4i8 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
MAY 3o 
Ensilage vs. Roots. 
H. S., Macon County, N. C.—I am quite 
aware that Prof. Massey has very little re¬ 
spect for the opinions of those persons who 
differ with him, and when he talks of 
“farmers who have roots on the brain,” 
he uses a comparatively mild expression— 
for him. It is a poor argument to abuse 
an opponent, and has been held to indicate 
a weak case. I am not an immigrant from 
England or Scot land, and yet I have “ roots 
on the brain” sufficiently “bad” to have 
the belief that roots are better than ensi¬ 
lage, and the positive knowledge that they 
cau be grown as cheaply as a crop of com, 
with the single exception that the seed 
costs a little more. Prof. Massey talks ot 
an Englishman’s prejudice, but in that he 
only demonstrates his own, for will he say 
that those who grow roots “are fuLy aware 
that they are losing money at it” without 
auy qualification, and thus aver that he 
knows more about those persons’ business 
than they do themselves? No doubt money 
has been lost by growing roots, but money 
has been lost by growing corn or potatoes, 
and those who lose money by growing roots 
are those who don’t know how to grow 
them, as clearly Prof. Massey does not, and 
so he would lose money by cultivating 
- them. 
This is the most important matter if 
American farmers are ever to produce their 
owu sugar, which is a very desirable con¬ 
summation. If they cannot grow roots, 
good bye to all our hopes of cheap home¬ 
grown sugar, for the beet is to be the source 
of it. I grew mangels and sugar beets for 
some years before my removal here, and 
put them in the cellar for less than five 
cents a bushel, equal to $1 65 per ton, which 
is less than the average cost of ensilage 
and without the loss of a single pound of 
them, feeding them up to June of the next 
year iu the very best condition. There is 
no risk with them, no damage to the milk 
or butter, which are both of the best qual¬ 
ity, and they are fed with perfect safety to 
all farm animals. There is no hurry in the 
harvesting, no doubt or worry about sav¬ 
ing them, and Prof. Massey himself, who 
has “ensilage on the brain,” If any man 
has “roots on the brain,” may put the 
leaves in a silo, and so have a kind 
of sandwich of roots and ensilage. The 
first ensilage I ever saw was on a French 
beet sugar farm In 1855, j ears before a silo 
was ever mentioned here, and I was the 
first writer here who described the process 
—I think In 1871, in the American Agricul¬ 
turist—and recommended it from my 
knowledge of it in France and Austria, 
where it was used on every beet farm for 
preserving beet leaves and the pulp. I 
would advise every American farmer to 
. get inoculated with this beet microbe and 
take the disease as soon as it can reach his 
brain. By and by the sugar beet will be 
one of our staple crops, and sugar factories 
will be working first where beets are first 
grown. These roots are uuequaled winter 
food, and while I have nothing to say of 
ensilage but what is favorable, yet I wish 
many thousands of American farmers had 
“ roots on the brain,” and “ were altogether 
sucu as I am ” in favor of growing them, 
not only for feeding, but for their prospec¬ 
tive value as the great American sugar 
staple. I have two very good friends who 
have the same disease as I have and whose 
brains are similarly affected: that ener¬ 
getic, reliable and healthfully brainy man, 
Col. F. D. Curtis, and that pattern farmer, 
William Crozier, both known to the readers 
of The Rural by their wide and high rep¬ 
utation, both of whom are root growers, 
although according to Prof. Massey they 
are losing money at it. I wish they would 
give their figures to show how much they 
are losing. 
Hired Men are What We Make Them. 
Alva Agee, Gallia County, O.—What 
is the matter with “Subscriber” on page 
312? He thinks something is the matter with 
hired men on the farm. Probably he will 
excuse me for saying that the matter is 
with him, as his article seems to indicate. 
He says : “Hired help are in reality cocks 
of the walk. They use teams and spoil 
their usefulness for a fair day’s work by 
being out late at night. They want to be 
allowed to stand around the house, lolling 
on the window sills, table or backed up 
against something by the half hour.” This 
tells the whole story. The incompetence of 
the employer is quite plainly seen. It is 
evident that this man fails to command 
the respect and attention of his subordi¬ 
nates. His good opinion is not courted or 
coveted. He lacks all the elements of 
leadership. If a man po*siS;63 the moral 
right inherent in superior knowledge, 
judgment and character, to command, 
obedience is rendered freely and willingly. 
If he possesses the wealth that permits him 
to employ subordinate s, and lacks the quali¬ 
ties mentioned, he is an object of pity. 
If a man is capable, he can afford to pay 
the “ best wages,” because he can have the 
best men. “Incompetent” men may be 
left to settle the wage question with in¬ 
competent employers. The relationship 
between employer and employees on a farm 
can be and should be made very pleasant. 
No austerity or pomposity is needed to 
command the respect and obedierce of all 
who are hired. In fact these qualities only 
excite ridicule. On the other hand, there 
is low familiarity that may breed contempt; 
but there is no danger of inviting insubor¬ 
dination by being natural and free, if one 
Is qualified for his place. 
One man, near his employer’s age, has 
been on the farm a number of years. He is 
intelligent but was not a practiced farm 
hand when he came on the place. He 
learned his employer’s ways, and is now 
very capable. There is no danger in talking 
over methods of cultivation and seemingly 
half consulting with him, as the work pro¬ 
gnoses. He takes a deep interest and 
works moderately or very hard as work 
slacks or pushes. When the employer de¬ 
cides how he wants the cultivation, the 
decision is final and never questioned, and 
the method adopted is followed as conscien¬ 
tiously as possible. I know many men 
who Lave to hire an extra force at certain 
seasons of the year, and the men are, often¬ 
times, very rough characters, but an 
obscene or profane word is scarcely ever 
heard. The employers are free and friendly 
with them, but they have sufficient force 
of character to compel respect. 
“Subscriber” condemns the practice of 
paying good wages and giving hired hands 
free wood and house rent. An employer’s 
practice is not always as important as the 
spirit back of it. It probably is not best to 
offer any bonus when a contract is made, 
as the employer neids opportunities to 
display a generous spirit as the time 
passes, and the hand shows interest. One 
has no right to expect that- a hand will 
push the work early and late, if the crop 
is suffering, or rise a little earlier to fix a 
collar pad if a hard job confronts the team, 
when he—the employer—is not interested 
in the welfare of the hand. Mutual in¬ 
terest can easily be cultivated. There are 
men who will persist in caring for clover 
hay on a Fourth of July evening when the 
employer could not ask it of them. In such 
cases is it too much to give them a Satur¬ 
day afternoon to haul their wocd or culti¬ 
vate their truck patches, and deduct no 
time ? Who wins ? Both may and do, but 
the employer more than any other. A 
careless, indifferent man can do all his 
legal duty, and let his employer lose more 
in a month than a year’s supply of wocd is 
worth. Mutual interest on the part of the 
farmer and his help gives large returns. 
Planting Sorghum. 
Malcom Little, Seneca County, N. 
Y.— In The Rural’s advice to F. E. H., of 
Adrian, Michigan, in regard to planting 
sorghum, one important matter is forgot¬ 
ten. Cane seed will not germinate if 
planted too deep. When planting with a 
hoe my practice is to draw a hceful of 
earth into the check left by the marker, 
pat it with the hoe, sprinkle In the seed, 
kick a light sprinkling of earth on with my 
boot and press it down gently. I gem rally 
use the drill and plant so the seed will not 
be covered more than half an inch in 
depth. 
Origin of the Isabella Grape. 
J. W. P., Poultney, Vermont.— 
Who knows the origin of the Isabella 
Grape? Peter B. Mead, In his book on 
“American Grape Culture,” says it is of 
Southern origin ; but I cannot learn that 
such is a fact. If any one can throw any 
light on the subject I would be glad to know 
it. The Isabella was my first love in 
grapes, and it sticks to me yet, although 
nearly all others have given it the cold 
shoulder. Somewhere about 1838, I had oc¬ 
casion to call on Prince & Son of Flushing, 
Long Island. I inquired of the elder Prince, 
if the Isabella was a foreign grape. He 
said he did not know; but, as I now recol¬ 
lect, he gave me as a report that a lady liv¬ 
ing in, or near the city of Hudson, North 
River, had raised it from the seed of raisins 
thrown out through the sink from which it 
had grown, and she gave it her name 
“Isabella.” My first grapes, planted in 
1836, were from the Flushing Nursery. I 
have now no rtcollection how the owner ob¬ 
tained his Isabella stock, if he told me; but 
there is something in the Isabella Grape, 
when grown on old, and long vines, like 
the Black Hamburgh in England, that 
would not be recognized as it is grown 
now, as the vine is cut back nearly to the 
ground every year. I would give several 
red apples to know the origin, and who 
boomed this grape. 
R. N -Y.—It is thought to be of Labrusca 
origin by our best authorities and the 
place of its origin is believed to be South 
Carolina. 
GENUINE PHILIDELPHII. 
300,000 IN THE FIELD. 
M’HIiapHS’HB^ 
Lawn 
Hand Sizes, 10 to 20 Inches. 
Both Open and Solid Cylinders. 
Pony and Horse, 30 and 36 Inches. 
Lawn Sweepers and Grass Edgers. 
GRAHAM, EMLEN & PASSMORE, 
<*31 Market Street. Philadelphia. Pa. 
SPICE. 
Joseph Harris, who is our first authority 
as to the use of fertilizers, wrote to Sir J. 
B. Lawes asking him his opinion in regard 
to the application of fertilizers. He has 
had more experience than any other man 
living, not only as an experimenter, but 
also as a large farmer. Mr. Harris knew 
all about his experiments, but he wanted 
to know how Dr. Lawes used fertilizers in 
the ordinary operations on the farm. He 
knewtbat hehad been using Thomas flag, 
or what is known here as phosphate meal, 
and he asked him whether, if we can get 
dissolved South Carolina rock phosphate at 
$20 per ton and phosphate meal at $15 per 
ton, which was the better manure. Dr 
Lawes replied that he thought that for dry 
upland the dissolved phosphate was the 
cheaper manure, but for black, mucky 
grass land the Thomas slag would ulti¬ 
mately prove the cheaper fertilizer. Un¬ 
fortunately the manufacturer of Thomas 
slag in this country has an exaggerated 
idea of its value and has raised the price .. 
At equal prices for nitrogen, Sir John 
prefers nitrate of soda to salts of ammonia. 
The superiority on pasture grasses is always 
decided, and In dry seasons when the grass 
upon the ammonia plots is quite burned 
up, there is always plenty of grass where 
the nitrate is used. 
If you want great, thick, fat shoots oi 
asparagus, you must get a large, luxuriant 
growth of the plants the preceding sum¬ 
mer and autumn. A good time to apply 
the fertilizers, therefore, is just when we 
cease to cut the shoots. 
Nurserymen do not believe in fertilizers, 
Mr. Harris says, but they have great faith 
in stable manure. This is not surprising. 
Ordinary fertilizers are not what they 
want. They do not contain enough nitro¬ 
gen. Prof. Snj der, of Cornell University, 
(Continued on next page.) 
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OSGOOD A THOMPSON, Binghamton, N.T 
T W E HEW 
POIATO CULTURE. 
By ELBERT S. CARMAN. 
Editor oj “ The Rural New-Yorker." 
Originator of the Foremost of Potatoes-Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2. 
Originator of The Rural Trench System. 
This book gives the result of 15 years’ 
experiment work on the Rural Grounds 
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corresponding cost ol production. 
Manures and Fertilizers; Kinds and 
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The Soil, and how to put it in right 
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Depth of Planting. 
How much Seed to Plant. 
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Price, Cloth, 75 Cents; Paper, 40 Cents 
THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, New York. 
