©70 
of The R. N.-Y. that the new seedling to all appear¬ 
ances was superior, and that it was well worthy of trial. 
Thus Mr. J. H. Hale and the Storrs Harrison Co. 
became interested and secured some of the stock for 
propagation. Without Mr. Carman's efforts 1 doubt 
very much whether you people to-day would know 
anything of such a peach. When offering the good 
man pay for what he had printed about the peach, 
he refused to receive anything in any shape, just sim¬ 
ply saying, “The consciousness of doing a good deed 
to our readers is pay enough.’’ Would this not be a 
much better world if we had many more such men? 
J. W. STUBENRAUCH. 
THE NECESSITY OF TILE DRAINAGE. 
Thirty years ago the draining with tile of this farm 
was commenced. First the wettest draws were at¬ 
tended to, then other wet places were drained. The 
fields were cropped in rotation and the tiling mainly 
done when a sod field was to be plowed for corn. 
In this way the work was more pleasantly done. 
When a wet place was tiled often places not thought 
to be wet, that had been passed unnoticed, would 
show up too wet for prompt and easy work. Then 
seasons that were unusually wet would bring to no¬ 
tice other places, and in this way the work has gone 
on all these years. Had money been plenty it is doubt¬ 
ful whether a complete job would have been done 
at the beginning, because not thought necessary. 
Twelve years ago the work was thought to be suffi¬ 
ciently complete to make the land safe for the pro¬ 
duction of corn, wheat and clover. Then the grow¬ 
ing of Alfalfa was commenced on land the most roll¬ 
ing. The first Winter after sowing a field was a mild 
one, and the Alfalfa crowns remained down where 
they should be. We flattered ourselves that the land 
was all right and needed no more tile. But the hard 
second Winter proved our conclusions to be errone¬ 
ous. Since that time the land in Alfalfa has had at¬ 
tention every Spring, besides other fields that we 
hoped some time to sow to the crop. Then came the 
desire to have all the land in rotation of crops made 
suitable for Alfalfa. In doing this work the Alfalfa 
fields came in for attention first. Working in this 
line it came about that one field plowed for corn last 
Spring had been a little too wet in spots for some 
years for the best working condition. It was hoped 
to clean up some of these spots last Spring, but more 
tile than was expected was used in the Alfalfa field, 
not leaving any for this field, and as more could not 
be had the work went undone. 
The result of this has been very unsatisfactory dur¬ 
ing the corn cultivating season. In the first place, 
these wet spots made it hard to get the plowing done 
when the land was in order. After the plowing was 
done it was particularly difficult to get it in order for 
planting. The weekly rains only allowed two days in 
a week, when, had the land been properly drained, it 
would have been possible to work these wet spots. 
Two or three times we could not work the land on 
account of this condition of the soil and of the 
weather. Seventy-five rods of small tile laid in time 
to work the land just after plowing would have 
helped the work along very much. The corn could 
have been planted sooner and cultivation more 
promptly done and when most needed. 
This has been an unusually hard season to secure 
good cultivation of the corn; too much wet weather, 
which caused weeds and grasses to make rank growth. 
At the start it was determined not to work the land 
too wet, but the temptation to work across places too 
wet was very great. Not doing this allowed Fall 
grass to make a great growth, which could not be de¬ 
stroyed when we could plow, with the result that the 
land will be seeded with this grass with sufficient seed 
to last for a generation. This experience shows the 
necessity of prompt and thorough tile drainage where 
possible. When such work is so well done as to meet 
the crop requirement of a season like this the farmer 
can congratulate himself. This field will be put to 
corn again next year; as the tile is already at hand, 
the point will be to get it down as quickly as possible, 
the aim being to make it safe land for the growing 
of Alfalfa. Still it will be expected that the Alfalfa 
will show s6me spots needing more when the field 
is sown to this crop. Wliile this work of draining 
has been long on hand, there has been no regret that 
it was undertaken and worked out as circumstances 
and conditions required and allowed. But it will be 
a pleasure after the work of the coming year to feel 
that the work is finished. A young farmer awning 
land that needs drainage should not hesitate to under¬ 
take it because of the seeming magnitude of the work, 
but do what he can each year, making the results aid 
in completing the work. John m. jamison. 
Ross Co., Ohio. 
Now gentlemen—are you proud' of your own rural 
school? If not why not? 
THE RURAh NEW-YORKER 
MINNESOTA FLY TRAP. 
In Circular No. 24 of the St. Anthony Park, 
Minn., Station, State Entomologist Washburn de¬ 
scribes a fly catcher which has proven very success¬ 
ful. Figs 406 and 407 show the construction of top 
in side view and cross section. Ordinary mosquito 
wire is used for the screen, and the best bait has 
been found to be bread and milk, frequently renewed. 
In the sectional view, a is the base board upon which, 
rests the bait pans. The arrows in middle portion, 
b, shows how the flies enter the screened receptacle, c. 
The three parts are held together by hooks at the end 
FLY TRAP. SIDE VIEW. Fig. 40*5. 
as shown. The flies are killed by removing upper 
part and pouring on boiling water. In 36 hours one 
of these traps caught 18,800 flies. 
STANDS BY HIS FRIENDS. 
Please find enclosed one dollar to extend my sub¬ 
scription to your paper. I read several farm papers, 
get most of the bulletins, occasionally listen to the 
experts talk on high farming, and am pretty well 
filled up on balanced rations, science of agriculture, 
etc., in fact think I am overfed, but stick to The R. 
N.-Y. for the education it is giving the farmer to a 
broader view, higher citizenship, the relation of laws 
to business and the importance of the bauot, etc. The 
strangest thing to me is that more of our agricultural 
teachers, writers, and especially our Grange leaders, 
do not emphasize the importance of this broader view. 
In my opinion what the farmer most needs at this 
present minute is to get over the notion that he is 
just a farmer, just a wealth producer, with little inter¬ 
est in politics or economic laws that govern, more 
than to vote, and vote straight. Now the farmer has 
to qualify for. a bigger job if he expects to hold down 
the one he has; he has to be a citizen of the United 
States. He has to study the big economic questions 
of government that are up for solution, and he has 
to get his information from sources other than the 
corporate controlled subsidized press, whose chief 
object is to keep the voters misinformed, defend spe¬ 
cial privilege and reflect the sentiment generally, of 
that class who think that society is suspended from 
the top instead of being built up from the bottom, and 
whose ideals of prosperity are that those above should 
be made prosperous to overflowing that it might leak 
down through onto those below. The saddest thing 
about it all is that too many honest well-meaning men 
have absorbed so much of this poison through' the - 
corporation-serving press that they are half inclined 
to accept this view. Thus we are often reminded how 
dependent we are on the well-paid, fully-employed fac¬ 
tory employee for a market, which in turn hinges on 
the protection the manufacturer gets. Even President 
CROSS SECTION OF TRAP. Fig. 407. 
Taft, in one of his speeches on reciprocity, put the 
farmer in the bottom of the pile, when he said lie 
never knew of an instance when the farmer prospered 
unless the railroads and manufacturers were prosper¬ 
ous. It did not suit the purpose of his argument to 
state that the farmer zvas and is prior to the railroads 
and the manufacturer; that he was a living working 
force in wealth production before the railroads or 
manufacturer were called to his service. Another 
man once made a great speech, and referring to this 
subject, said, “If all the railroads, all the factories, 
September 21, 
all the shops and all the mills, were all destroyed 
and the farms remained, they would all be built up 
again, but,’’ said he, “destroy the farms and the grass 
will grow in the streets of every city in the land.’’ 
Which were the words of a statesman and which those 
of the politician? One pleading for the privileged 
class that thinks society is suspended from the top 
and the other illustrating prosperity grounded in jus¬ 
tice in truth. Now this condition of the public mind 
has to change before there will be much progress 
made. The people must know who are their real 
friends, and the measures that are just, and how are 
they to know them unless they support the papers that 
are fighting their battles and advocating their cause? 
My advice would be support all the papers you can 
afford, both agricultural and political, that have the 
courage to face squarely and assail the common enemy, 
special privilege, and no others. More power to The 
R. N.-Y. D . j. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. 
POULTRY AND HAY. 
After several experiments on my poultry farm, I liavc 
come to the conclusion that, fOr me, hay is the best ad¬ 
junct to poultry. Wherever I applied hen manure to the 
meadows, there was a marked and wonderful increase of 
grass. This made me interested in your®reference (on 
page 790) to the Hayward farm, and also prompted me 
to ask you a question or two. Will it do to apply the hen 
manure in the late Fall and early Winter, before snow 
comes, or would it be better to wait till Spring? What 
substance would be best, for hay, to combine with the 
manure? A farmer tells me that there is enough lime 
in poultry manure to render the application of ground 
or burnt lime unnecessary. Is this so? I should judge 
not. For about how many years would just the applica¬ 
tion of the manure suffice, without reseeding? How would 
it do to put a second application on the grass just after 
mowing, that the grass may grow as rank as it will, and 
die down, for humus, in the late Fall? To myself, as a 
poultryman, hay seems an easily managed, dependable, 
pleasant, and profitable crop. m. b. 
Sharon, Conn. 
There can be no question about the value of hen 
manure for grass. Where hens are kept in large 
orchards with ample run the grass often makes a 
tremendous growth. Yet, as with fruit trees, hen 
manure alone is not the best fertilizer for grass. We 
saw in the story of that Clark grass yield that a 
superior mixture of chemicals was 400 pounds nitrate 
of soda, 1,200 pounds fine bone and 400 muriate of 
potash. This would give 100 pounds nitrogen, 300 
phosphoric acid and 200 of potash to the ton, or in 
the proportion of 1—3—2. Fresh hen manure will 
contain about 2 y 2 per cent of nitrogen, 1.75 of phos¬ 
phoric acid and one of potash. Thus we see that 
as compared with the grass fertilizer the hen manure 
has a larger proportion of nitrogen. While, if used 
year after year alone, the hen manure will give a 
rank, heavy crop of grass, it will be soft and not 
of the best flavor and quality. In addition to the 
hen manure you may use 300 pounds fine bone and 
100 pounds muriate of potash per acre. These 
chemicals will supplement the manure and keep up 
the yield for years. How long this will be depends 
on the character of the sod and the amount of lime 
in the soil. A thick sod, well covered with grass, 
will last longer. Unless the lime is kept up the Tim¬ 
othy grass will slowly die out. There is not enough 
lime in hen manure to take the place of what we 
call “liming,” as a ton of fresh hen manure contains 
about 50 pounds of lime. The manure can be put 
on level grass lands at almost any season of the 
year. On hilly land we would not use it in Fall or 
Winter. One objection to using the fresh manure 
is that the chunks are hard to spread evenly. It is 
better to use plaster or ground phosphate rock freely 
under the roots and keep the manure in a dry shed 
over Winter. In the Spring it will be found in dry, 
hard chunks. These can be crushed and evenly 
spread. It would be a good plan to broadcast the 
manure and chemicals just after mowing the grass, 
but we would not leave the full growth on the ground. 
Cut it late as rowen or second crop hay. Left on 
the field it will provide too good a nesting place for 
the field mice, and make a bad mess to clog the 
mower next year. The plan of combining poultry 
with hay is a good one on good-sized farms, where 
there is natural grass land and a good market for hay. 
British South Africa absolutely prohibits the importa¬ 
tion of honey and second-hand bee appliances, but has 
lately annulled the order against beeswax and foundation 
comb, which is admitted under a permit from the Depart¬ 
ment of Entomology. These rules are designed to keep 
bee diseases out of the colonics. 
Tiib Velvet bean has great value in Florida as a green 
manure or fodder plant. From stories of its Southern 
behavior some Northern people conclude that it will prove 
a great help here. We doubt it. We gave this Velvet 
bean a fair chance in Northern New Jersey after seeing 
it climb 20 feet in Florida. Our pole Lima bean will 
give us more fodder or green manure. 
