600 
April 26/* 
CHEMICALS AND CLOVER. 
Another Year on the Lewis Farm. 
Part I. 
For a number of years past we have 
reported sales of farm crops from the 
farm of D. C. Lewis in Middlesex Co., 
N. J. .We now have another statement 
as follows: 
I suppose some persons may be inquir¬ 
ing how the Lewis farm panned out for 
the year ending March 31, 1913. Well we 
had a fairly good year, considering the 
severe drought we passed through. Our 
sales were as follows. These sales were 
from 90 acres: 
Potatoes .$1,807.10 
Hay . 1,124.31 
Milk and calves. 671.57 
Wheat .». 407.75 
Corn . 176.00 
1913 .$4,186.73 
1912 . 5,412.36 
1911 . 4,339.45 
$14,938.54 
Total sales for three years, $14,938.54 
from 90 acres, or $49.79 for each acre per 
year. We consider this quite favorable for 
our Eastern worn-out farm. 
D. C. LEWIS. 
“Chemicals and clover” is the name 
applied to the system of farming which 
Mr. Lewis has so successfully worked 
out. Every year we find it necessary to 
give a short description of this farm 
in order to satisfy new readers. The 
soil of this section of New Jersey has 
been under cultivation for nearly or 
quite two centuries. Under the old 
system of farming this farm came to 
be ranked as “worn out"—it certainly 
was unproductive. Since Mr. Lewis 
began his systematic use of chemicals 
in a rotation carrying grass and a good 
sod, the soil has steadily improved. 
Crops have grown larger and the farm 
has gained in productive power. 
There are 100 acres in all—10 in 
woodland—so, as Mr. Lewis states, the 
$14,935.54 represents the three years’ 
product of 90 working acres. There 
are five fields of about equal size and a 
regular rotation of corn, potatoes, wheat 
and two years of grass. As will be 
seen from the figures a herd of cows is 
kept chiefly to consume the cornstalks 
and the Alfalfa with some of the clover 
ha}* In a study of this rotation sup¬ 
pose we start with the corn. After the 
second year of cutting the grass all the 
available supply of manures are hauled 
out on the sod. This is done in late 
Summer and Fall. The farm is level, 
and there is little loss of plant food 
when the manure is left exposed in 
this way. The cattle are “soiled”—that 
is Alfalfa and other crops like oats 
and peas are cut green and carried to 
them. Thus the manure is all saved 
and abundant dry stalk and straw are 
used to absorb the liquids. In former 
years only one or two cows were kept— 
the stalks being sold or thrown into the 
barn-yard to be trampled down and rot¬ 
ted for manure. The $671.57 in the 
table given by Mr. Lewis represents 
mostly the feeding value of the stalks, 
which was formerly wasted. Of course 
concentrated feeds are bought to feed 
with the silage and some clover hay 
and Alfalfa are fed, but essentially this 
item represents the feeding value of 
the stalks—or the difference between 
rotting them down in the old way and 
feeding them from a silo. 
At any rate the' first step in a “chemi¬ 
cal and clover” rotation is to put all 
the farm manure on a two-year old 
sod and plow it all under for corn. 
But why corn? Various reasons. Corn 
\yith its grain and stalks is one of the 
surest crops the Eastern farmer can 
grow. Give a farmer a good supply 
of corn and his working stock is pro¬ 
vided for. We see that in grain and 
what we may call “corn products” Mr. 
Lewis stated $847.57 or more than 
twice as much as for an equal area 
in wheat. Then corn is the best farm 
crop to utilize manure and grass sod 
properly. In other parts of the coun¬ 
try you will hear farmers argue that 
sod is better for potatoes or some other 
crop. I think that is not true of New 
Jersey., The vigorous habit of growth 
the rural new-vorker 
of the corn crop and the fact that its 
heaviest growth is made in late Summer 
fit it particularly well for utilizing the 
organic matter in sod and manure. Not 
only this, but it leaves the soil in fine 
shape for the potato crop which fol¬ 
lows. Instead of the coarse and un¬ 
decayed forms of organic matter in the 
sod and manure we have after the corn 
crop has ripened a soil tilled with 
humus, which is organic matter broken 
down and decayed. Soil containing 
humus is better for a potato crop than 
one containing coarse organic matter, 
and as the potato is the money crop 
of this rotation the soil may well be 
fitted for it. You cannot think of 
a better farm crop for this purpose 
than corn. If you can sow Crimson 
clover in the corn at the last cultiva¬ 
tion we shall have an ideal situation 
for potatoes. Let us see about that 
crop next. H. W. c. 
SUMMER SPRAYING FOR SCALE. 
[Many fruit growers in Northern New 
Jersey have been unable to spray properly 
this Spring. The trees started their buds 
early and at the usual spraying season high 
winds and storms prevailed so that it was 
impossible to do a thorough job. What 
can be done in cases where it is known 
the scale exists? Experience in former 
years shows that when such trees are not 
sprayed the fruit is spotted and inferior. 
Is there any method of Summer spraying 
that will answer? 
Poor Opinion of Summer Spraying. 
Spraying conditions in New Jersey 
represent a similar condition here in 
Connecticut, and not more than one- 
half of the peach trees will be sprayed. 
As to the self-boiled lime and sulphur 
Summer spray having any effect on the 
scale, I am satisfied from three years’ 
experience that' it is of no earthly use. 
When we first began this Summer spray¬ 
ing in Georgia both my superintendent 
and myself were rather of the opinion 
that it would do away with the ordinary 
Winter spraying for the scale, but we 
have discovered that it is Pot so. I 
am inclined to think where you have 
trees much affected with the scale now 
it might be best to risk injuring the 
fruit crop somewhat and spray right 
away (April 10) with oil. If you do 
not want to risk this, then depend upon 
swabbing the most affected branches two 
or three times during the Summer with 
good strong lime and sulphur. That 
would probably hold the critter in 
check so the trees would not be seri¬ 
ously injured until you could give a 
thorough spraying in the Fall. 
Connecticut. j. h. hale. 
Lime-Sulphur 1 to 40. 
There is plenty of data to show that 
the dilute solution of lime-sulphur at 
the rate of 1 to 30 -to 1 to 40 if 
applied just about the time the young 
scales are appearing oe the trees will 
hold the pest in check. The young San 
Jose scale insects appear in this lati¬ 
tude usually about the latter part of 
June. This year, however, is apparently 
an early one, and in your locality they 
would appear a little earlier anyhow. 
Probably you can look for the young 
along about the middle of the month 
of June. Just as soon as the little mite¬ 
like insects are seen crawling over the 
trees they should be given a thorough 
application of the dilute lime-sulphur 
solution, say on the average of about 
1 to 35. Do not put more of this ma¬ 
terial on the leaves than necessary. 
Coat the branches. Scott and Quain- 
tance of the Department of Agriculture 
have also shown that the self-boiled 
lime-sulphur solution will also aid 
greatly in checking them if applied at 
the periods of the year I have men¬ 
tioned. If it is too late to spray with 
the Winter strengths of lime-sulphur 
in your locality, 1 think you can hold 
the insects in check by the use of these 
dilute solutions during the Summer. 
GLENN W. HERRICK. 
Cornell University. 
Self-boiled Lime-Sulphur. 
Experiments by Prof. Scott in 1908 
showed that trees in Arkansas receiv¬ 
ing four applications of the self-boiled 
lime-sulphur wash remained in full 
foliage and yielded a fair crop of good 
merchantable fruit, although the orchard 
was so badly infested with San Jose 
scale the preceding season that at pick¬ 
ing time the unsprayed trees were al¬ 
most bare of foliage, and some of the 
limbs in a dying condition. Later ex¬ 
periments conducted by Messrs. Quain- 
tance and Scott in 1911 resulted in se¬ 
curing 98% of fruit free from scale 
after four sprayings with a home-boiled 
lime-sulphur wash. This work was 
• done at Fennville, Mich., the sprayings 
being made May 12, 25 and June 14 
and July 25. If one were to use a 
home-boiled lime-sulphur wash solely 
for controlling the San Jose scale, I 
would hardly want to advise the first ap¬ 
plication for New Jersey localities 
prior to early June and a second and 
possibly third or even fourth at two- 
week intervals. We have conducted no 
experimental work along this line, be¬ 
cause in this region at least, there have 
been invariably favorable opportunities 
for spraying before the foliage was too 
advanced. e. p. felt. 
New York State Entomologist. 
Success With Lime-Sulphur. 
We have had entire success in con¬ 
trolling the scale on apple trees, dur¬ 
ing the past three Summers, by means 
of Summer applications alone. We have 
completely eradicated the scale from 
young trees in this manner, by three 
applications of lime-sulphur at a density 
of about 1.01 or slightly less. This 
density is obtainable from the best com¬ 
mercial products with a dilution of 
about 1 to 30k It is also obtained from 
the home-made concentrate, made in ac¬ 
cordance with the 1-2-1 formula that 
we advise, with a dilution of about 1 
to 24 or 25. The first of these appli¬ 
cations is made when the young scales 
first appear. If thoroughly made, this 
one application should prove about as 
effective as the regular dormant appli¬ 
cation at Winter strength. For com¬ 
plete control, however, the other two 
applications can be made at intervals 
of about 10 days after the first appli¬ 
cation, or whenever the young scales 
reappear in any considerable numbers. 
A similar, single application may be 
made, in controlling the scale on peaches. 
But the strength should be only about 
half of that indicated above which nat¬ 
urally is obtained by diluting to twice 
the volumes indicated for those appli¬ 
cations. We know of one case where 
this was done last year on a commer¬ 
cial scale on peaches with as good suc¬ 
cess as one could ask for, and with 
only a small amount of injury to the 
foliage of the peaches, j. p. stewart. 
Pennsylvania State College. 
POISONING THE SPARROW. 
On page 551 you ask for something better 
than soaking wheat in poison to destroy 
sparrows. I would refer you to U. 8. De¬ 
partment of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin 
383 on how to. destroy English sparrows, 
which gives a ‘number of ways such as 
shooting, trappibg and poisoning. 1 have 
been in this sparrow school for years and 
have been overloaded with them. I have 
fed them for years and got so mad I shot— 
.yes, I shot seven in one shot and found 
later I had also broken live panes of glass 
in window of a henhouse which happened 
to be in line but higher up. Shooting is 
too expensive at any time, and after one 
shot they are so shy you will hardly get 
another. In Bulletin 383 there is a way 
to poison them which I have tested and 
found very good but will say lirst do not 
use it till the first morning after a good 
snow when our native birds have left. To 
have success bait the sparrows for some 
time beforehand, always in the same place, 
and always keep some small grain in this 
place to ’ have them get used to coming 
there. Then the morning of the snow 
sweep the snow away in this same place, 
put enough poison down so each bird will 
have at least three kernels. Keep hidden 
for about three minutes, then go out and 
gather in your harvest and burn them 
up; do not worry about the cat for one 
bird will not hurt her. Anyone being 
troubled with rats or mice put some of 
this poison on a plate or saucer: set it 
down anywhere they happen to bother you, 
take a small wooden box. cut openings for 
mouse or rat and turn over it to prevent 
chickens or anything else getting at it. 
The poison is prepared in this way: 
Take one quart of the smallest kerneled 
wheat you can get, get one-eighth ounce of 
strychnia sulphite, put a two-quart basin 
on the stove, put lVj gill of boiling water 
in it, put in the strychnia to dissolve. Now 
put in this 1 y. teasoonfuls of starch and 
let it boil to a cream, then dump in your 
quart of wheat and stir with small round 
stick until every kernel is covered. Pour 
it on a large platter and dry it by the 
stove thoroughly, put it in a box or can, 
as it will now keep and always be ready 
for use. My experience was this: i had 
a flock of sparrows, 250 or 300 : I used this 
as stated above. In about five minutes 
after I picked up 75. The cat got one, 
the others were scattered between my place 
and town. Only seven came back the next 
morning. Something more, which I have 
not seen in print, is this: Anyone keeping 
hens and living where sassafras grows get 
poles not less than two inches through 
and use for perches. The writer has used 
them for 40 years, and not found them 
lousy. Renew when necessary once a year. 
Sholiola, Pa. . v. h. 
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