674 
T'MK; RURAb NEW-YORKER 
membership can reach them without having to freight 
their goods. With this capital and facilities for doing 
business the outlook for our exchange we think is 
bright and worthy of emulation by the farmers of 
this great State. What it has done for us it will 
do for you if you will organize an exchange or as¬ 
sociation. Select your best farmers for your board 
of directors and appoint the best man for manager 
you can get. With this beginning and a loyal sup¬ 
port of the membership, success will surely attend 
your efforts. W. h. ingling. 
ROTATION OF CORN AND GRASS. 
I hare a piece of land of 12 to 14 acres which 1 wish 
to rotate with Indian corn and grass. Which would be 
better for me, having no manure but using about 1.200 
pounds of fertilizer, 3-8-10, to the acre for corn and about 
600 pounds of 4-6-5 for grass (all Herd’s grass for horses), 
to grow corn ofie year and seed down, making it a two- 
year rotation, or grow corn two years and make it a 
four-year rotation? I want one-half to corn and one-half 
to grass each year. If the latter way, what can I sow 
in corn for a crop of humus to plow under the second 
year? If rye, would you sow at last cultivation of corn or 
wheel-harrow it in after corn is stacked? I wish to apply 
lime the last year of corn for seeding down, and when 
would you apply the lime, on the rye before plowing it 
under, or just after plowing and harrow it in? 
South Hadley, Mass. F. ii. L. 
We should arrange to grow corn two years and 
then seed to grass for two years more. At the last 
cultivation of corn sow 30 pounds of Hairy vetch 
seed and half a bushel of rye mixed per acre. Plow 
this under the next Spring and plant corn again. 
The time to use lime is right after plowing the green 
crop under. Then pack the soil down hard and har¬ 
row thoroughly. How do you intend to seed? In 
some parts of New England a very good stand is 
obtained by scattering the grass seed in the standing 
corn just as you would a cover crop. The soil is 
first worked with a heavy cultivator. Then the grass 
seed is put on and worked in with a light harrow or 
brush with a hand rake around the hills. In some 
cases this gives a fine stand, but a safer way is to 
get the corn off early and plow or disk the ground 
so as to fit it thoroughly before seeding. If this is 
done we would rather use the lime with the grass 
than with the cover crop. 
QUESTIONS ABOUT VETCH. 
I have been much interested in the vetch article in The 
R. N.-Y. during the last year. I have grown Winter vetch 
for the last six years in my peach orchard for Winter 
cover, and to turn under in Spring, with splendid results. 
I have increased fertility of land wonderfully, and have 
grown two good corn crops on the ground since peach 
trees are about gone, the land being rather light and quite 
badly run down before I got it. I- have 10 acres of vetch 
now, sown in corn at last cultivation, about one peck rye 
to 30 pounds Winter vetch, and about 30 pounds of this 
mixture per acre, which makes a very good cover. I find 
it pays well to inoculate the seed when sown on uninoculated 
ground the first time. The only way 1 can turn the crop 
under is by using a rolling coulter and chain on the plow. 
1 would like to ask Prof. A. D. Shamel or other experienced 
vetch growers these questions: 1. Will the yield of Win¬ 
ter vetch and oats for hay be as large if sown early in 
Spring as if rye or wheat with vetch sown in last of 
August? 2. Would Spring vetch be as good to sow with 
oats for hay in the Spring as Winter vetch? 3. Will 
either Winter or Spring vetch sown with oats in Spring 
for hay mature early enough in season so that the weather 
would be reasonably good for curing the hay? 4. At 
what stage of maturity should the vetch be to make 
the most palatable, and nutritious hay? 5. What Winter 
grain has been found best as support for Winter vetch for 
seed? Is it cut with self binder? 6. Has Winter emmer 
been tried, and can the emmer seed and vetch seed both 
be separated from straw at same time by thrashing in 
grain separator? 7. If so, could not the emmer seed be 
separated from vetch seed by fanning mill better than 
rye from vetch. Clover seedings nearly all dead here. 
Buchanan, Mich. A. R. H. 
1. I do not know of any comparative trials of Fall 
hnd Spring sowings of Winter vetch or Hairy vetch 
for hay purposes, so am unable to give any data or 
exact opinion on the probable results. I believe that 
a satisfactory hay crop could be secured from Hairy 
vetch and oats sown in the Spring, but can see no 
advantage of using Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) over 
Spring vetch (V. sativa) for this purpose. In view 
of the very much greater cost of Hairy vetch seed, 
it seems to me that Spring or Summer vetch, as it is 
commonly called, would be best for Spring sowings 
for hay crop purposes. 
2. The reply to this question is largely given above. 
I want to say in addition, however, that in one of my 
trials of Spring vetch and oats for hay, I found that 
for dairy purposes this hay was the equal to any 
other hay tried, including Alfalfa, for practical milk 
production, so far as I could discover. I am inclined 
to think that hay growers would do well to investigate 
this matter carefully, and experiment on a small acre¬ 
age for themselves. The price of Spring vetch seed 
is low, and germinates more certainly, in my experi¬ 
ence, than Hairy vetch seed. It should be sown at 
about the same rate as Hairy vetch seed for this 
purpose, viz., about one-half bushel per acre with 
oats, the oats being seeded at about lj /2 to two bushels 
per acre. The crop will be ready to cut for hay when 
the oats are in the milk or dough stage, depending on 
conditions. This crop can be pastured to splendid 
advantage in many cases, or part can be pastured 
and the remainder cut for hay if desired. I have 
never been largely interested in animal production, 
so that I have not experimented along this line to 
IIIGHLAWN IIARTOG DEKOL. Fig. 206. 
any great extent. My interest in the vetches, par¬ 
ticularly the Hairy vetch crop, has b,een largely for 
cover crop purposes and for the improvement of the 
soil for farm crop production. At the same time I 
have had some experience and some observation in 
the culture of vetches for hay, and I can conscien¬ 
tiously recommend for trial Spring vetch and oats 
or other 1 suitable nurse crop for hay, where such crop 
would be valuable for feeding purposes. Vetch hay, 
either Hairy or Spring vetch, is shown by many an¬ 
alyses to rank very high in nutritive value and is es¬ 
pecially good for dairy purposes. 
The most satisfactory method of harvest that I have 
tried is to mow the crop with a mowing machine and 
where necessary rake the cut swath away from the 
standing crop immediately following the machine. 
Spring vetch has an upright habit of growth, contrary 
to Hairy vetch, and little difficulty will probably be 
experienced in handling the vetch and oat hay crop 
by the usual method for harvesting and handling oat 
hay. 
3. In reply to this question, my experience has 
been that the Spring vetch and oat crop are ready to 
harvest at the time the oats are in the milk or dough 
stage, preferably in the dough stage. 
4. This question is largely answered in the fore¬ 
going remarks. At the time the grain crop is ready 
to harvest for hay purposes the vetch crop will also 
be in about the right condition for harvest for hay 
purposes, i. e., in the flowering stage. This also ap¬ 
plies to Fall sown Hairy vetch and rye or other grain 
crops in my experience. 
5. My experience is that rye is the best support for 
Hairy vetch for seed production. I have seen, how- 
DAISY LADY GRACE DEKOL. Fig. 207. 
ever, equally good if not better results with wheat, 
the difficulty with wheat being in the separation of 
the vetch and wheat seeds after thrashing. Perhaps 
some satisfactory method can be devised for this pur¬ 
pose. I have not been able to harvest vetch and rye, 
with a self-binder, satisfactorily. The vetch vines 
tangle and clog up the binder so that it cannot work 
successfully. My best results have been by using a 
mower and an extra hand to move the mowed swath 
away from the standing crop where necessary. The 
crop is then raked into rows, and put up in small 
cocks until ready for thrashing. It is then thrashed 
in a grain thrasher, preferably with part of the 
concaves removed, and run slowly. The rye seed 
can be easily separated from the vetch seed by using 
an inclined cloth belt, turned towards the top. The 
rye seeds are caught by the lint of the cloth and car¬ 
May 4, 
ried up over the top, while the round heavy vetch 
seeds roll off at the bottom. 
In reply to questions 6 and 7 will say that I have 
had no experience with emmer and vetch and know 
of no such experiments. It is well worth trying, in 
my opinion, however. The continued observations 
that I have been able to make, of the use of the 
vetches for soil improvement purposes, confirm my 
earlier experiments as to the great value of these 
crops. The enormous increase in the use of the 
vetches for this purpose the past few years bears 
witness as to the practical importance of these crops. 
The tremendous increase in importation of Hairy 
vetch seed for use in northern districts has led to 
. frequent adulteration of this seed with the cheaper 
Summer vetch seed. Where any doubt exists, sam¬ 
ples should be submitted to the State experiment sta¬ 
tions or the U. S. Department of Agriculture for seed 
analysis. Great care should be used by importers to 
detect any such adulteration before selling the seed. 
The increased demand for Hairy vetch seed has led 
to greatly increased prices. A home-grown supply of 
this seed is needed and it is to be hoped that such 
source of seed will soon be available. A. d. shamel. 
LONG INFLUENCE OF ASHES AND LIME. 
How many years will wood ashes show traces of them¬ 
selves upon the soil? The year before last I planted an 
acre to potatoes and sowed rye in the Fall. In the Spring 
I worked in Red clover seed, got a fine stand of rye, but 
almost all the clover died out, because the ground was sour, 
except a quarter acre where the clover was excellent. 
The only reason I can give was that 25 years ago my 
father planted that one-quarter acre to onions and used a 
large quantity of wood ashes. This Spring that one- 
quarter acre is fairly plastered with clover, while the 
rest of field has all died out. The one-quarter has been 
used 25 years for the grass upon it without ashes, lime, 
fertilizer, or manure put upon it, yet I believe that those 
ashes are responsible for so much clover. g. b. h. 
West Mansfield, Mass. 
We do not know how long ashes will show them¬ 
selves, but in this case it is likely that the “ashing” 
of 25 years ago helped the clover. The lime and 
potash in the ashes would be most likely to give the 
results noted. There is also a mechanical effect upon 
some stiff soils which fine ashes or sand may give. 
\\ e know of a case where a farmer put sifted coal 
ashes on a clay soil and for the first time in years 
had a good stand of clover. Pie claimed this proved 
that the clover seed was in the ashes. This was im¬ 
possible, for how could clover seed live through a 
fire? The fine ashes loosened up the stiff soil and 
gave it better “condition,” so that clover seed which 
had lain there for years sprouted and grew. The 
most probable thing is that the heavy application of 
ashes on that quarter acre gave it a thorough liming, 
and that the influence of the lime remained to some 
extent. You say the rest of the field is sour. How 
do you know this? By testing it with litmus paper? 
It is likely that a sample of soil from this quarter 
acre will show considerably less acid than the rest 
of the field. We have no doubt that some of our 
readers can give cases where the influence of a heavy 
application of lime has been observed for many years. 
A bulletin from the Geological Survey states the 
following: 
An interesting feature about the coal mined at Cambria, 
Wyo.. is that it is claimed to be gold-bearing. Some of the 
coal has contained as much as $2 per ton in gold, 
and the coal w'as sold for only $1.50 per ton. When coke 
made at Cambria was selling for $3.50 per ton, samples 
were taken from 31 cars during a period of three weeks and 
assayed. The samples showed an average of $2.46 per ton 
in gold and 2S cents in silver. The explanation offered for 
the presence of gold in this coal is that the sands which 
submerged the old peat bog and now form the roof of the 
coal bed were derived in part from gold-bearing alluvium. 
While the sand was being deposited the gold worked down 
into the underlying bog and is now found in the coal. 
Go and look at the ash piles around some houses 
and you will find the equivalent of more gold. These 
piles are black with unburned coal—thrown out with¬ 
out raking or sifting. We have actually seen such 
piles containing 15 per cent or more of the unburned 
coal. At $5 per ton this certainly means gold. It is 
one of the big reasons for the high cost of living. 
The same is true of the plant food on many of our 
farms. These farms may even be poverty stricken, 
yet the manure is handled so that 30 per cent or more 
of its value runs away to the brook. Then the fields 
are left bare through the Fall and Winter so that 
the valuable nitrates wash away in the drainage water. 
A concrete floor at the barn would hold the manure 
waste and cover crops, even rye, would save the ni¬ 
trates in the field, and make the difference between 
profit and loss. 
A snide preparation known as the “Drug habit cure’’ 
contained 3% grains of morphine to the ounce and 10 
per cent of alcohol. Another, known as “Gold Medal 
Coffee Cocktail.” had 26 per cent of alcohol! 
