December 31, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
100pounds of an 
ordinary Fertilizer 
(testing 2-8-2) 
t>TT v rn 
i 
FILLER. 
V 28 LBS 
NITRATE OF SODA 
_12 LBS_ 
ACID 
PHOSPHATE 
66 LBS 
Both of these are 
called “complete” 
fertilizers, but they 
are very different. 
Well-balanced 
Fertilizer 
(testing 2-8-10) 
ACID 
PHOSPHATE 
56 LBS 
V MURIATE OF 
POTASH 
20 LBS 
If you prefer ready-mixed fer- 
j tilizers, insist on having enough 
Potash in them to raise the crop 
as well as to raise the price. Crops 
contain more than three times as much Potash as phosphoric acid. 
It was found years ago that the composition 
of the crop is not a sure guide to the most 
profitable fertilizer, but it does not take a very 
smart man to figure out that a well-balanced 
fertilizer should contain at least as much Potash 
as Phosphoric acid. Insist on having it so. 
If you do not find the brand you want, make 
onr by adding enough Potash to make it right. 
To increase the Potash 5 per cent., add 10 
pounds of Muriate or Sulfate of Potash 
to each 100 pounds of mixed fertilizer; to 
increase it 10 per cent,, add 20 pounds. 
Talk to your dealer and ask him to rnrrv Potash in 
stock or order it for you. It will pay you both, for 
Potash Pays 
For particulars and prices write to 
__ . _ _ Continental Building, Baltimore 
GERMAN KALI WORKS Monadnock Block, Chicago, Ill. 
THE LITMUS TEST FOR SOIL. 
A. F. It., Farmville, la.—I notice you 
advised the use of litmus paper to ascertain 
whether or not soil needs lime. Will you 
describe the use of this paper? 
Ans. —You should obtain the lime 
Bulletin, issued by the Virginia Ex¬ 
periment station at Blacksburg. It is 
one of the best of its kind. “Litmus 
paper” may he described as fine blotting 
paper, stained blue with an extract of 
litmus obtained from a form of rock 
mosses or lichens. It is very sensitive 
to an acid, and whenever it is touched 
by acid changes its color to red, lighter 
or darker, according to the strength of 
the acid. To make the test, secure a 
fair sample of the soil by mixing dif¬ 
ferent specimens together. Make this 
soil moist enough to be firm and open 
a hole in it by thrusting down a knife- 
blade. Put a piece of the blue litmus 
paper into this hole and press the soil 
around it. Leave it an hour or more, 
and then take it out carefully. If the 
soil is acid, the paper will have turned 
color from pink to red. 
THE VARIETIES OF BUCKWHEAT. 
W. A. O.. Gansevoort, N. Y .—Please 
publish a list of varieties of buckwheat 
now grown, and a description of the same 
as far as possible. We grow two here, 
the Japanese and the Silver Hull or Silver 
Grey, but I am under the impression that 
there are one or two other sorts, one a 
small brown kernel. 
Ans. —Botanists have assigned the 
cultivated forms of buckwheat to three 
distinct species: 1. Fagopyrum escu- 
lentum, common or true buckwheat. 
2. F. emarginatum, notch-seeded buck¬ 
wheat. 3. F. Tataricum, Tartary or Si¬ 
berian buckwheat. The notch-seeded 
buckwheat is not known to have been 
grown in this country, but is reported as 
cultivated in India and China. By some 
botanists it is regarded as a form of 
Fagopyrum esculentum, the common 
buckwheat. It is distinguished by hav¬ 
ing the angles of the hull extended into 
wide margins or wings. The Tartary 
buckwheat is cultivated in the cooler and 
more mountainous regions of Asia and 
to some extent in Canada and Maine. 
It is recommended for its superior hardi¬ 
ness. It has been tried in Pennsylvania, 
but without satisfactory results. The 
grain is smaller than the common buck¬ 
wheat, the plants are more slender and 
the leaves arrow shaped. It is sometimes 
called India wheat and duckwheat. The 
true buckwheat has bright, white or 
pink-tinged flowers in large trusses or 
heads; the India wheat has smaller 
greenish white flowers in small heads, 
and also small leaves. The grain of 
buckwheat has regular angles; that of 
the India wheat has wavy or slightly 
notched angles. The common buckwheat 
(Fagopyrum esculentum) is the most 
valuable and most widely grown form. 
It is met with wild in China and Siberia 
and enters into the agriculture of every 
country where grain crops are culti¬ 
vated. In China it has been grown 
and used for food from time imme¬ 
morial. In Japan it is held in general 
esteem, and in Russia it is also largely 
consumed. It has been cultivated for 
centuries in England, France, Spain, 
Italy and Germany. In all European 
countries it is chiefly consumed by the 
poorer classes, but it has remained for 
the American housewife to learn how to 
prepare it so as to please the palate of 
the epicure. The buckwheat pancake 
is a peculiarly American institution. 
Formerly it constituted the major part 
of the bread diet of the greater portion 
of the rural population of the New Eng¬ 
land and Middle States during the Win¬ 
ter season. It has now won its way to 
the breakfast table of the city resident 
as well, and when served hot with maple 
syrup is considered the peer of the finest 
production of the French diet. 
There are three principal varieties of 
buckwheat grown in America, the Com¬ 
mon Gray, Silver Hull, and Japanese. 
The seed of Silver Hull is slightly 
smaller than the Common Gray, the color 
is lighter and of a glossy, silvery ap¬ 
pearance. The Japanese is larger than 
the Gray, of somewhat darker color, and 
there is a tendency for the angles or 
edges of the hull to extend into a wing, 
making the faces of the grain more 
concave. The plant of the Japanese 
variety is a somewhat larger grower 
than the others, the fresh stem has a 
green color and the flowers seem not 
to be quite so subject to blasting from 
hot sunshine as the others. On this ac¬ 
count it is recommended in some lo¬ 
calities to sow the Silver Hull and Jap¬ 
anese varieties mixed, it being said that 
the later and hardier Japanese will shade 
and protect the others from hot sunshine, 
thus avoiding blasting and securing a 
larger zone of seed-bearing straw than 
is furnished by either sort alone, a 
larger yield resulting. The Silver Hull 
variety has a red stem and branches 
more freely than the others. The leaves 
also are smaller. Each of these varieties 
has produced largest yields in certain 
tests. It seems that there is adaptation 
of variety to soil or climate or, perhaps, 
to w r eather conditions that has not yet 
been worked out, that produces these 
contradictory results. However, the 
yielding quality of the Japanese variety 
is usually conceded to be superior to 
that of the others. 
Formerly the flouring qualities of 
th Japanese variety were pronounced 
by many millers to be inferior to the 
other sorts, and not infrequently the 
price of Japanese buckwheat was five 
or 10 cents per bushel less than the 
others. In some localities this condi¬ 
tion still prevails; in others the reverse 
is true. In parts of Seneca County, 
New York, in recent seasons the millers 
have offered a bonus of five cents per 
bushel for the Japanese variety. Wheth¬ 
er this change in the estimate of the 
variety is due to improvement in the 
quality of the grain due to acclimatiza¬ 
tion, or to better adaptation of the 
milling methods to the variety has not 
been ascertained. j. L. stone. 
IvAAfl Forme All over New York State. 
UUUII rClimb Low prices and reasonable 
terms. First-class markets. Low taxes. Catalog 
free to buyers. NORTHERN REALTY CO.. Syracuse. N. Y. 
IC n forme FOR SALE CHEAP, ill fertile 
IJU r CJ11115 Delaware Valley. New catalogue 
and map free. Horace G. Reeder, Newtown. Pa. 
1 SEI.I, FARMS IX OCF.AXA. the best Co. in the TT.fv Fruit., min 
I and stock. Write for list. J. D. 8. HAN80N. Hart, Midi. 
THE PLANT FOOD PROBLEM SOLVED 
BY USERS OF 
Bradley’s Fertilizers 
“The World’s Best By Every Test” 
Sometimes farmers say they cannot afford to use as much 
as 1000 lbs. of fertilizer per acre, yet many farmers have 
proved that as much or more is very profitable to them. 
How much to use is a problem every one must work out 
for himself. Our most successful customers say they find 
as they have increased from y^ear to year the amount of 
fertilizer used, the easier it has been to pay for it. This is 
the way they express the greater profit derived from using 
1500 to 2000 lbs. per acre instead of a smaller quantity on 
their market crops. 
Many of them use a ton to the acre of Bradley’s High Grade 
Fertilizer and find that it pays in the crop marketed and in the up¬ 
keep or improvement of the land for succeeding' crops. You cannot 
tell without experimenting: how much fertilizer will pay you best. If 
you have not already solved this problem, begin next season and use 
Bradley’s Fertilizers 
Our local agents have a new descriptive booklet and 
calendar for 1911 for you. If we have no agent near you 
write us today for our agency proposition. Address Depart¬ 
ment M 
BRADLEY FERTILIZER WORKS 
OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICAL CO. 
92 State St., 
Boston. 
2 Rector St., 
New York. 
P. 0. Drawer 970, 
Buffalo. 
Rose Building, 
Cleveland. 
Cincinnati Office, 1204 Second National Bank Building. 
