1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
607 
SAVING THE SEED OF VETCH. 
J. C. L., Louisville, Oa —Will Mr. C. W. 
Frescott tell us how to gather Hairy vetch 
seed? I have a little growing and wish to 
gather the seed. 
Ans.— My experience in vetch grow¬ 
ing is so limited that I do -not wish to 
say much about it. The large vetch 
growers are the ones to tell how to save 
vetch seed. However, my experience may 
be of some service to the small grow¬ 
er who may some time become a large 
one. The seed having been sown August 
3 , 1909 , came up well and made a 12 to 
15 inch growth before cold weather. 
Wintering well, it was about the first 
vegetation to start in April, 1910 . In 
May the plants began to hunt for some¬ 
thing to climb on. Handy to the field 
were quantities of small birches; these 
were cut four to seven feet tall and 
stuck up in the ground so the vetch 
could grow up on them. During May 
the vines were assisted in their climbing 
so that by June 1 the brush was nearly 
covered, and the mass of blossoms will 
never be forgotten by those who had 
the privilege of seeing them. June and 
July in Concord, Mass., were very dry, 
hot months, but the vetch seemed to 
thrive wonderfully, even on the poor 
land. As the blossoms began to pass it 
was noticed that the seed pods were 
abundant and well filled. 
In early July the problem of gather¬ 
ing the seed had to be solved. How was 
it to be accomplished? The vines on 
July 19 were disentangled from the 
brush which was pulled up and taken 
away. Then the vines were pulled up 
by the roots and laid in heaps as care¬ 
fully as possible, so the seed would not 
be rattled out. Then they were forked 
into a tight floored wagon and taken to 
a shed under cover. All this was done 
when there was a heavy dew on the 
vines, as the seed did not rattle out so 
much. The mass of vines in the shed 
were turned several times, and later 
when quite dry were thrashed out on a 
tight floor, and the seed separated from 
the chaff. This, in brief, is our simple 
method of saving vetch seed. On large 
areas, perhaps, the above would not be 
feasible. We must creep before we 
walk, and, perhaps,the large vetch grower 
will tell us all a better way. Right here 
I want to say that I have been greatly 
helped by the advice and assistance of 
Profs. A. D. Shamel and J. B. Norton, 
of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
C. W. PRESCOTT. 
More About Ground Limestone. 
It. it/., Ballston Lake, A*. Y .—Wanting 
lime for my land, I ordered some from our 
local fertilizer agent. I inclose tag taken 
from one of the hags. Is it the right kind 
to use? What is calcium oxide? I have 
been told that it is air-slaked lime, and 
that it is not the right kind of lime to use 
on our land. Is that so? Our local 
agent's price for same is .$11 per ton. 
Ans.— The tag states that the lime 
contains “50 per cent of calcium oxide.” 
It is evidently a ground limestone. The 
price, $11 per ton, is too high for this 
lime. “Calcium oxide” is the chemical 
name for lime, just as chloride of so¬ 
dium means common salt. The metal 
calcium is very rare in pure form, as it 
rapidly changes when exposed to air. 
When combined with oxygen to form an 
oxide it makes the white substance 
known as lime. The limestone as found 
in the soil is a carbonate, that is, lime 
combined with carbonic acid. When 
this is burned the carbonic acid is driven 
off and the lime is left. A pure car¬ 
bonate of lime will have in each 100 
pounds 5G pounds of lime and 44 pounds 
of carbonic acid. Most limestones are 
impure, that is, they contain other min¬ 
erals beside the lime. The one you 
speak of is guaranteed to contain 50 
per cent of lime instead of 56, which a 
pure limestone would have. This is not 
a bad sample of limestone, and on soils 
that are not very sour or on light soils 
it will probably give good results. The 
price, however, is too high. 
TRUTH ABOUT THE “ SAND HILLS,” 
Some time ago I wrote an article describ¬ 
ing prices and conditions in this portion 
of Nebraska known as the Sand Hills, and 
it seems to have created considerable in¬ 
terest among a number of your readers. 
In the first place I want to say that I’m 
not a grafter; I'm not a real estate man; 
I’m not even a locator. As almost the 
first thing a person wants to know is the 
financial requirements I will state that the 
filing fee is $15. At the expiration of five 
years when final proof is made, there is an 
additional cost of about $18. To file on one 
of these claims the applicant must be a citi¬ 
zen of the United States, not owning more 
than 160 acres of land. After filing he 
wi' she) is given six months in which to 
build a house and establish a homei upon 
the land. During the five years residence 
upon the land the! holder must put on im¬ 
provements at the ratio of $1.25 per acre. 
For instance, if he takes a full section of 
640 acres he must put on improvements 
to the value of $800. For a wire fence, 
posts two rods apart, three wires; the .’Gov¬ 
ernment allows $95 per mile.' Now 'as to 
the land. It is all hills and _ valleys. “Tlie' 
lulls are in ranges, a range being, from one 
to 15 miles in length. The valley-shire from 
one-half to one mile wide. The hills are 
pure white sand, unadulterated. The val¬ 
leys.are black sand. We usually have"' an 
abundance of rain, but no mud. Some of 
these valleys are so low that they are 
below water level. Some have springs. 
These form lakes. In these, which are 
called hay valleys, the grass grows from 
two to six feet high. In the dry valleys 
and on the hills the grass where not pas¬ 
tured grows from 12 to 20 inches high. 
The wet valleys are principally owned by 
the cattlemen who have been here for 
years, although one sometimes finds an oc¬ 
casional piece smuggled. 
The cattle man figures to run 100 head 
of cattle on a section of the grazing land 
during the Summer. He reserves some of 
his grazing land for Winter and figures 
that one ton of hay added to what they 
graze will carry a “critter” through the 
Winter; hay worth about $3.50 to $4 per 
ton. The dry valleys where not too high 
will raise good crops and about 2M> tons 
of Alfalfa per acre (two cuttings). Land 
along the railroad is about all taken, unless 
the Government should decide to give up 
the forest reserve for settlement. A sec¬ 
tion of dry land will run about 60 head the 
year round. On a good many ranches 
horses are fed no hay at all, just rounded 
up at branding time. 
One man from New York wrote me a 
short time ago and among other things 
he wanted to know about timber. There 
isn't any. There are three box elders and 
one small elm here at the section house, 
and three cottonwoods and ditto at the 
-depot. Fuel? Coal costs $7.50 to $9 per ton. 
“Buffalo chips” free for the picking. Along 
the railroad folks usually manage to slip 
out enough old ties to last through the 
Winter and burn “chips” during the Sum¬ 
mer. I recently sold my land here to a 
cattle man, and am thinking of investing in 
Missouri timber lands. Now in conclusion, 
if you are paying cash rent, giving all you 
make each year to the landlord, have to 
mortgage your stock to secure the rent, 
working just for a living, making nothing, 
cut it out. let the landlord farm it himself. 
I would advise you to come to the Sand 
Ilills. You can stand it five years anyway. 
It’s healthy here. Rven if you have noth¬ 
ing now. you should be able to leave here 
at the end of five years with at least 
$2,000. Society? None. Church—-about 
the same. Schools, a few. Of course this 
is baeje , from railroad. Wife and I have 
been -here nearly six years. We are here 
yet, and are in no hurry to leave. I pre¬ 
sume -I -have received 50 letters from per¬ 
sons in different places during my five 
or six years here and after describing the 
country as I saw it I invariably added, 
“Come and see. ' Look before you leap.” 
Take no man's word. I have known people 
to drop in here who couldn’t get away fast 
enough. f. h. brooks. 
Grant Co., Neb. 
Sam Pone: “Didn’t you buy de horse 
dat you was lookin’ at, Ras?” Ras 
PIollow: “Naw; I was kinda uncertain 
’bout his age. He had one toof, and I 
couldn’t tell whether it were de first or 
de last.”—Chicago Daily News. 
• • 
Can’t Get Away From It 
Is it possible to nourish, strengthen and Rebuild 
the Brain by Food? 
Every man who thinks uses up part of the brain 
each day. Why don’t it all disappear and leave an 
empty skull in say a month of brain work? Be¬ 
cause the man rebuilds each day. 
If he builds a little less than he destroys, brain 
fag and nervous prostration result sure. If he 
builds back a little more each day, the brain grows 
stronger and more capable. That also is sure . 
Where does man get the material to rebuild bis 
brain? Is it from air, sky or the ice of the Arctic 
sea? When you come to think about it, the re¬ 
building material must be in the food and drink. 
That also is sure. 
Are the brain rebuilding materials found in all 
food? In a good variety but not in suitable propor¬ 
tion in all. , , 
To illustrate: we know bones are made largely, of 
lime and magnesia taken from food; therefore t'o~ 
make healthy bone structure we must have -food' 
containing these things. We would hardly feed 
only sugar and fat to make healthy bone' Structure 
. 1 
m a growing child. - 
A C' ! -iC 
^ . v . \ v *. '(• 
Likewise if we would feed in a skilful manner 
to insure getting what the brain requires for 
strength and rebuilding, we must first know wha.f’ 
the brain is composed of and then seleG.tL;soiiie 
article or articles (there are more than one;) that, 
contain these elements. 
Analysis of brain by an unquestionable authority, 
Geoghegan, shows of Mineral Salts, Phosphoric 
Acid and Potash combined (Phosphate of Potash) 
2.91 per cent of the total, 5.33 of all mineral Salts. 
This is over one-half. 
Beaunis, another authority, shows “Phosphoric 
Acid combined” and Potash 73.44 per cent from a 
total of 101.07. 
Considerable more than one-half of Phosphate 
of Potash. 
Analysis of Grape-Nuts shows: Potassium and 
Phosphorus (which join and make Phosphate and 
Potash) is considerable more than one-half of all 
the mineral salts in the food. 
> ■’ ■ 
Dr. Geo. W. Carey, an authority on the consti¬ 
tuent elements of the body, says: “The gray mat¬ 
ter of the brain is controlled entirely by the inor¬ 
ganic cell-salt. . Potassium Phosphate (Phosphate 
of Potash). This salt unites with albumen and by 
the addition of oxygen creates nerve fluid or the 
gray matter of the brain. Of course, there is a 
trace of other -salts and other organic matter in 
nerve fluid, but Potassium Phosphate is the chief 
factor, and has the power within itself to attract, 
by its own law of affinity, all things need'ed to 
;mamvfacture the elixir of life.” 
Further on he says: “The beginning and end of 
the matter is to supply the lacking principle, and in 
molecular form, exactly as nature furnishes it in 
vegetables, fruits and grain. To supply deficiencies 
—this is the only law of cure.” 
The natural conclusion is that if Phosphate of 
Potash is the needed mineral element in brain and 
. you use food which does not contain it, you have 
brain fag because its daily loss is not supplied. 
On the contrary, if you eat food known to be 
rich in this element, you place before the life forces 
that which nature demands for brain-building. 
Mind does not work well on a brain that is 
broken down by lack of nourishment. 
A peaceful and evenly poised mind is necessary 
to good digestion. 
Worry, anxiety, fear,- hate, etc., etc., directly in¬ 
terfere with or stop the flow of Ptyalin, the diges¬ 
tive juice of the mouth, and also interfere with the 
flow of the digestive juices of stomach and pan¬ 
creas. 
Therefore, the mental state of the individual has 
much to do (more than suspected) with digestion. 
Brain is made of Phosphate of Potash as the 
principal Mineral Salt, added to albumen and water. 
Grape-Nuts contain that element as more than 
A healthy brain is important, if one would “do 
things” in this world. 
A man who sneers at “Mind” sneers at the best 
and least understood part of himself. That part 
which some folks believe links us to the Infinite. 
Mind asks for a healthy brain upon which to 
act, and Nature has defined a way to make a 
healthy brain and renew it day by day as it is used 
up from work of the previous day. 
Nature’s way to rebuild is by the use of food 
which supplies the things required. Brain rebuild¬ 
ing material is certainly found in 
“There’s a Reason” 
Postum Cereal Company, Ltd., 
Battle Creek, Mich. 
one-half of all its mineral salts. 
Grape-Nuts 
