112 



FARMERS* REGISTER, 



[No. 2. 



milk drawn from each cow separately, put in l o 

 the creaming-pans as soon as milked, without be- 

 ing ever mixed wilh any oilier.'" Now it is quile 

 notorious, lhatiflhis were attempted, especially 

 during three parts of the year, on ninety-nine out 

 of an hundred farms, there would be a necessity 

 for substituting small saucers, or vessels of simi- 

 lar size, for "creaming-pans" — each to be carried 

 several hundred yards from the cow-pen to ibe 

 place of deposite, which is always remote. This 

 transportation, if ihe cows were numerous, would 

 require several hands to perform it; besides, the 

 nearly nominal milk-woman, whose title, like the 

 definition of the "limbs a non lucendo," generally 

 means something almost the opposite of what it 

 would seem to mean. Such a process, to say ihe 

 least of it, would cost more than it was worth, not 

 to mention the danger that the contents of each 

 creaming-saucer would entirely evaporate before 

 a sufficient quantity could be obtained to make a 

 separate churning — even in a bottle. There is 

 one hint however, that would be particularly use- 

 ful, and exactly in proportion 1o the scarcity of 

 milk. It is to let the calves suck first, which is 

 no where practised among us. This would leave 

 the richest part of the miserable pittance tor our- 

 selves, instead of leaving it, according to (he con- 

 stant practice, ibr the calf, who is thus treated bet- 

 ter than its owner, while its poor dam is often suf- 

 fered to die of starvation. 



Query: Are we to understand your short note 

 on the "locust," as pronouncing the "honey lo- 

 cust" an exotic? I had always deemed it indi- 

 genous.* 



W. C. Dwighf/s letter to the Genesee Farmer 

 relative to Hussey's machine for harvesting wheat, 

 is a very interesting * communication, and some 

 further informal ion as to the cost, and means of 

 procuring it, would be very acceptable, I should 

 think, to all your subscribers who cultivate wheat. 



The history of the horse is a very entertaining 

 as well as useful article; and may, if properly stu- 

 died, obtain for that highly serviceable animal bet- 

 ter treatment than he too often receives from his 

 ignorant and cruel master, who first wears him 

 out for his own pleasure and emolument, and then 

 leaves him to starve to death. 



"A Seeker of Light" has asked two stumping 

 questions. The first in regard to "the most ef- 

 fectual and shortest method of restoring to fertility 

 worn, galled, and gullied land;" and the second, 

 to have stated "in specific inches," what may pro- 

 perly be called deep ploughing. Presuming that 

 he would wish to adopt the most economical as 

 well as the quickest and most efficient method, I 

 would say, that the best farmers, with whose opin- 

 ions I am acquainted, recommend deep plough- 

 ing of the arable parts, filling the gullies wilh 

 small green brush, to be well covered with the ad- 

 jacent earth, and applyingto the surface the fresh- 

 est and the strongest manure to be procured on 

 the farm. 



*We stand corrected in this matter. Er. Farm. 

 Reg. 



"Deep ploughing," (as the querist himself 

 says,) is "a comparative term" — consequently, 

 what would be deep in one soil would be shallow 

 in another. A specification "in inches" therefore, 

 cannot be made, unless he will first epeciiy the 

 exact depth of the particular, soil wherein he 

 wishes to know what would be called deep plough- 

 ing. It may however, he stated as a general 

 rule, that to plough twice as deep as the natural 

 soil, which is very rarely move than two or ihree 

 inches in eastern Virginia, is deep enough for the 

 purposes ofimprovement. Even this should de- 

 pend uponthe-nature of the substratum; lor it' that 

 be sand, as it very often is, it should never be 

 brought to ihe surface. Again: in the attempt to 

 plough deep, special care should be taken to lap 

 ihe furrow-slices, like shingling, and not to turn 

 them completely upside down, which would bring 

 a caput moriuum to the lop, incapable, for a Jong 

 time, of producing any thing. Earl Slimson, one 

 of the most celabtaled and successful farmers in 

 New York, and one who obtained some years 

 ago, a premium Ibr ihe best cultivated and most 

 productive farm in the whole state, ploughs only 

 ihree inches deep, according to his own statement. 

 But all that lias been, or can be said ol" particular 

 modes of culture and depths of ploughing, both 

 require to be somewhat varied according to the 

 peculiar Circumstances of each form. One prac- 

 tice only will be found, I think, applicable to all, 

 and that is, never 1q plough more than as deep 

 again as the Datura! soil, but to loosen Ihe earth as 

 deep as practicable wilh a single coulter, run in 

 the bottom of each furrow, which makes no 

 change in the relative position of the different 

 sirata, but vastly augments the capacity of ihe 

 earth so treated, tor attracting and retaining mois- 

 ture. This is manifested in a striking degree 

 during drought, by coultered corn retaining its ver- 

 dure much longer than that which had received 

 only shallow cultivation — of which I have seen 

 numerous instances. The practice is, to runthe 

 coulter in the botlom of the first furrow thrown 

 from the corn, soon after it comes up, and immedi- 

 ately before ihe earth is thrown back; then to run 

 it in (he bollom of the two next furrows also before 

 they are thrown to the first. This loosens the 

 whole to the depth of some eight, nine, or ten 

 inches, and effectually prevents ihe soil from ba- 

 king, at Ihe same time that it secures a soft bed for 

 the young roots to spread in every direction. 



On the tobacco article I have very little to add 

 to Ihe numerous, and. (as I think,) unanswerable 

 objections of the writer to its culture. Of this I 

 know scarcely any thing, having never either 

 made or used any. All I will venture to ofier in 

 addition toG's very judicious remarks, is a short 

 article from that quaint, old fellow, Burton, who, 

 in his most curious work, "The Anatomy of Me- 

 lancholy," published more than two centuries ago, 

 speaks of tobacco in the following terms: 



"Tobacco — divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, 

 which goes farre beyond their panaceas, potable 

 gold, and philosopher's stories; a soveraigne rem- 

 edy to all diseases. A good vomit, I confesse; a 

 vertuous herbe, if it be well qualified, opportune- 

 ly taken and medicinally used; but as it is com- 

 monly abused by most men, which take it as tink- 

 ers do ale, 'tis a plague — a mischiefe — a violent 

 purger of goods, lands, health; hellish, devilish, 



