1014 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
629 
SEEDING ALFALFA. 
I have about four acres of sandy loam, 
which has been mown for years and the 
meadow run out. It is in fair state of 
cultivation. Will you give me instruc¬ 
tions for plowing the held and sowing 
Alfalfa this year? I desire also 8% 
acres which was sown to oats two or 
three years by renters without seeding. 
I raised a fair crop of potatoes last year 
on the piece, but harvested too late to 
sow to wheat and seed. Could this be 
seeded to Red clover in the Spring with 
any degree of success? If not tell me the 
next best step. V. M. ir. 
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 
Cover the worn-out meadow with good 
barnyard manure and apply two tons per 
acre of ground limestone rock, the lat¬ 
ter preferably, being put on just after 
the ground was plowed and not plowed 
under. We would wish the rock to be 
mixed with the top four inches of the 
soil in order to correct acidity, which 
would probably be present, and thus 
benefit the little Alfalfa plants when they 
were just gettng started rather than to 
have it plowed clear under, in which case 
the plants might suffer from acidity for 
some time before the lime could benefit 
them. In addition to these, 200 pounds 
per acre of steamed bone meal or of 
basic slag should be used. A larger 
application even than this would be an 
advantage, and would not require to be 
renewed as often as the lighter applica¬ 
tion. We would prepare a good seed bed 
and during the first half of April would 
seed the Alfalfa, using 20 pounds per 
acre of good seed, with one bushel of 
beardless barley. After removing the bar¬ 
ley the field might require clipping once, 
but this should be done not later than 
September 1. The other field could be 
handled in just the same way, excepting 
to substitute the clover seed for Alfalfa. 
CIIAS. B. WING. 
THE CULTURE OF HORSERADISH. 
Will you tell me about the culture of 
horseradish? My soil is a clay loam 
with yellow clay sub-soil, in a good state 
of cultivation. I plowed a nine-inch fur¬ 
row, then followed with a one-horse plow 
and turned four inches in the bottom of 
the first furrow. The ground had been 
in corn the year before, and I plowed 
under a good coat of manure. I furrowed 
as for potatoes, dropped six or eight-inch 
pieces of roots the size of a lead pencil, 
and 18 inches apart. The roots I gath¬ 
ered in old gardens, and were never cul¬ 
tivated but rather fought. I covered the 
roots three or four inches deep, and cared 
for them the same as I did for my corn. 
The tops were immense, they stood above 
my waist, dark and thrifty, but when 
I come to dig it all I had a mass of 
lateral roots. I weighed some single 
roots that went over eight pounds and 
had a spread of four feet, but there 
would not be over a pound of salable 
root. Was it a fault of soil, fertiliza¬ 
tion, roots or culture? d. r. b. 
Pittsfield, Pa. 
This crop requires a deep rich soil such 
as is found in the best market gardens 
of the country, and being naturally a 
swamp plant, if the land is inclined to 
considerable moisture all the better. 
Horseradish cannot be grown into first- 
class marketable roots on ordinary farm 
land the first year, no matter how well 
it may be manured. I think your land, 
however, was rich enough, but the ma¬ 
nure was too raw, which supplied an 
excess of nitrogen. I judge this to be the 
case from the rank growth of top and 
root, but your manner of planting was 
greatly at fault, which at least accounts 
in part for the great spread of lateral 
roots. 
In the vicinity of New York and Phila¬ 
delphia the market gardens usually grow 
horseradish as a second crop, either with 
early cabbage, cauliflower or beets, and 
the planting is performed in the follow¬ 
ing manner: If planted with cabbage, 
the ground is lined off in rows 12 to 15 
inches apart and the cabbage is planted 
in every alternate row. The planting of 
the cabbage is accompanied first, when 
the rows left vacant are planted to horse¬ 
radish about 10 inches apart in the row, 
done in the following manner: With a 
sharpened stick about the thickness of 
a rake handle or a small iron bar, a 
hole eight to 10 inches deep is made, into 
which is dropped a small root six to 
eight inches long. This will bring the 
top end of the root two inches or more 
below the surface of the ground. With 
the foot, draw fine soil in over the root 
and press it down as in setting any other 
plant. As it is not desirable to have 
the roots make any top growth until 
the crop of cabbage is cleared off, the | 
deep covering of the root will be an ad¬ 
vantage in delaying the pushing up 
of tops, and if any should push above 
ground they are to be chopped off with 
the hoe and treated same as if they were 
weeds. This chopping off the top growth 
will in no way interfere with the making 
of the crop, as it is in the latter part 
of Summer the plants make their prin¬ 
ciple growth. After the cabbage has 
been cleared off in July the horseradish 
should be allowed to grow at will. About 
one good cultivation will be all that is 
necessary, as the leaves will cover the 
ground and, smother out practically all 
weeds. The horseradish being very 
hardy, it need not be dug until very 
late, and may be left in the ground un¬ 
til December, if the Winter is open 
enough to admit of digging the roots. 
The planting of the roots should not be 
done earlier than May first. If the land 
is in good tilth and the season favorable 
the plants will produce salable roots 
weighing from three-fourths of a pound 
to one pound each. 
In the preparation of the finished pro¬ 
duct for market it should be grated fine 
and be entirely free from discoloration 
and woody substances. To accomplish 
this each root must be thoroughly washed 
and scraped clean of the outer skin or 
bark. This will leave the root nice and 
white and when grated and bottled pre¬ 
sents a very attractive appearance, which 
helps very much in the ready sale of it 
at a good price. All that is necessary to 
prevent it from spoiling is to cover it with 
pure cider vinegar (never use malt vin¬ 
egar) and tightly cork the bottles. K. 
OHIO HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
“Get a good sprayer, get one that will 
not go down on your hands. A day or 
two in spraying time will cut from a 
grower’s bank balance, the price of the 
best outfit on the market,” is the opin¬ 
ion of W. W. Farnsworth of Ohio. “No 
grower can afford to take a chance on a 
poor outfit, there are quite a number of 
good outfits on the market, the engine 
must be reliable, the pump must be effi¬ 
cient, and when it comes time to use it, 
the work must go along without a hitch. 
It will pay a man to go over his outfit, 
test it, have everything in readiness, and 
when spraying time comes, the work may 
go along without hitch or bother. It 
pays to be ready.” 
The practice of the Farnsworth Bros, 
of Ohio is interesting. They raise po¬ 
tatoes each alternate year in their or¬ 
chard. After the potatoes are removed 
they level the field, seed to rye, and in the 
Spring seed the rye down with clover. 
They cut the rye before maturity, use a 
side delivery rake and turn the rye up 
under the trees. They aim to cut clover 
that year and handle in the same man¬ 
ner. This provides mulch and a supple¬ 
mentary crop is secured each alternate 
year. 
The question of utilizing the soil while 
an orchard is developing is one that 
faces many horticulturists. W. N. Scarff 
of Ohio, describes this method which 
has been used by them : “Nine years ago 
we had an orchard of Montmorency 
cherries. We established this orchard in 
the Fall, and at the same time planted 
currants in the cherry tree rows, and 
three rows of currants between each row 
of cherry trees. The cherry trees were 
set 18x24 feet. In the Spring we set out 
strawberry plants between the rows of 
currants. These three crops came along 
very nicely, and in the Fall we had a 
good growth of strawberries, and the next 
year and the following year secured good 
crop. After two years we cut the cur¬ 
rants down for cuttings to supply our 
nursery trade. Our returns came quickly, 
we found that we received about §100 
the acre income from the system. We 
have received good rental for the ground, 
pay for our labor, interest on investment, 
and were out our money and labor only 
one year. This year we established five 
acres of blackberries, and between these 
we planted sweet potatoes. Had we es¬ 
tablished an apple orchard on this 
ground, the three plantings would have 
come along nicely.” 
Ohio apples must be advertised. This 
is the opinion of horticulturists in the 
Buckeye State, and for that reason the 
Ohio Apple Growers’ Association has 
been organized. The Farnsworth Bros, 
of Lucas county were among the first 
to see the need of the association, and 
at the State Horticultural meeting in 
the Summer of 1013 held at Toledo and 
at their farms, the matter was discussed 
and preliminary arrangements made. 
The horticultural meeting held in connec¬ 
tion with the Ohio Apple Show at Cleve¬ 
land witnessed the final completion of the 
organization. The policy of the associa¬ 
tion is to establish sentiment in favor 
of better pack, create interest among 
Ohio consumers for Ohio fruit, secure 
orchard inspection and packing demonstra¬ 
tions, and to secure the assured aid from 
the State. In Cleveland less than 10 
per cent, of the apples consumed were 
from Ohio trees, and the State of Ohio 
was producing but one-third the apples 
that were consumed. w. j. 
Balanced Rations and Why 
X :ip M" 
United States 
Government tells you 
ARE you feeding for beef, or 
■t*- milk? Or do you fatten a 
bunch of hogs each year? Uncle 
Sam has spent millions of dol¬ 
lars working out just the right 
kind of feeds under every pos¬ 
sible condition, and for every 
desired result, and all he found 
out is at your service in the 
Farmer’s Cyclopedia 
Abridged Agricultural Records 
OEND the coupon without money 
^ for the whole set on approval, 
and if it’s worth many times its low 
price to you, pay for it in little 
monthly payments. 
All the books in the world may not 
be able to teach a man how to plow 
a straight furrow, but a feed for¬ 
mula from a Government Bulletin 
can make a difference of $2 a head 
in the profit on hogs. That’s how 
Ned Hicks worked it out. Ned had 
rather scoffed at "book farming.” 
Fed his hogs on cornmeal and ear 
corn, like everybody else in the 
neighborhood. Cost him about six 
cents a pound to put on a hundred 
pounds during the fattening season. 
One day Ned read up on protein. 
And that year he fed his porkers 
cornmeal and ear corn PLUS blood- 
meal. It didn’t cost him any more, 
because he cut down on the corn, 
and it resulted in a gain of 150 
pounds per porker, instead of 100 
pounds, as formerly. When Ned 
finally figured it out, he found that 
he had made a profit of $2.65 per 
pig with the new way of feeding, 
as against fifty to seventy cents a 
head profit in the old days. 
N o wa days 
Ned AL¬ 
WAYS 
reads up on 
such things 
as feeding, 
or fertiliz¬ 
ing, or seed 
selection. IT 
PAYS. 
They Would Cost You $4,000 a Set 
'C'ACH year the Department of Agriculture spends 
millions of dollars in experimenting and col¬ 
lecting information. Valuable as it is, no human 
being could read it all. It would take 20,000 vol¬ 
umes—a whole house full of books to hold it all. 
And it would cost $4,000 to bind and put them 
into shape. At that it would be full of technical 
matter and things you wouldn’t care about. 
The Department of Agriculture Helps 
A YEAR or two ago a group of agricultural experts came to 
realize this situation and resolved to select the most au¬ 
thoritative and up-to-date matter on all topics of interest and 
importance to the farmer and country dweller—and nothing 
else. The Department of Agriculture and the State Experi¬ 
ment Stations did all in their power to forward the enterprise. 
The result you have here. 
E 
Each Minute You Spend With It Worth $5 to YOU 
7 Big Thick Volumes 
ACH volume 6x9 inches and l->£ inches thick. Bound in 
strong imported buckram with gold backs, title pages in 
2 colors—more than 5,000 pages—thousands of illustrations— 
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000 words—a special cross index so you can find what you 
want at a glance,—and every word worth money to you. 
Every word of tlie 3,000,000 will come back in bigger crops, 
more product per acre—more money—and less work. 
SEND NO MONEY 
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DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
Some of the Subjects 
Covered: 
Breeds of Horses 
Mules 
Breeds of Dairy Cattle 
Milk 
Breeds of Beef Cattle 
Sheep 
Breeds of Swine 
Poultry Keeping 
Other Animals 
Diseases of Horses 
Diseases of Swine 
Health and Disease ot Poultry 
Grass and Hay 
The Vegetable Garden 
Field Crops 
Various Farm Products 
Miscellaneous Crops 
Horticulture 
Pome Fruits 
Stone Fruits 
Forestry and Conservation 
Floriculture 
Other Farm Crops 
Entomology 
Diseases of Cultivated Plants 
Farm Management 
Special Farm Topics 
Soils and Fertilizers 
Home Economies and Education 
Agricultural Education 
How to Run the Farm Like a 
Business 
How Much it Costs per Acre 
to Grow Various Crops 
How Soils are Made and How 
They Can be Modified and 
Improved 
How to Design Attractive. Con¬ 
venient, Economical Farm 
Buildings 
What Most People Do Not 
Know About Feeding the 
Human Animals 
What the Farmer’sWifeShould 
Know About Pure Food, 
Drugs, Sanitation, Etc. 
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