6 
THE RURAL WEW-YORKER. 
OCT 2 
sent us a sample of her Graham flour. We 
found it contained a large number of two 
species of mites, one of which must have been 
invisible to those who have not the keenest 
eyesight. Hardly one housewife out of a thou- 
sand would have detected the strangers. Most 
would have gone on making bread from this 
infested flour, without thinking that every 
loaf entombed hundreds of these little creat¬ 
ures, “Where ignorance is bliss, etc.” I do 
not kuow that cooked mites would prove un¬ 
wholesome food, but neat housewives would 
rather bo at the trouble of frequently scrub¬ 
bing and refilling the flour boxes than to know 
they were setting before their family this 
'‘unity” bread. o. r. Gillette. 
Lansing, Mich, 
I planted the cantaloupe with stable man¬ 
ure, the muskmelons with a compost of night 
soil, aud the watermelons with stable manure 
and cotton-seed meal. The muskmelons were 
best. I have never found auy northern coru 
to do well the first season; it takes two or three 
seasons to get acclimated, c. C. W. 
Mobile Co., Ala. 
The feed mill which I secured as a pi*emium 
gives universal satisfaction. I had it at our 
fair, and drew first premium. 
Fluvauna, N. Y. It. A. whittemore. 
I had a piece of land very full of weeds. I 
plowed a part of it in the Fall for a fire-break. 
The rest I burned over the following Spring, 
then plowed it, ami planted the whole field to 
com, aud seeded it to grass the next Spring. 
To-day you cau see to the very edge of the 
fall plowing. It is well set in grass aud no 
weeds. The spring plowing is full of weeds 
aud little grass. w. I. R. 
Burlington, Ky. 
In every neighborhood that I have ever lived 
in there has been a farmer who always bought 
second-hand tools just because they wore cheap. 
At every auction he would invest in a lot of 
old truck just because it sold for a small sum. 
It is needless to say that such a man always 
makes a cheap, second-hand farmer. All his 
stoi’e room is filled with a lot of old trash that 
nobody can use. G. M. 
Raudolph, Vt. 
There are in this country thousands of 
wiiar, I may call accidental farmers. They 
arc men who from sickness or accident have 
not been able to succeed in other vocations. 
They read about the comfort aud independ¬ 
ence of farm life and sell what they have aud 
go to the West, to get a piece of land. They 
know no more about the laml than the laud 
knows about them. The living for the first 
year or so comes so bard that many of them 
become disgusted aud drift away into some¬ 
thing else. Those who persevere, keep out of 
debt and study the methods of their success¬ 
ful neighbors come out all right. It takes grit 
to make a liviug under such circumstances. 
The worst of it is that people think farming 
is so easy that when they come to find out 
just what it is they feel sick. J. I. 
South Creek, Neb, 
I know farmers who fully expected to get 
rich at selling soap. They answered some of 
those advertisements where people are prom¬ 
ised 375 a week at home. They got an answer 
stating that for §5.00 a recipe for making a 
valuable soap would be sent. Some farmers 
are foolish enough to think they can compete 
with a soap factory. They send the money 
aud make some soap, but they can't begin to 
make it for the price at which ordinary soap 
is sold. I kuow of several instances where 
this thing has been tried. The soap is good 
but it is absurd to suppose that a farmer can 
make it as cheaply or as well as a manufac¬ 
turer who has everything to work with. Better 
let the soap business alone. Indeed a farmer 
seldom makes any money by meddling in out¬ 
side matters. A successful man devotes all 
his attention to his legitimate businass. 
Hamilton Co., Texas. L. McCarty. 
What is a man with a large, worn-out 
farm to do with his manure? My farm is very 
poor and my quautiLy of manure is limited. 
I make all I cap, but there is not half enough 
to go around. The usual custom here is to 
put all the manure on to a few acras and let 
the rest of the farm. go. That’s the only way 
we can get any decent crops, but 1 would like 
to improve more of my farm. It is a question 
of putting all the manure I can get on to a few 
acres, or of scattering it over a large area and 
raising less per acre. K. B. c. 
Bristol Co., Mass. 
I am picking superb strawberries, second 
crop, nearly as large as first crop—Cumberland 
Manchester and Sharpless. Hansell and Crim¬ 
son Beauty did nothing early in the season, 
but. are now loaded with fair berries. For the 
first time in my observation a cano of black¬ 
cap that bore a full crop is now bearing a sec¬ 
ond crop at the points. It is not a new cane. 
Clinton, N, Y. E. p .P. 
farm 0caaaimj. 
THAT MANURE QUESTION. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Lessons from SO years' experience; how 
plants feed; manure filed up and spread 
out; saving volatile fertility; application 
of manure to grass land; and to plowed 
land; plowing in manure; heat in the soils; 
leaching of manure in the soil. 
Mr. O. S. Bliss has, in a late Rural, very 
ably argued that manure question from the 
side of surface application; but as I look at it 
from 30 years’ use of manure—in some of 
which manure cost me $27 per car-load of 10 
small tons—I think his premises are very much 
at fault, and so misled him. It is a most im¬ 
portant question, because thousands of farm¬ 
ers are buying manure as I have done, and 
every farmer is interested in getting all he 
can out of it, so as to increase the yield of his 
crops as much as possible. Therefore I submit 
the results of my practice aud the conclusions 
reached by a careful study of the science of 
manuring. I speak only of those crops which 
afford a choice of methods, such as grains, 
roots, potatoes, etc., and not of grass, which 
must bo top-dressed, except at the first 
seediug. 
Manure must be either fresh from the yard 
or stable or be well decomposed. Now, which 
of these conditions is the best iu any particu¬ 
lar case? Fresh manure is coarse and con¬ 
tains much und^composed litter aud the man¬ 
ure itself is raw and not fit for plaut food ex¬ 
cepting so far as it is soluble. Plants feed 
only by their roots, and absorb nothing hut 
what is dissolved in water. But manure de¬ 
composes, and in the course of its decomposi¬ 
tion gives up to water whatever becomes solu¬ 
ble in the process of decay. This process of 
decay goes on only when the manure is moist, 
for no chemical action takes place in the ab¬ 
sence of moisture. When fresh manure, then, is 
spread upon grass laud it begins to decay un¬ 
der “the free action of air aud water” as Mr. 
Bliss truly observes. If this manure were 
constantly moist and rain was falling fre¬ 
quently, the manure would slowly become 
soluble and the soluble portions of it would be 
washed into the ground and down to the roots. 
But this is not the case, aud when the manure 
is dried by the too free action of the air, then 
as it decays it gives off carbonic acid aud am¬ 
monia, both free aud iu the evaporated moist¬ 
ure; these arelost iu the air. When, however, 
the manure has beeu iu the heap iu the yard 
during the two months from February to 
April, it will have decomposed there under 
the action of moisture aud heat much more 
than it could have done upon the surface of 
the field, and when spread in April the first 
rain would uot only dissolve out of it the sol¬ 
uble portions, but would beat down the half 
decayed remainder into the grass, where it 
would be sheltered from the too free action of 
the air aud would be saved from waste. 
The heap of manure will no?‘lose anythiug 
by evaporation and fermentation; aud it will 
gain something from the atmosphere. A heap 
of fermentiug manure is undergoing rapid de¬ 
cay aud is being prepared for use as plant 
food. If it is neglected—I admit—it will 
lose considerably: but this neglect is not an 
element in the question. We are supposing 
every care that the good farmer can exercise 
is taken to avoid loss. Then, if he mixes plas¬ 
ter with the manure, as he should do, this will 
catch and hold everythiug—ammonia chiefly— 
that might escape in the watery vapor which 
is driven off in the form of the steam which 
wo see escaping from manure heaps in cold 
weather. Moreover, manure cannot catch 
anything from the air, as Mr. Bliss suggests, 
excepting the oxygen which causes decay: on 
the contrary, it is giving out all the time it is 
decaying on the surface; aud if there is auy 
“ trap” at all about it, to catch anything, it is 
the soil, as I shall presently show. For these 
reasons I would uot spread manure upon even 
grass laud until it was as much decomposed as 
possible, aud most fit for food for the plants. 
Now, as regards the application of manure 
to plowed laud, the question becomes broader 
aud deeper. Mr. Bliss says, “plowing, bur¬ 
rowing aud cultivating the soil till doomsday 
will not convert a single particle of manure 
into plant food.” This is an error, l’orous 
earth is a disinfectant, and is used In earth 
closets aud as an absorbent iu stables solely 
because it will and docs convert decomposing 
animal aud vegetable matter into plant food, 
aud this truth, and this property of pulver¬ 
ized soil, are the key to a sound solution of 
this question of plowing in manure. All por¬ 
ous substances are most effective oxidyzing 
agents. Everybody knows how rags or saw¬ 
dust saturated in oil will heat and burst iuto 
flame iu warm weather, and this is only an 
example of the same property wkich.rouders 
fine earth or sifted ashes so useful in the earth 
closets. * 
Now, when manure is left on the surface of 
the ground, as I have shown, there is a waste 
of most valuable plant food; but there is aud 
can be none when it is plowed iu the soil, and 
the more the soil is pulverized and made loose 
and porous the more plaut food is developed 
from any organic substance iu it, and even 
inorganic substances are also affected by this 
oxidation and by the carbonic acid which is 
liberated in the decomposition. When a 
farmer plows in the manure as it should be 
done, it lies iu alternate layers with the soil, 
aud these are set on edge, sloping with the 
surface 45 degrees or more, as the plowing 
may have been done. It does not then dry 
out but is kept moist; the sun’s heat warms 
the soil aud the dark manure absorbs the heat, 
aud under the influence of the warmth and 
the moisture and the oxidizing effects of the 
pulverized soil, a vigorous chemical action be¬ 
gins, and never ceases. The “free action of 
aii* and water” circulating in the soil quickly 
decomposes the manure, and this in its decom¬ 
position dissolves the silicates of potash and 
soda aud lime aud the phosphates of these 
minerals in the soil, aud thus not only is it 
converted iuto plaut food hut it actually con¬ 
verts mineral matter into plant food. There¬ 
fore it is uot a “gross mistake”—friend Bliss— 
to cover manure with earth, as I hope I have 
beeu able to satisfy you. 
There are some other points in the remarks 
of Mr. Bliss which I can scarcely refrain from 
noticing, although I am trespassing upon 
space aud the patience of the readers. The 
heal of the soil is one point. Now, the total 
amount of heat in the soil during the year is 
far greater than that of the air and the sur¬ 
face of the soil. Porous soil absorbs a large 
quantity of heat from the sun during the day 
aud holds it during the night. The soil may 
freeze on the surface for au inch or several 
inches, and yet maintain a temperature of 55 
or 60 degrees below the frozen surface. This 
relative difference is constant. On one occa¬ 
sion of an early frost, which damaged my 
corn crop, the soil six inches below the sur¬ 
face marked 80« degrees on the thormouetcr, 
and this heat had beeu retained from the pre¬ 
vious warm, bright day through the cold 
night. 
The leaching of manure through the soil is 
another point that should be noticed. This is 
a common error. Porous substances, espe¬ 
cially soil, have a remarkable affinity for 
solid substances in solution, and filter them 
out of the descending water most effectively. 
I had once a manure cellar in the sandiest of 
sandy soil, aud all the liquids from a cow 
stable over it, which ran into this cellar for 
several years, failed to discolor the yellow 
saud more than three inches down. I have 
filtered the dark liquid from this cellar 
through a tube with eight inches of clear 
sand in it, and the water came out clear, free 
from odor and without auy apparent taint, 
The same may be said of the soil. Moreover, 
there is a physical luw of matter known as the 
law of diffusion, by which heavy carbonic 
acid is diffused through the greatly lighter 
air up to the highest elevations, aud the heavy 
salt is diffused through the lighter ocean to 
the surface. This law prevails in the soil, aud 
if one will scatter 000 pounds per acre of salt 
in a field of mangels, as I have done, and SCO 
it disappear iu the soil, and fear it is gone— 
leached—out of reach, he will by aud by bo 
pleased to see it come up, when the soil dries, 
?is a white crust on the surface where it is 
brought up by the moisture diffused in the 
soil. No, suils do uot leach, unless the water 
is in great excess, and then the water escapes 
almost pure iuto the drains, carrying off only 
nitric acid so far as is known—and not all of 
it—from the soil. No fanner need ever bor¬ 
row trouble about the manure leaching out of 
tbe bottom of his soil. 
-- « ♦ — 
A MANURE PROBLEM. 
The manure problems in late Rurals call 
to my mind a case I noted a short time since. 
I visited a friend in Somerset Go., N. J. He 
is a good farmer of 4U years’ experience. Last 
May he planted quite a lurge field to .corn. 
The soil is a strong loam and the situation so 
high that water could not stand upon the sur¬ 
face. The field is of uniform fertility aud a 
good clover sod. Before plowing, he hauled 
from the yard aud spread on u part of the 
field coarse manure, at the l ate of 10 loads 
per acre. He then plowed the entire field 
and upon another part ol the same spread 
well rotted manure at about, the same rate us 
before, and then harrowed until the surface 
was in good planting condition. Since plant¬ 
ing, the coni has been so well worked that a 
man cun convey the weeds of the eutiic 
plot uuder one arm, aud yet, strange as it 
may appear, the com is best by all odds wliei o 
there was no manure. Who can explain? 
Kingston N, J. J * p * 
fieltr Crops. 
JAPAN CLOVER AGAIN. 
In the Rural of September 11, it is stated 
that “J. W, W„ of Macon Co., N. C., who 
advertises Japan Clover (Lespedeza striata) 
and other seeds for sale, aud writes about 
them to several papers, is a fraud, etc.,” and 
it is further stated that “this Japan Clover is 
worthless,” and that “Walker’s puffery of it is 
absolutely false,” Now, though the party 
alluded to, in writing “to several papers,” may 
have managed to get considerable free adver¬ 
tising, you may rely upon it that the Japan 
Clover itself is no fraud, neither is it “worth¬ 
less,” aud all that was said of it by J. W. W. 
in the Rural of August 23, has proved to be 
literally true in this section, Some ten years 
ago I procured from North Carolina a bushel 
of the “dirt” that was scraped tip where the 
Japan Clover grew, aud which was said to 
contain the seed. This was seeded according 
to directions on an acre in the middle of a 00- 
aere field, and it was stated that it would 
spread all over the field, and afford excellent 
grazing, all of which has turned out to be ti ue, 
for that and Bermuda Grass were the only 
green grasses during the severe drought of 
1885 iu a standing pasture iu grass for 15 years, 
and they both afforded excellent grazing when 
the other grasses were all dried up. I consider 
Bermuda Grass, as well as the Japan Clovei, 
both to be valuable in all standiug pastures; 
but tbe Japan Clover now seems to be pushing 
itself all through the Bermuda sod, aud to be 
smothering that out. Tim Japan Clover starts 
early, and by July and August (when othei 
grasses are failing) it forms a heavy, dense 
sod when grazed, aud blossoms si bout Septem¬ 
ber 1, having a small blue blossom at tbe foot 
of each leaf, and it affords tine grazing until 
it is killed by heavy frosts; but then it starts 
again the next Spring, spreading out more and 
more every year. It will grow and form a 
sod on the thinnest land, and even iu the roads, 
and on galls and naked places where nothing 
else will grow, aud on good lands, when not 
grazed, it is said to grow tall euough to cut for 
hay, aud to make excellent hay in Louisiana, 
where it is used for this purpose. The seeds 
are saved, and were advertised for sale last, 
year, aud a party here purchased u bushel (1~ 
pounds) at §8, aud express charges, aud sow-1 
them this Spring with the view of making 
hay and saviug the seed. 
The plant is said to have started in Charles¬ 
ton, S. C., (just before the war) from seeds 
fouud iu a cargo of Japan tea, and has now 
spread itself, where it was never seeded, as far 
south as.New Orleans aud as far north as V ir- 
giuift. It grows along the roads and highways 
and in all uncultivated fields, aud no one seems 
to kuow whence it came, or how tar it will 
spread. Mr. Edwin Montgomery, the editor 
of the Southern Live Stock Journal, considers 
Japan Clover “one of the most valuable grasses 
in the South,” and Professor Massey, of the 
Miller School of Virginia, when on a visit to 
the Mississippi Agricultural College (where he 
first saw the grass) endorsed all the editor had 
said of It. No grass cau be “worthless” that 
will cover the road sides and barren fields with 
a carpet of green and afford good grazing 
where nothing grow before. 
I have no axe to grind and no seed for sale. 
Spottsylvauia Co., Va. a. p. ROWE. 
Remarks.— This plaut comes from the east¬ 
ern part of the Eastern Continent, and was 
first fouud near Charleston, S. C., about 40 
years ago. Mr. U. W. Raveucl tells us that 
it wus about 1.807 that it first attracted the at¬ 
tention of farmers as a new forage plant. I he 
farm papers were filled with accounts ot it, 
and it was represented as a godsend to the im¬ 
poverished fields of the South. It was surely 
to take the place of clovei* and grasses. I he 
most extravagant accounts were printed, in 
it was killed by loo much praise, it was im- 
aliy found to possess some value, it is true, aim 
wo were scarcely justified in saying it is 
“worthless.” On poor, sandy sou, it has ft 
branching, procumbent liabit and affords but 
little pasturage. On rich, damp soil it will 
grow ns high as 18 inches. But the leaves are 
very small and the stems too hard and woody 
to make a desirable hay. Mr. Raveucl " i itc- s 
us that he thinks it will never be of any val¬ 
ue as a crop to be cultivated like clover and the 
grasses, and wo know of no better authority. 
It was Mr. Ravemel that namotl it “Japan 
Clover J"though, of course, it is not a true clover. 
Neither is it, a perennial. It is an annual* 
Now, the above is the most that can be suut ot 
this plant, uud we hope it, Is uot again to t»e 
puffed up only to disappoint all who purchase 
aud sow the seeds.— Eds. J _ 
Sl)c Ijfuisfiuifi. 
STOCK NOTES FOR OCTOBER. 
HORSES. 
“No foot uo horse;” therefore a most im¬ 
portant point in caring for horses is to keep a 
