NEW YORK, MAY 28, 1881 
[Entered according to Act of Con Kress, in the year 1831, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Oonwress at Washington.) 
mine whether our soil needs one, any two or 
all three of the chief ingredients furnished 
by farm manures and imitated as nearly as may 
be by concentrated commercial fertilizers, or, 
on the other, to ascertain if the use of these fer¬ 
tilizers pays in any form. In the case of the 
acre experiment, 600 pounds of commercial 
fertilizer have been need, costing about *15.00. 
This so-called “corn fertilizer” is prepared by 
the manufacturers to Bupply not only all the 
food which corn requires, but also, iu a meas¬ 
ure, in the npeded relative quantities of each 
chief ingredient as determined by chemical 
analyses. Let us see: A 3 the acre is a fair 
average of the entire field as to fertility, etc., 
unless we should produce upon it at least 20 
iug dotted line running east and west is roil¬ 
ing land and a very gravelly soil. Many stones 
are from three to four inches in diameter. 
From that line to the pond it is less gravelly 
and more sandy. From the pond to the south¬ 
ern boundary the soil is the same, a sandy 
loam, but there are three places, together 
about half an acre in extent, that are not well 
drained. These are indicated by the three 
clusters of shading. 
As above stated, nearly two acres are planted 
to what we have called Benton Corn, the finest 
while dent we have ever seen. The rest of 
the field is planted to Blount’s White Prolific 
with Beed which we have with the utmost 
care selected for three years. 
ble, we have planted little plots of d,ff.-rent 
kinds of corn which with high commendation 
have been sent tons for trial by kind friends. 
Acquaintances hereabout with whom we 
have talked, are free to express the belief that 
our corn crop from the uumanured land will 
be light, and the impoverished appearance of 
the field for several years past ju-tifies this 
belief. Lit there is nothing surprising or in¬ 
structive in the matter of obtaining fine yields 
from superb land. If we should get a flue 
yield from this land, it would tie both surpris¬ 
ing and instructive, as it would demonstrate— 
but perhaps we had better wait until the flue 
crop is secured before we tax our good read¬ 
ers with a statement of what “ it would de¬ 
monstrate.” 
NOTES FROM THE RURAL FARM 
Corn Experiments. 
It is very desirable that all of our farmer 
readers should familiarize themselves with the 
experiments we are making in connection with 
the cultivation of corn the present season and 
with the field itself in 60 far aBtbiB is possible. 
We have, therefore prepared a diagram which 
will serve 1o place the matter clearly before 
them. This field of about six acres—we have 
not yet measured it—has been, as already 
stated, in grass and pasture for six 
years. The sod which was thin and 
worn out was turned late in March. 
April 24 to 27 inclusive it was hat rowed 
three times; then rolled and again har¬ 
rowed, no manure or fertilizer of any 
kind having been spread upon it. An 
acre, as shown, 182*330 feet, was then 
measured off and 600 poundB of '• corn 
manure,” extended with about the 
same bulk of eartb, thoroughly mixed, 
were sown upon this acre which was 
at once harrowed again. The entire 
field was marked off North and South, 
the marks precisely three feet ten inch¬ 
es apart. Upon the measured acre we 
CLOVER AND TAME GRASSES IN 
THE SOUTHWEST. 
It is pretty generally conceded now 
by the best Informed that the cultivated 
grasses can be successfully grown at 
the Southwest, although I think the 
masses do not yet believe it. Ev.*n 
those who own that they can, make 
the concession with a good deal of 
qualification, as though raising grass 
were not profitable and ea-y. and as if 
it could be successful only in a limited 
way, and with great management, and 
in exceptional areas. For about sevin 
years or more I have made the ad sta¬ 
tion of Mississippi (more particularly) 
to the grasses a special study. 1 have 
not only sent out letters of inquiry 
by the hundred, but numberless times 
have ridden hundreds of mites merely 
to see a demonstration. In this aad 
some future articles I shall give to 
the readers of the Rural the results of 
nay experience and investigation with 
regard to clover and the tame grasses, 
particularly iu E istern Mississippi and 
Western Alabama. 
Red Clover—rrifollum pratense. 
This will succeed almost anywhere 
in Mississippi and Alabama. I have 
sowed it in Southern Mississippi in 
sandy soil, and have seen it growing 
luxuriantly on tracks of railroads in 
sand taken from 30 feet below the sur¬ 
face. While clover here is not a Sum¬ 
mer pasture in the sense that It is 
North and East, it furnishes a food 
supply a longer time, by keeping green 
more months in the year. It begins to 
give considerable food in late October 
and will grow much, if notalt. the time 
in an average Winter, suffering a 
check and killing in cold spells, but 
furnishing abundant subsistence un¬ 
derneath the general mass. It grows 
steadily in almost any Winter after 
the middle of February, and holds on 
until well in Jane or July, when it 
dies down generally, to come on again 
in October. I do not thmk its uselnsr- 
BENTON 
Plots 33 X 66 ft == yko Acre* 
BLOUNT 
CORN 
BENTON CORN 
1 Acre.- 600 lbs.Concentrated Corn Fertilizer. 
BLOUNT 
nure. In the present experiment the 
" no-manure” plot Is really not needed, 
since, with the exception of the one 
acre noted, no other portion of the field 
is manured. It will be seen that the 
“G" manure is what has been termed 
a” complete manure" for the reason 
that it is supposed to furnish the es¬ 
sential plant-food which it is pre¬ 
sumed does not exist in soils that have 
been cultivated for mat,y years in suf- 
cient quantities, viz., nitrogen, phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash. It may be, 
however, that a given soil is already 
well supplied with one or two of these 
ingredients, as, for example, potash and 
phosphoric acid. In such a case It is 
plain the A-manure which furnishes 
nitrogen should produce as largo a crop as the 
G-mauure which furnishes all three. So, again, 
POND 
ticuiany serviceable in stiff prairie soils), but 
giving a change for stock during a good 
part of Spring and Summer. Bermuda 
Grass will furnish fine grs 2 ng from mid April 
until mid-October, thus supplementing clover 
completely. Of the value of Bermuda Grass 
as a Summer pasture it ought to be supeifla- 
ous to speak, standing, as it does, the hottest 
suus and driest weather, and surpassing al- 
