400 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



CORN SOWN BROADCAST. 



From the Southern Cultivator. 



In a smnil enclosure belonging to Mr. D. F. 

 Moore, of Spring Hill, in Uii.s county, we noticed 

 what, at first, we supposed to be a beautiful and 

 luxuriant stand of millet. It turned out, however, 

 to be Indian corn, sown broadcast, at tlie rate of 

 about two bushels per acre, and intended for the 

 scythe while green, and to be fed to milch cows. 

 On inquiry, we were inlbrtned by Mr. Moore that 

 this is not now an experiment with him, having 

 been tried with the most satisfactory results here- 

 tolore. He stales that it produces a great quan- 

 tity of green food, succulent and nutritious, on 

 which his stock Itjed with delight and thrive ra- 

 pidly. We should be pleased, however, to see 

 more careful trials repeated with it; doubting, as 

 we do, notwithstanding its great succulence, 

 whether there is indeed much nutrition in the 

 young stalks and blades when cut so early. 



WOODLAND RYE. 



From the Southern Cultivator. 

 Five miles from Nashville, on the Franklin 

 turnpike, we saw a woodlot eovvn in rye, which 

 we are told belongs to Mr. F. McGavock. This 

 lot we learn was quite promising early in the 

 spring, before the leaves of the trees were out. It 

 now, however, evidently suffers with shade; the 

 rye looks watery, jointed and innu'.ritious, and is 

 thinly scattered over the surliace of the lot. Such 

 portion of it as matures, will, if suff"ered to stand, 

 doubtless deposite seed enough to cause a second 

 crop to spring up. In this way many crops may 

 follow, without the cost of sowing or cultivation. 

 Yet we incline to the opinion that rye in woodland 

 will alter all prove to be of but little ()rofii. In the 

 first place, the seed and rye-crop must, under such 

 circumstances, deteriorate every successive sea- 

 son. Secondly, the seeds of weeds, unless the 

 ground is regularly ploughed every lall, will ripen 

 and multiply, till eventually the rye will be com- 

 pletely choked and destroyed. In the third place, 

 the same woodland, sown down in our native 

 blue-grass (or one of many other cultivated 

 grasses,) would be rendered permanently and 

 doubly more valuable lor grazing, whilst it would 

 be kept free irom weeds. We hope, however, 

 that Mr. McGavock will carefully note and accu- 

 rately give to the public the details and result of 

 this experiment, whether they be favorable or 

 (Otherwise. 



lA'CERNK. 



From the Fanners' Cabinet. 



Sir, — As I consider the Farmers' Cabinet the 

 channel through which we first obtained inti:irma- 

 tion, in this part of the country, respeclinir a crop 

 which IS likely to make a great stir among us, I 

 think its patres should be devoted to the record ot 

 any circumstances which might be found to arise 

 relating to its culture, which, if i mistake not, is 

 about to engross a considerable .«hare ofthe atten- 

 tion of the ai'ricultiirul coiiimuntiy through out the 



union. I must, however, deprecate a Merino' 

 multicaulis-mania in the future prosecution of the 

 matter; let us sit down "doggedly to the task" 

 of examining its real pretensions, and the best 

 modes of introducing it to notice, by proper culti- 

 vation on suitable soils and under favorable circum- 

 stances, and record the result. 



The accounts which appeared some time since 

 in the Cabinet, relative to the crops of lucerne in 

 the island of Jersey, (England,) seemed at- the 

 time, to say the least of them, very astonishing ; 

 a;)d if they had been supposed to be quite correct, 

 must, ere this, have called very general attention 

 to the cultivation of that crop amongst us ; unfor- 

 tunately they came upon us just at the time ofthe 

 morus fever, when we did not suppose that we 

 should evef require any other mode of making 

 bread, and people could think of nothing else ; and 

 since its disastrous exit, they are inclined to consi- 

 der such fliiming accounts as mere u)oonshine, and 

 will not, yet a while, consent to be led away by 

 " such another ignis fatuus, such another dance." 



I am drawn to this subject at the present mo- 

 ment by reading conflicting testimony, /or and 

 against this crop, in the papers of the day, and 

 cannot but think the time is approachinj? when 

 such very wide differences must be reconciled by 

 practical experiment, and that loo by those to 

 whom such employment will be legitimate — by 

 the real cultivators of the soil— noi men of all 

 other denominations and persuasions, as was the 

 case in the cultivation of the morus multicau'is, 

 and the breeding of Merino sheep. I find, ac- 

 cordinff to the eastern papers, that the cultivation 

 of lucerne has been tried in several places in that 

 country, and has totally failed ; while in the Bal- 

 timore American Farmer, for the 29th April, 

 there is a particular account of a crop which has 

 as signally succeeded — accounts as opposite as 

 north and south, and which, possibly, is the main 

 cause of such discrepancy; at the same lime, 

 much also must depend on the very opposite na- 

 ture of the soils in these distant regions ; that of 

 the eastern states being about as unsuitable to 

 the growth of tap-rooted plants, extending to the 

 depth of ten or twelve feet into the subsoil, as can 

 possiblv be imajjined— proverbially rocky,8wampy 

 and cr>ld — while on the light and warm soils of 

 Maryland, nothing would seem more suitable 

 than a crop which draws its support, even during 

 the hottest seasons, Irom a depth lar out of the 

 reach of the severest droughts. 



Now I must be permitted to profess myself an 

 advocate for the cultivation o( this plant in our 

 country; but I do not indulge myself in the idea, 

 that it is suitable lor all soils, situations and cir- 

 cumstances. And although I have seen it grow- 

 ing luxuriantly in a small quantity, adjoining the 

 lencc of a cottage on the hill, above the sugar re- 

 finery of John Blown and Co.. at East Boston — 

 and where it niiijht still be found, I have no doubt 

 — and have failed in my attempts to raise it on the 

 warm sand.s of Jersey, under the most carelul 

 treatment; still, that it may be raised in this coun- 

 try with perfect success, in suitable situations, I 

 am as thoroughly convinced as 1 am of my exist- 

 ence ; but I do not think it can be done to any 

 good purpose in the eastern states gerierally, or on 

 those lands which have moist and poisonous sub- 

 soils : these last are destructive to its growth, the 

 (leleterious matter being taken up by the tap- 



