412 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 21, 1820. 



From Memoirs of t'ac N. Y. Board of Agtioultare. 



the hog-pen, and as much litter, weeds and refuse 



from the garden and yards, as can be procured, 



RE-MARKS and by a careful mixture of some good black earth. 



On cuiliiii;; Oalu und hidlan Coiii — )a:iiiin^ and i the quantity of manure may be swelled to a large 



ajjplyiiif; Moinircs — Rolulion of Creps, ^'c. amount. As almost all landholders have on their 



Jesse Buei., Esq.— Being honored with a circu- i farms ponds or swamps, that are mirey, I will re- 



lar from the Board of AgPicuRiivo, I will offer a \ commend that they draw out, in the month of Au- 



few experiments which have proved to me of great 

 advantage. 



In the first place, every landholder v/iio tills the 

 ground should be very careful to provide and make 

 manure by all possible means in his power ; and 

 this he may do to a considerable extent. He 

 should provide himself with as mucli fodder as will 

 %vinter more cattle than he can isumraer ; and tSiis 

 is done in the following manner i Cut your oats 

 when the straw is green in part; let|t!iem lay and 

 i;ure in the swath lintil they are sufficiently dry 

 not to mould : bind them in sheaves and stack 

 them. When they are threshed, the farmer will 

 find that his oats will thrash to greater advantage. 

 The light oats sticking to the p'vaw, makes it good 

 fodder, and I consider it of as mucli value as will" 

 pay the expense of raising the oats. 



Secondly,give up the old method of culling your 

 top-stalks ; and when your corn is suificiently 

 hard, or when you cannot find an ear soft enough 

 to boil and eat, then proceed to cut and stout your 

 corn in the field, in the following manner : Bring 

 the tops of two hills together, without cutting ; 

 bind them with a few spears of straw ; then cut 

 and set up about enough to make four sheaves, if 

 bound ; then put a band of straw about the top ; 

 and then you may add as many more, and bind 

 the whole with^two bands, ahvays keeping the 

 bottom of the stout open, so as to admit the circu- 

 lation of air. At tlie pi-oper time of gathering 

 corn, you may proceed thus : Throw down the 

 stout, unbind and begin to gather the cotn ; when 

 you have stalks enough for a sheaf, bind them and 

 lay it aside until you have enough for a stout. — 

 By this you save all tlie silk and small liuSks and 

 under leaves of the corn, which were all lost by 

 the former practice of topping and gathering corn. 

 I will recommend that the stalks be stacked on a 

 hovel, or poles laid on crotches, and foddered in 

 the yard. I have been particular as to the time it 

 takes in this process, and can say that I am satis- 

 fied it takes no more time than m the old metliod. 

 The farmer should embrace every open spell in 

 winter to collect from his milking yard the scrap- 

 ings, and also from the pond holes and hollows in 

 his woods the leaves and dirt, and draw and spread 

 them in his yard or yards. This will enable him 

 to make, (by the help of twenty head of cattle,) 

 one hundred loadg^ jf manure ; which will be fit to 

 put on the ground the next autumn, at the rate of 

 twenty loads to the acre ; w'hich, if ploughed in, 

 and the land soxyed with wheat or rye, and seeded 

 with timothy seed at the same time, and clover the 

 next spring, it will produce a burden tliat will be 

 satisfactory to the owner, and the ground in better 

 condition than when first plouglied. 



It may not be amiss to mention what kind of 

 cattle a farmer can winter on such fodder as I 

 have spoken of I would rcconnnend that he buy, 

 in the fall, young heifers of good quality, and good 

 looking young cows ; and if his situation permits, 

 a pair or two of steers, broken to the yoke ; all of 

 which are in demand in the spring, and will ad- 

 vance in price sufficient to pay for the wintering, 

 and leave for his advantage a yard full of good 

 manure. 1 will also recommend attention paid to 



gust, wlien most of swamps are dry, a large quan- 

 tity, and put it in a heap, and llicre let it lay until 

 the next spring, wlicn it will be fit to put on corn 

 in the hill, and v.ill have a very great effect. If, 

 atT;er the operating of the frost on the heap, the 

 compost sliould crumble, and have a proportion of 

 dust, it is then good. If it should dry hard rfnd 

 lumpy, like clay, it is only to bo put in the barn 

 yard, or hog pen, and be trodden in with the com- 

 post. By application of pond manures as above, I 

 have been enabled to make some poor land become 

 very productive. 



As I have given some practical remarks on the 

 making of manure, I shall now proceed to state 

 my process of culture. I break the ground in 

 the month of April, and have the sod turned under 

 by one of the Freeborn's ploughs, about eiglit 

 inches deep ; (and liorc it is that many make great 

 blunders, and much to their disadvantage, by not 

 attending in person, and having their ground 

 ploughed deep and well ;) and then harrowed with 

 an iron tooth harrow, or woc«J will do, if it be 

 heavy, and the teeth made of good hickory, and 

 kept sharp. Harrow the same way you have 

 ploughed, until your ground is well mellowed ; 

 then, when you see the earliest apple tree begin 

 to drop its blossoms, furrow your ground three 

 feet apart at right angles, and plant four grains of 

 corn in a hill. 



Almost every farmer has some method of steep- 

 ing his corn before planting, and rolling it in ei- 



tJier plastor, aslie.i, lime, or tar j nil of which, at 



some times, are an advantage, and at other times 

 a disadvantage. After my corn comes up, and is 

 sufficiently large to be seen in rows, I commence 

 ploughing and hoeing, and continue it until tlie 

 corn begins to show signs of setting for ears, being 

 particular to keep the plough a-going in dry 

 weather. By the above culture, I have been en- 

 abled to collect from fifty to eighty bushels per 

 acre ; and by mixing pumpkin seed, and planting 

 it with the corn, I have raised four ox-cart loads 

 to the acre. 



I have already described my method of collect- 

 ing and preserving the top and bottom stalks for 

 fodder. I shall proceed to my next crop, the next 

 spring, which shall be corn, and a proportion of 

 potatoes ; giving the preference to corn, on ac- 

 count of the great qu.antity of fodder. And this 

 year tilling, I break up the sod which laid last year 

 beneath the furrow of the corn plough ; thereby I 

 am enabled again to raise a good crop of corn, and 

 .subckie all the wild grass, roots and weeds which 

 laid at the bottom of the furrow. Third year, I 

 split the corn hills with a plough, harrow the 

 ground well, tlirn plougli, harrow again, and sow 

 my oats and Max. My oats will produce about 

 thirty bushels, and upwards, per acre, (lepending 

 on the season for their yielding ; and my flax will 

 average sixteen bushels of seed, and three hund- 

 red weight to the acre. I will observe, that w here 

 the ffround is strong, and the oats very forward, 

 they ought to be fed oft' to the ground, before they 

 have a joint. This |irevenls their lodging, and 

 gives the unSer oats au opportunity to come for- 

 ward, whicii will much increase the quantity. The 



oat stubble and flax ground should soon be plough- 

 ed, harrowed and cross-ploughed ; then draw on 

 your manure, about twenty ox-cart loads to the a- 

 cre ; spread and plough it in as soon as possible. — 

 If you intend to sow rye, put it in about the first 

 of September, and sow your timothy seed after the 

 harrow, eight quarts to the acre ; then use a roller, 

 which breaks the lumps. It may be led off uuring 

 the fall, by calves, colts or sheep, without any dis- 

 advantage. If you intend it for wheat, sow it a- 

 bout the twenty-fifth of Soptem.ber, and follow the 

 same method as with the rye : sow clover in the 

 spring, when the ground is open in cracks, about 

 six pounds to the acre. By following the above 

 directions, I have, always realized a good crop of 

 grain, and a great crop of grass ; and the ground 

 may and ought to remain in sod six years, before 

 ploughed again. PHILEMON HALSTED. 



PRISONS. 

 The following extracts are taken from a very 

 able and inte'resting article on Prisotis and Prison 

 Disciplhu, published in the last number of the 

 Christian Examiner : 



It is stated by the superintendent of the Bcl- 

 levue prison, in New York, in answertoa ques- 

 tion put to him by a committee, that the situation 

 of youth in that prison is deplorable. He was com- 

 pelled to put boys for their first, perhaps small, of- 

 fence, into tlie same room w-ith offenders, old, if 

 not in years, in crime. The grand jury of Phila- 

 delphia, in 1817, presented the Penitentiary in that 

 city, on account of its very crowded state. Prom 

 thirty to forty were lodged in rooms of eighteen 

 feet square, the untried with the condemned., the 

 young offender and often the disobedient servant 

 or apprentice with the mosi experienced and hard- 

 ened culprit ; so that it was said the institution 

 began to assume the character of a seminary for 

 every vice. 



Females ought not to be sentenced to the same 

 prison with men ; but always, in a more secluded 

 situation, be placed under keepers and visiters of 

 their ov^n- sex, by whom tliey should be instructed 

 in appropriate labor, and moral duties. We are 

 persuaded that it is improper for any but persons 

 of an official character to visit the prisons. Con- 

 victs should work in seclusion. A solemn stUlness 

 should reign in their abodes, and idle, curious, or 

 thouglitless visiters should not be suffered to 

 promenade through those receptacles, to interrupt 

 and mortify the unhappy culprits. 



In England a ' Society for the Improvement of 

 Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juve- 

 nile Offenders,' has existed many years. Its first 

 object was to investigate the state of goals. The 

 British Parliament directed an examination of tlie 

 metropolitan prisons. Eminent individuals turned 

 their attention to the subject, not only in England, 

 but upon the continent. The result of their in- 

 quiries was a decided conviction, that crimes arise 

 more from the want of instruction, classification, 

 employment, and inspection, in gaols, than from 

 any other cause. The old system of prison dis- 

 cipline was pronounced essentially defective, and 

 ruinous as it regarded young eulprils. 'They lis- 

 ; tened with delight to the adventures and escapes 

 of the experienced criminals, were initiated into 

 all the mysteries of crime, and, when discharged, 

 bore recommendation from the inmates of the pris- 

 ons to their former companions and accomplices.' 

 , In illustration of tiicse statem»nt9, we copy from 



