THE GENESEE FARMEK. 



183 



CULTIVATION OF MILLET. 



Messrs. Eihtokb: — Millet is cultivated for several 

 purposes, and has obtained many flattering commen- 

 dations from persons who have grown it extensively. 

 In Italy, and some parts of Germany, it is made into 

 bread, which is very nutricious, and extensively eaten 

 by the pooi-er classes. Generally, the seed is grown 

 as food for animals, and more especially for poultry. 

 It is estimated (by those who understand how to use 

 it) to posse«3 about the same value as corn. 



There are three varieties of Panicum cultivated as 

 millet, besides two species of the Sorg-hum, all under 

 the common name of millet. Two of these species, 

 Panicum Germanicum and Panicum Ilalicum, have 

 round heads, much resembling what is known by the 

 name of pigeon grass. These varieties have not suc- 

 ceeded well as yet in Ohio. The common, or Ger- 

 man millet, grows four or five feet high, with stalks 

 as large as coarse wheat straw. The Panicum mil- 

 liaccum grows about three feet high, with a broad 

 leaf at each joint, terminating in a panicle, somewhat 

 resembling Poland oats. There are two varieties of 

 this species, one having brown, and the other yellow, 

 buds. This species is found to be more profitable 

 for cultivation than the two first named. From the 

 small size of the stalk, and the great quantity of 

 leaves, cattle and horses prefer it to the best timothy 

 hay. 



One of the favorite methods of growing this crop, 

 is upon green sward, deeply fall-plowed, and well har- 

 rowed or worked with a cultivator or gang plow in 

 the spring. Then apply a coating of fine, well rotted 

 manure, and if the season is favorable you may ex- 

 pect a good crop. Sow from three pecks to a bushel 

 per acre. If sown about the middle of May, it will 

 be ready to harvest about the middle of July, and 

 yields from three to four tons of excellent hay. 



John G. Sampson. 

 Laceyville, Harrison Co., Ohio. 



Value of Manuke for Potatoes. — About the 

 15th of May last I plowed a piece of green sward, 

 and then let it lay for a few days exposed to the sun. 

 On the 19th of the same month I harrowed it, and 

 also planted some potatoes the same day. I never 

 saw any piece of ground harrow up so beautifully in 

 my life. On six rows I put a forkful of well rotted 

 manure in each hill, and six rows I left without. 

 The result was as follows : The rows I manured 

 yielded fifteen bushels to the row, or ninety bushels 

 from the six rows; and thosa without manure only 

 yitlded nine bushels to the row, or fifty- four bushels 

 from the six rows. The rows were forty rods in 

 length. G. P. 



Chippewa, C. W. 



Planting Beans in Drills or Hills. — Your 

 Ohio correspondent recommends planting beans mth. 

 a machine drawn by a horse. Now, I planted a 

 piece of about six acres last year, part of it with a 

 "machine drawn by a horse," and the remainder 

 with one of Wakefield's Patent Corn Planters, and 

 found the yield decidedly in favor of the planter. 

 There was also a large saving in seed, and in labor 

 in pulling, the plants being in hills. My experiment 

 was so decidedly in favor of the planter, that I shall 

 use it exclusively this year. D. D. Simmons. 



Clarkson, JY. Y. 



ASHES AS A MANURE. 



Messrs. Editors: — Having for a few years past 

 used all the ashes I could easily get, 1 can say that 

 they are a cheap manure, and cannot be used upoi\ 

 any soil without the most beneficial effect. I have 

 used them in various ways, and upon almost all kinds 

 of grain, grass and potatoes, and always found my 

 crops increased from two to four fold by their use. 

 As to the use of leached or unleaehed ashes, I have 

 used them side by side on my grass land, sown broad- 

 cast, at the rate of forty or fifty bushels to the acre, 

 with an increase of hay the first year of at least three 

 fold, but the difi'erence in the grass after the leached 

 or unleaehed ashes was scarcely perceptible. 



I have used them with good success in ths hill for 

 corn and potatoes, mixed with an equal part of plas- 

 ter and lime, the lime being slacked with strong 

 brine; but the result, when used in this way, was al- 

 ways in favor of the unleaehed ashes. I have also 

 used them with swamp muck, at the rate of one 

 bushel of ashes to a load of muck, and after laying 

 exposed to the ashes one year, spread and plow in, 

 with good effect. A. F. 



Corinth, Saratoga Co., JV. Y. 



Don't Thin your Carrots. — I wish to enter a pro- 

 test against the plan of thinning carrots to three or 

 four inches apart. I seldom thin out any except in 

 spots where the seeds were deposited in clusters and 

 come up, perhaps a dozen in the space of a hands 

 breadth. Two years ago this season, I planted a 

 patch often rods long by fifty feet wide, and dug one 

 hundred bushels of carrots, and not one of them larger 

 than one and a half inches in diameter and fourteen 

 inches long, and when a basket full was lifted to the 

 wagon it denoted some substance ; they were of the 

 long orange variety. A neighbor, the same season, 

 raised on half an acre about one hundred and fifty 

 bushels, and his smallest were larger than my largest, 

 but the noticeable difierence was in the weight of the 

 same basket when filled. D. 



Gates, JV. Y. 



■ — ^ *.^*- — ■ 



Culturb of Potatoes. — I give my land a thorough 

 plowing early in the spring. Then harrow repeatedly. 

 Then about the first of June, with a horse and small 

 shovel-plow harrow out rows four feet apart, and drop 

 cut potatoes in the furrow twelve or fourteen inches 

 apart. Then the horse and a winged shovel- plow 

 covers the potatoes with a gutter over the potatoes to 

 catch the rains, and this gutter should be left in all 

 the after tilling, which should be thoroughly done. — 

 To harvest I take a horse and a common plow, throw- 

 ing a furrow from each side the row; this makes a com- 

 plete ridge in the middle of the rows and leaves very 

 little work for the hoe. 



I have as nice potatoes as any one can wish for, 

 raised after the above plan. The variety, early round, 

 white fleshed Pink Eyes — some weighing over two 

 pounds. Amos Clift. 



Poll Evil. — Wash the poll well with bar soap 

 and water ; then spread green ointment on flax or 

 tow, and tie it on. If there be proud flesh, add a 

 little blue stone, well pulverized. Dress" once a day 

 until it begins to heal, and then once in two or three 

 days. The horse can be worked if the bridle is tied 

 back. J. W. K. 



Jordan, C. W. 



