AND H O R T I C U L T U rt A L REGISTER. 



PUIILrSHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NOKTH M.\RKET STREET, (Agricultubal Warehouse.) 



vol.. XIX. J 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 2fi, 1840. 



[KO. 8. 



N. E. FARMER. 



RHODE ISLAND AGRICULTURE. 



Tlie subjoined c.\tr.TCts from Dr Jackson's Re- 

 port on the Geological and Agricultural Survey of 

 Rhode Island, will we think bo read with interc-sl 

 and profit. 



Report of Ihc Farm of lion. Job Durfee, Tieerton. 



Farm consists of — ploughed land, 22 acres; 

 grazing 47, mowing 46, orchard 4, wood 30, peat 



and unreclaimed swamp JO. Total, iH'J acres 



Value of land per acre, $100. Soil, generally stiff 

 loam. 



Crops. — Indian corn 400 bushels — 40 bushels 

 per acre; manured with ten large ox loads of fish 

 compost and barn yard manure. Wheat 14 bush- 

 els — 20 bushels to the acre, blasted ; land manur- 

 ed with fish in 1838. Barley 50 bushels to the 

 acre — Injured by the fly. Oats 334 bushels — 50 

 bushels to the acre ; not manured the present year ; 

 the crop followed Indian corn. Mangel wurtzol 

 362 bushels — 108C bushels to the acre. Turnips 

 250 bushels, grrwn among corn. Hay 46 tons — 

 one ton to the acre. 



Stock. 

 Horses, 2, raised 2, valued at $140 



Oxen, 6, do 4, do 3(i0 



Cows, 8, do 8, do 240 



Sheep, 100, do 100, do 200 



Swine, 12, do 12, do 



do 



130 

 50 



Yoiinfj stock, 12, do 12, 



Poultry, 



Wood, 12 cords. 



Produce. 

 Beef, butter, cheese, milk and wool not estimat- 

 ed. Wool, 3 pounds to the fleece. 

 Corn' estimated, $400 



Wheat, 20 



Oats, 133 



Barley, 40 



Potatoes, 70 



Turnips, 60 



Beets, 70 



Pumpkins, j5 



Hay. 700 



lal (^iieslion. — Wliat agricultural experiments 

 have you made ? (See below for answer.) 



2d. What is the results of your researches or 

 observations concerning the use of lime as an a- 

 mendment to soils, or as an ingredient in composts ? 



I have made no experiments with lime. 



3d. Have you used ashes, live or spent, or hard 

 coal ashes, as an amendment, and what is the re- 

 sults of your experience? 



I have used spent ashes occasionally, to a limited 

 extent, and as far as my observation extends, with 

 favorable results. 



4th. Have yuu made use of peat for manure, 

 alone or in compost, and wjih what results .' 



I have used an imperfect peat, or rather swamp 

 mud, with fish and turf. The compost made a ma- 



nure much quicker and more active than any other 

 that I have used, but I doubt whether it will carry 

 a crop to m:iturity so steady as good stable manure. 

 It does best in wet seasons. 



5th. What is your opinion respecting the use of 

 a compost made of 4 cords of peat, 2 cords of stable 

 manure, and 4 casks of lime, well mixed, as a com- 

 post manure? Will you ple.ise to try it? 



To this compost I would add sand, especially if 

 to be used on a close, heavy soil. I have never 

 tried this compost, but certainly think it highly 

 worthy of a trial. 



Glh. What are the relative values of fish and 

 stable manure ? 



Fish manure is more active and quicker than 

 stable manure. Fish used ahjne, exhausts itself in 

 three or four years, unless the crop be consumed 

 on the ground. After being used on corn, it throivs 

 up a great crop of grain, (if grain follow,) but the 

 new meadow is too frequently light. Its use 

 should be continued on the new meadow. I can- 

 not speak definitely of their relative values. 



7th. Have you used rock weed, ribbon weed, 

 and eel grass for manure, and with what results ? 



I have used rock weed, and eel grass, in com- 

 posts of the barn-yard, &c., but never alone. 



8th. Have you tried any experiments respecting 

 the use of muscle or marsh mud, or of ground oys- 

 ter shells, clam shells, or ground bones, as amend- 

 ments to soils ? 



I have used broken clam shells, the remains of 

 Indian feasts ; I think with good eflfects, but can- 

 not speak definitely. I am beginning the use of 

 marsh mud, but am not as yet able to speak of re- 

 sults. 



0th. What means do you use for the prevention 

 of smut in wheat, and to what results do you ar- 

 rive ? 



I have ste?ped my seed wheat in brine for 7 

 hours, and then limed it, to no eflfect. I have 

 steeped it for IG or 18 hours, and then rolled it in 

 ashes, with apparently some beneficial result, but 

 have found no effectual remedy. 



10th. What crops are the most profitable to raise 

 on your farm ? 



Indian corn, oats, barley. (See remarks.) 



1 1th. What is the value of your produce in mar- 

 ket ? 



See the estimates I have put upon the several 

 products. 



12th. Do you save the liquid parts of your ma 

 nure by any vat under your stalls or stables, and 

 Inve you made any experiments as to the value of 

 such manure ? Please mention the results. 



I must answer this question in the negative. 

 General Remarks. 



In my estimate of the quantity of ploughed land, 

 I include that sowed with grain. My estimate of 

 mowing land includes only meadows. 



In n)y estimate of the quantity of Indian corn 

 raised, I include some raised in rny orchard ; in as- 

 certaining the average to the acre, I take no note 

 of the orchard land, for I am not able to ascertain 

 what portion of it was planted, it liaving been 



planted with corn only where open to the sun. In 

 fict, for this season, I doubt not t'lat my estimate 

 of this crop is large ; but to estimate it at less 

 would deceive. The average, even as it now stands 

 in the return, is much below the common average. 

 I was greatly disappointed in this crop the present 

 year (1839.) 1 attribute my disappointment to the 

 violence of two gales in August, particularly to the 

 first, which, though less violent than the second, 

 was most injurious, prostrating my corn, which was 

 of an early kind, when just in the milk. My Dut- 

 ton corn suffered severely ; it was not half a crop. 

 Worms also injured the crop severely. I speak 

 now with reference to that p irt of the crop raised 

 on a newly turned sward. We took from an acre 

 of old ground, where corn was raised the preced- 

 ing season, fifty bushels, and one hundred bushels 

 of French turnips, besides pumpkins. This was 

 the last planted, and seemed to have suffered least 

 from the winds. I do not think highly of the Dut- 

 ton corn ; nor do I think it generally a judicious 

 practice, in our foggy climate, to cut up corn and 

 shock it. 



Our wheat was, up to the period of forming the 

 grain, very promising ; it then suddenly shriveled. 

 Was this caused by the honey dew? There was 

 not half a crop. 



Barley, years past, was our most valuable grain. 

 It is now a very uncertain crop, owing to the rava- 

 ges of an insect, the egg of which is deposited in 

 the growing stalk. 



The oat crop may appear large, compared with 

 my other crops, but we have measured not only the 

 product but the land, and the return is rather under 

 than over the true amount. The quantity given is 

 the quantity actually taken up. There could not 

 be less than double the quantity usually sown 

 shelled out before it was stacked, and thus entire- 

 ly lost. From one lot consisting of about an acre 

 and a quarter, we threshed out and measured nine- 

 tysix bushels. This was corn land last year, anJ 

 was then fisiied at the rate of thirty barrels to the 

 acre, in addition to the usual manuring. 



Report of the Farm of Gideon Spencer. 

 Dr C. T. Jackson — Dear Sir— Your blank forro 

 of a farm report was put into my hands sometime 

 since, but in consequence of my having been em- 

 ployed the last year in other business than attend- 

 ing to my farm, I cannot fill the report with accu- 

 racy. I will, however, give you a brief account of 

 my procedure in farming for about thirty years. 

 In 1808, I commenced farming on the farm I now 

 own, and which was previously owned by my fath- 

 er. I took no pains to make manure, and as was 

 the practice among my neighbors, I milked my cows 

 in the pasture, and let my hogs lun in the road. — 

 The land was not then very much exhausted, and 

 we could raise from 15 to 30 bushels of corn to the 

 acre, without manure. This I found was wearing 

 out my land; and in the year 1811, I commenced 

 a new course. I yarded my cattle, carted loam in- 

 to my cowyard, shut up my hogs, &c., and the next 

 season I planted a larger field of corn than usual, 

 and put the manure all in the bill, and this greatly 



