FARMERS' REGISTER 



35 



in those states. Many of them assured me that 

 it yielded from eight to twelve thousand pounds 

 of hay to the acre. And tliou^h the Ibod is 

 course and rough, yet its astoui-^hinir product 

 seemed to me to renrier i(scullivaton expedient (lir 

 our mules and oxen and cattle nrenerally, if lor 

 nothing more. Oiu" winter range being pretty well 

 exhausted, it is indispensable that we provide rough 

 forage for our stock, from cultivation. 



I sowed the above pecl{ of seed on about three 

 acres of ground after breaking it with the plough 

 both ways, and liarrowed it in. One tijurth of a 

 peck the acre is probably suficient ; and the first 

 of March the proper time for sowing. It should 

 be cut when lliirly headed out and in milk, for hay 

 which, in ordinarj' seasons, will be in July. Such 

 as is kept for seed, must remain until it fully ma- 

 tures. From those three acres I have cut upwards 

 of fifteen thousand weight of hay, and find that 

 horses, mules and cattle are very fond of if. 



i am much pleased with its cultivation, and shall 

 •enlarge my crop. It seems to me preferable to 

 oats ; because it yields more, and is better winter 

 food. R. A. P. 



CAUSES OF SKEDS KOT GERMINATING. 



From the Cultivator. 



We have knovvn and heard of considerable loss 

 and disappointment from seeds, panicularly-onion 

 seeds, not growing. We have thought and in- 

 quired in reliirence to the cause, and the result 

 ofoiir cogitations and enquiries may be thus slated : 



Without a certain degree of moisture, seeds 

 will not germinate. On dry, sandy soils, and in 

 a dr}' season, it seem? highly probable, then, that 

 seeds may be deprived of the requisite degree of 

 moisture ; perhaps receivins just as much as will 

 mould them and destroy their vitality, or being 

 so near the surface as to be injured by the suii's 

 heat and light. 



But the seed may have cerminafed, and have 

 commenced to send out their roofs and stem stalks 

 and yet be destroyed. If the soil is not pressed 

 close!}' to the seeds, and very dry weather occtu-s 

 just at this period of the process of germination 

 the root being too distant from the soil, and too 

 feeble to draw any supply of moisture, the liquid 

 food of the plant contained in the fermented seed 

 may be dried up, and the life thus destroyed. 



If you would avoid disappointment and loss from 

 e>3eds flailing to grow, the preventive process is 

 indicated by a knowledge of the causes most fre- 

 quently productive of this result, which we think 

 are those stated above. If you sprout your seeds 

 before putting them into the ground, you will pre- 

 serve them fi-om the first cause of failure, but if 

 you pulverize your soil thoroughly and press in 

 this state with a hoe. spade, or roller, upon the 

 seeds thus sprouted, the root stem will soon and 

 surely derive sufiicient moisture from the soil. 



In a few instances I have found tny neiahbors 

 blaming the seed as useless, particularly of onions, 

 carrots, and parsnips, when I have obtained a 

 little of the seed and (iDund it to sprout quite well. 

 You may easily save yourselves from such reflec- 

 tions, or from the temptation to blame others, by 

 steeping the suspected seed in warm or lepiu 

 water, from si.K to twenty-four hours, according 

 to the size and hardness of the seeds, and then 



THINNING OUT THE I.EAVES OF VINES INJU- 

 RIOUS TO THE FRUIT. 



From the Annales d' Hort. de Paris. 

 Mr. Erassin, the manager of the celebrated 

 vines at Thierney and Fontainbleau, does not thin 

 out the leaves to ripen the fruit, as is too frequent- 

 ly done by many who cultivate grapes. When 

 the fruit is flill grown, instead of thiiming the leaves, 

 which shade the fi'uit from the gun, as is the com- 

 mon practice — which is so injurious, that the more 

 the leaves are removed, the less the fruit ri- 

 pens — he takes away the leaves between the 

 grapes and the wall, in order that the heat of the 

 sun may be reflected by the wall on the grapes. 

 M. Poiteau truly observes that no leaves can be 

 safely removed by any one uho does not possess 

 some just notions of vegetable physiology. 



setting it away in a warmish place for a day or 

 two. If good it will sprout in this time ; if kept 

 warm in a darkish place, and it does not sprout in 

 this lime, the seed is I;iuit3^ 



In cotmexion with this subject, I may state that 

 several circumstances incline me to the bidief that 

 corn which has been sprouted — no matter in what 

 steep — is safe Horn the ravages of the red or wire 

 worm. It has been fiishionable to steep in a 

 strong solution of copperas, and to ascribe the 

 safety of the seed in this stale not to the change 

 which fermentaiion has produced in the germ or 

 chit which is usually first attacljcd, but to the 

 change in the taste from the copperas. We have 

 known corn soaked in simple water — in water 

 alone — to escape from ihe attacks of the worm as 

 ,wel! as that soaked in a copperas steep. Until 

 this matter is made more certain, however, I would 

 hold it bad husbandry to neglect the copperas, as 

 in addition to the change produced by heat and 

 moisture, we have also the disagreeable taste 

 communicated by this salt,. 



THE COTTON CROPS OF THE WORLD. 



P'rom the Philadelphia Inquirer. 



There is no subject connected with commerce or 

 agriculture, which possesses a higher interest for 

 the citizens of the United Slates, than the produc- 

 tion and consumption of cotton. We have, on 

 more than one occasion, devoted our columns to 

 the insertion of information upon the subject ; and 

 our attention is particularly called to it just now, in 

 consequence of a recent publication of a valuable 

 letter, signed " Gotlon Plant," in a spirited New 

 York pa^er, called "The Whip." The writer 

 commences by stating that the entire growth of 

 cotton ill the world is set down at 1,000,000,000 

 lbs. Of this 550 millions are supposed to he jjrown 

 in the Uniied States, 30 in Brazil, 8 in the West 

 Indies, 27 in Egypt, 36 in the west of Africa, 190 

 in the westof Asia, 35 in Mexico and South Ame- 

 rica, except Brazil, and 14 millions elsewhere. 



Thus, at 10 cents per lb., a price below which 

 it has rarely ever fallen, this crop is worth 100,- 

 000,000 dollars. For the last fifty years, however, 

 the value (though often fluctuating suddenly and 

 widely) has averaged 19 l-2cts. At this price the 



