1492 
7ht RURAL NEW.YORKER 
October 11, 1919 
Orchard Notes 
Peach Question from Pennsylvania 
I am thinking of planting a peach or¬ 
chard of two or three acres, and I want 
a little advice on the hardiest varieties. 
I wish to plant more Elberta than any 
other kind. Is the Hale or Million Dollar 
peach a reliable bearer? How much later 
than Elberta? Has it the same kind of 
a blossom as Elberta? Some very large 
peaches are shy bearers. Is it a free¬ 
stone? Some catalogues list Carman as 
free; it is an abomination to sell. People 
here want nothing to do with clings or 
semi-elings. Is the Belle of Georgia a 
large peach? Is it a freestone; also is it 
a hardy peach for this latitude, 15 miles 
north of Pittsburgh? Is the Champion 
a hardy peach and a free-stone? Would 
Elberta, Hale, Belle of Georgia and Cham¬ 
pion be about the best varieties to plant? 
Yellow peaches sell the best. What is the 
proper distance apart to plant peach 
trees? Should I buy wire screen, such 
as screen doors are made of. and wrap 
Lola instead of Carman. The Lola is a 
white freestone peach, ripening about a 
week after Carman. It is not any larger 
than Carman, but being a freestone would 
probably sell better in your market than 
Carman would. Lola is equal to Carman 
in hardiness, but the latter is a cling, or 
nearly so under many systems of culture 
and in many localities. 
Roadside Trees and Alfalfa 
The Elmira (X. Y.) Star-Gazette 
prints a letter from Highway Commis¬ 
sioner F. S. Greene, in which he advo¬ 
cates planting fruit and nut trees along 
the public highways. He would also seed 
Alfalfa on the shoulders of these roads: 
To maintain the shoulders which bor¬ 
der both sides of the pavements of our 
A Crop of Potatoes from reelings 
arouna peach i r™* end close at top, mak¬ 
ing the wire three or "our inches in 
diameter around the tr :'es|:‘ Would that 
keep out borers, as well as i eing a safety 
device against rabbits and mice? Do 
borers stay more than one year in a tree, 
or do they get out each year and become 
millers and lay a new brood the next 
year? C. G. 
Gibsonia, Pa. 
It is impossible to answer such ques¬ 
tions exactly from a distance. Some local 
peach gi’ower who knew the situation and 
soil could do much better. As a rule we 
think peach growing is not recommended 
commercially in that section. If it is 
started only the hardiest varieties are 
successful, excepting seasons where the 
conditions are very favorable. We under¬ 
stand that for that particular district 
fruit growers recommend such sorts as 
Greensboro, Carman, Champion and Cros¬ 
by, with a few Elbertas, but as you do 
not want cling peaches, you would prob¬ 
ably be fairly successful with Belle of 
Georgia, Elberta, and possibly Frances. 
As to the .T. II. Hale peach we have 
found it difficult to obtain reliable re¬ 
ports concerning it. From what has been 
received we conclude that it is much the 
same as Elberta, it being understood that 
the Dale is really a bud-sport from an 
Elberta tree. We conclude that the Hale 
is not as widely adapted to general cul¬ 
ture as Elberta is. It ripens at about 
the same season and has the same form 
of blossom. It is a freestone, but not as 
consistently productive as Elberta. In 
your locality we think that Belle of Geor¬ 
gia would not be above medium size in 
most seasons. It is a freestone and fairly 
hardy. In your section we suggest that 
the trees be planted 18 ft. apart. If the 
land is good, so that the trees will grow 
large, 18 by 20 ft. would be better. 
It is doubtful whether your wire screen 
will prove a full protection against the 
peach borer. The eggs might be laid on 
this wire screen and the young insects 
crawl through it to the tree. A thick 
whitewash containing lime and sulphur 
smeared on the trunks of the trees just 
before Winter, will keep off mice and rab¬ 
bits. The eggs from which the peach 
borer hatch are laid in .Tune or early July. 
The insect completes its growth in one 
year. The insects now growing will 
change to moths next Summer and lay 
another brood of eggs. If you have a 
good local market you might plant some 
roads now costs the State a considerable 
sum. These shoulders could be improved 
and made a source of revenue by being 
planted with Alfalfa. As is well known, 
it is not unusul to get three crops of 
Alfalfa during the season, and if the 
road shoulders, which are about the width 
of the blade of a mowing machine, were 
made to produce Alfalfa we could get 
more tons of good hay from them than the 
average person supposes. 
Probably 4,000 of our 8,000 miles of 
improved roads run through land suitable 
for the raising of Alfalfa. This would 
mean that we would have, counting both 
shoulders, a field of Alfalfa 8,000 miles 
long by three feet wide, equalling ap¬ 
proximately 5,000 acres. I believe that 
it would be at least 25 per cent cheaper 
to harvest Alfalfa from the shoulders of 
A Start in Live Stock 
our roads than it would be to get the 
same amount from an ordinary field. 
In addition to planting the shoulders 
of the roads I favor planting fruit ami 
nut-bearing trees along both sides of our 
highways. The fruit or nuts from these 
trees would be ripened at about the time 
we lay off our patrolmen or repair gangs 
and instead of laying these men off they 
could be used to harvest the crops, and 
with the number of trucks which the Gov¬ 
ernment is turning over to the Highway 
Department, these crops could be quickly 
and economical}’ transported to markets. 
The farmer who sent this clipping to 
us says: 
Here seems to be an easy way for the 
State to make some money, but I am 
afraid they will need their patrolmen to 
watch their trees if they gather any fruit 
and nuts. w. D. K. 
Judging from the way thieves take the 
fruit and nuts off the farms they would 
make short work of these roadside trees. 
The scheme looks to us like figuring that 
if one hen lays 250 eggs all you have to 
do is to keep 10,000 liens—and go to 
Europe on the proceeds. 
Cost of Growing Sweet Corn 
The Maine Sweet Corn Growers’ As¬ 
sociation gives ‘the following itemized 
statement of the cost of producing one 
acre of sweet corn : 
Barn dressing, 20 tons, one-third 
charged to corn crop. $20.00 
Commercial fertilizer, 000 lbs., 
at $59.50 per ton. 17.85 
Seed, 8 qts., at 80c. 2.40 
120 hours man labor, at 80c per 
hour. 30.00 
97 hours horse labor, at 15c per 
hour. 14.55 
Use of tools. 2 50 
Rent of land. 7.50 
Total cost. $100.80 
The price of “cut” corn (that is, corn 
cut from the cob) is given at five cents 
per pound. The average cut is about 
2.000 lbs. per acre—a price which just 
equals the cost of the crop. This leaves 
the fodder as profit. In many cases sweet 
corn growing is a side line with dairying 
—the stalks being used as silage. Other 
varieties of corn are more valuable for 
silage than the sweet corn, and it becomes 
quite a problem to decide whether the 
crop pays at present prices. 
Potatoes Grown from Peelings 
Mrs. W. Golden, of New York, sends 
us the picture reproduced at the left. 
She says: “This is the picture of my son, 
John W., and daughter, Cora B. Golden, 
gathering my potatoes, which 1 raised 
from potato peelings. I peeled the pota¬ 
toes and ate them, and planted the peel¬ 
ings. with good results.” 
The reporter was interviewing the aged 
colored man who had lived 110 years: 
“Have you ever seen Abraham Lincoln?” 
he asked. “No, sah,” replied the colored 
centenarian plus. “Ah used to ’membah 
seein’ Lincoln. But since I j’ined de Af¬ 
rican Methodist Church ah doan’ 'mem¬ 
ber seein’ him no iuoah.”—Credit Lost. 
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THE WORLDS WATCH OVER T1A\E 
