■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
39 
Soil Fertility Notes 
Effect of Lime 
Does the iipplication of limp to Inn 1 
cansp the potash in the soil to bpcome 
available to the plant? Would it be ad¬ 
visable to plant potatoes on old worn-out 
land with an application of lime and fer¬ 
tilizer without potash? If so. how much 
lime would be necessary per acre? What 
is the value of lime applied to c<irn crop? 
.Maiiw?, F. c. s. 
The use of lime on some soils does act 
to set free small quantities of unavailable 
potash, and in some cases this action 
seems to have proved quite valuable. It 
would not be a wise plan, however, to use 
lime freely on a soil which is intended foi’ 
potatoes. The lime will be likely to in¬ 
crease the scab disease on the potatoes, 
and the general advice is not to use it 
with that crop. Jlost of the varieties of 
corn do not respond freely to lime, al¬ 
though some of them do. The best tise 
for lime is on grain, grass seed and 
clover. Where farms are run in a rota¬ 
tion of crops, it is usually better to put 
the lime on with the seeding. 
Value of Human Excreta 
I have had some argument about the 
value of night soil. Tell me how it com- 
l)ares with ordinary stable manure and 
iiow to use it to best advantage. j. R. 
The following table gives the average 
composition. It is estimated that the ex¬ 
creta from one average adult person con¬ 
tains about 12 pounds of nitrogen, seven 
of phosphoric acid and five of potash. 
Faeces I’rine 
per cent, per cent. 
Water . 
n(i..3 
Orgiuiic matter . . . 
, . 10.<S 
2.4 
Ash . 
,3.0 
1 
Nitrogen . 
1.0 
o.o 
Phosphoric acid . . . 
1.1 
0.17 
Potash . 
O.’M 
0.2 
'Fhe licpiors, as collected, may be dilut('d 
with an equal quantity of water and used 
on the lawn or gai’den or poured over a 
pile of coal ashes from day to day. The 
solids should be mixed with charcoal or 
earth and mixed with the manure pile or 
jdowed or spaded under. 
Crushing Bone 
I can procure heavy animal bones, such 
as leg and back bones, for 40c. per cwt. 
'"'oiild they have to be ground or crushed 
to make fertilizt'r. or could it be dissolved 
by chemical i)rocess? If so what Avould 
be the proper manner of doing it? Would 
it be cheai)er than the readymade goods? 
New .Jersey. j. f. U. 
The leg and back bones from carcasses 
are rather difficult to crush and fine, as 
they are very hard, and even with their 
powerful machinery the manufacturers 
find crushing them a serious pi’oposition. 
We have told several times about boiling 
these bones in connection with vegetables 
and using the thick soup for hog-feeding. 
After boiling thoroughly the bones can be 
smashed and worked up reasonably fine 
in a bone grinder, although considerable 
power will be required for these hard 
bones. Sulphuric acid is used in the fac¬ 
tories to dissolve or cut the bones, but we 
would not advise its use on a farm. The 
acid is very dangerous stuff to handle. A 
drop of it in the eye would cau.se serious 
trouble and several cases are reported 
where serious injury resulted from hand¬ 
ling it without the best of apparatus. In 
some cases these bones are burned with 
wood and the ash u.sed, but this is not 
good economy, as the nitrogen is lost with 
the burning. The chances are that after 
boiling thorojighly and making use of the 
food value on the bones you can sell the 
larger ones to the button or handle makers 
at a greater profit than you could obtain 
by trying to crush them with an ordinary 
apparatus. The bones would contain 
uiti'Ogen and phosphoric acid, but no pot¬ 
ash, and would not therefore be a com¬ 
plete fertilizer, or equal to a mixture con¬ 
taining all three elements of plant food. 
Coal Ashes as Stable Absorbent 
Would it be a good plan to put coal 
ashes in the trough, back of cows, to 
soak _ up the liquid? Are there any 
chemicals in the coal ashes that take 
away the value of cow manure? 
Cohoes, N. Y. n. jr. c. 
The coal ashes will make only a fair 
absorbent for the liquid, not as good as 
dried sand, dried muck from the swamp 
<ir sawdust. The coal ashes do not con¬ 
tain anything which would drive the 
ammonia away from the manure, but 
of cour.se wood ashes should never be 
used in this way. We tried using the 
coal ashes once, and gave it up, as they 
m.-ide a sticky mess in the manure which 
made it very much harder to handle. 
We should prefer to put the coal ashes 
around the trees or bushes, or scatter 
them over fine soil for plowing or hoeing 
in. Dry muck or wood soil scattered in 
the trough behind the cows will bo far 
more satisfactory than the coal ashes. 
Acetylene Waste in Cuba 
I have ju.st noticed, on page 12,38, that 
r. .1. A. asks about acetylene waste. • I 
have just had some experience with it 
that was so noticeable I wish to give it. 
In cleaning my generator the waste ran 
down an incline and formed a real coat 
of plaster. I planted the adjacent land 
to Guinea grass and when I came to the 
plastered land I hesitated to plant it. ex¬ 
pecting nothing from it. But I did plant 
it and to my surprise the spot has made 
nearly twice as much as the other land, 
and the grass kept .so green it was almost 
black ; the grass is now nine feet high. 
Cuba. G. II. SKINNER. 
N.-Y.—This gas refuse contains 
nothing except lime which could have 
cau.sed this growth. The lime acted in 
several ways to help. It supplied some 
lime as direct plant food. It sweetened 
the soil, and thus made bacteria active. 
These released nitrogen and in that warm 
rich soil drove the gra.ss along as though 
fertilizer had bi'en used. 
I " " 
Legal Questions 
Labor on the Sabbath 
Y hat_ is the law in New Y^ork as re¬ 
gards hired help on a farm about doing 
chores Sunday where they have a dairy? 
Vermont. g. ii. a. 
The first day of the week being by con¬ 
sent set apart for I'est and religious uses, 
the law prohibits the doing on that day 
of certain acts which are serious inter¬ 
ruptions of the repose and religious lib¬ 
erty of the community. All labor on 
Sunday is prohibited, except the works 
of necessity and charity. And in works 
of necessity or charity is included wh.at- 
ever is needful during the day for the 
good order, health or comfort of the com¬ 
munity. All trades, manuf.-ictures, agri¬ 
cultural or mechaniciil employments are 
prohibited, excei)t when they are works 
of necessity, when they may be per¬ 
formed in their usual and orderly man¬ 
ner, so as not to interfere with the re¬ 
pose and religious liberty of the com¬ 
munity. There is the bare law, and you 
luiiy draw your own conclusions. The 
niilking of cows and chores as the word 
is generally understood, are works of 
necessity, and it is needful that both of 
them be done during the day for the 
good order, health and comfoid of the 
community. The question of a hired man 
doing those works (milking and the 
chores) is one of contract. There is 
nothing in the law to piau’ent him from 
doing them on Sunday if you hire him 
for that purpose. 
Contract of Employment 
1. Is there a law in New .Jersey pro¬ 
tecting a married man, employed and 
paid by the month, from being discharged 
with only two weeks’ notice to leave? 
(The case would be that the employee 
has served faithfully for over three years, 
is sober, honest ami is industrious. It 
also may be remarked that the cottage is 
mostly furnished by the employer). 2. 
AVhat would be conditions in the same 
case, but where the employee furnishes 
the cottage? ,3. What should be the 
proper notice given to an employee, mar¬ 
ried or single, who has worked over one 
year for the same employer? k. l. ii. 
New Y'ork. 
1. The general rule is that a contract 
of service for a definite period terminates 
by its own terms at the end of such 
period, and where the hiring is by the 
day or from month to month, either party 
has the right to terminate it at the end of 
any particular day or month, but a con¬ 
tract from month to month can be ter¬ 
minated only at the end of a month, ex¬ 
cept by consent. Your employer would 
therefore not have to give you any notice 
if he let you go at the end of any month, 
and on the other hand you could leave at 
the end of any monthly period without 
previous notice. 2. The furnishing of the 
cottage would make no difference, unless 
it was made so by the contract of em¬ 
ployment. S. Married or single would 
not make any diflerence. 'I’lie notice re¬ 
quired would depend on the contract of 
employment, if any. A month’s notice 
from either party to the other would be 
ample, although this time might be varied 
by circumstances. 
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