THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
MARCH’8 
i5o 
fiffrmg SLmmuls, 
Feeding Buckwheat Straw 
IS IT OF ANY YALUE ? 
“Is buckwheat straw worth any- 
- . thing as a food for stock? If so, 
how should it be cured, housed 
arid fed ? ” 
This question was referred to fanners 
who live in buckwheat-growing districts. 
Here are their answers : 
FROM WM. O. LITTLE. 
There is more good in buckwheat straw 
than some suppose if they have not tried it. 
I have fed it with good results to milch 
cows. Having ceased feeding corn-fodder, 
I tried the straw. My cows gave more 
milk on it than on the corn. I would 
rather have it to feed than oat-straw. It 
should be well cured, and when put away 
sprinkled with plenty of salt. The cows 
like it treated in this way. I feed two 
quarts of corn-meal per day, with the 
straw, to each cow. I always give the 
straw the last thing at the night feeding. 
I used to think it was of no use and threw 
it out-of-doors when thrashing, using it for 
manure only; but I get a great advantage 
by feeding it, besides getting manure. Now 
I take as good care of it as of my hay, and 
I think it„will pay'any farmer to do.like- 
wise. 
Delaware Couuty, N. Y. 
FROM C. M. PRESTON. 
Farmers do not, as a general rule, feed 
buckwheat straw to any kind of farm stock 
with satisfactory results. Sometimes one 
will starve his cattle so as to compel them 
to eat it and by its use try to eke out other 
feed; but I don’t think such men get much 
satisfaction. Cows and young stock like it 
best. In feeding it most farmers make a 
pen in the barn-yard and stack the straw 
in it and then let the cattle pull it out or 
“steal” it. Generally it is cut with a 
cradle, but some that have reapers cut 
with them. It is raked into gavels or 
sheaves and set up on the butts and bound 
near the top, and left there to dry or cure 
until it is fit for thrashing. The most sat¬ 
isfactory uses I have ever made of straw 
that hasn’t been fed out, has been as 
bedding for stock, etc., and as an absor¬ 
bent. It is generally thought to be the 
poorest straw raised. 
Delaware County, N. Y. 
FROM JAMES BEVERLY. 
I do not think much of buckwheat straw 
as feed for any kind of stock. Cows and 
sheep like to nibble a little at a stack. We 
cut it with a cradle, rake it in bundles or 
stooks, and set it up in single bundles until 
dry enough to thrash. We use it for cov¬ 
ering strawberry beds to protect them from 
frost in winter, leaving it to keep the ber¬ 
ries from the ground when ripe. I don’t 
think it good bedding for animals. It is 
generally used for manure in this neighbor¬ 
hood. The grain is mostly ground into 
flour and sold in 25-pound sacks. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
FROM G. W. BROWN. 
Some farmers put the straw in the yard 
to be converted into manure as fast as pos¬ 
sible ; but the majority use it as bedding. 
It is usually cut with a cradle, and of late, 
the reaper has been often used for that 
purpose. It is thrown into gavels and set 
up, and bound near the top. If possible, it 
should be cut before frost. When thorough¬ 
ly cured, it is thrashed. 1 have usually 
stacked the straw in the yard, where the 
cattle and sheep could get to it. All kinds 
of stock like it. I have frequently told 
farmers that if it were as well cured as 
other kinds of straw, it would be better 
than any of them. I frequently throw a 
little salt on the edge of the stack, and be¬ 
fore spring, the stack is all eaten cleaner than 
any other straw. Still I would not con¬ 
fine any kind of stock to that feed alone. 
Tioga County, N. Y. 
FROM RUSHTON SMITH. 
With us little or no value is attached to 
buckwheat straw as food for stock. It is 
usually stacked in yards or thrown out as 
litter to be trodden under foot and thus 
converted into manure. It is said that 
about the only way to induce stock to eat 
it is to stack it in a field where cattle run; 
build a loose pen around it and “ dog ” the 
animals away from it for a few days until 
they come to regard it as “forbidden 
fruit,” when they will return, push the 
pen down and devour the stack. Buck¬ 
wheat is here usually put up in small rolls 
and left standing in the field until cured, 
when it is drawn and thrashed directly 
from the field, though sometimes stored in 
barns till cold weather. It often proves a 
comparatively remunerative crop, though 
it is sometimes scorched by the sun at one 
period of its growth, or damaged by frost 
at another. 
Tioga County, N. Y. 
fklir Cr0|is. 
ft am the iluvut (Irvoumlo. 
CONTINUATION OF TESTS OF NEW 
POTATOES. 
Alaska, from O. H. Alexander, Char¬ 
lotte, Vermont. Six pieces planted and 
yielded 19 pounds, or at the rate of 766.33 
bushels to the acre. There were 53 large, 
48 small. Straggle a little. Shapely, ob¬ 
long, somewhat flattened, buff color, few 
eyes, not prominent. Probably medium to 
late. This would probably have been a fine 
yield in a favorable season. The illustra¬ 
tion, Fig. 47, is from nature. 
Harbinger, from George W. P. Jerrard, 
Caribou, Maine. One potato (a small tuber) 
planted. Vines heavy, flower green. The 
yield was 10 large and nine small— 3% 
pounds, or at the rate of 786,50 bushels to 
the acre. Long, cylindrical, often bent or 
curved. Eyes medium in number and 
prominence. Buff color. Mr. Jerrard 
claimed this to be “ a mildew and rust-proof 
variety of wonderful promise.” 
Corona Beauty, J. M. Thorburn & Co., 
15 John Street, N. Y. Six pieces. Shape 
resembles somewhat the R. N.-Y. No. 2. 
The vines were struck with blight before 
the tubers matured. It is probably a late 
kind. Yield 16X pounds, all small to me¬ 
dium, or at the rate of 655.41 bushels to the 
acre. A promising variety. 
Howe’s Premium, from G. D. Howe. 
North Hadley, Mass. Can not say as to 
earliness on account of blight. Two pieces 
yielded 12 large and seven small tubers, 
Peachblow shape, roundish, irregular, as 
shown in Fig. 46, from nature. Eyes 
rather deep, purplish. Skin buff with some 
pink. Yield G% pounds, or 786.50 bushels 
to the acre. 
Two hills (whole seed) were planted of a 
seedling of the Garnet Chili from Mr. 
Howe. Streaked and blotched with dark 
purple. Eyes many, but not so deep as the 
old Garnet Chili. Elliptical, flattened. All 
small to medium. Yield 3% pounds, or 
453.75 bushels per acre. 
Coy’s No. 88 now offered as Superior by 
W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Second year’s trial. Two pieces yielded 18 
large, 10 small—6^ pounds, or 725.55 
bushels per acre. Shape, rather long. 
Cylindrical, eyes not deep, skin buff. This 
is a late potato of excellent quality. 
Early White Ohio from T. C. Daven¬ 
port, 124 Dock Street, Philadelphia. Very 
early, light buff Bkin, shapely, few eyes, 
not prominent, medium in length, oblong- 
flattened. Four pieces yielded 42 larg e, 80 
small tubers weighing 11 V Y pounds or 680.62 
bushels to the acre. 
Eyeless from Iowa Seed Company. 
Yield at the rate of 282.33 bushels to the 
acre. Nearly all small. Nearly “eyeless,” 
that is, the eyes are few, very small and 
level with surface. Smooth, kidney shape. 
Seneca Beauty from J. C. Vaughan, 
Chicago, Ill. The pieces yielded 22 large 
and 33 small, weighing 7% pounds or 605 
bushels to the acre. Eyes not deep, 
roundish-oblong. This seems a different 
potato from the next. 
Seneca Beauty from A. W. Living¬ 
ston’s Sons, Columbus, Ohio, and Philip 
H. Bork, Tiffin, Ohio. These pieces yielded 
5J£ pounds or 425.50 bushels to the acre. 
Pink eyes, pinkish-buff skin, roundish-ob¬ 
long. Eyes medium in number and prom¬ 
inence. Sixteen large and 17 small. 
Starr’s Beauty, from D. A. Starr, Un- 
casville, Conn. “A sport from Early Rose.” 
Two pieces yielded 12 large, 12 small—five 
pounds, or 605 bushels to the acre. Not a fa¬ 
vorable shape for market—long, tapering, 
cylindrical, pink in color, few eyes. 
Early Standard, from A. W. Livington’s 
Sons, Columbus, O. Three pieces yielded 
10 of fair size, 44 small—pounds, or 302.50 
bushels to the acre. Buff skin, irregular 
shape, few eyes, not deep. 
Early Market, from James Vick, Roch¬ 
ester New York. Three pieces yielded nine 
of fair size, 20 small. Eyes medium in 
depth and number. Pinkish-buff skin, 
roundish-oblong. Three pounds—242 bush¬ 
els to the acre. The vines were destroyed 
by the flea-beetle and blight so that this re¬ 
port is really of no value whatever. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
IIemstreet’s No. 1, from Isaac H. Hem- 
street, East Aurora, N. Y., yielded at the 
rate of 211.75 bushels to the acre. It is a 
seedling of Thorburn’s Late Rose. Irreg¬ 
ular shape, eyes rather deep, buff color. 
No Name, from Wm. Beninger, Walnut- 
port, Pa., yielded at the rate of 564.66 bush¬ 
els to the acre. Irregular shape. 
Oneida Beauty, from Rodney Wood,. 
Trenton, N. Y., yielded 413.41. Interme¬ 
diate. Pink color, long, cylindrical. Eyes, 
medium. 
Boley’s Northern Spy from Sam’l L. 
Wilson, Mechanicsville, Pa. Buff, shaded 
with pink about eyes, irregular shape. 
Surface “hilly.” Not desirable for mar¬ 
ket. Weight overlooked. 
Lady of London from A. W. Livingston’s 
Sons, Columbus, O. Probably very early. 
Peachblow shape. Eyes and depressions 
prominent. Skin white. Three pieces yielded 
pounds or 665.55 bushels to the acre. 
Seedling of Rose from L. Van Ohlsen, 
Nanuet, N. Y. Irregular shape, color of 
Rose. Yield of three pieces 5% pounds or 
443.66 bushels to the acre. 
Eight new varieties were received from 
J. W. Baker, Tiskilva, Ill., and planted. 
As they were sent under numbers, the re¬ 
sults would be of little interest to our 
readers. 
Other varieties without names were re¬ 
ceived from A. S. Wayne, Roscommon,. 
Mich., and S. Frogner, Herman, Minn. 
remarks. 
It is needless to inform our readers that, 
the above reports are valueless or nearly so. 
They are published chiefly for the purpose 
of showing our friends that the R. N.-Y 
performed its duty towards those who sent 
potatoes here for trial and report. The fail¬ 
ure was entirely beyond our control. The 
season was the wettest ever known and 
every variety was more or less injured 
either by the flea-beetle, blight or both. 
The system of cultivation was that prac¬ 
ticed for the last 12 years on this plot, viz., 
the Rural Trench. 
GROWING A GOOD CORN CROP. 
B. F. MOREHEAD. 
A yield of 115 bushels to the acre that 
didn't get the prize; variety; cultiva¬ 
tion ; soil and season. 
Wm. Henry Maule, of Philadelphia, 
stated in his catalogues that he would pay 
$200 cash for the largest yield of his Masto¬ 
don Corn raised on one acre from seed pur¬ 
chased from him in 1889. I bought half a 
bushel and planted 1 }4 acre and weighed 
from that area 174bushels of corn,counting 
70 pounds of ears to the bushel, averaging 
115 bushels to the acre. 
Two reliable men weighed and meas¬ 
ured the corn and measured the land 
on November 1, and I sent in my 
report to Mr. Maule on November 2, 
but I have never heard from him and 
so do not know who got the premium. 
The preceding December I plowed an old, 
sod, principally Orchard or Cock’s-foot 
Grass, about six inches deep, but applied no 
manure of any kind: it was allowed to lie un¬ 
til April 1. then harrowed six times with 
double A iron-frame, hinged-harrow with 
%-inch steel teeth quite sharp, which pul¬ 
verized the land about 3% or four inches 
deep, then it was furrowed one way, by 
stakes, three feet wide. The corn was 
dropped dry by hand on April 15 without 
plaster or anything else, the kernels being 
14 inches apart and three or four grains in 
a place. When it came up I plowed it over 
when it was from one to two inches up 
with a Brown double cultivator, with a nar¬ 
row coulter-bit next to the corn, then all 
the weeds were removed with the hoe. 
About the 20th of May I thinned all the hills 
to one stalk and where any hills were miss¬ 
ing I transplanted others there with a gar¬ 
den spade and got a perfect stand. I then cul¬ 
tivated twice more very shallow with broad, 
short shovels, getting farther from the 
corn each time so as not to disturb the roots, 
and I never interfered with the sod in the 
least. I stopped cultivation June 15, and 
went over it only once in July and removed 
all suckers. 
The season was too wet. The land is a 
black, loose, gravelly loam with a good 
clay subsoil. It had been mowed and grazed 
for many years. The corn was very large 
—some ears weighing 2% pounds; the cob 
was very large also, and the kernels very 
long and deep, and, upon the whole, I think 
it was a good corn for stock. Some ears 
had over 1,400 grains. It was a reasonably 
early variety. It matured and was cut off 
and Shocked on September 12. I shall plant 
it this year. The grain is pale-yellow at 
the ends and deep, rich yellow on the sides. 
My main crop was Learning Corn and 
averaged 50 bushels to the acre. 
I rarely fail to get a yield of 20 bushels 
of wheat to the acre, and sometimes I get 
as much as 28. I use 300 pounds of South 
Carolina dissolved phosphate to the acre 
after corn. Ours has been a grazing coun¬ 
try. But little is made by that business 
now owing to the low prices; but it is still 
followed. This county has as fine Short¬ 
horns as can be found in any part of the 
world, and also some very fine specimens 
of imported Percheron horses. As the Rtf- 
ral New-Yorker has increased my profits 
in farming very much, especially on my 
potato crop,and as it teaches improved meth¬ 
ods of caring for stock of all kinds, I expect 
to be a subscriber just as long as it keeps 
up to its present standard and I live. 
Pulaski County, Ya. 
Rotation of Crops.— Much as has been 
written concerning the proper rotation of 
crops, the problem seems as far from solu¬ 
tion as ever. The amount of land owned 
generally determines the class of crops to 
be raised upon It, and here again it requires 
a knowledge of the chemical composition 
of the soil intelligently to choose a rotation 
of crops that will prove most profitable. 
Let agricultural chemists tell us, plain 
country farmers, how to analyze our soils, 
instead of telling how this or that soil 
should be treated, and a foundation for 
profitable farming will have been laid. 
T. T. 
HOWE’S PREMIUM POTATO. From Nature. Fig. 46. 
