fo. 6. 



A Vermont Oat Crop. — Curious Exportations. 



167 



?st plough of other make that was ever fiab- 

 cated, but they do not cultivate the soil, nei- 

 lerdo they lay the furrow-slice over, nor leave 

 furrow wide enough in which the furrow- 

 Drse can travel; it is true they make clean 

 ork, but it is merely half-turning the land, 

 id not, properly speaking, ploughing it ; and 

 ley remind me of the Dialogue between 

 rank and his Father, at p. 242 of the 4th 

 3I. of the Cabinet, where it is said, in refer- 

 ice to the subject of ploughing, and while 

 leaking of a particular plough, made very 

 uch after the plan of Small's Scotch plough. 

 As tliere is so little resistance against the 

 ould-plate, in consequence of the small fur- 

 iw we carry, and the manner in which it 

 aves it, setting it on edge or nearly so, and 

 )t turning it over, I am inclined to believe 

 at to this circumstance is to be attributed a 

 irt, at least, of its good name; to be sure 

 e great length of the beam and handles 

 ves great facility for guiding it straight and 

 eadily, but do you remark the very narrow 

 rrow which it leaves in which the furrow- 

 irse has to walk, and how he treads down 

 e land-side of it with two of his feet, be- 

 use there is not room for him to walk in 

 e furrow ? neither is there room for the fur- 

 w-slice when it is turned, for it lies so near- 

 on edge, as to leave a seam or channel, 

 )m whence the weeds will spring with re- 

 ubled vigour, if the land is left, even for a 

 ort time, unploughed." But the subject is 

 interesting and can be made so very un- 

 rstandable to every one at all accustomed 

 the practical use of the instrument, that I 

 jst defer until the next number, any further 

 marks, promising, however, to siiow that 

 at is the best plough which cultivates the 

 id best, without exclusive regard to its 

 ing the easiest; nor is it necessary to look 

 a plough for grubbing up " roots of trees," 

 lich the Scotch ploughs are said to do; all 

 is can be done much better with the axe 

 d the mattock or the subsoil plough, which 

 made expressly for the purpose — no man 

 common sense and practical knowledge 

 luld put a favourite plough to such a ridi- 

 lous purpose, but would get a Subsoiler at 

 ce and save a valuable instrument from 

 mton destruction. J. M. 



)ec. J, 1841. 



A Vermont Oat Crop. 



" I WILL give you a brief statement of my 

 t crop on four acres of land. In the season 

 1839 my land was ploughed up in the 

 ■ard. In the month of May, 1840, it was 

 )ughed and thoroughly harrowed ; then 

 enty loads per acre of good manure was 

 read, and turned in to the depth of four 

 :hes and harrowed down smooth. Then 

 2 four acres were planted to potatoes, and 



I harvested 977 bushels fi-om the lot. In the 

 spring of 1841, the land was ploughed once 

 and sown with oats, 4 bushels to the acre; 

 the crop stood well, and but few lodged. The 

 piece was reaped and the oats bound in bun- 

 dles so large that it was difficult in many in- 

 stances to stack twelve bundles in a stack; 

 the result was, 588 stacks of 12 bundles each. 

 " Drances June." 



The editor of the Farmers' Monthly Visi- 

 tor, on comparing the above account with a 

 remarkably large crop which he himself 

 had raised on the same quantity of land, 

 remarks — "The quantity of the Vermont 

 crop of oats v;ould seem to be incredible; we 

 have threshed four loads of our oat crop, and 

 find the product 90 bushels, making at the 

 rate of not quite 70 bushels per acre; the 

 crop might have been somewhat, larger if 

 double the quantity of seed had been sown 

 and the oats had stood up firmly; but if the 

 bundles of the Vermont crop were the size 

 of ours and as full heads, the produce could 

 be hardly less tiian 150 bushels to the acre ! 

 Practical farmers will be able to judge whe- 

 ther it be possible to obtain so much from an 

 acre. Mr. June sowed sixteen bushels of 

 s«^ed where we sowed only six, but if the 

 Vermont crop of oats have mounted up to 

 150 or even 180 bushels to the acre, it will 

 be such a crop as has been seldom witnessed 

 in this or any other country." 



Curious Exportations. 



The people of the United States are essen- 

 tially an agricultural people. Yet how often 

 has the singular spectacle of importing from 

 Europe bread stuffs for our own citizens, been 

 exhibited within the last few years. The 

 tide has changed, and the current is setting 

 now in an opposite direction. Cheese from 

 New York has been sold in the Liverpool 

 market in large quantities recently. During 

 the last week, over 1000 kegs of lard were 

 taken up in this city for exportation. The 

 amount of flour constantly going abroad is 

 very large. It assists to pay off' our indebt- 

 edness to Europe for the millions of luxuries 

 we import. — Pliilad. North Amer. 



We heard it stated, a day or two since, 

 that one of our largest merchant vessels has 

 been loaded with an entire cargo of beef, pork, 

 tongues, butter, and cheese, for England, and 

 that the " adventure" will pay a profit. 



Who can rest comfortably on his bed on a 

 cold winter's night, when, amidst the peli- 

 ings of the pitiless storm, he hears, rising 

 above it, the lowings of his wretched cattle 

 and the lamentations of his swine ! 



