1894 
553 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
them indigestible and of little food value. Horses al¬ 
ways reject the stalks as long as there is any other 
food within reach, even rye straw. It would be an 
interesting experiment to feed a horse on the stalks 
rejected by cattle, or sheep, and see how long he would 
live. It would be cruel, but the experiment might pre¬ 
vent cruelty to a thousand animals. I doubt if the 
horse would live two months. Horses do well on 
corn fodder when not required to eat the stalks, or 
only a little of them, and the leaves are a much richer 
feed than Timothy hay. Some cut stalks and put meal* 
on them to get the stock to eat them. Sawdust can 
be fed in the same way, but it will not demonstrate 
that sawdust is a good food. A. e. bbiggs. 
The Standard Hation in Indiana. 
Corn fodder constitutes the principal coarse food 
here, and has been the main ration for 20 years. I 
consider it the best food possible to procure, provided 
it is properly cured and liberally fed. I have never 
known a horse to have colic while corn fodder with 
grain was his food. It prevents constipation, so 
dangerous when upon dry feed. It is not a cheap 
food, because only the finer portions will be eaten. It 
may be cut in the cutting box, shredded, thrashed or 
husked with the machine. The husking machine 
makes the finest fodder possible ; next to that, I pre¬ 
fer thrashing. The principal advantage to be gained 
in any of these ways, is the convenience of handling. 
As a matter of economy, I feed it whole if plenty, and 
do not starve the animals to eating it too closely. 
There is little nutriment in the coarse stalks, and 
nothing could be gained if we forced the stock to eat 
them. The corn should be cut and shocked as soon as 
the ear is ripe enough to cure without shrinking, and, 
if possible, before frost. It should be husked when 
the blades and husks will not break and waste, and 
the fodder housed or stacked as soon as possible. 
If it cannot be put under a roof or stacked skill¬ 
fully, let it be put in bundles and set in shocks of 300 
hills ; tie carefully close to the top and leave in the 
field. It will be much better than stacking or ricking 
in the yard, if improperly done. If S. M. W. will 
feed it liberally with a small grain ration, his horses 
will come out of winter quarters better than usual. 
I feed from 20 to 30 acres of corn fodder to my horses 
every year. I consider it the best feed they get, and 
would feed more if I had it. w. w. latta. 
The Horse "Will Pick What is Best for Him. 
I have often wintered horses almost entirely on corn 
fodder for roughage. If the fodder is cut while still 
green, well cured and then poorly husked, horses will 
keep fat upon it without grain. If the horses are 
given the whole stalk, there is not the least danger of 
the hard shell injuring them. Nor is there the least 
danger if fed cut, unless cut very short, then the cut 
stalks are moistened and a little ground feed put upon 
them; but this I would not advise. If desirable to 
run stalks through the cutter, do so, but give them to 
the horses dry ;ind they will reject all that will not be 
good for them, and then feed the grain separately. 
Of course it should be remembered that the corn fod¬ 
der is highly carbonaceous and the grain to be fed 
with it should be selected with a view of balancing it, 
such for instance as bran, oil meal or gluten meal. 
_ J. B. WOODWARD. 
Clover, Qrass, Posts and. ^Drains in Indiana. 
E. L. B., Sellersburg, Ind. —1. Clover was sown in 
rye this last spring. There are now some weeds and 
wild grass with the stubble and clover. Would it be 
well to cut all down and let it lie as a covering during 
the winter? 2. How deal with an old Timothy, Red 
Top, weedy and^riery meadow, left uncut, to get out 
of it the best manurial results ? 3. Tell us of Broom 
sedge, especially as to its effect on the soil? 4. How 
may I soonest and safest get young trees for posts ? 
Where can I get seeds or sets, and when put them out? 
5. I am not just certain what land plaster is. When 
and at what rates can it be had ? 6. Would 11 to 13 
inches be too deep to plow this yellow clay slate soil ? 
7, Will chemical fertilizers and green manures alone 
increase fertility beyond what it originally was ? 8. 
What is the cost of tile drainage and necessary fre¬ 
quency of tiles to secure perfect drainage ? What 
depth ? 
Anb.— 1. Nothing would improve the clover so much 
as cutting the weeds which shade and rob it of 
moisture. If the mower is set low enough to top 
some of the clover, so much the better, as it will tend 
to make it tiller. 2. Give it heroic treatment. That 
is, plow it most thoroughly in August, or any time 
next spring when most convenient. It is probable 
that the ground is so dry that it cannot be plowed 
before the last of September. If so, then defer the 
work until the plants have made a little start next 
spring. Do not allow a single plant to show its head 
above ground for the entire growing season. This 
may be done by surface culture or by frequent deep 
plowings. The Timothy and weeds now growing 
above ground, are of little manurial value, and it mat¬ 
ters little what is done with them. They may be cut 
and burned, or plowed under as most convenient. 
3. Broom sedge is an indication of soil poverty. It 
does not injure the soil, but, like many other plants, 
fiourishes because it can live on tough plant food, 
while the better plants require that their food be 
made tender or available. Thorough culture and a 
small addition of plant food to the soil, will eradicate 
all of this class of pests. 
4. The most available tree for growing fence posts 
is the Yellow locust. If the trees are planted thickly 
and over some considerable extent of territory, as two 
or three acres, the borer will not seriously affect them 
until they are large and tall enough to cut four or five 
posts to the tree. The locusts belong to the legum- 
inoESB, and are nitrogen gatherers the same as the 
clovers, so they will fiourish on land that is poor in 
nitrogen. Plant in rows six or eight feet apart, and 
trees two feet apart in the row. As soon as they be¬ 
gin to crowd, which will be in about four years, cut 
out every other tree. This will cause them to grow 
tall rapidly. These whip-like trees may be trimmed 
from time to time, for it is the body wood, and not the 
brush that is wanted. When the trees are four or five 
inches in diameter, they may be thinned again by 
cutting out every alternate tree. Surface culture 
should be given for seven or eight years, or until the 
ground is so shaded that no weeds or other foreign 
plants can grow. This long continued culture will 
greatly hasten the growth of the trees. Any reput¬ 
able seed store will furnish seeds, with directions how 
to germinate and plant them. 
5. Land plaster or gypsum is a rock of frequent 
and extensive occurrence. In the cells of many plants, 
as, for instance, the bean, gypsum may be discovered 
by the microscope in the shape of minute crystals. It 
requires 400 times its weight of water to dissolve it, 
and being almost universally distributed in the soil, it 
is not applied for the sulphur and lime it contains, 
but because, in many instances, it is found to hasten 
the growth of plants, particularly the clovers. The 
action of gypsum is not well understood, and how 100 
Map op a Drained Field. 
pounds of this ground stone can sometimes double the 
yield, has not been satisfactorily explained. The 
Nova Scotia plaster which, by some, is considered the 
best, costs about $6 per ton. That from Syracuse 
or Union Springs, which is of a gray color, costs about 
$4 a ton. The finer it is ground, the more valuable it 
is. It varies much as to purity, and is now used quite 
extensively to prevent the escape of ammonia in horse 
stables and exposed manure piles. 
6. Eleven to thirteen inches will be entirely too 
deep to plow the land you describe. Eight inches 
will be quite enough. If you can afford it, subsoil as 
deep as can be done with one team ; but the true way 
to mellow such soils is thoroughly to drain them. 
7. If the application of chemical fertilizers is liberal 
enough, the land will increase in fertility without 
any manure whatever. Green manures I understand 
to mean unrotted manures. If a fair amount of them 
were applied in addition to the fertilizers, the increase 
in fertility would be very rapid. Farm manures are 
relatively poor in mineral matter and rich in nitrog¬ 
enous compounds, and should always be supple¬ 
mented by mineral fertilizers; that is, fertilizers 
which contain little or no nitrogen. As a rule, it is 
not good economy to plow under good forage crops in 
order to fertilize the land. 
8. In heavy clay land, tile drains should be laid 
three leet deep and 40 feet apart; 1,000 tiles will 
suffice for an acre. Two-inch tiles will carry the 
water of 2,000 to 5,000 linear feet of drain. When 
5,000 feet are reached, a three-inch tile should be 
used, and will carry water up to 15,000 feet. Pipe 
tiles, and no other, should be used. At Geneva, last 
year they cost per 1,000 as follows: two-inch, $10; 
2-inch, $15; three-inch, $20; four inch, $35 ; six- 
inch, $60. The cost of draining and filling the ditches 
varies from 30 to 60 cents per rod. A few rules should 
be carefully observed in underdraining land. The 
work should be well done. Tarred building paper in 
strips two inches wide, should encircle the joints for 
three-fourths of their upper circumferences. Avoid 
by every device, mains and sub-mains ; that is, do not 
join the drains, but make each one run parallel, or 
nearly so, to the others, even if the drains have to 
make wide circles, or deep digging has to be resorted 
to in order to get through high knolls. 
Fig. 1 shows the parallel system, while Fig. 2 
shows a main drain, which in no sense is a drain, but 
a conduit for carrying off water. It will be seen that 
the land would be perfectly drained without it, and 
hence it is a dead loss if it can be avoided. Then, too, 
this main drain will cost twice as much per rod as the 
laterals, while being entirely useless if it can be 
avoided. The questioner should purchase and study 
carefully “Drainage for Profit and Health,” by George 
E. Waring, Jr. [prof.J i. p. Roberts. 
Rye Straw as Manure. 
C. P. N., Wayland, N. IT. —As I have lots of rye 
straw, I would like to know what it is worth compared 
with fertilizer per ton. 
Anb.—A ton of average rye straw contains about 
eight pounds of nitrogen, 1(5 of potash, and four of 
phosphoric acid—less valuable on the whole than a 
ton of good stable manure. It is poor economy in 
these days to grow good rye straw to use as manure. 
Better sell the straw and use part of the money to buy 
manure. 
TlBinsr Rocks for a Fertilizer. 
W. A. K., Franklin, Pa. —What does The R. N.-Y. 
think of the following clipping ? 
Prof. Julius Ilensel maintained that the very thlnK which the farm¬ 
ers are so anxious to remove from their Helds, the rocks and stones, If 
put back In assimilable form—i. e., InaHnely pulverized state—will 
be of Immense beneflt to the soil, and that their persistent application 
In that form will restore seemlnKly wornout acres to their former 
natural fertility. In order to test the truth of his Idea, he analyzed 
the ashes of wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, clover, grasses, etc., and from 
these he ascertained the mineral constituents of the gralcs, etc., and 
by supplying these to the soil found that, his claims were abundantly 
confirmed by large and healthy crops, lie maintains that the soils of 
the valleys and plains, which are most fertile, were formed prltnariv 
of disintegrated rocks washed down through ages from the mountains. 
Vegetation ensued, and after Its decay becoming mixed with the In¬ 
finitesimally small particles of rocks furnished the Ideal plant food. 
Anb. —That is all very true. Oar soils are finely 
pulverized rocks anyway. If we could crush granite 
to a very fine powder and add humus or vegetable 
matter, we would have a magnificent soil for any crop. 
The cost of crushing or grinding the rocks would be 
far greater than the present cost of other fertilizers. 
A Fertilizer for Clover. 
I. L., Buckingham County, Va. —I wish to mix a fer¬ 
tilizer for Crimson clover. I suppose that, as the clover 
collects nitrogen, I need only phosphoric acid and pot¬ 
ash. How can I best obtain them ? What is the best 
source of potash, Canada wood ashes, muriate of pot¬ 
ash, or the Kali from Jihe German Kali works ? 
Anb.—W here you are, in Virginia, we think acid 
rock and muriate of potash will make the cheapest 
combination for the clover. In case you sow some 
other crop with the clover, you may need more nitro¬ 
gen, and in that case, you should use fine ground bone 
instead of acid rock. The cost of the different forms 
of potash will depend upon the local prices to you of 
the different substances. You can safely figure this 
way : In a ton of muriate there are 1,000 pounds of 
potash ; in a ton of kainit 250 pounds, and in the wood 
ashes 100. Now take your prices and see what potash 
really costs per pound in these substances. 
Can the Pear and Apple Cross P 
E. A. H., Canohie Lake, N. R.—l have a Sops of Wine 
apple tree in my pear orchard, that has a number of 
apples on it, shaped exactly like a pear, but with the 
colorings of an apple. Can they cross, and, if so, will 
the seeds be likely to produce a tree bearing apples 
of that shape ? 
Anb. —We have heard of several similar instances, 
but we regard the change in form as a mere coinci¬ 
dence due to something besides crossing. We do not 
believe the pear and apple can be made to cross, or 
that pear pollen would change the shape of an apple. 
Still, we would plant the seeds of the pear-shaped 
apples. 
Treating-Seed Wheat; Grain Insects. 
H, C. D. R., No. Baltimore, 0. —There is a little 
smut in my wheat this year. Is it safe to sow without 
treatment ? I saw in The R. N.-Y. a remedy to kill 
weevil in wheat in the bin, but have forgotten the 
name of it. Would it kill smut so that it would be safe 
to sow the wheat ? There are some fields here pretty 
badly smutted. 
Anb. —We would prefer not to use the wheat with¬ 
out treating it. The hot-water method will answer. 
This is dipping the wheat first into hot water at 128 
degrees, where it is turned and shaken for, say, three 
minutes. It is then dipped into water at 135 degrees 
and held there 15 minutes. The trouble is to get it 
dry enough for sowing. Bisulphide of carbon is the 
material used in grain bins. Pour it into a dish on 
top of the grain and then cover the bin tight. This 
will not cure smut. Be careful and keep all lights or 
fires away from the bisulphide. 
G., Vail, N. J .—The plant is Verbascum blattaria— 
Moth mullein. Cultivation will keep it down. 
