The National tribune., 1884-09-18
OUR RURAE TOPICS.
Some Practical, Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers.
THE USE or LINE.

e IL ID II sCtt ul among IdTHNfo Jiittt
" where lime is used the land and the farmers
are rich" This is an old but true adage and
deserves to be made one of the established
axionls of agriculture. 1t is true III two ways
one, that lime Isl an exceedingly valuable
fertlizing agent of ITSELF and in addition ex-
erts most beneficial influence upon the soil
as a solvent of the silicates, chiefly OF potash,
and also III decomposing organic matter in the
soil and tayoring its nitriGcation and the pro-
duction of the indispensable nitrates which SO
greatly enrich the soil the other, that its use
is one OF those higher attributes of stliilful
farming which is consistent only with the best
culture of the soil and the most thorough and
systematic working OF it. 1t is, in fact in the
farmers hands one Of those instruments which
is rarely or never found excepting where every
part OF the farm work is done in the most ex
cellent manner, so that it is not so much that
the farmer uses lime as that he uses it as a
part ofa system of farming which is thoroughly
excellent, and, of course, very profitable. Lime
is thus not TO be used in haphazard way, and
simply to extract from the soil the last vestiges
of fertility it can bring cut. When thus used
another common adage, that lime enriehes
the father and impoYerishes the son." will
surely be found true, because it is like a last
turn of the screw which squeezes the last drop
of juice from the cider mill
The place of lime in good farming is its ap-
plication to the land at the Fall season when
rye or wheat is sown and grass or clover seed
ing follows. The land has then become more
or less supplied with organic matter from the
roots and waste of previous crops, and it has
accumulated a store of nitrogenous and car
bonaceous matter which cannot be made avail
able until it is decomposed nor until sufficient
quantity of mineral matter has been set fee in
the soil to balance the supply of plant food re-
quired for new rotation of crops. Besides, at
this season and with Fall grain the regular
manuring of the1and is given and the manure
is generally coarse and undecomposed. 1t is
precisely under such conditions that lime is of
the greatest use and value and fits the soil for
new round of crops
The quantity of lime usually applied is 40 to
so bushels per acre of freshly burned or stone
lime In the air-slacking by which it is pre-
pared for use swells TO three times its original
bulk and becomes fine powder, which isspread
from a wagon with long-handled shovel,
evenly over the SOIL This should be done upon
the plowed land Immediately before sowing
when it is narrowed in with the seed; or if the
seed is drilled it is narrowed in previously. AS
lime is quite soluble in this fine condition, re-
quiring only 700 times its own bulk of water
to dissolve it, it should never be plowed in, or
it will be very quickly carried down into the
soil below the reach Of the roots of any plants,
excepting those of clover. Clover is one of the
plants which are wonderfully benefited by
lliHt, anu 1t ID 1UT LIilS reason, AMONG MANY
others, that its use is to be encouraged, because
it provides the skillful farmer with one of the
most valuable sources Of manure, viz, a heavy
clover sod to be plowed i'm. Z. Times.
MATURING PASTURES.
A good deal is said In the papers, says cor
respondent of the IriJRle Farmer, about ma
nuring grass lands, a practice that am greatly
in favor Of as being as profitable method as
we can adopt and .disp6sing of our barnyard
manures. would certainly apply it all, either
to the grass or to the corn land, and, perhaps,
with land requiring a rotation of crops, better
results are obtained by giving the manure to
the grass, thus insuring a thick, stiff sod to
plow under for the corn, which is more yalu-
able on account of It's mechanical effect in ioos-
enlng clay soil for corn crop than the direct
application of baFnyard manure.
At what time should the manure be applied ?
A statement has been going the rounds of the
papers In favor of making the applications to
meadows Immediately after moving. In Eng
land this Is the common practice. With us
there are two objections to it-frst, that we
usually have not only very hot. but very dry
weather in August and the first half of Sep
tember, which must certainly cause the evapo-
ration of much of the fertilizing matter from
the manure thus spread upon the surface; and
because our Summers are so hot and dry it is
not profitable to keep manure on hand until
dltoA ndifbSt ~ DC tUuS applied.
But in England the case is entirely different:
their Summers are cool and moist; and their
meadows after harvest are usually coated with
luxuriant aftermath as fresh and green as
our first crop of Spring grass.
conclude, therefore, that we have no way
for it but to apply the manure to our grass
lands IN the Fall, If we have been so unwise as
to keep any over through the Summer But a
better and cheaper way is to apply as we make
! prurt rtcrh I,a EFot, -1,I
wagon, and spread as evenly as possible as you
unload IL. There is no sense in throwing it
off in heaps. BY spreading from the load there
is not only great saving of time, but the ben
eft to the land will be greater and more evenly
distributed Nor is there any loss sustained
by leaving it spread upon the surface in the
Winter.
/ have frequently tried this method. not
only upon grass, but upon wheat, and have
been surprised at its success in every instance;
even long, green manure spread out on wheat
IN Winter has always increased the crop.
DESTROYING WEEDS.
No time on the farm is better spent, saws the
Massachusetts, Pl0a9hmdn, than that of thor
oughly destroying all weeds before they ripen
any seeds to do this two or three years lessons
the labor Of cultivation at least one-half and
at the same time very much increases the pro-
duct of the garden or field. Some farmers saw
liife, weed DUtt
little use to try to get rid of weeds in the gar
den; but they forget that it is very much
! their own fault that weed seeds get into the
manure. If every farmer would make it a part
of his business to see to it that no weeds 90 to
seed under the fences and around the eultivat-
ed fields and compost heap, it would be but a
few years before he would find his manure
quite free from weed Seeds The labor of now
ing around the plowed land and fences, before
the weeds are old enough to seed, is not half
the labor that would be required to destroy the
weeds that would come from the seeds, if per-
mitted to stand to ripen their seed.
NoTELETs.
- The best and only way to grow CHEAP
| corn, says an exchange, is to increase the yield
per acre. There is a fixed cost in growing an
acre of grain, let the yield be what it may, and
every bushe that can be added to the Weld
per acre reduces the cost per busheI in the
same ratio.
- Land plaster sprinI1led on a horse-stable
floor, or even clay, will absorb tie ammonia
from urine and add valuable property to the
manure pile. d
= The time was wlien it was thought that
the poorest education was good enough for a
farmer" now, it is believed that good one
! is none too good, and soon it will be known
that none but the best is good enough
- A correspondent of ithe Indiana Farmer
says he has never knownrthe following remedy
to fail to produce safisfa Glory rpsultc II, ret