53o 
What are Soils Made Of? 
H. Stewart, Macon County, N. C.— 
The interesting remarks of the station pro¬ 
fessors are well worth study not only by 
those who are experimenting in this line, 
but by farmers who work in fields. The 
application of geology and mineralogy to 
agriculture is a most important study, and 
its intimate relation to the subject of plot 
culture is very apparent. The marked 
differences of soil within very narrow 
bounds are all due to geological variations 
ari-ing from the character of the original 
matter of which the soil consists Conse¬ 
quently to know the nature of the minerals 
composing soils is of the highest importance 
and value. For instance, sand is supposed 
to be generally infertile, and a soil mainly 
composed of it, Is thought to be of little 
value. But when the character of the sand 
is studied this opinion will be greatly 
modified. Tne remarkable fertility of the 
Florida sands under a wise system of cul¬ 
ture is simply due to the fact that they 
consist maiuly of limestone derived from 
organic sources, with a good deal of phos¬ 
phoric acid in it. Shells and the remains 
of marine animals make up a large patt of 
these sands, and hence with a little manure 
or green matter mixed with the soil, they 
produce valuable crops. 
Sands are usually derived from granites. 
But some granites contain almost every 
mineral element of fertility; for these 
rocks consist of hornblende, feldspar and 
mica, as wtll as quartz, and the composi¬ 
tion of these rocks as follows, shows that 
sands derived from them may make up a 
very good soil: 
Composition of Hornblende. Feldspar. 
Mica. 
Silica . 
.. 48.8 
64.20 
46.3 
Magnesia. 
.. 18.6 
— 
[28.7] 
Lime. 
.. 10.2 
[2.4] 
— 
Alumina . 
.. 7.5 
18.40 
[36 8| 
P»oio*yde of Iron ... 
... 18 75 
— 
4 5 
Potash. 
.. - 
[16.95] 
9.2 
Soda. 
.. - 
[9.4] 
1.1 
The figures in brackets indicate that one 
of these minerals may replace the other at 
times. 
Thus a sandy soil may actually be more 
fertile than a limestone gravel or clay. 
And, moreover, phosphatic minerals are 
often abundant in the rocks associated with 
the granites. This single fact which might 
be greatly enlarged upon by duplication in 
many ways will go to show tbe importance 
this knowledge of geology and mineralogy 
to the farmer and student of agriculture. 
Rich Soli For Tomatoes. 
G E , Mendon Center, N. Y.—In an ar¬ 
ticle on page 483 of The Rural New- 
Yorker on manuring tomatoes Mr. Elk- 
horn says: “Last year I manured one row 
as an experiment. I had very few toma¬ 
toes off it and tbe vines were large and 
extra luxuriant, white from the unman- 
urtd rows I had an abundant crop.” The 
R. N.-Y., from its own experience says: 
“ Tomatoes fruit less abandautly on rich 
soil than on one ot medium fertility, and 
tnis is also the experience of our neighbors 
who grow large crops for market.” 
For several years I have set headless bar¬ 
rels a little below the level of the ground 
in well manured garden soli, and filled 
them about half full of rich manure, en¬ 
deavoring to have the top basin-shaped and 
1 have set three plants, one on the east, 
one on the south and one on the west of 
and very close to each barrel. Then as the 
plants grow I drive in stakes long enough 
to extend about a foot or two aOove the 
tops of the Parrels. To tnese I tie strings 
extending around the outside of the vines, 
the barrel giving support on the inside. 
Then i occasionally, and if the weather is 
dry, semi occasionally, pour apailful or two 
of water into each parrel. Now as to the 
results. I have tomatoes as early as any 
of my nelghoors and 1 think earlier. My 
tomatoes are, I tnlnk, reasonably produc¬ 
tive. To increase the productiveness and 
advance their ripening after some have set, 
1 trim off a considerable part of some of 
the vines. 
Since writing the above, I have received 
Bulletin No. 28 of Corned University Ex¬ 
periment Station treating of “experiments 
in the forcing ot tomatoes.” This, of course, 
treats of tomatoes under glass. What Mr. 
Bailey writes corroborates what 1 wrote, 
liesajs: “It is strange that the notion 
that tomatoes require a comparatively poor 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 18 
soil should ever have become widespread. 
It has bsen almost universally held in re¬ 
gard to out doer tomatoes, but our own 
experiments as well as those of others have 
shown conclusively that it is erroneous.” 
This does not agree with what The Rural 
stated that Mr. Bailey wrote in the bulle¬ 
tin—that they trimmed their forced tomato 
vines. Does this account for the difference 
in productiveness ? 
R. N -Y.—We can not say. As to the 
advantages or disadvantages of rich soil 
for tomatoes we have merely given our 
expetience. 
Putting a Head on Cabbage. 
H. C J., Canton, Ohio.—J. B. H., Sum¬ 
mit County, Ohio, wants to know how to 
make cabbages head up hard. In the first 
place, he should procure the best seed of 
some hard heading variety. Gregory’s 
Hard Heading has with me proved to be 
the hardest heading of the large Drumhead 
sorts. If none of these succeeds, and J. B. 
H. prefers a very solid head to one less 
solid but much larger, then he should try 
the Winnigstadt. In the next place he 
should plow a piece of ground that will 
turn up mellow; when this is done, let 
him put on a liberal application of fine ma¬ 
nure, and harrow and cultivate it well 
into the land. Then furrow out three 
feet apart, and put an ordinary shovelful 
of well-rotted manure at Intervals 2>£ feet 
apart along each furrow, and mix it well 
with the soil, and with a hoe draw the or¬ 
dinary soil cn top of it, until the hill stands 
no higher than the surface. Now, with a 
good plant in each hill and frequent culti¬ 
vation to keep the land loose and moist, I 
will venture to say he will not only have 
hard heads, but a paying crop. Soft heads 
on the approach of freezing weather, can 
best be made hard by plowing out a trench 
and pulling the cabbages and setting them 
in, and then covering them sufficiently with 
soli to prevent injury by frost. 
Railroads Rooblng Eastern Farmers. 
L. H. R., Fr. Atkinson, Wis.—O n page 
480 of The Rural under the title of “Doc¬ 
tors for New England Farming,” we are 
told that some successful farmers recom¬ 
mend growing seed potatoes as one of the 
remedies offered, and as I have had several 
years’ experience in that line I thought a 
few lines on the topic might be of some in¬ 
terest to readers of the paper. There is 
probably no place in the Eastern States, if 
anywhere in the United State*, that can 
produce more profitable crops of potatoes 
than the northeastern part of Washington 
County and the western part of Caledonia 
County, Vermont, and seed potatoes grown 
in that section would soon be in great de¬ 
mand if it were possible to get them to 
market at a price so that the growers could 
make anything out of them. 
But the trouble is that the railroads rob 
the people until there Is nothing left for 
profit. If I remember right it was in the 
fall of 1887 that seed potatoes were in good 
demand especially in the West, and I 
shipped from a small station in Caledonia 
County, Ver., to Chicago at a cost of 24 
cents per 100 pounds, a distance of about 
I, 000 miles. At the same time I also had 
orders for potatoes to go to Brattleboro, 
Ver.—about one-tenth of the distance, and 
I was charged 44 cents per 100 pounds. 
Now I could have had almost the entire 
amount of the Brattleboro customers’ trade 
if I could have got reasonable freight rates. 
I could also sell large quantities in Boston 
and other places, but the exorbitant 
freight charges entirely cut off the trade 
. and one cannot get a chance to sell in West¬ 
ern markets one year in ten, as prices there 
are very low if anything like a good crop 
is raised in the West. 
There is no money for a farmer in work¬ 
ing up a retail trade in seed potatoes, un¬ 
less he is able to spend from $500 to $1,000 
in advertising; but there would be a good 
deal of money for any reliable grower in 
selling to seedsmen in Boston and New 
York and other Eastern cities, if the rail¬ 
roads would be willing to work on the 
principle of “ live and let live.” The great¬ 
est curse of New England to-day is the 
railroads that are rc bbing her people and 
driving them from their homes to seek new 
places in the West. The Western people 
seem to think that they are the only people 
who are oppressed by the railroad kings; 
but they are mistaken, as their brothers 
In New England are being robbed even 
worse. I can see but one cure for the farm¬ 
ers in the New England States, and that is 
the nationalization of the railroads. With¬ 
in the next 10 years we will see the rail¬ 
road kings all dethroned, and our land will 
by ruled by the people for the people. 
The recent celebration at Cornell Uni¬ 
versity in honor of the prosperity of the 
College of Agriculture outlined clearly and 
boldly the policy of agricu'tural education 
in that institution, says the editor of the 
Ameilcan Garden. The common concep¬ 
tion of an agricultural e ucation supposes 
that farming as a rade can be taught at 
college. But this supposition is untrue. 
Probably there are few educators who se¬ 
riously hold this idea at tbe present day, 
and certainly no one who has made the en¬ 
deavor to teach the complete trade to 
stulents can believe in it. It is little more 
than a pleasant deceit. The place to learn 
the common farm operations is on the iarm, 
and if it is the purpose of our colleges to 
teach these operations as a prescribed part 
of their courses, they are, by so much, 
necessary failures. Toe college cannot take 
the place of the farm. Its purpose is to sup¬ 
plement it and to ennoble it. If tne stu- 
de t who seeks an agricultural educa¬ 
tion is not already familiar with ommon 
farm operations, he should first acquire 
them, or he should spend one or more of 
his vacations on a farm. In other words, 
like all other st idents, he must prepare for 
college before he enters it. Many farm 
operations can, of course, be learned at 
college, but every one famill ir with the 
subject knows that much of the college 
farm labor is little more than a travesty, 
even when directed, as it usually is, in the 
utmost seriousness and earnestness. All 
industry, energy and efficiency are con¬ 
ceived in the mind; give the student the 
motive for work, and work he must. The 
compulsory student labor system is really 
a relic of the old fear that education unfits 
the boy to be a farmer, and it seeks by this 
means to prevent him from drifting off 
into agricultural heresy. It puts a stone 
in his pocket to counterbalance any light¬ 
ness of the head. 
We do not wish for a moment to criti¬ 
cise any institution, nor to make compari¬ 
sons. We are simply speaking upon prin¬ 
ciples of education. The labor colleges have 
done a great work, and the leading expo¬ 
nent of this system has been a be icon light 
in agricultural education. But the good 
results, in our opinion, are not so much 
the outcome of the labor system as we have 
been led to suppose. Certain strong men 
in these institutions have impressed them¬ 
selves indelibly upon their students. There 
is now to be observed a gradual weakening 
in the old labor system in some, at least, of 
these colleges. True, unpaid laboratory 
work is gradually taking its place. This 
is indication that agrlc iltural education is 
rising into riper and truer ideals. 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention The Rural New- 
Yorker. 
Can You Eat 
Heartily, with relish, and wl hout distress, after¬ 
ward ? If not, we recommend to you Hood's Sarsa¬ 
parilla, which creates a good app-tite and at the 
same time so Invigorates the stomach and bowels 
that the food Is properly digested and all Its strength 
assimilated. 
“I have been taking two bottles of Hood’s Sarsa 
parllla for weakness and no appetite. With great 
pleasure I will say that I think it has done me much 
good beemse I am now able to eat like a man.” J. 
C. S Chuschill, Richardson Hotel, Monmouth, III. 
N. B. When you ask for 
Hood’s Sarasparilla 
Don’t be iuduced to buy any other. Insist upon 
Hood's Sarsaparilla- l'JO Doses One Dollar. 
For Internal and External Use. 
Stops Pain, Cramps, Inflammation in body or limb, 
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96 eta post-paid. L S. JOHNSON <5t CO., Boston, Mass. 
COUGH-MEDICINE A 
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SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, 
MANUFACTURERS OF 
BUCKEYE 
Wind Engines 
Strong: and J>nrnble; Ifand- 
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Engine. Also manufacturers of the 
Turbine Wind En- 
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Pumps, Buckeye, («lobe 
Champion Lawn JIow- 
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Fencing, Creating:, ete, 
WRITE FOR CIRCULARS AND PRICES. 
An Excellent Opportunity 
ior Investment In the Orange Belt at RIVER¬ 
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Net profits, 9500 per acre. Low taxes. Climate un¬ 
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C. K. McBRIDE. Mansfield, Ohio, or 
J. H. FOUNTAIN, Riverside. Cal. 
275 ACRE FARM. 
Fertile, warm early .oil. 
Good Grans Land. 
Good Butter Farm 
Good Truck Farm. 
Good Fruit Farm. 
Good Poultry Farm. 
Depo.it of Pink Granite. 
Depo.it of Fine Molding Sand. 
Fainou. Spring of Pure Water. 
Twenty -seven miles from Boston. Six good manu 
faeturing village market* wttnln seven miles; on, 
mile from railroad station, post-offlce, etc. 
t*r FOR SALE AT LOW PRICE. 
May be divided into two farms. Two house?, big 
barn. etc. _ 
Address "FARM.” care Thk Rural Nkw Yorkkr 
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Address MATTRESS FACTORY, Castorlaud, N. Y. 
Just Published. 
HOW TO RID 
Buildings and Farms 
OF 
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Mice, Gophers, Ground Squirrels, 
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quickly and safely. How to snare 
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AND 
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THE RURAL PUBLISHING CO., 
Times Building, New York. 
