1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
do absorb more nutriment from the ground than a 
crop like potatoes or beets ? 
Ans. —We did not attempt in that article to do more 
than compare the root growth of different crops and 
state their capacity for absorbing water. In one sense 
the depth of the root growth indicates the vigor of the 
plant and its ability to hunt and search for food in 
places where other plants cannot reach. Still, that is 
not the whole story, as you may see by looking at the 
tables given on page 729. The oat roots were longer 
than those of clover and heavier, too, yet the clover 
gave a far heavier growth above ground. The oats 
require more water than barley, rye or wheat and that 
is one reason why seeding with the last named grains 
often does better than with oats, especially in dry 
seasons. Another thing is that quick-growing crops 
like oats, millet, etc., are more exhaustive than those 
that have a longer growing season. The best illustra¬ 
tion of this is the strawberry, which forms its fruit in 
a short time. Every one knows what a lot of manure 
is needed to produce a good crop of berries and yet the 
actual fertility in the berry crop will be less than that 
in a ton of Timothy hay. We thus see that the feeding 
habits of the different plants must be considered just 
as the cow and horse have different sorts of digestive 
apparatus which make it necessary for us to feed them 
on different principles. As to a plant’s “ sapping the 
ground,” of course that depends upon the size of the 
crop and its composition. The three substances for 
which we pay money in fertilizers are nitrogen, potash 
and phosphoric acid and plants “ sap the ground” in 
proportion as they remove these substances from it. 
The following table will enable you to figure out the 
matter: 
POUNDS IN ONE TON. 
Phosphoric Manurlal 
Nitrogen. acid. Potash. value. 
Timothy haj. 19J*£ 14>6 41 *5.99 
Hungarian. 23 7 42 6.10 
Clover hav. 40 11 37 9.07 
Wheat straw. 11 4 18 2.69 
Oat straw. 12 4 18 3.06 
Barley straw. 13 4 19 3.32 
Corn stalks. 17 11 19 4.39 
Potatoes. 7 3 11 1.87 
Turnips. 4 2 7 1.02 
Oats. 36 12 9 7.43 
Kye. 34 11 18 7.26 
Wheat. 38 11 16 7.75 
Barley. 40 9 15 7.99 
In this table we have omitted small fractions, but it 
gives a good comparative idea of the amounts of fer¬ 
tility different farm crops take away from the soil. 
The values represent the cost of the nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash if it were to be bought at reg¬ 
ular market prices for fertilizers. Our friend may com¬ 
pare these figures with the root growths of different 
crops. He will find that simple lencfth of root has not 
much to do with the plant’s power to absorb nourish¬ 
ment. The roots are only the mouths of the plants. 
Some Farming: in Nevada. 
W. O. W., Ruby Valley, Nev. —Having just leased a 
farm for two years, and finding the land very weedy, 
I would like advice. I can depend only on wheat, 
barley and oats in this climate. Potatoes are about 
the only other crop, and there is no market for them. 
The weeds are mostly sunflowers and are very thick ; 
soil a sandy loam. I have about 300 two-horse loads 
of well-rotted stable manure that has been in the open 
yard for three or four years. Would it pay to haul it 
on wheat, barley or oat ground and plow under in the 
spring? Cost of man to handle team, $1.50 per day. 
Should the land be plowed deep or shallow ? How 
deep ? How would you advise burning old bones ? I 
can gather up several loads of them. Some of the 
ranchers here scrape their manure into the creek for 
high water to wash out of the way, and others haul 
and throw it by the roadside. 
Ans. —Perhaps some of our subscribers in Nevada 
will answer this question from actual experience. 
You do not say whether irrigation is needed or not— 
we assume that it is. With a heavy growth of sun¬ 
flowers we would try to burn them off, first crushing 
them down by the use of a roller if possible. In parts 
of Colorado straw is often scattered over the potato 
ground and then burned. At the price named we 
should certainly use the manure, though its value will 
depend largely upon the supply of water available. 
On some of the very dry Western plains, without irri¬ 
gation. manure is of little or no value to the crop. It 
always pays better to have the manure in a fine con¬ 
dition, and harrow rather than plow it in. Three 
inches is deep enough to plow for wheat, but this 
three inches must be made fine, mellow and firm. It 
pays to burn bones only when there is no other way 
of “ reducing” them to a fine condition. 
Jaws That Are Tougher Than Hickory! 
J. E. M., Index, Ark. —All through the hot summer 
and fall, I noticed branches dropping from the hickory 
trees, but gave it no further thought than that it must 
be owing to the drought. This morning, however, I 
picked up one which looked as if it had been cut much 
as one would cut a lead pencil in two with a pocket- 
knife. I examined closer, and found that it had been 
eaten partly through all around, tearing about three- 
sixteenths of an inch in the middle, and the weight of 
the twig, assisted by the wind, broke it off. Now the 
question arises, what sort of a “critter” does this 
promiscuous pruning ? On one bough I found a bug of 
some sort, with his arms tightly clasped around the 
wood and his hog-shaped nose resting thereon as 
though already for business. Perhaps this is the 
girdler. I’ll send you some samples of their handi¬ 
craft. Only the hickory trees are operated on. Now 
what is it ? Is it a worm ? Is it this insect ? Or, is it 
the work of the squirrels ? 
Ans. —This natural “pruner” commonly known as 
the twig girdler, to entomologists as Oncideres cinqu- 
lata, presents an interesting example of the remark¬ 
able instinct and foresight which many insects pos¬ 
sess. The insect found by the correspondent in a 
position seemingly “already for business” is the 
author of the “promiscuous pruning” of which ho 
speaks. The adult insect, the pruner, is a brownish 
gray beetle with a broad gray band acro"S its wing 
covers. It is a little more than one-half an inch in 
length and its antennae are longer than its body. 
The beetles appear on the trees from August to Octo¬ 
ber. The females puncture the branches, usually 
near a forming winter bud or small twig, and insert 
in each puncture a small oval flat 
whitish egg. Several eggs are often 
laid in one branch. After her eggs 
are laid, the female moves toward 
the base of the branch, and select¬ 
ing a place an inch or more below 
where the lowest egg was put, she 
proceeds to neatly girdle the branch. 
She cuts with her jaws a narrow 
groove completely around it through 
the bark, and sometimes nearly half 
way through the wood. Thus gird¬ 
led, the branch soon dies, and is 
often broken off by the wind. In 
this manner the mother provides 
dead wood, the proper food for her progeny, and thus 
affords a striking instance of insect foresight and in¬ 
stinct. I have seen branches over half an inch in 
diameter thus girdled by the beetles. One author has 
said that the eggs are laid after the girdling is done 
Both the male and female beetles feed upon the bark 
of the tree, it is said. The eggs in the dead branches 
soon hatch and the little white grub begins feeding on 
the dead wood just beneath the bark. In the more 
southern regions it may thus feed all winter, but 
further north it doubtless hibernates as a partly grown 
grub. During its lifetime a grub will excavate an 
irregular chamber just beneath the bark extending 
along the branch for an inch or more and often nearly 
through the wood. The grub keeps its burrow or 
home very neat; hardly a single grain of excrement 
is allowed to remain within. As fast as made the 
pellets of excrement are thrown out through a small 
opening (sometimes the hole made by the beetle in 
laying its egg) in the bark, and the pellets accumulat¬ 
ing outside near the branches in piles afford an easy 
method of determining where the grub is at work in 
the branch. It is said that the grubs become full 
grown in the summer, leave the branches and go into 
the ground to form pupie from which the beetles 
issue in the fall, thus completing the life cycle of the 
insect in one year. This may be true in more southern 
regions. However, in February, 1892, a correspondent 
in Georgia sent me pecan twigs that had been girdled 
by this insect; the grubs were then very small and 
although the branches were kept in a warm green¬ 
house, the grubs had not matured in May, 1893; thus 
indicating that they feed at least two years in the 
dead branches in northern latitudes. Although th3 
insect works mostly in hickory, it has proved a serious 
pest in pecan groves, in persimmon, orange, peach, 
plum, apple, quince and pear orchards in different 
parts of the country. The pest occurs in Pennsylvania 
and doubtless in our own State. It is a very easy pest 
to combat. All that is necessary is to gather and 
burn the girdled dead branches, whether yet on the 
tree or on the ground, in the fall, winter or spring, 
thus destroying the grubs they contain. The picture 
herewith, hastily drawn from Dr. Riley’s excellent 
one, will serve to more vividly portray the insect. 
The beetle is shown at work girdling the branch 
just below an egg scar p, and e represents an egg in 
outline. The objects are shown their natural size in 
the figure. m. v. slingerland. 
A Talk About Nitrogen and Phosphoric Acid. 
A. 1. T., Franklin Park, N. J. —I have been using a 
fertilizer for wheat, and also for fields sown in autumn 
to Timothy seed alone. It is composed of dried meat, 
ground fine, with a certain quantity of bone, the two 
being ground in a “cyclone mill” and being “exceed¬ 
ingly fine.” This is the product of a leading abattoir 
in this city and is used as stated above on a clay loam 
soil. I have had very satisfactory results. Now, how¬ 
ever, the practice is to merely crush the bone in coarse 
781 
pieces to sell it at wholesale to fertilizing establish¬ 
ments. The meat is also disposed of separately to the 
same market. In consequence of this change in 
methods, I am no longer able to secure my former 
supply of nitrogen and phosphoric acid and am now 
looking for some other economical form of fertilizer. 
In other slaughter-houses I can find a finely ground 
quality of dried blood, containing perhaps a small 
percentage of meat refuse (ground with the blood), 
and the whole analyzing say 12 to 13 per cent of am¬ 
monia. Suppose that I should wish to use this on 
corn, (broadcast after plowing and before planting) 
will The R. N.-Y. kindly say if muriated potash, or 
perhaps kainit, mixed with it will have the effect of 
dissipating and scattering the ammonia of the animal 
portion of the mixture and so destroy its value. Also, 
why may not this blood be mixed with ground phos¬ 
phate rock in proper proportions and be used to good 
advantage in fall seeding to wheat, rye or grass seed 
alone ? 
Ans. —It will be safe to use tlie dried blood with 
muriate or kainit. Read the articles on page 749 of 
The R. N.-Y. You will there see that kainit has very 
much the same power to hold and retain the ammon’a 
that plaster possesses. You do not give the price at 
which this dried blood may be obtained, but unless 
you obtain it at a very reasonable figure and on a guar¬ 
anteed analysis, we think nitrate of soda will give you 
cheaper nitrogen. You can mix the blood with ground 
phosphate rock, but the latter will do you little good 
if used in a raw state. An acid phosphate—that is, 
the ground rock acted upon by sulphuric acid—will 
answer, but do not use the raw ground rock if you ex¬ 
pect paying crops. You may well figure on the cost 
of fine ground bone in the place of either blood or 
rock. A mixture of fine raw bone and muriate of 
potash with a little nitrate of soda added in the spring 
is a perfect fertilizer for grain. 
More About Patent Ensllaee. 
J. P. B., Flemlngton, N. J. —1. Are the pipes in Mr. 
Colcord’s silo to let the air out of the silo as it is being 
filled, they being then closed, or are they left open so 
that the cool air from the outside can circulate through 
them? 2. Would not wooden pipes two inches square 
with quarter-inch holes, answer in place of the iron 
pipes? 3. How many square feet of room does it take 
to hold aD acre of corn that will give 100 to 125 bushels 
of ears, the stalks seven to eight feet high? 
Ans. —1. Air does not go into the silo through the 
pipes; the constant pressure causes the air to pass out. 
After the ensilage ceases to settle there is nothing to 
cause the air to go into the pipes; the circulation is all 
outward. 2. Wooden pipes would not answer, be¬ 
cause the 1,000-pound pressure would inject the juice 
into the wood so that it would weigh double; if it 
would answer, the holes would have to be lined with 
metal. It has been found that a }-£-inch pipe is too 
small, and that inch is too large for practical use. 
Square pipe of any kind would not work well. 3. Corn 
ensilage when pressed, will occupy one cubic foot of 
space for every 45 pounds. It settles about one 
quarter. The corn described will weigh about 15 tons 
to the acre. s. m. colcord. 
What Ailed These Potatoes—Drought ? 
S. S., Freeville, N. Y. —What is the matter with my 
potatoes ? They were so rough, or rather knobby. 
They grew in all shapes, some of them having seven 
or eight knobs on them, and some of them growing 
nearly out of the ground ; some hills would have, I 
should think, 100, growing around the stalks on the 
top of the ground from the size of a kernel of corn to 
that of a walnut, as well as some on the vines a foot 
or more from the ground. Not more than one-third 
are marketable. Some weighed three pounds ; they 
yielded about 200 bushels per acre. They were planted 
on a very stiff sod, the soil was very rich, part of it 
somewhat mucky, and were manured in the hill with 
about 200 pounds each of phosphate, plaster ana hen 
manure per acre. • They were cultivated several times 
and hoed once, the last time the fore part of July. 
They were planted the middle of May, and looked very 
strong and thrifty all summer. 
Ans. —We can guess merely that the cause was ex¬ 
cessive drought followed by excessive rain. If the 
growth of a tuber is checked for a time by drought and 
is again started by sufficient rain, the new growth will 
proceed rather from portions of the tuber than by a 
continued and regular enlargement of every part. A 
potato vine checked by drought, in its struggle for 
life seems to develop many feeble buds, or small tubers, 
while the older and larger tubers make no further 
growth at all or a second growth which gives the 
prongs or knobs. 
Two Clovers. —S J. H., Hudson, Ind.—One difference 
between Crimson clover and Alfalfa is that Crimson 
clover is an annual, Alfalfa a perennial. Both make 
excellent hay. 
