o. 5. J 441 



have been killed by using it for bread ; it makes an excellent food for 

 cows early in the spring ; I have sown it in May with corn and oats 

 broadcast, and used it advantageously for soiling cows and young cat- 

 tle ; they should be fed sparingly at first, or hoven may ensue. 



Oats. — I always sow this grain in the month of April, on ground 

 plowed in the fall, and generally use the potatoe variety. I sow from 

 three to five bushels to the acre, harrow twice, and roll twice this year, 

 1844. I tried the following experiment, with a field of ten acres. 

 When the grain had grown four inches above ground, I sowed by 

 hand my composition upon it broadcast, at an expense of three dol- 

 lars per acre ; contiguous I sowed a ten acre field at the same time, 

 but did not use any composition : the oats on the first field grew six 

 feet high, and produced at the rate of seventy two bushels to the acre: 

 while those in the adjoining field grew only eighteen inches high, and 

 yielded at the rate of thirty-two bushels. The difference in the 

 growth was observed by Mr. A. B. Allen, Editor of the Agriculturist, 

 and other gentlemen. They were cut in the milk, the straw being 

 brown four inches above the ground. They weighed forty-four 

 pounds to the bushel, and received the first premium of the Ameri- 

 can Institute. The straw, being full of saccharine matter, was equal 

 to the first quality of hay for fodder — when stacked, it was salted at 

 the rate of half a bushel to the ton. In gathering the crop, some 

 oats were left upon the field, which ripened, and as the field received 

 a second manuring with the composition, to benefit the young grass, 

 grew rapidly, filled out, and matured their seed, before frost set in ; 

 a sample of which, is in the hands of the Board of Agriculture. I 

 think the straw of the potatoe oat is almost one-third heavier than 

 that of the common kind. The only objection I have to the variety 

 is that its husk is very hard. 



Corn. — This crop is cultivated on my place, planted in drills, twelve 

 inches apart in the drill — drills thirty inches from centre to centre — 

 the seed planted after having been soaked fourteen hours in strong 

 brine, and rolled in composition ; composition is likewise spread upon 

 the kernels, and the whole is covered by the plow. When six inches 

 high, the earth is plowed from the corn, after five days a composition 

 is spread upon the drills, and the earth is plowed to the corn again ; 

 which is all the tillage it requires. When glazed, and while the 

 stalk is still partially green, it is pulled up by the root, struck smartly 

 against the toe, and laid down by the side of the operator ; another 

 man follows with a team, and carries it off from the field ; it is then 

 put in stack, where it remains four weeks, when it is husked, placed 

 upon the barn floor, dried perfectly and cribbed ; the stalks are drawn 

 imder cover and salted ; thus, during the winter, root and stalk are 

 converted into manure, and the ground left in perfect order for win- 

 ter grain, which is immediately sown, and the field seeded down to 

 meadow, appearing like a summer fallow. The stalks, at that stage 

 of their growth, are full of saccharine matter, and exceedingly nutri- 

 tious for stock ; the dirt adhering to their roots is also grateful to the 

 animal in winter. Every farmer has noticed that his horses and neat 

 cattle will search for a spot of earth in the barn- yard, after it has 



