098 
THE! RUHA.L, NKW-VORKER 
June 15, 
and sunk in the worst places along the banks and are 
weighted down with stones. It is a serious problem 
to know how to hold the levees intact, and they must 
be absolutely intact to be worth anything. When 
they show signs of giving awaj' the engineers lay 
out new lines back on solid ground and build anew. 
In the State of Louisiana not a cent is allowed the 
owners of the land for whatever maj' be taken, nor 
any damages for moving buildings or any such thing. 
This is a part of the legal inheritance from the Span¬ 
iards and French that came with the Louisiana Pur¬ 
chase. It is not just, for those who lose the laud, 
etc., should not bear the whole of it, but only share 
the loss with all who are protected by the levees. 
The present overflow of the delta regions is the 
result of a combination of flood waters. The unusual 
snowfall during the Winter and the cold that held 
it when it fell until the Spring rains came and 
melted it and the ice along the countless water 
courses made a Spring flood that was almost unheard 
of. The almost continuous rains all over the entire 
watershed of the Mississippi added still more to the 
angry flood. The levees could not hold it within 
their hounds. They became like mud and melted. 
The tremendous hydraulic pressure, in some places 
of more than 30 feet, carried away the embank¬ 
ments with a rush and roar. Everything movable 
had to go before the mighty flood. The loss of farm 
animals, tools, buildings, food supplies, crops planted 
or growing and many other things, including human 
life, lias heed terrible this year. The loss of oppor¬ 
tunities and time, all tangible assets, no one can esti¬ 
mate. 
Our own plantation is on one of the highest places 
in all the true delta country, and fronts on a lake, 
which was once a part of the river and is outside the 
levee now. The levee is, consequently, not nearly so 
high there or in so much danger of breaking as where 
it is higher and next the direct current of the river. 
The water there has no current at normal stages, 
and almost none at any stage. The greatest danger 
lies where the river makes short bends and the whole 
tide has to be turned in its course. And we are grow¬ 
ing a pecan orchard of over 1,000 acres, and only 
farming incidentally between the trees. Considering 
all these facts our case was quite different from the 
average planter of the delta. When the levee broke 
on our side of the river it was in places from 50 
to over 100 miles above us, and the water did not 
reach us for a long time afterwards. We hoped 
to escape entirely, but the lower parts of the great 
basin filled and then the backwater slowly but stead¬ 
ily crept up to our section. It came.out of the forest, 
spread over our clearings, drove out the negro ten¬ 
ants and their stock, covered the cotton, corn and 
all other field crops. Our “back’’ or private levee 
was no barrier . to the flood. The younger pecan 
trees were covered several feet with water and the 
older and taller ones near the front were partially 
covered. All the fig. peach, plum and various other 
trees, berry bushes, garden and finally the barn and 
yards were all flooded. We used boats instead of 
wagons. The mules, horses and cattle were moved to 
the hills of Mississippi across the river and put in 
pasture until the water recedes. The hogs were put 
on scaffolds made of rails and covered with hay, 
for no kind of farm stock is allowed on the levees 
in time of high water, but the chickens I put there 
in coops. Elevated walks were built to use in going 
from one building to another, and from the houses 
to the levee. The negroes, some 150 of them, were 
put on government relief rations, for we could pay 
them nothing of consequence in wages, there being 
almost no work to do. The photo-engravings will 
show how the scene appeared through my camera. 
It was pitiful to see the deer from the forests driven 
into the open. They browsed upon our pecan nursery 
and even came into the garden and peach orchard 
near the house in search for food and shallow water 
in which to stand. There some of them died from 
sheer exhaustion and hunger. Others swam the river, 
miles wide there, and escaped to the hills beyond. 
The quail, which are plentiful there, took to the 
live oak trees about the house and to the roofs of 
the buildings. One came into the kitchen and I 
kept it until evening and turned it loose when its 
mates called together in the evening. The fishes swam 
over the fields and came into the house yard, where 
we caught some. 
But what can we grow this year? The flood will 
not give us bare land much before the middle of June. 
It may not be too late for early maturing cotton 
and corn. Cow peas will be our main crop, and of 
those we have an abundance for seed, carefully stored 
above the flood. Sorghum will make good forage, 
although cow peas make a better product. We hope 
to survive the watery ordeal, although there are many 
who have lost about all except the land, and will not 
be able to do so. Every region has its good and 
had points and the rich delta is no exception. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
ARSENATE OF LEAD AND LIVE STOCK. 
A question asked on page 643 comes directly in my 
line of business. ‘‘Does arsenate of lead sprayed on 
trees poison grass under trees sufficiently to' hurt 
stock?*' Answer, it certainly does not. We grow 
man}- acres of cabbage. Just before this heads we 
spray heavily, five pounds per 50 gallons, with aTsen- 
ate. As soon as headed we cut the heads out, leaving 
the outside leaves on the stump. These leaves are 
quite gra}* with the arsenate. We feed them to our 
cows twice daily, giving them all they can eat, and 
every day from July 10 to well into Winter; have 
done it for several years and no evil results whatever. 
Again, we sprayed apples trees for Codling worm, etc., 
when a good crop of clover was under them, and for¬ 
got it, turning calves and pigs in that day; rather 
expected results then after thinking of the spray, but 
nothing followed, even after the entire crop of clover 
was eaten. Using several hundred pounds of arsenate 
yearly possibly makes persons careless, but we have 
never known or heard of any harm done by spraying 
to cattle or humans, and certainly in our section the 
air is well loaded all Summer with spray materials. 
I watched a man spray one elm tree last year with 
six pounds arsenate for brown-tails; every drop of 
the exceedingly heavy dose fell into a henyard and 
on to the young rye growing for the hens’ use. I was 
rather interested in those hens for a week or so. 
They came to no harm whatever. h. w. tinkham. 
Rhode Island. 
R. X.-Y.—The experiments which we (reported 
showed little or no danger from the green fodder, 
hut indicated that the hay might be dangerous by 
giving the slock repeated doses of the poison. Mr. 
Tinkham’s experience was thorough at least. 
SAVED BY WASTE WOOD ASHES. 
I wrote The R. N.-Y. in January, 1906, about a 
supply of wood ashes, and received a letter of expla¬ 
nation about what the ashes contained and what they 
were worth, I have a small farm of 15 acres, and 
have used in the last seven years over 200 tons. The 
land was very sour, and had practically been aban¬ 
doned. I tried to farm it with the use of manure 
and commercial fertilizers, but the results were so poor 
that I had to do something to help the soil or get a 
job on the railroad. I tried to get some lime, hut it 
seemed so high that it looked like throwing money 
away. I had used a small amount of wood ashes on 
a plot of wet land once, but did not notice the results 
much, but thought I would try a carload from a saw¬ 
mill which I could get for the loading and freight, 
which cost me about $2.50 per ton delivered on my 
land. I used two carloads, and not knowing what 
they were worth wrote The R. X.-Y. to know if I 
could use them at these figures. I received your per¬ 
sonal letter advising me to use all I could, which I 
have done with results almost indescribable. I have 
been able to get some of my neighbors to use some 
with gratifying results. I have to underdrain my land 
on account of so much free water from higher 
ground, plow the ground about four inches deep, thefi 
scatter the ashes about 10 tons to the acre, harrow 
them in and sow to small grain and clover, and turn 
the clover down when in bloom. In the course of 
three or four j^ears it will put the ground in a state 
of fertility that nothing can beat, especially with the 
use of 200 to 300 pounds of ground bone to add 
enough phosphoric acid to balance the plant food. I 
would say have your land thoroughly underdrained, 
plow the ground in early Spring, use eight to 10 tons 
per acre, according to the acidity of the soil, raise a 
crop of small grain and plow one down every year 
until the soil becomes so fertile that no kind of fer¬ 
tilizer will help it, and then raise the kind of crops 
that pay best in your locality. Market your own 
product as much as possible, and this will lead you to 
the road of successful farming. My own experience 
is, that with the above method I have been able to 
take this poor piece of land and bring it up from a 
barren soil to produce 400 bushels of potatoes. 40,000 
pounds of cabbage, 1,000 bushels of turnips, 1,000 
bushels of onions per acre. I do not raise much grain, 
but have a field that I sowed last Fall in rye and 
Hairy vetch that stands on a level five feet high and 
still growing, and is about as thick as it can stand on 
the ground. I raise vegetables and market my own 
products, and get the highest prices that our market 
affords; always have plenty of buyers, and get 100 
per cent of the consumer’s dollar. I have no kick 
to make except that my tax money is squandered, and 
they will not let me vote, I feel that I owe my suc¬ 
cess in farming to The R. N.-Y., and I believe if it 
had control of legislation we would need but few 
politicians. b. f. v. 
West Virginia. 
R. X.-Y.—We do all we can to encourage the use 
of waste fertilizing materials. There was no sale for 
these wood Ashes. As the soil was poor and very 
sour we advised a heavy use. With eight tons to 
the acre he used the equivalent of 2^4 tons of slaked 
lime. For ordinary soils this might prove too much, 
but on this poor soil it made clover possible, and 
that made am- crop possible. We urge farmers 
everywhere to handle all the waste fertility they can 
find. As for politics, our platform would include 
dipping the politician in strong lime-sulphur. 
VALUE OF MANURING CROPS. 
Will tou give me the relative value and yield of cow 
peas per acre as compared with jlover and vetch? I 
would also like to know the best soil and fertilizer and 
amount of seed to sow an acre with the cow peas, also 
best time to sow. h. s. m. 
East Hampton. Conn. 
The cow pea is not at its best in Connecticut. The 
Soy bean will probably give a larger crop. The 
following figures are taken from a bulletin of the 
Delaware Experiment Station. In that latitude the 
crops here mentioned will make a larger growth than 
in Connecticut, yet for comparative purposes these 
figures are probably fair. We give the figures for 
other crops than those mentioned in order to widen 
the list. The crops here mentioned were seeded on 
July 22. In that warmer climate the season was 
late and the estimate of growth and value was made 
about Xovember 15, or 115 days or more from seed¬ 
ing. The following table gives the total weight of 
the crops per acre. 
Crimson clover .18.800 
Red clover . 0.900 
Hairy vetch .13,150 
Cow peas. 5.933 
Soy beans .10.952 
That represents what we should call green fodder. 
The weight of the roots was also taken, and this 
varied from 394 pounds to the acre for cow peas, 
to 1,212 for the Red clover. The actual plant food 
in these various crops is figured as follows: 
Nitrogen. 
In tops . 
In roots . 
Crimson 
Clover. 
. 6.2 
Red 
Clover. 
69.8 
33.2 
Hairy 
Vetch. 
108. 
13.2 
Cow 
Peas. 
65.2 
4.3 
Soy 
Beans. 
130.9 
9.3 
Total ...._ 
.134.4 
103.0 
121.2 
69.5 
140.2 
Potash. 
In tops . 
In roots . 
. S4. 
. 4.2 
46.5 
9.9 
78.4 
7.1 
47.4 
2.4 
46.2 
1.8 
Total . 
56.4 
85.5 
49.8 
48.0 
Phosphoric Acid. 
In tops ....... 
In roots ... 
. 59.2 
** 
18.9 
10.1 
22.5 
4.7 
16.6 
2.3 
37.8 
2.4 
Total ....... 
. 61.2 
29.0 
27.2 
18.9 
40.2 
Except for vetch and Red clover, it is not likely 
that Connecticut conditions will give yields equal to 
this. You are too far north to obtain the best results 
from cow peas. The Soy beans the first year may 
not prove fully satisfactory, hut subsequently they 
usuallj- do better. Vetch will probably give you the 
best results as a cover crop in your section, although 
we believe that a combination of rye and vetch 
seeded in the Fall will he most likely to prove satis¬ 
factory. The best lime to sow cow peas is shortly 
after corn planting time. In our experience about 
three pecks of the seed when drilled, or five pecks 
when broadcast, will give a good seeding to the acre. 
In order to show the possibilities of green manuring, 
particularly in the South, we take the following fig¬ 
ures from another Delaware bulletin. These figures 
show the estimated money value in the crop, includ¬ 
ing root and top, grown upon one acre: 
Rye and vetch .§25.84 
Rape . 24.99 
Crimson clover . 22.37 
Cow-horn turnips . 21.01 
Soy beans. 19.68 
Vetch . 19.64 
Red clover . 17.90 
These figures represent what would be paid for 
the nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid in one 
acre crop of these plants if it were bought in chem¬ 
icals at the ordinary market rates. The potash and 
the phosphoric acid represent no actual gain to the 
soil, except that some of these crops were able to 
get hold and utilize forms of these elements, which 
some other crop might not be able to touch. With¬ 
out doubt they also found stores of these materials 
in the lower soil, and brought them to the surface. 
As for the nitrogen, a large share, probably 50 per 
cent, of that found in the clovers and peas, and the 
beans, was obtained from the air, and is an actual 
gain to the soil. From this estimate we see that 
the Crimson clover crop would gain 67 pounds of 
nitrogen or as much as we could buy in 400 pounds 
of nitrate of soda. 
