VOL. XI. NO. as. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



219 



(lie of July — this will iiiako fat lambs, and tlif 

 eu'cs ttemsclvcs will be fit for market. ^ 



Flax, a most useful and profitable crop^ the 

 farmer — does best in moist land — at nineWenee 

 per i>ouud, one acre will gain six pound^Weiir 

 profit. Aller the ground is wdi inauured^|lli 

 old and rotten cow-dung, or witntlie contents ol' 

 the hogstye, plough and mix the soil well — it can- 

 not be too nnich pulverized, and then, in early sea- 

 son, which will give the best coat to the flax, sow 

 from seven to eight pecks of seed on ati acre — 

 IVesb and new seed every year, and from a good 

 distance, the crop will be the better. Pull it when 

 the leaves are fallen from the stalk, and when, 

 they begin to have a bright yellow color, and the 

 l)olls are just beginning to have a brownish cast. 

 If you water rot it, pull it when the blosson)S are 

 generally fallen. If yon dew rot it, when it is 

 done sufficiently, the coat -svill separate from the 

 stalk, at the slender branching parts, near the top 

 ends. 



Foals should be fed when weaned with sweet 

 hay, oats and wheat bran. For the first winter 

 allow one sixteen bushels of oats ; afterwards he 

 will do with good hay. A late foal should not be 

 weaned before March, and have oats all winter. 

 Within one month after the foal is dropped, it 

 receives its shape, &c. which it will ever after re- 

 tain — you may then see your future horse in 

 miniature. 



Fowl-JIeadow Grass docs best on low lands, 

 swamps, &c. — keeps green a long time — bears 

 a great burden — is excellent fodder especially for 

 horses, and may be mowed, from last of 'July, to 

 first of October. 



Foddering should not take place till really 

 necessary ; and then only in mornings. — Thb>worst 

 fodder should be given out in the coldest wsather. 

 Never lay so nmch before your cattle as will serve 

 to fill them — fodder twice in the morning and twice 

 in the evening. The leavings of horned cattle may 

 be laid before horses, and the leavings of horses 

 before those who divide the hoof; they will eat 

 after each other. If any thing be left in the 

 mangers of the cattle, carry it out into the open 

 air, and spread it on clean snow. Young and 

 hardy stock will winter well on coarse njeadow 

 Iiay and straw. Every farm-yard should liave a 

 long shed, and a rack under it, in which to fodder 

 in a clean and profitable manner — very necessary 

 for sheep. 



Goose, more profitable than a dung-hill fowl. 

 Pluck your goose but once in a year, and at 

 moulting time, or when they shed their ([uills. 



Grazing. Kill grass fed beeves by the first 

 of November, for, after that the grass soon loses so 

 much of its virtue, tliat it will not fatten cattle at 

 all — they will fall away. — Vales for tillage, hill for 

 pasture. 



HINTS TO FARMERS. NO I. 



Preliminary. — Now that the bustle of election, 

 and the shouts of the victors, have somewhat sub- 

 .sided ; our crops secured, and the bleak wim's of 

 December have driven the husbandman from his 

 fields to his fireside, I propose, Mr. Editor, to de- 

 vote an occasional evening to the entertainment, 

 and I would fain hope to the improvement, of your 

 agricultural readers; provided you are disposed to 

 second my efforts by publishing what I may rlmncc 

 to write: For as yet 1 feel the wish, without being 

 conscious of the ability, either to instructor cuter- 

 tain them. 



Bly essays shall never be tediously long. They 

 may sometimes be practical, sometimes tlicoreli- 

 cal, and, perchance, sometimes political; but par- 

 taking neither of personal or party politics. 



Youhave now my proposition, sir: and I shall 

 consider you as according to it when you publish 

 these preliminary remarks, and shall proceed with- 

 out any delay to fifi^ my task;. 15. 



IVtsitrlo, Dec. 12, IS^v! 



The adapting crops to the. soil and market, are 

 among the first considerations which present them- 

 selves to the discreet farmei;. The same soil that 

 will produce a profitable crop of one kind, may 

 not repay the labor of cultivating anollicr. The 

 hills and mo^fclains that make the riftjicst pastures, 

 may be illy Mipted to the prodtictio.n ^of ^rain. 

 And the same larm product that is profitfiWc to the 

 farmer in the vicinity of towns or navigable waters, 

 may be wholly unprofitable in a distntt remote 

 from tliera. In newly settled Jistricts, wHere the op- 

 portunities of interchange and marketing are pre- 

 carious, it becoines in a measure necessary, that 

 the farmer should adapt his husbandry to the im- 

 mediate waut£ of the family, and produce bis own 

 bread, meat and clothing. Lik^auses ofte: 

 der it necessary that he shoidcffiilso be hii 



mechanic — as carpenter, shoemater, &c 

 tance, bad roads, and the want 9 means, leavi 

 him no other alternative. But in old aettled dis- 

 tricts, where the facilities of intercourse and trade 

 are abundant, considerations Of economy suggest 

 a wiser course — that the farmer should ajiply his 

 labors to such objects as will ensure him the 

 best profit. 



If we look to our fields and woods, wc shall 

 see that the natural products vary in different soils ; 

 that many ti-ees and plants which spring up spon- 

 taneously in clayey grounds, are not to be found 

 in those which are sandy, and vice versa ; that 

 some are peculiar to wet and others to dry 

 grounds ; and yet that there is a constant tendency 

 to alternate or change — ^new species of trees and 

 plants taking the place of other species which 

 have been felled or have died. This is not the re- 

 sult of chance; but it is in accordance with a law 

 of nature, which has endued plants with different 

 habits andwants, and proyided in different soils 

 the food best suited to those habits and wants re- 

 spectively. It is analogous to what we see in ani- 

 mals — almost every class of which, as the ox, the 

 dog, the hog, &c. has its pcculiafi food. Those 

 who would profit from the works of infinite wis- 

 dom, therefore, will do well to study the ajitncss 

 of their soils for particular crops, and to select 

 those for staple culture, which promise the best 

 reward. 



HSavy and cold grounds are found to be most 

 congenial to wheat, oats, timothy, peas, &c. ; light 

 and warm soils to corn, barley, rye, and turnips ; 

 moist grounds to potatoes and fibrous rooted gras- 

 ses; dry grounds to clovers, lucerne, turnips and 

 other tap-rooted plants. Yet all these crops fail, 

 or are comparatively worthless on lands habitually 

 wet. Hence it is of the first importance, in order 

 to obtain good tillage crops, or the fine nutritious 

 grasses, upon wet lands, first thoroughly to drain, 

 and, if flat, to ridge them. The farmer who un- 

 dertakes to raise all kinds of crops upon one kind 

 of soil, misapplies his labor. He had better con- 

 fine himself to those which make the best return, 

 sell the surj)lus, and buy with a part of the pro- 

 ceeds that for which his neighbor's soil is better 



adapted tlian his own. If his land will yield per 

 acre twenty-five bushels of wheat, and only twen- 

 ty-five of corn, he had better raise more wheat 

 and buy his corn ; for his corn costs him double 

 what his wheat crop does: and is, withal, but a 

 little more than half as valuable. If it will not 

 produce good barley, let him forego the culture of 

 that grain, and if his situation is near market, he 

 should raise more grain, vegetables and fruit, and 

 less stock. 



Tlie expense of traiisporiing his surplus produce 

 to market, is an important consideration to the far- 

 mer. A bushel of wheat is worth to the grower in 

 Chenango, less than to the grower in Albany, by 

 the expense of its transportation to market, whicli 

 may be two shillings, or twenty-five per cent. A 

 bullock, on the contrary, may be as profitably 

 fattened by a farmer in Otsego as one in West- 

 chester, the expense of driving him from Otsego 

 to New- York being counterbalanced by the enhan- 

 ced value of his feed, and of the land which pro- 

 duces it, in Westchester. Upon the banks of the 

 Hudson a bushel of potatoes is worth from two to 

 four shillings; while their value, for market, in 



«e interior, is scarcely half this; because they 

 ill not bear distant transportation, and find a pre- 

 carioi^ynarket at home. While again, the wool, 

 chee^Pjutter, cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, from 



e hills of Delaware or Lewes, from the cheap- 

 ness o^fconveyance or transportation of these arti- 

 cles, and the relative cheapness of lands, are able 

 to compete successfully in the market, with like 

 products from the counties of Dutciiess and 

 Orange. 



Frora^this view of the subject it would seem to 

 result, as a general rule, that farmers contiguous 

 to markets .or navigable waters will best consult 

 their iiitlUpts* by confining their labors, so far as 

 regards their marketable products, to tillage crops, 

 hay and fruits^ and that it would comport with 

 the policy of tdose more remote, to rely upon cat- 

 tle and sh8p nusbandry as the main source of 

 wealth. The^^uggestions derive force from the 

 wise provisioi^Bt' Providence, in adapting the 

 valleys to gra^JBd the hills and mountains to the 

 subsistence c^Kcks and herds. B. 



We mentWBB a few weeks since the invention 

 fa machineflror cleaning rice from the hxdl, by 

 lome ingeniols mechanics of this town. At that 

 time the trial of its capacities had hardly been 

 tested fnirly, as it was not perfected in all its parts 

 or its exaclj powers graduated. Within a few 

 days, however, o machine has been completed, and 

 all the impvoveineuts which experience had 

 suggested beeh donOi and a trial of its powers 

 made in the. preseucirof a large number of our 

 citizen!'. It performcdjts task to the admir.ation 

 of all, and goes by horse, steam, water or any 

 other ])ower. It works rapidly, cleans the rice 

 in the best possible manner, without, as has been 

 the leading difficulty with all other machines, 

 rcaking up the grain. — .Xorthampton Coitr. 



.Yew manufacture. — A new article of commerce 

 namely. East India Flour, is coming extensively 

 into use, for the mal;ing of size and starch ; it is 

 cliicfly imported by the Calcutta Flour Mill com- 

 ])any, and is found to answer better than American 

 Hour, which has hitherto been considered the best 

 fur this i)Urpose. — English Paper. 



No man blight lo be contented with any evils which he can 

 remedy by bis owu industry and exertion. 



