1912 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
306 
Preparing a Vegetable Garden. 
O. F. U., Brooklyn, N. Y.—l desire to 
prepare two acres of my farm, situated near 
Tompton Plains, N. .T., for vegetable crops 
in 1913, Spring or Summer. Will you rec¬ 
ommend one or two methods that will be 
as cheap as possible, and without the use 
of stable manure.? During five years the 
small hay crop has been taken off. each 
year, and the land was never disturbed 
by any cultivation during this time and 
up to the present. Previously all kinds of 
crops were taken off, such as potatoes, cab¬ 
bage and chiefly corn. It was then kept 
in fair condition, but looks now either worn 
out or lacking in humus or bulk. The soil 
appears to be gravelly (dark in color) for 
top eight inches, more or less, and beneath 
that as far as you want to dig, nothing but 
yellow gravel. Weeds are growing* thickly 
in spots, smothering the -hay and grass that 
covers the whole surface. Please say when 
to plow, and how often to barrow, etc., 
as 1 am a beginner, with little experience. 
Do you know of a good book on vegetable 
farming, for a beginner? 
Ans.— The proposition is to fit an old 
weedy sod in one season so it will be 
fit for a garden. It is a big job. The 
ideal garden soil is mellow, full of de¬ 
cayed vegetable matter and free from 
weeds. You may improve the texture 
of the soil in one year, but you cannot 
hope to kill the weeds. Briefly stated 
the plan is to stuff the soil with all the 
vegetable matter possible and use lime 
to hasten its decay. Plow the old sod as 
early in Spring as possible, and put on 
one ton of burnt lime to the acre. 
Give it a thorough working with a disk 
or spring-tooth and sow Canada field 
peas, 6 pecks, and 3 bushels of oats to 
the acre. About July 1 plow this crop 
under—making the furrows across the 
Spring plowing’and sow buckwheat with 
rye and Crimson clover. Let the buck¬ 
wheat die down as frost comes. Some of 
the rye and clover will live and come on 
to be plowed under in the Spring. This 
will give you a soil well filled with 
vegetable matter but it will still be full 
of weeds. Another plan would be to fol¬ 
low the oats and peas with white beans 
planted in hills and cultivated both ways 
and hoed. In September sow rye among 
it will be deeper to conform to the sur¬ 
face of the land, and to get a proper fall 
for the water. When stoning up the drain 
flat stones are leaned against; the sides, the 
largest against the banks, the others 
against those, leaving about an inch space 
at the bottom so that when finished tliere 
will be a V-shaped opening in the center, 
and at the bottom it will be two to three 
inches wide. The top of the center opening 
is closed by a large stone. This method 
allows several channels, so if one should 
become choked up. the water will find an 
outlet in the others, and being narrow 
there is always a strong pressure of water 
through them, and they seldom become 
filled with sand. Many ditches made after 
this plan have been in operation for 25 to 
30 years, and whenever dug into for an 
outlet to new ditch are found to be as 
clean as when first laid. On top of these 
flat stones smaller stones are laid in care¬ 
fully, and all the holes filled up by stones 
laid in them, then all sizes are dumped in. 
Of course care is expected to be used not 
to leave large openings between the larger 
stones. This is continued to about 15 
inches, from the surface when small stones 
are laid for the next three or four inches, 
which are sometimes pounded down by a 
heavy stone hammer, such as is used" in 
breaking large rock, but this is not neces¬ 
sary if the last few inches on the top have 
been placed with care. It is not necessary 
to finish up the ditch at once, for it is as 
well to allow the stones to settle, when 
sometimes a lot of small stones can be 
used to advantage. Wo never think of pick¬ 
ing up stones as small as those mentioned 
by the writer in Pennsylvania, for there 
are too many others of a larger size. When 
the stones are all in place the earth is 
plowed back and the ditch is finished. An¬ 
other method sometimes used is a combina¬ 
tion ditch of tile and stone. The tile is 
placed in the center of the ditch and lined 
up, then small stones are wedged in on 
the sides and up to the top of the tile, then 
a large flat stone on top over the tile to 
prevent their being broken. When this is 
done a covering of smaller stone is laid on 
the top for three to four inches, when the 
remainder of the ditch is filled up with all 
sizes dumped in to about a foot of the sur¬ 
face. This method is not practicable of 
course where there are not plenty of stone. 
Hut where there is an abundance of stone 
it allows tile of a smaller size to be used, 
for then after a long period of rain, and 
too land bocomos soak<*d, tho water will 
flow through the stones as well as in the 
tile. I have tried this way of making a 
drain, and have been much pleased with the 
results; there are several thousand feet of 
ditches on my farm, and I have tried both 
of these styles, but expect to use the com¬ 
bination tile and stone in the future, as I 
have about 1200 to 1500 feet more to dig 
this Spring. A feature of these ditches is 
that there is no shaping or breaking of 
stones; if. one is too large to go into a 
place, it is put somewhere else where it 
will fit in without any trouble. a. b. 
the beans and in Spring plow all under. 
This latter plan will give a cleaner gar¬ 
den for the cultivating and hoeing will 
clean out the weeds. In either case we 
should use half a ton more lime in the 
Spring of 1913. Then this soil, if thor¬ 
oughly plowed and harrowed would be in 
fair shape to grow vegetables—not the 
best shape for manure and another year's 
working would be needed to make it 
fit. “Vegetable Gardening,” by S. B. 
Green, price $1, is an excellent book; it 
may be obtained from this office. 
DRAINAGE OF THE LAND. 
On page 8 there is a short article about 
ditching. It may be good in that section of 
Pennsylvania, but along the Hudson Valley 
and farther north it has been tried but 
was discarded years ago, and -has not been 
in use for the past 25 years or more by 
anyone doing a great amount of ditching. 
Especially is this so in the plan shown in 
diagrams G^and 7. When this kind of 
ditch was used they have all been found 
filled with sediment, and either replaced by 
a new drain, dug alongside of the old ! 
one, or else the old ditch dug out; but this 
process does not pay; it costs as much or 
more to dig up a drain as to make a new 
one, besides the getting rid of a lot of loose 
stone which can be used in a new drain. 
Another objection to ditches described in 
that article is the cost of preparing stones 
so as to fit together snugly, as he says 
that a piece of railroad iron and mason’s 
hammer is used. The very fact that the 
stones require shaping would be a fatal ob¬ 
jection in this section, as labor is expensive, 
not but that we have all the stones neces¬ 
sary for the work, for I have often wished 
they could be piled up in a heap and 
burned. We get tired of tramping over 
them, only picking up those where so plen¬ 
tiful that a plow will not stay in the 
around, not to mention the large bowlders 
that require blasting. I find the cheapest 
way to get rid of them is to place dyna¬ 
mite under one side, but only enough to 
throw the rock out of the ground; then 
dig a large hole on the side that it leans 
to, and use a crowbar to roll the stone 
into it; if the hole is made deep enough 
no plow will ever touch it, and the stone 
is forever out of the way; besides a lot of 
smaller stones can be got rid of at the 
same time. This method is cheaper than 
breaking the stone small enough so as to 
be carted away, doing which will some¬ 
times damage trees; besides the stone will 
always.be in the way more or less, making 
an unsightly heap in the fence corner. 
It would take too much time to shape the 
stone for ditching, and tile would be used 
as being the cheaper. The method most 
used for making a ditch of stone is that 
when the ditch has been dug, which for 
this kind is generally made three feet deep 
by two feet wide; of course in some places 
Bolls Quickly—Uses Little Fuel 
Two features cookers oufbt to have, and 
Farmers’Favorite 
Feed Cookers and Agricultural Boilers 
do have. Burn any fuel—cook any feed 
quickly. Will work to your satisfaction 
or we refund money. Send for Catalog. 
Sizes ransre from 25-gal. to 100-gal. 
Lewis Mfg. Co. Box C., Cortland, N. V. 
INDEPENDENCE 
FROM the PEANUT 
FIELDS OF VIRGINIA 
TO THE ORANGE 
GROVES of FLORIDA 
THREE CROPS 
YEARLY 
IN ThE LAND Or 
MANATEE ON THE WEST 
COAST or rLORIDA^ 
* A. , 
: ~ 
-t> -s> ? 
Fortunes are being made 
in the 6 Sou. States traversed 
by the S. A. L. Ry. (Va., 
N. C., S. C., Ga., Fla., and 
Ala.,) raising fruits and 
vegetables. 
Low priced lands. Easy 
terms. Plenty of water. 
Healthful climate. In the 
Land ot Manatee on West 
Coast of FLORIDA. Net 
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Beautifully illustrated booklet, 
Free. Write Now. 
J. A. PRIDE, Gen. Ind. Agt, 
SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILWAY, 
Suite 60S NORFOLK, VA. 
ALBERTA’S 
GRAIN 
CROP 
Reports from the grain fields of Alberta, 
.We stern Canada, show splendid 
■ yields of wheat, oats and 
barley. 
Many farmers have paid 
for their land out of the pro¬ 
ceeds of the crop of 1911. 
At exhibitions throughout 
the U. S. wherever the grain 
| from this Province has been 
I shown it has received the 
highest commendation. 
Free Homesteads of 160 acres 
land adjoining pre-emptions of 
< 160 acres (at $3 per acre) are to 
be had in the choicest districts. 
Schools convenient, climate 
excellent, soil of the very best, 
railways close at hand,building 
lumber cheap, fuel easy to get 
and reasonable in price, water 
easily procured, mixed farming 
I a great success. 
Write as to best place for settlement, 
settlers’ low railway rates, pamphlet 
“Last BestWest,” and otherlnformation, 
to Supt. of Immigration, Ottawa, Can., 
or to Can. Gov. Agt. 
J. S. CRAWFORD 
301 E. GENESEE STREET 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
Increased 
Fertility 
means many good things. One of them is the 
fact that the farmer can do without a hired man 
if he makes one acre produce as much as now 
comes from two, or he can afford to employ the 
best labor there is and all he needs, if he doub¬ 
les the crops on all his acres, 
Why take half a crop when a whole one is possi¬ 
ble? It is largely a matter cf fertility; and the best 
part of it is that the more fertilizer used the easier 
it is to pay for it; the extra crop takes care of that, 
but the right fertilizer should be used. 
Wherever you live, we can reach you with the right 
fertilizer, ."the right service, and the right price. 
Write today for copy of “Plant Food”, a practical 
hand book on fertility. No advertising in it; sent 
without cost. 
Agents wanted in unoccupied territory. Liberal 
terms and goods that sell. It pays to sell our fertiliz¬ 
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The American Agricultural Chemical Co., 
Makers of brands with fifty years 
of quality and results behind them. 
129 Lewis Street, Buffalo, New York. 
STEEL WHEELS 
When Your Horse 
Coes lame 
—When he develops a Spavin, Curb, Splint, 
H ingbono or any other lameness—don’t risk 
losing him through neglect—don’t run just 
as great a risk by experimenting with un¬ 
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and cure it the quickest and safest way, Read what 
W. W. Brown of Content, Alta, writes— 
“I have used your Spavin Cure for years and have 
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and Splints and Spavins on horses. I find that it 
cures wherever it is faithfully applied. 
Thousand of other horse owners have had the 
same experience. For over 35 years Kendall’s 
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It has saved thousands of dollars for horse 
owners. Go to your druggist—get a 
couple of bottles to keep on hand. Price 
Jl per bottle—6 bottles for $5. Ask 
him also for free book“Treatisc on 
the Horse”—or write direct to us. 
Dr. B. J. Kendall Co. f 
Enosboirg Falls, 
Vermont, 
U.5.A. 
Best For Your Horse 
Don’t let your horse become worthless by 
developing disease or lameness.—Use 
Quinn’s Ointment 
Positive cure, removing curbs, splints,/ 
windpuffs, thoroughpin, swelling of \ 
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W. B. Eddy & Co., Box W Whitehall, N. Y. 
(Low-Down) 
to fit your farm’wagon, 
is the combination that makes 
you look and feel like an Up- 
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Box 17 Havana, Ill. 
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“ My barn that was 
BURNED 
was fitted with Crumb’s 
Warriner Stanchions. If it 
had not been for the ease with 
which these fasteners were 
opened 1 should have lost my 
cows,” writes Mr. Everett 
Gains, Bemardstown. Mass. 
Booklet Free. 
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nr Horses 
Sprains L 
Ringbone, Shoe Boil, 
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MINERAL 
HEAVE 
REMEDY 
NEGLECL 
WillRuiir 
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Send today for 
PERMANENT 
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cures ordinary cases. 
Postpaid on receipt of price 
Agent. Wanted iu;r. a 
Write for descriptive ASBsP 
booklet 
If 
Gall Cure 
Tho old-time remedy for keeping horses In condition. Don’tiose the services of your 
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