The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-10

to tighten 1t and make IL dryer and warm
er. There are many who grow early veg
etables who claim that nitrate OF soda in
which available nitrogen is always ready
for use is enough better and quicker to
more than pay its Increased cost. II gives
the plants an early start, and when APP
piled with stable manure, st greatly has
tens its decomposition.
Decay of Grass Roots. Every time the
ground freezes and thaws many grass
roots near the surface are snapped from
the main stem. 1t Is doubtless the decay
of these which contributes to the increase
of fertility when fields are kept in grass.
Some of the grasses, and especially the
clovers, run out after one or two years.
The decay of their roots in the soil helps
to make the more hardy and enduring va
rieties more thrifty. We are apt to think
that a sod, so far as its roots are con-
cerned, is a constant quantity from year
TO year. But II we could examine II every
spring we should probably find that many
of its roots have dropped Off and will
have to be replaced during the growing
season.
Loss to Manure-Barnyar manure
suffers much loss in teaching and
drying. Prof Roberts shows that
horse manure when thrown out in
pile unsheltered from the wealth
er, loses nearly half its value in six
months; mixed barnyard manure when
piled in a close pile so that fermentation
is very slow but without protection from
rainfall, loses about one-tenth of its val
ue: while the loss If thrown under the
caves to be leached by rains and thaws
of winter, is much greater. At the New
York experiment station, fresh manure
piled in contcal heaps In January shrank
g per cent in weight by April, and the
loss of its fertilizing ingredients was equal
to So per cord of the manure.
Keep Road Horses Sharp Shod.-Horses
that have to travel much through snow
sharp shod. There is scarcely anything
more distressing than to see horse care
fully stepping because so smoothly shod
I lie
fall. Horses are often ruined in this way,
and even If the animal Is not injured, it's
ability to pull a load is seriously impair
ed. A horse Will do better on hard roads
in summer without shoeing, because then
the hoof Is pliable, and VIII shape itself
to the surface that IT strikes. In winter
the hoof is more brittle, and IL the shoe
ing is not good the hoof Is much more
likely to be injured.
Growing Smooth Potatoes-There is
great difference in the peeling and cook
ing of potatoes as regards waste. 1t is
one of the points which materially affect
the sale of the crop. Therefore, in select
ing seed care should be taken 10 plant
only the varieties which have eyes even
with the surface, instead of sunken, and
which are without rough proturberances.
Some of these latter will yield very large
ly, but the potato is coarse In fibre and
not nearly so palatable as those which
grow TO moderate size and have compare
lively few eyes. AS the LOUISVILLE selects
from the bin for cooking she naturally
selects those than can be prepared with
least difficulty. The moral of this Is that
the seed should be selected early, and
not left to be taken from the rough po--
tatoes that have all winter been rejected
as of inferior quality.
Painting to Repel Borers-Insects are
50 large guided by the sense Of smell
of their favorite food or places for de-
posting eggs is likely to serve as protec-
ton by throwing them off the track. Paint
inp Uff q Ia
carbolic acid has been used to mix the
paint has been found found an effectual
preventive of the attacks of the peach
tree borer. The trunk should be painted
to a hight of two feet or more, and the
earth should be scraped away so as to
paint several inches beneath the surface
This earth should be replaced after the
paint has dried. The odor Of carbolic
acid in paint remains a long time, ana
be sufficient protection. 1t is possible,
however, that the borer finding the peach
trunk disguised near the ground may take
to laying its eggs higher up. 1t might
be even necessary to paint the trunk in
as far as where the limbs branch out.
Extent of Tree Roots-It is commonly
said that the roots of trees extend each
way as far as their branches. But this is
a very uncertain and unreliable rule. There
are trees like the chestnuts and pines.
which grow in sandy SOIL which send their
roots far down into the subSoil, and have
so rev FDOAo near AHt SdIIdCE tUdL the DiOW
can be run nearly up to them. The elm
which grows best on low, wet land, has
most of IS roots near the surface. But it
can send roots down to the depth of a
three-foOt tile drain, as we once learned
to our cost, a large elm near the upper
end of a newly-laid tile drain completely
filling it after two or three years. so that
the tile had all to be taken up. The tree
was cut down and new tile laid. with the
result that the drain suffered no further
obstruction.
Ashes for Cloer.-M. P. r., Barnstable
county, Massachusetts: There are many
sandy soils which only need potash to
make them productive. Wood ashes con-
tain both lime and potash, and they are
the best fertilizers for clover on such soils.
The lime can be furnished by gypsum or
land plaster but that lacks the potash
which clover requires to make perfect and
vigorous growth. There is a good deal of
potash in ashes which have been leach
ed and II they have stood for a year or
two in a dry, dark place, much of this
potash will have united with ammonia
and forming a nitrate of potash which is
one of the best of fertilizers. In some
labor of drawing them. Farmers who
have sandy land should look out for such
chances and draw home for use on their
clover all that they can procure.
Look to Your Seeds.-It is I'M
questionable that a vast expense
is thrown upon farmers by the impurities
of the seeds they buy. For instance. one
buys a few bushels of grass or clover
seeds, and the year after sowing them the
fields appear white with that noxious