1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER: 
369 
Tobacco Stems as Fertilizer. 
J. W. L., Renovo, Pa .—What Is the cash 
fertilizer value of tobacco stems per 100 
pounds? If practicable I wish to use them 
on a young orchard of peach and apple 
trees. When and how should they be ap¬ 
plied? Would it be any advantage to 
have the stems shredded or cut in small 
pieces? 
Ans. —Tobacco stems vary consider¬ 
ably. In six samples analyzed in Mass¬ 
achusetts, the per cent of nitrogen 
ranged from three to less than one per 
cent. A fair average would be 214 per 
cent nitrogen, 6% per cent potash, and 
one-half per cent phosphoric acid. The 
value per 100 pounds at this basis would 
be 42 cents for the nitrogen, 26 for 
the potash, and three for the phosphoric 
acid, or 71 cents in all. This means 
what the same amount of plant food 
would cost if bought at average prices in 
fertilizer or manure. The stems are ex¬ 
cellent for orchards. They may be ap¬ 
plied at any time. We prefer to use 
them in Spring and plow or harrow in. 
Yes, it will pay to run them through a 
cutter or shredder before using. Some 
dairymen use them for bedding and ab¬ 
sorbents—cutting them first. 
Wanted—Rat Killers ! 
TP. T. C., The Dalles, Ore— My neighbors 
and self are overrun with mice in our 
barns. We put up wheat hay, principally, 
and it gets cut up very much by the mice. 
We have four and sometimes one or two 
more good cats—which live in the barns. 
These are fed fresh milk after milking, 
night and morning in the barns. The cats 
catch lots of mice and must keep them 
down to a certain extent, but still the 
damage goes on in the hay mows, where 
the cats cannot reach the mice. Your 
answer to this question, if I recollect 
right, has been cats—cats don’t fill the 
bill. What will? Can any form of elec¬ 
tricity be used, without burning the build¬ 
ing? 
Ans. —Cats rhyme with rats, and they 
also absorb them, bu't there are limita¬ 
tions to the cat’s appetite. We have had 
good cats, and yet the mice and rats in¬ 
creased when there were safe hiding 
places for them. If the barns can be 
made airtight, we should try either bi¬ 
sulphide of carbon on 'top of the hay, or 
hydrocyanic acid gas, recently described 
in The R. N.-Y. If the barn can be 
closed tight this gas will certainly do 
the business. We do not see how elec¬ 
tricity could be used. 
A GRASS TALK. 
We have had quite a good deal to say 
in recent years about the famous grass 
crops grown lay Mr. Geo. M. Clark, of 
Higganum, Conn. The writer has seen 
the crop growing on Mr. Clark’s ground, 
and knows that he has produced an av¬ 
erage of more than five tons per acre for 
several years in succession. On May 14 
Mr. Clark said his grass had grown 
aJbout three inches, and he had just com¬ 
menced to put on fertilizers, which 
ought to have been sown a week earlier. 
“What fertilizers do you use?” 
“A mixture of bone, muriate of pot¬ 
ash, and nitrate of soda. I presume the 
mixture is about 1,200 pounds of bone, 
500 pounds nitrate of soda, and 300 
pounds of muriate of potash. I used 500 
pounds to the acre, which cost me $10.” 
“We suppose that your field is the 
same as that you had in grass last year.” 
“Much of it is the same, and I used a 
similar amount of this fertilizer then. 
The first cutting of last year’s crop was 
a little over five tons per acre. There is 
one seven-eighths of an acre in the field 
that has been seeded down for 10 years, 
and this small area has given me over 
80 tons of hay in that time.” 
“Have you any new seeding to try 
this year?” 
“Yes, I seeded down last Fall to grass, 
but owing to sickness I did not get the 
seed in until September. I could not at¬ 
tend to it personally, and the work was 
not as well done as I would have liked. 
The seeding should have been done 
September 1. I shall give this field the 
same amount of fertilizer as the old one 
received, but it does not seem possible 
that the field can produce four or five 
tons of nice hay in the next five days, 
but we shall see about that.” 
“We suppose when you look back 15 
years and think what your field was 
then, that grass culture seems a mighty 
problem.” 
“Yes, it does; 15 years ago the firld 
was practically barren, producing noth¬ 
ing of value, and oarely 200 pounds of 
any kind of vegetati in in a year. Now, 
the field with its average of four or five 
tons per acre shows what one can do 
with care, patience and good judgment. 
The State of Connecticut is to-day in- 
porting thousands of tons of hay every 
year, waile with proper care on our nat¬ 
urally strong soils, she could export half 
a million tons without trouble. 
Green Fodder Combinations. 
“What new combinations of fodder 
crops are you going to try this year?” 
we recently asked Prof. E. B. Voorhees, 
of the New Jersey Station. The farm at 
the Station is noted for the immense 
quantity of green forage produced on it. 
“I expect to try combinations of cow 
peas and Kaffir corn, and cow peas and 
Teosinte. We tried these in a small way 
last year, and the indications from the 
experiment are good. The combinations 
seem to increase the yield, and the 
Kaffir corn grows so straight that it 
keeps the crop from the ground and 
makes it easier to harvest. Last year 
we also tried the Velvet bean, and ob¬ 
tained a very large yield. We are going 
to try it again this year in comparison 
with the cow pea. One objection to it is 
its creeping habit, but this we hope to 
overcome by growing Kaffir corn with 
it, so as to raise it above the ground.” 
“I have a field of oats that I expect 
to cut green for hay. Can I use any va¬ 
riety of millet to follow the oats, and be 
sure of obtaining a fair crop?” 
“I think that the Pearl millet will 
make a good growth after oats, pro¬ 
vided you can sow it early in July, and 
have a fair amount of moisture in the 
soil. Last year the weather was very 
dry after seeding, and our late millet 
made a slow growth. Still, I think it 
would be worth trying. We are going to 
sow millet this year in several plots, 
and try the effect of frequent cutting. 
That is, we will cut the crop before it Is 
fully matured, then cut a larger second 
crop, and possibly a third. Perhaps in 
this way, by cutting the crop rapidly be¬ 
fore going to seed, we can get more fod¬ 
der than we could letting the crop run 
longer, then plowing and sowing to an¬ 
other crop.” 
An exchange says that when a man 
marries he gives his name to his wife, 
but when he fails in business he takes 
her name. 
The Scientific American has proved by 
experiments that on the worst roads a 
horse can pull only four times as much 
as he can carry, while on a macadamized 
road he can pull 10 times as much. 
The Geneva (N. Y.) Experiment Station 
issues a bulletin showing what grapes are 
best as pollenizers. 
Texas Farm and Ranch says that 
some southern landholders don’t know a 
good thing when it comes their way, as 
they are waiting for settlers to come in 
and improve the country, and yet they 
hold the land at almost prohibitive prices. 
Half of it sold at reasonable figures and 
settled, would double the value of the re¬ 
mainder. 
Bat Guano.—A sample of the bat guano 
mentioned on page 337 sent to the Okla¬ 
homa Experiment Station analyzed nine 
per cent of nitrogen, 3Vfc of phosphoric acid, 
and one per cent of potash. This is a 
valuable fertilizer, but such samples are 
not always fair for the whole mass. The 
guano is often full of scales from the bat, 
which are of little fertilizing value. 
Secretary B. 8 . Hoxie, of the Wiscon¬ 
sin Horticultural Society, says he has a 
poem in his scrap-book entitled “Too 
Mooch Apples.” Here are four lines. Mr. 
Hoxie wants to know who wrote it: 
“Ich coom to dis country ven fruit trees 
was nix, 
Ven sheep and horse sorrel and likewise 
ze thicks 
Of ze pie-plant vas all vat we had for to 
stew, 
To make apple sauces for me and mine 
frow.” 
Now, then, who is the guilty man? 
California 
Clark’s 
V 
CUTAWAY 
ORCHARD 
PLOW 
J. H. HALE, Glastonbury, Conn., the “ Orchard 
King," uses the Clark CUTAWAYS by the car load, 
lie tays: " You know we have used the Cutaways in 
all their varied forms for 11 years. We find that the 
Clark's Reversible Harrow and California Orchard 
Clows beat the world in an orchard. Every orchard- 
ist In America shou d have them." 
MORTIMER WHITEHEAD, Middlebush, N. J., 
says: “Have used your Cutaways for years. If I 
could not get another would not take $100 for the 
California Orchard Plow.” 
A. W. STANTON, Roseburg,Ore., says; “Your Cali¬ 
fornia Cutaway Orchard Plow produces every result 
desired for orchard work. It Is equally good as a plow 
or harrow." 
WILLIAM MILLER, Gypsum, O., said this morn¬ 
ing: “ I am much pleased with the California Revers¬ 
ible Orchard Plow. Send me two more quick.” 
Tens-of-Thousands give the same testimony. 
The Cutaway Harrow Co. make all kinds of orchard 
machinery. Send for catalogue and prices to Hig¬ 
ganum, Conn., U. S. A. 
New York State Veterinary College 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
Free tuition to New York State students. Ex- 
tended announcement. Address 
Prof. JAMES LAW. F. R. C. V. S., Director. 
is the only Corn Binder „ 
made that will cut and bind corn ih 
^ under all the unfavorable conditions 
in which the corn is found at cutting time. 
It will cut and bind BIG CORN, LITTLE 
CORN, DOWN CORN, LODGED 
CORN or any other kind of com that 
grows in rows ^ ^ 
It makes tight bundles of convenient 
size and the com can be husked by 
hand without untying bundles or it can 
be husked and the fodder shredded by ft 
the M-Cormick Husker Shredder 
CALL ON THE MCCORMICK AGENT 
