FARJNIERS' REGISTER, 



369 



now growing on ihe oat fallow of last year, bid 

 lair to yield thirty bushels to the acre ; whicii is 

 aliout double what the yield would have been lasi 

 year, had they not been ploui^hed down. My 

 harvetted oats oC last year yield about lijrty bush- 

 els ihe acre ; a small portion of which I computed 

 as iiii^h as sixiy. 



Tlie first item in the above account, viz. 242 

 loads manure, was the remains of the accumula- 

 tions of the previous year, hut as I liave now on 

 hand more than tliis quantity, which is to be en- 

 tered Cor next year, I suppose no objection can be 

 raised to the entry. 



I spread from 40 to 64 loads of manure to the 

 acre, (averaire about 50) — that Irom the stables 

 and houj yards, on clays ; and that li-om the cattle 

 yards, on loams and sands. 



JMy sheep are never yarded, except the ewes 

 and lambs in the severest winter weather; and 

 for their accommodation 1 am now en<raged in 

 constructing a cot, and yard of about half an acre. 

 From the yard, the manure will be moved about 

 the middle of March ; the ground being in arti- 

 chokes, they are to be rooted out by hogs, from 

 eay lOih of November till lOih of December, 

 when the yard is again ready for the ewes and 

 lambs. This sheep yard, with other adjoininir, is 

 now in beets, but will be planted in the artichokes 

 next spring ; the artichokes being now growing in 

 an adjacent field. I suppose the proper meihod ol 

 cultivating this crop is to drill, plough and hoe, 

 the first year ; but after having been rooted by 

 hogs they need no lijrther attention, except per- 

 haps to pull out a lew straggling weeds on vacant 

 spots. The crops must be abundant on grounds 

 thus (lighly manured. 



My crop of corn is mos'.iy on bottom grounds, 

 and my ditches are already opened for the purpose 

 of conveying a creek thereon so soon as the cul- 

 ture of the crop is completed. 



Mountaineer. 



^imhersi, June, 1840. 



REMARKS ON CORN CULTURE — BEANS — 

 GREEN-SWARD, ETC. 



To ttie Editor of the Farmer's Register. 



June 10th, 1840. 

 In your May number, I have read with more 

 than ordinary interest, the appendix of the Rev. 

 JHenry Colman to Mr. Webster's agricultural ad- 

 dress, which 1 had perused before; and thecommuni- 

 cation by Mr. Thomas B. Sievenson of Kentucky. 

 There are, however, a few things in them to which 

 1 beg eave respectfully to state some objections. 

 First, iiovvever, permit me to say a word or two 

 of some of my own notions in regard to corn 

 culture, which your correspondent S., of South 

 Carolina, seems to have misunderstood, or I mis- 

 understand him. For he appears to ascribe to me 

 as a fixed opinion, what I offered merely as a 

 conjecture, relative to the ellect upon the crop of 

 cutting corn roots. The fact is, that this process 

 which takes place more or less, in every mode of 

 culture that 1 have ever yet witnessed, has al- 

 ways been to me a great mystery, and one of 

 which I have never seen any saiislactory explana- 

 tion. Between the various methods pursued by 

 the most successful corn-makere, there is a vast 

 Vor. VIII~-47 



difl'erence in the extent to which Ihe roots are cut ; 

 and yet fine crops are often found upon good land, 

 under all their modes of culture, if the eeasona 

 have been iijvorable. This could not possibly 

 hnppen, if cutting the roots was any thing like as 

 injurious, as we have generally supposed. Two 

 of the best corn-makers I ever knew cultivated al- 

 together with the two-horse plough; yet their 

 crops were certainly never inferior, as liir as the 

 eye could judge, to any others where a different 

 process had been adopted. The fiict is undenia- 

 ble, and the only difficulty is, how to account (or 

 it. I believe, with your correspondent S,, that, " if 

 it were possible to avoid it," we should find it 

 best "never to cut the root of any plant in its 

 culture."' But, is it possible? If it is, I cannot 

 even imauine such possibility. No body, I be- 

 lieve, doubts that keepinij ihe earth loose to a con- 

 siderable depth, is absolutely necessary to the vi- 

 gorous, healthful growih of all cultivated plants 

 whatever. But the man who could do it without 

 cutting many of the roots, would be very little, if 

 at all, interior to the famous artist John Emanu- 

 el Schoitz, described by Dr. Swift, who, among 

 niany other most marvellous feats enumerated by 

 the dean, could " heal a bar of iron red hot, and 

 thrust it into a barrel of gun-powder, belbre all 

 the company, and yet it would not take fire."' 



Mr. Taylor's method is certainly a very good 

 one, lor he mukes excellent crops; but it is pur- 

 sued in its most important piirliculars by thou- 

 sands. Still, there is uiiavoidiibly much root-cut- 

 ting in it, and no frreaier crops are made by it, 

 than by some different methods, where the lands 

 are equally as lijrlile, and the proprietors equally 

 as industrious, attentive and skilful, as Mr. Tay- 

 lor. It has, however, one very great advantage over 

 the old fashions, which prevailed some 30 or 40 

 years ago: it saves a great amount of labor, and 

 IS therefore far preferable, on this account, if on no 

 other. 



Suffer me now to state my few objections to the 

 Rev. Mr. Colraan's appendix, and to the commu- 

 nication o( your South .Carolina correspondent, S. 

 In speaking of the bean, the first named gentle- 

 man says— " the varieties of the bean are two, 

 garden and field beans, the white and the gray." 

 Now, if Mr. Colman is right, all our botanical 

 books are lorong ; for they enumerate at least 

 twenty species. Four of these are given in Bridge- 

 man's gardening; and, of the viciafaba alone, he 

 names twelve varieties, whilst he arranges under 

 the other three species, twenty-seven varieties 

 more, making 39 in all ; and Loudon, in his " En- 

 cyclopiedia of Plants," s'ates about the same num- 

 ber. Mr. Colman, I presume, is too good a bota- 

 nist to be ignorant of the facts, and, therefore, has 

 been somewhat careless, (to say the least of it,) in 

 liniiiins the number of varieties, even of the 

 viciafaba, to two. It is a great departure from his 

 usual particularity and correctness of description. 



To a part of Mr. Stevenson's communication I 

 object, on account of his giving, (as almost all the 

 Kentucky farmers do,) the name " l)lup-grass," to 

 the " green-sward," or '' goose-grass," or " lawn- 

 irrass ; " all of which nam"s it bears. This is of 

 a yellowish green, and cannot, iherelbre, witli pro- 

 priety, be called '• blue," whereas, the true blue- 

 grase is really of a bluish green, and hence it 

 takes its name. It is very different from the 

 "greensward," in appearance; is nnore hardy^ 



