1102 
others shipped in to be sold on commission by the 
various dealers who do business there. 
After the cows are unloaded, sorted and weighed, 
if desired, they are put in the sale barn, a building 
containing about 1.000 stanchions, light, clean, well 
ventilated and with ample room for feeding and 
handling. One part of this sale barn, vacant at the 
time, is shown in Fig. 41S. The various dealers 
have whatever stanchion space is needed, hanging 
signs showing where their stock is. Their men 
spend a good part of Tuesday cleaning the cows with 
brush and currycomb, milking when necessary, and 
getting them in proper condition for sale. Some 
have lain in tilth at their previous homes or on the 
cars and others have had better care, but all are 
improved by thorough work with the brush. 
During the year a good many purebred registered 
cows find their way to the Brighton market. Among 
the 800 seen at this time were some registered IIol- 
steius, grades of all the dairy breeds, and a few 
mongrels, but in the entire lot not one that could 
properly be called a scrub. Some business is done 
Tuesday, but Wednesday is the great sale day. The 
buyers are large dairymen, general farmers, specula¬ 
tors, and men who come to Boston to buy for them¬ 
selves and their neighbors, and most of them men 
who “know a cow.” The trade varies from week to 
week. Sometimes it is a little dull, and at others 
the barns are full of buyers. Prices range from $40 
to $150 during the year, a great many bringing from 
$05 to $75. This market is a weekly live stock show 
well worth seeing by anyone interested in business 
cows and their points. 
These yards are run by a company, fixed charges 
being made for whatever privileges are used. Yard¬ 
age charges, including weighing, at present are 10 
cents each for cattle, and six cents for calves, sheep, 
lambs and hogs. Sale barn charges Tuesday and 
Wednesday are 35 ceuts per head for cattle when 
the owner furnishes his own feed, or 85 cents if sup¬ 
plied by the stock yards company. 
DRONE PEACH TREES—THE CAUSE. 
Prof. Shamel’s report of Babcock-testing peach 
and apple trees is quite interesting. But he fails 
to tell us how it comes that those loafer trees exist. 
The writer has seen it repeatedly stated, and has 
cause to believe it to be a fact, that the stock has 
a decided influence on the bud or graft inserted in 
it. May we not look for the cause of the drone’s 
existence in this direction? Let us see. Among a lot 
of new varieties for a test orchard, that we set out 
in 1884, there was one tree of the Elberta peach. 
Wheii these trees came into bearing the kind named 
was so much finer than any other peach we had then 
seen, that arrangements were at once made to grow 
enough trees of this Elberta to plant a number of 
acres. The seedlings were all grown from good 
healthy pits and budded, this one Elberta tree supply¬ 
ing the buds for the whole lot. As these trees grew 
and had borne a number of crops, there were 
among the lot, over about five acres, two trees 
that were decidedly different from any of the 
rest. One was an enormous grower, greatly 
outgrowing all the rest. It was as produc¬ 
tive as the best, with the fruit regular shape, extra 
large and fine. In the next row adjoining this supe¬ 
rior tree stood another planted at the same time 
that, while apparently healthy, got to be only about 
10 feet high, with spread in proportion. This tree 
would never produce more than a good half crop, 
with the fruit quite different in shape from the rest, 
it being rounder. In flavor and color it was a true 
Elberta. These two trees stood only 24 feet apart 
on same kind of land, yet such a vast difference. 
Now for another case: We have in the South, 
even at this day. many people who contend that in 
order to have the very best tree possible the seeds 
' should be planted where the trees are to remain. 
In order to give this theory a test a volunteer peach 
seedling that came up about the woodpile among a 
lot of rotten chips, old junk, etc., was allowed to 
stand, and it, at the proper time, was also 
budded with buds from this original Elberta 
tree. Now while this tree in its favorable 
location grew as fine as could be wished, at no time 
would it bear more than a dozen or so of ordinary¬ 
sized Elberta peaches a year. The tree during its 
lifetime of about 14 years had never brought as 
much as a bushel of fruit all told, while the other 
fine tree first mentioned, had some years brought 
as high as 10 bushels of first-class fruit. These 
trees all being healthy and being budded with buds 
from the same tree, and their performance being so 
different from any ordinary trees of same variety, 
does it not appear that the stocks they were worked 
on, must have had some influence to cause such 
differences? 
According to my observation many trees as they 
come from some nursery are doomed to be failures, 
THE K.URA.L NEW-VORKEK 
owing to more or less disease in the roots they are 
worked on. This is more particularly the case with 
peaches in our southern country than other fruit, 
and it all comes about in this way. As I am in¬ 
formed. it is a common practice in some places for 
children to go over the orchards at the end of the 
season and pick up the peach pits scattered about 
to be sold to nurserymen for planting. When we 
come to think of, it is only the sorry fruit, mostly 
that is not fit for use or for market, that is allowed 
to go to waste. Thus we get seeds from trees either 
starved or diseased. In either case, stocks grown 
from such seeds, cannot possess the vitality required 
to produce high-class stock, such as are needed for a 
profitable orchard. There is less danger of diseased 
stocks where pits are got from the canneries, be¬ 
cause peaches fit to can must have some size, and 
such only come from healthy trees. In order to be 
on the safe side it is well not only to plant healthy 
seeds for stocks, but also to propagate only from 
well-known profitable bearing trees. Thus, we may 
reduce the number of drones in our orchards. 
Texas. J. w. stubenkauch. 
HANDLING A MUCK SWAMP. 
I have a piece of ground, 20 acres, with a pond of 
water in the center; land partly drained by ditches. I 
think the whole could be drained, possibly pond and all, 
by a sufficiently deep ditch. This whole tract, as far 
as we investigated and wherever we tested, was com¬ 
posed of a very black dirt or muck and probably many 
feet thick. I pushed a stick down without difficult three 
feet and it was the same black stuff as far as I went 
down. Let me know what you may think as to the 
value or productiveness of this kind of soil, or the kind 
of crops it ought to produce best. It certainly looks 
rich enough to grow hair on a bald head. B. L. M. 
Kingston, N. Y. 
This is the season when so many farmers begin 
to talk “muck.” There is a general belief that the 
INTERIOR OF SALES BARN. Fig. 418. 
black soil found in swamps and low places is rich in 
plant food. This belief is based on the color and 
appearance of this soil, and the general idea that 
plant food is washed away from the hills and settled 
in the low places. This black soil is called “muck,” 
and it is rich in nitrogen. Some samples contain 
three times as much nitrogen as stable manure, but 
the average contains about the same amount as ordi¬ 
nary barnyard dung. There is very little phosphoric 
acid, and still less potash in the muck. Every one 
knows that if you put 20 loads of manure on an acre 
of land you can grow a good crop. Put 20 loads of 
raw muck right out of the swamp on another acre and 
it is doubtful if you will raise as much as you would 
on the bare soil with nothing added. Why not—■ 
since you say the muck adds as much nitrogen as 
the manure? The nitrogen in the manure or at least 
part of it, is available, while the manure itself is 
alkaline. The muck on the other hand is sour, and 
its nitrogen in such forms that plants cannot touch 
it. The muck must be sweetened, or we may say 
“cooked’! before it will act as manure. Thus this 
20-acre swamp of deep rich soil may contain many 
tons of nitrogen, and yet be unable to produce any¬ 
thing except coarse, wild grass until the soil is 
sweetened and “cooked.” 
A good system of drain tile will take the water 
out of that soil and reduce the water level. This 
lets in the air, and of itself will fit the soil so that 
grasses like Red-top will grow. Corn also would 
make a fair growth, but Timothy or clover will not 
thrive in that soil until it is limed. After draining 
and thus removing the water such a swamp should 
be plowed. Then at least one ton of good slaked 
lime should be used to the acre. This is no place 
for ground limestone—use burnt lime well slaked, 
and harrow it well into the soil. This lime will 
sweeten the soil and also break it up, giving better 
drainage and a better texture to the soil. We should 
begin cropping such a swamp with corn. That is 
the best cleaning-up crop for new land. On a limed 
swamp, well drained, corn will make a fine, large 
stock but a poor ear, and will keep growing so long 
October 11, 
that little grain will ripen before frost. That is be¬ 
cause there is too much nitrogen in proportion to 
the potash and phosphoric acid. The proper treatment 
is to make a “balance” by using chemicals which sup¬ 
ply the needed plant food. A mixture of one part 
muriate of potash and three parts of acid phosphate 
by weight used in the hill or drill on svch soil will 
give a fine corn crop. Following this corn crop Tim¬ 
othy and clover can be seeded, or potatoes, onions, 
celery or other garden crops may follow. In all 
cases potash and phosphoric acid should be used in 
the form of chemicals and lime applied every three 
or four years. In fertilizing such muck soils the 
thing to remember is that there is an abundance of 
organic nitrogen and not much of anything else. 
You must add potash and phosphoric acid and it will 
usually pay also to use a small quantity of nitrate 
of soda to provide available nitrogen. 
If you want to use this black soil as the basis of a 
fertilizer to be used on other parts of the farm the 
same general principles are to be observed. The 
muck must be limed and potash and phosphoric acid 
used with it. From now on through the Winter the 
muck may be hauled out and left in piles about eight 
feet wide, four or five feet high and as long as 
needed. It is easiest to drive up along the pile and 
dump the load. As each load is put on the pile 
scatter 100 pounds of good slaked lime over the 
muck. This will start fermentation. During the 
Winter if possible fork the piles over, beginning at 
one end and throwing the muck, one forkful at a 
time, in a new pile behind the worker. In the Spring 
this will leave the muck fine and crumbly, and it 
may be used wherever manure is needed. There 
should be used with it for a crop like corn the mix¬ 
ture of potash and acid phosphate mentioned above, 
and for potatoes, oats or grass about 100 pounds of 
nitrate of soda per acre. 
A CONSIDERATION OF PLOWING. 
Part II. 
By plowing soil in the Fall and working it up in 
the Spring with the disk harrow, it can be got ready 
for crops much earlier than is possible where plow¬ 
ing is put off until Spring. As soon as it is dry 
enough to work, the disk can be quickly run over 
it and it is soon ready for planting. The greatest 
advantage to Fall plowing, however, is in the in¬ 
creased supply of moisture which is thereby secured 
for the growing crop. There are at least two ways 
in which such a supply is assured. In the first place, 
the loose soil acts as a mulch to the subsoil during 
the'late Fall and early Spring and also adds to the 
absorptive power of the soil during the Winter, so 
that at corn-planting time the Fall-plowed soil con¬ 
tains more water than that not plowed. The late 
Prof. King, of Wisconsin, reports observing a differ¬ 
ence of as much as six pounds of water per square 
foot on May 14. In the second place a larger supply 
of water is assured in the Fall-plowed land because 
of the promptitude with which it can be gone over 
and have a mulch established just as soon in the 
Spring as it will work. It takes much longer to get 
land plowed, and until the surface is stirred, the 
sunshine and the winds are sucking tons and tons 
of water from each acre. There are also some ob¬ 
jections to the practice of plowing in the Fall, the 
chief of which is that it exposes the soil too much 
to washing during the Winter. In hilly or steeply 
rolling land, there is force to the argument, and 
plowing should be put off until Spring; but in many 
places the argument is used where it is really not 
applicable. There are certainly many places where 
it would be an improvement in farming practice to 
plow in the Fall instead of in the Spring. 
In the actual process of plowing, one of the essen¬ 
tials of a good job is that the furrow be deep. 
Thinking farmers are pretty well agreed on this 
point. Most of the food materials which the crop 
secures from the ground come from the furrow slice. 
The subsoil in many soils is closely packed, hard, 
and often sour. There is usually a characteristic 
difference beteweu soil and subsoil, and the line be¬ 
tween the two is most often just at the bottom of 
the furrow slice. It is easily seen, therefore, how 
very important it is that the furrow slice be deep. 
The deepening of a shallow furrow slice is not an 
easy matter, however. It is not a safe plan to bring 
to the surface at once a large amount of subsoil, 
because it has a deleterious effect on the crop, and 
it makes cultivation more difficult because of its 
sticky nature. The best way to deepen such a soil 
is to make the furrow slice gradually deeper—say, 
one-half inch at a plowing—until the desired depth 
is reached. The raw subsoil thus becomes thor¬ 
oughly mixed with the surface soil in small quan¬ 
tities. so that the first portion has had time to 
weather into good, productive soil before more is 
added. It is an advantage, when deepening a soil, 
to plow in the Fall. h. e. hern. 
