The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Sod Method for Orange iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiw 
Groves 
I notice that the usual method of 
handling: old apple orchards in the North 
is to plow and cultivate and then lay by 
with a cover crop, to be plowed under 
the following Spring. That is the almost 
universal practice in old orange groves; 
cultivate to the rainy season, say the 
middle of June, and then let the weeds 
and grass grow. A better way would be 
to have the grove set to beggarweed, only 
one cannot control the nitrogen so well, 
and the tendency of the leguminous plants 
bringing in quantities of orange-sucking 
insects. I notice that every time we 
plow in the Winter we turn up a regular 
sod of orange roots. Is this the case 
in old apple orchards? Some very few 
practice no cultivation and claim they 
get more and better fruit, and with less 
fertilizer; just mow the grass a few times 
and before it goes to seed. Of course it 
is necessary to use a chemical fertilizer. 
I often wonder if this latter is not the 
better way to handle a grove, for it 
seems to me a wrong thing to do—to cut 
off all the surface roots and then spend 
a year growing them again. The advo¬ 
cates of plowing say “drive the roots 
down to moist soil.” but when they do 
that they drive the roots from where 
they want to go, to the rich top soil. 
There is a great boom in orange grow¬ 
ing on, in consequence of the great prices 
received this season. Two men are set¬ 
ting out 10-acre groves next to mine, and 
these people know not a thing about the 
business. There is no use in saying any¬ 
thing to them. They know more about 
the business after being here a few weeks 
than orange growers with 30 years of 
experience behind them, and then they 
think that all Southern people are way- 
backs and “shiftless,” and practically say 
to us, “We’ll show you what Northern 
pep and enterprise is.” I know people 
who put 75 to 100 pounds of fertilizer, 
and high grade at that, on a tree, say 
5.000 pounds per acre. That would come 
easy if the crop was a sure thing, but, 
let’s see. This year we got big prices. 
Last year the oranges froze and most 
growers got nothing; the year before they 
froze, with the same result. But then, 
everyone has his ups and down, and 
orange growing, if properly conducted, is 
.an attractive and profitable business. 
Florida. frank iioward. 
We have seen orange groves in the 
South where no cultivation was done. 
They did not look as well as the culti¬ 
vated groves, and there was great dan¬ 
ger from fire This last trouble is .the 
great objection we have found to this 
sod mulch method for apples. For 
peaches we are convinced that clean 
cultivation is needed in order to pro¬ 
duce first-class crops. With apples 
there is no question about the fact that 
superior fruit can be grown under sod 
-—on the right kind of land. We have 
three orchards in sod this year, and 
the fruit is fine. The soil, however, is 
natural grass land—moist and rather 
heavy, producing Red-top and Alsike 
clover well. On lighter land, where 
grass does not grow so well, we find 
it better to give some cultivation. The 
great danger in all sod orchards comes 
from fire. If it once breaks into such 
an orchard in a dry time nothing can 
stop it, and it will ruin most of the 
trees. Where a strip is kept plowed 
around the orchard the fire can usually 
be kept out. Plowing tears up the 
roots, but if the soil is moist a new 
set will be quickly formed. There is 
no question about the stimulating ef¬ 
fect of cultivation, but in many cases 
we think it is overdone. 
Henhouse Watering Trough 
One of the annoyances in profitable 
poultry management has been to main¬ 
tain a clean and unfailing supply of 
water for the flock at all times. Pans 
on the floor or ground are soon con¬ 
taminated by the litter or overturned, 
and the flock left many hours without 
water. A simple arrangement, giving 
a sure supply, is brought about by 
means of a suspended platform, raised 
about two feet from the floor. On this 
rests a galvanized vertical-sided pan- 
0x25 inches. Even in this raised posi¬ 
tion the water will soon be soiled un¬ 
less precautions are taken to keep the 
poultry off the rim of the pan. This 
is done by suspending a circular-shaped 
board just so as to clear their heads 
when standing around the pan, but 
which gives them a head bump when 
they attempt to hop onto the rim, pre- 
Automobiles at the New Jersey Potato Meeting. Fig. 338 
(See Next Page) 
The Potato Meeting Under Wag. Fig. 339. (See Next Page) 
Grading and Weighing Wayne County , N. Y., Wool. Fig. 340 
(See Page 1164) 
Farmers ,,’aiting Their Turn to Unload Wool. Fig. 341 
(See Page 1164) 
T- — 
1151 
venting them getting a foothold. The 
hen’s curiosity is such that unless the 
bumping board is added they will 
almost invariably climb up on the pan 
before getting back to their litter. 
In this poultry-house the building is 
partitioned into divisions, 20x20 feet, 
thus preventing crowding of the flock 
by dividing it. Each compartment has 
a drinking pan. The pans are emptied 
by chutes leading outside. a. h. p. 
Alsike Clover Coming In 
Western New York never had such 
a crop of hay as now. Though it has 
been terribly dry since May the crops 
have grown well, and the yield is heavy 
in almost everything. The value of 
Alsike clover is now coming to be 
appreciated more than ever before. 
When it first came around nobody 
thought it would ever make anything 
more than an ordinary pasture crop, 
as it was too short to stand up for hay 
in the place of either Red clover or real 
grasses, but it was found that what it 
lacked in height it made up in “bot¬ 
tom," covering the ground as no other’ 
crop does. Besides, it cares little for 
dry weather and now appears to be as 
full a crop as if the weather had been 
wet. I am inclined to think it is going 
to come in rather than Alfalfa, for it 
becomes acclimated so much more 
readily. Say what one may of the 
merits of Alfalfa, it is not fully 
adapted to this part of the country, 
for the native grasses try to form a 
sod along with it, and that is not the 
way it grows. Book at it as it is to 
be found in Nebraska, where it is not 
disturbed by sod-forming grasses nor 
weeds, and it is perfectly at home, just 
as Alsike clover is here. Alsike is not 
only yielding well, and is of high qual¬ 
ity. but it takes possession of the 
ground, and is such a weed fighter 
that it is going to be very valuable in 
that way. It is even so persistent that 
there is danger of its becoming a weed 
in cultivated grounds. Alfalfa needs 
inoculation, but it appears that the 
Alsike nodules are of the same sort as 
other clover. The farmer who raises 
Alsike wisely will have good hay and 
plenty of it every year, and he will 
have few weeds. The only complaint 
I hear of it is that it carries much 
moisture and dries up slow as hay, but 
that might be expected. j. w. c. 
The Rome Beauty Apple 
The Ohio State Horticultural Society 
will erect a monument to the famous 
Rome Beauty apple at Proctorsville, 
Ohio. The bulletin of the society thus 
tells the story of the apple: 
One hunched and two years ago a 
small boy with faith in nature planted 
an apple tree on the bank of the Ohio 
River in Lawrence County. This tree 
was one in which the graft had failed to 
grow and a sprout came up from below 
the point of union. The boy’s father, 
thinking it worthless, threw it to him 
saying, “Here’s a Democrat, you may 
have that.” The sprout became the 
original tree of the Rome Beauty variety. 
Thus a merest chance, an accident, gave 
to Ohio the tree which was to bring it 
its greatest fame as an apple-producing 
State. Today the Rome Beauty is the 
most important and most widely planted 
apple variety in the State. It has doubt¬ 
less done more for Southern Ohio’s apple- 
growing industry than has any other 
variety. Lawrence County, while grow¬ 
ing many other varieties, must rest its 
fame on the Rome Beauty. 
In appreciation of the many excellent 
qualities of the apple and of the great in¬ 
fluence it has had in Ohio's fruit-growing 
industry, the Ohio State Horticultural So¬ 
ciety will place a stone and tablet as a 
memorial. If there was no other instance, 
this one would prove that fruit gi-owers are 
able to mix sentiment with their work, to 
love their industry aud to show it to the 
world. The original Rome Beauty tree 
stood on the bank of the Ohio River about 
two miles from Proctorville. It disappeared 
into the river in a landslide some years 
ago. The memorial will be placed in an 
appropriate spot where it can _be seen 
and appreciated. The original orchard is 
off the main traveled roads. The memorial 
site is perhaps a little more than a quar¬ 
ter of a mile from the spot where grew 
the original tree. 
