1012. 
UTiR RURAL, NEW -VORKER 
air 
Spreading Manure in Winter. 
G. 8. B„ Massachusetts .—On a dairy farm 
where the manure has to be carted away 
from the barns every day or two, and where 
the principal crop is silage corn, the prac¬ 
tice has been to plow the land, generally 
sod, in the Fall, and spreadi the manure on 
during the Winter. The land is level, soil a 
light loam with gravel underneath. The 
manure is worked in with a disk or Cutaway 
harrow in the Spring. Would it be better 
to stack the manure in small piles on the 
field and spread just before harrowing in 
the Spring? 
Ans. —We doubt if you would gain 
much by piling the manure. On 
level land and in a cold country there 
is not much loss from spreading the 
manure. We do not know why this 
ground is Fail plowed—perhaps to save 
time for Spring work. If it were not 
for that we would prefer Spring plow¬ 
ing, as we believe it better to put the 
fresh sod under as close to the corn 
crop as possible. Still we know how 
it saves labor to have this plowing done 
ahead. By spreading the manure as 
hauled, you simply save the labor in 
handling it over from the piles. There 
is no other gain and, under these condi¬ 
tions, we do not believe the loss of 
leaking from the manure will be as 
great as the cost of spreading. We 
have heard it argued that the manure 
is improved by standing in the piles. 
Not more so we think than by being 
frozen and thawed. 
Lime # and Potato Scab. 
G. B., Markleyshurg, Pa.—The farmers in 
this vicinity are using burnt lime and get¬ 
ting fine catches of clover and Timothy, 
whereas before they used lime it was hard 
to get a good catch. Now we want to keep 
our land fit to grow potatoes, and having 
read that limed soil brings the potato scab 
we hesitated to use burnt lime, and used 
about 200 pounds of Thomas slag. We got 
excellent catches of clover and Timothy 
with this. Is this land safe to put in pota¬ 
toes year after slag was drilled in ? How 
much can we safely use of lime or slag to 
get clover started on poor field, and then 
turn the crop under for potatoes? Can you 
suggest any way to get crop of clover (our 
laud is sandy, acid, and I think with very 
little humus in it) without using lime in 
any form? 
Ans. —Yes, you can safely plant po¬ 
tatoes one year after using the lime. 
We should not hesitate to use 1,500 
pounds of the slag or a ton of lime at 
grass seeding. Then, when the clover 
is plowed under for potatoes, one or 
two years later, put it under when quite 
green and full of sap. This will make 
the soil a little acid and suit the potato 
crop. The objection is to the use of 
lime when the potatoes are planted, not 
a year or two before. We want to 
make it clear why lime should not be 
used on potatoes. The scab which we 
notice in rough patches or pit-marks 
on the potato is a skin disease which 
spreads by means of germs. These 
germs do best in an alkaline soil. Thus 
when the soil has just been limed these 
scab germs multiply and spread rapidly 
if there are any of them in the soil or 
on the potato seed. On the other hand, 
if the soil is more or less acid these 
germs will not multiply and spread. 
Therein lies the objection to lime or 
wood ashes on the potato crop. Of 
course if there were no germs of this 
disease on the seed or in the soil, lime 
would do little or no harm. We have 
known cases where the finest and 
smoothest potatoes were grown on land 
just cleared and burned off. Either 
there were no scab germs in this new 
soil or the fire destroyed them. Probably 
90 per cent, of the seed potatoes now 
used carry more or less scab. The 
safest plan is to kill these scab germs 
before planting. This is done by soak¬ 
ing the seed in a chemical which will 
destroy the scab germ but not hurt the 
eyes or buds. The usual plan is to use 
formalin or formaldehyde. The seed 
potatoes are first rinsed with water and 
then put in a vat or barrel containing 
the solution of one pint of forma¬ 
lin to 15 gallons of water. The forma¬ 
lin is a liquid which dissolves at once 
in the water. The potatoes are left in 
this solution 90 minutes and then dried 
and cut up. In addition we usually 
sprinkle dry sulphur over the seed 
pieces and with this treatment the scab 
is greatly reduced. 
Traction Engines for Repairing Dirt Roads 
Are traction engines used In the towns 
of New York State for repairing and main¬ 
taining dirt roads? If so to what extent, 
and with what success? w. b. 
Pennsylvania. 
Yes, they are used in some towns with 
satisfaction—we cannot say how many are 
nsed for this purpose. We would like to 
hear from readers about this. 
Dynamite in Tree Planting. 
I notice on page 126 that J. W. M. 
wants to know about dynamiting for 
fruit trees. Maybe a little experience 
that I had will throw some light on the 
question. I had the job of laying off a 
large tract of ground in a company or¬ 
chard ; there were stumps on this 
ground, and whenever one was in the 
way I would use dynamite. I set these 
trees, and the ones that were in the 
holes where the stumps were blown out 
could be seen all over the orchard. I 
would say that they made at least twice 
as much growth as the others. Part of 
this can be credited to the stumps, but 
not all, for the stumps were green and 
would not have much influence on the 
soil. Of course in this case the ground 
would be torn up more than in ordi¬ 
nary dynamiting. I think I can assure 
you that it will pay, especially where 
you have a hardpan or a shaky rock 
underneath. There is no doubt that it 
benefits the tree, but will it pay? I be¬ 
lieve it will. l. G. z. 
Morgantown, W. Va. 
A Grass Grower Talks. 
I noticed recent notes on the prices 
of grass seed, and wondered if the 
writer realized that the retail price he 
quoted was for 100 pounds and the 
wholesale price per bushel of 60 pounds 
for clover and about 45 pounds for 
Timothy. Prices in this section started 
at $7.50 per bushel for Alsike in August, 
and held at $9 for a long time during 
the Fall for No. 1 seed. I sold 30 
bushels of No. 1 and three bushels of 
No. 2 Alsike seed January 30 for $11 
per bushel, both grades. Two days 
after we were offered $12 for No. 1. 
The day I sold the seed I ordered two 
bushels ot Timothy and half a bushel 
Medium for $8.50 and $14 per bushel. 
In regard to producers selling direct 
to consumers, if I were buying I would 
want to see the seed first. The big 
buyers have special mills for the pur¬ 
pose of making pure(?) seed. I cleaned 
my seed twice with a small mill and 
sold it as it was, but it no doubt went 
through another mill at the seed house. 
If a number of farmers in a seed grow¬ 
ing section would co-operate for the 
purpose of selling at retail, then keep 
their fields free from foul weeds and 
have the proper mill for cleaning, it 
would be a great thing for everybody. 
This leads to the question, what is the 
best mill for cleaning grass seed? A 
mill that will take out all the seed we 
do not want, into the different grades, 
and not take a lot of good seed with the 
bad. The seed I bought looked good, 
but I found wild buckwheat, buckhorn 
and wild carrot. j. b. l. 
New York. 
Potatoes Grown Under Mulch. 
I notice on page 122 W. E. Duckwall 
refers to potatoes grown under mulch 
as an experiment. In St. Clair County, 
Illinois, where I was born and raised, 
potatoes have been grown under straw 
every year for over 40 years. They 
are called straw potatoes because the 
mulch is chiefly wheat straw, although 
old hay might do too, but oat straw will 
not answer on account of the oats that 
will sprout up and grow. The straw 
mulch is applied before potatoes are 
up and they come up through the straw 
and need no further attention till 
digging time. It requires some skill or 
practice to cover the field just right, to 
shake up the straw and put it on not 
too thick nor too thin. The greatest 
claim made in favor of this method is 
the superior quality of the potatoes, 
although the yield is also good. When 
we first came here to Missouri 10 
years ago we were told we could not 
grow potatoes that way here, but have 
had good success every year. The past 
season, 1911, we had an almost unprece¬ 
dented drought, no good rain for four 
months. We have more potatoes than 
we can use, while our neighbors who 
do not mulch have to buy all they eat 
and pay high prices. I can vouch for 
the quality; they have a mealiness and 
richness not approached by those grown 
in the ordinary way, and where people 
know them they are willing to pay 
higher prices. We usually plant a white 
variety, such as the Snowflake, Ban¬ 
ner or Rurals. It should be borne in 
mind that mulching is only for main 
crop or late varieties. M. c. S. 
Marshall, Mo. 
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Better Crops 
[ The manure produced in the course of 
husbandry is not sufficient to maintain 
permanently the fertility of the farm. 
— I Ion Liebig. 
