0>ic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
835 
Soil Fertility Notes 
Hen Manure and Chemicals 
T have about 1.200 to 1,5()0 lbs. chicken 
tnaiiure, about .SOO lbs. acid phosphate, 
and I wish to mix some cottonseed with it 
to make a good fertilizer. How much 
should I use? I wish to use it on pota¬ 
toes. onions, corn and all kinds of vege¬ 
tables. Will it be best to put in the mi.x- 
ture before planting, or when the crop is 
up: and how much? n. a. 
Orange Co., N. Y. 
Some time ago Prof. Massey advised .a 
man in the Southwest to use a mixture 
of equal parts acid phosphate and cot¬ 
tonseed meal as fertilizer for potatoes. 
This mixture was advised because in that 
country the cottonseed meal would prob¬ 
ably prove the cheapest source of organic 
nitrogen, and the condition of tiie land 
was also considered. This advice does 
not mean that the meal and acid phos¬ 
phate would make the best fertilizer 
everywhere, but was advised for those 
part.s of the country where cottonseed 
meal is cheapest. In New Y"ork State 
the cottonseed meal would be worth far 
more for feeding purposes, and it would 
hardly pay to use it as a fertilizer. 
Probably dried blood or tankage would be 
cheaper. If. however, you want to use 
such a mixture, you can take the chicken 
manure and the acid phosphate which 
you have, and 400 lbs. of cottonseed 
meal, grind the manure fine, and mix them 
all thoroughly together, and you would 
have a good garden fertilizer. It will 
not. however, be the cheapest mixture 
you can make. We should put the mix¬ 
ture in the hill or drill and work it well 
into the soil, when planting. 
Burning Old Hay and Meadow 
Can you tell me the probable value of 
a ton (if hay left standing over Winter 
on the meadow? Would it be niore ad- 
vi.sable to burn this hay or plow it under? 
Does it injure a patch of second-growth 
timber, about eight years old. to h>t a 
fire run through it and burn the grr.ss 
h'om around its roots? C. if. M. 
Itallston Spa, N. Y. 
A ton of such hay will contain about 
2.3 lbs. of nitrogen, six or seven of phos¬ 
phoric acid, and nearly .30 of potash. 
This compo.sition will depend somewhat 
upon the kind of hay and how far it is 
decayed from exposure. If you burn the 
hay you will drive off all the nitrogen, 
which is the most valuable part of it. It 
would cost between .$4.50 to .$5 to inir- 
chase the nitrogen which a ton of this 
hay contains, and the organic matter will 
also be destroyed. We use such hay as 
a mulch around fruit trees, for which pur¬ 
pose it is excellent. It can be spread and 
plowed under like manure, thus adding 
nitrogen and organic matter to the .soil. 
It would be a mistake to burn the hay 
under these conditions. If a field is burnt 
off early in the season no particular dam¬ 
age will be done to the grass. Many 
farmers iirefer to do this. It leaves a 
light layer of ashes over the ground, de¬ 
stroys large quantities of weed seeds, and 
[tuts the land in much better shape for 
the mower to work. Most farmers be¬ 
lieve that the grass starts a little quicker 
after such a burning. We like to leave 
the old grass on the field unless it is very 
heavy, as we think it acts like a mulch 
to hold moisture in the soil, and also 
adds organic matter to the laud. 
Wood Ashes for Corn 
We have about 25 bushels of finely 
screened wood ashes. How much by 
weight or measure should we use in 
planting of yellow or field corn? We 
propo.se to place our seed in drills or fui‘- 
rows. How should the ashes be placed, 
beneath the seed with soil between 
the ashes and seed, or place the seed with 
soil on top, then the wood ashes? Can 
the wood ashes be placed in the drill or 
furrow, then drag a chain along through 
the drill or furrow, in this way mixing 
the ashes and soil, then place the seed 
and cover? C.an we use wood ashes for 
tomatoes, cabbage, turnips, cucumbers, 
onions, carrots, celery, parsley, beets, 
peas, pea beans, and pole beans, lettuce, 
radi.shes, rhubarb an 1 currant bushes? 
Granville Center, Mass. a. b. 
A bushel of wood ashes will average 
about 40 lbs. in weight, so that you have 
something like half a ton. When we con¬ 
sider that most farmers feel a ton of wood 
ashes is a light application for average 
farm land, you will see that your supply 
will not go far. Many people make the 
mistake of rating wood ashes too high in 
plant food value. A good quality of ash 
may contain 5 per cent, of potash, about 
2 per cent, of phosphoric, and perhaps .30 
per cent, of lime. A corn fertilizer such 
as was used before the war. contains 
about 2^/^ per cent, of nitrogen. 8 per 
cent, or 9 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 
and 4 per cent, to 5 per cent, of potash. 
"When using 500 lbs. to the acre we would 
add in such a fertilizer at least 20 lbs. 
of potash, and over 40 of phosphoric acid. 
It will be necessary to use at least 400 
lbs. of the wood ashes to obtain the pot¬ 
ash in that corn fertilizer, while it would 
not supply much more than one-third of 
the phosphoric acid. Probably anything 
less than 000 lbs. to the acre of wood 
ashes on corn would make but little show¬ 
ing. After considerable experimenting 
we conclude that the best way for us to 
apply ashes or fertilizer to the corn is to 
scatter it along the hill or drill, when the 
plants are three or four inches high. It 
is scattered on by hand, or there are cul¬ 
tivating attachments made in the West 
Reproduced from New York Evening Telegram 
which will distribute the fertilizer from 
horse cultivators. Our own plan is to 
scatter along the row and work into the 
ground with hoes or hand cultivators. It 
would not make any particular differ¬ 
ence whether the ashes were put above or 
below the seed, the main point being to 
work the ashes i)romptly into the soil. 
The .ashes are good for most garden crops, 
except potatoes or rhubarb. They would 
probably give best results on cabbage, 
onions, beets and beans. 
Sweet Clover on Buckwheat Stubble 
I am going to try Sweet clover and 
would like to learn the best method of 
seeding it. Is it better sown on Winter 
grain, or does it require to be sown alone? 
I have buckwheat stubble which I would 
like to seed down this .season. How many 
bushels to the acre does it take? 
Oxford. N. J. F. II. s. 
The best way to seed Sweet clover is to 
disk corn, potato or grain land in Novem¬ 
ber, when too late for weeds to germinate, 
and between December 1 and March 15 
sow the seed broadcast on to{) of ground, 
to be covered by the freezes and thaws of 
Winter and Spring, 20 lbs. unhulled per 
acre. If land is in rye sow the same way. 
New York. a. bloomingdale. 
Phosphate on Hills of Corn 
Would you advi.se putting phosphate 
on the hill of corn after it has come 
through the ground, or put it in the hill 
when planted. 
Our plan is to .scatter the fertilizer 
around the hill of corn when the plants 
are three or four inches high. Then 
when the fertilizer is well hoecl into the 
ground we get good results. We have 
tried dropping it directly upon the hill, 
but it does better with us when seatterecl 
two or three inches outside and around 
the plants. 
Green Rye for Silage 
I have a piece of Winter rye which I 
wished to cut before the midclle of .Tune 
to put in my silo. Would it make silage 
to feed cattle? I would want to com¬ 
mence feeding it about the time it was 
put in the silo, and would like to know' if 
it would keep. e Q 
Fulton, N. Y. 
The green rye, if cut early, will make 
a fair substitute for silage. Do not let 
it become hard and woody. If possible 
cut just as it comes in bloom. Set the 
cutter to chop it up into at least one-inch 
pieces and stamp or pack it down hard 
in the silo. The rye stems are hollow and 
full of air, and unless it is packed down 
hard fermentation will promptly set in 
and injure its feeding value. We should 
use it as a Summer fodder and not try to 
keep it for Winter. At its best rye is 
the poorest feed of all the small grains, 
but when properly handled, chopped fine 
and cut eaidy, it makes a fair substitute 
for pasture. 
Asparagus on Muck 
I have a muck bed. good quality, with 
24-inch water level. Can I make an as¬ 
paragus bed successfully on it, or would 
it be better to use a light sandy loai-i. In 
either case would fine dirty litter from 
the henhouse be as good in bottom of 
trench as stable manure? G. il, S. 
The light sandy loam would be very 
much better for the asparagus. It will 
make a better and more permanent bed. 
We should use lighter .soil by all means. 
The litter can be put at the bottom of 
(he trench with a little soil scattered over 
it before the I'oots are planted out. 
Disappearance of Clover 
T stock (low'll my land with oats. Tim¬ 
othy and Ked clover; get a good stand. 
First season, or year follow'ing after 
stocking, cut tw'o crops; second year 
clover is extinct. I have ahvays cut it in 
the blossom. I would like to know when 
it ought to be cut .so as not to kill out. 
Sullivan County, N. Y. E. E. w. 
. We have found two reasons for the 
disappt'arance of lied clover. On our 
own soil, w'hich is naturally sour, unless 
we use lime freely the liisl clover disap¬ 
pears after the first year. Thus w'e have 
adopted the practice of mixing Alsike 
and lied seed together. The Alsike is 
able to make a fair grow'th on acid or wet 
land, and when the two ai-e seeded to¬ 
gether we find in the second year a good 
stand of Al.sike and very little of the 
lied. A good dressing of lime, however, 
holds the lied or brings it back. An¬ 
other reason for the disappearance of 
clover is cutting it too lute. Usually 
after the seed forms the clover plant has 
fulfilled its mission, and we rarely find 
it coming back for another sea.son w'hen 
W'(^ cut it too late. Our opinion is that 
this hand is sour, so that Ii(>d clover will 
not thrive. A good dressing of lime, or 
mixing in Alsike seed, will help. 
Bookshelf 
ianiBI.E AND I’OI.SONOU.S Al IT.SIIKOOMS 
by Dr. W. A. Murrill. This is a hand 
book of fungi, accompanied by a hand 
some colored chart, depicting 47 varie 
tics of mushr()(«ns in natural si-ze am 
cqIoi*. It w'ill be found very valuable ii 
identifying the different species. Th 
handbook is_ written clearly and concisely 
so that it is helpful to the unbotanica 
reader; usually mycologists are so givei 
to scientific terminology that the ordinar, 
reader gets little benefit from their know! 
edge. The chart is extremely informing 
and will be very effective in conveying i 
working knowledge of many mushroom 
ordinarily met with in our woods am 
fields. Such a chart, accompanied b; 
the handbook might well be displayed ii 
all rural schools and Grange halhs, an^ 
will be a very useful addition to th 
home library. Published by the authoi 
Dr. W. A. Murrill, Bronxw'ood Pari 
New York City; price including chart 
.$ 2 . 
Garde^'eks’ and Flokist.s’ Annual 
FOR 1917.—This useful publication comes 
to us this year with many special arti¬ 
cles, as well as the calendar of opera¬ 
tions, work of national societies, legal 
verdicts, rules and reclpe.s, plant lists, 
etc. Among the special articles is one 
on “A Living Out of One Greenhouse,” 
which will be found suggestive bv those 
de.siring to make a start in this busi¬ 
ness: another very instructive article is 
on “Raising a Stock of Hardy Plants.” 
The “Business Section,” while written 
especially for greenhouse men. will be 
found very instructive by farmers. I*ub- 
li.shed by the A. T. De I.a Mare Co., 
New York ; 240 pages, stiff paper bind¬ 
ing ; price 50 cents. 
Late Cabbage From Seed T'ntie Har- 
VE.ST, by F. N. Reed. This handy little 
volume covers all the points involved in 
growing this important crop. The chap¬ 
ters on seed growing and seed sowing, 
soil, fertilization, insect enemies and dis¬ 
eases, are especially instructive, and the 
details of cost given will be very help¬ 
ful in e.stimatiug crop possibilities. The 
instructions on seed raising are vei-y 
practical. A useful book for the farm 
library. Published by .Tohn AViley & 
Hons, IiH’., New York; freely illustrated; 
price $1.2.5. 
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