1911. 
CHANGING A PENNSYLVANIA ROTATION. 
E. G., Sunbury, Pa .—The general run of 
rotation farming in this neighborhood is as 
follows: Say we start from hay that is 
left for two years following wheat or rye; 
after two years the sod is plowed down 
for corn. This sod is poor; when hay is 
cut short there is mighty little left to 
plow down, especially on poor ground. 
After corn oats, after oats wheat, with hay 
again. This is the rotation around here, 
and I am not satisfied with it, though 1 
only have three years experience in farm¬ 
ing. I have been studying how to im¬ 
prove my place as quickly as possible, as 
my ground is poor, and in the way they 
do here it would take me till Columbus 
day again till I’d get my place improved. 
This is the idea that I got and would 
like your advice on it: Starting the ro¬ 
tation from hay same as above, plow the 
sod down early after hay is made for 
wheat, not sow grass or anything an 
with wheat; then after wheat is off the 
field (we have wheat fields cleared always 
by July 15, hay made before wheat cut¬ 
ting) I would like to go in with drill 
and sow something "for a plow-down crop 
for corn. What' would you recommend as 
best? It would have three months to grow 
before frost; then plow down for corn. 
This way you see I get a heavier crop to 
turn under. There is no chance to get a 
good plow-down crop unless by missing a 
crop this way. I figure to get same crops 
and have good sod to turn under to im¬ 
prove the soil. I cannot afford to miss 
any. After corn put oats in, and sow Tim¬ 
othy and clover for hay. The Timothy 
and clover does better here sown in Spring 
on i s °ft freshly plowed ground than it 
does, sowing the clover in wheat in Spring, 
for. wheat ground is hard in Spring, an* 
never takes well. It has been tried in 
oats and proved better than sowing in 
wheat, both Timothy and clover sown in 
oats. I would also like to sow something 
in the corn after last cultivation for an¬ 
other crop to turn under. You see I am 
very anxious to improve my soil as quickly 
as possible. Help me on a suggestion of 
something good to plow down; I would 
like to got the best to make the most 
manure and also something for corn. 
R. N.-Y.—We would like this dis¬ 
cussed by Pennsylvania farmers who 
know the locality and conditions. The 
plan of keeping the soil covered is a 
good one. Of course it will be necessary 
to work up the wheat stubble in order 
to start a new crop. We have seeded 
a mixture of Crimson clover. Cow-horn 
turnips and rye all put in together. This 
made a good growth. With us the tur¬ 
nips grow until December. The clover 
grows until the ground freezes and 
about three times in 10 is killed out in 
March, but the rye keeps growing and 
makes a heavy growth to turn under. 
Hairy vetch is another crop giving great 
results in many sections. A combina¬ 
tion of vetch seed and rye would be a 
sure crop, and even if the vetch were 
killed out the rye will live over and give 
a good growth. You could also drill in 
cow peas or Soy beans after the wheat. 
Put them in drills., and cultivate, and 
when the vines get large sow rye all 
over the field and work the seed in. 
When the beans or peas are killed by 
frost the rye will grow on. For sowing 
in the corn we should use the combina¬ 
tion of vetch and rye or of Crimson 
clover, rye and turnips. You will get on 
faster by using a fair amount of fer¬ 
tilizer on the wheat and grass. 
THtf RURAL NEW-YORKER 
to apply what is now known regarding 
the principles of breeding, perhaps we 
can produce choice stock wholesale, but 
most of us fall down when we try it. 
After several years’ experience, how¬ 
ever, I did succeed in working out a 
method of selection that certainly de¬ 
livered the goods. It is based on an 
understanding of some biological pro¬ 
cesses that are a bit complicated to take 
up here, but the sum and substance of 
it all is that the rate of growth during 
the early part of a chicken’s life is a 
precise indicator of its constitutional 
vigor, others things being equal. Stated 
the other way around, constitutional 
vigor is indicated by a high rate of 
growth. Rate of growth and size are 
two very different things. Two birds 
may be of the same size and look prac¬ 
tically, alike, yet there may be several 
weeks’ difference in their ages. The 
younger would be a profit payer through 
thick and thin, the older one a boarder. 
Age must be taken into consideration in 
making really wise selections, for that 
alone will often separate the good from 
the bad. Ten weeks is the age at which 
I prefer to cull the stock first. A 
Plymouth Rock pullet should be nicely 
feathered by that time, and weigh about 
1 Ya pound, while a good cockerel should 
reach two pounds. It is my practice to 
put leg bands on everything that passes 
inspection at that time, and then as the 
season passes, everything without a band 
is sold the day it reaches marketable size. 
It only takes a minute to "toe-mark’’ the 
chicks when first hatched, and record the 
date in a note hook. Any pullet that 
shows a high rate of growth in the be¬ 
ginning, will lav all right after she ma¬ 
tures. It won’t make a particle of dif¬ 
ference whether there are any 200-egg 
hens on her family tree or not. The 
capacity for turning feed into eggs is 
right there ready to do business. But 
if you are not careful, so much vitality 
will go into the December and January 
eggs that there won’t be much left by 
March or April. c. m. gallup. 
Maine. 
ios 
Gas-Ligpht 
Stoim© 
About the Salvia. —The last Summer I 
decided to see what I coy Id do in the cul¬ 
tivation of the Salvia or Scarlet sage iu 
the way of a lawn border, and see if they 
could not he made to attain very large 
proportions, and a more liberal profusion 
of those brilliant scarlet flower spikes. The 
long bed was prepared and made only 
moderately rich with cow stable manure, hut 
a most liberal application was made of 
acid phosphate. In the proper time some 
line plants were set, and during the long 
drought that ensued, they were kept abun¬ 
dantly watered. They grew to great size, 
many of them being quite four feet in 
height, and one 54 inches, the latter with 
a spread of 50 inches. They blossomed in 
wonderful profusion, some of the plants 
having 50 flower stems at one time. Tow¬ 
ards the last of October the night got 
frosty, and I resolved to keep them—some 
at least—rStill longer. The afternoon be¬ 
fore the big early freeze, I t»ok up in¬ 
dividual plants with little disturbing of 
roots, placing them in 14-quart pails, making 
the soil again firm, and put four of the 
finest into the living rooms of the house, 
and the “two giants” were taken into the 
furnace room in the basement, and set be¬ 
fore a south window. Thev were all 
watered every other day, and’to mv sur¬ 
prise, they never drooped, or wilted, and 
those in the living room of the-house lived 
for more than 2<> days before the leaves 
and blossoms began to fall. The two in 
the basement are still as bright and fresh 
as ever, putting out new flower spikes, and 
promise possibly another five weeks of fur¬ 
nace-room life, the reason being that thev 
are living in a lower temperature than the 
others. joii.x could 
Ohio. 
CRUSHED STONE 
SELECTING THE LAYING HENS. 
Some of the R.-N.-Y. family seem to 
think that W. J. Dougan must have had 
exceptional hens to bring in a gross in¬ 
come of $9 apiece, but it tallies very 
closely with my own experience. Start¬ 
ing the breeding season of 1905 with 
44 Barred Plymouth Rock pullets, I 
made them produce eggs and chicks that 
sold at market rates for a little over 
$400. I have not the figures by me at 
this time, but as I recall, the profit (as 
ff is customarily reckoned) was $273 
from the 44 birds. Mr. Dougan tells 
a large part of the story when he says 
; tI,mk the on V secret is in the selec- 
t>on, as I find only about one in five 
worth the trouble of keeping.” This 
again tallies with my figures, for I have 
jad to hatch a thousand chicks to have 
0 pullets really worth putting into 
" inter quarters. When we have learned 
T WENTY years ago the oil lamp had 
already been driven out of the city 
into the country home where gas 
could not follow—so we thought. 
In those days we would have laughed 
at the idea of a country home ligated 
with gaslight. 
But like the telephone and free mail 
delivery gaslight has finally left the city 
to become a common rural convenience. 
In the year 1911, the up-to-date vil¬ 
lager or farmer not only lives in a gas- 
lighted house, same as his city cousin, but 
when he drives home on a cold, wet night 
he actually lights 
up his barn, his 
barnyard or porch¬ 
es on his house 
with this gas-light 
by simply turning 
an “ignition ” but¬ 
ton on a post or 
wall. 
* * * 
And this change 
seems quite like 
magic when you 
consider that this 
rural gaslight is 
home-made— made 
by the family it¬ 
self right on the 
premises. 
Take fifteen min¬ 
utes once a month 
to make all that can be used in a large 
house. 
The magic is all in the curious manu¬ 
factured stone known commercially as 
“Union Carbide.” 
This wonderful gas producing sub¬ 
stance, “Union Carbide,” looks and 
feels just like crushed granite. For 
country home use it is packed and 
shipped from warehouses located all over 
the United States in sheet steel cans con¬ 
taining 100 pounds. 
Union Carbide won’t burn, can’t ex¬ 
plode, and will keep in the original 
package for years in any climate. ' For 
this reason it is safer to handle and 
store about the premises than coal. 
* * * 
All that is necessary to make “Union 
Carbide” give up its gas is to mix it 
with plain water—the gas, which is then 
instantly generated, is 
genuine Acetylene. 
When piped to 
handsome brass chan¬ 
deliers and fixtures 
Acetylene burns with 
an intensely brilliant, 
stiff flame, that the 
wind can’t affect. 
This flame makes 
light so white in color that it is com¬ 
monly called “Artificial Sunlight.” 
Experiments conducted by Cornell 
University have proven that it will grow 
plants the same as sunlight itself. 
Physicians recommend Acetylene as a 
germicide and a remedy for eyestrain, 
and it is used as an illuminant in fifty- 
four hospitals in New York City alone. 
Then, too, Acetylene is so pure that 
you might blow out the light and sleep 
all night in a room with the burner open 
without any injurious effects whatever. 
On account of its being burned in per¬ 
manent brass fixtures attached to walls 
and ceilings, Acetylene is much safer 
than smoky, smelly oil lamps, which can 
easily be tipped over. 
For this reason the Engineers of the 
National Board of Insurance Under¬ 
writers called Acetylene safer than any 
illuminant it commonly displaces. 
In addition to all these advantages, 
Acetylene light is inexpensive. 
An Acetylene light of 24-candle power 
costs only about 4 cents for ten hours ’ 
lighting, while for the same number of 
hours regular oil lamps of equal volume 
cost about 6 cents in kerosene, chimneys 
and wicks on the average. 
* * * ■ ’ 
Consider this carefully and you will 
hardly wonder at the fact that there are 
today no less than 185,000 town and 
country homes lighted with home-made 
Acetylene, made from “Union Carbide.” 
Once a month some member of the 
family must dump a few pounds of 
Union Carbide iu a small tank-like ma¬ 
chine, which usually sets in one corner of 
the basement. 
This little tank-like machine is auto¬ 
matic—it does all the work—it makes no 
gas until the burners are lighted and 
stops making gas when the burners are 
shut off. 
The lights located in every room in 
your house, on your porches, in your horse 
and cow barns, or barnyards and chicken 
yards if you like, will all be ready to turn 
on with a twist of the wrist or a touch 
of the button at any time of the day or 
night. 
No city home can be as brilliantly or 
as beautifully illuminated as any one of 
these 185,000 homes now using Acetylene. 
# # w 
If you want to be up-to-date, enjoy 
modern conveniences, 
and keep the young 
^\ Vl ’ folks at home, write 
us how many rooms 
and buildings you 
have. We will send 
you free an intensely 
interesting lot of 
facts, figures and 
booklets. f 
Just address Union Carbide Sales 
Company, 157 Michigan Ave., Chicago 
Ill. Dept. A.— 38. 
