When an unfortunate fanner reduces his soil 
to this condition, or comes into possession of 
exhausted land, he must begin at the very 
bottom and work up by slow degrees. Tt is 
wise to let such persons know this fact aud 
not mislead them into believing in any short¬ 
cut to the improvement of the land by any im¬ 
practicable method. I am writing not for 
those who have a pocketful of money to buy 
fertilizers or manure with, because money is a 
road to anything and everything ; but for 
those who must wring from an unwilling and 
unable soil such results as they can, by slow, 
gradual methods. And I write to neutralize 
as lar as possible the errors made and ex¬ 
pressed by A.. C. G, (page 47!)) in reference to 
this subject. 
First, he writes disparagingly of superficial 
reasoning in agricultural papers to the effect 
that no other plant than rye will furnish so 
large a bulk to lie turned under in so short a 
time, so surely and with so little expense, 
Second, be then relates an experience of his 
own which proved to him that the above alle¬ 
gation is wrong and he defies the “allegat- 
ors.’ 4 
Third, he then gives the result of his (?) 
investigations of the failure of rye to benefit 
his land, and bis conclusion thereupon that 
rye only pays back what it gathers from 
the soil and adds nothing to the fertility of the 
land ; while clover does very much more, and 
he thus leaves it to be inferred that clover is 
much more useful crop for 
than rye. 
Fourth, he very wisely says there is no 
short-cut to prosperity on a poor soil (I sup¬ 
pose he means fertility and not prosperity) 
anil very unwisely says he who believes in rye, 
as a renovator will bo disappointed in not 
seeing waving wheat and corn following wav¬ 
ing rye. Who ever expected or thought of 
it ? 
green manure 
^ 0 w, A. C, G. starts out by casting a slur 
upon a class of estimable men, who state a fact 
when they write that no other crop than rye will 
furnish so much green matter to be turned un- 
dei in so short a time, at such a couveuieut 
season and so cheaply. I know this to be a 
fact for I have grown several crops of rye for 
plowing under during my experience with one 
of the poorest of the New Jersey sandy farms 
for nearly ten years, aud if any person doubts 
the fact lot him tell the Rural circle what 
other crop can be sown on poor land to be 
plowed in early in the Spring, that will give 
more bulk of matter to the soil or that cau be 
gi owu for so little cost. I don't know of any. 
One man's experience goes for no more than 
it is worth; no rule cau be laid down as a 
guide from it; because the conditions are prob¬ 
ably different from those of others and at any 
rate every circumstance—the most trilling ap¬ 
parently will have a bearing upon it. One 
who neglects this truth in making statements 
is speaking or writing superficially; hence A. 
C. G. is superficial and his experience must be 
weighed aud judged carefully. Moreover, he 
proves this by his statement that he based 
great expectations 1 ' u(k>u the plowing in of a 
crop of rye when, had he read with care "every 
agi ieultural paiier, 1 lie would huvo probably 
seen that no great expectations should be based 
on rye for the purpose mentioned, because it 
is, as it were, the tiiKt brick of the structure 
which is to be reared upon it. 
A. 0. G. argues very illogically upon the 
subject of his investigations. He calls them 
his, but the figures seem very much like those 
of L>r. Weiske, aud if he quoted him, lie should 
have acknowledged it. Then we should have 
seen that he had wandered from his subject 
and was pasturing in clover grown for other 
purposes. What he says of the nmnurial 
value of rye and clover is true, hut it has 
nothing whatever to do with the question at 
issue. No farmer who can grow a clover crop 
of which 36,580 pounds of dry matter exist 
in the roots, would borrow much trouble 
as to the choice between rye und clover as a 
given manuring crop. 
Hut leaving this poiut, 1 wish to show the 
fallacy of the reasoning of A. C. G. in the 
course of his very superficial investigations. 
He became satisfied that “something more 
than bulk of plant growth is needed to be 
turned under; that there must be some affin¬ 
ity m the plant with the forces that nourish 
crops to make it a useful fertilizer. This affin¬ 
ity clover possesses, while rye does not.” 
What is meant by affinity? Is it any secret, 
mysterious force or attraction, or merely the 
contribution of so much plant food to the soil, 
together with a certain chemical and solvent 
aetiou upon the soil exerted by the decaying 
vegetable matter? If this is meant, then are 
not the potash, lime and nitrogen of the rye 
act with greater and mysterious force than 
rye beyond the quantitative difference? It is 
also another misleading fallacy to say that rye 
only pays back to mother earth just what it 
receives, in such a way as to lead readers to 
suppose that clover does more. It does not 
and c annot return to the soil any more than it 
takes from it; it> does, no doubt, get its valu¬ 
able substance from a lower depth than rye or 
any other plant, and is therefore a much more 
valuable manurial crop for plowing under or 
for feeding. 
But what is the farmer to do w hose soil will 
not produce clover ? I have tried repeatedlj r 
to grow Clover on poor soil and failed ; the 
land was too poor. I believe clover can Ik; 
turned to better use than to plow it under. 
Dr. Lawes says the soil is actually richer in 
nitrogen after a crop of clover hay and the 
second crop cut for seed have been taken off, 
than it was after the first, crop—that is, that 
matured clover roots and stubble contain more 
fertilizing matter than the half-grown crop ; 
and, moreover, the manure made from feed¬ 
ing a ton of clover hay is worth in money and 
fertilizing value more than the hay is. Then 
it is folly for a farmer who can grow a crop of 
clover, which is as valuable as is stated by 
A. G. G. to plow it under, because his soil is 
past that stage and only needs reasonably 
good ordinary management to produce good 
crops of all kinds and to increase steadily in 
value. I have now nearly thirty acres of 
clover, and I am cutting it all to the last stub 
for feediug aud am not plowing it in, and 
hojie to keep my land improving bj r this prac¬ 
tice. But when I could not grow clover, and 
the young growth died out m its infancy from 
utter poverty and starvation, I could grow 
rye, and by plowing it under in June, and 
then sowing buckwheat and then plowing 
that in, and sowing a second crop and plow¬ 
ing that in, and then spreading thirty or forty 
bushels of Jime per acre, I have raised forty 
bushels of corn the next year on soil where 
previously not one ear could have been grown. 
It was this sort of culture, with the addition 
of manure made by feeding clover, hay, bran, 
corn and cotton-seed meal to cows, which 
brought up the lightest kind of blowing sand 
to a dark brown loam, which would produce 
eighty bushels of coni and two tons of clover 
bay aud more of Orchard Grass to the ucre. 
It was slow work ; but nothing else could be 
done, for there was no alternative, and the rye 
was the beginning of it. 
Finally, what is effected by plowing in a 
crop of rye? Several things: First, we get 
something where nothing else can be procured 
aud at a seasou when we can get nothing else, 
and at a most trifling cost; second, we get a 
certain ■ juantity of fertilizing matter. Taking 
A. C. G.'s figures we get 62pounds of nitrogen, 
6° pounds of lime, 36 pounds of potash, (and 
24 pounds of phosphoric acid which he forgets) 
aud all these cannot possibly be of any less 
value in the soil than as much procured from 
any other crop. Third, we get a large quan¬ 
tity of organic matter which in its decomposi¬ 
tion produces carbonic acid aud other acids 
which act upon the soil, dissolving the mineral 
elements aud liberating more lime, phosphoric 
acid aud potash, so that the crops can avail 
themselves of these for food aud so flourish to 
a corresponding extent. This result well 
known to occur in the soil has been ignored by 
A. C. G. There is no doubt that for its pur¬ 
pose, and as far as it goes, rye may lie made 
very useful in this way. A starving man 
would thank you for a crust, poor aud dry, 
which a hearty man would threw to a dog, and 
he would find in it nourishment that would 
give strength and enable him to make efforts 
to hunt or work for better food. In like man¬ 
ner a starving soil will thank you for a crop 
of rye plowed under, and will be nourished by 
it; while a soil that will grow a crop of clover 
may reject it and gain no benefit from It ibut 
I doubt it, for everything of the kind is useful 
to auv soil as far as it goes) and indeed does 
not need it; but the poor starved field will be 
nourished by it and will be helped to do bet- 
ter by it. A. C. G. should remember that cir¬ 
cumstances alter cases, and if he has never 
come across land so poor that it will not grow 
c lover and w ill find much lieuctit from h crop 
of rye, the only crop that can be used under 
some circumstances and which really gives the 
most for the least given, 1 cau assure him that 
there is such laud ami lots of it and the owners 
are anxious to know what to do with it. 
RICH FARMS ABANDONED. 
ALLEN NORTON LEET, PH. D. 
..... - After roaming through most of the 
qui te as useful to the soil as those of clover, tern portion of Connecticut, and observing the 
‘V ,US . . ey g0; aQd 18 Uot tho Oa, bonic acid agrarian condition of the locality, 1 am rim- 
age, the laud cleared, with sufficient timber, 
however, for all purpose of utility, undulat¬ 
ing with an tiuequaled landscape, water—that 
great desideratum sought for so frequently 
on YY (-stern prairies—abounding everywhere. 
The most, favorable conditions for farmers 
and cattle abandoned, for the most part un¬ 
cultivated, and with farui-houses, fences, 
barns dilapidated and falling into rum. Yet 
there is a market at hand, and with hay bring¬ 
ing $20 a ton almost on the spot, there were 
never finer opportunities for profitable fann¬ 
ing than in this region. It seems that New 
England is passing through the same condition 
as that which the Archbishop of Canterbury 
recently spoke of as prevalent in his own 
country. Said he: “ In England there are 
hundreds and hundreds of farms for which no 
tenant can be found—farms which landlords 
would willingly hand over to any solvent 
tenant for a nominal rent, and in many in¬ 
stances for no rent at all, merely to get rid of 
the obligation of paying local rares.” 
Riding along the main road from Norwalk 
to Danbury, past incomparably fine farms. I 
noticed farm-house after farm-house vacated, 
while the twners were willing to rent them 
with contiguous land varying in area from 15 
to 100 acres, at prices rauging from 3UK) to 
85 u 0 per year. A farm of 75 acres, consisting 
entirely of arable ground and rich soil with 
only 15 acres cultivated, comprising besides 
a large house of 14 rooms and two barns, 
one of which cost over 35,000, the cellar being 
blown out of solid rock, is vaiuly offered for 
sale at #7,000—hardly the value of the build¬ 
ings. And so the story is repeated all through 
\Y estern Connecticut. The superior induce¬ 
ments offered ti young men in factories 
in the way of increased wages are not 
alone to blame for this condition of affairs. 
The ordinary Connecticut farmer is wed¬ 
ded to old modes and the conservatism 
of scythes and hand-sickles, in spite of 
the fact that the principal inventions in 
agricultural implements are the products of 
\ ankee intellects. Abandoned by the voung 
men, the old farmers become supine and are dy¬ 
ing off, while the stream sweeps onward 
to find lands over-occupied and sufiera- 
bundant crops in the W est, where core is so 
cheap that it is burned for fuel, aud wheat- 
growers are impoverished by the glut or dim¬ 
inished demand for the American products. 
Shakespeare has shown how the fool among 
his neighbors became the wise man of his¬ 
tory. One such farmer wear Danbury, apply¬ 
ing the energy, thought, perspicacity and force 
to the work of farming that as a merchant 
he had exercised in business, two years ago 
bought up a fine farm of about 100 acres, 
with a farm-house, for $3,000. He determined 
to make his new acquisition profitable. He 
went to the Labor Bureau at Castle Garden, 
and told .Superintendent Jackson that he 
wanted half a dozen German immigrants from 
the agncultural portion of the Fatherland, 
agreeing to pay them #10 a month w ages for 
six months—from April to October. Two of 
the number he wanted, however, for a year. 
Ymong the multitude who desired such places 
there was no difficulty in obtaining the needed 
help, aud they were sent forward. One of 
their number understood a little English aud 
acted as interpreter for the rest. The farmer 
found them tractable, hard w r orkers, skillful 
and profitable. \\ ith their aid he made #4,000 
clear profit—mostly from straw, hay, buck¬ 
wheat, coru, potatoes and tobacco—the first 
year. When the year had rolled around the 
men went off for higher wages in another line 
of labor, and he replaced them with other help 
from Castle Garden, so that last year tho farm 
yielded a profit of more than #5,000. He ex¬ 
pects still larger returns this year. 
YY'hat was done by him could be done by 
others, aud thus the problem of obtaining help 
could lie solved. It is one of the mysteries of 
mysteries why men should be as gregarious as 
the thoughtless sheep that quietly follow their 
leader ; and it is rarely that one of the flock is 
found independent aud thoughtful enough to 
look hack and see that the “ land of promise ” 
is behind him, aud the prospect ahead is de¬ 
lusive aud full of difficulties. Perhaps, after 
wandering in the wilderness for forty years, 
like the Children of Israel, the native and the 
foreigner alike may discover the land of 
Canaan to b® at the very threshold of their 
starting place—iu the land of the Pilgrims and 
the Purituns, ready at the touch of the agri¬ 
culturist to flow' with milk and honey, and to 
thrive as the “garden of the Lord.” 
developed by the decomposition of the matter 
of the rye equally effective as a solvent agent 
upon the mineral purticUs of the soil, so far 
as the quantity goes, as that of the clover? If 
uot, why not; aud iu what respect does clover 
ply amazed at the situation, especially at the 
state of affaire in Fairfield County, indeed, 
through the whole Housatouie and Naugatuck 
regiou. Here is found as fine land os the sun 
ever shyue upon; the soil is rich aud ripe for till- 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEYY r S. 
Some seven years ago, merchants doing 
business here bought 25 acres of waste land. 
T hey paid $25 per acre. The land w'as in very 
bad condition, growu to bushes and wild apple 
and cherry trees. The hay was cut this Sum¬ 
mer from acres of this land, and the 
crop amounted to 24,620 pounds. Seven years 
ago this same piece vielded only 4,000 pounds. 
This result has been brought about by putting 
in practice the same principles that have made 
the business of the owners a success. Every 
tree aud bush was cut and the plows started 
through the soil. The stones and stumps were 
cleared off, and the land w’as heavily manured 
and sowed to grass. This cost nearly #100 per 
acre, but it has | aid, for almost every year since 
then, in two cuttings, about four tons of first- 
class hay have l»een taken from every acre. 
With hay at present prices, one cau figure on 
the profit of such crops. None of the hay is 
fed in this lot. but every year a moderate 
dressing of manure is applied. The manure is 
carted to the lot from the stables in town. 
These 5;i< acres are more profitable than a 
#5,000 Government bond would be, and quite 
as safe. They did not cost, improvements 
anil all, more than #150 per acre. There are 
plenty of folks around here w r ho could learn 
valuable lessons from these facts. Thousands 
of acres of bill lauds in this county are just as 
good as this lot was seven years ago, and they 
can be bought for from $10 to #40 per acre. 
They can be made as profitable as this now is 
by the same care and labor. There is no 
reason why raising good bay in New England 
should not be as profitable as raising cotton at 
the South or wheat at the YVest. 
Terryville, Conn. C. w. c 
In looking over farms about me, and read¬ 
ing the articles from those w r ho claim to make 
money at farming, I am led to believe that 
the people who really make money at farming 
are very few. Most of the moneyed farmers 
that I know of got a start in some other line 
of work. They have been agents for some 
machine, or have been in regular business. 
Many of them have regular trades at which 
they can work at times, and thus secure a lit¬ 
tle cash. Such men come before the public 
aud tell us what to do to make money on the 
farm. To follow their advice we should have 
their capital, their business training or their 
trade. How can we secure these things? 
Gratiot Co., Mich. u. b. g. 
I gave my experience last Spring, favoring 
greatly the Shaffer Raspberry. With a 
huger crop to dispose of, I have changed my 
mind. The color, as the Rural said, does 
spoil it for a general market berry, until the 
people are educated up to it. I was obliged to 
sell it at the same price as the black raspberry, 
and this will not pay as it is not firm. The 
moldy color does not please the eye. The 
Cuthbert sells at sight The Marlboro with 
me makes poor growth, aud is almost taste¬ 
less. 
Fairmont, N. Y. 
c. M. 
a new sweet. 
I presume uot all the readers of the Rural 
New-Y orkek have heard or read of the new 
saccharine, invented or discovered by Dr. Con¬ 
stantine Fahlherg. A great deal—a very 
great deal—is claimed for the new sweet 
which is said to be neither a nutriment nor a 
poison; it is simply a flavor, and stands in the 
relation to cane sugar as 220 to l, the new 
saccharine representing the larger figure. Its 
chemical name is benzoyl sulphurieimide. It 
"does not decay, mold or ferment, neither is 
it attacked by bacteria, and bas no injurious 
effect upon the human system.”says a reporter 
iu the American Analyst, who caught aud in¬ 
terviewed the celebrated doctor. It is manu¬ 
factured in Germany, and is selling at from 
#10 to $12 per pound. It is a product of coal 
tar, is not a sugar, as we are informed, aud 
“contains carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen 
and nitrogen.” 
What an effect this product will have upon 
the canning of fruits, if, as it is claimed, it 
will both flavor and preserve! Even the cur 
iug of meats comes within its scope, while bit¬ 
ter medicines are rendered sweet without 
changing the action of the drugs. In these 
days of progress we hardly know whether to 
be conservative or radical—to believe all we 
hear, or to take every new thing with the cus¬ 
tomary grain of salt P. o. c. 
A FEYY* CONCLUSIONS IN 
NUTRITION. 
ANIMAL 
PROP. J. W. SANBORN. 
I. That some important law iu animal 
nutrition is as yet either wholly or mostly un- 
knowu, 
-4. Throughout many yeare of careful work 
I have found that neither the total of organic 
matter, nor the ratio of albuminoids to earbo- 
hydrates has given the uniformity of results 
to lie expected, for there were very' radical 
differences. 
B. Chemistry can give only rough approxi¬ 
mations to real nutritive values. 
C\ The character of the food given and the 
