Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
329 
A Fruit Grower’s Travels 
I* ART II. 
New York InterevSts. —lu New York 
at the fruit growers’ meeting I found 
four chief topics of interest, traction en¬ 
gines, new spra.vers, dusting and the 
apple packing law. There were men 
there from many distant States and 
from Canada; for New York still hold.s 
first place in fruit growing and the State 
meeting is still the biggest and best to 
be found. The traction engines are be¬ 
ginning to work out on two rather dis¬ 
tinct lines, the medium to large size 
machine of the best quality and the 
smaller, lighter machines, built to sell at 
a low price. I believe the farnnu’s de¬ 
mand quality and efficiency lirst and give 
the price only second con.sideration. In 
the last few years the fruit grower and 
farmer has learned much of the life and 
nature of insect pests and plant diseases, 
and with this knowledge has come the 
realization that spraying mu.st be done 
at a certain time, and that the period 
for applying this protective .spray is usu¬ 
ally very brief. This, combini'd with the 
scarcity anil high price of labor, led to 
the introduction of dusting as a sub.sti- 
tute for spraying, and the manufacture 
of the new high-powered rig and nozzle. 
ItusTiNO AM> Spraying.— Dusting re- 
quires about one-fifth the time jind labor 
of spraying, but like every new method, 
was only .successful in iibout 75 per cent 
of the orchards in this, its first year of 
general use. Its failure in many ca.ses 
to control scab was doubtless due to poor 
materials and unskilled workmen, and to 
th(‘ very early infection of .«cab which 
occurred in many cases before the appli¬ 
cation was made. I think it is also 
partly due to using too heavy a dust. By 
this I mean that a dust of f»0 per cent 
sulphur will blow on at the rate of 
about four pounds per minute, and the 
oi>erator in an attempt to save material 
is likely to fjiil in getting proper distri¬ 
bution over the tree. A dust of about 
50 per cent sulphur, 10 per cent lead, 
and 40 per cent tobacco will be much 
lighter and only blow about a pound per 
minute; thus allowing the operator to 
give better distribution in a given time. 
From the succes.s I had last year in kill¬ 
ing aphis and p.sylla with a coarse to¬ 
bacco dust and lime, I am of the opinion 
that a dust of the above proportions will 
be found most economical and efficient a.s 
a fungicide, and for all biting and suck¬ 
ing insects. I hope this year to try it on 
redhug and pear thrips, for the prelim¬ 
inary tests last year on sucking insects 
gave very promising results. 
A Nftw Si'k.wer. -The new spray 
rig is built for speed and economy of la¬ 
bor in applying liquid si)ray. A four- 
cylinder autoniohile type motor and a big 
pump deliver about 20 gallons j»er minute 
ar about 250 pounds pressure. The 
liquid is applied through one hraas rod 
about two feet long and one large noz¬ 
zle that will deliver either short or long 
range, fine or coarse spra.v. It will 
spray a tree about as fa.st as a tejim can 
walk, and i.s. I think, the finest example 
of spraying building we have yet seen. 
(Jrading AM) Backing .Aimm.es.— 
The apple packing law is, of course, al¬ 
ways up for disemssion, and in Canada, 
after 10 years, is still one of the chief 
subjects of debate. The objection in 
New York this year was that there were 
no specifications for ungraded, which 
brand covered most of the crop this .year. 
In Canada also the discu.ssion settles 
mostl.v on “What is a No. or un¬ 
graded. which at pre.sent may he any¬ 
thing with a skin and core as long ns 
the fac<“ truly represents the contents 
of the barrel. 'That one item, viz., 
“’riiiit the face truly reju’e.sents the con¬ 
tents.” is, in my opinion, the one iniiior- 
tant item in any such law, and it has 
been carefully omitted from the New 
York law. Very fi'w packers will put good 
apples under a poor face, and a face better 
than the remainder is an attempt at decej)- 
tion. ’riiere are no half a dozen ways about 
it. It is a fact. I lielieve apples can be 
graded into 1, 2. or A, B and “Un¬ 
graded,” and will sell on their merits. 
'I’in' only change I have observed that 
jiractical exi)erience has demanded is a 
bjiind known here as Co-operative No. .3, 
or large or Special No. .3, and which we 
in New York could call C Grade. It is 
made up of apples of good size, free 
from worms and with scab or defects of 
such a nature that its value for cooking 
is not imi)aired. E. w. m. 
Cultivating the Orchard 
(Continued from page .31.3) 
Ft.KTHER Cel'ITVAtion. —After the 
orchard is plowed comes the (piestion of 
what tools to use in the further cul¬ 
tivation. We go over the land once or 
twice with a peg-tooth harrow to level 
it and prevent othei' tools from tearing 
up sod.s. Later cultivation is done with 
a good wheel spring-tooth harrow. We 
have used an Acme weeder a little, but 
have not had very good results. Tliis 
may be due to faults of the tool or of 
the method of using it. When only a 
lew thistles, docks or milkweeds are 
present, the weeder doios very good work 
"■ ' siv^ncf' of the ground is loose 
and there is a solid bottom to work 
against. Many growers make great use 
of the disk harrow. 
Seeding Down. —We generally cul¬ 
tivate until about the second week in 
.Tuly before .seeding down. This gives a 
good growth to the foliage and new 
twigs and allows time enough for the 
growth of the cover crop to dry out the 
soil and check the growth of the fruit, 
so as to ju’oduce good color. In the 
ca.se of Bartlett pears, we carry on the 
cultivation a little longer to get as much 
growth of the fruit as po.ssible. In pear.s, 
size and quality gcT together. If we get 
heavy rains soon aft^r seeding down, we 
may get too great a growth of the ap¬ 
ples and poor color. In the case of red 
fruit it might he better to seed down 
e.-irlier if we could get the right .seed 
when needed. 
Cover Crop.s Compared. —Crimson 
clover is the great cover crop plant in 
this section. It gi-ow.s well and rnaki^s 
a good amount of material to turn under 
the next year. Medium and Mammoth 
Bed clover are also used. They make 
a much smaller growth in the Fall, but 
are_ better if plowing i.s to .be i)ut off 
until late in the Spring. Other cover 
crf)p.s used are buckwheat, rye. vetch. 
Examples of Sprouting Corn 
wheat. Cow-horn turnips, etc., to say 
nothing of the various wild gras.ses, pig¬ 
weeds, chickweed.s, etc. In one pear 
orchard chickweed was for years almost 
the only cover crop we could rai.se, but 
last Summer we seeded to rye and vetch, 
and seem to have checked the chickweed 
a little. Last Summer clover seed was 
very high, and we had a lot of buck¬ 
wheat on hand, so used that in most of 
the apple orchards. 3'hanks to a few 
tinndy rains we got a good crop of buck¬ 
wheat and the supply of moisture was 
reduced so that the fimit had good color, 
but there is a ((uestion whether, con¬ 
sidering reduction of the crop, injury to 
the droj) apple.s and exposure of the 
bare soil to Winter washing, it was real¬ 
ly a jirofitable cover crop. The areas 
seeded to rye and vetch went into Win¬ 
ter under about a six-inch sod, and 
looked better to us than the array of 
buckwheat stubs on the bare ground of 
the other orchards. Where there is a 
good sale for drop apFile.s, the buckwheat 
stubble may cause serious loss. 
Low Heading. —Some few of the 
growers in this .section have headed their 
trees low as advised by various “author¬ 
ities.” 3'hey are now trying various 
methods to overcome the added troubles 
of this way of growing trees. .Some of 
tlnmi, as in the picture (Fig. 115, page 
.313), will leave a strip that is not 
cullivated. This takes awa.v all the 
benefit in the way of scab ju'even- 
tion that might come from the plow¬ 
ing. These trees were originally head¬ 
ed about three feet high, but have now' 
been crowded uj) to about four feet. ’I’hey 
are now so large that le.ss than half the 
ground can be cultivated. So far as re¬ 
sults are concerned, they might about .as 
W’ell be under .sod-mulch culture. Other 
growers u.se variously modified spring- 
tooth or disk harrow'.s. One type is prac¬ 
tically a bar on wheels, long enough to 
accommodate all the teeth of an ordinary 
spring-tooth harrow' in a single row. 
The theory i.s that this will reach under 
the limbs and haave the team outside. 
It wall be interesting to .see what will 
hapiien in a few years more, when these 
low-headed trees begin to touch. It 
would seem that then the trees must be 
headed back and forced uj), or else the 
teams forced througli or over the tree.s. 
The disk haria)w is much used in 
orchard cultivation about here and this 
is also modified to force it under the 
tre(!s. I believe there is also an exten¬ 
sion weeder designed for the same pur¬ 
pose. As the trees get older it is in¬ 
creasingly harder to cultivate ar(.und 
them if they ai'e really low-headed' and 
so many growers have changed their 
phiD a little. 3’hey leave the trunk 
divided into several main limbs, but do 
not jictually head out the trees until 
about six or seven feet from the ground. 
On the other hand, at haist one grower 
of my ac<iuaintance had trees headed 
out moderately high (four to five feet) 
and has now allowed them to “umbrella 
down” to the ground, u-eked c. weed. 
Do You Grow 
Potatoes for Profit 
? 
100 % 
Perfect 
Planting 
Then, make every seed piece count, 
one in every siiace, and one only. 
You save at least a bushel jier acre, often much 
more. Fertilize in the row where the 
jilant food does the most good, .‘^pray 
often with a powerful fast-working 
spra.ver—one with pre.ssure enough to 
make a fine mist. Dig by machine 
quickly and safely and before the 
Steel ^ market sags. 
Potato Planters soon 
pay for themshlvcs 
even on a small acre¬ 
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extra yield secured 
through 100 per cent po¬ 
tato planting. Made in 
tw’o styles, with choice 
of furrow’ openers. 
B'iding and Walking 
Cultivators are thor¬ 
oughly adjustable to 
proper working of the 
potato crop at all 
stages, have high or 
low, pivot or fixed 
wheels, with dust proof 
grease cup hubs, par¬ 
allel motion of teeth 
when you shift, etc. 
Four, Six and Ten Row 
Sprayers. Our new 10 
Row Engine Sprayer 
covers 10 I'ows at 200 
lbs. pressure. Driven 
by 41/2 II. P. “New 
Way” Engine, quickly inter¬ 
changeable for Iron Age Engine 
Digger. Takes practical orchard 
attachment. 
Diaeers styles to suit your 
** ' conditions. Our Engine 
Potato Digger releases two horses 
for other work. You can stop the 
team and the engine will clear the 
machine. Has automatic clutch 
throwout—prevents breakage. 
Write for free booklets 
They fully describe our large line 
of machinery for farm, orcliard and 
garden, tlend a postal today. 
Bateman M’Fg Co. 
Box 2X, Crenloch, N. J. 
Makers also of Spraying Machinery 
Garden Tools, etc. 
moHm 
Potato Machines 
are made with just 
the.se points in view— 
made b.v' people who 
grow potatoes for jiro- 
fit—made with variety 
in style and equipment 
to meet conditions in 
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sections. Don’t buy 
without studying plant¬ 
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and digger—the selec¬ 
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or no profit. 
It costs no more to 
fertilize, cultivate 
and si)ray a perfect 
stand—and it pays 
big in yield and 
better growth. 
10 Row Engine Sprayer 
41/2 H. P. 
Air-Cooled 
We shall 
be very 
glad to an¬ 
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questions 
in regard 
t o potato 
growing or 
about the 
necessary 
machinery. 
No. 168-E. 
Engine Potato Digger 
Th i.s W arr anted 
lull sized hardwood and Steel 
Dumping Horse Cart 
$17. VS 
ireight prepaid to any Station 
East of Missiseippi River. 
Full particulars on appli¬ 
cation. 
HOBSON & CO. 
Box 47 Easton Pa. 
Delivered prices quoted on 
request. 
THE E. BIGLOW CO., New London, 0. 
FERTILIZERS 
-THAT- 
FERTILIZE 
Send for our descriptive Literature 
The Wilcox Fertilizer Company 
MYSTIC, CONN. 
Close. 
liven up every tree. 
Orchard tillage pays as big as field tillage—es¬ 
pecially where it is carried close Note the illustra¬ 
tions below see how the cultivation extends beyond 
the team and under the low limbs. Here you have 
the orchard tool of unsurpassed efficiency — the 
Also in Donblo, 
Triple nnd 
Quadruple Extension 
Extension Head 
Orchard Harrows 
Both Single and Double Action 
They have CtTrAWAvCCi.ARK) cutlery 
steel aisks./orpc'/ sharp. Close up 
into a regular harrow for fieldwork. 
Light in draft. The single action 
is reversible. If your dealer has 
not the (levnine Ci tawav 
•write tons d.recL. Be sure 
to write for our new free 
book, “The Soil and Its 
Tillage.” Qctycur 
coov now. 
__ 
The Cutaway Harrow Company 
Maker ofthe original CL A RKdhk harrows and plows 
3910 Main Street . . Higganum, Conn. 
Get in 
