1674 
November 15, 191!> 
lien, that nothing but Reds have been kept since, and 
the flock has been steadily improved and increased in 
size. When the Vineland contest started the Under¬ 
hill Reds were an established strain and one in 
which the owners had abundant faith. It took con¬ 
siderable faith and some argument for two boys, 
the oldest a lad of 15, to part with $50 to enter a pen 
in a new egg-laying contest. However, this was 
done, the boys paying $40 and Mr. Underhill paying 
$10, so as not to draw too heavily on the boys’ bank 
account at a season of the year when production 
was at its lowest point. Almost from the very start 
this pen showed what it could do, and made the ex¬ 
cellent record of 1,966 eggs from 10 pullets the first 
year, which was the second highest record in the 
contest made by a heavy variety. It is a note¬ 
worthy fact that this original contest pen was bred 
from pullets instead of hens. The pullets which have 
just dosed the world’s record are daughters of these 
birds. 
EGG SELECTION.—In breeding for heavy egg 
production the Underhills were also very careful to 
select hatching eggs of good size and shape and of 
an even color. This practice has resulted in this 
strain of birds laying absolutely the best brown 
eggs of any pen in the contest, and they are equal, if 
not superior, to anything found on the market at the 
present time. 
THE BUSINESS END OF IT.—Mr. and Mrs. Un¬ 
derhill and the two boys are very enthusiastic about 
their now famous layers and they are building up a 
business in eggs for hatching, baby chicks, breeding 
stock and contest pens which would make the or¬ 
dinary fancier turn green with envy. The Under¬ 
hills are firmly of the belief that you will have far 
better success with poultry if you select a breed that 
you really like. Too many people keep poultry sim¬ 
ply as a money-making proposition. The Underhills 
have a very high standard of business integrity, and 
nothing could induce them to make any false state¬ 
ments in regard to their stock. This is the story of 
the Underhill Reds as I know it to be and have seen 
it at close range. They have set a high standard 
and it is up to the rest of us to try to reach it. 
C. S. GKEENE. 
R. N.-Y.—The picture on the first page shows a 
flock of the Underhill Reds at home. Norman Un¬ 
derhill, one of the brothers, is standing in the pic¬ 
ture. It is evident that the Underhills not only know 
how to raise birds, but also how to raise boys. The 
hen shown at Fig. 542 is, we think, the most valuable 
Red in the country. As a pullet she laid 202 eggs at 
the Vineland contest. Four of her daughters are in 
the winning pen this year. They laid 263, 261, 242 
and 248 eggs respectively. The record for entire pen 
is 2,431. This is what you may call a laying family. 
We would like to add that the pullets of the first 
Latest were selected by Mr. Greene. 
^^op:dressing Wheat Land in Ohio 
T HE practice of top-dressing wheat with manure 
during the Winter has been gaining in favor 
with Ohio farmers, particularly during the past few 
years. A good deal of the Winter manure is dis¬ 
posed of in this manner, probably more of it going 
on to the wheatfields than on the sod land. By using 
the manure spreader the manure is spread quickly 
and easily over the wheat, and when the ground is 
fx-ozen but very little damage is done to the wheat. 
Just how much manure should be applied to wheat 
is a subject of discussion, and while no direct ex¬ 
periments have been conducted at the Ohio Experi¬ 
ment Station on this point alone, the l-esults of the 
manure work on wheat at the Ohio Station may be 
taken as an indication of what can be expected in 
this line. Land treated with four tons of manure 
in a three-year rotation of potatoes, wheat and clover 
at the Ohio Station has returned 11 bushels mox-e 
to the acx*e than unmanured land. An eight-ton 
application to the wheat in the same rotation re¬ 
turned an increase of about 16 bushels. Thus 
doubling the application of manure increased the 
gain in wheat only 48 per cent. Then throughout 
the Winter from foxir to six tons of manure is all 
that will prove profitable in this pi-actice. For the 
farmer who will have 100 tons of manure to distri¬ 
bute it would be better for him to cover 25 acx-es of 
wheat land at four tons per acre than 10 acres at 
10 tons per acre, which is genei*ally the usual appli¬ 
cation when manure is applied to sod land. 
The wheat land under continuous culture at the 
Ohio Experiment Station averaged only about 12 
bushels to the acre, while the land receiving five 
tons of manure annually returned 34 bushels to the 
acx*e in the rotation of corn, oats, wheat, clover and 
Timothy. Eight tons of manure on wheat increased 
the yield from 13 bushels in a similar rotation, but 
•Ptt RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
unmanured, to 38 bushels per acre. The yield m 
the potato-wheat-clover rotation has been as high 
as 50 bushels to the acre for wheat when manured 
with eight tons of manure to the acre. • 
The practice of adding acid phosphate to wheat 
is even as profitable as manuring the land. Acid 
phosphate is generally applied to the soil at seeding 
time, but where this has not been done it may be 
applied to the wheat land in the Winter or even 
early Spring with a lime spreadei*. At the Ohio 
Station more than four bushels of wheat has been 
produced by every 100 lbs. of acid phosphate in tests, 
including 113 crops of,wheat harvested at about nine 
different experiment farms in Ohio. The average 
Underhill Red , Mother of Four Pullets in Winning 
Pen. Fig. 5 42 
A Cluster of Potato Seed Balls. Fig. 543 
rate of application has been 158 lbs. of acid phos¬ 
phate to the acre. In addition an increase of 340 
lbs. of hay has resulted from every 100 lbs. of acid 
phosphate, which more than pays for the fertilize!’, 
leaving the wheat as net gain. c. m. baker. 
Ohio Experiment Station. 
Fertilizer and Cover Crop Questions 
T HE following question comes from a fruit 
grower in the Hudson River Valley: 
“When is the best time to put hen manure on the 
ground, and should it be mixed with any other 
stuff?” 
We like to use hen manure in Spring. The best 
plan is to use plaster, road dust or some other dx*ier 
from day to day, and keep the manure under cover. 
In the Spring it will be found in hard, dry chunks. 
These should be crushed or ground as fine as possible, 
and some form of phosphorus mixed with it. If 
acid phosphate is used 400 lbs. or more to 1.000 lbs. 
of crushed manure will make a good mixture. The 
addition of the phosphate gives the proper balance 
to the manure. The fine crushing makes an even 
distribution possible. Some farmers haul the chicken 
manure out as fast as it accumulates and spread it 
on the soil to be plowed under for corn. The crushed 
manure may be used like a chemical fertilizer— 
spread on the plowed gro’und and harrowed in. The 
coarse manure may better be plowed under. 
“You say it will pay to use Alsike clover, and I 
agree with you, only it is very hard to get rid of it 
in raspberries, currants and small fruit. Another 
year I shall try it, although it will be plowed under 
in April, and it will not have much growth made.” 
Alsike clover pays us well when seeded as a late 
cover crop. It makes a fair growth through the 
Fall and gi’ows a nice crop for plowing under in 
Spring. We never try vex*y hard to “get rid” of 
clover. As a weed it is a great success. 
“I tried Crimson clover, but it did not live thi’ough 
the Winter.” 
With us Ci’imson clover kills out seven times in 
10, but the Fall growth far more than pays for labor 
and seed. One would think this habit of making a 
good growth and then dying out would be just what 
you want in order to avoid “weeds” in your fruit. 
“I have tried Cow-lxorn turnips and rye, but unless 
you get rye under at proper height it becomes a 
nuisance, as the cultivator teeth drag it all to the 
end of rows.” 
You probably let the rye grow too long. Some 
farmers overcome this objection by working the rye 
and turnips with a disk harrow before the growth 
is plowed under. The disk chops or cuts up the rye. 
and when it is plowed under there are no long straws 
to tear out. 
“I realize something has to be done, for I see car¬ 
loads of manui*e on the railroad switch with the 
water running from bottom of eai\ It looks as 
though the manure dealers were making up for 
shortage of manure by giving heavy weight in water 
pumped on when car is loaded.” 
Right. A soil cannot continue to produce well 
unless its supply of organic matter is kept up. This 
can only be done by adding manure or growing cover 
crops on the land and plowing them right into the 
soil. A “cover” crop is one which covers or occupies 
the soil while the i-egular money crops are absent. 
When properly handled this system of using cover 
ci'ops is the most economical plan a fruit grower 
can use. The manure now sold by carload is cei*- 
tainly loaded down with water. Nearly every day 
we see great piles of this manure beside the i'aili*oad 
track with men at work soaking it with a hose. A 
carload will usually contain two or three tons of 
added water. 
How to Handle Potato “Seed” 
A CORRESPONDENT finds a little fault because 
we sometimes refer to “potato seed” as seed 
pieces—meaning the tubers as cut for seeding. He 
is right. The cut tubers are not potato “seed” 
at all. The true seeds are found in the potato balls 
which sometimes develop from the flowers. Appar¬ 
ently there have been more of the balls than usual 
this season. We have heard from many growers 
who speak of finding the seed and want to know 
what to do with it. Some of them seem to think 
they have discovered something of great value in 
these seed balls. The fact is such seeds have little 
value, since the seedlings do not come true. The 
chances would be almost one in 1.000 that a potato 
seedling will prove a really valuable commei’cial 
variety. Working with them is, however, one of the 
most interesting things in agriculture, and we there¬ 
fore give below the advice about handling the seed¬ 
lings sent by the Agricultural Department: 
The seed balls should be allowed to ripen upon the 
plants, if possible. If, however, there is danger of fi-ost, 
the seed balls may be gathered and taken into the house 
and held at living room temperature until ripened. A 
mature condition is indicated by a light yellow color of 
the outside skin of the halls. At your convenience, after 
ripening, the seed balls may be soaked in water to 
remove the seeds more easily, and the seeds taken out 
and placed upon blotting paper to dry. When thor¬ 
oughly dry. they may be stored in any cool, dry place 
over Winter. 
About April the seed should be sown in seed pans 
or shallow boxes filled with a light, sandy soil, the seeds 
being covered to a depth of from one-sixteenth to one- 
eighth inch, and the boxes placed in a greenhouse hot¬ 
bed or in a living-room where a temperature of from 
60 to 70 degrees F. can be maintained. Under suitable 
heat and moisture conditions the seeds will germinate 
in from seven to 12 days. When seedlings have devel¬ 
oped their first true leaf they should be individually 
transferred from the seed bed to fiats or pots. If pots 
are used bottomless individual paraffin-paper drinking 
cups will be found to be very satisfactory. When 
pricked out. into flats (shallow boxes) they should be 
spaced about two inches apart each way. 
If properly handled one should have nice stocky plants 
about five inches high when ready to transplant to the 
open field. They should not be transferred to the open 
until all danger from late frost is over. Handled in this 
way, the seedlings have a long growing season, and^ 
many of them will develop good-sized tubers the first 
year. 
