182 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 18 
A SNUG BUSINESS FARM. 
A bright young member of the Massachusetts Board of 
Agriculture tells 'of his process, progress and profits; 
what he has learned and earned in 20 years; a convert 
to chemicals and clover. 
Some Successful Soiling - . 
His name is F. W. Sargeant and he keeps 12 cows cn 
35 acres at his comfortable farm in Amesbury, Mass. 
“ You can’t have much pasture,” I remarked, in the 
course of a conversation. 
“ I haven’t any.” 
“ How is your land divided ? ” 
“ It isn’t divided. It is all mowing except about 
three acres, aside from the home grounds. This area 
is a beautiful pine grove which I can’t afford to break 
into. It is worth too much for a playground and pro¬ 
tection from wind.” 
“ Is it possible that 32 acres or less of mewing keep 
your dairy and team horses in fodder the year round?” 
“ Yes, with the exception of some salt hay bought, 
and of course the grain. The former cannot be of 
great value for making milk.” 
“ Your grass must be remarkable. How many crops 
are cut in one year, and how do you keep up the 
fertility ? ” 
“ I mow some of the grass land twice; but this is 
not my dependence. T soil my stock on green cured 
crops of rye, oats, peas and fodder corn. My process 
of keeping up the productiveness of the grass land is 
a simple one. I am forced constantly to break up more 
or less of it to grow the soiling crops needed. My 
system furnishes such an abundance of manure that 
we are never limited for fertility, and when the land 
is laid down to grass, usually at the end of 
two or three years, it is ready to grow great 
crops.” 
“ Well, you are fortunate here, because you 
escape all bills for commercial fertilizers.” 
“ I used to think so until I read ‘ Chemicals 
and Clover.’ This work has made me see that 
I can employ chemicals profitably on my pota¬ 
toes, and I do so, as well as on cabbages and 
some other crops. Under that rotation I find 
I can grow the choicest cabbages at one cent 
per head. I do not raise potatoes extensively 
—perhaps an average of two acres per year.” 
“ What is your system for soiling ?” 
“ I plow for rye in the fall, manuring heavi¬ 
ly, and sow an acre and a half. This I can feed 
only a short season, as it hardens almost before 
we are aware of it. Then its place is devoted 
to corn. Land for peas and oats is usually 
plowed inlateantumn, and sown before plowing 
time in spring, the seed being worked in 
deeply with a wheel harrow. I use the Canada 
peas, 1M bushel and 2% bushels of oats. This 
crop is my chief support, and I never stop short 
of four acres. Fodder corn is the only other 
soiling crop planted. This is treated precisely 
as if for a yield of grain, being planted 3x3 
or 3% feet apart, five kernels in the hill and kept 
cultivated. But in no stage do I prize it so highly as 
the oats and peas. My rule is to plant enough of 
everything, and if we have more than we can use 
it is hayed, so no loss follows. Frequently we cannot 
feed the entire area before it begins to grow hard. 
It is then cured.” 
“ You don’t use a silo ?” 
“ No,” 
“ Do you not have a difficulty curing the peas and 
oats ?” 
“ Not now, because I have learned how. The crop 
is cut when the peas are young and tender and as 
green as clover. I do not take it into the barn at 
once, but stack it until late summer when danger of 
fall rains is imminent. Then it is removed to the 
barn and is as sweet and green as possible.” 
“ How do you feed green crops ? ” 
“ Always in the stable. I prefer to do so because 
I can control the cows and their manure perfectly. 
The temperature can be regulated also and flies ex¬ 
cluded. The fodder is mowed late in the afternoon 
or in early morning, and carried to the barn, where 
the cart is dumped. Of course, green foods are bal¬ 
anced up for a complete ration by the use of grains, 
although a crop of oats and peas is nearly complete in 
itself. I am feeding the new dairy feed, “ boteina,” 
and like it and recommend it fully.” 
“ Are cows contented to stay in their stalls summer 
and winter ? ” 
Mine seem to be. I never see any uneasiness ex¬ 
cept among cows lately bought, and they soon get ac¬ 
customed to it. Of course, I have to buy or exchange, 
as I have not land enough to raise my own cows.” 
“ What rule do you follow ? ” 
“ I obtain a daily production of 100 quarts of milk. 
When the cows fall below this, I turn off my smallest 
producer This is usually done four times a year at a 
cost of |60 annually. I sell at six cents per quart the 
year around. Part of my milk is bottled and my cus¬ 
tomers like it so well that I shall work into bottling 
exclusively. I prefer it to the old system, although it 
makes more work. It is neat and honest, and each 
customer gets full measure. There is no freezing to 
the measure and no waste.” 
“ Is help abundant, faithful and cheap ? ” 
“ No, labor is my great problem. But I have estab¬ 
lished a rule that price is no objection if quality 
can go with it. At present I am very fortunate, 
having one faithful man who does all the milking and 
peddling ” 
‘ Would you object to stating the wages paid ? ” 
“ Less than 8300 per year and board. An employer 
who has a faithful man should both pay a fair price 
and be reasonable in his demands. Of course one man 
could not do so much unless everything were con¬ 
venient. We have water in the barn, and the mangers, 
floors, etc., are right for rapid, easy handling of fod¬ 
der and manure.” 
“ Do you make your farm pay ? ” 
“Well, I keep out of debt. I can’t say how much 
more, but I have a family of six bright children I am 
supporting and educating. So much is clear profit, at 
least.” 
This -last remark is characteristic of the man. His 
aims are the noble ones that should actuate every 
American farmer Beginning as a dry goods clerk 20 
years ago, when a mere boy, Mr. Sargeant has ad¬ 
vanced successively to bookkeeping and then to farm¬ 
ing, “purely,” he says, “because I could not help 
it; I could not be happy at anything else.” In 
agriculture he has made a shining mark ; also in 
r-rt No Hawaii d ill 
Our Foreign Policy. 
Ill be a rather to </Ou Hawaii. 
From the Weekly Review. Fig. 77. 
positions of responsibility to which he has been 
called. Particularly is this true in his connection 
with the Grange, the State Board of Agriculture 
and the Amesbury and Salisbury Agricultural Society, 
lie has served the last named organization as presi¬ 
dent for 10 years, and been helpful and happy in 
seeing it advance from embarrassment, with only 
81,000 in its treasury to its present success. It 
is now snugly at home on grounds of its own with 
buildings worth 87,500, and an indebtedness of only 
$1,800. HOLLISTER SAGE. 
A BAG OF FERTILIZER. 
Part II. 
With a supply of sulphuric acid the next step is to 
grind the phosphate to a powder, which is accom¬ 
plished by a very powerful machine perfected and 
controlled by the Bradley Fertilizer Company. The 
acid is then poured carefully upon this powder in a 
revolving “mixer,” where the whole mass is thor¬ 
oughly stirred and mixed until the acid has acted upon 
every atom. After being properly “ cured,” (being 
now soluble or “cooked ”), it is then ready to be mixed 
with other substances to make a plant’s dinner. The 
acid has changed the bone phosphate even more than the 
heat changes the raw, indigestible tuber to the light, 
“ mealy,” baked potato. It is evident that great care 
is needed in using this strong acid. Too much would 
spoil the fertilizer; we see the bad effect of this 
in fertilizers which feel greasy and putty-like when 
taken in the hand, rendering them totally unfit for 
even distribution. Too little of the acid would leave 
lots of the phosphate undigested and unfit for plant 
food. Here the farmer must trust to the skill and ex¬ 
perience of the manufacturer. Farmers are some¬ 
times advised to use this powerful and dangerous acid 
themselves in the attempt to make “ home-made fer¬ 
tilize.” This, I believe, is dangerous advice. 
After Cooking Comes Mixing. 
The sulphuric acid “ cooks ” the indigestible phos¬ 
phates and unlocks the all-important phosphoric acid, 
rendering it easily digestible by the delicate plant 
roots. These phosphates, made thus available, are 
carefully mixed and ground together with the re¬ 
quisite ammoniating materials and potash salts to pro¬ 
duce the comple l e fertilizer. Let us suppose a fertil¬ 
izer is wanted for which we can guarantee an analysis 
of three per cent of nitrogen, six per cent of potash 
and eight per cent of phosphoric acid, or 60, 120 and 
160 pounds of these substances to the ton. We should 
proceed about like a cook making a pumpkin pie. She 
takes so much each of milk, egg, sugar, flour, pump¬ 
kin, salt, spice, etc. As she mixes them, she measures 
their strength by tasting. We have in the pantry of 
the “ plant-restaurant ” these ingredients: superphos¬ 
phate, (that is, phosphate acted upon by acid) fish 
scrap, dried blood, muriate of potash, sulphate of pot¬ 
ash, nitrate of soda, etc. First, like the cook, we test 
the strength of these ingredients. The factory chem¬ 
ists take samples of each substance and test them for 
their plant food constituents. Suppose they find that 
100 pounds of the following materials will show these 
amounts of plant food : superphosphate, 15 pounds of 
phosphoric acid ; dried blood, 14 pounds of nitrogen ; 
fish scrap, 7 pounds of nitrogen and 7 of phosphoric 
acid ; muriate of potash, 50 pounds of potash; and 
sulphate of ammonia, 20 pounds of nitrogen, and so 
on. This is the way these valuable plant foods are 
combined, and we must take the extra weights in 
order to get the useful elements required. It is a mat¬ 
ter of arithmetic to so combine these substances that 
a ton of the complete fertilizer will contain 60 pounds 
of nitrogen, 120 of potash and 160 of phosphoric 
acid. Now four very important things demand 
attention: 1. The manufacturer must know 
that the sample of dried blood, for example, 
fairly represents the whole pile. 2. He must 
mix these substances so that the proper forms 
of the fertilizing elements are secured. Some 
are more soluble than others. There must be 
a succession all through the season, so that 
the plant may havei available food all through 
its growth. 3. The mixing must be so com¬ 
plete that you cannot take a spoonful from any 
part of the bag that will not show the guaran¬ 
teed analysis. 4. The fertilizer produced must 
be in such perfect mechanical condition and 
so dry and fine that it can be evenly distributed 
by hand or machine. 
The Bradley Fertilizer Company pride them¬ 
selves on the care they take in providing for all 
these essentials. Everything they buy is sam¬ 
pled and resampled—one analysis being used 
to check another, and no pains or expense are 
spared to get accurate representative analyses 
of all raw materials. This is for their own 
interests, because if they make a mistake and 
produce a fertilizer on a wrong analysis they 
would be sure to put in too much or too little 
of some valuable substance and the plant would find 
it out just as the family would know it if the cook 
put in too much salt or too little sugar in her pie. 
You can also see what folly it would be for them to 
put in any worthless stuff to make bulk. It would be 
better for them if they could put the necessary fer¬ 
tilizing elements into a smaller rather than a larger 
compass. 
A good cook doesn’t use cheap sugar and flour and 
stale eggs just because they cost less. To make a 
cheap fertilizer would be just as sensible as for the cook 
to economize on eergs, sugar and milk, and use three 
times as much pumpkin and a crust twice as thick. It 
would be more pie, as measured by the square foot, 
but no one with any respect for his stomach would eat 
it. Neva' buy a low-grade fertilizer just because it is 
cheap. 
Certain forms of plant food are more valuable than 
others. For example, there are lots of nitrogen in 
ground leather made from old boots and shoes. The 
chemist can find it but the plant can’t There is a 
good deal more difference in value to the plant between 
the nitrogen in nitrate of soda and that of leather than 
the difference in value to a man between a porterhouse 
steak and a “neck piece” cut from the same beef. If 
the Bradley Fertilizer Company should use ground 
leather to furnish a high per cent of nitrogen, they 
might deceive the chemist who cannot detect its pre¬ 
sence, but not so with the plant which cannot thrive 
on leather. 
* Putting the Fertilizer Together. 
There is no use trying to describe the vast and com¬ 
plicated machinery in this factory. There is too much 
of it for the average mind to comprehend. Fifteen 
engines and seven large boilers give life to the wheels 
and belts that run over many acres of space. Devices 
for mixing, grinding, lifting and carrying are found 
everywhere. A steam-power mixer is far surer and 
