AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUKLISHEO 13V JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. S2 NORTH M.tllKET STREET, (Aohicultueial WAaEHoosc.)— ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



OL.XXI.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 19, 1842. 



[NO. 16. 



N. E. FARMER. 



Fur ilie N. E. Fariiior. 



SCRAPS. 



C/fMtiui? of Cows. — We liavo had one or two 

 atneciled assistance ; in every instance an eft'ect- 

 il assistance has heen given, by giving two or 

 ree e:irs uf roasted corn. Just throw the ears 

 Id cornl into the tire anil brown or burn them, 

 lot blaci; it'you can help it,) and it will be found. 

 >presunie, a certain cure. It has in no instance 

 liled with us. We have once or twice been 

 jiliged to repeat giving the corn a second time, but 

 !;ver more than twice. 



P. S. — My wife tells me that five or sir ears 

 lubbins) should be given, and repeated daily as 

 ing as is necessary. 



Potatoes. — Your ideas relative to lightness of 

 ,il, are porfpclly correct; and any one may easily 



3ve the fact. I had made the experiment before 

 Imw any tiling in your paper, and have never had 

 ly doubts since. Another circumstance : — I have 

 Iver been able to produce nearly as good a crop 

 I low land as on high land ; and if I wish to make 

 |-e of a crop of putatnes I always plant on the 

 \-hcst land I have. Again — I always plant lohole 

 I latoes, and have invariably found the larger the 

 ; d the better the crop. I have memoranda upon a 

 I ip raised three or four years since, but they are 

 !■ voluminous for this letter. The result by mea- 

 i-einenl, in the half bushel, was 10 bushels to the 

 I V where the seed was large, and 8 bushels only 

 I the row (of the same length,) where the seed 

 issmaii. Planted in drills at 11 inches apart. 

 I ame to this conclusion — that an equal quantity 

 I seed, targe or small, will produce an equal quan- 

 I ' oj potatoes — but those from the large seed will 

 [ duce the best potatoes, and will require less 

 I und and be more easily dug. 



Rolling Corn Land. — I am satisfied, by two or 



I ee years' trial, tlint light land rolled when plant- 



E will stand a drought much better than if it were 



Irked.' This present year I had an excellent 



\ U All my corn was rolled as soon as planted. 



I fery severe drought e.\isted after the corn came 



b and got to be a foot or a foot and a half high. 



I 111 the plow, bar side to the corn, on each side 



the corn ; and immedialrly levelled the interstices 



h the cultivator; so that whatever was plowed, 



s immediately afterwards levelled with the culti- 



or. The ground thus managed, when turned 



was moist and tine ; in a day or two not a sign 



Tioisture was to be found : it was a complete dry 



1 of well pulverized earth; while that part of 



I field whicli had not been so served, (say one 



I-d of the field,) upon removing a seeming crust, 

 1-2 or 3-4 of an inch thick, exhibited a charming 

 ||!isture. To complete the experiment, I left this 

 I'd untouched the balance of the season. It is 

 I'T all standing — and if any of your doubting cor- 

 I pondents could just visit the field and see how 

 I cli better the corn is on the untvorked part, I 

 I ik they would admit that rolling light lands and 



leaving them unworked, will enable them to stand 

 n drought much better. With respect to weeds, I 

 find in the unworked part an abunJuiice of what is 

 here called ;>urs/n/; loin not botanist enough to 

 call it by any other name, nor do I know whether 

 that is the name you give it at the North. Here, 

 we consider it does no injury whatever to the land. 

 Ammig the parsley is here and there a stalk of 

 what is /lore called " lamb's quaiter," but what I 

 recollect is, at the North, called ])ig weed. I raised 

 an excellent crop of corn, some five or six years 

 since, and never put hoe, plow or cuttirator in it 

 after it was planted; and a wheelbarrow would 

 have held all the weeds upon eight acres. One 

 gentleman, who heard of the fact, rode ten miles to 

 see the corn and satisfy himself of the fact. It 

 was done thus: I plowed land that had never be- 

 fore been broken up, (virgin sod) eight inches deep, 

 with a lurrow slice of 18 inches, and laid in com- 

 pletely flat, and planted the sod in corn. The 

 next year I plowed the same land fourteen inches 

 deep, and again put it in corn, and this was the 

 yt'ar alluded to above; — it was the secoiul year I 

 had raised corn on the same land, without manure 

 and without any other cultivation than the plowing 

 previous to planting. The soil is a light, black 

 mould, of from 4 to ti inches deep; subsoil, a rich 

 sandy clay. You know our Western lands are 

 more easily cultivated and widely different, in many 

 respects, from your Northern lands, and I know not 

 how far the same results would answer the same 

 practices in your cold latitude. I am fully satis- 

 fied that early planted corn here, will so shade the 

 land by its rapid and luxuriant growth, as to pre- 

 vent many weeds from growing. 



Turnips.~^\, and several of my neighbors, upon 

 trial, have become satisfied that good wheat cannot 

 here be raised upon land that had turnips the pre- 

 vious year. We have all noticed, also, that the 

 land seemed to be nearly dead for a year or two 

 after a crop of turnips has been taken from it, and 

 we have accordingly ceased to raise turnips on 

 land intended for wheat. What do you think can 

 be the cause .' * Our turnips are of the very best 

 kind ; as big as a hat crown, and 3 or 4 inches, and 

 even more, thick. Does not wheat follow turnips 

 in England^ Is it climate ? Is it soil ? Oris 

 it because we use no manure, and turnips exhaust 

 the soil .' 



Cows and Calves.— ^l have always found that 

 high feeding of cows immediately before and imme- 

 diately after calving, to be injurious. I know this 

 is contrary to the opinions and directions expressed 

 in all, I believe, the agricultural works I have ever 

 read ; still the fact with me is as stated. My cows 

 always do better at that time, i( no alteration what- 

 ever takes place in their feed. Two years since, 

 I determined to give a fair experiment. Two of 

 my cows had calves in the winter; one of the 

 calves was well housed and well tended ; of the 



'As to the cause why wheat will not do well after tur- 

 nips, we can say nothing, for we know nothing. We 

 have found corn do but poorly, very poorly in tlie cartij 

 part of t\\c season, where it followed turnips.-ED. N.E.F. 



other, which uvis dropped upon the snow, no care 

 was taken — nor was the mother sheltered at all. 

 The latter calf was decidedly the better animal, 

 though for a day or two it lay upon the snow, or 

 what was worse, " i/os/i," or melted snow. Facts 

 are stubborn things, and we must yield to them. 

 My feelings, I confess, were not very pleasant 

 while the experiment was going on ; but I thought 

 nature was sufficient to take care of itself; and the 

 opportunity to try the experiment was so fine, that 

 I could not let it slip. I did not expect to lose the 

 calf — but I had previously noticed that all my cows, 

 if left to themselves, both summer and u'inter, would 

 always leave home at calving time, and be absent 

 from one to six days, when they would come home 

 with the calf at their side. I have never housed a 

 cow during my residence in the West. They arc 

 regularly fed twice a day in winter — morning and 

 night; and after having been milked in the morn- 

 ing are turned out of the barn-yard, let the weather 

 be as it may — rain, snow, or sunshine. I endeavor 

 always to have plenty of ashes and sail in the 

 troughs in the barn-yard, which they lap at will, 

 and more or less daily ; and this keeps them, I 

 presume, in good health. This is a very simple 

 matter: fill a trough half full of ashes; put your 

 salt w^o« the ashes; the cattle, unaccustomed to 

 ashes, will lick the salt and get a taste of the ashes ; 

 they will soon be very fond of it, and will lick the 

 ashes alone if no salt be there. If your troughs 

 (like mine) ate not under shelter, and it should 

 rain, no matter — the salt v/ill only dissolve and 

 mix with the ashes. I renew the u^hes only as oc- 

 casion may require, but I salt once a week, whether 

 the old salt be gone or not. 



Drinks. — I am a little surprised that buttermilk 

 has never to my recollection, been recommended 

 in your paper as a drink during harvest and the hot 

 months. At the South and West, it is always, I 

 believe, used. Sometimes it is mixed with water. 

 I, being a Yankee, cannot drink it at all times, but 

 of a right hot day, I know nothing more palatable 

 nor more refreshing than a glass of fresh buttermilk, 

 either with or without water mixed : a real old but- 

 termilk-drinker prefers it two or three days old ; 

 but under no circumstances can / drink it that old. 



It is unnecessary to say I have written "currente 

 calamo," for the paper shows it. I have no time to 

 copy or to put it into form. Finding, after having 

 stated my private businnss with you, that I had 

 considerable space left, and knowing that Uncle 

 Sam would charge just as much fi>r conveying 

 blank paper as for matter that might be useful, I 

 concluded to fill out the sheet with some random 

 hints, which I hope may not be entirely de.stitute 

 of value. Your well-wisher, 



A WESTERN FARMER. 



St. Charles, (.Missouri.) 



In civil jurisprudence it too often happens that 

 there is so much law, there is no room for justice, 

 and that the claimant expires of wrong, in the 

 midst of right, as mariners die of thirst, in the 

 midst of water. — Lacon. 



