THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
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From  Cheese  Cows  to  Chemicals. 
CLOVER  VS.  THE  MANURE  PILE. 
Record  of  an  Ohio  cheese  county ;  the  herd  fitted  to  the 
farm  products  ;  no  trade  In  “  raw  materials  clover 
a  stranger  ;  working  all  summer  to  make  a  winter 
job  ;  fertilizers  used  on  wheat  successfully  ;  just  be¬ 
ginning  with  potatoes  ;  shecj>  to  be  the  ncio  partner  of 
“  Chemicals  and  Clover.” 
Why  we  Use  Fertilizers. 
I  can  best  tell  why  we  use  fertilizers  by  briefly  stat¬ 
ing  the  system  of  farming  practiced  in  this  section  of 
Ohio — Trumbull  County — a  few  years  ago,  and  yet  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  considerable,  though  diminishing,  number 
of  farmers.  The  main,  indeed  I  might  almost  say  the 
sole  source  of  income  was  the  cow.  A  few  hogs  were 
kept — not  many,  as  this  is  not  a  very  good  corn  sec¬ 
tion — and  some  hens,  but  not  enough  of  either  to  in¬ 
crease  one’s  income  materially.  The  milk  was  sent  to 
the  cheese  factory  and  made  up  for  the  patrons.  The 
proceeds  were  divided  according  to  the  weight  of  the 
milk  sent,  no  attention  being  given  to  quality.  I 
might  say  that  this  is  the  way  the  milk  is  handled  at 
the  present  time.  Occasionally  a  man  kept  sheep  in¬ 
stead  of  cows;  but  probably  nine-tenths  of  the  farmers 
kept  the  latter.  It  did  not  matter  whether  the  farm 
was  large  or  small,  whether  it  would  support  five  or 
fifty  cows  ;  the  aim  was  to  keep  as  many  as  one  could 
pasture  and  grow  feed  for.  The  plowing  and  cropping 
were  all  done  with  a  view  of  growing  enough  feed  dur¬ 
ing  the  summer  to  winter  the  cows. 
The  sale  of  a  load  of  hay,  or  of  a  bushel  of  wheat  or 
potatoes  was  almost  an  unheard  of  thing.  To  sell  the 
hay  would  have  been  considered  “bad  farming,”  and 
as  to  wheat,  not  enough  was  grown  to  half  feed  the 
inhabitants  of  this  farming  community.  Wheat  could 
not  be  grown  without  a  liberal  use  of  manure.  Just 
enough  corn  was  grown  (not  always,  for  frequently 
we  had  to  call  on  our  Western  brothers)  to  grain  the 
cows  a  little  toward  spring.  Meadows  were  mown 
year  after  year  ;  the  longer  one  could  mow  a  meadow, 
the  more  successful  farmer  he  considered  himself ; 
that  is,  provided  he  could  get  a  little  hay.  When  the 
land  got  to  producing  much  less  than  a  ton  to  the  acre 
one  would  begin  to  think  that  it  ought  to  be  plowed  in 
a  year  or  two. 
Clover  was  not  grown  much  for  want  of  a  rotation 
short  enough.  It  did  not  fit  well  in  with  this  style  of 
farming.  So  about  the  only  source  of  fertility  was  the 
manure  pile  and  extensive  cropping  was  of  course  out 
of  the  question. 
That  dairying  can  be  so  managed  as  to  be  a  source 
of  profit  is  not  to  be  doubted.  That  the  factory  system, 
as  it  is  conducted  here,  is  not  profitable  can  be  ap¬ 
preciated  when  it  is  stated  that  the  books  of  two 
representative  cheese  factories  show  the  average  net 
proceeds  to  be  $21.51  per  cow,  the  average  rate  per 
pound  of  milk  being  6.52-100  mills.  Charging  market 
prices  for  feed  and  figuring  the  best  one  can  for  the 
cow,  there  must  be  a  loss  in  keeping  her  unless  we 
have  a  gold  mine  in  the  manure  gutter.  Can  the  farm 
be  kept  up  without  these  manure  machines,  is  the 
question  that  has  been  confronting  us. 
Weary  Work  Feeding  Poor  Cows. 
Speaking  for  myself,  I  became  very  much  dissatis¬ 
fied  with  working  all  summer  to  grow  enough  to  feed 
six  or  eight  cows  through  the  winter.  Frequently  in 
very  dry  seasons  we  were  unable  to  do  this  on  our  clay 
uplands.  Many  a  summer  after  we  had  mown  our 
own  meadows  have  I  gone  with  my  father  down  to  the 
creek  bottoms  and  cut  by  hand  a  few  loads  of  wild 
grass  from  the  pasture  lands  to  help  out  the  winter 
supply.  It  seemed  as  though  these  uplands  must  be 
better  adapted  to  growing  grain  than  grazing.  That 
which  was  next  to  impossible  before  the  introduction 
of  commercial  fertilizers  might  (?)  now  be  made  a 
success.  Having  become  interested  in  the  subject  of 
fertilizers,  I  began  their  use  in  a  small  way,  first  in 
wheat  ground,  drilling  about  200  pounds  per  acre  with 
the  wheat.  I  was  well  pleased  with  the  result  both 
as  regards  the  yield  of  wheat  and  the  stand  of  clover 
and  Timothy  following.  I  soon  found  that  $4  or  $5 
invested  in  fertilizers  would  give  better  returns,  so  far 
as  the  wheat  was  concerned,  and  as  good  a  catch  of 
clover  as  12  or  15  two-horse  loads  of  stable  manure. 
“Chemicals  and  clover”  seemed  to  be  more  than  a 
match  for  a  limited  manure  pile,  and  the  wheat  crop 
beat  the  cheese  factory.  Will  it  hold  out?  It  has 
every  appearance  of  doing  so.  An  increased  yield  of 
wheat  and  double  the  number  of  tons  of  clover  and 
Timothy  to  the  acre  indicate  that  it  will  more  than 
hold  out.  I  now  use  about  300  pounds  per  acre  and 
find  that  the  extra  100  pounds  more  than  pays  for 
itself  in  the  yield  of  wheat  alone.  I  have  not  yet 
satisfactorily  determined  whether  more  is  needed  or 
not.  As  to  the  kind  of  fertilizer,  I  think  it  is  best  to 
use  one  containing  at  least  three  to  four  per  cent  of 
ammonia,  10  to  15  per  cent  of  soluble  phosphoric  acid 
and  two  to  four  per  cent  of  potash.  I  have  no  special 
preference  for  any  particular  make,  but  aim  to  deal 
with  old  reliable  manufacturers.  . 
Fertilizer  Bags  Fill  Cars  "With  Wheat. 
As  a  result  of  the  use  of  fertilizers  on  wheat  in  this 
section,  it  should  be  stated  that  while  only  half  sup¬ 
plying  the  local  demand  under  the  stable  manure 
regime,  it  is  now  possible  to  ship  car-load  after  car¬ 
load  from  our  railroad  station.  More  acres  are  devoted 
to  wheat  growing,  but,  what  is  of  more  importance, 
there  has  been  a  vast  increase  in  the  product  per  acre. 
Fertilizers  should  not  have  all  the  credit  for  this,  how¬ 
ever,  for  better  tillage  has  been  an  important  factor. 
Still  it  remains  an  undisputed  fact  that  they  are  the 
foundation. 
We  do  not  always  have  as  good  results  in  the  use 
of  fertilizers  with  corn  as  with  wheat.  In  a  wet  sea¬ 
son  I  find  them  beneficial  to  corn,  but  in  a  very  dry 
one  I  have  known  corn  to  be  injured — burnt  up — by 
their  use.  The  fertilizer  is  drilled  with  the  corn;  very 
likely  were  it  sown  broadcast  and  harrowed  in,  there 
would  be  no  danger.  [We  think  you  are  right. — Eds.] 
I  have  only  just  begun  to  use  fertilizer  on  the  potato 
crop.  I  have  not  thought  that  we  could  grow  potatoes 
in  a  large  way  for  market  very  successfully,  as  our  soil 
is  a  little  heavy.  But  with  clover  to  be  plowed  under 
Where  Stable  Manure  is  Wasted.  Fig.  80. 
From  a  Cornell  Bulletin.  (See  Page  131). 
and  a  liberal  use  of  the  high-grade  potato  manures,  it 
seems  probable  that  success  may  be  had.  The  potato 
manures  so  general^  used  in  the  East  have  not  come 
into  much  use  here  yet.  Last  season  I  experimented 
in  a  small  way,  using  an  ordinary  phosphate  (valued 
at  $30  per  ton  by  our  State  analysis — not  as  rich  in 
nitrogen  or  potash  as  I  think  was  needed),  and  found 
the  increase  in  the  potato  crop  to  be  24  bushels  per 
acre  for  an  application  of  900  pounds  fertilizer,  and  44 
bushels  for  1,800  pounds  per  acre.  The  increase  in  the 
potato  crop,  at  40  cents  a  bushel,  would  pay  a  little 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  cost  of  the  fertilizer  in  the 
first  case.  This  is  the  report  of  one  season  with  an  in¬ 
ferior  fertilizer.  I  hope  to  continue  the  experiment 
this  year  with  a  complete  potato  manure. 
At  present,  then,  it  seems  that  it  is  not  necessary  for 
me  to  feed  cattle  for  the  sake  of  making  manure  to 
keep  up  the  farm.  Though  plowing  more  land  and 
mowing  fewer  acres  (now,  as  a  general  thing,  I  mow  a 
meadow  only  one  season)  I  find  that  I  could  keep  more 
cows  than  was  possible  under  the  old  system.  The 
The  Fertilizer  Farmer's  Barnyard.  Fig.  81. 
(See  page  131.) 
question  is,  is  it  profitable  to  do  so  ?  Managed  prop¬ 
erly,  cow  keeping  could  be  made  profitable,  but  it  does 
not  make  a  satisfactory  combination.  Summer  dairy¬ 
ing  takes  too  much  time  when  we  have  other  employ¬ 
ment.  Winter  dairying,  the  women  say,  requires  too 
much  work  when  they  don’t  want  to  work.  On  the 
whole,  I  think  the  mutton  sheep  the  best  stock  one 
can  keep  in  this  connection,  especially  if  he  has  not  a 
good  market  for  clover  hay  and  wants  to  feed  it.  I 
prefer  to  feed  it  and  sell  products  not  so  rich  in  fertil¬ 
izing  material.  c.  G.  williams. 
*  *  * 
Lady  Bugs  and  Lice. — On  page  72  The  R.  N.-Y.,  in 
speaking  of  insects,  tells  the  truth.  Last  summer  the 
plant  lice  were  the  worst  I  ever  saw,  and  at  the  mills 
at  Kinderhook,  Ill.,  I  saw,  in  wheat  that  had  just  been 
thrashed  from  the  shock,  the  bodies  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  live,  dead  and  dying  lady  bugs,  and  I  felt 
like  saying,  “Don’t  thrash  your  wheat  from  the 
shock.”  E.  A. 
February  27 
Even  Pet  Jerseys  Must  Go! 
FERTILIZERS  FOR  AN  ILLINOIS  DAIRY  FARM. 
On  page  320  of  last  year’s  R.  N.-Y.  we  gave  an 
account  of  the  farming  done  at  “  Lillycache,”  the  90- 
acre  farm  of  Mr.  P.  II.  Monroe,  near  Joliet.  Ill.  Mr. 
Monroe  has  made  about  as  much  of  a  success  of 
“farming”  as  has  any  man  we  know  of.  His  chief 
crops  are  clover,  corn  and  oats  with  a  permanent 
Timothy  meadow  of  five  acres.  The  Timothy  is  all 
sold,  as  are  also  some  grain  and  clover  seed.  The  rest 
is  all  fed  to  Jersey  cows,  Shropshire  sheep,  Jersey  Red 
swine  and  Plymouth  Rock  hens.  The  Jersey  butter 
and  the  eggs  are  sold  to  special  customers  and  the 
whole  farm  prospers  greatly.  One  would  almost  think 
Mr.  Monroe  had  about  reached  the  limit  of  happy 
farming,  but  it  appears  that  he  is  still  “looking 
upward.”  We  take  the  liberty  of  printing  this  extract 
from  a  recent  private  letter  from  him.  What  he  says 
is  well  worth  thinking  over,  particularly  as  it  comes 
from  a  Western  man  who  stands  head  and  shoulders 
above  the  majority  in  his  success  with  live  stock  ^ 
Mr.  Monroe  has  one  great  advantage  in  the  fact  that 
his  farm  is  level,  compact,  and  well  drained. 
‘  ‘  I  have  read  with  deep  interest  your  ‘  Che  micals 
and  Clover’  pamphlet,  and  instead  of  disagreeing  with 
it,  I  am  heartily  in  accord  with  this  doctrine.  The 
only  questionable  thing  I  see  about  its  feasibility  is  the 
quality  of  the  fertilizer — can  we  always  get  what  we 
pay  for?  All  of  our  farmers  are  not  chemists 
and  how  are  we  to  know  in  advance  that  the  fertilizer 
we  buy  comes  up  to  the  standard  ?  When  a  farmer 
falls  into  this  line  of  farming,  his  success  seems  depen¬ 
dent  on  the  honesty  of  the  manufacturer  of  his  fertil¬ 
izers.  His  first  crops  will  show  their  value  of  course^ 
but  if  adulterated,  the  result  is  loss,  the  repetition  of 
which  can  be  averted  in  succeeding  crops  only  by  know¬ 
ing  in  advance  what  one  is  sowing.  I  have  never  used 
a  spoonful  of  commercial  fertilizer,  and  this  point  has 
been  suggested  by  neighbors  with  whom  I  have  talked 
on  the  subject.  [Is  the  barnyard  always  honest  ? — Eds.] 
I  have  been  interested  in  Mr.  Lewis’s  success  from 
the  first  articles  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  detailing  his  opera¬ 
tions,  and  have  since  closely  studied  everything  bear¬ 
ing  on  this  matter,  with  the  view  of  adopting  the  sys¬ 
tem  myself  as  soon  as  the  change  can  be  made  without 
too  great  a  sacrifice,  as  I  believe  my  little  farm  is  well 
adapted  to  it  and  it  promises  more  leisure  for  thought 
and  other  lines  of  work  which  I  like,  but  in  which  I  can - 
not  indulge  in  a  satisfactory  way  with  my  present  sys¬ 
tem.  I  prefer  dairy  farming  and  have  been  enthusi¬ 
astic  to  find  out  the  possibilities  of  my  farm  in  that 
line,  but  will  be  obliged  to  give  it  up.  I  can  grow 
enough  forage  on  an  acre  to  keep  four  cows  a  full  year,, 
which  means  more  work  to  care  for  a  herd  of  the  size 
our  farm  could  carry  than  myself  and  son  could  do, 
and  hired  help  is  out  of  the  question.  I  love  my  cows, 
but  when  the  dairy  is  the  specialty,  it  is  very  exacting 
and  demands  the  owner’s  entire  time,  and  when,  as  in 
my  case,  no  labor  is  hired,  it  seems  as  though  my 
wages  are  too  low,  although  labor-saving  devices  are 
applied  in  every  possible  way.  Cheap  labor  could  do 
much  that  I  am  compelled  to  do,  but  the  average  hired 
man  is  a  delusion,  and  I  will  not  allow  him  to  abuse 
my  pets,  nor  must  I  impose  the  additional  burdens  on 
my  wife  and  daughter,  which  his  presence  in  our  home 
would  create. 
I  speak  of  the  average  “  hired  man  ”  as  we  find  him 
here  in  Illinois  near  Chicago.  The  better  class  are 
hard  to  find  and  harder  to  keep,  as,  after  one  or  two 
seasons,  they  are  ready  to  rent  a  farm  and  soon  become 
owners. 
Since  our  “boy”  commenced  his  school,  in  October,  I 
have  been  keeping  step  to  a  lively  march  in  getting 
everything  snug  for  winter  and  waiting  on  our  large 
and  increasing  four-footed  family,  and  soon  after  I  had 
been  thus  left  alone,  I  found  myself  reasoning  some¬ 
thing  like  this  :  What  a  help  “  Wales  ”  is  to  me  !  How 
can  I  do  all  this  work  without  him  ?  Still  he  must  go¬ 
to  school  and,  having  outgrown  our  district  school,  the 
high-school  in  the  village,  3%  miles  distant,  is  the  only 
alternative  ;  while  to  drive  seven  miles  in  all  conditions 
of  roads  and  weather  and  milk  six  or  seven  cows  night 
and  morning  and  care  for  his  horse,  is  hardly  fair  to 
him,  but  is  inevitable  this  winter  ;  but  I  will  study  out 
some  line  or  system  whereby  equally  fair  profits  can 
be  secured  from  the  farm  during  the  five  or  six  months 
of  “growing”  weather,  when  it  is  pleasant  and  com¬ 
fortable,  and  a  pleasure  to  do  the  work  of  growing,, 
harvesting  and  marketing  the  crops,  and  have  the 
remaining  months  for  needed  recreation  and  profitable 
occupation  in  other  lines. 
“Chemicals  and  clover”  seem  to  offer  an  easy  solu¬ 
tion  of  this  problem.  Our  land  produces  the  finest 
potatoes,  and  I  have  never  had  a  failure,  but  in  every 
case  of  failure  of  the  crop  among  my  neighbors  I  have 
been  able  to  supply  them  to  the  extent  of  our  sur 
plus,  and  we  always  have  special  customers  in  our 
butter  trade  for  our  Snowflakes,  which  I  have  grown 
almost  exclusively  for  the  past  10  years,  though  in  a 
