612 
Fall  digging  and  Winter  exposure  of  the  soil.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  high  value  of  potatoes  per  acre 
allows  more  to  be  spent  to  build  up  the  soil  in  re¬ 
turn. 
THE  LIFE  OF  THE  SOIL.— Humus,  the  fully 
rotted  form  of  organic  matter,  is  often  spoken  of 
as  the  life  of  the  soil.  It  supplies  food  for  the 
tiny  bacteria  which  are  at  work  in  the  soil  to  change 
forms  of  material  useless  to  the  plants  into  easily 
digestible  plant  food.  It  supplies  some  plant  food 
directly.  In  the  decay  of  organic  matter  in  the  soil 
acids  are  formed  which  attack  insoluble  soil  com¬ 
binations  and  make  them  available.  The  physical 
condition  of  the  soil  as  a  home  for  plants  is  im¬ 
proved.  The  addition  of  plenty  of  organic  matter 
to  clay  soils  often  lightens  them  enough  to  make  the 
difference  between  success  and  failure  with  pota¬ 
toes.  Sands  are  bound  together  and  hold  water 
better,  besides  becoming  richer.  Organic  matter  has 
great  power  to  take  up  and  hold  water  for  the  use 
of  plants.  In  the  case  of  my  own  farm,  when  I 
bought  it  water  would  stand  in  many  small  ponds 
on  the  potato  fields  for  hours  after  a  rain.  Now  it 
all  soaks  up  in  a  short,  time.  Formerly  crops  suf¬ 
fered  badly  in  dry  years.  Now  I  like  a  dry  season 
best,  because  the  water  is  so  held  by  the  abundant 
soil  humus  that  I  am  sure  of  a  good  crop,  no  mat¬ 
ter  how  dry  the  season  is. 
METHODS  OF  INCREASING  HUMUS.— There 
are  three  ways  of  putting  organic  matter  into  the 
soil.  The  first  is  to  return  only  what  is  left  as 
residues  from  the  harvested  crops,  such  as  the 
roots  and  stubble.  This  is  less  than  the  amount, 
destroyed  in  the  production  of  potatoes,  corn  and 
the  small  grains.  The  effect  of  this  system  is  seen 
in  the  reduced  fertility  of  many  if  not  most  of  our 
farms.  Most,  hay  crops  make  a  heavy  root  system  at 
first,  and  if  the  sod  is  plowed  up  before  it  has  time 
to  run  out.  the  organic  matter  in  the  soil  may  he 
increased.  American  farmers  have  as  yet  given  but 
little  attention  to  keeping  up  meadows  and  pastures 
by  the  use  of  manure  as  a  top-dressing,  lane  or  fer¬ 
tilizer.  Witli  heavy  soils  too  rough  or  stony  for  til¬ 
lage  shell  methods  will  be  more  used.  The  second 
way  is  a  form  of  the  first,  the  return  of  manure 
from  crops  fed  to  animals.  Because  more  than  00 
per  cent,  of  the  organic  matter  of  hay  and  straw  is 
destroyed  in  the  processes  of  digestion  only  a  frac¬ 
tion  can  he  returned  to  the  soil.  This  is  in  quickly 
available  form,  and  would  usually  be  sufficient  for 
the  soil’s  needs,  together  with  the  roots,  etc,,  if  the 
manure  wore  saved  perfectly  from  everything  raised. 
On  the  other  hand  the  millions  of  people  and  horses 
in  our  cities  must  he  fed  and  some  way  must  he 
found  to  make  up  for  the  loss  of  organic  matter 
in  this  way.  The  third  way  of  replacing  humus  is 
by  returning  to  the  soil  the  entire  product  of  part 
of  the  crops  raised.  Almost  any  can  be  used  for 
this  purpose.  The  term  catch  crops  is  used  to  refer 
to  those  grown  between  market  crops  to  supply  or¬ 
ganic  matter,  hold  the  soil,  and  prevent  losses  by 
erosion.  Crops  which  so  occupy  the  soil  in  Win¬ 
ter  are  often  called  cover  crops.  One  very  practical 
point  which  has  often  escaped  the  attention  of  ad¬ 
vocates  of  catch  crops  is  the  general  principle  that 
crops  produce  the  most  organic  matter  to  plow  un¬ 
der  if  nearly  mature.  Many  experiments  ill  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  hay.  corn.  etc.,  have  shown  that  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  organic  matter  is  fastest  in  the  latter 
part  of  a  plant’s  life.  A  crop  of  oats,  rye,  buck¬ 
wheat  or  corn  allowed  to  mature  will  have  as  much 
organic  matter  in  its  straw  alone  as  in  the  entire 
growth  a  few  weeks  earlier,  and  the  cash  for  the 
grain  is  worth  far  more  than  the  cost  of  harvest¬ 
ing.  Hay  crops  like  clover,  Timothy  and  Red-top 
when  plowed  under  give  a  larger  net  return  of  or¬ 
ganic  matter  to  the  soil  than  crops  like  rye.  buck¬ 
wheat  and  Soy  beans  which  require  a  full  set  of 
bumus-destroyiiig  operations  to  get  started. 
THREE-YEAR  ROTATION— My  own  practice  for 
11  years  with  a  three-year  rotation  of  potatoes,  grain 
and  hay  has  been  to  thrash  the  grain  in  August  in 
the  center  of  the  field  from  which  the  hay  has 
been  cut,  spreading  the  straw  with  horse  sweeps  as 
fast  as  thrashed.  This  needs  no  more  men  than  to 
stack  the  straw.  The  straw  is  plowed  under  in 
September  with  the  second  growth  and  is  well  rotted 
by  Spring.  The  small  amount  of  stock  kept  pro¬ 
vides  enough  manure  to  top-dress  about  four  acres 
each  year.  In  the  11  years  we  have  also  plowed 
under  enough  clover  to  equal  two  years’  crops  on 
this  rotation  out  of  the  eleven.  "With  the  heavy  sods 
produced  by  using  the  grass  seed  mixture  best  suited 
to  each  soil,  the  use  of  lime,  and  the  benefit  to  the 
hay  from  the  fertilizer  applied  to  the  potatoes  the 
percentage  of  organic  matter  in  the  soil  has  in¬ 
creased  very  fast. 
COVER  CROPS. — As  a  rule  the  need  of  Winter 
cover  crops  increases  from  North  to  South.  With 
ZT/jc  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
the  heavy  Winter  snow  cover  of  Northern  Maine 
cover  crops  are  seldom  used,  while  the  mild  and 
open  Winters  from  New  York  City  south  make  soil 
protection  by  cover  crops  profitable.  In  my  situa¬ 
tion  in  Central  New  York  the  reason  which  decides 
me  against  using  cover  crops  before  potatoes  is  the 
need  of  saving  water  by  as  early  Spring  tillage  as 
possible.  The  worst  objection  against  the  use  of  rye 
is  the  tendency  to  let  it  grow  too  long.  The  gain 
in  organic  matter  is  more  than  offset  by  the  loss  of 
water  pumped  out  of  the  soil  by  the  growing  rye. 
If  large  potato  crops  arc  to  be  worked  for  then  the 
first  minute  in  Spring  that  the  land  will  bear  tramp¬ 
ling  is  the  time  to  start  the  harrow  or  plow.  In 
this  way  I  have  had  four  crops  averaging  above 
300  bushels  per  acre  in  the  last  seven  years,  the 
others  being  the  droughts  of  1011  and  1013  and 
the  floods  of  1915.  The  choice  of  cover  crops  for 
soil  enriching  depends  on  many  factors ;  the  degree 
of  adaptation  to  the  soil  and  climate,  ability  to 
thrive  on  poor  soil,  large  seed  to  give  a  quick  start, 
net  increase  in  soil  organic  matter  after  that  used 
in  production  is  subtracted,  the  cost  of  seed  and 
planting,  the  ability  of  legumes  to  get  part  of  their 
nitrogen  from  the  air,  and  ability  to  fit  in  the  ro¬ 
tation  with  the  cash  and  feed  crops  must  all  he 
considered.  daniei,  dean. 
New  York. 
A  New  Device  for  Silo  Filling 
AN  Ohio  farmer  has  probably  solved  the  silo  fill¬ 
ing  proposition.  This  farmer  has  mounted  his 
silage  cutter  on  a  low  wheeled  truck  and  mounted  an 
eight  horsepower  gasoline  engine  in  such  a  way  that 
it  runs  the  cutter.  The  outfit  cuts  the  corn,  cuts  it 
Giving  the  Plants  an  Early  Start.  Fig.  219 
in  proper  length,  for  the  silo,  and  by  the  use  of  an 
enclosed  elevator  elevates  the  silage  into  the  wagon. 
This  farmer  uses  another  engine  to  suck  the  silage 
out  of  the  wagon,  and  blow  it  into  the  silo,  but.  the 
coming  year  he  believes  he  will  use  an  elevator 
rather  than  a  blower.  There  is  no  question  that  a 
machine  of  this  kind  will  come  into  general  use  in 
the  next  decade.  This  farmer  with  his  homemade 
device  can  cut  as  much,  or  ncaifiy  as  much,  as  a 
man  with  a  corn  harvester,  and  he  does  away  with 
the  force  of  men  used  in  the  field  to  load  the  bundles 
on  wagons.  Here  it  does  away  with  at  least  three 
men  and  possibly  four.  Each  man  drives  alongside 
the  machine  under  the  elevator,  fills  his  wagon  box, 
and  drives  to  the  barn,  where  the  blower,  driven  by 
a  six  horsepower  farm  engine  does  the  unloading. 
It  is  possible  that  an  elevator  such  as  is  used  in  the 
corn  sections  for  unloading  corn  by  raising  the  front 
end  of  the  wagon  and  unloading  the  corn  in  a  pit, 
while  the  elevator,  driven  by  a  gasoline  engine, 
places  the  corn  in  the  crib,  could  he  used.  I  have 
described  the  machine  to  a  number  of  farmers,  par¬ 
ticularly  those  who  now  have  silos,  silo  filling  equip¬ 
ment,  and  corn  harvesters,  and  these  men  agree  that 
the  farmer  has  the  right  idea,  and  the  motor  driven 
machine  will  cut  silo  filling  expense  in  two.  The 
machine  need  not  he  so  complicated  as  an  ordinary 
corn  harvester,  it  need  not  weigh  over  1.500  pounds, 
yet  driven  by  a  light  weight  12-liorsepower  motor. 
The  farmer  who  conceived  the  idea  has  used  three 
horses  on  his  machine,  yet  two  would  he  sufficient 
for  a  commercial  machine.  The  expense  of  a  machine 
of  this  sort  might  he  .$250  or  $300,  with  $75  for  a 
portable  elevator,  and  if  owned  cooperatively  would 
relieve  the  congestion  at  silo  filling  time.  It  would 
he  impossible  for  the  machine  to  supply  its  own 
April  15,  191(5. 
power  as  a  corn  harvester  does,  and  this  will  prove 
one  of  the  most  practical  applications  of  the  light- 
.  weight  motor  to  new  farm  machinery.  w.  j. 
Evaporating  or  Canning  Apples 
What  would  you  advise  a  person  who  has  annually 
about  1.000  bushels  of  surplus  apples  to  do  as  a  means 
of  disposing  of  them  at  a  profit/  My  local  market  is 
very  poor  and  distant.  Which  would  be  the  more  profit¬ 
able.  canning  or  evaporating?  I  know  very  little  re¬ 
garding  either  of  these  propositions  and  would  like  all 
the  advice  possible.  Would  steam  heat  be  as  good  in 
evaporating  as  hot  air  from  a  furnace?  I  have  a  20 
horsepower  steam  boiler  I  could  use  for  this  purpose. 
In  which  form  are  the  apples  in  most  demand  on  the 
market?  h.  g. 
Pennsylvania. 
TEARING  from  the  experience  of  Wayne  Coun¬ 
ty,  N.  Y.,  growers  it  would  seem  that  the  de¬ 
cided  advantage  lies  with  the  evaporating  method 
of  handling  small  quantities  of  apples.  Through¬ 
out  this  section  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  private 
canning  plant.  Whether  this  is  from  indifference 
or  neglect  of  an  opportunity  I  am  not  fully  pre¬ 
pared  to  say.  The  Federal  government  through  the 
Agricultural  Department  has  placed  much  stress  on 
the  canning  outfit,  but  so  far  as  my  observation  has 
reached  I  have  yet  to  learn  of  a  single  instance 
where  this  practice  has  taken  root  in  this  section 
of  natural  environment  to  the  apple.  I  am  in¬ 
clined  to  believe  that  where  exceptional  business 
ability  along  present-day  commercial  lines  is  evi¬ 
dent,  in  a  family  well  situated  on  a  producing  farm, 
some  progress  could  he  made  with  a  home  canning 
outfit.  The  canning  factories  of  this  section,  and 
there  are  many  of  them,  are  substantial  affairs  em¬ 
ploying  hundreds  of  hands.  They  buy  up  whole  or¬ 
chards  and  sell  their  tinned  products  in  car  lots 
to  the  most  distant  points  of  the  country,  and  I  do 
not  doubt  that  competition  is  very  keen  with  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  small  evaporator  is  a  very 
common  sight  in  Wayne  County.  As  a  means  of 
utilizing  surplus  fruit  and  disposing  of  the  cheap¬ 
er  grades,  together  with  the  productions  of  small 
growers,  it  affords  an  ideal  outlet  for  the  crop,  and 
the  fact  that  the  “driers”  are  run  year  after  year 
by  the  same  managers  must  be  accounted  as  sufficient 
proof  that  season  for  season  the  business  offers  a 
very  good  means  for  caring  for  small  stocks  of 
fruit.  Of  late  years  the  tendency  has  changed  from 
the  large  evaporators  requiring  large  stocks  and 
much  help  to  (he  smaller  plant  operated  on  the 
farm  by  the  actual  grower  of  the  fruit-  This  shift 
has  in  part  been  caused  by  the  small  grower  fin¬ 
ishing  his  own  fruit  now  instead  of  selling  it  to  an¬ 
other  factor  operating  the  larger  plants.  In  this 
way  the  fruit  is  processed  with  less  handling  and, 
of  course,  less  waste.  Often  a  small  operator  is 
enabled  to  run  the  full  season  by  aid  of  the  labor 
represented  in  his  family,  though  of  late  years  the 
State  has  taken  a  regulating  hand  over  the  labor 
of  women  and  minors.  It  is  still  possible  to  profit¬ 
ably  employ  women  in  the  operation  of  evaporators, 
and  often  with  a  small  amount  of  hired  labor  a 
goodly  return  can  be  made  on  the  crop  in  years  of 
fair  markets. 
As  to  the  merits  of  steam  heat  compared  with  the 
commonly  used  hot  air  furnace,  steam  will  certainly 
do  the  work,  and  in  Sod  us  are  one  or  two  steam- 
equipped  plants.  Of  course,  such  a  system  costs 
more  to  equip,  and  cost  plays  a  big  part  in  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  evaporated  fruit.  With  steam  there 
would  he  less  hazard  from  fire,  as  the  heat  could 
be  regulated  from  a  banked  fire  and  made  constant 
for  several  hours  ahead.  Perhaps  also,  the  attend¬ 
ant  in  charge  would  be  required  to  give  his  per¬ 
sonal  attention  for  a  shorter  period  during  the 
night,  and  that  might  represent  some  saving  in 
labor  hire.  If  one  has  a  steam  boiler  already  on 
hand  and  sufficient  piping  for  the  job  the  equip¬ 
ment  of  an  evaporating  plant  with  such  a  system 
would  satisfactorily  answer  the  needs  so  far  as  the 
heating  proposition  was  concerned.  The  piping  in 
•this  case  could  he  arranged  very  close  to  the  dry¬ 
ing  floor,  and  thus  deliver  an  even  and  equal  heat 
to  all  the  area  used  for  drying  purposes. 
As  to  the  form  in  which  apples  are  in  heaviest 
demand  on  the  market,  the  green  fruit,  either  bar¬ 
reled  or  boxed,  always  leads,  though  like  every¬ 
thing  else,  both  have  their  ups  and  downs.  If  as 
you  say,  you  have  a  very  poor  local  market  for 
your  green  apples  the  chances  are  much  more  so 
that  you  would  have  no  local  buyers  for  evapor¬ 
ated  fruit,  as  this  is  a  specialized  form  of  the  iu- 
dustry.  Here  in  this  section  every  small  town  has 
its  dried  apple  warehouses  and  buyers  arc  visiting 
the  drier  men  in  advance  of  the  season,  “talking 
shop”  and  getting  a  line  on  the  season’s  likely  pro¬ 
duction.  As  one  gets  away  from  the  center  of  the 
industry  the  buyers  are  less  active,  many  making  it 
a  side  line,  until  when  the  non-drying  counties  are 
