'm il::.. jS%^k^^ ■':'-A> Mi % i'^HU . CLor- tion of the bread and meat of the Irish peasantry, ♦ See Cbaptal's Chymistry applied to Agriculture, embracing also the most valuable parts of Sir H. Davy's work on the same subject, and an admirable Treatise on the Use of Lime as a Manure, by M. Puvis, with introductory remarks by Professor Uenwick, published by Harper & Brothers, 1839. ROOT CULTURE. 37 feed their cows, fatten their pigs and poultry, and form an article of foreign commerce. The turnip has long been made an important crop in German husbandry. The beet has become so important in France as to engage the attention of her scientific men and of the government in extending its culture The field culture of the carrot has long been prof- itably pursued among the f leniings. And as it re- gards Great Britain, whose example in husbandry is deservedly held up for our imitation, her best wri- ters on rural matters, and her best practical farmers, all concur in saying, that her pre-eminent success in modern husbandry has been in a great measure ow- ing to the introduction of turnips as a field-crop in that island. We will here quote a passage from the New Edinburgh Encyclopaedia in corroboration of what we say : " The introduction of turnips into the husbandry of Britain occasioned one of those revolutions in rural art which are constantly occurring among hus- bandmen, and, though the revolution came on with slow and gradual steps, yet it may now be viewed as completely and thoroughly established. Before the introduction of this root, it was impossible to cultivate light soils successfully, or to devise suitable rotations for cropping them with advantage. It was likewise a difiicult task to support Uvestock through the winter and spring months ; and as for feeding and preparing cattle and sheep for market during these inclement seasons, the practice was hardly thought of, and still more rarely attempted, unless where a full stock of hay was provided, which only happened in a very few instances. The benefits de- rived from turnip husbandry are, therefore, of great magnitude : light soils are now cultivated with profit and facility ; abundance of food is provided for man and beast ; the earth is turned to the uses for which it is physically calculated ; and, by being suitably cleaned with this preparatory crop, a bed is provided 310 r r r 38 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. for grass seeds, wherein they flourish and prosper with greater vigour than after any other preparation." Few of our readers are probably apprized of the fact, that Englisli beef, so highly extolled, and of which John Bull so vauntingly boasts (and perhaps no people have better beeO> is mostly winter-fattened upon turnips and straw, very little hay being used. This will account for the high value which the turnip culture has obtained in Great Britain. All the above-named roots are well adapted to our soils and climate ; and where their culture has been undertaken with spirit and managed with judgment, success has been certain. The great objection to this culture has been, the labour which is required to secure these roots from the frosts of winter; and yet the labour and expense required for this purpose are perhaps no greater than we expend in securing our grain and forage, if they are as great. Where cellars are not at command or not adequate, these roots may all be securely preserved in pits in dry situations, due precaution being had to covering and ventilation. It is the novelty of the labour, rather than the amount, and a want of practical knowledge and confidence of success, which intimidate and de- ter us. We do save our potatoes, and we can save other roots in like manner. Assuming the average product of hay at a ton and a half to two tons per acre, and of beets and ruta baga at 600 bushels ; and allowing a bushel and a half of the latter (90 lbs.) to be equal, for farm-stock, to twenty poimds of hay, an acre of the roots will go as far in the economy of feeding as nearly three acres of meadow, to say nothing of the tops, which will go far to repay the extra expense of cultivating the roots ; while the ground in the one case is ameliorated and improved, and in the other impoverished. These roots, besides, may be used as a substitute for grain for working cattle and for pigs. The three acres of grass gives less than 1)000 pounds to the manure-yard, while FALLOW CROPS. 39 the one acre of ruta baga or beets gives 36,000, or four times as much as three acres of grass-land. VI. SUBSTITUTION OF FALLOW CROPS FOR NAKED FAL- LOWS. Fallowing is the mode of preparing land (general- ly greensward) by ploughing it a considerable time before it is finally ploughed for wheat and rye, to be sown in autumn. A naked fallow is such as receives no intermediate crop between the first ploughing and seeding for the main crop ; a fallow crop is one that intervenes between these two processes. In Eng- land, fallows are generally broken up in autumn, re- ceive repeated ploughings during the ensuing sum- mer, and are sown in autumn, or cropped with turn- ips, and sown the third year with barley. In the United States, naked fallows are more often broken up in June or July, receive repeated ploughings, and are sown in September. For fallow crops, old swards are broken up in autumn, and clover lays in the spring ; the first receive one or more ploughings in the spring, and, immediately after, the seeds which are to constitute the fallow crop. Clover lays re- ceive the fallow crop upon the first furrow, or with but one ploughing. Naked fallows, in England, oc- cupy the ground a year ; and if they are sown with tares or rye, as they often are, to be fed off in the spring, they are termed bastard fallow's. With us, fallow grounds lay idle but part of a season. There is no agricultural writer of note, and very few good farmers, who now contend for the propri- ety of naked fallows, except on stiff clays or wet grounds, which can only be worked in the summer, and this for the single purpose of cleaning such soils from root-weeds. We subjoin two or three quota- tions in corroboration of this fact ; " Fallowing was necessary as long as grains only, all of which exhaust the soil, were cultivated ; du- ring the intervals of tillimj the fields, a variety of 40 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. herbs grew on them, which offered food for animals, and the roots of which, buried in the soil by the plough, furnished a great part of tlie necessaiy ma- nure. But at this day, when wc have succeeded ia establishing the cultivation of a great variety of roots and artificial grasses, the system of fallowing can be no longer supported by the shadow of a good reason. The ease with which fodder may be culti- vated, furnishes the means of supporting an in- creased number of animals ; these in their turn sup- ply manure and labour ; and the farmer is no longer under the necessity of allowing his lands to be fal- low."— Chaptal. " It is already acknowledged, that it is only upon wet soils, or, in other words, upon lands unfit for the turnip husbandry, that a plain summer fallow is ne cessary." — New Edinb. Encyc. " As there is only one good reason for fallowing, namely, to destroy weeds ; and as this can be done full as well by fallow crops, that is, by crops that require frequent hoeing and cleaning during their growth, no fallowing ought to be permitted in a good system of agriculture." — T. Cooper. We have quoted in the last number of the fourth volume of the Cultivator, the practical example of the late Chancellor Livingston, showing an increased profit of nearly two hundred per cent, resulting from substituting fallow crops for naked fallows, be- sides an increase of cattle-food, upon one hundred acres of arable land, of sixty-five tons, and the ma- nure from sixty-five cattle which this extra food would keep. In page 88 and 104 of the same vol- ume we have given Greig and Beatson's systems of managing clay farms, in which naked fallows are dispensed with, and the profits doubled by substitu- ting fallow crops. These evidences might be great- ly multiplied were it necessary ; but we have so many examples and illustrations in every quarter of our country, that he who will may profit by his own FALLOW CROPS. CONCLUSIONS. 41 observation and inquiry. The expense of the sum- mer fallows may be saved, and a very valuable ex- tra crop obtained, by the new mode of practice. In regard to what are the best fallow crops, much will depend upon the soil. Upon stiff clays, oats and peas are rec«mmended, which, although not cleans- ing crops, succeed well upon an undecomposed sod. Potatoes also answer well ; and if they do not ripen early enough for winter grain, they prepare the ground remarkably well for spring wheat. Clays should be broken up in autumn if intended for a fal- low crop, tl.'at the frost may break up and pulverize the soil, and that the decomposition of the sod may commence earlier in the spring. The late John Lor- rain, of Pennsylvania, who was an excellent practi- cal farmer as well as a g'lntleman of science, rec- ommended that, in ploughing for grain after a fallow crop, the furrow should be superficial, so as not to turn up the vegetable matter of the sod, but to leave it where the roots of the ensuing crop will most need it. Upon light soils, Indian corn, beans, peas, pota- toes, tuniips, or other roots, constitute good fallow crops, particularly if preparatory to spring wheat and barley.** We have now gone over the ground we proposed to examine. We have endeavoured to explain what we mean by the Nexo System of Husbandry ; to de- velop its principles, and to show why and where- fore it is superior to the old or common system. We have, we think, demonstrated, 1. That the fertility of the farm may be kept up and augmented by the manures it can be made to furnish ; 2. That the condition of the farm may lie much im- proved by thorough draining ; . 3. That the capacities of the farm can be fully de- veloped only by good tillage ; 4. That the profits of the farm are materially f lug- 42 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. mented by alternating crops, and a system of mixed husbandry ; 5. That the cattle-food and manures of the farm, the main sources of fertility and profit, rhay be greatly increased by the cultivation of roots ; 6. That the labours of the farm may be econo- mized, and its products farther increased, by substi- tuting fallow crops for naked fallows. And, finally, that, were these several improvements generally introduced into our agricultural practice, they would render our farmers more independent, bring industry into better repute, and essentially pro- mote the prosperity and happiness of all classes of society. There is no doubt that most of our impoverished farms may, under the system of management we have been describing, and with the auxiliary and available aid of lime, marl, gypsum, swamp-earth, ashes, &c., be progressively improved in fertility, and rendered productive and profitable. We have the strongest grounds for this belief. The like has been done in Great Britain, in the Netherlands, in Germany, in France. Worn-out lands have there been renovated and rendered very valuable. They have been so in the United States. They are now undergoing this improvement in the valley of the Hudson. The partial introduction of the New Hus- bandry has, within a few years, doubled the surplus agricultural products of most of the counties be- tween Albany and New- York ; and yet the improve- ment has there been but begun. The same management which our subject sug- gests for the renovation of old lands, will perpetuate the fertility of those which have been newly brought under culture. Although the soils of the great sec- ondary formation of the West will not so soon be- .come impoverished as those of primitive and transi- tion formations ; and although fertility may be more readily restored to them when they have become ex- RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRY. 43 hausted, yet the same general laws govern in all. Deterioration will progress in all soils which are cropped, unless there is returned to them, in the form of manure, some equivalent for what is being constantly carried off. RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRT. We shall now proceed to give some rules and sug- gestions in husbandry, of general application, to en- able farmers, and particularly novices in the art, to judge of the character and qualities of their soil, its adaptation to particular crops, the causes of its de- terioration, and the means of perpetuating its fertil- ity ; or, if worn-out or impoverished, of restoring it to its pristine vigour. The facts and suggestions which we shall give are the results of our reading and our practice ; and though they may not in all cases prove to be sound, we think that in the main they will be found to be so. The essential elements of a good soil are sand, clay, lime, and vegetable or organic remains. Mag- nesia, iron, and other matters are often found blend- ed with the preceding ; but, in general, they are not considered as exercising a great influence on its fer- tility, except they exist in more than ordinary pro- portions. 2. The presence of sand, clay, and vegetable mat- ter in a soil is deemed essential to all crops ; and lime, in some of its forms, is considered indispensa- ble to many crops, and particularly to wheat. 3. The presence of sand and clay is readily de- tected by the experienced eye ; that of vegetable matter by the consistency and colour of the soil ; and that of carbonate of lime by drying a portion of soil, and pouring upon it some acid having a stronger affinity for the base than the carbonic acid, as muriatic acid, or even strong vinegar : if it con- tains lime, effervescence will ensue ; and the propor- tion may be ascertained by very simple modes of analysis 44 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 4. Sand is the most essential of the earthy ingre- dients of a soil, and generally most preponderates ; though where it exceeds eighty per cent, the soil is virtually barren. Clay is next in proportion; but where it is in excess, the soil becomes stubborn, is hard to be worked, and more or less unproductive. Lime exists in the smallest proportion ; and from two to ten per cent, of this in the upper or tillable stratum is deemed sufficient for all the purposes of profitable husbandry. When in excess, it induces barrenness. A calcareous soU is considered condu- cive to the health of the neighbourhood. Organic matter, that is, vegetable or animal, is indispensable in a soil. It is the food of plants. Yet even this is frequently found in too great quantity, as in peat earth, which is often infertile till mixed with earthy ingredients, or brought in contact with fermenting materials. 6. When an excess of sand, clay, lime, or vege- table matter is discovered to exist, the fault may be remedied by an admixture of the deficient element or elements. When one of the elements is found wanting, it may be supplied by art. Thus a load of claj' upon an arid sand, or a load of sand upon a stub- born clay, or a few bushels of lime, or marl, or ashes upon a soil deficient in calcareous earth, are often of more ultimate service than a load of barnyard dung. But, 6. Both dung and lime are consumed by the grow- ing crops ; and, if the crops are carried off the land, it must be periodically replenished with the same substances, or it will often become deficient in these material elements of fertility. 7. The sand and clay of the soil may be likened in their offices to the stomach of the animal ; the lime and salts to the gastric juices, which assist to dissolve the food in the animal stomach, and to the condiments, as salt, pepper, &c., which we employ to stimulate and aid the organs and process of di- RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRY. 45 gestion ; and the organic matter in the soil to the food itself, which feeds and nourishes the animal system. 8. If the crops grown upon a soil are permitted to rot upon and return to it again, its fertility is not impaired, but improved. Nothing is lost, but some- thing gained, from the fertilizing influence of the at- mosphere. But when all the crop is carried off and nothing returned, deterioration must take place : the vegetable food must undergo a continued diminution. This is a plain exposition of the cause of lands wear- ing out ; and, at the same time, it explains the neces- sity of applying manures to keep up their fertility. U. All the elements of a good soil being present, its fertility and consequent profit will in a measure depend upon its exemption from an excess of water, which, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad master. This excess may arise from spouts and springs burst- ing up from below, or from surface waters, where the ground is level or nearly so, settling and repo- sing upon a tenacious subsoil, or from waters fiovir ing from higher grounds. Hence the importance ol draining. We do not know of any farm crop which tJirives well upon a soil that is habitually wet, either upon its surface or within the natural range of its roots. Water-meadows and rice profit by periodical floodings ; but even these are injured by habitual wetness. 10. Fertility depends much, also, upon the quality and properties of the subsoil. If this be defective or come too near the surface, its faults may be cor- rected, and the tilth deepened, by bringing it up, in small portions at a time, with the plough, to the meli- orating influence of the atmosphere, and by blending it with the upper stratum. 11. If a soil, under proper management, doe? not return good crops, or if the crops are found annually to diminish, it is a sure indication that there is a de- ficiency in one of the primaiy elements of a good 46 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY soil, that the subsoil has a malign influence, or that there is an excess of water. It is the province of ihc manager to search out the cause of the evil, and to apply the proper remedy, be it lime, manure, deeper drafnage, or deeper tilth. 12. Grain-crops are the greatest exhausters of the fertiUty of soils, on account of their narrow system of leaves, and the great quantity of nutriment they extract from it to mature their seeds. The remark extends to the narrow-leaved grasses, converted into hay, when they are permitted to ripen their seeds in the field. 13. Indian com, tobacco, and beans may be em- braced in the second class of exhausting crops ; for although they have broad leaves, and are supposed to derive much of their nourishment from the atnao- sphere, they are, nevertheless, gross feeders, and are bulky crops, and leave very little upon the soil to compensate for what they take from it. But great economy in feeding these crops may be effected by applying to them the long manure of the yard and stables, instead of summer-yarding it, as many farm- ers are wont to do. These crops will feed upon what is otherwise lost in the yard, the gaseous matters ; and these afford exactly the food that the crops named want, and at the very time they want it. 14. Roots come next in the order of exhausting crops ; but they compensate, in a measure, for what they take from the soil, by the meliorating influence they have upon it, in dividing, pulverizing, and free ing it from weeds, by means of their roots and the culture they demand. 15. Green crops, that is, clover, buckwheat, rye, oats, &c., ploughed under as food for plants, are en- riching crops, and powerful auxiliaries to the fold yard, but they are too seldom resorted to for this l>urpose. 16. Depasturing with cattle, and particularly with sheep, enriches a soil. According to Van Tbaer, it AULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRY. 4T adds 20 per cent, annually to the fertility of an ordi- nary soil, though probably for a limited period. This results from the fact that the crop is returned to the soil in the droppings and urine of the animals which graze it. • 17. Lime and clay are essential in a wheat soil. Indian corn delights in a rich, dry sandy loam. Tur- nips excel on dry sandy soils. Rye is impatient of wet. Barley does best on a clay loam, as do beets, carrots, and peas. Oats and potatoes find a conge- nial bed in cool moist grounds, though for the lattei the surface stratum should be light or mellow. Of the grasses, the tap-rooted, as clover, lucerne, &c., require a deep soil, permeable to their long roots, and free from water; the fibrous-rooted, as the tall-oat, orchard, &c., thrive upon soils that are shallower; and the rough-stalked meadow, red-top, bent, and some of the festuca family, are congenial to, and often natural in, moist or swampy grounds. Tht timothy, or meadow cat's-tail, the main dependance for winter forage in the Northern states, adapts its roots, it is said, to its location ; being fibrous-rooted upon dry, and bulbous-rooted upon moist grounds ; and, therefore, adapted to any situation. 18. Where arable and mixed husbandry prevail, the natural fertility of a farm cannot be kept up or increased from the resources of the farm stock with- out resort to an alternation or change of crops. Al- though the diminution of fertiUty may be impercep- tible in some extraordinary cases, and although some soils seem naturally and peculiarly adapted to certain crops, yet, where the same crop is grown on one piece of ground in successive years, deterioration as certainly goes on as the sun shines by day. Whether, according to the modern theory of certain European philosophers of high repute, the excre mentitious matter thrown into the soil by a growing crop is poisonous to its species ; or whether, as we maintain, each species requires and exhausts, oi par 4& AML.IICAN HUSBANDRY. tially exTiau3ts, a specific food in the soil, suited to its particular wants, we will not now slop to inquire ; but it is a fact established by general experience, that an annual change of crops upon a field, while under tillage, tends very much to economize its fer- tility, and to increase the profits of the labour be- stowed upon it. Hence, 19. It has been laid down as a sound rule in farm- ing, that two white, or grain, or culmiferous crops should not be made to succeed each other in the same field ; but that each of these should be alterna- ted with, or followed by, a green, a grass, a root, o: a jeguminous crop. 20. Where the soil of a farm will admit of it, a good course is to alternate, 1, roots or Indian corn, with long manure, upon the sod ; 2, grain, with grass-seeds ; 3, grass for two years. The poorer the soil, the oftener should it be returned to grass, particularly to clover and pasture. 21. Geologists refer to three distinct formations as constituting the crust of the earth : the primitive, containing little or no lime or organic remains ; the transition, containing lime and organic remains ; and the secondary, abounding extensively in both these elements of fertility. Their natural relative /er/i7i7y is in the reverse order in which they are named, the secondary being the best, and embracing most of the great basin of the Mississippi, and the country drain- ed by its tributary streams. We say nothing of alluvial formations deposited by the ccean and streams. These partake of the character of the country from which they are brought, and are more or less ferlde, according to the fertility of the dis- tricts from which their soil is derived, and the force of the currents by which theii deposites have been made ; a rapid current leaving only the coarser or heavier materials, while the lighter and richer mat- ters do not subside until the current beconrt'es slow and levs agitated. A sluggish current, therefore, de posites the richest soil. RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRY. 49 29. The three great formations which we have nieiitionod possess, it is well known, characteristics diftercnt from each other. They grow, naturally, many plants peculiar to each, and they are adapted to different branches of husbandry, or to different farm-crops. The primitive will not generally grow good wheat, but is suited to grass, oats, potatoes, &c. The transition is adapted to natural grasses, ami to most of the arable crops, particularly to the cereal class ; and the secondary to the cultivated grasses, to roots, and particularly to wheat.* 23. There are other circumstances in regard to the location of a farm demanding the consideration of the master, which refer to latitude and elevation. Plants have their natural zone or climate, beyond which they do not grow or thrive but imperfectly. There is a difference in every degree, or sixty miles of latitude upon tide-water, of five or six days in the forwardness of natural vegetation in the spring, and nearly a like difference in the blighting indications of autumn. But what is of equal importance, but less generally regarded, is the difference in climate produced by altitude. Three hundred feet of eleva- * An able writer in the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in reference to these formations, terms the primi- tive, which, it seems, comprises the most elevated lands in Scot- land, the region of heath and coarse herbage; the transition, the natural region of the grasses; and thfi secondary, the region of cultivated grasses, and particularly adapted to arable and al- ternate husbandry. He assigns to each a particular and dis- tinct breed of cattle. To the first, or higher region, a thick- haired, small, hardy breed; to the second, or middle region, those of larger size ; and to the third, or lower region, those that are most sensitive to cold, gross feeders, and that acquire the great- est weight He goes on to show, from numerous examples, that these several breeds are the most profitable in the various dis- tricts assigned them ; and that they are manifestly improved, in most cases, by a judicious cross with the improved short-horns. There is much good sense in the writer's rennarks ; and, al- though the descriptions of the three formations as to elevation does not fully apply in the United States, the facts we have coi^ied afToril useful suggestions to the American grazier. I. — ^E 60 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. tion is considered equal to one degree of latitude in its influence upon temperature. Hence it does not follow, that because a crop will thrive and ripen in a given latitude upon tide-water, it will thrive and ripen equally well in the same latitude at a higher elevation. On the contrary, to be better understood, we say that, other things being alike, the climate on tide-water, in latitude 42°, is similar to that of a place elevated three hundred feet above tide-water in latitude 41°, or of a place nine hundred feet above tide- water in latitude 39° ; so that the table-land of Mexico, in latitude 16', at an elevation of seven thousand and eight hundred feet above the ocean, should possess about the same mean temperature, and produce the same natural and artificial growth, as Kingston upon the Hudson, though the extremes, both of heat and cold, are probably greater at the northern than they are at the southern point.* * " All the western part of the inlendancy of Vera Cruz," says Humboldt, in his New Spain, " forms the declivity of iho Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the space of a day, the inhabitanta descend from the regions of eternal snow to the plains in the vi- cinity of the sea, where the most suffocating heat prevails. The admirable order with which different tribes of vegetables rise one above another, by strata, as it were, is nowhere more per- ceptible than in ascending from the port of Vera Cruz to the ta- ole-land of Perote. We see there the physiognomy of the coun- try, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, the nguies of ani- mals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of cultivation followed by them, assume a different appearance at every step of our progress. " As we ascend, nature appears gradually less animated, the beauty of the vegetable forms dimmishes, the shoots l)ecome less succulent, and the flowers less coloured. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets the alarms of travellers newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence demonstrates to him that he has left behind him the zone, so justly dreaded by the people of the North, under which the yellow fever exercises its ravages in New Spain. This inferior limit of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the central tableland how far he ii ay descend to- wards the coast, without dread of the mortal disease of the vom ito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, announce, by the freshness of their verdure, that this is the elevation at which RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN HUSBANDRY. 51 Tliese data are assumed from recollection, and may not be precisely correct. 24. The means of preserving and of augmenting the fertility of the soil are sufficiently indicated in the preceding suggestions. They consist mainly in manuring, draining, the admixture of earthy mate- rials, and thff alternation of crops. 25. Stable and fold-yard dung is most profitably applied in an unfermented or partially fermented state, and to hoed and autumn-ripening crops. Fer- mentation diminishes the fertilizing properties of ma- nure. If this fermentation takes place in the soil, the gases, the volatile portion w^hich first escapes from the putrifying mass, are retained in the mould, and serve to feed the crop. If fermentation takes place in the yard or upon the surface, the gases are wasted, and the dung undergoes farther loss from the rains which ordinarily leach it. Long manure should be spread broadcast, and well buried by the plough. 26. Short manure, or that which has undergone fermentation, is most beneficial when harrowed in upon arable lands, or spread upon the surface of grass-grounds. 27. Old meadows may be kept in a productive the clouds, suspended over the ocean, come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordillera. A little higher, near La Bandarila, the nutritive fruit of the banana-tree comes no longer to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want spurs on the Indian to labour, and excites his industry. At the height of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which are found by the traveller as high as the elevated plains of I'erote, where he beholds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. Eight hundred metres higher (two thousand and six hundred feet), the coldness of the climate will no longer ad- mit of the vegetation of oaks ; and pines alone cover the rock, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. Thus, in a few hours, the naturalist, in this miraculous country, ascend? the whole scale of vegetation, from the heliconia and the banana plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraf rdinary dimei eioiis, to the stunted parachyma of the resinous trees." 62 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. State, in ordinary cases, by a tr/ennial top-dressing with manure or compost ; or may be renovated and restored to a productive state by the modes we have already recommended in the Cultivator. 28. Composts are economical when made to ab- sorb fertilizing liquids which would otherwise be wasted ; or to decompose inert vegetable matter, as peat, earth, &c. 29. Lime, gypsum, marl, and ashes are powerful auxiliaries when applied to proper soils or suitable crops. Observation and experience will be the best guides in their application. 'I'hey should all be ajv plied to the surface, or but superficially covered. 30. All vegetable and animal matters constitute the food of plants when they are rendered soluble, or capable of being dissolved in the water of the soil. 31. Bone-dust, horn-shavings, poudrette, woollen rags, urine, and animal carbon or burned bones, are concentrated manures, and should be used sparingly and with great care upon or near the surface of the soil. Pigeon and hen's dung partake much of the character of the preceding, and require precaution in their use. We think the best mode of applying the two first named is to mix ashes with them or long manure, just before they are put upon the soil, whereby they are brought speedily into a state of fermentation and decomposition. 32. The best guards against drought are keeping the soil deep, rich, clean, and mellow on the surface. 33. The more cattle that are well kept upon a farm, the more manure ; the more manure there is applied, the greater the product and the profit, and the greater the means of sustaining an increased stock of animals upon it. All of these advantages are increased when root-crops are made to eater largely into the system of culture. OLD AND NEW HUSBANDRY. 63 COMPARATIVE PROFITS OF THE OLD AND NEW HUSBANDRY. [We add, at the close of this chapter, the follow- ing statement, given in the London Farmer's Maga- zine from the pen of an eminent English agricul- turist, as exhibiting some of the reasons that induce the adoption there of the New System, and the com- parative profits resulting. That more labour on a given number of acres is required under the new system than under the old, is apparent ; but the in- crease in productiveness is in a still greater ratio, and so are the ultimate profits. By keeping but few acres under cropping, and doing the work of those few acres in the best manner, the farmer gains some important advantages ; he can retain more land in grass, and, of course, can raise more stock ; he is not wearing out his soils by improvident culture ; he re- ceives a far greater interest on the capital invested in his farming operations ; and when, in the course of rotation, his fields are seeded to grass, they are clean, in good tilth, and will not only produce great crops of pasture or grass, but be in fine order for their course in the production of grain crops.] It may be proper to premise that my farm consists of about 200 acres, comprising 30 of wood, 42 of pasture, and the rest arable. Of the arable, 85 acres are of good mi.\ed soil, well adapted to turnips and barley, but not considered equal in value to the best wheat land ; the remainder consists partly of a hun- gry gravel and partly of clay, of very inferior quali - ty. It is cultivated on the Norfolk, or four-course system. 64 AMKRICAN HUSBANDRY. 1. I diligently collect litter of every kind, sea- weed, furze, fern, leaves of trees, &c., for bedding my yards, in addition to the straw grown on the land. In the last tw'elvc months I have brought in about 50 wagon-loads of those materials : each wa^- on load gives employment to about three men for a day ; the total, therefore, being 150 days. 2. This increase of litter would avail little or no- thing if I did not keep an extra number of live-stock ; for 1 observe that many farmers do not even make their straw into good muck. I therefore fat about 40 hogs and four or five head of homed cattle every winter ; enough, in short, to consume half my Swed- ish turnips, which are carried into the yards for this purpose. The drawing, topping, and carting, togeth- er with the time occupied in looking after the stock, may be estimated at one man's employment during the winter months, equal to 150 days. 3. The removal of one half the turnips would in- jure the succeeding barley crop if I did not lay on, at the time of sowing the turnips, an extra quantity of manure, say 25 single horse cart-loads per acre, about 10 loads more than the usual allowance: This I am enabled to do, partly by the great quantity of lit- ter in my yards, partly by placing a bottom of earth or chalk under every dung-heap, and a thin covering of the same materials over the top. The practice of carting all my dung twice, first from the yards to bottoms prepared in the fields, and then on the land when wanted for use, of course employs many hands, as well as the turning the composts, and mixing the materials together. I believe I do not overrate the number of cart-loads transported annually on my farm at 2400 ; whereas on the same number of acres, a farmer who moved his dung only once. carr>-ing it immediately from the yard, at the rate of 10 loads per acre for turnips, and the same for wheat, would transport only 600 cart-loads annually. The extra 1800 loads may give about 1 12 days employment, and OLD AND NEW HUSBANDRY 55 the turning of the compost about 20 more ; making together 132 days. 4. I have introduced this year the Norfolk practice of dibbhng wheat. This occupies two men and six children for 30 days, at the rate of half an acre per man per day. Computing the six children equal to one man, the dibbUng gives extra employment of 90 days. The expense is paid in the saving of seed, to say nothing of the increased produce, which is es- timated by the best Norfolk farmers at a sack per acre.* 5. Extra weeding, throwing ditches, draining, &c., may occupy about 80 days. Let us now recapitulate — Collecting litter . . . . . .150 days Feeding stock in yards . . . .150 Carting earth and dung .... 132 Dibbling wheat 90 Extra weeding, draining, &c. . . 80 Total 602 At 300 working days in the year, this is equal to two labourers extra, winter and summer, employed on a farm containing only about 120 acres of arable land. It is not easy to estimate Avith precision the in- creased amount of produce which a farmer may ex- pect to obtain in consequence of such an increased outlay in labour ; the less so as that increased produce does not make itself felt the first, second, or third year to the full extent : indeed, I have heard an in- telligent farmer say, that he has observed a progres- sive improvement in his land during no less than twenty years, from persisting in a system of high cultivation. I beg leave to introduce here the esti- mate of Von Thaer : * A sack is four bushels. 56 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. On a farm of 913 acres of good barley land. Uikitrr the old ■ytlani, Uaiicr )en- efiting him and a few neighbours, or becoming grad- ually known, as in olden times, the knowledge of it would now be spread in a few days, by the agricultu- ral periodicals, into every corner of the land, and the advantages of the discovery would thus amount to millions in a single year. So with every other im- provement in husbandry. It is not the province, nor is it the study of news journals and literary editors to deal extensively in agricultural concerns. They seldom publish even the incidental notices which are designed to subserve the interests of husbandry without a special request, and a fee in the bargain, as though thei/ had no personal interest in the prog- ress of agricultural improvement. We must infer from these premises, that every man \vi]\ promote his own interest, and benefit the public, by patroni- sing and endeavouring to extend the circulation of our agricultural papers. They tend to no possible evil, while they are certainly calculated to do much good. Another means of facilitating agricultural improve- ment is to introduce class-books into our common schools for the senior boys, which shall teach those elementary principles of science which are indispen- sable to the successful practice of agriculture. A boy may be almost as easily taught to analyze soils, and to comprehend the leading principles of animal and vegetable physiology, as he can to commit to memory pages of matter, the knowledge of which seldom serves him any useful purpose in manhood. We must begin iii youth if we would bring about any material improvement in the habits of society. The MEANS OF IMPROVING OUR HUSBANDRY 69 good seed that is sown in the springtime of life is never lost : it will ultimately sprout, and grow, and give its increase, as surely as the grain whicli we deposite in a fertile soil. The tree will grow as tlie twig is bent. Youth is the season to get instruction in the principles of the business which is to consti- tute the employment of life ; and the more knowl edge boys acquire in these principles before they start in life for themselves, the more likely they are to prosper and become useful to society. The time that the senior boys in school devote to the business of the farm, will give to studies which are connected with their present and future business an interest and an influence which will be as abiding as life. But we would go farther in the business of agri- cultural instruction ; we would establish schools to teach simultaneously both the theory and practice of agriculture. We would carry something of the theory into the primary schools, and much of the practice into the schools of science. Veterinary schools, to instruct in the anatomy and management of domestic animals, have long been established in Europe ; their usefulness has been highly extolled, and their numbers are increasing. Switzerland, Prussia, and France have also their schools, in which the science and practice of agriculture are taught to hundreds of young men, who are thereby enabled to manage their estates with greater benefit to them- selves and the public, or to obtain honourable and lucrative situations as managers for others. We give bounties on our fisheries, to make them a nur- sery for seamen ; but we give none upon agriculture, which is the best nursery of freemen. We spend millions annually to protect our commerce ; but we give nothing to improve agriculture, which is the ba- sis and support of that commerce. We protect oui manufactures by a heavy tariff"; yet agriculture, which furnishes the raw materials, and buys the fab- rics which the manufacturer consumes and vends. 70 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. is left to protect itself. We have expended nearly three millions in this state to aid in educating al- most exclusively professional and other gentlemen ; but we have given nothing exclusively to educate our agriculturists, who constitute the great mass of our population. And yet there is probably no em- ployment in life capable of being more benefited by a professional education (in which a professional ed ucation would conduce more to the public prosperity) than that of managing our farms. A proper knowl- edge of soils, manures, vegetables, and animals ; of the agency of caloric, of moisture, of the atmo- sphere, and of hght, in the economy of vegetable and animal growth, is of the greatest use to the farmer, and yet in what existing school can be acquired this knowledge, during the period of life in which he ought to obtain his practical information ? AH impressions of general reform, to be success- ful, must be first made upon the ductile minds of the young. The old are apt to be too obstinately wed- ded to their juvenile habits and prejudices. Alen are prone to grow up in the creeds in which they are early instructed — be they Christian, Mohammedan, or pagan — be they those of good or bad husbandry. And if our youth are instnicted in the first elements of agriculture, and taught to consider it, what it truly is, an employment calculated, above all others, to promote individual and national prosperity and hap- piness, they will aspire to honour and distinction in its labours ; and will not so generally press to the cities, to the bar and the counter, for the means of gratifying a laudable ambition. Society, too, will reap an abundant reward from the change. We wiU illustrate this by an historical fact. Ernest, former duke of Saxe Gotha, had his people instructed by compendiums of every kind of useful knowledge, in- cluding music and drawing, that were put into the hands of youth in all the country schools, and which in a few years entirely changed the face of his prin- MEANS OF IMPROVING OUR HUSBANDRY. 71 cipality ; and " it is amazing," adds our author, who wrrte some years afterward, "to observe the differ- ent irradiations of genius in this and tiie adjacent circles." The effect was alike beneficial in the im- provement of the soil and the mind. And the exam- ple of Saxe Gotha probably led to the excellent sys- tem of school instruction in agriculture which has since been introduced by Prussia and most of the German states. It has been stated, as an objection to the establish- ment of agricultural schools, that they would be only accessible to the rich. This objection, even if well founded, would not go to lessen their value to the state : for if we could convert a few hundred drones, as the sons of rich men may generally be termed, into working bees, the public, as well as the young men themselves, would certainly be gainers by the transformation. The complaint is, that we have too many consumers and too few producers. This would tend to restore an equilibrium : for the exam- ples of the rich, be they good or bad, have an impo- smg ififluence on the middling and lower classes ; and thus to improve the habits and morals of the rich, would be the surest way to improve the condition of society generally. Hence, therefore, if agricultural schools can be made instrumental in annually con- verting a few hundred of the idle and dissipated sons of wealth (or, rather, in preserving them from vicious and wrong habits) into wholesome, industrious farm- ers, agricultural pursuits will become more respecta- ble and be more followed ; and we venture to pre- dict, that then we shall not long continue to do, what we have done — import potatoes from Ireland and Germany, hay and oats from S|(|land, eggs from France, and breadstuffs from all the countries of Europe, including the dominions of the autocrat of Russia and of the Grand Turk. But it is not exactly true that the rich alone would find access into agricultural schools, were such es- 72 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. tablished. The rich rely upon their paternal wealth, and have not often the ambition to become useful, al least by the habits of manual labour, which would be rigidly required in such schools. These schools would be filled with the youth from all classes of so- ciety, who aspire to fortune and independence by a manly exercise of their mental and physical 4)0 wers. Young men of this description, even from the poorer classes, do obtain admission into literary institutions, and they would into agricultural ones with still greater facility, since the terms of admission here would be more reasonable, and with an equal pros- pect of distinction and usefulness in after life. But, whether these schools were filled from the rich or the poorer classes, or, as we have supposed, from all classes indiscriminately, a certain and great public good would result from their establishment : the pu- pils would go to swell the producing classes of soci ety with habits of application and usefulness, mindb imbued with scientific knowledge, bodies hale and robust, and hands practised in all the manual opera- tions of the farm. [Note. — The foregoing just and forcible remarks on the necessity of improving our husbandry, are from a paper read by Judge Buel before the State Agricultural Society in 1838. A few remarks re- lating to the agricultural periodical, the Cultivator, are omitted, as not precisely in place in this volume, however just in themselves. It is to be regretted that we have no correct or authentic means of deter- mining the amo|fl| of any given article of produce at dift'ercnt perioos of time ; still there can be little question that the opinion above expressed, that there 18 a decided falling off in the quantity of grain pro- duced per acre in the older settled parts of our coud ROOT CULTURE. 73 try, is correct ; and there is little room for doubv ll>at the same result will follow in the newer districts, unless a more rational mode of culturftis introduced and practised. That course has been pointed out in a lucid mamier in Chapter I. of this volume. In a few words, it consists in drainmg, tillage, manures, roots, and a rotation of crops. The ruinous practice of exhausting our lands by continued cropping must be abandoned; roots and clover must take their places with the grains ; and a better and more eco- nomical system of making and managing manures must be adopted before our agriculture can rank with that of the most favoured nations. — Editors.] CHAPTER III. BOOT CULTURE. The Potato. — Manures. — Early Potatoes. — Choice of Kinds. — Mode of Planting. — Harvesting the Crop. — Sorting the Cro^. — Wintering the Trop. — Culture. — Beet.— Carrot. — Parsnip.— Turnip. — Introductory Remarks. — Methods op Feeding Roots. — Report tty Judge Buel. — Col. Meacham on the Carrot and Ruta Baga. I. THE POTATO. Every farmer cultivates the potato, but few farm- ers cultivate it as profitably as they might. The average crop does not probably exceed one hundred bushels an acre.* It may be made to exceed three [* We are inclined to think that Judge Buel has underrated in this place the average of the potato crop in this country. In some instances in which the quantity on considerable tracts has 74 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. hun'ircd bushels the acre, and without increasing materially the expense of culture. It is a reproach to us, that thisj^oot is brought three thousand niiles — from Englana7lrelanc], and Germany, to supply ihe wants of our city population. Let us try to do better. It is in the hope that we may contribute to increase our average product, so as to supply the demands of our own market, that we give the fol- lowing directions for its culture. Soil and preparation. — A mistaken notion prevails with many, that the best potatoes are grown on a warm, sandy soil. The reverse of this is true. The best potatoes, is to quality, are believed to be grown in the west of England, Ireland, Nova Scotia, Maine, and other high latitudes, and particularly in humid climates. In a dry season, the quality and quantity are with us not as good as they are in a moist and cool one. The potato zone does not extend south of New- York : that is, its quality deteriorates south of that latitude ; and it probably has the most con- genial climate between 4*2° and 45°. If these as- sumptions are well founded, then it should be our aim to plant upon a cool and moist, though not wet soil, which approximates nearest to the temperature of the best potato-growing districts elsewhere. The potato will grow anywhere if there are vegetable matter and moisture, but it will be inferior upon dry sands, and stiff or wet clays. It does best in loams or reclaimed swamps ; and it pays well for a good dressing of long manure, and should, if practicable, be planted on the first furrow of a grass ley. If the sod is old and tough, plough deep in September, hav- been ascertained, it has averaged from 150 to 200 bushels per acre. In the county of Susquehanna, for example, the aver- ago for the whole county was about 175 bushels per acre. Some towns have given over 200, and a few, perhap.s, have fallen below an average of 100 bushels There is, hjwever, no room for doubt, that the average is much less than it would be with a better system of cultivation. — £ds.} ROOT CULTURE 75 Ine first spread the manure, if to be had at the time ; but if the ley is one of clover, of one or two years old, the ploughing may be postponed till spring. If ploughed in September without manure, this may be spread upon the ground just before planting, and buried with a light furrow, so as not to turn up the vegetable matter of the sod. In our practice of al- ways sowing clover with small grains, we seldom fail of having a tolerable grass ley for the corn and potatoes which are to follow; and its value to the crop doubly compensates for the cost of the clover- seed. The potato has a system of roots, which strike deep if the soil will permit, to collect food for the plant. A decomposing sod, with the manure which shoidd accompany it, turned with a deep fur- row, aflfords the best aliment for the plant, and is de- posited where the roots naturally seek it, and where it remains cool and moist. The stolens have a dif- ferent office to perform. They require more air and heat, shoot horizontally, and, if buried deep in culture by the plough, will produce a new set near the sur- face. So that a rich, deep soil, having a good sod and a mellow surface, is best adapted to this plant. Harrow thoroughly before planting. Manures. — The value of manures to the potato crop can scarcely be overrated ; and, indeed, a large crop is seldom obtained without this auxiliary. Long or unfermented manure is preferable to that which is rotten. And remember, this manure does not be- come more impaired in value for the crop which is to follow the potato than if it were summer-yarded. We prefer applying it broadcast, with an unsparing hand, previous to the last ploughing; and we ap- prove of Mr. French's practice, of sowing plaster upon the manure instead of afterward applying it to the growing plants. Seed. — A thousand and one experiments have been made, and with various results, to determine the rel- ative value of large, medium, or small seed — of cut 76 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. or whole tubers. We think the majority of these ex- periments is in favour of medium, or a little more than medium sized roots for seed, cut into sets of two or three eyes. On the principle that like pro- duces like, such a seed will produce a crop of the most desirable size for the table. Each eye forms a distinct plant, like a kernel of corn ; and the size of the tuber, and not of the set which is taken from it, will give character to the product. If the variety has a dwarf habit of growth, more sets may be put in a hill, or they may be planted nearer in the drill, than where the growth is tall, or where the tops send out many lateral shoots. Rich ground will also sustain a greater number of plants than p>oor ground. The Rohan, and we are told, also, the forty-fold, re- quire thin planting. The object should be to give the plants a good pasture, and not to have the tops so thick as to exclude the solar rays from the soil. To produce early potatoes, or to bring a crop to ear- ly maturity, it is advised to gather the seed before it has attained maturity, to expose it some days to the influence of the sun, and to select the top ends for the earlier crop. We have a strong illustration of the correctness of these conclusions in Loudon's Gardeners' Magazine. A correspondent of that jour- nal made the experiment : he dug every other row of a potato patch for seed while the vines were fresh, and exposed them in the sun until they had become green. In February he cut them crosswise, leaving the bottom and top in separate sets. He cut those which had been suffered to ripen in a similar man- ner, and planted the four kinds in alternate rows. They were all planted on stable litter, and covered with about three inches of earth. A part of each kind received no subsequent earthing. We give the result in the writer's own words. "The early potatoes not earthed up grew close around the stock or stem, like eggs in a nest, and so near the surface of the ground that they might be KOOT CULTURE. 77 picked off with the finger, leaving the stock or stem uninjured, to produce more potatoes from the run- ners. From the eye-sets of the unripe tubers we had a supply every day for a fortnight, when tliose of the bottom sets came into use for another fort- night ; at that time, potatoes from the eye or top sets from the ripe seed came into use, and were succeed- ed by potatoes from the bottom sets of the ripe seed. Those kept for seed, or the table, were earthed up as usual, and each row produced almost as large a crop as any two rows not earthed up — the luxury of an early potato being a greater object than the quantity." Choice of sorts. — There is a difference of nearly one half in the nutritious or fattening properties of different varieties of the potato. Those which are best for table are best for market and best for farm- stock, though their yield is generally less than thai of the coarser varieties. Those in the highest es- teem are the Pink-eyes, Mercers, Sault St. Marie, St. Helena; and almost every district has its othei favourites. The Rohan, we think, will ultimately obtain the ascendancy, on account of economy iu seed, its yield, and its intrinsic merits.* Mode of -planting. — Three modes are practised : in hills and in drills, as a distinctive crop, and in alter- nate double or treble rows with Indian corn. The propriety of planting in hills or drills depends upon the condition of the soil ; if it has been thoroughly subdued by the plough, drills are to be preferred, aa * The following remark is in this connexion worthy the at tention of the practical agriculturist. " The first point to which I wish to rlirect the attention of the cultivator of the potato is, the a^e nf the variety ; for it has long been known, that every vari ety cultivated gradtuilly becomes debilitated, and lose* a large portion of its powers of producing ; and I believe that almost every variety tiow cultivnted in this and the adjoining counties has long since pass ed the period of its age at which it ought to have resigned its place to a successor."— T. A. Knight. — Farmer's Instruclo; i., 193, pub- lished by Harpei & Hrott er& 78 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. they are cultivated with the least expense, and gcn< erally give the largest product, though they in gen- eral demand the most labour in gathering the crop. The practice of raising potatoes with corn, by al temating two or three rows of each, has been emi nently successful where it has been conducted with spirit : the product of the mixed crop has been greater than where each lias had a separate depart- ment of the field. We omit to notice the Irish mode of planting in beds, as involving an economy in land which we do not reqOire, and an expenditure of la- bour which we cannot afford. The seed should not be buried more than three or four inches, and the covering should be least in wet ground. Culture. — The culture of the potato, to be profit- able, should be almost wholly performed with the plough, cultivator, and harrow; little other labour being required with the hand-hoe than may be bare- ly sufficient to destroy the weeds which these imple- ments do not reach. In the first place, the seed may be covered with the plough, whether in hills or in drills. In the next place, the harrow should be used, before the plants are above ground, to reduce the ridges made by the plough in planting, to pulver- ize the surface, and to destroy the young weeds. In the third place, the cultivator or the plough, turn- ing a superficial furrow from the plants, may be in- troduced when they are not more than six inches above the surface. In the fourth place, the plough may be used to turn a light furrow to the plants, so as to give their stems an earthing of three or four inches ; but the plough should run twice nearly in the same track, that the ridges upon which the crop grows may be rather flat and broad than pointed — rather concave than convex — calculated rather to re- tain than to throw off water. Here the hand-hoe may be of use in gathering around the stems a por- tion of the earth raised by the plough, in destroying weeds among the plants, and in perfecting the earth- ROOT CULTURE 79 ing or hilling process ; for the crop shoa.d receive no farther earthing after the plants are in blossom, when the stolens have shot forth, and the tubers be- gan to form. Earthing after this time causes a new set of stolens near the surface, and a growth of a new set of tubers, which, in a measure, rob the ori- ginal ones of their food. We have seen, by the ex- periments quoted in raising early potatoes, that the natural place for throwing out stolens, or roots which produce the tubers, is the point of the stem which first comes to the light and atmosphere ; that if this point is covered in due time with two or three inches of mould, stolens are protruded into it which produce the potato ; but that, if this earth is wanting, the stolens cannot protrude, but the potatoes grow at the surface around the stem. After the earthing process described, no farther care is required than to destroy weeds, which may be done with the hoe, or, if long omitted, by the hand. In harvesting the crop, although we have made much progress in improvement, much remains to be done. The hoe, the dung-fork, the spade, the po- tato-hook, and the plough, followed by the harrow, have each their several advocates. From our experi- ence, we should choose the last first, and the first last, where the crop is in drills ; and we should pre- fer the hook where it is in hills. With the potato- hook, when the crop has been in hills, we have thrown out fourteen bushels of pink-eyes in an hour, and twenty-seven bushels of the Rohan, though in neither case did we gather the potatoes ; but in both the digging process was thoroughly done. Lawson & Son's potato lifter, figured and described in vol. v., p. 114 of the Cultivator, seems to be calculated to abridge the harvest labour of this crop. Sorting the crop. — This is an economical process, though little attended to, and may be more profitably done before the crop is housed or pitted tlian after- ward. There is a portion of the crop, often a fourth 0(r AMERICAN HDSOAWDRT. or a third, which is small, and unfit for the table, for market, or for seed, but which is as good as the large ize !or farm-stocl;, and winch can be econom- ically used for this purpose, in fattening hogs and beef cattle, in autumn and winter. If they are sep- arated at the harvest, they are always in readiness ; if not, the sorting is tedious, or is nejjlected, and the small potatoes are the last that remain, cither for the table or for seed. 'With us the work is a trifling affair. We have a wire sieve or riddle, the meshes of which are of a size to admit those of a given size, appropriated to swine or cattle, t(i,pas8 through. As the crop is brought home, a peck is thrown into the riddle, and, by shaking it half a minute, the sorting is completed. Wintering the crop. — The best mode of preserving potatoes in perfection through the winter is to bury them in shallow pits, in a dry and porous soil (a side hill is the best), where they will be free from water, and to cover them first with straw, and then with earth, and, if convenient, coarse manure over the earth, so that they shall be secure from frost. "Whether put in pit or cellar, they should be dry, that is, free from external moisture. Potatoes put into the cellar should be kept as cool as possible without freezing, and air should be excluded by a light covering of mould or sand. A dry, warm at- mosphere will speedily impair their good properties. In using potatoes, they are improved by boiling, es- pecially for pigs. The potato belongs to a family of poisonous plants, the solanum; the boiling o\ steaming of which is believed to expel the deleteri- ous, and to improve its nutritious properties. To neat cattle and horses they may be fed raw with manifest advantage. In cooking them for the table, it is preferable to do it by steam. The mode of do- ing it is simple. Take a piece of sheet iron, of the size of the bilge of your pot or kettle ; perforate it wi*.h half inch holes ; then clip off two parallel sides ROOT CULTURE. 81 80 as to admit it into the mouth of the vessel ; put it in ; put some water under, and some potatoes over this perforated iron ; and, as the water boils, the po- tatoes will be steamed and prepared for the table : or, if to be boiled, put them into the vessel while the water is cold, that they nay heat through as the tem- perature of the liquid is increased, so that the inside may cook as well as the outside ; and, when they are near being done, turn off the water, remove the cover, and leave them to dry over a moderate heat. We will close this article, already longer than we had intended, by giving the culture, expense, product, and estimated profit of two crops raised by our- selves, in different years, upon the Albany barrens, the soil a sand-loam. Culture. — The field was in clover. We applied twenty-five loads of long manure, in May, to an acre, and dropped it at suitable distances for spreading ; marked out two lands of equal breadth, twenty feet ; and, having the seed prepared, proceeded to planting, which occupied three men, a boy and team, three half days. One man took charge of the team ; a second raked the manure into the furrow, and trod it down as he went on ; and a third spread the ma- nure, and, with the boy, dropped the seed. The rake followed the first furrow, and the manure from two and a half feet surface was drawn into it, and the sets or seed dropped at eight inches distance on the manure. The plough followed and turned three fur- rows, or made three bouts. In the mean time, the manure and seed were deposited in the first furrow of the second land, to which the plough followed, and in this way they alternated till the planting was completed. The ground was then rolled, harrowed as the plants began to break the surface, and subse- quently ploughed between the rows, and hand-hoed once. About half the field was a dry sand-knoll, which suffered severely from drought ; and the crop here was but a little more than fifty per cent, of the other half The product was ascertained by the ag I.- G 82 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. seed «2 00 2 00 18 75 12 50 I 00 1 50 11 25 5 00 ricultural committee ; and, as stated by them, em- braced the average of the entire acre. ■ XPENSe OP EXPKRIMKNT I. l^fan and team 1} days, plonghing in seed Two men and boy planting same 25 luuds of manure, at 75 cents . 25 bushels seed, at 50 cents Kollmg, harrowing, and ploughing Hand-hoeing once 15 days taking up crop (a long lime) Rent $54 00 PRODUCT. 359 bushels large potatoes, at 50 cents . $179 50 71 do. smali do., at 12i cents . . ' 8 88 $188 38 Deduct charges 54 00 Nett profits in experiment 1 ... $134 38 At 2s. a bushel, the nett profit would have been . . 45 25 EXPERIMENT II. Culture. — This crop had been preceded by wheat. It had 25 loads of long manure spread and ploughed in. The ground was then harrowed, furrowed or listed with two and a half feet intervals, the seed dropped at eight inches, covered with a plough, a furrow on each side, and the ridges rolled. The after culture consists of two horse and hand hoe- ings. The crop was harvested with the plough and potato-hook. The product was determined by the agricultural committee. EXPENSE. One ploughing $2 00 25 loads manure, at 75 cents 18 75 25 bushels seed, at 50 cents 12 50 Harrowing, furrowing, rolling, and horse-hoeing . 3 00 Planting and covering, 3 daya 2 25 Hand-hoeing, 2 days 1 50 Taking up crop 9 00 Bent 5 00 $54 00 ROOr CULTURE. 83 183 bush, mercnantable potatoes, at 50 cts. $191 50 97 do. siiiall do., at 12i cents . . 9 62i $201 12J Deduct charges 54 00 Nett profits $147 12J At 2s. per bushel, the profit would have been about . 52 00 In these estimates the whole manure is charged to the crops. Deducting one half, as is customary, the profits would have been $9 37 1-2 more in each experiment. U. BEETS, Of whatever variety, whether for sugar or for cattle, require the same soil and the same culture. The mangold-wurzel or scarcity-beet has hitherto been the principal kind cultivated for farm-stock, though the blood-beet occasionally, and th' sugar- beet recently, have both been grown for this .■ irpose. Beets, like all tap-rooted plants, require a deep soil, as it seldom happens that the roots enlarge much in the subsoil, or below where the eurth is moved by the plough or spade. Moist loams, either of sand or clay, suit them best ; though they grow on all soils not wet or very stiff, provided they are made rich and mellow. The mangold-wurzel will do better on poor lands than the other sorts. The deeper the ground is ploughed, the more thor- oughly it is pulverized, and the more intimately the manure is incorporated with the earthy matters, the better is the prospect of a crop. Pulverization is particularly necessary to the germination of the seed. The harrow should therefore be efficiently used be- fore the seed is deposited in the soil. The mannerof planting the beet, of whatever kind, is in drills, which may be done either by the drill- barrow or the hand. Mangold-wurzel should be in rows twenty-seven to thirty inches apart, and the 84 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. plants, when out of the reach of insects, thinned to twelve or fifteen inches in the row, as the object is to obtain large size. The table and sugar beet may be sown in rows from twelve to twenty-four inches apart, and left to grow at six to ten mches in the rows, the object being not great size, but good qual- ity : it being found that the quality of medium or small-sized roots is better, both in regard to flavour and saccharine matter, than that of very large roots. Some prefer soaking the seed, and some even sprout- ing it before it is sown ; as it is husky, and, in case of dry weather, frequently does not germinate. But if the seed is put into fresh-ploughed ground, planted early in the season, and a roller passed over the surface after it is covered, or the ground pressed with the hoe or foot, it seldom fails to grow. The seed should be covered from three fourths to an inch deep ; and as the young plants are liable to be destroyed by the grub, and even the tuniip-fly, it is advisable to sow thick, say from three to four pounds of seed to the acre. In the after-culture, the objects are to keep the crop clean and the soil mellow. The first dressing may be light, with a cultivator, where the breadth between the rows will admit ; but when the plants arc well established, the cultivator or small plough should be run deeper, and this operation may after- ward be repeated to advantage. The crop should be harvested as soon as it has ceased growing, which is known by the under leaves turning yellow ; as, if left in the ground longer, the roots deteriorate in value. Mangold-wurzel is the German name : mangold a bee/, wurzel a root. Their culture was introduced into Enghnd, from Germany, about 18*20, and more recently they have attracted considerable attention in this countiy. In 1830, the Doncaster Agricultu- ral Association, an institution which has rendered vast service to the farming interest, sent abroad a ROOT CULTURE. 85 circular among the best English fanners, with a view of collecting all the information upon the culture and use of this vegetable which was likely to be useful. Nineteen answers were received from large growers of the root, and the society published, in a condensed form, their purport. The report states that " The answers are from every description of soil, the greatest number (nine) from sand, not, it ap- pears, because that kind of soil is most favourable to it, but because, on sands, fallow crops of all sorts are more generally grown than any other ; six are from peat, four from clay, four from chalk or lime- stone. " The method of sowing appears to be drilling or dibbling on ridges, from twenty-seven to thirty inch- es apart, and afterward singling out the plants in the rows at about sixteen or eighteen inches from each other : Che period of sowing any time between the middle of April and end of May ; on cold soils ear- lier than on warm. " The tops and leaves should be ploughed into the land immediately.* In comparing the quantity of manure used for Swedish turnips and mangold-wur- zel, it appears from the answers of those farmers who have tried mangold- wurzel longest, that both re- quire nearly an equal quantity, ten or twelve two- horse cart-loads per acre. With respect to the com- parative product of the two crops, it appears to be in favour of mangold-wurzel in the proportion of about one fifth. The greatest weight obtained is by Mr. Simpson, of Babworth — 54 tons. Of our corre- spondents, ten decidedly prefer mangold-wurzel, two give a partial preference to Swedes, and the rest have not expressed an opinion. " The feeding properties of mangold-wurzel and Swedes are an important part of our investigation. ♦ After the rocts are harvested. 86 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Lord Althorp alone has tried their comparative mer- its, and he gives them a decided preference over the Swede. In tills opinion his lordship is supported by Mr. Kelk ; but seven of our correspondents are of the opinion that the Swedish turnips will feed quiclter. Five of our correspondents say it is ben- eficial to milch cows, and two of the Norfolk farm- ers say it is apt to injure the butter. " To sum up, the advantages of mangold-wurzel are these : It is more sure to plant, being very little liable to the fly or grub. It will produce more weight. It is off the land earlier. It is useful as a change of fallow crop when the land is tired of turnips. It will grow on land where turnips cannot be raised. It is better spring food. " On the other hand, in favour of the Swedish tur- nips it may be said. That the weeding and singhng out are less expen- sive. There is more time for fallowing in the spring. The succeeding crop is better than after mangold- wurzel. Perhaps cattle feed best on Swedish turnips when they are fed alone." Mangold-wurzel is relished by every description of stock ; though, in feeding it to neat cattle, it is recommended to commence with small feeds, and, when it produces bad effects, to change the animal's food for a few days. (Jharles Poppy, an enthusiast in this culture, and whose pamphlet is before us, particularizes twenty-six uses to which this root may be profitably applied. The British farmers speak highly of this root as a food for young calves. It is cut small, and fed to them after they are a fortnight old with wonderful benefit. ROOT CULTURE. 87 The value of this crop is certainly great in. the economy of the farm. Estimating the product at twenty tons an acre, it will give 746 bushels of sixty pounds each ; which, at the rate of two bushels a day, would keep a cow, with the addition of a little straw or chaff, 373 days, or somewhat more than a year. Two tons of hay, the average product of ar. acre, would keep the same animal, allowing a quar- ter of a hundred per diem, but 160 days, or about one third of the time that the wurzel from an acre would keep her ; while the animal would be better :n flesh and milk on the roots than she would be on the hay. In storing and keeping the mangold-wurzel in winter, the same precautions must be taken, and the same means adopted, as are required for securing potatoes and ruta-baga. If deposited in pits, these should be narrow, and ventilating holes made in the crown of the pits. They are more liable to be in- jured by frosts than the ruta-baga. III. THE CARROT. The soil best adapted to the growth of the carrot is a deep sand-loam. The preparation of the ground consists in ploughing to the depth of a foot, the ap- plication of rotten manure, to be well incorporated with the soil (except long manure has been applied to the previous crop), and complete pulverization. Ploughing the fall previously is recommended. The kind of carrot best adapted to field culture is the long red. The seed should be of the preceding year's growth. The best mode of culture is in drills ; though in Suffolk, England, sowing broadcast is pre- ferred. We have modern drill-barrows adapted to the sowing of this seed, though the sowing it by hand is not a tedious process, as a man may go ahead in sowing in this way as fast as another drives a barrow. The difference consists in making the drill with the hoe and covering the seed. As the 68 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. seed is or peculiar lightness, it is apt not to vegetate well if the surface is light ; and the practice has ob- tained with large growers of prepaiing it before- hand, by mixing five pounds of seed with a bushel of sand or fine mould a week or two beforehand, and of moistening and turning the mass frequently ; by this means not only do all the seeds grow, but the plants come up quickly, and get the start of weeds. Two pounds of seed is enough for an acre when sown m drills, though five pounds are often sown on an acre broadcast. Von Thaer uses poudrette in- stead of mould in the preparation of his seed. The drills should be eighteen inches apart, and the plants thinned to six or eight inches. The seed should be sown early in, or by the middle of May. The after-culture of carrots consists in keeping them free from weeds, and the surface of the soU open ; and as the rows are too near to admit of the plough or cultivator, the hand-hoe must be depend- ed on. The best mode of harvesting the crop is that adopt- ed by Col. Meacham ;• turning the earth from the row with the plough, and then drawing them with the hand. The ordinary yield of carrots is less than that of ruta-baga or mangold-wurzel : the average may be stated at 400 to 600 bushels the acre, though the product has exceeded 1000. They are so hardy, that in the south of England they are permitted to stand out during the winter ; but with us they should be gathered and secured, like other roots, in October. The carrot is eaten by all sorts of farm-stock, but is particularly useful for horses and milch cows, serving as a substitute for grain with the former, and increasing and improving milk when fed to the latter. Mr. Burrows, one of the greatest growers of this root, has fed ten cart-horses with them du- * See Col. Meacham's letter at the close of this chapter. ROOT CULTURE. 89 ring the winter months and up to June, along with hay, and witliout the addition of grain. Such does he consider their economy in horse-feeding, that he states, as demonstrated by his experience, that with the assistance of lucerne for soiling in summer, a workhorse may be kept the entire year round upon the produce of only one acre of land. INIr. Burrows feeds seventy pounds a day to a horse, cut or whole, and mixed with chopped hay ; reducing the quantity somewhat in the short days of winl!fer, and increas- ing it a little in the spring months. Other growers feed only forty or fifty pounds a day. An acre of carrots, yielding 600 bushels, fed fifty-six pounds a day, v/ould therefore be equivalent to 300 bushels of oats, fed half a bushel a day, to a working horse. To save seed, select the best roots, and keep them in sand in the cellar till spring ; plant them out ear- ly, and the seed will be ripe in August. Preserve it on the seed-stalks till wanted. IV. THE PARSNIP Is generally believed to be more nutritive than any of the roots we have treated of, and the pro- duct to be greater than that of the carrot or potato, with the advantage over them both that the parsnip is not injured by frosts. Yet its culture as a field- crop has hitherto been very limited. The. parsnip may be grown on stiffer land than the other roots we have named, provided it has a rich, deep tilth. It requires the same treatment as the carrot, though we would prefer intervals of eighteen inches between the rows, as in good soil the tops grow large. The Jersey variety is prefer- red, on account of small growth of top. Sow early, at the rate of four or five pounds of seed to the acre, and keep the crop free from weeds. V. THE TURNIP. The turnip culture, it has been remarked, effected I— H 90 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. as great and beneficial a revolution in British hus- bandry as did the introduction of the steam-engine and spiiuiing-jenny in British manufactures. This crop has there proved a great source of wealth and fertihty. It constitutes by far the most important material for making beef and mutton, as well as for enriching or keeping up the fertility of the soil. From an experience of twenty years in the culture and use of this root, we are persuaded it is destined to become the tneans of great improvement also in American husbandry, when our farmers shall be- come more familiar with its culture, and mode of preservation and feeding. In the fourth number of the third volume of the Cultivator we gave particular directions for the cul- tivation of thi& root, with several illustrative cuts, and for preserving and feeding them to farm-stock and in our March number of the present volume we have given an estimate of the product and value of the Swede, compared with other crops which we cultivate for feeding and fattening cattle. It would be superfluous to repeat these details here, inasmuch as they may readily be referred to ;* yet, as we have many patrons who may not possess our third vol- ume, we will give some brief directions. The Swedish turnip or ruta-baga has a manifest advantage over all other varieties of turnip as cattle- food, being the most nutritive in its properties, and retaining its soundness and richness much the lon- gest. The common varieties, if drawn, as all turnips must be with us, become pithy or spongy before mid-winter, and lose much of their value ; while the Swede rather improves by keeping till Februaiy, and may be fed in a perfectly sound state till June. And it posses.ses, moreover, one quality, not known, that we recollect, in any other root, that of increas- ing in nutritious matter with increase of size, the largest roots being specifically heaviest and richest. * See also Farmer^* Itutnicter, ch. Root Culture, p. 204, <( stq. ROOT CULTURE, 91 The reiterse of this happens with other roots, par- ticularly with beets ; those of medium or diminutive size being found to contain a much greater propor- tion of saccharine matter than very large ones. For table use, the early rock-turnip may be sown in the garden, the common flat or green-top for autumn and early winter, while the yellow Aberdeen should be chosen for late winter and spring use, being the best keeping variety, when the ruta-baga is either not liked or not to be had. All kinds of the turnip prefer a sandy and dry soil ; and the ruta-baga, in particular, requires a rich one. We have been accustomed to raise the common va- rieties as a second crop, i. e., of sowing upon a grain stubble, with a single ploughing and harrowing, after the grain is harvested, from the 25th of July to the 1st of August, brushing or Hghtly harrowing in the seed. The plants must be thinned and cleaned with a hoe. They should not be left to stand nearer than six or eight inches. If sown broadcast, they yield more, and are of a more^ ^itable size for the table than if raised in drills. A grass ley is best for the Swede. If an old sod, it should be ploughed in autumn or early in the spring ; and it should be manured and completely pulverized on the eve of being planted. If a young clover ley, the manure may be spread, ploughed un- der, the ground harrowed, and the seed immediately put in. We usually select the latter. We cut the clover by the 25th of June, and manure, plough, and sow the crop within the ensuing seven days. The seed is generally sown with the driU-barrow, at the rate of a pound to two pounds an acre. It is prefer- able to sow thick on account of the fly, and as the crop may be readily thinned when the plants are out of danger. The turnip-fly often commits great depredations upon the crop. This was particularly the case the last season. We cannot recommend any certam 92 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. preventive. It has, however, been stated, that mix- ing the seed with sulphur several days before it is to be sown, and then sowing the sulphur with the seed, has preser\'ed the crop from the fly. If this is so, it is owing to the juices of the young plant be- coming impregnated with the subtle properties of the sulphur, which is obnoxious to every species of insect. Another mode, which has been successfully tried, is that of collecting the weeds in piles around the field when the seed is sown, and, when the plants are coming up, to put brimstone and fire upon the piles on the windward border, which will contLime burning, ordinarily, foe some days, and the smoke of which expels or destroys the fly. In the after-culture of the Swede there is great economy in taking time by the foretop — in destroy- ing the weeds while they are small. The cultivator or hoe should be passed through as soon as the rows can be well discerned, and as nigh to the plants as possible. One day's work is worth more in destroy- ing small weeds than four days' work is in destroy- ing large ones, which overtop and choke the plants. The objects which should be aimed at are to keep the crop clean, to thin the plants to eight or ten inches, and to keep the surface of the soil mellow. With a timely use of the cultivator, and repeated once or twice, these objects may be effected without much aid from the hand-hoe. The labour of harvesting the ruta-baga is less than that of any other root, except perhaps the mangold- wurzel; and, indeed, the remark will apply to the labour of culture without any qualification. Other root-crops require attention nearly two months longer than this does, and at a season, too, when their growth is slow, and the labour, consequently, tedious and expensive. The turnip should be the last crop gathered, be- cause it grows the longest, is least liable to suffer from frost, and is most apt to be injured by ferment- ROOT CULTUliF. 93 ation when collected in heaps for winter. If buried in pits, the roots should be raised above the surface of the ground, and laid up to terminate in a ridge ; so that wlien they are covered with straw and earth, the heated or impure air of the pit will concentrate at the ridge on the top, where it should be suffered to pass off freely through holes made for this pur- pose. The cost of raising the ruta-baga is less than that of raising corn or any of the other roots. The av- erage product may be stated at 600 bushels, and it is often double this quantity. The root is an excel- lent food for every species of farm-stock, and is very extensively used for fattening both beef and mutton. Milch cows fed with ruta-baga should have daily ac- cess to salt ; and should the milk retain any flavour of the turnip, it may be got rid of by turning a pint of hot water into a pailful when' it is drawn from the cow. Tops that are undergoing fermentation, and roots decayed or unsound, should be given only to hogs. THE TURMP FLEA Is one of the greatest scourges to British hus- bandry. The Farmers' Magazine contains a learn- ed article upon this insect {Haltria rumorium), giving us its natural history, and containing an examination also of the various remedies which have been rec- ommended to prevent its destructive ravages, em bracing the applications of lime, sulphur, soot, urine, fumigation, &c. Although these remedies, or some of them, are admitted to have had partial success, vet none of them, in the opinion of the writer, Mathew M. Milburn, can be depended upon with any degree of certainty. He thinks Mr. Poppy's plan of protecting the Swede valuable, which is to drill between the rows the common turnip, which the flea seems to prefer to the Swede, and when tlie latter has acquired the rough leaf, to plough up the 94 AMER^AN HUSBANDRY. common tuniip : yet he concludes by saying, that if attention is paid to the following particulars, lie thinks the crop may be generally saved. " 1. Hasten the germination of the seed by all natural means, as applying some portion of stimula- ting manure, sowing when a projjer degree of moist- ure exists, and in close connexion with the manure, to secure at once the benefit of it to the roots, if pos- sible, making most of the season when favourable. " 2. Sow a liberal quantity of seed, never less than three pounds, and sow it in drills, which will hasten the vegetation after it has come up. " 3. Clear the land perfectly, that no weeds may spring up to impede the growth of the plants, and give the soil a liberal supply of manure suited to its character. " 4. As a preventive, rid the soil by hand-weeding, horse-hoeing, &c.,hs much as possible of weeds. " 5. Select good seed, and test it before sowing, to see how many germinate, and in how little time." METHODS OF FEEDING ROOTS. [The following paper is a report made to the State Agricultural Society by Judge Buel, as chairman of a committee appointed to report on the best vegeta- ble or root crops for feeding cattle, &c., and em- braces much valuable information on the subjects of which it.treats. As a matter of course, much of the information communicated is derived from foreign sources, as at that time A nierican farmers had had but little experience either in the cultivation or feed- ing of roots. Now there are many among us who are able to coiToborate, by their own experience in feeding roots, as well as in their cultivation, the gen- eral correctness of the positions advanced by Judge ROOT CULTURE. 95 Biiel, and add their testimony to the necessity and importance of still farther extending this culture in the United States.] The culture of roots, as farm-crops for feeding and fattening domestic animals, is of such recent intro- duction, and so limited among us, and the few ex- periments that have been made to ascertain the rel- ative value of these roots have been so loosely man- aged, that the committee do not possess the data that they could desire to make a satisfactory report, adapted exactly to our practice. But they are nev- ertheless satisfied, from the numerous experiments which have been made in Europe, in a climate very similar to our own, and from the partial ones which have been made among us, that the culture of roots is destined to effect here, what it has effected else- where, a great and salutary change in husbandry ; not only as furnishing the easiest and cheapest means of feeding and fattening domestic animals, but as an important source of fertility to the farm ; and of se- curing the main point — ultimate profit — to the owner or cultivator. Under these strong impressions of the advantages of encouraging and extending root culture, your committee proceed, with the limited means at their command, to fulfil the duties assigned them by the society. The Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland have recently awarded liberal premiums for experi- ments in fattening neat cattle ; first, upon different kinds of roots, as the potato, turnip, and mangold- wurzel ; second, upon raw and cooked food ; and, third, upon roots entirely, and a mixture of roots, grain, pulse, and oil-cake. These experiments have been made with a view of accurately ascertaining the comparative value of each kind of root and other food, and the economy of each mode of feeding it. The experiments have been numerous. They have 96 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. been made upon ten to thirty head of cattle at ^ time, and they have been continued from three to sis months. The animals were weighed or measured at the lime of starting the experiment, at the close of it, and generally at intermediate periods, particularly when the food was varied ; and the quantity of root? and other food given was accurately noted ; so that the result has indicated the relative value of each kind of food in the fattening process, and the best mode of feeding it. The committee proceed to state, in a summary way, the results of some of these ex periments. 1. The relative value of different roots. Mr. Howden, with a view to the experiment, set apart the product of two acres of mangold-wurzel, amounting to fifty tons, five acres of Swedish tur- nips, being 140 tons, and two acres of potatoes, weighing 29 tons 4 cwt. The experiment was made with 21 head of cattle, which received, in addition to the roots, a few distillers' grains and a little straw. The following table shows the roots appropriated to each lot, and the monthly increase of the animals in girth. The abstract is made from the prize essays of the society, which cannot now be referred to ; but the impression is, that in all the experiments which we quote, the roots fed to each lot was precisely the same in weight. Lot No. 1 was fed from the pro- duct of one acre of potatoes, one acre of mangold- wurzel, and one acre of Swedish turnips ; No. 2 from one acre of potatoes and two acres of Swedish turnips ; and No. 3 from one acre of mangold-wur- zel and two acres of Swedish turnips. Date. loi No. 1. I-nt No. i. IM No. 3. 1831, Nov. 30 35 feet 8 inches. .35 feet 9 inches 35 feet 8 inches. Dec. 30 36 " C " :iC " 7 " 36 " 6 " 1832, Jan. 30 38 " 2 " .38 " 4 " 33 " 2 " March 1 39 " 7 " 39 " 8 " 39 " 6 " " 30 40 " 8 " 40 "10 " 40 " 6 " April 30 41 •' 4 " 41 " 7 " 41 " 3 » RJOT CULTURE. 97 Twenty-eight tons of mangold-wurzel and Swe- dish turnips were withdrawn to feed other stock. On the 30th of January Mr. Howden took a pair of cattle out of each lot, and fed No. 1 with potatoes and water, No. 2 with Swedish turnips, and No. 3 with mangold-wurzel. The following shows their relative increase in three months. Lot 2, Svredish turnips. 1832, Jan. 30 10 feet 8 inches. 10 feet 5 inches. 10 feet 4 inches. April 30 11 " 6 " 11 " 3 " 11 " 2 When the cattle were sold, the purchasers agreed that the lot fed on Swedish turnips were from 7*. to 105. ($1 68 to $2 40) a head better than the other lots. The average advance upon the original value of each was £Q 125., and the cost of the grains being deducted, there remained jG120 ($576) in return for the eight acres of produce consumed, or $72 for each acre. From the above statement it would seem there is no great difference in the fattening properties of the three kinds of roots ; and that, so far as measure or weight is concerned, it matters little which are em- ployed in feeding. We will note here, for future ref- erence, the product per acre of each kind of*roots, upon Mr. Howden's ground, adding the product in bushels of 56 lbs. The potatoes gave 12 tons 4 cwt., equal to 488 bushels. The mangold-wurzel 25 tons " 1000 " The ruta-baga 28 tons " 1120 " 2. The comparative economy of feeding raw or pre- pared food. In 1833 the society offered a premium of 30 sover- eigns for the best report, founded on actual experi- ment made for that purpose, on a number of oxen or heifers, not fewer than six, the animals to be of the same breed, age, and sex, and the term of feeding not less than three months. Several reports were re- 98 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ceived and published in 1834. From these we ab- stract the following : Mr. Walker made his experiment with six two- year old heifers and four two-year old steers. Each j>arcel was divided into two lots, and fed on like food, except that one half received their food raw, and the other half in a steamed or cooked state. The food consisted of Swedish turnips, potatoes, and crushed beans, with a little salt and straw. At the end of three months, it was found that the three heif- ers fed on steamed food had gained 48 1-2 stone,* or 679 lbs., and the three heifers fed upon raw food liad gained 45 1-2 stone ; but the quantity consumed by the first lot exceeded that of the latter. Cost of feeding on steamed food . . 867 40 " " on raw food . , . 50 17 The first cost more thanlhe last . . 817 23 Deducting the first cost, and the price of fattening from the price paid by the butcher, there remained a profit on the three heifers fed with steamed food of 9*. ; while the profit on the three fattened with raw food amounted to £3 lOs. Gd. By a like esti- mate, the loss on the steers fed with steamed food was 3s. 8(1. and the profit on those fed with raw food lOs. 6d. Andrew Howden made a like experiment with 18 cattle in six lots. Their increase and expense of keeping for three months, from the 20th March to the 20th June, were as follows : Three heifers on raw turnips . 392 " on steamed turnigs . 532 •* on raw potatoes . 600 " on steamed potatoes . 572 Three steers on raw potatoes and com 722 " on boiled potatoes and corn 689 lacr. in lb*. Expnuv. 833 12 42 72 49 68 49 68 54 16 54 40 John Baswell f«d ten homed cattle. The expense * A stone is 14 lbs. ROOT CULTURE. 99 of keeping the five cattle on raw food was $154 10, while that of the cattle on prepared food was $16i 40. On being slaughtered the two lots appear- ed to be very similar, but the particular weight is not mentioned. 3. Relative economy of feeding with turnips alone, or with turnips and other more expensive food. Robert Stevenson was the successful competitor for the society's premium. He took 18 oxen ; their live weight was ascertained at the beginning, at the end, and at intermediate periods of the experiment, which continued 119 days. The cattle were divided into three lots of six beasts each, and a correct ac- count was kept of the weight of food consumed by each lot. Lot 1 was allowed linseed-cake, bruised beans, and bruised oats, in addition to turnips, and during the last 24 days of the experiment, 20 lbs. of potatoes were given per day to each. Lot 2 receiv- ed the same allowance except the linseed-cake and half the potatoes. And lot 3 was fed upon turnips alone. The cost of the keep of each animal, during the 119 days, was as follows : Total cost of feeding one beast of lot I , $24 62 do. do. do. of lot 2 . 18 48 do. do. do. of lot 3 . 9 27 The improvement in live weight was as follows : First lot increased iti weight . 108 stone Second do. do. . 101 " Third do. do. . 49 " Abstracting the cost of feeding from the value of the increased weight, the loss and profit would stand as below : Loss on feeding lot 1 . . . $18 GO Profit on feeding lot 2 ... 953 Profit on feeding lot 3 ... 1226 " Thus, when turnips alone were used, a profit of twenty-two per cent, was realized ; where beans and 100 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. « oats were used along with the turnips, the profit was diminished to eight and a half per cent. ; but wheu still more expensive food was tried, that is, grain and linseed-cake, along with turnips and potatoes, a loss was sustained of no less than 12.316 per cent." Lot 1 were the largest oxen. They were fed each with 132 lbs. per day of Swedish turnips ; lot 2 were fed each with 120 lbs. of the same per day ; and lot 3, being the smallest, received but 115 lbs. per day, and for twenty-four days but ninety-two pounds. Lot 1 cost 8.968 cents for every pound of increased live weight. Lot 2 " 7.94 " Lots " 6.78 " " " " The turnips were estimated at eight cents per cwt. ; the potatoes at 36 cents per cwt. ; oats and beans at 84 cents per bushel, and linseed-cake at one ..nd a half cent per pound. " In conclusion," says Mr. Stevenson, on this part of the subject, " we give it as our opinion, that who- ever feeds cattle on turnips alone, will have no reason, on the score of profit, to regret their not having em- ployed more expensive auxiharies to hasten the fat- tening process." It would seem pretty evident, from the foregoing experiments, that ruta-baga and mangold- wurzel are the best root-crops for feeding cattle. The profit of cultivating and feeding these roots will be more man- ifest, if we compare their product to the acre with that of hay, potatoes, and the coarse grains whir^h we feed to fattening animals. To enable the com- mittee to make this comparison, they assume the following as the average products of crops, and at- tach to each of these an estimate of their marketable value. Both the product and the prices will greatly vary; but those assumed are deemed sufficiently correct for comparison. An acre of grass 2 tons at $10 do. corn 40 bushels at 75 cts. . do. oals 30 do. at J'i cts. . do. buckvv'ieat 30 do. at 50 cts. . do. potatoes 150 do. at 25 cts. . do. rutahaga 600 do. at 25 cts. . do. nmn.-wurzel COO do. at 25 cts. . ROOT CULTURE. 101 $20 00 30 00 11 25 15 00 37 50 150 00 150 00 Estimating the cost of I'n roots, in labour, at twenty dollars an acre more than that of the hay, oats, and buckwheat, it still leaves a great disparity in the profits ; and considering the cost of culture ^qual to that of Indian corn, there is a manifest ad- vauiage in the turnips and mangold-wurzel over the corn-crop as a material for cattle food. Good beef cannot be made on hay alone in winter: and those who do not feed roots must resort to some more ex- pensive food, as the meal of Indian corn, oats, buck- wheat, &c. The turnips and mangold-wurzel, on the contrary, with the aid of perhaps a little straw, will serve- of themselves to feed and fatten animals. In this matter the chairman can speak from expe- rience. He purchased four oxen a little before Christmas, and kept them till some time in April ; after a short time, they ate each two bushels a day of ruta-baga : they would eat very little else, though laid before them, not even linseed-cake. They made good beef, and afforded a handsome profit on the turnips consumed. If we now assume that an ox will require a quar- ter of a hundred of hay per diem to keep him in good condition, and that it will require an addition of four quarts of corn meal, or eight quarts of crushed oats or buckwheat per diem to fatten him ; and if we consider 1 12 pounds, or two bushels of roots, equiva- lent to a ration of hay and grain, then the several crops will feed an animal as below. One acre of grass and half an acre of corn will feed 160 days. One and a half acres of mangold-wurzel or Swe- dish turnips will feed 450 days. One acre of grass and one acre of oats or buckwheat will feed . .... 160 days. 102 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Two acres of Swedish turnips or mantrold-wonEel will feed . COO days. One acre of potatoes will fpt-d .... 75 days. One acre ol Swedish tutiii;otatoes, mta-baga, &c. ; These latter subsist principally upon the gase- ous and volatile portions of the manure, which are first disengaged from the mass in the process of fer- mentation, and which are rather deleterious to the former at the season when they are maturing their seeds. Another criterion which some farmers consider as essential to a good variety, is smallness of cob. So far as this conduces to the early and perfect dry- ing of the grain, it is entitled to weight, but no far- ther. The objection to a large cob was answered by a gentleman by asking the objector whether it required most cloth to make him or his son a vest, pointing to a boy standing by his side. The circum- ference of a cob two inches in diameter will contain double the quantity of gnrain that a cob of one inch in diameter will. There is no doubt but the habits of com change with change of climate ; or, in other words, that the dwarf Northern varieties, when taken to the South, INDIAN CORN. 113 in a few years become acclimated, and assume the tall growth of the South. It is hence advisable, that, where early maturity is desired, as it seems to be in our latitude, seed should be occasionally procured from the North. Another means of preserving the early ripening properties is to select for seed the ears which ripen first. We have faised the Button corn, obtained from the Green Mountains of Vermont, for sixteen years ; and yet, taking care to save for seed the earliest matured ears, we arej)iA*Q«i|jj2le that it ripens much, if any, later when we first planted it. CULTURE OF CO In the fall of 1837, the grou for my corn was in timothy am sward, having been stocked abou' ploughed it late in the fall. In I covered it over with common co^ the barnyard, which was composed' tity of straw. My stock is principalf straw was thrown into the yard plentifully during the winter for bedding. In drawing it out, a load was usually dropped in a place, so that, after it was spread, it completely covered the ground to quite a thickness. About the middle of May the ground was ploughed very deep, and boys were sent ahead of the plough, who raked all the manure into the pre- vious furrow, so that it was completely covered. Some of my neighbours then said that they would rather have that coarse manure off from the ground than on it for the good of the corn-crop,, and that it would do no good till the next crop, or until it should be decomposed. I will here remark, that, from rea- son and experience, I must protest against leaving manure in the yard over summer, or even putting it into heaps to decay, as some do, to heat and drain off its strength. On the contrary, in most cases it is nearly as cheap to haul it into the field as to heap 114 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. it up in the yard. We get the use of it one year sooner, and have all the strength on the land, where it should be, instead of behig washed into tlie streams of water. 1 think, for corn and potatoes, that the benefit the first year will more than pay the expense of carting an ordinary distance. To return to my subject : 1 next hirrowed and furrowed my ground, or, rather, marked it very shallow, three feet apart. It was now the 17th of May, having been hindered in plaalin^l^ Dumber of days by a heavy rain. The kni# ti^r^ «itteen to eighteen inches apart, and I pat three kemels'in a hill^ It being rather cold and wet, the com did not sprout as quick as usual ; and, on examination, I found that a small wire-worm, that had probably been in the manure, had eaten into the chit of much of it, so that only a part was coming up. Although now as late as the 4th of June, I commenced planting over, by putting in just as much seed as 1 did the first time, in a hill between every two hills, which made them nearly join. As I had only seed enough left of the kind to plant over 1 18 rods of the ground, the rest was planted in beans. I will here state, that the 118 rods was all the ground that had been manured, and a cast was made on the acre from that ratio. The rest was equally as good com, but the ground was not well stocked. "When I hoed the first time, I concluded, at the second hoe- • ing, to pull out some where it was thickest ; but it being left for some time, and forgetting to tell my man to do it, it all stood. I directed him to hoe it twice more ; but he did it only once, having for ex- cuse that the corn had got so large he could not do it ; so that it had only two hoeings. The stalks were 8 or 10 feet high, and a complete swamp to appear- ance. Now some of my neighbours said it would be all stalks and no corn. On the night of the 2d of Sep- tember, I think, we had a severe frost, which killed the stalks ; but the com was all ripe, the last plant- INDIAN CORN. 115 ed as well as the first ; making for the last planted just 13 weeks. It needed no sorting to grind, and handsomer corn I never saw. As to its being all stalks and no com, the result showed. I am strong- ly of the opinion that great improvements may be made in planting by distributing the seed more over the ground, and by putting in more of it. L. C. I here offer my mode of treating com, which 1 consider the most important among the grain crops. Whether manure has been spread before ploughing or placed in the hills afterward, I adopt the same practice. As soon as the com is up, so that the rows or lines can be distinctly seen, I run the plough through, as near to the hills as may be without dis- placing the plants, to the depth of five inches, throw- ing the earth from the hills ; if moles or mice are plenty in the field, both ways ; if not, only one way. The rows are then gone over with the hand-hoe, the hard surface or crust immediately about the plants stirred and broken, and the contiguous weeds or grass destroyed : this is the first dressing. After about ten days, set in the plough in the same man- ner as before, if it has been ploughed through only one way ; if both, reverse the furrows, and let the hoe be used to loosen the earth about the plants, and to draw a little fresh soil to the hill, at the same time eradicating all weeds and grass near the plants. Now we have ended the second process, and are ready, at the proper time, for the third and fourth, or more, as the soil or season may require, with the cultivator or harrow to break down small hillocks or ridges, and to keep a soft surface between the rows, that will absorb the showers or dews, when a hard surface would be but little benefited, taking care at each time to draw a little new mould to the hills, yet leaving them at the last dressing wide and square, and but slightly elevated. This little rise about the com wiU help to support it at the autum- 116 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. nal gale, and will not turn the showers oflTto the in- jury of the crop. This management may seem not exactly orthodox ; but I fancy I derive some advan- tages not to be obtained by the use of the harrow or even cultivator alone. Those mischievous miners, the moles and mice, are more effectually opposed in their operations, a deeper and softer bed is prepared for the roots to strike into, and greater extent of surface is exposed to be heated by tiio sun's rays; which is, in effect, protracting the suimner a week or ten days; time enough, not unfrequently, to save a crop. A common sayiijg with our farmers is, corn only wants hot weather; and the fact is notorious, that a fair crop of corn may be obtained by nice management in a season so dry that any other grain- crop would fail almost in toto. The harrow and cultivator scarify the ground, but do not lay it open with a bold incision, nor leave the corn-hill on a prominent ridge or hillock at the commencement of growth, when nothing but heat seems necessary to the vitality and health of the plants. If it be object- ed that by this use of the plough we assist the escape of vegetable food in the form of carbonic acid gas and volatile alkali, I reply, it may be so to the amount of six or eight per cent. — an inconsiderable matter compared with the accelerated maturity of the crop. Arch. Javne. experiments in producing improved varieties of indian corn. Some ten or twelve years since, I instituted a se- ries of experiments in crossing different varieties of corn, and was perfectly successful. The variety named in Dr. Brown's Ust (page 43 of the same num- ber), " No. 16, Pennsylvania, 8 rows, called Smith's early white," was the result of one of the experi- ments. It was produced by what we call the Ttis- carora, or " New- York cheat," with the Sioux (No. 9 of Dr. Brown's list). From the parentage of thia INDIAN CORN. 117 new variety, you would naturally expect a mulatto colour ; but I will explain why it is pure white as 1 go along. I had two objects in view, the one to get the large, white grains of the Tuscarora on the small cob of the Sioux ; and the other, to produce a variety earlier than either, if possible. To accomplish my object, I planted a piece of ground, say the eighth of an acre, with both varieties, one in each alternate hill ; but as the Tuscarora was known to me to be from 15 to 20 days later than the Sioux, I planted the latter 15 days after the former. Now the pro- cess of crossing is performed in ihe following man- ner. The variety that has the cob that I wish to retain is used as the female, and as the tassels (male flowers) appear, they are carefully cut off and sup- pressed ; the variety whose grain I wish to get is used as the male, and its tassels are allowed to grow. It is unnecessary to interfere with the female flow- ers (the silk). The ears of corn produced by the Sioux hills had the form and size of cob of the Si- oux, but the grain was a beautiful sulphur colour, and of the form of the Tuscarora, though smaller. This corn I planted the next year, and the result was a beautiful variegation of the grains, of pure yellow and pure white, though all the grains were alike as to size and shape. The cream-colour had evidently returned to its original elements. I then carefully selected the white grains, and planted them the third year, and the result was the establishment of the variety called " Smith's early white." (I do not understand how or whence Dr. Brown obtained the name of Pennsylvania, 8 rows.) My experiments established the fact satisfactorily to my mind, that you can place the grains of any variety of corn upon the cob of any other variety, by the process detailed above ; and that there is no ob- ject more worthy the attention of farmers than im- provements of this kind. You have only to regulate the time of planting each variety, so that they flower 118 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. at the same time. I ought to observe, that if you do not destroy the tassels of the variety that has the objectionable grain, the crossing will not be so per- fect, because the impregnation will be from two males instead of one, and, conse juently, the grains produced will be various. The crossing is equally t>nportant in making the large late kinds small and early. You can get the tall Virginia corn (that is, the grain of it) upon the early dwarf stalks. Indeed, you may vary it almost at pleasure. As you will perceive above, it requires three years to accomplish the object perfectly. The first year effects the crossing ; the second year certain characteristics re- turn to their original elements, such as the colour, and somewhat of the flinty quality ; the third year the new variety is produced perfect — and will re- main so, so long as it shall be kept distinct from other varieties. Another experiment was combined by me with the above, viz. : the first matured ears of good form and size were always selected for seed. By this process I was able, in five years, to make my new variety from 15 to 20 days eariier than the Sioux, or any other variety. I had green com on my table for. some years, two weeks earher than the hotels which were supplied with early com from Norfolk. I beg to observe, that the Smith's early white has but eight rows, and the Sioux (the female parent) twelve : now to account for this. After I had pro- duced the variety, I was still desirous of putting it upon a smaller cob; hence I planted it with the su- gar-corn, using the latter as the female. The result was the eight rows. I also once took a notion to give it a red cob, and had no difliculty in doing so, by using the red cob sugar-corn as the female ; but I recrossed and got rid of the red cob again, because it stained the lips and fingers while eating it. Gideon B. Smith INDIAN CORN. 119 KXPERIMENTS IN HARVESTING CORN. Andrew Nicol has given in the Farmers' Register a statement of some experiments he made last year with his corn crop, the substance of which we ab- stract. 1. He spread 32 loads of pine leaves on a piece of corn land, planted very close for the chmate of Vir- ginia, so as to give an average thickness of four inches.- The crop received no after culture. The product was 75 bushels per acre, considered there a very large return. The pine leaves counteracted the effect of drought ; and Mr. N. thinks that, had the covering been thicker, the product would have been greater. 2. The second experiment was made to ascertain the effect of topping, cutting up, and leaving the grain to ripen upon the standing stalk. Eighteen rows of 150 yards in length were stripped of the fodder; that is, all the leaves, except two above the ears, were taken off on the 11th September; the tops were cut from six of these rows on the 20th September ; six other rows of the 18 were cut by the ground the same day ; and the third six rows were left to stand, .ogether with the first six, until the corn ripened ; other six rows, from which neither fodder was pulled nor tops cut, were, on the same 20th Septem- ber, cut off by the ground and set up in small shocks. " The corn from each was gathered on the 2d De- cember, and on the 7th February shelled and accu- rately weighed. The following are the results iii measure and in weight : 1st C rows measured 8 bushels, weight per bushel 58 lbs. 2d 6 " " 7i " " 57 " 3d 6 " " 7| " " 66f " 4th 6 " " Si " " 59 J •« These results go to show, 1. That leaves are essential, even after com is cut off at the ground, in increasing the quantity and weight of the crop. And, ISO AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 2. That the mode of cutting up the whole, grain, tops, and leaves, gives the most corn and heaviest com, and certainly improves t'lo quality and in- creases the quantity of cattle fodder. The differ- ence between No. 2 and No. 4 will be seen to be nearly ten per cent, in quantity, and in weight about five per cent. The third experiment was in removing the suck- ers from corn. Mr. N. considered the result deci dedly in favour of the practice. Where the corn waa uot thus treated, the ears were diminutive, while the suckers produced little or no sound grain. There is no doubt that suckers abstract food from the plants, and, if taken off (we should prefer to cut them off) and well cured, they furnish excellent forage ; yet we have hitherto doubted if the gain would repay the labour ; still we may be wrong. SELECTION OF SEED AND EARLY MATURrTT. We adopt the opinion of Joseph Cooper, so far a« least as relates to maize, that a change of seed is not necessary when due regard is paid to its selection. We have cultivated the Dutton variety of com for eigh- teen years, always personally selecting the earliest and fairest ears for seed, which were immediately braided and hung in an airy loft. It has rip)ened as early this as it did the first year we received the seed from the far North, while we are satisfied it has increased in productiveness ; that it has largei ears, and more of them, and taller stalks. The seed is left to mature on the stalk till the crop is gathered from the field, the earliest ripened being then easily determined by the appearance of the husk and the rich colour of the corn. Hence the importance of every farmer taking care to secure, m person, his best seed. There is one other fact that should not be lost sight of — the influence of soil and location upon ve« getable growth. A moist, rich soil will give the INDIAN CORN. 121 largest growth, both of foliage and fruit, and a light and drj' one the earliest maturity, and the richest or most concentrated product. Professor Ives states, that plants from the seed of the morus multicaulis have the foliage of the parent in a rich humid soil, while they resemble those of the morus alba on a thin, light soil ; and it is believed that a pound of the leaves of the latter are intrinsically more valua- ble to the silkworm than a pound of the former. It is not great size that indicates superiority either in animals or vegetables. A very large apple is seldom a very good one. The cider from a hilly, dry, calcareous soil, is always superior to that from a low and rich one. A very large beet contains much less sugar than the same weight of small beets. Indian corn, grown upon a light, dry soil, comes to earlier maturity, but is inferior in its growth and in the size of its ears to that which is grown upon a highly manured loam. Indeed, the difference is so great on our own grounds this sea- son, that the growth and product in two locations would hardly be taken for the same variety. We have another suggestion to make in regard to the influence of steeps. A communication from Senator Johnson, inserted in the first volume of the transactions of the old agricultural society, shows that the crop from seed-wheat, steeped in a solution of saltpetre, ripened two weeks earlier, and gave 25 per cent, more product than the crop from seed not thus steeped. We began to plant our main crop of corn on the 12th of May, and finished on the I6th. All the seed was steeped 12 hours in a solution of nitre, in quantities sufficient for one day's planting, A few quarts of seed which remained were set in the cellar, where it remained, partially covered with pickle, till the 19th, when it was planted in a vacant patch of thin soil, in which we also planted, the same day, six other varieties, all reputed to be remarkably early, and the seed of all which had been soaked in I— K 122 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. saltpetre water. The last planted Dutton com was decided!}' the earliest of the seven sorts in coining to maturity, and was at least two weeks earlier than the main crop, planted from three to six days sooner. Its maturity may have been in some measure accel- erated by the porosity of the soil, compared with that of the main field, which was highly manured with unfermented dung ; yet we think it not improb- able that it was principally owing to the seed having remained saturated for 96 hours in the nitrous solu- tion. Having referred to our specimen plat, we will add, that it consisted of the following varieties of com : 1. Dutton; 2 and 3. Lake Superior and Squaw from Lake Michigan ; 4. Early white, not recollect- ed where from ; 5. Early Canada, from Poughkeep- sie; 6. Red Blaze, from Elmira; 7. Early yellow, from Vermont. These varieties were all planted the same day, two rows of each, with intervals be- tween the different kinds of 20 or 30 feet. On ex- amining them to-day, August 28, we find No. 1 mostly ripe, the husks dr>' and separating from the grain ; No. 2, Lake Superior, an eight- rowed yellow, growing 4 1-2 feet high, but very prolific in suckers and ears, next to the Dutton in maturity. The early white is an eight-rowed com, 5 1-2 feet high, and is third in ripeness. The Vermont is a yellow, eight- rowed corn, grows six feet high, and is next in ripe- ness to the early white. The Squaw, No. 3, is an eight-rowed coloured grain, grows six feet high, and is fifth in forwardness. The Red Blaze comes next, and the Early Canada is the latest. Both are eight- rowed, and, like the Dutton, they grow seven and eight feet high. As to number of ears on a stock, they are about alike, except the Lake Superior, which is far the most prolific in suckers and ears, though they are very small. As to size of ears, the Dutton has a manifest superiority ; but in length, those of the early Canada and the Red Blaze eight-rowed MANURES. 123 are equal, if not a little superior, to the Dutton. Sev- eral gentlemen who have visited the plat concur in the correctness of this statement. CHAPTER V. What quantity should be applied to an acre. — Winter Man- agement of Manure. — Specific Manures. — Bone Manure. — Leached Ashes. — Peat Earth, Peat Ashes, &c. [The subject of manures is one of great impor- tance to the farmer, and under this head we have arranged several papers from the pen of Judge Buel, illustrating the particular topics indicated. That there is a most lamentable deficiency in our general management and use of manures, cannot be. ques- tioned ; and to introduce a more correct and farmer^ like course was a favourite object with that suc- cessful cultivator. In addition to the remarks of Judge Bucl, we have selected two papers of peculiai interest as part of this chapter ; one being part of a communication from Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, illustrating the value of leached ashes as a manure ; and the other a letter from the well-known farmer, W. A. Seely, of Staten Island, on the use of peat- earth and peat-ashes as fertilizers of the soil. This letter is particularly important to farmers at the pres- ent time, as, in consequence of the geological sur- vey of the state now going on, the presence of large 124 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. bodies of peat have been made known where its ex> istence was scarcely suspected, and thus an easy and certain mode o'f fertilizing lands made poor by injurious cultivation, has been placed within the reach of thousands, n will be read with interest by all who possess, or can obtain, this invaluable sub- stance.] WHAT QUANTITY OF MANURE SHOULD BE APPLIED TO THE ACRE? The answer to this question involves many con- siderations which preclude a definite reply ; such as the condition of the land, the quality of the manure, and the kind of crop. Too much, as well as too Ut- tle manure, may be applied. What would be bene- ficial for an autumn-ripening or hoed crop, would be prejudicial to a small grain or snmmer-ripening crop (more particularly if the manure is applied in an un- fermented state), and there would be, withal, a waste of fertilizing matter. Twenty tons to the acre would not be too much for corn, potatoes, ruta-baga, &c., if applied broadcast and ploughed in; but if it be long manure, and applied in the drill or hill, and a dry season should ensue, it might prove an injury ; and were this quantity per acre of long, or even short manure, applied to small spring grain, it would Erobably cause a flush of straw, likely to be affected y rust, at the expense of the more valuable part, the grain. Dr. Coventry, late professor of agricul- ture in the University of Edinburgh, whose business and study it was to collect data, and make coirect deductions in this and other agricultural matters, was of the opinion that from four to five tons of the kind usually denominated spit or tolerably rotted dung, are yearly requisite to keep up the fertility of the soil; and this supply he thinks.a well-managed farm may be made to produce. To show how tUs MANURES. 125 quantity may be obtained, and how it should be ap- plied, we quote from Mr. Youatt, the author of " British Husbandry." " According to that calculation," says our author, " it must be observed, that the course of crops is supposed to consist — on light soils, of the alternate plan of corn and green crops [see New System of Husbandry] — on clays, which do not admit of that system, that the holding contain a proportionate quantity of grass-land, and that the quantity of manure should be supplied, not in small quantities annually, but in large ones, at intermediate dis- tances of four, five, and six years. Light soils, in the common course of husbandry, rarely require the application of putrescent manure oftener than'once in four years, and in all cases where the clover is allowed to stand two seasons, it may be deferred without disadvantage for another year. Heavy soils may run six years without it, provided that the land be laid one year in fallow, and that there be suffi- cient meadow to be reckoned at least one crop in the course. It being, however, clearly understood, that, whether on light or heavy land, nothing but grain, seeds, and livestock is to be sold off the farm, unless replaced with an equal portion of purchased dung ; that the whole of the green crops, the haulm of pulse, and the straw of corn, is to be used in the most economical manner ; and that some of the live- stock are to be either soiled or fattened upon oil- cake : this plan, if carefully pursued on good soils, with capital sufficient to secure an abundant work- ing and fattening stock of cattle, ought, under fair management, to furnish an adequate supply of dung for any of the usual courses of culture. " Having thus submitted to our readers all that oc- curs to us of importance on the subject of famyard manure, we shall here recapitulate a summary of the chief points which we deem particularly worthy of their consideration : 129 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 1. To bottom the farmyard with furze, fern [brake], dry haulm [stubble, &c.], or any other loose refuse that takes the longest time to dissolve ; aiid over that to bed it deep with straw. 2. To occasionally remove the cribs of store-cat- tlo to diflTerent parts of the straw-yard, in order that their dung may be dropped and their litter trodden equally, 3. To spread the dung of other animals, when thrown into the yards, in equal layers over every part. 4. To remove the dung from the yard at least once, or oftener, during the winter, to the mixen.* 5. To turn and mix all dunghills until the woody or fibrous texture of the matter contained in them, and the roots and seeds of weeds, be completely de- composed, and until they emit a foul, putrid smell ; by which time they reach their greatest degree of strength, and arrive at the state of spit-dung. 6. To keep the dung in an equal state of moisture, so as to prevent any portion of the heap from be- coming fire-fanged. If the fermentation be too rapid, heavy watering will abate the heat ; but it will after- ward revive with increased force, unless the heap be either trodden firmly down or covered with mould to exclude the air. 7. To ferment the dung, if to be laid upon arable land during the autumn, in a much less degree than that to be applied before a spring sowing. 8. To lay a larger quantity on cold and wet lands than on those of a lighter nature ; because the for- mer require to be corrected by the warmth of the dung, while on dry, sandy, and gravelly soils, the application of too much dung is apt to burn up the plants. Stiff land will also be loosened by the unde- cayed fibres of long dung, which, although its putre- * The plaro of deposite where the manure is heaped up and tnixtd. MANURES. 127 taction will thus be retarded, and its fertilizing power delayed, will yet ultimately afford nourishment. 9. To form composts with dung, or other animal and vegetable substances, and earth, for application to light soils. 10. To spread the manure, when carried to the field, with the least possible delay ; and, if laid upon arable land, to turn it immediately into the soil. 11. To preserve the drainage from stables and dunghills in every possible way ; and, if not applied in a liquid state, to throw it again upon the mixen. 12. To try experiments, during a series of years, upon the same soils and crops, with equal quantities of dung, laid on fresh and afterward rotted, in order to ascertain the results of their application to the land. The whole quantity to be first weighed or measured, and then divided. " Tho fermentation of farmyard manure is, in fact, a subject of far greater importance' than is generally imagined ; for on a due estimation of its value mainly depends the individual success, as well as the na- tional prosperity of our agriculture. The experi- ments to which we point cannot, therefore, fail to come home to the interests of every man ; they may be made without expense, and without any other trouble than the mere exercise of common observa- tion and intelligence. Leaving, however, aside the discussion concerning the disputed worth of fresh or fermented, of long or short dung, let the farmer sedulously bend his attention to the accumulation of the utmost quantity that it may be in his power to procure The manner and the time of using it, in either state, must, however, be governed by circum- stances which may not always be within his control; and every judicious husbandman will rather accom- modate himself to the exigency of the case, than ad- nere strictly to his own notions of what he conceives to be the best practice. In fine, wliether favouring the one or the other side of the question, let him col- 188 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. lect all he can ; apply it carefully to his crops ; and then, trusting to events, • let the land at\d the muck settle it.' " ON THE WINTER MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. We make this preliminary remark, upon which what we have to offer is in a measure predicated, viz., that all the manure from the stables, yard, and hog- pen should be carried out in the spring for the corn and potato crops. . The objects to be obtained in the winter manage- ment of manure are, 1. To prevent waste by leaching and drainage ; 2. To prevent its becoming fire-fanged ; and, 3. To prevent more than moderate or incipient fermentation. 1. Where cattle-yards are upon a slope, or are con- vex, or nearly upon a level surface, the hquid portions of the manure, which may be termed, in a measure, the cooked food of plants, continually pass off and are lost. Heavy rains, and the drip from the barns and sheds, also passing through the manurn in their escape from the yard, leach and deprive it of its finest and most fertilizing properties. The remedies against this evil consist, first, in giv- ing a concave or dish shape to the yard. The earth excavated from the centre being deposited upon the borders, which should be fifteen or twenty feet broad, with a slight inclination to the centre, a dry passage to the barn is secured, and a sufficient space of dry ground to feed the stock upon which run at large. Secondly, the yard should be bedded, after it is clean- ed, with peat or swarpp earth, if the farm affords it, six to twelve inches deep ; or, if this is not to be had, with any other porous waste earth ; and afterward should be kept well littered with straw, stalks, po- tato-tops, ana the coarse grass and weeds of the farm. This shape of the yard prevents the escape of the liquids, and the earth and litter absorb and be- MANURES. 129 come enriched by them. Even should the liquids of ihe yard be dried up, as they are in summer, the earth and litter will retain the fertilizing matters which thoy held in solution. By these operations alone the quantity of manure will be double what it is where they are neglected. Thirdly, to prevent an exess of water in the yard, what falls from the build- ings should be conducted off by gutters. And, fourth- ly, a reservoir should be constructed under ground for the reception of the liquids that unavoidably flow from the yard, and particularly for the urine from the stables. By this latter means a great accession may be made to the fertilizing resources of a farm, and a material obtained fitted for the immediate wants of a growing crop. 2. When dung is accumulated in large masses, ei- ther when' thrown from the stables or in the fields where it is to be applied, even though it be protected from the weather, a violent fermentation takes place, moisture is exhausted from the mass, and it becomes what is termed fire-fanged — dry, light, and mouldy, and seriously impaired in its value. To avoid this in the yard, spread the manure oc- casionally over its surface. It thereby becomes blended with other matters less disposed to ferment, is trodden by the stock, and the air, one of the agents in causing it to ferment, is in a measure excluded. Under cover, it should not be suffered to accumulate in excess without the admixture of earthy matters, which will retard fermentation and preserve moist- ure. It is often convenient to draw manure to the field in the autumn oj" winter, where it is to be used. If such manure has not undergone fermentation, it should never be laltl in heaps of more than three feet in depth, or more than six or eight loads together; the surface should be handsomely smoothed off, and then covered, when the frost will permit, with six or eight inches of sod or earth. This prevents vio- lent fermentation, and the loss of the gaseous mat- ters which fermentation always sends off. I.— L 190 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. With the foregoing precautions, there is little dan- ger of fermentation proceeding to a wasteful or im- proper length before the manure is wanted for the corn or potato crop. What farmer is there, who makes any pretensions to economy, who would not feel insulted to be told that he carelessly wasted one half of his family food or of his cattle food — one half of what his farm produced for animal subsistence 1 And where is the difference, whether he wastes the food of his family, his animals, or his crops ? His crops feed both his family and his livestock ; and, unless he feeds his crops, the others must ultimately suffer the penal- ty ; for the earth, though a kind and prolific motlier, cannot always give when we withhold from her the means of giving. Return to her what ts no longer of use to us, and she will requite us with her richest blessings. Let us bear in mind, that every animal and vegetable substance which we give back to her bosom, she will faithfully elaborate into new organ- ized matter for our pleasure and profit ; but that if, like the prodigal, we exhaust the parental treasure, it can no longer supply us with bread or meat. Too many who occupy a rich virgin soil, may be com- pared to useless drones who waste their patrimonial wealth : tliey waste that which would benefit both themselves and their children. SPECIFIC MANURES. We have repeatedly said that wheat cannot be depended on as a profitable count. MANURES. 139 Cost of land $210 00 " ashes for both dressings .... 21554 Seed fordo. ... . 41 25 Ploughing lOJ days 21 GO Rolling 3i do 7 00 Harrowing 3i do 7 00 Carting outside furrows 7 50 Sowing 3 days 3 00 Carting and spreading ashes 54 00 Cutting, curing, and housing41 tons millet and clover 123 00 Five years taxes 2 10 Interest accruing on transaction .... 46 00 $737 39 Cr. By produce sold, amounting to $717 00 Value of pasturage 15 00 Value of lot in its present condition ... 385 00 $1,117 00 737 39 $379 61 There is reason to suppose, from present appear- ances, that the lot in question will cut two tons of clover this season per acre ; it will therefore be seen that my valuation is not a high one. A repetition of the treatment it has received would no doubt im- prove still more the texture of the soil, though I am inclined to tliThk there might be a falling oflf instead of an increase in the amount of its products by sub- sequent ashings. Should this be the case, it would indicate a suitable condition for more permanent im- provement by manuring. PEAT EARTH, PEAT ASHES, &C. In the number of the Cultivator for .Tanuary, 1839, p. 191, a correspondent, in noticing " a recently pub- lished account of the proceedings of the British As- sociation for the advancement of Science," as to the improvement of peat-bogs, and the use of peat- moss or turf as a manure, speaks of the preparation of the 140 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY* latter in barnyards, and of expelling from the turf, through that mode of preparing it, the qualities with which it is imbued, when taken from the swamps, deleterious to vegetation. I began, some months ago, the use of it, in some degree, after the modes advert- ed to by the members of the association ; and have, from information I have been able to obtain from emigrants, and from my own observation and read- ing, been led to a series of experiments with it. Though the results are not yet as complete as I hope eventually to make them, I apprehend that what I have thus far observed may be useful. I ap>- ply the turf in a variety of ways : First, after the mode of preparing it in compost, directed by Lord Meadowbanks, " which was printed and distributed gratis among the Scotch peasantry many years a^o, and which has ever since been highly approved of, both by practical and scientific cultivators," in Scot- land, Ireland, and generally in all the European countries in which peat is to be found. That meth- od has been described in former numbers of the Cul- tivator, and will be found, in all its essential particu- lars, in Fessenden's New-England Farmer and Rural Economist, pages 209 to 212, and in Loudon's Ency- clopaedia of Agriculture. Composts have been made by me which, when prepared in strict«eonformity to those directions, have fully justified them. Through this means, there is no difficulty in trebling or four- folding an ordinary farm supply of manure, and which may (as the authors say) " be used weight for weight as farmyard manure, and will be found, in a course of cropping, fully to stand the comparison." Whenever I have deviated from the track laid down, I have found that a strict pursuit of the old practice was the better, and have returned to it. In particular, I find the necessity not only of avoiding the compres- sion of the compost heap by the ti-ead of the men or cattle employed, but the expediency of throwing into it every vegetable material which may contribute to MANURES. 141 Keep it light and as springy as possible. I also find it most prudent to avoid compression through rais- ing the heap above the allotted height. My supply of turf to this time has been taken from a swamp about five feet deep, of about two thirds of an acre, one half of which, down to the clay subsoil, I have used in composts or otherwise, and which I propose tilling the coming summer. I have also used the turf in bottoming my barn and cattle yard, stables and hog-sties, and in burning it for ashes. My first application of it to manuring began with the last spring. The ashes were used as I have already stated in a previous number, and I can assure you my clover and grass crops fully justified all the anticipations I was authorized to make. • Some of my neighbours, of excellent practical information in ordinary mat- ters, attempted to dissuade me from the use of it. A fls wiH not, more than others, bear con* IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS-LANDS. 159 tinual cropping without occasional, nourishment, with impunity ; but when once well seeded, by the ajjplication of various manures, among which that of the barnyard is the best, and in the absence of close after- feeding, they will yield grass, as the com mon saying is, "almost for ever." In many sections of our country, where vegetable loam preponderates upon a clayey or a hardpan sub- soil, the ploughing up of meadows and pasture-lands for many years is almost destructive to their future production of grass ; and it is only by long and regu- lar applications of mixed and rich manures that they can be brought back to their primitive luxuriance In proof of this remark, your committee need only refer to some of the most celebrated and productive grazing districts of the state, where the staple grass- es of our country have been always successfully cul- tivated. In frequent instances, perhaps in a large majority of cases, lands of this description, which have been cleared within the last fifty years, and are now occupied as pasture and meadow, have never been ploughed, but remain in the same uneven con- dition of surface as they were left when the harrow followed the first grain and grass-seed which were deposited in them after clearing. Great reluctance is usually manifested in disturbing these fields, al- though somewhat inconvenient to the mower, their proprietors being so well satisfied with their annual crops as to prefer the old adage, and "let well enough alone." Your committee have witnessed instances of this description of soil, which have been for thirty years in grass, and but slightly manured, and, under very ordinary cultivation, producing in a common season two or three tons of the finest hay per acre. Such, however, are extraordinaiy cases m favourable positions. An ordinary crop may be one to two tons per acre, according to the care and attention of the farmer. It is true that these lands may become exhausted. 160 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY and the grass " run out," as the term goes, through bad husbandry and neglect ; but the application of yard-manures, of new grass-seetis and the harrow, will, in nearly all instances, restore them to thcii wonted luxuriance. It need hardly here be slated, that irrigation, draining, and other artificial stimu- lants may be important to the productiveness of the meadow and the pasture ; but, as these always sug- gest themselves to the judgment and good sense of the cultivator, they do not necessarily come within the province of this discussion. The quantity of seed sown to the acre, for either pasture or meadbw, should not be less than half a bushel ; the kind or va- riety to depend somewhat upon the soil and its situ- ation. For mowing, the red clover, timothy, and red-top are the best and most desirable. For pasture, the same, with the addition of white clover and blue or June grass, which are almost everywhere indi- genous to the soil, and are among the richest and most nutritious of all our grasses. In fine, the sim- plest methods compatible with the established rules of good husbandry, your committee believe, with such soils, are the best for their profitable and per- petual cultivation. In treating the second proposition, viz., the culti- vation of grasses on the lighter soils, your commit- tee will remark, that much must necessarily be left to the judgment of the cultivator as to the time that his lands are to be kept in grass, depending upon his own necessities, or what he requires from his land. As a general rule, if the raising of grass be an object, so long as the lands produce well, either from their natural fertility or by the application of artificial stimulants, they should not be disturbed ; but when the object is a regular rotation, with a strict regard to the greatest profit, two to four years is sufficient for the benefit of the land, and as long as such soils will usually yield a grass-crop that will pay. It is better that the soils be properly prepared, by pre- IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS-LANDS. 161 vious grain or root crops and abundant manuring, and by harrowing and rolling, for the reception of grass-seeds, and that the manures of the farm, save, perhaps, lime, ashes, and plaster, be withheld for the use of the current ploughed crops, rather than to expend them upon the grasses ; yet much must depend upon the local position of the ground, the climate, and the dry or moist condition of the soil. The descriptions of grasses best fitted for these soils are, so far as our experience has yet tested, the red clover and timothy. They are strong, hardy, and rich in their properties, universally known and cultivated, and have, in competition with all rival ex- periments, maintained their reputation and superior- ity. The proportions of seed distributed on the soil may vary wfith the views of the cultivator, as he in- tends it for hay or for pasture, and may range from one to two thirds of either variety ; but in no case, for tharough seeding, should the combined quantity be less than from half a bushel to three pecks per acre. The great fault with our farmers is, that they do not half seed their grass-lands, the usual allow- ance being less than half the quantity recommended. As to the time and manner of seeding, your commit- tee unhesitatingly recommend the earliest spring, oh a light loam ; or, if that be wanting, while the ground is yet unsettled, on a crop of winter-grain. If this be not practicable, the other best plan would be ei- ther sowing with spring-grain, or seeding in the sum- mer with buckwheat or turnips, as the occasion may demand. Ploughing into the soil an occasional grass-crop for its renovation, in the absence of stimulating ma- nures, cannot be too highly recommended in the lighter soils ; and for succeeding crops of almost any description, this process is also highly advanta- geous, and may, without hesitation, be always rec- ommended. As the discugsion of this subject at greater length I.— N 162 AMEAICAN HUSBANDRY. would lead your committee into minute details not required by their duties on this occasion, they beg leave to close their communication with the follow- ing suggestion to all who would cultivate grasses : Read attentively, and follow the practical rules laid down in the best agricultural papers of the day, and no intelligent farmer need be at a loss to under- stand how he may most successfully cultivate his lauds with grasses. CHAPTER VII. PLANTS. The Germination of Seeds. — Roots and Leaves. — Extent of the Roots of Plants. THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. Seeds often fail to grow ; and the seedsman is of- ten found fault with for vending bad seeds, when they are really good, and when the cause of their not growing is owing to the gardener or planter. To induce germination, moisture, atmospheric air, and a certain temperature are indispensable; and it is also requisite that light be excluded from the seed until the nutriment in it is exhausted, or until the root can draw nourishment from the soil. The first effect of the air, heat, and moisture upon the seed is to change its properties ; to convert its starch into sugar — into a sort of milky pulp, the proper food of the embryo plant. If at this stage the seed becomes dry, its vitality is believed to be destroyed ; but if the agents referred to are permitted to exert their influence, the contents of the seed swell by degrees, and the point of the future root being formed, breaks through the shell iu a downward direction, while, PLANTS. 1 63 about the same time, the point of the future stem comes forth in an upward direction. The presence of air, heat, and moisture are afterward as indispen- sable to the growth of the plant as they were to the germination of the seed. Now it often happens, that when seeds are planted in fresh-stirred ground, or when the soil is moist, they undergo the incipient process of fermentation, and the earth not being pressed upon them, and dry weatlier ensuing, the moisture is abstracted, and the seeds perish. Too much moisture is also often de- structive to the vital principle of seeds ; while others, again, are buried too deep to be vivified by solar and atmospheric influence. The first object in planting, therefore, should be, to place the seed just so far un- der the surface, and to cover it with so much earth, as shall barely secure to it a constant supply of moist- ure. There are many seeds, as of the carrot, parsnip, orchard-grass, &c., which, if not previously steeped, or the soil well pulverized and pressed upon them, fail to grow for want of moisture. Hence, in sow- ing orchard-grass, it is found prudent to spread the seed upon a floor and sprinkle it with water, and to pass a roller over the ground after it is sown. And hence, in loose garden mould, it is advisable to press the earth with the hoe or the spade upon all light seeds after they are sown. But we would draw the attention of the farmer, as well as of the gardener, to another mode of pre- venting failure and disappointment in the growth of certain seeds ; and that is, by sprouting them before they are planted. This may be conveniently done with Indian corn, pumpkins, mangold-wurzel, beets, &c., on the farm, and with melons, cucumbers, beans, peppers, and a great number of other seeds which are assigned to the garden. The mode of doing it with the field-seeds we have named is this : steep them from twelve to twenty hours in tepid water ; then pour off the water, and leave them in a warm 164 AMERICAN" HUSBANDRY. place, covered, to exclude the light and prevent their drying, or in a dark cellar or room, and the radicles or roots will shoot in a few days, and may then be planted without injury. Having been obliged to sus- pend our planting for four days on account of rain, we found our seed, which had been previously steep- ed and set by in a dark room, with radicles two or three inches long. It was planted, however, with but little inconvenience, and did remarkably well. Mr. J. Notl sprouted a part of his corn last year, and a part of it was not sprouted ; and, what is worthy the particular notice of farmers, he assures us that the sprouted com teas not hurt by the wire-worm, while the unsprouled seed was seriously injured, although planted by the side of each other. Mr. Nott ac- counts for the difference in this way : the wire-worm attacks the chit, and feeds upon and destroys the germe : but the radicles having already protruded, and not being to the taste of the worm, the insect attacked the solid part of the kernel, where its prog- ress was too slow and too remote from the germe to retard its growth. Mr. Nott also sprouted his mangold-wurzel-seed, and planted it as late as the 27th of June. Almost every seed grew, and the crop might be called a good one early in September. To sprout garden-seeds, procure two sods of equal size, say eighteen inches square ; place one in the comer of the kitchen chimney, with the grass down ; lay your seeds upon it, and if they are small, wrap themjn a piece of brown paper ; then place the other sod upon them, with the grass up ; water well with warm water, and the seeds will sprout in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. There is one manifest advantage in sprouting seeds : it tests their goodness, and shows whether they will or will not grow. A small quantity of seed-corn submitted to this test before planting, would in many instances prevent great loss to the farmer. PLANTS. 165 ROOTS AND LEAVES. Plants may be said to consist of two great ps^s, the root and the stem, with their various appenda- ges. But since we are in this place merely to con- sider one function of vegetable life, namely, the function o{ absorption, or the manner in which plants bring matter, external to themselves, within the range of their vital actions, we may confine our yq-a searches almost entirely to the roots and leaves ; these being, beyond doubt, the parts by which ex- traneous matter is first received into the plant ; and, in the first placftj let us examine the functions of the root. The term root is generally considered to include all that part of the plant which is beneath the sur- face of the soil. This, however, is not strictly cor- rect ; for many plants possess what botanists call a rhizoma, or underground stem. The true root is that part of the plant which, from the instant of its bursting the coverings of the seed, begins to direct its course downward (or towards the earth's axis), " with a tendency so powerful that no known -force is sufficient to overcome it." Moreover, it diflei's from the stem in many of its characters ; thus, it does not divide itself into smaller fibres in the regu- lar manner in which stems generally give off their branches. Again, it never produces leaves or scales ; and another important distinction is, "that it never becomes green (at least in tissue) when exposed to the action of air and light, while all thfe other parts of vegetables, when thus exposed, assume that col- our." The root is divided into the body and fibres, the latter of which will alone claim our attention. These fibres are furnished at their extremities with a remarkable structure, which, from its resemblance to a sponge, has been termed spongiole. It consists of an extremely loose texture, and is most probably merely " the ncwl)'^-formed" internal " tissue" of the 166^ AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. root itself, deprived of its more dense coverinsr or cuticle, as it is termed. This opinion is very much strettgthened by the well-eslabhslied fact, that roots grow by their extremities only. In tliis manner the spougiolc is always being renewed ; and, what is of still more consequence, is never long in one place. On ihis account it is that plants which live many years (if not growing too near othei-s of the same kind) are not liable to die from having exhausted the soil ; or, in other words, are not liable to be starved to death; for it is evident that, by the constant change of position of the spongiole, which is the only part of the root by which nourishment is received into the plant, there must be a constant supply of food, so long as the soil around it contains any or- ganic matter in a ^fit state for absorption. It has been shown, by innumerable experiments, that the spongioles, or absorbent extremities of the roots, cannot take up anything but fluids ; or, at ail events, if they can absorb sohds, they must be in such a minute state of division that they would remain sus- pended in water even for a considerable time, which IS a fineness of particles far greater than will proba- bly ever be attained by any mechanical means. It has likewise been proved that plants are capa- ble of choosing, to a certain degree, their food ; or, in other words, of selecting those substances which are best adapted for their peculiar nature, and re- jecting what would be injurious. This power, how- ever, appears to be limited, as it is perfectly possible to destroy a "plant by giving it poison by the roots. The root, moreover, has the power of excretion, or returning to the earth such matters as are either useless or injurious. From this last property of roots, we may draw two valuable conclusions : first, that, in order to poison a plant, the substance used must be capable of acting rapidly, or it will most probably be i ejected before it has had time to pro- duce its effect ; and, secondly, that, since plants reject TLAXTS. 167 substances useless and injurious to them, the soil where they grow may in time become so impreg- nated with such substances as to render it incapable of supporting the same species of plant any longer ; or, at least, until such time as the rejected matter shall have been decomposed. The next purpose which the roots of all land, and of the majority of aquatic plants, serve, is obviously to fix them firmly in their places. On this account, we find, in man)/ cases, that a certain proportion exists between the size of the stem and the root. This, however, is subject to exceptions. But, on the other hand, in all cases, an obvious relation may be perceived between the /arm of the root and the kind of soil in which the plant grows. Thus, if two specimens of the same plant — some of the grasses, for example — be found growing, the one in clayey, the other in a sandy sod, it will be seen, on examination, that the root of the one growing in the sand is much more minutely sub- divided, and contains many more small fibres, than the one which grows in clay ; and the reason of this is obvious. We have already seen that the spon- gioles are the only absorbent parts of the root ; that they exist only at the extremities of the smallest fibres ; and, moreover, that they can take up nothing but what is presented to them in the form of solu- tion. Now, in the clayey soil, from its retentive nature, the soluble parts are not allowed to drain away ; and hence the plant is supplied with food near at hand, and, consequently, a few short fibres are sufficient. On the other hand, plants growing in sand are frequently deprived of. all fluid near them by the sinking of the soluble matters through the loosely aggregated soil ; in which case the plant would inevitably perish from starvation, were it not for the wise law of nature, which provides against such calamities by endowing the roots of plants placed under such circumstances with the power of shooting forth innumerable minute fibres in all direc- t08 AMERICAN HU»BANDRY. tions, in order that advantage may be taken of every drop of moisture which falls in their neighbourhood. Nor is it merely in the number of minute fibres that the roots of plants growing in sand differ from those which inhabit the stiffer soils. The form of the body of the root is distinct : thus, nearly all bulbous and other large succulent roots — as the turnip, for exam- ple— require sandy soil ; and, moreover, some plants, as that species of grass named Phleum pratense (meadow cat's-tail, or timothy grass), change the form of the root according to the soil they inhabit. \n stiff clays, the plant just mentioned has a fibrous root, whereas in sand it becomes bulbous, and as- sumes all the characters of Phleum nodosum. The explanation here is as evident as in the former case. The bulbs of the roots act as reservoirs of food for the plant : thus, in very dry seasons, these buibs shrivel up, their fluids being all neededj by the rest of the plant, and hence withdrawn. So beautifully do we perceive in this, as in all other cases, thai design and adaptation of means to specific purpwses, which must impress even the most skeptical with the ab- solute existence of a Great First Cause. t— Madden. EXTENT OF THE ROOTS OF PLANTS. Roots perform a double ofiice to plants: they serve as braces to keep them in an upright position, and they are pur\'eyors to supply them with food suitable to their growth aad maturity. To enable them to jjerform these oflSces well, three requisites in the soil are essential. First, it is important that the soil be mellow, that the roots may penetrate it freely, not only to strengthen their bracing power, but to extend their range for food, this being absorb- ed or taken up by the spongioles or extreme points; and the greater their range the more abundant the food whi^h they supply. Secondly, it is important that this food be in the soil, in a soluble state ; that is, in a condition to be dissolved by, and incorporated PLANTS. 169 with, the fluids in the soil. Tliis food consists of vegetable and animal matters, or of whatever has been snch. Thirdly., it is important that a quantity of moisture be always present in the soil, to dissolve the focd of plants, or to serve as the medium for conveying it first to the spongioles, and from thence into and through the plant. Air, heat, and moisture are all essential agents in preparing the food of plants in the soil, and in giving vigour to vegetable growth. It should be the object of the farmer and gardener to aid these natural operations in cultivated crops ; and to repay the soil, by labour and skill, for the an- nual tribute which they draw from it. These la- bours consist in returning to it vegetable food (ma- nure) equivalent to that which they annually take from it ; in rendering it mellow and penetrable to the roots of the growing crop; in regulating the supply of water, too much being as hurtful as too little ; and in keeping the surface loose and porous, for the free admission of air, heat, and moisture. Hence the ad- vantage of deep tillage, perfect pulverization, drain- ing, manuring, and the frequent use of the cultivator among drilled or hoed crops ; and these considera- tions also suggest one objection against using the plough in the culture of these crops, and earthing or hilling them to any considerable extent ; as both of these modes of culture, ploughing and hilling, tend to curtail the natural range of the roots, and, conse- quently, to diminish the pasture and food of the crop. The depth and horizontal spread of roots are greater than is generally apprehended, as they often branch into minute filaments imperceptible to the naked eye ; still these minute imperceptible fila- ments collect' food for the parent plant. Jethro TuU, the father of drill-husbandry, has given us a good and satisfactory illustration of the great extension of the roots of the common turnip, which we here in- sert, not only to convince ow readers of the fact, but I.— 0 170 AMERICAN HUSBAIlain, and the advantages resulting from following it are great and certain.] SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 183 NATIVE SHEEP. Although this name is popularly appUcd to the common coarse-wooled sheep of the country, which existed here previously to the importation of the improved breeds, there is, properly speaking, no race of sheep " native" to North America. Mr. Living- ston, in speaking of a race as " indigenous," only quoted the language of another,* and his informant was either mistaken -as to the fact, or misapprehend- ed the term. The only animal of the genus Ovis originally inhabiting this country is the argali,f known to our enterprising travellers and traders who have penetrated to the Rocky Mountains, where the animal is found, as the Big Horn. Though the pelage of the argali approximates but little to the. wool of the domestic sheep, they are, as is well known, considered by naturalists to have belonged originally to the same species ; and the changes which have taken place in the form, covering, and habits of the latter, are attributed to their domesti- cation, and the care and skill of man during a long succession of years. The common sheep of the United States were of foreign, and mostly of English origin. The writer of the volume on sheep in the " Farmer's Series" [Mr. Youalt] speaks of them as, " although some- what differing in various districts, consisting chiefly of a coarse kind of Leicester, originally of British breed."! Others have seen, or fancied they saw, in some- of them, a strong resemblance to the South Downs. Mr. Livingston was of this number.^ But it is far more probable that they can claim a common descent from no one stock. Our ancestors emigrated from different sections of the British dominions, and some portion of them from other parts of Europe. * Livingston's Essay on Sheep, p. 56, 60. t Godman's American Natural History. i Vol. on Sheep, p. 134. ^ Essay on Sheep, p. 51 184 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. They brought their implements of husbandr)', and their domestic animals to fertilize the wilderness. Each, it would be natural to suppose, made choice of the favourite breed of his own immediate district, to transport to the New World, and the admixture of these various races formed the mongrel famil}' now under consideration. Amid the perils of war and the incursions of beasts of prey, they were pre- served with sedulous care. As early as 167G, Mr. Edward Randolph, in a " Narrative of the Lords of the Privy Seal," speaks of New-England as " abound- ing with sheep."* The common sheep yielded a wool only suited to the coarsest fabrics, averaging in the hands of good farmers from three to three and a half pounds of wool to the fleece. They were slow in arriving at maturity compared with the improved English breeds, and yielded, when fully grown, from 10 to 12 pounds of a middling quality of mutton to the quarter. They were usually long legged, light in the fore-quarter, and narrow on the breast and back, although some rare instances might be found of flocks with short legs, and some approximation to the general form of the improved breeds. The com- mon sheep were excellent breeders, often rearing, almost entirely destitute of care, and without shel- ter, one hundred per cent, of lambs, and in small flocks a still larger proportion. These, too, were usually dropped in March or the eariier part of April. Restless in their disposition, their impatience of restraint almost equalled that of the untamed ar- gali ; and in many sections of our country it was common to see from 20 to 50 of them roving, with little regard to enclosures, over the possessions of their owner and his neighbours, leaving a large por- tion of their wool adhering to bushes and thorns, and the t-emainder placed nearly beyond the possi- * Colonial Papers of Massachusetu. SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 185 bility of carding by the " Tory bur" so common on new lands. The old common stoSk of sheep, as a distinct family, have nearly disappeared, having been univer- sally crossed, to a greater or less extent, with the foreign breeds of later introduction. The first and second cross with the Merino resulted in a decided improvement, and produced a variety exceedingly valuable for the farmer, who rears wool only for do- mestic purposes. The fleeces are of uneven fine- ness, being hairy on the thighs, dewlap, &c. ; but the general quality is much improved ; the quantity is considerably augmented ; the body is more com- pact and nearer the ground ; and they have lost their unquiet and roving propensities. The cross with the Saxon, for reasons wh"ch we shall hereafter al- lude to, has not been generally so successful. With the Leicester and Downs, the improvement, so far as form, size, and a propensity to take on fat are concerned, is manifest. SPANISH MEEINO. The history of this celebrated race of sheep, so far as it is known, has so often been brought before the public, that it is deemed unnecessary here to re- capitulate it. The first importation of them into the United States took place in 1801. Four rams were shipped by Mr. Delessert, a banker of Paris, three of which perished on the passage.* The fourth ar- rived in safetjfcat Rosendale, a farm owned by that gentleman near Kingston, in this state. In 1802, two pairs were sent from France by Mr. Livingston, the American minister, to his estate on the Hudson ; and later the same year, Mr. Humphreys, our minis- ter to Spain, on his departure from that country, shipped one hundred for the United States. But they attracted little notice until our difficulties with • " Archives of Useful Knowledge." — Cultivator, vol. i., p. 183. I.— P 186 AMERICAN HU8BANDRT. England led to a cessation of commercial inter« course with that power in,1808 and 1809. The at- tention of the country being now directed towards manufacturing and wool growing, the Merino rose into importance. So great, indeed, was the interest excited, that from a thousand to fourteen hundred dollars a head was paid for them. Other and nu- merous importations soon followed ; and, unfortu- nately, some of the cargoes arrived in the worst con- dition, bringing with them those scourges of the ovine race, the scab and foot-rot. These evils and the increased supply soon brought them down to less than a twentieth part of their former price, so that they could be bought for $20 a head. When, however, it was established, by actual experiment, that their wool did not deteriorate in this country, as had been feared by many, and that they became readily acclimated, they again rose into favour. But the prostration of our manufactories, which soon after ensued, rendered the Merino again compara- tively of little value, and brought ruin on numbers who had purchased them at their previous high prices. The rise which has since taken place in the value of fine wool, as well as the causes which led to it, are too recent and well understood to require particular notice. With the rise of wool, the valu- ation of the sheep which bear it has of course kept pace. The Merino has been variously described. This arises from the fact that it is the giperal appella- tion of a species, comprising several varieties, pre- senting essential points of difference in size, form, and in quality and quantity of wool. The Escurial flocks stand first in p)oint of fineness. Attached to the convent El Escorial, within a. short distance of the capital, and being the private property of the kings of Spain, no pains or care have been spared upon these beautiful flocks. They are of a good size and fine form, "combining excellence," as is SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 187 remarked by an intelligent writer,* " scarcely admit- ting of improvement." It is supposed that most of the Escurial sheep which found their way into this coufitry are but indifferent specimens of this cele- brated variety of the Merino. Their fleeces are somewhat lighter than those of the Paulars, Negret- tis, &c., and altogether they bear a close resemblance to tlie genuine Saxons, of which they are the parent stock. According to Mr. Lasteyrie,t the Negretti " are the largest and strongest of all the Spanish travelling sheep." The Guadaloupe "have the most perfect form, and are likewise celebrated for the quantity and quality of their wool." The Paulars " bear much wool of a fine quality ; but they have a more evident enlargement behind the ears, and a greater degree of throatiness." As the last named was one of the principal varie- ties introduced into the United States, a more par- ticular description of it may not be unacceptable. The sheep of the Paular Convent are large, with heavy, but, compared with the Escurial or Saxons, coarse fleeces. The wool of the pure bloods con- tains a considerable quantity of jarr or hair, and it abounds in yolk to such a degree, that it catches and retains at its extremities much floating dust, the pol- len of hay, (fee. This gives it a peculiarly stiff and hard feeling externally. It however forms an ex- cellent protection against storms and cold. The form of the Paular is generally good ; but an unusu- ally large dewlap, so plaited and doubled as to go by the popular appellation of " the rufile," extends from the lower jaw to the brisket, presenting a great ob- stacle to the shearer, and an unseemly and ungrace- ful appendage in the eye of the refined breeder. On the sides of the neck, and not unfrequently the * Cuitivalor, vol. ii., p. 150. t " Farmer's Series," vol. on Sheep, p. 156. We quote Mr. Youatt. 188 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. face, the skin also lies in loose wrinkles. The head is coarse, and, in the male, usually surinounted by large horns. The skill of the American breeder has obviated some of these defects, and there are a iew (very few) flocks claiming purity of blood, .which have little or no jarr, and an almost entire absence of the throatiness peculiar to this variety. Proba- bly, however, in most of such instances, they owe it to a cross with the Saxons. There are some other varieties of the Merino which we shall not pause to describe. Taken col- lectively, the Spanish rams, according to Chancellor Livingston, yield about eight and a half pounds of wool, and the ewes five, which loses half in washing ; making four pounds and a quarter the average weight of fleece of the rams, and two and a half the average of the ewes.* Some varieties considerably exceed this estimate, and probably it would fall short if ap- plied to the prime sheep of any variety. In the cel- ebrated flock of French Merinos at Rambouillet, the average weight, exclusive of tag and belly wool, is six pounds to the fleece. It should be stated, how- ever, that both Mr. Livingston and Mr. Humphreys assert, that the Rambouillet sheep carry more wool than any of the Spanish flocks. f Col. Humphreys, in "a letter to the Agricultural Society of Massachu- setts, even goes so far as to say " that the improved stock of France yield twice as much wool as those of Spain." Some carefully selected small flocks in this country, which were "salved"! after the pre- ceding shearing, have averaged, including the ordi- naiy number of rams, four and a half pounds of wool to the head. The gummy, thick wool of the Merino can be but imperfectly cleansed on the back of the animal, where it is the universal custom in the Uni- • Essay on ."^hepp, p. 39. t Livtiigston's KssHy, p. 71, and note. i Rubbed over with a 8»lve consisting of oil, wax, &c., which adds to the weight of fleece. SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT, 189 ted States to wash it ; and probably four pounds of clean wool would be as high as the maximum aver- age in the choicest flocks. Few overgo three and a half. The Merino, though the native of a warm climate, becomes readily inured to the greatest extremes of cold, flourishing as far north as Sweden, without de- generating in fleece or form.* It is a patient, docile animal, bearing much confinement without injury to health, and we never have been enabled to discover in it that peculiar "voraciousness of appetite" as- cribed to it by English writers. f Accurately con- ducted experiments have shown that it consumes two pounds of hay per diem in winter ; the Leices- ter consumes from three and a half to four ; and the common wooled American sheep would not probably fall short of three. The mutton of the Merino, in spite of the prejudice which exists on the subject, is short-grained anA of good flavour when killed at a proper age, and weighs from eight to ten pounds to the quarter. It is remarkable for its longevity, re- taining its teeth and continuing to breed two or three years longer than the common sheep or the im- proved EngHsh breeds ; but it should be remarked in connexion with this fact, that it is correspondingly slow in arriving at maturity. It does not attain its full growth before three years, and the ewes in the best-managed flocks are rarely permitted to breed before they reach that age. The Merino is not a good breeder, the bearing ewes giving little milk, and sometimes neglecting their lambs. Eighty per cent, would probably be as high as the average number of lambs usually reare 1. We have already adverted to the cross between the Merino and the native sheep. On the introduc- tion of the Saxon family of the Merinos, they were miiversaUy ingrafted on the parent stock, and the * Lasteyrie. t " Farmer's Series," Sheep, p. 1 19. 190 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. cross was continued luitil the Spanish blood was nearly bred out. When the admixture took place with pure-blooded and prime Saxons, it resulted most favourably. A variety was produced superior to the Merino in form, carrying less wool, but this more than compensated by its fineness. The ex- cessive throatiness of the Paulars disappeared or jvas greatly diminished. But, unfortunately, these instances of judicious crossing were rare. Our country was flooded by eager speculators with the grade sheep and refuse Merinos of Germany. Fine- ness of wool during the period of this strange excite- ment was made the only test of excellence, no mat- ter how scanty its quantity, no matter how diminu- tive or miserable the carcass. Governed by such views, the holders of most of our Merino flocks pur- chased these pseudo-Saxons, and the consequence was, as might have been foreseen — their flocks were ruined. ^ SAXON MERINO. In the year 1765, Augustus Frederic, elector of Saxony, obtained permission from the Spanish court to import 200 Merinos, selected from the choicest flocks of Spain. They were chosen principally from the Escurial flock, and on their arrival in Saxony were placed on a private estate belonging to the elector, under the care of Spanish shepherds. So much importance was attached to the experiment, as it was then considered, that a commission was appointed to superintend the affairs of the estabhsh- ment ; and it was made its duly to difl"use informa- tion in relation to the management of the new breed ; to dispose of the surplus rams at prices which would place them within the reach of all holders of sheep ; and, finally, by explaining the superior value of the Merinos, to induce the Saxon farmers to cross thera with their native breeds. Popular prejudice, how- ever, was strong against them, and thi'N was height- SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 191 ened by the ravages of the scab, which had been in- troduced with them from Spain, and which proved vp.ry destructive before it was finally eradicated. But when it became apparent that the Merino, so far from degenerating, had improved in Saxony, and that the Saxon wool exceeded the Spanish in fine- ness and value, the wise and patriotic etforts of the elector began to reap their merited success, and a revolution took, place in popular sentiment. The call for rams became so great, that the government resolved on a new importation, to enable them more effectually to meet it, and to improve still farther the stock already obtained. For this purpose an in- dividual, considered one of the best judges of sheep in Saxony, was despatched to Spain in 1777, with orders to select 300. For some reason, probably because he experienced difficulty in obtaining a greater number presenting all the qualifications he sougiit, he returned with but 1 10. They were from nearly all the diflferent flocks of Spain, but principal- ly the Escurial, and were considered decidedly su- perior to the first importation. In addition to the establishment at Stolpen already founded, others were now commenced at Rennersdorf, Lohmen, &c. ; schools were established for the education of shep- herds ; publications were distributed by the com- missioners to throw information on the subject be- fore the people ; and the crown tenants, it is said, were each required to purchase a certain number of the sheep. When we take into consideration the unwearied pains bestowed on this favourite object by the Saxon government; the fact that the Saxon va- riety are descended only from the choicest sheep of Spain, and that a degree of care and attention are bestowed on their breeding in the former country entirely unknown in the latter, it is not a subject of surprise that the emigrant Merino in Saxony ex- cels the parent stock in the quality of his fleece and that roimdness of form and fineness of bone which 192 AMBRICVN HUSBANDRY. indicate better feeding properties. I'he Spanish shepherd is little changed from what he was in the days of Cardinal Xinienes or Pedro IV. : with much practical knowledge of his busiivcss. but never dream- ing of improvement ; aiid his knowledge strangely blended with prejudices as ancient as the pedigrees of his sheep, running back to a period when Spain was a Roman province. He is not the owner of the sheep under his care, but tlie ill-paid servant of a titled fiimily or a religious order, who, in nine cases out of ten, are no more disposed or more competent to carry out a system for the improvement of their flocks than himself. And, finally, the Spanish cus- tom of pasturing their sheep during the entire sea- son in large docks, without enclosures,* to render the necessary divisions practicable, entirely prevents that nice adaptation to each other of the male and female selected for breeding ; that counterbalancing of the defects of one parent by the marked excel- lence of the other in the same points, which exhib- its the skill of the modern breeder. In Saxony, and the other states of Germany, the case is f^r other- wise. The electoral flocks, the parent stem, are un- der the direction of commissioners appointed for their intelligence and their knowledge of the sub- ject ; and the noted private flocks employ the first agricultural skill of the Saxon landholders. The low price of labour, too, admits of a degree of atten- tion and constant care over their flocks unknown in other countries. The attention bestowed upon breeding may be inferred fronv the fact, that in many of the largest flocks, every individual sheep is num- bered and registered, its pedigree known, and its off- spring recorded. The number and age of the sheep * Neither are there enrlosiires in Saxony ; hut the division is nflected by the bucks hemg placed in |>en>, and the ewes clasei- iied and inarkehat 'h^y were a most curious and motley mess of vvrt a perfect animal of this breed, from the " Farmers' Series :" " The head should be hornless, long, small, taper- ing towards the muzzle, and projecting horizontally- forward. The eyes prominent, but with a quiet ex- pression. The ears thin, rather long, and direct- ed backward. The neck full and broad at its base, where it proceeds from the chest, so that there is, with the slightest possible deviation, one continued horizontal line from the rump to the poll. The breast broad and full ; the shoulders also broad and round, and no uneven or angular formation where the shoulders join either the neck or the back, par- ticularly no rising of the withers, or hollow behind the situation of these bones. The arm fleshy through its whole extent, and even down to the knee. The bones of the leg small, standing wide apart ; no looseness of skin about them, and com- paratively bare of wool. The chest and barrel at once deep and round ; the ribs forming a considera- ble arch from the spine, so as in some cases, and especially when the animal is in good condition, to make the apparent width of the chest even greater than the depth. The barrel ribbed well home ; no irregularity of line on the back or belly ; but, on the sides, the carcass very gradually diminishing in width towards the rump. The quarters long and SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 201 ftiU, and, as with the fore legs, the muscles extend- ing down to the hock ; the thighs also wide and full. The legs of a moderate length ; the pelt also mod- erately thin, but soft and elastic, and covered with a good quantity of white wool, not so long as in some breeds, but considerably finer."* THE SOUTH DOWN. This breed of sheep has existed for several cen- turies in England, on a range of chalky hills called the South Downs. They were, as recently as 1776, small in size, and of a form not superior to the common wooled sheep of the United States. Since that period, a course of judicious breeding, pursued by one man (Mr. Ellman, of Glynde), has mainly contributed to raise this variety to its present high degree of perfection, and that, too, without the ad- mixture of the slightest degree of foreign blood. In our remarks on this breed of sheep, it will be under- stood that we speak of the pure, improved family as the original stock, presenting, with trifling modi- fications, the same characteristics which they exhib ited sixty years since, are yet to be found in Eng- land, and, as the middle space is occupied by a va riety of grades, rising or falling in value as they approximate to or recede from the improved blood. The South Down is an upland sheep of medium size, and its wool, which, in point of length, belongs to the middle class, is estimated to rank with half- grade Merino. The average weight of fleece in the hill-fed sheep is three pounds, and in the lowland four pounds. But the Down is raised more particiJarly for its mutton, which for quality takes precedence of all other in the English markets. Its early ma- turity, and extreme aptitude to lay on flesh, render il peculiarly valuable for this purpose. The Down ♦ Sheep Husbandry, p. 110. I— a 202 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. is turned off at two* years old, and its w eight at that age is from 80 to 100 lbs. High-fed wethers in Eng- land liave reached from 32 to even 40 lbs. a quarter! Notwithstanding its great weight, the Down has, in the language of Mr. Youatt. a patience of occasion- al short keeping and an endurance of hard stocking equal to any other sheep. This gives it a decided advantage over the bulkier Leicester, Lincolns, &c., as a mutton sheep in hilly districts, and those pro- ducing short and scanty herbage. It is hardy and healthy, though, in common with the other English varieties, much subject to the catarrh or " snuffles," and no sheep better withstands our American win- ters. The ewes are prolific breeders and good nurses. The Down is quiet and docile in its habits, and, though an industrious feeder, exhibiting little disposition to rove A sheep possessing such qualities must, of course, be exceedingly valuable in upland districts in the vicinity of markets. Accordingly, they have been introduced into every part of the British dominions, and imported into various other countries. The Emperor of Russia paid Mr. EUman three hundred guineas for two rams ; and in 1800, " a ram belong- ing to the Duke of Bedford was let for one season at eighty guineas, two others at forty guineas each, and four more at twenty-eight guineas each."t These valuable sheep were introduced into the Uni- ted States a few years since by Col. J. H. Powell, of Philadelphia, and a small number was imported by one of the members of this committee in 1834. The last were from the flock of Mr. EUman, at a cost of $60 a head. Several other importations have since taken place. The following is the description of the perfect * Among breeders, the sheep is termed a two-year old, or a two shear sheep, until three years old. In this case the sheep is between two and a half and three vears old. t " Farmers' Scries." SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 203 South Down by Mr. Ellman, the founder of the im- proved breed : " The head small and hornless ; the face speckled or gray, and neither too long or too short. The lips thin, and the space between the nose and the eyes narrow. The under jaw or chap fine and thin ; the ears tolerably wide, and well covered with wool, and the forehead also, and the whole space between the ears well protected by it, as a defence against the lly. "The eye full and bright, but not prominent. The orbits of the eye, the eye-cap or bone, not too projecting, that it may not form a fatal obstacle in lambing. • " The neck of a medium length, thin towards the head, but enlarging towards the shoulders, where it should be broad and high, and straight in its whole course above and below. The breast should be wide, deep, and projecting forward between the fore legs, indicating a good constitution and a dis- position to thrive. Corresponding with this, the shoulders should be on a level with the back, and not too wide above ; they should bow outward from the top to the breast, indicating a springing rib be- neath, and leaving room for it. " The ribs coming out horizontally from the spine, and extending far backward, and the last rib pro- jecting more than others ; the back flat from the shoulders to the setting on of the tail ; the loin broad and flat ; the rump broad, and the tail set on high, and nearly on a level with the spine. The hips wide, the space between them and the last rib on either side as narrow as possible, and the ribs generally presenting a circular form like a barrel. " The belly as straight as the back. " The legs neither too long nor too short. The fore legs straight from the breast to the foot ; not bending inward at the knee, and standing far apart both before and behind ; the hock having a direction 204 AMERICAN HU8BANDKT. rather outward, and the twist, or the meeting of tiM thighs behind, being particularly full, the bones fine, yet having no appearance of weakness, and of a speckled or dark colour. "The belly well defended with wool, and the wool coming down before and behind to the knee and to the hock ; the wool short, close, curled, and fine, ^nd free from spiry projectmg fibres." ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. The committee on " the feeding and management of sheep in winter," while they are fully aware of the importance of the subject thus brought under their notice, feel that they ca»>suggest but little that is new and instructive to the intelligent farmer or fiock-master in the home management of sheep as now practised ; yet they are inclined to believe that there is much, both highly interesting and useful, to be gathered from a knowledge of sheep husbandry in other countries, where its vast importance (form- ing, as it does in some cases, the chief wealth of the nation) has called to its aid all that education, science, and close observation could suggest for its improvement : nor are instances wanting where this valuable knowledge has been practically applied in this state, with a success that warrants thenjommittee in oftering some suggestions from the German prac- tice that may materially improve the winter man- agement of sheep with us. Most of the sheep in the Northern and Middle States produce wool of an improved quality, being morv°i or less mixed with the Merino, or the impro- ved Merino of the Saxony family, and are principally kept for their fleece, the carcass being a secondary consideration : within a few years, however, this latter has become more valuable, from causes which it is not necessary to examine, as they are evident to every observuig mind. The committee would therefore have it understood, that their attention has 8HEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 205 been almost exclusively directed to the management of the Spanish sheep, in all their various grades, as found in this country Many plans have been recommended, rules have been prescribed, maxims laid dovj^n, and the requi- site quantities of food stated, for maintaining sheep in a thriving and good condition. But all these can only be understood relatively, for we must take the size of the animal into consideration ; and it should be borne in mind, that a large sheep requires more food than a small one, and that a sheep which gives five or six pounds of wool must consume more than one which gives but three pounds. These facts lead to a consideration which has re- ceived little or no attention from the great mass of our farmers who keep sheep, namely : The influence or effect of feed on the quantity and quality of the wool and carcass : It may be laid down as a rule, that two pounds of good hay, or its equivalent in grain, roots, and straw per day, fed regularly at three different times, are sufficient for a grown sheep of the Merino family, producing three pounds of fine wool, provided it en- ters upon its winter keep healthy and in good condi- tion. For breeding ewes, or a larger race of sheep, this quantity would not be sufficient ; while for a race by nature small and weak, it would be more than they require, and, if fed to them, would greatly diminish the quahty of the wool, though it should in- crease its quantity. Farmers in Germany generally allow their sheep an average of from one and three fourths to two pounds of hay daily (including the whole flock), and their sheep are vigorous, healthy, and in good condi- tion, with the best of wool. Others allow them one and a half pounds daily, and they do not suffer with this quantity, but are healthy and rather thriving ; still they do not yield so much wool, nor is the car- cass so heavy ; while others -again, through ill-ad- 206 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. vised economy, have limited their sheep to one and a quarter pounds of hay per day ; but it was found that they sheared from ten to sixteen ounces less wool per head ; that the constitution of the animal could not be matured, and that he ultimately became a diminutive and feeble animal. The wool from such sheep is termed " hunger-fine,^'' appearing to possess a high degree of fineness upon the sheep's back, and being extremely soft to the touch. " But," says Mr. Eisner, a writer on sheep husbandry, " this kind of softness is as exceptionable as its fineness, both arising from the poverty of the animal ; for, after shearing and washing, it lessens to an unusual de- gree in volume." It is deficient in strength, elasti- city, and the felting properties, and it does not make as perfect and durable a fabric as it would had the sheep been kept in a thriving condition. Its intrinsic value, therefore, to the manufacturer is not so great as its apparent fineness would indicate ; and the grower, who anticipated a " good clip" of wool from his flock, is very unpleasantly awakened from his dream when he finds that they shear much less than he expected ; and this, we fear, is too often the case with many of our economists who undertake to keep flocks of fine-wooled sheep. It is, however, certainly a most erroneous conclu- sion, that sheep produce an increased or extra quan- tity of wool in proportion to their mcreased or extra quantity of food. " Farmers who were deceived by this theory," says Mr. Eisner, the author above quoted, " have been disappointed ; for the increased quantity of wool was scarcely half in proportion to the extra quantity of feed, and the quality was con- siderably deteriorated." Such is the opinion of one of the most intelligent breeders and close observers of the economy of sheep in Germany. The expe- rience of one of the members of this committee fully goes to confirm the above position ; and his experi- ments, made with great attention and exactness for SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 207 a series of years, both here and in Germany, enable him confidently to offer the following results : that sheep of good size, superior fineness, and thick fleece, when rightly fed and managed, produce, on an aver- age, two and three fourths to three pounds of clean wool, washed on the sheep's back. But a flock is only rightly fed and managed when they are not al lowed quite as much as they would eat, thus ensu- ring thriftiness and bodily health. To effect this desirable object, as has been already stated, two pounds of good hay, or its equivalent in grain, roots, and straw per day, are required ; whereas the same sheep, were they allowed as much hay as they could eat, would consume over three pounds, or its equiv- alent in grain, roots, and straw. Now, in order that the increased or extra quantity of wool be equal to the increased or extra quantity of hay or other fod- der, they ought to shear from four and an eighth to four and a half pounds of wool per head. But this is not the case ; the increase seldom amounting to more than 25, instead of 50 per cent. In other words, six pounds of hay, fed to three sheep, pro- duced from eight and a quarter to nine pounds of wool ; while the same quantity, and of the same quality, fed to two sheep daily, produced from six and seven eighths to seven and a half pounds only, leaving a balance in favour of the former of from one and three eighths to one and a half pounds : an item in the profits of a sheep establishment of some importance, especially where large flocks are kept. But this is not the only disadvantage of high feed- ing ; for, while it ruins the constitution of the ani- mal, it injures the quality of the wool. Some German writers on sheep-husbandry esti- mate this reduction in quality at ten per cent., and maintain that the greater waste in cleansing it in- creases the loss to twenty per cent. ; such wool containing a larger quantity of oily or greasy sub- stances, which go far to make up the increased 208 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. weight of the fleece. Assuming this to be a correct estimate (and it is believed to be so), it will be found that, for an outlay of- 50 per cent, in extra feed, only five, or, at the most, ten per cent, of wool is obtain- ed in return. It would, however, doubtless increase the carcass and the quantity of manure ; but this would be done at too gi-eat a price ; though, if the sheep were intended for the shambles, it would alter the case. Having considered the influence or effect of feed upon the quality and quantity of the wool, and shown that either extreme, too little or too much, is unprofitable to the wool-grower, the committee will, in the next place, proceed to that part of their sub- ject relating to the care and management of sheep during winter. It may be classed under three heads : Feeding, Watering, and Shelter. Food. — This should be such as to agree with the habits and economy of the sheep, and should con- tain nourishment and bidk equivalent to two pounds of hay. The varieties of winter provender to be consider- ed are hay of all the cultivated grasses, such as clo- ver, lucerne, &c., &c., and hay from natural but dry meadows ; sound oat, barley, rye, and wheat straw, and well-cured vetches and pea-vines ; all kinds of grain (with the exception of the less healthy rye), roots, such as potatoes, carrots, ruta-baga, mangold- wurzel, turnips, and the different kinds of beets ; all of which are suited to the health, thrift, and the in- ternal economy of sheep. Of the different kinds of hay, white and red clo- ver, sainfoin and timothy, stand first, and seem to be best adapted to the nature of sheep ; they eat it with great avidity, and with but little abatement in appe- tite, through the whole of a long winter. Of red clover there are two kinds, the Northern and the Southern ; the latter of which makes much the best SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 209 liay. Sheep should be made to eat up their hay clean when it is cut at the right time and well cured, and that time is when clover, lucerne, p.nd sainfoin are in full bloom, and when timothy has about one quarter to one half of the blossom off. But when the growth is large and the hay decayed at the bot- tom, then they should not be forced to eat it clean; but an allowance must be made, as the decayed parts, were they compelled to eat them, would prove hurtful. Also, where hay has been somewhat in- jured by rains during the process of curing, allow- ance should be made. Mow-burned or mouldy hay ■ should never be used in the sheep-cot, for it causes a general debility of the system, and, if continued, will ultimately produce the rot. Hay from lowland meadows is not as good as that from the uplands ; though, if the former be ren- ovated by occasional ploughing and reseeding, it im- proves the quality : but, in portioning out the quan- tity of hay to sheep, a suitable allowance should be made ; and the more of the wild and sour grasses that are mixed with it, the greater should the allow- ance be. Hay from wet meadows is not wholesome for sheep, and should never.be given them unless from necessity ; then double the usual quantity must be allowed. Were they confined to such hay, and compelled to eat it nearly or quite clean, it would prove ruinous to the flock. Hay from meadows that have been very highly enriched by top-dressings, afford a luxuriance and rankness of growth possessing a laxative property, and should be dealt out to sheep very cautiously, especially to lambs ; and if it is pretty freely salted with a view of preserving it, still greater caution is necessary. Sheep will then eat it greedily, espe- cially if salt has been withheld from them for some length of time ; but it is then the more dangerous, as foddering from it a few days in succession, or I.— R 210 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. even a few times, creates excessive thirst. Sheep drink an unusual quantity of water, and scouring is thus produced, which often proves very fatal. But, before entering upon any course of feeding, it is advisable to divide your sheep into different ^flocks. The breeding ewes into one, the wethers into another, and the lambs into a third. From these main divisions, subdivisions may be made as circumstances require, taking care that the individu- als composing the different flocks are as nearly as possible of equal size and strength ; if not, the weak- ' er portion are not apt to get a due share of fodder. . And if there be any individuals that are old, feeble, &c., an invalid department should be added, and extra care and attention bestowed upon it. Having all these arrangements completed, a care- ful supervision must be extended over the whole, and the* course of treatment regulated by circum- stances. Supposing the breeding ewes to be in good condi- tion, they should receive one and a half pounds of hay, and one and a quarter pounds of grain per day, until the rutting season is over : the grain must be then withheld, and the flock go through the winter on hay, increasing it to two and a quarter pounds, and givmg an occasional foddering of straw, until within five or six weeks of lambing, when this al- lowance should be decreased a little and roots sub- stituted, commencing by degrees with one bushel of potatoes, or one bushel and five eighths of ruta- baga to one hundred ewes, and increasing the quan- tity gradually, of potatoes to three bushels, and of ruta-baga to four and three quarter bushels per day. With this kind of treatment there will be very little difficulty in raising lambs. But when a flock of ewes are not in such condi- tion, and require, therefore, more feed and better treatment, two pounds of hay and one quarter of a pound of grain ought to be fed daily until the rutting season is over, when the grain should be withdrawn SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 211 and roots immiediately given, of potatoes two, or ruta-baga three bushels to a hundred per day, until about lambing-time, when that quantity is to be in- creased to three bushels of the former and four and three quarter bushels of the latter. Both flocks should receive a foddering of straw or good corn- fodder three times a week, generally at night, of which they will eat a considerable portion, while the orts serve for litter. The three-year old wethers will go through the winter on hay, with an occasional foddering of straw, the orts of which serve them for litter. But the younger wethers require better feed, and, being hard to winter, the best hay should be given them, with some small additions of grain or roots, say one fifth of a pound of grain, or three quarters of a pound of potatoes, or one and a quarter pounds of ruta- baga. It being very desirable tjiat the lambs should go through the winter in the best possible condition, much care is required ; and having given them a few sheaves of oats every evening before they were taken out of the pasture, it remains now to be de- termined as to the kind and quantity of feed they are to receive. This ought to be the best hay, and as much of it as they will eat without cloying. If it is well mixed with white and red clover, and has been cut in good season and well cured, it should be eaten up clean. In addition to this, from a quarter to half a bushel of oats per hundred head may be Iheir daily allowance, as circumstances require. The flock of invalids, having been placed in the warmest situation, claim every care and attention ; and no pains or trouble must be spared to carry them through the winter, so that the old ewes shall be enabled to raise a lamb each, which will pay foi all the extra expense and trouble the whole have cost. In connexion with the foregoing remarks, it be- comes necessary to ascertain the feeding properties of grain, ro'tts, and straw, as compared with hay, to 212 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. enable the farmer to make his estimate of the quan* tity he will require, and to calculate the probable jjrofit or loss of raising certain crops, and feeding ihem to sheep. The experiments of Mr. De Raumer, of Kaltwas- ser, in Silesia, go far to establish certain facts on this subject. They are interesting to the inquiring mind, and may be considered as settled. Mr. De Raumer is a thorough, practical, and scientific far- mer, and is considered high authority on agricultural subjects : his farm-establishment is very extensive, and his experiments may be relied upon. " Potatoes, raw and cut into slices, sheep eat gree- dily, and with continued good appetite ; they ate seven pounds per head daily, with an allowance ol straw. The animals remained healthy and lively, and drank three pints of water per head daily. " Mangold-wurzel, sheep eat with less greediness : they consumed regularly eight pounds per head dai- ly, with straw as with the potatoes, and drank scarce- ly one quart of water. The animals remained like- wise healthy. t.S5 rrndoMd KINM OP FEED. WOOL tallow. lb>. OS. IIm. nl. 1000 pound s raw potatoes, with salt . do. without salt 4bi b 8i • 2 5i JOOO do. 44 6 8 10 in 1000 do. raw mangold -wurzel 38 5 3i 6 5i 1000 do. pease .... 134 14 11 41 6 1000 do. wheat 155 13 13i 59 9 1000 do. rye, with salt . 90 13 14i 35 Hi 33 8} 1000 do. do. without salt 83 12 104 1000 do. oats 146 9 12 40 8 JOOO do. barley 1J6 11 6i 60 1 1000 do. buckwheat l.iO 10 il 33 8 10()0 do. good hay 58 7 JOl 12 14 1000 do. hay, with straw, witboot other fodder 31 IS 8 6 ii 1000 Ibe. whiskey still-grains or « rash. 35 6 1 4 0 SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 213 " Pease, sheep eat very eagerly ; they consumed two pounds per head per day, drank two to three quarts of water in twenty-four hours, and the ani- mals remained perfectly healthy. In an unsoaked condition, they are iiard for sheep to eat, and affect their teeth. " Wheat, sheep eat greedily, and it disposes them to be very lively ; they consumed two pounds per head daily, drank from two to three quarts of water, and remained perfectly healthy. " Rye, sheep do not eat readily, and it does not suit them well, as the above results in the increase of weight show : they drank from two to three quarts of water daily. " Barley : of this the jheep ate two and a half pounds per head daily, and throve upon it, drinking three quarts of water in twenty-four hours. " Oats the same as barley. " Buckwheat the sheep ate with great avidity, and with the best results as to health and liveliness. A sheep can eat from three to four pounds, and will drink from two and a half to three quarts of water in twenty-four hours. " Of good hay a sheep can consume four and a half pounds, and will drink from two and a half to three quarts of water in twenty-four hours." Mr. W. A. Kreisig, a celebrated farmer in East Prussia, considers that one pound of oil-cake meal is as nutritious as two pounds of good hay. 80 lbs. of clor ^r hay* are equal to 100 lbs. mead- ow hay. 80 lbs. lucerne and sainfoin, to 100 lbs. do. 200 lbs. sound and well-cured vetches and pea- vines, to 100 lbs. do. 300 lbs. sound barley and oat straw, to 100 lbs. do. * Note by the Translator — The dover in Germany grows finer than the clover in this section of country : it reseir.bles more the Pennsylvania clover, and yields two crops a season. It is cut when in full blow, and well cured in cocks. 214 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 400 lbs. sound wheat and rye straw, to 100 lbs. do. 100 lb.s. water-turnips, equal to 40 lbs. of potatoes, or 60 lbs. of inangold-wurzel. Mr. John Philip Wagner says, in his work entitled " Contributions to the Science and Treatment of Wool and Sheep," that " 200 ]X)unds of potatoes, 266 pounds of carrots, 350 pounds of ruta-baga, and 90 pounds of clover-hay, lucerne, and sainfoin, are each of them equal to 100 pounds of good hay." Your commitee beg leave farther to cite the prac- tice of a few of the most celebrated breeders of sheep in Germany ; and, first, that of Mr. Albricht Thaer. of Moeglin, in Prussia. Potatoes and straw consti- tute the main feed for his large flock of 1500 during winter. He cuts the potatoes into small slices, feeding them alternately with straw. When his pastures, in the fall of the year, begin to fail, he commences feeding potatoes, by scattering them in the field in such quantities as he deems suflicient, with the best effect upon the health and condition of the animals ; his flock fully attesting that sheep may be kept principally on roots and straw. One of the committee, who has been familiar with sheep- husbandry both in this country and in Germany, confidently believes, from his knowledge on the sub- ject, that the same practice can be profitably applied in our sheep-husbandr>'. Mr. Bloeck, of Schieraw, in Silesia, one of the most intelligent and experienced breeders of sheep, keeps a flock of 500 in the following manner. He fodders si.\ times a day. 1st fodder— 208 lbs. rye straw, of which they eat . 52 lbs. 2d fodder— 130 lbs. oat do. do. do. . 97 lb*. 3d fodder— the dry sheep receive 160 lbs of pea- vines, of which they eat . . . 120 lbs. the ewes receive hay . .120 lbs. 4thfodder — potatoes mixed with cut straw 750 lbs. rye bran .... 31 Itw. oil-cako meal, ... 8 Iba. barley meal, « . 33 lbs. 822 IbiL , 69 lbs. . CD lbs . 100 lbs. . 72 lbs. . 75 lbs. SHEEP AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 215 5th fodder— the ewes retfeive hay . . . 120 lbs. the wethers 160 lbs. pea-vines, of which they eat ... . 120 lbs. 6th and last fodder— 203 lbs. of rye and wheat straw, of which they eat . . 52 lbs. Total amount consumed per day . . 1503 lbs. The flock was of superior quality, the animals large, and always in excellent condition. C/Ount Magnis, of Eckhardsdorf, gave to 100 breed- g ing ewes the following per day : 1st fodder— straw and clover hacker 2d fodder — the same . . . , 3d fodder — clover hay .... 4th fodder— potatoes and straw hacker , 5th fodder— straw .... Total ...... 395 lbs. The daily portion of the electoral flock of Rennes- dorf, the private property of the King of Saxony, consisting of 400 breeding ewes and rams, was 1000 pounds of hay in two meals, and at night a fodder- ing of straw. Many other valuable practices of the German shepherds might be cited ; but your committee, fear- ing that they have already exhausted your patience, forbear to enlarge upon them ; they therefore pro- ceed to the consideration of the second proposition, namely, water. All domestic animals require water in proportion to the quantity of dry provender they consume ; and sheep demand particular attention in this respect, as well as some care in regulating the quantity, accord- ing to circumstances. Warm springs are always to be preferred ; though sheep are frequently to be seen eating snow, which may be attributed in most cases to fever. It is desirable that the flock should be able to drink without wetting their feet or wading into the mud, both of which are not only very injurious by pro- 216 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. ducing disease in the foot, but deter the animals from drinking as often as incHnation prompts. Protection against the inclemencies of the season is the third consideration in the " feeding and man- agement of sheep in winter." It is almost as ne- cessary to their health and prosperity as food itself, and for this reason, comfortable shelters should be built for them : they not only do much better, but it is a great saving of time, fodder, and manure. It will be found that ten tons of hay, fed to sheep that have warm shelter, will go farther than twelve tons fed out to them from a stack, and when they have no other protection from the inclemencies of the ■weather than the side of the stack or a fence. Such stables, if properly constructed, will pay at least from 15 to 25 per cent, interest annually. This alone should prompt the owner of a flock to provide comfortable lodging places for them. " A merciful man is merciful to his beast. ^^ Each full-grown sheep requires six square feet of room, including racks. The stable should be eight feet high, with windows in the upper part, that may be closed as circumstances require. The floor over- head ought to be made tight, that nothing may fall through. The animals must be well littered, as it will add much to their health and comfort. Where this is neglected, the dung accumulates and creates an offensive smell, and the sheep are then very loath to enter their stables. It is but too often the case, that when farmers do shelter tlieir sheep, the stables contain a mass of dung so offensive that the flock will not enter them, and, if forced in and confined .there, it proves highly injurious : hence the preju- dice " that housing sheep is injurious to their health." OUR COUNTRY — OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 217 CHAPTER X. MISCELLANEOUS. Our Oountky — ocr whole Country.— Clover : its value for Cattle, for Seed, and for the Soil. — Use of Clover.— Clover and Clover-seed. — Prevention of Smut. — Why is it best to bury Manure ? — Butter-making. — Drill Husbandry. — Effect of Steeps. — Modes and Profits of Strawberry Culture. — Sta- tistics of American Wool and Woollen Manufactures. — Ex- periment in Harvesting Corn. — Cultivation of Cucumbers. — The circumscribed Farmer &c., &c. There is no one business of life which so highly conduces to national prosperity and independence, and to general and individual happiness, as the cul- tivation of the soil. Agriculture may be regarded, says the great Sully, as the breasts from which the state derives its support and nourishment. Agricul- ture is truly our nursing mother, which nurtures, and gives growth, and wealth, and moral health, and character to our country. It may be consider- ed as the great wheel which moves all the machine- ry of society ; and that whatever gives to this a new impulse or energy, communicates a corresponding impetus to the thousand minor wheels of interest which it propels and regulates. Providence seems wisely to have ordained, that because this is the most necessary employment towards the subsist- ence and comfort of the human family, its labours shall receive the highest and most substantial re- ward. While the other classes of society are di- rectly dependant upon agriculture for a regular and sufficient provision of the means of subsistence, the agriculturist is 'enabled to supply all the absolute wants of life fiom his own labours, though he de- rives most of his pleasures and profits from an in- 218 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. terchange of the products of his industry with the other classes of society. Agriculture has been call- ed the parent of arts, not only because it was the first art practised by man, but because the other arts are its legitimate offspring, and cannot continue long to exist without it. It is the great business of civ- ilized hfe, and gives employment to a vast majority of almost every people. The substantial prosperity of a country is always in the ratio of its agricultural industry and wealth. Commerce and manufactures may give temporary consequence to a state ; but these are always a precarious dependance. Venice, Genoa, Portugal, Spain, &c., each in turn rose to wealth and power from commercial enterprise ; but they all now ex- hibit melancholy evidences of fallen greatness. Their population degenerated under the corrupting influence of commercial wealth, and, having no suit- able agricultural basis to rest upon, they have fallen in succession from their high standing, victims to the enervating influence of domestic cabals, or be- fore the more robust energies of rival powers. They exhibit nothing now, in their political or social insti- tutions, in their agriculture or the condition of their population, that can be admired or coveted by the freemen of America. CSrcat Britain has now be- come ascendant in commerce and manufactures ; yet her greatness in thesie sources of power and op- ulence is primarily and principally owing to the ex- cellent state of her agriculture ; without which she could not maintain her manufactures or commerce in their present flourishing state, or long retain her immense foreign possessions, or anything like her present population. Only one third of her people are said to be employed in agriculture ; j'et their labours, such is the high condition of her husbandry, suffice to feed themselves and the other two thirds. An agricultural population of five millions, of all ages, produces annually, from her limited soil, seven OUR COUNTRY — OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 219 hundred millions of dollars' worth of agricultural pro- duce, averaging about one hundred and forty dollars to each man, woman, and child. The recently-pub- lished letters of Dr. Humphreys are so conclusive and instructive upon this subject, not only in regard to the importance of agriculture to a nation, but as showing the susceptibility of this art of high im- provement and great productiveness, that we subjoin below an extract from one of them. " It is the opinion of competent judges, that the advances made in the agriculture of Great Britain during the last seventy or eighty years, are scarcely exceeded by the improvement and extension of her manufactures within the same period, and that to these advances no other old-settled country furnish- es any parallel. That they have been very rapid, indeed, the following figures and comparisons abun- dantly show. In 1760, the total growth of all kinds of grain in England and Wales was about 120,000,000 bushels. To this should be added, perhaps, 50,000,000 for Scotland ; making a great total of 170,000,000. In 1835, the quantity in both kingdoms could not have been less than 340,000,000 bushels. In 1755, the population of the whole island did not much, if any, exceed 7,500,000. In 1831 it had risen to 16,525,180, being an increase of 9,000,000, or 120 per cent. ! Now the improvements in agriculture have more than kept pace with this prodigious in- crease of demand for its various productions ; for it is agreed on all hands, that the 16,500,000, or, rath- er, the 17,500,000 (for more than a million has been added since 1831), are much fuller fed, and on pro- visions of a far better quality, than the 7,500,000 were in 1755. Nor is Great Britain indebted at all, at present, to foreign markets for her supplies. Since 1832, she has imported no grain worth mentioning; and till within the last six months, prices have been so exceedingly depressed as to call forth loud com- plaints from the whole agricultural interest of the 820 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. country. England is at this moment so far from wanting any of our breadstuffs, if we had them to export, that she has been supplying us liberally aU winter from her own granaries ; and, according to the latest advices, she had still bread enough and to spare. Again : it is estimated by British writers of high authority, that the subsistence of 9,000,000 peo- ple costs, in raw produce, no less than jC72,000,000, or £8 for each individual, per annum. According to this estimate, the annual product of this great branch of national industry is $350,000,000 more at present than it was in 1755; which is more than twice the value of the whole cotton manufacture of the country in 1831. Now if it costs $350,000,000 to feed the increased population of 9,000,000, then to feed the whole population of 17,500,000 must cost nearly $700,000,000 ! What an amazing agricultu- ral product for so small a territory ! And yet it is the opinion of practical men of the highest respecta- bility in England, that the raw produce of the island might be wellnigh doubled, without any greater proportional expense being incurred in its produc- tion ; that is to say, 35,000,000 people might draw their subsistence from one little speck in the ocean I Now we have a territory more than fifteen times as large as the island of Great Britain ; and what should hinder it, whejj it comes to be brought under no higher cultivation than some parts of England and Scotland, from sustaining a population of 500 or 600 millions of people 1 This would give to Virginia something like thirty millions ; to Illinois and Mis- souri about the same number each; to New- York near twenty-five millions, and so on in proportion to the other states. I am quite aware that this es- timate will be regarded as extremely visionary and incredible by many readers ; but not more so than it would have been thought, in the middle of the last century, that England, Scotland, and Wales could ever be made to sustain thirty-five, or even thirty millions." OUR COUNTRY — OUR WHOLE COUNTRY. 221 A city may flourish by foreign commerce, by be- coming the carrier of other nations, till foreign ag- gression, or foreign rivalship, or the opening of new channels of trade — contingences of no unfrequent occurrence — shall blast its prospects, and consign it, like Persepolis, Petra, Tyre, and other ancient cities of the East, to ruin and oMi\ion. A town or district may Uuurish by manufacturings industry, as many have done in ancient and in mod- ern times, so long as it can exchange its merchan- dise for the means of subsistence and of acquiring wealth ; but if its dependance for these is upon for- eign lands, its prosperity is unstable ; the interchange is liable to be inten-upted by wars, rivalships, and other contingences. A country can be long prosperous and truly inde- pendent only when it is sustained by agricultural intelligence and agricultural industry. Its foreign commerce may be swept from the ocean; its manu- factures may perish ; yet still, if its soil be tilled, and well tilled, it can be made to yield all the abso- lute necessaries of life ; it can, when misfortunes abate, like the roots of the trunkless tree, send forth a new stem, new branches, new foliage, and new fruit ; it can rear again the edifice of the manufac- turer, and spread again the sails of commerce ; and it will yet retain the germe and the spirit of inde- pendence. The preceding facts will serve to show the im- portance of agriculture to a nation in sustaining its prosperity and its independence, and in supplying the wants and multiplying the comforts of its popu- lation. The same reasoning that applies to nations, applies to states, to counties, to towns, and to neigh- bourhoods. Agriculture constitutes the basis of their prosperity, directly or remotely ; and the blessings which It confers are always in the ratio of the intel- ligence, skill, and industry which direct and control its operations. Take a town, for example, which ii22 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. has a mixed population of the various classes of so- ciety. If the average prorofitable. Mr. Brewer was from old Dutchess, the and of clover. He purchased his farm in Enfield in 1830, at $8 50 per acre. It now gives a product of from fifteen to forty dollars per acre per annum ; and the improvement and the profit he ascribes prin- cipally to the cultivation of clover. As the commu- nication is very lengthy, having the writer's permis- sion to do so, we give the purport of it in a con- densed form. Mr. Brewer remarks, that New- York farmers pay ro those of New-Jersey and Pennsylvania annually many thousand dollars for clover-seed, which they might raise for themselves with profit. He would as soon think of buying his seed-oats and seed- wheat as his clover-seed. He prefers the Southern or dwarf clover, because it is fit to cut five or ten days earlier than the tall-growing or Northern kind, and is more certain'of ripening the seed of the sec- ond crop. He sows with his small grain at the rate of fifteen lbs. the acre, and sometimes sows his corn- fields after the last hoeing. Mr. Brewer appropriates his clover to three very valuable purposes : to feed his stock, to fertilize his land, and to fill his purse ; and he has succeeded admirably in them all, so far as we can judge. His cattle thrive upon it, both as a green and a dry crop, in summer and winter ; his wheat and com feed and thrive upon it, when buried and decomposing in the soil ; and his purse increases with the increase of his cattle and his crops. And, finally, besides feed- ing his cattle and fertilizing his soil, the seed of his seoond crop gives him an acroable profit, ammally, clover: its uses. 227 of from fifteen to fifty dollars. Now there is no se- cret in the business, no patent right. He gives you his whole process, that you may profit by his exam- ple if you will. We shall endeavour to present it in concise and plain terms. Clover is used either for hay or pasture the first crop, and uniformly for seed and forage the second crop. If for pasture, he turns his stock upon it about the first of May, or when the soil has become so firm that the feet of the cattle will not poach the sod. At this time, the growth is such as to enable the cattle to thrive. He pastures till about the 20th of June, and the closer it is cropped at this time, the better, he thinks. The cattle are then withdrawn, and the second crop is permitted to grow and ma- ture its seed. If the first crop is designed for hay, it is cut from the 20th to the 26th of June, although it may not have passed the bloom, or arrived at that state when most farmers deem it in a proper condi- tion to be cut. It is important to cut it as early as the 25th, Mr. B. thinks, in order to give the second crop time to grow and mature its seed before it is injured by the frosts of autumn ; five days often making a material difference in the seed-crop. We do not like Mr. B.'s mode of curing this early-cut clover: he takes it, when partially cured, to his barn, and spreads it about upon scaffolds and poles till made, and then puts it into his bay. This causes unnecessary labour. Cured in grass-cocks, accord- ing to our repeated directions,* it will be as good as * We have this year varied our practice somewhat, and, we think, with advantage. The grass cut in the forenoon has been turned in swath directly after dinner, and put into grass-cocka the same day. If rain has threatened, the cocks have been opened the second day, and the hay finished ; but we prefer to .eave them to the third day, when a shght opening, to evaporate the external moisture, suffices. The grass mown in the after- noon is turned the same day in swath, or, if not wilted enough, in the forenoon of the second day, and in the afternoon put into cocks. We deem it important, 1st. That clover should st^tid 229 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. when spread over a barn, and more than half the la- bour will be saved. Mr. B. thinks clover hay made in the shade is much better than that made in the sun. " Xhe next way of curing this green clover," says the writer, " is with wheat-straw that lias been kept in the barn for that purpose, by laying a course of hay and then of straw, and so on until 3-ou have it all secured." The importance of mow- ing the first crop early is illustrated by the fact that one of Mr. B.'s neighbours, who had been persuaded to cut his first crop some days earlier than usual, acknowledged that he should obtain thirty bushels more clover-seed than usual in consequence of it. The seed-crop is gathered with care and brought to the bam as soon as it is fit, that rain upon it, or unnecessary exposure to the weather, may be avoid- ed, both of which materially impair the value of the butts or straw for fodder. The heads are separated with a flail, and the seed extracted by Robert Ritten- house & Go's, patent clover machine. The average product in seed is from four to five bushels the acre ; which, at present prices, is worth sixty to seventy dollars : a tolerable acreable profit for a second crop. In regard to his clover machine, Mr. B. has cleaned four hundred bushels of seed with it, without a dol- lar of expense in repairs. It is portable ; and, " when there is once a machine in a neighbourhood," says Mr. B., "I thmk the farmers will then raise in cocks some time, in order to equalize the moisture, to sweat ; that 18, ihnt the moisture contamed in the thick steins may have time to disseminate itself upon the surface, and into the thin leaves and blossoms. If a slight feniieniation takes place in the cocks, so much the better ; as the hay, in that case, is not likely to undegu a second fermentation in th.e barn. 2dly. 'I'hat the curing process should be carried on, as much as pos- sible, without tne aid of the direct rays of the sun, which cer- tainly imp.iir the nutritive propeities of the hay. Kxpose a lock ol clover two days to the direct iiitJuence of the Min'g rays, and it becumes blanched and valuelOM, and cattle will rej«)ct it. ^Cond. CmU. CLOVER : ITS USES. 220 ^heir own seed, as is the case in my neighbourhood. And if they raise it themselves, they think it costs nothing ; they then sow liberally, and get a bounti- ful return." The machine cost sixty dollars ; and it would verily seem to be worth more than that amount annually to the farmers of the neighbour- . hood. In regard to the value of clover in keeping up the fertility of the farm, Mr. Brewer considers it of the first consequence ; for, says he, " I think I can ma- nure my farm with clover cheaper than I can cart manure from my own barnyard ; although I have it all carried out in the spring of the year for my hoed crops, while unfermented, because 1 think it of more value to have it rot in the soil than in the farmyard. I do not wish to have it understood that I am an ad- vocate of the miserable practice of leaving the ma- nure in the barnyard, as many of my neighbouring farmers do, to waste one half of its best qualities, for I have my barnyard thoroughly cleaned every year." One word as to the condition of the farm when it ctinie under Mr. B.'s management. The soil is de- scribed as being a sandy loam, mixed with slate gravel, and most of it very stony. When he went on to it, remarks he, in 1830, " there were about fifty acres of cleared land, and it was considered one of the poorest farms in the town by my neighbours, who assured me I could not get grass enough from the farm to keep one cow. There was but two acres of meadow upon it, and that was too wet to plough. But this did not discourage me. I pur- chased two and a half bushels of clover-seed the first spring, which some of my neighbours thought was enough to seed my whole farm, weeds and all ; but I sowed it on sixteen acres." Such was Mr. Brewer's begiiming ; and the reader is already ad- vised, that this spirited start has been followed up for eight years with increasing advantage. The 230 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. wheat-crop has averaged from eighteen to twenty^ four bushels per acre. USE OF CLOVER. Almost uniformly, clover (with plaster) is used an an ameliorating or enriching crop ; yet the land is but little benefited thereby. For, as soon as the clover has attained to such a height that cattle can "get a good bite," while the herbage is tender, and before the stalk becomes in the least indurated, the cattle are turned upon it, and are continued there as long as they can get a living. Then comes the turn for colts or sheep, which continue the spoliation till the field is a complete waste, and almost as barren of herbage as the Libyan desert. And now, per- haps, it is time to put in the plough for a winter crop ; so the soil is turned over, and if ten bushels of rye, or fifteen or twenty bushels of oats per acre are obtained, the proprietor is entirely satisfied. Now it strikes me that this is a very mistaken policy. It is true, the stock that takes the first clip fares most daintily, and the land is somewhat ben- efited by the manure left upon the surface ; but, in the case of a dairy farm, where the cows are often driven a considerable distance from the pasture to the yard, there is a great waste ; though many nev- er think of that. But the root of the clover thus sheared of its lungs can never attain to much size ; and, as hardly a leaf or a stalk is turned under, the soil can be but little benefited by the green crop ; and if it does not degenerate, it certainly does not improve. About three years since, in July, I called on a gentleman in the north part of the town where I re- side, who makes use of clover, " according to my notion," in the right way. He went with me over a considerable portion of his farm, and through fields which he intended to sow with wheat or rye. The soil was a gravel, and by nature not the most fertile. CLOVER : ITS USES. 231 In these were horses, swine, and cows, up to their eyes in clover in full bloom, and of most luxuriant growth ; and it gave me pleasure of no ordinary de- gree to witness such a feast : a feast for the eye, for the brute, and for the soil. I remarked, " Indeed, Mr. T., your stock fare sumptuously." " Yes," was his reply, " and that is the way I manure my fields. When the clover is pretty well rolled down (I don't allow the cattle to eat it all up) I go in with my har- row, and complete the levelling process by drawing it in the same direction that I plough, that in the latter operation the herbage may be more complete- ly buried." He likewise told me that it was by far the cheapest manure he could use ; and that, as long as he could produce clover in such abundance, he would not draw manure if it were given him. This is carrying the principle to its fullest extent, farther than I should approve ; but it might have been only his extravagant manner of showing his entire confidence in the system of cultivation, inde- pendent of other means of fertility. Still I very much doubt his willingness to give away his yard manure, or to part with it for the market price ; and I did not observe that he " summered'''' any. He need not have told me that he obtained large crops ; they were splendid ; for his oats in adjoining fields proved it. By-the-way, oats are the crop he most cultivates. The land in this region is often plough- ed in the fall, and only harrowed (but that thorough- ly) in the spring. CLOVER AND CLOVER-SEED. Clover is becoming of more and more importance, and the quantity sown is annually increasing, in proportion as the new system of husbandry extends among us. Its tap roots penetrate and loosen the soil ; its stems and foliage produce abundance of artritious food for the neat stock of the farm ; and DOth roots and stems, when turned under by the 232 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. plough, are highly enriching to the soil. It is indis- pensable in alternate husbandry ; and we feel justi- fied in saying that its liberal and judicious use, to- gether with gypsum, upon many light soils, has add- ed fifty, one hundred, and even two hundred per cent, to the profits of their culture. Yet there are a great many districts of our country in which its value is seemingly but little appreciated, and in which its cultivation has been yet hardly begim. There is scarcely a plant grown upon the farm that returns to the soil more of the elements of fertility; affording almost a certainty that its cultivation will continue to increase for some years in a progress- ive ratio. From this view of the subject, it is apparent that clover-seed will continue tt) increase in demand as it has continued to advance in price ; and that the raising of it for market promises to be a lucrative business. The dwarf Southern clover will afford a crop of hay to be cut the last of June, and a crop of seed to be gathered towards autumn. The price of seed is now from twelve to fifteen dollars a bush- el; and if we suppose the acre to yield but five bushels, the profit will be enormous. Machines for cleaning the seed are already abundant, and others have been introduced for gathering the heads in the field. We give below the drawing and dimensions of one described by Mr. L'Hommedieu, in the trans- actions of the old Agricultural Society PREVENTION OF SMUT. 233 Dimensions. 1, 2. The shafts, 4 feet 4 inches long, and 3 feet asunder. 3, 4. The handles, 3 feet long, and 20 inches apart. 5. The fingers or teeth, 13 inches long. The wheels are 16 inches in diameter. The machine is drawn by one horse, and guided by a man or boy. It simply consists of an open box, about 4 feet square at the bottom and about 3 in height on three sides. To the forepart, which is open, fingers are fixed similar to those of a cradle, about 13 inches in length, and so close together as to hold fast and break off the heads of the clover stocks which catch between them, and which are thrown back into the box as the horse advances. The box is fixed on an axletree supported by the wheels. The driver raises or lowers the fingers of the machine, so as to take off all the heads of the grass ; and, as often as the box is filled with them, they are thrown out, and the horse goes on as before. PREVENTION OF SMUT. We extract the subjoined table from the Quarter- ly .I'ournal for June, as particularly applicable and useful at this season. . It gives the results of trials with various liquids as steeps for seed-wheat, made by Mr. Bevan, on a sandy soil in Bedfordshire. The columns in the table marked A. contain the results from the steeped grain sown, and those marked B. are the results from smutted samples. 284 AUERICAN HUSBANDRY. — < -^ o t^ eo flo o» CO Oi — -H »^ oo 11^ X §?;s8???3^ S S CO ro ?5 -"0 OOCtOiOulvODt^ t^^,^ < CO o o S^??^S?§ 53J!??J? : CO CO fo )auf)Ooaoc> M>r- tt n . < S S S3 ? '»' -T* I* e* .^ w M ?5 • H ai — 00Oq>O — OCON '^tOODI^ "- ^ *:;■" oor;<0(N -npj eio fi"* — N p» — -;__«_ *5J •< « CO t~ o» o c» -< ©©■^ooo . ^-^ .C'^d s'^i ^^^ — 2 C b CO * ■ D. ■ O 0) — 6 H >< O E M o o 0.0. j3 ©"o ill u rated d (aquafortis) acid (spirit of c acid (oil of v 1 slate on water . a 3 2 « o 1.2.2 a 3 a B 2 « sool lime, sat nitric ac muriatic sulphuri ts natura incomni Of °-3 3-5 535 oSEiESe e o c-S ** w » » « « « - . - . . — J3 _2 - - b a I M o^ It will be seen that the seed steeped in a pickle of common salt was free from smut, gave the greatest product in good grain, and the greatest weight in straw. This steep may be used by every farmer. The article from which the above table is extract- ed was written by George W. Johnson. The writer examines the erroneous theories and opinions which have prevailed as to the origin or cause of smut in grain, and, we thinlv, satisfactorily shows their falla- cy. Mr. Johnson then proceeds to detail what he considers correct knowledge upon the subject, and PREVENTION OF SMUT. 235 quotes some of the most eminent naturalists m sup- port of the opinion, that what passes by the different names of smut, dust-brand, and burned corn is a parasit- ical fungus, which preys not only upon the sap, but destroys the very organic structure of the gram and chaff upon which it lixes. Botanists generally dis- tinguish this fungus by the name of urido segetum. Chymical analysis has shown it to consist, 1st, of about one third of its own weight t)f a green, buty- rous, fetid, and acrid oil: 2d, nearly one fourth of a vegeto-animal substance, perfectly similar to that which comes from putrid gluten : 3d, of a black coal, one fifth of its weight, similar to that which is found in all remnants of putrid organic compounds : 4th, of free phosphoric acid, amounting to scarcely more than .004 of the smut : 5th, of phosphates of ammonia, magnesia, and lime, in the proportion of a few thou- sandths. " The contagion attacks especially the gluten, and precedes, indeed prevents, the formation of starch." It has also been shown by Duhamel, Kirby, and others, that the disease exists in the af- fected plant before the development of the head ; that it is propagated by minute seeds, which attach to the kernel, and which are so light as to float buoyantly in a damp atmosphere ; that the vitality of these seeds is not destroyed by frost; but that they will contaminate seed-grain with which they come in contact after being long in the soil. In early spring, when the plants were but a few inches high, upon carefully opening the hose or blade which covers the ear, M. Duhamel found this erhbryo al- ready black and distempered. After quoting the re- sults of many experiments, besides those in the above table, made by Mr. Bevan, Mr. Johnson adds : " The conclusion from these and many other ac- cordant experiments is, that washing the seed is ef- fective in preventing the communication of the dis- ease to the crop. If the washing were frequently repeated, or the cleansing made complete, by pass- 886 AMERICAN HDSBAMDRT. ing a continued stream through the wheat for sora* hours, it is probable that simple water might be em- ployed for this purpose as effectually as any saline solution. But, as this would require more labour than is desirable, and as the salts, &c., employed are beneficial in other ways, by protecting the seed from vermin, and ministering to the future vigour of the plants, steeps are generally and very properly adopted." If lime be employed, it is recommr^ndcd to prepare it by mixing "one pound of fresh lime with tliree gallons of boiling water, allowing these to stand for two hours, and the clear liquid then to be poured off and immediately used. In this liquor the wheat should be soaked for twelve hours, stirred twice or thrice during the time, and then mixed upon a floor, with the powder maiie by pouring three gallons [pints 1] of boiling water upon five pounds of lime." Mr. Johnson has had no experience with lime himself; but he has witnessed many experiments with stale urine and a solution of common salt. He thinks the latter the most agreeable ; and, although both were completely effective, he has used the salt, as being most cleanly as well as convenient. His mode is to wash the seed with pure water, skim off the floating light grains, and then soak it twelve hours in a pickle made with common salt, strong enough to float a hen's egg. Mr. Johnson is satis- fied, from experiments he made, and which he details, that the soil is one source of infection, and that salt is an antidote to this infection ; and he thinks the truth of his opinions is confirmed by the fact " that fields in the vicinity of the sea are rarely injured, and never extensively, by the ravages of the smut. WHV IS IT BEST TO BURY MA.NURE 1 Animal matters decompose with facility when acted upon by moisture and air, the greater propor- tion of their elementary parts making their escape ON BURYING MANURE. 237 in various forms of combination, and leaving the earths, alkalis, and carbonaceous matters remain- ing. When this decomposition takes place beneath the surface of the ground, these gaseous compounds, as well as the carbon (which there is reason to believe assumes also the gaseous state by combining with oxygen), may be supposed to be partially or wholly retained in the earth, to afford the matter of nutri- tion to plants. Purely animal substances, therefore, which thus readily decompose, do not absolutely require fer- mentation before they are mixed with the soil. Vegetable fibre is, under certain circumstances, a slowly decomposing substance. When vegetables are green and full of juice, as all green crops and grass leys, they readily ferment [hence the impro- priety of wasting these fertilizing properties by cross-ploughing] ; but when the stems are dried, as in the case of straw and litter, they decompose with slowness, and the mixing them with animal matter hastens the putrefactive fermentation. The principal animal matters which are mixed with the ligneous fibre of the litter, and which cause it to undergo decomposition, are the'dung and the urine of the animals. — Prof. Low. The practical lessons to be drawn from the above theory are, 1st, to make your cattle-yards concave, or hollow in the middle, to retain the urine of the animals, nearly a moiety of the manure : 2dly, to strew or feed your straw, stalks, and other litter in the yard, to absorb the urine and other liquids there accumulating : 3dly, to apply this manure before it has undergone much fermentation, that the soil may absorb its gaseous portions; and we would add, 4lhly, to apply it to a hoed crop, that the weeds and grasses, the seeds of which are blended with the dung, iiic»y be extirpated in the process of after cul- ture. 238 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. BUTTER-MAKINO. A nice process of butter-making, as practised by Mr. J. M. Weeks, of Salisbury, Vt., is given in the Yankee Farmer. Mr. W. makes three qualities of butter : one, he says, worth 38 cents, being the pure butyrous matter, of exquisite flavour ; the second, worth 19 cents ; and the last, 9 or 10 cents, a gluti- nous substance, and insipid in taste. Mr. Weeks heats his milk after the animal heat has passed from it, but to what temperature he does not say, and then sets his pans in cool, running water ; and, when cold, they are raised out of the water, and the milk skim- med in 6 to 18 hours. We conjecture, for Mr. Weeks has not told us, that the first skifaiming is made be- fore the milk is placed in the running water, or per- haps before it is heated, and the last at the end of the 18 hours. The butter is salted and worked when it comes from the churn, worked again the next day, without cold water in any of the processes, and then packed tight in tubs, lined with bags previously sat- urated with beeswax, and covered on the top with fresh pickle. The great requisites in making and preserving good butter are : 1. That everything should be cleanly throughout the process. 2. That the milk should be kept at a proper tem- perature, say from 45° to 65°, while the cream is separating. 3. That the cream should be taken off and churn- ed before its quality is impaired. 4. That its temperature should be from 55° to 85'^ when put into the churn, and the churning should oe moderate ajid uniform. 5. That salt of the best quality, in sufficient quan- tity to suit the palate, shoiUd be blended with it at the first working, and the buttermilk completely separated from it by the butter-ladle. 6. That the working of the butter should be re- DRILL HUSBANDRY. 239 peated at the end of 24 hours, after the ualt has be- -come completely dissolved, when all the liquid should be pressed out. 7. That it should be packed (without any addition of salt to make it weigh) in stone jars, or in wooden firkins or tubs, such as will not impart to it any taint or bad flavour, and in such manner as will totally exclude the air. Butter made in this way will be of fine flavour ; and, if put down and kept in the manner here rec- ommended, its flavour will be preserved for an al- most indefinite period, provided it is not exposed to a temperature of over 70°. Water, mixed either with the milk, the cream, or the butter, and especial- ly soft water, adds nothing to, but materially injures the flavour. We have no doubt that the position assumed by Mr. Weeks is correct, that milk skim- med at three several times will give three qualities of butter — the cream taken off" first being the richest and most valuable. The common remark of our good dairy- women is, " my butter is good enough ;" and many think so who have no very sufficient reason for such an opin- ion. But as the principal object in making butter is gain, and as it will sell according to its intrinsic value, every one should seek to improve its quality, if not to please themselves, to please their custom- ers, that they may reahze a larger profit. DRILL HUSBANDRY, We have no doubt, will ultimately come mto vogue among us — we mean, in the culture of wheat and other grains— though for a long time its progress will be slow. At the late Preston agricultural meet- ing in England, the question proposed for discussion was, " the comparative advantages of the drill and broadcast systems of husbandry." Mr. Binns ably advocated the drill system, and set forth its advan- tages under the following heads. S40 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 1. The seed is delivered with regularity. 2. It is deposited at a proper rifpth. 3. The weeds, during the growth of the plants, are destroyed with great facility. 4. The plants cultivated receive the undivided benefit of the soil and manure, and have not to main- tain a constant struggle with weeds. 5. The land, by the process of hoeing, is under- going preparation for another crop. fl. The necessity of summer fallowing is avoided. 7. By admission of the sun and air between the rows, a stronger and healthier plant is produced, and, of course, a heavier crop. 8. By stirring the soil, it is rendered more suscep- tible of benefit from the atmosphere, imbibing more oxygen, and being both warmed and enriched by the sun. 9. The roots shoot freely in a pulverized soil. 10. By driUing, the farmer is enabled to have heav- ier crops of beans and wheat on light land. 11. Clover and grass seeds answer incomparably better with the pulverizatioH- produced by hoeing, independent of clearness from weeds. 12. The drills give facility for depositing smaller portions of m&nure with greater eflfect. These advantages are all self-evident to a good farmer; and it might have been added, as a thir- teenth advantage, that driUing economizes seed, though Mr. Binns rejects it on the ground that if the plants are thin, they throw out side-shoots, which produce imperfect grain, and ripen unequally. Mr. B. affirms that fifty-six bushels of wheat have been raised on the light soils of Norfolk by drill hus- bandry. The drills employed in sowing wheat, &c., are drawn by a horse, and sow six or eight rows at a time at the required distance, dropping and covering the seed. The machine for clearing between the rows is also drawn by one horse, and cousists of a EFFECT OF STEEPS ON WHEAT. 241 firame with six hoes attached to it, which occupies the same space as the drill. The rate of drilling is an acre per hour. Wheat is drilled at nine inches between the rows, and barley at seven. The horse- hoe is used once, and the hand-hoe twice. The ex- pense of weeding in England is stated at two shil- lings (forty-eight cents) per acre. EFFECT OF STEEPS ON WHEAT. Mr. Hathaway's letter, published in the June num- ber of the Cultivator, 1838, giving his opinion that steeping Italian spring wheat in strong brine for a length of time is injurious to its vegetating principle, has induced me to make some experiments for my own satisfaction. The results have not been what I anticipated, and they certainly go to prove that gentleman to be correct. The wheat on which I experimented was the Ital ian — the berry fair and plump. The pickle was im- pregnated with as much salt as the water would dissolve. Parcels containing twenty-five kernels each were steeped at different periods of time, placed in moist earth, and marked in such manner that they might be easily distinguished, and were suffered to remain undisturbed until the greater part of tliS stems made their appearance above ground. Result of First. Experiment. No. 1, 25 kernels, steeped 5 minutes, 2 did not vegetate " 2, do., do. 30 do, 2 do. " 3, do., do. 1 hour, 4 do. " 4, do., do. 18 hours, 12 do [2 kernels missing. The result of the parcel steeped 18 hours being unexpected, I made another trial, which was as fol- lows : No. 1, 25 kernels, well washed in brine, every kernel vegetated, steeped 4 hours, 2 kernels did not vegetata do. 8 do., 6 do. do. do. 12 do., 11 do. do. do. 18 do., 13 do. do. 2. do. 3. do., 4. do., 5, do., I.- -T 242 AMERICAN HUSBANDRr. It seems from the above, that the injury sustained is proportioned to the length of time the grain has been steeped, and that when it has been in the brine 18, or even 12 hours, aUnost one half loses its vege- tative power. I am fully satisfied that pickUng and liming the seed is an infallible preventive of smut in the wheat crop ; but I do not think that steepiug for 10, 12, or 18 hours is necessary. This opinion is founded on my own experience and "observation, as well as the long practice and experience of others. My method has been to make the brine as strong as I could, permitting the wheat to be no longer in it than is necessary for washing it, and skimming off what- ever floats on the surface ; when taken out it is mixed with fresh slaked lime, and sown soon after. With this preparation, even when the seed is im- pregnated with smut (as was the case last year with part of the Italian wheat that I obtained), the crop has been perfectly clean. Liquoring, as it is called, has been practised in the wheat-growing districts of Scotland for these forty years past, and how much longer I do not know ; but as long ago as at that period, good farmers would almost as soon have thought of throwing their seed into the sea as of sowing it without that preparation. Brine made from salt or seawater, or otherwise, and stale cham- ber-ley, were used, the latter most generally. When chamber-ley was apphed, the usual method was to sprinkle it on the heap of grain until it was well wetted, adding fresh slaked lime, and sowing im- mrdiately. In the application of brine, some steep- ed the seed for a longer or shorter time, and others sprinkled it. Without liquoring, in nine cases out of ten, the crop was smutty ; with it, never. 1 will conclude with a quotation corroborative of what I have just stated. " There is some danger from the first ; for if the seed steeped in urine is not immedi- ately sown, it will infaUibly lose its vegetative pow- STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 243 er. The second, viz., sprinkling the urine on. the seed, seems to be the safest, if performed by an at- tentive hand ; the last, brining, may do equally well, if such a quantity of salt be incorporated with the water as to render it of sufficient strength. But it may be remarked, that this last mode is often ac- companied with smut, owing, no doubt, to a defi- ciency of strength in the pickle ; whereas a single head with smut is rarely discovered where urine has been used." — Treatise on British Husbandry. Jas. Smealee. modes and profits of strawberry culture. Having noticed an article in the August number of the Cultivator, 1838, on the culture of strawber- ries, to which my attention has been directed for a number of years, and wishing the public to possess all the light on the subject which can be obtained, I am induced to communicate what Httle knowledge I have of it. The kind generally cultivated on Long Island (where I reside) for the supply of the New- York market, I believe to be the early scarlet ; and of these I have at present about three acres under cultivation. We generally transplant, and form our new beds in the beginning of May. Formerly the universal practice was to plant in rows from two to two and a half feet apart, the plants single being left single, and at a distance of from 12 to 18 inches from each other. My present practice, and that of many others, is to plant them in hills about three and a half or four feet asunder each way, placing four plants in a hill, two and two together, about three inches apart. By planting in hills there is a great saving of labour, for it takes less time, the plants are more easily kept clean by running the cultivator through them both ways, and there is less labour in hoeing; whereas, by the old method, when planted close, the cultivator could not be used among them at all, or, at most, only one way. The cultivatoi* is 244 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. run through the plants as late as it can be done wiili. out serious injury to the runners, hoeing them each time; and it is seldom, when judiciously performed, that they require this operation over three times. I have always, in my practice, found the plants when properly managed, sufficiently to cover the ground to produce a good crop of fruit the next sea- son. A piece, covering less than half an acre, of last year's planting, produced this season over 3000 baskets, containing nearly a pint each, which were sold in the New-Yoric markets for $200. This, however, is an uncommon yield, and is seldom ex- celled, or even equalled. New beds almost invaria- bly yield better than old ones, and produce larger fruit, though the berries are apt to be sandy after showers. It took nearly two acres of my old beds to yield the same quantity that the half acre of jiew did. The soil I prefer for strawberries is light, sandy land newly cleared, on which no animal or vegetable manure has been used. On land of this kind, which has been prepared by previous crops, and on which weeds have not been suffered to go to seed, the plants will last four or five years, while on old land they are seldom profitable over two, and often not more than one. The greatest enemy to the beds is white clover, which, in old lands, after the first year's bearing, generally gets possession, and eradicates the plants. Land lately cleared is not often troubled with this grass : the great danger here is frohi sorrel, but this is less destructive. Our beds cover the whole ground : there are no alleys, no clipping of runners, no digging the paths, no burning with straw, as rec- ommended by some gardeners ; for it is doubtful whether these operations would be profitable, and pay cost. At all events, our experience leads us to adopt the plan I have describt^d, The only oper- ation which I have found necessary and advantageous after the first year, is to pull up and destroy the WOOL AND WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES. 245 weeds and grass, and to run a light harrow over old beds early in the spring, when matted too thick with plants. As for manure, it is not customary with us to put any on. I once read an account of plaster being highly beneficial, which I tried, but it failed of improving the plants. Lime might aid in destroying sorrel, but I have not tried it. Much has been written about male and female plants, and of the necessity of mixing them in the beds to make them fruitful. Now all this may be necessary with some varieties ; but with the one we cultivate I can assure you it is not : no cultivator in my neighbourhood {Narrows, L. I.), from which the New-York markets are principally supplied, as far as I have ever heard, does it. I once tried an ex- periment which appears to me conclusive. I plant- ed a small bed in my garden at the time when the fruit commenced ripening, taking only such plants as had good and fair fruit on them, and no others. This bed produced the next year abundantly : they were all female plants, and there were no males in their vicinity to impregnate them. The male and female blossoms of this variety must be on the same plant, although, to the eye, no difference is present- ed in their appearance. T. G. Bergen. STATISTICS OF AMERICAN WOOL AND WOOLLEN MANU- FACTURES. The following is a statement of the number of sheep and of the woollen manufactories in the dif- ferent states, the number of pounds of wool pro- duced in each, and its value at 50 1-2 cents per lb., which seems to have been the average price for the last ten years. 246 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 8b«p. Se«. QlUBtilT. JMIMt Buchioay. lb*. Mlm, Maine . 622,619 24 2,023,512 1,021.873 New- Hampshire . 465.179 43 1,511,832 763.475 Vermont 1,099,011 100 3,571,786 1,803.751 Massachusetts 373,3-i2 519 1,213,297 612,715 Ifhixle Island 81,619 80 265,262 133,957 Coniieciicut 265,169 184 629, ber of ears and the product are less this year than the last, owing to the drought. None of the suck- ers produced ears this year, though many produced them last. This experiment confirms us in the opinion we have long entertained, that there is a prodigious waste, both of corn and forage, and, we insist, of la- bour also, in the still common practice of topping corn. And we again beg those who remain incred- ulous in this matter to make the experiment, as we have repeatedly done, and satisfy themselves. Say there are 300,000 acres of corn cultivated in this state, and that the loss by topping is only five bush- els to the acre, the aggregate loss would amount to 1,500,000 bushels, equal in value to one milhon of dollars annually, to say nothing of the loss in labour and forage. The reason why topped com produces less than that which is cut up, although often stated, is here repeated: the topped corn is deprivedof its elabo- rating organs — its lungs — the leaves above the grain ; and, of course, receives no farther accession of growth, or but very little, while the corn that is cut up retains these organs, which continue to send down nourishment to the grain for some days through the green, succulent stocks. Any fanner may readily satisfy himself that leaves are indispen- sable to growth, by a simple and easy experiment : let him plutk all the leaves from a fruit-bearing branch of an apple, plum, or other fruit-tree, at any stage of growth of the fruit, and he will find that the CULTIVATION OF CUCUMBERS. 249 j.ju Mn such limb will neither grow nor acquire its y il\u flavour, tliough it may change its colour. CULTIVATION OF CUCUMBERS. My object in this article is to describe the manner in which cucumbers are cultivated on Long Island for the supply of the New- York markets. I would premise, that the kind of cucumber grown is suited to field-culture, and that the great object is to have good fruit, and as early as possible, for two or three days make a great difference in its value in market. Cucumbers will grow on any good soil ; but, to have them early, we require one that is rich and sandy, and of a dark colour — yellow and light-col- oured soils being later. The field should, if possi- ble, be protected from the south and northwest winds, and be situated near the bay or river, where there is always less danger from late frosts. The south winds with us, in May and June, retard vege- tation more than any other, in consequence of their being chilly and cool, from blowing over the ocean. Ground intended for cucumbers we prefer plough- ing in August or the beginning of September of the preceding year, and sowing it with rye : the pasture which this produces pays for the labour; and its other advantages are, the prevention of weeds going to seed to trouble us in the spring ; the soil not blowing about in the winter, especially on the knolls, nor being so liable to blow when ploughed in the spring, on, account of the roots of the plants, and the sustenance afforded to the crop by the decay of the rye. Previous to ploughing for the crop, there should be spread seven two-horse loads of street or horse manure to the acre ; but if the soil is poor, more will be necessary, and the ploughing should take place immediately after the spreading. The ground is then harrowed over two or three times until it is quite mellow, furrowed shallow with a plough into hills foiir and a half feet apart, half a I.— U 250 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. shovel of manure dropped in each hill, which is then flattened down with a hoe, and covered about an inch thick with fine soil. Short hog-manure, carted out of the pen the preceding fall, and cut over once or twice early in the spring, and made fine, is pre- ferred for the hills ; but this not being in general sufficiently abundant, we procure from New- York in the fall the manure of cows fed on distillers' slops, mixed with that of horses, so as to make it sufficiently firm to handle with a fork, and mix it with the hog-manure. The manure should be cool, for fermentation in the hills is injurious to the plants. The sooner the seed is planted after ploughing, the better : the time of planting depends upon the forwardness of the season, and it is generally com- menced when single apricot blossoms are open, but some seasons earlier. About a week is occupied in putting in the first seed, and nearly the same period in planting over the second and third times. The casualties to which the seed and plants are subject, induces us to continue putting in seed almost every day for this space of time, so as to make sure work. It sometimes happens, when the weather has been unfavourable, that every hill in some fields is plant- ed over the third, and even single hills the fourth, time. I prefer spreading the first seed in the south half of the hills, the second planting jn the north- west, and the third in the northeast sides : if it be- comes necessary to plant the fourth time, I put the seed in the south half, where the first ^ed is by that time rotten. If this plan is properly followed, the different plantings will not interfere with each other. We generally put in from thirty to forty seeds each time, and cover them with fine soil from three quarters to an inch deep. Sprouting the seed previous to planting does not succeed well early in the season, though it sometimes answers well, when the weather is favourable, in the latter part. Cu- cumber-seed is the most tender of the vine kind. CULTIVATION OF CUCUMBERS. 251 for if, after planting at the usual depth, wet weather should follow, it is almost sure to rot ; if the weath- er is dry, the seed dries out ; if, when favourable to their vegetation, and the plants have advanced so as to be breaking ground, a storm should occur, they generally perish : a northeaster of three or four days' continuance destroys the plants when young, and, in some instances, when more than a week old ; if they are up too early, a late frost is apt to sweep them clean. Seed, to vegetate, requires to be near the surface of the wet soil, not buried deep in it : our ignorance of the weather which will fol- low after planting causes most of our errors ; when planted in a heavy soil, the seed is less liable to rot and dry out than in a sandy one, but the fruit is later. If it happens that there are more plants in a hill than we require, we find it an easy matter to eradicate them with the hoe and fingers ; but it is not so easy to place them in the hills when deficient. When the first rough leaves of the plants are about the size of a twenty-five cent piece, a cultiva- tor is run through the rows both ways, and they receive the first hoeing : the plants are also thinned out, so as not to crowd each other. In hoeing, the soil between the plants should not be disturbed ; large weeds (if there are such) should be pulled out, fine soil drawn around the plants up to the seed- leaves, so as to cover the small weeds, and the hill made flat, and not concave. We are careful not to hoe while «he plants are very young ; for, if a storm should occur shortly after the operation has been performed, the hills soak in too nmch water, which is injurious. Ten or twelve days after the first hoe- ing, the plants, if good, are thinned to six or eight in a hill, leaving the largest ones, and, if possible, three or four inches apart. About eighteen days after the first hoeing, or about the time when single blossoms open, we run a one-horse plough twice through a row each way (if the ground is hard, three times), AMERiCAN HUSBANDRY. throwing the furrow from the hills, and then com mence the second hoeing, which is performed in the same maimer as the first, care being taken not to earth up higher than the seed-leaves, and to so ape out the crust between the plants if the ground is hard or covered with weeds : if the plants are fair, they are thinned down to five in a hill. When the vines extend so that single ones meet each other between the hills, to prevent injuring them, they are carefully laid aside by hand, or with a short stick, and the cultivator is for the last time run once through the rows each way. They then receive the third and last hoeing, the ground being .oosened and drawn up around the hills with the hoe, and broken between the plants with the fingers. It is customary to leave iive plants in a hill, standing from four to five inches apart, but some reduce them to four : 1 have made no experiments to test which is the best. Cucumber-vines will yield fruit about eight weeks, and the fields are picked over at least every second, and sometimes every day. In picking, a light stick, with a crosspiece framed to it, so as to resemble the letter T, is made use of to push the leaves aside, the more readily to discover the fruit. The insects which trouble and destroy the plants are the black worm and striped bugs : the first are apt to be numerous in ground which was occupied the preceding year with red cl(Jver ; they cut off the plants at or just above the surface in the.niglit, and are generally hunted out and destroyed early in the morning, when their burrowing is fresh, and they lay near the surface : the striped bug or yellow fly eats the plants in the daytime, and is sometimes veiy destructive on land where a crust is formed on the surface, which, being raised up by the younj plants, affords them a harboQr. The best remedy IS to catch and destroy them with the fingers in the morning, when the dew i$>- on them and they are THE CIRCUMSCRIBED FARMER. 253 chilled, which prevents their flying and escaping as freely as when the sun has warmed them. Sandy land, having no crust to shelter these pests, is gen- erally exempt from their depredations. We are acquainted with the system of rotation of crops, and it has been practised among our farmers for years; but cucumbers, as well as some other vegetables, do not seem to require it. I have a piece of about half an acre, on which I have culti- vated them for the last ten successive years, plough- ing in the usual quantity of street-manure every second year, and they have flourished as well as on the adjoining groimd, which has been similarly ma- nured, and on which the crops have been changed. The following is the number of hills planted, their produce, and the amount of sales for the last four years, viz. : Tesir. Hills pluted. Cuciunberi mM. JjnnuDt rreeived. 1835 . . 6000 . . 104,965 . 8823 84 1836 . . 6600 . 99,670 . . 820 96 1«37 . . 7370 . . 130.735 . 532 00 1838 . . 7110 . . 118,600 . . 734 87i During each of these years large quantities of cuUings, and, when unsaleable, good cucumbers, were fed to the hogs and cattle, of which no ac- count was kept. Tunis G. Bkrgen. Narrows, L. I , October, 1838. THE ^CCMSCRIBED FARMER. By this we mean such as possess a hmited capi tal, and S^ limited desire for improvement, except in their own way ; such as decline taking an agricul- tural paper, because it teaches nothing, they say, that is adapted to their practice or that is graduated to their scale ; because, in fact, it is not oral, or de- livered by word of mouth, but has been subjected to the operation of the printing-press. Let us ask these gentlemen, if they were disposed to have their son become a first-rate farmer, wheth- 254 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. er they would select a teacher of circumscribed knowledge, who followed the practices of the last century, and knew only how to kill land, or one who was famihar with all the improvements of the age. and whose thrift in business was a guarantee that he worked it right ? Now the agricultural journal is to the circumscribed farmer what the good teachei would be to the boy, an instructer in the improve- ments and best practices in his business, written bj chose who have made and adopted them, and have profited by them ; and for the particular benefit of those who have limited means, or cannot go abroad for the information they need. The modern im- provements in farming go to economize labour, or, rather, to render labour more productive and profit- able, and to keep up the fertility of the soil ; two objects of as much or more importance to the cir- cumscribed farmer than to one of more extended means. The man who takes an agricultural journal profits by the experience of hundreds ; while he who takes none can profit only from his owm, and that, perhaps, of a few neighbours. The adage teaches that two heads are better than one, the world over. These remarks are preliminary to some extracts we are about to make from John Lorain, a philoso- pher and a first-rate farmer, written for the special instruction of circumscribed farmers, to whose no- tice they are respectfully recommbnded. •' In this country land is very cheap : an excellent ready-cash market for the produce of the* soil gen- erally prevails. This offers every rational encour- agement to the poor but industrious farmer, who depends principally on his own labour and that of his family for cultivating the soil occupied by him. He is but little affected by the high price of labour, or the idleness and insolence of workmen, which take place in every counirj' where labour is scarce, unless the laws be oppressively severe. THK CIRCUMSCRIBED FARMER. 255 " The principal reason why this class of farmers so seldom become wealtliy, and but too frequently continue poor, is the desire of immediate returns from cropping, and the mistaken idea that the prof- its to be derived from rearing hve-stock progress too slowly to answer their purposes. This induces them to crop the soil yearly, with but little attention to grass or an increase of cattle, until their grounds become so much exhausted that rest is absolutely necessary to procure crops worth gathering. The soil being greatly impoverished, and the seeds of the grasses destroyed, as far as perpetual ploughing and cropping can effect this ruinous purpose, the grounds rest with no other covering but that of some scat- tering and debilitated grass and weeds. This ex- poses the soil to the very injurious action of the sun, wind, washing rains, and melting snows. "When such grounds are ploughed for crops, instead of being richly stored with grass-roots, and well cov- ered by their tops, scarcely any vegetation is found to replenish them, or to nourish the crops grown on them. " These ruinous practices naturally introduce pov- erty of soil, and its inseparable companion, poverty of purse. This, however, is not all : it entails on posterity the wretchedness introduced by their in- considerate forefathers, or an Herculean task to counteract the curse of poverty which their negli- gence has produced. Whether Satan is also the in- stigator of this evil I do not presume to determine ; but certain I am that it is much greater (so far as farming is concerned) than the curse entailed on the soil by the fall of Adam. That seems to consist simply in brambles and thorns, including with these such other vegetation as would compel man to earn hie bread by the sweat of his brow. This curse, we may all see, is irrevocable ; but we may also, at the same time, observe, that if man complies with Heav en's mild decree, and removes those obstacles to the 256 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY growth of plants which better suit his purpose, agn- cullure flourishes, and his rational wants are abun- dantly supplied. " But when the hand of folly inflicts the additional curse of poverty on the soil, this insatiable monster, like Aaron's serpent, swallows up all the rest. Even brambles, thorns, &c. (the mild chastisement of Heaven), cannot prosper where poverty has obtain- ed dominion over the soil, as may be readily seen ; for these, and all other vegetation on such grounds, look sallow, starved, and debilitated. " That man is inexcusable, and ought to be pun- ished for this sin against common sense, himself, his posterity, and the community in which he re- sides, is evident. " Before this inconsiderate being enters the for- est, glade, or prairie, nature has been for ages en- riching the soil for his use. This fertility might be preserved and increased, even by the circumscribed farmer, if a system of agriculture calculated to keep the ground fully replenished with decaying animal and vegetable matter were practised, and due at- tention paid to the augmentation of livestock in proportion to increased ability, instead of the ruin- ous practice of perpetual ploughing and cropping. " Reason alone demonstrates this interesting fact. It has also been clearly shown by actual practice in almost every neighbourhood — by the successful enterprise of farmers who commenced their busi- ness on lands bought on credit, and covered with timber, without any buildings on them, and with not more than a pair of working cattle, and cows barely sufficient to supply the family with butter and milk. Nay, more : some who were not half as well off as this have paid for their land, acquired an extensive stock of cattle, and become wealthy, though their mode of management was very inferior to that which has been proposed. They, however, increased their livestock in full proportion to the ON THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 257 means furnished by the system o/.' management em- ployed by them. " From first to last, they have been enabled to live better, and far more independently, than those who rehed principally on the plough. The cause of this is evident : milk, butter, cheese, wool, meat, hides, and manure, are continually increasing. It is true that but little manure could be obtained in the beginning : that little, however, was spread, the pro- duct was greatly increased, as was also the fertility of the soil for a succeeding crop, and the grasses following it. Where is plenty of good grasses and hay, young cattle will grow as much or more in one year than they do in two when kept on pasture fed bare during summer, and on straw through the prin- cipal part of the winter. " It is proper to remark, that, although many cir- cumscribed farmers make considerable progress in increasing their livestock, their laudable enterprise is too often suddenly checked before they obtain half the number of domesticated animals necessary to the proper cultivation of their grounds. " This evil originates in the prevailing error, that huge piles of stone and mortar, or of boards and scantling, are the best means that can be pursued by the cultivator to improve his farm. Hence it is that we see, almost in every part of Pennsylvania where it is possible to effect this mistaken improvement, extensive banis and dwelling-houses standing on farms where we do not observe half the quantity of grass or number of caf tie necessary for the proper cultivation of the surrounding soil." ON THE APPLICATION OF MANCBES. Whether by the term manure be understood all things commonly so called, or only putrescent sub- stances, I have had but one opinion for a long time m regard to their application, and this has been con- firmed by all my subsequent experience, each year 258 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. adding something to the great mass of consentane- ous facts. When my attention was first turned to this subject (some thirty-five or forty years ago), I had adopted, but witliout examination, the notion at that time most common among us, tliat it was best to let all putrescent manures be well rotted first, and then bury them deep, either by the plough, spade, or hoe. This notion, like the common law, was so old, that " the memory of man extended not to the contrary ;" but, happily for us all, the revolu- tion had broken the entail of opinions as well as of landed estates, and left us at liberty to think and act for ourselves. The natural consequence of this in- creased freedom was the introduction of many new practices in the arts as well as in government ; and agriculture came in for some small share of these benefits. Among them was the application of pu- trescent manures to the surface, and in a much less fermented state than had ever been • tried before. But so dreadfully afraid were the first experimenters of the formidable laugh of that once numerous fam- ily, " The Goodenoughs," that they made their trials, as it were, by stealth ; and, consequently, the results remained for a long time unknown, except to a few. I happened to be among this small number, and could not long resist the evidence of my senses, al- though I must confess that at first it seemed to me a sort of sacrilege even to doubt, and still more to act, in direct opposition to an opinion which, for aught I know, had descended from Triptolemus him- self. By degrees, however, ray courage waxed stronger and stronger every year, until I felt myself brave enough to commence the following experi- ment, which several old farmers, in whose veracity I perfectly confided, had assured me they had often tried, and always with the result which I am aboat to report in my own case. I began penning my cattle late in the spring, and continued it until frost in pens of the same size. ON THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 259 moved at regular intervals of time, and containing the same number of cattle during the whole period. These pens were alternately ploughed and left un- ploughed until the following spring, when all were planted in corn, immediately followed by wheat. The superiority of both crops on all the pens which had remained unploughed for so many months after the cattle had manured them, was just as distinctly marked as if the dividing fences had continued standing: it was too plain to admit even of the slightest doubt. A near neighbour, a young farmer, had made the same experiment on a somewhat dif- ferent soil the year before, but with results precisely the same. Similar trials I myself have made, and seen made by others, with dry straw, alternately ploughed in as soon as spread, and left on the sur- face until the next spring. In every case the last method appeared to be the best, as far as the fol- lowing crop could prove it. The same experiment has been made by myself and others with manure from the horse-stables and winter-farm pens, con- sisting of much unrotted corn offal, and, without a solitary exception seen or heard of by me, the sur- face application, after the com was planted, pro- duced most manifestly the best crop. I pon these numerous concurrent and undeniable facts my opin- ion has been founded, that it is best to apply manures on the surface of land ; nor is it likely to change un- til I see a still greater number, equally well authen- ticated, on the opposite side : up to the present time I have not heard of a solitary one. True it is that I have read many ingenious, fine-spun arguments in opposition to the opinion which I hold in common with numerous other agriculturists, but no proofs whatever have accompanied them, and therefore I must remain incredulous until they are sustained and corroborated by such facts as should always be deemed indispensable to establish any practice what- ever in any of the various branches of husbandry. 260 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY, To collect these facts is a slow and tedious process, not very flattering to that pride of opinion which delights in speculative theories, and which sickeng at the thought of the labour necessary to make and record accurate experiments in agriculture. In no other way, 1 think, can we account for those differ- ences of opinion as to matters of practice which are often found among our brethren where all the facts are on one side. But unwillingness to believe in that which we cannot explain in some way to grat- ify our vanity, gave rise to the sect of skeptic phi- losophers, and, it is to be feared, will keep up the race as long as the world stands. Let me not be here misunderstood. Far be it from me to object to theory and speculation, provided the sole object be to arrive at truth. As this should be the aim of all, I am in favour of the utmost latitude of discus- sion in the honest pursuit of it. But I do, and must ever protest against that practice, which is far too common among us, of regarding plausible and appa- rently scientific conjectures more than the actual results of experiments fairly and accurately made ; so that not unfrequently we indulge our fancies with the former, even in direct opposition to the latter. Take, for example, the two conflicting theories as to the best mode of applying njanures, and test them by the uniformly-concurring results of the several experiments which 1 have stated. All these results undeniably prove that the surface-apphcation was the best, although the kinds of manure diff"ered con- siderably. And what^actj have we in opposition to this 1 Not one : nothmg but the conjecture that the evaporation from surface-spread manure must carry off the greater and the best portion of the food of plants therein contained. But that such evapora- tion cannot so act seems to me to be unquestion- ably proved by every fact I have mentioned : for, if it duly then the land of summer cattle-pens, plough- ed up as soon as the cattle were removed, would in CN THE APPLICATION OF MANURES. 261 every case have produced better crops than that of the unploughed, instead of doing it in none. Similar results, too, miast have foUow^ed in the other cases which I have stated, whereas I have never seen nor heard of their doing it in any one. My belief, founded on the facts already stated, is, that all the fertilizing sulistaaces of manures are soluble in water, and will remain uninjured them- selves, and useless to plants until the solution be- gins, whether they be deposited on or under the earth's surface. I also believe that this solution is caused by every fall of rain, and is immediately ab- sorbed by the subjacent soil, which absorption re- sults from two causes : first, the principle of gravi- ty ; and, secondly, the stronger attraction of the earth than of the atmosphere for every substance in solution which constitutes the food of plants — more- over, that the earth never parts with this food, when thus absorbed, to anything but the plants themselves ; for it is their peculiar aliment, and not that of the atmosphere, whose existence, for aught we know to the contrary, is entirely independent of it, although its agency seems essential to the health and vigour of all plants. If this were not the fact ; if, for ex- ample, the earth did give the best and greatest por- tion of this food to the atmosphere, or if it escaped from surface-spread manure before gravity and at- traction could impart it to the earth, then the evap- oration which is supposed to be the medium of con- veyance, and which is known to be constantly going on from the soil, would, in process of time, certainly render it barren, even without any cultivation what- ever. Yet neither total nor partial barrenness is ever known to be produced by any other cause than incessant culture without manure. That evapora- tion does take off something from manure while in a moist state, is proved by the offensive smell which constantly exhales from it until it is entirely dry. This smell arises from a gas which is said by some 262 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. to contain the most valuable porti-^n of the food ol plants. But admit the fact, whcic is the proof of this portion being lost '. 1 say there is none. On me contrary, we have w!iat I consider a conclusive reason for believing tliat this food is immediately given by the atmosphere to the tops of plants, as* more suitable to them than to their roots. My rea son for this belief is the result of the following ex- periment, which I have known to be repeated sev- eral times. All the bark was taken off from around the body of certain young trees, in a ring about three inches wide, for the purpose, in the first case which I saw, of ascertaining whether this process would kill the tree. But, to the surprise of us all, not more than a year or two elapsed before that part of the body above the ring became obviously larger than the part below ; and this difference in size in- creased every year afterward, as I had frequent op- portunities of noticing. Another reason why I believe that manures act better spread on the surface of land than buried un- der it in the customary manner, is, that, in the first case, the rain-water carries the dissolved substances no deeper than the roots of most of our cultivated Slants ; and that these substances are there held fast y the earth's chymical affinity until the stronger attraction of the spongioles of the roots begins to act upon them. But, in the second case, that is, where manure is ploughed under as soon as spread, all the food of plants contained therein being placed at once quite as deep as their spongioles naturally extend, and this, too, before the rains begin to dis- solve it, the subsequent solutions necessarily sink still deeper, and generally beyond the reach of the plants for whose nourishment they are designed. In no other way can I account for the long-noticed and invariable superiority of crops produced by sur- face-spread manure to those produced by that which has been ploughed in. To me there appears to be ON THE APPLICATION OP MANURES. 263 but this alternative; either to deny the facts already stated, which I myself have often witnessed, or to explain them (if we must theorize on the subject) in some such way as I have attempted to do. Permit me farther to add, that on this subject nature her- self seems to offer us a useful lesson, if we were not too wise in our own conceits to be taught by such an instructress ; for I know not a single ex- ception to her practice of depositing on the earth's surface all the putrescent substances, of every na- ture and kind, which appear designed to preserve her fecundity. In close connexion with this subject, there is one other matter on which I will take the liberty to ex- press an opinion : this is in regard to the best stale in which manure can be applied. So far as my own experience enables me to judge' (an experience con- firmed by that of many others, in whose practical knowledge of the subject I have great confidence), I believe that the fresher it is the better ; for in this state so much less will suffice than in a more ad- vanced stage of putrefaction, that time, labour, and value are all saved in the application : while none of the alleged " burning,^'' ascribed to manure's being " too hot,'''' ever occurs if the quantity used be less- ened in proportion to its- freshness. This injury to plants, if I mistake not, is always caused by excess in the quantity, and not by the quality of the manure we apply to them, although the two things are often confounded, and thereby contribute to the perpetua- tion of error in regard to the nature and operation of aU fertilizing substances. There is not, I believe, an agriculturist of any experience in our country who has not had frequent opportunities of witness- ing numerous facts to prove the correctness of these opinions. But, as I before remarked, we are aU vastly fonder of our own fancies than of facts in opposition to them, and, consequently, pass by all such without notice ; or, when too strong and oh- 264 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. trusive to be entirely disregarded, we spare no la- bour nor pains to force them, as far as we possibly can, to support some previously-conceived notion which our silly pride forbids us to abandon. This obstacle to the progress of all improvement, but especially in husbandry, is one of the most penii- cious of our besetting sins; and, but far this, it seems to me impossible that any controversy should still exist in regard to the best manner and state in which to apply manures to land. Two or three years, at farthest, would have been amply sufficient to establish the most beneficial practice, if all those whose special interest it is to ascertain it would have diligently and impartially resorted to compara- tive experiments, accurately and assiduously made for the purpose, rather than to speculating and the- orizing about it. Cut it can never be too late to make such experiments. Let me, therefore, most earnestly recommend to all who have doubts on the subject, forthwith to commence making trials of the different methods of applying manures, and also of the different states in which it is best to apply it. The opinions of experienced men are certainly well worth consulting in regard to ail matters connected with their respective trades, professions, or callings ; but we should never implicitly take them as guides for our own practice any longer than until we can have leisure to test their correctness by actual ex- periments. When a number of these concur in pro- ducing the same uniform result, it is matter of very little comparative importance how others may en- deavour to account for the fact, as the fact itself is the all-important thing, esf)ecially in ever>' practical art. But this war between speculation and practice, between nature's doings and our fanciful ways of accounting for them, is destined, 1 fear, never to cease so long as such a thing remains in the wen situation, a good top. The same evil occurs in the nursery or the forest, when the young trees stand in a crowded position. In the second case, wc produce unsightly and compara- tively unproductive tops. Since the offices and the importance of loaves in the vegetable economy have been better understood, a manifest improvement in prmiing has taken place. It is now contended, and, we think, upon correct principles, that none, or but very few of the lateral branches should be cut en- tirely from young trees until the tree is tall enough to form a head ; and that the pruner should be con- tent with shortening those which interfere with the main stem, and such as are of unreasonable length. By this means we get a tapering and straight stem, and retain the aid of a large portion of the leaves towards its enlargement. Every leaf contributes to the growth of the stem below the point of connex- ion. When the tree has attained a proper height to form the top„ it is advisable, particularly with the apple, to cut out the upright shoot, leaving three, or, at most, four lateral branches upon different sides. If a little attention is afterward annually given to cutting out the small limbs which are likely to cross or interfere with each other, the necessity of cutting off large branches will be for a long time prevented. In old trees, the older branches frequently become cankered and diseased, and young, thrifty wood is thrown out at or near their base. In this case, it is always preferable to cut away the diseased wood, leaving the healthy shoots to take their place. In transplanting trees the knife should be used sparing- ly. If the roots are greatly diminished in digging up the tree, the top may be lightened by thinning its branches ; or, if none of these can be spared with- out marring the form, the longer branches may be shortened, or cut in at a bud ; but we do not advise, in any case, the cutting off the entire top. THE MIND AND THE SOIL. 275 THE MIND AND THE SOIL. Ill cultivating the soil, we have our seed-time and our harvest-time ; and we all very well know, that if good seed is not deposited in good time, the har- vest will either be scanty or altogether fail. We can reap only what we sow, unless it be the weeds and noxious plants which spring up spontaneously from our neglect. So it is with the mind. It has its seed-time and its harvest-time ; its vernal season of youth, and its summer season of manhood. And the good seed we sow in the young mind will as as- suredly grow and give its increase as that which we deposite in the soil. Our crops tend to increase our wealth and add to our animal enjoyments. The im- provement of the mind not only tends to these de- sirable ends by aiding the labour of the hands, but it tends also to knowledge, to virtue, to happiness. Do we estimate these things rightly, and assign to each its relative value 1 Do we not graduate the wages of the labourer who cultivates our soil by the measure of good he can render us ] And do we not graduate the wages of the teacher, who cultivates the minds of our children on a very different princi- ple, by the small amount which his wants or his limited capacity induces him to take ? While we make merit the criterion of our choice in the culti- vation of the soil, do we not too often make the want of it the criterion in choosing the cultivator of the mind 1 And yet all must acknowledge that qualifi- cation and excellence are as much more important in the latter than in the former, as mind is superior to matter, as a good man is superior to a good crop. Who would not feel a higher pride in rearing a fam- ily of intelligent, virtuous, and useful children, than in rearing a fine beast, or in raising a great crop of corn ■? Let us try to mend in this matter ; to get good labourers in the mental and moral no less than ir. the vegetable field of culture. Thfon shall oiir children " rise up and bless us." S76 AMERICAN HUdBANDRT. CHAPTER XL , MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES CONTIKUPO. Caleb Kirk on Hedging. — Animal Nutrition. — On the Use of Gypsum.— Choked Cattle. — Specific Food in Soils for Plants. Having preferred plashing to an)' other mode that I had seen made use of in training a hedge, I began the process when the stalks were about an inch in diameter near the root, and from that to an inch and a half: if well attended to in their previous growth, they will attain that size in six or seven years after they are planted ; but, if neglected, they may require double that period. It may be observed, that no ad- vantage is gained by plashing before a good root is formed, for that is the future support and basis of the superstructure. By having a good strong root, the cutting or wounding the top or body of the stalk will soon recover from any injury received in the necessary work of plashing, which is done by cut- ting the body of each stalk with a hedge-knife or pruning-hook, bending the stalk with one hand in the direction it is to be laid, at the same time, by a stroke of the knife with the other, about four inches from the surface of the ground. If one stroke should not prove sufficient, a second or third may be appli- ed, being careful to leave as much of the wood uncut as to aftbrd the sap to flow into the top, and yet to bend easy into an inclined position of about forty- five degrees' elevation from the base or bank on which it stands : one third or one fourth of uncut wood is sufficient to supply sap to the plashing, which must bend easy, otherwise it would incline to rise out of the proper degree of inclination. Much depends on this circumstance in forming a good and CALEB KIRK ON HEDGING. 277 uniform hedge ; the plashings should not press one upon another so much as to prevent a free and un- obstructed circulation of air, and the sun's rays also, as the health and vigour of the plashing is much promoted thereby. If there should be too much wood in the hedge, by planting too close or any oth- er cause, it must be cut away, leaving no more than what is really necessary to form the basis of a good and lasting live fence. One of my errors was suf- fering too much brushwood to be crowded into my first live hedges, both living and dead; brushwood, such as was cut away in some places where too thick, and filled in where too thin. In order to make a present fence, I was induced to suffer it to be done in this way, from the recommendation of my hedger, who was from the west of England, and had been in that practice ; for the immediate making a fence of such materials as he had to do with, I read- ily gave his judgment the preference, he having had experience in the business. But my observations in two or three years more convinced me of the impropriety of introducing dead wood to fill every vacancy, as well as crowding too much of that which was living. 1 had much of it to remove in places where a want of health demonstra- ted the present evil. After this was done the re- maining part became more healthy, but it remains thin, and never will overcome the injury. There seems to be no inclination to put out shoots from the old wood in those vacancies, which would have put forth shoots when newly laid if no obstruction had been present. I find it is best to trim off the branches, especially the large ones, though not very close to the body of the stalk. It shoots young sprouts more abundant- ly from the plashing, which rise in an upright form, as well as those from the stumps shooting up through the plashing ; interlocks the whole together, holding the plashing in their place as crossbars, and forms 278 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. a kind of lattice-work. On the contrary, if the pla8h< ing is too crowded, the shoots rising from the stuinp will evade the thicket and push out in a lateral di- rection, endeavouring to gain the benefit of sun and uir, and rise on the outside, where they are injurious instead of beneficial ; by secluding the plashing from the benefit of sun and air, the sap no longer inclines to the plashing, but flows freely into the suckers on the outside. I have been more particular on this point, having seen errors in others, as well as my own, on that head. Previous to laying a hedge, a quantity of stakes are to be provided about four feet and a half long if it stands on a bank, or a little longer if the ground is not elevated, and split as small as they will bear to drive about one foot in the ground ; they are to be driven through the plashing occasionally, as the work progresses, in a straight line two feet and a half or three feet distant from each other. These stakes are driven through the plashing, so as to keep the part laid directly over the stumps, for reasons before given, the shoots rising immediately through the plash : the stakes are bound in their place by wattles or poles, prepared of alder or willow, or any- thing that will not in future make useful timber, as their use is only temporary, until the hedge becomes set by growth. Thiis binding has the appearance of a twisted rope. CALEB KIRK ON HEDGING. 279 If rightly done, it steadies the head of tlie stakes, and keeps them in a direct line, and serves the pur- pose of holding straggling shoots that may be di- rected under its confinement, and confines the top of the hedge, holding it. steady for trimming until its own growth gives it stability. The next year after being laid it'should be exam- ined, and any shoot that inclines to leave the right direction should be cut away, unless there is a va- cant spot to receive it ; then it ought to be intro- duced into such vacuum. By frequently trimming the superfluous branches off, the body becomes more dense and impenetrable. About five years past I adopted the summer trim- ming about the middle of June, and found it much easier to accomplish while the shoot was in a tender state ; and I have regularly done the trimming in that and the following month ever since, finding the labour much easier performed, and no bad effect on the hedges, though warned by some to the contrary, apprehending bad consequences to arise from cutting at that season. The present season having been excessively dry and warm, I have not discovered the least injury : they have held their foliage as well as usual. My conclusion has been, that by cutting when the sap is in full flow, and taking away the small shoots that were carrying off" a considerable portion for their support, that portion must diff"use and spread through the whole body of the hedge, and add strength to every remaining part. The foregoing remarks will apply to either kind of thorn as it regards the treatment of them ; but the Virginia kind has advantages, though not so rugged in appearance as the Delaware : they are more uniform in their growth, and give regularity and uniformity to the hedge. But what is very im- portant is their inclination to send out an abundance of shoots or suckers when cut, not only from the 280 AltlGRICAN HUSBANDRY. Bttimp, but from the plash also : the latter is not tha case in the Delaware thorn; ihey seldom afford shoots out of the plash ; except where the top end is cut off, the suckers will rise. To attain a regular distribution of shoots from the plashing, we must be mindful to give every stalk laid a proper degree of slope or inclined plane, as before observed : by that means they are likely to rise on the body of the plash. If too much elevated, the sap flows to the head, and produces a cluster at that point ; and if laid too much in a horizontal position, the sap is not encouraged to follow that direction, and will produce suckers from the stump only, leav- ing the plash without sufficient nourishment to be- come useful, and which must consequently decline. It will be readily understood, that the more gener- ally we can direct the flow of sap through the whole body of the hedge, strength and uniformity is there- by promoted, it becoming healthy in all its parts. After that object is attained, all that is necessary is the keeping it within proper limits by trimming. The figure represented on page 278 is a view of a section of newly-plashed hedge divested of foliage, after having formed the first shoots from the old stalks, making the first effort to fill the vacancies, and seven years old before it was cut. This figure represents a section of one th; : _ en laid aeren years and annually trimmed, being in full foliage at CALEB KIRK ON HEDGING. 281 the time the drawing was taken. The first, show- ing the skeleton of a hedge, may be useful to de- monstrate the subject in that stage of its progress to maturity. This figure presents an end view of the section represented on page 280, showing a correct view of the shape which I preferred for form- ing a hedge the most impenetrable at the bottom ; these views are elevated on a bank from a foot to eighteen inch- es high, which was formed from re- peated dressings, as they required fresh earth to cover the grass about the roots, which retards their growth in a young state remarkably if not kept down.i This elevation gives the hedge a much more forbid- ding appearance to ungovernable animals. The trimming may be done with a hedge-knife about eighteen inches long, with a hooked point,, used with one hand, or w^ith any othfr sharp, light tool that may best suit the operator, making the stroke upward rather than downward : the root being secure in the ground, it will not give way be- fore the stroke as it would in making the stroke downward. The last trimmings of these speci- mens were made with a common grass-scythe, as the mowers were cutting the grass in the field. I found, by applying the scythe to the hedge, it was an expeditious mode, though rather unhandy to strike upward ; but a little practice overcame the difficulty. After viewing these specimens of hedges produced by the foregoing mode of management in a given time, it will be information. I have no doubt, to some, sufficient to determine their choice whether a dead or living fence is to be preferred. I made the choice upon an imaginary view, with- out having the advantage of ocular demonstration, and without any idea of the comparative expense, or even attempting to make any calculation on the sub* I.— Y 282 AMERICA.N HUSBANDRY. ject, as I had made up my detennination in favour of a live fence. There are now some 4*ita to form an estimate upon ; and the subject is of such a nature as to re- quire a series of years to gain the desired object ; yet I have confidence in believing it can be ascer- tained with much correctness. The last number on this subject was more fully demonstrated by a drawing, not only to assist the young husbandman in the best mode of forming his live fences, but to give a view of what may be con- sidered a specimen of a finished hedge, or one that has attained maturity — being thirteen years old from the time of planting, and needing no farther care but that of annual trimmings, shearing or clipping the extra shoots that incline to enlarge it beyond proper limits. The mode has been already treated of The next inquiry is, What is the cost of obtaining such a desirable enclosure, to protect and secure the labours of the farmer, and, at the same time, on»a- ment his farm ? The following is a correct esti- matej as near as the nature of the case will admit, calculated for the latitude or neighbourhood of the writer of these notes, being done from actual exper- iments made by himself, and some of his neighbour- ing farmers pursuing the same plan of hedging. Taking a given distance, say one hundred panels of post and rail fence, measuring ten feet to the panel, which is the usual length, makes sixty perches and ten feet over. One thousand quicks will plant that distance : their cost from nursery is $5 00 Planting thern by a man and boy, each two days; man's wages and board at 73 cts 1 .^ boy's do. do. 50 " .... 1 00 One dressing the first year by running a furrow or two with the plough 25 And then a light dressing with the hoe (same hand) . 75 Expense of first year ... fS 50 CALEB KIRK ON HEDGING. 283 Sd year, dressing as above . . . . $1 00 3d " do. do 1 00 4th " do. do 1 00 5lh " do. do. . . . , . 1 00 6th " do. do 1 00 5 years' dressing $5 00 7th year, trenching to prepare for plashing, plough, and horse $0 50 Three days' work, at 75 els., throwing up a ditch 2 25 500 stakes, counting labour as above, including timber 3 50 Wattles, and cutting them . . . . 2 CO One hand three days at plashing, at $1 . . 3 00 Expense of 7th year .... $11 25 8th year, 1 day's work, trimming and cleaning $0 75 9th " do. do. do. . 75 10th " do. do. do. . 75 11th" do. do. do. . 75 12th " do. do. do. . 75 13th " do. do. do. . 75 Expense of six years .... §4 50 $29 25 The foregoing process has produced such a hedge as is exhibited in the drawing, taken from a section of one thirteen years old, now in good condition and improving, becoming more dense every year ; and, so far as I am able to form a judgment, 1 am of the opinion that seventy-five cents annually applied to the trimming will keep it in that form perpetually. The calculation on this section of sixty perches will afford data to "Spply to any quantity of greater- extent ; and iho. annual expense on this, after the seventh year, is uniform, and may be considered to continue so for as long a time as it is regularly at- tended to, and will apply to any extent, at one cent and a quarter per rod or perch of sixteen and a half feet. If the writer of these observations had commen- ced liedging with the knowledge now obtained by experience, one half his labour vv^ould have been saved. 284 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. The expense of a fence made of tunber, say poet and rail, which is the most common in the vicinity of this place, is seventy-five cents for each panel of a four-rail fence to those who have their fencing to purchase and the labour to pay ; that is, seventy-five dollars for one hundred panels, which, compared with the same length of hedging, places the case, for a perishable material, with thirteen years of the time gone $75 00 And for a hedge growing better every year 29 60 Leaving $45 50 as a balance in favour of sixty perches and ten feet distance : what this will amount to on a large farm I shall leave to the owner's calculation. I may farther remark, the labour of making live fence can be done by weak hands if rightly direct- ed : my plashing was done by a man seventy-four years of age. The making of rails and handling theru require a person in the prime of life ; and ev- ery stage of the process of erecting wooden fences is laborious, besides the destniction of much valua- ble timber, which in some neighbourhoods is a heavy tax on the owner. Each neighbourhood may make their calculations of fences made of timber. According to circum- stances attending the hedge, calculations may be relied on, if the foregoing rules and remarks are strictly attended to, which will ^ply to either kind of thorn ; but it was the " Virgmia parsley-leafed thorn" of Marshall's catalogue of forest-trees that was preferred, and which grows spontaneously from this place to the South as far as the Mississippi ; and I have no doubt of its thriving in a northern lati- tude, seeing no bad effect from the winters of our Delaware climate, although I had a section plashed in the midst of winter to prove the consequence. The hedge may be considered as made in seven years from the time of planting, as it is only trim- ANIMAL NUTRITION. 285 ming that is required afterward, which amount* to one cent and a quarter for each perch of distance : the quarter may be thrown off if the cHpping is nev- er omitted in due time, as this lessens tlie labour — a rule that will apply through every operation in hus- bandry, and should never be forgotten while twen*y- five per cent, is saved, and often fifty. ANIMAL NUTRITION. Until within a very few years, little attention seems to have been paid to the subject of animal nutrition: the quantity or kind of food most suitable for this purpose was mostly overlooked ; and if life were supported, no questions were asked as to the why and the wherefore. So long as the population of the world remained few in number compared with the acres from which subsistence was to be drawn, there was, indeed, little use in inquiries of the kind ; then, as now in the United States, or on this Conti- nent generally, a supply of food of some kind was usually certain. Now and then, years of famine in particular sections might occur ; for in those times, when the means of intercourse were so limited, the inhabitants of one country might be starving, while those at a distance of a few hundred miles were rioting in abundance ; but these calamities were soon forgotten in the succeeding plenty, and led to no valuable investigation as to the nature of food or nutrition. The population fared more nearly alike in former times than at present, so far as food was concerned ; it was bulky and hearty, and, if it pro- duced disease, it was of a different kind from that which now assails the modern omniverous eater and drinker, and in all cases was decidedly the same. In these days, the differences in mankind made by rank or wealth are scarcely more deeply marked than Ihose observable between the diseases of the rich and the poor : differences, in the main, to be attribu- ted to the nature of their diet and its effects on the animal system. 286 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Among the inquirers into the effects of different kinds of food or animal nutrition, Dr. Stark, of Vi- enna, appears to have taken the lead ; indeed, he seems to have fallen a martyr to his zeal in the cause of science, perishing, as he undoubtedly did, from the results of his long-continued experiments on himself. By confining himself to food of a par- ticular kind for a considerable space of time, he was able to ascertain its actual effect on the organs of digestion, and its value as a source of nourishment. Bread, meat, and milk, each in its turn, for a consid- erable period was his sole nutriment ; and the result showed that these things, certainly among the most nutritive of substances, could not maintain the vig- our of the body, or even life itself, for but a limited time. In this respect man differs from the majority of animals ; his organization is such as to admit and even require a variety of food ; while many animals are, by a law of their natures, confined to a particu- lar kind, as flesh or vegetables. The French physiologists, Magendie and his coad- jutors, followed up the experiments of Stark, not on themselves, but on animals ; and found they could not long survive on food, however nutritious in itself, unless they received a large portion of that on which they naturally subsist. Thus a dog fed on white sugar and water alone soon became emaciated, lost his appetite and sight, and perished. Few substan- ces can be more nutritive than sugar, but it lacked the power of properly distending the stomach and exciting its digestive energies. Dogs fed on pure wheat bread and water lived but little longer ; and rabbits, which eat a variety of vegetables, such as clover, cabbage, barley, corn, and carrots, were una- ble to live for any time when confined to one of these. It was found that animals, when much ema- ciated and reduced by one kind of food, were not of ten restored by another, though they frequently par took of it with greediness — the tone of the stomacb could not be regained. ANIMAL NUTRITION. 287 To facilitate proper digestion of food by the ani- mal or man, it is necessary that, with the nutritive part, substances more bulky, or containing little nu- tritive power, should at the same time be taken into the stomach. An experiment has been made in England on the feeding of horses, which demon- strates this fact most conclusively. Some cavalry horses were selected; and while one part of them received sugar and water alone, the other part had a few pounds of cut straw added to their portion of sugar and drink. Those which received the sugar alone fell away rapidly, while those fed with the sugar and straw throve as perceptibly ; and a repe- tition of the experiment on another set of animals showed the same result. In man, the rich and high- seasoned food, the fine flour and the fat meat, are to the stomach what pure wheat or sugar would be to the stomach of the horse. There is much nutriment, but little that can facilitate digestion. A man swal- lows nourishment enough for half a dozen ; but, in- stead of its producing a good effect, his stomach be- comes disordered, its functions debilitated, and in the midst of plenty he becomes dyspeptic, and in- capable of enjoying anything. The man who lives on common food, sound and sufficiently nutritious, is rarely troubled with the evils that press so heavi- ly on him who, regardless of the law of nature, takes more nutriment and less substance than is consistent with a healthy tone of the digestive powers. Perhaps- the best estimate of the time required for the digestion of the various substances used as food by man, and their general effect on the animal or- ganization, is given in the book of Dr. Beaumont, from experiments made on the living subject, and under circumstances more favourable to correctness than are known to have ever before existed. We give below a table of the results obtained by him, not as a mere matter of curiosity, but as furnishing information of the most valuable kind in connexion 28S AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. with animal nutrition. The first colamn Indicates the substance taken into the stomach ; the last the time required for its digestion. ^ Boiled rice . Sago, tapioca, barley, and boiled milk Tripe and pigs' feet Fowl*, beef's liver Hard eegs Soft do. Custard Trout, boiled or fried Other fresh fish . Beef, rare-roasted . Do. dry-roasiefl . Salt beef, with mustard Pickled pork. Raw do. . 1 00 2 15 1 00 2 30 3 30 3 00 2 45 1 30 3 00 3 00 3 30 2 30 4 30 3 00 k. m. Mutton, fresh . .3 15 Veal . 4 00 Wheat bread, fresh baked 3 30 Corn bread . . 3 15 Sponge cake . . . 2 30 Succotash . . 3 45 Apple-dumpling . . 3 00 Apples, sour and mellow 2 00 Do. sweet and mellow I ."M) Parsnips, boiled . . 2 .10 Potatoes, do Do., roasted Raw cabbage Raw, with vinega Cabbage, boiled Dr. Beaumont found that the envelope of the seeds of the apple and the skins of potatoes were scarcely acted upon by the gastric juice, and that they were consequently indigestible. As a whole, it would seem that animal aliments are digested easier than vegetable ones ; but his experiments show conclu- sively, that, whatever the kind of food, the ultimate principle of nutrition, or the chyle, is the same in all eases. Digestion is much facilitated by the particles of food being made fine when taken into the stomach, and the quantity of nutritive matter furnished is greater. Individuals, therefore, in whom -the digest- ive powers are weakened, find a benefit in thorough- ly masticating or chewing their food. This princi- ple is of great importance in the feeding or fattening of animals, and shows the necessity of grinding or cooking the materials given them if we would have them derive the full benefit of the nutritive matter contained. The experiments of Dr. Beaumont farther prove, that when food of great nutritive powers is taken ON THE USE OF GYPSUM. 289 into the stomach in large quantities, the functions of that organ. become evidently clogged, and that usual- ly, in eaung, a larger quantity of nutritive matter is received than is beneficial. A certain quantity of solid food, or food of a bulky nature, he found to be essential to easy digestion and a proper separation of the nutritive principle. This agrees with the fact that horses or cattle require cut straw or hay mixed with their grain, both to ensure mastication, and to furnish the necessary bulk of solid matter in the stomach. It is a common saying with farmers, that an ox, when feeding on meal, must be furnished with a lock of hay to make him a cud. They re- quire more than this ; and the reason, from what has been said above, is perfectly obvious. ON THE USE OP GYPSUM. There is no longer any doubt in our mind of the advantage of applying gypsum in the spring to all our meadow-lands which are beyond the influence of the sea atmosphere, and which are habitually dry. There are instances recorded, to be sure, of its not producing perceptible benefit the first year; and some instances where it did not seem to operate even the second year, and yet ultimately developed its fertilizing properties. We do not design now to discuss the question how gypsum does operate, but to inquire and state, from the facts within our reach, to what crops its applica- tion is particularly beneficial ; on what soils its ef- fects appear to be greatest ; how much should be applied to the acre, and at what season it is best ap- plied. We are satisfied, that if the value of gypsum were better known, it would be much more exten- sively used than it is ; and that, the more it is used, the greater will be our agricultural surplus. Gypsum, according to Chaptal, consists of L— Z 290 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Pure calcareous earth or lime ... 30 parts, or 33 Sulphuric acid 32 " 43 Crystallized water ... . . 38 " 24 100 100 It requires from 430 to 500 times its weight of water to dissolve it. When pure, it does not effer- vesce with acids ; it is insipid in taste, and free from smell. A simple mode of trying its quality consists in putting a quantity of it pulverized into a dry pot over the fire, and when heated it gives out a sul- phurous smell. If the ebullition or bubbling which then takes place be considerable, the plaster is good ; but if not, it is considered indifferent ; and if it re- main motionless, like sand, it is not thought to be worth anything. Its colour is white, gray, or blue. Its effects in benefiting agriculture have been great- est in Germany and in the United States. Its bene- fits in Great Britain and France have been less ob- vious. The soils upon which gypsum operates most beneficial ly are the light, dry, sandy, and gravelly. Upon soils containing little or no vegetable matter, its ef- fect is trifling r but when these lands are dressed with dung, the gypsum then produces a great effect ; and, the dung being present, the poorer the land, the greater its benefits. It seldom produces any sensi- ble effect upon wet grounds, and frequently none upon stiff clays. The crops which are most benefited by gypsum are the clovers, lucerne, Indian corn, and pease. There are some few cases noticed of its being found ben- eficial to wheat and other small grains ; but it is the generally received opinion that it 4oes not operate directly on these. Gypsum, however, may be made indirectly beneficial to all crops which are grown upon a clover lay, by causing a greater growth of clover, which becomes food for the crop which fol- lows, and which is abundant in proportion to the ON THE USE OF GYPSUM. 291 rankness of the previous clover. Its effect upon turnips is doubtful ; and some will not allow that it is beneficial to potatoes. Davy lays it down as a fact, that it is most beneficial to those plants which always afford it on analysis ; and the small grains are not found to contain it at all. Many instances are given where its application has doubled and tripled the clover-crop. The quantity which should he applied to the.Mcre is a point quite unsettled ; and it should probably be va- ried according to soil and circumstances. John Taylor, of Virginia, and Judge Peters, of Pennsylva- nia, concurred in opinion, that on lands where it was applied annually, one bushel to an acre was an ample dressing. In Europe it is recommended to dress with five or six bushels to the acre. We have gen- erally sown but a bushel ; but last spring, by way of experiment, we doubled the dressing on a portion of a meadow, and found the grass there much the heav- iest. It is advisable to try it in different quantities, and to note the result of each, as a guide to future practice. The time of applying gypsum is generally in the spring, sometimes as late as May or June. The writer of British Husbandry recommends, with much plausibility, that gypsum be applied to clovers semi- annually, viz., soon after the crop is mown in sum- mer, and in the spring just after the plants have be- gun to shoot. We shall be thankful for memoranda of an}"^ experiments that may have been made in this practice in our own country, and also whether it produces a better effect when laid on in dry than in wet weather. The work from which we have just quo- ted dwells with emphasis on the importance of hav- ing the gypsum attach to and remain upon the leaves of the young plants, and repeats the charge to sow it when the leaves are wet with dew or with a re- cent light rain, and never just preceding or during a rain. Professor Low says that mineral substances, 292 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. as powdered lirae and gypsum, are absorbed through the pores of leaves when scattered upon them. A watery temperature, it is alleged, at least arrests its effects, and seems to suppress them altogether if the gypsum has been calcined, a process which it is sometimes subjected to, to facilitate its reduction to powder. Burning, however, merely expels the crys- taUized water, without otherwise altering the gyp- sum, the strongest heat not being sufficient to expel the sulphuric acid. When applied to tillage-crops, it should be either sown broadcast in spring, or scat- tered upon the hills or drills of the growmg crop. Upon the principle quoted above, the latter would seem to be the better practice in regard to hoed crops ; though our mode of applying it to com has been to sow it broadcast before the ground is har- rowed for seeding. When applied at the rate of five or six bushels to the acre, the effects of a dressing have sometimes continued some four or five years. The most common practice is to sow it annually upon the crops and grounds likely to be benefited by it, and to sow it in quantities from one bushel to two bushels on the acre. To determine the capacity of gypsum for absorb- ing moisture, an ounce and a half, in fine powder, was exposed to the air during three foggy nights, and afterward carefully weighed, when it was found to have gained not quite half a grain in weight. This fact overthrows the theory that plaster is ben- eficial on account of its capacity and tendency to imbibe moisture from the atmosphere. The benefits of gypsum are so palpable in our country upon clover and some other crops, and indi rectly upon nearly all, that we cannot but hope these remarks will serve to extend its use upon our fanns, and to indftce many to try it who are experimentally ignorant of its fertilizing powers. CHOKED CATTLE. 293 CHOKED CATTLE. The facts that more attention is now paid to the rearing of cattle and the introduction of improved breeds than formerly, and that many valuable ani- mals are yearly lost from obstructions in the throat or by choking, which might be saved were proper measures adopted, have induced us to present to our readers drawings of a cattle-probang or throat-tube, from the work on cattle by the Useful Knowledge Society, and a condensed account of the best meth- ods of removing obstructions known at the present day. We give these engravings the more willingly, as the tube is found one of the most efficient and immediate agents of giving relief in hoven or bloat that has yet been devised, and, where it can be had, far preferable to the knife- to which farmers in this disease ai'e frequently compelled to resort. bo a FL92 These cuts will give a sufficfent idea of the con- struction of the most useful probang or oesophagus- tube, and which should be in the possession of every farmer who breeds cattle extensively ; t)r, where this is not the case, one might answer for several neighbouring farmers. No man, however, who pretends to the character of farrier or veterinarian, should be without these or similar instmments. 294 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. Fig. 1. a. The tube made of simple leatlier, or of leather covering a canal of spiral wire. It is about four feet and a half in length, so as to reach from tlje mouth to the rumen or stomach, leaving a suffi- cient portion outside the mouth to be firmly grasped. b. 'I he stiiett or rod, represented as introduced into the tube, and running the whole length of it. It gives greater firmness and strength to the tube when it is either passed into the stomach in cases of hoove, or used to force obstructions down the gullet. c. The handle of the stiiett. d. A hollow piece of wood running freely upon the stiiett, and placed between the handle of the stiiett and the round extremity of the tube. The stiiett is longer than the tube by the extent of this piece of wood, but is prevented from protruding by the interposition of this slider on the handle. The stiiett may be miroduced at either end of the tube. It is usually inserted at e when tlie instrument is used to force anything down the throat, because the bulb at the other end has a flat, or, rather, concave surface, and can therefore act with more certainty and power on the obstruction in the throat. e. The end of tfie tube which is introduced into the paunch in cases of hoove. It is rounded to per- mit it to be more easily forced through the pillars or roof of the paunch, and is perforated with holes for the escape of the gas with which the stomach may be distended. Fig. 2 represents the whalebone stiiett (any tough elastic wood will do for the rod when whalebone cannot be had), with the hollow piece of wood run- ning upon it, and shows how easily that may be withdrawn when the stiiett is taken from the tube. This piece of wood taken off, the stiiett will project a little at the end of the tube ; and by moving the stiiett up and down in the tube, this may be made to act on the obstructing body in the manner, and with somewhat the force of a small hammer. CHOKED CATTLE. 295 Fig. 3 will be presently described. Fig. 4 is a piece of strong, thick wood, widest in the centre, and perforated for the passage of the tube. Its use is to keep the mouth open during the use of tlie probatig; and it is secured by leather straps nailed to the extremities, and buckled round the horns. The farmer should have another mouth- piece, with a central hole that will admit the passage of a small hand. He will thus be enabled to grasp and remove any obstruction that has not descended beyond the commencement of the gullet. Let it be supposed that a cow has swallowed a potato or turnip too large to descend the gullet, and thus arrested in its progress, and evidently seen at a certain distance down the throat. The farmer should have immediate recourse to the tube, intro- ducing the flatter end, and using moderate force. If the body yields to this, he is justified in pushing it into the chest ; but if it is with difficulty pushed on, the operator should instantly cease attempting to drive it down, for the fibres of the gullet soon be- come irritated by distention, and grasp the foreign substance, as it were, spasmodically. The gullet also itself becomes smaller as soon as it enters the thorax, and a substance that moves easily in the upper part can scarcely be moved at ill in the lower portion. But if it cannot be driven down, it may perhaps be solicited or drawn upward. The fibres of the gullet have allowed the substance to pass them, and are somewhat weakened by the unnatural distention; and, not having recovered their tone, they may yield again. The internal coat of the gullet is smooth and yielding : it may, however, be made more so, and some effect may also be produced on the surface of the obstructing body. Half a pint of olive oil should be poured down, a persevering attempt being made by the fingers externally to give the body a retro- grade motion. When moved sufficiently upward, it 296 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. may be drawn out by the hand, introduced through the large mouth-piece. If the obstnicting body cannot be moved in this way, recourse may be had to the corkscrew tube, Fig. 3, in the cut. a. The leather tube as before, but somewhat lar- ger, longer, and stronger, with the upper part, for the purpose of additional strength, sometimes of brass. b. The handle of the stilett, that runs through it as through the other tube. c. The piece of wood sliding on the stilett. In consequence of the corkscrew termination, this mast be in two parts, easily removed. They are here removed, and one of them hangs down, suspended by a string. When removed, they allow the point of the stilett to project two or three inches. d. The bulb which is introduced through the mouth-piece. It is larger than those on the other tube, but not so large as the distended gullet. e. A corkscrew fixed at the end of the stilett ; and which, coming out at the centre of the knob, cannot possibly wound the gullet. When this instrument is used, the screw is re- tracted within the knob, and secured by placing the pieces of wood c on the handle of the stilett. The instrument is then introduced through the mouth- piece, and forced down the throat until it reaches the obstruction. The pieces of wood are then taken off, and the screw, by turning the handle, is worked into the obstructing body as the common corkscrew into a cork. If the potato or turnip is fresh and sound, a great purchase is thus obtained, and in most in- stances the root may be thus drawn out and got rid of; but if only a portion is brought away, some good has been done, and the screw sliould be returned as long as it will take hold. The substance will now probably yield to the pressure of the first probang, and in a crushed state pass into the stomach. CHOKED CATTLE. 297 Sometimes, too, the siilett of the first tube, the slide being taken off, can be advantageously used as the rod of a gun, forcing the obstruction down by re- peated percussions. Should these contrivances fail, and the obstruction still remain, bleeding, sometimes carried to absolute fainting, may be resorted to, in preference to crush- ing the root by external violence, though even this is sometimes admissible. There is not a more pow- erful relaxant of the muscles than bleeding; and during this momentary relaxation the operator may frequently move the body — upward, if possible and in preference, but downward if it will not come up. If the obstruction can neither be forced down nor removed by crushing, the animal must be lost un- less the operation of asophagotomy be resorted to, or the obstruction cut down upon, and then removed through the opening. The veterinary surgeon will here find no difficulty, and may proceed with confi- dence. The animal should be cast, thrown^ on the right side, the head stretched out, and lying as flat as the horns will permit. The point of obstruction will be seen at once. An opening is now made through the skin, the cellular substance a Uttle dissected away, the gullet opened, and the obstruction removed. The edges of the gullet should then be brought to- gether and confined with two stitches, and the skin secured in the same way. The beast should have nothing but gruel for two or three days, then gruel and mashes may be allowed, and in a fortnight or three weeks the wound will generally be healed. If the root has passed into the thorax before it is observed, or the operator has been called, the chances of saving the animal are much diminished. The ob- struction must be either drawn up or pushed down without delay ; and great force is here allowable ; for, if it be not overcome, the auimal will surely die. Cat- tle that have once been choked are found more liable 298 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. than others to suffer agr.in; and it will therefore be generally advisable to fit them for the butcher as early as possible. The tube may be made of thin, firm sole-leather ; or, if of upper-leather, it may be sowed over a spiral tube of small flexible wire. It may be three fourths of an inch in diameter, with a suitable bore, and the bulb may be one and a quarter or one and a half inches in diameter. The stiffness of the tube is greatly aided, when necessary, by the introduction of the rod or stilett. Every one has lost some animals which in all probability might have been saved by the cheap and simple apparatus we have here described, while many have perished by quackery or the ill-judged ef- forts made to save them. It is but a few days since a gentleman of our acquaintance lost a cow that was choked with a potato. Some little eflibrt had been made to remove it, when he was told that a quantity of soap put down would have the desired effect, and the informaiit undertook to see it administered. The required quantity was prepared and poured down, when the animal died almost instantly. The probability is, that more was given than the gullet could contain, and that the first breath, by drawing the fluid soap into the lungs, produced instant suflfo- cation. Soap, too, is a dangerous remedy for an- other reason : it is very rare that the alkali is so thoroughly neutralized as not to retain some caus- ticity ; and, when put down the gullet, if it remains a considerable time in one place, it excoriates the inner membrane, or in some cases eats through the gullet, and thus destroys the animal. Oil, as above directed, is better in all cases than soap ; and no farmer should intnist another with the care of a dis- eased animal, unless he has reason to believe that he possesses some knowledge of the structure, forma- tion, and capacity of the part diseased. We have known animals killed by thrusting a stick so far iau» SPECIFIC FOOD IN SOILS FOR PLANTS. 299 the stomach as to perforate its walls ; and this was owing to ignorance of the distance between the mouth and the stomach. If regard to the sufferings of the animal does not influence them, the fact that such cruel treatment must be a source of loss should induce farmers to adopt a better and more scientific mode of treatment. SPECIFIC FOOD IN SOILS FOR PLANTS. That soils the most favourable for the growth of plants of any particular kind may, unless attention is paid to furnishing a supply of the food in which such plants delight, become exhausted and unfit for their production, is a fact which a multitude of ex- periments fully proves, and which seems to be gen- erally admitted. The earths themselves, silex, lime, and clay, can hardly be said to be the food of plants, though minute portions of them are taken up by the Vfessels and appropriated to the structure of the firmer parts. The earths seem only to serve as a reservoir for the nutritive matter; or perhaps they constitute rather the fountain of that electro-mag- netic agency which has been proved so efficient, if not, indeed, the sole cause of vegetation. We may reduce plants to their elements by cal- cination, and we may examine the products given by their decomposition, but we only discover the parts that are left: the power that collected their particles has ceased to operate ; and we should be almost as well qualified to judge of what the human body can perform, and of the nature of its nutrition and growth, from a post mortem examination, as to tiecide on these same functions in a living plant from an examination of the remains of a dead one. Chymistry has performed wonders, and from its in- valuable aid much more may be expected ; but the causes that change the qualities of a soil, and, of course, the whole character of its vegetation, are of such a nature, and, perhaps, so slight or evanescent, 300 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. as to escape or be overlooked in the scrutiny of the most competent observer. The fact that, by continued cultivation or crop- ping, the soil becomes exhausted of the food of plants or incapable of producing them, is too evi- dent to be denied ; and that in some cases a good growth of a particular kind of plant may be had, when the one previously cultivated has run out, seems equally certain. The trees of our forests, no less than the plants cultivated for food, seem subject to this law, and the instances that prove such ten- dency to change abound in every part of our coun- try. In some places, where the timber on large tracts of land has been felled and allowed to spring up again without intervening cultivation, it is not uncommon to find the young growth consisting of entirely different varieties from those that first oc- cupied'the soil; and in some places, where the soil has been cultivated for years and then left to itse|^ the same result of a total change of timber has en- sued. In many places in Western New- York, where the original growth was beech or even hem- lock, we have seen, when this has been removed and the soil left to itself, the whole surface covered with cherry, laurel, and other trees, not one of which was known previously to exist near the place. ; In Virginia and the states adjoining, it is well known, and the fact has frequently been noticed, that where the original growth is pine, as it is on a very large part of the low country, when this is cleared off, the succeeding growth of timber is never pine, but a mixture of the hard woods, principally oak, chestnut, and their congeners. On the contra- ry, where these latter formed the original growth, the succeeding one is most usually pine, growing up in dense and almost impenetrable thickets. In some of the oldest-settled parts of that region, this process has been repeated several times on the same lands ; the former, but most unskilful practice in farming SPECIFIC FOOD IN SOILS FOR PLANTS. 301 having been to crop a piece of land until completely exhausted, and then leave it to the recuperative ef- forts of nature, while new lands were cleared and put under cultivation. In the valuable papers of Dr. Hildreth on the coal region of the West, and in tlie notes of a Naturalist, both to be found in Sillinn^n'is Journal, are notices of large tracts on which nothing but a heavy growth of white oak and its kindred trees are found, and the soil of which is full of pitch-pine knots, scattered in the greatest profusion over large districts, on which a pine-tree has not been seen since the dis covery of the country. The inference is irresistible, that, owing to some unexplained cause, these im- mense forests have perished, and their place has been occupied by the magnificent oak woods that now form so conspicuous a feature of these districts. So plentiful are these pine remains in some places, that the collecting and burning them for tar has been a profitable business. That there is the same tendency in cultivated plants to change, or to run out and be succeeded by others, is well known to every one. Continued care is required to keep meadows that lie long in grass from becoming filled with other and worthless vari- eties; and reseeding and frequent manurings are necessary to prevent the kinds desired in the soil from running out. So soils on which the same crop is too frequently raised will show a tendency to throw it off in the inferior value of the crop pro- duced. New-England and Eastern New-York were once the best of wheat-growing districts, but have long since ceased to be such ; and the most moment- ous question that can be asked by the Western farmer is, will that region, now so productive, ex- hibit a similar decline 1 There can be no reason to doubt that it will, unless an improved and more ra- tional mode of farming be adopted to prevent it. As illustrating the changes that take place in soils 302 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. from cultivation, rendering them unfit for plant? of a particular kind, we make the follou ng extracts from a communication in the i-'ultiviitor of April, 1838. It is from the pen of a gc.itlemaa of Suffolk county, Long Island : " With us, wheat was raised from the first settling of the county until 1780 or 1790; it then failed. About that time we began to get fish (for manuring), which were used for rye, and did well. It was no uncommon thing to have 40 bushels to the acre. For wheat they did not answer, neither did any other manure. Farmers, as a general thing, gave up try- ing to raise it. At the present time, wheat is a far more certain crop than rye, and has been for years past. Rye has been failing for some time, and lat- terly many pieces have been cut merely for the straw. There is a complete revolution in the two grains. • • • • Corn has not fluctuated ; it has been a steady crop, and governed by the seasons. Oats the same. Flax has run nearly the same round as wheat anu oarley." Two causes have, by vegetable physiologists, been assigned for this action of plants on the soil, both of which have been advocated with great skill, and in favour of both of which a formidable array of facts and experiments may be adduced. One of these theories supposes that a specific food for each kind of plant exists in greater or less quantities in the soil, and that, when this food is exhausted by a suc- cession of crops of the same kind, the plant must of necessity fail for want of its proper nourishment. In this way the changes of forest timber noted above may be explained, since rendering the soil unfit for the production of one kind of plant by no means disqualifies it for growing another. By this theory, also, the cause of the changes of the grain- crops in our country is made plain ; as the specific food of each plant being in a great degree different, that required by the rye had been untouched by the SPECIFIC FOOD IN SOILS FOR PLANTS. 303 wheat, and vice versa. The second theory by which these facts are accounted for is that of the justly celebrated De Candolle, which supposes that plants, in growing, secrete substances injurious to, and not required by them ; which substances, strictly excre- mentitious, are thrown off by the roots into the soil, and, by repetitions of the process, finally render it unfit for the growth of the plant. This excremenli- tious matter is, however, supposed to affect no plants except those of the same kind with that from which it has been ejected : thus that from the pine would not prevent the growth of the oak, nor would that which rendered the soil unfit for wheat injure in the least a crop of rye. It is clear that most of the phenomena alluded to above as attending a succession of crops on the same soil, or the changes which the forests of a country undergo, may be explained by either of these theories ; and it is not • improbable that both may be more or less influential at the same time. To us the weight of testimony has appeared to be in favour of the theory which attributes these changes to an exhaustion of the specific food of the plant ra- ther than to the excretion of poisonous matter from the preceding vegetation. It must be admitted, how- ever, that the experiments of De Candolle and Ma- caire go far to prove such an exudation or secretion form plants ; and, this fact once established, it cannot be unreasonable to suppose that the matter thus re- jected must be unsuitable for the succeeding plant, should it be one requiring the same kind of nutri- ment. Thus, admitting the truth of either of these the- ories, or of both, we arrive at the conclusion that change of plants is a law of nature ; and the manner in which we can imitate her, and thus avoid the in- evitable consequences of continued successions of the same kind of plant, is distinctly pointed out. Nature restores the original constituents of the soil 304 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. by a slow and gradual process : science has enabled us greatly to abridge this period, by producing our- selves, in rapid succession, the same changes that nature, unassisted, would require half a century to effect. We do this in two ways : either by resto- ring to the soil, in the form of manures, what we have taken from it in the shape of grain or grass, or by such a rotation of crops as shall prevent the ex- haustion of the specific food of the plant* in the one case, or the injurious accumulation of excrementi- tious matter in the other. The successful combina- tion of both these methods, manuring and rotation, constitutes the great secret of successful agricul- ture ; and the establishment of the principles on which the system is based may be considered the greatest improvement of its age. In those parts of our own country and in Europe where the system of manuring and rotation has been fully adopted, a steady improvement in the soil and in the crops is clearly apparent, and not the least symptom of ex- haustion or of deterioration can be seen. It is time that the unphilosophical system of taking crop aftet crop of the same kind from land should be aban- doned for the more rational one pointed out by na- ture herself, and which has been proved to be so far superior to the former methods. Com, wheat, clo- ver, and manure (the last applied to the first crop) have trebled the produce of the lands in Dutchess and on Long Island within thirty years ; and lands that had been exhausted and abandoned have been reclaimed, and restored to a state of fertility rivalling the best districts of the West. There is great rea- son to fear that this subject is not yet properly ap- preciated by our farmers. We, in the comparatively new parts of our country, go on as though exhaus- tion were impossible, and reducing the fertihty of our lands a mere fiction. Do we not already begin to perceive proofs (and particularly where the skin- ning process in cropping is adopted) that these JUDGE DUEL S ADDRESS. 305 causes have already begun to operate 1 Do we get as much wheat per acre on such lands as we did twenty years ago ? If not, to what cause shall we at- tribute the falling oft'1 One of the most important questions a farmer can ask. himself is, How shall tnis reduction of crops be arrested where it has al- ready commenced, and prevented where it does not yet exist ? CHAPTER XII. Address of the Hon Judge Buel, delivered before the Agricul- tural and Horticultural Societies of New-Haven County, September 25, 1839. I APPEAR here, gentlemen, by invitation, to address you on the cultivation of the soil, which it is the ob- ject of the associations here convened to promote improvement in. I have been prompted in the un- dertaking rather by a desire to render a service, than from any confidence in my ability to perform one ; and, in the few remarks I have to offer, shall need much of your indulgence for imperfections in style and deficiency in matter. Agriculture and Horticulture are intimately related to each other. They both depend upon the soil, and the animals and plants which it nurtures, for sup- port, for profit, and for pleasure. They both admin- ister and are indispensable to our wants and com- forts. They are governed in their operations by the same natural laws. Agriculture has cognizance of the farm, which supplies our principal wants ; Hor- ticulture of the garden, which administers to our more refined appetites, to our health, and to the ra- tional pleasures of the mind. The one gives us bread and meat, and the materials for our clothing; I.— A A 806 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. the Other, choice dehcacies for the table, aid multi- plies around us the charms of floral beauty and xu- riU scenery. Both tend to beget habits of useful industry and sober reflection, and to improve us in all the social relations of life. It is befitting, there- fore, that institutions designed to foster and pro- mote improvements in these primary and associate branches of labour should unite in their anniver- sary celebration, and in returning thanks to the Su- preme Being for the bounties of a fruitful season. Of tlie utility of these celebrations, and the exhi- bition of the products of the farm and garden wijich are made at them, I have no kind of doubt. They bring to public notice whatever is new and most valuable in a business which highly interests us. They perform the work of years in diffusing useful knowledge in all the departments of rural labour. They awaken in the bosoms of hundreds the dor- mant powers of the mind, which otherwise might have slumbered in apathy. They excite to indus- try, to emulation, and to the study of those laws which everywhere control the visible creation, and which enlighten and reward all who humbly seek and follow their counsels. Nor is it the cultivator of the farm and ganlen alone that are to be benefit- ed by these exhibitions. Whatever tends to in- crease and improve the products of the soil, serves to augment the common stock, and enables the grower to supply the market with more and better products, and to buy more liberally of the other classes in return. The merchant, the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the professional man, have all, therefore, as deep an interest in promoting the im- provement of agriculture and horticulture as the farmer and gardener have. Society is in some measure a joint concern, at least so for as relates to what are termed the producing classes ; the more these cam by their labour, the greater is the acces- sion of substantial wealth to the community. The JUDGE buel's addrlss. 307 amount of honey in a hive depends not upon the num- ber-of bees which it contains, but upon the labour and skill of the working bees. The farmer virtually pro- vides for the other classes, and is, at the same time, their principal patron and customer ; and, although his labours are too often held to be low and menial by those who cannot or will not appreciate their value, his condition affords the best criterion by which to judge of the welfare of those around him. No coun- try can long flourish, or preserve its moral and physi- cal health, whose agriculture is neglected and degra- ded. The amount of a farmer's sales and of his purchases will depend upon the profits of his labour. Double these by an improved system of husbandry, Avhich I feel assured can be done, and which has been far more than realized in many old districts of our country, and you will double the substantial wealth of the neighbourhood, and impart correspond- ing life and activity to every other department of business. If we look to Spain, to Portugal, to a great portion of Italy, to South America, or any other country where agriculture is neglected, or holds but a subordinate rank, we shall find a de- graded population, characterized by superstitious ig- norance, poverty, and crime. Every class of the community, therefore, has a deep interest in pro- moting the improvement of the soil ; and all should willingly contribute their aid towards enhghtening, honouring, and rewarding th^se who are honestly employed in its cultivation. With regard to the utility of agricultural and hor- ticultural societies, much will depend upon the ob- jects which bring their members together. If they associate for selfish purposes, merely to monopolize the spoils, and withdraw whenever they are disap- pointed in their sinister hopes, jealousies and apathy will ensue, and the association will fall, as many under like circumstances have fallen, without pub- Uc loss or public regret. But if the association be 308 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. formed for mutual improvement, and in the benevo- l'"!ht and patriotic desire to do a public good ; to stimulate and reward industry and enterprise, how- ever humble their condition ; and if it strive, by con- centrated and persevering efforts, to improve the condition of a district, of a county, or a state, then will it inspire public confidence, obtain public sup- port, and become a public blessing. To illustrate this last proposition, I beg to refer to some associa- tions which have been tried, and whose labours have been crowned with palpable and brilliant success. The counties of Berkshire, Essex, and Worcester in Massachusetts, have each, for many years, main- tained an agricultural society ; and they each dis- tribute ten or twelve hundred dollars a year, one half of which is paid out of the state treasury, in prizes to successful competitors in the varibus de- partments of agricultural and household labour. It is said, and I believe with truth, that every dollar ihiis expended has made a return of twenty dollars in the increase of agricultural products which it has caused ; and so satisfied are the inhabitants of the benefits of the expenditure, that an increased spirit is annually manifested by all classes to maintain and perpetuate these nurseries of industry and im- provement. The Highland Society of Scotland affords another illustrious example of the utility of agricultural as- sociations, when conducted with a view to public improvement. This society was organized in 1784 ; but so few were its members and so limited its means, that it attracted but little public notice, nor effected any great improvement in husbandry till the commencement of the nineteenth century. Yet it had sown the good seed, which never fails, under proper management, to yield to the husbandman a bountiful harvest. Nor did it fail in this case. The society now numbers twenty-two hundred members, embracing most of the opulent and influential men JDDGE buel's address. 309 of the country, of all professions, and distributes an- nually in prizes about seventeen thousand dollars. In no country or district has agriculture made more mpid strides in improvement than it has in Scot- land since the organization of this society ; which, although it may not have been the only, has most assuredly been a principal, cause of this wonderful and salutary change. Up to 1792, the agriculture of Scotland, to adopt the language of the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, was " wretched ; execrably bad in all its localities ! Hardly any wheat was attempted to be grown ; oats full of this- tles was the standard crop, and this was repeated on the greater part of the arable land, while it would produce twice the seed thrown into it; turnips, as part of the rotation of crops, was unknown ; few po- tatoes were raised, and no grass-seeds or clover were sown. A great part of the summer was em- ployed, in the now fertile shire of Fife, in pulling thistles out of the oats and bringing them home for the horses, or mowing the rushes or other aquatic plants that grew on the bogs around the home- stead." But a change soon came over the land. The seed which had been sown by the Highland So- ciety had germinated, and its luxuriant foliage al- ready covered the soil. In 1815, according to the authority I am quoting, " beautiful fields of wheat were to be seen; drilled green crops everywhere abounded ; the bogs had disappeared ; the thistles no longer existed ;" naked fallows were abolished ; draining was extensively introduced ; wet lands were made dry ; poor, weeping clays were convert- ed into turnip soils ; and " whole parishes were com- pletely transformed from unsightly marshes into beautiful and rich wheat-fields ; and where the plough could scarcely be driven for slush and water, were heavy crops per acre and heavy weight per bush- el."* The improvements in Scottish husbandry » Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for June, 1839, p. 70. 810 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. have continued to advance until, according to the estimate of Sir John Sinclair and Professor Lowe, both high authority, until the acreable products of her soil more than double those of our Atlantic states. The means adopted by the Highland Society to eifect these radical improvements in Scottish hus- bandry are such as may be employed by us with al- most a certainty of corresponding success. " In the days of its youth and feebleness," says the Quarterly Journal which I have just quoted, "the Highland Society sent the leaven of the turnip husbandry into all the glens and straths of the North, by offers of small prizes to certain Highland parishes, and the same may be said as to the growth of clover and the finer grasses. As it advanced in strength as to num- bers and to cash, attention was turned to premiums for stock ; then came offers of reward to men of sci- ence to discover better implements and machines, to diminish friction, and consequently draught, such as in the threshing-mill, and other parts of agricultural machinery. Still advancing in the scale of intellec?t and of science, premiums were offered for essays to bring to light the facts connected with chymistry and natural philosophy ; and under the auspices of the society was set up the Quarterly Journal of Ag- riculture, a work which has been the vehicle of con- veying so much useful information to the agricultu- rist, that we humbly venture to say it ought to ap>- pear on the bookshelf and table of every farmer's parlour. After this, the great stock shows were re- solved upon." At the Glasgow show in 1838 there were exhibited for prizes 461 neat cattle, 1'21 horses, 274 sheep, and 47 swine; total, 903 domestic ani- mals, in 034 lots. Of the other competitors the numbers were as follows ; JUDGE BUEL's address. 311 For Butter , . . . * . . 18 " Full Milk Cheese J5 " Skim Milk Cheese 6 " Wool 8 " Koots and Seeds 13 " Implements 28 In 88 lots. The number of persons present was estimated at over 17,000, besides workmen and official people; not one in a thousand of whom probably left the ex- hibition without carrying home with him some new- ly-acquired knowledge in his business, or some new stimulants to improvement and industry. Not only has Scotland profited by the labours of her agricul tural society, but Great Britain generally, and even the United States have been highly benefited by them. The information which that society has pro- mulgated has been widely disseminated among us by our agricultural journais, and has contributed not a little to the improvement of the agriculture of our country. And in England, which had been thrown into the background by the superior improvements in Scottish husbandry, it has within the last year induced the formation of the English Agricultural Society, on a broad and liberal scale, which prom- ises important advantages to Enghsh husbandry, and to agriculture generally. As evidence of the utility of horticultural societies in multiplying and improving the products of our gardens and in promoting rural embellishments, I would refer to the neighbourhoods of Boston and Philadelphia, where societies of this kind have long existed, and to the Horticultural Society of London. In the first-named cities and their environs, the progress of horticultural improvement has been manifestly great. ISlany new and choice fruits, cu- linary vegetables, and ornamental plants have been introduced, culture has beeii much improved, the markets better supplied, and prices cheapened. 312 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. The London Sociely, although its garden has been established but about twenty years, has concentrated in it, from both continents and from the islands of the sea, embracing every clime, more than five thou- sand varieties of edible fruits, including fourteen hundred varieties of the apple, and seven hundred of the pear, and an almost endless number of. orna- mental plants, many of them before unknown in pur catalogues. Its collection of pears, which embrace I'undreds of recent origin from Flanders and from France, have been alrejidy broadly spread over these states, and supply our dessert with a succession of this deUcious fruit. As a corresponding member of this society, I have participated, and have enabled others to. participate, in the good which it has been generously diffusing abroad. In 1825, and at sub- sequent periods, 1 have been suppHed liberally with grafts of the choicest fruits which it had collected. The great obstacles to horticultural improvement are ignorance of the relative merits of different kinds of fruits and culinary vegetables, and of the proper modes of cultivating and preparing them for the ta- ble. The generality of country gardens exhibit but a scanty assortment of vegetable productions, and these but badly cultivated, and often of inferior qual- ity. The tendency of horticultural exhibitions is to show the good and bad in contrast, or raiher to pro- mulgate a knowledge of the better sorts, of their cul- ture and use, to excite useful competition, and to demonstrate the utility of garden culture as a source of health, pleasure, and profit. I have had many fruits presented to me which the donors considered of the first quality, but which I found, on compari- son, to be of secondary or inferior grade. The man who has seen or tasted only inferior fruits, may well mistake them for good ones. It is as easy to cultivate good fruits as bad ones ; and no one eats so good fruits as he who cultivates them himself. It is as easy to cultivate the vergaleu as it is the choke- JUDGE BUELS ADDRESS. 313 pear ; the green-gage as the horse-plum ; and yet the difference between them, in all the qualities which we most esteem, is incomparably great. But, till we can show our neighbour better fruits, he will continue to cultivate and rest content with his choke- peaf and horse-plum. With regard to what is termed ornamental gar- dening, or the cultivation of flowering shrubs and plants, there is an objection, real or affected, often made by very many people, on the ground that it yields no profit. If the great object of life were to accumulate money, without enjoying any of the com- forts, save the gratification of animal appetite, the objection would be conclusive. But we are endowed with other and higher appetites than the mere brute ; and Providence has everywhere surrounded us with suitable objects for their development and innocent gratification. Shall we, then, reject the proffered benefactions so kindly tendered because they add nothing to our pelf ? And what is there in the nat- ural creation better calculated to soften down the rough asperities of our nature, to awaken kind feel- ings towards each other, and to excite reverence and love for the Most High, than a familiar acquaintance with the wonders and beauties of His vegetable kingdom. Did you ever know a misanthrope or a miser who was an admirer of flowers 1 I would not recommend the neglect of more important duties for the culture of a flower-garden ; yet, when there is ability or leisure (and these may be found to a greater or less extent in almost every family), a taste for floral beauties should be inculcated in the young, not only as a source of rational pleasure, but as a salu- tary precaution against bad companions and bad hab- its. The mind must be employed and must have recreation. It is better to direct it to the works of the Creator than to the works of man. Lord Bacon has said of the garden, " It affords the purest of hu- man pleasures : the greatest refreshment to the spin' 314 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. of man : without which, buildings aud palaces or VOL. I. University of California Library Los Alleles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. L rrp '' G 1 ^9P BIE LOS ANGELES "''/»liir71^/«''''°-r. lis? 001085 S 521 G25a V.1