3o4 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 2 
practicable methods yet suggested for checking the 
Harlequin Cabbage bug, “ Calico-back,” a very serious 
Southern cabbage pest, is to have a crop of radishes 
or mustard plants up when the bugs appear from 
their winter quarters. The bugs flock to these plants, 
where they can be destroyed with kerosene ; this also 
kills the plants, but they have served their purpose. 
Now it is possible that there is some plant which can 
be grown along with cabbage plants, that would 
prove more attractive to flea-beetles, and thus par¬ 
tially prevent their onslaught on the cabbages. How¬ 
ever, as the cabbage flea-beetle is quite a general 
feeder, I am now unable to suggest what plant might 
thus serve as an attractive crop to sow with cabbages. 
Kerosene emulsion will check the beetles, and I think 
that they can be controlled by judicious work with 
this insecticide. m. v. s. 
A Melon Disease ; Bordeaux Mixture. 
M. L. B., Rockland County, N. Y. —1. What is the cause of melon 
and cucumber vines rotting off at the surface of the ground, at 
about the time they begin to set fruit? I have examined them 
often, and closely, and find no insects. 2. Can I use Paris-green 
with water full strength as for potatoes, for bugs on egg plant, 
without injury to the leaves ? If not, what can I use with safety ? 
3. In making Bordeaux Mixture, which is proper—four pounds of 
lumji lime before slaking, or after in the shape of cream ; or in 
the shape of milk of lime ? 
Ans. —1. The rotting of the melon and cucumber vines 
is, probably, due to one or more of the “ damping 
off ” fungous diseases which so often attack seedling 
plants, especially in greenhouses. Without specimens 
of the diseased plants, it is, of course, impossible to 
say definitely that these parasitic fungi are the cause 
in this case. If the plants are in cold frames or in 
greenhouses, give them plenty of light and fresh air, 
and keep the temperature even, taking care to avoid 
high temperatures. Frequent stirring of the soil 
around the base of the plants, to dry out the soil, will 
help to prevent the disease in the field. The commer¬ 
cial fertilizer used, doubtless, had nothing to do with 
the development of the disease ; farm manures might. 
2. Yes, egg plants will stand even a stronger dose of 
Paris-green than potatoes. You can use one pound of 
the poison to 50 gallons of water, provided you add 
about two pounds of freshly-slaked lime to prevent 
burning the foliage by the free arsenic. 3. The four 
pounds of lime given in the formula for Bordeaux Mix¬ 
ture, mean the lump lime, unslaked. m. v. s. 
Grass Mixtures for Pasture ; Apples. 
L. R. S., Bridgewater, N. Y .— Have you tried the Batchelor pas¬ 
ture mixture ? If so, with what success ? What mixture do you 
recommend for a pasture ou a gravelly loam soil ? I have three 
or four acres of intervale land, that overflows, that was plowed 
the last of August, and sown to turnips, but the grasshoppers got 
the turnips. What shall be done with this land this year, the 
object in the end being grass? I have a large number of apple 
trees in pasture which I wish to graft. What shall be the variety, 
the object being a kind that will bring the most money ? 
ANSWERED BY PKOF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
We have not tried, in a large way, the Batchelor pas¬ 
ture mixtures, but we have several times tried mix¬ 
tures of various sorts recommended by seedsmen. None 
of them has given entire satisfaction. The soil which 
it is proposed to use for a pasture, is not well adapted 
to keeping it permanent. The only way is to sow 
about one-half more seed than usual, of the ordinary 
varieties, that is, about four pounds of Timothy, one 
of Orchard grass, one of Tall Meadow Fescue and two 
of clover, one-fourth of which should be Alsilre. If . 
possible, top-dress the pasture, even though but little 
material be used, and that of an inferior quality, as 
often as possible. 
It usually pays to treat permanent pastures, after 
they have been set two or three years, to a dressing 
of ashes or lime, or both. A good permanent pasture 
on such land, can only be made by pasturing lightly 
for the first year or two, and persisting in feeding 
the plants and adding seed when necessary until a 
perfect sward is formed. On poor lands, it may take 
five or six years to get the ideal conditions. Of course, 
one can secure success almost immediately by using a 
large amount of home or commercial fertilizers ; but 
few people are willing to incur the expense of a lib¬ 
eral treatment. If the land is designed for a meadow, 
sow, at least, six quarts of Timothy seed and one quart 
of Alsike clover seed per acre. If for pasture, some 
Orchard grass, Tall Meadow Fescue and Red clover 
should be added. Plow as early as possible, and sow 
to oats or barley, not more than 1% bushel per acre, 
then sow the seeds. 
The best plan would be to note the kinds of apples 
raised in the neighborhood, which succeed best and 
bring the largest results. The following varieties 
are considered superior : Sutton Beauty, Stark, Hub- 
bardston Nonsuch, Gravenstein, Baldwin, Greening. 
Steel Axles Or Pipe Boxes for Wagons. 
P. W. Z., Pittsford, N. Y.—l intend buying a wide-tired wagon. 
Our roads are sandy. Which are j>referable, steel axles or pipe 
boxes ? Which is the lightest draft ? I have had no experience 
with steel axles, and no one here has, but we have heard that 
they are not so good as those which we call pipe boxes. 
Ans.—I can find no experiments to determine the 
relative drafts of wagons with steel axles and pipe 
boxes. The practical teamster says that steel axles 
are all right on hard pavements, or on smooth, solid 
roads; but in deep mud, or in the sand, they are very 
objectionable. Just how wide-tired wagons will 
work on sandy roads is not certain. In mud where 
it is from one to three inches deep, and there is a 
fairly firm soil beneath this mud, narrow-tired wagons 
run far easier than wide ones. It can be readily 
understood that, with wide tires, the wagon is virtu¬ 
ally climbing up hill in order to press the mud down 
in front of the wheels ; while with narrower tires, 
the wheels, with far less expenditure of force, push 
the mud to one side and find a hard roadbed under¬ 
neath it. It needs only a practical test to show con¬ 
clusively that wide-tired wagons are what the farmers 
term “horse killers” when used on public muddy 
roads. When used on hard roads and pavements, 
without doubt, the draft of wide-tired wagons would 
be something less than the narrower tired. Some 
students in agriculture at Cornell University, are now 
making extended experiments as to the draft of wide 
and narrow-tired wagons on dirt roads, brick pave¬ 
ments, stone pavements and other classes of roads. 
i. p. R. 
Clover as a Nitrogen Trap. 
Chas. Parry, New Jersey. —Thk R. N.-Y’., in common with other 
agricultural papers, from time to time, has contained many inter¬ 
esting articles encouraging the growing of leguminous crops as 
nitrogen traps, contending that these plants gather nitrogen from 
the air, and store it up in the soil, to be used by future crops, 
in this manner tending to reduce the farmers’ fertilizer bill ou the 
most expensive article that he has to buy. This is a most beauti¬ 
ful and captivating theory ; but is it in accordance with scientific 
fact ? Perhaps the longest consecutive cropping of leguminous 
plants on record, has been followed at Rothamsted, England, by 
Lawes and Gilbert, where clover has been grown on the ground 
consecutively for 40 years. Now, according to the above theory, 
it should have abstracted from the air and stored up in the soil 
a vast amount of nitrogen during this long period of time, so 
that, at the end of the term, the soil nitrogen should show a large 
increase in quantity. But Lawes and Gilbert found, by an ex¬ 
amination of the soil, that, instead of an increase, there was an 
actual loss of nitrogen amounting to 130 pounds per year, per 
acre, from the tojj uine inches of soil. The crop removed 160 
pounds of nitrogen annually. But, as the roots of the clover run 
much deeper than nine inches, and as the top nine inches lost 130 
pounds, it would seem that the soil below nine inches would fur¬ 
nish, at least, 30 pounds which would make up the whole amount 
removed by the crop, so that the soil suffered an annual loss of 
nitrogen equal to the whole amount removed by the crop. In 
view of the above facts, Lawes and Gilbert make the very con¬ 
servative statement, that “there would seem to be very clear evi¬ 
dence that much of the enormous amounts of nitrogen assimilated 
by clover, comes from the soil.” The above investigations at 
Rothamsted seem to be so much at variance with what we are 
daily taught by agricultural papers, that many farmers are 
puzzled to reconcile them, and I would be very glad if The R. N.-Y. 
would publish some explanation of this interesting question for 
the benefit of myself and others. 
ANSWERED BY DR. E. H. JENKINS. 
I have not at hand the data referred to by Mr. 
Parry, but, granting that they are correctly given, 
they do not by any means indicate that it is irrational 
to sow clover or other legumes for the purpose of in¬ 
creasing the nitrogen-capital of the soil. He, how¬ 
ever, calls attention to facts in this connection which 
are too often overlooked by writers in the agricul¬ 
tural press. Legumes do not always and everywhere 
get a large part of their nitrogen supply from the air, 
through the agency of the “ root tubercles.” If a soil 
have enough available nitrogen in it for the use of a 
clover crop, for instance, the crop draws nitrogen, 
like the cereals, from the combined nitrogen of the 
soil. Hence, the continuous growth of legumes on a 
soil will not continuously add to its supply of ni¬ 
trogen, but after a time, will cease to enrich it in this 
respect, and the leguminous crops will draw their 
nitrogen from the soil-supply, and not from the air, 
till the nitrogen is again reduced to the point where 
the fixation of free nitrogen from the air begins. 
Again, as a soil becomes richer in nitrogenous 
organic matters—as from the accumulation of the 
stubble and roots of legumes—nitrification is likely 
to become more active, and a larger proportion of the 
insoluble “ organic ” nitrogen of the soil is converted 
into nitrates, and thus exposed to loss of drainage, 
and, possibly, too, by the escape of nitrogen gas in 
subsequent denitrification. In other words, the 
larger the amount of nitrogen in a soil, the larger the 
proportion of it which is lost by these means. 
Warrington, in a lecture delivered under the provi¬ 
sions of the Lawes Agricultural Trust, in 1891, says: “It 
must not be supposed that a leguminous crop necessa¬ 
rily leaves a soil richer in nitrogen than it was before 
its growth. The sensible increase in the soil takes place 
only when the soil at starting was not too rich in 
nitrogenous Organic matter, and when the leguminous 
growth was abundant. The composition of the soil 
where beans have been continuously grown at Rotham¬ 
sted, exhibits, apparently, no gain in nitrogen. The 
rich kitchen garden ground at Rothamsted, shows a 
considerable loss of nitrogen during the continuous 
growth of Red clover.” 
Unquestionably, many soils which contain but little 
available nitrogen, are made more productive, and, at 
the same time, the amount of vegetable matter and 
nitrogen in them is increased by the rational use of 
leguminous crops in the rotation. But this increase 
can only be carried to a certain point at which Nature 
has fixed the limit. It is altogether probable that the 
limit to the profitable use of nitrogenous fertilizers, 
in intensive agriculture, at least, lies far beyond this ; 
that is, it will often pay to use nitrogenous fertilizers 
on a soil on which a clover crop will gather no more 
nitrogen from the air. 
Are “Nitrogen Traps” Valuable? 
II. P. N., Nichols , Conn .— Suppose that we count the cost of 
trapping nitrogen as $3 per acre, for plowing; $2 per acre, for 
harrowing and seeding, and $2.50 per acre for cow pea seed—a 
total of $7.50. How much more than this is the trapped nitrogen 
worth ? This would purchase 400 or 500 pounds of a good ferti 
lizer, dry, ground fish or cotton-seed meal. Which will increase 
the wealth of the farmer the most ? 
Ans. —In experiments conducted at the Storrs Agri¬ 
cultural College, it was found that an acre of cow 
peas gave, in vines and roots, the following fertilizing 
ingredients : Nitrogen, 117 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 
26 pounds ; potash, 81 pounds. Of course we cannot 
say how much of this nitrogen was added to the soil 
by the clover ; neither can we say how much of the 
potash and phosphoric acid was made more available 
by being stored up in the pea crop. It is not a mere 
question of plant food, for the humus or organic 
matter in the pea vines and roots, will benefit the 
ground by loosening it and making it better able to 
retain moisture. Take a corn or potato crop. Every 
farmer knows that he would prefer a good sod for a 
corn crop—without much regard as to the amount of 
plant food it contained. If, when the peas were ripen¬ 
ing, a drove of hogs could be turned into the field to 
eat them, there would be a double advantage, as you 
would have the pork while the manure from the hogs 
would be even better than the pea vines—if some 
grain were fed with them. 
Catch Crops for New England. 
F. L., New Braintree, Mass .— 1. Whatis the feeding and manurial 
value of sparry ? Will it grow in New England ? Will It grow on 
heavy soil having a clay bottom that will not produce clover 
owing to sourness ? I wish to take a crop from a piece of land 
that I have not the time to fit, either for oats or clover. 2. Can 
clover be sown to advantage in ensilage corn for turning under 
in the fall ? 
Ans. —1. Spurry was introduced into Michigan in 
1893. On the jack-pine districts of northern Michigan, 
it was satisfactory, but wherever the soil is at all 
fertile, and where other forage plants will thrive 
fairly well, it is believed to have no place. Numerous 
tests of it have been made in Michigan and Alabama, 
and the cultivation of it has almost entirely ceased. 
President Gorton says. “ A word of caution is needed 
for rich soils, because the plant forms seeds so rapidly 
and scatters them so freely, that there is danger of 
its becoming a weed on such soils. On light sands 
where few plants grow with vigor, a thrifty and rapid¬ 
growing weed is a Godsend.” From experiments made 
at the Rural Grounds, we conclude that spurry has 
little or no value except, possibly, on very sandy soil. 
2. You can sow Crimson clover in the corn late in 
July or early in August, and let it grow through the 
winter and fall. If it survive the winter, you may 
feed it or plow it under in spring. 
When and How to Sow Millet. 
Subscriber, Johnstown, N. Y.— When is the best time to sow mil. 
let seed for early fodder ? If sowed early, is it good to harvest 
for winter use? To what kind of soil is it best adapted? Can 
one seed lawns with clover and Timothy with it ? 
Ans. —Millet may be sown at any time after danger 
from frost has fully passed. It is frequently sown im¬ 
mediately after corn planting, though the sowing may 
be deferred until the middle of June, or even a little 
later; but it is best when sown rather early. What 
is known as Hungarian grass, or small millet, does not 
grow so large as the German millet, but the fodder 
produced from it is finer and more palatable, 
though less in yield than from the larger variety. 
Early-sowed millet is really better than that sowed 
late, for hay, as it ripens in warm weather, when it 
can be cured to perfection. Millet loves a rich, moist 
soil, though it will grow on almost any kind of land. 
Dry, gravelly soil is, perhaps, the worst for millet, as 
it is a rapid grower and takes up large quantities of 
water. As the seeds are small, the land should be 
well fitted and rolled after the seeds have been put in. 
It starts slowly at first, but makes a very rapid growth 
as soon as it is well established and the weather be¬ 
comes hot. It is not likely that you would succeed in 
seeding to clover and Timothy with this crop, except 
in rare cases. The grass seeds would start nicely, but 
the millet tillers so profusely, grows so rapidly, and 
shades the ground and robs it of moisture to such an 
extent that it usually crowds out the grasses and 
clover. 
Potash in Ashes or Straw. 
T. J. B., Manchester, la .— How can I get the most potash out 
of straw—burn it on the ground, or plow it under ? 
Ans. —There will be no difference, as potash is not 
volatile, and will not be driven off by heat. It is a 
matter of availability. The potash in the ashes is in 
an excellent form for immediate use, while the straw 
must decay before the potash can be used. 
