THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
553 
Vegetables in Shade. 
I have moved to this town and wifi 
have two lots for my truck garden. One 
of these is pretty full of fruit trees, and 
will be considerably shaded. I wish to 
plant potatoes, beans, onions, cabbage, 
beets, parsnips, etc., such as would be 
found in a kitchen garden. Which would 
be the best in the shady lot? I do not 
think that any of them would be better in 
the shade than in the open lot, but since 
I have to plant some in the shaded lot 
I wish to know which of the above would 
do better than any of the others. 
Ohio. J. B. M. 
It will be useless to plant any kind of 
vegetables or other crop directly under the 
main branches of the trees. If the rows 
of trees run on a line parallel with the 
points of the compass, so that the vege¬ 
table rows may be run north and south, 
certain garden crops, such as green and 
wax podded* bush beans, muskmelons, cu¬ 
cumbers, squash, beets, radishes, spinach, 
carrots, parsnips, etc., may be grown be¬ 
tween the rows of trees with fairly good 
success, provided the shade is not any 
more dense than would be produced by a 
crop of corn. The ground will require 
heavy manuring, deep plowing, good pre¬ 
paration and the crops the best of cul¬ 
tivation. K. 
Fruit Trees in Sod. 
On page 434 is a reply to II. B. H. 
as to growing pears on sod ground. I 
have a lot of about IV 2 acre that is pret¬ 
ty well filled with stones, and the former 
owner of the place has allowed it to 
grow up with cedar seedlings. Do you 
think that the plan advised by Mr. Van 
1 >eman as to pears on that hillside lot 
could be followed in this case with peach¬ 
es? This place seems to be a natural 
ground for fruit, there being a good many 
peach trees growing in odd places, along 
the hedges, etc., from which I gathered 
a good many peaches, the peaches of 
course being small, but of an excellent 
liavor. What variety of peach would you 
advise if this plan could be followed? 
Pennsburg, Pa. w. R. P. 
Peach trees need constant cultivation 
from the time they are planted as long 
as they live. Of course they will bear 
some good fruit without such treatment, 
but their roots permeate the top soil com¬ 
pletely and in sod cannot feed as they 
should and would in well-tilled soil. 
Mulching the entire surface of the ground 
would do much good and the crops of 
fruit might pay fairly well with this 
treatment. The richer the mulch is in 
plant food the better it would be. Old 
coarse manure and bedding would be 
excellent. Several varieties of peach 
trees should be planted that the fruit 
would be available for use over the en¬ 
tire peach season. Select a list from some 
good catalogue. The Triumph, Ililey, 
Belle of Georgia, Elberta, Carman, Stump, 
Crosby, Salway and Heath Cling would 
make a good succession. 
II. E. VAN DEMAN. 
Melons Between Corn. 
It has been suggested that planting 
muskmelons between rows or among hills 
of corn is more or less effective in ward¬ 
ing off the blight. What is your view 
of this practice? Have any of your read¬ 
ers had experience as to the effect of 
mulching melon vines after the last cul¬ 
tivation? J. M. c. 
Totten ville. 
For the past dozen years or so I have 
grown muskmelons and cucumbers along 
with sweet corn of the intermediate and 
tall-growing varieties. The plan has 
proven very successful and satisfactory 
with me. During this time I have grown 
these crops in this way, I have had no 
loss from blight, and very little trouble 
with insects, some vines dying from 
damage to the roots, by the larvse of the 
small striped beetle (Diabrotica vittata) 
but the loss from this cause has been 
small. I have long been convinced that 
blight resulted from injury to the leaves 
by exposure to the hot sun following this 
almost sudden lifting of a dense fog. The 
corn seems to furnish just about the right 
amount of shade to prevent the leaves be¬ 
ing damaged from this cause. Last year 
my melons and cucumbers were planted 
with sweet corn, and made a good crop, 
escaping blight, and suffering very little 
from insect pests, while large plantings 
in the immediate neighborhood were prac¬ 
tically a total loss from attacks of blight. 
The plan of planting melons and cucum¬ 
bers along with corn has been very satis¬ 
factory with me, but some others who 
have given it a trial report but little ben¬ 
efit to the crop. However, the practice 
is a commendable one, particularly when 
the available land is limited, and in sec¬ 
tions where the blight is quite common 
and severe. If corn is planted with these 
crops and they should be destroyed by 
blight, the labor and land is not so great 
a loss, as the yield of corn should be 
more than enough to pay for the land 
rental and labor expended on the crop. 
On the other hand, if a good crop of mel¬ 
ons is secured, the corn will be a clear 
gain of whatever it will bring in the mar¬ 
ket, less the expense of marketing it. 
As it cost practically nothing to produce 
it, when these crops are to be grown to¬ 
gether, the land should be furrowed only 
one way, spacing the rows at fully five 
feet apart. The hills for the melons 
should be five to six feet apart in the 
row. Plant two hills of corn between the 
melon hills in the same row. I have not 
tried mulching and cannot say if it would 
be any benefit to the crop or not. K. 
Limestone and Fertilizer. 
1. Can I mix 500 pounds of ground 
limestone with one ton of 4-10-3 commer¬ 
cial fertilizer and safely apply the same 
to muck for celery and onions? 2. Would 
the limestone offset any of the chemicals 
now in the fertilizer? 11 . w. s. 
You can do this, although we doubt 
whether it will give much value to the 
fertilizer. There is not enough of the 
limestone to have much effect upon the 
muck soil. We should use at least two 
tons of limestone to the acre and use it 
alone. The chemists do not quite agree 
on the effect of ground limestone mixed 
with fertilizers. The general opinion is 
that no particular loss of ammonia would 
follow such mixing, as the limestone does 
not seem to affect the organic matter as 
slaked lime does. We understand some 
of the fertilizer makers use limestone 
quite freely as a “filler.” 
Planting Old Asparagus Crowns. 
About 40 years ago, we planted an as¬ 
paragus bed the full length of our gar¬ 
den, about 200 feet. They called the two- 
year-old plants Conover's Colossal. Some 
of the roots bore very good shoots. We 
thoroughly fertilized the bed with barn¬ 
yard manure every year. Now the roots 
have come to the surface and no matter 
how much fertilizer is put on the aspar¬ 
agus is spindling except on the edge of 
the bed where the garden is deeply 
plowed. Would it be better to dig up all 
the roots and after the bed is thoroughly 
prepared, reset them six inches or more 
under the surface? Is it too late to han¬ 
dle asparagus roots? s. t. m. 
Ashton, Md. 
The average profitable life of an as¬ 
paragus bed is about 20 years. After 
that period the yield of good sprouts 
gradually declines until practically the 
entire production becomes worthless, as 
the crowns age, they gradually build up 
until they are scarcely covered with soil, 
the crown becomes woody and very hard, 
generally with a badly decayed root sys¬ 
tem and otherwise in a generally un¬ 
healthy condition, exhibiting every sign 
of having passed the period of profitable¬ 
ness. This old bed like the old exhausted 
and dying apple tree, puts forth a feeble 
effort to produce, but each succeeding ef¬ 
fort leaves the plant in a more advanced 
condition of exhaustion until death finally 
will soon claim it. It is doubtful if the 
crowns originally set, have produced any 
good sprouts for years; those that have 
been secured have no doubt been cut from 
seedlings that have come up from year 
to year at the side of the old rows. This 
old patch should have been discarded 
years ago, and using the old crowns for 
resetting would be like planting a dead 
tree; one would only have their labor for 
nothing. Young plants will have to be 
procured for the establishing of a new 
bed. Strong one-year-old plants are to 
be preferred, and should be set as early 
in April as possible. The old site should 
not be used for the location of the new 
bed. Choose another spot in the garden 
for it, and while the new bed is growing 
into profit, the old bed will probably con¬ 
tinue to furnish enough sprouts to give 
at least a partial supply for home use. 
Soon as the new planting comes into pro¬ 
fit, the old crowns can be grubbed out 
and thrown away. k. 
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