936 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 24, 191o. 
Garden and Farm Notes 
Culture of Everbearing Strawberries. 
I would like your advice on best means 
of cultivation or feeding to insure maxi¬ 
mum runners on strawberry plants of 
Superb. Progressive and Americus “ever- 
bearing'’ varieties. They were set out 
within the last 45 days, 1000 pounds 
high-grade fertilizer broadcast per acre 
before planting; land put in good tilth; 
most of the plants are looking well now, 
a very few beginning to throw runners. 
What average number of runners can be 
reasonably expected on these plants by 
next Spring, 9000 plants to the acre? 
Land is good loam. Do you recommend 
mulching strawberries for Winter with 
horse manure and what amount per acre? 
I understand this is done by some grow¬ 
ers with success. Would its use be 
likely to increase runners and fruit 
while serving at the same time as the 
usual Winter mulch? In this case I un¬ 
derstand the remaining manure is re¬ 
moved in the Spring same as usual 
mulch, so that any fertilizing advantage 
is apparently due to leaching of the ma¬ 
nure. o. H. L. 
East Hartford, Conn. 
In order to get the maximum yield of 
strawberry plants one must have good 
rich soil, fairly retentive of moisture 
and keep it well cultivated throughout 
the entire season. Plants should be set 
as early as soil conditions will permit. 
The Everbearers, of which Superb Pro¬ 
gressive and Americus are typical, should 
have all blossoms removed throughout 
the entire growing season. In addition 
to this it will be advantageous to place 
all of the first set runners by hand and 
cover them with soil to encourage quick 
rooting. This can be continued through¬ 
out the entire season if desired. Many 
more plants can be secured in this way, 
but it is seldom practiced on standard 
varieties because the extra plants se¬ 
cured will not pay for the extra labor. 
Irrigation will also help greatly in se¬ 
curing a maximum yield of plants. 
The number of plants secured will all 
depend on the grower and the season. I 
have seen less than 50,000 to the acre 
and over 300,000. We use the best care 
and judgment we can, then depend on 
Providence for favorable weather to 
bring out a full yield. In South Jersey 
long horse manure answers very well as 
a mulch and at the same time supplies 
some plant food by leaching. It does not 
help out on the crop of new runners, 
however, for it is not put on until the 
ground freezes. It is removed in the 
Spring the same as straw or other mulch 
would be. TRUCKEB, JR. 
Notes from a Maryland Garden. 
My tests of the three early varieties of 
tomatoes is now complete. I gathered 
Earliaua and Bonny Best the same day. 
The Bonny Best had a little advantage in 
the fact that the seed of the Earliaua 
seemed to germinate more slowly and the 
plants were not exactly as large when set. 
But the John Baer was fully as large and 
advanced as the Bonny Best. The first 
Earliaua and Bonny Best were ripe June 
23 and gathered on the 24th. The John 
Baer had one tomato ripe July 1. I have 
seen a statement that a man in New Jer¬ 
sey had John Baer ripe June 17. lie 
must have coddled the plants a good 
while in the pots, for our soil and climate 
are somewhat ahead of New Jersey and 
my plants were set as ehrly as it was at 
all safe, and in fact had plant protectors 
over them several nights. It would have 
been more interesting and convincing if 
the New Jersey man had had Bonny Best 
and Earliana treated in the same way as 
a matter of comparison. In two years’ 
trials I find that the John Baer is a very 
fine large and solid tomato, a fruit of ex¬ 
cellent quality and a good second early- 
following Earliana and Bonny Best, but 
is far from being the earliest The house 
sending it out claimed that it is of 
dwarfer growth and stands heavy manur¬ 
ing better than others. My plants have 
outgrown all others and are enormous in 
their development. The vines are a third 
larger than those of Bonny Best in the 
adjacent rows. It is. however, well worth 
growing as a second early because of its 
larger size than Bonny Best and its solid 
and meaty character. 
As I feared, the great crop of early po¬ 
tatoes in the South has not proved profit¬ 
able to the growers. Here the crop is in 
smaller area than usual, but the yield is 
remarkably good. In my garden the Cob¬ 
bler has made a splendid crop. The first 
day I dug any I got 40 good potatoes from 
five hills, and the vines at this writing 
(July G) are still green and a good part 
of the crop undug. 
We gathered the Golden Bantam corn 
the first of July and every year I con¬ 
clude that I will not waste any ground 
with it here. But the little ears are so 
good that I am pretty sure to plant a 
little more, for early- use. My main re¬ 
liance here is the Country Gentleman, 
and a crop planted now will give us the 
best ears of the season because the boll 
worms do not infest the late ears, and if 
we save our own seed we can get a bet¬ 
ter stamina in the plants and lax-ger ears, 
as the plants get acclimated. 
After a hard fight with the Colorado 
beetles on the egg plants they seem to 
have given up the fight, and the plants 
are spreading like the green bay tree in 
the moist hot weather, and setting fruit 
freely. 
But the fiercest fight was with the Rose 
chafers on the grapes. This season I had 
the lead arsenate and glucose on the 
flower buds waiting for them, and when 
they came the spraying was renewed and 
I saved the grapes, and the roses. White 
roses in row with red ones were the first 
attacked, and in fact they hardly attacked 
the dai-k red roses at all, but they swarmed 
thickly on the Crimson Ramblers, attract¬ 
ed perhaps by the load of white flowers 
on the Deutzias near by. Our light sandy 
soil furnishes a good breeding place for 
this pest, and we expect the annual 
swarm. But by using lead arsenate solu¬ 
tion with plenty of corn syrup added to 
make it stick we no longer dread the 
Rose chafei-s, nor the Colorado beetles. 
All around me I see people trimming 
their hedges of the California Privet with 
perpendicular sides and flat top, making 
a wall instead of a hedge. The final re¬ 
sult is a wall of green at top and bare 
stems showing underneath. My hedge is 
of the Amoor River privet, which keeps 
green all Winter. I have trimmed it with 
a broad base and a rounded conical cross 
section, and the sides being exposed to 
the light are dense, and the hedge is 
thick to the ground. Nature does not 
grow square corners nor walls, and re¬ 
sents the effort to train her in that way. 
I prefer a natural outline and a rounded 
surface that looks natural. 
w. F. MASSEY. 
Market Gardening in Northern Indiana. 
These are busy days for the market 
gardener. Not only is he required to give 
much attention to the cultivation of the 
growing crops, but daily marketing also 
demands his tention. In spite of the 
cool and backward season, with rainfall 
less than normal, crops are doing quite 
well, and prices of the various vegetables 
and fruits are quite satisfactory. We are 
just beginning to market our first heads 
of early cabbage (Jersey Wakefield), the 
backwardness of the season having de¬ 
layed their maturity fully 10 days. The 
price obtained is 10 cents per head. Peas, 
beets and bunch onions have declined, the 
latter to five cents for two bunches. The 
demand for asparagus, lettuce, and rhu¬ 
barb (especially rhubarb) has also de¬ 
clined. Onions from sets are maturing, 
while those from seed ai’e making rapid 
headway. Early potatoes are also ma¬ 
turing, and like cabbage being at least one 
week later than normal. Market garden¬ 
ers do not as a rule expect much from 
the early potato crop, as the Southern 
grower gets in ahead of them and takes 
the cream. Cucumbers and tomatoes 
have made a very slow progress, owing to 
the cool and backward season, and toma¬ 
toes will hardly mature before the be¬ 
ginning of August. This is keeping up 
the prices of the under glass tomato crop. 
Melons, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, and 
in fact all the heat loving plants, have all 
been hindered in their growth by the cool 
weather. The cherry hai-vest is on and 
not in many yeai - s has the yield been so 
abundant. Raspberries are beginning to 
ripen, the crop being good, as is also the 
blackberry crop. We have marketed 
some early apples, and while at the pres¬ 
ent the crop of both early and late apples 
promises well, there is yet danger that 
many may drop off before maturity. The 
vegetable and fruit grower of to-day has 
many things to contend with that were 
formerly unknown. Insect pests and dis¬ 
eases are much more common, and he who 
can wage the best and most skilled war¬ 
fare against them is the one who is the 
most successful, and makes the most 
pi-ofit. In the matter of insects, the cab¬ 
bage worm has done some damage this 
season. Our method of combating it is to 
apply Paris green, one pound to 50 gal¬ 
lons of water. The cutworms have also 
played havoc with the corn. The Colo¬ 
rado beetle has done very little damage 
this season, the cool weather undoubtedly 
having been the cause. This pest is mak¬ 
ing less and less trouble each season. 
Elkhart Co., Indiana. D. L. 
No Friend of a Blacksnake. 
“Can you give any sensible x-eason for 
killing a blacksnake?” 
Yes. I have seen blaeksnakes with 
toads in their body; I’ve killed them 
stuffed full of perfectly fresh Barred 
Rock eggs. A neighbor’s wife recently 
found a blacksnake curled up in a bed 
which she was making up. To a person 
of nervous temperament this might be 
serious. A neighbor who had always 
been averse to killing snakes found a 
big blacksnake climbing up a vine that 
grew against his house, headed for his 
bedroom window. He now kills them on 
sight. Maybe snakes kill mice, but so 
do toads, and lots of less objectionable 
creatures than snakes. Oh yes, and 
snakes kill birds, and the Bible has some¬ 
thing to say on the subject of bruising 
the serpent's head, etc., but I’d better 
stop, as I am beginning to get enthusi¬ 
astic on the subject of killing snakes. 
Swat the snake as well as the fly. You 
tempted the contx-oversy; so please pub¬ 
lish the other side. G. l. rothgeb. 
Vii-ginia. 
R. N.-Y.—Are you sure that toads de¬ 
stroy mice? 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings. 
California State Fruit Growers’ Con¬ 
vention, Leland Stanford University, July 
26-30. 
Connecticut Vegetable Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, field meeting, farm of T. W. 
Ryan, South Main street, Stratford, 
Conn., July 29. 
West Coast Potato Association, Palo 
Alto, Cal., July 30. 
International Apple Shippers’ Associa¬ 
tion, apple show and annual convention, 
Hotel Sherman, Chicago, August 4-G. 
California State Bee Keepers’ Asso¬ 
ciation, San Francisco, Aug. 5-7. 
Society for the Promotion of Agricul¬ 
tural Science, Berkeley, Cal., Aug. 9-10. 
Highland Hoi-se and Colt Show, High¬ 
land, Md., August 14. 
American Rose Society, San Francisco, 
Aug. 17-19. 
Society of American Florists, San 
Francisco, Aug. 17-20. 
American Gladiolus Society, Annual 
show, Newport, R. I., August 18, 19, 
1915. 
Warren County Farmers’ Picnic, Bel- 
videre, N. J., August 18. 
American Pomologieal Society, Berke¬ 
ley. Cab, Aug. 23-25. 
Cambridge Valley Fair, Cambridge, N. 
Y.. Aug. 23-27. 
New York State Fair, Syracuse, N. Y., 
September 13-18. 
Genesee County Fair, Batavia, N. Y., 
September 21-25. 
Trenton Inter-State Fair, Trenton, N. 
J., Sept. 27-Oct. 2. 
Farmers’ National Congress, annual 
meeting, Omaha, Neb., September 28-Oc- 
tober 1. 
Intei-national Dry Farming Congress, 
Denver Colo., Oct. 4-7. 
Chrysxinthemum Society of America, 
annual show, Cleveland, Ohio, November 
10-14, 1915. Special show, San Francis¬ 
co, Cal. 
Berks Corn Contest, Reading, Pa., 
Dec. 24. 
Reading Tigeon and Poultry Associa¬ 
tion, annual show, Dec. 6-11. 
Annual Corn and Grain Show, Tracy, 
Minn., January 3-8, 191G. 
Oi-leans County, N. Y., Fair, Albion, 
Sept. 8-11. 
Killing Skunk Cabbage. —Does any 
reader know how to kill skunk cabbage 
without digging it out? I have hay mea¬ 
dow infested with it, and more muck 
land that may be sanded and seeded but 
for this pei-sistent weed. It is said that 
when Germany has a problem the chem¬ 
ists will solve it. Can’t our chemists 
brew some horrid stuff of which about a 
spoonful put in the centre of each cab¬ 
bage would kill the tuber under the soil? 
Salt, kerosene and such simple things 
have no effect. u. s. b. 
Masachusetts. 
“For the Land’s Sake, use Bowker’s 
Fertilizers; they enrich the, earth and 
those who till it.”— Adv. 
LIME 
If your land needs lime, 
“the best is the cheapest” 
GENESEE HYDRATE 
Stands at head for strength 
and availability 
See Bulletins of N. Y. State 
Agricultural ExperimentSta- 
tion for 1911-1912-1913 or 1914. 
GIVE US A TRIAL 
Genesee Lime Co., Honeoye Falls, N. Y. 
For Fall 
Planting 
Every reader of this paper who 
is planning to set out an orch¬ 
ard next fall should write for 
our big general catalog. Or, 
better yet, come and see us. 
We extend a cordial invitation. Your hotel bill will 
be paid by us. You'll be particularly interested in our "Test 
Peach Orchard” containing over 100 kinds—the delight of all 
our visitors. Now is the time to get ready. Plant Harrison s 
trees—they succeed. Grown in deep rich soil on the Maryland 
peninsula; vigorous healthy, heavy-rooted. We sell only the 
trees we grow—you’re protected. Millions of guaranteed true- 
to-name fruit and ornamental trees,shrubs, roses, etc. 2500 acres 
—one of the world’s largest nurseries. Write today for catalog. 
^.O.HARRISON -G SONS 
Box 14 
Proprietors 
Berlin, Md. 
ALFALFA 
AMERICAN NORTHERN GROWN 
Guaranteed to be 99% pure and free from dodder. Write 
for sample on which we invite you to get Government tests. 
We do not handle Turkestan "Dwarf Alfalfa” or cheap 
Inferior European seed. We offer only the very best. 
Our seed should produce hay at $60 per acre annually. 
Can usually furnish Kansas, Nebraska, Montana or 
Dakota and Grimm Seed at very moderate prices. 
CLOVER and GRASSES 
Northern grown and of strongest vitality. We can 
furnish grass mixture suitable for any soils, 
WING SEED CO., Box 223 Mochanlcsburg, 0< 
Guaranteed Genuine 
• Everlasting AIT IT 
Grimm Altalia 
Produces plants with large branching roots which 
resist winter conditions. Leafier and of better 
feeding value than other varieties. 
Booklet, “How I Discovered The Grimm Alfalfa,” 
and sample free. I recommend July or August planting 
lor this hardy Alfalfa. 
A. B. Lyman, Grimm Alfalfa Introducer 
Alfalfadale Farm, R. F. D. 3, Excelsior, Minn. 
Cabbage, Celery, Kohl Rabi, Beets, 
l.OOO, $X.50 per 10.000 : TOMATO, SWEET POTATO, SI.50 
per 1,000; CAILIH.OWEK, PEIT'ERS, K<i(i PLANTS. *2.SO 
prr 1.000. S.ntl for list. 1 . C. SCHMIDT, Briilol. Pa. 
CrnD CAI ET-CAULIELOAVER ANI» 
I Wfl OHLC CELERY PLANTS, 40c. 
100; 300, $1. Postpaid, $2 per 1,000. Cahbage.il per 
1.000. List Free. 4V. S. Ford* Son, Hartly, Del. 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
RUNNER and POT-GROWN for August and Fall plant¬ 
ing. Will bear fruit next summer. Raspberry, 
Blackberry Plants, Fruit Trees. Catalogue free. 
HARRY L. SQUIRES, Remseuburg, N. Y. 
IJ0 Quarts of Strawberries Next Spring 
WW from 100 plants. All uiy plants are now well 
rooted. 100 strong-rooted young plants for $1.50. 25 
YEARS’ SPECIALIST. SEND FOR MID-SUMMER Catalogue. 
T. C. KEVITT, - . Athenia, N. J. 
CViH IP IP TT SEED, of high quality, specially 
~ v” t-e t-e 1 treated for full, quick germination. 
r+j /MXE'n Prices and information on request. 
CLVJ V ILK E. BARTOX, Box 29, Falmouth. Ky. 
White Plume and Winter Queen 
Plants, $1.50; 40c. por 100. Parcel Post. Ready July 1. 
SLAYMAKER & SON, - Wyoming, Del. 
SEED WHEAT-“Stoner’s Miracle” 
Stools so wonderfully, only one-half to two-thirds 
the seed is required to sow. Write for descriptive 
circular and Price to J. N. McPHERSQN, Scoffs ville. N. Y. 
f* A AJA/’ A C wugous, hay stacks, waterproof 
V J\0 duck, etc. Canvas hags for all pur¬ 
poses at low cost. 10-oz. wagon cover, 
7*2xl2-ft.,$3.50; 10x14, $5.00, prepaid. Write for prices. 
State size required. W. STANLEY, 50 Church St., N. Y. 
.A. I 3XT 
Light Weight, Low Hauling and Installation Costs. 
Sold in carload lots. Interesting Prices. 
Tlie Fibre Conduit Co., Orangeburg, N. Y. 
GARDEN AND FARM BOOKS 
Vegetable Gardening, Watts .$1.75 
Productive Vegetable Growing, Lloyd 1.50 
Garden Farming, Corbett . 2.00 
Manures and Fertilizers, Wheeler... 1.60 
Farm Manures, Thorne . 1.50 
Farm Management, Warren . 1.75 
Irrigation and Drainage, King . 1.50 
For sale by THE RURAL NEW- 
YORKER, 333 W. 30th St„ New York. 
H Are as large as small oranges. This and the three other Van Fleet hybrid ^ 
H strawberries are marvels in size, beauty and pi-oductiveness, with the true §1 
H wild sti-awbexry flavor. They cover the whole season, from earliest till latest, jp 
■ LOVETT’S POT GROWN STRAWBERRY PLANTS I 
= Planted in summer or autumn, produce a crop of berries the following June. My booklet on Pot Grown 
= Strawberries tells all about them ; how to prepare the ground, and cultivate. It shows the “ Edmund r— 
= Wilson” in natural size and color, and accurately describes with truthful illustrations the Van Fleet - 
— hybrids and a score of other choiee varieties, including the best Everbearing Strawberries. IT’S FREE. ^ 
S If you would have bigger and better strawberries than you have ever had before, plant Van Fleet Hybrids. =; 
For thirty-seven years 
== a Strawberry Specialist 
T. LOVETT, Box 162 , LITTLE SILVER, N. J. | 
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