3 
, <T H IS K NEW-YORKER 
one-third as sour as pure lemon juice. All farmers 
who have cleared off woodland know that rye and 
buckwheat do better as first crops than wheat or 
oats. It is common remark, too, that potatoes on 
this new woodland soil are always remarkably free 
from scab. We know that the scab germ cannot 
develop well in a sour soil. Yet after a time wheat 
and Timothy do better, and scab appears on potatoes. 
How does it happen that this soil, originally sour 
from the tree leaves, slowly grows sweeter? 
Strange as it may seem, these leaves, though so 
sour, contain considerable quantities of lime. The 
following table shows how much lime some of them 
contain: 
Table Tl.—Percentage of lime'in freshly fallen leaves, in 
terms of calcium carbonate, or ground limestone. 
Kiud of leaves. 
Percent¬ 
age 
of lime. 
Kind of leaves. 
Percent- 
a ge 
of lime. 
White oak. 
1.12 
Sugar maple. 
4.56 
Red oak. 
3. OS 
Tulip tree. 
5.06 
Silver maple. 
3.31 
Virginia pine. 
.16 
Here is a curious thing. Soils containing as much 
lime would be considered alkaline, yet, as stated, 
some of these leaves are much sourer than lemonade. 
Professor Coville shows that this lime does not exist 
in the form of actual calcium oxide. It is combined 
with the acids in the leaf, but there is not enough of 
i( to fully neutralize them. Thus the leaves of the 
silver maple are nearly as sour as lemon juice, while 
they contain over three per cent, of lime. Now these 
acids are organic and, as decay slowly goes on, these 
acids are disorganized and pass away as gas and 
liquids. The lime, however, remains, and as the 
acids pass off, of course the remains of the leaves 
are alkaline. This accounts for the fact that the 
blueberry, an acid soil plant, does well in the sour 
soil, but fails when the acids have worked out of it, 
while the reverse of this is true of the Alfalfa. 
Professor Coville shows how soils, naturally poor 
in lime, may, when cleared of the forest, show for 
25 years or more lime in the upper soil and consider¬ 
able fertility. Trees and large plants in such soils 
concentrate lime at the surface. They draw this 
lime through their roots from deep down in the soil 
and store it up in their leaves. These fall filled with 
acid and accumulate upon the ground. The acids 
pass off and leave the lime, which thus slowly ac¬ 
cumulates in the upper soil—transferred from below 
through the trees. That is why the timber lands in 
our Eastern States are found to be fertile when first 
cleared, though upon soils which are known to be 
naturally deficient in lime. After some years of 
cropping this lime in the surface soil fails, and there 
being little more to take its place the soil grows sour. 
This is evidently the history of many of our Eastern 
soils which have grown non-productive in these crops 
which demand alkaline conditions. Farmers who 
handle such soils must use lime in order to sweeten 
them, or plant the crops which are naturally suited 
to acid soils. There are crops which have the power 
to obtain their food under acid conditions. We shall 
consider them next. 
FARMING ON SHARES. 
This is the first of several articles on the relations 
between landlord and tenant. The statements here 
given are correct—the outcome being probably better 
than Ihe average tenant receives. The landlord’s side 
will also be given. Every turn makes it more evident 
that the greatest need is some pbm which will permit a 
good tenant farmer to own and stock a farm. 
For two years I have been working a farm on 
shares. The farm was in a run-down condition, not 
furnishing enough to keep the stock. The owner 
lives on the farm, is well fixed financially, and al¬ 
though our methods and opinions differ we have no 
quarrels. I knew this place didn’t pay well, but 
there were so many tilings being done haphazard 
that it seemed as if a better management would 
make better pay. April 1st I took possession, and 
soon had my hands full, too. The cows were a mix¬ 
ture of all the breeds the country could produce. 
They were in a half-starved condition, some of them 
so weak they could hardly stand. My first move 
was to buy grain for them. The owner said they 
had never been grained before, but didn't object to 
standing half the feed bill. 
The plowing all had to be done and the manure 
all got out, so I was late getting the crops in the 
ground. The owner buys all grass seed and lime, 
and furnishes one-half the other seeds. I plowed 
deep, turning up soil that hadn’t seen daylight before 
in years. I sowed lime on the new seeding and had 
good crops, all but hay; that was light and poor 
quality. The new seeding was good. The veals 
went to market clean and in pretty good condition. 
The milk goes to a cheese factory. It cannot be sold 
in the city because the barns won’t stand inspection. 
In the Fall I prevailed on the owner to sell off 
some of the poor cows; by so doing I had enough to 
keep the rest without buying anything but grain. A 
small amount of grain seemed to go farther with 
these cows than it does with cows that are in the 
habit of being grained, but a cull cow hasn’t the 
capacity for a big flow of milk. Feed her a big 
amount of grain and she is more apt to take on fat 
than to give more milk. 
The Spring I took the place there had to be a bull 
bought. The owner asked my advice concerning 
what breed would bt best. I thought here was my 
chance to improve tne herd, and, considering the 
cows were mostly large, some black and white, some 
blue roans, and but one Ayrshire and one part Jer- 
Wiiere Packing is Done. Fig. 2. 
sey, I advised a Holstein. After a few days the 
owner informed me the bull was bought and I was 
to go after him. lie was a purebred Holstein bull 
calf three days old. Shortly after this a scrubby 
yearling bull was bought to head the herd till the 
purebred grew up from ealfhood. There were no 
hogs kept, so I bought two pigs, the owner paying 
for one. We each furnish one-half the feed. Of 
o 
course all the work comes to me—butchering, mar¬ 
keting, etc. I get one-half. At the end of the first 
year, when I figured up, I find this place has turned 
me in money less than one dollar a day. The owner 
said: "Well, by the time my taxes are paid, grass 
seed and lime and one-lmlf the other seeds, one-half 
Packing Table. Fig. 3. 
the grain bill paid. I'm afraid I won't have the in¬ 
terest on my money invested.” 
Now of course I have my team nearly kept, a 
house to live in and gas to burn, an average of one 
quart of milk a day, about 20 pounds of butter made 
in the Winter, potatoes and some apples. But out of 
this $32.'; I have to pay my hired help, buy one-half 
the grain for cows, buy one-half seed corn, seed po¬ 
tatoes. millet and oats, pay the thrashing bills and 
hire a binder. This year I have done no better; 90 
days between killing frosts cut down the green fod¬ 
der, and the hay was very light. What is the trou¬ 
ble? My wife and I work hard, live as economically 
as we can, and moreover are giving good satisfac- 
Boxing The Fruit. Fig. 4. 
tion. That I haven’t got in debt is a wonder. But 
it seems to me that any farm with an average of 12 
head of cows, vealing all calves but two a year, and 
selling dressed hogs ought to do better than that. 
The farm is in better shape than when I took it. 
The stock can be kept without buying hay. The 
manure has been hauled directly on the fields; they 
being nearly level there isn’t any waste, where before 
it had been wheeled out behind the barn till Spring 
and then hauled to a field and piled up in a great 
heap in some corner to rot, and it usually did right 
there. The barns are clean and warmer, a heater 
put in the watering trough, and the fences improved 
till the cattle actually shay in their own p^ffir'es. 
January 
Several people have applied for this place the coming 
year, where two years ago no one wanted it but me. 
And I have been climbing over the fence in the same 
length the gate was in ever since I came here. When 
I leave here next Spring I shall have a heifer (from 
one of these great cows) and a good grade yearling 
that I bought to take with me, also experience. 
Back of capital has prevented my raising paying 
crops, such as potatoes, for all of my time had to go 
to raising forage for these cattle. I wanted to do 
the farming in a more modern way. but the owner 
objected, and, as I said in the beginning, we have 
had no quarrels, but I would like sometimes to get 
the owner to the cow barn in hearing of the cows 
and express my mind fully. I am done farming on 
shares. When I work another farm it will be one 
I have bought and run in debt for. Take the one- 
half you have been banding your landlord and pay 
your taxes out of it and such improvements as you 
must have; you ought to have a few dollars to pay 
on your place; but don’t take a farm to work on 
shares that has more cows than it can support. Bet¬ 
ter that the owner of the place has to depend on it 
for a living, for then they are interested and see the 
necessity of improving. But this one says, “Go ahead 
and improve all you wan; to, but don’t make me 
pay for it.” e. d. 
THE USE OF RAW ROCK PHOSPHATE. 
In looking over some old copies of Tiie R. N.-Y. I 
found an article on page 400 year 1909, in regard to 
raw rock phosphate, which goes to show that this ma¬ 
terial is of small benefit, anl that manure does not 
make the phosphate available. If this is true I am in 
for it, as I have a carload (delivered last Spring) and 
a 20-acre field covered (before 4 la go corn) with manure 
and raw rock at rate of 000 pninds per acre, 15 loads 
manure per acre. This was sol, Spring plowed, sandy 
loam. Corn was drilled three 'cot apart, six inches in 
row. The dry weather fired it at the bottom quite a 
little and otherwise damaged tie growth through lack 
of moisture, so I cannot know ifphospliate helped either 
way. I have finished plowing ths for oats and potatoes 
next Spring, and have been hopiig for great things from 
manure and phosphate. Can you toll me whether I hope 
in vain? Are your sources of nformation giving out 
the same statements now? Pnf. Hopkins of Illinois 
Experiment Station seems to consider this material the 
proper stuff to use now in preerence to high-priced 
available fertilizers. j. -r. r 
Middle Grove, N. Y. 
It is true that we reported bur years ago some 
experiments in which it was shewn that mixing the 
raw; phosphate with manure (lid not make the phos¬ 
phate “available.” Since that tine many other ex¬ 
periments have been made both past and West, yet 
the controversy is still open. Tost, of our expert 
scientists at the East seem to agr»e that on our thin¬ 
ner acid soils and with our special crops it pays bet¬ 
ter to use an “available” form <f phosphoric acid 
like acid phosphate or bone. As a rule, they are not 
enthusiastic over raw phosphate, bn the other hand, 
a number of farmers are using the rock phosphate 
and speak highly of it. When we get them down to 
facts they cannot really show results, but anticipate 
them in the future from what ought to be. On the 
oilier hand, it seems to be settled that in parts of 
Illinois, and perhaps in Ohio and Wisconsin, the raw 
rock has given definite and evident results. It does 
not seem possible that the Experiment Station of 
Illinois would continue to advocate this rock phos¬ 
phate as it does unless it were tow sure of its 
ground. So far as we can learn, the best results 
are obtained on soils rich in humus and highly ma¬ 
nured and naturally deficient in phosphorus. 
Across the river from Illinois, in Missouri, quite 
different results are noted. In that State good farm¬ 
ers tell us frankly that they have mt been able to 
secure anything like the returns from rock phosphate 
which are mentioned by the Illinois Ixperiment Sta¬ 
tion. They find after fair trial that tie more soluble 
forms of phosphoric acid, like bone tneal and acid 
phosphate, have proved more profitafie; yet there 
are cases where raw phosphates have done remark¬ 
ably well. The difference in these resi.lts is ascribed 
to the fact that some soils, and particjihi rly some in 
Illinois, are not only low in natural phosphates, but 
are high in organic matter. Of cours?, a soil natu¬ 
rally low in phosphates is one upon which the rock 
phosphate would be expected to giv« best return. 
On the other hand, a soil naturally supplied with 
phosphates, but low in organic matter, would give 
more profitable and quicker results with the avail¬ 
able phosphoric acid. Thus we think the Missouri 
Experiment Station, as a general proposition, recom¬ 
mends the use of raw phosphate chiefly for farmers 
who own their own land, and who either grow cover 
crops or turn under a rich clover sod. The man who 
owns his own farm can afford to wait for slow re¬ 
sults from the raw phosphate. If he is a tenant lie 
would be more likely to obtain immediate results 
from the acid phosphate or bone. We think that 
this is a fair statement of the situation. We do not 
believe that our friend will lose anything from his 
use of the raw phosphate rock. lie nu.y be obliged 
to writ some years to obtain a fair showing. 
