304 



Corn and Cob Meal. 



Vol. III. 



of equal value with potatoes for swine or cat- 

 tle. Mr. VVerden, of Richmond, dislikes 

 them, and says the general experience of 

 farmers there, is against them. It is difficult 

 to reconcile these contradictory statements. 

 They are by no means so imtritious as pota- 

 toes, especially those kinds of [xitatoes which 

 are most farinaceous; and they are not com- 

 parable to carrots or parsneps, or the sugar- 

 heft, for feeding stock. But they are a valu- 

 able, though an exhausting crop; and are 

 raised at comparatively little expense. The 

 polden yellow turneps, with purple tops, are 

 the preferable kind. The v.hile kinds, and 

 what are called the French turneps, are an 

 inferior plant. 



Mr. Merrill, of Lee, applied them to the 

 fatting of cattle with much success. He pur- 

 chased a yoke of cattle in the fall, in low 

 flesh, at ,$50, and having fed them through 

 the winter on 2 bushels of ruta baga each per 

 day, with good hay, but with no other proven- 

 der, he sold them in the spring for $170, at 

 $S per 100 lbs. 



Mr. Ashburner, of Stockbridge, whose cul- 

 tivation of vegetables is no where excelled 

 in neatness and productiveness, is in the habit 

 of transplanting his sugar-beet by merely 

 making a hole with a hoe, and laying them 

 in horizontally, keeping the tops free. He 

 has found planting with a dibble too slow a 

 process ; and the plant is not so likely to live, 

 as the fine dirt is not so easily brought up to 

 the small roots of the plant. He has tried 

 the transplanting of wheat, by way of experi- 

 ment, but it was not successful. 



I have transplanted ruta baga with great 

 despatch and entire success, simply by plough- 

 ing a furrow ; then taking the plants from a 

 seed-bed, dipping them in water, separating 

 them and laying them along in the furrow, 

 with the top on the furrow-slice, at a distance 

 of a foot apart, as fast as a rnan could walk ; 

 and soon following with a plough and cover- 

 ing them. It is well to go over the ground 

 ■with a hoe to relieve plants that may be too 

 deeply buried, and to cover those which may 

 by accident have been left exposed. They 

 are almost certain to live ; and I have thought 

 the work not more than to thin them out 

 when they are sowed thickly, where they are 

 to stand. There is an additional advantage 

 in this method, that the plants may be for- 

 warded in the nursery, when it is not in your 

 power to prepare the land in season for sow- 

 ing the crop where they are intended to 

 stand. I am not able to say whether the su- 

 gar-beet is as tenacious of life ; but the ex- 

 periments of Mr. Ashburner load to such u 

 presumption. 



(t7*Further extracts may be given here- 

 after. We hope that the example of Mas- 



sachusetts, New York, and other states 

 in regard to agricultural improvement, &c., 

 may cause our legislators to give immediate 

 and effective attention to the subject. All 

 that is necessary is for the people to will it, 

 and it is done. Pennsylvania is cast into the 

 shade — she is emphatically an agricultural 

 .«tate, and should take the lead in fostering 

 and promoting all improvements in the sci- 

 ence of agriculture. Agriculture, the base- 

 work of the prosperity of the state, has been 

 almost wholly neglected, while every other 

 interest has been sustained. The farmers are 

 them.selves to blame for this in a great mea- 

 sure. Let them bestir themselves — form 

 county and township societies, a State Agri- 

 cultural Society, — let them commence the 

 work of improvement energetically through- 

 out the Commonwealth, and the legislature 

 will unquestionably exert itself to the extent 

 of its constitutional powers, in appropriations 

 for suitable premiums, surveys, &c. We 

 hope that our correspondents will take up this 

 subject. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Corn and Cob Meal. 



T recollect many years since reading sev- 

 eral e.^says on this subject in the memoirs of 

 the "Penna. Agric. Society," since which, 

 little hnsbeen .said concerning it, until within 

 a year or two, when some of our millers com- 

 menced manufacturing it; anxious to satisfy 

 myself ox\ the subject of its value at the com- 

 mencement of ploughing this spring, J put 

 my teams to work with this, mingled with cut 

 hay, in the same quantity as we have always 

 fed of ground oats and corn to plough horses. 

 The result has been much as I anticipated; 

 the horses, although they have worked very 

 well, yet they have lost more flesh than ordi- 

 nary during a spring ploughing. The conclu- 

 sion I have arrived at is, that it is poor econo- 

 my to substitute corn cobs for oats, although 

 the horses will eat it as freely if well giound, 

 yet the extra feed 1 am now obliged to resort 

 to, to bring my teams back to their wonted con- 

 dition, will counterbalance what has been saved 

 in oats during my experiment. Although 

 [ am done with "corn and cob meal," yet if 

 any gentleman is disposed to give it a trial, 1 

 would not discourage him, but rather cncou- 

 rnge him to make the experiment, and then 

 tell us all about the result through the col- 

 umns of the Cabinet. M. S. KlRKBRIDB. 



Morrisville, 4th ma. 23d, 1839. 



