338 [Senate. 



by the present mode. We cannot say how these cartridges will bear 

 transportation in the ammunition carts, or cassoons, as no experiment 

 has been made. They are proof against damage from water. Several of 

 the six pound cartridges have been kept in water for three days, and 

 are as explosive as they could otherwise have been. 



After mature consideration of all their advantages, we recommend 

 with confidence the invention ; and we predict the time is not dis- 

 tant, when Colt's water-proof cartridges must be brought into gene- 

 ral use. 



JAMES BANKHEAD, Col. 2nd Regt. U. S. Artillery, 



JAMES M. M'INTOSH, U. S. Navy, 



ABRAHAM GODWIN, 



J. E. UNDERBILL, 



Committee. 



COMMUNICATIONS FROM CONTRIBUTORS. 



STATEMENT FROM R. L. PELL. 



Pelham Farm, Dec. 1st, 1844. 



In compliance with the request of the board of agriculture, I here- 

 with send a description of my mode of cultivating cereal grains, for 

 which premiums have been awarded me. 



In the year 1842, on the first of September, I prepared a lot of 

 land containing twenty acres, for wheat, soaked my seed, which was 

 the white flint, weighing sixty pounds to the bushel, in strong brine 

 for four hours — it was then drained through a sieve, and spread thin 

 upon the barn floor, when a dry composition was sifted on it, and 

 was sown at the rate of three bushels to the acre. Three hundred 

 bushels of oyster shell lime were distributed over the field per acre, 

 and the whole harrowed in together — two men followed the harrow, 

 one sowing at the rate of a bushel of clover seed, and the other half 

 a bushel of timothy seed, to the acre, after which the ground was 

 twice harrowed, and rolled. The wheat grew luxuriantly during the 

 season, and presented throughout a perfectly healthy green appear- 

 ance. Adjoining I sowed a field containing ten acres, with the same 

 kind of wheatj in a dry state, but did not lime the land ; it grew well 

 until it blossomed, after which it appeared sickly. When the grain 

 was formed, insects attacked it, and the crop was totally destroyed. 

 The straw was covered with rust, and unfit for any purpose except 

 manure. I cut the wheat on the twenty acre lot in the milk, com- 

 mencing on Monday morning — on Saturday it was ground into flour 

 — the grain weighed 64 J lbs. to the bushel, and was awarded the 

 premium of the American Institute as the best of forty-three parcels 

 exhibited. 



It was supposed by many farmers that so large a quantity of lime, 



