28 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
of it is hilly ami stony or so low and wet as to be 
of use for grazing purposes only. Two hundred 
and sixty-six acres have been cleared and brought 
under cultivation. The tillable area is a moderately 
rich loam soil. After deducting insurance, taxes, 
and all other expenses connected with running the 
farm, after omitting all table and other farm sup¬ 
plies furnished directly from the farm, and after 
allowing 5% interest on the total investment, in¬ 
cluding personal property and real estate, a survey 
of this farm shows an annual labor income of $3,961. 
In 1913 the farm produced 32 acres of corn, one 
acre of potatoes, 38 acres of oats, 25 acres of bar- 
ley, 20 acres of Timothy, and 150 acres of Alfalfa. 
As rapidly as possible the following rotation is be¬ 
ing adopted: corn, one year; oats, one year; Alfal¬ 
fa, six years. This year the acreage of Alfalfa has 
been increased to 170. 
Four men and 10 horses are required to do the 
work. While the labor distribution is not as yet 
fully worked out, the owner of the farm states that 
the harvesting and handling of Alfalfa hay keeps 
men and horses uniformly busy during the greater 
part of the year. About 000 head of lambs are fed 
and fattened each Winter. This, with the baling 
and marketing of Alfalfa hay, provides profitable 
Winter work. By far the largest single item of in¬ 
come is derived from the sale of Alfalfa hay. The 
average yield is about four tons per acre this year, 
and the average price over a series of years has 
been only a little less than $15 per ton. 
Soil fertility is maintained by the application of 
manure and phosphate fertilizers, and the soil is 
kept sweet by the use of lime. The farm is man¬ 
aged with economy and efficiency. An unsatisfac¬ 
tory stand of Alfalfa is not permitted to occupy the 
land. Farm machinery is always kept in prime con¬ 
dition. Each enterprise is on a large enough scale 
to permit a full equipment of machinery for doing 
each type of work. Lambs for feeding are pur¬ 
chased in the West by a shrewd buyer at lowest pos¬ 
sible prices and are skillfully sold on the Chicago 
market. As soon as the Western sheep arrive all 
that are salable are sorted out and sent to market. 
These yield a profit at practically no expense for 
feed. 
STUDYING AGRICULTURE IN PRISON. 
E NCLOSED find clipping from Philadelphia Public 
Ledger and Daily Transcript, under date of Mon¬ 
clay, August 2, 1875, which clipping I found among 
the leaves of an old magazine. I am a student 
of agriculture, although hindered somewhat as regards 
agricultural papers by not having the necessary funds 
to subscribe; however, occasionally 1 see your paper 
and read it, and am getting so much benefit from it 
that I take this means to show my appreciation. At 
the present time we have a gentleman in charge of this 
institution who is very much interested in trying to 
help the inmates to lead a better life when they get on 
the outside than they did before they had any trouble 
and came to a place of this kind. Through his kind¬ 
ness and progressivenese we are able to take a course 
of agriculture through the University of California, sit¬ 
uated at Berkeley, California, which is a great help 
to a good many of us. BEG. NO., c. s. I’. 
This letter comes from the California State 
Prison. A convict drops his name and is identified 
by a number, which, in this case we are not justi¬ 
fied in giving. The clipping refered to was from an 
old issue of Moore’s Rural New-Yorker, and de¬ 
scribed a method of butter-making. Many a young 
man is now behind the bars through some thought¬ 
less mistake, and not because of any hopeless de¬ 
pravity. Give them a fair chance and they will 
make good citizens when they once regain their free¬ 
dom. It seems to us that this plan of bringing the 
study of agriculture to these convicts is an admir¬ 
able one. 
FORMS OF “ AIR NITROGEN”—CYANAMII). 
HERE I have always used dry ground fish. 10%, 
in my formula foe grass and corn, would you 
use cyanamid instead? I want to learn about 
these new forms of nitrogen. An agent is push¬ 
ing it with a great deal of vigor in this section. 
South Iladley, Mass. f. n. r. 
First what is this cyanamid? One of the new 
forms of so-called “air nitrogen.” It is safe to say 
th.at all the nitrogen now in the earth came origin¬ 
ally from the air. A small quantity of it was washed 
out by falling rain or snow, but the greater part 
came by way of the lightning or through the little 
bacteria which work on the roots of the legume 
plants. By “lightning” we mean electrical dis¬ 
charges—large or small, and electricity is utilized 
in manufacturing the air nitrogen. The first thing 
is to pass a current of air ovei a red-hot copper 
plate or arc placed between magnets. In making 
cyanamid the current of nitrogen gas thus separated 
from the air is passed through tubes which contain 
calcium carbide—such as is used in producing acety¬ 
lene gas. A chemical combination is made which 
gives us the substance known as cyanamid. It is 
a mineral substance, grey in color, and usually very 
fine and dusty. It may be compared with sulphate 
of ammonia in effectiveness as a fertilizer. It is 
a mineral fertilizer, while the ground fish is an or¬ 
ganic form. For corn and for seeding down it is 
thought best to use some of the nitrogen in this or¬ 
ganic form, and for these purposes we would not 
substitute the cyanamid entirely for the fish. As 
a top-dresser or for using on grass or grain in the 
Spring we think the cyanamid would answer. The 
general opinion is that the cyanamid should not be 
used in direct contact with the seed: that is, at the 
same time the crop is planted. It develops, or 
throws off a gas which may injure the seed. There 
is no danger, however, when the cyanamid is applied 
several days before seeding. No doubt several oi 
these forms of air nitrogen will be in general use 
within a few years. They will be needed, and as 
soon as their nature and effect upon soils and seeds 
are well known they will be in great demand. We 
should go slowly with them until they are fully 
tested. 
THE CARE OF A ROPE. 
HAT can I do to protect a rope on a horse fork 
and add to its life? j. k. 
Practically all the wear in a well-cared- 
for horse-fork rope is due to two causes, un¬ 
equal stressing of the fibers from which the rope is 
composed, and internal wear due to chafing of the 
strands as they slip on each other when the rope is 
bent. 
When a rope is drawn around a pulley under load 
the fibers in the side of the rope farthest away from 
the pulley have to reach a greater distance than do 
those that are on the side of the rope next to the pul¬ 
ley, i. e., the rope is stressed unequally, the fibers 
next to the pulley not carrying their full share of 
the load. This unequal stressing results in break¬ 
ing some of the fibers that are overloaded, and as 
soon as they break their load is transferred to the 
fibers beneath them. This is kept up until the rope 
is destroyed. 
The smaller the diameter of the pulley, as com¬ 
pared with the diameter of the rope, the greater the 
breaking effect on the outside fibers. Hence it fol¬ 
lows that the greater the diameter of the pulley, as 
compared with that of the rope used with it the 
compared with that of the rope used with it, the 
longer will be the life of the rope. Engineers have 
found that a hoisting rope should not be used to run 
over pulleys that are less than eight times the diam¬ 
eter of the rope, but we often see horse-fork pulleys 
not over three inches in diameter when they should 
be at least six to accommodate the three-fourtlis- 
inch rope usually used for this purpose. The small 
pulleys referred to are usually found in the car. 
The .vriter has lately seen a car with large pulleys, 
fully six inches in diameter. This car where used 
will no doubt result in a longer term cf service of 
the rope used with it. In addition to being large, the 
pulleys are placed wide apart; this will prevent kink¬ 
ing is the fork enters the car, another sliortener of 
the rope’s life. 
The internal chafing mentioned is perhaps the 
principal cause of wear in a horse-fork rope. This, 
too, is lessened by the use of larger pulleys. I know 
of no preparation that will add strength or “tough¬ 
ness” to a rope, but by keeping its fibers lubricated 
so that they do not wear so badly on each other while 
in use its life can be somewhat lengthened Manu¬ 
facturers oil a rope during the process of making 
for this purpose, but in the course of time this dries 
out. A mixture of tallow and graphite has been 
found useful for this purpose, although it makes a 
rope somewhat disagreeable to handle. The graphite 
can be secured at nearly any hardware store or gar¬ 
age. The mixture should be applied hot to secure 
penetration, remembering that it is the lubricant on 
the inside of the rope that lubricates, not that left 
on the outside. This mixture will serve as a water¬ 
proof coating as well. No doubt, some of the 
graphite wagon greases, if melted and applied hot, 
would serve the purpose as well as the mixture men¬ 
tioned. 
Manila rope is more flexible than that made from 
sisal fiber, and will wear longer. Though it is usual¬ 
ly higher in first cost it is likely to be the cheaper 
rope in the long run. because of its longer life. That 
January 9. 
composed of four strands is better for horse-fork 
work than the common three-strand rope. It is more 
nearly circular in shape and therefore for a given 
size, contains more fibers and is stronger. A four- 
strand rope then of a given size is not worked so 
closely to its breaking strength as is a three-strand 
when used under the same conditions. This makes 
for longer life. To secure long service from a rope 
then use large pulleys, do not overload the rope, 
keep the rope dry, protect from mechanical injury 
such as driving over it with wagons, etc., use a rope 
large enough to carry the load easily and without 
strain and keep the fibers lubricated. 
Canton Agricultural School. Robert ii. smith. 
TWO ACRES FOR FODDER. 
LEASE toll me how and what to do with my two 
acres of land to got the most out of it in hay or 
anything else to food a horse and cow, also 290 
hers. This land is clay, some quack and myrtle 
and is full of every kind of weeds. Everything grow? 
except hay; where it has been plowed it grows a big 
crop. It has boon heavily manured every year, bin 
rot much has been plowed in seven or eight years 
About one-half acre is orchard, always cut lots o L 
Orchard grass. Last year a short grass came up thick;- 
also myrtle, too short to amount to anything. I wish 
to raise something to keep this cow and horse on this 
rich ground. w. B. s. 
Vermont. 
The following notes of management of two acres 
refer to the latitude of Northern New Jersey. The 
plan should he modified to suit other conditions. 
Assuming that nothing is growing on the land now 
we should plow as early as possible and sow half 
;.r. acre to oats and Canada peas, manuring heavily. 
Cut the oats and peas in June and cure for hay 
Then put such manure as has accumulated on the 
half acre, plow and sow Japanese millet. Cut ant. 
cure this in early September and sow barley and 
rye. The barley will make a little hay in October, 
while the rye will cover the ground through the 
Winter. On two-thirds of an acre well manured 
with chicken manure plant a variety of flint corn 
and give it fine culture. At the last working in Aug¬ 
ust sow a combination of barley, Hairy vetch and 
rye—the barley to be cut in October. Handled in 
this way flint corn gives a remarkable yield of 
grain and the stalks are nearly equal to hay. On 
another half acre sow fodder corn. This is done 
by opening furrows three feet apart and scattering 
corn thickly—about two bushels per acre. It make.'- 
a thick, rank growth of fine stalks. As you cut this 
fodder corn seed to barley, vetch and rye as with 
the other corn. On the remaining ground plant 
mangels and carrots in rows two feet apart and giv. 
them thorough culture. This will give you hay oi 
green fodder in the shape of barley, millet and oats 
and peas, corn grain and corn fodder, and roots, and 
leave the ground covered with rye for the next 
season. 
EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING. 
GOOD manager was needed in one of the great 
New York City departments. Instead of con¬ 
sulting politicians and going over various 
“pulls” an advertisement was placed in the daily 
papers. Leaving out the salary offered—this was 
all:— 
Wanted—Business manager, 35 to 40 years of age. 
able to superintend large force of employes and direct 
extensive construction work, organize and direct pur¬ 
chasing and distribution of enormous quantities of sup 
lilies. Only men of marked executive ability and good 
experience need apply. 
Of course there were hundreds of applicants, but 
in (his sensible way a competent man was obtained 
We mention this to point out the fact that clean and 
business-like advertising has come to be a necessity 
in business or public life. People read advertise¬ 
ments now as they never did befoi’e, and they are 
learning more and more to sort out the legitimate 
offers from the fakes and blowhards. One trouble 
is that many of these who use advertisements in 
buying goods do not realize that they might also 
use the same medium for selling. For example, take 
this year, when the apple crop is “spotted.” In some 
sections apples are plentiful and cheap, while in 
others there is no fruit at all. Left to the ordinary 
methods of distribution much of the fruit in one sec¬ 
tion would be wasted while in the other the price 
demanded would be prohibitive. A little well di¬ 
rected advertising would bring consumer and pro¬ 
ducer together and effect a sale. There can be no 
question about the selling power of good adver¬ 
tising. One recent small advertisement in The It. 
N.-Y. called out 410 replies, and not one of these 
persons could have known of the want in any other 
way. Our farmers need to learn the value of good 
advertising in disposing of their produce. The best 
chance to make sales is usually right in your local 
daily or weekly. Our advice would be to try the 
local market first—learn how to handle a mail trade 
first and then reach out for a wider trade if you 
can handle it. 
