1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
795 
FERTILIZERS AND FRUIT. 
AMONG THE HUDSON RIVER GRAPE GROWERS. 
Part III. 
“No Use For Stable Manure.” 
At Marlboro, N. Y., I met Mr. J. F. Wygant, who has 
made quite a reputation as a grower of fine fruit and 
also as a buyer. He has a cold storage room and is an 
expert in collecting fruit and holding it for shipment. 
From what follows it will be seen that Mr. W. is a 
thorough fertilizer farmer, and the fact that he has 
been able to observe the effect of manure and ferti¬ 
lizers not only on his own farm, hut also on many 
places from whieh he bought fruit, makes his obser¬ 
vation all the more valuable. 
Mr W. has 40 acres and raises gooseberries, currants, 
grapes, apples, peaches and pears. He has about an 
acre of gooseberries, 12,000 grape vines, 6.000 currant 
bushes among the vines, 3,000 peach trees, and a few 
pear trees (too young to bear) among the peaches. 
The gooseberry patch is four years old— 
not yet in full bearing. The third year they 
hear a small crop and increase after that. 
To set out gooseberries Mr. W. said he plowed 
in the the fall and furrowed in the spring, 
and set the plants 3x4% feet. 
“ Do you use stable manure on goose¬ 
berries?” 
“ Yes, when I have it; but I would not 
buy it for that special purpose. I would use 
it only when the plants were young, to 
promote wood growth and to provide a 
mulch. I can raise the best of gooseberries 
without any stable manure. You can’t pos¬ 
sibly hurt gooseberries by using chemical 
fertilizers.” 
“ How much fertilizer would you use?” 
“ When setting out 1 would use half a ton 
or more per acre with extra bone meal added. 
After that at least half a ton every year. I g TINQ 
use the Fruit and Vine manure which is 
lower in nitrogen and higher in potash and 
phosphoric acid than the mixtures for potatoes or 
vegetables. On currants I use half a ton each year.” 
“ Why do you prefer fertilizers, and are they cheaper 
than manure?” 
“ I prefer fertilizers on gooseberries because there 
are fewer weeds than when manure is used. Many a 
patch is seeded to weeds by the use of manure, and 
that makes a lot of extra work in a crop like goose¬ 
berries or raspberries. Stable manure costs, at the 
dock, §2 a ton, and teaming costs 75 cents. Compare 
the analyses and prices of manure and fertilizers and 
you will see that the manure is a costly form of fer¬ 
tility as compared with the latter—to say nothing of 
the extra work it gives both in handling and in kill¬ 
ing the weeds it brings on your farm.” 
“ You don’t seem to have much use for stable ma¬ 
nure 1” 
“ Very little, I can tell you. I know it is excellent 
to force wood on young plants. I use about 
all I have on young vineyards. On gooseber- ^ 
ries, I can get good crops and healthy plants 
by the use of fertilizers alone If the bushes 
seem to n quire extra growth, a little nitrate 
of soda extra will answer just as well and 
act quicker than stable manure. Of course 
I use stable manure on strawberries—but 
only as a winter covering and this because 
it is the handiest thing I can get for this 
purpose. For the food of the crop, I use a 
ton of fertilizer to the acre.” 
“ How did you come to use fertilizers so 
heavily ?” 
“ Well, at home we used to farm on the 
old stable manure basis and we were taught 
that manure was the only safe foundation 
for fertility. I did not like such farming. 
There was too much work about it and no 
profit at all unless you counted in a big ma- Two 
nure pile as part payment. I do not care to 
do that when I can do a cash business with ferti¬ 
lizers I When I came to be a fruit buyer I found that 
the best fruit came from farms where they used most 
fertilizer. It seemed to me that a heavy use of ferti¬ 
lizers gave the best fruit, with least expense in money 
and labor. I have been increasing my use of fertilizers 
ever since I started with them.” 
“ What do you mean by best fruit ?” 
“ I speak more particularly of peaches and grapes. 
With peaches the difference is plainly evident to any 
one who will put two lots side by side. Those grown 
with the fertilizers are of better color, firmer and of 
better flavor. They will keep better. Grapes grown 
with stable manure will not keep so well—they are 
soft and flabby when taken from cold storage. I speak 
positively about this, for in my business I have had 
much experience in handling both kinds of fruit. 
There is no doubt about it. Any dairyman will tell 
you that he can make firmer and bettor butter from 
feeding corn meal than from feeding bran. It is very 
evident that the difference is in the food. It is no 
more remarkable that certain fertilizers will give 
better flavored and firmer fruit than others. The 
difference is certainly as great.” 
“ How much stock do you keep then ?” 
“ Two horses, 40 chickens and a cat! I have hay 
enough for the horses and some two acres of corn. 
The grain I feed, while the stalks are exchanged for 
our milk and butter. I would not take any more live 
stock as a gift—I have absolutely no use for it while I 
can buy fertilizers.” 
“ How much help do you need on your farm? ’ 
“ We have 10 men for eight months steady, and 
about 10 pickers and packers during the busy season. 
None of the men are boarded here. We have our home 
to ourselves and are not slaves to a lot of ‘ chores’ 
and hired hands. Talk about the ‘ freedom of the 
farm,’ there is very little of it, as some folks farm 
spending the best part of their time waiting on a lot 
' 3 ^: ■ I 
: . UT •?. 
Inside^and iOutside Appearance. 
Salting Mold for EdamiCheese. Ini 
FIG. 257. 
of scrub ‘manure makers.’ ” 
‘‘You use fertilizers on peaches then?” 
“ Entirely. They not only give better fruit but 
healthier trees. Manure is well enough on young 
trees where wood alone is to be grown, but for a bear¬ 
ing tree—keep the manure away from it. The life of 
a peach tree with us is about 12 years if it is well 
cared for. Quantities of trees are killed by stable 
manure applied heavily after they begin to bear. 
That sort of manuring forces the tree both to produce 
a crop and also a heavy growth of wood, which is too 
much, and the tree is weakened. That is the way 
many peach orchards are ruined. The well-balanced 
fertilizer produces the crop and leaves the tree healthy 
and sound. I fertilize every year, crop or no crop. 
Last year there was a light crop only, but against the 
advice of many, I piled on the ashes and fertilizer as 
heavily as ever, and I got my reward in a magnificent 
On my farm the cost of an acre of potatoes is as fol¬ 
lows : 
Interest on land at 875 per acre. W.IW 
Plowing and harrowing.. 2 . 0 O 
Ten loads of manure. 10.00 
Drawing and spreading the same. 8.00 
Seed and cutting the same. 0.00 
Planting with machine. 1-00 
Harrowing with smoothing harrow. .&> 
Cultivating six times. 1-80 
Hand hoeing. J-80 
Paris-green and applying the same. 1.00 
Digging by hand and storing. 7.00 
Total cost. 838.25 
Average yield 150 bushels per acre of marketable 
potatoes. Average cost per bushel 25 cents. Average 
price, when sold, 40 cents. 
The cost of crops in a four years’ course designed 
for the production of milk and butter will be as follows: 
FIRST YEAH—CORN FOB EN8II.AOK. 
Interest on value of land. * 1 - 5 ?. 
Drawing and spreading 20 loads of manure. fl.00 
Plowing and harrowing . 3.00 
Seed and drilling. 
Cultivating six times. 8.00 
Harvesting and cutting Into silo. 7.00 
Total .. 823.26 
Average yield, 1(5 tons. Average cost, per 
ton, of ensilage, $1.45. 
1 SECOND YEAR—PEASE AND OATS. 
Plowing and harrowing. . 82.00 
Seed and drilling. 2.00 
Harvesting and thrashing. 5.60 
Interest on value of land. 4.60 
Total cost per acre. 841.00 
No acccount is made of the straw, as it is 
used for bedding and as an absorbent, and goes 
back to the land entire and helps in the pro¬ 
duction of all crops in the course. Average 
yield of oats and pease, 45 bushels of 45 pounds 
to the bushel; cost per bushel, 31 cents. 
THIRD YEAH—CI.OVEIt. 
Interest on value of land. 84.60 
Seed sown the previous year. 2.00 
Harvesting. 8.50 
Total cost per acre.810.00 
Yield, 2% tons per acre ; cost per ton, $4. 
FOURTH YEAR—CI.OVBR AND TIMOTHY. 
Interest. 84.50 
. ,,. Timothy seed previously sown.60 
LRANCE. Harvesting. 3.00 
Total cost per aero. 88.00 
Cost per ton, $4. 
I consider these crops essential to the most successful 
dairy farming. The exact amount of plant food which 
each crop takes from the soil or returns to it need not 
enter into the account. I prefer to consider the course as 
a whole, as each crop may be fed with profit and the soil 
improves in fertility under such treatment. Corn gives 
opportunity for thorough tillage. Peas and oats are 
a valuable food and the straw is also useful. Clover 
acts as a scavenger following the other crops, and is, 
perhaps, the cheapest cattle food produced in the course. 
Will these crops, when fed on the farm, yield the 
amount of manure called for in their production ? 
Forty acres of good corn and grass land used in this 
course will feed 40 cows in the stable for 200 days, giv¬ 
ing each cow 40 pounds of ensilage, 10 pounds of 
clover hay anti 2% pounds of oat-and-pea meal per 
day. The actual cost of this ration is only seven cents 
per day—three cents for ensilage, two cents 
✓ for meal and two cents for hay. For large 
yields of milk and butter, some bran and 
cotton-seed meal may be added, and the in¬ 
creased yield will pay the cost. 
In experiments made at Cornell, as stated 
in Bulletin 5(5 of that station, 74 pounds of 
excrement were saved per day from a cow 
weighing 1,000 pounds when fed for milk and 
butter production. At this rate, 40 cows 
would furnish 2,060 pounds of manure per 
day if all were saved. All the manure may 
not be saved by the average farmer, but it is 
safe to say that where a water-tight gutter is 
provided and the cows are kept in the stable 
all the time, 40 cows will furnish 1 % ton of 
manure per day, or 200 loads for the 10 acres. 
Lowville, N. Y. c. s. rice. 
Two Parts^of Gouda Cheese-Mold Shown Separate. Fig. 258 
crop this year. Heavy feeding of proper food is the 
only way to make anything at fruit growing. ’ 
(To be Continued.) 
THE COST OF CROPS. 
THE MANURE QUESTION. 
In estimating the cost of farm crops, either the 
amount of rent paid, or the interest on the money 
value of the land, should be charged to the crop raised. 
If the crop is one that is sold off of the farm and 
returns nothing to the land, the manure used in grow¬ 
ing such crop should also be charged. If the crop is 
fed on the farm and the manure saved and returned to 
the soil then only the labor of drawing and spreading 
the manure need be charged. It is the land that pro¬ 
duces the plant food contained in the manure and the 
soil, and not the farm stock should be credited with 
its value. If the manure used is charged to the crops 
raised the manure made ought also to be credited. 
258. Apples for New Mexico. —When I started 
an orchard in Nebraska I was advised to 
plant apple trees having a thick, fleshy leaf. Trees of 
this character are able to withstand the dry, hot winds 
and long droughts without casting their foliage. Ben 
Davis, Wealthy, Missouri Pippin and Duchess of Olden¬ 
burg are examples. Do you think there is anything in 
the idea ? If so, is there corresponding difference in 
the leaves of the different varieties of the peach ? Our 
country, the Pecos Valley, is a new irrigation district 
opened up during the past two years. Trees set last 
season had their leaves taken off by the dry, hot winds 
in the spring, and a large number of them died. At 
Roswell, 80 miles up the river, an older settled locality, 
there are good orchards producing fine apples and 
peaches. w * w> 
R. N.-Y.—No doubt such apple trees will better 
stand the hot, dry winds. We cannot say about the 
peach, but wish some of our readers would tell us. On 
all such questions we are always glad to have others 
discuss and comment. 
