720 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
May 3, 1924 
mistaken way of plowing under rye. and trouble 
' will always follow such handling. Rye of this kind 
should never be plowed under without packing the 
ground down hard, either with a heavy drag or a 
■harrow. The result of such packing is that the rye 
is crushed into a solid mat. The air does not enter 
it readily to dry it out. It holds moisture and de¬ 
cays slowly. Thus the land is not greatly soured, 
and water is permitted to rise in the soil through 
the rye. When the mass of dry rye is left open, 
just under ground, the water cannot rise freely, 
and there is sure to be trouble from drought. If 
this simple fact is remembered it will add much to 
the value of rye. 
The better way is not to let the rye get too large 
before putting it under. Some farmers obtain good 
results by chopping the rye up with a disk or cut¬ 
away before it is plowed into the ground. In this 
process they start when the rye is perhaps two feet 
high or a little less, and work it thoroughly both 
ways with a disk or cutaway. In some cases the 
rye is packed with a roller before this chopping is 
done. If properly handled this leaves the rye cut 
up into small pieces. Then, when it is plowed into 
the ground, it is in far better condition than when 
plowed under without the chopping. This is a trick 
of handling rye which will save a good deal of 
trouble, and give very much better results. If it is 
not possible to use the disk or the cutaway before 
plowing we should go on immediately after plow¬ 
ing with a roller or heavy drag, and pack the soil 
down hard, then work up the upper surface of the 
land for seeding, leaving a mat of green rye down 
below. 
Another thing which many farmers have noticed 
is the fact that rye gives a form of surface drain¬ 
age. After the season opens the rye makes a very 
heavy growth and sucks enormous quantities of 
water out of the soil. We have taken a naturally 
wet field and put half of it in rye during the Fall, 
leaving the rest bare through the Winter. In the 
Spring we have always noticed that the land where 
the rye is growing is drier than other, and usually 
fit for working a number of days in advance. This 
is due to the fact that the growing rye has taken 
great quantities of water from the soil, and thus 
helped to dry it out. This is worth remembering 
by many who have wet land which they desire to 
work as early as possible in the Spring, and seed¬ 
ing the rye in the Fall will certainly help that along. 
Planting Melons in Dirt Bands 
In your recent article on “dirt bands” no mention 
is made of melons. We tried starting the plants on 
inverted sods in a cold frame last year. As it turned 
out the plants ripened fruit later than plants started 
in the field, and the quality was for the most part un¬ 
satisfactory. I trust it will not be too much trouble 
to set me right. J>. A. 
EGARIDING the use of dirt bands in connection 
with growing melons would say that for sev¬ 
eral seasons I have used the bands for that purpose. 
In starting melons in dirt bands I consider control 
of heat and ventilation the most important factors. 
Any setback from time of planting to the time of 
transplanting outside will be surely reflected in the 
crop that is harvested. A stunted plant never re¬ 
covers to make the growth that it otherwise would 
if it had been provided with congenial surround¬ 
ings. 
I have never been able to grow cucumbers or 
melons in bands or on sods when I have tried to 
start them in a cold frame. A cold frame is always 
a “cold frame” at night after the sun has left. Cu¬ 
cumbers and melons like warm feet, and this I have 
never been able to secure in a cold frame. If I had 
no greenhouse or hotbed I would much rather try 
planting the seeds directly in the field in the hills, 
making a sort of both early and late planting at the 
same time, either by planting half the seed shallow 
and the other half somewhat deeper or by soaking 
one-half of the seed for a short time. If the frost 
catches the first half the other half may escape, 
and in ease the first half does escape the other half 
may be pulled out and thrown away. I have never 
succeeded in growing melons on sods. It may be 
that I never secured sods that were rich or fertile 
enough. 1 know that always after I transferred 
the sods to the fields the plants seemed to stand 
still for a long time, and I laid this to the poor 
sods. But when one starts the seeds in dirt bands 
one is able to fill .these bands with just the right 
kind of soil that is best for the melon, and when 
this plant is finally transferred to permanent field 
quarters it has taken with it to its hill a pint or 
more of the finest and richest soil, just what it 
needs to tide it over the transplanting period. It 
never stops growing, experiences no shock, and will 
ripen its fruits a week or 10 days before the out¬ 
door crop with seed planted in the same field a week 
or more previous. I have never been able to get as 
good quality on late ripened melons as I can get 
Mr. C. Boag of Sullivan County, X. Y., who sends 
this picture, says the dog is Teddy, waiting for the 
mailman to bring The R. N.-Y. home to his master. 
with the early ones. I plant seed in dirt bands 
about one month before the time I expect to trans¬ 
fer to the field. If I were going to grow melons on 
a very large scale I should plant one-half my acre¬ 
age direct in the hills and the other half I should 
plant by using dirt bands. c. o. warford. 
This shows a fox which was killed at Demarest, N. J., 
only IS miles out of New York City. It seems re¬ 
markable that a fox should be found so close to Broad¬ 
way, and he was probably so captivated by the bright 
lights that he lost his ordinary cunning. Mr. B. 
Willett, who caught the fox, heard a commotion in his 
chicken yard and looking out of the window saw the 
fox dart into one of the coops after his dinner. He 
went out quickly accompanied by his police dog and 
as the fox tried to get away the dog jumped at him 
and got him by the throat. Mr. Willet evidently 
wanted to catch the fox alive, but the dog did not care 
to have him as a companion and with one nip he dis¬ 
posed of Mr. Fox. It was a superior animal with a 
fine fur. Just where he came from and made his 
home in that thickly settled community is interesting 
to think about. 
Short Stories 
Disinfecting Chicken Run 
In one of your issues M. B. D. advises using cor¬ 
rosive sublimate one ounce to eight gallons of water, 
to disinfect old runs or ground where chickens have 
been kept. How long after using the above solution 
can the flock be let on it? E. B. 
Stone Ridge, N. Y. 
DO not think that I have ever advised the use 
of corrosive sublimate in the attempt to disin¬ 
fect old poultry runs, though I may have mentioned 
it in connection with other chemical disinfectants, 
such as a solution of carbolic acid in 5 per cent 
strength or sulphuric acid in dilute solution, that 
are sometimes advocated for this purpose. None of 
these things appeal to me as being at all practical 
and I should not attempt to renovate the soil by 
their use. As active poisons, I should consider them 
somewhat dangerous, even in careful hands, and the 
amount of any liquid that would be required to wet 
the soil to a depth of several inches over any con¬ 
siderable area would be very large. The scatter¬ 
ing of burned lime over the surface and working it 
in is also advocated as a soil disinfectant, but, while 
I have never tried any of these things, they appear 
to me to be but feeble and ineffective attempts to 
kill the undesirable forms of life with which old 
poultry runs become infected in time. Where it is 
impossible to use new ground at intervals, I know 
of no better method of disinfection than plowing 
and cropping old runs for a season or two, thus 
bringing under surface soil to the light and air for 
natural disinfection. Where even this is impossible, 
the poultryman is likely to find himself playing in 
hard luck. 
Effect of Drainage Water on Septic Tank 
Would the water from sinks, washtubs or storm wa¬ 
ter affect the bacterial action of a septic tank? If so 
what are the usual means of disposing of it? t. n. 
New Britain, Conn. 
The water from sinks, bathrooms, washtubs, etc. 
is disposed of through the septic tank, but the rain 
water from the roof should not be admitted, not be¬ 
cause the latter would interfere with the action of 
the bacteria in the tank but because of its volume. 
Do not use antiseptics or germicidal solutions in 
cleaning sinks, etc., if the water is admitted to the 
septic tank, as these might interfere with the life 
of the bacteria that destroy the solid matter in the 
wastes. 
Toe-picking Chicks 
What is direct cause of toe-picking, and what is a 
good preventive? 1 do not know any except staying 
with the chicks all of the time. w. h. 
Felton, Del. 
I suppose that curiosity and ignorance are really 
at the bottom of toe-picking, though it is hard to 
see why a small chick should wish to attack an¬ 
other at the first evidence of anything out of the 
ordinary upon the part of the victim. If a chick 
becomes disabled from any cause, its fellows are 
likely to attack it with murderous frenzy, and the 
taste of blood rouses the apparently innocent little 
birds to exhibitions of cannibalism almost unbe¬ 
lievable. Giving the chicks all the freedom possi¬ 
ble and vigilance are the only remedies for the trou¬ 
ble that I know of. When a chick is found bleeding, 
remove it and daub a little tar over the wound be¬ 
fore putting it back with its fellows. I am told 
that cleaning the blood from the foot and covering 
the wound with flexible collodion or similar prepara- 
tions sometimes known as “new-skin” will also save 
the chick fx-om further attacks. 
Mash for Chicks 
I have 1,200 chicks 10 days old ; am feeding a chick 
feed, dry mash, grit, letruee and water. I pay $4 per 
cwt. for the mash. Could I feed the following mash 
to good advantage which would cost less than .$3 per 
cwt., in place of the more expensive? 100 lbs. ground 
oats, 100 lbs. eornmeal, 200 lbs. heavy ship (middlings 
and bran), 50 lbs. 50 per cent meat scrap, 3 lbs. salt, 3 
lbs. ground limestone. A mash of your suggestion 
would be appreciated. f. s. b. 
Orange Co., N. Y. 
I should like better a simple formula for chick 
mash recommended by the Cornell Experiment Sta¬ 
tion, and I think probably cheaper than the one you 
submit. This is two parts wheat bran and one 
each of wheat middlings, eornmeal, ground oats and 
beef scrap. For chicks under five or six weeks old, 
the ground oats should be sifted and the coarser 
parts of the beef scrap removed. These parts are by- 
weight. I should not add ground limestone to the 
mash, though some fine chick grit may be given with 
the hard grains fed. If an ample supply of skim- 
milk is fed, the beef scrap may be cut down in 
amount or even omitted. m. b. d. 
