1913 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
467 
K AIN IT ON RICH SOIL. 
Sweet Potato Culture. 
0. I., Rochester, N. Y .—What do you 
know about kainit for oats? We are 
troubled with too much straw; oats fall 
down before they are ripe and as a re¬ 
sult we get a smaller crop of very light 
oats. We followed our potatoes with 
oats. Potatoes are planted on clover sod 
as a rule, which has been manured with 
barn-yard manure, and at time of plant¬ 
ing we fertilize heavily with high-grade 
phosphate. There is enough of this ma¬ 
nure left for the oat crop, perhaps too 
much. Possibly some potash would give 
more stiffness to the straw. I feel pretty 
sure we do not need any more nitrogen 
as we get too rank a growth of limber 
straw. 
Ans. —In such a case we think the 
kainit would help the oats. As most 
readers know, kainit is a salt of potash 
containing about 12 per cent, of potash 
and considerable common salt. The ef¬ 
fect of the potash will be to stiffen or 
harden the straw somewhat, while the 
salt will make the nitrogen in the soil 
somewhat less available. The trouble 
with your oat crop now evidently is 
that there is too much nitrogen left over 
from the potatoes. This promotes a 
quick and rank growth which makes 
soft and weak straw, and the oats go 
down. A dressing of salt would “hold 
back” the nitrogen—that is, delay nitrifi¬ 
cation—and the oats would make a solid 
and steady growth. A heavy, rank grow¬ 
ing crop like corn could take care of the 
nitrogen safely, but oats or grass will 
“lodge.” The kainit will stiffen the oat 
straw and make the crop stand up bet¬ 
ter. Do not assume from this that 
kainit alone will produce a crop of oats 
on any soil. This advice is only for 
very rich ground. 
Trouble With Onions. 
J. H. S., Lancaster, 2V. Y .—I have been 
raising onions for the last six years; have 
been, sowing Prizetakers and Yellow Globe 
Danvers, and then thinning them. I had 
remarkably good success the first two 
years, had 1,000 bushels to acre. I have 
fat bottom land or creek flats, and ma¬ 
nure heavily. The third year the seed 
onions failed, hardly worth harvesting. I 
had a few set onions planted for early 
market that yielded very well this third 
year. I thought I -would plant sets the 
next year; planted one acre sets and 
sowed one acre, but both failed. I planted 
Yellow Duck or Strasburg for sets. I have 
tried lime and fertilizer without success; 
maybe I have not tried the right kind of 
fertilizers. They seem to make a good 
growth the first two months or so, then 
seem to die off slowly. They seem to get 
light spots on stem and have very poor 
roots; roots look rusty. Seven miles from 
my place they raise onions from sets with 
very good success. Do you think it is 
the blight? : 
Ans. —It would be hard to determine 
whether your onions have a disease or 
not unless I could examine them. But I 
think from what you say that it is lack 
of the proper plant food. I suppose that 
you are growing them on muck soil 
This sort of land has a great deal oi 
organic matter forming nitrogen, but is 
deficient in phosphoric acid and potash, 
and these must be supplied liberally to 
make a good crop of onions. I would 
suggest as a fertilizer a mixture of 
1,000 pounds of acid phosphate of the 
16 per cent, grade, 100 pounds of nitrate 
of soda to give an early start, and 50 
pounds of sulphate of potash broad¬ 
cast to an acre, and well harrowed 
in a week before sowing the onion seed. 
Then it will be perfectly safe to spray 
with Bordeaux mixture to ward off pos¬ 
sible blight. Sets are all right for the 
growing of early green onions, but a 
cheaper and better crop can be grown 
from the black seed. The Prizetaker 
and all the Spanish and Italian onions 
will make a better crop by sowing the 
seed under glass in hotbed or cold frame 
and transplanting when the size of a 
goose quill. I clip the top and roots a 
little and set them in very shallow fur¬ 
rows three inches apart, and it is really 
as little labor as the thinning of those 
sown directly in the field. I have never 
found any advantage in transplanting 
the New England varieties, but the 
Prizetaker, Denia, Giant Gibraltar and 
Ailsa Craig will all grow much larger 
by the transplanting method. Some of 
our growers down here could make a 
very good thing by growing these plants 
for shipping to Northern planters at low 
rates, for we can sow them here in the 
hall and they will usually winter well, 
or sown in frames under double-glazed 
sashes in January the plants would be 
of fine size for shipping just as the 
Northern growers are sowing seed out¬ 
side. I use sets only for Fall planting 
to make early green onions, and mine 
planted last September are now in good 
shape for use. They come in just as we 
have used up the more hardy leeks. 
W. F. MASSEY. 
E. J. W., Barberton, O .—A colored man 
who claims to have lived in New Jersey 
said the way to raise sweet potatoes was 
to set plants on level ground without 
ridging up; then to keep all runners cut 
off and in hoeing to bring dirt up to them ; 
as they grow larger put more dirt up 
around them. Is this culture the right 
way? Can plants started too early to 
set out be cut off and put in damp soil 
and rooted so as to get more plants? 
Ans. —Perhaps this colored man has 
been working for some strawberry 
grower who practices the hill system of 
cultivation and has confused straw¬ 
berries with sweet potatoes. Anyway, 
he is somewhat mixed. Sweet potatoes 
are sometimes given level culture, but 
by far the most popular method is to 
set the plants in ridges or hills made up 
with a regular sweet potato ridger. 
They mature earlier when set in ridges, 
most growers believe the yield is larger, 
and on light soil the sand does not blow 
and whip off the tops of newly set 
plants as would happen if set without 
ridges. Keeping the runners or vines 
cut off would never do at all. The 
leaves are the lungs of the plant and no 
potatoes can be expected with the leaf 
surface restricted. It is all right to 
bring dirt up around the hill when hoe¬ 
ing, but it should not, and especially at 
the last cultivation, be brought up so 
high as to cover the center of the hill. 
This would encourage the vines to take 
root or cap around the top of the hill 
and would to some extent reduce the 
yield. Sweet potato plants can be rooted 
from cuttings, but I would prefer plants 
grown from the tubers, bedded in the 
regular way. Sometimes a late crop of 
sweets for seed is produced by making 
cuttings of the new runners six or eight 
inches long and setting them in ridges 
during a moist time, the same as with 
regular plants. These cuttings, known 
as slips, are made soon after the runners 
start, about June 10 to 20, and the po¬ 
tatoes grown from these slips are usually 
free from disease, keep well and make 
excellent seed. The growing of slip seed 
is more popular in the South than in 
New Jersey. Here the small to medium 
sized potatoes are usually sorted out at 
digging time and the best selected for 
seed. TRUCKER, JR. 
Mistress : “Bridget, what ails the 
cuckoo clock? I haven’t heard it to¬ 
day.” Bridget: “Well, mum, there do 
be a strange cat around the kitchen an’ 
likely the poor bur-rd's afeard to come 
out.”—Boston Transcript. 
i “So you claim to be a literary man, 
eh?” “Yes, sir. I wrote that book, ‘A 
Dozen Ways to Make a Living.’ ” “And 
yet you are begging!” “Yes, sir; that’s 
one of the ways.”—Houston Post. 
| “I notice, Senator,” said the beautiful 
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many things which you said four years 
ago would ruin the country.” “Yes.” 
“What has caused you to believe ii; 
Jhem?” “I don’t believe in them, but 
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THE KNOW HOW 
To Feed Children and Get Good Results. 
There are more nervous persons made 
so by undigested food lying in the stomach 
than the average individual would sup¬ 
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If food remains undigested in the 
stomach, it begins to ferment, set up gas 
and a large portion is thus converted 
into poison. 
That’s why imperfectly digested food 
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the nerves and stupor of the mind— 
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“My daughter had complained for 
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