614 
lime on our own farm, as soon as the kiln was suffi¬ 
ciently cool we began by taking the lumps and with a 
two-pound knapping hammer reduced to sizes 3)4 inch 
and smaller. Then with a manure spreader set at 
two loads per acre, with the bed about one-half full 
of waste from a straw stack, we loaded on one-half 
the amount of lime we desired per acre, weighing the 
first load. Driving to field we distributed as if 
manure, allowing the reel or beaters to run. We 
found little or no inconvenience, though we left off 
the lime hood. Allowing time for these small lumps 
of lime to slake thoroughly, we went once over with 
spike-tooth harrow, then with disk harrow. This quite 
thoroughly mixed the lime with the soil and was a 
part of the preparation of soil for the crop that was to 
follow, the field having been previously well plowed. 
Now should a rain come before you harrow, don’t 
worry, only wait until the soil is fit to work; as the 
lumps are small and well distributed you will have 
no trouble. The slaked lumps will have dried out, 
will readily crumble and complete the even distribu¬ 
tion. One ordinary man can easily break the lumps 
of lime and help in loading, as lump lime breaks up 
in small pieces, requiring light blows only. 
Hamblen Co., Tenn. o. p. n. fox. 
BUILDING UP MARYLAND SOIL. 
I have a farm of about 45 acres, clay loam with gravel 
in places. It has not been sown to seed for about eight 
years, although a good deal of volunteer clover comes up 
in Spring. I have thought of planting the best spots in 
tomatoes, potatoes and corn, the remainder or thinner 
spots in peas. Could as good results be obtained by 
broadcasting fertilizer on land as putting it in the hill for 
tomatoes? If so, fiow much would you use in either case? 
When I lay the crop by I would like to sow something 
that would make a good cover crop to turn under another 
-Spring. What would you advise? w. h. s. 
Galloways, Md. 
If you are near a railroad the best thing you can 
can do will be to get the stable manure from Balti¬ 
more and reinforce it with acid phosphate and potash, 
say 100 pounds of acid pl#>sphate and 20 pounds of 
sulphate of potash to a ton of manure. This can be 
used broadcast with good effect on the crops and the 
improvement of the land. Then put the little farm 
into a regular rotation of crops. Make three fields 
of it, one field for the vegetables and corn. Follow 
these with oats and seed the land to clover. Mow the 
clover for feed one season, and the following Winter 
get on it all the manure you can make from feeding 
the hay and corn stover, and turn it for the truck 
and corn with additional purchased manure and fer¬ 
tilizer. This means that each of the three fields will 
in turn get the manure and fertilizer, and in this way 
you can build up the whole farm. You can this season 
sow Crimson clover seed after the truck crops and 
have a good Winter cover. Of course in the start of 
a rotation you will have to plant the fields without 
regard to previous crops, but then stick to the rota¬ 
tion. Use commercial fertilizers liberally on the oats, 
so that the clover will have a good chance. By fol¬ 
lowing something of this sort you can build up the 
farm to a high state of productiveness. The main 
object is to get humus-making material into the soil, 
especially on the gravelly spots, which in your county 
are apt to be deep and leachy. You can probably get 
manure in Baltimore more cheaply than we get it 
down here, but we make it pay to use New York 
manure at a cost of $2.90 on the switch. This is 
largely freight of course, for we are 225 miles from 
New York, and you are only a short distance from 
Baltimore. w - F - massey. 
LIME FROM ACETYLENE GAS PLANTS. 
Can you tell me if the refuse from making acetylene gas 
can be used for making Bordeaux Mixture or for other 
purposes for which ordinary lime is recommended? 
B. R. 
I can find no record of the refuse lime from an 
acetylene gas plant being used to neutralize blue vitriol 
in making Bordeaux Mixture. Calcium carbide has 
been pretty thoroughly tested in Europe as an in¬ 
secticide on grape root insects, without injury to the 
vines and very little injury to the insects. The refuse 
from an acetylene gas plant has been analyzed by the 
R. I. Agricultural Experiment Station (Annual Re¬ 
port for 1900, page 288) and showed 62% of calcium 
oxide. I know of instances where the refuse has 
been dried and used on land same as air-slaked lime 
with good results, but have never had an opportunity 
to test same for making Bordeaux Mixture. The 
method of freeing the acetylene gas from the lime in 
use in most plants at present surely leaves the lime 
well hydrated, and I see no reason why it would not 
neutralize blue vitriol as well as, if not better than, the 
dry hydrated lime. The amount of the refuse lime 
to be used in preparing Bordeaux Mixture could be 
determined by the use of the yellow prussiate of pot¬ 
ash test. An excess of the lime will do no harm. 
THE RUR.A.I* NEW-YOKKER 
The method of using the “test” is as follows: First, 
dissolve a teaspoonful of the crystals of yellow 
prussiate of potash in a pint bottle of water. Second, 
dissolve required amount of blue stone in a half barrel 
of water, or add stock solution of the blue stone to 
the half barrel of water and stir. Third, thin the 
gas lime to the consistency of a good whitewash. 
Fourth, pour one or even two pailfuls of the thinned 
refuse into the dilute blue vitriol solution and stir; 
pour a drop or two of the yellow solution from the 
bottle into the mixing barrel; if, when these drops 
strike the mixture in the barrel they change color 
from yellow to brick red, add more of the dilute 
refuse, stir and test again. Continue to do this until 
when a drop of the yellow prussiate of potash solu¬ 
tion is added it disappears without change of color, 
the mixture is complete; but no harm will result if 
more of the refuse lime is added. F. A. S. 
WAS SOIL OR FERTILIZER AT FAULT? 
I submit my first experiment with artificial fertilizer 
and ask your opinion. Am I at fault, or the fertilizer? 
I am a market gardener; my soil is a heavy clay, of the 
kind which gets of the consistence of a good grade of 
putty when wet, and when dry it takes a sledge hammer 
to break a clod of it. It is in good fertility, made so by 
use of a large quantity of barnyard manure, and is well 
under-drained, but of late years barnyard manure is get¬ 
ting scarce, so last Summer I began experimenting with arti¬ 
ficial fertilizer. I got the fertilizer a few days after I 
had planted my early cabbage, latter part of April, and 
here I started in by sowing it broadcast with full hand 
over the cabbage patch about as thick as when I had 
sown oats, but three rows I left without. It was put in 
with a hand cultivator. The weather being cold the 
cabbage made little headway. Two weeks later I sowed 
it over again, but used almost as much again as the first 
time. The three rows received none. It was again put 
under with hand cultivator, the weather being still cold, 
and the cabbage made but little growth, and no difference 
could be seen between fertilized and the three rows which 
had received none. In June, as the weather had become 
warm and the cabbage had a good stand, I went over it 
again with fertilizer. This time I scattered it in between 
the rows. I used about a handful for every three plants 
and ran it in with a horse cultivator. The three rows re¬ 
ceived none. From this time on I could see the fertilized 
part got ahead of the three rows, and it made cutting 
heads eight or 10 days before the non-fertilized, but they 
were no bigger. The eight or 10 days earliness did not 
pay for my labor and the cost of the fertilizer. I also 
tried it on beets and carrots, by sowing half of the patch 
over with fertilizer and left the other half without, but 
no difference could be seen. My soil is poor potato 
ground; however, I planted three rows and in the two 
rows I used about half a handful of fertilizer to the hill, 
the one row received none. The soil being very rich 
from barnyard manure, put on the year previous, the 
potatoes grew immensely during the hot and moist 
weather in June, but no difference could be seen until 
the vines stood about two feet high. Then I noticed some 
had a darker color than others. I said to myself: "There, 
now, the fertilizer begins to show its effect,” but to my 
great astonishment I found it was the one row that had 
no fertilizer which looked best; in the crop no difference 
could be seen. J- J- 
Port Clinton, O. 
On the tag of this fertilizer we find the following: 
1.2 per cent ammonia. 
8 per cent available phos. acid. 
8 per cent, potash. 
1 per cent insoluble phos. acid. * 
(Animal and mineral.) 
“The kind that brings results.” 
This fertilizer did not “bring results.” It is a fine 
thing to try to learn why. All we can do is to guess 
at it and state what seems most probable. As that 
soil contains much stable manure it did not need more 
organic nitrogen. It did need soluble nitrates and prob¬ 
ably phosphoric acid. The clay soils are not usually 
lacking in potash. What was wrong? 
First, the soil itself. This kind of a soil which 
runs from putty to solid chunks rarely gives returns 
from the use of fertilizer. Stable manure shows itself 
because that, when plowed or harrowed into such a 
soil, keeps it open and porous and in better condition. 
A small amount of fertilizer scattered on suen soil 
cannot give such results because it is not worked all 
through it, and does not open it as the manure does. 
That soil should be heavily limed with burned lime. 
That would break up these lumps, open the soil and 
give it far better grain or quality, so that good ferti¬ 
lizer would have a better chance. 
Next, we do not think the fertilizer was high grade. 
The chances are that the small amount of ammonia 
which it contains was obtained from tankage, muck 
or some other material which was not as available as 
the manure left in the soil. Such soil is naturally wet 
and cold, and this form of ammonia did not feed the 
crop' until the weather got warm. Had there been 
nitrates or soluble nitrogen in that fertilizer the cab¬ 
bage would have started off earlier and made a far 
better growth. We feel sure that nitrate of soda would 
have made a great difference in the crop. This is a 
good illustration of what you get in buying a ferti¬ 
lizer with only one per cent of ammonia. You are 
practically sure to get low-grade insoluble material 
when doing so. For a trucking crop we would never 
buy less than three per cent o* nitrogen. 
April 22, 
We cannot explain the behavior of the potatoes 
except that perhaps an extra heavy lot of manure was 
put in former years on this place. This old manure 
would act like other forms of organic nitrogen—not 
become available until the soil warmed, and then push 
the crop on rapidly. 
A PROBLEM IN DRAINAGE. 
The title L. L. D. as applied to farming (Legumes, 
Lime and Drainage), three essentials required for suc¬ 
cess, are all comparatively easy to be obtained with the 
occasional exception of the latter, for as a rule where 
everything is favorable the work of thorough drainage 
presents no difficulty other than earnest and persistent 
effort on the part of those interested. Where a good 
outlet is available on one’s own property, and the land 
requiring drainage is suitably located for the required 
fall and a free flow of water, it is a very easy thing 
to overcome, and good results are pretty sure to fol¬ 
low. It sometimes occurs, however, where a deep de¬ 
pression or “sag” exists, in which a large body of 
water accumulates from the surrounding uplands, suffi¬ 
cient to destroy vegetation and prevent any effort for 
cultivation, such a place is an eyesore, with not much 
hope for improvement. For many years such condi¬ 
tions existed on my farm, remaining a paradise for 
muskrats, frogs and blackbirds, the only vegetation 
being cattails, flags and coarse water grass, with the 
water remaining nearly or quite half the Summer. 
This was attended with this discouraging feature, no 
possibility of drainage, with insufficient fall or outlet 
on the same farm. There had long existed, however, 
on an adjacent farm, an open ditch, giving evidence 
that perhaps an outlet could be secured for the purpose 
in view, provided permission were granted by the 
owner, which was in due time secured. After close 
examination regarding fall, etc., we were encouraged 
to attempt the work, arid even with the slight fall it 
was considered sufficient for the purpose. This was 
20 or more years ago. After 40 or 50 rods of ditch, 
including four rods across the highway between the 
two farms and extending entirely across the depres¬ 
sion referred to, a four-inch tile was laid. The final 
result was not w.hat we had hoped, as it was found 
that such a large accumulation of water could not 
find its way into the tiles in time to save a crop 
wholly, though there was an evident improvement, and 
though it remained in this condition for several 
years, we had not entirely given up hope that even¬ 
tually success would be secured. 
Later we adopted the following method that has 
proved a perfect success, and of course it is a con¬ 
tinual source of peculiar satisfaction, that all so well 
understand who have had similar experience. In the 
first place we decided that the tile were not of the 
size required to remove so large a body of water in 
time to save a crop; accordingly they were replaced 
with six-inch, and then, too, instead of extending them 
entirely across the depression, depending on the water 
finding its way into the tile entirely through the joints, 
they were discontinued at the lowest point in the de¬ 
pression, where we placed a 20-inch sewer pipe in an 
upright position, the top of the same remaining about 
even with the surface of the ground. At the lower 
edge of the sewer pipe it was so shaped as to allow 
the six-inch tile properly to fit into it, also other 
similar places for smaller tile to enter from other por¬ 
tions of the field. It was but a few days ago, follow¬ 
ing a thaw and severe rainstorm, that this depression 
resembled a miniature lake, with water in some por¬ 
tions two feet or more in depth, but in 48 hours it 
had entirely disappeared, forcibly illustrating that 
water will find its way directly into the end of a six- 
inch tile more freely and in much less time than is 
required to force its way through the soil and joints 
of the tile. While the latter may be all right for or¬ 
dinary drainage, it has been learned that the conditions 
discussed above require a different and we may say, a 
more heroic treatment. As before noted, this system 
has been in operation for several years, with its 
abundant crops of wheat, oats, grass, etc., all regularly 
attesting to the profitable results to be obtained by the 
system of perfect drainage only; for the required fer¬ 
tility is already there, and has been for many years, 
merely awaiting the conditions required by man’s de¬ 
velopments. IRVING D. COOK. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. 
No more skunk farming in New York. During 
each year at least 100 people write asking advice about 
raising skunks for their fur. We do our best to 
keep them out of the business, but they have read 
somewhere about the great profits in skunks, and it 
is hard to hold them. Now the State of New York 
comes in and says that skunks shall not be “possessed” 
or killed between March 15 and November 1. 
Give the horses plenty of water and cool off their 
shoulders often when they start hard work. 
