April 11 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
278 
son to the present. Wilson, Crescent, Sharpless and 
Bubach all did well for me, but I have now aban-' 
doned them all and have not a plant of these varie¬ 
ties on my place. Perhaps my ideas are peculiar, 
but I think that a strawberry plant in the course of 
time gets weak, either from age or abuse, and that 
new varieties must be found to take the place of 
worn-out ones every few years. What makes me be¬ 
lieve this is that all the strawberry plants of one 
species are but outgrowths or continuations of the 
original parent plant or seedling, which in time, like 
a tree, grows old and dies. My main crop berries for 
the past two or three years have been Nick Ohmer 
and a seedling of my own which I call Amwell, 
which has never been distributed. The Amwell pro¬ 
duces very heavy crops of berries of the Bubach 
type, a little smaller than the Bubach but more uni¬ 
form in size and shape and of a better flavor. At 
present 1 am running largely on my seedling Presi¬ 
dent. I wish to say for the benefit of those who have 
not tried it that Nick Ohmer, grown carelessly and 
allowed to run all over the ground, will amount to 
nothing. It must be well cultivated and the plants 
kept thinned out. Grown in thick matted rows its 
berries are worthless; with good culture it is one of 
the best of the well established varieties. Wilson, 
Crescent and Bubach used often to produce immense 
crops without the best of cultivation, but to meet 
the modern demand for big berries proper culture is 
as great a factor as selection of varieties or enrich¬ 
ment of soil. TIIOS. R. HUNT. 
Hunterdon Co.,.N. J. 
BRIEF TALKS ABOUT FERTILIZERS. 
Pofas/i Lye for Fertilizer. 
Could the potash sold in cans in the city as lye be 
used for fertilizer, if only little were wanted? J. w. 
Astoria, N. Y. 
Yes, but it would not pay on a large scale. The best 
way to use it is to dissolve in water and pour tlie 
liquid over coal ashes, rotten sawdust or anything that 
will absorb and hold it. Then broadcast this sub¬ 
stance on the land to be fertilized. Do not wet the 
ashes so that the liquid will leach through. 
Nitrogen on a Sour Soil. 
In regard to fertilizers, does it not take more nitro¬ 
gen on land that is sour to get a certain crop than it 
does on land that Is not acid? I should think it would, 
as some of the nitrogen would be required to overcome 
or neutralize some of the acid. v. h. 
New Hamphire. 
Generally more nitrogen is required on sour soils. 
For instance, an old meadow may be full of vegetable 
matter and very rich in nitrogen, yet fail the first 
year to produce a good crop unless some soluble form 
of nitrogen is used. That is because the nitrogen in 
the soil is not available. It is not available because 
the little bacteria have not made it over into soluble 
forms. They have not done this because they do not 
thrive when the soil is acid. Adding nitrogen will 
feed the crop and thus increase it. The form of nitro¬ 
gen which will neutralize the acid is ammonia. This 
has an alkaline action, but does not last long enough 
to be permanent. Other forms of nitrogen will not 
“sweeten” the soil. Good manure, however, brings 
millions of the bacteria into the soil. 
How to Kill Sorrel. 
As the Winter passes and Spring draws near the same 
old difficulty confronts us, and that is what we shall 
do to get rid of the sorrel. It does not trouble us much 
on poor land that is not enriched with barnyard manure, 
but when we fix up a piece nicely and expect some¬ 
thing better than the average of crops the sorrel takes 
possession. Last Fall potatoes that were clean when the 
vines died became perfectly green with sorrel before 
harvest. The digger would go through only by great 
effort. It chokes any and every crop, even peas. How 
can it be destroyed? ®- 
Sardinia, N. Y. 
Nothing but heavy applications of lime will be likely 
to drive the sorrel out. Wherp land is so sour, two tons 
or more of lime per acre will be needed. The best 
time to apply it is in the Fall, when seeding to grass 
or grain, spread on the furrows and harrowed in. Do 
not put it on potato ground. We are often asked why, 
if stable manure is alkaline, it does not kill out sorrel? 
That it does not do so is well known. We have used 
it as a mulch around our little trees on sour soil and 
found at the end of six months a thick mat of sorrel 
growing around and through the manure. W^e must 
remember that the alkaline or “sweetening” action of 
the manure is only temporary. It is due to the am¬ 
monia which is in the manure, and as this is later neu¬ 
tralized and changed to an acid, of course the effect is 
lost. This explains why when manure is first put on, 
the sorrel does not increase, while later it comes in 
worse than ever. W^hile the manure contained am¬ 
monia the sorrel could not grow near it. When that 
ammonia was changed into acid forms of nitrogen the 
sorrel grew again and was actually fed by the plant 
food in the manure! The alkaline effect of lime is 
more permanent, and thus if you use enough of it 
you will destroy the sorrel. 
Drilling Lime With Beans. 
How should lime be applied to land for beans? Can 
it be applied with grain drill after slaking with water? 
The drill will sow 400 pounds per acre. If this is not 
enough per acre would harm result if a second applica¬ 
tion be made, drilling it in with the beans in all the runs 
except these dropping the seed? What is the chemical 
change that takes place in water-slaked lime? What 
is the difference in effect of water-slaked and air- 
slaked lime? Would not the greater part of quick¬ 
lime spread on the ground become th« same as air- 
slaked? H. E. M. 
Penn Yan, N. Y. 
The best way to apply lime for any crop is to scatter 
it as evenly as possible over the field, and leave it 
near the surface of the soil. That is why we advise 
broadcasting it on plowed ground and working it in 
with a harrow. You can drill it in as you suggest, 
but you ought to use at least 1,000 pounds per acre, 
and we would not drill it with the beans, but would 
put it all on before planting. You are not likely to re¬ 
ceive much benefit from the lime in your beans. Dif¬ 
ferent plants vary considerably in the way they re¬ 
spond to lime. For example, corn planted at time of 
liming will give nowhere near the increase in crop 
that small grain and grass will. In an ordinary rota- 
A WELL-GRAFTED NOSE. Fig. 101. 
tion it seems most desirable to use the lime when seed¬ 
ing to grass and grain. We have no record of experi¬ 
ments with lime on beans, but cow peas and Soy 
beans certainly do not respond to liming. We think 
the Deans would do better two-years after the lime 
was used. When lime is slaked with water it be¬ 
comes what is known as hydrate. When air-slaked 
most of it takes the form of the hydrate, while the rest 
*bf it is a carbonate. In time, if sufficiently exposed to 
the air, the hydrate form all changes to carbonate, so 
that the water-slaked lime becomes the same thing as 
the air-slaked if exposed to the air. Caustic or 
“quick” lime is generally in lumps, and cannot be 
spread as evenly as desired. It is better to slake it 
either in little heaps in the field or in a large heap at^ 
one side before spreading. Before limestone is burned 
the lime stands in a combination with carbonic acid— 
a carbonate. The heat of the burning drives this 
carbonic acid off. In air-slaking the lime slowly takes 
it up from the air and thus becomes a. carbonate 
again. When water-slaked the lime unites with the 
water, but afterwards, when exposed to the air, slowly 
unites with the carbonic acid and thus ends as a 
carbonate. Prof. H. J. Wheeler, of Rhode Island, 
our best American authority, says that on. a 
sandy soil he would prefer a lime fully air-slaked 
—that is fully changed to carbonate. On a clay soil, 
full of humus and very sour he prefers the freshly 
water-slaked lime in the form of hydrate. 
Fertilizers Not Wanted in Iowa. 
A full trial of gypsum on various crops failed to give 
any good results and the conclusion \fas that the lime 
in our soil supplied all that was contained In the plaster. 
Potash in the shape of wood ashes gave some good re¬ 
sults, but not enough to pay cost unless mixed with 
barn manure and allowed time to decompose. Potash 
applied in other ways was of similar effect. The dried 
blood fertilizer from the slaughterhouse gave a slight 
increase in the crop, but that also gave its best results 
in connection with a liberal amount of barnyard manure. 
Our soil appears to lose the humus necessary to plant 
growth and as long as that is supplied all crops grow 
luxuriantly but the condensed fertilizers without the 
quantity of humus have little effect on a crop of any 
sort. The time may come when the farmers of Iowa 
may use commercial fertilizers with profit, but from my 
experience it will not pay to expend money for them 
with our soil in its present condition, elmer reeves. 
Treas. Iowa Horticultural Society. 
It is not safe to conclude that because plaster or 
gypsum failed to show results this soil does not need 
lime. The action of lime is quite distinct from that of 
plaster, as was explained on page 34. Probably the 
greatest benefit from plaster is the chemical action in 
the soil which makes potash available. The chances 
are that the lime in the wood ashes gives the results 
which you attribute to potash, particularly as you say 
other forms of potash gave no results. The increase 
from dried blood and manure indicates the value of 
nitrogen on that soil. You have not apparently tested 
phosphoric acid, one of the most important elements 
in fru it growing, and the‘one most likely to be lacking 
in such soils. We would advise a fair trial of acid 
phosphate or bone. 
RECONSTRUCTING A DEFECTIVE NOSE. 
Cosmetic surgery, or the art of correcting physical 
defects by surgical means, has made great advances 
during late years. Children are now seldom allowed 
to grow up with squint eyes, hare-lips, or projecting 
teeth, as these annoying deformities are quite safely 
corrected by slight operations. There are methods, 
more serious in their nature, by which missing parts 
are built up, portions of skin and even bone trans¬ 
planted, and the results of severe accidents measurably 
corrected. One of the latest methods of filling out de¬ 
pressions in conspicuous places, such as a defective 
bridge of the nose, is carefully to inject under the skin 
a mixture of paraffin and vaseline, so adjusted as to 
have a melting point a few degrees higher than 
the body. This is carefully molded into shape 
through the skin as it cools. If well managed the 
paraffin mass does not usually excite irritation, and in 
time becomes partially organized, the normal fibrous 
tissue of the parts growing through it in all directions. 
Figs. 100 and 101, taken from the Medical Record, 
show a successful case of this kind. It is plain the 
individual’s appearance is greatly improved, but oc¬ 
casionally the foreign substance is not well borne, and 
much trouble results. A young society woman of con¬ 
siderable personal attraction lately attempted to cor¬ 
rect a slight defect of this character, but necrosis or 
death of a portion of the bone resulted, with possibly 
a lasting deformity. Most of these experiments, how¬ 
ever, have been successful, and some surprising re¬ 
sults are recorded,^__ 
THE DISHONEST PACKER.—The reference made 
to the dishonest methods employed in the work of 
sorting and packing apples that appeared in a recent 
issue of The R. N.-Y. is indeed a sad commentary on 
the fraudulent manner resorted to by far too many, 
notwithstanding all that has been said and written 
against this unmitigated evil. While it is a lament¬ 
able fact that this state of affairs exists wherever fruit 
is grown and prepared for market, let it not be 
charged that the producer is the only guilty party in 
such transactions, for he certainly has sufficient to 
answer for in this direction without being supposed 
to answer for the sins of others. To illustrate, several 
years ago the writer, having a lot of Baldwin apples 
assorted into two grades as No, 1 and No. 2, sold at a 
certain price per barrel as stored in cellar, to be re¬ 
packed by the purchaser. In due time, while the work 
of repacking was in progress, it was noticed that the 
barrels were all marked and designated as No. 1 fruit! 
The transformation consisted simply in depositing a 
portion of the No, 2 fruit in the middle of each barrel, 
a transaction that reminds us that for “ways that are 
dark and tricks that are vain” there are others besides 
the producer that are somewhat “peculiar,” 
Genesee Co., N. Y. irving d. cook. 
