THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
FEB 22 
114 
In front stands the Elwood smoothing har¬ 
row ; the teeth are diamond-shaped, with 
one comer cut off so that in drawing it one 
way—as in dragging wheat in spring— 
it drags nothing up; and in drawing 
it the other way it cuts deep. Next 
comes the rubber made of five pieces 
of 4x4, strung on two one-inch iron 
rods, with eyes at the front end for 
hitching on a chain. You will know 
that this tool gives entire satisfaction, 
when I tell you that my neighbor (who 
owns a good plank rubber) has often bor¬ 
rowed this, claiming it did enough better 
work to pay. Then comes the Universal 
weeder, which has come to stay. The 
light harrow in front was used altogether 
before the Universal weeder was bought, 
but now it will get a rest except when 
there is a rush and there is danger of the 
weeds getting the start of us. Having the 
two, I do not calculate to do much work 
with the old hand hoe. 
At the right of this stands the Thompson 
grass-seeder, taking a very wide space and 
sowing the seed very evenly. Being so near 
the ground, one can work it evenly if the 
wind does blow somewhat. Next is the 
Jones of Binghamton standard 500-pouud 
scale. On the platform stands a smaller 
scale for finer work ; besides, I own an in¬ 
terest in a five-ton wagon scale, only a 
short distance from the place, and there is 
scarcely anything that passes to or from 
the farm, that is not weighed on one scale 
or the other. Next is a chest with a com¬ 
plete set of carpenter’s tools which should 
be on any farm. Behind this lie the two 
scrapers which I have found use for each 
year under the present road law. Still back 
of these are a pair of Planet Jr. cultivators 
with a basket of teeth of all sizes from 1% 
inch to the largest. Between them on the 
front stands a row of the teeth, but the sun 
shene so brightly that the different sizes 
are not shown. 
Next back are the double shovels which 
are not now used as much as heretofore, 
but they are sometimes needed yet. Near 
these stands a small drag made on the same 
principle as the Planet Jr., that will work 
any desired width to suit. This tool is used 
mostly in corn the last time through, 
especially on my flat lands, where I usual¬ 
ly sow turnips, and sometimes grass-seed 
in the corn. On this land I have never 
put a forkful of manure, and have never 
failed to get a large crop of corn, though 
sometimes the turnips bring more than the 
com crop. When it is in grass I seldom 
tail to get from two and one-half to three 
tons of Timothy hay per acre. The next 
we call the hay cart with a rope and horse 
fork. At haying time, the team is un¬ 
hitched from the load of hay and hitched 
to this cart, and any child can then drive 
the team, as there are no whiflletrees to be 
carried back. My wife has often driven 
the teams to be unloaded when we were 
short of help. In front stand a McGee 
garden cultivator, the Planet Jr. garden 
drill, the Great American lawn-mower, Har¬ 
ris’s bag-holder and truck, a corn-sheller, 
a wagon-jack, wood-pile tools, feed-cutter, 
Buckeye fertilizer, grain drill, an ad¬ 
justable marker, a grindstone and a boat 
that is many times brought in use about 
the farm. On this is a coil of rubber hose, 
75 feet long, that is tisedin filling the “bug- 
wagon,” and washing the cellar and also 
the carriage, when attached to the Buckeye 
force pump with a man or boy at the 
handle. Then come the cradle that is used 
only to cradle off the corners of the grain 
fields, and the scythe. There is but one 
ladder in the picture, the other and the 
step-ladder being used by the photographer 
to climb to the top of the tool-house from 
which this picture was taken. 
Now we come to the pole 30 feet long 
used for pulling out stumps. We cut off 
the outside roots and hook the end of the 
large chain, (the links are made of seven- 
eighth-inch round iron) around aroot, hitch 
the team to the other end and twist around 
the stump. You would be surprised at the 
amount of digging and chopping that can 
be saved by the use of this pole. I have 
twisted out four-year-old oak stumps rang¬ 
ing from two to four feet in diameter, 
averaging less than five minutes to the 
stump. On and in front of this pole are ar¬ 
ranged all sorts of small tools too numer¬ 
ous to be mentioned but all needed on our 
farms. 
To house all these tools I have been 
obliged to build a tool-house 80 by 50 feet, 
besides a separate building for all the plows 
and harrows. My farm is located in Lucas 
County, Ohio, on the L. S. & M. S. It. R., 
four miles west of Toledo. It consists of 93 
acres; 43 belonging to myself and 50 to my 
father; but I have the handling of the en¬ 
tire 93 acres. It must be evident to the 
readers that I have made farming pay, for 
otherwise I could not have bought and paid 
for all these tools, paying for the farm at 
the same time, all before I have reached 30 
years of age. 
fmrm Cffltwtraj. 
WHAT FERTILIZERS 
Would You Use on 
A NEW FARM 
ABOUT WHICH YOU KNOW LITTLE ? 
“ If you should move to a new farm 
so poor that It needed fertilizers, 
knowing but little of the soil and 
previous crops, and having only 
your past experience to guide 
you, what fertilizers or manures 
would you buy in order to ‘make 
farming pay?’ ” 
FROM GEO. T. POWELL: 
The question is a difficult one, for so 
many different circumstances enter into it. 
I have used superphosphate to improve 
poor land, but have found it a too costly 
aid for farm crops. If the land were sit¬ 
uated near a town or city where a large va¬ 
riety of fruits and vegetables could be 
marketed, then an outlay for such ferti¬ 
lizers as are high in potash, phosphoric 
acid and nitrogen, would be warranted; 
but if the land is to be devoted to general 
farming, I would take a certain number of 
acres at a time, and apply all of the stable 
manure that could be obtained; use un¬ 
leached wood ashes as freely as circum¬ 
stances would permit, and get clover as the 
cheapest, surest, and most practical means 
of increasing the fertility in the soil. I 
should feed the clover to stock, and pur¬ 
chase such foods as wheat-bran, cotton and 
linseed meal, rich in nitrogen and other 
elements of fertility, and in addition to 
their manurial value I would get a feeding 
profit from them, thereby reducing the 
cost of fertilizing to the lowest point. 
The foods must be selected according to 
the kind of stock kept, and the purposes 
for which it is wanted. Manures of all 
kinds should be applied to the surface. 
Nature’s plan is wise in that respect and 
we can profit by following it. As soon as 
a good growth of clover can be obtained 
the question of profitable farming is suc¬ 
cessfully solved, and the elements needed 
for the growth of clover are found in the 
best form and at the cheapest cost in wood 
ashes. 
Ghent, N. Y. 
FROM D. C. LEWIS. 
If I should jstart life on a new farm that 
had been impoverished by cultivation, I 
would ask my soil certain questions by ap¬ 
plying chemical fertilizers in different pro¬ 
portions First, I would study the charac¬ 
ter of the soil. If a sandy loam I would 
use a fertilizer higher in nitrogen and pot¬ 
ash ; if a clay loam I would use one with 
less nitrogen and potash and more phos¬ 
phoric acid. I have found that crops re¬ 
spond to phosphoric acid under all circum¬ 
stances. I would also like to purchase some 
stable manure if near at hand, and it could 
be purchased at a fair price. Then I would 
apply as good a superphosphate as I could 
purchase—one high in phosphoric acid— 
and would use it in conjunction with my 
stable manure. That, in my judgment, 
would bring up the soil to a fairly produc¬ 
tive condition in the quickest possible man¬ 
ner. After that I would use complete ma¬ 
nures—chemical—for each crop, and experi¬ 
ence has taught me I can enrich the soil 
so as to produce maximum crops with 
chemical fertilizers alone. If I could not 
buy stable manure, I would use complete 
chemical fertilizers with the nitrogen and 
potash higher or lower as the character of 
the soil would determine. 
On one occasion I made an experiment on 
a wheat crop as follows, using four pack¬ 
ages of 50 pounds each of chemicals in as 
soluble forms as possible. One package 
was complete in all the elements ; three had 
but two elements, one having been dropped 
from each package. During the early fall 
and spring we could see a difference where 
the nitrogen had been dropped out. The 
application was made with the drill before 
seeding, and great care was taken in mak¬ 
ing it. At harvest time the eye could not 
detect any difference in the yield, which 
taught us, as I believe, that that particular 
soil was not deficient in any particular ele¬ 
ment of plant food, and that I could apply 
a complete fertilizer in proper proportions 
and keep up the producing power of the 
soil for all crops included in the rotation of 
four or five years. 
Cranbury, N. J. 
FROM EDWARD F. DIBBLE. 
I would first select the fields that I 
wished to plant to oats, barley, corn, pota¬ 
toes and beans, and then consult my neigh¬ 
bors as to the soil and what had been raised 
thereon during the preceding three or four 
years, the method of cultivation of my pre¬ 
decessors, the amount of bushels of grain, 
or tons of hay per acre of each crop, etc. 
In fact, I would ask question after ques¬ 
tion and in that way acquire a fair knowl¬ 
edge as to the soils and the needs of differ¬ 
ent fields on the farm. If my neighbors 
say it is run down, worn out, then it 
needs all the elements of plant food and I 
should supply this need by feeding a com¬ 
plete fertilizer. A questioning tongue 
and retentive memory are considerable 
capital in such a case, as by their aid, 
experiments would to a great degree be un¬ 
necessary. As oats are peculiarly a north¬ 
ern grain, I would prepare my oat ground 
first and then sow the oats and superphos¬ 
phate with an Empire grain drill at 
the rate of 2>£ bushels of oats and 200 
pounds of superphosphate per acre. The 
“ superphosphate ” that I use is a complete 
manure, the foundation of which is bone, 
mixed with ammonia derived chiefly from 
blood, and potash in the form of a sulphate. 
Oats are not so deep-rooted as other cereals. 
They are surface feeders at first and need 
quick-acting manures. Ammonia should 
be furnished them more freely than to 
other grains, so as to give them a rapid 
start, with sufficient phosphoric acid and 
potash to fill out the head and stiffen the 
straw. The proportion of the ingredients 
should be as follows: ammonia three to 
four per cent., available phosphoric acid 
eight to 10 per cent., potash, sulphate, 1K to 
2% per cent. The supposition is, that this 
is a very poor field. If it was in even the 
average state of cultivation, I should not 
use over 125 pounds per acre of the fertil¬ 
izer, as an overdose is liable to “swamp” 
the crop. I would prepare my barley 
ground next and sow 200 pounds of the same 
superphoshate that I used on the oats, with 
two bushels of seed per acre. 
If there was enough yard manure on the 
farm to give my corn ground a fair coating, 
I would not use any manufactured fertili¬ 
zer at all. If not, I should select the high¬ 
est grade of corn manure. By “highest 
grade” I mean one that will analyze 
ammonia four percent., soluble phosphoric 
acid 10 per cent., potash six per cent., and 
drill it in at the rate of 400 pounds per 
acre just before marking. With potatoes 
a high-grade fertilizer is undoubtedly the 
best to use in most cases. I should drill it 
in before marking and furrowing, say, 400 
to 1,000 pounds per acre, according to the 
condition of the soil. If the potato ground 
was a good clover sod I would use a mix¬ 
ture of 250 pounds of muriate of potash and 
150 pounds of dissolved bone black per acre, 
believing that the decomposition of the 
clover would supply all the nitrogen need¬ 
ed. I would drill in with my beans 200 
pounds of superphosphate per acre (analy¬ 
sis : potash 10 per cent., phosphoric acid 
five to six per cent., and ammonia 1% to 
two per cent.) provided the field was in a 
very poor condition. If it was in a fair 
state of cultivation I would use only 100 
pounds per acre. The one essential in¬ 
gredient in a bean manure is potash, and on 
good soils I believe a satisfactory crop 
could be grown with potash alone. 
A year ago last spring, we bought a poor 
“ worn-out” farm. One field of 25 acres 
was naturally meadow-land ; 10 acres were 
under wheat and the other 15 were a Timo¬ 
thy-Quack sod. It had been mown for three 
or four years and the grass on it would not 
have paid for cutting and draw ing to the 
barn, so we summer-fallowed the 15 acres, 
plowing it in June and July. The 10 acres 
of wheat were so poor that we cut eight 
acres for hay, the Quack and green straw 
making a crop of fair quality. The two 
acres of wheat left yielded about 15 bushels 
per acre. As soon as possible after the 
wheat was taken off, the stubble was plow¬ 
ed and received the same culture as the 
rest of the field. We sowed the entU’e field 
to wheat about September 15, using two 
bushels of seed and 175 pounds of super¬ 
phosphate (analysis: ammonia three per 
cent., soluble phosphoric acid eight per 
cent., potash, sulphate, three per cent.) per 
acre. That field yielded 28 bushels per 
acre, and the catch of Timothy and clover 
is simply perfect. If I were going to put 
in wheat again on a “worn-out” field, I 
would practice the same treatment per¬ 
haps with a more liberal application of the 
fertilizer. 
There is no need that farmers should 
throw away much money on mistakes in 
the use of fertilizers in this day and genera¬ 
tion. If they study the chemistry ot soils 
and fertilizers, the reports of the experi¬ 
ment stations and the needs of the various 
crops, they are almost sure of success in se¬ 
lecting the fertilizers they need. I have 
learned that we do not want any phosphates 
with a South Carolina or any'other rock 
basis. Experiments are expensive and I 
w T ould let my rich neighbors make them 
to their hearts’ content. A simple test 
could be made by sowing four acres in al¬ 
ternate strips : on the 1st I would put com¬ 
plete superphosphate, on the2nd phosphoric 
acid and potash, on the 3d phosphoric acid 
and ammonia, and on the 4th no fertilizer, 
and note the results. No Eastern farmer is 
So poor or so rich that he can afford to do 
without manufactured fertilizers as the 
benefit to the second and third crops more 
than equals the cost of the fertilizer, leav¬ 
ing the help that it gives the crop it is sown 
with as a clear profit. 
Lima, N. Y. 
PRIZE BUTTER 
IN THE GRANITE STATE. 
NOTES FROM WINNERS. 
Shortly after the recent meeting of the 
Granite State Dairymen’s convention, the 
R. N.-Y. sent a note to the winners of prizes 
offered for the best butter in the various 
classes, asking for a complete history of the 
prize-taking samples. The following re¬ 
plies have been received: 
FROM R. B. ELLIS. 
My cows are high-grade Jerseys. They 
average 300 pounds per year. I feed early- 
cut hay—clover and Timothy—together 
with some ccrn-fodder, corn-meal and bran 
or middlings. In cold weather I warm the 
water they drink. They are fed three 
times a day—morning, noon and night. 
They are kept in a good, warm barn and 
are well bedded. I use no cotton-seed meal 
and no artificial coloring. The cream is set 
in small pans kept in the pantry in a tem¬ 
perature as near 60 degrees as possible. The 
milk stands from 24 to 36 hours I keep 
the cream till it is well cured ; it is sour 
when churued. I test the temperature of 
the cream with a thermometer and have it 
as near 60 degrees as I can when I put it 
into the churn. I am very particular to 
keep the pantry door closed when cooking 
vegetables. I use the Figler’s churn and 
Eureka butter-worker. I use an ounce of 
salt to a pound of butter. In regard to 
feeding grain, I give each cow five quarts a 
day of bran and corn-meal mixed half and 
half. 
Claremont, N. H. 
FROM J. P. WALLACE. 
The butter which took the second prize 
at the meeting of the Granite State Dairy¬ 
men’s Association was made under the fol¬ 
lowing conditions. My cows are grade 
Jerseys and will average about 800 pounds 
of butter per year. They are fed mixed 
hay twice in the morning and twice at 
night, with a fine feed of dry corn-fodder (no 
