-400 
April H:, 
post lies in the fact that they are now extracting 
profit from the farmers, and they -see that the farmers 
are beginning to awaken on this subject. I say 
speed the day when we can have a general parcels 
post; it will usher in a new era of prosperity to the 
farmer and will work no injury to any country mer¬ 
chant who is satisfied with a reasonable profit on his 
goods. __ J- A - J- 
CLOVER AND ALFALFA. 
Our farm contains 57 85-100 acres, which is di¬ 
vided into three equal fields of 18 acres each, exclu¬ 
sive of highway, garden and lawn. Ten miles of 
round tile drains, varying in size from three to 12 
inches in diameter, averaging over four feet in depth, 
parallel system, have been completed since 1894. at a 
cost of over $2,000. Money was hired at five and 
six per cent to pay for perhaps three-fourths of this 
drainage expense, while we were under a $3,000 mort¬ 
gage. However, the entire drainage cost has been 
returned, not only once, but several times over, in 
increased crops and satisfaction, notwithstanding the 
fact that local “authorities and public sentiment” openly 
and aggravating!}' condemned such “reckless drain¬ 
age.” Yet this great financial embarrassment, together 
with extremely low prices and general agricultural 
depreciation, and the further burden of discourage¬ 
ment and active hostility, we (my better half and I) 
gradually hauled up grade for nearly 10 long years 
of rigid economy, with only now and then a word of 
encouragement from the optside, before the entire debt 
was dissolved. “After clouds come sunshine.” What 
has the foregoing to do with clover and Alfalfa? It 
is given purely to show the situation as we had 
it to deal .with, and as hundreds of others will find 
similar conditions, but more particularly to prove our 
early faith and confidence in the result of tile drain¬ 
age, which has greatly exceeded our expectations in 
clover growing and incidentally other crops as well, 
including potatoes also. Often drainage is the only 
road to permanent success, agriculturally. Crop rota¬ 
tion is a three-year one of wheat, clover and potatoes, 
18 acres of each annually, in the order named. 
Alfalfa growing was first commenced as an experi¬ 
ment (but now is an established practice with us, and 
is surely and rapidly spreading to neighboring farms) 
by mixing together one-fourth Alfalfa and three- 
fourths Medium Red clover, or 2 V 4 bushels Alfalfa 
and 6% bushels clover, for the annual 18-acre clover 
field, requiring three years to get once over the farm. 
Three years later and second time over, equal parts 
of Alfalfa and clover, or 4% bushels of each are put 
together. Six years later and third time over three- 
fourths Alfalfa and one-fourth clover will be mixed, 
and nine years from beginning, requiring 12 years 
to complete the plan, Alfalfa only, nine bushels, will 
be sown. The seed is the very best and cleanest ob¬ 
tainable and comes direct from a Western reliable 
and expert grower and handler, usually costing more 
than seeds offered by hardware and grocerymen. But 
this pays, too, because its purity is guaranteed about 
99 per cent, which means every seed is practically 
capable of producing a strong, healthy clover plant, 
to draw expensive, yet free nitrogen, from the great 
inexhaustible storehouse, the atmosphere, that covers 
every acre of land, good or poor, in the known 
realm. If my memory serves me right, this atmo¬ 
spheric nitrogen over every acre of land according 
to our scientists, is said to be many miles high and 
worth several million dollars. In impure clover seed, 
the foul and noxious weed seeds not only take the 
place in weight or space, causing a loss of clover 
plants per square foot, but may later become a fruitful 
source of bitter disappointment, expense and a menace 
to Christian fortitude. Hand pulling of weeds is slow 
and costly work. 
The proper acre amounts of each seed are weighed 
out and mixed together, by emptying back and forth 
from one galvanized bushel basket to another one, 15 
or more times, and vigorously hand-stirred between. 
Each acre batch is kept separate by rebagging, two 
batches in a bag and tied between batches, so each 
acre amount can be and is applied to every acre, no 
more, nor less. Seeding time is perhaps one of the 
most important considerations. It is first and last an 
individual and local problem, requiring close observa¬ 
tion of season, weather and soil conditions, each of 
which demands careful study. The degree of success 
attained will be a measure of the problems mastered. 
With us, on our drained soil in latitude 43°, 13 miles 
south of Rochester, seeding time comes ordinarily 
about April 1 to 10, yet varying earlier or later ac¬ 
cording to the season, preferring to sow too early 
rather than too late. The following conditions are 
waited and watched for. As soon as wheat ground is 
dry enough in Spring to go on to with horses, and 
sunshine and evaporation have caused ground surface 
to shrink and consequently surface to crack and check 
up generally, the seed is sown by a Cahoon broad¬ 
caster, taking four 11-hoe, seven-inch drill widths at 
THIS RURAL NEW-VORKER 
a passage. Seed is sown preferably during still after¬ 
noons, because checkings are more pronounced and 
with seed thrown with more or less force, more of 
them lodge in checkings and get into or nearer moist 
soil, which is a greatly desired condition. Next morn¬ 
ing three horses (sometimes only two) are hitched 
to a three-section, lever-set 96-spike-tooth harrow, 
which cuts 15% feet wide, teeth set straight up and 
down. Each section weighs about 100 pounds, and 
the wheat ground is given a thorough harrowing 
either straight or across the drill marks. This may 
appeal as heroic treatment of the wheat, but instead 
of it being a damage, it is a decided benefit to it, as 
crust is broken and clover seed is covered, which is 
just as essential as the covering of garden seeds. Tf 
soil were a loose one perhaps a weeder would cover 
sufficiently, however cover the seeds lightly in any 
event. 
We are gradually running into Alfalfa. Why? hirst. 
Alfalfa will give us more tonnage per acre, sown same 
time as Red clover, the first cutting. Second, Alfalfa 
will give us decidedly more, several times, the second 
cutting, especially so if the season is a dry one, and 
third, we get a nice third crop, perhaps a ton per 
acre. Fourth. Red clover is strictly a biennial and a 
“striker”—“quitter”—at second cutting. Fifth, Alfalfa 
is richer as a stock food. Sixth, Alfalfa is also richer 
as a plant food. Seventh, and not all of the reasons 
either, it has a deeper and better root system, which 
captures otherwise leached and lost fertility and 
leaves, the soil full of rich and valuable roots, solving 
the humus question, one of the pivotal points in agri¬ 
culture, and upon which is hinged, more or less, 
success, day dreams realized or failure. 
T. E. MARTIN. 
FARMING WITH GREEN MANURES. 
Substitutes for Oats. 
I have 15 acres of cornstalks which would naturally 
be planted to oats in the Spring. I have been much In¬ 
terested in reading the discussions on green manure cul¬ 
ture, and would like to experiment with some substitute 
of oats, such as cow peas or Soy beans. Would yon advise 
sowing cow peas with oats? If so. in what proportion, 
and how much to the acre? In sowing Soy beans does 
the ground need to be inoculated? What do you con¬ 
sider the best Winter cover crop for the cornfield after 
the corn is removed, and what amount to sow? 
Lancaster Co., Pa. G. w. J. 
G. W. J. lives in a section where com is followed 
by oats in the rotation. This has always been the 
practice, and it is handed down from generation to 
generation, no one seeming even to think that some 
other crop might take its place and bring in better 
returns, and also leave the soil in better condition. 
Don’t sow r oats just because everybody else does. A 
few minutes with pencil and paper ought to tell you 
whether the crop pays. When making these calcula¬ 
tions don’t forget that oats are an exhaustive crop 
and leave the soil poorer. I discarded oats from the 
rotation years ago as a crop that did not pay. When 
1 quit growing oats different persons at various times 
when exchanging the usual greetings inquired whether 
I had finished plowing for oats, whether I had finished 
sowing, etc. Upon being told that 1 did not grow 
oats some plainly told me that such a departure from 
old methods would not do, but could give no reasons. 
Others were too astonished to say anything, while 
some others cast a significant smile at a chance com¬ 
panion. I grow potatoes instead of oats, and on a 
soil adapted to the crop they will pay better for the 
heavy fertilizing necessary to build up a rundown 
farm quickly than any other crop that I can grow 
on a large scale. You are much interested in green 
manuring, then you see the need of getting the soil 
stocked with humus. This lack of sufficient humus 
in the soil has become responsible for more partial 
crop failures in this section than any other cause. A 
soil without humus is a dead soil. Green manuring 
is generally construed as meaning the plowing under 
of some crop grown specially for that purpose. I-t 
should be considered in a broader sense and the 
working into the soil of any vegetable matter that 
has not first been fed to animals is really green 
manuring. When we have sufficient plant food in 
our soil to grow big crops and an abundance of 
humus there we have a fertile soil. This can be ac¬ 
complished in different ways. Each farmer should 
study how he can do this most economically and at 
the same time profitably. I have been doing this, and 
keep but a few head of stock necessary to furnish 
meat, milk, etc., for family use. This is in a locality 
where every farmer keeps cows as the chief source 
of income. Now, I don’t want to discourage anyone 
in the matter of keeping stock, for the farm dairy can 
be made to pay well, and the farm need not run 
down on account of it either. But when the farms 
right around us, though yet comparatively new, are 
getting poorer and poorer with these herds of cattle, 
we must see that there is something seriously wrong 
with the management. And when the owners in the 
face of all these facts simply persist in this kind of 
management, we wonder what will eventually become 
of these farms. 
Remember, when you feed a crop, no matter how 
carefully you handle the manure, you cannot return 
nearly all the plant food, and not more than two- 
thirds of the humus. Yet only in exceptional cases 
would I advise the growing of a crop as green ma¬ 
nure. If managed rightly, we can not only maintain 
but increase the supply of humus; the nitrogen we 
can get from the air, raising legumes, and the cheaper 
mineral fertilizers can be purchased. Sow plenty 
of clover seed, though the price may be high. Keep 
your stock off the young clover after the wheat is 
harvested. After the hay is made the following sea¬ 
son keep the stock off again. No matter how heavy 
and tangled a growth covers your field so much the 
better. The corn crop will fairly revel in this mass 
of humus you have added to the soil, as well as other 
succeeding crops. Don’t plow this sod in the Fall, 
but try to have every acre of your farm covered with 
some growing crop to protect the soil against our 
open Winters with their drenching rains. Last Fall 
many of my neighbors on rather thin, sandy soil 
plowed all the sod intended for corn. This with the 
corn stubble also lying bare left one-half of the 
farm without any protection. 
As a cover for your corn stubble give Crimson 
clover a thorough trial. Sow at least eight quarts of 
seed in July. The first week in August will not be 
too late. After sowing run through the corn with a 
12-tooth cultivator. Don't expect too much of this 
clover. It will not grow big and rank, but will cover 
your field with a mat of green, the roots taking up 
every square inch of soil. It will grow whenever 
the frost is out of the ground. This clover will per¬ 
form a three-fold duty in your corn stubble; it will 
hold the available plant food which would otherwise 
be washed out; it will get nitrogen from the air. and 
it will add humus to the soil. It may seem to you as 
if you were not plowing down much, but I assure 
you you are adding as much to your soil with this 
crop of Crimson clover as are your neighbors who 
plow a scfd that has been pastured bare. Then think 
of the mass of Red clover you plowed under the 
previous year and see what you have done for your 
soil more than is commonly done in your neighbor¬ 
hood. I first sowed Crimson clover 15 years ago. 
Only one neighbor, I think, has found it worth while 
to take up the practice. It is much easier to neglect 
this matter than it is not to, and no direct income 
is in sight as from most other crops. If we would 
improve our farms we must have an eye open to the 
future fertility of the soil rather than to the grasping 
of present wealth. Read what Prof. Massey has to 
say about these matters in The R. N.-Y., page 167. 
Do not sow. cow peas with oats. The cow pea is in 
fact a bean and must not be planted until the ground 
is thoroughly warm in June. The Canada field pea 
does well with oats. Sow as early in the Spring as 
possible, and if intended for hay use about 1% bushel 
peas and two bushels oats per acre. Cut when the 
oats are in bloom. The best results are obtained by 
sowing the peas three or four inches deep, and then 
sow the oats shallow a week later. This crop does 
best on a heavy soil. The cow peas and Soy beans 
will do best on a light, warm soil. The soil does 
not usually have to be inoculated for Soy beans. If 
I were feeding a lot of cows and would have to buy 
much concentrated feed I think I should plant Soy 
beans instead of oats. If your soil is thin it will pay 
you to apply some potash and phosphoric acid to the 
cow peas and Soy beans. To every 100 pounds dis¬ 
solved S- C. rock add 10 pounds muriate of potash 
and apply 300 pounds per acre of the mixture. 
Middletown, Pa. a. \v. s. 
PERMANENT GRASS MEADOWS. 
If I broadcast 20 tons of manure per acre upon sod 
ground that is in a fair degree fertile, turn il under and 
plant to corn, the next year sow oats and seed to 
grass (clover and Timothy and Ited-top), how many crops 
of hay may 1 take from the land and still keep up the 
fertility of"the soil and get profitable crops of hay? Is it 
the more approved way to plow and reseed often if one 
wants hay, or to continue the fields in grass by top¬ 
dressing with manure or chemicals, and which of these 
is most economical, where manure costs $2 per ton from 
New York City stables? Give the kinds, quantities of 
each and cost of chemicals to keep up the hay crop by 
top-dressing, and are the chemicals as permanently ef¬ 
fective and economical as the manure would be, aside from 
the saving in labor? s. T. 
Ulster Co., N. Y. 
We would not attempt to give an opinion. It 
depends on the character of the soil, the fertilizer 
you use and the way it is seeded. We have one field 
which will be cut this year for the seventh time in 
succession, and seems good for about two tons per 
acre. We have been obliged to plow other fields 
after the third year. The first field referred to was 
seeded to grass alone in early September, great pains 
being taken to have the soil fine and to kill out the 
old sod. For a permanent meadow we should always 
seed to grass alone without any “nurse crop." To 
make such a meadow pay you will need a seeding 
almost like that on a lawn, and you cannot get this 
when seeding with oats. It will pay better in the 
long run to seed to oats alone, cut the crop and then 
fit the land for grass seeding in September. Use 
about twice as much seed as you would when seeding 
with oats. If the soil is at all sour, use at least one 
ton of lime per acre—otherwise the Timothy will die 
out and the Red-top remain alone. We think it pays 
best to seed permanently and cut five or more yearly 
crops, but this will require great care, and we would 
not expect it if seeding with oats. A good combina¬ 
tion to use on such meadow is one part each by 
weight of nitrate of soda, fine bone, acid phosphate 
and muriate of potash. You should use at least .>00 
pounds per acre each year. On a permanent meadow 
these chemicals will usually give better results than 
stable manure at $2 per ton. The above remarks 
apply to natural grass land, strong and naturally moist. 
You cannot hope to follow this plan on light or poor 
land. 
