614 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 1, 
THE BEST GOOD ENOUGH. 
Breeding Quality Into the Wheat. 
Years ago, while farming in Michigan, 1 raised a 
crop of wheat that was the finest I ever saw, and I 
want to tell the Rural family how I prepared the 
seed. The year before Clawson wheat was introduced 
there, and I raised it. About the first of September 
we had several days of rainy weather, and I had 
finished the little rainy-day jobs that had accumulated 
and thought if I had some one to help me I would 
prepare my seed wheat, but I was alone; still I went 
to the granary, which was in the barn and looked at 
it. It was certainly fine wheat and clean, but as is 
always the case, there were some large, fine berries 
and some small ones. I thought if I could separate 
them and sow only the largest I would get very 
fine wheat. After a little thought I swept the barn 
floor that was 14x36 feet in size, then took the scoop 
and threw a shovelful as far as I could, then several 
more. I found that the largest kernels went the 
farthest, and when I swept it up against the bay I 
found that at the farthest end was much superior 
to the other, so I continued the separation till I had 
enough for my seed. When I thrashed it I had 
everything ready for the work, dry wood all pre¬ 
pared and piled convenient to the engine, boards in 
the barn ready for the scaffolds, and plenty of help, 
and in 20 minutes from the time the machine went 
into the barn we were thrashing. With no delays they 
made a short job, and a big yield for the amount of 
straw, and when they were getting ready to leave, I 
said to the owner of the machine: “Now you have 
had a neat, clean job and made a short one of it, and 
if your conscience will allow I want you to make 
a cut in the price, for I am going to pay you now.” 
“Well,” he said, “if you are going to do that I’ll make 
a cut of a dollar on a hundred, and I could make 
more with such wheat and everything ready and as 
convenient as you had it than I do now. Yours is the 
finest wheat I ever thrashed.” The next day I took 
four bushels of the “tailings” to the mill, and the 
miller said it was the nicest wheat he had seen in 
years, and as he was about emptying a sack of it he 
stopped and said he was going to weigh it and see 
how much flour it would make. After it was in his 
hopper he tolled it, and after it was ground he 
weighed the flour, and it yielded 43 pounds of flour 
per bushel. I sold it all for seed except what I 
needed for family flour, and all of that except the 
four bushels that I had ground was coaxed away by 
exchanging for other wheat. I also sold potatoes in 
Grand Rapids for 60 cents per bushel when 28 cents 
was the top of the market, because they were extra 
fine, and I sold early apples in Kalamazoo to a mer¬ 
chant who had bought a load that day for 20 cents 
per bushel, but he paid me 50 cents per bushel for 
eight bushels. I mention these facts, hoping it will 
encourage producers to raise the best, and offer it 
in the best condition. It does not pay to swindle 
in any manner. The man who packed the “Choice 
New York Baldwins” will not prosper by such meth¬ 
ods, any more than the man who puts stones in his 
fleeces of wool, or he who buys grade cattle and 
sells them for full bloods and registered. It is a 
true saying that “murder will out,” and it is equally 
true that the highest degree of honor and integrity 
will be found out. e. m. russell. 
Virginia. 
R. N.-Y.—A good fanning will clean the grain and 
take out the best kernels for seeding. 
CLEANING OUT A SPRING. 
We liave a receiving cistern for water, connected by inch 
lead pipe with a spring about 40 rods distant. The fail 
is very slight. T-he pipe was laid about 12 years ago, and 
has kept itself clean until now. For five years the cis¬ 
tern has had to be cleaned out often, because of blue slimy 
growth, and now the water comes half a stream or less. 
We cannot get at it with a force pump. Is there any 
substance we can put in the spring end to clean it. out? 
1 have read something of copperas being good for drains, 
but do not dare to put it in the lead pipe without advice 
from better source. J. R. 
It is not quite clear from the letter what may be 
the cause of the clogging of the pipe. It appears to 
be likely to be one of two. There are some waters 
carrying lime and magnesia salts enough so that, in 
the course of time, these deposit along the walls 
of pipes to a sufficient amount to greatly reduce the 
flow. In such cases where it occurs in cities the pipes 
are periodically cleaned by means of a plumber’s spe¬ 
cial force pump device, the deposit usually depositing 
in a loose spongy condition which may be loosened 
by strongly agitating the water back and forth in the 
pipe. In the other case pipes may become clogged by 
the growth in them of a slimy fungus which not in¬ 
frequently develops in field drains, and a similar clog¬ 
ging often occurs in the kitchen refrigerator drain. 
Tf this latter is the cause of the clogging, and if the 
growth is not evident in the spring itself, the cistern 
has in some manner become seeded and the growth 
may possibly not extend very far up the pipe. An ex¬ 
amination should be made at both ends of the pipe, 
and if the slimy growth appears only in the outlet 
end of the pipe this may be cleared out with a very 
strong solution of Babbitt’s lye. By extending a piece 
of one-quarter-inch gas pipe or a piece of rubber 
tubing, if the lead pipe is curved, and turning the end 
up, the lye may be poured in to destroy the growth. 
If the whole pipe is clogged in this way the tube 
would have to be inserted at the spring end, calking 
so as to shut out the spring water. Some 27 gallons 
would be required to fill an inch pipe 40 rods long, 
and in this should be dissolved not less than one 
pound of lye to four gallons of water. If the pipe 
has become clogged through a growth seeded in the 
cistern an effort should be made to clean out the 
cistern and to destroy the germs which would adhere 
to the walls. Green vitriol, or ferrous sulphate ap¬ 
plied to the wall as a wash would probably do this. 
If the germs are normally in the spring water all 
that could be done is to clean out the pipe as needed. 
_._ F. H. KING. 
LIME AND NITROGEN CROPS. 
Do Legumes Sour the Soil? 
The apple orchards of the Annapolis Valley are generally 
plowed either in the Fall or early Spring, and kept in a 
state of clean cultivation by harrowing up to about end of 
June, when a cover crop, either vetch oi Crimson clover, is 
sown. While talking with a friend the other day he ex¬ 
pressed the idea that the use of these legumes rendered the 
soil acid, thus making necessary the application of lime. 
Will you explain the chemical action that takes place in 
the absorbing of nitrogen from the atmosphere? If the 
clover renders the soil acid, would the addition of lime 
have any effect in making available the natural supplies 
of potash and phosphoric acid present in the soil? In ad¬ 
dition to the cover crops, commercial fertilizers in the 
form of muriate of potash' and acid phosphate or bone 
meal are applied. G. R. T- 
Nova Scotia. 
The use of vetch, clover or cow peas as a cover 
crop in orchards is based on sound scientific princi¬ 
ples. These crops are capable of obtaining nitrogen 
from the air, and they fill the soil with vegetable 
matter. Yet it is also true that the use of these crops 
may give too much nitrogen, producing more wood 
growth than the trees ought to make. There are a 
number of cases where, on strong land, clover plowed 
in year after year, has provided too much nitrogen. 
It is true that plowing under large quantities of such 
crops will often make the land sour, particularly when 
this plowing is done in warm weather. When this 
occurs lime or wood ashes should be used. The lime, 
not only sweetens the soil or neutralizes the acid, but 
does other things. It opens up heavy soils and makes 
them more porous, and also packs or cements the 
lighter soils so that they will hold water better. It acts 
to make both potash and phosphoric acid available, 
and also stimulates the work of soil bacteria. As to 
what happens when land sours Prof. J. G. Lipman 
sends us this illustration: 
We may well ask why cultivated land becomes sour. Is 
there any similarity at all between the souring of milk 
and the souring of land? Yes, both are brought about 
by the action of bacteria. Every bacteriologist knows that 
milk may be kept sweet for many years, provided bacteria 
are kept out of it. It is only when the latter multiply in 
it that the milk sugar is changed into an acid and the 
milk turns sour. Similarly, we might take a small quan¬ 
tity of soil and mix it with a large proportion of green 
clover, and by keeping it moist we could cause fhe soil to 
become sour. The acidity, that is the sour condition, 
would be due in this case to the change of the starch, the 
sugar and the young, woody material in the clover into 
acids or sour substances. On the other hand, by steriliz¬ 
ing the soil and clover, and by preventing bacteria from 
entering the sterilized material, the soil could be kept 
sweet indefinitely, the green clover in it remaining un¬ 
changed. 
It is clear, therefore, that a soil without bacteria is 
a dead soil, incapable of digesting its humus for the 
plants growing upon it. It follows also that the greater 
the quantity of green vegetable material plowed under, 
the greater the proportion of fungus-forming and acid¬ 
forming substance. Everything being equal, a large crop 
of clover or of vetch will lead 1o the production of a 
larger quantity of acid in the soil than will a small crop 
of either. Furthermore, crops like rye or buckwheat will 
not render land sour to the same extent as would an equal 
weight of clover, vetch, or any other legume. This is 
easily explained by the greater proportion of nitrogen 
in the leguminous crops. In the decay processes in the 
soil, nitrogen is changed into an acid which reacts on the 
lime to form nitrate of lime. Where no lime or other sub¬ 
stances of a like nature are present the acid accumulates, 
the land becomes sour and the further development of the 
bacteria is checked. It is thus evident that leguminous 
cover crops call for larger or more frequent applications 
of lime than do non-leguminous cover crops. At the 
same time it should not be supposed that leguminous crops 
render the soil sour, because of their ability to secure 
nitrogen from the air. The land becomes sour more 
rapidly only when these crops are plowed under, and 
the leguminous crops differ in this respect from non- 
leguminous crops in degree rather than in kind. 
The work of taking up the nitrogen by these bac¬ 
teria is not a chemical action. The bacteria enter 
the plant through the root hairs. There they cause 
the warts or nodules we find on the roots to grow, 
these being really the houses in which the tiny bac¬ 
teria live. They take the nitrogen and store it in 
their bodies, and at their death the plant is able to 
absorb it much as an animal obtains nourishment 
from meat or vegetables. 
A CURSE IN CLOVER SEED. 
Where the Weed Crop Comes From. 
The Connecticut Experiment Station is doing a 
great work in testing clover seed. It obtained 51 
samples of the seed just as it is sold by Connecticut 
seed dealers. These samples were tested for weed 
seeds, and also to see what per cent of the clover seed 
would sprout. The result of the test shows that only 
one-sixth of the seed as sold was fit to use. Three 
samples were adulterated with a worthless plant, and 
41 had more or less dodder, the most dangerous 
weed or parasite which can get into the crop. 
Hardly a day passes without a letter from some one 
who finds the dodder in his clover. Samples are often 
sent us showing the clover plants strangled by a 
pest which twines around them and sucks their life 
away. The picture at Fig. 272, taken from this 
bulletin is a mild form of the affliction. Think of 
putting the seeds of this curse into the ground when 
you seed your clover! Yet that is just what is being 
done when we buy ordinary clover seed. In one 
sample of this Connecticut clover seed 6441 seeds of 
the dodders were in one pound of clover seed. In 
that same sample there were 12.769 seeds of plantain, 
1695 of foxtail, 1017 of sorrel. 226 bindweed. 2147 
of lamb’s quarters, 1808 wild carrot, 226 curled dock, 
1243 tumble-weed and many others, making a total 
of 44,522 weed seeds in a pound. In another sample 
there were 78,604 weed seeds in one pound sold as 
clover seed! Just imagine what a farmer does when 
he sows six or eight pounds of such stuff on an acre! 
Another thing was the low quality of the clover 
itself. It has been demonstrated that the heaviest 
seeds give the strongest plants during early growth, 
and in most cases largest yields. This Connecticut 
bulletin states that clover seed of average quality 
should run 302,000 to the pound. While lighter seed 
may give a greater number of plants, a greater pro¬ 
portion of them would die out or do poorly. In 26 
out of 51 samples the seeds weighed less than the 
standard. As for vitality the average of these 51 
Connecticut samples was 86.6 per cent—that is the 
number out of 100 strong enough to put out a 
sprout. One sample showed only 64.2 per cent of 
seeds with any life to them. One sample was so poor 
that only 48.1 per cent of the seed was clover, and 
only 84 per cent of that would sprout! Three sam¬ 
ples were evidently adulterated with Black medic. 
Seed of this plant is imported from Germany ex¬ 
pressly to adulterate c’over seed. It is so much like 
clover seed (as is shown in the picture, Fig. 270) 
that an expert is needed to detect it. In one sample 
there were 11,615 seeds of dodder in one pound of 
“clover.” With a seeding of eight pounds per acre 
this means two seeds of dodder to each square foot, 
and tests prove that this dodder is not dead seed! 
There is no doubt about the curse of such seed to 
any farm, and there are thousands of farmers who 
will look at their clover fields and declare that they 
got the same kind. The papers do not fit such seed. 
The Connecticut bulletin sizes up the situation in this 
way; 
What are We Going to do About It ? 
Begin now by urging local seedsmen to buy and pay for 
only such clover and Alfalfa seed as the wholesaler will 
guarantee to be free from dodder, and to have a sprouting 
power of 85 per cent and purity of 95 per cent. Such seed 
will cost more than the mixed or low-grade seed, and will 
lm worth much more than the difference. Do not buy 
clover seed util you have had its vitality and purity tested 
by the Station, and both are found satisfactory. There is 
some pure seed in the market, and there will be plenty 
of it when inferior seed finds no buyers. 
FARM LABOR FROM WASHINGTON.—It is not gen¬ 
erally known that the Department of Commerce and I>abor 
has a bureau for distributing farm laborers. The chief 
of the Bureau of Information tells us: 
“Early in the present year a branch of the Division was 
established in New York City and other branches are now 
being established. From the New York branch there 
has been sent out, in round numbers, 840 men. These 
figures represent but a small part of the actual re¬ 
sults accomplished, for a large number of persons were 
referred by the Division and its New York branch to 
employers in different parts of the country, and but a 
very small proportion of these have informed us whether 
they obtained employment. The Division and its represen¬ 
tatives, having no direct, knowledge of the character and 
qualifications of the men applying to if for assistance in 
obtaining work, found it necessary to rely upon close ques¬ 
tioning and observation of the persons before them. Every 
care has been exercised to select and send suitable men 
and such as the employers have indicated that they 
would accept. There have been but very few complaints 
made, either upon the part of the employers or employees, 
and many expressions of satisfaction have been received. 
