The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-12

man who has bunch OF fat cattle to
sell in the spring is never the man who
writes to know about growing sun
flowers. for he grows corn and has
silo. and gets manure for his land and
does not belong to the merchant who
supplies him fertilizer on credit. 1t
is to try to help get the poor farmers
out OF the old ruts that 1, have un-
dertaken these daily talks. And the
saddest thing about the matter ID that
more good farmers Will read ,s6m than
poor ones. The very men we want
most to help are the men who imagine
that they know 1t all, and do not need
to read, for they do not believe in book
| farming. And yet tho greatest noed
in our agriculture to-day Is brains.
| Grnas In Orchard.
"Will Bermuda grass do In peach
J orchard?'
No. nor any other grass. Bermuda
would not thrive where the trees shade
the land and a peach orchard should
, be clean cultivated every summer till
July, and then peas planted in rows
| and later crimson clover seed sown. TO
turn under in the spring for the bene-
! 1T of the trees. grass sod is all right
] in an apple orchard If properly used,
and later on l Will give my views
to this. But never have grass sod
in n peach orchard.
Sweet Potatoes.
MY garden is too rich to grow sweet
| potatoes. and yet / want to grow some.
How shall ! manager
/ II YOU had read these columns more
carefully YOU would have found that
/ l have treated of this very thing. Your
garden is not too rich TO grow big
| sweet potatoes The only difficulty will
be that with the proper treatment they
may grow too big. Your garden. like
hundreds of other gardens. has prob
ably been covered with stable manure
every spring. and YOU have simply got
ten an excess of nitrogen. This does
not matter, II II is balanced by due
percentage OF phosphoric acid and
potash. y light, sandy soil, the only
soil In which the best sweet potatoes
are grown, needs especially phosphoric
acid and potash enough TO balance the
nitrogen II contains. If you will put on
your garden at rate of / 200 pounds an
acre mixture per cent phosphoric
acid and 10 per cent potash, YOU Will
make sweet potatoes all right But
do not use any stable manure on them.
Hairy Netch-
When is the best time for sowing
hairy vetch?" Probably in the middle
of August Is as good time any.
II you are interested in wheat. l would
advise letting the vetch alone and
sticking TO crimson clover. for there is
danger that the vetch will get into the
vetch seed from the wheat. Otherwise
the vetch is a very good forage crop.
II will invariably reseed the land, and
once on the farm IL will always be
there
Vetch should always be sown with
some rye or other small grain to hold II
up as If sown alone 1t will tumble in
| a mass and the lower part will get
damaged. oats and vetch make n very
fine hay crop. But avoid getting II
,t-ho for
Glover and Fertilizers.
rs it not perfectly practicable to
improve land by good rotation of
| crops, growing plenty OF peas and
clover and using them for manure, and
| keeping no stock at all except the work
! stock Certainly IT is possible to do
| this through a liberal use of acid phos-
! rhate and potash and the growing OF
! legumes. but the real question is. is II
! as profitable as the feeding OF the for
/ rapidly by the addition OF the legumes
and winter cover of clover. But
/ when we have a growth Of peas that
would make TWO tons or more OF hay,
end we can feed this and recover In the
| droppings more than so per cent of the
manurial value OF the peas used direct
| on the land, il would seem that the
remaining 20 per cent had been used
/ very proftably. IL is perfectly possible
to get a farm into the highest state
/ fertilizers and legumes. but my opin-
/ ion is that il pays better to feed the
legumes and return the manure to the
| land that grew them.
| The Weeder.
| Il read with interest your articles
] In The Times Dispatch. and a few days
ago you advocated the use of the
weeder as a good implement for the
! early cultivation of corn. Will 1t not
! drag down the corn, and leave much
I ri cd 81
where the land is at All rough, Will II
I 90 any good on gravelly ground, or any
other than sandy or light loan soil?
have never used one nor seen one
and have been doubling that they would
DO good work" Up in Allegheny
County / doubt the success Of the
weeder.: on rough clay hills in Abe
marie found ii useless. but extra
good on the mellow bottom lands
There is no danger OF hurting the corn
10 any extent. but would not urge
the use of the wccder except on level
and mellow soils. But on such lands
as you describe. have used the slant
tooth smoothing harrow right over the
corn ana ala good work and with very
little damage. and getting the young
grass Just a II starts. The advantage
OF the wcedcr and harrow in the early
+ cultivation of corn Is that we can get
over so RAPIDLY between showers in
,, rainy weather. and In the mountain
, , section June is apt to be rainy.
should have made some exceptions
when i wrote about the weeder before.
Tor II VIII be found of little use on
rough clay hills or land that has much
I gravel or broken rocks on level.
SANDY ana mellow soils IT is very
valuable implement
How Fertilizers Act.
[ we have had discussion hcre in
regard TO the way certain kinds OF
e iertiliZers go. One said that nitrate
/ OF SOFA goes down. and another that
. II eVaporated and went off into the air
: Please tell us how all the forms Of
, nitrogen. phosphorus and potash 30 in
: Ihe soil, and whether IL is best TO mt
q them In deep or shallow. Some pcople
= put the fertilizer in n furrow and let
y inc roots run down to II. while others
5 advise broadcasting If broadcastcd
p should II be done before or after break
s ing the land
r The object OF applying fertilizers To