224 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



would be attended, too, with the inestimable advantage to be derived from dis- 

 pensing with the awful cost of keeping up cross-fences. 



Expense of Maintajning a AVork-Horse. — Among the Scotch, as every one 

 knows, a shrewd, calculating people — the opinion of the best judges is that to 

 maintain a work-horse in proper condition, under ordinary farm labor, he will 

 require each day about fifteen pounds, or two fifths of a bushel, of oats — (Scotch 

 oats, in the general way, are estimated at thirty-eight pounds the bushel.) This, 

 for eleven months' feeding, when actually at work, amounts to five thousand 

 and ten pounds of grain, and as it requires, in the best cultivated part of Scot- 

 land, the whole labor of one horse for the due cultivation of about twenty-five 

 Scotch acres, equal — let the reader note once for all — to thirty-oae and a half 

 statute acres, the horse will thus consume annually about two hundred pounds 

 of grain, for every acre he works, in addition to grass, straw, &c. 



jNow suppose the case of a man in the South — at least six work-horses for a 

 farm of three hundred acres ; he would at this rate require seven hundred and 

 fifty bushels of oats, or their equivalent in corn, in a year. The Yankee saves 

 that by working oxen, which at last go into his meat tub ! 



The Importance of Carbon. 



In an interesting work recently published 

 by Jasper W. Rogers, entitled "An Appeal 

 for the Irish Peasanti-y," the value of carbon 

 in the soil is clearly shown. " In proportion 

 to its proper supply to the culture of all plants, 

 either Ijy the atmosphere or otherwise, de])ends 

 the luxuriance and vigor of their growth." 



" Sir Robert Kane gives the following liigh- 

 ly valuable Table, showing the amount of car- 

 bon in each plant, which he names, viz. : 



Wheat percent. 46'1 Carbon 



Wheat-straw 48-4 



Oats 50-7 .. 



Oat-straw 50-1 



Potatoes 440 



Turnips 42-9 



Red-clover hay 47-4 



This, in itself, is sufBcient to prove the indis- 

 pensability of carbon to vegetation. 



" It is an absorbent of the highest order, 

 and, used as a fertilizer, it yields to the roots 

 of the plant carbon in its purest state, in such 

 quantum as Nature demands." 



And if it absorbs moisture, it must also ab- 

 sorb the carbonic acid and ammonia that rain 

 brings with it. There are many other im- 

 portant facts stated in the same work, which 

 should be i-ead by every farmer. And the 

 question is, whether a sufficient quantity is, 

 in all cases, supplied to the soil, and that in the 

 most available state for the benefit of the grow- 

 uig plant ? 



The Best Time and Method of Sowing Barley. — The barley crop of Eng- 

 land is one of immense importance, and is so regarded in the United States, (our 

 crop being 4,161,504 bushels.) 



The foUowmg will be deemed worthy of attention. The subject has the more 

 interest for us as it seems probable that its culture will be extended to parts of 

 the country where it has not been hitherto cultivated. It was that considera- 

 tion which prompted us to seek from H. S. Randall, Esq., his valuable Essay, 

 published in the last volume of this journal ; and which induces us to give the 

 following opinions, elicited in the course of a recent discussion in an English 

 Farmers' Club. 



We may here remark that in July last we. witnessed the harvesting of the 

 wheat crop at Montpelier, in Rappahannock County, Virginia ; and recollect- 

 ing the old practice in Maryland, forty years ago, we Avere very much surprised, 

 after all we had published in the old ' American Farmer ' in favor of the prac- 

 tice, to see how very immature a large portion of the crop seemed to be, when 

 cut ; but on inquiry of Doctor Thornton, his philosophy seemed to be incon- 

 testible, and fully warranted his practice. The reasoning and the application 

 were these : He said, if you cut off your corn just above the ground, when 



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