REMARKS.-The "printer's devil" is not fairly to each other. Dropping corn is a slow and tedious process, and we hope farmers will carefully chargeable with all the errors that are committed. examine this and other machines for this purpose The word "eleven" was so fairly written that before the season of planting comes on. We have when the question was referred to us for a soluno doubt but there is a better way of doing the tion, we directed that it should stand as eleven, work than by dropping by hand. though the sense was not obvious. Writers must One of these implements is left at this office, be careful, as well as printers and editors. In the where farmers may examine and try it. A CORN CROP. manuscript of this communication, we have corrected an error which, had it remained, would undoubtedly be charged to the printer. SEVENTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTU- Reported for the New England Farmer, BY WILLIAM W. HILL. STATEMENT OF JOEL HAYWARD, OF ASHBY. GENTLEMEN : The field of corn I present for your consideration was grown on one acre of land, and was treated in the following manner; it being of a deep loam, and inclining towards the east. It was broken up in the fall of 1852. In the spring of 1853, applied 27 loads of compost, and planted to corn, raising 78 bushels per acre. In the spring of 1854, May 9, plowed eight inch Dr. REYNOLDS, of Concord, presided, and rees deep. May 15 and 16, spread 13 loads of green manure, and plowed 10 inches deep. May 17 and marked, as he assumed the chair, that he found 18, furrowed both ways, three feet and three himself called upon to occupy the position unexinches apart, and put 13 loads of compost in the The seventh weekly meeting was held at the State House on Tuesday evening, Feb. 27. The subject for discussion was Manures. hill, and planted with the Tuscan white corn, pectedly, and was unprepared to make remarks. putting four and 5 kernels to the bill. Plowed He then went on to observe that in New England, and hoed twice. The committee on grain of the manures are essential to agriculture, while in Worcester North Agricultural Society visited the some sections of our country, as in the Mississippi field in October, and selected one rod as an aver- bottoms, large crops are obtained without it. Our age of the field, which was harvested and weighed 35 lbs. Allowing 70 lbs. for a bushel, there climate, too, is such that it is necessary to stimFor these reasons, it has been I also ulate our crops. would have been 80 bushels per acre. raised 4 bushels of beans and 1 foad of pumpkins. the great question with agriculturists how to sup ESTIMATED EXPENSE. Plowing twice.... Twenty-six loads of manure.......... Spreading the same.. Planting.. Plowing and Hoeing twice.. Cutting and binding stalks... Harvesting.. Total.. CREDIT. By 80 bushels corn, at $1,124 per bushel. Stalks and husks.... 4 bushels beans... 1 load of Pumpkins. Total. Estimated expense... Net profit... ..$3,50 .26,00 .2,00 ..3,00 ..5,00 .2,50 .5,00 .$47,00 .$90,00 .15,00 ..8,00 ..1,00 .$114,00 .47,00 .$67,00 The If ply these stimulants in the cheapest manner. guano answers all the purposes which it is said it will, it is the cheapest manure there is,—that is, if we have to purchase our fertilizers. Dr. Reynolds detailed an experiment made summer before last, by a gentleman in his neighborhood. He plowed up a piece of pine plain, the produce of one acre of which he told his workman should be his, (and he would plow it,) provided he would put on 25 loads of compost manure. The adjoining portion he manured with 250 pounds of guano to the acre. The whole was planted with corn at the same time, and received the same cultivation, and the result was that the guano lot yielded double what the other did, per acre. compost was hauled half a mile, and the expense of getting it upon the land exceeded the cost of MR. EDITOR-In the Farmer for Feb. 3, your the guano. People have complained of the guano printer's devil makes curious sense out of a few He thought the fact was failing the past season. fines I sent you about my experiment with potatoes. Instead of "two barrels," read two pounds. to be attributed, in a great measure, to its being For "eleven eyes to a piece," read one eye to a used alone, without being mixed with compost or In consequence of this neglect, piece. And in the eleventh line, for "sixty bar- other manure. rels," read sixty pounds. And for a signature the roots of the plants have been brought in conread S. Tenney instead of T. Tenney. The soil tact with the caustic guano, and the result was in which I planted the potatoes would have required at least twenty-five loads of manure to the fatal to them. We have got to learn how to use it. The drought, too, probably had something to acre, to have put it in good condition for corn. I tried the experiment out of curiosity, to see do with the failure of the guano. Dr. Reynolds if potatoes would grow, seeded at less than onehalf ounce to a hill. Sixty out of seventy-five grew. Yours, &c., West Poland, Me., Feb., 1855. For the New England Farmer. S. TENNEY. concluded by introducing to the meeting Dr. A. A. HAYES, State Assayer, who commenced by speaking of the necessity of cheap fer tilizers in New England, remarking that the beneficial. It contains all the elements needed supply was not abundant, being limited to the for plants, but in a too concentrated form, and peat beds, the wash from the hills, and the com- unless circumstances are such that it can react post of the barn-yard. He said he did not believe on substances in the soil, cannot benefit them. that lands ever "wore out," and referred to the The new kind of guano is obtained on the Atlanrich acres of England, which have been culti-tic coast, and is produced where rains fall frevated for centuries, as proof. If the right method quently. Although containing nearly the same is only pursued, New England may be made what amount of ammonia as the Peruvian guano, its it once was, a garden. It has been supposed fermentation is altogether different in consequence that there was something peculiar about New of the rains. Its composition is nearly that of England soils,—that they would run out after a powdered bones, the proportion of phosphate of series of years, for certain crops, and then, after lime being very large, amounting to from 40 to the lapse of a few years, again produce those 60 per cent., while the "geine" arising from the crops. This, he thought, was owing to the cli- decomposition of animal matter, seldom exceeds mate. In the spring we have heavy rains, which 16 per cent. It always contains from 16 to 18 are succeeded by an aridity or dryness equal to a per cent. of water. It contains a valuable acid, desert. We have not the seasonable showers of and a large amount of phosphate and carbonate England. If we only had them, he believed we of lime, is open in texture, and readily dissolves. could raise pine apples and other tropical plants, It contains 40 to 50 per cent. of phosphate of for we have a temperature as high as if only 13 lime-an absolute necessity for the growth of degrees from the equator. We should have es- plants-while the Peruvian has only 20 to 26. pecial regard to climate in selecting manures, and This phosphate of lime is an ingredient which get those which will maintain a certain tempera- our New England soils are greatly deficient in. ture beneath the ground, and enable the plant The notion that large portions of ammonia are to throw out leaves early and abundantly, and requisite for plants, he considered fallacious, from to sustain itself in time of drought by absorbing the fact that after the wood has been cut from a the dew. We know that when a plant puts out piece of land, and it has been burnt over, it is fit large leaves, it bears a drought remarkably well. for a crop; for every scientific man knows that Another element essential to the growth of plants, the more a piece of ground is burnt over, the less is the inorganic parts of rocks. The plant should ammonia is there, and in a piece of land thus be able to find some decomposing rock in the soil. treated, there is less than in an old pasture. By But the spring time is too short to supply this choosing alkaline manures, farmers are apt to element, unless we resort to artificial means. overburden the soil. Phosphate of lime is absoThe gentleman spoke at some length in regard to lutely essential, and there is no manure equal to guano, referring particularly to new kind that of the barn-yard. The Atlantic guano is which has been introduced, the composition of well adapted to compost. One method of applywhich he had studied, as well as witnessed its ing it is to spread it upon the snow in winter, to operation to some extent. The guano heretofore be dissolved and mixed with the earth in spring; used has come from the west coast of South and this method has worked very well, so far as America, where a rainless climate prevails, with known. a temperature of 65 to 84 degrees. It is com- Dr. REYNOLDS offered some excellent remarks posed of the bodies of seals and the droppings of in regard to the importance of securing the liquid birds. Seals, which abound in that region, al- manures of the farm, as they are required to furways take to the shore when sick, and their nish the nitrogen which forms the seed, while the bodies, with the excrements of birds, decomposed solids form the stem. He thought guano an exat a high temperature, and in a compact state, cellent top-dressing, and recommended that it be have produced a large amount of guano. It is com- applied just as the frost is coming out of the posed of 26 parts of humus, or "geine," [woody ground. and vegetable fibre, in a state of decay-Ed.] Dr. CHARLES T. JACKSON, the chemist and ge26 of phosphate of lime, and a large amount of ologist, was next introduced, and made some very sand and moisture make up the 100 parts. Its interesting remarks. He said he was familiar ammonial ingredient has been deemed an essen- with the Mexican guano alluded to by Dr. Hayes, tial in all manures; but there is something else and so far as regards the phosphate, it was a very besides ammonia required to produce a crop in a excellent article. Some of it contains no ammoNew England soil. There is in it a principle like nia at all, while other samples resemble very yeast, causing it to ferment, and it therefore has much the Peruvian. The relative value of the a life-giving energy in it. It can be used with two he did not consider fully settled. He was great success where irrigation can be resorted to, not prepared to abandon ammonia as a useless as it requires a great deal of water to make it ingredient in guano, or manure of any kind. Ammonia does not act merely as ammonia in estimate $6,00 for liquid manure to the ton of manure, but absorbs the organic matters in the feed consumed, $11,00 worth of phosphates, to soil, combines with the acids and neutralises say $14,00 for hay, $5,00 for meal-$19,00; so them, and decomposes the sulphate of iron. Put that we lose eleven dollars worth of the phosa root of clover into a vessel containing an am- phates to every ton of hay sold. Mr. Dodge also monical solution of peat, and another into a ves- offered some interesting remarks in relation to the sel of clear water, and it will be found that the waste of liquid manures, and expressed his faith former will, after a few days, become of a rich in the phosphates, if we can only learn how to green color, and the solution changes its color, handle them. Leached ashes had done great while the ammonia has disappeared,-showing things for him, but the reason for it he did not that it is the aminonia which nourishes the know. plant, while the other will fade and perish. The R. MORRIS COPELAND, Esq., of Lexington, made ammonia of guano performs the same service as some very pertinent remarks in regard to the imis obtained from any other source. Manures portance of a proper disintegration of the soil— should not be too easily soluble, because the or- which he considered as important as the kind of ganic elements will be carried off by the rains. manure applied. For the New England Farmer. DAIRIES---BREEDS. They should dissolve gradually. There is no Hon. AMASA WALKER, of North Brookfield, also manure better than leached ashes; it is nearly made some remarks, which were listened to with as good as guano; it contains a large portion of much interest in regard to the necessity of devephosphate of lime. Recurring again to guano, loping more thoroughly our home resources for he said it seemed strange to him that so enormous obtaining manure-the necessity of experimentquantities are thrown away upon the seaboard. ing with guano-and the facility of reclaiming Their bones are phosphate of lime, and both old pasture lands. bones and flesh can be converted into excellent manure by putting them into the compost heap, and, if dried and ground up and mixed with chalk, will constitute an excellent guano. In FRIEND BROWN: -Your monthly for February many places on our seacoast, fish can be manufactured into guano without the aid of South (page 84) brings to me the communication of "Essex," upon Dairies. May I hope to be parAmerican birds, and Dr. Jackson said he was doned, if I have discerned in the distance the surprised that no establishments had been set up ghost of the old Oaks cow? Her spirit seems to for its manufacture. The South understands the be rapping to us, through the whole article. My value of artificial manures much better than the friend, whom I think I recognize, will excuse me North, and at Baltimore they are regularly man- towards individuals, but of partiality for, and for suspecting him of prejudice; not of prejudice ufactured. There are two methods of using prejudice against, breeds of animals. guano, and he would recommend both ways- Inasmuch as my name is used in said article, I that is, plow in one-half and harrow in the other may be allowed to examine its correctness and fairness. half. moisture. With small grains, perhaps harrowing| would be sufficient. It needs a great deal of butter products," and taking advantage of the Passing over the taunt about "extraordinary moisture. As an interesting fact, the speaker admission that the "products from the towns of stated that peat, dried in a hot sun, contains 25 Worcester and Barre are QUITE FAIR for the seapounds of water to the 100. All vegetable mat- son, we come to the conclusion that they (the ters have this remarkable quality of retaining products) "are not better than can be found on many farms where the pasturage is GooD." Now I submit to my friend Essex, if that is "quite Mr. DODGE, of Sutton, explained an interesting fair," under the circumstances. My return was experiment made by him in 1852, with two Devon of a dairy, from a farm where the pasturage was steers, which were stalled constantly, for eight not only not GOOD, but was so poor, that, for a portion of the time, "the cows might almost be said weeks. In that time they consumed 2035 lbs. of to suffer for want." hay and 400 lbs. of meal, in all 2435 lbs. hay and Essex says he procured butter for his family, meal, equal to 2 per cent. of the live weight re- from a farm "where the cows have yielded an avduced to hay. The solid manure was all saved, erage of a pound a day for the entire butter-making and weighed 4543 lbs., and measured 100 bush-season, and in the best part of it 9 or 10 pounds a week." I have no doubt of it; nor do I doubt els, potato measure, 2 4-5 bushels short of a cord, that that particular farm is one of the many that worth on the farm say $6,00. These steers stood can be found "where the pasturage is good."during the eight weeks on a tight floor. The ma- But then Essex claims, as matter of credit for nure was all collected once in each day, and left these cows, that they are "entirely natives," and for two weeks where the liquid fell into the cellar, better." that "Mr. Lincoln's improved stock have done no then weighed and measured, and the result was as above. Now here was say $5,00 of solid, and by I will not stop to ask Essex what constitutes an “entirely native,” in contra-distinction to an “im proved stock;" nor to inquire how he has ascer- with their first calves. They have been in milk tained, with certainty, a fact so extremely diffi- for very unequal periods during the year. The cult to learn. I admit, cheerfully, that there greatest number of days during the above period may be stock entirely native, since Essex asserts in which any one has given milk, has been 337, it; and that the dairy of Essex's friends has often and the least number for any has been 26. made a pound of butter daily, for each cow, for To illustrate, a cow was dried the 13th day of the entire butter-making season. I no more doubt February, and calved the 20th May, subsequentthis, than that these cows were kept upon a farm ly. Now, in making my account, I deduct from where the "pasturage is good." To clinch the the 365 days of the year, the number between insinuated superiority of "entirely native" cows, Feb. 13 and May 20, and call her in milk 269 Essex cites a newspaper statement, that four days, and so with the others. I find then that the cows, in Michigan, yielded 174 lbs. of butter and aggregate number of days' milking of the 12 cows 1050 lbs. of cheese, in the space of 100 days. is 2948, and the number of pounds of butter Analyzed, it will be seen that, allowing three yielded, for the above period, is 2296 12-16. pounds of cheese to one of butter, (which is con- Look again at this matter in another light. In May 9... 66 ....37 lbs. 1 oz. butter ......55 12 ........65 66 ....66 66 4 66 7 ceded about here to be the proper proportion,) 1853, I moved upon my present farm. I churned this amounts to 106 lbs. of butter, per cow, for 100 days. "Mr. Lincoln's improved stock" yielded during an actual milking period for the whole of 141 days, 142 lbs. 6 oz. At the actual average rate of yield for 141 days, had the six cows been On the 13th day of May, Flora McDonald, a in milk during the whole period of trial, (five full blood Ayrshire cow, calved; the day previous months,) there would have been, to each cow, a to which I turned to pasture. I stop the account yield of 153 lbs. and a fraction for 150 days. here, because previous to another churning other Again, in Marblehead, a few years since, four cows had calved. Let us see how it was in 1854, cows of a Mr. Stone, descendants of an ill-looking in the lot of cows in which this same Flora was hornless animal that was purchased from a Hamp-placed for trial. shire drove, (and therefore "entirely native,") in the space of 40 days yielded 240 lbs. of butter. Pretty well, I confess, for four cows that were hornless and ill-looking, (and therefore native?) or for any cows. But seriously, if this last yield Two of these six cows calved May 2d; and three was claimed to have been obtained from pastur- had calved previously. Flora calved May 20, age alone, no matter how good, I should have liked just to have examined the quality of both butter and scales. subsequently to the time of turning to pasture. May 3, churned.. ..21 lbs. 13 oz. .23 lbs. 3 oz. ...26 lbs. 11 oz. .......38 lbs. .....49 lbs. 3oz. Because the premium was awarded to my stock, it does not follow that I claimed, or the commit tee conceded, the product as extraordinary. Essex will bear in mind the facts, as they appear in my statement, that I did not select my sir BEST cows for butter; that my pasturage was poor in quality, and scanty in quantity; that I had to What conclusion will Essex draw from this? change milkers eight times during my trial; that There is no doubt that the six cows, as Essex my trial cows run with seven others, during the says, of "improved breed," in May, 1854, upon season; that the butter was worked upon a ta- a farm where the pasturage is poor beyond quesble, and, of course, thoroughly; and that the tion, made nearly as much butter as eight cows weight was ascertained by each separate pound, did, in the same period of 1852, where the pasinstead of in the mass, at each churning; and the turage was good, and of more than ordinary qualwhole statement not matters of loose conversa-ity for butter. tion, but made under the sanction of an oath. The comparison of the two dairies, for these To the truth and fairness of one statement made two years, can, perhaps, be profitably pursued. by Essex, I most cordially agree. It is, that to And it stands thus: understand a cow, "she must be summered and age-Butter. 1854, in poor pasturage. May.. .......156 lbs. June..........240 lbs. 4 oz. wintered." "You cannot," he says, "begin to 8 cows of 1852, in good pastur- 6 cows of "improved breed," in form a true idea of the value of a cow, from the May.. .158 lbs. 15 oz. product of one week, or one month; it must be June.......... ..181 lbs. 1 oz. for the season entire, with an average fair feed." July.. ...165 lbs. 1 oz. July..........176 lbs. 131 oz. August..........141 lbs. 12 oz. August........147 lbs. 6 oz. Nothing can be more true. And if our societies September.......120 lbs. 10 oz. 24 days in Sept.134 lbs. 2 oz. would offer their premiums upon such plan, I should have more confidence in the good to result therefrom. 767 7 The It may be said that the last was a better butter Not by way of boasting of what Essex calls my season than that of 1852. By no means. The "improved stock," but solely to induce him to pasturage was better? Quite the reverse. hunt up a return, for an equal period of time, truth is, the stock was better, while the feed was from as many cows, even though hornless, and ill-poorer. The rapid decline from June tells the looking, and entirely native, I subjoin from my story of the pasturage, pretty well. dairy book a statement extending from Jan. 1, In 1852 I did my own milking. In 1854, be1854, to Jan. 1, 1855. ing incapacitated, personally, I had eight differ I kept 13 cows and a bull, 12 of which cows ent milkers; while, during both periods, the best constituted my dairy, and three of these heifers dairy woman in the world (my own wife) had sole charge of every thing; doing all the work, with her own hands. He bought this farm about four years ago, for thirty-five dollars an acre. It was then destitute I, at least, must speak well of "improved of buildings, and almost without fences. He has stock," since my present stock is composed of what would be called such, with the exception of one animal. The eight head of 1852 produced 1226 lbs. 9 oz. butter. They should be credited in addition with cream for the family. erected a pleasant though not expensive house, and a barn on the New England plan, with a tie-up for his cattle-a luxury to which the cattle in this region are very little accustomed; most of the steeds and heifers of three years old The twelve head of 1854 yielded 2296 lbs. 11 oz. butter, as weighed in so many distinct weigh- never having seen the inside of a barn in their ings. On milking daily of one of these cows was lives. His land is rolling, a part a sandy loam, taken from the dairy, from the early part of with a clay subsoil, and a part clay loam, with a August till the 23d day of November. considerable extent of what we call swamp land, It will be seen that, with a poorer pasturage in of a dark alluvial character. It looks much like 1854, I have added 470 lbs. to the yield of my dairy, above what the increase in the number of a Middlesex county farm, entirely free from animals over 1852 would have led me to expect. stones. The fences, which divide it into three How will Essex account for this? It seems to me or four enclosures, are of chestLut posts and there can be but one explanation. rails, four rails high, such as we see in some parts Still, I do not look upon this comparison as at of New England. Mr. Morrison has fenced off all fair. To satisfy me, the comparison should be made by a trial of an equal number of cows, forty acres for a pasture, which he is improving, of improved and native breed, kept upon the same and is giving great attention to the raising of hay farm, milked by the same person, and the whole and fruit. He has already planted about one darcy under the same management. If the trial thousand apple trecs, six hundred of which are was continued for a year, we should lay a founBaldwins, about twelve hundred peach trees, six dation for judging about breeds of animals. If, after that, the experiment could be conducted by hundred plums, and seven hundred pear trees. some half dozen different persons, in different He has fears that the Baldwin may prove too parts of the State, we might hope to settle the early in this latitude, and now prefers some variquestion, so far as the farmers of this State were eties which originated further south, and ripen concerned. W. S. LINCOLN. For the New England Farmer. A Yankee Farm near Washington-Apples and Peaches Pear Tree Plight-Draining-Oxen and Mules-Subsoiling-Shell In conclusion, by way of concession to the "en- later. His trees, most of them, look thriving. tirely native" feeling of my friend Essex, let me Many, however, have marks of injury, which he say, that, were I to have remained upon my pre- attributes to the locusts, an enemy with which sent farm another year, I should have discarded fruit-growers at the north have not been much from my dairy a full-blood and a & Ayrshire cow, not, however, because they were inferior milkers, acquainted. The trees are yet so young, that it but, because being superior milkers, they were is too early to be confident of their success, and not above the average of cows for butter. although I see daily fine apples in the market, Yours, in great length, said to be raised in the neighborhood, I have Worcester, Feb. 17, 1855. looked in vain for an acre of what at the north we should call a good orchard, in bearing. The care, however, which we bestow upon our trees, is entirely unknown here, and it is to be hoped that our friend may find abundant success in his fruit-growing. His pears, which are mostly Lest our readers should be too strongly im- dwarfs, have suffered very much from the blight, pressed with views of the shady side of agricul- which, like some diseases in the human system, ture in this district, let me give them a glimpse seems to select for its victims those of fullest life of something brighter. and vigor. Many almost perfect trees, six feet or Yesterday, on the tenth of January, when I more in height, were shown me, utterly blasted. suppos all New England was frozen as hard as Mr. M. attributes their destruction to the heat of an iceberg, I made, with the owner, a visit to the sun; but, whatever it may be, the symptoms the farm of Mr. WILLIAM M. MORRISON, of this and result appear to me to be the same which we city and observed, with much pleasure, the ap- everywhere see and hear of, under the name of plication of "northern principles" of agriculture sap-blight, and the like, and as to the causes of to so thern soil. Mr. Morrison's farm contains which, as about most other matters, "commentaabout a hundred and twenty acres, and lies near tors differ." Mr. Morrison philosophically rethe Rockville plank road, four miles from Wash-marked that he could go out and cry over his ington. He is a New Hampshire man, a native pear trees, if it would do them any good; but he of Sanbornton, and, although he has been thirty did not see that it would. He thinks the peach years away from the Granite hills, has not for- rather an uncertain crop even here, as it seems to gotten his native State, or lost his taste for culti be everywhere. vating earth, acquired on his father's farm in As to his grass lands, he is pursuing a thorough boyhood. |