286 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jl-NE 



I will not deny the assertion of one of your cor- 

 respondents that the corn crop is the crop of New 

 England, but let other crops receive their due 

 attention. Turnips are not raised so extensively 

 in this vicinity as they ought to be, from the 

 fact that half the people do not know their value, 

 and the reason why they are so ignorant of their 

 value is because they never had any of ihem to 

 actually test their worth. I never have known 

 any one that raised roots for stock, to abandon 

 it after a fair trial, but on the contrary, to raise 

 more. 



What kind of winter wheat would you recom- 

 mend to be sown in this vicinity, and about what 

 time of year should the seed be put into the 

 ground? Would not a light dressing of com- 

 posted manure, plowed in just before sowing, be 

 a benefit to the wheat as well as to the after crops 

 of grass ? G. w. D. 



berry, N. H., February, 1859. 



Remarks. — The Winter Blue Stem is an ex- 

 cellent variety. 



Get in the crop as early in September as pos- 

 sible, so that it shall get well rooted, and not so land pulverization. If my soil was but six inches 



For the I^ew England Farmer. 

 PliOWINQ— MANUKINQ—PIjANTIKG. 



Mr. Editor : — Plowing and planting time be- 

 ing near at hand, I shall venture a few sugges- 

 tions to your farming readers. Plowing and pre- 

 paring the ground for seed, is of vastly more con- 

 sequence than is generally supposed, or conceded 

 by the farmer. To plow when the soil is wet, 

 leaves it to dry in the sun, hard and cakey. The 

 yiiung roots of the vegetables struggle, and are 

 headed oft' at all points by this baked, brickey 

 soil that yields so ungraciously to their seeking 

 desires. 



There is great need of more attention to the 

 preparation of the soil. The farmer that plows 

 his field but si.x to seven inches deep, is very 

 careful to spade his garden twelve to fifteen 

 inches, that it may be light as an "ash heap," 

 and that he may boast of a '-good garden," if 

 nothing else. This same friability and deepening 

 the soil, measurably applies to every crop. Corn, 

 grains, potatoes, need this deep, mellow soil. 

 Even a tree, with its more stubborn roots, re- 

 quires it. Hence the necessity of deep plowing 



liable to be winter killed. 



HOOT CHOPS FOE STOCK FEEDING. 

 We beg again to remind our readers, partieu- 



deep, 1 should plow nine inches, unless I have a 

 quicksand bottom — vegetable roots will soon 

 find the soil, reap the benefit, and you will have 

 an augmented crop. 



For a corn crop, first plow deep, then spread 



larly those who are engaged in dairy and «tock "^^""'T' \"^ ^'•'f\Pl7/V" ;^^ T .^ ?I! 



farming, to appropriate a full amount of land to «>• ^'x inches. I should do this, evenhad I btt 

 root-growing. Carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, ^ ^mall quantity, rather than manure m the hill, 

 may all be raised with profit, wherever stock is 

 to be fed. For horses, carrots are invaluable 

 For milch cows, they not only furnish a milk of 

 superior flavor, butter of fine color and odor, but 

 when used as a portion of their food, they guar- 

 antee a healthful condition. The power of the 

 pectic acid of the carrot to gelatinize all vegeta- 

 ble matter held in solution in the stomach, puts 

 its contents in such a condi'ion that the peristal- 

 tic motion of the intestines can manage it. Flat- 

 ulence is prevented, and thorough digestion se- 

 cured. The dung of the horse, fed partly on car- 

 rots, never contains the undecomposed shell of 

 the oat, nor large amounts of starch unappropri- 

 ated: and it is for this reason that a bushel of 

 oats and a bushel of carrots will do more for the 

 horse than two bushels of oats ; and not because 

 the carrot contains as much flesh-making mate- 

 rial as the oat, but because it cause* all the flesh- 

 making material of the oat to be appropriated 

 instead of being voided with the excretia. For 

 cows and oxen, other roots may occasionally be 

 substituted with profit, as variety to all animals 

 is pleasing in their food ; and no one root should 

 be continuously used. Since the introduction af 

 pulping machines, pulped roots mixed with cut 

 hay, cut straw, and other cheap material, add 

 much to the economy of the farm as well as to 

 the health of the cattle. — Working Farmer. 



Lice on Calves. — I have discovered a meth- 

 od of ridding calves of lice. Give tliemjiax seed. 

 I am wintering eight calves ; they became very 

 lousy, and I fed them half a pint at a time for 

 two days, and the oil from it drove the lice all 

 ofi'. — Oenesee Farmer. 



quantity, 

 I give a reason for so doing. In the first ])la»P, 

 the roots of corn do not stop in the hill, like 

 those of a plant in a flower pot ; they soon di- 

 verge from it, seeking nourishment in their jour- 

 ney in all directions, a long way from home. 

 Now, the reasonalde conclusion is, manure dis- 

 tributed through the soil, is what they are after, 

 and what they will find. 



How common it is t > see the young corn yel- 

 low and decripid, from the fact that it is dropped 

 on green, strong manure, (always laid to the 

 weather,) and cannot attain a vigorous, healthy 

 color till its roots get away from this hot-bed 

 hill. But the farmer says, I am short of manure, 

 I must put four acres into corn ; all I can count 

 on, is thirty cart loads ; I must dung out in the 

 hill. Now, he plows, plants and cultivates four 

 acres, and may get eighty or ninety bushels of 

 corn. I say, ])ut the thirty loads of manure upon 

 one acre, plow in at the cross plowing, and haz- 

 ard the statement, the one will give the product 

 of four acres, to say nothing of labor and cost, 

 being about three to one. In this connection, let 

 me ask, would not corn do better, if the kernels 

 were dropped several inches apart, to avoid the 

 crowded state of the hill while growing ? Try 

 every other hill. 



In regard to potatoes, there is no dunging in 

 the hill on this island ; they spread horse ma- 

 nure (if they can get it,) and plow in deep. In 

 pulling potatoes, it will be noticed their tough, 

 fibrous roots run far outside the hill. A mellow 

 soil, well impregnated with manure, must also 

 attract these roots, which are the great feeders 

 in giving growth and perfecting the vegetable. 

 The vine receives its nutriment from the air, and 

 its short, brush-like roots at its base, connecting 



