 
feed on the Alfalfa and sucks the life out 
of it until it finally dies. It is a long 
vine, without leaves, and runs all over the 
top of the Alfalfa. Can you tell me how 
to get rid of it? G. F. B. 
Covington, Ivy. 
This dodder is a plant parasite, which 
grows on the plants of clover or Alfalfa 
and strangles them to death. It is usual¬ 
ly introduced through the seed. A good 
many samples of Alfalfa in particular 
have been examined and found to con¬ 
tain dodder. Since the government be¬ 
gan its investigations, the Alfalfa seed 
is generally cleaner than it was before. 
This dodder is such a pest that no far¬ 
mer should buy cheap clover or Alfalfa 
seed, and it will be well to have a sample 
of the seed examined by the experiment 
station before putting the seed into the 
ground. In cases where the dodder ex¬ 
tends all through the field, the best plan 
is to plow, give thorough tillage, and re¬ 
seed. If there are only patches here and 
there, the treatment is to mow these 
patches off, taking two or three feet on 
the outside of the dodder, rake the grass 
together and burn it. In this way the 
dodder may be cleaned out when it has 
not spread too far, but as stated when 
the field is badly infested, the best plan 
is to burn it all over and then plow and 
leseed. 
Gathering and Drying Citrons. 
W HEN are citrons ready to take off 
the vine? 2. How can I sugar cure 
citrons? j. c. w. 
Ilyattsville, Md. 
The experienced can tell at a glance 
by the appearance of the rind when a 
watermelon or citron is fully ripe, but 
the inexperienced must look for other 
signs of ripening, of which there are three 
that are considered unmistakable. The 
part of the fruit that comes in contact 
with the ground is as a rule a greenish 
white, while the fruit is in the green or 
unripened condition, and is perfectly 
smooth to the touch, but when the fruit 
is ripe, the part next to the ground as¬ 
sumes a yellowish cast and becomes scaly 
and rough to the touch. This is an un¬ 
mistakable sign that the fruit is ripe 
enough to pick. The rind of the green 
fruit is tender and quite easily punctured 
by the thumb nail, but when the fruit is 
ripe the rind is tough and difficult to 
puncture in this way. Still another sign 
is present that is fairly reliable, but not 
always so. At the base of the stem, or 
axil, there is always a curl or little ten¬ 
dril. This remains green until the fruit 
approaches the period of ripening, when 
it begins to turn brown, and is usually 
dry and hard when the fruit is fully 
ripened, though not always. 
How to Preserve Citron.—Cut the cit¬ 
ron in thin slices, pare off the outside 
rind and take out all the seeds, put in 
the preserve kettle with water enough to 
cover it; boil until it can be pierced easily 
with a fork, skim it out and strain the 
water, placing back in the kettle. Allow 
three-fourths of a pound of sugar to a 
pound of citron; dissolve the sugar in the 
liquor, cut three or four lemons and boil 
until it becomes a thin syrup, then put 
in the citron and boil until the citron is 
transparent. Then it is done. Now lift 
the citron out of the kettle with a ladle 
or draining spoon, and place on a wire 
tray, and when dripping has stopped 
sprinkle powdered sugar thickly all over 
the pieces and set in the suu or warm 
oven to dry. When thoroughly dry it is 
to be packed in small wooden boxes and 
set in a dry, cool place. k. 
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