The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1169 
The  Red  Duchess  Apple 
I  AM  sending  you  a  few  Red  Duchess  apples.  One 
is  shown  at  Fig.  503.  I  am  not  very  enthu¬ 
siastic  about  Duchess,  or  in  fact  any  other  very 
early  apple.  In  fact,  I  feel  the  odds  against  us  in 
that  respect,  and  increasing  each  year,  as  the  volume 
increases  from  those  sections  which  can  get  the 
market  ahead  of  us,  no  matter  how  much  we  gam¬ 
ble.  Why  then  should  a  section  which  can  produce 
the  finest  specimens  of  the  best  apples  ever  grown 
anywhere  (McIntosh  types)  try  to  compete  against 
such  odds  in  an  unfavorable  field?  Especially  when 
the  area  where  the  best  McIntosh  types  can  be 
grown  is  probably  smaller  than  that  of  almost  anj 
known  variety.  Yet  the  fact  remains  many 
early  apples  are  grown  and  will  he  for  many 
years  in  all  our  Northern  sections.  The  fact 
also  remains  that  the  great  bulk  of  our  city 
people  continue  to  eat  largely  with  the  eye. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  apples.  To  many 
the  quality' must  be  in  exact  ratio  to  color.  For 
this  and  other  reasons  set  forth,  I  believe  the 
Red  Duchess  has  a  useful  place.  It  is  a  red 
sport  of  Duchess  which  has  come  true  after  hav¬ 
ing  been  worked  on  other  trees,  and  is  of  course, 
a  Duchess  in  every  respect  except  for  color,  'which 
is  deeper;  in  fact  so  far,  much  deeper,  and  more 
uniform  than  in  Red  Astrachan,  and  has  been 
for  the  past  three  seasons.  The  Experiment 
Station  staff  has  not  been  very  enthusiastic  to 
date,  saying  it  lacked  the  quality  of  the  com¬ 
mon  Duchess.  This  I  believe  has  been  due  to 
someone  trying  to  increase  the  color  by  ex¬ 
posure  after  picking,  for  as  you  probably  know, 
the  Duchess  loses  not  only  sprightliness,  but 
the  color  goes  dead  very  quickly  after  picking. 
With  us  it  is  a  true  Duchess  in  every  sense  of 
the  word. 
by  increasing  from  a  single  plant  until  a  large 
enough  supply  of  seed  tubers  is  obtained.  Before 
putting  out  a  new  variety  it  should  be  tested  very 
carefully  during  several  seasons  in  comparison  with 
standard  varieties.  Potato  seed-tuber  production  is 
complicated  by  the  fact  that  outside  of  the  most 
favored  potato  growing  sections,  seed  potatoes  can¬ 
not  be  produced  very  successfully.  That  is.  a  new 
variety  of  potatoes  might  have  merit  but  show  up 
poorly  because  the  seed  tubers  were  not  grown  in  the 
North. 
Establishing  a  new  variety  of  corn  is  an  entirely 
different  matter.  Following  a  cross  such  as  you 
have  made  the  plants  will  be  quite  variable  in 
Red  Duchess  Apple.  Fig.  503 
in  fields  that  are  fairly  level.  Under  some  circum¬ 
stances  this  is  the  best  practice.  Manure  never 
contains  more  plant  food  than  on  the  day  it  is  made. 
There  is  a  constant,  if  slight  loss  the  longer  it  is 
held.  Both  fermenting  and  leaching  are  responsible 
for  this  loss.  When  the  manure  is  hauled  and 
spread  day  by  day  the  plant  food  is  all  put  on  the 
land.  There  is  but  little  fermentation  when  the 
manure  is  spread  out,  and  any  leaching  carries  plant 
food  to  the  soil  where  the  grass  or  sod  can  hold  it. 
It  does  not  have  the  fine  character  of  the  rotted 
manure  but  it  holds  more  of  the  plant  food  and 
requires  much  less  labor.  In  fact  during  these 
times  when  farm  labor  is  so  high  few  farmers  can 
afford  to  pile  and  rot  manure.  It  has  come  to 
he  pretty  much  a  matter  of  labor  saving. 
Experience  With  Blasting  Bowlders 
HERE  in  Ohio  we  put  a  stick  of  dynamite 
on  the  top  of  the  bowlder,  place  a  shovel¬ 
ful  of  damp  earth  over  it,  explode  and  break 
it  in  this  way — no  need  of  drilling.  Dig  around 
it,  or  if  deep  in  the  ground,  run  a  crowbar 
under  it,  place  a  charge  in  the  hole  and  blow 
it  out.  This  is  the  universal  way  here  in  Ohio 
and  it  does  the  job.  c.  r.  phelps. 
Ohio. 
I  saw  that  J.  C.  B.,  Greenwich,  Conn.,  wanted 
to  find  out  a  cheap  way  to  get  rid  of  bowlders. 
This  is  the  way  I  have  done.  Build  a  good  hot 
fire  on  the  stone;  as  the  fire  dies  down  have 
water  ready  and  throw  on  water  by  the  pailful, 
and  the  stone  will  crack  and  break  in  pieces 
small  enough  to  load  on  a  stone  boat.  Use 
plenty  of  wood ;  heat  the  bowlder  as  hot  as  you 
can  get  it.  g.  e.  mickle. 
New  York. 
I  wish  to  add  my  experience  to  others  in  reply 
Our  Cortlands  are  showing  to  better  advant¬ 
age  than  McIntosh  to  date  in  both  size  and  color, 
and  to  date  have  shown  absolutely  no  dropping 
(practically  the  only  variety  on  the  place). 
Columbia  Co.,  N.  Y.  wm.  iiotaling. 
Poultry  Fattening  Crate 
WE  have  had  many  calls  for  a  picture  of  a 
feeding  or  fattening  crate  for  poultry.  There 
seems  to  be  an  unusual  desire  to  produce  fat  birds 
this  Fall.  Mr.  Reginald  Steele  of  Ohio  tells  how  lie 
does  it  in  the  pictures  at  Fig.  502  and  504.  This 
coop  is  three  feet  wide  and  six  feet  long,  with 
three  compartments,  portable  dropping  board,  feed¬ 
ing  trough  at  one  side  and  water  tank  at  the  other. 
The  pictures  show  how  it  is  made  of  wire  and  slats 
and  how  it  looks  when  put  together. 
“Fixing”  a  New  Vegetable  Variety 
I  could  not  raise  vegetables  if  I  did  not  experiment 
a  little.  I  have  a  seedling  potato  (second  year).  It  is 
.still  very  small,  but  good  shape  and  color  and  flavor, 
and  very  hardy.  It  endured  everything  in  the  way  of 
neglect,  both  cold  and  drougt  ,  that  killed  all  the  other 
Side  of  Crate.  Fig.  502 
potato  seeds  I  planted  last  year,  and  has  not  had  any 
blight  so  far.  I  also  have  a  sweet  corn,  cross  between 
Golden  Bantam  and  an  early  white  corn,  that  is  very 
sweet,  sweeter  than  any  I  ever  tried,  and  apparently 
about  two  weeks  earlier  than  the  regular  Golden 
Bantam.  How  long  will  It  be  before  I  can  depend  on 
these  two  new  varieties  to  run  true  to  form,  and  be 
relied  on  for  seed  to  sell,  if  anybody  wanted  to  buy? 
What  ought  I  to  do  with  them  to  bring  them  along 
properly?  I  planted  the  corn  this  Spring  in  very 
poor  ground,  and  did  not  hoe  it  much,  and  it  is  only 
going  to  set  a  few  ears,  but  all  the  stalks  on  the  edge 
of  the  patch  that  had  a  fair  show  set  one  good  car 
each.  It  is  about  as  tall  as  Bantam.  I  understand 
perfectly  that  the  corn  is  very  unreliable.  m.  e.  b. 
'Westport  Point,  Mass. 
LL  vegetatively  propagated  plants  come  true 
to  type  as  long  as  they  are  not  reproduced  by 
true  seed.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  a  seedling  potato,  it 
is  a  very  simple  matter  to  establish  a  new  variety 
every  respect.  It  will  be  necessary  to  select  for  a 
certain  desired  type  for  at  least  five  or  six  years 
and  perhaps  longer.  Before  putting  out  a  new 
variety  the  plants  should  be  reasonably  uniform  in 
size,  the  seeds  should  be  of  one  color  and  all  the 
plants  should  mature  within  about  10  days.  Fol¬ 
lowing  the  cross  of  two  varieties  of  corn  the  hy¬ 
brid  plants  are  usually  quite  vigorous  and  this  hy¬ 
brid  vigor  sometimes  persists  for  two  or  three  gen¬ 
erations.  For  this  reason  many  people  have  become 
over  enthusiastic  about  a  new  variety  when  it  was 
first  being  produced,  and  have  found  that  the  va¬ 
riety  did  not  do  so  well  in  later  years.  On  the 
other  hand,  part  of  the  failure  of  a  new  variety  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  grown  in  situations  where 
it  is  not  adapted.  d.  f.  jokes. 
Connecticut  Experiment  Station. 
The  Value  of  Rotted  Manure 
Our  grandfather  farmers  used  to  say  that  manure  • 
should  be  rotted  before  being  used  as  it  made  it  a 
better  fertilizer,  and  the  way  to  rot  it,  was  to  stack  it 
up  in  a  big  high  pile  and  leave  it  all  Winter,  believing 
that  if  spread  out.  it  would  dry  out  and  not  rot.  Often 
on  seed  packages,  the  instructions  for  planting  are 
use  well-rotted  manure.  Now  others  say,  our  grand¬ 
fathers  fertilized  their  barnyards  and  robbed  their 
garden,  hay  and  grain  fields,  for  the  rains  and  melted 
snow  soaked  out  a  great  deal  of  the  fertilizing  ma¬ 
terial.  Has  anyone  proved  which  is  right?  M.  L.  p. 
Massachusetts. 
HEY  are  both  right.  We  all  understand  that 
(fermenting  or  rotting  manure  improves  its 
character.  The  rotting  breaks  up  the  manure  and 
makes  it  fine,  so  it  will  spread  evenly.  Manure  may 
go  into  a  compost  heap  in  big  coarse  chunks  and 
come  out  of  it  as  fine  and  even  as  a  fertilizer,  and 
this  fermenting  makes  the  plant  food  more  avail¬ 
able  by  breaking  up  the  nitrogen  combinations. 
Some  plant  food  is  lost  during  this  composting.  A 
part  of  the  nitrogen  will  escape  as  ammonia,  and 
part  will  be  leaked-  out  as  water  soaks  through  the 
pile.  Many  of  the  old  barnyards  were  on  a  hill¬ 
side  and  heavy  rains  soaking  down  through  the  pile 
carried  off  much  of  the  plant  food.  Still  the  rotted 
manure  would  give  better  results  than  the  coarse 
manure,  just  as  a  fine  and  soluble  fertilizer  will 
give  quicker  returns.  The  best  rotted  manure  is 
that  piled  under  cover  and  on  a  concrete  foundation 
with  the  liquids  from  the  stable  poured  over  the 
pile.  In  some  cases  a  cistern  with  a  concrete  top  is 
made  with  drain  pipes  entering  it  from  the  stable. 
The  manure  is  piled  on  top  of  the  cistern  and  from 
time  to  time  the  liquids  are  pumped  up  and  soaked 
into  the*  pile.  Thus  the  plant  food  cannot  be  washed 
out.  While  there  is  some  loss  in  fermentation  most 
of  the  plant  food  is  held,  and  the  manure  is  made 
fine  and  even.  This  often  pays  for  gardens  and 
greenhouse  men,  but  requires  too  much  labor  for 
farmers.  Many  of  them  follow  the  plan  of  hauling 
the  manure  out  day  by  day  and  spreading  it  on  sod 
to  ,T.  C.  B.,  page  1003.  We  dug  a  little  hole 
under  a  bowlder  large  enough  for  a  charge  of  dyna¬ 
mite,  using  a  drill  and  round-pointed  shovel,  trying 
to  get  half  way  under  the  bowlder.  I  did  not  know 
how  much  of  a  charge  would  be  necessary,  so  used 
5  lbs.  (10  sticks  under  a  bowlder  3x4x4  ft.).  I  put 
the  fuse  in  the  cap,  crimping  the  cap  (with  care) 
tight  to  the  fuse;  then  I  made  a  hole  in  the  side  of 
the  stick  of  dynamite  with  a  lead  pencil  and  in¬ 
serted  the  cap,  tying  the  fuse  to  the  stick  of  dyna¬ 
mite  with  a  string,  and  then  tied  the  10  sticks  to¬ 
gether.  I  cut  the  fuse  long  enough  so  it  would 
reach  6  in.  above  ground  *  Hied  the  hole  with  dirt 
and  after  firing  the  fuse,  viewed  the  results  from  a 
distance.  Results  when  the  hole  was  cleaned,  the 
largest  piece  I  put  on  the  wagon  easily.  I  think  I 
used  twice  the  charge  that  was  necessary.  J.  C.  B. 
could  tell  by  using  about  the  right  amount  even  if 
he  had  to  use  several  hundred  pounds  to  clean  his 
field.  This  would  be  cheaper  than  drilling. 
New  York.  e.  p.  fkisbee. 
On  page  1043  Mr.  Upson  suggests  cutting  a  slit 
in  a  stick  of  dynamite  with  a  sharp  knife.  On 
Front  View  Fattenina  Crate.  Fig.  504 
page  1064  Mr.  Davis  suggests  using  a  pocket  knife 
to  cut  the  sticks  into  the  size  needed.  This  looks 
to  me  like  the  height  (and  depth)  of  folly.  As  a 
man  who  has  worked  for  a  number  of  years  where 
they  used  dynamite  by  the  ton,  I  would  like  to  ask 
them,  “Did  either  of  you  ever  read  the  directions 
that  come  in  a  box  of  dynamite?”  Use  a  wooden 
wedge  and  a  wooden  mallet  to  open  the  box.  A 
stick,  about  the  size  of  a  lead  pencil,  is  cut  down  to 
a  point  (not  a  pin  point  either)  and  used  to  make 
the  hole  in  the  end  of  the  stick  into  which  the  cap 
and  fuse  are  placed.  In  only  one  way  were  we 
allowed  to  use  metal.  That  was  the  pliers  that 
crimped  the  cap  onto  the  fuse,  and  we  were  con¬ 
stantly  reminded  that  there  was  a  50-lb.  pressure 
in  the  cap.  If  the  boss  caught  a  man  using  metal 
on  the  dynamite,  he  got  his  walking  papers  right 
