1886 
lht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 18, 1920 
3^R3^E 
—1 
no ftrriiiits 
fCRUllZCD wan 
lUlfHATE Of AMHlWIA 
TOP-DRESSING TALK No. 3 
Rejuvenate Your Orchard 
UppeT photograph:— 
Average yield from un¬ 
fertilized tree, Ben 
Davis variety. 
Lower photograph :— 
Average yield from 
fertilized tree, Ben 
Davis variety. 
Test made by 
Everett Craig, 
Mt. Healthy, Ohio 
Fertilizer | Total 
Treatment Picked 
No Fertilizer] 6.75 bu 
Sulph. of Am¬ 
monia, 4 lbs. 
per tree.j 17.0 bu. 
Gain .|10.25bu. 
“Grass-mulch culture plus fertili¬ 
zation with quickly available ni¬ 
trogenous plant food gave an 
average gain of 22 barrels of 
apples, or a net cash gain of 
$71.48 per acre per year over.the 
tillage-cover-crop system without 
fertilization.” 
“Under the tillage-cover-crop sys¬ 
tem, fertilization with nitrogenous 
plant food gave a gain of 20.3 
barrels of apples, or a net cash 
gain of $50.96 per acre per year, 
over no fertilization under the 
same cultural conditions.” < Ohio 
Bulletin No. fjp, “Orchard Re¬ 
juvenation in Southeastern 
Ohio.”) 
ARCADIAN SULPHATE OF AMMONIA 
The proper time to apply a quickly 
available nitrogenous fertilizer is three 
weeks before the trees blossom. Arcadian 
Sulphate of Ammonia, applied over the 
feeding roots at the rate of 100 to 300 
pounds per acre, will invigorate your 
trees, stimulate fruit bud formation, in- 
IT rite Desk No. 10 for Bulletin No. 85, 
crease the amount of fruit set and enable 
the trees to carry and mature a larger 
crop of finer fruit. 
Demand Arcadian from your dealer. It 
is in better physical condition, it is 
quickly available and it doesn’t wash 
out of the soil. “A little goes farther.” 
“Fertilizing the Apple Orchard,” 
Medina, O. 
Berkeley, Cal. 
The 
Company 
Baltimore, Md. 
Atlanta, Ga. 
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT, NEW YORK 
JOIN THE 
Quicksteppers 
See Page 1896 
Representative Local Agents Wanted 
in unoccupied territory for New Jersey. New York 
and Central Pennsylvania. Communicate witli 
Godfrey Fertilizer & Chemical Co., Newark, N. d. 
Empty Barrels and Bags 
OF ALL KINDS FOR SALK 
HAY BAlSi-KI', Haverstraw, NY. 
TELL TOMORROW’S 
AGENTS WANTED 
White s Weather Air .1 
Prophet forecasts W CJHI16] 
the weather S — 
to 24 hours in advance. 
Not a toy but n 
scientifically 
constructed instru¬ 
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An Ideal Xmas Gift 
MadUdoublv interest! npr 
by the little figures of 
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the weather will be. Slxe 6 
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Postpaid to any ad- 
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ada on receipt of 
aremcvu. 
DAVID WHITE, Dept. 114, 419 E. Water Si., Milwaukee, Wis. 
DAIRY 
Leather PROOF 
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Kalamazoo Stove Co., Mfrs., Kalamazoo, Mich. 
Alsogetouroff er on Pa ivls. Roof ng.Crea m Separa¬ 
tors, Sewing Machines, CongoU um Floor Cover¬ 
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Oil Ueaters, Washing Machines, Phonographs, 
Sloves,Ranges,Furnaces and Kitchen Kabincts. 
•A Kalamazoo 
stored Direct to You 
Garden Notes From New England 
Protecting Young Trees. —It may bo 
that rabbits and mice will not bo as nu¬ 
merous in orchards this year as they were 
last, and that conditions will be less 
favorable for their operations. Still it 
will he the part of wisdom to give some 
sort of protection. With young trees 
costing from <>5 cents to $3 apiece, they 
are too valuable to lose if they can be 
saved at a cost of two or three cents 
each. Many plans have been offered and 
tried to keep the pests away. Some of 
them, including the use of axle grease, are 
to be avoided as doing more harm than 
good. Truth to tell, little faith can be 
placed in any of the repellents, like 
lime-sulphur, Bordeaux, grease and blood. 
It is far better to use a protector made 
of wire or wood veneer. Probably the 
best protectors are those made of gal¬ 
vanized wire’screening with quarter-inch 
mesh, and they have the merit of last¬ 
ing for years. This wire is so high, 
though, that it costs ten or twelve cents 
for each tree, which is rather too much. 
Wire mosquito netting wrapped around 
the trunk is fairly satisfactory. At the 
Amherst Agricultural College common 
building paper or sheathing has been 
used for several years with good results. 
No doubt mice could gnaw through the 
Building Pujicr Tree Prolector 
building paper if they tried, but for some 
reason they seldom make the attempt. 
A roll of building paper which costs 
about $3.75 will yield from 300 to 500 
protectors, making them cost about a cent 
each. The roll should be sawed into two 
lengths, each IS inches, and the pro¬ 
tectors cut from these short rolls, being 
made long enough to lap a little. They 
are tied in place with strings, all the 
grass being cleared away from the trees 
before tlie protectors are applied. It 
is important to have the paper pressed 
tightly to the ground so that the mice 
cannot work under it. Wood veneer 
costs a little more, but on the other hand 
will last two or three Winters, and it 
is very effective against both mice and 
rabbits. The sheets are wrapped around 
the trees and tied in the same way 
as the paper. 
1)oks Spraying Always Pay? — I had 
hardly writen the above when I picked 
up a report from Prof. Tompson, of the 
Boston Market Gardeners’ Field Station 
at Lexington, in which I found this ques¬ 
tion : “Does it pay to spray Irish Cob¬ 
blers for early blight?” Prof. Tompson 
then .goes on to say that he has always 
been an advocate of spraying whenever 
it could accomplish some good, but that 
for several years lie bad become a 
doubter as to the possibility of control¬ 
ling early blight on Cobblers with Bor¬ 
deaux or anything else; and his state¬ 
ments are worth considering in these days 
when both spraying materials and labor 
are costly. Here are his words: 
“In nine cases out of ten there is litle 
or no evidence that the crop has been 
increased by the use of Bordeaux mix¬ 
ture, although it has been essential to 
use arsenate of lead to control potato 
bugs. It is important to face any ques¬ 
tion fairly. If it doesn’t pay to spray 
early Irish Cobblers as the farmer does 
spray them, why do it? If it does pay, 
why neglect it? Let us get at the right 
and wrong of this proposition.” After 
all. though, it doesn’t pay to depend too 
much upon what the other fellow says or 
does. So far as is possible every grower 
should check up these matters on hie own 
place. E. I. FARRINGTON. 
Protecting Trees for Winter 
Last Winter I told how in desperation 
from a horde of hungry rabbits from over¬ 
flowed bottom lands starting to eat bark 
off my 10-year-old apple trees I used hog 
oil. just enough to moisten a burlap sack, 
and merely dampening bark of trees. This 
application kept rabbits off till I could 
get pests shot or trees protected, and 
while I am still scary of oil on trees, it 
has shown no bad results whatever, bark 
of trees looking sleek and green, and 
wounds made by rabbits mostly healed 
over. In this hog oil there may be some 
otherwise harmful agent removed; I no¬ 
tice it does not hurt hogs, only making 
them rub for a day or so. and some ap¬ 
ple trees they rubbed against looked as 
though one side was painted, and bark 
there also is green and fresh. Still, I 
would not advise use of oil. but only as 
an emergency remedy, and as light as 
possible. 
Some trees of Grimes Golden next 
woods about 10 years ago, 13 in. in di¬ 
ameter, were completely peeled by rab¬ 
bits 15 in. high. I at once, as soon as 
snow left, mounded them up with earth 
above all wounds, and did not lose a tree. 
The next Fall, thinking best to level 
mounds, I went at it with a hoe, but on 
finding mounds full of rootlets. I left 
them, and those are as thrifty as any trees 
today. 
Last Winter field mice girdled about 20 
trees Completely under ground. I stamped 
fresh dirt around roots, then mounded 
trees up about 12 iu.. and with a wet 
Summer only lost one tree. None of the 
trees was over 4 in. in diameter. This 
Fall, in October, I scraped a space clean 
all around trees about 1<S in. with a sharp 
hoe. and have just finished mounding up 
trees several inches with tine. loose dirt, 
and have not seen a trace of mice injury. 
T will almost level down this mound in 
Spring, thus also helping to keep weeds 
and grass down around trunk. With this 
mound in our short Winters and usually 
light snow, a space close to trunk will 
usually blow bare, and mice will not work 
in open. There is no doubt that the fine 
mesh galvanized tree protector. 20 in. 
high, is best protector and cheapest, even 
if costly, but ought to go down to roots 
and a space kept clean around trunk 12 
in. at least. Wooden veneers do well 
(and are cheap) for both rabbits and 
mice, hut must be taken off in Spring and 
trunks washed where aphis show. 
I used both liquid and dry lime-sul¬ 
phur and found them equally effective, 
the dry being most convenient: but do not 
put it directly in barrel. Dissolve 12 lbs. 
in a few gallons of hot water: it dissolves 
instantly if well stirred. If a tree is 
well soaked all over from both sides as 
wind suits, all loose bark being scraped 
off on trunk as high as you can reach, 
you can eliminate the scale. Spray in 
Fall if infested, as T believe main damage 
comes in Winter while tree vitality is low. 
Kentucky. allan beid. 
Fern in Sieam-heated Dwelling 
Do you consider the Boston fern the 
best variety for a steam-heated apart¬ 
ment, and if so. how should it be cared 
for? I seem never to have any success 
with palms or ferns, but I understand the 
Boston fern will thrive even under very 
unfavorable conditions. s. c. A. 
New York. 
The Boston fern is really the best va¬ 
riety for a steam-heated apartment, as it 
will thrive under rather unfavorable con¬ 
dition. but it is not steam heat alone that 
is responsible for lack of success with 
house plants. Many greenhouses are 
steam-heated, and many home gardeners 
succeed with house plants in steam-heated 
houses. Lack of sunlight, too high a 
temperature, imperfect ventilation and 
injudicious watering are common causes 
of poor success with house plants. 
To keep any ferns in a healthy con¬ 
dition extremes in temperature should he 
avo ded. An excessively dry atmosphere 
is favorable to the growth of red spider, 
which maybe controlled by syringing with 
cold water. Do not let the pot stand In 
a jardiniere containing stagnant water. 
Do not let the soil bake hard and dry. but 
do not give frequent slight waterings that 
will tend to make the soil sour and pasty. 
Natural drying, followed by a good 
watering is required. If mealy bug or 
thrips appear, use tobacco extract, diluted 
in accordance with directions. Scale, a 
common pest, may be rubbed off with a 
little plug of cotton on a toothpick dipped 
in soapsuds or tobacco extract. The 
typical Boston fern seems to stand ad¬ 
verse conditions better than most of its 
later variations, which include beautiful 
forms with cut and crested leaves. 
