1869. 



XEW ENGLAND FARIVIER. 



295 



yalue. This kind of swindle has run so high 

 within a few years past, that I think it is the duty 

 not only of editors, but of farmers generally, to 

 caution the public against puichating new things, 

 till they have some proof that they are what they 

 are represented to be. If this kind of humbuggery 

 is continued it will soon be hard woik to introduce 

 anything new, however valuable it may be. 

 Barre, VL, April 20, 1869. a. j. s. 



Remarks. — We regret as sincei'ely as our cor- 

 respondent does that our efforts to exclude fraud 

 and humljuggery from our columns are not more 

 successful. But from what department of govern- 

 ment, from what association of men, from what 

 town or neighborhood, even, are they successfully 

 excluded ? We thank our correspondent for his 

 suggestions, and we invite him and all other far- 

 mers to use our columns for the exposure of 

 swindlers, whether in new things or old, great ones 

 or small ones. Give the blood thirsty leeches no 

 peace. 



BROOM COEX. 



Will you give to the public as soon as may be, 

 through your paper, a chapter on the modern 

 modeof raising broom corn. All the particulars 

 about the crop, so that a person who has never 

 raised any may know how to proceed to insure a 

 good crop, in a favorable season. Q. C. Rich. 



Shorekam, VL, April 26, 1868. 



Remarks. — Mr. Charles Woodman of Living- 

 ston county, N. Y., wrote an article on this subject 

 which was published last year in the Country Gen- 

 tleman. He has raised from 150 to 250 acres a 

 year regularly for thirteen years. The outlays 

 in the busines are so great that he would not ad- 

 vise any one to go into raising it, unless he intends 

 to keep it up for ten years at least. It requires a 

 rich alluvial soil, free from stones. It is very fluc- 

 tuating as to price. He had sold it as low as $100 

 per ton, and as high as f 350. He thinks the net 

 profits on the crop in the Genesee Valley are about 

 the same as from Indian corn, or a little better. 

 He thinks it can be raited at the West and South 

 cheaper than in Central New York. He ploughs 

 the ground "all he can" the fall before, — turning 

 in the ttalks, and in the spring puts it into thor- 

 oughly good order with the wheel cultivator or 

 gang plough, and by the subsequent use of the 

 harrow, "so as to make it very nice." It is then 

 rolled with a light roller, after which a marker 

 follows, having four pins, and thus marking off 

 four rows, three feet apart. He then says : — 



" There are three planters hitched to this 

 marker, so that three boys, one man and a horse 

 will plant fitteen acres per day. My machines 

 drop once in eight inches, from tight to ten seeds 

 in a place, so that it makes almost a continuous 

 row. One bushel of seed will plant ten acres. The 

 seed has to be well chopped and fitted for planting ; 

 it chops away nearly one-half. I begin to hoe as soon 

 as I can trace the rows, and use the scraper, which 

 throws the dirt in the center of the row ; then the 

 men hoe backward, only on one side of the row at 

 a time, drawing the earth fiom the corn. As soon 

 as three or f jur days, I put on the roller, and roll 

 down the ridge, and then I follow with a light cul- i 

 tivacor throwing the dirt a very little among the 



corn. The next week go through again, throwing 

 it a little more against the c^rn. I keep my horses 

 in it until it is as high as five or six fett; I then 

 put in the hiller, and pack the dirt hard against the 

 corn, and it is done until harvest time. At harvest, 

 the stalks are broken over about six feet high; 

 three rows are cut and laid in one, so that the 

 horses straddle the row, and we can load upon 

 each side of the wagon. The wagon buxes are fif- 

 teen feet long and three feet high. When drawn 

 to the barn, it is sorted into handfals by women ; 

 then scraped in the cylinders, and carried into 

 sheds and laid on poles about four inches thick, to 

 dry. When dry, I take it down and press it into 

 bales of two hundred pounds and up to two hun- 

 dred and fifty, and it is ready for the market. It 

 is fair corn when three acres give one ton ot brush. 

 It takes about two and a halt days work per acre 

 to hoe it, and three days work to cut it." 



PUMPKINS ARE PROFITABLE. 



In reply to the question of "Nat," about pump- 

 kins being profitable, I would say, procure seeds 

 of a good quality, and from a different locality, — 

 for like all other vegetables, pumpkins need a 

 change of locality, — then after having planted the 

 field(jf corn go over it with the pumpkin seeds and 

 put one or two seeds in one hill out of each four; 

 and, near the border or edge of the field, in every 

 other hill. Those on the outer rows, by running 

 out where they will receive more sun and air, will 

 do the best and may be planted more thickly. 

 Not only in the corn field, bat also in the "potato 

 patch," can good pumpkins be raised by planting 

 them near the edge or in the outsride row, or any- 

 where in the field, by giving to each vine the space 

 allowed to a potato Lill. They must be looked to 

 occasionally and the bugs destroyed, remembering 

 to nip the ends of the vines after well "set." If the 

 reason is favorable, and these directions followed, 

 I think that "Nat" or any other farmer will tind 

 that it is profitable to raise pumpkins with corn. 



E. w. 



East Westmoreland, N. H., March 5, 1869. 



RAISING CORN IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN, 



Brother farmers, as it is getting time to look 

 round and tee how much and what crops we shall 

 put in this season, I will tell you how we raise 

 corn in southern Michigan, and what mine did 

 last season. We turn over the soil in March and 

 April. We do not use any manure, as most of the 

 farmers think it worthless, or too much woik to 

 haul it out. We mark the rows four feet each 

 way, and plant from the first to the fifteenth of 

 May. As soon as we can follow the rows, take an 

 Aharrowmadefor the purpose, with handles some- 

 what like those of a plough, put on two horses 

 and go throu<;h both ways, and with a liitle prac- 

 tice we can run it very cIjso to the rows. The ob- 

 ject of putting on two horses is to use a heavy har- 

 row, which by taking out the front tooih will go 

 astride of one row, and thus cuUivdte two rows 

 at ouce When the corn is about eighteen inches 

 high, take a double shovel plough, which throws 

 the soil to the hills, doing allthe hillir.g necessary, 

 and killing the weeds, if there are any, entirely. 



*ast tall, when harvesting my corn, I measured 

 f one acre of a iwenty-aere field as near an aver- 

 ag3 of the whole as I could, and 1 got 93i imshels 

 sound corn, beside the soft corn. A part of the 

 field was worked but once. I intend to keep an 

 account of a len-acre field this season, and report 

 this fall what it costs me by the bushel. We prac- 

 tice rotation in this section : first corn, tiien peas, 

 then wheat, and stjck with clover invariably. 



L. M. Leiggs. 

 Hudson, Michigan, April 3, 1869. 



