2 
that make its use profitable. These prices are double 
what they should be—double what they are in the 
Middle West, but it is very likely that a large demand 
for the product in the East would be the means of 
lowering the price. If the land has been properly 
limed, and still the nodules do not develop, the bac¬ 
teria are probably absent from the soil. The easiest 
way to inoculate the soil, and one which has given 
excellent results in Connecticut, is as follows. It 
makes use of a previous clover crop in order that 
the soil may be thoroughly inoculated with the bac¬ 
teria at the actual time of the Alfalfa planting. (Other 
crops may be found that will more conveniently an¬ 
swer the purpose.) If possible, obtain some surface 
soil from an old Alfalfa field and spread it over the 
new seed bed at the rate of 200 pounds per acre. If 
an Alfalfa field is not accessible, then get the soil 
from places where Sweet clover, Meli’.otus, grows 
abundantly. When this is done sow a little Alfalfa 
seed with your Red clover. Here and there a plant 
will spring up and become laden with nodules, and 
when the clover is about run out the land is in fine 
condition for a permanent seeding of Alfalfa. 
Of course there are many minor troubles with Al¬ 
falfa that are peculiar to New England. We are 
worried with field mice; we are cursed with dodder; 
we are almost certain to have rain when we hope to 
cure some nice hay; but these things are mere details. 
If a nice stand of luxurious Alfalfa is obtained, I 
think few farmers would worry about the rest. One 
other thing, however, is worthy a gentle reminder. 
Alfalfa can obtain nitrogen from the air, but it is 
not an all-round wizard. It is a gross feeder upon 
potash and phosphoric acid, and these compounds 
must be obtained from the soil. Do not get a nice 
start with Alfalfa and then leave it to itself. Give it 
a good, generous top-dressing of these two elements 
each year, and insure a good start by heavily fertiliz¬ 
ing the seed bed in the beginning. Remember that this 
crop is to remain on the land for a number of years, 
and its initial cost is not to be charged against one 
years’s returns. edward m. east. 
Conn. Experment Station. 
A SHORT COURSE IN AGRICULTURE. 
Opportunity for Farm Boys. 
The opportunities and advantages a farmer boy 
enjoys by taking a short course of 10 or 12 weeks 
at the State Agricultural College are numerous. It 
would be impossible to enumerate them all, but there 
are a few important ones that should be brought 
to the attention of every farm boy. It gives him 
an opportunity to obtain an education along agricul¬ 
tural lines at a season of the year when work is 
slack and he can most easily be spared from the 
farm. He will obtain this education by selecting 
one of the courses offered, the number varies in 
the different States, but in most of them there are 
at last three for him to select from, and he can use 
his own judgment in selecting the one that would 
be of most use to him. The sectiop in which he 
lives and his own individual taste will determine this 
selection to a large extent. If he lives in a dairy 
section and has a liking for dairying himself he will 
most likely select a course in dairying, but on the 
other hand if situated in a trucking district he should 
select a course in market gardening. The subjects 
given in the different courses are covered very thor¬ 
oughly and instruction is given in so simple a man¬ 
ner as to be easily understood by all, even those 
who have had very little common school education. 
Then aside front the benefit the boy receives from 
the instruction given is the good which cannot help 
arising from the making of personal acquaintances 
with the men who are doing much for the uplift of 
agriculture in the State in which he is taking the 
course and in other States. He also makes acquaint¬ 
ances among his schoolmates who represent the 
various counties and agricultural districts in his 
State and through them, learns of the agricultural 
conditions existing in the various sections of the 
State. He will also learn more of the market facili¬ 
ties the State offers than he knew before, and will 
become better acquainted with the geography and 
different types of soil in the State. He will become 
acquainted with the work being carried on at the 
experiment station for the benefit of the farmers of 
the State; he will learn of the experiments being 
conducted along certain lines, and the knowledge 
gained by taking one of the short courses will enable 
him to apply the truths that are brought out by these 
experiments to the conditions existing on his own 
farm, when he gets one, with much more intelligence 
than would otherwise have been the case. 
There is another sense in which he will be bene¬ 
fited that will probably be of more real benefit to 
him than the training he receives and acquaintances 
T he will make, and that is getting away from home. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The boy who stays home continually is apt to think 
the only crops to grow and the only methods of 
growing them are the methods practiced on his own 
farm or the farms in his immediate neighborhood. 
If he takes the short course he will see the system 
of farming practiced on the college farm and on 
other farms he visits during the term, and will see 
that farmers in other sections are doing as well or 
perhaps better than the farmers in his home section 
by an entirely different system of farming; he will 
see others growing new crops and old crops by new 
methods, and by these visits to other farms will 
gather many new and useful ideas that will be of 
use to him when he returns to the farm. The course 
will also awaken in him an agricultural spirit or 
enthusiasm and he will see the value of farming, 
its great worth and inestimable value as never be¬ 
fore. There is a belief prevalent in the minds of 
many that only those not fitted for anything else 
should take up with farming. The boy who has 
taken a short course will see the fallacy of such a 
belief for he will have come to a full realization of 
the fact that farming is the most useful as well as 
the most honorable of all occupations. • 
WILLARD B. KILLE. 
BIG CORN FOR SILAGE. 
On page 857 is a picture of a large yield of Eureka 
silage corn grown in Jefferson Co., N. Y. It is stated 
that the grower does not intend to use Eureka corn again 
because it does not ear out. We wish that the question 
of feeding green corn might be discussed in your paper 
during the coming Winter. A great many farmers appear 
to have the same idea that Mr. Isham has, that green 
corn will not make milk, but we would like to ask you 
or Mr. Isham if that is the case, why is it that his 
cows will give the most milk during the month of .Tune 
when the grass is greenest and less mature than it is in 
the Fall, when the cows always commence to dry up? 
Our trade in Eureka corn has been increasing so fast, 
and especially in New Y’ork State, that we think Mr. 
Isham is one of the few men who should investigate this 
matter before they try to raise forage and grain both in 
the same field at the same time. We have so many 
testimonials from persons in New York State who have 
planted Eureka corn that we are quite sure most farmers 
there are better pleased with this corn than they are with 
the smaller kind that will mature the ears. 
ROSS BROS. co. 
R. N.-Y.—We shall be pleased to have farmers dis¬ 
cuss this matter. Many of these farmers in Jefferson 
Co. feed little grain. They depend on clover hay 
and silage for the bulk of their ration. Both analysis 
and practical feeding show that silage in which good- 
sized, mature ears are cut is richer feed than large 
stalks without ears. We shall probably find that 
farmers who prefer bulk in the silo rather than 
stalks and ears cut together are those who feed large 
quantities of grain. On page 254 of Feeds and Feed¬ 
ing Prof. W. A. Henry says; 
Southern corn should not be grown for either silo or 
forage purposes, however, unless the climatic conditions 
permit the ears to develop grains of corn which reach 
the glazing stage at time of harvest. This variety of 
corn will prove a favorite for both silage and dry forage 
where there is an urgent demand for the largest possible 
amount of coarse, palatable forage from a given acreage. 
By the use of southern varieties of seed corn at the 
North the stockman can provide an enormous quantity 
of roughage from a given area. On the other hand the 
stockman who has a fair supply of hay, straw or stover 
at command will fill bis silo with a richer feeding stuff 
than that produced by southern corn, and for this pur¬ 
pose will use varieties of flint or dent corn which will 
fully mature in bis locality, planting the crop in such 
manner as to secure a relatively large proportion of 
grain to roughage. Silage made from the smaller varie¬ 
ties of corn, carrying a considerable proportion of ears, 
will prove a rich feeding stuff which will materially reduce 
the necessity for additional grain. Corn silage, which is 
rich in carbohydrates, should be supplemented by clover 
hay, if possible, not only because some dry food is re¬ 
quired, but because this hay is rich in protein. 
Stands By the Eureka Corn. 
On page 857, the Hope Farm man tells of seeing 
a field of Eureka corn 16 feet high, and adds that 
the man will not plant it again because it had no 
ears. I planted some of the Eureka the past season 
and it grew 14 feet high under very adverse con¬ 
ditions. I had several hundred bushels of corn that 
would have had to go to help fill the silo if it had 
not been for the piece of Eureka corn. Which 
would have been the better, to fill the silo with 
Eureka and then have had the other corn to grind, or 
to put the field corn in the silo? We put corn into 
the silo one year when the ears weighed one-half 
as much as the stalks, and we had to buy lots of 
bran to feed, just the same as though the corn was 
not there. Some might advise not to feed so much 
silage, but we want the silage for succulence, what¬ 
ever that is. It seems to me that in feeding such 
rich silage as they call it you are feeding a lot of 
grain that is not the kind that the cows need. I 
have been undecided on the question until this year. 
My experience this year has been an object lesson 
that has made me a believer in planting the big 
January 2, 
kinds of corn for filling the silo and getting the 
grain in some other way. I would like to hear from 
the experiment stations on this subject. On this 
farm silage is fed only to cows giving milk. In 
conclusion would like to say that I saw the Eureka 
advertised in The R. N.-Y., and that it “made good" 
under very adverse conditions. Herman compton. 
Erie Co., Pa. 
R. .N.-Y.—Mr. Compton will remember that Jef¬ 
ferson Co., N. Y., is over 125 miles north of where 
he lives. This would make quite a difference in 
maturing the corn. 
INCREASING A BUTTER BUSINESS. 
I am about to embark on a new venture, and for the 
want of some good advice I am again coming to The 
R. N.-Y. In the Spring I wish to go into the butter 
business, as I have an opportunity to sell all I can 
make up to 500 pounds a week at 35 cents per pound. 
I have only 12 cows, and as I would like to furnish 
about 200 pounds a week (and do not have ample means 
to buy more cows), I thought about buying the milk 
from nearby farmers and separating it. I can buy 4 per 
cent milk for 15 cents per gallon. Is there any profit 
in these figures? I have 150 acres of land, nine acres 
in Alfalfa, which has a good stand, thanks to The R. 
N.-Y. for its valuable information on the growing of 
Alfalfa, and the remainder good corn and pasture land. 
Would you advise putting up a silo? I have been told 
that butter made from silage was not good, and also 
cows would not last more than two years if fed on silage. 
These are very important questions to me. and I shall 
be very thankful for what information you may be able 
to give. v. r. 
Maryland. 
The price you can obtain for your butter is excel¬ 
lent, and if you have the right kind of cows you 
should be able to get a good income from them, and 
have the skim-milk to feed on the farm, the last 
an item of great value. On the other hand, you 
must understand that there is no greater autocrat 
than the cream pot and the churn. If you are 
going to make a butter that will satisfy a customer 
who is willing to pay 35 cents per pound, some one 
must give the milk, cream and butter his exclusive 
attention at the time it is needed. This must be 
well understood, and the cost must come out of the 
butter. Again, in order to control conditions, you 
will need, besides a separator, a cream vat, churn and 
other smaller tools, as well as means of heating 
plenty of water, and as life is pretty short to turn 
a grindstone—or separator—you should have some 
power to run it if you are to make 35 pounds a 
day. It will not cost very much more to make that 
amount than it will half of -it. You have to go 
through about the same performance in one case 
as the other. 
You certainly can’t afford to buy four per cent 
milk at 15 cents. It will take about 10 quarts of such 
milk to make one pound of butter. This would cost 
37^2 cents and you would have the labor for naught, 
and pay 2 x /i cents a pound for the privilege. Unless 
the milk is made from good feeds, and properly 
handled, it will not make a high-class butter. It is 
out of the question, except with milk above five 
per cent, to make it into butter and compete with 
present milk prices. In view of the above, unless 
your cows are very rich milkers, and you are well 
equipped as to labor and appliances for making but¬ 
ter, it would be better for you to sell your own 
milk for 15 cents a gallon, if you are able to get that 
price, as I infer you are, thus saving yourself a lot 
of work and obtaining more for your product. Of 
course you would thus lose the skim-milk. I do not 
like to discourage any worthy undertaking, but I 
am giving you the facts as I know them. You may 
not be able to sell your milk if the haul be too long. 
Of this I am in the dark. Don’t forget that unless 
you have unusually cold water you will need ice. 
As to the silo; there is no way that you can 
handle the corn crop as cheaply, utilize so much of 
the fodder, and get so much good food value out 
of it, as through the silo. I would not want to 
dairy without one. If the silage is well put up, and 
fed after milking it will make the finest kind of 
butter. I have sold it for years, so made, to the 
most particular trade. I have fed silage for 20 years, 
and have cows 12 or 13 years old that have eaten 
it from their youth up. Why a succulent, easily 
digested food should “wear a cow out” passes my 
comprehension. edw’d van alstyne. 
JrsTiTiA Grange, at Lewisburg, Pa., held a meeting on 
December 5 to discuss the Country Life Commission. tVe 
cannot print all the conclusions reached after a long de¬ 
bate, but here is the summing up : 
“In our judgment the most important single thing to 
be done for the general betterment of country life is to 
provide better education. First, carry good teaching to 
the homes through the farmers’ institute, bulletin, and 
local papers until our people fully realize that all the 
advantage does not lie with those in town. Second, adapt 
our country schools more closely to- the needs of the coun¬ 
try community.” 
