174 



QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 



Sleasaring 

 Land. 



Blue Grass. 



Pulverizing 

 Soil. 



Subsoil 

 Plowing. 



Wire Grass. 



969. Q. Give me some quickly approximative rules for measuring sur- 

 face area of farm crops ? 



A. Assuming that the area of an acre is equivalent to a space seventy- 

 yards long by seventy yards wide, or 4900 square yards, we will call it for 

 easy calculation 5000 yards. Now to measure any piece of land pace o3 in 

 yards the length and multiply that length by its width, and its area is the 

 whole, or more, or the fractional part of 5000. For instance, if the length is 

 sixty yards and the width thirty-four yards, it gives an area of 2040 square 

 yards, or two-fifths of an acre, or if the length is 180 yards and the width 

 83 yards, the one multiplied by the other gives 15,100 yards or three times 

 5000, consequently the area of the piece is three acres. To lay off a desired 

 portion of an acre or more pace off in yards to see what is the length of 

 the field, and multiply it by such number of yards in width as will make 

 the proper fraction of 5000, if the space is to be under an acre, or over 

 5000 yards if the space is to be over an acre. Purchase the little book 

 titled The Farmers Land Measurer, by James Pedar. Price sixty cents. 

 It is invaluable. 



970. Q. Is not Kentucky Blue grass the best pasture grass ? 



A. It is so most decidedly. It is especially vigorous and particularly 

 durable on soils of a limestone basis, in proof of which witness the per- 

 ennial pastures, pastures good for a hundred years in the blue grass 

 regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. 



971. Q. Is it not bad practice to endeavor to pulverize the soil too 

 finely ? 



A. No ; the soil cannot be worked too intensely in any farm prepara- 

 tion for cropping. Thorough cultivation is equal to an application of 

 manure. Try it in any field for any crop ; plow a section of a plowed 

 field once more and note the result. Jethro Tull, of Berks, England, 

 made himself quite famous in 1810 to 1830 by advocating thorough tillage, 

 and subsequently thorough cultivation and hoeing, entirely in place of 

 manuring, and while he did not prove his theory he demonstrated the 

 wonderful results that could be accomplished by an intense system of 

 working the soil. 



973. Q. Is the practice of subsoil plowing beneficial to all soils ? 



A. Only on soils having a hard understrata. If the subsoil is sandy 

 down to a depth of twelve or fourteen inches — that is as deep as a subsoil 

 plow can go — subsoiling will not be of any general benefit. The only ad- 

 vantage of subsoiling is to break up hard pan that surface water may pass 

 down, or subterranean water rise, and that roots may ramify. 



973. Q. How can I eradicate wire grass? 



A. First dig it out with forks and then work the land every week. It 

 is, indeed, best, to omit a year's cropping so that the field can be worked 

 weekly. Do not give the roots a chance to get any breath through the 

 agency of surface leaves. Destroy the leaves and keep them from devel- 

 oping, and the roots will die. 



