On Gypsum. 53 
duced all mine to food, litter and manure. But my ex- 
periments reject the use of cutting boxes, after trying 
the best for a long time, on account of the expence and 
inutility of the labour. ‘The expence on a very small 
farm is not seen; on a very large one, it is felt at once. 
On mine, the removal of stalks, straw, corn shucks, 
cobs and tops to the places of consumption, is nearly 
sufficient for the winter’s work. ‘To cut the stalks and 
straw, would employ the whole labour of the farm. Ifa 
good farmer ought to have a vast surplus of dry vege- 
table matter for litter, beyond what is necessary for food, 
why should this expence be incurred ? Is it not cheaper 
to feed in waste, and let the waste go for litter ? It is 
with difficulty I reduce this coarse food to manure and 
apply it in the spring. If the stock is increased and 
made to eat it, the manure is diminished, and the addi- 
tional stock is soon killed by the want of a dry warm 
bed, and a deficiency of summer pasturage. 
I find corn stalks gradually became less valuable as 
food and litter, the longer they stand, therefore I begin 
to use them as soon as | begin to gather corn, by remov- 
ing every day the weather will permit, about eight or 
ten heavy waggon loads, into the stable yard and farm 
pen; keeping a parcel near each to resort to in less 
quantity when the weather is bad. Horses and mules 
thrive better at this crisis, than at any other time of the 
year. Whether the saccharine juice of the stalk agrees 
better with them, or whether it is owing to their being 
able to masticate more of it than the cow, who is chiefly 
confined to stripping it, they seem to thrive better on 
this food than horned cattle. Between two and three 
thousand load of manure is made on the farm I live on, 
