422 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 22 
The difference was very evident in color and vigor 
of the two lots of trees—those in the clover being far 
more vigorous, though they had received much less 
fertilizer. Another 10-acre field gave a remarkable 
illustration of the value of a humus crop on this light 
soil. It had been cultivated for several years with a 
view to preparing it for strawberries. Half of it had 
grown potatoes and corn in the past two seasons, 
while the other half had been left in Crimson clover 
and cow peas which were plowed in. While the 
cropped half had received more fertilizer than the 
other, the latter with its heavy addition of organic 
matter, was evidently in far better condition. It was 
perceptibly darker and richer looking. The texture 
was so much superior that a blind man could have 
told the difference in walking across the field. 
Mr. Derby’s experience clearly shows the great 
value of a crop like Crimson clover in improving the 
mechanical condition of his soil—aside from any addi¬ 
tion of actual plant food. Ilis soil is light naturally, 
and when he began with it, a strong wind would blow 
clouds of dust away from it. Year after year of green 
manuring has changed the whole aspect of affairs. 
The fine particles of soil, which are the most valuable 
part of it, no longer blow away. The soil is of a 
darker color, more compact, and holds water better 
than ever before. The constant addition of organic 
matter, and the bringing of plant food up from the 
subsoil through the clover roots, have changed the 
whole character of the soil, and more than doubled 
its capacity for retaining moisture. The result is that 
the plants that grow in it are able to consume plant 
food enough to produce 10 times the crops of former 
years. We are anxious to impress this fact upon 
readers, that the most economical way to fertilize is 
first to get the soil itself into such a condition that 
warmth and moisture are best under control. Mr. 
Derby’s farm affords an excellent illustration of how 
the spaces in a sand bed can be closed up, and the 
whole thing changed to “ loam ’’ by the addition of 
organic matter. Don’t lose sight of the fact that pot¬ 
ash in this case served a double purpose—it produced 
the Crimson clover for the needed organic matter, and 
also fed succeeding crops through the clover. Without 
potash, the farm could not have been improved, be¬ 
cause the clover could not have been grown. 
Last week, Mr. Derby gave some of his reasons for 
preferring Crimson to Red clover. There are other 
reasons for this. The Red takes too long to mature. 
The Crimson makes a good growth through the hot 
summer and fall. It is just at this time that nitrifica¬ 
tion is most active iu the soil, and unless some thrifty, 
growing crop were on hand, much of the soluble nitro¬ 
gen would be lost. The Crimson clover is just the 
crop to save this. It covers and shades the ground— 
making a quicker and more profitable growth than 
any other plant. 
There are dozens of interesting things to be seen on 
Mr. Derby’s farm. He has a canning factory of his 
own, and puts up thousands of cans of tomatoes, as¬ 
paragus, etc. There are also large fruit orchards and 
big crops of potatoes. One experiment with potatoes 
we shall watch with great interest. A 10-acre field of 
Crimson clover has been turned under and packed 
down. It was a heavy stand, for 500 pounds of muriate 
of potash per acre were used on the clover. About 
June 10, Rural Rlush potatoes kept in a cool cellar in 
northern New York, were planted on this field. It is 
something of a new experiment with Mr. Derby, and 
we are interested to see how it comes out. But the 
basis of the whole farm's prosperity is potash on Crim¬ 
son clover. Of course, large quantities of dissolved 
rock are also used, but on these light soils, potash 
seems to be the needed element. Without a good sup¬ 
ply of it, clover cannot thrive, and the lesson of the 
whole farm is : Feed the clover potash, and the clover 
will feed you profit. 
BORERS AND OTHER INSECT BORES. 
We find that it will require most of our help to 
fight our insect enemies for a few days. The curculio 
seems to be increasing in numbers, and, on account of 
the extreme heat, we have to get after him very early 
in the morning. A man can destroy more between 
three and five in the morning, than he can during the 
rest of the day now. We have only two machines, 
and the men have got up a little strife to see who 
shall get at it the earliest. They take turns getting 
up every third morning. We allow them for their 
extra time, or let them lie in the shade during the 
heat of the day. 
We are at work at the borers, and find but very few. 
The thorough work we did last year is very manifest 
now. We changed our plans a little. One man 
goes ahead and takes away the soil; two follow 
and look for borers, and two boys follow and do the 
washing. 1 do not think that it will cost us over 
three-fourths of a cent a tree to do the whole work. 
The May beetles are very numerous here ; a good 
many of the ash, elm, butternut and walnut trees are 
nearly stripped of their foliage. I noticed that a good 
many of our plum trees have been eaten quite badly. 
I have been wondering whether kerosene emulsion 
would be obnoxious to them. I think that I shall try 
it on a few trees. 1 hear that some of the people in a 
town near by have been spraying their shade trees 
with Bordeaux Mixture and Haris-green, but do not 
know what the result has been. 
About 10 days ago, 1 put 200 pounds of nitrate of 
soda on a little over an acre of strawberries set this 
spring. I did not intend to get on so much, but I was 
very busy, and did not watch the boys closely enough. 
It was put around the plants, from four to six inches 
away. We looked it over after it was finished, made 
a few comments, and concluded that we would chance 
it. The result is that to-day about one-eighth of the 
plants are dead, and some of the others look sick, and 
we feci just a little sick. too. This is the fourth spring 
we have set out a bed. and we were planning to swell 
out a little on this one. We had our first ripe ones 
for tea last night (June 1)—Michel’s Early, with a few 
Crescent and Haverland. 
I am planning to go through the vineyard and take 
off some of the new shoots There is a very strong 
growth of some of the varieties, and I think it will 
pay in the better fruit I shall get, if 1 take off at least 
one-third. Of course 1 shall take the weakest, and 
where they are thickest near the center of the vine. 
Tompkins County, N. Y. k. 
THE BIRDS DEFENDED. 
A copy of The Rural New Yorker for May 4 has 
been sent me, containing a communication from E. 
H. Robinson, of Shelby County. Ohio, which a bird 
lover cannot read unmoved. It may have been noticed 
already, but 1 cannot refrain from a word in refer¬ 
ence to statements so inaccurate and misleading. 
Mr. Robinson cannot be a very close observer of 
birds, when he says that he has never known a robin 
to do more in aid of horticulture than “eat an occa¬ 
sional angle worm or wormy cherry.” Any one who 
has watched a robin closely during the nesting sea¬ 
son, knows that there is no busier or more effective 
insect destroyer than he. And any one who has seen 
a robin demolish the nest of the tent caterpillar, 
when the young caterpillars first appear, will ever 
after have a profound respect for him as an aid to 
agriculture. “The truth is, the robin is almost ex¬ 
clusively insectivorous, and uses fruit as we do, only 
as a dessert, and not for his subsistence, except in 
winter, when his insect food can not be obtained”— 
so says Wilson Flagg, an acute and careful student of 
bird life. 
The fact is conceded by every thoughtful observer, 
as well as every careful student, that the great mass 
of our smaller birds, numbering hundreds of species, 
are the natural check upon the undue multiplication 
of insect pests. Many of them rarely make use of 
other than insect food, while all, as shown by scien¬ 
tific investigation, depend largely or wholly during 
considerable periods of the year, upon an insect diet. 
With the decrease of birds at any point, is noted an 
increase of insects, especially of those injurious to 
agriculture, farmers themselves being the judges, as 
may be seen by the letters from farmers and fruit 
growers to the committee on bird protection of the 
American Ornithologists Union. 
Prof. Fish says that the birds save $ 100 , 000,000 an¬ 
nually to the farmers of the United States. 
Mr. Samuels, in his “Birds of New England,” in the 
course of his remarks on this point, says : “ The 
warblers capture the insects that prey on the foliage 
of the trees ; the fly-catchers seize these insects as 
they fly from the trees ; the swallows capture those 
that have escaped all these ; the woodpeckers destroy 
them when in the larval state in the wood ; the wrens, 
nuthatches, titmice and creepers eat the eggs and 
young that live on and beneath the bark ; but the 
thrushes subsist on those that destroy the vegetation 
on the surface of the earth. * * The grubs of 
locusts, of harvest flies, and of beetles which are 
turned up by the plow or the hoe, and their pupas 
when emerging from the soil; apple-worms when they 
leave the fruit and crawl about in quest of new 
shelter, and those subterranean caterp liars, the 
cut-worms, that come out of the earth to take their 
food—all these and many others are eagerly devoured 
by the robins and other thrushes.” 
In conclusion, Mr. Robinson denies that there is 
danger of the extinction of any of our birds. This 
statement does not coincide with others received from 
his State, while we, further east, know that there is 
a great diminution in all our song and shore birds 
hich has resulted in the practical extermination of 
some varieties, owing to the wholesale slaughter of 
birds for millinery purposes, which even protective 
laws have not entirely checked. E. J. foster. 
Putnam County, N. Y, 
A LIST OF SOILING CROPS. 
By referring to my note book. I pick out a journal 
of soiling operations like the following, for feeding in 
connection with rather poor pasturage, a retail milk 
dairy of 20 cows on the shore of Long Island Sound, 
in Fairfield County, Conn. The season was early, and 
on April v8, 1894. 1 cut green rye and began feeding 
small quantities to the cows to “taper on as a full 
feed of green rye at first will taint the milk. The rye 
was one foot high. At this stage of growth, the yield 
is small, but its value as a relish and laxative with dry 
hay and grain, makes up for the waste of so early 
cutting. One double swath 18 rods long, made a full 
horse-cart load. 
May a. I turned the cows to pasture, and fed a full 
feed of green rye. April 2, I sowed two acres of oats 
and peas, two bushels of oats, one bushel of peas per 
acre. May 14, I began planting medium dent corn 
after rye. May 16, the cows refused rye. I feed 
green grass and depend upon pasture. Wheat is a 
good crop to follow rye, and will be palatable about 
a week longer than rye. The rest of the rye and 
wheat is cut and cured for hay, and they are followed 
by clover or corn. 
June 1, clover is ready to feed. June 7, 1 began 
cutting clover, and plowed the sod for corn. This 
land was manured with 16 loads per acre of stable 
manure during the winter, and is in fine tilth. It is a 
short shift, therefore, from a clover field to a corn 
field, and a steady growth of a deep green color for 
the corn from the word go, notwithstanding the dry 
weather. I fed green clover and green grass until 
July 1 . although oats and peas were ready for feeding 
about June 15 to 20. July 7, 1 cut oats and peas and 
put in the silo long. Some mold from hot weather 
and insufficient pressure, but the cows ate this ensi¬ 
lage with avidity until August 6 , when I began feed¬ 
ing corn. Fed corn until October 3, when the filling 
of the silo was completed. August 10 , I sowed barley 
and peas—two bushels of barley, one bushel of peas 
per acre. These are a valuable green feed in late 
October and early November, standing frost well ; but 
with us only in one year out of three have we been 
able to get a good crop. August is a ditticult month 
in which to start a crop which must finish its 
growth in the fall : otherwise, this crop is a very 
valuable “ filling” between corn and the opening 
of the silo. 
November 1, we opened our silo, covered with six 
inches of green rowen cut with the dew on. The ensi¬ 
lage was not weighted. The grass was rotten, but 
the corn to the very top was in excellent condition, 
excepting a little iu the corners. 
We feed little or no grain in summer. Our cows 
are healthy, hearty and in fair flesh. We have followed 
the dairj' business for 10 years, and a cow has never 
died on our hands. 
July 16. at the last cultivation of the corn which 
followed the rye, we sowed Timothy and Red-top, 
which, at this writing (June 4), promises well for a 
full crop. August 3, at the last cultivation of the 
corn which followed the clover, Timothy and Red- 
top were sowed in the same manner as above. In 
April, Alsike, Mammoth and Medium clover were 
sowed in this grass, and all was rolled both ways to 
crush down the corn stubble. e. c. b. 
Southport, Conn. 
EXPERIENCE WITH PRICKLY C0MFREY. 
In the spring of 1889, I bought 1,000 roots of Prickly 
comfrey. These were cut up some, and made about 
1,200 roots. 1 planted them about as I would pota¬ 
toes, kept them well cultivated, and by August they 
had made growth enough so that I commenced cutting 
for the cows. At first, they would not eat it at all, 
and would spit out any pieces of the leaves which 1 
managed to make them get into their mouths ; but 
when pasture became short, they commenced to eat 
it, and since then I have had no trouble. I have never 
been able to make the horses eat it much. 
There are a few things about it worth mentioning. 
It is very tenacious of life. \\ hen a patch is once well 
started, it is about as hard to kill as horse-radish. 
Plowing in the spring does not seem to make any 
great difference with it except to delay the first cut¬ 
ting a little ; but succeeding cuttings seem rather to 
be increased. Hot and dry weather has less effect on 
it than on anything else of which I know ; but ideal 
corn weather makes it do its best. 
The roots much resemble those of pieplant or rhu¬ 
barb in appearance, and may be dug up and cut into 
pieces without any regard to eyes, and every piece 
will gr;>w because the sprouts start from adventitious 
buds formed around the root inside the bark where it 
has been cut. These pieces may be cut in the spring 
and stored in the cellar, like potatoes, for a month, 
and will then nearly all grow. 
The only ways to get rii of it are, to dig it out or 
to pasture it during fall, winter and spring, as it does 
