M 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



growth, it being equally erect and more elastic than 

 either oat or wheat straw. The greater extent of 

 silicated surface in a crop of rye straw will pro- 

 bably be in excess of that of oats and wheat, for 

 the same number of plants, in about the degree 

 that rye straw is the taller or larger of the three. 

 We cannot determine this with exactitude, nor is 

 this necessary; for, though their composition is 

 similar, wheat will not flourish on many soils, for 

 which, in the same condition, rye does tolerably 

 well. (It is to this fact that may, in part, be as- 

 cribed the settlement of Germans on much of the 

 poorest and most sandy land in the West, as for 

 mstance the settlement of New Holland, Michigan, 

 and the more extensive, though scattered one north 

 >f the For or Neenah river, Wisconsin. These 

 plodding, industrious and eminently worthy citi- 

 <ens have been familiar with rye on sandy lands in 

 •Germany; and rye bread is their staple food in 

 nany instances — hence they can live on lands too 

 ooor to support costlier habits.) It is, however, a 

 amiliar fact that rye will flourish on soil too sandy, 

 oo deficient in vegetable mold to produce a crop, 

 >r half one even, of wheat. The question I wish 

 ■o suggest is : To what peculiar power in the rye 

 >lant is this success due? When both plants grow 

 on similar soil, there is no essential difference in 

 their general composition apparent. But when rye 

 flourishes where wheat will not, where the soil is 

 too sandy, I have long thought such success due in 

 a considerable degree to the power of the rye plant 

 to dissolve silica in a greater degree than is true 

 of wheat; because its composition, when grown, 

 shows that it did dissolve, for it comprises more in 

 its straw than wheat does. 



One reason why wheat succeeds after the quan- 

 tity of humus or vegetable matter has been 

 increased, is undoubtedly to bt found in the greater 

 supply of ammonia or nitrogen, of which wheat 

 requires a little more than rye, that is found as con- 

 stituent of all vegetable matter in the soil. The 

 substance of rye plowed in supplies this necessary 

 to wheat. But this does not explain why rye will 

 grow where wheat fails. 



If, as I suspect, the success of rye is due to a 

 peculiar power in dissolving silica more rapidly 

 than is true of any of our other well known cul- 

 tivated plants, then the inference suggests itself 

 that rye is precisely the plant to prepare silica, 

 and perhaps other minerals, for more delicately 

 constituted plants, like wheat, oats and corn. 

 There are certain elementary forms of mineral 

 matter, which some plants have no power, even 

 with the aid of the great transforming agent, 

 oxygen, to modify or break up. This may be true 

 as to wheat in relation to crude silica. Other 

 plants differently constituted, in some peculiarity, 

 have such a power. This may be true — and if it 

 is not, I am mistaken — of rye in relation to crude 

 silica. 



Often, silica has been changed from its crude 

 form by the rye plant, its original crude and, to 

 wheat, unassimilable form, has been broken up and 

 changed, and thus reduced to a different or new 

 form with new proportions suitable for the nutri- 

 tion and growth of wheat. We know that one 

 animal can digest and assimilate substances that 

 are impossible of digestion with another. And the 

 succession of different species of plants on the 



same soil proves something like this to be true of 

 vegetables. If rye has this power, it may be 

 turned to gcod account in bringing the crude min- 

 eral of sandy soils into a condition suitable for the 

 nutrition and growth of wheat, which is of more 

 general importance and value. J. w. clabkb. 

 WUconein. 



A USEFUL IMPLEMENT. 



All farmers and gardeners have felt the neces- 

 sity of some hand implement, to enable them to 

 cultivate crops planted or sown in drills, from one 

 to two feet apart, with less labor than that of using 

 a common hand hoe. The cultivation of field crops 

 of beets, onions, carrots, turnips, etc., in drills 

 twelve to eighteen inches apart, by the use of the 

 hoe alone, involves a good deal of time and ex- 

 pense, and if we can contrive, or invent any im- 

 plement, with which we can do the work more 

 effectually, and in less time, than can be done with 

 the hoe, we should avail ourselves of it. 



I am now making for my own use a couple of 

 cheap hand harrows, to run between the rows of 

 vegetables, as soon as up, and so frequently there- 

 after, that the weeds will be effectually kept down 

 by it, except immediately in the rows, which 

 may be pulled out rapidly by small boys, who can 

 do little else. 



To illustrate the use of this implement, I will 

 take a field of carrots, sown in drills fifteen inches 

 apart. The land should be free from stones, and 

 large clumps of earth, where the seed is sown, as 

 all lands should be, when sown to drill crops, and 

 as soon as the carrots appear, let a drag be pushed 

 through the rows, made as follows : 



Take .a hard wood plank, two inches thick, and 

 one foot wide, from which cut off a piece eighteen 

 inches long ; then cut off* one end with a broad ax, 

 or a hatchet, so as to turn up, like the runner of a 

 sled, so far as the thickness of the plank will ad- 

 mit. Into this plank drive spikes (40 penny nails) 

 in rows, from one to two inches apart, till it is 

 completely filled, up to the curve in front, which 

 will leave the small ends of the nails protruding 

 long enough to make an effective harrow on a small 

 scale. On the back of this harrow, a little past the 

 center towards the back end, attach a handle of 

 suitable length, secured to an iron strap with two 

 arms, coming to a union twelve or eighteen inches 

 above the drag, where a shoulder should receive 

 the handle, which should have a cross piece at th« 

 end to take hold of to make it complete. 



The cultivation of the crops consists merely in 

 pushing this drag before you, about once in two 

 weeks, through the rows, a man going over an acre 

 in two hours, leaving the thinning out and weeding 

 on the line of the rows to boys. 



I have learned that this system, differing merely 

 by drawing instead of pushing the impleme'nt, has 

 been practiced by an inventive "Yankee," with 

 the most complete success; and if it be feasible, I 

 shall avail myself of its advantages next season, 

 and I hope that others will make a trial of it, since 

 none of us are too old to learn. Different sizes 

 will be required for different width of thill-;, and it 

 remains to be shown, how near the width of th» 

 drills the drags, or rather pushers, can be made, 

 and not cut up the crops. t. b. mines 



Clinton, If. T. 



