1909 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1105 
IMPROVING RUN-DOWN LAND. 
C. A. II., Baltimore, Md .— I recently pur¬ 
chased a farm i>n Howard County, Md.. in 
a high rolling country. I immediately com¬ 
menced to try to improve the soil. One 
field (eastern exposure) had been mercilessly 
worked, until the soil was practically ex¬ 
hausted. There are larger areas in this field 
which show that the soil, while very light 
and friable, is extremely acid, and great 
bunches of sorrel in among the corn. In 
such spots the corn amounted practi'cally 
to nothing. I limed this field with 25 
bushels of burned lime to the acre. I also 
put about three-quarters of a ton of wood 
ashes to the acre. At the last working of 
the corn I sowed Crimson clover, hut it 
did not set. I have about decided to sow 
it in cow peas next Spring, with a view 
of plowing under, and sowing in wheat in 
the Fall. 
Ans. —Much of the land in the section 
you name is very steep, and is better 
kept in grass or at least have a sod on 
it whenever it is necessary to turn it 
for cultivation in order to prevent bad 
washing of the soil. The application 
you made of lime has probably tended 
to sweeten the soil to some extent, but 
has also further used up the humus that 
it may have had, and the crusting of the 
soil was probably the cause of the fail¬ 
ure of the Crimson clover to catch. It 
would have been better to work the seed 
in with a small-tooth ciiltivator. But 
you will make no mistake in putting 
cows peas on it. I do not think that it 
is wise to turn under a heavy growth of 
peas for wheat. It would of necessity 
involve late plowing, and that of itself 
is bad for wheat,’and turning under a 
heavy growth late in the season will 
prevent your getting the land into the 
well-settled condition that wheat de¬ 
mands. I would advise you to give the 
field a dressing of 400 pounds of acid 
phosphate or of Thomas slag meal pre¬ 
ferably, and 30 pounds of muriate of 
potash per acre after a thorough plow¬ 
ing, and harrow this in in the prepara¬ 
tion of the land for the peas. Then put 
the peas in with a wheat drill, using the 
Black or the Whippoorwili pea in late 
May or early June. When the peas have 
matured pods that are turning yellow, 
mow them for hay. Then repeat the ap¬ 
plication of phosphoric acid and potash 
and disk the land fine not more than 
three or four inches deep, going over 
it till the surface is perfectly fine, but 
not replowing it at all. Drill the wheat 
after the first white frost and I think 
that you will make far more wheat than 
by turning under the whole growth of 
peas, and will have a lot of cow hay that 
cannot be beaten for milch cows, and 
the manure made from the hay returned 
to the field will give more results than 
the peas plowed under, while you get 
the feeding value also. In fact I have 
long ago found that it is bad farm 
economy to bury for manure a crop that 
can be profitably fed first. 
w. F. MASSEY. 
MANURE FOR MARKET GARDENERS. 
A Western Practice. 
I can hardly think that what Mr. Allen 
tells us is meant for the market garden¬ 
er. It is meant for the farmer, and in con¬ 
nection with farm rotation. I do not see 
how it can be applied to gardening. Most 
gardeners are confined to narrow limits, 
and where a gardener has more land 
than he can use in one season, he may 
make use of grass or clover, on which to 
spread his manure. A heavy sod plowed 
deep and well worked down certainly 
grows good corn, and may grow a good 
crop of potatoes if the land is suitable 
for that crop. If the gardener should 
plant his seed and set out his plants on 
such ground, he would expect to have 
little left when cutworms and wire- 
worms get done with it; yet he would 
have plenty of this pest anyway, if he 
permits foxtail and crab grass to cover 
his ground during part of the Summer. 
The best land I have for the business, 
is bottom land, but low lands are too 
cold in the Spring for what we would 
plant very early. From the bottom to 
the first table, an elevation of 15 feet, 
there is a difference in temperature of 
four degrees. The second table of 30 
feet is six degrees, on a still frosty night 
of May; if some wind is moving the 
difference is less. This being the case, 
the gardener must go to the higher 
ground for his early planting. Most gen¬ 
erally the land on these hills is clay, or 
mostly composed of clay. A cold wet 
Spring would not permit of early plow¬ 
ing. or if it could be plowed early 
enough, it could not be worked down 
fine enough for the garden, and would 
form a very hard crust after rains. Fall 
plowing can be worked down much ear¬ 
lier, and in fine shape, and does not crust 
so hard. If land is to be plowed in the 
Fall, it must be manured in the Fall, be- 
cause we expect to plow but once. Ma¬ 
nure hauled from the livery stable is 
mostly composed of straw or very coarse | 
manure; it must be plowed under in the 
Fall for best results. 
Ten loads of manure might grow a 
crop of hay, it would help to grow a crop 
of corn, but I would not attempt to grow 
garden crops on 10 loads of manure per 
acre. The garden must not only have 
enough food to grow the crop, but must 
have a great deal more. What the gar¬ 
dener plants, must be forced to the limit. 
He cannot afford to come into market 
when the last horn blows; he must use 
manure freely and not be stingy with it. 
The crops we plant later in the season, 
may be planted on bottom land on which 
we can practice some rotation and make 
use of cover crops in Winter. Manure 
may be put on the land in piles, during 
Winter, and spread just before the plow. 
If I should spread manure during the 
Winter, I would find the land keeping 
wet and cold so long, that it could not be 
plowed at the right time. I haul manure 
a mile and a half; it costs nothing but 
the time and labor of hauling. I haul to 
the field as long as I can find a place 
for it. When it cannot be put on the 
ground, I dump it in pits., I have two 
clay pits which hold water like a jug. 
When too much is dumped at one time, 
there is loss from heating; during long 
continued wet weather, there is loss 
from overflow, and sometimes the loss- 
is great. I know of no way to store 
manure without loss, unless you provide 
yourself with a concrete pit, and a good 
water supply. A man must figure the 
cost of a concrete pit for himself; the 
water supply may be obtained from the 
barn roof at small cost. a. mosty. 
Missouri. 
A Vermont Plan. 
In reply to the question as to how I 
manage to keep manure over Winter, 
will say, that I do not keep any over 
Winter other than spreading direct on 
field where I want it. I manage to plow 
under manure bought in town and my 
own make the fore part of November, 
for potatoes on green sod, onions, beets, 
carrots, turnips and parsnips. For the 
rest of garden crops, such as strawber¬ 
ries, corn, cucumbers, squash and melons 
I spread on plowed ground and harrow 
in, the next Spring with spading, spring- 
tooth and smoothing harrow. But con¬ 
ditions with C. P., Jefferson City, Mo., 
may be entirely different. He may be 
able to plow or harrow at any time dur¬ 
ing Winter, where we arc practically 
frozen up for Winter and have fine 
sleighing November 26. This will be 
nothing strange to your readers, as you 
generally call this the “Bashful State” 
although we hereabouts call it the 
“Spruce-Gum State,” but I will mention 
that I picked and sold $567 worth of 
strawberries this year from a little more 
than a half acre, about 90 rods, saying 
nothing of what we used and canned for 
our own use. You are asking how to 
keep manure over Winter. I just hap¬ 
pened to think how T manure is kept at 
all times of year in Germany. Every 
farmer takes a particular pride in having 
his manure heap laid up as square as a 
brick, level and tramped down, and 
throws liquid manure over the whole 
heap occasionally. That manure will 
never heat or decay, and you can trace 
every load by the drippings from barn¬ 
yard to field. That the writer knows, be¬ 
cause I have lived there until I was 24 
years old. Lots of bedding is used in 
these stables, and cattle stand mostly on 
stone floors, and liquid runs off into ce¬ 
mented cistern, which is pumped out into 
tight wagons and drawn on fields, gener¬ 
ally on rainy days. l. m. 
Sheldon, Vt. 
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