THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
430 
the most palatable and nutritious, and I pre¬ 
ferred to let the stock be the judges, and for 
that reason T began cutting ouch year a little 
earlier until I arrived at my present custom 
of beginning the haying as soon as the grass is 
well out of bloom, and if there is a large area 
of meadow, some of it will get too ripe before 
it is cut. 
Though the grasses are not as susceptible 
of injury or utter ruin as the clovers, yet 
much of their feeding value depends ujk»u the 
manner in which they are handled. A heavy 
dew upon hay thoroughly cured, detracts 
much from its value, and the curing should 
be so managed that what is cut in the early 
part of each day should »>e in the barn or cock, 
or at least in the windrow, before dew falls at 
night. Where the labor of turning and stir 
ring lias to be done by hand, the mowers 
should not be started until the dew is all risen 
and the ground has become dry and hot 
(Should the hay be heavy, that cut before din¬ 
ner should be starred out immediately after, 
and if the weather is good for hay making, it 
will be lit to rake by three o’clock, and go into 
the barn or stack. That mowed after dinner 
ii(i to live o'clock, should be neatly turned 
over, so ns to get the cured side next the 
ground, and the green side up to receive the 
dew, and that cut after live will not be suffi 
ciently wilted to take any harm. In the morn¬ 
ing following by 10 o’clock, any thick places 
should bestirred out,and the hay will be ready 
to rake and draw by one o’clock, so that no 
hay is left out over more than one night, and 
none is left partly cured except the uncured 
side left up. If one has a tedder land one is 
very useful even in a Timothy meadow) the 
mow er may bo started at pleasure in the morn¬ 
ing, as the dew makes no difference, because 
ut. 10 o’clock the boy and tedder should be 
started, and every particle of dew is dis 
polled by the shaking and airing, and the 
grass is left in the best possible condition for 
curing. If the hay is very heavy, let the ted 
dor go over it the second time immediately 
after noon, and by one o’clock it will be fit to 
rake and draw, and nil that is cut before one 
o’clock, can bo put into windrows before the 
dew falls. 1 keep my mower going till one 
o’clock, and then do not starlit again till four, 
and mow from that time as long as the driver 
can see. In this way the dew falls only on 
w ilted hay. and does no more harm than if it 
fell on standing grass. 
This system loaves no hay out over-night 
that has been cured, and dispenses with the 
necessity of putting the hay into cock, which 
involves great labor, and is not at all neces¬ 
sary unless storms threaten, and the hay will 
be found just os good as it is possible to get 
hay made from the grasses, though not nearly 
so good us first-class clover hay. * ‘ rustic.” 
THE BEST FERTILIZER IN THE MAR¬ 
KET. 
SECRETARY GARFIELD. 
It is a favorite expression of the president 
of our West. Michigan Fanners' Club that “to 
succeed well in the business of farming, there 
should be heavy manuring with well selected 
brains.” Recently some illustrations of the 
truthfulness of this seutiment have fallen 
across my pathway. While riding the other 
day alongside of a farm that, a few yearsugo, 
was a synonym of barrenness, I noticed the 
appearance of thrift about the premises; the 
house was newly painted, the barn re-shingled, 
the well had a new pump; the fences were in 
good repair, a fine garden was laid out in the 
rear of the house, and u smooth lawn adorned 
the front. 
••How is this!” I asked my companion, “has 
L fallen heir to a fortune, or has some fairy 
waved her wand over this place!” 
“Neither,” wus the reply, “L. has sold out 
and gone away. A man of brains has taken 
hold of the place, and is making a home of it.” 
“But L. had brains; he was a bright man, 
full of good ideas, and expressed them well. 
I always ltked to talk with him. The new¬ 
comer must have had more Hum brains; he 
must have had considerable money.” 
“True enough, L. did have brains, but be 
did not manure his farm with them. He 
thought farming a very simple business. 
Any man could be a farmer, he often re¬ 
marked, but it took a man of exceptional 
ability to unravel the intricacies of political 
economy. But you are mistaken about this 
new man’s money. I know all about him. He 
came hero in the Fall; found this farm for 
sale cheap; took in its capabilities; paid the 
cash for it, and beyond having enough to stock 
it, he had only means sufficient to live upon 
one year. All Winter long bis team, driven 
by himself, was hauling manure and muck. 
The muck, you know, was from that old cat 
hole behind the barn. He dug a ditch at an 
expense of $10, drained the water off, and, 
you see, be has the place in onions this year. 
Well, that muck and manure were composted 
and spread over just as many acres as he could 
cover with it, and he seeded the land to clover. 
That was two years ago. The stimulus of this 
dressing gave him so good a growth of clover 
that, about September 1, of the same year, he 
turned it under. This was the cause of his suc¬ 
cess. Bee what I mean by manuring with 
brains f’ 
I have a second illustration: Upon a sandy 
knoll very difficult of access, lying on the 
north side of my township, my friend Bailey, 
some years ago, planted a peach orchard, and 
from year to year has been increasing its area. 
A majority of his friends laughed at his selec¬ 
tion of a site, it was so poor and sandy and dif¬ 
ficult of access. But he persisted It) his pur¬ 
pose, and to-day that, is the only peach orch; 
ard in this vicinity setting any fruit. On vis¬ 
iting the orchard last week 1 noticed this fact, 
and could not account for it: other orchards 
were just as high, on better land, as well cared 
for, and had no bloom. 
In answer to inquiries Mr. Bailey said: 
“Years ago I had an Isabella grape vioe 
planted over an open well, and as this 
variety rarely ripens fully with us, it was 
rather singular that my crop on this vino 
always became perfectly ripe. It was the in¬ 
fluence of the open well in modifying the tem¬ 
perature. 1 saw a principle in this pheno¬ 
menon. and selected my orchard site withthis 
principle in view. You will note all UV'i 
this hill water from spring* is comlnj^mt. 
The land below the level of the orchard is 
soaked with spring water. This modifies the 
temperature and secures immunity from frost. 
There is a strawberry bed below where one 
spring comes out. I am never troubled with 
frosts taking my early blossoms, while other 
beds, no lower than this, will have all the 
early blossoms blasted. My safety lies in the 
modifying influence of that spring water, 
containing us it does, a great amount of 
stored-up heut, which it gradually imparts to 
the air when the temperature falls below that 
of the water.” 
One more illustration: My nearest neigh¬ 
bor lives upon a piece of poor, sandy land. 
He has recently rented it, and last year “ the 
wind blew and the floods came,” destroying all 
his early crops, so that at the time when 
garden truck sold tor the highest prices, ho 
had none to sell. This season did he take 
the chauees of wind and weather? No; he 
put some brains into his farming, and by the 
use of extensive cold-frames became indepen¬ 
dent of frost, wind and rain, and the harvest 
he has already reaped has paid for the sash, 
leaving a nice margin. 
Many a man with a poor farm, by means of 
knowledge easily obtainable, can render bis 
acres productive and profitable. There are 
hundreds of locations adapted to special lines of 
farming, that lie dormant because their own¬ 
ers have not grasped their capabilities. And 
there are a groat many farmers now cursing 
the weather and Providence, who have the 
means within their reach of wresting success 
out of all their difficulties, if they would only 
take hold aright and “ manure with brnius.” 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 
POTATO NOTES. 
SCABBY POTATOES. 
I NOTICE the Rural is sure that scabs in 
potatoes is caused by wire-worms. [Yes, in 
the eases mentioned.—E ds.] While the Rural 
is pretty generally correct, 1 think in this case 
it has made a mistake, and my reasons for so 
thinking are as follows: 1 have several times 
noticed in past years that scab iu my potato 
fields would be confined wholly, or at times 
almost wholly, to small patches. These were 
gravelly and clay knolls, while the rest of the 
field was sandy loam. On the former the 
potatoes would be completely covered with 
scab, while a few feet away they would be 
perfectly smooth. Now it may be there were 
wire-worms iu those spots, and not in the re¬ 
mainder of the field; but 1 think not. The 
experience of the past season has made me 
almost certain that the Rural is wrong. 
Across a field, perhaps 20 rods in length, I 
had 10 rows of Blush Potatoes; next to them 
four rows of Snowflakes. Next came Rocky 
Mountain Rose, Extents Seedling, Queen of 
the Vally, Invincible, Early Ohio, Rose’s 
Seedling, White Elephant, etc., in rows par¬ 
allel to tlie Blush and Snowflake. Among the 
Blush Potatoes I did not find one scabby tuber: 
among the Snowflakes alongside and treated 
in all respects in the same way, a good many 
were scabby .No scab showed itself in the Rocky 
Mountain Rose, Exiinus Seedling or Invincible. 
There was a little scab on Queen of the Valley; 
while the Early Ohio was badly affected; but 
the White Elephant, and Rose’s Seedling were 
perfectly smooth. The soil of the field was 
quite uniform. Now on the Rural’s theory 
we may adopt one of the three following sup¬ 
positions; 1st, that on certain clearly defined 
strips across the field there were plenty of 
wire-worms, while upon other parallel strips 
there were none; 2d, supposing the wire- 
worms to be equally distributed over the field, 
they all migrated to the strips where the 
scabby potatoes appeared; 3d, that, certain 
varieties of potatoes are so distasteful to the 
wire-worms, that they do not touch them, 
but travel across the field to kinds that suit 
their taste. The bare statement of the three 
suppositions is sufficient to show that we must 
look for the cause of scab outside of the tough 
little wire-worm. 
When digging early potatoes for the table 
in the fore part of Summer while they were 
still growing, I noticed that some of the tubers 
bad on them small patches resembling mold. 
I found that, such tuljers became what is 
called scabby later in the season. Whether 
the white patches were some fungus growth, 
or minute animal parasites, I do not know; 
but 1 tbink they were t.he former. 1 am sorry 
now that I did not examine the spots nuder 
the microscope, and so determine definitely 
what they were; but whatever they may have 
been, they were the cause of scab in my pota¬ 
toes. This also explains why an application 
of leaves iu one of the Rural experiments 
produced seabbv potatoes, as the decaying 
leaves furnished a nidus for the growth of the 
scab parasite. [No, dear sir, not in our case 
referred to. The soil of the plot upon which 
leaves had been strewn was alive with wire- 
worms, and in this case, at any rate, they 
caused the scab.— Eds ] 
On this farm the field that has the most 
wire-worms is the one that contains the least 
vegetable matter, and as the wire worms feed 
on living vegetable tissue, 1 do not understand 
how an abundauce of decaying matter, as in 
the Rural experiment, should be the means 
of causing an abundance of the worms. 
THE BLUSH. 
I think the Blush Potato merits all the praise 
that hits been bestowed upon it by the Rural 
subscribers. 1 planted nearly 50 varieties, and 
I consider the Blush ahead of them all. I 
planted 82 pounds, giving them simply field 
culture and precisely the same chance os my 
other potatoes. The yield was 90 bushels. 
The yield of the Blush was just about three 
times that of the Snowflake that grew next, 
as mentioned above. 
[The objections we make to the Blush, are, 
first, that the tubers are not smooth enough, 
and, second, that they do not form close enough 
together In the hill.—E ds.J 
miskefresknti.no new varieties. 
I wish to second the protest of my friend 
Mi. Jonathan Talcott, against the indiscri¬ 
minate puffing of new kinds of potatoes iu 
seedsmen’s catalogues. To mention a dozen 
kinds on the same page as imer/uated in yield 
and quality, is a little too much. 1 will give 
a bit of my experience the past season. I 
found one new kind, the Snowbank, so highly 
puffed by one seed potato man that 1 invested. 
1 never planted so poor a potato. There was 
nothing good about it. In my experimental 
plot ten hills of Snowbank yielded three 
pounds, while 10 hills of Blush gave 24 pounds, 
and 10 hills of Early Rose 15 pounds, and that 
Snowbank was offered for sale at $ 1 per pound! 
CUTTING POTATOES. 
I made an experiment to test Prof. Stook- 
buder’s theory of cutting potatoes. I had no 
doubt that, his method and theory were cor¬ 
rect, that the eyes branch off from the stem 
end of a potato, like twigs upon an apple- 
tree, and that the lines of growtn run from 
the central axis out to the eye, aud that the 
potato should be so cut that the piece should 
contain the eye and the branch down to the 
central axis, and that if the set is cut across 
this lino of growth the yield will be much 
less than if cut in the above-mentioned way. 
I planted 10 bills of Beauty of Hebron, cut 
according to the Professor's direction, and 
plauted 10 other hills of the same kind cut 
as nearly contrary to the theory as possible, 
but taking care that the size of the sets should 
be about the same. Tbe result was, the 10 
hills cut according to theory gave 15 pounds, 
while the other ID gave 193 ti pounds. I was 
greatly surprised at the result, but these are 
the facts. E. w. davis. 
Madison Co.. N. Y. 
would make known what special food it most 
required. In our New Jersey potato fields the 
case is different. Here even a fair crop of 
potatoes or grain of any kind can not be 
raised without manure. That the same ex¬ 
periments, as a rule, should be repeated from 
year to vear in order to arrive at reliable re¬ 
sults, is evident enough, for it is no easy mat¬ 
ter-to find land that has been impoverished by 
constant cropping that, is of nearly uniform 
composition, that is equally drained and quite 
level. Then, also, the land must all lie fitted 
in the same way: the test crop must all of it 
be sowu or planted within two or three hours, 
at the same depth—in short, all of the condi¬ 
tions must be the same. 
In onr present, tests with different fertilizers 
upon potatoes, it may be judged from the 
growth of the tops as presented below, that 
these conditions have been very nearly sup¬ 
plied, since there is no contradictory evidence. 
The potato tops on all of the unfertilized plots 
appear to be the same in bight, color and 
vigor. Neither potash alone, phosphoric acid 
alone, nor phosphoric acid and potash cause 
any additional growth over the unfertilized 
plots. Either nitrogen or ammonia salts, how¬ 
ever, in every plot, cause a decided increase 
iu the growth, while the complete fertilizers 
stand first. 
We ask our friends to read the following 
statement carefully; first, that they may un¬ 
derstand it and be induced to undertake simi¬ 
lar experiments on their own land, and, sec¬ 
ond, that they may compare the yield of tu¬ 
bers with the present promise of yield, as indi¬ 
cated by the growth of the foliage. 
The naturul fertility of the soil is rated at 
five (5), and ten (10) is the maximum. 
f a nn topics. 
(Jrxpffiwcttt ©tomuVsi of ttu 
Unv-Uork or. 
THE EFFECTS OF SPECIAL FERTILIZERS UPON 
POTATOES, AS SHOWN IN THE STEMS AND 
FOLIAGE JUNE 16. 
At the Long Island Farm, all our tests with 
chemical fertilizers have failed to give us any 
information. The reason, no doubt, is that 
the land is fertile, and that the same experi¬ 
ments should be conducted through several 
years before the impoverishment of the soil 
Plot No. 1. Nitrate Sodn C2U0 |)0un«1g to the acre). 
Rated at 9.IJ0. 
Plot No. 2, Sulphate Of Ammonia (120 pounds to 
acre , Rated at 8.50 
Plot No. 3. Dis. Bone Iduek (iuO pounds to acre) 
Rated at 5.00 
Plot No. 4 No Fertilizer Rated at 5.oo 
Plot No. 5. sulphate of potash (.71 per cent, SKI 
pounds to acre) Rated at 5.150 
Plot No. «. Planter (400 pounds to aero 
Rated at 5.50 
Plot No. 7. Lime (2,000 pounds to acre 
Rated at fi.00 
Plot No. 8. Nitrate Soda (200 pounds) Dts. Bone- 
black (400 pounds) Hated at 9.U) 
Plot No. 9. No Fertilizer. Rated at 5.00 
Plot. No. 10 . Nitrate Soda(200pounds): Sul. Potash 
(900 pounds) Rated at 9.(M 
Plot No 11, Dls. Bone black (40(1 pounds): Sul. Pot. 
(200 pounds) , Rated at 5.:0 
Plot No. 12. Nit, Soda(2CK) pounds): Dta, Hon.-black 
(400 pound*)- Sul. Pot. (300 pounds), formlUK acorn 
plete fertilizer. Rated at 10,00 
Plot. No 13. Raw Hone 11,000 pound*) 
Rated at, 6.50 
Note.—T here are no plots 11 and 15. 
Plot No. Hi. No fertilizer. Rated at 5.m 
Plot No. 17. Mapcs’H Potato Fertilizer. 
ltated at 10.00 
Plot No. 18. Farm manure, two years’ old ( 2 c,mo 
pouuds to acre) Rated at 8.00 
Plot No. ID. No fertilizer. Rated at 5.UII 
Plot No. 20. Sifted foul ashes, two years’ old (too 
bushels to aeret Rated lit 5.00 
Plot No. 21. Kulnit (850 pounds to acre) 
Rated at 5 50 
Plot No. 22. Kalnlt (1,780 pouuds to acre) 
Rated at. 5.50 
Plot No. 23. No fertilizer. Rated at 5.50 
Plot No. 24 Unleached ashes from burnt brush 
(41W bushel* to aero; , , Rated nt D..V) 
Plot No. 25. Hen manure (55 bushels to acrei 
Rated at 9.00 
Plot No. 2«. No fertilizer. K»tc<l nt 5.00 
Plot No. 27. Mulched with Timothy hay. upon 
which wan Aowti at the rate of 5W pounds of Mupuft 
Potato Fertilizer, ineludlna 50 pounds of Kalnlt. 
Rated at r.oO 
Plot No. 28. No fertlllzor-nomulch _ 
Rated at. 5 tjo 
The color of the two plots fertilized with 
kainit is yellowish green. 
In case of continued dry weather, we should 
look for improvement in the mulched plot 
(No. 27) over the others. The farm manure 
plot is also likely to gain as compared with the 
others, as the season advances. As shown in 
plots 1 and 2, nitrate of soda and sulphate of 
ammonia induce the same amount of growth. 
The addition of dissolved bone black to nitrate 
of soda (plot S) or of potash (plot 10), gives no 
stronger growth than the nitrogen alone. The 
nitrogen of the raw bone helps somewhat. The 
kainit, whether 880 pounds ((>lot 31), or 1,760 
pounds (plot 23), are used, is scarcely better 
thau the unfertilized plots. Unleached ashes 
from burnt brush have no effect (plot 34.) 
TIME TO HARVEST. 
TURNING THE STRAW TO BEST ACCOUNT. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Few farmers realize how much waste there 
is in harvest when grainis allowed to get fully 
ripe before cutting. In old times, when grain 
was cradled and bound, aud then set up in 
stocks or shocks, it was cut before it was fully 
ripe, in order to bind well, and then it was 
allowed to cure in the shock. W 1th reapers it 
is managed differently, and grain is usually 
left till it is ripe, so that it may be cut aud 
harvested with as little delay as possible. The 
point with most farmers is to save hand Labor, 
and to do as much as possible with machinery. 
This one idea often entails considerable loss. 
There are several sides to the harvesting 
question. After tbe straw of any kind of 
grain ceases to be white, it loses in nutritive 
value by the drying up of tbe juices and a 
change into woody fiber, and tbe proportion 
of waste by shelling is also largely increased. 
Tn all cases where grain is left to turn yellow 
and to become “dead ripe,” as tbe farmers say, 
more than tbe original seed will be shelled out 
and wasted. I think the straw is reduced more 
