10 



Premium Farm in JVew Ycrh. 



Vol. XL 



My stables are situated on two sides of a 

 square ; the manure, as it is taken from the 

 stables, is at once piled in the centre of the 

 yard, as hig-h as a man can pitch it. Sul- 

 phate of lime is put on the manure in the 

 stables, and the heap, as soon as fermenta- 

 tation commences, is whitened over with 

 it. My sheep are all fed under cover, and 

 most of their manure is piled under cover 

 in the spring, and rotted. As to keeping 

 manure under cover, my experience has led 

 me to believe, that the best way is to pile it 

 under cover — when it is most convenient to 

 do so — and only then as I am compelled to 

 apply water to the heap to rot it, unless it 

 has received the snows and rains out doors. 

 The coating of sulphate of lime, will, I be- 

 lieve, prevent loss of the gases, and in pro- 

 cess of fermentation the heap will settle so 

 close together, that water will not after that 

 enter into it to any considerable depth, par- 

 ticularly if it was piled high and came up to 

 a sharp point. 



7. My means of collecting and making 

 manure, are the straw, corn-stalks, and hay 

 raised on the farm, fed to farm stock, and 

 what is not eaten, trampled under foot, and 

 converted as before described, so much of it 

 as goes through the stables. But large 

 quantities of straw never pass through the 

 stables at all ; stacks are built in the yards, 

 and the straw is from time to time strewed 

 over the ground, where it receives the snows 

 and rains, and is trampled by the cattle. Em- 

 bankments around the lower sides of the 

 yard, prevent the water from running off, 

 and confine it in water tight pools, which 

 are filled with straw to absorb the water, 

 except so much of it as is wanted to put on 

 the garden. 



8. I make from four to five hundred loads 

 of manure annually, and it is all applied. 



9. Most of the manure is put on corn 

 ground. It is drawn on about one-half rot- 

 ted, and spread over the surface, and ploughed 

 under about four inches deep. The reason 

 I do not plough it under deeper is, that I 

 suppose I must plough deeper the ne^t time 

 to bring up the earth into which the manure 

 has been carried by the rains. 



10. I have never used lime in any quan- 

 tity, excepting in the form of a sulphate as 

 a manure, believing that there is enough in 

 the soil. Sulphate of lime, I use in large 

 quantities; fourteen tons this year. It is 

 sown on all the wheat, corn, barley, and oats, 

 and on the pastures and meadows in quanti- 

 ties varying from one to three bushels to the 

 acre. All the ashes made by my fires is 

 used as a manure, and I think that it is worth 

 as much as the same bulk of sulphate of lime 

 to use on corn. Sulphate of lime has been 



used on the farm for many years, and in 

 large quantities, and I think it essential in 

 my system of farming. I have not used salt 

 or guano as manure. I raised this year about 



77 acres wheat, yield'g 1,616 bu., averaging pr. a. 20 99 

 15i " cnrn, " 821 " 52.96 



18 " barley, " C65 " 36.94 



38 " oats, " 2,249 " 56.55 



2i " potatoes, •' 292 " 116.80 



5,643 

 50 acres of pasture and 30 of meadow. 



12. I sow at the rate of two bushels to the 

 acre, about the 15th day of September. I 

 summer fallow but little, and only to kill 

 foul stuflf", and to bring the land into a good 

 state of cultivation. A part of my wheat 

 is sown on land that has been pastured, or 

 mowed, ploughing it but once, but that done 

 with great care, and as deep as I can. The 

 oat and barley stubble, as a general rule, is 

 sown to wheat, ploughing only once, having 

 previously fed off" the stubble with sheep so 

 close as to have most of the scattered grain 

 picked up. The ploughing is done as near 

 the time of sowing the wheat as is practi- 

 cable, and the wheat is sown upon the fresh 

 furrows and harrowed in. I have tried va- 

 rious modes of treating stubble, but none of 

 them has answered as well as this. What 

 little grain of the spring crop is left on the 

 ground is turned deep under, and the wheat 

 being on top gets the start of it. The har- 

 vesting is done with a cradle. Corn is gen- 

 erally planted by the 10th day of May, on 

 sod land; most of the manure is put upon 

 this crop. The corn is planted in hills three 

 feet apart each way; from four to six kernels 

 in a hill, and no thinning out is practised. 

 Sulphate of lime, or ashes, is put on the 

 corn as soon as it comes up. Two effectual 

 hoeings are given to it, and a cultivator with 

 steel teeth, is run twice each way of the 

 field between the rows, to prepare it for the 

 hoe. Corn ploughs and cast iron cultivator 

 teeth are entirely discarded. 



At the proper time the stalks are cut up 

 at the surface of the ground and put into 

 small stocks, and when the corn is husked, 

 the stalks are drawn at once into the barn, 

 without being again set up. In this way 

 they are kept in good condition, and labour 

 saved. 



Oats or barley is sown the next spring on 

 this corn stubble. Of each of these grains 

 three bushels of seed is put upon an acre. 

 As soon as the grain is up, sulphate of lime 

 is sown. These grains are also sowed on 

 sod land. The reason of this is, I cannot 

 command the manual labour necessary to 

 cultivate one-ffth of my land in corn, and 

 secure it at the proper season. The rota- 

 tion of crops I attempt to pursue, is — first, 



