1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
867 
PLOW UNDER OR BURN WEEDS? 
What would be your practice if you had a field badly 
covered with weeds and coarse grass, that you wished 
to put in cultivation next year? Would you favor burn¬ 
ing it over as soon as possible before plowing, or would 
you plow the whole mass under, without burning? There 
seem to be two sides to this question among practical 
farmers. Some of them say burn this mass over to kill 
the weed seeds, others say that it is cheaper to keep the 
weeds killed down with a cultivator, as the soil probably 
needs the organic matter. 
WHY BURN HUMUS?—Weeds and coarse grass 
make good humus. Burning them renders them 
valueless for this purpose. In the years that are 
past, our virgin soil contained the humus formed 
from many years’ accumulation, and we thought but 
little of 'its value, but constant cultivation and long 
rotations, combined with the practice of selling every¬ 
thing possible, has reduced the supply till our soils 
have become lighter colored, compact, “dead” and un¬ 
productive, in many cases unprofitable, from this 
lack. The R. N.-Y. boomed Crimson clover, cow 
peas, and other plants for the increased amount of 
nitrogen obtained, but in many cases a greater benefit 
is obtained from the mechanical effect derived from 
the turned-under foliage. In my search for humus, I 
have sowed this season Canada field peas in the corn¬ 
field, and am more than pleased with the growth ob¬ 
tained. I have mixed them in with the Winter wheat 
sown in September. I sowed one cornfield thickly 
with flat turnips, and when plowed November 1 it was 
a mass of green leaves. I should consider myself in¬ 
sane, after taking all the trouble to obtain vegetation, 
if I should burn it. Sometimes too great a mass of 
green vegetation seems to “sour” the land, and a mass 
of dry forms a stratum between the upper and lower 
soils, so that the moisture supply is affected; this 
only occurs with shallow, late Spring plowing in 
either case, and I should avoid trouble by rather deep 
Fall plowing. I buy, not burn, material which will 
make humus. 
I do not rake up and burn or draw away the straw¬ 
berry mulching and clippings, but cultivate and plow 
them in and under. As to the weed seeds, did you 
ever know of a field that did not have weeds in it? 
I't was poor, if you did. One of my men was hoeing 
very carefully, and remarked, “I will bet there will 
not be a weed here again this Summer.” I told him 
that the Lord made weeds to compel us to keep at 
work, and there would be another crop come up in 
two weeks. He hung up his hoe, with an oath, and 
marched off, saying, “I’ve got through trying to beat 
Him.” Weeds, like the poor, ye have always with 
you, and are not to be subdued by one fire. You pay 
a big price for the few which are killed, but never 
missed. If the field is plowed deep and carefully, 
and not torn too deep when fitted next Spring, the 
turned-under seeds will not germinate next season, 
anyway. I have been told that very few of the 
smaller seeds will come up if planted three or more 
inches deep. If I had this field I would think myself 
fortunate in having a good supply of humus furnished, 
and should plow it six or more inches deep, as soon 
as possible this Fall, just as it is. c. e. chapman. 
New York. 
FIRE IN THE FIELD.—Fire blazed the way through 
the trackless American wilderness for the farmer 
and the civilization of to-day. Fire is a good hired 
man, but like many another, it has a dreadful appe¬ 
tite. Fire’s appetite leans heavily toward organic 
matter. Virgin America had organic matter to burn, 
but to-day the dearth of organic matter is a serious 
trouble to us in the older States. It is doubtful if it 
is well for us even to burn a bonfire on a cultivated 
field, although the plea is often made for the practice 
that the ashes are good for the land. The counter 
argument is that the fire burns more organic matter, 
and destroys more nitrogen of the top soil, than the 
ashes are worth. 
Different conditions of soil make one answer correct 
sometimes, perhaps, and sometimes the other. The 
frost in frozen ground, for instance, might protect 
the organic matter from a bonfire, melting so slowly 
as to prevent its combustion, or the fire might act 
differently upon one kind of soil than on another. A 
friend, who is a good observer, strongly deprecates 
the burning out of fence-rows and roadside hedges to 
kill coarse growths. He says that 'infinite harm is 
done to the natural grasses which under a better man¬ 
agement, would come in and choke out the weeds. 
The fire kills these useful plants, and gives the seeds 
of the foul growth a better chance and a clearer field. 
The only proper course, he maintains, is to cut and 
carry away fence refuse to a bonfire. 
Taking then the importance of conserving organic 
matter as a premise, if I had a field covered with a 
rank growth of weeds and coarse grass, other than 
briers and the like, and being a stock keeper who can 
utilize plenty of litter, I would mow and stack the 
coarse growth, during the Winter run it through the 
cutter, and make a fine lot of good litter for cows, 
pigs or horses. If there were many briers, brambles 
or the like, little can be done but to burn them. As 
to weed seeds, as a rule the seeds of such a growtn 
are not very troublesome in cultivated fields, but 
even if they are of a troublesome kind, barring Can 
ada thistles and a few plants of that nature, in our 
modern dearth of organic matter, and prompter 
methods of cultivation, the weeds were better killed 
in the hoed crops than the organic matter destroyed 
by fire. On a truck or vegetable farm, where little 
stock is kept and coarse bedding a drug in the market, 
a good plow and a deep furrow will make the most 
satisfactory disposal of such matter. e. c. birge. 
Connecticut. 
FREE RURAL MAIL A SUCCESS. 
The first experiment in free delivery of rural mail 
in Minnesota was tried at Farmington, the county 
seat of Dakota County. In January, 1897, a tract 25 
miles square, with Farmington as the center, was 
measured and divided into four mail routes, and bid3 
for carrying the mail were advertised for. When the 
bids were opened it was found that they ranged from 
$180 to $1,200 per year. The lowest bids were so ob¬ 
viously too low to ensure good service, that all bids 
A RURAL MAIL CARRIER IN BLIZZARD DRESS. Flo. 320. 
were rejected, and four men were selected from 
among the bidders, who would agree to do the work 
for $300 each. This salary has since been raised to 
$400. The carriers start out after the mail trains 
bring the mail from both north and south, which is 
after 10 o’clock a. m.; and they get back in time to 
get the mail matter which they gather up on their 
routes to the afternoon trains, which pass, in both 
directions, after five o’clock. This gives a compara¬ 
tively short working day, and the carriers are allowed 
to do any other work which will not (interfere with 
the carrying of the mail. One carrier supplies the 
villagers with ice, which he delivers each morning 
before his duties as postman begin. 
I recently passed through Farmington on my wheel, 
and took occasion to (interview the postmaster, Mr. 
Judson, who, during the intervals of sorting mail and 
selling stamps good-naturedly answered questions in 
regard to free delivery. 
“I understand that this free delivery of mail is 
simply an experiment. How long do you suppose it 
will be continued?” 
“O'h, I don’t think it will ever be discontinued. If 
such a thing should be suggested, there would be such 
a howl from the farmers that the authorities wouldn’t 
dare to stop it.” 
“I suppose that your income has been cut off con¬ 
siderably by the loss of the box rent.” 
“Yes,” said the postmaster, “but that is almost made 
up by the increase of business. The farmers get the 
carriers to do many errands for them, especially dur¬ 
ing the busy seasons, and the carriers are not allowed 
to do an errand unless t'he order is written on a 
postal card or in a letter bearing a stamp, which has 
to pass through the office to be canceled.” 
“I suppose 'that the free delivery has made more 
work for you by increasing the bulk of mail which 
you have to handle.” 
“Yes, the newspaper mail has increased over 300 
per cent. Nearly every farmer in the whole district 
takes a daily paper; but in one way my work has been 
lessened: Instead of having to sort the mail into sepa¬ 
rate boxes for each family, I now simply sort into 
four boxes, one for each route, and each carrier sorts 
his own matter for delivery before starting out.” 
“Do you find anyone who objects to the plan of free 
delivery?” 
“The saloonkeepers and the postmasters at the 
little country post offices which happened to be fin the 
district now covered by the free delivery, are the only 
people who are making any objections. At first the 
storekeepers growled a little, but they find that their 
business has not been interfered with to amount to 
anything. If a farmer is too busy to come to town to 
buy what he wants, he can send by the postman.” 
“Is this district of 25 mliles square an arbitrary one, 
with sharply-defined boundaries? That is, can a 
farmer living just outside of the line have none of 
the benefits of free delivery?” 
“Anyone living near the line may have a box on the 
road along the carrier’s route, and have his mail de¬ 
livered there. Any farmer who lives too far from 
the route to do this, Should make it his business to 
help get free delivery established in his neighborhood. 
There are several districts in the State which are to 
have free delivery very soon.” 
R. N.-Y.—We think that this is a fair statement of 
the situation in the great majority of districts where 
this free delivery has been started. The picture 
shown at Fig. 320 doesn’t show a miner from the Klon¬ 
dike, but represents a rural carrier at Bowling Green, 
Ohio, as he made his rounds during a 20-below-zero 
blizzard. It is taken from the last report of the Post- 
mas'ter-General. He is not a very handsome man in 
his blizzard make-up, but he must have looked like 
an angel to the snowbound people, who found in him 
a link connecting them with the outside world. That 
will be a good figure for a monument some day when 
free rural mail has been firmly established. 
A REMEDY FOR SAN JOSE SCALE. 
Getting Over the Scare. 
The closing year has witnessed a relaxation of ten¬ 
sion on the San Jose or pernicious-scale scare, al¬ 
though it is still agreed that unremitting efforts must 
be made to combat the pest. The wholesale destruc¬ 
tion of valuable trees is no longer considered essen¬ 
tial. The scale proves to be quite generally dissem¬ 
inated, and is constantly cropping up in new and un¬ 
expected places. To stamp it out by destroying every 
plant found to be infested, is no longer considered 
necessary, as demonstrated by the researches of Prof. 
John B. Smith, of the New Jersey Experiment Station, 
published in Bulletin 138, recently issued. After two 
seasons’ trials he finds that crude petroleum, the nat¬ 
ural product of the oil wells, when thoroughly ap¬ 
plied to the dormant trees, completely destroys all 
scales, and has not in any instance caused perceptible 
injury to the trees themselves. All varieties of north¬ 
ern orchard fruits, except cherries, and incidentally 
some bush fruits, such as currants, gooseberry, rasp¬ 
berry, etc., have been treated, either with crude oil or 
a 30-per-cent emulsion of the same. In every case a 
total destruction of the scales resulted, without any 
development of harm to the trees or bushes. It gives 
a greasy brown coating to the bark, which persists for 
several months sufficiently to repel any fresh infec¬ 
tion of scale from other sources, and makes it easy to 
see exactly how thorough the application has been. 
Prof. Smith does not recommend crude oil for all 
diseases or insects, nor as a substitute for fertilizers 
and cultivation, as some reviewers of the bulletin 
seem to indicate, but he does make it plain that an 
efficient and safe remedy for pernicious scale has been 
found, and that thousands of valuable young trees 
may now be saved by a timely application of petro¬ 
leum that would have been ruthlessly condemned to 
the brush heap a short time ago. Crude petroleum 
has not proved suitable for a Summer application, as 
it is too persistently greasy, thus choking up the pores 
of the leaves and causing some to fall, but it may be 
applied, either undiluted or mixed with 60 to 75 per 
cent of water, to trees, young or old, during Winter 
without fear of injury. The application may be made 
with brush or spray, and must be thorough, as the oil 
only kills by contact. Every twig and branch must 
be coated to make thorough work. An emulsion will 
go farther and do better work through a good spray 
nozzle than a proportional quantity of undiluted oil. 
Either may be used as a Summer application on the 
trunk and branches of infested trees, but the foliage 
should be spared as far as possible. 
