310 



FARMERS' R K G J S T E R , 



[No. 5 



down with bones dibbled at the same rate per 

 jKM-e ; the crop was excellent, but on the old croft 

 land Piiperior to where it had been lately reclaim- 

 ed. IJoiii the above fields were sown with ijreen 

 top antl Aberdeen yellow turnips. A third field, 

 of sixteen acres, was laid down as follows : — five 

 acres with Swedes, and best farm yard duiiii;, as 

 usually done; three acres with white cjlobes, bone 

 dust dibbled, sown at the same time as the Swedes 

 (tor early eating) ; ibiir acres with best common 

 (arm yard dung, green tops, sown three weeks 

 later than the globes ; lour acres green tops, in al- 

 ternate patches of six drills each — first, dibbled 

 bone dust; second, dibbled animalized carbon; and 

 third, dibbled pulverised farm manure; the bones 

 at the rale of twelve bushels per acre ; the carbon 

 nearly double that quantity; the pret)ared dung 

 about a small handful to each dibble hole, and all 

 sown in the same day. Soil of upper end of the 

 field a good, dry loam; lower part poor, wet, 

 cold, gravelly bam; the whole limed some years 

 previously. Swedes a good crop, except ing a small 

 part of the lower end of the field. Early globes, 

 heavy crop upper, and good crop lower end. 

 Green tops, farm-yard dung, poor crop generally. 

 Bones excellent every where; carbon middling crop, 

 and rather worse at lower end; pulverised dung 

 excellent in upper end, very inferior in thelovv^er. 

 The difi'erence was so marked, that even an inex- 

 perienced ej'e might perceive it, as each case was 

 repeated three or four times, and the inference 

 therefore is as follows. Carbon is not to be in 

 any case recommended, excejiting wliere the fiy 

 is destructive; in which case a small quantity 

 might be advantageous, as lor the first ten days it 

 l(jrces on the young plants in a surprising manner. 

 Bones are most advisable as a general nnttmre 

 for all kinds of soil, and produce first rate crops of 

 turnijis, where they could not be grown by any 

 orher means. But if the soil be a good dry loam, 

 there can be no necessity for the outlay upon an 

 artificial substitute, when a pulverised manure can 

 be prepared at home by any farmer, without any 

 cost, and equally elhcacious as the best bone dust. 

 Sir F. likewise tried the carbon and bones on an- 

 other farm, in alternate drills, on a small scale, on 

 a light, poor, gravelly soil; and on a third farm in 

 pure raw moss, all with the same results. The 

 carbon for the first fortniszht appeared by far the 

 most promising; but in November tiie crop from 

 bones was double the weight of the other. His 

 pulverised fiirm-yard manure is formed from weeds 

 completely rotted by repealed turning and fermen- 

 tation, and then saturated with liquid from the 

 folds, collected and carried in drains for that pur- 

 pose into a covered tank, where it is kept till 

 wanted — to this is added some old trenched ma- 

 nure, the whole well pulverised by repeated turn- 

 ing. 



From tlie Maine Farmer. 

 WINTER WHEAT. 



Mr. Holmes: — In the Maine Farmer, of the 

 30th May, there is a valualjle communication 

 from Mr. James Ronaldson, on the culture of win- 

 ter wheat. 



It is a subject of the first importance to the 

 farmers of this state ; and every individual farmer 

 who is anxious to raise bread for our own con- 

 Bumption, ought to feel it a duty to make limited, 



or extensive experiments, according to his abilhy, 

 for the purpose of testing the value of Mr. Ron- 

 aldson's suggestions, and whether they will suit 

 our soil and climate. It is also the duty of those 

 who have already made ex[)eriments, in any way 

 connected with the mode proposed by Mr. Ron- 

 aldson, to disclose the same. 



Mr. C. Fairbanks' comnmnication on the sub- 

 ject is useful and encouraging; and under this im- 

 pression, I shall state what course I have [jursued, 

 and my reasons for the same, and then offer a few 

 remarks on the proposed plan. 



From my early acquaintance with English hus- 

 bandry, I gave the prelerence to winter wheat, 

 and imported, in the year 1788, a few bushels 

 from Liverpool, of the ' TV/iite Lancashire Win- 

 ter Wheat,'' which succeeded very well, and fi'om 

 this wheat 54 barrels of good flour was manufac- 

 tured at a flour mill in Hallowell, in 1794, and 

 shipped for sale to Boston. Twelve years after 

 the importation, a bushel of this wheat was sown 

 in the town of Corinth, county of Penoliscot, by 

 Hemy Snow, on an acre and a quarter of burnt 

 land and produced forty bushels of prime wheat. 

 I brought four quarts of it home, and from its 

 produce, continued for a few years to sow it on 

 plousrhed land. I think about ten years af^ter, I 

 procured from Connecticut, a superior quality of 

 winter wheat, called the Taylor wheat, which 

 was first raised in Virginia, by a gentleman of 

 that name. This kind I have continued to cul- 

 tivate, and fiom this, or my imported wheat, I 

 obtained from one bushel, ground at the mill at 

 Gardiner, 527^ lbs. of good flour, including the 

 toll. The averace yield has been thirteen to four- 

 teen bushels to the acre, which I considered equal 

 to seventeen or eighteen bushels of spring wheat, 

 with the advantage of preparing the land, and 

 sowing the winter wheat at the season of greatest 

 leisure. 



Being satisfied that even in ploughed land, 

 where ihe soil and make o( the land was liavora- 

 ble, winter wheat was preferable, I tried the fol- 

 lowing experiments: 



1. I sowed in drills in my garden, in the sprivg, 

 some winter wheat, and dunng the season, un- 

 til September, frequently cut it down. A smaller 

 proportion was winter-killed, than in the open field. 



2. In the second experimenr, the wheat was 

 sown after a crop of oats. With the oats I sowed 

 twelve pounds of clover seed. When the oats 

 were nearly ripe enough to reap, the grass-hop- 

 pers made such havoc by cutting off the grain, 

 that the ground was strewed with seed. The 

 oats were immediately reaped, the clover and 

 stubble ploughed in, and about the nuddle of Au- 

 gust, the winter wheat was sowed. In a short 

 time, the verdure was remarkable, and on exami- 

 nation, I found that the oats which had been in 

 and on the ground, had sprung up and covered it. 

 Aware that the winter would kill the oats sown at 

 this time, the effect on the wheat was carefully 

 watched, and the oats proved a protection to the 

 wheat in winter, and with a dressing of a bushel 

 of plaster of Paris strewed on an acre in the 

 spring, served as a top-dressing. The wheat 

 grew vigorously, and there was an increase of pro- 

 duce from it. Since that time I have always sow- 

 ed a bushel and a half of oats to the acre, with, 

 the wheat, and spread a cask and a half of lime on 

 the same quantity of land. 



