1912. 
2©1 
Greenhouse Soil From Old Sod. 
F. P. M., Philadelphia, Pa ,—We have 10 
acres of ground which has been farmed 
for 50 years or more, rotation farming. We 
bought this laud to use the soil in green¬ 
houses AVe want to get this soil in a high 
state of cultivation. IIow much lime should 
we use, or any, and give us the combination 
of high grade of fertilizer to use as a top- 
dressing. It is in grass now. The cost of 
getting it in good condition does not enter 
into it. We want it quickly ; before plowing 
our sod down we give it a heavy coat of 
manure, then cultivate it for 12 months by 
planting Crimson clover or rye, follow with 
southern cow peas in .Tune, but we want a 
heavy sod before we do this, and want the 
lime and fertilizer on the land two or three 
years ahead of the cow peas, clover, etc. 
Ans. —As we understand it, the prob¬ 
lem is to get as much humus as possible 
into the soil, and have it well decayed. 
W e should use fertilizer and manure 
to gi\ e tlie largest growth of green 
crops and lime to help decay them. 
Since expense does not count, we should 
use at least 600 pQunds per acre on the 
sod this Spring. Use either one of the 
high-grade grass mixtures or equal parts 
nitrate of soda, fine bone and muriate 
of potash. As you do not want the 
hay we should cut this grass crop in late 
June and let it wilt on the ground. 
Then plow it under and use one ton 
of burnt lime to the acre—well har¬ 
rowed in. Cutting and wilting the grass 
will give the soil better mechanical con¬ 
dition than when the entire crop .is 
plowed under green. After chopping 
the plowed sod up with a Cutaway har¬ 
row, and fining the surface, drill Whip¬ 
poorwill cow peas about 30 inches apart, 
and give them good culture as you 
would corn or potatoes. This will help 
tear up the old sod and' also kill off 
many white grubs with which old sod is 
usually filled. Later in August, when 
the vines begin to run so you cannot 
get through, sow a mixture of rye, 
Hairy vetch and Crimson clover right 
among the pea vines, and cover with 
the cultivator. They will all grow. The 
cow peas will be killed by frost, but the 
mixture of seeds will come out and 
grow through the Fall. Plow the 
growth all under in early May and sow 
oats and Canada peas. Plow these 
under in early July and repeat the liming 
and cow pea cultivation. If you tfse 
manure on the sod and after the oats 
and peas, so much the better. If you 
do not want the lime nearer the green¬ 
house soil than two years use at least 
THE? RURAb NEW-YORKER 
3,000 pounds per acre when you plow 
the old sod under. The problem is to 
get all the vegetable matter possible into 
the soil and have it decay rapidly. If 
you do not care to use lime freely it 
will be better to cut all these various 
crops and let them wilt or partly decay 
before plowing them under. 
Rough Planting an Orchard. 
F. M. G., Plainfield, N. J .—We have pur¬ 
chased a run-down farm in Pennsylvania, 
and propose to set it out to apple trees, and 
perhaps some pear. We know land should 
be put in better condition, but do not wish 
that would enable us to get a good orchard 
at less expense? 
Ans. —We have planted several 
orchards in much rougher shape than 
this. The trees made fair growth but if 
you expect a good orchard you must 
be prepared to take care of it. In 
several cases we have set the trees right 
in the rough old sod. In these cases 
the tops were cut back well, the roots 
cut to four or five inches, and small 
holes dug—just large enough to hold 
the roots without cramping. The soil 
was packed hard around the roots and 
sod, grass or trash of any sort piled 
HAYING WITH AUTOMOBILE. 
to wait a year. I have a notion of plowing 
all the ground deeply (the sod is very thin) 
and firm the land where trees will come; 
set them out at once or early in Spring, cul¬ 
tivate a strip each side of rows, and sow 
buckwheat between rows to get some income 
from land. It will he a joint stock com¬ 
pany, and we wish to get these trees to 
profitable bearing with as little expense as 
possible. AVe shall endeavor to hire a good 
man to live on the place, or mavbe rent to 
him. AVe expect to put commercial fertil¬ 
izer around trees as well as some on ground 
for the buckwheat. In early Fall we would 
sow some legume about trees to plow under 
in Spring. What do you think of above 
pian, and could you make any suggestions 
around the little trees. As a rule we do 
not use any fertilizer the first year. 
Later in the season three good fur¬ 
rows are turned on each side of the 
row, to the trees, with a heavy hoe 
these furrows are broken and smoothed 
down around the trees and cultivators 
are run up and down the narrow 
plowed space on each side. This gives 
fair growth, and if. the trees are fertil¬ 
ized each year and a few more fur¬ 
rows turned as the trees grow larger 
you can have, in time, a good orchard 
at light expense. Of course this is not 
thorough culture and will not give the 
very best growth, but it will produce 
good trees and light expense of labor. 
The plan you speak of will also work. 
You can plow all the field to begin with 
and keep strips along the rows well 
cultivated. We think white beans would 
pay better than buckwheat, but they will 
require more attention and cultivation, 
rf you use the buckwheat,, why not sow 
rye and Crimson clover with it? After 
the buckwheat has been taken off, the 
rye and clover will come on and make 
a growth to be turned under the next 
Spring or to be cut and piled around 
the trees. Any scheme for developing 
an orchard of this sort by hand labor 
or on shares is more or less of a gamble. 
Pruning Old Peach Trees. 
My experience in pruning peach trees 
may be of some benefit to someone, so 
I will give it. We had about 400 six 
and seven-year-old trees that* had borne 
a good crop in 1910. This was the sec¬ 
ond crop, and the trees were not look¬ 
ing quite as thrifty as they should, so 
Ave determined to give them a thorough 
pruning to see what it would do for 
them. It has always been my belief 
that the more you prune a peach tree 
the more* it will grow. So we went 
into those trees with a hand saw and 
just dishorned them ; cut back about the 
last four years’ growth. Some limbs 
were over two inches thick. The or¬ 
chard looked like a clearing when it 
was finished. It was just a pleasure to 
watch those trees groAv; they sent out 
sprouts from all over the body and 
what limbs were left. When the sprouts 
were about eight inches long they were 
thinned down to the right number, and 
the top formed in good shape. It just 
seemed as if the sprouts left couldn’t 
grow fast enough. I measured sprouts 
that were seven feet long and an inch 
in diameter at the bottom. Some of the 
trees were nearly as large as when they 
were cut back, and as thrifty as could 
be. This work was done in the Spring. 
We tried it in the Fall, but it was not as 
successful. I think that is the way 
to treat old peach orchards. Peaches 
bear on the new wood always, so this 
way you get plenty of Avood for fruit¬ 
ing. L. G. Z. 
W. Va. 
7 
Old Fields Made New 
'Y’HERE are three objects in cultivation : First, to 
make plant food available; second, to preserve moist - 
ure; and third, to kill weeds. lo make plant food available 
for the crop to nourish upon, it must be in a form to be taken 
up in solution by the minute rootlets. In other words, the plant 
food must be transformed from its inert condition found in the soil to 
a solution. 
The first and most important step toward feeding the crop is therefore, 
pulverizing the soil so that the elements may be dissolved. The amount of plant 
food prepared for the crop to consume is in proportion to the thoroughness m which 
the soil is pulverized. And the yield of the crop is in proportion to the plant food 
GROVE 
HARROW 
m 
14 
:V 
supplied. That is why Clark “Cutaway” Implements make larger crops than others. They work the soil finer 
opyp U-v&wW - ■■ 
By Using' Clark “Cutaways 
T--t 
Y ou can increase the yields in the field in the orchard in the garden. The late George M. Clark, who founded the Cutaway Line was 
a cuminst or wide note. 1 he older readers of The Rural New-Yorker will remember his articles on cultivation. It was his thorough knowledge of 
t «fi»aass=-~=.a cultivation that made the present Cutaways possible. For over twenty-five years they have been in a class bv 
themselves as soil workers. Lhey were originally invented and have been developed, not in an effort to manu¬ 
facture something merely to sell, but they were made because the creative genius back of them understood 
the sou and the cultivation of it, and knew how to make a disk tool that would do better than any other 
1 hey were manufactured and sold because their merits made them demanded. There is no imple¬ 
ment with Ayhich to replace them or substitute them. 1 o work the soil most thoroughly and at 
the same time most economically, you must use Clark “Cutaways.” 
FOR 
100 % 
REVERSIBLE 
ORCHARD 
' HARROW 
Last 
20 Years 
The illustrations show five type, of “Cutaways.” There are dozen of others. There is one for 
barrowing or cultivating—a Clark surpasses all others 
“single actions,” extensions of either type, and reversible 
for horse power or traction power. 
They are made in “double actions,” ’ 
They are made large and small— 
ONE-HORSE 
CULTIVATOR 
CUTAWAY HARROW COMPANY, 
Mr. C. H. Smith, Mt. Cory, Ohio, writes : 
“I bought one of your Cutaway Harrows 
about twenty years ago and it is in use yet.” 
Don’t you want that kind of a 
Disk ?—one that does the quality of 
work “Cutaways” do, and lasts for 
20 years. If you are in doubt about 
“Cutaway” implements, ask 
any user. He will verify our claims. 
And always remember, Clark’s are the original 
Cutaways. All others are imitations or infringements. 
Write for free catalog, “Intensive Cultivation”—today. 
839 MAIN STREET, 
HIGGANUM, CONN. 
CROPS 
sw 
