45o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 29 
Part X. 
Last week Prof. Whitney showed how 
hard it is to prescribe for a sick soil 
without knowing all the particulars 
about it. We wish to keep pounding 
away at the fact that when crops fail to 
grow, it is often because the mechanical 
condition of the soil is wrong. The 
easiest way to doctor a sick man when 
the only symptoms he recognizes are 
that he is full of indefinite aches and 
pains, is to give him a dose of strong 
physic, or prescribe a “ tonic.” The 
easiest advice to give a farmer when he 
says that his soil won’t grow corn, is to 
advise the use of a “ complete manure,” 
or to go a step further and advise an ex¬ 
periment with strips of soil fertilized 
with the different fertilizing substances 
in varying proportions. This is only 
half the story. We shall never feed our 
crops to the best advantage till we can 
control the water supply by irrigation, 
tillage, or the judicious use of green 
manures. And right in this connection, 
we wish to call attention to the follow¬ 
ing article, because it brings up a point 
that farmers may well consider if they 
are to pay any attention to science : 
Do Farmers’ Clubs Collect Ignorance ? 
A farmers’ club was organized in Dans- 
ville, N. Y., in the early spring of this 
year. The club meets monthly, and dis¬ 
cusses agricultural topics, excluding all 
politics. Meeting a neighbor, Mr. Z, 
upon the street one day, 1 invited him to 
come to our meetings, and become a 
member of the club. As he was a man 
of more than ordinary enterprise, I ex¬ 
pected him to take an interest in the 
club, and benefit us by his experience 
and advice. I was quite surprised, there¬ 
fore, when he objected to our club on 
the ground that it couldn’t succeed be¬ 
cause we farmers are so ignoi’ant of 
agricultural science that comparing 
notes with each other could end only in 
collective ignorance. lie was in favor 
of farmers’ institutes, because there 
were able men in charge of them, and 
because he had learned at one of the 
institutes something new which he 
thought was of practical importance. 
Upon questioning him, I found that he 
had learned the following: That in all 
fertilizers, there are three necessary 
elements—nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash. That nitrogen gave the rank 
growth to the stalk, that phosphoric 
acid grew the seed, and that potash gave 
stiffness to the stalk. It so happens that 
Mr. Zhas a farm of alluvial bottom land, 
where the growth of stalk is usually 
luxuriant. To this naturally rich soil, 
he has added much manure. He had 
often complained that his grain ‘ ‘lodged,” 
and that the berry was not plump. It is 
not strange, therefore, that he valued 
the information he received, for it hit 
his case exactly. This incident suggests 
a few remarks. 
If there be those who regard the pro¬ 
fessors in agricultural colleges as mere 
scientific theorists devoid of practical 
knowledge of farming, so also are there 
men who accept the dicta of these same 
professors without hesitation, and who 
regard their own knowledge and abili¬ 
ties as counting for nothing beside the 
knowledge and abilities of the profes¬ 
sors. Not only is this true with regard 
to the professors, but also with regard 
to the lecturers who lead farmers’ in¬ 
stitutes. On this question, as on many 
others, there is a golden mean. 
We are entirely grateful for the in¬ 
formation which these lecturers and 
men of science have given us, but we 
need not demean ourselves before them 
by underrating our own knowledge. 
We have gained knowledge in the same 
way that they have—by observation. 
^ We have observed the blighting effects 
of frost and drought and hardened 
ground, and the beneficial influence of 
heat and moisture. All the varying con¬ 
ditions of nature are as open to our in¬ 
spection as to theirs. We may properly 
defer to their judgment when the chem¬ 
ical analyses of soils and plants are 
under discussion, but in most things per¬ 
taining to farming, we ought to have 
confidence in our own observation and 
judgment. 
It must be admitted that the knowl¬ 
edge which farmers generally possess 
concerning agriculture, has been forced 
upon them instead of being systematic¬ 
ally sought ; but having discovered our 
mistake, we shall henceforth make the 
investigation of the phenomena of na¬ 
ture, with a view of ascertaining their 
order, the immediate end in view. This 
deliberate investigation, which in other 
branches of knowledge has yielded such 
great results, bids fair to revolutionize 
agricultural methods. At a farmers’ 
club, the observations of each member 
ought to be collected, sifted and ar¬ 
ranged. We do not appreciate the im¬ 
portance of comparing notes. As ob¬ 
servation is the first step toward gaining 
knowledge, so comparison is the second. 
By all means, let us have farmers’ clubs 
at which we can exchange experiences, 
and get confidence in ourselves. The 
result will be, not collective ignorance, 
but collective intelligence. 
A. D. MCNAIR. 
Now, there is much food for thought 
in that article. Our opinion is that the 
farmers’ club and the scientific man, 
should work together. Suppose a dozen 
men come together and compa re notes 
on some interesting point of farming ! 
After they get through, let the secretary 
send a synopsis of the discussion to the 
director of the experiment station, and 
ask him to give the scientific facts about 
it. He will do it, and how much more 
valuable it would be than for any single 
farmer to send his individual opinion for 
investigation. That is one way in which 
the experiment stations can be made very 
useful, and farmers’ clubs might well 
submit their discussions for scientific re¬ 
view. It is true that the value of com¬ 
paring notes can hardly be overesti¬ 
mated, but the comparisons are valuable 
only when a true standard is used. 
Take the simple illustration of an ex¬ 
periment we heard of in Delaware. On 
two farms, close together and of much 
the same soil, two farmers used potash 
and bone with Crimson clover for ferti¬ 
lizing - corn. One farmer used the potash 
on the clover during its fall growth, 
plowed under the clover, and then put 
on the bone. The other grew the clover 
alone, and put the potash and bone on 
the corn. The first man had an immense 
crop of clover and nearly doubled the 
other’s corn crop in consequence. Now 
a man might say in reporting that, that 
they used the same fertilizer—which in 
one sense was true. Yet you can see 
that it would not tell the whole story, 
and unless they went deeper and ob¬ 
tained all the facts to show when the 
potash was used, there would be no way 
of accounting for the extra yield. The 
point is, that we cannot be too careful, 
in reporting or studying an experiment, 
to get all the facts, and look into all the 
conditions. Above all, let us learn to 
look beyond the mere application of cer¬ 
tain fertilizers, for the reason that led to 
an increased yield. 
And right here let us go back to that 
matter of mulching the soil which was 
fully described on page 341. This note 
brings it to mind. We are glad to have 
our friends help us out in this matter: 
As a general thing, we know little about mulch¬ 
ing except in connection with young trees and 
small fruits. Here, however, mulching is extens¬ 
ively practiced with potatoes. Many may do it 
as an easy way of getting rid of the trouble of 
working them; others because their neighbors do 
it; others, again, because experience has taught 
them that in this part of the country, at least, 
both the quality and quantity of the cx - op is 
thereby increased. A few only, have an eye to 
the improvement of their soil, a fact which no 
one disputes, but which nearly everybody errone¬ 
ously attributes to the fertilizing value of the cov¬ 
ering. 
Perhaps as good a yield of tubers as was ever 
seen, was grown about here some years ago by 
mere accident, A few potatoes happened to be 
dropped on the hard soil where the wheat was 
thrashed, and were unwittingly covered with con¬ 
siderable chaff. The result was surprising. 
Never so long as I live, and mulching material 
is no more costly than at present, shall I attempt 
to work another potato. As I look out of my 
window to-day (June 15) with my potatoes in full 
bloom, many of them 28 to 30 inches high above 
the mulch, and their dark green color promising 
continued growth, I realize what a wise thing it 
was that I had that mulch applied this spring. I 
have just examined them; at the very edge, the 
ground is quite dry, but under the leaves, the soil 
is as moist as though we had just had a shower 
of rain. I know exactly what it cost me, as I 
hired the work done for the express purpose of 
determining that point. The cost was at the rate 
of $1 per acre for every inch in depth, as the 
leaves were comparatively loosely applied. The 
rain soon settled them, but the mass is there, and 
I wouldn’t take double the cost and have them re¬ 
moved. 
Long straw does not answer the purpose quite 
so well, as it permits the heated air to penetrate 
more freely to the soil, thereby inducing evapora¬ 
tion. Straw cut short and chaff, are excellent 
materials : but while almost anything — even 
planks—is better than nothing, my experience 
with forest leaves would seem to indicate that 
they are, par excellence, the best mulching mater¬ 
ial. Whenever I test some new and high-priced 
corn, I invariably make sure of a mulch. Rain or 
shine, it grows right along while all the other 
corn in the neighborhood may be scorched by 
heat and drought. 
It is my belief, and if I am rightly understood, 
it will scarcely be disputed, that the longer a 
given kind of potatoes, corn, etc., keeps up a 
steady growth of stalk, the greater will be the 
yield of tubers or grain, as the case may be. A 
mulch positively protracts growth. Any one can 
make his own inference. Interrupted growth does 
not tend to give us fine and large crops. Severe, 
indeed, must be the drought that will check the 
growth of a crop properly mulched. Remember 
that mulching may be done when it would be out 
of the question to cultivate the soil. You get 
your money back in the expense saved in cultivat¬ 
ing; your crop does not depend on the fickle¬ 
ness of the weather; it is so much plant food 
added to your soil for the succeeding crop; but 
most important is the enrichment of the soil 
according to the chemical methods Daine Nature 
employs to build up what man has torn down. 
Virginia. J. c. sengkr. 
The writer has an experiment with 
mulched potatoes under way. On a 
piece of ground 40x30 feet, potatoes 
were planted in rows 15 inches apart, 
the seed pieces about a foot apart in the 
(Continued on next page.) 
Should be 
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