918 
Vht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
July  7,  1923 
Practical 
A  PAYING  CHOP. — The  growing  of  horseradish  is 
generally  a  good  paying  crop  when  one  consid¬ 
ers  the  work  attached  to  same.  There  is  very  little 
more  work  than  growing  a  crop  of  potatoes,  and  the 
remuneration  is  far  greater.  The  sets  or  cuttings 
can  be  procured  from  any  grower.  These  cuttings 
are  put  up  in  bundles  when  the  radish  is  prepared 
for  market  in  the  Fall,  and  stored  in  a  cold  cellar 
with  a  little  sand  scattered  over  them  to  keep  them 
from  drying  up. 
PLANTING.  —  As  soon  as  the  ground  is  dry 
enough  to  plow  in  the  Spring  the  cuttings  should  be 
planted.  Drag  and  harrow  until  it  is  in  a  fine 
condition,  then  furrow  rows  3  ft.  apart  and  about  6 
in.  deep,  so  that  when  the  cutting  is  placed  in  the 
furrow  the  top  of  cutting  will  be  covered  about  3 
in.  deep.  Set  cuttings  12  in.  apart  in  furrow,  cover 
them  with  riding  cultivator;  in  about  10  days  drag 
with  plank  which  will  destroy  weed  seed  that  has 
germinated. 
CULTIVATING  AND  FEEDING.  —  After  the 
plants  are  up  2  or  3  in.,  run  through  both  ways 
with  weeder.  When  about  4  in.  high  begin  to  throw 
a  little  dirt  up  to  them,  which  will  cover  the  small 
weeds  and  save  a  lot  of  hoeing.  A  moist,  sandy 
soil  is  an  ideal  field  to  grow  the  radish.  Some  have 
an  idea  that  a  wet  or  soggy  soil  is  the  best,  but  this 
is  a  wrong  impression,  as  it  will  not  grow  large  in 
that  kind  of  soil.  A  fertilizer  running  4-8-6  used  at 
the  rate  of  one-half  ton  per  acre  is  about  right;  use 
one-fourtli  ton  after  the  cuttings  are  set,  spreading 
it  in  the  row  by  hand,  and  then  use  the  other  one- 
fourtli  ton  about  the  first  of  July,  applying  it  the 
same  as  the  first.  If  one  can  get  good  rotted  ma¬ 
nure,  and  spread  broadcast,  before  plowing,  it  is 
better  than  fertilizer,  as  it  will  hold  the  moisture 
better. 
HARVESTING. — With  good  cultivation  the  crop 
Should  all  be  ready  for  market  by  November.  It  is 
then  dug  or  plowed  out,  and  the  small  roots  cut  off 
for  next  Spring's  planting.  When  cutting  these 
roots  for  Spring  sets,  cut  the  top  of  the  set  square 
off  and  the  bottom  slanting,  so  that  when  the  sets 
are  planted  in  the  Spring  the  top  of  the  root  can 
easily  be  distinguished  from  the  bottom.  Put  roots 
into  a  large  rotary  tub  run  by  a  small  gas  engine, 
or  electricity,  and  wash  clean ;  then  put  in  bags  or 
barrels  and  ship  to  market. 
YIELD  AND  RETURNS.— From  3,000  to  4,000  lbs. 
is  considered  a  good  yield  per  acre.  The  price  does 
not  vary  much ;  it  runs  about  G  or  7  cents  per  lb.,  so 
as  a  rule,  following  the  directions  here  given,  a  crop 
should  average  at  least  $1,500  a  year  per  acre. 
There  are  growers  not  far  from  this  locality  who  are 
averaging  $2,000  per  acre.  The  cost  for  manure,  cut¬ 
tings  and  labor  should  not  exceed  $500  per  acre. 
Now  compare  that  with  an  acre  of  potatoes,  and  see 
if  the  comparison  I  first  stated  is  not  correct.  But, 
one  says,  “We  get  more  than  one  crop  off  the  ground 
in  a  year  where  the  potatoes  are  planted.”  Do  you? 
Suppose  you  follow  your  potatoes  with  grain  and 
grass;  it  takes  three  years  to  get  these  three  crops, 
and  three  crops  of  horseradish  can  be  grown  in  the 
same  time.  wm.  perkins. 
New  Jersey. 
Woodchucks  Do  Kill  Chickens 
N  regard  to  the  possibilities  of  woodchucks  kill¬ 
ing  young  chickens,  it  may  interest  yo  r  ques¬ 
tioner  of  last  month  to  know  that  we  have  obtained 
good  evidence  that  woodchucks  may  take  and  par¬ 
tially  consume  chickens  as  large  as  1  lb.  in  weight. 
Within  the  last  month  we  have  had  20  . deaths  known 
to  have  been  caused  by  woodchucks,  and  as  many 
more  chickens  missing,  with  woodchucks  assigned 
as  the  probable  cause.  August  Mat  tern,  who  has 
had  charge  of  rearing  the  experimental  station 
chickens,  has  seen  a  woodchuck  carry  off  and  chew 
the  head  of  a  six-weeks-old  chicken,  and  has  good 
evidence  that  20  other  deaths  were  due  to  the  same 
cause. 
We  have  reared  1,500  chickens  this  Spring  in  an 
apple  orchard  about  a  half  mile  from  the  poultry 
building,  and  about  a  quarter  mile  from  the  nearest 
building.  The  orchard  is  on  a  hill,  flanked  by  Al¬ 
falfa  on  the  north,  rye  on  the  east,  clover  on  the 
south  and  grass  on  the  west.  The  orchard  itself  and 
the  fields  on  three  sides  had  many  woodchuck  holes 
when  we  put  the  chickens  in  the  orchard,  but  we 
supposed  that  they  would  not  molest  the  chickens. 
When  we  found  that  the  woodchucks  were  taking 
chickens  we  gassed  all  holes  in  the  orchard  with 
Horseradis 
carbon  bisulphide  and  eliminated  the  woodchucks 
from  the  orchard.  We  then  found  that  the  wood¬ 
chucks  from  the  fields  were  coming  into  the  orchard, 
in  some  cases  from  holes  several  hundred  yards 
away,  and  after  killing  one  or  two  chickens  were  re- 
Victoria  spinach,  sowed  April  3;  cut  off  by  June  1. 
1923;  plot  is  20x110  ft.;  cut  23  hampers,-  at  $1  per 
hamper ;  did  not  need  wetting  as  crop  was  cut  before 
dry  weather. 
turning  to  their  own  holes.  We  made  a  systematic- 
search  for  holes  and  gassed  all  we  found,  with  the 
result  that  we  have  neither  seen  woodchucks  nor  lost 
any  chickens  since. 
The  woodchuck’s  method  of  taking  chickens  and 
New  York  lettuce  along  side  of  spinach  ;  plot  20x110 
ft. ;  sold  $70  worth  off  of  it ;  was  not  watered ;  set 
April  10;  all  cut  June  20,  1923. 
the  damage  done  to  the  victim  seems  to  be  charac¬ 
teristic  and  different  from  the  method  of  rats  or 
weasels.  The  chickens  seem  to  be  taken  in  the  open 
in  late  morning,  chased  and  caught  first  by  the  tail. 
The  head  is  then  chewed  off  and  the  carcass  left 
where  it  fell. 
From  what  we  know  of  the  habits  of  other  ro- 
One  hundred  Howard,  17,100  Premier  strawberry 
plants  set  April  1,  1922 ;  row  is  230  ft.  long ;  sold 
$40  worth  of  berries  off  of  it  from  June  1  to  18,  1923 ; 
kept  them  from  drying  up  by  irrigating ;  Chesapeake 
all  burned  up,  could  not  irrigate. 
h  Culture 
dents,  such  as  rats  and  squirrels,  we  might  have  sus¬ 
pected  that  the  woodchuck,  too,  might  vary  his  usual 
vegetable  diet  and  under  certain  conditions  be¬ 
come  carniverous.  Isolated,  quiet  surroundings,  lack 
of  water,  and  open  places  in  which  to  chase  the 
chickens,  have  apparently  been  the  conditions  in  this 
case.  I  should  be  surprised  if  careful  watching  did 
not  disclose  similar  depredations  by  woodchucks  in 
other  places.  l.  dtjnn. 
Storrs  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
The  Price  for  “Standing  Grass” 
AT  this  season  we  always  get  letters  from  peo¬ 
ple  who  want  to  sell  standing  grass.  There  are 
many  back-to-the-landers  and  small  farmers  who  do 
not  keep  much  livestock.  Some  of  them  are  holding 
their  land  for  an  increase  in  value,  and  they  gen¬ 
erally  put  it  into  grass,  as  the  most  convenient 
crop  for  them  to  grow.  They  do  not  have  the 
facilities  for  cutting  and  handling  the  grass  them¬ 
selves  and  so  they  generally  sell  it  standing.  That 
is,  the  buyer  pays  a  cash  price  for  it  and  then 
takes  the  risk  of  cutting  and  handling  it  in  his 
own  way. 
There  is  something  of  a  problem  about  the  proper 
price  to  pay  when  buying  this  grass.  The  ordinary 
way  of  figuring  is  to  make  a  fair  estimate  of  the 
yield  in  tons.  That  is  rather  hard  to  do,  but  some 
people  have  become  quite  expert  and  can  run  their 
eye  over  a  field  and  make  a  very  fair  estimate  of 
the  weight  of  hay.  Having  agreed  on  the  weight, 
the  plan  is  to  take  the  local  price  for  hay  and 
divide  it  by  three,  paying  one-third  of  this  local 
price  for  the  estimated  yield.  The  theory  is  that 
it  costs  about  two-thirds  of  the  value  of  the  stand¬ 
ing  grass  to  cut,  cure,  haul  to  the  barn,  or  stack, 
and  take  the  chance  on  weather  and  similar  condi¬ 
tions.  That  is  usually  the  plan  for  buying  standing 
grass. 
In  some  cases  a  farmer  will  buy  grass  on  shares. 
Under  such  a  condition  he  will  come  and  cut  the 
grass,  cure  it  and  put  half  of  the  crop  into  the  own¬ 
er’s  barn,  taking  the  other  half  for  his  share.  That 
works  out  fairly  well  in  many  cases. 
We  have  had  one  case  this  year  where  a  man  on 
Long  Island  had  a  crop  of  Alfalfa  hay  and  he  pro¬ 
posed  to  sell  it  standing,  that  is  before  cutting.  He 
wanted  us  to  tell  him  the  usual  price  for  Alfalfa  in 
New  York  City.  The  fact  is,  that  very  little  Al¬ 
falfa  is  ever  sold  here.  It  is  rarely  if  ever  quoted. 
Horse  hay,  that  is  Timothy  or  mixed  hay  is  the 
grade  usually  sold  in  the  city.  Alfalfa  is  selling  at 
$1S  to  $20  a  ton  in  several  New  York  markets.  We 
figure  that  it  ought  to  be  worth  about  $25  to  a 
dairyman  on  Long  Island,  and  on  that  basis  it 
should  be  worth  standing  a  little  over  $8  a  ton. 
Most  people  would  consider  this  too  low  a  price  for 
good  Alfalfa  but  few  people  would  undertake  to 
cut  and  cure  and  take  the  risk  of  weather  for  less 
than  two-thirds  of  the  total  crop. 
Varieties  of  Mulch  Culture  for  Orchards 
WE  have  an  attentive  reader  in  E.  F.  Stevens 
of  Nampa,  Idaho.  Mr.  Stevens  is  now  78 
years  old,  and  is  still  planting  apple  trees.  Last 
year,  for  example,  he  planted  8,000,  and  this  year 
7,500,  which,  for  a  man  of  his  age,  might  be  re¬ 
garded  as  a  remarkable  proposition.  He  thinks 
Idaho  is  well  adapted  to  fruit  culture,  and  he  is 
going  to  make  the  most  of  it.  He  also  has  a  heavy 
planting  in  Nebraska.  His  Idaho  plantings  are 
made  mostly  on  plain  sagebrush  land.  He  says  that 
for  the  first  five  years  these  orchards  were  cultivated 
24  times  each  season  with  an  annual  tillage  cost  of 
$7.78.  This,  of  course,  induces  a  heavy  growth  and 
makes  a  vigorous  tree.  Then,  after  five  years’  cul¬ 
tivation,  the  orchard  is  seeded  to  clover  or  Alfalfa  ; 
chiefly  the  latter,  as  that  seems  to  give  better  satis¬ 
faction.  The  Alfalfa  is  mowed  three  times  yearly, 
and  the  cuttings  are  permitted  to  lie  on  the  ground 
as  a  mulch.  Our  plan  is  to  keep  these  cuttings  on  the 
ground  until  late  in  the  Fall,  and  then  plow.  This 
plowed  sod  is  disked  in  the  Spring  and  seeded  again 
to  Alfalfa.  This  gives  a  Fall  and  Spring  cultivation, 
while  the  heavy  crops  of  Alfalfa  cut  and  left  on  the 
ground  supply  good  quantities  of  mulch  or  organic 
matter  for  the  soil.  Under  this  system  the  orchards 
thrive  and  produce  great  crops. 
It  is  remarkable  how  the  old  plan  of  mulching  the 
orchard  has  been  developed.  When  Mr.  Hitchings 
