1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



567 



on a board, will be kept constantly in place by the 

 weight of the corn. This extended across the length 

 of the roof and within 3 feet of the ridge, will give 

 on each side more space for drying than the entire 

 floor, inasmuch as it can be thicker, as the air has 

 a free circulation both under and through the en- 

 tire length. By this means also, the space on the 

 floor is saved for other stores or for threshing the 

 corn, and there is no need of stirring, which is no 

 small "chore." 



When the corn is to he threshed slip the slats 

 apart, and you are ready by raking the corn to the 

 centre of the space on the floor. 



If this method should be adopted where there is 

 no regular corn-house, as many farms have not, 

 many wives and daughters would not he "bothered" 

 by the house being "cluttered up" with corn. Be- 

 ing in duty bound to give our wives and daughters 

 all the room they need for mental and "constitu- 

 tional" erpflosion at the present day, let us, brother 

 farmers, see to it that we plan our own part of hus- 

 bandry so as to have no war about unoccupied Ter- 

 ritory, p. J. 



rl, Oct., 1857. 



CAREOTS. 



IBoston, Feb. 12, 1857. 



My Dear Sir : — I promised to send you some 

 facts relating to the cultivation of carrots, and here 

 thev are : 



My land may be said to be naturally rich, hav- 

 ing a thick surface of loam resting on clay and 

 gravel sub soil. It has been plowed once in the 

 autumn and twice in the spring, with a Michigan 

 plow, giving a furrow of ten or twelve inches, and 

 well harrowed and raked when planted. It has also 

 been cleared of stones, and is in a condition to raise 

 garden vegetables — it is on the side of a hill slop- 

 ing to the south. 



I have had from one to two acres under cultiva- 

 tion. I planted as soon as the ground was dry 

 enough, and have suffered some delay from a por- 

 tion of the ground being som.ewhat springy — a de- 

 fect which is now remedied by drains four feet 

 deep and forty feet apart — constructed in part with 

 stones and partly with tile — the cost of which I ex- 

 pect will be repaid in two or three seasons, bj' an 

 increase of product. 



For the first year, the land having "been neglect- 

 ed, I put on seven or eight cords of first quality 

 barn manure. For the succeeding three years it 

 was reduced to six cords, mixed in the manure cel- 

 lar with nearly an equal quantity of loam. The 

 rows for three years were twenty-four inches apart, 

 reduced last season to eighteen inches. I gave 

 three hand weedings, probably two has commonly 

 been m?de to answer, in fields having a less luxu- 

 riant and abundant growth. They are left in the 

 ground till liable to be injured by the frost — say 

 from the first to the tenth of November. Were the 

 season longer, they would gain proportionally in 

 size. 



The four crops have averaged 920 bushels to the 

 acre, in a careful measurement of the land. The 

 weight of the bushel varies somewhat, according to 

 the size of the roots, but I call it fifty pounds, 

 which is rather below the average. At that rate, 

 the product would be twenty-three tons. 



The first season I sold at $8 oer ton, but it was 



below the market price. Since then i have found 

 a ready sale at $10 per ton, taken from the field as 

 gathered, by the purchasers. The proceeds in this 

 case amounted to $230 per acre. 



Six cords of manure, at $8 per cord, cost $48. 

 The various operations of plowing, weeding, &c., 

 I estimated from such data, as I had, at $72, 

 making the entire expense of cultivation $120. 

 Here is a profit of $110 per acre. 



1 would observe, in respect to the cultivation of 

 this vegetable, that, so far as my limited experience 

 has taught me, it has not suffered from frost or 

 much from drought, nor from worms or insects, — 

 nor have I lost so much as a bushel from field-mice 

 or decay. Such a declaration cannot be made, at 

 least by me, in favor of any other virgetable. 



With such an unusually large profit on this arti- 

 cle, it will naturally be asked, why it has not been 

 more generally and more extensively cultivated, 

 and in a State where feed for horses, &c., is so ex- 

 tremely high, and for much of which we have to 

 rely on importation from other Stales ? The rea- 

 son is apparent to my mind — from the insufficient 

 returns usually obtained by the cultivators. 



It appears by the Census of Massachusetts for 

 1855, that crops of carrots ranged from 220^ to 

 616 bu.'hels per acre, the average being 427 1-7 

 bushels, equal to 10 7-10 tons per acre. They produce 

 in the aggregate $148,041,00, equal to $9,40 per 

 ton. Here the profit to the most successful plant- 

 ers was small, and less than none to a majority of 

 them. One consequence of which the entire quan- 

 tity reported amounted to the insignificant one of 

 15,536 tons, whereas, if the cheapness of this feed 

 in raising cattle, and for horse and cow feed, be tak- 

 en into consideration, we ought to have had ten 

 times that quantity. 



I have taken some pains to exhibit the results of 

 my labors to my neighbors in Brookline, but they 

 have pursued what seemed to them more profitable 

 1 branches of farming. Some few exceptions are to 

 be found whose crops have come up to mine, but 

 to no greater extent than for their own hmited con- 

 sumption. 



I hope you will do more in raising this cheap and 

 valuable vegetable than you have heretofore done, 

 and that you will as far surpass rtiy doings, as I have 

 those of other farmers. I am with great regard 

 and affection your friend and servant, 



Henry Lee, in Jfaltham Sentind. 



Sot the Kete England Fanner. 



DAVIS SEEDLING POTATOES. 



Mr. Editor :— In the spring of 1854 I noticed 

 an advertisement in your paper, the J^Tew England 

 Fanner, of Messrs. Hyde, of Newton, offering the 

 above named potatoes for sale at two dollars per 

 bushel, and highly recommending the same. I 

 wrote and enclosed in my letter two dollars request- 

 ing them to send me some of the Davis Seedlings, 

 and I received one bushel, which I planted ; they 

 did remarkably well. I have continued to plant 

 them to the present time, and my crop was better 

 the present fall than any season heretofore. I con 

 sider them a fine cooking potato, and not subject 

 to rot or decay. I had seventy bushels on less than 

 a half-acre of land, and I do not think there was 

 one-fourth bushel spotted or decayed in the lot. I 

 planted them on a dry, loamy soil, manure spread 



