r 
1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
263 
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► 
ONIONS GROWN WITH FERTILIZERS ALONE. 
I have kept a careful account connected with the 
raising of an acre of onions two successive years by 
the use of chemical fertilizers alone, and here are the 
results. The acre is very nice land to handle, being a 
light or yellowish loam, high and dry, but quite too 
poor to support a single sheep, unless it could live on 
mullein stalks alone. It had never received one fork¬ 
ful of manure to my knowledge ; but, on looking up 
its history, I learn that my greatgrandfather did ac¬ 
tually raise rye on it; but, as his posterity are not rich 
by inheritance-, I infer that his rye crops were a failure. 
So much for the nature of the soil. 
My object was to ascertain if a profitable crop of 
onions might be grown on it without yard manure, 
so that foreign seeds wouldn’t be introduced, and the 
expense of weeding would be as low as possible : 
IN ACCOUNT WITH ONE ACRE OF ONIONS. 
1891. 
1892. 
To— Ur. 
To— Dr. 
Plowing.. 
$ 2.00 
Plowing. 
$ 2.00 
Picking off stones. 
3.50 
Picking off stones. 
4.00 
Smoothing, ridging and 
Smoothing ground. 
2.00 
sowing seed. 
3.50 
Onion seed, pounds. 
8.3T 
Onion seed, four pounds. 
8.00 
Sowing the same. 
1.50 
Fertilizer (1,200 pounds).. 
16.70 
Fertilizers (1,460 pounds)... 
24.66 
Applying the same. 
2.50 
First woedlng. 
13.20 
First weeding. 
10.00 
Second weeding. 
11.00 
Second weeding. 
14.50 
Third weeding. 
7.85 
Third weeding. 
6.00 
Applying the fertilizer.... 
3.50 
Pulling and clipping. 
23.00 
Interest on land. 
1.00 
Delivery (sold mostly 
ftt 
Securing and selling crop.. 
41.70 
5 00 
Interest on land. 
1.00 
Total. 
.$120.78 
Total. 
$95.70 
By— Or. 
Total yield, 300 bushels, at 
« 
■-< 
1 
9 
66^0 ... 
.$ 200.00 
360 bushels of onions 
08 
— 
bushels small at 45c.... 
...$162.00 
Net profit. 
. $79.22 
Net profit. $66.30 
The last showing represents what was left after the 
maggots and blight had destroyed at least one-fourth 
of the crop. The fertilizer was applied three or four 
different times, always on the rows, and just before 
an expected rain. The lowest guaranteed analysis was 
nitrogen, 2.5 per cent; available phosphoric acid, 7; 
potash, 2. 
Experiments were also made on different rows. 
Where nothing was applied, all the onions were scal¬ 
lions. Where at the rate of one ton or more per acre 
had been used, every onion was simply grand. The les¬ 
son is obvious, and this season the same land will re¬ 
ceive more liberal treatment. l. w. feet. 
Vermont. 
A TOOL FOR TRENCHING POTATOES. 
The one question most frequently asked about The 
Rural’s trench method of growing potatoes, is how to 
make the trenches in field culture. In The R. N.-Y.’s 
small experiment plots these trenches are made with 
an ordinary spade, but in field culture of course such 
a tool is not practical. Many farmers who use a 
modification of this method take an ordinary plow and 
run it back and forth in the furrow—thowing the 
earth both ways. This answers fairly well, but a 
better trench can be made with a shovel plow with 
wings. Such a trench is deeper and wider at the 
bottom while the soil is thrown away from the trench 
so that the fertilizer can be practically broadcasted by 
scattering it along the top. Such a tool is shown at 
Fig. 104. It is the Hitchcock shovel plow made by the 
Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool Co., Chicopee 
Falls, Mass. We give a picture of it here in answer to 
several readers who want to see a good tool for the 
work. By changing one bolt this plow can be turned 
into a digger for potatoes. 
POTATOES, SHEEP AND DAIRY. 
Part II. 
The Dairy Goes to Bat. 
On Dairy Day the topics discussed were “ How Shall 
We Secure Profitable Cows?” by R. S. Kingman of 
Sparta ; “ How to Produce the Best Cow Feeds at 
Least Cost,” by C. H. Everett, of Beloit, and S. H. 
Adams, of the Experiment Farm, Madison ; “ How 
Shall We Feed for Greatest Profit ? ” by C. P. Goodrich 
of Fort Atkinson; “Fertility in Feeding Stuffs,” by 
Prof. W. A. Henry, Director of the Experiment Station, 
Madison; “Howto Avoid Losses in Butter Fats in 
Butter Making,” by Dr. S. M. Babcock, Experiment 
Station, Madison ; “ How the Best and Choicest Butter 
is Made,” by W. H. Gilbert, of Richland, N. Y.; “Does 
it Pay to Make Fancy Cheese?” by J. H. Monrad, of 
Chicago, Ill. 
On this day the whole dairy subject was ably 
handled. Among the many good points made, Mr. 
Kingman said that any man who can not so con¬ 
trol his temper as to treat his cow as gently as any 
female of the family, should not disgrace the calling 
by his presence. Ease and comfort are as essential to 
the elaboration of good milk as to the production of a 
large quantity. Cows vary greatly in their ability to 
eat, digest and assimilate food. As an invariable rule 
great performers are great eaters, though the contrary 
is not always true. 
Mr. Everett thought the leading point with the 
dairyman should be in securing the best food at the 
least cost. Clover is the very best of all dry foods and 
it can be grown cheaply and is rich in protein. Oats 
and peas make a good food. The latter are almost as 
rich in protein as oil meal. Mr. Adams said that with 
him an important question was how to lessen the cost 
of foods. It costs much labor to grow corn or to 
purchase and haul grains. From experiments made 
he would raise oats and peas, mixed, to be cut green 
and cured as hay. He would sow one bushel of peas 
and plow in with two bushels of oats on top, har¬ 
rowed in, and cut the crop when in the milk. Mr. 
Goodrich said the more food his cows would change 
into milk and butter the larger the profit. If the food 
of support cost six cents and he fed 12 cents’ worth 
and got one pound of butter it would cost him 12 cents 
per pound, but if he fed only nine cents’ worth of 
food and got one-half pound of butter, it would cost 
him at the rate of 15 cents per pound. We should be 
sure to give our cows all they will eat and coax them 
to eat more. His ration was ensilage 22, clover hay 
5, corn stover 5, bran 8 and cotton-seed meal 2 pounds 
and all the straw they will eat The grain food should 
be proportioned to the cows’ milk capacity. 
Prof. Henry said every crop of grain we removed 
left the soil less able to produce another. If we would 
exhaust our land least, we must keep farm animals. 
The quality of the manure depends upon the kind of 
animals fed and the food eaten. Growing stock and 
milking cows take about one-fourth the manurial value 
from the food. In spite of what is lost, it is safe to 
say that with good care two-thirds of the manurial 
value of all foods is returned to the land. The straw 
in manure may have a mechanical effect upon the soil. 
Dr. Babcock said he believed that in the whole 
country with the shallow pan, nine-tenths of a pound 
A Tool for Trenching Potatoes. Fig. 104. 
of butter fat was lost in every 100 pounds of milk. 
This would make one pound of butter. With deep 
setting the loss had been reduced to half a pound of 
butter in every 100 of milk. With fresh cows and 
water below 40 degrees this might be reduced, but 
still he believed the average loss was half a pound of 
butter. With the separator this can be reduced to 
less than two-tenths. Separators may be so run as to 
do poor work, but there is no excuse for this. Cream 
raised by centrifugal force would, other things being 
equal, make the best butter. 
Mr. Gilbert said the highest priced quality in butter 
was its flavor and this depended upon the flavor of the 
milk, and that of the latter, upon the food as well as 
the health of the cow and her surroundings. She 
should by all means have warm quarters, but if 
warmth could be secured only at the expense of 
vitiated air it would be better to have the pure air. 
Both evening sessions were of a more general nature 
and calculated to interest a general audience than to 
instruct farmers. Aside from the regular programme, 
a cooking school was provided in a separate building 
to which a very large number of ladies -went each ses¬ 
sion to learn the mysteries of pleasing the palate 
while administering to the wants of the body. 
The contrast between a New York Farmers’ In¬ 
stitute audience and one in Wisconsin is very striking. 
In the New York audience very few young men are to 
be seen. In many of them more than nine-tenths are 
old enough so that the silver locks predominate. In 
some not a single young man could be seen. In Wis¬ 
consin a large majority are young men, on the sunny 
side of 30 many of them and gray hairs are an excep¬ 
tion. This state of affairs is very discouraging to New 
York and very encouraging to Wisconsin. w. 
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not answered In our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions 
at one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
BUDDED OR ROOT-GRAFTED APPLE TREES. 
WHICH WILL LIVE LONGER. 
A Rbadek.—I saw It asserted a short time ago In a farm paper, 
that budded apple treeB would not live nearly so long as root-grafted 
ones. This Is not In accordance with my experience. Will some of 
The Rural experts take this for a “ target?” 
I have in my orchards apple trees grown both from 
buds and root-grafts, and have never been able to 
discover any difference in their habits of growth or 
vitality. It is true that nearly all trees grown here 
iD Ontario County, N. Y., in the nurseries, are budded, 
and they make fine trees in appearance and usually 
develop fine systems of roots that please planters, but 
in this locality either budded or grafted trees will 
outlive the generation that plant them ; hence the 
question scarcely causes us any anxiety, s. d. willard. 
There is no foundation whatever for the assertion of 
some writers in farm papers that budded apple trees 
will not live as long as root-grafted ones, provided the 
stocks upon which they are worked are as hardy as 
the variety of bud used and so nearly allied in kind as 
to form a perfect union. As a matter of fact, for a 
climate like ours here in Minnesota and the adjoining 
States, the budded tree on hardy stock has consider¬ 
able advantage over the ordinary root-graft: 1, for 
the reason that many of the stocks used in root-graft¬ 
ing are seedlings of the most tender varieties or of 
crabs that do not prove congenial ; 2, because the 
union of root and graft or the knitting together 
draws out the vital forces stored in the trees at a 
time when the trees cannot draw on the soil or at¬ 
mosphere to replace them, and as a result they cannot 
begin growth as early or make as vigorous a growth 
the first season as the budded trees and they are more 
liable to be overtaken by the following winter in an 
unripened condition which invites black heart from 
the killing of the pith and young growth. Again, the 
uncongenial root is very liable to give a weak root 
system and short-lived tree. The union of the bud to 
the stock is formed while the roots are drawing 
nourishment from the soil and the following spring 
the bud is as ready to start in vigorous growth as any 
other portion of the tree and has the advantage of 
being as thoroughly united as any natural branch of 
the tree ; but the cut portion of the graft and root can 
never grow together. The union takes place in the 
inner bark of the two and that very frequently only 
on one side, which would tend to make them more 
sensitive to unfavorable conditions than budded trees. 
We in Minnesota are continually warning our people 
against purchasing from unknown tree venders, trees 
which they sell as budded ; for the reason that they 
are grown far South and are very likely to have been 
worked upon tender seedlings or stunted, unsalable 
stocks of the nursery, and I have found that such trees 
invariably kill below the point where budded, but our 
home budded trees upon hardy stock are equal to the 
best common root-grafted trees, if not better, so far 
ashardiness, productivness and prospect of long life are 
concerned. J. s. Harris. 
It is much easier to make an assertion like this than 
to prove or disprove it. I have been in orchards and 
nurseries now for over 40 years, and I never have ob¬ 
served anything to lead me to believe that budded 
trees are generally shorter-lived than those which 
have been grafted; that is, nursery stock. Budding 
in larger trees is better than grafting, because it 
leaves few wounds that do not heal the same season; 
therefore no such chance for the entrance of decay 
germs. But I can conceive that budding near the 
ground on seedling stocks, inasmuch as it causes a 
crook at that point in the young tree, may leave a ten¬ 
dency toward sun-scald, unless the tree is planted 
