538 
Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
April  7,  .192'? 
or  four  years  old  is  most  easily  handled  and  re¬ 
covers  with  reasonable  rapidity  from  the  shock  of 
being  transplanted.  A  satisfactory  spacing  to  which 
to  set  them  out  is  six  feet  apart.  This  requires 
1,210,  if  set  at  exact  intervals,  to  the  acre.  Trees 
set  at  this  distance  will  develop  forest  conditions  in 
a  few  years,  and  then  produce  the  tall,  straight 
form,  with  the  lower  branches  pruned  off  naturally. 
A  closer  spacing  will  bring  about  these  conditions 
much  more  quickly,  but  the  added  expense  of  setting 
out.  over  300  extra  trees  is  scarcely  justified.  Trees 
set  much  further  apart  develop  a  form  with  many 
side  limbs  extending  well  down  to  the  ground.  These 
limbs  produce  knots  which  lower  the  value  of  the 
lumber.  When  trees  are  closely  planted  these  lower 
limbs  will  be  heavily  shaded  early  in  the  life  of  the 
tree,  so  that  they  will  die  and  later  drop  off. 
A  DESIRABLE  COMBINATION.— An  attractive 
woodlot,  and  one  which  would  eventually  have  con- 
sideratfle  value,  could  be  developed  by  planting  sev¬ 
eral  rows  of  Norway  spruce  around  the  boundaries, 
and  then  filling  the  interior  with  white  pine.  The 
spruce  will  act  as  a  windbreak  and  screen.  A  few 
of  the  trees  can  be  used  for  Christmas  trees,  and 
later  they  can  be  sold  for  paper  pulpwood  or  as  logs 
to  be  manufactured  into  box  lumber.  The  white  pine 
will  develop  into  a  profitable  timber  tree.  It  is  quite 
likely  that  some  volunteer  hardwoods  will  develop 
here  and  there  throughout  the  woodlot.  These  can 
be  encouraged  or  not,  as  the  owner  sees  fit. 
PLANTING.— The  trees  are  best  planted  in  the 
Spring,  although  Fall  planting  is  often  satisfactory. 
It  is  most  important  that  they  be  set  out  while  they 
are  in  their  resting  or  dormant  period.  It  is  always 
dangerous  to  try  to  plant  after  growth  has  started. 
If  the  trees  are  to  be  purchased  from  a  nursery, 
either  State  or  private,  the  order  should  be  sent  in 
as  early  as  possible,  and  by  all  means  not  later  than 
the  first  of  April.  Two  men  working  together  can  set 
800  to  1,200  trees  in  a  day.  One  man  usually  goes 
ahead  wih  a  heavy  hoe  or  mattock  and  digs  a  hole. 
Another  man  follows  with  a  pail  full  of  little  trees, 
and  plants  one  firmly  in  the  hole. 
POINTS  TO  OBSERVE. — A  few  precautions  are 
always  well  to  bear  in  mind  when  planting  trees : 
Direct  sunlight  should  be  allowed  to  come  in  con¬ 
tact  with  the  roots  as  little  as  possible. 
The  roots  should  always  be  kept  moist. 
The  little  trees  should  be  set  in  the  ground  at 
practically  the  same  depth  as  they  stood  when  grow¬ 
ing  in  the  nursery.  Each  tree  will  show  this  by  the 
color  of  the  bark  on  the  main  stem. 
The  roots  must’  not  be  allowed  to  turn  back  on 
themselves,  but  each  little  rootlet  to  run  out  to  its 
full  length  or  be  clipped  off. 
J  The  roots  should  be  packed  firmly  into  the  ground, 
so  that  all  the  rootlets  are  in  contact  with  the  soil, 
and  the  tree  can  lie  pulled  out  only  with  difficulty. 
c.  h.  c. 
June  10,  100  hills  Stow  ell’s  Evergreen  sweet  corn. 
July  1,  25  All  Season  cabbage  plants,  25  Early  Er¬ 
furt  dwarf  cauliflower,  100  hills  Stow  ell’s  Evergreen, 
200  White  Plume  celery  plants. 
July  20,  2  ozs.  Purple  Top  White  Globe  turnip,  % 
lb.  Golden  Wax  beans,  %  lb.  Stringless  green  beans, 
100  Big  Boston  lettuce  plants,  %  lb.  Bloomsdale 
spinach  seed. 
This  plan,  I  think,  will  give  .T.  K.  fresh  vegetables 
from  June  until  October.  wm.  perkins. 
A  Three  Horse  Hitch 
ON  i>age  127  you  print  a  diagram  of  a  three- 
horse  hitch.  Here  is  a  diagram  of  what  I  use 
altogether  on  three  horses,  and  I  use  them  almost 
a  user  of  three  horses  all  my  life.  I  consider  this 
much  more  humane  than  any  other  I  have  ever  used. 
Painesville,  6.  f.  b.  o. 
A  Succession  of  Garden  Vegetables 
I  have  bought  a  farm  and  intend  taking  boarders  this 
Summer.  Will  you  tell  me  how  many  rows  of  each 
vegetable  I  should  plant  and  how  long  each  row  should 
be,  so  as  to  have  fresh  vegetables  from  June  to  October 
for  15  people?  J-  K< 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
THIS  question  from  J.  lv.  brings  to  mind  a  prop¬ 
osition  I  wafl^up  against  when  I  had  charge  of 
the  “War  Gardens’’  in  Trenton  six  years  ago.  The 
Old  Ladies’  Home  had  a  beautiful  lawn  of  nearly  an 
acre  of  ground,  that  the  committee  in  charge  wanted 
me  to  plant  so  it  would  yield  fresh  vegetables  for 
the  40  inmates  for  the  season.  It  was  the  first  prop¬ 
osition  of  this  kind  I  had  ever  been  up  against,  but 
after  spending  a  few  hours  thinking  over  the  matter, 
1  tackled  the  job,  and  it  gave  such  complete  satisfac¬ 
tion  I  never  heard  one  word  of  complaint.  If  J.  K. 
will  follow  these  instructions  I  think  he  will  succeed 
with  his  undertaking: 
April  1,  or  as  soon  as  you  can  plow  ground,  plant 
100  Big  Boston  an^  100  New  York  lettuce  plants; 
two  ounces  Egyptian  beet  seed ;  one  quart  of  Hun¬ 
dredfold  peas;  four  quarts  of  onion  sets;  50  Early 
Wakefield  cabbage  plants;  one  bushel  Early  Cobbler 
potatoes;  one  ounce  Crimson  Globe  radish. 
April  25,  sow  one  quart  Hundredfold  peas;  %  lb. 
Golden  Wax  beans;  %  lb.  Stringless  green  beans; 
100  hills  Early  Mayflower  sweet  corn;  100  hills 
Howling  Mob,  100  hills  Stowell’s  Evergreen,  %  lb. 
Victoria  spinach. 
May  10,  sow  100  hills  Stowell’s  Evergreen  sweet 
corn,  one  quart  Hundredfold  peas;  set  12  Earliana 
tomato  plants,  12  Bonnie  Best,  24  Stone,  24  hills 
Hackensack  muskmelon,  6  hills  V  hite  Spine  cu¬ 
cumber. 
May  25.  *4  lb.  Wilson  Bush  Lima,  100  hills  Stow- 
ell's  Evergreen  sweet  corn,  12  New  York  Improved 
eggplants,  24  Ruby  King  peppers. 
Using  Nitrate  of  Soda 
Tell  us  the  best  way  to  use  nitrate  of  soda. 
s.  K.  B. 
IT  depends  somewhat  on  the  crop.  If  for  grain  or 
grass,  we  should  broadcast  the  nitrate  early  in 
the  Spring.  It  would  require  a  very  careful  hand 
to  broadcast  150  lbs.  of  nitrate  evenly  over  an  acre, 
for  it  would  not  he  unlike  broadcasting  and  seeding 
of  wheat.  In  order  to  get  an  even  distribution,  it  is 
better  to  increase  the  bulk  by  mixing  the  nitrate 
with  four  or  five  times  its  bulk  of  dry  earth,  or  any¬ 
thing  that  will  readily  mix  with  it.  Then  ,by  handl¬ 
ing  500  or  600  lhs.  to  the  acre,  a  more  even  distribu¬ 
tion  can  be  made.  In  some  cases  the  nitrate  is 
thoroughly  dissolved  in  water,  and  this  solution  is 
poured  over  a  pile  of  sifted  coal  ashes  until  it  is  all 
well  soaked.  Then,  when  the  ashes  are  dried  out, 
the  nitrate  will  be  found  well  mixed  through  the 
entire  mass,  and  this  can  be  broadcast  evenly  so  as 
to  spread  the  nitrate  as  desired.  For  use  on  garden 
plants  or  crops  like  strawberries,  potatoes  or  gar¬ 
den  truck,  we  find  it  better  to  scatter  the  nitrate 
along  the  rows,  not  closer  than  6  or  S  in.  from  the 
hill  or  drill.  The  nitrate  can  be  mixed  with  some 
filler,  as  would  he  the  ease  in  broadcasting,  and  we 
find  it  better  to  work  the  nitrate  properly  into  the 
soil  after  it  has  been  applied.  Some  gardeners  pre¬ 
fer  to  dissolve  the  nitrate  in  water  and  pour  this 
solution  along  the  rows. 
Results  from  using  Ipecac  for  Turkeys 
ON  page  484  I  saw  an  editorial  on  the  feeding  of 
ipecac  to  turkeys.  Four  years  ago  1  started 
raising  turkeys  for  hatching.  The  stock  was  Bronze, 
pureblood.  The  first  year  we  hatched  six,  saving 
one  tom  and  two  hens.  We  were  a  little  more  suc¬ 
cessful  the  second  year,  and  the  third  year  saw  your 
article  on  ipecac  as  a  cure  for  blackhead. 
Blackhead  broke  out  in  the  flock,  but  was  not  rec¬ 
ognized  at  first,  and  we  lost  a  few  from  it.  After 
performing  post-mortems  and  learning  that  the 
trouble  was  blackhead,  we  used  the  fluid  form  of 
ipecac  very  successfully,  curing  five  out  of  six  tur¬ 
keys.  The  dosage  was  10  drops  three  times  a  day  for 
three  days,  twice  a  day  for  three  days,  and  once  a 
day. 
Last  year  we  hatched  48  young  turkeys,  using  a 
tom  from  another  flock  which  had  none  of  the  blood 
of  ours  in  it.  Of  the  4S  we  hatched  we  raised  44, 
although  the  blackhead  appeared  and  we  lost  two 
with  it.  Probably  as  many  as  15  of  the  turkeys  had 
the  blackhead,  but  were  cured  by  giving  ipecac. 
Our  turkeys  a-re  hatched  under  hens,  put  out  In 
coops,  about  10  to  a  hen,  the  hen  being  kept  cooped  up, 
the  turkeys  allowed  to  run.  The  coops  are  moved 
every  day  and  cleaned.  They  are  allowed  to  run  this 
way  right  along,  but  when  they  are  too  big  for  the 
coops  we  have  a  separate  house  where  they  all  are 
di’iven  in  at  night  and  let  out  in  the  eai*ly  morning. 
Last  Spring  was  very  wet,  but  we  never  found 
that  the  dampness  affected  them  in  the  slightest. 
They  are  fed  entirely  on  grain— wheat,  cracked 
corn,  curdled  milk  and  what  insects  and  clover 
they  pick  from  a  two-acre  field.  ( We  have  never 
had  any  trouble  with  their  wandering  away,  as  they 
become  accustomed  to  staying  in  one  place. 
From  observation  it  seems  to  me  that  the  greatest 
danger  to  young  turkeys  is  the  eating  of  sour  food, 
especially  mash.  The  feed  is  never  allowed  to  stand 
out  in  the  sun.  The  grain  is  put  in  pans  and  when 
they  leave  it  in  the  morning  it  is  taken  away..  This 
is  done  at  every  feeding,  as  they  will  stand  in  the 
pans  and  dampen  the  grain,  which  then,  under  the 
sun’s  rays,  soui*s. 
Weak  leg,  in  ducks,  I  have  cured  by  small  doses 
of  castor  oil ;  one-half  a  teaspoonful  once  a  day  for 
three  days,  or  until  the  legs  become  normal. 
New  York.  e.  a.  worrall. 
Providence  Kind  to  Virginia 
IT  is  indeed  fortunate  that  Providence  has  been  so 
kind  to  south-side  Virginia,  for  in  many  ways 
her  human  inhabitants  of  past  generations  have 
been  very  unkind,  or  rather  unwise  in  their  treat¬ 
ment  of  her.  They  cleared  away  the  fox*est  and 
raised  crop  after  crop  of  corn  and  tobacco  until  the 
soil  all  washed  away,  and  the  hillsides  were  slashed 
with  gullies.  The  abandoned  fields  at  once  cov¬ 
eted  themselves  with  sedge  grass,  and  in  two  years 
little  pine  seedlings  sprang  up,  and  nature  had  began 
to  repair  the  damage  done  by  her  thoughtless  chil¬ 
dren.  In  the  last  10  years  many  a  man  has  sold  the 
Pine  timber  from  land  which  his  grandfather  had 
cleared  and  worn  out,  for  more  than  the  old  gentle¬ 
man  made  from  it  in  the  wearing-out  process.  We 
are  near  the  northern  limit  of  the  range  of  the  lob¬ 
lolly  ixine,  which  our  State  Forester  claims  is  the 
most  valuable  forest  tree  in  the  Eastern  United 
States.  We  also  have  the  Southern  yellow  pine, 
which  is  second  in  value  only  to  the  loblolly,  and 
which  has  a  range  extending  clear  across  the  State. 
Thanks  to  better  methods  of  fanning  our  fields 
are  no  longer  being  abandoned  to  sedge  grass  and 
pines,  but  the  three  big  L’s,  lime,  legumes  and  live 
stock,  are  keeping  up  and  increasing  fex-tility  and 
adding  to  the  general  prosperity.  Much  work  has 
been  done  in  the  last  few  yeai-s  at  reclaiming  worn- 
out.  and  gullied  lands.  We  find  the  hillside  terrace, 
or  ditch,  a  great  help  in  this  work.  In  fact,  I  may 
say  that  in  many  eases  the  hillside  ditch  is  the  first 
essential  to  the  reclamation  of  Worn-out  hill  land, 
because  it  is  the  only  means  we  have  of  holding 
such  land  from  washing  until  it  can  be  got  in  con¬ 
dition  to  hold  a  sod.  After  the  soil  is  built  up  to 
the  point  where  it  will  produce  a  fair  crop  of  any 
sod-forming  plant,  the  ditches  may  usually  be  done 
away  with,  and  deep  plowing  and  cover  crops  de¬ 
pended  upon  to  prevent  ei-osion.  We  have  laid  out 
many  miles  of  these  ditches  in  the  last  five  years, 
usually  giving  them  a  fall  of  6  in.  in  100  ft. 
The  only  way  we  have  found  to  utilize  these  old 
gullied  hillsides  so  as  to  build  up  the  soil  and  get 
an  income  frpm  it  at  the  same  time,  is  to  grow 
pastui’e  crops  for  hogs,  and  sell  pig  pork.  Our  pro¬ 
gram  is  about  as  follows:  First  a  good  system  of 
hillside  ditches.  Then  plow  deeply  in  Winter  or 
•  early  Spring.  By  deep  plowing  I  mean  eight  inches 
or  more.  About  May  10  plant  one-half  the  shift  in 
early  cow  peas  and  the  other  half  in  Mammoth 
Yellow  Soy  beans,  using  400  lbs.  of  acid  phosphate 
per  acre,  and  planting  inoculated  seed  in  30-in. 
rows.  Peas  will  be  ready  to  gi’aze  the  last  of  July, 
and  by  the  time  they  ai*e  finished  by  the  proper 
number  of  pigs,  the  beans  will  be  ready.  When  pigs 
go  on  the  beans,  disk  the  pea  vines  into  the  soil 
and  sow  Abrazzi  i-ye  and  Crimson  clover,  using  200 
or  300  lbs.  of  acid  phosphate  in  the  drill.  By  the 
time  the  pigs  have  finished  the  beans,  say  November 
I,  they  may  be  turned  on  the  rye  and  elovei-,  and  it 
will  furnish  grazing  all  Winter  and  early  Spring, 
and  the  bean  land  may  be  disked  and  sown  to 
Abruzzi  rye  and  Hairy  vetch.  This  ci*op  may  be 
gi-azed  all  through  the  Spring,  afid  until  June  10. 
I  have  seen  this  short  rotation  repeated  year  after 
yeai*,  the  crops  getting  heavier  each  year,  until  the 
soil  would  grow  maximum  yields  of  any  crop.  Of 
course,  in  the  start  the  yields  will  be  light,  and  the 
number  of  animals  grazed  will  have  to  be  in  pro¬ 
portion.  JOHN  B.  LEWIS. 
