378 
are cold, heavy and late, but if properly handled are 
productive and durable. A mixture of sand and clay 
is called a loam, and for general farming is more 
desirable than either the lighter sand or the heavier 
clay. The color of the soil is important. Black soils 
are proverbially rich. They are full of humus. Red 
soils are usually strong soils—sometimes hard to 
work. Light colored soils are usually deficient in hu¬ 
mus and not so valuable. Choose a soil rich in humus. 
It is productive, works easy, holds moisture, and in 
every way desirable. No matter how rich (full of 
plant food) a soil may be chemically, if its humus 
content is exhausted it is an unproductive soil. A 
few inches below the surface there is usually a line 
at which the color and appearance abruptly changes. 
The darker, richer looking portion above this line is 
called soil. That below is termed subsoil. Choose a 
farm on which the soil is deep; seven to 10 inches 
and more is considered a deep soil. Three to six 
inches is a shallow soil. 
ADAPTABILITY.—The country is full of failures 
because farmers have failed to study the adaptability 
of their soils to the line of farming carried on. I 
would inquire diligently into the record of the farm 
under consideration; get its history. Find out what 
crops have been grown and how successfully; how 
the land has been handled, what fertilizer has been 
used and with what results. I would extend this in¬ 
quiry to surrounding farms of the same general for¬ 
mation and soil characteristics. In this connection a 
man of experience will note the character of the na¬ 
tive timber and vegetation. A predominance of chest¬ 
nut, hemlock, etc., indicates a thin soil deficient in 
lime. Sugar maple lands are good wheat and orchard 
lands. Beech lands are heavy and cold. Hickory, elm 
and ash lands are strong, usually good corn lands 
when drained. A luxuriant growth of White, Black 
and Red oaks interspersed with hickory and ash of 
good development is an indication of a desirable soil 
for general farming. See the farm in the growing 
season and note the habit of growth as well as the 
kinds of vegetation. A short, stocky, sturdy growth 
is desirable rather than a tall, slender, open growth. 
In choosing a farm don’t listen to the land agent’s 
story. Search out some reliable “old settler” in the 
community, and pump him for the facts. And don’t 
be in a hurry. f. l. allen. 
Ohio. 
A SEED POTATO INDUSTRY. 
Drained Land in Vermont. 
Part II. 
While, as has been stated, the soil where these po¬ 
tatoes are grown is naturally strong, fertilizer is 
freely used. These Vermont farmers do not quite un¬ 
derstand the point of view of the western people who 
tell them mixed fertilizers ate worthless or worse. 
The Vermont men know that when they use fertilizer 
they make a profit. Mr. Brigham has worked out 
a home mixture as follows: 
Nitrogen Phosphoric Potash 
Pounds 
Acid 
Pounds 
Pounds 
250 
pounds 
nitrate of soda... 
37.5 
300 
pounds 
cotton-seed meal. .. 
18.5 
8.4 
2.6 
350 
pounds 
tankage . 
17.5 
49. 
700 
pounds 
acid phosphate . . . 
98. 
400 
pounds 
sulphate of potash 
192. 
73.5 
155.4 
194.6 
3.6% 
7.7% 
9.7% 
A saving of over $2 could be made by using muriate 
in place of sulphate of potash, but the latter is better 
for the potato crop. It is believed that the muriate 
hastens the maturity of the crop in a dry season. 
There is a large buyers’ 'club at St. Albans which 
buys each year both chemicals and feed in large quan¬ 
tities. The prices vary from year to year. They use 
1,000 pounds per acre of this mixture—all put in 
the drill at planting. Readers may be interested in 
other fertilizer mixtures used by these St. Albans 
farmers so two more are given: 
300 pounds nitrate of soda.... 45. 
400 pounds tankage . 20. 56. 
300 pounds cotton-seed meal .. 18.4 8.4 
700 pounds acid phosphate .... 98. 
300 pounds muriate of potash. . 150. 
83.4 162.4 152.6 
4.1% 8.1% 7.6% 
FOR TOPDRESSING GRASSLAND. 
Pounds Pounds Pounds 
1000 pounds nitrate of soda... 150. 
700 pounds acid phosphate... 98. 
300 pounds muriate of potash 150. 
150. 98. 150. 
7 Kit/. A Clfrf- 7 
TILLAGE.—The plan is to do all tillage with har- 
'row and cultivator and avoid hand work as much as 
possible. After the potatoes are planted, the field is 
harrowed frequently with the smoothing harrow until 
the plants are ready to break ground. This conserves 
moisture and kills the weeds almost as soon as they 
sprout. As soon as the plants are up so that the rows 
may be seen a broad-toothed cultivator is used, and 
THE RURAh NEW-YORKEK 
it is run as deeply as possible. The root system of 
the plant is studied, and future cultivations are 
gauged so that no damage will be done to the roots. 
After the roots have extended out so that deep culti¬ 
vation near the plant would prune off many roots 
the deep cultivation is confined to the center of the 
row. Finally only shallow workings are given with 
the spike-toothed cultivator. The plants are hilled 
but slightly, and shallow cultivation is kept up after 
every rain, or at frequent intervals until the tops cover 
the ground. 
SPRAYING.—As soon as potato bugs become 
plentiful enough to cause damage the potatoes are 
sprayed with Bordeaux mixture in which are put one 
pound of Paris green and six pounds of arsenate of 
lead to the hundred gallons. The Bordeaux mixture 
is used thus early so that the lower part of the plant, 
which is difficult to reach with later sprayings, may 
become covered and because Bordeaux acts as a de¬ 
terrent to the little black flea-beetles which puncture 
the leaves and do much damage. Three applications 
are necessary usually to hold the insects in check, 
then two or three subsequent applications are suffi¬ 
cient to keep the plants well protected through their 
growing season. Last Summer we gave a picture of 
Mr. Brigham’s apparatus for handling the Bordeaux 
problem. The picture is repeated on page 382, Fig. 
125, so as to show the method of making Bordeaux 
rapidly. 
DIGGING AND COST.—The digging is done with 
an elevator digger, which lifts the tubers, shakes off 
vines and dirt, and leaves the tubers on top. These 
are picked up into crates holding a bushel, and hauled 
to a storehouse and emptied into bins. The cost of 
growing such a crop will naturally vary with the price 
of seed and fertilizer and the weather, but from year 
GRAFTING THE PERSIMMON. Fig. 123. 
to year the average cost will come to about $75 per 
acre. This includes rent of land and all labor and 
material and puts the crop in the storehouse. The 
Irish Cobbler is largely grown. This is an early vari¬ 
ety, and with a fairly good year will make 300 bushels 
of marketable tubers to the acre. The average from 
year to year would be a little less. A later variety 
with a longer growing season would give a heavier 
yield. 
IMPROVED SEED.—In addition to his general 
crop, Mr. Brigham carries on a breeding or test plot 
experiment. The object of this is to compare the 
producing power of individual potatoes. As we all 
know, certain hills in any field will give a great 
yield, while beside or near to them will be other hills 
having the same care which, in spite of a big vine, 
produce only a few tubers. Will these superior hills 
reproduce their heavy yield through their tubers? 
That is the object of this unit or hill test. A breeding 
or test plot is maintained in which a test is made of 
the producing power of individual potatoes. At the 
outset fine tubers of ideal shape are selected, and the 
individual tubers are quartered by cutting lengthwise 
through the apex. These four pieces are planted in 
hills a foot apart. After leaving a space of two feet 
to serve as a mark to distinguish the different units, 
the quarters of another potato are planted, and so 
on. By digging these four hills together a test may be 
made of the yield and character of crop of the indi-% 
vidual potatoes chosen. These individual potatoes of 
the same variety and with the same care have been 
found to vary in yield, when reduced to the acre 
basis, from 47 bushels to 660 bushels per acre. The 
tubers from the best yielding units are kept and 
tested a second year, and those which do not come up 
to standard are discarded. By this method it is hoped 
to keep up and possibly improve upon the yield of 
some of our best varieties of potatoes. H. w. c. 
March 15, 
GROWING CUCUMBERS FOR PICKLES. 
I would like to hoar from some one who has had ex¬ 
perience raising cucumbers on a large scale for pickles. 
What variety of small cucumbers Is best, soil best adapted 
to growing them, cultivation, time of planting, best fertili¬ 
zer, in fact all about them? a. h. a. 
Mountaindale, N. Y. 
The soil best adapted to the growing of the cucum¬ 
ber is a moist, warm, sandy loam, or if the land is 
high a good clay loam is perhaps best. Sod or stub¬ 
ble land, plowed in the Fall, and again turned over 
once or twice with a disk or cutaway harrow in the 
Spring is ideal soil for this crop. The usual method 
of planting is in hills; this ground is marked out in 
check rows five to six feet each way. At each cross¬ 
ing one or two shovelfuls of well-rotted stable ma¬ 
nure is mixed with the soil when forming the hill, 
which should be about 15 inches in diameter at the 
top and raised an inch or so above the general level 
of the surface, so as to afford quick drainage. Should 
excessive rainfall occur while seeds are germinating, 
or while the plants are small, some growers prefer 
the drill system. Rows are laid out six feet apart, a 
shallow furrow is opened with a wide or blunt-pointed 
shovel plow, in which well-rotted manure is distrib¬ 
uted to a depth of two or three inches, over which the 
soil is turned by a turning plow, a furrow being 
turned from each side. This ridge is then run over 
with a light harrow, smoothed and leveled until the 
seed bed is not more than two or three inches above 
the surface level of the field. Most growers prefer 
this check-row system, as the work of keeping the 
land free from weeds can almost entirely be accom¬ 
plished by the use of horse cultivator, while in the 
case of seeds sown in drills, it is not possible to keep 
the plants free from weeds without resorting to hand 
weeding, which is always slow and expensive. When 
the seeds are planted in hills as in the check-row sys¬ 
tem 12 to 15 seeds or more are scattered promiscu¬ 
ously over the hill in a circumference of a foot or 
15 inches, the earth being first drawn aside with the 
hoe to a depth of about one inch, thus forming the 
bed for the seed, into which they are scattered, the 
earth being replaced and slightly firmed with the hoe. 
When the plants are three or four inches high they 
must be thinned, leaving six to eight of the strongest. 
After danger from loss by insects is past, they will 
need going over again for further thinning, leaving 
three to four of the thriftiest plants. Cultivation 
must be continued until the vines take possession of 
the ground. Cucumbers intended for pickles are gath¬ 
ered when they are 2J^ to five inches long, and this 
picking must be done at frequent intervals, as they 
grow very rapidly, and a delay of 30 to 40 hours in 
gathering would render many of them unfit for pick¬ 
ling purposes, as they would be too large. None of 
the fruit should be allowed to come to maturity, as 
the maturing and ripening of seeds involves a heavy 
strain upon the plant, which will decrease the yield 
and shorten the life of the plant in proportion to the 
number of fruits it is called upon to mature and 
ripen. 
1 he greatest item of expense in connection with 
the production of a pickle crop is the gathering; the 
work is heavy and cannot well be done by children, 
ancb the fact that it requires considerable experience 
to find them under the leaves, makes it almost im¬ 
perative that the work be performed by adults. Most 
farmers do not have the assistance to admit of their 
growing more than two or three acres. The time for 
planting varies according to locality. For western and 
central New York planting begins about first week 
in June and ends first week in July. 
There are a number of good pickling sorts, among 
which the following may be recommended: Wester- 
field Pickle, Snow’s Fancy Pickling, Improved Jersey 
Pickle and the Cumberland Pickle. When they are 
grown under contract for the salting stations, seeds 
are frequently furnished by the contractor of such 
variety as he wishes grown, at a reasonable price. The 
price paid for cucumbers suitable for pickling is about 
$15 per ton. The yield is from three to nine tons 
per acre, according to the fertility of the soil and 
the weather conditions. k. 
FINDING WATER WITH A PEACH LIMB. 
I do not believe a bigger humbug was ever pro¬ 
mulgated. But listen to this: A friend of mine had 
a well 24 feet deep, over which he erected a wind¬ 
mill. This well soon went dry^. an_d he had a hole 10 
feet deep drilled in the bottom, but got no water. A 
man came then, and with a peach limb located an¬ 
other well just 33 feet away, sunk it 19 feet and got 
eight feet of water. The ground is a sandy loam and 
very level all about. I know these facts, for this man 
got me to help him connect this new well to the 
windmill pump in old well. We put a trench six feet 
deep from one well to the other so as to be able to 
connect to the pump below the cylinder; made the 
connection and put in a lkj-inch pipe to the new well, 
with check-valve on the bottom. We put a concrete 
cover over the new well, and as it was in the drive¬ 
way we put two feet of soil over new well and sodded 
it. This was done two years ago, and has given per¬ 
fect satisfaction. 
How can it be accounted for? 
j. s. woodward. 
