RURAL NEW-YORKER 
641 
A Talk About Level Culture 
Experience with Corn and Potatoes 
C HANGES IN I’llACTICE.—I luive been read¬ 
ing The 11. N.-Y. for more than 30 years, and 
many other of our farm papers during that time. 
In that time T have observed how many new things 
and methods liave been brought to notice, and have 
filled the attention of our farmers for a time, and 
then dropped out of sight, and many 
times out of mind. There is the 
weeder, .Crimson clover, level cul¬ 
ture and a score of other things 
that might be mentioned. Perhaps 
this is as it should be. The farm 
paper makes an impression on the 
mind of its reader by a continual 
hammering of an idea. For in¬ 
stance. in the* dairyman’s mind there 
has been awakened the idea of co- 
oiieration by The It. N.-Y., and to 
scnne extent by other farm papers. 
Out of this has come an increa.se 
in ]»rice for dairy products that 
could have been brought about in no 
other way. So all honor to the pa¬ 
per that sticks to an idea until it is 
accomidished. 
IIETUKN OF HILL CULTFRE.— 
Put some of these older things that 
are of benefit should not be neg¬ 
lected. In my trips about the coun¬ 
try I notice that more and more of 
our farms are going back to hill 
culture on corn and potatoes. This 
is mostly among the younger farm¬ 
ers. and in talking Avith them I 
find they are ignorant of the :id- 
vantages of level culture, or at least 
they have never had it impressed <»n 
tlieir minds. Well do I remember 
when Mr. Carman first began tn 
talk of level culture in TirE R. N.-Y., 
how we criticized it. Why, it Avas 
rank heresy! Think of raising po¬ 
tatoes at least without the shovel 
plow! I must confess that to this 
present day I cannot helj) admiring 
a AA’ell-liilled field of potatoes. That 
is, Avlnm it is first done. A few 
Aveeks after it looks different. .\nd 
herein is one of the faults of hilling. 
When your crop is hilled cultiva¬ 
tion is done. It must take its 
chances. Level culture is not so. A 
neighbor raised a very large crop of 
potatoes and I asked him Iioaa' he 
did it and he an.SAvered, ‘T culti- 
Aated them to death.’’ Needless to 
.say. he gaA'e the crop level culture. 
P( )TAT() EXPERIENCE. — My 
first experience Avas on a five-aer<‘ 
field that aauis long and narrow. IMy 
Avife’s father. Avith Avhoiii 1 Avas 
working, shook his head and said 
Ave would never get any potatoes 
unless Ave had hills for them to 
grow in. 1 suggested Ave hill a pari 
and leaA'o the rest, but he said, ‘T 
will get a hoe and hill a few roAvs 
across the narroAV Avay for a 
cheek.” lie hilled four rows and 
said, “There, that’s the Avay I like 
to see them. Every hill is big 
(‘iiough to hold a peck.” When I 
came to these roAvs Avith the culti- 
Amtor I AA'ould lift it up so as not to 
disturb the hills. It .AA-as a A'ery dry 
year, and the four roAvs Avere in the 
driest part of the field. It Avas not 
long before we could see the tops 
of the four roAvs Avere smaller than 
the others. When Ave came to dig 
AA c dug lengtliAvays of the field, and 
took pains to keep the four roAVS 
apart. We had a crop a little OA'er 
luO bushels per acre, but on these 
four roAvs there Avas not a potato large enough to 
sell. I invited a number of my farmer friends to 
come and see results, and one man avIio believed in 
on in front and a rake or pulA’erizer on behind, so 
both ends Avere alike. That night there came a 
hard rain and on some of the side hills the freshly 
stirred soil Avashed aAvay. The corn Avas only about 
one foot high, but clear across Avere the little Avhite 
roots, shoAving that even at that depth Ave had cut 
many of them. .Suppose Ave had in three or four 
Aveeks put in the shovel ploAV and pushed all the 
loose dirt up around the stalks and left all those 
a leA-el, cultiA'ated field, and then one that had been 
put in hills? If you soav a cover crop you can never 
do a satisfactory job on a hilled field. Even if 
there is no coA-er crop (and there should he one) 
the hilled field Avill Avash much the Avor.se. On corn 
thei’e is no fault to be found Avith level culture, but 
Avith potatoes I must confess it is harder and slower 
Avork to dig by hand, and if a digger is u.sed it is 
hard to get it deep enough to get all the potatoes. 
To offset this the croj) is larger, of 
better ipiality, and less green ones. 
I say of better (piality. Yes. that is 
so, for the deeper a potato groAvs in 
the ground the better qualit.A-. Some 
.seem to think that hilling Avill cover 
up the potatoes and prevent them 
from becoming green. Rut it is not 
so. FeAver potatoes come to the sur¬ 
face Avhere the ground is nearly 
leA'el than Avhen it is hilled. Ag.iin, 
Avith corn it Avill not bloAv doAvn as 
badly on a leA'el field as one that 
has been hilled. The brace j-oots 
seem to get a better hold, and helj) 
the corn to re.sist the Avind fo a 
greater degree, geokoe aa-. kooeks. 
OsAvego Go., N. Y. 
raelnna lihuharh in 2S-poinul Boxes at Bridf/efon, N. J. Fig. 327 
Cabbage Blanls from Covered and I'neovered Beds. Fig. 328. See page 
hilling insisted Ave must have used fertilizer on all 
the rest of the field and none on those four roAvs. 
This Avas an extreme instance of the effect of level 
culture, as it Avas on dry .soil and a very dry 
.season. 
POSSIBILITIES WITH CORN.—One year Ave had 
a crop of corn on a rollin.g field. We had been 
through Avith the cultivator, set to cut tAvo inches 
and no more. I saj' uo more, for Ave had a Avheel 
A Traveling Potato-baking Oven in London. Fig. S29 
roots Ave had not. cut off exposed to the hot sun and 
the drying AAinds. With level culture Ave are sup¬ 
posed to combine shalloAv cultivation al.so. While it 
is not as bad to cut off the roots and then let the 
loose, moi.st eaith fall back-on them as it is to scrape 
that earth off them and pile it around the stalk, it 
hurts in only a lesser degree. 
TIIL SL.VCKER'S ^tlETlIOH.—Hilling is the slack¬ 
er’s method. He simply covers up that Avhich 
should be removed, and in the end makes more Avork 
for him.self. Did you ('ver draAV .silage corn out of 
a level field and then from a hilled one. or first ploAV 
The Effect of the Money 
Crop ” 
F or many years, Avith each re¬ 
curring IT. S. census, Lancaster 
Go., P:i., has stood at the head in 
agricultural A'alne and general good 
farming. The connt.A' is trnl.v 
ranked .as ji “garden spot.” and 
seems.to groAV richer and moi-e pro¬ 
ductive each .A'car. Farmers in 
other sections have AA'oudered Avhat 
is chiefly re.s])on.sible for this i-e- 
mark.able record—the land, the 
farmers, the nnirkets, or the meth¬ 
ods. One of our readers .sends the 
following suggestion. Avhich Inis 
nin<-ii truth in it: 
Lancaster Goiinty has for a great 
many years enjoyed this advantage*, 
that its money crop, tobacco, has per¬ 
mitted of very gmit expenditures to 
increa.se fertility, and in the rotation 
of crojis, nearly CA’er.v acre on CA’cry 
f.arm has been at some time or other 
treated to a very heavy dose of both 
manure and fertilizer, and in some 
cases this has heim repeated at regular 
intervals. Taking into account the 
residual fertility, do you AA'onder that 
all crops shoAA' the effects of it? If 
ever.v section had some mone.v crop 
that Avould permit things like the 
aboA'C, Lancaster County AA’ould no 
longer stand out .so prominently, and 
the proposition Avorks both Avay.s, be- 
cau.se a mone.v croj) is in itself an in¬ 
centive to good farming. 
It is true that a successful “mone.v 
crop” induces farmers to fertili'/.e 
lu'avily and cultivate carefully at 
least on that part of the farm Avheve 
the mone.v ci’op is groAvn. Wlnui 
that croj) is luit through a regular 
rotation eA'ery field on the farm has 
its share of the extra feeding and 
care, and thu.s, of conr.se. the entire 
farm comes . to sIioaa' the results. 
This is noticed ou Long Island or in 
NeAA' .Tersey, AA'here iiotatoes i-ejire- 
seiit the mone.v croii. Farmers use a 
ton or more of chemical fertlizer to 
the acre on potatoes. Of course, tlmt 
snpidies far more jdant food than a 
reasonable crop of potatoes Avill re¬ 
move, but the.se farmers go on the 
lu-inciple that “a surplus is better' 
than a deficit.” B.a' seeding grain on 
a cover crop after the potatoes, they 
save all the plant food, and it is list'd 
by the crops Avhich folloAV potatoes. 
Much the .same thing is true of 
other “mone.A' crops.” Fa rmers knoAV 
that it pa.A's to feed ami cnltiv.-ito 
tliem Avell. and as a result the entire farm feels the 
eff’ect of this extra care of the mone.v crop. An excep¬ 
tion to this ma.v he found in some sections Avhere milk 
is the mone.v crop. Such sections do not as a rule 
gain in fertility or in good farming, though there are 
exceptions to this. The daily sale of milk means a 
steady drain of fertilit.A', so that u.sually a .section 
AA'here Avhole milk is sold loses more fertility than one 
Avhere onl.v cream or butter is sent aAva.A'. When crops 
like Alfalfa or peas come in the land improves be- 
cau.se the crops add nitrogen, and lime and phos¬ 
phorous must be used to make them groAv i*roperl.A'. 
