568 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 24 
mercial fertilizer, part at the rate of 110 pounds, and 
the remainder at the rate of 150 pounds per acre. 
Through the part on which I put 110 pounds, I left a 
strip two widths of the drill, without fertilizer. Had 
the whole field been like this strip, it would hardly 
have been worth cutting, excepting when it crossed 
the plat where the composted manure was used; 
here the wheat was as good on this strip, to all 
appearances, as on either side where the fertilizer was 
used. The part of the field where the clover haulm 
was scattered, gave the poorest wheat, doubtless be¬ 
cause the haulm was not thoroughly rotted. On the 
parts where the wheat was poorest, the damaging 
work of the fly was most noticeable. Where the 
change froin'llOto 150 pounds of fertilizer was made, 
the quality of the wheat was very much improved 
and, probably, gave an increase of four bushels per 
acre over the lighter quantity used. A plot of about 
one-half acre that grew potatoes before wheat, was 
covered with clover haulin instead of manure before 
plowing; this was sown to wheat 10 days later than 
the remainder of the field, and without fertilizer. Had 
the whole field been no better than this plot, I would 
not have cut it. The average of the whole field was 
22 bushels per acre. 
While we are a community of small farmers, and all 
grow wheat every year, but last year a smaller acre¬ 
age than usual, this yield was better than any other 
farmer within three miles of this farm, secured, 
though many of them own much better land. A 
neighbor using the same brand of fertilizer on land 
of about the same quality, got about one-half as much 
per acre ; but his land never had any manure. 
Another that had used manure on a part of his, 
had about 12 bushels per acre, but neither of 
these crops followed clover as mine did, and 
both farmers are disposed to credit the wheat 
yield to the fertilizer. One of these farmers 
had his laud partially tile-drained, the other 
had none, and to this fact can probably be at¬ 
tributed the wheat failure. Two other neigh¬ 
bors used fertilizers and got wheat of good 
quality, but light yield, and credit what they 
got to the use of the fertilizer. Others that used 
no fertilizer had no wheat that would pay the 
expense of harvesting. No fertilizer, no crop, 
was the accepted conclusion this year. 
JOHN M. JAMISON. 
THE GRANGE; WHAT IT HAS DONE. 
It is evident to any one who has given the sub¬ 
ject particular attention, that the Grange has 
become a potent factor in State and National 
legislation. Its membership, though large, con¬ 
sists of only a small proportion of our agricul¬ 
tural population—New York having 30,000, and 
Pennsylvania 27,000. As a key to a proper un¬ 
derstanding of the purposes and influence of the 
Grange, 1 make some extracts from an address 
delivered at Harrisburg, December 11, by the 
Hon. Leonard Rhone, Master of the Penn¬ 
sylvania State Grange : 
“ It is the boast of our organization that all 
men are free to exercise their own political opinions. 
On entering the Grange, no questions are asked as to 
party proclivities : neither should there be. Every one 
is left to exercise his own judgement as to securing bet¬ 
ter legislation for the promotion of agriculture, and 
to advance the social and political interests of our 
class through the party with which he may prefer to 
affiliate. It must be apparent that any other course 
would arouse strife, prevent our acrdng together vol¬ 
untarily, and culminate in disruption ; thus the very 
object intended to be accomplished by our organiza¬ 
tion would be defeated. * * * 
“ What the Grange insists upon is equality before 
the law. The Grange is purely a farmers’ organiza¬ 
tion, and is for that which s best for the farmers of 
the nation ; but in seeking to advance the prosperity 
of those engaged in agriculture, it wages no war 
against any other interest or pursuit ; and if you will 
examine its history, you will see that it has advanced 
along this line during all the years of its existence, 
which should commend it to all well-thinking farmers.” 
The following are some of the laws enacted entirely 
or in part because of Grange influence : The Inter¬ 
state Commerce Law ; against the manufacture and 
sale of imitation butter ; regulating the sale of fer¬ 
tilizers in this State ; creation of the office of Secre¬ 
tary of Agriculture ; providing for free text books for 
the common schools of Pennsylvania. 
A new revenue measure will probably be presented 
to the Legislature of Pennsylvania for consideration, 
which will, it is believed, go far towards removing 
some or all of the inequalities in existing laws. If so 
much has been possible with so small a membership, 
what may we not expect if the time ever comes 
when the farmers of the whole country awake to the 
importance of thorough organization ? Of all farmers’ 
organizations, the Grange has accomplished most. It 
includes in its aims all that we. as a class, are entitled 
to, and our being divided among so many societies is, 
in a measure, a source of weakness, inasmuch as our 
influence is less than it would be were we united in one. 
Wilawana, Pa. G. A. p. 
FOR WHAT ARE WE FARMING? 
The story on page 477 about those two boys making 
enough from one-half acre to give themselves an out¬ 
ing last year, and their parents one this year, leads 
one to ask : Are the sons wiser than the parents? If 
they can make enough from one-half acre to give the 
family an expensive outing of two weeks, what is 
the father doing on the rest of the farm ? And this 
leads to another query : For what are you farming ? 
For your horses and cows? I know men who are 
farming 20 to 40 acres for their horses. They have 
the work teams, the boys’ ponies, the thoroughbred 
and the carriage team, and all of these must be well 
fed with good hay and grain, laboriously raised on 
the farm. They firmly believe that all of these ani¬ 
mals are a necessity, and must be kept and fed The 
question is : Are they ? 
I know others who are devoting acres to growing 
feed for cows that don’t pay for the hay they con¬ 
sume. These cows drop their calves in early spring, 
and milk well for five or six months, then go dry. 
The wife laboriously churns the cream into 10-cent 
butter, and trades it for groceries, and the farmer 
fondly imagines that he has made a great saving of 
cash by the transaction. 
THE “OLD FASHIONED” POTATO BUG. Fig. 180. 
We all know others who are wrestling with the 
soil, early and late, to raise grain to get money to 
buy implements to—rot in the field. Driving along 
the road last week, I passed a brushy half-acre in the 
corner of a large farm, on which stood a mowing 
machine, spring-tooth hayrake, harvester, corn 
planter, two plows and two cultivators, all rusting 
and rotting. The owner of that farm has no money 
to spare for outings. 
There are others who are working hard, year after 
year, for the benefit of the village merchant. They 
buy goods of him in little driblets, at 50 to 75 per 
cent above wholesale prices, and are rarely or never 
out of debt. They sell their crops before they are 
harvested, and their wasteful practices utterly pre¬ 
clude the possibility of an outing. 
And there are the doughty champions of “ personal 
liberty,” the chief supporters and mainstay of the 
saloons. They would be ready to fight if they were 
deprived of the privilege of dropping their surplus 
into the till of their pet despot. We know well 
enough what they are farming for ; but they don't! 
1 know men who are farming for their farms. That 
is, they are working 80 acres of land to grow as many 
bushels of grain as could be grown on 40 of those 
same acres with better tillage. 
Wouldn't it be a good idea to look into this matter 
a little closer, and try to discover just what we are 
farming for, anyway ; and whether there is any good 
reason why a little surplus for an outing should not 
show up yearly ? feed gkundy. 
Buckwheat in the Siuo.—C an buckwheat be put 
into the silo with corn, to advantage ? o. h. s. 
Cattaraugus County, N. Y. 
R. N. Y.—We do not think the plan would be prac¬ 
tical, and don't think that the cows would appreciate 
such buckwheat cakes. Who can tell us about this, 
or about feeding buckwheat straw to cattle ? 
SOME NOTES ON MILLET SEEDING. 
It is hard to get a good stand of millet in a dry 
time. This year, I sowed 12 acres, and while it was 
so dry, I sowed four acres on ground broken in the 
spring, where frost had killed the corn. This had 
been kept harrowed till it was moist and firm. If I 
sowed broadcast and harrowed in the seed, it was so 
dry and hot that the mulch would part with its mois¬ 
ture, and the seed would perish. So I drilled it in 
with a wheat drill which has a sliding shoe like a corn 
planter; this parted the dusty mulch, and the seed 
fell on the dark, firm, damp seed-bed below. It was 
covered with damp and dry earth, but I rolled it, and 
it came up in fine style. 
The other eight acres were broken late ; it was an 
after thought. The clover on that field had perished 
with the drought, till it cut only one ton to three 
acres. It was broken as an emergency to insure feed, 
and the furrow was as fine and dry as ashes. I har- 
ro ved both ways with the spring-tooth, followed 
with a heavy roller, and was fortunate enough to have 
1% inch of rain, which soaked this seed-bed thor¬ 
oughly. 1 then sowed broadcast, and ci'oss-sovved and 
harrowed, and cross-harrowed and it is coming as 
pretty as a picture. 
I once sowed millet on a dry seed-bed except that a 
quarter-inch rain had moistened the top ; I harrowed 
it in, and the seed sprouted nicely, but being dry 
below, it perished as soon as the surface moisture 
dried out. 
A common mistake with millet is that it is sowed 
too late, and matures so late that we have no hay 
weather. I once sowed at harvest, and got a 
good yield. The swath was over a foot thick, 
but I had to put it up in September, and the 
dew didn’t leave it till near 11, and returned a 
little after two o’clock. I was compelled to let 
it ripen till the stalk was woody, and the seed 
would founder a horse, in order to cure it. 
Millet ground should be broken in the spring, 
harrowed enough to conserve the moisture and 
kill weeds, and sowed as soon as all danger of 
frost is gone, say, June 1 for the latitude of 
Indianapolis. Then it should be cut in the 
early dough state, stirred with a tedder, and 
makes excellent feed for cattle, and good to 
share with fodder and hay to winter horses and 
colts. It often yields three tons per acre. 
Indiana. e. h. collins. 
CRIMSON CLOVER IN KENTUCKY. 
A FAIR AND CANDID ACCOUNT. 
About May 1, I wrote The R. N.-Y. my ex¬ 
perience thus far with Crimson clover, and now 
give my further experience, both as to pasturage, 
and for seed. On 25 acres, I pastured 150 sheep 
and lambs pretty constantly, from the time it 
furnished a good bite, and thought by stocking 
heavy enough to keep the bloom down, the 
pasture might last indefinitely. But by May 5, 
in spite of the sheep, the field was a mass of crim¬ 
son blossoms. In watching the sheep while eat¬ 
ing, I found that they were only picking the 
leaves off, rarely touehmg the blossom. About May 10, 
there was such a fine show for seed, that 1 concluded 
to take the sheep off, and did for good on May 13, and 
turned them on a field of Red clover, where they went 
to picking the blossoms the first thing. 
By the end of June, I started cutting for seed with 
every promise of five or six bushels, if not more, per 
acre. I cut half the field with the mower, and raked 
close behind the mower so that it would scatter less ; 
but the waste was great. However, 1 got this half of 
the field in the barn in good, dry condition. 
In cutting the other half of the field, a machine 
agent sent out a self-rake reaper, new style, for me to 
report on the work it did. I used it, and saved the 
clover in bunches, in nice shape, with as little waste 
of seed as is possible. However, rains set in right 
away, and the way that seed sprouted was almost past 
belief. I gently turned over the bunches as soon as 
the top was dry ; but it got wet three times before I 
could save it. and about half of the seed fell off. 
Then the huller was so ignorant of his work that he 
ground up and blew over half of the remainder ; so I 
told him to go and thrash wheat, and come back later 
and hull the best part of the clover. I got only about 
20 bushels from 12 acres, and on re-cleaning took four 
bushels of meal out of it. Can any of The R. N.-Y. 
readers give me thrashing instructions for the benefit 
of this huller ? 
I am now confirmed in my views as to Crimson 
clover. It is not to be compared to Red clover for 
pasture, or for hay ; but as a green crop to turn under, 
as far as bulk early in the season goes, it is far ahead, 
and is a grand thing where Red fails from any cause. 
Especially is it good to sow in standing corn when 
laid by ; and where properly managed, ought to be a 
paying seed crop. I shall try for seed again, let it get 
