i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
435 
tion of the phosphoric acid and potash 
necessary in this case would be impossible 
and irrelevant. We understand, moreover, 
that it is simply necessary to supply the 
soil with an appropriate surplus of these 
foods, and that this presents no great diffi¬ 
culty. The supply of the nitrogen, then, is 
the problem presented, and one requiring a 
different solution from that in the cases of 
potash and phosphoric acid. In this case 
we can and must calculate closely. We 
can, since we know that the entire nitrogen 
brought into the soil in the form of salt¬ 
peter and ammonia salts is at the dispo¬ 
sition of the plants; for the nitrogen in 
saltpeter (and also ammonia, after trans¬ 
formation to nitric acid) is not bound by 
the soil, but is as freely movable as the 
water of the soil. On the other hand, we 
must figure closely with tne nitrogen, and 
not apply it in surplus, because, first, nitro¬ 
gen is costly, and with it we cannot be 
extravagant; secondly, any nitrogen res¬ 
idue remaining in the soil during the win¬ 
ter months becomes lost; thirdly, a too 
ample supply of easily soluble nitrogen 
causes both an abnormal development of 
the crop, and also, under certain circum¬ 
stances,.a harvest of inferior quality. 
I believe now I have sufficiently explained 
the chief considerations suggested in the 
application of artificial manures. These 
may be summarized as follows: 
First. Artificial manures (phosphoric 
acid, potash, and nitrogenous fertilizers) 
can effect an increase of yield wnen all 
other factors are either temporarily or per¬ 
manently favorable. 
Second. Phosphoric acid and potash are 
to be stored in the soil until a surplus is 
present; that is, until an excess beyond 
the demands of the most exhaustive crops 
is supplied. 
Third. The nitrogen increasers (lupines, 
pease, clover, vetches, lucerne, etc.) need, 
under normal circumstances of cultivation, 
no fertilizing with nitrogen salts. Only on 
exceptionally poor soils can it be profitable 
to apply these, and in such cases the appli¬ 
cation should be small, and made during 
the first period of growth. This is for the 
purpose of bringing the plants, quickly and 
without disturbance, to that stage of devel¬ 
opment beyond which soil nitrogen is not 
needed, as the entire amount can be drawn 
from the air. 
Fourth. The nitrogen consumers (straw, 
hoed and oil crops, flax, hemp, tobacco, 
etc.) require nitrogen manuring; but the 
nitrogen must not be applied in surplus, 
only in quantities which careful computa¬ 
tion indicates necessary for a required in¬ 
creased yield of the crop in question. 
When a sufficient surplus of phosphoric 
acid is obtained, it should be held, but not 
increased. This is important especially in 
manuring with easily soluble phosphates. 
Such phosphates, after application to the 
soli in surplus, become, from year to year, 
less soluble; whereas surplus Thomas slag 
or bone meal becomes more soluble. It is 
therefore not necessary to be so cautious in 
applying the latter. They are cheaper, and 
gradually become more soluble; while dis¬ 
solved phosphates are dearer, and gradu¬ 
ally become less soluble. 
Phosphoric acid is said to make the 
plants more vivacious. This, however, is 
not quite pertinent. A plant manured with 
a surplus of phosphoric acid does not, in 
my opinion, live faster, but dies faster. 
(To be Continued.) 
THE LATEST AND BRIEFEST. 
The Educated Farmer.— At the grad¬ 
uation exercises of the Massachusetts Ag¬ 
ricultural College, Prof. Walker in his 
baccalaureate sermon, made a stirring ad¬ 
dress on the importance of the work of the 
educated farmer. “ Heretofore in all parts 
of the world,” he said, ** the farmer has 
been no match for his adversary; he has 
never held his own against the soldier or 
the priest, against the politician or the 
statesman. In ancient times he was the 
slave; in the Middle Ages the serf ; in the 
nineteenth century the slave, the serf, the 
peasant or the proprietor, according to lo¬ 
cation. American farmers as a class are 
face to face with a crisis. They have sub¬ 
dued a continent and furnished the raw 
material for our factories, bread for our op¬ 
eratives and manhood for our civilization. 
They have sustained the Nation’s credit 
with their hard-earned dollars, rescued en¬ 
dangered liberty with their conscientious 
ballots, and defended time and again the 
Stars and Stripes with their loyal blood. 
Vigorous in body, strong in character, 
striking in individuality, lovers of home, 
massive in common-sense, fertile in re¬ 
sources, devout believers in Providence, 
the farmers of America will never allow 
themselves to be overwhelmed by the fate 
that has sunk the tillers of the soil in India, 
in Egypt, in Europe. From all parts of 
this land farmers are coming together. 
Organization and cooperation are the won¬ 
derful ideas that have awakened them as 
never before. They are grasping hands 
with a grip that means something, compar¬ 
ing ways and means, uniting upon ends to 
be gained. They demand for themselves 
and their children an education equal to 
the best; they insist upon a fair share of 
the profits of American industry, claiming 
that no State can long exist in which the 
tillers of the soil bear most of the burdens 
and share little of the blessings of advanc¬ 
ing civilization. But they are in danger of 
making mistakes in the struggle, that shall 
turn back the progress of the movement. 
They demand leaders. To supply this de¬ 
mand is the imperative duty of the edu¬ 
cated farmer. Whatsoever of bodily vigor, 
mental power and moral heroism the edu¬ 
cated farmer may have acquired from 
ancestors, college or university, he will 
need that he may consecrate it to the great 
work of strengthening his brethren, the 
farmers of America, so that they shall ever 
remain an immovable foundation of this, 
the only Republic whose empire has not 
been rapidly undermined. 
A FEW weeks ago two suburban town 
neighbors, known to the agricultural editor 
of the N. Y. Tribune, paid for, at highest 
market price, a barrel each of apples, top¬ 
ped off with handsome specimens which 
they were assured were samples of the fruit 
all through, whereas in fact, three-fourths 
proved to be unfit for human use and only 
suitable for hog feed. The “ honest farmer” 
responsible for such swindling has the in¬ 
stincts of a rascal; would steal a pocket- 
book if he got the chance, and deserves to 
have his photograph, plainly labeled with 
name and residence, hung in the Rogues’ 
Gallery. 
W. F. Massey says, in the Weekly Press, 
that he has for years insisted that 
the only grass needed on American 
lawns is pure Kentucky Blue Grass. 
The much advertised lawn grass mix¬ 
tures are more profitable to the 
seedsman than to the planter. The bulk of 
most of these mixtures is Red-top, a poor 
grass for upland lawns. It can be bought 
in quantity for 50 cents per bushel, and 
when put into our own “special lawn grass 
mixture ” at $4 or §5 per bushel, makes a 
very handsome profit for the seedsman. 
Kentucky Blue Grass can now be had 
cleaner than he has ever before known it... 
4The R. N.-Y. has for at least 14 years 
advocated the use of both Red-top and 
Blue Grass for lawns—and these alone. It 
has condemned, during that period, the 
“lawn mixtures” simply because the 
varieties of which they are made up, which 
are not one or the other or both of the 
above, are inferior to them, while the prices 
charged are nearly double. We can not 
agree with Mr. Massey that Red top is a 
poor grass for upland lawns. We can show 
him a fine lawn of one-tenth of an acre—a 
decidedly upland lawn too—that is chiefly 
Red-top and it is about 16 years old, has 
never been reseeded or manured. 
He also insists that the cut grass, after 
the lawn-mower has passed over the lawn, 
should be raked off at once. Why ? There 
are several good reasons why it should not 
be raked off and not one that the R. N.-Y. 
knows of why it should be. 
Prof. S. W. Johnson says that the lodg¬ 
ing of cereal crops is demonstrated to re 
suit from too close a stand and too little 
light, which occasion a slender and delicate 
growth, and is not perceptibly influenced 
by the presence or absence of silica. Silica, 
however, if not necessary to the life of the 
cereals, appears to have an important 
office in their perfect development under 
ordinary circumstances. Kreuzhage & 
Wolff have carefully studied the relations 
of silica to the oat plant, using the method 
of water-culture. In a series of nine trials 
in 1880, where, other things being equal, 
much silica, little silica and no silica were 
supplied, the numbers of seeds produced 
were 1,428, 1,089 and 715 respectively, the 
corresponding weights being 46, 34 and 23 
grains. The total crop yielded 196, 172 and 
168 grains respectively ; so that while the 
weight of seed was doubled in presence of 
abundant silica, the total crop (dry) was 
increased in weight one-sixth. The supply 
of silica was accompanied with an abso¬ 
lutely diminished root formation as well 
as by relatively increased seed production.. 
Sachs found that maize-seedlings, vege¬ 
tating in solutions free from iron, had 
their first three or four leaves green, 
several following these white at the base, 
the tips being green, and afterward 
perfectly white leaves unfolded. On add¬ 
ing a few drops of sulphate or chlor¬ 
ide of iron to the nourishing medium, the 
foliage was plainly altered within 24 hours 
and in three or four days the plant acquired 
a deep, lively green. Being afterwards 
transferred to a solution destitute of iron, 
perfectly white leaves were again developed, 
and these were again brought to a normal 
color by again adding iron. 
E. Gris was the first to trace the reason. 
By microscopic studies he found that, in 
the absence of iron, the protoplasm of the 
leaf-cells remains a colorless or yellow 
mass, destitute of visible organization. 
Under the influence of iron, grains of 
chlorophyl begin at once to appear and pass 
through the various stages of normal de¬ 
velopment. We know that the power of the 
leaf to decompose carbonic acid gas resides 
in the cells that contain chlorophyl. We 
see at once, then,that in the absence of 
iron, which is essential to the formation of 
chlorophyl, there can be no proper growth. 
ABSTRACTS. 
-Prof. S. W. Johnson : “ Agriculture 
was practiced hundreds and thousands of 
years ago with a success that does not com¬ 
pare unfavorably with ours. Nearly all 
the essential points of modern cultivation 
were practiced by the Romans before the 
Christian Era. The annals of the Chinese 
show that their wonderful skill and knowl¬ 
edge were in use at a vastly earlier date.” 
“ Theory, in the strict, scientific sense, 
is always a deduction from facts, and the 
best deduction of which the stock of iacts 
in our possession admits. It is therefore 
also the interpretation of facts. It is the 
expression of the ideas which facts awaken 
when submitted to a fertile imagination 
and well-balanced judgment. A scientific 
theory is intended for the nearest possible 
approach to the truth. Theory is con¬ 
fessedly imperfect; because our knowledge 
of facts is incomplete, our mental insight 
weak and our judgment fallible.” 
-Col. Curtis, in the Country Gentle¬ 
man : “If you buy a model ham, it will be 
one-third or one-half fat. This is cut away 
or not eaten, and the result is that the 
edible part of the ham costs 30 cents or 
more a pound. When pigs, beeves, or sheep 
are fed on the nitrogenous foods, there is 
no such excess of fat, and it is not piled up 
or loaded upon the outside of the body, but 
is distributed between the muscles and 
tissues, and we get marbled meats, juicy 
and palatable, and good food. I would not 
fatten animals for food for myself and my 
friends on corn. If fools wanted fat meat, 
I would feed them on fool’s food—corn—and 
let them live on candles and grease. Feed 
bran, linseed meal, or oats and middlings, 
with grass and clover hay, and you will get 
more meat and better meat.” 
Pi.scfUancou.s guU-mising, 
Advertisers treat all correspondents 
well if they mention the Rural New- 
Yorker. 
Good 
As Gold 
So enthusiastic are thousands of people over the 
benefits derived from Hood's Sarsaparilla, that they 
can hardly find words to express their contldenee in 
and gratitude for this medicine. •• Worth its weight 
in gold!” is a favorite expression of these warm 
friends. 
If you are in need of a good medicine to purify 
your blood, build up your strength, cure dyspepsia, 
or create an appetite, try 
Hood’s Sarsaparilla 
Sold by all druggists. *1; six for $5. Prepared only 
by C. 1. HOOD & CO., Lowell, Mass, 
IOO Doses One Dollar 
Stops Pain, Cramps, Inflammation in body or limb, 
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era Morbus, Diarrhoea. Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Lame- 
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35 cts. post-paid. L S. JOHNSON it CO., Boston, Mass. 
I Piso’s Remedy for Catarrh is the 
Best, Easiest to Use, and Cheapest. 
. CATARRH 
■ Sold by druggists or sent by mail. 
50c. E. T. Bazeltine, Warren, Ta. 
BEECHAM’S PILLS 
(THE GREAT ENGLISH REMEDY.) 
Cure BILIOUS and 
Nervous ILLS. 
25cts. a Box. 
OK 1 ALL DRUGGISTS. 
CONTINENTAL. 
DISK, ft PULVERIZER, 
THE BEST IS THE CHEAPEST. 
Your land will be hard and need thorough culti¬ 
vation fur the next crop. You will prepare for seed 
ing with less labor if you use our Pulverizer. 
LABOR SAVED IS MONEY. 
You can get larger returns by using tbe Continental. 
Larger crops mean more cash. Send for prices and 
circular, "How to Buy Direct.” 
THE JOHNSTON HARVESTER 00., BA S A I IA 
TOC WANT "THE TOWER TOC 
PON T HAVE TO CLIMB, AND 
THE WIND-MILL THAT RCN8 
WHEN ALL OTHERS STAND 
STILL,” send for our printed mat¬ 
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Everlasting Steel Wheel 
work considered) co«t» only one- 
what, a wooden one does.while 
the Tlllinsr Tower is not expensive. 
AERMOTOR CO. 
110 and 112 S. Jefferson Street, 
Chicago, Ill., U. S. A. 
ENSILAGE 
FEED CUTTERS 
AND 
The wide, open Throat and improved 
Feeding Device give our ma¬ 
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We are the or 
naiors of the 
Fly Wheel, and have 
the best one in use. 
Catalogue of Cutters 
and Powers including 
Treatise on Ensilage 
and Plan for Silo,Free. 
SILVER A DKMl.Nii HAJi’FfiCO., SALEM, OHIO. 
Pennsylvania Agricultural Works, York, Pa.' 
Farqahar’a Standard Engines and Saw Hills. 
Bend for Catalogue. Portable, Sta¬ 
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4ddre«« A. B. FABQUHAB A SON. Tn-V P- 
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Guaranteed to press three tons moreofhayinone 
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J. A. SPENCER, Dwight, Ill. 
"I advise ail parents to have their boys and girls 
taught shorthand writing and type-writing. A stenog¬ 
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from poverty than a great Greek scholar.”— Charles 
Reade, on “ The Coming Man.” 
REMINGTON STANDARD TYPEWRITER. 
WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, New Tort. 
For Fifteen Years the Standard, and to-day the most 
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FOR ORCHARDISTS 
AND ANY OTHERS WHO USE LADDERS. 
The MANAHAN LADDER HOOK 
is a convenient device to be attached to the top of 
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Regular Price, 81 per Set; my Price, 50 
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N, E, FELLOWS* 5ox 4. Teoafly, N, J, 
