1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
883 
DR. WILEY’S EXPERIENCE WITH MUCK. 
I have just read with much interest the article on 
page 817, on a Pennsylvania celery farm. The sound 
doctrine which this article contains should commend 
it to every practical farmer. The facts which you 
state recall my experiments with Florida muck more 
than 10 years ago, but there were some additional 
points brought out in my experimental work which 
may be useful in connection with what you said in 
the article referred to above. I published in Agricul¬ 
tural Science, 1893, Vol. 7, a description of these soils 
together with their analyses. On page 119 it is shown 
that there is only a mere trace of phosphoric acid in 
the soils, while the amount of potash is in most in¬ 
stances extremely low. These data fully confirm what 
you say in regard to the muck soil where celery is 
grown. Lime is very deficient in these soils. I say 
on page 118 “the almost total absence of lime is a 
marked characteristic of all the samples.” 1 brought 
some of these soils to Washington and made careful 
experiments with them in pots. You will be inter¬ 
ested to know that when finely ground phosphate 
rock is used in these soils the effect is about the same 
as with dissolved rock, showing that the expense of 
preparing the phosphate by using sulphuric acid is 
not always necessary when soils of this kind are to 
be considered. This is an item of considerable in¬ 
terest to the farmer, since the finely-ground rock may 
be had at a much less price per ton than the acidu¬ 
lated article. Muck soils in their natural state are 
sually very acid, and this prevents the growth of 
litrifying organisms. This acidity can be corrected 
by thorough drainage and the application of lime. In 
rder that these soils may be well supplied with the 
nitrifying organisms a little soil from a rich 
arden or other fertilized soil can be sprinkled 
iver them, and thus the nitrifying element is 
jdded The soils have plenty of nitrogen if it 
:an be made available, but it is in a form which 
tecomes nitrified very slowly. The best thing 
ve found for getting these soils into suitable 
hape to produce crops was thorough drainage, 
orrecting the acidity, seeding with nitrifying 
organisms and a liberal application of potash, 
irae and phosphoric acid. Very little nitrogen 
ivill be needed as a rule at least for several 
ears in addition to that in the soil itself. 
ir. W. WILEY. 
Chief Chemist Dep’t of Agriculture, 
HOW TO PLANT CELERY. 
How the Work is Done on a Large Scale, 
Will Mr. Xiles, of the celery farm in Pennsyl- 
aniu, tell us how the little plants are set out? 
There are two ways. First, the ground is 
lioroughly fitted by using the disk harrotv, cut 
ip fine, then fertilizer is sown broadcast, and 
worked in either with harrow or spring-tooth 
harrow, set to run six inches deep. Then the 
':)il is firmed, either by using land roller or 
x veler made out of plank, and marked into rows 
y stretching a rope one-half inch in diameter 
md running a light hand roller along over it. We 
also mark distance apart for plants to be set by small 
rosspieces nailed on roller, or by running another 
)ver after, called marker, which takes more time, 
ifter ground has been marked either with rope or by 
:sing corn marker pulled by horse, plants are set out 
.1 mark. The plants are taken out of beds, sorted 
nd placed in eight-quart pans, all even and straight, 
vith a little water or mud on the roots to keep them 
resh, about 800 to 1,000 good plants to a well filled 
an. The setter rests his knees across the marked 
ine, with pan of plants in front of him. He takes out 
everal, throws them ahead of him along the line to 
if'parate them, and with the two first fingers of his 
fight hand makes a hole on the mark inches deep, 
?icks up plant with left hand—holding stalks together 
iust above the heart—places in hole, presses the roots 
down straight into hole and back against earth with 
5rst two fingers of right hand, and then, pressing 
earth against roots from in front with same fingers, 
making three movements with right hand to set a 
plant. It is important to hold plant together with 
left hand, so the dirt will not cover the heart after it 
is set, and so firmly is the root pressed by the second 
aad third movement of the right fingers—first into 
the soil, then the' soil against the root, that the plant 
should not come out when taken hold of without 
breaking off. Some use a wood or iron dibble instead 
of fingers the same way; saves sore fingers, but our 
boys prefer to use fingers, as they have less to bother 
with. As each plant is set the setter moves forward 
by pushing with ball of foot. The knees leave a 
slight depression on each side of line of plants, three 
inches from it, and appear as though plants were set 
oa a slight ridge, 
When ground is too dry, water is poured along the 
line of rope with sprinkling can with top off, and 
ground is soaked so the plants get well rooted before 
it dries out. Plants properly set and watered in will 
hardly show any wilting, even in hot sun, and the 
first night’s dew will make them fresh and bright next 
day. When plants are set too deep, hearts covered 
with soil, they hang back and grow crooked, and 
never make any vigorous growth until uncovered, or 
push through late and spoil the evenness of the piece. 
Infinite care in each detail is the price of success. 
Pennsylvania. a.vrox r. niles. 
BRIEF FERTILIZER TALKS, 
Lime and Hen Manure. 
Do you consider it advisable to use air-slaked lime un¬ 
der the roosts for poultry droppings? Is the lime detri¬ 
mental to the droppings to be used as fertilizer? 
Mooresville, Mo. e. e. u. 
Never use lime under the roosts. It brings about a 
chemical change which permits the ammonia to pass 
off as a gas. This is just what you do not want to do. 
Wood ashes have much the same effect, because they 
contain lime. Plaster is sulphate of lime, and this 
form holds the ammonia instead of driving it away. 
Kainif for Crass Lands. 
Is there any virtue in kainit? I bought one-half ton this 
Fall and sowed it on .some new-seeded ground. Can you 
raise good crops of grass or grain by sowing it broad¬ 
cast? It is only ?12 per ton, which makes it cheap com- 
I)ared with other fcrtilizcr.s. t. f. k. 
Carmel, N. Y. 
A man might just as well ask whether there is any 
virtue in fresh air. Three things are needed to support 
life—air, water and food. A sick man may be carried 
BORGEAT QUINCE. Natural Size. Fig. 328. 
See Riwalisms, Page 866. 
out into the air and revive, but that would not prove 
that all he needs to sustain life is air. He must have 
all three, and unless we know that only one is lacking 
we should give him all. The same is true of plants. 
They must have nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid 
in order to grow and thrive. Unless we are sure that 
only one element is needed in the soil we would better 
supply all three. Now kainit supplies potash, but con¬ 
tains neither nitrogen nor phosphoric acid. If you 
use it on soil which contains plenty of these two ele¬ 
ments the kainit will give fair crops just as long as 
the nitrogen and phosphoric acid remain, and no 
longer. You will easily see that it cannot be com¬ 
pared with other fertilizers which contain all three 
elements. We doubt if it pays to buy kainit even to 
supply potash. It contains 12i/^ per cent of potash, or 
250 pounds to the ton. At $12 this means a little less 
than five cents a pound. Muriate of potash contains 
50 per cent of potash, or 1,000 pounds of potash which 
at $40 means four cents a pound and you save the cost 
of freight and handling on a large amount of waste 
matter. We must get over this notion that one fer¬ 
tilizer is cheaper than another because it costs less 
per ton. As a rule, the higher priced goods are cheaper 
because they contain most plant food to the ton. 
Chemicals With Stable Manure. 
Will land plaster or acid phosphate applied to stable 
manure prevent the ammonia from escaping if put in a 
large heap in the field, and in what proportion should it 
be used in order to obtain the best results? G. j. k. 
Greensboro, Md. 
Yes, to a large extent. The acid phosphate is better 
than the land plaster for this purpose, and it also adds 
phosphoric acid, which the manure lacks, Kainit is 
also good tor this purpose—prohahly bettor evep th?in 
the acid phosphate, and it adds potash. If you could 
add 100 pounds each of kainit and acid phosphate to 
each load of good manure you would save most of the 
ammonia and greatly improve the quality of the ma¬ 
nure. Of course, these chemicals must be scattered 
all through the pile as it is made. It will not answer 
to put the chemicals on top of the large heap. The 
heap must not be dried out. Better leave the top a 
little dish-shaped, so as to let the water soak down 
through the heap. 
How to Mix Chemicals. 
Will you tell me how much of each, fine ground bone, 
dried blood and sulphate of potash I have to use to make 
a fertilizer that contains 14 pounds of phosphate, 21 
pounds of nitrogen and 28 pounds of potash? Also, how 
much of each must I use of nitrate of soda, sulphate of 
potash and concentrated acid phosphate to get 14 pounds 
of phosphate, 21 pounds of nitrogen and 28 pounds of pot- 
? F r* g 
Bronxville, N. Y. 
We must first see what these various chemicals con¬ 
tain: 
Pounds in 100. 
Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Potash. 
Ground bone . 25 
Dried blood . lo 2 
Sulphate potash . .. 50 
Nitrate of soda . 16 
Acid phosphate .. ie 
We do not know just how much phosphoric acid the 
“concentrated” phosphate contains. In the first mix¬ 
ture you will need to use 56 pounds of sulphate in or¬ 
der to obtain 28 pounds cf potash. If you use 190 
pounds blood you will have 19 pounds of nitrogen and 
four pounds of phosphoric acid, and 50 pounds of bon& 
will give about two pounds of nitrogen and 12^ of 
phosphoric acid. We are figuring on average analyses 
of these chemicals—you may be able to buy blood 
with 12 per cent of nitrogen. Regarding the 
second proposition you will need as before 56 
pounds of sulphate to supply the potash, 135 of 
nitrate to supply the nitrogen and about 90 
pounds of a 16 per cent phosphate to supply the 
phosphoric acid. 
T. V. MUNSON ON ROOT PRUNING. 
My experience in preparing trees for plant¬ 
ing agrees well with yours. There is, however, 
quite a difference between different species and 
varieties. Generally, I find that the slower any 
variety is to callus and start roots the more 
of the original root should be left in transplant¬ 
ing. According to this law the plum, and espe¬ 
cially persimmon and the nut trees, should not 
be so closely root-pruned as apple, peach, pear, 
quince and all trees, vines and shrubs that grow 
readily from cuttings. But these slow rooters, 
as a rule, are more fleshy and proportionately 
heavier in root than the easy rooters, and this 
furnishes the top with a supply of moisture and 
food to sustain the top until root growth is set 
up afresh after transplanting. Nature gives us 
many a hint along these lines. The willow 
often throws down small branches (broken by 
wind or otherwise), which falling on moist soil, 
soon root and become trees. Nut and persim¬ 
mon trees never do this. A willow or elm post 
cut and driven into the soil butt downward in Winter 
will almost surely grow the next Spring and quickly 
become a tree, but posts from nut trees, persimmons, 
most oaks, plums, apricots, cherries, will not do this 
and these are the very trees that require proportion¬ 
ally more root to be successfully transplanted. 
A good knowledge of physiological botany is re¬ 
quired by the nurseryman, horticulturist and land¬ 
scape gardener, who have to handle many species of 
plants in order to succeed well with all. I have often 
grown fine trees of peach, apple, pear (Kieffer and Le 
Conte), plum (Marianna), maple, sycamore, elm, Ca- 
talpa, etc., from cuttings, and all these do better to 
be close root-pruned, in transplanting, and should al¬ 
ways be correspondingly top-pruned. But no tree in 
transplanting should be so closely root-pruned that 
it is like a smooth stick stuck in the ground, for then 
it may be blown about before the young roots can well 
anchor it, and lean over or perish. Then again, the 
roots should be pruned less closely in a very dry cli¬ 
mate, and the tops more closely. 
There is no question that great advantage is given 
by having the land deeply and thoroughly loosened 
prior to planting, and hence the whole orchard land 
should be thoroughly subsoiled, or if in yards and 
streets, where general subsoiling cannot be done, 
broad, deep beds, “holes,” should be prepared, and so 
arranged that the rain will remain and penetrate the 
soil. T. V. MUNSON. 
Texas. 
The Massachusetts Supreme Court evolves the strange 
proposition that while the man who buys a vote is guilty 
the man who sells it is not. 
HYirt a wise man's feelings and after the smart is 
over his first thought will be that perhaps the criticism 
is a Just on^s Jf fie poppludes that Jt )8 ha will try to 
make )t rl^ht, / / 
