©16 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 9, 
Hope Farm Notes 
We never had such a raft of questions 
about soil fertilizer floating down upon 
us as right now. Here is quite a com¬ 
mon question about fertilizer: 
Which is better and more profitable, 
to sow a high grade of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, or double the quantity of a brand 
which analyzes only half as high? S. c. 
AA'e should use the smaller quantity of 
high-grade fertilizer every time. It 
means less bulk to handle, less freight 
to pay and cheaper plant food. The 
charges for mixing, bagging and handling 
are the same for both low-grade and 
high-grade goods. The Connecticut Ex¬ 
periment Station has shown that for $30 
a farmer can buy in the form of high- 
grade goods, 74 pounds of nitrogen, 161 
of phosphoric acid and 125 of potash. In 
other low-grade goods the same $30 
would buy 42 pounds of nitrogen, 185 of 
phosphoric acid and 58 of potash. Much 
of this difference was due to the fact 
that the buyer paid for more bags, more 
handling and more “overhead charges” 
than he needed. Another thing is that 
when you get a fertilizer with five or 
six per cent, of nitrogen the manufacturer 
is compelled to use the very best forms 
of plant food in order to get this high 
analysis. A two per cent, fertilizer might 
be made of tankage or dried muck, but 
with five or six per cent, there must be 
used nitrate of soda, sulphate of am¬ 
monia or other high-grade and available 
goods. I would by all means use the 
high-grade. 
I expect to seed down a piece of 
ground to Alfalfa and want to use lime 
and manure on same. Will the lime have 
any bad effect on the manure if they 
are both put on top and worked in? If 
so, when is the best time to put them 
on? Most of the lime in this section is 
spread on wheat stubble or clover sod in 
the Fall. Ho you think this as good as 
working in before sowing wheat? 
New Jersey. E. I*. B. 
When slaked lime and manure are 
mixed together above ground there is 
a loss of ammonia. The lime acts upon 
the organic matter of the manure to 
set this ammonia free. It is a mistake 
to mix the two together. The ground 
limestone does not give this action. 
When the slaked lime and the manure 
are mixed in the soil the same action 
will go on, but in this case the am¬ 
monia will not pass away as a gas, but 
will be absorbed and held by the soil. 
Our plan therefore would be to spread 
the manure on the ground and plow it 
under. Then put the lime on the fur¬ 
rows and harrow it well in. In this way 
the lime is mixed all through the soil, 
which is the condition you want for best 
results. As for sowing the lime on top 
of the ground and leaving it there, or 
plowing it under, we believe this is poor 
practice. You do not get the full bene¬ 
fit of the lime in the upper soil—where 
the plants must feed. I have known 
such lime to form a sort of hard mortar 
near the top of the soil and remain 
thei’e. When you plow it under it goes 
down below where the plants feed and 
- r, oes not always come back. I think 
the first correct principle of using lime 
is to hurrow it well into plowed ground. 
What do you think of the agency 
proposition for the Chemical Co. who 
agree to test the soils, and then you 
know just what kind of fertilizer to use? 
I do not believe much in soil analysis, 
as they cannot tell how much is avail¬ 
able. R. A. 
Michigan. 
I doubt if such tests would have any 
particular value in selecting fertilizer. 
An accurate test for lime would show 
you whether lime was needed or not, 
but you can do such testing yourself— 
with the blue litmus paper or by growing 
a crop of table beets. Personally I be¬ 
lieve that most land which has been un¬ 
der cultivation for 50 years needs lime 
anyway. There may be some limestone 
soils that can stand it longer, but in 
general all such land may well be limed. 
We also know that the clay soils are 
usually well supplied with potash. Lime 
and good culture with green manuring 
will make this potash available. Swamps 
or muck lands are rich in nitrogen but 
low in phosphoric acid and potash. Here 
again lime helps make this nitrogen 
available. The lighter soils are usually 
low in potash, and all soils which are 
low in organic matter are also low in 
nitrogen. Most experienced farmers 
know these things. We doubt if the 
“tests” which this fertilizer company 
would make for you would be any real 
guide to the actual needs of your soil. 
Far better do your own testing. Prob¬ 
ably the greatest needs of most soils 
are lime and organic matter. These 
things give heart and life to the soil. Do 
you need potash, phosphoric acid or 
nitrogen in addition to the farm supply 
of manure? Find out for yourself by 
using chemicals alone or in combination 
on strips of corn, potatoes or grass right 
through the field. Do it yourself. No 
fertilizer company could do it for you 
as well as you can. 
Tiie Wool Dollar. —I find that a 
good many sheepmen are quite concerned 
over the tariff reduction. What is to 
become of their wool? Time alone will 
tell what effect this new tariff will have. 
In the meantime what about the follow¬ 
ing : A manufacturer with whom I am 
personally acquainted wants to know if 
farmers would deal direct, sending wool 
straight to the factory, and take as part 
payment the goods they wear in honest 
all-wool grades. Here is his statement: 
As a farmer and a sheep raiser I 
sometimes feel that I do not get full 
value for my wool. As a manufacturer 
I sometimes feel that I am paying too 
much for it, and because of the price 
which the jobber practically sets. I am 
unable to use all-wool and produce goods 
at the price. It has occurred to me that 
the Granges might help their members 
with such articles as hosiery, gloves, 
mittens, leggings, and sweaters, if some 
manufacturer would make these goods 
as grandma used to make them. Our 
present method of carding, spinning, and 
knitting wool are probably superior to 
the old hand methods, but because these 
machines will handle cotton and shoddy 
as well as wool, the temptation has been 
too strong for most manufacturers, and 
in fact it is impossible to use a good 
fleece wool and sell such articles at 
popular prices. Do you think that the 
members of the different Granges would 
unite in placing their orders for such 
goods, so that delivery could be made to 
one central station, thus eliminating the 
jobber and retailer, if I would agree to 
buy their wool at the market price, thus 
saving the profits of two or three wool 
buyers, and enabling me to sell to them 
a good honest all-wool stocking, glove, ox- 
legging, for 50 cents? 
I do not know of any better way to 
get an answer than to print this for a 
discussion. I find it impossible to get 
pui-e wool goods at a fair price. The 
market is full of shoddy stuff, and I 
always feel that we are encouraging 
adulteration when we buy it. I know 
farmers who would like to keep a small 
flock of sheep, but it is hard to dispose of 
small lots of wool to advantage. I could 
well keep 15 or 20 sheep hei-e to clean 
up the corners of waste places. At the 
same time we use, in our big family, great 
numbers of knit goods. If we could send 
this wool away and have it made up into 
garments at a fair price we would all 
be better off. I would like to know what 
our farmers think of this. 
Farm Notes. —Mr. L. B. Pierce gets 
down whei-e we live in his remarks about 
clearing up old strawberry beds. The 
best time to do this is in a drought, for 
then every weed you hoe or pull up dies 
quickly. We are clearing up these beds 
he tells about once more and in much 
the same way. They were mowed off 
and ,then the cultivator was run back 
and forth to tear up the middles. Then 
the weeds and part of the plants are 
chopped out with the hoes so as to leave 
the pax-ent plants iu hills. They will 
make runners—some of which will be 
sold and othei-s put down around the 
plants where they will do best. I run 
these beds five years or more with profit. 
A Ye notice that some hen men say we 
should never keep anything but pullets 
for layers while others keep the good 
ones two and three years and claim 
that it pays. I know it pays us to clean 
up the old berry fields, but I learned long 
ago not to lay down any cast-iron rules 
for others to follow. . . . The early 
apple trade is good. As I expected, 
much of the early fruit on the lower land 
was killed by late frosts, while that on 
the hills escaped. We have two big 
trees of Primate which are giving a 
good yield, but most of our early fruit 
is Nyack Pippin. This variety is an 
August apple with us—tender and easily 
bruised, but a good cooking apple and 
popular iu this section, where people 
know it. I find that many families, like 
ours, consider the beginning of apple 
sauce and baked apple time a great event. 
In spite of plums and peaches and other 
Summer fruits such people want apples, 
and thus a fair supply to come in ahead 
of AYealthy and McIntosh will pay. 
. . . Cover crop time is near at hand, 
and letters come by the score asking 
just how we seed in the corn. It seems 
easy enough to us. We just go ahead 
and scatter the seed, by hand right among 
the growing corn crop. You can do it 
by-riding a horse through the corn, work¬ 
ing a Calioon seeder as you ride, but that 
is wasteful of seed, since much of it 
catches on the cornstalks. I cannot tell 
in print just how to twist the wrist or 
turn the hand in throwing out the seed. 
That must be learned by experience. So 
must the proper amount to sow. After 
some practice you can tell by the seed 
on the ground how many pounds to the 
aci-e you are putting on. The object is 
to have this seed as evenly distributed 
over the ground as possible. Then take 
the cultivator and fit the wheel so the 
teeth will work not over two inches deep. 
The time lias gone by for gouging or 
plowing up the soil—only a light cov¬ 
ering is wanted. Fasten wires to the 
back teeth of the cultivator and hook 
them to the ends of a short plant or joist, 
so it will dangle and scrape over the 
ground behind the cultivator. Open the 
cultivator wide and you are ready. It 
will make you step gingerly to keep your 
feet off that dangling plank, but that will 
do you good, and the plank will smooth 
the soil and cover the seed. If labor is 
available it will pay to go through with 
a rake and scratch the soil between the 
hills. AA'e mix clover and turnip seed 
together, but sow rye and vetch seed 
separately. It pays to do this in order 
to obtain a full seeding. 
The Stars. —The first of August 
brings to the Jersey man evidence that 
Summer is beginning to think about her 
Southern trip. The days are certainly 
shorter, the nights are cooler, the apples 
are taking on their color and thei’e is 
that peculiar calm in the air which we 
who have lived through the seasons know 
so well. AA r hile AA T inter is still far away 
we are over the ridge-pole of Summer 
and a little down on the other side. A 
man feels something of this on the hills 
of a Sunday afternoon, for there is noth¬ 
ing quite like the calm silence of a hill 
farm on an August Sunday. 
The two little redheads go to bed early, 
as children should. They cannot always 
sleep as darkness comes, but the close 
of day means bed for them. AA r e did not 
realize that the smallest one had no idea 
of the bright side of night. On July 
4 the children had a few fireworks and 
the two little redheads were to sit up 
and see them. It was a glorious night. 
One by one the stars came out clear and 
brilliant, and the wise and patient old 
moon climbed up out of the woods into 
the sky. Then we suddenly realized that 
little redhead had never seen a star be¬ 
fore. Before that the night had simply 
meant darkness and terror—black shades 
haunted by fearful creatures of the 
childish brain. Now the little thing 
found that night was a time for stars 
which could not be seen in the daytime, 
yet which were more beautiful than the 
fireworks—more beautiful than the things 
seen in the daylight sky. So little red¬ 
head sat and wondered at the glory of 
the stars. For it was wonderful—that 
the dreadful and lonely darkness after 
all contained those beautiful great lamps 
—silent and brilliant companions for the 
lonely and sad. 
As I sit on my hill in the calm of 
an August Sunday I fall to thinking that 
thousands of us are like litle redhead. 
Ibc have never looked for the stars. 
They are there, brilliant and friendly, if 
we could only see them—patient and en¬ 
during no matter how the seasons come 
and go. h. w. c. 
Hogs and Brush. —Seeing L. F. II., 
AVoodstock, Yt., inquiry in The It. N.-Y. 
about pasturing hogs, I thought our ex¬ 
perience might be of benefit. Hogs are 
very fond of brake roots and if one does 
not object to their rooting will soon kill 
them out; have seen where they went 
down three to four feet after them. They 
will get considerable nourishment from 
the teuderest part of the weeds and 
grass. U- s. D. 
Michigan. 
For One New Yearly Subscription 
or Ten 10-Week Trial 
Subscriptions 
No. 5250. 
No. 3130 B. 
No. 3130 S. E. 
Your choice of these 
Napkin Rings 
Made of best quality hard white metal, 
quadruple silver plate; AVm. A. Rogers' 
high-grade g<x>ds. 
?or Four New Yearly Subscrip¬ 
tions or Forty 10-Week 
Trial Subscriptions 
Full Bassine Nickel 
Silver Watch 
16 size, plain polished, American seven- 
jewel, straight-line lever watch. Guax- 
anteed high-class timepiece; damaskeened 
movement; enameled dial with Arabic oi 
Homan figures. 
These articles are not given with a subscrip* 
>n to the It. N.-Y.. but are given to the agent 
a reward, in place of cash, for extending 
bseription list of the It. N.-^ . 
te Rural New-Yorker, 333 AV. 30th St., New York 
