1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



117 



ami yourself", that it is best in general, for every 

 writer to sign his own proper name; bat there are 

 two obstacles very hard to overcome, real diffidence, 

 and false modesty, which is but another name for 

 pride. Which of the two operates upon myself, I 

 must leave it to others to inter from what I have 

 already written, if they cannot hit upon some bet- 

 ter motive. However, should the spirit move me 

 hereafter to continue my communications, I mean 

 at some future day, seriously to repent of former 

 anonymous scribblings, and to give you, as well 

 as all others whom it may concern, my proper ap- 

 pellative. 



W. G's remarks "on harvesting corn," will 

 guard all rash experimentalists from adopting the 

 process recommended by Mr. Buel and Mr. Cole- 

 man. In their climate, where the dwarf and flinty 

 varieties of corn are the only kinds cultivated, and 

 where they have plenty of hay for their stock, the 

 method may answer. But in a large portion of 

 Virginia, wherein corn is a very important staple, 

 consisting almost entirely of those mealy varieties 

 which are comparatively late in ripening, and 

 therefore requiring more sun to fit them for hous- 

 ing; varieties, too, that constitute the chief, in 

 many cases, the sole dependance for supporting 

 our horses, cattle, and sheep by their fodder— 

 the practice of cutting up the entire plant at the 

 season proposed, would render all the fodder near- 

 ly worthless, and would cause, (as I myself have 

 seen on several occasions,) much of the grain to 

 become mouldy in the heart. 



That stripping the blades and cutting the tops 

 might be beneficially delayed much later than usu- 

 al, I have no doubt; nor have I any that it would 

 be advantageous to discontinue it. altogether, on 

 every farm whereon a sufficiency of hay could be 

 made to support the stock. 



The short article "on splitting fire-wood'' re- 

 minds me of a very important fact communicated 

 to me by a good practical farmer several years 

 ago. He stated it to be his practice, founded on 

 his own experience, as well as that of his father, 

 to saw through the heart of every stick of timber 

 which he used either for gate-posts or the sills of 

 houses. This, he said, caused them to last much 

 longer, and I have often since, seen his assertion 

 verified. Only a few days ago 1 was walking near 

 two old gate-posts which had stood ten or twelve 

 years in the same spot, and happening to think 

 of the above fact, I examined both. The sap 

 part was sound for some depth from the smface; 

 whereas, ihe heart, which would certainly have 

 lasted the longest if split, as we see by fence-rails, 

 was so rotten, that I thrust my cane down into it 

 almost to its head. The cause of this I cannot 

 conjecture, unless it be, that the heart containing 

 more pyroligneous acid than the sap, and this acid 

 being confined by the surrounding wood, which 

 soon loses, in the seasoning process, its own por- 

 tion of this principle of decay in wood, the centre 

 decays first because the acid in it cannot escape. 



The remarks of "Agricultor" on yoking oxen, 

 furnish another strong" case to be added to the 

 thousands already recorded, all going to prove 

 how very slow all agriculturists are in either see- 

 ing, hearing, understanding, or believing that any 

 practice whatever can possibly be better than their 



own. Common sense would lead us to conclude 

 that whatever older nations than Ave are, univer- 

 sally or generally do, in any of the arts differently 

 from ourselves, must be at least worth trying: but 

 common sell-conceit or sheer laziness says /a — ■ 

 and hence the snail-like progress of all improve- 

 raents in husbandry. 



Whilst our agricultural societies arc offering 

 premiums frequently for things, which to say the 

 least of them, are of very doubtful utility, why 

 could they not proclaim one lor the exhibition of 

 a pair of oxen yoked according to the Spanish 

 mode? To this might be advantageously added 

 another for the exhibition of a horse shod after the 

 French and German method, which has been 

 said by very competent judges, to be far prefera- 

 ble to our own. 



"A Planter from the Lower James" has given 

 us some useful hints on "wheat-seeding." Per- 

 mit me to add a few more on the same subject. 

 For opening water-furrows in wet land after the 

 wheat is sown, no single mould-board plough can 

 perform it well without running backwards and 

 forwards, which always makes the furrow so wide 

 as to waste land; whereas, the double mould- 

 board plough made by Sinclair and Moore of Bal- 

 timore, opens it of the proper width, and at one 

 stroke, thereby saving half the time. To open 

 water- furrows on high, dry land, which, when 

 done at all, is always performed by a plough of 

 some kind or other often running twice, a prefera- 

 ble plan is to use the single coulter, with fwo 

 small mould-boards about five inches long by four 

 wide, nailed on the helve some four inches above 

 the lower end. This goes deeper than any sin- 

 gle-plough, and makes the narrowest furrow com- 

 patible with the object. 



For hauling off corn, the best kind of carriage 

 which I have ever seen, is one called "a flat" in 

 some parts of the country. The advantages are, 

 that it carries much more than any cart; that it is 

 loaded by men standing on each side, instead of 

 having one to stand on the cart-wheel, and ano- 

 ther on the top of the load; and the wheels being 

 eight inches broad and about three feet high, they 

 rather benefit the wheat by rolling the land, than 

 injure it by cutting the beds, as the cart wheels 

 always do, particularly when the land is wet. 



To make these "flats," requires very little me- 

 chanical skill. The plat-form, or bottom is made 

 like the bed of a cart-body, but longer and wider. 

 It has neither sides nor end-boards, and is cover- 

 ed with thin, smooth plank or boards, nailed 

 on length-wise. In front there are three strong 

 upright pieces about two by three inches square, 

 and five feet high, inserted in the front sill of the 

 plat-form, and connected by one cross-piece at lop, 

 and another about three feet below. A similar 

 frame is fixed behind, but made to fake off, while 

 the load is forming. This is done by throwing 

 the corn-stalks — ears and all, cross-wise from the 

 sides — the ears in the middle, and the loaders 

 standing on the ground. The hinder frame is 

 fixed when the load is nearly complete, after 

 which, a rope or common grape-vine is fastened 

 1o the centre of the front frame, and passing over 

 the load to the hinder frame, secures the whole. 

 The unloading is much facilitated by placing un- 

 der and over the load a rope or vine long enough 



