1006. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
287 
Fall-Plowed Sod for a Carden. 
R. Boston, Mass .—My ground for a gar¬ 
den this year is a piece of plowed sod 
(plowed last Fall), which has been in grass 
for 25 years or more. Can I get good results 
from it in growing vegetables without buy¬ 
ing manure? On account of the high price 
of manure around here I should like to dis¬ 
pense with it if I felt the results would war¬ 
rant ’t. The soil is naturally dark and good 
and well drained. I shall have a small 
amount of hen manure. Could I use this 
profitably in the drill or hill for special 
crops, like onions, corn, potatoes, etc.? Would 
it be better to mix it with soil ? 
Ans. —You can make a good garden on 
Fall-plowed sod, but you must be pre¬ 
pared to sweat. The old sod will fill the 
ground with grass, and extra finger work 
will be needed. A good dressing of high- 
grade potato fertilizer on that sod will 
provide plant food—the trouble will be in 
keeping it clean. The hen manure may 
be crushed fine and scattered along the 
rows—worked in with a rake. Do not, 
however, expect a good garden without 
the use of fertilizer. 
Corn or Potatoes for Sod. 
T. B., Maine .—Which is the better rota¬ 
tion, corn, potatoes, oats, clover; or, pota¬ 
toes, corn, oats, clover? That is, in a four 
years’ rotation, which would you put on the 
sod, corn or potatoes? Why? What differ¬ 
ence would you advise between light loam, 
medium loam, and clay soils? I wish to use 
yard manure for the corn and fertilizers for 
the potatoes. 
Ans. —With us the better rotation 
would be corn, potatoes, oats and clover, 
though we should sow Crimson clover or 
rye in the corn and rye after digging 
potatoes. We always like to plant corn 
on a sod with the manure if possible, and 
use fertilizer on potatoes. Corn is the 
best crop for sod. It makes its best 
growth in late Summer when the plant 
food in the sod is rapidly given up. The 
roots of corn are specially designed for 
working in the sod. The corn crop leaves 
the soil mellow and full of decaying hu¬ 
mus—a condition much better for pota¬ 
toes than the fresh-plowed sod. Of 
course the fertilizer will be put on the 
potatoes, since they are the money crop 
of the rotation. We would make no 
difference in the rotation on the different 
soils, but should expect the best potato 
crop on the medium loam. We should 
use extra potash when fertilizing the 
lighter soils, and try to obtain some form 
of drainage for the clays. We should 
sow rye or Crimson clover in the corn 
both to obtain more humus to plow un¬ 
der and to save fertility. After the pota¬ 
toes are dug we would scratch in rye with 
a harrow without plowing. This method 
would be useful here—in Maine local 
conditions might not permit them. 
Soft Water Turns Hard. 
A. M., Amsterdam, N. Y .—Three years ago 
I purchased a farm which had a large cis¬ 
tern in the woodhouse. The cistern is a 
large tank or wooden tub set down in the 
ground with a platform on top and a pump 
in cistern. When I moved on farm the 
water in cistern was soft and seemed to be all 
right until it froze up in the Winter. It 
was thawed out with salt and hot water, 
and since then we have been unable to get 
any soft water from the cistern, it being hard 
like the water from the well. 
Ans. —The hardness in the water to 
which your correspondent refers is in all 
probability due to the presence of salt in 
the water,as this has the effect of making 
“soft” water “hard.” If a considerable 
quantity of salt was used in thawing out 
the ice not only would the water in the 
cistern at the time become salt, and there¬ 
fore hard, but the wood lining would also 
become saturated with the salt of the 
water, so that even after the cistern had 
been entirely emptied a second filling 
would receive some salt from the wood 
lining and still remain hard. The rem¬ 
edy would consist in completely empty¬ 
ing the cistern, which would remove all 
of the salt that is contained in the water 
itself, but not that which had been ab¬ 
sorbed by the wood lining. If the water 
is not completely removed it would re¬ 
quire a long time to make the water soft 
again by simply using the water continu¬ 
ously. For instance: if the cistern were 
nearly full when it froze and was thawed 
out with the salt, using out half of the 
water would only remove half of the 
salt, so that when the cistern filled again 
it wo,uld be half as salt as before; to fill 
the cistern again after using half of this, 
it would still be one-fourth as salt as be¬ 
fore, but to empty it completely would 
remove all of the salt except that which 
had been absorbed by the curbing, and 
this may not be enough seriously to af¬ 
fect the water. f. h. king. 
Cow Peas and Other Green Crops. 
G. W. .S'., Pennington, N. J .—Would it be 
advisable to plant cow peas with the corn and 
beans, all in the row, with the planter. How 
much extra fertilizer for the beans and peas 
per acre? IIow much more would the beans 
and peas add to the work of cutting up the 
corn to shock by hand, or would it not he 
feasible? In sowing cow peas for a hay 
crop and to fertilize the ground for corn on 
corn stubble would it be best after the pea 
hay is off to sow rye or Crimson clover to 
turn under in the Spring to plant to corn 
again? How much cow peas per acre and 
how much rye or Crimson clover per acre? I 
have two plots of land I would like to alter¬ 
nate every other year in corn. I keep little 
stock. There are about 14 acres in the two 
plots. Can I do it with cow peas, rye or 
Crimson clover? At what stage of growth 
should the cow peas be cut for hay? Soil 
is clay. 
Ans. —We should sow cow peas rather 
than Soy beans. The plan of putting the 
cow peas with the corn has not proved 
very satisfactory with us. It adds greatly 
to the labor of cutting the corn. In the 
South a favorite plan is to wait until the [ 
corn is “laid by” and then sow a row 
of cow peas midway between each two 
rows of corn. This gives time for a 
good growth of the peas. We give the 
entire field to the cow peas. After early 
potatoes or similar crops they make a 
fair growth. Yes, after the cow pea hay 
is cut we would cut up or plow the stubble 
and sow either rye alone or rye and 
Crimson clover. This combination has 
given us good results. Where cow peas 
are drilled three pecks will do—when 
broadcast, five pecks per acre. We use 
one bushel of rye or 12 pounds Crimson 
clover seed per acre. It is quite possible 
in your latitude to alternate that field. 
Plant half in corn and the other half in 
cow peas. Cut the latter when the first 
leaves begin to fall. Work up the stubble 
with disk or Cutaway harrow, and sow 
rye and Crimson clover. Next year plow 
this under and plant corn. We would use 
400 pounds acid phosphate and 150 pounds 
muriate of potash per acre on the cow 
peas. At the last cultivation of the corn 
sow rye or Crimson clover ahead of the 
cultivator. _ 
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