1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
3 1 5 
clouds  all  the  following  morning,  the  neighbor  we 
were  then  helping  decided  not  to  start  the  reaper 
until  noon.  As  soon  as  my  chief  learned  this,  he  said 
he  would  pat  in  the  forenoon  plowing  corn. 
The  corn  was  up  to  our  shoulders  and  too  high  to 
plow  with  double  plows,  so  we  each  took  one  horse 
and  a  double-shovel  plow  and  went  at  it.  “  Plow  close 
enough  to  make  your  ridges  meet  in  the  row,*’  were 
his  orders.  The  points  of  my  plow  ran  nearly  six 
inches  deep,  and  every  time  I  passed  a  hill  of  corn  I 
could  hear  the  roots  pop.  Now  everything  I  had  read 
on  this  subject  was  diametrically  opposed  to  this  sort 
of  work,  and  naturally  I  supposed  we  were  playing 
smash. 
About  10  o'clock  we  sat  down  to  rest  a  while,  and  I 
told  him  what  I  thought  of  our  performance,  giving  my 
reasons,  which  were  simply  those  of  several  well- 
known  agricultural  writers.  “  Fudge  !  ”  said  he, 
“You  can’t  farm  by  set  rules  and  make  a  success  of  it. 
Every  season  is  different  in  some  respects  from  all 
others,  and  if  you  want  to  make  a  crop  you  must  farm 
according  to  the  season.  I’ve  read  all  those  reasons 
you’ve  given  me,  but  I  haven’t  farmed  12  years  for 
nothing.  Now,  see  here  !  you  notice  this  soil  is  damp, 
and  is  crusted  on  the  surface  and  somewhat  packed 
beneath.  A  crust  like  this  seems  to  prevent  nitrifica¬ 
tion-— I  suppose  you  know  what  that  is — and  the  corn 
apparently  is  unable  to  obtain  what  it  most  needs,  and 
consequently  neither  the  ears  nor  the  grains  fill  out 
properly.  Freaking  off  these  roots  will  not  injure  the 
plants  one-tenth  as  much  as  this  crust  does.  We  could 
break  up  this  crust  by  simply  scratching  the  surface, 
but  that  wohld  not  ldosen  and  aerate  the  soil  beneath, 
which  you  see  is  needed.  If  the 
soil  were  dry  and  loose,  and  the 
weather  hot  as  it  is  now,  we  would 
be  doing  more  harm  than  good. 
In  a  dry  season  corn  roots  are  long 
and  reach  far  out  and  down  for 
inoisture,  and  to  break  them  off 
Would  be  the  height  of  foolishness, 
because  it  would  be  breaking  off 
the  plant’s  drinking  tubes — really 
cutting  its  throat.  Or,  if  the  soil 
were  wet  and  pasty,  this  work 
would  do  more  harm  than  good, 
because  the  ground  would  bake 
as  hard  as  a  brick,  and  wherever 
our  horses  set  a  foot  would  be  a 
solid  clod.  I  am  well  aware  that 
many  good  farmers  believe  that 
breaking  the  roots  of  growing  corn 
is  ruination,  but  that  depends  alto¬ 
gether  upon  the  conditions  actually 
present.  The  conditions  are  now 
just  right  for  what  we  are  doing. 
“In  a  season  like  this — neither  wet  nor  dry — it  pays 
well  to  keep  the  soil  between  the  rows  and  close  to 
the  plants  loose  and  mellow  to  the  depth  of  five  or  six 
inches  until  the  corn  begins  to  shoot  the  tassel.  If  I 
could  get  a  reliable  hand  for  any  sort  of  reasonable 
wages  I  would  have  this  whole  field  plowed  right  now, 
just  as  we  are  plowing  it.  You  notice  this  field  two 
weeks  from  now  and  see  the  difference  between  the 
rows  we  plow  to-day  and  those  un plowed.” 
Eleven  days  afterward  I  rode  past  the  field,  and  the 
corn  we  plowed  that  forenoon  averaged  a  foot  higher 
than  the  rest  and  had  a  darker  and  healthier  appear¬ 
ance.  A  strip  of  six  rows  near  the  middle  of  the  field 
that  I  had  plowed  just  before  going  to  dinner  stood  up 
like  a  ridge  above  that  on  either  side,  though  they 
looked  wilted  and  limp  when  I  saw  them  immediately 
after  dinner  the  day  I  plowed  them. 
The  following  winter  the  man  informed  me  that  the 
part  of  the  field  we  had  plowed  yielded  80  bushels  per 
acre,  while  the  rest  barely  reached  60.  “  You  see,” 
said  he,  “if  I  had  given  a  man  $3  a  day  right  at  that 
time  to  plow  that  field  it  would  have  paid  me  well. 
The  extra  yield  on  those  six  rows  you  plowed  while  I 
watered  the  stock  paid  your  wages  for  that  forenoon.” 
I  have  since  learned  that  the  man  was  right  with 
regard  to  “conditions.  In  a  dry  season  corn  roots  are 
thick  and  strong  when  they  leave  the  stalk  and  they 
run  deep  and  then  spread.  To  cut  one  under  such  con¬ 
ditions  is  to  cut  off  hundreds  of  feeders.  In  a  wet 
season  the  roots  are  small  and  numerous  and  run  so 
near  the  surface  that  a  heavy  rain,  when  the  corn  is 
earing,  will  expose  hundreds  of  them.  Cutting  off  a 
dozen  or  more  of  these  small  roots  does  no  harm  pro¬ 
vided  the  soil  is  loosened  and  aerated  in  the  operation. 
The  expert  farmer  carefully  notes  these  conditions 
and  cultivates  his  corn  accordingly.  The  “average” 
farmer  simply  “  plows  corn”  whenever  the  weather 
permits.  fred.  grundy. 
*  * 
Smoke  for  Frost. — One  can  smoke  out  a  frost,  but 
not  a  freeze.  Start  the  smudge  at  12  at  night  and 
keep  it  up  until  an  hour  after  sunrise  for  a  frost ;  but 
you  can’t  keep  the  smoke  dense  enough  to  subdue  a 
freeze  in  May.  H.  h.  g. 
Knick  Knacks. 
Feeding  that  Orchard. — As  to  that  question  on  page 
273,  my  experience  with  orchards  has  always  been 
that  “good  cultivation  ”  is  the  best  mulch  and  the  best 
manure  an  orchard  could  possibly  have.  I  never  like 
to  recommend  clover  in  an  orchard,  because  not  one  in 
a  hundred  will  ever  plow  it  up  in  time.  They  will 
leave  it  a  year  or  two  too  long,  and  then  the  trees  are 
injured.  In  my  orchards  of  over  1,000  acres,  I  give 
good  cultivation.  But  if  I  found  that  the  trees  needed 
manure,  I  would  sow  clover  on  the  last  snow  in  Feb¬ 
ruary  or  March,  and  then  that  same  fall  or  the  next 
spring  plow  it  up  and  let  it  grow  again,  and  then  plow 
up  again,  and  then  begin  the  good  cultivation  again. 
Clover  will  seed  enough  to  make  a  good  crop  the  next 
year,  if  it  is  not  plowed  under  while  green.  My 
answer  to  the  question  would  therefore  be :  Best, 
“good  cultivation;”  good,  “sow  clover  and  plow 
under  while  green,  in  September  ;  ”  allowable  :  “  Sow 
clover  one  spring  and  plow  the  ground  the  next.”  Let 
it  sow  itself  the  second  year  and  plow  under  the 
spring  of  the  third  year.  Never  allow  an  orchard 
to  remain  in  clover  two  years  without  plowing. 
Sec.  Missouri  Horticultural  Soc’y.  r..  a.  Goodman. 
Crimson  Clover  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa. — I  do  not  like 
to  oppose  Mr.  Stewart,  “  but,”  in  August  or  Septem¬ 
ber,  1890,  I  planted  Crimson  Clover  as  an  experiment  on 
a  piece  of  rich,  sandy  loam — about  three-eighths  of  an 
acre — using  a  Cutaway  harrow  with  a  seeding  attach 
ment.  The  ground  was  well  prepared  and  the  seed 
sown  thickly.  It  started  and  grew  well  in  the  fall, 
and  stood  the  winter  (which  was  not  severe),  and  in 
the  spring  grew  into  as  heavy  a  crop  as  I  had  ever 
seen.  When  in  full  bloom  it  was  plowed  underand  the 
ground  planted  with  potatoes.  Another  piece  of  about 
1 M  acre  on  a  southwestern  hill-side,  I  trusted  iny  man 
to  sow,  and  he  used  about  one-third  as  much  seed  as  he 
should  have  done.  It  also  did  well,  and  all  winter, 
when  free  from  snow,  it  was  a  spot  of  bright  green 
relieving  winter’s  somber  hued  coat.  I  would  suggest 
to  those  who  value  good  things,  even  if  they  are  new¬ 
fangled,  to  try  it  on  half  an  acre  or  so,  and  see  if  it  is 
suited  to  their  location,  for  it  is  in  my  case  a  great 
crop.  A  neighbor’s  children  invaded  my  hill  field  and 
carried  off  bushels  of  it  and  sold  it  in  huge  bouquets 
for  Decoration  Day.  Many  of  the  neighbors  wanted 
to  know  what  kind  of  flowers  I  had  planted  in  my 
field.  j{.  F.  s. 
Pea  Pods  in  a  Silo. — I  filled  my  silo  with  pea  pods 
from  a  canning  factory,  and  am  not  satisfied  with  the 
results.  My  silo  is  14x18  feet.  I  divided  it,  making 
it  14x10  feet,  running  two  partitions,  one  foot  apart, 
through  it,  and  filling  the  space  between  with  saw¬ 
dust.  When  I  began  to  draw,  I  could  get  only  about 
two  loads  a  day.  I  did  not  think  it  right  to  put  this 
amount  in  the  silo,  but  waited  until  I  could  get  more, 
so  I  fed  it  to  the  cows,  and  threw  it  out  in  the  yard. 
Both  the  canning  factories  used  machines  for  hulling, 
which  broke  the  pods  all  up.  I  had  no  idea  that  they 
had  so  much  water  in  them.  From  one  load  of  about 
two  tons  the  water  was  running  out  of  it  in  streams 
when  it  came  home,  and  next  morning  it  was  running 
just  as  bad,  and  nearly  all  the  next  morning  it  was 
still  running.  This  was  then  thrown  in  the  yard,  and 
was  very  sour  all  through.  Then  I  commenced  to  fill 
the  silo,  putting  in  from  five  to  six  tons  per  day.  This 
I  kept  up  for  about  10  days,  except  on  the  Sabbath, 
when  none  was  put  in,  and  not  any  until  Monday  after¬ 
noon  ;  then  the  top  was  a  little  sour.  After  the  filling 
had  stopped,  I  did  not  cover,  but  commenced  at  once 
to  feed,  and,  in  a  couple  of  days,  it  began  to  sour,  and 
got  worse  as  we  went  down,  and  finally  it  was  so  bad 
that  we  had  to  use  plenty  of  bran,  corn  meal,  cotton¬ 
seed  meal  and  salt  to  try  to  hide  the  taste  and  smell  ; 
but  after  a  while  even  this  would  not  do*  and  I  gave 
only  five-eighths  of  a  bushel  basket  three  times  a  day* 
Some  of  the  animals  did  not  eat  half  of  this.  It  made 
the  milk  taste  very  bad.  Part  of  it  I  then  threw  out, 
as  my  cows  were  drying  up  because  they  would  not 
eat  it,  and  my  customers  began  to  find  fault  with  the 
milk.  If  the  pods  could  be  kept  sweet  in  the  silo,  they 
would  make  good  feed.  I  thought  that  the  great 
amount  of  water  in  them  had  something  to  do  with 
their  failure  to  keep.  i\  p.  wynkoop. 
Likes  Prickly  Comfrey. — Referring  to  the  item  on 
page  269  about  Prickly  Comfrey,  allow  me  to  say  that 
1  have  fed  it  to  my  dairy  for  years,  and  find  it  invalu¬ 
able,  here  in  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.  Throughout 
dune,  when  at  its  best,  it  forms  almost  the  entire 
ration  except  grain,  and  is  a  very  wholesome  forage 
plant,  and  a  good  producer  of  cream.  My  cows  all  eat 
it  with  great  relish,  when  the  taste  is  once  acquired, 
and  I  also  feed  it  to  my  horses.  Usually  animals  will 
not  touch  it  when  offered  by  itself.  I  always  cut  it 
into  half  inch  lengths  and  mix  it  with  the  grain  ration, 
and  the  taste  for  it  has  always  been  acquired  in  three 
or  four  days.  All  soiling  crops  imply  labor  in  feed¬ 
ing,  but  for  my  own  use  I  place  Prickly  Comfrey  by 
the  side  of  Indian  corn,  and  wish  no  other  than  these 
two.  With  the  silo  in  cool  weather,  and  comfrey  and 
fodder  corn  in  the  summer  months,  a  dairy  may  be 
kept  upon  fewer  acres  than  has  hitherto  been  thought 
possible.  The  comfrey  requires  a  deep,  warm,  moist 
soil  for  its  best  development  and  unlimited  manure,  and 
probably  irrigation  would  help  it  materially,  w.  h.  ii. 
Ensilage  Progress. — From  the  costly  stone  silo  and 
thickly  sown,  immature  corn  to  the  cheap  silo  made  of 
rough  lumber  and  building  pnper 
and  thinly  sown  well-eared,  mature 
corn  is  an  advance  made  by  intelli¬ 
gent  practical  observation  and  ex¬ 
perience. 
While  perhaps  the  silo  is  of 
greater  utility  to  the  dairyman 
than  to  the  general  farmer,  the 
day  seems  not  far  distant  when  the 
capacity  of  the  general  farmer  to 
keep  stock,  utilize  the  coarse  grain 
to  the  best  advantage,  maintain 
and  even  increase  the  productive¬ 
ness  of  his  land  and  turn  off  finished 
products  in  the  shape  of  good,  if 
not  strictly  gilt-edged  butter,  beef, 
pork,  sheep  and  poultry  products, 
will  be  increased  by  the  use  of  the 
silo  to  furnish  a  succulent,  nutri¬ 
tious  food  for  all  kinds  of  farm  ani¬ 
mals  when  fed  in  connection  with 
those  foods  adapted  to  balance  the 
ration.  The  consensus  of  opinion 
seems  to  favor  a  seeding  of  8  to  12  quarts  per 
acre  of  a  variety  of  corn  that  will  mature  in 
the  locality  where  sown.  A  neighbor  builds  his 
silo  with  horizontal  timbers  and  perpendicular 
boarding  and  makes  a  departure  from  the  usual 
method  of  cutting  and  fi’ling.  lie  and  others  in 
the  vicinity  cut  the  corn  and  put  it  in  large  shocks 
when  nearly  glazed  and  let  it  remain  there  for  four 
weeks  before  filling  the  silo.  Rapid  filling  is  necessary 
in  this  plan  of  letting  the  fodder  partly  cure.  Steers 
fed  on  this  kind  of  ensilage  morning  and  night  with 
good  hay  at  noon,  gained  an  average  of  110  pounds  in 
30  days,  the  herd  numbering  10.  Those  who  followed 
this  method  reported  horses,  cattle  and  sheep  doing 
well  on  partly  cured  ensilage.  The  herd  were  Short¬ 
horns  and  the  owner  said  his  silo  had  been  filled  after 
the  corn  had  been  cut  three  weeks.  It  was  ripe  enough 
to  be  husked.  Another '  dairyman’s  17  cows  fed  40 
pounds  of  ensilage  and  three  pounds  of  cotton-seed 
meal  per  head  returned  him  over  $137  for  January 
1892.  His  ensilage  cost  him  60  cents  per  ton  in  the  silo. 
Another  farmer’s  dairy  of  the  same  number  of  cows 
brought  from  $18  to  $20  per  week  when  fed  on  ensilage 
twice  and  mixed  hay  once  a  day.  The  milk  sold  for 
2  l/i  cents  per  quart.  H.  M.  F. 
TryS^uantum  Corn. — For  the  benefit  of  S.  M.,  page 
268,  I  would  say  that  the  Squantum  (or  Potter’s  Ex¬ 
celsior)  sweet  corn  is  just  the  cross  he  desires  between 
the  Shoe  Peg  and  some  larger  variety,  having  been 
made  years  ago,  when  known  under  the  name  of 
Quaker  Sweet.  While  not  so  large  as  Stowell’s,  it  is 
of  sufficient  size  to  be  termed  a  large-eared  variety. 
With  extreme  conditions  of  fertility  and  cultivation, 
this  kind  would  easily  pass  for  Stowell’s,  coming,  as  it 
does,  before  the  latter  appears  in  market;  and  once 
tasted,  it  would  be  preferred,  except  by  wholesalers. 
Can  some  reader  of  The  Rural  give  the  exact  history 
of  the  Squantum  Corn,  including  the  date  of  its  origin, 
naming  both  parent  varieties  ?  [The  R.  N.-Y.  doesn’t 
know.  Eds.] 
This  variety  hangs  on  so  long  in  prime  condition 
that,  without  due  precaution,  the  seed  would  fail  to 
ripen,  and  the  variety  would  be  lost.  This  fact  make* 
“  A  Spring  Opening.”  From  King’s  Jester.  Fig.  154. 
