1003 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
S95 
THE CLARK METHOD OF CRASS SEEDING, 
The Kentucky Experiment Analyzed. 
I have read with a great deal of interest in your 
paper ?s well as in others all I could find for the past 
few years concerning the “Clark” grass culture. 1 
have not found yet, among those who have reported 
trying this method, anyone who has given it a fair 
trial, even in its essential particulars. In justice to 
Mr. Clark and his method. I wish to state a few of the 
l)oints which seem to have been most generally dis¬ 
regarded. ken me take for instance Mr. Garrett’s 
letter, which you publish on page 361. If I under- 
.stand him rightly, he went over his field 16 times in 
two weeks, with a cutting harrow, presumably a Cut¬ 
away or a harrow of that type. Now. Mr. Clark gives 
up to this work eight weeks, for this is not a merely 
mechanical process, but one almost essentially 
(hemical, a process of decay going on for eight weeks, 
which can in nowise take place in two; and in these 
eight weeks Mr. Clark does not go over his field 
oftener than .Mr. Garrett does in two. He is careful 
to say that two seasons would better be given up to 
this process, and some crop grown, such as oats or 
wheal, and adds that when this cannot be done the 
oxpei'.-se of reclaiming a field in one season is some¬ 
what greater. Mr. Garrett states that 4% inches only 
could be reached with the cutting harrow. Mr. Clark, 
bosido-j the harrow, uses a tool which he calls the 
“Torrent plow,” and which will work six inches deep. 
I have worked it to a depth of eight inches in good 
clay loam. This will throw dirt over the bits of torn 
sod, thus commencing the work of decay. The harrow 
alone will not do this, and some deeper-working tool 
is needed, as Mr. Clark repeats, in every article he 
writes, that the land must be worked, cut, twisted, 
lifted and sunburnt at least six inches deep. If Mr. 
Garrett had followed this advice he could have picked 
up shovelfuls of this dirt and 
found no hay in it. The de¬ 
caying process is hastened by 
throwing the moist soil over 
these bits of sod and the use 
of the deep-going tools brings 
up some of these to the sur¬ 
face every time, burying oth¬ 
ers, and so on, till the action 
of the damp earth alternating 
with that of the sun, makes 
all this sod into plant food. 
.Mr. Clark sows in all 2t! 
(juarts of seed to the acre; 
Mr. Garrett sows one-half 
bushel. Mr. Clark applies 5(ih 
l)Ounds of high-grade ferti¬ 
lizer at seeding time, and 50(i 
more in the Spring; Mr. Gar¬ 
rett does not seem to have 
used any. I quite agree with ]_ 
him, and think that land 
workea according to what he 
believes to be the Clark 
method, will not produce as good a crop as land work¬ 
ed in the common way. But this cannot be called the 
Clark method of tilling land, hence it cannot be ac¬ 
cepted as a test of the relative values of both the.:e 
methods. For two years I have broken up land, rang¬ 
ing irom medium clay loam to hard-baked clay, fol¬ 
lowing Mr. Clark as closely as possible, harrowing 
several times with the six-foot single-action harrow, 
then when ail the sod was cut up and loose, plowing 
with the Torrent plow, then harrowing twice at least, 
finally plowing again with the Torrent or the single¬ 
disk reversible sulky-plow, which can work eight to 
10 inches deep if desired. All this has given me in 
one season a seed bed such as I never could obtain in 
two, following the old way. Unfortunately, 1 have done 
this too late in the year to sow to grass. I am doing 
the same w'ork this year on five acres which 1 hope 
to seed down to grass this Fall. I shall report in du< 
lime as to the results. .\i. i,. 
Rowley, Mass. 
a steam outfit, while the driver can easily attend a 
gasoline rig. I use eight Dewey and Spramotor 
nozzles on an eight-foot extension of %-inch pipe. It 
is hard to keep so many nozzles clear. I believe 1 have 
found a nozzle that is large enough so one or two 
will be sufficient and yet will throw- a fine .spray. I 
api ly from 1.500 1 o 2.000 gallons per day at a pressure 
of 100 to 120 pounds. I get $7 a day, and furnish oil 
and gasoline. I drive and run the engine. Eight 
lirge cells will furnish electricity for a season and 
cost at retail $6. Not more than two gallons of gaso¬ 
line are required for 10 hours. The price here is 14 
cents a gallon. My total expenses for the season, 
including repairs, w^ere about $50, perhaps less. My 
rig cost about $300, and will. I believe, last a long 
time. People have such different ideas I’egarding the 
l)roper time to spray that I found I could keep busy 
every day and suit nearly everyone as to time. 1 
had no trouble getting more w'ork than I uould do. 
A man in this business should read Tiik R. N.-Y. 
and other up-to-date matters on spraying, as many 
peoide are not well informed, and everyone has ques¬ 
tions to ask. I think spraying is a good paying busi¬ 
ness, and as J. E. S. says, it is the best w'ay for one 
man to do the spraying for a number, ft requires 
some study and mechanical skill to run a gasoline 
engine. Everyone sprayed for was well pleased wdth 
the work: “Well satisfied;” “Cheapest job of spraying 
I ever had done;” “Worth $10 a day,” were some of 
the expressions I heard. wm. iu-ohek. 
Niagara Co., N. Y. 
THE RANDOLPH APPLE. 
1 send you a small basket of ai)ples of a variety 
w'hich I think is not known outside of this State, and 
in fact very little known here. It has proved a very 
profitable sort with me, and I think should be more 
A TRAVELING SPRAYER TALKS, 
In answering a recent correspondent you asked 
whether anyone had had practical experience in run- 
ring a power sprayer for a community as a thrasher 
is run. I used mine about eight weeks this Spring 
and four weeks last Spring. It took one week to do 
my own spraying, 16 acres, mostly large trees sprayeil 
three times. I did 16 other jobs, some t.hree times, 
some only once, making a total equivalent of about 
360 acres sprayed once. I use a gasoline outfit. I 
think on the whole gasoline is a more satisfactory 
power than steam, as a gasoline engine requires no 
time to tire up, needs very little attention, and does 
not have the smoke to annoy the man in the derrick. 
An extra man seems necessary in some cases to fire 
THE RANDOLPH APPLE. Fie. 236. 
largely planted. As nearly as 1 can learn this apple 
originated from a seedling grown by the late Ran¬ 
dolph Peters, a nurseryman near New Castle, this 
State, and a few trees were budded from it and sold 
under the name of “Unknown.” Last season it was 
brought to the notice of the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and was named by them Ran¬ 
dolph, in honor of the originator. I furnished some 
of the fruit last Summer to the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture for experimental foreign shipment, which sold 
in London for $2.94 per carrier, and netted here at 
point of shipment at the rate of $1.24i/^ per peach 
basket, being the highest price brought by any variety 
of apple in the shipment. The tree is a prolific grow¬ 
er, and a heavy annual bearer; fruit medium in size, 
holds up well and stands handling and shipment the 
best of any early apple I know. Season of ripening 
about July 10-25. We made our last picking this sea¬ 
son July 23, and the specimems 1 send you I picked 
up under the trees July 30, a few scattering ones miss¬ 
ed in picking, and are by no means a fair sample at 
its best. My trees, about 125 in number, are about 20 
years old and have never been sprayed. 
Kent Co., Del. w.vi,ti;i! i.. v.v.x ai'kiox. 
R. N.-Y.—Fair specimens of the apple aj-e shown 
at Fig. 226. V/e found the fruit of fine quality an 1 
consider it a desirable variety. The color is a beau¬ 
tiful carmine i-ed. 
A WOKKING .\1:T0.—I have used an automobile for 
several kinds of light work. It is one of the Old.s. rated 
as four hnr.se-i)owor. We run a two-hole sheller with 
cleaner and elevator, and are able to shell about 10 
bushels of corn per liour. We run two sets of clippers, 
and could run more if occasion re(iuired. While 1 would 
not recomrneinl a f.irmer to buy one for a farm i)ower, 
it is practical when he is able to own one for i)Ieasure 
Ionia, Mich. h. j. U. ‘ 
CLEANING A KITCHEN DRAIN. 
Conveniences lor the Women Folks. 
Moving into a new, or rather rebuilt, and unfinished 
house last Winter I was much interested in an in¬ 
quiry in Till', R. N.-Y. about cleaning kitchen drains. 
Answers to the ^ame in The R. N.-Y. of December 27, 
by S. M. Babcock, of the Wisconsin Experiment Sta- 
tiin, and Charles D. Woods, of Maine Experiment 
Station, seemed useful, mainly, in showing how diffi¬ 
cult a question it is considered and some methods of 
not solving it. While installing, about that time, our 
range boiler, a temporary drain, etc., I studied out 
what seemed a practical solution, but left the trial for 
a more convenient 'season. The convenient season 
never came, but the drain worked well till recently, 
through about 80 feet of only one-inch pipe. It then 
began to work slowly, and finally closed entirely on 
the day that I had got ready, after strenuous effort, 
to leave home for a nine days’ trip. A 20-foot rod at 
the outlet could not reach through the stoppage, and 
the little pleasure a hay-fever sufferer can find was 
marred by the occasional remembrance that my bet¬ 
ter half had to carry out dishwater, etc. One of the 
first jobs then on returning home was the simple one, 
though requiring a full day’s work to accomplish it, 
of connecting the hot-water pipe to the drain pipe just 
below a cut-off valve inserted in the drain pipe under 
the kitchen floor, and at the beginning of the trap, 
the bend of which Is made by coupling together three 
suitable pieces of li/4-inch pipe and two elbows with 
a T instead of third elbow at the highest point and 
final turn. This latter is to give an opportunity to 
attach a ventilating pipe running on an upward slant 
12 feet to one side and opening into the chimney. Our 
supply tank of galvanized iron, well jacketed, in the 
peak of the barn, gives, when full, the pressure of a 
column of water about 25 feet high, say 12 pounds. 
Turning on the hot water, it 
blew out the plug and wa.s 
running clear before I could 
get to the mouth of the drain. 
Doing my own plumbing and 
having the necessary few feet 
of pipe and fittings on hand, 
the only cash outlay was for 
one fiA-inch and one %-inch 
valve. I used plain pipe stops, 
costing for both about $1.5U. 
but would advise at cost of 
about a dollar more, the 
“handy” gate valves which 
give a clear round opening 
and need no wrenen. If this 
were not effectual, sufficient 
pressure could ea.-ily be given 
by closing the tank vaive and 
forcing with pump, but an oc¬ 
casional injection of hot wa¬ 
ter is, doubtless, all that will be 
necessary. Do you say that not 
every farmhouse has elevated 
water supply and hot-water front in stove? Well, it 
is high time they do have! I do not want to be unrea¬ 
sonably radical, and seeing a man cradling wheat in 
a Michigan stumi) field—the first grain cradle I have 
seen used in 30 years—reminds me that there may be 
exceptions, but I submit this propo.sition: No farmer 
has a right to a grain harvester or mowing machine 
till he provides water under pressure at the house 
with an enameled sink with trapped and ventilated 
drain. It should not be inferred that the lack of these 
conveniences indicates masculine selfishness. Quite 
as often it is the woman who is the more conserva¬ 
tive, and in the majority of cases it is. probably, 
merely a lack of comprehenision of the relative useful¬ 
ness of things. In many instances a good system of 
waterworks could be put in for the price of a mower, 
and a first-class complete outfit could nearly always 
be furnished for the price of a grain binder. There 
are few farms without such service where the women 
are not doing each year enough unnecessary drudgery 
to exceed many times the coist of cutting grass and 
grain by hand. The starting of a general popular 
action in this direction would be a service for hu- 
manit.v, compared with which the dispersal of Mr. 
Carnegie’s fortune is as a drop in a bucket, w. ii. w. 
Marshall Co., Iowa. 
R. N.-Y.—On farms where the only source of water 
is in very deep wells an elevated supply means large 
expense, but thousands of farms have undeveloped 
springs high enough to run water through all the 
buildings. Where springs are too low to do this a 
ram may often be used. When properly installed this 
gives little trouble, being nearly ‘equal to the ordinary 
gravity system. A hydraulic ram is a rather com¬ 
plicated affair and should be carefully studied by at 
least someone on the farm, so as to know at once 
what to do if the machine balks. 
