214 
Soot Notes. 
W HAT is the value of soot from a 
chimney? Would it be best to put 
it on my asparagus bed now or to 
keep it till Spring and use it on my 
garden for small vegetables, beans, peas, 
corn, cucumbers and other things? I have 
about half a barrel. H. tv. H. 
Narragansett Pier, R. I. 
You should hold that soot until the 
garden is spaded and raked, then scatter 
the soot over it, and leave it on the top 
until hoeing is required. The soot con¬ 
tains some fertility, although not as 
much as most people think. Probably its 
chief value is the fact that the soot 
darkens the color of the soil, and in that 
way helps to warm it up and make it a 
little earlier. The darker color attracts 
the heat, and soils which are darkened 
are quickened somewhat in the early 
Spring. Do not expect great results 
from this soot; it will not take the place 
of manure or fertilizer. It will help 
somewhat largely through its effect upon 
the heat of the soil. 
Value of Sagebrush Ashes. 
T HE character of the soil here is 
what you can term as virgin soil, 
as there is a rank growth of sage 
brush growing on it, and about all 
that is necessary is to cut the brush 
off, turn water on it and in one 
or two years you can cut about a 
ton of hay to the acre. On good land it 
will run higher. Last year I planted five 
sacks of potatoes and dug a ton from 
ground that was cleaned of the brush the 
previous Fall, and plowed last Spring for 
the first time. Would the sagebrush 
ashes help the ground or hurt it, and 
what do the ashes contain in the way of 
plant food? We are all more than shift¬ 
less in this section of the country in one 
way, as there are many hundreds of tons 
of manure that could be had for the 
hauling, which is never used, but then 
there is a good excuse, as this is a cat¬ 
tle and horse-raising community, and all 
that is bothered about is raising enough 
hay to feed through the Winter. We im¬ 
port grain of all kinds, most of the po¬ 
tatoes, eggs, ham and bacon, and in fact 
almost everything we eat, but in return 
there is sure a pile of cattle shipped out 
every Fall. I planted a few acres in 
grain last Spring plowed four inches 
deep, disk-harrowed once, broadcast and 
dragged over it with a willow brush, 
and raised 2% tons of bay to the acre. 
Tusearora, Nev. d. c. m. 
We never handled any sagebrush ashes. 
They may contain alkalies which would 
injure the soil. In your case we should 
apply to the Nevada Experiment Sta¬ 
tion at Reno for information. The au¬ 
thorities there have studied such soils 
and can tell you. If we bad that manure 
in this country we would not ask for 
a gold mine. 
Small Farm Rotation. 
I HAVE 12 acres of land that is not 
very fertile. I would like to use this 
in four fields of three acres each. I 
wish to grow r tomatoes, corn and pota¬ 
toes on three fields, the fourth I wish to 
use for growing something to feed chick¬ 
ens and cows. I wish to rotate these 
crops and keep two cows, one horse and 
200 hens for eggs? I have extra ground 
that I use for orchard, garden and poul- 
try. H* F. w . 
Wittman, Md. 
For your section your plan as outlined 
should be arranged to have a rotation as 
follows: Early potatoes to be followed 
with a seeding of Crimson clover, or if 
preferred Red clover and Red-top. The 
potatoes leave the ground in fine shape 
for such seeding, and Crimson clover 
seeded the last of August or early Sep¬ 
tember, as soon as rains come, u r ill give 
the chickens green feed and furnish hay 
for your cows. They will also leave root 
growth in the ground that can be turned 
under and followed with the second year’s 
crop, corn. If you can get the corn cut 
early, sow again to Crimson clover as 
late as September 21 or else to rye. Ma¬ 
nure as heavily as you can and prepare 
for tomatoes in the third year. I would 
apply acid phosphate to the Crimson 
clover stubble before plowing and plant¬ 
ing to corn. I believe that if I could 
clear the tomatoes off fairly early, I 
would disk the field and seed to oats and 
Crimson clover to be cut for hay the 
Spring following. Follow with either 
late potatoes or let the field lie through 
the Summer and sow again to Crimson 
clover or rye, this to be disked in and 
sown as in the first year to early pota¬ 
toes. The above sounds like a lot of 
work and a continuous performance, but 
you are asking a lot of thin land in put¬ 
ting in corn, potatoes, and tomatoes one 
after another unless you use a catch crop 
in between. I know from experience 
THE RURAL 
that you can’t always make such close 
connections, and that it would be easier 
to have a plain rotation of corn, potatoes, 
tomatoes, and grass or perhaps corn 
twice, but if you want to build up your 
land you must get some legume into the 
rotation. I know nothing much better 
for your purpose or for your section than 
Crimson clover if the price of seed is not 
too steep. Rather than not have any¬ 
thing in a field in the Winter I would 
sow rye, even if it never grew’ more than 
five or six inches before I had to turn 
it under. It is a great feed for your 
purpose in the green stage; you can get 
it for your chickens early in the season, 
you can pasture your cows on it before 
any other pasture is ready, and you can 
cut it for them before it gets too high. 
Used with applications of lime, it is 
the best poor land rushed to death farm¬ 
er’s catch crop that I know. It will 
grow and build up the soil where every¬ 
thing else fails. K. B. 
Crimson Clover With Oats and Peas. 
1 EXPECT to plant five acres of peas 
and oats for hay next Spring. Would 
you advise sowing Crimson clover at 
the same time to turn under next Fall 
for wheat, or plow after oats and peas 
are gathered and sow cow peas to turn 
under for soil improvement. A. w. L. 
Lambertville, N. J. 
The oats and Canada peas will give 
you a good fodder crop, but do not sow 
Crimson clover with them. This clover 
is a good cold weather plant, not to be 
seeded in Spring. If you want to im¬ 
prove the soil cut the oats and peas at 
the proper time, then plow and seed to 
buckwheat and Crimson clover with a 
small amount of rye scattered in. You 
can cut the buckwheat for grain if you 
desire, or you can let it remain on the 
ground through Fall and Winter to pro¬ 
tect the Crimson clover. The clover and 
rye will grow on after the buckwheat is 
killed and give you a good crop for plow¬ 
ing under next Spring. 
Sawdust as Manure. 
T HERE are many questions about 
using sawdust or planer shavings for 
bedding. What effect will they have 
upon the soil? Fresh shavings and saw¬ 
dust contain an acid, and a too heavy 
dose of them will injure the soil. If this 
acid is overcome, there will be little or no 
trouble. Lime can be used with the saw¬ 
dust and shavings to sweeten them, but 
the best plan when they are used as bed¬ 
ding is to see that they are thoroughly 
soaked in the liquid manure before they 
go on to the field. If they are shaken up 
from time to time, and thoroughly soaked 
the ammonia in the liquids will take 
care of them, or if they are well mixed 
with horse manure they will be fit for use. 
Rotten sawdust, which has been exposed 
for some time to the weather, will not be 
likely to cause much trouble, but fresh 
sawdust, straight from the mill, should 
not be used without some form of alkali 
to go with it. We know of fruit grow¬ 
ers who have spread Iresli sawdust thick¬ 
ly under apple trees. It killed the grass 
and also dwarfed the growth of the tree, 
but if a good quantity of lime is spread 
on the ground, and the shavings spread on 
top of this there will be little or no 
trouble. As a general proposition the 
soil is sour enough already without add¬ 
ing acid to it, and it is far better to 
sweeten such a material as sawdust be¬ 
fore using it as a fertilizer. 
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