1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



loads of poor, sour hay and brakes, hardly worth 

 cutting, but it was an average crop for the land. 

 This spring the land was dry, and we were ena- 

 bled to work it early in the season. We plowed 

 under about twenty-five ox-cart loads of barn- 

 yard manure to the acre, and planted with corn 

 the 15th day of May. The ground was dry and 

 in good condition for receiving the seed, while 

 many pieces considered "dry land" were much 

 too wet. The corn was planted three and a half 

 feet apart each way, hoed twice, and received a 

 top-dressing of plaster and ashes. It was cut 

 up the 10th and 11th of September, when it was 

 found ripe and sound. We husked from the 

 piece 440 bushels of ears, all merchantable corn. 



My neighbors concur with me in opinion that 

 this crop is worth more than the aggregate crops 

 that the land has produced for the last fifteen 

 years. It is now in a condition to produce abun- 

 dantly for a series of years vrithout any extra 

 outlay. This crop has paid me the whole ex- 

 pense of underdraimng, and I am so well pleased 

 with the experiment, that I have had a number 

 of ditches dug upon another piece adjoining, and 

 intend to use drain tile instead of stone. The 

 tile drain is cheaper, and from what information 

 I can obtain, I think it much more durable. 



Drain tile of a superior quality are now man- 

 ufactured by Lucius G. Spencer, of ihis town, 

 and sold at Albany prices. The farmers of Wind- 

 sor county are waking up en the subject. I am 

 informed of one man who intends to lay four 

 hundred rods from the first kiln. 



James R. Walker. 



Springfield, Vt., Nov. 5, 1858. 



THE REASON WHY. 



t was a perplexing and infelicitous circum- 

 stance which happened to discomfort and discom- 

 fit the good housewife, who had fattened a fine 

 young turkey for her husband's delectation, 

 boiled, as was his "weakness," with the accompa- 

 niment of a savory sauce. Two or tkree days 

 before his death, (the turkey's,) a box of 

 household pills fell by accident into the yard, 

 where the bird perforned his daily perambula- 

 tions and gobbling. He picked up the kernels 

 of anti-bilious corn and survived their effects un- 

 til his decease, when he was committed to the pot 

 as the piece de resistance of a sumptuous dinner. 

 But he would not boil tender : hour after hour 

 the hot bubbles burst around him, but all to no 

 purpose ; the harder and the longer he was boiled, 

 the tougher and more uncarvable he became. At 

 length, however, he was served up, and a doctor, 

 a next door neighbor, who was a guest, was re- 

 quested to solve the mystery. "We b'iled that 

 turkey six long hours, doctor, by the clock," said 

 the down-east hostess, "and yeou see how awful- 

 ly tough he is neow. Could it be the pills, d' 

 yeou think, doctor, that I was tellin' you about 

 his eatin' ?" "Undoubtedly, madam," replied the 

 doctor ; "it would not have made the slightest dif- 

 ference if you had biled him two days ; there was 

 no 'bile' in him, madam !" An explanation equal- 

 ly professional and satisfactory. — Knickerbocker. 



New H.\MPsinRE Journal of Agriculture. 

 — We have before us the second number of a 



new paper with the above title, published at Man- 

 chester, N. H., by Messrs. Gil:.ioke & Martin, 

 It is issued weekly, in folio form, the agricultu- 

 ral department edited by E. Breed, and the ed- 

 ucational and miscellaneous by Moses A. Cart- 

 lands. We have looked over the two numbers 

 published with some care, and find them filled 

 with useful and substantial articles on a great 

 variety of subjects. The editors seem to have 

 ability, industry and energy, and if their efforts 

 are encouraged, the Journal of Agriculture will 

 not fail to exert a salutary influence both upon 

 the Soil and the Mind. 



A CURIOUS QUESTION. 



It is a singular illustration of the inexactness 

 of agricultural knowledge, that the question how 

 many seeds there are in the pound of our com- 

 monly cultivated field plants, should still remain 

 to be answered. It is plain that the answer will 

 not necessarily affect farm practice — for the quan- 

 tity of seed which it is proper to sow per acre, is 

 a matter to be determined by experience, not by 

 argument apart from trial ; and yet surely it is 

 most desirable to compare the number of the 

 seeds we ordinarily sow with that of the plants 

 we raise. If in ordinary practice, 1,200,000 seeds 

 of wheat are sown on every 40,000 superficial 

 feet, or what is more extraordinary, fifteen to 

 eighteen million seeds are scattered on the same 

 extent, about three to every inch of land, it is 

 surely well to let the farmer know it. He knows 

 very well he does not raise so many plants as 

 this — and struck, as hemust be,by the enormous 

 disproportiorr between the means he uses and the 

 result he gets, he will inquire into its causes. 



The turnip seed employed per acre, numbers 

 from 000,000 to 1,000,000, according to the kind 

 and quantity adopted ; this, if the rows are two 

 feet apart, is two or three dozen seeds per foot 

 of row, where a single plant alone is to be grown. 

 No doubt nothing like so many generally come 

 up, but then there is a great destruction by the 

 hoe, which will explain much of the discrepancy 

 in this case. What, however, becomes of the 

 18,000,000 seeds of flax which are commonly — 

 of the 6,000,000 seeds of oats which are some- 

 times sown per acre ? There is no destruc- 

 tion by the hoe in either instance here. A sin- 

 gle ear of oats may contain 100 grains — a single 

 plant will generally include half a dozen ears, 

 but if 6,000,000 plants should yield as much as 

 this implies, they would produce 100 loads of 

 grain. Instead of 600 seeds apiece, they yield 

 but half a dozen each to produce an ordinary 

 crop of oats. It is plain that five-sixths of the 

 seed, or of the plants that they produce, are 

 killed in the cultivation of the crop ; and the 

 proportion is vastly greater than this in the case 

 of other plants. What is the ordinary seeding 

 of the clover crop ? Eight pounds of red clover, 

 four of white clover, and four of trefoil may be 

 sown — that is at least 6,000,000 seeds per acre — 

 a seed on every inch of land — but instead of 144 

 are there generally half a dozen plants on every 

 square foot of the clover field? 



There are about 25,000 seeds of sainfoin in a 



