125s 
less expensive for small areas than the larger dig¬ 
gers. The sweet potato digger has several iron rods 
or fingers attached to a short mold-board, and after 
running under a row the tubers are left fairly well 
exposed to the view of the men who follow and 
gather the potatoes in baskets. 
DEEP-PLANTED POTATOES.—A sweet potato 
digger will not always answer for getting out the 
crop. Some growers prefer to plant late potatoes 
deeper than they do the early crop. To accomplish 
this they plant the potatoes as they plow, dropping 
the seed pieces in every third furrow. Such pota¬ 
toes set very deep in the ground, and when digging 
a two-horse plow seems to work to best advantage. 
A two-horse plow set shallow will also work fairly 
well for digging potatoes not set so dee]* in the soil, 
hut the tubers are not thrown clear of the soil as 
with a sweet potato digger, and the men gathering 
them must search around more in the soil for the 
loosened but uncovered potatoes. Others may use 
different methods of digging but. whatever the 
method, may we all lie filled with the same joy in 
our work-that seems to he possessed so abundantly 
by the little girl in the picture. trucker, jr. 
KILLING WEED SEED IN MANURE. 
HE wise and wonderful Creator has so hedged 
about the continuation of species that it is 
impossible wholly to annihilate any. One way 
of perpetuating plant life is by enormous multipli¬ 
cation of seed. T have an instance at hand in the 
case of an enormous pigweed growing in a cold 
frame, which in four months has attained a height 
of 11 feet, and will undoubtedly mature several 
thousand seeds, or enough to make several acres 
so weedy that nothing else would grow. The seeds 
of this plant are immune to temperatures up to 150 
degrees and any degree of frost, and will remain 
in water a number of days without injury and in 
all respects may he considered an average represent¬ 
ative «>f a large proportion of our commonest weeds, 
as regards difficulty of destroying seeds by forces 
which destroy both wood and metal. 
The Hire at which seeds lose vitality has not been 
very definitely settled except In the ease of gar¬ 
den and field seeds and these have never been tried 
out in the same way Nature tests and preserves wild 
seeds. Weeds constantly spring up where they are 
not wanted, and in some cases where it is very dif¬ 
ficult to account for. The inherent staying power 
of seeds makes any process expensive which will 
kill their germinating power. The most available 
way. that of heat in manure, destroys a valuable 
constituent of the manure's fertilizing value unless 
done under conditions like the hotbed, where the 
ammonia passes into a layer of soil and is partially 
used before it vanishes. Lettuce growers under 
glass sterilize soil to get rid of injurious bacteria 
by burying perforated steam pipes and steaming sev¬ 
eral hours. This also kills most of the weed seed 
and all the beneficial bacteria which the soil may 
contain. 
All this is preliminary to answering the question 
as to destroying weed seed in manure, and answer¬ 
ing that I do not know of any practical way of (br¬ 
ing s«r except to ferment it. It is not a question that 
greatly interests out-of-door gardeners. As soon as 
rows of beets, lettuce, or other vegetables show 
above ground the row is straddled with a wheel- 
hoe and all the weeds eliminated except a very nar¬ 
row strip. This matter of hoeing is as necessary 
in a piece of ground which has been cleared of 
weeds by previous culture as in a weedy one. be¬ 
cause the ground must be stirred to get new par* 
tides of soil together as well as to prevent caking. 
Finally, only a tithe or less of the weeds come from 
manure. There are soils which have produced con¬ 
tinuous crops of corn annually for <0 years without 
a particle of manure being spread upon them, yet 
one such field left idle for one Summer by the death 
of the owner produced a wonderful crop of weeds 
five feet high, and of more than 20 sorts, some of 
which were not common in that locality—the Scioto 
Valley. 
I have never been in any location where there 
was not enough neglected and weed-grown land to 
more than stock the cultivated soil. Narrow and 
short-sighted methods produce weeds in variety and 
great abundance. The farmers in my town care¬ 
fully cut the nearly ripened docks out of their mea¬ 
dows and deposit them in the wagon road, to la; 
washed by rain and carried by the mud on wagon 
wheels and horses’ ankles to a thousand places 
where they should not he, and would not be if they 
simply laid them in a little pile and killed them 
when dry with a little oil and fire. A meadow in¬ 
fested with the white-topped weed will put enough 
seed into the stable manure to stock a farm for 
a lifetime. Such a field should be plowed for corn 
in May, the corn followed with rye and the next 
trails RURAL NEW-VORKER 
year put into Alfalfa. Some day our agricultural 
experts will recognize weeds as plants worthy of 
close study, and find a way to make these intruders 
pay their way. l. b. pierce. 
Ohio. 
It. N.-Y.—Some of us who grow fruit have al¬ 
ready found a way. Let them grow, cut off with the 
mower and pile around the trees. They make good 
h umns. 
CUTTING BACK 40-YEAR TREES. 
W E have a number of Gravenstein trees about 40 
years old that have been allowed to get too high 
for spraying and picking. Would it be profit¬ 
able to cut them back and form a new head 
that will be within reach? r. d. p. 
New Jersey. 
Whether it is likely to he profitable to cut hack 
and form heads depends entirely upon their pres¬ 
ent condition. If the trees are a good distance 
apart, say 38 to 40 feet, and are in a favorable lo¬ 
cation for cultivation and spraying, and are fairly 
vigorous, a thorough cutting back and pruning 
would he likely to be successful and profitable. On 
the other hand, if the trees are close together, say 
30 feet apart, and have lost all of the lower branch¬ 
es because of overcrowding, with many dead and 
blighted branches, there is considerable doubt 
whether the cutting back and the forming of a 
new head would bring the desired results. A tree 
that is in good condition for improvement should 
have space enough in which to develop, and should 
have a few live branches within eight or 10 feet 
of the ground. If the trees have a trunk hare of 
branches to a height of 15 to 18 feet, it is difficult 
to develop good low heads upon the trees. If these 
trees have some fairly vigorous branches within a 
reasonable distance from the ground, the following 
suggestions for pruning can he made: 
Remove all dead and diseased branches. Prune 
out any upright growing branches in the center of 
the tree that exceed a height of 20 feet, or in other 
words, cut back the top to side branches so that it 
PEACHES, GRASS AND PULLETS. Fig. 53ti. 
can be sprayed readily from the tower of a sprayer. 
In some cases where the trees have been much 
weakened there may he water sprouts growing up¬ 
ward from the old branches. In cutting hack the 
trees, some of these should he saved ami allowed 
to fill the space left vacant by the pruning out of 
the dead and weakened branches. The lower side 
branches that may lie left U]x*n the trees should In- 
pruned sufficiently to enable oiie.t" cultivate and 
spray the trees well. If these lower branches are 
very thick, they should he thinned out somewhat 
to jienwit light to enter, and if they extend to a 
considerable distance lieyond the trunk of tlie tree 
Mime slight cutting hack may be required. hi a 
general way the object is to secure a shortened, but 
well-balanced framework, and to retain as many 
of the small spurs and side branches as possible. 
Where a large apple tree is cut hack to more stubs 
of branches 10 or 12 inches in diameter, and with¬ 
out any small side branches, it is almost impossible 
to form a strong and satisfactory new top upon the 
tree. 
The pruning should l>e done during the Winter 
and early Spring liefore any growth takes place. 
Whether any fruit, would he borne the season fol¬ 
lowing the pruning will depend upon the condition 
of the trees. If the lower branches are vigorous 
enough to carry fruit buds there should l*e some 
fruit to mature. If the lower branches that are 
left after pruning arc* very weak little fruit is like¬ 
ly to he secured the first season. m. a. rlake. 
New Jersey Exp. Station. 
PEACHES, GRASS AND PULLETS. 
T EE picture at Fig. 530 was taken in the peach 
orchard of Judge F. M. I’easley of Connecti¬ 
cut. Judge I’easley has a large flock of White 
Leghorns, which run through the season on the 
colony system. lie says he raises hay, peaches and 
pullets on the same land, and produces a good crop 
of each. The plan of keeping liens in a peach or¬ 
chard is not usually favored by fruit growers, as the 
scratching and manuring by the hens is apt to drive 
October 24, 
the tree into too much wood growth. Where the 
grass is left, however, to be cut for hay, the com¬ 
bination makes a good one, as the growth of the 
hay prevents overforcing of the trees, and the pul¬ 
lets take pretty good care of both crops. The 
water and feed wagon is shown in the picture, and 
also the homemade brooder made out of a piano 
box. Some of the devices used by the Connecticut 
hen men to save labor and at the same time produce 
good stock are very ingenious, and quite worthy as 
evidence of brain development of the descendants 
of those who in former years are said to have pro¬ 
duced wooden nutmegs and basswood hams which 
would really deceive a good housekeeper. There is 
little chance for deception, however, in the produc¬ 
tion of a good hen or pullet, for the hen is honest, 
and you cannot make her carry along any tricks of 
the hen man. 
AFTER THE PEACH HARVEST. 
E just finished harvesting the biggest peach 
crop from our little orchard we ever had. 
Most of our bearing trees are four and live 
years old, with one lot only two years old which 
has a fine crop. Resides our own crop I purchased 
two small crops from neighboring farmers who have 
planted peach orchards by way of experiment. 1 
picked and sold these for one-fourth of the proceeds. 
I hired a man at 11! cents an hour who did most 
of the picking in all the orchards. The delivering 
and some of the picking I did myself, thus the two 
of us harvested about 275 bushels of peaches with 
very little outside help. 
The season was rather a trying one in some re¬ 
spects. yet on the whole I came out on my own 
peach crop as well as on tlie ones T purchased. Must 
of the trees were well loaded, but the dry season 
here caused a large proportion of undersized fruit. 
We thought we had thinned the fruit thoroughly, 
going over some trees several times as the green 
fruit grew larger. Yet the trees were too full, con¬ 
sidering the dry season. Severe thinning is much 
more necessary when there is a lack of moisture. 
The home peach market was as brisk as ever, 
notwithstanding we heard many complaints of the 
small size of the fruit. Nearly everyone wanted a 
few of the largest peaches, while some customers 
would not accept any other kind. Of course we 
graded them, the best grades selling for about dou¬ 
ble the price of the poorest grades. But we soon 
found ourselves with coni] Kira lively few bushels of 
really fancy fruit, while there was an abundance 
uf the middle and lower grades. We found good 
sale for these latter goods, provided one would 
promise them some of the big fellows. This meant 
some careful maneuvering to get everybody sup¬ 
plied. Fnlike other kinds of fruit here peaches do 
well only in certain protected localities. Again, 
peaches seem to lie the favorite fruit of many peo¬ 
ple. As a result of these conditions we were able 
to secure in the home market a price for our small¬ 
est peaches about equal to the price of the best 
Bartlett pears. Many farmers would gladly have 
given three bushels of their best Fall or Winter 
apples in exchange for one bushel of our best peach¬ 
es. Cherries, plums and grapes became so plenti¬ 
ful one could scarcely give them away, yet the de¬ 
mand for peaches kept up, though the price was not 
so high as for several years past. 
We noticed a big difference in the size of differ¬ 
ent varieties. The Elbertas are always medium 
to large if the trees have a fair chance to make 
a crop. This variety is considered by many fruit 
growers as second in quality, hut 1 find it. gives 
excellent satisfaction, and because of its large size 
and beautiful yellow color is absolutely the best 
seller in our orchard. The Ellierta is not quite so 
hardy ivr as prolific as some other varieties, other- 
wist* 1 would probably plant more of these than all 
other varieties combined. As it is I expect to 
plant more Elbertas than any other one variety. 
The Belle of Georgia is still holding the highest 
place among white peaches here. I do not yet have 
the Carman in hearing. The five-year-old Gate 
Crawford trees have their first crop of fruit this 
jear. The fruit is of good quality, but rather acid. 
One of the most serious difficulties in peach grow¬ 
ing which I have experienced is getting trees true 
to name. One block of Elberta trees bought from 
an agent whom I believed to he thoroughly reliable 
have been a sore disappointment to me. Only about 
one-fourtli of the trees are true to name. When 
the trees arrived the tops were quite dead, but after 
planting, they sprouted out (as I thought) above 
the hud, hut such a mixture of little white and yel¬ 
low freestones and clings I have never seen. 1 
now buy guaranteed trees direct from the nursery. 
At least 1 shall know where to place the responsi¬ 
bility if they prove untrue. oavid blank. 
Pennsyl vanla. 
