1896 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
5i i 
est opponent of the silo in all these parts, he now has 
two large silos, and keeps one for summer feeding. It 
pleases him to see the weather get dry and pastures 
short, for he then feeds all the ensilage the cows will 
eat, and says that his cows give milk equal to the few 
weeks of best and freshest feed in June. When his 
competitors are short of milk, he is ready to take 
their customers, or to sell them milk. 
Of course, soiling helps in these dry times, but when 
so dry that the clover won’t grow, and the late soiling 
crops make but feeble growth, what can we use for 
soiling ? Besides, when we consider the labor in¬ 
volved in daily supplying the stock with a soiling 
crop, the silo is away ahead of every other help. Silos 
never had such a boom as they are getting now, and 
I predict that, inside of 10 years, silos will be the main 
dependence for summer feeding of stock. 
j. s. WOODWARD. 
A GOOD CROP OF GRASS. 
ITS PEDIGREE, FROM SEED TO MOWER. 
A Revolution and a Revelation. 
Part I. 
On page 431, Mi*. Geo. M. Clark told us about his 
great crop of grass. In this dry season, when there 
is a general complaint all over the country, that good 
meadows are cutting less than a ton to the acre, Mr. 
Clark’s statements seemed peculiarly large. Some of 
our readers were prompt to say that they did not be¬ 
lieve the story. Their land, they said, was just as 
good as Mr. Clark’s, and they could not grow four 
tons to the acre ; and even if they could grow 
it, they could not cure it, for such grass would 
lie so thick on the ground, that it could not be 
dried out ! 
On July 8, I visited the field, and saw some 
of the standing grass, and the hay as put into 
the barn. I now purpose giving in detail the 
life-history of this hay crop as given by Mr. 
Clark. It seems to me that the reasons for this 
great success with a crop that is a general fail¬ 
ure this year, are made quite clear in Mr. Clark’s 
statement. 
First of all, comes the man. A picture of Mr. 
Clark is shown at Fig. 163. He has been inter¬ 
ested in farming and in manufacturing imple¬ 
ments for many years. The Cutaway harrow 
was called into existence because Mr. C. saw the 
need of a new tool that would do certain needed 
work faster and better than it could be done by 
any tool then made. For the past 12 years, Mr. 
Clark has been studying the grass crop. He 
concluded that, at the rate the experiment sta¬ 
tions were going, it would take him 50 years to 
learn what he desired, so be went ahead on his 
own account, experimenting with manures, com¬ 
binations of seeds, methods of sowing, and 
preparing the ground, etc., feeling his way along 
until he could reach the point he had marked 
out, viz., eight tons of hay to an acre ! 
The hay crop in New England is a very im¬ 
portant one. On many of the hill farms, it is, 
when labor is taken into consideration, one of 
the most profitable crops that can be grown. 
Thousands of tons of baled hay are brought 
into Connecticut and sold in all the country 
towns. With eight tons, or even two tons, of clean, 
bright Timothy, per acre, a farmer will make more 
clear profit, one year with another, than he can 
from almost any ordinary crop. Mr. Clark has always 
seen the importance of the New England hay crop, 
and that is why he has given it special attention. 
With eight tons per acre as his ideal, let us see how 
near he came to it this year. There are 16 acres in 
the hay field, 10 of which were seeded last September. 
Here is a statement showing the yield : 
Pounds. 
Total yield on 16 acres.. 129,185 
Yield on best acre. 12,340 
Yield on next best acre. 11.935 
Average on the whole field. 8,074 
Average on six best acres... 10,777 
Yield on 10!4 acres, original field. 101,685 
Average on 5>4 poorest acres. 4,986 
Average on 10J4 acres. 9,684 
The hay was weighed as it left the field for the barn. 
When we make a fair estimate for the second crop, 
we see that Mr. Clark is getting pretty close to his 
standard, for the best acre yields over six tons, and 
the average is nearly five tons. 
Now, how was it done, and how can you duplicate 
it ? The land is not particularly fertile, and I would 
not select it for natural grass land, by any means. The 
upper portion was, formerly, an old huckleberry pas¬ 
ture. A part of the original stone-covered hillside 
has been left to show the character of the soil. On one 
side of the dividing line, 10 acres of the old pasture 
would hardly provide pasturage for one horse, while 
on the other side, a single acre will provide the hay 
for three horses ! Of course, the stones were all taken 
out and buried in drains on the lower part of the 
field. The design was to make the surface of the 
field as smooth and evenly graded as possible, for that 
is one of the first requisites of the new grass culture. 
Mr. Clark says that our grandfathers failed to raise 
large hay crops because they did not get a perfect 
stand, and either did not use enough manure, or used 
the wrong kind. What he means by a perfect stand, 
is two or more strong grass plants growing on every 
square inch or half square iDch of soil in the field. 
Mr. Clark cut the grass on just one square foot of 
ground, and sent it to us. It weighed 17 ounces when 
cut, and contained 341 separate plants. Go out into 
your field that yields less than two tons per acre, and 
you will find less than one-third as many plants. You 
will also find bare patches all over the field, from the 
size of your palm to the size of your back, or larger, 
where no plants are growing, and where no new 
plants can be made to grow. It is on these bare 
spots that the crop is lost, for, even with an abundance 
of rain and the best of fertilizer, you cannot raise a 
full hay crop if from one-third to one-half the ground 
is not producing good plants. Get your druggist to 
weigh for you a single spire of well-cured Timothy. 
You will be almost frightened to figure out how many 
plants are required to make a ton of hay, and how 
closely these plants must stand in the field to pro¬ 
duce three or more tons on an acre. 
If you study the question in this way, you will see, 
as Mr. Clark did, that, in order to obtain a perfect 
stand of grass, certain fixed principles must be 
carried out. 
1. The soil must be so loose and mellow that the 
tiny seeds can easily sprout and grow. 
2. Nothing else must grow with the grass. All the 
weeds must be killed before the grass seed is sown, 
and no grain should be sown with the grass. Weeds 
and grain will surely kill out the tiny grass plants, 
and leave bare places all over the field. 
3. A seeding all over the acre as perfect as the 
space from which that sample of grass was cut, viz., 
341 plants to the square foot, will require 14,853,960 
plants on an acre. In order to get that many plants 
and allow for the seeds that never sprout, we must 
sow seed enough, and use the tools that will scatter 
that seed all over the field, so that it will be perfectly 
distributed. Then you must feed the crop. 
That is the theory of the new grass culture. With 
Mr. Clark’s field for our object lesson, we shall try to 
show the practical side of it. H. w. c. 
LAWN AND GARDEN NOTES. 
The month of August is a good time to attend to 
the budding of trees. Budding takes the place of 
grafting, which often has to be omitted because of the 
rush of garden work in spring, when it should be 
done. Besides fruit trees, many ornamental ones 
would be bettered if budded with other sorts. There 
is a good deal of pleasure in budding, besides the 
profit it oftentimes brings. 
Crab grass, Panicum sanguinale, is often a great 
injury to a lawn. When but little of it appears, it 
does no harm, its bright green foliage being rather 
cheering in fact. But when it is abundant, its dense, 
spreading growth crowds out the permanent grasses 
and clover, and in this way, it does much damage. 
Because of its being an annual, it is believed by many 
that constant mowing is all that is required to eradi¬ 
cate it in a season, and so it is if all its tops are 
reached. But it is a grass which makes shoots close 
to the ground, and these escape the mower and reseed 
the ground. These shoots need bringing to the sur¬ 
face, by passing a rake over the lawn, that the mower 
may catch them. If all the flowering tops are cut off, 
the season ends the plant. 
Aphides are great pests to many plants. Some honey¬ 
suckles, notably the variety of the English, known as 
the Belgian, the flowering cherry, roses, etc., are 
rarely free from them. It cannot be too well known 
that any greasy substance is death to them. One of 
the best preparations is kerosene emulsion. This is 
quickly sprayed over trees and bushes, and covering 
the coats of the insects, prevents their breathing, and 
their death ensues. It is but little to do for the pleas¬ 
ure of having the plants free from insects. 
There is no better time to transplant fibrous rooted 
evergreens than the close of August, especially should 
the weather be damp and warm. Pines are not on 
the list of available sorts, as the most of them are 
illy provided with roots. Plenty of water, carrying 
the soil closely about the roots will bring out fresh 
fibers in a few days, and the work will be a success. 
The trees become well established by the time winter 
comes. Retinisporas, arbor vitaas and similar ever¬ 
greens are more likely to succeed fully than those 
planted in spring. 
I cannot refrain from again calling attention to the 
desirability of the Gloire de Dijon rose for use as a 
climber. It is hardy in eastern Pennsylvania—en¬ 
tirely so—blooms from June till November, is creamy 
pink in color, and has the usual fragrance of 
the tea rose. The Crimson Rambler and many 
other roses are being pushed before the public 
as new and good, and so they are ; but there is 
no other one of which I know, that is an ever- 
bloomer and a climber and as good as the old 
“ Dijon.” I do not think that it is known that 
this fine rose is as hardy as it is. My own 
plant has never been hurt by cold winters, 
though exposed to three of them, and being in 
a bad position—the south side of the dwelling— 
not a good site for anything deemed tender. 
Pennsylvania. josepii meehan. 
PEACHES IN CANADA. 
VARIETIES AND METHODS OF CULTURE. 
Mr. W. W. Hilborn, of Leamington, Out., has 
charge of one of the fruit experiment stations of 
the Canadian government. His specialties are 
peaches and strawberries. Thinking our read¬ 
ers would be interested in knowing something 
about peach culture so far to the north, we 
asked Mr. II. a few questions about his crop. 
In reply to questions about varieties, he said : 
“Of course, we are experimenting with all 
the varieties we can get hold of, to find out 
which is the most suitable for our climate and 
location. Our idea is to get varieties that will 
give us a continuous crop during the whole 
season, and there are a great many varieties that 
come in together. To get the best of each, we 
must plant all of them and then select. In that 
way, we can get a continuous crop from the 
earliest to the latest. 1 like the Alexander for the 
first ripening ; then Hale’s Early, Early Michigan and 
Lemon. The yellow peaches come in about that time, 
and, of course, when the yellow ones come, we have 
no market for the white or clingstones. Early St. 
John is the first; then Early Comfort and Barnard’s 
Early. An excellent one that we have had a few 
years in Canada, is the Fitzgerald, an improvement 
on the Early Parker. Then Elberta comes in soon 
after that, followed by Hill’s Chili, Longliurst and 
Late Crawford. The Lemon, I believe to be the best 
late peach we have. We also have the Smock and the 
Sal way.” 
“ What about the Crosby ? ” 
“ We have used the Crosby, but so far, I am not 
very favorably impressed with it.” 
“ What objection do you find to it ? ” 
“ With young trees, it does not get quite large 
enough, and does not color up quite so nicely as 
some. We have planted it quite largely, however, 
and it may do better when the trees get larger.” 
“ What three varieties would you recommend a be¬ 
ginner to plant ? ” 
“We cannot cut it down to three varieties and 
cover the season.” 
“ What would be the best one-half dozen varieties, 
then ? ” 
“ Of course, much will depend on the location ; but 
on general principles, in a peach-growing district, I 
think that the following list would be about as good 
as I could give off hand. I would cut out the white, 
or clingstones, entirely, in so small a list : Early St. 
John, Early Crawford, Elberta, Late Crawford, Lemon 
and Smock.” 
GEO. M. CLARK, THE GRASS MAN. Fig. 163. 
