spray to be just before the buds swell, and in an ordinary season two more; the next, applied with the Paris green, just after the blossoms fall, and the last about June first, is all that is necessary. As to the insecticides, I prefer the Paris green, and find it beneficial with every fifty gallons of the green and water to use about a gallon of strong lime-water. It will prevent the burning of the foliage by the green being too strong or improperly mixed, and also make it adhere better to the leaves. Very much (so-called) spraying is done that gives no results, either because it was not done at the proper time or not done thoroughly. He who, when an idle day comes, goes into the orchard and throws a little liquid on his trees, hit or miss, may pat himself on the back and call it spraying, but he will get little or no result when fall comes. We spray for a definite object, fungus and insects.

Let us, then, find the time when the fungus develops and can be held in check, and the kind and habits of the insects that affect our own orchards, and what will destroy them, and then act accordingly. To put on Bordeaux after the scab is well developed, or apply only here and there on the trees, is of little use. Or to try and poison an insect after that insect has got to a point or place where the poison will not reach him is as valueless. If the work is to be done it must be done at the proper time, and thoroughly or not at all. This should be easily apparent to any thinking person.

A good pump is also very essential. The job is a very disagreeable one at best, and poor tools only make it more so. The working parts of the pumps should be entirely of brass. It should have an agitator that agitates, should work easily, and yet be of suffi cient power to reach the tops of the highest trees; withal as simple in construction as possible. A rod attached to a hose, with a nozzle on the other end, and a cut-off convenient for the hand to reach, will also add much to the ease with which the job can be done. For high trees it will pay to have an elevated platform on the wagon, in which the man holding the rod can sit or stand, and more easily reach the tops of the trees, and thus thoroughly do the work.

It may be of interest and value, if, in closing, I give you a few illustrations from my own experience in spraying. First, as to the effect of Paris green on the fruit.

Two years ago, owing, first to the rain at spraying time, and later to the fact that there were strawberries in a part of the orchard, one orchard, largely Baldwins, was not sprayed. In this orchard, very early in the season, the fruit began to drop, and continued to do so, while in the one sprayed, with just a fence between, very few apples dropped at all. I sold the fruit, such as was absolutely perfect. To make it so in the sprayed orchard, we

rejected one barrel out of eleven. The eleventh, or rejected one, selling in the New York market for one dollar and fifty cents. In the unsprayed orchard we rejected one barrel out of three, and the third barrel was unfit for but little else than cider. I figure it cost me $100 not to have sprayed that orchard, although it contained only about four acres.

Next, as to the effect of Bordeaux on the foliage. A year ago, in spraying Greenings the second time, the men ran short about half a barrel of Bordeaux to finish that variety, so they were finished with Paris green alone. At the next spraying (doing the work myself) I noticed, on coming to the Greenings, that the trees looked black and the foliage yellow, but after passing eight or ten trees, the rest looked as healthy as any trees in the orchard. I could assign no cause for it, and as I came up the other side of the same row, I found the trees healthy to the end of the row, when I remarked to the man with me, "that is where you ran short of Bordeaux," and he replied "that is fact." I cannot convey to you the difference in the appearance of the other two sides of the same trees, the one sprayed with Bordeaux and the other unsprayed.

Finally, as to the Bordeaux's effect on the fruit. I have in one orchard eighteen or twenty Newtown Pippin trees, standing very close together, on low, rather heavy soil, and beneath a hill, so that the circulation of air and sunlight through them was not particularly good; just the place for scab to prevail, and where we have had very much trouble with it. In the same orchard, on the outside row, on high, dry ground, were two trees of the same variety. Those I sprayed with Paris green, but not with Bordeaux. The others were sprayed thoroughly with both. When the apples were fit to gather, it was remarked by many who saw them, that the Pippins on the sprayed trees were the finest they had ever seen. In fact, very few could be found that were affected by scab. On the two trees favorably situated at least one-third of the fruit was scabby. Does it pay to spray?

These I believe to be the essentials of how to make unprofitable apple trees productive; and though now and then we may find an orchard that has not responded to such treatment, they are rare, and the failure must be attributed to natural barrenness or climatic conditions entirely beyond human control.

Requisites to Successful Potato Culture.

L. D. GALE.

Nobody can keep up with the times unless he knows what other people are doing, and especially is this so in our vocation of farming. Lawyers must keep posted on the latest rulings of the higher courts, and know the decisions of all doubtful points of law, if they become successful in their profession. Doctors must study to keep up with the great improvements made in the last few years in surgery and the practice of medicine. If a merchant failed to keep posted in the latest styles and neglected to keep them in stock for his customers, he would soon be without trade. Manufacturers of all kinds must lay aside the machine of yesterday, and put in the latest improved, or be running at a loss. The world moves. This is a mechanical age. Machinery must take the place of hand labor. It has been said that agriculture is not keeping up. So the State of New York, as well as nearly every other State in the Union, has organized Farmers' Institutes, and sends instruction to you free of charge.

Successful potato culture depends more on the man than on any fixed set of rules I may be able to lay down. No crop shows the effect of intelligent handling so readily as potatoes. Each year brings such a variety of conditions and places us under such different circumstances from the preceding one, that it is by a constant study, and only by understanding the nature of our soil, the habits of the variety of potatoes under cultivation, the right hour to begin cultivation to most effectually kill the weeds and conserve moisture, that we may expect to grow potatoes successfully.

All soils are not adapted to the growing of potatoes. The best suited to this crop is a sandy or gravelly loam (clay soils under favorable conditions sometimes produce good crops). Whichever is chosen, they must be free from wire-worms, the scab fungus, and either naturally dry or well underdrained; added to this, then, must be the needed amount of fertility, derived either from the plowing under of a good clover sod, the application of stable manure or the use of a commercial fertilizer, or

better, perhaps, a combination of them all, bearing in mind that clover sod and stable manure are rich in nitrogen and phosphoric acid and deficient in potash.

If stable manure is used it is best applied during the fall or early winter, and should be dragged or brushed until it is made very fine. In that condition the fertilizing elements are carried into the soil, when they are taken up by the grass and clover roots, and assimilated ready for the crop of potatoes to feed upon. The application of fresh stable manure, either to be plowed under, or as a top-dressing after plowing, should be avoided, as the tendency of soil so treated is to produce tubers more or less scabbed.

I prefer to plow rather deep for potatoes, and think eight inches gives me the best results. Aim to lay out the field as long as possible, to avoid turning. Do not plow the field in the good old way, by going around the whole field at a time, but backfurrow as wide as convenient, then strike another back-furrow far enough away so that when finished there will be an unplowed strip between the two, equal in width to one of the backfurrows; finish this by plowing up one side and down the other, throwing the plow out at each end. This will leave an unplowed strip at each end, giving sufficient room to turn upon while tending the crop, to drive the spray cart, and to draw water. I used to plant close out to the fence, but have come to the conclusion that the additional potatoes dug from the end of the rows did not pay for the inconvenience.

As soon as plowing is finished, or perhaps better, as fast as plowed, go over with the roller, which brings the furrows down even. If the soil has a tendency to bake, the roller and drag should follow close after the plow. I fit by going crosswise of furrow with the cutaway, and lengthwise with the spring-tooth harrow, finishing with the smoothing harrow with three horses attached, riding upon the harrow. The field is ready to plant when I can go over and dig down four or five inches with my hand. If the work has been carefully and thoroughly done. there will not be any sods on the field to bother the weeder or cultivator in after-cultivation.

PLANTING.

I have used the Aspinwall planter for the past four years. This machine opens the furrows, drops the seed and covers it as it is drawn across the field. But I must admit that its work is not entirely satisfactory, as the best I could do this year, my crop averaged, in hills skipped, one in every 10. My average yield in 1894 was 200 bushels to the acre. Had I suc

ceeded in having a perfect stand, I assume my yield would have been 20 bushels more to the acre. At 50 cents per bushel, the average market price for potatoes, my gain would have been. $10 per acre, which would more than pay for planting by hand, providing I could have got the help at the right time. As that is usually impossible, I shall give some of the new planters put on the market a trial, and hope to be able to find one that will do more satisfactory work.

SEED POTATOES.

I plant only potatoes of merchantable size, treating all seed before planting with the corrosive sublimate solution: Two ounces corrosive sublimate to 16 gallons of water, allowing the potatoes to soak one and one-half hours, always dipping the seed before cutting. I have planted seed treated as above that was so badly scabbed as to be entirely worthless for the market, planting on land that was known to be free from the fungus. spores, and produced a crop that was entirely free from any trace of the disease.

Great care should be used, after the seed has been treated, not to allow it to come into contact with any boxes, barrels or sacks that have previously contained diseased tubers. If new crates or sacks are not at hand, put the old ones to soak before using them.

It must be remembered that if the parasite or fungus is once introduced into the soil, it may remain there for years. Therefore, great care should be used in selecting seed that the disease may not be transmitted to the field that has heretofore been free from the fungus.

The feeding of diseased potatoes to stock is another source of transmitting the spores to the soil. Dr. Roland Thaxter, of the Connecticut Experiment Station, says on this subject, "That the practice of feeding scabby tubers to stock is one of the most important means by which the disease is spread on our farms. In view of the well-known fact that great numbers of fungus spores can and do pass through the digestive tract without injury, and that the scab fungus is known to grow luxuriantly in dessications of horse or cow dung, it is not unreasonable to assume that its spores, passing through the digestive tracts of stock, fed with diseased potatoes, continue their development in the manure after evacuation."

CUTTING SEED.

There is probably no part of the work that has a greater influence on the yield than the preparing of the seed. I am