1100 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Juno 19, 1920 
Garden Notes From New England 
More Food Wanted. —Now England is 
beginning to worry about next season's 
supply of food. Governor Coolidge has 
issued a proclamation urging the making 
of home gardens everywhere. The Mas¬ 
sachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture 
has also issued a statement saying that 
such gardens were greatly needed. In 
some places the Granges are actively en¬ 
gaged in furthering home garden projects, 
and the editors of all the New England 
papers are falling into line by telling their 
readers to cultivate every bit of ground 
that is available. In the past few weeks 
amateurs have been especially active in 
making backyard potato patches. That 
is to say. they have done this if they could 
get the seed potatoes. The fact is, how¬ 
ever. that there has been a remarkable 
scarcity, owing partly to the difficulty of 
moving freight. Probably the majority 
of amateurs have had to depend on what¬ 
ever they could get in the way of seed 
potatoes' at the grocery stores, without 
regard to varieties or antecedents. Some 
of them have even planted the red-skinned 
potatoes from Bermuda, which have been 
sold in many of the stores. It is prob¬ 
lematical what returns they will get from 
this seed, of course. By the way. these 
red potatoes have not been welcomed 
warmly by housewives because of the un¬ 
usually long time required to cook them. 
It takes at least twice as long, and in 
some cases longer to boil these potatoes 
sufficiently for table use. When it comes 
to baking them, results are still more un¬ 
satisfactory. 
Seed Potatoes Scarce. —The scarcity 
of seed potatoes has affected farmers as 
well as small garden-makers. Not long 
ago I happened to be in one of the largest 
seed stores in Boston, when a farmer 
came in and asked for GO bushels of po¬ 
tatoes, but was told that lie could have 
only two, and was not encouraged to ex¬ 
pect any more later. I know of an¬ 
other big seed firm which has been hold¬ 
ing orders for nearly two months, trying 
to get the potatoes with which to fill 
them. All things considered, therefore, 
the garden-maker who plants all the seed 
potatoes he can get this year is probably 
■wise. 
TriE Amateur Gardener.— Last year 
and the year before there was more or 
less complaint from market gardeners be¬ 
cause amateurs were encouraged to make 
large gardens. They figured that in this 
way the sale of market-garden stuff was 
cut down. In view of the fact, though, 
that market gardeners are having diffi¬ 
culty in growing their usual acreage, 
backyard gardeners can hardly be blamed 
if they do everything they can to make 
sure of an adequate supply of food next 
year. High prices for vegetables, as well 
as the threatened shortage, have had their 
share in promoting the garden movement. 
For weeks at a time the past Spring let¬ 
tuce has been selling at 25 cents a head, 
which has seemed like an exorbitant 
price. The demand for lettuce was not 
confined to local quarters, however, but 
because of railroad tie-ups was shipped 
to New York. It hasn’t been easy to 
move any perishable products, even so far 
as New York, by railroad, but on at least 
one occasion a big motor truck was heaped 
with boxes "of lettuce and sent over the 
road. 
Other Scarce Seeds. —Incidentally I 
found that farmers were having difficulty 
in getting, other seeds besides potatoes. 
The farmer already mentioned also 
wanted to place an order for 40 bushels 
of oats, but his order was refused. Corn 
he was able to get in quantities, with the 
exception of one or two varieties, Long¬ 
fellow being especially short. 
Canning Prospects. —With the scar¬ 
city of sugar it is probable that less can¬ 
ning of fruit will be done than usual, 
but the cans - should not be left empty. 
Experience during the past few years has 
shown that canned vegetables of certain 
kinds prove especially appetizing when 
Winter comes. This applies especially to 
young carrots. Many people who are not 
at all fond of mature carrots stored in 
the cellar find the little carrots canned 
highly palatable. When small they have 
a freshness and flavor which is,lacking in 
the older (vegetables. This is true as re¬ 
gards beets, although beets are always 
more popular than carrots. Detroit Dark 
Red beets, pulled and canned in the mid¬ 
dle of the Summer, are delicious eating 
when Winter comes. Another vegetable 
which ought to be canned very freely is 
New Zealand spinach. 
Orchard Notes. —Apparently there is 
going to be a fairly good crop of apples 
throughout New England. In many sec¬ 
tions,' at least, the trees have blossomed 
freely. Pears promise a very large crop, 
and many plum trees have been full of 
bloom. Of course, there will be but few 
peaches. There has been no such wide¬ 
spread slanting of fruit trees this season 
as in some years. Work of this sort is 
being curtailed, both by reason of high- 
priced labor and the high cost of the trees. 
Still, considerable planting has been done, 
especially in Middlesex County, where 
the County Bureau has been active in 
promoting orchard work, and particularly 
in setting out of McIntosh Reds. 
Dandelions. —There has been a great 
demand for dandelions this year, a fact 
which was evident to everybody who rode 
out through the country, where dandelion 
diggers were to be found on all sides. 
Market gardeners who cultivated this veg¬ 
etable have done a thriving business, al¬ 
though embarrassed by the difficulty in 
getting labor. Dandelions must be picked 
over before being marketed, and this work 
has been done largely by Italian women. 
There is much less of this labor available 
than in former years, and wages are much 
higher, of course, but hopes are expressed 
that with the largely increased immigra¬ 
tion from the south of Europe which is 
being reported, more women will accept 
work in the fields. 
Intensive Culture.- —It sometimes 
happens that inexperienced garden-mak¬ 
ers who have read about the benefits of 
intensive culture try doubling up crops, 
without having used sufficient fertilizer to 
feed them. In rich ground,, though, close 
cropping or intercropping is entirely feas¬ 
ible. Not long ago I ran across a little 
garden where a certain amount of truck 
is raised for market, and found an admir¬ 
able illustration of this point, lettuce and 
chives being planted in alternate rows. 
As the ground was kept well cultivated, 
the two crops growing together made a 
very pretty picture. Chives, by the way, 
have a steady sale in the Boston market. 
The plants are often put up in strawberry 
baskets, so that they can be taken home 
and set out again. They can be grown 
in a sunny window in the kitchen in Win¬ 
ter, as well as outdoors in the Summer. 
Apple Varieties in Lancaster Co., Pa. 
My trouble is this: I know of several 
good varieties that do excellently in our 
locality, which is very good for apples if 
care is taken to select the soil suitable 
for them, among them Stayman’s Wine- 
sap and Grimes Golden, Stayman being 
the better of the two. I wish to plant a 
larger number than just one or two 
varieties, say from three to six sorts. 
Will you secure opinions from apple 
growers in York, Adams tand Lancaster 
counties, Pa., and their experience with 
the following varieties: Delicious, King 
David, Rome Beauty, McIntosh, Senator, 
Wealthy and Paragon? Are the varieties 
named productive, early bearing, with 
good salable market qualities, and do well 
in this locality? We will use Stayman 
for a comparison to judge them by, as I 
am acquainted with it, and not with the 
others. My idea is to use the best for box 
packing. Has anyone planted or seen 
growing the new Golden Delicious? J. 
York, Pa. 
We have bearing trees of Delicious and 
King David apples, though not on a com¬ 
mercial scale. Both varieties were plant¬ 
ed the first year they were introduced. 
Delicious is a very strong grower, but not 
an early bearer, one of our trees bearing 
the first crop of about five bushels the 
Summer of 1918, and about the same 
quantity the past Summer. Two other 
trees of larger growth produced possibly 
a bushel each last Summer, and only a 
few scattered apples previously. We pre¬ 
fer this apple for eating to any other we 
have, and would not want to. be without 
it, though whether or not it will pay 
commercially we do not know. 
King David is a very free bearer, and 
will produce apples on very small trees, 
and do it every year with us. The color 
is high, the size small, and the quality, 
while acid, is of a very pleasing flavor. 
We find it one of the best cooking apples 
we have. Quite a few of them have 
watery cores, and we cannot keep them 
longer than December 15, even in a stor¬ 
age cellar that at the present writing. 
April 12, contains Stayman, Baldwin and 
Delicious in perfect condition. This apple 
will need rich soil and considerable thin¬ 
ning if the fruit is to attain a fair size. 
Stayman is the best commercial apple we 
grow. Grimes Golden is exceptionally 
fine, but with us will not keep very late in 
the Fall. L. B. Huber of this county pre¬ 
fers Stayman to any of the others, with 
Paragon a close second. Paragon being a 
better keeper with him than the Stayman. 
He uses Wealthy as a filler, as it is an 
early bearer, and is not a long-lived tree. 
McIntosh trees are not far enough on to 
see just what they will do here, though 
our Farm Bureau Agent, Mr. Bucher, 
would not recommend extensive planting 
of McIntosh in this county. 
Golden Delicious is being planted in 
several places in small lots, but no one 
can tell what it will do here for some 
years. The Stayman is the general favor¬ 
ite in this section. E. J. W. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. 
Sugar Grove Wanted 
As you little “big” paper has been of 
such'greah aid to me in the past, I again 
come to you, asking if you could possibly 
put me in touch with someone having a 
sugar-maple grove of about 50 to 100 
acres for sale, especially in New Jersey 
or Eastern Pennsylvania, or, if this is 
not possible, where are they located (near 
what towns or rivers) ? I have taken 
quite an interest in maple-sugar making, 
and if I could obtain a grove large enough 
and reasonable in price I would make 
a try at. it. I am a farmer and do not 
build air castles or brood over get-rich- 
quiek schemes, so do not think this only 
a little fancy of mine. A. D. 
Jamesburg, N. J. 
A tract of 100 acres should carry ap¬ 
proximately 10.000 maple trees, and to 
operate it as a sugar bush would require 
15 men during the sugar season. I should 
judge it to be rather an extensive opera¬ 
tion for a new beginner, although there 
are in this State many orchards of greater 
size. I know of none, however, that are 
for sale, but an inquiry made at. the office 
of the Commissioner of Agriculture in 
any State in which it is desired to locate 
would bring them to the front. It is 
possible that such a tract might be found 
among the mountains of Pennsylvania, 
but it is doubtful if there are 10,000 
sugar maple trees in the whole State of 
New Jersey. There are extensive tracts 
of forest land in the mountains of North 
Carolina in which the maple is a promi¬ 
nent factor. North Carolina takes a low 
rank among the maple-sugar making 
States, and the methods of manufacture 
are of the very crudest and most wasteful 
in all respects. Nevertheless, the average 
yield per tree is within three-tenths of a 
pound of equalling the average yield per 
tree throughout the United States, while 
the price per pound on the local market 
is away above the average, so that there 
are possibilities for a profitable extension 
of the maple-sugar industry even in 
North Carolina. 
There are vast areas in Canada where 
tracts of this size can be bought at a 
very reasonable figure. If the inquirer 
wishes to entertain a proposition of this 
kind, John IT. Grimm of Montreal will 
be glad to put him in touch with parties 
having such lands. c. o. ormshee. 
Cedar Posts in a Car 
Can you tell me how many cedar fence 
posts of the following lengths can be put 
in an average-sized box car? 
(5 
ft. 
— ■ - —c 
long, 
i - —— 
3 
to 
4 1 /a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
G 
ft. 
long, 
4 Ms 
to 
GVa 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
7 
ft. 
long, 
3 
to 
4y, 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
7 
ft. 
long, 
4Vj 
3 
to 
6i/a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
8 
ft. 
long, 
to 
4Ua 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
8 
ft. 
long, 
4% 
to 
(ii/. 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
9 
ft. 
long, 
o 
o 
to 
4 i/a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
9 
ft. 
long, 
4% 
to 
6Va 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
10 
ft. 
long, 
O 
t> 
to 
4Va 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
10 
ft. 
long, 
iy> 
to 
(»V> 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
11 
ft. 
long, 
3 
to 
4i/a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
11 
ft. 
long, 
4 % 
to 
(>i/, 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
12 
ft. 
long, 
O 
O 
to 
4i/a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
12 
ft. 
long, 
4U> 
to 
Gi/a 
in. 
at 
small 
end 
New City 
, N. 
Y. 
O. o. 
S. 
In the first place, there is no such 
thing as an average-sized box car. Per¬ 
haps there was at one time, but at pres¬ 
ent I understand that when a shipper 
calls for a box car he is unable to know 
beforehand whether or not that box car 
will be 40 feet long or 3(5 feet long or 
32 feet long. If there are any other 
lengths on the road, he may get one of 
those. I have, therefore, prepared fig¬ 
ures for box cars of three sizes, but as¬ 
sume that each one of them has an end 
dimension 8 ft. high by 8 ft. G in. wide. 
It is unlikely that the fence posts can be 
loaded to the very top of the car, and for 
that reason I have assumed that the 
posts will be piled 7 ft. high. Further¬ 
more, I have assumed that the posts are 
reasonably straight, and that the actual 
wood material will occupy about 90 per 
cent of the total space allowed. The 
following table is, therefore, one that may 
be considered as a maximum capacity for 
the several sizes of cars: 
Maximum number of cedar fence posts 
which can be loaded into railway box cars. 
End dimensions of all cars are assumed 
at 8 ft. x 8% ft. 
t - 
-Capacity- 
\ 
T/gth 
Diame- 
32-ft. 
30-ft. 
40 ft. 
Averngo 
of 
ters of 
box car. box car. 
box ear. 
No. of 
post small end. 
No. of 
No. of 
No. of 
posts 
in ft. 
inches. 
posts. 
posts. 
posts. 
per oar. 
6 
3 x4% 
1.905 
2,358 
2,554 
2,292 
0 
4%x6% 
1,000 
1.200 
1.300 
1,167 
7 
3 x4% 
1,768 
1.965 
2,101 
1.903 
7 
4%x0% 
900 
1.000 
1,100 
1.000 
8 
3 x4% 
1,092 
1.228 
1,305 
1.225 
8 
41^x6% 
612 
688 
705 
688 
9 
3 x4% 
S19 
1,092 
1,092 
1.001 
9 
414 x 0 % ■ 
459 
012 
012 
604 
10 
3 x4% 
COO 
600 
800 
607 
10 
4%xG% 
303 
363 
484 
493 
11 
3 x4% 
400 
000 
000 
096 
11 
4%x6% 
242 
363 
soe 
sec 
12 
3 x4% 
300 
459 
459 
44C 
12 
4%xC% 
19G 
294 
294 
act 
c. n. c. 
Fertilizer for Irises 
What fertilizer is best to use on the 
various kinds of Irises to get a good 
growth and strong plants? E. M. n. 
Valley View, Pa. 
Rank fresh manure should never be 
used with Irises of any kind. Bone meal 
and lime are both desirable. Old, well- 
rotted cow manure, applied as a mulch 
in the Fall, seems especially desirable 
for the Japanese kinds, and gives good 
results with other varieties. Some grow¬ 
ers like to incorporate old plaster if ob¬ 
tainable, when preparing ground for 
Irises, though the lime in plaster is but 
slowly available. Bone meal is always 
safe, and gives good results, but it is 
wiser to avoid manure, even if well-rotted, 
after growth starts in the Spring. 
Weather Changes and the Moon 
Having onc-e been a professional 
“weather man,” I can assure moon fore¬ 
casters that a careful comparison of 
weather records over a long period of 
time, and the moon’s phases during the 
same time, reveals no relation between 
the moon’s phases and the various “de¬ 
partments” of the weather. The United 
States Weather Bureau has been alert to 
discover anything which bears on 
weather forecasting, and I believe they 
claim less than 90 per cent accuracy. 
There is a popular notion that a full 
moon in some way is responsible for 
frosts, duo I suppose, to the fact that a 
bright moonlight night is usually a cool 
one. When the atmosphere is clear heat 
from the earth radiates rapidly into 
space, just as the moonlight comes in 
from without. Really the effect of the 
moon on temperature is negligible. 
Areas of high and low barometric pres¬ 
sure. with their corresponding types of 
weather, pass across the continent with 
some regularity, and at such a velocity 
that there would be more than a 50 per 
cent chance that a given kind of weather 
would repeat itself at the corresponding 
phase the next month. 
It was my good fortune once to be an 
assistant to the late Prof. Cleveland 
Abbe, then editor of the Monthly Weather 
Review, published by the United States 
Weather Bureau. Prof. Abbe was a 
scientist and mathematician of high order, 
and disliked anything that savored of 
superstition or the “rule of thumb” as 
much as he delighted in equations and 
formulae. So when some weather tra¬ 
dition came up, such, for instance, as the 
Indian tradition that the cold of Winter 
is proportional to the rains of Summer, 
Prof. Abbe would set. me to compiling 
data from old records to test the truth of 
the matter. And as there are several 
continuous and reliable records in this 
country going back more than a hundred 
years, the relations may be assumed to 
be very nearly correct. In every such 
instance we found the evidence to be 
about 50-50 for and against. 
Many weather proverbs are based on 
cause and effect, and are fairly reliable, 
for a few days in advance, but I have 
heard of no forecaster or method of fore¬ 
casting for long periods in advance which 
coin. .show greater accuracy than one 
could get by consulting a table of aver¬ 
ages. As a matter of fact, weather fore¬ 
casting, scientific or otherwise, is largely 
guesswork. If it were not, forecasters 
ought to make 100 per cent, just as as¬ 
tronomers do in predicting eclipses. It 
is my opinion, however, that the causes 
that govern the weather are so complex, 
so widely distributed and so numerous, 
that it will never be humanly possible to 
forecast with absolute accuracy. 
But. after all, what is the use of argu¬ 
ing with a “moon man”? In the first 
place, I cannot prove that he is wrong, 
and. secondly. I cannot offer anything 
which is assuredly better. And. really, 
it does not matter seriously which of us 
is right. CHESTER L. MILLS. 
New York. 
Elderly Gentleman (wishing to rent 
rooml : “Yes, this room pleases me, but 
I notice there’s some sort of a manufac¬ 
turing plant in the rear facing the ulley; 
doesn’t it make considerable 
Landlady: “Oh, no, sir: not 
that’s a felt slipper 
Lost. 
noise?” 
at. all; 
factory.”—Credit 
