j a too 
cents a bushel less than in previous rotations. 
All the original labor and cash records were made 
by the tenant, Mr. Robert Hall, who finds that labor 
Man Hours Per Acre. 
Man hours 
per acre. 
Horse hours 
per acre. 
1909-12 
1913-14 
1909-12 
1913-14 
Total acres grown. 
43.4 
36 
Plowing . 
Preparation and seeding_ 
Harvesting . 
Hauling to barn. 
Thrashing. 
Marketing. 
Miscellaneous. 
Total. 
8.10 
8.31 
2.47 
3.33 
3.57 
2.28 
1.22 
3.25 
3.21 
5.10 
3.27 
4.92 
.25 
14.10 
20.21 
2.73 
3.05 
3.04 
.42 
G.35 
3.20 
3.80 
7.20 
.45 
26.28 
20.00 
43.55 
21.00 
Cash Costs of Growing Wheat. 
1909-12 
1913-14 
Saving 
La- i 26J4 man hrs. @ 20c. 
bor ( 4354 horse hrs. @ 15c. 
Fertilizer (inclu.manure) 
Seed . 
Thrashing (4c. and fuel).. 
Twine. 
$5.25 
6.52 
20 man hrs. 
21 horse hrs. 
$4.00 
3.15 
$11.77 
3.88 
1.92 
1.10 
.20 
1.71 
1.39 
5.00 
$7.15 
2.73 
2.24 
1.36 
.24 
1.35 
1.81 
5.00 
$4.62 
Lise of equipment . 
Overhead (taxes, ins., etc.) 
Interest (5# on $100). 
Total cash cost. 
$15.20 
$14.73 
.47 
Grand total cost .. 
$26.97 
.... .. 
$21,88 1 $5.09 
WnEj)™-C ost Per Bushel. 
Year. 
Total 
cost per 
acre. 
Straw per acre 
Net cost 
of 
grain. 
Yield 
per 
acre, 
bus. 
Net 
cost 
per 
bushel. 
Yield 
tons. 
Price 
per ton. 
1909. 
$24.42 
.60 
$5 
$21.42 
30.0 
.71 
1910. 
28.10 
.95 
6 
20.40 
26.3 
.77 
1911. 
29.41 
.75 
8 
23.41 
19.3 
1.21 
1912. 
27.74 
.56 
6 
24.38 
14.0 
1.73 
4 year avg. 
$26.92 
.72 
$6 
$22.40 
22.4 
1.11 
1913. 
$23.90 
1.00 
$6 
$17.90 
83.6 
.53 
1914. 
19.83 
.90 
6 
14.43 
26.4 
.55 
2 year avg. 
$21.87 
.95 
$6 
$16.17 
30.0 
.54 
6 year avg. 
$25.23 
.79 
$6 
$20.32 
25.0 
.92 
records require about ten minutes a day in time. The 
owner has had the assistance of the T T . S. Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture’s Office of Farm Management in 
tabulating the records. This co-operation is here¬ 
with acknowledged. m. c. bubeitt. 
ABBREVIATED TALES. 
Formalin on Wheat. 
I am thinking of treating my seed wheat with forma¬ 
lin for rust. Is there any danger of poisoning chickens 
where wheat is sown near the barn, with the drill, as 
some of the wheat will not be covered? s. M. 
New Jersey. 
No. There w T ill be no danger from eating such 
wheat. The effective principle in the formalin is 
a gas which does its work and then passes off. You 
need not fear about the wheat after it has dried. 
A Congregation of English Sparrows. 
HAVE two beautiful elm trees before my resi¬ 
dence in which the sparrows (I think the entire 
sparrow population of Albany) congregate every 
evening. I do not mind that, but the droppings 
from this congregation are something awful, the street 
is literally covered every morning. The nuisance is 
getting to be unbearable. Can you recommend some 
remedy for this? I do not wish to cut the trees 
down, as they are perhaps two of the finest trees in 
our city. If you do not know of a remedy, perhaps 
some member of the R. N.-Y. family can suggest an 
effective remedy which has been used with success. 
Albany, N. Y. A. c. K. 
It. N.-Y.—Our people have never failed yet to find 
a practical remedy for such troubles. Who can help 
in this? We have given several articles showing 
how these sparrows are trapped or poisoned. There 
may be too many of them in this congregation to 
make such methods practical. Who can tell? 
Our Old Friend “Stonemeal.” 
AST * Spring our implement dealer, an honest 
and straightforward man, came to us claiming 
to have a fertilizer or ground rock containing 
from 14 to 16 per cent, potash, guaranteed it, or 
said the company did, to hold blight from canta¬ 
loupes or muskmelons, also tomatoes. lie did not 
state whether the potash was soluble in water or 
not, nor did we take the time to inquire, as we were 
rushed to the utmost. The fertilizer was to cost 
$26.50 per ton, $2.50 per ton for freight upon ar¬ 
r I' 1-1JU. KUKAL NEW-YORKEK 
rival, and the rest if results were obtained. Our 
muslimelon patch of three acres drilled with the 
stuff has the blight, and would have been an entire 
failure, but we top-dressed with chicken manure and 
fine tobacco siftings. We used it on a row of toma¬ 
toes, a row of sweet potatoes, also a row of Irish 
potatoes. You can tell to the row where that stuff 
went. Do you know the firm and have you seen any 
of the stonemeal used and analyzed? The front of 
the sacks are marked thus: “100 lbs. Stonemeal, for 
horticulture, and pomology. Stonemeal Fertilizer 
Co., Inc. Works, North Paterson, New Jersey.” 
Pennsylvania. n. s. a. 
R. N.-Y.—We have had several articles on this 
“stonemeal.” It has been analyzed at the N. J. Ex¬ 
periment Station, and Dr. .T. G. Liprnan, the director, 
says it is a ground silicate rock to which some land 
plaster has been added. The stuff contained 1.73 
per cent, of phosphoric acid and 4.13 per cent, of 
potash—not available as plant food. The station 
considers it worth about $3 per ton as plant food. 
Some of the farm soils in New Jersey contain more 
actual potash than the “stonemeal.” As for the 
claims that it will prevent blight or other diseases 
we consider this “guff” pure and simple. No one but 
a man with a stone head would pay $30 a ton for 
stonemeal after reading the New Jersey reports. 
HIT OR MISS REMEDIES. 
EGARDING the question of non-bearing plum 
trees, tell your inquirer to put salt or brine 
around them, and they will bear. Say a good, big 
double handful of salt, or equivalent of old brine. 
I see you advertise “protectors” for fruit trees. I have 
150 fruit trees in Hunterdon County, where there are 
lots of rabbits, but a coating of thick cow manure paste, 
applied to trunks in late Fall with a whitewash brush, 
is all the protection they need. No rabbit will touch 
them when thus treated. Try it. M. 
New Jersey. 
All sorts of recommendations and advice are still 
given for the control of various orchard troubles, 
and some of them are typical of the days when hit- 
or-miss remedies of all sorts were suggested for the 
control of insects. Rut to-day the successful fruit 
grower bases all of his remedies upon some fact in 
connection with the life history of the trouble, and 
recognizes that all remedies, not based upon scien¬ 
tific facts, may not only be a waste of time, but may 
cause damage. The statement that salt or brine will 
make non-productive plum trees bear is without a 
single supporting plant law. Plums are quite fre¬ 
quently unproductive because of self sterility, and 
salt has no effect upon changing the sex of the flow¬ 
ers. Again, plums may lose most of their fruit 
through severe attacks of the plum curculio, and a 
little salt or brine at the roots of the trees will not 
prevent the “Little Turk” from conducting his busi¬ 
ness. In some places the plum crop may be destroyed 
by frost nearly every year, and the application of 
brine at the base of the tree would be without avail. 
Sodium chloride, or common salt, in quantity is 
also injurious to most of the higher forms of plants. 
In too many cases a practical test is made without 
leaving check or untreated trees so that incorrect 
conclusions are drawn. 
In regard to protecting the trunks of fruit trees 
from rabbits by a coating of cow manure, we might 
expect that this treatment is likely to be successful. 
The rabbit objects to most any material with a 
strong odor, and lime-sulphur, soft soap, fisli-oil soap, 
blood and numerous other materials, if maintained 
upon the trunks of the trees, will prevent attack. 
Rut the rabbit may not cause as much damage as 
mice, and the latter animals are not so easily re¬ 
pelled, especially by such materials as barnyard com¬ 
post. Science is often ridiculed, but it is sifting out 
the remedies that are not founded upon the laws of 
plant and animal life. m. a. b. 
RIPENING TOMATOES OFF THE VINES. 
Can green tomatoes be ripened off the vines by wrap¬ 
ping them in paper? If so, would waxed or paraffined 
paper be better for this purpose than common wrapping 
paper? Are there any other ways of ripening green 
tomatoes that will not ripen on the vines before frost? 
Ohio. n. M. 
Green tomatoes that have reached nearly or quite 
mature size can be ripened off the vines with very 
little trouble, and still be of fairly good flavor, but 
the half-grown or smaller ones, thus ripened are of 
very poor quality, being extremely sour and of very 
poor flavor; they are tomatoes, which is about all 
that can be said of them. I have not tried wrap¬ 
ping them in paper for the reason that they require 
watching during the ripening period, and should not 
be handled any more than can be helped. To wrap 
them in paper would interfere with close observa¬ 
tion, and would also entail frequent handling of the 
fruits to ascertain what progress they are making 
October 61, 
toward ripening, which would be considerable 
trouble, and be of more or less injury to them. 
I have never bothered much with fruits under 
three-quarter size or growth. When picking them 
it is well to sort them into about three lots, the first 
being those nearing the ripening period, the second, 
those somewhat greener, and the third, those three- 
quarter size and smaller. After being graded each 
grade should be placed separately, on trays or 
shelves one layer thick, and set anywhere that is dry 
and a temperature not much below 55 degrees. A 
lower temperature will retard ripening and in some 
of the smaller fruits prevent ripening at all, while a 
higher temperature will hasten ripening of all the 
sizes. Exposure to full light (but not to the direct 
rays of the sun) seems best for them. k. 
VALUE OF STRAW AS MULCH. 
LIE Spokane Review prints the following item 
about burning straw, formerly the common 
practice in wheat-growing sections: 
Pratt county (Kansas) farmers are finding out that 
it costs them five bushels of wheat to the acre to burn 
their straw stacks or let them rot. Using straw most¬ 
ly as a top-dressing for Winter fields, these farmers find 
that it helps to keep the soil from blowing, conserves 
the moisture and adds to the fertility. The laborious 
practice of scattering the straw by pitchfork has been 
abandoned, and spreaders are used instead. 
We never did expect that Kansas farmers would 
teach lessons of intensive farming to our Eastern 
market gardeners. There is no question about the 
value of this straw when worked into the soil. Rut 
if a Kansas farmer loses five bushels of wheat by 
not plowing under the straw the New York or New 
England farmer will gain five bushels and more by 
putting under a cover crop. We think it is a sin to 
let our corn, potato or garden crop soils lie bare 
through Fall and Winter. Rye and other cover 
crops seeded in the corn at the last cultivation will 
prevent losses from the soil and give a great crop of 
green material to plow under. All this without in¬ 
terfering with other crops. The thing is so simple 
and plain to those of us who have tried it that 
we cannot understand why farmers are willing to let 
their cornfields go bare through the Fall. 
OUTLOOK FOR PHOSPHORIC ACID. 
HE U. S. Geological Survey makes this prophecy 
regarding our future supplies of phosphoric 
acid: 
While the States of Florida, Tennessee, and South 
Carolina have for many years been the principal sources 
of phosphate rock in the United States, it is believed 
that the main production in the future will probably 
come from the great deposits of phosphate rock on pub¬ 
lic lands in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. 
At one point in Idaho alone it is estimated that 
two and one-lialf billion tons of high-grade phos¬ 
phoric rock are in sight. This region is as yet in the 
wilderness, but it will be reached by railroads when 
the phosphate is needed. With these constantly new 
discoveries of phosphate deposits there seems to be 
little reason for the present generation to fear a 
shortage in this plant food. With the great majority 
of our soils phosphoric acid is the most needed ele¬ 
ment in fertilizers, and Nature has evidently hidden 
away abundant supplies of it in her ample American 
pockets. 
CHICKS SWALLOWING NAILS.—The commun¬ 
ication from W. II. Macy, on page 1197, regarding 
chickens swallowing nails, interests me, for he is the 
first poultryman other than myself of whom I have 
heard having this trouble. Three years ago I start¬ 
ed in the poultry business, raising 2,500 White 
Rocks the first year in a new plant. The plant being 
new there were undoubtedly a large number ot nails 
lying about, but I had no trouble of this sort. For 
the past two years I have been raising White Leg 
horns, and have had a good deal of trouble in this 
respect, and out of flocks of from 3,000 to 6,000 have 
lost many chickens from this cause. They have 
swallowed tacks both single and double-pointed, poul¬ 
try staples, lath nails, eight-penny nails, eight-penny 
finishing nails and wall-board nails, which have a 
head one-half inch in diameter. During these past 
two years I have been troubled with rose bugs, and 
the poison from these bugs has thrown the digestive 
organs of my chickens very much out of condition; 
this may account for their swallowing such indiges¬ 
tible materials. I have watched the chickens very 
closely, and I find that the Leghorn is much more 
active, I might say more playful, than the Rock, and 
when one of them finds a nail he takes it in his beak 
and tears about the coop with half the others after 
him, and to avoid losing it he swallows it. I have 
come to the conclusion that the best way to avoid 
this loss is to keep such things out of their reach. 
Connecticut. thos. w. moore. 
