370 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 10, 
Destroying Aspens. 
■/. II. /?., North Carolina. —I have a farm 
with an aspen patch on it. What will kill 
these aspens? 
Ans. —The only way to get rid of the 
aspen sprouts is not to let them grow. 
Cut all down at once and burn the brush 
on the spot. Grub out all you can, and 
then keep the tops cut off continually. 
No plant can long survive if not allowed 
to make green leaves. The best thing to 
keep rid of sprouts of any sort is the 
mower. Mow the sprouts off as fast as 
they show and they will give up and die. 
Cheap Milk; Dear Grain. 
I am struggling with the problem of how 
to produce cheap milk from dear feed; no 
doubt a little advice from you will help 
others in this section besides ourselves. 
Our cows are grade llolsteins in fair flesh ; 
have plenty of good mixed hay (Timothy, 
Red-top and clover). Our corn was late; 
about one-third of the ears were in roast¬ 
ing stage, the rest smaller when put in silo. 
Our barns are warm and comfortable, and 
cows just beginning to come in. What 
would you advise feeding? The following 
are feeds obtainable here at prices named : 
Best bran, 100 pounds, .$1.45; Unicorn 
dairy feed, $1.70; oil meal, $2; cotton¬ 
seed meal, $1.85; cornmeal, $1.35. Would 
Soy beans be likely to do well here? If 
so, what kind would you advise trying? 
Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. L. F .j. 
You are not alone in trying to produce 
cheap milk from dear feed; most dairy¬ 
men are “up against” the same problem, 
and your need (in common with the rest 
of us) is to find the cheapest sources of 
protein. According to the prices you 
give the protein in bran will cost in 
round numbers 12 cents per pound, in 
oil meal seven cents, and in cotton-seed 
meal five cents. The silage and hay are 
relatively too rich in the carbohydrates, 
so quite a narrow (rich in protein) 
grain ration is needed. The following 
ought to be satisfactory, and will utilize 
the cheapest sources of protein; two 
pounds bran; two pounds of oil 
meal; two pounds cotton-seed meal; 
two pounds cornmeal. This, with 
a liberal feed of hay and- silage, will give 
a ration with the nutritive ratio of 1:5-(-. 
Although bran is a more expensive 
source of protein than either cotton-seed 
meal or oil meal, it is needed to lighten 
up the ration, and anyhow seems to be 
especially desirable for the production 
of milk. The oil meal is a cheap source 
of protein, is a fine conditioner, and will 
overcome any tendency to costiveness 
produced by the cotton-seed meal, of 
which we would not advise feeding more 
than two pounds per day per cow. The 
cornmeal is needed to widen the ration, 
and will at the same time make it more 
palatable, as all animals seem to relish 
it. If your cows are not used to cotton¬ 
seed meal, it would be well to start in 
with only one pound a day, until they 
get used to the taste of it. So far as 
my experience goes with Soy beans, I 
believe they will make a good growth in 
the North if sown after danger of late 
frosts, on good rich warm land, and 
given thorough cultivation. Better ex¬ 
periment with a small piece the first year. 
c. s. M. 
State Pheasants As Game Birds. 
J. C. IF., New York .—If I hatch pheas¬ 
ants from eggs furnished by the State, who 
will own the birds? 
Ans. —As to the ownership of pheas¬ 
ants raised from eggs furnished from 
the State bird farm; the birds would 
belong to the people of the State, the 
same as all other wild game. The object 
in sending out pheasant eggs is to re¬ 
stock the game covers of the State with 
a bird which is at the same time valu¬ 
able for food and a friend to the farmer 
in that it destroys the insect pests which 
damage his crops. The understanding 
upon which the State sends out these 
eggs is that the birds produced from 
them will be released upon ground which 
is free shooting territory. It would not 
be a fair proposition for the State to 
furnish eggs for commercial purposes. 
JOHN B. BURNHAM, 
Chief Game Protector. 
The Analysis of Soils. 
F. D. C., New Hampshire .—Ilcrc is a 
question I don't understand. If the ex¬ 
periment stations can tell in our fertilizers 
what are available and not available, solu¬ 
ble and insoluble, why cannot they tell us 
what is available in our soils? 
Ans. —They can to a certain extent. 
It is very hard to get a fair sample of 
the soil from an acre. Down to a foot 
deep this acre of soil would weigh 3,500,- 
000 pounds. For testing in the labora¬ 
tory an ounce more or less would be 
taken. How would it be possible to se¬ 
lect such a small amount that would 
make a fair sample of the acre? A lot 
of clover root in such a sample might 
give a per cent of clover that would not 
be anything like what the average soil 
could show. Fertilizers are concen¬ 
trated plant food, yet if you could mix 
Uvo tons of a high-grade mixture even¬ 
ly all through the soil of an acre it is 
doubtful if the most delicate chemical 
tests could tell the difference. In the 
average sandy soil there will be in one 
ton barely one pound of nitrogen, four 
of potash and two of phosphoric acid. 
While taking the total weight of an acre 
one foot deep this would mean a large 
total, a sample for analysis would be 
so small that it would be practically im¬ 
possible to tell what proportion of it is 
available for plants. Analysis will tell 
us if a soil is rich in lime or in potash, 
or as in the case of muck, that it is 
strong in nitrogen, but low in the min¬ 
erals. The only sure test, however, is 
to use chemicals alone, or in combination, 
and see which responds. 
Potatoes Under Straw. 
C. It. Ii., Bethel, Pa.—I intend to plant 
some extra early potatoes, on pood clover 
sod, loose gravel soil, plow nine inches 
deep, manure and fertilize well, and cover 
will) straw. Should I cover at once after 
planting, or wait till they are coming up, 
or is it a no-good idea? 
Ans. —The idea is all right if carried 
out properly. We have grown large 
crops on this “lazy-bed” plan. Roll or 
pack the sod down flat. Plant the pota¬ 
toes about two inches deep, one foot 
apart in the drill and drills two feet 
apart. The time for covering will de¬ 
pend on the season. The object of the 
straw is to hold moisture and keep the 
soil cool. If the Spring is naturally 
cold and wet the soil must dry out and 
warm before the potatoes can grow well. 
The straw would prevent such drying, 
therefore in such a season we should not 
put on the straw until the plants were 
out of the ground. In a dry Spring the 
reverse is true, and we should put on 
the straw at planting time to keep the 
soil moist. 
Quack Grass to Smother Paint-brush. 
M., Canton, N. Y .—I have a stony pasture 
that is away from meadow, and it is cov¬ 
ered with paint-brush weed. How would 
it do to sow some quack-grass seed? 
Ans. —While the quack grass is a very 
persistent, strong grower under certain 
conditions, and certainly might be worth 
very much more where it thrives than 
paint-brush, yet I very much doubt 
whether the inquirer would succeed in 
getting any strong competition between 
the quack grass and the paint-brush. 
Quack grass grows vigorously only in 
good, strong soils, whereas paint-brush 
takes possession of land that is so poor 
that almost nothing else will grow upon 
it. I do not believe the quack would 
feeze the paint-brush in the least. The 
fact is, in cases where the land is so 
rough and poor that it seems out of the 
question to break it up and thoroughly 
subdue the paint-brush to manure and 
seed down again, I do not know of any 
practicable way of displacing the paint¬ 
brush. Of course, in the case of land 
capable of being tilled, and worth til¬ 
lage. the paint-brush does not present 
any great problem. j. l. stone. 
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