1907. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
295 
GREATER CORN YIELDS. 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NEW ENGLAND. 
Proper Use of the Soil. 
For a number of years the average yield of corn per 
lacre has been greater in New England than in any other 
lportion of the United States. The primary cause for 
ithis, ff take it, has been that in general only those soils 
Iha-vc been used for corn that are adapted to its normal 
{growth. New England has at least partially learned the 
lesson taught by the abandoned farm, and nowhere else 
’is the same attention paid to selecting the soil best 
fitted for the proper development of the corn plant; 
nowhere else is less of the fertility held by the grain 
sold from the farm, or more fertility restored. When 
these latter questions are completely solved, when each 
type of soil grows only the crops for which it is fitted, 
and when not only part but all of the fertility lost by 
•cropping and through other causes is replaced; then 
•and only then will we have a permanent system of 
agriculture, a system which will not leave to our sons 
a depleted soil to be abandoned as unprofitable in the 
ausxt generation. 
PHYSICAL CONDITION.—The proper physical 
type of soil for corn is a deep black loam. Even the 
color is of some importance, for it has been found that 
the average soil temperature near the surface increases 
directly with the depth of color; and corn is a heat- 
loving plant. The proper texture will be approximated 
in places of very different topography, both dark, rich 
(bottom land and high uplands. More land in New 
England is rendered unfit for corn by wash¬ 
ing than by any other one cause. But it 
must not be supposed that there is no fit 
rolling land. There are many places which are 
hilly, that have a deep, friable soil, which 
may be kept fertile by proper terracing, i. e., 
Tunning the rows around the hillside at the 
same level. The point to be determined by 
each grower for his own conditions is: What 
part of his farm is at present in the proper 
condition to grow a profitable crop, and what 
are the methods to be used to improve the 
conditions of other portions? Every grower 
Jknows that no hard and fast rule can be ap- 
■plied to this. Every farm must in a sense 
be an experimental plot. Make it your rule 
to plant no piece of ground to corn simply 
from habit, when you know that it will only 
result in a loss, unless there is a well-defined 
plan to use this as one of the steps in a 
system for restoring lost fertility. 
ROTATIONS.—Plan a rotation which will 
mot necessarily be the most profitable on the 
first round, but in which each crop grown will 
have its part to play in correcting some defect 
in the land. Every rotation should contain 
at least one planting of a legume, preferably 
one like clover, that will remain on the land 
through the Winter and develop a thick, deep 
root system. Do not expect this to be one of 
the profit crops, but one whose primary object 
is to take nitrogen from the air and accumu¬ 
late stores of it in the soil for the use of 
subsequent non-leguminous crops which must 
get their nitrogen from the soil. And this is 
mot all, for the deep-rooted clovers are useful 
iboth in opening up hard clay subsoils, and in 
rendering available, through its fermentation 
; and decay, much phosphoric acid which would other¬ 
wise be insoluble. Corn is a good crop to start such 
a rotation, for corn is a crop which will stand up 
under a heavy application of manure, an application 
which would give oats a tendency to lodge, and make 
potato plants viney or their tubers scabby. A good 
general rule for a rotation is to have one or two 
profit crops, such as corn and potatoes, and to have 
these when possible the one a long-rooted and the 
other a short-rooted crop, to take fertility from dif¬ 
ferent regions; and finally a legume crop to plow 
under for its nitrogen. On most soils in New Eng¬ 
land it is also of great advantage to reduce Winter 
loss of soil fertility by the Fall planting of catch crops, 
such as rye. Such rotations should be planned to fit 
every set of conditions in New England, and until 
good sensible rotations are in general use, either our 
soil fertility, and hence our general yield, will con¬ 
tinually decrease, or the high cost of production, if 
fertility is kept up by commercial fertilizers, will very 
materially reduce the profits of the crop. 
SOIL FERTILITY.—If soil fertility is to be per¬ 
manently maintained, the general unalterable rule must 
be: first, to feed all our corn and other crops where 
possible, and to put all the manure thus produced back 
upon the land; second, to purchase commercial fer¬ 
tilizers to restore to the soil all further losses of 
plant food, both those of cropping and of leaching. 
This is justly as much an item in the cost of produc¬ 
tion as is the cost of tillage, but is an itenj too gen-. 
erally overlooked. The most rigid prevention of waste 
of manure restores to the land only a portion of the 
elements of fertility lost in cropping. A portion of 
the nitrogen and potash, and a large part of the phos¬ 
phoric acid which have come from our soil through 
our crops to our stock, are lost when the stockman 
sells his meat animals, or even when the dairyman sells 
only milk. These lost amounts of the elements of fer¬ 
tility must be purchased and replaced. This is the only 
answer to our question. It only remains for us to 
determine the most economical use of our fertilizer 
money. 
CONSTITUENTS REQUIRED.—We know that it 
takes proportionally large amounts of phosphates to 
form the grain of corn, and relatively as large amounts 
of potash to produce the stalks. Analyses of these 
parts have been the basis of the formuke of large 
numbers of commercial fertilizers, and have doubtless 
served a purpose. However, in too large a number 
of cases the purchase of these mixed fertilizers is a 
great waste of money on the part of the buyer. Our 
various types of soil are very different in the amount 
of fertility which they already contain. Some soils 
contain relatively large amounts of potash, while others 
are normal in phosphoric acid. It is only when a soil 
becomes deficient in one or the other that this defici¬ 
ency should be supplied in large amounts. For in¬ 
stance, when a certain soil contains potash much above 
normal for a fertile soil, no profit is made by the 
addition of large quantities of potash in the form of 
a commercial fertilizer, and such applications produce 
little return for the expenditure. More profit will 
accrue from money spent for phosphoric acid, the 
deficient compound. When both the potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid approach or go below the limit for a 
normal fertile soil, then they must both be supplied 
in amounts equal to the maximum amounts removed, 
i. e., in a 100-bushel crop of corn, there would be 
about 52 pounds phosphoric acid and 96 pounds potash. 
To determine what his soil needs, each farmer must 
constitute himself an experimenter, and by varying 
the amounts of different fertility constituents in the 
fertilizer which he applies to his land, determine for 
himself the amount of each which gives a profitable 
return. This work should not be discontinued after 
one year, but should be continued in the same manner 
and on the same land for a term of years; for there 
are few fertilizers which are completely available to 
the plant the first year. The final important result of 
his experiment will be the relative needs of his land 
of these significant factors in the production of crops. 
Connecticut Experiment Station. E. m. east. 
AID TO THE CARRIER.—T see on every corner of what 
is known to the rural mail carrier as a “blind crossroad” 
or a road not traveled by the carrier, that each family on 
that road usually has its mail box on a separate post, re¬ 
quiring the carrier to move several times to reach each box. 
But the other day I saw what looked to me as a decided 
improvement. On a corner where four families were served 
some genius hit on the following plan to save the carrier’s 
time and patience, lie took the iron axle and one wheel off 
an old wagon, the axle was set upright in the ground, bring¬ 
ing the wheel t-lm tbtf right height, then the four hoxes were 
securely bolted to th« wheel. This, placed on the upright 
axle, made a nice revolving carrier for the bo-^es and all 
coming In reach of rtje carrier at one stop, v, h. 
THE JAPANESE AS FARM LABORERS. 
Some Experience from Idaho. 
As a constant reader of The R. N.-Y. and of the 
many and varying complaints on the farm-labor prob¬ 
lem, both indoors and out, I beg to call the attention 
of your many eastern readers to the little brown men 
from Japan, not that they entirely solve the problem, 
but they do help some. Of course from some sources 
comes much opposition to them, especially from such 
worthies as the man who offered service to Blackford 
& Hill, the Attica merchants (R. N.-Y., page 84). But 
he will work! He will do housework on a farm, carry 
his own water, cut and carry his wood, care for chick¬ 
ens, raise a kitchen garden, and keep himself clean, 
spotlessly clean. As farm and garden helpers they like 
best to work by piece work, or to contract by the acre 
or by the job, and then work in little gangs from five 
to 10 to a gang. They are strong and healthy, indus¬ 
trious and very patient; never seem to be in the least 
discouraged, and at hoeing, cultivating, pulling weeds, 
•picking stones, clearing land or any of that kind of 
hand work that it is so hard to get the average hired 
man to do, they excel. But they are no teamsters, al¬ 
though they will and do drive and work teams; they 
are so easy and gentle with the horses they get little 
work out of them. I never knew them to milk, but as 
they are so fond of all kinds of animals, very kind and 
gentle and so anxious and quick to learn, I believe they 
would soon become good help on a dairy farm. 
I am quite confident that in the market garden, truck 
and fruit sections of the East they would be a 
success. In the sugar-beet fields here they do 
almost all the hand work; in fact, I can see no 
way we could get this work done without them. 
They work in little gangs of five to 15, and 
are paid by the acre. When work is pressing 
they will often work 14 hours a day in the 
field. They take their tents and beds from 
place to place, do their own cooking, and in 
this way are a boon to the women folks. They 
will take a little short-handled hoe and bend 
or stoop over all day long, and the way they 
can make the sharp little hoe fly would bring 
a pleasant smile to the face of the owner of 
weedy fields or gardens anywhere. But they 
arc not Chinamen, and cannot be treated as 
Chinamen. They demand fair wages, are lib¬ 
eral spenders, live well, using lots of eggs and 
chickens, drink little, and with no carousing. 
They all smoke cigarettes, but are cleanly 
people, washing and bathing frequently. Among 
the older ones are lots of good business men, 
conducting stores, restaurants, etc., rent gar¬ 
dens and sugar-beet lands, paying the highest 
rents, and pay their way. We rarely hear of 
anyone losing anything on a Japanese. But 
perhaps the best of all, they do not get smart, 
and tell what they would do if they owned 
this ranch, tell you what you ought to do and 
just how to do it, but attend strictly to their 
own business. They never become paupers in 
any form, take all care of their aged, sick or 
dead, and are all, as far as I have known, 
Christians. There are some Christian monks 
come here, but I have never known them to 
hold services of any kind, and as I see it, they 
are to us a blessing in the development of 
this great Northwest, and to some extent 
to curb the unreasonable demands of the inferior, 
ones among our own laboring class, who here last year 
asked and I think some got $3.50 and found for a 
nine-hour day in the hayfields. Any place or town in 
the East can get Japanese labor, provided they can 
furnish work enough, say in one county, for 40 or 50, 
so as to justify a boss to look after their business and 
welfare, and to maintain a home or headquarters for 
them. IRVIN BISSETT. 
Idaho. 
I IIE CONCORD GRAPE.—1 should judge that at a 
low estimate there would be a million Concord vines 
planted on this belt this Spring, which belt is already 
said to consist of about 30,000 acres of vineyards. There 
are very few grapes except Concords being planted 
on this belt, and I think vineyardists about here generally 
have concluded that the Concord yields more tons per 
acre than any other variety. Catawbas don’t ripen here. 
I believe Delaware and other good varieties can be 
grown as successfully here as anywhere, but our vineyard- 
ists don’t plant them. I believe the fruit of the Concord 
vineyards goes largely to the laboring classes; to people 
who want something cheap, and quantity not quality. 
Although the Concord is a fair grape if it can be 
picked from the vines when it is just right, it is a 
pool; keeper and a poor shipper (rattles and cracks), 
and if T couldn’t get better grapes than shipped Con¬ 
cords T wouldn’t eat grapes. Quite a large quantity of 
Concord grapes are eonstpned in making unfermented 
grape juice, and a large quantity is used for making 
wine which, as I understand, goes to the very poorest 
people in the land, and moreover, in my opinion, is the 
most villainous intoxicant eygr put into the human stom¬ 
ach. GEO. S. J0SSELYIL 
“TELEPHONE” PEAS GROWN FROM CHEAP SEEDS. Fig. 137. 
See Ruralisms, Page 304. 
