THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
March 24 
1 84 
[Bverr qaery mnit be aooompanled br the name and addresa of the 
writer to insnre attention. Before asklnK a question please see If It Is 
not answered In onr adTertlslng oolnmns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper.] 
WANTED! A BIG CORN CROP. 
In the spring of 1890 I took possession of the farm where I now live. 
On It was an eight-acre field that had been sown to buckwheat In the 
summer of 1888. No grass seed was sown and nothing was done with the 
field In 1889. The field had the reputation of being the poorest on the 
farm. Most of It was a north slope and a slaty soil, varying from a 
dark slate loam to knolls of solid slate rock. In the spring of 1890 I 
spread as much barnyard manure as 1 could spare over about half of 
the field (I think about 15 loads per acre), plowed the whole field and 
planted It to corn. At the last working of the corn, I sowed It with 
clover seed, six quarts per acre. Result: small crop of corn aad poor 
stand of clover,the field showing but little benefit from the manure. The 
summer of 1891 1 left It entirely alone, did not even pasture It, but let 
what clover there was and the weeds grow up and die down. During 
the winter of 1891 and 1892 I hauled my stable manure as made, and In 
the spring of 1892 my barnyard manure upon this field. 1 put about 25 
loads per acre on most of the field. Again I plowed and planted to 
corn, and again sowed to clover as before. Result: where the field 
had been manured for each corn crop, the corn was good and the 
clover was good, but over the remainder of the field the result was 
but little more satisfactory than In the first trial. During the past 
summer 1 have pastured the field. 
During this winter I shall make about 150 loads of manure. I want 
to raise a very good crop of corn and get a good stand of clover on this 
field this year. In July, 1895,1 want to pasture It, and In August plow 
It, and In September sow It to rye and grass. Can yon tell me bow to 
grow the largest corn crop In 1891 and have the best harvest In 1896 on 
this field with the least possible cost ? header. 
Vail, N, J. 
Get the Manure Bight Out. 
I am not an expert in growing “ big com crops,” 
but I will state how I would try to do it on my soil. 
I have had no experience with slate. I would wish to 
get that 150 loads of manure upon the ground as soon 
as possible, and would put the soil into the very best 
condition for receiving the seed before planting. As 
Boon as the corn showed above ground, I would go 
over it with the Universal weeder, and then would 
keep it thoroughly cultivated with a one or two-horse 
cultivator, keeping the surface as nearly level as pos¬ 
sible until the corn was as high as a horse’s back. At 
the last cultivation, I would sow clover seed, six to 
eight quarts to the acre, and cover lightly with a one- 
horse harrow. On my soil, however, instead of corn, 
I would plant early potatoes, using some good potato 
manure, 1,000 pounds or more per acre, get the pota¬ 
toes oflE by September 1, and then sow to clover with¬ 
out grain. j. m. white. 
Muriate and Dissolved Bone. 
I would advise Reader to apply broadcast 150 pounds 
muriate of potash to the acre in addition to his manure, 
for his corn crop, harrowing it in. Or, put it in with 
the drill before marking out, and thoroughly cultivate 
his corn. Sow clover seed before the last cultivation. 
He will be much more likely to get a good stand, and 
if he will apply from 250 to 400 pounds of dissolved 
bone when he seeds down to rye, it will insure a good 
crop. The potash will double his corn crop, and the 
bone his rye crop. B s. voorhees. 
What Mr. Lewis Would Do. 
Reader should not be discouraged in his efforts to 
grow a maximum corn crop ; he has evidently im¬ 
proved by his experimenting. On our soils, I would 
feel like advising how to grow a big corn crop. I do 
not understand fully this slaty soil, except that it was 
poor in producing power when Reader commenced to 
work it. I can understand that his second year was 
an improvement on the first one, and no doubt his 
second year’s application on what he treated last year 
would be an improvement on the preceding year. But 
I am inclined to believe that it is not a soil that would 
prove profitable for active cultivation. Twenty-five 
loads of yard manure, if of a good quality, should pro¬ 
duce a good corn crop on any ordinary soil. His 
second year’s application gives him a good one and a 
good stand of clover, showing that his application of 
manure is gradually improving the soil according to 
expectations. Reader will have about 18 loads of 
manure per acre to spread over the entire piece. I 
would suggest that he increase the amount on the part 
that has had but one application, and decrease it on 
the plots that have had two successive applications. 
Tnen apply broadcast 400 pounds per acre of a good 
commercial corn manure, either with the drill or by 
hand. If he feels quite anxious to do a good thing he 
might increase the quantity to 500 pounds per acre. 
With this treatment, and with a fair corn year, I 
would, with reason, expect a good crop; and a good 
catch of grass. _ D. c. lewis. 
What to Use With Clover Sod. 
J. G., Canton, Ohio .—I intend to plant to potatoes a 
clover field which was mown last year. It is a second- 
bottom, gravelly soil and in general qualities is first- 
class ; but it has been farmed pretty hard for years 
and I want to manure it. I have no stable manure, 
but have thought that I would put on burnt lime at 
the rate of about 200 pounds to the acre ; the land has 
been cropped with wheat and grass for a long term of 
years. Is this burnt lime the proper thing ? What 
nitrate would The R N.-Y. recommend, if any ? 
Would salt be the thing ? If so, at what rate per acre, 
and how applied ? How should I apply any nitrate if 
recommended ? I have failed to see any answer in 
your columns which covers my case. 
Ans.—O ur advice would be to use at least 600 pounds 
per acre of a complete high-grade fertilizer, such as 
are advertised in The R, N.-Y. To a man beginning 
with fertilizers, this is the simplest and most satisfac 
tory thing to do. Mr. Dibble’s case, page 115, is some¬ 
what like yours. He uses a mixture of bone dust and 
muriate of potash with clover and some yard manure, 
but in your case we would use the complete fertilizer. 
Crimson Clover in New Jersey. 
J. A. N., Middlebush, N. J. —1. Will it do to sow 
Crimson clover with oats, to get a crop of oats, and 
turn the clover under in the fall for wheat and 
Timothy ? 2. Will not Crimson clover get so high that 
in cutting the oats the clover will be cut also ? 3. 
Would Crimson clover make growth enough, if put in 
after reaping the oats, by the time for putting in 
wheat, to pay for turning under for fertilizer for 
wheat and Timothy ? 
Ans —Last year we sowed Crimson clover May 19. 
The first leaves appeared May 24. First bloom July 
16, August 4, the plants averaged 18 inches in height. 
August 12 the plants were still blooming. On August 
4, a part of the plot was cut. August 28 it was noted 
that the cut clover was making a second growth, 
though portions were dead, owing to a severe drought 
perhaps. Possibly, however, only plants which had 
not bloomed were making this growth. The second 
growth was then six to eight inches high and some of 
it blooming. The part not cut was still blooming and 
18 inches high. 1 and 2. Now, we cannot say how 
Crimson clover will behave if sown with oats. But it 
would appear from the above showing that the clover 
would not be harmed by harvesting the oats and that 
the clover might well be plowed under for wheat and 
Timothy. 3. If the season were not too dry, the clover 
if sown at once after the oat harvest might make 
sufficient growth to help the wheat sown in late Sep¬ 
tember. 
Plant Food in Various Crops. 
B. R., Mehoopany, Pa. —Will The R. N.-Y. give the 
amount of plant food, such as nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, potash and lime, removed from the soil by the 
following crops : clover, Timothy, wheat, buckwheat, 
and corn with the stover included ? 
Ans. —The following table gives a fair statement of 
the pounds of these substances in one ton: 
POUNDS IN ONE TON. 
Nitrogen. 
Phos. acid. 
Potash. 
Lime 
Clover hay. 
. 40 
11 
37 
40 
Timothy hay. 
15 
41 
9 
Wheat (uralh). 
16 
11 
1 
Wheat (straw). 
5 
13 
5 
Buckwheat (Kraln. 
. 28 
12 
5 
1 
Buckwheat (straw). 
12 
48 
19 
Corn (eralu). 
12 
7 
a 
Corn (stover). 
11 
19 
8 
Remember this is all by tons. You will have to fig 
ure the amount in a certain yield of grain by the 
weight per bushel. 
Timothy and Two Clovers. 
W. L. L., Allentown, N. J. —1. I have a small field on 
which I had corn last year. I wish to pasture it this 
summer or mow it for hay. I would like to get it in 
grass and not have to plow it up again, and would like 
to know if elover and Timothy sowed this spring after 
plowing the ground would do to mow or pasture this 
summer. 2. Would it do better to sow millet for hay? 
3. Would Crimson clover be the best ? 4. Would it do 
to BOW clover and Timothy with millet or Crimson 
clover ? 
Ans.— 1. Clover and Timothy, sown this spring, 
would hardly do to mow this summer ; if the weather 
be favorable, such a seeding would furnish a good 
pasture for late summer and autumn. 2. Millet makes 
a good fodder if properly cured. It is, however, an 
exhaustive crop, and would leave the ground, unless 
well fertilized, in poor condition for a seeding to grass. 
3. Crimson clover, if sown this spring, may furnish pas¬ 
ture or hay in the summer, though such knowledge as 
we have of this plant leads us to believe that it is not 
particularly well adapted for summer growth; if sown 
alone in the spring, it would be necessary to reseed in 
the fall with other grass. 4. Seedings of clover and 
Timothy of ten succeed well with millet as a cover crop, 
if the millet be not sown so thick as to make a dense 
growth. Sowing a mixture of Red clover, Timothy 
and Crimson clover would doubtless be the safest plan 
to pursue, since, if the Crimson clover grew well, it 
would furnish an early pasture or hay, and would not 
be likely to materially interfere with the Red clover 
and Timothy; while if it did not succeed Avell, the 
Red elover and Timothy would famish late pasture, 
and a hay crop for the next year. k. b. voorhees. 
Plantingr Second Crop Potatoes. 
n. J. C . Jeddo, Mich. —I saw, in a recent issue of 
The R N -Y., that two crops of early potatoes could 
be raised from the same piece of ground in the same 
season ; but it was not explained how the seed for the 
second crop should be managed. I would like to 
know what is required to make the seed grow, for I 
have always left my early potatoes in the ground 
until the whole crop was gathered late in the fall and 
never found any signs of sprouting. 
Ans. —Both the spring and the summer plantings 
are with the second crop seed gathered the previous 
autumn. The potatoes of the first crop will not grow 
if put back into the ground, unless they have been 
dried, sprouted and put through other troublesome 
processes. 
The history of two crops of potatoes from the same 
ground the same season is briefiy as follows: The 
second crop seed, which have been saved from the 
previous autumn, are planted in March, April or later, 
according to the latitude and the season. They come 
up promptly, and whether cut to one or more eyes, or 
planted whole, they send up only one sprout; there¬ 
fore they grow strongly in spite of dry weather and 
the bugs. They make from four to eight tubers each, 
and are able to bring them promptly to a uniformly 
large size ; and each plant requires so little room that 
they ean be planted close together, say 10 inches in 
the row. In July, the first crop is dug and marketed. 
Then the same ground, or ground from which early 
cabbage, peas, or any other spring crop has been 
taken, is prepared and second crop seed, also saved 
from the previous autumn, are planted for a second 
crop. In the latitude of Louisville the second crop, if 
planted early in July, reaches full size before a killing 
frost. If planted late in July or early in August, it is 
two-thirds grown when frost cuts down the vines. 
These immature potatoes are the best as seed, and the 
aim should be to produce such for planting the next 
spring and summer. Some of the seed will be no 
larger than marbles, but they are first-class to plant 
whole, care being taken to scrape a particle of the skin 
off to hasten germination, though this is not necessary 
if an Aspinwall planter, which sticks each potato, be 
used. 
There is so little difference in the summer climate 
of Louisville and New Yc-k, Indianapolis and southern 
Iowa and that latitude, that I have no doubt it would 
be perfectly practicable to grow two cropgpf potatoes 
in the same ground there as well as here ; but second 
crop potatoes will do well in any rich ground whether 
it has already grown potatoes, or cabbage, oronothing 
else at all. In Michigan, perhaps, it would be neces¬ 
sary to save a special plot of -ground for the second 
crop, which should be planted earlier than with us, 
say early in July. 
The only variety of potatoes that I have found to do 
badly under the second crop method is the Early Ohio. 
When second crop seed of this variety are planted, 
they seem never ready to stop growing and therefore 
lose their quality and earliness. john c. pearce. 
Louisville, Ky. ^ 
Will Fertilizers Kill Insects P 
W. M. A., Todmorten, Ont. —Is it a moth or a beetle 
that lays the eggs in the onions and cabbage plants 
which cause the maggot ? Are they the same in both 
instances? To prevent these, would The R. N.-Y. 
apply kainit when the seed is sown, in the case of 
onions, or when they are growing? Should it be 
broadcasted or put in the drills, and at what rate per 
acre ? 
D. B. S , Coran, N. Y. —Will it be ssfe to use German 
potash salts on corn after planting before it comes up 
to drive away web worms ? If so, how much per hill ? 
Ans, —These inquiries bring us face to face with the 
important question: Can we destroy many of our insect 
enemies at the same time that we fertilize our soil, or do 
any of the chemical fertilizers have insecticidal prop¬ 
erties ? Years ago, some farmers reported good results 
from the application of common salt to lands infested 
with wireworms ; on the contrary, others reported no 
results even when the salt was applied in quite large 
quantities. Daring the past two or three years one 
entomologist has advocated the use of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, especially kainit, on crops infested by wire- 
worms, cutworms, sod or webworms, plant lice work¬ 
ing underground, and the maggots attacking onions, 
cabbag ;s and radishes. So me of the fertilizer firms 
immediately incorporated these ideas in their circu¬ 
lars, and these questions of the correspondents have 
doubtless arisen from ideas obtained, directly or in¬ 
directly, from such sources. So far as I know, and I 
have watched this question closely, there has not been 
recorded a single experiment based on careful manipu¬ 
lation under as nearly natural conditions as possible, 
which shows that any commercial fertilizer has value 
as an insecticide when applied at a rate per acre which is 
advisable. No one has yet demonstrated to my satis¬ 
faction that any insect life can be destroyed under the 
above conditions. I have seen a plant louse carry 
