198 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



DEC. HI, 184S. 



CORN AND OAT CROPS. 



The following is a report of the Committee of 

 the American Iitititule on Field Crops. The pro- 

 ducer of the corn and ont crops below mentioned, 

 was Mr F. I. Belts, of Newbury, N. V., to whom 

 was awarded the first premium. We copy from 

 the Aliierican .^rrricultiirist 



Corn Crop. — The soil was a very tooirh green 

 sward, having been several years laid down to 

 grass and occupied for pasturage. From the 4lh 

 to the 8th of February l-ist, the ground then being 

 entirely free from frost, the whole field was tho- 

 roughly plowed ; in the second week in May, I wo 

 bushels of salt and fifteen wagon loads of manure 

 per acre, were spread broadcast over the field, and 

 the field was then thoroughly cross-plowed and 

 liarrowed, and the corn was planted in hills, three 

 or four feet apart, each hill being covered wilh 

 about half a shovel-full of manure: the only sub- 

 sequent cultivation was plowing and hoeing twice 

 and going once through it with the cultivator. 



On the 19th of September, the corn was cut up 

 close to the ground and put up in siiocks of an 

 equal size upon the field; and as it is not yethusk- 

 ed, the only practicable mode of ascertaining the 

 quantity of the product, has been fairly and justly 

 pursued by mo as follows, to wit : — I have husked 

 twelve of the shocks from different parts of the 

 field, taken indiscrnninately, and averaged the 

 whole crop according to the quantity produced 

 from them, and find that the field (containing by 

 accurate measurement, four acres, two roodn aild 

 twentythree perches of land,) has produced nine 

 liundred and fifty and two-third bushels of ears of 

 corn, eiiual to two hundred and five and a half 

 bushels of ears per acre. As a portion of the field 

 was injured by the frost in June last, the best acre 

 no doubt e.xceeded in product the foregoing ave- 

 rage. 



Orit Crop — The soil had for many years pre- 

 vious to 1841, been laid down to grass, and the 

 field occupied for pasturage : in the spring of last 

 ^ear, the field was planted in about equal propor- 

 tions wilh potatoes and corn, and had then applied 

 to it about twelve loads of manure, (a compost of 

 muck and barn-yard manure) per acre. 



About the SSd of April last, the field was well 

 plowed, and the oats on the same day were sowed 

 at the rate of three bushels to the acre, and were 

 harrowed in, which was the only labor expended 

 upon the field until the crop was harvested. 



An acre of the field was accurately measured 

 before the crop was harvested, and the grain there- 

 from has been kept and threshed by itself, and 

 produced seventyseven bushels of clean oats. The 

 whole field contained about three and three-quar- 

 ter acres, and the grain thereupon was about 

 equally good throughout the whole of it. 



The undersigned cannot close this report with- 

 out calling public attention to the judgment and 

 good taste which Mr Bells has displayed in the ir- 

 • rigation and fertilization of the soil, the subdivision 

 of his farm into lots of convenient sizes, their entire 

 exeT:ption from vegetable excrescence, and to the 

 neatness, order, and cleanliness which is presented 

 i& every department of his establishment. This 

 farm contains about one hundred and twenty acres, 

 and may, in the opinion of the undersigned, be re- 

 ferred to as a pattern farm, every way worthy of 

 imitation. 



EDWARD CLARK, Ch'mn. 

 JVeu) York, Od. 23</, 1842. 



EXTRACTS 



From the Annual Address before the Philadelphia 

 JigricuUurid Society, b\) its President, Nicholas 

 BlDDLE, Ks(i. 



Cows. — "I thitd{ we have now reached a point 

 where the iutmduction from Europe, of animals, is 

 no longer necessary to the perfection of our pre- 

 sent stock, and that we may safely rely on what we 

 possess, since the Very best breeds are already nu- 

 merous and moderate in price. Take, for exam- 

 ple, the cows. There is no breed of any celebrity 

 in Europe that .-ire not attainable here. There is 

 the short-horned Durham, that race created as it 

 were, by refined and judicious crossing, adapted 

 alike for the dairy and the market; the Devons, 

 probably the first domestic animals imported into 

 New England, and who, at the distance of two cen- 

 turies, retain the characteristics of the parent stock, 

 with whom its relationship is renewed by late and 

 numerous importations — fast walkers and stout 

 workers too. The Ayrshire, a small, round-bodied, 

 and compact race, easily kept, and claiming to be 

 adapted alike to the knife and the pail. The Al- 

 derneys, a rawboned, ungainly race, not easy to 

 fatten, since all its food goes to swell its copious 

 and very rich supply of milk." 



Plows and Plowing. — " Examine, too, these 

 plows. For some thousand years, man has been 

 using the plow, and its improvement has been the 

 companion of his own refinement. At first, a mere 

 .'liarpuned slick ; then, by degrees, strengthened, 

 ilien ironed ; then a heavy, cumbrous engine, led 

 on by four, six, ten horses ; then the refinement of 

 simplicity stripped it by degrees of these incum- 

 brances, a horse, a pair of horses, were successive- 

 ly withdrawn, as the machine is rendered lighter, 

 till at last we have now reached almost the perfec- 

 tion of that instrument in yonder specimens. The 

 great purpose of the plow is, to come as near as 

 possible to the spade ; not merely to open the sod, 

 but to turn it over, to make what was on top last 

 year, take its place at the bottom this year, and 

 rot, till it is wanted. 'I'here are plows here which 

 perform that better than any plows in Europe, and 

 lliere is one especial instrument which we ought 

 to remark, the subsoil plow. Our plowing is gene- 

 rally too shallow. We scratch the surface, and 

 then extract it by frequent cropping ; whereas, if 

 we could get lower down and loosen the surface 

 below, we should bring into play a fresh soil, and 

 almost double the extent of available ground. Thus 

 in light soils we get fresh food for the root crops, 

 and on the clay soils we open the lower stratum, 

 and drain off the water which cannot now pene- 

 trate the stiff sod. This subsoil plow, of which 

 specimens will be exhibited to you in actual opera- 

 lion, is, [ think, one of the best improvements of 

 the last few years, and as among our farmers tem- 

 perate habits are universal, I hope that instead of 

 deep drinking, they will take to deep plowing." 



Improvement of Farmers. — " Having spoken of 

 the improvement of our farms, let us not omit a 

 much more important subject — the improvement of 

 our farmers. In the stirring oompetilion of all 

 classes around them — in the increased diffusion of 

 knowledge, and the general activity of mind which 

 now pervades all society, the farmers must main- 

 tain their standing by the same means. Unless 

 they cultivate their minds — unless in the intervals 

 of their labors they pursue the studies which quali- 

 fy men for public usefulness, they will be distanced 



in the race of honorable ambition, and lose tha 

 high place in the public estimation and the public 

 councils, to which they have a right to aspire. Am 

 certainly, never was the advantage of their posi 

 lion more conspicuous than at the present hou; 

 In the general desolation which has swept over th 

 country, the only interest which hag not been visi 

 ted by the sternest reverses, is that of agriculturf 

 Undoubtedly, the people who have suffered leas 

 are the farmers, whose deep roots in the soil hav 

 enabled them to withstand the tempest. 



"The same gentle vicissitudes of the sensor 

 have passed over them — the same abundance ha 

 blessed their harvests — and their industry has bee 

 rewarded by gains scarcely less in name, an 

 really greater than before. If they have not ei 

 joyed the feverish excitements, or the hixuriou 

 amusements of the dwellers on pavements, the 

 have been spared many an anxious thought an 

 mnny a heart-ache, not heard, but not the less fe 

 in the din of cities. Let these things rcconcil 

 farmers to their station ; let them enjoy in peac 

 the repose, the abundance, the thoughtfulness, tli 

 sobriety of their own healthy existence, wilhoi 

 wasting an anxious thought on their more acti\ 

 and ostentatious, but not more happy brethren 

 for wo may now repeat with even more truth tha 

 the poet farmer of antiquity did, nearly two Ihoi 

 sand years ago: "Happy — too happy farmers 

 they only knew their own blessings." 



From the Conn. Farmers' G.izelte. 



BONE MANURE AND TURNIP CULTURl 

 Crushed bones as a manure are but little kn<itt 

 by the farmers of the United Stales ; and the: 

 seems to be a prejudice against their use similar 

 that against poudretle when first introduced in 

 Great Britain ; however, such prejudice will, on 

 fair trial, speedily give place to a more liberal fee- 

 ing, and a few repealed experiments \yill pro 

 the great efficacy of their fertilizing powers. It 

 now about 35 years since I first observed llu ir t 

 fects as a manure. It was on an extensive far 

 of about 500 acres of poor sandy soil, formerly e 

 closed as a rabbit warren, wilh herbage that wou 

 scarcely feed a goose per acre, but by good tilla, 

 and the use of bones and lime, this poor farm 

 the course of six or eight years, became one of tl 

 most productive in the country. The course pi 

 sued was first to spread and plow in at the thi 

 plowing, about 25 or 30 bushels of air-slacki 

 stone lime ; then well pulverized with the harrov 

 sow with drills about 25 to 30 bushels of half'-iD(' 

 bones, with one pound turnip seed per acre. Thei 

 drill machines are so constructed as to sow tl 

 bones and seed in the row at one operation, at (|i 

 distance of half to two feet between rows, and CI 

 culated to do from six to eight rows at once, 

 followed by a roller, leaving the land perfi 

 smooth, to be dressed hereafter by the hand 

 horse-hoe. These turnips are eaten off by si 

 on the ground, and the following spring sown 

 barley or oats and grass seed, which after 1 

 two years is succeeded by nheat, and that a, 

 by turnips. 



In the United Slates it would not be practicab 

 to sow turnips on a scale of any magnitude, as i\\ 

 severe frosts would not admit of feeding on tl 

 ground. I shall therefore substitute the nationi 

 crop of corn, followed by spring grains and gra! 

 seeds, to lay for two years; then spread and plo 



