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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
io3 
HAULING OUT MANURE. 
Lessons for Hill-side Farmers. 
Manure i;t Heaps. —Just 30 years ago this month, I was 
busy hauling out manure on to a field where oats were to 
be sown in the spring. I wai a young farmer then, learn¬ 
ing and gaining experience, and that year I learned a very 
valuable lesson. The manure was hauled from the yard, 
around which, on three sides, were the cow stable, the 
horse stable, and calf pens, and a sheep shed, so that all 
the manure could be wheeled out and piled in a large, 
square heap in the yard and mixed as it was piled. The 
yard was about full and two teams were put to hauling 
out the manure on sleds There was plenty of snow to 
make good sleighing and the work of loading and unload¬ 
ing was easy. Each load was divided in the field into four 
heaps 24 feet apart each way, which made just 20 tons per 
acre, each load being about a ton. The heaps were left 
until the manure was all hauled, which occupied most of 
the time until it was necessary to plow the land, when the 
manure was spread. Soon after the crop appeared (the 
land was a hill side) every spot where a heap had been 
could be seen a mile away by the vivid greenness, and 
nearby the oats were seen rank and thick and several 
inches higher than in the rest of the field. I saw my mis¬ 
take at once, and feared the consequences, which, in time, 
were very apparent. When the crop was heading out, 
every spot where a heap of manure had lain was covered 
with a mound of oats, and very soon the tall stalks were 
tired of standing and lay down. The rest of the field 
showed how much the oats needed the manure wasted on 
these spots. Rust then began to appear in the prostrate 
oats and quickly spread over the field and the crop was 
ruined. This was my first lesson. 
Spreading on Hill sides. —The second was quite differ¬ 
ent. On another hill-side I was spreading manure on a field 
of Orchard Grass, late in the fall. The grass had given a 
good crop of hay and had been closely pastured in the fall. 
I cleaned up the yards and pens and hauled and spread the 
manure as it was hauled. My neighbor had a field of grass 
and clover below me, and seeing me spreading manure, he 
came up and jocularly thanked me for manuring his land. 
“ That manure will all wash down on to my field and make 
me a good crop of hay,” said he. He was an old farmer and 
I was rather dubious about the result to my grass. But It 
was to be manured anyway and so I finished it quite down 
to the fence. He got no manure from that field. Every 
bit of it stayed where it was put and at haying time he con¬ 
fessed that he was deceived in his expectations. The hill¬ 
side kept all the manure, and below the fence nothing was 
visible to show that any of it had “seeped ” down as my 
neighbor expected. Since then I have spread manure on 
many a hill-side field, but have never found any of it es¬ 
caping—of course there was no surface washing. That, 
from the first, I learned to prevent by deep plowing of the 
land so that the soil would take all the water that fell 
upon it. 
Manure for Oats. —My next lesson was with an oat 
crop. The land was a corn stubble, and I had obtained 
some new seed of some imported Scotch oats called the 
Angus, a heavy grain weighing 47 pounds to the bushel. The 
manure was hauled right from the stables as it was made, 
load by load, and spread over the land, stakes being stuck 
in the snow to show where the last load had been spread. 
It sank right down through the snow and disappeared. 
In the spring it had settle i to the surface and was turned 
under. The crop was fine and thrashed out over 70 bushels 
by weight to the acre. It had got all the manure by that 
time. Since then I have made a practice of always manur¬ 
ing my oats, believing the crop needs it and will pay for it 
as well as any other. I have always got out my manure 
in the winter, when the ground was in good condition, 
and time was most convenient. I have never known 
manure to be washed down hill-sides when the land was 
so worked that it would absorb the rain, and when it could 
be got close to the surface, and I know that the manure 
spread on snow will sink through it, by absorption of the 
sun’s heat, in a very short time. Moreover, I have never 
known a well plowed hill-side to become covered with ice 
so as to cause a wash down the slope. 
Composts in the Field. —My next experience was in 
making composts in the field during the winter, and it has 
taught me that this can be made the most profitable work 
of the year. It is the opening of a mine from which the 
wealth of the crops is dug out. In the fall and through the 
early winter over 300 loads of muck were dug from a 
swamp. A large part of it was used in the manure cellar 
mixed with the manure of 15 highly fed cows, kept for 
winter butter making. The rest was hauled to a field where 
corn was to be planted the next year. A foot high of it 
was spread on the ground in a long heap, about eight feet 
wide. On this fresh, air slaked lime was spread—about a 
bushel to a wagon load of the muck—so as to completely 
cover it and whiten the whole. On this six inches of man¬ 
ure were spread. This was purchased at a cost of $2.75 a 
ton. On the manure was another foot of the muck, and on 
this more lime, then six inches of manure, and so on until 
a heap five feet high was made, when the top was covered 
with the muck: eight car loads of manure of 10 tons each 
were thus disposed of, and over 150 loads of muck were 
mixed in the heap. When the last of the heap was 
finished the first end was smoking and steaming-hot. Hid 
it lose any ammonia ? Not a bit; the use of litmus paper 
gave no indication of any escape of ammonia. The strong 
smell, to which several persons passing along the road ob¬ 
jected occasionally, was due to sulphur and hydrogen 
compounds and not to ammonia. The wet swamp muck 
absorbed all that. In the spring when this pile was taken 
down and spread with a Kemp manure spreader, it was a 
rich mass of manure all alike, and the swamp muck was 
worth as much as the manure. There was no waste, but 
much valuable time was saved, and as the manure was 
spread a swivel plow turned it all under in a smooth, level, 
even surface without a dead furrow in it. Later exper¬ 
ience has confirmed all previous knowledge thus gained, 
which may be summed up in these sentences: 
Manure is never worth more than the day it is made. It 
should be spread as It is hauled, and hauled as soon as it is 
ready. If it is piled it should be put up in compact, 
square heaps as high as may be, but should never be left 
in small heaps. If by any means possible, it should 
Ethan Roberts, Champion Potato Digger. 
Fig. 44. 
be made into compost, for while it is decaying, it 
helps to decompose other valuable matter and makes this 
as valuable as itself. It will lose nothing by being spread 
on the snow, even on hill sides, if the land has previously 
been properly plowed, and never in any way on grass land. 
As soon as the compact is spread it should be turned under. 
Macon County, N. C. H. stewart. 
Nitrogen for Ashes. 
How can crops be raised which need nitrogen as manure 
by using only ashes, which do not contain a particle of 
nitrogen ? Ashes, as we know, contain the mineral ele¬ 
ments which enter more or less largely into all crops and 
in just about the right proportion; whether the right 
quantity, depends on how much we apply to the acre. The 
nitrogen which entered into the composition of the wood 
from which the ashes were made, was set free by the fire 
which burned it, and in certain forms went up the chimney 
where more or less of it caught on to the sides, and we got 
it back again in the form of soot. By combining ashes 
with soot we make a complete manure. But how is it 
that by using ashes alone, we are enabled to raise excellent 
crops of all vegetables on some soils, though each of these 
vegetables containing mire or less of nitrogen in its 
composition, requires and must have that quantity of 
nitrogen in its food J It is simply because, while ashes 
do not contain nitrogen, yet they have the power to free 
it from the various combinations in which it exists. The 
potash in ashes is not like the potash in muriate of potash 
or any of the forms of German potash salts; in these 
it is inert, while in ashes it exists in the form of a 
carbonate, which is a caustic alkali full of chemical ac¬ 
tivity, which shows itself in decomposing every vege¬ 
table and animal substance it comes it contact with, with 
the instinct to get at aid combine with the substance for 
which it has a particular preference. Now, in addition to 
the immense quantity of nitrogen which remains latent in 
all good tillage soils, there is that which exists in the un¬ 
decomposed manures left over from former applications, 
the presence of which farmers can detect in their crops for 
four or five years after its application, and chemists by their 
nicer means of observation for from 12 to 20 years. The 
action of the caustic alkali of the ashes on the humus or 
black earth of the soil, and on the undecomposed manure, 
sets free the nitrogen there contained and thus indirectly 
supplies to the crop the nitrogen it needs. Whether a 
very heavy application of ashes might not liberate more 
nitrogen than the crop can utilize and cause a waste by 
leaving it in a state where it would be more easily lost 
than in its former combination, is a question worthy of 
consideration by our agricultural colleges. 
Essex County, Ma«s. j. j. h GREGORY. 
SUCCESSFUL PEACH CULTURE. 
To be successful in peach culture certain conditions are 
important, viz., soil, varieties, cultivation, fertilizing and 
pruning. The soil should be well drained, as the peach will 
not endure wet feet; for this reason high, rolling ground 
or even mountain sides with a northern and western ex¬ 
posure make excellent sites. Good, clean cultivation from 
May until August is just as necessary for peaches as for 
corn or potatoes. Most soils suitable for the peach contain 
enough of the elements of fertility to answer the require¬ 
ments of the tree until of bearing age, when a fertilizer 
containing phosphoric acid and potash should be applied— 
300 to 000 pounds per acre—400 pounds of bone meal and 200 
pounds of muriate of potash well mixed—our Monmouth 
County marl ought to supply these elements. Planters 
should exercise care in selecting varieties. There are sev¬ 
eral hundreds in cultivation. Some do much better in one 
locality than others. Having made sure of the varieties 
suited to your locality and markets, the i insist on having 
them: buy only from reliable sources; don’t try the costly 
experiment of planting cheap trees—cheap on account of 
a doubt as to whether they will produce the kinds wanted. 
This applies to apples and pears as well as to peaches. 
There are men everywhere who know the value of this 
suggestion. “ My orchard was a failure,” said such a man 
to me, “because I did not get the varieties I bought.” Said 
another: “ I have noticed that early and late peaches 
bring the highest prices. I am going to plant only two 
kinds, the earliest and latest.” This he did ; but the earli¬ 
est all rotted, and the latest did not ripen. 
The money value of a crop depends very much on the 
grower. He must have a vigorous, healthy tree; the fruit 
must be well thinned (when necessary), either by pruning 
or hand picking, one or both, to give it fair size and color. „ 
It must be picked when at the right state—not too green 
or yet too ripe to bear transportation. Some fruits, as the 
pear and our native plums, are much improved in quality 
by ripening after they have been picked; the reverse is true 
of the peach. Profits vary according to the supply. I re¬ 
member when—about 1850—peaches were sold in the New 
York markets at 10 to 25 cents per basket, not for one day, 
but for the whole season ; yet peaches from the same or¬ 
chards a few years later brought $2 per basket from the 
wagon at the steamboat wharf. I am looking fora general 
crop of peaches the coming season and remunerative prices, 
as the market is bare of all canned and evaporated goods. 
Mod mouth County, N J. DAVID raird. 
THE CHAMPION POTATO DIGGER. 
Last October, the Stanton Clipper, a local paper printed in 
Michigan, contained the following item: “On Monday 
last, Ethan Roberts, champion potato digger of the State, 
dug on the farm of Oscar Johnson, in Douglas, 207 bushels 
of potatoes in 1)4 hours. Last year he dug 223 bushels in 
10 hours.” This was sent us by a local subscriber, who 
said : “ Roberts did not pick up the potatoes; but never¬ 
theless I believe him to be all the correspondent claims for 
him, if not the champion digger of the Union.” 
This record is certainly remarkable and we do not be¬ 
lieve it has ever been equaled. Ethan Roberts sends the 
following statement in answer to The R. N.-Y’s ques¬ 
tions : 
“I am 24 years old, weigh 123 pounds and am five 
feet three inches tall. On October 11, 1889, I dug 223 
bushels in 10 hours, and on October 13, 1890, I dug 207 
bushels in 1)4 hours, a gain of about six bushels an hour 
over last year’s work. 
The variety which I dug was the Empire State. I used 
a long-handled fork. The potatoes were in hills three 
feet apart each way. Mr. Oscar Johnson will swear that 
this number of bushels was dug. Mr. Blumberg, an¬ 
other witness, was not there all day. I have another 
witness for each day, If the testimony is ever needed. 
We can prove all we assert.” ETHAN ROBERTS. 
Montcalm County, Mich. 
A picture of Ethan Roberts is shown at Fig. 44. It 
would be a good day’s work for two horses aud a digger to 
beat this record. The best potato digger in our town is a 
tall man, with long legs and arms. Roberts seems to be a 
short and somewhat “ chunky ” man : anyhow he seems to 
be a full team, and we have no disposition to challenge him 
to a digging contest! 
