THE RURAL NEW-VORKER 
1113 
RURALISMS 
Head Lettuce for Early Spring. 
Can you give me a hotter head lettuce 
for open ground planting'in early Spring 
than Big Boston? The objection to this 
lettuce is its tendency to run to seed, 
and the top of the heads turning brown. 
Kingston, N. J. w. p. 
I use the Big Boston only in frames 
for inter and the earliest Spring crop 
under glass. For a Fall crop in the open 
ground I sow seed of the May King early 
in August, and for the Spring crop in 
the open ground I have found that the 
New York, or as some call it the Won¬ 
derful, is hest. Hanson, of similar 
growth, is also good. Both of these va¬ 
rieties belong to the Curled India class, 
and make very large and hard heads and 
stand heat far better than the Big Bos¬ 
ton, which runs to bloom as soon as the 
weather gets warm. In order to get the 
hest results from these lettuces I sow 
the seed in a cold frame in March and 
transplant them into very heavily ma¬ 
nured beds SxlO inches, and as soon as 
the plants are well started I use nitrate 
of soda between the rows twice to urge 
the growth, for lettuce to be good must 
be grown rapidly. 
Grapes Do Not Bear. 
I have two or three Delaware grape¬ 
vines growing in a fine alluvial soil, 
which have always borne well until last 
year. They have always been inclined to 
throw out a good many shoots, and pro¬ 
duce more growth of vines than the other 
grapes. Bast year and this year they are 
running entirely to vines, and not' pro¬ 
ducing any grapes. In the same soil I 
have Concord and other grapes which are 
bearing well. Can you give me any idea 
what causes this change, or what I can 
do to set the Delaware vines to produc¬ 
ing again? j. E . p. 
Wilkes Barre, Pa. 
It is quite possible that the trouble 
with the Delaware vines in this instance 
is due to the fact that not enough fruit¬ 
ing wood was retained at the last prun¬ 
ing properly to balance root and top. 
The description of'the son would indi¬ 
cate that it would have the tendency to 
produce wood rather extensively, and if 
nitrogenous fertilizers were used this con¬ 
dition would he considerably aggravated. 
I would suggest that at the next pruning 
a greater number of buds be retained for 
the 1916 crop. Again, the rank wood 
growth of 1914 may not have matured 
properly, so that the fruit buds were in¬ 
jured through Winter temperatures to 
the extent that the essential parts of the 
flower were unable to function. In eith- 
-•r case the treatment woulu be as sug¬ 
gested, namely to curtail wood growth 
through giving the vine more fruit to ma¬ 
ture. F. E. G. 
Budding Cherry ; Mildew on Roses. 
1. Can you tell me how and when to 
bud cherry trees? 2. I have a Crimson 
Rambler that had flowers that look 
faded and the leaves were not a good col¬ 
or. Can you explain trouble, also a 
cure? j. k. b. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
1. Cherry stocks are generally in the 
best condition for budding during the 
month of August. The buds should be 
well developed and plump, and are taken 
from a stick about a fourth or three- 
eighths of an inch in diameter, and 
should be cut about one inch long, being 
somewhat thicker under the bud than at 
either end. The matrix is made by cut¬ 
ting through the bark near the ground, 
first vertically then ‘horizontally, in the 
shape of the letter’T, with the horizontal 
cut at least an inch above the lower end 
of the vertical cut. Open the bark at 
the cross section of the cut, and gently 
separate it from the stock the full length 
of the vertical incision. Now insert the 
hud, being particular to have the bark 
of the stock lap over and cover the edges 
of the bud on both sides. The bud will 
now have to be tied to hold it in place 
and to protect it from the weather. Raf¬ 
fia is the best material for this purpose; 
it works better if moistened before using. 
M hen the wrapping is done from the bot¬ 
tom upward and lapped over at the 
edges, «it forms a perfect protection from 
water and air, and greatly enhances the 
bud’s chances of growing. The bud will 
form a union with the stock in two 
or three weeks, when the tying material 
should be removed. The following Spring 
the top of the stock must be severed just 
above the bud and all stock sprouts below 
the bud be kept rubbed off so that the 
bud may have the full strength of the 
stock to push it along. 2. Your Rambler 
was attacked with mildew. This variety 
of rose,is quite subject to attacks of this 
fungus, particularly near large bodies 
of water and during excessively wet sea¬ 
sons. It not only destroys the foliage 
but discolors and ruins the flowers. 
Flowers of sulphur blown on the foliage 
with a powder gun will usually hold the 
fungus in check, but this year there was 
not enough sunshine during the bloom¬ 
ing season to vaporize the sulphur, with 
the results absolutely nil. 4X1111 all the 
care possible to give outdoor roses, the 
writer lost his entire crop of bloom this 
year, the frequent rains and almost con¬ 
tinuous cloudy weather for some time pre¬ 
vious to, and during the blooming per¬ 
iod, so favored the spread of the mildew 
fungus that the use »of sulphur was en¬ 
tirely without results. k. 
Cut-leaved Birch from Seed. 
1. Can the seeds of a Silver cut-leaf birch 
be sown with the prospect of getting 
trees? If so please give me some in¬ 
structions as to how to proceed. 2. 
Do you know who sells the wire traps 
to catch sparrows, also to trap rats alive? 
Stafford. N. Y. w. c. P. 
1. The white birch (Betula alba) and 
its varieties may be readily propagated 
from seed, which should be sown as soon 
as ripe, or stratified and sown the fol¬ 
lowing Spring. A spent hotbed or cold 
frame is. all things considered, the best 
place for the sowing of this class of 
seeds. The soil should be spaded and put 
in the best possible condition, open drills 
half an inch or so in depth, into which 
sow the seed about one inch or even less 
apart, pressing the soil lightly over them. 
The rows may be as close as six inches 
apart. The seedlings should be trans¬ 
planted in nursery rows at one year of 
age. If lattice screens are placed on the 
frames, it will prove quite helpful in 
preventing too rapid drying of the soil 
and thus in a measure prevent hard bak¬ 
ing. Water occasionally in dry weath¬ 
er. Stratification is accomplished by 
placing the seeds mixed with fine sand 
in shallow boxes as soon as gathered. 
The boxes should be buried not less than 
IS inches deep in a spot where the soil 
drainage is good. Before filling in the 
soil a board one inch thick should be 
placed over the boxes to prevent vermin 
from getting at the seed, also to keep 
the soil separated from the top of the 
box. This deep burying of the seeds 
will keep them from growing and in 
good condition until the following Spring, 
when they may be sown as directed above. 
2. The wire or cage rat traps may be 
procured at any first-class hardware or 
general store, and possibly the sparrow 
traps also. k. 
Horseradish Culture. 
I would like your advice in regard to 
growing horseradish. I planted about 
one-quarter acre this Spring on light 
sandy soil, using pulverized sheep ma¬ 
nure as fertilizer. As the land is not 
rich, do you think it would pay to sow 
more between the rows and cultivate in? 
I also notice something is eating the 
leaves; can it be sprayed, and what with? 
What is the general yield per acre? 
Hudson, N. II. c. j. s. 
To grow good marketable horseradish, 
requires a deep rich loam, and if a little 
inclined to be wet so much the better. 
While an application of additional manure 
to the surface, cultivating it in, will bene¬ 
fit the crop to a certain extent, this man¬ 
ner «of manuring will not be as effective 
as when the fertilizing constituents are 
mixed deeply with the soil at time of 
plowing. Any leaves that are damaged 
by insects or other agency at this time 
will in no wise injure the crop, as the 
plant makes its principal growth in the 
Autumn. However if it should seem ad¬ 
visable to spray the plants, arsenate of 
lead or Paris green may be useful for 
the killing of such leaf-chewing insects 
as may attack the plants. On good strong 
soils, such as are found in the best mar¬ 
ket gardens, the average yield of market¬ 
able roots is about five tons to the acre. 
On the less fertile soils, the yield will 
be lighter, varying with the fertility of 
the soil. k. 
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