‘Jhe RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
909 
Truck Crops After Rye 
I have a. piece of ground that I sowed 
in rye last Fall. I plowed this under this 
Spring and drilled in spinach, beets and 
radishes. The seed has come up. but 
grows very slowly indeed. Right next to 
this rye I sowed the same kind of seed, 
which is growing finely, and it was all 
sown at the same time. Was it wrong to 
sow drilled stuff in the rye? It is a good, 
rich piece of ground, but I decided to put 
in the rye instead of buying so much ma¬ 
nure this year. F. m. 
We have often told about the effect 
upon the soil of plowing under green rye. 
The proper way is to pack or crush the 
soil down after plowing. This prevents 
too much air f om working down into the 
rye so as to make it. ferment. On most 
garden crops it pays to use lime after 
working the rye into the ground. We d<> 
not know just how you handled this rye. 
but perhaps you plowed or spaded it un¬ 
der. made the surface fine and put in the 
seeds. That would be likely to ferment 
the rye and make the soil too acid for the 
young plants. We like to use lime on 
garden soil whenever a green crop is 
plowed under. The rye itself should not 
cause trouble. It is the way the green 
crop is put under and left loose in the 
soil. We should scatter lime on that land 
and work it promptly in with cultivator or 
hoe. 
crop like buckwheat, rye. turnips or clover. 
This is plowed under in Spring and the 
field reset to berries. In such case it 
would not be wise to use lime, but where 
some other crops are grown before plant¬ 
ing again to berries it will pay to, use 
lime after plowing the berry vines under. 
Plowing Under Green Rye 
Many who grow rye as a green-manure 
crop for the first time are uncertain as to 
the best method of plowing it in after it 
has made its Spring growth, and will 
hardly credit the statement that a skilled 
man with a walking plow can turn under 
a heavy crop of rye five feet or over in 
height, so that not one spear of green 
will remain above the ground. This is 
done by properly attaching a heavy chain 
to one end of the evener and to the plow 
beam, so that the rye is drawn under and 
entirely covered by the furrow. The meth¬ 
od of attaching may be made clear by the 
accompanying diagram. Consider Alt as- 
representing the plow beam. C the plow¬ 
share. I) the top of the jointer and E the 
right hand end of the evener. or double- 
tree. Attach one end of an ordinary log 
Potatoes After Rye 
T have a small field, which I am plan¬ 
ning on planting to potatoes this year. [ 
sowed this field to rye last Fall and I 
thought I would leave the rye as long as 
possible before plowing down, which 
would be about June 25. a. V. n. 
Birmingham, Mich. 
AVe would not leave the rye until late 
in June. Better plow it under when in 
bloom. The mature rye will suck too 
much water out of the soil. Rye is the 
worst plant we know of for that. The rye 
straw is very hard and tough, and will 
not decay quickly in the soil. The big, 
hollow stems will let in too much air to 
sour and dry out the soil. The younger, 
green rye will decay quickly, and will 
pack down close in the soil. While the 
older rye will give more bulk to plow un¬ 
der. the green rye will be more useful as 
plant food and less likely to injure the 
soil. 
Poor Buckwheat Following Strawberries 
I am a small grower of strawberries, 
and generally, after picking the bed the 
first year, clean it out by cultivating and 
pulling weeds, and almost always get a 
good crop the second year. Of course this 
depends lprgely on the condition of the 
weather, as an old bed blossoms earlier 
and is more liable to be touched by frosts. 
For the past two years I have plowed un¬ 
der these old beds and sowed buckwheat, 
but the buckwheat came up thin and 
straggling; did not. branch out. and did 
not grow over a foot high. The result 
was a very poor crop. Next to this bed 
on sod ground the buckwheat was fine. 
No fertilizer was used on either plot. 
What is the reason? Some say the straw¬ 
berry vines heats and causes the trouble, 
but the vines on these old beds are not 
very heavy. What can I do to remedy 
this? Is there some other crop I could 
put in. as I would like to utilize the land? 
We finish picking on the old beds about 
tbe middle of July. The land here is very 
acid, but seems to be in the right condi¬ 
tion for growing berries, as we have bump¬ 
er crops. m. F.. c. 
Oswego Co., N. Y. 
We have not been able to grow a good 
crop of buckwheat after plowing under a 
strawberry crop without using lime. The 
strawberry prefers an acid soil, and when 
the plants are plowed under in hot weath¬ 
er without packing down hard, this acid 
condition is increased. Buckwheat re¬ 
sponds to lime and dot's best where the 
soil is sweet or only mildly acid. Soy¬ 
beans do fairly well on an acid soil. We 
usually plant cabbage after plowing un¬ 
der beans, but it is necessary to use lime 
iu order to make the cabbage grow. You 
di> not say how often you plant berries on 
the same ground. Some growers take a 
piece of land well adapted to berries, and 
keep it iu the crop year after year. At 
the end of the second picking the tops and 
weeds are cut with a mower and left to 
dry on the ground. They are then burned 
by running fire over the field. The object 
of this is to destroy insects and plant 
disease germs as far as possible. Then 
the laud is plowed and put into some cover 
Arrangement of Chain for Plowing Under 
Green lige. Fig. 250 
chain to E, letting it loop back nearly to 
the plowshare, as represented, and then 
forward to D. the top of the jointer. The 
exact length of chain required can easily 
be determined by experiment. If the loop 
of chain is too long and extends back 
too far under the turning furrow it will 
clog with rye and earth, whereas, if it be 
too short, the rye will not all be drawn 
under the furrow. This can easily be 
adjusted by lengthening or shortening at 
D. c. XI. THAYER. 
“Blocking” Tomato Plants 
The recent cold spell caused consider¬ 
able damage to truck crops, especially to 
tomatoes. Some of the growers up as far 
as Central New Jersey had taken the 
risk of planting in the field. Of course 
these were killed. Others had started the 
plants in cold frames, and the hot, bright 
sunshine following several days of cold 
finished these plants. There has also been 
a heavy loss by “damping off.” 
The people who have met with these 
losses have started again and planted 
more seed. Iu such cases the process 
known as “blocking” plants will help 
and push things along by eight or 10 
days. The plan is well understood by- 
most gardeners, and is briefly described 
as follows in the News Letter printed by 
the Passaic County (N. J.) Board of 
Agriculture. 
The idea of this method is to have the 
roots of every plant develop in a 4^-in. 
block of rich, well-rotted manure and soil. 
To get this block, level off the bottom of 
the frame, spread evenly about 2 or 3 in. 
of well-rotted manure, and then spread 
evenly over this 2 or 3 in. of good loam. 
This will settle and give you the desired 
thickness. Next, the plants should be set 
in straight rows from 4 to 4 1 ?. iu. each 
way. Then about 10 days before the 
plants are to go to the field, cut down 
through the manure straight between the 
plants. This cuts the bed up in blocks 
and prunes the roots, which serves as an 
extra transplanting. The plants are wet¬ 
ted down well before taking into the field. 
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