The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-03-23
Editorial NOtings.

derfully improved under the new re-
gime) is seeking for information in re-
gard to the rye crop in Vermont-both
the spring and fall varieties. He has
heard, as yet, from only three of his
readers who grow it; and, to help the
investigation along little, we may say
that some six or seven years ago we
grew an acre of winter rye on our
small farm on the lake shore, mainly to
get the straw for packing the young
fruit trees from our nursery for ship
ment. In order to keep the straw
straight and whole, it was threshed on
the barn floor with fails, laying the
heads of the bundles together in the mid
die. BY this method we kept the straw
in good share-but of course did not get
all the grain. Yet the yield from the
measured acre was fifty-one and one
half bushels, about half of which we
sold for seed the same fall, but have
never got report from any of the pur-
chasers. Since then we have grown
piece of five acres of spring rye on our
farm following a crop of potatoes)
which yielded ia bushels, strict meas
ure; the greater part of which was
sold to seed firm CIV. W. Rawson &
Co., Boston), for ST. 10 per bushel.
WE regard rye, either grown sepa-
rately or mixed with oats for horse
feed, as a very profitable crop; and
have the idea that those who have
failed with it have generally done so
because they believe the old supersti
ton that rye can be grown success
fully on land in too poor condition
for anything else. There is no doubt
that small crop of rye can be grown
where wheat would be an utter failure.
One of our neighbors, when we sowed
our fve-acre piece, said if we got over
seven or eight bushels to the acre it
would be as we'll as he ever did on an
adjoining farm. But he changed his
mind by the time it was headed out.
Here is an illustration, by the way, of
the fact that commercial fertilizers are
good for more than one season. The
season preceding the rye the potatoes
got 600 pounds of the Stockbridge
potato fertilizer to the acre; but the
crop, struck with the prevailing blight
of that season, gave us only eighty
bushels of marketable potatoes to the
acre. The rye next year evidently
picked up good deal of that unused
fertility-yet not so much but that the
succeeding clover and grass gave two
heavy crops the last season. We say
two crops, but the second one was not
cut, for our barn was chock-full; and as
a neighbor cut like piece the second
time, we thought we would leave ours
on the ground and see how the results
on the two pieces compared the coming
season. Some say cut, and some say
leave this rowen; but we hope to get
something besides such unsatisfactory
opinions by this actual trial.
WE heard man say, recently, that
half the people of Vermont vote as the
lawyers tell them, one quarter of them
as the ministers tell them, and the rest
rarely vote at all. But where does the
influence of the press come in, then
The new duty on eggs has had the
effect to induce our Canadian neighbors
to try the English market; but an ex-
change has it that the results are not
yet very satisfactory. Ceases were
oxen, waste was enormous, and
though the eggs looked bright and fresh,
they were reported musty by consum-
ers. A shipment of 5000 dozen cost,
at eleven cents per dozen. 1896; box
ing, insurance, collecting eggs and
other expenses came to S35 %, making
total expenses S43l %. The shipper
received cash, less exchange, S432, max
ing his net profit seventy-five cents on
the shipment" But surely there can
be not impossibilities in the way of
reaching a transatlantic market with
eggs. How is it, Brother Barnard?
SPEAKING of England, we find in an
exchange statement to the effect that
the demand there for very fat mutton is
on the decline, and that the hardy iron.
workers of Yorkshire and the coal min
ers of Lancashire are about the only
classes to whom it can be sold at all.
This demand for leaner mutton is on
aline with the increasing call for leanel
pork in the United States.
AND while we are on English sub.
jects, we may refer to the beautiful
little plant (akin to our New England
"May. flower" Epigoea repens), the
heath or heather, which is so common
in many parts of Britain, but has beer