<888 
849 
vitriol) applied to almost any plant at the 
point of junction between the stem and the 
root, in the growing season, will destroy it. 
4. The Charter Oak side-hill plows, either one 
or two-horae, made by the Higganum Manu¬ 
facturing Co., Higgauum, Conn., will prob¬ 
ably suit you. 
.7. .7. P., Warsaw, Ky ,—I have a pond GO x 
30 feet and three feet deep, which bolds water 
like a cistern. I am thinking of putting 
from 50 to 100 loads of manure in this, and 
using the water for liquid manure on a Tim-, 
othy meadow, to be put on with a sprinkler 
like a street sprinkler; would it pay? 
Ans. —The plan would compare favorably 
with that of a man who drinks a barrel of 
beer to get as much nutriment as there is in 
half a common butter cracker. No, it won’t 
pay for that purpose; far better apply the 
manure as a top-dressing. If not subject to 
over flow and it did not receive too much 
water, the pit would make a good place to 
pile manure for rotting or composting, but if 
nearly full of water, or if there were enough 
to flood the manure, the water would prevent 
decomposition. The labor of applying liquid 
manure more than counter-balances all its ad¬ 
vantages. 
A. E, It., Ainsworth, Neb. — 1. How are 
cal res dishorned? 2. I have a Holland cow 
which I wish to keep, but she is very cross and 
cruel toward calves aud pigs; can I saw her 
horns off, or how can I fix them? 
Ans.— 1. Dishorning may be done when the 
calves are very young, with very little pain 
to the calf. When the horns are but mere 
buttons on the head, if they are slightly burn¬ 
ed with a very hot iron, they will cease to 
grow. 2. It would be very painful to the cow 
to saw the horns off,far enough down, so as to 
touch the pith or inner portion. If a piece of 
tough lumber of any kind, three inches wide 
and one inch thick, be cut three inches longer 
than the extreme spread of the horns, and a 
hole be bored in each end in proper position 
to go on the horns, and this be fastened on the 
horns, extending across in front, she can do 
but little damage by hooking. 
F. C , Jlfaeon, Ga.— 1. I have a fine piece of 
land ou which are elevated spots, or knolls, 
which are washed by rains aud kept bare of 
grass; 1 have the privilege of hauling “tan- 
bark” from a tannery half a mile distant; 
how would it do to cover these spots broad¬ 
cast and sow in clover? 2. What is the best 
fertilizer to use in putting in clover? 
ANS.—1. If the “tau-bark” is oak, it would 
have considerable mauurial value after rot- 
ting. If hemlock, it would do no good be¬ 
yond constituting a mulch. A moderate coat¬ 
ing might be applied with a few loads of 
muck or stahle manure; also some potash fer¬ 
tilizer. All should be harrowed into the 
surface, aud the ground seeded with the 
clover. 2. Potash in any form and phos¬ 
phoric acid are specific manures for clover. 
C. V. Somerville, N. ./.—1. What is the 
best time to sow oats in a strawberry bed set 
out this Spriog? It should be killed down 
before Winter, so as to serve as a mulch for 
the berries, as straw is not obtainable here. 
2. How does the Marlboro Raspberry compare 
with the Turner in earliness aud productive¬ 
ness! 
Ans. — 1. Early September. 2. We should 
say the Marlboro is more productive than the 
Turner; the berries are larger and firmer, 
though not so good in flavor. There is about 
one week’s difference in ripening in favor of 
the Marlboro. 
E. II. W., Leroy, Mich.—I have a Jersey 
heifer about 15 months old, which has started 
to “make quite a bag,” aud milk appears in 
it. Shall 1 milk her or not? 
Ans. —We mistrust your heifer is with calf. 
At least watch her, and if the udder is likely 
to be injured by the accumulation of milk, 
why milk her, of course. If she is not with 
calf, the milk is not likely to appear iu quan¬ 
tity sullleient to need milking, but, of course, 
if it does, it will be bettor to milk it out. 
C. W. C., Nat Portage, Canada.— 1. What 
is the best publication on tho culture of straw¬ 
berries for prolit? 2. What is a good work on 
market gardening, treating especially on the 
management of hot-beds? 
Ans.— 1, A little book published by C, A. 
Green, Clifton, N. Y„ is as good as any. It 
can doubtless be had from hicu; price 25c. 2. 
Heuderson’s Gardening for Profit, price $1.50, 
treats well of both subjects. 
C. W. U., Waynesboro, Pa. —1 have corn 
on a heavy clay; suppose I sow the ground to 
wheat this Autumn, with sufficient chemical 
manures to insure a good crop, and seed it to 
Timothy this Fall, and Red Clover iu the 
Spring; aud suppose the Timothy aud tdover 
are cut for hay and jwisturei till the Pall of 
188$, would the field be iu good condition for 
wheat theu or for corn the succeeding Spring! 
Ans. —Such a course would leave very little, 
if any, clover iu the ground. It would be 
better to put it into either wheat or corn one 
year sooner, as it would probably then be 
filled with clover roots, and if as mnch man¬ 
ure was applied as the straw and hay taken 
off would make, it would, no doubt, be in 
better condition than now. 
J. W. K„ Elmira, N. Y —Will the Strow- 
bridge Broadcast Seed Sower do what is claim¬ 
ed for it, and where can it be obtained? 
Ans.— We think it works very satisfactorily, 
although we have never used it. We have 
heard those who have, speak very highly of it. 
It is for sale by The Edmiston & Waddell Co., 
851 and 358 1st Street, Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y. 
“Reub,” Falls Church, Va .—What is the 
proper time for applying dissolved bone and 
sulphate of potash to grape-vines aud apple 
trees? 
Ans.— If the land is not subject to over¬ 
flow, they may be applied at any time most 
convenient. Probably the best plan, all things 
considered, is to apply the bone now, and the 
potash very early in the Spring. 
M. H. M., Polo , III .—Chickasaw Plum trees 
used to fruit well in this vicinity, but for sev¬ 
eral years the leaves have been affected like 
those sent, and for that time there has been 
no fruit; what ails them, and what is the 
cure? 
Ans. —See the article of Prof. Cook, with 
illustrations, elsewhere in this issue. 
J. J. P., Canton, O .—Where can I get a 
good stump extractor ? 
Ans.—F rom the Chamberlin MTg Co., 
Olean, N. Y. 
Edward Martin, West Freehold, N. J., 
wants to know who has Shropshire rams for 
sale near him. We have other inquirers. 
Who have such? Please send us word. 
DISCUSSION. 
J. B. B., Monroe, N. Y.—Ou page 517 of 
the Rural, F. D. C. takes issue with me on 
the question of summer-fallowing, in such a 
manner as to show clearly that be is jogging 
along in “that old rut” as “happy as a clam,” 
and without having ever tried the better way. 
It seems a great pity to disturb him in his 
ignorance and felicity, and I would not at¬ 
tempt it, only that his very positive, but un¬ 
supported statements, if unquestioned, might 
mislead some honest seeker after improved 
methods of farming F. D. C. “scatters” so 
that it is hard to tell just what he does mean. 
His panegyric on culture is not pertiuent in 
this discussion, because be cannot be a more 
persistent advocate of thorough culture than 
I, and in the matter of clean culture I ac¬ 
knowledge no man as my superior. 
Our fathers, with their imperfect tools and 
want of knowledge, were excusable in using 
the whole Summer in fitting a field for 
grain, even though the amount of fertility 
lost iu the process, was greater than what was 
used iu the production of the crop. But for 
us, with tools that enable us to fit the land as 
perfectly in a single month, to waste two 
years in securing one crop is not only the 
grossest folly, but it does not argue well for 
our business qualifications. If we have been 
observing and studious, we ought certainly 
to be wiser than our forefathers, and to have 
improved on their make shift methods. 
F. D. C. says, “It is the nature of fresh earth 
to absorb and retain the nutritious gases when 
brought in contact with it by the dew, the 
rain aud the air,” and “that the more land is 
stirred the more it will absorb,” and that in 
summer-fallowing our fathers got an "enor¬ 
mous gain to the land,” etc. Does he mean 
to assert that the air is a great storehouse of 
fertility? If so, will he please to tell us 
where this fertility comes from, except from 
the earth. But if the above statements of 
his were true, how happy we should be, for 
when a field had become worn out, a few 
years of constant plowing aud cultivating 
would make it as “rich as muck.” Our 
fathers’ laud, with its mnch summer fallow¬ 
ing, should not have become so exhausted. 
But that his statements are incorrect, is shown 
by every one of their fields, because the fer¬ 
tility removed by them iu the crops taken, 
does not begin to account for the decreased 
fertility of the land; the remainder must 
have gone in evaporation und drainage. The 
experience of every man who has tried to kill 
plots of Quack Grass or thistles by much 
plowing, also proves their falsity. 1 have 
seen such plots in a pasture field so treated, 
and afterwards, when the whole field was 
plowed and put into wheat or some other 
crop, these plots had become so exhausted by 
this continued plowing that they failed to 
produce a paying crop, aud for succeeding 
years mnde as poor a showing, until heavily 
manured. I admit that fresh, mellow earth 
does absorb gases wheu they are brought in 
contact, with It by dew or rain, but they are 
so absorbed only when the ground is moist; 
and when the sun pours its scorching rays 
upon it and dispels the moisture, all the ab¬ 
sorbed gases and all others generated in the 
soil, that are within the influence of the heat, 
go with the moisture and are caught by sur¬ 
rounding growing crops, and thus the summer- 
fallow is constantly robbed. 
This “land rest” of which he speaks, he 
must know, if posted, was not accompanied 
by constant plowing and cultivation, but was 
a complete “rest” to the exclusion of being 
pastured by the herds. Whatever grew upon 
the land was alio wed to go back into the soil 
a sort of thorough green manuring; and that 
is Nature’s way of enriching the land, and to 
it we owe all the fertility of our virgin soil 
and newly cleared fields, and wise is he who 
shall'heed and profit by the lesson. 
That “all working of the soil is exhaustive,” 
a fact which he denies, is fully proven by the 
facts already cited; but more forcibly by the 
example of market gardeners, who keep the’r 
land under constant cultivation, aud who find 
it necessary to return to the land, each year, 
much more in manure than is removed in the 
crops secured, and whether the crop taken is 
large or small it makes but little difference in 
the amount of manure required—the reason is 
plain. 
F. D. C.’s statement that “the fertilizing 
elements neither go up nor down, neither evap 
orate nor run through the soil in one brief 
season,” is entirely at variance with the ex¬ 
perience of Sir J. B, Lawes and the managers 
of Woburn Farm. The results of their exper¬ 
iments show most conclusively that, no matter 
how large the application of nitrogen in a 
soluble form, before a succeeding year it all 
disappears, even though the nitrogen in the 
crop produced should not account for one- 
tenth of what was applied; that in whatever 
form applied, as soon as it was changed into 
nitric acid (the form in which it is available 
as plant food) if not used at once by growing 
plants, it passed out of the soil and was lost. 
The same is true with whatever nitrogen may 
be carried from the air by dew or rain; if not 
taken at once by some hungry mouth of a 
growing root, it is carried away and lost, so 
far as that field is concerned. 
I once saw a field summer fallowed, where 
the previous Winter several thousand feet of 
boards were piled on a large plot,and only re¬ 
moved so that the land could be plowed the 
last time, and, though the remainder of the 
field bad been well fallowed, the grain on the 
spot that had been covered with the board 
piles was more than twice as strong,and yield¬ 
ed twice as much as that on any other part of 
the field. Now, if constant plowing and stir¬ 
ring caused land to “absorb so much good,” 
why was this? And it is the experience of 
everybody that any places covered with stone 
piles, or piles of wood, or of anything else that 
causes shade and gives heat and moisture a 
chance to work, are always the most produc¬ 
tive, and always show that shade, rest, heat 
aud moisture are what conduce to fertility, 
no matter if these are accompanied by the 
rank growth of vegetation, provided the veg¬ 
etation is put into the soil. This is proven by 
using a field of only moderate richness seeded 
to clover; one half to be plowed early and 
summer-fallowed.no matter how well or how 
many times plowed; the other half to grow a 
crop of clover to be taken off for hay, the 
clover to be afterwards allowed to grow till 
knee-high, then about the middle of August, 
to be plowed under and the ground well 
fitted; the whole field to be sowed to wheat on 
the same day. All who have tried this exper¬ 
iment, know that the wheat on the clovered 
part of the field will look the best in the Fall: 
will stand a bad winter much the best, will 
endure either too much or too little rain with 
the least injury, and will yield at harvest 
time the most bountiful crop, notwithstand¬ 
ing the removal of the hay. 
If F. D. C. will only once have the cour¬ 
age to “get out of this old rut” into the better 
aud more progressive way, he will cease to 
think that what his “father did” must be right, 
aud will never cease to thank the writer for 
a little shaking up. 
J. W. F., Titusville, N. J. — In the Ru¬ 
ral of July 25, A. W. B. speaks of preventing 
the ravages of the pea weevil by the use of 
pyrethruiu and camphor. Now, last year 
while gathering my Laxtou’s Alphas,l placed, 
by way of experiment, a portion of the dry 
seed in a bottle having upon it an air tight 
rubber device for closing, such as are usually 
used on beer and porter bottles. This year 
at planting time l could not find a single pea 
touched by weevil; nor has the pest yet dis¬ 
turbed those that were not planted, while 
those wrapped iu paper iu the usual way, were 
eaten to the last one. 1 shall try the experi 
rnent again this year with hopes of success. 
D. C. McP., Garbi rr, N.Y.—1 send you a 
stool or hand f ul of wheat just as 1 pulled it out 
of the ground to-day. Soon after the head 
appeared, it was noticed that the wheat whs 
not uniform in appearance. Some of the 
straw was long aud some short. About 10 
days ago the short straw began to have a 
bleached appearance, while the long straw 
was yet comparatively green. Upon examin¬ 
ation the grain on the short straw was small 
aDd shrunken; that On the long straw, about 
as large as usual. 
I found nothing in the way of worm or in¬ 
sect in this short straw, with its shrunken ker¬ 
ne], while in the long straw I found some Hes¬ 
sian fly or its “flax seed.” 
Of this wheat something more than one half 
was sown on the afternoon of Sept. 13; the 
balance on the 16tb. There is no percept¬ 
ible difference in the appearance of the wheat, 
the short and long straw being mixed promis¬ 
cuously with spots here and there of stunted, 
withered straw, having but little bright, long 
straw with it. A part of the lot was fertilized 
with barnyard manure, plowed under with a 
three horse plow and jointer, everything being 
turned in to the depth of nine inches, 200 
pounds of phosphate to the acre over the whole 
of the lot being drilled in with the wheat. 
In early Spring this lot gave as good prom¬ 
ise as any wheat in the neighborhood. It was 
put in after wheat in fine order. Nothing like 
it has been known in this section so far as I 
know. W"bat is the trouble ? 
R. N. Y.—We examined the wheat very 
closely, but could detect no evidence of tne 
work of any insects in any of it. Can any of 
the members of the F. C. give us any light on 
this subject i 
A. E R., Ainsworth, Neb.— In the Rural 
of July 18, you tell J. L. McD. that for large 
fields a riding cultivator is best. I think ex¬ 
perienced Western farmers will tell you that 
the walking cultivators are far the best for 
corn cultivation; in fact, a person can readily 
determine when a field has been cultivated 
with a riding cultivator by the weeds which 
are missed. I have seen the shallow cultiva¬ 
tors tried, and when the corn was cultivated 
at intervals of 10 days, the Fox-tail got such a 
start that the com curled up with a vengeance, 
while corn in adjoining fields, where a two- 
horse corn plow was used, going through once 
in 10 days, was clean and- did not curl up. 
Granted that shallow cultivation is better 
when com is cultivated often, it will be neces¬ 
sary to use more team force, employ more 
help, and cultivate with one horse after the 
corn gets too large for two horses, as the 
weeds will not be as thoroughly destroyed as 
with a two-horse com plow, when we wish to 
lay by the com to commence harvesting. 
Now the question arises, Will it pay, when 
com is but 15 cents per bushel ? 
R. N.-Y.—The trouble with the fields you 
saw was that cultivation was not commenced 
soon enough. The grass and weeds were 
allowed to get a start, and, of course, then 
nothing short of taming under would subdue 
them, and it is possible for a field to get so bad 
that plowing with a big plow would be a 
choice of two evils. But if started early 
enough, the merest brush will kill the infant 
weeds, and going over the ground once in ten 
days with any cultivator that would move the 
whole surface, would keep the surface entire¬ 
ly clean. It will pay to do loell all work on 
the farm, that is worth doing at all. No mat¬ 
ter if corn is not worth five cents per bushel, 
if it is raised at all, it should have clean 
culture. 
J. H. R., Columbus, Neb.— In a late Rural 
it is said that “there can be little doubt that 
fresh manure may not help the crops at all,” 
and Prof. Shelton is quoted as saying it may in¬ 
jure them the first season. I spread a large 
amount at the rate of 20 loads to the acre, 
hauled direct from the stable last Winter, and 
I have never seen such marked results from 
the application of well-rotted manure. The 
corn now is fully oae-third larger than that 
adjoining where no manure was applied. This 
was my first experiment with fresh manure; 
but it has proved so satisfactory that I shall 
follow it up the coming Winter. 
R. N.-Y.—We suppose the fresh manure our 
friend, Prof. Shelton, alludes to is the unrotted 
straw, etc., of the West. That fresh stable 
manure has a very marked effect, when pro¬ 
perly applied, is patent to every one who has 
ever used or seen it used. But then this con¬ 
tains in the urine and droppings of the ani¬ 
mals a large proportion of plant food in its 
most soluble form. 
Communications Received for the Week Ending 
Saturday, August 8. IS35. 
A. R. F.-I. H.-J. a W.-O. T. S.-W. H. Ridge, 
the sample of Insect has never been received.—D. H. 
C.-0. T. S.-I. V. H. G. F. M.—C. M. P.-S. D. a— 
L.C.-J a-C U. R.-F. E. D.-C, E. F.-N. H. R.. 
no package received.—L M., thanks.—L. G.-C. F. D. 
-T S C.-K. F. G.-C. W. G.-F. E. L.-0 A. K.-E. 
C. D.—W. T. C., thanks.—C. H. B.—F. D W.—E. W. 
S, -F.O. O.—J. 0. Berry, thanks.—J. S. Coy, thanks.— 
a C 'l. G. W M.-8. B.—D. C. I- Shaw, thanks. 
—M. W.-T. W.-L. L. G.-W. K.—\V. F.—T. H. S.- 
T. Corless, thanks.—B. F. A. and 8.—J. H. D.—C. V.— 
F. K. P.-H M.-W. H. B., thanks -F. C. B.—T. H. H. 
T. G S . thanks.—W. J. B.—J. T.—J. H.—C. E. Thorne, 
thank*. -E. P. P.-A. a t\, thank*.—R. T. C.— P. M. S. 
—G. H., thanks, they were ruined.—J. W., have writ¬ 
ten.-.!. C. S.—R. T. C.—K. M.-G. A. B.-E. W. H.—J. 
H. S,—A. E. R.-T. W. N.-C. J. M.-H. P. B.—I. G. a 
K. H. W. -M. H. M. 
