Potash Laid.Up in the Soil 
Utilizing the Residue 
O UTSIDE of Germany every part of the world 
which has come to the use of chemical fertil- 
i35ers, is hunting for potash. On some soils the need 
is greater than on others, and of course certain crops 
are especially in Jieed of this element. English 
farmers have been using potash freely for the past 
20 years, and on most of the land which has been 
well-manured there has been no serious loss resulting 
from the shortage of potash. Large quaihities of 
.seaweed and ashes are l>eiug used, and the use of 
lime on the stronger clay soils has thus far kept up 
the crop yield. 
In this country there has been considerable dis¬ 
cussion about what is known as the “potash resi¬ 
due that is, the potash left in the .soil from former 
heav.y fertilizers. On the Atlantic slope complete 
fertilizers have been used freely, and 
these have contained more and more 
potash. It seems to bo settled that the 
season’s crop does not take out of the 
soil all the potash that is u.sually a[i- 
plied. The potash in the.se fertilizers 
which is not taken up by the crop 
seems to be promptly fixed in the .'sur¬ 
face soil, so that losses from drainage 
are very small. This is particularly ■ 
true of heavy clay or loam land, so that 
on man.v farms there has been during 
the last i.O or 12 years an increase in 
the amount of potash stored up in the 
soil. In order to find if this is true 
very careful experiments have be('u 
made at the Pennsylvania State Col¬ 
lege. Soils which have been well sup¬ 
plied ill past years have been carefully 
tested and examined in such a way as 
to show the amount of available plant 
food in an acre of land. Briefly stated, 
the following conclusion has been 
reached: 
The results obtained lead to this con¬ 
clusion of especial importance at this 
time: Clays and loams that have been 
well fertilized with potash, until quite 
recently, still hold in their surface layers 
considerable fertilizer potash in condition 
to feed the crops for several years. Hence 
for most field crops, inability to supply 
fertilizer potash at this time, does not 
threaten a great reiluction in yields from 
lands of such history. 
Thus it is safe to conclude that clay 
or loam soils which have been well fer¬ 
tilized with potash during the past 10 
or 12 years are quite capable of sup¬ 
plying available potash to a number of 
crops to follow, provided a fair amount 
of nitrogen and phosphoric acid are 
used. This would be particularly true 
of farms which have been run in a 
rotation, where potatoes occupied one 
field after another, and were always 
heavily fertilized -with a complete 
chemical mixture. This would not be 
so true of the lighter samly .soils, but 
on the heavier soils containing consid¬ 
erable clay It is safe to conclude that 
the land will continue to produce sev¬ 
eral good crops if the nitrogen and 
phosphate are freely supplied. Similar 
results are obtained in England and 
France, as well as in this country. On 
the lighter lands, wdiere potash has not 
been freely used, the crops begin to 
show the need of extra potash, but as 
stated, on the heavier lands the potash 
now in the soil will take care of the 
immediate future It is also true that 
more potash is lost by letting the liquid manure get 
away than was ever importc'd from Germany. 
Seed Beans for the 1918 Crop 
O NE of the most important and also the most 
expensive lessons that bean growers have 
learned from the last two years’ experience is that 
the seed end of the business must be looked after 
more carefully than has been the general practice. 
Beans that are planted late ripen, if at all, very 
unevenly, and often by the help of freezing Aveather. 
It is needless to say that such beans are unfit for 
seed purposes; yet they are too often used. Again 
a sample of choice, bright hand-picked beans that 
luive been shipped in from some more favored sec¬ 
tion may appear free from disease, but still develop 
anthracnose in the crop grown from spores of the dis¬ 
ease adhering to the seed. I know of instances where 
just this has occurred. The crop from which this 
seed was taken may have been free from the dis- 
RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
ease, but the community bean thrasher may have 
recently thrashed out a crop Wiat was infected in 
this way. The machine would be filbnl with the 
fpores of the disease. As a proof of this means of 
infection, we notice that before the advent of the 
pro.sent bean machine, when each bean grower 
managed in .some way to thrash out his own crop, 
there was little spread of bean diseases. 
The first essential in bean growing is good, 
healthy, well-ripened seed. We are sure of this oidy 
when the .seed-plot plan and plant selection is fol¬ 
lowed, and also when the beans we are to use for 
seed on the farm are thrashed out b.v other means 
than the community bean thrashing machine. Too 
much stress cannot be laid on these points in bean 
growing; first, seed selection; second, well-drained 
soil; third, earlier planting, on or before June 10; 
fourth, planting in hills about 12 or I t inches apart 
rather than the continuous dr!!!. There is a ro.isou 
German Women Doing Farm Work. Fig. 630 
1345 
hand when that flock woiild bite a big chunk out of 
their year's profit. 
Calling in Neighbor .lohn. who keeps a lot of hens 
himself and knows how a poultryman feels about 
tliis time of the year, the lantern was lit and a visit 
made to the henhouse. A window was openeil into 
the yard and the work of selection begun. A hen 
was taken from the perch and held up to the light 
for a good look at her physiognom.v. The coml) was 
first noted to see if it was full, soft, waxy, and 
warm to the touch, or whether it had begun to 
become shrunken, stiff and cold; wiiether it was 
liright red or pale. Then the shanks were looked 
at to see if they had given their color to the yolks 
of many eggs or-whether they had retained it to 
denote an undesirable .vellow streak in that fowl. 
Fiuall.v. and most important for the determination 
of what the hen was doing at the time, the distance 
Ix'tween the tips of the pelvic bones just beneath 
tlie vent was noted. If these bones 
were rigid and onl.v one finger, or two 
side by side, at the most, could be laid 
l.etween them and the comb had begun 
to become hard, pale and shriveled, the 
luMi was handed to John and another 
lifted for inspection. If. on the other 
luind. the comb was soft, warm and of 
good color while the pelvic bones were 
flexible and sufficiently far apart to 
I ('rmit of two or three fingei's being 
('.isily laid between them, the hen was 
gcMitl.v chucked out the window. 
When John began to complain that 
live or six hens were all that he could 
hold in each hand, if he was expected 
to carry the lantern and open the hen¬ 
house door, a trip was made to the 
detention pen and the slackers put 
^ aside for shipment. After the seance 
was over, it was found that 3.2 hens 
were wandering about in the dark won- 
dm-ing whether the German invasion 
had begun. The balance awaited de¬ 
port .a lion to the Department of Foods 
and Markets in New York, 
The next day the egg yield droi)ped 
to 1.5; then it rose one egg per day until 
it reached IS, and remained pi’actically 
at that point until November. It was 
evident that not more than two or three 
of the layers, at the most, had been sac¬ 
rificed, while the reduction in the 
amount of feed consumed was a most 
pleasant thing to contemplate. The 
hens sold, b.v the w.a.v. averaged just 
314 pounds each in weight and brought 
28 cents per pound. Subsequentl.v. a 
White liCghorn cockerel whose dam 
had a trap-nest record of 250 eggs in 
a year, and whose granddam laid 28(> 
eggs in the same length of time, was 
purchased to head the pen of 33 during 
the coming breeding season. m. b. d. 
Hen that Laid 277 Eggs in a Year at the Last Storrs, Conn. Egg Contest—the Highest Individual 
Record made by a Barred Rock. Fig. 631. See Page 1361 
The Small Field and the Tractor 
For some time the horse iiroblom on my 
farm has boon bothering me, and I would 
like information in regard to tractors. I 
noticed that you hiive ht'en lately to a 
tractor demonstration. My farm i.s a hill.y 
one. but the fields are unusually free from 
stone, and I don’t think the fields are too 
hilly to run a tractor. Most of the fields 
are about five acres in size, but a number 
of them could be thrown together. We 
have about 45 tillage acres, and all tne 
help I have is a boy 10 years old who has 
been with me for some little time. I keej) 
alM.ut 22 head of registered .lerseys and 
grow on the farm feed for the (“ows mostly. 
New Hampshire. c. E. x. 
T HEBE are thousands of other 
for this. Seed of weak vitality in seasons like the 
last two spells failure every time. h. e. cox. 
c. 
Selecting the Laying Hens 
8. GREENE’S reply to a request for a method 
of selecting the layers from a flock lends me 
to report a recent attempt along that line and its 
results. A flock of 85 White I.eghorns had laid .so 
well since last January, though one. two, and three 
years old, that the mistress of the household had 
rather attempted to forestall any sacrifice in num¬ 
bers by frequently mentioning their good work. 
They dropped down to about 20 eggs per day early 
in October, however, and refused either to Fletcher- 
ize or heed Mr. Hoover’s appeals to save grain. 
Wheatless days were no novelty to them, to be sure, 
for it Is doubtful if an.v of them had ever seen a 
grain of whole wheat, but corn was $4.10 per hun¬ 
dred and other feeds were sticking to it like 
brothers. It w'as evident that the time was near at 
are 
farmers who are in the same 
boat. The hor.se and hired help problems have 
struck the limit, and farmers turn to the tractor, 
hoping to find relief. There are at least three of the 
lighter tractors which could be made to .serve this 
farm. The fields are too small for best work, but 
if several of them could be thrown together, one of 
the smaller tractors would take care of most of the 
]flowing and fitting of the land. On these smaller 
fields it would be necessary to do some horse plowing 
in order to do a clean job iqi to the fences, but the 
greater part of the plowing, hari-owing. and a great 
deal of the harvesting could be done by the tractor. 
In many cases the tractors are used to haul the 
mowing machine, the corn harvester, the hay loader 
and similar tools. A tractor can be fitted so as to 
plow, harrow and seed a corn crop. In the Fall it 
will cut the crop with a corn harvester, haul the load 
to the barn, and then run the cutter and blow the 
corn into the silo. There is a demand for a smaller 
tractor than any of those now on the market, but 
