1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



443 



For the New England Farmer. 



EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Editor : — I have read the monthly issues 

 of the Farmer, during the past year, with much 

 pleasure, and I trust with profit. With the high 

 tone of morality which has manifested itself through 

 its columns, I have been especially gratified. But 

 with all the fine wrought theories which agricultu- 

 ral books and papers contain, I find it not best, al- 

 ways, to trust them. The farmer, after all, must 

 be an experimenter himself, at least, to some ex- 

 tent. The kind of tillage which suits one locality 

 may not always work well in another. This I have 

 found to be true by experience. Until twenty-one 

 years of age I resided on a farm in the south-west- 

 erly part of Windsor county, Vt., where tolerable 

 crops were raised by shallow plowing. Subsequent- 

 ly, for about fifteen years I was engaged in another 

 calling, after which, I purchased a small farm in 

 Orange county, Vt. Here the soil was of a dark 

 loam, and appeared quite deep, without any hard 

 pan underneath. My neighbors mostly practised 

 shallow plowing, but I found by plowing deep, much 

 better crops could be raised. I had been accustom- 

 ed to seeing potatoes cultivated on land that had 

 been tilled the pre^^ous year and become sc'mewhat 

 mellow ; here I found they did much the best to 

 plant them on green-sward, the rougher the better, 

 provided they would grow at all. 



In 1853, I removed again to Windsor county. 

 Here in attempting to raise potatoes on green-sward 

 my crop was almost a complete failure ; the next 

 year I planted on the same ground as the year be- 

 fore, with very good success. I find that shallow 

 plowing produces better crops here, than deep 

 plowing. One of my neighbors who has resided 

 here a number of years, when breaking up his 

 ground, usually cuts the sod only from about four 

 to six inches in depth, and he has sometimes raised^ 

 thirty bushels of wheat and forty of barley to the 

 acre. Though much in favor of deep plowing where 

 it will answer, I have come to the conclusion that 

 shallow plowing is best adapted to some kinds ol 

 soils. 



Another item of experience I wish to mention. 

 Last spring I wished to obtain some superphos- 

 phate of lime to apply to my wheat ground ; and 

 supposing I could manufacture it somewhat cheaper 

 and quite as pure as any that I could purchase, I 

 engaged a merchant to procure me two hundred 

 pounds of ground bone when he went to Boston to 

 purchase goods. But he delayed going to the city, 

 until I found I could not prepare it in season ; so, 

 having a quantity of bones on hand, I broke into 

 small pieces about fifty pounds, placed them in a 

 tub, saturated them with w^ater, and then poured 

 on ten pounds of sulphuric acid. The next day I 

 poured on ten pounds more of the acid, stirred it 

 often for a fortnight, but somehow or other the} 

 didn't dissolve. 



As the time for sowing my grain drew nigh, I 

 concluded some other method must be resorted to 

 or I should lose all my labor and money too, that 

 I had expended. So I poured off the liquid, placed 

 the bones in a large kettle with a sufficient quanti- 

 ty of water, with a half bushel of lime, and after 

 boiling them about twenty-four hours, they were 

 nearly all dissolved as fine as the lime. After taking 

 it from the kettle, 1 stirred in the diluted acid with 

 it, and having mixed the whole with a quantity ol 



chip manure, spread it on the land. Whether it 

 was of any particular benefit or not, I am not able 

 to say, as the ground was rather too moist when 

 the wheat was sown, and it did not come up well; 

 Init the heads of that which did grow were large 

 and well filled. I think the next time I undertake 

 to manufacture superphosphate, / shall let it alone. 

 I am inclined to think that farmers, especially those 

 back in the country, instead of sending to the city 

 for concentrated manures, might contrive by saving 

 their liquids, or some other way, to enrich their 

 land equally as well with less expense. The cost 

 of my sulphuric acid was ten cents per pound, and 

 my bone meal, which at last arrived, came to nearly 

 five dollars, but instead of two hundred pounds of 

 ground bone, it was a barrel of something, I know 

 not what, but by its smell I conclude it must have 

 come from some Jilthy place. 



I ventured to use some of it on my corn, but 

 without any apparent benefit. Bones dissolved in 

 lime applied to land, I think may prove beneficial, 

 and I intend trying it again the coming season. 

 L. B. Pettengill. 



Weslon, Vt., 1856. 



For the New England Fanner. 



FATAL DISEASE AMONG HORSES. 



Dear Sir : — The disease of which you speak in 

 the Farmer of the 30th ult., is caused (usually,) by 

 cold closing the ])ores, producuig catarrh or influ- 

 enza, with congestion of the brain, affecting the ner- 

 vous system, and circulation of blood in the small, 

 or capillary vessels. The remedy is, to restore and 

 equalize the circulation of blood, and open the 

 pores. I use a vegetable deobstruent powder, one 

 tablespoonful on wet oats, (sprinkled on the surface 

 drv, so as to have the aroma taken hito the nos- 

 trils) three times a day, the animal to be well sta- 

 bled, and thoroughly blanketed, and the legs ban- 

 daged with flannel. Castor oil, or a strong decoc- 

 tion of thoroughwort, (Eupaiorium perfoliatum) is 

 the proper physic. This course has cured every 

 case, if used before the jaws were set and the ani- 

 mal refused to eat. 



The deobstruent powder is a preparation I use 

 in influenza, in the practice of medicine, and is 

 worth $4 per pound ; half a pound is sufficient to 

 cure one horse. Lawson Long, M. D. 



Holyokc, Sept., 1856. 



New Hampshire State Horse Show, and 

 Hillsborough County Agricultitral and Me- 

 chanical Fair.— The Hillsborough County Agri- 

 cultural Society have determined to hold their an 

 nual fair this year in Manchester, on the Fair Field, 

 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 30, 

 and Oct. 1st and 2d, in connection with tlie Granite 

 State Horse Show, which will be held at the same 

 time, under its auspices. 



Snow-birds in Summer. — Will Mr. Fowler, or 

 some other correspondent, tell me where snow- 

 birds tarry during the summer and rear their 

 young ? Yours, T. C. 



