^\)c iTarmer's iKontl)lij bisitor. 



69 



under seven inches, if well njipliud, would soon 

 pav llie f'l.ile Helil. What !« piiy lo h.ive so tiiiicli 

 iiiddon Irciifitiic iintvM|iloyed ;ind nii|irod'.iirlfve ! 

 When the jjeni.-il liiysof the sun s|iieiid ahenigli 

 tidlnence anMiTid in the s|iiini,' seiison, cnnsiiig 

 iriaii and beast and hird to rejoice, vegetation also 

 rears its head to praise its iMakcr. This is the 

 lime also to prepare food, first Cor plants, ami af- 

 terward lor man and lieast. Feniientalioii and 

 decomposition thi'ii take place. 



I woidd tiow say somelhinfr nlioiit the deep 

 ploiif^hin;;. A eonsideralile ((iiantiiy ol" the five 

 inches of sidisoil turned np last fall, and frozen 

 last winter, will in)W hecome availahlit for the 

 food of plants: amelioration takes place, it he- 

 comes friahle and rnoidders down, hecomes eom- 

 niinjlled with the top soil, inidergoes now a slate 

 if fermentation — a kind of chemical |)roces8 ; 

 f.od here is also f;oing on, at the same lime, the 

 deconi|)osilion of the ve;i;etahle matter turned 

 under in' the lidl. Here is a fine ranue for the 

 corn roots to seek their supply — instead of six or 

 seven incln^s, here are twelve. Here is a place 

 lo hide tlie roots frotn the snn, and here is a little 

 cistern to hold water when there is a little to 

 spare, to he drawn np hy the rays of the snn 

 when wanted. 



As we have pot ihrongli with the fresh start for 

 improving the land — especially if it is possible, 

 before planliiii; the corn, to put a little iiiannre on, 

 as also fifty hnshels of lime to the acre — this 

 would he doing the thing right — we will now 

 leave yon with this advice: \Vork the corn well 

 early ; he sine to have no work to (io in it after 

 it becomes a loot high. The next crop to be put 

 in is wheat, the next summer. Commence 

 ploughing ill iNlay, harrow in June, plough in 

 July, harrow in Angnst, plough the third and last 

 :'me the first week in September, and sow about 

 'be middle of the month. As soon as you have 

 finished harrowing the wheat, sow to each acre 

 eight quarts of timothy seed ; then on with your 

 roller, and roll all down smooth. 



Then in the spring, to every six acres, one bush- 

 el of clover seed. The next summer there must 

 be no stock put on before the first of July, and 

 be sure none the fall before except a few hogs, if 

 they do not root, after the wheat is off. The next 

 summer mow the first crop about the first of July; 

 and let the second crop stand, to be uirned under 

 ns before, a foot ileep. Now you have gut one 

 once through. This plan may he altered aluJ 

 changed lo suit circnnistances, as may be requir- 

 ed. If wished, it may be put in rye after the 

 wheat ; or it might remain three years in grass. 

 The field might he put in wheat the same fall, by 

 cutting off the corn, but the grass will never suc- 

 ceed so well, and therefore 1 would never advise 

 that plan. Jl is Inrge crops of grass that will im- 

 prove the land cheaper and tiister than any other 

 mode of improvement. 



As I have spim out a pretty long yarn already, 

 I will soon come to close, after saying something 

 ahuut the subsoil and deep ploughing. If the 

 hind is light and dry, and the subsoil land is open 

 and porous, pervious to water, with a large pro- 

 portion of sand, such land might he ploughed a 

 toot deep in the spring tor corn. The tall, how- 

 ever, is the proper time lor all subsoil ploughing, 

 and no other time will answer fiir land when the 

 subsoil is of a hard, stiff clay. The frost is the 

 only and proper agent lo commence the work of 

 deepening the soil. 



I really lt;el as if ilie boy was making an at- 

 tempt to instruct the master. Well, if it should 

 he so, 1 know yon will attribute my saying what 

 1 have said to a pure iiiteniion. 



To eoncludi^ the w hole matter, a deep rich soil 

 is indispensable, if yon want good crops. Now, 

 the great point is, let every farmer go to work. — 

 Let him not only work, but read and studi/ ; and 

 the man that shall find out the most judicious 

 plan of deepening and impiovi-ig the soil, let 

 him have a great monument raised to his memo- 

 ry. Respectfully, 



WM. TODD. 



Albany Ale. — So great a demand is there for 

 "Albany Ale," that the supply requires the malt- 

 ing, annually, of 250,000 bushels of barley, and 

 nearly the same number of pounds of hops, du- 

 ring the same period. Most of the ale is con- 

 sumed in Philadelphia. — Phila. Ledger. 



Keep your gardens clear of weeds. 



N. Y. Farmer's Club. 



Communicated lo Ike JV. Y. Fanner and Mechanic. 



MAiicrtSO, 1847. 

 Ml". D.J. Brown presented for distribution, an 

 improved variety of Indian corn, raised hy John 

 IJrowii, of L<Mig Island, in Liike Wiunipissiogee 

 in New Hampshire, in lal. 53-' 40'. The follow- 

 ing acconnt of it is extracted from the ;jd iiiim- 

 her of the American Agricullurist, voluino VI., 

 for March, 1847, viz; The island on which my 

 farm is, comprises about 1100 acres. A large 

 portion of it is gooil arable land ; th<! soil brown- 

 ish yellow loam and where cultivati'd is warm 

 and retentive of manures. The subsoil is of a 

 bright yellow, underlaid by a hard pan. A spe- 

 cimen of the soil from a highly cultivated field, 

 which had produced i'.iO bushels of co-rn In the 

 acre, was analyzed by Dr. C. 'J'. Jackson, of Bos- 

 ton, anil gave the following results. 

 Mechanical Separnlxon of 1000 grains of gravel, 



sand and loam. 

 Coarse pebbles 90 



Fine do 200 



Fine loam C50 



1000 



100- 

 500 grains of the soil were digested in boiling 

 water, 2-3 grains dissolved ; the solution was of 

 a yellow color, consisting of 

 Vegetable matter 2.0 



Mineral do 0.3 



2.3 



The residue from the solution before burning, 

 was acid, and after burning, alkaline. The acid 

 was then a vegetable acid. The lollowing sub- 

 stances were taken up by the water, viz : inin iatic 

 sulphuric, carbonic, and phosphoric acids, soda,i 

 lime, magnesia, silica, iron and manganese. 



Ou this soil, after a crop of potatoes, in the fall, 

 I cast on J8 or 20 loads <if barn-yard manure, 

 (fifty bushels lo the load) spread it broad cast and 

 ploiigli it in. Fnim the beginning to the middle 

 of May fijllowing, harrow the ground well and 

 add tliiity loads of green iinlermented stable 

 manure made during the winter,and immediate- 

 ly ploiigli it in sufficiently deep to he well cover- 

 ed. By this process the coat of fine manure, ap- 

 plied the fall previous, becomes well incorpora- 

 ted « ith the soil, and gives the young corn plants 

 a rapiil start, while the coarse manure applied in 

 the spring lends its aid in filling out the ears. — 

 From the 20lh to the 25th of May, the ground is 

 again well harrowed and shortly after, planted. 

 The variety of corn 1 employ (which someliines 

 hears my name) was produced hy ctiltivaling for 

 a succession of years, selected ears of the north- 

 ern eight rowed yellow corn, with cobs having 

 small hull ends, of good length and uniliirin size, 

 Ike second ripe in Ike field— ai\i\ taken Jrom stalks 

 bearing more than lao tars each stalk. The grains 

 of this corn are large and the cobs small — the 

 ears usually from ten to thirteen inches in length. 

 The largest crop I have raised is one hundreil 

 and thirly-six bushels of shelled corn per acre — 

 weighing in the ear ^,420 lbs. or 70 Ih.s. to each 

 bushel, including the cob, and v\lieii shelled 59 

 lbs. a bushel. I phmt my corn in hills (four ker- 

 nels to each) three feet apart ore way, and two 

 feet the other, reducing the number iii each hill 

 to three planl.s. The first hoeing is neatly done, 

 when the plants are about three inches high. In 

 July 1 dress the hill by a second and third hoeing, 

 lightly moving the surface of the soil, without 

 making any mound or hill— leaving the ground 

 quite level anil smooth. Early in Seplember,or as 

 soon as the ears are-coinpletely formed, and their 

 silks begin to dry np and wither, I top the corn for 

 winter fodder. Towards the end of that inoiith 

 the crop is usually harvested, immediately alter 

 husked, and stored on the ear, in the granary un- 

 til required for the market or the mill. 



.Vote. — This variety of corn, from the high de- 



gree of estimate in which it grows, appears to be 

 adapted to all the New F,nglaiid States, New 

 York, New Jersey, a portion of Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Canada West, Iowa, Or- 

 egon, &.C. 



John W. Chambers, clerk of the Institute, then 

 shelled five ears of this Ziroiiit corn, about ten 

 inches long each, in presence of the club, and 

 the grains from them just filled a quart meusure. 



Remf.uy roR Yellow Blgs.— Hiram Steele, 

 Esq., (Kepresentalive from Cummington) has 

 handed to ns the following communication. — 

 .l/oss. Plougkman, 



" Y'esterday I heard of a new experiment in 

 preventing those yellow hugs from killing our 

 cucuinhers and other vines in the spring. Hap- 

 pening at Mr. Holmes' shop, he asked me if I 

 wanted to know what would prevent the bugs 

 from eating my vines this spring. I told him I 

 should be glad to find some antidote but should 

 not be a full Injliever until 1 had proved it. He 

 said 1 should be satisfied when he told. He said 

 a Mr. Besbe last season bad his vines eat up two 

 or three times, and he determined to do some- 

 thing to stop them. He took cotton Uitling and 

 peeled it of!' in thin flakes and put it over the 

 plants and a hug could not get near them. The 

 edges of the cotton he covered with earth, so 

 that it staid in its place, and Ijis plant grew fine- 

 ly, the cotton being no obstruction to light, heat 

 and air." 



Deep Ploughing. 



Extract from a letter in Ike Cultivator, dated Zanes- 

 vilte, Ohio, January IG, from J. L. C. C. 

 For the last few years, I have been trying to 

 reclaim an old farm that had been pretty well 

 used up by shallow plongliing. Some six years 

 since we ploughetl an old field, (giving it first a 

 good dressing of manure) about six inches deep. 

 It had previously been ploughed ahuut four inch- 

 es, and some of our "knowing ones" told us we 

 were killing it by turning up the yellow clay, but 

 nothing daunted, and following the maxim, that 

 if we try our plan and fail, we have no one else 

 lo blame for it, we persevered and had a pretty 

 good crop. Being encouraged by this, we made 

 another trial of a similar nature. The field had 

 been much washed and gullied, it being more 

 hilly than the former. After filling up the gul- 

 lies and "levelling np " the deep hollows, and 

 applying a dressing of manure, we ploughed it in 

 a similar manner to the former, sowing oats, and 

 had a tolerable crop; iii the (all we ploughed 

 again with three horses. This time the plough 

 went in nine or ten inches deep, bringing np 

 portions of manure with about three indies more 

 of clay subsoil, and left the stubble .some inches 

 below the surface. It was harrowed well, and 

 sowed lo wheat ; and I had thirty bushels to the 

 acre. This was the summer of 1845. when some 

 of our neighbors did not get five, and but few 

 got twenty bushels per acre. As we fiiiled to 

 get it in grass, we ploughed about twelve inches 

 deep, with fi;iiir horses, and sowed another crop 

 of wheat, which last harvest averaged thirty-five 

 bushels per acre. As was stated, the fields were 

 very much washed and gullied, which in part I 

 charge lo shallow ploughing, for when the 

 groniid is mellow but a fi'vv inches deeji, the 

 rains so saturate it, and it becomes so thin that it 

 slips off almost bodily to the hard subsoil, or 

 forms small gullies which soon run together lo 

 make large ones; hnl when deep, the rain is ta- 

 ken up by the soil, which being so much more 

 mellow, it seldom has a tendency to run off, hut is 

 retained in the earth to yive nourishinent to the 

 cro|>: whereas, in shallow ploughing, if it does 

 no! wash off, the soil is so thin that a few hot 

 days penetiate and dry np all the moisture. And 

 liuther, not one of the old gullies have washed 

 out, although we have had some very hard show- 

 ers, and where you could formerly bury a horse, 

 now there is no trace of such a wash. 



To Destroy Red Ants. — As every house- 

 keeper may not know how to get rid of these 

 troublesome little intruders, I will state my ex- 

 perience. Place a piece of fat bacon, or a pan 

 of grease or butter near the place where they en- 

 ter the kitchen or pantry. This will soon attract 

 them together, when they can be easily removed, 

 or destroyed by a little hot water. Thousands 

 may be destroyed in this way iu a few days. 



