THE RURAL IM E W-YORKER 
1131 
Wheat Growing on the Small Farm in 
New York. 
Dwarf Apple Chenango Strawberry. Fig. 431. 
Part II. 
FERTILIZATION.—The fertilization of the wheat 
crop contributes largely to the profit of the 
crop and the use of so-called commercial brands are 
perhaps many times not understood. Often a cer¬ 
tain brand is bought and used because some ener¬ 
getic agent says his goods are best for your soil, 
when in reality the soil itself alone can answer that 
question. Stable manure either turned in the soil 
or put on as a top-dressing and worked in the soil 
while tilling it is the most reliable fertilize!*. In 
our practice the manure mostly goes under the 
beans, but that crop leaves enough to give an ac¬ 
count of itself in the wheat crop. We always sup¬ 
plement the manure with commercial fertilizers. 
No crop seems to respond so well to these as Win¬ 
ter wheat. What kind of fertilizer to use is a diffi¬ 
cult problem to solve. Different soils require dif¬ 
ferent grades of goods. Generally speaking clay 
soils are well stocked with potash, muck soils are 
deficient in potash and phosphoric acid, and lime¬ 
stone soils do not require much phosphoric acid. 
Nitrogen depends on how much manure you use 
and how well your soil is stocked with humus from 
clover or other green crops you may have plowed 
under. No stranger to your locality can accurately 
tell you what your soil needs. Neither can a chemist, 
although he may analyze it. You must ask the soil by 
careful experiment. Use 
separately some dis¬ 
solved phosphate rock, 
some muriate of potash, 
some nitrogen, and a 
complete fertilizer con¬ 
taining all of these. 
Your soil will tell you 
by the appearance of 
the standing crop what 
is needed by way of 
commercial fertilizers. 
Begin this Fall and 
work out this problem 
on small strips across 
y o u r field where the 
soil conditions are uni¬ 
form, and it will be a 
guide to you in the fu¬ 
ture. However, it ought 
to be followed out for 
about three seasons, so 
as to have conclusive 
results as your guide. 
In the meantime if you 
have a successful wheat 
grower in your locality, 
from the standpoint of 
profit, follow his exam¬ 
ple in fertilization and 
study how you may im¬ 
prove on it. Use home- 
mixed fertilizers. If 
you have had no exper¬ 
ience in buying a n d 
mixing these, write 
your experiment station asking for information as 
to home mixing of commercial fei*tilizers. It will 
mean a saving of from five to eight dollars a ton 
at an expense of 50 cents for mixing. This applies 
to grades that sell around $23 to $20 per ton. 
There is a greater variation in the saving on lower 
grades. We have found by experiment that on our 
Dunkirk silt loam and on the Ontario loam with 
manure and clover turned under acid phosphate 
(dissolved) gives results equal to any complete fer¬ 
tilizer and at about half or three-fifths the cost. 
We use 250 tp 300 pounds of commercial fertilizer 
to the acre. When we have used a complete fer¬ 
tilizer it analyzes 2 per cent, nitrogen, 8-10 per cent, 
phosphoric acid and 4-G per cent, potash. In mixing 
this as a source of nitrogen we prefer to derive 
one-half of it from nitrate of soda and the remain¬ 
der from dried blood or from tankage according as 
the prices may be. For the phosphoric acid some is 
contained in tankage in case it is used, and the 
remainder is supplied from dissolved rock. Potash is 
supplied in form of muriate of potash. Until Ger¬ 
many again exports potash or America produces it, 
which will probably not be this season, my advice 
M ls 
Trap Strip for Fly at Left. Fig. 430. 
Great Ayrshire Cow: Henderson’s Dairy Gem. Fig. 432. (See page 1144.) 
is to cut potash out entirely on account of the ex¬ 
tremely high price. 
SEED SELECTION.—The seed is an important item 
in the product of a good crop. We aim to have seed 
free from all noxious weed seeds and from smut. 
Under ordinary farm conditions any variety of 
wheat after being grown in a locality for a number 
of years seems to deteriorate in value. It is a good 
practice to get new strains of wheat occasionally 
and if they do well in a small way, then adopt them 
for the main crop. We always test out a variety 
for a season or two before trusting it for the whole 
crop. In many localities stinking smut is making 
its appearance. On farms where such is the case, 
one ought to get clean seed, handling it either in 
new bags or in disinfected ones and sowing it with 
a drill that has been disinfected to guard against 
contamination of the clean seed. For methods of 
treating smut consult your experiment station or 
get Farmers’ Bulletin No. 507 from the U. S. De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. 
TIME OF SOWING.—We aim to sow the wheat 
from the 15tli to the 25th of September. Earlier 
sowing is more subject to attacks of Hessian fly. 
If the fly is prevalent in a locality the sowing of a 
narrow strip of wheat about the field about tln*ee 
weeks before the main crop as a trap for the fly is 
recommended, plowing it under late in the Fall to 
destroy the fly. For facts about controlling fly and 
other insect pests in wheat, get Farmers’ Bulletin 
No. 132 from the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
at Washington. In localities where frost comes be¬ 
fore sowing time, it acts as a check to the ravages 
of the fly. In this lake region we rarely have frost 
before sowing, and waiting for it we find is not 
advisable, as not sufficient top is obtained to insure 
the wheat wintering well. We rely almost entirely 
on fly resistant varieties. Two to 2 y 2 bushels of 
seed are sown to the acre. Two bushels is enough 
for our soil in its high state of cultivation, but less 
productive soils not well stocked with humus, need 
2V4 bushels, for best results. If a soil is not strong 
enough to make the wheat stool well it is a good 
plan to secure a thick stand by using more seed. 
SEEDING TIMOTHY AND CLOVER WITH 
WHEAT.—In closing I wish to add a word about 
seeding clover and Timothy in the wheat as a by¬ 
product of the crop. We put a high value on good 
seeding after wheat. Indeed land cannot be con¬ 
tinually cropped and kept in a high state of pro¬ 
ductiveness without adding humus constantly, and 
with us clover is the most valued help to that 
end. The Timothy is sown along with the wheat 
and fertilizer by using a grass seed attachment to 
the grain drill. It may be sown afterwards with 
equally good results, but with more labor cost. 
About three to four quarts of good clean Timothy 
is sown to the acre. There are two reasons for 
sowing this seed in the Fall. It has two chances 
to get established, if the Fall is favorable it gets 
well started, and can endure a dry Spring that 
would make Spring-sown seed a failure, and in case 
of the failure of the Spring-sown clover you have 
Timothy, which is far better than no seeding at all. 
With a normal amount 
of rainfall, Fall-sown 
Timothy will produce 
some seed in the wheat, 
and always makes a 
better straw stack for 
the stock to run to dur¬ 
ing the Winter. Clover 
does not lend itself to 
Fall sowing on account 
of winter-killing. Sow 
in early Spring when 
the soil is honeycombed 
by frost. Five to six 
quarts of Alsike and 
Medium Red clover 
suits us best, about 15 
to 25 per cent, of the 
Alsike makes the right 
mixture. In a season 
that is severe on young 
seeding the Alsike some¬ 
times insures against 
failure, as it is hardier 
than the Red and on 
heavy low soil is super¬ 
ior, but the Red out- 
yields it, all things be¬ 
ing equal. We always 
test our clover seed for 
purity and germination 
before accepting it. 
RESULTS.—Natural¬ 
ly the reader will want 
to know the results of 
our kind of farming 
and wheat growing. Over a period of constant 
cropping on the same land for 30 years our yield 
shows an increase, and cost of production has been 
reduced, and soil improved. Records show that in 
the past 10 years our wheat yields have averaged 
better than 30 bushes per acre. e. b. holden. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
Results With a Dwarf Apple Tree. 
1. RUDOLPH BEAUPAIN of Dutchess Co., N. 
Y., sends the picture shown at Fig. 431. This 
is a dwarf tree of the Chenango Strawberry apple. 
It was planted in the Spring of 1914, and as we 
see, trained against a building. This year it bore 
18 apples which were thinned down to 10—eight of 
them visible in the picture, which was taken on 
July 28. There have been many discussions over 
Drilling the Seed Wheat. Fig. 433. 
