January 2 . 
ORCHARD GRASS.—Orchard grass is probably 
deserving of a wider use in New York State than is 
generally accorded it. This is due mainly to two 
reasons. Timothy is so exceptionally adapted to 
New York conditions that it receives by far the 
greatest attention. Orchard grass is a comparative¬ 
ly new grass so far as the general cultivation of it 
Is concerned. Its seed, up to within a few years, 
has been very expensive and almost prohibitive. 
Until recently the yield of Timothy has been satis¬ 
factory on lands that are now considered to be poor 
in production, and the need of a better adapted hay 
grass has not been so seriously felt. Now that the 
seed of Orchard grass is within reach—about $1.50 
per bushel—and with plenty of seed on the mar¬ 
ket. added to the fact that we are beginning to ap¬ 
preciate its adaptation and uses, it would seem that 
this grass should be tried more often and more 
widely than it is. 
HARTT OF GROWTH.—Orchard grass is a bunch 
grass, so that it does not make a good sod when 
sown alone. It can be mixed to advantage, especial¬ 
ly in pasture mixtures. Tt is very leafy, probably 
more so than either Timothy or Red-top. It makes 
a good hay when cut right, although it usually turns 
black. As it matures, it loses its palatability very 
fast, and so must be harvested early. It usually 
ripens a week to 10 days earlier than Timothy when 
grown in the same region, and for this reason would 
not be a good grass to mix with Timothy for hay 
purposes. Unlike Timothy therefore, which has a 
period of a couple of weeks during which it may 
be cut, it must be cut quickly in order to insure 
the highest palatability. As a pasture grass it is 
probably as valuable as, and in some places more 
so, than as a hay grass. It stays green very late 
in the Fall, and is the earliest grass in the Spring. 
For this reason it is particularly valuable in pas¬ 
tures which must be grazed both late in the Fall 
and early in the Spring. This characteristic of 
growth, coupled with its adaptation to either wet 
or dry lands, make it an excellent grass to mix 
with Red-top for pasture purposes. They have dif¬ 
ferent seasons of growth, overlapping somewhat to 
be sure, but they supplement each other well in 
producing continuous pasturage throughout the 
year. Besides early and late growth, it produces 
a. large amount of green grass. In pasture mix¬ 
ture where conditions are apt to be either wet or 
dry. Orchard grass will doubtless be of marked 
value. It probably deserves a much wider use in 
this connection. 
ECONOMIC VALUE.—Orchard grass like Red- 
top cannot compete with Timothy, so that it falls 
just outside the Timothy belt. In the South, where 
Timothy does not. d<v well on account of the high 
temperature, Orchard grass becomes the important 
grass. On lands too w r et and too dry for Timothy 
as in the case of many of our New York lands. 
Orchard grass can usually be grown where Red- 
top can be grown, although Red-top, being more 
tolerant of an acid soil, has a wider adaptation on 
this account. The rate of seeding varies from one 
to two bushels or 14 to 28 pounds if sown alone. 
When used in mixtures, the amount of Orchard 
grass seed sown is less, depending on the purpose 
for which the grass is to be used and the seed with 
which it is to be mixed. It may be sown in either 
the Fall or Spring, and will usually make a more 
vigorous early growth than Timothy. It is not 
difficult to secure a good stand. john ii. reisner. 
IMPROVING POTATOES BY SELECTION. 
W HEN I began raising potatoes, the first years 
I had fine varieties, two long white, name 
unknown, Empire State, Early Queen and Sir 
Walter. All were given the same care and all were 
grown on new land. Sir Walter was on the lightest 
soil. That year the long white and Empire State 
gave 125 bushels of salable and 20 bushels of un¬ 
dersize per acre; the Queen and Sir Walter gave 
160 bushels salable and 10 and 12 of small per 
acre. In going over this field before digging I 
found a large number of hills where the vines were 
dead, and in examining these hills 1 found the tu¬ 
bers were without exception all undersized, and 
when I visited my neighbor’s field I found the same 
trouble. This set me to thinking. What was the 
cause of this? Was the seed deteriorating, or was 
it some disease, or perhaps an insect. Here in Mich¬ 
igan the rule is when digging to pick up all that are 
salable first, then pick up and sort the next year’s 
seed from the seconds, taking everything that is 
large enough for seed. This seemed to me as a 
very poor way to save seed, for it would be just as 
sensible to sell or feed all the large ears of corn 
and plant the nubbins, and one could apply the same 
rule to almost any crop. 
I determined to make two tests: first to save seed 
, ; XHE NtCW-yXlKKKK 
from these cull hills, and plant and care for this 
as I would my regular crop, and the next year se¬ 
lect the best and the poorest hills to test the follow¬ 
ing year, and so on. The second test was to take 
the best hills at digging time from the Sir Walter 
to improve the yield. I did not select the hills that 
had the largest tubers, but the hills that had the 
greatest number of uniform, smooth, medium size, 
and fewest small tubers. At digging time I saved 
four bushels of Sir Walter, hill-selected seed, and 
three hills of the long white and Empire State poor 
hills, one of each to test the next year, the second 
year. T cut the seed to two eyes and one piece to 
hill, rowed both ways at three feet. From the two 
bushels of Sir Walter seed I dug 39 bushels salable 
and three pecks under-sized. From this I hill-select¬ 
ed seven bushels for the next year’s test. From the 
three hills of culls I had from the two long white, 
one bushel and one peck in all. with 51 potatoes 
that would go as salable. The one hill of Empire 
State gave one bushel in all, with 17 tubers as sala¬ 
ble. In the long white plot there were 11 hills of 
culls where there was not one salable tuber in the 
hill. Tn the Empire State there was no hill but 
what had salable tubers. Therefore I discontinued 
the test, with the Empire State, and continued with 
the long white and Sir Walter. 
The third year from the seven bushels of hill- 
selected Sir Walter T raised 185 bushels salable 
and 414 of under-sized. From this I hill-selected 10 
bushels for the next year’s test. 
Of the long white I planted the product of the two 
No. 1 best hills and the two No. 2 poorest ones. 
From the first I dug 2V 2 bushels. There were one 
bushel three pecks salable. From the second the 
product was seven-eighths bushel with 11 salable 
tubers. 
This test I carried on for 10 years, and my be¬ 
lief. which is backed by that 10 years, is that hill 
selection at digging time will increase the yield, 
give a more uniform size, eliminate the small tu¬ 
bers to a great extent and improve the quality. 
Also, that the planting of small stock as is done by 
a great many (the under-sized seconds left after the 
large ones have been taken up) will cause deteriora¬ 
tion, for in almost any field of potatoes you ex¬ 
amine you will find quite a few hills that will not 
produce a single salable tuber. These hills can he 
seen and detected early in the season. The why 
and wherefor of their non-production is a great 
question, but nevertheless, if you plant from such 
hills do not forget that like begets like. I do not 
condemn planting small tubers if they are produced 
from good strong thrifty hills. They will not de¬ 
teriorate or run out, but are just as desirable for 
seed as larger tubers, for they are just a later set¬ 
ting and therefore good seed. 
It is poor economy in raising potatoes to sell all 
the best and plant the residue. After five years of 
hill selection of seed I sold my entire crop each 
year, getting five and 10 cents above the market, the 
buyers using my potatoes to face cars with. I could 
always dispose of my load even when there was a 
shortage of cars or the market overstocked, and I 
never had a load run over the screen as sorts, which 
is practiced here, the buyers claiming one year they 
are too large and another year there are too many 
small ones. Some years T have seen as many as lo 
bushels of large tubers thrown out of a load of 
from GO to 75 bushels, then another year the same 
proportion of small ones, and all this can be elim¬ 
inated by hill selection of seed. g. l. iiuey. 
Michigan. 
VALUE OF MUSHROOM MANURE. 
GAN get the waste manure trom a mushroom 
house for $1.25 per one-horse load delivered. Is 
it worth that? Would it be good for potatoes? 
What chemicals should I add to make a complete 
manure? C- 11 • c> 
Bryantville, Mass. 
The price usually charged for spent mushroom 
manure in centers of large production is 50 cents 
per one-horse load, and sometimes as low as 50 
cents per two-horse load at the mushroom house or 
cellar. It is of greater value to the florist and gar¬ 
dener than to the general farmer, as it is in a fine 
mechanical condition to work into compost, or for 
mulching growing crops. The greatest value is in 
the humus content, as it is doubtful if much nitro¬ 
gen remains, as considerable of this element is lost 
in composting, and the growing mushroom crop re¬ 
quires nitrogen for development. Nitrogen being 
the most valuable of the three elements in horse ma¬ 
nure, the actual fertilizing value would not be very 
high. In this vicinity fresh manure can be obtained 
for $2.50 per two-horse load, so would consider that 
amount pretty high for spent mushroom manure. 
For potatoes 1 should use a heavy coat of this 
article, and then use the regular amount of potato 
fertilizer you find best adapted to your conditions, 
in addition, dropping the nitrogen possibly one-half 
per cent. If C. II. C. were to sow Hairy vetch rather 
early, say September 1, or latter part of August, and 
sprout the seed before sowing, then manure an ad¬ 
joining tract heavily, and plow if possible after 
vetch has had an opportuntiy to grow in Spring, ho 
will see very little if any difference in results. 
Several years back we put one carload of manure. 
30 tons, on one acre, and adjoining turned down a 
very heavy crop of vetch. The only difference was 
in the expense, which was one bushel of vetch seed 
against $75 for manure. This of course is an un- 
dreamed-of quantity of manure for general farming, 
but in our business we are using less each season, 
and I feel sure that just as soon as we get all our 
land covered heavily each Autumn the manure will 
be a thing of the past, as we must buy all we use. 
Our object in sprouting vetch seed is to have all 
germinate, so more will lie in ground and come 
up in a crop where not wanted. We cover it with 
water for 10 hours, then keep covered with damp 
cloth till short white sprouts appear, when it should 
be sown at once. The price of vetch seed is some¬ 
what against its general use, and will evidently 
rule higher on account of the condition of agricul¬ 
tural stagnation bound to result from the present 
war. Tt will open up an opportunity for American 
farmers to grow seed, which is no very difficult 
matter to do, though we find it impossible to har¬ 
vest it so that there will not be a lot of seed left, 
on field, which will germinate and interfere with 
next crop grown on same tract. ei.mer j. weaver. 
Pennsylvania. 
A MACHINE FOR BURNING SOIL. 
READ a recent article on root diseases or “soil 
sickness” of wheat. I have been studying for a 
good many years on a farming auto, that will not 
only supersede the horse, but is capable of carrying 
and running an apparatus that renovates the soil. 
This machine elevates the furrow; pulverizes it and con¬ 
veys it through an oil flame, burning and destroying 
every known insect and noxious weed, both the weed, 
the seed and all roots of grass, reducing everything un¬ 
desirable to ashes, thus making a fertilizer of those 
things, besides producing all the chemical changes by 
fire that are beneficial to the soil. Since my studies 
began in this line I have met a professor of chemistry. 
By our intercourse we have set forth our ideas and 
mechanism for producing the above results, and he in 
turn stated that he had read a treatise on burning the 
soil by a garden truck farmer of New York City who 
had practiced it to a worked-out science, claiming in 
his practice he had found that no fertilizer is needed 
for any crop. The fire chemically changes it, eliminat¬ 
ing all poisons detrimental to any crop, so that the 
same crop can be grown year after year without fertil¬ 
izer. If you have ever seen anything of the kind and 
can inform me where to send for it I should bo much 
obliged. E - M - K - 
Burning or heating soils usually results in mak¬ 
ing them more productive, at least for a crop or 
two. This is due partly to the fungi, insects, and 
weed seeds destroyed, and partly to other causes. 
There is an objection to burning the soil, however, 
especially if it be carried too far, because in that 
case the organic matter of the soil is destroyed; and 
in many of our soils the organic matter is already 
sadly depleted. To burn the weed seeds, etc., to 
ashes, therefore, as E. M. K. suggests, is not to be 
advised. We should expect less heat to do prac¬ 
tically as much good and less harm. 
By burning the furrow slice, however, we could 
not expect to get rid of soil diseases entirely, be¬ 
cause the spores of those diseases exist in the sub¬ 
soil. Following my article a few weeks ago some 
one suggested that the furrow slice be sterilized 
with formaldehyde as a preventive of the diseases 
mentioned. A discussion of that suggestion by Prof. 
Bolley printed in a later issue revealed the fact that 
he had already tried it out, with the result that 
when the roots of the wheat plants had reached 
below the layer of sterilized soil, the parasitic fungi 
there attacked them as usual and soon worked up 
into the sterilized layer. A field proposition is quite 
a different thing from a greenhouse proposition. In 
the greenhouse all of the soil used can be sterilized : 
in the field no more than a surface layer can be 
treated under the most favorable conditions. I 
should say, therefore that heating the fur¬ 
row slice will increase production somewhat, and 
will go a long way toward solving the weed problem. 
The question, then, from the farmer's point of 
of view, is whether or not E. M. K.’s machine will 
do what he claims for it at a cost which will leave 
a profit from the increased crop and the saving in 
fighting weeds. Judging from my knowledge of farm 
machinery and farm operations, and without knowing 
anything of the machine or its operations except as 
learned from E. M. K.’s letter, I should think it un¬ 
likely that it would succeed in a practical way, es¬ 
pecially in the cultivation of general field crops. 
In intensive farming there is a chance if the ma¬ 
chine succeeds at all, of its being made to yield a 
profit, as for instance in the control of such soil- 
borne diseases as the club-root of cabbage. 
c. A. LUDWIG. 
