1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
199 
FIRST MESS Fl(i. 80. 
sods from fence corners, etc., are very good, if gath¬ 
ered and piled under cover to dry, and used as absorb¬ 
ents in connection with land plaster, under horses, 
cows, and in the pig pen. By saving the liquid, we 
add nearly one-half to the value of the manure. 
But all this is of little value unless the manure is 
properly taken care of afterward. If thrown out 
under the eaves, to he washed by every rain, or al¬ 
lowed to firefang, it will be of little value, nearly all 
the nitrogen going up in that little curl of smoke one 
may see playing over the heap. Here comes the great 
advantage of a manure shed, something that every 
farm, large or small, should have : where the manure 
and refuse of all kinds can be piled in compost, and 
worked over, wet and rotted down, where wood ashes 
and hen manure 
may be stored, 
fertilizers 
mixed, and all 
work that per- 
tains to the 
making and 
care of farm 
manures may 
be done. In 
composting 
manure under 
a shed, plenty 
of water. Win¬ 
ter and Sum¬ 
mer. is v e r y 
necessary to 
keep the heaps 
just wet enough 
to prevent fire- 
fang, but not 
enough to stop 
decomposition 
in the coldest 
weather. With 
these essen¬ 
tials, it is very 
easy to make 
manure from 
refuse and 
wastes of the 
farm and gar¬ 
den. and with 
the addition of phosphoric acid and potash, these 
may be made into a very valuable compost. 
One source of great waste is the slops, dish and wash 
water; soap suds contain considerable potash, and 
should never be wasted by throwing them in the sink. 
Have a heap of muck, loam, or coal ashes out of sight 
near the kitchen door. The heap should be about 
three feet thick, with the top in the shape of a saucer. 
On this, empty all the slops from the house, and add 
the coal ashes to this as it is made each day. If this 
heap be turned once a month, it will never smell, and 
if it could be under cover, all the better. Save the 
kitchen wastes each day in buckets, and let carrying 
this to the heap be part of the hired man’s noon 
and night chores. Never burn the pea vines: they 
contain much valuable ni¬ 
trogen : add these to the 
heap with all the weeds (if 
not ripe) and rubbish from 
the garden when green 
With a little effort, you 
will be surprised how large 
an amount of manure you 
will have in a short time. 
I would not advise adding 
the wood ashes or hen 
manure to the heaps, but 
scatter land plaster under 
the roosts every morning : 
this will keep the ammonia 
from escaping, and when 
cleaned out and put in bar¬ 
rels, will be dry and ready 
for use, and will keep with¬ 
out waste. 
Wood aslie s are best 
saved by having a barrel 
with a water-tight cover, 
standing far enough from 
any buildings to be safe if 
it should get afire. As the 
barrels are filled, store in 
the manure shed, with the 
hen and other manures 
Another source of waste 
is letting the ground lie 
bare over Winter. As soon 
as the crops are removed 
in Summer or Fall, if early 
enough, sow to Crimson 
clover ; if too late for that, 
sow to rye, or some cover 
crop. This will prevent the washing of the nitro¬ 
genous elements from the soil, and add humus when 
plowed under in Spring. 
Many of the best authorities on manures now recom¬ 
mend spreading as fast as made, which is a very good 
practice when judgment is used, and the advice is 
closely followed ; but it is often the case in Summer, 
when all the ground is covered with crops, that much 
of it goes to waste in the heap under the stable win¬ 
dow, and in Winter, by spreading on fallow ground 
when no cover crop is growing, or on hillsides to be 
washed away while the ground is frozen. I much 
prefer composting under cover, and hauling out in 
Spring as needed. But in the absence of a shed, I 
pi'efer hauling and spreading rather than leaving it 
AVERAGE SIZE POD AND FOLIAGE. Flo. 87. 
SURPRISE PEA A N I) F O L 1 A G E . S k k R urai.is m s 
under the eaves of the stable, as is done by altogether 
too many farmers. M. I., bell. 
Rockland County, N. Y. 
SOUTH JERSEY FARMING THAT PAYS. 
PLANT-FOOD IN A BAG. 
How the Fertilizer is Used. 
[editorial correspondence.) 
(' Concluded.) 
I made a mistake last week in stating that all the 
manure on Cherry Lawn Farm is worked over by the 
hogs before application. Mr. Atkinson’s method of 
handling the manure is different from that of most 
fertilizer farmers. The horse, cow and sheep manure 
made through the Winter, is hauled directly to the 
field where corn was raised the previous year, and 
spread lightly with Kemp’s manure spreader, for pota¬ 
toes. When there is not enough manure, fertilizer is 
applied broadcast. Mr. Atkinson says that, no matter 
how highly he might value manure, he cannot afford 
to buy it at $1.90 per ton and haul it two miles—that 
is, when he can know "what there is in the fertilizer.” 
In applying fertilizers on asparagus, he uses a 
Spangler broadcaster which will put on anywhere 
from 000 to 3,000 pounds per acre. It broadcasts a 
strip about seven feet wide, and carries 200 pounds at 
a load, and the hopper is close to the g-round, so that 
a light wind will not blow the fertilizer. Mr. Atkin¬ 
son says that this machine is, for broadcasting ferti. 
1 izers, what 
Kemp’s manure 
spreader is for 
spreading ma¬ 
nure. Most fer¬ 
tilizer farmers 
use a grain drill 
for dropping 
the fertilizer. 
Mr. Atkinson is 
not a grain 
grower, there¬ 
fore, uses only 
two tools for 
this purpose, 
the Spangler 
broadcaster 
and the Rob¬ 
bins Improved 
potato planter. 
He has an extra 
wing for the 
opening plow of 
this machine so 
that it opens a 
flat-bottomed 
furrow about 
seven inches 
wide. The fer¬ 
tilizer attach- 
% 
ment puts the 
fertilizer di- 
r e c 11y under 
the wings of the plow the whole width of the furrow. 
The tube which conveys the potatoes to the ground has 
a small opener which is set to run a little deeper than 
the front plow. Thissplits the fertilizer without throw¬ 
ing it out, and will leave a potato seed just below the 
fertilizer. Early in the season, the disks on the 
planter are set to make a large ridge so as to insure 
against a late frost. Later in the season, a smaller 
ridge is made so that the potatoes will sprout earlier. 
When fertilizer for sweet potatoes is applied, the 
planter is also used. But the fertilizer is applied 
several weeks before setting out the plants, and so the 
disks are set merely to cover the fertilizer without 
making a ridge. 
LAST MESS. Fui. 88. 
PAGK 204 
On the potato crop, Mr. 
' \ « 
> - • . 
PROSPERITY PEA. FIRST MESS. Fig. 89. See Riralis.ms, Page 204. 
Atkinson uses from 1,000 to 
1,200 pounds per acre of 
fertilizer in the row. Where 
the ground is not manured, 
he will broadcast 000 to 
SOO pounds more of a mix¬ 
ture that runs low in ni¬ 
trogen and high in potash 
and phosphoric acid, the 
broadcasting, of course, 
being done before the po¬ 
tatoes are planted. From 
this fertilizing, he expects 
to grow a good crop of 
potatoes, and then exit hay 
from two to three years. 
If hay is cut the third 
year, nitrate of soda is ap¬ 
plied for the last crop. 
The asparagus at Cherry 
Lawn Farm has not had 
anything but fertilizer on 
it for six years, and has 
produced abundant a n d 
profitable crops. It will 
thus be seen that the busi¬ 
ness of applying fertilizers 
on these large farms has 
been reduced nearly to a 
science, and very little 
hand-labor is required ex¬ 
cept that of filling the hop¬ 
pers of the broadcaster and 
potato planter. In this way 
the fertilizer is quickly and 
easily applied, which is 
quite important in the rush 
of spring work. H. w. c. 
