Till 4. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1317 
Comparison of Stable Manure, Bedding and 
Hay. 
W HICH would be the cheapest way to 
improve the fertility of my farm; to 
buy Boston stable manure at $7 per 
cord, or buy ordinary fresh water swamp 
grass at $12 per ton? This is to be used 
as bedding, and then put on to the land 
(not taking into consideration the value 
of the excrements from the cows which 
will be added to the grass when used as 
bedding) ? A third plan is to buy hay 
at $15 per ton, feed it to stock and spread 
the resulting manure on the land. In 
other words, what is the comparative fer¬ 
tilizing value of Boston stable manure, 
bedding and hay? F- K. 
Connecticut. 
The following table shows what you 
would import as plant food in these sub¬ 
stances : 
Pounds In One Ton. 
Nitrogen I’hos. acid Potash 
Stable manure 10 6 12 
Swamp grass. 20 4 17 
Hay . 26 6 30 
This is mixed hay—not pure Timothy. 
The manure is figured by the ton and not 
by the “cord”—the latter varying consid¬ 
erably in weight. We do not know 
whether F. K. has a barn and is already 
stocked Avith cattle. 
Tanners' Refuse for Fertilizer. 
W HAT is the value, for fertilizing pur¬ 
poses, of refuse from a leather man¬ 
ufacturing establishment? Several 
tons of this can be secured at an expense 
for hauling and handling of about $2 a 
ton. The proprietor of the factory de¬ 
scribes the refuse as follows: In the tan¬ 
ning of hides the raw hide is placed in a 
vat in which is a large quantity of lime, 
together with chemicals. After standing 
several days the lime and chemical eats 
off the hair and all of the fat and grease. 
The hair, fat, grease and lime settle to the 
bottom of the vat, and are later throAvn 
on a pile in the yard. Is there any fer¬ 
tilizing value to this refuse, and how am 
I to determine the same? J. E. AV. 
New York. 
These things, among others, are dis¬ 
cussed in a little pamphlet on “Plant 
Food Wastes,” which we distribute. The 
following is printed under “Tanning 
Wastes”: 
“Some of our readers are located near 
tanneries Avhere wastes are throAvn away 
or held at a low value. Here are aver¬ 
age analyses of these wastes : 
POUNDS IN ONE TON. 
Ashes—spent tan bark 
Ashes—tan bark . 
Tannery lime waste. 
Tannery vat refuse . 
Tannery filter bed refuse. 
Nitro- Pot- Phos. 
gen. ash. acid. Lime. 
30 20 000 
30 . 12 1,000 
13 .. .. 1,100 
12 0 2 32 
18 2 16 400 
Here we strike the first thing to remem¬ 
ber. Whenever a substance is burned to 
ashes the nitrogen is driven away in the 
burning. There cannot be any nitrogen 
in any waste that is completely burned. 
Thus the ashes of tan-bark, like any other 
ashes, are useful for the lime, potash and 
phosphoric acid they contain. The uu- 
burned wastes from the tannery contain 
nitrogen with more or less of the other 
elements. In figuring values on such 
wastes you may estimate that Avlien you 
buy fertilizers a pound of nitrogen will 
average you about 18 cents, while potash 
and phosphoric acid will cost about five 
cents. The price of lime varies too much 
to give any general price. Another pro¬ 
duct now being used is the refuse or sludge 
from glue factories. It will frequently 
contain 30 pounds of nitrogen and 600 
pounds of lime to the ton.” 
Such wastes may be spread on the 
ground during the Fall and left to “wea¬ 
ther” during the Winter, or composted 
Avith the manure before using. 
Recent Experiment Station Bulletins. 
F ROM the NeAV York Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station at Geneva, N. Y.: 
Bulletin No. 387: The Pear Psylla 
and Its Control; a brief revieAv of the 
more complete bulletin on this subject and 
containing a description of the life history 
of the pear psylla Avith methods for its 
control. 
Bulletin No. 388: Tree Crickets of 
Garden and Orchard ; another condensa¬ 
tion of a larger bulletin upon the same 
subject containing an interesting descrip¬ 
tion and fine illustrations of our common 
tree crickets. The more complete bulle¬ 
tins mentioned above bear the same num¬ 
bers as those given for the popular edition 
described. 
Bulletin No. 383: IIoav Sod Affected an 
Apple Orchard ; a popular and condensed 
revieAv of the larger bulletin by the same 
number giving a comparison of tillage and 
sod mulch in apple orchards. 
Bulletins Nos. 373 and 380: A NeAV 
Method of Determining Milk Quality; 
again a popular and condensed review of 
larger bulletins describing a comparison 
of microscopical and plate methods of 
counting bacteria in milk. 
Bulletin No. 382: Control of Cqbbage 
Maggot on Early Cabbage; another popu¬ 
lar edition of the larger bulletin upon the 
same subject. 
From the Agricultural Eperiment Sta¬ 
tion at Madison, Wis.: 
Bulletin No. 202 : How to Improve Our 
Heavy Clay Soils; a bulletin of interest 
and value to all farmers on this type of 
soil. 
Bulletin No. 241: Some Improved 
Dairy Tests and Methods; of chief inter¬ 
est to ice cream manufacturers and cream¬ 
ery operators. 
Bulletin No. 239: Three Creamery 
Methods for Mailing Buttermilk Cheese; 
for cheese manufacturers. 
Bulletin No. 204: Ways of Improving 
Our Sandy Soils; like the bulletin upon 
the management of clay soils of interest 
to all farmers owning this type of soil. 
Bulletin No. 205; The Improvement of 
Marsh Soils; those wishing to utilize this 
type of soil will find this bulletin of value 
From the Massachusetts Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Amherst, Mass.: 
Bulletin No. 155: Ncav Fertilizer Ma¬ 
terials and By-products; this bulletin 
gives the fertilizer value of a number of 
miscellaneous materials available in lim¬ 
ited quantities to farmers in the vicinity 
of the establishment where they are pro¬ 
duced. Cocoanut meal as a dairy feed is 
also discussed in this bulletin. 
Summer Pruning the Peach is the title 
of Bulletin No. 108 from the Tennessee 
Experiment Station at Knoxville Tenn.; 
of interest to peach growers. 
Wild Garlic and Its Eradication is 
treated in Bulletin No. 176 from Purdue 
University Experiment Station at Lafay¬ 
ette, Ind.; it is complete and copiously 
illustrated. m. b. d. 
FARM NEWS. 
T HE Wisconsin Cranberry GroAvers’ 
Association distributed at the Min- 
tt nesota State Fair 10.000 copies of 
How to Cook Wisconsin Cranberries.” 
They have learned it pays to advertise. 
Their annual crop is valued at $450,000, 
and the State stands third in the produc¬ 
tion of berries. 
If the corn is in an open crib better 
stack some fodder around the north and 
west sides to keep the AA r ind from driving 
snoAv in on the corn. Keep the crib well 
covered, for corn inside will suffer injury, 
if not protected in this way. 
Ohio cranberry growers are enthusias¬ 
tic over the color and quality of the pro¬ 
duct from the bogs around Toledo. It is 
said they are superior to Cape Cod ber¬ 
ries, and are selling in the Toledo market 
at $4 a barrel. The Ohio crop is large, as 
is the crop elsewhere. 
How the Pub! ic Profits 
By Telephone Improvements 
Here is a big fact in the telephone progress of this country: 
Original Standard 
Bell Telephone Bell Telephone 
1876 To-day 
Early Typical 
Telephone Present-day 
Exchange Exchange 
If City Wires 800 
Were Carried in Underground 
Overhead Cable 
Hand in hand with inventions 
and developments which have im¬ 
proved the service many fold have 
come operating economies that 
have greatly cut its cost. 
To appreciate these betterments 
and their resulting economies, con¬ 
sider a few examples: 
Your present telephone instru¬ 
ment had seventy-two ancestors ; it 
is better and cheaper than any of 
them. 
Time was when a switchboard 
required a room full of boys to 
handle the calls of a few hundred 
subscribers. Today, two or three 
girls will serve a greater number 
without confusion and very much 
more promptly. 
A three-inch underground cable 
now carries as many as eight hun¬ 
dred wires. If strung in the old 
way, these would require four sets 
of poles, each with twenty cross 
arms—a congestion utterly prohibi¬ 
tive in city streets. 
These are some of the familiar 
improvements. They have saved 
tens of millions of dollars. 
But those which have had the most 
radical effect, resulting in the largest 
economies and putting the tele¬ 
phone within everyone’s reach, are 
too technical to describe here. 
And their value can no more be 
estimated than can the value of the 
invention of the automobile. 
Many farmers Avere dissatisfied Avith 
sugar beet returns, and turned their acre¬ 
age in other crops. This is particularly 
true in Ohio and Michigan. Regarding 
the war, “It’s an ill wind that bloAVS no 
man any good.” The sugar beet trade 
has been boomed by the Avar, and up to 
the time of its declaration the possibility 
of profit to manufacturers as Avell as far¬ 
mers was considered small. 
The A r alue of manure is increased $1 
a ton, Avhen applied by a manure spread¬ 
er is the opinion of an Indiana Avriter. 
He says, “We must apply manure more 
carefully to the land to get the best re¬ 
sults from it, and the old Avay of hauling 
and piling is a Avaste of labor.” Manure 
should be hauled out and spread on the 
ground directly, Or it should be conserved 
in a pit, the juices saved, and then hauled 
and spread at proper time. 
The Wisconsin Experiment Station ad¬ 
vises Fall plowing for Alfalfa seed bed, 
particularly on the loam and light soils 
in Wisconsin. If the ground is plowed 
just before seeding it leaves the ground 
too loose for good germination. By Fall 
plowing the seed bed is properly firmed, 
and is in best condition. Fall ploAving is 
beneficial, as it gives opportunity to com¬ 
bat Aveeds by disking until time for seed¬ 
ing the Alfalfa. Farmers may also put 
lime on the plowed ground during the 
Winter. 
There will be no shortage of kraut 
either at the White House or the country 
over, is the opinion of manufacturers. 
President Wilson Avill receive a 60-gallon 
cask from Sandusky as a gift this year, 
from a concern which avos similarly mind¬ 
ful of President Taft. Manufacturers re¬ 
port that throughout northern Ohio, 
Western Pennsylvania. Ncav York, Indi¬ 
ana, southern Michigan, central Minneso¬ 
ta and Wisconsin the cabbage crop this 
year is very good. It is predicted there 
will be no soaring of prices, although the 
German product will be absent from the 
American market. 
“O, doctor, I have sent for you, cer¬ 
tainly; still, I must confess that I have 
not the slightest faith in modern medical 
science.” “Well,” said the doctor, “that 
doesn’t matter in the.least. You see, a 
mule has no faith in the veterinary sur¬ 
geon, and yet he cures him all the same.” 
—Sacred Heart Review. 
The man in the automobile duster and 
goggles confronted an artist painting a 
picture by the roadside. “Say,” said the 
motorist, “I’ll give you $5 for that pic¬ 
ture just as it is. Don’t put another 
stroke on it.” “I am really very flattered 
by your offer,” replied the artist, “but 
Avhy not Avait until the picture is fin¬ 
ished?” “Can’t. I need the canvas to 
mend a busted tire with.”—N cav York 
World. 
This progress in economy, as well as in service, has given the United 
States the Bell System with about ten times as many telephones, propor¬ 
tionate to the population, as in all Europe. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One *PoHep One System Universal Service 
The Flame of Acetylene Light is Small 
and the Burner Peculiar 
You have probably noticed that 
a Pilot Country Home Acetylene 
burner is shaped like the letter “Y.” 
And that the little gas openings 
in the arms of the burner are only 
pin hole size. So small they let 
out only half of a cubic foot of 
Acetylene in an hour. 
You might leave one of these 
Acetylene burners open by accident 
all day—and even then there Avouldn’t be 
gas enough in the air of the room to 
enable you to set fire to it if you tried. 
As a matter of fact, you would have to leave 
the burner open fully three days and nights in 
a room twelve by fourteen, with windows and 
doors closed tight, before there would be any 
fire or explosion whatever. 
And the chance cf your leaving a burner 
open that long is not worth considering. The 
pungent odor of the escaping gas would be cer¬ 
tain to attract attention in a few seconds. 
Insurance reports say that in 
a list of 10,000 recent fires and acci¬ 
dents caused by illuminants, 9990 
were charged to the misuse and abuse 
of electricity, kerosene, gasoline and 
city gas and only ten to the misuse and 
abuse of Acetylene. 
That’s why the engineers of the Na¬ 
tional Insurance Board have endorsed 
Acetylene. They say it’s safer than the 
oil illuminants it is rapidly displacing. 
You should use home made Acety¬ 
lene yourself to light your house and barns 
and to cook your meals. 
All the facts and figures are in our illustrated 
catalogue which we send on request. Address 
Oxweld Acetylene Company 
Western Factory 
36C8 Jasper Place, Chicago, III. 
F-astera Factory 
654 Frelinghuysen Ave., Newark, N. X 
System 
guaranteed to do your work. 
Sixty days free trial. Other 
sizes as cheap. Pumps,motors 
and engines. Write for our 
New Way Selling Plan No. 25 
Do It Now 
The Baltimore Co., Baltimore. Md. 
MAKE BIG PAY DRILLING 
WATER WELLS 
Our Free Drillers’ Book with 
catalog of Keystone Drills 
tells how. Many sires; trac¬ 
tion and portable. Easy 
terras. These machines 
make good anywhere. 
KEYSTONE WATER DRILL CO 
Beaver Falls. Ra. 
HAVANA-, 
STEEL WHEELS 
AND 
FARM TRUCKS 
with either steel or wood 
wheels. We have a free 
Catalog that tells you how to 
measure your skein or steel 
axle. Write for it at once. 
Havana Metal Wheel Co. 
Box 17, Havana. ILL. 
Free Box of Samples 
sent to your station charges prepaid. 
Delivered prices quoted on request. 
All sizes, 2 inches to 20 inches. 
THE E. BIGL0W CO., New London, 0. 
