"Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
319 
RURALISMS 
Treatment of McIntosh Apples 
I believe you have in your orchard 
some McIntosh apples, and I am there¬ 
fore writing you in the hope that you will 
tell me how they behave under sod mulch, 
and how far apart they should he planted. 
Is it a big tree like Baldwin, or a little 
tree like Wealthy? j. R. s. 
Mwar thin ore, Pa. 
We have McIntosh growing in sod, un¬ 
der good cultivation and under partial 
cultivation. Our best fruit is in sod, hut 
this sod is natural grass land on a hill¬ 
side below hidden springs. Our trees 
stand 32 feet apart, but 40 would be bet¬ 
ter. With us McIntosh makes a large, 
thick-headed tree much bigger than Weal¬ 
thy. The latter is good for a filler, but 
McIntosh has too large a head, and should 
be used for permanent planting. 
Rot of Black Walnuts 
On my farm are two black walnut trees 
which bear an abundance of nuts every 
year, which are full of meat and seem 
perfect when they fall, but immediately 
the meat begins to shrink until there is 
nothing left but a shriveled black skin. 
One tree is about 60 years old and the 
other is 33 years old. They bore perfect 
nuts until a few years back. They are 
not sod-diound and are well fertilized. 
Can you tell me anything to do to make 
Ihe nut meat solid and good. M. J. n. 
Asbury Park, N. .1. 
If the trees had never made good nuts 
I would have concluded that it was sim¬ 
ply defective pollination. But you say 
they did bear perfect nuts formerly. Then 
there must be one of two causes. Either 
they are affected by some disease or the 
soil lacks some plant food that was for¬ 
merly in abundance. As to th ‘ disease, 
this will require laboratory study ml the 
use of the microscope. Send specimens of 
the imperfect nuts to your experiment sta¬ 
tion at New Brunswick. They have the 
laboratories, the microscopes and the men 
and they will investigate any apparent 
disease in plants for anyone in New Jer¬ 
sey. You say the trees are well fertilized. 
What has been used on them? If stable 
manure only, the trees may be helped by 
an application of acid phosphate or of 
bone meal. But by all means let the ex- | 
periment station decide if it is a disease 
that has caused the damage, and suggest 
a preventive. w. f. m asset. 
Home-qrc vn Onion Seed 
Last Spring 1 planted some onions, 
with the idea of raising my own seed from 
same, and was successful as far as get¬ 
ting four or f.ve dozen from same. 
Others claim my seed will not amount 
to much, as onions will grow but \\ • 11 not 
form bulbs. Is his a fact? Will you 
advise? The vai ieties are White (llobe 
and Red Wethersneld. ,t. a. k. 
Newburg, N. Y. 
Iloine-grown onion seed should be as 
good or better'than any other. Amateurs 
sometimes n ake a mistake in growing or 
harvesting their seed. Medium fertile 
upland will produce better seed aud more 
seed than rich ground or muck. Differ¬ 
ent varieties should be planted some dis¬ 
tance apart, so that they will not mix. 
If the seed is gathered just as soon as it 
turns black it may be light; it is better 
to wait until the seed first begins to 
shatter. The seed heads must be spread 
out to dry, otherwise they will quickly 
heat up and deteriorate. Newly cleared 
onion seed should be thoroughly dried 
before it is stored in bulk, because the 
seed contains considerable vegetable oil 
which would quickly become rancid iu 
confined, moist conditions. Usually onion 
seed can be purchased for less than it 
can be grown at home by the small 
grower. However, onion seed properly 
grown at home should give excellent re¬ 
sults. r. w. r>. 
Plugging a Maple Tree 
Can maple tree, tapped for sugar, be I 
stopped up so it will not continue to 
bleed if you want to get only i little sap 
aud then quit? F. n. c. 
Easiesf thing in the world. Just whit¬ 
tle a plug of dry, soft wood, shape it to ' 
tit the tap-hole, and drive it tightly in. I 
But why not let the sap flow till nature 
checks it? Answering the question more 1 
seriously, the sap is forced from the tree 
by a pressure of certain gases generated 
within the tree, and there is no way that 
the flow can be checked except by apply¬ 
ing a greater pressure at the exposed end 
of the pores than the expansion of t he 
gases is capable of exerting. This the 
plug does. c. o. o. 
\M 
LUBRICATION 
•VfK 
WARNING 
“The lack of proper oiling has 
destroyed more machinery 
and created more expensive 
repairs than any other cause 
5* 
T 1 
l HE above warning is printed in the official cat¬ 
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tractor engines. 
He then drives home the point that a “machine 
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No tractor, truck or automobile manufacturer or 
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him today. 
Havoline greases are compounded of 
Havoline Oil and pure, sweet tallow. 
Clean to handle and correct in body. 
Itibian &eftmng Company, New York 
3lnrorporatcb 
Producers and Refiners of Petroleum 
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