1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
739 
be will do little for himself. Plant cow peas in rich 
{•oil, where there is plenty of nitrogen, and while they 
vill make strong vines, they will not take as much 
ritrogen out of the air as they will in poor soil, 
■where nitrogen is scarce. Prof. E. B. Voorhees planted 
cow peas in large pots, so that he could know whether 
rkrogen was gained or lost. He added nitrogen as 
f rtilizer to some of the pots, -while others had no 
ji’ant food added. The pots of poor soil, where the 
cow peas grew without any fertilizer, contained more 
nitrogen after the cow peas were cut and taken away 
than those which were fertilized! Thus the cow peas, 
when forced to do so, obtained more nitrogen than 
was supplied to the other cow peas in the fertilizer. 
Wo conclude from this that the best place on the farm 
for cow peas is on the poorest soil. We should grow 
this crop to add nitrogen to the soil—not to take it 
away; and follow with grain, potatoes, fruit or other 
crops, w'hich must take nitrogen and cannot return 
it. We would not use nitrogen in fertilizing the cow 
pea, but would use potash and phosphoric acid. 
How are -we to know that the cow peas take nitro¬ 
gen from the air? The little warts or nodules on the 
roots show that the plant is working for us. As is 
now quite well known, these growths on the roots 
show that the bacteria which are responsible for the 
gain of nitrogen are at -work. Observation will show 
that C. C. C. is quite right in supposing that the 
plants which show these nodules are producers of 
nitrogen, while the others may be consumers. We 
had .a striking illustration of this once when, by mis¬ 
take, a bag of nitrate of soda was used on cow peas— 
in place of muriate of potash. Where the nitrate 
went the i)lants were large and fine, but the roots 
were smooth. Where the potash was used the plants 
were smaller, but the roots w'ere thickly covered with 
nodules. As all the cow peas were used for a manurial 
crop, it is easy to see the effect upon the soil. The 
nitrate of soda was used by the cow peas and simply 
went back to the soil in a less available form. There 
was no gain. Where the cow peas were obliged to 
hunt their own nitrogen, there was a clear gain in 
nlant food. This action of cow peas and other crops 
like clover and beans is now weil understood. Ex¬ 
periments at the Illinois Experiment Station justify 
the director in saying that “no general farmer in 
Illinois needs to purchase more than two elements o; 
fertility,” potash and phosphoric acid. By using bone 
meal and muriate of potash in connection with cow 
peas and similar crops, a supply of nitrogen ample for 
ordinary crops can be provided on the farms of the 
Central West. 
Value of Stored Manure. 
AV’hat is the value of horse manure as ordinarily dumped 
under a barn and allowed to remain a year, when it is 
dry. as compared with the frast article? F. ii. 
Ludlow. Vt. 
It depends on the condition of the pile. There is 
usually more or less loss of nitrogen in such a case. 
If it has not been kept moist, and thus has “fire- 
fanged,” this loss is considerable. Ton for ton, the 
manure in the cellar is probably as rich, if not richer, 
than the fresh article, since it has dried out more or 
less and thus lost weight in water. There is not so 
much of it as there was at first, and a fair estimate 
would be a loss of 25 per cent of nitrogen. It all de¬ 
pends on the way it has been kept. 
Discussion of a Fruit Fertilizer. 
Is this fertilizer good for raspberry and strawberry 
plants? Nitrogen organic, 2.70 per cent, 52.2 i)Ounds i>er 
ten; phosphoric acid available, 7.40 per cent, 14!).2 pounds 
per ton; phosphoric acid total, ^.o:! i)er cent, 172.fi i)Ounds: 
potash, t.35 per cent, 27.0 pounds: estimated trade value 
of the above ingredients, $17.09 per ton. w. t. z. 
For use on our soil we should tvant at least five per 
cent of potash in a fruit fertilizer. Unless the soil 
is naturally heavy and strong we doubt if you wil! 
find enough potash in this mixture to help you with 
small fruit. You will see from the following table 
how such mixture can be made: 
Nitrogen 
I’hoshoric acid 
I’otash 
9fX) 
lbs. 
tankage.54 
122 
4()IJ 
!bs. 
acifl phosphate.... 
52 
(iO 
lbs. 
nitrate of potash.. 
30 
Tota 
1 
54 
174 
30 
Thus, in 1,360 pounds of this mixture you have 
more plant food than you have in the full ton of fer¬ 
tilizer. You save the handling, bagging and freight 
cn 640 pounds of “filler.” Such figures show why 
it does not pay to buy cheap mixed fertiliz.ers, for 
Avhen you do so you are obliged to pay for a lot of 
“bulk” which has no value to the plant. It is like a 
man mixing oak sa-wdust half and half with corn- 
meal and paying 75 cents a hundred for it. when pure 
cornmeal costs 80 cents! The trade value of a ferti¬ 
lizer means what the plant food costs in the market. 
The eastern experiment stations figure the cost of 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash from the whole¬ 
sale prices quoted in a standard paper. For example, 
suppose they find that for one year the quoted price 
of nitrate of soda was ?40 for an average sample 
containing 16 per cent of nitrogen. They would put 
the trade value at 1214 cents a pound, and to this 
should be added fair profit to the retailer and cost of 
handling, bagging and freight. In the same way the 
trade values of potash and phosphoric acid -will be 
figured out. Of course no one will mix up this “trade 
value” with the agricultural value—or what the fer¬ 
tilizer will add to the crop. A pound of nitrogen put 
o:i the soil may cost you 15 cents and increase the 
value of your crop one dollar—or it may not produce 
a crop worth 10 cents. That will depend upon you, 
your soil, and the judgment you use. This “trade 
value,” if well understood, gives you a chance to 
know what you are buying, and whether you are 
paying too much. Of course a western farmer must 
understand that the “trade values” here in New York 
are not always fair for this locality. On potash the 
cost of handling from the seaboard must be added, 
because the potash, is imported. With nlti’ogen and 
phosphoric acid, however, the values are not accurate, 
because the wastes from the packing houses—like 
bone and tankage—supply these elements, and the 
western farmer can get them cheaper than farmers 
of the East. The Illinois Experiment Station says 
chat the “value of nitrogen is one cciif a pound, since it 
can be produced on the farm at that nrice by using 
clover. Alfalfa and other leguminous plants. The Sta¬ 
tion goes further to say that no Western farmer who 
will use these crops properly need buy nitrogen. It 
places the value of phosphoric acid at three cents a 
pound in the form of acid phosphate, because a ton 
containing 250 pounds of phosphoric acid can bo 
bought in carload Iocs in Illinois for ?7.50. Finn 
ground steamed bone costing .$25 per ton, gives phos¬ 
phoric acid, according to the Illinois Station, at about 
12 cents a pound. We would figure it cheaper than 
that, as we would call the 70 pounds of nitrogen in 
AN OHIO DISHORNING CHUTE. Fio. 277. 
the bone worth at least $10. To illustrate this “trade 
value” of a fertilizer, it is stated in Bulietin 88 of the 
Illinois Station that dried blood, containing 280 
pounds of nitrogen, costs $42 wholesale in Chicago. 
That means a trade value of 15 cents a pound. 
When this blood fertilizer was used in experiment, 
it gave at most an increase in crop value of only two 
cents a pound! This might be accounted for in two 
ways—it was used on wheat—a low-priced crop com¬ 
pared with fruit or potatoes—and the soil probably 
contained humus enough to produce a fair wheat 
crop. All this shows that a western farmer begin¬ 
ning to use fertilizers will do best to try either hone 
or acid phosphate and potash rather than cheap 
mixtures. _ 
CONFESSIONS OF A FEED DEALER. 
“I Started in the grain and feed business primarily 
(of course) to make money, and secondarily to help 
the farmers, whom I believed could save money by 
more thoughtfully purchasing their feed stuffs. Well, 
I’ve dropped the second notion with a decided thud, 
and now let the farmer go it alone. I had been 
brought up on a dairy farm, and had made a fairly 
intelligent study of feeding cows, but as far as im¬ 
parting any information to the average farmer is 
concerned, I have found that in my business it doesn’t 
pay. I am here now to sell feed, and all I can at the 
best possible price that competition will allow. You 
ask what changed my ideas? A number of things. 
One of the principal reasons is that the average 
farmer, and he is in the great majority, makes his 
milk without any knowledge of its cost, or much 
of a deep desire to cheapen that. He’s after milk 
and lots of it, and so now 1 sell him feed that is heavy 
and concentrated in weight as possible. He wants 
heavy flour middlings, hominy feed, cornmeal and 
gluten meal. These are all very heavy per quart, and 
unthinkingly he feeds a good many pounds to get his 
desired result. Of course the more pounds and tons 
he feeds the more feed I sell and the more profit there 
is for me. 
“Then there is another class who are looking for 
cheap feed, and they are my most profitable cus¬ 
tomers. I am all fixed for them and like to see them 
come to my mill; in fact I do all possible to get their 
trade. To illustrate how it works, I can buy an oat 
feed in 100-pound sacks to-day that will cost me 
$11.50 per ton delivered here. This sells at from $15 
to $18 per ton, and so nets me a good profit. It is put 
up in attractively branded sacks, and even that goes 
quite a way with a good many farmers. It has a 
guarantee of 714 pei’ cent protein and three per cent 
fat. It. is not as good actually as nice early-cut hay to 
produce milk, but the men who buy this kind of feed 
don’t do their haying very early. Feeds are not sold 
on the basis of their feeding value; their price de¬ 
pends on supply and demand. Comparing real food 
value, this oat feed is worth less than $7 per ton 
wholesale, when gluten feed is selling at $25. 
“Another queer fact is that when I come up into the 
better class of feeds there is less profit in them. In 
fact it is almost an invariable rule that the higher 
the cost of a feed the relatively less profit I can get 
from it. Cotton-seed meal costs about $27 per ton. 
I have sold lots of it at a profit of 50 cents to $I per 
ton, gluten at $1 to $2 per ton profit, while on 
mixed feeds, middlings and bran, $2 to $3 per ton, 
cornmeal and its like I want $4 to $6 per ton. 
The man who knows the real food value buys feeds 
high in protein and much nearer original cost than the 
farmer who buys low-grade stuff. I sell lots of feeds 
with a proprietary name. They are machine mixed, 
which fools the farmer, who thinks he is getting a 
prize, but in reality is finding a market for unsalable 
goods at a nice price. I have been creditably in¬ 
formed that in one of the large factories making a 
well-known brand of rolled oats, the principal profit 
to the owners comes from the oat feed that is turned 
out as a by-product. 
“I have tried to work some of the farmers who use 
cornmeal and like foods, with little digestible protein, 
into buying a better grade of goods, and new feeds 
that really were valuable, and because new sold at a 
very reasonable price, but it doesn’t go. I cater to 
their wants, not what would save them money. 
“Yes, I have two prices; I have to, although I never 
intended to do business that way. The man who pays 
cash is entitled, however, to a reduction, and I give it 
to him; also the man who keeps watch of the mar¬ 
kets and knows what feeds are selling at is a hard 
man to sell to at a profit of $5 to $7 per ton. The 
men who buy in small quantity and do not hurry to 
pay I charge all they will stand and when I have two 
grades of the same stuff they always get the 
lower grade. When the demand decreased in Sum¬ 
mer and prices declined I tried to get farmers to buy 
ahead for the Winter and make a substantial saving, 
helping- me to keep business going all the time, but 
that, too, is a failure; they prefer to wait until they 
have immediate want, then pay me the extra profit 
that I charge for a little foresight and the putting 
of my capital into stock that will bring me no return 
for two or three months.” ii. o. maxcuestkk. 
HOW TO PROPAGATE GRAPE CUUINGS. 
What is the best method of propagating grapevines? 
About how long would you make the cuttings? Where, 
and when would you plant them? What is the best way 
to keep them during the Winter? Also, the same of quince 
cuttings? t;. n. m. 
Beverly, O. 
Grape cuttings for propagation are made from the 
largest and best developed wood of the past year’s 
growth. They should be cut into pieces about eigl.t 
inches long and having at least two or three joints. 
If their length varies two or three inches it is no mat* 
ter, but the lower cut should be made close to the 
joint and the upper one about an inch above one. 
The roots come out at the joints or nodes much more 
easily than between them, and there is no need of any 
wood on the cuttings below where the roots come 
out. As the top bud is the one that is above ground 
and will make the growth, it is important that there 
should be no danger of injuring it, and that is why a 
little wood should be left above it. The wood should he 
cut early and stored in a moist place, so the cuttings 
can be made at any time during the Winter that is 
convenient. They should be made into bundles of 
about 100 each and packed in damp sand or moss 
until Spring. It is a good plan to bury them in a shel¬ 
tered spot out of doors, and with their butts upward, 
so the top buds will not start in early Spring. As soon 
as the soil can be well worked in the Spring, the cut¬ 
tings should be set in rows about two feer. apart and 
four or five inches apart in the rows, with the top 
buds about an inch above the surface. Good soil and 
good tillage are necessary to produce goon plants. 
11. E. VAX DEMAX. 
