828 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Juno 19. 1915. 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Suppose we try our hand this week at 
remembering some of our friends. Most 
of us are quite ready to denounce our 
enemies, but we are little shy about ex¬ 
pressing our feelings toward the common 
friends of life. 
The Rttsy Ree. —Put me down as a 
friend of the honey-bee. He can be ugly 
if he cares to, and he can produce a 
story or tale with a stinging argument if 
\ mi drive him to it. lie may scatter 
blight, but who ever saw a friend whose 
qualities were all noble—outside of a 
graveyard? I am satisfied that the bees 
help in our orchards. E. R. Root sends 
me the following statement about bees 
and apples: 
My brother covered one large limb of 
one of my prolific apple trees with mos¬ 
quito netting, before the tree was leaved 
out or any blossoms had opened up. If 
you were here 1 would like to show you 
the mass of blossoms that came out all 
right on the covered limb, but every one 
dropped off. and there must be several 
hundred of them in a heap in the bottom 
of the bag of mosquito netting—not a 
single blossom on this covered limb, while 
all the rest of the tree where the bees 
could get at them is covered with little 
apples about the size of a gooseberry. 
I believe that is right. I know of 
course that some fruit growers deny the 
bee’s right to friendship, or consider him 
a greatly over-rated individual. We will 
not quarrel over that. We like the Hon. 
Honey Ree, and like to have him around. 
The Honest Dog. —You may also put 
me down as a friend of the honest and 
industrious dog. Here I shall get into 
trouble with some people who claim that 
there is no such thing. It is hard tb con¬ 
vince some men when they once make up 
their mind. Here is another extract from 
the letter by E. R. Root: 
Ry the way, my father used to be a dog 
hater. They used to run over his green¬ 
house sash and break through, and over 
his garden. He had no use for a dog until 
we had one little black and tan rat ter¬ 
rier that cleaned out all the rats in the 
neighborhood, and he kept so everlasting¬ 
ly at it that the rats kept off the premises 
for two or three years after he was dead 
and gone. My father has had more re¬ 
spect for dogs ever since, especially for 
that kind of a dog. 
And that’s the sort of a dog to have 
around. I look out and see Airedale and 
her big son lying on the lawn—stretched 
out like lazy specimens. They are not 
lazy. Each has a watchful eye open and 
if we needed their service no steel trap 
could ever get into action quicker than 
they would. The honest dog is a good 
friend. The dishonest dog is no good. 
He is usually a reflection of his master, 
for a man stamps his qualities upon a dog 
in indelible ink. 
Lime. —Every year when Spring starts 
things up and crops begin to grow I re¬ 
alize more and more what a friend our 
farmers have in lime. It is changing the 
character of our soil from a tough, brick¬ 
like mass to a mellow earth. You see 
lime does a lot of things in the soil that 
most of us have never considered. “Sweet¬ 
ening” is only one of these useful things, 
although in our locality it is probably the 
most important. Then it has a chemical 
effect to open or dose up soils as needed. 
To some extent lime can liberate potash 
and phosphoric acid when certain forms 
are found in the soil. In some soils it 
prevents denitrification or the loss of ni¬ 
trogen. and it stimulates the soil bac¬ 
teria to more active work in taking nitro¬ 
gen from the air. Lime does other things 
for us, many of which we do not under¬ 
stand. We do know, however, that it will 
make two blades of clover grow on soil 
where none grew before, and when a man 
gets so he can grow clover he can grow 
anything that will live in his latitude. We 
grow to think more and more of lime the 
longer we use it. 
Cover Crops. —Here we have another 
good friend. I have talked cover crop so 
much that it seems as if people ought to 
be tired of it. Still, I see so many bare 
cornfields all Winter, and so many car¬ 
loads of manure going into the country, 
that I conclude that we have not talked 
half enough. A cover crop is any growth 
which occupies the land while it would 
otherwise be idle. Soil loses its fertility 
while it is loafing. The greatest loss to 
the land comes in through the loss of ni¬ 
trates, which are soluble, and are thus 
washed out of the soil when rains are fre¬ 
quent. Now the nitrogen in the soil or, 
at least most of it, is found in the organic 
matter—which means the manure, bed¬ 
ding, weeds or other crops which have 
made growth and have been plowed into 
the soil. The nitrogen in this organic 
matter will not change into nitrate and 
become available until it decays or fer¬ 
ments. In order to do this there must be 
both heat and moisture in the soil. You 
will see therefore that, the most likely 
time for this to occur would be in late 
Summer and early Fall, when the soil is 
hot and the rains begin to fall. The hot 
“muggy” weather is the best time for 
these nitrates to gather in the soil. If 
the soil is filled with a thick network of 
living roots you can see that these ni¬ 
trates will be captured and used before 
they can be washed away. If there are 
none or very few of those living roots, of 
course, the nitrates will be washed out 
and lost. On fertile soils left bare 
through the Fall this loss of nitrogen 
would be nearly equal to what you would 
add in four tons of manure to the acre. 
Now we realize that corn, potatoes and 
similar crops are killed by the frost, and 
usually stop growing, in our latitude, dur¬ 
ing September, yet in the warm, moist 
soil the nitrates keep right on forming. 
This they continue to do until the soil 
freezes, and unless some living crop can 
occupy the land most of these nitrates 
will be washed away and lost. A “cover 
crop” therefore is some hardy crop, like 
rye, vetch, clover or turnips, that will 
cover the ground or grow on up to freez¬ 
ing and save these nitrates in the soil. 
Lime and cover crops are the best soil 
friends the farmers in our section have. 
We think more and more of them year 
after year as their results show up. Let 
us all begin now to get the theory of cover 
cropping, and then we can take up the 
seeds and methods of handling them as 
the season develops. 
Tools. —I do not see the weeder used 
as much as it should be. A few years 
ago there was a great outcry about the 
weeder. It is as useful now as ever, but 
few farmers ever speak of it. We use it 
two and sometimes three times on the 
corn before cultivating begins. The 
scratching with the weeder breaks up the 
crust, pulls out millions of weeds, and 
levels the soil around the hills. First 
one way and then the other holding down 
hard on the handles does great work with 
corn or young potatoes. I cannot under¬ 
stand how the weeded ever fell out of 
fashion. . . . The spike or straight- 
tooth harrow is another useful tool not 
half appreciated by many farmers. It 
can be used like a weeder for scratching 
over the young corn. It will cover more 
space than the cultivator and tear up 
millions of weeds while dodging about in 
the corn and not pulling enough of it up 
to count. ... If you have a strong, 
heavy team a big Cutaway harrow is a 
great tool for fitting land as we do it. 
We use lime each year, after plowing un¬ 
der a cover crop, and the Cutaway stirs 
it into the upper soil in great shape. 
Then when worked both ways with an 
Acme harrow the upper soil is well 
mixed, stirred up and smoothed into 
shape. It pays to take time for fitting 
the soil well before putting in the seed. 
Alfalfa. —This great crop is working 
iuto our neighborhood. My neighbor, a 
dairyman, has a good field well started. 
Some three miles away from us as a bird 
would fly, on level, sandy soil, there are 
about 25 acres of Alfalfa in a bunch. It 
is in fine condition and gives about four 
tons to the acre. The soil is well suited 
to it, and the owner seems to have spent 
considerable money in getting it started, 
but it is a fine crop. Rriefly stated the 
plan seems to be about as follows: Put 
in a green manuring crop like oats aid 
peas, well fertilized. Plow this under in 
July and use two tons of ground limestone 
per acre. Sow 25 pounds of seed, well in¬ 
oculated, and a good dressing of bore and 
potash. Our seedlings are coining on— 
June 5, less than a month after plant¬ 
ing the seedlings, I measured one plant. 
It had 15 stems averaging about 10 
inches long. People come and look at 
these seedlings—and smile. Little Red¬ 
head came the other day while I was look¬ 
ing them over and said: “Don’t you 
worry—let them laugh. I’ll bet you beat 
them yet!” The Hope Farm man has not 
worried at ridicule for many a year, and 
will not begin now. As for betting I 
hope my friends will not put up any 
money either way, but I back the seed¬ 
lings to make good. 
Rossing Tiie Farmer. —Here is an ex¬ 
tract from an honest letter: 
“Did God give other people the right to 
boss the farmer around and tell him what 
to do? How to keep his sons on the 
farm and why he don’t make money?” 
I think I am fully justified in saying 
“No” to this, though I know some people 
who act as if they had the divine right to 
tell the farmer just what he ought to do. 
My own belief is that this idea of bossing 
the farmer is a human-made privilege, 
and a rather inhuman one at that. Cer¬ 
tain classes of people from earliest times 
have come forward to “protect” or 
“finance” or “teach” or “boss” the farm¬ 
er. The farmer has paid them all to do 
these things for him, when he should have 
protected himself, handled his own financ¬ 
ing, selected his own teachers and attend¬ 
ed to his own bossing. These things have 
been going on so long that the world 
seems to think the farmer ought to con¬ 
tinue to carry a lot of parasites instead 
of paying only the handlers who are ac¬ 
tually needed to take care of his goods. 
That is why there is such an outcry 
whenever the farmer gets up to shake 
himself free. No one has any divine 
right to “boss the farmer.” There is a 
man-made habit of bossing which is going 
to be split right in two. IT. W. C. 
Purifying Water. 
The April. 1015, number of “Popular 
Mechanics Magazine,” page 586, has this 
to say: “In an endeavor to lessen the 
danger from drinking impure water; the 
War Department has inaugurated a new 
method.by which pure water is 
furnished the soldiers.-A small 
quantity of calcium hypochlorite is 
mixed with the water rendering the water 
safe for drinking.” If this is true, as 
reported, it is of general value. Can 
you give further information about it? 
Jarbidge, Nev. A. L. R. 
The use of the hypochlorites in water 
purification is not new, attention hav¬ 
ing been called to their value as early as 
1888. but in the last few years, more at¬ 
tention has been paid to this process. 
The use of hypochlorites (bleach) is not 
considered a substitute for filtration but 
a valuable addition to that process for 
purifying water. The chemical is non- 
poisonous, cheap, and effective as a 
germicide. When added to water togeth¬ 
er with alum, much of the organic mat¬ 
ter in the water is coagulated, while at 
least a greater part of the harmful bac¬ 
teria are killed. Subsequent filtration 
then removes the coagulated organic mat¬ 
ter with entangled bacteria and the water 
is rendered clear and pure. The germi- - 
tidal action of hypochlorites would, of 
course, help to render suspected water 
safe if used alone and I have no doubt 
that it is used as the aftiele you quote 
suggests. The chemical is easily carried 
and added to the water to be used. It 
will probably displace permanganate of 
potash, which was formerly used in the 
same way, but the effective germicidal 
properties of which are now doubted 
when so used. M. B. d. 
Kerosene on Seed Corn. 
Here is a little advice to farmers who 
are troubled by the crows pulling corn. 
Pour kerosene over the corn, drain it 
off and plant the corn, and you will have 
no trouble whatever. The crows will 
not pull it, bugs and worms do not like 
it; it does not injure the corn. I have 
tried it two years. It works well in 
hand or planter. A. H. B. 
Maine. 
Whether the kerosene proves injurious 
or not to the corn seed depends upon the 
extent to which it has an opportunity to 
penetrate. I suspect that A. II. R. does 
not give the kerosene much opportunity 
to penetrate. You will note that he says 
that he pours the kerosene over the corn 
and drains it off. The principal danger 
in this formula lies in its failure to spe¬ 
cify the length of time which he has been 
able to expose the corn to the action of 
the kerosene. Use of the suggestion in 
the form in which he puts it would be 
sure to result in the destruction of the 
germinating power of the corn in a large 
number of cases. That kerosene will ex¬ 
ercise a repellent effect on the creatures 
that usually destroy the seed corn I have 
little doubt. In the course of some 
rather extensive experiments carried on 
on substances used for protecting seed 
corn from burrowing animals we found 
that kerosene, crude petroleum, copperas, 
crude carbolic acid, fish oil, spirits of 
camphor and turpentine when used in 
sufficient quantity or strength to impart 
an odor to the corn seriously injured the 
germinating power of the grain, and that 
to treat the seed with any of these sub¬ 
stances in such small quantity or dilute 
form as not to injure the germ is a 
waste of time, for the slight taste or odor 
imparted is soon dissipated by contact 
with the soil. We found that corn soaked 
in kerosene, a commonly recommended 
treatment, for as short a time as five 
minutes seriously impaired the germinat¬ 
ing qualities. These results are record¬ 
ed on pages 33 and 34 of the Kansas 
Station Rulletin No. 168, entitled “The 
Common Garden Mole.” T. J. H. 
Cow-horn Turnips in Corn. 
How are Cow-horn turnips planted and 
treated? I intend to plant them in field 
corn. Also advise whether turnips, and 
what kind, are sometimes sown with 
grass seed, and if there is any special 
benefit to the ground in sowing them with 
grass seed to insure a better crop of 
grass and a more permanent one. 
New York. G. b. w. 
Wait until you are ready to cultivate 
the corn for the last time this season. 
Scatter between two and three pounds 
of turnip seed over the ground. Then 
cultivate lightly, working the soil not over 
three inches deep, having a plank or 
heavy stick behind the cultivator so it 
will drag along and smooth down the 
soil. Then let the crop alone. We do 
not usually sow the turnip alone, but add 
rye, clover or vetch. Turnips are some¬ 
times seeded with grass in the Fall. 
This gives a fair crop of turnips, and 
usually seems to help the grass seeding, 
though we do not follow this plan. 
Nitrate of Soda on Tobacco. 
How is nitrate of soda used on Ha¬ 
vana tobacco plants, or will it injure 
them? i). N. G. 
Lititz, Pa. 
Small quantities of the nitrate used 
very early in the season on the tobacco 
will not be likely to injure it. This, 
however, is not the wisest way to fertil¬ 
ize an expensive crop like tobacco, where 
so much depends upon the quality of the 
leaf. The needs of the tobacco crop have 
been well studied, and it seems to be 
evident that it would be better for you 
to use a complete fertilizer, containing 
the chemicals which have been found best 
adapted for producing this crop. Old 
tobacco growers may understand the use 
of the chemicals, but unless you have 
had long experience in growing tobacco, 
it will pay you better to use one of the 
best brands of mixed fertilizer in place 
of the nitrate of soda. 
Trees Do Not Bear. 
Every year we have many questions 
about sterile trees. They often bloom 
but fail to set or mature fruit. What 
causes the trouble? Prof. Robbins of 
the Colorado Agricultural College con¬ 
denses the reasons as follows: 
1. Self-sterility. Many varieties of ap¬ 
ples and pears are self-sterile. That is, 
they are not capable of setting fruit 
properly unless pollen from another va¬ 
riety is used. For example, Rartlett and 
Kieffer pears, in many locations, when 
they are planted in solid blocks, give less 
satisfactory results than when they are 
planted with such varieties as Lawrence, 
Duchess, and Anjou. With apples and 
pears it is good practice to mix varieties. 
However, if varieties with proper affini¬ 
ties are selected, one variety to furnish 
the pollen is as good as a number. 
2. Frozen pistils. The pistil, the part 
of the flower to develop fruit, is 
more easily frozen than other parts of 
flower. Hence the pistil may be frozen 
while other flower parts are not affected; 
consequently, blossoms are formed but 
fail to set fruit. 
3. Weak trees. Trees in a weak con¬ 
dition, although blooming abundantly, 
often fail to set fruit. 
4. Rain and snow. The pistil may be 
mechanically injured and the pollen 
washed away by rain or snow at the time 
when blossoms are open. 
5. Excessive growth of wood. Rlos- 
soms often drop in great numbers when 
the tree is forming an excessive amount 
of wood. 
6 . Over abundance of nitrogen fertil¬ 
izers. 
7. Diseased buds. 
8 . Spraying. Heavy spraying of trees, 
especially before pollination has in some 
few instances resulted in a loss of blos¬ 
soms. This is not serious however. 
