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863 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
chard grafted to Esopus Spitzenburghs in which the fruit 
varied from nearly round and intensely red to elongated 
with considerable yellow. No two trees were exactly alike 
in fruit. It follows that it makes a good deal of difference 
what stock is used. 
No one should plant an apple orchard who does not in¬ 
tend to show it some sympathy and try to enter into its 
spirit of growth. There is no pleasure or profit in heed¬ 
less culture. On the contrary, the land had better be 
given to crops to which the owner applies his brain. But 
what an infinite field of study opens from orchard trees 
and fruits. Leaves, flowers, wood, growth, bark, fiber, as 
well as fruit constitute volumes of charming science. My 
object in writing is to awaken an interest in apple grow¬ 
ing as a rich subject of thought. There is nothing in the 
world more beautiful than an apple. 
My father had a habit, which I very much like, of giving 
seeds and a bit of ground to his boys to start trees from 
the outset. He believed that this established a peculiarly 
close relationship between a boy and his trees, so close that 
he would always carefully study and care for them. The 
special need in all sorts of employment is sympathy with 
our work. One must love in some degree his apple trees. 
I have also a very keen interest in trees that I grafted my¬ 
self when a boy. Our farm boys ought all to be taught 
the art of grafting. Plant seedlings and let your children 
fertilizers and green crops turned under. Barnyard man¬ 
ure in a moderately we 1 ! rotted cordlt 01 contains, viz : 
Organic 
Materials in 1,000 lbs. Water, and ash. Nitrogen. Potash. Lime, acid 
Barnyard manure, m xler- lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs. lbs lbs 
ately rott d . 150 250 a 6.3 1 o' 2 6 
Bone meal (average). 60 981 33 0.0 313 232 - 
Green rye. 700 300 5.3 6.8 1.2 2 - 4 
We find by comparison that bone meal is deficient only 
in potash which must be supplied; but when we add the 
green rye plowed under, we find that for every 1,000 pounds 
each of manure and green rye, the green rye has an 
equal amount of potash and a small amount in excess in 
nitrogen. [The rye cannot add potash to the soil—it can 
only return what it had previously taken out.— Eds.] 
The reason why commercial fertilizers are so frequently 
condemned is that one buys the same kind for each crop, 
without considering that potatoes need one thing and 
wheat or grass another. No attention is paid to the par¬ 
ticular necessity of the crop to be grown, and hence the 
condemnation of the fertilizer and the manufacturer. Few 
farmers have saved 10 tons to the acre of good, moderately 
well-rottad stable manure during the winter, and yet 
what they have saved* covers the ground, be it much or 
little. 
Green rye adapts itself easily to poor circumstances, and 
will make a good crop and is a cheap manure, costing only 
by purchasing those chemicals proved by analyses by our 
most proficient experts in chemistry to be found In this 
(claimed) complete fertilizer (manure), and hence we can 
lose only the ash or straw, readerlng the soil more friable 
or less compact. This we obviate by plowing under In the 
sprin < or fall a good crop of green rye, which contains, as 
shown by the table of analysis Ingredients, much more 
valuable fertilizing matters than the half-rotted wheat or 
oat straw in the manure. 
It may be claimed by some that I have averaged the 
crops too great or the price of some items too high ; but, 
as for the crops I can only say that 1 have seen 70 bushels 
of corn to the acre, never less than 50; and 200 bushels of 
potatoes to the acre, never less than 100. These crops were 
grown almost by manure alone on this land. And with 
the heavy fertilizing in which potatoes would receive an 
extra dose of potash, I know from what I have seen that 
large c *ops could be expected, and then with smaller crops 
a larger price would be obtained to even the matter up. 
Thi t farm is not in a run-down condition, but in a rich, 
prosperous district where good crops are the average and 
poor land the exception. Too much land is, however, re¬ 
quited for ths stock to furnish manure for the crops, and 
the returns from such stock are too small to pay the 
owners of the land. 
Our trouble seems to be that we are trying to do too 
AGRICULTURE’S RACE WITH THE POLITICIANS. With Apologies to the Bicycle World. 
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modify the fruits to their tastes. What a dull thing it is 
to have all this done by nurserymen 1 
Oneida Co , N. Y 
CHEMICALS AND RYE. 
MAKING AN ARTIFICIAL DUNG. 
Will Rye, Bone Meal and Potash Answer? 
Anew rut ; will rye take the place of clover t Will chem¬ 
icals and rye equal manure made from grain and 
hay T Is this a fair statement ? Do stock require too 
much land ? Spend a penny to get two. 
A farm of 205 acres, of which 160 acres are tillable, pays 
the owner about $3 50 per acre clear gain. On this farm 
are kept 50 head of stock for manure and profit, as our 
fathers believed that unless manure was produced and 
used on the land, it would lose its fertility. If this is so, 
there is no help for us poor farmers but to keep on in the 
same rut. I do not, however, believe it to be true. The 
question seems to be, are we not paying too much for 
manure, and the solution can be had only in two ways, 
viz., intensified farming on the one hand with butter as the 
specialty; and grain farming on the other, with phosphate 
and green manuring; with the intensified farming for the 
dairy, soiling and the silo would follow. Special crop 
farming includes raising such articles as are readily dis¬ 
posed of in our markets of 65,000 inhabitants here, or at 
Philadelphia, less than 30 miles, and within easy reach by 
three railroads. The crops would be wheat, corn, potatoes, 
hay and straw; the land to be improved by commercial 
for seed and the time of planting and plowing, and it 
is there on the land when needed to be turned under early 
or late in the season, as the case may be. Hence my claim 
for green manuring with rye instead of clover, the late 
maturing of which causes the loss of the season, except for 
wheat or a late planting of potatoes. Clover with us 
while a moderately sure crop, is not always certain ; the 
two past seasons it has failed to catch, except in places— 
another reason for my advocacy of green rye. Clover is 
undoubtedly the richer in fertility, but the drawbacks to 
it entitle green rye to the first place. 
Now, let us suppose a case : we have 160 acres in use ; 
if we were to follow a three-year rotation, taking about 
the average prices and crops, the results would be about as 
follows : 
40 acres wheat, 1,000 bushels, at $1.$1,000 
40 “ straw, 40 tons, at $10. 400 
20 “ potatoes, 3,000 bushels, at 40 cents. 1,200 
40 “ corn, 2,400 bushels, at 50 c u s. 1,200 
60 “ hay, 60 tons, at $15. 900 
- $4,700 
Dr. To 20 tons bone meal, at $27.50. 550 
To 10 “ potash, $40 . 400 
To cost of farming...,. 1,875 
- $2,825 
$1,875 
Here we have $1,875 as a profit as against less than $600, 
which must make our manure in the barnyard cost us 
$1,275, besides allowing for the expense of $950 for fertiliz¬ 
ing material. I do not think any intelligent farmer will 
contend that the Ingredients containing the same fertiliz¬ 
ing effects contained in barnyard manure cannot be bought 
much, viz., dairying and raising crops for profit. I do not 
mean to say that a farm of this size should not raise all 
the grain possible to feed its stock, but I do say that in 
that case it should all be fed on the place, and that the 
dairy products should be the money crop of the farm, and 
all ideas should centralize around it. And the only way I 
know of to do this Is to soil the stock in summer, and with 
the silo “ soil them In the winter.” And then I believe we 
would see a corresponding profit. 
The majority of farms here are worked by the tenant 
system of shares, half to the owner and half to the tenant, 
and hence the difficulty of finding a man who is sufficiently 
intelligent to understand that by investing a dollar he can 
get two; but, on the other hand, the system of growing 
crops needs less help and year-round work and can be the 
more readily understood by the ordinary farmer. 
It will be seen that. In my estimate, I did not include the 
value of corn fodder from the 49 acres of corn ground, 
which will be no small item in a dairy country like ours, 
or the item of poultry which this system of farming would 
not preclude, and. properly attended to, these would pay 
the cost of the fertilizers. 
So ne of our farmers in New Jersey have tried a scheme 
something like this, with most excellent results. I con¬ 
tend that it has been proved by experience that good com¬ 
mercial fertilizers with a green crop turned under, will not 
only keep a farm that is already in good heart In a high 
state of fertility, but will steadily improve it if continued 
with systematic regularity and sound j rdgment as to the 
needs of each particular crop. j. l. o. 
Wilmington, Del. 
