News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-07-02
FARM AND GARDEN.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR THIS
TIME OF YEAR,
Potato PIantInE-PIaster for Peas-Keep
Down the Weeds, Etc.


Potato PLANTING W. A.
Armstrong states that many Elmira
| farmers; successful with the potato crop,
have a we'll established preference for
whole seed ''as cheaper and safer in the
long rum: '"The numerous tests care
fully conducted by several members
within the past ten years appear to have
justified this conclusion, yet the majority
will use cut potatoes, two pieces in a
hill, the most forcible argument in
favor of the practice being long estab-
lished custom The cost of whole over
cut seed is thought to be easily exag-
gerated: "Ten bushels to the acre, at
fifty cents bushel-$5-wilIe effect but
small saving as compared with twenty
bushels of whole potatoes to the acre,
cost of seed $40, requiring but ten
bushels more in the crop to balance
excess of cost. But from this should be
deducted the price OF labor required in
cutting the seed, perhaps q dollar to
the acre." As to time of putting in the
crop, nobody seemed to recognize
necessity for haste, the tendency being
rather to slate planting of the late
varieties" "There were farmers of the
club whose land had been fitted some
time, and they had purposely delayed
planting, preferring to depend upon
favorable Influences in early autumn
rather than to obtain full growth in
midsummer with the ordinary conditions
of drouth unfavorab!e to yield"
PLASTER FOR PEAs.-The Hon. F. P.
Root, writing to Mr.. Reynolds's Rural
of the pea as farm crop, speaks of the
effect upon the plant of land plaster
gypsum-as wonderful, even greater
than on clover, doubling the growth,
and sometimes more" mo fertilizer I
have tried is sobenefciaI. It should be
SOW Coon rs the plants show above
ground, in quantity about the same as
for clover, from one to two bushels per
acre. 1t is quite remarkable that the
effect of plaster sown on peas should be
so different from its effect on beans, on
which I have not been able to discern
any effect whatever. The plants are
alike leguminous and analysis shows
them to be quite familiar in their COM
position, though the bean contains a
somewhat greater mineral element, it
being 345 per cent, whilst the pea
SOAIh4Ac Gub <l.Ot HCA SOAuss
that the pea is less exhausting to the
soil. The yield of peas is usually about
the same or perhaps more than that of
BEANS"
The FODDER VALUE OF CoRN.-The
advice comes from every quarter to
grow fodder corn, grow sweet corn,
grow sorghum, etc.. but when the facts
are known it will be found that corn
known as "horse tooth" is the most
valuable of all. The great claim for
sweet corn is the great amount of sugar
fat formers it contains, but an East
ern experimenter found that his acre of
horse tooth corn contained seven hun
dred pounds of sugar and three thousand
eight hundred pounds (dried) fodder
more than did the acre of sweet corn
on like soil and culture. IF one argues
that all of the fodder is food the superb
GRITTY of the horse tooth fodder is ap-
parent, but when the statement is made
that only small proportion of the total
weight of fodder is food-elements like
sugar, starch, etc.-then the greater
value Of the large Southern corn fodder
is seen at glance.
KEEP Down THE. WEEDs.-If one
would have good garden it should be
free from foul seeds. / think nine out
of ten of the gardens among farmers are
allowed to mature a crop of weeds the
latter part of the season, and usually this
is the result of carelessness. After
June, or when such early crops as peas,
lettuce, and raddish have matured, no
further use is made of the land, and as
IL hoo us11allv baan poopurod in &ba
spring it grows lusty crop of weeds
and fills the soil SO full of seeds as to
quadruple the work of cultivation of
such plants as come up delicately and
which must be kept clean by hand. The
evil of ripening a crop of weed seeds is
not shortlived, for the seeds will remain
in the soil for many years and terminate
when the spring opens. the Neat
-=kssagtdR0 f0fsneg's- - 49,
The LOCATION OF THE BARNARD
Manure is an incidental and important
product of every farm. 1t is not clean
and therefore not wholesome. We can
stand some of it in the country with nc
great harm, but too much of it anywhere,
in city or country, is bad for the health.
The farmer should so arrange his build
ings and establishment that the value OF
the manure shall be as great as possible.
This means that it should not bekept OF
stored too near the house; that its drain
age should not pollute the well water
and its gases the air. How this can best
be done depends on the local conditions
about each farm and each farmer must
adapt his methods to his wants and con-
ditions.