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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 19, 1924 
Tall Rye From Connecticut 
SURPRISING GROWTH.—As a specimen of 
what Connecticut soil produces, I am sending 
by express a few stalks of rye that measure S% ft. 
in length. This was grown by Charles Amidon, 
Tolland Co.. Conn., on a small three-cornered strip 
(1 ground adjoining the main road. No manure or 
commercial fertilizer of any kind was used, but 
opposite the middle of the piece of ground there 
was a big electric light. Now we all know how elec¬ 
tric lights make hens lay more eggs, and here is a 
sample of what it does to rye. Judging by this, all 
a man would have to do to raise long rye straw, 
would he to run a few electric lights in liis rye field. 
Rut the above is only a joke. What really produced 
this tall rye was the bottom of a mill pond. Mr. 
Amidon has a machine shop, the power being sup¬ 
plied by a small mill pond. Cleaning out this pond 
he had the stuff put on this piece of ground and 
plowed in. Nothing else whatever was used to fer¬ 
tilize it. This tall rye is a wonderful illustration 
of the value of the material that lies on the bottom 
of our ponds and waterways. 
ALLUVIAL FERTILITY.—The brook which runs 
into this mill pond takes its rise in a swampy spot 
on what used to be my farm, then it runs across two 
other farms and into Amidon's pond. The whole 
distance is not over one mile. This rye is an illus¬ 
tration of what the brook picks up. or receives in 
traveling that mile. What a tremendous amount of 
fertility our great, rivers must carry into the sea! 
This rye is green and still growing. It may add a 
foot or two more to its height before it ripens. I 
have no doubt but that there will be stalks 10 ft. 
high when it is ripe. 
It occurs to me that the electric light flooding 
that strip of rye with light all night may actually 
l ave some influence on this uncommon growth. It 
may not he entirely a “joke,” as Mr. Amidon in¬ 
tended when he mentioned it to me. I leave that 
for others to decide. 
CONNECTICUT LUMBERING.—Mr. Amidon is 
actively engaged in lumbering, keeping a gang of 
men and a saw mill going in the woods all the time, 
and has for 25 years. I was greatly surprised when 
he told me that in the 25 years there were some of 
the wood lots from which he had cut the timber 
three times, and quite a number w T here he had cut 
ir twice. It must be 25 years ago that a farmer 
said to me. “In three years there won’t be a stick 
ol timber in our town.” But they have been cutting 
it every year since and are still cutting it. Mr. 
Amidon says that the chestnut blight has a singular 
influence on the growth of the tree. After the blight 
attacks it the growth is greatly increased, the growth 
“ring,” which marks the yearly increase in diameter 
of the tree, being in some cases nearly an inch, in¬ 
stead of the usual one-fourth of an inch. It is as 
though the growth of the limbs w r as stopped and all 
the energies of the tree were centered on growth of 
the trunk. Who can suggest why this would be? 
Years ago I read of a party of Germans who had 
emigrated to Texas. A long dry season caused 
them to worry about the climate; so they cut down 
a big tree, and there they had an unimpeachable 
record of the climate for 50 years, the wide growths 
showing the wet seasons and the narrow ones the 
dry seasons, with their relative frequency. Mr. 
Amidon thinks that the reign of the chestnut blight 
is nearly over as he finds many of the young chest¬ 
nut sprouts are not affected by it. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Starting in the Bee Business 
I have a boy who has become greatly interested in 
honey bees since a swarm came our way last week and 
took up their abode in north side of the house, between 
the plaster and clapboarding. Ilis plan is to start in 
business with thin swarm of bees, but how and when 
to remove them is much of a conundrum to him, and 
me, too. in fact, for that is one experience I have never 
indulged in. I suggested that he wait until next June 
and get the swarm from the increase, but instinct has 
led the bees to select a Summer abode on the north 
side of the house, where old Boreas would play havoc 
with them next Winter, so if they are to be perpetuated 
it will be necessary to change their quarters before 
cold weather. w. B. 
HIS boy has doubtless heard or read something 
about bees that has roused his interest, and if 
he follows this up he will find the study of bees one 
of the most interesting and fascinating subjects in 
till agriculture, or that is the way it seems to me. I 
have raised all sorts of domestic animals, and pro- 
duced nearly all crops and fruit that will mature 
in this climate, and have done quite a lot of study¬ 
ing on all these things, and to my way of thinking 
the bees outstrip them all in the pleasure and profit 
they give, and it seems to me a wise father who will 
help his boy to a start, if he is so inclined. I have 
known of cases where bees have been removed from 
inaccessible places by putting a bee-escape (procur¬ 
able at supply houses) over the entrance, so when 
they left their home they would enter the back of a 
hive supplied with combs, and as the bees accumu¬ 
lated in this hive, either give them a queen or a card 
of brood to raise a queen. The queen will not leave 
the brood nest in a case like this. It seems to me 
the best way would be to pry off the siding and cut 
out the combs and fasten them in the frames, but 
Connecticut Rye 8y 2 Feet Tall. Fig. 413. 
perhaps this would cause more injury to the house 
than the bees are worth. (They can be bought here 
in movable frame hives for around $7, sometimes 
less.) Anyway, give the boy his chance. 
They can be transferred any time honey is coming 
in freely, the sooner the better. With us we like to 
have our bees in their permanent home early in 
August. If these bees were transferred promptly 
they might yet have time to build up strong enough 
to get some honey from Fall flowers. If empty combs 
could be secured from some nearby beeman it will 
be found a wonderful help in building up a colony, 
as in transferring there is not usually enough good 
brood comb to fill a 10-frame Langstroth hive. (We 
recommend this hive because it is the standard.) If 
I should attempt to go far into the details of the 
care and management of bees it would take several 
entire copies of The R. N.-Y., so I shall advise se¬ 
curing “A. B. C. and X. Y. /. in Beekeeping,” by A. 
I. Root, but there are a few points which I feel 
sure do not receive enough emphasis. First, the 
queen; no one who has worked with bees can have 
failed to notice what a wonderful difference there 
is in the amount of honey gathered by different col¬ 
onies. Also their gentleness in handling and inclina¬ 
tion to swarm. We are inclined to make our in¬ 
crease from the colonies that swarm the most. This 
is a great mistake; we should raise our queens from 
the colonies that stay at home and work, as they are 
almost sure to be the best honey gatherers. 
The best queen we ever had produced more than 
2*4 times as much honey as the average for all our 
yards. Her bees were gentle to handle, and, best of 
all, they never offered to swarm. In my opinion 
there is greater opportunity for progress in bee¬ 
keeping through proper selection of our breeding 
stock than in any other management. No really 
workable way has yet been found to control the 
mating of the queen, as is done with most of our 
domestic animals, but it is our experience that the 
daughters and even the great grand-daughters of a 
superior queen will inherit some good qualities. 
Another thing sadly neglected many times is Win¬ 
ter stores. Thousands of colonies starve every Win¬ 
ter, and usually it is our best colonies, as these usu¬ 
ally raise so much brood that there is not room 
enough in the brood chamber for Winter stores, so 
when the honey is removed in the Fall they are left 
destitute. Be sure every colony has 30 lbs. on Oct. 
i5 for this latitude (Southern New York). Also 
see every colony is heavily packed for Winter; the 
more packing the better. g. w. b. 
Woodchuck for a Company Dinner 
NSWERING J. B. S., who on page 955 wrote he 
could hardly imagine an American of ordinary 
tastes eating woodchuck, I would like very much to 
have the writer visit us and find out just how good 
a fresh-dressed woodchuck can be when prepared in 
the right manner. I would be willing to wager he 
could not tell it from very superior chicken. 
Through this section of the country (Western 
Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio) woodchuck is 
thought of as extremely desirable; in fact, as a “com- 
pany” dinner. As Mr. Patterson, market master, 
said, it would be hard to find a cleaner animal than 
the woodchuck, and no doubt J. B. S. has eaten 
much flesh from pigs and chickens whose habits 
cannot be compared with those of this, from which 
he apparently shrinks in disgust. 
As for the social side and the Americanism of the 
case, we have been in this country from its earliest 
settlement, and before that were English, the family 
in this country descending from the younger son of 
an English earl, so that our tastes cannot be laid to 
any European peasant influence. All the farmers 
around here are the good English-American stock, 
and all eat woodchuck whenever possible to shoot 
one. I urge J. B. S. to visit us and try woodchuck. 
Ohio. H. D. THAYER. 
R. N.-Y.—The discussion over this subject is 
rather curious. Those who object to eating wood¬ 
chuck usually confess that they never tasted the 
meat. Their objection seems based entirely upon 
the appearance of the animal and the general opin¬ 
ion among country people that it is unfit. It is true 
that the woodchuck is as clean in its habits as a rab¬ 
bit—much cleaner than a pig or a chicken. The 
favorite way of cooking a woodchuck is to parboil 
the meat and then fry it. Our opinion is that if 
some of the objectors could eat a piece of woodchuck 
(well cooked ) without knowing what it was, they 
would give it great praise. 
Peach Leaf-Curl 
My peach orchard of 150 trees is all right excepting 
that the leaves are all curled up and some are red and 
others are yellow. My next door neighbor says they 
have the yellows. Is there any hope for them? 
Leominster, Mass. L. H. w. 
OUR trees are probably affected with peach leaf- 
curl, a fungous trouble which causes the leaves 
to curl and pucker, with yellowish and reddish 
swellings. Later on the leaves affected may drop. 
The disease known as “yellows” is quite different 
and is not easily controlled except by digging out 
diseased trees. The peach leaf-curl, on the other 
hand, is held in check easily by spraying with lime- 
sulphur. 1 to 15, early in the Spring while the trees 
are still dormant. There is nothing that you can do 
now, but another year you should not fail to spray 
your peach trees. H - B - T - 
