1911. 
235 
THE RUKAE NEW-YORKER 
Potash for Corn. 
H. H. CAvondale, ra .—In 1908 we top- 
dressed <a poor showing of Timothy hay 
with 100 pounds of nitrate of soda and 100 
pounds of ground bone. We had a crop of 
(we think) at least three tons of fine hay 
to the acre. Of course we were greatly 
pleased. Next Spring we plowed the 11 
acres and planted corn. On this we put 400 
pounds of S. C. rock and ground bone 
mixed and drilled it on the land, not in 
the row, and did not have 60 bushels of 
corn to the acre. This land should have 
produced 100 bushels of corn. This was 
followed by a big crop of oats. We had 
same experience with 14 acres of Timothy 
in 1909, got large crop of hay, and corn 
was poor following it. We should have had 
100 bushels corn, as all our neighbors had 
big corn. Did the nitrate of soda hurt 
the corn crop, or what is the matter? 
Ans.— Nitrogen is the “dominating 
element” for grass—that is, the element 
which usually determines the yield. In 
this case the nitrate acted somewhat 
like a stimulant, forcing the grass crop 
to a heavy yield and thus taking from 
the soil not only nitrogen, but available 
phosphoric acid and potash. The result 
was that the corn grew on a sod con¬ 
taining organic nitrogen, but little avail¬ 
able potash. In the rock and potash 
you add phosphoric acid and a little 
nitrogen, but no potash whatever. Now 
the “dominating element” in corn is 
potash. The ash of the cob is about 
one-half potash, and like all other plants 
which produce starch, corn needs an 
abundance of this element. Your corn 
did not come up to expectations because 
the nitrate forced the grass and thus 
drew available potash from the soil and 
you did not add any to make up for the 
loss. The yield would have been better 
if you had used 150 pounds muriate of 
potash and 50 pounds of nitrate of soda 
with the rock and lime. 
Presently arrived a blank to fill—for a fe¬ 
male servant. After due alterations there¬ 
in, references furnished and carfare sent, 
we waited for our man, who was to be 
Danish or German or some other dairy 
country. A notice arrived saying that my 
letter would be shown to all immigrants, 
and should anyone desire the place he 
would be sent. June, July, August passed, 
then a letter saying that nobody of the na* 
tionalities I specified would go. Wouldn’t 
I take some other (meaning a Pole or Rus¬ 
sian) ? I declined and the money was re¬ 
turned. I had offered from $16 to $18 and 
board to a man not speaking English, the 
first month, with a gradual increase, on a 
farm with 3 y 2 hours from New York. Of 
all the thousands arriving in New York, 
not one wanted such a place. I concluded 
the object of the Immigration Bureau to be 
the prevention of farm immigration, and I 
still think that is the idea at bottom. But 
last week I went to the New York office 
and found a neat, well organized establish¬ 
ment, a waiting room filled with young, 
strong immigrants, and a Dane, in search of 
a place, just three weeks landed. lie is a 
high-class immigrant, and at this moment 
is at work by himself in the barn. He 
looked at me, and being told about the place 
by the interpreter, came at once. There 
was a perfectly businesslike system of book¬ 
keeping in the office by which my corre¬ 
spondence was found in two minutes—and 
my impression of the bureau was most fa¬ 
vorable—not a suspicion of graft anywhere. 
What was the secret of my first disappoint¬ 
ment and my second success? You can get 
farm labor if you go for it personally. The 
men will go with some one they have seen. 
They will not go into the interior alone. 
FANNY MORRIS SMITH. 
Gypsum and Alkali Soil. 
O., San Diego, Cat .—Some people here 
spread gypsum on strawberries, because 
there is some alkali or salt cither in the 
ground or in the irrigation water. I, too, 
was going to spread some gypsum on my 
strawberries, but your paper, just received, 
says that lime should be kept away from 
strawberries. My strawberry ground has 
some alkali, probably it comes from the 
irrigation water. I am afraid the alkali 
would be destructive to strawberries if no 
proper remedy is applied. What should I 
do for it, if 1 cannot use lime? 
Ans.— If the soil or the irrigation 
water, or both, contain a sufficient 
amount of black alkali, or sodium car¬ 
bonate, to be injurious by puddling the 
soil, making it heavy and hard to till; 
by acting as a poison, corroding the 
roots; or by dissolving the humus and 
phosphates, permitting them to be lost 
either by leaching at times of.heavy ir¬ 
rigation or heavy rainfall; or to be 
drawn by capillary action to the surface 
above the roots, and so not available to 
the plants, it is very probable that gyp¬ 
sum would be beneficial. Hilgard long 
ago pointed out the effect of gypsum on 
black alkali, having his attention first 
called to the subject through his ob¬ 
servation that where soil waters carry 
considerable amounts of gypsum, or sul¬ 
phate of lime, in solution the sodium 
carbonate, or black alkali was likely to 
be absent or to be present in too small 
quantities to be directly harmful to 
crops. The direct action of the lime 
sulphate upon the black alkali is to con¬ 
vert it into the less harmful white alkali 
or sodium sulphate, which does not 
have the strong tendency to puddle soils 
or to render the humus and phosphates 
more soluble, causing them to rise above 
the active roots into the dry soil at the 
surface, or to be lost by leaching. 
F. II. KING. 
A Concrete Farm Roller. 
I read an Inquiry in regard to land roll¬ 
ing and make to use. I cannot give advice 
as to land to roll or wtiat make to use, but 
can, I believe, give a few hints on making 
a concrete roller, which is as follows : Take 
a shaft or an old wagon axle and get some 
1x2 or three inch, lumber, bevel edges and 
put them up in round form the length you 
may wish, and also diameter; center your 
shaft or axle, letting it project on each end, 
say six or seven inches, and fill the form, 
which should be standing on end, with 
a good mixture of concrete, say a one to 
three mixture of Portland cement and 
clean, sharp sand, coarse preferable. Hooks 
to hold form can be made by blacksmith, or 
use smooth fence wire or telephone wire, 
using plenty of hoops to hold form from 
bulging. I think it best to reinforce con¬ 
crete for this with old nayrake teeth or al¬ 
most any old iron convenient. When form 
is filled let stand 30 days, and you are 
ready to build on axle, which can be done 
in a great many ways to suit individual 
with ways and means at hand. If you have 
a mowing machine seat to place on it you 
will find it easy to i ide. Rollers can be 
made in this way for i : arly all use a roller 
could be put to, f : i a ; end roller for lawn 
to a steam power. I. f:;, .ring the heft de¬ 
sired. and they will be found veiy cheap 
and durable. There is one caution that I 
might state; do not give them a sudden jar 
until concrete is thoroughly set or hardened, 
30 days or more. Price of such a roller will 
depend on size and what part will have to 
be bought. In my immediate locality not 
to count labor, the roller can be made for 
what freight would cost ordinarily. 
Pennsylvania. edgar w". corey. 
Uncle Sam’s Employment Bureau. 
The following experience will serve to 
answer several questions we have recently 
had about the work of the U. S. Govern¬ 
ment in providing farm helpers: 
Perhaps two years ago we received a 
printed slip setting forth that the United 
States had undertaken the distribution of 
labor among farmers, and organized an 
employment bureau. In due time there 
came a need and I wrote them for a man. 
Women 
Appreciate 
Step-savers and Time-savers. 
Post 
Toasties 
FOOD 
is fully cooked, ready to serve 
direct from the package with 
cream or milk, and is a 
deliciously good part of any 
meal. 
A trial package usually 
establishes it as a favorite 
breakfast cereal. 
“The Memory Lingers” 
Postum Cereal Company, Ltd., 
Battle Creek, Mich. 
WHEN you buy David Bradley plows you 
don’t pay for the Bradley factory’s eighty years’ experience in 
making plows for every kind of soil in every state. That 
experience is worth a lot to you, but you get it for nothing. 
No matter where you farm, or in what kind of soil, you’ll 
find in the Bradley line a plow expressly designed and built 
to meet your requirements. 
COur purchase of the great David Bradley plant has revolu¬ 
tionized prices on these famous farm tools. The Bradley 
reputation for quality and our celebrated money back guar¬ 
antee are invincible arguments to any farmer. 
David Bradley XX-Rays $j| »T50 
Frame Hitch Gang Plow, TI = 
Highest Lift, Lightest Draft, Most 
Easily Handled. 
High, heavy, dust- 
EI 
J? 
roof wheels, with 
Frame of heavy high quality steel, strongly braced. 
Cannot spring out of shape, even In hardest 
ground. No friction on plow bottoms. Frame 
and bottoms carried on tho wheels, not frame 
and wheels carried on the bottoms as you find 
In other plows. 
Unequalec! for side hill work, because pole _ and 
both furrow wheels can bo adjusted from the seat 
by a lever on pole plate while team Is in motion. 
Best plow for stony land; when it encounters a 
stone of any size, plow bottoms will ratso over 
It without damage and re-enter the ground im¬ 
mediately. Unnecessary to lock bottoms In 
ground; suction holds them there. 
radley patent hubs; 9 
inches wearing space 
on all axles. 
Simple and effective 
foot lift ; any boy who 
can handle a team can 
do the work of a grown 
up man and do it as 
easily. High lift; point 
of share raises 6 inches 
from ground. 
Short hitch; plow and team coupled up close, doing 
away with side draft. Plow pulls easier and 
handles better than any other. Turns square cor¬ 
ners either way, with bottoms in or out of ground. 
Bottoms are the celebrated Garden City Clipper 
shapes, the most perfectly formed shapes known. 
All bottoms double shinned. A shape for every 
state in the Union. Guaranteed to scour. 
This is but one of the many styles of David Brad¬ 
ley riding plows. We make other models; frame 
or beam hitch, sulky and gang plows', disc 
plows, wood and steel beam walking plows of 
every description. 
C Refer to our big General Catalog for pictures, complete 
descriptions and prices of David Bradley Plows, Harrows, 
Planters, Cultivators, etc., the farm tools backed by eighty 
years of knowing how; or send today for our Book of David 
Bradley Farm Implements. 
We can always supply promptly any repair part for any Bradley 
implement, no matter when or where bought. 
-SEARS.R0EBUCKc«- 
T 
Tfiir 
FOR THE “LAND’S SAKE” 
You don’t need a Surveyor. Get a 
Bostrom Improved Farm Level torkyours55 
THIS LEVEL IS NO MAKESHIFT. The outfit includes Level, TelescopO 
with magmtying glasses enabling you to read the Target a quarter of a mSa 
aw *? y; ,t np0( J» Graduated Rod,Target and Bostrom’s 70 page book—"Soil Sal- 
A ^T& l ^ inK y ears Practical experience in DRAINING, 
TERRACING and IRRIGATING, with full instructions how to use the Level* 
Simplicity, Accuracy, Durability GUARANTEED. Used and endorsed In 
every State in the Union, also Canada and Mexico. Shipped on receipt of 
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*15.00 and express charges, subject to examination. Shipping weight 15 lbs, 
II not on sale in your town, order from 
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323-A Brunswick Building' New York 
10 Days FREE Trial 
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Guaranteed 10 Years 
Write today for free trial offer. See howyou can get 
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It back I’ll pay the return freight too. 
Luther Farm Special 
Tool Grinder than'grindstone 
Will Not Draw Temper From Steel 
With the Luther Farm Special Grinder there Is no 
need of cooling with water, or no danger of draw¬ 
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Genuine Carborundum 
the most wonderful sharpening substance the 
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Write for Free Trial Offer 4- 
Answer this advertisement today and get particu¬ 
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’ Luther Grinder Mfg. Co., C. J. Luther, Prest.. 
630 Newton St. Milwaukee, Wis. 
AGRICULTURE 
p= Are THOROUGHLY HARD BURNT 
I_ “ Made of best Ohio Clay. Sold in car-load lots. 
oo uj Also manufacturers of 
3 g HOLLOW BUILDING BLOCK and SEWERPIPE 
u_ National Fireproofing Co., Fulton Bldg., Pittsburg, Pa, 
