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Farmer^s LAbrary, Vol. HI. 
 
 COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 RURAL ECONOMIST 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A COMPENDIOUS EPITOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BRANCHES 
 OF AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL ECONOMY. 
 
 By THOMAS G. FESSENDEN, 
 
 EDITOR OP "the new ENGLAND FARMER." 
 
 Agriculture is the art of arts : without it, man must be a savage, and the world a wilderne 
 
 THIRD EDITION, 
 REVISED, IMPROVED, AND ENLARGED. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 AMERICAN STATIONERS' COMPANY. 
 J. B. RUSSELL. 
 
 1838. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, 
 
 By Thomas G. Fessenden, 
 
 in the Clerk's office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 FOLSOM, WELLS, AND THUKSTON 
 
 PBlNTEnS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the following pages, the object of the writer is to give brief, but it 
 is hoped perspicuous and practical sketches of some important improve- 
 ments in modern husbandry. In attempting to carry this design into 
 effect, it has been his intention to insert no matter which is merely con- 
 jectural or speculative ; to give place to nothing not worth the attention 
 of the person whose livelihood depends on his pursuits as a cultivator ; 
 and who has neither time nor money to devote to such books as are expen- 
 sive, voluminous, and foreign or remotely related to available improve- 
 ments in husbandry. 
 
 With this view, the author has collected and generally abridged, from 
 the sources which his occupation as editor of the New England Farmer 
 has made it his duty as well as his pleasure to explore, the materials of 
 the little work now submitted. He does not pretend to have taken a 
 wide survey of the field of husbandry, much less, in this tract, to have 
 given a plan of the whole premises. But he hopes his observations, 
 though limited, may prove serviceable so far as they extend. Agricul- 
 ture is the most extensive as well as the most useful of the sciences ; and 
 as an art may be compared to the ocean, in which every stream of im- 
 provement in the moral and physical condition of mankind pours its con- 
 tribution. Still, it is not necessary to circumnavigate the whole of this 
 world of waters in order to make voyages of valuable discovery. We 
 cannot dip an oar nor launch a skiff in or upon the bosom of this great 
 deep, without finding something to reward our adventures. 
 
 Agriculture, although the most ancient of the arts, not only coeval 
 with, but in truth the sun from which emanated the dawn of civilization, 
 is, nevertheless, the art in which the beneficial effects of modern im- 
 provement are most strikingly exemplified. Let us contrast its former 
 with its present condition in Great Britain. 
 
 According to English laws in force from the fifth to the eleventh cen- 
 tury, " all the cattle of a village, though belonging to different owners, 
 were pastured together in one herd, under the direction of one person, 
 (with proper assistants,) whose oath in all disputes about the cattle was 
 decisive. Their ploughs seem to have been very slight and inartificial; 
 for it was enacted, that no man should undertake to guide a plough who 
 could not make one ; and that the driver should make the ropes with 
 which it was drawn of twisted willows. But slight as tiiese ploughs 
 were, it was usual for six or eight persons to form themselves into a 
 society for fitting out one of them, and providing it with oxen, and 
 
 94759 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 every thing necessary for ploughing ; and many minute and curious 
 laws were made for the regulation ofsuch societies. This is a sufficient 
 proof both of the poverty of the husbandman and the imperfect state of 
 agriculture among the ancient Britons of this period."* 
 
 " By the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who flourished in the 
 end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century, a farm consist- 
 ing of ten hides or ploughlands was to pay the following rent, viz. : ten 
 casks of honey, three hundred loaves of bread, twelve casks of strong 
 ale, two oxen, ten wethers, ten geese, twenty hens, ten cheeses, one 
 cask of butter, five salmon, twenty pounds of forage, and one hundred 
 eels."t Such has been the state of tillage in that country which is now 
 eulogized as the garden of Europe ! 
 
 Improvements in breeds of domestic animals by judicious crosses, and 
 propagating from the best specimens of their species, as well as plentiful 
 and suitable feeding, have advanced the state of agriculture more than 
 the most sanguine advocate for scientific husbandry could have antici- 
 pated. To say nothing of the wonders effected by Bakewell and other 
 eminent improvers in that department of husbandry, we will glance at 
 the comparative stales of the London cattle market at a distant and a 
 less remote period. An English writer states, that " about the year 1700, 
 the average weight of oxen killed for the London market was three 
 hundred and seventy pounds ; of calves, fifty pounds; of sheep, twenty- 
 eight pounds ; and of lambs, eighteen pounds. The average weight at 
 present (about the close of the century) is, of oxen, eight hundred 
 pounds; calves, one hundred and forty pounds; sheep, eighty pounds; 
 and lambs, fifty pounds." It would be a curious item in our agricultural 
 knowledge, if information, similar to what we have quoted, relative to 
 Boston and other American markets were correctly ascertained, faithfully 
 recorded, and from time to time laid before the public. We should ad- 
 vance with more celerity and alacrity along the highway of improve- 
 ment, if we had means of marking and giving comparative views of the 
 progress which we have made and are making. 
 
 Some idea of the present state of agriculture in England may be 
 gathered from the following extract from the journal of a traveller : 
 " Every spot of ground capable of being cultivated is improved. Wher- 
 ever I have been, the fields are generally small, inclosed by hedges, and 
 made perfectly smooth by means of cast iron rollers. Numerous trees 
 are left to grow around the hedges, and scattered over the fields. These 
 are so nicely trimmed as to add greatly to the beauty of the country. 
 Not a weed is suffered to grow. The crops all look well, and are much 
 more productive than ours. The cattle and sheep feed on grass up to 
 their knees, and look, as we should say, fit to kill. The slight inclo- 
 sures that keep them in their pastures would be but a poor protection 
 against our lean, half-fed, unruly animals. Here the cattle have no 
 need to break fences. They have food sufficient within their own do- 
 mains. I came here under the impression that this country was bare of 
 trees. On the contrary, I find it better stocked in this respect than the 
 thick settlements of our own country. We wantonly destroy trees as if 
 they were of no value : here they are planted and nursed with as much 
 care as if they bore choice fruit." 
 
 Although we think the writer last quoted has somewhat exaggerated 
 the defects of American husbandry, we must allow, that his strictures 
 are not so destitute of some foundation in reality as could be wished. 
 
 * London's Encyc. Agr. p. 36. t Wilkin's Leges Saxon., p. 25. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 We, however, have of late improved and are improving in every branch 
 of culture, and bid fair soon to possess a system of agriculture as well 
 adapted to our climate and circumstances, as Great Britain, or even 
 Flanders, can boast of at present. Our fields may have a less imposing 
 appearance, and our products may be less in proportion to the quantity 
 of land we have under cultivation, and still our tillage be on the whole 
 judicious. The agricultural implements and farming operations of the 
 United States are in most particulars very similar to those of Great 
 Britain. Circumstances and climate, however, require variations, which 
 the sagacity of the American cultivator will lead him to adopt, often in 
 contradiction to the opinions of those who understand the science better 
 than the practice of husbandry. In Europe land is dear and labor cheap ; 
 but in the United States the reverse is the case. The European culti- 
 vator is led by a regard to his own interest to endeavour to make the most 
 of his land ; the American has the same inducement to make the most of 
 his labor. Perhaps, however, this principle, in this countr}', is generally 
 carried to an unprofitable extreme, and our farmers would derive more 
 benefit from their labor, as well as their land, if they selected such parts 
 of their possessions as they can afford to till thoroughly, and to manure 
 abundantly. A man may possess a large estate in lands, without being 
 called on by good husbandry to hack and scratch over the whole as evi- 
 dence of his title. He may cultivate well those parts which are naturally 
 most fertile, and suffer the rest to remain woodland, or, having cleared a 
 part, lay it down to permanent pasture ; which will yield him an annual 
 profit, without requiring much labor. 
 
 The climate and soil of the United States are well adapted to the cul- 
 tivation of Indian corn, a very valuable vegetable, which cannot be 
 grown to advantage in Great Britain. This entirely and very advanta- 
 geously supersedes the field culture of the horse bean {ricia faba), one 
 of the most common fallow crops in that island. Root-lnisbaudrtj, or the 
 raising of roots for the purpose of feeding cattle, is, however, of less im- 
 portance in the United States than in Great Britain. The winters are so 
 severe, that turnips can rarely be eaten by stock on the ground where 
 they grow, and all sorts of roots are with more difficulty preserved and 
 dealt out to stock in this country than in those which possess a more 
 mild and equable climate. Hay is more easily made in the United 
 States than in Great Britain, owing to the season for hay-making being 
 more dry, and the sun more powerful in the former than in the latter 
 country. There are many other circumstances which favor the American 
 farmer, and render his situation more eligible than that of those who 
 pursue the same occupation in most parts of Europe. He is generally 
 the owner, as well as the occupier, of the soil which he cultivates ; is 
 not burdened with tithes ; his taxes are light ; and the product of his la- 
 bors will command more of the necessaries, comforts, and innocent luxu- 
 ries of life, than similar efforts would procure in any other part of the 
 globe. 
 
 Not only have the inducements to agricultural improvements in the 
 United States been powerful, but of late a corresponding effect has been 
 the result. We cannot better make this evident, than by a quotation 
 from "Remarks of the i?ep. M. Allen, of Peinbrolie, County of Plymouth, 
 State of Massachusetts , in the Legislature of that State, on a proposition to 
 renew an Jlct for the Encoxiragement of Agriculture and Manufactures," 
 published in the New England Farmer, Vol. XII. p. 298. 
 
 " It has already been suggested, that the soil of the county from which 
 I came is not the most favorable for agricultural pursuits. The expense 
 of cultivation there is thought by some to exceed the amount to be de- 
 
\l PREFACE. 
 
 rived from it. Tliis was the prevalent opinion before the introduction of 
 modern improvements. The operations of an Agricultural Society 
 have proved, that labor and skill can make even despised soils productive. 
 I suppose that ten bushels of rye to the acre, twenty of Indian corn, one 
 ton of English hay, and two hundred bushels of potatoes, were formerly 
 considered as average crops. Since premiums have been offered, we 
 have claims for from forty to fifty bushels of rye, from one hundred and 
 fifteen to one hundred and twenty-two of Indian corn, from three to four 
 tons of English hay, and from four to five hundred bushels of potatoes. 
 Our improvements have not been confined to single acres; in several 
 instances the products of entire farms have been more than quadrupled.'' 
 
 The advances of agriculture of late years have not been uniform, but 
 accelerated ; its progress has been in what mathematicians would call a 
 geometrical ratio. Every step has furnished means for quickening the 
 pace and extending the reach of the next step, and every path has led 
 to a longer and wider avenue of improvement. The time may come, in 
 which science may impress into the service of the cultivator every ele- 
 ment or substance which constitutes the globe we inhabit, — the world 
 of matter become completely subservient to the world of mind. Then 
 and not till then will agriculture have attained the utmost degree of per- 
 fection of which it is capable. 
 
 T. G. Fessenden. 
 
 Boston, May, 1834. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Agricultural Implements, - - . - 313 
 Aphis, or Plant Louse, ----- 309 
 
 Apple-tree Borer, ------- 312 
 
 Ashes as Manure, ------- 203 
 
 Barley, - - r 134 
 
 harvesting of, - - - 136, 281 
 
 Barns, 44, 71 
 
 Barn-yards, ---------74 
 
 Beans, 152 
 
 Beets, field cultivation and preserva- 
 tion of, 243 to 254 
 
 Birds, the folly and criminality of de- 
 stroying, - - - - 292 
 
 Bones, use of for manure, - - - - 203 
 
 Buckwheat, 1-41 
 
 Bushes, how to extirpate, - - - - 296 
 
 Buuer, how made and preserved, - - 79 
 
 llDW made in winter, - . - 87 
 
 Calves, 54 to 61 
 
 Canker-worm, -------- 304 
 
 Caterpillar, 307 
 
 Cattle, - - - - 36 
 
 Chaff- cutting, 43 
 
 Chaff-cutter, 316 
 
 Cheese, making, 88 to 92 
 
 cleaning of, ------ 90 
 
 Stilton, how made, - - - - 90 
 
 to prevent skippers in, - - 90 
 
 to prevent having a bad flavor, 91 
 
 Cheese Presses, -------- 322 
 
 Churn, Gault's Patent, 323 
 
 Stone, 323 
 
 Clover, 15 
 
 on making into hay, - 275 to 279 
 
 Colts, 64, 242 
 
 Cotton, 263 
 
 Coolung Food for Cattle and Swine, 
 
 - - - 49 to 54 
 
 Cow-house, ---43 
 
 Cows, -----------38 
 
 manner of milking, - - - 38 
 winter food for, ----- 41 
 
 working of, - 42 
 
 how treated when about to 
 calve, ------- -42 
 
 how dried of their milk, - - 42 
 
 Cultivators, 321 
 
 Curculio, 308 
 
 Curd Mills, - 322 
 
 Cut-worm, 311 
 
 Dairy, 78 
 
 Dirt Scraper, Davis's Patent, - - - 323 
 
 Drains, - - 282 
 
 Eggs, how to choose at market, - - 291 
 
 Ewes and Lambs, -- 212 
 
 Farmer's Calendar, ------ 339 
 
 Fences, ---- ------ 204 
 
 Fiorin Grass, ---18 
 
 Flat-stalked Meadow Grass, - - - 19 
 
 Flax, .----99 
 
 Floating Fescue Grass, ----- 19 
 Food fermented for Neat Cattle, - - 46 
 Fowls and Chickens, to fatten, - - - 291 
 
 Grain, -- 25 
 
 Grain Cradles, 326 
 
 Grasses, ----------13 
 
 proper lime for sowing, &c., 22,23 
 
 Gypsum, 190 
 
 Harrow, Chandler's improved, - - - 320 
 
 Harvesting, - 279 
 
 Oats, 281 
 
 Hay-making, 275 
 
 Hedges, 206 
 
 Hemp, ---92 
 
 Herd's Grass, or Timothy, - - - - 18 
 
 Hops, 143 
 
 Horse, ---- 230 
 
 diseases of, ----- - 234 
 
 stable for, 236 
 
 Horse Rake, 327 
 
 Indian Corn, ------ 25 to 36 
 
 hoeing of, in dry weather, - 32 
 planting or sowing for fodder, 34 
 
 Insects, 302 
 
 Irrigation, --------- 297 
 
 Lactometers,- -------- 322 
 
 Lambs and Ewes, ------ - 212 
 
 Lice on Apple-trees, ------ 311 
 
 Lime, 182 
 
 Lucerne, -- 16,19 
 
 Mangel- Wurtzel, 243 
 
 how preserved, ----- 250 
 
 Manures, 166 
 
 liquid, 174 
 
 for grass ground, - . - - 178 
 how made from swine, - - 181 
 bones useful for, ----- 203 
 articles used for, - - - - 203 
 
 Marl, 196 
 
 Meadow Foxtail, 14 
 
 Milk for Butter, &c. 79 
 
 Millet, 137 
 
 Oats, 131 
 
 harvesting of, : - - - - 281 
 
 J. Smith's crop of, - - - - 134 
 
 Orchard Grass, --------14 
 
 Oxen, ---61 
 
 Pasture, 284 
 
vin 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Pasture Grasses, ....-.-21 
 Pea, 147 
 
 Insects in, and diseases of, - 151 
 Pickering's Tree Brushes, - - - - 321 
 
 Plaster of Paris, 190 
 
 Ploughing, 267 
 
 mode of, by E. Phinnej', Esq. 273 
 
 Ploughs, 319 
 
 Potatoes, 258 
 
 Poultry, 289 
 
 Pruning Shears, 324 
 
 Kice, 142 
 
 Rough Cock's Foot, or Orchard Grass, 14 
 
 Ruta Baga, 251 
 
 Rye, 124 
 
 Rye Grass, ---------15 
 
 Sainfoin, ----------17 
 
 Scythes, Scythe Rifles, Scythe 
 
 Snathes, 324 
 
 Seed Sowers, 336 
 
 Sheep, 208 
 
 shearing of, ------ 219 
 
 disorders of, 223 
 
 Slug-worm, --- 313 
 
 Smooth-stalked Meadow Grass, - - 19 
 
 Soils, 9 
 
 Sows devouriDg their Offspring, - - 163 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Stable for horses, ------- 236 
 
 Straw Cutters, -------- 316 
 
 Striped Bug, 314 
 
 Sweet-scented Vernal Grass, - - - 14 
 
 Swine, 155 
 
 use of coal in fattening, - - 162 
 
 Tall Fescue Grass, 15 
 
 Tall Oat Grass, IS 
 
 Threshjug Machines, ------ 316 
 
 Timothj-, or Herd's Grass, - - - - 18 
 
 Tobacco, --.--.-.-- 265 
 Turnips, English, ..-.--- 254 
 
 Swedish, 252 
 
 Upright Bent Grass 18 
 
 Wheat, 107 
 
 preparation of for sowing, - 112 
 to prevent smut in, - - 113,114 
 use of lime for, ----- 115 
 how to obtain new varieties 
 
 of, 118 
 
 rust or mildew in, - - - - 119 
 the kind called Black Sea 
 
 Wheat, 122 
 
 Willis's Seed Sower, 336 
 
 Wire-worm, --------- 314 
 
 Woodland, 301 
 
THE COMPLETE FARMER. 
 
 SOILS. A farmer should be well informed of the nature 
 of soils, and of the various plants adapted to them. Some 
 useful plants flourish best in what is called poor land ; and, 
 if cultivators were perfectly acquainted with the art of 
 adapting plants to soils, much manure might be saved, which 
 is wasted by injudicious and improper application. 
 
 It is supposed by geologists that the whole of this earth 
 originally consisted of rocks, of various sorts or combina- 
 tions. These rocks, by the lapse of ages and exposure to 
 air and water, became disintegrated or worn in part or alto- 
 gether to fine particles, which compose what are called earths 
 or soils. These soils are chiefly silica [sand or earth of 
 flints], lime [or calcareous earth], alumina [clay], and mag- 
 nesia [a mineral substance]. With these are blended ani- 
 mal and vegetable matters in a decomposed or decomposing 
 state, and saline, acid, or alkaline combinations. 
 
 Plants are the most certain indicators of the nature of a 
 soil ; for, while no practical cultivator would buy or under- 
 take to till land, of which he knew only the results of chemi- 
 cal analysis, yet every farmer and gardener, who knew the 
 timber and plants a soil spontaneously produced, would at 
 once be able to decide on its value for cultivation. 
 
 It was a maxim of Kliyogg, a famous philosophical farmer 
 of Switzerland, "that every species of earth may be instru- 
 mental to the improvement of another of opposite qualities." 
 All sands are hot and dry, — all clays, cold and wet ; and, 
 therefore, the manuring sandy lands with clay, or clay lands 
 with sand, is best for grain and pulse. But it is not the 
 
 D. H. HJLL LIBRARY 
 
 North Carolina State Coilege 
 
10 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 natural soil only that the farmer ought to consider, but the 
 depth of it, and what lies immediately underneath it. For 
 if the richest soil is only seven or eight inches deep, and 
 lies on a cold, wet clay or stone, it will not be so fruitful as 
 leaner soils, that lie on a better under stratum. Gravel is, 
 perhaps, the best under stratum to make the land prolific. 
 
 The best loams and natural earths are of a bright brown, 
 or hazel color. Hence, they are called hazel loams. They 
 cut smooth and tolerably easy, without clinging to the spade 
 or ploughshare ; are light, friable, and fall into small clods 
 without chapping or cracking in dry weather, or turning 
 into mortar when wet. Dark gray and russet moulds are 
 accounted the next best. The worst of all, are the light 
 and dark ash colored. The goodness of land may also be 
 very well judged of by the smell and the touch. The best 
 emits a fresh, pleasant scent on being dug or ploughed up, 
 especially after rain ; and, being a just proportion of sand 
 and clay intimately blended, will not stick much to the fin- 
 gers on handling. But all soils, however good, may be im- 
 poverished, and even worn out, by successive crops without 
 rest, especially if the ploughings are not very frequently re- 
 peated before the seed is sown. 
 
 If we examine tracts of land which have not been culti- 
 vated, we find nature has adapted different kinds of plants to 
 most of the distinguishable varieties of soils ; and though 
 some belonging to one may for some cause or other be found 
 on lands of a different quality, they seldom thrive, or perfect 
 their seeds so as to become general. The great care of the 
 farmer ought, therefore, to be, by proper mixtures, to reduce 
 his land to that state and temperament, in which the extremes 
 of hot and cold, wet and dry, are best corrected by each 
 other ; to give them every possible advantage flowing from 
 the benign influences of sun and air ; and to adopt such 
 kinds of plants as they afford in this state the greatest nour- 
 ishment to ; and to renew their fertility by a judicious allow- 
 ance of the most proper manures. Where these things are 
 done, there are few spots so unfriendly to cultivation as not 
 to repay his expenses and labor with a plentiful increase. 
 But without these, the best tracts of land will in time be- 
 come a barren waste, or produce little but woods. 
 
 The color of soils is important. " The Farmer's Journal " 
 observes, coal ashes were sprinkled over half the surface of 
 beds, sown with peas, beans, &.C., and on these the plants 
 invariably appeared above ground two or three days earlier. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. U 
 
 obviously on account of the increased warmth ; it being a 
 well-known fact, that dark-colored bodies absorb caloric 
 more readily, and in larger proportions than those of a 
 lighter hue. 
 
 Soils which absorb the most moisture are the most fertile. 
 Sir Humphrey Davy observed, "I have compared the ab- 
 sorbent powers of many soils with respect to atmospheric 
 moisture, and I have always found it greatest in the most 
 fertile soils ; so that it affords one method of judging of the 
 productiveness of land." 
 
 The methods of improving soils are too numerous to be 
 here fully specified. We will, however, quote one mode of 
 restoring worn-out fields to the fertility of new lands, or 
 lands lately cleared from their aboriginal growth of timber, 
 quoted from a "Dissertation on the Mixture of Soils," for 
 which the author, the Rev. Morrel Allen, of Pembroke, 
 Massachusetts, was awarded a premium by the Plymouth 
 County Agricultural Society, 
 
 "Particles in a soil, which had long been in contact, and, 
 in consequence of long connexion, lost much of the energy 
 of their action on plants, are separated in mixing soils, placed 
 in new connexions, and act with renewed vigor. But the 
 most permanent and best effects are always expected from 
 the mixture of soils of different qualities. When the object 
 is to produce as much immediate influence as possible, 
 merely to assist one short rotation of crops, to have the ap- 
 plication we make act chiefly as manure, then we may take 
 our materials from any situation where we know vegetable 
 substances have fallen and decayed. 
 
 "We may go into forests, and in certain stages of the 
 growth of the wood, without any perceptible injury, skim 
 the surface of the whole lot. This soil of the woods, carried 
 in sufficiently large quantities on to old fields, will restore 
 them to original productiveness. And this will sometimes 
 prove an inexhaustible resource for renewing old fields ; for 
 as often as the fields decline, the soil in the wood lot will be 
 again renewed and fit to remove. For the same purposes 
 the earth should be carried from the sides of walls and fen- 
 ces, where the leaves have been lodged from the forests. It 
 should also be carried from hollows and temporary ponds, 
 which in certain seasons of the year become dry, and afford 
 immense quantities of vegetable matter in different stages 
 of decomposition, and suitable to apply to any kind of soil. 
 " Where streams of water occasionally overflow the banks, 
 
12 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 an abundance of vegetable and earthy matter is lodged on 
 the meadows, which in many cases, especially where there 
 is not much extent of meadow to receive the substances 
 conveyed by the stream, it is prudent to remove on to higher 
 land. It will there act as manure, and at the same time 
 gradually alter the texture of the soil, rendermg it more re- 
 tentive of dew and rain, and easily penetrated by the fibrous 
 roots of plants. Of the value of those substances which 
 are carried in streams of water to enrich soils, we have the 
 most convincing proof in the unexampled productiveness of 
 interval lands. It is not exclusively the vegetable substan- 
 ces carried on to these lands which make them so astonish- 
 ingly productive ; there is a portion of every kind of soil 
 existing in the surrounding country annually carried on with 
 the vegetable substances. Intervals are composed of every 
 sort of earth the water can reach and remove. This cir- 
 cumstance may properly encourage the mixtures of many 
 kinds of earth, even when there is no particular evidence 
 that each kind is especially adapted to remedy any deficien- 
 cy in the soil which we would improve. There is less haz- 
 ard in administering medicines in great profusion to cure 
 diseases in the soil, than in the human body. In stepping 
 out of the beaten path of habitual practice, and calling at- 
 tention to experiments, which to some may look very simple, 
 and to others very absurd, we may become instrumental in 
 the discovery of highly important truths." 
 
 It will not do, however, to spread pond mud directly on 
 grass land or on arable ground. An experienced farmer in- 
 forms us, that he once injured a piece of grass land by 
 spreading pond mud upon it without preparation. It should 
 be mi.xed with lime and warmer manure, and exposed to the 
 atmosphere, or put into the barn-yard to be trodden upon 
 by cattle. 
 
 Arthur Young lays it down as a maxim, that a strong, 
 harsh, tenacious clay, though it will yield great crops of 
 wheat, is yet managed at so heavy expense, that it is usually 
 let for more than it is worth. Much money is not made on 
 such land. The very contrary soil, a light, poor, dry sand, 
 is very often, indeed, in the occupation of men who have 
 made fortunes. Some permanent manure is usually below 
 the surface, which anwsers well to carry on ; and sheep, the 
 common stock of such soils, is the most profitable sort he 
 can depend on. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 13 
 
 GRASSES. The limits of our plan will oblige as in this, 
 as in many other articles, to omit, or give but brief sketches 
 of, subjects which might be profitably attended to in more 
 minute detail. 
 
 Grass is a general name for plants used in feeding cattle, 
 in a green or dry state, for hay or for pasture. 
 
 It would require a large volume to describe all the kinds 
 of grass which are or may be cultivated in the United 
 States. Sir John Sinclair observed, ("Code of Agriculture," 
 p. 219,) that there are in all two hundred and fifteen grasses, 
 properly so called, which are cuhivated in Great Britain. 
 The Duke of Bedford caused a series of experiments to be 
 instituted by George Sinclair, to try the comparative merits 
 and value of a number of these grasses, to the amount of 
 ninety-seven, the result of which is annexed to Sir Humphrey 
 Davy's "Agricultural Chemistry." According to these ex- 
 periments, tall fescue grass {festiica elatior) stands highest as 
 to the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by the whole crop, 
 when cut at the time of flowering ; and meadow cat's-tail 
 grass, phleiim pratense, called in New England herd's grass, 
 and timothy grass in the Southern States, affords most food 
 when cut at the time the seed is ripe. 
 
 The following- remarks are from an able and elaborate 
 article on the grasses, written by Judge Buel, and published 
 in " The American Farmer " : 
 
 " I have found in our publications on agriculture very lit- 
 tle information on the improvement of our meadow and pas- 
 ture grounds. Indeed, the names of our native grasses are 
 scarcely enumerated, much less are their habits described, 
 or their relative merits for hay and pasture pointed out, in 
 any American work which has fallen within my notice. A 
 considerable portion of our lands are unsuitable for the sys- 
 tem of convertible husbandry, that is, an alternation of grain 
 and grass crops. Of this description are our stiff clays, 
 marshes, and swamps, and all those lands in which tillage is 
 rendered difficult by reason of hard pan, stones, or wetness. 
 These should be improved as permanent meadows and pas- 
 tures ; and it is of the first importance to the farmer to know 
 the grasses which will render them most conducive to profit ; 
 for that our grass grounds are as susceptible of improvement 
 as our tillage grounds, by a suitable selection of seeds and 
 suitable management, must be apparent to every reflecting 
 mind. The improvement and productiveness of our cattle 
 and sheep husbandry, which at this time deservedly engage 
 
14 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 much of the public attention, depend materially on this 
 branch of farming." 
 
 After adverting to the sources from which the writer de- 
 rived most of his information, he proceeds : 
 
 " Sweet-scented Vernal Grass. This is a grass of diminu- 
 tive growth, and is not worth cultivating for hay. It is 
 nevertheless considered as valuable in pasture on account of 
 its affording very early feed, and growing quick after being 
 cropped. We are advised by Muhlenburg that it delights 
 in moist soils; by the Bath papers, that it does well in clay- 
 ey loams; and by Dickson, that it grows in almost any soil, 
 including bogs and sands. G. Sinclair says, it is eaten by 
 oxen, horses, and sheep, though not so freely as some other 
 grasses are. * 
 
 " Meadow Fox Tail possesses all the advantages of early 
 growth with the preceding, and is much more abundant in 
 product and nutriment. It generally constitutes one of five 
 or six kinds which are sowed together by the English far- 
 mers for pasture ; and affords withal a tolerable crop of hay. 
 It does best in moist soils, whether loams, clays, or reclaim- 
 ed bogs. Sheep and horses have a better relish for it, says 
 G. Sinclair, than oxen. 
 
 " Rough Cock's Foot. Dr. Muhlenburg and T. Cooper 
 concur in opinion that this is the orchard grass of the Uni- 
 ted States. In England, cock's foot is taking the place of 
 rye grass with clovers. Arthur Young speaks in high com- 
 mendation of it; though all writers concur in the opinion, 
 that it should be frequently and closely cropped, either with 
 the scythe or cattle, to reap the full benefit of its great mer- 
 its. I should prefer it to almost every other grass ; and 
 cows are very fond of it. Cooper rates it above timothy, 
 and says it is gradually taking the place of the latter among 
 the best farmers about Philadelphia. This is probably ow- 
 ing to the fact that it is earlier than timothy, and of course 
 more suitable to cut with clover for hay. Its growth is early 
 and rapid, after it has been cropped. It does well on loams 
 and sands, and grows well in shade. 
 
 " Colonel Powel, a gentleman who combines as much 
 
 * Judge Buel does not seem to have been personally acquainted with this 
 invaluable grass. Its proper situation is high, well-drained meadows. It 
 constitutes, in such meadows, in Massachusetts, at least one half of the whole 
 crop. Its chief fault is, that it is too early for the other grasses, but it aflForda 
 a second and even third crop if cut early. It is the grass which gives the 
 finest flavor so grateful to milch cows. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 15 
 
 science with judicious practice, especially in cattle and grass 
 husbandry, as any person in the Union, says, ' I have 
 tried orchard grass for ten years. It produces more pastu- 
 rage than any artificial grass I have seen in America.' Sow 
 two bushels of seed to an acre. 
 
 " TaU Oat Grass. Both Arator (Mr. Taylor) and Dr. 
 Muhlenburg have placed this at the head of their lists of 
 grasses, which they have recommended to the attention of 
 the American farmer. The latter says, it is of all others the 
 earliest and best grass for green fodder and hay. The doc- 
 tor was, probably, not apprized of its deficiency in nutri- 
 tive matter, as indicated in the table. It possesses the ad- 
 vantage of early, quick, and late growth, for which the 
 cock's foot is esteemed, tillers well, and is admirably calcu- 
 lated for pasture grass I measured some on the 20th of 
 June, when in blossom, when it should be cut for hay, and 
 found it four and a half feet long. The latter math is near- 
 ly equal in weight, and superior in nutritious matter to the 
 seed crop. 
 
 " Tall Fescue, although a native grass, has not fallen under 
 my personal observation. It stands highest, says Davy, 
 according to the experiments of the Duke of Bedford, of any 
 grass, properly so called, as to the quantity of nutritive mat- 
 ter afforded by the whole crop, when cut at the time of 
 flowering ; and meadow cat's-tail (timothy) grass affords 
 most food, when cut at the time the seed is ripe. It grows 
 naturally in wet grounds, in bog meadows, and on the sides 
 of ditches, often to the height of four or five feet. Our 
 ignorance of agricultural botany, and of the intrinsic value 
 of this grass, can alone have prevented its being more gen- 
 erally known and cultivated. It must be very valuable for 
 wet grounds, as, from its rapid growth, it is calculated to 
 smother or keep down the coarser kinds, which naturally 
 abound in these situations. 
 
 " Rye Grass is extensively cultivated in Scotland and the 
 north of England, and, where cock's foot has not superseded 
 it, is generally mixed with clover seeds. It is rather declin- 
 ing in public estimation. It does well in pasture; and as it 
 contains much nutriment, is considered valuable for cows 
 and sheep. Dicksoix says, it does best in rich, moist mea- 
 dows. Young does not speak well of it. 
 
 "Red Clover. There are many species of the trifolium, 
 and several varieties of the red clover. Whether the kind 
 we generally cultivate is the pratense, or not, I am unable to 
 
16 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 determine. The character of red clover as an ameliorating 
 fertilizing crop, is too generally known to require illustra- 
 tion. It cannot be depended upon for permanent grass 
 lands ; though it yields to no grass for alternating with grain 
 in convertible husbandry. It formerly w-as as indispensable 
 in a course of crops in Norfolk, England, (which has been 
 considered preeminent for good tillage,) as turnips ; and the 
 maxim was, and still is, ' no turnips, no crops.' But it ap- 
 pears from Young's survey of that country, that it cannot 
 now be depended on oftener than once in from eight to 
 twelve years. Trefoil, white clover, cock's foot, rye grass, 
 &c., are therefore alternated with red clover in the grass 
 years. There is reason to believe, that neither red clover 
 nor other grasses, will bear repeating for a course of years, 
 upon the generality of soils. They exhaust the ground of 
 the peculiar nourishment required for their support. In 
 Great Britain white clover, trefoil, rye grass or cock's foot, 
 are generally sown with red clover seeds. From twenty to 
 thirty pounds of seeds are sown to the acre. In the north- 
 ern states, timothy is generally sown with clover; though the 
 mixture is an improper one for hay; for the clover is fit for 
 the scythe ten or fifteen days before the timothy has arrived 
 to maturity. If sown alone, from eight to sixteen pounds 
 of clover seed should be put on an acre ; more on old land 
 than on new. 
 
 " White or Dutch Clover {trifolium repens), is considered 
 in England of importance to husbandry, if we are to judge 
 from the great quantity of seed which is there sown annual- 
 ly. With us, many districts produce it spontaneously ; but 
 it is too seldom sown. It shrinks greatly in drying, and 
 does not contain as much nutritive matter as red clover ; yet 
 its value as a pasture grass is universally admitted. Its in- 
 crease is very much facilitated by a top dressing of gypsum 
 lime or ashes. 
 
 " Lucerne, although affording much more green food, con- 
 tains less nutriment in a single crop than red clover. It 
 must, however, be borne in mind, that it grows much quicker 
 than clover, and will bear cutting twice as often. In tlie 
 soiling system, an acre of lucerne will keep four cattle or 
 horses from the 15th of May to the 1st of October. I cut 
 a piece about the loth of May, and again about the 20th of 
 June, to feed green, and then ploughed the ground, and 
 cropped it with ruta baga, which yielded sixteen tons to the 
 acre of roots, as fine as I ever saw. Mr. Fowell (see 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 17 
 
 Youno-'s 'Norfolk,' p. 345) derived a clear profit of tltir- 
 teen pounds seventeen shillings and four-pence per acre from 
 his lucerne, fed green to working horses. This is almost 
 equal to sixty dollars the acre. An idea has prevailed, that 
 it will not thrive in this latitude, (42-3,) but the experi- 
 ments of the late Chancellor Livingston, and of Le Roy de 
 Chaumont, prove otherwise. I sowed seed in 1821, at the 
 rate of six pounds the acre, with barley. It has stood the 
 winters well, much better than clover ; and has been in a 
 state of progressive improvement. Drought has not affect- 
 ed it. The plants are very tender the first year ; and re- 
 quire either a very clean tilth, or to be kept free from weeds 
 and grass with a hoe the first year. It should have a deep 
 loam, as it sends down tap roots five or six feet ; and it is 
 equally necessary that the ground should not be wet. It 
 may be sown either in drills or broad-cast, with or without 
 grain. Fifteen pounds of seed are required for the acre if 
 drilled, and twenty is not too much if sown broad-cast. To 
 the proprietor of a dairy, an acre or two of lucerne would 
 be valuable, to be fed to his cows in addition to ordinary 
 pasture.* 
 
 " Long-rooted Clover is a native of Hungary, and I do not 
 think has ever found its way across the Atlantic. The root 
 is biennial, and if sown in the fall, lasts only during the next 
 season. It penetrates to a great depth in the ground, and 
 consequently is but little affected by drought. It therefore 
 requires a deep dry soil. The product of this grass, when 
 compared to others that are allied to it in habit and place of 
 growth, proves greatly superior. It affords twice the weight 
 of grass, and more than double the nutritive matter that is 
 given by the common clover. It gives abundance of seed ; 
 and, says G. Sinclair, if the ground be kept free of weeds, 
 it sows itself, vegetates, and grows rapidly, without cover- 
 ing in, or any operation whatever. Four years it has prop- 
 agated itself in this manner on the space of ground which it 
 now occupies, and from which this statement of its compar- 
 ative value is made. This species would, no doubt, prove a 
 valuable acquisition to our husbandry, whether we consider 
 its value for green food, hay, or as a green crop to be turn- 
 ed in preparatory to grain. 
 
 " Sain Foin is peculiarly adapted to a calcareous or 
 
 * For further remarks on the culture of lucerne, see " The New England 
 Farmer," Vol. IX. p. 342. 
 
 2* 
 
18 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 chalky soil. It is true it is cultivated in Norfolk, England, 
 which is a soil of sand and loam, naturally destitute of cal- 
 careous matter. But it is common there to dress their lands 
 Avith clay marl, which ahounds with carbonate of lime ; 
 without which dressing, says Young, Norfolk soils will not 
 grow sain foin. This writer considers it ' one of the most 
 valuable plants that were ever introduced into the agricul- 
 ture of Great Britain.' The well-known Mr. Coke culti- 
 vates four hundred acres of this grass, and sows it without 
 other seeds. Several attempts have been made to cultivate 
 sain foin in this country, but hitherto I believe without suc- 
 cess.* 
 
 " Timothy. This grass is distinguished in Great Britain 
 by the name of meadow cat's-tail ; in New England by that 
 of herd's grass. It is one of the most valuable grasses that 
 are cultivated ; and, what is worthy the notice of every 
 farmer, it affords more than double the nutriment when cut 
 in the seed to what it does in the flower. In tenacious, 
 strong, and moist soils, it is entitled to a precedence, per- 
 haps, to any single grass for hay, yet does not seem to be 
 suitable to mix with clover seeds when intended for meadow. 
 Another consideration, which renders it particularly worthy 
 of attention, is the seed which it affords, and which may be 
 saved without materially diminishing the hay crop. From 
 ten to thirty bushels of seed may be taken from an acre of 
 timothy, which, at the price it now bears, is of itself a hand- 
 some remuneration. 
 
 ''Florin has of late years been brought into notice in 
 Great Britain, by the experiments of Dr. Richardson ; who 
 particularly recommended it for the cold boggy soils of the 
 mountainous districts, where ordinary grasses would not 
 thrive. The peculiar value of the florin, and of other 
 grasses of the agrostis family, arises from their fltness for 
 winter pasture : as they lose very little of their bulk or nu- 
 triment by remaining in the soil after they have ceased to 
 grow. Its name {creeping bent or couch grass) implies a 
 difficulty in mowing it, except on a surface perfectly smooth. 
 
 " Upright Bent G-rass. Dr. Muhlenburg considers this the 
 herd's grass of the southern, and the foul meadow of the 
 eastern States, of which tohite top and red top are varieties. 
 
 * Sain foin may be considered as out of the question in New England. So 
 large a portion is winter-killed tliat it is not worth cultivation. This is af- 
 firmed on the strength of repeated trials. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 19 
 
 This grass is more congenial to our climate than to that of 
 England. In any boggy soils, both varieties of this grass 
 have come in spontaneously, as soon as the ground has been 
 cleared and drained, have soon formed a compact sod, and 
 afforded good hay and good pasture. 
 
 "Flat-stalked Meadow Grass. This, according to Muhlen- 
 burg, is the blue grass, which is considered as a pest in 
 many of our tillage grounds. The small crop which it gives, 
 and the little nutritive matter which this affords, shows the 
 little dependence which ought to be placed on it for grazing, 
 or for hay. 
 
 " Smooth-stalked Meadoiv Grass is a native plant, and is 
 well adapted for permanent pastures. It grows quick after 
 being cropped, and does well upon dry ground. 
 
 " Floating Fescue grows well in swamps and bog soils, 
 where good kinds are most wanted. 
 
 "I would suggest, with much deference, whether grasses 
 may not be divided, for the practical benefit of the farmer, 
 into three kinds, to wit : 1. Cultivated Grasses. All kinds, 
 strictly speaking, which the soil does not produce spontane- 
 ously, are cultivated grasses. But the term as generally 
 used, and in the sense I here employ it, applies only to such 
 as are sown to altennate with grain, pulse, and roots, in a 
 systematic rotation of crops. The grasses selected for this 
 purpose are, generally, the red clovers, lucerne, sain foin, 
 orchard, tall oat, timothy, or rye grass. Clover is the pri- 
 mary dependence on all soils which will grow it, and espe- 
 cially where gypsum can exercise its magic powers. As 
 vegetables are said to exhaust the soil in proportion to the 
 smallness of their leaves, (the larger the leaves the more 
 nutriment they draw from the atmosphere, and the less from 
 the soil,) clovers are entitled to tlie high commendation they 
 have obtained among American farmers. But as these 
 plants are liable to premature destruction by the frosts of 
 winter, it is both prudent and wise to intermix with their 
 seeds those of some other grasses more to be depended on. 
 
 " For this purpose, on sands, loams, and gravels, and 
 these constitute the soils usually employed in convertible 
 husbandry, the orchard grass or tall meadow oat grass ap- 
 pear to be best calculated to insure profit. They grow 
 early, delight in a clover sod, and are fit for the scythe 
 when clover is in the bloom, the time it ought to be cut. The 
 hay from this mixture may be made before harvest commen- 
 ces ; and if the soil is good, a second crop may be cut al- 
 
20 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 most equal to the first. If intended for pasture the second 
 year, either of these grasses will afford more abundant food 
 than timothy. 
 
 " In clays, the meadow fox tail, an excellent grass, might 
 be substituted, though, according to Sinclair, the tall oat 
 grass will do well here also. In wet soils, where clovers do 
 not grow well, timothy and meadow reed grass would be a 
 good selection, sown either separate or together. 
 
 "Lucerne and sain foin require a deep dry soil, and are 
 generally sown without other seeds. The first does not at- 
 tain to perfection before the third year ; and both, where 
 successfully cultivated, are permitted to occupy the ground 
 from six to eight years. 
 
 "2. Meadow Grasses. In selecting these the object is 
 to obtain the greatest burden of good hay, and to mix those 
 kinds which may be profitably cut at the same time. 
 
 " For clayey and moist soils, many valuable and nutritious 
 kinds seem to be well adapted ; that is to say, meadow fox 
 tail, timothy, tall oat, meadow soft grass, floating fescue, 
 rye grass, reed meadow, smooth-stalked meadow, American 
 cock's foot, upright bent or herd's grass, and tall fescue. 
 And the five last are peculiarly suited to swamp or bog soils. 
 For dry loams, sands, and gravels, which never ought to be 
 kept long in grass, the cock's foot or orchard grass, and tall 
 oat, are probably the best ; and to these might be added red 
 and white clover. 
 
 " The great difficulty is to prevent the deterioration of 
 meadows. This takes place from the better grasses running 
 out, and giving place to coarser kinds, in moss, and to use- 
 less or noxious plants, aided ofi;en by a neglect to keep them 
 well drained. The finer and more nutritious kinds thrive 
 best in moist, though they will not live long in wet soils. 
 Hence it is of the first importance to keep the surface soil 
 free from standing water, by good and sufficient ditches ; 
 and it often becomes necessary, and it is in most cases 
 advisable, on a flat surface, to lay the land in ridges at 
 right angles with the drains. Another precaution to be 
 observed is, not to feed them with stock when the soil is 
 wet and poachy. Harrowing in the fall has been found 
 beneficial to meadows. It destroys mosses, and covers the 
 seeds of grasses which have fallen, or may be sown, and 
 thus produces a continued succession of young plants. In 
 Europe, lime is used with good effect as a top dressing to 
 grass lands, as are also ashes. With us, the annual appli- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 21 
 
 cation of a bushel of gypsum to the acre is found beneficial. 
 It not only thickens the verdure with clover, but is of ad- 
 vantage in most other grasses. Stable manure should be 
 used only when it can be spared from the more profitable 
 uses of tillage. When the means above enumerated fail to 
 insure a good crop of hay, it is time to resort to the plough, 
 and a course of crops. 
 
 "3. Pasture Grasses. But few of the grasses most valu- 
 ed in Great Britain for pasture are the natural growth of the 
 United States ; but it is believed that if the seeds are once 
 introduced upon our farms, we shall find little difficulty in 
 naturalizing them. Neither the orchard nor vernal grass, 
 which are said to be indigenous to our country, are recog- 
 nised in the grass lands which have come within my ob- 
 servation : yet they constitute, with fox tail and tall oat 
 grass, the earliest and most valuable varieties for perennial 
 pastures. The meadow fox tail and orchard grass, together 
 with our white clover and green meadow grass, poa tiivi- 
 alis, (which seldom require to be sown,) I think would form 
 the best selection for all grounds which are moderately dry. 
 The rye and oat grasses, or meadow soft grass, might be 
 either substituted for the two first, or combined with them. 
 These would afford spring, summer, and fall feed, abundant 
 in quantity and wholesome and nutritious in quality. On 
 wet soils, (though pastures require to be drained, as well as 
 meadows, to insure a rich herbage,) the tall fescue, smooth- 
 stalked meadow, upright bent, and herd's grass, may be in- 
 troduced to advantage. Gypsum is applied to pastures with 
 the same benefit that it is to meadows." 
 
 Two able papers, " On Grasses," have been written by 
 the Hon. John Welles, for "The Massachusetts Agricul- 
 tural Repository." One of these, republished in " The New 
 England Farmer," (Vol. I. page 235,) contains the following 
 observations on the loss of weight of certain grasses, by 
 evaporation, " in the process of drying or making, for safe 
 and useful preservation." 
 
 It should be premised that the time of cutting the several 
 grasses, &.C., in the following statement, was the same as is 
 usually practised by husbandmen in this State. 
 
 " Of 100 lbs. of vegetables, cured in 1822, the product was as follows, 
 viz. : 
 
 100 lbs. of green white clover gave of hay 17i lbs. 
 
 100 " of red do. " 27* " 
 
 100 " of herd's grass " 40 " 
 
 100 " of fresh meadow " 38 " 
 
22 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 100 lbs. of salt grass gave of hay 39 lbs. 
 
 100 " of mixed 2d crop, English rowen " 181 " 
 
 100 " of corn stalks " . 25 " 
 
 100" of do. cut in "the milk with the ear " 25 " 
 
 " It is to be observed, that the weight will vary from ripeness, and many 
 other canses, such as wetness of season, shade, thickness of growth, &c." 
 
 In a subsequent number of "The Massachusetts Agricul- 
 tural Repository," was published another elaborate com- 
 munication from the same pen, from which the following 
 table is extracted. 
 
 Table showing the loss of weight in drying grasses. 
 
 
 
 1822. 
 
 1823. 
 
 100 lbs. 
 
 , of green white clover* gave 
 
 m 
 
 27 
 
 100 " 
 
 of redf clover " 
 
 27i 
 
 25 
 
 100 " 
 
 of herd's grass " 
 
 40 
 
 39 
 
 100 " 
 
 of fresh meadow " 
 
 38 
 
 44 
 
 100 " 
 
 of salt grass:}: " 
 
 39 
 
 60 
 
 100 " 
 
 of 2d crop, or English rowen " 
 
 18* 
 
 19 
 
 100 " 
 
 of corn stalks " 
 
 25 
 
 25 
 
 100 " 
 
 of spiked oat grass " 
 
 
 50 
 
 100 " 
 
 of red top " 
 
 
 46 
 
 100 « 
 
 of Rhode Island " 
 
 
 40 
 
 100 « 
 
 of couch grass " 
 
 
 43 
 
 100 « 
 
 of marine black grass " 
 
 
 38 
 
 On Sowing Grass Seeds. A diversity of opinion exists 
 relative to the best time for sowing grass seeds. Some pre- 
 fer the fall ; but the majority of those who have written on 
 the subject, recommend sowing in the spring; and that sea- 
 son, so far as our acquaintance extends, is most generally 
 chosen. European writers direct, even when grass seed is 
 sown on the same ground with winter grain, to sow the grass 
 seed in the spring, and harroiv it in. They say that the har- 
 rowing will on the whole be of service to the grain, though a 
 few of the plants will be torn up by the process. The Hon. 
 Richard Peters likewise directed to " harrow your winter 
 grain in the spring, in the direction of the seed furrows, or 
 drills, and be not afraid of disturbing a few plants; manifold 
 produce will remunerate for the destroyed." 
 
 "The Farmer's Assistant" says, " Clover may be sown 
 with barley, oats, or spring wheat, when that article is rais- 
 
 * The white clover of 1822 was taken in the shade; that in 1823, from a 
 light warm soil exposed to the sun. 
 
 t The red clover in 1823 was taken in the first year of its product, in close 
 growth, and for that reason falls short of 1822. 
 
 :}: The salt grass of 1822 was, I havtf reason to suppose, a second growth, 
 which accounts for the difference of the two years. 
 
 If enabled, experiments will in these cases be hereafter given, so as to fix 
 the result with sufficient accuracy. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 23 
 
 ed; or it may be sown with winter wheat in the fall, if 
 the land be dry and warmly exposed ; or in the spring, when 
 it should be lightly harrowed in." The "Domestic Encyclo- 
 pedia" asserts, that " experienced farmers generally prefer 
 sowing clover with wheat rather than with barley or oats, as 
 in dry seasons the clover frequently overpowers the oats or 
 barley, and if it be sown late in order to obviate this evil, it 
 often fails, and the crop is lost for that season. Probably 
 the diversity of opinion respecting the proper time of sowing 
 clover seed may arise from the difference in the nature of 
 the soil on which trials have been made. An experienced 
 agriculturist, (Edward Duffield, Esq., of Philadelphia coun- 
 ty,) assures Dr. Mease, that he repeatedly failed in obtaining 
 a crop, when he sowed his clover in autumn or winter; and 
 he is uniformly successful when he sows in the spring. His 
 soil is a light loam." 
 
 On the other hand, an experienced and scientific cultiva- 
 tor, whose suggestions on this subject were published in 
 *'The New England Farmer," (Vol. VI. p. 238,) dated Wes- 
 ton, and signed J. M. G., says; "Dear-bought experience 
 has taught me the inefficacy of sowing grass seed in spring 
 with grain; it was a custom imported with the ancestors of 
 the country from Old England, where the cloudy summers 
 and moist climate will warrant a practice which, under our 
 clear sky and powerful sun, is altogether unsuitable. I 
 must add, that grass sown in the fall imperiously requires to 
 be rolled in the spring, as soon as the ground is in fit order; 
 otherwise the small plants, slightly rooted yet, and heaved 
 up by the frost, will suffer much, perhaps total destruction ; 
 and truly, among the many uses to which the roller may be 
 applied, none, perhaps, would be more valuable than to roll 
 all grass lands in spring. The plants suffer from the wind 
 and from the heat, and this being the case more or less every 
 spring, it must necessarily bring on a premature decay, which 
 the yearly use of the roller at that season might prevent." 
 
 We cannot reconcile these authorities; but it is probable 
 that both in fall and spring sowing of grass seeds, there may 
 be successful and unfavorable results, according to circum- 
 stances of soil, season, &c. Fall sown grass seeds are lia- 
 ble to be winter-killed, or destroyed by frost ; spring sown 
 grass seeds may perish by drought and heat. But, when- 
 ever sown, there will be less danger either from frost or 
 drought, if the seed is well covered with a harrow, and the 
 ground pressed on it with a roller. 
 
24 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Young's "Farmer's Calendar," under the date of August, 
 says, " This is the best season of the whole year for laying 
 down land to grass; and no other is admissible for it on 
 strong, wet, or heavy soils. Spring sowings with grain may 
 succeed, and do often, but that they are hazardous I know 
 from forty years' experience." 
 
 There is likewise a great difference of opinion as respects 
 the quantitij of seed to be sown when land is laid down to 
 grass. Sir John Sinclair says, " It is a great error, in laying 
 land down to grass, to sow an insufficient quantity of seeds. 
 In general, twelve or fourteen pounds of clover is the usual 
 average allowance. But that quantity, it is contended, 
 ought greatly to be increased, and in many cases doubled." 
 "The Farmer's Assistant" tells us, that "the quantity of 
 red clover seed to be sown on the acre is about fourteen 
 pounds, and none but clean seed ought to be sown." 
 
 The " Memoirs of the Board of Agriculture of the State 
 of New York," (Vol. II. p. 30,) in giving an account of the 
 methods of culture adopted by farmers in Rensselaer coun- 
 ty, state, that " Farmers differ in opinion in regard to the 
 most suitable quantity of seed. S. Germond, H. Worthing- 
 ton, C. Porter, C. R. Golden, and some others, say that 
 eight quarts of the mixture of clover and timothy seed 
 should be sown on every acre. And colonel J. Carpenter 
 sows sixteen quarts on an acre. He says, when the grass 
 and clover grow very thick, it will be more tender feed, and 
 more fine hay, and that it will not run out so soon. But J. 
 Phillips, G. Eddy, and many others, consider four quarts as 
 sufficient. 
 
 "All agree that the proportions of the mixture of the 
 seeds should be governed by the nature of the soil : that in 
 a sandy soil three-fourths of the seed should be clover; in 
 clay loam it should be equal parts ; in clay soil but one 
 fourth clover seed. 
 
 "There should be at least a bushel of plaster sown on 
 every acre of clover and grass land of a sandy, gravelly, or 
 loamy soil. Also on all upland natural meadows. Two 
 bushels per acre are much better than one on sandy or 
 gravelly soil." 
 
 Payson Williams, Esq., of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 
 who received a premium from the Massachusetts Agricul- 
 tural Society for the greatest quantity of spring wheat, rais- 
 ed by him in the summer of 18*22, in giving a description 
 of the mode of culture by him adopted, says, "The quan- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 25 
 
 tity of grass seed used by me is never less than twelve 
 pounds of clover and one peck of herd's grass (timothy) to 
 the acre. Here, permit me to observe, that innumerable 
 are the instances in this country where the farmer fails in 
 his grass crops by not allowing seed enough ; and, what is 
 worse, the little he does give with a sparing hand is suffered 
 to take its chance under that pest of agriculture called the 
 bush harrow, which not only drags stones and other loose 
 matters into heaps, but leaves the soil dead and heavy, and 
 does not cover the seed deep enough to strive with our July 
 drought effectually." 
 
 We have, however, been verbally assured, by very cor- 
 rect and scientific agriculturists, that six or seven pounds of 
 clover seed, where the ground is highly manured, is amply 
 sufficient, and that by exceeding that quantity the plants so 
 shade and stifle each other that there is little substance in 
 the hay made from them. No doubt much depends on the 
 quality and richness of the soil. The poorer the soil the 
 greater the quantity of grass seed. Clover seed of a bright 
 yellow, with a good quantity of the purple and brown color- 
 ed seed among it, (which shows the maturity of the seed,) 
 should be preferred. 
 
 GRAIN. Grain, strictly speaking, signifies seeds, grow- 
 ing in spikes or ears, and includes wheat, rye, barley, oats, 
 &c. Of the culture of these we shall treat under those heads, 
 respectively. We shall here give some directions for im- 
 proving grain of any sort which has become musty, or sour. 
 
 "The wheat [or other grain] must be put into any con- 
 venient vessel, capable of containing at least three times the 
 quantity, and the vessel must be subsequently filled with 
 boiling water; the grain should then be occasionally stirred, 
 and the hollow and decayed grains (which will float) may 
 be removed; when the water has become cold, or, in gener- 
 al, when about half an hour has elapsed, it is to be drawn 
 off. It will be proper then to rinse the corn [grain] with 
 cold water, in order to remove any portion of the water 
 which had taken up the must; after which, the corn being 
 completely drained, it is, without loss of time, to be thinly 
 spread on the floor of a kiln, and thoroughly dried, care 
 being taken to stir and to turn it frequently during this part 
 of the process." — Code of Jlgricidture. 
 
 Indian Corn. Indian corn, or maize, as it is sometimes 
 3 
 
 D. H. HILL LIBRARY 
 
 North r^.ari^irn. o*_^_ ^ .. 
 
26 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 
 
 called, is a very important crop. The celebrated English 
 agriculturist, Arthur Young, in speaking of the agriculture 
 of France, observed, " The line of maize [corn] may be 
 said to be the division between the good husbandry of the 
 south and the bad husbandry of the north of the kingdom ; 
 till you meet with maize, very rich soils are fallowed, but 
 never after. Perhaps it is the most important plant that 
 can be introduced into the agriculture of any country, where 
 climate will suit it. The only good husbandry in the king- 
 dom (some small rich districts excepted) arises from the 
 possession and management of this plant. For the inhabit- 
 ants of a country to live upon that plant, which is the pre- 
 paration for wheat, and at the same time keep their cattle 
 fat upon the leaves of it, is to possess a treasure for which 
 they are indebted to their climate." The perfect tillage and 
 plentiful manuring requisite for Indian corn make it an ex- 
 cellent substitute for a summer fallow; it is a crop not liable 
 to be injured by too much or too coarse manure; it not only 
 enables, but, as it were, forces the farmer in the course of 
 its culture to subdue his land and exterminate weeds. 
 
 Soil. A light loomy soil is best for this crop, and even if 
 sand greatly predominates it will produce good corn with the 
 help of manure. Corn will not flourish on lands in which 
 clay is the chief ingredient, and which are therefore stiff" 
 and wet. 
 
 Preparation. " The best preparation for a corn crop is a 
 clover or other grass lay, well covered with a long manure, 
 recently spread, neatly ploughed, and harrowed lengthwise 
 of the furrow. A roller may precede the harrow with ad- 
 vantage. The time of performing these operations depends 
 on the texture of the soil and the quality of the sod. If 
 the first is inclining to clay, or the latter tough, or of long 
 continuance, the ploughing may be performed the preceding 
 autumn; but where sand or gravel greatly preponderate, or 
 the sod is light and tender, it is best performed in the 
 spring, and as near to planting as is convenient. The har- 
 row, at least, should immediately precede planting. All 
 seeds do best when put into the fresh stirred mould. Stiff" 
 lands are ameliorated and broken down by fall ploughing ; 
 but light lands are rather prejudiced by it. When corn is 
 preceded by a tilled crop, the ground should be furrowed, 
 and the seed deposited in the bottom of the furrows. Where 
 there is a sod, the rows should be superficially marked, and 
 the seed planted on the surface. Where the field is flat, or 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 27 
 
 the sub-soil retentive of moisture, the land should be laid 
 in ridges, that the excess of water which falls may pass off 
 in the furrows. 
 
 " The time of planting must vary in different districts, 
 and in different seasons. The ground should be sufficiently 
 warmed by vernal heat, to cause a speedy germination. 
 Natural vegetation affords the best guide. My rule has 
 bees to plant when the apple is bursting its blossom buds, 
 which has generally been between the 12th and 20th of 
 May. 
 
 ' Preparation of the seed. The enemies to be combated 
 are the wire-worm, brown grub, birds, and squirrels. Of 
 these, the first and two last prey upon the kernels, and 
 against these tar offers a complete protection. I soak my 
 seed twelve to twenty hours in hot water, in which is dis- 
 solved a few ounces of crude saltpetre, and then add (say 
 to eight quarts of seed) half a pint of tar, previously warmed, 
 and diluted with a quart of warm water. The mass is well 
 stirred, the corn taken out, and as much plaster added as 
 will adhere to the grain. This impregnates and partially 
 coats the seed with tar. The experience of years will war- 
 rant me in confidently recommending this as a protection for 
 the seed. 
 
 " The manner of planting is ordinarily in hills from two 
 and a half to six feet apart, according to the variety of corn, 
 the strength of the soil, and the fancy of the cultivator. 
 The usual distance in my neighbourhood is three feet. 
 Some, however, plant in drills of one, two, or three rows, 
 by which a greater crop is unquestionably obtained, though 
 the expense of culture is somewhat increased. The quan- 
 tity of seed should be double, and may be quadruple* what 
 is required to stand. It is well known that a great differ- 
 ence is manifest in the appearance of the plants. Some 
 appear feeble and sickly, which the best nursing will not 
 render productive. The expense of seed, and the labor of 
 pulling up all but three or four of the strongest plants in a 
 hill, it is believed will be amply remunerated by the increas- 
 ed product. If the seed is covered as it should be with 
 mould only, and not too deep, we may at least calculate 
 upon every hill or drill having its requisite number of plants. 
 
 * Messrs. Pratts, of Madison county, New York, obtained the prodigious 
 crop of one liundred and seventy busliels per acre, and used seven bushels of 
 seed to the acre, the plants being subsequently reduced to the requisite number. 
 
28 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " The after culture consists in keeping the soil loose and 
 free from weeds, which is ordinarily accomplished by two 
 dressings, and in thinning the plants, which latter may be 
 done the first hoeing, or partially omitted till the last. The 
 practice of ploughing among corn and of making large hills 
 is justly getting into disrepute ; for the plough bruises and 
 cuts the roots of the plants, turns up the sod and manure to 
 waste, and renders the crop more liable to suffer by drought. 
 The first dressing should be performed as soon as the size 
 of plants will permit, and the best implement to precede the 
 hoe is the corn harrow, adapted to the width of the rows, 
 which every farmer can make. This will destroy most of 
 the weeds, and pulverize the soil. The second hoeing 
 should be performed before or as soon as the tassels appear, 
 and may be preceded by the corn harrow, a shallow furrow 
 with the plough, or, what is better than either, by the cul- 
 tivator. A slight earthing is beneficial, provided the earth 
 is scraped from the surface, and the sod and manure not ex- 
 posed. It will be found beneficial to run the harrow or cul- 
 tivator a third, and even a fourth time between the rows, to 
 destroy weeds and loosen the surface, particularly if the 
 season is dry. 
 
 " In harvesting the crop, one of three modes is adopted, 
 viz. : 1. The corn is cut at the surface of the ground when 
 the grain has become glazed or hard upon the outside, put 
 immediately in stooks, and when sufficiently dried the corn 
 and stalks are separated, and both secured. 2. The tops 
 are taken off when the corn has become glazed, and the 
 grain permitted to remain till October or November upon the 
 butts. Or, 3. Both corn and stalks are left standing till the 
 grain has fully ripened and the latter become dry, when both 
 are secured. There are other modes, such as leaving the 
 butts or entire stalks in the field after the grain is gathered ; 
 but these are so wasteful and slovenly as not to merit con- 
 sideration. The stalks, blades, and tops of corn, if well 
 secured, are an excellent fodder for neat cattle. If cut, or 
 cut and steamed, so that they can be readily masticated, 
 they are superior to bay. Besides, their fertilizing proper- 
 ties as a manure are greatly augmented by being fed out in 
 the cattle yard and imbibing the urine and liquids which al- 
 ways there abound, and which are lost to the farm in ordi- 
 nary yards, without abundance of dry litter to take them up. 
 By the first of these methods, the crop may be secured be- 
 fore the autumnal rains ; the value of the fodder is increas- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 29 
 
 ed, and the ground is cleared in time for a winter crop of 
 wheat or rje. The second mode impairs the value of the 
 forage, requires more labor, and does not increase the quan- 
 tity or improve the quality of the grain. The third mode 
 requires the same labor as the first, may improve the quality 
 of the grain, but must inevitably deteriorate the quality of 
 the fodder. The corn cannot be husked too promptly after 
 it is gathered from the field. If permitted to heat, the value 
 of the grain is materially impaired." 
 
 To the above directions (which are quoted from an excel- 
 lent article written by J. Buel, Esq., of Albany, originally 
 published in " The Genesee Farmer,") we shall add some 
 further particulars from various sources. 
 
 A writer for Goodsell's "Genesee Farmer," with the 
 signature W. P. W., recommends wetting seed corn with 
 soft soap, and rolling it in plaster, and gives the details of 
 an experiment which tested the utility of this practice. 
 
 William Clark, Jun., of Northampton, Massachusetts, 
 published an article on the culture of corn in "The New 
 England Farmer," (Vol. XI. p. 337,) giving in detail a num- 
 ber of experiments, which favored the opinion that an equal 
 distance each way is the best method of planting corn ; and 
 that on soil "similar to what I have described, [a sandy 
 loam somewhat exhausted by neglect and severe cropping, 
 manured with about twenty cart loads of compost to the 
 acre,] about nine square feet of surface is sufficient ground 
 for one hill." That is, the hills were three feet apart each 
 way from centre to centre ; but he does not state how many 
 kernels were planted, nor how many plants were suffered to 
 remain in a hill. 
 
 It has often been stated that great advantage was derived 
 from selecting seed corn from stalks which had borne two or 
 more ears. " The Hampshire Gazette," published at North- 
 ampton, Massachusetts, mentions a farmer who " has select- 
 ed his seed corn in this way for three years past, and the re- 
 sult has exceeded his expectation. He states, that it is not 
 uncommon to find in his corn-field this season [1831], stalks 
 with three, four, five, and sometimes six ears, and three of 
 them fair, full grown, and fit for seed, and that too in hills 
 containing four or five stalks." He says, " I think my crop 
 has been increased several bushels this year by the experi- 
 ment. I would suggest a mode of selecting seed to those 
 who do not cut up the corn at the roots. When they are 
 picking corn, and find a stalk with two or more ears, let 
 3* 
 
30 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 them tie the husks together, and the ears will be easily 
 known at husking." 
 
 A solution of copperas in water has been recommended 
 as forming a good preparation for seed corn. Mr. J. Ells- 
 worth, of Ketch Mills, Connecticut, in a communication 
 published in "The New England Farmer," (Vol, X. p. 
 331,) stated as follows : 
 
 " Last year I soaked our seed corn in very strong copper- 
 as water, as near as I can recollect from twenty-four to 
 thirty-six hours ; every kernel was made as black as char- 
 coal ; the man who planted the corn called me a fool, and 
 said it would never vegetate. But every hill planted came 
 up well, and during its growth excited the remarks of all 
 who saw it, as being the most even field of corn they ever 
 saw. Not one hill in the whole seven acres was injured by 
 worms ; and we had often in previous years been compelled 
 to replant several times, when it had been cut down by the 
 worms. We had over sixty bushels to the acre." Copper- 
 as water will not preserve corn against the exit-worm, which 
 eats off the young plants at or just below the surface of the 
 ground. It has been often asserted, (but we have not 
 known it tested by experiment,) that the kernels of corn 
 from the but-ends of the ears are better for seed than those 
 from any other part of the ear. It is said that the nearer 
 the seed is taken from the largest end, the larger the pro- 
 duct. Others recommend to reject some part of both ends, 
 and plant only seeds taken from the middle. Further exper- 
 iments are desirable to ascertain these points. 
 
 " The following table," says Judge Buel, "exhibits the 
 difference in product of various methods of planting, and 
 serves also to explain the manner in which large crops of 
 this grain have been obtained. I have assumed in the esti- 
 mate that each stock produces one ear of corn, and that the 
 ears average one gill of shelled grain. This is estimating 
 the product low; for, while I am penning this, (October,) I 
 find that my largest ears give two gills, and one hundred 
 fair ears half a bushel of shelled corn. The calculation is 
 also predicated on the supposition that there is no deficiency 
 in the number of stocks, a contingency pretty sure on my 
 method of planting.* 
 
 * Planting an extra niimljer of plants and thinning them at the first or sec- 
 ond hoeing. 
 
 ,■*»' 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 31 
 
 h!Ils. bush. qts. 
 
 1. An acre in hills four feet apart each way will 
 
 produce 
 
 2. The same, three feet by three 
 
 3. The same, two by two and a half feet 
 
 4. The same, in drills at three feet, 
 
 plants six inches apart in the drills 
 
 5. The same in do., two rows in a drill, 
 
 six inches apart, and the plants 
 nine inches, and three feet nine 
 inches from centre of di'ills, thus : 
 
 2722 
 
 42 
 
 16 
 
 4840 
 
 75 
 
 20 
 
 5808 
 
 93 
 
 28 
 
 Btalks. 
 
 
 
 29,040 
 
 113 
 
 14 
 
 6. The same in do., three rows in a drill, 
 as above, three feet from centres 
 of drills, thus : 
 
 30,970 120 31 
 
 43,560 170 
 
 " The fifth mode I have tried. The ground was highly 
 manured, the crop twice cleaned, and the entire acre gather- 
 ed and weighed accurately the same day. The product in 
 ears was one hundred and three bushels, each eighty-four 
 pounds net, and sixty-five pounds over. The last bushel 
 was shelled and measured, which showed a product on the 
 acre of one hundred and eighteen bu.shels ten quarts. I 
 gathered at the rate of more than one ,hundred bushels to 
 the acre from four rods planted in the third method, last 
 summer, the result ascertained in the most accurate man- 
 ner. Corn shrinks about twenty per cent, after it is crib- 
 bed. The sixth mode is the one by which the Messrs. 
 Pratts, of Madison County, obtained the prodigious crop of 
 one hundred and seventy bushels per acre. These gentle- 
 men, I am told, are of opinion, that the product of an acre 
 may be increased to two hundred bushels." 
 
 We believe that nearly all the large and premium crops 
 which have been noted in the annals of agriculture, were 
 procured by planting the corn in drills, either single, double, 
 or treble. There has, however, been a difference in opinion 
 relative to planting corn in ridges or on a flat surface. 
 This, we think, depends on the nature of the soil. A 
 loamy soil, or such as is proper for corn, ought, irl our 
 climate, to be cultivated in a flat way, that it may the better 
 retain moisture. Dr. Black, of Delaware, advises to plant 
 corn in such a manner that the rows may run directly north 
 and south. General Hull, of Newton, Massachusetts, in 
 cultivating a premium crop of corn, "drew furrows north 
 
32 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and south three and a half feet apart. No ridges were form- 
 ed. Hills were then made with the hoe in those furrows 
 two feet apart, not flat, hut descending to the south, with a 
 small bank on the north side of each hill, for the purpose of 
 giving the young plants a fairer exposure to the sun." 
 
 When corn is planted on greensward land, the holes for 
 the hills or drills should be made quite through the furrows, 
 and dung put into the holes. If this caution be not observ- 
 ed the crop will be uneven, as the roots in some places, 
 where the furrows are thickest, will have but little benefit 
 from the rotting of the sward. But if the holes are made 
 through, the roots will be fed with both fi.ved and putrid air, 
 supplied by the fermentation in the grass roots of the turf* 
 
 Some entertain an idea, that it is injurious to stir the soil 
 when it is dry and the plants are suffering for want of rain. 
 The error of this supposition is well exposed, in an article 
 written by the Hon. J. Lowell, headed, " Stiri-ing the Earth 
 a Relief against Drought," puhVished in " The Massachusetts 
 Agricultural Repository." The following is an extract : 
 
 "In this extraordinary [very dry] season, I had a small 
 patch of early potatoes, planted in a warm and sandy soil, 
 purposely to procure an early crop ; the soil was, at least, 
 three-quarters pure sand, mixed with some food for plants 
 among the sand. The severe drought threatened a total loss 
 of the crop. The potato stalks were feeble, drawn up, 
 scarcely larger than goose quills, and I expected every day 
 to see them wither; all hopes of a crop were abandoned. I 
 thought that they were the fair subjects of a desperate expe- 
 riment. On one of the hottest and driest days, I gave them 
 a thorough ploughing, passing the plough four times through 
 each row: first ploughing two furrows from the hills, as 
 near the roots as possible without throwing out the seed po- 
 tatoes, and then returning the loam or earth instantly back 
 by two other furrows. No rain intervened for ten days. In 
 three days after, the potatoes changed their color, they 
 started afresh as if they had received the benefit of ample 
 showers, while not a drop of rain had fallen. 
 
 "The dews, which were abundant, settled upon the new 
 turned earth, while before the ploughing no moisture had 
 been apparent. 
 
 "The last fact, though it cannot have escaped the notice 
 of the most careless cultivator, has not been as yet explain- 
 ed. We can easily see, that a soil rendered porous would 
 
 * Deane's New England Farmer. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 33 
 
 more readily and easily convey its moisture to the roots. It 
 becomes like a sponge, and is readily permeable, or rather 
 readily permits the moisture to pass between the particles. 
 But it is not yet understood why it attracts the moisture. 
 Perhaps, however, it may be owing to its presenting a much 
 greater surface to the moist air of the night. The fact, 
 however, which is what most concerns lis, is settled. Perhaps 
 some of the experiments of our distinguished countryman 
 Dr. Wells, a physician of London, who rendered himself 
 distinguished by his remarks on dew, may tend to explain 
 this fact, though it is not my purpose to examine the 
 theory. 
 
 "Every man who feels an interest in the question, can 
 satisfy himself at once by stirring a small piece of earth in 
 a time of severe drought, and if he does not find it in the 
 morning more filled with moisture than the undisturbed 
 ground in its vicinity, let him continue an unbeliever. 
 
 " But there is another mode, and it is one which I have 
 never heard suggested, by which I apprehend the stirring ot 
 the surface, and making it light and porous, is beneficial in 
 great droughts. It is this : light porous bodies are bad con- 
 ductors of heat: perhaps because they have more air be- 
 tween their interstices. The facts are familiar to us. Me- 
 tallic bodies acquire an intense heat under the rays of the 
 sun; so do stones in proportion to their density. The earth, 
 when very compact, will become exceedingly hot, but 
 garden loam, which is very porous, remains cool at noonday 
 two inches below the surface. I believe, therefore, that 
 moving the surface, and keeping it in a light and porous 
 state enables it to resist the heat of the sun^s rays; that the 
 air between the particles of earth communicates the heat 
 more slowly than the particles themselves do when in close 
 contact. 
 
 " Such is my theory, but I am an enemy to theories. I 
 always distrust them; I look only to facts; and having ob- 
 served that a slight covering of half an inch of seaweed 
 would preserve my strawberries from drought, which can 
 only arise from its lying so loose on the surface, I have been 
 led to infer that the undoubted fact, that soil in a loose pul- 
 verized state resists drought, is owing to the same cause, to 
 wit, the slowness with which the heat of the solar rays is 
 communicated to the roots. But, be the theory sound or 
 unsound, I am persuaded that every farmer will find that the 
 free use of his plough and hoe, in times of severe drought, will 
 
34 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 be of more value to him than as much manure as that labor 
 would purchase. I have always been convinced, from my 
 experience as an horticulturist, that the great secret in culti- 
 vation consists in making the soil porous. In raising exotic 
 plants we know it to be true, and our flower-pots are always 
 supplied with soil the most porous which we can obtain. 
 The farmer may borrow light from an occupation which he 
 looks upon with disdain, but which serves to elucidate and 
 explain the secrets of vegetation." 
 
 Corn is sometimes profitably planted or sown for fodder. 
 In an " Address to the Essex Agricultural Society," by the 
 late Colonel Pickering, we find the following remarks : 
 
 " Every farmer knows how eagerly cattle devour the en- 
 tire plant of Indian corn in its green state; and land in good 
 condition will produce heavy crops of it. Some years ago, 
 just when the ears were in the milk, I cut close to the 
 ground the plants growing on a measured space, equal as 
 I judged to the average product of the whole piece; and 
 found that, at the same rate, an acre would yield twelve tons 
 of green fodder; probably a richer and more nourishing 
 food than any other known to the husbandman. And this 
 quantity was the growth of less than four months." ***** 
 " It has appeared to me that the sort called sweet corn, 
 yields stalks of richer juice than the common yellow corn. It 
 is also more disposed to multiply suckers, an additional re- 
 commendation to it, when planted to be cut in a green state 
 for horses and cattle, and especially for milch cows ; and 
 the time of planting may be so regulated as to furnish sup- 
 plies of food just when the pastures usually fail. I am 
 inclined to doubt whether any other green food will afford 
 butter of equal excellence." 
 
 Colonel Pickering recommended planting northern corn 
 in preference to southern corn, when fodder is the object. 
 He observed, that "the green stalks of our northern corn 
 are incomparably sweeter than those of the southern States, 
 at least when both sorts are grown in the north." 
 
 Corn intended for fodder may be sowed either broad-cast 
 or in drills. The former is the least trouble, the latter will 
 give the greatest produce, and leave the soil in the best 
 order. 
 
 If the land on which you propose to raise your corn is 
 mowing or pasture, fresh ploughed for the purpose, broad- 
 cast sowing will be best, as the sod after being turned over 
 should not be disturbed, and there will not, probably, be 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 35 
 
 much to apprehend from weeds. If you sow broad-cast, 
 from three to three and a half bushels to an acre are recom- 
 mended, though some say that a larger quantity will be still 
 better. If in drills, you will run light furrows about three feet 
 asunder, three or four inches deep, and drop the seed corn 
 in the furrows, about as thick as peas are sown for field 
 cultivation. The seed may be covered with the plough ; and 
 a harrow drawn lengthwise of the furrows, followed by a 
 roller, (if you have one,) or perhaps your harrow turned 
 bottom upwards, for want of a roller, will complete the 
 planting. If you mean to dry it for winter use, it will be 
 advisable to sow early in the season, for it will then be fit to 
 cut at a time when it can be most easily cured for preserva- 
 tion in your barn, or other receptacle for fodder. 
 
 The following remarks on the culture of corn, are from. the 
 pen of the Rev. Mr. Colman, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, 
 one of our best practical and scientific farmers. 
 
 " In the cultivation of this crop, it is in the first place 
 important to secure an early kind, as the best security 
 against backward springs and early frosts. A field of corn 
 in Lexington, planted on the 21st of June, belonging to Mr. 
 Daniel Chandler, yielded an ample crop, and was perfectly 
 ripened. The seed was of the twelve rowed kind, much es- 
 teemed there, and easily procured. The kernel is small, 
 but it yields as much to the acre, and weighs more to the 
 bushel, than the eight rowed kind, with a larger kernel. 
 Now a kind of this description, which will ripen in nine or 
 ten weeks, in so unpropitious a season as the last, when 
 there were few warm nights, which are generally considered 
 most important to the forwarding of this crop, is certainly a 
 great acquisition. It will be well to remark here, that it is 
 not only important to procure an early kind, but it will re- 
 quire particular attention to keep it so. Plants, like animals, 
 have a constant tendency to become accommodated to the 
 place and season in which they grow. Indian corn brought 
 from the north to the south will become later and require a 
 longer season for its ripenmg, unless particular care is 
 taken in the selection of the earliest ripe ears for planting; 
 which is, that high manuring has a tendency, by rendering 
 the growth of a plant more luxuriant and succulent, to retard 
 its ripening and to lengthen its season. 
 
 "We are satisfied from long observation and experiment 
 that an early planting of corn is generally and strongly to 
 be recommended. The last season, it is true, formed an 
 
36 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 exception to this rule ; but it was a rare case. Now, a kind 
 of corn which by early planting and consequently early 
 ripening gives an opportunity of laying down the same 
 ground seasonably with winter grain and clover ; or which, 
 where the first plantings will afford us the prospect of a full 
 crop, when the vacancies are not supplied or the planting 
 cannot take place until after the middle of June, certainly 
 is a great object to farmers. 
 
 " The kind of land best suited to this crop, I am satisfied, 
 is greensward, completely inverted, rolled, and so culti- 
 vated as not during the whole season to disturb or break the 
 sod which has been turned over. This is a point of great 
 importance; for the decomposition of the vegetable matter 
 in the ground, which is effectually secured in this way, but 
 entirely lost by the common mode of cultivation, will great- 
 ly contribute to the nutriment and vigor of the plant, supply- 
 ing in fact an amount of manure greatly beyond what any 
 conjectures would have made it, had not an exact experi- 
 ment determined that in ordinary cases it may be rated over 
 twelve tons of vegetable matter to the acre. 
 
 " In the next place we protest against the practice of very 
 deep ploughing for this crop, and that of burying the ma- 
 nure deeply under the sod. The depth of ploughing may 
 be in some measure regulated by the nature of the soil ; but 
 three or four inches in sward land may be regarded as am- 
 ple ; and not so much as this, where this would carry you 
 below the vegetable mould. All circumstances considered, 
 I am satisfied that it is most eligible to spread the manure 
 upon the surface, ploughing it in with a very light plough 
 and harrow ; and though something may be lost in this way 
 by evaporation, yet not so much as burying it under the sod; 
 and the land is left in much better condition for the next 
 crops where the manure is thus spread, than where it is 
 placed in the hill ; nor is the corn so like to suffer from the 
 drought, and the saving is considerable." 
 
 NEAT CATTLE. Neat cattle form a very important 
 part of every farmer's live stock. In selecting them, two 
 things are very material : first, the health and soundness of 
 the stock from which they are purchased ; and secondly, 
 the quality of the soil on the produce of which it is intended 
 to feed them. Stock for the dairy or the butcher should be 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 37 
 
 selected from a breed of which you know or can ascertain 
 every particular relative to their general health and sound- 
 ness, and the manner in Avhich they have been reared, in- 
 cluding their food, shelter, &c. 
 
 " The Farmer's and Grazier's Complete Guide," by B. 
 Lawrence, an English writer, observes, "Much has been 
 written as to what breeds are the best ; and a considerable 
 greater stress has been laid on this part of the question than 
 is borne out by any positive result ; there are good and bad 
 of all kinds ; and provided you select sound and healthy 
 animals from warranted stock, you will, if you treat them 
 properly, have little to care for and less to fear. 
 
 "Always purchase cattle that have been fed on lands of a 
 poorer quality than your own ; but you must not too sud- 
 denly put them to the richer food, or they will be liable to 
 several dangerous diseases. It rarely happens, however, 
 that cattle purchased from rich lands thrive well on poor 
 soils ; but, on the contrary, those from poorer farms do well 
 on good land. The choice of neat cattle, therefore, for the 
 stocking of farms, must, in a great degree, be regulated by 
 the nature and quality of the soil intended to feed them on. 
 
 "It is also essential that the cattle should be young, as 
 well as healthy and of sound constitution ; for the younger 
 they are, the more likely they will be to do service. Their 
 age may easily be known by the teeth ; like sheep, they 
 have no fore teeth in the upper jaw ; it is in the lower, 
 therefore, by which this must be determined : the horns also 
 afford some guide in this respect. 
 
 " The eight fore teeth of the lower jaw are shed, and re- 
 placed by others which continue through life : the two mid- 
 dle fore teeth fall out at about two years old, and are suc- 
 ceeded by others not so white. At three years old they 
 have two more next to those of the previous year ; and thus 
 by the two succeeding years all the fore teeth are renewed ; 
 they are then termed full mouthed, and are five years old. 
 At the sixth year the row is even, the last two being com- 
 pletely up. Besides these they have ten grinders in each 
 jaw. 
 
 " At the age of three years the horns are smooth and 
 even ; in the course of the fourth year, a wrinkle or circle 
 forms round the basis of the horn near the head ; this is 
 every year succeeded by another, which always seems to 
 move the other forward. In looking therefore at the horns 
 of neat cattle, if the first circle be considered as three years, 
 4 
 
38 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 it will be an easy task to tell the age of the beast at any sub- 
 sequent period. An implicit reliance cannot, however, be 
 placed on these marks, particularly in purchasing of stran- 
 gers, or cow jobbers, such persons having been known to 
 file down some of the animal's teeth, and alter the appear- 
 ance of the horns so as to give them the semblance and 
 marks of young cattle of the most valuable breeds, and pass 
 them off as such to strangers." 
 
 Cows for the Dairy. In selecting cows for the dairy, the 
 following indications should be attended to. Wide horns, a 
 thin head and neck, dew-lap large, full breast, broad back, 
 large deep belly ; the udder capacious but not too fleshy ; 
 the milch veins prominent, and the bag tending far behind ; 
 teats long and large ; buttocks broad and fleshy ; tail long, 
 pliable, and small in proportion to the size of the carcass, 
 and the joints short. The Alderney breed gives a very rich 
 milk. The Durham short horns, however, exceed them as 
 respects quantity ; and we have the testimony of the Hon. 
 Levi Lincoln, late governor of Massachusetts, that the milk 
 of Denton's progeny, a branch of that race, is not only 
 abundant, but of excellent quality.* 
 
 Cows should be milked regularly morning and evening, 
 and as nearly as may be at the same hours. At six in the 
 morning and six at night is a good general rule, as the times 
 of milking will be equi-distant from each other. But if they 
 are milked three times a day, as Dr. Anderson recommend- 
 ed, the times may be five, one, and eight. He asserted 
 that if cows were fall fed, they will give half as much again 
 if milked three times as if only twice. At the same time, it 
 would prevent too great a distension of their bags, to which 
 the best cows are liable. 
 
 The cow which is desired to remain in perfection, either 
 for milking or breeding, should not be exhausted by drawing 
 her milk too long after she becomes heavy with calf It is 
 paying too dear for a present supply of milk. She should 
 be suffered to go dry at least two months before calving. 
 
 The expense of keeping cows of a poor breed is as great 
 and sometimes greater than that of keeping the best. If 
 cows are poorly kept the difference of breeds will scarcely 
 be discernible by the product of their milk. Some have 
 therefore supposed that it is the food alone which makes the 
 odds in the quantity and quality of the milk. This supposi- 
 
 * See New England Farmer, Vol. IV. p. 318. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 39 
 
 tion is very erroneous, as may be shown by feeding two 
 cows of a similar age, size, &c. on the same food, the one 
 of a good breed for milk and the other of a different kind, 
 and observing the difference in the milk product. No farm- 
 er, unless he is very rich, can afford to keep poor milch cows. 
 He might almost as well keep a breed of '" naked sheep," such 
 as Swift mentions in " Gulliver's Travels." The farmer who 
 raises a heifer calf that is from a poor milker, or of a breed 
 of little value, is as foolish as he would be, if, in clearing 
 land, he should burn on the ground the birch, maple, and 
 walnut, and save white pine and hemlock for fire wood. And 
 yet many sell the calves of the best milch cows to the butch- 
 ers, because such calves are fattest ! 
 
 Those cows which give the greatest quantity of thin milk 
 are most profitable for suckling calves, for rich milk is said 
 not to be so proper food for calves as milk which is less val- 
 uable for dairy purposes. Milk which contains a large pro- 
 portion of cream is apt to clog the stomachs of calves ; 
 obstruction puts a stop to their thriving, and sometimes 
 proves fatal. For this reason it is best that calves should be 
 fed with the milk whicli first comes from the cow, which is 
 not so rich as that which is last drawn. 
 
 Mr. Russel Woodward, in the "Memoirs of the New 
 York Board of Agriculture," says, " I have found that 
 young cows, the first year that they give milk, may be made 
 with careful milking and good keeping to give milk almost 
 any length of time required. But if they are left to dry up 
 early in the fall, they will be sure to dry up of their milk 
 each succeeding year, if they have a calf near the same 
 season of the year ; and nothing but extraordinary keeping 
 will prevent it, and that but for a short time. I have had 
 them dried up of their milk in August, and could not by any 
 means make them give milk much beyond that time in any 
 succeeding years." 
 
 A writer in the "Bath and West of England Society's 
 Papers," states, that if at any time a good milch cow should 
 go dry before her milk is gone, get a young calf and put it 
 to her in order to preserve her milk against another year ; 
 for it is well known, if a cow goes dry one year, nature will 
 lose its power of acting in future. 
 
 Cows should be treated with great gentleness and soothed 
 by mild usages, especially when young and ticklish, or when 
 the paps are tender ; in which case the udder ought to be 
 fomented with warm water before milking, and touched with 
 
40 THE COMPLETE FARMEK 
 
 great gentleness, otherwise the cow will be in great danger 
 of contracting bad habits, becoming stubborn and unruly, 
 and retaining her milk ever after. A cow never gives down 
 her milk pleasantly to a person she dreads or dislikes. The 
 udder and paps should be washed with warm water before 
 milking, and care should be taken that none of the water be 
 admitted into the milking pail. 
 
 The keeping of cows in such a manner as to make them 
 give the greatest quantity of milk, and with the greatest 
 clear profit, is an essential point of economy. Give a cow 
 half a bushel of turnips, carrots, or other good roots per 
 day, during the six winter months, besides her hay, and if 
 her summer feed be such as it should be, she will give near- 
 ly double the quantity of milk she would atTord if only kept 
 during the winter in the usual manner ; and the milk will be 
 richer and of better quality. 
 
 The carrots or other roots, at nineteen cents a bushel, 
 amount to about eighteen dollars ; the addition of milk, 
 allowing it to be only three quarts a day for three hundred 
 days, at three cents a quart, twenty-seven dollars. It should 
 be remembered, too, that when cows are thus fed with roots 
 they consume less hay, and are less liable to several dis- 
 eases, which are usually the effects of poor keeping.* 
 
 The keeping of cows is very profitable. Allowing one to 
 give only si.\ quarts a day, for forty weeks in each year, and 
 this is not a large allowance, her milk at two cents per quart 
 will amount to upwards of thirty-three dollars ; which is 
 probably sufficient to purchase her and pay for a year's 
 keeping.* 
 
 " A farmer some years since kept eighteen cows on a 
 common, and was often obliged to buy butter for his family. 
 The common was enclosed, and the same person supplied his 
 family amply with milk and butter from the produce of four 
 cows well kept. 
 
 " Great milkers seldom carry much flesh on their bones, 
 but they pay as they go and never retire in our debt. The 
 difficulties in cow keeping are these : the expense of their 
 food is considerable, more especially with respect to any 
 which must be purchased, and if the produce be inconsid- 
 erable it may be a losing concern. You may be feeding a 
 sparing milker into flesh, and if you stint her or allow her 
 only ordinary food you get neither flesh nor milk."! 
 
 * Farmer's Assistant. t Mowbray on Poultry, &c. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 41 
 
 Amateurs in this line should procure the largest milkers, 
 and I had almost said give them gold, could they eat it. In 
 this case it may be depended on, milk is always of more value 
 than the best coiv-food ; and a cow, the natural tendency of 
 which is to breed milk, will convert all nourishment, how- 
 ever dry and substantial, into that fluid; in fact, will require 
 such solid kind of nourishment to support her strength and 
 induce her to take the bull.* 
 
 Keep no more cows than you can keep well; one cow well 
 fed will produce as much milk as two indifferently treated, 
 and more butter; and if the cow be wintered badly, she will 
 rarely recover, during the succeeding summer, so as to be- 
 come profitable to the feeder. Cows should by all means 
 be housed in extreme weather, and particularly those which 
 give milk, or a failure in the quantity of milk will be expe- 
 rienced. Wherefore, instead of keeping twenty cows poor- 
 ly fed and but half of them stabled, sell ten and give the 
 remaining ten food in amount equal to what the twenty orig- 
 inally had ; procure constant stabling for them, and you 
 will receive quite as much milk and butter in return as was 
 derived from the former mode of treating twenty. Sweet 
 potatoes, carrots, pumpkins, and ground oats, are unques- 
 tionably among the best articles for food for milch cattle ; 
 and they occasion the milk and butter to assume a fine 
 flavor and color, as well as increase of quantity. | 
 
 IVinter Food for Cows. Mr. Chabert, the director of the 
 veterinary schools of Alfort, had a number of cows which 
 yielded very great quantities of milk. In his publications 
 on the subject he observed, that cows fed in winter on dry 
 substances give less milk than those which are kept on a 
 green diet, and also that their milk loses much of its quality. 
 He published the following receipt, by the use of which his 
 cows afforded him an equal quantity and quality of milk 
 during the winter as during the summer. " Take a bushel 
 of potatoes, break them while raw, place them in a barrel 
 standing up, putting in successively a layer of potatoes and 
 a layer of bran, and a small quantity of yeast in the middle 
 of the mass, which is to be left thus to ferment during a 
 whole week, and when the vinous taste has pervaded the 
 whole mixture, it is then given to the cows, who eat it 
 greedily." 
 
 Pure water is an essential article for cows. Dr. Anderson 
 
 * Mowbraj on Poultry, &c. t Trenton Emporium. 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 says, he knew a man who acquired great wealth by attention 
 to things of this nature, and one of his principal discoveries 
 was, the importance of having a continued supply of the 
 purest water which could be obtained for his cows ; and 
 he would on no account permit a single animal to set his 
 foot in it, nor allow it to be tainted even by the breath of 
 animals. 
 
 Parsnips cause cows to give milk in abundance, and that 
 of the best quality. 
 
 Working Coivs. An English cultivator, whose observa- 
 tions are published in the appendix to Plymley's " Survey of 
 Shropshire," says, " Cows are fattened easier and are bet- 
 ter laborers than oxen. The uses of cattle are to work, 
 milk, and fatten. I have seen barren cows work as well as 
 oxen; therj require less keep and walk faster. When first I 
 commenced farmer, I followed the example of my prede- 
 cessor in feeding chiefly oxen; but I soon found that cows 
 fattened much faster, and on less meal, and for some years 
 past I have carefully avoided having any oxen in my 
 stalls." 
 
 Cows which are shortly expected to calve ought to be 
 lodged at night in some convenient place under cover for a 
 week or two before calving, as it might be the means of 
 saving the life of the calf, and perhaps of the dam likewise. 
 The day and night after a cow has calved she should be kept 
 under cover, and her drink should be lukewarm. Let her 
 not be exposed for some time to the dampness of the night. 
 
 Cows which are near calving ought to be fed with better 
 and more substantial food than usual. Grain of any kind is 
 now useful, but it should be crushed, bruised, or coarsely 
 ground. If the cleaning of a cow after calving be delayed, 
 it may be promoted, according to Deane's " New England 
 Farmer,"by giving her a pail of warm water with some ashes 
 in it; or, according to " The Grazier's Guide," the only thing 
 to be given is toast and weak wine, or good cider or perry. 
 If wine be preferred, mix it with an equal quantity of water. 
 This toast should consist of four pints of wine and water, 
 and about a pound and a half of bread toasted. 
 
 Inflamed teats should be washed with two drachms of 
 sugar of lead in a quart of water. Should tumors appear, 
 apply a common warm mash of bran with a little lard. 
 
 To prevent cows from sucking their own milk, it is said 
 that rubbing the teats frequently with the most fetid cheese 
 that can be procured is an effectual remedy. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 43 
 
 In order that it may be ascertained what is the proper 
 time for cows to go dry previous to their calving, an ac- 
 count should be kept of the time when each cow is put to 
 bull, so that the cow may be dried otT in due season. The 
 following prescription for drying off cows is given in Monk's 
 " Agricultural Dictionary." 
 
 " Take an ounce of powdered alum; boil it in two quarts 
 of milk till it turns to whey; then take a large handful of 
 sage, and boil it in the whey till you reduce it to one quart; 
 rub her udder with a little of it, and give her the rest by 
 way of drink; milk her clean before you give it to her ; 
 and as you see need repeat it. Draw a little milk from 
 her every second or third day, lest her udder be over- 
 charged." 
 
 Cow-house or Stable. The most healthy stables are those 
 which are open to the east, or have an eastern aspect. It is a 
 common practice to build them too close. The stable should 
 never be completely closed up, however cold the weather 
 may be, although it is desirable that strong draughts of cold 
 or damp air should be guarded against, especially in winter. 
 It may be held as a general rule, that stables or cow-houses 
 are too close when on entering the breath is affected, or 
 any smell of urine can be perceived. 
 
 It is also very important to keep cow-houses or cattle 
 stables clean and well littered. Dung left in stables soon 
 renders the air unwholesome, and is the cause of disorders. 
 Cows in a stable should be allowed a square space of at 
 least six feet each way for each cow. Two or three venti- 
 lators near the ground on the north side afford, at a trifling 
 expense, an excellent way of renewing or sweetening the 
 air in stables in the summer time, and on the south side in 
 winter, without occasioning draughts ; and these may be 
 shut when necessary by means of straw, or, what is better, 
 a sliding door. 
 
 It is of no small importance that the floor of a cow-house 
 be very tight, so that none of the stale be lost, which is of 
 great value as manure, when mixed with other substances. 
 A farmer might as well lose the dung as the urine of his 
 beasts. 
 
 "The common cattle stalls of our country are so ill con- 
 trived, and so straitened in their dimensions, that the cattle 
 are constrained to lie down in part in their own dung. This 
 dries and forms a thick coat on their hind quarters, from 
 which they are not relieved till they shed their hair in the 
 
44 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 spring. They are thus rendered uncomfortable. To be un- 
 comfortable is to suffer some degree of pain ; and no one 
 will suppose that animals in pain can thrive, or preserve 
 their plight with the same food equally with others perfectly 
 at ease. Even hogs, though prone to wallow in the mire 
 in warm weather, are always pleased with a dry bed, and 
 thrive best when kept clean." * 
 
 The following, from the " Memoirs of the Pennsylvania 
 Agricultural Society," is extracted from a letter from R. 
 Smith to J. H. Powel, and will be of use in directing the 
 most economical management of dairy cattle. 
 
 " My barn is constructed according to the best Pennsyl- 
 vania models. The yard is to the south of it. On the east 
 and west sides are cow-stables, containing one hundred and 
 ten well made stalls, ventilated by a sufficient number of 
 windows and double doors. At the tails of each range of 
 cows there is a drain made of strong planks, and so fixed as 
 to receive all their dung and urine. These several drains 
 have a sufficient declivity to carry all the fluid matter to their 
 southern terminations, where they intersect similar drains, 
 which convey all this liquid manure into a cistern, fifty feet 
 long. This cistern is so placed and constructed as to re- 
 ceive not only the urine of the stables, but also the liquid 
 matter of the farm-yard. In it there is a pump, by means 
 of which its contents are pumped into a large hogshead, 
 fixed on a pair of wheels drawn by oxen. To the end of 
 this hogshead is attached a box pierced with holes, into 
 which this liquid manure floats through a spigot and faucet, 
 and is then sprinkled over the ground as the oxen move for- 
 ward." 
 
 Food for fatting Cattle, keephig Stock, S^c. It has been 
 often said, and we believe correctly, that it is not profitable, 
 generally speaking, to fatten cattle on any kind of grain. 
 Lawrence on Neat Cattle asserts, that "corn [by which is 
 meant oats, barley, rye, peas, beans, wheat, &c.] cannot be 
 used in the fattening of bullocks and sheep, except in sea- 
 sons of superabundant plenty. Even Indian corn is often 
 too costly food to be used solely, or principally, for the prof- 
 itable fattening of cattle ; and grass, hay, and roots are the 
 materials which true economy requires. ""f It is, however, 
 asserted, that beef fattened on oil cake, raw potatoes, tur- 
 
 * Colonel Pickering. 
 
 t See a communication foi " Tiie New EngUiud Faimer," Vol. I. p. 234. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 45 
 
 nips, &c., will not be so firm, nor of so good a quality, oth- 
 er things being equal, as that which is fattened on Indian 
 corn. If that be true, it might be well to commence feed- 
 ing with turnips, potatoes, &c., and give the animals richer 
 food as they increase in fatness. 
 
 An able writer says, " With respect to feeding, the first 
 rule is, little at a time, and oflen ; because experience has 
 shown that animals that eat much in a short time do not fat- 
 ten so well as those which eat less but more frequently. 
 The second rule is, to begin the course with cabbage and 
 turnips, then to employ carrots and potatoes, and lastly 
 Indian, oat, or barley meal. These aliments ought to be 
 varied several times a day, and oftener if convenient ; and 
 instead of always reducing them to a meal, there is advan- 
 tage in sometimes boiling them. A little salt given daily is 
 very useful." 
 
 It would be advantageous to the community of farmers if 
 something like the following experiments were made, and 
 their results published. Let a number of cattle of similar 
 or the same breed, age, propensity to fatten, as ascertained 
 by handling, &c., be fattened at the same time. Let one be 
 fed entirely on potatoes raw ; a second on the same root 
 steamed or boiled ; a third made one half or two-thirds fat 
 on potatoes, and his fattening completed with Indian corn ; 
 a fourth be fattened on Indian corn, or corn meal ; a fifth 
 be fed with a mixture of all these kinds of food, given 
 together in the same mess, or in different messes. The first 
 food in the morning, for the last-mentioned bullock, might 
 be a small quantity of potatoes, pumpkins, or turnips ; the 
 second, ruta baga or carrots, mangel-wurzel, or parsnips. 
 Then, as the last course of the day's feast, give Indian meal, 
 or other food the richest you have. It would be well, like- 
 wise, to try the virtues of sweet apples. The most impor- 
 tant object of such experiments, however, would be to as- 
 certain whether the beef of cattle fattened on potatoes or 
 other roots, raw or boiled or steamed, is equal in quality to 
 that which is fattened on Indian corn. If not, whether an 
 ox may not be made nearly fat enough for profit on roots and 
 hay, his fatting completed on corn, and the fiesh be as good 
 as if he had been fattened wholly on corn. And if an ox 
 partly fattened on roots, and his fattening completed on corn, 
 gives as good beef as one wholly fed on corn, the question 
 occurs, hoio long a time will it require to give the beef its 
 good qualities arising from the corn ? We know, as re- 
 
46 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 spects swine, that farmers make them partly fat on any thing 
 which they will devour, and then feed them for some time 
 before they are killed with Indian corn or meal, to " harden 
 the Jlesh," as they express it ; and perhaps the same process 
 will answer for beef cattle. Some farmers say that the red 
 or La Plata potato, given raw to sw^ine, make as good pork 
 as that wdiich is corn fed. Others say that any kind of po- 
 tatoes, if steamed or boiled, will make as good pork as can 
 be made of corn. If this be true of pork, it may be so of 
 beef 
 
 It is a truth which has been confirmed by repeated exper- 
 iment, that food for siiine fermented till it becomes a little 
 acid will go farther and fatten them faster than unfermented 
 food of the same quantity and quality. But it is not, I be- 
 lieve, generally known in this country, that acid food is most 
 valuable for neat cattle in certain circumstances. Mr. 
 Bordley, (a celebrated American writer on Rural Economy,) 
 however, asserts, that oxen made half fat, or in good plight, 
 on grass or turnips, are then finished, in France, upon a 
 sour food, prepared as follows : rye meal (buckwheat or In- 
 dian meal may be tried) with water is made into paste, which 
 in a few days ferments and becomes sour ; this is then dilu- 
 ted with water, and thickened uilh hay, cut into chaff', which 
 the oxen sometimes refuse the first day, but when dry they 
 drink and prefer it. All the husbandmen are decidedly of 
 opinion that they fatten much better because of the acidity. 
 They give it thrice a day, and a large ox eats twenty-two 
 pounds a day. Maize [Indian] meal, or maize steeped till 
 it is sour, should be tried. This sour mess is given during 
 the last three weeks of their fattening, and they eat about 
 seven and a half bushels of meal, value four dollars. 
 
 Care should be taken that the process of fermentation be 
 not carried too far. The paste should not become mouldy, 
 nor the liquid food in the slightest degree putrid. We think, 
 moreover, that there is good reason for waiting till animals 
 become " half fat," or in good plight, before they are fed 
 with acid food. Acids, like alcohol, create appetite by 
 stimulating the stomach, but if long continued they weaken 
 the digestive powers, and in time entirely destroy the tone of 
 the stomach. The animal will then be visited with what in 
 a human subject would be called dyspepsia, or a want of the 
 power of digestion ; fattening him will be out of the ques- 
 tion, and he will be worth but little more than the value of 
 his hide. The constitution of an ox may be destroyed by 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 47 
 
 excessive eating, and it is only towards the close of his 
 days, near the last stage of his preparation for the butcher, 
 that he should be allowed to become an epicure, and in- 
 dulged with as much as he can eat of rich and high-seasoned 
 food. 
 
 Store keep should neither be too rich nor too abundant; and 
 if an ox is once made fat and then loses his flesh, he is like 
 one of Pharaoh's lean kine, the more he devours the leaner 
 he becomes. If young cattle are kept in rich pastures in 
 summer and poor fodder in winter, sometimes stuffed, at oth- 
 er times starved, they lose their disposition to fatten. To 
 such cattle Mr. Lawrence alludes, when he says, " It is ex- 
 tremely imprudent indolently to continue to keep at high 
 food animals which do not thrive ; I advert chiefly to indi- 
 viduals with which the first loss is always the least." " Stock 
 cattle," said Mr. Bordley, "are kept, others are fattened. 
 The feeding is different. Cattle kept need no kind of grain, 
 nor even hay, unless to cows about calving time. Straw, 
 with any juicy food, such as roots or dranh,* abundantly suf- 
 fice for keeping cattle in heart through the winter, provided 
 they are sheltered from cold rains. Mr. Bakewell kept his 
 fine cattle on straw and turnips through the winter. A drank 
 for keeping cattle may be made thus : roots, chaff, or cut 
 straw, and salt, boiled together with a good quantity of 
 water ; the roots cut or mashed. The cattle drink the 
 water and eat the rest. Drank for fattening cattle thus : 
 roots, meal, flax-seed, chaff, or cut straw, and salt, well 
 boiled together in plenty of water. If given warm, not hot, 
 the better." The same author says, "Hay, meal, and lin- 
 seed jelly with drank must be excellent food in stall feeding. 
 Linseed jelly is thus made : seven quarts of water to one 
 of flax-seed, steeped in a part of the water forty-eight hours, 
 then add the remaining water,' cold, and boil it gently two 
 hours, stirring constantly to prevent burning. It is cooled 
 in tubs, and given mixed with any meal, bran, or cut chaff. 
 Each bullock (large) has two quarts o^ jelly a day ; equal 
 to a little more than one quart of seed in four days." 
 
 In a tract entitled " Notices for a Young Farmer," writ- 
 ten by the Hon. Judge Peters, formerly president of the 
 Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, are the following direc- 
 tions : 
 
 * The word drank is given us by Count Runiford for distinguishing tliis com- 
 position from water. 
 
48 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " Cut or chaff your hay, straw, corn tops, or blades, and 
 even your stalks, with a straw cutter, and you will save a 
 great proportion which is otherwise wasted or passed through 
 the animal without contributing to its nourishment. One 
 bushel of chaffed hay at a mess, given in a trough, three 
 times in twenty-four hours, is sufficient for a horse, ox, or 
 cow. A bushel of chaffed hay, lightly pressed, weighs from 
 jSve to five and a half pounds. A horse or horned beast 
 thrives more on fifteen pounds thus given than on twenty- 
 four or twenty-five pounds as commonly expended (including 
 waste) in the usual manner of feeding in racks; to which 
 troughs, properly constructed, are far preferable.* Salt 
 your clover and other succulent, as well as coarse hay. 
 But over-salting diminishes the nutriment. More than a 
 peck to a ton is superfluous. Half that quantity is often 
 sufficient. Ten or fifteen pounds is usually an ample allow- 
 ance. Feeding your stock by weight and measure of food 
 will not only save your provender, by its orderly distribu- 
 tion, but frequently save the lives of animals, too often 
 starved by niggardliness or neglect, or gorged and destroyed 
 by profusion. If it be true, as it is, that the master's eye 
 makes the horse fat, it is equally so, that the master's eye 
 prevents the horse from being pampered, wanton, pursive, 
 bloated, foundered, and finally wind-broken and blind." 
 
 If hay is salted by using salt in substance, it should be 
 done at the time it is deposited in the mow. It is often a 
 good practice to sprinkle a solution of salt in water over 
 hay or other food for cattle in the winter time, especially if 
 the fodder be of an inferior quality. 
 
 Colonel Jaques, of Ten Hills farm, Charlestown, (Mass.) 
 has been very successful in the breeding and rearing of neat 
 cattle, and recommends from actual experiment the following 
 mixture : 
 
 T.ike Riita Baga, cut fine. 
 
 2 bushels. 
 
 " Wheat bran, 
 
 1 bushel. 
 
 " Powdered oil cake, 
 
 i bushel. 
 
 " English hay, barley straw, and 
 
 
 salt hay, cut, of each. 
 
 7 bushels. 
 
 " Water, 
 
 10 gallons. 
 
 Let them be perfectly mixed. Give a bushel of the mixture 
 to a cow of the common size every night and morning, and 
 proportionably to greater or smaller animals. 
 
 * See further, Straw Cutter, under the head Agricultural Implements. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 49 
 
 On soili7ig laboring Oxen and Horses. By soiling do- 
 mestic animals, is meant keeping them in yards, &.C., and 
 cutting and giving them grass, with or without other green 
 or dry food. Instead of turning your oxen and horses, 
 which you have occasion to use frequently, into a pasture, 
 perhaps adorned with thickets of brushwood, in which the 
 animals may hide themselves beyond the reach of a search 
 warrant, you had better soil them, and thus have them al- 
 ways at hand. You must be careful that they are always 
 well supplied with water, and plenty of litter to absorb the 
 liquid manure, unless you have reservoirs, &c. to answer 
 the purpose of preventing its waste. The famous cultivator 
 Arthur Young, observed, that lucerne is the best plant for 
 soiling, and an acre of it will go farther than any thing else. 
 But clover or any other grass, green or dry, butts of Indian 
 corn cut up near the roots, cabbages, &c.. Sec, may often be 
 economically disposed of in soiling cattle or horses, whose 
 services are requisite for the daily and hourly labors of the 
 husbandman. But soiling on a large or general plan will 
 not soon, if ever, be adopted in New England, where there 
 are so many thousands of acres of pasture land which are 
 fit for nothing but grazing. 
 
 Cooking Food for Cattle. Among the most useful im- 
 provements of modern husbandry, may be numbered the 
 practice of steaming or boiling food for domestic animals. 
 Some account of the origin of this practice in Great Britain 
 maybe found in " The Complete Grazier," an English work of 
 reputation, from which we have made the following extracts. 
 
 " Steamed food may be given to milch cows to great ad- 
 vantage. For this important fact in rural economy, we are 
 indebted to the ingenious and persevering experiments of J. 
 C. Curwin, Esq., M. P., whose attention to the comforts of 
 his tenants, and judicious zeal for the improvement of agri- 
 culture, are too well known to require any eulogy. In pros- 
 ecution of a system which he had long practised of giving 
 cooked food to animals, Mr. Curwin turned his attention to 
 the cheapest mode of supplying milch cows with it ; and in 
 a communication to the Society for the Encouragement of 
 Arts, &c., (which was honored with their less gold medal,) 
 he stated his belief that he has at length been completely suc- 
 cessful. He uses a steam boiler of 100 gallons' contents,* 
 
 * An engraving of it is given in the thirtieth volume of the Society's Trans- 
 actions. 
 
 5 
 
50 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 on each side of which are fixed three boxes, containing 
 eleven stones* each of chaff, (the husks of wheat, rye, 
 St.c.,) which by being steamed gain more than one third of 
 their original weight. The steam is conveyed by various 
 cocks into the lower part of the boxes; and thus two or 
 three boxes may be steamed at the same time. The quanti- 
 ty of fuel required was about two pounds for each stone of 
 chaff. 
 
 "In giving the steamed chaff to the cattle, two pounds ot 
 oil cake were mixed with one stone of chaff; and the milch 
 cows are fed with it morning and evening, having an allow- 
 ance of one stone at each time. On being taken from the 
 steamer the food is put into wooden boxes, which are mount- 
 ed on wheels, to be drawn to the place where it is intended 
 to be used; and the chaff requires to stand some time before 
 it is fit for use. 
 
 "The average milk on a stock of thirty-six milch cows 
 was nearly thirteen wine quarts for 320 days. The cows 
 were never suffered to be turned out; and to prevent their 
 being lame, their hoofs were properly pared, and they stood 
 with their fore feet on clay. One great advantage attending 
 this method was, that most if not all the milch cows were in 
 such a condition, that with a few weeks' feeding, after they 
 were dry, they became fit for the shambles, with very little 
 loss from the first cost. As a substitute for chaff and oil 
 cake, Mr. Curwin recommends cut hay ; which, when 
 steamed, would make very superior food, and he entertains 
 no doubt would greatly augment the milk as well as the 
 health of the animals." 
 
 An apparatus for steaming food for cattle should be con- 
 sidered a necessary appendage of every arable and dairy 
 farm of a moderate size. The advantage of preparing dif- 
 ferent sorts of roots, as well as even grain, chaff, and hay, 
 by means of steaming apparatus, for the nourishment of cat- 
 tle, begins now to be generally understood. It has been long 
 known that many sorts of roots, and particularly the potato, 
 become much more valuable by undergoing this sort of 
 preparation. And it is equally well known, that when thus 
 prepared, they have been employed alone as a substitute for 
 grain, with cut chaff for hay and grain, in the feeding of 
 horses as well as other animals. To a farmer who keeps 
 horses or cattle, or even swine or poultry, the practice of 
 
 * Fourteen pounds a stone. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOiMlST. 51 
 
 boiling their food in steam is so great a saving and ad- 
 vantage, that it deserves the most particular attention. 
 Though potatoes have often been given raw both to horses 
 and cattle, they are found to be greatly preferable when 
 cooked by steam, as they are thereby rendered much drier 
 and more nutritive, and better than when boiled in water ; 
 this has been long since shown by the experiments of Wake- 
 field, of Liverpool, who, in order to ascertain it, fed some of 
 his horses on steamed and some on raw potatoes, and soon 
 found the horses fed on the steamed potatoes had greatly 
 the advantage in every respect. Those fed on steamed 
 potatoes looked perfectly smooth and sleek, while the others 
 were quite rough. 
 
 A steaming machine on a simple and economical plan con- 
 sists of a boiler, and a wooden chest or box, placed over or 
 near it. The box may be of any size, and so placed as to 
 be supplied and emptied by wheel or hand-barrows in the 
 easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, being 
 made to open. If the box is made eight feet by five, and 
 three feet deep, it will hold as many potatoes as will feed 
 fifty cows for twenty-four hours, and these may be steamed 
 in an hour.* 
 
 The practice of cooking food for cattle is by no means a 
 novelty in New England. A simple apparatus for this pur- 
 pose much used is as follows : 
 
 A kettle, holding twelve gallons or more, is set in a fur-^ 
 nace of brick or stone, and over this a hogshead with one 
 head taken out and the other bored full of holes. This is set 
 so close that the steam of the kettle, when boiling, can only 
 rise through the holes, and thence ascend among the arti- 
 cles to be boiled in the hogshead, and pass off at the top. In 
 this way a hogshead of potatoes will be nearly as soon boil- 
 ed as a small part of them could be if placed in the kettle 
 underneath. 
 
 As the kettle is so closed as to prevent any steam from 
 passing off but through the bottom of the hogshead, a pipe 
 or tube is set in such a manner that with the aid of a funnel 
 water may be poured into the kettle as often as is necessary. 
 After the water is poured in, the tube is stopped with a plug 
 for that purpose. 
 
 Grain of all kinds may be steam-boiled to great advantage 
 
 * For a simple apparatus for steaming food for cattle and swine, see a cut 
 under tlie head Agricultural Implements, 
 
52 THE COMPLETE FARJIER 
 
 for feeding and fattening cattle; but in that case it is requis- 
 ite to liave the bottom of the hogshead covered with a cloth, 
 to prevent the grain from running down through the holes. 
 
 In the fifth volume of "The New England Farmer," (p. 
 306,) are some notices of the use made of steam in prepar- 
 ing food for cattle, in a letter from R. Smith, Esq., President 
 of the Maryland Agricultural Society, on the management 
 of dairy cattle, &c., to John Hare Powel, Esq. 
 
 " For the purpose of augmenting the quantity and improv- 
 ing the quality of the food of my stock of every kind, I have 
 established a steaming apparatus. It consists of a boiler and 
 two wooden boxes, in which boxes is steamed the food. 
 These boxes contain each eighty bushels. By this simple 
 apparatus, every species of coarse vegetable offal is convert- 
 ed into nourishing food, and all the ordinary provender is 
 rendered more nutritious. 
 
 " In the dairies near Philadelphia, it is well known, that 
 sweet butter of the first quality cannot be made but from 
 cream quicklij produced from fresh milk, and that whenever 
 the milk remains many days to produce its cream, such 
 cream acquires an unpleasant taste that is imparted to the 
 butter. 
 
 " Since the month of January, 1823, my dairy people 
 have been in the practice of always placing the pans con- 
 taining the milk in water simmering hot. The oily parts 
 which constitute the cream are by such heat separated from 
 the other ingredients, and then, from their specific lightness, 
 they of course ascend to the top in the form of cream. 
 Cream is thus obtained during the coldest weather in winter 
 in the course of about twelve hours after the milk has been 
 taken from the cows. And the operation of churning such 
 cream never exceeds twenty-five minutes. The milk pans 
 remain in the hot water about thirty minutes. The butter 
 has invariably been of a fine flavor, and of a beautiful yel- 
 low color ; and, in the nature of things, it never can be 
 otherwise, unless the dairy woman should be utterly igno- 
 rant of the art of making sweet butter. 
 
 " It may not be amiss to state to you, that the skim-milk 
 under this process is a very pleasant beverage. In summer 
 and winter it bears the agitation of a carriage without be- 
 coming sour. And every morning through the year a per- 
 son comes to the farm and takes from 250 to 300 quarts, for 
 which he pays two cents per quart, cash, and on the same 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 55 
 
 hay he retails the whole among the people of the town, at 
 three cents per quart. 
 
 " The hot water in which the milk pans are placed is con- 
 tained in large flat wooden vessels, attached to a stove. The 
 water is heated by means of a flat tube fastened to the side, 
 and near to the bottom of each vessel, and introduced through 
 an aperture into the stove. The heat of the stove affords 
 the additional advantage of preserving in the dairy house 
 the requisite temperature during the winter season. 
 
 " The dairy house is a stone building, consisting of three 
 spacious apartments for the preservation of the milk, the 
 cream, and the butter, and for the making of the butter. 
 Two of these apartments are under ground and arched, and 
 properly ventilated. To the south side is attached a con- 
 venient shed, with the requisite shelves, and with a copper 
 boiler for washing and keeping in good and sweet condition 
 all the dairy utensils. In front is a pent house." 
 
 Jesse Buel, Esq., recommends using a boiler instead of a 
 wooden vessel for cooking food for swine. He observes, " I 
 have thrown by my steamer for hog food and substituted a 
 boiler. The former consisted of a sixty gallon cask, over a 
 potash kettle badly set. I could only work off four or five 
 casks a day, with great labor and trouble, and the appa- 
 ratus required to be luted with clay at every operation. 
 With my new kettle, holding thirty gallons, which is a thin 
 and beautiful casting, I have cooked eight and nine barrels 
 in half a day, and much better than by the steam process. 
 This food consists of small refuse potatoes, of which I have 
 nearly 100 bushels, or fifteen per cent, of my whole crop, 
 pumpkins, and a small quantity of Indian meal. A half 
 day's boiling serves my hog family for four or five days; and 
 it is always kept prepared in advance. The actual expense 
 of fattening hogs thus, upon the refuse of the farm crop, is 
 fifty to seventy-five per cent, less than feeding with dry 
 corn. 
 
 " The economy of my apparatus consists much in setting 
 the boiler so as to have all the advantage of the fire. The 
 interior brick work is made to conform to the shape of the 
 boiler, leaving an interval of four to six inches between 
 them for the fire, round the whole exterior of the kettle, 
 with the exception of a few inches at top, where the flange 
 or rim rests upon the projecting bricks. Thus the boiler is 
 not only encompassed by the flame, but the heat is augment- 
 ed by radiation from the brick work. The fuel is burnt on 
 5* 
 
'54 THE COaiPLETE FARMER 
 
 a grate, which extends nearly to the kettle, four or five in- 
 ches above the level of its bottom. My boiler being in ope- 
 ration while I am preparing these remarks, I have ascer- 
 tained, that a kettle of potatoes with three pails of cold 
 water, covered with boards, has been completely boiled in 
 eighteen minutes from the time they were put in, another 
 boiling having been just previously taken out. My kettle 
 was set by a son in his teens, without assistance, and was 
 his first effort in masonry." 
 
 In cooking for cattle, however, when hay and other bulky 
 articles of food are prepared by heat, steam will be found 
 the best medium. Care should be taken to make the vessel 
 in which the steaming is effected so tight that the steam 
 cannot egcape till it becomes quite hot and elastic. A cover 
 of good weight sitting close, but capable of being raised a 
 little by steam of high pressure, may be made to operate 
 like a safety valve, and at the same time confine the steam 
 till it exceeds 212 degrees, the heat of boiling water. Any 
 food is better when cooked by steam of a high temperature, 
 than when merely soaked in an artificial fog, not much 
 warmer than a mist which caps the hills on a summer's 
 morninff. 
 
 CALVES. Calves designed for veal should be taken 
 from the cow the next day after they are calved. They 
 should be permitted to suck only two teats during the first 
 week, three during the second, and should have the whole 
 of the milk the third and fourth week, at the end of which 
 time they will be fit to kill. The teats not allowed to be 
 sucked should be previously milked. 
 
 When calves are to be reared, some permit them to run 
 with the cow, and take all the milk the first season. But 
 fine animals are raised without taking any milk from the cow 
 after three or four days. They should have more or less 
 milk for about twelve weeks. They may be fed with skim- 
 med milk or water gruel after the first fortnight ; or hay tea 
 may be mixed with their milk, or their milk may be mixed 
 with meal and water. After a calf has sucked or drank 
 milk for the space of a month, take some fresh and sweet 
 hay, and put small locks of it into cleft sticks, in such a 
 manner that the calf can easily have access to them, and he 
 will soon learn to eat hay. 
 
 Whether calves are intended to be fattened or to be reared, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 55 
 
 it is best to feed them three times a day. But whether they 
 are fed two or three times, the intervals between their meals 
 should be regular, and as nearly as possible equi-distant. 
 
 'J"he method for rearing calves pursued by Mr. Crook, as 
 mentioned in "The Letters and Papers of the Bath and 
 West of England Society," is as follows : He purchased 
 three gacks of linseed, value '21. 2s., (equal to about nine 
 dollars,) which lasted him three years. One quart of seed 
 was boiled in six quarts of water for ten minutes, to a jelly, 
 which was given to the calves three times a day mixed with 
 a little hay tea. And he states, that his calves throve much 
 better than those of his neighbours, which were fed with 
 milk. Thus it seems, that less than eighteen cents' worth of 
 ffax-seed, with a trifle of hay, is sutficient for one calf. 
 Linseed oil cakes, when pulverized and boiled, make an 
 equally good broth or jelly. 
 
 If skim-milk is given to calves it should be boiled, and 
 suffered to stand till it cools to the temperature of that first 
 given by the cow. It is better boiled than when warmed 
 only. If the milk be given too cold it will cause the calf to 
 purge. If this is the case, put two or three spoonfuls of 
 runnet into the milk, and it will stop the looseness. If the 
 calf is bound, pork broth is said to be a good and safe thing 
 to put into the milk. 
 
 Dr. Deane was of opinion, that it was better to wean 
 calves on hay than on grass. " They are more docile when 
 raised in the barn, and thrive better." A Mr. John Gordon 
 says, that " calves should not be suffered to eat any grass the 
 first year, and from experience I find it much the cheapest 
 to keep them shut up and feed them, as the land sufficient 
 to pasture one will produce hay enough to feed two calves 
 through the year, and pay the expense of cultivation, and 
 one year's growth will certainly be added to the cattle."* 
 
 It is not probable, however, that many of our farmers will 
 incur the trouble of raising calves in a barn : therefore, 
 " when calves are put in a pasture, it should be such as is 
 dry and sweet. White clover is the best for them ; red clo- 
 ver or trefoil is also good. Mr. L. Hommedieu recommends 
 that there be no water in the pasture, but sufficient shade. 
 The effect of this is, that the calves learn to feed at night, or 
 when the dew is on, and lie by in the day ; and as the grass 
 while wet with dew is believed to be most nourishing, they 
 
 * jMassachusetts Agricultural Reports, Vol. V. p. 78. 
 
56 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 will in this way thrive much better than those which have 
 free access to water ; for this, it is contended by Mr. L. 
 Hommedieu, has a tendency to stunt them, and make them 
 pot-bellied. Probably the better way is, to give them a lit- 
 tle nourishing drink at certain times, when the dews fail, or 
 at mid-day, when the weather is very warm."* 
 
 The best calves for bringing up, are those calved early in 
 the season, or before June. "When calves are weaned, 
 they should not be suffered to be with their dams any more 
 till fall ; neither should they be pastured within sight or 
 hearing of them. It will cause them to neglect their feed- 
 ing ; and they will not forget their sucking. 
 
 " At the setting in of cold nights in autumn, calves must 
 be nightly housed ; and not be out early in the morning, ndV 
 late in the evening. And as the pinching cold of winter 
 will be extremely detrimental to them, they should be kept 
 very warm in their house, well supplied with water, and let 
 out only on the warmest days. A great deal of care is 
 necessary to bring them through the first winter, which is 
 the most dangerous period of their lives. They will acquire 
 so much strength during the following summer that they 
 will have nothing to fear from the cold of a second winter." 
 — Buffon, Hisloire JVaturelle. 
 
 " The American Farmer " gives the following method of 
 making hai/ tea for calves. Take about a pound of red clo- 
 ver hay, well got in, and si.x quarts of clear spring water ; 
 boil them together till the water is reduced to four quarts ; 
 then take out the hay and mix a pound of barley, oat, bean, 
 [or Indian] meal amongst a little water, put it in the pot or 
 cauldron while boiling, and keep it constantly stirring until 
 it is thickened. Let it cool, then give it to the calf, adding 
 as much whey as will make a sufficient meal. 
 
 To make calves lie quiet, more especially during a tempo- 
 rary scarcity of milk, balls made of wheat flour, and a sufti- 
 cient quantity of gin to form it into a paste, are recommend- 
 ed by Mr. Marshall; three balls about the size of walnuts 
 to be given about a quarter of an hour before each meal. 
 The effect is, that instead of wasting themselves by incessant 
 "bawling," they lie quiet, sleeping a principal part of the 
 time. Probably, Indian or rye meal, mixed up with gin, 
 whiskey, or other cheap spirit, might answer a good purpose 
 as an occasional expedient. We should not advise, however, 
 
 * Farmer's Assistant. 
 
AND RUIIAL ECONOMIST. 37 
 
 to often diet calves in that manner, unless they were intend- 
 ed for the butcher; for we should be apprehensive that feed- 
 ing them with such nice messes would render them too deli- 
 cate and mcalij mouthed to become hardy and prolitable cattle. 
 Young advises, when calves are troubled with scouring, to 
 give them powdered chalk and wheat meal, worked into a 
 ball with gin. 
 
 The following is the mode of rearing calves adopted by 
 the Shakers, in Canterbury, N.H., communicated in a letter 
 from Mr. Francis \Vinkley to iNIr. Levi Bartlett, of Warren, 
 New Hampshire, and published in " The New England 
 Farmer," (V^ol. II. p. 305.) 
 
 " We let calves that come in the fore part of March suck 
 about a week or ten days, then take them from the cow, giv- 
 ing them a moderate allowance of new milk to drink, till 
 they have learned to drink it freely; then put in some skim- 
 med milk ; and we feed them wholly with skimmed milk, 
 taking care to give it at about the temperature of milk taken 
 directly from the cow, by heating a part of it and mixing it 
 with the rest. Care should be taken not to scald the milk 
 when heated; also not to give them any sour milk, for this 
 will make them scour. The trough or vessel in which they 
 drink their milk should likewise be kept clean, and not suf- 
 fered to become sour. 
 
 " We let the milk stand about twelve hours before it is 
 skimmed; giving a calf at first about four quarts night and 
 morning; increasing the mess as need requires till he is six 
 weeks old, from which time till ten weeks old he will re- 
 quire, perhaps, about twelve quarts per day. 
 
 " When about ten weeks old, we begin to di.minish the 
 quantity of milk for about the space of two or three weeks, 
 at which time we wean them. During the whole process 
 from two to fourteen weeks of age, calves should be well 
 supplied with good hay, salt, and provender; such as oats, 
 wheat bran, and oil cake, ground fine. 
 
 "The particular advantages to be derived from the above 
 method of treatment are the following : 
 
 "1. It is much cheaper than to let them suck in the ordi- 
 nary way; whereas it makes a great saving of cream for 
 butter, and that without injuring the calves, if they are prop- 
 erly attended to. 
 
 "2. It prevents calves from moaning or pining so much 
 while weaning, as they would otherwise do, when taken from 
 the cows. 
 
68 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 "3. It not only prevents the cows being injured in conse- 
 quence of the calves biting the teats, but also prevents their 
 holding back the milk from the milker, which often serves to 
 diminish the quantity of milk afterwards. 
 
 "The only disadvantage to be found in the above method 
 of treatment is, that it requires some more labor to feed 
 them, where they thrive equally well in every respect as 
 those do which are permitted to suck in the ordinary way." 
 
 The following is from "The United States Gazette." 
 
 " Among the modern improvements in farming, the dairy 
 has of late years been very much neglected. So much of 
 the profit of breeders depending upon the facility with which 
 the milk of the cow may be reserved during the sucking 
 time of the calf, the following substitute, used in Germany, 
 for the natural food of the young progeny, may be accep- 
 table to our country readers. 
 
 " Let as much water be heated on the fire as the calf will 
 be disposed to drink, and when it boils throw one or two 
 handfuls of oat meal* into it, and after continuing in that 
 state for one minute, take it oflf, and let it be cooled to the 
 temperature of new milk, when one or two pints of skimmed 
 milk are to be added to it. With this beverage, the young 
 animal will fatten and thrive prodigiously: the milk of the 
 parent will be applied to the dairy, and the intelligent far- 
 mer will immediately discover the great advantage to be 
 derived in the produce of the dairy from such an expedi- 
 ent." 
 
 Willich's "Encyclopedia" observes, " In order to make 
 calves fine and fat, the best and most efficacious way is, to 
 keep them as clean as possible, by elevating their coops in 
 such a manner that the sun may not have too great power 
 over them, and to such a height above the level of the 
 ground that their urine may pass off; by giving them fresh 
 litter every day, and suspending over the coop a large chalk- 
 stone, so that they can easily lick it. Besides this, it is 
 usual to bleed them when they are about a month old, and 
 again just before they are slaughtered; which practice tends 
 in a considerable degree to the beauty and whiteness of the 
 flesh, and is therefore more frequently repeated by some 
 farmers; [in England;] but this is not altogether necessary; 
 twice bleeding being fully sufficient for that purpose, in the 
 opinion of the most experienced breeders. It is, however, 
 
 * Indian meal will^o as well. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 59 
 
 to be observed, that those calves which are intended for 
 bulls or for oxen should be selected as soon as possible; as 
 the operation necessary to make them oxen should not be 
 deferred till the calves are more than twenty days old. 
 
 A writer for "The New England Farmer," with the sig- 
 nature .S. X., (Vol. VIII. p. 76,) observes, that "A very 
 intelligent practical farmer states, that he considers nothing 
 more conducive to the thriving of sucking calves than to 
 keep in their pen an ample supply of dry yellow loam, of 
 which they are at liberty to eat freely as they choose. They 
 will eat it eagerly, and he regards it of more value than 
 Indian meal. There is no better evidence of its utility than 
 the fact that no man's calves find a readier sale or bring a 
 higher price in our market than his. The philosophy of it 
 we do not pretend to explain." 
 
 Moubray says, " The calf may be sold (or taken from the 
 cow) as soon as it has drawn the biestings or first milk, un- 
 less any coring or defect in the cow's udder or teats may 
 render it desirable for the calf to suck a few days, in order 
 that the action may clear oft' any obstructions, for which the 
 butting of the calf's head is generally the best remedy. If 
 intended to be fattened for the butcher, it must be kept in a 
 pen particularly dry and clean; suckled twice a day at regu- 
 lar hours; always have the first, which is the thinnest of 
 the milk," and not be permitted to overcharge its jstomach. 
 Lumps of soft chalk are usually placed for the calf to lick, 
 as an absorbent to neutralize the acidities engendered in the 
 stomach from feeding on milk. It seldom pays to fatten a 
 calf beyond ten or twelve weeks. 
 
 " Weaning and rearing Calves. A calf may be weaned by 
 being gradually accustomed to suck milk in a pail through 
 the fingers. Many are reared on very little milk mixed with 
 hay tea, linseed, or other slops; fed on straAv in the winter, 
 and in summer on the common: such cannot be expected to 
 turn to much account. The best cattle are reared from the 
 teats, well wintered in good shelter, and full fed until they 
 attain their growth. Warmth and dry lodging are of the 
 utmost consequence to the improvement of all young ani- 
 mals. Calves may, however, be reared to good profit, by 
 being suffered to suck_ a very moderate quantity daily, the 
 bulk of their food consisting of skimmed milk, thickened 
 with oat or wheat meal; their winter food being carrots or 
 Swedish turnips sliced, and cut straw, with a small quantity 
 of hay, daily." 
 
GO THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 "The Grazier's Guide" observes, " If tlie calf be in- 
 tended for the butcher, it mav be taken from the cow in 
 about a week or ten days, and fed the remainder of the time 
 by hand ; but the time of taking the calf away must be deter- 
 mined bv the state of the cow's udder; for unless that be 
 free from kernels and indurations, the calf must be allowed 
 to suck, as the jolting of its head is the means of healing or 
 restoring the udder, and preventing the downfall or inflam- 
 mation in this part, which might cause much trouble, and 
 even endanger the life of the cow. 
 
 "But if the calf is intended to be reared, it should not be 
 weaned until at least six weeks or even two months old, 
 whether male or female. For such, there is no food like the 
 cow's milk; and if she does not yield a sufficient quantity, 
 that of another ought to be had recourse to. It is an incon- 
 trovertible fact, that the longer a calf sucks, not only the 
 larger and stronger will it become, but it will also acquire a 
 much better form and more robust health." 
 
 Calves which come early should be preferred for the rear- 
 ing. Those Avhich come late, do not acquire sufficient 
 strength to bear the cold of winter; they languish, and are 
 reared with difficulty. Calves should not be weaned too 
 suddenly, but by little and little. The less they are able to 
 eat, the more they should be allowed to suck; after a while 
 they may be brought to take it from the pail. This is done 
 by placing the hand in the milk, with the palm upwards, and 
 under the milk, while the fingers are raised above the sur- 
 face of the milk for the calf to lay hold of with its mouth, 
 which it does very readily, and sucks up the milk with great 
 ease. 
 
 When they are completely taken away, they should be 
 fed with a little bran, and some of the best soft and fragrant 
 hay of the second crop ; they should be allowed plenty of 
 the skimmed milk, and now and then a little water in which 
 barley has been boiled and broken up, or a little buttermilk 
 occasionally. There is at first some difficulty in bringing 
 them to drink, but a little perseverance will accustom them 
 to it. 
 
 INIoderate warmth and dry lodging are of the utmost con- 
 sequence to young calves ; and if we would turn them to 
 any good account, they must not be stinted either in these 
 or in their food. Calves which have recently been weaned 
 and are not at pasture should be fed often, at least three 
 times, and it is better five times a day. As soon as they are 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 61 
 
 fit to follow the mother they should be let out, as they are 
 greatly benefited by air and exercise. Calves sometimes ac- 
 quire a habit of sucking one another, of which trick they 
 may be broken by separating them. 
 
 Calves cannot be kept too clean, nor have fresh litter too 
 often. If they are suffered to lie on their own dung and 
 urine, they will become mangy, and scarcely ever thrive. 
 They are subject to several disorders, such as diarrhoea, 
 dysentery, costiveness, &c. As a means of preventing the 
 greater number of the diseases to which they are liable, the 
 following rules are prescribed in "The Farmer's and Gra- 
 zier's Guide." 
 
 " 1st. Let the young calf suck the first milk. This will 
 cleanse its bowels, and prevent costiveness. 
 
 " 2d. Let it suck from its mother at least two months, and 
 then wean it gradually. 
 
 "3d. Let its first food be such as is easy of digestion, 
 and let it have plenty of sweet skimmed milk and good hay. 
 
 "4th. Keep it very clean, well rubbing it occasionally 
 witVi a wisp of hay or straw. 
 
 " 5th. Keep its stable clean, and perfectly free from all 
 impurities. 
 
 " 6th. Let it have gentle exercise ; the best will be fol- 
 lowing the mother in the meadow or pasture. 
 
 7th. Do not stint it either in good food or good drink, and 
 change its litter often enough to keep it clean, sweet, and 
 dry." 
 
 OXEN. Till oxen are four years old they are usually 
 called steers ; afterwards oxen. The signs of a good ox, 
 according to Dr. Deane, are these : thick, soft, smooth, and 
 short hair ; a short and thick head ; glossy, smooth horns ; 
 large and shaggy ears ; wide forehead ; full, black eyes ; 
 wide nostrils ; black lips ; a thick fleshy neck and large 
 shoulders ; broad reins ; a large belly ; thick rump and 
 thighs ; a straight back ; a long tail, well covered with hair; 
 short and broad hoofs. The best colors are brown, dark 
 red, and brindled. When an ox has completed his eighth 
 year he should be fattened. 
 
 If oxen are worked in the yoke in wet weather, their necks 
 are apt to become sore. To prevent this, a little tallow 
 should be rubbed on the parts of the yoke which lie upon 
 their necks, and also on the bows. 
 6 
 
62 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 The following remarks on the management of working 
 oxen, are from "The New England Farmer," Vol. VI. p. 
 191. 
 
 *' Do not retard the growth of your beasts of draught, en- 
 danger their health, and render them insignificant in the eyes 
 of many, by working them hard while young. But the 
 younger they are inured to light work, the more docile they 
 will generally become. 
 
 "An English writer recommends carding oxen, and says 
 ' the ox, after the sensation becomes familiar, receives pleas- 
 ure from the operation, and will momentarily forego his 
 meal to receive the full enjoyment. His feeder perceives 
 this, and brushes the part which gives the most pleasure. 
 The ox shows his gratitude by wagging his tail ; the feeder 
 in return calls him by name, and ingratiates himself with 
 him. Thus not only an intimacy but a mutual affection is 
 formed, which at once gives attention to the keeper and do- 
 cility to the ox, and renders the labors of both pleasant.' 
 
 " Their labor and their fodder ought to be proportioned, 
 that their health and their spirits may be kept in full tone. 
 Their coats ought to be sleek ; their hides loose and silky ; 
 the flank should fill the hand, and the shoulder handle mel- 
 low. If they be overworked or underfed, sluggishness and 
 disease will inevitably follow. A working ox ought always 
 to be beef, that in case of accident he may be fit for the 
 table." 
 
 The common mode of working oxen by a yoke, has been 
 condemned by many agricultural writers. Mr. Cooper, an 
 Englishman, according to Young's "Eastern Tour," used 
 collars on oxen as on horses, except that they were buckled 
 on with the narrow and open end downward. They draw in 
 harness abreast, in pairs, single, or in a line, and icalk as fast 
 as horses. Mr. Bordley said, he " saw a wagon in Pennsyl- 
 vania drawn by two bulls and two oxen, bridled and geered 
 in harness and collars." 
 
 It appears, by a work entitled "Letters from Cuba," by 
 Dr. Abiel Abbot, that in managing the oxen of that island, 
 the yoke is made fast to the horns, " near the root, behind, 
 so that it does not play backward and forward, and gives to 
 the oxen a similar but better chance of backing, (as, in 
 teamster's phrase, it is called.) I have been astonished at 
 the power of those oxen in holding back. There is a short 
 hill in one of the streets of this city, at an angle nearly of 
 forty-five degrees. Standing at the foot of it, I saw a cart 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 63 
 
 and oxen approaching at the top, with three hogsheads of 
 molasses, and the driver sitting on the forward cask. The 
 driver did not so much as leave his perch ; the oxen went 
 straight and fearlessly over the pitch of the hill, and it 
 seemed as if they must he crushed to death. The animals 
 squatted like a dog, and rather slid than walked to the bot- 
 tom of the hill. Have we any animals that could have done 
 it ? And if they could, have we any docile enough to have 
 done it with the driver in the cart } Thus superior is this 
 mode of yoking in holding back the load in difficult places. 
 
 " It gives them still more decisive advantage in drawing, 
 A fillet of canvas is laid on the front below the horns ; and 
 over this fillet the cords pass, and the animal presses against 
 the most invulnerable part of his frame ; his head, his neck, 
 his whole frame are exerted in the very manner in which he 
 exerts his mighty strength in combat. It is the natural way, 
 therefore, of availing yourself of this powerful and patient 
 animal to the best advantage." 
 
 A writer for " The Genesee Farmer " observes, that "the 
 frequent abuse of our laboring animals by those who receive 
 the benefits of their labors, and who ought in return to treat 
 them mercifully, has often given me great pain. I have em- 
 ployed in the course of my business a great many men and 
 teams, both with oxen and horses, and I never yet knew a 
 bawling, noisy, whipping teamster who did a great day's 
 work ; nor have I scarcely known such a one who kept a 
 fat team. The best man who ever did me any labor was a 
 good substantial farmer ; his oxen were always fat, and spry 
 as colts ; he would never hitch them to any thing which he 
 knew they could not draw ; of course they were not dis- 
 couraged ; and he hardly ever spoke to them louder than in 
 a low tone of common conversation. He would frequently 
 talk to them soothingly, and encourage them when he had a 
 hard job on hand, which was often the case. Afler making 
 a heavy pull he would sometimes pat them on the back, but 
 I rarely ever knew him to strike or worry his team. He 
 carried a slender goad with a short lash to guide them with, 
 and a mere swing of the whip was sufficient for his purposes. 
 I have known several such persons in my life, and I do not 
 hesitate to say, that any person who so manages his team 
 will get more labor at less expense, and with more ease to 
 himself, than by the ordinary bawling, whipping method so 
 much practised in our country. All the difference with these 
 people is, that the one understands and studies the nature 
 
64 THE COMTLETE FARMER 
 
 and disposition of his animals, and the other does not. 'An 
 even temper and a steady hand,' ought to be the teamster's 
 motto, the world over." 
 
 The following valuable observations on the subject of 
 breaking steers and colts, are extracted from a communica- 
 tion written for "The Xew England Farmer," by JNIr. 
 James Walker, of Fryeburgh, Maine, and published in that 
 paper. Volume XII. p. 113. 
 
 "I call my young cattle calves till they are one year old. 
 I have a little yoke made with a staple and ring in it. I tell 
 my little boys to yoke up their calves : a small boy can do 
 it, and it is quite a pastime to them ; they being so young, 
 are not so strong but that he can manage them with ease ; 
 any small stick or twig answers to drive them with, and there 
 is no danger of the boy or steers being hurt. When he can 
 drive them where he wishes them to go, which will soon be 
 the case, he will hitch them to a small piece of wood, or if 
 in winter put them to a hand sled, and drive round with that; 
 they will soon become docile. There is no trouble with 
 them afterward, especially if they are yoked a few times the 
 second winter ; it makes them fond of their mates. Oxen 
 that are trained when young are much more pliable and obe- 
 dient, which adds much to their value : steers that run till 
 they are three or four years old are dangerous animals to 
 encounter with ; they are always running away with the 
 cart or sled whenever there is a chance for them, and often 
 serious injury is the result. I would not recommend work- 
 ing steers hard while young, as it would prevent their 
 growth ; there is a difference between working them and 
 barely training them. 
 
 " Colts I begin with very soon after they are foaled ; the 
 mare should be bridled and led to the door, and given a lit- 
 tle salt. When the colt is one or two days old, take him by 
 the neck, handle him gently; he is then so young that he is 
 not afraid, if his dam is near by him; continue this practice, 
 and he will very soon become fond of his owner, and will 
 come on purpose to be handled, after two or three weeks. 
 It does not hurt the mare or the colt to use her moderately 
 If you want to go to meeting on the Sabbath, harness the 
 mare into the chaise or wagon, and tie the colt to the arm of 
 the carriage; he may be a little obstinate at first, but in go- 
 ing a few rods will be peaceable and very orderly; if there 
 are many other horses about, your colt is always with you : 
 if you want to stop at a place any time, let your colt loose; 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 65 
 
 he can be taken again without difficulty, and before you start 
 off tie your colt again; in this way there is no trouble of 
 the colt following other horses away. When they become 
 old enough for service, you do not have to run all over the 
 pasture for the horses; they can always be taken with ease, 
 Colts trained in this way are completely halter broken. 
 When you begin to harness them, they are not frightened at 
 the noise of the carriage behind them, and are sooner made 
 quiet in the harness. It has been a common saying, that if 
 colts are handled when they are young, it depresses their 
 courage, which I am convinced is not the fact. I have 
 raised as many horses as most farmers of my age in this vi- 
 cinity, and some oC them the most spirited I ever saw. The 
 above rules I have practised for quite a number of years, and 
 can recommend them to others with confidence." 
 
 On training Oxen to back a Cart. A writer for " The Maine 
 Farmer," with the signature of "A Teamster," states as 
 follows : 
 
 " I have observed that very little if any attention is paid 
 by our farmers to learn their steers to back; but as they be- 
 come able to draw a very considerable load forward, they 
 are often unmercifully beaten on the head and face because 
 they will not back a cart or sled with as large a load as they 
 can draw forwards, forgetting that much pains have been 
 taken to learn them to draw well forward, but none to learn 
 them to push backward. To remedy the occasion of this 
 thumping, and the delay, which is always disagreeable, as 
 soon as I have learned my steers to be handy, as it is called, 
 and to draw forward, I place them on a cart where the 
 land is descending in a small degree. In this situation they 
 will soon learn with ease to back it ; then I place them on 
 level land, and exercise them there; then I learn them to 
 back a cart up land a little rising: the cart having no load 
 in it thus far. When I have learned them to stand up to the 
 tongue as they ought and back an empty cart, I ne.xt either 
 put a small weight in the cart, or take them where the land 
 rises faster, which answers the same purpose. Thus in a 
 few days they can be learned to back well, and know how to 
 do it, which by a little use afterwards they will never forget. 
 This may appear of little consequence to some, but when it 
 is remembered how frequently we want to back a load when 
 we are at work with our cattle, and how commodious it often 
 is to have our cattle back well, why should we not learn 
 them for the time when we want them thus to lay out their 
 6* 
 
66 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 strength? Besides, it saves the blows and vexation often 
 encountered, which is considerable when one is in haste. 
 It is a merciful course towards our brutes. I never consider 
 a pair of oxen well broke until they will back with ease any 
 reasonable load, and I would give a very considerable sum 
 more for a yoke of oxen thus tutored than for a yoke not 
 thus trained." 
 
 Oxen sometimes contract a bad habit of pulling or hauling 
 against each other; and sometimes crowd each other, so as 
 to render them almost entirely useless as laborers. It is said - 
 that by turning them out to feed in the yoke they will learn 
 to move in concert, and thus be broken of the habits of pull- 
 ing and crowding. 
 
 In the " Transactions of the Society of Arts," the follow- 
 ing mode of training oxen to the draught is recommended: 
 " Put a broad strap round their necks, fasten one end to a 
 large log of wood; permit the ox to drag it about as he feeds 
 in his pasture, before he is put in harness, by which his do- 
 cility is much forwarded." If a yoke of oxen were fasten- 
 ed to a heavy loaded sled or drag, placed in a pasture, and 
 the oxen secured in such a manner that they could not cast 
 or injure themselves, and the load were so heavy that they 
 must act in concert to move it, they would soon learn to pull 
 together, and be true to the yoke. Having eaten the grass 
 within reach of their first location, they would of necessity 
 unite their efforts to remove their load to a fresh spot, and 
 would adopt for their motto, united we feed, divided we 
 starve. 
 
 Diseases of Cattle. Our limits v.ill not admit of our being 
 very copious under this head; but some of the most common 
 ails to which cattle are subject shall be bri,efly treated of, 
 and the remedies prescribed. 
 
 Cattle are apt to be hoven or swollen, in consequence of 
 having eaten too much green succulent food. The common 
 remedy for this disorder has been, to stab the infected animal 
 with a penknife or other sharp instrument under the short 
 ribs, and put into the orifice a tube of ivory, elder, a quill, 
 or something of the kind, to give vent to the confined air 
 The wound is then dressed with some sort of adhesive plas- 
 ter, such as Burgundy pitch, and thus in general the cure is 
 efl^ected. This, however, according to "The Grazier's 
 Guide," is a bud practice; a second attack becomes more 
 difticult to cure, as the wound adheres to the side, and every 
 repetition increases the danger. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 67 
 
 The thirty-third volume of Young's " Annals of Agricul- 
 ture," prescribes the following recipe for hoven cattle, which 
 it states will effect a cure in the most desperate cases in half 
 an hour. Take three quarters of a pint of olive oil, one 
 pint of melted butter or hog's lard ; give this mixture by 
 means of a horn or bottle, and if it does not produce a fa- 
 vorable change in a quarter of an hour, repeat the same 
 quantity, and walk the animal gently about. For sheep at- 
 tacked with this n)alady, the dose is from a wine-glass and a 
 half to two wine-glasses. 
 
 The following remedy for this complaint has also been re- 
 commended. Make about a pint of lye, either with hot em- 
 bers thrown into a sufficient quantity of water, or by dis- 
 solving therein about an ounce of pot or pearl-ash, and turn 
 it down the throat of the ox or cow affected. A propor- 
 tionably less quantity will answer for a sheep. This is said 
 to give immediate relief, by neutralizing the carbonic acid 
 gas in the stomach of the animal, which causes the swelling 
 and other symptoms of the complaint to subside. 
 
 Besides these remedies, flexible tubes and canes, with 
 knobs on their ends, tarred rope, whip handles, &c., have 
 been used to force a passage from the mouth to the stomach, 
 to let the confined air escape upwards from the trunk of the 
 animal affected. Descriptions of some of these instruments 
 may be seen in "The Domestic Encyclopedia," (Vol. I. 
 pp. 409, 410.) Loudon likewise observes, that "the flexi- 
 ble tube for the relief of cattle that are hoven or choked, 
 consists of a strong leathern tube, about four feet long and 
 half an inch diameter, with a leaden nozzle, pierced with 
 holes at the insertion end. It should be kept in every farm- 
 ery. There is a similar one, on a smaller scale, which should 
 be kept by every shepherd." 
 
 In turning cattle or sheep into fresh and rank clover or 
 lucerne, care should be taken at first to let them remain but 
 a short time when the grass is dry, and then turn them out 
 again, that they may by degrees become accustomed to the 
 rich herbage. 
 
 Hoof-ail, or Hoof Distemper. A writer for "The Massa- 
 chusetts Agricultural Repository," (Vol. IV. p. 339,) gives 
 some account of this disorder, from which we extract the 
 following. 
 
 " Symptoms. When an animal is at all lame, its foot 
 should be carefully felt. The first indication is, usually, an 
 uncommon degree of warmth, and a soft and pufl^ed feel of 
 
68 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the parts immediately connected with the sUt between the 
 hoof, either before or behind the foot, and generally just 
 above it. If in the hind foot, and not easily handled, a ful- 
 ness may generally be perceived, by standing behind the 
 animal, and carefully comparing the appearance of the two 
 feet between the dew-claws and the hoots, (for it very rarely 
 commences its attack on more than one foot.) In the fore 
 foot it generally swells forward; and in taking up the foot the 
 slit between the hoofs will generally have the appearance of 
 dryness, easily distinguishable to a person used to cattle ; 
 and the animal frequently licks the front part of the foot. 
 Instances frequently occur of sudden and extreme lameness, 
 without any appearance of heat or swelling in the foot; and 
 these are often the worst cases; but one symptom rarely 
 fails to accompany the disease, which is extreme restlessness 
 and appearance of anguish, attended with loss of appetite 
 and flesh, but without in the least affecting the brightness ot 
 the eye, and, perhaps, sometimes unnaturally increasing it; 
 but the eye has a peculiar cast. As a general rul«, it is 
 safest to attribute all lameness of the foot which cannot be 
 traced to a sufficient cause, to the hoof-ail. Lameness of the 
 foot can generally be distinguished from that of the leg, hip, 
 or shoulder, by making the animal step over a stick or rail, 
 and carefully watching its motions. 
 
 "Remedies. The foot should be carefully washed and 
 cleansed, and thoroughly examined, to be sure that the lame- 
 ness does not arise from a nail casually run into the foot, or 
 a prick in shoeing, from a wound from a stump or other 
 substance between the hoofs, (a case frequently occurring.) 
 If no appearance occurs of any break in the skin, while the 
 foot is still wet, apply as near as may be to the centre of the 
 slit between the hoofs, from one to three grains of corrosive 
 sublimate, (reduced to a fine powder,) the dose to be propor- 
 tioned to the size of the animal and the violence of the at- 
 tack. Care must be used that the powder is put completely 
 in this slit, for it is a very strong poison, and the animal, as 
 soon as at liberty, will begin to lick the foot if a sore one. 
 The moisture left by the washing makes the powder adhere, 
 and the effect is produced in a very short time. Some pre- 
 fer mixing the powder with hog's lard, which answers ; but 
 is thought less powerful : it has one advantage, however, as 
 being less dangerous to keep in a house, (for no one takes 
 salve inwardly.) Where corrosive sublimate cannot be ob- 
 tained, any other violent stimulant may be applied. Com- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 69 
 
 mon salt is often effectual in very slight attacks ; but it is 
 of the greatest importance to lose no time. The application 
 is to be repeated every twenty-four hours till a cure is effect- 
 ed, or till the foot shows unequivocal signs of a gathering 
 which will break." 
 
 Loss of the Cud. Rumination, or the chewing of the cud, 
 i that motion of the rumex or first stomach by which the 
 food is forced back into the mouth to be perfectly masticated. 
 This motion is not sudden or violent, like that of vomiting ; 
 but gradual and gentle, when the animal is healthy. When, 
 therefore, an animal ceases to perform this essential act of 
 digestion, it is an evident proof that the stomach is out of 
 order; it may depend on the state of the first stomach, or 
 it may proceed from the third. 
 
 Loudon asserts, that although " loss of the cud enters into 
 the list of most of cow leeches' diseases, it is less a disease 
 than a symptom of some other affection ; indeed it is evident 
 that any attack sufficient to destroy the appetite will, gene- 
 rally, occasion the loss of the cud. It is possible, however, 
 that an occasional local affection, or paralysis of the paunch, 
 may occur, particularly when it is distended with unhealthy 
 substances, as acorns, crab-apples, the tops of some of the 
 woody shrubs, &c. The treahnent in such cases, consists in 
 stimulating the stomach by tonics, aloes, pepper, and gin, 
 mixed. Though these as liquids may not enter the stomach 
 in common cases, yet in this disease or impaired action of 
 the rumex they will enter there." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, an English writer, says, in loss of cud, 
 " Let the animal fast some time, then give a warm bran or 
 pollard mash, with good hay and warm water with salt. 
 Tliis treatment alone may succeed with patience, even should 
 the maw be obstructed with acorns or crab-apples. An aloes' 
 tincture made with brandy and ginger, or capsicum [red 
 pepper], might be of use in this case. After conquering the 
 obstruction, bitter infusions made of camomile, hoarhound, 
 oak bark, &c. in beer may be required, as restoratives, al- 
 though, perhaps, good dry nourishing food will have an 
 equally good effect." 
 
 Horn-ail, or Horn Distemper. In the spring, cattle which 
 have been poorly kept through the winter, are subject to a 
 wasting of the pith of the horn, which is usually called the 
 horn distemper. It is sometimes in one horn only and some- 
 times in both. The indications of the disease are, coldness 
 of the horn, dulness of the eyes, sluggishness, want of 
 
70 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 appetite, and a disposition to lie down. When the brain is 
 affected, the animal will toss its head, groan, and exhibit 
 indications of great pain. 
 
 To cure the disease, Dr. Deane directed to bore a hole 
 with a nail gimblet into the lower part of the horn, through 
 which the foul matter may be discharged. By this boring, 
 which should be nearly horizontal, or in the depending part 
 of the horn, and two or three inches from the head of the 
 animal, the cure is sometimes completed. When it proves 
 otherwise, a mixture of rum and honey with myrrh and aloes 
 should be thrown into the horn, with a syringe, and be seve- 
 ral times repeated if the disease continue. 
 
 Lovett Peters, Esq. of Westborough, Massachusetts, in a 
 communication published in "The New England Farmer," 
 (Vol. VII. p. 194,) gives the following recipe for curing this 
 disease, which he observes was furni.shed him by an aged 
 friend, and successfully applied to " a cow taken with horn- 
 ail to that degree that she had nearly stopped eating, and 
 from giving a large quantity of milk had become nearly 
 dry." 
 
 " Take of salt one half-pint, of soot one half-pint, of 
 black pepper one table-spoonful ; make all fine, and give 
 one or two spoonfuls at a time, night and morning. It is 
 easily done, by drawing the tongue out of the mouth with the 
 hand, and putting the spoon as far. down as it will reach; 
 then let go the tongue, and keep up the nose, and it will all 
 go down." Mr. Peters says, " I followed the directions, and 
 in two days my cow was better ; and in a week was perfectly 
 well. The same may not cure in all cases of horn-ail, as 
 my informant said it would, but it is worth a trial." 
 
 It should seem, however, as Mr. Peters suggested, that 
 the above-mentioned remedy is not infallible. Mr. Thomas 
 Hazen, in a communication published in "The New Eng- 
 land Farmer," (Vol. VII. p. 234,) states, that he tried it 
 without success ; but by the advice of a large owner of 
 cattle, he freely applied spirits of turpentine to an ox in high 
 flesh, but afflicted with the horn-ail, on the top of the head 
 along the roots of the horns, for a number of days. The ox 
 soon began to feed well, and in a few w-eeks was sold for 
 market. It is a severe remedy, throwing the animal into 
 extreme agony." 
 
 Dr. Cooper, in the last Philadelphia edition of AVillich's 
 "Domestic Encyclopedia," directs, For the hollow horn, 
 saw off the diseased part ; dress with turpentine ; keep the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 71 
 
 animal warm, and do not starve him. It is a disease owing 
 to want of food and exposure to cold. 
 
 Remedy for Cuttle when choked by Roots or other substances. 
 Mr. Joseph VVingate, of Maine, in a communication for 
 "The New England Farmer," (Vol. III. page 57,) says, 
 that every farmer should have a rope, which is to be put 
 down into any animal's throat when choked with any hard 
 substance, such as a turnip, potato, or an ear of corn. " I 
 have used this rope, and never found the least difficulty in giv- 
 ing immediate relief Many cattle have died for the want of 
 it, and many have been killed outright by using other means. 
 Take an old tarred rope, six feet long. Let it be served 
 [strongly wound round with twine], and, when finished, be 
 one inch in diameter. When put down the throat it should 
 be pushed gently down four feet and a half into a cow or an 
 ox. In cold weather it is stiff enough, but in warm weather 
 it should be wet with cold water before it is used." 
 
 Mr. E. Williams, of Westford, New York, in " The New 
 England Farmer," (Vol. III. p. 81,) directs to an easier 
 method to relieve this complaint : "It is merely to pour 
 down the throat one quart of very strong soap suds. I have 
 seen it tried in numerous instances, and invariably with the 
 best efTect. It affords instantaneous relief" 
 
 BARNS. It is a common practice, and with many a 
 general rule, to build a farm-house adjoining, and perhaps 
 in contact with the sheds, barns, and other outhouses. 
 When the buildings are thus all situated in one clump, if 
 one takes fire, the whole will, probably, be consumed. Be- 
 sides, it is disagreeable and unwholesome to live too near 
 manure heaps, and as it were in the midst of your herds of 
 cattle and swine. The barn should, therefore, be placed at 
 a convenient distance from the dwellinghouse and other 
 buildings, but as near as may be without danger of fire, or 
 annoyance from the effluvia of manure heaps. Too low a 
 spot will be miry in spring and fall. Too high an eminence 
 will be inconvenient for drawing in loads, and on account of 
 saving and making manui'e. If other circumstances permit, 
 it may be best to place a barn in such a manner as to de- 
 fend the dwellinghouse from the force of the coldest winds. 
 
 The size of the barn should be proportionate to the pro- 
 duce of the farm ; for in this country, where building is not 
 
72 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 expensive, all the hay and grain should be placed under 
 cover. It is a bad practice to leave hay in stacks, in the 
 meadows where it is cut, to be there foddered out to the cat- 
 tle in the course of the winter. By this mode of manage- 
 ment the manure is almost lost. The ground under and 
 near the stack receives some benefit from the droppings of 
 the cattle, the litter, hay-seeds, &c. of the stack. But this 
 benefit is trifling, as the sun, air, and rains, soon exhale and 
 wash away the manure, which, being left on the surface of 
 the soil, is soon given to the winds and the waters. 
 
 The farmers of the older parts of Pennsylvania, generally, 
 build very large barns, and to prevent the hay or grain from 
 heating in a large mow, four poles or pieces of timber are 
 set up in the middle, so as to form within them a square 
 space of about two feet. The poles are braced by cross- 
 pieces at certain distances. Through the aperture thus 
 made, the extra moisture in the hay or grain has a chance to 
 escape, so as to prevent its being mow-burnt. Their barns 
 are usually built of stone, and in the walls a large number 
 of small holes are made for the admission of air. Their cat- 
 tle are chiefly all housed, and their dung is under cover, 
 when thrown out of the stables to prevent its being injured 
 by the rains. The roofs of the barns are usually painted, 
 to preserve them against the weather. 
 
 " The floor of the barn should be kept tight, so that the 
 grain cannot fall through in threshing ; and for this purpose 
 it should have a layer of thin boards under it. It is most 
 advisable also to have a place set apart in the barn for the 
 purpose of storing away the grain after it is threshed. The 
 bins for the grain should be made of hard plank, to prevent 
 the rats and mice from eating through them, and should have 
 lids, which can be fastened down with padlocks." — Farm- 
 er's Assistant. 
 
 The following description of a large barn built in the 
 town of Hancock, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, by the 
 family of Shakers located in that place, was originally 
 published in the INIiddletown (Conn.) " Sentinel." 
 
 "The barn is built on ground inclining southwardly, in a 
 perfect circle, and is ninety feet in diameter across it from 
 side to side. The walls are of stone, twenty-two feet in 
 height, of a suitable thickness, and laid in lime, and well 
 pointed on each side. Round the barn, on the inner side, 
 are stables, forming a circle, the manger within, and suit- 
 able places over it to throw or feed down the hay; the stable 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 73 
 
 and rnanger occupy about twelve feet, and are eight feet 
 high ; the stables open to and from several different barn- 
 yards, in order to make as many and such divisions of stock 
 as they have thought proper. The covering of the stables 
 forms the barn floor, which also extends round the barn. 
 There is but one large door-way for entrance with teams and 
 loads; this is from the northern side, from an offset or cause- 
 way, eight feet above the base, and of course fourteen feet 
 below the eaves. The cart or wagon that enters with a load 
 makes the whole circuit of the floor, and after unloading 
 comes out at the same door; thus eight or ten teams with 
 their loads can occupy the floor at one time in unloading, 
 and not hinder each other. Within this circle of the stables 
 and barn floor is an area or bay, as it is usually called, 
 which is filled with hay, &c., which must be over sixty feet 
 in diameter. This is pitched in and on from any side or 
 place most convenient, or where wanted. The roof comes 
 to a point at the centre, and sheds off the rain all round, 
 something similar to an umbrella. It is supported from the 
 inner circle of the barn floor. The roof boards are laid up 
 and down, which, by a transverse sawing of the log, were 
 all brought to a point, and then shingled round in the usual 
 mode." 
 
 A writer for " The New England Farmer," whose com- 
 munication was published, (Vol. III. p. 81,) describes "a 
 barn of ordinary size, and the main part of it built in the 
 usual shape, but a good deal neater and tighter. The bays 
 were upon each side of the floor, and the bottoms of them 
 were sunk eight feet below it. This gave room for a large 
 quantity of hay below the floor. The large doors were to- 
 wards the south, to admit the sun, when necessary, with a 
 small door in one of the large ones to enter at, when the 
 w-eather was windy and made it dangerous to open the 
 large doors. Barns ought always to have a small door to 
 use in the winter, when you must often be in and out. 
 There were twelve squares of glass arranged over the door, 
 to admit the light when the large doors were shut; besides a 
 small window in each of the gable ends, very near the 
 ridge, for the same purpose. Under the floor was a con- 
 venient cellar, in which were kept potatoes, and all kinds of 
 vegetables for green fodder in the winter. The cellar was a 
 very warm one, and well lighted with two windows. This 
 cellar struck me as being the most useful apartment in the 
 whole establishment. There you may keep as many turnips, 
 7 
 
74 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 cabbages, potatoes, Sec, as you please, and they are always 
 handy to fodder out in the stable to your cattle; and the 
 cattle need scarcely go out of the stable in a month. 
 
 " The yard was well watered by an aqueduct, and a trough 
 on the south side of the barn was kept always full. Upon 
 the north or back side of the barn were the stables : they 
 were built in one building, and joined to the main part, about 
 twenty-five feet in width, thirty feet long, and twelve or four- 
 teen feet high. A door led from the barn into it, besides 
 another from without upon the east side, where the cattle 
 were admitted from the yard. A floor was laid overhead, 
 at the distance of seven feet from the lower one. The stalls 
 were arranged on each side of the building, so that the cat- 
 tle stood with their heads towards the outside of the building, 
 leaving a space in the middle to pass. 
 
 " In foddering, the hay was pitched from the bay in the 
 barn through a window, over the stables, and then put down 
 into racks; very little hay could be wasted in this way, and 
 the boys could be trusted with the foddering. The manure 
 made in the stable was put down through the floor into 
 another cellar, large enough to admit of a cart and team to 
 take it away." 
 
 A Report of the Committee on Farms, in the county of 
 Essex, for the year 1824, states, that Colonel Moses New- 
 hall, in West Newbury, " has lately built a barn, which, for 
 convenience and durability of construction, is worthy of 
 much praise. It is calculated better for the farmer's use 
 than any one we have seen. It is not too much to say, that 
 during the haying season, the most busy season with the 
 farmer, its superior conveniences will save at least the labor 
 of one man on the farm. It is about eighty feet in length, 
 thirty-four feet in width, and twenty feet post. It has two 
 floors, one eight feet above the other; on the upper of which 
 the hay is carried in." 
 
 The Shakers of Harvard, Massachusetts, have built a 
 barn, which is probably larger than any other structure of 
 the kind in the United States. The dimensions are one hun- 
 dred and Jifly feet in length, and forty-Jive in width. It is four 
 stories in height, and the calculation is, to drive in on the 
 upper floors, from the hill side, and pitch the hay down, 
 thus rendering much hard labor easy. 
 
 Barn-Yards. The following " Remarks on the Construc- 
 tion and Management of Cattle Yards," are from the pen of 
 Judge Buel, of Albanv: 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 75 
 
 "Vegetables, like animals, cannot thrive or subsist with- 
 out food; and upon the quantity and quality of this depends 
 the health and vigor of the vegetable, as vv'ell as of the an- 
 imal. Both subsist upon animal and vegetable matter, both 
 may be surfeited with excess, both may^be injured by food 
 not adapted to their habits, their appetites, or their digestive 
 powers. A hog will receive no injury, but great benefit, 
 from free access to a heap of corn or wheat, where a horse 
 or cow will be apt to destroy themselves by excess. The 
 goat will thrive upon the boughs and bark of trees, where 
 the hog would starve. The powerful, robust maize will 
 repay, in the increase of its grain, for a heavy dressing of 
 strong dung; for which the more delicate wheat will requite 
 you whh very little but straw. The potato feeds ravenous- 
 ly, and grows luxuriantly, upon the coarsest litter; while 
 many of the more tender exotics will thrive only on food 
 upon which fermentation has exhausted its powers. But 
 here the analogy stops : for while the food of the one is 
 consumed in a sound, healthy, and generally solid state, the 
 food of the other, before it becomes aliment, must undergo 
 the process of putrefaction or decomposition, and be reduced 
 to a liquid or ssriform state. 
 
 " I have gone into the analogy between animals and vege- 
 tables thus far, to impress upon the minds of our farmers the 
 importance of saving, and of applying the food of their vege- 
 tables with the same care and economy that they do the 
 food of their animals. How scrupulously careful is the good 
 husbandman of the produce of his farm, destined to nourish 
 and fatten his animals ; and yet how often careless of the 
 food which can alone nourish and mature his plants: while 
 his fields are gleaned, and his grain, hay, and roots carefully 
 housed, and economically dispensed to his animals, the food 
 of his vegetables is suffered to waste on every part of his 
 farm. Stercoraries we have none. The urine of the stock, 
 which constitutes a moiety of the manure of animals, is all 
 lost. The slovenly and wasteful practice of feeding at stacks 
 in the fields, where the sole of the grass is broken, the fodder 
 wasted, and the dung of little effect, is still pursued. And, 
 finally, the little manure which does accumulate in the 
 yards, is suffered to lie till it has lost full half of its fertiliz- 
 ing properties, or rotted the sills of the barn; when it is 
 injudiciously applied, or the barn removed to get clear of the 
 nuisance. Again: none but a slothful farmer will permit the 
 flocks of his neighbours to rob his own of their food; yet 
 
76 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 he often sees, but with feeble efforts to prevent it, his plants 
 smothered by pestiferous weeds, and plundered of the food 
 which is essential to their health and vigor. A weed con- 
 sumes as much food as a useful plant. This, to be sure, is 
 the dark side of the picture; yet the original may be found 
 in every town, and in almost every neighbourhood. 
 
 " Is it surprising, that under such management, our arable 
 grounds should grow poor, and refuse to labor its accustom- 
 ed reward ? Can it be considered strange, that those who 
 thus neglect to feed their plants should feel the evil of light 
 purses, as well as of light crops ? Constant draining or 
 evaporation, without returning any thing, would in time 
 exhaust the ocean of its waters. A constant cropping of the 
 soil, without returning any thing to it, will in like manner 
 exhaust it of its vegetable food, and gradually induce steril- 
 ity. Neither sand, clay, lime, or magnesia, which are the 
 elements of all soils, nor any combination of part or all of 
 them, is alone capable of producing healthy plants. It is 
 the animal and vegetable matter accumulated upon its 
 bosom, or which art deposits there with the auxiliary aid of 
 these materials diffused in the atmosphere, that enables the 
 earth to teem with vegetable life, and yield its tribute to 
 man and beast." 
 
 Judge Buel suggests the following cheap and practicable 
 mode of providing food for vegetables ; 
 
 " The cattle yard should be located on the south side of 
 and adjoining the barn. Sheds, substantial stone walls, or 
 close board fences, should be erected at least on the east and 
 west sides, to shelter the cattle from cold winds and storms; 
 the size proportioned to the stock to be kept in it. Exca- 
 vate the centre in a concave form, placing the earth removed 
 upon the edges or lowest sides, leaving the borders ten or 
 twelve feet broad, of a horizontal level, to feed the stock up- 
 on, and from two to five feet higher than the centre. This 
 may be done with a plough and scraper, or shovel and hand- 
 barrow, after the ground is broken up with the plough. 
 When the soil is not sufficiently compact to hold water, the 
 bottom should be bedded with six or eight inches of clay, 
 well beat down, and covered with gravel or sand. This last 
 labor is seldom required, except where the ground is very 
 porous. Here should be annually deposited, as they can be 
 conveniently collected, the weeds, coarse grass, and brakes 
 of the farm; and also the pumpkin vines and potato tops. 
 And here also should be fed out, or strewed as litter, the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 77 
 
 hay, stalks, and husks of Indian corn, pea and bean haulm, 
 and the straw of grain not wanted in the stables. To still 
 further augment the mass, leached ashes and swamp earth 
 may be added to advantage. These materials will absorb 
 the liquid of the yard, and, becoming incorporated with the 
 excrementitious matter, double or treble the ordinary quantity 
 of manure. During the continuance of frost the excavation 
 gives no inconvenience; and when the weather is soft, the 
 borders afford ample room for the cattle. In this way, the 
 urine is saved, and the waste incident to rains, &c. prevent- 
 ed. The cattle should be kept constantly yarded in winter, 
 except when let out to water, and the yard frequently re- 
 plenished with dry litter. Upon this plan, from ten to twelve 
 loads of unfermented manure may be obtained every spring 
 for each animal; and if the stable manure is spread over the 
 yard, the quality of the dung will be improved, and the 
 quantity proportionably increased. Any excess of liquid 
 that may remain after the dung is removed in the spring, 
 can be profitably applied to grass, grain, or garden crops. 
 It is used extensively in Flanders, and in other parts of 
 Europe. 
 
 " Having explained my method of procuring and preserv- 
 ing the food of vegetables, I will proceed to state my prac- 
 tice in feeding or applying it. It is given, every spring, 
 to such hoed crops as will do well upon coarse food, (my 
 vegetable hogs and goats.) These are corn, potatoes, ruta 
 baga, beans, and cabbages. These consume the coarser 
 particles of the manure, which would have been lost during 
 the summer in the yard; while the plough, harrow, and hoe 
 eradicate the weeds which spring from the seeds it scatters. 
 The finer parts of the food are preserved in the soil, to 
 nourish the small grains which follow. The dung is spread 
 upon the land as evenly as possible, and immediately turned 
 under with the plough. It is thereby better distributed for 
 the next crop, and becomes intimately mixed and incorpora- 
 ted with the soil by subsequent tillage. Thus, upon the data 
 which I feel warranted in assuming, a farmer who keeps 
 twenty horses and neat cattle, will obtain from his yards and 
 stables, every spring, two hundred loads of manure, besides 
 ■what is made in summer, and the product of his hogsty. 
 With this he may manure annually ten or twelve acres of 
 corn, potatoes, Stc, and manure it well. And if a proper 
 rotation of crops is adopted, he will be able to keep in good 
 
 heart, and progressively to improve, sixty acres of tillage 
 
 7# 
 
78 TUE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 land, so that each field shall be manured once every four or 
 five years, on the return of the corn and potato crop." 
 
 DAIRY. The celebrated Arthur Young has the follow- 
 ing remarks on this subject : 
 
 "Unless the farmer has a very diligent and industrious 
 wife, who sees minutely to her dairy, or a most honest, dili- 
 gent, and careful housekeeper to do it for him, he will assur- 
 edly lose money by his dairy; trusted to common servants, 
 it will not pay charges. The dairymaid must be up every 
 morning at four o'clock, or she will be backward in her 
 business. At five the cows must be milked, and there must 
 be milkers enough to finish by six. The same rule must be 
 observed in the evening. 
 
 " In making butter, the dairymaids are particularly atten- 
 tive to one circumstance, that there must be a certain pro- 
 portion of sour in the cream, either natural or artificial, or 
 they cannot insure a good churning of butter; some keep a 
 little of the old cream for that purpose; others use a little 
 runnet; and some a little lemon juice." 
 
 In order to determine which cow's milk is best for cream, 
 it has been recommended to let the milk of each be put by 
 itself, and churn each separately. 
 
 The properties requisite in a dairy-house are, that it be 
 cool in summer and moderately warm in winter, so as to 
 preserve nearly the same temperature throughout the year, 
 which, according to Loudon, should be about forty-five de- 
 grees. A northern exposure, as much under the shade of 
 trees as possible, is to be preferred. A well-constructed but- 
 ter dairy, says Loudon, should consist of three apartments; 
 a milk house, a churning house, with proper boiler, as well 
 as other conveniences for scalding and washing the imple- 
 ments, and a room to keep them in, and for drying and air- 
 ing them, when the weather will not permit of its being done 
 without doors. The cheese dairy should likewise consist of 
 three apartments : a milk house, a scalding and pressing 
 house, and a salting house. To these should be added a 
 cheese room, or loft, which may with great propriety be 
 made above the dairy. This is, however, generally separate 
 from the dairy. But a milk dairy requires only a good 
 milk house, and a room for scalding, cleaning, and airing 
 the utensils. 
 
 A dairy for the private use of any farmer or family need 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 79 
 
 not be large, and may very economically be formed in a 
 thick-walled dry cellar, so situated as to have windows on 
 two sides ; the north and east in preference for ventilation ; 
 and in order that these windows may the better exclude cold 
 in winter and heat in summer, they should be fitted with 
 double sashes; and on the outside of the outer sash should 
 be a fixed frame of close wire netting or haircloth, to 
 exclude flies and other insects.* 
 
 On Making and Preserving Butter. The dairy-house 
 should be kept neat, should not front the south, southeast, 
 or southwest. An apartment in a sweet and well-ventilated 
 cellar will answer a good purpose to keep milk and cream 
 in. Cheeses should not be set to dry in the same room 
 where your milk is set, for they communicate an acid matter 
 to the surrounding air, which will have a tendency to make 
 the milk sour. The milk room and cheese room should 
 therefore be separate apartments. It will be well to place 
 your milk room, if possible, over a spring or brook, near the 
 dwellinghouse; and you may have a stone floor, and chan- 
 nels in the floor to pass the water round near the inside of 
 the walls. Into these channels the pans may be set, filled 
 with milk, and surrounded by water. If water could be in- 
 troduced into the milk room so as to fall from some height 
 on the pavement, it would likewise prove advantageous, as 
 the waterfall and the evaporation it causes will contribute to 
 preserve the air continually pure, fresh, and cool. As the 
 milk itself when brought in warm will naturally tend to raise 
 the temperature of the milk room too high, it is recommend- 
 ed to have an ice-house attached to the dairy, especially 
 where the advantage of a current of water cannot be obtain- 
 ed. An ice-house would prove still more profitable if the 
 dairy be situated near large towns, where the ice could be 
 sold in summer. According to Dr. Deane, the temperature 
 of the milk room should be from fifty to fifty-five degrees of 
 Fahrenheit's thermometer; and "The Complete Grazier" 
 says, " Where the temperature of the milk room has be- 
 come affected by the carrying of newly drawn milk into it, 
 it may be easily reduced to the proper temperature by sus- 
 pending a small quantity of ice at a considerable height from 
 the floor; and if, during winter, the cold should become too 
 great, a barrel of hot water closely stopped, or a few hot 
 
 * For several different plans of dairy-houses, see Loudon's " EncyclopiBdia 
 of Agriculture," Par. 6300, &c. 
 
80 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 bricks placed on the floor or table of the milk room, will 
 readily counteract its effects. But on no account whatever 
 should a chafing-dish with burning coals be used, as it will 
 certainly impart a bad taste to the milk." 
 
 The proper receptacles for milk are tin or earthen pans, 
 not glazed nor lined with lead, or wooden trays. Lead, 
 copper, or brass utensils, as well as earthenware vessels 
 glazed with lead, ought on no pretext whatever to be used; 
 for the acid which is contained in milk combines with these 
 metals, and forms a poisonous compound with them. Sir 
 John Sinclair recommends vessels made of cast iron, soften- 
 ed by annealing them in charcoal, so that they will not break 
 by an ordinary fall, turned smooth in the inside, and laid 
 over with a coat of tin, to prevent the iron from coming in 
 contact with the milk. These milk dishes are stated to be 
 kept more easily clean than wooden vessels; and their su- 
 perior power of conducting heat cools the milk so rapidly, 
 that the Scottish farmers' wives, who have given them a fair 
 trial, affirm that they throw up one third more cream from an 
 equal quantity of milk.* Cast-iron vessels, without being 
 tinned, would give no poisonous quality to the milk, but they 
 might render the produce of the dairy unpalatable. 
 
 "All dairy utensils ought to be most carefully scoured, 
 first with hot water, and afterwards rinsed with cold, and 
 kept in an air)' place, in order that every possible degree of 
 acidity may be removed. Should one or two scourings be 
 insufficient, they must be repeatedly cleansed until they be- 
 come entirely sweet, as the slightest taint or acidity may 
 cause material loss."t Slate, according to some accounts, 
 makes very good milk coolers, and perhaps freestone might 
 answer as well. 
 
 The quality and quantity of cows' milk greatly depends 
 on the nature of their food. Potatoes, carrots, and parsnips 
 are recommended as causing cows to give excellent milk; 
 and mangel-wurtzel is highly spoken of for the same pur- 
 pose. Cabbages, if sound, answer an excellent purpose, but 
 the decayed leaves give a bad taste to the milk. It is 
 thought best to milk cows three times a day if fully fed, and 
 great caution should be exercised by the persons employed 
 to draw the milk from them completely, not only to increase 
 the quantity of produce, but to preserve its quality. Any 
 portion which may be left in the udder seems gradually to be 
 
 * Agiicultural Report of Scotland. t The Complete Grazier. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 81 
 
 absorbed into the system, and no more is formed than 
 enough to supply the loss of what is taken away; and by the 
 continuance of the same mode a yet further diminution takes 
 place, until at length scarcely any is produced. This last 
 mode of milking is practised when it is intended to render a 
 cow dry. 
 
 " After the milk is drawn from the cow, it should be care- 
 fully strained through a Unen cloth or a hair sieve, (Dr. An- 
 derson prefers a sieve made of silver wires, on account of its 
 superior wholesomeness,) into the cream dishes, which 
 should never exceed three inches in depth, though they may 
 be made so wide as to contain any quantity required, and 
 which ought to be perfectly clean, sweet, and cool. If any 
 ill flavor is apprehended from the cows having eaten turnips, 
 &c., the addition of one eighth part of boiling water to the 
 milk before it is poured into the dishes will effectually 
 remove it.* When filled, the dishes ought to be set upon 
 shelves or dressers, there to continue till the cream is re- 
 moved. This should be steadily done by means of a skim- 
 ming dish, if possible, without spilling any upon the floor, 
 because it will speedily taint the air of the room; and the 
 cream poured into a vessel, till enough be obtained for 
 churning." 
 
 The " Farmer's Assistant " judiciously observes, " If new 
 milk be kept as warm as when it comes from the cow, no 
 cream will rise on it ; but when sufficiently cooled, the 
 cream separates from the rest and rises to the top. In order 
 then to effect this to the best advantage, the new milk should 
 be made as cool as possible, and the cooler it is thus made 
 the more suddenly and effectually the cream will rise. To 
 set milkpans made of tin in beds of salt would no doubt be 
 useful, where the cellar is too warm; and to set all milk ves- 
 sels on a floor which is constantly covered with cold spring 
 water is also an excellent plan." 
 
 The following remarks relative to the best mode of mak- 
 
 * Mr. Young has recommended the dairyman to boil two ounces of nitre 
 in one quart of water, and to l)Ottle the mixture; of which, when cold, a 
 large tea-cupful is to be added to ten or twelve quarts of milk as soon as it 
 comes from the cow. The quantity of saltpetre is to be increased as the 
 turnips become stronger. The feeding of cows with the roots alone will, as the 
 earl of Egremont found, prevent the milk from having a bad taste. Another 
 method of removing any ill flavor arising from the cows having eaten turt)ips, 
 consists in warming the cream, and afterwards pouring it into a vessel of 
 cold water; from which the cream is to be skimmed as it rises to the surface, 
 and thus the unpleasant taste will be left behind in the water. 
 
82 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 
 
 ing butter, are chiefly derived from Dr. Anderson's valuable 
 Essay on that subject. 1. The milk first drawn from a cow 
 is always thinner, and inferior in quality to that afterwards 
 obtained; and this richness increases gradually to the very 
 last drop that can be drawn from the udder. 2. The portion 
 of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and 
 greater in quantity than that which rises in the second equal 
 space of time, and so of the rest, the cream decreasing and 
 growing worse as long as it rises at all. 3. Thick milk pro- 
 duces a smaller proportion of cream than that which is thin- 
 ner, though the cream of the former is of a richer quality. 
 If thick milk therefore be diluted with water, it will afford 
 more cream than it would have yielded in its pure state, 
 though its quality will at the same time be inferior. 4. 
 Milk carried about in pails, or other vessels, agitated and 
 partly cooled before it is put into the milkpans, never throws 
 up such good and plentiful cream as if it had been put into 
 proper vessels immediately after it came from the cow. 
 
 From these fundamental facts, the Doctor deduces, in sub- 
 stance, the following rules : 
 
 1. The cows should be milked as near the dairy as possi- 
 ble, to prevent the necessity of carrying and cooling the 
 milk before it be put into the dishes; and as cows are much 
 hurt by far driving, it must be a great advantage in a dairy 
 farm to have the principal grass fields as near the dairy or 
 homestead as possible. In this point of view, also, the prac- 
 tice of feeding cows in the house, rather than turning them 
 out to pasture in the field, must be obviously beneficial. * 
 
 2. Ihe practice of putting the milk of all the cows of a 
 large dairy into one vessel, as it is milked, there to remain 
 till the whole milking be finished, before any part is put into 
 the milkpans, seems to be highly injudicious, not only on 
 account of the loss sustained by the agitation and cooling, 
 but also, the more especially, because it prevents the owner 
 
 * Mr. Lawrence, in his " Treatise on Cattle," observes, that " it is stated 
 bv theoretical writers, that to feed cows in the home stall increases their 
 quantitj' of milk; a fact which various experiments compel me to disprove. 
 With me it has ever had the effect of adding to the substance of the animal, 
 and of diminishing the quantity of her milk ; probably from defect of the 
 exercise she was wont to take in collecting her food, and the selection of herb- 
 age she was enabled to make." This writer, however, is of opinion, that 
 " llie aggregate quantity of milk in a dairy may be enlarged by keeping 
 pastures free from the tread of the cows, since a greater number may be kept, 
 perhaps by one third, on the same extent of ground; at the same time the ani- 
 mals may be secured from the harassing and debilitating effects of the sun and 
 flies." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 83 
 
 of the dairy from distinguishing the good from the bad cow's 
 milk, so as to enlighten his judgment respecting the profit 
 that he may derive from each. Without this precaution, he 
 may have the whole bf his dairy produce greatly debased by 
 the milk of one bad cow for years together, without being 
 able to discover it. A better practice, therefore, would be 
 to have the milk drawn from each cow separately put into 
 the creaming pans as soon as milked, without being ever 
 mixed with any other ; and if these pans were all made of 
 such a size as to be able to contain the whole of one cow's 
 milk, each in a separate pan, the careful dai* would thus be 
 able to remark, without any trouble, the quantity of milk 
 afforded by each cow every day, as well as the peculiar 
 qualities of the cow's milk. And if the same cow's milk 
 were always to be placed on the same part of the shelf, hav- 
 ing the cow's name written beneath, there never could be 
 the smallest difficulty in ascertaining which of the cows it 
 would be for the owner's interest to dispose of, and which he 
 ought to keep and breed from. 
 
 3. If it be intended to make butter of a very Jine quality, 
 it will be advisable, not only to reject entirely the milk of all 
 those cows which yield cream of a bad quality, but also, in 
 every case, to keep the milk that is first drawn from the cow 
 at each milking entirely separate from that which is got last; 
 as it is obvious, if this be not done, the quality of the butter 
 must be greatly debased, without adding much to its quanti- 
 ty. It is also obvious, that the quality of the butter will be 
 improved in proportion to the smallness of the quantity of 
 the last drawn milk which is used, as it increases in richness 
 to the very last drop that can be drawn from the udder at 
 that time ; so that those who wish to be singularly nice will 
 do well to keep for their best butter a very small proportion 
 of the last drawn milk. 
 
 Dr. Anderson proceeds to state in substance, that in the 
 Highlands of Scotland the common practice is to let the calf 
 suck till the dairymaid judges that it has had enough ; it is 
 then separated, the legs of the mother having been previous- 
 ly shackled by a very simple contrivance, to oblige her to 
 stand still, and the dairymaid milks off what is left by the 
 calf In this way, he observes, the Highland butter has 
 been greatly celebrated as the " richest marrowy butter 
 
 * A provincial word, denoting tlie person wiio has the chief concern in a 
 dairy. 
 
84 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 which can anywhere be met with." The milk which is 
 first drawn, and consequently of inferior quality, may be 
 converted into an inferior kind of butter, sold sweet, or made 
 into cheeses, which, by being made of sweet milk, if made 
 with care and skill, may be of fine quality. 
 
 Churning ought to be regularly continued till the butter 
 comes, or is formed. If the motion in summer be too quick, 
 the butter will, in consequence, ferment, and become ill- 
 tasted ; and, in winter, it will go back. Churning, it is said, 
 may be made easier by putting the bottom of the pump churn 
 about one foot deep into a vessel of cold water, and continu- 
 ing it there till the butter is made. The addition of one or 
 two table-spoonfuls of distilled vinegar, after churning 
 awhile, will, it is said, produce butter much sooner, in many 
 instances, than it can be formed without such addition. 
 
 Some writers advise to wash the butter, after it is formed, 
 thoroughly in several waters, till all the milk is removed. 
 Dr. Anderson, however, advises to force the milk out of the 
 cavities of the butter by means of a flat, wooden ladle, fur- 
 nished with a short handle, at the same time agitating the 
 butter as little as possible, lest it become tough and gluey. 
 " The beating up of butter," he observes, " by the hand, is 
 an indelicate practice, particularly if it be constitutionally 
 warm; and as it is hurtful to the quality of the butter to pour 
 cold water on it during this operation, the butter, if too soft 
 to receive the impression of the mould, may be put into 
 small vessels, and there be permitted to float in a trough of 
 cold water beneath the table, without welling the hulltr, which 
 will soon become sufficiently firm. Or, when butter is first 
 made, after as much of the milk has been got out as possi- 
 ble, it may be thinly spread on a marble slab, and the re- 
 maining moisture he absorbed by patting it with clean dry 
 towels." 
 
 It is said, in Bordley's " Husbandry," that "dashing in 
 water, and then, without pause, clearing the butter from 
 every particle of the water, is widely different from washing 
 butter by kneading and letting it remain at all in the water. 
 Very good butter for flavor, color, and consistence, is made 
 by one who washes it twice, but never lets it remain in the 
 water a moment." Another butter-maker says, mix the salt 
 in the butter in the evening, and let it rest till morning, then 
 work out the liquor, but never let it be once touched with water. 
 
 Dr. Anderson remarks, that a considerable degree of 
 strength as well as dexterity is required in the working of 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 85 
 
 butter. The thing wanted is, to force out the milk entirely, 
 with as little tawing [working] of the butter as possible, for 
 if the milk be not entirely taken away, the butter will spoil 
 in a short time; and if it be much worked the butter will 
 become tough and gluey, which greatly debases its quality. 
 
 Before you put butter into the vessels which are to contain 
 it, great care must be taken that they be well seasoned by 
 frequent washing and exposure to the air for two or three 
 weeks. As it is difficult to season new firkins, it will always 
 be preferable to employ those which have been used. The 
 most speedy method of seasoning firkins is by the use of un- 
 slacked lime, or a large quantity of salt and water, well 
 boiled, with which they should be repeatedly scrubbed, and 
 afterwards thrown into cold water, to remain there three or 
 four days, till wanted. They should then be scrubbed as 
 before, and well rinsed with cold water; and before the but- 
 ter is put in, every part of the inside of the firkin must be 
 well rubbed with salt. 
 
 Butter may be salted by working into it one or two ounces 
 of salt, after the buttermilk has been forced out. The salt 
 should be thoroughly incorporated, and be of the best and 
 purest quality. Dr. Anderson, however, recommends the 
 following preparation, which he has experienced to be much 
 superior, as it not only prevents the butter from becoming in 
 any degree rancid, but also improves its appearance, and im- 
 parts a sweeter and richer taste than could be given by com- 
 mon salt only. For every pound of butter take half an 
 ounce of best common salt, one quarter of an ounce of loaf 
 sugar, and one quarter of an ounce of saltpetre; beat and 
 blend the whole completely together. Butter thus cured, 
 should stand three or four weeks before it is used, that the 
 salts may be well mixed. The best butter is made in sum- 
 mer, but by adding a certain portion (which experience 
 alone can determine) of the juice expressed from the pulp of 
 carrots to the cream previously to churning, winter-made 
 butter will thus acquire the appearance and flavor of butter 
 that has been churned during the prime part of the summer 
 season. 
 
 A writer for "The Journal of Humanity " gives the fol- 
 lowing rules for making good butter. " If you have four or 
 five cows, it is best to churn every day ; and by no means 
 less frequently than every other day. If you cannot churn 
 every day, throw into the cream, when gathered, a handful 
 of nice salt. In very warm weather, when milk sours soon, 
 
86 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 put two heaping table-spoonfuls of salt into every pail of 
 milk before straining. The quantity as well as the quality 
 of the butter is greatly improved by this method. If you 
 have ice, put a small piece in every pan of milk, and also 
 into the cream when you churn. If you have no ice, put 
 the cream into a pail, and hang it in the well twelve 
 hours before churning. In the warm season, cream should 
 be skimmed as soon as it is in the least sour, and in the 
 coldest weather, milk should not stand more than thirty-six 
 or forty-eight hours. The utmost care should be taken to 
 keep every article used in making butter perfectly sweet, by 
 frequent and thorough scalding." 
 
 A writer for " The New England Farmer," (Vol. VI. p. 
 370,) observed as follows : 
 
 " It does not, in my opinion, improve the butter to have 
 the milk sour before the cream is gathered; but at this sea- 
 son of the year [June] it can hardly be prevented. It 
 should, however, never be suffered to stand till the milk cur- 
 dles. When the cream is gathered it should be set in an 
 open vessel, where the air can have free access to its sur- 
 face; and during the time that the cream is gathering for a 
 churning of butter, it should have a stick or spoon kept in 
 the vessel where the cream is, by which the cream should be 
 stirred at least half a dozen times a day, enough to mix it 
 up well, and bring a new portion of it to the air; and it 
 should stand before the Avindow of the milk room, or some 
 other, the most airy position afforded by the room. When 
 you have gathered a mess for this season of the year, fill 
 your churn over night with cold water, and empty it in the 
 morning. Put in your cream and churn it with a regular, 
 steady, and not too rapid motion. It will generally come in 
 from ten to twenty minutes, and when fetched it needs no 
 coloring matter. 
 
 "I know that women say flies will get into the cream if 
 left uncovered; let them get in, and pick them out, rather 
 than cover up the vessel containing the cream.* 
 
 "The windows to milk rooms, in many houses, are not 
 sufficiently large, with from four to eight small panes of 
 glass. This affords too stinted a portion of air. If your 
 glass is small, you want a twenty-four lighted window to 
 
 * Perhaps a covering of gauze, millinet, or other light and porous sutetance, 
 or a lid perforated with small holes, might admit air and exclude the flies. — 
 EdiloT. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 87 
 
 the milk room, with bHnds to exclude the sun. If two 
 such windows, so situated as to afford a draught of air, the 
 better. But stint your milk room of air, and keep the cream- 
 pot covered tight to exclude flies, and your butter will be 
 tohite and bitter, besides being a long while coming." 
 
 Making Butter in Winter. A friend has furnished us with 
 the following observations on this subject: 
 
 " In February, 1825, I spent a iew days with Dr. Jones, 
 who lives near Hyco Bridge, in Halifax County, Virginia. 
 Mrs. Jones prepares her cream for churning by heating the 
 milk after it has stood twelve or twenty-four hours. 
 
 "She places it over coals the evening before churning, 
 until the milk as it stands with the cream on is heated ready 
 to boiling, when she sets it by till morning. The cream is 
 then skimmed off, and churned by stirring in an earthen 
 vessel. The butter is delicately white and clear in its com- 
 plexion, firm, and fine flavored. 
 
 " This process would, no doubt, prove more successful in 
 any part of New England, since the climate of Virginia is 
 generally less favorable to the dairy than that of the eastern 
 States." 
 
 From the same pen we are favored with the following: 
 
 Garlic in Butter. " When milk has the flavor of garlic, 
 or wild onion, add a quart of boiling water to each gallon, 
 and set it away in vessels, having the bottom covered the 
 thickness of an inch only with milk. The cream that rises 
 will be sweet and free from any disagreeable flavor." 
 
 L. Peters, Esq. of Westborough, Massachusetts, says, 
 relative to making winter butter, "My wife's method is, to 
 set the vessels in which the cream is collected near the fire 
 a while before it is put into the churn, and frequently stir it 
 a little, and turn the vessels, that it may be warmed equally, 
 till it is as warm as cream in the summer, as near as she can 
 judge; and before putting it into the churn, that is scalded 
 with scalding water. When the churning commences, it is 
 done moderately, and if there is any frothy appearance, then 
 warm water is put in, the churn put near the fire, and 
 occasionally turned, till the temperature is altered, and the 
 churning is finished, which is generally in a short time. If 
 a dash churn is used, set it into a tub of hot water, and fre- 
 quently move the dash a little, to mix the warm and cold 
 cream, till it is of a suitable warmth, which an observing 
 person will soon ascertain by practice." — JVew England 
 Farmer, Vol. VI. p. 370. 
 
88 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 A valuable paper on the making of butter in cold weather, 
 by the Rev. W. Allen, states the results of several trials, by 
 which it appears that butter may be obtained in the coldest 
 weather within from ten to twenty minutes, if the cream at 
 the commencement of the churning is brought to the tem- 
 perature of about seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. 
 
 E. H. Derby, Esq. of Salem, Massachusetts, recommends 
 the making of butter by the aid of frost, as follows: 
 
 " The milk when taken from the cows is immediately 
 strained into earthen pans, and set in the coldest part of the 
 house; as soon as the frost begins to operate, a separation 
 takes place, the cream rises in a thick paste to the top, and 
 leaves the milk, without a particle of cream, frozen in the 
 pan. The cream is not so hard but that it can be easily 
 scraped off with a spoon, to the solid ice; it is then set aside 
 until a sufficient quantity is collected for churning, when 
 it is warmed just so much as to thaw the cream sufficiently 
 to put it into the churn. I have never known it to require 
 more than five minutes to convert such cream into butter, 
 after the churning had commenced." 
 
 CHEESE, — Method of making. " The milk is universal- 
 ly set for cheese as soon as it comes from the cow. 
 
 "The management of the curd depends on the kind of 
 cheese: thin cheese requires the least labor and attention. 
 
 " Breaking the curd is done with the hand and dish. The 
 finer the curd is broken the better, particularly in thick 
 cheeses. The best color of this kind of cheese is that of 
 bees-wax, which is produced by annotta, rubbed into the 
 milk after it is warmed. The dairywornan is to judge of 
 the quality by the color of the milk, as it differs much in 
 strength. The runnet is prepared by taking some whey 
 and salting till it will bear an egg; it is then suffered to 
 stand over night, and in the morning it is skimmed and rack- 
 ed off clear; to this is added an equal quantity of water 
 orine, strong as the whey, and into this mixture some sweet- 
 briar, thyme, or some other sweet herbs; also a little black 
 pepper and saltpetre; the herbs are kept in the brine three 
 or four days, after which it is decanted clear from them. 
 Into six quarts of this liquor four large calves' bags, or, more 
 properly called, calves' stomachs, are put. No part of the 
 preparation is heated, and frequently the calves' bags are 
 only steeped in cold salt and water. Turning the milk dif- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 89 
 
 fers in different dairies, no two dairywomen conducting ex- 
 actly alike. 
 
 " Settinfthe milk too hot inclines the cheese to heave, and 
 cooling it with cold water produces a similar effect. The 
 degree of heat varies according to the weather. The curd 
 when formed is broken with what is called a treple cheese 
 knife. The use of this is to keep the fat in the cheese. It 
 is drawn the depth of the curd two or three times across the 
 tub, to give the whey an opportunity of running off clear; 
 after a few minutes the knife is more freely used, and the 
 curd is cut into small pieces like checkers, and is broken 
 fine in the whey with the hand and a wooden dish. The 
 curd being allowed about half an hour to settle, the whey is 
 laded off with the dish, after it is pretty well separated from 
 the curd. 
 
 "It is an almost invariable practice to scald the curd. 
 The mass is first broken very fine, and then the scalding 
 whey is added to it and stirred a few minutes; some make 
 use of hot water in preference to whey, and it is in both 
 cases heated according to the nature of the curd; if it is 
 soft, the whey or water is used nearly boiling; but if hard, 
 it is only used a little hotter than the hand. After the curd 
 is thoroughly mixed with the hot stuff, it is suffered to stand 
 a few minutes to settle, and is then separated as at the first 
 operation. After the scalding liquor is separated, a vat, or 
 what is often called a cheese hoop, is laid across the cheese 
 ladder over the tub, and the curd is crumbled into it with the 
 hands, and pressed into the vat, to squeeze out the whey. 
 The vat being filled as full and as firmly as the hand alone 
 can fill it, and rounded up in the middle, a cheese cloth is 
 spread over it, and the curd is turned out of the hoop into 
 the cloth; the vat is then washed, and the inverted mass of 
 curds, with the cloth under it, is returned into the vat and 
 put into the press; after standing two or three hours in the 
 press, the vat is taken out, and the cloth is taken off, wash- 
 ed, and put round the cheese, and it is replaced in the vat 
 and in the press. In about seven or eight hours it is taken 
 out of the press and salted, the cheese is placed on a board, 
 and a handful of salt is rubbed all over it, and the edges are 
 pared off if necessary ; another handful of salt is strewed 
 on the upper side, and as much left as will stick to it; after- 
 wards it is turned into the bare vat without a cloth, and an 
 equal quantity of salt is added to it, and the cheese is return- 
 ed into the press; here it continues one night, and the next 
 
90 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 morninor it is turned in the vat, and continues till the suc- 
 ceedino- morning, and the curd is taken out and placed on 
 the dairy shelf: here they are turned every day or every 
 other day, as the weather may be. If it is hot and dry, the 
 windows and door are kept shut; but if wet or moist, the 
 door and windows are kept open night and day." 
 
 Cleaning the Cheese. "The cheeses having remained 
 about ten days after leaving the press, are to be washed and 
 scraped in the following manner: a large tub of cold sweet 
 whey is placed on the floor, the cheeses are immersed in it, 
 where they continue one hour, or longer, if necessary, to 
 soften the rind. They are then taken out and scraped with 
 a common case-knife, with great care, so as not to injure the 
 tender rind, till every part of the cheese is smooth ; they 
 are after the last operation rinsed in the whey and wiped 
 clean with a coarse cloth, and placed in an airy situation 
 to dry, after which they are placed in the cheese room. 
 The floor of the cheese room is generally prepared by rub- 
 bing it with bean or potato tops, or any succulent herb, till 
 it appears of a black wet color. On this floor the cheeses 
 are placed, and turned twice a week; their edges are wiped 
 hard with a cloth once a week, and the floor is cleansed and 
 rubbed with fresh herbs once a fortnight. They must not lie 
 too Ions or they will stick to the floor. This preparation of 
 the floor gives the cheese a blue coat, which is considered 
 of great consequence." 
 
 Stilton Cheese, how made. " The Stilton cheese, which 
 may be called the Parmesan of England, is not confined to 
 StiUon and its vicinity, for many farmers in Huntingdon- 
 shire, and also in Rutland and Northamptonshire, make a 
 similar sort, sell them for the same price, and give them the 
 name of the Stilton cheeses. 
 
 " Take the night's cream and put it into the morning's 
 new milk with the runnet ; when the curd is separated, let 
 it not be broken, as is done with other cheese, but take it 
 out, disturbing it as little as possible, and sufi'er it to dry 
 gradually in a sieve ; and as the whey separates, compress 
 it gradually till it has acquired a firm consistence ; then 
 place it in a wooden hoop, and suffer it to dry very gradual- 
 ly on a board, taking care at the same time to turn it daily 
 with close binders round, and which must be tightened as 
 the cheese acquires more solidity." 
 
 Cheese, Skippers iyi. "Wrap the cheese in thin brown 
 paper, so thin that moisture may strike through soon ; dig a 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 91 
 
 hole in good sweet earth about two feet deep, in which the 
 cheese must be buried about thirty-six hours, and the skip- 
 pers will be found all on the outside of the cheese ; brush 
 them off immediately, and you will find your cheese sound 
 and good." 
 
 To prevent Cheese having a rancid, nauseous flavor. " Put 
 about one table-spoonful of salt to each gallon of milk, when 
 taken from the cows in the evening, for the cheese to be 
 made the next day ; put the salt at the bottom of the vessel 
 that is to receive the milk ; it will increase the curd, and 
 prevent the milk from growing sour or putrid, the hottest 
 nights in summer." — Massachusetts Agricultural Rcposito7-y. 
 
 [Tlie following is from the pen of a friend, to whom we are indebted for 
 several valuable articles, written expressly fur this work.] 
 
 " To make Cheese. A person whose dairy enjoys a high 
 reputation gives the following directions for making cheese : 
 '•' 'Take a gallon and a half of water and throw into it a 
 pint and a half of common salt. Boil and skim it, and add 
 three or four ounces of rose leaves. After it is sufficiently 
 steeped, let it cool, and put in one ounce of saltpetre and 
 four runnets. A great-spoonful of this preparation is enough 
 to turn rifteen gallons of milk. When the curd is made, dip 
 it out carefully, and put it into a cloth that sits in a vessel 
 with its bottom perforated with holes. Let a person on each 
 side of the cloth take up the corners, and raise the curd 
 carefully, and turn it from one side to the other in the cloth, 
 in order to the better draining off' the whey ; then lay it as 
 before, in a vessel perforated with holes, and thus turn it 
 once in fifteen or twenty minutes, and in the intervals place 
 a follower upon it, Avith a stone above ; cutting the curd 
 through each time. When the whey is out, season it with 
 salt to suit your palate, while cutting it up in small pieces 
 with a suitable knife ; then put it up for pressing. Let it 
 stand under thirty or forty pounds' weight twenty-four hours, 
 and then turn it, and let it stand twenty-four hours more un- 
 der the same. A severe pressure, which is sometimes given, 
 spoils a rich cheese entirely. 
 
 " ' Set your cheese in closets made for the purpose, which 
 flies cannot enter. 
 
 " ' The outside may be rubbed with a mixture of butter 
 and Spanish brown, which answers very well, but other 
 mixtures may answer equally well. 
 
 " ' A small quantity of otter, say the size of a kernel of 
 rye, setved up in a cloih, may be put in each curd. 
 
92 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " 'Never wash out your cheese cloth with soap, but boil 
 it out in whey.' " 
 
 HEMP. The following essay on the culture of Hemp, by 
 Hon. Henry Clay, was originally published in " The West- 
 ern Agriculturist." It is a complete treatise on the best 
 manner of raising and preparing an article, which always 
 commands cash sufficient to reward liberally the cultivator 
 who proceeds correctly in obtaining this valuable product. 
 The author of the essay is not less favorably known as a 
 statesman than as a practical and scientific agriculturist, and 
 his name will give it that weight and currency with Ameri- 
 can farmers which is due to its intrinsic excellence. 
 
 "The preparation of the ground for sowing the seed is by 
 the plough and horses, until the clods are sufficiently pul- 
 verized or dissolved, and the surface of the field is rendered 
 even and smooth. It should be as carefully prepared as if 
 it were for flax. This most important point, too often neg- 
 lected, cannot be attended to too much. Scarcely any oth- 
 er crop better rewards diligence and careful husbandry. Fall 
 or winter ploughing is practised with advantage ; it is indis- 
 pensable in old meadows, or old pasture grounds, intended 
 for producing hemp. 
 
 " Plants for seed are ordinarily reared in a place distinct 
 from that in which they are cultivated for the lint. In this 
 respect, the usage is different from that which is understood 
 to prevail in Europe. The seeds which are intended to re- 
 produce seeds for the crop of the next year, are sowed in 
 drills about four feet apart. When they are grown suffi- 
 ciently to distinguish between the male and female stalks, 
 the former are pulled and thrown away, and the latter are 
 thinned, leaving the stalks separated seven or eight inches 
 from each other. This operation is usually performed in 
 the blooming season, when the sexual character of the plants 
 is easily discernible ; the male alone blossoming, and, when 
 agitated, throwing off farina, a yellow dust or flour, which 
 falls and colors the ground, or any object that comes in con- 
 tact with it. A few of the male plants had better be left, 
 scattered through the drill, until the farina is completely dis- 
 charged, for an obvious reason. Between the drills a plough 
 is run sufficiently often to keep the ground free from weeds 
 and grass ; and between the stalks in each drill the hoe is 
 employed for the same object. The seed plants are gen- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. \)3 
 
 erally cut after the first smart frost, between the 2oth Sep- 
 tember and the middle of October, and carried to a barn or 
 stack-yard, where the seeds arc easily detached by the 
 common flail. They should be gathered after a slight, but 
 before a severe frost ; and, as they fall out very easily, it is 
 advisable to haul the plants on a sled, and, if convenient, 
 when they are wet. If transported on a cart or wagon, a 
 sheet should be spread to catch the seed as they shatter out. 
 After the seeds are separated, the stalks which bore them 
 being too large, coarse, and harsh, to produce lint, are usu- 
 ally thrown away ; they may be profitably employed in mak- 
 ing charcoal for the use of powder-mills. In Europe, where 
 the male and female plants are promiscuously grown togeth- 
 er in the same field, both for seeds and for lint, the male 
 stalks are first gathered, and the female suffered to remain 
 growing until the seeds ai'e ripe, when they are also gath- 
 ered ; the seeds secured and lint obtained, after the rotting, 
 from both descriptions. 
 
 " After the seeds are threshed out, it is advisable to spread 
 them on a floor, to cure properly and prevent their rotting, 
 before they are finally put away for use the next spring. 
 Seeds are not generally used unless they were secured the 
 fall previous to their being sown, as it is believed they will 
 not vegetate if older ; but it has been ascei'tained that when 
 they are properly cured and kept dry, they will come up 
 after the first year. It is important to prevent them from 
 heating, which destroys the vegetating property, and for 
 that purpose they should be thinly spread on a sheltered 
 floor. 
 
 "The seeds, whether to reproduce seeds only, or the lint, 
 are sowed about the same time. Opinions vary as to the 
 best period. It depends a good deal upon the season. The 
 plant is very tender when it first shoots up, and is affected 
 by frost. Some have sowed as early as the 1st of April ; 
 but it is generally agreed, that all the month of May, and 
 about the 10th of it especially, is the most favorable time. 
 An experienced and successful hemp grower, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Lexington, being asked the best time to sow 
 hemp, answered, immediately before a rain. And undoubt- 
 edly it is very fortunate to have a moderate rain directly 
 after sowing. 
 
 " When the object is to make a crop of hemp, the seeds 
 are sown broad-cast. The usual quantity is a bushel and a 
 half to the acre ; but here again the farmers difTer, some 
 
94 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 using two bushels or even two and a half. IMuch depends 
 on the strength and fertility of the soil, and the care with 
 which it has been prepared, as well as the season. To these 
 causes may be ascribed the diversity of opinion and prac- 
 tice. The ground can only sustain and nourish a certain 
 quantity of plants ; and if that limit be passed, the surplus 
 will be smothered in the growth. When the seeds are sown, 
 they are ploughed or harrowed in ; ploughing is best in old 
 ground, as it avoids the injurious effect of a beating rain, 
 and the consequent baking of the earth. It would be also 
 beneficial subsequently to roll the ground with a heavy 
 roller. 
 
 " After the seeds are sown, the labors of the cultivator 
 are suspended, until the plants are ripe, and in a state to be 
 gathered ; every thing in the intermediate time being left 
 to the operations of nature. If the season be favorable un- 
 til the plants are sufficiently high to shade the ground, (which 
 they will do in a few weeks, at six or eight inches' height,) 
 there is strong probability of a good crop. When they at- 
 tain that height, but few articles sustain the effect of bad 
 seasons better than hemp. 
 
 " It is generally ripe and ready to be gathered about the 
 middle of August, varying according to the time of sowing. 
 Some sow at different periods, in order that the crop may 
 not all ripen at the same time, and that a press of labor in 
 rearing it may be thus avoided. The maturity of the plant 
 is determined by the evaporation of the farina, already no- 
 ticed, and the leaves of the plant exhibiting a yellowish hue: 
 it is then generally supposed to be ripe, but it is safest to 
 wait a few days longer. Very little attentive observation 
 will enable any one to judge when it is fully ripe. In that 
 respect it is a very accommodating crop, for if gathered a 
 little too soon, the lint is not materially injured, and it will 
 wait the leisure of the farmer some ten days or a fortnight 
 after it is entirely ripe. 
 
 " Two modes of gathering the plants are practised, one 
 by pulling them up by the roots, an easy operation with an 
 able-bodied man, and the other by cutting them about two 
 inches (the nearer the better) above the surface of the 
 ground. From a quarter to a third of an acre is the com- 
 mon task of an average laborer, whether the one or the oth- 
 er mode is practised. The objections to pulling are, that the 
 plants with their roots remaining connected with them, are 
 not aflerwards so easily handled in the several operations 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 95 
 
 which they must undergo ; that all parts of the plant do not 
 rot equally and alike, when exposed to the dew and rain ; 
 and, finally, that before you put them to the brake, when the 
 root should be separated from the stalk, the root drags off 
 with it some of the lint. The objection to cutting is, that 
 you lose two or three inches of the best part of the plant 
 nearest the root. Pulling, being the most ancient method, 
 is most generally practised. I prefer, upon the whole, cut- 
 ting ; and I believe the number who prefer it is yearly in- 
 creasing. When pulled, it is done with the hand, which is 
 better for the protection of an old leather glove. The la- 
 borer catches twenty or thirty plants together, with both 
 hands, and by a sudden jerk draws them without much diih- 
 culty. The operation of cutting is performed with a knife, 
 often made out of an old scythe, resembling a sickle, though 
 not so long but broader. This knife is applied much in the 
 same way as the sickle, except that the laborer stoops more. 
 " Whether pulled or cut, the plants are carefully laid on 
 the ground, the evener the better, to cure ; which they do 
 in two or three days, in dry weather. A light rain falling on 
 them whilst lying down is thought by some to be beneficial, 
 inasmuch as the leaves, of which they should be deprived, 
 may be easier shaken off or detached. When cured, the 
 plants are set up in the field in which they were produced, 
 in shocks of convenient size, the roots or butt ends resting 
 on the ground, and the tops united above by a band made of 
 the plants themselves. Previous to putting them up in 
 shocks, most cultivators tie the plants in small hand bundles 
 of such a size as that each can be conveniently held in one 
 hand. Before the shocks are formed, the leaves of the 
 plants should be rapidly knocked off with a rough paddle or 
 hooked stick. Some suffer the plants to remain in these 
 shocks until the plants are spread down to be rotted. Oth- 
 ers, again, collect the shocks together as soon as they can 
 command leisure, (and it is clearly the best,) and form them 
 into stacks. A few farmers permit these stacks to remain 
 over a whole year, before the plants are exposed to be rot- 
 ted. By remaining that period in stalks, the plants go 
 through a sweat, or some other process, that improves very 
 much the appearance, and, I believe, the quality of the lint, 
 and this improvement fully compensates the loss of time in 
 bringing it to market. The lint has a soft texture and a 
 lively hue, resembling water-rotted hemp ; and I once sold 
 a box of it in the Baltimore market at the price of Russia 
 
96 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 hemp. In every other respect, the plants are treated as if 
 they were not kept over a year. 
 
 " The method of dew-rotting is that which is generally- 
 practised in Kentucky. The lint so spread is not so good for 
 many purposes, and especially for rigging and ships, as when 
 the plants have heen rotted by immersion in water, or, as it is 
 generally termed, water-rotted. The greater value, and 
 consequently higher price of the article, prepared in the lat- 
 ter way, has induced more and more of our farmers every 
 year to adopt it; and if that prejudice were subdued, which 
 every American production unfortunately encounters when 
 it is first introduced and comes in contact with a rival Euro- 
 pean commodity, I think it probable that in a few years we 
 should be able to dispense altogether with foreign hemp. 
 The obstacles which prevent the general practice of water- 
 rotting are, the want of water at the best season for the 
 operation, which is the month of September; a repugnance 
 to the change of an old habit; and a persuasion, which has 
 some foundation, that handling the plants after their submer- 
 sion in water during that month is injurious to health. The 
 first and last of these obstacles would be removed by water- 
 rotting early in the winter, or in the spring. The only dif- 
 ference in the operation, performed at those seasons and in the 
 month of September, would be, that the plants would have to 
 remain longer in soak before they were sufficiently rotted. 
 
 "The plants are usually spread down to be dew-rotted 
 from the middle of October to the middle of December. A 
 farmer who has a large crop on hand puts them down at dif- 
 ferent times for his convenience in handling and dressing 
 them. Autumnal rotting is more apt to give the lint a dark 
 and unsightly color than winter rotting. The best ground to 
 expose the plants upon is meadow or grass land, but they 
 are not unfrequently spread over the same field on which 
 they grow. The length of time they ought to remain ex- 
 posed depends upon the degree of moisture and the tempera- 
 ture of the weather that prevail. In a very wet and warm 
 spell five or six weeks may be long enough. Whether they 
 have been sufficiently rotted or not is determined by experi- 
 ment. A handful is taken and broken by the hand or ap- 
 plied to the brake, when it can be easily ascertained, by the 
 facility with which the lint can be detached from the stalk, 
 if it be properly rotted. If the plants remain on the ground 
 too long, the fibres lose some of their strength, though a few 
 days longer than necessary, in cold weather, will not do any 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 97 
 
 injury. If they are taken up too soon, that is, before the 
 hnt can be easily separated from the woody part of the stalk, 
 it is harsh, and the process of breaking is difhcult and trou- 
 blesome. Snow-rotting, that is, when the plants, being 
 spread out, remain long enough to rot, (which however re- 
 quires a greater length of time,) bleaches the lint, improves 
 the quality, and makes it nearly as valuable as if it had been 
 water-rotted. 
 
 "After the operation of rotting is performed, the plants 
 are again collected together, put in shocks or stacks, or, 
 which is still better, put under a shed or some covering. 
 When it is designed to break and dress them immediately, 
 they are frequently set up against some neighbouring fence. 
 The best period for breaking and dressing is in the months of 
 February and JNIarch, and the best sort of weather, frosty 
 nights and clear thawing days. The brake cannot be used 
 advantageously in wet or moist Aveather. It is almost in- 
 variably used in this state out of doors and without any 
 cover; and to assist its operation, the laborer often makes a 
 large fire near it, which serves the double purpose of drying 
 the plants and warming himself. It could not be used in 
 damp weather in a house without a kiln or some other means 
 of drying the stalks. 
 
 "The brake in general use is the same hand brake which 
 was originally introduced and has been always employed 
 here, resembling, though longer than the common flax 
 brake. It is so well known as to render a particular de- 
 scription of it, perhaps, unnecessary. It is a rough contri- 
 vance, set upon four legs, about two and a half feet high. 
 The brake consists of two jaws with slits on each, the lower 
 iaw fixed and immovable, and the upper one movable, so 
 that it may be lifted up by means of a handle inserted into a 
 head or block at the front end of it. The lower jaw has 
 three slats or teeth, made of tough white oak, and the upper 
 two, arranged approaching to about two inches in front, and 
 in such manner that the slats of the upper jaw play between 
 those of the lower. These slats are about six or seven feet 
 in length, six inches in depth, and about two inches in thick- 
 ness in their lower edges; they are placed edgewise, round- 
 ed a little on their upper edges, which are sharper than 
 those below. The laborer takes his stand by the side of the 
 brake, and grasping in his left hand as many of the stalks 
 as he can conveniently hold, with his right hand he seizes 
 the handle in the head of the upper jaw, which he lifts, and 
 9 
 
98 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 throwing the handful of stalks between the jaws, repeatedly 
 strikes them by lifting and throwing down the upper jaw. 
 These succesive strokes break the woody or reedy part of 
 the stalks into small pieces or shoes, which fail off during 
 the process. He assists their disengagement by striking the 
 handful against a stake, or with a small wooden paddle, un- 
 til the lint or bark is entirely clean, and completely separa- 
 ted from the woody particles. 
 
 " After the above operation is performed, the hemp may 
 be scutched, to soften it, and to strengthen the threads. 
 That process, however, is not thought to be profitable, and 
 is not therefore generally performed by the grower, but is 
 left to the manufacturer, as well as that of beating and hack- 
 ling it. Scutching is done by the laborer taking in his left 
 hand a handful of the lint, and grasping it firmly, then lay- 
 ing the middle of it upon a semicircular notch of a perpen- 
 dicular board of the scutching-frame, and striking with the 
 edge of the scutch that part of the lint which hangs down 
 on the board. After giving it repeated strokes, he shakes 
 the handful of lint, replaces it on a notch, and continues 
 to strike and turn all parts of it, until it is sufliciently cleans- 
 ed, and the fibres appear to be even and straight. 
 
 " The usual daily task of an able-bodied hand at the brake 
 is eighty pounds' weight ; but there is a great difference not 
 only in the state of the weather and the condition of the 
 stalks, produced by the greater or less degree in which they 
 have been rotted, but in the dexterity with which the brake 
 is employed. Some hands have been known to break from 
 one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds per day. The 
 laborer ties up in one common bundle the work of one day, 
 and in this state it is taken to market and sold. From 
 what has been mentioned, it may be inferred, as the fact is, 
 that the hemp of some growers is in a much better condition 
 than that of others. When it has been carelessly handled 
 or not sufliciently cleansed, a deduction is made from the 
 price by the purchaser. It is chiefly bought in our villages, 
 and manufactured into cotton bagging, bales, and other kinds 
 of untarred cordage. The price is not uniform. The ex- 
 tremes have been as low as three and as high as eight dol- 
 lars for the long hundred, the customary mode of selling it. 
 The most general price during a term of many years has 
 been from four to five dollars. At five dollars it compen- 
 sates well the labor of the grower, and is considered more 
 profitable than any thing else the farmer has cultivated." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 99 
 
 "The quantity of net hemp produced to the acre is from 
 six hundred to one thousand weight, varying according to 
 the fertihty and preparation of the soil and the state of the 
 season. It is said that the quantity which any field will 
 produce may be anticipated by the average height of the 
 plants throughout the field. Thus, if the plants will average 
 eight feet in height, the acre will yield eight hundred weight 
 of hemp ; each foot in height corresponding to a hundred 
 weight of the lint. 
 
 " Hemp exhausts the soil slowly, if at all. An old and 
 successful cultivator told me that he had taken thirteen or 
 fourteen successive crops from the same field, and that the 
 last was the best. That was, however, probably owing to a 
 concurrence of favorable circumstances. Nothing cleanses 
 and prepares the earth better for other crops (especially for 
 small grain or grasses) than hemp. It eradicates all weeds, 
 and when it is taken off, leaves the field not only clean, but 
 smooth and even." 
 
 FLAX. The following observations on this subject, are 
 extracted from " Essays on Flax Husbandry, by S. W. 
 Pomeroy, Esq., First Vice President of the Massachusetts 
 Society for Promoting Agriculture." 
 
 Change of Seed. Notwithstanding it is an opinion well 
 established among experienced flax-growers in this country, 
 that a change of seed is advantageous, it is apprehended 
 that they are not aware of the extent of the benefit to be de- 
 rived by selecting seed from a soil or climate essentially dif- 
 ferent ; and it may be owing to a want of attention in this 
 particular, that the flax crops are so uncertain, and the qual- 
 ity inferior, however perfect in other respects the system 
 may be conducted. Mr. Young observes, that " foreign flax- 
 seed was universally used in Ireland, when it could be ob- 
 tained ; otherwise they were careful to procure seed which 
 grew upon soil of an opposite quality from that which was to 
 be sown ; that American seed was to be preferred, and pro- 
 duced finer flax than any other." Baltic seed produced 
 more, but of a coarser quality. It is well known that Amer- 
 ican seed always bears the highest price in the Irish market. 
 
 Mr. Pomeroy cites a number of examples to show the im- 
 portance attached to the culture of flax in Europe, " and to 
 justify the conclusion, that in this country a continued, judi- 
 cious change of seed will be indispensable to the successful 
 
100 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 prosecution of flax husbandry ; and a further inference may 
 be drawn, that experiments on various soils, with seed the 
 growth of different chmates, are requisite to direct the far- 
 mer to the quarter from whence his best seed may be ob- 
 tained. Here opens a legitimate field for our numerous 
 agricultural societies to labor in : on their exertions the far- 
 mer must depend in the outset ; but let it once be ascertain- 
 ed that Riga seed is best in one section, Dutch or German 
 in others, and mercantile interest, if not patriotism, will dis- 
 tribute them. 
 
 " Should it be objected to importing seed on account of 
 the expense, we reply, that large quantities of linseed oil are 
 constantly imported, and the difference of price between our 
 own seed and that imported will not much exceed what is 
 now paid for good clean seed for sowing or export, and that 
 which is sold for crushing; but if it is fitly cents per bushel, 
 or more, it can be no object, compared with the advantages 
 that may be reasonably expected to result ; and the farmer 
 need not be told, that ' in all his operations parsimony is 
 never so ill judged as when it is exercised in the selection of 
 his seeds.' It is not pretended, however, but that, from the 
 great variety of soil and climate in the United States, the 
 object in view might be obtained without importation ; yet 
 it may be important to have a good stock to begin with, 
 when trials could be instituted with its produce. At any 
 rate, it cannot be expected that individuals will embark in 
 such a course of experiments, either with foreign or domes- 
 tic seed, unless encouraged by agricultural societies, or 
 other public bodies." 
 
 In speaking of the soils most suitable for flax, Mr. Pome- 
 roy observes, "The soils which rank first in this country, 
 are the flat bottoms that are covered by the fall and spring 
 floods, which subside early enough in the season to get in a 
 crop; those river flats on the second banks that have a depth 
 of strong alluvial soil; the reclaimed marshes and swamps, 
 with a black unctuous soil, not too peaty, with as much clay 
 in the composition as will permit its being rendered soon dry 
 and mellow, and not retain water on or near the surface ; if 
 it stands two feet below, so much the better, but it must be 
 well guarded by ditches and dykes against sudden freshets. 
 Such is the soil of the province of Zealand, where more flax 
 is raised, and of better quality, than in any other part of 
 Holland. The next in estimation are the strong black loams 
 on clay or hard pan, that will retain moisture. Yellow 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 101 
 
 loams, with a holding subsoil, may be rendered suitable for 
 flax by proper cultivation ; and since the discovery that 
 plaster of Paris is an excellent manure for it, a crop may be 
 obtained with much more certainty on lighter land than for- 
 merly. Perhaps the characteristic of best garden mould 
 may be applied to a flax soil, viz., retaining sufficient mois- 
 ture, and all that falls, without ever being saturated; but on 
 any soils the surface should be completely pulverized, and 
 never be worked when wet. 
 
 " No dung should be applied to the land when the flax is 
 sown, but may be put on bountifully with the previous crop. 
 The objection is, that dung forces the growth so rapidlv, 
 that the plants draw weak, have a thin harl, and are the 
 more liable to lodge. Lime, marl, shells, leached ashes, &c. 
 do not produce such effects. Top-dressings, soon after the 
 plants appear, of plaster, ashes, soot, Slc, are highly bene- 
 ficial, as they not only encourage the growth, but are a pro- 
 tection against worms, which sometimes attack young plants, 
 and may be considered the only enemy they have except 
 weeds. 
 
 " Salt has been mentioned by the late Dr. Elliot, of Con- 
 necticut, as an excellent manure to plough in with flax, at 
 the rate of five bushels to the acre;* probably more would 
 be better. Plaster is now much used in Duchess county, the 
 best cultivated district in New York, as a manure for flax, 
 on which its good efl^ects are as apparent as on corn. 
 
 " The late chancellor Livingston viewed a piece of flax 
 on the 20th of May, 1791, belonging to a poor tenant, very 
 injudiciously sown on a dry sandy declivity ; it looked so ex- 
 tremely sickly that the tenant thought of ploughing it up; 
 the chancellor gave him three bushels of plaster, which was 
 sown the next morning before the dew was off", and had the 
 satisfaction of seeing his tenant gather more ffax from his 
 half acre in an uncommon dry season, than was produced 
 from any acre in the neighbourhood. 
 
 " The best preparatory crops in this country at present 
 appear to be potatoes, corn, and roots; they will most gen- 
 erally repay the extra manure, and, if well managed, check 
 the production of weeds. 
 
 "The following rotations may serve as an outline subject, 
 to be varied, and hemp or other crops introduced, as circum- 
 stances require, viz. : 
 
 * See Elliot's Essays on Field Husbandry. 
 9* 
 
102 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " No. I. Low, cold, or reclaimed Soils. 
 
 1st year, Potatoes. 
 
 2l1 do. Flax, with seeds. 
 
 3d do. Herd's grass and red top, or tall meadow oat grass, to continae 
 three years or more, and tlie course repeated. 
 "No. II. Strong Uplands. 
 
 1st year. Potatoes or corn. 
 
 2d do. Corn or roots. 
 
 3d do. Flax, with seed. 
 
 4th do. Clover. 
 
 5th do. Orchard grass or herd's grass, to continue thi-ee years or more. 
 " No. III. Light Lands. 
 
 1st year. Potatoes or corn. 
 
 2d do. Com or roots. 
 
 3d do. Flax, with seed. 
 
 4th do. Clover, to be mown once, tlie after growth to be turned in, and 
 rye sown thick on the furrow, which may be soiled or fed in the spring by 
 sheep or milch cows, and ploughed in for, 
 
 5th year, Corji. 
 
 6th " do. Spring wheat or barley. 
 
 7th do. Clover; and the course to be pursued as before ; when flax will 
 occupy the land every seventh year. In all cases, except when hemp is sub- 
 stituted, the tillage crops should receive the dung. 
 
 " If the land is ploughed into beds or convex ridges, like 
 turnpike roads, about a rod wide, especially if low and level, 
 the crop will be much more secure from injury by heavy 
 rains, and the grass crops will be better if it remains in that 
 form. On any soils, fall ploughing in narrow ridges will 
 facilitate its early working in spring, and should not be dis- 
 pensed with." 
 
 Mr. Pomeroy gives the following directions relative to 
 choice of seed. 
 
 " That of the last year's growth should be obtained if pos- 
 sible. The usual marks of good seed are, that it be plump, 
 oily, and heavy, of a bright brown color, sinking readily in 
 the water, and when thrown into the fire to crackle and blaze 
 quick. A very simple method of trial is, to sprinkle it thin 
 between two pieces of wet paper, which plunge into a hot- 
 bed or dunghill, and in less than twenty-four hours the pro- 
 portion that will vegetate can be discerned, which should be 
 ascertained, in order to regulate the quantify to be sown. 
 
 "On this head no particular directions can be given, as it 
 depends on the various qualities of soil, goodness of seed, 
 &c. The rule for sowing small grains is reversed; flax re- 
 quiring to be sown thickest on rich soil, as not more than 
 one stalk is wanted from a plant. In England and Scotland 
 never less than two, nor more than three bushels to the acre 
 are sown. Two and a half is the most usual portion. In 
 Flanders and Ireland seldom less than three bushels are 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 103 
 
 sown, except when seed is an object. Thick sowing is to 
 obtain fine flax. In this country it will be important at 
 present to sow at such a rate as will insure good crops of 
 each; and experience only can determine the exact point. 
 It is probable that six pecks is the least, and two bushels the 
 extent that should be sown to obtain the most profitable re- 
 sults, till the demand for seed is considerably lessened." 
 
 Sowing. Mr. Pomeroy recommends sowing as early as it 
 is possible to prepare the ground ; says that it is important 
 that the seeds should be equally distributed, and " fortunate- 
 ly what has long been a desideratum is now attained. A 
 machine for sowing small seeds broad-cast with perfect regu- 
 larity has lately been invented, and performs to great satis- 
 faction." * 
 
 Weeding. "Weeding is considered in Europe, and by 
 good husbandmen in this country, as necessary to secure a 
 good crop of flax, which is a very tender plant when young, 
 and more easily checked in its progress by weeds than any 
 other. It is not supposed to be injured by the clover and 
 grass sown with it; on the contrary, the Flemish farmers 
 think them beneficial, by protecting the tender roots from 
 drought, and keeping the weeds under. It should be care- 
 fully wed when the plants are three or four inches high ; 
 they are not then injured by the laborer going barefooted 
 over them." 
 
 Pulling. " This should be performed as soon as the 
 leaves begin to fall and the stalks show a bright yellow 
 color, and when the bolls are turned a little brown. The 
 seed will continue to ripen afterwards. When the flax is 
 lodged, it should be pulled immediately, in any stage of its 
 growth, or it will be entirely lost. Great care is requisite in 
 sorting the different lengths, and keeping them separate till 
 after the flax is hackled, or much waste will ensue in that 
 process." 
 
 Saving Seed. ''As soon as the flax is dry enough to be 
 put under cover, it should be rippled, as it is termed. A 
 comb, resembling the head of a rake, but with teeth longer 
 and nearer together, made of hickory or oak, is fastened up- 
 
 * Bennett's machine for sowing broad-cast; a description and drawing of 
 which are given in the " Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society," 
 Vol. IV, with ample testimony of its usefulness. It is pushed forward by a 
 rnah, like a wlieel-barrow, and will sow more than one acre in an hour, un- 
 impeded by wind or light rain. 
 
104 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 on a block, and the flax, taken in parcels no longer than the 
 hands can firmly grasp, is drawn through, and the bolls rip- 
 pled off; attention to sorting at the same time should be con- 
 tinued. The bolls are to be riddled and winnowed immedi- 
 ately; spread thin on a clean floor, or on sheets, in the sun, 
 and when sufficiently dry, and beginning to open, threshed. 
 By this method, the foul seeds are completely separated with 
 little trouble, and good clean seed is ready for an early 
 market, often the best, without the use of expensive ma- 
 chinery to make it so. Here the operations of the farmer 
 ought to end ; the process of preparation being foreign to 
 and unconnected with his other pursuits; and which has been 
 the greatest objection to extensive flax culture. Can there 
 be a reason why the farmer is to prepare his flax more than 
 the hides of his cattle, which he sends to the tanner .-' They 
 are both chemical processes; and to dissolve the glutinous 
 or resinous substances by which the fibres are attached to 
 the stem, without impairing their strength, is perhaps as 
 critical, and requires as much care and judgment, as to ex- 
 tract the animal juices from the hides, and fill the pores with 
 tannin. In short, the flax grower and flax preparer and 
 dresser should be distinct professions. They are said to be 
 so in Flanders and Holland, and were extensively so in 
 Scotland, where the farmer sold his flax on the ground, or in 
 sheaves at his barn or rick. 
 
 "The preparation of flax by steeping is very general in 
 the great flax-growing countries in Europe, but it is not 
 quite finished in the water. It remains spread some days on 
 the grass, which is necessary to render it soft, and give that 
 silvery appearance so desirable. The destructive process of 
 dew-rotting is most commonly practised in this country, and 
 when water is resorted to, it is at an improper season and 
 the process imperfect ; which is the cause of its being so 
 harsh and brittle. Perhaps no part of the system requires 
 such an allowance for difference of climate. In the humid 
 atmosphere of Ireland, it is not very material when it is 
 spread ; but in this climate, when exposed to a July or 
 August sun, every drop after a shower becomes a burning- 
 glass, and literally scorches the fibres : besides, such a 
 highly putrid fermentation as will then take place in the 
 water, though it separates the harl more speedily, not only 
 injures it, but communicates a stain, that renders the process 
 of bleaching much more tedious and expensive. 
 
 "The flax should not be put into the water till about the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 105 
 
 first of October, and remain from ten to fourteen days, ac- 
 cording to the temperature of the weather ; and should be 
 taken out before the fibres will separate freely, spread on 
 the grass, when the frost will very much assist the operation; 
 and the fiax exhibits a gloss and softness that it is impossible 
 to give it otherwise. The following method of preparing 
 hemp, will apply with great force to the point under discus- 
 sion. During the late war, an experienced ship-master in 
 Connecticut, and who was also a good farmer, raised a crop 
 of hemp. As soon as it was dry enough to be stowed away, 
 it was put under cover, and remained till October; was then 
 put into clear soft water, till the fibres would separate with 
 some difficulty, when it was spread on the grass; the frost 
 completed the operation, and when dry it was immediately 
 secured. There was no putrid fermentation to deteriorate 
 the harl, nor was it mildewed by being exposed to the wea- 
 ther, and when dressed exhibited that fine silver-green hue 
 by which the Russian hemp is distinguished;* and when 
 worked up, was pronounced by the rope-makers to be equal 
 to any hemp ever imported ! Here is a lesson for our west- 
 ern brethren, that is worth more to them than mines of silver. 
 Clear, soft, stagnant water, is preferred in Europe. A canal 
 forty feet long, six broad, and four deep, is said to be suffi- 
 cient for the produce of an acre of flax, at one time. It should 
 be formed on a clay or some holding soil, where the water 
 from a spring or brook can be conducted in with conveni- 
 ence ; the expense would not be great, and on most farms 
 suitable sites may be had. May not boiling or steaming be 
 found the most advantageous process of preparing flax ? 
 The very superior sample of thread exhibited at Brighton, in 
 1818, for which Mrs. Crowninshield, of Danvers, received a 
 premium, was spun from flax prepared by boiling. It ap- 
 pears by the ' Transactions of the Swedish Academy,' that a 
 method was practised in Sweden of preparing flax to resem- 
 ble cotton, by boiling it ten hours in salt water, spreading on 
 the grass, and frequently watering, by which- it becomes soft 
 and bleached. Boiling or steaming will not appear very for- 
 midable or expensive when we examine the subject. A box 
 twenty feet long, six feet wide, and four deep, well construct- 
 ed of stout planks, a boiler, from which a large tube extends 
 into and communicates with the water in the box, will boil 
 
 ♦ The best Riga hemp supplied for the British navy is prepared by steeping; 
 during which it is shifted three times. 
 
106 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the produce of a quarter of an acre in a day; that is, if we 
 allow double the room to boil in that is required for steeping. 
 A steam-pipe, instead of the tube, and having the top of the 
 box well secured, would permit the process of steaming to 
 go on. It is probable that by either method, spreading on 
 the grass will be necessary to obtain soft flax. The yarns 
 of which the sail cloth is made at Paterson are all steamed. 
 The navy board expressly forbid their being boiled in alka- 
 line lye, as is usual in most manufactures of linen. It is 
 from this precaution that their canvas has the pliable, oily 
 feeling, which so much recommends it. It should not be 
 lost sight of, that by boiling or steaming, much time and ex- 
 pense will be saved in bleaching. 
 
 " In dressing," says Mr. Pomeroy, " our climate gives a 
 decided advantage over Ireland, Flanders, or the north of 
 Europe, where flax is dried on hurdles, over a peat fire, in 
 ovens, or kilns, requiring great care in regulating the heat, 
 to prevent injury. All this trouble and hazard is obviated by 
 our dry atmosphere and keen northwest winds. Dr. Deane 
 estimated the expense of dressing flax by hand at one third 
 of the product. I believe the present price does not vary 
 much from his estimate. A respectable gentleman from 
 Duchess county, New York, informed me that mills or ma- 
 chines, impelled by water, have been erected there, that 
 break and completely dress the flax for a toll of one tenth ! 
 It is said one or more of them are in operation in the west- 
 ern part of this State. These mills were invented in Scot- 
 land, and are now said to be brought to great perfection. 
 They are erected in all directions in the principal flax dis- 
 tricts in Ireland, and notwithstanding the low price and limit- 
 ed demand for labor, are resorted to by the poorer classes 
 of people, the dressing by hand being mostly abandoned. 
 There are machines in England that dress the flax immedi- 
 ately from the field, without any preparation whatever. An 
 account of them may be found in the fifth volume of the 
 Massachusetts Agricultural Journal. It appears by the re- 
 port of a committee of the House of Commons, that in 1817 
 they were in successful operation. A man and three chil- 
 dren impelled the machines, and dressed sixty pounds a day. 
 Should they be susceptible of the application of water or 
 steam power in any degree proportionate, the advantage may 
 be incalculable; but in the present inquiry, we place these 
 machines, however desirable, entirely out of the question." 
 
 Product. " It is not uncommon in Great Britain and Ire- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 107 
 
 land to obtain eight hundred pounds of flax from an acre I 
 Six hundred pounds is estimated, in some districts, as an 
 average; but it should be observed that little, if any, seed 
 is obtained. The average crop in New England, as far as 
 our information extends, cannot be estimated at more than 
 two hundred pounds, and six or eight bushels of seed. (We 
 do not include the rich bottoms on the Connecticut, and 
 some other rivers.) Dr. Deane was of opinion, that four 
 hundred pounds might be calculated on with proper manage- 
 ment. 
 
 "We think that four hundred pounds of good clean flax, 
 and eight or ten bushels of seed, may fairly be assumed as 
 a medium crop on favorable soils, where the culture becomes 
 such an object as to make other farming operations subservi- 
 ent to it, and due attention is paid to change of seed. 
 
 " Those who grow flax to any extent are of opinion, that 
 the seed, at the price it has been for some years past, pays 
 for all the labor bestowed on the crop to the time the flax is 
 ready to be prepared or rotted." 
 
 WHE.A.T. To raise good wheat is considered, both in 
 America and Europe, as an object of prime consequence to 
 the cultivator, and agricultural writers have of course been 
 very voluminous on the subject. We shall select and con- 
 dense some of their remarks, which appear to us of the 
 greatest importance, and add what our own observation and 
 experience has suggested. 
 
 Wheat is thought to be the most useful of the farinaceous 
 plants; and as the bounty of Providence has generally de- 
 creed, that those things which are most useful shall be most 
 common, wheat accordingly will grow in almost any part of 
 the globe. It thrives not only in temperate, but in very hot 
 and in very cold regions: in Africa and Siberia, as well as in 
 the United States and Great Britain. It requires a good 
 loamy soil, not too light nor too heavy. The "Memoirs of 
 the New York Board of Agriculture," (Vol. II. p. 28,) state, 
 that " wheat grows best on land which contains just as much 
 clay as can be combined with it without subjecting the wheat 
 to be frozen out." And the author of that article, Mr. Amos 
 Eaton, observes, "Since it is the clay which absorbs and 
 retains most of the water injurious in wheat soils, I adopted 
 a rule for the consideration of farmers, founded on that prin- 
 ciple, and confirmed by all the observations I have been 
 
108 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 enabled to make. Rule. — Wash a little of the soil in a 
 tumbler of water, and observe the time required for it to be- 
 come clear. If the time required exceeds three hours, it 
 may be considered as liable to be injured by frost." W.Van 
 Dusen, a farmer of Rensellaer county, New York, says 
 " that if wheat be sowed the last week in August, on clay 
 soil, it will generally resist the etfect of frost in the winter, 
 and of insects in the spring." " A clay soil," according to 
 the same work, " having absorbed a large proportion of 
 water, becomes cellular as the water freezes, or rises up in 
 various protuberances, so that the roots of the wheat plant 
 become disengaged from their hold in the soil. It is very 
 manifest, that if wheat be sowed so early that each plant may 
 have time to extend its roots into the soil, its chance for 
 retaining its hold will be better." We believe that not only 
 clay, but lime, chalk, marl, or other calcareous substance, 
 is necessary to bring wheat to perfection, and the grounds 
 of our belief we shall exhibit hereafter. 
 
 "The Complete Farmer" says, that "the best time for 
 sowing wheat is about the beginning of September. But if 
 the earth be very dry, it had better be deferred till some 
 showers have moistened the soil." Mr. Mortimer says, he 
 has known wheat to be so musted and spoiled by laying long 
 in the ground before rain came, that it never came up at all; 
 to which he adds, " that he has seen very good crops of 
 wheat from seeds sown in July." We should apprehend, 
 however, that it would be necessary to feed wheat sown so 
 early, in order to prevent its going to seed the first year, or 
 getting too far advanced in its growth to resist the frosts of 
 the succeeding winter. Sowing in dry ground is generally 
 recommended for seeds ; but wheat, being liable to be smut- 
 ty, is commonly prepared by steeping in brine or lime, and 
 in consequence of the steep vegetation commences ; and if 
 the seed in this state is placed in earth which is and contin- 
 ues for any time dry, vegetation is checked by the drought, 
 which kills or greatly injures the seed. 
 
 Early sowing requires less seed than late, because the 
 plants have more time, and are more apt to spread, and 
 throw out a good number of stalks. More seed is required 
 for poor than for rich lands, and rich land early sowed re- 
 quires the least of any. Bordley's " Husbandry ". says, 
 " The climate and soil of America may be believed to differ 
 greatly from those of England, respecting the growth of 
 some particular plants. W^heat sown there, two to three 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 109 
 
 bushels on an acre, yields great crops. Two bushels an acre 
 sown in Maryland or Pennsylvania would yield straw without 
 grain. In Maryland three pecks are commonly sown. I 
 never had better crops than from half a bushel of seed wheat 
 to an acre, in a few instances. In these instances the ground 
 was perfectly clean and fine, after many ploughings or horse- 
 hoeings of maize, [Indian corn,] on which the wheat was 
 sown in September, whilst the maize was ripening. It was 
 a clay loam, highly pulverized. But because of the loss of 
 plants at other times, I preferred to sow three pecks an 
 acre." " Grain which is thin sown, says the Complete 
 Farmer, is less apt to lodge. Every one must have observ- 
 ed, that in places where foot-paths are made through wheat 
 fields, by the side of the paths, where the corn is thin, and 
 has been trodden down in winter and spring, the plants have 
 stood erect, when most of the corn in the same field has 
 been laid flat on the ground ; an advantage proceeding from 
 the circumstance of the stalks having more room." 
 
 " The Farmer's Assistant " asserts, that " the time for 
 sowing wheat probably depends much on previous habit. 
 Thus if it were sown a number of successive years by the 
 middle of August, and then the time of sowing were chang- 
 ed at once to October, the crop would probably be much 
 lighter on that account ; yet where wheat has become ha- 
 bituated to he sown late, it will do tolerably well. The later 
 it is sown, however, the more seed is requisite. When early 
 sown, a bushel to the acre is believed to be sufiicient ; but 
 when sown later, a bushel and a half, or more, may be 
 necessary." The estimate of seed, however, should be 
 formed, not so much from the capacity of any particular 
 measure, as from the number of grains which that measure 
 contains. The larger and fuller the seed is, the greater 
 quantity by measure will be required ; the smaller, the less 
 quantity. Much, therefore, must be left to the discretion of 
 the fanner, who must take into consideration the time of 
 sowing, the quality and preparation of the soil, as well as 
 the plumpness or the shrivelled state of the seed wheat. 
 
 If naked summer fallows are used at all, they may as 
 well be made preparatory to a crop of wheat. It may some- 
 times be expedient to suspend, for one season, the raising of 
 crops of any sort on land which is exhausted or greatly in- 
 fested with weeds ; and during the summer and autumn, 
 plough and harrow it several times, and thus thoroughly 
 subdue it. When such a process is adopted, wheat is gen- 
 10 
 
no THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 erally the succeeding crop. The custom of naked fallow- 
 ing, however, is not much approved of in modern husbandry, 
 and that mode of preparing for wheat is rarely adopted by 
 scientific cultivators. Sir John Sinclair says, "The raising 
 clean, smothering, green crops, and feeding stock with them 
 upon the land, is not only much more profitable, as far as 
 relates to the value of the crop substituted in lieu of a fal- 
 low, but is also a more effectual method of procuring large 
 crops of wheat, or any other crop, which may succeed the 
 green crop." There is a disadvantage sometimes attending 
 fallows, which we apprehend may be more detrimental in 
 our climate than in that of Great Britain. Land which is 
 kept in a light and pulverized state is liable to be washed 
 away by violent rains, and the showers of our summer sea- 
 son are usually more plentiful, and fall with more impetuosi- 
 ty than those of England, although the mean moisture is 
 less, and there is less rain falls in the course of the year on 
 this than the other side of the Atlantic. 
 
 In modern tillage, wheat more usually follows clover than 
 any other crop ; and Bordley's "Husbandry " says, " clo- 
 ver is the best preparative for a crop of wheat." In such 
 case, English farmers, and indeed all others who woi-k it 
 right, give but one ploughing, and harrow in the seed by 
 passing the harrow twice in a place the same way with the 
 furrows. Mr. Bordjey directs, that the operations of plough- 
 ing, harrowing, and sowing, should immediately follow each 
 other. Mr. Macro, an eminent English farmer, says, " From 
 upwards of twenty years' experience I am of opinion, that 
 the best way of sowing clover lands with wheat, is to plough 
 the land ten or fourlctn days before you sow il, that the land 
 may have time to get dry, and after rain to make it dress 
 well. I am at a loss to account for the wheat thriving better 
 on lands ivhich have been ploughed some time, than it does on 
 fresh ploughed lands which dress as well or better ; but I 
 have often tried both ways on the same lands, and always 
 found the former answer best." Mr. Bordley, in attempting 
 to account for this effect says, " I conjecture that the clover 
 plants being buried and the wheat sown at the same time, 
 they both ferment and run into heat in the same period ; 
 ihe germ then shoots, and the root is extremely delicate and 
 tender for some days ; during which, the buried herbage 
 obtains its highest degree of heat ; which, added to the in- 
 ternal heat of the germ, may, though only slightly, check 
 and a little injure the delicate shoots of the wheat. In 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. Ill 
 
 sprouting barley for making malt, a little excess of heat in the 
 bed checks, and a little more totally stops the sprouting or 
 growth of the roots. Both modes give crops superior to 
 what are produced on fallow. Farmers may well try both 
 methods, for determining which to prefer ; that is, as well 
 immediate sowing, on ploughing in the clover, as the method 
 of sowing not till ten or fourteen days after having ploughed 
 in the clover : suppose a half each way." 
 
 We believe that wheat would flourish better if it were 
 buried deeper than it generally is in broad-cast sowing. Our 
 opinion is founded on the following facts, relating to the 
 physiology of the wheat plant. " A grain of wheat, when 
 put into the ground at the depth of three inches, undergoes 
 the following transformations : as soon as the farinaceous 
 nlatter which envelopes the frame of the young plant con- 
 tained within it is softened into a milky state, a germ is 
 pushed out, and at the bottom of that germ small roots soon 
 follow. The roots are gathering strength, whilst the germ, 
 by the aid of the milky fluid, is shooting upwards ; and when 
 the milk is exhausted, the roots are in activity, and are col- 
 lecting nourishment for the plant from the soil itself This 
 is analogous to the weaning of the young of animals, which 
 are not abandoned by the mother till they can provide for 
 themselves. But the care of nature does not end here ; 
 when the germ has fairly got above the surface, and become 
 a plant, a set of upper roots are thrown out, close to the sur- 
 face of the ground, which search all the superficial parts of 
 the soil with the same activity as the under roots search the 
 lower parts ; and that part of the germ which separates the 
 two sets of roots is now become a channel, through which 
 the lower roots supply the plant with the nourishment they 
 have collected. What an admirable contrivance to secure 
 the prosperity of the plant ! Two distinct sets of roots 
 serve, in the first place, to fix the plant firmly in the ground, 
 and to collect nourishment from every quarter. The upper 
 roots are appositely situated to receive all the nourishment 
 that comes naturally from the atmosphere, or artificially as 
 manure, to the surface; and serve the further purpose of be- 
 ing the base of new stems, which are tillered up, and so 
 greatly increase the productiveness of the plant. The ex- 
 cellence of the drill system in grain may probably be per- 
 ceived in this explanation ; for in broad-cast sowing the 
 seeds lie very near to the surface, and in this situation it is 
 not only more exposed to accidents arising from birds, in- 
 
112 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 sects, and the weather, but the two sets of roots are neces- 
 sarily crowded together, so as ahiiost to become indistinct ; 
 the plant is less iirm, and has fewer purveyors, collecting 
 food for it." * 
 
 Dr. Deane observed, that " wheat that is sowed in autumn, 
 a clover ley excepted, should, instead of harrowing, be cov- 
 ered with a shallow furrow, and the surface left rough. It 
 will be less in danger of being killed by the frost in winter, 
 and less injured by drying winds in the following spring. 
 The furrows should be left without harrowing; for the more 
 uneven the ground is, the more the soil will be pulverized 
 and mellowed by the frost." But if the crop which succeeds 
 the wheat crop should require a smooth bottom, the land, 
 after sowing, must be harrowed, and should be rolled. Some 
 husbandmen advise, when wheat is sown on a clover ley, to 
 plough in the clover with a deep furrow, then plough in the 
 seed wheat with a shallow furrow; and if the next crop in the 
 rotation requires a level bottom, it will be necessary to har- 
 row and roll the field as smooth as possible, after having 
 ploughed in the seed. 
 
 The greatest care should be exercised with regard to the 
 kind, quality, and preparation of seed wheat. There are 
 many varieties of wheat ; but winter wheat, in the United 
 States, is generally distinguished by only two appellations, 
 red wheat and white wheat, of which the latter is held in 
 highest estimation. 
 
 In preparing your seed wheat, the first thing to be attend- 
 ed to is, to clear it perfectly from every injurious foreign sub- 
 stance. "One error here may mar our whole system, and 
 render our skill productive of as much evil as good. On 
 poor and worn-out land, the evil of sowing a mixture of im- 
 pure seed with grain or grass seed would be great; but where 
 the ground is in high order the crop is more injured; the 
 noxious plants take firmer hold, and are more difficult to be 
 eradicated."! Indeed, it would be better for a farmer to 
 pick over his seed wheat by single handfuls, and make a rid- 
 dle of his fingers, than to sow cockle, darnel, tares, wild 
 turnip seeds, and other vegetable nuisances, which are as in- 
 trusive as unwelcome, as tenacious of life as they are un- 
 
 * Mr. Featherstonhaugh's Essay on the Principles and Practice of Rural 
 Economy. 
 
 + See a communication by O. Fiske, Esq., New England Farmer, Vol. I. 
 p. 222. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 113 
 
 worthy of existence. The first preparation therefore should 
 be to screen, winnow, and riddle the grain till perfectly freed 
 from these, and other improper ingredients. When this is 
 thoroughly accomplished, washing and steeping, for the pur- 
 pose of preventing smut, should meet attention. The first 
 step in the processes to be instituted against smut, as recom- 
 mended by Sir John Sinclair, is "to run the grain very gently 
 through a riddle, when not only the smut balls, but the im- 
 perfect grains, and the seeds of weeds, will float, and may be 
 skimmed off at pleasure." The same author enumerates, as 
 modes by which smut may be prevented, 1. The use of pure 
 cold water and lime. 2. Boiling water and lime. 3. Water 
 impregnated with salt. 4. Urine pickle. 5. Lye of wood 
 .ashes. 6. A solution of arsenic. 7. A solution of blue 
 vitriol. It seems that almost any acrid, corrosive, or poison- 
 ous application will secure a clean crop, if properly used for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Young sowed fourteen beds with the same 
 wheat seed, which was black with smut. The first bed was 
 sown with this wheat without washing, and had three hundred 
 and seventy-seven smutty kernels. A bed sowed with seed 
 washed in clean water produced three hundred and twenty- 
 five smutty kernels; washed in lime-water, forty-three do.; 
 washed in lye of wood ashes, thirty-one do. ; washed in 
 arsenic and salt mixture, twenty-eight do. ; steeped in lime- 
 water four hours, two do.; steeped in lye four hours, three^ 
 do.; steeped in arsenic four hours, one do. Again, that 
 which was steeped in lye, as before mentioned, twelve hours, 
 had none; and that which was steeped in the same kind ot 
 lye twenty-four hours had none; that also which was steeped 
 twenty-four hours in lime-water had none ; that steeped in 
 arsenic twenty-four hours had five. 
 
 A correspondent of " The New England Farmer," * (who 
 is, We believe, a practical and scientific agriculturist, and 
 whose statements are worthy of implicit confidence,) with 
 the signature Berkshire, in giving directions for preparing 
 seed wheat, observes: " The only successful course is to 
 prepare the seed about ten days before sowing-time. This 
 is done by selecting clean and plump seed, passing it through 
 water in a tub, about half a bushel at a time, and washing it 
 and skimming off the matter that floats; then empty it into a 
 basket to drain, then lay it on a clean floor and rake in two 
 
 * See New England Farmer, Vol. I. p. 275. 
 
 10* 
 
114 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 quarts of slacked lime and one quart of plaster to the bushel, 
 and if too dry sprinkle on water, and continue to stir it 
 until all is covered with the lime and plaster. In this way 
 you may proceed until you have prepared your whole seed. 
 Let it remain in a heap one day, then spread it and move 
 it daily, until it becomes perfectly dry; it is then fit to sow, 
 and you ma; sow it if the land should happen to be quite 
 wet." 
 
 We shall now speak of the liability of wheat to become 
 winter-killed. The author of "Letters of Agricola" states, as 
 an objection to the cultivation of wheat in Nova Scotia, " its 
 liability to be thrown out in the spring, and thus subjecting 
 the farmer to serious inconveniences, and often disappoint- 
 ment of a crop. Grasses are not exempt from the same 
 hazard; and the hopes of the year are thus blasted by a 
 cause which, in many cases, will admit of remedy, in all, of 
 alleviation. I am not sure but sowing the wheat seed under 
 furrow, at least four or five inches deep, in September, in 
 order that it may extend its roots and take a firm hold of the 
 soil before the approach of winter, and rolling it in the 
 spring with the box heavily loaded, would obviate the evils 
 of our climate, and enable us to cultivate that grain accord- 
 ing to the improved modes of England. It ought to be re- 
 collected that even there, about sixty years ago, winter wheat 
 was not of general cultivation, and the heaving of the soil 
 was accounted a powerful obstacle to its success. In Scot- 
 land, too, during the same period, spring wheat almost uni- 
 versally prevailed; and her northern and bleak position was 
 thought to be incapable of any change to the better, and 
 utterly unfriendly to autumnal semination. The zeal and 
 industry of British farmers, combined with their skill, have 
 baffled all these gloomy predictions, and taught us at once to 
 copy the example of our sires, and not to despair in the race 
 of improvement." 
 
 A method, according to the same author, made use of in 
 Norfolk, England, to guard wheat against the changes and 
 inclemency of winter and spring, is to adopt the following 
 rotation: "After a turnip crop, they sow barley the second 
 year with clover seeds; the third year they cut hay, and 
 plough down the ley, and sow their winter wheat on the 
 matted sod. The roots of the grass bind the soil, and pre- 
 vent it from heaving, which is much akin to the same effect 
 produced by the tangled and bound surface of our new and 
 cleared lands." This fact may suggest another inducement 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 115 
 
 to SOW wheat next in rotation after clover, as has been re- 
 commended. 
 
 It is well kno\vTi that our lands, where the soil is at all 
 suitable, will produce good crops of wheat when first cleared 
 from their native growth of wood; but after having been 
 tilled for some years, they generally yield wheat with diffi- 
 culty, and it is often found impossible to raise it by any of 
 the modes commonly adopted for wheat culture. In most 
 parts of Massachusetts, and in some parts of New Hamp- 
 shire and Vermont, the farmers scarcely ever attempt to 
 raise wheat, and still more rarely succeed when they do 
 attempt it. Yet, we believe, wheat was a common and pro- 
 fitable crop in those places in the early period of their settle- 
 ment. In process of time, however, the land became ex- 
 hausted of its wheat-bearing faculty, and our farmers were 
 forced nearly to forego its cultivation. The same variations 
 and appearances have likewise been observed in Europe. 
 Wheat countries, by continued cultivation, have become 
 almost incapable of yielding wheat. The cause and remedy 
 of this partial barrenness, this falling off, with regard to par- 
 ticular plants, was alike involved in obscurity, till modern 
 discoveries in chemistry threw light on the subject. It has 
 been found that the texture of every soil is defective unless 
 there is a mixture of three kinds of earth, viz., clay, sand, 
 and lime; and that lime, in some of its combinations, exists 
 in wheat, both in the straw and kernel. In some soils, fer- 
 tile in other respects, lime may either have no existence, or 
 be found in very minute portions, and be soon exhausted. 
 If lime be a necessary constituent of wheat, and is not in the 
 soil where we attempt to raise wheat, it must be supplied by 
 art, or wheat will not grow. Or if native lime exists in the 
 soil in small quantities, the land may bear wheat till the lime 
 is exhausted, and then become incapable of producing that 
 plant, till a fresh supply of lime, marl, pulverized bones, or 
 some other calcareous substance, is added. Mr. Young 
 says, ("Letters of Agricola," p. 299,) " It cannot be de- 
 nied, that since the plentiful use of lime has been adopted, 
 lands in Europe will produce wheat which otherwise were 
 incapable of bearing it;" and quotes several instances in 
 proof of this assertion. Dr. Anderson likewise gives an ac- 
 count of a field which had a top-dressing of lime for the pur- 
 pose of raising wheat, but the lime, by accident, was not 
 applied to a small patch of the field, and in that patch there 
 was no crop, while every part of the field to which the lime 
 
116 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 •was applied produced wheat luxuriantly. It would be easy 
 to adduce many more instances to prove that lime, in Great 
 Britain, is considered not only useful, but indispensable for 
 the production of wheat. A British farmer, we believe, 
 rarely undertakes to raise wheat without the use of lime, and 
 an American farmer as rarely undertakes to raise it with the 
 use of that substance for manure. 
 
 If the foregoing premises are correct, it would seem not 
 impossible, and indeed scarcely improbable, that by the judi- 
 cious use of lime, or other calcareous substances, wheat may 
 be as well raised in New England as in the western States. 
 The subject is certainly of very great importance, and de- 
 serves repeated experiments. 
 
 It will be objected against the use of lime, 1st, that it is 
 too dear to be used for manure; and, 2dly, that our farmers 
 do not know how to apply it, and, as it is a powerful sub- 
 stance, it may do more harm than good, unless in the hands 
 of a chemist, or one practically acquainted with its operation. 
 With regard to the dearness of lime, we are informed that 
 there is no want of limestone in almost every part of the 
 United States; and probably, by proper search, many more 
 limestone quarries might be discovered in New England 
 than are at present known. And the price of lime would, 
 doubtless, be diminished by increasing the demand, because 
 if great quantities were wanted for agricultural purposes, a 
 greater number of persons would find their account in making 
 a business of manufacturing it ; improvements would be in- 
 troduced in the processes connected with its manufacture, 
 and of course it would be afforded cheaper. Besides, small 
 quantities would alone be needed for the purpose of furnish- 
 ing that calcareous matter which nature inclines to incorpo- 
 rate into the substance of wheat, clover, &c., and probably a 
 top-dressing of two or three bushels to the acre would be ot 
 essential benefit, though doubtless more would, generally, be 
 preferable. Mr. Young says " a small quantity of quick- 
 lime, scattered on the surface of lands newly cleared, will 
 prove highly beneficial during the whole length of time they 
 remain untilled. Thirty bushels of shells [lime fresh from 
 the kiln] to the acre, slacked into a fine powder, will produce 
 the most surprising effects, if not on the first crop of wheat, 
 at all events, on the verdure, luxuriance, and quality of the 
 future pasture."* A writer in the " Museum Rusticum," an 
 
 * Letters of Agricola. 
 
Ai\U RURAL ECONOMIST. 117 
 
 English work, says, " that he sows his wheat without laying 
 on any manure, but, early in the spring, gives a top-dressing 
 of twenty bushels of lime, pulverized, and mixed intimately 
 with forty bushels of sand; and if the weather be dry, he 
 doubles the quantity of sand." We are disposed to believe 
 that at least lime enough for light top-dressings might be 
 easily procured by almost every cultivator in the Union. 
 And such light dressings, if our theory is correct, would be 
 all that is indispensable to the production of wheat. 
 
 With regard to the mode of applying lime, nothing cars 
 be more simple. It should be evenly spread, after being 
 water-slacked, on the surface of the soil, and not ploughed 
 in, or, if ploughed in, it should be with a very shallow fur- 
 row, because its tendency is to sink below the reach of culti- 
 vation. If used in a quick or burning state, it will be safest 
 to mix it with about double its quantity of sand, loam, clay, 
 or some other material. The additional material may be 
 made to correspond with the wants of the soil to which it is 
 applied. Thus, if the soil has too much clay, mix sand with 
 your lime ; if too much sand, mix finely pulverized clay, 
 &c. 
 
 It is said that British farmers apply lime in great quanti- 
 ties directly from the kiln in its most caustic state, even to 
 land which is replete with putrescent or vegetable manure, 
 and run the risk of consuming or wasting the manure by its 
 corrosive qualities. But the soil of Great Britain is generally 
 wetter than ours, and of course the lime sooner becomes 
 mild. Besides, there is a great difference in the strength of 
 lime, and that of the United States may be, generally speak- 
 ing, stronger than the English lime. In short, we should 
 advise every farmer to use quicklime as manure, in small 
 quantities at first, mixed with a large proportion of earth, or 
 some other substance, to dilute it, and thus take care not to 
 burn his seed, his fingerg, or his growing vegetables. And 
 with these precautions, we would make use of it for wheat 
 as a top-dressing in spring. We would likewise try it mixed 
 with wood ashes, together with earth ; for we have been 
 told by a practical farmer, that ashes and lime form a union 
 much more valuable than either separate. 
 
 In an article on the Culture of Winter Wheat, by R. H. 
 Gardiner, Esq., of Gardiner, Me., the writer observes, 
 " The cultivation of winter wheat is preferable to that of 
 summer on a great variety of accounts. It is sown and the 
 ground prepared in a season of much greater leisure. One 
 
118 THE COMPLETE l-ARMER 
 
 of the great disadvantages of our northern climate is the 
 extreme shortness of our spring, so that it is difficult for our 
 farmers to complete the work which is absolutely necessary 
 to be done, after the frost is out of the ground, and before 
 the season of planting is over. If, therefore, any work, as 
 the sowing of wheat, can be advantageously postponed till 
 the autumn, it is of great importance. The winter wheat is 
 le,ss liable to injury from insects than the summer; mine has 
 never suffered from them. It affords good fall feed, and the 
 larger quantity of roots and stubble to be ploughed in makes 
 the land in a better state for the next crop. The grain is 
 heavier, and the same number of pounds will yield a larger 
 quantify of flour, and of a much superior quality. From my 
 experience, I should recommend that winter wheat should 
 not be sowed later than the middle of September, that the 
 soil on which it is sowed should be of a light loam, and that 
 about five pecks of seed be sown to the acre. I have also 
 found the use of plaster on wheat advantageous, as also roll- 
 ing the wheat, after it is well up." 
 
 To procure new varieties of wheats, (says Mr. Loudon,) 
 the ordinary mode is to select from a field a spike or spikes 
 from the same stalk which has the qualities sought for, such 
 as larger grains, thinner chaff, stiffer straw, a tendency to 
 earliness or lateness, &c. ; and picking out the best grains 
 from such ear or ears, to sow them in suitable soil, in an 
 open, airy part of a garden. When the produce is ripe, se- 
 lect the best ears, and from these the best grains, and sow 
 these; and so on, till a bushel or more is obtained, which 
 may then be sown in a field apart from any other wheat. In 
 this way many of the varieties of the common winter wheat 
 have been obtained.* Other varieties have assumed their 
 distinctive marks from having been long cultivated on the 
 same soil and climate, and take local names, as the Hert- 
 fordshire red, Essex white, &c. 
 
 Marshall (Yorkshire) mentions a case in which a man of 
 accurate observation, having in a piece of wheat perceived a 
 plant of uncommon strength and luxuriance, diffusing its 
 branches on every side, marked it, at harvest gathered it 
 separately, and thus introduced a new and superior variety. 
 
 Jonathan Townsend, of Andover, Conn, gives the follow- 
 ing directions for obtaining good crops of wheat, preceded 
 by Indian corn : " Select a piece of ground suitable for In- 
 
 * See also New England Farmer, Vol. X. p. 309. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 119 
 
 dian corn and winter grain ; spread on evenly twenty com- 
 mon cart loads or upwards of stable and yard manure to the 
 acre: plough it in just three inches deep and no more; har- 
 row it lengthwise of the furrow; cross mark for the rows, three 
 and a half feet for the small, or four feet for the large kind of 
 corn; let the corn be properly tended, by keeping the ground 
 loose with the plough and hoe, and free from weeds; and if 
 the season is not very unpropitious, you may calculate on a 
 large crop. But if the ground is hard and stony, so that it 
 cannot be ploughed shallow as above mentioned, then plough 
 as shallow as possible, and spread on the manure afterwards 
 and harrow it in, and proceed as above directed; the crop 
 will not probably disappoint your expectations. As soon as 
 the corn has become ripe, or too hard to roast, and if possi- 
 ble before it is touched with frost, cut it up, bind and carry 
 it out of the field, and shock it in the usual way. If you 
 have drawn the earth around your corn into hills, (which I 
 would advise never to do in any case,) harrow the hills down 
 with a heavy harrow, plough three inches deep, and spread 
 on evenly four or five loads of well rotted manure,* and sow 
 three pecks of good clear wheat to the acre, and plough it 
 in with a light horse plough; and unless something disastrous 
 happens, the summer following your garner may be filled 
 with the finest wheat. The same directions will apply to 
 ground planted with potatoes. I would insure a crop sown 
 on ground thus managed for ten per cent, less than if sown 
 on a summer fallow in the ordinary way." 
 
 Wheat is subject to several diseases; the most common 
 and generally injurious are mildew or rust and smut. Some 
 writers assert, that mildew is caused by a minute parasitic 
 fungus or mushroom, which fastens on the leaves and glumes 
 or stems of the living plant. The roots of this fungus, in- 
 tercepting the sap intended by nature for the nourishment of 
 the grain, render it lean and shrivelled, rob it of its flour, 
 and the straw becomes black and rotten, unfit for fodder. 
 
 Mr. Butler, in "The Farmer's JManual," says, in sub- 
 stance, that the rust on wheat commences in July, at the 
 time of the filling of the kernel in the ear, when a combina- 
 tion of heat and moisture bring into action rich manures, 
 
 * It has generally been advised not to apply manure to a wheat crop the 
 same year tlie wheat is sown, but the small quantity mentioned above would, 
 perhaps, serve as a top-dressing, without giving too great luxuriance to the 
 straw, and cause it to be mildewed or blasted. 
 
120 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and forces into the straw, which has now finished its growth, 
 more juices than the kernel can take up, being already filled 
 out. These juices burst the straw, or pass through the 
 natural pores of the stalk. When these juices come to the 
 air, they lose by evaporation their thinner parts, become 
 glutinous, and form the matter called rust or mildew. 
 
 Willich's "Encyclopedia" observes, "Common wheat 
 is more subject to this destructive disease than that which is 
 bearded, especially if the land has been newly dunged.'" Oth- 
 er writers, likewise, attribute this disorder to the application 
 of fresh dung, in too great quantity. 
 
 The remedies against rust or mildew, according to Sir John 
 Sinclair, are as follows : 1. Cultivating hardy sorts of wheat. 
 2. Early sowing. 3. Raising early varieties. 4. Thick 
 sowing. 5. Changes of seed. 6. Consolidating the soil. 
 7. Using saline manures. 8. Improving the course of crops; 
 and, 9. Extirpating all plants that are receptacles of rust. 
 10. Protecting the wheat plants by rye, tares, and other 
 crops. 
 
 Very able and instructive Essays on the Culture of Wheat, 
 by the Rev. Henry Colman, were pubUshed in "The New 
 England Farmer," Vol. XII. pages 25, 49, 57, 65, 73. Mr. 
 Colman gives in detail many experiments, some of which 
 were made by himself He states, in substance, that he 
 sowed three acres of winter wheat on some of the best 
 land in the Deerfield (Mass.) meadows. The land was green 
 sward, turned up in the fall, rolled and harrowed, and the 
 seed soaked in brine, limed, and sowed at the rate of two 
 and a half bushels to the acre, on the 27th of October. One 
 half the field was abundantly manured, and to the other no 
 manure was applied. The seed came up finely, and nothing 
 could exceed the beauty and luxuriance of the growth, a 
 greater part of the field averaging more than five feet in 
 height. 
 
 "Above half the field," says Mr. Colman, "including 
 an equal portion of the manured and that not manured, was 
 passed over twice in the spring, after the grain had got to 
 be six inches in height, with a light harrow drawn by one 
 yoke of oxen ; and three weeks after was subjected to the 
 same process, according to the method practised in France. 
 The efl^ect of this was to destroy very (e\v of the plants, and 
 to render the growth of what remained much more luxuri- 
 ant, producing such an increase of the stem and such an 
 extension of the heads, as to attract the notice of the most 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 121 
 
 casual observer, and to induce several persons, who were 
 ignorant of the process to which it had been subjected, to 
 inquire for the cause of the difference in the two parts of 
 the field, and to ask if a different kind of seed had been used. 
 After all, however, to my extreme disappointment, the whole 
 field has been blasted, and I shall hardly get back the 
 amount of the seed sown, and that in a small shrivelled grain. 
 The crop is housed, but will scarcely repay the expense of 
 threshing. Now that this result was not owing to the use 
 of stable dung is obvious, because none was used ; and in 
 that part of the field where the blight appeared to com- 
 mence, and to make most rapid progress, no manure what- 
 ever was used. It was not owing to the want of the spe- 
 cific property in the soil, as far as that is to be found in 
 lime and slaughter-house manure, for both of these were 
 employed ; the seed was limed, and the above manure co- 
 piously applied. It is not to be attributed to the luxuriance 
 of the crop, for several pieces, as I learn in my neighbour- 
 hood, have suffered equally and from the same cause, when 
 the cultivation was by no means so high. It is not a time of 
 universal failure, for a good deal in this vicinity is perfectly 
 healthy and sound, and I have already reaped on the same 
 farm a small piece of wheat, say half an acre, on higher 
 land, which was healthy and fair, though from the condition 
 of the land it gave but a small product. This, however, 
 though sowed at the same time, was ready for the sickle 
 more than a week sooner than the other, from the drier and 
 poorer quality of the soil. What then was the cause of the 
 Ijlast ? I will not assume to decide this question, but as far 
 as appears, it was atmospheric, occurring at a particular 
 state of the plant, which rendered it peculiarly liable to 
 blight. As the wheat was fiUing fast, we had frequent 
 showers, and much of what w'e Yankees call nni^gy weath- 
 er ; one day in particular the air was sultry, the heSt in- 
 tense, and the showers frequent, with intervals of sunshine, 
 and the earth was steaming most profusely. An intelligent 
 farmer in my employ, accustomed to the cultivation of this 
 grain in one of the best wheat districts in New York, re- 
 marked to me, that this was very severe weather for my 
 wheat, and that he feared I should lose it. The rust in fact 
 appeared for the first time the next day, and rapidly extend- 
 ed itself over the whole field, presenting no difference either 
 in the manured or in the parts of the field not manured, and 
 of course less luxuriant. Had my wheat been sown earlier, 
 11 
 
122 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 SO as to have been farther advanced, it would probably have 
 escaped the blight ; had it been sown later, so as not to 
 have been so far advanced as it was, perhaps I should have 
 been as fortunate ; but the occurrence of such a peculiar 
 state of the atmosphere being wholly accidental, at least as 
 far as we are concerned, it is impossible to make any cer- 
 tain calculation about it." 
 
 Mr. Colman quotes authorities, to show that wet and warm 
 weather, when the kernel was beginning to form, had usual- 
 ly been accompanied with mildew in wheat, in Great Brit- 
 ain. He states, in substance, that the crops of wheat, both 
 summer and winter, have been in this vicinity good and 
 abundant, and on an average full twenty bushels to the acre. 
 In Northfield, Mass. the crops of 1833 rated as high as 
 seven thousand bushels. 
 
 Mr. Colman states, that William Pomroy, of Northfield, 
 from twenty-three acres of old meadow land, on the banks 
 of the Connecticut, harvested more than five hundred bush- 
 els of winter and spring wheat, "of as fine a sample as 
 ever floated on the Erie canal. A part of it was reckoned 
 to yield full thirty bushels to the acre." Most of this 
 wheat was sowed very early, and was too forward to be in- 
 jured by the sultry and foggy weather of July. One piece, 
 however, was blighted in consequence of late sowing. 
 
 Mr. Colman says: "Early sowing, from the best obser- 
 vation I have made of the wheat crops which have come 
 under my notice, from the united and decided opinion of the 
 British wheat growers, and from many American authori- 
 ties, is to be strongly advised. The reason is obvious : the 
 wheat crop should be as far advanced in the spring as possi- 
 ble, that it may perfect its seed before the hot and sultry 
 weather usual in July." 
 
 Sir John Sinclair says, " If a field be evidently affected 
 [with "mildew] and the progress of vegetation stopped, the 
 only way to preserve the straw and the grain, if any has 
 been formed, from being entirely lost, is to cut it down im- 
 mediately, even though the crop should not be ripe. The 
 straw is thus preserved, either for food or litter, and it is 
 maintained that any nourishment in the stem will pass into 
 and feed the grain, and make a greater return than could 
 well be expected." 
 
 Bi.ACK Sea Wheat. Payson Williams, Esq., of Fitch- 
 burg, Massachusetts, has introduced into this country a new 
 kind of wheat with the above appellation, which he has thus 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 123 
 
 described in a communication published in " The Northern 
 Farmer." 
 
 " The wheat I not only consider as a remarkable crop in 
 quantity, fifty-five bushels and three quarters, (it being 
 spring wheat,) but very excellent in quality. Its history, so 
 far as I am able, shall be given. Three years since, my 
 brother. Captain Stephen Williams, brought me one bushel 
 from Smyrna, which he obtained from a ship while discharg- 
 ing a cargo of that kind of grain from the abundant shores 
 of the Black sea ; hence its name. Observing by the map 
 that we were in about the same latitude, I made trial the 
 first season of but one peck, (not being certain that it was 
 spring wheat.) The product was large in slraiu; but owing 
 to our unpropitious storms and bad weather for a wheat crop, 
 the kernel was not so fair as the original. Nothing discour- 
 aged, however, I sowed from this product rather than the 
 original; the product from which more than answered my 
 expectation. From this last product I sowed, the 19th of 
 April, two bushels and a quarter on one acre of land which 
 had potatoes grown on it the previous year (crop, six hun- 
 dred and thirteen bushels and a half) This field, immedi- 
 ately previous to sowing, had been ploughed deep and Jine. 
 After the grain was harrowed in across the furrows, the field 
 was rolled in, and left from that time to putting in the sickle. 
 I would here observe, however, that my usual custom has 
 been, to sow on about twenty bushels of good unleached 
 wood ashes to the acre, so soon as the wheat plants are two 
 inches in height, and in a damp morning, if such can be 
 had. The value of such dressing I have considered to con- 
 sist, 1st, in the caustic quality of the ashes, as it is a pre- 
 ventive to the ravages of the white maggot which sometimes 
 preys at the roots of the young plants ; 2d, considered as a 
 manure or top-dressing, it no doubt contributes to the earlier 
 perfecting the kernel or berry, and at the same time to a 
 more vigorous growth of the straw. 
 
 " The seed was prepared as usual, by stirring into the 
 heap thick whitewash made from quicklime, until every 
 kernel received a coat of the same ; say one quart of un- 
 slacked lime to each bushel of wheat. I prefer lime to lye 
 made of wood ashes, [only,] on account of its whiteness, 
 thereby rendering it easier to throw the seed (broad-cast) 
 more evenly on the field. 
 
 "The character of the soil is a deep loam, intermixed with 
 cobble stones. Its naturjfl forest growth had been oak, (white 
 and red,) beech, rock maple, chestnut, and hemlock. 
 
124 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " The character of the wheat appears to differ from our 
 usual kinds, by the straw being much taller; (some of which 
 was five feet ten inches in height;) and although it is what 
 we call bearded, and the heads of two varieties, similar in 
 appearance to our red and white, yet there is a variety, (say 
 a sixth part perhaps,) which, notwithstanding the head is 
 short, yet the kernels are so closely set that I have repeat- 
 edly counted over eighty kernels from one ear or head. 
 This variety I call the pearl, from its clear appearance. The 
 kernel throughout the crop was very plump and large ; the 
 straw stout as well as tall, bearing the beating of our New 
 England storms better than any I have heretofore grown. 
 I have not the least doubt but it will succeed well, where 
 other varieties have prospered, and have no hesitation in 
 believing it will be a valuable acquisition for many years to 
 come to the agricultural interests of our country." 
 
 RYE. The farmer who has it in his power to drive his 
 business, instead of being driven by it, will do well to sow 
 his winter rye some time between the middle of August and 
 the middle of September. If it be sowed so early, it will be 
 less apt to winter-kill, will require less seed, the growth will 
 be stouter, and the produce greater, other things being 
 equal, than if the sowing was deferred till late in autumn. 
 
 Some foreign writers on agriculture assure us, that winter 
 rye and spring rye are of the same species; and, " The Far- 
 mer's Assistant," says " There is but one kind of rye ; but 
 this may be made winter rye or spring rye, by gradually 
 habituating it to different times of sowing. Take winter rye, 
 for instance, and sow it later and later each fall, and it may 
 at length be sown in the spring, and become spring rye. 
 On the contrary, sow spring rye very late in the fall at first, 
 and you may gradually sow it earlier each year, until it 
 may be sown in May, and used the first season for pasture 
 or mowing, and then grown to perfection the second year." 
 The same opinion is likewise expressed in Deane's " New 
 England Farmer." 
 
 Rye is capable of being cultivated on most kinds of land, 
 but the light sandy soils, where wheat will not thrive, are 
 the sorts of soil on which it will, generally speaking, be 
 found most profitable to raise this kind of produce. Sir 
 John Sinclair observes, that " thislspecies of grain is not so 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 125 
 
 extensively cultivated in Scotland as it ought to be; (for 
 weighty crops of it might be raised on soils of the most po- 
 rous and arid nature, and upon almost pure sand along the 
 seashore;) and the winter sort, without which the people 
 living on the coasts of the Baltic could hardly be subsisted, 
 is almost unknown. Thirty-five bushels of rye were raised 
 upon an acre, on land that would not have produced twenty 
 bushels of oats. Indeed, oats, sown along side of the rye, 
 upon the same field, and on land as nearly as could be judg- 
 ed of the same quality, were scarcely worth the expense of 
 reaping. On moorish land, rye has been found a more 
 certain crop than oats. Mr. George Culley remarks, that 
 rye, like oats, will answer in crude soils without lime, or 
 calcareous manures, which renders that crop peculiarly cal- 
 culated for waste lands when first brought into cultiva- 
 tion." 
 
 Lands which will produce tolerable crops of wheat had 
 better be cultivated for the purpose of raising wheat than 
 rye. And, if we may believe what English writers tell us 
 relative to this subject, the use of lime for manure will often 
 so far change the nature of a poor soil, proper only for rye, 
 that wheat may be made its substitute. Mr. Marshall, in 
 his " Rural Economy of Yorkshire," says, "Before the use 
 of lime was prevalent, much rye was grown on the lighter 
 lands upon the margin of the Vale, and in the Moorlands 
 scarcely any other crops than rye and oats were attempted. 
 Now, rye is principally confined to the Moorland dales; and 
 even there the alteration of soils by lime has been such that 
 wheat has become the more prevalent crop. Nevertheless, 
 on light, sandy soils, rye is generally more profitable than 
 wheat, and the bread which is made from a mixture of the 
 two grains is here esteemed more wholesome to people in 
 general than that which is made from wheat alone." 
 
 When rye is sown upon light land it ripens much earlier 
 than on a cold, stiff ground, and it is said by some writers 
 that, by continuing to sow on such a soil for two or three 
 years, it will be forwarded so much as to ripen a month ear- 
 lier than that which has been raised upon strong, cold ground. 
 For this reason, those who sow their rye late will do well to 
 provide themselves with this early seed. 
 
 Dr. Elliot informs, that if rye be sowed successively every 
 
 year upon the same land, both the crop and the land will 
 
 be greatly improved, insomuch that some grounds, which 
 
 would yield but five bushels to the acre at first, have in time 
 
 11* 
 
126 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 produced a crop of fifteen bushels, without the charge of 
 manure; and Dr. Deane observed, that he " had known the 
 same spot produce twenty crops of this grain in succession, 
 excepting that it was planted with Indian corn once or twice, 
 to subdue the weeds, and that the crops yearly increased in- 
 stead of diminishing." But this, it is said, will not be the 
 case, unless the soil is naturally of a good quality, and the 
 stubble be completely turned under, immediately after reap- 
 ing. If the ground is suffered to remain after harvest with- 
 out being ploughed till the stubble is dried and shrivelled so 
 that it possesses but little substance, and the seeds of weeds 
 have had time to ripen, the crops of grain in each succeed- 
 ing year will be diminished, and the weeds will take an al- 
 most exclusive possession of the soil. 
 
 " The Farmer's Assistant " is opposed to the raising of 
 successive crops of rye, unless as much as twenty-five 
 bushels of this grain can be yearly had from the acre; as 
 such an annual product would probably afford a clear profit 
 to the acre of half that number of bushels; and such a profit, 
 he observes, in some of the lighter and in some of the hard- 
 er kinds of soil is not to be despised. The same writer re- 
 commends sowing winter rye and spring rye, alternately, ia 
 order that the ground might, every other year, be enriched 
 by the application of gypsum. " The growing crop of rye," 
 he says, "receives no benefit from the application of this 
 manure; but it quickly covers the ground with a fine sward 
 of white clover; and as soon as the ground is thus swarded, 
 it is in good condition for bearing any crop. Let the gyp- 
 sum, therefore, be sown in the spring, on the growing crop 
 of winter rye, and by the middle of October following the 
 ground will be covered with white clover; turn this sward 
 over in the latter end of the fall, and in the spring sow a 
 crop of spring rye ; and, as soon as this is taken off", turn 
 the ground over again for a crop of winter rye; and in the 
 spring repeat the process of manuring with gypsum, as be- 
 fore, for a crop of spring rye; and thus proceed with these 
 crops alternately." 
 
 Some sow their winter rye at the last hoeing of Indian 
 corn, and hoe it in; and this, Dr. Deane observed, was a 
 good practice, when it is sown on flat land, or on a rich or 
 heavy soil, where grain is apt to suffer by the frost of 
 winter; for the plants of rye will be mostly on the corn hills, 
 and so escape injury from frost; at least they will most com- 
 monly escape, or so many of them as are necessary to give 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 127 
 
 a good crop. The plants that are killed will be those in the 
 low spaces betwixt the hills. 
 
 Rye is not only a proper crop on land which is too poor 
 to produce a good crop of wheat, but it should be sown on a 
 soil which is very rich, in preference to wheat, because it is 
 less apt to grow so rank as to lodge or blast than wheat. 
 It is a very suitable crop for drained bogs. In the first vol- 
 ume of "Communications to the British Board of Agricul- 
 ture," (p. 341,) in speaking of the culture of rye in Russia, 
 it is observed, that the produce from boggy lands drained and 
 sowed with rye is upwards of forty bushels to one sowed; 
 and they generally use a much smaller quantity of seed in 
 sowing such lands. Another proof that rye will bear very 
 plentiful manuring, may be adduced from a case reported by 
 Mr. L'Hommedieu, of New York, who observed, in sub- 
 stance, that a neighbour of his manured twenty square rods 
 of poor, gravelly, dry soil, with four thousand Menhaden fish, 
 and sowed it with rye, at the rate of about one bushel to the 
 acre. In the spring it was twice successively eaten off, 
 close to the ground, by sheep breaking in, after it had ac- 
 quired a height of nine inches the first time, and six inches 
 the latter. These croppings, however, only served to make 
 it grow thicker and stronger than before; and when harvest- 
 ed it produced sixteen bushels, or at the rate of one hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight bushels to the acre; giving to the 
 owner, according to the calculation of Mr. L'Hommedieu, 
 at the rate of eighty-five dollars to the acre of clear profit.* 
 
 In the "Memoirs of the New York Board of Agricul- 
 ture," (Vol. I. p. 82,) it is said, "Rye should be sowed the 
 last week in August, or the first week in September, at the 
 rate of about thirty-six quarts per acre; some say forty-eight 
 quarts. But if it is not sowed at that time it may not come up 
 until spring. A Worthington had a good crop, which he 
 sowed in a January snow storm. Rye raised on upland 
 makes much better flour than that which is raised on low or 
 damp land." 
 
 Rye may be sown in autumn to great advantage for green 
 fodder for cattle and sheep, particularly the latter, in the 
 spring. Ewes and lambs will derive much benefit from it, 
 at a time when little or no other green feed can be procured. 
 
 * Transactions of the New York Agricultural Society, part 3, pp. 35, 36. — 
 This account may seem incredible, but Mr. L'Hommedieu declared thiit it was 
 attested to by many crcdil)le witnesses. 
 
128 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 When it is meant for this purpose, it should not only be sow- 
 ed early in autumn, but should be sowed thicker than when 
 it is intended to stand for a crop of seed. Some say that it 
 may well be mowed for hay two or three times in the course 
 of the summer; and this piece of husbandry is recommend- 
 ed for farmers whose lands are mostly dry or unsuitable for 
 grass. 
 
 The quantity of seed to be sown on an acre should vary 
 according to the soil, the time of sowing, and the purposes 
 for which it is intended. If it be sowed in the latter part of 
 August, or beginning of September, and is intended to re- 
 main for a seed crop, the quantity should vary from thirty- 
 two to forty-eight quarts, according to the goodness of soil. 
 Later sowing requires more seed, and in some cases two 
 bushels to an acre will not be too great a quantity. Ban- 
 nister's Husbandry says, " When this grain is sown for 
 sheep feed, it is proper to allow three bushels to the acre, 
 for where the blade, haulm, or stalks form the primary ob- 
 ject, a much larger proportion of seed is requisite than when 
 the crop is meant for harvesting." 
 
 Mr. Adams Knight, of Newbury, Massachusetts, received 
 a premium of twenty dollars, from the Massachusetts Agri- 
 cultural Society, for a crop of rye, obtained as follows: 
 
 " The soil is a gravelly loam, rather dry than otherwise. 
 The land was planted with corn in the spring of 1831, and 
 manured in the hills with about six cords of manure to the 
 acre, of common quality. In the month of August follow- 
 ing, said acre was sowed with three pecks of seed, and hoed 
 in the usual manner. In the month of August, 1832, the 
 rye was reaped and threshed, and found to measure forty- 
 five bushels and five-eighths of a bushel. There is standing 
 on said acre of land seventy-five appletrees, from two to six 
 inches through at the root."* 
 
 The same year Mr. Gideon Foster, of Charlestown, Mas- 
 sachusetts, obtained thirty-eight and one-sixteenth bushels of 
 rye from one acre, as follows: 
 
 "The land is bordering on, and near the mouth of Mystic 
 river. The soil is principally a black loam, with clay bot- 
 tom. In 1831 it was planted with potatoes, with a moderate 
 supply of manure, and yielded an ordinary crop. The pota- 
 toes were removed the last week in September, the land well 
 ploughed and harrowed in the usual way, with one and a 
 
 * Kew England Farmer, Vol. XI. p. 238. 
 
AND KUUAL ECONOMIST. I'iS 
 
 half bushels of seed to the acre. I owe my success princi- 
 pally to the use of night manure, and to that in consequence 
 of its being well prepared by age, and thoroughly mixed with 
 a large proportion of earth, and frequently removed by the 
 fork and the shovel; so that in this way, being ripened for 
 use, it went immediately (not to burn, as when applied green 
 or new, but) to nourish and fertilize the soil. There was 
 early in the spring of the present year spread on the field 
 about eight cords of the above described manure. The field 
 was harvested the latter part of August, the grain threshed 
 soon after, and measured by the purchaser, whose certificate 
 followed, showing the product to be sixty-one and three- 
 fourths bushels, or thirty-eight bushels and two quarts to the 
 acre."* 
 
 The following is from the ' ' Transactions of the Essex 
 Agricultural Society." 
 
 •' To the Trustees of the Essex Agricultural Society. 
 
 " Gentlemen, — Having for many years past been more than commonly 
 successful in raising large crops of winter rye by a process of cultivation which, 
 I believe, is entirely new, I have been induced to submit a statement of the 
 mode of culture, with tlie produce. And, that the success of the experiment 
 this season may not appear to be altogether accidental, it will, perhaps, be as 
 well to communicate the result of the process for the three or four previous years. 
 
 " The land on which the experiment has been conducted, is situated on the 
 Merrimack, about a mile and a half east of Haverhill bridge ; and came into 
 possession of my father in 1S27. The soil is a sand, approaching to loam as it 
 recedes from the river. Perhaps the term plain land (by which it usually 
 passes) will better convey an idea of the quality of the soil. It is altogether 
 too light for grass. The crops we find most profitable to cultivate on it, are 
 winter rye, Indian corn, potatoes, and to some extent turnips. Oats might 
 probably be raised to advantage, were it not that the land is completely filled 
 with the weed commonly called charlock, which renders it entirely unfit for any 
 spring crop, excepting such as can be hoed. The crops of rye on the neighbour- 
 ing soil of the same nature vary, I believe, from seven or eight to twelve or 
 thirteen bushels per acre, according to the cultivation, and their approximation 
 to the river. We usually raise ou this land from thirteen to thirty bushels of 
 Indian corn per acre. Potatoes are very good in quality, but the quantity is 
 quite small ; not sufficient to be profitable, were it not that the land is very 
 easily cultivated. 
 
 " In the summer of 1827, we sowed three bushels of winter rye near the river, 
 on about two acres of land, which produced twenty-eight bushels. 
 
 " In 1828, we sowed four bushels on four acres of land running the whole ex- 
 tent of the plain from the river. This piece was sowed in the spring with oats; 
 but they were completely smothered with charlock, and about the middle of 
 June, the whole crop was mowed to prevent the charlock seeding. By about the 
 middle of August, a second crop of charlock having covered the land, it was 
 ploughed very carefidly, in order completely to bury the charlock; and then suf- 
 fered to remain until the 15th of September, when we began sowing the rye in 
 the following manner. A strip of land about twelve yards wide was ploughed 
 
 * New England Farmer, Vol. XI. p. 243. 
 
130 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 very evenly, to preveat deep gutters between the furrows, and the seed immedi- 
 ately sown upon tlie furrow and harrowed in ; then another strip of the same 
 width, and so on, until the whole was finished. We found tlie oat stubble and 
 charlock entirely rotted, and the land appeared as if it had been well manured, 
 though none had been applied to this part since it had been in our possession. 
 The rje sprung very quick and vigorously, having evidently derived great lx:nefit 
 from being sown and sprouted before the moisture supplied by the decaying 
 vegetable matter in the soil had evapwrated to any considerable' extent. This 
 crop produced one hundred and thirty-three bushels. 
 
 " In 1S29, the charlock was suffered to grow on the land appropriated to rye, 
 until it had attained its growth and was in full blossom. The land was then 
 ploughed very carefully, and the charlock completely covered in. In a short 
 time a second crop appeared, more vigorous than the first. This also was al- 
 lowed to attain its growth, and then ploughed in as before. A third crop soon 
 appeared, which of course was destroyed, when the land was again ploughed for 
 sowing, about the middle of September. This piece of land was a parallel strip 
 running from the river, and containing two acres. Two bushels of rve were 
 sowed. The crop presented a remarkably promising apjsearance, and "yielded 
 eevenly-four and a half bushels. 
 
 " In 1S30, the land appropriated to rye included nearly all the lighter part of 
 the soil, and owing to a pressure of business was not attended to as we could 
 have wished. It was ploughed in (he early part of the summer; but harrowing 
 to destroy the weeds was substituted for the second ploughing. This, and the 
 unusual blight which afiected all the grain in this part of the counuj , led us to 
 anticipate a small crop. It yielded, however, fifteen bushels to the acre. 
 
 " The land on which the crop of rve was raised the present season had for 
 three or four previous years been planted with Indian corn; and owing to the 
 extent of our tillage land, we have not been able to apply more than four or five 
 loads of manure to the acre this season. The charlock was suflfered to attain its 
 growth as usual; and on the 18th and 19th of June it was carefully ploughed in. 
 The second crop was ploughed in on the 6th and 7th of August. On the 14th 
 and 15th of September it was sowed in the usual manner, namely, a small strip 
 of land was ploughed, and the seed sown immediatelv upon the furrow, and then 
 harrowed in; then another strip of land was ploughed, and so on, until the 
 whole was completed. One bushel jjer acre was sowed, as usual. The seed 
 was originally obtained from a farmer in this vicinity, and I suppose is similar 
 to that which is generally used. We have never prepared our seed in any man- 
 ner, but have directed our attention solely to the preparation of the land ; and 
 to this we attribute our success. Owing to the unusual severity of the winter, 
 the crop was considerably winter-killed, but recovered very soon in the spring, 
 excepting in the midfurrows. There, as the land lies verj- level, the water set- 
 tled, and so completely destroyed the rye that they continued bare the whole 
 season. This would of course cause some diminution in the crop ; perhaps a 
 bushel or two. The rye was reaped at the usual season, and, as the weather 
 was favorable, immediately put into the barn. The land contained one acre and 
 thirteen rods, and yielded forty-six bushels and three pecks : a remaTkably fine 
 s am fie. 
 
 " Sowing the seed immediately after the plough we consider very advantage- 
 ous to the crop. The soil being then moist, causes the seed to spring immedi- 
 ately, and gives a forwardness and vigor to the plants, which they ever after 
 retain. 
 
 " The process of ploughing in three crops of w-eeds, before the seed is sown, 
 very much enriches tJie soil. It would be altogether unnecessan.- to attempt to 
 refute the notion, that by such a process nothing more is applied to the soil than 
 was before derived from it. If one could not discover by the light which chem- 
 istry has shed upon the subject of agriculture sufficient reasons for the contrary 
 conclusion, observation, one would think, would be sufficient to convince any 
 intelligent oian of the fact. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 131 
 
 " And here I would suggest, that I do not consider the experiment, as we 
 liave conducted it, quite complete. To render it more so, in the first place, in 
 ploughing ill the weeds, 1 would uot turn a furrow after tlie dew had evaporated. 
 I have no doubt but that a large portion of that fertilizing quality in the soil, 
 which (during the summer months) is continually exhaled from the earth, is by 
 the dew brought again within our reach, and it would be wise to avail ourselves 
 of the opportunity of again burying it in the soil. And in the second place, I 
 would by all means use a heavy roller after each ploughing. It would fill all 
 the cavities left by the plough, and by pressing the soil more closely to the 
 weeds, at once hasten their decomposition and very much retard the evapora- 
 tion from the soil. 
 
 " But the land is not only very much enriched by this process. There is, I 
 conceive, no method by which it can be so effectually cleaned. Three times 
 during the season a fresh surface is presented to the atmosphere; and each time, 
 as the decaying vegetable matter increases in the soil, so is the exciting cause 
 augmented to make a more vigorous effort. We have in this manner gone 
 over nearly all our land which is infested with charlock, and the diminution of 
 the weeds is quite suflicient to warrant the expectation, that in a few years it 
 may be comparatively eradicated. 
 
 " Very respectfully, John Keely. 
 
 " Haverhill, September 22, 1832." 
 
 OATS. The following remarks are extracted from a com- 
 munication for the "New England Farmer," written by 
 Henry Stevens, of Barnet, Vt.: 
 
 "Various are the kinds of oats. The barley or Scotch 
 oats, so called, I have cultivated, but not with very great 
 success ; their weight is generally about forty-two pounds 
 per bushel. I have seldom been able to raise more than from 
 twenty to twenty-five bushels per acre. The black oats I 
 have cultivated; their weight is about thirty-six pounds per 
 bushel, and produce about as many bushels per acre as the 
 barley or Scotch oats. The greatest objection I have to the 
 barley or Scotch oats is, that they must be harvested suddenly 
 after they are fit, in order to prevent waste. The common 
 oats which are raised I consider preferable. My average 
 crop of late years has been from forty to fifty bushels per 
 acre, and in one instance sixty-five bushels per acre. 
 
 " I make oats principally, and generally speaking, my first 
 crop, in the line of a rotation of crops. I break up the piece 
 intended for this crop in the fall, if possible, and in the spring 
 cross-plough and harrow thoroughly before I sow my grain ; 
 then harrow again until the turf is well pulverized; then 
 sow ten bushels of clover-seed chaff per acre, and roll it in. 
 As soon as the grain is harvested, and the young clover has 
 received its growth, I plough it in. This clover with the 
 stubble is about equal to a common dressing of compost ma- 
 nure. In the fall, plough, in the spring T cross-plough, after 
 
132 THE CO>rPLETE FARJrER 
 
 taking from my compost heap thirty loads per acre, which 
 are carefully spread. The lot then being well harrowed and 
 furrowed, is ready for planting, either with corn, potatoes, or 
 turnips. This is my second crop. For my third crop, I 
 aoain sow wheat, peas, flax, oats, Slc, and stock the lot down 
 with herd's grass and red top, which I believe make the best 
 of hay. I let the lot remain in grass three years. Thus I 
 till three years, or mow or pasture three years. My first 
 and third crop is principally oats. 
 
 " I have frequently been told, that oats and corn were very 
 impoverishing crops; but I find no difficulty in enriching my 
 land as above stated. Ten years ago my average crop of 
 corn was from thirty to forty bushels per acre ; but in pass- 
 ing over a lot the second time, which was managed as above, 
 in the summer of 18-21, I had the satisfaction of harvesting 
 ninety-six bushels of corn per acre, and received the society's 
 premium. 3Iy other crops have advanced in about the same 
 proportion. 
 
 " The inquiry will naturally be made, what I do with my 
 oats .' Well, sir, after I have reserved for my stock and for 
 seed, I take the remainder to my mill and manufacture them 
 into flour and meal. It will be understood that the oats are 
 kiln dried, then hulled about as clean as rice, then ground, 
 and bolted or sifted, as the case may be. That which I bolt 
 is calculated to be mixed with wheat flour, for bread ; in 
 which case the oat flour, being kiln dried, must be scalded 
 before it is mixed with the wheat flour, otherwise the bread 
 will be too dry. Good oat flour, prepared as above, mixed 
 with wheat flour, half and half, will make as light and plea- 
 sant bread as common country wheat flour, and it will 
 trouble good judges of bread to tell it from clear flour bread. 
 Again, it is excellent to make butter cake, by the Yankees 
 called slapjacks. The oatmeal is calculated for puddings, 
 and is a substitute for rye meal to mix with corn meal or rye 
 meal for bread. In either case, the oatmeal must be scalded 
 before it is mixed. 
 
 "Thus after supplying my family, the remainder is for 
 market. The oat flour I have generally sold in Boston and 
 New York to the druggists. The meal is also purchased by 
 the druggists. I have generally sold them oat flour for from 
 four to five dollars per hundred, and the meal from three fifty 
 to four fiftv, which is by them retailed as medicine, from 
 twelve to twentv cents per pound. 
 
 "The mealis frequently bought by foreigners, by the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 133 
 
 barrel or hundred, for family use. The sale of oatmeal is 
 at present rather limited; the reason is, that but very few 
 people in this country, save foreigners, are acquainted with 
 the use of it, except for medicine. Foreigners generally 
 prefer oatmeal to flour. I really hope, both for our health 
 and the interest of agriculture, that the time is not far dis- 
 tant, when oat flour and meal will be used in every family 
 for food. 
 
 " Much may be said, as to the value of this article as medi- 
 cine, as well as for food. It has been a common article for 
 food in Scotland and Ireland for many years. Seldom, if 
 ever, an English, Scotch, or Irish vessel sailed without a 
 supply of oatmeal; and I may say, it would be well for every 
 commander of an American vessel, in making up his order 
 for ship stores, to include a sufficient quantity of oatmeal or 
 flour for his voyage." 
 
 A writer in ' ' The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, " 
 (Vol. V. pp. 331-2,) says, " It appears to us best, all things 
 considered, that the first crop, after turning over sward, 
 should be oats. The reason why an oat crop should pre- 
 cede a potatoe crop is, that it not only pays well by its pro- 
 duct for the year's labor, but enables the husbandman to 
 deepen his ploughing, preparatory to the second year's 
 series in the rotation." 
 
 We believe that oatmeal is of more value as an article of 
 diet than is generally supposed in this country. Loudon, in 
 his "Encyclopedia of Agriculture," observes, that 
 
 "Oatmeal, when it is sufficiently diluted with any sort of 
 liquid, is known to be laxative, aperient, wholesome, and at 
 the same time a strengthening food for those engaged in 
 hard labor. Engineers who superintend the excavation of 
 canals have assured the reporter, that those laborers who 
 lived entirely on oatmeal and milk, did a third more work 
 than those who used butcher's meat and ardent spirits. All 
 of the former saved money, while many of the latter involved 
 themselves in debt. As this sort of work is done by the 
 piece, it affords a fair comparison not only of the wholesome- 
 ness of oatmeal in promoting health, but its power in sup- 
 plying labor." 
 
 In harvesting oats, it is recommended to mow, instead of 
 reaping them, as soon as they begin to turn yellow. If they 
 are then well dried, the straw will make food for cattle, after 
 being threshed, which will be eaten by the animals in pre- 
 ference to the best meadow hay. 
 12 
 
134 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Mr. Jacob Smith, of Duxbury, Massachusetts, is said to 
 have raised, in 1833, the prodigious crop of seventy-four 
 busheh and three pecks of oats on four-fifths of an acre. The 
 average height of the plants at the time of harvest was esti- 
 mated at five feet four inches. 
 
 BARLEY. The following is from the pen of judge Buel, 
 of Albany. 
 
 " The soil for barley should be such as will grow good 
 turnips, or other green crops, including clovers, and which 
 embrace the varieties of loams and sands that are not wet, 
 or very dry and poor. Indeed, I have taken my crops, and 
 they have been pretty good, from my lightest turnip soils. 
 Barley cannot be cultivated to advantage upon stiff, heavy, 
 and wet grounds, or on such as are of a cold and tenacious 
 quality. This crop occupies the ground but about three 
 months; and it is only in a dry, light, mellow soil, that its 
 roots can extend with sufficient facility, and supply the food 
 necessary to bring the grain to rapid and perfect maturity. 
 
 " Previous Crop. Crops that precede this grain should be 
 such as leave the ground mellow and free from weeds; and 
 for this reason hoed crops arc to be preferred, such as tur- 
 nips, potatoes, peas, beans, &c. Small grains should not 
 precede it ; they impoverish the soil, leave it foul, and, be- 
 sides, it is contravening one of the most salutary maxims of 
 husbandry to grow two dry crops in succession. It may 
 follow clover; but if the soil is heavy, the ley should be 
 ploughed in autumn. Barley is successfully sown upon the 
 fallows in England, (not summer, but autumn fallows,) and 
 is sown sometimes after wheat ; but in the latter case the 
 turnips are pulled, and previously fed upon the stubble; a 
 practice which I think is not likely to obtain here. I have 
 generally sown barley after ruta baga or potatoes, these 
 crops having received a good dressing of long yard or stable 
 manure. 
 
 " Manure should not be applied to the barley, but to the 
 preceding crop. The short period that this grain occupies 
 the ground, does not afford time for the manure to decompose 
 and yield its food to the plants; and, if applied in excess, it 
 causes a too rank vegetation, and the straw lodges before 
 the grain is matured. When a fallow or clover ley is em- 
 ployed and ploughed in autumn, dung may be previously 
 employed and ploughed under. 
 
ANU RURAL ECONOMIST. 135 
 
 " Preparation of the Ground. Where barley follows a root 
 or hoed crop, one ploughing will generally suffice ; but in 
 all cases a complete pulverization of the soil is necessary; 
 and to effect this a roller is often of material benefit. If 
 sown upon grass leys, ploughed in autumn, the spring 
 ploughing should be shallow, so as to leave the sod reversed. 
 But the preferable way may be to harrow the fallow, plough 
 in the seed with a light furrow, and smooth off with the 
 harrow. 
 
 " The Seed and Sowing. Loudon enumerates six species 
 and sub-species of the barley. The kinds uniformly culti- 
 vated here, are the two, four, and six-rowed spring, (hordcum 
 vulgare and hordeum distichon.) Thin-skinned, pale, plump 
 seed should be selected. I sow as soon as the ground is 
 sufficiently dry in spring. The young grain is not hurt by 
 the ordinary frosts of the latter part of April and May. I 
 sow from six to eight pecks per acre, according to the rich- 
 ness of the soil and the forwardness of the season; the poor- 
 est ground and the latest sowing requiring the most seed. 
 In England, the common quantity of seed is from eight to 
 sixteen pecks. Our climate being much warmer than that 
 of Great Britain, barley and other grains till better with us, 
 and consequently we require less seed. We uniformly sow 
 broad-cast, generally on the fresh furrow, and harrow in 
 both ways ; and those who have a roller use it in the finish- 
 ing operation. It gives a smooth surface, breaks down the 
 lumps, brings the earth in contact with the seed, and if grass 
 seeds have been sown, its use is doubly beneficial. I steep 
 my seeds twenty-four hours in a weak solution of nitre, the 
 crude kind of which costs me only eight cents per pound 
 by the quantity. From the analysis and observations of 
 Grisenthwaite, there is reason to believe that this salt is 
 peculiarly beneficial to the barley crop, the grain yielding it 
 on analysis. I have made no comparative experiments, but 
 I think this step serviceable. I have applied to this grain, 
 as a top-dressing, with singular success, the powdered dung 
 of pigeons and dunghill fowls, at the rate of twenty to thirty 
 bushels the acre. 
 
 "The crop admits of no after-culture when sown broad-^ 
 cast. Yet the application of the roller, when the plants are 
 two or three inches high, is no doubt salutary, especially if 
 there have been no considerable rains. Rolling gives a salu- 
 tary compression to the soil, which in the spring is apt to be 
 loose and porous, and full of cracks, by the alternation of 
 
136 THE COMPLETE FARMER. 
 
 freezing and thawing, or of wet and dry weather; it de- 
 stroys many insects ; and, above all, it partially buries the 
 crowns of the plants, and introduces a multiplication of seed 
 stalks. I can recommend the practice from experience. 
 When grass seeds are sown with barley, the luxuriance of 
 the young grass sometimes chokes the grain, robs it of 
 nutriment, and sensibly diminishes the product. To obviate 
 this evil it has been recommended to sow the grass seeds 
 after the barley has come up, and to cover them with a light 
 harrow and a roller ; and it is said, and I think with truth, 
 that this operation will not materially injure the grain. In 
 dry seasons, the crop is sometimes attacked by worms, 
 while young. In this case the roller should be applied and 
 sufficient weight added to require the draught of two or 
 three cattle. 
 
 " Time and Method of HarvesHng. When the soil is rich 
 and the season propitious, this grain is very liable to lodge. 
 If this happens after it has blossomed, no material injury is 
 sustained in the product; if before, the crop is greatly di- 
 minished. This shows the danger to be apprehended from 
 making the soil too rich, and of applying fresh manure. 
 Barley is known to be ripe by the disappearance of the red- 
 dish cast on the ear, or what the English farmers term red 
 roan; by the ears beginning to droop, and bending themselves 
 round against the stems; and by the stalks becoming brittle, 
 and of a yellowish color. This is the particular period for 
 cutting, as, if suffered to stand longer, the heads break off", 
 and the grain wastes with the slightest touch. And it may 
 be cut with the cradle, sickle, or scythe, according to cir- 
 cumstances. If it stands straight, and is not too heavy, the 
 cradle is to be preferred; if heavy, or lodged, the sickle or 
 scythe. But as the grain is yet soft, and the straw contains 
 much moisture when it ought to be cut, it should be suffered 
 to become well dried in the swath before it is bound in 
 sheaves, or carried to the barn or stack. If cut with the 
 cradle or sickle, it is bound in sheaves; but the more com- 
 mon practice is to cut the crop with the scythe, rake the 
 ground, and load it with the barley fork. 
 
 " Barley improves for malting by lying till October before 
 it is threshed ; though it is often threshed immediately from 
 the field. The great difficulty in preparing it for market is, 
 to rid it of the awns. This may be done with flails, after it 
 has passed once through the fanning mill; and, where it is 
 in great quantities, it may be spread from four to six inches 
 upon the barn floor, and trodden with horses. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 137 
 
 " Produce and Profits. The average product in England 
 is stated by Donaldson at thirty-two bushels per acre. The 
 product in New York varies from fifteen to seventy bushels, 
 according to season and soil ; and I think the average is 
 somewhat short of that of Great Britain. Compared with 
 wheat, its product is as two or two and a half to one; com- 
 pared with oats, about equal, provided the soil is adapted to 
 this grain. It is, however, to be remembered, that neither 
 wheat nor oats are adapted to a barley soil; the first re- 
 quiring a more stiff and tenacious, and the latter a more cold 
 and moist location. The average price of barley is at least 
 two-thirds that of wheat. Supposing wheat, then, to be one 
 dollar and twelve cents the bushel, and the product fifteen 
 bushels per acre, and barley to be seventy-five cents, and 
 the product of an acre thirty bushels, and the expense of cul- 
 tivation equal, the profits of the barley will be nearly as three 
 to two compared to wheat. Barley, besides, is a less preca- 
 rious crop, is subject to fewer diseases, and has fewer insect 
 enemies to encounter than wheat." 
 
 A correspondent of the Bath Agricultural Society writes, 
 "The last spring being remarkably dry, I soaked my seed 
 barley in the black water taken from a reservoir, which con- 
 stantly receives the draining of my dung heap and stables. 
 As the light grains floated on the top, I skimmed them ofl", 
 and let the rest stand twenty-four hours. On taking it from 
 the water, I mixed the grain with a sufficient quantity of 
 sifted wood ashes, to make it spread regularly, and sowed 
 three fields with it. The produce was sixty bushels per 
 acre. I sowed some other fields with the same seed dry, 
 but the crop, like those of my neighbours, was very poor, not 
 more than twenty bushels per acre, and mixed with green 
 corn and weeds, when harvested. I also sowed some of my 
 seed dry on one ridge in each of my fields, but the produce 
 was very poor, in comparison of the other parts of the field." 
 
 MILLET. (Panicum Miliaceum.) The stalks and leaves 
 of this plant resemble those of Indian corn, though much 
 smaller. It grows to the height of three or four feet. A 
 sandy soil suits it best. It bears drought admirably well. 
 It is said to produce as large a quantity of grain as Indian 
 corn, when cultivated in drills three feet apart and six inches 
 in the rows; but owing to the difficulty in saving the crop, 
 on account of birds, of its ripening unequally, and its shelling 
 12* 
 
 < 
 
138 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 out, it is generally thought best to sow it broad-cast, and cut 
 it when iu milk for fodder. 
 
 Mr. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, sowed one peck to the acre 
 in May, and put in four acres ; cut it the middle of August, 
 and dried it in the sun two or three days. He had seventy- 
 five bushels of seed to the acre, and six tons of fodder on 
 four acres. His cattle relished it very well. 
 
 It is stated in "The Plough Boy," that millet sowed in 
 June, on good ground, will give from two to four tons of fod- 
 der, and from twenty to thirty bushels of seed, equal to corn 
 for fattening hogs. It is cultivated in Pennsylvania and 
 Maryland as a fodder crop, and cut in the milk. It is pre- 
 ferred in winter by neat cattle to clover. 
 
 " The American Farmer " gives the following very flatter- 
 ing account of this grain. INIillet sown from the 1st of JNIay 
 to the i20th of June has invariably furnished more fodder 
 than could have been obtained from grass under similar cir- 
 cumstances. On the 5th of May, five bushels were sown on 
 four acres; on the 5th of July it was harvested, and esti- 
 mated at four tons per acre. It requires in all cases fine 
 tilth, and as much strength of soil as is necessary to produce 
 heavy oats. 
 
 A crop of fodder can be produced if sowed as late as the 
 last of July. 
 
 Mr. N. Davenport, of Milton, Massachusetts, gives the fol- 
 lowing account of growing a crop of millet : 
 
 " From the 10th to the 23d of June, I sowed about twelve 
 acres of millet, at about sixteen quarts per acre. About one- 
 third was on land planted the year before, and I think pro- 
 duced nearly three ^;ons per acre; the other two-thirds was 
 on green sward, ploughed and harrowed but a few days be- 
 fore being sown; and on very light land, without any manure 
 on either. I had not much over one ton per acre on the 
 green sward, the land being so light that it did not bear 
 more than two or three hundred of hay per acre. I mowed 
 my millet from the 1st to the 12th of September; and I 
 found the tops of heads perfectly ripe and fit for seed." 
 
 John Hare Powell, Esq., of Pennsylvania, has given us 
 the following observations on the culture of this crop : 
 
 " I have made many experiments on various soils, and at 
 different seasons, to ascertain the product as well as the prop- 
 erties of millet. Upon light land, in good condition, it suc- 
 ceeds best. It requires in all cases fine tilth, and as much 
 strength of soil as is necessary to produce heavy oats. I 
 
ANU RURAL ECONOMIST. 139 
 
 have not seen, either in Europe or America, any green crop 
 which so largely rewards accurate tillage and plentiful sup- 
 plies of manure, as the species of millet usually grown in 
 this and the adjacent counties. I have sown it from the 1st 
 of May to the !20th of June, and have invariably obtained 
 more fodder than could have been had from any grass, under 
 similar circumstances. In the autumn, eighty bushels of 
 caustic lime per acre were strewed upon an old sward, which 
 was immediatebj ploughed, closely harrowed, sown with rye, 
 and rolled. The rye was depastured in the winter and suc- 
 ceeding spring. Early in April the land was ploughed 
 again; the lime and decomposed vegetable matter was thus 
 returned to the surface. About three weeks after, it was 
 harrowed, to destroy weeds; early in May it was again har- 
 rowed for the same purpose; within a fortnight it was stirred 
 with Beatson's scarifier to the depth of nine inches, harrow- 
 ed, sown with millet, and rolled. The crop was fairly es- 
 timated at three tons per acre. After the millet was cut, 
 the field was stirred, and repeatedly harrowed, to destroy the 
 after growth of noxious plants. I intend to again sow rye, 
 not only to obtain pasturage, but to pi-otect the soil from the 
 exhalations of the sun. In the succeeding spring, a slight 
 dressing of fresh manure was ploughed under; the scarifier, 
 roller, and harrow, were used at intervals as before. On the 
 5th of May, five bushels of millet seeds were sown on four 
 acres; on the 5th of July the crop was hauled, and estimat- 
 ed at four tons per acre. I have obtained this season forty 
 tons from sixteen acres, of which four only had been manur- 
 ed; the remainder could not have borne a good wheat crop. 
 One of the loads was weighed; an account of them was 
 regularly kept; their size was made as nearly equal as pos- 
 sible. I have generally used a large quantity of seed, as 
 not more than two-thirds of that which is usually sown will 
 vegetate. Whilst my oxen consumed millet in its green 
 state, they performed their work with more spirit and vigor 
 than they had done before, or have shown since, except 
 when fed with grain. My cattle, of all ages, prefer it to 
 both red and the best white clover, meadow, or timothy hay 
 " I am not disposed to cultivate it as a farinaceous crop, 
 since I have found great difiiculty in protecting it from the 
 ravages of immense flocks of birds, which it attracts, and in 
 securing it sufficiently early to prevent a large part of the 
 grain from being left on the ground. The seeds on the up- 
 per parts of the stalks generally ripen and fall before those 
 
140 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 below have been filled. I therefore invariably cut it when 
 the upper parts of most of the heads contain seeds which 
 are hard. In this stage it affords fodder more nutritious, 
 and more easily made, than any sort of hay. The expense 
 of tilling the land, is not so great as at first view would ap- 
 pear. A yoke of good oxen can scarify three acres and a 
 half, without difficulty, in one day. I would recommend 
 millet, not merely for its value as a food, but for the means 
 it affords of making clean the land, without summer fallows, 
 or drill crops. The ingenious arguments which have been 
 adduced, to prove that deep stirring between growing crops 
 is advantageous to them and the soil, are founded upon 
 English experience, properly directed by close attention to 
 the effects of a moist climate. Some of our writers have 
 profoundly asserted, that as ' dew drops ' are found on the 
 under leaves of plants after deep stirring has been given in 
 a time of great drought, the practice is sound. I should 
 suggest, that moisture had better be at such times conveyed 
 to the roots, than be exhaled by the sun, or placed on the 
 leaves until his rays shall have exhausted it all. The valua- 
 ble parts of most manures readily assume the gaseous form; 
 every deep stirring, to a certain extent, in hot weather, 
 therefore, impoverishes the soil. Deep ploughing, sA proper 
 seasons, is, I conceive, the basis of all good farming. Such 
 crops as shall enable the husbandman to extirpate weeds, 
 and obtain large supplies of fodder, without much exhaus- 
 tion, should be the great objects for his aim. I would pro- 
 pose that a foul sward receive its proper quantity of quick- 
 lime, which should be spread and ploughed under, in its 
 caustic state, in the early part of September; that the field 
 be harrowed sufliciently; sown with rye at the rate of two 
 bushels per acre, as early as possible; that it be depastured 
 late in the autumn and early in the spring; that in May it 
 be again ploughed, three inches deeper than before; that it 
 be harrowed, and left until the small weeds begin to appear. 
 Early in June millet should be sown; in August the crop 
 can be removed, after the labors of the general harvest. 
 The field should be slightly stirred with the scarifier, oc- 
 casionally harrowed, and left throughout September, for the 
 destruction of weeds, as before. In October it may be 
 manured, and sown with wheat, or left for a crop of Indian 
 corn." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 141 
 
 BUCKWHEAT. (Poli/gonum.) In light lands this crop 
 may be raised to advantage. In this climate it should not 
 be sown till after the middle of May. One bushel is seed 
 enough for an acre, if sown broad-cast, as is usual; but if 
 sown in drills, less than half that quantity is sufficient. In 
 the State of New York, farmers sow it in August with win- 
 ter wheat. It affords them a ripe crop in the fall, without 
 injuring the crop of wheat, which grows with and succeeds 
 it. 
 
 Buckwheat is harvested by mowing, in the manner of 
 barley. After it is mown it should be several days before it 
 is housed. It is in no danger of the seeds falling, nor does 
 it suffer much by wet. From its great succulency it is lia- 
 ble to heat in a mow, on which account it is better to put it 
 into small stacks of five or six loads each, than either a large 
 one, or in a barn. 
 
 Mr. Loudon observes, "that the use of the grain of buck- 
 wheat in Great Britain is almost entirely for feeding poultry, 
 pigeons, and swine. It may also be given to horses, which 
 are said to thrive well upon it; but the author of " The New 
 Farmer's Calendar," says he thinks he has seen it produce 
 a stupefying effect. Young says, that " a bushel of buck- 
 wheat goes farther than two bushels of oats, and mixed with 
 at least four times as much bran, will be found sufficient for 
 a horse a week. Eight bushels of buckwheat meal will go • 
 as far as twelve bushels of barley meal." 
 
 The meal of buckwheat is made into thin cakes, called 
 crumpets, in Italy, and in some parts of England. Buck- 
 wheat pancakes are likewise common, and thought to be 
 wholesome as well as palatable, in many parts of the United 
 States. Buckwheat blossoms afford rich food for bees, and 
 are useful as well from, the quantity of honey which they 
 enable the bees to make, as the long time they continue 
 without fading or ceasing to be fragrant. On this account 
 the buckwheat plant is highly prized in France and Ger- 
 many; and Du Hamel advises bee-keepers to carry their 
 hives to fields of this crop in autumn, as well as to heath 
 lands. 
 
 "The Farmer's Assistant," says, "We cannot recom- 
 mend the culture of buckwheat on lands which are suitable 
 for more valuable crops; but on light, smooth lands, particu- 
 larly, the farmer may find his account in keeping a field of a 
 few acres for a yearly crop of buckwheat, as well for family 
 use as for assisting in fattening his swine, Ste. A bushel of 
 
142 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 gypsum to the acre, or perhaps less, applied yearly to the 
 
 ground, would be found to keep it rich enough for good 
 crops." 
 
 RICE. [Oriza Saliva.) This is a genus of plants, con- 
 sisting of several species, which, however, may be divided 
 into two varieties, viz. mountain rice, which grows in dry, 
 elevated soils, and marsh rice, sown in low swampy districts. 
 The former kind was raised by Mr. Bordley, on dry, sandy 
 land, near Annapolis, in Maryland. It is perhaps possible 
 that this plant may be gradually introduced into the north- 
 ern States, and made to grow in dry and elevated ground. 
 This is mucli to be desired, as rice is the cheapest nutriment 
 known, containing, it is said, ninety-six parts in a hundred 
 of nutritive matter. 
 
 "The Farmer's Assistant," gives the following directions 
 for the culture of this plant : " Early in the spring, the 
 ground is to be fitted with the plough for the reception of 
 the seed, which is to be drilled in, in rov.s, at the distance 
 of about twenty-seven inches apart. When the young plants 
 have acquired a suitable height, the weeds are to be eradi- 
 cated from the crop with tlie plough, or with a small harrow 
 to be guided by handles behind, run twice between tlie 
 rows, and the work is then completed by the hoe, and per- 
 haps some hand-weeding. 
 
 " In due season after this, the water is to be occasionally 
 let on the ground, for the purpose of killing the weeds and 
 grass; and then to be let off again, in order that the crop 
 may have such farther ploughing and hoeing as may be 
 found necessary. If water is not used, the growing crop is 
 to be kept clear of weeds, like other hoed crops, till the 
 ground becomes sufficiently shaded to prevent farther trou- 
 ble from them. 
 
 " The grain will be found sufficiently ripened while the 
 stalks are still green; and on this account they are valuable 
 as a substitute for hay. If the crop be flooded, the water is 
 to be let off in due season, so that the ground can be laid 
 sufficiently dry before harvesting. With regard to this ope- 
 ration, we will merely observe, that he who understands the 
 manner of harvesting wheat, rye, barley, or oats, need be at 
 no loss as to the best method of gathering this crop; remem- 
 bering, however, that the straw should be sufficiently dried 
 before threshing or stowing the crop away." 
 
AND RURAL r,(;ON0MIST. 143 
 
 HOPS. The following was written by William Blan- 
 chard, Jun. Esq., and first published in " The New England 
 Farmer." 
 
 "The hop is a native plant. It is found growing sponta- 
 neously on the banks and intervals of many of our large 
 rivers. There are several distinct species, all bearing a 
 near affinity to each other; (I have noticed five.) At present 
 they are cultivated together, promiscuously ; no preference 
 having been given to any particular one of them by the 
 brewer. 
 
 " The soil best calculated for the production of hops, is 
 a sandy loam, rather low and moist. I am led to this con- 
 clusion from my own observation, and from finding the lands 
 which produce them naturally to be of this kind. Yet, I 
 have seen fine crops raised on very different soils. 
 
 " I should recommend the following mode of preparing 
 the land and managing the crop. In the fall (October) 
 plough the land deep, nine or ten inches. In the spring fol- 
 lowing, pass a heavy, sharp, iron-toothed harrow over the 
 land, in the same direction it was ploughed; after which, 
 spread your manure evenly over the same, si.xteen cords per 
 acre, and more if the land be much reduced; then cross- 
 plough the land nearly the same depth, and furrow it as for 
 planting corn, the furrows to be at least four feet apart. 
 
 "It is customary to plant corn or potatoes with the hops; 
 (I should prefer potatoes.) Plant every other hill in every 
 other row with hops, thus placing the hop hills at least eight 
 feet apart. Put four cuttings from the running roots, about 
 eight inches in length, into each hill, and cover them the 
 common depth of potatoes. 
 
 " Many yards have been much injured by being planted 
 too closely. It is of great importance to have the hills so far 
 distant from each other as to admit a free current of air (o 
 pass through the yard. 
 
 " All the attention requisite the first season after the hops 
 are planted, is to keep them clean from weeds, which is easi- 
 ly done when hoeing the crop planted amongst them. In 
 the fall, (October,) to prevent their being injured by the 
 hard frosts of winter, carry on and lay out of your cart one 
 shovelful of compost manure on the top of each hill ; ma- 
 nure from the hogsty I should prefer. 
 
 " In each following spring, before the hops are opened, 
 as it is termed, spread evenly over the yard about eisht 
 cords of manure per acre, (coarse, strawy manure I should 
 
144 THE C;OMPLETE FARMER 
 
 prefer, as it will have a tendency to keep the land loose,) 
 and plough the field both ways at the first hoeing. They 
 require but three hoeings in a season, unless necessary to 
 subdue the weeds; the last of which should be performed 
 when the hops are in full blossom, (about the beginning of 
 August.) 
 
 "After the first crop, it is necessary to open the hops, 
 every spring, by the middle of May; which is performed by 
 making four furrows between the rows, turning the furrows 
 from the hills, and running the plough as near to the same 
 as possible without injuring the main roots. Then the earth 
 is removed from the roots with a hoe, all the running roots 
 cut in, with a sharp knife, within two inches of the main 
 roots; the tops of the main roots must also be cut in, and 
 then the hills covered with earth about two inches deep. 
 
 "The next thing necessary to be done is to set the poles. 
 This should be done as soon as the hop-vines begin to make 
 their appearance. By so doing, much time and labor will 
 be saved in tying up the vines to the poles, as many of the 
 vines will naturally take to the poles. There should not be 
 to exceed two vines to one pole, nor to exceed two poles to 
 one hill, nor any pole to exceed sixteen feet in height. 
 Many yards have been very much injured by letting a great- 
 er number of vines grow on one pole, and almost destroyed 
 by over-poling. 
 
 "Very much depends on paying due attention, in the 
 spring, to select the most thrifty vines, and training them to 
 the poles, which is done by fastening them to the poles with 
 a piece of yarn, slightly twisted together with the thumb and 
 finger. 
 
 " It will be necessary to inspect your hop-yard frequently, 
 until the hops begin to blossom, and 'tie up the vines,' as 
 it is termed, as they are subject to be blown off the poles by 
 every high wind. 
 
 " As soon as the hops are ripe, which is about the begin- 
 ning of September, they must be immediately gathered, or 
 the crop is lost. The quality of the hops depends consid- 
 erably on their being picked clean from leaves and stems. 
 The labor of picking or gathering the hops may be well per- 
 formed by women and children, having one man to a bin to 
 handle the poles and to inspect the pickers. The bin is a 
 wooden box, about nine feet long, three feet wide, and two 
 and a half feet high, made of thin pine boards, that it may 
 be easily moved over the yard, acro.ss which the poles are 
 
AND RITRAI, ECONOMIST. 145 
 
 laid, and into which the hops are picked by hand. Care 
 should be taken, when gathering the hops, to cut the vines 
 two feet from the ground, that the roots may not be injured 
 by bleeding. 
 
 " The most important part in the management of hops is 
 the curing or drying them. Here I would note, that hops 
 always grow first sort, and that all second sort and refuse 
 hops are made so by unfortunate or unskilful management. 
 
 " Much depends on having a well-constructed kiln. For 
 the convenience of putting the hops on the kiln, the side of 
 a hill is generally chosen for its situation. Care should be 
 taken that it be a dry situation. The kiln should be dug out 
 the same bigness at the bottom as at the top ; the side walls 
 laid up perpendicularly, and filled in solid with stone, to give 
 it a tunnel form. Twelve feet square at the top, two feet 
 square at the bottom, and at least eight feet deep, is deemed 
 a convenient size. On the top of the walls sills are laid, 
 having joists let into them in like manner as for laying a 
 floor ; on which laths, about one and a half inches wide, are 
 nailed, leaving open spaces between them three-fourths of 
 an inch, over which a thin linen cloth is spread and nailed 
 at the edges to the sills. A board about twelve inches wide 
 is set up on each side of the kiln, on the inner edge of the 
 sill, to form a bin to receive the hops. The larger the stones 
 made use of in the construction of the kiln, the better ; as 
 it will give a more steady and dense heat. The inside of 
 the kiln should be well plastered with mortar to make it 
 completely air-tight. Charcoal (that made from yellow birch 
 or maple I should prefer) is the only fuel proper to be used 
 in drying hops. The kiln should be well heated before any 
 hops are put on, and carefully attended, to keep a steady and 
 regular heat. 
 
 "Fifty pounds of hops, when dried, is the largest quanti- 
 ty that should be dried at one time, on a kiln of this size ; 
 and unless absolutely necessary to put on that quantity, a 
 less would dry better. The green hops should be spread as 
 evenly and as light as possible over the kiln. The fire at 
 first should be moderate, but it may be increased as the hops 
 dry and the steam is evaporated. 
 
 " Hops should not remain long in the bin or bag after they 
 are picked, as they will very soon heat and become insipid. 
 The hops should not be stirred on the kiln until they are 
 completely and fully dried. Then they should be removed 
 from the kiln into a dry room, and laid in a heap, and there 
 13 
 
146 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 remain, unmoved and unstirred, until bagged, which is done 
 with a screw, having a box made of plank, the size the 43ag 
 is wished, into which the cloth is laid, and the hops screwed 
 into the box, which is so constructed that the sides may be 
 removed, and the bag sewed together while in the press. 
 
 "The hops, after laying a kw days, will gather a partial 
 moisture, called a sweat. The sweat will probably begin to 
 subside in about eight days, at which time, and before the 
 sweat is off, they ought to be bagged in clear dry weather. 
 As the exact time when the hops will begin to sweat, and 
 when the sweat will begin to subside or dry off, (the proper 
 time to bag them,) will vary with the state of the atmos- 
 phere, it will be necessary to examine the hops from day to 
 day, which is easily done by taking some of them from the 
 centre of the heap with your hand. If on examination you 
 find the hops to be very damp, and their color altering, which 
 will be the case if they were not completely dried on the 
 kiln, and not otherwise, you must overhaul them and dry 
 them in the air. 
 
 "The most convenient size for a bag of hops, to handle 
 and transport, is about five feet in length, and to contain 
 about two hundred and fifty pounds. The best bagging is 
 coarse, strong tow cloth, of our domestic manufacturing; nest 
 to that, Russia hemp bagging. The East India sugar and 
 gunny bags, so called, ought never to be used. The sugar 
 bags are of an unreasonable weight, and both they and the 
 gunny bags are of no value to the brewer ; whereas the 
 other bags are worth prime cost. 
 
 " It is now common for those who have entered consider- 
 ably into the cultivation of hops, to build houses over their 
 kilns, which, in wet weather, are very convenient ; other- 
 wise, a kiln in the open air would be preferable. It is neces- 
 sary to have these buildings well ventilated with doors and 
 windows ; and to have them kept open night and day, ex- 
 cept in wet weather, and then shut those only which are 
 necessary to keep out the rain. If a ventilator was put in 
 the I'oof of the building, directly over the centre of the kiln, 
 about six feet square, built like those in breweries and dis- 
 tilleries, they would be found very advantageous. I have 
 seen many lots of hops much injured both iii color and flavor 
 by being dried in close buildings. 
 
 "Where the houses over the kilns are built large, for the 
 purpose of storing the hops as they are dried, which is a 
 great saving of labor, a close partition should be made be- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 147 
 
 tween the kilns and the room in which the hops are stored, 
 to prevent the damp steam from the kilns coming to them, as 
 it will color them, and injure their flavor and quality very 
 much. 
 
 " I expect that many of our farmers will object to the 
 mode of manuring hops which I have recommended, their 
 common practice being to put the manure in the hills when 
 they plant the hops, and afterwards to apply the manure on 
 the hills at the first and second hoeings. I find the hop- 
 roots are very liable to be injured by the worms, and to de- 
 cay. My opinion is, that the manure in the hill has a ten- 
 dency to produce the worms, and its fermentation at their 
 roots to cause their decay ; and that the crop is not more, if 
 as abundant, as when manured in the manner I have recom- 
 mended ; and, farther, that a hop-yard manured in this 
 manner will continue in a healthy state for many years. 
 
 "I also expect the quantity of manure I have recommend- 
 ed will be objected to by many, it being the commonly 
 received opinion, that hops should have little or no manure. 
 I find it a general complaint amongst the farmers where hops 
 have been cultivated many years, that the quantity raised 
 per acre does not exceed the one half raised by their ances- 
 tors on the same land ; inferring that the ' hops are running 
 out,' as it is termed, and cannot now be cultivated to ad- 
 vantage. Hops, in common with all sorts of grain and veg- 
 etables, flourish best and produce the finest crops when 
 cultivated on new lands, which require little or no manure ; 
 and such were the lands which their ancestors cultivated. 
 The same complaint, I presume, would be made against all 
 sorts of grain and vegetables, if raised with little or no 
 manure, on lands that have long been cultivated." 
 
 PEA. (Pisum Sativum.) The pea is a nardy annual, a 
 native of the south of Europe, cultivated in Great Britain 
 from time immemorial, and in this country from its first set- 
 tlement. 
 
 Times of Soioing. ' ' The dwarfs are generally employed 
 in hotbed culture, which, however, succeeds badly, and is 
 neither worth preserving nor describing, and the less so, as 
 early crops may be more certainly had by sowing in the fall, 
 in sheltered situations, and covering during the winter with 
 a layer of leaves, and another of long stable-litter, loosely 
 
148 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 applied, to keep the leaves in their places. After the earth 
 takes a temperature favorable to vegetation, your pea sow- 
 ings should be made once a fortnight, to keep up a regular 
 and successive supply." — ^irmst)'ong. 
 
 Quantity of Seed. "Of the small, early kinds, one pint 
 will sow a row of twenty yards ; for the larger sorts, for 
 main crops, the same measure will sow a row of thirty-three 
 yards." 
 
 Process in Sowing. " For early sorts, make the drills one 
 inch and a half deep ; and let parallel drills be two feet and 
 a half, three, or four feet asunder. Peas that are to grow 
 without sticks require the least room. For summer crops 
 and large sorts, make the drills two inches deep, and four, 
 five, or six feet asunder. As to the distances along the drill, 
 distribute the peas according to their size and the season ; 
 the frame, three in the space of an inch ; the Charltons, 
 Hotspur, and dwarf marrowfat, two in an inch ; the Prus- 
 sian blue and middle-sized sorts, three in two inches ; the 
 large marrowfat and Knight's, a full inch apart; the moratto, 
 rouncivals, and most larger sorts, an inch and a half apart ; 
 and the Patagonian, two inches." 
 
 Soil aiid Situatiori. " The soil should be moderately rich, 
 and the deeper and stronger for the lofty growers. Peas 
 are not assisted, but hurt, by unreduced dung recently turned 
 in. A fresh, sandy loam, or road-stuff, and a little decom- 
 posed vegetable matter, is the best manure. The soil for 
 the early crops should be very dry, and rendered so, where 
 the ground is moist, by mixing sand with the earth of the 
 drills." — Loudon. 
 
 Armstrong says, " A loose and warm soil is most favor- 
 able to this vegetable, which, by the way, is neither improv- 
 ed in quality nor quantity by stable manure. The soil of 
 Clichy, and of Point de Jour des Colombe, kc, in the 
 neighbourhood of Paris, is a pure sand, principally devoted 
 to pea crops, and yielding these most abundantly without the 
 application of dung, new or old." 
 
 Subsequent Culture. "As the plants rise from half an 
 inch high to two or three inches, begin to draw earth to the 
 stems, doing this when the ground is in a dry state, and 
 earthing gradually higher as the stems ascend. At the same 
 time, Math the hoe, loosen the ground between the young 
 plants, and cut down rising weeds. Early crops should be 
 protected during hard frosts by dry straw or other light lit- 
 ter, laid upon sticks or brushwood ; but remove the cover- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOiMIST. 149 
 
 ing as soon as the weather turns mild. If, in April, May, 
 and the course of the summer, dry weather occurs, watering 
 will be necessary, especially to plants in blossom and swell- 
 ing the fruit ; and this trouble will be repaid in the produce. 
 Rows partly cut off may be made up by transplanting. In 
 dry weather, water, and in hot weather, shade, until the 
 plants strike. All peas fruit better for sticking, and continue 
 longer productive, especially the larger sorts. Stick the 
 plants when from six to twelve inches high, as soon as they 
 begin to vine. Provide branchy sticks of such a height as 
 the sort will require ; for the frame and Leadman's dwarf, 
 three feet high ; for the Charlton and middle-sized, four or 
 five feet ; for the marrowfat and larger kinds, six or eight 
 feet ; for the rouncival, and for Knight's marrow-pea, nine 
 or ten feet. Place a row of sticks to each line of peas, on 
 the most sunny side, east or south, that the attraction of the 
 sun may incline the plants towards the sticks. Place about 
 half the number on the opposite side, and let both rows 
 stand rather wider at top than at the ground. Some 
 gardeners stop the leading shoot of the most early crop 
 when in blossom ; a device which accelerates the setting 
 and maturity of the fruit. 
 
 To forward an early Crop. " Sow or plant in lines from 
 east to west, and stick a row of spruce-fir [or other ever- 
 green] branches along the north side of every row, and slop- 
 ing so as to bend over the plants, at one foot or eighteen 
 inches from the ground. As the plants advance in height, 
 vary the position of the branches, so as they may always 
 protect them from perpendicular cold or rain, and yet leave 
 them open to the full influence of the spring sun. Some 
 cover, during nights and in severe weather, with two boards, 
 nailed together lengthwise, at right angles, which forms a 
 very secure and easily-managed covering, but excludes 
 light. A better plan would be to glaze one of the sides, to 
 be kept to the south, and to manage such row-glasses, as 
 they might be called, when over peas, beans, spinage, &c., 
 as hand-glasses are managed when over cauliflower; that is, 
 to take them off" in fine weather, or raise them constantly or 
 occasionally by brickbats, or other props, as the weather 
 and the state of the crop might require." — Loudon. 
 
 Management of a late Crop. The best variety for this 
 purpose is Knight's marrow-pea, which may be sown at in- 
 tervals of ten days from the beginning to the end of June. 
 "The ground is dug over in the usual way, and the spaces 
 13* 
 
150 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 to be occupied by the future rows of peas are well soaked 
 with water. The mould upon each side is then collected, so 
 as to form ridges seven or eight inches above the previous 
 level of the ground, and these ridges are well watered. The 
 seeds are now sown in single rows, along the tops of the 
 ridges. The plants grow vigorously, owing to the depth of 
 soil and abundant moisture. If dry weather at any time set 
 in, water is applied profusely once a week. In this way, 
 the plants continue green and vigorous, resisting mildew, 
 and yielding fruit till subdued by frost." — Hort. Trans. 
 Vol. II. 
 
 To save Seed. " Like other vegetables, the pea is sus- 
 ceptible of considerable improvement, and by the simple 
 means of marking the finest plants of each variety, and 
 keeping them for seed. Wilson's frame and the Knight pea 
 have been formed in this way, and afford sufficient proof of 
 the wonders produced by a very small degree of observation 
 and care." — Armstrong. 
 
 Field-cuUure of the Pea. The most common mode of 
 sowing peas is broad-cast; but the advantages of the row 
 culture, in a crop so early committed to the ground, must 
 be obvious. Loudon says, " In Kent, where immense quan- 
 tities of peas are raised, both for gathering green and for 
 selling ripe to the seedsmen, they are generally sown in 
 rows from eighteen inches to three feet asunder, according 
 to the kind, and well cultivated between. Peas laid a foot 
 below the surface will vegetate ; but the most approved 
 depth is six inches in light soil, and four inches in clay soil; 
 for which reason they ought to be sown under furrow when 
 the ploughing is delayed till spring. Of all grain, beans ex- 
 cepted, they are in the least danger of being buried too 
 deep." — Loudon. 
 
 Deane observed, that " for field peas, land that is newly 
 ploughed out of sward is generally accounted best ; and 
 land which is high and dry, and has not been much dunged. 
 A light, loamy soil, is most suitable for them ; and if it 
 abound with slaty stones, it is the better. But they will do 
 in any dry soil. The manures that suit peas best are marl 
 and lime. Our farmers do not commonly allow a sufficient 
 quantity of seed for peas, in broad-cast sowing. When peas 
 are sowed thin, the plants will lie on the ground, and per- 
 haps rot; when they are thick, the plants will hold each 
 other up with their tendrils, forming a continued web, and 
 will have more benefit of the air." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 151 
 
 Insects and Diseases. "The Massachusetts Agricultural 
 Repository," for June, 1822, contains some remarks of the 
 Hon. T. Pickering, relative to a bug or fly, {bruchus pisi,) 
 which preys on the pea, in which he observes, that an 
 effectual remedy for this evil is late soioing; but the hot sun 
 of June will so pinch the vines of the late sown peas, that 
 the crop will be small, unless the land be moist as well as 
 rich. He then details some experiments, by which he con- 
 .. eludes, that this insect is limited to a certain period for 
 depositing its eggs; and if the tender pods are not found till 
 that period has passed, the peas will be free from bugs. 
 Colonel Worthington, of Rensellaer county. New York, 
 " sowed his peas on the 10th of June, six years in succes- 
 sion, and a bug has never been seen in his peas; whereas 
 his neighbours, who have not adopted this practice, have 
 scarcely a pea without a bug in it. He supposes the season 
 for depositing the egg of the pea-bug is passed before the 
 peas are in flower." — Memoirs of JVeiv York Board of 
 Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 23. " The only insect that com- 
 monly injures our peas, is a small brown bug or fly, the egg 
 [or larv^] of which is deposited in them when they are 
 young, and the pods easily perforated. The insect does not 
 come put of its nest till he is furnished with short wings. 
 They diminish the peas in which they lodge nearly one half, 
 and their leavings are fit only for the food of swine. The 
 bugs, however, will be all gone out if you keep them to the 
 following autumn. But they who cat buggy peas the winter 
 after they are raised, must run the venture of eating the 
 insects." — Deane's JVciv England Farmer. 
 
 The same writer recommends, when seed peas are known 
 or suspected to contain insects, to scald them a quarter of a 
 minute in boiling water, spread them about, and sow them 
 without delay. If any of the bugs should be in the peas, 
 this scalding will destroy them; and the peas, instead of be- 
 ing hurt, will come up the sooner, and grow the faster. 
 
 Mildew is another evil attending peas, especially such as 
 are sown late in the season. This disorder is supposed by 
 Knight, to be caused by " a want of a sufficient supply of 
 moisture from the soil, with excess of humidity in the air, 
 particularly if the plants be exposed to a temperature below 
 that to which they have been accustomed." The remedy 
 which he recommends is, to "give water rather profusely 
 once a week, or nine days, even if the weather proves show- 
 ery." — See Mw England Farmer, Vol. I. p. 414. 
 
152 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Use. The use of peas for soups and other cuUnarj pur- 
 poses is well known. They are likewise very serviceable in 
 fattening hogs, for which purpose they should be harvested 
 dry, and ground into meal. If the straw be forward in au- 
 tumn, and has been harvested without injury, it will be little 
 inferior to ordinary hay for feeding cattle. 
 
 " In boiling split peas, some samples, without reference to 
 variety, fall or moulder down freely into pulp, while others 
 continue to maintain their form. The former are called 
 boilers. This property of boiling, depends on the soil; stiff 
 land, or sandy land that has been limed or marled, uniformly 
 produces peas that will not melt in boiling, no matter what 
 the variety may be." — Loudon. 
 
 " When peas are sown before winter, or early in spring, 
 they are very apt to be eaten by mice. To prevent this, 
 soak the peas for a day or two in train oil before you sow 
 them, which will encourage their vegetation, and render 
 them so obnoxious to the mice that they will not eat them." 
 — Domestic Encyclopedia. 
 
 BEANS. Loudon gives the following directions for the 
 culture of runners, or jjole-beans, as they are commonly call- 
 ed in this country: — The runner kidney beans may be sown 
 in a small portion towards the end of April, [about the mid- 
 dle of May in New England,] if tolerably warm, dry weath- 
 er ; but as these beans are rather more tender than the 
 dwarf sorts, more liable to rot in the ground by wet and 
 cold, especially the scarlets, the beginning or middle of May 
 [first of June in New England] will be time enough to sow 
 a considerable crop; and you may sow a full crop about the 
 beginning of June. Allot principally the scarlet and large 
 white runners. Some Dutch runners are very eligible as a 
 secondary crop. The first crops should have the assistance 
 of a south wall. Intermediate crops may be sown in any 
 open compartment, or against any fence not looking north. 
 The latest sown will continue bearing longer under a good 
 aspect and shelter. In sowing, draw drills about an inch 
 and a half, or not more than two inches deep. Let parallel 
 rows be at least four feet asunder, to admit in the intervals 
 tall sticks or poles for the plants to climb on. Place the 
 beans in the drills four inches apart, and earth them in even- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST lo3 
 
 ly the depth of the drills. A row contiguous to a fence or 
 building may ascend upon lines. Some may be sown in a 
 single row along a border, or on each side of a walk, and 
 havo the support of a slight trellis of laths and lines ; or 
 they might be arched over with similar materials, to form a 
 shady walk or bower. In a cold, wet season, or when re- 
 quisite to have a few plants more forward than the general 
 crop, some scarlets may be sown in April, either in a slight 
 hotbed, or in pots, under frames of hand-glasses, to raise 
 and forward the plants, till two or three inches high ; then, 
 at the end of May, transplant them into the open garden. 
 As the plants come up, and advance from three to six inches 
 in growth, hoe some earth to the stems, cutting down all 
 weeds. When they begin to send forth runners, place suita- 
 ble supports to each row; and conduct the tendrils to the 
 sticks or lines, turning them in a contrary direction to the 
 sun. The ascending plants will soon come into flower, pod- 
 ding at the joints, in long succession. They are so prolific, 
 that the returns from three sowings, in May, June, and July, 
 will last from July till October. 
 
 Taking the Crop. Gather the pods, both from dwarfs and 
 runners, while they are young, fleshy, brittle, and tender, for 
 then they are in the highest perfection for the table ; and 
 the plants will bear more fully, and last longer in fruit, under 
 a course of clean gathering, not leaving any superabundant 
 pods to grow old. 
 
 To save Seed. Either sow a portion for that object, or 
 leave rows wholly ungathered of the main crop, or preserve 
 a sufficiency of good pods promiscuously. The beans saved 
 should be the first fruits of a crop sown at a period which 
 throws the entire course of growth into the finest part of 
 summer. Let them hang on the stalks till they ripen fully, 
 in August and September ; then let the haulm be pulled up 
 and placed in the sun, to dry and harden the seed, which 
 should be afterwards cleared out of the husks, bagged up, 
 and housed. 
 
 The pea, English bean, and kidney bean, are liable to the 
 attacks of various insects, especially the aphides, [plant lice,] 
 in dry seasons. When early crops are newly sown or plant- 
 ed, mice will burrow for and eat the seed, and when it be- 
 gins to penetrate the soil, it is attacked by snails, slugs, the 
 cut-worm, &c. The usual means of guarding against the 
 ravages of insects must, therefore, be resorted to by the 
 gardener. 
 
% 
 
 154 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 As regards the field-culture of the bean, we would observe, 
 that the white kind, which is most generally approved of in 
 New England, will produce pretty good crops on poor, 
 sandy, or gravelly soils ; but, when planted on such ground, 
 it is good husbandry to wet and roll them in plaster before 
 planting. They may be planted in hills or drills, the rows 
 two and a half or three feet apart, according to the strength 
 of the soil, and cultivated like other hoed crops. They may 
 be planted the latter end of May, or beginning of June, or 
 about the time of planting Indian corn. If planted in hills, 
 they may be placed from fourteen to twenty-four inches apart 
 in the rows, and the rows the distance before mentiDned. 
 Five beans are quite enough to remain in a hill. Hogs' 
 dung, mixed with ashes, is said to be the best manure for 
 them ; and it is said to be very injurious to beans to hoe 
 them while the dew is on, or in wet weather. 
 
 Judge Buel, of Albany, has given the following notices 
 of some experiments in the field-culture of this vegetable : 
 " Beans may be cultivated in drills or in hills. They are a 
 valuable crop ; and, with good care, are as profitable as a 
 wheat crop. They leave the soil in good tilth. The China 
 bean, with a red eye is to be preferred. They ripen early, 
 and are very productive. I cultivated beans the last year 
 in three different ways, viz. in hills, in drills, and sowed 
 broad-cast. I need not describe the first, which is a well- 
 known process. I had an acre in drills, which was the best 
 crop 1 ever saw. My management was this ; on an acre 
 of light ground, where the clover had been frozen out the 
 preceding winter, I spread eight loads of long manure, and 
 immediately ploughed and harrowed the ground. Drills or 
 furrows were then made with a light plough, at the distance 
 of two and a half feet, and the beans thrown along the fur- 
 rows, about the 25th of May, by the hand, at the rate of at 
 least a bushel on the acre. I then gauged a double mould- 
 board plough, which was passed once between the rows, and 
 was followed by a light one-horse roller, which flattened the 
 ridges. The crop was twice cleaned of weeds, by the hoe, 
 but not earthed. The product was more than forty-eight 
 bushels, by actual measurement. The beans brought me 
 one dollar the bushel last fall. The third experiment was 
 likewise upon a piece of ground where the clover had been 
 killed. It was ploughed about the 1st of June, the seed 
 sown like peas, upon the first furrow, and harrowed in. The 
 drought kept them back ; but about sixty-five rods of ground, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 155 
 
 on which the experiment was made, gave a product of twelve 
 and a half bushels. The crop was too ripe when it Avas har- 
 vested, and as it was cut with 'a scythe, I estimated that 
 about two and a half bushels were left upon the ground. No 
 labor was bestowed upon them from the time they were sown 
 till they were harvested. 
 
 SWINE. Notwithstanding their evil propensities, filthy 
 and mischievous habits, and insatiable voracity, swine are 
 very profitable animals to a farmer. Indeed, every family 
 in which there is any cooking done should keep at least one 
 hog, always confined in a proper pen, in order to consume 
 the washing of pots, dishes, refuse food, &c. 
 
 As much depends on the breed of swine as of any domes- 
 tic animal, as relates to the profit of keeping. The old- 
 fashioned, thin, long-legged, long-nosed, gaunt-bodied hogs 
 are now, we believe, hardly tolerated in New England, and 
 are becoming as scarce as they are ugly and unprofitable. 
 We are but little acquainted with the different breeds of their 
 successors, and shall not therefore assume the responsibility 
 of recommending any particular race. O. Fiske, Esq., of 
 Worcester, an able, enlightened, and patriotic cultivator, 
 says, " My hogs are of the Bedford breed, so called in Eng- 
 land ; and experience has proved to my satisfaction that this 
 breed is far the best that has been introduced into our coun- 
 try. They are quiet in their nature, fat easy, and with little 
 expense or trouble. I have had some weigh at twelve months 
 old about three hundred and forty pounds, and a considera- 
 ble number of eighteen months old four hundred pounds." 
 
 " Tiie marks of a good hog are, a moderate length in pro- 
 portion to the size of the body ; the nose short ; the cheek 
 plump and full ; neck thick and short ; quarters full ; car- 
 cass thick and full ; hair fine and thin ; with a symmetry 
 adapted to the breed to which it belongs. Above all, it is es- 
 sential that it be of a kindly disposition to fatten early." 
 
 The sow should be selected with great care, broad and 
 straight-backed; wide hips; a great many teats ; short legs, 
 and fine bone. It is said that the sow will produce the 
 stronger and better litter if not allowed to breed till a year 
 old, and the boar should not be younger than that age when 
 put to sows. Sows may be allowed to breed till they are six 
 years old, and boars till five ; and both be made good pork 
 
156 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 after this period, by methods which do not require descrip- 
 tion. One male, according to " The Complete Grazier," 
 should not be permitted to have access to more than ten fe- 
 males in a year. Sows will usually have pigs twice a year, 
 and should be put to the males at such times as will bring 
 one litter in April and another early in September. 
 
 "Those sows are accounted the best breeders," says 
 "The Farmer's Assistant," "which have about ten or 
 twelve paps. They should be kept clean and well littered ; 
 but should not have too much litter at the time of pigging, 
 lest they overlay their pigs in it. At the end of a week or 
 ten days, they should be let out of their sties into the yard 
 for three or four hours each day. Where several sows are 
 farrowing about the same time, they must be kept in sepa- 
 rate apartments in the sty, lest they devour the pigs of each 
 other. Young sows will sometimes eat their own offspring, 
 which may be prevented, by washing the backs of the pigs 
 in an infusion of aloes ; and, for this purpose, the sows 
 must be watched. It is said that supplying them with plenty 
 of water at this time will prevent any mischief taking place 
 of this kind." 
 
 Mr. Featherstonhaugh says, "Farmers differ much in 
 their plans of raising stock for pork ; some permitting their 
 shoats to run at large eighteen months, till they are penned 
 up to fatten ; this is the most troublesome and least profita- 
 ble way ; others give them a range in clover pastures, and 
 begin to fatten them earlier. I apprehend there is a much 
 more profitable way, and attended with less trouble for those 
 who have the right breed. According to the quantity of 
 pork wanted should be the number of breeding sows kept 
 over, and there should be no other hogs on the farm [that is, 
 kept over winter] but the breeding sows. These, when they 
 pig the latter end of March, should be fed in the most at- 
 tentive manner, with swill and shorts. The pigs from a full- 
 grown sow will generally be twelve in number; these should 
 be thinned down to eight, and as soon as they begin to feed 
 freely out of the trough should be weaned, and afterwards 
 fed regularly with green tares, clover, boiled potatoes, ground 
 peas, unmerchantable corn, or any other nourishing food ; 
 turning them out every day into a small yard, where there 
 is a shallow pond for them to lie in. A remarkable breed 
 of pigs, which had been treated pretty much in this manner, 
 were exhibited at Duanesburgh fair; when eight months old, 
 one of them was slaughtered, and weighed exactly three 
 
 ^\ 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 157 
 
 hundred and eleven pounds ; they all attracted universal at- 
 tention, and I never saw such animals before. This method, 
 as it is attended with little trouble, and leaves so small a 
 quantity of stock on hand to winter over, appears to me to 
 be more economical, in every point of view, than any other 
 which is practised."* In the county of Rensellaer, New 
 York, some farmers assert, that "March pigs, killed about 
 Christmas, are the most profitable for pork." Others say, 
 " pigs ought never to come until June; for the cost of earlier 
 pigs exceeds the profit." And, farther, we learn that " the 
 methods proposed for fattening hogs by the different farmers 
 in that county are very various. General H. Moffit, H. 
 Piatt, Esq., Colonel Worthington, Messrs. J. Phillips, A. 
 Bush, and some others, recommend keeping hogs in pas- 
 tures, with some slops from the dairy, &c., till near the last 
 of August; some say a little later. All agree that near this 
 time they manifest a disrelish for grass. Small patches of 
 peas, or even of corn, will then be convenient to turn them 
 into for a few weeks. About the first of September begin 
 with boiled potatoes and pumpkins, mashed together, with a 
 little Indian meal, ground oats and peas, or other grain, 
 stirred into the mixture after it cools. From two to four 
 weeks before killing time, the food should be dry Indian 
 corn, and clean cold water. Mr. Yonghans fattens his hogs 
 in a large yard or field, with a shelter in it to which they 
 may retire to sleep. But elder Turner says, hogs should 
 never know what liberty is, but should be kept close all their 
 lives, and as inactive as possible ; that with this method 
 double the quantity of pork can be produced with the same 
 expense of feed."| 
 
 The practice in Scotland is,^to rear swine chiefly on raw 
 potatoes, and to fatten them on these roots, boiled or prepar- 
 ed by steam, with a mixture of oats, barley, or bean and 
 pea-meal. Their troughs should be often replenished with 
 a small quantity of food at a time, and kept always clean, 
 and seasoned occasionally with salt. J " The Farmer's 
 Magazine " says, "The outside leaves of cabbages, salted 
 and let stand a month, and then mixed with buttermilk, will 
 fat a hog in three weeks." Mr. Marshall says, (" Midland 
 Counties," Vol. V. p. 453,) "Young pigs require warm 
 
 * Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture, Vol. I. p. 332. 
 
 t Memoirs of the New York Board of Agricnlttire, Vol. II. pp. 39, 40. 
 
 :}; Report of Agriculture in Scotland. 
 
 14 
 
158 THE COMPLETE far:.:er 
 
 meat to make them p-ow. Com and cold water will make 
 them healthy; but warm beverage is considered as requisite 
 to a quick growth." The same writer mentions another 
 practice, which perhaps it may be thought proper to imitate 
 in this country, because it saves labor and care. Some 
 English farmers, he says, " keep two or three little store 
 pigs in the fatting sty. ^Vhile the fatting hogs are taking 
 their repast, the little ones wait behind them, and as soon as 
 their betters are'served, lick out the troughs. 
 
 "Besides the advantage of having by this expedient no 
 waste nor foal troughs, there is another. The large pigs 
 rise alertlv to their food, lest the small ones should forestall 
 them; and till themselves the fuller, knowing that they have 
 it not again to go to. 
 
 " The disadvantage of this practice is, I understand, the 
 large ones are apt to lord it too much over the little ones; 
 especially in a confined sty. If. however, they had a sepa- 
 rate apartment assigned them, with an entrance too small for 
 the fatting swine to follow them, this disadvantage would be 
 in a great measure remedied." 
 
 If one wishes to fatten hogs, and either irom indolence or 
 too much occupation does not expect to give them a con- 
 stant and regular attention, perhaps he may adopt to advan- 
 tage the following mode, pointed out bv an English writer. 
 "Mr. John Adams, of Cherrington, near Newport, Shrop- 
 shire, has fattened eight pigs in the following cheap and easy 
 manner: he places two troughs in the sty, one he fills with 
 raw potatoes, the otlier with peas, and gives no water: when 
 the pigs are dry they eat the potatoes. The eight pigs were 
 fattened so as to weigh from sixteen to twenty score each, 
 and ate no more than thirty bushels of peas, and about two 
 hundred bushels of potatoes." Xo doubt dry Indian corn 
 and potatoes might be fed out in this way with as good an 
 effect as peas and potatoes. 
 
 Rubbing and currying the hides of fattening hogs is of 
 great advantage to them. It is not only very grateful to 
 them, but conducive to their health. It will be well, like- 
 wise, in every sty to place a strong post for the animals to 
 rub against. During the time of their fattening they should 
 have plenty of litter, which will be a double advantage, pro- 
 vidincr for the comfort of the animal and increasing the 
 quantity of manure. 
 
 Boiled or steamed clover hay will, it is said, keep store 
 hogs in the winter, but the addition of boiled or steamed po- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 159 
 
 tatoes or carrots will much increase the value of the wash. 
 Mr. Young directs to soil or feed swine in a yard on clover, 
 cut up with a scythe, in preference to pasturing them in the 
 field. But Judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, says, " In sum- 
 mer my hogs chiefly run on clover. Swine feeding on clover 
 in the fields will thrive wonderfully; when those (confined or 
 not) fed on cut clover will fall away." In Indian harvest, 
 the unripe ears of corn should be picked out and given to 
 the hogs as fast as they can eat them. Soft corn (as it is 
 called) will do them much more good in a green than in a 
 dried state, and it is very difficult to dry it without its turn- 
 ing mouldy. 
 
 There is a great advantage in boiling, steaming, or baking 
 almost all sorts of food given to swine. The last American 
 edition of "The Domestic Encyclopedia," informs, that 
 "Mr. Timothy Kirk, of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, fed one 
 pig with boiled potatoes and Indian corn, and another with 
 the same articles unboiled. The two animals were weighed 
 every week, and the difference between them was as six to 
 nine. The experiment was continued several weeks, and 
 the animals alternately fed upon boiled and unboiled food, 
 with a uniformity of result, which sufficiently showed the 
 very great profit arising from boiled food." Steaming will 
 answer as good a purpose as boiling, and with a proper ap- 
 paratus may be more easily and cheaply effected.* Potatoes, 
 meal, and a little linseed boiled together, make a rich and 
 excellent wash. Boiled linseed, it is said, has a tendency to 
 make pork soft and oily, and should therefore be but little if 
 at all used towards the close of the time in which hogs are 
 fattening. Grains of distilleries and the refuse of starch 
 factories are excellent for fattening swine. Sweet apples are 
 very good food for them, and a change of diet pretty often 
 promotes their health and quickens the process of fattening. 
 Their meals should frequently be seasoned with a little salt. 
 " The Complete Farmer," says, that " moist sedgy grounds 
 are good for swine, the roots which grow in such soils they 
 •will eat; likewise brakes, ground-nuts, acorns, chestnuts," 
 &c. Dr. Anderson said, that the hogs that are fed upon the 
 acorns that they gather in the woods of Germany and Poland 
 are reckoned to yield the finest bacon of any in Europe; and 
 it is to this that most people ascribe the superior excellence 
 of Westphalia hams. It might be well to try acorns, steamed 
 
 *See New England Farmer, Vol. I. p. 23. 
 
160 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 or boiled, in order to correct their crudeness and bitterness; 
 and it has been recommended to moisten them, and keep 
 them on hand till they begin to sprout, when they will be 
 more sweet and nutritious than in their original state. " The 
 Complete Farmer" asserts, that "when hogs are fatted entire- 
 ly on acorns, chestnuts, and other productions of the forest, 
 the flesh will eat much better and sweeter than if fattened in 
 a sty. Some indeed say their fat will not be so solid, nor so 
 profitable, and therefore they commonly shut them up a week 
 or ten days, and feed them with dry peas; but this is a mis- 
 take, experience having shown that hogs fatted with acorns 
 only have their fat as solid as those fatted with peas." If this 
 be correct, the value of acorns as food for swine is not gene- 
 rally known in those parts of the United States with which 
 we have been acquainted. We have seen places in the 
 neighbourhood of farmers' dwellings where bushels might be 
 had for stooping, but were as much neglected as if they had 
 been pebble stones. The acorns recommended are, we be- 
 lieve, those of the white oak; and whether the acorns of the 
 numerous other kinds of oak are of any value as food for 
 swine we cannot say. It might be well to try them, not only 
 raw, but boiled or steamed, and likewise ground into meal, 
 and given with, as well as without other mixtures. We sus- 
 pect that acorns alone would prove astringent, and if so, they 
 might be qualified with a trough full of raw potatoes. 
 
 Carrots, according to Mr. Young, are better than pota- 
 toes, and some other writers assure us, that parsnips are bet- 
 ter than either for feeding hogs. An English writer says, 
 "They fatten all their pork in the island of Jersey with 
 parsnips. They are much more saccharine than carrots, and 
 it is well known that nothing fattens a hog faster or makes 
 finer pork than the sugar-cane: " and we are told, that pars- 
 nips, suffered to remain in the ground where they grew 
 through the winter, and drawn in the spring, and boiled, tops 
 and bottoms, made most excellent food for swine when other 
 food was scarce. 
 
 Acid or fermented food for swine has been highly recom- 
 mended. Mr. Arthur Young, whose authority amongst hus- 
 bandmen is almost equal to that of the pope with Roman 
 Catholics, says, " that the most profitable method of con- 
 verting corn of any kind into food for hogs is, to grind it into 
 meal, and mix this with water in cisterns, in the proportion 
 of five bushels of meal to one hundred gallons water; stir- 
 ring it well several times a day for three weeks in cold 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 161 
 
 weather, or a fortnight in a warmer season, by which it will 
 have fermented well and become acid, till which it is not 
 ready to give. The mixture should always be stirred im- 
 mediately before feeding, and two or three cisterns should 
 be kept fermenting in succession, that no necessity may oc- 
 cur of giving it not duly prepared." Judge Peters, of Penn- 
 sylvania, whose authority is, in our opinion, not inferior to 
 that of any man who ever wrote on agricultural topics, says, 
 in substance, that "sour food is most grateful and alimenta- 
 ry to swine. One gallon of sour wash goes farther than two 
 of sweet." But 
 
 An English work, entitled "Farmer's Calender," (author's 
 name not given,) declares, that " much has been said, and 
 little understood, about purposely souring food for hogs. It 
 is not that acidity can possibly tend to pinguefaction, [mak- 
 ing fat,] but it is found the pigs will readily fatten upon acid, 
 or rather acescent food, a sweetish taste and glutinous quality 
 succeeding fermentation; and that they icill do so still more 
 readily upon such as has never reached the acid state, I know 
 and have seen in hundreds of instances. Is a proof wanted ? 
 How much more readily do the country hogs feed upon 
 sweet and unfermented food, than those of the starch-house 
 upon the fermented and subacid wash, however rich. I say 
 subacid, for did not starch-makers run off a great part of 
 that which is really sour, they would kill instead of fatten 
 their hogs." 
 
 In order to reconcile these writers, it will only be necessary 
 to advert to the different stages of ordinary fermentation, 
 and the products of each stage. The first stage of fermen- 
 tation produces sugar, and is called the saccharine fermenta- 
 tion. The second stage developes alcohol, or spirit of wine, 
 and is called the vinous fermentation. The third stage pro- 
 duces vinegar, and is called the acid fermentation; and the 
 fourth and last stage converts the matter fermenting into a 
 substance which is not only offensive, but poisonous, and is 
 called the putrid fermentation. Thus if you soak wheat or 
 other farinaceous substance in water of a proper temperature, 
 it will first become sweet, and begin to sprout or vegetate; 
 it will next afford spirit or alcohol; continue the process, the 
 wash turns sour, at first slightly, and then more strongly 
 acid; and at last the whole becomes putrid. It probably 
 contains most nourishment when it is sweetest, but it is valu- 
 able till very sour, when it is worth little or nothing; and 
 when the putrid fermentation has commenced it is worse 
 
162 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 than nothing, as food for any animal. The farmer then 
 should give his wash to his pigs while it is yet sweet, or but 
 beginning to turn sour. 
 
 Fattening Pigs on Coal. Cunningham, in his "Two Years 
 in New South Wales," relates, "I had often heard it said 
 among sailors that pigs would fatten on coals, and although 
 I had observed them very fond of munching up the coals and 
 cinders that came in their way, still I conceived they might 
 relish them more as a condiment or medicine than as food, 
 till I was assured by a worthy friend of mine, long in com- 
 mand of a ship, that he once knew of a pig being lost for 
 several weeks in a vessel he commanded, and it was at last 
 found to have tumbled into the coal-hole, and there lived all 
 that period without a single morsel of any thing to feed upon 
 but coals : on being dragged out, it was found as jjlump and 
 fat as if it had been feasting on the most nutritious food. 
 Another friend told me of a similar case, which came under 
 his observation; and although these may be solitary instan- 
 ces, yet they serve at least to show the wonderful facility 
 which the stomachs of certain animals possess of adapting 
 their digestive powers to such an extraordinary species of 
 food, and extracting wholesome nourishment therefrom. 
 When we consider coal, however, to be a vegetable produc- 
 tion, containing the constituent principles of fat, carbon, 
 hydrogen, and oxygen, our surprise will decrease." 
 
 An Ohio farmer also, in a southern paper, recommends 
 coals as useful in fattening hogs. After giving his hogs a 
 small quantity daily, say two pieces to each, about the size 
 of a hen's egg, they discontinued rooting, were more quiet, 
 and appeared to fatten faster. He omitted the coal a few 
 days, and they commenced rooting ; he gave it again, and 
 they ceased to root. He supposed that the coal corrects the 
 morbid fluid in the stomach, which incites them to root deep 
 in search of fresh earth. 
 
 The following mixture for fattening swine has been re- 
 commended : 
 
 Wash potatoes clean, boil and mash while hot, mix in at 
 the same time oats and pea meal. Put the mixture into a 
 large tub, which must stand till it becomes sour, but not 
 putrid. Keep a quantity of this on hand, always fermenting, 
 and give it to your hogs as often as they will eat. 
 
 Apples have been much recommended as food for swine. 
 They are good raw, but better if boiled and mixed with 
 meal. A writer in a Brattleborough paper observes, " I have 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 163 
 
 tested by ten years' experience the value of apples as food 
 for animals. I keep five or six hogs in my orchard, upon 
 nothing but apples and a little swill ; and have uniformly 
 found them to grow and gain flesh faster than hogs fed upon 
 any thing else but grain. On the 1st of November, they 
 are very decent pork ; after which I feed them about six 
 weeks on grain before I kill them ; and I believe I have as 
 fat hogs and as good pork as my neighbours, who give to 
 their hogs double the quantity of grain that I do to mine." 
 
 Soivs devouring their Offspring. It is not unfrequently the 
 case that sows destroy their offspring. In "The New Eng- 
 land Farmer," (Vol. V. p. 214,) is a communication from 
 the Hon. O. Fiske, in which he observes, " In most cases 
 where I have inquired into the fact, whether in old or young 
 breeders, I have ascertained that they have been disturbed 
 in some of their essential habits, either having been remov- 
 ed from their companions, their range restricted, or from 
 being removed from one pen to another. All these changes, 
 however, may be efTected with safety, by allowing them suf- 
 ficient time to become accustomed to them, four or five 
 weeks at least. I have known sows do well with a second 
 litter after having destroyed a first under one of the above 
 excitements. Hence, it would be unwise to condemn to 
 death one which bid fair otherwise to be a valuable breeder, 
 even for this most unnatural crime." 
 
 Another writer directs to " separate the sow from the rest 
 of the swine six or eight weeks before her bringing forth, so 
 that she may become accustomed to her pen. Care should 
 be taken, however, to have her pen kept dry and well lit- 
 tered ; always give them litter enough so as not to be oblig- 
 ed to give any for six days before the time, for nothing dis- 
 turbs a sow more than an abundance of litter, and which in 
 my opinion has a great tendency to induce her to destroy 
 her young. If the sow is with the other swine till within a 
 few days of her bringing forth, and then separated, she 
 will not get accustomed to her pen, and being disturbed, she 
 will be pretty sure to destroy her pigs. 
 
 "Raw salt pork, cut in small pieces, and given, will pre- 
 vent them from eating their pigs. I have seen it given after 
 they had ate two or three of their litter, with good success. 
 But to prevent any mischief it should be kept by them at 
 this time."* A writer for the same paper, (Vol. XI. p. 298,) 
 
 * New England Farmer, Vol. XI. p. 297. 
 
164 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 observes, "I have been careful for about a week before my 
 sows were about to farrow, to give them some butcher's re- 
 fuse meat, which does not cost much ; if easy to be pro- 
 cured give them a plenty, and I will venture to say that they 
 will not eat their pigs." 
 
 Another, in the same volume, p. 305, observes, " When 
 the period of yeaning is near, I take the sow apart and give 
 her free access to a ivarm bedroom of ample dimensions in 
 my barn, with a dry plank floor, where the shingled walls 
 prevent the entrance of cold, rain, or wind, with just enough 
 straw to amuse her ' moments of anxiety,' but not enough to 
 allow a single pig to cover his head and lose his road to the 
 fountain of comfort." A writer with the signature "Berk- 
 shire," in the same volume, p. 321, states as his opinion, that 
 the evil is caused by confining the sow in a light pen from 
 the ground, and the want of a suitable supply of potatoes, 
 turnips, ruta baga. Sec, in addition to their other food. 
 " Whaler,'' in the same paper, p. 338, who has raised fine 
 pigs on board of a whale ship, at sea, without grass or roots, 
 Iselieved animal food the specific remedy for the unnatural 
 inclination of sows to devour their offspring. And "A 
 Subscriber " "is sanguine in the opinion, that if sows are so 
 placed as to be able to come to the ground a few days before 
 pigging, no disappointment would ever happen in the loss of 
 pigs. It is not convenient to let them ramble at large ; a 
 temporary pen upon ground is equally good." 
 
 Swine should not be kept in close and filthy pens. Though 
 they wallow in mire, their object is coolness, not nastiness, 
 and they thrive faster and enjoy better health when allowed 
 clean and dry lodgings than when they are not thus accommo- 
 dated. The late judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, in an arti- 
 cle entitled "Notices for a Young Farmer," Sic, observed, 
 that " there is no greater mistake than that oi^ gorging swine, 
 when first penned for fattening. They should, on the con- 
 trary, be moderately and frequently fed, so that they be kept 
 full, i3ut do not loathe or reject their food, and in the end 
 contract fevers and dangerous maladies, originating in a hot 
 and corrupted mass of blood. In airy and roomy, yet mod- 
 erately warm pens, paved and boarded, and often cleaned, 
 they are healthy and thriving. They show a disposition to 
 be cleanly, however otherwise it is supposed, and always 
 leave their excrementitious matter in a part of the pen dis- 
 tinct from that in which they lie down. No animal will 
 thrive unless it be kept clean." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIaiT. 165 
 
 The same writer asserted in substance, that fatting hogs 
 should always be supplied with dry, rotten wood, which 
 should be kept in their pens, for the animals to eat as their 
 appetites or instincts may direct. It has been supposed, 
 likewise, that swine thrive the better when they can obtain 
 fresh earth, which they are often observed to swallow with 
 greediness. 
 
 It is an object of much consequence to obtain the best 
 breed of swine, not only as regards the saving of food, but 
 producing the best qualities of flesh. The Hon. Oliver Fiske, 
 of Worcester, as before observed, has rendered great ser- 
 vice to the community, by introducing to the notice of far- 
 mers in this country a variety of this animal called the 
 Bedford Breed. This breed has been highly recommend- 
 ed by many who have ascertained their merits by trial. His 
 excellency Levi Lincoln, late governor of Massachusetts, 
 and president of the Worcester Agricultural Society, has 
 given his opinion of this variety, in a letter, from which the 
 following are extracts : 
 
 " I have great pleasure in voluntarily offering myself as 
 your compurgator in the representations with which you 
 have recently favored the public, of the Bedford breed of 
 swine. The care and perseverance which have marked your 
 attention to the prospects and value of these animals, and 
 the success which has followed your exertions to introduce 
 them to the favor o( practical farmers, require, at least, an 
 acknowledgment of obligation from all those who have been 
 particularly benefited by your liberality, and from no one 
 more than from myself This breed of swine has taken the 
 place of a long-legged, long-nosed, flat-sided, thriftless race, 
 called by some the Irish breed, by others the Russian, which 
 would barely pay by their weight for ordinary keeping, and 
 never for one half the expense of fattening, if, indeed grain 
 would make them fat. 
 
 " I had three pigs butchered from the same litter, precise- 
 ly seven and a half months old. Their weights, when 
 dressed, were two hundred and thirty, two hundred and thir- 
 ty-five, and two hundred and thirty-eight and a half pounds. 
 One sold in Boston for six and one-fourth cents per pound ; 
 the others were put up here for family use. The expense 
 of keeping and fattening these pigs, I am satisfied, was less 
 than with any other breed I ever raised, and the proportion 
 of bone and offal to the valuable parts was surprisingly 
 small, I have fifteen more on my farm, part designed for 
 
166 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the market in the spring, and part to be kept over as store 
 swine, and their appearance will furnish ocular satisfaction 
 of the propriety of all which has been said in favor of the 
 breed." 
 
 This breed of swine was .brought to this country as a 
 present to General Washington, from the Duke of Bedford, 
 who committed them to the care of an English farmer by 
 the name of Parkinson. This man took a farm in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Baltimore ; but instead of sending the swine to 
 General Washington, Parkinson sold them. 
 
 Captain John Mackay, of Boston, has exhibited at Brigh- 
 ton a peculiar and excellent breed of swine, which have re- 
 peatedly received premiums from the Massachusetts Agri- 
 cultural Society. 
 
 MANURES. No soil will always prove productive with- 
 out manure. Though naturally fertile, if some equivalent 
 for its produce is not returned to it ; if it is always yielding 
 and never receiving, it must, at length, become barren. 
 
 Particular spots, like Egypt, and other alluvial or interval 
 lands, which are annually overflowed, derive manure from 
 the bountiful hand of nature, and cannot be rendered barren 
 by bad husbandry or continual cropping. Some soils, like- 
 wise, are not easily exhausted, and are easily recruited, in 
 consequence of being composed of materials which attract 
 and retain the food of plants from air and water, as well as 
 afford a proper medium to prepare and communicate the 
 principle of fertility. 
 
 Every species of matter capable of promoting tlie growth 
 of vegetables may be considered as manure. Vegetables are 
 composed of certain substances, called by chemists oxygen 
 [formerly called vital air], hydrogen [inflammable air], car- 
 bon [coaly matter], and nitrogen, or azote, one of the con- 
 stituent parts of the atmosphere. The substances employed 
 as manure should be composed of all or some of these ele- 
 ments. 
 
 Vegetable and animal substances, deposited in the soil, 
 are consumed during the process of vegetation ; being 
 mostly absorbed by the roots of plants, combined with wa- 
 ter. These substances compose what is called the food of 
 plants. This food is mostly taken in by the roots, which are 
 analogous to the mouths of animals, but some portion of the 
 nourishment of vegetables is also derived from the atmos- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 167 
 
 phere, imbibed by the leaves and bark. Thus the carcas- 
 ses of lambs and other small animals are sometimes hung on 
 the limbs of fruit-trees to promote their growth, and cause 
 them to bear abundantly, and thus produce some effect ; but 
 the practice is slovenly and wasteful, as the air is contamin- 
 ated, and the carcass buried near the roots would be much 
 more efficient as manure. 
 
 A controversy has existed relative to the degree of fer- 
 mentation which manure should undergo before it is applied 
 to the soil. Some agriculturists contend that long, fresh, or 
 unfermented manure is to be preferred. Others assert, that 
 stable and barn-yard manure never should be spread in the 
 field till the fibrous texture of the vegetable matter is entire- 
 ly broken down, and it becomes perfectly cold, and so soft 
 as to be easily cut with a spade. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy observes, " If the pure dung of cat- 
 tle is to be used as manure, there seems no reason why it 
 should be made to ferment, except in the soil ; or if suffered 
 to ferment it should be only in a very slight degree. The 
 grass in the neighbourhood of recently voided dung is always 
 coarse and dark green ; some persons have attributed this 
 to a noxious quality in unfermented dung ; but it seems to 
 be rather the result of an excess of food furnished to the 
 plants. 
 
 " During the violent fermentation which is necessary for 
 reducing farm-yard manure to the state of what is called 
 short muck, not only a large quantity of fluid, but likewise 
 of gaseous matter, is lost ; so much so that the dung is re- 
 duced one-half or two-thirds in weight ; and the principal 
 elastic matter disengaged, in carbonic acid, and some am- 
 monia ; and both of these, if retained by the moisture of the 
 soil, are capable of becoming useful nourishment of plants. 
 
 " It is usual to carry straw that can be employed for no 
 other purpose to the dunghill, to ferment and decompose; 
 but it is worth an experiment, whether it may not be more 
 economically applied when chopped small by a proper ma- 
 chine, and kept dry till it is ploughed in for the use of the 
 crop. In this case, though it would decompose much more 
 slowly and produce less efiect at first, yet its influence would 
 be more lasting." 
 
 ■ Robert Smith, Esq., president of the Maryland Agricul- 
 tural Society, in an address to that society observed, " With 
 respect to stable-dung, I shall for the present content my- 
 self by barely suggesting, that my experience strongly in- 
 
168 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 clines me to the opinion that, however long, it ought to be 
 ploughed into the ground without any previous stirring, and 
 as soon as practicable after it has been taken from the farm- 
 yard." 
 
 We believe that the question relative to long and to short 
 manure must depend on circumstances. In certain soils, and 
 for certain crops, long manure which has undergone but a 
 slight fermentation is to be preferred. But if used for wheat, 
 and other kinds of grain, and in all crops which cannot con- 
 veniently be hoed or weeded, or, probably, when applied to 
 soils containing acids or some substances which may prevent 
 fermentation and retard the progress of putrescence and dis- 
 solution, it must be well rotted. 
 
 Rotting manure, however, in a barn-yard, or in any situa- 
 tion in which its volatile and liquid products escape into the 
 atmosphere, or soak into soil not designed to support vege- 
 tation, is very slovenly and wasteful, and always to be avoid- 
 ed if possible. The effluvia or gas which is suffered to es- 
 cape from fermenting manure is not only almost altogether 
 lost to useful vegetation, but, what is still worse, fills the at- 
 mosphere with particles injurious to health, and often de- 
 structive to life. The evaporations from a manure yard 
 rob the farmer of a part of his substance, starve his crops, 
 and it is well if they do not, moreover, poison him and his 
 family by their contaminating influence. Some farmers' 
 barn-yards, hog-pens, and other receptacles of manure, are 
 very offensive, and if they do not generate typhus fever, in 
 its worst form, which we fear is frequently the case, they at 
 least cause a degree of languor and debility, which embit- 
 ters existence, and in a great measure disqualifies for any 
 useful purposes of life. It is a fact that those exhalations so 
 injurious to animal life are the essence of vegetable life, and 
 the volatile substances which offend our senses and injure 
 our health, if arrested in their transit by the hand of skil- 
 ful industry, may be so modified in the great laboratory of 
 nature as to greet us in the fragrance of a flower, regale 
 us in the plum or nectarine, or furnish the stamina of life 
 in substantial viands from the field and the stall of the cul- 
 tivator. 
 
 If we are correct in the foregoing, an important axiom 
 may be adduced, viz.: JVb putrefactive j)7'ocess ought to be 
 suffered to proceed on afarmer^s premises, without his adopt- 
 ing some mode to save, as far as possible, the gaseous products 
 of such putrescence. These gaseous products constitute im- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 169 
 
 portant elements of vegetable food, and a farmer may as 
 well suffer his cattle to stray from his stall, or his swine 
 from his sty, without a possibility of reclaiming them, as 
 permit the principles of fertility expelled by fermentation or 
 putrefaction to escape into the atmosphere for the purpose 
 of poisoning the air, instead of feeding the plants. It is 
 very easy to arrest these particles. A quantity of earth 
 thrown over the matter in which the fermentation is going 
 on will check its violence and arrest its gaseous products, 
 which will be imbibed by the soil, and afterwards yielded to 
 plants in such proportion as the wants of vegetation may 
 require. 
 
 "Fermentation, that destroyer of all organic conforma- 
 tion, is not to be feared by the farmer, if it be conducted 
 and carried on in the presence of earth, which fixes and 
 secures the gases as fast as they are liberated. Even the 
 degree of the process is a matter of less consequence ; be- 
 cause if the elementary principles are in keeping, and re- 
 served for future usefulness, it is immaterial whether this 
 has happened by a new absorption, or by still holding their 
 original and unchanged form. In his composite hill [com- 
 post heap], the whole animal or vegetable structure may be 
 dissolved, and leave behind no trace of existence, without 
 the least waste of the principles of fertility ; because the 
 ingredients superadded to the diing have become surcharged 
 with them, or, to speak philosophically, fully saturated. We 
 may go farther, and state that complete decomposition is 
 desirable in this case, which is so much to be avoided in the 
 farm-yard ; because putrescent matter can only become 
 vegetable food by its resolution into primary parts, and if 
 this be effected by any preparatory step, the young crop 
 receives the full and instantaneous benefit. The compost 
 manure is carried to the fielti ready to give out its richness 
 on the very first call, and to supply the nascent radicle 
 [young root] with a copious share of nourishment. 
 
 "The putrefactive process may be carried on in the pres- 
 ence of pure earth only, or of earth intermingled with 
 fibrous roots, or lastly in the presence of peat, which is an 
 assemblage of inert vegetable matter, and compost dunghills 
 may be formed according to this threefold method. 
 
 " The simplest of all composts is a mixture of barn-yard 
 
 dung and surface mould taken from a field under regular 
 
 culture. The proportions between the ingredients are fixed 
 
 by no determinate laws, and consequently great liberty is 
 
 15 
 
170 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 allowable to the operator. I have known some instances 
 where two cart-loads of dung were used for one of earth ; 
 others, where they were blended in equal quantities;, and it 
 is not unfrequent to compound two of earth with one of dung. 
 In fact, such is the uncertainty in the composition, that al- 
 most every farmer adopts one peculiar to himself, and with 
 equal success. No man need therefore follow implicitly the 
 rules which have been laid down in this department of rural 
 economy, but may vary and multiply his experiments, ac- 
 cording to the suggestions of fancy or the dictates of con- 
 venience. If we slightly glance at the principle, we shall 
 see the cause of this seemingly endless variety in the com- 
 binations of the ingredients. The only use of intermixing 
 the soil with the dung is to imbibe the gaseous elements of 
 vegetable life, and hinder their dissipation. If there be much 
 soil, these elements will be diffused through it with less den- 
 sity and compression; if little, it will be more abundantly 
 saturated and enriched with the nutritive vapors. The only 
 error into which the farmer can run is, to supply such an in- 
 considerable quantity of soil as will be incapable of im- 
 bibing the elastic and volatile particles, and thus by his own 
 mismanagement occasion a waste of the vegetable aliment. 
 One cart-load of soil to two of stable-dung is the least pro- 
 portion which he should ever attempt to combine, and per- 
 haps if the two were mixed equally, he would be compensa- 
 ted for the additional labor and expense. 
 
 " Simple earth, although excellent for bottoming and 
 strewing over the pit dug near the barn, is of all materials 
 the most unprofitable in compost dunghills. A matted sward, 
 thickly entangled with roots, or mud dragged from the bot- 
 tom of bogs or ditches, and replete with aquatic plants, are 
 clearly preferable on this account, that, besides bringing 
 earth to the composition, they supply a large proportion of 
 vegetable matter. Whenever the soil must be carted to the 
 heap, it is better to lay out the expense in transporting these 
 enriching materials ; because they will not only equally ab- 
 sorb and retain the evaporating gases, but greatly augment 
 the quantity of manure. "* 
 
 The path proper for a farmer to pursue in order to make 
 the most of his manure, and preserve his own health and 
 that of his family, is as plain as a turnpike. Whenever pu- 
 trid fermentation is going on in any part of his premises, and 
 
 * Letters of Agricola, by John Young, Esq. 
 
and' RURAL ECONOMIST. 171 
 
 consuming his substance by a slow but wasteful combustion, 
 let him apply earth, peat, or some other earthy substance in 
 quantities sufficient to attract, imbibe, and retain all the 
 effluvia. Health, profit, and cleanliness, equally require 
 such a proceeding. We shall say a word or two on the lat- 
 ter topic. If a man were to swallow daily a quantity of 
 filthy matter, or to eat his food impregnated with vapors from 
 a manure heap, or from some other putrefying and offensive 
 substance, when he might by a little exertion avoid such 
 nauseous viands, and substitute something nourishing, palat- 
 able, pure, and wholesome, we should esteem him no better 
 than a Hottentot. But a man may almost as well take filth 
 into his stomach as filthy effluvia into his lungs; he may 
 about as well dine with a crow or a buzzard as sup with a 
 toad " on the vapor of a dunghill." 
 
 The farmer who arrests the rank vapors which emanate 
 from decaying animal and vegetable matter, and instead of 
 permitting them to pass into and contaminate the air he 
 breathes, treasures up the invisible particles with which they 
 are laden, and applies them to feed useful vegetables, causes 
 the atmosphere to be healthy, and his plants to be thrifty by 
 the same means. 
 
 The celebrated lord Erskine, in a speech delivered at one 
 of the annual sheep-shearings at Holkham, in England, 
 made the following remarks on this subject : 
 
 " If we consider the subject of manure, we shall perceive 
 one of the most striking beauties and benefits of divine or- 
 dination, and of that wisdom with which we are blessed a 
 thousand ways without knowing it. This very substance, 
 had it been useless, must have accumulated in heaps, intoler- 
 ably noisome and perpetually pestilential; but by the bless- 
 ing of Providence, it is every man's interest to remove these 
 otherwise increasing mountains of filth, and by decomposi- 
 tion, in various ways, in a great measure concealed from us; 
 it gives increase to our fields, and adds to our means of 
 industry, and the reward of the husbandman." 
 
 Those who cultivate the ground do not always act the 
 provident part supposed by lord Erskine, in the sentence 
 above quoted. On the contrary, farmers too often suffer 
 manure to accumulate and waste in heaps, generating 
 effluvia " intolerably noisome and perpetually pestilential," 
 without fear of fever or famine, both of which are courted 
 by such conduct. Not only dung is too often allowed to 
 waste its richness on the tainted air, but straw and other lit- 
 
172 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 ter is suffered to grow mouldy and consume by what is 
 sometimes called the dry rot, both of which might be pre- 
 vented, or their bad effects obviated, by covering or mixing 
 them with a suitable quantity of earth. Besides, dead ani- 
 mals, contents of privies, the emptyings of sinks, spoiled 
 provisions, the refuse of the dairy, the pantry, and the cellar, 
 are allowed to mingle their odours in nauseating and dele- 
 terious profusion. Sometimes the highway is rendered al- 
 most impassable, in consequence of a dead horse, sheep, 
 dog, or cat, undergoing the process of decomposition in a 
 situation correctly calculated to annoy travellers. Some 
 farmers hang dead lambs, cats, dogs, &c., in the forks of 
 apple-trees, or throw them on hovels or stumps, at some 
 elevation from the ground, to give the pestilential emanations 
 a chance to diffuse themselves, without coming in contact 
 with the earth, which might convert them from poison to 
 men and animals into food for plants. If, however, such 
 animal remains are deposited in a barn-yard or manure heap, 
 they are too often suffered to lie and rot on the surface, 
 offending the senses, and injuring the health of a whole vil- 
 lage. Practices of this kind are well reproved by Sir 
 Humphrey Davy, who says, " Horses, dogs, sheep, deer, 
 and other quadrupeds that have died accidentally or of dis- 
 eases, after their skins are separated, are often suffered to 
 remain, exposed to the air, or immersed in water, till they 
 are destroyed by birds or beasts of prey, or entirely de- 
 composed; and in this case most of their organizable mat- 
 ter is lost from the land on which they lie, and a consider- 
 able portion of it employed in giving out noxious gases to 
 the atmosphere. 
 
 "By covering dead animals with five or six times their 
 bulk of soil, mixed with one part of lime, and suffering them 
 to remain for a few months, their decomposition would im- 
 pregnate the soil with soluble matters, so as to render it an 
 excellent manure ; and by mixing a little fresh quicklime 
 with it, at the time of its removal, the disagreeable effluvia 
 will be in a great measure destroyed, and it might be em- 
 ployed in the same way as any other manure to crops."* 
 
 If, however, quicklime cannot readily be obtained to ac- 
 celerate the conversion of dead animals into manure, it is 
 probable that covering the carcasses with a pretty thick coat 
 
 * Agricultural Chemistry. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 173 
 
 of unleached ashes, and placing over all a quantity of earth, 
 or earthy substance, would hasten decomposition, and secure 
 the gases resulting from putrescence. Earth alone will 
 answer a valuable purpose, and, in time, the largest animal 
 will be decomposed in nothing but common soil. 
 
 Not only the carcasses of animals, but their excrements 
 and urine are rendered of little value by long exposure to the 
 air. Indeed, every moment of such exposure robs them of 
 a part of their fertility, as well as contaminates the atmos- 
 phere. " He who is within the sphere of the scent of a 
 dunghill, (says the celebrated Arthur Young,) smells that 
 which his crop would have eaten, if he would have permitted 
 it. Instead of manuring the land, he manures the atmos- 
 phere ; and before his dunghill is finished, he has manured 
 another parish, perhaps another county." As few exhala- 
 tions as possible ought to be suffered to rise from the excre- 
 ments of animals. Fresh manure ought to be kept as care- 
 fully from the sun and rain as grass which has been cut for 
 hay. When cattle have been yarded over night, it would 
 be well to throw their droppings into small heaps or beds, 
 and cover them at least with a sufficient quantity of earth to 
 prevent fermentation, or absorb its products. This would 
 cost but little labor, and would much enhance the value of 
 the manure. 
 
 It has been, and we believe in some instances still is, in 
 vogue among farmers, to turn over and mix barn-yard ma- 
 nure several times before it is carried to the field. This 
 practice, however, is exploded among the best informed cul- 
 tivators. Mr. A. Young says "no turning, but if circum- 
 stances of the richness, quantity, or weather have occasion- 
 ed too much fermentation, or this is suspected, scatter every 
 now and then a quantity of the same earth over the surface, 
 with which the yard was bedded. This may be so propor- 
 tioned as to keep the mass from too much fermentation." 
 
 It is remarked by the author of " Letters of Agricola," that 
 "Earth is a powerful absorber of all the gases which arise 
 from putrefaction. The earth possesses not only the prop- 
 erty of retaining the putrid steams which are formed from 
 the dung of decomposing bodies within itself, but also of 
 attracting the efHuvia when floating in the air. The salu- 
 brity of a country depends on this latter quality ; as the 
 practice of burying the dung in the earth is founded on the 
 former. The stench proceeding from the dissolution of 
 organized matter never rises through the ground to assail 
 15* 
 
174 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the nostrils, although it is sufficiently offensive from bodies 
 corrupting in air or water. A strongly dunged field, after 
 being ploughed, sown, and harrowed, sends forth a health- 
 ful and refreshing smell; a proof that all the putrid vapors, 
 which otherwise would annoy us, are absorbed and retained 
 for the nutrition of the crop. It is on this account that the 
 poorest earth can be enriched in a very high degree by mere 
 exposure to the gases of putrefaction. Put a layer of com- 
 mon soil along the top of a fermenting dunghill, from twelve 
 to eighteen inches thick, and allow it to remain there while 
 the process is carrying on with activity, and afterwards 
 separate it carefully from the heap, and it will have been 
 impregnated with the most fertilizing virtues. The com- 
 posts, which of late have attracted such universal attention, 
 and occupied so large a place in all agricultural publications, 
 originated in the discovery of this absorbing power of the 
 earth, and in the application of it to the most beneficial of 
 purposes. A skilful agriculturist would no more think of 
 allowing a violent fermentation to be going on in his dung- 
 hill, unmixed with earth or other matter to fix and secure 
 the gaseous elements, than the distiller would suffer his ap- 
 paratus to be set at work without surmounting his still with 
 the worm to cool and condense the rarefied spirit which 
 ascends to evaporation. In both the most precious matter 
 is that which assumes the ceriform state; and to behold it 
 escaping, with unconcerned indifference, is a demonstration 
 of the most profound ignorance." 
 
 Liquid Manure. Water in its purest state, when it has 
 been distilled or filtered through sand, still retains somewhat 
 of the food of plants. Its component parts, oxygen and 
 hydrogen, under certain circumstances, are seized by vegeta- 
 bles while in their growing state, and converted into the pro- 
 ducts which form the constituents of all vegetables. But 
 pure water forms a meagre diet for plants. It may support 
 life in vegetables, and some plants will maintain a feeble 
 growth with very little nourishment except what is afforded 
 them by pure water and air. But when water is impregnat- 
 ed with certain salts and gases, particularly such as are 
 evolved during the fermentation and decomposition of vege- 
 table and animal substances, it becomes what is called liquid 
 manure. Urine, or the stale of all animals, is water holding 
 in solution certain salts and other substances, which are 
 the essence of manure, or the food of plants in a concentrated 
 stale. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 175 
 
 Fresh urine is a very powerful and efficacious manure, 
 when properly applied, but if not mixed with solid matter it 
 should be diluted with water, as when pure it contains too 
 large a quantity of animal matter to form a proper fluid 
 nourishment for absorption by the roots of plants. Urine is 
 lessened in value, but its useful qualities are not entirely 
 lost, by putrescence. During putrefaction the greatest part 
 of the soluble animal matter that urine contains is destroy- 
 ed; it should therefore be used as fresh as possible, with the 
 precaution of diluting it with water, or mixing it with earth. 
 Putrid urine, however, is a valuable manure. It abounds in 
 ammoniacal salts; and though less active than fresh urine, 
 is very efficacious.* 
 
 According to some writers and practical farmers, the 
 vahie of the urine of cattle, if properly preserved and applied 
 to the purposes of vegetation, is greater than that of all the 
 dung which the same animals would yield ! A letter from 
 Charles Alexander, near Peebles, in Scotland, addressed to 
 Sir. John Sinclair, in 1812, contains much valuable informa- 
 tion on this subject. " This intelligent farmer had long been 
 impressed with the great importance of the urine of cattle 
 as a manure, and he set about to discover, by a long and 
 well-conducted series of experiments, the best method of 
 collecting and applying it. He began by digging a pit 
 contiguous to the feeding-stall, but distinct altogether from 
 that which was appropriated for the reception of the dung. 
 The dimensions of this pit, were thirty-six feet square and 
 four feet deep, surrounded on all sides by a wall ; and the 
 solid contents were one hundred and ninety-two yards. 
 Having selected the nearest spot where he could find loamy 
 earth, and this he always took from the surface of some field 
 under cultivation, he proceeded to fill it; and found that, 
 %vith three men and two horses, he could easily accomplish 
 twenty-eight cubic yards per day; and the whole expense of 
 transporting the earth did not exceed twenty-two dollars. 
 When the work was complete, he levelled the surface of the 
 heap in a line with the sewer which conducted the urine from 
 the interior of the building, on purpose that it might be 
 distributed with regularity, and might saturate the whole 
 from top to bottom. The quantity conveyed to it he esti- 
 mates at about eight hundred gallons. The urine was sup- 
 plied by fourteen cattle, kept there for five months on fodder 
 
 * See Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 
 
176 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and turnips. The contents of the pit produced two hundred 
 and eighty-eight loads, allowing two cubic yards to be taken 
 out in three carts ; and he spread forty of these on each 
 acre, so that this urine in five months, produced a compost 
 sufficient for the fertilization of seven acres of land. He 
 states farther, that he had tried this experiment for ten 
 years, and had indiscriminately used in the same field either 
 the rotted cow-dung or the saturated earth; and in all stages 
 of the crop, he had never been able to find any perceptible 
 difference. But what is still more wonderful, he found his 
 compost lasted in its effects as many years as his best 
 putrescent manure; and he therefore boldly avers, that a 
 load of each is of equivalent value. 
 
 " It appears, then, that in five months each cow dis- 
 charges urine which, when absorbed by loam, furnishes 
 manure of the richest quality and most durable effects for 
 half an acre of ground. The dung-pit, which contained all 
 the e.xcrementitious matter of the fourteen cattle, as well as 
 the litter employed in bedding them, and which was kept 
 separate for the purpose of the experiment, only furnished, 
 during the same period, two hundred and forty loads, and 
 these, at the same rate, could only manure six acres. The 
 aggregate value of the urine, therefore, when compared 
 with that of the dung, was in the ratio of seven to six."* 
 
 We apprehend that the farmers of the United States are 
 not, generally speaking, careful to turn the urine of their 
 cattle to account for manure. There are some cultivators, 
 however, who have taken measures to secure this substance, 
 and to apply it to useful purposes. Mr. Robert Smith, of 
 Baltimore, has his stables constructed in such a manner that 
 all the liquid discharges of his cattle are conducted, togeth- 
 er with the wash of the barn-yard, into a cistern, pumped 
 into a hogshead, and applied in a liquid state to the soil 
 M'hich it is wished to manure. j" This mode of making use 
 of this substance is likewise recommended in the " Code of 
 Agriculture," as follows: "The advantages of irrigating grass 
 lands with cow urine almost exceed belief Mr. Harley, of 
 Glasgow, (who keeps a large dairy in that town,) by using 
 cow urine, cuts some small fields of grass six times, and the 
 average of each cutting is fifteen inches in length. There 
 are disadvantages, however, attending this mode of applying 
 this powerful manure. It must be applied soon after it is 
 
 * LeUers of Agiicola. f See New England Farmer, Vol. I. No. 6. p. 44. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 177 
 
 formed, or oftentimes the putrefactive process will com- 
 mence, and deprive it of a part of its efficacy. And as 
 urine is of a scorching quality, it is unsafe to apply it to 
 growing crops in great heat or drought. Hence it is un- 
 advisable to use it, except for grass, after the month of April 
 or May, unless diluted. It is particularly useful in the 
 spring, when the application of liquid manure gives a new 
 impetus to the plant, and makes its growth more vigorous. 
 This manure forces newly planted cabbages in a most 
 remarkable manner." 
 
 If it be true that more manure can be obtained from the 
 stale of cattle than from their dung and litter, in the propor- 
 tion of seven to six, (as would seem by Mr. Alexander's ex- 
 periments as above detailed,) and that by our common modes 
 of husbandry this stale is nearly or quite squandered away, 
 the discovery is of very great importance indeed to agricul- 
 ture. It is nothing less than a method by which farmers 
 may, with a small expense, somewhat more than double their 
 usual quantity of stable manure. And if farmers should 
 " value manure as a miser does his strong box, should grasp 
 after and hoard it as eagerly and anxiously as a covetous 
 man accumulates treasure,"* surely the wise cultivator will 
 not grudge some labor and expense to acquire more than 
 double the usual quantity of so valuable an article. It is 
 very true there are many things to be taken into considera- 
 tion in all these economical processes. A principal inquiry 
 should ever be, whether the saving will cost more than the 
 benefit arising from it will be worth. Many improvements 
 which are highly valuable in old and populous countries, 
 where labor is cheap and land dear, cannot be advantage- 
 ously adopted in this country, where the object, in general, is 
 rather to make the most of our labor than of our land. It 
 is to be recollected, likewise, that in New England, during 
 a considerable part of the time in which cattle are usually 
 housed, the liquid manure is soon converted into ice, and in 
 that state must be transferred to the dung-heap, or inconve- 
 nient accumulations will take place before a thaw would 
 render it practicable to separate the liquid from the solid 
 parts of the manure. Still, with all these disadvantages, we 
 believe, in most cases, it is highly advisable to preserve the 
 liquid portion of stable manure separate from the solid part; 
 
 * These expressions, we believe, belong to the Hon. Mr. Peters, of Penn- 
 eylvaoia, but we do not recollect where we found them. 
 
178 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 especially where cattle are soiled or horses stabled during 
 all or the greater part of the year. 
 
 Manure for Grass Grounds, Top-dressings, Sfc. An in- 
 telligent and scientific cultivator has given the following 
 directions on this subject. 
 
 There is scarcely any question on which farmers are 
 more divided than as to the policy of applying manure as a 
 top-dressing to grass lands, in the spring or tall. The rea- 
 soning seems to be in favor of spring dressing, and it is sup- 
 ported by many excellent names. But it ought to be known, 
 t^at intelligent farmers near the metropolis most generally 
 dress their lands in autumn. Besides the reason stated 
 above, that grass lands are less injured by carting over them 
 in the fall, it may be added, that it is a season of greater 
 leisure ; and although it is confidently asserted, that the 
 manure is wasted by rains and snows, yet much ought to be 
 allowed on the other side for the protection afforded by the 
 top-dressing to the tender roots of the plants during winter; 
 and ought we not to add something for the low temperature 
 of the atmosphere in winter, which prevents evaporation ? 
 Whatever principles of fertility exist in manure, are in win- 
 ter carried down into the soil. We are fully convinced that 
 a scorching sun and drying air are more pernicious to ma- 
 nures spread thinly over the surface than any drenching 
 rains can be, unless on declivities, where top-dressings are 
 unquestionably of less value than on level grounds. The fact 
 that farmers who grow rich by supplying the great towns 
 with hay generally adopt the practice of fall-dressing their 
 grass lands, deserves weight. 
 
 Top-dressing should not be used in the fall for winter 
 grain, because they would be apt to make the young plants 
 come forward too fast and grow so rank that they would be 
 liable to be winter-killed. Top-dressing for wheat, rye, &c. 
 should be applied to the growing crop in the spring or early 
 in the summer, when it is suspected that the land is not rich 
 enough to bring a full crop to perfection. 
 
 With regard to the materials for dressing your grass 
 grounds, afler your garden is supplied with manure, you may 
 as well cart on to your mowing land all that you can collect 
 from your barn-yards, your stercoraries or dung-heaps, hog- 
 pens, compost beds, night soil, &c. All sorts of dung, how- 
 ever, before being applied to grass land, should be well 
 mixed with loam, sand, or some kind of earth which will 
 imbibe the gas or effluvia of the dung or putrescent manure. 
 
AND UUKAL ECONOMIST. 179 
 
 We have said before, in substance, that all kinds of putres- 
 cent manure (that is, those animal or vegetable substances 
 which are liable to putrefy, mould, and be wasted when ex- 
 posed to the sun and air) are in a great measure thrown 
 away, if applied to the surface of the soil before being made 
 into compost. * " Spreading putrescent substances upon the 
 surface of a field of grass ground, is to manure, not the soil, 
 but the atmosphere ; and is justly condemned as the most 
 injudicious plan that can be devised, in an arable district." "f 
 If dung not made into compost nor mixed with earth or any 
 substance which will attract and imbibe its gas, effluvia, vo- 
 latile products, or (to be more plain) that which causes it to 
 smell unpleasantly, be applied to a field of plough land, it 
 ought to be spread evenly and ploughed, or at least harrowed 
 in immediately. If a farmer's chief dependence is in graz- 
 ing land, and he has dung, or putrescent manure not made 
 into compost, to apply, we would suggest it for his consider- 
 ation whether it might not be well, first to spread his dung 
 as evenly as possible over his field, and then spread over the 
 whole at least an equal quantity of good earth or loam. By 
 such means a compost is made in the field after the putres- 
 cent manure is applied, and the earth or loam spread over 
 the dung will not only absorb its gaseous products, but in a 
 great measure protect it from being dried by the air or 
 scorched by the sun, till its fertilizing qualities are dissipated. 
 This method of managing with top-dressing for grass land, 
 however, we should suggest merely as an expedient for the 
 saving of labor in cases where farmers have much dung, but 
 little plough land in proportion, and with whom the saving 
 of labor is a very great object. As a general rule, the fol- 
 lowing maxim of Sir John Sinclair will apply as well in this, 
 country as in Great Britain. " There are strong objections 
 to the application of dung to grass lands ; (much of its 
 strength being evaporated, from its being exposed to atmos- 
 pheric influence ;) composts are greatly to be fref erred. They 
 may be applied at the rate of from thirty to forty cubic yards 
 per acre. To keep grass land in good condition, a dressing 
 to this amount is required every four years. The applica- 
 tion of unmixed putrescent manure will thus be rendered 
 unnecessary." 
 
 The mode in which some farmers manage with regard to 
 manuring their grass lands is not only absurd, but ruinous. 
 Early in the fall they cart their dung from their barn-yards 
 
 * New England Farmer, Vol. I p. 321. f Code of Agriculture. 
 
180 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and sties, which perhaps had been a year or more accumu- 
 lating, and of course is finely pulverized and ready to take 
 the wings of every breeze. Tiiey place it on a tough sward 
 in little heaps about the size of a two bushel basket. The 
 sun, high winds, rain, and drying atmosphere, all conspire 
 to rob these little heaps of nearly all their fertilizing quali- 
 ties, and leave little but a dead mass of matter as " dry as a 
 husk." Late in the spring, and generally during or just be- 
 fore a dry time, Mr. Cultivator spreads these little heaps 
 (reduced by exposure to wind and weather to about the size 
 of a half bushel measure) over the sward. If the season 
 proves dry, the manure, particularly that part which was 
 collected from the stye, has scarcely any other effect than to 
 assist the sun in scorching the grass. In the mean time the 
 arable land, being left destitute of manure for the sake of 
 dunging the grass ground, yields not half a crop. The poor 
 farmer believes his land worn out, and thinks it high time to 
 " pluck up stakes and be off" to the Ohio ! " 
 
 Unless you have plenty of manure, you had better not ap- 
 ply any dung to your high, gravelly, or sandy soils, but dress 
 them with plaster of Paris. Uneven grass grounds will not 
 admit of top-dressing to any advantage, on account of the 
 manure's being liable to be washed away. 
 
 Previous to manuring your grass lands, it will be well to 
 harrow or scarify them. " Rolling was formerly considered 
 to be indispensable in the management of grass lands, tend- 
 ing to smooth and consolidate the surface, to prevent the 
 formation of ant-hills, and to render the effects of drought 
 less pernicious. But scarifying the turf with a plough, con- 
 sisting only of coulters, or with a harrow so that the whole 
 surface may be cut or torn, is to be recommended when the 
 pastures [or mowing land] are hidebound. That tenacious 
 state, rolling tends to increase ; whereas by scarifying, the 
 surface is loosened, and the roots acquire new means of im- 
 proved vegetation. This operation seems particularly use- 
 ful when it precedes the manuring of grass lands ; for if 
 well scarified, the ground is so opened, that any manure 
 spread upon it gets at once to the roots ; consequently a 
 small quantity thus applied, goes as far as a larger one laid 
 on in the old mode, and without such an operation. Thus 
 the force of the objections to the application of putrescent 
 manure to grass lands is in some degree obviated."* After 
 
 ♦ Code of Agriculture. 
 
AND nURAL ECONOMIST. 181 
 
 such process it may be well to sow grass seeds, to produce, a 
 new set of plants, and supersede the necessity of breaking 
 up the soil to prevent its being " bound out,''' as the phrase is. 
 
 It is a bad practice to feed your mowing land very closely 
 in the fall. There should be enough of the after-grass left 
 to protect the roots of the grass against the frosts of winter. 
 We have known good farmers who would not suffer their 
 mowing land to be pastured at any time of the year. But 
 if the soil be well dressed with manure it can do but little or 
 any injury to pasture it in the fore part of autumn, taking 
 care not to let cattle run upon it when wet, and so soft that 
 they would make much impression on it with their feet. 
 
 Manure from Sivinc. Very valuable manure, with a little 
 attention, may be obtained from swine by methods similar to 
 that described by a writer for " The New England Farmer," 
 (Vol. II. p. 178,) as follows: 
 
 " I usually keep and fatten four hogs in a year. These I 
 keep confined in a yard twenty feet square, with a warm and 
 convenient shed attached thereto as a shelter for them during 
 the night time, and in cold and stormy weather. Into llieir 
 yard I put the scrapings of ditches, the dirt which is con- 
 tinually collecting in and about the dwellinghouse and other 
 buildings, together with the straw with which they are lit- 
 tered, frequently clearing it out of their house and granting 
 them a fresh supply. During the summer season I often 
 throw in large quantities of weeds, brakes, and other rubbish 
 that may come to hand, which helps to increase both the 
 quantity and quality of the manure. In this way I make 
 from twenty-five to thirty loads of manure in a year, which 
 answers a more valuable purpose than that which I take from 
 the stable or barn-yard. 
 
 " I planted a field containing two acres with corn. One 
 half of the piece was manured in the hill with ten loads from 
 the hogpen, the other half with the same quantity of the 
 best manure the barn-yard afforded. A visible difference 
 was to be seen in the growth of the corn through the sea- 
 son, and at the time of harvest the difference was still more 
 discernible. That part manured from the hogpen produced 
 ears generally much larger than that manured from the barn- 
 yard, a great proportion of the stalks bearing two, and many 
 of them three ears each. Having harvested and measured 
 my corn, I found the result to be as follows : the produce of 
 the part manured from the hogpen fifty bushels, while that 
 IG 
 
182 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 of the other part was but forty-two bushels, making a differ- 
 ence of eight bushels in favor of the former. 
 
 Manures may be divided into two classes. The one is 
 called animal and vegetable or putrescent manures. They 
 consist of decayed and decaying animal and vegetable sub- 
 stances. The other class is denominated fossil manures. 
 The last mentioned do not properly constitute the food of 
 plants, although they enter into the composition of vegeta- 
 bles in minute quantities. Fossil manures stimulate plants, 
 and cause them to take their food faster than they otherwise 
 would. They are like what medical men call condiments, 
 and answer the same purpose, as respects the economy of 
 vegetables, which salt, pepper, spices, kc. effect as regards 
 the animal economy. 
 
 The principal fossil manures are lime, gypsum, and marl. 
 We shall make a few observations on each. 
 
 1. Advantages of Lime. Though there are exceptions to 
 the rule, yet, in general, it may be confidently asserted, that, 
 unless where a soil has by nature enough of calcareous 
 matter in its composition for the purposes of vegetation, it 
 can neither be brought into its most fertile states, nor will 
 other manures be so useful as they ought, if lime or some 
 other calcareous earth be not previously applied. By lime 
 spread upon a moory soil, good herbage is produced where 
 nothing but heath and unpalatable grasses grew before. By 
 the same means, grass lands, instead of yielding nothing but 
 bent, and other inferior grasses, have been covered with those 
 of a more valuable description. The utility of lime to tur- 
 nips is so great, that, though in the same field, where no 
 lime had been applied the crop died away, yet in the limed 
 part the turnips flourished with unabated vigor. On the 
 Mendip lands in Somerset, by the application of lime, the 
 value of land was raised from four shillings to thirty shillings 
 per acre ; and dung, which previous to liming had no sensi- 
 ble effect, operated after its application as on other lands. 
 Macclesfield forest in Cheshire, and vast tracts in the north- 
 ern and more elevated parts of Derbyshire and adjacent dis- 
 tricts, have been astonishingly improved by the same means. 
 The rye lands of Herefordshire in 1636 refused to produce 
 wheat, peas, or vetches ; but since the introduction of lime, 
 they have been so fertilized, as to be successfully applied to 
 the growth of every species of corn. In maiden soils of a 
 tolerable quality, the richest manure will not enable them to 
 bring any crops, but those of oats or rye, to maturity ; 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 183 
 
 whereas, if they receive a sufficient quantity of lime, crops 
 of peas, barley, or wheat, may be raised to advantage. The 
 benefit resulting from the use of lime has been indisputably 
 proved in the same farm ; for the richer parts that were left 
 unlimed were uniformly inferior in produce to the poorer that 
 had been limed, during a period of not less than twenty-one 
 years, under the same course of management. 
 
 2. The principles on which lime operates as a manure. 
 Quicklime in powder, or dissolved in water, is injurious to 
 plants ; hence grass watered with lime-water is destroyed. 
 But lime freshly burnt, or slacked, forms a compost with 
 vegetable matter, which is soluble in water, and nutritive to 
 plants. Mild lime (as chalk, or quicklime again impregnat- 
 ed with carbonic acid) chiefly operates by improving the 
 texture of the soil and its relation to absorption. 
 
 3. The varioxis sorts of Limestone. Sometimes limestone 
 is almost perfectly pure, as is the case with marble, which 
 frequently contains scarcely any other substance but calcare- 
 ous matter. Several sorts of limestone, however, have mix- 
 tures of clay and sand, in various proportions, by which the 
 efficacy of the manure, in proportion to the quantity of these 
 substances, is considerably diminished. It is necessary, 
 therefore, to analyze limestone, to ascertain the proportion 
 of pure lime, before it is advisable to use so expensive an 
 article in great quantities, more especially if it must be con- 
 veyed from a distance. Bituminous limestone makes good 
 manure. But the magnesian is the species which requires 
 the greatest attention. Limestone sometimes contains from 
 20.3 to 23.5 of magnesia, in which case it would be injurious 
 to weak soils to apply more than from twenty-five to thirty 
 bushels per statute acre, though in rich soils double that 
 quantity may be used, and still more with peat, on which 
 soil it would have a most powerful effect in producing fer- 
 tility. 
 
 4. Mode of preparing it for use. Limestone is burnt in 
 kilns of various constructions. It is applied with advantage 
 to soils recently reclaimed in a caustic state ; but is gene- 
 rally slacked, by throwing water upon the lumps, until they 
 crack and swell, and fall down into a fine powder. This 
 operation, when it is to be done, should not be delayed ; for 
 if properly burnt, calcined lime is easily reduced into a fine 
 powder, which may not be the case if the slacking be post- 
 poned. If water cannot easily be obtained, the lumps may 
 either be divided into small heaps and covered with earth, 
 
184 THE COMPLETE FARxMER 
 
 by the moisture of which they are soon pulverized, or made 
 into large heaps, the lumps and earth six inches thick, and 
 the whole covered with earth. Where it can easily be had, 
 it is a great advantage to slack the calcined limestone for 
 manure with sea-water or urine. When applied to land in 
 a powdery state, lime tends to bring any hard vegetable 
 matter that the soil contains into a more rapid state of de- 
 composition and solution, so as to render it a proper food for 
 plants. 
 
 5. Application. Summer is the proper season for liming 
 land. That experienced farmer, Mr. Rennie of Phantassie, 
 is of opinion, that the most profitable period for applying 
 lime is when the land is under summer fallow, in the months 
 of June and July, that it may be completely mixed with the 
 soil before the crop is sown. This is also the general prac- 
 tice in other districts. For a turnip crop, it should be laid 
 on early in the spring before the turnips are drilled, in order 
 that the lime may be thoroughly incorporated with the soil, 
 by the ploughings and harrowings it will receive ; the land 
 will thus have time to cool, and the lime will not dry up the 
 moisture necessary for bringing the turnips into leaf. For 
 potatoes, lime is not to be recommended, as it is apt to burn 
 and blister their skins. When applied to old ley, it is a good 
 practice to spread it on the surface previously to the land 
 being broken up, by which it is fixed firmly on the sward. 
 One year has been found of use ; but when done three 
 years before, it had produced still greater advantages ; in 
 the former case, the increase of oats being only at the rate 
 of six to one, and in the latter, that of ten to one of the seed 
 sown. The quantity applied must vary according to the 
 soil. From two hundred and forty to three hundred bushels 
 of unslacked lime may be applied on strong lands with ad- 
 vantage. Even six hundred bushels have been laid on at 
 once, on strong clays, with great success. On light soils, a 
 much smaller quantity will answer, say from one hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred bushels ; but these small doses 
 ought to be more frequently repeated. When applied on 
 the surface of bogs or moors, the quantity used is very con- 
 siderable, and the more that is laid on, the greater the im- 
 provement. The real quantity, however, of calcareous mat- 
 ter used, depends upon the quality of the stone. It often 
 happens, that five chaldrons do not furnish more effective ma- 
 nure than three, because they do not contain three-fifths of 
 calcareous matter. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 186 
 
 6. Effects of lAnie. Many farmers have subjected them- 
 selves to an expense at the rate of ten shillings per acre per 
 annum for the lime they used, and have been amply remu- 
 nerated. The benefit derived in the cultivation of green 
 crops is sufficient for that purpose. Such crops may be 
 raised by large quantities of dung ; but where calcareous 
 substances are applied, it is proved, by long exp3rience, that 
 a less quantity of animal and vegetable manure will answer 
 the purpose. This is making the farm-yard dung go farther, 
 with more powerful and more permanent effects ; and from 
 the weightier crops thus raised, the quantity of manure on a 
 farm will be most materially augmented. Indeed, upon land 
 in a proper state for calcareous application, (as old ley,) lime 
 is much superior to dung. Its effects continue for a longer 
 period, while the crops pi'oduced are of a superior quality, 
 and less susceptible of injury from the excesses of drought 
 and moisture. The ground likewise, more especially if it 
 be of a strong nature, is much more easily wrought; and, in 
 some instances, the saving of labor alone would be sufficient 
 to induce a farmer to lime his land, were no greater benefit 
 derived from the application than the opportunity thereby 
 gained of working it in a more perfect manner. 
 
 7. Rules for the management of Lime. 1. It is necessary 
 to ascertain the quality of the soil to which lime is proposed 
 to be applied ; and whether it has formerly been limed; and 
 to what extent. In general, it may be observed, that strong 
 loams and stubborn clays require a full dose to bring them 
 into action, as such soils are capable of absorbing a great 
 quantity of calcareous matter. Lighter soils, however, re- 
 quire less lime to stimulate them ; and may be injured by 
 administering a quantity of lime recently calcined, that would 
 prove moderately beneficial to those of a heavy nature. 2. 
 As the effects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admix- 
 ture with the surface soils, it is expedient to have it in a 
 powdered state before it is applied, and the drier and the 
 more perfectly powdered the better. 3. Lime having a ten- 
 dency to sink in the soil, it cannot be ploughed in with too 
 shallow a furrow, or kept too near the surface. 4. Lime 
 ought not to be applied a second time to weak or poor soils, 
 unless mixed with a compost ; after which the land should 
 be immediately laid down to grass. * 
 
 The following, on the " Stimulation of Soils," was written 
 
 * Encyclo|TOedia of Agriculture. 
 16* 
 
186 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 by the Hon. John Welles, of Boston, and published in the 
 New England Farmer. 
 
 " From a frequent perusal of the benefits derived from lime 
 in its application to soil in Europe, I have been induced for 
 more than a score of years, successively, to make use of it 
 for agricultural purposes, to the extent of more than one 
 hundred casks annually. 
 
 " One of my first experiments arose from a desire to give 
 a top-dressing to a piece of land, which it was otherwise in- 
 convenient to do. The soil was a heavy black loam. Hav- 
 ing a quantity of black earth from a trench, (or top stratum,) 
 I procured a quantity of lime. A bottom of four or five buck 
 loads of earth was first placed; then a couple of casks of 
 lime were spread thereon; then earth and lime again, till 
 my materials were used, or the quantity needed was had, at 
 the rate of eight or ten casks to the acre; thus a cask be- 
 ing supposed to produce about five bushels of slacked lime, 
 the cost of which, if the casks are swelled and the lime 
 partly slacked, is eight to ten cents a bushel. This is the 
 most moderate application in Europe, and the cost is about 
 the same. 
 
 "This mixture, after lying twelve or fourteen days, was 
 shovelled over, and after some days being found fine and 
 well mixed, was spread from the cart on the ground. To 
 my surprise, I found the effect produced to be equal to what 
 is usual from common compost manure ! 
 
 " In England, where lime is most used for agricultural 
 purposes, it is considered that in its crude state, or uncal- 
 cined state, it is most beneficial, if pounded or made fine. 
 This, where limestone abounds, it is well to know; but there 
 is little of it in this neighbourhood. Encouraged by this 
 experiment, I continued to purchase and apply considera- 
 able quantities of damaged and air-slacked lime * in my cul- 
 tivation, particularly for a low, flat piece of land. This be- 
 ing intersected with small ditches, furnished the earth I 
 was not able otherwise to procure to mix with the lime. It 
 is not well, however, in such cases, to lower the surface by 
 taking off more than will keep the ditches open. When the 
 earth is tough with sward, &c., it may be made finer by be- 
 ing carted out and put in heaps on the ground, and spread 
 afterwards. Indeed this is done to great advantage in the 
 
 * Lime long exposed to the air, such as sweepings of stores, &c., is of less 
 value and more cheaply obtained. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. ^ 187 
 
 winter; the poaching the land, or making a rough surface 
 for the scythe, being then well avoided. 
 
 " As this land cannot advantageously be ploughed, I have, 
 in applying every third year a top-dressing, as my custom 
 is, ahernated, giving first a dressing of earth and lime, and 
 at the expiration of three years, a coat of compost manure. 
 
 " This has been done on the principle that a more judi- 
 cious mixture would be made, and a better composition of 
 soil be had. I have been guided herein from general rea- 
 soning, not from any proof that the lime might not be re- 
 peated. 
 
 " It seems, however, to be a prevailing opinion, where 
 lime has been most in use, that it opens the sod and makes 
 it more porous, giving thereby a better action to other ma- 
 nures, which a judicious husbandry should in succession ap- 
 ply. In this application of lime to a grass sward, in a deep 
 springy soil, I have been for a long time well satisfied. It 
 was several years before I undertook the same practice on a 
 light soil, and I did it with less expectation. But I was 
 somewhat surprised to find it equally beneficial. 
 
 " So far lime has been mentioned as a component article 
 in top-dressing for a green sward. Its effect will be shown 
 on ploughed land, and in a grain crop. 
 
 " With a view of increasing fertility, I frequently have 
 applied on the side of the hills of Indian corn a small hand- 
 ful of slacked lime. I so placed it, lest the caustic quality 
 of the lime should prove injurious to the tender plant when 
 it first started from the soil. This is my opinion and prac- 
 tice; though I have often since seen large pieces slacken 
 and expand on the soil without injury to the grass, which in 
 a lively green color pierced through it. This application of 
 lime to the hill I continued for some time, and though small 
 in quantity or effect, I still thought it of some advantage. I 
 was led, however, to a more extensive and satisfactory exper- 
 iment. 
 
 " I had a piece of ground of about four acres, of rather 
 light soil, which gave promise of a very small crop of grass. 
 Being without the means of obtaining manure, as I had a 
 quantity of earth of the top stratum, taken up on building a 
 wall, I forthwith procured a quantity of lime and mixed it in 
 the manner before mentioned. About the middle of June 
 I had the grass mowed and the land ploughed. The lime 
 compost was then spread and lightly harrowed in. An early 
 sort of yellow corn, which when ripe husked itself, was pro- 
 
188 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 cured. And my neighbours, who knew the process, were, in 
 the fall of the year, much surprised by the stout ears of 
 golden grain thus unfolded to view ! 
 
 " It has been observed, that if lime is a fertilizer of soil, 
 why is it that where it abounds and often forms an under 
 stratum a greater fertility does not prevail ? To this it may 
 be answered, that lime is a constituent principle, it is believ- 
 ed, in all soil, and may be supplied, where from experience a 
 deficiency is found. But when it superabounds, as in most 
 other things, excess may be injurious. In all this more ex- 
 perience is wished for, as the only safe and profitable 
 guide." 
 
 The following is extracted from a letter from Daniel Buck- 
 ley, Esq., of Salisbury, Pennsylvania, to J. Buel, Esq. pub- 
 lished in " Memoirs of the New York Board of Agriculture," 
 Vol. III. p. 124. 
 
 "The land which I cultivate, according to M'Clure's trea- 
 tise, is transition, composed of white and yellow clay and 
 limestone, much of the latter appearing on the surface, in- 
 termixed with flint. Upon this soil I have made a liberal 
 use of lime, ever since the year 1790, and think I have been 
 well rewarded for the expense and labor, by the increased 
 value of my crops. 
 
 " The method of applying the lime which I have adopted 
 in common with my neighbours is, in the first place, to plough 
 up a sod field with a strong team, in the spring or fall; har- 
 row it the way it is ploughed, and mark the field into as 
 many squares as you intend to put on half-bushels, say one 
 hundred on the acre, which will bring the furrows about 
 twenty feet apart each way, and require fifty bushels to the 
 acre. This quantity I have found to be most profitable. 
 When the lime is burnt, and as soon as it is cool enough to 
 handle, it ought to be hauled on the land already marked, 
 and a half bushel deposited in the centre of each square, in 
 as compact a heap as possible. If water is convenient, I 
 prefer to slack the lime immediately, rather than to wait for 
 rain, as it becomes finer and can be more evenly spread. As 
 soon as it has slacked, it is immediately spread and well har- 
 rowed. This method I prefer for Indian corn, barley, oats, 
 rye, and potatoes. On all the above crops I have experienc- 
 ed a great benefit from lime the first year after its applica- 
 tion. With potatoes I add about fifteen two-horse loads of 
 barn-yard manure to the acre, before planting. A second 
 liming is often given, and much approved of, after an interval 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 189 
 
 of three or more years. This amalgamates better, and can 
 be more intimately mixed with the soil. 
 
 " There are good farmers who differ as to the quantity of 
 lime that is most profitably applied; some say sixty bushels 
 on the acre, some seventy, and some more. I have applied 
 one hundred on an acre of limestone land, at a dressing; but 
 have not been able to discover any benefit from using it 
 thus freely, nor any injury except in the loss of lime. 
 
 " Wheat seldom receives any benefit from lime imtil the 
 second or third year after it has been applied, except it lias 
 been mixed in a compost of yard manure and earth. This 
 method is much practised in the lower counties of this State; 
 though not by good farmers, until they have applied lime as 
 the basis of melioration. By this management they have 
 raised their lands from an impoverished state, produced by 
 injudicious cropping, to such a state of fertility, as, I am in- 
 formed, to enable them to fatten a bullock of six hundred 
 weight on an acre, and to cut grass from the same acre suffi- 
 cient to winter another. 
 
 " Sandy soils are greatly improved by the use of lime. 
 I lately purchased some of that kind, which was originally 
 covered with chestnut timber, and was called mountain land. 
 It has been cleared seventy years; but lying a distance from 
 the farm buildings, had never received any manure but a 
 dressing of lime. This land I have had repeatedly farmed 
 since I owned it ; and although to appearance it seemed to 
 be almost a caput mortuum, with the aid of ten or twelve 
 four-horse loads of the gleanings of a yard of a public house, 
 it has produced as much, and as good wheat, rye, oats, timo- 
 thy, and clover to the acre, as any land in the township in 
 which it lays. I consider the liming which it had fifty years 
 ago as the principal cause of its fertility. 
 
 " It is a general opinion amongst good farmers, that liming 
 should be repeated every ten or fifteen years, and that the 
 increased crops richly compensate the expense. It matters 
 very little how it is applied, provided it is evenly spread im- 
 mediately after it is slacked. If suffered to air-slack, or to 
 lie after it has been water-slacked, it re-imbibes carbonic 
 acid, which the fire had expelled, becomes lumpy, and is 
 more difficult to be incorporated with the soil. Some spread 
 it upon the sod and plough it under, and think they have as 
 much profit from it in this way as in any other. When thus 
 applied, it powerfully contributes to decompose the tougher 
 
190 THE COMPLETE FARJiER 
 
 fibres of the sod, and to convert them into nutriment for the 
 crop." 
 
 Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris. It is said, that the pro- 
 perties of gypsum as a manure were fast discovered in Ger- 
 many, by a laborer, at a quarry of that substance. In passing 
 across a meadow to shorten the distance home, he observed 
 the luxuriance of the grass where he had walked, and sup- 
 posing it to be caused by the dust of the gypsum from his 
 feet and clothes, made experiments, which verified his sup- 
 position. 
 
 Great differences exist among agriculturists respecting the 
 uses of gypsum and the manner of its operation. Some 
 have supposed that its efficiency as a manure is altogethe- 
 owing to its power of attracting moisture from the air. But 
 Sir Humphrey Davy expressed an opinion, that but little 
 effect can be produced by such attraction. " When com- 
 bined with water," he observed, " it retains that fluid too 
 powerfully to yield it to the roots of the plant, and its ad- 
 hesive attraction for moisture is inconsiderable; the small 
 quantity in which it is used likewise is a circumstance un- 
 favorable to this idea." Some have supposed that gypsum 
 assists in the putrefaction of animal substances, and the de- 
 composition of the manure in the soil. This philosopher, 
 however, proved by repeated experiments, that it rather re- 
 tards than accelerates putrefaction. He likewise says, " In 
 examining the ashes of sainfoin, clover, and rye grass, I 
 found that they aflorded considerable quantities of gypsuin; 
 and this substance probably is intimately combined as a ne- 
 cessary part of the woody fibre. If this be allowed, it is 
 easy to explain why it operates in such small quantities; 
 for the whole of a clover crop, or sainfoin crop, on an acre, 
 according to my estimation, would afford by incineration 
 only three or four bushels of gypsum. The reason why 
 gypsum is not generally more efficacious, is probably be- 
 cause that most cultivated soils contain it in sufficient 
 quantities for the use of the grasses. In the common course 
 of cultivation gypsum is furnished in the manure ; for it is 
 contained in stable dung, and in the dung of cattle fed on 
 grass. Lord Dundas informs me, that having tried gypsum 
 without any benefit on two of his estates in Yorkshire, he . 
 was induced to have the soil examined for gypsum, and this -J^" 
 substance was found in both soils."* >-. 'lJsk 
 
 ^:^^' 
 
 * Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, Lecture VII. "'^SiK 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 191 
 
 It has been made a question, whether burning and calcin- 
 ing gypsum make any difference with regard to its fertihzing 
 properties. This is said to be the practice among French 
 cultivators, and was likewise recommended by Dr. Deane. 
 But an English writer on agriculture observes, that " calcin- 
 ing is not likely to make any difference, because the sulphu- 
 ric acid in gypsum cannot be expelled by the most violent 
 heat of the furnace ; and an experiment of Arthur Young 
 countenances the assertion, that the effects of gypsum are the 
 same, whether calcined or rough." 
 
 Dr. Joseph E. Muse, of Maryland, in an essay on the sub- 
 ject of gypsum, and its mode of operation, published in the 
 "American Farmer," (Vol. I. p. 338,) gives it as his opinion, 
 "that the chief, if not the only cause of the efficacy of gyp- 
 sum in promoting vegetation, is to be found in its tendency 
 to become phosphoric," and produced many facts and deduc- 
 tions therefrom, to show that gypsum by exposure to the at- 
 mosphere becomes phosphoric; andthat phosphorus exists in 
 vegetables. 
 
 The late Dr. Gorham, in a paper read before a Society in 
 Boston, oiaserved, "When plaster of Paris is applied to the 
 seed it stimulates the little root, the action of the vessels is 
 thus increased, absorption goes on more rapidly, and it ac- 
 quires more nourishment for a given time than in ordinary 
 circumstances; the consequences are a quick growth and 
 enlargement of the organs." 
 
 Colonel Taylor, of Virginia, observed, in substance, that 
 he sows of plaster from three pecks to one bushel to the 
 acre. Sown on clover in the spring, it benefits it consider- 
 ably. The best way of using it is in the spring upon the 
 long manure of the preceding winter, to be ploughed in with 
 it. He thinks it a valuable ally, but by no means a substi- 
 tute for manure. That there should be intervals of two, 
 three, or four years between applying it to the same land. 
 That its effect is graduated by the quantity of vegetable 
 matter on which it is sown. That on closely grazed land it 
 does little good at first, and repeated would become perni- 
 cious; and that it must be united either with long manure 
 of the winter, or the ungrazed vegetable cover produced in 
 the summer. That all crops are ultimately improved by its 
 improving the soil, even when its effects are not immediately 
 visible; but he does not recommend it as a top-dressing, 
 except for clover. 
 
 M. Canolle, a French writer, observes, that plaster, act- 
 
192 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 ing chiefly on the absorbent system of plants, its effects are 
 not like those of manure buried in the soil, which act prin- 
 cipally on the roots. The latter, according to their particu- 
 lar nature, divide, soften, enrich, warm, or stiffen the sods 
 with which they are mixed. The quantity of plaster spread 
 upon the land is so trifling that it can have little effect on 
 the soil. I speak from experience. Plaster buried in the 
 earth where sainfoin has been sown, has produced little al- 
 teration; whilst the same quantity of plaster spread over the 
 same surface of sainfoin has produced the most beautiful 
 vegetation. 
 
 " From this experience, so uniform in the application of 
 plaster, I am led to believe, that one must consult as well 
 the nature of the soil, as the kind of plants to which we ap- 
 ply plaster. Thus, whatever may be the soil, on which clo- 
 ver, lucerne, and sainfoin naturally flourish vigorously, or 
 with that vigor which encourages us to apply manure, there 
 is no risk in trying plaster. 
 
 " It is to be remarked, that plaster operates on plants in a 
 direct ratio to the size and number of their leaves. I have 
 spread plaster on land where sainfoin was mixed with the 
 common grasses which compose our meadows. The growth 
 of the sainfoin and wild honey-suckle has been beyond com- 
 parison greater than that of the common grasses. It is to 
 this cause I attribute the failure of success on grass ground 
 chiefly filled with common grasses. I have a field of lucerne 
 separated from a natural meadow only by a brook. I have 
 greatly increased the lucerne by the plaster, whilst the effect 
 of a like quantity on the adjoining grass land was scarcely, 
 if at all perceivable. 
 
 *' It has been ascertained by repeated experiments, that a 
 liberal application of plaster to clover, at the time of turning 
 it down and preparing for a wheat crop, is by far the most 
 advantageous to the crop, and much preferable to turning in 
 the clover in the usual way, and plastering on the surface. 
 The action of the plaster, thus excluded from atmospheric 
 air, upon the clover, covered over, is instantaneous, and the 
 putridity is so certain as to cause considerable gas, which in 
 its passage through the clod impregnates it with all its ma- 
 nuring qualities, and the root of the plant shoots down and 
 feeds on a bed of manure."* 
 
 A writer for "The New England Farmer," (Vol. II. p. 
 
 * American Farmer. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 193 
 
 10,) states, in substance, as results of his experience, that 
 plaster was found by him to be useful as manure, after hav- 
 ing been kept on hand in a box seven years; that its benefi- 
 cial effects on pasture land are very great. He sows it on 
 the same piece of ground every second year, and thinks five 
 or six pecks to an acre are sufficient; that his pasturing is 
 essentially improved by that application, producing nearly 
 double the quantity of food which it formerly did; that sow- 
 ing plaster on his grazing land had a tendency to destroy 
 the bushes, by giving increased luxuriance to the grass; that 
 this manure has been found very useful for flax and pota- 
 toes, &.C. 
 
 Dr. Cooper, editor of the last Philadelphia edition of 
 " Willich's Domestic Encyclopedia," says, " Gypsum will 
 not answer beyond two and a half bushels to the acre ; one 
 and a half bushel is better. It will not answer on wet or 
 swampy, or clayey soils. It should be scattered over the 
 ground as a top-dressing. Suppose you were asked if a 
 stone brought you is gypsum. 1 . Gypsum can be scratched 
 by the nail, scraped by a knife, ground by the teeth. 2. It 
 will not dissolve in spirits of salt as limestone will; nor is 
 it half so hard as limestone. 3. Its color and crystalline 
 appearance distinguish it from clay ; nor does it give a clayey 
 odor when breathed upon, unless clay be mixed with it. 4. 
 Powder it, boil it to dryness, with four times its weight of 
 pot oi;- pearlash. Wash out all that the hot water will dis- 
 solve ; the remaining powder (if the stone be gypsum) is 
 carbonate of lime." 
 
 Gypsum has been highly recommended as a manure for 
 potatoes. The potatoes, just before planting, should be wet 
 and rolled in pulverized plaster; and a handful of plaster 
 applied immediately after the first and second hoeing to the 
 leaves, and scattered over the hill. 
 
 A writer for "The Genesee Farmer," with the signature 
 " Onondago," observes, "Pla.ster is always to be sown on 
 wheat unless the land is wanted for a spring crop the ne.xt 
 year, after clover seed, at the rate of one, two, or even 
 three bushels per acre. After harvest the young clover 
 ought not to be pastured much, if any; the next year the 
 clover is suffered to grow as large as it can be, and be well 
 turned over, which is then done, the ground fallowed and the 
 wheat sown ; the next year sow the clover seed and plaster, 
 and so on from year to year ad infinitum, the land always 
 getting better, as is suppospd l)y those who practise this 
 17 • 
 
194 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 method. Plaster we think should be sown in pasture. An 
 old farmer, and one who has proved his skill by making a 
 fortune at the business, and who now tills nearly five hun- 
 dred acres, told me, that a ton of plaster sown on ten acres 
 of pasture would make it yield as much as fifteen acres un- 
 der the like circumstances without plaster." 
 
 J. Spicer, in " Goodsell's Farmer," says, " When I apply 
 plaster to corn, which I have done for nearly three years 
 past, I mix it with one-half leached ashes, as they are leached 
 for common family use ; put it in a cart, and shovel and mix 
 it well. I then put one gill to the hill immediately after the 
 first hoeing, and the same thing over after the second hoe- 
 ing. I have tried the same quantity of clear plaster, side 
 and side, twice, and find the mixture to produce the greatest 
 effects." 
 
 The Hon. J. Lowell, in an article published in "The 
 New England Farmer," (Vol. V. p. 1,) contradicts an idea 
 which has been generally prevalent, that gypsum is of no 
 use to lands near the seacoast, and observes as follows : 
 
 " I shall set out with the fact, that plaster has been used 
 with success on lands on the seacoast of France, where the 
 southwest wind, the prevalent one in summer, in that coun- 
 try, brings with it the ocean air : and in our country, in 
 Massachusetts, for example, the prevalent winds do not bring 
 with them an atmosphere filled with saline particles. It can- 
 not therefore be the vicinity to the sea which renders gypsum 
 inert and inefficacious with us. The cause of its inefficacy 
 near the seacoast, must therefore be sought for in something 
 else ; in the nature of our soil, perhaps already sufficiently 
 imbued with the constituent parts of gypsum, or in our more 
 free use of stable manure, which furnishes the plants with 
 all the food they require. 
 
 " I have been in a constant and invariable course of ex- 
 periments on plaster, and these are the results. It seems to 
 be of no use, ever, to clover, on low meadow lands ; of no 
 use to any plants on a good rich, well-manured soil. But I 
 have three decisive proofs of its utility on dry, hilly, gravelly 
 soils. 
 
 " The first I shall mention, was an experiment made by the 
 late R. S. Esq., of Roxbury, on a lofty hill of old pasture 
 land. He applied it for several years, and his own convic- 
 tion was, and it was also the full conviction of many others, 
 that it materially improved the condition of his pasture. It 
 was green at an earlier period, and the white clover came 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 195 
 
 into it more generally and luxuriantly than into other lands 
 in the same situation. 
 
 " Seven years since, I applied plaster to a newly laid down 
 field of clover, one half of which was a dry, gravelly knoll, 
 with very little vegetable soil. When it was lit for cutting, 
 I showed it to the trustees of the Massachusetts Agricultu- 
 ral Society, and without pointing out to them the part to 
 which the plaster had been applied, they at once, on sight 
 of it, detected and pointed out the superiority of the crop 
 on the part to which the gypsum had been applied ; and 
 their designation agreed, by metes and bounds, with the 
 stakes I had driven, indicating the part to which plaster had 
 been applied, and which were then concealed by the grass. 
 This superior crop was on a pure gravelly soil, far inferior 
 to the rest, which was a deep rich loam. 
 
 " This year I had a piece of clover in its second year of 
 growth. It was similarly situated. Two thirds of it was a 
 gravelly, thin soil. I cut the whole on the 10th day of June. 
 The gravelly part, owing to the drought, did not yield more 
 than half a ton to the acre ; the rich part an excellent crop. 
 As soon as the hay was in, I gave a dressing of plaster to 
 the gravelly knoll only, at the rate of three bushels to the 
 acre. 
 
 "The effect has been as great as has ever been represent- 
 ed to be produced by gypsum by persons in the interior. 
 The second crop on the gravelly land is far superior to that 
 on a rich and deep soil in the same field. It may be discov- 
 ered at ten rods' distance ; and you can mark by your eyes 
 precisely the line of the ground to which the plaster was 
 applied. 
 
 " Gypsum is of no service on low lands, or on good land, 
 nor of much use to any products except to clover and lu- 
 cerne; but on sandy and gravelly soils, and applied to these 
 plants, especially in dry seasons, I am convinced it will 
 prove valuable. I paid only four dollars for ten bushels, 
 ground; and I applied only sixty cents' worth to this land, 
 and am convinced, that the plaster will increase the value of 
 the second crop to five times the cost of the application." 
 
 A writer for "The Genesee Farmer," with the signature 
 "V. W. S.," recommends to sow plaster from the box of a 
 wagon, driven slowly over the field in which it is to be dis- 
 tributed. He sowed five and a half bushels of plaster over 
 four acres of meadow in just an hour, and performed his 
 work well; sowed the ground twice over, extending the cast 
 
196 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 each time to the track the wheels last made, by which the 
 driver guided his course across the lot. The writer recom- 
 mends a windy day for his purpose, and believes a yoke of 
 cattle might be preferable to a horse. He says : 
 
 " It will be readily perceived, that while my mode of sow- 
 ing plaster makes a great saving of manual strength, the 
 great advantage derived from it is, in the expedition with 
 which the process is performed. One man and boy, in a 
 one-horse cart, can dress from forty to sixty acres per day ; 
 thus making a very important saving of time, at a season 
 when the farmer is obliged to husband closely. The injury 
 of driving a wagon over a field of grain would be but little, 
 and could not be considered a moment, when compared with 
 the value of the time gained. In sowing from a wagon it 
 will be found necessary to stop occasionally, to pick up or 
 loosen the plaster, which becomes compacted by its motion. 
 The elevated position of the sower enables him to make a 
 very broad cast, and if advantage is taken of the wind, he 
 will be able to avoid the respiration of any great quantities 
 of dust." 
 
 Marl consists of calcareous matter, clay, and sand, or 
 some two of these earths, (of which lime or chalk is always 
 one,) in various proportions. The blue clay marl is free 
 from sand. Clay marl is also sometimes of a yellowish 
 white, yellowish gray, or a brown or red cast. The shell 
 marl seldom contains clay. In schistus or stone marl, some- 
 times sand and sometimes clay preponderates, generally the 
 former. The sand marl, whether shell or schistus, should 
 be applied to clays; and clay marls to sands. In both cases 
 they correct the defects of the soil, by rendering it, in 
 the first, less adhesive ; and, in the latter, less open and 
 porous. 
 
 The earths are not the food of plants. They constitute 
 the stomach, analogous to the stomach of animals, in which 
 vegetable and animal matter is received, digested, and with 
 the aid of the leaves [lungs] assimilated to vegetable chyle 
 and blood. The best soil for this digestive process, is that 
 in w'hich the three above-named earths are suitably blended. 
 A sandy or gravelly soil is called hungry, because it 
 digests rapidly, and dissipates the food committed to its bo- 
 som. Hence green crops, or frequent manurings, are ne- 
 cessary to continue it healthy and productive. Such soils 
 are defective in clay and calcareous matter. Their texture 
 may therefore be improved, and their fertility increased, by 
 
ANU RURAL ECONOMIST. 197 
 
 the application of clay marl ; or, what is the same, by clay 
 and lime separately; though these materials are found most 
 pure and best blended in the substance of marl. The quan- 
 tity should be proportioned to the natural deficiency of these 
 materials in the soil. From eight to one hundred loads per 
 acre have been applied in one or two dressings; and their 
 beneficial effects have been known to continue thirty years. 
 All the sand soils of Norfolk, England, have been marled 
 [clayed]. Calcareous, matter, combined with sulphuric acid 
 [oil of vitriol], is usefully applied to soils in the form of gyp- 
 sum, or plaster of Paris; as is also powdered limestone and 
 chalk, both calcareous. I am induced to believe that neither 
 wheat nor sainfoin grass will thrive in a soil destitute of 
 calcareous matter, which is the condition with most of our 
 sands. 
 
 A stiff, moist clay, is called cold, and is unfriendly to the 
 finer grasses as well as grains. Its texture is too compact 
 to permit the roots to extend freely, and its temperature too 
 cold to carry on the digestive process sufficiently rapid for 
 the plants which grow upon its surface. Sand and lime, or 
 siliceous marl, loosen its texture, render it permeable to 
 heat. Sac, and powerfully assist to concoct the food of vege- 
 tables. 
 
 Marl may be known by the most ordinary observer. The 
 application of a mineral acid, and even of good vinegar, will 
 cause an effervescence. This is the operation of the acid 
 upon the lime. Its siliceous and argillaceous properties may 
 be ascertained by the sight and feeling, by the aid of water, 
 or of glass. Sand subsides or settles quicker than clay in a 
 liquid; and will scratch glass, which clay will not. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in the economy of nature, that the 
 indigenous plants of every country are precisely those which 
 are best adapted to furnish the proper sustenance to its ani- 
 mal population, and to satisfy its medicinal wants. So in 
 regard to our soils; every district generally affords the means 
 of producing fertility. Hence the clay marls generally un- 
 derlay sands ; and shell and sand marls most abound, in the 
 neighbourhood of clays. And in addition to the variety of 
 fossil substances which are calculated to increase fertility, 
 every thing that grows upon the earth, every particle of ani- 
 mal and vegetable matter, is reduced to air and water by the 
 chemical operations of nature, and in these forms become 
 the food of new plants, to nourish animals. It is a truth 
 calculated to teach humihtv, that the animal, the vegetable, 
 17* 
 
198 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and the putrid mass of dung, are found on chemical analysis 
 to be very nearly alike, and that, in the natural order of 
 things, they constantly nourish, feed, and produce each oth- 
 er. " Nothing is nourishment for a vegetable but what 
 enters into the permanent composition of a vegetable. 
 Nothing is nourishment for an animal but what was original- 
 ly a vegetable." Man is enjoined to earn his bread by the 
 sweat of his brow. He finds the most noble incitements to 
 duty scattered around him, and he is seldom disappointed 
 in obtaining the rewards, competence, and health, which 
 industry promises to her votaries. But I have another re- 
 mark to make as to the food of vegetables. How scrupu- 
 lously careful is the farmer of his grain, hay, and roots, 
 which are destined to nourish and fatten his animals ; and 
 yet how thoughtless and inattentive as to the food of his 
 plants ! Vegetable and animal substances are suffered to 
 waste in his fields and yards, unmindful of the havoc which 
 the rains, winds, and sand, are daily making upon them; 
 while a moiety of his fertilizing materials, the urine of his 
 stock, is altogether lost. He will not suffer the flocks of 
 his neighbours to rob his own of their food; yet he sees, with 
 but feeble efforts to prevent it, his plants plundered by 
 pestiferous weeds of the food which is essential to their 
 health and vigor. 
 
 " To find the composition of a marl, pour a few ounces of 
 diluted muriatic acid into a Florence flask; place them in a 
 scale, and let them be balanced: then reduce a few ounces 
 of dry marl into powder; and let this powder be carefully 
 and gradually thrown into the flask, until, after repeated ad- 
 ditions, no farther effervescence is perceived. Let the re- 
 mainder of the powdered marl be weighed, by which the 
 quantity projected will be known. Let the balance be then 
 restored. The difference of weight between the quantity 
 projected and that requisite to restore the balance, will show 
 the weight of air lost during effervescence. [That air pro- 
 ceeds from the calcareous earth alone, which contains forty- 
 four per cent, of this carbonic acid air. Suppose five 
 hundred grains of marl lose forty-four grains by the escape 
 of air, then that marl contained one hundred grains, or one- 
 fifth of its whole weight, of limestone. — T. C] If the loss 
 amount to twenty or twenty-five per cent, of the quantity of 
 marl projected, the marl assayed is calcareous marl, or marl 
 rich in calcareous earth. Clayey marls, or those in which 
 the argillaceous ingredient prevails, lose only eight or ten 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 199 
 
 per cent, of their weight by this treatment, and sandy marls 
 about the same proportion. The presence of much argilla- 
 ceous earth may be judged by drying the marl, after being 
 washed with spirit of salt, when it will harden and form a 
 brick. 
 
 "To determine with still greater precision the quantity of 
 calcareous earth in marl, let the solution in muriatic acid be 
 filtered and mixed with a solution of carbonate of potash, 
 till no farther precipitation appear. Let the sediment sub- 
 side; wash it well with water; lay it on a filter, previously 
 ■weighed, and dry it. The weight of the dry mass will show 
 how much carbonate of lime the quantity of marl submitted 
 to experiment contained. See Kirwan on Manures. 
 
 " The quantity necessary to be used, varies according to 
 the nature of the soil; but the utmost caution is requisite, 
 because if too large a portion be scattered on the land, it 
 cannot be easily removed, and if too little be employed, the 
 deficiency may be readily supplied. On sandy, gravelly, or 
 light soils, it will be advisable to spread as much as will 
 form a thick coat, in order to bind and stiffen the ground. 
 But, of whatever nature the land may be, the most judicious 
 cultivators recommend such a portion to be laid on it, as will 
 form a thin coat over the whole surface. 
 
 " The proper season for snarling is the summer; as this 
 kind of manure is then perfectly dry, and not only lighter, 
 but also more easily reduced to a powder. Marl, however, 
 may be advantageously spread during the winter frosts; as 
 in the latter season, there are few opportunities of perform- 
 ing other labors of the field. 
 
 " Previously to marling, the land ought to be diligently 
 cleared from all weeds, and rendered level, both with the 
 brake and the common harrow, so that the marl may be 
 equally spread on the surface, where it should be suffered to 
 lie during the winter. In the month of February, [March, 
 or April,] and in dry weather, it will be proper to draw a 
 bush-harrow, well weighted, over the land, that the marl 
 may be uniformly distributed ; but, as this manure is very 
 ponderous, and sinks to the bottom of the furrow, if injudi- 
 ciously ploughed in, it has been suggested to turn it into an 
 ebb-furrow for the first crop : during the growth of the latter, 
 the marl will incorporate with and become a part of the 
 soil, from which it does not readily separate. So permanent, 
 indeed, are its fertilizing properties, that if land be properly 
 marled, it will continue arable for the space of twelve or 
 
200 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 fourteen years ; and, for pasture, during a much longer 
 period. 
 
 "A good aHificial marl may be prepared by mixing equal 
 quantities of pure clay and lime, in alternate layers, so as to 
 form a heap, which should be exposed to the winter frost : 
 this compound is well calculated for light lands ; but if the 
 soil be strong and heavy, it will be necessary to substitute 
 loam and sand for the clay. Such compositions may be 
 usefully employed where marl is not easily procured ; as 
 they will amply repay the labor bestowed on mixing them, 
 being little interior to the genuine calcareous earth." — 
 Domestic Encyclopedia. 
 
 An English writer on agriculture observes, that " whoever 
 finds marl finds a mine of great value. It is one of the best 
 and most general manures in nature; proper for all soils, 
 and particularly so for clay." It is usually found under 
 moss or peat, in low sunken lands, and especially nigh the 
 sea or large rivers. It has been sometimes discovered by 
 ant-hills, as those insects bring up small pieces of shells from 
 their holes. 
 
 Peat is a well-known substance, used both for manure and 
 for fuel. In its natural state peat is of but little or no ser- 
 vice as manure, but by exposing it to the effects of fermenta- 
 tion it becomes very useful as food for plants. In its unfer- 
 mented state it contains a considerable quantity of tannin, 
 which is a powerful astringent, resisting all approaches to 
 putrefaction ; and is impregnated with acids injurious to 
 vegetation, which can be expelled by fermentation with barn- 
 yard manure, and other suitable substances. 
 
 The following method of preparing peat for manure is 
 extracted from a small treatise by lord Meadowbanks, which 
 was printed and distributed gratis among the Scottish pea- 
 santry, and- has been highly approved of both by practical 
 and scientific cultivators. 
 
 " Let the peat-moss, of which compost is to be formed, 
 be thrown out of the pit for some weeks or months, in order 
 to lose its redundant moisture. By this means it is rendered 
 the lighter to carry, and less compact and weighty, when 
 made up with fresh dung for fermentation; and accordingly, 
 less dung is required for the purpose, than if the preparation 
 is made with peat taken recently from the pit. The peat 
 taken from near the surface, or at a considerable depth, an- 
 swers equally well. And the more compact the peat, and 
 
AXD RURAL ECONOMIST. 201 
 
 the fitter to prove good fuel, so much the more promising it 
 is to be prepared for manure. 
 
 " Take the peat-moss to a dry spot, convenient for con- 
 structing a dunghill, to serve the field to be manured. Lay 
 the cart-loads of it in two rows, and of the dung in a row 
 betwixt them. The dung thus lies on the area of the com- 
 post dunghill, and the rows of peat should be near enough 
 each other, that workmen in making up the compost may be 
 able to throw them together by the spade. In making up, 
 let the workmen begin at one end; and at the extremity of 
 the row of dung, (which should not extend quite so far at 
 that end as the rows of peat on each side of it do,) let them 
 lay a bottom of peat, six inches deep, and fifteen feet wide. 
 Then throw forward, and lay about ten inches of dung above 
 the bottom of peat; then four or five of dung ; and then 
 cover it over with peat at the end where it was begun, at 
 the two sides, and above. The compost should not be 
 raised above four feet and a half high, otherwise it is apt to 
 press too heavily on the under parts, and check the fermen- 
 tation: unless the peat, when dry, be very puffy and light, 
 and then a much greater height is desirable. Neither should 
 it be much lower, otherwise it will prove wanting in the 
 compactness, and soon also, if the weather is very dry, in 
 the moisture required for the ingredients of which it con- 
 sists, to act chemically on each other. When a beginning 
 is thus made, the workmen will proceed working backwards, 
 and adding to the column of compost as they are furnished 
 with the three roAvs of materials directed to be laid down 
 for them. They must take care not to tread on the compost, 
 or render it too compact; and of consequence, in propor- 
 tion as the peat is wet, it should be made up in lumps, and 
 not much mashed or broken. 
 
 " In mild weather, seven cart-loads of common farm-yard 
 dung, tolerably fresh made, is sufficient for twenty-one cart- 
 loads of peat-moss; but in cold weather, a larger proportion 
 of dung is desirable; at least, it is prudent to omit putting 
 any peat between the two upper layers of dung, and rather 
 thicken the outer coating with peat. It is also proper in 
 winter, if ground with a dry bottom can be conveniently em- 
 ployed for the purpose, to increase greatly the breadth of the 
 dunghill, which, in that case, maybe done without any limit, 
 by adding, all round the dunghill, circles, consisting of layers 
 of dung and peat, of seven feet in breadth. And if the mass 
 of the dunghill is thus enlarged, there is little occasion to 
 
202 THE COMPLETE FARMEH 
 
 exceed the proportion of dung recommended for making up 
 to prepare in the milder season ; especially if a covering of 
 coarse vegetables of any sort, such as waste hay or straw, 
 rushes, broom, or furze, or brushwood of evergreens, is 
 thrown over the dunghill. In fact, a covering of this sort is 
 scarce less useful in summer to prevent the escape of mois- 
 ture, than in winter to exclude cold. 
 
 "To every twenty-eight cart-loads of the compost, when 
 made up, it is of use to throw on above it a cart-load of 
 ashes, either made from coal, peat, or wood; or if these can- 
 not be had, half the quantity of slacked lime may be used, 
 the more finely powdered the better. But these additions 
 are in nowise essential to the general success of the com- 
 post, provided a sufficiency of time is allowed to the prepa- 
 ration to compensate for the want of them. 
 
 " The dung to be used should either have been recently 
 made, or kept fresh by compression; as by the treading of 
 cattle or swine, or by carts passing over it. And if there is 
 little or no litter in it, a smaller quantity will serve, pro- 
 vided any spongy vegetable matter is added at making up the 
 compost, as fresh weeds, the rubbish ofa stack-yard, potato- 
 shaws, sawings of timber, &c. And as some sorts of 
 dung, even when fresh, are much more advanced in decora- 
 position than others, it is material to attend to this; for a 
 much less proportion of such dung, especially if abounding 
 in animal matter, as is less advanced, will serve for the com- 
 post, provided care is taken to keep the mass sufficiently 
 open, either by a mixture of the above-mentioned substances, 
 or, if these are wanting, by adding the peat piecemeal, that 
 is, first mixing it up in the usual proportion of three to one 
 of dung, and then, after a time, adding an equal quantity, 
 more or less, of peat. The dung of this character of great- 
 est quantity is shamble-dung, with which, under the above 
 precautions, six times the quantity of peat, or more, may be 
 prepared. The same holds as to pigeon-dung and other 
 fowl-dung; and to a certain extent, also, as to that which is 
 collected from towns, and made by animals that feed on 
 grains, refuse of distilleries, &c. 
 
 " The compost, after it is made up, gets into a general 
 heat, sooner or later, according to the weather and the con- 
 dition of the dung; in summer, in ten days or sooner ; in 
 winter, not perhaps for many weeks, if the cold is severe. 
 It always, however, has been found to come on at last; and 
 in summer, it sometimes rises so high as to be mischievous, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 203 
 
 by consuming the materials, (fire-fanging.) In that season 
 a stick should be kept in it in different parts, to pull out and 
 feel now and then ; for if it approaches to blood-heat, it 
 should either be watered or turned over ; and on such an 
 occasion, advantage may be taken to mix with it a little 
 fresh peat. The heat subsides, after a time, and with great 
 variety, according to the weather, the dung, and the perfec- 
 tion of the making up of the compost; which then may be 
 allowed to remain untouched, until within three or four 
 weeks of using, when it should be turned over, upside down, 
 and outside in, and all lumps broken: then it comes into a 
 second heat, but soon cools, and is fit to be taken out for 
 use. In this state the whole, except bits of the old decayed 
 wood, appears a black free mass, and spreads like garden- 
 mould. Use it, weight for weight, as farm-yard dung; and 
 it will be found, in a course of cropping, fully to stand the 
 comparison." 
 
 Many other articles are useful for manure, such as blood, 
 offals of animals, hair, refuse feathers, woollen rags, hoofs 
 and horns of cattle, sheep, Stc. ; bones of all kinds, pound- 
 ed, broken, or ground, at the rate of sixty bushels to the 
 acre; raw skins; fish of all kinds; swamp mud, river mud, 
 pond mud and sea mud, wood ashes, turfs, sea-weeds, moss 
 mixed with dung in holes, — good for potatoes, — turf from 
 highways, &c. ; shells of shell-fish; scrapings of streets and 
 back yards ; rubbish of old houses, and earth which has 
 long been under cover. Both of these collect and retain 
 nitre. Old brine of salted meat or fish, which contains, be- 
 sides salt, some blood, oil, &c., in composts. Sea water, 
 which contains other substances besides water and salt, 
 which are fit for nourishing plants. Soap-suds, replete with 
 a prepared food for plants; excellent for watering gardens 
 in dry weather. None of this should ever be lost. If the 
 garden be distant or wet, it may enrich the dung heap. 
 Water in the hollows of farm-yards. Instead of suffering 
 this liquor to soak into the earth, it should be taken up by 
 straw litter, or some absorbent substance thrown into it, or 
 carried out in a water-cart, and sprinkled over land which 
 needs it, in the manner in which streets are watered in 
 cities. 
 
 In the " New England Farmer," (Vol. IX. p. 245,) was 
 published an article written by Hon. John Lowell, from 
 which the following is extractecl: 
 
 " A few years since, the Hon William Ellis, of Dedham, 
 
204 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 recommended to me the use of the head and feet bones of 
 oxen, as a highly valuable manure on meadow lands. He 
 said he had observed, in passing, that I had grounds re- 
 markably well adapted for this manure. I, however, neglect- 
 ed this hint, though I constantly kept it in mind, until the 
 last year, when, seeing an immense load of the heads of 
 oxen passing by, I inquired of the owner for what purpose 
 he was carting these materials, and he answered me to the 
 following facts, viz. : that he came down a distance of eight 
 miles with an empty team, and was carrying back a load, 
 which cost him two dollars, to put on his meadow land. I 
 found it was no new experiment with him, and that he came 
 often for that purpose. 
 
 " I made the experiment. Its success surpassed all his 
 descriptions. The manure brought in new grasses. It en- 
 couraged and invigorated the old. 
 
 " I am aware it is only of limited application, but it is no 
 trifling thing to render useful an article formerly thrown 
 away. We know so little of the philosophy of manure, that 
 I shall not speak positively on the subject. All I shall say 
 is, that there is much animal matter still adhering to the 
 bones, and animal matter has been found by experience to 
 promote the growth of vegetables. 
 
 "The mode of application is, to break them up with a 
 sledge, or with the back of an axe, and then to press them 
 below the surface by a rammer or beetle. The only point 
 to which I offer my testimony is, that Ihe effects are much 
 greater than an equal quantity of horse and cow dung. This 
 may be relied on." 
 
 FENCES. The kinds of fence and manner of fencing, 
 should vary, according to the difference of soils and the 
 kinds of materials for fencing. In new lands logs are and 
 ought to be most used. When built of white pine, they will 
 last about twenty years. Other sorts of wood, such as pitch- 
 pine, hemlock, ash, oak, &c., will endure for a considerable 
 time if not placed too near the ground. If a fence be made 
 partly of white pine and partly of other wood, the former 
 should be laid nearest to the ground. If logs are peeled 
 they will last the longer in fences. 
 
 It has been practised by some farmei-s to make posts for 
 fences very durable by the following simple process. They 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 205 
 
 bore a hole in that part of the post which, when set, will be 
 just at the surface of the earth, with such a slope as will 
 carry it downward an inch or two. They then fill the hole 
 with salt, which will preserve the timber a long time from 
 decay. 
 
 In many parts of the country posts and rails will be found 
 the cheapest materials for fence. In making fences of this 
 description, it is advised by Mr. Preston, of Stockport, Penn- 
 sylvania, to set the posts with the top parts in the ground; 
 and he asserts that they will, in that position, last three or 
 four times as long as when they are set with the butt ends 
 down. He advises, also, in making fences, always to place 
 the rails with the heart side up. 
 
 The best timber for rails, according to Dr. Deane, is red 
 cedar. It is easy to split, light to carry and handle, suffi- 
 ciently strong, and the most durable of any. In the Trans- 
 actions of the Society of Arts, in England, there is an ac- 
 count which states, in substance, that posts of oak, and oth- 
 ers of chestnut, were set down in Somersetshire, where they 
 had to undergo repairs in eighteen years. The oak posts 
 were then found to be unserviceable, and the chestnut very 
 little worn. The oak posts were renewed, the chesnut re- 
 mained, and in twenty-five years afterwards they were not 
 so much rotted as the oak. 
 
 If the lower ends of posts are scorched in a hot flame be- 
 fore they are put into the ground, they will last the longer. 
 Some recommend soaking them in sea-water to keep them 
 from rotting. The posts should be set at least two feet in 
 the ground. Some farmers cut their posts so long, and mor- 
 tise them in such a manner, that they can turn them upside 
 down, when the lower ends become rotten. 
 
 It is said in the Barnstable Journal, that " Deacon Wins- 
 low Martin has on his farm a kind of fence, which for dura- 
 bility and beauty can hardly be exceeded. On each side of 
 the road adjacent his dwelling, are rows of large button- 
 wood trees, set ten or twelve feet asunder. Into these, when 
 young, cedar rails were inserted, as into common posts. As 
 the trees increased in size, the wood formed closely around 
 the ends of the rails, and firmly secured them in their 
 places. It is certainly a durable and cheap fence, because 
 it will require no repairs at least for one generation, and is 
 moreover constantly increasing in value. Were our roads 
 lined with this kind of fence, it would add not a little to the 
 beauty of the country and the comfort of the traveller." 
 18 
 
206 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 The "Farmer's Guide" observes, that "post and rail fences 
 and board fences are very good where the soil is dry. In a 
 wet soil, the posts will be moved by frost. Red cedar, locust, 
 and chestnut, are best. Butternut, black walnut, and oak, 
 are pretty good, lasting about fifteen years. For the rails, 
 cedar is best, lasting perhaps an age. If timber is scarce, 
 and the ground is level and free from stones, post and rail 
 fences, set in a bank of the earth of two small ditches, 
 thrown up together, ought to be preferred. If the posts are 
 too small to have holes made through them, the rails may be 
 flattened at the ends, and fastened to the posts with spikes, 
 or with wooden pins well secured." 
 
 When ground is wholly subdued, and the stumps of its 
 original trees quite rotted out, stone walls, properly made, 
 are the best and cheapest fences. On hard, sandy, or gravel- 
 ly soil, a wall will stand many years without repairing. On 
 a clay or miry soil, the foundation should be laid in a trench, 
 nearly as low as the earth freezes. But a wall of flat or 
 square shaped stones will stand pretty well on any soil on 
 the surface. 
 
 A writer for the " Genesee Farmer " gives the following 
 directions for " Planting Posts for Garden Fences, &c." 
 
 " Instead of filling the holes up with the earth taken out 
 in digging them, I would recommend filling in around the 
 posts leached ashes instead of common earth, and topping 
 off" with five or six inches of unleached ashes above the sur- 
 face of the ground; for it is generally between tvind and 
 water, as the sailors term it, that garden posts begin to de- 
 cay. My reason for recommending ashes is, that I have fre- 
 quently found pieces of board, hoops, and staves, buried 
 under heaps of leached ashes, which had lain there many 
 years, and were quite as sound as when first buried. No 
 doubt many of your readers have noticed the same, in re- 
 moving old ash-heaps near potash works." 
 
 HEDGES. In some soils, situations, and circumstances, 
 hedge fences will be found most advisable and economical. 
 The following remarks on this subject, by the Hon. John 
 Lowell, were published in the " New England Farmer," 
 Vol. X. p. 339. 
 
 "It is not my intention to recommend live hedges for this 
 rocky part of the 'United States. Our own stones furnish 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 207 
 
 the best divisions we could ask for or desire ; and on most 
 farms the removal of them from the soil would be economi- 
 cal, and the placing them as partitions for fields is the cheap- 
 est and most natural mode of disposing of them. Still, in 
 New England, there are extensive tracts of country of allu- 
 vial or diluvial soil, in which no rocks are found, and in 
 which a stone wall could not be obtained without great ex- 
 pense. Such is the state of the greater part of the old col- 
 ony below Plymouth, and of some parts of the county of 
 Middlesex. But wherever wood fences are required it may 
 be useful to substitute live hedges. 
 
 " The Virginia thorn, is in most cases utterly useless as a 
 fence. This is chiefly owing to the ravages of a worm at 
 its root; whether it be the same which attacks the apple and 
 the quince, is a point not settled. The same objection is 
 applicable to the English hawthorn. And to this fatal one is 
 superadded another, the appearance of a fungus of a yellow 
 color on the leaves, which utterly disfigures them and strips 
 them of their foliage in September. The gleditsrhia triacan- 
 thos is not suited for hedges with us. If left to grow they 
 soon grow out of all reach, if checked they are winter-killed. 
 We are indebted wholly and entirely to the experiments of 
 Ezekiel Hersy Derby, Esq. for the possession of a plant, 
 the buckthorn, {rhamnus catharticus,) which, from ten years' 
 trial, seems to afford every desirable quality for a healthy, 
 beautiful, and effectual hedge. 
 
 "I have tried this plant for six years. It is hardy and 
 rapid in its growth, of impenetrable thickness, and so far as 
 that extent of experiment enables me to judge, not subject 
 to any disease, or the visitation of any insect whatever. 
 As it is very provoking as well as expensive to cultivators to 
 be led astray, and to find after five or ten years that they 
 have been deceived, they would do well to examine growing 
 hedges of the buckthorn." 
 
 The following is extracted from a notice of Mr. Derby of 
 the cultivation and uses of the buckthorn. The tree from 
 which my plants were raised, formerly stood in the garden of 
 the venerable Dr. Holyoke, who used the berries for medici- 
 nal purposes, and was as large as any of our common apple- 
 trees. He was induced at last to cut it down, as it shaded 
 so much of his garden. I was so pleased with the healthy 
 and clean appearance of the tree, and the next spring ob- 
 serving several young plants, raised from seed dropped in 
 
208 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the autumn, that I was induced to transplant them to a nur- 
 sery, where they grew with great rapidity. 
 
 " After trying several kinds of trees for the purpose of 
 making a hedge, without much success, I was induced to try 
 this, which has afforded a most beautiful fence, so much so 
 as to attract the attention of every person who has seen it. 
 It divides my garden, is about three hundred feet in length, 
 the plants set nearly a foot apart, is five feet high, and two 
 feet wide at top, which is cut nearly level. It shoots early 
 in the spring, makes a handsome appearance, and continues 
 its verdure till very late in the fall. It has not so much 
 spine as either the English or American hawthorn, but I 
 think sufficient to protect it from cattle. The plant bears 
 the knife or shears remarkably, and makes as close and tight 
 a fence as either of the others, and is not subject to blight, 
 as both of them have been with me. The tree furnishes a 
 large quantity of seed, which rapidly vegetates ; and I 
 make no doubt it can be propagated by cuttings." 
 
 We are apprehensive that no species of thorn can be cul- 
 tivated to advantage in New England for the purpose of 
 making hedges, on account principally of the insects which 
 in this part of the country infest that plant. Some, however, 
 prefer the American thorn, {crcdcegus cordata.) A valuable 
 communication relative to the use of this and other plants 
 for live fences, by B. S., M. D., may be found in the " New 
 England Farmer," Vol. IX. p. 209. 
 
 Upon consulting Mr. Lowell, as to any changes it would 
 be proper to make on the article of hedges, he states, that 
 he still gives the preference to the buckthorn, but that the 
 Newcastle thorn, grown by John Prince, Esq., is more 
 beautiful, and it bids fair to be as enduring and as free from 
 disease. The rapidity of growth of the buckthorn is, in his 
 judgment, a full equivalent for the beauty of the other. 
 
 SHEEP, There are a great many varieties of sheep, with 
 differences more or less marked. To give even an abridged 
 account of all the kinds described in foreign publications, 
 would require a large volume. In England, the principal 
 division of sheep is into the long wool and the short wool 
 kinds. Among those bearing long wool, are the Leicester, 
 Devonshire JVots, Exmoor, Heath, the Bakeivell or Dishley 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 209 
 
 breeds, &c. &c. The origin of the last-mentioned breed of 
 sheep is thus described by an EngHsh writer: 
 
 " Mr. Bakewell selected from his own flock, and from the 
 flocks of others, those sheep to breed from, which possessed 
 in the greatest degree that perfection of form he was de- 
 sirous to retain and perpetuate. By judiciously crossing 
 them, and selecting the most perfect of their progeny, he at 
 length succeeded in forming the breed, which has been dis- 
 tinguished by the name of the New Leicester, or Disliley 
 breed; and having attained his object, he carefully guarded 
 against any future intermixtures, with other breeds. This 
 breed exceeds all others in its propensity to fatten ; and 
 by crossing by rams with this breed, a considerable portion 
 of the long-wooled sheep in England have been greatly 
 improved in this respect. 
 
 "The Dishley breed are distinguished from other long- 
 wooled breeds by their fine lively eyes, clean heads, straight, 
 broad, flat backs, round (barrel-like) bodies, very fine small 
 bones, thin pelts, and inclination to fat at an early age. The 
 last property is probably owing to the before-specified quali- 
 ties, which, from observation and experience, there is reason 
 to believe extend generally through every species of domes- 
 tic quadrupeds. The Dishley breed is not only peculiar for 
 the mutton being fat, but also for the fineness of the grain; 
 the flavor is superior to the mutton of most other long-wool- 
 ed breeds. The weight of the carcass may be stated in 
 general : ewes three or four years old, from eighteen to 
 twenty-six pounds per quarter; wethers two years old, from 
 twenty to thirty pounds." 
 
 Among the short-ivooled sheep, the English possess, be- 
 sides the Merino breed, Soiilh Downs, the Ryeland, the 
 Shropshire, the Shellcmd, the Dorset, Wills, 8i.c. &.c. Merino 
 sheep were first introduced into Great Britain in the year 
 1787; and although it was formerly a general opinion, that 
 the excellence of their fleece depended in a great degree 
 upon the temperature of the Spanish climate, it has been 
 ascertained that the fineness of the Spanish wool is not im- 
 paired by breeding the sheep in England, France, Saxony, 
 Hungary, &c. 
 
 It is important in the management of sheep to keep the 
 store sheep in as equal condition as possible, but not too fat, 
 all the year round. In the grass season they should be kept 
 in dry pastures, in which the grass is short and sweet. Dur- 
 ing the winter they should have a steady and measured al- 
 18* 
 
210 THE COnpLETE FARMER 
 
 lowance of suitable food, and not sometimes be fed profuse- 
 ly, and at other times scantily. 
 
 3Iortimer says, "The farmer should always buy his sheep 
 from a worse land than his own, and they should be big 
 boned, and have a long greasy wool. For the choice of 
 sheep to breed, the ram must be young, and his skin of the 
 same color with his wool; for the lambs will be of the same 
 color with his skin. Those ewes which have no horns are 
 found to be the best breeders." 
 
 The farmers of Europe know how to distinguish the age 
 of sheep by their teeth. When a sheep is one shear, as they 
 express it, that is, has been sheared but once, or is in its 
 second year, it has two broad teeth before; when it is two 
 shear, it will have four; when three, six; when four shear, 
 or in its fifth year, it will have eight teeth before. After 
 this, their mouths begin to break. 
 
 " The fat pastures breed straight, tall sheep, and the bar- 
 ren hills square and short ones. But the best sheep of all, 
 are those bred upon new ploughed land, the reason of which 
 may be easily guessed, as such land is commonly the most 
 free from bad grasses. All wet and moist lands are bad for 
 sheep, especially such are subject to be overflowed, and to 
 have sand and dirt left on them. The salt marshes are an 
 exception tVom this general rule ; for their saltness makes 
 amends for their moisture; any thing salt, by reason of its 
 drying qualities, being of great advantage to sheep. The 
 best time for sheep to yean, which go twenty weeks with 
 lamb, is in April, unless the owner has any forward grass, 
 or turnips. Ewes that are big should be kept but bare ; for 
 it is dangerous for them to be fat at the time of their bring- 
 ing forth their young. They may be well fed, indeed, like 
 cows, a fortnight beforehand, to put them in heart." 
 
 31. Buffon says, " One ram will be sufficient for twenty- 
 five or thirty ewes; but that he should be remarkable for 
 strength and comeliness; that those which have no horns 
 are very indifferent; that the head of a ram should be large 
 and thick, the forehead broad, the eyes large and black, the 
 nose short, the neck thick, the body long, the back and 
 rump broad, the testicles large, and the tail long; that the 
 best are white, with a large quantity of wool on the belly, 
 tail, head and ears, down to the eyes; that the best sheep 
 for propagation are those which have most wool, and that 
 close, long, silky and white; especially if at the same time 
 they have a large bodv, a thick neck, and are light-footed." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 211 
 
 He says, " That ewes fatten very fast during their pregnan- 
 cy ; that as they often hurt themselves, and frequently mis- 
 carry, so they sometimes become barren; and that it is not 
 very extraordinary for them to bring forth monstrous pro- 
 ductions. But when properly tended, they are capable of 
 yeaning during the whole of their life, or to the age of ten 
 or twelve years. But most commonly when they come to 
 be seven or eight year old, they begin to break, and become 
 sickly ; and that a ram is no longer fit for propagation after 
 eight years, at which time he should be fattened with the 
 old sheep." 
 
 According to the same writer, " Sheep should in the sum- 
 mer be turned out early in the morning to feed; and in four 
 or five hours, after watering, be brought back to the fold, or 
 to some shady place. At four o'clock, in the afternoon, 
 they should be turned to their pasture again, and continue 
 there till evening; and were it not for the danger of wolves, 
 they should pass the night in the open air, which would 
 render them more vigorous, clean, and healthy . As the too 
 great heat of the sun is hurtful to them, shady pastures are 
 best for them ; or else to drive them to a place with a west- 
 ern descent in the morning, and the contrary towards even- 
 ing." That their wool may be saved, they should not be 
 pastured in bushy places, or where there are briars. Sheep 
 are often thus deprived of most of their fleeces; which, be- 
 sides the loss of the wool, is very hurtful to the animals, 
 when the weather is not warm. 
 
 The above writer directs, " That every year a flock of 
 sheep should be e.\amined, in order to find out such as begin 
 to grow old, and ought to be turned ofl" for fattening. As 
 they require a particular management, so they should be put 
 in a flock by themselves. They should feed while the grass 
 is moistened with dew in the morning. Salt should be given 
 them to excite thirst, as the more they drink the faster they 
 will grow fat. * But to complete their fattening, and make 
 their flesh firm and solid, they should have some corn or 
 grain given them." They may be fattened in the winter ; 
 but it is commonly too expensive, as they will require a good 
 deal of richer food than hay. When sheep are once be- 
 come fat, they should be killed; for it is said they cannot be 
 made fat a second time. The teeth of ewes begin to decay 
 
 * It has been found, however, that salt given in excess is injurious to 
 sheep. 
 
212 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 at five, those of wethers at seven, and those of rams not 
 until eight. 
 
 Ewes, Lambs, «^c. It is recommended to give ewes with 
 lamb a somewhat more than ordinary quantity of food for 
 a month or six weeks before they are expected to yean; 
 not enough, however, to make them fat, as dangerous con- 
 sequences might attend their being in very high condition at 
 that period. Turnips are said to be injurious to ewes with 
 lamb, but may be well given them after they have yeaned. 
 If your sheep, whether store sheep or ewes with lamb, have 
 good hay, about a quart of potatoes a day to each will, it is 
 said, be very beneficial, and an ample allowance. But when 
 the object is to fat them, according to a writer in Rees' Cy- 
 clopedia, about a gallon of potatoes a day, with a little hay, 
 will be the proper quantity; but this is dependent, in part, 
 on the size of the animals, and in part on the quality and 
 quantity of the hay which is allowed to them. Potatoes, 
 besides their use as food for sheep, are said to be very ser- 
 viceable as an article of diet, which usually supersedes the 
 necessity of medicine. They have, when given raw, an 
 opening or purgative quality, which is thought to be of use, 
 and answer a similar purpose with sheep which is effected 
 with swine by brimstone and antimony. Potatoes, baked, 
 steamed, or boiled, will furni,sh more nutriment than those 
 which are raw. 
 
 Care should be taken to place in the stable small tubs or 
 troughs of water for the sheep to drink in. They will do 
 .very well in summer without water, as they feed when the 
 dew is on, but they need water in winter, especially if led 
 mostly on dry food. " When sheep have colds, and dis- 
 charge mucus from the nose, good feeding, together with 
 pine boughs, given occasionally, will cure them; or tar, 
 spread over a board, over which a little fine salt is strewed, 
 will induce the sheep to lick up tar, and this will cure a 
 cold."* Half a gill of Indian corn a day, given to each 
 sheep during winter, is recommended as keeping them in 
 good heart, preventing the wool from falling off", and enab- 
 ling the ewes to rear their young better than they would if 
 fed altogether on food of a less substantial nature. 
 
 *' When several kinds of food can be procured, it is right 
 to give them alternately to the sheep at different meals, in 
 
 * Deane's New England Farmer. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 213 
 
 the course of the same day; the qualities of one kind aid or 
 compensate those of another. At certain hours of the day, 
 dry fodder should be given, and, at others, roots or grain. 
 If there be any danger that the roots may decay, the winter 
 should be begun with them, mixing, however, some dry food 
 with them, for alone they would not be sufficiently nutri- 
 tious. "* 
 
 Writers do not agree on the quantity of food which a 
 given number of sheep will consume to advantage in a given 
 time. Probably, it would be very difficult to lay down any 
 rules on the subject which would not be subject to very 
 nearly as many exceptions as coincidences. Sorrie seasons 
 would require more food than others for the same sheep ; 
 the same number of sheep of different sizes, ages, sexes, 
 and breeds, would also consume different quantities of food 
 of the same quality. When we add to these causes of er- 
 ror the consideration that food of the same kind is often very 
 different in quality, — one ton of clover hay, for example, 
 mowed at the right period of its growth, and well made and 
 housed, may be worth two tons of the same sort of hay 
 grown and made under different circumstances, — nothing, 
 therefore, can be hoped for in this inquiry, except some ap- 
 proximation to truth. We may, however, perhaps provide 
 ourselves with materials for the exercise of those qualities 
 for guessing, for which New England people are celebrated. 
 When a man is laying in fodder for his sheep or neat cattle, 
 it may be of great consequence to be able to form a con- 
 jecture approximating the truth, relative to the quantity and 
 quality of provisions for that purpose which it may be 
 expedient to accumulate. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence says, " Sheep will eat, on an average, 
 twenty pounds of turnips each in twenty-four hours. An 
 acre of good turnips in the field, between November and 
 March, will keep one hundred sheep six weeks. One gallon 
 of raw potatoes will suffice a sheep twenty-four hours, but 
 some will eat much more. Fourteen hundred sheep will eat 
 up and spoil an acre of good turnips in a night. Of the 
 quantities of hay and corn [grain] which a sheep will con- 
 sume daily, I do not recollect any accurate experiments. To 
 feed liberally one hundred sheep with this precious article 
 throughout the winter season, ten tons at least would be re- 
 quired; although I have lately been informed by a great 
 
 * Tessier's Treatise on Sheep. 
 
214 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 sheep-master, that he allows but that quantity to a flock of 
 one thousand; his turnips being excellent, with plenty of 
 grazing ground. 
 
 " As to corn [grain], a large sheep will eat several pints or 
 pounds per day; and the comparison of quantity of food be- 
 tween the sheep and the ox may be generally stated at one- 
 eighth or one-ninth part for the sheep." 
 
 " One thing (says M. Tessier) cannot be too much recom- 
 mended, which is, to place the hay in the racks while the 
 sheep are out of the house; by this precaution, the dust 
 will not fall upon the fleeces." Dr. Deane observed, that 
 the rack in which the hay is put should be upright, so that 
 in feeding, the seeds, chaff, &c. should not fall into the wool 
 about their necks. Under the rack should be a trough for 
 catching the seeds of the hay and feeding the sheep. 
 
 With regard to giving salt to sheep, writers have disa- 
 greed. It is believed to be better not to give them any than 
 to allow them too great a quantity. M. Tessier says, 
 " Sheep have been known to be attacked by long and 
 troublesome looseness, in consequence of having taken too 
 much salt; which has induced the belief that sea-water is 
 poisonous to them; and that his sheep have always been 
 healthy, though he had never given them any salt. But he 
 states that it may be indispensably necessary in wet coun- 
 tries. And Dr. Cooper, editor of the last edition of the 
 Domestic Encyclopedia, recommends one-fourth of an ounce 
 a day as a proper quantity for sheep. Mr. Grove likewise 
 says, " Salt is required by sheep at intervals during the 
 whole year, but it is often given in too great quantity, and 
 almost forced upon the sheep; which is often injurious, and 
 often injures the digestion so that the best grain will pass 
 through them unaltered." 
 
 The same writer says, "In the season for dropping lambs, 
 the utmost care is necessary. The birth is most commonly 
 easy, but often slow. Ignorant shepherds are very apt on 
 such occasions to be aiding in the birth, which is always 
 useless and often very injurious." 
 
 "It often happens," says Mr. Grove, " that ewes will not 
 own their lambs, particularly the first they bear; and in this 
 case I would advise to the sprinkling a little salt on the lamb, 
 which induces the ewe to lick it, after which she will gene- 
 rally allow it to suck. If not, the ewe with her lamb should 
 be placed in a separate inclosure (of which several should 
 be previously prepared) and fed with the most nutritious fod- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 215 
 
 der, particularly with nourishing liquids, that the udder may 
 be uncomfortably distended; and if this be not sufficient, she 
 must be tied by the legs till the lamb has been once suckled; 
 after which there will be no further difficulty." 
 
 Sir John Sinclair observed, that "there is no food of 
 which sheep are fonder than pea-straw; and where circum- 
 stances are favorable for that crop, peas ought to be cul- 
 tivated more for the straw, from the advantages that would 
 thence be d&s'ived by the sheep-farmer." Mr. Youno- also 
 observes, that " the straw of early white peas, applied to 
 sheep, is the most valuable return made by straw." 
 
 A writer for " The New England Farmer," (Vol. IV. p. 
 234,) with the signature M. R. C, gives the following judi- 
 cious remarks on sheep. 
 
 "Perhaps there is no domestic animal that requires more 
 nice and constant attention than the sheep, and no other that 
 will more richly pay for generous keeping. Though he may 
 not be more liable to disease, nor require a better quality of 
 food than neat stock, still that management which will keep 
 cattle in good case will not answer for sheep. His habits 
 and mode of feeding are entirely different. For instance, in 
 the winter season a cow may be kept tied to the stall twenty- 
 two hours out of the twenty-four, and, if well fed three times 
 a day, keep her flesh and get sufficient exercise for her 
 health. Serve a sheep in the same manner and it would not 
 probably live a month. It is natural for sheep to move about 
 and change situation. Turn a flock of hungry sheep into a 
 pasture, they will run to the end of it before they begin to 
 eat; feed them in troughs, they will run over all till they 
 come to the last, when they have it in their power. They 
 are almost continually shifting situation from hill to dale, 
 from one kind of food to another; and it is a fact that sheep 
 will thrive better on two or three different kinds of ordinary 
 fodder, than they will to be confined to one kind that is of a 
 superior quality. 
 
 " The proper time to yard sheep in the fall is while they 
 are yet in good order from fresh feed, and before the frost 
 takes the nourishing qualities from the grass : but a time in 
 which many sheep are not folded, they are left to nibble 
 over the frozen pastures till they lose the flesh of half a 
 summer's keeping, and which takes half a winter to regain. 
 It is a great error which is persisted in with an idea to save 
 fodder. But setting aside the injury done pastures by close 
 feeding at this season of the year, the sheep which stray 
 
216 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 away and are lost, and the time spent in hunting them, which 
 are not idle considerations, the farmer would more than get 
 repaid for his extra fodder, and a few weeks' attention in 
 yarding his sheep sooner, by preserving their health and 
 condition. When they are put to winter-quarters, they re- 
 quire as much variety as possible, not that they want so 
 much room, but they need a number of different apartments. 
 Two yards and one shed will do very well for one flock, or, 
 what will answer the same purpose, if a large number of 
 sheep are to be kept near each other, have the yards in 
 a row, and one more yard than flocks of sheep. Then by 
 shifting one flock to the spare yard it leaves another vacant, 
 and so on. Thus may all be changed, which should be 
 done at every time of feeding. As fast as the yards are 
 empty, the food should be put in them, and never while the 
 sheep are there. One hundred sheep are enough to be kept 
 together. Cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Their 
 yards should be littered with straw or something of the kind 
 constantly, or they will be in danger of losing in a degree a 
 relish for their food. 
 
 "The next thing necessary is, to have proper places for 
 your sheep to eat hay in, which are the common board man- 
 gers, and may make partings to the yards. Take six joists, 
 say three inches square, and four feet long; have the boards 
 of a length, then nail two of them to the joists set up per- 
 pendicularly in such a manner that one joist will be in the 
 middle of each board, and the other two at the ends, and 
 that the top edge of the boards will be one foot from the 
 ground; then nail short boards on the ends two feet and a 
 half long, the width of the manger, the next board on the 
 sides to be placed eight inches from the lower boards, then 
 board it tight to the top of the joists, and the manger is 
 finished. A manger eighteen feet long, of this description, 
 will accommodate thirty sheep. Single mangers may be 
 made along the outside fence of the yard, which do not re- 
 quire to be so wide. The great superiority of these man- 
 gers over racks is, first, the facility of putting hay into them 
 without dropping it on the ground, secondly, it obviates the 
 danger of hay-seed falling on the wool of the sheep ; and 
 thirdly, it prevents any waste of fodder. The next thing 
 after mangers for hay, should be a place appropriated for 
 feeding out roots, which every farmer should raise to a cer- 
 tain extent. Although we cannot turn them to so good an 
 account as the English feeders do, on account of the severi- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 217 
 
 ty of our winters, still a proportion of them as food for our 
 stock is of great importance. In order that the farmer may 
 make the most of his roots, he should have a cellar fixed to 
 receive them in the fall, without too much labor, and ac- 
 cessible at any time in the winter, without endangering them 
 by frost. The cellar should be placed as near the yard as 
 practicable, with a watering-place at hand. A good way of 
 washing roots is, to have an oblong box that will hold two 
 or three bushels, with the bottom perforated with auger 
 holes, and rockers placed on the under side of the box; then 
 by pouring in a little water and rocking them, the dirt will 
 directly wash through the bottom of the box. They should 
 then be cut fine with a sharp shovel, and they are fit for 
 feeding out. Browse in the winter occasionally for sheep is 
 very palatable, and is of considerable use in preserving their 
 appetite, and as a change of food, but care should be taken 
 to select the right kind. There are many kinds of hard 
 wood, of which the bark and buds are very injurious.* The 
 bark of the black cherry eaten by ewes with lamb is almost 
 sure to produce abortion. Generally winter green is to be 
 preferred to any other browse. White and yellow pine are 
 best. 
 
 " Regularity in feeding sheep is of prime consequence in 
 cold dry weather. It is not necessary to feed them oflener 
 than three times a day, if discretion is used in the quantity 
 of fodder. In warm weather, and especially if it is muddy, 
 they should have little at a time, and be fed four or five 
 times a day. Daubenton and others calculate that two 
 pounds of hay are sufficient for the support of one sheep a 
 day, (which, by the way, in our climate is not enough.) 
 Calculations of this kind, if made with the utmost accuracy 
 on one, or any number of sheep at one time, will not ap- 
 ply to the same sheep at another; because so much depends 
 on circumstances. A sheep that will eat three pounds of 
 hay in a cold day will not, perhaps, eat more than two in a 
 warm day following; and still less in a damp one. Not that 
 they require so much more food in cold weather than ia 
 warm, but that sudden changes afiect their appetites and 
 whhout injuring their health. Again, a sheep of proper 
 form and inclination to fatten, Avill not need so much nutri- 
 ment to preserve its flesh as one of the same weight of a 
 
 * The wood disease, so much complained of in France, is wholly owing to 
 sheep's eating fresh hurts. 
 19 
 
218 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 coarse, rawboned, uneasy make. And one kind of hay may 
 have double the substantial qualities of another. Therefore 
 no certain rule can be given as to the quantity necessary for 
 their support; though experiments of this kind are not with- 
 out their use, for, as remarked in one of the " New England 
 Farmers," they afford " a fine opportunity of guessing at the 
 proper quantity necessary to keep a stock a given time." 
 
 " There exists a great diversity of opinion in regard to the 
 proper time of year for lambs to come. A New '^ork wri- 
 ter thinks that rams should not be taken from the ewes at 
 all; that lambs should come early in the winter, which is 
 the natural time. This I think erroneous; the natural time 
 is the most convenient time, and the proprietor should be 
 governed wholly by his means. There are advantages in 
 having lambs come early, and disadvantages, and vice versa 
 the same in having them come late. If a man has con- 
 veniences for guarding against cold, and plenty of succulent 
 food for his ewes, February and March is decidedly the 
 best time for them to come. It is true that they require 
 more attention at this season than in warm weather, but time 
 is not worth so much, and the lambs learn to eat hay before 
 they are turned to pasture, consequently they do much bet- 
 ter the following winter. They get out of the way of foxes, 
 and are able to take care of themselves at washing and 
 shearing time, which is of considerable consequence. On 
 the contrary, if the farmer is deficient in proper food and 
 other conveniences for his sheep, and has a pasture near, that 
 he can look to his flock, it may often be advisable to have 
 his lambs come in April or May. 
 
 "When sheep are turned to pasture in the spring, the tran- 
 sition from dry food to grass causes a relax, which spoils, or 
 very much injures a great part of the wool on their buttocks 
 and thighs, and makes double the work at the time of wash- 
 ing; therefore, before they are turned to pasture the wool in 
 the way should be carefully shorn off, which is very little 
 trouble, and makes a saving worth noticing. 
 
 " In selecting a flock of sheep, the first care undoubtedly 
 should be, to get those of the evenest and finest wool ; the 
 next, those of the best form and most peaceable disposition; 
 and the next care, which is very little thought of, to get those 
 that are without horns. Any one who has had the manage- 
 ment of sheep in the winter, can testify to the injury which 
 large-horned sheep do in crowding after fodder and running 
 through gates, &c. Horned rams kept with pregnant ewes 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 219 
 
 do great mischief. In many parts of Spain they amputate 
 the horns of their rams, for which there are various proces- 
 ses: some use a large chisel; others a saw, which is the 
 most expeditious way, and is preferable. There are other 
 serious objections to the keeping of horned sheep, which I 
 cannot better exemplify than by quoting the following words 
 from Henry Cline, an eminent surgeon. 
 
 " ' Horns are useless in domestic animals. It is not diffi- 
 cult to breed animals without them. The breeders of horn- 
 ed cattle and horned sheep sustain a loss more extensive 
 than they may conceive; for it is not the horn alone, but also 
 much more bone in the skulls of such animals, to support 
 their horns; besides, there is an additional quantity of liga- 
 ment and bone in the neck, which is of small value. The 
 skull of a ram with its horns weighed five times more than 
 another skull which was hornless. Both these skulls were 
 taken from sheep of the same age, each being four years old. 
 The great difference in weight depended chiefly on the horns, 
 for the lower jaws were nearly equal, one weighing seven 
 ounces and the other six ounces and three-quarters; which 
 proves that the natural size of the head was nearly the same 
 in both, independent of the horns and the thickness of the 
 bone which supports them. In a horned animal the skull is 
 extremely thick, in a hornless animal it is much thinner, 
 especially in that part where the horns usually grow.' 
 
 " To those who have not reflected on the subject, it may 
 appear of little consequence whether sheep or cattle have 
 horns; but, on a very moderate calculation, it will be found 
 that the loss in farming stock, and also in the diminution of 
 animal food, is very considerable from the production of 
 horns and their appendages. A mode of breeding which 
 would prevent the production of these, would afford a con- 
 siderable profit in an increase of meat and wool and other 
 valuable parts." 
 
 Shearing Sheep, Sfc. Deane's "New England Farmer " 
 states, that " we shear our sheep in general too early in this 
 country. In England, where the spring is more forward 
 than in this country, the approved time of shearing is from 
 the middle to the latter end of June. They should be wash- 
 ed in a warm time; after this they should run three or four 
 days in a clean pasture, before they are shorn. It is good 
 for them to have time to sweat a little in their wool, after 
 washing." 
 
 Mr. Lawrence says, " June seems [in England] to be the 
 
220 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 general shearing month, and where no extraordinary precau- 
 tions are taken, the business had better be delayed till to- 
 wards midsummer, more especially in cold, backward springs; 
 because in such seasons we seldom until that period have 
 any settled fair weather. Besides, a more perfect fleece is 
 obtained, and fuller of yolk from the perspiration of the ani- 
 mal. 
 
 " Washing previous to clipping the sheep is the general 
 custom, with few exceptions, in this country; indeed it is 
 proper with all long-wooled sheep, but not so easily practi- 
 cable with the matted, greasy, and impenetrable fleeces of 
 the Spanish and carding-wool breed, which in Spain they 
 invariably shear dry, as has been the practice in Devonshire, 
 with the short-wooled sheep, for centuries." 
 
 It is observed by Loudon, that " sheep-shearing, inRom- 
 ney Marsh [England], commences about midsummer and 
 finishes about the middle of July. Those who shear latest 
 apprehend that they gain half a pound weight in every fleece, 
 by the increased perspiration of the sheep and consequent 
 growth of the wool. Besides, they say, in early shearing the 
 wool has not the condition which it afterwards acquires. 
 But then in late shearing the fleece will have the less time 
 to grow, so as to protect the animal against the rigors of the 
 succeeding winter; and if a year's interval is allowed be- 
 tween each clipping time, after your routine is established 
 the wool will have had the same period for its growth, 
 whether you shear early or late. Sheep with fine fleeces, 
 which are shorn without being washed on the back of the 
 animal, may be clipped earlier in the season than those 
 which are exposed to suffer for half an hour or more in cold 
 water." 
 
 Lemuel W. Briggs, Esq., of Bristol, Rhode Island, in 
 articles published in the "New England Farmer," (Vol. III. 
 pages 273, 287,) stated certain facts, which would seem 
 favorable to early shearing; and in certain circumstances, 
 and particularly with sheep which are not washed, there can 
 be no doubt but the practice is beneficial. Mr. Briggs stated, 
 in substance, that Mr. Rouse Potter, of Prudence island, 
 Narraganset bay, Rhode Island, who kept nine hundred and 
 fifty sheep, and lost but two the preceding winter, begins to 
 shear them by the 1st of May, if the weather is favorable, 
 and continues daily, until he completes his shearing. For 
 the first week, he puts those sheared under cover or in close 
 yards every night; by that time the wool will grow so as to 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 221 
 
 give them a sufficient covering. By this practice of early 
 shearing he gains much wool, which formerly, when he put 
 his shearing off till the middle of June, the sheep would 
 shed; and farther, when thus early sheared, the wool begins 
 to start and grow much quicker than when shearing is deter- 
 red to the usual time. He says, that formerly, being expos- 
 ed immediately after shearing to the rays of the sun, their 
 bare backs would frequently become sore and scabby, when 
 no wool will grow till healed, and then what does grow from 
 these scars is thinner and coarser than the rest. 
 
 "Mr. Potter states, that he has found from actual experi- 
 ment, that he not only gets more wool, which would other- 
 wise be lost, but the succeeding wool will be from half an 
 inch to an inch longer, if sheared early, than it will be if 
 delayed to the usual time of shearing. And farther, there is 
 not the same necessity for washing the sheep, as the wool is 
 much cleaner, more free from sand and dirt, when taken off 
 early, than it would be if suffered to remain on their backs 
 until a hot sun had compelled them to seek refuge under 
 walls and fences." 
 
 The foregoing authorities are apparently altogether con- 
 tradictory, as respects the time of year in which to shear 
 sheep. But it is to be observed, that Mr. Potter did not 
 wash his sheep before shearing, which must make considera- 
 ble difference with regard to the risk from cold; and Mr. 
 Potter appears to have been careful to shelter his sheep 
 afler shearing, which must in a great measure obviate the 
 disadvantages of early shearing. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, an eminent English writer, asserts, " It 
 has frequently appeared to me, on reflection, that it might 
 be preferable to shear all kinds of sheep unwashed, and to 
 wash them after shearing, when it would be much more ef- 
 fectual with respect to their health. Such as were affected 
 with foulness or eruption of the skin might be washed and 
 scrubbed in a lye of water and wood ashes, in a large tub 
 which would contain three. It would both conduce to the 
 health of the sheep and promote the regular growth of the 
 wool. Wool would probably keep best in the grease, and 
 dust might be shaken from it. Any difficulty in respect to 
 fixing the price of wool in an unwashed state would vanish 
 in a season or two." 
 
 " Clipping off the coarse soiled wool about the thighs and 
 docks," says Loudon, " some weeks before the usual time 
 of washing and clipping the sheep, is an excellent practice, as 
 19* 
 
222 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 by this means the sheep are kept clean and cool when the 
 season is hot ; and with ewes, the udders are prevented from 
 becoming sore." 
 
 In separating for the purpose of washing, the flock is 
 brought to the side of the washing-pool, and those lambs 
 and sheep of different kinds fit to be washed are put into 
 separate inclosures; and such lambs as are too young to be 
 clipped are not washed, but confined in a fold or inclosure ol 
 any kind, at such a distance from the washing-place that 
 they may not disturb their mothers by bleating. 
 
 In performing the operation of washing, it was formerly 
 the method to have the washers standing up to their breast 
 in the water; but from the inconvenience and danger of it, 
 various other modes of performing the operation have been 
 proposed. Among others, that of sinking an empty hogs- 
 head or other vessel of sufficient capacity for a man to 
 stand in while washing the sheep, may be as eligible as any. 
 A boat near a bold shore of a sheet of water, with one end 
 aground, by which the sheep is introduced and put over- 
 board, while the man who washes him remains in the boat, 
 and extends his arms over the sides, and thus performs the 
 necessary manipulations, furnishes a convenient mode of 
 washing sheep. A small perpendicular waterfall, under 
 which sheep are conducted, may likewise be used to ad- 
 vantage for that purpose. 
 
 It was uniformly the practice, immediately after shearing, 
 to smear the bodies of sheep with some ointment, in which 
 tar is the chief ingredient. This, however, has been con- 
 demned, as causing a waste of wool in carding and manu- 
 facturing into cloth. But if the tar is mixed with a sufficient 
 quantity of some greasy substance, the benefit may be ob- 
 tained, (which is to preserve against ticks and the scab, as 
 well as to increase the growth of the wool,) without any bad 
 consequence resulting. A writer in " Rees' Cyclopedia," 
 on wool, says much in favor of a composition greatly used in 
 Northumberland, England, and gives the following directions 
 for making it: "From sixteen to twenty pounds of butter 
 are placed over a gentle fire and melted; a gallon of tar is 
 then added, and the mixture is then stirred with a stick until 
 the tar and butter are well combined, and form a soft, 
 tenacious ointment." Some skill is required in its applica- 
 tion. The locks should be divided, and the ointment ap- 
 plied directly to the skin. It does no good to apply it to the 
 outside of the wool, but it must come in contact with the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 223 
 
 skill. This is best effected by opening the wool along the 
 neck and back, and applying the ointment with the finger. 
 In short, you must apply it in such a manner that it will be 
 most Hkely to spread over every part of the body. The 
 quantity laid on each animal differs in different districts. In 
 the lighter mode of greasing, one gallon of tar and twenty 
 pounds of butter will be sufficient for fifty sheep. In Scot- 
 land, where greasing is applied merely to preserve the ani- 
 mal from inclemency of the climate, a much larger propor- 
 tion of tar is used. This would be very injurious to the 
 wool were it any other but the coarsest kind. To derive 
 the greatest advantage from the ointment, both to the wool 
 and the sheep, it should be applied immediately after shear- 
 ing, and again on the approach of winter. By the first 
 greasing, the wool will be kept soft and moist during the 
 suhry heats of July and August, and the top of the staple 
 will not become harsh and discolored. One acknowledged 
 advantage of greasing immediately after shearing should 
 not be overlooked : it destroys the sheep tick, and has a 
 tendency to prevent cutaneous distempers, and to protect 
 the skin against the bite of the fly. 
 
 Mr. J. Nelson published a recipe for the scab on sheep, 
 similar to the above, but which we should suppose might 
 answer a still better purpose; it is as follows: " Take three 
 gallons of tar and three gallons of train oil, boiled together, 
 to which add three pounds of roll brimstone, finely powdered 
 and stirred in." This quantity is sufficient for ninety sheep. 
 It is poured on with a pitcher or ladle from the top of the 
 backbone to the tail. 
 
 When the object is solely the destruction of ticks, a strong 
 decoction of tobacco is probably as good an application as 
 can be prescribed. Lambs often suffer much from ticks, 
 after the sheep are sheared; as the ticks which are driven 
 from the old sheep take refuge with the lambs. It will, 
 therefore, be advisable to apply either the ointment or the 
 tobacco decoction to the lambs as well as to their elders. 
 And in all cases see that your application goes to and 
 spreads over the skin as equally as possible, instead of wet- 
 ting or smearing the outside surface of the fleece, where it 
 will be of more harm than benefit. 
 
 On the Disorders of Sheep. The following observations 
 are extracted from an Essay on Sheep, written by H. D. G., 
 a scientific shepherd, who has been acquainted with sheep 
 
224 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 husbandry, as practised by the tcool-groivers of Saxony, 
 France, and other parts of Europe. 
 
 "Ahnost all the disorders which attack sheep are caused 
 by the want, and seldom or never by the excess of activity ia 
 the vital organs. The nerves are very susceptible, but sel- 
 dom act with great force, and whenever they are powerfully 
 excited, this excitement soon passes off and leaves the ani- 
 mal extremely weak. It follows from this, that most of the 
 means required for the cure of diseases among sheep should 
 be calculated rather to excite than to allay the activity of the 
 functions of life. A few of the most common diseases 
 among sheep deserve to be particularly noticed. 
 
 " The Rot exhibits itself scarcely at all externally. The 
 blood loses its high color and tendency to coagulate, and be- 
 comes watery. The first perceptible symptom, therefore, is 
 the loss of the bright red appearance about the eyes; the 
 lips and inside of the mouth also become pale, as well as the 
 skin generally under the wool. The animal continues to 
 feed well and does not grow poor, although the natural vi- 
 vacitv is diminished and some signs of weakness occur. 
 
 " The disease commonly gains strength in the winter. 
 Watery swellings are formed, particularly under the chin, 
 which are often absorbed and then reappear. Soon after 
 these the animal generally dies, without showing any symp- 
 toms of violent pain. Ewes attacked by this disease die 
 most commonly about the time of dropping their lambs. 
 The body on opening exhibits copious collections of water 
 about the chest and entrails; the blood is extremely pale as 
 well as the flesh. This disorder is unquestionably caused 
 by feeding in swampy grounds, and a few hours are suffi- 
 cient to fix it upon a sheep. It is increased by damp, foggy 
 weather, while, on the other hand, dry warm weather and 
 high pasture, especially where there are many aromatic 
 herbs, are sometimes sufficient to counteract the first symp- 
 toms and effect a cure. This disorder, however, when it 
 has reached such a point that a common observer may no- 
 tice the symptoms, is probably incurable. At a very early 
 stao-e a cure is possible, if the flock is kept carefully on high 
 land where aromatic herbs are abundant, and particularly 
 among juniper bushes, and in bad weather carefully housed 
 and well fed. Horse-chestnuts are an excellent article for 
 fodder in this case; also a mixture of juniper berries, worm- 
 wood, sage, gentian, angelica roots, willow bark, and other 
 bitter herbs, with a little salt and grain, which they will eat 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 225 
 
 of their own accord, or if not, it should be administered in 
 small quantities in the morning before they are driven to 
 pasture. If the rot makes its appearance in a decided man- 
 ner before the winter sets in, it is useless to attempt any 
 thing more than to fatten the animal as soon as may be and 
 sell him to the butcher. The rot certainly is not infectious, 
 and it very often occurs that only a few sheep are attacked 
 in large flocks; and generally, in such cases, if the shepherd 
 is honest, the disease may be traced in every case to some 
 swamp or other wet place, where these particular sheep may 
 have strayed. 
 
 " The Moulh and Hoof Distemper. These complaints 
 seem to have a mutual connexion, since the former, which is 
 the mildest, very often precedes the latter. In the mouth, 
 the principal evil to be feared is, that the sheep become ema- 
 ciated from the inability to eat. The best remedy is to bathe 
 the parts affected with a strong decoction of sage, mixed 
 with an equal quantity of vinegar and a little honey. If the 
 blisters continue to spread, half an ounce of blue vitriol 
 should be added to a quart of this mixture. The disorder in 
 the hoofs is soon discovered by lameness, and if this is evi- 
 dently not produced by any external injury, and especially 
 if several sheep in a flock are attacked at the same time, 
 great care should be taken to obviate the effects of this dis- 
 order. The best remedy is a poultice of dough, or fat loamy 
 clay, which should be applied to the foot by means of a little 
 bag, but not tied hard to the ankle, and kept constantly wet 
 with vinegar, till a swelling appears on the upper side of the 
 foot or in the cleft of the hoof. This should then be opened 
 with a sharp knife and the dead hoof pared off. The wound 
 must be washed with cold water and sprinkled with dry vitriol. 
 The lame animals should remain carefully separated from the 
 sound ones, and the washing and sprinkling with vitriol re- 
 peated till the cure is effected. This disease is not only 
 contagious, but also infectious, in the highest degree, and 
 oftentimes so violent as to produce caries in the bone after 
 the hoof is destroyed. 
 
 " The Itch or Scab. This disorder is dreaded more than 
 any other, and did, in fact, more damage in many districts 
 than any other, until the proper mode of treatment was dis- 
 covered. The scab is certainly contagious, and may readily 
 be propagated by merely touching the skin of a healthy ani- 
 mal with matter from a pustule on another sheep ; but as far 
 as my observation has extended, the infection is not conveyed 
 
226 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 through the atmosphere, though it often seeras to he epi- 
 demic, and particularly in very damp summers, which affect 
 sheep in many other ways so unfavorably. 
 
 " It is discovered by the animal's constantly rubbing or 
 scratching itself, and making at the same time a peculiar 
 motion with the lips ; the scabs are sometimes drv and some- 
 times moist, and spread very rapidly, though the animal con- 
 tinues healthy in other respects, and generally more lively 
 than before. Afterwards, however, the disorder becomes 
 internal, the sheep becomes emaciated, and dies from weak- 
 ness and pain. If the scab is observed at an early period it 
 may be easily cured, or at least prevented from spreading. 
 One of the best remedies is a strong decoction of tobacco, 
 to be applied to the diseased parts after scratching off the 
 scabs with a comb or other instrument. The decoction of 
 tobacco mixed with lime-water and oil of vitriol, and used 
 constantly, for some time, will generally effect a radical cure; 
 another excellent remedy is a decoction of hellebore mixed 
 with vinegar, sulphur, and spirits of turpentine. Internal 
 remedies are of no use, except when the disorder has induc- 
 ed other complaints by weakening the general health. 
 
 " The Sheep-Pox. This disorder is contagious, and prop- 
 agates itself by exhalation from the sick to the healthy ani- 
 mal, but it has not yet been discovered how far these exha- 
 lations may extend. If, however, it appears in a neighbour- 
 ing flock, care should be taken to mitigate its effects by a 
 general and careful inoculation, since it is certain that the 
 disorder is less violent if taken by inoculation than in the 
 natural way. The operation is perfectly simple and easy. 
 The animal is laid on its back and held by two or three men, 
 while the operator introduces the matter, from a pustule five 
 or six days old, in two or three places between the legs or 
 on the tail. The lancet should be introduced in a slanting 
 direction under the skin about an eighth of an inch, and 
 M'hen it is withdrawn, the skin should be pressed down upon 
 it so as to wipe off the matter and leave it in the wound. A 
 pustule is formed generally in four days, and reaches its 
 greatest size on the sixth, when a few others generally ap- 
 pear near the first. Soon after this, the usual symptoms of 
 fever and general eruption take place, which last is, howev- 
 er, more regular and safe, than if the animal had taken the 
 disease without inoculation. The only care necessary dur- 
 ing the progress of the disorder is to keep the sheep in a 
 cool and airy situation. Internal remedies are not required, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 227 
 
 but the sores should be often washed with a strong infusion 
 of camomile flowers, in which a little blue vitriol has been 
 previously dissolved, and afterwards dressed with a salve 
 made of yolks of eggs and turpentine, mixed with a little 
 powdered charcoal. 
 
 " The Reeling Sickness is never infectious, but generally 
 incurable. Its first symptoms are a weakness in the gait, 
 and a disposition in tiie animal affected to remain separate 
 from the flock. The head is thrown into an unnatural pos- 
 ture, generally on one side. The animal then begins to 
 turn round, always in one direction ; stumbles and falls re- 
 peatedly, sometimes with the head under the body, then 
 ceases to feed, and soon dies. Lambs and yearlings only 
 are usually liable to this disorder, and very rarely sheep over 
 two years old. The seat of the disorder is always to be dis- 
 covered on the brain, where one or more blisters are formed 
 and filled with a watery secretion. The origin of this com- 
 plaint, and of course the proper preventive treatment, re- 
 main as yet undiscovered. A cure is sometimes effected by 
 an operation through the skull to let off the water. The first 
 step in this case is to examine the skull carefully in search 
 of a soft spot in the bone, which usually indicates the spot 
 affected. The skull is then perforated with a trocar, accom- 
 panied by a tube through which the water may escape ; 
 after which the tube also is withdrawn and a few drops of the 
 essence of myrrh applied to the aperture. This operation 
 is sometimes successful, but more often the reverse. If it 
 succeeds, however, in only one cure out of five, it seems 
 worth the trial, since without some relief the sheep must 
 certainly perish. 
 
 " Swelled Paunch. When sheep or other ruminating ani- 
 mals eat more than they can digest, the food ferments in the 
 stomach, emitting great quantities of gas, which stretch this 
 organ so as to draw together its apertures, the paunch be- 
 comes excessively distended, the lungs oppressed, the breath 
 and pulse obstructed, and the death is very sudden. This ef- 
 fect may be produced by fodder of any kind, but most readily 
 by such as the sheep prefer, especially if they are not accus- 
 tomed to it. Green clover and lucerne have, therefore, 
 often been observed to bring on this disorder ; but it is nev- 
 ertheless certain, that neither of these substances are in 
 themselves injurious, since I have known sheep accustomed 
 to them eat their fill day after day, for months together, with- 
 out suffering any ill consequence. Any young green feed is 
 
228 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 more likely to be hurtful in this way than dry fodder; but 
 only when eaten in excess after long abstinence. If the ap- 
 proach of the swelling is observed in season, it may be pre- 
 vented by violent friction of the back and belly and driving 
 the sheep rapidly. These remedies are assisted by a previ- 
 ous dose of lime-water, which should be repeated half an 
 hour afterwards, taking care that the lime is good and not 
 previously air-slacked. If the attack is so violent as to 
 leave no time for these remedies, an opening must be made 
 in the paunch with the trocar and sheath ; an operation 
 which cannot easily be described, but may be exhibited with- 
 out any difficulty to any person unacquainted with it." 
 
 A writer in " The New York Farmer," says : "A gen- 
 tleman who was losing his sheep, without apparent cause, had 
 occasion to use some clay about his house in the winter, and 
 observed that his sickly flock ate it with avidity; he caused 
 a load to be placed in their yard, much of which was devour- 
 ed and his sheep speedily recovered." As a cure, therefore, 
 I would recommend clay to be placed in the sheep-yard, 
 which can, at worst, do no harm, as the animals will not eat 
 it unless prompted by instinct; or, when it is practicable, the 
 boughs or branches of resinous trees, as the pine and hem- 
 lock, may be given to the flock in limited quantities. Roots 
 of any edible kind will also be highly serviceable. As a 
 preventive in future, I advise sheep-farmers to raise and lay 
 in a good stock of ruta baga or other turnips, which are not 
 only the healthiest but cheapest food for the winter consump- 
 tion of sheep. 
 
 Worms in the head of Sheep. There exists in some parts 
 of the country a species of fly, which naturalists call (Estrus 
 ovis, of the same genus with that which deposits eggs in the 
 hair of horses, and causes hots. This fly attacks sheep, 
 from about the middle of August to the middle of Septem- 
 ber, deposits its eggs in the nostrils of the animals, and 
 causes those wo7'ms which so frequently destroy them. The 
 "Mechanic's Gazette" recommends, as a preventive, "cov- 
 ering the nostrils of sheep with a list of gauzy substance, 
 through which the animal can breathe, and keeping it in its 
 place by some adhesive substance." We doubt, how- 
 ever, the practicability of " keeping it in its place " by any 
 "adhesive substance." Another preventive which sheep- 
 owners tell us is effectual, is to keep the noses of the sheep 
 constantly smirched with tar, from about the middle of Au- 
 gust to the latter end of September. If the sheep swallow 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 229 
 
 some of the tar, so much the better, as it prevents or cures 
 the rot, and confirms their health. 
 
 If the fly has performed its mischievous function, and the 
 seeds of the disorder are already sown, you may make use 
 of the following : 
 
 "Take half a pound of good Scotch snuff, pour two 
 quarts of boiling water on it, stir it and let it stand till cold ; 
 inject about a table-spoonful of this liquid and sediment up 
 each nostril of the sheep with a syringe. This must be 
 repeated three or four times, at proper intervals, from the 
 middle of October to the 1st of January; the grubs are then 
 small and are much easier destroyed than afterwards, and 
 have not injured the sheep, as they will if deferred until la- 
 ter. Half an ounce of assafoetida, pounded in a little water 
 and added to the snuff, will make it more effectual. The 
 owner of the sheep need not be alarmed, when the operation 
 is performed, to see" the sheep very drunk and apparently in 
 the agonies of death, as they will in a few minutes recover. 
 Dry snuff may be blown up the nose with a quill, and have 
 a good effect; but it is a tedious, dirty job." 
 
 -Instead of " Scotch snuff," a decoction of tobacco will 
 answer the purpose. A gentleman who owns a large flock 
 of sheep informs us, that he had used it with perfect success. 
 Spirits of turpentine have been injected into the nostrils of 
 sheep, as a remedy for worms; but that substance appears to 
 possess one material disadvantage, which should preclude its 
 use for that purpose, viz. when thrown into the nostrils it 
 kills the sheep as well as the worms. 
 
 Mr. Alexander Reed, of Washington, Pennsylvania, in an 
 article on the management of sheep, published in " The New 
 England Farmer," (Vol. III. p. 60,) observes, that " daub- 
 ing the sheep's nose with tar is considered as a protection 
 against this enemy. What experience I have had is rather 
 calculated to strengthen this opinion. I have always made 
 free use of tar among my sheep, and I do not know that I 
 ever lost one by the worms in the head." 
 
 It is said by some writers that if sheep are kept in good 
 condition there is no danger of their suffering greatly from 
 worms in the head; as they will be strong enough to expel 
 the insects by sneezing. This may be; but still, the applica- 
 tion of tar to the noses of the animals would prove servicea- 
 ble by preventing their being teased by the fly, which causes 
 great pain and distress at the time the nits are deposited, as 
 well as eventuates in the disease of the sheep. 
 CIO 
 
230 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 HORSE. One of the most useful of tame quadrupeds. 
 The marks or evidences of a good one are these; a high 
 neck, a full breast, a lively eye, a strong back, a stiff dock, 
 full buttocks, ribs reaching near to the hips, well-made 
 hoofs, rather large, and a good gait. 
 
 The size of a horse should be in proportion to the work 
 in which he is chiefly to be employed. Small sized ones 
 often prove good in the saddle. They are apt to be hardy, 
 and, in proportion to their size and the quantity of their eat- 
 ing, usually are the most profitable. Plough horses, and all 
 drauglit horses, should be large, as their weight is of impor- 
 tance in drawing ; as it is often inconvenient to put two 
 horses to one plough, especially in horse-hoeing. Large- 
 ness is also of importance, when they are used single, in 
 journeying, as they most usually are, in a chaise or sleigh. 
 
 A horse's manner of going is a matter of no small impor- 
 tance. The ambling gait, or what in this country is vulgar- 
 ly called pacing, is not good, either for the hoi'se or the 
 rider. It is tiresome to both. It habituates a horse to 
 carry his feet too near to the ground, so that he is the more 
 liable to trip and stumble. 
 
 The method so much practised formerly, in this country, 
 of teaching horses to pace swiftly, and racing in that gait, is 
 highly pernicious. It puts them to a much greater strain 
 than running ; and numbers have been thus ruined. Some 
 colts naturally amble, and others trot. But all may be made 
 to trot, if due care and pains be taken with them while they 
 are young, or as soon as they are first ridden. In a carriage 
 an amble is tiresome to a horse, appears highly improper, 
 and is disgusting to every one ; and I do not see why it 
 should appear at all more tolerable in the saddle. When 
 any change of gait is wanted for the ease of the rider, the 
 canter is to be preferred, than which none can be more 
 easy. 
 
 The way of breaking a young horse that is mostly used in 
 this country is highly absurd, hurtful, and dangerous. He 
 is mounted and ridden before he has been used to the bridle 
 or to bearing any weight on his back. If he will not go for- 
 ward, he is most unmercifully beaten; by which his spirits 
 are broken and his strength impaired. If he rears up, he is 
 pulled backwards, with the risk of hurting both horse and 
 man. If he runs and starts, as he probably will, under such 
 management, he flings the rider, perhaps is frightened, gains 
 his liberty, and is encouraged to do just so the next opportu- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 231 
 
 nity; and the unfortunate rider blesses himself, as he has 
 reason to do, if he escapes without broken limbs. Or, if 
 the horse should chance to go kindly, the rider continues 
 the exercise till the horse is fatigued, discouraged, and in- 
 jured. 
 
 Instead of this mad management, the way practised in the 
 older countries should be adopted. Let a horse first of all 
 be tamed with the bridle, by leading him again and again ; 
 in the first place, after or by the side of another horse; and 
 afler he walks well, bring him to trot after his leader. In 
 the next place, put on the saddle, and lead him in that, time 
 after time. Then lay a small weight on the saddle, and if 
 he be apt to start, fasten it, that it may not be flung off; in- 
 creasing the weight from time to time, till he learns to carry 
 what is equal to a man's weight. Lastly, let a man gently 
 mount him, while another holds him by the bridle, and fix 
 himself firmly on the saddle. The place of riding is recom- 
 mended to be a ploughed field. Let him thus be ridden with 
 a horse going before him, till he learn the use of the bit, and 
 will stop or go forward at the pleasure of the rider, and 
 without the application of much force. Being exercised in 
 this manner a few times, and treated with all possible gentle- 
 ness, there will be no more occasion for leading him. He 
 will go well of himself; and be thoroughly broken, without 
 so much as giving him one blow, and without danger or 
 fatigue to the horse or his rider. And, what is much to be 
 regarded, the horse's spirits will be preserved, though he be 
 sufficiently tamed. In teaching a horse to draw, gentleness 
 must be used. He should be tried first in company with 
 other horses, whether in carting or ploughing ; and the 
 draught should not be so heavy as to fret him or put him to 
 great exertion till he has learned to draw steadily. After 
 this he may be put to draw light loads by himself Lastly, 
 he may be put to a pleasure carriage, but coupled with 
 another rather than alone, and to a sleigh rather than a 
 chaise. 
 
 It may be taken for a general rule, that the gait which is 
 easiest to a horse will be the easiest to his rider ; for jaded 
 horses, it has always been observed, are apt to go hard, and 
 to tire their riders. 
 
 The feeding of horses has not been sufficiently attended 
 to in this country ; which is, doubtless, one reason why they 
 are in general so mean and despicable. Too many keep 
 horses who cannot well afford to feed them. They should 
 
2-j-i THE COMrLETi: FARMER 
 
 neither run upon the roads and commons, nor in pastures 
 that are tilled with wild and water grasses. They love a dry 
 pasture, not too much shaded, and short grasses of the best 
 kinds. Clover and white honey-suckle, both green and dry, 
 are excellent food for them. It nourishes them well, and 
 prevents costiveness, which is very hurtful to them. The 
 best of clover hay will keep them as well as most other kinds 
 of hay with oats. 
 
 To fit a horse for a journey he should not be suffered to 
 grow too fat and gross. He should for some time be kept in 
 the stable rather than, in the pasture, and fed mostly with 
 hay and provender; but rather sparingly if he incline to be 
 fat. He should have exercise daily, to harden his flesh and 
 keep him in the habit of travelling. He should be shod 
 some days before he begins a journey, that the shoes may be 
 well settled to his feet, and the nails a little rusted at the 
 points, that they may hold the faster. And the pads of the 
 saddle should be well fitted to his back, so as to fill the hol- 
 lows, and bear equally on every part. And while he is on 
 the journey, he should be stabled every night. It is de- 
 structive to expose a horse to the dampness and cold of the 
 night after severe exercise. But it would be best if neither 
 horses nor any of our cattle were wholly confined to dry 
 meat in winter. Horses indicate this by their eating snow 
 with their hay. Set a basket of snow within reach of a 
 horse, when he is at his manger, and he will take a mouth- 
 ful from each alternately. Of all juicy food for horses in 
 winter, writers on husbandry seem to give carrots the prefer- 
 ence. They have been found by experience to answer well 
 instead of oats for laboring horses; and to fatten those which 
 are lean. 
 
 He that would be sure to keep his horse in good order 
 must beware whom he suffers to ride him, and must see that 
 he is never abused. Profuse sweating should always be 
 avoided. And when a horse is much warmed by exercise 
 he should not be exposed to cold air nor night dew, and 
 much less to rain and snow. If he cannot be instantly rub- 
 bed down and housed when warm, he should be covered with 
 a blanket; and he should always have a dry stable, and be 
 well littered. The neglect of these precautions may bring 
 on incurable disorders. 
 
 Horses should not be too much deprived of the liberty of 
 motion, as they too often are. Close confinement after hard 
 labor -will be apt to abate their circulations too suddenly. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 233 
 
 make them chilly, and stiffen their joints. To be deprived 
 of motion is bad for man and beast. Horses therefore 
 should not be straitened for room in their stables. Stables 
 should not be so low as to prevent their tossing up their 
 heads as high as they please. Some stables have so little 
 room overhead as to bring horses into a habit of carrying 
 their heads too low ; they become afraid to lift them up. 
 They should also have room in their stables to turn their 
 heads to any part of their bodies, that they may defend 
 themselves from the biting of insects, allay itching, &c. 
 And their halters should always be so long and their 'stables 
 so wide, that they may lie down conveniently. Nor should 
 horses be so placed as to be able to deprive each other of 
 his fodder. 
 
 When horses are kept in stables, as they generally are in 
 the coldest half of the year, they should be daily dressed, as 
 it is called. The curry-comb and the brush should be vvell 
 used on all parts of their skin which are covered with hair. 
 This increases perspiration through the pores of the skin, 
 which is necessary to health; and causes the blood to move 
 faster in the veins. This treatment will not only cause them 
 to look better, but they will have better health, and more 
 activity and courage. They will digest their food better, 
 and be better for service. But if rubbing and friction be 
 wholly neglected, or slightly performed, the hair will appear 
 dry and rough; the perspirable matter hardens in the pores 
 of the skin, or remains lodged at the roots of the hair, and 
 has the appearance of a dirty white dust, and sometimes 
 like small scales, attended with itching. More especially is 
 rubbing necessary for horses when they are growing cold 
 after being sweated by labor. In such cases it should never 
 be omitted. 
 
 Columella observes, " that the bodies of cattle ought to be 
 rubbed down daily, as well as the bodies of men "; and says, 
 " it often does them more good to have their backs well rub- 
 bed down, than their bellies well filled with provender." 
 
 But in warm weather it would be best for them, that they 
 should not have the confinement of the halter, nor even of 
 the stable. A small spot of feeding ground, if it were only 
 a few rods, adjoining to the stable, and the door left open, 
 that a horse may go in and out alternately as he pleases, 
 would greatly conduce to the health of the animal. This 
 degree of liberty will be most needful when the flies are 
 troublesome ; and be better for him than confinement to a 
 20* 
 
234 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 stable that is perfectly dark. In fly time, it gives a horse 
 much ease and comfort to smear his limbs, neck, and head, 
 with rancid fish oil, or something else that will keep the flies 
 from attacking him. And in all seasons, when horses have 
 been heated with exercise, they should be well rubbed or 
 curried. 
 
 When a horse runs in a pasture during the grass season, 
 he should have some shelter; not only a shade to defend him 
 from the intense heat of the sun, but a shed, or a clump of 
 trees, that he may retreat from the inclemencies of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 But horses that are daily worked in summer should be 
 mostly kept upon green fodder in stables, rather than grazed 
 in pastures. The tendance of them will not be so burden- 
 some, with a spot of high and thick grass at hand, as lead- 
 ing them to and from a pasture, at the distance of a quarter 
 of a mile. This will prevent their being often chilled by 
 feeding in wet nights. A large quantity of manure will thus 
 be saved. And a very small quantity of land will answer, 
 in comparison with what it takes for the pasturing of a 
 horse. Keeping a scythe and a basket at hand, a horse 
 may be foddered in this way in two or three minutes ; and 
 by the time that the whole spot has been once mowed over, 
 that which is first cut will be grown up again. V/here a 
 number of horses are soiled, a pair of poles, or a hand-cart, 
 will be better than a basket to carry the hay to them. This 
 practice, called soiling, answers well near cities and large 
 towns, where lands for pasturage are not plenty; and where, 
 by means of the plenty of manure, lands may be made to 
 yield the greatest crops of grass. For very thick grass 
 should not be fed off" ; because the greater part of it will be 
 Avasted by the trampling and the excrements of animals. 
 
 When grain is given to horses, it is an economical practice 
 to have it either ground or boiled. When horses are soiled, 
 or fed in a stable on green grass, it should be cut and car- 
 ried in during the morning while the dew is on. 
 
 A disorder, called plyalism, has for some years past been 
 gaining ground among horses in various parts of the United 
 States, which is an excessive watering or slavering at the 
 mouth. Various causes have been assigned for this disorder, 
 but none of them satisfactory. Soiling them is, however, a 
 certain remedy. 
 
 The following remarks on the diseases of the horse were 
 written by Dr. J. B. Brown, of Boston, and were first pub- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 235 
 
 lished in "The New England Journal of Medicine and 
 Surgery" : — 
 
 "The horse is not subject to fever; that is, he has no 
 simple, idiopathic fever; no cold, hot, and sweating stage, as 
 man has. The feverish action which the heart and arteries 
 of the horse sometimes assume is sympathetic, and is always 
 preceded by some local affection. It is a disease of irrita- 
 tion. 
 
 " The eyes of the horse are subject to a species of catar- 
 act that affects no other animal. It arises from a constitu- 
 tional disease, brought on by bad stabling. It is ne\ier 
 produced by local injury. This species of cataract com- 
 mences with an inflammation of the conjunctiva, without any 
 apparent cause. Local applications have no effect in remov- 
 ing it. The only rational method of treating it is to remove, 
 if possible, the constitutional disease, and improve the health 
 and condition of the animal. 
 
 " Oxen and cows have the disease called bots in their skin, 
 but in the horse this disease (if it may be so called) is con- 
 fined to the stomach. 
 
 "Farcy and glanders, are diseases peculiar to the horse. 
 They are contagious diseases, but may be produced without 
 contagion, by bad stabling. The poisonous matter of farcy 
 will produce glanders, and vice versa. Farcy is now as- 
 certained to be a disease of the superficial absorbents; 
 whereas, in all the old books on the veterinary art, it is re- 
 presented as a disease of the veins. 
 
 "A horse glandered has the whole mass of blood con- 
 taminated. This may be considered by medical gentlemen 
 as an important fact, as it goes to prove the doctrine of 
 humoral pathology. That the whole mass of blood is dis- 
 eased, in a horse affected with glanders, has been proved by 
 the following experiment, made by Mr. Colman, professor 
 at the Veterinary Institution, England. 
 
 " He took a young, healthy ass, an animal, as he states, 
 ])eculiarly susceptible of the disease, and introduced a pipe 
 having a stop-cock- into the jugular vein, united by means 
 of an ureter to another pipe, which he introduced into the 
 carotid artery of a glandered horse. He then bled the ass 
 to death by opening his carotid artery, and turning the stop- 
 cock, admitted the blood of the horse into his vessels, and 
 resuscitated him. The result was, that the ass became 
 violently glandered. He inoculated other asses from the 
 matter produced in him, and v/as able to carry on the same 
 diseai?e. 
 
236 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " Corns in the feet of horses are very unlike corns on the 
 feet of the human subject. There is nothing which grows 
 in the feet of horses that constitutes corns. There is no in- 
 crease of substance. Corns in the feet of horses are mere 
 bruises. Every body has seen or experienced the effects of 
 bruises upon the human nail. Corns in the feet of horses 
 are injuries of a similar nature. The red appearance which 
 they have is caused by an extravasation of blood, which 
 spreads itself among the fibres of the horny hoof Corns 
 are generally occasioned by the shoe. They may, however, 
 arise from other injuries. They are easily cured by suitable 
 remedies and a proper mode of shoeing, unless the inflam- 
 mation occasioned by the injury has been of long standing, 
 and assumed a chronic character. In this case, the cure is 
 more tedious. 
 
 "Horse-ail. Strictly speaking, all diseases of horses are 
 horse-ails ; but custom has given this epithet to a species of 
 disease very common among our horses. The disease refer- 
 red to is called strangles, in most of the old books on far- 
 riery. It consists in an inflammation of the membrane lining 
 the nose and the arytsenoid cartilages. This disease is ac- 
 companied by a cough and discharge from the nostrils. The 
 cough is sympathetic, and is produced by the extreme sensi- 
 bility of the membrane thus inflamed. The lightest dust, or 
 even a drop of water lodged upon this membrane, in this ir- 
 ritable state, produces coughing. The inflammation some- 
 times extends to the lungs, and then this disease is accom- 
 panied with a disease of the chest, and requires speedy and 
 energetic treatment, as inflammation of the lungs in the 
 horse is apt to terminate speedily in gangrene. Copious 
 bleeding, from six to ten quarts at first, and smaller bleed- 
 ings afterwards, as the state of the case may require, and 
 small doses of aloes, from one to two drachms, given daily, 
 have been found the most successful remedies in inflammation 
 of the lungs. Drastic purgatives should be avoided, as they 
 increase the irritation and put the life of the horse in extreme 
 hazard " 
 
 The following judicious remarks on the management and 
 diseases of horses, &c., are taken from an English publi- 
 cation. 
 
 " The stable. As the preservation of health ought to be 
 considered as an object of equal, if not superior, importance 
 to that of curing or alleviating disease, and as it can only 
 be accomplished by a proper management of the horse with 
 
AND RURAL KCOXOMLST. 237 
 
 respect to feeding, exercise, and the general economy of the 
 stable, I think it proper to begin with this subject. 
 
 " In the construction of a stable there is, perhaps, no cir- 
 cumstance more deserving attention than that of ventilation, 
 or of having contrivances for the ready admission of fresh 
 air, and for the escape of that which has been rendered im- 
 pure by breathing ; and it is really extraordinary that so 
 little attention should have been paid to so important a cir- 
 cumstance. Grooms in general make a point of closing eve- 
 ry aperture they can find ; and if, at any time, they are pre- 
 vailed upon to open a window, it is commonly so small, and 
 so inconveniently situated, as to be of but little service. 
 Let any one for a moment consider how foul an atmosphere 
 must be produced in a close stable, in which several horses 
 are kept, by the constant exhalation of unwholesome vapors 
 from the litter, by the steams of perspiration from the skin, 
 and by noxious airs from the lungs, and he will not be sur- 
 prised at the long catalogue of diseases to which this im- 
 proper treatment must subject these useful animals. 
 
 " If a doubt remain in the mind of any one as to the impro- 
 priety of such close stables, let him enter one early in the 
 morning, on its being first opened, and he will experience 
 such a painful sensation in the eyes, and so violent a cough, 
 as will afford him the most convincing proof of the noxious 
 and stimulating nature of such an atmosphere ; yet such is 
 the obstinacy and ignorance of grooms in general, that they 
 cannot be prevailed upon to abandon this injurious practice. 
 Even at this time stables are generally built too low, and 
 unprovided with effectual means of ventilation. 
 
 "A stable should be as lofl;y as it can be made convenient- 
 ly, at least twelve feet ; the foul air will then circulate in 
 the higher parts, and the animal will not be constantly breath- 
 ing an unwholesome atmosphere, which he must do when 
 the ceiling is scarcely higher than his head. Proper aper- 
 tures must also be made in the ceiling, communicatino- with 
 the atmosphere by square wooden tubes, so contrived as 
 not to admit the rain into stables ; the foul air and other 
 unwholesome vapors will then readily pass off, while a proper 
 quantity of fresh air may be admitted by means of win- 
 dows. The next circumstance to be attended to is nearly 
 connected with, and not less important than ventilation ; 
 namely, the so constructing a stable as to be able to regulate 
 its temperature, or keep the air at any degree of heat that 
 may be thought proper. It is generally allowed, that a uni- 
 
233 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 
 
 form temperature in a stable is very desirable ; and it is 
 certain, that many of the diseases of horses are caused by 
 sudden changes in this respect. Even slight variations of 
 temperature, if frequent, are injurious ; yet few stables are 
 to be found where this inconvenience is effectually guarded 
 against. To accomplish this desirable purpose, the win- 
 dows should be in diiferent sides, so that when a cold wind 
 blows from any point it may be shut out, while fresh air is 
 admitted by the opposite window. There should be several 
 of the apertures we have described in the ceiling, that they 
 may be occasionally shut, either wholly or partially, so that, 
 by means of these and the windows, the temperature can at 
 anv season be easily regulated, according to the weather or 
 state of the horse's health, more accurately if a thermometer 
 be kept ; an instrument which appears to be a necessary 
 appendage to a well-conducted stable. If, during the cold 
 days of winter, the contrivance we have proposed should be 
 found insufficient to raise the temperature of the stable to 
 the desired point, the air may be easily warmed to any degree 
 by means of stoves placed on the outside, with iron chimneys 
 passing through the stable. It may be placed in the saddle- 
 room; this, however, is scarcely necessary. 
 
 " Light is also a thing of much importance in the con- 
 struction of a stable ; and, for the purpose of admitting it 
 readily to every part, the windows should be large and prop- 
 erly placed. There is no doubt that the eyes of horses are 
 often injured by dark stables ; and when a horse is just taken 
 from a dark situation, it is easy to perceive that light at first 
 irritates the eye and gives pain ; and this is more remark- 
 able when he is brought suddenly into the sunshine ; nor is 
 it to be wondered at, that so delicate an organ as the eye 
 should suffer materially from the frequent repetition of this 
 sudden change. 
 
 " Though a light stable is desirable, the sunshine should 
 not be allowed to tall on the eyes of a horse as he stands in 
 his stall ; nor should the walls or ceiling be of a white color, 
 as, under such circumstances, the eyes would be over stimu- 
 lated and rendered weak. And when it is considered how lia- 
 ble horses are to diseases of these organs, and how frequent- 
 ly they terminate in blindness, no one will think any circum- 
 stance tending to their preservation too trifling to be noticed. 
 With regard to the best color for the walls and ceiling, a 
 stone or dove color is perhaps to be preferred, and may be 
 made by mixing a little lampblack, ivory-black, or blue-black 
 with the common white-wash. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 239 
 
 " The door should be larger and higher than we usually 
 see it ; for horses are very liable, in passing through a nar- 
 row or low one, to strike their hips or heads. 
 
 " The stalls should not be less than six feet wide, and the 
 sides sufficiently high to prevent any sort of contact or com- 
 munication between the horses. They should also be of 
 considerable depth, that a horse may not, by drawing back, 
 have the power of kicking those in the adjoining stalls. 
 The floor of the stall should be made of hard brick, as a 
 more equal surface is then formed than can be obtained by 
 paving with pebbles. Very little declivity is necessary to 
 drain off the urine; and as great inconvenience sometimes 
 arises from suffering a horse to stand in a stall where the 
 fall is considerable, creating unnecessary exertion in the 
 muscles of the hind leg, and keeping the ligaments constant- 
 ly in a tense state, it has been recommended to make the 
 drain in the middle of the stall, whereby the hind and fore 
 feet of the horse might stand on a level. In whatever way, 
 however, the stall is made, it should be carefully cleaned, 
 twice a day, that none of that putrescent matter may accu- 
 mulate which generates ammonia, or that pungent vapor 
 which is so abundantly found in close, filthy stables. An 
 iron rack is preferable to one of wood, being more easily 
 kept clean, and furnishing no splinters ; which, where wood- 
 en racks are used, sometimes injure the mouth. The man- 
 ger may be so contrived as to slide into the wall like a 
 drawer; and then, while the groom is wisping him, he would 
 have nothing to lay hold of with his mouth, by which prac- 
 tice horses often become crib-biters. The height both of the 
 rack and manger should be such as to enable the horse to 
 feed with the greatest ease. The former is sometimes made 
 so high that the horse is obliged to exert the muscles of his 
 neck considerably in order to reach it ; and this has been so 
 placed, under an idea of its having a tendency to make him 
 carry his head more gracefully; it is more probable, how- 
 ever, that the only effect of it is to make the horse uncom- 
 fortable while feeding. It has been recommended, as the 
 best plan, to place the racks on a level with the manger, so 
 that the horse may feed as he does in a state of nature. 
 This plan is a good one . It has been tried both for wagon 
 and saddle horses, that is, both single and double, and found 
 to answer extremely well. It was observed, however, that 
 some horses would throw out part of the hay with their noses 
 when it was of a bad quality; but by placing one or more 
 
240 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 bars across on the upper part, from the front to the back, 
 this was effectually prevented. The manger should be rath- 
 er wide, and not less than eighteen inches deep. When a 
 horse is fed principally with chaff or cut hay, a deep manger 
 is particularly necessary, as many horses, in endeavouring to 
 pick out the oats from the chaff, will throw out a great deal 
 of the food with their noses when the manger is shallow. In 
 larger stables, where many horses are kept, each stall is to 
 contain two horses, which will require a space of twelve 
 feet. A manger is placed at each end, and the hay crib in 
 the centre. A very short halter is sufficient to allow the 
 horses to lie down, and then there is no danger of entangling 
 themselves with it, an accident that often occurs when long 
 halters are used. La Fosse, in his Manuel d'Hippiatrique, 
 says, that the fall in the floor of the stall should not be more 
 than one inch to two yards. The gutter behind the stall is 
 commonly too deep, and often so placed as to be in the way 
 of the horses' hind feet. When a stable is properly attend- 
 ed to, scarcely any gutter is required ; and when there is 
 one, it should be very shallow and wide. 
 
 " When a stable is ventilated by means of a tube or chim- 
 ney, it should be placed in the centre of the ceiling, the 
 opening in which should be large, in proportion to the num- 
 ber of horses kept ; it cannot well be too large, but may be 
 contracted upwards, so as to have a conical shape, or it may 
 be made so as to resemble a dome or cupola. It should be 
 carried a few feet above the top of the roof, and have lateral 
 openings, by means of slanting boards, but closed on the top; 
 by which contrivance there would be a free communication 
 with the atmosphere, and the rain would be effectually ex- 
 cluded. 
 
 "There have been different opinions held with respect to 
 the removal of the litter during the day ; but when we con- 
 sider how rapidly and abundantly ammonia or the volatile 
 alkali is generated in it, and how injurious that vapor is to 
 the eyes and lungs, there can be no doubt of the propriety 
 of removing it. Dr. Egan, of Dublin, has discovered, that 
 the urine of the horse begins to generate volatile alkali very 
 soon after it is voided ; and it is well observed by the same 
 author, that if this vapor be capable of painfully stimulating 
 a sound and healthy eye, its eflects upon one that is inflam- 
 ed, and consequently extremely irritable, must be both highly 
 painful and prejudicial to the organ. In confirmation of this 
 opinion, the author relates the following experiment. A horse 
 
AND RURAL ECONOxMIST. 241 
 
 laboring under inflammation of the eye was removed from 
 the stable, where he kept both eyes constantly shut, and 
 placed in a cool, airy situation; in the space of half an hour 
 he began gradually to open his eyes, and in the space of two 
 or three hours he kept them open boldly. The horse was 
 again placed in the stable, and in a few minutes he began 
 gradually to close the eyes, and after an hour or two kept 
 them constantly shut. Not satisfied, however, with this ex- 
 periment, though it seems pretty conclusive, the horse was 
 again removed to the cool situation, and the same effect fol- 
 lowed as at first. If the vapors produced by foul litter prove 
 so injurious to the eyes, it cannot surely be less prejudicial 
 to the lungs ; and it is highly probable that if coughs are not 
 produced in this way, they are often aggravated and render- 
 ed incurable by those irritating effluvia. Another evil to be 
 considered is the propensity observable in many horses to 
 eat their litter. This is often the case with such as have a 
 chronic cough, or are disposed to become brokenwinded, or 
 have worms ; and in all these diseases there is nothing, 
 perhaps, more likely to increase them than the animal's eat- 
 ing foul litter. It must be obvious, that horses employed in 
 severe labor should be allowed to lie down whenever they 
 are inclined to do so ; but even then all the litter may be 
 turned out early in the morning, the floor of the stall swept 
 perfectly clean, and a bed of fresh straw put in. If the foul 
 litter be spread abroad in the open air, and shaken up two 
 or three times during the day, the greater part would be 
 again fit for litter, and, with the addition of a little fresh 
 straw, would serve to replace that upon which the horse has 
 rested during the day. It has been said, that horses which 
 stand constantly on litter are apt to feel the difference of the 
 road and become tender-footed. Mr. Clark observes, that 
 the heat arising from the litter occasions a more than ordi- 
 nary derivation of blood to the legs and feet ; and hence 
 arise swelling or gourdiness of those parts, greasy heels, 
 and stiffness or numbness. If the horse lies down for relief, 
 the heat of the litter soon forces him to get up again, and 
 after repeatedly lying down, and forced to get up immediate- 
 ly from the above cause, he attempts it no farther; he stands 
 upright, or perhaps a little straddling, often shifting the 
 weight of his body from one leg to the other. This erect 
 position, in which he is obliged to stand, increases the swel- 
 ling of his legs, Stc, and recourse is then had to bleeding, 
 purging, diuretics, &.c. 
 21 
 
242 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 " Lord Pembroke, in his ' Military Equitation,' observes 
 that after working, and at night of course, as also in lame- 
 ness and sickness, it is good for horses to stand on litter ; it 
 also produces staling, &c. At other times, it is a bad cus- 
 tom ; the constant use of it heats and makes the feet tender, 
 and causes swelled legs ; moreover, it renders the animal 
 delicate. 
 
 " Swelled legs may be often reduced to their natural size 
 merely by taking away the litter, which, in some stables, 
 where ignorant grooms and farriers govern, would be a great 
 saving of physic and bleeding, besides straw. 
 
 " Lord Pembroke has noticed, by repeated experiments, 
 that legs swell or unswell, by leaving litter or taking it away, 
 like mercury in a weather-glass. Mr. Blaine is of opinion, 
 that the custom of standing on litter ruins more horses than 
 all the mails or stagecoaches put together ; that it is the 
 fruitful source of contracted feet, and brings on that ruinous 
 affection with more certainty than the hardest work. In my 
 own stables (he says) no litter is ever suffered to remain 
 under the fore-feet during the day. The horses stand on bare 
 bricks, which, in summer, are watered to make them more 
 cool ; by which means I have experienced astonishing bene- 
 fit. Behind, a little litter is strewed, because they are apt 
 to kick and break the bricks with their hind feet ; and be- 
 cause the litter thus placed sucks up the moisture of the 
 urine, which would be detrimental to the iiinder feet, which 
 are more liable to thrushes than contraction." 
 
 Colls. " Colts are usually foaled about the beginning of 
 summer, and it is the custom to let them run till Michaelmas 
 with the mare, at which time they are to be weaned. When 
 first weaned, they must be kept in a convenient house, with 
 a low rack and n)anger for hay and oats ; the hay must be 
 very sweet and fine, especially at first, and a little wheat 
 bran should be mixed with their oats, in order to keep their 
 bodies open, and make them eat and drink freely. When 
 the winter is spent, they should be turned into some dry 
 ground, where the grass is sweet and short, and where there 
 is good water, that they may drink at pleasure. The win- 
 ter after this, they may be kept in the stable, without any 
 farther care than that which is taken of other horses. But 
 after the first year, the mare foals and horse foals are not to 
 be kept together. There is no difficulty to know the shape 
 a foal is like to be of, for the same shape he carries at a 
 month he will carry at six years old, if he be not abused in 
 after keeping." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 243 
 
 " We often hear it lamented, that our breed of horses is 
 bad. But I am convinced that, as our colts are managed, if 
 we had any other breed, we should soon make it appear to 
 be as mean as our own, if not worse. The abusing of colts 
 in the first winter is the principal cause of their proving so 
 bad ; for our farmers seldom allow their weaned colts any 
 food besides hay, and that is not always of the best kind. 
 So that they seldom fail of being stinted in their growth, in 
 the first winter, to such a degree, that they never get the 
 better of it. A colt that is foaled late should not be weaned 
 till February or March, and should have oats during the 
 whole of the winter. In some countries, they allow a young 
 colt fifteen bushels. We need not grudge to feed them with 
 meal, oats, and bran, besides the best of clover hay; for they 
 will pay for it in their growth. After the first winter, they 
 will need no extraordinary feeding till they are grown up. 
 Were the above directions observed, we should soon see an 
 improvement of our breed of horses. They would be capa- 
 ble of doing much greater service, and be likely to hold out 
 to a greater ajje." — Deane. 
 
 For farther remarks on the management of colts, and 
 training or breaking them for service, see page 64 of this 
 work. 
 
 MANGE L-WURTZEL. Field Culture of the Mangel- 
 wurtzel Beet and the Sugar Beet. Soil and Preparation. 
 The soil for these roots should be a loam, inclining to clay, 
 in good tilth, well manured, and made fine to a good depth. 
 John HarePowel, Esq., corresponding secretary to the Penn- 
 sylvania Agricultural Society, in giving an account of his 
 mode of cultivating this crop, says, "My soil was not natu- 
 rally strong; it has been gradually so much deepened as to 
 enable Wood's plough, No. 2, drawn by four oxen, to plough 
 fourteen inches deep. Fresh barn-yard manure was equally 
 spread upon the surface, and ploughed under in the early 
 part of April, in quantities not larger than are generally used 
 for potato crops in this country. Early in May, the land 
 was twice stirred with Beatson's scarifier, harrowed, rolled ; 
 after stirred, harrowed and rolled again in the opposite 
 direction." The soil, on which Messrs. Tristram Little and 
 Henry Little, of Newbury, Massachusetts, raised their 
 premium crop, in 1824, is a clay loam. In 1823, about three- 
 
244 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 fourths of the same was sowed with onions, and manured 
 with about eight cords of compost manure to the acre. The 
 other quarter was sowed with wheat without manure. In 
 the fall of 1823, there were about ten cords of compost ma- 
 nure drawn on the lot, and put in a heap. Most of the said 
 compost was drawn from the salt marshes, when ditching 
 the same ; the other part was from the barn-yard. In the 
 month of April, 1824, the heap was thrown over, and well 
 mixed. 
 
 Planting. Colonel Powel says, " The holes for the seeds 
 were made by a wheel, containing pegs in its circumference, 
 which penetrated the ground about an inch, leaving intervals 
 of four inches ; the rows were made two feet asunder ; two 
 capsules were dropped into each hole ; the wheel of a com- 
 mon barrow was passed over them, thus compressing the 
 earth, and leaving a slight rut for the retention of moisture." 
 
 Messrs. Tristram and Henry Little observe, that, " Be- 
 tween the 8th and 1 1th of May, the land was ploughed and 
 sowed in the following manner. After one deep ploughing, 
 the ground was furrowed two and a half feet apart, and the 
 manure put into the furrows, and covered with a double 
 mould-board plough ; a roller was then passed on the top of 
 the ridge, and the seed dibbled in with the finger over the 
 manure, about six or eight inches apart." The quantity of 
 seed, according to English writers, is four pounds to an acre. 
 Mr. David Little, in obtaining a premium crop, sowed four 
 pounds, but observed, that he thought half that quantity 
 would have been sufficient. 
 
 After-culture. Colonel Powel says, "A small cultivator, 
 which I had contrived for the purpose, was drawn between 
 the rows soon after the weeds appeared ; a three inch trian- 
 gular hoe removed the alternate plants, leaving the others 
 at distances varying from eight to twelve inches asunder. 
 The cultivator was twice used before the 20th of July. The 
 heavy rains of August made another hoeing necessary, and 
 surcharged the ground so much with moisture, that all roots 
 increased much less in that month than during the same 
 time in the two last years." The Messrs. Little, " in the 
 course of the season, thinned their plants, and left them 
 from six to twelve inches apart in the rows. They were 
 once hoed, and ploughed three times between the rows." 
 Mr. Powel, in raising a previous crop, had placed the rows 
 thirty inches apart, and left the plants six inches apart in the 
 rows. He says, " I this year desired smaller roots, which 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 245 
 
 might grow so closely as by their leaves to protect the soil 
 as much as possible from the rays of the sun. My cultiva- 
 tor, by its peculiar form, enabled me to cut off the weeds 
 when the plants were so young, that, if I had applied the 
 plough, their crowns must have been covered in many in- 
 stances by earth occasionally falling from its land side. The 
 failure, which attends the cultivation of most root crops in 
 drills, proceeds from the neglect of weeds in their early sta- 
 ges. Four or five days of delay frequently make the differ- 
 ence of fifteen days in the labor of making clean an acre ot 
 ground. The same weeds which a boy with a sharp shingle 
 could remove at the commencement of one week, may, before 
 the end of the next, require the application of an implement 
 drawn by a horse. I ascribe my success, in great measure, 
 to the use of Wood's exlraordmary plough, which enters the 
 soil more deeply, and pulverizes it more perfectly, than any 
 other I have ever seen, with equal force, in any country ; to 
 the use of cultivators, which complete the production of fine 
 tilth ; to the destruction of the weeds on their first appear- 
 ance, — leaving the smallest space upon which a horse can 
 walk between the rows ; and, above all, to planting the seeds 
 of a proper kind upon a surface which is kept perfectly flat." 
 
 General Remarks. Agriculturists have not agreed, wheth- 
 er it is most expedient to plant the seeds of this root on 
 ridges or on a level. Colonel Powel condemns planting on 
 ridges in this country, as a practice not adapted to our soil 
 and climate, in which vegetables are very liable to suffer by 
 drought. He says, "Among the various practices into 
 which we have been seduced by the plausible theories of the 
 advocates of European husbandry, there is none which ap- 
 pears to me more absurd than that which has led us to drill 
 or dibble our crops on ridges. The English farmer wisely 
 contends with the evils produced by too much rain ; the 
 American husbandman should as anxiously guard against 
 his most formidable enemy, drought. I am inclined tolhink 
 that there is no crop cultivated in this State (Pennsylvania) 
 which ought not to be put on a flat surface." The climate 
 of New England, especially its northern part, is not so warm 
 and dry as that of Pennsylvania, and in that part of the 
 United States, perhaps, the nature of the soil should decide 
 the question ; if dry, level planting, or if moist, ridge plant- 
 ing should be adopted. 
 
 We have heard complaints from American farmers, that 
 the seed of this root is slow and uncertain in coming up 
 21* ^ * 
 
246 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Perhaps the seed, or soil, or both, may sometimes be too dry 
 at the time of sowing. A writer in the " EngHsh Farmer's 
 Journal," says, " I have of late years steeped my seed for at 
 least forty-eight hours. I made an experiment with twenty 
 sound seeds, not steeped, twenty steeped twenty-four hours, 
 and the same number steeped forty-eight hours ; every seed 
 of the latter produced plants, which came up two or three 
 days sooner than either of the others, and some of those not 
 steeped did not come up at all." INIr. Cobbett, in treating 
 of the culture of the common garden beets, (American Gar- 
 dener, par. 198,) directs to soak the seed four days and 
 nights in rain-water before it is sowed; and observes, that 
 the mangel-wurtzel should be cultivated in the same manner 
 as the other kinds of beets. American writers, so far as we 
 have observed, give no directions for soaking the seeds of 
 this vegetable before planting ; and it is possible, that the 
 omission of this part of the process may cause the slowness 
 and uncertainty of vegetation complained of The capsule, 
 or husk, which contains the seeds, is dry, and it requires a 
 long time for the moisture which it may derive from the 
 earth to penetrate this integument, so as to cause the seed 
 to sprout. But if the soil be very moist at the time of sow- 
 ing, soaking the seed had better be omitted. 
 
 Much has been written and said on the subject of strip- 
 ping these plants of their leaves for feeding cows and other 
 economical purposes. An English writer observes, that six 
 or seven crops of leaves and stocks may be taken off during 
 the growth of the root. Women and children can take off 
 the leaves, which is done as follows ; they should place their 
 hands on each side of the root, at the foot stalks of the 
 leaves, leaving about six of the smallest central leaves be- 
 tween the fore-finger and thumb of each hand ; (the small 
 leaves are to be left on the root to grow, to make a fresh top ; ) 
 then, spreading the hand flat with their face downwards, 
 push them both at the same time towards the ground, and thus, 
 by one motion, will the whole of the top of each root, ex- 
 cept the small leaves to be left to form a fresh head, be re- 
 moved without unsettling the root or its fibres, which would 
 check its growth. Some affirm, that stripping the plant of 
 its leaves is no injury to the root, and others are of opinion 
 that the root is injured by this means. We have doubts, 
 whether, in field cultivation, it will often be deemed expe- 
 dient to expend time and labor in this manner. The thin- 
 nings, or superfluous plant?;, however, should be preserved, 
 as thev make excellent food for milch cows or store sv.ine. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 247 
 
 Some cultivators affirm, that it is never worth the trouble 
 to transplant these roots to fill vacancies. " I have seen," 
 says an English writer, " much labor and expense employed 
 in transplanting into vacant spots, when the seed has not been 
 dibbled thick enough, but have never seen the transplanted 
 roots worth half the trouble ; the tap-root being broken in 
 the drawing, nothing but the top and useless rough roots and 
 fangs are produced. It has been remarked by other writers, 
 that the most common cause of failure in transplanting this 
 root is the taking them up when too small, before the plants 
 have obtained strength and size sufficient to bear the opera- 
 tion of transplanting. 
 
 Use. The following remarks are from a paper communi- 
 cated to the trustees of the "Massachusetts Agricultural So- 
 ciety," by J. Lowell, Esq., president of said Society. They 
 are derived, principally, from a French publication, by the 
 Abbe Rosier. 
 
 "This root is very little affected by changes of weather. 
 It is attacked by no insect ; drought affects but little its 
 vegetation. It prepares the land extremely well for other 
 crops. It may be sown and treated precisely like the com- 
 mon beet, except that it ought to stand eighteen inches 
 asunder. In good land, they often weigh nine or ten pounds, 
 and are stripped eight or nine times. In a light, sandy, but 
 well manured soil, they sometimes weigh fourteen and even 
 sixteen pounds each ! The first crop of leaves in France 
 is taken off in the latter end of June, or the beginning of 
 July. In this country, probably, the latter period would be 
 preferable. The lower leaves, those which incline towards 
 the ground, ^re those which are taken away, and care must 
 be taken to preserve the top leaves, or the crown of the 
 plants. The leaves may be taken off every fifteen days 
 after the first gathering. O.xen, cows, and sheep devour 
 them greedily, and fatten readily upon them. All domestic 
 poultry eat them readily, when chopped fine and mixed with 
 grain. Horses will feed upon them very well, mixed with 
 chopped straw. Hogs also fatten upon them. 
 
 " Cows fed upon this root solely give a greater quantity 
 oT milk and cream, and of better quality for the first fifteen 
 days, after which they grow too fat, and the milk lessens. 
 The food of cows must therefore be varied. Oxen and sheep 
 fatten very well upon them. Cows should have grass in 
 proportion of one-third to the beet leaves, or every third day 
 they should be turned to grass. In this mode their milk 
 
248 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 will be excellent. The trouble of gathering the leaves is less 
 than that of gathering any other green fodder. It may be 
 done by children, while men are required to cut other green 
 food for cattle. It is the surest crop, since the plant will 
 stand the longest droughts. The roots are gathered and 
 treated like those of the common beet. The skin is very 
 tender, and care should be taken to handle them so as they 
 may not be wounded, as they will, in that case, not keep so 
 well. In order to preserve the seed in purity, care must be 
 taken to change the ground in which the seed beets are 
 planted. The seed can be preserved, after it is gathered, 
 three or four years, without injury. In giving these roots 
 to cattle for food, they are first washed, and then cut up into 
 pieces about the size of a nut. It is always best to accom- 
 pany them, when given to horned cattle, with clover, or oth- 
 er hay or straw ; and if the hay or straw has been previously 
 cut fine, it will be preferable. If horses are fed with this 
 root, with a proportion of hay or cut straw, (half of each,) 
 they will be fat, vigorous, and healthy. If they are worked 
 severely, a little oats or corn may be added. It is thus they 
 are treated in Germany, where this root stands in the stead 
 of meadows or grass lands, and whose excellent horses are 
 well known. 
 
 "Hogs fed upon them raw, after they have been cut up 
 fine and mixed with milk or other drink, fatten as well upon 
 them as upon boiled potatoes, by which the fuel and trouble 
 of boiling is saved. 
 
 " As to the quantity given to animals, much will depend 
 on the proportion of other fodder which you allow them. 
 Cows fed twice a day in winter upon eighteen pounds of 
 these roots at each time, together with four pounds of hay or 
 chopped straw, will give as much and as good milk as in 
 summer, and they will be kept in the best possible state. 
 
 "Oxen fed with forty weight of these roots per day, with 
 ten pounds of hay, for one month, and after that with fifty 
 weight per day of the roots alone, will be fat enough for sale 
 in two months more. 
 
 " Man can eat this vegetable throughout the year ; it is 
 agreeable and healthy. No insect attacks it, and it sufl^ers 
 but little from the variety of the seasons. The leaves of 
 this plant form alone an excellent food for every species of 
 domestic quadruped, during four months in the year. Tur- 
 nips and other vegetables are, besides, liable to be destroyed 
 by insects, whereas this beet is not. The roots can be pre- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 249 
 
 served eight months in a sound state, while turnips are of 
 little value after March. In some soils turnips will not grow, 
 particularly in those which are very stiff or strong. The 
 root of scarcity grows everywhere. The milk of cows fed 
 on turnips has a bad taste ; that of those fed on this plant is 
 excellent, as is also the butter made from it. This forage 
 on green fodder comes also at the. hot seasons, when almost 
 all other green food is scarce, and sometimes not to be pro- 
 cured. Cattle never get tired of it. In many parts of Ger- 
 many, where it is raised with success, they prefer it to every 
 tiling else to fatten those large herds of cattle which they 
 annually export to France. In feeding cattle with beets, the 
 same dry food must be given which is usually given with 
 turnips." 
 
 Colonel Powel observes, " My neat cattle prefer mano-el- 
 wurtzel to any roots which I have offered to them. I have 
 found its effects in producing large secretions of good milk 
 very great. I selected, in November, two heifers of the 
 same breed, and very nearly of the same age, and in similar 
 condition ; they were fed in adjoining stalls, and have been 
 fed regularly three times a day, by the same man. One of 
 them has had three pecks of mangel-wurtzel and four quarts 
 of corn-meal daily ; the other, foui" and a half pecks of 
 mangel-wurtzel. The last, which has had mangel-wurtzel 
 alone, is in the condition of good beef; the other is not more 
 than what graziers call half fat. 
 
 " The application of mangel-wurtzel as food for sheep is 
 not the least important of its uses. Ewes yean usually at 
 the season when grass cannot be supplied. The health 
 of themselves and the thrift of their lambs essentially depend 
 upon succulent food being had. I am inclined to think, that 
 no small portion of the success which English breeders have 
 met, is to be ascribed to the large stores of roots which they 
 always have at command. It cannot be denied, that Indian 
 meal will of itself, in most cases, produce extraordinary fat- 
 ness, as well as great size ; but I have been led to believe, 
 that diseases are early engendered by this species of forcing, 
 which is always expensive, and too often eventually destroys 
 the animal which has been thus reared." 
 
 Messrs. T. and H. Little observe, as to the value of the 
 roots for feeding stock, "There is a variety of opinions ; but, 
 from a number of years' experience, we think them a valua- 
 ble addition, and highly worth cultivating. Comparing them 
 with English hay, and we know of no better standard, in 
 
250 THE COMPLETE FAUMER 
 
 our opinion, three tons of mangel-wurtzel, or potatoes, (of 
 the two, we value the mangel-wurtzel the highest,) are 
 equal to one ton of hay, for feeding stock generally ; but 
 for rnilch cows, we think two tons of equal value. For feed- 
 ing store swine, mangel-wurtzel is the only root that we 
 know of which we can cultivate and feed to profit. Six 
 bushels of raw mangel-wurtzel we think equal to one bushel 
 of Indian corn." 
 
 Quantity to an Acre. The premium crop of the Messrs. 
 Litile was thirty-three tons ten hundred weight and four- 
 teen pounds on an acre. Colonel Powel inclosed certificates 
 to the president of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society, 
 showing that sixteen hundred and thirty-four bushels of man- 
 gel-wurtzel, weighing seventy-eight thousand four hundred 
 and forty-eight pounds, were produced upon one acre and 
 fourteen perches ; and a part of the same field, containing 
 thirteen contiguous rows, produced at the rate of two thou- 
 sand and sixty-five bushels per acre, weighing forty-four 
 tons five hundred and twenty-seven pounds. In Great Bri- 
 tain, it is said that upwards of sixty tons have been raised 
 on an acre. 
 
 Gathenng and Preserving. In gathering the roots, care 
 should be taken to cut ofi' the leaves about half an inch 
 above the crown, as they will not keep so well if cut more 
 closely. Messrs. Tristram and Henry Little say, "As to 
 the best mode of preserving them, we have tried divers 
 ways, — by pitting them, by putting them into a barn and 
 covering them with hay, and by putting them into the 
 cellar ; the last mode we think the best." Colonel Powel 
 observes, that one of his crops was " piled in a cellar, in 
 rows, as wood, and covered with sand." A writer in the 
 " English Farmer's Journal " observes, that he has practis- 
 ed, with success, the following mode of preserving this root : 
 " I pack it in long heaps, about seven feet wide at the bot- 
 tom. I begin by forming the outsides with the roots, not 
 stripped of their tops ; tops outwards ; the internal parts to 
 be filled with roots without leaves ; continue one laver over 
 another, until the heap is about six feet high, and about two 
 feet broad at top, which may be covered with straw and 
 earth ; the ends of the heap should be covered in the same 
 way. The leaves form an efficient covering against rain and 
 frost." 
 
 Mr. M'Mahon's mode of preserving beets and other 
 roots is as follows : "Previous to the commencement of 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 251 
 
 severe frost, you should take up, with as little injury as pos- 
 sible, the roots of your turnips, carrots, parsneps, beets, sal- 
 sify, scorzonera, Hamburg or large-rooted parsley, skirrets, 
 Jerusalem artichokes, turnip-rooted celery, and a sufficiency 
 of horseradish for the winter consumption ; cut off their 
 tops, and expose the roots for a few hours, till sufficiently 
 dry. On the surface of a very dry spot of ground, in a well 
 sheltered situation, lay a stratum of sand two inches thick, 
 and on this a layer of roots, of either sort, covering them 
 with another layer of sand, (the drier the better,) and so 
 continue the layers of sand and roots till all are laid in, giv- 
 ing the whole, on every side, a roof-like slope ; then cover 
 this heap or ridge all over with about two inches of sand, 
 over which lay a good coat of drawn straw, up and down, 
 as if thatching a house, in order to carry off wet and pre- 
 vent its entering the roots ; then dig a wide trench round 
 the heap, and cover the straw with the earth so dug up, to a 
 depth sufficient to preserve the roots effectually from frost. 
 An opening may be made on the south side of this heap, 
 and completely covered with bundles of straw, so as to have ' 
 access to the roots at all times, when wanted either for sale 
 or use. 
 
 " Some people lay straw or hay between the layers of 
 roots, and immediately on the top of them ; this I do not 
 approve of, as the straw or hay will become damp and 
 mouldy, and very often occasion the roots to rot, while the 
 sand would preserve them sweet and sound. 
 
 "All these roots may be preserved in like manner in a 
 cellar ; but in such a place they are subject to vegetate and 
 become stringy earlier in spring. The only advantage of 
 this method is, that in the cellar they may be had when 
 wanted more conveniently during winter than out of the field 
 or garden heaps. 
 
 " JVote. All the above roots will preserve better in sand 
 than in common earth ; but when the former cannot be had, 
 the sandiest earth you can procure may be used." 
 
 RUTA BAGA. The following is an account of the 
 method of cultivating ruta baga, adopted by Rev. Henry 
 Colman, in obtaining a crop for which he received a pre- 
 mium of twenty dollars from " The Massachusetts Agricul- 
 tural Society, '• in 1830; from "The New England Far- 
 mer " ; — 
 
2o2 THE COMPLETE FABMER 
 
 " On an acre, on one side of the field, there were gath- 
 ered seven hundred and torty-one baskets lull ; and forty 
 baskets of the above-named weighed at the town scales two 
 thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds net weight. This, 
 allowing fifty-six pounds to a bushel, the standard weight 
 assumed by the Society, would give a crop of nine hundred 
 and three bushels to the acre. 
 
 " The turnips were planted on the 29th of June and 2d of 
 July ; about one pound and a half of seed was used for the 
 acre ; and they were gathered and stored in cellars and in 
 the barn, in the last part of November. 
 
 "The ground on which they grew is a good soil, neither 
 wet nor dry, and bore the last year an abundant crop of 
 onions, and corn the year preceding the last. It was well 
 manured at both times, and in fine tilth. It was manured 
 with at least six cords to the acre of barn manure, the last 
 spring, and sowed again to onions ; but the seed entirely 
 failing, it was ploughed, harrowed, furrows struck out, and 
 about eight cords of barn manure spread in the furrows ; 
 ploughed again, so as by a back furrow to form a ridge over 
 the manure, and the seed sown with a small drill-harrow on 
 the ridges, making the rows about twenty inches asunder. 
 As soon as the plants were of sufficient size, a drill-harrow, 
 with small shares fixed to it, to cut off all the weeds, was 
 passed through the rows ; and the plants thinned with u 
 small weeding hoe to the distance of about eight inches 
 apart, and the vacant places filled up by transplanting from 
 the supernumerary plants. They were once more harrowed 
 and cleaned, which was a very small labor ; and owing to 
 the very unpropitious weather were not harvested until very 
 late. Some of them were very large ; one weighed fifteen 
 pounds, and many were nearly as large. The exact expense 
 of cultivating the acre cannot be estimated, as it was inter- 
 mixed with other farm work ; but the whole, from the sow- 
 ing to the gathering, was not two-thirds of the labor usually 
 bestowed on planting, cultivating, and gathering an acre of 
 potatoes. 
 
 "My Swedish turnips the last year were fed off to my 
 oxen, dry cows, young stock, and fatting sheep. To the 
 cattle they were of very great advantage ; and for feeding 
 sheep, they proved worth from ten to twelve and half cents 
 per bushel. Three years' experiment has increased their 
 value very much for these purposes in my own estimation." 
 
AND Rl'RAL ECONOMIST. 253 
 
 A correspondent in "The New England Farmer," (Vol. 
 XI. p. 277,) says : 
 
 " The soil for the culture of the ruta baga must be rich 
 and dry; and the more it inclines to a sand loam the better. 
 Clay is the worst, and wet soils will not answer at all. My 
 general practice has been, to manure well a piece of pasture, 
 or clover ley, from which the hay has first been cut, plough 
 it handsomely over, and harrow it well. I sow in rows, at 
 two and half or three feet, with a drill-harrow. The sooner 
 the preceding operations succeed each other the better. I 
 have sown broad-cast, but the expense of thinning and 
 culture is increased. A man will drill in three or four acres 
 a day. We allow a pound of seed to the acre, though half 
 this, properly distributed, is enough. Sow from the 26th of 
 June to the 10th of July. 
 
 " Culture. I use a cultivator, that may be graduated to 
 the space between the rows, drawn by a horse, as soon as 
 the plants can be well distinguished. This is repeated in a 
 few days, back and forward, and the implement carried so 
 close to the drills, as to leave only strips of from four to ten 
 inches, which are then thoroughly cleaned with a skim hoe, 
 and the plants thinned to eight and ten inches' distance. 
 The cultivator soon follows for a third time, and if necessary 
 the skim hoe, when the crop is generally left till harvest. 
 The great aim is to extirpate the weeds, and to do this while 
 they are small. 
 
 " Harvesting is postponed as long as the season will per- 
 mit. The roots are then pulled up and laid on the ground, 
 the tops of the two rows towards each other. The pullers 
 are followed by a man or boy with a bill-hook, who with a 
 light blow cuts the tops as fast as three or four can pull. 
 Three men will in this way harvest, of a good crop, three 
 hundred bushels in a day. The tops are gathered into heaps 
 and taken to the yard in carts daily, for the stock, until 
 they are consumed. An acre will give from five to ten cart- 
 loads of tops. The roots are piled in the field if dry ; the 
 pits, two or two and a half feet broad, covered with straw 
 and earth, and as cold weather approaches, with manure, to 
 prevent frost. N. B. With a crow-bar make one or more 
 holes on the crown of the pit, which must be left open, to let 
 off the rarefied air and prevent the roots from heating. 
 
 " Use. The tops serve for autumn. As soon as the mild 
 weather of spring will justify, I break through the frost, and 
 take the contents of a pit to mv barn, and cover the roots 
 22 
 
254 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 with straw or hay. From thence they are fed to my stock, 
 being first chopped up with a snik, (Dutch meat-chopper,) 
 or spade. They are excellent for sheep, especially for ewes 
 that have young ; and hogs and horses eat them freely. 
 Steamed, they are used in the north of England for horses 
 as a substitute for grain. I have fattened sheep and bul- 
 locks upon them with profit. They constitute, particularly 
 from February to June, an excellent culinary vegetable for 
 the table. A bullock will thrive fast upon two bushels a 
 day, and will consume hardly any hay, and requires no 
 drink. 
 
 " Product and Cost. ^Nly average crop has been six hun- 
 dred bushels per acre, though others have raised much heavi- 
 er products. The cost in manure and labor, when they are 
 secured for winter, has been from two to three cents per 
 bushel. 
 
 " N. B. Cattle or sheep fattened upon this root should 
 be kept from eating them for eight or ten days before they 
 are slaughtered^ otherwise the meat will have an unpleasant 
 savor. J. B." 
 
 ENGLISH TURNIPS. Every farmer will find it profit- 
 able to raise a quantity of these roots. The mangel-wurtzel 
 and the ruta baga, useful as they undoubtedly are, will not 
 completely supersede, nor altogether supply the place of the 
 old-fashioned English turnip. In the " oNIemoirs of the Board 
 of Agriculture of the State of New York," (Vol. I. p. 26,) 
 we find the following remarks on the best mode of cultivating 
 this valuable root : 
 
 " There is no difficulty in raising turnips on new land; but 
 it is very desirable to know the best mode of raising them, 
 at least a small patch every year, on old farms. 3Ir. Henry 
 De Bois, of Rensselaer county, and Major E. Cady, of 
 Columbia county, say, that they have succeeded in obtaining 
 good crops several years in succession by the following pro- 
 cess. Turn over a turf of old sward the first week in June. 
 Yard your cattle at night on this, in the proportion of six 
 head at least to a quarter of an acre, until the 20th of July. 
 Then harrow lengthwise the furrows, so as not to disturb or 
 overturn them, and sow in the proportion of about half a 
 pound of seed per acre. 
 
 " If it is not convenient to yard cattle upon it sufficiently, 
 about two inches of well-rotted manure, harrowed in as 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 255 
 
 above, will do as a substitute. Mr. C. R. Golden applies the 
 manure by strewing it in shallow furrows, two feet apart ; 
 then buries the manure by two side furrows, and harrows the 
 ground level, lengthwise of the furrows. This method re- 
 quires less manure, and he has the advantage of hoeing the 
 turnips in drills." 
 
 We recollect likewise, that we have read, in several of our 
 New England newspapers, that fine turnips have been raised 
 by ploughing up old sward ground some time in June, har- 
 rowing well, and sowing from the 1st to the 20th of July, 
 and this witho\it the application of manure. But there can 
 be no doubt that folding sheep or horned cattle on the land 
 thus ploughed would very much enhance the crop. 
 
 All American writers on this subject, whose works we 
 have perused, advise to sow seed of the common English 
 turnip as late as about the middle of July. They tell us, that 
 late sowed turnips are much the best for the table, and that 
 they are less liable to be injured by insects, if sown so late, 
 than when sown much earlier in the season. 
 
 Turnips are frequently, if not most generally, raised in the 
 United States as a second crop ; and no doubt this practice 
 is often very eligible, and may be perfectly consonant with 
 the soundest maxims of good husbandry. But when it is 
 intended to ma^-e the most of ijour crop oj turnips, or to obtain 
 as great a product as possible for the purpose of feeding 
 cattle, we do not perceive any objection to giving turnips a 
 larger portion of the season to grow in than has been with 
 us the general practice. 
 
 An English writer on agriculture, whose remarks on this 
 and other agricultural topics appear to us to be judicious, 
 and to display a thorough knowledge of the subjects of his 
 essays, says, "It is not pretended, that there lies any solid 
 objection to early sowing of turnips, simply considered ; on 
 the contrary, such seems to be the most proper means of ob- 
 taining a full crop ; but the advantages of early sowing, 
 whatever they be, are given up, and the season postponed 
 from near three to five months, by way of retarding the 
 growth of the crop, that it may last to a later period in the 
 spring, and receive less damage from the frosts than that to 
 which it would be liable in its early maturity. The disad- 
 vantages attending this plan are a crop far inferior in weight 
 to what might be obtained from the land, and the very common 
 risk of destruction from drought and fly. The weight and 
 perfection of the turnips being the objects, the land may be 
 
2o6 THE COiMPLETE FARMER 
 
 got ready for them as for any other early spring crop, and 
 the seed sown with the first warm showers. This will afford 
 ample scope for resowing, should the first seed fail, of which, 
 however, granting it to be good, and the land sufficiently 
 fine, I believe there is scarcely any risk. As to any advan- 
 tages of a crop previous to the turnips, nothing scarcely can 
 stand in competition with the first crop of roots. 
 
 "The true turnip soil is a deep sand or sandy loam. Every 
 gardener knows the proper time to begin hoeing turnips. In 
 general, when the plants spread a circle of about four inches 
 they are ready for the first hoeing. They are commonly 
 left about a foot asunder. The second hoeing three weeks 
 after the first." 
 
 Those who desire to go extensively and successfully into 
 the turnip culture should raise their own seed from the finest 
 transplanted roots. An English cultivator savs, " It is won- 
 derful what a small quantity of seed suffices for an acre of 
 ground, and indeed equally so how it can be delivered and 
 spread over such a breadth. A pint might be more than 
 enough, but it is usual to broad-cast a quart on an acre." 
 
 Dr. Deane's "New England Farmer " asserts, that "the 
 quantity of seed sown on an acre is never less than one 
 pound, frequently a pound and a half, and by some two. 
 According to the same work, it is very necessary for the suc- 
 cess of the crop that a heavy roller be passed over the field 
 immediately after harrowing in the seed, provided the ground 
 is sufficiently dry, or as soon as it is in a fit condition. By 
 this means the clods are broken, and much of the seed that 
 would otherwise be exposed to birds, &c. will be covered, 
 and the surface rendered smooth and compact thereby, and 
 consequently more retentive of moisture, which will great- 
 ly promote the vegetation of the seed and growth of the 
 plants." 
 
 If a quantity of lime were sowed over the field immediate- 
 ly after putting in the seed, it would probably preserve the 
 crop against insects and prevent the turnips becoming 
 spongy, as well as increase their size. Unleached ashes, 
 soot, and plaster, have also been highly recommended as 
 manure for turnips. Thomas Mellville, Jun. Esq., of Pitts- 
 field, Massachusetts, in raising a crop which received the 
 premium from " The Massachusetts Agricultural Society," 
 in 1817, and which amounted to about seven hundred and 
 fifty bushels to the acre, sowed his seeds in drills of twenty- 
 eight inches the Slst of June, on ground previously well 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 257 
 
 manured. The following day sowed on the acre thirty 
 bushels slacked lime and fifteen bushels house ashes. 
 
 What we have said about the early sowing of turnips we 
 would merely suggest as a hint, or something to be thought 
 of, and perhaps become a matter of experiment. It appears 
 to us that our custom of sowing turnips so late in the season, 
 as is commonly practised, is an usage borrowed from British 
 husbandry, without duly considering the difference of our 
 climate from that of Great Britain, and the different uses to 
 which this crop is commonly applied in the two countries. 
 In England they usually feed turnips off the ground with 
 sheep ; or draw them for neat cattle during the winter, as 
 fast as they are wanted, and often let them stand in the field 
 till spring, to supply green food for sheep at the time of their 
 yeaning, &c. But in the United States, this crop must be 
 harvested in autumn and secured from frost ; and it would 
 seem to be desirable that they should have had time to ob- 
 tain their full growth before they are gathered. 
 
 Ellis, an old writer on husbandry, says, "Turnips sooted 
 about twenty-four hours after they are up will be entirely 
 secured from the fly." Some advise, and it may be well, if 
 not too much trouble, to leach soot and sprinkle the young 
 turnips with the liquor. M'Mahon, in treating of the culti- 
 vation of turnips, says, " the plants should be left from seven 
 to twelve inches every way; this must be regulated accord- 
 ing to the strength of the land, the time of sowing, and the 
 kind of turnips cultivated ; strong ground and early sowing 
 always producing the largest roots." 
 
 The width of the hoe should be in proportion to the me- 
 dium distance to be left between the plants, and this to their 
 expected size. The critical time of the first hoeing is, when 
 the plants, as they lie spread on the ground, are nearly the 
 size of the palm of the hand ; if, however, seed-weeds be 
 numerous and luxuriant, they ought to be checked before 
 the turnip plants arrive at that size ; lest, being drawn up 
 tall and slender, they should acquire a weak and sickly 
 habit. A second hoeing should be given when the leaves 
 are grown to the height of eight or nine inches, in order to 
 destroy weeds, loosen the earth, and finally to regulate the 
 plants ; a third, if found necessary, may be given at any sub- 
 sequent period. Here will the farmer exclaim against the 
 expense and trouble of hoeing ; but let him try one acre in 
 this way, and leave another of the same quality to nature, 
 as is too frequently done, and he will find that the extra 
 22* 
 
258 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 produce of the hoed acre will more than compensate for the 
 labor bestowed. 
 
 Loudon says, archbishop Garrie, a Scottish gardener of 
 merit, tried steeping the seed in sulphur, sowing soot, ashes, 
 and sea-sand along the drills, all without effect. At last he 
 tried dusting the rows, when the plants were in the seed-leaf, 
 with quicklime, and found that effectual in preventing the 
 depredations of the fly. " A bushel of quicklime," he says, 
 " is sufficient to dust over an acre of drilled turnips, and a 
 boy may soon be taught to lay it on almost as fast as he 
 could walk along the drills. If the seminal leaves are pow- 
 dered in the slightest degree, it is sufficient ; but should the 
 rain wash the lime off before the turnips are in the rough 
 leaf, it may be necessary to repeat the operation, if the fly 
 begins to make its appearance." 
 
 POTATOES. " Above two nundred and forty years have 
 elapsed since the introduction of the potato into the British 
 isles. During that period, it has been gradually making its 
 way in the favor of the inhabitants ; but its progress for a 
 long time was very limited. So slight, indeed, was the esti- 
 mation in which it was held, even after the era of the revo- 
 lution, that we find the celebrated Evelyn, in the year 1699, 
 giving directions to plant potatoes in the worst grounds. 
 ' Take them up,' he says, 'in November, for winter spend- 
 ing ; there will enough remain for a stock, though they be 
 ever so exactly gathered.' 
 
 " The potato began however to be extensively cultivated 
 about the middle of the last century ; and now it is grown 
 in every farm and cottage garden, almost without exception. 
 
 " If experience seemed to have proved beyond a doubt 
 that this root may be deemed one of the most important vege- 
 table productions ; if, in the face of every assertion to the 
 contrary, it be found a very valuable and, generally speak- 
 ing, a most salubrious article * of diet, and admirably adapt- 
 
 * It has been argued that the potato, at least under certain conditions, pos- 
 sesses a slightly poisonous quality. The idea may have originated in the botan- 
 ic character of the plant ; in fact, it is one of the family of the nightshade, 
 tile solatium tuberosum of Linnseus, and of the old natural order luridae, which 
 included plants whose appearance was described as being " dusky, dismal, and 
 gloomy." The genus or family solarium is the type of that numerous tribe or 
 order in the natural system, solanea, many of whose members exhibit great 
 beauty of appearance and possess veiy useful properties. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 259 
 
 ed to supply nutritious food for animals and poultry ; it 
 becomes a serious interest to determine with certainty that 
 mode of culture which shall, at all times, and in all situ- 
 ations, tend to produce the heaviest crops, and of the finest 
 quality. 
 
 " Mr. Knight, the president of the ' English Horticultural 
 Society,' has observed, that he planted his potatoes upon a 
 soil naturally poor and very shallow ; upon a rock full of fis- 
 sures, giving no more manure than is usualhj given to a crop 
 of turnips ; the manure was mixed up with the soil, and not 
 thrown into the drills at the time of planting. The plants 
 sutfered from drought during a part of the year ; neverthe- 
 less, he had very good crops from many varieties. These 
 varieties he had himself originated from seed ; and they pos- 
 sess the important quality of scarcely producing any blos- 
 soms, and therefore the vital powers of the plant are en- 
 tirely employed in the production and support of those tube- 
 rous processes, the potatoes, which are the sole object of the 
 cultivator. The produce of two of the sorts is stated as 
 follows ; of the one, twenty-three tons two hundred weight 
 seventy-six pounds ; and the other, twenty tons two hundred 
 weight one hundred and one pounds, per acre. Of four 
 other varieties he observes, ' the produce exceeded twenty 
 tons each per acre, all of good quality.' If the reader will 
 reduce these weights to pounds, he will find them (reckoning 
 the yield at twenty tons only per acre) to amount to five 
 hundred and sixty Ijushels, each of eighty pounds' weight. 
 
 " One of the chief, if not the primary, agent in effecting 
 vegetable developement and maturity, is light. Deprive a 
 plant of that, and you either paralyze the operation of its 
 vital principle, or induce imperfect and diseased action. The 
 leaves of vegetables are the media upon which light acts ; 
 and, therefore, it should be the object of the gardener so to 
 arrange his crops, that the utmost breadth of their foliage 
 may be exposed to the full influence of the solar rays. 
 Hence, the rows of potatoes ought to point north and south ; 
 for, in the first place, plants so exposed command the great- 
 est breadth and duration of light ; and in the second, the sun, 
 at the time of his highest meridian altitude, that is, at the 
 hour of noon, shines directly along the extent of the rows ; 
 his light is also most equally distributed upon the whole 
 foliage as he approaches to and recedes from the meridian. 
 The perpendicularity of growth, which is of considerable 
 importance to the complete success of the crop, is less likely 
 
260 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 to be disturbed by this mode of arrangement, than by any 
 other that has heretofore been employed. It is generally the 
 practice to plant small potatoes, or sets of large tubers, cut 
 with one or two eyes to each. These sets are planted in 
 rows, from sixteen to twenty inches asunder, and the sets 
 about half that distance, or nine inches apart, without any 
 consideration being had to the aspect or direction of the 
 rows. As the stems advance in growth, they are very liable 
 to fall over and become entangled one with another, thus in- 
 tercepting the solar light, which then acts unequally upon 
 the disorderly masses of foliage. Hence the crops become 
 very unequal in point of bulk and weight. 
 
 " Mr. Knight's philosophical directions lead to a very dif- 
 ferent result. He recommends the planting of whole potatoes, 
 and those only which are of fine medium size, none to be of 
 less weight than four ounces ; and he often prefers those 
 which weigh six or eight ounces. The earlier sorts, and, 
 indeed, all which seldom attain a greater height than two 
 feet, are to be planted about four or five inches apart in the 
 rows, centre from centre, the crown ends upward ; the rows 
 to be- from two feet six inches to three feet asunder. The 
 late potatoes, which produce a haulm above three feet in 
 height, are to be placed five or six inches apart, centre from 
 centre, in rows four or five feet asunder. 
 
 " When potatoes are thus planted in rows pointing north 
 and south, the utmost energy of the light will be exerted, 
 not only upon the foliage of the plant, but upon the surface 
 of the intervening spaces of ground. If we suppose that the 
 main crops will be planted at the latter end of March and 
 during the month of April, the sun's meridional altitude will 
 be advancing daily for at least nine weeks ; and during that 
 period, the developement and growth of the stem and leaves 
 will be in a state of rapid progress. After the turn of days, 
 and when the plants have attained their full growth, the sun 
 will continue to exert its most powerful influence. Should 
 the ground be of a proper texture and quality, the plants 
 will stand erect, and the maturing process will proceed with- 
 out interruption ; and after favorable summers, wherein 
 there have been regular and moderate supplies of rain, par- 
 ticularly during May and June, with a prevalence, however, 
 of bright sunshine, the crops of potatoes will be regular, the 
 tubers generally of a medium size, and the quality mealy, 
 and altogether superior. If the soil be a strong mellow 
 loam, enriched with much manure, the haulm will, in all prob- 
 
AND RUKAL ECONOMIST. 261 
 
 ability, grow too rank, and finally fall over ; nevertheless 
 the large spaces between, the rows will greatly remedy this 
 evil, for the sun's beams will act upon one surface at the 
 least, and the matting and other injurious consequences re- 
 sulting from close drilling will be prevented or obviated. 
 We hear everywhere of potato plants running away to haulm, 
 and thus expending their vital energy upon useless stem and 
 foliage, instead of employing it in the production of tuberous 
 roots. Now this remark is wholly opposed to philosophical 
 fact, for invariably the strongest and heaviest bulk of potatoes 
 is found attached to the most lu.\uriant haulm. The evil of 
 over-luxuriance is not to be referred to the paucity of tube- 
 rous product, for that is always great ; it is a consequence 
 of an over-rich soil, which causes the haulm to grow so tall 
 as to fall over, become entangled, and thus to lose the ma- 
 turing influence of light. Hence, such haulm seldom ripens 
 in due time ; it remains green even in December ; and the 
 tubers, though large, numerous, and heavy, are immature, 
 void of mealiness, and vapid in flavor. 
 
 " A fact of great importance to the growers of potatoes 
 remains to benoticed. The outside rows, and all single rows, 
 will be found to produce far greater crops than any of the 
 interior rows of a plot in the garden or field. This depends 
 upon a variety of causes, the chief of which is, the more 
 perfect exposure of the foliage to the agency of air and 
 light. Mr. Knight obtained from one outside row, of an 
 early seedling variety of the preceding year, which was two 
 feet six inches exterior of an adjoining row, ' a produce 
 equivalent to more than ffly-eight tons per acre. No con- 
 clusions,' he says, ' can be drawn from the amount of 
 produce of an external row. I mention it only to show the 
 enormous influence of light.' 
 
 "Experience has established the truth of this philosophical 
 remark. Every cultivator, who has the opportunity of crop- 
 ping upon long detached slips, in airy, open situations, 
 should make the experiment of close planting in single rows, 
 either whole potatoes or well-cut sets from very large pota- 
 toes, each to contain two eyes at the least. These sets 
 should be taken from the crown end, or middle of the tuber, 
 and not from the lower or root end. Sets may be planted at 
 still less distances in the rows than whole tubers ; and al- 
 though the preference ought, in all cases, to be given to a 
 southern direction, where such can be conveniently given, 
 still, for absolutely single rows, it is not indispensably re- 
 
 .^ii 
 
262 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 quired, because air and light will act on each side of the 
 stem and foliage, and there will be no intervening shadow. 
 
 '• The soil ought to be sandy and light, though moderately 
 rich ; that is, if fine, mealy, and dry potatoes be required. It 
 should not by any means be glutted with manure, and need 
 not be deep. 
 
 " With respect to the properties of this vegetable, and the 
 purposes to which it may be applied, the following observa- 
 tions of an eminent physician, Dr. Pare, may not be deemed 
 inappropriate. 
 
 " ' Potatoes are found to produce, First, Cottony flax from 
 the stalk. Second, Sugar from the root. Third, Potass by 
 consumption. Fourth, Vinegar from the apples. Fifth, 
 Soap, or a substitute for bleaching, from the tubercles. And, 
 finally, when cooked by steam, the most farinaceous and 
 economical of all vegetable food.' 
 
 "It is also known that much farina, or rather amylum, or 
 starch, is yielded by grinding and washing the pulpy mass. 
 This starch may be employed as a substitute for that made 
 from wheat ; and as an article of diet, prepared as Indian 
 arrow-root. It can also be introduced in making bread, 
 though there is some difficulty in the manipulation. As 
 food for all cattle of the farm, — horses, cows, pigs, and 
 likewise for poultry, potatoes are all but invaluable. Every 
 creature appears to relish them, particularly when they are 
 steamed or carefully boiled. It would be well worth the in- 
 telligent farmer's while to pay great attention to the use and 
 effects of potatoes, raw and boiled. It is asserted, that a 
 cow may safely eat them in a raw state to the extent of, 
 perhaps, fifty pounds per day, provided the eyes have broken 
 and begun to shoot. Whenever they be given raw, how- 
 ever, they should be chopped into pieces to prevent ac- 
 cidents. The utility of raw potatoes is, however, doubted 
 by many, and therefore the experiment requires close ob- 
 servation ; perhaps straw, hay, and chaff, might be employ- 
 ed as a very proper adjunct, with a few ounces of salt added 
 to each feed. Whenever steaming in the large way can be 
 profitably employed, it must be an advantage for pigs and 
 poultry particularly ; and, in all cases, it would greatly tend 
 to prevent the possibility of the danger of suffocation which 
 has been known to result from the hurry and greediness with 
 which cattle devour the raw roots." — Biitish Farmer's 
 Magazine. 
 
 Potatoes renewed from Seed. " Take the apples in the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 263 
 
 beginning of October [or whenever they are ripe] before the 
 frost has hurt them ; hang them up by the foot-stalks, in a 
 dry closet, where they will not freeze ; let them hang till 
 March or April ; then mash the apples, wash the seeds from 
 the pulp, and dry them in a sunny window. Sow the seeds 
 in a bed, about the 1st of May. When the plants are four 
 or five inches high, transplant them into ground well pre- 
 pared, one or two plants in a hill. They will produce full 
 grown apples, and some of the roots will be as large as hen's 
 eggs. But if the seeds were sown in autumn, some of them 
 would come up in the following spring. Nothing is more 
 common than their appearance in fields where potatoes have 
 been raised the preceding year." 
 
 The process stated in "Monk's Agricultural Dictionary," 
 an English work, is similar to that mentioned by Dr. Deane, 
 excepting that it is recommended in that work to hang the 
 apples of the potatoes in a warm room till Christmas. Then 
 wash out the seeds, spread and dry them in paper, and pre- 
 serve them from damps till spring. 
 
 Potatoes thus obtained will produce roots of the full size 
 the second season after sowing, when their qualities may be 
 more fully ascertained than they could well be the first sea- 
 son. They will be found to vary very much from the kinds, 
 from which the apples were gathered. It will be expedient 
 to plant but one potato of the regenerated sorts in a hill, 
 that you may keep each variety separate. Then, by keep- 
 ing the produce of each hill by itself, and boiling one or two 
 of each, you may ascertain which is best for the table ; and 
 by observing the quantity of produce in each hill, you may 
 form a pretty good estimate relative to the productiveness of 
 each sort. In that way you may introduce new varieties of 
 potatoes, and supply yourself and neighbours, and eventually 
 the market, with potatoes of a quality much superior to any 
 of the worn-out and degenerate kinds which are now to be 
 found. The subject is of importance, and the man who will 
 introduce new and improved sorts of potatoes, will deserve 
 but little less of his country than he who improves our 
 breeds of domestic animals. 
 
 COTTON. [Gossypium.) There are many varieties of 
 this plant, all of which are natives of warm climates, but 
 only four are cultivated. In Georgia and South Carolina 
 
264 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 two kinds are planted. One grows on the upland, has a 
 short staple, with green seed. Another has black seed, and 
 is cultivated on the islands near the coast. 
 
 Pierce Butler, Esq., a successful cultivator, has given the 
 following directions for raising this article : 
 
 " If the land has been recently cleared, or has long re- 
 mained fallow, turn it up deep in winter ; and in the first 
 week in March bed it up in the following manner. Form 
 twenty-five beds in one hundred and five square feet of land; 
 (being the space alloted to each laborer for a day's work ;) 
 this leaves about four feet two and one half inches from the 
 centre of one bed to the centre of the next. The beds 
 should be three feet wide, flat in the middle. About the 
 15th of March, in latitude from twenty-nine to thirty degrees, 
 the cultivator should commence sowing, or, as it is general- 
 ly termed, planting. The seed should be well scattered in 
 open trenches, made in the centre of the beds, and covered. 
 The proportion of seed is one bushel to one acre ; this al- 
 lows for accidents occasioned by worms or night chills. The 
 cotton should be well weeded by hoes once every twelve 
 days till blown, and even longer if there is grass, observing 
 to hoe up, that is, lo the cotton, till it pods, and hoe down 
 when the cotton is blown, in order to check the growth of 
 the plant. From the proportion of seed mentioned, the cot- 
 ton plants will come up plentifully, too much so to suffer all 
 to remain. They should be thinned moderately at each hoe- 
 ing. When the plants have got strength and growth, which 
 may be about the third hoeing, to disregard worms and bear 
 drought, they should be thinned, according to the fertility of 
 the soil, from six inches to near two feet between the stocks 
 or plants. In rich river grounds, the beds should be from 
 five to six feet apart, measuring from centre to centre ; and 
 the cotton plants, when out of the Avay of the worms, from 
 two to three feet apart. It is advisable to top cotton once 
 or twice in low grounds, and also to remove the suckers. 
 The latter end of July is generally considered a proper time 
 for topping. Gypsum may be used with success on cotton 
 lands not near the sea. In river grounds draining is proper ; 
 yet these lands should not be kept too dry. In tide lands it 
 is beneficial to let the water flow over the land without re- 
 taining it. In river lands a change of crops is necessary. 
 From°actual experiment it has been proved, that river tide 
 lands, having the preceding year had rice sown on them, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 265 
 
 yielded much more cotton the succeeding year than they 
 would have afTorded by a continuation of cotton 
 
 " The mere growing of cotton is but a part of the care of 
 the planter ; very much depends on classing and cleansino- it 
 for market, after it has been housed. Sorting it before" it 
 goes to the jennies, moteing and removing any yellow par- 
 ticles, are essential to assure a preference at a common 
 market of competition." 
 
 TOBACCO. (Mcotiana.) This plant is named from To- 
 bago, one of the Caribbee islands. It was first introduced 
 into England by the famous Sir Walter Raleigh, and from 
 thence it spread over the other parts of Europe 
 
 In order to raise the young plants, it is recommended to 
 burn over the surface of a piece of ground earlv in the 
 spring, rake it well, and sow the seeds. When the plants 
 have acquired leaves the size of a quarter of a dollar they 
 are fit for transplanting. They require a dry, light rich 
 soil, made mellow by ploughing, and folding is also advised 
 IJr. JJeane observes, that, the common way of raising to- 
 bacco in cow-pens and barn-yards is detestable. The ta^te 
 of such tobacco is intolerable. Transplant the youna seed- 
 lings when the ground is wet, as you would cabbage ''plants 
 Set them about three and a half feet apart, and weed them 
 as you would growing cabbages. Destroy the large green 
 worms, which are apt to infest this crop. 
 
 When the plants have grown about three feet high a little 
 less or more, as they may be more or less thrifty, their tops 
 should be broken or cut ofl^, excepting those designed for 
 seed, which should be the largest. The tops should be taken 
 ofl:- so early in the summer as to allow time for the upper 
 leaves to grow to the same size as the lower ones Of this 
 time the cuhivator must judge from circumstances, previous 
 observations, or the advice of some person accustimed to 
 raismg tobacco. All the plants should be topped at the 
 same time whatever may be their height, that they may 
 ripen together, and produce leaves nearly of the same size 
 and thickness. The suckers which shoot out from the foot- 
 sta ks of the leaves should also be broken or pinched off" as 
 last as they appear. 
 
 The ripeness of tobacco is known by small dusky spots 
 appearing on ^the leaves. The plants should then be^cut 
 
266 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 near the roots, on the morning of a day of sunshine, and 
 should lie singly to wither. When sufficiently withered, the 
 plants should be laid in close heaps under cover to sweat, 
 forty-eight hours or more. After this, they should be hung 
 up under cover to dry. This may be done, by running two 
 stalks on the sharp ends of a stick about eight inches long, 
 and suspending them across a pole about sixteen inches 
 apart, in a pretty tight apartment. As the plants become 
 dry they may be placed nearer to each other, to make room 
 for more, if necessary. When they have hung till there is 
 no greenness in the leaves, and at a time vvhen the air is 
 damp, the leaves should be stripped off the stalks, tied up in 
 hands, and packed away in chests or casks, well pressed 
 down, and kept in a dry place, not in a cellar, which would 
 soon spoil the tobacco. 
 
 The use of tobacco for chewing and snuffing is uncleanly, 
 unwholesome, and becoming unfashionable with the more 
 respectable parts of the community. The habit of chewing 
 it, however, is not easily broken. A writer for the " Nation- 
 al Intelligencer," with the signature "J. B.," states, in 
 substance, that he was suffering under a pulmonary com- 
 plaint, supposed to be brought on by chewing tobacco, and 
 that by making a substitute of slippery elm bark, and swal- 
 lowing the juice, he at once got rid of his disorder and his 
 propensity to chew this poisonous plant. The dust or pow- 
 der of tobacco, thrown over beds where plants are just 
 coming up, preserves them from worms. It is said, also, 
 that a few tobacco plants set out among cabbages and tur- 
 nips, the tobacco plants about one rod apart, will save the 
 cabbages and turnips from insects. 
 
 M. M'Louvin, in Loudon's Magazine, observes as fol- 
 lows : " I procure from the tobacconists a liquor expressed 
 from tobacco, to every gallon of which I add five gallons of 
 water ; this mixture, with Read's garden syringe, I sprinkle 
 over the trees, putting it on the finest rose, and being careful 
 to wet all the leaves ; this operation is performed only in the 
 hottest sunshine, as the effect is then much greater than 
 when the weather is dull. In this manner I have, with five 
 gallons of liquor, reduced as above stated, cleaned seven- 
 tepn peach and nectarine trees, twelve of which average 
 seventeen feet in length and twelve in height. The black 
 glutinous insect, provincially called blight, so destructive to 
 the cherry trees, is destroyed in the same way, with equal 
 facility. I have also found that the grubs which attack the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 267 
 
 apricot may be destroyed almost instantly by immersing the 
 leaves infested in this liquor. 
 
 " When trees have got so bad that their leaves are much 
 curled, some of the flies, being protected within the curl, will 
 escape: in this case more force must be applied to the 
 syringe, and in a day or two the trees should be looked over 
 again, and whatever part of the leaves has not been wetted 
 should be washed with a painter's brush ; but a careful per- 
 son will render this process unnecessary by taking them in 
 time." 
 
 Instead of liquor from the tobacconist, which may not al- 
 ways and in all situations be easily procured, a strong de- 
 coction of the stems or damaged leaves may be a cheap sub- 
 stitute. The uses of tobacco in destroying lice on cattle, 
 ticks on sheep, &c. are too well known to render it necessa- 
 ry to make any observations on this application of a plant 
 which seems to be abhorred by every animated being but 
 man and the tobacco worm. But a quantity of tobacco 
 ought to be grown by every cultivator, to enable him to 
 wage successful war with insects. 
 
 PLOUGHING, is the most important of agricultural ope- 
 rations. On the manner in which this is performed depends 
 all the subsequent operations of tillage on the same land. 
 A large volume might well be written on this subject, but 
 we shall confine ourselves to practical hints, expressed as 
 concisely as is consistent with perspicuity. 
 
 In all stiff', heavy, and adhesive soils, that are much dis- 
 posed to moisture, it should be a common rule not to plough 
 them whilfe wet in any considerable degree, especially if 
 there is much clay in their composition. When such land 
 is ploughed wet, the particles of which it is composed are 
 apt to cake, or run together into hard lumps, which require 
 much trouble and labor to reduce to a fine state. Besides, 
 much injury is produced by the treading of the team, and 
 greater power is necessary in performing the operation. 
 But, on the other hand, such soils are ploughed with much 
 difficulty when very dry ; unless before the ploughing they 
 were in a state of tillage, and not baked or bound down very 
 hard. To break up grass ground composed of a strong loam, 
 or a soil in which there is clay in any considerable quantity, 
 when in a dry state, is next to impossible. You might al- 
 
268 THE COMPLETE PARMLR 
 
 most as well attempt to plough up a brick pavement or slate 
 rock. Green sward in general can hardly be ploughed too 
 wet, if it be not miry. Marshy, moory, and peaty or mossy 
 descriptions of soil should in general, when already reduced 
 to a state of tillage, be ploughed when the season is dry. 
 
 In dry, sandy, and perhaps in some of the more mellow 
 kinds of loamy soils, the business of ploughing may be per- 
 formed when the earth is in a state of considerable moisture. 
 But very dry sandy land, whenever the weather is hot and 
 dry, should merely be stirred in such a way as may be ne- 
 cessary to prevent the growth of weeds ; otherwise the 
 great exhalation of moisture in such seasons may render 
 them too dry for the vigorous vegetation of the seeds or 
 plants which may be sown or growing upon them. The 
 cultivators of this kind of soil have, therefore, many ad- 
 vantages over others who are engaged in the more stiff and 
 heavy sorts of land, in being able to perform the various 
 operations of arable husbandry with much less strength and 
 expense of team, and by being much less interrupted by the 
 wetness of the seasons. Stiff clayey soils, which are al- 
 ready under the plough, may be beneficially ploughed in dry 
 weather, and it is said, that stirring such soils in a dry sea- 
 son causes them to imbibe moisture, but in sandy soils the 
 opposite result is produced by the same means. 
 
 It is very fashionable, and, as a general rule, very correct 
 to recommend deep ploughing. But this rule has a great 
 many exceptions, and the cultivator who should be governed 
 by it without regard to the nature of the soil and the pro- 
 posed crops, would only labor hard to injure his land and 
 reduce his products. 
 
 It may not be amiss to attend to what some writers have 
 observed, respecting the dangers and disadvantages which 
 attend ploughing deep without regard to the nature of the 
 soil and other circumstances. It is observed in " Dickson's 
 Agriculture," that " though deep ploughing has been recom- 
 mended by some modern writers, upon particular kinds of 
 land, where the bottom and top were of two opposite quali- 
 ties, and neither of them perfectly good, that a mixture may 
 sometimes be very beneficial, and the experiment of going 
 below the common depth sometimes answer ; but that when 
 the top and bottom for eighteen or twenty inches depth con- 
 sists of the same soil, it is not believed it is ever worth while 
 to exchange the upper part, which has been enriched for 
 centuries back, for a part less rich, merely because it is 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 269 
 
 more fresh. On retentive soils, where the practice of loosen- 
 ing them to some depth by other implements is omitted, deep 
 ploughing is however extremely necessary." 
 
 In an "Essay on the Best Means of Converting Grass 
 Lands into Tillage, by James Roper Head, Esq.," published 
 in " Communications to the Board of Agriculture," it is 
 observed, that " it seems reasonable to prefer light to heavy 
 ploughing ; because, all things being equal, it must be prefer- 
 able to have a small depth of soil to cultivate and improve ; 
 and inasmuch as the fibres of grass in general are led from 
 the upper surface of the earth alone, if they tind sufficient 
 pabulum, all that lie underneath their nourishment, and has 
 been with much labor moved by the plough, is like a stock 
 in trade, which requires an extra capital, unproductive of 
 interest. 
 
 "I have endeavoured by all means to search into the na- 
 ture of sainfoin, clover, and lucerne, and the result of my 
 opinion has been, that the long penetrating tap-roots of these 
 grasses pierce the earth in search of moisture only ; that the 
 tap-root is the mere syphon and duct ; that the branches of 
 the crown of the plant are fed alone by the upper surface of 
 the soil ; and that the luxuriancy of their produce depends, 
 not upon the congeniality of the bed or nidus [nest] of the 
 tap-root itself, but on the congeniality of the soil of the up- 
 per surface, which alone feeds and furnishes it vegetation." 
 
 An article in " Communications to the Board of Agricul- 
 ture," written by John M. Mardo, Esq., contains the follow- 
 ing statement : " We have witnessed instances where old 
 pasture lands composed of a gravelly loam were broken up 
 in the spring for barley by trench ploughing. The old 
 sward was turned into the bottom of the furrow, and a dry 
 subsoil brought to the surface from a considerable depth. 
 The crops failed entirely, and there appeared two very ob- 
 vious reasons for the failure ; first, the subsoil brought to 
 the surface to form the seed bed had long been deprived of 
 the ordinary influence of the atmosphere and the rains ; 
 consequently must have been cold and infertile. Secondly, 
 the dry tenacious sward having been placed half broken 
 under the seed bed, the natural moisture of the ground, as 
 well as that which falls in rain, was speedily and habitually 
 evaporated. Unless in a season of uncommon moisture, a 
 crop under such preparation could not prosper." 
 
 A writer in the " General Report of Scotland," Mr. James 
 Brownhill, says "Old leas [grass grounds], in my opinion, 
 23* 
 
270 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 should be ploughed if posible not above four and a half 
 inches deep by eight and a half or nine inches broad. If the 
 old lea be a dry soil, it will plough very well with those 
 dimensions ; if it be ploughed deeper it must also be plough- 
 ed broader, as the furrows will not ply close to one another, 
 unless you have breadth in proportion to the depth." 
 
 Sir John Sinclair speaks highly of the advantages of deep 
 ploughing, in some circumstances and for some crops, but 
 says, " it is a general rule never to plough so deep as to pene- 
 trate below the soil that was formerly manured and cultivat- 
 ed, excepting upon fallow, and then only when you have 
 plenty of lime or dung to add to and improve the new soil." 
 The farmers of Flanders, which is said to be the best cul- 
 tivated part of Europe, gradually deepen their soil by 
 ploughing or digging up fresh earth as their manure in- 
 creases. Mr. Authur Young likewise observes, that in poor 
 hungry soils some proportion ought to be observed between 
 the depth of a ploughing and the quantity of manure annual- 
 ly spread. The same writer informs us, that the depth of 
 ploughing in various towns of England, on an average, in 
 sandy soils, was four inches ; in loamy soils four and three 
 quarters, and in clayey soils three inches and a half. 
 
 Disputes have arisen among farmers in this country and 
 in Europe relative to the best manner of laving the furrow 
 slice. Some contend for turning the furrow slice completely 
 over, and laying it quite flat ; but others allege, that it is 
 most advantageous to place each slice in such a manner that 
 its outer edge may extend a little over the inner edge of the 
 furrow which was drawn ne.xt before it. " In several districts 
 in England it is usual to lay the furrow slice quite flat, and 
 this is particularly the case where there are no ridges ; 
 but in Northumberland, and in Scotland, a contrary system 
 is adopted. It is founded on this idea, that as two of the 
 principal objects in ploughing are, to expose as much as pos- 
 sible to the influence of the atmosphere, and to lay the lasid, 
 so that the harrows may, in the most effectual manner, raise 
 mould to cover the seed ; these objects are most effectually 
 accomplished by ploughing land of every description with a 
 furrow slice about seven inches deep, and which, if about 
 ten inches and a half broad, raises the furrow slice, with a 
 proper shoulder, forming the angle forty-five, the point which 
 ought to be referred to when determining between the merits 
 of different specimens of ploughing. For that purpose, the 
 depth of the furrow should, in general, bear a due propor- 
 
AND UURAL ECONOMIST. 271 
 
 tion to the breadth, that is, about two-thirds, or as six inches 
 deep is to nine broad. This is the general, if not the univer- 
 sal opinion of the Scotch Farmers."* The angle forty-five 
 is strongly recommended in " Bay ley's Essay on the Con- 
 struction of the Plough," in his "Durham Report," and in 
 " Brown's Treatise on Rural Affairs." In the southern coun- 
 ties of England, however, they generally prefer to turn the 
 furrow quite flat, or horizontal ; and allege, as a reason for 
 that practice, that the weeds, grass, &c. ploughed under, can- 
 not well be smothered or withered unless the roots are turn- 
 ed completely bottom upwards, and the turf covered so 
 closely as to have no communication with the atmosphere. 
 
 In Flanders, land is frequently cultivated by an implement 
 called the binot, which is highly esteemed. By this instru- 
 ment the land is not turned over, as by the plough, and the 
 weeds buried ; but the soil is elevated and pressed into small 
 ridges, and thus is better exposed to the beneficial influence 
 of the winter frosts, and becomes much sooner dry in spring 
 than when the land is turned over perfectly flat. When fur- 
 row slices are set up edgewise by a plough, they become 
 small thin ridges, are more easily pervaded by frost, and are 
 in a situation to attract more of the fertilizing influences of 
 the atmosphere, than when they are turned over so as to lie 
 in a horizontal position. Perhaps this mode of ploughing 
 land may be advantageous in stiff, hard soils, where several 
 ploughings are necessary to prepare for the reception of the 
 seed. If land of this description is broken up in the fall or 
 summer preceding the sowing or planting of the seed, and 
 cross-ploughing in the spring is made use of, preparatory to 
 putting m the seed, we are inclined to think that the "feather 
 edged ploughing," as it is sometimes called, (in which the 
 furrow slices are not laid so flat as to exclude the air from 
 between and from the lower part of the furrow slices,) is to 
 be preferred. " Ploughing previous to winter setting in is of 
 great use to clays, or stiff lands, exposing the surface to the 
 frost, which mellows and reduces it in a manner infinitely 
 superior to what could be accomplished by all the operations 
 of man."f If, then, exposing the surface of stiff soils to 
 the frost is of great advantage, the more surface there is ex- 
 posed the greater the advantage ; and if the furrow slices 
 
 * Code of Agriculture. 
 
 t See Husbandry of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 229, and Vol. XI, Appendix, 
 p. 26. 
 
272 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 are set partly or entirely on their edges there will be, as be- 
 fore intimated, more surface exposed than there would be if 
 they were laid perfectly flat. And if they were turned in 
 such a manner as to form an angle of forty-five degrees, the 
 outer edge of the furrow resting on the inner edge of that 
 which immediately preceded it, there would be but little 
 chance for the weeds or grass to grow up between the fur- 
 rows, which may be the case when the slices are set per- 
 pendicularly, or nearly so, on their edges. There will like- 
 wise always be a cavity under the edges of the furrow slices, 
 containing stagnant and sometimes putrescent air, which 
 will enrich the soil. Moreover, if ridge-ploaghing is at all 
 advantageous, we cannot see why a mode of ploughing 
 which makes a ridge of every furrow slice; or at most a ridge 
 by turning the edge of one furrow slice on the edge of its 
 it7imediate predecessor, should not be likewise of advantage. 
 Besides, by these modes of ploughing you form a covered 
 or open drain or hollow place between the furrows, which, 
 by carrying off superfluous water, will render the soil fit for 
 tillage earlier in the spring than would be possible if every 
 furrow slice was laid flat as it was turned upside down. The 
 harrow will also more readily take hold of a .soil where the 
 furrow slices form little ridges or protuberances, and thus a 
 proper mould will be procured for the covering of the seeds, 
 or earthing up plants in a growing crop. And if there is 
 danger of the lands lying too loose and hollow, repeated 
 harrowing, and rolling it with a heavy roller after sowing, 
 will furnish a remedy. 
 
 Dry sandy soils, such as ought not to be ploughed in 
 ridges, should be turned over completely, and be laid and 
 kept level as possible. Such soils, if rendered loose, and 
 laid light by cultivation, will be robbed of their fertilizing 
 particles as well by rain as by sunshine. In other words, 
 they are liable to suffer by washing, by scorching, and by 
 too much draining. They do not need to be made any light- 
 er, by " feather-edged ploughing," or setting the furrow 
 slices edgewise, being too light under ordinary cultivation. 
 It is therefore " a great advantage to such soils to fold sheep, 
 or to consume the crops of turnips upon the ground where 
 they are raised. These practices greatly contribute to the 
 improvement of such soils, not only by the dung and urine 
 thus deposited, but by the consolidation and firmness of tex- 
 ture which the treading of sheep occasions."* 
 
 * Code of Ajiriculture. 
 
AND RURAL ECOXOMI^T. 273 
 
 On the whole, although it would not he possible to give 
 general rules not liable to many exceptions, on the shape 
 and position of the furrow slice, which should be cut and 
 disposed of according to the views of the cultivator, the 
 nature of the ground, the proposed crop, &c., we are in- 
 clined to believe that Sir John Sinclair's maxim will apply 
 to most of our New England uplands. That eminent agri- 
 culturist says, that " the point which ought to be referred 
 to, when determining between the merits of different speci- 
 mens of ploughing, is the angle of forty-five degrees." 
 That is, other things being equal, the nearer the furrow 
 slice comes to forming an angle of forty-five degrees with 
 the horizon, the more perfect the specimen of ploughing. 
 But another maxim of the same writer is equally worthy of 
 attention. " Dry soils being deficient in moisture ought 
 to be tilled flat, as any sort of drainings which the fur- 
 rows might afford would be prejudicial rather than advan- 
 tageous. In Kent, dry land is left as level as if it were 
 dug with a spade. The moisture is thus equally diffused, 
 and retained under the surface of the earth." 
 
 The following is extracted and abridged from an address 
 delivered before the Middlesex Society of Husbandmen and 
 Manufacturers ; by Elias Phinney, Esq. 
 
 " In May, 1829, the field having lain three years to grass, 
 and the crop of hay so light as to be worth not more than 
 the expense of making, with a view of ascertaining the 
 quantity of vegetable matter upon the surface, I took a sin- 
 gle foot square of green sward, and after separating the 
 roots and tops of the grasses from the loam and vegetable 
 mould, it was found on weighing to contain nine ounces of 
 clear vegetable substance ; giving, at that rate, over twelve 
 and a quarter tons to the acre. This convinced me of the 
 importance of taking some course by which this valuable 
 treasure might be turned to good account. That a great 
 part of this mass of vegetable matter is exposed to useless 
 waste, by the usual mode of ploughing, cross-ploughing, and 
 harrowing, must be obvious to any one. In order therefore 
 to secure this, as well as the light vegetable mould at and 
 near the surface, which is liable to waste from the same 
 causes, I had two acres of the green sward of this field 
 turned over with the plough, as smoothly as possible. After 
 removing the outside furrow slices into the centre of the 
 plough land, and thereby effecting the double purpose of 
 covering the vacant space in the middle and preventing 
 
274 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 ridges at the sides and ends, the field was rolled hard, with 
 a loaded roller, by which the uneven parts of the furrows 
 were pressed down and the whole made smooth. It was then 
 harrowed lengthwise the furrows, with a horse harrow, but 
 so lightly as not to disturb the sod. Twenty cart-loads of 
 compost manure, made by mixing two parts of loam or peat 
 mud with one of stable dung, were then spread upon each 
 acre. It was then harrowed again, as before, and the poor- 
 er part of the soil, which had been turned up, and remained 
 upon the surface, was thereby mixed with the compost ma- 
 nure. Corn was then planted in drills upon the furrow, the 
 rows being at the usual distance and parallel with the fur- 
 rows. At hoeing time, the surface was stirred by running 
 a light plough between the rows, but not so deep at this or 
 the subsequent hoeing as to disturb the sod. What Mr. 
 Lorrain calls the ' savage practice ' of hilling up the corn 
 was cautiously avoided. As the season advanced, I care- 
 fully watched the progress of my corn-field. In the early 
 part of the season it did not exhibit a very promising ap- 
 pearance ; but as soon as the roots had extended into the 
 enriching matter beneath, and began to expand in the de- 
 composing sward, which had now become mellow, and more 
 minutely divided by the fermentation of the confined veg- 
 etable substances beneath than it possibly could have been 
 by plough or hoe, the growth became vigorous, and the 
 crop, in the opinion of those who examined the field, not less 
 than seventy bushels of corn to the acre. As soon as the 
 corn was harvested, the stubble was loosened up by running 
 a light horse plough lengthwise through the rows, the sur- 
 face then smoothed with a bush-harrow, and one bushel of 
 rye, with a sufficient quantity of herd's grass and red top 
 seed, to the acre was then sowed, the ground again harrow- 
 ed and rolled. The crop of rye was harvested in July fol- 
 lowing, and the two acres yielded sixty-nine and a half 
 bushels of excellent grain, and over five tons of straw. The 
 grass sowed with the rye took well, and the present season 
 I mowed, what those who secured the crop judged to be, 
 two and a half tons of the very best of hay from each acre. 
 " Thus, with one ploughing, with the aid of twenty cart- 
 loads of compost manure to the acre, I have obtained two 
 crops of grain, and stocked the land down to grass." 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 27a 
 
 HAY MAKING. It is a matter of much importance to 
 the husbandman that he should take time by the foretop 
 during the season for making hay. He must drive his busi- 
 ness instead of being driven by it. Indolence or improper 
 management in hay-time will soon give a sorry complexion 
 to a farmer's affairs. A day or two lost or misemployed 
 while the sun shines, and your grass suffers for lack of the 
 scythe and the rake, or your grain is going back into the 
 ground, while the sickle is rusting on a peg behind the door, 
 and its owner is asleep or gone a journey, may be the means 
 of introducing Mr. Deputy Sheriff on your premises, who 
 may do more harm than a crop of thistles or a host of Hes- 
 sian flies. 
 
 It is best, generally speaking, to cut your very heaviest 
 grass first of all; and if it be lodged, or in danger of lodging, 
 or the lower leaves and bottom of the stalks are beginning 
 to turn yellow, although the grass is hardly headed, and ap- 
 pears not to have obtained more than two-thirds of its growth, 
 you had better begin upon it. But when you have help 
 enough, and your grass stands up well, you will do best to 
 wait till the blossom is fully formed, and is beginning to 
 turn brown. Clover is the most critical grass, and requires 
 the most attention. " In all cases," says Sir John Sinclair, 
 " clover ought to be mown before the seed is formed " * that 
 the full juice and nourishment of the plants may be retained 
 in the hay. By the adoption of this system the hay is cut 
 in a better season, it can be more easily secured, and is 
 much more valuable. Nor is the strength of the plant lodged 
 in the seed, which is often lost. 
 
 " After being cut, the clover should remain in the swath 
 till it is dried about two-thirds of its thickness. It is then 
 not tedded or strewed, but turned over, either by the hands, 
 or the heads of hay rakes. If turned over in the morning 
 of a dry day, it may be cocked in the evening. The hay is 
 
 * It may not be amiss, however, to state, in this place, that a^ricultniists 
 do not altogether agree on this point. In " Memoirs of the New York Board 
 of Agriculture," (Vol. II. p. 30,) it is asserted, that " all the grasses are more 
 nutritious if not mowed until the seed is fully grown. It should not be entirely 
 ripened, however." The " Farmer's Assistant " tells us, that " the best time 
 for cutting herd's grass [timothy], where but one crop is cut in the season, is 
 when the seeds of the grass are fully formed, but before they have become fully 
 ripe; but as farmers cannot all cut their hay in a day or two, it is necessary 
 that they should begin before this time, tiiat they may not end too long after it. 
 The same time is also proper for cutting clover; or rather when a part of the 
 heads begin to turn brown. Foul meadow or bird grass may be cut much 
 later, without being hurt by long standing." 
 
276 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 as little shaken or scattered about afterwards as possible ; 
 and if the weather is good, after remaining two or three 
 days in the cock, it may be carted into the stack." 
 
 It is asserted by the " Farmer's Guide," that " grass will 
 not thrive well that is not mown quite close ; and the loss in 
 the crop where this is not done is very considerable, as one 
 inch at the bottom iveighs more than several at the top." 
 
 The fore part of the season for making hay is, we believe, 
 usually attended with less rain than the latter part. The 
 days, too, are longer, and the dews are less copious. Far- 
 mers will, therefore, find additional motives from these cir- 
 cumstances to industry and exertion in early hay-time. Be- 
 sides, if haying is protracted till harvest commences, the 
 business of one season presses on that of another, and some 
 crops will be nearly or quite spoiled in consequence of not 
 being gathered in due time. The forehanded and indus- 
 trious farmer thus possesses great advantages over one 
 whom indolence or poverty induces to procrastinate the in- 
 dispensable labors of his vocation. 
 
 Great advantages would result to the farmer, particularly 
 in haying and harvesting, if he could form an estimate of the 
 weather so as to be able to foresee with tolerable accuracy 
 what would be its state for a few days, or even for twenty- 
 four hours subsequent to the period of observation. Dr. 
 Jenner's versified statement of " Signs of Rain," (published 
 in the ^ew England Farmer, Vol. II. p. 288,) may prove 
 useful for this purpose, and the rhymes may assist the mem- 
 ory. A certain French philosopher, some years since, pub- 
 lished an article, in which he asserted, in substance, that the 
 web of a common spider is a sure index of the state of the 
 air for twelve or fourteen days to come. If the weather is 
 to be fair and calm, the principal thread will be spun to a 
 great length; if, on the contrary, the weather is to be stormy 
 and boisterous, the thread will be short and thick ; and if 
 the spider is seen to repair the damages its slender thread 
 may sustain, you may anticipate pleasant weather for many 
 days. So says the philosopher, but we cannot vouch for the 
 accuracy of his saying. It may, however, not be amiss for 
 the man of observation to pay some attention to this sub- 
 ject ; for we know that the instinct of an insect is often more 
 to be depended on than the researches of science. 
 
 In this climate, a southerly wind, if it continues stedfast 
 for forty-eight hours is generally followed by rain. If the 
 wind, however, shifts its course with the sun, or, as sailors 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 277 
 
 phrase it, goes round with the sun, in the morning blowing 
 from the south, or east of south, and changing westerly as 
 the sun advances, it generally indicates dry weather. If the 
 wind shitls in a course opposite to the apparent course of 
 the sun, rain commonly succeeds. If the wind continues 
 southerly, and blows briskly through the night, it commonly, 
 as the phrase is, "blows up rain." This effect of a south 
 wind in this country may be thus accounted for. A souther- 
 ly wind is a current of air which has its origin in warmer 
 latitudes than those in which we are situated. This current 
 in passing over the ocean imbibes or takes up as much water 
 as air of its temperature can hold in solution. Passing into 
 higher or colder latitudes the air of the current parts with a 
 portion of its heat or caloric, and cannot retain so much 
 water as it held in its outset. Clouds or vapors are there- 
 fore formed, and the excess of moisture is deposited in mist, 
 rain, hail, or snow, according to circumstances, the season, 
 &c. On the contrary, a northerly wind, coming from a com- 
 paratively cold latitude, acquires caloric as it advances, and 
 with that acquisition its capacity for holding water in solu- 
 tion is increased. Therefore a northerly wind is a drijing 
 wind, and its predominance soon dissipates clouds and intro- 
 duces fair weather. 
 
 But to come down from the clouds to matters more within 
 the reach of the reader. It has been often recommended by 
 writers on agriculture to cart hay, particularly clover, before 
 the stalks are dry ; and either to put it up witli alternate 
 layers of straw, or to salt it at the rate of from half to one 
 bushel of salt to the ton. 
 
 " Salt hay in this country has usually been hurt by lying 
 too long in the swaths. The method in which I have treated 
 it for several years, is, to cock it the next day after it is cut, 
 and carry it in, without delaying more than one day, and 
 put a layer of some kind of dry straw between load and load 
 of it in the mow, to prevent its taking damage by over-heat- 
 ing. The straw contracts so much of its moisture and salt- 
 ness, that the cattle will eat it very freely ; and the hay is 
 far better than that made in the common way."* 
 
 The making of herbage plants [such as clover, lucerne, 
 sainfoin burnet, &c.] into hay, is a process somewhat dif- 
 ferent from that of making hay from natural grasses. As 
 soon as the swath is thoroughly dry above, it is gently turn- 
 
 * Deane's New England Farmer. 
 
 24 
 
278 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 ed over (not tedded nor scattered) without breaking it. 
 Sometimes this is done bv the hand, or by a small fork ; 
 and some farmers are so anxious to prevent the swath from 
 being broken, that they will not permit the use of the rake 
 shaft. Another writer observes, that the practice of the best 
 English, Flemish, and French farmers, is to expose the hay 
 as little as possible to the sun. It is carried in dry, but pre- 
 serves its green color ; and we see hay of one or two years 
 old in their market, of so bright a green color that we could 
 scarcely conceive it to be cured. Yet they are in the prac- 
 tice of preserving it for years, and value it more for its age. 
 If such a course be best in climates so cool and cloudv, 
 how much more important would it be under our scorching 
 summer suns. 
 
 " But if the weather be unsettled, or if showers be fre- 
 quent, it may be better to spread grass well as soon as it is 
 mowed, stir it often, cock it the same day it is moved ; open 
 it the next fair day, when the dew is off; let it sweat a little 
 in the cock, and house it as soon as it is dry enough. It 
 will bear to be laid greener on a scaffold than in a ground 
 mow ; and in a narrow mow greener than in a broad one ; 
 and that which is least of all made should be put upon the 
 scaffold." — Deane. 
 
 Sir John Sinclair is very explicit on the subject of " mak- 
 ing clover into hay." "The process," he observes, "is quite 
 different iVom the plan of making liay from natural grasses." 
 Mr. Lorrain gives us both sides of this question. He savs, 
 " I did not like to abandon the practice of curing hay in the 
 swath, having observed that it saved labor. The grasses are 
 at all times very expeditiously turned in the swath. If con- 
 tinued rains occur, the swaths are not only quickly turned, 
 but if the sun shines powerfully between the showers, the 
 inside of them is not parched by its rays. By turning the 
 swaths throughout long-continued rain, as often as the un- 
 der side of them was likely to be injured by fermentation, I 
 have saved extensive fields of hay ; while my neighbours, 
 who gave no attention to this interesting subject, had their 
 crops entirely ruined. If the grasses, however, be raked up 
 into small winrows, they are as readily turned, and may be 
 as effectually preserved as if they remained in swaths, but 
 in this case the labor is greater." 
 
 The same writer, however, in the next paragraph, takes 
 other ground. " Curing hay," he observes, " in swath, to 
 save the juices, seems to be not only practically wrong, but 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 279 
 
 also opposed to reason. The confined heat and moisture in 
 the interior of the swath promote fermentation, and must be 
 more or less injurious to the nutritive matter contained in 
 the grasses. It is exactly calculated to weaken the grasp of 
 the leaves, and to separate them from the stalk. It also 
 greatly weakens their general texture, and causes them to 
 crumble into pieces when they become dry. While this is 
 doing, the outside surface of the swath is scorched by the 
 rays of the sun, and becomes but little better than straw, 
 before the inside is moderately cured. In raking, cockino-, 
 heaping, and inning, the swaths are so far separated, that 
 many of the leaves are lost before the hay gets into the 
 mow ; but few of them get into the rack." 
 
 We have thus given both sides of the controverted ques- 
 tion in agriculture, and our readers will take that which ap- 
 pears to them most tenable. We confess ourselves rather 
 inclined to embrace the opinions of a correspondent who 
 says, "If it be correct to 'make hay while the sun shines,' 
 it may be well to make it as quickly as possible ; but in this, 
 as in many other processes, circumstances alter cases." 
 
 HARVESTING. It is asserted, as a general rule, that 
 the proper time to reap wheat or rye is when the straw be- 
 gins to shrink and become white about half an inch below 
 the ear. This appearance is a sure indication that the grain 
 has ceased to receive nourishment from the roots of the 
 plant ; and by cutting early, provided it is not taken to the 
 barn or stack too green, the following advantages will be 
 gained : 1st. -The grain will make more and whiter flour. 
 2d. There will be less wasted by the grain's shelling. 3d. 
 By commencing harvest early, you will have a fairer pros- 
 pect of finishing before the last cuttings become too ripe, so 
 that much of the grain will shell out in reaping and securing 
 the crop. 4th. If you cut your grain as soon as it will an- 
 swer, your straw and chaff will contain much more nourish- 
 ment than if it were bleached and made brittle by the sun, 
 air, dew, and rain, all of which combine to deprive it of most 
 of its value for fodder. 5th. Should you plough in your 
 stubble immediately after harvest, or mow it and secure it 
 for fodder or litter, (either of which modes of management 
 is perfectly consonant with the rules of good husbandry,) 
 the stubble will make mu(;h better food for your cattle or ma- 
 
280 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 nure for your ground, than if it had yielded all its sweets 
 and much of its substance to the greedy elements above 
 mentioned. 
 
 If your wheat or rye is much affected by blight or rust, it 
 should be cut even while still in the milk, and afterwards 
 exposed to the sun and air, till the straw is sufficiently dry 
 and the grain so much hardened that it will answer to de- 
 posit in the barn or stack. The heads, in such cases, should 
 be so placed by the reapers as not to touch the ground. This 
 may be done by laying the top ends of each handt'ul on the 
 lower end of the preceding one. 
 
 If your grain is encumbered with grass or weeds, you 
 must cut it pretty near the top, in order to avoid as much as 
 possible those extraneous substances. It will also be neces- 
 sarv to reap somewhat earlier than might be otherwise ex- 
 pedient, that you may have time to dry the weeds without 
 danger of the grain's shelling out. If your grain is very 
 ripe when you harvest it, the bands should be made early in 
 the morning while the straw is moist and pliable. And Dr. 
 Deane recommends, in such cases, to bind the sheaves when 
 the air begins to be damp towards evening, as the least 
 degree of moisture will toughen the straw. 
 
 It has been recommended by several English writers to 
 bind wheat as well as rye with only one length of the straw. 
 If the straw is pretty long, and not very thoroughly dry, this 
 may be good economy. You save the trouble of making 
 bands ; your wheat will dry better in the sheaf ; (as the 
 sheaves must of course be small ;) and though it may take 
 some more time and trouble to pitch and handle it, we believe 
 the advantages, in many cases, will turn the scale in favor 
 of binding wheat with single lengths of straw. 
 
 In stowing wheat or rye, some persons deposit the sheaves 
 on a mow of hay ; but this is a bad plan, as the grain pres- 
 ses the hay so that it is apt to become musty, and communi- 
 cate a musty or mouldy taint to the superincumbent grain ; 
 which will be harder to thresh than if it had a more dry and 
 airy location. It may be placed on a scaffold of rails, laid 
 on the beams, and over the floor of a barn ; though it is not 
 so easy to procure it for threshing as if it were laid on a 
 scaffold of less elevation. But this disadvantage may be 
 more than compensated by its being in a situation favorable 
 for drying. If there is a deficiency of barn room, the 
 sheaves may be stored in stacks. In that case, " care should 
 be taken that the grain may not draw moisture from the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 281 
 
 ground, by laying boards, straw, or rubbish under the stack. 
 A better way still, is to have a tight floor of boards mounted 
 on four blocks, set in the ground, and so high from the 
 ground as to prevent the entering of vermin. 
 
 " In building a stack, care should be taken to keep the 
 seed ends of the sheaves in the middle, and a little higher 
 than the outer ends. No fowls can then come at the grain; 
 and the rain that falls on the outer ends will run ofl^, and not 
 pass towards the centre. The stack should be well topped 
 with straw, that the rain may be completely turned off." 
 
 Oats. It is advised to harvest oats before the straw has 
 ■wholly turned yellow. The straw will be of little value, if 
 permitted to stand till it becomes white and destitute of sap. 
 Though oats should be well dried on the ground, after cut- 
 ting, they should not be raked nor handled when they are in 
 the driest state. They should be gathered mornings and 
 evenings, when the straw is made limber and pliable by the 
 moisture of the air. If they are housed while a little damp, 
 there will be no ^Janger, if they have been previously tho- 
 roughly dried. 
 
 Barleij. We are told by the wise men of agriculture, 
 that some of the rules which should be observed in harvest- 
 ing wheat, rye, and oats, will not apply to barley. Willich's 
 "Domestic Encyclopedia "states, that, " with respect to the 
 time when barley is fit to be mowed, farmers frequently fall 
 into the error of cutting it before it is perfectly ripe ; think- 
 ing it will attain to perfect maturity if it lie in the swath. 
 This, however, is a very common error, as it v/ill shrivel in 
 the field, and afterwards make but an indifferent malt ; it 
 also threshes with more difficulty, and is apt to be bruised 
 under the flail. The only certain test of judging when it is 
 fit to mow must be from the dropping and falling of the ears, 
 so as to double against the straw. In that state, and not 
 before, it may be cut with all expedition and carried in with- 
 out danger to the mow. 
 
 Dr. Deane's "New England Farmer" states, that " some 
 have got an opinion that barley should be harvested before 
 it is quite ripe. Though the flour may be a little whiter, 
 the grain shrinks so much that the crop seems greatly di- 
 minished and wasted by early cutting. No grain, I think, re- 
 quires more ripening than this ; and it is not apt to scatter 
 out when it is very ripe. It should be threshed soon after 
 harvesting ; and much beating, after it is cleared from the 
 straw, is necessary in order to get off the beards. Let it lie 
 24* 
 
282 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 a night or two in the dew, after it is cut, and the beards will 
 come off the more easily. 
 
 DRAINS used in farming are of two kinds, open and 
 covered. Drains should be of a size and depth proportioned 
 to the extent of the swamp and the probable quantity of 
 water for which they are designed to be channels. They 
 should generally be carried through the lowest and wettest 
 part of the soil, although it should be necessary, in order to 
 effect that purpose, to deviate from straight lines. Open 
 drains sometimes answer the double purpose of conveying off 
 superfluous water and of inclosing fields ; but they make a 
 hazardous and inconvenient fence without the addition of a 
 bank, hedge, or railing. The " Farmer's Assistant" says, 
 " When a ditch is made for a fence, it ought to be four feet 
 Avide at the top, one or less at the bottom, and about two 
 and a half deep ; with the earth all thrown out on one side, 
 and banked up as high as possible." Sir John Sinclair 
 states, that " it is a general rule regarding open drains, with 
 a view of giving sufficient slope and stability to their sides, 
 that the width at top should be three times as much as that 
 which is necessary at the bottom, and in the case of peat- 
 mosses or soft soils, it should be such as to allow the water 
 to run off without stagnation, but'not with so rapid a motion 
 as to injure the bottom." 
 
 But before you attempt to drain a piece of land, it will be 
 well not only to calculate the cost, but to ascertain the nature 
 of the soil which it is proposed to render fit for cultivation. 
 If the subsoil or under layer be clay, the swamp may be 
 worth draining, though there should be no more than six 
 inches of black soil or mud over it, for the clay and the mud 
 mixed will make a fertile soil. But if the subsoil or under 
 stratum be gravel or white sand, it will not, in common cases, 
 be best to undertake draining, unless the depth of black mud 
 be as much as from fifteen or eighteen inches deep ; for the 
 soil will settle after draining, and be less deep than it was 
 before. But the situation of the land to be drained may 
 authorize some variation from these general rules. 
 
 The manner of draining a swamp is as follows. Beginning 
 at the outlet, pass a large ditch through it, so as mostly to 
 cut the lowest parts. Then make another ditch quite round 
 it, near to the border, to cut off the springs which come from 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 283 
 
 the upland, and to receive the water that runs down from 
 the hills upon the surface in great rains. These ditches 
 should be larger or smaller, in some proportion to the size 
 of the swamp, the shape and size of the hills which surround 
 it, and other circumstances, which might tend to greater or 
 less quantities of water being occasionally or generally led 
 to the ditches. If the swamp be large, it may be necessary 
 that some smaller cross drains should be cut in several of the 
 lowest parts. The bottom of the main ditches, when the 
 soil is not of an extraordinary depth, must be lower than the 
 bottom of the loose soil ; otherwise the soil will never be- 
 come sufficiently dry and firm.* 
 
 It is said, by Sir John Sinclair, (Code of Agriculture, p. 
 182,) that, " in all drains, it is a rule to begin at the lowest 
 place and to work upwards, by which the water will always 
 pass from the workmen and point out the level. This ena- 
 bles the laborers also to work in coarse weather, and prevents 
 their being interrupted by wet so early in the season as 
 otherwise might happen." 
 
 The mud and other materials which are dug out of a ditch 
 or drain should not be suffered to lie in heaps or banks by 
 the side of the ditch, but should be spread as equally as pos- 
 sible over the surface of the drained land. In this way, the 
 matter taken from the ditches will tend to level the surface 
 of the swamp, will, perhaps, serve in some measure for ma- 
 nure, and will not present any impediment to the passage of 
 the water to the ditches. In some cases it may be advisable 
 to transport the earth which is taken from the ditches to 
 the farm-yard or the hogpen, to form a part of that layer 
 which good farmers generally spread over those places in 
 autumn, to imbibe liquid manure, or make into compost with 
 dung. In many instances, we are told, that the earth thus 
 dug out of ditches is thought to be worth enough to pay for 
 the expense of digging the ditches. 
 
 Mr. Henry W. Delavan, in a communication on the sub- 
 ject of Under draining, in "The New England Farmer," 
 (Vol.X. p. 97,) says : — 
 
 " Without this salutary and simple operation, no in- 
 considerable proportion of many valuable districts of our 
 country must continue little better than waste. It is gener- 
 ally total loss of labor to the farmer who attempts to cultivate 
 wet lands in our rigorous climate, and by draining, these 
 
 * See Deane's New England Farmer, article Drains. 
 
284 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 useless inhospitable acres have been found of the kindliest 
 and most productive character. 
 
 " Having a surplus of stones on my estate beyond what 
 fences require, I use the smaller and ill-formed for drains ; 
 they have the advantage of brush in durability and of tiles 
 in economy. My drains are, for the most part, three feet in 
 depth, two feet in width at top, sloping to one at bottom. 
 The bottom stones are largest, and are carefully placed to 
 allow the water to flow freely beneath, while above the small 
 stones are thrown in at random, so that when levelled they 
 are beneath the plough. Over these swingle-tow, shavings, 
 or straw, may be thrown, after which the earth can be re- 
 placed by the spade or plough, so as to present a rather 
 higher surface than the grounds adjacent, and the business 
 is accomplished. It is very essential that the descent be 
 easy, neither too quick nor too slow, and that all surface 
 water be excluded, as it would speedily choke and destroy 
 the underdraining. I estimate the average cost of such 
 drains at sixty-two and a half cents the rod. It should be 
 remarked, that underdrainins is adapted to lands presenting 
 sufficient declivity to carry off" the springs, and it is only the 
 under water that is meant to be drained in this manner, 
 while open ditches are adapted to the bottom lands for the 
 conveyance of surface water. I will state what appears to 
 me the prominent advantages that the cultivator may prom- 
 ise himself by a thorough system of draining. 
 
 " In the first place, he creates, as it were, so much addi- 
 tional terra firma, and adds essentially to the health of all 
 around him, by correcting the ill tendencies of excessive 
 moisture. He can cultivate reclaimed lands several weeks 
 earlier and as much later in each year than those that are un- 
 reclaimed, and his crops are better and more sure. The labor 
 of after tillage is much diminished. The stones that impede 
 the plough and scythe are removed; and not the least essen- 
 tial benefit is the constant supplies of water which may be 
 insured in any field inclining to moisture, which, with refe- 
 rence to animals, will, as a permanent convenience and ad- 
 vantage, fully compensate the expense of drains." 
 
 PASTURE. 'To manage pasture land advantageously, it 
 should be well fenced in small lots, of four, eight, or twelve 
 acres, according to the largeness of one's farm and stock ; 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 285 
 
 and these lots should be bordered at least with rows of trees. 
 It is best that trees of some kind or other should be growing 
 scattered in every point of a pasture, so that the cattle may 
 never have to go far in a hot hour to obtain a comfortable 
 shade. The grass will spring earlier in lots that are thus 
 sheltered, and they will bear drought the better. But too 
 great a proportion of shade should be avoided, as it will give 
 a sourness to the grass. 
 
 " Small lots thus sheltered are not left bare of snow so 
 early in the spring as larger ones lying bare, as fences and 
 trees cause more of it to remain upon the ground. The 
 cold winds in March and April hurt the grass much when 
 the ground is bare. And the winds in winter will not suffer 
 snow to lie deep on land that is too open to the rake of 
 winds and storms. 
 
 " It is hurtful to pastures to turn in cattle too early in the 
 spring ; and most hurtful to those pastures in which the 
 grass springs earliest, as in very low and wet pastures. 
 Potching such land in the spring destroys the sward, so 
 that it will produce the less quantity of grass. Neither 
 should cattle be let into any pasture until the grass is so 
 much grown as to afford them a good bite, so that they may 
 fill themselves without rambling over the whole lot. The 
 20th of May is early enough to turn cattle into almost any 
 of our pastures. Out of some they should be kept later. 
 The driest pastures should be used first, though in them the 
 grass is shortest, that the potching of the ground in the wet- 
 test may be prevented. 
 
 "The bushes and shrubs that rise in pastures should be 
 cut in the most likely times to destroy them. Thistles and 
 other bad weeds should be cut down before their seeds have 
 ripened ; and ant-hills should be destroyed. Much may be 
 done towards subduing a bushy pasture by keeping cattle 
 hungry in it. A continual browsing keeps down the younop 
 shoots, and totally kills many of the bushes. Steers and 
 heifers may mend such a pasture, and continue growing. 
 
 " But as to cleared pastures, it is not right to turn in all 
 sorts of cattle promiscuously. Milch kine, working oxen, 
 and fatting beasts, should have the first feeding of an inclo- 
 sure ; afterwards, sheep and horses. When the first lot is 
 thus fed off, it should be shut up, and the dung that has been 
 dropped should be beat to pieces, and well scattered. After- 
 wards, the second pasture should be treated in the same 
 
286 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 manner, and the rest in course, feeding the wettest pasture 
 after the driest, that the soil may be less potched. 
 
 "Something considerable is saved by letting all sorts of 
 grazing animals take their turn in a pasture. By means of 
 this, nearly all the herbage produced will be eaten ; much 
 of which would otherwise be lost. Horses will eat the leav- 
 ings of horned cattle ; and sheep will eat some things that 
 both the one and the other leave. 
 
 " But if in a course of pasturing, by means of a fruitful 
 year or a scanty stock of cattle, some grass of a good kind 
 should run up to seed and not be eaten, it need not be re- 
 gretted ; for a new supply of seed will fill the ground with 
 new roots, which are better than old ones. And I know of 
 no grass that never needs renewing from the seed. 
 
 '* A farmer needs not to be told, that if he turn swine into 
 a pasture, thev should have rings in their noses, unless 
 brakes and other weeds need to be rooted out. Swine may 
 do service in this way. They should never have the first ol 
 the feed ; for they will foul the grass, and make it distasteful 
 to horses and cattle. 
 
 " Let the stock of a farmer be greater or less, he should 
 have at least four inclosures of pasture land. One inclosure 
 may be fed two weeks, and then shut up to grow ; then 
 another. Each one will recruit well in six weeks ; and each 
 will have this space of time to recruit. But in the latter 
 part of October, the cattle may range through all the lots, 
 unless some one may become too wet and soft. In this case, 
 it ought to be shut up, and kept so till feeding time the next 
 year. 
 
 "But that farmers may not be troubled with low miry pas- 
 tures, they should drain them, if it be practicable, or can be 
 done consistently with their other business. If they should 
 produce a smaller quantity of grass afterwards, it will be 
 sweeter, and of more value. It is well known, that cattle 
 fatted in a dry pasture have better tasted flesh than those 
 which are fatted in a wet one. In the old countries it will 
 fetch a higher price. This is particularly the case as to 
 mutton. 
 
 "Feeding pastures in rotation is of greater advantage than 
 some are apt to imagine. One acre, managed according to 
 the above directions, will turn to better account, as some 
 say who have practised it, than three acres in the common 
 way. By the common way I would be understood to mean, 
 having weak and tottering fences, that will drop of them- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 287 
 
 selves in a tew months, and never can resist the violence ot' 
 disorderly cattle ; suffering weeds and bushes to overrun the 
 land ; keeping all the pasture land in one inclosure ; turn- 
 ing in all sorts of stock together ; suffering the fence to 
 drop down in autumn, so as to lay the pasture common to 
 all the swine and cattle that please to enter ; and not putting 
 up the fence again till the 1st of May, or later. Such 
 management is too common in all the parts of this country. 
 
 " Land which is constantly used as pasture will be enrich- 
 ed. Therefore it is advisable to mow a pasture lot once in 
 three of four years, if the surface be so level as to admit of 
 it. In the mean time, to make amends for the loss of pas- 
 ture, a mowing lot may be pastured. It will thus be improv- 
 ed : and if the grass do not grow so rank afterwards in the 
 pasture lot, it will be more clear of weeds, and bear better 
 grass. Alternate pasturing and mowing has the advantage 
 of saving a good deal of expense and trouble in manuring 
 the mowing grounds. - 
 
 " Though pastures need manuring less than other lands, 
 yet, when bushes, bad weeds, &c. are burnt upon them, the 
 ashes should be spread thinly over the surface. The grass 
 will thus be improved : and grass seeds should be sown upon 
 the burnt spots, that no part may be vacant of grass. 
 
 " Sheep, calves, and horses, unless they are worked, it is 
 said, require no water in their pastures. The want of water 
 induces them to feed in the night, when the dew is on and 
 the grass the more nutritious. Cows however want pure 
 water. 
 
 "In pastures which are on side-hills, water may generally 
 be obtained by digging horizontally into the side of the hill, 
 till it is found, and then carrying it out with a pipe." — 
 Deane. 
 
 " Three modes have been adopted in Great Britain for 
 consuming clover and other herbage plants by pasturing. 
 These are tethering, or fastening the feeding animal to a 
 stake, hurdling, and free pasturage. In the ' Agricultural 
 Report of Aberdeenshire,' it is stated, that there are some 
 cases in which the plan of tethering can be practised with 
 more profit than even soiling. In the neighbourhood of 
 Peterhead, for instance, they tether milch cows on their 
 grass fields, in a regular and systematic method, moving 
 each tether forward in a straight line, not above one foot at a 
 time, so as to prevent the cows from treading on the grass 
 that is to be eaten ; care being always taken to move the 
 
288 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 tether forward, like a person cutting clover with a scythe, 
 from one end of the field to the other. In this way, a great- 
 er number of cows can be kept on the same quantity of grass 
 than by any other plan, except where it grows high enough 
 to be cut and given them green in houses. In one instance, 
 the system was carried to great perfection by a gentleman 
 who kept a few sheep upon longer tethers, following the 
 cows. Sometimes also he tethered horses afterwards upon 
 the same field, which prevented any possible waste, for the 
 tufts of grass produced by the dung of one species of animal 
 will be eaten by those of another kind without reluctance. 
 This mode was peculiarly calculated for the cow-feeders la 
 Peterhead ; as, from the smallness of their holdings, they 
 could not keep servants to cut or horses to carry home the 
 grass to their houses, to be consumed in a green state. 
 
 " In hurdling off clover or herbage crops, a portion of the 
 field is inclosed by hurdles, [movable wooden fences,] in 
 which sheep are confined, and as the crop is consumed the 
 pen is changed to a fresh place, until the whole is fed off. 
 This practice is very extensively adopted at Holkham [Eng.,] 
 and is peculiarly calculated for light and dry soils. Its ad- 
 vantages are, that the grass is more economically consumed; 
 that the stock thrives better, having daily a fresh bite ; and 
 that the dung which falls, being more concentrated, is more 
 likely to be of use." — Loudon. 
 
 Water should be provided for every field under pasture ; 
 and also shelter and shade, either by a few trees, or by a 
 portable shed, which may be moved with the stock from one 
 inclosure to another. Where there are no trees, rubbing 
 posts are also a desirable addition. In Germany they have 
 portable sheds which are employed both in summer and win- 
 ter, and generally with a piece of rock-salt fixed to a post for 
 the cattle to lick at will. 
 
 Some graziers mix a few sheep and one or two colts in 
 each pasture, which both turn to account, and do little in- 
 jury to the grazing cattle. In some cases, we are told that 
 sheep are beneficial to pastures, by eating down and de- 
 stroying white weed, and some other useless and pernicious 
 plants. 
 
 So various is the appetite of animals, that there is scarcely 
 any plant which is not chosen by some and left untouched 
 by others. The following is said to be a fact, known and 
 practised on by graziers in Holland. When eight cows have 
 been in a pasture, and can no longer obtain nourishment, 
 
AxND RURAL ECONOMIST. 289 
 
 two horses will do very well there for some days, and when 
 nothing is left for the horses, four sheep will live upon it ; 
 this not only proceeds from their differing in the choice of 
 plants, but from the formation of their mouths, which are not 
 equally adapted to lay hold of the grass. 
 
 Stocking a pasture with as many sheep as it will support 
 is recommended for forming a tender herbage, and causing 
 the grass to mat or grow very thick at the bottom. 
 
 An English writer says, "in turning out horses to grass in 
 the spring, it is usual to choose the forenoon of a fine day to 
 do it in ; the natural consequence is, the horse fills his belly 
 during the sunshine, and lays down to rest during the cold 
 of the night, thereby probably exposing himself to disorders. 
 In some parts of Yorkshire a better practice prevails : the 
 horse is turned out at bed-time ; the consequence is, he eats 
 all night, and sleeps in the sunshine of the next day." 
 
 POULTRY. In order to have fine fowls, it is necessary 
 to choose a good breed, and have a proper care taken .of 
 them. The Canton breed is thought highly of; and it is 
 certainly desirable to have a fine large kind, but people differ 
 in their opinion which is best. It is as important to cross 
 the breeds of fouls as of other animals ; hence it is improper 
 to saVe males and females from the same sittings of eggs, if 
 they are to be kept for propagation. The black is very 
 juicy ; but do not answer so well for boiling, as their legs 
 partake of their color. They should be fed as nearly as pos- 
 sible at the same hour and place. Potatoes boiled, unskin- 
 ned, in a little water, and then cut, and either wet with 
 skimmed milk or not, form one of the best foods. Turkeys 
 and fowls thrive amazingly on them. The milk must not be 
 sour. 
 
 The best age for setting a hen is from two to five years ; 
 and you should remark which hens make the best brooders, 
 and keep those to laying who are giddy and careless of their 
 young. In justice to the animal creation, however, it must 
 be observed, there are but few instances of bad parents for 
 the time their nursing is necessary. 
 
 Hens sit twenty days. Convenient places should be pro- 
 vided for their laying, as these will be proper for sitting like- 
 wise. If the hen-house is not secured from vermin, the 
 eggs will be sucked and the fowls destroyed. 
 25 
 
290 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Those hens are usually preferred which have tufts of 
 feathers on their heads ; those that crow are not looked upon 
 as profitable. Some fine young fowls should be reared eve- 
 ry year, to keep up a stock of good breeders ; and by this 
 attention, and removing bad layers and careless nurses, you 
 will have a chance of a good stock. 
 
 Let the hens lay some time before you set them, which 
 should be done from the end of February to the beginning 
 of May. While hens are laying, feed them well, and some- 
 times with oats. 
 
 Broods of chickens are hatched all through the summer, 
 but those that come out very late require much care till they 
 have gained some strength. 
 
 If the eggs of any sort are put under a hen with some of 
 her own, observe to add her own as many days after the 
 others as there is difference in the length of their sitting. 
 A turkey and duck sit thirty days. Choose large clear eggs 
 to put her upon, and such a number as she can properly 
 cover. If very large eggs, there are sometimes two yolks, 
 and of course neither will be productive. Ten or twelve are 
 quite enough. 
 
 A hen-house should be large and high ; and should be 
 frequently cleaned out, or the vermin of fowls will increase 
 greatly. But hens must not be disturbed while sitting ; for 
 if frightened, they sometimes forsake their nests. Worm- 
 wood and rue should be planted plentifully about ^heir 
 houses ; boil some of the former, and sprinkle it about the 
 floor, which should be of smooth earth not paved. The 
 windows of the house should be open to the ri.sing sun, and 
 a hole must be left at the door, to let the smaller fowls go 
 in ; the larger may be let in and out by opening the door. 
 There should be a small sliding board to shut down when 
 the fowls are gone to roost, which would prevent the small 
 beasts of prey from committing ravages ; and a good strong 
 door and lock may possibly, in some measure, prevent the 
 depredations of human enemies. 
 
 When some of the chickens are hatched long before the 
 others, it may be necessary to keep them in a basket of wool 
 till the others come forth. The day after they are hatched, 
 give them some crumbs of white bread, and small (or rather 
 cracked) grits soaked in milk. As soon as they have gained 
 a little strength feed them with curd, cheese parings cut 
 small, bojled corn, or any soft food, but nothing sour ; and 
 give th^ clean water twice a day. Keep the hen under a 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 291 
 
 pen till the young have strength to follow her about, which 
 will be in two or three weeks, and be sure to feed her well. 
 
 The food of fowls goes first into their crop, which softens 
 it ; and then passes into the gizzard, which by constant fric- 
 tion macerates it ; and this is facilitated by small stones, 
 which are generally found there, and which help to digest 
 the food. 
 
 The pip in fowls is occasioned by drinking dirty water, or 
 taking lilthy food. A white thin scale on the tongue is the 
 symptom. Pull the scale off with your nail, and rub the 
 tongue with some salt ; and the complaint will be removed. 
 
 It answers well to pay some boy employed in the farm or 
 stable so much a hundred for the eggs he brings in. It will 
 be his interest then to save them from being purloined, which 
 nobody but one in his situation can prevent ; and six or 
 eight cents a hundred will be buying eggs cheap. 
 
 To fatten Fowls or Chickens in four or five Days. Set 
 rice over the fire with skinnned milk, only as much as will 
 serve one day. Let it boil till the rice is quite swelled out: 
 you may add a tea-spoonful or two of sugar, but it will do 
 well without. Feed them three times a day, in common 
 pans, giving them only as much as will quite fill them at 
 once. When you put fresh, let the pans be set in water, 
 that no sourness may be conveyed to the fowls, as that 
 prevents them from fattening. Give them clean water, or 
 the. milk of rice, to drink ; but the less wet the latter is when 
 perfectly soaked the better. By this method the flesh will 
 have a clear whiteness which no other food gives ; and when 
 it is considered how far a pound of rice will go, and how 
 much time is saved by this mode, it will be found to be 
 cheap. The pen should be daily cleaned, and no food given 
 for sixteen hours before poultry be killed. A proportion of 
 animal mixed with vegetable food is said to cause poultry to 
 thrive rapidly, but they should be confined to a vegetable 
 diet for a fortnight or three weeks before they are killed for 
 eating. A quantity of charcoal, broken in small pieces and 
 placed within the reach of poultry, is said to increase their 
 appetite, promote their digestion, and expedite their fat- 
 tening. 
 
 To choose Eggs at Market and preserve them. Put the 
 large end of the egg to your tongue ; if it feels warm it is 
 new. In new-laid eggs there is a small division of the skin 
 from the shell, which is filled with air, and is perceptible to 
 the eye at the end. On looking through them, against the 
 
292 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 sun or a candle, if fresh, eggs will be pretty clear. If they 
 shake they are not fresh. 
 
 Eggs may be bought cheapest when the hens first begin 
 to lay in the spring, before they sit ; in fall and winter they 
 become dear. They may be preserved fresh by dipping 
 them in boiling water and in.><tantly taking them out, or by 
 oiling the shell ; either of which ways is to prevent the air 
 passing through it ; or kept on shelves, with small holes to 
 receive one in each, and be turned every other day ; or close 
 packed in the keg, and covered with strong lime-water.* 
 
 BIRDS. The following remarks on shooting birds, &c., 
 are from a communication, published in the " New England 
 Farmer." Vol. IX., p. 338 ; — 
 
 " It is a well-known fact, that the alarming increase of 
 worms and insects in making ravages upon our fruit-trees and 
 fruit, not only paralyzes the efforts and disheartens the hopes 
 of the cultivator, but threatens total destruction to many of 
 the most delicious kinds. So extensive are their ravages 
 that but very few of our apricots and plums ever ripen with- 
 out premature decay from the worm generated by the beetles 
 which surround our trees in the twilight of the evening in 
 great numbers when the fruit is quite young. And when 
 the produce of our apple, pear, or peach trees is small, but 
 few of these escape the same fate. 
 
 " I attribute the rapid and alarming increase of these 
 worms and insects xcholly to the diminution of those birds 
 which fall a prey to our sportsmen, which are known to feed 
 upon them, and for whose subsistence these insects were ap- 
 parently created. 
 
 " In addition to the important usefulness of these birds, 
 their musical notes in the twilight of the morning are 
 peculiarly delightful ; awaking the cultivator to the sublime 
 contemplation and enjoyment of all the infinite beauties of 
 creation. 
 
 " In vain will be all our toil and labor, in vain the united 
 efforts of horticultural societies for increasing and perfecting 
 the cultivation of the most delicious varieties of fruits, unless 
 
 * For Treatises on Poultry and their different varieties, see Fessenden's 
 Mowbrav, published iiv Lilly and Wait, and New England Farmer. Vol. 
 IX. p. 254, 27S, 293, 318, 341. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 293 
 
 we can increase, or at least cease to diminish these useful and 
 melodious birds. 
 
 " If we have a statute in this commonwealth providing for 
 the protection of these birds, let us unite our efforts to arrest 
 this wanton destruction of them by enforcing (he penalties of 
 Ike law in every instance of ils violation. Our Horticultural 
 Society can scarcely do a greater service in promoting the 
 objects of its organization, than by making a spontaneous 
 and vigorous effort to this effect. 
 
 " If there be no statute for the protection of these invalua- 
 ble creatures, I would earnestly, yet respectfully, suggest to 
 the Horticultural Society the propriety and even necessity 
 of their petitioning our legislature at their next session for 
 such an act. 
 
 " It is a common practice with these sportsmen through 
 the summer to range the groves and orchards in this vicin- 
 ity, almost every pleasant day, and more numerously on 
 holidays, and to shoot every bird that comes within their 
 reach. 
 
 "It is not however a small nor an easy task for one indi- 
 vidual to get their names, residence, and the evidence neces- 
 sary for their conviction ; but it requires the united efforts 
 of all who are immediately interested. Already have these 
 sportsmen commenced their v/anton destruction of these 
 useful creatures, even before they had time to build a nest 
 for the rearing of their young. Birds that have survived the 
 dreary winter in a more genial clime, having now returned 
 to bless our efforts by their industry and to cheer our days 
 with their melody, are scarcely permitted to commence their 
 vernal song, ere they must fall victims to a wanton idle- 
 ness that is as destitute of moral feeling as of useful employ- 
 ment." 
 
 The following was originally published in the Boston Pa- 
 triot ; — 
 
 " On Birds and their Misfortunes. We have already inti- 
 mated our opinion, that the labors of the scientific ornithol- 
 ogist are of far more practical utility than the casual ob- 
 server might suppose ; and that, even in the business of 
 legislation, a regard to his researches might prevent many 
 errors, which may much affect public welfare. The legisla- 
 tion on the subject of birds has been marked by some essen- 
 tial errors, which have led to real evil. By the law of 1817, 
 woodcocks, snipes, larks, and robbins, were protected at cer- 
 tain seasons of the year, whilst war to the knife was de- 
 '25* 
 
294 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 clared against crows, blackbirds, owls, blue-jays, and hawks; 
 these last were treated as a sort of pirates, subject to sus- 
 pension at the yard-arm with the least possible ceremony. 
 It so happens, that the character of these very birds has been 
 singularly mistaken ; for while the ordnance of legislation 
 has been thus systematically levelled at them, they, on a 
 principle which man would do extremely well to imitate, 
 have been returning good for evil ; they have been diligently 
 engaged in extirpating all sorts of vermin, while never were 
 the vilest vermin half so ill-treated by the human race. The 
 crow, for example, who is generally regarded as a most sus- 
 picious character, has had great injustice done him. In the 
 spring, when the ground is moist, he lives in a state of the 
 most triumphant luxury on grubs : he eats the young corn, 
 it is true, but it is a necessary of life to which he never 
 resorts except when his supply of animal food is shortened. 
 After the corn is tolerably grown, he has nothing more to do 
 with it ; and in any stage he destroys at least five hundred 
 pernicious grubs and insects for every blade of corn which 
 he pillages from man. In the southern states, he is regu- 
 larly permitted to accompany the ploughman, and collects 
 the grubs from the newly-opened furrow ; his life is thus 
 secured by the safest of all tenures, that of the interest of 
 man in permitting him to live. 
 
 " There is scarcely a farm in England without its rookery; 
 the humid atmosphere multiplies every species of insect, and 
 those birds reward man for his forbearance by ridding him 
 of legions of his foes. By a policy like that which dictated 
 the revocation of the edict of Nantes, they have occasional- 
 ly been exposed to the mischievous propensities of unruly 
 boys, who, as far as utility is concerned, «ire not to be com- 
 pared to crows ; but the error of this step soon became ob- 
 vious, and they are now received with a universal welcome. 
 The hawk enjoys a doubtful reputation in the hen-roost ; he 
 sometimes destroys the chickens, but with the consistency 
 of man does not like to see his infirmities copied by an- 
 other ; and by way of compensation demolishes the fox, 
 which eats twenty chickens were he eats but one ; so that 
 it is hardly the part of wisdom to set a price upon his head, 
 while the fox, a hardened knave, is not honored with a penal 
 statute. How the owl came to be included in this black 
 list, it is difficult to conjecture ; he is a grave, reflecting 
 bird, who has nothing to do with man, except to benefit him 
 by eating weasels, foxes, raccoons, rats, and mice, a sin for 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. !295 
 
 which most housekeepers will readily forgive him. In some 
 parts of Europe he is kept in families, like the cat, whom 
 he equals in patience and surpasses in alertness. Another 
 of these birds, the blackbird, is the avowed enemy of grubs, 
 like the crow ; in the middle states, the farmer knows the 
 value of his company to pluck them from the furrow ; and 
 while other less pains-taking birds collect the vermin from 
 the surface, his investigations are more profound, and he 
 digs to the depth of several inches in order to discover them. 
 When the insects are no longer to be found, he eats the corn, 
 as well he may, but even then asks but a moderate compen- 
 sation for his former services. Five hundred blackbirds do 
 less injury to the corn than a single squirrel. The last upon 
 the catalogue of persecuted birds is the blue-jay. Whoever 
 watches him in the garden will see him descend incessantly 
 from the branches, pouncing every time upon the grub, his 
 enemy and ours. 
 
 "We have already seen, that the act to which we have 
 referred protects some birds at certain seasons of the year ; 
 among others, the robin, who lives on insects and worms, 
 and has no taste for vegetable diet, and the lark, who is ex- 
 tremely useful in his way. The only wonder is, that it 
 should have been thought expedient to allow them to be shot 
 in any season. The quail, another of the privileged class, 
 has no title to be named in company with the others ; in the 
 planting ti(ne, he makes more havoc than a regiment of 
 crows, without atoning for his misdeeds by demolishing a 
 single grub. Nor is the partridge a much more scrupulous 
 respecter of the rights of property ; though, as he lives in 
 comparative retirement, he succeeds in preserving a better 
 name for honesty. 
 
 "There are some of our most familiar birds, of which a 
 word may here be said. Every body has seen the little 
 goldfinch on the thistle by the way-side, and wondered, per- 
 haps, that his taste should lead him to so thorny a luxury ; 
 but he is all this while engaged in devouring the seeds, 
 which but for him would overrun the grounds of every far- 
 mer. Even the bob-o'-link, a most conceited coxcomb, who 
 steals with all imaginable grace, destroys millions of the 
 insects which annoy the farmer most. All the little birds, 
 in fact, which are seen about the blossoms of the trees, are 
 doing us the same service in their own way. 
 
 " Perhaps there is no bird which is considered more decid- 
 edly wanting in principle than the woodpecker ; and, cer- 
 
296 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 tainly, so far as man is concerned, there is none more con- 
 scientious. So long as a dead tree can be found for his nest, 
 he will not trouble himself to bore into a living one ; what- 
 ever wounds he makes upon the living are considered by 
 foreign gardeners as an advantage to the tree. The sound 
 tree is not the object ; he is in pursuit of insects and their 
 larvae. In South Carolina and Georgia, forests to a vast ex- 
 tent hnve been destroyed by an insect, which would seem as 
 capable of lifting a tree as of destroying it. The people 
 were alarmed by the visitation, and sagaciously laid the 
 mischief at the door of the woodpecker, until they found 
 that they had confounded the bailiff with the thief 
 
 " The injury arising from the loss of a single crop is hard- 
 ly to be estimated. The experience which is taught us by 
 our own misfortune is very dearly bought ; and we think 
 that if we can derive it from others, — if, for example, we 
 can learn from the ornithologist the means of preventing 
 such injury, as in many instances we may, — the dictates of 
 economy combine with those of taste, and warn us not to 
 neglect the result of his researches." 
 
 It was remarked by Colonel Powel, that " instead of being 
 regaled by the whistling robin and chirping bluebird, busily 
 employed in guarding us from that which no human fore- 
 sight or labor is enabled to avert, our ears are assailed, our 
 persons are endangered, our fences are broken, our crops are 
 trodden down, our cattle are lacerated, and our flocks are 
 disturbed by the idle shooter, regardless alike of the expen- 
 sive attempts of the experimental farmer, or of the stores of 
 the laboring husbandman ; whilst all the energies of his 
 frame and the aim of his skill are directed towards the mur- 
 der of a few little birds, worthless when obtained. The in- 
 juries which are immediately committed by himself and his 
 dogs are small, compared with the multiplied effects of the 
 myriads of insects which would be destroyed by the animals 
 whereof they are the natural prey."' 
 
 BUSHES. In many parts of our country, the pasture 
 grounds are infested, and often overrun with noxious shrubs ; 
 this is the most slovenly part of our husbandry, and ought 
 to be cured. 
 
 Eradicating them, says Deane, requires so much labor, 
 that farmers are most commonly content with cutting them 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST.. 297 
 
 once in a few years. But the more cuttings they survive, 
 the longer Hved they are apt to be, and the harder to kill, 
 as the roots continually gain strength. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, that cutting bushes in the summer 
 will do more towards destroying them than doing it in any 
 other season, particularly in August. Other circumstances 
 being equal, the wettest weather is best for destroying shrubs 
 by cutting. Spreading plaster on ground where bushes have 
 been cut may tend to check their re-sprouting, by encourag- 
 ing the growth of grass. 
 
 It is said to be a good method of destroying bushes, to cut 
 them with hoes close to the surface, when the ground is 
 frozen hard ; and that more may be destroyed in a day in 
 this way than in the usual method of cutting with a bush- 
 scythe. 
 
 Bushes which grow in clusters, as alder. Sec, may be ex- 
 peditiously pulled up by oxen ; and this is an effectual way 
 to subdue them. 
 
 Elder is considered harder to subdue than almost any 
 other kind of bush ; mowing them five times in a season, it 
 is said, will not kill them. The roots of the shrub-oak will 
 not be killed but by digging them out. 
 
 To destroy bushes in swamps, flooding two or three sum- 
 mers is the most approved method. But if this is not con- 
 venient, draining will so alter the nature of the soil, that the 
 shrubs which it naturally produced before will not be any 
 longer nourished by it ; and one cutting may be suthcient. 
 
 After all, extirpation, by digging them out, and by fire, is 
 cheapest and most effectual. — Farmer's Guide. 
 
 IRRIGATION. The following Essay, by Dr. Jeremiah 
 Spofford, is from the "Transactions of the Essex Agricul- 
 tural Society." 
 
 " Some degree of knowledge of what constitutes the food 
 of plants seems indispensable to any well-conducted system 
 of producing them in the greatest perfection ; and such 
 knowledge seems most likely to be obtained by minutely ex- 
 amining their structure, and carefully observing the manner 
 of their growth. 
 
 " Plants constitute one of the great divisions of organic 
 life, and one formed or constituted by systems of fibres and 
 vessels, and endowed with certain powers and appetences 
 
298 • THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 which place them at a greater remove above unorganized 
 matter than they are below animal life ; and appropriate 
 nourishment is elaborated, and a complete circulation is car- 
 ried on, to the minutest extremity, in a manner extremely an- 
 alogous to the circulation which is carried on in the arteries 
 and veins of the most perfect animals ; and the apparent 
 intelligence with which plants seek for nourishment, light, 
 air, and support, appears in some instances to bear a strong 
 resemblance to perception and knowledge ; and the circula- 
 tion of fluids in the vessels of plants and animals appears to 
 be carried on much on the same principles, and is perfectly 
 involuntary in both. 
 
 "The indispensable agency of water, in constituting the 
 fluids, and carrying on the circulation in these systems of 
 vessels, has been universally acknowledged ; and could not 
 be overlooked by the most careless observer, while he saw 
 innumerable instances in which plants wither and dry for 
 want of this substance. But while this universal agency has 
 been acknowledged, it is believed that a very inferior office 
 has been assigned to it from that which it really performs. 
 It has been considered as the mere vehicle which carried 
 and deposited the nutritious particles of other substances, 
 while it in reality was contributing much the largest portion 
 of the actual nourishment to the plants which annually clothe 
 our earth in living green. 
 
 " If this idea is correct, then he who possesses water at 
 his command with which to supply his plants at pleasure, or 
 who has a soil adapted to attract and retain moisture in 
 suitable quantities, possesses a mine of inexhaustible wealth, 
 from which he can draw at pleasure, in proportion to his 
 industry and his wants. 
 
 " In proof of the abstract principle that water constitutes 
 in a very large proportion the food of plants, I may be al- 
 lowed to mention one or two accurate experiments of dis- 
 tinguished philosophers upon the subject, which appear to 
 me to be quite decisive on the case. 
 
 " ' Mr. Boyle dried in an oven a quantity of earth proper 
 for vegetation, and after carefully weighing it, planted in it 
 the seed of a gourd ; he watered it with pure rain-water, and 
 it produced a plant which weighed fourteen pounds, though 
 the earth producing it had suffered no sensible diminution.' 
 
 " ' A willow tree was planted by Van Helmont in a pot, 
 containing a thousand pounds of earth. This plant was 
 watered with distilled water or pure rain-water ; and the 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 299 
 
 vessel so covered as to exclude all solid matter. At the end 
 of five years, iiijon taking out tlie plant, he found it had in- 
 creased in weight one hundred and nineteen pounds, though 
 the earth had lost only two ounces of its original weight.' 
 
 "The experiments of Mr. Cavendish and Dr. Priestley 
 have sufficiently proved, that vegetables have the power of 
 decomposing water and converting it into such fluids as they 
 need for circulation in their own vessels ; and that they 
 elaborate from this substance such juices and fruits as they 
 are by nature calculated to produce. 
 
 " The great effect which is so frequently observed to 
 follow the formation of ditches from the road-sides on to 
 mowing-ground, is, no doubt, in part, to be attributed to the 
 manure which is thereby washed on to the ground, but is 
 also in part owing to the more copious supply of water which 
 it thereby receives. 
 
 "That pure water is capable of producing similar efTects, 
 I have the following experiments to prove : 
 
 " Several years ago, when resident with my father on his 
 farm at Rowley, I labored hard to divert a stream, which fell 
 into a miry swamp, from its usual course across a piece of 
 dry upland. The stream was pure spring-water, which is- 
 sued between the hills about fifty rods above, running but 
 just far enough to acquire the temperature of the atmos- 
 phere, but without receiving any more fertilizing quality than 
 was obtained in passing through a pasture in a rocky chan- 
 nel ; the effisct, however, was to double the quantity of 
 grass. The same stream I again diverted from its course, 
 about forty rods below, after it had filtered through a piece 
 of swamp or meadow-ground, and with the same effect ; and 
 again, still lower down its course, I succeeded in turnino- it 
 on to a piece of high peat-meadow, which had usually pro- 
 duced but very little of any thing ; and the effect was, that 
 more than double of the quantity of grass was produced, and 
 that of a much better quality. I was led to this latter ex- 
 periment by observing, that a strip of meadow which natural- 
 ly received the water of this run, and over which it spread 
 for several rods in width without any particular channel, was 
 annually much more productive than any other part of the 
 meadow. 
 
 " But the best experiment, and on the largest scale of any 
 which I have known, was made by my late father-in-law, 
 deacon Eleazer SpofTord, then resident at JafTrey, New 
 Hampshire. A letter from Rev. Luke A. SpofFord, in an- 
 
300 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 swer to my inquiry on this subject, observes : ' My father 
 commenced the experiment as early as the year 1800, and 
 continued it till 1820, or to the time when he sold his farm. 
 The last ten years of his time he flashed perhaps twenty 
 acres ; and it produced, I should think, twice as much in 
 common seasons, and three times as much in dry seasons, as 
 it would have done without watering. This land would 
 hold out to yield a good crop twice as long as other land of 
 the same quality,' (that is, I presume, without flowing.) 
 * In dry weather he watered it every night, and the produce 
 was good, very good.' 
 
 " i am acquainted with the lot of land which was the sub- 
 ject of this experiment. It is a northern declivity, and rather 
 a light and sandy soil, on the eastern bank of Contoocook 
 river ; and the water used was that of the river, about one 
 mile below its formation by the junction of two streams, one 
 from a large pond of several hundred acres in Rindge, and 
 the other a mountain stream, formed by innumerable springs 
 issuing from the skirts of the Monadnock. 
 
 " From the foregoing premises may we not conclude, that 
 water performs a more important office in the growth and 
 formation of plants than has generally been supposed ; and 
 that it not only serves to convey nourishment, but that it is 
 itself elaborated into nourishment, and thereby constitutes 
 the solid substance ? and we may further conclude, that eve- 
 ry farmer should survey his premises, and turn those streams 
 which now are often useless or hurtful on to lands where 
 they are capable of diflTusing fertility, abundance, and 
 wealth. 
 
 "It appears, further, that the immense fertility of Egypt 
 is not so much owing to the alluvial deposit brought down 
 by the annual inundation, as to the canals and reservoirs 
 in which the waters are retained, to be spread over the 
 lands during the succeeding drought, at the will of the cul- 
 tivator. 
 
 " 1{, according to the experiments of Boyle and Van Hel- 
 mont, almost the whole food of plants is derived from water, 
 then the principal use of the various manures is to attract 
 moisture and stimulate the roots of plants to absorb and 
 elaborate it ; and we have also reason to think that lands are 
 much more injured and impoverished by naked exposure to 
 heat and wind, and washing by water that runs off" and is 
 lost, than it is by producing abundant crops. 
 
 " In the present state of population, nothing more could 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 301 
 
 be expected or desired, than that every farmer should make 
 use of such means as the small streams in his vicinity may 
 afford ; but in a densely peopled country, like Egypt in 
 former ages, or China at present, it should doubtless be one 
 of the first enterprises of a good government to take our 
 large rivers above their falls and turn them off into canals 
 for the benefit of agriculture." 
 
 WOODLAND. Ground covered with wood or trees. 
 They are mostly designed for fuel and timber. In felling 
 them, care should be taken to injure the young growth as 
 little as possible. Firewood, as well as timber, should be 
 felled when the sap is down ; otherwise it will hiss and fry 
 upon the fire, and not burn freely, although it should be ever 
 so long dried. To thicken a forest, or to increase the num- 
 ber of trees in a wood-lot, it should be well fenced, and no 
 cattle be permitted to be in it. And something may be done, 
 if needful, by layers and cuttings. — Deane. 
 
 The practice of the populous nations of Europe, whose 
 forests have been cut off centuries ago, and who are com- 
 'pelled to resort to measures of the strictest economy to sup- 
 ply themselves with fuel, ought to have great weight with 
 us. France, in an especial manner, ought to be looked up 
 to for wise lessons on this subject. Her vast and thickly 
 settled population, her numerous manufactures, her poverty 
 in mineral coal, the eminence which she has attained in all 
 economical arts, entitle her to great respect. It is the prac- 
 tice of the French people not to cut off their woods oftener 
 than once in twenty or twenty-five years, and by law, when 
 they are cut over, the owner is obliged to cut the tchole 
 smooth, with the exception of a very few trees, which the 
 officers of the government had marked to be spared for 
 larger growth. Without giving any opinion as to the pro- 
 priety of the direct interference of the government on such 
 a topic, we should say that the example proves, that in the 
 opinion of the French scientific and practical men, it is ex- 
 pedient when woodlands are cut that they should be cut 
 smooth, in order that the new growth might start together, 
 not overshaded by other trees of larger growth. We have 
 no favorable opinion of the utility of cutting down trees in a 
 scattered manner, as thov appear to fail, and still less of 
 26 
 
302 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 planting acorns in thinner spots of the forest. The growth 
 thus produced must remain for ever feeble. — Lowell. 
 
 A valuable paper by the Hon. John Welles, in " The 
 Massachusetts Agricultural Repository," recommends cut- 
 ting hard-wood trees between forty and fifty years of age ; 
 and the writer states, that "though trees may shoot up in 
 height by standing longer, yet the period of the most rapid 
 vegetation is mostly over, and by this means much of the 
 under-growth is necessarily destroyed." Mr. Welles is of 
 opinion, that in cutting over a wood-lot to obtain fuel, it is 
 best to take the whole growth as you proceed. He observes, 
 that " we have been condemned as evincing a want of taste 
 in cutting off our forests without leaving what it would take 
 half a century to produce, — -a sliade near where it is pro- 
 posed to erect buildings. The fact is, that trees of original 
 growth have their roots mostly in the upper stratum of earth, 
 and near the surface. A tree acts upon its roots and is act- 
 ed upon by the wind, sustaining in common with the whole 
 forest the force of this element, and it becomes accommo- 
 dated or naturalized to its pressure. But when left alone or 
 unsustained, it is borne down by the first gale, often to the 
 injury of property and even of life." The " Farmer's Assis- 
 tant" likewise says, " if woods are old and decaying, the bet- 
 ter way is to cut all off, as you want to use the wood, and 
 let an entire new growth start up, which will grow more 
 rapidly." 
 
 INSECTS. It would far transcend our limits to give 
 even a brief description of the various sorts of insects which 
 injure gardens, cultivated fields. Sec, and destroy the best 
 productions of out soil. We shall, therefore, confine our- 
 selves to stating, briefly, some of the most approved modes 
 of counteracting the ravages and effecting the destruction 
 of a few of those which are most injurious to the cultivator. 
 
 The preventive operations are those of the best culture, 
 in the most extensive sense of the term, including what re- 
 lates to choice of seed or plant, soil, situation, and climate. 
 If these are carefully attended to, it will seldom happen that 
 any species of insect will effect serious and permanent inju- 
 ry. Vegetables which are vigorous and thrifty are not apt 
 to be injured bv worms, flies, bugs, &c. Fall ploughing, by 
 
A.\D RURAL ECONOMIST. 303 
 
 exposing wornis, grubs, the larvaj of bugs, beetles, &,c. to 
 the intense frosts of our winters, is very beneficial. Insects 
 may be annoyed, and oftentimes their complete destruction 
 eflected, by sprinkling over them, by means of a syringe, 
 watering-pot, or garden engine, simple water, soap-suds, 
 tobacco-water, decoctions of elder, especially of the dwarf 
 kind, of walnut leaves, bitter and acrid herbs, pepper, lye 
 of wood ashes, or solutions of pot and pearl-ashes, water 
 impregnated with salt, tar, turpentine, &.c. ; or they may 
 be dusted with sulphur, quicklime, and other acrid sub- 
 stances. Loudon says, " Saline substances, mixed with wa- 
 ter, are injurious to most insects with tender skins, as the 
 worm and slug ; and hot water, where it can be applied 
 without injuring vegetation, is equally, if not more power- 
 fully, injurious. Water heated to one hundred and twenty 
 or one hundred and thirty degrees will not injure plants 
 whose leaves are expanded, and in some degree hardened ; 
 and water at two hundred degrees or upwards may be 
 poured over leafless plants. The effects of insects may also 
 be palliated on one species of plant by presenting to them 
 another which they prefer : thus wasps are said to prefer 
 carrots, the berries of the yew, and the honey of the hoya, 
 to grapes ; honey, or sugared water, to ripe fruit, and so on. 
 One insect or animal rnay also be set to eat another ; as 
 ducks for slugs and worms, turkeys for the same purpose, 
 and caterpillars and ants for aphides, and so on." 
 
 The Rev. iNIr. Falconer, one of the correspondents of 
 " The Bath Agricultural Society," strongly recommends 
 soap-suds, both as a manure and antidote against insects. 
 He observes, that "this mixture of an oil and an alkali has 
 been more generally known than adopted as a remedy 
 against the insects which infest wall fruit-trees. It will dis- 
 lodge and destroy the insects which have already formed 
 their nests and bred among the leaves. When used in the 
 early part of the year, it seems to prevent the insects from 
 settling upon them." He prefers soap-suds to lime-water, 
 because lime soon " loses its causticity, and with that its 
 efficacy, by exposure to air, and must, consequently, be 
 frequently applied ; and to the dredging of the leaves with 
 the fine dust of wood ashes and lime, because the same 
 effect is produced by the mixture, without the same labor, 
 and is obtained without any expense." He directs to make 
 use of a common garden-pump for sprinkling trees with 
 soap-suds, and says, if the water of a washing cannot be had, 
 
304 THE COMPLETE FABMER 
 
 a quantity of potash dissolved in water may be substituted ; 
 and that the washing of the trees with soap-suds twice a 
 week, for three or four weeks in the spring, will be suffi- 
 cient to secure them from aphides, kc. 
 
 Other modes of counteracting the effects of insects are 
 pointed out, in treating of the plants which are most liable 
 to be injured by them. We shall, however, make some re- 
 marks on a few of those which are most common and injuri- 
 ous to the interests of the cultivator. 
 
 Canker-icorm. We shall not attempt to give either a de- 
 scription, or the natural history of the canker-worm, but 
 refer to Prof Peck's Memoir on the subject, originally 
 published in " The Massachusetts Agricultural Repository," 
 and direct our attention exclusively to the remedies which 
 have been used or suggested to preserve fruit-trees from 
 this formidable enemy. 
 
 The female of this insect comes out of the ground late in 
 the fall, early in the spring, or, sometimes, during a period 
 of mild, open weather in winter. Those which rise in 
 autumn or in winter are less numerous than those which as- 
 cend in spring ; but, being very prolific, they do much inju- 
 ry. One method of preventing the ravages of the worm is, 
 to bar the ascent of the females up the stem of the tree. 
 This has generally been attempted by tarnng, of which 
 there are several modifications : 
 
 1. A strip of linen or canvas is put round the body of 
 the tree, before the females begin their ascent, and well 
 smeared with tar. The insects, in attempting to pass this 
 barrier, stick fast and perish. But this process, to complete 
 the desired effect, must be commenced about the 1st of No- 
 vember, and the tarring continued, when the weather is mild 
 enough to permit the worms to emerge from the ground, till 
 the latter end of May, or till the time of their ascent is past. 
 It is necessary to fill the crevices in the bark with clay mor- 
 tar, before the strip of linen or canvas is put on, that the 
 insects may not pass under it. Having put on the strip, 
 which should be at least three inches wide, draw it close, 
 fasten the ends together strongly, then tie a thumb-rope of 
 tow round the tree, close to the lower edge of the strip. The 
 design of this is, to prevent the tar from running down the 
 bark of the tree, which would injure it. It should be 
 renewed in moderate weather, once a day, without fail. The 
 best time is soon after sunset, because the insects are wont 
 to pass up in the evening, and the tar will not harden so 
 much in the night as the dav. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 305 
 
 2. Another mode of tarring is, to take two pretty wide 
 pieces of board, plane them, make semicircular notches 
 in each, fitting them to the stem or body of the tree, 
 and fasten them together securely at the ends, so that the 
 most violent storms may not displace them. The crevices 
 betwixt the boards and the tree may be easily stopped with 
 rags or tow ; then smear the under sides of the boards with 
 tar. The tar, being defended from the direct rays of the 
 sun, will hold its tenacity the longer, and, therefore, weed 
 not be frequently renewed. The trees in this way will be 
 less liable to be injured by the drippings of tar, by leaving 
 a margin of two or three inches on those parts of the boards 
 which are next to the trees, to which no tar is applied. 
 
 3. A gentleman informs us, that in Plymouth, Massachu- 
 setts, they make use of the following mixture as a substitute 
 for tar in preserving fruit-trees against canker-worms, viz. : 
 White varnish, soft soap, and whale oil, one-third of each to 
 be mixed and applied as tar is usually. This mixture is not 
 soon hardened by the weather, and does not injure tjie trees. 
 Another simple mode of preventing the ascent of the insects 
 is, to wind a band of refuse flax or swingle-tow round the 
 tree, and stick on the band burdock or chestnut burs, set so 
 closely together that worms cannot pass between them. 
 
 The "Massachusetts Agricultural Repository," (Vol. 
 III. No. 4,) contains some remarks on the canker-worm, by 
 the Hon. John Lowell, president of "The Massachusetts 
 Agricultural Society," from which the following is ex- 
 tracted : 
 
 " I had the turf dug in around sixty apple-trees, and the 
 earth laid smooth. I then took three hogsheads of effete, or 
 air-slacked lime, and strewed it an inch thick round my 
 trees, to the extent of two or three feet from the roots, so 
 that the whole diameter of the opening was from four to six 
 feet. 
 
 " I tarred these trees, as well as the others, and although 
 I had worms or grubs on most that were not limed, I did not 
 catch a single grub where the trees were limed. 
 
 " I do not speak with confidence. I am, however, strong- 
 ly encouraged to believe the remedy perfect. It was as- 
 certained by Professor Peck, that the insect seldom descend- 
 ed into the ground at a greater distance than three or four 
 feet from the trunk, and to the depth of four inches, or that 
 the greater part come within that distance. The lime is 
 known to be destructive of all animal substances, and I have 
 26* 
 
306 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 little doubt, that it actually decomposes and destroys the 
 insect in the chrysalis state ; at least, I hope that this is the 
 case. 
 
 " There are many reasons which should encourage a repe- 
 tition of this experiment. The digging round the trees is 
 highly useful to them, while tarring is very injurious. The 
 expense is not great. A man can dig round fiftv trees in 
 one day. The lime is a most salutary manure to the tree. 
 After the spot has been once opened and limed, the labor 
 of keeping it open will not be great. Three hogsheads of 
 air-slacked lime, or the sweepings of a lime-store, will suf- 
 tice for fifty trees, and will cost three dollars. As it is done 
 but once a year, I think it cannot be half so expensive as 
 tarring. 
 
 " I repeat it, that I mention my experiments with great 
 diffidence, as being the first of my own knowledge. It may 
 induce several persons to try it in different places, and where 
 trees are surrounded with others which are treated different- 
 ly. All I pray is, that it may prove successful and relieve 
 us from this dreadful scourge, which defaces our country, 
 while it impoverishes and disappoints the farmer." 
 
 The remedies proposed by Professor Peck were, 1st. Turn- 
 ing up the ground carefully, in October, as far as the 
 branches of a tree extend, to half a spade's depth, or five 
 inches, so as completely to invert the surface. A great 
 number of chrysalids would thus be exposed to the air and 
 sun, and of course destroyed. 2dly. Breaking the clods, 
 and smoothing the surface with a rake, and passing a heavy 
 roller over it, so as to make it very hard, and without cracks. 
 In grass grounds the sods should be turned with the grass 
 side down, and placed side by side, so as to be rolled. The 
 winter's frosts would heave and crack a smooth surface, but 
 it might be smoothed and hardened by the roller, or by other 
 means, in March, with much less trouble, time, and expense, 
 than roiling requires. As lime, when slacked, is reduced to 
 an impalpable powder, and is thus well adapted to close the 
 openings in the surface, Mr. Peck is inclined to think its 
 good effects are produced this way as well as by its caustic 
 qualities. — Thacher^s Orchardist, p. 93. 
 
 John Kenrick, Esq., of Newton, Massachusetts, propos- 
 ed, between the time in June after the worms had disappear- 
 ed and the iOth of October, to take the whole of the soil 
 surrounding the trees, to the extent at least of four feet from 
 the trunk, and to a suitable depth, and cart it away to a dis- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 307 
 
 tance from any trees which the canker-worms are in the 
 habit of feeding on ; and returning an equal quantity of com- 
 post or rich earth intermixed with manure. 
 
 A writer for "The New England Farmer," (Vol. III. p. 
 327,) states a case of an orchard having been preserved 
 from canker-worms by means of a large number of locust- 
 trees, equal to about double the number of apple-trees. 
 
 Mr. Roland Howard, of Easton, Massachusetts, observes, 
 (New England Farmer, Vol. IV. p. 391,) that "a quantity 
 of lime was collected from the sweepings of a lime-store, 
 and spread on the ground around a certain apple-tree, some 
 time in the month of November ; (the foliage of which tree 
 had been destroyed by the canker-worm the preceding sum- 
 mer ;) the ground being in a pulverized state, the lime was 
 spread as far from the trunk of the tree as the drippings from 
 the branches extended : the effect was stated to be the entire 
 disappearance of the worm, and an increased vigor of the 
 tree." The same writer observes, that " moving the earth 
 with a plough or hoe, late in November, or beginning of 
 December, has been found very efficacious in destroying 
 them." This last mentioned remedy, if it will always prove 
 efficient, will probably be the cheapest and most expedient. 
 But the worm must be capable of enduring a considerable 
 degree of cold, or unerring instinct would not lead it from 
 its dormitory in November (as it frequently does) to brave 
 the rigors of winter on the stem or branches of the tree. 
 We are inclined to believe, as well as to hope, that the ap- 
 plication of lime, as above stated, will prove effectual : and 
 if so, it will probably be preferable to any mode of applying 
 tar, or attacking the enemy above ground. 
 
 When the insects have ascended, their numbers may be 
 lessened by jarring or shaking the body or limbs of the tree, 
 causing them to suspend themselves by the threads which 
 they spin from their bodies, and striking them off with a 
 stick. It is said, that those which thus fall to the earth do 
 not rise again. Whether they would be able to resist the 
 effects of a sprinkling with soap-suds, saline or bitter infu- 
 sions, &c., is more than we can say ; but we wish their 
 powers might be tested, by showering them with those mix- 
 tures which are found to be the best antidotes against other 
 insects. 
 
 Caterpillar. "This is one of the worst enemies to an 
 orchard when neglected ; but easily destroyed by a little at- 
 tention. In the spring, when the nests are small and the 
 
308 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 insects young and tender, they never venture abroad in the 
 early part of the day, when the dew is on the trees, or in 
 bad weather ; they may then be efTectually destroyed by 
 crushing them in the nest. This attention, continued a short 
 time every spring, will destroy those in existence, and will 
 prevent their increase in future years : if left till grown 
 strong, they wander from their nests, and cannot be effectu- 
 ally overcome without great trouble and expense." — Coxe, 
 on Fruit- Trees . 
 
 The Hon. Timothy Pickering, in a letter to the corre- 
 sponding secretary of " The Massachusetts Agricultural 
 Society," has recommended an implement for the destruc- 
 tion of caterpillars. It is made by inserting some hog's 
 bristles between twisted wires, in such a manner as to form 
 a cylindrical brush, which will present bristles on every 
 side. This is attached to a pole, of such length as the trees 
 may require, and the caterpillars are brought down by it, 
 and then crushed. Other methods have been proposed, 
 such as casting over the tree a few handfuls of ashes, in the 
 morning, before the dew is dissipated from the foliage, or 
 after a shower of rain. A strong whitewash of fresh stone- 
 lime, applied by the means of a mop, or sponge, fixed to the 
 end of a pole, strong soap-suds, spirits of turpentine, a little 
 oil of any kind, particularly blubber oil, are likewise fatal 
 to the insects. But, perhaps, the most effectual remedy is 
 the hand, by which the insects may easily be removed at an 
 early stage ; but if this be neglected, it is thought that the 
 next best remedy is the use of Colonel Pickering's brush; as 
 above. In applying either of these remedies, care must be 
 taken to choose that part of the day when the caterpillars 
 are in their nests. They rarely quit them till nine o'clock, 
 and generally return to them again about twelve. 
 
 Curculio. This is a small bug, or beetle, which perfo- 
 rates the young fruit of the pear, apple, and all stone fruits, 
 and deposits its eggs in them. The eggs soon hatch, and a 
 small maggot is produced, which feeds either on the pulp of 
 the fruit, or on the kernel of the seed ; for the tastes and 
 habits of the different species are not similar. In the stone 
 fruits, this injury destroys their growth, and they fall, with 
 the little enemy within them. The insect retreats into the 
 earth, and passes the winter in the chrysalis state, and comes 
 forth just as the young fruit is forming, or the petals of the 
 flowers are falling, to renew its mischievous labors. This 
 insect continues its depredations from the 1st of May until 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 309 
 
 autumn. Dr. James Tilton, of Wilmington, Delaware, in 
 an article on this subject, published in the American editions 
 of" WilJich's Domestic Encyclopedia," observes, that " our 
 fruits, collectively estimated, must thereby be depreciated 
 more than half their value ;" and adds, in his directions for 
 destroying the insect, " all the domestic animals, if well 
 directed, contribute to this purpose. Hogs, in a special 
 manner, are qualified for the work of extermination. In 
 large orchards, care should be taken, that the stock of hogs 
 is sufficient to eat up all the early fruit which falls from May 
 till August. This precaution will be more especially neces- 
 sary in large peach orchards ; for otherwise, when the hogs 
 become cloyed with the pulp of the peach, they will let it 
 fall out of their mouths, and content themselves with the 
 kernel, which they like better ; and thus the curculio, 
 escaping from their jaws, may hide under ground till next 
 spring." 
 
 " The ordinary fowls of a farm-yard are great devourers 
 of beetles. Poultry in general are regarded as carnivorous, 
 in the summer, and therefore cooped some time before they 
 are eaten. Every body knows with what avidity ducks 
 seize on the tumble-bug, (^scaraboeiis carnifex,) and it is prob- 
 able, the curculio is regarded by all fowls as an equally de- 
 licious morsel. Therefore it is, that the smooth stone liuits, 
 particularly, succeed much better in lanes and yards, where 
 poultry run without restraint, than in gardens and other in- 
 closures, where fowls are excluded." 
 
 Instead of turning swine into orchards, to pick up the 
 fruit which falls, and thus destroy the worms which it con- 
 tains, it will often be found most expedient to gather such 
 fruit, and give it to swine in pens, Stc, either raw, or, what 
 would be better, boiled. If such measures were generally 
 taken with fruit which falls spontaneously, as to prevent the 
 insects, which generally cause it to drop prematurely, from 
 escaping into the ground, the worms, which destroy one half 
 our fruit, and very much deteriorate a considerable part of 
 the other half, would soon be extirpated from our orchards 
 and fruit-gardens. 
 
 Aphis, Plant-louse, Fuceron, or Vine-fretter . " This genus 
 of insects comprises many species and varieties, which are 
 so denominated from the plants they infest. The males are 
 winged, and the females without wings ; they are viviparous, 
 producing their young alive, in the spring ; and also ovipa- 
 rous, laying eggs in autumn. Water, dashed with force 
 
310 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 from a syringe, [or garden engine,] will prove as destructive 
 to tiiem as any thing, when on trees ; and smaller plants 
 may be washed with lime-water, with tobacco-water, with 
 elder leaves, infused in water, or with common soap-suds, 
 any of which will destroy the insects." — Loudon. "Tie 
 up some flour of sulphur in a piece of muslin, or fine linen, 
 and with this the leaves of young shoots or plants should be 
 dusted, or it may be thrown on them by means of a common 
 swan's-down putF, or even a dredging box. Sulphur has also 
 been found to promote the health of plants, on which it was 
 sprinkled, and that peach trees, in particular, were remark- 
 ably improved by it." — Domestic Kncyclopcdia. " In 
 green-houses, they are readily destroyed by the smoke of 
 tobacco, or of sulphur ; but in the open air, fumigation, 
 though much in vogue many years since, is of no avail. 
 The best remedy is the simplest. Soap-suds, forcibly ap- 
 plied, will, after one or two applications, effectually destroy 
 them, without apparent injury to the plant." — Deane. 
 
 A writer for " The New England Farmer," (Vol. III. p. 
 9,) after stating a number of experiments with soap-suds, for 
 destroying aphides, which were unsuccessful, or but partial- 
 ly succeeded, says, " I was led to conclude, that it is not 
 sufficient to wet the upper side of the leaves, thinking to 
 make them disagreeable or poisonous to the insect, but that 
 they must be well drenched or immersed in the suds. I 
 therefore applied again the same lemedy ; but with this dif- 
 ference, — instead of sprinkling the upper side of the 
 branches, I carried a pailful of suds from tree to tree, and, bend- 
 ing the tops of small trees, and the branches of larger ones, 
 immersed all the parts infested with lice, holding them in the 
 liquor for a moment, that none might escape being well wet. 
 On examining the trees, the next day, the greater part of the 
 lice were destroyed. It was found necessary to repeat the 
 same process once or twice, with suds not too weak, 
 say about two or three ounces of soap to a gallon of 
 water." Another writer in the same paper, (p. 10,) says, 
 "I have applied soap-suds to my apple-trees, in order to 
 kill the lice. It will be sufficient for me to say, that just 
 sprinkling them with suds will not kill them ; neither will 
 dipping the branches which are infested with them kill them. 
 But dipping and holding them in, as long as I can con- 
 veniently hold my breath, will destroy every one. The suds 
 do not appear to injure the leaves. I tried suds made on 
 purpose, and suds which had been used for family washing. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 311 
 
 The latter answers the purpose much the best." It is pos- 
 sible to make soap-suds so strong as to kill the tender 
 branches, as well as the insects which infest them. The 
 proportion above mentioned, of two or three ounces of soap 
 to a gallon of water, is probably most advisable. 
 
 Cut-worm. This is an ash-colored worm, with a stripe al- 
 most black on its back. When fully grown, it is about the 
 size of a goosequill, and about an inch and a quarter in 
 length. They are very apt to cut offyoung cabbages, cauli- 
 flowers, beets, &c. They never voluntarily appear on the 
 surface of the ground in the day time, but may be found 
 about an inch below it. In the night they make their ex- 
 cursions, cut off the stems of young plants, just at the top of 
 the ground, and again bury themselves. 
 
 Dr. Deane observed, " I once prevented their depreda- 
 tions in my garden, by manuring the soil with sea-mud, 
 newly taken from the flats. The plants generally escaped, 
 though every one was cut ofl" in a spot of ground that lies 
 contiguous. From the success of this experiment, I con- 
 clude that salt is very ofTensive or pernicious to them. Lime 
 and ashes, in some measure, prevent their doing mischief; 
 but sea-water, salt, or brine, would be more effectual anti- 
 dotes. The most effectual, and not a laborious remedy, 
 even in field-culture, is to go round every morning, and open 
 the earth at the foot of the plant, and you will never fail to 
 find the worm at the root within four inches. Kill him, and 
 you will save not only the other plants of your field, but, 
 probably, many thousands in future years." 
 
 There is some danger, in making use of salt, brine, or 
 sea-water, of injuring the plants in attempting to destroy 
 insects ; and we should, therefore, generally prefer decoc- 
 tions of elder, walnut leaves, or tobacco. Mr. Preston, of 
 Stockport, Pennsylvania, preserved his cabbage-plants from 
 cut-worms by wrapping a hickory-leaf round the stem, be- 
 tween the . roots and leaves. — JYew England Farmer, 
 Vol. III. p. 369. The Hon. Mr. Fiske, of Worcester, 
 Massachusetts, in speaking of this insect, says, "To search 
 out the spoiler, and kill him, is the very best course ; 
 but as his existence is not known except by his ravages, I 
 make a fortress for my plants with paper, winding it conical- 
 ly and firmly above the root, and securing it by a low em- 
 bankment of earth." — JYe'io England Farmer, Vol. IV, 
 p. 362. 
 
 Lice on apple-trees. There is a species of insect infesting 
 
312 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 apple-trees which may be styled tlie bark louse, to distin- 
 guish it from the plant louse, or aphis. It is, in form, like 
 half a kernel of rye, but much smaller, with the flat side 
 sticking to the bark of the tree. Jesse Buel, Esq., of Alba- 
 ny, gives the following statement of his mode of destroying 
 them : "In June last, I observed directions in ' The New 
 England Farmer,' for destroying the parasitic enemy ^ and, 
 that being the particular time to make the application, I im- 
 mediately set about it. For this purpose, I took eight parts 
 of water and two of soft soap, and mixed with these lime 
 enough to make a thick whitewash. With a whitewash and 
 paint brush I put this upon the trunks and limbs of trees, as 
 high as was practicable, filling the cracks in the bark, and 
 covering the whole surface. The effect has been, not only 
 to destroy most of the lice, but to give the trees an improved 
 and vigorous appearance. The outer bark, which, from a 
 stinted growth, had become rough and hard, has, in a meas- 
 ure, fallen off in flakes, and disclosed a soft, smooth bark, 
 the sure indication of health." 
 
 Jipple-tree Borer. (Saperda bivitata.) The scientific de- 
 scription of this very pernicious insect is thus given by Pro- 
 fessor Say, of Philadelphia: "Hoary ; above, light-brown, 
 with two broad white fillets. Inhabits the United States. 
 Body, white ; eyes, fuscous ; a small spot on the vertex, ana 
 another behind each eye, light-brown ; anlenntB, moderate, 
 slightly tinged with bluish ; thorax, light-brown, with two 
 broad, white lines, approaching before ; elytra, light-brown, 
 irregularly punctured ; a broad, white, longitudinal line on 
 each, nearer to the suture than to the outer edge. Length, 
 from one-half to seven-tenths of an inch. A very pretty in- 
 sect. In the larvae state, it is very injurious to the apple- 
 tree, boring into the wood." — Journal of the Academy of 
 Sciences, Phil., Vol. III. p. 409. 
 
 Professor Say, in a letter to Jesse Buel, Esq., says, " You 
 state that it leaves the pupa, and becomes perfect, in the lat- 
 ter part of April, and that the eggs are deposited beneath 
 the surface of the soil. These two circumstances ascertain- 
 ed, I would recommend the application, early in May, or 
 the latter part of April, of common bricklayer's mortar, 
 around the base of the tree, so as to cover completely the 
 part, and its immediate vicinity, where the deposit is made. 
 This preventive was successfully employed by Mr. Shotwell 
 against the attacks of the peach-tree insect, (see ' Ameri- 
 can Farmer,' Vol. VI. p. 14,) and I see no reason why it 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 313 
 
 should not be equally efficacious in the preservation of the 
 apple-tree." — Memoirs of the JVcw York Board of Agri- 
 culture, Vol. III. p. 479. 
 
 The " Massacfrusetts Agricultural Repository," (Vol. V. 
 p. 360,) contains a paper on this insect, by John Prince, 
 Esq., by which it appears, that worms of this kind are got 
 rid of by "digging round the tree, and clearing away the 
 earth to the roots, and then, with a sharp-pointed knife, a 
 chisel, or a gouge, and a small wire- to probe, if they are 
 deep in the tree, they may easily be destroyed." After tak- 
 ing out the worms, the wounds should be covered over with 
 grafting-clay and a large proportion of dry wood ashes 
 mixed, and the earth then returned to the tree. The process 
 for cleansing the trees from borers should be performed in the 
 spring, as soon as the frost is out of the ground, or at least 
 before the month of June, as the perfect insect escapes be- 
 fore that time. 
 
 Slug-worm, or JVaked Snail. These reptiles appear on 
 the leaves of fruit-trees in the month of July. Professor 
 Peck has ascertained that they are the progeny of a small 
 black fly, which deposits its eggs in the leaf in the months 
 of May and June. They may be destroyed by means of 
 lime, sprinkled over the leaves in the form of powder. For 
 this purpose, a wooden box, of convenient size, having its 
 bottom perforated with numerous small holes, is to be filled 
 with lime. This being mounted on a pole and shaken over 
 the tree, distributes the lime among the leaves, and the slugs 
 are immediately destroyed. The labor is very trivial ; a 
 man may cover a large tree in three or four minutes ; and 
 the desired effect is certain. Fine earth shaken tlirough a 
 basket or perforated box will answer as well. 
 
 " Another remedy, it is said, will prove equally effectual. 
 If is a strong infusion of tar, made by pouring water on tar, 
 and suffering it to stand two or three days, when it becomes 
 strongly impregnated. This, if sprinkled over the leaves by 
 means of an engine, will kill these vermin instantaneously. 
 A strong decoction of tobacco will probaUly produce the de- 
 sired effect, and tanner's bark put round the tree, it is said, 
 will have a salutary tendency as a preventive." — Thacliei-'s 
 Orchardist. 
 
 Forsyth recommends watering the ground where these in- 
 sects are with soap-suds and urine, mixed with tobacco- 
 water. Ducks admitted into a garden will destroy all within 
 their reach. 
 
 27 
 
314 THE COMPLETE FARMER AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 TTire-icorm, or Red-u-orm. This insect is slender, and 
 usually about an inch long, with a hard coat, and a pointed 
 head. INIr. William Moody, of Saco, (Maine.) in a commu- 
 nication to Hon. Josiah Quincy, published in " The Massa- 
 chusetts Agricultural Repository," (Vol. IV. p. 353,) ob- 
 serves, " 1 am persuaded, from experience, that sea-sand, 
 put under corn or potatoes with manure, or spread on the 
 land, will go far, if not wholly, to the total destruction of 
 these destructive worms, on which nothing else seems to 
 have any effect. It has a beneficial effect spread on land 
 before ploughing, or even after land is planted with corn or 
 potatoes, not only to destroy the wire-worm and other in- 
 sects, but to increase the crop. With ray neighbours, a 
 load of sea-sand is considered as preferable to a load of the 
 best manure, to mix in with their common barn manure, or 
 to spread on their gardens and low flat land." 
 
 Probably sea-mud or sea-water would produce good ef- 
 fects as preservatives against this and other insects. 
 
 Soaking seed corn in a solution of copperas in water, has 
 been found effectual against this insect. See page 30 of this 
 work. 
 
 The Striped Bug, or Yellow Fly. This is a small insect 
 of the coleoptcra order, or such as have crustaceous elytra, or 
 wing cases, like the beetle. The elytra of this bug are 
 striped with yellow and black. They prey on the young 
 plants of cucumbers, melons, squashes, and others of the 
 cucurbitacece species. " These insects may be considerably 
 thinned by killing them in a dewy morning, when they have 
 not the free use of their wings, and cannot well escape. But 
 nothing that I have tried has proved so effectual as sifting or 
 sprinkling powdered soot upon the plants when the morning 
 dew remains on them. This forms a bitter covering for the 
 plants, which the bugs cannot endure the taste of" — 
 Dcane. " We would recommend sprinkling the plants with 
 a little sulphur or Scotch snuff." — Farmer^s Assistant. 
 But the surest defence against these insects is, inclosing the 
 plants with a frame, and a muslin or gauze covering. 
 
 For able and scientific descriptions of most of the insects 
 which infest our fields and gardens, we would refer to a 
 " jDifcoiirse delivered before the Massachusetts Horticul- 
 tural Society, by Thaddeus W. Harris," published in 
 "The Xew'Engiand Farmer," Vol. XI. p. 204, and fol- 
 lowing pages. 
 
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 It was remarked by Sir John Sinclair, that the introduction of new 
 agricultural implements into a district is often a matter of the greatest 
 difficulty, owing to tiie ignorance, the prejudice, and obstinac}' of farm 
 servants and laborers. Many farmers, therefore, very absurdly retain 
 their old implements, though convinced of their inferiority, rather than 
 sour the tempers of their laborers by attempting to introduce new ones ; 
 in many cases however they have succeeded by attention and persever- 
 ance, and by rewarding their laborers many new and valuable imple- 
 ments have been brought into general use. 
 
 The farmers of JNew England are too enlightened, and have too much 
 regard for their own best interest, to be under the dominion of such prof- 
 itless prejudices. Accordingly, we find not only a very increasing de- 
 mand for new and improved agricultural machines, tools, «&c., but that 
 our practical farmers see that it for their interest to procure the best. 
 
 The Agricultural Warehouse and Seed Store, in Boston, 51 and 52 
 North Market Street, Jos. Breck & Co. proprietors, has become so exten- 
 sive and of so much importance to the community, as to induce the pro- 
 prietors to continue and extend it in all its various branches for the ac- 
 commodation of the practical and scientific farmer, by the introduction 
 of new and useful implements of husbandry, and to furnish the best 
 tools for his business. 
 
 An establishment of this kind not only answers the above purpose, 
 but serves as a depository in which the inventive artisan may place his 
 articles for sale. Tlie proprietors do not hesitate to say, that among the 
 variety of articles on hand at this establishment, many are far superior 
 in tiieir form and construction, and far better adapted to the purpose for 
 which they are intended, than any others which have been in use in this 
 country. 
 
316 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Threshing Machines. Pope's improved thfeshing machine was in- 
 vented by the late Joseph Pope, Esq., of Hallowell, Maine, and has 
 been in successful operation in different parts of the country for many 
 years, and is found to be the best operating machine for all kinds of 
 grain that has been in use ; it is vi^ell adapted for getting out rice. 
 
 Hale's Threshing Machine. Hale's newly invented rice and grain 
 threshing machines are found on trial to be the most thorough and 
 effective implements we have had in operation for the purpose intended ; 
 it is a very simple operating machine, and powerful and quick in its 
 motion ; does the work well, separates and cleans the grain at the same 
 time. This machine must be to the rice planter an indispensable imple- 
 ment ; it requires but one man and a horse to work it. 
 
 Straie Cutters. The straw cutter is a machine well worth the atten- 
 tion of every farmer, and should be iii common use with every person 
 feeding stock ; and from the gieat improvement and simplicity of ihe 
 machines now in use, the work is done with great expedition and facility. 
 It is a subject of great regret to every friend of the agricultural interest, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 317 
 
 that these machines are not in more general use. Every fanner who is 
 disposed to use fodder to the best possible advantage, and preserve his 
 animals in the best health, in all cases cuts his fodder. For farther ex- 
 planation of the profits and advantages arising from cutting fodder the 
 following statement is given : ' 
 
 Mr. Benjamin Hale's account of the savings made by the use of Straw 
 Cutters, employed to cut Hay and Straw as Fodder for Horses. 
 
 Mr Hale is proprietor of a hne of stages running between Newbury- 
 port and Boston. He says. 
 The whole amount of hay purchased from 
 
 Apiil 1 to Oct. 1, 1816 (six months), and Tons. cwt. qrs. lis. 
 
 used at the stage stable, was 32 4 10 
 
 At twenty-five dollars per ton, (the lowest 
 
 price at which hay was purchased in 1816,) $800 00 
 
 From Oct. I, 1816, to April 1, 1817, whole 
 
 amount of hay and straw purchased for, 
 
 and consumed by the same nu'mber of 
 
 horses. 
 
 , viz. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 T. 
 
 cwt. 
 
 qrs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Cost. 
 
 Straw 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 $160 23 
 
 Hay 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 00 
 
 350 00 
 
 $510 23 
 Deduct on hand April I, 1817, by estimation, 
 four tons more than there was Oct. 1, 1816, 
 at twenty-five dollars per ton, 100 *410 83 
 
 Saving by the use of the straw cutter, four 
 months of the last six months, or the dif- 
 ference in expense in feeding with cut 
 fodder, and that which is uncut, $389 77 
 
 Whole amount of hay used for the horses of 
 
 the Salem stage, twenty- five in number, T. act. qrs. lbs 
 
 from April 1 to Oct. 1, 1816, viz. . 22 
 
 At thirty dollars per ton, (the lowest price in 
 
 Salem,) ^ggQ qq 
 
 Whole amount consumed by the same num- 
 ber of horses, from Oct. 1, 1816, to April 1. 
 1817, 
 
 T. net. qrs. lbs. Cost. 
 
 Straw 15 13 $187 80 
 
 Hay 2 15 81 00 
 
 Saving in using chopped fodder five months, $391 20 
 Total saving in using the straw cutter nine 
 
 months, viz. : at Newburyport, four months, $389 77 
 
 At Salem, five months, 391 gg 
 
 Total, $780 97 
 
 The members of the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Agricul- 
 tural Society, to whom the above account was communicated by Mr. 
 Hale, were informed by that gentleman, that he used no more grain 
 
 27* 
 
318 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 from Oct. 1816, to April, 1817, than was used from April, 1816, to Oct 
 ldl6. 
 
 Remarlis. — There is not only much saving and gain in cutting fodder 
 when hay is low, but the animal is, kept in better health, more particu- 
 larly old horses, and such as may have been injured in their wind. 
 
 It is a fact that horses will live and continue serviceable much longer 
 when fed on cut fodder. The machine invented and manufactured by 
 Willis, known as " Willis's improved Slraic and Hay Cutter" is the 
 most durable and best operating machine that has come to our knowl- 
 edge ; and what is worthy of notice, ihey require but one person to 
 operate them, which is not the case with many other machines; in this 
 there is a great saving in cutting feed, and likewise the fodder may be 
 cut of any length required ; the knives beiiig placed in front of the 
 machine, can be at all times examined and kept in good order. The 
 feedmg rollers are so constructed, that while the machine is in the act 
 of cutting, the rollers cease to feed, which renders the cutting operation 
 very easy. 
 
 Eastman s Straw Cutter, with improved side gearing and cylindrical 
 knives. This machine is well calculated for large and extensive estab- 
 lishments. Price, fifty to sixty dollars. 
 
 IVillis's Vertical Straw and Hay Cutter. It is well constructed, made 
 of the best materials and of the best workmanship. Fed and worked by 
 one man ; works free and easy, and not liable to get out of order. It will 
 cut from thiity-five to forty bushels per hour. Price thirty-five dollars. 
 For the cost this is the best machine in use. 
 
 This is to certify, that I have used Willis's improved straw cutter the 
 past season, and consider it the best machine for the purpose now in 
 use. NATHAN ADAMS. 
 
 The Common Dutch Hand Cutting MaMne, is one of those implements 
 in common use, and known to every practical farmer ; and is considered 
 as good a machine for a small establishment as ^any in use. Will cut 
 from ten to twenty bushels per hour. 
 
 Safford's Improved and Common Straw Cutter, with side gearing ; well 
 approved, and is in very general use. 
 
 Green's Patent Straic Cutter. The most approved machine now in 
 use for cutting fodder : very simple in its construction, and in no way 
 liable to get out of order; does the work with great ease and despatch. 
 
 Root Steamer. The above cut represents a root steamer, described ii 
 the Farmer's Magazine, (a work printed in Scotland.) Vol. XVIII. page 
 74, and alluded to in page 51 of the present work. It consists of a boiler, 
 and wooden chest or box placed over it or near it. The box may be of 
 any size, and so placed, as to be supplied and emptied by wheel and hand 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 319 
 
 barrows in the easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, being 
 made to open. " If the box is made eight feet by five, and three deep, 
 it will hold as many potatoes as will feed fifty cowa for twenty-four hours, 
 and these may be steamed in an hour." 
 
 Ploughs. This implement, one of%he oldest and most useful employed 
 on a farm, has undergone of late years a wonderful change in all its 
 most essential parts, and has been greatly improved. The cast iron 
 plough is now most generally used among the best farmers, and consid- 
 ered decidedly the best. Among the different ploughs now made of cast 
 iron, Howard's stands unrivalled. They have been used at the different 
 catlle shows and ploughing matches, and have in all cases been approved 
 by them. At the Brighton cattle show at the exhibition in October, 
 1832, they received the premium of ten dollars, awarded as being the 
 best plough presented. 
 
 [Extract from the Report of the Committee.] 
 
 " The ploughs were all of cast iron, and by six of the most approved 
 manufacturers. The one by Mr. Charles Howard, of Hingham, was a 
 superior implement, considerable improvements having recently been 
 made by him, in making the mould-board longer than usual, and swel- 
 ling the breast of the share, so as to make every part bear equally ; by 
 which means the plough runs more true and steady, is always free from 
 carrying forward any earth, and wears perfectly bright ; and being made 
 on mathematical principles, he informed the committee he could make 
 the different sizes always the same." JOHN PRINCE, 
 
 EBENEZER HEATH, 
 JOHN BAKER, 3d. 
 
 " The duty of awarding a premium ' to the plough which shall be 
 adjudged best of all those used at the ploughing match,-' devolved on 
 the two committees , and they agreed unanimously to award it to Mr. 
 Charles Howard, of Hingham, for his new and improved plough ; ten 
 dollars." GORHAM PARSONS, 
 
 Chairman of Single Teams. 
 JOHN PRINCE, 
 
 Chairman of Double Teams. 
 
 There has been no plough presented since 1832 which has been con- 
 sidered better than the Howard plough; therefore the committee have 
 not awarded a premium since that year ; they still offer the premium of 
 ten dollars for the best plough. 
 
 Side hill Plough. This plough, for which a premium was given at 
 Brighton, is found to be a very great improvement on the ploughs now 
 in use. for working on side-hills. The mould-board is so constructed as 
 to shift on each side, as may be required, by turning on the under side 
 of the plough as the team turns at each end of the furrow. 
 
320 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 Howard's Improted Double Mould-Board Plough. This plough is 
 well calculated tor furrowing out land, splitting hills, ploughing between 
 corn, potato, and vegetable cultivation, to great advantage. A great 
 labor-saving machine ; saves nearly all the hoeing of corn or potatoes. 
 
 Bigdoic's Plough. This plough is made of wrought iron, and is in 
 general use, and very much approved, being very strong and quite light; 
 does the work well with little labor. 
 
 Morse's Plough. Similar to Bigelow's, but a better made article. 
 
 Rice's common Wood Plough. Of all sizes. 
 
 Shovel Plough, and Plough Scrapers. Of all sizes, made to order at 
 the shortest notice. 
 
 Quaker Hand Plough. For gardens, a very useful implement, and 
 used to great advantage in garden cultivation. Steel pointed. 
 
 Chandler's Improved Double Harrow. This harrow is so constructed 
 ae to be in two parts, and joined together by hinges on two straight cen- 
 tre pins, so that one part can be raised and swung over on the other half 
 as occasion requires. Its advantage over the common harrow is, that it 
 is less liable to be stopped, as one side may be elevated or turned to a 
 perpendicular position, while the other side proceeds horizontally ; it 
 may thus be drawn nearer to rocks, trees, &c. It will likewise better 
 adapt itself to ridges, hollows, and uneven land. 
 
 Tree and Bush Pullers. The tree and bush puller is one of the most 
 useful and effective implements in use ; it is employed in clearing land 
 of under brush, small trees, barberry and other bushes. It is of iron, of 
 
ANU RURAL ECONOMIST. 321 
 
 any size or dimensions required, sometliing in the form of a rake or claw, 
 with the teeth much bent. The ground is loosened around the tree or 
 bush which is to be removed. The teeth or claws are entered on one 
 side, a horse or oxen are attached by a chain to the claw and drawn on 
 the opposite side. One man and horse or one yoke of oxen will do more 
 work with this implement than five men can do without it, in digging 
 and clearins land. 
 
 Cultivators. Howard and Seaver's patent fixed and expanding culti- 
 vators, of all sizes. The cultivator is an implement that is coming into 
 very general use in all parts of tlie country, and serves in a great meas- 
 ure in lieu of hoeing. The teeth are so constructed as to raise the 
 ground, and leaves it very light and free for cultivation, and at the same 
 time destroys the weeds ; and is well adapted to southern and western 
 cultivation. 
 
 These cultivators are adapted to all kinds of ground, for running 
 through rows of corn, potatoes, and vegetables of all kinds ; and used 
 in the cultivation of hops, instead of the plough and hoe, and are found 
 far superior to either It is likewise well adapted to harrow in grain and 
 grass seed ; and, for the many uses to which this implement may be ap- 
 plied, it piust be considered one of the most valuable tools that is used 
 on a farm, and is coming into very general use. 
 
 This certifies, that I have used Seaver's cultivator, and find it a much 
 better article to work among corn and potatoes, than any machine that 
 I have ever tried ; it clears the weeds between the rows much more 
 efieclually than either a plough or harrow, and saves a great deal of 
 labor. BENJ. WHEELER. 
 
 Framingham, 1834. 
 
 Broad-Cnst Machine. Bennet's broad-cast machine. This machine, 
 which is designed for sowing broad-cast is found, when used on smooth 
 and even ground, to answer a good purpose, sows very regular and even, 
 and is used with great despatch. 
 
 Tree Brushes. Pickering's improved wire brushes are found to be the 
 most effective implements for the purpose of clearing trees and destroy- 
 ing caterpillars, of any thing that has ever been used. This brush, which 
 is made in a spiral or taper form, and about eight inches long, is fixed 
 on the end of a pole, the small part of the brush is entered into the 
 webs, and a moderate twist of two or three turns takes the web and all 
 connected with it clear from the tree. It should be used very early in 
 
322 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 the morning and late in the afternoon, when the insects are in their 
 neets. 
 
 Cheese Presses. Quaker's improved self-governing cheese press. The 
 press is so constructed as to govern and regulate itself, jn pressing a 
 cheese of any size, wilhnut any weights. 
 
 Leavelt's Improved Cheese Press; which is so constructed, that seven 
 or fourteen pounds' weight will press any common sized cheese. 
 
 Cheese Hoops, different sizes. 
 
 Cheese Cloths. 
 
 Curd Mills, for cutting cheese curds, which facilitates the labor of the 
 dairy. 
 
 Lactometers. This invention is found to be of great utility and ad- 
 vantage in testing the quality of cream given by each cow. It consists 
 of a small mahogany frame which contains four or six glass tubes of 
 ten inches in length and half an inch in diameter. These tubes are di- 
 vided into tenths, and numbered from one to ten, which show the quan- 
 tity of cream given by each cow. This little article is found very use- 
 ful, and is much used in large dairies. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 323 
 
 Gaull's Patent Churn, which has been in use for several years, is the 
 most approved and convenient churn now in use. The particular ad- 
 vantage is the facility with which it can be worked. From its quick 
 and powerful motion it will produce the greatest quantity of butter from 
 the same quantity of cream ; is easy to clean, and no way liable to get 
 out of order. 
 
 Mr. Fessenden, Editor of the JVew England Farmer. 
 
 Sir, — In answer to the inquiry respecting the Gault's churn, which 
 I purchased at the agricultural warehouse, I give it as my decided opin- 
 ion, that they are the best churns I have ever seen in use. They are 
 very convenient to keep clean, bring the butter very easy, and require 
 not more than fifteen or twenty minutes to do a churning. 
 
 Respectfully yours, B. REYNOLDS. 
 
 Sharon, June 15, 1829. 
 
 Stone Churn. A small article, well calculated for small families. 
 
 Davis's Improved Patent Dirt Scraper. This road or dirt scraper, in- 
 vented by Shadrock Davis, is used to great advantage in removing dirt 
 or gravel, more particularly in stony lands, from the peculiar construe- 
 
324 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 tion of the points, which are similar to those of a plough point. They 
 enter the ground very free and easy, fill and discharge themselves, and 
 are easily managed by one horse or a yoke of oxen. Ploughing is un- 
 necessary where these shovels are used. 
 
 We liie undersigned hereby certify, that we have used Davis's patent 
 plough-pointed road and dirt scraper, and we consider it a great improve- 
 ment on the common road scraper, and can with confidence recommend 
 it to the public, as being superior to any implement of the kind we have 
 ever used,* particularly in sandy and stony land, being so constructed as 
 to load itself without the use of ploughing, which is common in using 
 the old-fashioned dirt scraper. We consider it one of the greatest laoor- 
 saving implements to the road-maker that can be used, and as such we 
 fully recommend it to the public. 
 
 ABM. WASHBURN. Bridgewater. 
 HENRY S. PACKARD, .\orth Dartmouth. 
 BRADFORD HOWLAND, South Dartmouth. 
 
 Pruning Shears. This article, which was formerly made by ^V'ake- 
 field, of Gardener, has since been very much improved, and is now con- 
 sidered as one of the best and most approved implements^in use, and 
 has taken the place of the pruning knife ; and for grape vines and 
 small trees is considered much the best; as upon an easy drawing stroke 
 it cuts very smooth and fair without injury to the bark or wood. 
 
 Scythes. The agricultural concave scythes, which are found, fiom 
 the peculiar form and shape in which they are made, to cut upon the 
 principle of a drawing stroke, and are very easily ground and kept in 
 good order, and are considered the best scythes that are manufactured. 
 From the peculiar construction of these scythes the edge is always left 
 true in the middle of the scythe. 
 
 Scythe Rifles. Austin's and Derby's rifles are considered the best arti- 
 cles made for the purpose. Tliey are about the size of the common snnd 
 rifle, are cased with fine emery, and give a very sharp and good eds'e. 
 They are of very general use, and good substitutes for the scythe stone. 
 
 Scyllie Snathe. This article, though in very common use, has been 
 altered and improved to great advantage within a few years past. The 
 snathes manufiictured by V'ickery Baker for the proprietors of the ai^ri- 
 cultural warehouse are found to be the most approved and best calcu- 
 lated to work free and easy. The regular quick turn at the heel, and 
 the strong and substantial iron rings winch secure the scythe and nibs, 
 are considered a great improvement in those snatlies. 
 
 Willis s Patent Brass Syringe. This syringe is intended for watering 
 all kinds of green house and out-door plants, and for preserving grape 
 vines from mildew, and has been used with a solution prepared for that 
 purpose, with great success. See the following recipe : 
 
 Take a pint and a half of sulphur, and a lump of the best unslacked 
 lime ; put these in a vessel of about seven gallons' measurement ; let 
 the sulphur be thrown in first, and the lime over it ; then pour in a pail 
 of boiling water, stir it well, and let it stand half an hour ; then fill the 
 vessel with cold water, and after stirring well again, allow tiie whole to 
 settle : after it has 'oecome settled dip out the clear liquid into a barrel, 
 and fill the barrel with cold water, and it is then fit for use. You next 
 proceed with a syringe holding about a pint and a half, and throw the 
 liquid with it on the vines in every direction, so as to completely cover 
 foliage, fruit, and wood ; this should be particularly done when the fruit 
 is just forming, and about one-third the size of a pea, and may be con- 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 325 
 
 tinued twice or thrice a week for two or three weeks. The whole pro- 
 cess for one or two hundred grape vines need not exceed half an hour. 
 
 Harris's Improved Paint Mill. This mill can be used by hand, horse, 
 or any other power that it may be attached to, and works to great advan- 
 tage. From the very plain and simple manner of its construction, it is 
 easily taken to pieces and cleaned, and shifted from one place to 
 another, and used with great faciUty, and is considered one of the best 
 and most useful mills in use. 
 
 CERTIFICATES FOR HARRIs's PAINT MILL. 
 
 I the undersigned hereby certify, that I have used Harris's improved 
 patent paint mill, purchased at the agricultural warehouse, Boston, and 
 consider it the best and most convenient mill for the purpose intended 
 of any I have ever used. It is very readily cleaned and put in order. 
 
 Hingham, Feb. '20, 1834. SETH B. CUSHING. 
 
 28 
 
326 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 I the undersigned do certify, that I have used one of Harris's paint 
 mills for grinding a variety of paint for about two 3'ears, and do not hesi- 
 tate to give it the preference to every other mill I have ever used. 
 
 Ware, May 2(j, 1834. THOMAS B. WESTERN. 
 
 I hereby certify, that I have been in the paint business for fifteen years, 
 and have used different kinds of paint mills, and have not found any so 
 good as Harris's patent mill. I have ground with one of these mills 
 one hundred pounds of lead in two hours. I. BARTLETT. 
 
 I have used one of Harris's patent paint mills for grinding small col- 
 ors for some time past, and find it the best mill for the purpose in use. 
 
 Boston, June 20, 1834. GEORGE YENDELL. 
 
 Winnowing Machines. Holmes's improved winnowing machine is one 
 of the best that is in use. It is very plain and simple in its construction, 
 and very powerful in its operation ; is well calculated for cleaning all 
 kinds of grain, and may be applied to many other purposes, such as 
 cleaning rice, coffee, «&:c. 
 
 Elliot's patent horizontal mill is for the same purpose. Though 
 smaller and more compact, is found equally' as good ; is considered as an 
 improvement on the common winnowing machines now in use. The 
 motion of the flyers is horizontal, and the sieves have a forward and 
 backward motion. 
 
 Grain Cradles. This article, like tlie scythe snathe, has undergone 
 a very great alteration and is much improved. The scythe is well 
 secured, and finished in a superior manner, and made of the best cast 
 steel. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 327 
 
 Revolving Horse Rake. The revolving rake, which has been in gen- 
 eral use in most parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is found to be 
 one of the most useful and labor-saving machines now in use. One 
 man and horse, with a boy to lead, will rake on an average from ten to 
 fifteen acres per day with ease, and do the work well. They are coming 
 into very general use in all parts of the country, and will no doubt in a 
 few years supersede the use of the common hand rake. 
 
 Cast Steel and Common Ajces. This very common article among our 
 farmers is one of the most useful implements ever invented. Under- 
 bill's cast steel a.xes have been considered as the best, and most ap- 
 proved in form and shape, and are warranted in every respect to be 
 of the best quality. They are finished in the most perfect manner, and 
 ground to a fine smooth cutting edge. 
 
 Hatchets, cleavers, and many other tools, made by different woikmen, 
 and finished in the same manner. 
 
 Hoes. Great improvement has been made in this article of late. A 
 great variety of hoes are now manufactured, of difierent forms. Those 
 made by Morgan are considered the best now in use ; they are made of 
 the best of steel, crooked neck, and socket handles. 
 
328 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 The Prong or Potato Hoe is one of the most useful, simple, and im- 
 proved implements that is employed. It was invented and used in the 
 first instance for digging potatoes ; it was afterwards found as useful for 
 planting £is for digging them, and hkewise is used for almost every pur- 
 pose for which a hoe has been used; and they are emploved to the great- 
 est possible advantage in stony or rocky lands, and in planting new 
 land; they are hkewise used as a garden hoe, being one of the best im- 
 plements a gardener can have in use, or in working between rows of 
 vegetables, digging round young trees, loosening the ground, &c. 
 
 Lord VernoTis J\'ew Tillage Hoe. The utility of this garden hoe will 
 be duly appreciated upon trial. Few gardeners or nursery men employed 
 in gardening wdl be without them when once they have been used, 
 They are employed to great advantage in deep tillage ; in many cases 
 they are superior to digging or forking the land. 
 
 Cast Steel Shovels and Spades. Ames's improved Cast Steel back 
 Strapped Shovels and Spades are very superior in every respect to the 
 common iron and steel shovels. They wear much longer, continue 
 brighter, more sharp, and are used with great ease. This article, though 
 one of the oldest and most common implements in use, has been much 
 improved. Also a great variety of other kinds of spades and shovels, 
 made by different manufacturers. Irish shovels and spades with long 
 handles. 
 
 Bill-Hook. This article is much used in England in pruning and 
 clearing brush, and is a good tool as a substitute for the pruning saw and 
 chisel, and can be used with more expedition. 
 
 Garden and Field Rollers. E. Phinney, Esq., of Lexington, has made 
 great and successful use of the roller for grass land, and has given a de- 
 scription and dimensions of what he considers the most convenient and 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 529 
 
 best proportion, viz. : The rollers to be six feet in length and five feet in 
 in diameter, placed on an iron axle of the same length by one inch and 
 a half in diameter; the roller to be made of oak or any hard wood plank, 
 each plank to be about four inches wide and two and a half thick ; the 
 roller is made in two parts, of three feet each ; each end of the axle is 
 secured in a frame which is made of joist, of a suitable size to receive 
 the end of the axle ; to this frame is attached the shafts in which the 
 horse is, or a tongue to which the oxen are attached, which completes 
 the rollers. 
 
 Mr. Phinney says, this sized roller presents the following among other 
 advantages, viz. : If the ground is very mellow, the large sized roller 
 presses the small stones more directly into the ground and renders the 
 surface more regular and even ; the large roller also moves easier, and 
 the weight falling more directly upon the small stones, they are, as he 
 has before observed, better pressed into the earth, the lumps of earth 
 more finely broken, and the surface left much smoother. For garden 
 rollers or gravel walks the stone or iron rollers are prepared, of different 
 sizes. 
 
 Com Sheller. A corn sheller is one of the most convenient and labor- 
 saving implements that the practical farmer has in use. Various ma- 
 chines for this purpose have been invented. The most improved and 
 28* 
 
330 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 best adapted for common use aje those of Harrison, with the patent ver- 
 tical wheel. It can be employed in all cases for large or small-sized ears. 
 It is very simple in its construction jmd durable in its operation, and no 
 way liable to get out of order ; one man can work it to good advanteige, 
 though a man to turn and a boy to feed it works it much better than one 
 alone. In this way it will shell ten to twelve bushels per hour. They 
 are so light and portable as to be easily removed from place to place, 
 and one machine will serve for several families, or even the inhabitants 
 of a small town. 
 
 WillLs's and Hale's improved Portalle Horse Poicer, may be worked 
 by one or more horses, mules, or oxen. As every farmer keeps more or 
 less of these animals, no additional expense is required in working these 
 powers. They are calculated to propel any kind of machinery or agri- 
 cultural implements in common use, such as tlireshing machines, cider 
 mills, corn and cob mills, straw and hay cutters, corn shellers, grind- 
 stones, winnowing machines, &c. ; they are likewise well adapted for 
 machine shops, in working the circular or web saw, turning lathes, or 
 any machinery where power is required. The alterations and improve- 
 ments made in this power render it very simple in its construction and 
 easy in its operation, and not liable to get out of order when properly 
 made. They occupy but the small space of nine feet by two, and are 
 easily removed ; they are truly labor-saving machines, and must come 
 into general use with farmers and mechanics. They are hkewise well 
 adapted for the use of plantations, being Ccdculated for working saw or 
 roller gins, and other purposes to which they may be applied ; they are 
 so portable as to be transported at a moderate expense, and may be put 
 in operation by any person of common capacity. 
 
 Bark or Plaster Mills. The Troy bark and plaster mills. These mills 
 are cJtered and much improved from the old-fashioned mill which has 
 been in use for many years. 
 
 Family Hand Mills. Willis's improved patent family or plantation 
 mill, calculated for grinding corn, colFee, Six:., has a small balance wheel, 
 which regulates its operation and causes it to work free and easy. 
 
 Glass Covers for Plants. These covers are used for covering plants, 
 — protecting them in their growth and preventing mildew. 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 331 
 
 milts s Stationary Horse Foicer, and Corn Cracker Mtached. Corn 
 and Cob Cracker. This mill, which is calculated for grinding cob and 
 corn together, is found to make the best provender and the most eco- 
 nomical food for flittening hogs or horses. It is so constructed as to be 
 used with a common grist mill or separate, as circumstances may require 
 and may be worked by a single horse or any other power. From thirty 
 to forty bushels per hour have been ground in those mills. 
 
 Grindstones on Friction Rollers. Grindstones of different sizes hung 
 on friction rollers and moved with a foot treader, are found to be a great 
 improvement on the present mode of hanging grindstones. The ease 
 
332 
 
 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 with which they move upon the rollers renders them very easy to turn 
 with the foot, by which the labor of one man is saved ; and the person 
 in the act of grinding can govern the stone more to his mind by having 
 the complete control of liis work. Stones bung in this manner are 
 coming daily moie iu use. and wherever used give universal satisfac- 
 tion. The rollers can be attached to stones hung in the common way. 
 
 Hay Knives. These knives are for the purpose of cutting the hay in 
 the mow, and are a desirable article for that purpose, and almost indis- 
 pensable where hay is stacked in the yard, and the farmer would wish 
 to spend his hay to the best advantage. 
 
 Peat Knires, for cutting peat ; an article which is daily increasing in 
 use for fuel, and in many parts of our country is found in great abun- 
 dance, and if cut at a suitable season of the year, is used to good advan- 
 tage. 
 
 Pomace Kmves. These knives are almost indispensable in a cider 
 country. 
 
 Ditching Knives, far ditching Low Lands. 
 
 Cast Steel Edging and Trimming Kiiizes. These knives are calculated 
 for edging and trimming grass-plats, borders, <fcc. ; are found to be one 
 of the most convenient tools a gardener can have in use. 
 
 Grass and Edgeing Shears. These shears are for the purpose of edg- 
 ing banks and slopes, for trimming and keeping the banks in good order, 
 and the oftener they are used the more thrifty and thick the grasa will 
 grow. 
 
 Hale's Improved Rotary Pump. This pump, which is a great improve- 
 ment upon the various rotary pumps now in use, is very plain and sim- 
 ple in its construction, and no way liable to get out of order ; but works 
 with great facility, throws a constant and regular stream by a very sim- 
 ple operation of a crank, and is calculated for all kinds of domestic pur- 
 poses, as well as for green-houses, factories, &c. There are different 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 333 
 
 sizes of these pumps manufactured, which are so constructed as to 
 answer as forcmg pumps, in such a manner as to carry water to any dis- 
 tance, and are a good substitute for an eno-ine 
 
 Zinc Hollow Ware either for culinary °use or tiie dairy, by wholesale 
 or retail, may be had at tlie agricultural warehouse. The proprietors are 
 sole agents for vendmg the above wares. The prices of this ware will 
 upon exammation be found not to vary materially from that of tin and 
 iron, yet as durable as iron, easily cleansed, not subject to rust, giving 
 the article cooked or kept in it no unpleasant taste, and containing in 
 itselt no poison, like copper, brass, and lead. 
 
 Zinc kettles will be found to cook rice, hominy, and all kinds of 
 sweetmeats, better than any other kind of metal, neither discolorinjr nor 
 varying the flavor of the substance cooked; and for these purposis, it 
 will ere long be substituted for brass and copper, to avoid the poisonous 
 corrosions of those metals. ^ 
 
 Zinc pans, for the dairy, will be found by the dairy-woman an object 
 worthy of her attention, from these considerations : that they will areatlv 
 outlast any other pans, that the same size pans will produce oni-sixth 
 more cream or butter, and of a superior flavor; they are more easily 
 cleansed and will keep milk siceet longer by a number of hours. Zinc 
 tubs and firkins will keep butter sweet several davs longer in hot 
 weather than those of wood or other kinds of metal. ' This has been a 
 subject of experiment, and the results safely warrant the statement 
 Hence families who prefer sweet butter to rancid, will do well to avail 
 themselves of these tubs, for keeping their butter sweet and retaining 
 
 Scott, Keith, <^ Co.'s Improved Cast Iran Pump. This pump was in- 
 vented by Jesse Reed, of Bridgewater, and proves to be the most simple 
 and best constructed pump that is in use, being made of cast iron, which 
 
334 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 is considered the best metal which water can pass through ; is very 
 durable and cheap. It has metal boxes so constructed, that in raising 
 the handle the lower box or valve is opened, and the water let off, which 
 prevents its freezing. They are so plain and simple in their construc- 
 tion, that they can be put up or taken down by any common workman, 
 and no way liable to get out of order. They are attached to wooden 
 logs or lead pipes, and are well calculated for all domestic purposes. 
 
 Cattle Chains. These chains have of late been introduced for the 
 purpose of securing cattle to the stall, — are found to be the safest and 
 most convenient mode of fastening cows and oxen in the stanchion. 
 • They consist of a chain which pasaos round the animal's neck, and by 
 a ring attached to the stall plays freely up and down, and leaves the 
 animal at liberty to lie down or rise at pleasure, and keeps him perfectly 
 secure. 
 
 Brooks's Patent Silk Spinning Machine. Brooks's silk spinning and 
 reeling machine, is found to be a very simple and easy operating ma- 
 chine,''and yet one of the most perfect that has been invented lor the 
 purpose of reeling and twisting silk from the cocoons, and manufactur- 
 ing it into sewing silk. By the different arrangements of this machine, 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 
 
 335 
 
 it will operate upon a single or double thread, as may be required, and 
 prepare it for twisting or weaving. E.Yperience has fully proved, that by 
 uniting the filaments of silk as they are drawn from the cocoons, wet in 
 tlieir natural glutinous substance, before they dry, the thread is more 
 firmj smooth, and strong. The simplicity of the machine, and the very 
 easy way in which it is used, bring it within the comprehension and 
 capacity of any person to use it. Mr. Brooks has received a premium 
 for his invention from several societies, and of late a premium and medal 
 from the Scott's legacy, in Philadelphia. 
 
 Lightning Rods and Glass Blocks. From the repeated and almost 
 daily occurrences which happen from the effect of lightning, occasioning 
 death, and destruction of much property, it is a matter of surprise that 
 every farmer does not have attached to his dwelling-house and barn a 
 lightning rod, and guarded in the best possible manner, which is done 
 by passing the rod through glass blocks which are constructed for the 
 purpose. 
 
 Ox Yokes. Many improvements have been made in this article, and 
 even in the bows and keys. 
 
 Brass and Composition Balls. These balls are not only ornamental, 
 but are very useful in preventing the animal from hooking, or being in 
 other respects mischievous and troublesome. They have been in very 
 general use, and add much to the appearance of the animal. 
 
 Pomroy's Patent Spring Staple, for securing horses. The improve- 
 ment in this staple, is such, that if the horse is cast, or in any way en- 
 tangled, he can disengage and free himself. Many fine and valuable 
 horses are lost for the want of this self-regulating staple. 
 
 Carriage Lifter, or levers, for raising wagons, carts, or carriages of 
 all kinds, or for raising loads, pressing goods, &c. Being a small handy 
 implement, it may be taken in a carriage, while travelling, and found 
 very convenient and handy for the purpose. Carriage winches and 
 wrenches are likewise very handy and convenient travelling compan- 
 ions, and should always be at hand. 
 
 Jlpple Barer. The apple paring machine is used to great advantage 
 in that part of the country where much attention is given to paring and 
 drying apples for market. This is a small simple machine, which is 
 very convenient for the use it is designed for, and is as much of a time 
 
336 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 and labor-saving machine as tliose which are more expensive and com- 
 plicated. 
 
 JVillis's Improved Seed Sower. This machine, which was designed in 
 the first instance for sowing small seed in gardens, is found on using to 
 sow large as well as small seed to advantage, and proves to be one of 
 the best field and garden implements in use. It is particularly adapted 
 for sowing ruta baga, turnip, &c. The saving of seed in the use of this 
 implement is quite sufficient to pay the cost of it in one season, and the 
 seed is sown more regular and even. 
 
 Hardens Improved Seed Soicing Machine. This is one of the best 
 labor-saving machines in use, calculated for sowing small seeds in the 
 field or garden. 
 
 Patent Curry- Combs, and Brass Teeth Cattle Cards. Patent and com- 
 mon curry-combs, and cards with brass teeth. No stock farm should 
 ever be kept without a good supply of these articles, and constant use 
 being made of them. 
 
 Straw Splitters. This little implement, which is plain and simple in 
 its construction, is one of the most useful implements, and should be 
 introduced and used in every family, in town and country. 
 
 Sato and Roller Gins. Cotton gins have become the indispensable 
 articles of the cotton planter. A new roller gin has been invented by 
 a Mr. VVhittemore, and is coming into very general use ; it is readily 
 worked bj' hand or horse power. 
 
 Stamps, of all descriptions, for marking and branding the farmer's 
 tools, of which every farmer who is in tlie habit of lending and accom- 
 modating his neighbours and friends, as all farmers are and must be, 
 should have every tool marked with his name. This prevents the loss 
 of many tools, and much inquiry and trouble among neighbours. 
 
 Garden Reels and Lines. Very handy and convenient implements for 
 the gardener, in laying out his borders, beds, alleys, &c. 
 
 Pruning Chisels and Saws. Of all the implements that are used on 
 the farm, there are none used to so much profit and advantage as the 
 pruning knife and saw. Too many of our fruit and ornamental trees 
 are suffered to run to wood ; from this circumstance we have less and 
 poorer fruit. 
 
 Manure and Hay Fork. No one implement has undergone so thorough 
 an investigation and improvement as the hay and manure fork. Since 
 the first introduction or use of these articles, great improvement has 
 been made in the form of them, and the quality of steel from which 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 337 
 
 they are made. Among the most approved manure forka in use are 
 those of Willis, cast steel, manufactured from one piece, in which no 
 welding is necessary. These forks have been in common use for many 
 years. They are so well tempered as to have that degree of elasticity, 
 that they discharge the manure with the greatest ease ; they are in no 
 way liable to clog or foul, and are very strong and durable. Unfortu- 
 nately for this article, there has been wreat quantities of a very inferior 
 kind made and sold in the form ana shape of the true patent ones, 
 which, having been made of very poor steel and slighted in the manu- 
 facturing of them, has injured the use of this very useful and almost in- 
 dispensable article. 
 
 Budding and Pruning Knives. A great variety of budding and pruning 
 knives are now used, of various forms and shapes : some very superior 
 ones. 
 
 Fruit Shears. Those shears which are attached to a pole are for the 
 purpose of taking off fruit from the extreme branches of trees, or such 
 parts as are not to be come at conveniently in any other way. For this 
 purpose they are found to be very convenient and useful ; they are like- 
 wise used for taking off scions, &.c. 
 
 Tree Scrapers. This article, which is indispensable in keeping trees 
 in good order, should be used every season in removing the dry and hard 
 barK from trees, to increase a quick and vigorous growth, and keep them 
 in full bearing. 
 
 Transplanting Trowels and Forks. 
 
 Post Augurs and Post Jlxes. These two implements are used for one 
 and the same purpose, that of mortising posts. 
 Pickaxe. A common but very useful article, on an improved plan. 
 Post Spooiis. With this implement and a common crow-bar, posts are 
 set with great advantage and expedition. 
 
 Stable Door Hasps, for the purpose of securing barn or stable doors, 
 gates, &c. 
 
 Willis's Improved Family Sausage Filler. This machine, which is 
 intended for filling sausages, is one of the most convenient and expedi- 
 tious things for the purpose that can be conceived of. One man will do 
 more in preparing and filling sausages with this machine, than ten men 
 can in the old manner of working them. 
 
 Fessenden's Patent Lamp Boiler and Tea-kettle. The lamp apparatus 
 for heating water, &c. here represented, has been found very useful in 
 small families, and such persons as may wish to prepare tea or coffee 
 
 29 
 
338 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 drink, cook eggs, oysters, &c., in their own apartments, without the 
 trouble or inconvenience of a wood or coal fire. It is very convenient 
 in public houses, coffee-houses, and other places, where it is wished to 
 keep any hot liquid constantly on hand. Besides answering all the pur- 
 poses of what is called the nurse lamp, it may be made to boil from one 
 pint to a gallon of water, by a method which in many cases will be found 
 the most economical and expeditious which can be devised. 
 
 Description of the Cut. — [A] Sheet iron case, in which the tea- 
 kettle, boiler, &c. may be placed, removable at pleasure. It has a hole 
 in the bottom, to admit the heat of the lamp to pervade the bottom and 
 sides of the boiler. [B] Lamp with five or six wicks, more or less, 
 placed when in use under said case. [C] Pan or boiler, which, when 
 in use, is placed in the sheet iron case. [D] Tea-kettle in its place for 
 boiling. [E] A small sheet iron cylinder, a little tapering, so as to 
 form the frustrura of a hollow cone. This is occasionally placed within 
 the case, so as to surround the hole in its bottom, in order to place upon 
 it a coffee-pot, tea-pot, flask, tin porringer, or other small vessel, in which 
 it may be wished to heat water. 
 
 Farnhain's Improved Patent Grater Cider Mill. The improvement in 
 this mill is in grinding, or rather grating the apples very fine, so that 
 all the juice is pressed out } and produces a greater quantity of liquor 
 from the same quantity of pomace. The above mills are in extensive 
 operation, and very much approved of. They will grind two bushels of 
 apples per minute, and are in no way liable to get out of order. 
 
 With little alteration it can be made one of the best vegetable grinders, 
 for grinding or cutting food for animals. 
 
 Cider Presses. Presses of different descriptions to correspond with 
 the cider mills. 
 
 Vegetable Cutter. Leavitt's improved patent vegetable cutter, for 
 cutting ruta baga, mangel-wurtzel, turnips, &c. Cutting those kinds 
 of vegetables is found to be very beneficial to animals, particularly to 
 milch cows, not only by increasing the quantity, but the quality or the 
 milk. It is a very perfect and complete machine for the purpose. 
 
 Plouglishares. Wrought and cast iron ploughshares, of all sizes, fitted 
 and prepared in such a manner as to be at all times ready and fit for 
 immediate use. 
 
 Patent and ■ Common Horse Phlemes. The patent phleme is a very 
 great improvement on the common kind, and in the hands of an expe- 
 rienced and careful person is used with perfect safety, and is very effec- 
 tual in its operation. 
 
 Carter's Patent Guideboard. Made by branding the letters and figures 
 on boards ; when done in this manner, are more legible and durable 
 than the usual mode of painting. A full set of letters and figures will 
 be furnished, calculated to answer all the purposes for one town. 
 
 Directions for using the Brands. — The brands are to be heated to a 
 cherry red, then applied to the board, and guided by a straight piece 
 tacked on to keep them in a line. The board is then to be lightly planed 
 over, and the white lead applied in the usual manner with a brush. 
 The black letters will not lose their brightness, for the durability of 
 charcoal is well known. STANLEY CARTER. 
 
FARMER'S CALENDAR 
 
 The followinff calendar is intended merely as an agricultural prompter, 
 noting that certlin kinds of work should be performed about the time m 
 the ylar specified at the head of each article. The figures refer to he 
 pages in this little volume, in which further directions may be found 
 relltive to the operations which the season in general demands from tlie 
 diligent, correct, and careful cultivator. , .. u„ u^^ r,- 
 
 "At the beginning of every month, a good farmer, whether he has or 
 ha^ not a book of this sort, is obliged to reflect on the work he has to 
 perform in that month: he ought to foresee the whole at once, or it is 
 impossible that he should make due provision for its performance. 1 
 leave it to any one to judge, if such an estimate of monthly busmess can 
 be gained so easily without such an assistance to the memory as is attord- 
 ed by such a calendar ; and even if such a work but once m a year gives 
 intimation of some important work which might otherwise have been tor- 
 gotten, its worth must be acknowledged.' * j , ^ *u iw^^ v^o. 
 
 The directions in the following pages, are intended for the New J!.ng- 
 land States, or about the latitude of forty-two degrees north, and the 
 vicinity, or a small elevation above the sea. Allowance, however, should 
 be made for heicrht above the sea, as well as for situation north or south 
 of any particular latitude ; but we believe it not possible to state with any 
 near approach to precision what such allowance should be. Ihe nature 
 of the soil, the aspect, the exposure, the forwardness or backwardness, or 
 what may be styled the general character of the season, are all to be re- 
 garded. We will, therefore, not claim precision, where accuracy is not 
 attainable. " Calendars," as Loudon has well observed, " should be con- 
 sidered as remembrancers, never as directories.' 
 
 JANUARY. 
 
 Stock If cattle are fed with straw, it should be done with necessary 
 attentions and limitations. The celebrated Arthur Young observed tliut 
 " the best farmers in Norfolk are generally agreed, that cattle should eat 
 no straw, unless it be cut into chafi" mixed with hay ; but, on the contrary, 
 that they should be fed with something better, and have the straw thrown 
 under them to be trodden into dung :" and I am much inclined to believe, 
 that in most, if not in all cases, this maxim will prove a just one. bee 
 that your cows are of the best breed Page 38. Give them roots as well 
 as hav, and they will give you more than an equivalent m niilk tor their 
 extra keep. Page 40. Provide pure water for your milch cows, and 
 
 * Young's British Fanner's Calendar. 
 
340 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 not oblige thein to go a mile, more or less, after it, manuring the high- 
 way, and running the gauntlet of dogs, teams, the horse and his rider, the 
 eleigh and its driver, with more annoyances than Bonaparte met with 
 in his retreat from Moscow. See also that the master-beasts do not 
 tyrannize over their weaker brethren ; and if any are inclined to domineer, 
 take them into close custody, and deprive them of the liberty of the yard, 
 till they will give indemnity for the past, and security for the future. 
 Cut or chaff your hay, straw, corn-tops, bottoms, &c., with one of Willis's 
 or some other straw-cutter, to be found at Break & Co.'s Agricultural 
 Warehouse, No. 52 North Market street, Boston, or some other place. 
 You may also make use of Colonel Jaques's mixture, (page 48,) without 
 charge for the prescription. If you give your cows good hay, roots, and 
 comfortable lodging, you may make as good butter in winter as in summer, 
 and become rich by sending to market the product of your dairy. Pages 
 54, 87, 88, &c. 
 
 FEBRUARY. 
 
 Attend particularly to cows which have calved, or are about to calve, 
 as well as to their offspring. You know, or should know, what time 
 your cows may be expected to produce their young, by means pointed 
 out page 42, where you may find a receipt for those cows which need to 
 be doctored, that they may stop giving milk. You will find observations 
 on rearing and fattening calves, pages 54, &c. to page 61. Your ewes 
 and lambs will now require that care and attention which is indispensa- 
 ble to make sheep husbandry profitable. Page 212. The way to doctor 
 lambs to advantage is, to give good food, and a plenty of it, to their moth- 
 ers. Half a gill of Indian corn a day to each ewe before yeaning, and 
 about two quarts per day of potatoes, turnips, or other roots, when they 
 have lambs to nurse, will make your sheep and lambs healthy, as well as 
 their owner wealthy. But if you half starve your sheep, you will quite 
 kill your lambs. You will continue to cut, split, and pile wood in your 
 woodhouse, till you have enough to last at least two 3'ears. It is very 
 bad. economy to be obliged to leave your work in haying or harvesting, 
 to draw every now and then a little green wood to cook with, which is 
 about as fit for that purpose as a brickbat for a pincushion, or a lump of ice 
 for a warming-pan. 
 
 MARCH. 
 
 You may sow grass seed either as soon as the snow is off the ground, 
 or, as some say, in August or September. You may see the question 
 relative to the time for this purpose discussed, pages 22, 24. Be sure to 
 use seed enough, say about twelve pounds of clover and one peck of 
 herd's grass [timothy] to the acre. Page 24. If you did not sow grass 
 seed in autumn with vpinter grain, you may now sow it, and even harrow 
 it in. Though a few plants will be torn up, the grain will on the whole 
 receive benefit from being harrowed in the spring. Before the spring 
 work presses hard upon j'ou, it will be well to employ your boys, under 
 your superintendence, to train your steers or calves and colts to the yoke, 
 saddle, or harness; for which you may see some excellent directions, by 
 Mr. James Walker, page 64. Top-dress winter grain. Top-dressings 
 should not be used in the fall for winter grain, because they would be 
 apt to make the young plants come forward too fast, and be the more 
 liable to be winter-killed. Page 178. Attend to fences, page 204, and 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 341 
 
 to drains. Page 282. By often changing the direction of your water- 
 courses, you may render your mowing even, and prevent one part from 
 becoming too rank and lodging before tlie other part is fit to cut. 
 
 APRIL. 
 
 Plovghing. Light sandy soils had better be ploughed in the spring, 
 and no^ late in autumn, lest they become too porous, and are washed 
 away bj^ the rains and floods of fall and winter. For general rules on 
 this subject, see page 267, «fcc. It is best to sow spring wheat as soon as 
 it can well be got into the ground. The soil and preparation should be 
 the same as for winter wheat. Page 107. Sow barley as soon as the 
 ground is sufficiently dry. Page 134. Sow oats. Page 131. Spring 
 r^'e is cultivated in the same manner as winter rye. Page 124. Field 
 peas as well as garden peas make an excellent crop. Page 147. Beans 
 are also highly worth the judicious cultivator's particular attention. Page 
 152. Plant some potatoes of an early sort on early ground, to be used in 
 July and August, as food for your hogs, that you may commence fatten- 
 ing them early in the season. Page 258. Potatoes in small quantities at 
 a time are good food for horses and oxen, as well as most other animals, 
 especially in spring. They will go further, if steamed or boiled, but when 
 given raw, they are useful as well for physic as for food, being of a laxa- 
 tive and cooling quality. It is now about the time to sow flax, page 99, 
 and hemp. Page 92. Every tool, utensil, &c., which will be wanted for 
 tlie labors of the season, should now (if not done before) be critically in- 
 spected, thoroughly repaired, and such new ones of the best quality added 
 as will probably be needed. We know of no place where every want of 
 that kind can be better supplied than at Breck & Co.'s Agricultural 
 Warehouse, No. .5'J North ftlarket street, Boston; connected with which 
 is a seed store, where may be procured the best of seeds both for garden 
 and field culture. 
 
 MAY. 
 
 Attend to your pastures. Do not turn cattle into pasture ground too 
 early in the spring, but let tlie grass have a chance to start a little before 
 it is bitten close to the soil. If your pastures are large, it will be good 
 economy to divide them as stated page 285. Cleanse your cellars, as 
 well as the rest of your premises, from all putrescent and other ofl^ensive 
 and unwholesome substances. Plant Indian corn as soon as the leaves 
 of the white oak are as big as the ears of a mouse. Page 25. Not only 
 Indian corn, but peas, oats, buckwheat, and probably most other seeds, 
 are benefited by wetting them in water just before sowing, and rolling 
 them in plaster. Plant potatoes for your principal crop. Page 258. 
 Sow millet. Page 137. Sow lucerne on land thoroughly prepared, and 
 keep it free from weeds. Page 16. Declare war against insects. Page 
 302. The artillery for the engagement may be elder juice, or decoction 
 of elder, especially of the dwarf kind, decoction of tobacco, quicklime, 
 lime-water, soot, unleached ashes, strong lye, tar or turpentine water,- 
 soap-suds, ifcc. Dissolve about two pounds of potash, in seven quarts of 
 water, and apply the solution to your fruit-trees with a painter's brush, 
 taking care not to touch the leaves or buds. A lot of land well stocked 
 with clover is wanted by every good cultivator for pasturing swine. 
 Page 159. 
 
 29* 
 
342 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 Summer-made Manure demands attention. Most farmers yard their 
 cows at night, through the summer ; their manure should be collected 
 into a heap, in some convenient part of the barn-yard, to prevent its 
 being wasted by the sun and rains. A few minutes' attention in the 
 morning, when the cows are turned out to pasture, would collect a heap 
 of several loads in a season, ready for your grass grounds in autumn. 
 Dress your Indian corn and potatoes, thoroughly extirpating weeds, and 
 please to place a handful of ashes or plaster, or a mixture of both, on 
 3-our hills of corn and potatoes. These substances are commonly applied 
 before the first or second hoeing. But aslies or quicklime (which is also 
 an excellent application for corn) will have a better effect in preventing 
 worms if laid on before the corn is up. Be careful to save all your soap- 
 suds afler each washing, as they answer an excellent purpose when ap- 
 plied to fruit-trees, both as manure and as an antidote to insects. " Plas- 
 ter or live ashes sown upon j'our pasture grounds, will not onl^' repay a 
 handsome profit by increasing the value of your feed, by bringing in the 
 finer grasses, such as white clover, &c., but will greatly improve your 
 lands for a potato fallow, and a succeeding wheat crop, whenever you 
 may wish to take advantage of a routine of crops." 
 
 JULY. 
 
 Hay-making. Page 275. Make as much of your hay as possible in 
 the early part of the season, as there is at that time a greater probability 
 of your being favored with fur weather. More rain falls on an average 
 in the latter part of summer, or afler the 15th of July, than before. If 
 the weather is so unfavorable that hay cannot be thoroughly cured, the 
 application of from four to eight quarts of salt to the ton is recommend- 
 ed. In this way it can be saved in a much greener state, and the benefit 
 derived from the salt is many times its value. Another good method 
 of saving green or wet hay, is that of mixing layers of dry straw in the 
 innw or stack. Thus tlie strength of the grass is absorbed by the straw, 
 and the cattle will eagerly devour the mixture. 
 
 Harvesting. Page 27-J. The time in which your grain crop should 
 be cut, is when ihe straw begins to shrink, and becomes white about 
 half an inch below the ear ; but if a blight or rust has struck wheat or 
 rye, it is best to cut it immediately, even if the grain be in the milky 
 state. Barley, however, should stand till perfectly ripe. 
 
 ^ AUGUST. 
 
 Please to attend in season to preserving your sheep from the cestrus 
 Otis, or fly which causes worms in their heads. Page 223. This may 
 »be done by keeping the noses of the animals constantly smirched with 
 tar from the middle of August till the latter part of September. In 
 order to accomplish this, it has been recommended to mix a little fine 
 salt with tar, and place it under cover, where the sheep can have access 
 to it, and they will keep their noses sufficiently smirched with tar to 
 prevent the insect from attacking them. Destroy thistles, which some 
 say may be done by letting them grow till in full bloom, and then cutting 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 343 
 
 them with a scythe about an inch above the surface of the ground. The 
 Btera being hollow, the rains and dews descend into the heart of the plant, 
 and it soon dies. Select the ripest and most plump seeds from such 
 plants as are most forward and thrifty, and you will improve your breeds 
 of vegetables by means similar to those which have been successful in 
 improving the breeds of neat cattle, sheep, &c. As soon as your har- 
 vesting is finished, you will take advantage of this hot and dry weather, 
 to search your premises for mines of manure, such as peat, page 200, 
 marl, page 196, mud, «fcc., which often give unsuspected value to 
 swamps. Now is also a good season to work at draining. Page 282. 
 You may drain certain marshes on your premises, which will afford you 
 better soil than you now cultivate, cause your land to be more healthy, 
 and the earth taken from the ditches will make valuable deposits in your 
 cow-yard and pig-sty. 
 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 A correctly calculating cultivator will make even his hogs labor for a 
 livelihood. This may be done by throwing into their pens potato-tops, 
 weeds, brakes, turf, loam, &c., which these capital workmen will man- 
 ufacture into manure of the first quality. Page 181. You cannot sow 
 winter rye too early in September. If it be sowed early, its roots will 
 obtain such hold of the soil before winter, that they will not be liable to 
 be thrown out and killed by frost. Page 124. It may be sowed early 
 to great advantage in order to yield green food for cattle and sheep, par- 
 ticularly the latter, in the spring. Winter wheat, likewise, cannot be 
 sowed too early in September. Page 107. Attend to the barn-yard, and 
 see that it has a proper shape for a manure manufactory, as well as other 
 accommodations, adapted to its various uses. Page 74. You may as 
 well have a hole in your pocket, for the express purpose of losing your 
 money, as a drain to lead away the wash of your farm-yard. True, it 
 may spread over your grass ground, and be a source of some fertility to 
 your premises, but the chance is that most of it will be lost in a high- 
 way, or neighbouring stream. 
 
 OCTOBER. 
 
 Ploughing. Page 267. Stiff, hard, cloggy land intended to be tilled 
 should be ploughed in autumn. Fall ploughing saves time and labor in 
 the spring, when cattle are weak, and the hurry of the work peculiar to 
 that season presses on the cultivator. A light sandy soil, however, 
 should not be disturbed by fall ploughing, but lie to settle and consoli- 
 date through tlie winter. Select your corn intended for planting next 
 season from the field, culling fine, fair, sound ears from such stocks as 
 produce two or more ears, taking the best of the bunch. Page 29. You 
 will consider well which is the best method of harvesting corn, and 
 adopt one of the methods mentioned by Judge Buel. Page 28. If the 
 husks and bottoms of your corn, when stowed away for winter, are 
 sprinkled with a strong solution of salt in water, (taking care not to use 
 such a quantity of the solution as to cause mould,) and when dealt out 
 are cut fine with a straw-cutter, they will make first-rate fodder. Do 
 not feed hogs with hard corn without steeping, grinding, or boiling it. 
 The grain will go much the farther for undergoing some or all of these 
 
344 THE COMPLETE FARMER 
 
 operations ; and if a due degree of fermentation is superadded, so much 
 the better. 
 
 NOVEMBER. 
 
 In many situations it will be excellent management to rake up all the 
 leaves of trees, and the mould which has been produced by their decay, 
 which can be procured at a reasonable expense, and cart and spread 
 them in the barn-yard as a layer, to absorb the liquid manure from your 
 cattle. Likewise it would be well to place quantities of them under 
 cover, in situations where you can easily obtain them in winter to use as 
 litter to your stables, &c. They do not rot easily, but they serve the 
 purpose of little sponges to imbibe and retain liquid manure, ana by 
 their use you may supply your crops with much food for plants which 
 would otherwise be lost. Attend with diligence and punctuality to the 
 wants of tlie four-footed tenants of your barn, hog-sty, «Sic. Do not 
 undertake to winter more stock than you have abundant means of pro- 
 viding fur. When young animals are pinched for food at an earli' period 
 of their growth, they never thrive so well afterwards, nor make so good 
 stock. See tliat you have good stalls, stables, &c., page 236 ; cow- 
 houses, page 43 ; a proper implement for cutting hay and straw, page 
 48; an apparatus for cooking food for cattle and swine, page 49. You 
 may also carry out and spread compost, soot, ashes, &c., on such of 
 your mowing grounds as stand in great need of .manure. Though some 
 say that the best time for top-dressing grass land is immediately after 
 liaying : any time will do when the ground is free from snow, and the 
 grass not so high as to be injured by cattle's treading on it. 
 
 DECEMBER. 
 
 Woodland. We think tliat cultivators may derive advantage from 
 attending to the observations by the Hon. John Welles, relative to wood- 
 lots, the manner of cutting, them over, &c. Page 301. We advise 
 every farmer, and his help, «fcc., so to treat domestic animals that they 
 may be tarne and familiar. It is said of Bakewell, a famous EngHsh 
 breeder of cattle, that b}' proper management he caused his stock to be 
 very gentle. His bulls would stand still to be handled, and were driven 
 from field to field with a small switch. His cattle were always fat, 
 which ho said was owing to the breed as well as keep. Colts should also 
 always be kept tame and familiar, and you may then train them to sad- 
 dle or harness without danger or difficulty. Page CI. The farmer 
 should obtain his year's stock of fuel as early in the season as possible, 
 and before the depth of snow in the woodlands renders it difficult to 
 traverse them by a team. You may, when the ground is frozen, cut 
 and draw wood from swamps, which are inaccessible for cattle in warm 
 weather. If you cut wood with a wisii that the stumps should sprout, 
 let it be after the fall of the leaf, and before the buds swell in the spring. 
 [See Gen. Newhall's statement, New England Farmer, Vol. X. p. 230.] 
 The Rev. Mr. Elliot wisely recommended, when bushy ground, full of 
 strong roots is to be ditched, beginning the ditch in the winter, when 
 the ground is frozen two or three inches deep. The surface may be 
 chopped into pieces by a broad axe, with a long helve, and the ditch 
 completed in warm weather. The farmer may, probably, hit on a good 
 
AND RURAL ECONOMIST. 345 
 
 time for this work in December, when there happens to be no snow, and 
 when it will not interfere with other farming business. When the sea- 
 son has become so severe that little can be done abroad, much may be 
 done relative to farming operations, and other good works, by the fire- 
 side, in contriving the proper course of crops for each field, settling ac- 
 counts, reading useful and entertaining books, and laying the foundation, 
 by mental culture, for the usefulness and respectability of those who 
 compose the fanner's family. 
 
 O.H. HlU. LIBRARY 
 Worth Carolina Staf<. College