146 Fall Ploughing — Dorldvg Fowls. — Green Ci-ojps for Stock. Vol. X* 



Fall rioiighiiig— Dorking Fowls. 



We give tlie following extract of a letter from Beau 

 fort, with a hope that it may draw forth the informa- 

 tion called for. — Ed. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet : 



Sir, — I see October or fall ploughing 

 highly recommended as a preventive of tiie 

 wire worm, which I believe is the same as 

 what is known among us as the heart worm, 

 from its piercing the young corn to the heart 

 below ground, and causing the centre leaves 

 to die; after which the plant never comes 

 to any thing. I have found that soaking my 

 seed in a saturated solution of saltpetre from 

 twelve to thirty-six hours, a certain pre- 

 ventive of every worm e.xcept the cut, or 

 brown worm, which does no perceptible, if 

 any harm, even when it cuts off the corn 

 above ground. It also acts as a manure in 

 the early stage of its growth, thereby short- 

 ening the time it is exposed to the depreda- 

 tion of birds. One year that I had no salt- 

 petre, an excellent stand of early corn was 

 ruined by the heart worm, which will show 

 you that I have them in abundance. 



I have a breed of fowls which are about 

 the size of the Malay, with yellow plumage 

 and legs also, but their legs are short, and 

 they are not liable to the gout, as the Malays 

 are. They are bad layers, laying but few 

 eggs, and those small in proportion to their 

 size; inveterate setters, but poor mothers, 

 as they kill most of their chickens from 

 their weight, and the chickens are long in 

 coming to maturity. Are these the Bucks 

 county fowls ^ Are the Ostrich or Booby 

 fowls to be procured in or about Philadel- 

 phia"? and at what price? Information on 

 these subjects would much oblige me and 

 probably others. I have for two years tried 

 a few black Poland hens, with a golden 

 Poland cock, but have found them rather 

 smaller than our common dunghill fowl, not 

 better layers, and much more delicate and 

 hard to raise. Though pretty, I find them 

 unprofitable, and mean to abandon them. I 

 am afraid of the Dorking, as their legs are 

 short and white. Short legs are a disadvan- 

 tage, as chickens are more easily injured by 

 the dew in the morning, and green legs in- 

 dicate firmness and fineness of grain, and 

 juiciness of meat, while the Dorkings have 

 white. I wish to raise for my own eating 

 only, therefore wish only good ones. If 

 there is any dealer in fancy poultry in Phila- 

 delphia, you may put this part of my letter 

 into his hands, and let him answer me direct, 

 if you do not wish to insert the inform.ation 

 in your columns. 



Yours respectfully, R. C. 



Beaufort, S. C, Nov, 1st, 1845. 



Greeu Crops for Stock. 



We are quite of the opinion that our farmers give 

 too little attention to the sowing of corn, oats, &c., 

 broadcast, to cut and feed to their cattle in a green 

 slate. It is a pretty well established fact, that there 

 is great economy in it; and why should we not avail 

 ourselves of a practice that enables us to economise 

 in our land and in its valuable products? If the soil- 

 ing system, where only tlie ordinary, natural or artifi- 

 cial grasses are used, is to the advantage of the farmer 

 who manages rich land, how abundantly advantageous 

 must be the reliance, to a certain e.xtent, upon corn. 

 &c., to him who manages poor land? more stock may 

 be kept in summer, and more may be kept in winter, 

 because more grass land is afforded for the scythe — to 

 say nothing about the increased quantity of manure 

 that is thus secured. It is true this is not the season 

 of the year to practice what we are recommending — 

 but another year \^ill come, and then let farmers 

 bear it in mind. The article below, taken from the 

 Massachusetts Ploughman, well deserves a thought. — 

 Ed. 



Captain Randall, of New Bedford, has 

 recently published in tiie N. E. Farmer an 

 account of the weiglit of his corn sown 

 broadcast on a couple of acres and some 

 rods. He says 35 tons of manure were 

 spread upon each acre. Ten bushels of 

 white, flat, Maryland corn were sown on 

 two acres and thirty-two rods. The whole 

 was well ploughed and repeatedly harrowed, 

 and a heavy roller was applied. Three sepa- 

 rate rods of this corn were cut and weighed, 

 and the average weight per rod, was 368 lbs. 

 This gives between 31 and 32 tons per acre, 

 sown broadcast, very highly manured and 

 land well prepared. 



We think 40 tons per acre may be grown 

 by sowing in drills, but the labour would be 

 more, though the seed would not cost one 

 quarter as much. Captain Randall says be 

 fed out this corn from two acres and thirty 

 rods to twenty cows, three other cattle, and 

 five calves, and it kept them seven weeks 

 and five days with what they could pick in 

 a dry pasture. And he is fully satisfied that 

 this corn was equal to 15 tons of the very 

 best of English hay. 



But we think Captain R. puts a wrong 

 estimate on this fodder from his corn-field. 

 Fifteen tons of hay would keep his stock 

 through half the winter without any aid 

 from the pasture ground, yet with all his 

 stock could bite, bushes and all, his corn 

 kept his stock but one-third of the time that 

 cattle are fed in winter. 



Cattle will find something in the dryest 

 pasture, and will partially fill themselves 

 there, even though you feed out the richest 

 products of the liirm. 



Again, the two acres and thirty-two rods 

 of ground, with this high manuring, would 



