482 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



ihanaofeQient, the planis will remain perfeclly 

 gr»en and luxuriant till their blossoms and young 

 seed-ve-ssele are destroyed by Irost, and their pro- 

 duce will retain its proper flavor, which is al- 

 ways taken away by mildew. (^Hort. Trans., 

 ii. 87.) 



SAVING GRASS SEEDS. 



From the Kentucky Farmer. 

 Mr. Editor : — During the first and second years 

 of the publication oT your valuable journal, (here 

 appeared in it several articles recommending to 

 farmers in Kentucky, the policy and propriety of 

 savirjg our own grass seeds, and the best mode 

 ol' doing it, especially ol' saving clover seed. As 

 I had lelt the annual purchase of grass seeds a 

 heavy tax, I was encouraged by your articles to 

 make the experiment of saving my own, and 1 

 have been entirely successl'ul. For the want ol 

 other means, in saving timothy, orchard grass, 

 and blue grass seeds, 1 used the common grain 

 cradle, with the fingers set a little closer to the 

 scythe than lor cutting wheat. The cradler 

 makes his stroke, then holding the cradle with 

 his right hand gathers the straws (which are cut 

 above the blades) with his left, until a handful 

 is gathered, when it is dropped, and bound m 

 small bundles: one binder to two cradlers ; the 

 bundles are shocked without capping, and remain 

 until they receive three or four rains, after which, 

 when entirely dry, they are moved to a floor and 

 trodden out by horses, or thrashed on a sheet 

 and fanned with a common wheat fan, by turning 

 it very slow. Blue grass seed may be cleaned, 

 after being trodden, by rubbing it through a com- 

 mon meal silter ; and is worth twice as much 

 |)repared in this way as the stripped seed is, be- 

 cause each seed tails separate in sowing. The 

 seed thus saved from good grass, will generally 

 sell ibr more than would the hay from the same 

 ground. Alter thus cutting oH' the seed the hay 

 may be mowed in the usual way. The best in- 

 strument Ibr saving clover seed is also in the hands 

 of every farmer, viz. : the scythe, to be used as 

 Ibllows : mow, or graze off close and clean, a 

 thick set, smooth clover field, about the first of 

 June, (not later than the tenth,) ta!<e all stock 

 off, and it will spring up immediately with a fine 

 growth of short straw with many heads well 

 filled with seed. When the leaves begin to die, 

 and the heads have generally turned brown, 

 (which is generally about the middle of July,) 

 put in all your scythes of a damp day, or dewy 

 morning; cutting close to the ground. Let one 

 hand to two mowers follow immediately with a 

 rake, and rake into small piles of size convenient 

 to be thrown with a pitch fork into your wagon; 

 let it remain in these piles until it takes three or 

 lour good rains ; after it is dry it may be hauled 

 in, the wagon passing between two rows of piles, 

 with one hand to throw from each side, and one 

 to tread it in the wagon. A wagon body with 

 side boards, thus filled will make about half a 

 bushel of clean seed. A moderate treading or 

 flailing will separate the heads from the straw, 

 which last may be raked out ; alier which the 

 clover is ready for sowing in the chafT ; and sowed 

 at the rale of a bushel and a half to the acre, 



is as good, if not better than clean seed. If you 

 wish to clean it, keep putting down and raking 

 out straw until the floor is about three inches deep 

 with heads and bowls; tread with six or eight 

 horses one day, and fan out by turning a common 

 wheat (an slowly ; then tread two days more, and 

 Ian out again, and pass the whole thiough a meal 

 sifter. These last operations are laborious, disa- 

 greeable and tedious, and should be perlbrmed in 

 dry cold weather. From about sixteen acres thus 

 managed, year before last, I saved enough seed in 

 the chaff to sow about one hundred acres for my- 

 selfj and sold sixty-seven dollars' worth of cleai:i 

 seed. For the last lour years I have sold all these 

 varieties o( seeds, besides having enough to sow 

 bountifully Ibr myself, and this last is one of the 

 greatest advantages of saving your own seeds, as 

 they thus cost you but little you sow more bounti- 

 fully, which is abundantly repaid by heavier crops 

 ol' grass. 1 believe a bushel of clean seed to five 

 acres is nearer the proper portion than a bushel lo 

 ten acres. I have sown a large field with clover, 

 timothy and orchard grass in the following propor- 

 tions for ten acres : one bushel of clover, one of 

 timothy, and six of orchard grass seed. ! find it 

 an admirable mixture, either for mowing or graz- 

 ing, and though very thick, still it is not too 

 much so. 



In conclusion, it is but Justice to say that I 

 think the articles in your paper, above alluded to, 

 have been the chief causes of my saving and 

 making enough by grass seeds, to pay Ibr all four 

 ol' my agiicullural papers as long as I live. 



^ Robert VV. Scott. 



Locust Hill, near Frankfort, 

 July 20, 1841. 



MODES OP TRANSMUTING WHEAT TO CHEAT. 



From the Cultivator, 



Mr. N. Sutherland, a stanch believer in the con- 

 version of wheat into chess, gives the following 

 methods by which that conversion may be efiisct- 

 ed. As the most of them are not difficult of trial, 

 perhaps some may have the curiosity lo prove 

 them ; and by performing the feat, entitle them- 

 selves to Mr, Ruffin's premium : — 



" Wheat may be transmuted into chess by 

 taking a lew heads at harvest, and laying them on 

 the ground to grow where they will not be dis- 

 turbed, the land to be rather poor; or some heada 

 may be taken that are scattered at harvest in the 

 stubbles and grow, taking them up late in the fall, 

 and setting them in a wheat field ; or some wheat 

 may be put in a dish, and wetted and dried as it 

 is sprouting several times, and it will come up 

 chess ; or it may be led or mowed off' when eight 

 or nine inches high ; any of these methods will 

 change wheat lo chess. There is another cause 

 that is frequently operative, and that is the fre- 

 quent freezing and thawing of the surface in moist 

 lands, which, by drawing the roots partly out of 

 the ground, so injures the plant that it cannot pro- 

 duce wheat." 



[We thank Mr. Sutherland for thus descending 

 from loose generalities to particulars, and pointing 

 GUI so many different and easy modes by which 



