941 
RURALISMS 
Commercial Violet Culture. 
Could you tell me what would be the 
clear profits from a Winter cold frame of 
violets of from 100 to 300 plants? What 
would be the cost of starting in the busi¬ 
ness provided a person had the land and 
could do all the work himself? I live 
about 50 miles from New York City. Are 
violets hard to raise and keep healthy? 
Could you tell me of a good book on the 
subject? l. p. 
Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y. 
L. D. asks a few questions that are 
very hard to answer, as it should be thor¬ 
oughly understood in embarking into the 
flower business that no rules can be 
given indicating even within 50 to 75 per 
cent, of what profits may be. The past 
season we have had a very heavy crop of 
carnations, of good quality, and the re¬ 
turns at times were only one-fourth to 
one-half the prices of former seasons, and 
at no time did they average nearly as 
high as during the two preceding seasons. 
Weather conditions, plant diseases, in¬ 
sects, etc., all are factors contributing to 
and detracting from profits in this busi¬ 
ness. It may be possible to make a profit 
over operating expenses, with a good crop 
of 10 cents per plant, more or less, de¬ 
pending upon freedom from the troubles 
likely to be met, and market conditions 
over which we have no control. A cold 
frame 6x24 feet or a small greenhouse 
12x12. should hold 300 plants. It would 
require eight sash 3x6 feet, which would 
cost about $2 each glazed. 
A cold frame would not be very desira¬ 
ble, as the plants would be of little use 
except in Fall and Spring. The sash 
could be arranged four on each side of a 
bed 10x12 feet, a walk sunk 18 inches to 
two feet in center and a small green¬ 
house made with but little additional ex¬ 
pense over the cold frame. A stove could 
be placed at one end to heat the house 
during severe weather. Before embarking 
in the violet business it would be well to 
consult with the man you expect to dis¬ 
pose of your crop as to market condi¬ 
tions. The violet is not as popular as in 
former years, and oftentimes sells at very 
low figures. I feel sure that either rad¬ 
ishes or lettuce would bring larger and 
more certain returns. “Commercial Vio¬ 
let Culture,” by Dr. Galloway, is possibly 
the best book on the subject, and can be 
purchased from The R. N.-Y.; price, 
$1*50. E. j. w. 
Crows; Moles; Summer Lettuce. 
1. You say kerosene on seed corn is not 
good. What can I do to keep crows from 
pulling up corn? 2. How can I stop field 
mice from eating my peas, beans and 
roots? They go down the row in a ground 
mole run, and eat the seed and also roots 
of cabbage and celery. 3. What kind of 
lettuce is best for heading in the Sum¬ 
mer. and how is it grown? I have tried 
a shade of burlap strips on stakes over 
the whole row, but the lettuce always 
goes to seed and will not head. s. Y. 
Setauket, N. Y. 
1. Any means employed to prevent 
crows from pulling up corn must be ap¬ 
plied to the seed before planting. Coat¬ 
ing the seed with coal tar is said to be 
the best, if not the only reliable preven¬ 
tive, as the crow will not eat corn that 
has been given the coal tar treatment. 
2. The field mouse is strictly an herbi¬ 
vorous animal and quite fond of most 
garden vegetables, but he is not always 
guilty of the charges of loss and dam¬ 
ages brought against him. The mole is 
also fond of underground vegetation and 
feeds on the roots of plants quite exten¬ 
sively. I have on various occasions lost 
valuable Gladiolus bulbs, eaten by moles. 
I here have been many remedies recom¬ 
mended and tried to rid the grounds of 
the mole, putting concentrated lye (pot¬ 
ash), kerosene oil, etc., in their runs, all 
have helped to some extent in driving the 
mole away for the time being, but sooner 
or later they will not only return them¬ 
selves, but will bring all their friends or 
family with them, so that in the end the 
last stage of the trouble is worse than at 
the beginning. I have tried every means 
of preventive I ever saw recommended, 
and some of my own invention, but have 
found trapping the only really effective 
means of getting rid of them for keeps. 
• >. Of the very many varieties of let¬ 
tuce tried I have found the New York or 
)\ onderful the best Summer variety. Sow 
the seeds where the plants are to mature, 
THE RURAL 
and when they have made the second pair 
of true leaves, thin them to stand about 
10 inches apart, in strong soil. With fre¬ 
quent and thorough cultivation and ade¬ 
quate water supply many of the plants 
will make very good heads, though not as 
large and solid as the early spring sown. 
The leaves of this variety are very large, 
and may be drawn up over the heart and 
tied with raffia, about a week before ma¬ 
turing. which will greatly assist in the 
blanching of the heart. K. 
Outdoor Market Flowers. 
I have several acres of ground with 
a southern exposure on which I want to 
specialize raising outdoor flowers for the 
city market. At present I am thinking 
of an acre of white and red peonies. Can 
you tell me if the product of an acre 
could be sold to the wholesale trade, 
and what price per dozen could be real¬ 
ized net? If you know of several other 
varieties of outdoor flowers having 
ready sale, kindly mention same, and also 
the wholesale prices. G. D. s. 
Phillipsburg. N. J. 
Peonies are being very extensively 
planted for this purpose; some seasons 
the returns are very fair and others not 
nearly as good. The past season prices 
ranged from three to five cents per flow¬ 
er, and some choice Festiva Maxima that 
were in crop for Memorial Day realized 
more. This is the finest variety in culti¬ 
vation for commercial purposes, but often 
comes in too late for Memorial Day, and 
as a result returns are low. Peonies 
should be fairly profitable if in flower 
before this date. Last season returns 
were very low, scarcely paying cutting 
and express charges. Enormous quanti¬ 
ties are being planted each season, and 
the wholesale florists are looking for low¬ 
er markets each season. Before planting 
too heavily better consult some commis¬ 
sion florist whom you would likely ask 
to dispose of your stock, and find out 
if he will handle the product, and what 
he thinks of the future of the business. 
Do not go to a catalogue house having 
peony roots for sale, as their enthusiasm 
would be self-evident. You can get in 
touch with the best wholesale florists by 
going to some retail house in the city 
you contemplate shipping to and making 
inquiries. If your soil is sandy the Dah¬ 
lia should be a good thing to try, as 
large areas are devoted to their growth 
in New Jersey. Gladioli also may be 
grown, as the amount of this flower 
grown each season is enormous. But 
again I wish to emphasize the advice to 
consult some reliable commission florist 
for information as to outlet, prices, etc. 
E. j. w. 
Pruning the Cherry Tree. 
I would like some information in re¬ 
gard to pruning my cherry trees. They 
are quite thick in the center and I think 
of thinning them out. My idea is to 
cut out the centers and cut off extreme 
tops so as to get them in better and more 
convenient shape. The fruit is up so 
high in some places as to make it very 
inconvenient to get at. Will it injure 
the trees to prune now? If pruned now 
will new laterals or branch come out for 
next season’s fruit? r. r. 
Louisville, Ky. 
Trimming any tree, is a whole lot like 
bringing up a baby. It is easier to 
bring it up if you have it right from the 
start than it is to adopt a 15-year-old 
and then try to make the product over 
to suit your own ideals. I trim a cherry 
tree the least of any tree that I have 
ever grown—in fact I come near not 
trimming it at all. I can see that the 
trouble with R. R.’s trees is that they 
are growing too tall, and as he thinks 
have too much wood through the trees. 
We have had trees about that way and in 
these cases we have trimmed out the min¬ 
or branches avoiding all large cuts possi¬ 
ble. It looks to me as though R. R.’s 
idea is what we might call dishorning 
the tree, in order to bring it down in 
height. I have never done that, but Mr. 
Schoon of Geneva did so years ago in 
an orchard of very large trees, and he 
assures me that he would not do it again. 
By no means keep trimming the yearly 
growth the way you would a peach tree 
and the way contemplated. He wants 
that additional yearly growth for bearing 
wood. This growth is necessary in the 
peach tree in order to keep fresh bearing 
wood in the center of the tree, but it is 
not necessary in the cherry. All the 
trimming that I do in my cherries is to 
cut out any undesirable or dead or broken 
branches, and aside from this I leave 
NEW-YORKER 
them right alone. I can see no reason 
in my experience to lead me to change 
this method. 
One of my orchards now is getting 
altogether too tall, but that is my fault 
from planting the trees so close they have 
had to grow somewhere, and as the 
ground is all covered they have to keep 
climbing. I am an advocate of close 
planting, however, as an economic propo¬ 
sition, but if my policy was to make the 
handsomest orchard possible instead of 
making the most profitable, instead of 14 
to 16 feet apart each way I would plant 
Montmorency 20 feet. Without doubt 
after the orchard is IS or 20 years old 
an orchard planted 20 feet will bear as 
much fruit as the orchard planted closer, 
or more. w. l. mc kay. 
Raspberry Plants Dying. 
I have a patch of red raspberries, the 
( uthbert. Last year they threw up a 
lot of sprouts. I dug up a lot of those 
sprouts and set them out and they are 
all growing well. I left a lot of them 
where they stood and every one of them 
died. What was the matter? j. z. b. 
East Dorset, Yt. 
No definite information is given in the 
above inquiry, as to the lapse of time be¬ 
tween the setting out of the parent plants 
and the removal of the suckers or young 
sprouts, but I would infer from the way 
the inquiry reads, that the suckers were 
taken up the second year after the par¬ 
ent plants were set out, and that all 
were removed. If that is the case, then 
the dying out of those left, may be ex¬ 
plained with reasonable certainty of the 
leal cause. Raspberry canes are biennial, 
dying out the second year shortly after 
the fruiting season. If the young sprouts 
were all removed and nothing but the 
original plants left, that were set out the 
previous year, it is quite possible they 
died from being shorn of their principal 
feeding roots, and disturbance resulting 
from the digging of the sprouts. In mat¬ 
ters of this kind, where no definite in¬ 
formation as to cause is at hand, or the 
actual conditions surrounding the plants 
is obtainable, one can only guess at the 
cause. Therefore if the circumstances 
in this case were as they seem, then it 
is a pretty certain guess that those left 
died from the cause stated. k 
New Plant Immigrants. 
^ Bulletin 105, issued by the Office of 
I 1 oieign Seed and Plant Introduction, re¬ 
fers to seeds and cuttings of the black 
sapote from Cuba, which is thus de¬ 
scribed : “The sapote prieto or capote 
negro (black sapote) of Mexico, an in¬ 
teresting fruit belonging to the persim¬ 
mon family. The tree grows in compact 
shapely form, and is of very ornamental 
appearance with its oblong-oval, glossy 
leaves about four inches long. In appear¬ 
ance the fruits greatly resemble some va¬ 
rieties of the Kaki or Japan persimmon; 
in place of being bright orange, however, 
they are light green when ripe, and meas¬ 
ure 2^4 to three and even four inches in 
diameter. In shape they are oblate or dis¬ 
tinctly flattened and the persistent, light 
green calyx is quite prominent. The in¬ 
terior of the fruit, when ripe, is anything 
but attractive in appearance, the flesh 
being dark brown or almost black in ap¬ 
pearance, and of a greasy consistency. 
The flavor is sweet but rather lacking in 
character, for this reason the Alexicans 
frequently serve the fruit cut up, or 
mashed up, with orange juice; it is a 
first rate dish. 
Bergamot is well known as a perfume, 
being used in old-fashioned pomades and 
hair tonics to take away the odor of other 
ingredients. It is made from the berga¬ 
mot orange, seeds of which have been re¬ 
ceived from Naples and Catania. Italy. 
I he bergamot orange is thus described: 
A small tree; leaves oblong-oval, with 
long, winged petioles; flowers small, 
white, very fragrant; fruits pyriform, 
three-fourths inch in diameter, thin- 
skinned, pale yellow when ripe; pulp 
acid; seeds oblong, many. Extensively 
cultivated in Calabria for the essential 
oil which is expressed from the peel and 
used in making eau de Cologne and other 
perfumes.” 
The cherry blossoms of Japan are fa¬ 
mous, and we learn that the Department 
of Agriculture has obtained 63 varieties 
of flowering cherries from Tokvo. Japan. 
These were secured through Mr. E. IT. 
Wilson, collector for the Arnold Arbore¬ 
tum, each variety being given under its 
correct Japanese name. Budwood is be¬ 
ing propagated, and these ornamental 
cherries will be sent out jointly by the 
Arnold Arboretum and the Office of For¬ 
eign Seed and-Plant Introduction. 
EMERSON 
Farm Tractor 
Model L—12-20 Horse Power 
A four-cylinder, 2-speed light weigh 1 -, 
tractor of great power, suitable for 
any size farm. Will pull the im¬ 
plements you now have on your farm 
— srangf plows, harrows, mowers, binders, 
manure spreaders, road drag's or graders. 
Will also operate your ensilage cutter, feed 
grinder, circular saw. etc. Does more work 
than horses—costs less and is so simple anyone 
can run it. Write Today for Free Folder Illustrated in Colors. 
Information on Big Four ,, 20 ,r 
and Big Four “ 30 " sent on request 
Emerson-Brantingham Implememt Co. (Inc.) 
911 S. Iron Strool, Rockford, Illinois 
To get more milk 
from your cows 
Spray them lightly with Creonoid be¬ 
fore milking. The odor of Creonoid is 
objectionable to flies. The cows will 
then stand more quietly and yield 
more milk. 
Use Creonoid in stables, barns, hen 
houses and hog pens to get rid of in¬ 
sect pests. At most dealers. 
BARRETT MANUFACTURING CO. 
New York Chicago Philadelphia 
Boston St. Louis Pittsburgh <2**^ 
Cleveland Cincinnati Detroit ^ 
Kansas City Min neapol is Seattle 
Birmingham Salt Lake City 
U I pill p LA • w «_ I CM, utHN a 
*nil Other Crops—Bet > BIG TIELB-lnoculele with 
NITRO-GERM 
Cheapest In the world, guaranteed perfect. Send for circular. 
The Standard Nitrogerm Company 
Glen Ridge, N. J.. Dept. 11 
Inoculated Alfalfa Soil 
75c. per 100 lb., or ten dollars per ton, F. O. B cars 
h-end for free booklet “How to grow alfalfa" 
Dr » H. Somerville, Ches t Sprinos, Cambria Co., Pa. 
The Fairs 
Will Begin 
Next Month 
We have a sub¬ 
scription proposi¬ 
tion for the fair 
season which will 
• 
interest an agent 
as well as a sub¬ 
scriber. 
Write for details 
(postal card will 
do) to 
Department “M” 
The 
Rural New-Yorker 
333 West 30th Street 
New York City 
