546 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 9 



The average of the whole is . £24 10 7^ 

 And, leaving out the first, as greatly 



too lovv, the average will be almost 30 

 Upon the whole, the loss to the farmer, in the 

 first instance, cannot be under £25 annually for 

 each ox-plough team.* And it may be worthy of 

 remark, that the whole of this loss must ultimate- 

 ly lall upon the landlord and the community. 



R. R. R. R. 



32.000 herrings, at 31 cents - $9 92 

 Hauling five loads of herrings 



at ^1 25 - - - 6 25 



Ploughing in ditto - - 1 00 

 Expense of planting and culli- 



vatinjrcorn - - - 3 00 



17 



From the American Farmer. 

 FISH AS MANURE. STATEMENT FOUNDEIJ 

 ON EXPERIMENT. 



Sir — I promised you, when I had the pleasure 

 of seeing you here last year, that I would give 

 you the result of an experiment made by using 

 herrings as a manure ; and since 1 have fully 

 tested the experiment, 1 now give you the result, 

 with all its minutise. In May, 1822, I purchased 

 32,000 herrings, and placed them in drills four feet 

 apart, on 4023 square yards of ground, which is 

 817 yards less than an acre— ihey were placed 

 quite thick in the drills — and then covered with a 

 plough, by throwing two furrows together. On 

 the 24th May, I finished planting the ground in 

 corn, by dropping the same on each side of the 

 drill at about three (eet apart ; but found when the 

 corn grew about three feet high, it was much too 

 thick, and was compelled to plough out every 

 other row. The corn was once ploughed with a 

 small corn plough, and twice with the cultivator, 

 which was all the cultivation I gave it — the corn 

 yielded, when gathered, a fraction more than 30 

 bushels ; and although last year the corn in this 

 neighborhood suffered much from the long 

 drought, it had upon this corn no apparent inju- 

 rious'effect. While the leaves of other corn in 

 its immediate neighborhood were dead and dried 

 up above the ear, this was perfectly fresh ; and the 

 dry weather appeared not at all to affect its verdure. 

 On the 10th of October, I agam ploughed the 

 ground, and on the same day, sowed the same 

 with two bushels of wheat. In the spring, the 

 wheat grew so luxuriantly, I found it necessary 

 to cut an acre with a scythe. It again very soon 

 covered the ground. The weather preceding har- 

 vest was very favorable to this wheat, being un- 

 commonly dry : had it been wet, I believe not one 

 bushel would have been gathered. Dry as the 

 weather was. it was cut with much difficulty, it 

 had fallen to the ground so much. It yielded, 

 when carefully taken from the straw, twenty-nine 

 bushels. You saw the ground yourself, and know 

 how very poor it was — and I am persuaded, had 

 the fish been placed with some regularity on the 

 surface of the ground, in the place of drills at so 

 great a distance apart, by which the ground 

 would have been regularly manured, it would have 

 produced several more bushels of wheat \han it 

 did. As it is, it yielded at the rate of 34| bushels 

 to the acre. I now give you the cost and profit : 



* We humbly recommend the above observations, 

 together with the comparative statements between 

 ho'rses and oxen, for the purpose of the draught, pre- 

 sented in the Northumberland Survey, to the conside- 

 ration of those members of the Legislature, who sup- 

 ported the bill for taxing farm horses, solely because 

 it would operate as a premium in favor of oxen. 



Or. 



By thirty bushels corn at 75 cents, which 



was the price last fall - - 22 50 



Clear profit on the first crop - - 2 33 



I say nothing of the fodder, leaving that 

 to pay the expense of getting in corn. 

 29 bushels of wheal at $1 25 - - 36 25 



Expenses. 

 Two bushels ofwheal at ^125 - $2 50 

 Cultivation - - - 2 50 



$38 58 



$5 00 



Clear profit, leaving the land rich - - ^33 58 



I would here remark, that although I used 32,- 



000 herrings, 20,000 to the acre is quite sufficient, 



and will make a more certain crop than a greater 



quantity. I have used this spring, cat-fish and 



perch for my potatoes, and find them as good 



again as the best stable manure ; and you will find 



at Messrs. Bradford & Cooch's, in a few days, a 



barrel of potatoes made from the fish — also a few 



at the top of the barrel in paper, the seed of which 



you gave me last fall — they were, I think, sent 



you I'rom the north — they grew well with me, 



and are the finest potatoes for the table I ever saw. 



Yours, respectfully, 



Benjamin F. Mackall. 



Wilna Mills, Cecil Co., Oct. 12, 1823. 



From tlie American Farmer. 

 SHEEP HUSBANDRY OF R. R. MEADE, DEc'd. 



Read at tiie last meeting of tlie Agricultural Society of the Val- 

 ley, (1824) and by order of said Society communicated for 

 publication in the American Farmer. 



Gentlemen — If an apology were necessary in 

 making a communication to farmers on the subject 

 of their prolession and prosperity, I might find it 

 in the queries propounded by our secretary, and 

 his invitation to a free exchange of information on 

 agricultural topics; also in a sincere desire I pro- 

 fess for the improvement of our husbandry through 

 agricultural associations. Under similar impres- 

 sions I had been in the habit of sending to the 

 American Farmer the result of my efforts to im- 

 prove the breed of sheep, with a hope of exching 

 a more special attention to that part of our occu- 

 pation, but the suggestion of a member that any 

 remarks made on the subject might reach those 

 useful pages through the medium of our society, 

 determined me in the propriety of respectfully 

 placing at your discretion the report of my last 

 shearing, with a few observations thereon — per- 

 haps in the infancy of our institution, and in the 

 absence of learned or scientific communications, a 

 plain practical relation of facts may be interesting, 

 and enable you to turn them to some advantage. 

 The subject in my humble opinion has not receiv- 



