268 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 21, 
Substitute for Hay. 
G. J. B., Ballslon Spa, K. Y .—Can any 
of your readers help me out? I shall he 
short of hay next Winter. Grasshoppers 
ruined my clover seeding. What is best 
for me to put in to take its place, oats and 
peas cut green for hay or fodder corn? I 
have two silos , will have plenty of silage, 
but will not cut nearly enough hay. What 
will be best to feed with, the silage? Land 
is clay loam. 
Ans. —They will be glad to help. We 
would sow oats and peas early on part of 
the land and corn fodder on the rest. 
When the oats and peas are cut we 
would plow or disk the ground, after 
manuring, and sow Japanese millet. 
This may be cut in September and the 
ground seeded to wheat or rye. 
Potatoes After Potatoes. 
G. A. N., Alabama, N. Y .—I desire to 
plant potatoes on the same field where I 
raised potatoes a year ago. Shall plant 
about .Tune 15. Would it pay to sow cow- 
peas upon the field as early as possible in 
the Spring, plowing them under just before 
planting potatoes? The field is now in a 
fair state of fertility. 
Ans. —It will not pay to sow cow 
peas early enough to plow under the 
middle of June. The cow pea is a 
bean—tender in our cold northern soils 
and should not be planted until after 
corn. You can use the Canadian field 
pea for the purpose, as that can be 
seeded early and it is hardy. We 
should sow oats and peas together as 
is done for hay and plow the entire crop 
under for potatoes. 
The Soil Under a House. 
I live in the village and have a barn 
which sits quite close to the house. I in¬ 
tend to put new sills under the barn soon 
and think of moving it back about 30 feet. 
The barn has stood where it now is prob¬ 
ably 25 years, on piers, one side of which 
is but two feet from the ground and the 
other rests on the ground. Where it now 
stands I desire to plant a flower garden 
and lawn; principally Asters, which is my 
hobby, in the flower garden. I have beard 
that soil from under a building is not for- 
tile or for some reason will not produce 
good crops. Is that true? G. n. m. 
Mayville, N. Y. 
Ans. —Has there been any drainage 
of liquids through the barn floor? What 
is under the barn now—the usual ac¬ 
cumulation of rubbish ? The chances 
are that this soil is very rich and will 
make a good garden. Clean off the 
rubbish and plow or spade the soil 
deeply. Take a fair sample of the soil, 
moisten it slightly and pack it in a cup. 
Get a piece of blue litmus paper at a 
drug store. Make a hole in the soil 
with a case knife and push the strip of 
blue litmus paper down into it and then 
press the soil around it. Leave it there 
half an hour, then take it out and dry. 
If, when dried, the litmus paper changes 
to a red color you may conclude that 
the soil is sour and needs lime or wood 
ashes. If it does not change color, go 
ahead with your garden. 
Utilizing Old Field. 
J. M., Essex Go., Mass. —Will some one 
tell me what vegetables I can best produce 
on my acre of land so that I can earn 
enough to pay my taxes and interest on 
$1,000. My taxes are $40 a year and in¬ 
terest $50. The land has not been culti¬ 
vated for 10 years. The land on top of the 
low hill is a little gravelly but at the 
bottom of the hill is good dark loam. The 
land faces the southeast and is somewhat 
early. 
» 
Ans.—I t will depend on your market 
and What you know about growing 
vegetables. If you are not a gardener 
of course you will not try to raise such 
crops as celery or onions. We should put 
most of the land in potatoes. You can 
follow directions with that crop, and by 
keeping the weeds down and fighting 
the beetles get a fair yield. A fair 
sized patch of squash ought to pay and 
early peas planted three feet apart will 
give you an income early and enable 
you to follow them with late cabbage 
on the same ground. We have planted 
Nott’s Excelsior peas, kept them clean 
and then planted early sweet corn be¬ 
tween the rows. By being careful when 
picking the peas we avoid injuring the 
sweet corn, so that it comes on later and 
makes a good crop. You will have to 
be careful on that old land to have the 
sod well plowed and harrowed to begin 
with. 
This Year's Chemical Rotation. 
C. F. S., Neiv Jersey .—I have 60 acres 
of clay loam which I have been farming 
in this way for the past five years : I put 
one-third in potatoes and mow two-thirds; 
mow it two years and then it comes back 
into potatoes again, using no manure. I 
have been using a fertilizer analyzing about 
3-8-10 on the potatoes, one ton to the acre, 
half broadcast and half in the row. I 
have used one ton to the acre right in the 
row on a few acres with extra good re¬ 
sults. I sow a mixture of grass seed, clover 
and Timothy in August and after dig¬ 
ging potatoes. The first year's mowing is 
mixed hay, the second year mostly Tim¬ 
othy. I always top-dress the Timothy with 
150 pounds of nitrate of soda in the Spring, 
and have been cutting tremendous crops. 
After mowing the Timothy starts up again 
and makes a heavy burden of grass to pro¬ 
tect the ground through the Winter and a 
burden to piow under in the Spring, which 
with its roots and tops will make more 
humus than a coat of manure; am I right 
or wrong? By using lots of fertilizers t 
can see that my farm is getting better fast. 
What analysis of fertilizer would be best 
to use? Could I buy the raw materials and 
mix the goods myself, and what would I 
save on a ton? Where could I get a table 
showing just how to mix goods, and tell 
how they would analyze after being mixed; 
for instance, this’formula : 200 pounds ni¬ 
trate of soda, 200 pounds of dried blood, 
400 pounds of ground bone, 1,000 pounds 
superphosphate, 200 pounds potash? 
What would this fertilizer average in am¬ 
monia, phosphoric acid and potash, and 
about what would it cost per ton to buy 
the raw materials, and mix them myself? 
Will any nitrogen escape from sod soil, 
it having been plowed in the Fall and left 
exposed to the freezing and thawing through 
the Winter? If so, how much? Will a 
fertilizer cut with acid have any tendency 
to sour the ground or injure it in any way? 
Ans. —This we understand to be a 
three years’ rotation, seeding to grass 
eacli Fall after the potatoes are dug and 
cutting two years. Thus one-third of 
the land is in potatoes each year and the 
ton of fertilizer feeds three crops, one 
of potatoes and two of grass, the nitrate 
of soda being extra. The only way for 
you to make sure that you are using 
the most economical fertilizer would be 
to test the soil by using strips through 
the field without any fertilizer, others 
with potash alone, others with bone 
alone, and others with the two together. 
If you are getting satisfactory crops 
and making a profit at farming we 
should be slow to change until we knew 
by experiment that we were using more 
of some element than is needed. There 
is no question but that the sod plowed 
and rotted in this way with chemicals 
added makes a complete food for your 
crops. Your practice is right so long as 
it pays. You can get an excellent table 
of analyses from the New Jersey Station 
at New Brunswick. The mixture of 
chemicals you mention will give the fol¬ 
lowing : 
Nitro- Phos. Pot- 
gen 
acid 
200 
lbs. 
nitrate of soda. 
...32 
200 
lbs. 
dried blood. 
.24 
4 
400 
lbs. 
bone . 
.14 
100 
000 
lbs. 
acid phosphate.. 
. 
140 
200 
lbs. 
sulphate potash. 
70 
244 
Tliis is per cent nitrogen or nearly 
four per cent ammonia, 12 of phosphoric 
acid and five of potash. Thus you would 
use a little more nitrogen, 50 per cent 
more phosphoric acid and only half as 
much potash as you now use. If you 
have made no experiments to prove that 
you need more phosphoric acid and less 
potash we would not advise you to 
change. By using 400 pounds sulphate 
of potash and only 200 pounds of bone 
you will have a mixture closer to the 
one you are now using. You will have 
to figure the cost by obtaining prices 
on the chemicals laid down at your 
place. There will be little if any loss 
of nitrogen from the sod plowed in 
Fall and left exposed. No doubt large 
quantities of acid phosphate do act to 
sour the land. In a soil containing so 
much humus we would rather use more 
ground bone and less acid phosphate. 
Genuine 
Peruvian Guano 
Cannot Be Manufactured. It is a Natural Manure. 
The Crops Bear Witness to Its Superiority. 
You cannot afford to neglect this opportunity to test the merits of the 
World's Best Fertilizer-- “ The standard by which we almost in¬ 
stinctively measure the value of all other fertilizers." 
. —James J. H. Gregory. 
Genuine Peruvian Guano Exceeds its Guarantee 
The Following Editorial from "The American 
Cultivator,’’ Issue of March 7, 1908, Will 
Interest Every Thoughtful Farmer: 
PERUVIAN GUANO. 
The report of the Connecti¬ 
cut Experiment Station 
makes a good showing for the 
guanos. The analysis of the 
Lobos grade of Peruvian 
guano, imported by the 
Coe-Mortimer Company of 
New York City, shows an 
excess over the guaranteed 
percentage of all ingredi¬ 
ents and shows as high as 
15.95 per cent, of phosphoric 
acid, also 3 per cent, nitro¬ 
gen and 6.2 per cent, potash. 
THE TOTAL VALUATION EX¬ 
CEEDS THE GUARANTEED 
VALUATION BY $2.79 TO 
THE TON, A VERY COM¬ 
FORTABLE MARGIN FOR THE 
SAFETY OF PURCHASERS. 
The analysis of this company’s 
Chincha Peruvian Guano, 
as given out by the Massa¬ 
chusetts station, is also of 
interest as this material has not 
appeared much in fertilizer re¬ 
ports of late years, but now bids 
fair to become popular again since 
the discovery of new deposits 
has enabled fertilizer concerns to 
supply it in quantity. Analysis 
shows 7.18 per cent, nitro¬ 
gen, 10.64 per cent, phos¬ 
phoric acid, 2.10 per cent, 
potash. The actual value 
exceeds the guaranteed 
value by about $2 per ton. 
Evidently this is the old- 
fashioned guano and an 
honest, pure article. 
Another sample of the same 
material shows an excess of 
$4.62 of actual value over 
the company’s guarantee, 
and still another an extra 
value of $3.90, SO THAI' 
THE AVERAGE OF ALL 
THREE SAMPLES INDICATES 
THAT THE MATERIALS RUN 
CONSIDERABLY MORE THAN 
$3 PER TON OVER THE 
GUARANTEE. 
The use of Peruvian 
guano is extending in all 
parts of the country. Even 
in South Carolina, the home 
of rock phosphate, and 
where the planters have 
at hand an abundance of 
cottonseed meal, the Coe- 
Mortimer Company report 
the sale of more Peruvian 
guano than in any other part 
of the country. It seems to 
be very popular among the 
cotton planters. The to¬ 
bacco growers of Pennsyl¬ 
vania likewise seem to have 
taken up the use of guano 
very extensively, and some 
of the growers in the Con¬ 
necticut valley are using the 
same material. Of course, 
among market gardeners 
this old-time material has 
never lost its hold, and is 
always bought eagerly 
whenever, as at present, a 
supply can be obtained. 
Our importations of GENUINE PERUVIAN 
GUANO thus far for this Spring’s Supply comprise 
complete cargoes on the following steamships: 
“CELIA” - - - 7,524 tons 
“CUMBAL” - - - 6,102 tons 
“PLANET VENUS” - 4,495 tons 
“BELLE OF SCOTLAND” 6,898 tons 
Total, 
25,019 tons 
Anyone wishing to confirm this statement may do so by writing 
to Messrs. W. R. Grace & Co., of New York (the owners of these 
steamers), to the Peruvian Consul, or to the United States Custom 
House Authorities. 
Our booklet “Results,” and our fertilizer literature sent 
free if you mention The Rural New Yorker. 
The Coe-Mortimer Company 
SOLE U. S. IMPORTERS OF GENUINE PERUVIAN GUANO, 
SOLE MANUFACTURERS OF THE 
FAMOUS E. FRANK COE FERTILIZERS 0 PERUVIAN BRANDS. 
SPECIAL IMPORTERS OF THOMAS PHOSPHATE POWDER. 
24 STONE STREET, - - NEW YORK 
