642 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 6 
SOME MANURIAL CONUNDRUMS. 
SAWDUST FOR BEDDING. 
Last spriag I planted corn on a piece 
of land which was very dry and lumpy 
when plowed, but was reduced to very 
good condition with an Acme pulverizer 
persistently used. Six large loads of 
stable manure where sawdust made 
from oak and basswood—mainly the lat¬ 
ter—was used for bedding, was spread 
quite liberally on a portion of the land 
immediately after planting, and the whole 
piece thoroughly harrowed at once. A 
shower came next day and the corn soon 
showed enough to allow cultivation, 
which was repeated at quite frequent in¬ 
tervals with small-toothed tools. No 
hilling was done. Cultivation was shal¬ 
low and frequent enough to keep the 
ground fine and mellow for the most part 
of the summer. The ground was actu¬ 
ally dusty on the surface for want of 
rain, the corn often rolling its leaves in 
the heat. It made rather under a fair 
growth of stalk, but eared well. At no 
time have I been able to detect the 
slightest benefit from the sawdust ma¬ 
nure or to tell from the growth or color 
of the corn where it was put. All the 
ground needed fertilizing, so it was not 
abundant fertility that prevented any 
effect from the manure, though the 
drought, almost unbroken till recently, 
may have done so. 
An old farm road formerly ran through 
the piece, and though that had been 
back-furrowed twice to fill it up, and 
was included in the manured portion, 
the corn showed its location plainly by 
much smaller growth. 
On the land was a spot where several 
years ago, for five years in succession, a 
pile of manure of 200 to 300 two-horse 
loads, had been put during late spring 
and summer, unprotected except by trees 
which at that time stood thickly about 
it. It was very difficult to plow that 
spot and it looked like a mass of rocks 
when plowed, and many extra dressings 
with the Acme were necessary to reduce 
it to a reasonable degree of fineness. The 
corn is not as good on that spot as im¬ 
mediately adjoining it. What has be¬ 
come of the fertility leached out of that 
large amount of manure through succes¬ 
sive seasons of copious rains? Was it so 
severely leached as we are frequently 
told ? If so, where did the immense loss 
of fertility from the manure go ? There 
was no sawdust in any of those piles. 
Though I have used considerable “ saw¬ 
dust manure” I have been in doubt 
about its value and am so still. There 
must be fertility in it, yet I am quite 
strongly inclined to think it not worth 
hauling a mile. I know it heats imme¬ 
diately and violently, which can be partly 
prevented by thorough wetting, which is 
never done, unless rains do it No doubt 
liberal applications of ground gypsum 
would prevent much loss, but the stable 
men would not do it, and having only 24 
hours a day to do what must be done, I 
cannot do it. w. 
Monroe, Wis. 
DR. HOSKINS CRACKS THESE “NUTS.” 
As regards C. P. A.’s “Nuts to Crack,” 
on page 498, it certainly does not seem 
probable that the shade alone will ac¬ 
count for the free growth of the grass 
under and about the brush piles. Still I 
think the shade very favorable to the 
growth of the tender blades. Besides 
this, the brush intercepts and retains a 
good deal of light matter—dust, dead 
leaves, etc. Further, the rain and dew 
which fall, and the natural surface mois¬ 
ture, brought up by capillary attraction, 
does not dry off so readily, and serves to 
favor the grass in getting a start, and 
in sheltering it from the sun ; and, if in 
a pasture, from the cattle. Certainly, 
all gardeners know that such shelter 
does greatly favor all delicate vegeta¬ 
tion in getting a start; and getting that 
start is the main thing with any tender 
growth. Some fertilizing and mulching 
material will also drop from the brush, 
and have its effect to the same end. I 
think the same infiuences, with perhaps 
others not so readily or easily cogniz¬ 
able, are concerned. Soluble fertilizing 
material would certainly drop or be 
washed from the shocks into the soil, 
and this soluble matter would be found 
very available by the tender roots of the 
young Hungarian grass, and give it a 
quick start. 
It is my belief, from long observation, 
that this quick start is a very important 
factor in garden work. It takes a num¬ 
ber of seasons, usually, to get any new 
piece of ground selected for garden pur¬ 
poses into that most desirable state of 
uniformity whereby an even and quick 
start is obtained. This is very notice¬ 
able in a new piece of onion ground. 
However naturally favorable, and how¬ 
ever well it is manured at the start, we 
will find our new onion bed to require 
more than one or two seasons to give an 
even crop over the whole ground. As to 
the centers of the circular spots under 
the corn shocks, if any one will take the 
pains to carefully wash some young 
plants out of the soil, he will be sur¬ 
prised to see how very quickly and how 
far they will occupy the soil in all direc¬ 
tions. In experiments which have been 
made to determine this point, it has been 
shown that the young roots of seedling 
plants extend and occupy the soil far 
more quickly than the development of 
the plant above ground would indicate. 
Still, with all efforts to account for the 
marvels of Nature in her works as we 
see them in our fields and gardens, much 
yet remains to puzzle and make us pause ; 
for the good dame favors most the hum¬ 
ble suitor who fully understands how 
subtle are all her works and ways, and 
how much patience and modesty she re¬ 
quires of her votaries. Mr. A.’s experi¬ 
ence in his corn field will be instructive 
to many. It rather throws a shade over 
the too common idea that there is very 
little, if any, loss in allowing our fodder 
corn to remain in shock over winter. A 
great deal of nutriment still remains in 
it, because corn, with its long channeled 
leaves, is to a great extent self protec¬ 
tive and stands exposure far better than 
other crops. But I prefer to have as 
much of mine as possible under a good 
roof. 
As to the great growth of Timothy 
beneath large apple trees, shade has 
something to do with it, no doubt; but 
a more powerful factor is the wind 
eddies which the trees produce, and 
which favor the collection of light sub¬ 
stances about the trunks and beneath 
the branches. In my orchards, after the 
trees come into full bearing, I allow the 
grass to grow as it will under the trees, 
and what uniformly comes in is what is 
called “June grass ” in New England, 
but is simply the wonderful Blue grass of 
Kentucky. As it generally grows in New 
England, this grass is of small growth 
and little value; but in northeastern 
Vermont it grows as well as in Kentucky 
(where I passed 12 years of my early man¬ 
hood), and from under my apple trees I 
have often plucked specimen leaves of it 
from three to four feet long. In a large 
part of the St. Lawrence Valley, which 
includes two-thirds of Vermont, we have 
a soil which I long ago recognized as very 
closely resembling that of the Blue grass 
regions of the Ohio Valley. It is not so 
evenly distributed, because the surface is 
more broken, but the characteristics are 
there. x. h. hoskins. 
DISHORNING IN NEW ENGLAND. 
An idea of the extent to which the 
practice of horn cutting is gaining favor 
east of the Hudson River, may be ob¬ 
tained from the discussion at the Con¬ 
necticut Dairymen’s meeting last winter: 
Pres. Geo. A. Bowen had a fine Jersey 
bull that lost one horn in a fight with 
some steers. This was at the time when 
there was discussion over the relative 
merits of de-horning and dts-horning. 
The bull came home with one horn 
broken off and bleeding and to be im¬ 
partial as one side was dis-horned he de¬ 
horned the other side. He is still using 
the bull and can see no diminution of his 
vigor or breeding powers. 
Mr. D. D. Bishop one of Connecticut’s 
skillful Jersey breeders believed in dis¬ 
horning, although he had lost points in 
the show ring. He believed the scale of 
points in judging should be amended so 
as not to bear unfairly upon dishorned 
animals. He suggested the application 
of a cobweb, which could be generally 
found in a stable, to stop the bleeding 
after an operation. Dr. Lyon, a prac¬ 
tising physician of New Britain, objected 
to this because of the danger of introduc¬ 
ing blood poisoning from the organisms 
and dust collected on the cobweb. 
Prof. Roberts said that they began dis¬ 
horning slowly at Cornell, taking the 
bulls first. When they began on the cows, 
they watched carefully and weighed the 
milk. The variations were so slight that 
nothing of consequence could be laid 
against cutting off the horns. He com¬ 
pared the operation to that of pulling a 
tooth—painful for the instant. Foul 
foot, fighting, shocks and sudden changes 
of temperature would reduce milk more 
than dishorning. The cows will herd 
together like sheep afterward. They 
used the clippers, cutting close enough 
to take a little of the hair. He would 
dishorn calves by the preventive method. 
During the first two weeks find the loose 
bud upon the calf’s head, and after care¬ 
fully trimming the hair out of the way, 
rub over it caustic potash such as we find 
at the drug store in stick form, being 
careful not to touch the surrounding skin. 
Mr. Bishop said that the head of the 
animal which was mature when dis¬ 
horned would probably be more tender 
than the head of the disbudded calf. In 
the older animal, all the nerves centered 
there would be sensitive. In the calf, 
these nerves had never been developed, 
and a tendency to butt might material¬ 
ize. 
Dr. Lyon, who has practiced dishorn¬ 
ing upon his Jersey herd, advocated the 
use of per chloride of iron upon the 
bleeding stumps. 
Prof. Roberts said that they used noth¬ 
ing. He said that it took courage to go 
into a stable of cows you love, to cut off 
horns and see the blood fiow, but the 
after results repaid the cost. 
Dr. Lyon works his bull in a cart and 
in a tread power. He says that work 
will increase a bull’s vitality more than 
dishorning will injure it. 
Prof. Roberts suggested the scientific 
fact that the shrinking of one organ 
makes the others stronger. e. c. b. 
If 7on name THi Bubal nbw-Yobkkb to oar 
advertlserg, you may be pretty inre of prompt 
replies and right treatment 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
Cor. Chambers and Pearl Sts.. New York. 
: t 
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