General  Farm  Topics 
Is  Corn  Smut  Poisonous  to  Cattle? 
Every  year  we  have  a  number  of  letters 
from  our  readers  asking  whether  it  is  safe 
to  feed  smutted  cornstalks  to  cattle  or 
horses.  Every  farmer  is  familiar  with 
corn  smut,  the  big,  dirty  black  bunches 
which  gather  on  the  stalks  and  shed  their 
black  powder  everywhere.  There  is  a 
general  belief  among  many  people  that 
this  corn  smut  is  poisonous  to  live  stock. 
Many  farmers  try  to  throw  out  the 
smutted  stalks  when  cutting  corn  into  the 
silo  and  at  husking  time.  These  stalks 
are  then  generally  thrown  away.  It  is  a 
good  plan  to  destroy  these  stalks  by  burn¬ 
ing,  as  that  kills  the  germs  of  the  dis¬ 
ease  and  helps  to  get  rid  of  it.  So  far  as 
the  danger  of  poisoning  is  concerned,  that 
is  very  light.  A  number  of  experiments 
have  been  made  in  feeding  this  corn  smut 
to  cattle.  The  latest  report  is  given  in 
Bulletin  199,  from  the  South  Dakota  Ex¬ 
periment  Station  at  Brookings.  It  was 
decided  to  learn,  if  they  could,  whether 
this  corn  smut  could  safely  be  fed  to  cat¬ 
tle.  In  order  to  try  it  out  carefully  two 
barrels  were  tilled  with  corn  plants  on 
which  ears  were  growing  that  were  all  or 
partly  smutted.  These  stalks  and  ears 
were  cut  with  a  hand  cutter  into  small 
pieces,  and  well  mixed.  Another  barrel 
was  filled  with  ears  that  were  badly 
smutted.  For  a  number  of  days  seven 
cows  were  fed  from  2  to  5  lbs.  per  day, 
most  of  it  clear  smut.  These  cows  con¬ 
tinued  to  gain  right  through  the  feeding 
period,  and  were  in  a  thrifty  condition. 
This  experiment  is  in  line  with  many 
others.  In  one  case  the  Wisconsin  people 
fed  corn  smut  mixed  with  wheat  bran. 
They  started  off  with  a  few  ounces  of  the 
smut  per  day,  and  increased  until  32 
ounces  of  smut  were  fed.  No  great 
trouble  was  found  with  any  of  the  cows 
fed  in  that  way,  and  there  seems  to  be 
no  evidence  whatever  that  it  is  dangerous 
to  put  smutted  corn  into  a  silo  without 
removing  the  smut.  In  such  a  case  the 
animals  fed  on  it  would  get  such  a  small 
amount  of  the  smut  that  they  would  not 
be  injured  by  it.  The  disease,  as  is  well 
known,  forms  during  the  late  Summer 
and  early  Fall.  The  spores  from  which 
the  disease  starts  are  blown  about  by  the 
wind.  They  settle  on  the  ground  and  lie 
over  Winter  germinating.  In  the  Spring 
they  are  blown  about  by  the  wind  and 
finally  settle  upon  corn  plants,  and  grow 
until  they  produce  the  cluster  of  smut, 
with  which  all  (farmers  are  familiar. 
There  is  no  remedy  for  the  disease  ex 
eept  picking  and  burning  the  smutted 
ears. 
Believer  in  Hubam  Clover 
In  the  Spring  of  1921  we  purchased 
one  ounce  of  scarified  Hubam  seed.  It 
was  sown  on  fresh-plowed  thin  sandy  soil, 
on  which  ground  limestone  at  the  rate  of 
two  tons  to  the  acre,  and  16  per  cent 
acid  phosphate  at  the  rate  of  400  lbs. 
to  the  acre,  had  been  applied.  The  land 
was  harrowed  and  made  fine  and  mel¬ 
low,  and  the  seed  sown  in  drills  one  foot 
apart  and  covered  with  soil  from  an  old 
<  lfalfa  field,  after  which  the  soil  was 
firmed  with  a  hand  roller.  The  seed  was 
sown  about  May  25  (which  was  30  days 
iind  probably  60  days  later  than  it  should 
have  been  sown)  came  up  in  a  few  days, 
but  made  very  slow'  growth,  as  in  the 
rush  of  other  farm  work  it  was  not  culti¬ 
vated,  and  crab  grass  and  weeds  almost 
smothered  the  Hubam.  The  growth  was 
small.  8  to  20  in.  tall.  Most  of  the  plants 
showed  inoculation,  and  all  matured  seed. 
The  seed  was  allowed  to  fall  on  the 
ground  and  in  December,  1921,  the  plot 
was  plowed  very  deep  with  a  two-horse 
plow  that  edged  up  the  furrows.  About 
April  1,  1922,  when  we  began  to  pre 
pare  the  land  for  tobacco,  we  found  a 
good  stand  of  Hubam  along  the  edge  of 
each  furrow  where  it  had  been  turned 
under  the  previous  Winter. 
The  Hubam  was  allowed  to  stand, 
without  any  cultivation,  fertilizer  or  re¬ 
moving  the  "weeds  and  grass.  June  20.  it 
was  from  two  to  four  ft.  high  and  some 
plants  were  blooming.  The  plants  con¬ 
tinued  to  come  into  bloom  until  about 
August  15.  By  July  20  the  plants  that 
first  bloomed  had  matured  seed  and  were 
dying,  the  plants  continued  to  mature 
seed  and  die  until  about  October  15.  The 
plants  blooming  earliest  were  much 
smaller  than  those  requiring  a  longer  sea¬ 
son  to  mature.  Many  plants  maturing 
late  were  six  to  eight  ft.  tall.  This  plot 
has  not  been  plowed,  but  I  find  there  is 
already  a  volunteer  stand  with  four  to 
six  leaves  this  March  13. 
It  seems  to  me  Hubam  needs  seed  se¬ 
lection  to  fix  a  late  maturing  variety, 
with  a  maximum  growth.  I  am  sure 
there  is  a  great  future  for  it  and  the  man 
who  will  stick  to  it.  A.  s.  SPEER. 
North  Carolina. 
Free  Analysis  for  Farmers 
A  good  many  of  our  readers  write  ask¬ 
ing  where  they  can  have  analyses  of 
limestone,  soil  or  fertilizing  materials 
made  for  nothing.  They  seem  to  think 
there  is  some  State  department  where 
this  work  will  be  done  for  them  free  of 
cost.  In  the  Northern  States  there  is  no 
institution  whei-e  such  work  can  be  done 
without  a  fee.  The  experiment  stations 
have  no  money,  with  which  to  make  these 
free  analyses.  They  are  expensive,  and 
there  are  a  good  many  commercial  labora¬ 
tories  which  make  a  business  of  doing 
this  work.  It  does  not  seem  a  fair  propo¬ 
sition  for  the  Government  institutions  to 
compete  with  private  business  in  .  that 
way.  This  is  especially  true  when  the 
work  is  one  of  purely  personal  interest  to 
some  certaiu  person.  For  instance,  sup¬ 
pose  a  man  found  a  mineral  or  an  out¬ 
crop  of  limestone  on  his  farm.  He  wants 
to  know  the  value  in  order  that  he  may 
sell  the  farm  to  better  advantage.  If  such 
minerals  px’ove  to  have  value,  the  an¬ 
alysis  would  not  be  of  any  particular 
value  to  farming.  It  would  be  a  commer¬ 
cial  proposition,  pure  and  simple,  and 
thex’e  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why 
the  State  should  do  such  work  freely  when 
it  is  to  be  of  personal  advantage.  The 
fair  thing  to  do  in  such  a  case  would  be 
to  go  to  one  of  the  commercial  labora¬ 
tories  and  have  an  analysis. 
Speeding  a  Spray  Pump 
I  have  a  two-cylinder  spray  pump  with 
a  14-in.  pulley.  The  engine  runs  450 
r.p.rn.  with  a  6-in.  pulley.  We  want  to 
use  a  larger  capacity  gun.  Would  you 
advise  us  what  size  pulley  we  should  use 
to  enable  us  to  speed  our  pump,  as  it 
runs  too  slowly,  and  does  not  keep  up 
the  pressure  for  a  larger  gun.  w.  R. 
Your  letter  gives  me  the  impression 
that  your  pump  is  belt-di-iven.  but  I  am 
unable  to  determine  at  what  speed  the 
pump  runs  at  px’esent.  It  seems  likely 
that  the  14-iu.  pulley  you  mention  is 
back-geared  again  before  driving  the 
pump,  as  otherwise  the  pump  would  run 
about  190  r.p.m.  It  may  be  possible  that 
the  new  gun  will  overload  your  outfit, 
and  it  may  be  impossible  to  drive  the 
pump  fast  enough  to  supply  it  with  any 
degree  of  success.  Without  doubt  the  en¬ 
gine  has  a  governor,  and  by  shifting  this, 
tightening  the  springs  which  hold  it  in 
position,  you  can  increase  the  speed  of 
the  engine  somewhat,  and  determine  the 
effect  of  the  increased  speed  on  the  pump. 
If  it  runs  satisfactorily  and  supplies  suf¬ 
ficient.  pressure  to  the  gun,  the  speed  of 
the  shaft  carrying  the  14-in.  pulley  can 
be  determined  with  a  speed  indicator, 
which  can  be  borrowed  from  the  local 
creamerymau  or  thrasher,  if  one  is  not 
already  in  your  possession,  and  a  pulley 
used  on  the  engine  to  give  the  14-in. 
pulley  this  speed  when  the  engine  gov¬ 
ernor  is  again  adjusted  so  that  the  engine 
runs  at  its  normal  speed  of  450  r.p.m. 
If  this  is  done,  the  proper  diameter  of 
the  engine  pulley  can  be  determined  by 
multiplying  the  diameter  of  the  pump 
jack  pulley  (14  in.)  by  the  number  of 
revolutions  made  per  minute  by  it  and 
dividing  this  product  by  450.  or  the  nor- 
mal  speed  of  the  engine.  The  diameter 
of  the  driving  pulley  times  the  speed  at 
which  it  runs  is  always  equal  to  the 
diameter  of  the  driven  pulley  times  the 
speed  at  which  it  is  driven  in  a  case 
vvher  two  pulleys  are  connected  by  a 
belt.  r.  it.  s. 
Now  is  the  Time  to  Make  Sure 
You  Can  Get  Your 
and  have  it  at  the  start  of  the  mowing  season 
Don’t  go  through  another  mowing  season  with  a 
riveted -up  knife,  that  wastes  your  time  when  you’re 
in  a  hurry.  You  can’t  afford  to  stop  mowing  and 
rivet  in  new  sections  every  time  you  happen  to  hit  a 
stone.  Not  now  when  you  can  use 
44 
The  A-M-F  Sickle  has  in¬ 
stantly  renewable  blades, 
rigidly  wedge -locked  in 
place  until  you,  yourself, 
pull  the  locking  key. 
Blades  easily  removed  by 
a  turn  of  the  wrist,  right  in 
the  machine. 
Truss-built  bar — steel  head 
— rust-proofed  by  the  pat¬ 
ented  Intraloy  Process. 
The  Safety  Razor 
of  the  Fields” 
and  change  blades  without  even  taking  the  knife  out 
of  the  mower. 
The  A-M-F  Sickle  is  the  most  wonderful  improve¬ 
ment  in  mowing  equipment  in  20  years.  Think  of 
being  able  to  change  blades  in  half  a  minute.  Take 
out  a  damaged  one  right  away,  instead  of  letting  it 
set  up  a  drag  on  the  machine.  Put  in  new  sharp 
ones  —  a  full  set  if  you  need  them  —  and  save  the 
grinding  for  a  rainy  day.  You  just  can’t  afford  to 
keep  on  in  the  old  way. 
The  factory  is  shipping  carload  after  carload,  day 
after  day  —  everyone  wants  the  A-M-F  Sickle,  and 
wants  to  buy  now  to  make  sure. 
Made  for  Every  Make  of  Mower 
The  A-M-F  Sickle  is  made  for  every  make  of  mow¬ 
ing  machine,  and  in  all  lengths.  T  'alers  everywhere 
are  ready  to  deliver  you  yours,  right  out  of  stock,  if 
you  buy  early. 
Guaranteed  against  breakage 
Stop  in  and  ask  your  Dealer  Now 
American  Machine  &  Foundry  Company 
511  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  N.  Y. 
