506 
•tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 22, 1924 
Orange Trees Under Glass 
There are a few orange trees in my 
charge which had some oranges last year, 
but not to any great extent. Now they 
are losing leaves and new growth getting 
on; evidently will bloom. Will you ad- 
vise me what temperature they need at 
night and what spraying materials to use 
in order to preserve blossoms and have 
the trees bear? I have considerable 
trouble to control scale. I use kerosene 
emulsion and water spray, but not with 
good success. A - A - 
Windsor, Conn. 
The chief trouble in growing the orange 
as a window plant or in a greenhouse is 
a tendency to have it growing the entire 
year, and to keep it too wet at the roots. 
After the fruiting season, in late Au¬ 
tumn or early Winter, the plant should 
be allowed to rest for a time, so as to 
harden the wood before the next blooming 
season. It may then be kept at a tem¬ 
perature of 40 to 50 degrees, and fairly 
dry at the roots. Water should not be 
withheld entirely, as it is not desirable io 
cause it to drop its leaves. After one or 
two months of partial rest, the plant may 
be brought into a sunny place, with a 
slightly higher temperature, and given 
water and liquid manure. It should 
bloom in Summer. It will do best if the 
roots are somewhat confined. When an 
orange tree becomes 5 or 6 ft. high, it 
does not need a container larger than a 
small tub or half barrel, and will not need 
repotting for several years. Some of the 
top soil may be removed from time to 
time and fresh soil added, and liquid ma¬ 
nure may be given. The. temperature 
congenial to the orange is relatively low; 
that is, about the same as for carnations 
and Chrysanthemums. 
Oranges indoors are often troubled by 
scale and mealy bug. Kerosene emulsion 
is good, also whale oil soap solution ; l 1 /^ 
oz. soap to a gallon of water. Sponging 
will probably give better results than 
spraying; go over the infested foliage 
with a bit of sponge tied to a stick, dip¬ 
ping it in the soap solution. It is slow 
and tiresome work, but is often necessary 
with palms, oranges and Similar orna¬ 
mentals in a conservatory. You can dis¬ 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, MARCH 22. 1924 
FARM TOPICS 
The Truth About Lancaster’s Markets .... 499 
A Useful Hay Rack . 500 
Cow Peas and Oats . . 511 
Hope Farm Notes .514, 515 
Compost Value of Wood Ashes .515 
Hog: Manure on Cabbage .. 515 
Using Chemicals for Grass . 517 
LIVE STOCK AND DAIRY 
A Talk About Dogs ... 501 
Figures of a Dairy Community . 520 
A Change from Cows to Sheep . 522 
Prevention of Milk Fever . 523 
Crop for Summer and Fall Pasture ... 523 
Butter With Strong Flavor . 523 
THE HENYARD 
The Goose Business . 508 
New York State Egg-laying Contest . 528 
Whey for Poultry .528 
Sand Blast Machine for Eggs . 530 
Peat Litter for Poultry; Diarrhoea . 530 
More Egg-eating Hens . 530 
Bergen Co., N. J. Egg Contest ... 532 
Egg-eating Hens . 532 
Building Henhouse . 533 
Poultry house With Half-monitor Roof .... 533 
HORTICULTURE 
The Brutal Truth About Aster Growing.499 
Belated Lessons From the Apple Show . 500 
More Eastern Grown Melons .501, 502 
A Discussion of Freestone Plum Varieties 
502, 503 
Waiting for the Orchard . 503 
Homemade Lime-sulphur . 505 
White Grubs . 505 
Tobacco Dust for Cucumber Beetles . 505 
Harvesting Small Fruits on Shares . 505 
Hints for Apple Usage . 509 
Collar Rot of Grimes . 509 
Cost of Fruit Delivered . 509 
Trimming a Yucca . 515 
A Fruit Farmer’s Figures . 517 
WOMAN AND HOME 
From Day to Day . 518 
Tennessee Notes . 518 
Gingersnaps and Bolivars ... -. 518 
The Rural Patterns . 518 
Prune Conserve or Marmalade . 518 
The Settle Table . 519 
MISCELLANEOUS 
The Upper Connecticut Valley . 500 
Neuritis . 507 
Tumors on Knee and "Ankle . 507 
Events of the Week . 508 
Notes from the Ox-team Express .510, 511 
Removing Manure from Leased Farm. 513 
Fraud in Cow Trade . 513 
Delayed Settlement of Estate ... 513 
Parliamentary Rules . 513 
Inheritance from Joint Deed . 513 
Editorials . 516 
“The Real School Problem” ... 517 
Should Boys Be Sent to College . 517 
“Your Boy and a Training Camp” . 517 
Picturing the Pennsylvania Sky . 526 
It Pays to be Honest . 526 
A Tax on Gasoline . 526 
Publisher’s Desk . 534 
This Neglected Orchard Made a Marked Response to Fertiliser 
to bloom after the first year or two we 
are suspicious of this cause. When suck¬ 
ers appear from the stock of a budded 
rose they should always be cut out, or 
they will choke the budded variety. We 
cannot think of any other reason why a 
well-cared for Jacqueminot should fail 
to bloom. 
Marketing Watercress 
IIow is watercress put up for the mar¬ 
ket? How large are the bunches, and 
how is it shipped? B. F. o. 
Spring Grove, Ya. 
Watercress is tied up in bunches about 
the size of a teacup, and retails at 10 
cents per bunch. It is shipped in baskets, 
and when the weather is warm, cracked 
ice is put in the baskets with it. Almost 
any commission merchant in New York 
or Philadelphia will handle it, but a bet¬ 
ter price can be obtained by contracting 
with large hotels to take a certain num¬ 
ber of bunches each week, and ship direct 
to them. w . 
Poor Stand of Cauliflower 
What is the effect of muslin frames 
placed over a seedbed? My problem is 
this: Each season I raise cauliflower and 
Brussels sprouts plants in a seedbed. I. 
my neighbors as well, have frequently 
difficulty in getting a good stand. I feel 
sure that this is not due to poor seed, for 
I have tested seed before planting, but to 
do not think there will be any trouble 
with the seed not germinating. 
If late cauliflower plants are wanted, 
prepare plot 10 days before sowing seed, 
which is May 15 in this locality. If no 
rain comes after preparing plot before 
sowing seed, wet soil thoroughly. As soon 
as dry enough, rake with steel rake, and 
after sowing seed firm ground with roller 
or board. If weather continues dry, mus¬ 
lin frames are fine to shade ground from 
the hot sun and will keep the ground from 
drying out. They should be removed at 
night. Wetting the ground after the seed 
is planted will make it harden unless 
protected by boards or muslin frames. 
WM. PERKINS. 
Keeping Mushrooms 
Would you tell me how to keep mush¬ 
rooms? In the Summer I have a chance 
to pick quite a few. but if I keep them 
over night they seem to get wormy. The 
mushrooms I pick grow in the meadows. 
Peace Dale, R. I. mrs. a. w. 
There is only one method of preserving 
mushrooms in a nearly natural state that 
I am familiar with, and that is canning. 
I do not .even know how this is done, but 
the process should not be different from 
any other vegetable. Experiment by 
placing mushrooms in cans and boiling 
for a period similar to corn, beans, to¬ 
matoes. should produce enough steriliza- 
All Sorts 
Values of Different Trees for Firewood 
and Fence Posts 
Will white birch, cut in 6-ft. lengths 
and stacked in the woods this Winter, be 
in good condition for next Winter’s fire¬ 
wood? Some say it will rot. Must it be 
cut before the sap starts? How about 
black birch and poplar? Will you give a 
list of the comparative fuel values of the 
following, both for us'e during the Winter 
cut, and for one year’s seasoning? Hick¬ 
ory, white oak, pin oak, rock oak, red 
oak, black birch, white bb’ch, poplar 
(tulip), American hornbeam, silver 
maple, butternut. IIow T do the above oaks 
compare with chestnut for fence posts? 
Dover, N. J. c. ii. w. 
The following heat values ”f cordwood 
are based on a report published by the 
U. S. Forest Products Laboratory of Mad¬ 
ison, Wis., under date of 1010. These 
values are based on the assumption that 
7,350 B.t.u.s. are available per pound of 
dry wood wtih flue gases at 30 degrees F. 
Available heat units 
jier cord of 90 solid 
eu. ft. in millions 
,-B. t. u.-, 
Species Ah' dry 
Hickory (shagbark) .... 2o.4 23.8 
White oak . 23.0 22.4 
Rock oak. 22.4 20.7 
Red oak . 21.7 10.6 
Black birch. 23.3 21.0 
White birch . 18.2 16. 
Ilqrnbeam . 24.7 23.0 
Silver maple. 17.9 16.4 
Butternut . 14.3 1—2 
I regret that the laboratory has not 
made a report for tulip poplar. 
The laboratory has also made a table of 
the durability of the different woods 
which would answer tlie fence post ques¬ 
tion. Chestnut is listed with a durability 
of 100-120; white oak, 100; pin oak, 40- 
55; rock oak, 70-90; red oak, 40-55. 
This does not refer to number of years, 
but simply shows a comparative value. 
Fuel wood which is stacked for one year 
will indeed be in very good condition for 
fuel wood. The greatest amount of dry¬ 
ing occurs during the Spring and Sum¬ 
mer months. If the wood is cut in time 
to allow the Spring winds to get at it it 
will dry out very rapidly. 
RAYMOND J. HOYLE. 
lodge the most obstinate old scale with 
the sponge, while the liard-shelled adult 
is impervious to most sprays. 
Jacqueminot Rose Fails to Bear 
I have a rose bush, a Jacqueminot 
which we planted six years ago. After 
the first year I moved it out in the front 
yard. The first year it had one rose on 
it but has not bloomed since. It is grow¬ 
ing quite well. Could you tell me what 
the trouble is? I put manure around it 
every Fall; the yard faces the west. Do 
you think it will bear roses again? 
Montgomery Co., N. Y. K. G. K. ’ 
There is a possibility that this is a 
budded rose which has died out, and that 
the present growth is from the stock. The 
manetti often used for stock always has 
seven leaflets, sometimes nine, and is 
easily recognized. It has a small single 
flower, purplish pink in color. It flowers 
very rarely in our gardens, and when we 
hear of a strong-growing rose that fails 
conditions of heat and moisture in the 
seedbed. Often a replanting of seed from 
same source gives a good stand with dif¬ 
ferent weather conditions. I believe the 
failure to germinate is as often due to 
lack of heat as of moisture. I thought I 
would try to control both conditions as 
far as practical. I thought muslin would 
be cheaper than glass, but I do not know 
if it would raise the soil temperature 
much. As I plant quite a large bed, a 
hotbed would be quite an expense. 
Highland, N. Y, E. c. J. 
If early cauliflower plants are wanted, 
frames covered with muslin will not give 
heat enough unless a pit is dug and hot 
manure to the depth of 18 in. is trampled 
down and 4 in. of fine soil on top. Good 
hardy cauliflower plants for early Spring 
planting are raised by sowing seed in Oc¬ 
tober and transplanting under glass in 
cold frame in November. It is not neces¬ 
sary for E. C. J. to have a large hotbed 
to grow a large quantity of plants, as he 
says he will need, for 1,000 plants can be 
grown to each 3x6 sash. If the hot ma¬ 
nure is thoroughly wet after being 
trampled in the bed, and the top soil is 
good and moist before sowing the seed, I 
tion that would keep them for some time. 
Canned mushrooms are a staple article in 
all first-class grocery stores. E. j. w. 
.4 Cultivated Orchard Which Showed B 
Fert 
lit Little Return from an A pplication of 
ilizer 
Driving a Well 
I would like to drive a pipe for water. 
Would you give me some advice on how 
to find water and drive a pipe? I rent 
this farm, but there is no well on it, and 
owner will not let me dig a well; he 
said if I can find water he would let me 
drive a pipe. e. f. b. 
Hamburg, N. Y. 
The driven well can be used to advant¬ 
age only under certain conditions; the 
ground must be free from large stones and 
water must be within a reasonable dis¬ 
tance from the surface. As usually driven 
a point containing openings protected by 
fine brass screening is screwed to the end 
of a pipe and the pipe is then driven into 
the ground, the top of the pipe being 
protected with a cap to prevent the 
threads being injured by the maul or 
other device used for driving. When this 
length is driven in another is screwed to 
the top. and the driving continued until 
a supply of water is reached. 
As to location, this type of well is 
used under conditions where a supply of 
water exists in a broad sheet in a layer 
of gravel or sand beneath the surface, 
making it possible to place it almost any¬ 
where in a section of the country where 
such wells can be used. Study the con¬ 
ditions under which your neighbors are 
using such wells, and locate yours ac¬ 
cordingly. 
When it is thought that water has been 
reached couple a pump to the top of the 
pipe and try the well. If water is se¬ 
cured pump slowly but steadily to de¬ 
velop the flow. Rapid pumping may 
clog the point with sand. If no water 
is secured the pipe can be driven deeper 
and tested again. It is possible to drive 
the’ point through the water-carrying 
bed of sand, and if this occurs it may be 
necessary to pull the pipe back to this 
point. I would suggest that you write 
to your Congressman for “Water Supply 
Paper No. 041.” This carries a great 
deal of information about the construc¬ 
tion of driven wells and may be had for 
the asking. R. H. S. 
"I suppose we think we are smarter 
than the Chinese.” “Aren’t we?” “The 
Chinese are not saying a word. They are 
getting wheat and pork in exchange for 
Mali Jong sets.”—Louisville Courier- 
Journal. 
CONTENTS 
