1S38.] 



FARMERS' R r. G I S T E R. 



429 



mow the land a second time some time in the 

 monlh of August ; but in that case they should 

 be earlier than usual in the cutiini' of the first 

 crop. Cowkeepers, indeed, rrequenily cut it two 

 or tliree times in the summer, as ihey find tliat 

 rowen hay is of a soft o;rassy quality, which occa- 

 sions a greater flush of mill< than that which is 

 first mown, thouirh it does not increase its richness, 

 and they, therelbre, cut the grass long before the 

 seed has time to ripen. This frequent mowing, 

 however, if it does not exhaust the soil, has a ten- 

 dency to reduce the lierbage:* an injury to which 

 new meadows are more exposed than such as are 

 old ; and liiorethre, land recently laid down to 

 grass, should not be mown, hut pastured with 

 sheep, or wiih very light stock, during ihe two first 

 years, as the surer method of furnishing it with 

 luxuriant herbage. 



After the catile are removed, the land is bash- 

 harrowed and rolled. The bush-harrowing spreads 

 those small portions of mould which are thrown 

 upon the surface by the earth-worms, and are, so 

 fur, an excellent dressing, when the operation is 

 properly periormed. This, however, is most com- 

 monly done by interweaving some strong, but 

 pliant, branches of frees, hedge-row thorns, 

 through the open squares of a heavy harrow, 

 which thus forms an efficient brush, and when 

 drawn over the ground pen'orms its duty perfectly 

 during a short distance ; but the branches, being 

 pressed close, and worn by the motion, soon be- 

 come so flat as not to have the effect of spreading 

 the earth. The better mode is, therelbre, to fix 

 the branches upright in a frame placed in the 

 front part ol the carriage of the roller ; by which 

 means they can be so placed as to sweep the 

 ground efl'ectually, and when worn can be moved 

 a little lower down, so as to continue the work 

 with regularity. In this manner the bush-har- 

 row can also be drawn by a single horse and 

 driven by one man, instead of employing two 

 horses and two drivers, as is the case when the 

 land is rolled and harrowed separately. The ob- 

 ject of rolling is merely to lay the land as smooth 

 as possible for the convenience of the mowers, for 

 it is thought by many farmers to retard the pro- 

 gress of vegetation ; though there can be little 

 doubt, that if the soil is porous and spongy, the 

 roll will add to its firmness, and give a more sub- 

 stantial bottom to the sward. It has, indeed, been 

 stated, that the operation of heavy rolling has 

 been found to add six or seven hundred weight of 

 hay per acre to the produce of the crop.f 



It is also generally thought proper to destroy the 

 moles which sometimes burrow in meadow ground, 

 for they raise hills which impede the operation of 

 the scythe, and we shall, therefore, fijrnish direc- 

 tions for that purpose, under the head of virmin : 

 but it has been lately much doubted whether the 

 mischief which those animals do to pasture land, 

 is not more than counterbalanced — particularly on 

 sheep pasture — by the benefit derived from the top- 

 dressing thus thrown up. 



* In the Berkshire Report it is, however, said that — 

 "the grass beinsf cat when very youn^, the land is less 

 exhausted, though frequently cut thrice, than with us, 

 where it remains on the sjround before mowing, till a 

 considerable number of the plants have ripened their 

 seeds." — p. 236. 



t Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 188. 



£,and that is constantly mown must also be fre- 

 quently manured, or it will be thrown out of heart. 

 This, however, is very imperlf-cily attended to by 

 most of those fiirmers whose holdings consist chief- 

 ly of arable land ; but grass fiirmers are well 

 aware that if they do not lay a good coating of 

 rotten dung upon the ground once within three or 

 l()ur years, they will have but a slentler crop of 

 hay, even if the after-grass be all pastured. It is, 

 mdeed, supposed that a perlt!ctly thick bottom 

 cannot be inaintaineil upon such land, unless it is 

 manured every second year, and therefore many 

 of Ihe farmers in JMiddlesex covenant to mow 

 only once in each year, and to spread on the land 

 a full coat of stable dung, thoroughly rotten, every 

 third year, and this management has been found 

 to support the soil in good heart.* It the weath- 

 er proves moist, or inclinable to rain, it is usually 

 laiil on inmiediately after the removal of the hay ; 

 but if the season is dry, the operation is then de- 

 ferred untd some time in the autumn, or, more fre- 

 quentls', until early in the spring. 



From tlie Silliworm. 

 PROFITS OF MULBERRY CULTURK. 



A hypothetical calculation appears in the North- 

 ampton Courier, of August 3, intended, no doubt, 

 to encourage adventurers in the cultivation of silk, 

 but which, probably, a great majority of those 

 into whose hands it may lidi, will (jronounce one of 

 those European calculations, which figure on pa- 

 per but vanisli in practice. It is true that many 

 people have been disappointed and some ruined 

 by trusting to calculations on paper, without prac- 

 tice ; but should this happen in the present case, 

 it must be owing to bad management or to some 

 misfortune. Facts are certainly stubborn things ; 

 and there is not an item in the above calcula- 

 tion but what has been outdone in practice. 



The writer proposes to have a poor man hire 

 an acre of sandy soil, suitable for the mulberry ; 

 this any honest poor man may easily do : the rent 

 he estimates at $6 — this is certainly enough. He 

 is to procure 100 cuttmgs of the Chinese mulberry 

 at ,$6 also; this is one dollar above the common 

 price. He calculates that, besides the little cor- 

 ner of his acre which his cuttings will occupy, the 

 remainder will be worth enough to pay the little 

 attendance and that his 100 trees the next season 

 will be worth %25 ; the lowest current price is now 

 .^30 and in great demand. 



For the business of the second year he reckons 

 1000 trees from cuttings at ^25 per hundred, and 

 the same number from layers at the same price, 

 and his hundred last year's trees also at .^25. The 

 only mistakes in this are, that he should have set 

 his young trees at ^30 and those of last year at 

 §40. 



At the close of the third year he hypothecates 

 2100 trees of two years old still at §25 per hun- 

 dred, and 41000 cuttings ami layers — trees — at 

 §25. The first should be ^50, and the two others 

 §30: So that he has in these three items for the 

 third year, underrated the truth §2155. 



To prove the facts, *he following article, from 

 Mr. Ward Cheney, of Manchester, Ct. showing 



Survey of Middlesex, 2ncl edition, p. 287. 



