1 To 
THE RURAL NKW-VOKKKM 
predation of buildings and birds, but not allowing 
for labor. I have given the mash in Mr. Barron's 
own words, because the “parts” make more than 
a “whole.” The reader can fix that to suit himself. 
I don’t have to. gko. a. cosgrove. 
A FARMER ON FOOL LAWS. 
I cut the enclosed clipping out of a Rochester 
daily January 14. My little grandson tracked a 
rabbit into a hole in a large oak tree near the barn, 
and wanted me to go out and help him get it out. 
1 went with him and about five feet from the tree 
scared up a pheasant so nearly frozen that it could 
only just fiy. T looked where it had been and there 
up close to it was another frozen to death. I have 
written to the State Conservation Commission to 
know what 1 shall do with it. I have no question 
but that from one-third to one-half of the birds 
through the country have frozen to death during the 
late cold weather. Some of the farmers around 
here have drawn out straw and thrown grain out 
for them to eat, and many more would look after 
them only for the present game laws. I was talking 
with a physician the other day who had just been 
out examining some school children for a health 
certificate, and I asked him what he thought of if. 
His reply was: “With all the red tape connected 
with it it’s another one of those fool laws that the 
lawyers have been passing up at Albany, and there 
are a good many of them.” The people are begin¬ 
ning to wake up. x. h. king. 
Tompkins Co., N. Y. 
li. N.-Y.—The clipping which Mr. King refers to 
follows: 
Rath, Jan. 13.—Some days ago a Mongolian pheasant 
was discovered by two State garni- protectors in the 
poultry yard of a farmer - named Stamp, near Savona. 
As the pheasant is strictly guarded tinder the game laws, 
its presence with the Stamp poultry was regarded by 
the officers as a violation of tire law on Stamp’s part. 
Before Justice Frank Gay, Mr. Stamp related that he 
had found the bird in the fields, wounded, and placed 
it in his poultry yard to afford the bird a chance to 
recover. The justice submitted Mr. Stamp’s version 
of tiie case to the State Conservation Commission which 
now recommends that the proceedings against Mr. 
Stamp be dismissed 
AFRICAN GEESE. 
Goose raising is one of the undeveloped industries 
of this country that has possibilities far beyond any¬ 
thing yet attained, li is no get-rich-quick scheme. 
Iu lurid attractiveness it cannot compete with gold 
mines and ginseng culture, but as a ineaus of sub¬ 
stantially increasing the income of the farm it holds 
out inducements to those who are favorably situated 
and like geese. Those who do not like them should 
not attempt to keep them. Most geese are more or 
less noisy, and finicky neighbors are liable to object 
to their music. A pond or pool of water is more 
necessary during the breeding season than for ducks. 
Geese need more room than most fowls; they will 
hardly be profitable without it; but given a poo! of 
water, at least during the breeding season, and 
plenty of pasture, they are the most cheaply kept 
birds oue can raise on the farm. 
The three breeds of geese that are mostly raised 
for the market are African, Embden and Toulouse. 
Each breed has its merits and its champions. In 
this article we will consider the Africans. In style 
and portliness of carriage no other breed can com¬ 
pete with the Africans except the Brown Chinese, 
aud they lack size. For early maturity, making the 
goslings marketable at 10 or 12 weeks of age. the 
Africans probably stand at the head of all varieties. 
They can be grown to a weight of nine to 11 pounds 
in 12 weeks on less feed than is given to Pekin 
ducklings in the same time, with a weight in the 
latter case of six or seven pounds. Of the two birds 
I consider the green gosling the superior on the 
table. It is only fair to say, however, that there is 
not now the large market for green goslings that 
there is for ducks, for no pioneer has as yet worked 
one up. Here is abundant opportunity for some one 
to enter an misapplied market. 
The general color of the African goose is a brown¬ 
ish gray, shading to light gray and white below and 
to dark brown on the back of the head and neck. 
The bill and knob, which every standard African 
must have, are black. Any orange will disqualify 
for the show room, but not for the table. Down 
the hack of the head and neck runs a dark brown, 
or grayish brown, stripe which is peculiar to this 
breed and to the Brown Chinas. An adult African 
should have a dewlap, or fold ol’ the skin, under the 
throat, the larger the better. Absence of this is 
another cause for disqualification in the show room. 
The African so closely resembles the Brown China 
geese in everything but size that it is probable that 
both breeds had the same origin, one being developed 
for size and the other for egg production. I have 
been informed that a prominent duck breeder, who 
always fed his birds heavily for marketing, pur¬ 
chased some Brown China geese and in a few gen¬ 
erations had so increased their size that he exhibited 
them as Africans. The standard weight of an adult 
African gander is 20 pounds, of an adult goose IS; 
young gander 16 and young goose 14. These weights 
make the African a good medium sized table bird 
not so large as to be coarse. w. h. husk. 
New Hampshire. 
NUT NOTES FROM MARYLAND. 
I have been greatly interested in several articles 
of late on the subject of nut culture, looking toward 
nuts as a source of profit The article by .1. Russell 
Smith brings it tip fresh in my mind. I live about 
20 miles north of Washington, I). C., elevation about 
r.00 feet above tide or sea level, as taken from the 
bench marks made by U. S. Survey. Several times 
in the last 50 years our thermometers have marked 
20 degrees or mere below zero. I give this to show 
what our nut trees have been exposed to, and still 
flourish. On one farm, noted for the low tempera¬ 
ture and very near running water, are several 
healthy pecan trees. I have no means of giving 
their ages; they are about IS inches iu diameter 
with fine spreading branches, an ideal shade tree. 
They bear a fair crop of nuts annually of moderate 
size; never saw one not well filled, or in any way 
inferior in quality to the average that we buy in 
the nut stores. I am raising some trees from these; 
do not expect to live to see them bear, but hope 
someone else will. 
An old uncle had his life estate in the farm where 
the pecan trees are now flourishing; do not remem¬ 
ber hearing from what source the seed or young 
trees came. He lived on the farm over fit) years. 
Two or three years since was a very cold Winter 
here. On the same farm 26 degrees below zero was 
the mark. With a much better crop of nuts than 
this season, last Spring a freeze when the young 
shoots on grapevines were grown over a foot in 
length, killing back many to the old wood, did not 
<-- 6ft. 4-in. ----^ 
T 
IU u: 
Spotting Board for Transmitting to Cold Frames. 1- ig. 0C. 
injure the pecan trees, but no doubt reduced the 
crop of nuts. 
We have two young trees of the English or Per¬ 
sian walnut near here on different farms. One came 
to the present owner in a flower pot, the other with 
a lot of apple trees from Maryland. The trees are 
about the same age. both planted with Southern ex¬ 
posure, on land of good quality. These trees have 
been producing nuts of about the same size and gen¬ 
eral appearance as those we got from California. 
There is oue great difference in these trees in the 
time of blooming, and growth of the leaves. I think 
the difference amounts to at least two weeks. Such 
points of difference ought to be or use in starting 
an orchard. It takes time for such work; this be¬ 
ing an auto age, so few young men are willing to 
start a slow job like growing walnuts from the nut. 
I am nearly 76 years old; am making a very late 
start, nevertheless have planted nuts from each of 
the above trees, all carefully marked and hope some¬ 
one will know more than I do. There is an old tree 
in Wilmington, Del., that has been producing regu¬ 
larly for many years. I think the nuts rather larger 
and perhaps somewhat thinner shell. I have a few 
tuts from this tree also planted. I am not trying to 
get up a corner in some special brand of Persian 
walnuts. I have seen one common black walnut tree 
produce 16 bushels. Most of the old trees planted 
by my great-grandfather have grown too valuable to 
be allowed to stand and bear nuts. When a walnut 
is three feet and over in diameter an offer of $100 
to $150 on stump is too much for these times. In 
this locality the native black walnut usually bears 
freely some nuts larger and of much better quality 
than others. Men are much like sheep, all follow 
the leader. Would it not be far better if some would 
raise nuts instead of so many apples? I notice Per¬ 
sian walnuts seem to flourish near Rochester; sup¬ 
pose they are just seedlings. thos. j. leak. 
Montgomery Co., Md. 
The final estimate of the Dominion Government 
shows that Canada's principal field crops in 1613 cov¬ 
ered 35,375,060 acres, as against 35,575.000 acres in 
1612, and their value at local market prices was $552,- 
771,500, as compared with $557,314,100 in the preceding 
year. The principal crops were: Wheat, 231.717.000 
bushels, value $156,462,000; oats, 404,666,000 bushels, 
value $128,863,000; flaxseed, 17.536.000 bushels, valued 
at $17,0X4,000. The wheat and oats crops for 1613 are 
the highest on record in Canada. 
February 7, 
SOLUBLE CHEMICALS FOR IOWA. 
Can you tell me without testing the soil what kind 
of chemical manure I should use on Fall or Winter 
wheat to increase the yield? Ground is rich enough 
to raise 50 bushels of corn or same of oats in any 
average year. I have sown 80 acres in wheat Septem¬ 
ber last, and want to see how many bushels I can raise 
per acre, I think I should have a manure well up in 
phosphorus and potash. Will bone meal be the right, 
kind, harrowed in as soon as ground is dry in Spring? 
This land is in Cerro Gordo Co., Ia., and was known 
as the quack grass farm; we have had only one crop 
on it; that was last year. Do you think it will pay 
to begin using commercial manure in Iowa, or would 
it be well enough to sow clover (as all our land raises 
good clover) and plow it in for manure? Does clover 
put in phosphorus and potash in soil, or only nitrogen? 
We intend to cultivate all this wheat in Spring, and 
would like to know the kind of manure (commercial) 
we should buy and how much to apply per acre. We 
have some land here in Dallas Co., Ia., that we have 
farmed 40 years; and begun on the original sod have 
made some tests in cultivation, but none with com 
menial manure. In 1613 we drilled 28 acres of Fall 
wheat, about 1% bushels in last of September, and did 
nothing as to cultivation ; in 1613 we put same piece 
in again and harrowed it and as ground was so hard 
that it hardly showed the mark of harrow we disked 
il with an eight-foot disk and hitched a harrow behind, 
which was all the cultivation it had. The result was 
that without cultivation the yield was 28 busuers per 
acre, hut not as good quality. East year with above 
work in cultivation on same piece we thrashed 36 
bushels of 62-pound wheat per acre, and I wish to raise 
the yield to 50 bushels. This farm has always been 
manured with farm manure. We have enough to cover 
30 acres per year. Will commercial manure help this 
farm? All wheat looks fine now, no snow here to 
amount to anything yet. u. l. l. 
Waukee, Iowa. 
No one can tell you without careful testing what 
such soils actually need, or whether chemicals will 
pay. General experiments and history indicate that 
phosphoric acid will prove profitable, probably 
potash and possibly nitrogen. Many experiments 
have been tried throughout the Central West, both 
in using chemicals and in testing and analyzing 
soils. As a rule these show that phosphoric acid is 
most likely to he found lacking, or most likely to 
increase the grain crops. This idea is corroborated 
l y history. For many years these soils have ex¬ 
ported grain and live stock—cacvi ton of grain or 
live meat carrying a certain amount of phosphoric 
acid. These crops of course carried nitrogen also, 
but this has been in part restored by the clover and 
Alfalfa which has been grown and fed. The clover 
obtained some nitrogen from the air, and the greater 
part of what it contained was left behind in the 
manure. Here are figures to show what history 
teaches regarding the exports of plant food: 
Rounds to til* - Ton 
Nitrogen Rhos. Acid l’otasli 
Live Stock . 
. . 54 
37 
4 
Wheat . 
. . 38 
It 
16 
Corn . 
90 
• • Oo 
12 
8 
Oats . 
. . oT 
13 
9 
While, as we see, it is possible to replace part of 
Ihe nitrogen thus taken away, by growing clover or 
Alfalfa, the phosphoric acid and the potash thus 
removed cannot he supplied except in what we call 
fertilizing substances. Certain crops or certain 
forms of culture make plant food available to crops 
like corn or wheat. For example turnips appear to 
have some power to utilize potash which wheat 
could not use, and buckwheat or rye may do the 
same with phosphoric acid. Then when such crops 
were plowed under or fed to stock they might in¬ 
crease the available supply to some extent. Lime 
and land plaster, or perhaps salt, may also do some¬ 
thing of this, but in general when potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid become deficient in a soil fertilizer must 
he used to supply what is needed. 
As we see, there is but little loss of potash in 
live stock farming, hut when grain, and especially 
wheat, has been grown for some years. There is 
considerable loss of both potash and phosphoric acid. 
The chances are that soluble phosphoric acid will 
help your wheat at once and probably potash will be 
used at a profit. You can only tell by trying. Bone 
meal will supply phosphoric acid and a little nitro¬ 
gen, but it contains no potash whatever. We do not 
know your price of bone meal, but probably acid 
phosphate will give you a cheaper form of phos¬ 
phoric acid. The usual advice is to use three parts 
by weight of acid phosphate to one part of muriate 
of potash. You will obtain better results by drilling 
in this mixture at seeding rather than broadcasting 
and harrowing in Spring. The clover does not add 
potash or phosphoric acid to the soil. We should 
experiment with different quantities per acre—all 
the way from 250 pounds to 500. We do not con¬ 
sider ground rock phosphate in this discussion, as 
it seems that your soil may now he reasonably well 
supplied with unavailable phosphorus. In order to 
increase your large yield you need, if anything, a 
small quantity of available food. Finally, you are 
the only man who can answer your question and 
you can only do it by trying the chemicals. 
