1414 
THE RURAL N EW-YOR KER. 
December 5, 
Soil Improvement Notes 
Fertilizers with Ashes. 
I CAN get all the hard wood ashes I 
want for young orchard and garden, 
virgin soil of good quality. Will ni¬ 
trate of soda and those ashes make a 
complete fertilizer? If not what should 
be added? How much ashes can be 
safely used? s. d. e. 
Roseburg, Ore. 
For young trees the ashes and nitrate 
will answer for that soil. Two tons of 
ashes to the acre will be about the limit. 
As the trees come into bearing acid phos¬ 
phate or fine ground bone should be 
added. 
Value of Wood Ashes. 
W ITH the apparent scarcity of pot¬ 
ash, would not wood ashes make a 
good substitute? What is the act¬ 
ual value of wood ashes per ton ? 
So. Attleboro. Mass. s. H. R. 
Yes indeed, wood ashes when you can 
obtain them at a fair price, will supply 
potash. Here are analyses of various 
kinds of ashes. Notice how high in pot¬ 
ash corncob ash is. The railroad ties 
evidently carried much sand. The “aver¬ 
age” wood ash is the average of more 
than 700 different samples. 
rOUNDS IN ONE 
TON 
OF ASHES. 
Potash 
Phoa. Acid 
Lime 
Brick yard . 
75 
30 
500 
Corn cob. 
500 
00 
140 
Cotton seed hulls. .. 
400 
160 
140 
Hay and straw.. 
. 30 
20 
100 
Tree trimmings . . . 
100 
50 
375 
Railroad ties . 
IS 
10 
50 
Sawdust . 
70 
160 
6N0 
Seaweed . 
IS 
6 
120 
Wood and coal. 
8 
20 
50 
AA r erage Avood . 
100 
32 
640 
Treatment of Swamp Land. 
I HAVE a piece of swamp muck land 
tiled, drained and nicely fitted for 
onions next Spring (about five acres). 
I have 1(4 tons of potash (muriate) that 
I expect to put on. I can get plenty of 
rock phosphate. How much should I use 
per acre of the latter, and would it be bet¬ 
ter to sow it on the piece and plow in this 
Fall? I had oats and peas on the piece, 
cut for hay. We plowed it after cutting 
in August and it is clean and in fine con¬ 
dition. I do not wish to plow again in 
the Spring, and any kind of a cover crop 
would be in the way in fitting it in the 
Spring. Would it be advisable to sow any 
nitrate of soda or use any other form of 
nitrogen? c. H. w. 
Michigan. 
We have never seen a genuine muck 
soil that did not respond freely to lime, 
and especially when onions are grown. 
We should try lime on this soil and not 
use any cover crop. The potash will help 
—all such soils are lacking in that ele¬ 
ment. As for the raw phosphate rock Ave 
doubt if it will be of much benefit to the 
onions. This rock may give future re¬ 
sults in a soil well filled with decaying 
organic matter, but a crop like onions 
must have available plant food for its 
quick and steady growth. For such k 
crop Ave should use acid phosphate or 
fine bone. A small amount of nitrate of 
soda will pay on the onions to provide 
soluble nitrogen until the muck has been 
well fermented. 
Manuring Muck Soil. 
H OW can I maintain the proper fer¬ 
tility on muck land? My land is 
black and rich, but won’t groAv onions 
as it once did. R. G. 
Oberlin, O. 
Rriefly stated—use lime. Fertilize 
with potash and phosphoric acid, and use 
a little nitrate of soda if the crop shows 
need of nitrogen. Swamp or muck soils 
are usually quite sour. They are often 
rich in nitrogen, but this is inert or un¬ 
available to most plants. A few plants 
like blueberries or Red-top grass can 
make fair growth on such soils, but most 
of our cultivated crops will fail unless the 
soil is sweetened and fermented. Thus 
the first thing suggested is lime. One 
ton or more of air-slaked lime should be 
worked into each acre after ploAving. 
This sweetens the soil and encourages the 
work of bacteria Avhieh Avould not be 
available in the sour muck. This fits part 
of the nitrogen to serve as plant food. In 
some cases it may pay to use a small 
quantity of nitrate of soda. Although 
the soil may contain as much nitrogen 
as some brands of fertilizer, yet it may 
not be able to produce a crop until that 
nitrogen is “cooked” or made over. In 
such case the crops would show a light 
color and fail to groAV as they should. If 
then a small quantity of the nitrate is 
used this soluble form of nitrogen will push 
the crops along by giving them Avhat they 
need. These muck soils are always de¬ 
ficient in potash aDd phosphoric acid. 
They may give a feAV good crops Avithout 
the use of chemicals, but in time they 
will be needed. Wood ashes, if you can 
buy at a bargain, Avill answer or a combi¬ 
nation of three parts acid phosphate and 
one part muriate of potash. 
Potash in Stable Manure. 
FIE Ohio Experiment Station says: 
“A ton of average farm manure con¬ 
tains more than 10 pounds of potash, 
not less than ten million tons of such 
manure, containing a hundred million 
pounds of potash, is produced during the 
six Winter months when farm animals 
are being fed in stables and barnyards 
in Ohio. The investigations of the Ohio 
Experiment Station have shown that, 
when manure lies exposed in an open 
barnyard for three months, more than 
half its potash is washed out by the rain. 
Even when manure was produced under 
cover the loss when cattle stood on an 
earth floor was ten per cent, greater than 
when the floor was cemented. A few 
Ohio farmers are preventing this waste 
by feeding under cover on cemented floors 
and keeping the manure under cover un¬ 
til it can be spread on the field, but it is 
a conservative estimate that one-fourth 
of all the potash produced annually in 
Ohio stables and barnyards, or twenty- 
five million pounds, is absorbed by the 
soil under the stable or yard, never to 
be recovered, or is washed out and car¬ 
ried into the rivers.” 
Most of this potash is in the stable 
liquids Avhieh are easiest to lose. That 
is Avhere the A-alue of absorbents comes in. 
Crimson Clover as a Cover Crop. 
N New Jersey I am told that Crimson 
clover is sown in corn at time of last 
cultivation and plowed under the fol- 
loAving Fall or Spring with great benefit. 
What could be used similarly in the Mo¬ 
hawk Valley? In New Jersey do they 
pIoav the Crimson clover under in Fall or 
Spring? ii. A. ii. 
NeAV York. 
You must remember that NeAV Jei'sey 
is a long, narrow State, coverng a great 
variety of climate. From Port Jervis to 
Cape May is 1G0 miles, and the loAver 
part of New Jersey lies between the bay 
and the river, so that the climate is tem¬ 
pered and mild. Crimson clover is quite 
sure as a cover crop up to Philadelphia. 
Above that city it is more or less of a 
gamble—doing Avell one year and failing 
the next. In our own farm in Bergen 
County the Crimson comes through to full 
success about three years in 10. There 
may be part of a stand in tAvo other years, 
but at least half the time this eloA r er is 
killed out in March. It often goes 
through the Winter with a good growth 
during the Fall, but the freeze and thaw 
of March is too much for it. Covering 
with manure in late Winter will help 
carry it through, but the crop is not sure 
north of Philadelphia, and Avould be less 
sure in the Mohawk Valley. Hairy vetch 
and rye will make a far better cover crop. 
As for plowing under Crimson or other 
cover crops good judgment is required. 
These crops take large quantities of wa¬ 
ter from the soil in Spring. When the 
season is naturally moist they may groAv 
to full size, and then be plowed under. 
In a dry season this would not do as the 
crops Avould take too much moisture from 
the soil. It is better, in such case, to 
plow the crop under early and pack the 
soil firmly around it. 
Panning Out Gold. 
NOTICE an inquiry by J. P. R., on 
page 1318, regarding how to pan gold, 
answered by G. II. A. I would judge 
by the inquiry that J. P. R. knows noth¬ 
ing about gold mining, else he would 
know that the pan is only used in pros¬ 
pecting and in cleaning up the concen¬ 
trates of other methods of mining, and 
is not a practical way to extract gold 
any more than a spade would be the tool 
to prepare a field for grain. If J. P. R. 
is located on a stream with plenty of 
water all the machinery needed to work 
it is a set of sluice boxes and flume to 
carry the water to them in sufficient 
volume to operate them on any scale he 
wishes to, the size of flume and box»s 
regulated by the amount of water avail¬ 
able, or the number of men he wants 
to work at shoveling. The sluice boxes 
are made simply by nailing boards to¬ 
gether one or more boards wide on bot¬ 
tom, one board high on sides, tapering 
enough so that, the lower end will fit in 
the upper end of next lower box. The 
number of boxes needed must be regu¬ 
lated by the character of the ground to 
be washed, the boxes set at such an in¬ 
cline that the water will carry aAvay the 
dirt and gravel as fast as it is shcweled 
in. The gold is caught by means of rif¬ 
fles placed in the bottom of the boxes, 
and are made in various ways to suit 
the kind of gold being mined. Some of 
the kinds used are small sticks nailed on 
a board, leaA-ing about one inch or two 
between them, or by boring a board full 
of holes with a larger auger. These are 
fastened in the bottom of the boxes in a 
Avay readily removable for cleaning up. 
If the gold is very fine he will need to 
use strips of blankets with a heavy nap 
or Brussels carpet fastened at the loAver 
end of his riffles, or by using quicksilver 
Avhieh may lie held by boring holes not 
quite through boards placed in for rif¬ 
fles or by silver plates coated with quick¬ 
silver placed under a screen that will 
carry the coarse stuff OA T er. but will alloAV 
the fine to run over the plate. If I can 
give J. P. R. any further information 
on this subject I will gladly do so, as I 
have had experience in the different meth¬ 
ods of gold mining in Atlin. B. C.. Klon¬ 
dike, and on the beach at Cape Nome. 
Pennsylvania. w. e. bates. 
Getting Rid of English SparroAvs. 
I WOULD suggest to A. C. K„ Albany, 
N. Y., to rid his trees of English spar¬ 
rows that the trees be A\dred and a lot 
of electric lights be put in them and a 
switch handy to work. Then hang sev¬ 
eral old tin buckets in the trees in a 
bunch connected with a rope so they can 
be jerked vigorously and make a great 
racket. When it is dark enough that 
the lights will show well switch on the 1 
lights and jangle the tinware, and the 
birds will leave. Switch lights on and 
off quickly. If birds are disturbed at 
their roosting places a few times they 
will leave. Another way is to string two 
wires close together on a light circuit, 
and every bird that alights on them will 
be killed. The wires must be close 
enough together that the birds* feet will 
touch both Avires and complete the cir¬ 
cuit. Being so close they must be 
stretched very tight and leave a thin 
piece of mica or porcelain between for 
insulation. The trouble with this method 
is it will kill any bird, but you could 
switch on the power in the evening for 
a short time. Using this method a board 
should be kept above the wires as a wet 
leaf or snow will give you a “short.” 
Roseburg, Ore. s. D. E. 
At night. Avhen sparrows are roosting 
in the trees, take some Roman candles 
and shoot them off through the trees 
where they roost. This will scare them so j 
badly that they Avill leave for a healthier 
location. Some obstinate cases may re¬ 
quire more than one treatment; it has 
never failed for me yet. A. j. L. av. 
Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
Try hoisting a cage AA’ith the house cat 
in it at roosting time. I know from ex¬ 
perience that nothing will keep the birds 
away from a cherry tree like fixing a cage 
among the branches with a cat in it. The J 
same in a strawberry patch; one or two 
comfortable boxes for eats to shelter in, 
tie him to limb Avith a light chain day- j 
times, nights let him-free. J. s. 
Florida. 
You want a method of driving out spar- 
roAVS. I Avas similarly troubled and will 
give my remedy. They had taken up quar¬ 
ters in two sugar trees along the drive- 
Avay. and if one left a buggy under them 
over night it was ready for washing by 
morning, so I decided to get rid of them. 
One evening about dark, when they began 
to come in pretty thick, I took up a sta¬ 
tion near the trees with my .22 rifle and 
a box of cartridges and began a general 
bombardment of the trees. As it grew 
darker I came closer to the trees until 
the real flash would go up among the 
limbs. They are very persistent, at first, 
but I kept on firing at random until they 
quit coming in. and I have not been both¬ 
ered with them since. You may have to 
give them more than one bombardment if 
they have been there long, but I believe 
if kept up a short time it will effectually 
rout them. If you live in the city you 
Avould have to use the blank shells. I 
have also read of another remedy which 
consisted of sending up a shower of fire- 
Avorks in the trees such as small rockets, 
Roman candles and pinvvheels, which 1 
believe Avould be equally effective and 
probably Avould suit your case better. 
° c. MOONEY. 
while time is plenty 
and labor is cheap 
You’ll enjoy the winter months far bet¬ 
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Get Ready 
for your winter garden 
Glass must be used whether you garden for profit 
or merely for the love of having flowers and vegeta¬ 
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For the best results you must use the Sunlight 
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TEN BOOKS WORTH BUYING 
I-nndscape Gardening, Parsons.2.00 
Lawn Making, Barron. 1.10 
Agriculture and Chemistry, Storer. 5.00 
Fertilizers and Crops, A : an Sly lie.... 2.50 
Woods of Farm and Garden, Pammel 1.50 
Book of Wheat. Dondlingcr. 2.00 
Successful Fruit Culture, Maynard.. 1.00 
Irrigation and Drainage, King.... 1.50 
Study of Corn, Shoesmith.50 
Tlie Soil, King. 1.50 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
833 W. 30th St., Now York City 
