871 
• R U R AL N EW-YO R K E R 
they can he put on the market next Winter at 45c 
to 60c per dozen, and a good profit realized on the 
investment Of course fresh eggs will bring a little 
more, but whether this will be enough to pay the 
extra cost of production or not is the question for 
which we must wait to find the answer. 
In regard to the number of eggs you could expect 
each day from 400 pullets your estimate is entirely 
too high. There are many more flocks which do 
not average 25% during the months of November, 
December, January and February than there are 
which exceed this production. Therefore, unless you 
should be fortunate enough to get some exceptional 
layers you w'ould be working for a very small salary 
after paying your feed bills during this time, if 
feed remains as high as present indications lead 
us to believe it will. 
In regard to the breed more Single Comb White 
Leghorns are kept for commercial 
egg production than all others com¬ 
bined, so we think this is a safe 
indication that they are the most 
profitable, but you should under¬ 
stand to start with “that poultry 
keeping is a science which must 
be learned the same as any other 
trade or profession,” and that with¬ 
out practical experience it is a 
risky proiK)sition to say the least. 
A better plan would be to start with 
a very few and gradually work up 
to the desired number. 
C. S. GREEXE. 
Heavy Liming in Tennessee 
THIRTY-ACRE FARM.—Busy 
days are the.se. There are 
three of us on a 30-acre farm, and 
while the sun shines about 14i/^ 
hours at this .season here in “Sunny 
Tennessee,” it never finds us in 
1)ed or idle. Though 54 years young, 
mother and I have to rest a bit 
now and then. The one son who is 
with us is 22, stout and willing, and 
the work moves on and the crops 
and chickens grow at a rapid pace; 
the mother in house and kitclien, 
tlie son out with his hens and 2,400 
baby chicks, wliile the writer and 
“Kate,” the faithful old mule, have 
been plowing corn in a foui’-acre 
field that I want to tell about. 
Bare, full of gullies, and limestone 
ledges, was this field 15 years ago, 
when we took hold of It. We had 
135 acres then, but since then we 
divided it and sold in small 10 to 
30-acre farms, retaining the old 
home and 30 acres. Our first crop 
of wheat was only five bushels an 
acre. Since then we have produced 
40 bushels of wheat, 80 bushels of 
barley and 110 bushels of corn. 
I.ast season it gave us 400 bushels 
of fine corn, though the sea.sou was 
a poor one. 
IMPROVING CONDITIONS.—I 
shall not detail at length A\’iiat Ave 
have done to this field. To begin 
with, Ave blasted out the limestone 
ledges far below the reach of the 
l)loAV. Over 500 yards of stone Avas 
thus removed. Then we crushed 
and ground it and applied 20 tons 
an acre over all of it, and in tAvo 
places, where the clay was close 
and tight we doubled the dose, mak¬ 
ing 40 tons an acre. This was 
rather coarsely ground, as we set our machine to 
grind to one-half inch and smaller. 
STARTING CLOVER.— July 15, 1916, Ave seeded 
to clover, sowing it by hand in the corn after the 
last cultivation, using eight pounds “best” Red 
cloA'er seed an acre. A rain caught us as we were 
finishing, but we kept on till done, and then dry 
linen made us feel good, for we knew we Avould not 
need to I’un the orchard harrow through the corn 
to coA'er the seed. The rain did a better job for us. 
Many clover plants had to die to make room for the 
stronger ones, the stand was so thick. Though the 
corn crop kept the clover shaded too much yet it 
grew well, looked a little pale, too much shade. By 
and by, frost came, then the sun during the Avarmer 
portion of the day soon changed the clover’s color 
to a darii green, and it grew, and kept on, until 
Winter set in, with hard freezing nights. We 
snapped the corn off the stalk, as Ave had no need of 
the stOA’er. Early in March we ran a log drag over 
the field. This broke down all the standing corn¬ 
stalks. May 15 we turned the clover crop under. 
All but 1% acres we mean to seed to Alfalfa. When 
Ave turned the crop under it was almost knee high, 
thick and in spots lodged, so it took two and three 
times going over in front of plows, with a double 
cutaAvay disk harrow, before we cut through the 
clOA'er tljat was badly lodged. 
CORN FOLLOWS CLOVER.—We planted the 
corn June 1st. How much corn do v'e expect this 
season? Well, that largely depends on the rain at 
the right time, but Ave Avill do our part, with good 
cheer, for we expect 120 bushels an acre. “Lest we 
forget,” let me say lime alone has not worked this 
seeming magic on this soil. Barnyard manure by 
the hundred tons has been put on it, reinforced with 
acid phosphate, slag phosphate, and potassium. But 
Boat Constructed of Re-enforced Cement. Fig. 355. See Page 872 
How the Peanut Bears Its Crop. Fig. 356 
One Horse Wagon wjth Trailer Attached. Fig. 357 
we could not have told this little story had we left 
off the lime. Why? Because in one corner we did 
this very thing, but doubled up on the manure and 
chemicals, and yet the clover there, has failed, nor 
has any crop yield been within 50 of that of the 
limed portions. Noav Ave know less lime Avould have 
done the Avork, and we kuoAV also that had the lime 
been finely ground it Avould have been folly to have 
made such heaA’y application. But it takes less than 
half the poAver to reduce limestone to one-half inch 
and smaller that it takes to reduce all to say fine 
cornmeal size. Will these half-inch pieces eA’er 
break doAA'u in the soil and become available lime? 
Yes, about as fast as the soil needs it, for “the mills 
of God,” though they grind ever so slowly, yet they 
are at it both day and night. o. p. n. 
R. N.-Y.—Doubtless this experience could be dupli¬ 
cated in many other parts of the South. The test 
corner Avithout the lime told the AA'hole story. 
Problems of Irrigation Farming 
I HAVE been reading your editorial comment on 
the irrigation article on iwige 787. It is indeed 
encouraging to know that the idea I am Avorking 
on is of interest to others. 
My first thought on taking hold of this Avoi-k in 
Noav Jersey six years ago, was the inevitable loss 
of fertility in this class of soil Avhen the large 
amount of fertilizer necessary to groAV truck crops 
Avas applied, and in attempting to get some idea of 
this loss, I tried to interest the NeAV Jersey Experi¬ 
ment Station in analyzing the waters, both from 
the tile drains and from the surface after a heavy 
rain. The department has not been able to make 
a complete analysis, but in 1913, two years after 
I began to apply fertilizers and manure on this poor 
soil, they made a nitrogen analysis of water after 
a hard rain which showed 160 parts 
of nitrogen to the million of Avater. 
This Avould shoAV that on 10 acres, 
the nitrogen loss with a two-inch 
rainfall on thoroughly soaked soil 
amounted to 690 pounds, or more 
than is contained in two tons of 
nitrate of soda. 
If this loss took place at the be¬ 
ginning of the AA'ork, Avhat must it 
be noAv, after applying OA’er 1000 
tons of stable manure, and hun¬ 
dreds of tons of chemical fertiliz¬ 
ers? And yet I have not applied 
nearly as much manure and fertil¬ 
izer as other intensive groAvers. 
Surely there must be a better Avay 
to groAv these ci'ops. 
Your idea of collecting the drain¬ 
age Avater and using it for irriga¬ 
tion can, no doubt, be Avorked out 
in favored locations, but could not 
be done here, as our soil is too near 
the Avater leA'el. The application of 
liquid manure has given i>ositive 
results. There is no doubt what- 
eA'cr as to its practicability, and 
yet it seemed to be in some cases 
that certain crops AA’ere injured by 
it. The effects of the liquid does 
not seem to be immediate, and for 
this reason I am inclined to think 
that it must be acted on by the 
aerobic bacteria before being made 
use of by the plants. 
In this line of work there are a 
number of experiments that I hope 
in time to try out, such as ster¬ 
ilizing of the manure and re-inocu¬ 
lating Avith a specific bacteria, and 
bacterial stimulation with static 
electricity. Since crop production 
rests absolutely on soil bacteria, I 
am sure that there is a great future 
for artificially supplying the soil 
Avith the proper bacteria. I believe 
it Avill yet be i>ossible to add at¬ 
mospheric nitrogen, by inoculating 
the compost heap with the proper 
bacteria and providing suitalfie en¬ 
vironments for the rapid increase. 
There are many problems to solve 
in this line of AA'ork, and my only 
regret is that I can do so little. 
Ncav Jersey. c. av. skinner. 
How Fine Should Lime 
Be Ground 
I N the current number of “Science” 
is an article by Nicholas Kope- 
loff, of Rutgers College, telling 
the results of some experiments he has been making 
to find the effect of different grades of fineness of 
ground limestone on the groAvth of Crimson clover. 
He filled 10-pound pots with soil and added enough 
limestone or burned lime to satisfy the lime re¬ 
quirements of the soils used. The grades of lime¬ 
stone used AA'ere: 20-40 mesh, 60-80 mesh, 100-200 
mesh and over 200 mesh. These numbers refer to 
the number of meshes to the inch in the screens 
used for grading; 20-40, for instance, means that all 
the stone Avill go through a sieA'e of 20 mesh, but 
Avill be held by a 40-mesh sieve. 
Six types of soil were studied: Carrington (loAva) 
.silt loam; Wooster (Ohio) silt loam; Cumberland 
(Tennessee) silt loam; Norfolk (Virginia) sandy 
loam; Sierra (California) sandy loam and Ports¬ 
mouth (New Jersey) acid muck. In all tliese soils, 
except the Sierra sandy loam, Avhich Avas strongly 
alkaline, an increase in the fineness of the ground 
