1014. 
'I' H 1C DiUK^VL, NEW-VORKKjS 
1140 
A Weed Cover Crop. 
I PLANTED a small orchard of about 
31/2 acres in apples and peaches last 
Spring in the triangular style, apples 
40 feet apart and peaches in between, 
leaving a distance of 20 feet between 
trees. This ground I have permitted to 
grow up in weeds, according to an article 
I read in one of your issues, as being a 
method employed by a southern grower. 
Should I plow the weeds under, or cut 
off the tops and plow the roots and stub¬ 
ble? As I purpose to plant potatoes be¬ 
tween the rows next year, what cover 
crop do you advise? IIow would you 
plow? Should I go either east to west, 
or north to south? To take up the space 
between the other trees I would have to 
cross-plow, and that would not be ad¬ 
visable, as I would uncover part of the 
other furrows. K. 
Bound Brook, N. J. 
You probably refer to the account we 
have given of the famous Repp orchard at 
Glassboro, N. .T. This orchard is on 
light, quick land. It is plowed early and 
given very thorough culture up to the 
middle of July. By this time the trees 
have made enough wood growth, and 
have started fruit to good size. Experi¬ 
ence has shown that if culture were kept 
up longer there would be more wood 
growth, with great danger from blight or 
other disease, and that the fruit would 
not ripen properly. So the Repp plan is 
to stop cultivating and let the weeds 
grow at will and they do grow in many 
cases up above the lower branches of the 
trees. The usual advice is to seed a cover 
crop when cultivation stops. We prefer 
to do this but Mr. Repp lets the weeds 
grow—and he is a successful fruit grow¬ 
er. This plan is not adapted to all con¬ 
ditions. We do not know the kind of soil 
you have or how much growth the trees 
have made. It is a sure thing that he 
who lets weeds go to seed the year be¬ 
fore he grows potatoes is making great 
trouble for himself. We should plow or 
disk these weeds under and sow rye. 
Plow this rye under in the Spring and 
plant the potatoes in deep furrows—> 
down into the rye. Our plan in such 
cases is to plow east and west one year 
and north and south the next. By work¬ 
ing across the furrows with a disk har¬ 
row you can chop up the strips on the 
tree rows enough to plant on them. Un¬ 
less you mark both ways we would not 
plant on these strips. 
Crab Grass in Lawn. 
L AST Spring I sowed a lawn, first 
digging some manure into the land. 
The grass came up well, but during 
the Summer, crab grass showed itself very 
thickly throughout the complete area, and 
kept coming so rapidly that it was im¬ 
possible for us to keep ahead of it, and 
now if we weeded it out, very little lawn 
would remain. I had decided to dig it 
over this Fall, but upon reconsideration 
though perhaps that might only make 
matters worse, as the manure which was 
dug under in the Spring, would then be 
brought to the top; and if I am right in 
thinking that the crab grass seeds in this 
manure caused all our trouble, they 
would (as I believe they live over the 
season) only be brought to the surface 
more thickly than ever, and give us a 
second failure next year. Do you know 
how long these crab grass seeds remain 
viable underground? Would it be safe to 
dig and reseed the lawn a year from now, 
or must we wait longer? B. R. 
Oradcll, N. J. 
You see from the recent article on crab 
grass that the seeds are not to be feared 
as much as the underground stems or 
buds. The grass spreads underground, 
and the way to get rid of it is to rip out 
these roots and destroy them. Thus, if 
the lawn is not too large, it may be 
spaded or plowed now. Then follow, on a 
small scale, the operations described in 
the recent article on grass seeding. The 
plan is to stir and dig up the soil con¬ 
stantly so as to rip out the crab grass 
roots, rake them up and burn them. With 
a thorough job this Fall the crab grass 
can be taken out. Then a heavy seeding 
to lawn grass this Fall will start a thick 
mat which will cover the ground. 
Small Plot Fertilizer Experiment. 
T O determine the question of how far 
I could go at a profit with commer¬ 
cial fertilizer in raising potatoes, I tried 
an experiment this season. I planted 10 
rows across my garden, each row being 
l-109th part of an acre. The fertilizer 
was a standard potato fertilizer with 11 
per cent, potash, price $40 per ton. The 
rows were 32 inches apart and the pota¬ 
toes planted nine inches apart in the 
rows. I have reduced all the figures to 
the acre basis in the attached schedule, 
and was somewhat surprised at the final 
results. For all expenses per acre, ex¬ 
cept fertilizer, I allowed $45 per acre, 
and charged the fertilizer and land plas¬ 
ter at actual cost. The variety planted 
was the Cobbler and the blight killed the 
vines before the tubers had fully grown. 
We sprayed several times, but got busy 
with other work that seemed more impor¬ 
tant, but I doubt if it was. You will note 
that the addition of 3,000 pounds of land 
plaster to the acre in the fifth row at an 
expense of $10 per acre added nothing to 
the yield, the sixth row, with the same 
amount of fertilizer per acre, giving a 
better yield. The seventh row happened 
to come on the same spot where last year 
I plowed out a double furrow and filled in 
with well-rotted manure for squash, and 
I suspect that the increased yield in this 
row is thus explained. 
Rows 
Amount arid cost 
of fertilizer 
per acre 
Marketable Pota¬ 
toes per acre 
No. 2 Potatoes 
per acre 
Total bushels 
per acre 
<b* 
3 • • 
Q, w O 
ua 
Oil- ot 
-=<§© 
All other cost 
per acre 
Total cost 
per acre 
Net protit 
per acre 
1 
1000 lbs. fr.) 
Cost $20 | 
BU. 
133 
BU. 
80 
BU. 
213 
s 
120 
$ 
45 
$ 
65 
* 
55 
2 
1500 lbs. fr. \ 
Cost $30 ) 
151 
80 
231 
133 
45 
75 
58 
3 
2000 lbs. fr. i 
Cost $40 < 
158 
66 
224 
135 
45 
85 
50 
4 
2500 lbs. fr. 1 
Cost $50 
109 
232 
143 
45 
95 
48 
5 
3000 lbs. fr. 1 
3000 1. plus. - 
Cost §70 ) 
167 
69 
236 
142 
45 
115 
27 
6 
3000 lbs. fr. 1 
Cost $00 f 
172 
68 
240 
146 
45 
105 
41 
7 
3500 lbs. fr. ) 
Cost $70 ) 
217 
60 
277 
178 
45 
115 
63 
8 
4000 lbs. fr. t 
Cost $80 ) 
196 
43 
239 
158 
45 
125 
33 
9 
4500 lbs. fr. 1 
Cost $00 )' 
208 
50 
258 
1® 
45 
1.35 
33 
10 
5000 lbs. fr. ) 
Cost $100 f 
229 
47 
1 
276 
184 
45 ' 
145 
39 
I am now sorry I did not leave one row 
unfertilized for a check. With my land 
and this kind of a season, this experi¬ 
ment seems to show that 1.500 pounds to 
the acre is the most profitable amount to 
use. I shall now disk this land and sow 
it to buckwheat with plenty of hen ma¬ 
nure and October 1 turn it under and 
sow to rye, to plow under in the Spring 
for another try at potatoes. I hope to 
get a better acre yield on my next exper¬ 
iment. FREDK. M. PEASLEY. 
Connecticut. 
It. N.-Y.—There should have been sev¬ 
eral rows with no fertilizer at all in or¬ 
der to test the true capacity of the soil. 
Small plot tests of this sort are not en¬ 
tirely safe for large figuring, but they 
give something of an idea of possible 
profit, and in this case the lesson seems 
quite clear that 1,500 pounds of chemi¬ 
cals per acre is about the limit. We are 
surprised that the plaster did not give 
better results. With the buckwheat and 
rye plowed under next year we feel sure 
this soil will give better results with 1,500 
pounds of fertilizer, and the best spots 
will be where the plaster and the heavier 
dressings of fertilizer were used this year! 
WANT TO KNOW. 
1 WOULD like to have information, ac¬ 
tual experience, regarding putting 
shredded corn stored In silo direct 
from corn husked by adding water. 
Furniss, Pa. w. F. M. 
R. N.-Y.—Let us have experience. In 
former discussions it seemed to be con¬ 
cluded that shredded fodder in the silo did 
not pay. 
Purifying A Well. —If your M. R. 
D. will pump air into his well with a 
bicycle pump and a rubber tube, dropped 
to the bottom, he can purify the water in 
15 minutes, but if the smell returns, after 
a few days, he would better fill up that 
well. Any well or cistern can be puri¬ 
fied in short order, in this simple way, 
and yet how few people seem to know it? 
A. c. w. 
Well Goes Dry. —Have any of your 
readers ever had the following experience? 
I have a well 25 feet in depth that always 
furnished plenty of water, never got very 
low even during a drought. For the last 
15 years we have had no nse for it, and it 
has been covered up. Upon opening it 
recently we found it to be entirely dry, al¬ 
though we have had rains nearly every 
day for the last three weeks. Could any¬ 
one tell me the cause of all this? 
J. 1 . c. 
Farmers Using Autocars 
Save Freight on Produce 
R. J. Sutton, a Burlington, N. J., User Tells How He Saves Money 
F armers who use the Autocar De¬ 
livery Vehicle have discovered several 
things. First, that it gets them new mar¬ 
kets for their produce which they could not 
reach with horses. Second, that it gets them 
better prices because they can deliver the 
goods where the high¬ 
est prices prevail. R.J. 
Sutton, a large prod¬ 
uce farmer of Burling¬ 
ton, N. J., tells an inter¬ 
esting story of another 
feature of Autocar 
saving. He says: 
“My place is three 
miles above Burlington. I raise all kinds of 
produce. Before I bought my Autocar De¬ 
livery Vehicle last June, I used to haul my 
produce to Burlington, where it was shipped 
by steamer to the market at Philadelphia. 
The freight was 6 cents a basket and I had fre- 
'Used in Every Line of Business” 
quent losses from rough handling, loss by theft 
and delay in getting my produce to market. 
“Since getting my Autocar, I make the 
round trip to Philadelphia—a distance of 60 
odd miles—in 5 hours and make the run every 
day or night l have produce to ship. I usually 
load from 120 to 125 
basket* and on the 
freight alone 1 make 
a good saving this 
way because on such 
a load my freight bill 
would be $7.50 
while the cost of my 
gasoline and oil for 
60 miles is only about $1.21. 
“Not only that, but by delivering myself, I can 
often get belter prices and can see that my load gets 
there in good condition and on time. 
You can see that during the year this cuts down 
my costs of delivery a good deal and 1 can get better 
service beside. 1 am very much satisfied with the 
work my Autocar is doing." 
What the Autocar has done for R. J. Sutton, it is doing for 
many other farmers. Bo sure and get our new book on 
motor delivery—of value to every farmer. Write to Dept. R. 
THE AUTOCAR COMPANY, Ardmore, Pa. 
Established 1897 Motor Delivery Car Specialists 
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The "Badger” gasoline engine is the best power plant tor the 
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The “Radger" is always ready to inn—Winter or Summer—at an instant’s 
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~ Black's Medical Dictionary. 2.50 — 
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Ground Limestone 50c 
Per 
Ton 
The day of cheaper lime !• here. No need to let your 
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Pulverizer 
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the Big 
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PAYS \A 
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Grinds Rock for Road Work Too! 
V The Jeffrey Lime-Pulver is the machine that will take the big rock* 
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40i FirstAve., Columbus. 
