356 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



MAT 23, 1833. 



From the Guiesfc FBrmc: 

 IRR.IGATI01V. 

 The advantages of irrigating land, especially 

 grass land, are not unknown ; still it is ^ cry gener- 

 ally neglected. Jlost farmers know the bcnetit of 

 turning the water from the road side upon their 

 mowing lots, and yet they will sufierthe permanent 

 streams that run through their farms to jnn-sue 

 their natural courses, without ever diverting one 

 drop into artificial channels to fertilize and enrich 

 their fields. True, that in a country as level as 

 western New York, much less advantage can be 

 taken of streams, than in a country abounding in 

 hills. Yet there are hundreds of farms in Monroe 

 county, that might be greatly improved by judi- 

 ciously diverting the streams from their accustomed 

 courses, and hundreds of tons of hay might be ad- 

 ded, with very little expense to the annual crop. 



In the hilly country of Vermont, I owned a 

 farm, over which I carried the water of a small 

 stream in artificial channels, more lliau a mile. 

 Lands that did not yield half a ton to an acre, 

 were thus made at .once to yield two tons ; by 

 which means I added to my crop six or eight tons. 

 A little experience taught me that I could carry 

 water where I had not the least suspicion it could 

 be carried. Every stream that runs with any ra- 

 pidity, may be used for this purpose. 



For the benefit offarmers, I will state my meth- 

 od of procedure. 1 first selected the place at 

 which I thought best to take the water from the 

 stream. Here I made a dam sufiiciently liigh to 

 conduct the water into a channel ou the bank. 

 The dam may he made of wood or stone, as is 

 most convenient, but stone are best, as they are 

 most durable, and less liable to be washed away. 

 I then drew two furrows with a plough, turning the 

 sod down toward the stream, and pulling the sods 

 of the second furrow upon the top of the first. 

 This will make a channel sutficiently large for or- 

 dinary purposes, where you do not wish to carry 

 the stream to any great distance. 



These channels should he drawn as nearly level 

 as they can he, and give a current to the water. 

 Most farmers draw them merely byjudgment, and 

 of course very inaccurately. I had an instrument, 

 to which was attached a spirit level, so that 1 

 could lay them with great accuracy. 



But any farmer can make an instrument in fif- 

 teen minutes, that will answer the purpose very 

 well. Take a piece of plank five or six inches 

 square, through this bore a hole to receive a staff 

 about three feet long, sharpened at the lower end, 

 to stick into the ground. This is used as a stand- 

 ai-d, on which you must lay a smooth planed board 

 about a foot square. The method of using it is 

 tliis : place your standard below your intended 

 Oftnal, so that the top will be level with your dam, 

 or the place where you design to take the water 

 from the stream. Then turn w'ater upon the top 

 of your board, and so adjust it as to bring it to a 

 level, or a little descending in the direction that 

 you wish to draw your channel. Then with your 

 -eye look across the top of your board, and see 

 where it strikes the ground. Here place a boy 

 with a hoe to make a mark in the sod ; and let him 

 •go on and make those marks as you direct, once 

 in a rod, and oftener if the ground be very uneven. 

 Thus go through the whole extent that you wish 

 to make your channel. 



Then with your plough draw your furrows 

 through these marks, being very careful not to fall 

 below them, or go above them. A little care in 



drawing the furrows will save much labor in mak- 

 ing the channels. If not drawn with accuracy, it 

 will be necessary to sink the channels in some 

 jjlaces, and to raise the banks in others. 



From these channels the water will percolate, 

 and fill the ground below them ; and you may, in 

 as many places as you see fit, let it overflow the 

 bank and spread ou the surface. A better way is 

 to set boards in the bank, with an augur hole for 

 the water to flow through it in such quantity as 

 you may wish. 



Even small streams, that fail early in the sum- 

 mer, may be of great use, because if the ground 

 he well saturated with water in the spring, it will 

 give the grass a start, and if it he well watered on 

 the first of .Tune, it will not suffer from drought 

 befofe the crop is matui-ed. 



On the subject of .irrigation, I have learned 

 much by experience, and am so confident that 

 thousands of dollars might be added to the annual 

 produce of our fields, that 1 fell desirous to see this 

 improvement in husbandry more generally intro- 

 duced. Any thing that I can do to aid my fellow 

 citizens in such imi)rovements, would give me 

 pleasure. E. D. Andrews. 



PiUsford, Marnh 20, 1833. 



I Fan 



From Ihc A 



VSEWVl. TABLE. 



The niunber of plants which may be planted on 

 an acre — 160 rods or poles — 4840 yards — 43,560 

 feet, is as follows : — 



Ft, apart. JVw. plants. Ft, apart, J^o, plants, 



1 - - 43,oti0 U - - 360 

 li - - 19,3fi0 12 - - - 302 



2 - - 10.890 J3 - - 2J7 

 ^ .- - 6,9G9 a . . . 22'2 



3 - - 4,S40 13 - - 193 

 3* - - 3.55G 16 . . . 170 



4 - - 2.722 17 - - 150 

 4i - - 2,151 13 - - - 131. 



5 - - 1,742 19 - - 120 

 li - - - 1,210 20 - - - 108 

 7 - - 889 25 - - 69 

 S - - - 680 30 - - - 48 

 9 - - 537 35 - - 35 



10 - -- 435 40 - - - 27 



From the N. V. Farmir^ajid Ameri. Gardner^s Mtigaziiw. 

 Absoi-btnt properties of Potash, — Ploughing in 

 Dry Weather. By R. M. W. 

 Mr. Fleet, — I am not quite done with the sub- 

 ject of ploughing and hoeing in dry weather.^ — 

 From the remarks made on Potash, vol. 5, page 

 321, of the Farmer, two things may be inferred; 

 1st, that it lakes •fourteen pounds of water to dis. 

 solve one pound of potash, and consequently that 

 it will take 7000 pounds of water to dissolve an 

 ordinary barrel of oOO yjounds of potash. This is 

 the least quantity of water in which a barrel of 

 potash can be dissolved. Many years ago, a boat 

 was loaded on Cayuga lake with 56 barrels of ])ot- 

 asli. On the Oneida lake they meet with a equall, 

 were driven ashore and sunk. The potash bar- 

 rels being leaky, and remaining in the water from 

 half an hour to an hour and a half, took in as 

 much water as they would contain. This water 

 swelled the barrels so that they became tight. In 

 this situation the captain procured two potash ket- 

 tles with tubs, wood and other articles, with a 

 view of dissolving, boiling down, and melting the 

 whole of the 56 barrels. The circumstances being 

 mentioned to me, I observed that the boiling 

 would be unnecessary, as the potash in the barrels 

 would soon absorb all the water, which could not 

 exceed ten gallons to the barrel, and the potash 

 would pass inspection without melting over, and 

 consequently save the expense of boiling, melting, 



&c. The ten gallons of water cmikl not weigh 

 over ninety pounds, where as it would take seven 

 thousand pounds to dissolve it. The experiment 

 was tried and the potash was sent to market for 

 inspection, and was sold as first sort, so that the ex- 

 pense of boiling away 392,000 pounds of water, 

 and all the other expenses of such an undertaking, 

 were saved. 



From this it will appear that it is not altogether 

 useless to know how many pounds of water will 

 dissolve one pound of potash. The atnmsphere 

 holds much moisture, or water dissolved in calo- 

 ric, as is evident from the circumstance mentioned 

 page 321, vol. 5, of the Faimer. Another exper- 

 iment will serve to demonstrate the sanje fact. 

 Take a tumbler, fill it with cold water, set it ou a 

 table in warm weather, and in a few minutes the 

 tumbh-r will be covered with a dew. Thisexper- 

 iniejit is easily tried, and the rationale I take to be 

 as follows: — Caloric always seeks an equilibrium ; 

 it passes through the tumbler, and combines with 

 the cold water until the water is brought to the 

 tenq)erature of the air. The water held in solu- 

 tion is deposited on the outsitle of the tundder, 

 and this circumstance will occur in the driest 

 weather. It w'ould seem then demonstrated, that 

 the titmosphere holds in solution much moisture, 

 ami though invisible to us it is still large in quan- 

 tity. Now let us apply this doctrine to j)loughing 

 and hoeing in dry weather. Where land is left 

 unploughcd, unhoed, and covered with grass and 

 weeds, the crops ai'e seen to dwindle; stir the 

 ground, and they speedily revive. Uy ploughing 

 and hoeing, the grass and weeds are destroyed, and 

 the earth becomes a powerful absorbent, drawing 

 the moisture of the atmosphere into the neighbor- 

 hood of the plants. The capillary vessels of plants 

 seize this moisture ; it reaches the roots and sus- 

 tains them in a flourishiug conditiou, even in the 

 driest weatlier. The moment this moisture is 

 condensed, it can no longer enter the capillary 

 vessels of plants. This probably carries with it 

 much food, and is every way necessary to the well 

 being of the plants ; so I think, and remain yours, 

 &c. U. M. W. 



Middlesex, Feb. 15, 1833. 



INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS. 



I.N the .lanuary number of Silliman's Journal, 

 in an article translated from the Bibliothique Uni- 

 verselle, is given the results of some exjieriments 

 performed by the celebrated agriculturist De Dok- 

 BASLE for determining tlie relative nutritive value 

 of the aliments of sheep and cattle. An abstract 

 of the article is here given. 



Forty-nine sheep were divided into seven lots, 

 of seven sheep each, in such a manner that the 

 total weight of each lot should be, as nearly as 

 possible, c(pi,d to each of the rest. Each lot was 

 kept in a separate division of the stable, the food 

 was given to each lot in rations of equal weight, 

 and by means of scales, the total weight of each 

 lot was taken once a week, and the experiment 

 was. continued five weeks. The weight of each 

 lot was four hundred and thirty-six pounds. 



The substances subjected to examination were, 

 1. Dry lucern. 2. Oil cake from flax-seed. 3. 

 Oats and barley. 4. Crude potatoes. 5. Cooked 

 potatoes. 6. Beets. 7. Carrots. 



One of the seven lots was fed exclusively on 

 dry kicern, of which fifteen pounds were found to 

 be a proper ration of one sheep per week. Each 

 of the six others received just half the quantity of 



