536 
April 6, 1918 
JShe RURAL NR W-Y O R K E R 
B I3EFORE buying a corn planter consider this fact—ac- 
|j curacy is essential to the biggest yields. An inaccurate 
planter covers up its mistakes. It does hit-and-miss 
work. It is a “thief in the field” and you don’t realize how 
much it has stolen until the com plants are above the 
ground and you compare the results with those obtained i 
by using an accurate planter. If it misses only fifteen j 
kernels in every 100 hills there is a loss of five bushels 
per acre in the yield. 
You can get a planter the accuracy of which is proven 
before it leaves the factory. That planter is the 
JOHNa^EERE 
999 Com Planter* 
The Accurate 
“Natural Drop” Planter 
The same accuracy that you would 
get if you painstakingly counted out 
the kernels of corn and dropped them 
by hand—that is the accuracy of the 
John Deere No. 999 Planter. It is 
the accuracy of the hand planting 
method made tireless and rapid by 
mechanical devices. 
John Deere Planter accuracy is the 
result of 50 years' experience—50 
years of thought, of.study, of experi¬ 
menting with that one goal always in 
mind—accuracy. The 999 has right¬ 
ly been styled the “super-planter.” 
Careful design and workmanship 
have made possible this high degree 
of accuracy. Each kernel enters the 
cell in the seed plate in a natural 
position. The sloping hopper bottom 
feeds the corn to the cells whether 
the hopper is full or nearly empty. 
It is the most simple, yet most efiec- 
tive planting mechanism ever used 
on a corn planter. 
the foot lever varies the number 
dropped and you can change the 
drop as frequently as you desire. 
The variable drop mechanism of 
this planter is just as perfect and 
well protected as the gears on the 
best automobiles. 
You can also drill corn with the 
John Deere Planter. Change from 
hilling to drilling or back to hilling 
is made instantly by means of a foot 
drop lever. Not necessary to get 
off the seat or stop the team. The 
999 Planter gives nine different 
drilling distances without changing 
seed plates. 
You will appreciate the substantial 
fronT frame of this planter; the disc 
marker without any troublesome 
ropes; the underhung reel, easy to 
put on or remove; the great variety 
of seed plates for handling various 
sixes and types of seed and the quick 
detachable runners. This planter 
can be furnished with fertilizer and 
pea attachments, also with various 
types of furrow openers. 
Valuable Books—FREE 
**More and Better Com. ’* Beau¬ 
tifully illustrated in four colors—24 
pages of interesting and valuable 
information for every corn grower. 
Tells how to prepare the seed bed, 
select, store and test the seed, shows 
the dollars and cents gained by ac¬ 
curate planting, explains just what 
is meant by accuracy in a com 
planter, and describes the latest and 
best method of corn cultivation. 
"Better Farm Implements and 
How to Use Them.” A 156-page 
text book on farm machinery. A book 
for your library. Worth dollars. 
Illustrates and describes a full line 
of modern farm implements. 
Write today for package CP-235. 
JOHN DEERE, Moline, Ill. 
You Control the Number 
of Kernels Per Hill 
Without changing seed plates or 
even stopping the team you can 
plant 2, 3 or 4 kernels in the hill, 
whichever number you decide the 
land will sustain. Merely shifting 
Soil and Fertility Problems 
Improving Poor Garden 
How can I improve my garden soil? 
It is only a small piece, say one-half 
acre, and one end is dry and quite 
gravelly, while other parts are heavy clay 
bottom, quite wet and hard to drain, 
being nearly level. It seems to be rich 
in nitrogen; yielded splendid beans, peas, 
letttice, tomatoes and cabbage last year, 
l)ut the ground gets very hard and tight. 
What do you advise? I have two or 
three loads of cow manure, some hen 
manure and wood and coal ashes. I 
have been wondering how lime would 
work on the wet heavy soil. AMiat is 
your opinion of wood shavings or lathe 
chips to loosen up ground if plow’ed 
under? I. s. I*. 
Canadensis, Pa. 
Do not use any shavings on your gar¬ 
den, as such material fills the soil with 
sour acid that is very detrimental to 
plants. Lime has a tendency to lighten 
heavy soils, and acts as a neutralizer of 
acid, but if you have w’ood ashes they 
will .answer the same purpose, as well 
as adding a certain percentage, of very 
good and essential fertilizer in the way 
of i)otash, etc. Apply a heavy coat of 
manure, and you may also apply coal 
ashes very liber.ally, either with the 
manure and plow them unller, or after 
the ground is plowerl, and work them into 
the soil with a spring-tooth harrow or 
one-horse cultivator, preferably the latter 
plan. Apply the wood ashes as a top- 
dressing and harrow them in. By fol¬ 
lowing the above directions yon will find 
the soil much less susceptible to baking 
than before. Draining will do more for 
this land than anything else. If there is 
not fall enough to admit of the usual 
methods of draining being employcfl try 
plowing the land in narrow Lands of .‘10- 
40 feet wide. This is easily done by 
laying out the ground in strips of the 
desired width. 'I'ben plow from the 
center to outer edge; when finished there 
will be an open furrow of nearly two 
fe«“t wide between each strip which should 
carry off surplus water, and i)rove quite a 
benefit to the land and crops. k. 
A Few Fertilizer Notes 
IVe understand that a little over 600 
tou.s of nitrate of soda were distributed 
in New York State through the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture. More than half of 
this was used on Long Island. Probably 
more nitrate was ordered in the South, 
but we think there are many things 
which the Department might have done 
to better advaut.age than this distribu¬ 
tion. 
In using fertilizer on fruit trees many 
people make the mistake of dropj)ing the 
fertilizer close around the trunk. Our 
own workmen almost refused to put the 
fertilizer anywhere else, as they think 
that is the only place Where the tree 
feeds. The true feeding roots of the tree 
run out under the branches about as far 
as the twigs extend, and the be.st place 
for (he fertilizer is out away from the 
trunk under the spread of the branches. 
At one time we sent a man to a peach 
orchard at the back of our farm with 
nitrate of soda. He was told to broadcast 
it under the trees. Instead of that he 
dropped handfuls close around the trunk 
and left it there. The result Avas that 
on trees where the nitrate was scat¬ 
tered out under the branches the effect 
was evident within three days, in the in¬ 
creased color and vigor of the foliage. 
Those who have not used nitrate on 
backward trees in a warm, moist time, 
can hardly realize hoAV rapidly the ni¬ 
trate will show in the foliage. Where 
the nitrate was .simply dumped around 
the trunk, at least three weeks passwl 
without much evidence of improvement. 
Later the trees regained their vigor, but 
they never gave as good a crop as those 
which started earlier from the nitrate 
spread out where the roots could get it. 
It was evident, however, that the niti-ate 
piled around the trunk, as it dissolved, 
killed many of the borers which were at 
work just under ground. 
So much has been said about nitrate of 
soda and its distribution by the Govern¬ 
ment that some farmers seem to think 
this is a complete fertilizer and that noth¬ 
ing else Avill be required. We have a 
number of letters from people who say 
they have nitrate and will buy nothing 
else, and they want to know' how to use 
it to best advantage. The nitrate is not 
a complete fertilizer. It supplies nitrogen 
in a quick or available form, but gives 
no other needed plant food. By using the 
nitrate alone you may secure a heavy 
grow'th of vine or stalks on the part 
which develops above ground. There will 
be a rank growth of this part of the 
plant, but there will not be a strong de¬ 
velopment of seed unless phosi)horic acid 
is supplied, and there Avill not be a full 
development of root or tuber or a sf)lid 
plant unless there is enough potash for 
the plant's need. The nitrate is not a 
complete fertilizer, and it is much better 
to use acid" i)ho.sphate or bone along 
with it. 
AHiat we may call the first principles 
of figuring out Ji balanced fertilizer is to 
remember that nitrogen is the element 
which promotes growth, and is specially 
needed in that part of the plant which 
grow's above ground. The seeds of the 
plant depend mostly upon phosphoric acid 
for their development and the element 
must be supplied along with the nitrogen. 
This w'ill be particularly true of such 
crops as beans or peas, where the seed is 
the edible part of the plant, and the same 
is true of all grains. Potash is the ele- 
men. which has most to do with the pro¬ 
duction of starch and in giving solid, 
healthy character to the plant. Thus, of 
covirse, such crops as potatoes, sugar 
beets, .sweet corn, roots of all sorts, and 
cabbage are specially in need of potash. 
We have many questions about the best 
way of applying fertilizer to farm crops. 
As a rule lime should not be plowed un¬ 
der. There are a few cases where such 
plow'ing Avill pay, but in most cases the 
best application of lime is made directly 
after plow’ing. The lime is put on the 
rough furrows and thoroughly w'orked in 
with a harrow. This .scatters it well 
through the upper soil, where it is most 
needed, and is the best general plan to 
follow. In some eases the lime is more 
needed in the lower soil to help break 
up and neutralize the subsoil. In such 
cases the lime may be spread on top of 
the ground and plowed under. This plan 
is often followed when seeding Alfalfa on 
heavy soil. The Alfalfa is a deep feeder, 
sending its roots far down into the. 
ground, and ^ the object in plowing the 
lime under is to sweeten or neutralize 
this lower soil. In the great majority of 
cases it is far better to broadcast after 
plowing and harrow the lime in. 
There is often great controversy OA'er 
the best way to use manure. Many 
dairymen haul the manure out every day 
and spread^ on the meadows or grain as 
a top-dres.sing. When the manure is to 
be worked into the gi'ound most farmers 
put it on sod and plow under. With 
coar.se manure this is probably the best 
procedure. Where the manure has been 
well fined and broken up in the compost 
heap it can be harrowed in after plowing 
like fertilizer. 
Many questions are asked about using 
fertilizer on corn. Where corn is drilled 
or planted with a machine a fertilizer 
attachment is commonly usefl—dropping 
the fertilizer with the seed. Where corn 
Ls hand planted in hills we think best re¬ 
sults will be obtained' by holding the fer¬ 
tilizer until the corn is three or four 
inches high, and then scattering it 
around the hills to be hoed or cultivated 
in. This makes one extra handling, but 
it gives the corn a great start just when 
needed. 
A Talk About Ashes 
Mr. R. D. Forbes, Assistant Forester of 
New .Tersey, at Trenton, has issued a 
bulletin on wood fuel. He says that it 
requires about 30 cords of hard wood 
to produce a ton of commercial wood 
ashes. The same quantity of wood con¬ 
sumed in a cook stove would only produce 
about 1.500 pounds of ashes, although the 
cook stove ashes Avill be much higher in 
potash. The ordinary cord of W'ood, how¬ 
ever, will not give much over 60 pounds 
of ashes. We have letters from “back-to- 
the-landers” who expect to burn tree trim¬ 
mings and brush and obtain ashes enough 
to fertilize the farm. It would require 50 
or 60 tons of such waste to give them 
ashes enough for five or six acres. The 
soft wood ashes usually contain about 
one-third less potash- than the ashes from 
hard wood and the quantity of the ash is 
also less. Many people are using dead 
chestnut as fuel, and they must realize 
that this light fuel produces a less val¬ 
uable ash and less of It than hickory or 
oak. It is figured that a cord of oak will 
produce about 40 lbs. of ashes if all can 
be saved. Another thing which many 
farmers seem to forget is the fact that 
wood ashes must be kept under cover if 
we expect to save all of the potash. Some 
people throw them out in a heap and 
add to them through the Winter. This 
is just like throwing money away, for the 
rain and melting snow will wash the 
potash out of the pile. With coal ashes 
it does not matter so much, as there is 
very little in the coal ashes of value to 
be leached out. Most people will make 
use of the coal ashes this year, spreading 
them on the lighter soils or piling around 
fruit trees. The pure ash from the coal 
has little or no value, but in almost every 
case some wood is burned along with the 
coal, and this small amount of potash and 
lime W'ill be found in the coal ash, and is 
well worth saving. 
