726 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
November 2 
SOME SUPPLEMENTARY CROPS 
THAT PAY THE STOCKMAN IN CENTRAL OHIO. 
I raise stock to the full capacity of my farm ; hence 
my study is to make the farm produce the most possi¬ 
ble stock food. In this study, I have adopted four 
crops out of the usual line. I depend largely upon 
pasturage for summer feed, but have learned that this 
must be supplemented in July and August. I name 
first, as the most reliable crop, sweet corn. This is 
planted in hills 14 to 18 inches apart, in rows one-half 
the usual distance apart, on very rich soil. We harrow 
frequently until the corn is four inches high, and it 
will need no further cultivation, unless heavy rains 
pack the surface, when it should be gone through 
with a single horse and some light cultivator. I 
commence feeding this as early in July as the pastures 
begin to fail, by cutting out every other row. This 
gives the remaining rows a better chance to develop, 
and they will produce many good ears. A half acre 
thus planted will carry the stock on a 100-acre farm 
for six weeks. 
Dwarf Essex Rape —I have also adopted as a per¬ 
manent feature in my cropping. It is preeminently 
the crop for a dry season, is a luxuriant grower, and 
sheep, cattle and hogs relish it. It grows until cold 
weather, may be sown at anytime, from May 1 until 
August 1, when there is moisture enough in the soil 
to sprout it. In favorable weather, it may be past¬ 
ured in from six to eight weeks after being sown. 
When eaten down, if the stock be removed, it will 
grow up again. I feed it principally by turning the 
stock upon it. It may be cut with a scythe and gath¬ 
ered with a hand rake or, better, cut with a sickle, 
care being taken not to cut below the crown of the 
plant. In this way, a larger yield 
can be secured, but it is at a consider¬ 
able expense of labor. If sown early, 
it should be sown in drills wide 
enough for cultivation. Two to 
three pounds of seed to the acre is 
the amount required for this method. 
After the middle of June, on ground 
that has been thoroughly cultivated 
so that all weed seeds near the sur¬ 
face have sprouted and been de¬ 
stroyed, I prefer to sow broadcast. 
In this method, I use four pounds of 
seed to the acre. It may be sown 
with a grass seeder or by hand. 
When sown the latter way, sow five- 
step strips, scattering a handful at 
three swings of the arm. The only 
enemy of the plant that has beset 
it within our experience, is the 
cabbage louse. These insects some 
seasons get on it in countless num¬ 
bers to the serious distaste of the 
stock. If it be watched closely, and 
stock be turned upon it as soon as they appear, the 
crop need not be lost. We have never tried combat¬ 
ting them, the task seemed too big a one. 
Pumpkins —I grow in the corn fields, planting the 
seed in the rows wherever there is a missing stalk, 
thus losing none of the productive power of the field, 
and avoiding having a lot of green stalks at cutting 
time. I do not believe that the corn yield is lessened 
in the least by the growth of a wagon-load of pump¬ 
kins to the acre, so I count them almost clear gain. 
For planting the seed I use an old spade or shovel 
handle cut to 18 inches in length and sharpened. 
With this I make a hole three inches deep, drop in 
the seed and press the earth firmly upon it with the 
heel. One object in planting them after the corn is 
up, is that they will not be destroyed in harrowing 
the corn. I commence feeding them in the fields as 
soon as they are ripe, and store some in a warm com¬ 
partment of the barn for feeding early in the winter. 
For later use some may be put in the cellar. Any one 
who has once learned the ease with which they may 
be grown, and their great feeding value, will never 
fail to plant them thereafter. They are not a sure 
crop, however ; in fact, are very uncertain. They can¬ 
not be counted upon to give a good yield, more than two 
out of three seasons. I grow both the sweet variety 
and the yellow or Yankee. 
Roots. —The long red beet, or mangel-wurzel, is my 
chief reliance as a root crop. 1 can get a larger yield 
of this variety than of any other I have tried. The 
Golden Tankard is a good grower, but not so large a 
yielder. It will pay to make the ground very rich, 
and to plow deeply for this crop. However, if stable 
manure is used, it should be thoroughly rotted or ap¬ 
plied to a previous crop. The seed should be planted 
as early in the spring as the ground can be worked. 
A garden drill is best for sowing them ; a wheat drill 
may be used by stopping a part of the holes, or the 
seed may be sowed in furrows by hand. The grourd 
should be rolled after the seed is sowed, unless a 
heavy rain follows soon. Do not wait for the plants 
to appear before cultivation begins ; the second day 
after planting begins, go over the ground with a light 
harrow, or a garden rake if the patch is not too 
large. Continue this work, at least once a week, and 
as soon after every rain as the ground is dry enough 
to work until the leaves cover the ground. Unless 
the ground is heavily packed by rains, I do not culti¬ 
vate more than two inches deep. I put the rows not 
over 14 inches apart, and cultivate by hand entirely. 
With rows so close, little or no transplanting will be 
necessary. Only in rare seasons will transplanting 
pay. It is far cheaper to buy a little extra seed for 
sowing thickly, and then thin to 10 or 12 inches in 
the row. It is often a great temptation to leave 
them much thicker. We thin many of them out for 
table use, and allow our neighbors the same privi¬ 
lege. None of them need be wasted, as sheep or 
cows will eat them greedily. They will grow on until 
there is danger of freezing. They may be stored, 
either in a cellar or by pitting in the field. They 
require more labor than any of the other crops men¬ 
tioned, but they are indispensable where ensilage is 
not provided. n. p. miller. 
Delaware County, O. 
RECUPERATIVE FORCES IN THE SOIL. II. 
There is much force in an old saying to the effect 
that “every man is as lazy as he dares to be” ; and as 
much in another one, that “necessity is the mother of 
invention.” No one is expected to manure or to till 
carefully, a soil which yields superabundant crops 
with scarcely any effort on the part of the owner or 
occupant. Men will continue to cultivate carelessly 
a bounteous soil, until its bounty abates. This has 
been the history of farming everywhere ; and the 
history of mankind, except in great river valleys in a 
level country, annually overflowed, like the Nile and 
the Mississippi. Even the poorer and more rocky 
parts of New England were satisfactorily productive 
when first settled by white men ; though but few of 
its rivers contribute much by overflow to the fertility 
of their valleys. As continual cropping without skill 
reduced productiveness, the cry arose that all the 
seaboard was worn out. The result was a great 
emigration, spreading farther and farther Westward ; 
until at last there seemed no more West, when the 
human torrent struck the great and rocky backbone 
of the continent. 
When the great emigration left for the West it was 
with an assured conviction that it was impossible for 
a man to thrive and prosper in the East by agricul¬ 
ture. Their children who journey Eastward, do not 
at all fully understand the general prosperity of 
which their eyes assure them in old homesteads from 
which their fathers thought themselves lucky to 
escape by the skin of their teeth. In fierce competi¬ 
tion with the abounding riches of the virgin West, 
Eastern farming has prospered marvelously ; and it is 
safe to say that it was never a better business than it 
is to-day, or that it is less productive and profitable 
as a whole, than that of any other part of the coun¬ 
try. Judged by census returns, the agriculture of no 
section, West or South, is in a more thriving condition 
than that of the North and East. The poorest part 
of the East, agriculturally, is the immediate seashore; 
but also it is the place where fertilizing materials, 
both from the inexhaustible sea and from the wastes 
of mechanical and commercial industries, are most 
abundant and cheap. Twelve years in the West 
satisfied me of the great resources and the marvelous 
richness of that section ; but on return I was also 
satisfied, and 35 years (30 of them on a farm) have not 
shaken the conviction that the advantages and disad¬ 
vantages of the two are pretty evenly balanced. 
Notwithstanding the fact that our agricultural col¬ 
leges are yet so imperfectly appreciated by the people, 
and so imperfect in their work, they were instituted 
not a day too soon. The truths they are presenting 
us are the truths we need ; but as yet these truths 
are not so clearly and practically put forth as they 
might be and, I am sure, will be. Chemistry is reach¬ 
ing us, and helping us, through the college bulletins ; 
but it is not yet in any way adequately taught in our 
rural schools, the teachers of which should come from 
these colleges. In addition to this, we want a careful 
study of the agriculture of other continents—not those 
of Europe alone, but of crowded yet well-fed Asia. It 
is a growing conviction with me that there are great 
revelations close at hand, of principles in agriculture, 
yet to be discerned and applied, which will greatly re¬ 
duce the cost and greatly increase the returns of our 
farming, East and West, North and South. 
T. II. HOSKINS. 
METHODS OF GROWING POTATOES. 
Last spring, I planted several of the newer sorts 
with decidedly varying results. In fairly good garden 
soil, though inclined to pack in hard masses, I planted 
the Bovee seedling (so highly commended by The 
R. N.-Y. last year) cut to single eyes, 12 by 18 inches 
apart, four inches below the surface; the trenches 
were half filled, and filled level a week later. The 
surface was fined, and, when the plants appeared, 
mulched with rather fine or broken straw. There¬ 
after, no cultivation whatever was given. The prod¬ 
uct was a fine, well-shaped, white lot of tubers, few 
small, at the rate of 409 bushels to the acre. In this 
trial, it did not appear to be any earlier than Ohio Jr. 
which, mulched the same way, did 
very much better than in field cul¬ 
ture. 
Carman No. 1 treated in the same 
way, except being planted 12 by 36 
inches, showed 20 per cent more 
crop to a row of fine large, white 
tubers. A neighbor planted a few 
sets on dry soil without mulching, 
and got a few small tubers. 
Carman No. 3 is in every particu¬ 
lar of growth of tops and tubers, 
including color of stalks, identical 
with R. N.-Y. No. 2, and not as pro¬ 
ductive as No. 1. A distinction with¬ 
out a difference, except price of 
seed. [Some mistake here.—E ds.J 
Early Morn proved a late sort of 
no merit in any way. 
In field culture, one plot, one rod 
by nine, was planted with Mam¬ 
moth Rose (new), cut to single 
eyes, a foot apart on the side of 
each furrow as plowed, so as to 
be covered four inches by the next furrow. The 
plot, which was fair corn ground, was leveled and 
fined with a weeder and when the plants showed, 
mulched with straw. The yield was 20 bushels, at the 
rate of 355% bushels per acre, few less than market¬ 
able size, and up to a pound each, well-shaped, having 
a potato flavor that suits my taste much better than 
those kinds which are simply mealy, but with no 
flavor whatever. The same variety planted in hills 
two feet by three and not mulched, produced at the 
rate of 290 bushels, some of them weighing one pound 
each, a few 1% pound, but they were on better ground. 
Banner showed up a large yield of large, smooth, 
round, white tubers, good to see, and excellent in 
every way. 
World’s Fair gave a light yield of under-sized, round, 
white potatoes, of only fair quality. 
Early Harvest (not new) is the best early sort I 
know—nearly as early as the Ohio strain, much more 
productive of large, good-shaped tubers of the best 
quality. It is a better yielder, and earlier than Polaris. 
It is, apparently, of Early Rose parentage. 
Pride of America (not new), is a later and more vig¬ 
orous Snow Flake—an excellent sort, though the tops 
are a little susceptible to blight, and bugs will not 
trouble the others where they are in evidence. 
American Wonder has, in two successive dry sum¬ 
mers, “petered” completely out, into a lot of con¬ 
torted “ heads and horns ” which are indeed a wonder, 
though I do not think they are poison—yet. 
Algoma was bought because of the favorable notice 
of it in The R. N.-Y. last year. The peck received 
was so inferior and scabby that they were planted 
“under protest.” The digger run through the row 
unearthed the most worthless lot of trash I ever saw, 
all strings and knots, with no approach to a fair¬ 
shaped tuber in sight. No doubt about their being 
poison ! They lie there yet. That shows—well, what 
does it show, anyway ? It is rather a strain on me, 
on the whole, to admit that that mess, is the product of 
the same sort that received The R. N.-Y.’s approval! 
THE JAPAN GOLDEN RUSSET PEAR. Fig. 225. (See Ruralisms, Page 731 
