1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



419 



For the New England Farmer. 



THE WHEAT CROP. 



Mr. Browx : — I wish to follow your advice m 

 regard to raising wheat, believing with you, that 

 "there is no necessity for the farmer to pay out 

 much cash for Hour;" but ^s I have had no ex- 

 perience in the raising of wheat, 1 shall be very 

 thankful if you would give me some advice on this 

 subject. I have land that is very clayey, and that 

 which is much lighter, though not sandy ; but 

 that on which I should like to try the experiment 

 with wheat is land lying on the river, and is sup- 

 posed to have been made by the action of the water, 

 aa the bank on the opposite side is continually 

 wearing away and forming on this side. The soil 

 is very deep, and sufficiently dry to be worked at 

 any season of the year when our common uplands 

 can be. Tliis land has never been plowed, but 

 still bears quite a good cro]) of grass, almost as 

 good as English. I wish to turn it over, enrich 

 it and seed it down to grass again. If you will be 

 so kind as to tell mo what you think about wheat 

 growing on this land, and give some general, or 

 perhaps I should s:iy, particular directions about 

 it, you would do mc, and I presume many of your 

 subscribers, a favor. 



Would leached or unleached ashes, with a 

 liberal supply of manure from the barn cellar, be 

 a suitable manure for wheat, (a.) When should it 

 lie sown, — how much per acre, (b.) If tha blue 

 stem is the best, where can it be obtained — at what 



firice ? It would be convenient to get wheat 

 rora a friend in Maine, if it would be advisable to 

 do so. Would ' thank you to say whether it is 

 well to sow grass seed with wheat, — suppose I 

 ought to know this, but do not. (c.) 



I am awax'e it is much easier to ask questions ; 

 but I feel that I am speaking to a friend, though 

 personally a stranger. I am much pleased with 

 your paper, not only with the agricultural de- 

 partment, but in regard to the great moral ques- 

 tions of the day. I think it breathes the true spir- 

 it, and is doing much good. May you and your 

 paper live to see great improvement in the agri- 

 cultural, moral and religious world. 



Yours most respectfully, 

 Taunton, July 31, 1854. Subscriber. 



Remarks. — As a general rule, any land that is 

 good grass land will answer for wdieat, and that 

 would prol)ably be land of granitic formation. It 

 would be well to try a small piece on your new 

 land. 



(a.) The ashes and the barn-cellar manure will 

 be a suitable di-essing, if the manure is not too 

 coarse and green . 



{h.) Sow the last of this month or early in Sep- 

 tember. If the land is in high condition, one 

 bushel of seed ; if only in ordinary condition, one 

 bushel and a peck. A\'e should prefer seed wheat 

 from Maine, to that raised liere. 



(c.) Grass seed is sometimes sown with wheat 

 and does well, and if we were quite desirous to 

 save the labor of seeding alone, we should risk it, 

 but should prefer to take off the wheat crop, then 

 plow, manure, and seed to grass by itself. A 

 dressing of lime will have a strong tendency to 



secure a crop, even if it be but six or eight bush- 

 els to the acre. 



THINK OF ME. 



Go where the water glirleth gently ever — 



Glideth by meadows that the greenest be, — 

 Go listen to our own beloved river, 



And think of me. 



Wander in forests, where the small flower layelh 



Its fairy gem beside the giant tree ; 

 List to the dim brook pining, while it playcth, 

 And think of me. 



Watch when the sky is silver-pale at even. 

 And the wind grieveth in the lonely tree. 

 Go out b'.-ueath the solitary heaven, 



And think of me. 



And when the moon riseth, as she was dreaming, 



-Vnd treadeth with white feet the lulled sea; 

 Go, silent as a star beneath her beaming, 



And think of me. Reynolds. 



FEEDING OF ANIMALS—CONTINUED. 



Kind and quality of food necessary to maintain a healthy man 

 — Prison dietaries. — Food required by other animals. — Prac- 

 tical value of the constituents of milk in feeding the growing 

 calf. — Effects of long-continued dairy husbandry upon the 

 ciuality and produce of the soil. — On the growing of wool, and 

 its etfect upon the soil. — Of the practical and theoretical values 

 ofdiaVrent kinds of food. — Relative proportions of food for 

 man yielded by tlie same herbage in the forms of beef and milk. 

 — Influence of circumstances in modifying the practical values 

 of animal and vegetable food. — Concluding observations. 



Practical experience sustains and confirms all 

 the theoretical views, and t!ie deductions, chemi- 

 cal and physiological, which have been advanced 

 in the preceding chapter. To a few of these prac- 

 tical confirmations I shall briefly advert. 



KIND AND QUANTITY OF FOOD NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN 



A HEALTHY MAN. PRISON DIETARIES. FOOD 



REQUIRED BY SHEEP AND CATTLE. 



The dietaries of prisons, and their effects on the 

 bodily health and weight of the prisoners, afford 

 one of the simi^lost methods of testing the influ- 

 ence of kind and quantity upon the nourishing 

 power of food. In such establishments — though 

 open to the objection that the prisoners are in a 

 state of unusual restraint — experiments can be per- 

 formed so much more accurately, and on so much 

 larger a scale than elsewhere, as to make them 

 worthy of a very considerable amount of confi- 

 dence. 



An inquiry lately made into the comparative 

 health and food of the inmates of -the Scotch pris- 

 ons, has afforded very interesting materials for 

 proving the necessity of a mixed food, and of a 

 certain minimum proportion of that kind of food 

 which is supposed especially to sustain the mus- 

 cular and other tissues. 



In the course of the preceding chapter we 

 have stated : 



1. That a healthy man in ordinary circum- 

 stances voids daily about half an ounce of nitrogen 

 in his urine alone. To supply this he would re- 

 quire to consume three ounces of dry gluten, al- 

 bumen, or flesh. 



2. That altogether he gives off from the lungs, 

 skin, and kidneys, about 350 grains, or five- 

 sevenths of an ounce, to supply which ho must 

 consume about live ounces of the same materials. 



But in a state of temporary confinement, when 

 not subjected to hard labor, this quantity may be 

 safely diminished. Yet even here there is a Umit 



