724 
OCT. 25 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FIELD. 
No. II. 
Tile-Drainage, Fertilizers, Clover and Snow Protection 
as affecting Winter Wheat and Future Grass. 
PRES. W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
In number I, under this title, I gave a diagram of the 
field and a photo engraving of one unfertilized strip and 
the adjacent fertilized wheat, taken in July 1888, and 
brought the history of the field down to that date. Let 
me now follow the history of these 25 acres down to the 
present time. I did not overestimate the effect of the 
superphosphate on the clover and Timothy sown with 
that wheat, i. e., sown in March, 1888. On October 22 I 
wrote (Ohio Farmer, November 10): “ It has made a very 
strong growth, some of it being two feet high now. It is 
left to fall down and mulch the ground. With about 150 
loads of hay already put up (including Hungarian) and 
with a very wet fall, it does not seem wise to try to cut 
any of the wheat-stubble clover.” 
The immense clover and Timothy cron of 1S89, on the 
whole 25 acres, approved the wisdom of the decision. As 
soon as that immense crop had been removed (the first 
really heavy one on plat 3) and the rowen or Becond 
growth was half grown, we plowed up 11% acres lying in 
Nos. 3 and 4, prepared it and drilled in five acres, drill 
measure, all in plat 3. using Forest City superphosphate, 
costing $5.50 cash per acre, and 6% acres partly in plat 3 
and partly in plat 4, with no phosphate. Here are the 
figures for the harvest. Remember that this land two 
years before yielded no wheat where no superphosphate 
had been used (two drill-wide strips), aud only about 18 
bushels per acre where 300 pounds of superphosphate per 
acre had been applied. The land had had no manure 
since, except about 20 loads on a poor spot in plat 4. Well, 
this year without superphosphate the 6% acres yielded 
24.6 bushels per acre, and the five acres with phosphate 
yielded 35.4 bushels per acre, drill-measure for the land 
and thrashers’ over-measure for the wheat. Each dollar 
spent for superphosphate on this crop gave me two 
dollars’ worth of wheat. I cannot afford not to use super¬ 
phosphates with wheat on my land until it is all as rich as 
he best. But the increase in wheat is not all. The seeding 
of clover and Timothy is very much the best on the super- 
phosphated part; so much so that at harvest this summer 
the dividing line could be clearly seen by the deeper green¬ 
ness in the stubble and the greater thickness of the green 
mat. 
These facts have settled the question of fertilizers with 
me; I think I shall never buy another load of rnauure and 
haul it from town, a mile. I can do better; I shall use all 
I can make and save, (some 200 loads this year) aud use 
superphosphates as long as my land needs them and follow 
the wheat with clover. This fall I have plat 2 in wheat, 
and besides this, I have again put wheat on the 10 acres that 
yielded 46)£ per acre 13 years ago; though the apple trees 
there now shade much of the ground. Plat 2 had nearly 
all this year’s manure and 200 pounds of superphosphate 
per acre. The other lot had last year’s manure applied last 
year. I like superphosphates because they bring no weeds, 
and give plump grain, not rank, weak straw ready to 
lodge. Beating rains bent my wheat almost flat this year 
several times after it was headed. That on the super- 
phosphated part all stood straight at harvest, so stiff and 
strong was the straw. Let me clearly state a few points 
and conclusions drawn from the full history of this field, of 
which I have given but a few mere chronicles 
1. Superphosphates, good, high-grade, and bought at 
wholesale cash rates, have thus far on my clayey farm paid 
at least twice their cost or more in the first year’s wheat. 
They are not mere whisky, mere stimulants, as sometimes 
charged, leaving the land all the weaker, but real plant 
food, with very excellent and lasting effects on the clover 
and Timothy that follow. They should be followed always 
by clover, and each farmer should measure and weigh and 
figure the results, so as to know whether for him on his 
soil and crops they pay. I simply know whether they have 
paid for me thus far. On sandy loams they do not do as 
well, as a rule. 
2. Tile-drainage. The northwest ends of both the 
superphosphated and the non-superphosphated plats of this 
year’s wheat were not tile-drained. The latter (the non-phos- 
phated) had a larger proportion of the non-tiled than the 
phosphated; but its untiled part was richer by nature and 
previous manuring, and had more of an easterly slope and 
snow-protection, and better natural surface drainage. The 
test I think was fully fair as between superphosphate aud 
no superphosphate. As between tile-drainage and none 
there was no chance to measure results by thrashing sepa¬ 
rately; but on the tiled none was winter-killed and there 
were no poor or thin spots; on the non tiled there was a 
good deal of both. The latter had decidedly the advautage 
as to previous manure, (being nearer the barn and the 
road), as to snow protection and as to natural or surface 
drainage; but it was the judgment of myself and of those 
who helped me to cut and shock the whole of the wheat, 
that the tile drainage both on the superphosphated and 
the non-superphosphated made a gain of about eight bushels 
per acre. I must, therefore, tile the entire untiled parts 
of plats I, 2, 3 and 4, this fall and winter and next spring if 
possible. Tiling that land pays. 
3. Clover after [Superphosphates.— I should always 
sow it. Only thus will the superphosphates best pay. They 
are starters, a supplement to eke out the farm manures, 
means of getting the ground quickly up to the “clover 
level.” If 25 years ago I had known as well as I do now 
just how to use superphosphates and clover together on 
tile-drained land, I would have bought less town manure 
and rendered my farm productive and fit for wheat and 
i otation much sooner. 
4. Clover after Clover.— It is often said that clover 
after clover will not do well. Mine did splendidly this 
year and once before. If I can have a two years’ or even a 
three years’ rotation with simply wheat and clover, it will 
be a real gain to me. Situated as I am, I can best afford on 
my little 115-acre farm to keep one man and own one strong 
team the year round, and hire an extra horse and man and 
boy when haying and harvesting. Corn does not pay on 
my farm. Oats exhaust the soil as much as wheat and do 
not pay so well. Potatoes require the owner’s eye, much 
care and work, and are better on a more sandy soil. In 
summer dairying it takes too much paid labor to sell milk 
at 60 cents per cwt., and it hinders and almost spoils the 
summer’s work. Even winter dairying crowds the maple 
syrup work and team work of spring and fall. Young 
stock in winter will; use up the cloverand “.roughage,” 
give much manure, while they require little care in sum¬ 
mer. Wheat, Timothy, prime maple syrup and 15 acres of 
apple orchard will yield a fair revenue, and the manure of 
the young stock with clover and a judicious use of phos¬ 
phates, will, I think, give fine crops and constantly in¬ 
crease the soil’s fertility. And so a two years’ or three 
years’ rotation of wheat and clover (with Timothy for sale 
for three or four years on the richest plats in successsion), 
may be the best rotation for me in my circumstances. If 
I were on my own farm with two or three children to help, 
I think I could see more money in quite a different com¬ 
bination. 
The clayey soils of Northern Ohio are not naturally so 
productive as the more sandy loams. They are not so 
easily worked or so generous, warm and responsive. They 
are not naturally adapted to wheat, clover and potatoes. 
But I believe that by keeping considerable profitable live 
stock on the natural pastures, and by tile-draining consid¬ 
erable areas near the barns, aud by using superphosphates 
for a time and manure and clover regularly in rotation, 
these soils can be made marvelously productive for all 
crops to which the climate is adapted. They are more re¬ 
tentive of manures than the more sandy loams. Then, 
too, a real pleasure comes from the sense of victory in the 
face of obstacles. Any one can farm on the warm, re¬ 
sponsive soils of southern Summit, Portage, Stark, 
Wayne, and other Ohio counties. It is some credit to get 
big paying crops from the cold, irresponsive clays of 
northern Summit, Medina, Geauga and Ashtabula Coun¬ 
ties, which for years I was told were fit only for permanent 
meadow and pasture. When I bought my Hudson farm 
the “cradle knolls ” of past decades and centuries showed 
that the meadows had never been plowed. When I was 
“ breaking up ” for the first time some of these original 
meadows and pastures, an old farmer one day said to me 
with great emphasis, what others had said before, and 
what was the current belief, viz.: “The Lord put that 
land right side up when He made it, and the more you 
turn it over the worse it will get.” I do not believe it. If 
He put everything as it should be, why did He give us 
brains and the desire to improve things t At all events, 
the very poor land in plat 3, of Figure 304 in last week’s 
Rural, of which six acres were then needed to pasture a 
cow, will now yield over 35 bushels of wheat per acre, with 
tillage and superphosphate, and the next year two im¬ 
mense crops of clover and Timothy. The plow wisely 
used is the great enricher of our soil, the great civilizer of 
our race. 
Storey County, la. 
NOTES OF TRAVEL. 
On a trip through portions of Central and Southern 
N. J. and Southwestern Pa., during the present week, 
numerous fields of uncut corn were seen. Though no kill¬ 
ing frosts had occurred, the stalks had passed the stage 
when they should have been cut to make the best fodder. 
Though hay is abundant and cheap, it is not economy to 
allow any product to go to waste that will furnish food for 
farm stock. Other fields were noticed where the shocks 
of corn had stood so long that they were very badly dis¬ 
colored and must make very inferior food. In some fields 
the corn had been put; in rows of shocks wide apart, the 
spaces between being plowed and sown to wheat or rye. 
While this method is not a new one and enables the farmer 
to follow the corn crop immediately with one of winter 
grain for grass seeding, it leaves a number of strips to be 
plowed and fitted after the corn is removed, or else left un¬ 
used. Had these farmers used the silo, the corn might all 
have been removed immediately from the field, thus leav¬ 
ing it clear for further crops. Another argument for the 
silo. 
Considerable plowing was being done, but it was gener¬ 
ally upon loamy or sandy soils, and not upon clay. There 
seems a great difference of opinion as to the advisability of 
fall plowing, but this arises largely from a difference in 
conditions. 
Numerous young peach orchards denote that the people 
still have some faith left as to the future of peach-growing 
notwithstanding the partial failures of recent years, and 
the complete failure of the past season. Several large pear 
orchards were also noticed, but there is a scarcity of the 
apple orchards so familiar to one accustomed to traveling 
through the apple-growing regions of Western N. Y. and 
other parts of the country. The young trees appeared 
thrifty and had apparently made a good growth, though 
the wood may not have ripened sufficiently to withstand a 
severe winter. 
A country school-house was observed that merits notice. 
The location was good, though not the typical one for such 
buildings. There was no graveyard, it was not a bleak 
four-corners, audit was.surrounded by a large, grassy lawn. 
But, to cap all, the whole was inclosed by a neat fence, 
painted white. The sight was as refreshing as rare and the 
writer could not help but institute comparisons between 
this attractive-looking spot and the old ramshackle, 
tumble-down affair where he served bis apprenticeship 
in teaching the young idea. f. ii. v. 
HENS AND THINGS. 
Are You My Neighbor? 
FRED GRUNDY. 
There is a freshness and coolness in the air, and it is 
daily becoming more evident that Jack Frost is advancing 
southward on his annual harvest excursion to Florida. 
The leaves are coming off the trees and my neighbor’s 
fowls stand out in bold relief against the moonlit sky. 
His poultry mansion seems to have met with disaster. It 
looks as though some amateur artillery company had been 
using it for a target all summer, or as if it had been briefly 
visited by a pup cyclone. Its floor is several inches above 
the surrounding level, but it was not when it was new. 
There is fertilizer enough in there to surprise a fair-sized 
garden. Most of the perches have fallen from their high 
places and are buried in the floor, and if they are needed 
they will have to be excavated. The mansion once en¬ 
joyed a window and a door. The window lost its grip last 
spring and fell out and the place thereof is now occupied 
by a hole. The upper hinge on the door let go its hold 
during the summer, and the lower one declined to be im¬ 
posed upon, so it came away. The door is safe, however, 
being firmly held down by the weeds which have come up 
through the chinks in it. The open nest-boxes in the 
sitting room are somewhat out of condition, many of 
them being sadly afflicted with the wibble-wobbles, while 
all the others are too full for safety. 
That my dear neighbor’s hens prefer the umbrageous 
shelter and airy elevation of the trees to the pestiferously 
perfumed and scantily furnished affair set apart for their 
exclusive use is scarcely to be wondered at. I am sorry to 
say that not only is my neighbor’s yard deficient in re¬ 
spectable poultry cottages and appliances, but the yard of 
his neighbor, and other neighbors too numerous to be 
mentioned, are in the same fix. If I were one of their hens 
I would not deposit another egg until a neat and clean 
apartment, with proper and convenient receptacles, was 
duly provided. What right has any person to expect eggs 
from hens that are not only compelled to hunt far and 
wide for their provender, but also to spend the nights ex¬ 
posed to the bleak and whistling winds of autumn ? Yet 
many a big, rough soil manipulator gobbles down his 
daily half-dozen eggs without giving one thought to the 
comfort of the meek and industrious birds that provide 
them. When they become weary of doing double duty on 
half fare and retire from active business, a great, guttural 
growl comes out of the cavernous recesses of his interior, 
and he wonders what ails the old, speckled thieves. In 
the dead of winter, when most of his hens have taken to 
the tool shed and are trying to keep the self-binder, hay- 
rake, mower and other implements warm, and are at their 
wits’ end to pick up enough food to keep their feathers on 
and breath in their bodies, he visits somebody who knows 
how to treat fowls decently, and at the table is served 
with eggs on toast. Then he comes home with gall in his 
bosom, and after lauding to the skies the delicious meal he 
has just devoured, especially mentioning the eggs, cus¬ 
tards, etc., proceeds to villify and heap contumely upon his 
own hens,.and incidentally upon the partner of his sor¬ 
rows, because they do not provide him with similar eggy 
meals. Out upon such varlets ! 
I have met a great many hens in my travels, and have 
invariably found them amiable, accommodating and char¬ 
itable to the last degree whenever they are courteously 
and sympathetically treated, and 1 have found that when 
they are continually threatened, harrassed and abused they 
are cold-hearted, flint-livered, niggardly and cantankerous 
in the extreme. I have never yet discovered the young, 
healthy hen that was provided with a warm, clean house 
aud a sufficiency of food containing a proper quantity of 
lime, phosphorus, etc., that did not quickly and faithfully 
respond with lots of finely-flavored eggs. 
Let me suggest to the (politically speaking) busy, over¬ 
worked, poorly paid, impoverished, mortgage-eaten hus¬ 
bandman that he cease to ponder over his distressing con¬ 
dition half a day or so, and proceed to reconstruct and 
renovate that hen mansion of his ere the snow flies and his 
birds lose sundry toes, combs, wattles, etc. Let him give 
them a warm, dry, clean place, with low. easy perches, 
where they may pass the long, cold, wintry nights and 
bitter, blustry days in comfort. Let him hang a few feed 
troughs against the walls so that he can give them some¬ 
thing warm, like scalded bran and oats, to eat when the 
snow has buried their favorite foraging ground. Let him 
put in a low box two or three feet square into which the 
ashes from the coal stove mingled with a few handfuls of 
corn may be thrown. Scratching among those ashes for 
the corn will be delightful amusement for them. Let him 
have some clean, covered nest boxes to deposit their eggs 
in. Let them have all the advantages, comforts and con¬ 
veniences that common sense teaches they should have 
and then do not swap all the high-priced eggs they lay for 
stinking “terbaccer,” and let the wife mend her thin 
stockings with patches cut from your old overalls till she 
cannot tell where stockings end and patches begin. Be a 
real man for one whole winter, and instead of sitting 
astride the stove aud brooding over your imaginary politi¬ 
cal wrongs, “get a hustle on you ” and feed, pet and coax 
your hens into laying dozens of 25-cents-a-dozen eggs, and 
then let your wife have the cash to get some warm and re¬ 
spectable clothing. 
Christian Co., Ill. 
Good Prices: No Crop.—T he prices of farm products in 
general are advancing, but the rise will be of little benefit 
to us, as in most cases we have hardly enough for home 
consumption. Many a farmer has to do what he never did 
before; namely, buy grain for his stock during the coming 
winter. No wonder we cry hard times with a vengeance. 
Onondaga County, N. Y, h. s. w. 
