No. 7. 



Delaware Lands and Cattle. 



211 



For the Farna(frs' Cabinet. 



Delaware Lands and Cattle. 



Mr. Editor, — I have ventured to give you 

 some account of the destructive mode in 

 which 1 have been treating; a pari of my farm, 

 which, however, is nothing like so bad as 

 much of the land in this region has been served 

 for perhaps the last hundred years, for, would 

 you believe it, since my residence here, I 

 have seen on a field adjoining me, large stacks 

 of straw burnt in the spring, to get them out 

 of the way of corn-planting ! But this course 

 has greatly changed, and the person who did 

 it, is now amongst the first in improving his 

 land. 



When on a tour of observation through this 

 part of the country, you inquired what I had 

 done for the cross-road field through which 

 Mason and Dixon's line runs, and where you 

 saw the clover growing so luxuriantly 1 In 

 answer to your inquiry, I will state, that this 

 farm came into my hands on the 25th of 

 March, 1833, since which, including the corn- 

 crop of that year, and the wheat-crop of 1841, 

 that part of the field has produced eight crops 

 in these nine years. In 1835 it had a partial 

 rest in clover sown thin, only at the rate of 

 one bushel of seed to ten acres. In 1837 it 

 was in corn, after a wheat stubble, which had 

 received a dressing of 33^ bushels of lime per 

 acre. In 1840 the field was in oats, and on 

 the 17th of June of that year, this neighbour- 

 hood was visited by a tremendous hail-storm, 

 which entirely destroyed the oat-crop ; many 

 of the hail-stones measured five inches in cir- 

 cumference. Upon sight of this, I decided 

 upon ploughing in the oats as a preparative 

 for wheat, which operation I commenced in a 

 few days after, and continued at times until 

 the middle of July, going over about seventy 

 acres in that time. The young oats were 

 again turned under towards the last of Sep- 

 tember and first of October, and wheat was 

 sown on about 32 acres of the land, which 

 yielded 430 bushels, or a little over 13 bush- 

 els of merchantable wheat to the acre. The 

 crop was seeded with white clover early in 

 March, at the rate of one bushel of seed to 

 five acres of land, and the wet season of that 

 year caused as fine a growth as I ever wit- 

 nessed. The balance of the 70 acres of oats 

 so turned under in July, I did not seed in 

 wheat or plough it again until March follow- 

 ing, when I again seeded the land with oats. 

 The return at harvest was light, not being 

 over 500 bushels, or 12 bushels to the acre, 

 and this, upon decidedly better land than that 

 which had grown wheat. Perhaps the fail- 

 ure of the oats may be accounted for in one 

 of two ways; first, from the heavy crop of 

 dead oats that was turned under without roll- 

 ing after seeding, thus leaving the ground too 



light: or it might have been from seeding the 

 same land with oats three times in succession. 

 The same lot was then sown with clover, 

 which looks well after following three crops 

 of oats. 1 would remark, no part of this lot 

 or field in question has had any manure worth 

 naming since the land has been in my pos- 

 session, as my stock has been small until a 

 year or two since, and the little manure made 

 upon the premises was generally consumed 

 by my root-crops. I would further remark, 

 at no season had the lot in question yielded 

 more than an average of five bushels of wheat 

 per acre, since it came into my possession, 

 until the present year. You will readily per- 

 ceive that owing to hard cropping, the lime 

 had but little vegetable matter to act upon 

 until the oats were turned under. It is to be 

 observed, the older the oats were when first 

 turned under, the better was the wheat, and 

 also is the clover. But from the manner that 

 my land has been worked and tilled, and the 

 little return it has received in the way of 

 manure, do you not think it deserves a better 

 mode of treatment than it has had, at least 

 in the " rotation of crops'?" 



And now, agreeably to your request, I send 

 you a description of my cow " Yellow Flow- 

 er;" and, first, as to her measurement, which 

 I have taken very accurately. Length from 

 head to tail six feet six inches, girth over 

 loin six feet six inches, girth back of shoulder 

 five feet six inches, height at withers three 

 feet ten inches, height at hips four feet. Her 

 quarter is long, neck long and very thin, and 

 also thin in the shoulder, but full and round 

 in the body. Udder round and capacious, the 

 legs short, her body coming within 18 inches 

 of the floor while standing. Those who are 

 judges lay her weight under 400 pounds; so 

 she is very small, and ill compares, in point 

 of size and beauty, with either of those justly 

 celebrated animals Blossom and Dairymaid, 

 nor is she so remarkable for her deep milking 

 qualities as they ; it is for the richness of her 

 milk that she is so conspicuous. A trial was 

 made on the 4th and 5th of June last, and I 

 had intended to continue the experiment for 

 one week, but the weather was so hot, the 

 thermometer being up to 93° in the shade, 

 and not then having a suitable milk-house, I 

 thought it unjust to the cow to continue it at 

 that time longer; the result as far as made 

 was 26^ quarts of milk the first day, 26 quarts 

 the second, which yielded 4| lbs. of well- 

 worked butter — equal to 15| lbs. per week. 

 She was five years old on the 10th of June 

 last, and has brought three heifer calves, with 

 their mother's points, but much better in ap- 

 pearance than she was at their respective 

 ages, owing, no doubt, to the greater care 

 taken of them. She is in calf by my premi- 

 um bull, " R, M. Johnson," by imported Max- 



