!8393 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



749^ 



we have lately seen on this subject : for they con- 

 tain nothing but mere opinions, evidently written 

 in bad leni[)er, and appareniiy more iijr the pur- 

 pose of" letiincp oti' the peccant humors of the au- 

 thors, ihrouj;h ihe pre^s, (which they have thus 

 used as a Ivuid of safeiy-valve,) than to jurnisli 

 any matter really uselul to the agricultural com- 

 muniiy. For any thing iliat I have yet read, 

 they have tried iliis unlucky corn by no other taste 

 tiuin its ill looki, which is but a very fallacious 

 guide in most things and hence it is that I have 

 commented so freely on the course which they all 

 appear to liave pursued — a course, which if gene- 

 rally followed, would render it perlectly useless to 

 make any agricultural experunents whatever. 



This year, I have made my first experi- 

 ment with broom-corn. It was planted 3 feet by 

 4, and from 3 to 6 stalks left in a hill, on land of 

 ordinary quality. It produced from a part of the 

 ground which I nieasured, at the rate of 70 or 80 

 bushels of unclean seed ; but having no conveni- 

 ent means of seperaling it from ihe husk, I could 

 not tell how much that quantity would net. The 

 ground received the same culture with the Chi- 

 nese tree-corn ; and this trial has induced me to 

 think, that the grain would be prelerable to oats 

 •ibr leading any kind of stock. The northern lar- 

 miers who are well acquainted with it, and have 

 ascertained its value by actual experiments, say, 

 that it is worth a third more than oats, and will 

 bring more to the acre. In addition to this, I know- 

 that the broom-makers give, at present, §5 a hun- 

 dred for the brush, stripped of the seed, from which 

 they have contrived an excellent implement, that 

 jTiay be made Ibr two or three dollars, and the 

 stalks yield a considerable quantity of jiood fod- 

 der, although less than our Indian corn. These 

 extra values over oats, (which are not mere mat- 

 ters of opinion but of fact,) are surely much more 

 than sufficient to pay the extra expense of its cul- 

 ture. — Some writer has lately objected to cultiva- 

 ting it, that he thinks it "a great exhauster." — 

 But his opinion seems to me no better than the 

 reason he assigns for it, which is, that "//t- seed 

 are oleaginous.'''' For even admitting both to be 

 true, the objection applies quite as strongly to In- 

 dian corn itself, which is also oleaginous; and 

 with still greater force to fiax, cotton, the castor- 

 bean, pumpkins and squashes, the seed of all which 

 plants produce a fiir greater quantity of oil in pro- 

 portion than broom-corn seed. 



My experiment with turnips of several varie- 

 ties, (drilled at diti'ereni distances.) but chiefly 

 ruta baga, of which I think as highly as any per- 

 son who has expressed any opinion on the subject, 

 ,ha3 led me to a conclusion which 1 now offer lor 

 what It is worth. It is, that the practice with 

 many persons, of making the rows 2h or 3 

 {i>et apart, and sowing the seed on the top of 

 ridges formed over trenches filled with manure, is 

 highly objectionable lor several reasons. The 

 first is, that between 3 feet and 2 (which appears 

 to me quite enough,) we lose ^ in the number of 

 .roots, without any thing near the proportionate 

 gain in the size of the last number. This is con- 

 firmed by the fact, that tlie greatest crops ever re- 

 corded in our papers have been made from grounds 

 where the distances were less than 3 leet, the wide 

 way. But, even admitting that the gain in «ize 

 at the latter distance will make up for the loss in 

 jiuqaberj there is another argument in favor of 2 



leet drills or less, which must be conclusive, if 

 those root culturists are right, who assert, that the 

 nutritive matter in all turnips and beets also, does 

 71(4 i;icre«S(! in (iroportion to their bulk. For the 

 the truth of this assertion, I cannot vouch from 

 my own experience ; but it is sufficiently impor- 

 tant to be well worth investigation. My second 

 objection to the widest distance is. that straight 

 drills, 2 leet apart, may be worked with a suitable 

 plough or cultivator, (of which we have many,) 

 quite as easily, as drills 3 feet apart ; but the single 

 coulter, followed by the lumd-hoes, I preler to 

 either plough or cultivator. My third oljection 

 applies to ridges and trench-manuring ; and it is 

 this: Since our climate has become so liable to 

 excessive drought, all roots, cultivated on high 

 land appear, manilestly, to thrive best on a level 

 surface, such especially, as grow much above 

 ijround, which is the case with the mangle wurt- 

 sel, th&sugar-beet, and the tankard turnip. And, 

 lastly, the manure (le|)Osiied in trenches, (which 

 operation nearly, or quite doubles the labor of dis- 

 tribution,) benefits the crop only until the fibrous 

 roots of the plants protrude themselves beyond it, 

 as all of them soon do. Even before this takes 

 place, the manure in trenehes does not act with 

 near as much power, as when the same quantity, 

 on the same space, is spread broadcast, for the 

 former frequently remains unrotted, and even fire- 

 fanged, when the roots are dug, as I have often 

 witnessed in digging Irish potatoes. 



One of my turnip experiments was, to ascertain 

 wliich acted best of the liillowing kinds of ma- 

 nure — marl, liaving about 37 per cent of carbonate 

 of lime — undrawn but old ashes — bone dust — fresh 

 j cotton seed, mixed with pulverized mortar that 

 had grown liard, although recently [irepared — 

 1 bone dust again — old plaster pulverized — and (resh 

 stable manure mixed half and hali'with the sweep- 

 ings around my stable. These were rcizulariy 

 spread in the order in which they are mentioned, 

 in equal quaniitieB as well as I could judge by the 

 eye, and on equal spaces by measure as to length 

 and breadth. Across these spaces I drilled in 

 rows 15 inches apart, seed of the globe or Norfolk 

 white turnip — the yellow Scotch, called the Aber- 

 deen — the ruta baga, and Dale's hybrid turnip, 

 which is also yellow. The seed of the last was 

 at least 5 years old, but came up as vvell as the 

 rest. Each kind oJ' turnip appeared to be equally 

 benefited by the same kind of manure ; but there 

 was an obvious superiority in the growth of all 

 upon the spaces where the bone dust and the cot- 

 ton-seed, with pulverized mortar, had been ap- 

 plied — between the effects of which two manures 

 I could see no difi'erence. The plants on the marl 

 and ashes spaces were the next best ; but slightly 

 better on the latter. The old pulverized plaster, 

 and the fresh horse manure, mixed as above sta- 

 ted, evidently produced less benefit than the other 

 manures. There mishl possibly have been some 

 little difference in the strength of different pans 

 of the ground on which the experiment was tried ; 

 but I perceived none, and the spot being only ten 

 or eleven yards square, my eyes could not have 

 deceived me much. This I mention to show the 

 necessity oi" (he utmost possible accuracy in all 

 agricultural experiments that can be oi" any real 

 value. Unless thus made, their publication 

 often leads inexperienced fiirmers into injuri- 

 ous practices, causing the loss both of time and 



