The National tribune., 1895-01-10
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
New Jersey Peach Orchards.

| trees should be set Is feet apart each Wav
but some successful growers consider Is feet
sufficient. Wheat, rye and oats are iniuri-
Gus TO peach trees, and should never be sown
IN peach orchards Corn, buckwheat and
potatoes may be planted in peach orchard,
as they do not iDjure the trees. After the
trees are two yenIs old no crop should be-
| raised among them. The peach orchard
should be pIowed lightly as soon as the
trees are in blossom; deep blowing INJURIES
the roots. Then harrow once week till
| middle of July. Cultivation should then
cease till next Spring. Soon after the trees
are in blossom they should be grubbed,
which consists in digging around the trees
! and then with q knife cutting out tho
grubs.
For pruning the month of June is the
best time. Some orchardists claim that the
| inside branches should be cut out so as to
allow the sun to get to ali the fruit, which
thus will color better and ripen more evenly.
Other growers think it a mistake to cut out
the inside branches, as this tends to make
the tree spread too much and break The
best fruit Is secured by so trimming the
tree as to preserve its symmetry and even
balance. Thinning the fruit is very i'm
portant. Too much fruit must not be left
on the tree, especially not on young tree.
From half basket to two baskets Of fruit
should be left on trees from four to six
years of age. The best way to regulate the
quantity of fruit to be left on the trees is to
cut off the small branches A small az il
convenient for this. The thinning of the
fruit should be done between the middle Of
June and the first of July.
Wood ashes are good fertilizer for. peach
trees, and the limekilns of Sussex County
furnish large quantities of ashes to the peach
growers. One rule of applying ashes is to
allow quart for each year of the age of the
tree-four quarts for four-year-old tree and
SIX quarts for a six-year-old tree, and so on.
IL Is not necessary to manure the trees in
good soil until they are four years old. In
an orchard which looked very badly year
ago, the trees being yellow and bleeding,
the soil was removed from around the stems,
the trees were whitewashed with lime, pot
ash, and tallow mixed, and the trees wers
cured. The owner of one of the best ORCH
ards in the State thinks il does not pay to
buy ashes, as potash costs six cents per
pound, while ashes containing only two and
One-balf per cent. of potash costs l. cents per
bushel- He advises to whitewash the trees
once year with lime, potash, and tallOw
mixed, and once year put potash and wa
ter around the trees The proportion is
of five quarts of water to one of potash.
A famous 50-aere peach orchard in north
ern New Jersey has the following variety:
Mountain Rose, Stevens's Rareripe, Old
Nixon, Stump the World, Crawford's Late,
Pride of Franklin, Jacobs Rareripe, SmOck,
Keyport White, and Biller's Late Mount
ain Rose is the earliest and Bller's Late the
latest In the orchard. Smock and Keyp0rs
White are splendid bearers. The Crawf0rds
do not bear well, but bring the highest
price. The owner of an orchard which is Is
years old, and still in splendid condition,
does not wash his trees, but gives them
plenty of ashes, lime, and barnyard manure.
He plOws the ground once year and har-
rows twice. All cultivation should be done
before the LIST Of July, as late cultivation
prevents maturing of the buds.-Amerieaa
A gricuIturist.
Honey.
There is much prejudice against honey, be-
cause of alleged authorizations. But anyone
who knows the taste of good honey cannot
be deceived, albeit the honey made by bees
has a number of distinct flavors according to
he flower from which it is made. Buck
wheat honey is known by it's dark color as
we'll as its peculiar flavor. White clover makes
The whitest, and therefore the most popular
honey. But to many tastes honey from
linden or Eastwood flowers is best of all. 1t
g little darker than clover honey, and bet
ter flavor. Modern scientists have discOv-
cred for the bee labor-saving device that is
almost as beneficial as are the new inven-
ions for saving human labor. The bees can
make many pounds of honey while they ara
making one pound of wax. So modern
lpiarians furnish the bees foundation combs,
bought much cheaper than the bees can
make them, and set the industrious little
Insects at the work that they can do best.
The bees build up from these foundations,
i'll the cells with honey and cap them. The
anne comb can be used many times over, for
With care the honey can be taken from it
md it restored 10 the hive. This 20 a skill
ul apiarian makes the honey cost much less
han it used to do. 1t also sells for much
ess. Pure honey is cheap and healthful
God. 1t ought to be more generally used
han it is. When bought in the comb no
oOd judge of honey need be deceived. The
ices may be fed with candy and water, and
hus induced to fill the combs with inferior
oney to that made from flowers in the old
ashioned way.
Corn or Oats for Horses.
The Utah Experiment Station has issued
ulletin No So on the Relative Value Of
'orn and Oats for Horses" The experiment
summed up as follows:
In this experiment with the sets of horses,
ne set fed a grain ration principally of corn,
nd the other grain ration principally of
ats, the horses sustained their weight the
etter on the corn ration.
The feeding was divided into five periods.
art Of the time one horse was fed in each
It and part of the time two. In every
eriod save one the corn fed set did the better.
The feeding value of the ratious seemed
vary directly as the amount of digestible
latter that each contained.
A nutritive ration of 1 go did better than
ne of 1852
To sum up the three experiments, we find:
irst, that during the Summer corn and
notify were not so good as oats, wheat and
over in maintaining the weight of horses;
cOnd, that during the Winter corn and
notify did well as oats, clover and
notify in maintaining the weight of horses;
Iird, that during the Spring and Summer
IN, wheat and bran, and mixed hay pro-
reed more gain than oats, wheat or bran,
ID mixed hay.
This is all right so far as it goes, but we
not feed horses for weight as though they
ere to be used for beef, but for mucle and
rength. We all know that corn will pro-
ice fat, but is fat Indicative of health?