Lie 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
seeded to Alfalfa is not naturally well drained, the 
first thing to do is to drain it. It will be useless to 
attempt it otherwise. Two or three months before 
plowing I would give it a dressing of good manure. 
Plow in the Winter or early Spring as deeply as the 
soil will permit, i. e., without throwing up too much 
crude subsoil. Then unless sure of an abundant lime 
content, I would apply at least one ton of caustic 
lime or two tons ground limestone per acre, and 
work well into the soil. Stir the ground every 10 
days until July. You will then have a fine firm moist 
seed bed and all troublesome weeds killed. I would 
get soil from a field that is growing Alfalfa success¬ 
fully, and apply evenly 200 pounds per acre. Work 
it into the soil with as little sunshine on it as pos¬ 
sible. Unless the field is very fertile I would give 
it a liberal application of those elements of plant 
food which your experience has taught you the soil 
requires. I would use steamed bone as a carrier for 
phosphoric acid. Any favorable time in July, sow 
15 to 20 pounds of clean Alfalfa seed to the acre, 
and then watch it grow. If soil and weather condi¬ 
tions are favorable 15 pounds of seed or even less 
is enough. If conditions are not all favorable I 
would use the larger quantity. You can get the seed 
from any reliable seed firm. Your experiment station 
will probably examine the seed for you, and, if im¬ 
pure, tell you how to clean it. Perhaps all this seems 
like an undue amount of fuss and bother to get the 
crop started. But it is far better to go to a little 
extra expense in starting the crop and succeed, than 
to half do it and fail. If you feel that you cannot 
lose the use of the land the first year, you might 
raise a crop of early potatoes; give them clean cul¬ 
ture and seed to Alfalfa after digging. But you will 
probably be ahead in the end if you let the Alfalfa 
have the benefit of all that the field is capable of 
doing. ALLEN. 
Ohio. 
THE PRODUCTS OF AN ACRE. 
We are frequently asked this question: What 
are the actual results of the practical work¬ 
ing of an acre of ground, and how much 
can be produced on the same ? Theoretically 
this question may easily be answered, but 
practically it will be necessary to show the complex 
character of the subject, but it is quite natural to 
assume that it will depend somewhat on the man and 
methods. From a life experience in the market 
garden I am fully convinced that those who arc the 
most successful in producing large and profitable 
crops are men who practice high farming and use 
intensive methods. And if this term has any definite 
meaning at all it should be used only to express the 
idea of a farm or market garden so managed that 
the soil is rich enough to produce maximum crops 
every year, provided there is a system adopted of 
crop rotations quite generally used in successful mar¬ 
ket gardens, and by this I mean a judicious rotation 
of crops to avoid the loss of the great quantity of 
manure that is necessarily used, thus giving us con¬ 
fidence in the substantial value of the soil for double 
cropping, and this is an essential requisite. Agricul¬ 
ture is an art, and must be followed as such. Sci¬ 
ence will help and help enormously, but it will never 
enable us to dispense with industry or the experience 
we attained by untiring application. Chemistry 
throws great light on the art of cooking, but it does 
seem as though a farmer’s wife can roast a fowl 
better than a proficient chemist. The writer is well 
acquainted with some very practical men eminently 
successful in the art of growing great crops, who do 
not believe there is any real chemical necessity for 
a rotation of crops and that the notion is unfounded. 
A few years ago it was not considered safe to plant 
potatoes on the same soil two years in succession, 
but since those days it has been shown that po¬ 
tatoes can follow potatoes and corn can follow corn, 
and immense crops can be grown each succeeding 
year, provided we practice inter-cropping with Crim¬ 
son or Red clover, and use the necessary manure and 
get the soil clean and in the right mechanical condi¬ 
tion. The clover takes from the soil the manurial 
value the potatoes did not use or require, and natur¬ 
ally prepares the soil for the potato the following 
Spring. Under former conditions this would have 
been lost. Without wandering too far from our 
subject the point I am trying to show is this; that 
a well-managed market garden or farm where the 
soil is made exceedingly rich by using large quan¬ 
tities of manure and avoiding loss of the same by 
regularity in crop rotations is to the proprietor what 
a well-equipped plant or manufacturing industry 
would be; always dependable, reliable and capable of 
producing maximum crops. The manure therefore 
has given the soil a substantial value, and is regarded 
as a permanent improvement. The planter has confi¬ 
dence in his* soil and under normal conditions feels 
quite sure what his acres will produce, whereas, if 
he is to depend on commercial fertilizers and chem¬ 
icals to accomplish these results he would have to 
labor under many agricultural uncertainties, prob¬ 
ably due to inferior brands of fertilizers, mislead¬ 
ing analyses, and many testimonials from sources 
pre-eminently unreliable. Testimonials to patent fer¬ 
tilizers should be considered about as reliable as 
testimonials to a patent medicine. The analyses we 
get with our fertilizers and the analyses of plants 
do not afford a sufficient trustworthy guide to the 
practical farmer and market gardener. It is the 
actual trial we make in the field that is convincing, 
and there agricultural value is measured by the 
benefits received from its use. 
While I am not a special advocate of artificial man¬ 
ures, except under certain condition, yet we have 
seen on different occasions large crops produced with 
them, but we have no assurance of the condition of 
the soil after their first use, or in other words, we 
do not get from their use what the soil is capable 
of producing in double and companion cropping. And 
it would therefore seem unfair and misleading to 
attempt to show by the extravagant use of fertilizers 
and manures what can be grown in one year regard¬ 
less of labor and expense, on a single acre, 
and that the method would entail a great 
waste of fertilizer is highly probable, beside 
rendering the practice impractical. When a success¬ 
ful market gardener undertakes to grow a good patch 
SPRAY OF MER.SEREAU BLACKBERRY. Fig. 14. 
See Ruralisms, Page 39. 
of early cabbage he knows there is little to be 
gained by consulting the analysis of the cabbage. He 
simply fills his fertile soil full of horse manure to 
the extent of 75 tons to the acre. He understands that 
the crop requires exceedingly rich soil and by using 
this heavy application of manure, he has supplied 
whatever the cabbage crop will require, and also the 
crops that are to follow. About 16,000 plants can be 
grown on an acre and 25 tons, or about 500 barrels, 
of cabbage can be cut from the same, and the aver¬ 
age' price will be about one dollar per barrel. Now, 
on referring to Prof. E. Wolff’s table on the cornpo- 
January 14, 
sition of the cabbage we find that 25 tons of cab¬ 
bage have taken only 20 per cent, of the nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid the 75 tons of manure contain. We 
also see it has taken a very large per cent, of potash 
and lime. Now, in this case we must endeavor to 
follow the crop of cabbage immediately, with some 
crop that has the power of taking up the large quan¬ 
tities of nitrogen and other plant foods that will be 
left in the soil. Experience has taught us that celery 
is a great feeder and requires great quantities of 
nitrogen and phosphoric acid, and is perhaps the most 
profitable to follow the cabbage; 20,000 stalks can be 
grown on an acre under such favorable conditions, 
and the price for the same will average $2 per hun¬ 
dred stafks, or $400 for the crop. The amount thus 
produced on the one acre at a low estimate will sell 
for $900. Of all our ordinary market crops the 
early cabbage and celery entail the most labor and 
expense, and I think we may safely assume that 
when $350 is deducted from the foregoing figures for 
expenses, we have quite a handsome profit Jo our 
credit. This is somewhat less than what may be 
shown in well equipped market gardens with irrigat¬ 
ing systems in practical use, and more intensive 
methods applied. The practical working of an acre 
need not, however, be confined to cabbage and celery. 
We have found the strawberry quite reliable and as 
a rule profitable, when well done, but on rich soil 
where great quantities of manure are used they will 
not give as good returns as some of the vegetable 
crops unless we practice companion cropping. If we 
plant in the Spring the plants may be set three feet 
apart in the rows that are placed three feet apart; 
between each two plants of strawberries set two well- 
grown lettuce plants, the plants will then all stand 
one foot apart in the rows and can be cultivated by 
horse-power. An acre so planted will require 4,s00 
strawberry plants and 9,700 lettuce, or about 14,500 
plants in all. The lettuce will be fit to cut before 
the strawberries begin to run or make plants. Early 
lettuce usually sells for not less than $3 per hundred, 
amounting to $275 for the crops. After the lettuce 
is off the strawberries will grow very fast, and will 
be entirely too thick if allowed to run at random. 
We usually space the plants, allowing each parent 
plant to produce six or eight strong hardy off-sets. 
These will form a matted row 20 inches wide; an 
icre thus grown will contain about 33,000 plants at 
the proper age and size and should yield S,000 quarts 
per acre, the following June these will be choice 
berries and should command nine cents per quart, or 
$720 for the crop. We have long been of the opinion 
that it seldom pays to fruit a strawberry bed the 
second year where the soil is in a high state of 
cultivation for growing vegetables. Therefore we 
usually plow under the plants and their heavy mulch¬ 
ing, and plant with celery as before described in this 
article. Radishes are sometimes drilled in between 
the rows of celery to good advantage, and at to is 
time of year usually sell for $1 per 100 bunches. 
These will be out of the way by the time the celery 
requires much attention. This crop will add about 
$100 to the products of the acre for two years, 
amounting in all to $1,500 or $750 a year. The labor 
and expenses on these crops will be about $300 a year. 
Now if we grew a crop of strawberries in the usual 
way they would occupy the ground two years for the 
one crop and to realize the same returns as we get 
by companion cropping with vegetables as I have en¬ 
deavored to show, the strawberries would have to 
yield 16,000 quarts to the acre. This is an unusual 
amount, and in our belief a practical impossibility. 
Successful market gardeners must get great crops oi 
they cannot pay their expenses, and such crops can 
only be grown on very rich land. It should be un¬ 
derstood that some crops require much more labor 
than others, and should never be grown unless the 
land is capable of producing a maximum yield per 
acre, or a close approximation to it. As a rule the 
least paying crops are those which require the least 
labor per acre. 
T. M. WHITE. 
u.. 
A report from Consul Frank D. Hill, of Fran.<- 
fort, Germany, states that German bankers are to 
fight bucketshops, which are places where irrespons¬ 
ible stock jobbing or gambling is done. 
One of the first steps taken was a conference held in 
Berlin between the directors of the Bankers’ Association 
and representatives of the leading newspapers. It is 
understood that in the future the press and the Bankers’ 
Association will work hand in hand. The press will gi\e 
all possible publicity to the association’s fight against 
bucket shops and the association will place experts at 
the disposal of the press, particularly for reporting legal 
proceedings against bucket shops. 
In this country a good share of the papers would 
want to know how much if any “graft” was in it for 
them. Take the recent case of Burr Bros, and simi¬ 
lar swindlers. They never could have robbed the 
people as they did if the newspapers had not adver¬ 
tised and boomed them. 
