1912. 
BUILDING UP POOR SOIL. 
Combinations of Green Crops and Lime. 
1 would like to see our experiment station take a 
piece of land as near absolutely unproductive as can be 
fouud, even scrape off what productive soil there might be, 
and get right down into the shale, then start and build a 
fertile soil out of it. It can be done, and a demonstra¬ 
tion of this kind would get at the root of the whole 
matter, and do a lot of good. j, s. 
Yes; it can be done by using lime, green crops and 
a fair amount of fertilizer until the soil is well filled 
with humus and will grow clover. After that you 
can do anything with it. We have done something of 
this sort on very poor soil. Most soils seem to be 
“poor” because they are sour and lacking in humus. 
Supplying this humus by plowing under green crops is 
inclined to add to the acid condition, so that lime will 
be needed. 
We have started with turnips in the early Spring. 
They make a small growth on the poorest soil. Plow 
or disk them under in June and seed to buckwheat 
and rye. Buckwheat is a “goat” among farm crops; 
it will grow on poor soil and die down with frost. 
The rye will then come on and make a fair growth. 
In Spring it can be plowed under, the soil packed 
down and Southern cow peas seeded, either broadcast 
or drilled. In September these can be plowed under, 
the field well limed and rye seeded once more. Next 
Spring, two years from starting, if you can use fer¬ 
tilizer, Alsike clover will usually "catch” and make a 
good growth. There are several other combinations 
for bringing up poor land with but little outlay except 
labor. It is the labor, however, that will stop most 
poor men from trying such a plan, for they could not 
spare the team work to plow and work the soil so 
much. Such a thing would make an interesting ex¬ 
periment, but would not be of so much value to a poor 
farmer as some method of improving the soil and, at 
the same time, getting a crop to sell. We would like 
to see some railroad with very poor land and lime 
deposits along its line attempt some such plan for im¬ 
proving the land. Most of such railroad experiments 
are on too expensive a scale; far out of reach of the 
ordinary farmer. If they 'could be made with lime, 
green crops and moderate use of chemicals, we be¬ 
lieve the public would be helped. 
ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHING LIVE STOCK. 
Since reading the article on “The Camera as a 
Business Proposition,” on page 1129, I have been 
possessed with the idea that the truth ought to be 
known concerning the photography of live stock. It 
is, of course, the proper thing to have cows wedge- 
shaped, and it is easy enough to make them appear 
so, no matter what shape they are; just take a three- 
quarter rear view and place the camera rather close 
to the subject. Fig. 455, entitled “Cow Posed Just 
Right,” illustrates this in good shape; any lens will 
distort if the subject is placed close to it. Now if 
this cow was turned around she would be just as 
much of a wedge the other way. You will notice that 
bulls are generally posed three-quarter front view, 
and many of them, as well as cows, are ridiculous 
exaggerations. I am a breeder of Holstein cattle, and 
I have visited several of the best herds in the State, 
and I have never seen such monstrosities as I have 
seen pictured; good cows are not nearly so wedge- 
shaped as they are popularly supposed to be. Photo¬ 
graphing cows seems to be in line with directions 
MILDRED SOLDENE DEKOL 80897. Fig. 5. 
which I have read concerning success with small fruit, 
“cover well with the large fruit, and sell basket and 
all”; so my advice is, don’t place much dependence on 
the photograph of an animal unless it is a straight side 
view. 
Now about the camera. Mr. Jenkins in his article 
recommends a 5x7 at from $20 to $100, which I 
think is rather extravagant for an amateur. I have 
a 4x5 folding camera which cost only $7.50, and it is 
THE) RUKAl, NEW-YORKER 
capable of taking very fine pictures, good enough for 
any amateur. Much more depends upon the operator 
than on the camera. george van dewerker. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
R. N.-Y.—To illustrate his point, Mr. Van Dewerker 
sends the picture shown at Fig. 6. Suppose this 
were sent as a fair picture of the young man? 
ANOTHER POSE.—Your correspondent claims 
“enough experience,” but lacks judgment; certainly 
THE CAMERA TELLS A STORY, Fig. 0. 
when lie calls Fig. 455 posed just right. Cow shown 
at Fig. 5 comes nearer it. Is a cow’s rear end the 
all? You see a cow, when you maintain correct pro¬ 
portions. What do you say? A. hursii. 
Ohio. 
R. N.-Y.—We think this cow is not turned enough 
from the camera to do her full justice. We would 
pose her so that her left front foot would stand about 
where the shadow of her body is thrown. As it is, 
she looks too fiat. By the way, this is a great cow— 
Mildred Soldenc DeKol 80897. She gave 29.21 pounds 
butter in seven days, and 623.59 pounds in 226 days. 
HOW I RAISE ALFALFA. 
When I first commenced farming I got badly 
“stung” on subsoiling, as at that time it was quite 
generally advocated by those we looked up to for in¬ 
struction. I well remember the final cure in my case. 
I subsoiled about 12 acres for wheat; it was a hard 
job, and I nearly used up teams as well as myself. 
The field was nearly square, and when there was 
about one-half acre left I used two horses and fin¬ 
ished in the ordinary way. This inside plot was so 
much better that one could see the difference almost 
as far as one could see the field. It was no more 
subsoiling for me, but to keep the fertibey near the 
surface. At the present price of labor it behooves one 
to look after the expenditures, and certainly not do 
work that is a hindrance to success. 
My farm is worked by a tenant on shares, and one 
cannot always ask a tenant to do as you would, as 
for every dollar laid out for labor two have to come 
back to make him whole. For instance, take a case 
of tillage; if 12 shillings of extra labor were applied, 
and increased returns to 16, he would be four shill¬ 
ings out, whereas there would be a gain of four 
shillings if one had the whole proceeds. Now we 
come to our economical raising of Alfalfa. In the 
first place, we went begging to Washington to get 
culture to inoculate the seed, which we did according 
to direction, and sowed about a quart of this inocu¬ 
lated seed with sufficient of other kinds to make good 
seeding per acre; this, of course, made thin seeding 
for the Alfalfa, but it apparently all grew. We treated 
35 acres this way. This was to inoculate the soil for 
future use. I do not know that this did any good, as 
we had about as good luck where there was no inoc¬ 
ulation, but it gave me more confidence, and the 
Alfalfa grown in this mixed seeding more than paid 
for the trouble and extra expense. Alfalfa must re¬ 
quire and utilize a great deal of moisture to grow such 
large crops, and it looks reasonable that in its first 
stages it would require more than almost any other 
seeding. I think many failures are from drought in 
its infancy by the land not being in the right mechan¬ 
ical condition to hold moisture. Our method, when 
our Timothy and clover meadows begin to fail is to 
mow early and sow buckwheat the same year. This 
3 
buckwheat stubble becomes very porous and friable 
during the Winter, and the sod turned up in the 
Spring is in just the right condition to hold moisture, 
and makes a nice seed bed. We sow this to oats, not 
very thick, and seed with Alfalfa, holding off a little 
later than we would if the oats were the main thing. 
Right here is where you want to be liberal with com¬ 
mercial fertilizer. We have followed this plan sev¬ 
eral years without a failure. We get a crop of hay 
and one of buckwheat in the preparatory year, and the 
following year a crop of oats and a good seeding of 
Alfalfa. Last year there was about one-quarter of 
an acre that was formerly used as a garden, which 
would cut a good crop of Alfalfa in the Fall, so that 
it is possible under good culture and high fertility to 
make the two crops the second year, thus having four 
crops for the two years, and the land seeded down that 
will grow you three or four mowings of Alfalfa for a 
term of years after. h. c. slocum. 
Cayuga Co., N. Y. 
THE EGG-LAYING CONTEST. 
The sixth week of the contest has ended, and 68 
of the 100 pens are now laying. This leaves 32 pens 
which have not as yet produced an egg. The number 
laid this week was 514, which is the largest number 
yet laid. Each week shows a gain in the number of 
eggs laid, as was to be expected. I noticed that some 
of the birds were very young; looked, in fact as if 
they would not be matured enough to lay for two 
months or more. Doubtless the idea in the mind of 
those entering them was. that they would be laying 
strongly in the Fall when the early birds were moult¬ 
ing. This accounts partly for the fact that 32 pens 
have not yet commenced to lay. On me contrary, 
some of the pens have laid out the fi.st clutch of 
eggs and are either becoming broody or taking a rest. 
The White Leghorns from England again laid the 
largest number, 22 eggs during the week. They have 
laid 107 eggs in the six weeks, almost 18 eggs a week 
from a possible 35 if every pullet laid every day. This 
is more than a 50 per cent lay from the start. The 
White Leghorns have captured second place also, the 
birds from White Rose Farm, New Jersey, laying 
a total of 82 eggs, but second place for the week be¬ 
longs to the R. I. Reds, which laid 21 eggs during the 
week. Several birds of different breeds have laid six 
eggs in a week, but none has laid every day for seven 
days. Of the 13 pens of Barred P. Rocks only five 
pens have laid, the total for the five being 94 eggs. 
Four pens of White P. Rocks have produced a total 
of three eggs in the six weeks. The Columbian P. 
Rocks, Silver Wyandottes and Golden Wyandottes 
have not laid an egg. Of the 31 pens of White Leg¬ 
horns 26 pens have laid 848 eggs, five pens have not 
laid at all. There are four pens of Black Minorcas 
entered; one pen has a total of 10 eggs, the other 
pens nothing. Anconas, Floudans and “Buttercups” 
have not laid. The Orpingtons arc coming to the 
front; four pens of Buffs have laid 140 eggs, five pens 
of White Orpingtons 146 eggs, eight pens of White 
Wyandottes 162 eggs, eight pens of S. C. Reds 148. 
The American breeds are not yet making as good a 
showing as the Leghorns, and the result of this con- 
PRINCIPALS IN THE HEN CONTEST. Fig. 7. 
test may make a revision of the opinion that “Leg¬ 
horns are not good Winter layers.” However, we 
have had a very mild Winter up to date (December 
20), and if we have severe weather later we can see 
if that makes a difference in the output. 
GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
R. N.-Y.—The picture at Fig. 7 shows the two 
men who are prime movers in this contest. Prof. 
F. FI. Stoneburn is the bare-headed man—the other 
is Geo. A. McDevitt, of the Philadelphia North 
American. 
I 
