664 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 5 
not hollow, but filled with a succulent pith. August 
20, the plant was six feet high, a mass of stems and 
leaves. We think that this would spread by its 
creeping rootstocks as widely as either Cuspidatum 
or Saghalin. As to Cuspidatum, we have only to re¬ 
peat what has already been said. Though growing in 
a bed full of roots of trees and shrubs, the stems 
easily reach a height every season of 10 feet. Its roots 
so spread that we find little plants in the lawn 25 feet 
away. The stems are entirely hollow and pithless, 
except at the joints where a succulent pith extends 
across the tubes. It was mentioned some weeks ago 
that each of these internodes, of the large stems, con¬ 
tained about a tablespoonful of water or sap, requir¬ 
ing but thirty internodes to fill an ordinary goblet. 
It was suggested that this accumulation of water 
might serve to carry the plant through droughts. 
Stems were examined September 20, -after a severe 
drought, and not a particle of water was found. This 
might have been the same had there been no drought. 
Mr. Blanc says that he has never yet seen farm ani¬ 
mals that would eat Cuspidatum, while after repeated 
trials, he has never yet seen a horse that would not 
eat Saghalin with avidity. In this our experience 
differs from his. We have fed Saghalin, Cuspidatum 
and Araplexicaule to many horses and cows, and we 
have been unable to discover that they showed any 
preference for Saghalin. All were eaten, not with 
“avidity,” perhaps, but with some relish. 
Mr. Blanc says that the leat of Saghalin is quite 
smooth and brittle, while the Cuspidatum leaf is 
“rough and tough.” Leaves which he sends us seem 
to show this, but our own do not. We find no decided 
difference between the leaves of Cuspidatum and 
Saghalin, except in shape. Those of the former are 
rather broader, more acuminate, and less heart- 
shaped. The color is nearly the same. The leaves of 
Amplexicaule, as our illustration shows, are lanceo¬ 
late. The color is a much lighter green. 
We do not make the claim that either Amplexicaule 
or Cuspidatum will prove as valuable as Saghalin. 
We have not grown the last long enough to make any 
claim at all for it. But who has the informa¬ 
tion which will enable him to say positively 
that either or both may not prove as valuable as 
Saghalin ? 
That these Knotweeds will grow in low or high 
land, and grow on from year to year, yielding im¬ 
mense crops of leaves and stalks, we have no doubt. 
But what their economic value may be as horse or 
cattle food, as compared with corn, clover, grass, etc., 
Thk R. N.-Y. has no opinion to express at this time. 
Fig. 209 shows a leaf of Cuspidatum; Fig. 210L a leaf 
of Amplexicaule ; Fig. 211, Saghalin, all reduced one- 
third in size. 
SOME FACTS ABOUT ENSILAGE. 
This dry summer has given silo building a great 
boom. More have been built in this vicinity this 
summer than have been previously built since their 
use began. One man who was very slow in being con¬ 
verted, last spring had a lot of ensilage left over, 
covered it, and when all vegetation was dried to 
death, opened his silo and began feeding this last 
year’s ensilage. He now says that if anybody ever 
sees him without an abundance of ensilage to carry 
his stock through the worst summer drought, he 
hopes they will kick him for bis foolishness. And he 
is right; with an abundance of ensilage, it is easy to 
keep up the milk flow in the hottest, driest weather 
with no grass at all. 
Another friend whose ensilage gave out about the 
middle of August, and who had an abundance of corn 
to cut and feed green, wanted to know why, with all 
this green corn the cows would eat, he could not keep 
up his milk flow even when increasing his grain 
ration. To me, it was plain enough. When feeding 
ensilage, the cows were eating mature corn which 
was rich in feeding value. But the green corn was so 
immature that the cows could not eat enough to 
enable them to make milk. It simply contained just 
enough woody fiber to hold the water together. 
j. s. WOODWARD. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Cottrell, of Ellerslie Farm, states 
that, when he came back to ensilage after feed¬ 
ing grain, oats and peas, etc., as soiling crops, 
the milk yield increased. He is so well convinced 
of the value of the silo that he will, if possible, 
turn all the next year’s clover crop into ensilage 
rather than hay. 
Steps on Her Teats. —What, if any, remedy is 
there to prevent a cow stepping on her teats when 
getting up ? A friend has an otherwise valuable cow, 
that keeps her teats almost constantly sore by step¬ 
ping upon them with the sharp toes of her hind hoofs, 
when getting up. It seems to make no difference on 
which side she lies ; her hind hoofs come in contact 
with her teats in rising, sometimes laperating them 
severely, j. w, g. 
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Green Manuring and Deep Plowing at the South. 
W. V. M., Malee , N. C .—What about plowing under green crops, 
such as rye, Crimson clover and cow peas V Some people in this 
section say that they will sour and spoil the land if plowed under 
green, and that it will not do to plow deeper than three or four 
inches, as it will turn up soil that will bake in the hot sun, and 
spoil the crop. Some say that the land should not be turned at 
all, just rooted over and left all litter and weeds on top; that 
shading the land with the litter and weeds is worth more than 
plowing them under for manure would be. 
ANSWERED BY W. F. MASSEY. 
I have for years opposed what is commonly called 
“green manuring,” that is, the turning under of 
green crops for the benefit of the land. While in the 
North, and on a heavy limestone or a bowlder clay, 
such a practice may not result in serious harm, there 
is no doubt that, in a warm climate, and on a sandy 
soil, the plowing under in hot weather of a large mass 
of green growth will almost inevitably be injurious 
to the soil’s productiveness. Instances of this damage 
in my own experience, and that have come under my 
observation on the lands of others, leave no doubt 
on my mind of the injurious effects that may be cer¬ 
tainly expected here from plowing under, in summer, 
a heavy growth of peas or clover. This damage is 
more certain to result when the mass is plowed under 
deep and the surface only is prepared above, than 
when the plowing is shallow, and the mass of decay¬ 
ing vegetation is exposed to the air. 
Another reason, besides the imminent danger of an 
injurious fermentation, that would make me oppose 
the plowing under of such crops as cow peas and 
clover, is that the feeding value of the crop is greater 
than the manurial value, especially when we consider 
the fact that, if the forage be carefully saved and 
fed, we can recover the greater part of the manurial 
value of the crop in the excrement and urine of the 
cattle. Now that we know the way in which legumi¬ 
nous crops really help the land, by the fixation of 
nitrogen in the soil, it should be evident to every 
thinking farmer, that it is poor economy to bury a 
valuable food crop for the gain that would accrue 
over what we get through the roots. If I had a piece 
of land very barren in vegetable matter, it might pay 
me for a while to bury the whole growth. But in 
this case, I would make sure that I got the whole 
growth, and all that the plant could make for me, by 
letting all die on the land, to be plowed under in 
cool weather, and after it had accumulated all it 
possibly could for my soil. I would not hesitate to 
plow under a crop of rye or Crimson clover green, in 
the spring before hot weather had set in, and while 
the soil is cool, if I were going to plant a hoed crop 
and cultivate the land during the season. But, in 
this climate, the man who plows under a heavy green 
growth for a crop of fall grain will, in most cases, be 
disappointed in the resulting crop, even though his 
land be not made unproductive for a longer period. 
1 endeavor to encourage our farmers to grow more 
of these nitrogen-catching crops ; but I never fail to 
warn them of the danger of plowing them under 
green. Some years ago, at an institute in one of our 
eastern counties, I urged the growing of more peas 
for the improvement of the land. I could easily see 
that my audience was not with me ; but when I spoke 
of the danger of plowing under these crops green, on 
a sandy soil and in hot weather, I saw at once that 
they were getting interested. After I was through, 
one farmer rose and said, “ I believe now that you 
know what you are about; but some years ago, 
Prof. - came down here and spoke so enthu¬ 
siastically about growing peas to plow under, that he 
got us all excited over the matter, and we went to 
growing peas and plowed them under in full growth, 
and the result was that for several years after the 
soil would not produce half a crop. I thought that 
you were going to recommend the same thing, but 
now I see where we made the error.” The result has 
been that not only in that county, but all over this 
State, there are three times as many peas grown as 
there were when we began the crusade for cow peas 
here six years ago. 
I do not favor the shallow plowing, for if there is 
one thing more than any other that our farmers on 
the red clay uplands of the South need to learn, it is 
the fact that their lands have not been plowed half 
deep enough, and the fall is the time that this deeper 
plowing can be done better than at any other time ; 
for then a little more of the clay can be turned than 
would be advisable in the spring, ^his is taking it 
for granted that they are going to plant something 
on the land in the fall, for no land should be left bare 
in the South in the winter, to be exposed to the leach¬ 
ing effects of our winter rains. The deepening of the 
soil should be gradual, and the subsoil plow in the 
bottom of each furrow, which loosens without turn¬ 
ing up the subsoil, will be of greater benefit than the 
rash turning up of a lot of unameliorated clay. But 
there are thousands of farmers in the South scratch¬ 
ing a poor farm that lies right over a fertile one, 
which only needs breaking to let the clover and pea 
roots get at the store of unused fertility. 
1 would like to see the scooter or bull-tongue plow 
banished from our farms, unless used as a subsoiling 
instrument to break the bottom of the shallower fur¬ 
row made by the turning plow. Used for this pur¬ 
pose, the scooter may become a valuable implement 
in checking the tendency of our hills to wash, by 
making a deep bed to retain the moisture, and thus do 
double duty in alleviating the effects of drought. 
Grow the peas and clover, and if the land is badly 
deficient in vegetable matter, plow them under ; but 
do not plow them under till dead ripe, and then plow 
them under as deep as your soil will allow, and at the 
same time, if you have no subsoiler, run the scooter 
in the bottom of each furrow made by the turning 
plow, and when the land gets full of humus, keep 
more cattle, and feed the forage to them, and save 
and apply the manure. 
Why Tiles are Better than Stone Drains. 
L. M. M., Washington, Pa.—On my farm of 187 acres, I have 
almost no land that is naturally wet. But our bottom land 
occasionally overflows (not since I purchased three years ago), 
and this overflow has, probably, washed low places in it. At 
least there are these low places, on which nothing grows as on 
the rest. Then in plowing, it breaks up in lumps. I had decided 
to ditch from these places to the creek, and till in a good quantity 
of broken stone, of which we have an abundance on the upland, 
and then grade with first-rate soil from the creek bank. But the 
neighbors laugh at me, and say the water will not run unless I 
use tile. My opinion yet is, that if I fill tip with earth to the level 
of the rest of the land, there will be no trouble about water. 
ANSWERED BY JOHN M. JAMISON. 
L. M. M. does not give the amount of his bottom 
land, neither does he say whether the surface drain¬ 
age from the upland flows over the bottom land to the 
creek. Land that he does not think very wet now, he 
may think differently about when he has tile-drained 
land alongside of it. Hence, before he commences to 
drain these low places in his bottom land, he should 
take into consideration, the possibility of the adjoin¬ 
ing land and upland needing drainage at some future 
time. If these should need drainage, the drains for 
these low places should be large enough to be used as 
mains when the remainder of the land is drained. 
In this matter of drainage, when once commenced, 
the land first drained is often so improved over the 
surrounding land, that the farmer is not satisfied till 
the whole is drained ; hence the necessity of com¬ 
mencing right. 
If L. M. M. will count the cost between using tiles 
and broken stone, I believe that he will find the first 
cost of the former the least—that is, the tiles laid 
down and the drain finished will cost less for work 
than a stone drain properly constructed. The ditch 
cut for the tiles need only be sufficiently large to 
admit them. That for stone should be two or three 
times as large to give the water room to flow out as 
rapidly as required. If he could sit and watch the 
flow of water from the outlet of the two drains—tile 
and stone—he would doubtless decide in favor of the 
former, without a moment's hesitation. The water 
comes freely and unobstructedly from one ; the other 
delivers it at a slow and doubtful rate. When tiles 
are properly laid and the outlet unobstructed, they 
will work for an indefinite period, and the farmer 
need not be uneasy about his drains, or feel that they 
are likely to fail. If laid with unbroken stone, they are 
liable to fail at any time, and, besides, their work 
cannot be so rapid or satisfactory. 
If this bottom land overflows, so much the more 
reason for using tiles. When the land is covered with 
water, sediment is sure to settle into the stone drain ; 
while the only chance for sediment to get into the 
tile drain, will be from the outlet; and as soon as the 
overflow has subsided, the flow from the tile will 
commence and clean out what sediment may have 
collected. Tiles are, in the main, filled from below. 
If laid properly, the openings at the joints will be at 
the lower side, and the pressure of the water seeking 
its level will keep the tiles open and clean. Tile- 
drained sugar plantations in the South, remain under 
water for days, and as soon as the water subsides, the 
tiles continue their work—the overflows do not injure 
them. 
If L. M. M. can lay his tile-drains so that the tiles 
will be at least two feet below the surface in these 
low places, he will not need to haul soil to fill them. 
After they are drained, scatter manure over them, and 
get a crop of clover, and he will find that they will 
soon lose their cloddy nature. If he wish to improve 
the appearance of his fields, and has the money tq 
