U22 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 1, 
Hope Farm Notes 
I have noticed in The It. N.-Y. this 
Summer a number of articles to the effect 
that corn can be cultivated too much. My 
soil is a medium light loam with good nat¬ 
ural draining, and 1 have never cultivated 
liiv torn as thoroughly and frequently as 
this vear and never had such good corn. 
In fact, the more 1 have cultivated corn up 
to the time when it becomes too large the 
better the corn always is, so it is hard for 
me to understand how corn can be improved 
any by being left uncultivated. My soil 
is not'weedy so it is not necessary to cul¬ 
tivate it in order to keep the weeds down. 
With me usually the end rows are planted 
close to some other crop so that those rows 
are cultivated on one side only and they 
show the difference. s. N. D. 
Hartford, Conn. 
All I can say is that the only respec¬ 
table corn I have this year is in a field 
where we did the least cultivating. We 
never worked harder for a crop than this 
year, and we followed the best rule of 
cultivation and fertilizing that we could 
learn about. The corn looked well until 
the hot dry winds followed the rains. 
Then, as the soil dried out the corn 
stunted and stopped growing. In July, 
when we saw what was coming, we 
stopped cultivating one late planted field 
and simply cut off the grass and weeds 
with a sickle. On this field, with no 
fertilizer, we have more than twice as 
much corn as where we fertilized and 
cultivated. The soil of this field is 
stronger than the other, having been 
cleared only two years. Both are on the 
same ridge. 
Now I would not put our experience 
down to form any definite rule. I give 
you my theory. It may be right or not 
The corn was planted on a hillside. 
There is only a thin strip of soil over 
the solid rock. There is not as much 
organic matter in this soil as there should 
be. The hot winds of late June and July 
sucked the moisture out of this thin 
layer of soil and left it either baked like 
a brick or loose and open. This mois¬ 
ture was lost by evaporation. It rose to 
the surface well charged with soluble 
plant food. As it evaporated and passed 
away it left this plant food at the sur¬ 
face. The feeding roots of the corn 
went after this plant food and were all 
or mostly in the upper soil. Now when 
we kept up our cultivating we ripped 
and tore these feeding roots, and there 
was not moisture enough in the soil to 
enable the plant to repair the damage. 
It could take up plant food, but could 
not make new roots. Where we cut off 
the weeds we did not disturb the roots, 
while the dead weeds, on the surface, 
acted somewhat like a mulch to hold a 
little moisture. This is my reason for 
the trouble. It is due to the peculiar 
season and to this particular soil. 
I can easily understand that cultiva¬ 
tion paid S. N. D. I believe his soil is 
deeper than ours, that he has more or¬ 
ganic matter than we have, and that his 
section had more rain. In the deeper 
soils when drought threatens the plant 
roots go deeper after water. You must 
remember that this is impossible on our 
soil, since at two feet or more these 
roots often strike the solid rock. The 
organic matter holds moisture somewhat 
like a sponge, and lessens evaporation. 
Under the conditions of deeper soil and 
plenty of humus cultivation will surely 
pay. We had less than our allowance 
of rain, as several showers which gave 
points five miles away a fair wetting 
never touched us. This is the first year 
in which I thought cultivation hurt my 
corn crop. The cornfields now show the 
difference, and I give my theory as to 
the reason. 
Another point in which the advice given 
by your paper does not quite fit conditions 
with me is with reference to Crimson clover 
and turnips as a cover crop. Crimson 
clover makes no greater growth in the Fall 
with ine than does Red or Alsike clover, 
while the two latter prevent washing in the 
Winter and start to grow about the first or 
middle of March, and by plowing time will 
produce quite a stand, and are much more 
satisfactory than the Crimson clover for 
that reason. s. n. d. 
I have stated many times that grow¬ 
ing Crimson clover north of Philadel¬ 
phia is very much of a gamble. This is 
a plant best adapted to the South, and 
is out of its latitude at Hartford. With 
us it succeeds about seven years in 10. 
Alsike and Red make a fair growth in 
Fall, but by May, if the Crimson lives 
over Winter, it will be much larger than 
the others. In fact, w T ith us Alsike or 
Red do not make growth enough to 
plow under as we would the Crimson. 
We should sow some rye with them if 
used as a cover crop. We w r ant to make 
it clear, however, that Crimson clover is 
a southern plant, and that while we find 
it satisfactory we do not claim sure 
things for it north of Philadelphia. 
An old gardener has recently made the 
statement that crab grass in lawns may 
easily be killed without injuring the other 
grasses by a heavy dressing of wood ashes 
applied about the middle of May. This 
seems too easy, but of course can be tested 
when the proper season comes around. 
New York. v. n. b. 
That has not been our experience. We 
should expect the ashes to feed the crab 
grass the same as the others on the lawn. 
It might so stir up the Blue grass and 
White clover as to smother out part of 
the crab and constant clipping might 
keep it down, but as for saying that 
wood ashes is a sure cure for crab grass 
—we doubt it. 
Every year at this season we are asked 
about making a lawn. We are making 
one this Fall. Last Spring we plowed 
the ground and planted potatoes with a 
good dressing of fertilizer. They were 
given good culture and dug in August. 
The best way would have been to put 
on a heavy coat of manure, but we had 
used our manure for other purposes, so 
we plowed as soon as we could and 
harrowed with Acme and spring-tooth. 
One of the essential things about a lawn 
is to have it smooth. It must be graded 
accurately, and we find this the hardest 
part of the work. We put on lime and 
harrowed it in, and picked up the larger 
stones. Now it is being raked over care¬ 
fully. We use the ready-mixed “Cen¬ 
tral Park mixture” which seems to be 
mostly Blue grass with White clover, 
Red-top and a few other grasses. The 
essential things are perfect grading, fine 
soil, lime, an abundance of seed and fer¬ 
tilizer and even seeding. 
Farm Notes. —That German rye which 
we seeded on July 23 was making its 
head by September 16 . It can easily be 
cut in time to seed to Winter rye. The 
straw is short and would not sell at full 
price. . . . This season was so dry 
that we did not try to sow a cover crop 
in the corn. It would not have sprouted. 
So now after cutting the corn we are 
sowing rye in the stubble and working it 
in with spring-tooth and cultivator. As 
we have stated, I think the upper soil 
is full of plant food this Fall. There 
will be a heavy loss of it if the soil is 
left bare, and the rye will make a fine 
Fall growth. We began cutting our flint 
corn September 14 —earlier than usual. 
The potatoes on that old Alfalfa sod 
are out, and the soil has been plowed 
and fitted ready for potted strawberries. 
Still we lack moisture, and cannot plant 
with any safety until we get a soaking 
rain. A strange season this. We lost 
our berries because there was too much 
water, and our peaches because there 
was not enough. One field of sweet corn 
on the lower farm on soil that is na¬ 
turally wet has done well and is now 
giving good returns. ... 1 find that 
a good many readers tried turkey rais¬ 
ing this year. The girls have finally 
come through the season with five young 
turkeys out of 18 hatched. It is a won¬ 
der that they have any left, considering 
the Spring and early Summer. There 
was one continuous rain, and all the 
authorities agree that young turks can¬ 
not stand water. Our turks were kept 
confined in a box for weeks at a time. 
We have eight White Hollands all told, 
and it is a pleasant thing to see them 
walking deliberately about the grounds. 
They are remarkable insect hunters. I 
like the Whites better than the Bronze 
birds. They know how to care for them¬ 
selves, as the Brahma rooster found to 
his cost. He tackled old Champ, the gob¬ 
bler, and supposed of course he could 
fight in the approved style of putting his 
head down and jumping to use his spurs 
It was a great surprise when Champ 
broke the rules of the game and gave old 
Brahma a blow with his wing that top¬ 
pled him over. Champ no doubt feels 
that if there is any fighting to be done 
he would better disregard rules and have 
it over at once. I agree with him. 
H. w. C. 
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