No. 



Plaster of Paris. — Sowing Corn for Winter Feed. 



161 



, briilge, liad greatly increased tlie last two 



or three year?:, probably ovvinof to the great 



additional increas^c of animal manures. It 



niny be remarked that in the Isle of Wight, 



wliero the disease has occurred in its most 



virulent form, *e lately had the opportunity 



ibserving-, in many instances, tiiat it was 



t prevalent in those crops which bad 



:i planted on wheat land, which had pre- 



isly been manured with guano. The 



of these diseased potatoes for domestic 



poses cannot be too much condemned. — 



X ::iies. 



From the Now England Farmer. 

 Plaster of Paris. 



A FEW of the last days of July, the past 

 summer, I spent, in company with several 

 others, as one of the viewing committee of 

 the Merrimack County Agricultural Society, 

 on farms, &,c. In rambling over the farm oi 

 A. Brown, Esq., Noithrield, N. II., I noticed 

 that the stones in his wall were nearly all 

 pure granite. I observed to him that plaster 

 of Paris would be a good manure for his 

 soil, and .said, have you ever tried it? Yes, 

 he says, I have, and it is useful upon my soil, 

 and when we come to my corn-field, I will 

 show you its efrects. No more was said 

 upon the subject at that time: after looking 

 at a field of wheat and some other crops, we 

 came to the corn-field. There were four 

 acres — a good soil — well manured, and free 

 from weeds; the corn was very heavy; in 

 passing through it, we came to four rows of 

 very sniall com, not more than half as heavy 

 as the rest. Upon expressing our surprise, 

 he informed us that those four rows had no 

 plaster; the rest of the field had a tea-spoon- 

 ful of plaster dropped in each hill at the time 

 the corn was planted, and that was all that 

 made the difi'erence. But some of the com- 

 mittee expressed surprise that the coffi^op 

 such good land and well manured, should 

 not be any better, even if it did not have 

 plaster. " Oh !" says Mr. B., " it is a great 

 deal poorer for the others having plaster, — 

 the plaster draws the nitre, or air, or some- 

 thing from the unplastered, and robs it." 

 The thought occurred to me that this was 

 confirming- what Prof Sprengel says is the 

 effect of marling alternate strips of land in 

 Holstein : the unmarled strips are much le.^s 

 productive in consequence of marling the 

 other strips. But one thing is a fact: one 

 teaspoonful of plaster on his corn, made about 

 as much difli?rence as three of guano did 

 upon mine; and had not the whole field been 

 any better than the unplastered rows were, 

 he never would have entered it for a pre 

 mium : that is another fact. A few days 



since, I saw a son of Mr. Brown, and he in- 

 formed me that there was about as much 

 dilference in the corn at harvest, as there 

 was when I saw it the 80th of .Fuly. I can- 

 not yet believe that a teaspoonful of hme in 

 the hill would have made the difterencc in 

 his corn that the plaster did — but I will 

 write to him to make experiments the 

 coming season, and have no doubt that he 

 will, and report the results. 



The next day I was upon the farm of 

 Captain S. Chadwick, in IJoscawen. Here 

 I observed a diflerent kind of rock and stone 

 prevailed. Many of them, in the walls and 

 about the fields, had disintegrated, and others 

 were in a state of rapid decomposition by the 

 agency of oxygen and moisture. I observed 

 to Captain C. that I thought plaster was of 

 but little or no use upon his farm. " Well, 

 it is not," says he; "I have tried it, out and 

 nut : the money is thrown away in the pur- 

 chase of it, and the labour is lost in apply- 

 ing: it." Levi Bartlett. 



For the Farmers" Cabinet. 



Sowing Corn for Winter Feed. 



TotTie Editor: 



Sir, — As each one now engaged in agri- 

 cultural pursuits is endeavouring to increase 

 the amount of his fodder, either green or 

 dry, I would, through your columns, make a 

 few enquiries as to the best mode of con- 

 verting Indian corn sown broadcast, into dry 

 fodder. The light crops of hay this year, 

 induced me the past summer, to plough 

 down, after mowing, about two acres of sod, 

 which I sowed with corn broadcast; it grew 

 finely, and when in tassel, I had it cut down 

 [to be converted into winter feed. After 

 leaving it lay for several days to wilt, the 

 Iweather becoming threatening, I had it gath- 

 jered and placed in small shocks, bound at 

 the top to keep it up and the rain out; after 

 being left sometime, as 1 hoped to cure, find- 

 ing it beginning to heat and mould, I had it 

 opened and leaned against the fence to dry ; 

 here it remained some time, double, at least, 

 the time that grass would have required to 

 cure, when rain again threatening, I had it 

 removed into an open barrack; lest the sap 

 which remained in the stalk, might cause it 

 to heat, I had salt sprinkled on it, but all in 

 vain, for in spite of all the care taken, the 

 remaining sap cau.sed such fermentation, that 

 the whole mass has become utterly worlhless. 

 It may by some, I know, be said, it should 

 not have been moved until entirely dry, but 

 to those dependant, as farmers are, on the 

 weather, a crop that will take so much time 

 to cure — for this was at least three weeks — 



