THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 17 
168 
land in proper tilth with plenty of manure or ferti¬ 
lizer, their wheat will look well enough in the spring 
without any harrowing. david ross. 
Ohio. 
The Object of an Extreme Case. 
1. I have harrowed wheat several times, and do not 
think it pays except in extreme cases. If wheat is 
looking well and the ground is not “ hard as a board,’’ 
let it alone. If thin on the ground, the surface soil is 
likely to be beaten hard by fall rains, and a shallow 
stirring and breaking up benefits. 2. The work should 
be done in early spring, as soon as the ground settles 
and before hot, dry weather, which would kill any 
plant partially torn out. 3. Use a smoothing harrow 
and follow with the roller to press the soil around the 
roots again. Some plants will be torn loose, but not 
many killed. Suppose the wheat were a weed to be 
killed ; you might harrow all summer with a spring 
tooth, and there would be wheat left in the fall. 4. 
The clover should be sown before harrowing, but it’s 
late for it. A better catch will be obtained if sown 
earlier. Select some morning when the ground is 
honeycombed by a sharp freeze following a thaw, and is 
full of fine cracks. The seed must be sown before the 
soil thaws, so it will fall into the crevices and be 
covered when the ground settles. This plan seldom 
fails, but requires prompt work. c. e. chapman. 
Not Found Necessary in New York. 
1. It does not with us on our soils, but it might pos¬ 
sibly on certain soils that heaved badly during the 
winter season. 2. Were I to harrow wheat, I would 
do it just as soon after the frost was out of the ground 
as I could drive the horses over the land without 
punching it all up with their feet. 3. The only har¬ 
row that is suitable, in my opinion, for harrowing 
wheat, is the smoothing harrow made by the Heren- 
deen Mfg. Co., of Geneva, N. Y. 4. I would sow 
clover seed before harrowing. I would not sow the 
clover seed in March, for instance, if I could not har¬ 
row until April. It has not been found advisable for 
us in Western New York to harrow wheat at all, as 
our crops are proving satisfactory. We are not 
troubled with heaving to any extent and our land is 
so full of available fertility that we are invariably 
sure of a good catch of clover seed. 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE. 
Harrowing to Kill Timothy, 
Harrowing wheat in spring is one of those farm 
operations that may result beneficially or it may not, 
and it can’t be foreseen whether it will or not in any 
given season. But I believe, on soil such as your Ohio 
subscriber has—sandy—it would be as well to dispense 
with the harrowing, for such soil does not require 
loosening up ; and if the clover seed be sown at the 
proper time, when the soil is full of cracks, it will not 
require any covering except what it gets from subse¬ 
quent freezings and thawings of the soil. But if one 
determine to try the spring harrowing of wheat, the 
proper time to do it is after the ground gets settled 
and will work nicely. Unless the soil be very light, a 
straight-tooth harrow will be the kind to use ; if the 
soil be light and friable the slant-tooth harrow will 
do. The clover seed would better be sown before 
harrowing because, that late in the spring, it will 
have nothing but the rain to cover it unless harrowed 
in. I 'don’t believe in harrowing wheat at all in the 
spring, if Timothy was sown the fall previous, as the 
harrowing will kill a good deal of the young Timothy. 
_ A. L. CROSBY. 
Some Primer Talk About Fertilizers. 
F. O. K., Ohio .—Some firms ask about ^15 per ton for 
potato fertilizers, and some about S38 ; is there really 
that much difference ? Is not the $38 the cheapest In 
the end, or is that too high ? I am not using ferti¬ 
lizers yet, but expect to soon. 
Inquirer^ Michigan .—Will The R. N.-Y. publish the 
enclosed analysis and then discuss it, or, in other 
words, take each of the 10 items, explain them sepa¬ 
rately, tell just what they mean, what they are worth, 
and how their value is estimated : 
GUARANTEED ANALYSIS. 
irer 
Ayatlable phosphoric acid. 8 00 to 11.00 
Equal to available bone phosphate. 18.00 to 24]oo 
Soluble phosphoric acid. 7.00 to 10.00 
Equal to soluble bone phosphate. 15.00 to 22!00 
Insoluble phosphoric acid.50 to L60 
Equal to Insoluble bone phosphate. 1.25 to 3!25 
Nitrogen, total available. 1.85 to 2. 40 
Equal to total available ammonia. 2.25 to ,S.15 
Potash KjO . 1.50 to 2^00 
Equal to sulphate of potash. 2.75 to 3.M 
Ans. —We have had at least 50 just such questions 
from Western States. Theie may be just as much dif¬ 
ference in the values of these fertilizers as there is in 
two kinds of coffee or two cans of baking powder. The 
baking powder is a good illustration. Some cans cost 
half as much as others, but the higher-priced ones 
may be cheaper, because they are more accurate in 
their results and require a smaller quantity to raise a 
given amount of bread or biscuits. Any housewife 
who has spoiled a batch of biscuits by using a given 
quantity of a cheap baking powder, will tell you that 
in the end the strong, uniform and pure article is 
cheapest, even though it costs more per can. The only 
value in a ton of coal is in the amount of heat we can 
obtain from it. Some coal is full of black slate. A 
man might add 300 pounds of water to each ton and 
then offer the mixture at $3 a ton, with pure, dry coal 
at $6. Is it not easy to see that 2,000 pounds of coal 
at $6 is cheaper than 1,000 pounds of coal, 700 of slate 
and 300 of water at $3 ? Fertilizers are valued for the 
quantities of three substances they contain, viz., pot¬ 
ash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen. These substances 
are valued at prices which represent their actual cost 
in the open market. For example, the writer of this 
went to a baker’s shop the other day and bought a 
loaf of corn cake and a pound cake. The corn bread 
cost five cents a pound and the cake 23. The differ¬ 
ence in price was due to the fact thst the flour, butter, 
milk and eggs of the pound cake cost more than the 
meal, molasses and rye in the corn cake. The $38 fer¬ 
tilizer may or may not be cheaper than that for $15— 
depending on its analysis—which we will now try to 
explain. 
“ Available ” phosphoric acid means that which can 
be taken up by the plant as food. For example, bore 
contains phosphoric acid, but the whole bone could not 
nourish a young plant, because its roots could not dis¬ 
solve or eat into the bone. Grind the bone into a very 
fine meal and it is more available, because the roots 
can take more from it. Dissolve the bone in sulphuric 
acid and the phosphoric acid will all dissolve in water. 
Thus the three terms, “soluble,” “available” and “in¬ 
soluble,” mean three conditions of the phosphoric acid: 
1. What will dissolve in water like sugar. 2, What 
will dissolve in weak vinegar, or “ available,” and, 3. 
What will not dissolve except in strong acid—in¬ 
soluble. The plant roots can dissolve some of the 
phosphoric acid that would not dissolve in water, be¬ 
cause the roots have an acid that is reckoned as about 
the strength of weak vinegar. It is about like the 
egg cleaning Mr. Mapes told us about on page 66. 
Some could be cleaned with simple hot water, while 
others were dipped in vinegar, and all were “ avail¬ 
able ” for market. The “ available ” is all that need 
be considered in this analysis. 
“ Equal to bone phosphate” is a term used by some 
manufacturers to show how much bone there would 
be if all the phosphoric acid were in the form of bone. 
“ Bone phosphate” is the combination of lime and 
phosphoric acid found in bone just as a certain pro¬ 
portion of flour and water is found in bread. One 
might just as well say, “one pound of flour—equal to 
pounds of bread 1” It would have the same mean¬ 
ing regarding the flour as the long rigmarole in this 
analysis has to the phosphoric acid. This manufac¬ 
turer has entirely overdoae the “ bone phosphate” 
business and will only confuse those who do not under¬ 
stand the term. 
“ Nitrogen total available” means that the manu¬ 
facturer guarantees that his fertilizer contains 37 
pounds of nitrogen to the ton. “ Equal to total avail¬ 
able ammonia” is like the “bone phosphate.” It 
means that 37 pounds of nitrogen would make 45 
pounds of ammonia. “ Ammonia” is a compound of 
nitrogen and another gas—hydrogen. When nitrogen 
unites with hydrogen it makes a greater bulk, but not 
a bit more nitrogen. For example, suppose we take 
14 ounces of sugar and add three ounces of butter. 
We would have a pound and one ounce of candy, but 
not a bit more sugar. Nitrogen represents the sugar 
and ammonia the candy. Never mind about the 
“ammonia,” figure only the nitrogen in such an 
analysis. 
In like manner “ Potash KjO” is the item to figure 
at 13^ per cent. What we call “ potash” is a combina¬ 
tion of a metal, potassium, and a gas, oxygen. “ K” 
is the letter used to represent potassium and 0 repre¬ 
sents oxygen. “ KaO” means that potash is two parts 
potassium and one part oxygen—just as what we call 
lime is a combination of oxygen and a metal called 
calcium. “ Equal to sulphate of potash” means, just 
like the “bone phosphate” and “ammonia,” that 
there would be that much of combination of sulphur, 
potash and water—like the candy and bread. 
Stripped of all useless terms this is what the analysis 
means: 
Available phosphoric acid. 8 per cent or 160 pounds. 
NUroKen. 1,85 per cent or 37 pounds. 
. 1^6 per cent or 30 pounds. 
The rest of that long rigmarole is of no earthly 
use to 'the farmer, and, in our opinion, does great 
harm in confusing buyers. In some States the laws 
demand much detail and that is why some of these 
long-winded analyses are printed. The three terms 
above cover the whole story except the “soluble” 
phosphoric acid, which might be added to show what 
proportion of it would dissolve in water. 
The trade valuation of this fertilizer is supposed to 
be the money you would have to pay to buy 160 pounds 
of phosphoric acid, 37 of nitrogen and 30 of potash in 
other forms. For example, the chemists of the East¬ 
ern experiment stations average the market price at 
which potash can be bought in different forms, and 
take that average as a fair price for the manufac¬ 
turers to charge for potash in their fertilizers. The 
same with nitrogen and phosphoric acid. A fair basis 
for figuring would be to multiply the pounds of phos¬ 
phoric acid by cents, of nitrogen by 16 cents and 
potash by 43^ cents. This should give you the price 
at which you can obtain these substances in other 
forms and is a fair basis for comparing one fertilizer 
with another. 
This fertilizer is an example of what some manufac¬ 
turers call a “superphosphate.” As we have often ex¬ 
plained, a true superphosphate contains nothing of 
value but lime and phosphoric acid, but the manufac¬ 
turers have added a little nitrogen and potash to it. 
This may answer to sow with fall grain or on some 
crops like grass or beans, but for potatoes, fruits, or 
vegetables, there should be more nitrogen and potash. 
It will not give you satisfactory results on potatoes 
until you add more nitrogen and enough potash to 
make at least six per cent. 
Codlingr.Moth ; Hen Manure for Orchard. 
J. N. C., Ouilderland, N. Y.—My orchard has been 
set for 40 years; it bears well, but the fruit is half 
eaten up with a worm that comes out of the seed part. 
I wish to put on the soil some chemicals to kill the 
ins.ict. The ground in the orchard is broken up every 
three years and seeded with Timothy and clover. I 
gave it a topdressing with barnyard manure on the 
Timothy sod ; then I fall-plowed it and put on a crop 
of buckwheat, and have the ground in good order. The 
coming spring I wish to seed it with Alsike clover. I 
keep a large hennery, and wish to know what chemi¬ 
cals to drill in with the hen manure. I shall put about 
400 pounds of hen manure to the acre. 
Ans. —From the very brief statement of the case by 
the correspondent, we are forced to conclude that the 
worm is the old, old arch enemy of almost every apple 
grower in the United States—the Codling moth. This 
well-known pest has been described and figured so 
often in almost every agricultural paper and bulletin 
the world over, that it seems necessary here to discuss 
only the methods by which many growers are suc¬ 
cessfully combating it. The moth lays her eggs on the 
calyx end of the apples soon after the white petals of 
the blossoms fall. The stem of the little apple holds it 
erect for some time and renders it easy by the use of 
a thorough spray to drop a little poison in the calyx 
of the apple, so that the little worm when it emerges 
from the egg will thus have a poisonous m6nu at its 
first meal. This is the secret of why we so success¬ 
fully destroy the Codling moth with the arsenites. 
Spray the trees thoroughly twice with Paris-green, 
using one pound to 200 gallons of water, and adding 
about two pounds of quicklime to prevent injury to 
foliage. The first spraying should be done just after 
the blossoms fall, and the second a week or 10 days 
later. Later applications for the Codling moth will 
not pay if the first ones are thoroughly done. These 
two sprayings will also rid the trees of the tent cater¬ 
pillars and canker-worms. We would use 200 pounds 
of muriate of potash and 300 pounds of dissolved bone- 
black with each ton of ground hen manure. 
All About a Tomato Crop. 
D. A. O., Norway Lake, Me. —Will Prof. Massey 
answer these questions? 1. How, and with what 
kind of manure can I have tomatoes ripen in 60 days 
after setting in the field ? Does he manure in the hill, 
and how heavily ? Is hog manure good for them ? 2. 
Does he ever tie plants to stakes? How many stalks 
are allowed to grow to the hill ? How far apart are 
the hills, and does he keep the laterals trimmed ? 3, 
Does he water tomatoes much, or not at all ? 4. We 
often plant corn here May 10 or 12 and so on till June; 
now when ought tomato seeds to be planted ? 5. How 
deep does he set tomato plants in the ground ? One 
man here says, lay the plants down and cover all but 
two leaves, so that the plant roots its whole length. 
Should the plants be hilled or have level cultivation ? 
6. How does he prevent plants from being eaten off by 
bugs or worms ? 7. If plants be covered with soil to 
protect them from cold, how soon must they be uncov¬ 
ered to save them from injury; and is there not 
danger of breaking the plants by covering ? 8. How 
many plants are set per acre ? How many per acre 
would be a fair crop ? 9. Would I be safe in putting 
out 200 to 300 plants this year ? They would sell well 
if early, but I usually get them too late. 
Ans. —1. I have had no experience in growing toma¬ 
toes so far north, but suppose that one might risk well- 
grown and well-hardened plants outside by May 20 to 
June 1. Seed for early plants should be sown at least 
10 weeks before it is safe to put them outdoors. We 
sow the seed in boxes in a warm greenhouse quite 
thickly, and as soon as the plants are large enough to 
handle, merely with a pair of end leaves, we prick them 
out and set in similar boxes somewhat deeper and 
about one to two inches apart. These boxes are then 
kept close to the glass in a house simply warm enough 
