278 



P^EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



[March 25, 



repay any individual that wotild undertake it ; 

 it is simply to make a syrtip with 1 H). of Bognr 

 to 3 quarts of water, in which the fruit must boil 

 a few minutes, after having been previously par- 

 ed ; they must then be drained on broad dishes 

 laying singly ; after the bread is taken out of 

 the oven, the fruit may be put in and left till it 

 is cold ; these when sufliciently dried, packed 

 \ip in neat little hoses, would supply a domes- 

 tic article for our tables, in place of the foreign 

 lusuries of figs, prunes, raisins, &c. ; rescue our 

 valuable fruit from the distillery ; Ipdd to our 

 stock of innocent indulgences, and open a new 

 source of profit to the industrious. 



REUBEN HAINES. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 1825. 



jFarmrv's Calcntrar. 



sfeing wheat. 



It is to be hoped that you hfivc already, if 

 vour ground was sulTiciently thauel, sowed 

 vnur spring grain. There !=, hoHP\ it, time 

 enough yet for that pur[io«e, in many i!' not in 

 most cases within the sphere of the circulation 

 of our paper. But the old maxim '• better 

 late than never"' does not apply to t.'ie sowing 

 of spring wheat. You had bettor no! sow your 

 spring wheat at all, but use your land lor some 

 other purpose, than not sow it in season. 



Seed wheat should be first run through a 

 a screen to take out the seeds of cockle and 

 other weeds, it will then be necessary to 

 wash j'our grain thoroughly ; and you will find 

 it very useful, and indeed indispensable to the 

 obtaining of a good crop to sleep yoirr seed 

 wheat in some proper liquid, stirring- frequent- 

 ly, for at least 12 iiours before you sow it. — 

 Young's Annuals contain details of a nurpber of 

 experiments in steeping seed wheat in lie, lime 

 water, and witer impregnated with arsenic. 

 The result was that very smutty parcels, steep- 

 ed in lie 12 hours and in lime water 21 hours 

 produced crops entirely free from 'mut. 



Mr. f'eter Halloway, of Livingston, N. Y. in 

 a comiiiunicalion published in " J\'Iemoirs of the 

 Board of AgricvUure of the slate of jYczi] York''' 

 vol. ii. page 204, says " I have found great ben- 

 efit in my practice for (i\e or si.\ years past, by 

 soaking my seed wheal in lime water from ev- 

 ening until morning, and from morning till to- 

 wards evening immediately before sowing. — 

 This method will prevent smut and strengthen 

 vegetation, it is a good practice to spread the 

 wheat while wet on a floor, and sift slacked 

 lime among it, turning it with a shovel as long 

 aa the lime will adhere to it, and sow the 

 wheat as soon as may be." This writer thinks 

 that the ley of ashes is apt to kill the wheat, 

 but as before -observed, Mr. Young nsed it with 

 success; and it has been successfully made use 

 of by many other agriculturists. 



Payson Williams, Esq, of I'ilchburgh, Mass, 

 in obtaining one of his premium crojis, [&c 

 JVew England Fanner, vol. ii. 1 7C] prepared 

 his seed wheat by '' a thorough washing, afler 

 which it was immersed in thick white-wash, 

 made from good lime so as to coat every kernel 

 — no fears need to be entertained from the plen- 

 lil'ul use of this liqnor,as by vvay of experinient, 

 J have pl,iiili-d wheat alter its lying in this 



liquor four days, which vegetated well." A 

 variety of other ingredients, such as salt, blue 

 vitriol [sulphate of copper] salt petre, urine, 

 &,c. fee. have been recommended for forming 

 steeps for seed wheat, but it is believed that 

 lime is the safest and quite as effective as any 

 ever used for that purpose. 



The quantity of seed to the acre recommend- 

 ed by our best agriculturists is from 2 to 2 1-2 

 bushels. The wheat plants will be less liable 

 to injury by drought if the seed is ploughed in 

 with a shallow furrow. A light hor=e plough 

 will answer the purpose. If it is meant to lay 

 down the land to grass it will be best to harrow 

 and roll the ground smooth after sowing. Mr. 

 Williams, however, in raising the crop above 

 referred to, suffered his ground to remain as it 

 was left by the [dough '■ with the belief that 

 the crop would endure our New England 

 droughts better, as the surface would be eillarg- 

 od, thereby retaining more of the dews than a 

 plain surface." In order to level the ground 

 for the scythe Mr. Williams passed a heavy 

 roller over it in the fall. The Committee who 

 recommended his receiving a premium were 

 '' of opinion that the roller should be used im- 

 mediatelv afler the seed is ploughed in." We 

 believe, also, that a flat surface will better en- 

 dure drought, than one which is left in ridges. 

 It is true that when the surface is left in ridges 

 it is enlarged and will receive more of the dew 

 fee. but it will likewise be more exposed to 

 the drying influence of the sun and air. 



It is recommended in Bordley's Husbandry 

 to sow a border ol' rye round a field of wheat 

 to prevent its being blastsd. That writer 

 states that " Mr Isaac Young of Georgia, mixed 

 rye among his seed wheat, and thus escaped the 

 blast of his wheat. It was repeatedly tr'ed, 

 till he was convinced of its elTcacy ; and then 

 he sowed five acres with u-i:eat ■surrounded Xfilh 

 a list (or border) 2o feet in breadth of rye ; this 

 also succeeded, and being repealed is found a 

 certain security to wheat." 



Farmers do not agree in opinion relative to 

 the propriety of making use of manure with 

 this crop. Some say that it encourages ihe 

 growth of weeds, and is apt to cause the w heat 

 to blast. Others, however, contend that it may be 

 1 nsed to advantage. Spring wheat grows be=l on 

 1 rich new lands, or on lands which have been well 

 ' manured and borne clover, corn, or polaloes 

 ; ihe preceding year. But li' the land is nol rich 

 ' enough to produce a good crop, manure of some 

 ;sort shoubl be applied. A writer in the Karni- 

 I er's Journal sa_\3 "'Manure is not absolutely 

 ! necessary for wheat, but if the farmer has any 

 I to spare, he may here use it to advantage.-- 

 No doubt the crop will abound most where the 

 manure is properly applied." In many instanc- 

 es well rotted barn yard manure has been used 

 for wheat with complete success, but wood ash- 

 jes, lime, and plaisler are the safest manures, 

 aa they nourish the crop without exposing it 

 to danger from blast. 



CLOVFR AND OTHER GRASS SEEDS. 



Spring wheat is a very good crop willi 

 which to sow clover and otiier gra^s seed, ll 

 is best to sow the grass seed and plough or 

 harrow it in with the wheat. If it be scattered 

 on the aurf.ice without being well covered, as 

 the manner of some is, a pari does not vegetate, 



and that part which does will be liable to inju- 

 ry from drought. Mr Williams, in his com- 

 munication quoted above recommends plough- 

 ing in grass seed with spring wheat, and says, 

 " The quantity of grass-seed used by me, is 

 never less than 12 lbs. of clover and one pound 

 of herd's grass (timothy) to the acre. Here per- 

 mit me to observe that innumerable are the in- 

 stances in this country, where the farmer fails 

 in bis grass crops by not allowing seed enough; 

 and what is worse, the little he does give with 

 such a sparing hand is suifered to take its chance 

 under that pest \a agriculture called a bush 

 harrow, which not only drags stones, and other 

 loose matter into heaps, but leaves the .soil 

 dead and heavy ; and docs not cover the seed 

 deep enough to strive with our July droughts 

 efi'ectually.~" 



I\Ir Alexaniler St. John, of Montgomery, New 

 Yoik, in a communication published in the Me- 

 moirs of the Board of Agriculture,- vol. ii. page 

 247, states in substance, that lie began with 

 sowing four pounds of red clover seed and one. 

 [lound of limnthy (herd's grass) seed to an acre; 

 and from this manner of seeding generally cut 

 trom one to one and an half tons of hay pjr 

 acre, and Ihe quantity of fall pasture was not 

 gieat. The mowing was slow and expensive 

 as the grass stood thin and fell in every direc- 

 tion. The stalk grew long and coarse and made 

 poor hay. Afler mentioning some other ex- 

 periments he observes Ihat he finds eight pounds 

 of clover seed and seven of timothy seed is the 

 proper quantity to be sown on an acre for mow- 

 ing, or twelve pounds of clover seed on each 

 acre for pasture. From land in a good state 

 (,rciiltivalion,^thus seeded 1 noiv cut four tons of 

 bay per acre, which is of good quality. The 

 expense of mowing is not asmuch as formerly, 

 as the grass grows rich and fine. If it lodges 

 down, it generally falls one way so that the mow- 

 er can proceed nii<ch faster than when it lies in 

 every direction. The extra fall pasture, pro- 

 duced by this manner of seeding, pays me Ihe 

 first fall for the extra seed sown, the grass being 

 so rich it preserves a moisture on the-surface 

 of the earth, and is not so liable to be injured 

 by the dry weather, as it is by the common 

 mode of seeding, and it leaves no room for nox- 

 ious weeds : the pastures are clean and hand- 

 some. When 1 wish to break up l:md whicTi is 

 thus slocked (which I do every tburth year) I 

 find the soil increased in quality, easy of culti- 

 vation and in a good stale for wheat- or corn. — 

 Poor dry soils require more seed than rich ones. 

 It may be objecle<l that Ihe quantity of seed is 

 too expensive; to which I rc|)ly that farmers 

 j should always raise their own seed. It indicates 

 a want of prudence in the farmer that purchases 

 clover seed year after year. I raise as much 

 clover seed with ten dollars expense a? I can 

 purchase for forty dollars. 



Grass seed may be sown in the spring on win- 

 ter grain, and harrowed in. European writers t 

 agree withAmerican cultivators that the harrow- 

 ing will not damage (be grain, but be of service 

 to it. There is an advantage in sowing clover 

 seed in the spring in prelerence to any other 

 lime of the year. 'i"he young clover plants sow- 

 ed in the fall cannot so well endure the frosts of 

 winter as those which have had a whole sum- 

 mer to bring ihem to muturiiv. 



