1897 
371 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
cases, the roots contain enough plant food to supply 
the land, in connection with good tillage, with all the 
plant food an ordinary crop is capable of utilizing. If 
the clover be allowed to bear seed, the roots will not 
be as valuable as they are soon after the hay crop is 
removed. Notwithstanding all this, by all means 
take off one or two crops and put a movable fence 
around the clover field and pasture some of the second 
crop. Let the cattle tramp it down. To give 
emphasis to my opinion, I quote the following from 
The Fertility of the Land, page 348 : 
Nitrogen in an Acre or Clovers Three Months and Four Days 
From Seeding. 
Pounds in tops. Pounds in roots. Pounds total, 
Crimson clover.125.28 30.66 155.94 
Mammoth clover.... 67.57 78.39 145.96 
Medium clover. 63.11 40.25 103.36 
Our rotation here is wheat, clover mowed for hay 
and pasture, ground manured in the winter with 
about 10 loads barnyard manure, followed by spring 
plowing and corn and then followed by a catch crop 
of Crimson clover or rye, the ground plowed in the 
spring and seeded to oats. The oats are removed as 
early as possible, the ground plowed, 
manured lightly, harrowed and culti¬ 
vated frequently and sowed to wheat 
in September. This system has resulted 
during the last 15 years in more than 
doubling the average yield of the crops 
named per acre. 
Cornell University. 
The Experience of L. N Bonham 
THE LOGANBERRY. 
ITS HI8TOBY AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
The Loganberry is briefly described 
as a red blackberry, with a slight bu 
distinct raspberry flavor. It originated 
with Judge J. II. Logan, of Santa 
Cruz, Cal Writing to Mr. L. F. Kinney, 
of the Rhode Island Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, who gives his experience with 
the fruit in Bulletin 45 of that insti¬ 
tution, Judge Logan states that the 
cross which produced the Logan¬ 
berry was accidental. Plants of a nameless red 
raspberry were growing together with the Texas 
Early and Aughinbaugh blackberries, the latter being 
a selected variety of the Pacific coast Rubus ursinus. 
The Texas was planted on one side of the Aughin¬ 
baugh, and the raspberry on the other. The canes 
of all three intermingled, flowering and fruiting to¬ 
gether. For the purpose of securing an intermediate 
form between the Texas and Aughinbaugh, Judge 
Logan gathered and planted seed of the latter (a pis¬ 
tillate variety) in August, 1881. The growth of the 
canes the following season showed that the cross had 
produced something hitherto unknown. The canes 
of all, except one, were very distinct, the exception 
being a plant very similar to the Aughinbaugh, but 
much larger and stronger. In May, 1883, the fruit 
ripened. Judge Logan says : “It has been repeatedly 
stated in public prints that I entertained the idea, 
when I planted these seeds, of a cross between the 
raspberry and the blackberry. * * * Candor com¬ 
pels me to say that such is not the case. I did not 
LOGANBERRY BLOSSOMS AND BERRIES. Natural Size. Fig. 163 . 
Grown in the Open Air in Santa Cruz, Cal. Gathered and Photographed January 8 , 1897. 
Being familiar with the farming 
land of Miami County, and my farm 
and crops being similar to theirs, my 
25 years’ experience with clover, corn, 
wheat and hogs may help to throw 
some light on tne questions presented. 
From the way the problem is stated, I 
infer that the inquirer is first anxious 
to have land benefited by the clover 
crop ; second, to secure the most prof¬ 
itable crops of corn and wheat. Let 
us keep in mind that there is a limit 
to the amount of plant food the corn 
and wheat can appropriate. Also, that 
the roots and stubble, after the clover 
hay has been removed, afford more 
plant food than a crop of wheat and 
corn will appropriate. Dr. Kedzie has 
stated that the sod of an acre of clover 
making 5,000 pounds of hay, contains 
enough phosphoric acid for more than 
double an average farm crop, enough 
nitrogen for more than four average 
crops, and potash for more than six 
average crops of wheat. 
On our Miami and Butler County 
bottom lands, wheat after clover shows, 
by its rankness, that there is too much 
nitrogen available for the best yield of 
grain. Hence, I follow clover with 
corn, and then follow corn with wheat. 
1 find, also, that, after removing a crop 
of clover hay and plowing the sod in 
July for wheat, it grows too rank and 
the yield of grain is not equal to that 
made when grown after corn. I have 
tested this more than once. If wheat 
is to follow clover, it is better to break 
the clover sod some weeks before seed¬ 
ing, that the ground may settle and 
have that degree of compactness so 
necessary for prompt and even germi¬ 
nation. August is too late to plow a 
clover sod for wheat. The gain of a 
few inches of clover to turn under 
does not compensate for the lack of 
condition of the seed bed, or storage 
of moisture from rains that may fall on early-plowed 
clover sod. 
Let us not forget, first, that the sod and stubble 
will furnish more plant food than the wheat can 
appropriate, and, second, that success with wheat 
depends very largely on the condition of the seed bed. 
As to his opinion that, “ if both hay and seed crops 
are taken, the land is benefited but little,” I think 
differently. First, the highest authorities, like Voel- 
cker of England, Roberts of Cornell, Kedzie of Lans¬ 
ing, and others have shown that the abundance of 
fertilizing elements from even the stubble and roots 
of clover is such as to leave much for the land, after 
one or two grain crops have been taken. Second, on 
my farm, my fields, 110x38 rods, have been farmed in 
the rotation of corn, wheat and clover for 24 years. 
When in clover, a field is divided by a portable fence, 
part used for pasture and part for hay and seed. 
Before breaking the sod for corn, the portable fence 
is removed and the land plowed the long way of the 
field. The part pastured is never in as good tilth, 
know of no better place to feed than the clover field 
in the fall and until snow. It affords plenty of succu¬ 
lent feed to keep in condition hogs and sheep that 
have plenty of grain. The droppings are all saved 
with no labor. It is a waste of a good thing to neg¬ 
lect to make clover hay. If he prefer not to take a 
seed crop, which is seldom of much value unless the 
hay is made early, he can pasture or clip the second 
growth before it is in bloom. If he prefer a good 
seed crop to the hay, and especially if the clover 
midge has appeared in his neighborhood, then, as 
soon as the first bloom appears, take the grass board 
off the mower, and cut the clover, letting it cover 
evenly the soil as a mulch. This is a grand thing for 
the land, and the crop of seed will be better. When 
I have neither cattle nor sheep to consume the clover 
hay, I have found this plan profitable. It not only 
gives some cash return for the clover crop, but does 
about all for the soil that is possible, and it holds in 
check the clover midge. 
Butler' County, 0. 
and the root growth never so strong as in the part 
devoted to hay and seed. There is no distinguish¬ 
able difference in yield of corn or wheat crops on the 
two parts of the field. There are more cut and grub 
worms on the pastured part, and it is rather harder 
to get as good a stand of corn there, because the 
ground is never so fine and evenly pulverized. The 
land is in better heart than it was 25 years ago. 
I would say, take off the hay crop from the 28 acres, 
and plow earlier than August. It ought to make 1>£ 
or 2 tons per acre. Fed and returned to the poorer 
parts of the land, it is far more valuable than left to 
plow under. The thin places need it, while the 
richer places do not. 
As to “ what he would better do with the 36 acres,” 
I will say that I have 48 acres from which I shall 
take the hay and seed, and feed hogs and sheep all 
the fall, selecting the thinnest, highest parts of the 
field to feed on. As soon as the seed is off, we begin 
to cut up green corn for feed. Hogs will eat the 
entire stalk until the corn hardens, and then we feed 
ears and pumpkins grown on an adjoining field. I 
Some Indiana Practices by I/If. I/If. Latta. 
How to treat any particular piece of ground in 1897 
to make it produce the largest crop of corn possible 
in 1898, no man knoweth ; the seasons are so variable, 
and the unexpected thing so often visits us. The 
conditions that would briDg the most success in a dry 
season, might ruin the crop if it was a wet one, etc. 
If the whole object is a big corn crop in 1898, I would 
say, do not touch the clover this year at all. Let it 
grow, go to seed, fall down and grow up again. This 
will secure the greatest growth of top and root pos¬ 
sible, will make a heavy mulch for the ground, and 
so lighten it to the greatest extent. Do not pasture 
or plow the ground at all this year, but in the spring 
of 1898, plow deep just before planting, work a good 
seed bed and plant, and if the season be not too dry, 
the best results will follow. If he wishes to plow 
this year and again in the spring of 1898, plow the 36 
acres in August with that intended for wheat, sow the 
36 acres to rye in September, do not pasture at all, 
but turn the rye under in the spring for the corn 
crop. Either of these ways will give the greatest 
results in root and top growth to turn 
under for the corn feeder. In this sec¬ 
tion, the first would be preferable. 
As to just what should be done to 
make this 36 acres the most profitable, 
would, with me, demand a very differ¬ 
ent answer. To make this ground 
the most profitable, I would not pas¬ 
ture or clip, but would let it alone 
until the seed is ripe, cutting when 
the first half of the seed is ready. I 
would hull the seed and scatter the 
straw and hulls back over the field. 
Then let it make all the growth it will, 
and plow for corn in the spring. In 
this way, we get the same root growth 
we would by the first process, and the 
same aftergrowth. If we put back the 
straw and hulls, we lose only the seed 
and a small portion of the top growth. 
The seed would yield here from three 
to five bushels per acre, and would cer¬ 
tainly be of more value than any loss 
to the corn crop of 1898, if, indeed, 
there would be any loss at all. The 
soil would suffer less than from the 
taking of a hay crop, because most of 
it is put back, and the aftergrowth 
would not go to seed. If the clover 
maggot should prove bad and destroy 
the plants in the fall, he would be 
ahead just a crop of seed that might 
easily prove of more value than any 
corn crop, and his chance for a full 
crop of corn be almost equal to that 
under other treatment. To take both 
hay and seed leaves the ground nearly 
bare of top during the winter, and 
benefits the land only by root growth, 
and that minus the loss of fertility by 
taking off two growths of top, which 
leaves nothing as a benefit. 
Noble County, Ind. 
