VThe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
405 
Finish Fight With Quack Grass 
Smothering the Intruder With Alfalfa 
O N page 188 I notice a letter on fighting quack 
grass. I have had an experience in that line 
during the past year that juay be of some slight 
benefit to the inquirer. 
I purchased my farm in the Spring of 1915 and 
planned to attempt to'grow Alfalfa. Intending also 
to .set out a small orchard for home use, I decided 
to work both crops on the .same ground. I had no¬ 
ticed some Alfalfa around my neare&t neighbor’s 
barn growing very thriftily; and thinking it would 
grow on my side of the fence as well as on his, I 
selected about an acre immediately adjoining and 
lilowed it that Fall. A thicker mat 
of quack roots I never .saw. I came 
near abandoning the experiment 
then and there, but a latent streak 
of stubbornness finally prevailed 
and I .set out the young trees in No¬ 
vember. In the early Spring I put 
about 40 loads of stable niiinure on 
the one acre; worked it in with a 
disk, following Avith a spring-tooth. 
I Aised the disk and spring-tooth 
eA’ery week or 10 days during the 
Summer, each time working in a 
cross direction. 
The Spring and early Summer of 
1910 was unusivilly wet. The soil 
Avas a heavy clay loam for about 
one foot in depth and held Avater 
like a cistern. The subsoil Avas 
coarse sand and graAXd loam. At 
the first Avorking the disks scarcely 
cut through the quack, but by Au¬ 
gust Ist the ground Avas thoroughly 
mclb»wed as deep as the disks 
Avould go and there Avei’e only a 
few sprouts of quack to be seeu. 
lint on each side of the i)iece Avere 
not a few ]>iles of dead roots Avhlcn 
the sjiring-tooth had pulled out and 
dragged along, that made a big 
Avagon-load. 
The first Aveek in August I sowed 
the inoculated Alfalfa seetl, and 
Avaited for Avhat Avas to come. 
There were a surprisingly small 
number of quack sprouts to be seen, 
but the Alfalfa greAV' faster tlmn a 
fnr(‘st fire during a drought. 
Weeds, principally mustard, no 
dtiubt from the maiuire, came up, 
but I am sure the .seeds Avould not 
mature so late in the .season, and 
the earlier Aveeds AA'ero killed by the 
succe.ssiA’e Im rrowings. 
T am Avaitiiig Avith much curiosity 
to see hoAV much quack Avill come 
up this coming .Spring. I sowed 
the Alfalfa extra thick, and if it 
sticks it may smother the lAuuiiauts 
of quack left in the ground. T am 
anxious as Avell. for ihe b(‘st parts 
of my farm are infested, and may 
prcA’ent my gi’owing Alfatfa as 
freely as I Avish. I believe (piack 
may be eradicated by pasturing the 
land for several years if it can 1)0 
.spared for grazing purposes, othor- 
Avise buckAvheat is no doubt the ea.s- 
ie.st treatment as Avell as the most 
effective. My experience does not 
encourage the use of millet as a 
smother crop for quack. I'erhaps 
I did not sow it thick enough, 
f.ewis Co., N. Y. it. c. coi.t.txs. 
the top of block bolted to .skids; took .saw mandrel 
from our rip-.saw table and inortLsed boxes to under 
side of above-mentioned hard-Avood piece.s, having 
first ]Hit two braces diagonally across the 2x4’s, also 
put a brace across the end.s. In other words I 
made a rigid frame extending from engine skids 
back, for saAv mandrel. I lined up mandrel Avith 
crank-shaft pulley, made a gauge by boring a cou¬ 
ple of holes in a piece of an old cros.s’-cut 
.saw and fastening it to a frame extending from 
side of engine .skids, then put a large .sheet of 
tin oA'or .saAv as a guard and to keep the 
ice from fl.A’ing, adjusted belt and turned on 
ga.s. 
of course there Avas some hitch at first. Not 
cuts the ice fi-om the under .side tOAvard the sur¬ 
face. Re sure to adjust saw mandrel .so that the 
saw revolves the right Avay to keep the nut tight 
for keeping saw on. This rigging can be taken off 
or put on in a very few minutes, and the cost out¬ 
side of .saAV and mandrel Avas less than ,$4 and half a 
day's work. k. v. adams. 
Chautauqua Co., N. Y. 
■ What About “ Bottled Bacteria ? 
In the Midst of the Harvest. Fig. 161 
Shipping to Philadelphia by Auto Truck Express. Fig. 162 
A Gasoline Engine Cuts Ice 
S EEINC your inquiry a.sking for 
expexience in cutting ice by 
gasoline poAver I gladly give my ex¬ 
perience. We have ti three-hor.sepoAver air-cooled 
engine, and as our ice ])()ud aatis not deep enough to 
use ;i hand saw I had to devise some other Ava.v to 
saAv it. First I secured two %-inch iron rods near¬ 
ly the length of the engine skids and bent at right 
angles about 1^-inch on each end of each rod, then, 
boring holes in bottom of .skids in.serted above rods, 
or rather the bent ends of rods, in holes in skids, 
said rods acting as runners. Then put a handle on 
forward end to draAA' engine over the ice. I then 
took a 4xG-inch block as long as Avidth of skids and 
bolted same to back cross-brace on engine skids. 
Next I took tAVO pieces of 2x4 hard Avood about four 
feet long, fastening them Avith two heavy hinges to 
How the Apples Turned Out in Market. Fig. 163 
enough set in saw ;ind the ice Avas coA'ered wUh 
water. Next morniug Ave trU'd it and it Avorked be¬ 
yond exi)ectiition. One man could pull the outfit :iud 
could Avalk ti fjiir gait. About one hour’s Avork cut 
Jill our ice, 5 2 to 1.5 toi(is, and I never had ice p.ick 
as nicel.v, all cut tit right tingkts to surfjice, and the 
gtiu.ge folloAviiig in last sarv mark, cakes Avere of uni¬ 
form size. Ice Avas about 10 to 12 inches thick, and 
Ave saAved about seA'cii inches deep :ind used 
an ice"' bar. We found it entirely s:itisf;ictory. 
..Sketch Avill jiid in making out the details. I 
hope it does some one else as much .good as it 
did me. 
In saAving ice the .saAv shoubl revolve so that it 
Can you give me .some information about the bac¬ 
teria Culture so freely adAxidised’;' This eulrure ap¬ 
peals to me, and if it is as good as it appears, it seeiiiK 
just Avhat Ave should use, as we have the red shale .^oil 
mostl.v through this section, and Ave can groAv crops’ 
AA’ith the Avorld if aac can get Mr. Legume to draAA- m- 
trogen from the air, so we don't h.iA-e 
to buy it in bags. j, p, u. 
Central Ncav .Tersey. 
T HIS “culture'’ is all right in its 
place, but be sure you are in¬ 
oculated Avith plain common .sense 
and understandln.g before .a'ou u.se 
it. It has been found that pod¬ 
bearing plants—like cloA’ei’, Alfalfa, 
beans and pea.s—are able to take 
nitrogen out of the air. This of 
course glA-es a larger plant and 
thus a larger crop, and brings more 
nitrogen to the farm for feeding or 
ploAving under. Noav this nitrogAUi 
is not taken in throu,gh tin* leaves 
or stems, but through ‘-nodules’’ or 
Avarls AA'hich groAA’ on the roots. 
Tlu'se “nodules” are the hou.ses or 
homes of great SAvarms of bucteria 
—AA-hich do the Avork of druAving 
tbe nitrogen from the air. These 
b.’icteria are tiny forms of life, vis¬ 
ible only through a microscope, yet 
AA lieu millions of them Avork on the 
clover roots they draAv lai’ge quan¬ 
tities of A-aluable nitrogen into the 
plant. ITde.ss they are pi’e.sent in 
the'soil, in a healthy condition, the 
clover Avill not gain this nitrogen, 
but AA’ould be a consumer of it like 
oats or corn. There mu.st also be 
lime enough to SAveeten the .soil, a 
fair amount of phosphoric acid and 
enough organic matter to make the 
bacteria do their best Avork. 
Noav these “cultures,” so-called, 
are prepared in the chemist’s labor¬ 
atory. They t.ake the original bac¬ 
teria fi’om the soii and breed or 
])ropagate them by the million. 
What you buy Avill be a bDirb- <-ou- 
taiuin.g many millions of the.se bac¬ 
teria—asleep or in a dormant con¬ 
dition. With the bottle Avill CA)me 
tbe apiiaratus and the food needed 
to Avake the.se bacteria up and 
start them at Avork. They avMI 
quickly spread through AA-ater. and 
Avben this Avater is sprinkled oAcr 
tbe seed the bacteria ai’e carried 
into the .soil ready to Avork on tbe 
young plant as it sprouts and 
groAvs. That is the theor.v of the 
‘‘culture.” You might compare it 
to a .veast cake made in some fac¬ 
tory and distributed da.y by day to 
thousands of liouseAviA-es. Or it is 
like the “starter” carried in the 
buttermilk from one churning to 
another. This “starter” is also .sep- 
ar.-ited and “cultured” in the la1>- 
oratory. .Something of the .s.-iine 
thing may be done Avith the fer¬ 
ments of beer or cidex*. 
Thus yt)u can see that the culture 
is not Ji fertilizer like nitnite of 
soda or phosphate. All it can do 
is to make tiie cloA’er or similar 
plants take more of the nitrogen 
from ilie air, and the.v cannot do that unle.ss the 
conditions of the soil are right. Some people get 
the idea from readin.g circul.-irs and adA'ertlseinents 
that all the.v have to do is to buy this culture and 
put it on the seed—and it Avill do the rest. That 
id('a has foA)led inan.v farmers and lost their mone.v 
for them. Unless j'ou are Avilling to give good cul¬ 
ture and use lime and phosphate freely Ave AVAiuld 
not advise you to bu.v these bacteria. In a AA-.ay 
the.A' are like good stock t)r high-class hired men. 
:ui(l the Avay to make profit on them is to feed AA'ell 
and make them comfortable. They cannot improve 
the cloA'cr on rough, half-fitted land, but they must 
IniA-e a Avell-limed .soil, fine and aa-cH filled Avith or¬ 
ganic matter, and AA'ell supplied Avith phosphates in 
order to do their best. 
