26 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JULY 27, 1843. 



tliornughly harrowed, but nnt rolled— a double with 

 a pair of fine harrows is sufficient, and the surface 

 weeds should be gathered off, or the whole raked 

 with the hand, which will more efficiently cover 

 the seed. An advantage is gained to the soil by 

 this plowing, which cannot be obtained when the 

 land is sown with the vetches. The annual weeds 

 on the old surface arc prevented from running to 

 seed, and a new surface is exposed to the air and 

 frost. 



The ryo will be fit for consuming the last week 

 in March or the first in April, or if allowed to re- 

 main until the middle of the latter month, it will 

 carry a greater quantity of stock. After it is tlio- 

 rnughly eaten up, it should be freed, and by the 

 first week in May, will afford another pasture of 

 fine young nutritious feed ; at least, in ordinary 

 seasons. It is bad management, though sometimes 

 practiced, to allow the rye to remain uneaten until 

 the seed-stalk begins to shoot, for in that case it 

 will become much less palatable and useful. By 

 consuming it young, it is much more valuable, 

 and the succession crop equally so as the first. 



The second crop being consumed, the plow must 

 be put into operation, and the soil prepared for the 

 Bucceeding crop ; and the advantage of its cnltiva 

 tion, by no means a small one, is, that it interferes 

 with no other crop. 



Perhaps a short digression may be pardoned on 

 the subsequent preparation of the soil. The wri- 

 ter's practice is different to that of most other per- 

 eons. Usually it is cross-plowed a fortnight after 

 its first plowing. Time is thus lost, and the slices 

 are cut into squares difficult to be acted upon by 

 the harrow. The writer begins to harrow as soon 

 as the newly turned up surface of the first plowing 

 is sufficiently dry. This brings up the lowest part 

 of the roots of the weeds and closes the interstices 

 of the furrows, so that the remains of vegetation 

 being covered, deprived of air, and gathering mois- 

 ture, begin to decompose. Instead of cross. plow- 

 ing, it is again plowed lengthways, and the old sur- 

 face again brought up and harrowed. The weeds 

 separate much more easily by this process, and 

 much time and labor is saved ; the same practice 

 is applied to bastard fallows with the same good 

 effects. 



Rye has the decided advantage of being capable 

 of resisting any conceivable degree of frost, and 

 when even the hardy wheat is carried off by an 

 ungenial season, it will escape injury, and even 

 thrive. At this time (Feb. 21, 1840) the writer has 

 a plot growing for feed which would now afford 

 more eating than almost any mixture of artificial 

 grasses in the middle of April, and that on a thin 

 light soil not worth more to rent than 25s. per acre. 

 Sortie of the rape has succeeded, even in this sea- 

 son of incessant rain, which prevailed not only in 

 the early stages of its growth, but ever since it 

 was sown. It can bear so much and constant wet, 

 worse even than frost. 



The expense of this crop will be somewhere as 

 under. Say per acre — 



2 1-2 bushels of rye at 4s. GJ 

 1-2 peck of rape, 



to be used ; a guide by no means unsafe as to its 

 nutritious qualities, and which is borne out by the 

 condition of the stock feeding on it. 



To recapitulate the advantages of its cultivation : 



I. Provision of excellent green food is made at 

 a season of the year when of all others it is most 

 wanted. 



II. It is produced without sacrificing any portion 

 of the usual rotations pursued on a farm, and with 

 little extra labor, nor does it interfere with the man- 

 agement of any preceding or succeeding crops. 



III. It will grow on any soil, but is especially 

 calculated for poor loose sand, when every other 

 green esculent is more or less uncertain. 



IV. It will bear any degree of frost to which 

 our climate is subject, and is sufficiently hardy to 

 defy the effects of the coldest situations in the 

 country, being there cultivated instead of wheat 

 for a corn crop from necessity. 



V. It is as inexpensive or more so than any grass 

 or leguminous plant. 



VI. It is readily consumed by slock, especially 

 young animals. 



VII. It improves rather than deteriorates the 

 soil upon which it is grown. 



Thorpfield, near Tliirsk, Yorkshire. 



Us. Sd. 

 10 1-2 



12 1 1-2 



It should be remembered that this interferes 

 with no operation of hushandry, and prevents no 

 crop, so that no rent of land or other extras are to 

 be reckoned — the plowings would be nearly the 

 same if the rye were not sown. Nothing is better 

 relished by stock at the season when it is intended 



DRINKING TOO MUCH WATER. 



To the Editor of the New England Farmer : 



Dear Sir — Your allusion in your paper of July 

 6, to my remarks of last year about cold water, re- 

 minds me of a determination I then formed to add 

 a few thoughts on the same subject. But before 

 I had leisure to do so, the hot season had passed by. 

 Even now it is getting late, but I am unwilling 

 longer to defer. If aught I may say shall be worth 

 remembering, however, some of your readers may 

 be able to retain it, perhaps, till next year. 



You observe that I said, last year, that the quan- 

 tity of cold water you recommend would weaken 

 the system. I have forgotten the particulars of 

 what was said then, on either side. But I must 

 say, now, that two gallons of water a day, or at 

 that rate, for any considerable part of the day, es- 

 pecially, under the circumstances of great heat end 

 fatigue, will injure any person on earth. Yet "a 

 tumbler of water every half hour in the hottest part 

 of the day," is at the rate of two gallons for every 

 sixteen hours, and most laboring people are awake 

 so long. 



You allude, as almost all do who recommend the 

 use of much cold water while we are hot, to the 

 necessity created by a profuse perspiration. Now, 

 which is the cause, and which the effect, in these 

 cases ? Is the perspiration the effect of excessive 

 drinking, or is it the canst ? If the latter, let the 

 cause be removed ; that is, let a smaller amount 

 of drink he taken. 



I grant that eating salt food, as we often do in 

 hot weather, together with many other kinds of 

 food, and also many more unhealthy habits, tend to 

 induce thirst; and that to most persons a conside- 

 rable amount of drinks is necessary, unless they 

 will change their diet ; but not half a pint every 

 half hour." I grunt, too, that whatever is drank 

 should be cold water— that is, water at the usual 

 temperature of our rivers and exposed springs — not 

 at the temperature of our deep wells or our ice- 

 houses. 



Yet it would certainly be a " more excellent 

 way," if laboring men would gradually (not too 

 suddenly) change their habits. Let them go to 



bed early and rise early. Let them bathe in coli 

 water as soon as they rise; or if equally conve 

 nient, let them just take off the " edge" of the hea 

 by a plunge or two, or a shower-bath, two or threi 

 hours (not more) after breakfast. The last is pre 

 ferable — but people cannot generally spare tht 

 time in the middle of the forenoon ; and after tei 

 o'clock in the forenoon is generally worse thaii 

 early in the morning, and even somewhat dange> 

 rous. 



Let them also inure themselves, as soon as the; 

 can, to plain food and water : bread, milk, pota 

 toes, apples, pears, rice, boiled corn, boiled wheati 

 beets, carrots, with the berries in their seasor/ 

 without salt, or any other condiment ; — these ar 

 the things for laboring men who would avoid mor 

 bid thirst or intemperance. True it is, that evei 

 an excess of these will cause thirst; but not thei 

 moderate use. 



Let them also have "long patience," and no 

 fret too much, cither against the Lord or agains 

 themselves. Fretting and worrying, of itself, wil" 

 cause thirst. To tell a fretful man not to drink 

 would be as useless as to tell Vesuvius not to poui 

 out its lava. i 



I have made two experiments which so far as S' 

 small an amount of evidence can go, are in point 

 From August 6, 1840, to May 25, 1841, I followei 

 the above rules, except that I did not use two gal 

 Ions of milk during the whole time ; and thoug] 

 my employments, nearly the whole time, expose 

 me to thirst as much as those of any other man, 

 never had less thirst in 9 months and 19 days i 

 my whole life, and never was in better healtl 

 Since January last I have abstained in like niannc 

 to the present hour, and am able to do so ; th 

 heat, perspiration and fatigue of haying and hai 

 vesting to the contrary notwithstanding. Say nc , 

 that I have a peculiar constitution. It is just lik 

 that of any other man in similar circumstance 

 Twenty years ago, I was drinking water and cide 

 and beer at the rate of two or three gallons a da; 

 and thought I needed it. Remember, however, 

 do not recommend the no-drink system to any bod 

 else. I only use it for experiment's sake. 



You say you " never heard of a temperate ma 

 dying suddenly from drinking cold water in a ver 

 hot day, unless he had been long, i. e. more tha 

 an hour, without drinking." Perhaps not. But ] 

 it likely that the fiflynine soldiers who killed then 

 selves at the battle of Monmouth by drinking col 

 water, were none of them exceptions to the rul 

 you lay down ? 



But I " will not dispute that point" with yof 

 More mischief is done to human health by drinkin. 

 cold water, where the evil falls far short of sue 

 den death, or even of immediate disease — I ha 

 almost said immeasurably mote — than in the con 

 paratively few cases where sickness or death ar 

 the speedy consequence. 

 . Yours, & 



VV. A. ALCOTT. 



Dedham, July 18, 1842. 



A very successful horticulturist, who had a moi 

 repulsively ugly countenance, wss thus addresse 

 by a good-humored visitor :— " No wonder, Phili| 

 that you have the finest fniit in the country, for yo 

 are not only your own gardener, but, egad, yoi 

 own scare-crow too." 



Wan-e war against the weeds. 



