1010. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
SOT- 
ALFALFA AND LIME. 
I am preparing an eight-acre piece of 
creek bottom ground for Alfalfa, intend¬ 
ing to have it plowed, disked, harrowed 
and inoculated with one load of soil 
from an adjoining Alfalfa field per acre. 
I shall harrow it about once a week for 
four or five harrowings and then sow 
90 pounds of seed on the piece. Do you 
not think this is enough seed? Last year 
I experimented with four acres on a 
farm I owned near Hannibal, Mo. I 
had a piece of ground which three years 
ago was in cow peas; the following 
Spring I sowed Alsike and Red clover 
with oats, getting a good crop of oats, 
and the next season cutting 16 tons 
clover from the eight acres. A year 
ago last Fall I turned the clover under 
and in the Spring seeded to clover -and 
Alfalfa the first week in March, having 
limed two acres and sowed two without 
lime. I got a good stand of Alfalfa all 
over the field, the two acres on which 
I put lime being knee high and in bloom 
when the clover was cut and continued 
to thrive all Summer, cutting another 
crop last September, which was left on 
the ground. The two acres which had 
no lime never got more than two inches 
high, and by September, when the other 
two acres were cut, had all died out. 
Hannibal, Mo. d. r. s. 
R. N.-Y.—We should use more seed— 
at least 15 pounds per acre. On our 
own farm we should say this clover 
experiment proves that the soil needs 
lime. We think Alfalfa will respond to 
lime even more than clover. With your 
experience we should use at least one 
ton of burned lime or twice as much 
ground limestone per acre. 
FODDER CROPS IN AN ORCHARD. 
E. A. ]}., Lakeville, Mann .—I have a 
gravelly northern slope which was burned 
over and had little on it but bushes, moss 
and a few poor weeds and grass of poor 
quality and quantity. As some old wild 
pasture apple trees have done well I think 
I can make . this land into good apple 
orchard land. Two years ago I planted 
it to rye, which did poorly. I cut what 
rye was worth cutting and plowed the 
rest in, and planted again to rye last 
September. Fertilizer was put on the first 
year, but none last Fall. No manure has 
been used, as there are better uses for it. 
The present rye is doing well in places, 
and a great improvement in all places, 
over two years ago. I have a milk farm 
and am so situated that I have a market 
for anything raised on a farm. What 
would you advise as to the best procedure 
to get this piece suitable for apples or 
peaches, and to get the most out of it 
meantime? I shall plant trees there this 
Spring. Shall I fertilize the rye and then 
plow it in green, or fertilize it and let it 
grow for green feed and plow in stubble, 
or shall I plow it in green without fer¬ 
tilizing it? What would you do next? 
Ans. —Under the circumstances, we 
would cut this rye when in bloom for 
fodder. Do not let it make seed. If 
you do the young trees will be hurt 
and the fodder will be too hard. After 
cutting the rye, plow or disk the ground 
and drill in some crop like beans or 
fodder corn, using a fair amount of 
fertilizer on this crop. Give thorough 
culture to this drilled crop, and in late 
August seed the ground to rye or wheat. 
If you need fodder Soy beans would 
be a good Summer crop. By following 
this plan and fertilizing well, you will 
add vegetable matter to the soil, get 
fair crops of fodder and at the same 
time give the trees fair cultivation, but 
you must be prepared to fertilize heavily 
and, in case of a dry Spring, cut the 
rye very early. You can keep such a 
plan up for several years. 
Lime and Fertilizer Together. 
8 . D. (No Address ).—Can lime be dis¬ 
tributed on the same day as manure and 
fertilizer on land and be harrowed in at 
the same time? 
Ans. —It can be. but we do not think 
it the best plan. It depends somewhat 
upon the kind of fertilizer. If the 
phosphoric acid is mostly derived from 
bone the lime would have but little ef¬ 
fect upon it. If it is acid phosphate 
the lime will combine to make the phos¬ 
phate “revert” or become less soluble. 
It also makes a difference whether the 
lime and fertilizer is left on top of the 
soil or worked into it. When organic 
nitrogen is mixed with lime a chemical 
action occurs, during which more or 
less ammonia is set free. If this action 
took place on top of the ground the am¬ 
monia thus set free would pass into 
the air and be lost. If the lime and 
fertilizer were in the soil the ammonia 
would still be set free, but would be 
mostly held by the soil. As a general 
practice we use lime alone, and the 
fertilizer either in another part of the 
rotation or at another season. 
Homemade Cement Drain Tile. 
8 . D. E., Umpqua, Ore .—I would like 
the experience of any of your readers in 
making drain tile of cement, size 4 to 8 
inches and cost, compared with clay burned 
tile. Clay tile costs us 28 cents for four 
inches to 70 cents for eight inches, and 
hauling seven miles. Best Portland ce¬ 
ment will cost $3 per barrel of 400 pounds 
by the carload ; good sand for the hauling 
one mile. What will a machine cost to 
make tile suitable for farm use, not for 
making commercially. 
Ans. —There have been so many ques¬ 
tions about this that we call for experi¬ 
ence. Some of the experiment stations 
have given figures, but we prefer the 
actual experience of farmers if we can 
get it. 
Nitrate of Soda Solution. 
C. V. II., North Birmingham, Ala .—In ap¬ 
plying nitrate of soda in liquid form to 
garden vegetables, is one tablespoonful of 
the soda to a 2%-gallon bucket of water 
about the right proportion? Can more be 
used without danger to the foliage? 
Ans. —The 10 quarts of water weigh 
about 20 pounds. For comparison, we 
may take fresh liquid cow manure. In 
1,000 pounds there are 5.8 pounds of 
nitrogen, or in 20 pounds 1.85 ounce. 
To equal this strength in your solution 
you must add 11 ^ ounces of nitrate of 
soda, because the nitrate contains 16 per 
cent of nitrogen. One tablespoonful will 
probably weigh a little over one ounce, 
but you might well weigh one and be 
exact about it. You would not use the 
liquid manure full strength, the rule be¬ 
ing to add about three parts water to 
one of liquid. On this basis you could 
use between two and three ounces of 
nitrate to your bucket of water—two 
would be safe. 
“Cross Talk” Over the Telephone. 
L. O. 11., Burleson, Tex .—We have just 
built a six-party telephone line to the city, 
with two lines on same posts most of the 
way, and we cross-talk, so that our lines 
are a nuisance. We have gone over the 
Ifnc the third time and it seems to be 
perfect. Can you tell us what is the cause 
of this cross-talking? 
Ans. —There are three systems of 
telephone construction used on what are 
called “rural lines.” One is the metallic 
circuit, which is the same as is used in 
the city, and another is the “common 
return,” which is cheaper, as all the 
different circuits return to the central on 
one wire. The third is the ground re¬ 
turn, where only one wire is used for a 
party line and each telephone is 
grounded, and the current returns 
through the earth, which is well known 
to be an excellent conductor of elec¬ 
tricity. This is the cheapest construc¬ 
tion there is, and also the poorest, as 
it is liable to be noisy and bothered 
with cross-talk, and as this subscriber 
says is a nuisance. As it is not stated 
what method of construction is used, 
it would not be possible to locate the 
trouble. If a metallic circuit is used 
and there is cross-talk, there are not 
enough transpositions, or they are not 
rightly made. If a common return sys¬ 
tem. then the return wire may be too 
small. If a ground return is used, it 
will never be satisfactory, and another 
wire must be put up and the system 
changed to a metallic circuit, which if 
properly built, insulated and transposed, 
should be perfectly quiet. 
FLOYD Q. WHITE. 
“Wasn’t it odd that our cat .would 
not take to our visitor, but put his back 
up at her?” “Not at all strange.” 
“Why not?” “Because the visitor had a 
mouse-colored suit and had a lot of rats 
in her hair.”—Baltimore American. 
THE 
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