see 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JUNE 45 
Rural is a surprise. His argument appears 
to be foundeu on the belief that the farmer, 
fruit grower, gardener and forester need 
only expertness of hand and a few empirical 
rules, handed down from father to son, to in¬ 
sure success. He says “plants will grow 
whether we understand the method of their 
growth or not,” and, again, when trying to 
solve the problem as to what shall be done 
with existing colleges of this character, he 
says: “No study should be required, and no 
recitations be heard. The sole literary exer¬ 
cise should be one lecture a day devoted by 
the Professor to an explanation of the rea¬ 
sons and principles of what is then going for¬ 
ward in the department under his charge.” 
As he says nothing of preliminary prepara¬ 
tion in the natural sciences, or the needed 
academic studies, it seems fair to assume it 
as his belief that the farmer should go back 
to the position he was in mentally during the 
period he speaks of when “ agriculture ex¬ 
isted and flourished thousands of years before 
agricultural colleges were thought of.” 
If this be his meaning, I cannot see, after 13 
years of experience with agricultural college 
classes, how the Professor can explain “the 
reasons and principles of what is then going 
on in his department.” At the agricultural 
colleges of Europe of the first grade it is well 
known that the applicant for entrance must 
have completed the course of study embraced 
in the first seven classes of a gymnasium, or 
the first five classes in a real school, or have 
completed the entire course in an agricultural 
school of the second grade. With this prepa¬ 
ration his two years’ course has continued 
lectures, studies and recitations in applied 
science, combined with daily practice. At 
our best agricultural schools of the West- 
such as those of Michigan, Iowa and Kansas— 
the course of study and practice is not ma¬ 
terially different except that a part of the 
preliminary studies is Included in the regular 
course. 
That such an education is not needed to 
grow a crop of corn or potatoes in accordance 
with a few empirical rules handed down from 
father to son may be freely admitted; but 
the real query is: could the common unedu¬ 
cated laborer have originated the new modes 
and methods, the new tools and appliances, 
the new and valuable varieties, the new and 
improved stock, and, in a word, the new or¬ 
der of things which has made our day the 
most advanced one in the industries the world 
has known? Would agriculture have kept 
pace with the advances in other lines without 
the aid of the agricultural colleges and trial 
stations of Europe and America? Here we 
hare the true mission of the technical schools. 
We need the pioneers, the thinkers, the plan¬ 
ners, and we will not find them among the 
students of the training schools the Professor 
is inclined to recommend. 
As to the complaint that too small a per 
cent, of the students of such schools return to 
the farm, it should be noted that but few of 
them have farms to return to, or means to 
purchase and stock them. At first they drift 
quite largely to other lines of work that 
promise to pay better without invested capi¬ 
tal. But personal observation of hundreds of 
such students who have left our college dur¬ 
ing the past 12 years shows that the bias 
towards agriculture, horticulture, forestry, 
veterinary science, mechanics, etc., during 
the formative period of their lives, leads them 
sooner or later to do good work as planners, 
leaders and thinkers, in the great and needed 
work of lifting up and bettering the indus¬ 
trial pursuits. 
Agricultural College, Ames, la. 
FROM AN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE GRADU¬ 
ATE. 
It does not seem to me possible that Profes¬ 
sor Porter can ever have personally examined 
the workings of an agricultural college, talk¬ 
ed with tne graduates of such institutions or 
taken pains to see why boys want to enter 
them. As I am a graduate of an agricultural 
college, it may not be out of place for me to 
state why I took a course in agriculture and 
what influence such a course had upon me. I 
went to college of my own free will. I was 
considerably over age when I entered and I 
was obliged to depend upon my own efforts 
for support. I am sure I examined the cata¬ 
logues of at least 100 different colleges before 
I decided to go to an agricultural college. I 
have never been sorry I went there, and if I 
had a boy to day to be educated I know of no 
other institution that I would sooner have 
him attend. My desire was to attend the col¬ 
lege that would give me a sensible insight in¬ 
to what the world calls “an education” at the 
least outlay of cash,'and at the same time 
leave me at the completion of my course In a 
condition that would enable me to do some¬ 
thing in the way of earning my livelihood as 
soon as I graduated. 1 knew plenty of grad¬ 
uates of literary schools who for a year or 
more after graduation were utterly unable to 
support themselves by any other occupation 
than that of teaching, and 1 knew well enough 
that I never could succeed as a teacher. The 
agricultural college graduates that I knew 
were earnest, practical men. A demonstra¬ 
tion of their ability and readiness to work 
bard in the field whenever called upon to do 
so and their equally evident ability to talk, 
think and act strongly and sensibly did much 
to send me to the Michigan Agricultural Col¬ 
lege. 
During my college course I did rather more 
work on the farm than the average student 
performed. I milked cows the first year and 
in fact, went through the regular course of 
work,from spreading manure and digging po¬ 
tatoes to helping fill the silo or running the 
college engine. At the same time I had my 
full share of class and literary honors which 
were always elective—presented by the stu¬ 
dents. 
I speak of this to show that the college 
spirit was essentially democratic; there was 
no such thing as a college aristocracy. Dudes 
and drones seldom went past the first term. 
Every boy had a square and equal chance for 
the college offices that college boys aspire to. 
1 am positive that the vast majority of my 
college mates came to the agricultural college 
because they found that they could partly 
pay their way by working on the farm and 
because the graduates with whom they were 
acquainted were earnest and practical men— 
workers not dreamers. 
My college expense account will show that 
I finished my course for less money than I 
should have been obliged to pay for two years 
at any reliable literary, or technical school. 
In fact, had it not been for the peculiar advan¬ 
tages offered by the agricultural college I 
never could have started my college educa¬ 
tion, and it is not at all surprising to "me to 
find that the great majority of the boys at 
college with me say the same thing. 
A word about the course of instruction at 
an agricultural college. If Professor Porter 
had ever gone to such a college and fairly in¬ 
vestigated the methods of teaching and the 
matter taught, bis article would never have 
been written. He proposes to have farmers 
depend entirely upon agricultural papers and 
experiment station bulletins for scientific in¬ 
formation and investigation! Did it ever 
occur to him that the course at an agricul¬ 
tural college may be such that a farmer who 
takes it may be far better fitted to appreciate 
the science he finds in agricultural papers and 
bulletins? My experience is that a course in 
agriculture is a great help in understanding 
and practicing the princiDles laid down in 
modern agricultural literature. I should say 
that Professor Porter guesses at the matter. 
And then that old humbug about the small 
proportion of agricultural students that go 
back to the farm I How many graduates of a 
Normal school do nothing but teach? How 
about graduates of schools of law or med¬ 
icine? For a number of years after gradu¬ 
ation I had less to do with agriculture than 
pleased me, simply because I had no farm to 
work. I can say most emphatically that I 
cannot think of a single member of my class 
who did not leave college with the firm deter¬ 
mination of some day owning and working a 
piece of land. It will be years before some of 
them become connected with soil culture, but 
the love of rural pursuits is in them and their 
college course fastened it. Some of the best 
lawyers in the State of Michigan are grad¬ 
uates of the agricultural college. One of 
them was not long since elected a Judge of 
the Supreme Court of the State, and the 
fact that he had attended the agricultural 
college had a good deal to do with his elec¬ 
tion. Is a lawyer any better qualified to 
stand as the champion of the rights of farmers 
because of his course at an agricultural 
college? I think he is. Professor Porter may 
not think so. 
The plan proposed by Professor Porter is a 
beautiful one—on paper. I can only give an 
opinion regarding it, and that is that he could 
not get a corporal's guard of the class of boys 
American agriculture needs to attend such a 
schoo . H. W OOLLINGWOOD. 
NATURE’S REMEDY FOR A WORN-OUT 
SOIL. 
Excessive cropping ruinous to fertility, 
clover a rescuer of plant food from the 
depths of the soil and trie atmosphere ; 
clover sod as a seed-bed; how to get a 
“ catch ;” the best mode of treating man¬ 
ure is to haul it out and apply it as it is 
made ; the next best to save it in ridges 
and spread it as it is hauled ; housing man¬ 
ure; never leave it m piles in the field ; 
manuring in spots. 
CLOVER. 
In Southern Ohio, plew, plow, plow seams 
to be the rule rather than the exception, and 
fully half our farmers fail to see in what di¬ 
rection they are drifting. Cropping, crop¬ 
ping,cropping has already taken the cream out 
of the virgin soil of Southern Ohio. Some, 
however, are waking up to the evils of this 
practice, and clover is being sown in many 
fields. Many of our farmers are beginning 
to gee that this great foliage plant is coming 
as a succoring angel to the rescue. But to 
got down to facts: Clover is, in my opinion, 
the greatest natural fertilizer and renewer of 
the soil known to man. It penetrates the sub¬ 
soil with a long, tapering root to a greater 
depth than any other plant, bringing plant 
food up from below the reach of other plants 
and leaving it in the large crown near the sur¬ 
face of the soil and in the dark foliage upon 
it. I have traced the root of an ordinary 
stool of Red clover to the depth of 24 inches. 
Last spring, while working in corn about knee- 
high, I traced the corn roots and found, to my 
surprise, that the roots of two thrifty hills 
would meet across a four-foot row. 
Again, we are told by good authority that 
the clover plant feeds upon the atmosphere, 
gathering, accumulating and depositing fer¬ 
tility and gases from that source in consid¬ 
erable quantities. 
Two years ago, owing to drought, I was 
short of pasture, and, as a last resort, turned 
the lambs on the second or seed crop of a 
three-years-old clover sod. They ate it close, 
thus making a finish of it. I plowed the land 
for potatoes. Exoept for the breaking of the 
clover roots this piece turned over very easi¬ 
ly, the furrow breaking and crumbling as it 
turned, the soil being clayey. I prepared a 
very fine seed-bed, though the labor of doing 
so was ess than in any other case producing 
like results. Clover seems to lift, heave and 
loosen the soil, thus giving it new life. De¬ 
spite the dense green foliage, there is a con¬ 
stant falling of dead leaves, causing a black 
mold on the surface. Part the foliage while 
in full bloom and examine the moist soil, and 
you will be as surprised as I was when I made 
my first clover-hay by forking and handling 
until the stems were bare. 
I hear some talk of clover-sick soil, but the 
fact is that more soil is sick from the want of 
clover than from an over-dose of it. Any 
worn-out field can be seeded to clover if prop¬ 
erly managed. If the field is bare and clean, 
in early spring spread on a coat of manure (a 
little is Detter than none); then as soon as the 
soil can be worked harrow it with a sharp- 
toothed harrow, sow anyhow 15 pounds of 
seed to the acre—20 are better—and harrow 
again. In this way I have never failed to get 
a good sod of clover. If the soil has any in¬ 
clination to run to Blue grass, the latter will 
make its appearance before this crop is ex¬ 
hausted. Where the winter is severe the 
second or seed crop each year snould be al¬ 
lowed to fall down as a mulch for the roots, 
or else the freezing and thawing will heave 
the roots out and ruin the crop for next year. 
This failing of the seed crop perpetuates the 
sod, the seed coming up the next spring only 
to make the sod thicker. 
I have an old gravelly bank too poor for any 
kind of a catch of Timothy. It was sown br 
above described two years ago. I have mow¬ 
ed from it two heavy crops and to-day it is 
fully half a Blue grass sod. Do you think 
the plow will get into that ? Not soon. 
In addition to the advantages of clover as a 
great life-giver to the soil, no better feed was 
ever produced than a good quality of clover 
hay. I have fed it to sheep with no grain 
whatever with the very best results. 
MANURE. 
A proper gathering and feeding on the farm 
of all feed and grain raised, together with a 
careful saving and judicious returning to the 
soil of all manure made is a course that will 
never impoverish any soil. Of course, the 
tiller of the soil must exercise good judgment 
In a correct rotation of crops, and avoid 
breaking a good sod too frequently 
A trip through Southern Ohio will reveal, 
to an observing traveler, the serious fact that 
fully nine-tenths of all the manure made is 
thrown out against the side of the stable 
many times under the drip of the eaves, there 
to leach, over-heat, fire-fang and “waste its 
sweetness on the desert air,” and at the same 
time the very perpetrators of this crime (for 
crime it is against themselves and their chil¬ 
dren), will sweat and toil to get together a few 
dollars to send to some Eastern city for a ton 
or so of some commercial fertilizer. Why, 
brethren, these things ought not so to be. 
I have experimented considerably with 
various methods of caring for the manure 
heap, and the best results have been obtained 
from making it in the form of a ridge fully 
exposed to the weather. Make the ridge on 
well-drained land, allowing no surface water 
to reach it. It is not best to make it more 
than four feet high; keep the loose manure 
around the edges well thrown up. A ridge of 
this kind will seldom leach; in fact, several 
times I have turned the eave spout so as to 
run the water into the ridge when I had any 
fear of its over-heating, being careful n jt to 
let it get more water than it would absorb. 
Last spring I hauled out a ridge treated as 
above, that was in excellent condition, well 
rotted and ve>-y little fire-fanged. 
Not long since, in an agricultural journal 
of national repute, I read an article advocat¬ 
ing the housing of manure. This I have also 
tried, and find that if it is piled over a foot 
deep it will heat, (manure from cattle, of 
course, excepted) and if it heats it will literal¬ 
ly burn itself to death and be as worthless as 
straw. It may sometimes be advisable to 
leave the manure undisturbed under the feet 
of the stock; then it will heat unless very 
closely trampled, to say nothing about the in¬ 
jury dene to the stock. 
But as much skill is needed in applying the 
manure as in keeping it. The best authori¬ 
ties tell us that where the land is level,or near¬ 
ly so, we should haul the manure direct from 
the stable to the field as soon as it is made. 
This is, undoubtedly, good advice and the 
most economical mode of application, but 
in a rough,hilly country like this.it is imprac¬ 
ticable. Then the next best way is to rot it 
in the ridge until the ground is plowed, and 
then apply it on the surface, spreading it 
evenly and harrowing it in. Hauling the ma¬ 
nure to the field and leaving it in small piles 
is a bad practice. I tried this once to my sat¬ 
isfaction or rather to my sorrow. When I 
spread the heaps I was very careful to scrape 
the ground where they stood very closely, ex¬ 
pecting it would be the richest. Despite all 
this the corn was very spotted and uneven. 
Last fall I broke an old field to re-seed it. 
Not having manure enough to cover all of it 
I hunted out all the poorest spots, bare knobs, 
etc., and spread what manure I had on them. 
That piece to-day is spotted. In fact, I fear 
there will be no grass at all by spring except 
where the manure was spread. The difference 
is so great that the Irregular outlines of the 
manured pieces can very easily be traced. 
This taught me this lesson: don’t plow for 
anything an inch more land than you have 
manure with which to cover it. 
Finally,the farmer ought not to be ashamed 
of his calling, neither should he cause his 
fields to be ashamed of him. He ought to put 
on his thinking-cap and make his calling a 
study. He ought to use sense and judgment, 
for if there is a calling under the sun that 
needs a proper use of these two virtues it is 
the farmer’s. The bright, wide-awake, think¬ 
ing man succeeds wherever he goes, while the 
sleepy, don’t-care fellow will fall in the ditch 
every time. 
Athens County, O. a. b. saunders. 
Ctrmjiiiljm, 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Indiana. 
Pendleton, Madison County, May 17.— The 
prediction of the R. N.-Y. of a dry season 
was well-nigh fulfilled. As the winter was 
the mildest the spring was the driest on record 
in this region. There was no rain to stop the 
plow, and corn is all planted and some of it is 
being cultivated. Wheat has made a good 
growth and tillered better than usual, and if 
indications do not change, may make nearly 
an average crop. Copious rains on May 10— 
12 have refreshed the thirsty earth and caused 
vegetables, flowers and all living things to 
rejoice. p. h. h. 
South Bend, St. Joseph County, May 29. 
-Yesterday It snowed nearly all day and the 
mercury was down to 33 degrees nearly the 
whole time; but it is several degrees warmer 
to-day. If those engaged in farming exper¬ 
ience many springs like this, tli6y will be 
seeking other means of making money. 
t. a. p. 
Iowa. 
Dks Moines, Polk County, June 1.—May 
has passed and we are glad rather than sor¬ 
ry ; for it was cold all the month. The first 
half was wet and cold, and on the 19th we had 
a fearful hail storm which destroyed thous¬ 
ands of dollars’worth of small fruits and veg¬ 
etables, besides greatly damaging corn and 
small grains. Ever since the hail storm we 
have had a cold wave from the Northeast, so 
cold that we have worked all day with our 
coats on. May 31, we had a heavy freeze, ice 
forming one-fourth of an inch in thickness on 
water in tubs. Vegetables were nearly all 
killed, and small fruits will be scarce. Ap¬ 
ples were badly damaged by the hail storm, 
and have fallen badly since. Blackberries 
and hardy apples are all our show for any 
fruit this j ear. During the hail storm, cur¬ 
rants, strawberries and gooseberries were 
