THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
232 
How  to  Fertilize  That  Corn  Field. 
SHALL,  WK  BUY  OH  “CATCH”  NITROGEN? 
[On  page  13),  Mr.  J.  D.  Sterrett,  of  Rockbridge  County,  Va,,  asked  for 
Information  regarding  the  best  way  to  increase  the  fertility  of  his 
farm.  He  has  corn,  wheat,  grass  and  cattle.  He  wants  to  so  fertilize 
his  corn  crop  that  the  yield  of  that  crop  will  increase  and  also  cause 
the  land  to  produce  more  wheat  and  grass.  This  would  mean  more 
wheat  to  sell  and  more  cattle  to  fatten.  Wbatlsbest  for  him  to  do? 
The  following  notes  state  the  arguments  In  favor  of  using  “  complete  ” 
fertilizers  or  only  potash  and  phosphoric  acid.] 
Advice  from  a  “Chemicals  and  Clover”  Farmer, 
If  I  understand  Mr.  Sterrett  he  is  making  cattle  a 
specialty  and  wishes  to  continue  to  do  so,  and  if  he 
could  increase  his  corn,  wheat  and  hay  crops,  he  would 
increase  the  number  of  his  cattle.  He  is  evidently 
making  considerable  yard  manure.  I  would  suggest 
that  he  should  broadcast  it  over  his  sod  field 
previous  to  plowing  for  corn.  If  he  has  not  enough  to 
go  over  the  entire  field  with  a  moderate  application, 
then  he  should  supplement  it  with  a  special  corn  man¬ 
ure — 500  pounds  per  acre — and  when  he  has  put  on  the 
yard  manure,  let  him  apply,  say,  250  or  300  pounds  of 
fertilizers  representing  less  ammonia  and  potash  and 
more  phosphoric  acid.  This  may  all  be  applied  with 
the  grain  drill  in  quantities  up  to  700  pounds  per  acre, 
or  more  if  necessary. 
He  follows  corn  with  wheat,  of  course.  I  do  not 
know  the  producing  power  of  his  soil.  I  would  also 
suggest  that  he  increase  the  quantity  of  chemical 
fertilizers  on  on i  acre  of  the  field.  Let  him  put  an 
additional  100  pounds  on  one  acre  on  which  he  has  ap¬ 
plied  stable  manure,  and  on  another  acre  on  which  he 
has  put  none.  He  could  see  from  the  effects  of  this 
increased  quantity,  whether  the  yield  would  warrant 
the  outlay.  Now,  at  the  time  of  sowing  wheat  in  his 
case,  I  would  apply  500  pounds  of  a  complete  com¬ 
mercial  fertilizer  representing,  say,  four  per  cent  of 
ammonia,  10  to  12  per  cent  of  phosphoric  acid  and  four 
per  cent  of  potash.  He  might  also  try  another  fertilizer 
with  less  ammonia,  more  phosphoric  acid  and  less 
potash.  That  would  ask  the  soil  whether  it  was 
especially  deficient  in  any  of  these  elements  of  plant 
food.  I  believe  the  whole  difficulty  with  him  is  that 
he  is  too  sparing  in  his  use  of  chemical  fertilizers.  I 
apply  1,200  pounds  per  acre  on  my  potato  crop,  and 
sow  400  pounds  per  acre  on  my  wheat  at  the  time  of 
sowing.  D.  c.  LEWIS. 
of  the  land,  otherwise,  properly  made  into  hay,  it  will 
prove  a  valuable  provender  if  cut  at  that  stage  of 
growth.  When  in  the  course  of  the  rotation  the  same 
land  has  been  put  again  in  corn,  it  may  prove  prefer¬ 
able  to  sow  Sapling  instead  of  Crimson,  alone  in  the 
crop.  The  small  mineral  requirements  of  the  latter  it 
might  be  said  here,  and  the  fact  of  its  growing  during 
the  moist  season  of  the  year,  enable  it  to  make  a  good 
crop  on  land  too  poor  to  produce  Red  Clover.  As  will 
be  perceived,  the  key  to  the  whole  system  is  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  the  largest  attainable  bulk  of  vegetable 
matter  to  plow  under,  and  for  that  purpose  the  legum¬ 
inous  plants  are  the  best.  With  that  object  in  view, 
whenever  the  land  does  not  carry  a  fair  crop,  it  should 
always  be  put  in  cow  peas,  Crimson  Clover  or  rye, 
according  to  circumstances.  After  the  land  has  been 
April  9 
strips,  which  will  show  at  a  glance  the  effect  of  each 
fertilizer  on  the  several  crops. 
The  question  of  suitable  implements  for  the  above 
operations,  as  to  which  Mr.  S.  desires  some  informa¬ 
tion,  calls  for  a  few  more  lines  to  this  already  exces¬ 
sively  long  communication. 
On  the  writer’s  farm,  clover  is  sown  in  standing 
corn  from  a  Cahoon  seeder,  and  from  horseback. 
Peas  are  drilled  in  the  com  in  two  rows  by  a  Victor 
drill  and  fertilizer,  and  clover  sown  by  a  Seymour 
combined  broad-casting  machine.  Several  other  im¬ 
plements  of  the  latter  kind  are  on  the  market.  To 
sow  floats,  it  will  be  found  useful  to  have  a  double 
curtain  made  up  of  old  bags  or  other  material,  hung 
from  the  hopper,  and  steadied  a  few  inches  from  the 
ground  by  two  stiff  sticks,  the  two  curtains  being 
joined  together  at  the  sides.  A.  gerard. 
The  Baby  Corn  Plant. 
Before  we  get  our  baby  we  must  plant  the  seed,  and 
this  seed  should  be  from  well  ripened  ears  that  have 
been  allowed  to  dry  in  a  place  where  the  air  had  a 
chance  to  circulate.  I  have  never  fire-dried  seed  corn 
or  taken  any  special  pains  with  it  except  to  see  that  it 
was  dry  enough  not  to  mold  after  it  was  put  into  a 
slatted  corn  house.  The  seed  should  be  planted  from 
1  to  1%  inch  deep  according  to  the  character  of  the 
soil,  and,  if  in  drills  3%  feet  apart,  one  grain  every  15 
inches  will  not  be  too  close  for  this  climate — that  of 
Baltimore  County,  Md.  If  in  hills— rows  3>£  feet 
each  way— only  three  or  four  grains  should  be  planted 
in  a  hill,  to  be  thinned  out  to  two  plants  after  the  first 
working. 
Cultivation  should  begin  soon  after  the  corn  is 
planted,  by  going  over  the  field  with  a  Breed’s  weeder 
or  a  Thomas  smoothing  harrow;  then,  as  soon  as  the 
rows  can  be  seen,  the  cultivator  should  be  put  to  work 
and  when  the  corn  gets  three  or  four  inches  high,  and 
a  little  tough,  Breed’s  weeder  should  be  again  put  in 
the  field  to  clean  out  all  weeds  left  in  hills  or  drills. 
If  the  crop  can  be  cultivated  once  a  week  it  will  be 
none  too  often,  though  once  in  two  weeks  will  do 
unless  a  packing  rain  comes  or  the  season  is  very  dry  ; 
in  either  case  the  stirring  of  the  surface  soil  will  be 
useful. 
Our  Baby’s  Feed. — The  baby  corn  plant,  if  it  is 
grown  on  the  right  kind  of  soil  as  regards  dryness  and 
tilth,  is  a  hearty  feeder,  and  if  the  soil  is  naturally 
rich  it  will  get  all  the  feed  it  wants  ;  but  as  there  are 
few  such  soils  we  must  take  precautions  to  provide 
plenty  of  feed  for  our  baby,  for  the  first  thing  it  does 
after  it  wakes  up  from  its  soil-crib  is  to  yell  for  some¬ 
thing  to  eat.  Its  “  yell”  is  not  a  sound  but  a  color, 
yellow ,  and  it  will  show  in  a  few  days  whether  it  has 
enough  feed  or  not. 
The  next  best  thing  after  a  naturally  rich  soil  is  one 
made  rich  by  stable  manure;  given  plenty  of  that,  our 
baby  will  keep  as  green  as  a  gourd  and  grow  almost 
as  rapidly.  But  suppose  we  have  not  enough  stable 
manure,  what  shall  we  do  then  ?  Why,  just  as  we  do 
with  the  human  baby  deprived  of  its  natural  nour¬ 
ishment,  we  must  give  it  a  prepared  food;  and  do  not 
the  fertilizer  manufacturers,  like  the  human  body  food 
makers,  give  photographs  of  the  baby  corn  plant  fed 
entirely  by  their  baby  corn  feed?  So,  if  we  have  not 
the  stable  manure,  we  must  use  the  special  chemical 
corn  manures  and  where  the  soil  is  adapted  for  their 
use — this  is  a  proviso  that  must  always  be  taken  into 
consideration — we  can  feed  our  baby  more  economically 
than  if  we  gave  it  stable  manure. 
“  Keep  my  Feet  Dry  !  ” — This  is  the  baby’s  constant 
demand  from  the  time  it  is  born  till  it  reaches  cornhood. 
There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  make  the  baby  thrive  in 
soil  that  is  just  a  little  bit  too  damp  ;  it  won’t  do  it ; 
it  will  show  better  where  the  ground  needs  draining 
than  any  plant  I  know.  In  cultivating,  we  necessari¬ 
ly  disturb  baby’s  feet  more  or  less;  in  fact,  cut  oft'  a 
good  many  of  its  toes,  but  this  does  no  harm  unless 
the  weather  be  very  dry.  In  an  ordinary  season  I 
have  never  seen  baby  droop  its  leaves  for  a  moment 
because  the  cultivator  teeth  had  bitten  off  some— a 
good  many— of  its  toes.  Why  do  we  cultivate  ?  To 
kill  weeds,  keep  the  soil  loose  and  prevent  it  from 
drying  out.  Yes,  and  I  believe  there  is  a  fourth  rea¬ 
son,  and  that  is,  the  soil  deeply  stirred  will  the  more 
readily  give  up  its  plant  food,  will  permit  the  air  to 
circulate  deeper  and  produce  a  greater  yield  than  if 
only  surface-worked.  When  I  got  my  first  Blush  Po¬ 
tato  from  The  Rural,  I  planted  it  in  the  garden  and 
gave  it  no  extra  fertilizing  except  that  I  cultivated 
the  hills  with  a  shovel  once  or  twice,  spading  up  the 
ground  six  or  seven  inches  deep.  The  yield  was  at 
the  rate  of  1,200  bushels  per  acre.  How  much  this 
deep  cultivation  benefited  the  crop  I  do  not  know,  but 
believe  very  much.  Therefore,  if  the  cultivator  teeth 
go  deep,  and  disturb  baby’s  root  system  not  a  little, 
I  don’t  mind  it,  but  I  want  the  ground  kept  level  all 
the  time,  no  hilling  up.  To  grow  our  baby  from  the 
Minerals  and  Green  Crops  to  the  Rescue. 
The  main  shortcoming  in  Mr.  John  D.  Sterrett’s  farm¬ 
ing  lies  in  a  deficiency  of  humus  in  his  soil  and  for  the 
present  his  chief  aim  should  be  to  supply  that  defi¬ 
ciency.  All  Southern  uplands  that  have  been  long  in 
cultivation,  have  been  drained  of  humus,  generally 
also  of  their  phosphates,  but  if  resting  on  a  dry  subsoil 
they  will  be  found  to  possess  an  ample  supply  of 
potash.  As  to  nitrogen,  the  third  element  needed  for 
fertility,  it  must  be  secured  by  the  plowing  under  of 
leguminous  crops,  the  commercial  article  being  too  ex¬ 
pensive  to  be  used  in  economic  farming,  except  in  very 
small  quantities  only,  and  for  the  purpose  of  pushing 
forward  growth.  All  the  above  has  been  said  for  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  mode  of  farming  here  in 
Westmoreland  County,  Va.,  to  be  now  outlined. 
On  land  devoid  of  vegetable  matter,  following  corn 
with  wheat,  whether  with  200  pounds  of  a  cheap  fer¬ 
tilizer  or  2,000  pounds  of  the  very  best,  wouldn’t  result 
otherwise  than  in  a  dead  loss,  the  lack  of  moisture  in 
such  land  not  allowing  the  wheat  plant  to  develop. 
The  writer  speaks  advisedly  on  that  question  from  re¬ 
peated  experiments  on  plots  of  a  variety  of  soils.  For 
a  rotation  beginning  with  corn,  for  which  crop,  in 
general  farming,  all  the  manure  made  during  the  year 
and  not  needed  for  truck,  should  be  used,  it  is  recom¬ 
mended,  to  cultivate  the  corn  for  the  last  time  about 
the  middle  of  August  and  sow  four  quarts  of  Crimson 
Clover  seed  immediately  after  the  cultivation.  That 
clover  will  be  in  full  bloom  in  Rockbridge  County,  Va., 
in  the  early  part  of  May,  when  it  should  be  turned 
under  and  the  land  drilled  to  one  bushel  of  cow  peas, 
or  some  variety  of  rank-growing  millet  if  cow  peas 
don’t  succeed  on  the  land.  As  to  the  best  and  cheapest 
fertilizer  to  be  used,  the  writer  would  spread  200 
pounds  of  soda  before  plowing  the  land  for  the  corn 
and  broadcast  a  mixture  of  50  pounds  of  nitrate  of  soda 
and  150  pounds  of  floats  lightly  harrowed  before  plant¬ 
ing  the  crop.  These  fertilizers  will  be  ample  for  the  corn 
and  the  two  following  green  crops  to  be  turned  in  for 
the  wheat  crop.  Before  seeding  the  latter,  it  will  be 
advisable  to  broadcast  again  50  pounds  of  nitrate  of 
soda  and  100  pounds  of  floats,  the  same  dressing  to  be 
repeated  in  sowing  the  clover  on  the  wheat ;  after 
which  400  pounds  of  floats  will  be  found  abundant  for 
the  three  years’  rotation  of  corn,  wheat  and  clover. 
Sapling  Clover  should  be  used  as  giving-  the  larger 
growth.  After  the  wheat  harvest  and  the  fall  growth 
of  the  weeds  that  will  spring  up  on  the  land,  the 
stubble  should  be  mowed  down  and  remain  on  the 
ground  and  so  should  the  following  clover  crop,  as  soon 
as  it  comes  in  bloom,  if  it  can  be  spared  for  the  benefit 
thus  sufficiently  improved  and  a  crop  of  wheat  is  in¬ 
tended  to  follow  the  corn,  the  latter  should  have  invari¬ 
ably  one  bushel  of  cow  peas  per  acre  cultivated  in  not 
later  than  the  early  part  of  July,  drilling,  however, 
being  preferable.  So  much  for  the  remunerative  pro¬ 
duction  of  corn,  wheat  and  hay  on  the  worn  lands  of 
Virginia  and  Southern  lands  generally. 
'I  he  mode  of  testing  fertilizers  advised  by  The 
Rural  is  most  excellent,  and  if  followed  by  the 
Device  for  Hauling  Corn.  Fig.  122. 
farmers  of  the  South  would  save  them  millions  of  dol¬ 
lars,  as  it  has  saved  thousands  to  the  writer  by 
putting  it  in  practice  some  twenty  years  ago.  Speak¬ 
ing  from  past  experience,  he  also  would  advise  sowing 
at  intervals,  and  at  the  rate  of  say  400  pounds  per 
acre,  so  as  to  secure  a  quick  test,  but  separated  from 
each  other,  first,  bone,  next  muriate  of  potash,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  strip  of  a  mixture  of  the  two,  and,  second, 
For  description  of  cuts  see  page  239. 
three  like  strips  with  floats  replacing  the  bone.  Floats 
are  the  cheapest  form  of  phosphate  put  on  the  market 
as  yet,  and  are  used  by  the  writer  in  preference  to  all 
other  phosphates.  Complete  manures  or  superphos¬ 
phates  he  absolutely  avoids  as  being  needlessly  ex¬ 
pensive,  the  superphosphates,  whether  plain  or  com¬ 
bined,  presenting  the  further  disadvantage  of  being 
liable  to  revert  in  the  soil  to  phosphate  of  iron  or  alum¬ 
inum  combinations  much  more  insoluble  than  the 
original  one.  Now,  in  testing  crops  on  the  above  ex¬ 
perimental  strips,  it  will  be  found  preferable  to  run 
brands  of  the  leading  crops  of  the  farm,  across  those 
