1906. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
263 
The Use of Fertilizer*. 
R. FI. P., Marcellas, N. Y .—As this is my 
first year on this farm I have to figure on 
good crops in order to make ends meet, and 
as a number of the cranks on commercial fer¬ 
tilizers think it economy to starve the crop 
and get no results, these same people tell 
me that this soil, which is a sandy loam and 
cobblestone, will not stand commercial fer¬ 
tilizer. They say it is too quick for the soil. 
They say this farm is good enough without 
commercial fertilizer. This same farm has 
never had a great amount of stable manure, 
as stock has not been kept very much, which 
leads me to believe that I shall have to re¬ 
sort to commercial fertilizer until I can 
furnish the farm with plenty of good stable 
manure. Would it be advisable to use com¬ 
mercial fertilizer to the amount of 700 or 
800 pounds per acre on my potato and cab¬ 
bage crops? If you approve of the use of 
commercial fertilizer, which would be the 
most beneficial to the crop, and at the same 
time the most economical, to apply the fer¬ 
tilizer broadcast and work it into the soil 
or would you recommend scattering it in the 
furrow with the potatoes? 
Ans. —It is no economy to starve any 
crop. We should not hesitate to use that 
amount of fertilizer on your soil, pro¬ 
vided it is a high-grade fertilizer. By 
that we mean a mixture containing at 
least four per cent of nitrogen, eight of 
phosphoric acid and six or seven of pot¬ 
ash. This kind of fertilizer is in the end 
cheaper than the poor stuff often used. 
When 1,200 pounds or more to the acre 
are used we believe it pays to divide the 
fertilizer—broadcasting half and putting 
the other half in the drill. With 800 
pounds we would scatter all over and 
through the drill, working it well into the 
soil. A good deal of nonsense is writ¬ 
ten about the use of fertilizers. They do 
best in soils which contain a fair amount 
of decaying vegetable matter. The most 
successful fertilizer farms we know of 
are inclined to be quick and rather light 
soil. There can be no doubt that by us¬ 
ing fertilizer judiciously a farmer can 
grow fair crops until his farm is able to 
produce the fodder crops, which will keep 
up an ample supply of manure. There are 
some light soils where fertilizers are used 
year after year with no stable manure and 
little in the way of green manure, but it 
is not safe to follow that rule. If pota¬ 
toes are grown it is a good plan to use 
the fertilizers on that crop and have a 
rotation including grass and clover. 
Greenhouse Walls of Concrete. 
TF. C. P., Worcester, Mass .—I am think¬ 
ing of building a greenhouse 15x8 feet, the 
foundation to be of stone and cement, two 
feet under the ground. From ground level 
I propose to make a wall six inches thick, 
back to be five feet high, front three feet 
high, sides to slope from one to the other. 
It is to slope directly south and be south of 
my house, so it will be a warm place to be 
covered with glass. Would such a house 
crack from frost if mixed properly of Port¬ 
land cement and sand? I have an idea it 
would be as cheap as wood and a great deal 
more lasting. The work does not count. 
Has anyone ever tried any such thing, so as 
to know what it would cost? I intend to 
use mine for a cold frame. 
Ans. —There would be little danger of 
cracking from frost if the wall of the 
greenhouse were made of good concrete, 
and then allowed to dry properly before 
being used. If the wall were built of 
cement and sand only I am inclined to 
think the cost would be greater than 
the original cost of a wooden wall, but a 
well-built concrete wall on a stone foun¬ 
dation would make a permanent job. The 
cost would vary according to the grade of 
cement used in the concrete. A strong 
concrete for such a purpose would be 
one made in the proportions of 1-2-3, 
that is, one bushel of cement to two of 
sand and three of broken stone or slag, 
though much of the average concrete 
construction is after the formula of 1-3-5 
of the cement, sand and stone respectively. 
But I should prefer to have the high wall 
eight inches thick rather than six inches, 
though for so short a structure the latter 
may prove to be heavy enough. 
w. H. TAPLIN. 
Sunday-school Teacher: “Tommy, 
doesn’t your conscience tell you when you 
have done wrong?” Tommy: “Yes, 
ma’am; but it doesn’t tell my mother.”— 
Kansas City Independent. 
GET READY FOR 
HARVEST 
It Now 
The Way to Get Ready for Harvest 
the book—and 
It is not enough to grow a good crop. 
You have to harvest it, before you get your 
profits. 
And your profits now depend very largely upon 
the way you harvest it. 
A worn-out harvesting machine, or one that is 
not very good, even when new, may delay you long 
enough and waste enough grain, to turn your profits 
into loss. 
It is a mighty poor policy to grow a good crop 
of grain and then let a part of it rot in the field. 
It does not take a great deal of waste to eat’up 
all your profits. 
It may be only a spoonful of grain at a time 
but it counts. 
Don't waste. 
You can’t afford it, and there is no necessity 
for it. 
Get ready for a profitable harvest. 
Do it now, while you have time. 
Here is the way: 
Go to an International Harvester Company 
of America dealer and ask him for a catalogue of 
the machine he handles. 
He will be pleased to give,you 
you will be pleased to get it. 
He will be pleased to show you the machine— 
and you will be pleased to see it. 
You will find the book extremely handsome, well 
illustrated with good pictures, interesting from start 
to finish and full of good, common sense about 
harvesting machines. 
But more important, you will find a good har¬ 
vesting machine. 
That is what you are most|interested in for that 
means dollars and cents to you. 
We take it that you want a harvesting machine 
—that you can depend upon to see you through 
the harvest without break or delay; 
—that will save you the greatest amount of time 
and labor and worry and trouble in the busy har¬ 
vest days; 
—that will harvest the grain you have grown 
with the least possible waste; 
—that will not go to pieces after cutting a few 
hundred acres; 
—that will be easy on your team; 
—that you can get repairs for easily and quick¬ 
ly when you need them; 
—that will, in short, give you thorough satis¬ 
faction in every way—doing for you everything that 
you can in reason expect a harvesting machine to do. 
If that’s what you want, all the more reason for 
looking up the agents of the International line. 
You know the line—the six leading makes of 
harvesting and haying machines, used wherever 
grain and grass are grown: 
Champion, Deering, McCormick, 
Milwaukee, Osborne, Plano. 
Better harvesting and haying machines cannot 
be made. 
As good harvesting and haying machines cannot 
be made without such facilities as the International 
Harvester Company possesses. 
Such facilities are made possible only through 
the co-operation of the manufacturers of these sev¬ 
eral lines of machines. 
It is co-operation which enables them to produce 
from forest and mine their own raw materials—and 
thus be independent of uncertain and fluctuating 
markets. Acting together, they own, control and 
operate their own coal and iron mines, their own 
coke-ovens and steel mills, their own lumber camps 
and saw mills. They not only get their raw materi¬ 
als of first quality, but what is of equal importance 
they get them when they want them. 
It is co-operation which enables them to main¬ 
tain experimental shops where every effort is made 
to perfect the principle and improve the design of 
the International Line. 
It is the great demand for their machines which 
enables them to equip their factories with every pos¬ 
sible facility for producing machines of the highest 
excellence—factories and workmen which could not 
by any possibility be maintained to supply a small 
demand. 
It is this demand which enables them to main¬ 
tain agencies almost everywhere where grain is 
grown—convenient to you—convenient to buy—con¬ 
venient to secure repair parts. 
The fact that so many farmers cannot be persuad¬ 
ed to buy any other,—the fact that so many farm¬ 
ers continue to buy them,—the fact that they are 
considered the standard wherever grain is grown in 
every part of the world is sufficient indication of 
their reputation and their reliability. 
We don’t believe that you will be willing to let 
harvest time approach without knowing more about 
the International line for 1906; we know you will be 
glad to get the catalogue. Call on the dealer at your 
very first opportunity. 
Go to the dealer now. and get whichever cat¬ 
alogue you want. 
If you don’t know an International Dealer— 
write to us for the name and address of the one 
nearest you. 
INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER CO.. OF AMERICA. 
(INCORPORATED) 
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS. 
International Line: —Binders, Reapers, Headers, Header-Binders, Corn Binders, Corn Shockers, Com 
Pickers, Huskers and Shredders, Corn Shellers, Mowers, Hay Tedders, Hay Rakes, Sweep Rakes, 
Hay Loaders, Hay Stackers, Hay Balers, Knife Grinders, Gasoline Engines, Pumping Jacks, 
Manure Spreaders, Weber Wagons, Columbus Wagons, Bettendorf Wagons and Binder Twine. 
Don’t 
buy a 
Vehicle 
of any 
kind until 
you get our 
New Vehicle 
Catalog 
;WeShipon30DaysTrial 
. Our 
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fjlinr TUIC AD OUT" san< * it to us and tvewillmail you free the most complete catalog of vehicles and harness ever printed. Thecutsare 
" vqry large, the descriptions are complete and plain. All vehicles shipped direct from our factory. Prices lowest 
ever made. yon t buy a vehicle or harness until you get our 1906 catalogue and laaDIfllf CHITII fkfh rmtnar>r> ■■ ■ 
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