1914. 
THIS RURAL NEW-YOKKKK 
iooe 
(here seems no ready solution. I imagine it will re¬ 
sult in our fertilizer manufacturers this coming 
year reducing to a minimum the potash content of 
their goods. It is interesting to notice in this con¬ 
nection that the commercial fertilizers as sold in 
(he early days contained little or no potash. I have 
in my hands an article by I’eter Collier, issued in the 
Vermont Agricultural Report for 1x72. This arti¬ 
cle discusses commercial fertilizers and contains the 
A COVER CROP OF RYE. Fig. 4S2. 
analyses of 28 samples drawn that year. They were 
apparently all the commercial fertilizers then sold in 
Vermont. The analyses were made before there was 
any State fertilizer law. Now the particular point 
is right here: that only three of these contained pot¬ 
ash—two of them containing less than 1 per cent, 
potash and one (a tobacco fertilizer), 314 per cent.; 
three of them were fakes; the rest of them were all 
fairly good materials. Furthermore, our records, 
running back consecutively as far as 18X4, show the 
average fertilizer sold in Vermont prior to 1SS7 car¬ 
ried less than 3 per cent, potash; and that in only 
three years, between 1XX7 and 1X94, did its average 
exceed 3 per cent, and then only by one-fourth of 1 
per cent. Now our farmers in those days grew 
crops, and without very large artificial potash feed¬ 
ing. In the last 20 years there has been a great deal 
of potash put in Vermont soils; much of it has been 
used, some of it has probably passed into drainage 
waters, but I am inclined to believe our soils have 
as much available potash as they had in the XOs and 
90s. and that Vermont farmers won't suffer fright¬ 
fully if the potash rations for their plants are for 
the time being lessened. J. l. ixills. 
Vermont Exp. Station. 
PLOWING UNDER GREEN CROPS. 
C AN you tell me how to attach chain to plow, in 
order to turn under a green crop? I have buck¬ 
wheat to turn under and wish to try the chain, 
but am at a loss to know how to attach chain to 
make it do what it is theoretically intended to do. If 
you answer this inquiry please give explicit details, as 
to length of chain, size of links and a sketch of how 
chain is applied to plow. In these days we read in 
farm papers about how to farm, written by those who 
have never been off Manhattan Island, like articles on 
CHAIN ADJUSTED FOR TURNING UNDER. 
Fig. 483. 
how to raise and train children are written by old 
maids. C. E. C. 
Wallkill, N. Y. 
We agree with the statement that people who 
have least experience with children are the ones 
who tell us most about how to bring them up. That 
seem to he one of the privileges which belong to the 
childless character. Very likely much the same 
thing is true in giving farm advice. We know that 
rarely a day passes that we do not receive a letter 
from some man who says that he has seen certain 
advice in a farm paper, but before he spends his 
money in following it, he would like to know 
whether it is sensible or not. 
The best we can do with this plow and chain 
proposition is to print a set of photographs showing 
how we do it on our own farm. Fig. 4x2 shows a 
growth of rye in a peach orchard. Each year we 
have a growth of rye, or rye and vetch, as a cover 
crop. We let it grow shoulder or head high before 
turning it under. It was a dull day when the pho¬ 
tograph was taken, but the comparative height of the 
rye is indicated in the picture. Fig. 483 shows as 
well as we could with a photograph how this rye 
was turned under. As will be seen, a heavy chain 
is fastened with one end at the whiffletree, and the 
other end at the hack of the plow beam. This chain 
is long enough to drag over the ground in the form 
of a loop, and it is large enough to give a heavy 
weight. This chain dragged the rye down flat, and 
held it there until the furrow slice was turned over 
upon it. The chain must he regulated in length so 
as to give the proper drag or twist to the rye, and a 
CONCRETE BLOCK SILO IN NEW YORK. 
Fig. 4X4. 
little experimenting will he necessary to adjust it 
properly. If the chain is too short some of the rye 
will spring up before the furrow slice is turned over 
upon it, while if it is left too long the soil tumbles 
over upon the chain and does not fully cover the rye 
which stands in front of it. This is a matter for 
adjustment to suit the plowman, as a chain of a 
different length would he necessary in plowing under 
buckwheat, since that crop is shorter than this tall 
rye. Fig 485 shows the appearance of the field after 
(his rye was turned under. There is practically 
nothing of the rye to be seen above ground: in 
fact one who has never seen a crop turned under in 
this way would be surprised to see what a thor¬ 
oughly clean job a good plowman can make. It all 
comes in the study of the chain, and having it 
lengthened or shortened so that it turns with just 
exactly (he right kind of loop to beml down the 
crop a trifle in advance of the turned over furrow. 
A TEMPERANCE wave has struck some sections of rural 
England and there is opposition to the beer or hard cider 
formerly served in the harvest field. Ten and bread and 
butter are substituted. 
A CUBIC foot of corn silage will average about 40 
pounds in weight. Remember this in figuring the size 
of a silo. Figure 30 pounds per feeding day for a 
cow and allow for 10% waste. 
SWEET CLOVER IN MARYLAND. 
FREQUENTLY see articles in the papers giving 
enthusiastic accounts of success with Sweet clover. 
One would think to read such articles that this 
Sweet clover will change the farm like a miracle. 
Before we plunge on such things we want cold advice. 
What does this clover really amount to in Maryland? 
J. M. 
As to the value of Sweet clover for pasture, hay 
and silage in this State, I have seen a number of 
articles describing at length, the value of Sweet 
clover, including one in Hoard’s Dairyman. No 
doubt, a number of these accounts are founded on 
facts, and in some sections, I believe that Sweet. 
RYE UNDER OUT OF SIGHT. Fig. 485. 
clover has proven a useful dairy feed. Our expe¬ 
rience in this State, however, indicates that Sweet 
clover requires more than ordinary care to secure 
a perfect stand. The argument is offered that we 
see Sweet clover growing on the sides of railroad 
cuts and on rough pieces of land where apparently 
nothing else will grow. For some reason or other, 
certain stretches of land of this sort as well as those 
of more productive character, seem well adapted to 
the growth of Sweet clover. However, when we 
come down to trying it as a commercial crop, we 
find that, like other crops of the same sort, it re¬ 
quires certain favorable conditions, including the 
proper inoculation of the soil. 
The writer attempted to seed Sweet clover three 
successive years, on a small patch of poor land on 
his place, without any attempt at inoculation or 
special preparation, beyond getting the ground in 
fair condition. As a result, owing in one case to a 
severe drought, (be clover failed to make a good 
stand, and in only one field does it appear to be 
making any special growth. In consequence, I am 
inclined to think that it requires the same care 
and inoculation to seed Sweet clover that it does to 
put in Alfalfa arid other leguminous crops, and that 
a dairyman would better seed his land to either 
Alfalfa or some more improved crop, as long as he 
must go to the same amount of trouble to get a good 
stand of Sweet clover. I have not as yet found that 
cattle like it as well as Alfalfa or some of our other 
clovers, and the hay is coarser than is desirable 
for getting the most out of it. I do not believe that 
it is going to work any miracle in regard to dairying 
or any other branch of production in which improved 
hay is a necessity. I believe that in some localities 
where it is well adapted to conditions, it may prove 
valuable as a supplementary crop, and also where it 
can be grown on an otherwise unused piece of land 
as pasture for bees. One point is certain, Sweet 
clover is no better than our other leguminous crops 
CONCRETE BOXES. Fig. 480. 
for a dairy feed, and except in certain localities, is 
just as hard to seed successfully and get a good 
stand. REUBEN bbigiiam. 
This stern command must come to all—a hard un¬ 
yielding fact —"Stand tip and take your medicine — don't 
play the ho by act." 
