442 [Senate 



been some time covered with snow, and eat it with apparent pleasure. 

 Corn, ground with the cob, makes good food for stock. Last season 

 my gardener soaked a few kernels in sulphate of ammonia from two 

 to twenty-four hours, planted it in pots of prepared earth, and placed 

 it in a hot bed. Those grains which hadbeen soaked twenty-four 

 hours grew one inch in twenty-four hours after planting — when six 

 inches high they were set out in the open ground and grew to the 

 height of seventeen feet four inches — specimens of which were exhi- 

 bited at the State Agricultural Show at Poughkeepsie; seeds of the 

 same corn without any preparation grew six feet high. I sowed a 

 large field broadcast for soiling, which was found indispensable, be- 

 tween the seasons of harvest and aftermath. Still as a food in the 

 green state, it was found inferior to old hay — owing to the large per 

 centage of water it contained. 



Buckwheat. — This is a crop which will grow on any moderately 

 rich, sandy soil, and is capital food for horses and cows, if crushed. 

 It contains by analysis, alum, silica^ carbonate of potash^ carbonate of 

 magnesia^ sulphate of potash, and carbonate of lime ; and is, conse- 

 quently, a valuable crop to plow under, for manure. I have on two 

 occasions improved a field vastly, requiring those ingredients in 

 larger quantities than it possessed, by turning under a crop of buck- 

 wheat, when forming the seed. At that period it had lost much of 

 its water by evaporation. In 1843, 1 permittei a neighbor to sow a 

 seven acre field on my farm, with buckwheat He used one and a 

 half bushels of seed to the acre. At the same time, I sowed an acre 

 near him, using only sixteen quarts. His one and a half bushels of 

 grain yielded him thirty bushels of grain, and an immense quantity 

 of straw. My sixteen quarts yielded me sixty-five bushels of grain, 

 and a moderate quantity of straw, — evidently showing that a small 

 quantity of seed only, is required to produce a heavy crop. It is 

 supposed by some, that buckwheat plowed under, will sour a soil, — 

 such has not been the result in my experience. This crop I always 

 cut before the grain has actually turned brown, and while many of 

 the kernels are still green ; the straw may be dried, stacked, and 

 salted for winter provender ; I find it more to my advantage to 

 spread it upon the barn-yard ; if so used, it is unnecessary to be very 

 particular after cutting it, — especially if cut ripe, — as the kernel 

 never injures, even if the straw should become moldy ; the nearer 

 it approaches that state, the more easily it may be threshed. The 

 usual practice in the State of New-York, is to thresh it on the field, 

 — which plan cannot be too highly censured, — flour made from such 

 grain, is always gritty, and consequently unhealthy. Philadelphia 

 buckwheat flour always bears a higher price in the New-York mar- 

 ket, than our own. The probability is, they thresh in their barns. 



Carrots, Mangel Wurtzel, and Sugar Beets. — These crops 

 require a deep, rich, sandy soil, rather retentive of moisture. I 

 always plow very deep — throw the ground up into ridges, two feet 

 apart, and sow the seed on the top, after soaking it from ten to four- 

 teen hours in strong ley, — and before planting, roll it in composition 



