THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1033 
Soil Fertility Problems 
Preparing Bones; Potash. 
1. You adviser! mo to go ahead and use 
the old bones I could get from a local 
slaughter house for the hauling, break 
them up and mix with the soil when 
planting fruit trees. It will cost me 
about .$5 a load for hauling, fuel to burn 
them in order to soften them somewhat 
and labor to break them up. Would it 
pay for the trouble? 
2. About potash for garden and fruit 
trees, commercial fertilizers are not to be 
had in Arizona, and freight charges to 
Arizona are high. Would it be practi¬ 
cable or advisable to buy concentrated 
lye in small cans, marked 98 per cent, 
potash, as used in households, to use in 
a small garden and on a dozen fruit 
trees, and how much would be a liberal 
hut safe application per tree, one pound 
for how much ground, regardless of the 
expense? j. 
Douglas, Ariz. 
1. Yes. unless you know that your soil 
is not lacking in phosphoric acid. Per¬ 
sonally we doubt if there is any soil in 
the country that has been under cultiva- 
t'on for 10 years that must not respond 
to an application of bone. Where bones 
can be smashed fine and buried beside 
newly planted trees you have the best 
foundation for feeding them. Bones at 
$5 per ton ought to be a good invest¬ 
ment anywhere. 
2. No. it would not pay. Many sam¬ 
ples of such lye do not contain any potash 
whatever. They are soda lyes and of no 
value as a fertilizer. The price of pot¬ 
ash in such a lye would be too high. If 
it were to be used at all the best way 
would be to dissolve the lye in water and 
sprinkle it over coal ashes or dust. Then 
when this has been dried it can be han¬ 
dled like any fertilizer, carrying the pot¬ 
ash with it. 
Some Mysteries of Clover. 
Nearly all farmers have been puzzled 
at the appearance of clover in unexpec¬ 
ted places on the farm. Here is a typi¬ 
cal case: 
f am greatly puzzled over another field, 
10 acres of oats just reaped, on which 
there is a stand of clover quite equal to 
any 1 have that was especially seeded. 
Past year this field was in corn, the year 
before in buckwheat, hence no clover seed. 
On two sides it is bounded by woodlands, 
on one side by a corn field which last 
year was in oats. The remaining side 
is bounded by a brook and thicket. On 
the south side of thicket is a field which 
was seeded to clover early in Spring, but 
a gale from the north was blowing the 
day it was seeded, and snow covered the 
clover seed as fast as it fell. Where did 
this clover come from? Can any of your 
readers make a guess? a. w. c. 
We knew a farmer once who said lie 
put coal ashes on a certain field, and the 
next year the ground was thick with 
clover. lie claimed the seed must have 
been in the coal ashes, and that it lived 
through the heat of the fire—an impossi¬ 
ble thing. There was the reasoning how¬ 
ever—no clover grew on the field, coal 
ashes were used, the clover appeared— 
therefore the seed must have been in tin* 
coal ashes. Few men would be willing 
to swear that there was no clover grow¬ 
ing on a certain field. A thorough exam¬ 
ination would show a good many plants 
scattered here and there, perhaps enough 
to make several pounds of seed. A very 
light seeding under the most favorable 
conditions would when conditions were 
just right, give a full stand- We have 
one field that has not been seeded to 
clover for years. Yet in walking over it 
the other day we found some large patch¬ 
es of strong clover making a crop of seed. 
In the field spoken of the clover seed may 
have been introduced in manure used on 
the corn. We have known grain, weeds 
and clover to be brought in this way. The 
seed will live dormant for years in the 
soil, and when the conditions are made 
just right for it the clover springs up 
and grows luxuriantly. We think we can 
go into any field on a farm where crops 
are grown in a rotation, dig up fair 
samples of soil and put them in pots in 
a hothouse under good conditions so that 
all seeds in that soil will sprout. There 
will be a dozen or more different kinds 
of weeds, but we feel sure that several 
kinds i f clover will also appear—showing 
that dormant seeds may be found every¬ 
where. 
arguments Fob Cover Chops-—I 
write to approve of your position in the 
question of cover crops, and I do all the 
t’ e more, heartily because it has been my 
theory and practice for many years. As 
a general farm policy the farm should 
be made to supply all the means of main¬ 
taining ifs permanent fertility. The in¬ 
dispensable need of all soils is humus or 
decomposed organic material. The mod¬ 
ern method of plowing green crops under 
has become a general practice but a re¬ 
sort to some one of the many nitrogenous 
plants is quite as nearly universal. No 
one of these, however, accommodates it¬ 
self so perfectly to the varying conditions 
of soil and climate as does rye. Your 
reasons for adopting it as a cover crop 
are strong enough to fortify your opinion, 
but allow me to suggest still another. 
The use of rye is in the line of the farm 
policy as I have stated it. There need 
he no outlay for seed, which with the 
average farmer is an important considera¬ 
tion. It may be sown after the latest 
farm crop has been harvested, and will 
lie dormant in the soil through the 
severest Winter, and germinate perfectly 
in the Spring. Even this is sometimes a 
consideration. l. p. chamberlain. 
Connecticut. 
Use of Hen Manure. 
Will you tell me where is the best 
place to use hen manure? Will it last 
more than one year? J. G. P. 
Hen manure is rich in nitrogen and 
such manures are usually best on crops 
which make most of their growth above 
ground. This would include corn, grass, 
celery and most garden crops. Many far¬ 
mers prefer hen manure for potatoes, pitt¬ 
ing it on top of the hill and hoeing it in. 
When hen manure is well worked into 
the soil its effect will be noticed for more 
than one year. When left on top of the 
soil it ferments quickly and its ammonia 
soon passes away. 
New York State Fruit Growers’ Summer 
Field Meeting. 
Part I. 
The meeting at Geneva. August 9-7. 
was not what was first planned by the 
officers of the New York Fruit Growers’ 
Association, but was held as the best sub¬ 
stitute for an excursion to orchards in 
the South, which was cancelled for lack 
of patronage. At a late date it was de¬ 
cided to hold the annual field meeting at. 
the State Experiment Station. The sched¬ 
ule included looking over the work at the 
Station Friday forenoon, a session in the 
afternoon, when the people would come 
together on the station lawn to listen to 
addresses, and demonstrations of orchard 
tractors and machinery. Saturday morn¬ 
ing this schedule was somewhat broken 
up because of rain which greatly reduced 
the attendance. With some of the heads 
of the departments the writer spent quite 
a Ftt’e time getting facts brought out by 
experiments. 
Orchard Care. —Apples should be set. 
as early as possible in the Spring. Two- 
year-old trees are usually to be preferred 
those but one year old if they have 
b°en properly headed in the nursery. 
With the peach, one-year-old trees should 
be planted. When planting the less the 
roots are injured the less the top need be 
cut away. The common way is to cut 
back all of the branches. This, in many 
cases, is wrong. The top buds on a 
branch develop soonest and produce the 
largest leaves. A newly-set tree will grow 
best if it can develop a large leaf surface 
before dry. hot weather sets in, and this it 
will do if some branches are left intact. 
Therefore, instead of shortening in all 
branches, cut away some of the branches 
entirely. The tree so pruned will start 
growth and acquire vigor more quickly. 
In this climate the opm-headed. vase- 
formed tree is best for tin 1 peach and the 
close-centered two-story tree is best for 
all other fruits. Whatever the form, care 
should be taken that the lowest branches 
are longest, so that the greatest possible 
lea f '-sn>- £ aee will be exposed to the sun 
and light. 
Pruning. —For several years after 
planting, the peach alone excepted, fruit 
trees need to be pruned only to train the 
tree. Just how much to prune young 
trees depends upon the fruit, the variety, 
the soil and the climate. Fruit growers 
usually prune trees far too much, thereby 
increasing the growth of wood and delay¬ 
ing the fruiting of the plant. If trees 
were originally well selected all that is 
needl'd is t<> remove an occasional branch 
which starts out in the wrong place—the 
sooner done the better—and to take out 
dead, injured or crossed limbs. Summer- 
oruning is a weakening process and in 
this climate may greatly decrease the 
vigor of th(> plants if frequently resorted 
to. The practice is mother common nor 
often necessary in the State except in the 
case of dwarf apples and pears. Whoq 
a tree is severely pruned a growth of long, 
vertical shoots with fe\y leaves, often fol¬ 
lows—suckers or water sprouts. Since 
the sparseness of foliage prevents the 
shoots from elaborating food they appro¬ 
priate it from the parts upon which they 
grow. Suckers are, therefore, robbers, 
true parasites, and should be removed 
w henever and wherever found. Occasion¬ 
ally they may be used in the development 
of normal branches, though their value 
for this purpose is small. The best time 
to prune is in late Winter before the sap 
flows. The objection to early Winter 
pruning is tha-t there may be injury to 
the tissues near the wound from cold or 
from checking. Late Spring pruning re¬ 
sults in loss of sap and the fluids run 
down the bark and keep it wet and sticky, 
making a suitable place for the spores of 
various rot fungi so that decay may set 
in. In practice it is often found neces¬ 
sary to prune from the time leaves drop 
until they are well started in the Spring. 
Cost of Cultivation.— Allowing 27 
trees to the acre, the average expense of 
production was $58.75 an acre annually 
under the sod-mulch system, and $70.00 
under tillage, an advantage for the sod- 
mulch of $22.31 an acre; but the net in¬ 
come from an acre in sod was $71.52, and 
from an acre in tillage $110.43, an ad¬ 
vantage for tillage of $38.91. That is, 
every dollar of the additional expenditure 
($22.31) made necessary by adopting the 
tillage method was not only returned but 
brought an extra $1.74 of profits with it. 
In the average Western New York tilled 
orchard, if it be well drained, well tilled 
and properly supplied with organic mat¬ 
ter from stable manure or cover crops, 
commercial fertilizers are little needed. 
Fertilizers ought not to be used to reju¬ 
venate trees unless the owner has ob¬ 
tained positive evidence that his soil is 
lacking in some of the elements of plant 
food. To obtain such evidence a fruit¬ 
grower should carry on a fertilizer ex¬ 
periment. The best modern practice per¬ 
mits the growing of hoed crops in an or¬ 
chard until tlie trees come into bearing. 
If profitable disposition can be made of 
the product, truck crops are ideal for a 
young orchard. Corn is the only farm 
crop which can be used, and it is not as 
desirable as any of the truck crops named. 
Cover crops should be sowed at the close 
of the season’s cultivation, about August 
first, to be plowed under the next Spring. 
This station prefers the following: On 
each acre sow one bushel of oats or barley 
and 15 pounds of Mammoth Red clover or 
20 pounds of Winter vetch. 
Insect and Fungus Enemies. —King, 
Roxbury and Northern Spy among apples 
are nearly free from scale as are the Kief- 
fer. LeConte and Winter Nelis pears, 
Bradshaw and Field plums and all sour 
cherries. There are about 80 varieties of 
apples on the grounds of the New York 
Experiment Station never injured by scab, 
as many more scarely injured, and, of 
course, a large number that are badly in¬ 
jured. The Seckel, KiefTer, LeConte and 
Winter Nelis pears do not blight badly. 
A few plums are never attacked by black- 
knot. and some peaches are almost im¬ 
mune to leaf-curl. Men who cannot or 
will not spray should plant varieties im¬ 
mune to the most troublesome pests. 
Commercial fruit-growers must spray. It 
is necessary to protect young trees from 
mice and rabbits. The best protection 
against mice is a mound of earth about 
the tree several inches high thrown up in 
late Fall and removed in early Spring. 
Wire netting is the best protection 
against rabbits. When injury has been 
done the trees can often be saved by 
bridge-grafting. Prof. Hedrick said the 
purpose of the Experiment Station is to 
tell fruit-growers the value of all fruits 
adanted to the climate. They have grown 
1.000 varieties of app'«s here. Less than 
50 per cent, are worth growing commer¬ 
cially. Another work of the station is 
breeding new fruits. They hope to origi¬ 
nate varieties less susceptible to disease, 
for instance, a pear more immune to 
blight. 
Tiie Station’s Needs. —Dr. Jordan. 
Director, welcomed the fruit-growers at 
thi' afternoon meeting. He said we have 
come to tin* time of social organizations. 
Institutions must recognize this change. 
The farmer once stood as an individual 
unit, now he must accept the community 
principle. Results of social organiza¬ 
tions are the agricultural college and Ex¬ 
periment Station. Dr. Jordan spoke of 
the needs of the State Experiment Sta¬ 
tion that it may grow to meet the de¬ 
mands of the people; these are a new con¬ 
vention building, new forcing houses and 
more land. lie also said the fruit grower 
cannot offer the highest grade of fruit in 
the market unless he spray intelligently. 
Plant lice have been greatly injurious to 
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