440 [Senate 



potatoe ground, from which the tops only had been removed, and 

 plowed in to the depth of five inches with a Scotch plow, harrowed 

 once, a bushel of timothy-seed sown to the acre, and harrowed twice. 

 At the expiration of fifteen days the wheat was so far above ground 

 as to be pronounced by a neighbor far in advance of his, which had 

 been sown on the first of September, in the usual manner, without 

 any preparation. Contiguous to it I sow^ed wheat prepared, on carrot 

 and turnep ground, the tops not having been removed, and plowed 

 the whole in together, with like success; and still adjoining, I sowed 

 three bushels to the acre in a dry state, on potatoe ground — plowed 

 and harrowed first ; wheat sown, and twice harrowed. The first par- 

 cel, although plowed in to the depth of five inches, was two and a 

 half inches high before the last appeared above ground. 



The following composition, of my own compounding, was then 

 spread by hand broadcast over the whole, at an expense of three dol- 

 lars per acre : Stable manure, dry charcoal dust, hickory wood soot, 

 bone dust, oleaginous charcoal dust, oyster-shell lime, decayed leaves, 

 leached ashes, unleached ashes, guano, sal-soda, nitrate of potash, fine 

 salt, poudrette, horn shavings, refuse sugar, ammoniacal liquor, blood, 

 sulphuric acid, magnesia, plaster of Paris, plaster from walls, ground 

 — decayed grass, decayed straw, decayed weeds, fish, refuse oil, sea- 

 weed, oxide of iron, and oxide of manganese — my object being to 

 contribute to the growing crop every substance required for its growth. 

 By Sprengel's analysis, all cereal grains — peas, beans, carrots, pota- 

 toes, turneps, clovers and grasses — contain chlorine, potash, phospho- 

 ric acid, soda, sulphuric acid, lime, silica, magnesia, oxide of manga- 

 nese, alumina, and oxide of iron ; with the exception of wheat, which 

 has no oxide of manganese, and but a very small portion of iron. 



On the 29th of October, I sowed at the rate of eight bushels of 

 wheat to the acre, on sod ground, plowed it in beam deep, and har- 

 rowed it four times ; the result will be given next fall. If these ex- 

 periments should result favorably, the farmer will be enabled to use 

 his corn, carrot and potatoe ground, which is always left in the best 

 possible tilth by those crops, for wheat or rye, instead of allowing it 

 to remain idle, as is the present custom, until the ensuing spring. 



Rye. — I usually soak this grain in salt brine six hours, roll it in 

 quick lime, and several other substances composing the grain and 

 straw ; sow it at the rate of three bushels per acre, top dress it with 

 composition, when two and a half inches above the surface of the 

 earth ; cut it in the milk, and thresh it with the flail in the winter ; it 

 weighs sixty pounds, and has for the last two years taken the premi- 

 um at the American Institute. A portion of the field left, and cut 

 when the straw was perfectly brown, when threshed, yielded grain 

 weighing fifty-six pounds to the bushel. 



It is a crop that should never be sown in a young orchard, as it 

 will inevitably destroy it — at least such has been my experience on a 

 sandy loam. I imagine the disease called ergot — a sort of fungus — 

 so detrimental to human life, to which in some locations it is subject, 

 is poisonous to trees, as well as mankind, man}' thousands of whom 



