AMM13M. 



PuhlUhed by JoH.N B. Russell, at JVo. 52 JVorth Market Street, (aver the Agricultural H'arehouse).— Thomas G. Fessenden, Editor. 



VOL. YJI. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1828. 



No. 7. 



AG JilCULTU U"E. 1 owni'r, and tlie grouiitl in better condition tlian 



: I whoti first ploughed. 



Fr.im iho Memoirs of the New- York- Board of Agriciiiiure. I It may not be iiraiss to laention what kind of 



— _^ _ __ j cattle a farmer can winter on such fodder as I 



KhMAivivo I have spoken of. I would reconnncnd that he 



0:i cuitina; O.ifs and Indian Corn—maAVig «ncijb„v, in the fell, ycung bcifors of good (juaiitv, 



appbiing Manures— Rotation of crops, S;c. ^.,j g^^^j looking young cows ; and if his sitii- 



,% Philkiion Malstfd, of Westchester. j ation perniito, a pair or two of steers, broken to 



To Jesse BuEL, Eso. — Being honored witbalt'ie yoke; all of wiiich are in demand in the 



circular from the Board of Agrif allure, I will j spring, and will advance in price sufficient to pay 



offer a fow eAneriments which have proved to | for the wintering, and leave for his advantage a 



me of great advanta:;e. ! .>ard full of good manure. I will also recommend 



In the first place, every laudliolder who tills 

 the ground sliould be very curefid to jirovide and 

 make nianuro by all possible means in his pow- 

 er ; and thi-i he may do to a considerable ex- 

 tent. He should provide himself v,lth as much 

 fodder as will winter more cattle than he can 

 summer ; and this is done' in the following 

 manner : Cut yoAir oats when the straw is green 

 in part ; let them lay and cure in the swath 

 until they are sufficiently dry not to mould : 

 bind them in sheaves, and stack them. When 

 they are threshed, the farmer will find that his 

 oats will thresh to greater advantage 



attention (laid to the hog-pen, and as much litter, 

 wi-eds and refuse from the garden and yards, as 

 can be procured, and by a careful mixture of some 

 good black earth, the quantity of manure may be 

 swelled to a large amount. As almost all land- 

 holders have on their farms ponds or swamps, 

 that are niirey, I will recommend that they draw 

 out, in the month of August, when most sv/amps 

 are dry, a large quantity, and put it in a heap, and 

 there let it lay until the next spring, when it will 

 he fit to put on corn in the hill, and will have a 

 very great effect. If, after the operating of the 

 fljglfrost on the heap, the compost sliould crumble. 



light oats sticking to the straw, makes it good 

 fodder, and I consider it of as much value as 

 will pay the expense of raising the oats. 



Second-ly, give up the old method of cutting 

 your top •talks; and when your corn is suffi- 

 ciently hard, or when you cannot find an ear 

 soft enough to boil and eat, then proceed to cut 

 and stout yositr corn in the field, in the follow- 

 ing manner : Bring the tops of two hills togeth- 

 er, without catting ; bind ,hem Vv'ith a few sjiears 

 of straw : theii cut and set up about enough to 

 mal<e foin- sheaves, if bound ; tiien put a band of 

 straw about tlin top ; and tlien you may add as 

 many more, and bind the whole with two bands, 

 always keeping the bottom of the stout open, so 

 as to admit the circulation of air. At the proper 

 time of gathering corn, you niay proceed thus : 

 Throw down the stout, unbind and begin to gath- 

 er the corn ; when you have stalks enough for a 

 sheaf, bind them and lay it aside until you have 

 enough for a stout. By this you save all the silk 

 and .small husks and under leaves of the corn, 

 which were all lost by the former practice of top- 

 ping and gathering corn. I will recommend that 

 the stalks be stacked on a hovel, or poles laid on 

 crotches, and foddered in the yard. I have been 

 particular as to the time it takes in this pro< ess, 

 and can say I am satisfied it takes no more time 

 than in the old method. 



The farmer should embrace every open spell ii 

 the winter to collect from his milking yard tli( 

 scrapings, and also from the pond holes and h( 1- 

 lows in his woods the leaves and dirt, and draw 

 and spread - them in his yard or yards. Thi; 

 will enable him to make, (by the help of twent;, 

 head of cattle,) one hundred loads of manure ; 

 , which vyill bs fit to put on the ground the next 

 ,j jautuir.ii, at the rate of twenty loads to the acre ; 

 ..which, if ploughed in, and the land sowed with 

 virhqat or rye, and seeded with timothy seed at tin 

 same time, and ciov,er the next spring, jt will pro- 

 duce a burden that will be ' s;',tisfi;ctory to tlie 



and have a proportion of dust, it is then good. If 

 it should dry hard and lumpy, like clay, it is only 

 fit to be put into the barn-yard or hog-pen, and 

 be trodden in with the compost. By application 

 of pond manures as above, I have been enabled 

 to make some poor land become very productive. 



As I have given some ])ractical remarks oi; the 

 making of manure, I shall now proceed to state 

 my process of culture. I break the ground in 

 the month of Aiml, and have the sod turned un- 

 der by one of Freeborn's ploughs, about eight in- 

 ehes deep ; (and here it is that many make great 

 blunders, and much to their disadvantage, by not 

 attending in person,- and liaviuar their ground 

 ploughed deep and well ;) and then harrowed 

 with an iron tooth harrow, or w-ood will do, if it 

 be heavy, and the teeth made of good hickory, 

 and kept sharp. Harrow the same way you have 

 jiloughed, until yon ground is well mellowed ; 

 then when you see the earliest apple-tree begin to 

 drop its blossoms, furrow your ground three feet 

 apart at right angles, and plant four grains of 

 corn in a hill. 



Almost every farmer has some method of steep- 

 ing his corn befiire planting, ami rolling it in eith- 

 er plaster, ashes, lime, or tar ; all of which, at 

 some times, are an advantage, and at other times 

 a disadvantage. After my corn comes up, and is 

 sufficiently large to be seen in rows, I commence 

 ploughing and hoeing, and continue it until the 

 corn begins to shew signs of setting for ears, be- 

 ing particular to keep the plough a-going in dry 

 weather. By the above culture, I have been ena- 

 bled to collect from fifty to eighty bushels per 

 acre ; and by mixing juimpkin seed, and planting 

 it with the corn, I have raised four ox-cart loads 

 to the acre. 



I have already described my method of collect- 

 ing and preserving the top and bottom stalks for 

 fiidder. I shall proceed to my next crop, the 

 next spring, which shall be corn, and a proportion 

 of potafos ; giving the preference to corn, on ac- 

 count of the great quantity of fodder. And this 



year filling, I break up the srn! which laid last 

 year beneath the furrow of the corn plough ; 

 thereby I am enabled again to raise a good ci-op 

 of corn, and subdue all the wild grass roots and 

 weeds which laid at the bottom of the furrow. — 

 Third venr. Isniit the corn hills with a plough, 

 harrow the ground well, then plough, harrow 

 a^ain. and sow mv oats and flax. My oats will 

 irrodiice about forty bushels, and upwards, per 

 acre, depending on the season for their yielding ; 

 and mv flax will average sixteen bushels of seed, 

 and three hundred weight to the acre. I will ob- 

 serve, that where the ground is strong, and the 

 oats verv forward, they ought to be fed off to the 

 ground, before tbev have a joint. This prevents 

 their lodging, and gives the under oats an oppor- 

 tnnitv to come forward, which will much increase 

 the nuantitv. The oat stubble and flax ground 

 should soon be ploughed, harrowed and cross- 

 ploughed : then draw on your manure, about 

 twenty ox-cart loads to the acre ; spread and 

 plough it in as soon as possible. If you intend to 

 sow rve. put it in about the first of September, 

 and aew v-nr timothy seed after the harrow, 

 ein-Iit nnn-to to the acre ; then use a roller, which 

 break-; tbe 'uriins. It may be fed ofi^ during the 

 fall, bv ral'-es, colts or sheep, without any disad- 

 vantan-e. TT von intend it for wheat, sow it 

 about t'?p twenty-fifth of September, and follow 

 ttip same Method as with the rye : sow clover 

 in the s"riiig when the ground is open in cracks, 

 ab^nt oW pounds to the acre. By following thfc 

 above d'veefions, I have always realized a good 

 crop of rrain, and a great crop of grass ; and the 

 ground may and ought to remain in sod six years, 

 before ploughed again. 



i'OCHINEAL. 



It appears that an experiment lately tried in 

 Spain, and in parts of the Mediterranean, to intro- 

 duce the Cochineal insect, promises to be attend- 

 ed with the desired result in some of the provin- 

 ces of Spain, as well as at Gibraltar, and at Mal- 

 ta. The Indian fig is of natural growth under the 

 climate of those countries, and being the only food 

 of the insect in question, originally suggested the 

 idea of its importation. It has been ascertained 

 that the powers of fecundity of the female cochi- 

 neal insect are so great, as to enable it to give 

 birth, in the very short course of its natural exis- 

 tence, to no less a number than 632,727. 



AMERICAN LYCEUM. 



This institution pro])oses a system of mutual 

 instruction, fitted to the towns and villages iu 

 New Eiiirland, and other parts of the country. 

 The instruction is to be conducted at weekly or 

 occasional meetings for reading, conversation, 

 discussions, dissertations, illustrating the sciences, 

 or other subjects of useful knowledge, or popu- 

 lar, practical education. 



To aid these exercises, it is proposed to have 

 each branch or town Lyceum, supplied with 

 books, simple articles of apparatus for illustrating 

 the sciences, and their apiilication to the busi- 

 iicss of the farmer, mechanic, or civil engineer: 

 also, specimens of Natural History, viz. Geology, 

 Mineralogy, and if disposed, in Botany a ;id ZooK 

 OS v. 



