1220 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 9, 1915. 
Soil and Fertility Problems 
Making “Liquid Manure,” 
We frequently have letters from gar¬ 
deners who want to use plant food in 
liquid form for forcing certain crops. The 
little picture at Fig. 463 is taken from 
“Farm and Home.” an English paper. 
It shows how the English gardeners op¬ 
erate. 
To prepare the solution, get a large 
tub or a cask, which may generally be 
bought cheap, and remove the head. If 
an oil-cask is used it should be charred 
inside. Then get an old pail, and punch 
the sides and bottom full of holes about 
as big as a pencil, and fit on it a lid of 
wood or tin, also provided with holes. 
This should be tied or kept down with a 
brick, so that the contents may not es¬ 
cape when it is submerged, and so render 
the liquid thick, as this chokes the soil 
Device for Making Liquid Manure. 
Fig. 463. 
and also the appliance which distributes 
it. The manure is put in the pail, and 
the latter is suspended in the cask by a 
cord fastened to a stick laid across. The 
tub is then filled, soft or pond water be¬ 
ing better than that from a well. It 
should stand a couple of days before be¬ 
ing used, and the pail moved about occa¬ 
sionally to circulate the liquid. Guano 
may be substituted for other manure, but 
less would be put in the pail at once— 
say half the quantity. Even then the 
solution would require diluting. All the 
virtue is not washed out of the manure 
at once, and the vessel may be filled un¬ 
til the solution is weak enough to apply 
without dilution. The ground should be 
moist when liquid manure is used. 
Apple Pomace and Manure. 
We have a cider mill, and naturally 
get from it a large quantity of grated 
apples, that is, that part of the apples, 
which is left after being pressed. This 
has always been placed on one pile and 
it is of different ages, from one to 15 
years inclusive. Is this as good as ma¬ 
nure and how does it compare, with the 
elements of the manure? If it is good 
for the ground would it be better if 
we would mix it with straw, four parts 
ot apple gratings and one part of straw 
and let it rot for a while? T. c. 
Brant, N. Y. 
By analysis the apple pomace com¬ 
pares with stable manure as follows: 
POUNDS TO THE TON. 
Nitro- 
Phos. 
Pot- 
eeii 
Acid 
ash 
Manure . 
. 10 
6 
12 
Pomace . 
. 10 
1 
3 
There is little phosphoric acid and not 
much potash in the pomace, and of course 
it is not equal to manm-e. It does not 
contain as much plant food, and is usu¬ 
ally quite sour—too sour to permit large 
quantities to be plowed into the soil with 
safety. If used at all, lime should be 
used with it or it should be fermented 
by mixing lime and manure with it. The 
straw mixed with it will help but it is 
too sour to use alone. We should use 
it as a mulch under apple trees with lime 
scattered with it. The best use to make 
of this pomace is to feed it to stock. It 
compares quite well with silage in feed¬ 
ing value, and yields good results when 
fed to milch cows. 
Plowing Under Cow Peas. 
I sowed cow peas about June 10. The 
season was moist and favorable for good 
growth. They are now two feet high 
and cover the nine-acre field like a mat. 
They are a pleasure to look upon. I 
wish to sow the field to wheat. Will it 
be all right to go in there right now and 
plow them down? They are dark green 
and I think just now are doing their 
best in filling the soil with nitrogen. 
Their roots are full of nodules. Or shall 
I hold off till Sept. 25? When I plow 
the field I am going to work the soil 
down as solid as I can, and cultivate 
the surface thoroughly. Would you plow 
them down now or give them three weeks 
to grow yet? H. s. 
Speeceville, Pa. 
Plowing under a heavy mass of pea 
vines this late in the season will make 
it very difficult to get the soil in proper 
condition for wheat. You can make more 
wheat by turning the stubble only after 
mowing the vines and curing them for 
hay. You can mow those peas, and keep 
a tedder going over them for a day or 
more to wilt them rapidly. Then rake 
into windrows in the evening, and the 
next day put into cocks and let stand till 
the twisting test shows that no sap can 
be wrung to the twist. Then, while the 
leaves are still limp, put it in the barn 
and then let it alone, for if it heats some 
this will simply hasten the curing and 
will exclude the air and the germs of 
mold, but if you stir it you will let in 
the mold germs with the air. 
Then you can disk the pea stubble over 
and over and tramp and pack but let the 
plowing for the peas remain settled and 
do not replow, but disk and harrow, and 
get the surface soil as fine as possible, 
tramped and compacted. In this prepar¬ 
ation, work into the soil 400 pounds an 
acre of 1G per cent, acid phosphate and 
drill five pecks of wheat an acre after 
the first white frost to avoid the fly. 
Turning under the whole mass will be 
apt to give an excess of nitrogen, and 
hence rank and weak straw in the wheat. 
Many years ago I did just what you pro¬ 
pose to do, and on similar soil not a hun¬ 
dred miles from the lower edge of your 
county. I had a piece of strong lime¬ 
stone soil which was to go into perman¬ 
ent grass. I sowed peas and turned them 
under, and prepared the land as well as 
possible. The wheat made a wonderful 
growth, in fact too much, for the rank 
straw all went down when the heads be¬ 
gan to fill and smothered out the grass so 
that I had neither wheat nor grass. 
About one-third of the nitrogen will be 
left in the stubble and will be plenty for 
wheat, for a crop of cow peas that w.ll 
make two tons of hay will have in tops 
and roots about 75 pounds of nitrogen 
or as much as two tons of the 2-8-2 com¬ 
mercial fertilizer, and rather too much 
on an acre for wheat. w. F. M. 
Celery and Melon Blight. 
Can you give me any suggestion in 
regard to the following? For many years 
I have grown celery very successfully, 
but the past two years the plants have 
rusted badly, and my present crop is. a 
failure. The plants have been twice 
treated to Bordeaux mixture, but this has 
not proved effective. A similar trouble 
has attacked my melons for the past two 
years, and the crop has been to a large 
extent ruined, while previously my mel¬ 
ons have been of the finest. Bordeaux 
mixture has been used here also but 
without preventing the trouble. My soil 
is a rather heavy loam with clay subsoil. 
Rye, N. Y. p. b. j. 
Bordeaux mixture is the only applied 
remedy that has been used with any de¬ 
gree of success for leaf blight and other 
fungus diseases that attack the foliage of 
the muskmelon and cucumber. Numerous 
experiments conducted by the various 
State and national experiment stations 
in past years have demonstrated the effect¬ 
iveness of this remedy for the prevention 
of blights and many other fungus diseases 
in many kinds of plants. Bordeaux is in 
no wise a cure for blight, and once the 
disease becomes well established no 
amount of the remedy will prove effect¬ 
ive. But as a preventive it has in the 
great majority of cases proven very ef¬ 
fective, particularly when applied early 
in the season, and continued at regular 
intervals until the end of the season. 
The first application should be given 
about the time the vines begin to run, 
and be continued thereafter at intervals 
of four to 10 days throughout the season, 
the frequency of the application depend¬ 
ing on the growth of vine. If the season 
is dry and the growth of vine slow, per¬ 
haps once in 10 days will be frequent 
enough but if the season be wet and the 
growth of vine strong, then spraying 
every four or five days should be prac¬ 
ticed, for be it remembered that to make 
the spraying effective, the new growth 
must not be neglected, and there is no 
safety from attack when any part of the 
vine remains unsprayed for any length of 
time. In all cases the spraying must 
be most thorough at each application. 
In the early part of the season when the 
vines are young and tender, the 3-6-50 
formula should be used, as a stronger 
solution is liable to injure the tender 
growth. But the older and well es¬ 
tablished vines are not injured by a 
stronger solution, and it is advisable later 
on in the season to use the 4-4-50 formu¬ 
la. Do not plant melons nor cucumbers 
on the same ground two years in suc¬ 
cession. It is always better to grow 
these crops on ground that had not been 
used for either of them the previous year. 
What causes celery to rust or burn is 
a question frequently asked me. I am 
not certain as to the cause, nor am I 
sure there is any remedy for it, but I 
have observed that the trouble is usually 
worse in seasons of extreme moisture or 
drought, and I am therefore strongly in¬ 
clined to the belief that the rust is the 
product (at least in a measure) of 
weather conditions, and that extremely 
dry or wet weather destroys the tender 
fibrous or working roots of the plant, thus 
rendering it an easy prey for this disease. 
Celery, like most other crops, should not 
be grown on the same ground two years 
in succession. It is not nearly so liable 
to attacks of rust and blight if planted 
on a different location every year, and 
I am also strongly of the opinion it is not 
so liable to attack if given the level 
method of culture as when the trench¬ 
ing method is used. Celery should never 
be cultivated, nor have the earth drawn 
to it, when wet. K. 
Value of Hardwood Ashes. 
Can you tell me what is the value of 
hardwood ashes for fertilizer? What 
crops would they benefit the most, and 
how should they be applied? Would 
there be any benefit in mixing them with 
the manure that is drawn out every day 
in Winter, or should they be stored in a 
dry place and applied with a grain drill 
in the Spring? E. L. F. 
Copenhagen, N. Y. 
A good sample of hardwood ashes un¬ 
leached ought to contain in each ton 
100 pounds of potash, at least 35 of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and 600 pounds of lime. In 
these days owing to the scarcity of pot¬ 
ash it is hard to obtain high-grade wood 
ashes. During the past Summer we have 
many complaints from people who bought 
these ashes, who find less than 3 per cent, 
of potash, and apparently a quantity of 
coal ashes mixed in. The wood ashes 
give good satisfaction generally on grain 
of all kinds, grass and fruit, and they 
are very good for garden crops except 
potatoes. The best way to apply them is 
to broadcast at least one ton, more would 
be better, to the acre. They could be 
used much like lime, • broadcast after 
plowing, and harrowed in. It would be 
a great mistake to mix them with ma¬ 
nure during the Winter. The lime in 
the ashes would operate to set free the 
ammonia in the manure, and the two 
should never be put together above 
ground. Manure is sometimes plowed un¬ 
der, and then the ashes applied and har¬ 
rowed in. The lime will operate to set 
free some of the ammonia in such a case, 
but it would be absorbed and held in the 
soil. Generally speaking it would be 
much better to keep the wood ashes dry 
through the Winter, under cover, and 
use them for broadcasting in the Spring. 
Effect of Fallen Peaches. 
Will fallen peaches, if allowed to lie 
and rot or dry up under the tree, sour 
the soil so as to hurt the life or bearing 
of the tree in the future? I am told it 
does and see no reason if they are not 
plowed or worked in the soil the same 
year. R. a. k. 
Pennsylvania. 
The peaches will add some acid to the 
soil, but not usually enough to do much 
damage. The chief trouble will come 
from brown rot and other diseases. These 
decayed peaches under the tree will carry 
the disease germs over into next season. 
The peaches should be plowed under 
deep, picked up and burned. 
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Stop! Read! Act! 
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Baby Bumps Doll 
The doll with the grown¬ 
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Cork. Dressed in Rompers, 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York 
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When you examine and ride aluminum housini 
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--—'——jJ3r.PT 
