1910. 
THti RURAIv NEW-YORKER 
ees 
Ruralisms 
PECULIAR SEED PODS. 
Alfalfa, wherever known, is acclaimed 
first position among forage plants. The 
farmer who has a fair acreage of this 
productive, quick-growing and nutritious 
legume wants no other, and he that does 
not possess it should spare no effort to 
establish it if in a locality where it can 
be induced to grow. The high value of 
Alfalfa as a stock food is now all but 
universally recognized, and its triumph 
will be completed by the world-wide 
extension of its use in the portable form 
of meal, ground from the cured herbage. 
Alfalfa hay and meal are rapidly pushing 
their way into markets hitherto devoted 
to the ordinary grasses and clovers, and 
once in they come to stay. Alfalfa cul¬ 
ture spreads in the East wherever soil 
conditions permit, but in the irrigated 
portions of the West it extends by leaps 
and bounds. The probable production 
in coming years will be enormous. 
Like other potentates, however, Al¬ 
falfa stands alone among a host of poor 
relations that fail to distinguish them¬ 
selves except for their oddity. The 
genus Medicago contains about 50 
species, mostly inconspicuous, trailing, 
clover-like plants, though a few attain 
the dimensions and consistency of woodv 
shrubs, all native to Europe, Asia and 
North Africa. Alfalfa, Medicago sativa, 
is the only one of present horticultural 
importance. M. arborea, the tree Alfal¬ 
fa, with yellow flowers, growing eight 
feet high, has some claims as an orna¬ 
mental, but cannot endure much frost. 
The foliage is attractive and the stems 
hard and woody. The trailing species 
Tulips After Blooming; Paeonies. 
A. L. N., Hampton Corners, Me. —1. IIow 
should I care for tulip bulbs? Can they be 
taken up before the top dies down so as to 
use the bed for other plants, and how care 
for them? 2. Also the care of paeonies? 
Mine have been in the same place for a 
number of years, and last year they had 
but few blossoms and few buds this year. 
I have the white, pink and white and dou¬ 
ble rose. 
Ans.— 1 . It is preferable to allow the 
tops of the tulips to die down before 
lifting; they are then dug, allowed to 
dry in the shade and stored away in 
paper bags in a cool dry place. But we 
do not lift our tulip bulbs at all unless 
we wish to replant them, which is done 
every third year. The surface of the bed 
is raked, to remove trash, and Summer 
bedding plants are set, without interfer¬ 
ing with the tulips, or we sow annuals 
at any time desired. We prefer this 
plan, because many of the finest tulips 
are not really ready to be dug, at the 
time later planting should be done, and 
as they die down they are out of sight. 
When Petunias are used to follow tulips, 
we find that that they may be sown in 
the Fall, when the tulips are set, and 
they come up early to follow the bulbs; 
indeed, our only complaint is that when 
we once start a Petunia bed these plants 
remain with us as weeds forever after, 
but they are so gay and so perpetually 
in bloom that we always want plenty 
of them. 
2. Paeonies are gross feeders, and need 
rich deep soil and abundant fertility. If 
they have been in the same place for a 
number of years they are likely to be 
starved, unless they have had liberal top¬ 
dressing. With proper feeding they will 
grow and bloom undisturbed for 20 
years or more. Keep them well tilled; 
ECCENTRIC SEED PODS. 293. 
are chiefly known as bur clovers, from 
their oddly coiled and generally spiny 
seed pods, a number of which are shown 
in Fig. 293. These pods do not dehise 
or crack open on maturity like those of 
the pea and many beans, but become 
very light on drying out and may be 
borne far o'n water or carried about in 
the fleece of animals. Indeed the com¬ 
mon bur clover of California, M. denti- 
culata, an introduced species, though af¬ 
fording considerable nutritious forage, 
is a great nuisance to sheep owners on 
accounts of the burs getting into wool. 
The spiniest of these pods are probably 
those borne by M. echinus, resembling 
in appearance a young sea urchin, whence 
the specific name. Young plants of this 
species have the trifoliate leaves prettily 
marked with reddish brown, but this fea¬ 
ture disappears with the Summer growth. 
The other kinds shown vary little in 
appearance of plant, all having green 
clover-like foliage, vellow blooms, and 
being annuals or Winter perennials in 
habit. M. Scutellaria, however, is dis¬ 
tinguished by its smooth snail-like pods, 
well brought out in the illustration. 
Seeds are offered by dealers as “vege¬ 
table snails,” and this variety as well as 
M. echinus, the sea urchin or “hedge¬ 
hog,” are grown by European garden¬ 
ers as horticultural jokes, the pods to¬ 
gether with those of Scorpiurus vermi- 
culata and S. subvillosa (“worms” and 
“caterpillars”) from bean-like, Old 
World plants, are placed as surprises in 
salads and soups. The imitations are in 
each case so good as to astonish and pos¬ 
sibly disgust the uninitiated diner. These 
pods are harmless, but of course not 
e dible. Are such “jokes” worth while? 
v. 
during the growing season an occasional 
application of liquid manure is very help¬ 
ful. In the Fall give a good top-dress¬ 
ing of manure, and fork this lightly into 
the ground in the Spring. In a dry 
season, or dry situation, they will be the 
better for watering while the buds are 
forming; drought will prevent the buds 
from developing. 
Fertilizer on Potato Seed. 
M. P. tV., Painesville, 0 .—In planting 
potatoes by hand and using fertilizer (soe- 
eial potash mixture) is it necessary to cover 
or mix the fertilizer with the soil, and how 
much to the hill? What effect would it 
have to drop the potato right in the fer¬ 
tilizer; that is, a good handful dropped in 
the row, then the potato? 
Ans. —Many brands of potato fertil¬ 
izer contain considerable acid phosphate. 
This and some other chemicals would 
injure the potato sprouts if put directly 
upon them. The best plan is to put a 
layer of earth between the fertilizer and 
the seed piece. In planting bv hand 
we drop the seed and kick a small quan¬ 
tity of soil over it. The fertilizer is 
then scattered by hand in a wide strip 
over and along the rows and filled in 
and covered with the cultivator. 
Summer Lime - Sulphur. — Just a 
nionth ago I received a letter from you 
in relation to the use of lime-sulphur as 
a Summer spray in place of Bordeaux 
Mixture. At that time I was just com¬ 
mencing the use of it and was not in a 
position to give any results. Have not 
used any Bordeaux this season, lime- 
sulphur only. While it is too early to 
express an opinion, so far it looks prom¬ 
ising. I find occasionally a little burn¬ 
ing of the foliage, particularly on young 
pear trees, but not enough to cause any 
material injury. Cherries sprayed will 
one to fifty concentrated solution look 
fine, no leaf injury whatever. 
Orange Co., N. Y. j. r. Cornell. 
When you write advertisers mentiou The I 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and 
■‘a square deal.” See guarantee page 8. 
The Truth About the German 
Potash Law. 
Among Germany’s most important 
natural resources there are about sev¬ 
enty mines that furnish the world’s sup¬ 
ply of potash. At present these mines 
can supply more potash than the world 
is using, but not more than the world 
can use profitably, and not more than 
the world would be using if farmers 
could buy potash as readily as they can 
buy other things. Under these condi¬ 
tions there is a tendency for some of 
the mines to try to get more than their 
share of the trade. 
In the past the mines have entered 
into short term arrangements to sell 
their products through a single com¬ 
pany, organized and owned by the 
mines. Each mine has agreed to fur¬ 
nish a certain fraction of the world’s de¬ 
mand to the selling company. This 
fraction was known as the quota of the 
mine. As new mines were developed 
they were usually assigned a fair quota, 
but occasionally a new mine declined 
to sell in this way and sought to secure 
more than its fair share of the potash 
trade by selling independently and usu¬ 
ally at slightly lower prices. 
When the last selling agreement ex¬ 
pired three or four mines undertook to 
get contracts to suonly the entire Amer¬ 
ican potash trade, which is a little over 
one-fourth of the total potash trade of 
the world. Had they succeeded in filling 
their contracts they would, of course, 
have had much more than their fair 
share of business. 
Most of the mines are owned by 
private stock companies, but a few of 
them arc owned by the Prussian and 
other German States, not by the Royal 
Family, as has been erroneously stated 
in some American newspapers. Owing 
to the action of a few mines in trying 
to get more than their fair share of 
the business, the German Government 
passed a law regulating the fraction or 
quota of the world’s supply that each 
mine might sell, and providing that 
each mine should have a share in both 
the export and the home trade. 
The law provides for a commission to 
enforce the law and lays a trifling tax 
on all the products of the mines, whether 
exported or used at home, to pay for 
the expenses of the commission. About 
half of this tax is to be used for pub¬ 
licity work to increase the potash trade, 
and the remainder is to be applied to 
meet the ordinary expenses of adminis¬ 
tration. This tax is not greater than 
the usual State fertilizer taxes in Amer¬ 
ica, which range from 10 to 50 cents 
per ton, without regard to the value of 
the fertilizer. The German tax is fairer, 
however, in that it takes into account 
the amount of plant food in the differ¬ 
ent grades of potash compounds. The 
tax ranges from 1» cents per ton on 
kainit containing 12^ per cent potash, to 
65 cents on muriate of potash. As one- 
half of this goes back for advertising 
expenses previously met by the mines, 
the only additional expense imposed by 
the new law is the trifling sum of from 
eight to 33 cents per ton. The tax is 
in no sense an export tax, but is paid 
on every pound of potash whether used 
in Germany or sent to other countries. 
1 here's in it no discrimination against 
America or any other country. 
When we recall that the ocean freight 
rate on potash salts may vary as much 
as one dollar per ton in a single month 
without any increase in the cost of pot¬ 
ash to the consumer it is at once evident 
that this trifling tax for administration 
purposes will have no more to do with 
potash prices than the state tax on fer¬ 
tilizers in the United States 4ias to do 
with the selling price of our common 
fertilizers. 
The law, contrary to the general be¬ 
lief, does not require the formation of 
a selling company or syndicate. Each 
mine is free to sell its share of export 
and domestic as it sees fit, but it must 
not sell for export at a less price than 
is charged to German buyers. There 
is certainly nothing in this to give the 
American farmer who buys potash any 
cause for alarm. Why, then, has our 
State Department been urged to protest 
so vigorously against the passage of this 
law? Why have we been told that the 
law means we must pay $20 more per 
ton for all our potash salts? The law 
provides that if any mine shall sell 
more than its assigned fair share it 
must pay on the excess over its lawful 
share a much higher tax, ranging from 
about $2.70 to $19.50 per ton. This will, 
of course, serve to restrict the mines to 
the legal quota of each. But there is no 
intention of restricting the total produc¬ 
tion of potash. On the other hand the 
publicity provisions are intended to in¬ 
crease the consumption. 
The American fertilizer companies 
sought to get control of all the potash 
coming to America. They failed to do 
it. They never intended that the far¬ 
mer should get Potash salts direct from 
them and they insisted that the Germans 
should sell only to these companies and 
that the German Kali Works, which is 
the American Company representing the 
potash mines, should cease to sell mix¬ 
ers, dealers and farmers. 
The German Kali Works was organ¬ 
ized for the purpose of getting potash 
to the farmers, local dealers and mixers, 
at fair prices. It is a matter of indiffer¬ 
ence to them whether they sell it direct 
to these three classes or whether their 
offers cause the fertilizer manufacturers 
to sell it to them at fair prices. The 
fertilizer manufacturers do not want the 
farmers to secure potash except in the 
form of mixed goods containing about 98 
pounds of phosphate and filler to two 
pounds of potash salts. Home mixing 
gives the fertilizer manufacturer ner¬ 
vous chills. It means the farmer may 
buy raw material, compound his filler- 
free fertilizer at a marked saving, and, 
worst of all, he will begin to figure on 
the money he has been paying out for 
filler and freight on it, not a penny of 
which was of any value in increasing his 
crop. 
The American fertilizer manufactur¬ 
ers have claimed for years that they 
sought uniform prices for potash rather 
than low prices. The new law gives 
every buyer the same price. But their 
strenuous objections prove what many 
already knew, that the large manufac¬ 
turer does not want the mixer, local 
dealer or farmer to buy potash at all 
except in the form of filler-loaded mix¬ 
tures which place the cost of plant food 
much higher than it can be sold for in 
raw materials.— Ad/v. 
Martin Fertilizers 
Again in the lead as Crop Producers and enrichers 
of the soil. Manufactured from the by-products 
of our own seven large abattoirs and stockyards, 
they are every pound a fertilizer, containing 
double the value of rock, rock-base, leather and 
cheap materials fertilizer. No cheap tiller or 
make weight used In our brands. Animal Bono 
fertilizers are the best and cheapest, experience 
having proven their power to build up and enrich 
the soil for the after crops. We want responsible 
agents. 
D. B. MARTIN CO., 706 Penn Bldg'., Pittsburg', Pa« 
LET ME START YOU IN BUSINESS! 
I will furnish the advertising matter and the plans. 1 
want one sincere, earnest man in every town ami town¬ 
ship- Farmers, Mechanics, Builders. Small Business man 
Anyone anxious to improve his condition. Address 
COMMERCIAL DEMOCRACY, Dept. 0-35. Elyria, Ohio. 
OUR. NEU/ TRADE-MARK 
TRADE-MARK 
Solely Manufactured by 
THE ROGERS & HUBBARD CO. 
Middletown, Conn. 
Send for Free Almanac telling all about 
Hubbard “Bone Base” Fertilisers 
the 
