SEPT 6 
§®2 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
pleasanter to handle. Should there be a de¬ 
mand for steel rods for fencing, any amount 
could be obtained; for what sense would there 
be in a “protective” tariff on articles that are 
not made at home? M. Crawford. 
Cuyahoga Palls, 0. 
farm Copies. 
Now that the season of Agricultural Fairs 
is in full blast, we would say, avail yourself of 
the many opportunities to compare your owu 
farm products with those of your neighbors, 
and see wherein you may benefit yourself. 
Spend more time in examining and studying 
the exhibits and less on the horse trots. 
*** 
Save your seeds. The Rural has sent out 
many choice farm, flower and garden seeds, 
and those wishing more of their kind would do 
well to save seeds from the best plants. Label 
them properly, and put. them in a cool, dry, 
safe place, away from all vermin. 
*** 
In gathering apples, besides handling them 
carefully, assort them according to quality 
rather than dump them into barrels or 
piles. Fine apples, well handled, always tiring 
good prices. 
*** 
Do not allow the squashes to be touched by 
early frosts, as they are not benefited thereby 
*** 
Before you begin to store your fruits and 
vegetables in the cellar, do you think it would 
pay you to give it a thorough cleaning out 
and airing, ending up with a good whitewash- 
ng? Think it over a bit. 
*** 
Are you fond of the fragrant Hyacinth, 
the beautiful Tulip, etc,? If so, now is the 
time to obtain and plant the bulbs. In the 
Spring, before the leaves or other flowers ap¬ 
pear, their beautiful and varied flowers add 
much to the beauty of the flow er garden. 
Clayey loam is the best wheat soil obtain¬ 
able. If the laud has been plowed for wheat 
in August, cultivate it enough to pulverize 
and “firm” it. If the land has to be manured, 
it will pay best to have the manure as fine as 
is possible and well rotted, so as to mingle 
with the soil directly, and soon become avail¬ 
able for plant food. 
t *** 
Store potatoes in a dark, cool, dry cellar, 
in shallow bins. Sweet-potatoes that have 
been thoroughly ripened and dried in the sun 
may be well kept in a good dry cellar, of about 
40 degrees temperature, or in boxes, packed iu 
clean, dry sand. Put first a layer of sand, 
then of potatoes, next saud, etc. 
*** 
In picking grapes, either for market or Win 
ter keeping, exercise care in the- handling of 
them. It costs no more, and the grapes keep 
better for it. It is wel I to cut the clusters off 
with small sccissors, aud cut out all imperfect 
berries. Look in the Querist columns for meth¬ 
ods of keeping grapes during Winter. 
*** 
If you have time, cut bog or marsh hay with 
which to protect the strawberries next Winter. 
Pile it ready for use ou the field uear the berry 
patch. 
Save some good, vigorous stocky potatoes 
for next year’s seed. Many farmers prefer to 
save the small pig or unmarketable potatoes, 
but it does not pay. Next Spring grow a row 
of potatoes from each kind of seeds under 
like conditions, and notice the difference. 
SOMETHING ABOUT MUCK. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
Assuming “muck” to be what Webster de¬ 
fines it—“a mass of decaying vegetable mat¬ 
ter”—I think it must be a valuable addition 
to any soil iu which there is not an excess of 
humus and other forms of vegetable matter. 
However, there must necessarily be rich 
muck aud poor muck, according to the quality 
of the deeayiug vegetable substances; rich 
muck showing a beneficial influence on crops 
immediately after its application to the laud, 
and poor muck not until after it has been ex¬ 
posed to the atmosphere and deprived of the 
deleterious substances iu it, whether in the 
form of vegetable or mineral salts or acids. 
To make the meaning of this more plain, let 
me illustrate; Lately in crossing several of 
the small sw'amps in Southeast Georgia and 
Northern Florida, w hich are covered with Cy¬ 
press growth aud other aquatic vegetation) 
I saw iu many instances that the water stand¬ 
ing iu small or large pools or merely in ditches 
aud creeks, was perfectly clear and limpid, 
but having the brown color of weak coffee. 
Here w r as slowly deeayiug vegetable matter in 
immense deposits, but the water surface was 
completely free of anything like the green 
scum so common in other similar situations. 
This I attributed to the taunin created by vege¬ 
table growth uuder peculiar circumstances, in 
so large quantity as to arrest green semn or 
other fungous growths. Besides, here was the 
explanation w hy certain of these swamps are 
reported to be healthy and nearly free from 
malaria, the tannin aud other astringeut 
matters being so abundant, as to arrest that 
form of decay which shows itself in the infin¬ 
ite multiplication of fungous germs, malarial 
and otherwise, But uotwithstanding this 
muck is the poorest of all of the numerous 
forms, who would doubt, on seeing the pov¬ 
erty of the surrounding sandy pine places in 
vegetable matter, that its application would 
not be of the most beneficial character—but 
showing perhaps, some time after the work 
was done; and for the reason these sandy 
soils are not so much lacking in the mineral 
elements of plant food, as in vegetable matter, 
without the presence of which in all soils, 
there can be no sufficient measure of nitrogen 
to make large crops, aud even the poorest 
muck can supply this deficiency. 
Further, in crossing au arm of Grange Lake 
in middle Florida, and just after having 
passed out of the great hummock containing 
the largest natural orange groves in the State, 
I noticed growing in the edge of the swamp, 
in the deep muck, several large aud lusty 
plants, of the Amamnthus family, closely re¬ 
sembling those which grow' so rankly on the 
richest lands in Illinois. Judging from the 
character of the vegetation, 1 w'ould conclude 
this muck I saw on the outer borders of 
Orange Lake, would be found nearly as rich 
in plant food, ton for ton where newly 
dug, as old and well rotted stable manure. 
And it is my impression if t he orange growers 
on the hummock lands of Florida, should ever 
find the soil losing strength, all they will need 
to do to renew its fertility, will be to transfer 
the muck 1 have described from the swamps to 
their fruit orchards. 
The two kinds of muck described represent 
the best and the poorest forms. There are a 
hundred gradatious between these, whose 
composition and value depend upou the ma¬ 
terial out of which they have been made, 
but they ate ail alike in one essential—they 
are masses of decaying vegetable matter, 
and as such, contain one essential ingredient 
of every productive soil—humus, nearly all 
soils being fertile or unfertile iu the proportion, 
within a certain limit, to which they are rich 
or poor in vegetable matter. 
We may conclude then, for the thin sandy 
aud rocky soils of New York and New' Eng¬ 
land, for the well worn clays of Ohio, Indi¬ 
ana aud indeed the entire Winter wheat belt 
so-called, for almost the entire cotton belt aud 
the “hill country” south, aud especially for 
that vast exteut of thin, pine plain which 
stretches around from Virginia south through 
North and South Carolina, Georgia and Flor¬ 
ida and thence on through Alabama, Missis¬ 
sippi and Louisiana, far into Texas, muck of 
almost any kind will be found a valuable 
addition. 
But to come nearer home. The winter wheat 
region of Illinois, which embraces say, the 
south third of the State, posesses a soil rich iu 
every element of plant food necessary for the 
production of the cereals, except vegetable 
matter and its constant associate and attend¬ 
ant, nitrogen, and the great problem is how to 
supply this invaluable substance, that is, veg¬ 
etable matter, Muck in any form applied to 
these lands, would in course of time raise their 
productive capacity to the highest limit, and 
could six inches of it be scattered over the en¬ 
tire area of the section, a production of all 
the cereals might be counted on, equal to 
that of the bonanza lands, for half a century. 
But not only does the quantity of nitrogen 
produced aud retained in the soil depend upou 
the amount of vegetable matter therein, but 
the capacity of that soil to hold moisture and 
therefore to grow crops iu droughty seasons, 
is measured in the same way, aud to such an 
exteutisthis true that while some soils—those 
of portions of Kansas notably —refuse to grow 
Corn unless there is a more or less evenly dis¬ 
tributed rainfall during the gx'Owing season, 
the best of the black soils of the prairie, fur¬ 
ther east, will ripen crops with a minimum 
of rainfall so limited, the phenomenon must be 
seen aud witnessed to be believed and accepted 
as real. 
ABOUT BURNING STRAW. 
Disparagement of the custom of burning 
straw on land is made ou page 358 of the Rural 
by “W,” w'ho also depreciates Virgil’s instruc¬ 
tions, and calls to notice the deterioration of 
lands from Spain to Asia Minor. Can it be 
that W. has intimate and practical proof of 
the ill effects of this practice? There are 
other reasons to be noticed in a consideration 
of the exhaustion of lands along the Mediter¬ 
ranean, and that the sterility of the soils of 
the higher elevations caunot be charged to the 
practice of burning stubble and scanty litter¬ 
ings, seems very' evident. 
In his first Georgic, Virgil says:— 
‘Long practice has a sure improvement 
found, 
With kindled fires to burn up the barren 
ground, 
W hen the light stubble, to the flames resigned, 
Is driven along, and crackles in the wind.” 
But something more thau a “light stubble’? 
is needed to produce noticeable results. Straw 
spread six inches deep ou barren kuollsor 
poor spots will make a good showing—not 
spread and burned before the “crooked plow,” 
but upon the plowed ground, previous to sow¬ 
ing. 
Unquestionably, every farmer should seek 
to “work down” every particle of the straw 
stack before the annual drawing out of man¬ 
ure and cleaning of barn-yard. But iu uiue 
cases out of ten it is not attended to. Many 
farmers keep the yard well littered during the 
Winter and early' Spring, but afterwards the 
pressure of farm work draws their attention 
away r at a time of the year, too, when the 
straw would be reduced to manure more 
rapidly, and would even increase the value of 
the manure already iu the yard, aud also add 
to the cleanliness and comfort of the stock. 
With this neglect existing, we see in passing 
through the country in mid-Summer not a few 
old straw stacks only partly cm, down. They 
are disposed of in various ways; some sell the 
straw, or burn it, while other farmers strew it 
upon the land and “plow it in,” or draw it 
from the yard to au out-of-the-way place, to 
await its time to decompose. Every year in 
which I have had a remnant of a stack to re¬ 
move from the barn-yard, and have spread it 
on plowed land aud burned it, the results have 
been very satisfactory aud the improvement 
of the land lasting. 
A portion of the wheat field thus treated 
before sowing, gave a better yield than others 
which had previously been better portions of 
the lot. The field was this year cut lor clover 
hay, and the portion on which the straw had 
been was exceedingly distinct, the yield on it 
being double that on the unmanured ground 
adjoining, while it was at least 20 per cent, 
better than the clover on the manured land 
closo by. 
Upou inquiry among other farmers who 
have employed this method of burning straw 
on plowed ground, I find it is held in marked 
favor. The results obtained by one, as given 
below, demonstrate its value fully. The straw 
was burned upon a large plot of a field of 
which nearly every other section was spread 
with common barn-yard manure. 
The first crop from the field—wheat,—was 
found to be less per acre in every other part 
thau ou the burned plot. At the seeding im¬ 
mediately following harvest, the field was 
again sown to wheat, without auy straw or 
fertilizer bemg used in any part. The second 
year gave a yield approximating 3<J bushels 
per acre cm the burned plot, out-yielding all 
other portions of the field, while upon the 
parts of the field which did not receive auy 
manure the first year, the crop did not exceed 
10 bushels per acre. The clover crop of the 
following year grown in this field was very 
much inferior in amount in every other por¬ 
tion iu comparison with the growth ou the 
“burnt straw” plot, where it was very rank 
and lodged down. [What was the nature of the 
soil? That is au important point in this case. 
Eds.] 
After all, should the soil of a farm be an 
adaptable one, it canuot be denied that the 
money deri ved from the sale of the straw, in¬ 
vested in commercial fertilizers, will reach 
farther, and procure a larger return, aud 
prove the more judicious in general farm 
economy. W. L. Dkvereaux. 
RURAL PRIZE SERIES, 
PROFITABLE FARMING FOR 
A POOR MAN. 
How to Become a Successful Farmer 
LThu above Is tlie title of a series of essuys Tor the 
best of which premiums were offered by the Rural 
Niiw-Yorklh last year, the object be 1 tin to assist 
those farmers who nave limited means or those hav¬ 
ing a small capital, about to engage In farming. 
They are for the most part written by those who 
huve passed through the trials of au impoverished 
beglnulug to real success. 1 
ARTHUR WALKER. 
“Agriculture it; the most healthful, most 
useful aud most uoblo employment of man.” 
—W ashington. 
To point out one certain, swift and unvary¬ 
ing road to success for all men would be a 
difficult task, because the powers aud capaci¬ 
ties of men differ widely, and to point out a 
road for all would be like giving sailors on 
the Atlantic Ocean directions how to roach 
New York. The directions for the sailor off 
Newfoundland would be different from those 
for the one off the Canary Isles, and so must 
the instructions for man’s success differ for 
different persons; but a few general hints may 
be of service, and such I purpose giving. 
"Were success to be judged w holly by the 
amount of wealth accumulated, then the task 
would be simple. As Freeman says: “The way 
to wealth if you desire it, is as plain as the 
road to market.” Here is the rule—get what 
you can, but never let auy go. If this rule be 
foliow'ed out it is remarkable how fast w’ealth 
will accumulate, but at the cost of every good 
aud noble impulse of our nature, yea, at the 
cost of our comforts, pleasures aud happiness. 
This course would rob us of our friends, in¬ 
deed of our all except the “filthy lucre," and 
what (jood would that do us? Our lives iu the 
end would be failures. Such is not my ideal 
of success or prosperity; but a happy family 
with a pleasant house, well supplied with 
books, papers and a few' works of art aud 
a good farm, well laid out and stocked sur¬ 
rounded by good neighbors who love and 
honor you, seem to me to be worth living 
for aud would seem to mark the possessor as a 
successful man. Then the accumulation of 
wealth under the guidance of correct rules of 
health, comfort aud happiness and under the 
restraint of moral law is a very good measure 
of success. 
Frauklin, the great American philosopher^ 
said: “There seem to be but three ways for 
a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by 
such ways os did the Romans iu plundering 
their neighbors; this is robbery'. The second 
by commerce, which is frequently cheating. 
The third by agriculture, the only honest w r ay 
wherein a ruau receives a real increase of the 
seed thrown into the ground in a kind of con¬ 
tinued miracle wrought by the hand of God, 
aud in his favor as a reward for his innocent 
life and virtuous industry.” This I think to be 
a correct view of the whole matter, for to be¬ 
come a successful farmer requires the exercise 
of none of the arts of trade, which lower true 
manliness, and seldom does a farmer fail 
to liavo a ready sale for his products, aud, 
besides, he has the quiet satisfaction of 
knowing that his gain is not another’s 
loss but, on the contrary, his gain is the 
nation’s gain, for one fanner canuot have 
good crops unless his neighbor he similarly 
blessed. Aud if there he poor crops through¬ 
out a county, then great depression of busi¬ 
ness follows as a natural result. 
But to become a successful farmer requires 
persevoranco (or grit), industry and energy 
knowledge of one’s business, method, good 
management, the necessary capital and econ¬ 
omy joined with good personal habits, and 
the common causes of failure are the opposites 
of the above requisites. And now I will 
brief!}’ discuss these in paira, first romarkiug 
that the great elements of success anywhere 
are good common sense aud a hardy constitu¬ 
tion (strong muscle), but unfortunately man 
has no control over these and hence I omit 
them iu this article. 
Then the first one, not necessarily the most 
important, is perseverance. It must be re¬ 
membered that “a rolling stone gathers no 
moss.” Then one must stick to his business 
when once iu business, aud I have never 
heard of any inuu in any business, no matter 
how unpromising, who stuck to it for 10 years 
who was not successful, and, ou the contrary, 
if a man hesitates, wavers and gives up at the 
reverses of fortune, he caunot succeed. For¬ 
tune will help those who lie!]) themselves, and 
the more resolute a man is to succeed the 
more fortune helps him. 
I’erseveranee holds all the other elements of 
success together till the desired result is ob¬ 
tained. At best the farmer can get returns 
but once u year, and that bull dog tenacity 
will in time bring success out of the most 
stubborn enterprise. If tho vermin and worms 
destroy his coni ci'op, ho must replant it aud 
try to destroy the worms. If the storms blow 
down his grain so that it is difficult to guther 
he must uot give up but go iu and with his 
whole effort save what be can. Auy one can 
be successful when success is thrust upon him 
but few can he so when all tho elements seem 
to conspire for their ruin. Tho storms may 
ruin tho farmer’s wheat, the grasshopper or 
cut-worms eat his coni, the plague kill his 
stock, lightning burn up his buildings, aud 
sickness outer his house—auy one or all of 
these troubles may come upon him and lie 
should be prepared for them and know the 
best way of preventing them from overwhelm 
ing him, and what ho laid best do when they 
come and do their worst. I do uot mean that 
one should fill himself with gloomy forebod¬ 
ings of the future or with melancholy reflec¬ 
tions on the past. He should view the past 
merely to glean lessons for the present aud 
or tho future. Our mistakes and rnisfor 
