B»e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1175 
The Home Garden 
A Garden of Clay 
My backyard garden has a soil of tough, 
putty-like yellow clay from the bottom of 
the cellar. This has been gradually light¬ 
ened by mixing in the sifted coal ,ashes 
from the furnac-e. Now I want to im¬ 
prove its quality. I can get any quantity 
of horse manure from a near stable, 
gratis, but this is mixed with yellow pine 
and poplar sawdust and planer shavings, 
used as bedding. No straw in it at all. 
Will this sawdust hurt the ground more 
than the manure will help it? I have 
been told yellow pine refuse is bad for 
the land. I can also get quantities of 
dry corncobs from a feed mill near by 
for nothing. I have read or been told 
some time that cobs contain much potash. 
Is there any way this can be made cheap¬ 
ly and readily available for soil improve¬ 
ment? I had a notion that if they rot 
too slowly I might use them as fuel (paid 
$7 for my last lot of soft coal), and use 
the ashes, thus making them serve a 
double use. Perhaps the net results 
wmuld be too small for the trouble. 
Ohio. w. s. c. 
Such a soil as this is most in need of 
organic matter and lime. The lime will 
break up the clay, and of course the or¬ 
ganic matter will hold it open, and 
through its decaying action help to make 
the plant food available. This organic 
matter will give what is known as “life” 
to the soil. Yellow pine shavings con¬ 
tain an acid which, in large quantities, is 
injurious to most growth, and unless this 
acid is neutralized in some way these 
shavings will not be a good addition to 
the soil. If the shavings have been 
thoroughly mixed with the manure and 
u.sed to absorb the liquid they have been 
very largely neutralized, and with the ad¬ 
dition of lime would be safe to use. Our 
plan would be to give this soil a thick 
coating of manure, sifting out the shav¬ 
ings as far as possible, and plow this 
thoroughly under. Then, if possible, ob¬ 
tain enough lime to apply at the rate of 
one ton to the acre and work it thoi'- 
oughly in. The coal ashes will be of 
some help in breaking up and separating 
the soil. Get all the corncobs you can 
and use them as fuel. We use such cobs 
in the kitchen stove, where they make a 
quick heat and are easily kindled. Keep 
the corncob ashes, if possible, separated 
from the coal ashes and broadcast them 
over this garden. Pure ashes of corncobs 
will contain in one ton 500 pounds of 
potash, 90 pounds of -phosphoric acid, and 
100 pounds of lime, being higher in pot¬ 
ash than almost any other ash. You can 
safely use all you can of this corncob ash. 
It will give you a good supply of potash, 
and at the same time help in neutralizing 
the soil. 
Notes from a Maryland Garden 
The area in late Irish potatoes here is 
four or five times the usual acreage, and 
the cool weather and abundant moisture 
has been very favorable to th.e crop. All 
along the roads in every direction one 
sees fields of five to 25 acres, and the 
stands are uniform’y good. The fields are 
now (September 22) in full bloom, and 
the prospect is for an abundant crop. 
The question now is wnether the potato 
crop this season will give the growers 
any profit. Perhaps with the great crop 
grown in this country the price can be 
prevented from going too low by large 
exports to Europe, reversing the u-sual 
order, for potatoes commonly come to 
us from abroad. The early crop in the 
South Atlantic region was a very profit¬ 
able one, and our growers will -have no 
reason to complain even if the late potatoes 
get rather low, for they had a profitable 
strawberry season, a fairly good season 
on cucumbers and cantaloupes and an ex¬ 
cellent season on tomatoes. Those who 
took care of the 'tomatoes made money, 
but it is hard to get the tomato growers 
here to spray to prevent the leaf blight. The 
first pickings of the fruit will be fine, and 
then the leaves begin to fall, and without 
healthy leaves there cannot be perfectly 
developed tomatoes, and what they have 
left get sunburnt and inferior. In this 
way the majority of the tomato fields 
have much reduced crops and much in¬ 
ferior fruit. 
There will probably be some lawsuits 
over the tomato delivery this Winter. 
Many growers contracted with the can- 
ners at $15 a ton, and then, finding they 
could get twice that much in the open 
market, many of them violated their con¬ 
tracts and sold to others. The canners 
will probably sue these men. East Spring, 
at meetings of the tomato growers, I 
urged them not to contract in advance, 
as the prospect was for a good market. 
But there is no excuse for the men who 
fly from a contract simply because some 
one offers them more. 
Home canning and drying have result¬ 
ed in great supplies of cured fruits and 
vegetables. My colored washerwoman, 
who lives on her own place in the coun¬ 
try, reports that she has canned 75 gal¬ 
lons of fruits and vegetables, and has a 
bushel of dried apples from the Summer 
crop. How much our folks have secured 
I would not venture to guess, but I know 
that for weeks every time I went down¬ 
town I was ordered to get more rubbers 
or more jars, and as there are but three 
of us it is probable that w'e have an 
abundant supply. Then we have a crop 
of dry Black Eye peas, and do not need 
to pay fancy prices for white navy beans, 
for to our taste the Black Eye cow peas 
are far better. 
I have just made the third and last 
sowing of spinach, which is intended for 
late Winter and early Spring. 
A reader in a tobacco manufacturing 
town writes that he cannot get stable ma¬ 
nure for his garden, -and constant use of 
commercial fertilizer without any 'humus¬ 
making material is getting his garden 
poor. lie asks if it w'ould do to cover 
the garden with tobacco stems, of which 
he can get plenty, cheaply. I wish that 
I had this opportunity, for the tobacco 
stems carry more plant food than stable 
manure. They furnish organic matter, 
too, and bring in no weeds. They will 
average about 2.50 per cent, nitrogen, 8 
per cent, potash and about 1.70 per cent, 
phosphoric acid. They are not only an 
excellent fertilizer to apply in the Fall 
and let lie and decay till Spring, but they 
will prevent the coming out of the aphides 
of various sorts to prey on the garden 
crops; manure and insecticide at same 
time. w. F. MASSF.Y. 
Growing Cauliflower 
I would like information on grow’ng 
cauliflower. I planted some this year for 
the first time; they grew nicely and all 
headed up ; then they all began to show 
green leave.s at the head and now the 
heads are all going to leaves. Av. K. 
Beacon, N. Y. 
Seed of cauliflower should be sown 
about two months before the time to 
set them out in the garden. For instance, 
in sect'ons where the ground can be 
worked by middle of April tile seed 
should be sown middle of March in a 
good hotbed, allowing the same length 
of time between sowing the seed, and 
setting the plants out, whether the 
planting season be earlier or later. 
Cauliflower re<iuircs a deep, r'ch, moist, 
sandy loam to bring it to perfection, as 
it will not succeed in poor, dry soil un¬ 
der any circumstance. The plants must 
be kept in a thrifty condith)n from the 
time they come up until the heading is 
completed. This can be done only when 
the plants are well nourished, and well 
supplied with moisture. Old, thoroughly 
rotted stable manure in liberal quantity 
usually meets all the requirements of this 
plant. When the heads begin to form 
they require shading to prevent their be¬ 
ing greened by the sun. Most growers 
fold the outer leaves over the head and 
hold them in place with a thorn or tooth¬ 
pick run through the leaves. When the 
heads have fully matured, they should be 
cut and used, as they will not keep in 
good condition long after maturity. K. 
Shucking Butternuts 
For the first time I am getting a con¬ 
siderable crop of butternuts and Black 
walnuts from several trees on my place. 
Will you advise me regarding the picking 
and shucking of these nuts? I believe it 
is best to leave the nuts on the trees until 
the frost comes, is it not? Is there any 
easier way to get the* outside husk or 
shuck from the nut than simply to pound 
them off'? j. B. B. 
Grand Rapids, ]Mich. 
Leave the nuts on the trees until they 
drop off themselves, or are easily shaken 
off. Gather them and spread them out in 
a dry place until the husks are shriveled 
and fairly dry. Then run them through 
a corn sheller. w. c. d. 
I rill 
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