306 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



presence oC the chairman of your committee, and 

 maiiintT ample allowance for the tops whicli had 

 not been stripped ofl, were adjudrjed equal to four 

 bushels 10 the square rod, or at the rate of 640 

 bushels to the acre. In these experimt^nts 7 lt)g. 

 of potash, vviiich cost 7 cenls a pound bought at 

 the retail price, w<-re used. Potash, althoup^h 

 dearer than wood-ashes at 12.^ cents per bushel, Ts, 

 I think, cheaper than the white ash mentioned by 

 Dr. Dana, and sufficiently cheap to make with 

 meadow mud, a far cheaper manure than such as 

 is in (jeneral used among our farmers. The ex- 

 periment satisfies me that nothing better than pot- 

 ash and peat can be used for most, if not all our 

 cultivated vegetables, and the economy of water- 

 ing with a solution of geine, such as are cultivated 

 in rows, I think cannot be doubted. The reason 

 why the corn was not very obviously benefited, I 

 think, must have been that the portion of the roots 

 to which it was applied was already fully supplied 

 with nutriment out of the same kind from the pt^at 

 ashes and manure put in the hill at planting. For 

 watering rows of onions or other vegetables, I 

 shoidd recommend that a cask be mounted on 

 light wheels, so set that like the drill they may 

 run each side of the row and drop the liquid ma- 

 nure through a small lap hole or tube from the 

 cask, directly upon the young plants. For pre- 

 paring the liquor, I shouM recommend a cistern 

 about three feet deep and as large as the object 

 may require, formed of plank, aiTd laid on a bed 

 of clay and surrounded by the same, in the man- 

 ner that Ian vats are constructed ; this should oc- 

 cupy a warm place, exposed to the sun, near wa- 

 ter, and as near as these requisites permit to the 

 tillage lands of the farm. In such a cistern, in 

 warm weather, a solution of geine may be made 

 in large quantities, with little' labor and without 

 the expense of fuel, as the heat of the sun is, I 

 ihink, amply sufficient for the purpose.* If from 

 further experiments it should be found economical 

 fo water grass lands and grain crops, a large cask 

 or casks placed on wheels, and drawn by oxp.n or 

 horse power, the liquor li-om the casks being at 

 pleasure let into a long narrow box. perforated with 

 numerous small holes, which would spread the 

 eame over a strip of ground, some 6, 8, or 10 feet 

 in breaiith, as it is drawn over the field, in the same 

 manner as the streets in cities are watered in sum- 

 i"^"". Andrew Nichols. 



I certify that I measured the piece of land men- 

 tioned in the foregoing statement, as planted with 

 corn, on the 21st of September, 1839, and found 

 the same to contain two acres, three quarters, thir- 

 ty-one rods. John W. Proctor, Surveyor. 



From Ilaywaid's Science of Agriculture. 

 HAYMAKING. 



Having observed, that in a season where there 

 was no rain whatever, and the hay had been made 

 with rapidity, and carried within a short lime after 

 it had been cut, that a greater quantity had been 

 mjured by being over-heated and burnt, than in a 



* Perhaps in an excavation in a peat moadow, 

 which would fill with water spontaneously, a solution 

 of geine misifit be still more cheaply obtained, by sim- 

 ply adding potash, ashes, &c. to the stagnant water. 



catching, irregular season ; thai when hay had not 

 healed in Ihe stack, it was frequently mouldy ; 

 that as hay lost its native green color and ap- 

 proached a brown, it lost its nutritive qualities; 

 and that, altogether, the making of hay, as usually 

 conducted, was a very precarious and troublesome 

 operation ; I determined on trying to arrange a 

 system on more regular and certain principles, and 

 in which I succeeded : and by adopting a certain 

 and regular course of operations, was enabled to 

 make my hay of a uniform good quality; and, let 

 Ihe weather be as it might, at a pretty regular ex- 

 pense for labor, and considering such a process not 

 only of importance, as it insures a more perfect 

 qualify, but as it affjrds a more certain protection 

 against the injuries usually consequent on the un- 

 certainty of the weather, and over-heating in the 

 stock, and that it thus removes two great causes of 

 anxiety, it may be well worth the public attention. 



In the first place, then, as to the state of the 

 weather — it generally happens at this season of 

 the year, that there are three or lour rainy and 

 three or four dry days ;* therefore, on beginuinglo 

 cut the grass, as it is well known that grass may 

 be cut and suffered to remain in the swartfi for 

 several days without injury ; and it being desirable, 

 where hands are plenty, to have a good quantity, 

 or as much as will complete a stack in a day, in 

 the same state of forwardness, I should prefer, 

 rather than to wait for fine weather, to begin to 

 cut in rainy weather. However, be this as it may, 

 the swaths should not be opened but on a fine day, 

 and when this is done, the grass should be well 

 shaken apart and equally spread over the ground ; 

 and as soon as ihe upper surface is dry, turn it 

 well over, and in this operation great care should 

 be taken lo open and spread any cocks that may 

 not have been divided in the first opening: thisbe- 

 insj done, commence raking into wind-rows in 

 time, that the whole may be made into small cocks 

 before the night. The second day these cocks must 

 remain ii,ntoiiched, let the weather be wet or dry. 

 the third day, if ihe weather be certain and fine, 

 throw the cocks open ; but if the weather be wet 

 or threatening, they may remain another day, or 

 until the weather is certain lo be fine lor the day. 

 The cocks should then be thrown, according to 

 Ihe crop, into beds of two or three rows, and alter 

 three or fiiur hours' exposure, turned over, and 

 taking lime to gather llie whole into wind-rows 

 and cocks before night; let this operation com- 

 mence accordingly, and none be left open. The 

 day after this, which in fine weather will be the 

 fourth, the cocks mv.st again remain untouched, or 

 not be opened, whether the weather be wet or dry. 

 On the filih, or the next dry day, these cocks will 

 onlv require to be opened for an hourorlwo, after 

 which time they will be fit for the stack. 



The novelty of this mode, consists only in suf- 

 fering the hay to remain in cock Ihe second or third, 

 or alternate days; and at first sight it may appear 

 that so much lime in fine weather must be lost, 

 but this is by no means the case, for whilst the hay 

 remains in cocks, a slight fermentation, or what is 

 termed sweating, will lake place; and in conse- 

 quence, after it has been opened on the third and 

 fifth days, it will prove lo he just as forward as if 

 it had been worked everyday ; and Ihe advantages 

 resulting from tliis, are obviously ihe following: 



* Jn England. 



