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| M. F. Cleary |
Farmers’
Club.
A regular meeting of the Club was held Friday, Jan. 3$, when Mr. M. F. Cleary [gardener for Roswell Randall and chief engineer of
Cortland Fire Department—CC editor] addressed them and answered questions upon
"Forestry and Tree Culture" about as follows:
His statement in the last
report referring to stripping the bark from hemlock trees should have been bass
wood. He objected to Paris green as a remedy for the codling moth, as it was
not only a very powerful and dangerous but quite an expensive poison. A cheaper
substitute, and one which he had used with first-rate success, was a chemical
which is made by the Karney chemical works, of New York. One-half-pound of this
will make a solution of sixty gallons. It should be applied at a dryer time
than Paris green, for it washes off more readily. It is also a sure cure for
the currant worm, rose slug, cucumber bug, squash bug, tomato slug, potato bug,
and in fact any insect pest.
White ash is a wood that is in
great demand by manufacturers, and for this reason, it no other, he would
advise farmers to cultivate it. In support of his assertion that raising an ash
forest was one of the most profitable things a farmer can do, he gave the
following interesting facts and figures: In Europe the ash grown in Scotland is
preferred to that grown in France, because the former, coming from a more
rugged climate, is hardier, and for that reason will thrive better in our own
climate.
The first cost of the Scottish
white ash, one year old, delivered in Cortland, is one cent a tree; number upon
an acre of ground, four feet each way, 2,722; a year's rent of the acre of
land, $5; cost of plowing and furrowing, $4; planting trees, $10; whole first
cost, $46.22. Then for the next five years add the yearly interest and rent of
land, which, including first cost, in that period amount to $90.09.
After five years every
alternate row should be cut out, leaving standing one-half the original number,
1,361. Then cut out one-half this number, or 680, making in all cut out, 2,041,
which as hoop poles are worth two cents apiece, or $40.82. This profit from the
six years' cost reduces the cost to $40.27, which may be still further reduced
by sowing beets or turnips between the rows the first two years; 680 trees
after 30 years will average 500 feet of lumber per tree, or 340,000 feet. This
at $25 per thousand feet, which is a low estimate for thirty years hence, will
give the handsome sum of $8,500. From this we take the rent for thirty years
and the first six years' cost, leaving a profit of $8,325.
Nor do the receipts stop here,
for the stumps put forth new shoots, which can be properly thinned out, and
which yield an everlasting succession of ash trees. No better legacy can be
left the children than a few acres of growing white ash trees. Their being
planted so near each other for the first six years causes them to grow a longer
trunk, which is the part wanted.
In regard to hedges, the closer
they are planted the more stocky is the growth. At four feet apart they require
greater trimming, but they grow stronger, more luxuriantly and finer. He
mentioned two instances illustrating this fact, in one of which the Norway
spruce was set four feet apart, the other fifteen inches. Both grew to be a
mass, but the former grew ranker and higher, so as to hide some unsightly
building, for which purpose it had been intended; the other grew more stubbed
and coarser. Eighteen inches or two feet is a good distance at which to set
them out.
The arbor vitae is a slow
grower, and, as most people want a hedge the first year, is not suitable to
them. It is no more labor to take care of a hedge than a fence. The former
should be trimmed the first of June each year, and a man can trim 100 feet in a
day.
Mr. Ballard,
of Homer, who had been invited by the Club to attend the meeting, said that the
arbor vitae was a finer variety of hedge, and more of it could be trimmed in a
day than of Norway spruce. If a man
understood his business and made each stroke count, he could trim 200 feet of
the former in that time.
Both gentlemen said that on
account of the snow gathering on a flat top hedge it was better to trim to an
oval shape.
Mr. Cleary thought the failure
of the white thorn due more to hot, dry weather than the severe winter, but if
it is to be grown would advocate our American variety. He had never seen the
yellow locust fail in any instance. He did not agree with Mr. Root in his
remarks against the yellow locust, for he considered it a rapid grower and a
shrub which was not subject to blight.
Mr. Ballard knew of a hedge of
yellow locust which is now fifteen years old and in fine condition, and he
thought for general purposes it was the best to cultivate.
Mr. Cleary said that deciduous
trees can be cut down to within four or five inches of the ground, and then allowed
to grow again by degrees. The great trouble with most people is that they want
their plants to grow into a hedge the first year, and so allow them to grow up
sometimes four feet before trimming. This is wrong. A hedge should be grown
gradually. It is a great help to a hedge to cut out with a knife the shoots which start in out of sight.
The yellow locust makes a good
farm fence. The white willow is valuable for the wood-work of sleighs, but the
yellow willow is far preferable, for it is worth a high price. The honey locust
and Osage orange will germinate much quicker if the seeds are first soaked in
almost boiling water. The yellow locust seed should not be treated to the hot
water bath, but they can be sowed anywhere, and in two years the plants should
be set where wanted, when a good hedge will be bad in four years. One pound of
seed at seventy-five cents will fence about one hundred acres.
In order to kill the grass and weeds
the ground on which the plants are to be set should be plowed the year before. The
Norway spruce can be imported from France for one cent apiece. The plants will
be from two to three inches high.
The American ash is as good as the
Scotch, but costs one-half cent more apiece on account of labor being higher. If
the latter is packed well it will arrive safely, and the climatic change makes no
difference.
[Mr. Cleary] did not agree with
Mr. Root in regard to trimming apple trees in the winter. The wounds would sear
over in the winter, but he considered searing a disease. The only satisfactory
reason why the winter time is selected is because labor is cheaper and more
easily obtained. A time better even than winter is when the trees are in blow,
and if they are trimmed in the spring when the sap is running freest, the wound
will sear over in a day and the presence of dead wood is avoided. The limbs should
be cut as close as possible to the bark without injuring the latter.
He did not believe in the
theory that the stock has an influence on the scions, for pears are grown on
the thorn or the quince without any perceptible difference in the flavor of the
pear. Apple is grafted on the beech or pear and still retain the same apple
flavor. The influence comes only from the scion.
Wild stock is preferable to
graft because it is hardier. Spruce can be produced from cuttings. There is not
a plant, tree or vine but that can be multiplied by layering, and it is the
easiest and surest way of increasing stock. Black walnut will not adapt itself
to the soil so readily as the white ash, but is a more rapid grower.
It was Mr. Ballard's advice not
by any means to trim young trees in winter. The old ones will stand it better,
but it is best not to trim any at that time. June might be late to do it,
except with late fruit trees. When asked in regard to the different causes
which produce certain effects in the growth and development of trees, shrubs,
etc., especially those which bring death, he said it was a hard matter to give
a conclusive answer, for there are so many surrounding circumstances which bear
directly upon the subject and of which he knows nothing.
In trimming fruit trees he
would trim low for a head if the orchard was on a north or north-west slope,
where the strong winds prevail, or if the fruit was large. Low trimming is not
so necessary in the case of small apples, for they are not so apt to be injured
by falling as the larger ones. He would not begin to form the head until he could
walk under the lower branches to the height of six feet.
Speaking of the grub or wire
worm, which destroys corn and strawberry plants, he said that many would, after
giving a seemingly thorough examination of the strawberry roots, pronounce themselves
unable to determine the cause of the plant's dying. But had they examined more
closely the large, main root, they would have discovered one of these wire
worms at work.
The pear blight affected trees
under so many different forms, with such a multitude of surrounding
circumstances, and seemed to emanate from so many causes that was a hard matter
to determine its cause or remedy, except in special cases. For instance, he
once had a large fine pear tree near his house, and when the blight struck it,
thinking to try some means more homeopathic than he had heretofore used, he
trimmed it down to the trunk. It stopped the blight, and a tree grew from the
old trunk much handsomer in appearance than the old one, and one which proved a
bountiful yielder. But this treatment did not answer in all cases. We must not
draw conclusions from indefinite premises.
Mr. Cleary mentioned an
instance illustrating the latter assertion in which a farmer at Chenango Forks,
who owned a fine orchard, applied to him to know the cause of his trees dying.
Neither wishing nor being able to draw a conclusion from the indefinite
premises given him, he went down there and discovered moisture upon the trunks
of the trees affected for some distance from the ground. The moisture told the
story. A small wire was inserted in an opening found in the bark, was pushed up
the passage as far as it would go, and a hole being bored at its upper
extremity, the borer was discovered, it is not necessary to cut the hole, but
simply insert the wire and stab the insect. Blight is apt to strike cherry
trees which have grown too rapidly to mature sufficiently, thus having more
than its proportion of sap to the wood.
Mr. Ballard also condemned the
English white thorn as a hedge, although if allowed to grow large it is more
apt to be healthy, but if confined it amounts to nothing. Fungus and mould will
gather upon it and sap its vitality. The Osage orange will grow quite rapidly
toward fall, but the later growth will winter-kill, leaving an unsightly hedge.
The arbor vitae is the best ornamental hedge. Although it may seem as though it
would retard the growth of a hedge to cut off the leaders, yet to have a good hedge
this should be done.
A vote of thanks was moved
Messrs. Cleary and Ballard.
The next meeting will be held
in the Academy at Homer Saturday, Feb. 9, 1884, at the usual hour, when Prof.
E. J. Peck will address the Club upon the above subject.
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