1899 
THE RURAI 
NEW-YORKER.' 
7o3 
along the walls when filling, perfect settling will re¬ 
sult. Admitting that the great drought prevented the 
ensilage corn from attaining its usual growth, the 
fact remains that some of the great silo men have, 
with the newer methods, filled their silos in half the 
usual time the present Fall. 
CHANGE IN METHODS.—The change of opinion 
that is going on about here respecting the corn crop 
and its harvesting, is wonderful. “What is the use in 
husking and grinding corn, if it must be brought to¬ 
gether again to be fed to the same amimal?” has pro¬ 
voked much thought, to the end that scores of farm¬ 
ers are seeing that there is no gain in drying out 24 
per cent of a crop, and spending one-fourth of the 
value of the grain in getting it husked and ground, 
when half of the first loss and all of the expense of 
the other are saved by ensilaging the crop. Many a 
farmer about here at the last moment has put up a 
silo, and is now busily filling tit with the field corn; 
he is surprised to see how quickly the corn crop was 
cared for, and off his hands, when in the past, 
it has been with him, pretty nearly an all-Winter’s job 
to get, prepare and feed out the corn crop, not to men¬ 
tion getting out stalky manure in the Spring. 
Some of the older silo men are building an extra 
silo to be filled with corn for next Summer’s feeding; 
those that have tried it, pronounce it in every way a 
superior and more economical plan of Summer soil¬ 
ing than is possible with the usual variety of crops to 
meet the demand. This season, the midsummer soil¬ 
ing crops failed, while the corn that was often shallow 
cultivated to keep the dust mulch intact, is a crop of 
full three-fourths average value. 
THE COW PEAS.—The season was a tough one on 
the cow peas that were going to show us fellows what 
this southern legume would do up North as a catch 
crop and land renovator. The season was so wet to 
start wiai that it was mid-June before they could be 
put in; that day it turned dry, and the ground got 
hard without turning, and every other might was a 
woolen-blanket promoter. Up to September 18, not 
enough rain fell in this section to make an inch of 
precipitation, and it is not to be wondered at that 
few of these peas attained a height of over 12 to 18 
inches at the best. Still they made as good a crop of 
material to plow under as anything which could have 
been grown, with the merit that they are rich in 
nitrogen, and there is little doubt that, if they got 
anything to live upon, they must have got it from 
the air, the ground was baked so hard; in fact, in¬ 
quiries are being made as to the expediency of loosen¬ 
ing up the ground with dynamite so that the late po¬ 
tatoes can be dug. 
From some surface indications, I am inclined to be¬ 
lieve that the best way to put in this crop in the 
northern, clayey lands, is to drill in rows far enough 
apart that lit can be cultivated with a narrow culti¬ 
vator, or possibly, one so fixed that three rows at a 
time could be gone through with. One of the finest 
fields of ensilage corn we ever grew, was on land in 
which, the previous year, a crop of cow peas had been 
grown and turned under just before the frosts, then 
replowed in the Spring, and this humus or haulm 
thoroughly mixed through the soil. joiin could. 
R. N.-Y.—Drilling and cultivating on heavy land is 
surely the best plan wiith cow peas. Show itself in a 
corn crop? Why, you can fairly see its face in the 
corn leaves. 
HIGH-CLASS JERSEY MELONS. 
HOW TO BUB THE FI.AVOB IN. 
From the Seed to the Selling. 
JERSEY MELONS—Here in Monmouth County, 
New Jersey, it is not always possible to grow a melon 
of fancy flavor. To grow well-flavored melons at all 
times, one must have ideal weather, and that we do 
not always have. Apart from that, melons can usual¬ 
ly be grown here, and good ones, too. 
SEEDS.—Good seed is essential in producing good 
melons. One man may be raising good melons from 
a certain variety of seed, and another may be raising 
poor ones from the same variety. It would be use¬ 
less to save seed from the poorer strain and expect 
to grow good melons. I save my own seed from year 
to year, from the choicest fruits I grow, and these 
must be all right in the following points: Netting, 
shape, thickness of flesh, texture, and last, but not 
least, flavor. Selecting for seed is an important fac¬ 
tor in growing good fruit. An experienced grower can 
select and breed to any particular point desired. Hav¬ 
ing good seed to start with, the next essential would 
be the preparation of the ground. 
PREPARING THE GROUND—I broadcast early in 
Spring with from seven to eight tons of city horse 
manure, that has been well rotted and worked fine 
by turning. This I plow under deeply; this induces 
the roots to go down, and they are out of the way 
of hot, dry weather. Just before planting, I harrow 
thoroughly, making a fine seed-bed, and mark out 
from 4(4 to six feet each way, according to variety, 
some needing more room than others. For example, 
Hackensack, Melrose and Long Island Beauty require 
more room than Paul Rose or Jenny Lind, which 
may be planted as close as 4(4 feet each way. 
SOILS.—I consider a sandy loam, high and well 
drained, on which there is a clover sod—either Red 
or Crimson—an ideal place for muskmelons, provided 
it is not infested wiith cutworms. Here the cutworm 
breeds and grows fat in a clover sod on sandy soil. 
Soil that is clayey or inclined to be heavy will not 
produce melons of good flavor, neither will a damp or 
sour land. Usually I plow under a crop of green rye; 
this is to rid my ground of cutworms, as they Will 
not breed in this. It also helps in a manorial way, 
as humus decaying in the soil is a great help towards 
keeping the vines green. 
FERTILIZERS.—Before harrowing, I sow from 100 
to 150 pounds of muriate of potash and 200 pounds of 
acid phosphate per acre. This is for ground that is 
deficient in all the elements necessary to grow a good 
melon. If one knows that his soil contains sufficient 
of either of these minerals, they need not be supplied 
in such large quantities, but I think some, say half the 
above quantity, should be supplied even on soils in 
a high state of cultivation. In the hill, before plant¬ 
ing the seed, I use about 200 pounds per acre of a 
quick acting fertilizer containing not less than 10 
per cent of nitrogen, and that derived largely from 
blood and nitrate of soda. I like that form of nitro¬ 
gen for melons better than in the form of ammonia. 
This fertilizer should contain but little, if any, potash, 
as that mineral has already been supplied. This has 
A QUESTION OF CROPS. Fio. 261. 
The Boy Eatinu : “Why doan’ you Fader raise melons?” The 
Other Boy : “He’s got chillun ter raise.” “ So’s my Fader. 
What yer specs he done raise?” " Hawgs.”—Reproduced 
from Life. 
been my practice in the past. When I speak of my 
experiment work for the New Jersey Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, I may talk a little differently of the future. 
PLANTING.—I usually plant my seed after May 20. 
This, however, is for every grower to look at from 
his own standpoint. But don’t plant till the weather 
is warm enough for seed to germinate quickly, and 
also for the young plants to live and grow after they 
come up. In planting the seed, I find the tendency is 
to cover too deeply; I get best results from covering 
about one inch. 
CULTIVATION.—Early and thorough cultivation is 
essential for best results; I begin mine by giving a 
good hoeing when the plants are about one week 
above ground. This is followed by a one-horse culti¬ 
vator run both ways. This loosens the soil, lets in 
sunlight, and if the weather is fine, the young plants 
feel the effect almost immediately. At my second 
tending, I thin to three plants to the hill, also I side- 
dress with ground fish scrap, about 400 pounds per 
acre. This gives me more phosphoric acid, and quite 
a quantity of organic nitrogen. At my last cultiva¬ 
tion, I side-dress (opposite sides) with from 150 to 
200 pounds of nitrate of soda. This is not given till 
the vines are from two to three feet long, and melons 
begin to set quite freely. Some one may feel like 
taking exception to using so large an amount of 
nitrogenous fertilizers, but I find it neeessary in 
order to grow melons of good quality, and also to tide 
the vines over bad spells of weather, which are very 
likely to come in this locality. It also gives the vines 
such vigor that they more fully resist attacks from in¬ 
sects, and last, but not least, it increases the size, 
causes them to roughen better, and gives texture and 
sweetness to the flesh. 
EXPERIMENT RESULTS—For the last two sea¬ 
sons, I have grown an acre of muskmelons under the 
directions of Prof. E. B. Voorhees, Director of the 
New Jersey Experiment Station. The records of my 
first year’s work can be found in Bulletin No. 136 of 
that Station. Since continuing the experiments this 
season I am inclined to believe: First, that less fertil¬ 
izers should be used in the hill, and more in a broad¬ 
cast way. Second, that three applications of nitro¬ 
genous fertilizer, in small amounts, is better than 
two, as I have been doing. Third, that blood and 
nitrate of soda is a better form of nitrogen than sul¬ 
phate of ammonia. Fourth that too much phos¬ 
phoric acid causes the fruit to ripen too rapidly and 
the vines to die prematurely. 
Tastes differ so widely that it is hardly worth while 
to go into detail concerning varieties. I grow sev¬ 
eral every year, principally to learn what my market 
is demanding. For my own use, there is no melon 
that suits me so well, either to grow, to yield, or to 
eat, as the Long Islan d Beauty. This, I think, was 
introduced several years ago by James M. Thorburn 
& Co., and tested, with many other varieties, at the 
Rural Grounds. From reading that report, I tried it 
and adopted it as a main-crop variety. As a market 
melon for New York City, I am afraid it will have to 
take second place, as there seems to be a craze just 
now for the Rocky Ford. This is a good melon, ob¬ 
long in shape; it has thin,coarse flesh, but is very 
sweet when grown properly. cuas. c. iiulsart. 
Monmouth Co., N. J. 
"NITROGEN" AND "AMMONIA." 
Some Fertilizer Terms. 
What is the value of a fertilizer with the following 
analysis: Phosphoric acid, eight to ten per cent; ammo¬ 
nia, one to two per cent: bone phosphate, 25 to 30 per cent. 
Will you explain the difference between ammonia and 
nitrogen? F 
Virginia. 
Every now and then some one asks us to explain 
the difference between “ammonia” and nitrogen, as 
printed on fertilizer tags; also what is meant by 
“bone phosphate.” Nitrogen Is one of the elementary 
substances. Ammonia is nitrogen mixed wiith another 
gas called hydrogen. Hydrogen has no value as a fer¬ 
tilizer. Nitrogen is 14 times as heavy as hydrogen. 
Ammonia is a mixture of one part of nitrogen and 
three parts of hydrogen. A pound of ammonia, there¬ 
fore, contains only 13 1-5 ounces of available nitrogen. 
You wiill see that, if a fertilizer contains two per cent 
of nitrogen, it would naturally contain nearly 2 y 2 per 
cent of ammonia, because all the nitrogen would be 
combined with a certain amount of hydrogen, and 
thus give more weight. Perhaps we can make a prac¬ 
tical illustration by comparing wheat flour and bread. 
Everybody knows that, so far as food value is con¬ 
cerned, we would rather have a pound of flour than a 
pound of bread, because the bread contains not only 
the flour, but water, salt and other things which are 
not true food. Let us say that a pound of flour would 
make 1(4 pound of bread. A baker might say: “Here 
is a barrel of flour, weighing 196 pounds, which repre¬ 
sents 294 pounds of bread.” No man would say that 
196 pounds of bread contain as much food as the bar¬ 
rel of flour. The difference, therefore, between nitro¬ 
gen and ammonia is, that a pound of nitrogen is all 
useful as plant food, whereas only 13(4 ounces of am¬ 
monia are worth anything to the plant. 
“Bone phosphate” is a term used chiefly by fertil¬ 
izer dealers and manufacturers in buying phosphoric 
acid. We cannot use pure phosphoric acid. It must 
be in combination with something else, usually with 
lime. In bone, there is one pari, of phosphorus to 
three parts of lime, and this combination is known as 
a “bone phosphate.” When you see “bone phosphate” 
on a fertilizer analysis, you will understand that there 
is enough phosphorus present to equal so much bone 
phosphate, if it were united with the necessary 
amount of lime. In the analysis quoted above, eight 
per cent of phosphoric acid is guaranteed. The manu¬ 
facturer goes on and says that, if that phosphoric acid 
could be put in the form of bone, there would be 25 
per cent of bone found in his mixture. He is very 
careful not to say that there is any real ground bone 
in his fertilizer, for probably there is none. He wants 
■to make a big showing, and the chances are that he 
will confuse some farmers and make them think they 
are actually buying the bone, when they are doing no¬ 
thing of the sort. When a farmer understands this 
matter fully, these analyses seem plain enough, and it 
will be impossible for the agent or dealer to deceive 
him. 
In the analysis given, the manufacturer guarantees 
only 160 pounds of phosphoric acid and 20 pounds of 
ammonia in the ton. The average value of phosphoric 
acid available for use is four cents a pound, and of 
ammonia, about 12(4 cents. That .s about what these 
substances cost in the average market. The buyer 
also has to pay the cost of bagging, freight and 
agent’s cummissiop. 
