478 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
TULY 26 
from a spring or well it should be exposed to the influence 
of sun and air some hours before the animals drink it, as 
it is the icy coldness of such water that is injurious The 
best way to attend to this is to fill up the drinking trough 
each time after the animals are watered. 
WHEAT IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
Can we Compete with the West? Yes! 
The R. N.-Y. recently sent to a number of excellent 
farmers in Western New York the following questions : 
1. When and how do you sow fertilizers—Droadca t 
or drilled in ? With the wheat or with some other crop ? 
How much does it pay you to use ? 
2. On what crops do you use stable manure ? When is 
it applied? Are fertilizers best used in connection with 
manure or alone? Can you raise wheat successfully 
without fertilizers? Can you trace the effects of ferti¬ 
lizers beyond one season? 
3. Will fertilizers enable you to compete with the West 
at wheat growing, or must farmers in our section take 
up som e new money crop ? 
From the many excellent replies sent us the following 
typical ones are printed. These tell the story better than 
we could, but a few comments may not be out of place. It 
will be seen that these wheat growers do not follow the re¬ 
markable system in vogue at Cranbury, N. J. At that 
place wheat follows potatoes. The fertilizer is applied to 
the potatoes and the wheat feeds on what they leave. On 
the farms mentioned in the following notes the fertilizer 
is applied directly to the wheat. With the potatoes at 
Cranbury, at least 1,500 pounds per acre must be used, 
while with the Western New York farmers, 400 pounds, 
with the wheat, is considered a very heavy dressing. The 
potatoes yield a crop large 
enough to pay for the large 
dressing of fertilizer, so that 
the wheat and grass which 
follow are almost clear profit. 
Doubtless the Cranbury sys¬ 
tem would not answer so well 
for Western New York where 
the farms are larger and the 
haul to market is too long 
and rough to make potatoes 
as profitable as they are with¬ 
in 50 miles of New York. It 
is encouraging to learn that 
these farmers have decided 
from experience that the only 
profitable way to use fertil¬ 
izers is “ to use lots of them.” 
It is also encouraging to see 
that careful farmers know 
that fertilizers are not “ leach¬ 
ed out of the soil ” after the 
first season, but that their 
effects are plainly visible in 
succeeding crops. Are the fer¬ 
tilizer drills entirely satisfac¬ 
tory ? There is a demand for 
drills that will sow a heavier 
dressing of fertilizer, partic¬ 
ularly as some of the brands 
of fertilizers used on wheat 
are too coarse for the usual 
drill. It will be noticed that 
observant farmers know that 
the fertilizer used with the 
wheat insures a better seeding 
to Timoihy and clover. This 
is important when we con¬ 
sider that hundreds of farmers believe that the wheat crop 
would represent a loss if they did not consider its superior 
value as a seeding crop with which to start the grasses. 
Effects Traced For Years. 
1 . A complete bone fertilizer (Crocker’s) having from 
to 3X per cent, of ammonia, 10 to 12 per cent, of phos¬ 
phoric acid, with potash, has proved the most effective for 
wheat in this immediate vicinity 2. We drill the fertilizer 
in with the wheat. The amount used depends on the fer¬ 
tility of the soil; generally about 200 pounds per acre give 
good results. I have used 400 pounds per acre on a field 
cropped to oats two years in succession, and it paid well. 
3. Our stable manure is generally used in our orchards and 
for corn. If hauled and spread in the fall or winter it gives 
better results than when spread just before plowing for 
corn. We cannot raise wheat successfully without fertil¬ 
izers. A number of fields sown this last season without 
fertilizers will not produce much more than the seed. One 
can trace the effects of a good fertilizer more than one 
season in the hay crop following, and it pays well in seed¬ 
ing down, not only insuring a better catch, but an increase 
of the hay crop. A yeomans. 
“Wheat Indispensable In my Rotation.” 
1. Tfie better grades of ammoniated goods have proved 
the most satisfactory. I drill 200 pounds or more of 
fertilizers to the acre with wheat in the fall, aud on barley 
and oats I use from 150 to 200 pounds, sowed in the same 
way. 2 . I use stable manure on hoed crops, and apply it 
principally in the spring, but any that may be left over, 
and the scrapings of the yards, I scatter thinly over the 
land prepared for wheat, before sowing in the fall, in 
places where it is most needed. I think fertilizers good in 
either case; but the best results are obtained by using 
them in connection with barn-yard manure. I cannot 
raise wheat successfully without fertilizers. I can plainly 
trace the effects of fertilizers on the wheat and the two 
grass crops succeeding, where the land was seeded, mak¬ 
ing three crops about equally benefited. 3. I do not know 
that fertilizers would enable us to compete with the West 
in raising wheat exclusively; but as a factor in the rota¬ 
tion of crops wheat is indispensable, as after that crop we 
have the best success in seeding, and the hay and forage 
crops are quite as important as either of the others in the 
rotation. My rotation is for five years: First, corn and 
potatoes, with barn-yard manure plowed under; second, 
oats and barley, with fertilizer ; third, wheat, with fertil¬ 
izer, followed by two crops of hay. This does not impov¬ 
erish the soil, but rather improves it. J AMES HARRIS. 
Penfield. 
Fertilizers Help The Grass. 
The Bradley Sea Fowl guano has proved the best fertilizer 
for use, in this section, and is very popular with those who 
use the best brands. I sow all of ray fertilizers with the 
wheat as well as with all other grains with the drill, and 
use 250 pounds on wheat and spring grains. I think it pays 
better than to use less. I use stable manure on corn, and 
top dress on wheat all that I have left, using it in connec¬ 
tion with 200 pounds of B. D. guano. I should not want to 
try to raise wheat without guano. I find the fertilizer 
sown on wheat is a great help to my grass crops. I am now 
cutting hay that will weigh three tons per acre. There is 
not much encouragement in raising grain at present prices 
and so I have turned my attention to raising trotting and 
draft horses and find it pays. w. L. EASTMAN. 
Ovid. 
Clover Gets What Wheat Leaves. 
I use Bradley, Bowker and Lister fertilizers. They are 
all good. I use 100 pounds with 100 pounds of plaster per 
acre, in the spring, on all my crops, and 200 to 300 pounds 
on wheat. The more I use the better the clover. I drill in 
all except that used with potatoes and in the garden. I 
am using more and more on my wheat, as what the 
wheat does not require will help the clover. I use stable 
manure on my orchard, sowed corn and potatoes, and what 
is left on the corn. Its effects are best when it is applied 
in the fall. If I had manure to use on wheat I would put 
it on the poor spots, and sow fertilizer all over the field. 
I do not try to raise wheat without fertilizer, except on 
rich fields near the barn. I can see the effect of “ phos¬ 
phate” on clover for two years or more. I believe in sav¬ 
ing all the farm-yard manure I can, and seeding after 
wheat, and then when I lack I use fertilizer. The farmers, 
as a general rule, use 200 pounds per acre on wheat. I am 
in dead earnest about the use of fertilizer, as my nickname 
is “ Phosphate Fox.” We are commencing to raise to¬ 
bacco, and phosphate helps start that crop and fix it up. 
If one has a lot too poor to raise wheat the use of “ phos¬ 
phate ” will help to make a good crop of clover, and a good 
many farmers say that it pays in the seeding. 
Butler Center. Andrew j. fox. 
“ Too Little Is False Economy.” 
I use a fertilizer containing ammonia, phosphoric acid 
and potash. While I conceive that one or the other of these 
elements under certain circumstances might be left out, it 
is safer to apply them all. I have personally used 
and carefully observed the use by my neighbors of many 
different brands, and for certain uniform and satisfactory 
results I give preference to Bradley’s. I use fertilizers 
with the wheat by drilling them together, thus furnishing 
Immediate and easily-available food for the plant, and 
therein is the chief advantage of a commercial fertilizer 
over barn-yard manure: the wheat obtains a deeper, 
stronger root to endure the winter. We use fertilizers on 
almost all our crops, especially on barley, which is largely 
raised. One of our malsters told me a year ago, that the 
quality of Cayuga barley had been largely improved by the 
use of fertilizers; that prior to their use it was only occa¬ 
sionally that barley weighed more than 48 pounds to the 
bushel; but since their use it weighed from 48 to 54 pounds. 
An average of 50 pounds was common, I remember when 
30 bushels to the acre was considered a large yield, while 
40 bushels now are not uncommon, and sometimes 50 
bushels per acre. 
1. I do not know how much It will pay us to use. We sel¬ 
dom use over 200 pounds to the acre ; indeed, many kinds 
that are on the market, especially the cheap, plain bone 
fertilizers, are not in such a condition that our grain drills 
can sow evenly more than 200 pounds. I do not know of a 
test having been made, and then the condition of the soil 
so varies that a test would only be of limited value. My 
observation would lead me to think that our caution not 
to sow too much is false economy. We use barn-yard 
manure principally on corn. It is applied in the winter as 
fast as made or early in spring, then plowed under. “ Are 
fertilizers best used in connection with manure or alone t ” 
Doubtless in connection with manure. Manure from the 
barn yard or coarse manure has a mechanical value in 
loosening the soil and absorbing excessive wet. But fer¬ 
tilizers have a value, say for the corn crop, that barn-yard 
manure has not. The barn-yard manure plowed under the 
sod is not immediately available, while the fertilizer 
drilled in with the corn is plant food ready for the rootlets, 
and hence the crop will be started 10 days earlier on ac¬ 
count of the “ phosphate,” and those 10 days in our short 
seasons may save, indeed often do save, a crop from the 
frost. 
2. Some years since I used fertilizers in sowing my wheat, 
and at the same time seeded with Timothy. I shut off 
the fertilizer through the center of the field across and 
back. At wheat harvest there was a little straggling 
wheat and weeds on that strip, and as long as that field 
was in meadow it was distinctly marked in the grass; it 
looked like a road through the field. 
3. This is a hard question to answer. I feel quite confident 
that if we do not already, we soon shall, through drainage, 
better cultivation and higher 
_*---fertilizing, outstrip the North¬ 
west in our yields of wheat 
per acre. In that sense we can 
compete, yet the question 
whether we can afford to raise 
wheat or must take up some 
new crop to get our money is 
unanswered. The great North¬ 
west must raise wheat and the 
Southwest must raise corn to 
export, and the price of wheat 
will be fixed in Europe, where 
the surplus is to be sold and 
the price there will be fixed 
by the supply in the world, 
including America as a lead¬ 
ing, but by no means the only, 
source of supply. We are not 
selling our wheat in western 
New York to-day, because the 
Northwest can raise aud ship 
it here, and sell it at that price 
at a profit; but because of the 
market price of our wheat at 
Liverpool. We cannot afford 
to raise wheat at less than one 
dollar per bushel, aud should 
raise what, if possible, has a 
paying value in our home 
market. E. B. marvin. 
Auburn. 
Grain,Grass, Stock, Fruit, 
all well Tended. 
1 . I use fertilizers on wheat 
in September, drilled in— 
about 200 pounds per acre— 
and when the ground is prop¬ 
erly UDderdrained, one is sure of a good crop. I then seed 
to clover and Timothy, and the grass crop is always very 
heavy. 2. All possible is plowed in for corn, and some is 
put on wheat ground. Fertilizers are best used in connec¬ 
tion with barn-yard manure. I can trace the results very 
plainly in the grass crop following wheat. I have never 
tried a second sowing. No farmer can afford to sow wheat 
without commercial fertilizers (and the best is always the 
cheapest), unless he has a good dressing of “farm fertil¬ 
izer,” and then it will pay to put commercial fertilizers 
on also. Farming will pay well here if carried on in a 
workmanlike manner, but I do not believe in New York 
State farmers raising grain. It is altogether like putting 
their eggs all into one basket: grain, grass, stock, fruit, 
etc., all combined, and grown in good order, will pay any 
man. I have also tried fertilizers on ground where 
manure had been plowed in, and leaving each alternate 
drill space without any, the fertilized strips could be de¬ 
tected until harvest; the wheat was all good; but the dif¬ 
ference there was very plainly seen. J. A. FIERO. 
Milo Centre. 
Sow Timothy with the Wheat. 
I use Bradley’s Patent and Bowker’s Hill and Drill ferti¬ 
lizers. I drill my fertilizer with sowed crops, using 200 
pounds to the acre. Stable manure is drawn about twice 
each month from October till May, aud spread for corn 
aud other cultivated crops. Sometimes the manure that 
accumulates in summer is drawn on the wheat ground, 
provided it is not too far from the yard. I do not try to 
raise whtjat without fertilizing. My neighbor, who has 
not been in the habit of using fertilizers, does not get ho 
good a yield. I am sure I can trace the effects of the ferti¬ 
lizers for more than one year. I believe fertilizers aud 
stable-manure best together if they can be had ; but 1 have 
to rely on the fertilizer alone for wheat. Wheat is an im¬ 
portant crop for New York, although there is but little 
money in it. The straw I figure high enough to make up 
the deficiency from the low price for the grain. I think 
the fertilizer is a great help to the seeding to grass that 
A MERCIFUL MAN IS MERCIFUL TO HIMSELF. Fig. 176. 
