1900 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
559 
" CLARK’S GRASS CULTURE” IN NLVY YORK. 
I was very much interested in your article Five 
Tons Per Acre on page 493 of The R. N.-Y. Five 
years ago, when you gave Mr. Clark’s method of pre¬ 
paring the soil, quantity of seed and fertilizer per 
acre, etc., I had a five-acre lot from which we got 
little but weeds, and concluded to get it in shape to 
seed in Fall. I could not give it the Clark treatment, 
as I had no right-lap harrow, so put on the Morgan 
and smoothing harrows as otten as I could, and got 
it into fair shape, but w'e did not get it seeded until 
October 2. Harrowed seed in thoroughly with a 
Breed weeder; rolled and picked off stones, of which 
we had a good many more than we wanted, and got 
well laughed at by neighbors for putting so much 
work on a piece of grass. A good many wished to 
know whether I was making a lawn, but the laugh 
was on the other side when the following June came 
round, and I had a crop of 
grass which was a sur¬ 
prise to this section. I 
have no scales to weigh a 
wagon, but a low esti¬ 
mate gave me over l.ve 
tons of first-class thor¬ 
oughly-cured Timothy 
hay per acre. I cut again 
in September, and had 
one ton fully per acre, 
and how the cows did eat 
it up! The second year I 
cut only once, and had 
fully five tons per acre of 
fine hay. 
Last year I got badly 
burned by the drought, 
and cut only a little over 
three tons per acre. This 
year 1 cut four tons of 
fine Timothy and Red-top, 
about half of each variety. 
Last Fall I seeded an 
eight-acre field after a 
wheat crop. It was a 
poor field on a farm my 
employer bought a year 
ago, and had no manure 
for lz or 15 years. Nearly 
half of the field is sand 
and gravel, and very poor 
grass land. Having a 
great deal of grading, 
building, fencing, silos to 
fill, etc., I did not get the 
seeding done until Oc¬ 
tober 3 and 4, and was 
almost afraid to risk it so 
late. Seeded as before, 
rolled and picked stones, 
,and got a fine start be¬ 
fore hard frost, but got 
nearly half the young 
plants killed, as we had 
no snow to protect them. 
So it was a case of freeze 
and thaw all Winter, and 
Spring found a very 
seedy-looking stand o 
what looked like a large 
lawn in November. I pul 
400 pounds of Mapes grass 
and grain dressing per 
acre on both fields, and 
by June 1, the newly- 
seeded field was mistaken 
for a field of oats by a 
good many who saw it. I 
had a good many farmers 
come from places four 
and five miles around to 
see it, as those who saw 
it told others; all declared it immense. To one man 
who was looking it over I said that 1 would have 
had a good deal more grass if half the young plants 
had not been winterkilled. He said he did not see how 
I could possibly get any more to grow on it. On a 
gravel knoll and the other sandy land, I got only a 
light crop, but from the whole field I got 37 to 40 
tons of first-class thoroughly-cured Timothy hay. If 
I had managed to seed a month earlier I am sure I 
would have had more hay. There was a bad wash¬ 
out on part of the field, which spoiled half an acre or 
more. Still, I am not so badly off, with nearly five 
tons per acre on such land. I have had a great 
many inquiries lately as to how I managed to 'get 
such a crop the first year. I tell them the idea is 
not mine, and that I got it in The R. N.-Y. five years 
ago, and that that wrinkle on grass culture alone is 
worth more than The R. N. Y. will cost in 50 years 
at five times its present price, I intend to seed 
about 25 acres this Fall if I can manage it, and my 
employer has promised me a large new barn to hold 
the prospective crop. I hope I may be able to fill it 
for him. I don’t wonder there are skeptics when you 
tell them about Mr. Clark’s crops. You know what 
the average grass crops are like, and very few get 
two tons per acre when they have a heavy crop. I 
can say Amen to a reader’s note. So “keep hammer¬ 
ing away;” we need it. a. m. k. 
Nyack, N. Y. _ 
PREPARING APPLES FOR COLD STORAGE. 
We judge from the information at hand that large 
quantities of apples will be put in cold storage this sea¬ 
son. There seems to be some misunderstanding as to the 
best way of handling this fruit in cold storage. Some 
authorities advocate wrapping each apple carefully in 
wax paper, before putting in cold storage, while others 
say that this is not necessary, and that the fruit may just 
T HE EATHBUN BLACKBERRY. Fig. 194. 
as well go in barrels and boxes as ordinarily packed. 
What is the best way of preparing fruit for the cold room? 
From my personal experience and observation, I am 
led to believe that if the fruit is perfectly sound and 
free from spores of the rot fungus when placed in 
cold storage, it will keep just as well if packed in 
barrels without paper as with it, but if there are any 
apples in the lot that have started to rot, or that con¬ 
tain on their surface the spores that produce rot, 
wrapping each apple in paper will prevent the spread 
of the disease through the barrel, and in this case 
would be a great protection. But at the price for 
which apples sell during the late Winter and early 
Spring months, I do not think it would pay to wrap 
the fruit in paper for commercial purposes. I think 
it is better and more profitable to spray the trees 
thoroughly and systematically with Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture—this will give us clean fruit and healthy foliage. 
If the foliage is perfectly healthy the apples will not 
ripen so early in the Fall, and at picking time will 
be hard and sound, which is most important. While 
in this condition they should be carefully picked, as¬ 
sorted and immediately packed and placed in storage— 
they should not be allowed to remain on piles under 
the trees to sweat and ripen. If you want apples to 
keep in the best cold-storage house that can be built, 
you must begin to prepare your apples for the trial 
before the blossoms open in the Spring, and keep 
right at it all through the growing season, so that 
when picking time comes you have absolutely per¬ 
fect fruit. This is the only kind that can be kept in 
cold storage without loss, and this kind can be kept 
with, or without, paper if the proper degree of tem¬ 
perature and moisture are maintained. 
Gabriel hiester. 
RYE AS A FARM CROP. 
Rye is one of the best-paying crops, as far as dol¬ 
lars and cents go, raised in Columbia County, N. Y. 
We have paper mills that 
use a good deal of straw, 
and several large flour¬ 
ing mills that use the 
rye, taking it from ygar 
to year. The same acre¬ 
age of rye brings us more 
money than hay, and the 
quantity is on the in¬ 
crease, if anything. The 
average yield of rye’per 
acre, for our county, i3 
estimated to be 16 bush¬ 
els, but a great many 
reach 20, and more. I 
had a field of less than 
eight acres that had 187 
bushels of grain and 12 
tons of straw. The ma¬ 
chines for thrashing rye. 
cleaning and measuring 
at the same time, are 
used entirely. They leave 
the straw in nice shape, 
all bound and ready for 
the market. To have a 
bountiful crop, it needs 
to be protected in some 
way through the Winter 
and Spring. It never 
winterkills, but often 
springkills, which was 
the cause of a great many 
failures last Spring. Take 
it all in all, it is one of 
our best-paying crops. 
GEO. w. HIGGINS. 
A larger quantity of 
rye is grown here, bur 
perhaps not quite as 
much as there used to be 
years ago, when both the 
rye and the straw brought 
a high price. At the 
present time, perhaps, it 
pays as well as any crop 
grown on the farm; we 
have a good market for 
the straw, both in New 
York and Boston, and 
also at the paper mills. 
At one time these mills 
were all closed, but since 
the ending of the war 
with Spain they have 
been in operation, and 
have paid a price close to 
the New York market. 
The yield per acre is 
from six to 20 bushels, 
depending on the condi¬ 
tion of the ground and 
manner in which it is put 
in. The machines for thrashing rye straw are used 
altogether, and leave the straw in good shape; many 
of them have binders attached. The rye crop is one 
that is easily grown and put on the market, and the 
high prices of the grain and straw at one time in¬ 
duced the farmers to grow it extensively, at the ex¬ 
pense of the land, and the result is that much of it 
is poor, as well as the man who owns it, and a poor 
man on a poor farm is poor indeed. I notice that the 
dairy and grain farms have held their own and are 
now growing good crops of grass and grain, and 
most of the owners are in a prosperous condition. 
This accounts for the great difference in the yield of 
rye per acre. l. l. morrell. 
R. N.-Y.—A few years ago many people thought 
that the use of baled shavings for bedding would 
spoil the market for rye straw. The shavings are 
not used as extensively as they were, and the outlook 
for rye is good. 
