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



PUHLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH M.4RKET STREET, (Agrioulturai. Warehodse.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



vol.. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 24 1841. 



[NO. 38. 



N. E. FARMER. 



NINTH AGRICULTURAL MEETING. 



We continue our report of the discussion on the 

 subject of "Roots and Fruits as food for Live Stock." 



Mr Colnian has done but little with the sn(.'ar 

 beet ; but the mangel wurtzel he has had c.^iperi- 

 ence with: his cows suffered from the use of them. 

 More milk was obtained in consequence of their 

 use, hut the cows were thin. Some larmers have 

 found no harm result from using them freely. One 

 practical farmer on a milk farm, had found the blood 

 beet as good as any root for making milk. He 

 thinks an animal that gets roots does not require 

 80 much hay as one th<it gets no roots, though it is 

 possible that the roots would increase the appetite 

 and that as much hay, if furnished, would be eaten. 

 Feed sheep upon turnips and the secretions of urine 

 become great; the manure from them is good and 

 large in quantity, if they are properly littered. He 

 would not sow for root crops until the season is 

 well advanced ; as late as near the middle of June 

 is a good time for many of them. 



Mr Uuckminster thought the suggestion in re- 

 gard to late sowing valuable. He prefers the 

 parsnip to the carrot. The sheep, he said, is a 

 great gormandizer; and the manure from them is 

 miserable, wretched stuff. Is not increasing the 

 quantity of urine by roots, like increasing the cider 

 by putting in water? Is there any more strength 

 or goodness in it ? 



Mr Colman thought the passage of food through 

 the system changes its nature. The Deerfield 

 farmers consider four bushels of potatoes equal to 

 one of grain. All food for swine should be cooked 

 — for sheep the cooking will not repay the expense. 

 For cattle generally, the cooking is not profitable. 



Mr Sheldon, of Wilmington, thinks that ruta ba- 

 gas and roots generally exhaust the land too much. 

 He would rather have a cord of manure from the 

 sheep than from any other animal. He had found 

 it a good course to plant potatoes after corn: the 

 land is not to be ploughed ; put your manure and 

 seed between the hills ; then split the hills, and 

 tlius cover the potatoes ; this will give a better crop 

 than to plough the land thoroughly. Four bushels 

 of potatoes for making beef are equal to one bushel 

 of grain, and tliey make the animal heavier and bet- 

 ter than any other food ; that is, when fed on these 

 they are better than good judges suppose they will 

 prove to be when slaughtered. They should al- 

 ways be washed — dirt is no benefit as food for cat- 

 tle. Pumpkin seeds should not be given to cattle. 



Mr Lathrop, of South Hadloy, said that he tops 

 his ruta bai'as in the field and lets them lie there 

 two or three weeks, until they are dry and a little 

 wilted ; and then they will not heat in the cellar. 

 Frost will not hurt them, if it comes out from them 

 where they lie in the field. 



Mr Mosley, of VVestfield, said that he has never 

 planted a turnip or a Rohan. Potatoes he raises 

 for his stock, and gets from 3 to 500 bushels per 

 afcre. Watches his neighbors in the root culture, 



and is ready to adopt their course as soon as it 

 shall appear to him better than his own. { 



Col. Jaques, of Charlestown, stated thr t the ma- ' 

 nure from sheep is very good. Carrots f<ir stock 

 he values highly. Ruta baga is very good food 

 for dry stock. Half a bushel of mangel wurtzel 

 per day to a milch cow will produce daily from two 

 to three quarts of milk. Give a cow four quarts of 

 meal per day for two or three years, and it will de- 

 stroy her milking properties. The Oakes cow and 

 two others in Charlestown, were ruined as milkers 

 in this way. A bushel of meal and a bushel of 

 shorts are better than two bushels of meal for per- 

 manent feeding. Potatoes, when steamed, are very 

 good feed. The finest mutton ho ever saw was 

 fattened upon this article. Swine will do well, fed 

 upon pumpkins. Ruta bagas, though good for 

 stock, are great exhausters of the soil. 



LETTER TO THE EDITOR. 



A". Bridgewnter, March, 1841. 

 To the Editor of the New EnElaiiH Farmer : 



Sir — In April last, as you may recollect, I ob- 

 tained of you four quarts of seed corn, of the kind 

 exhibited by you at one of the farmers' meetings iii 

 the State House, in February, 1840, and promised 

 to communicate to you the result. On the 12th 

 of May, the corn was planted on a gravelly loam, 

 which had been planted with potatoes the year be- 

 fore ; ploughed twice and harrowed; manursd at 

 the rate of 31 horse cart loads to the acre; two 

 thirds ploughed in — the residue put in the hills, 

 which were about 3 1-2 feet apart each way — on 

 lOfi rods of ground. The seed was steeped in a 

 solution of saltpetre, which was probably too strong, 

 as not more thiin two thirds of the corn sprouted ; 

 by which means the crop was much lessened. The 

 corn was hoed three times, but not hilled — har- 

 vested the lutter part of September, when it was 

 well ripened. The produce was at the rate of 05 

 bushels to the acre, 75 pounds of ears reckoned a 

 bushel. This crop, though not a remarkable one, 

 was better than is usually obtained by me or my 

 neighbors, with the same amount of manure and 

 labor. 



This corn (which I shall call the Putnam corn,) 

 so far as I can judge from one year's trial, is, in 

 my opinion, preferable to the Dntton, or any other 

 variety with which I am acquainted, for a strong, 

 warm soil. Part of the same field was planted with 

 the Parker corn, manured and cultivated in the 

 same manner, but fell considerably below the otlier 

 in the produce. 



The seed of the Putnam corn will be furnished 

 to others in this vicinity who are desirous to try it 

 the approaching season; and further trial will bet- 

 ter develop its qualities. J. PERKINS. 



[Our correspondent and friend need not apply 

 our name to the corn above described ; for neither 

 we nor any other Putnam, to our knowledge, is en. 

 titled to any credit for forming or improving it. — 

 We presume that it is the same essentially as the 

 corn known in many places as the "Red Blaze." 

 We think, also, that one variety of the Brown corn, 



(for we have seen two, each purporting to be the 

 genuine Brown,) may be the same. It is an eight 

 rowed corn, with very large kernel — the color va- 

 rying somewhat, but always inclining to red. We 

 have been well acquainted with it for many years. 

 It is rather late, and its stalk is large : but we know 

 of no other corn equally productive on soils not cold 

 and which are in a good condition as to fertility. 

 We have raised it by the side of the Phinney, the 

 Dutton, the Parker, and various others. When 

 tried by the half bushel, this has invariably given a 

 crop that exceeded any other by 10 to 20 per cent 

 The last season we had two thirds of an acre plant- 

 ed with Parker corn, having the same treatment 

 and as good a chance in every known respect as 

 the Red Blaze, and the latter yielded about 80 

 bushels to the acre, while the former gave only 

 about ()5. There was no perceptible diflerence in 

 the size of the stalk or in the time of ripening. Re- 

 fore harvesting, the difference was apparently but 

 little. When the husking commenced, a much 

 larger number of the ears of the Parker corn were 

 small, than of the other kind. The corn was thick 

 on the ground — about 20,000 stalks to the acre. 



We have a conjecture, founded upon a hasty ob- 

 servation of different fields, that if not more than 

 13 or 14,000 stalks are put upim the acre, that the 

 Parker may be as productive as the other. That 

 is, we presume that the Red Blaze will bear plant- 

 ing thick belter than the Parker. This is an opin- 

 ion founded on such limited observation, that we 

 wish it to have no other effect than merely to in- 

 duce farmers to ascertain by experiment, whether 

 there is not a difference in the effect of close plant- 

 ing upon different varieties of corn, even when 

 those varieties are alike as to the size of the stalk 

 and the time of ripening. We think there is, and 

 the fact, if it be a fact, is worth establishing. 



Notwithstanding our good opinion of the Red 

 Blaze, we do not recommend it excepting to those 

 who have warm lands and manure well.^Eu.] 



For the New England Farmer, 



THE BERKSHIRES. 

 Mr Editor — I perceive that a writer in your 

 paper of the 3d inst., has made me a victim of his 

 " grsy goose quill," having come down at me with 

 his hammer of facts, in such a "neck-or-no-joint" 

 way, that I apparently soon shall be among the 

 things that were; the more especially, as I am 

 ready to admit that facts are stubborn things, and 

 also will cheerfully accede to him the credit of 

 truth and accriracy in the experiments that he spe- 

 cifies; but there are always two sides to a story, 

 and I am not altogether without experience in 

 Berkshire hogs, having in May last bought of 

 Messrs Breck & Co. a boar, then a weaniing, of 

 fine form, but in my estimation, bad color. He has 

 had from that time to this present date, what I call 

 good food for store hogs, viz: in summer, squashes 

 boiled with meal, four times a day ; in the shorter 

 days of autumn and winter, beets, carrots and tur- 

 nips, boiled with meal, three times a day — and 



