142 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 24, 1620. 



4 111 



frPt aoart each way and require 50 bushels to the I the construction of the kiln, and the experience of! latter. Dr Cooper says [Domestic Encyclopodij, 

 aj/ .•" _ . \ , . , __; — r Ki .,.!,„ u„,„ -.t Where wood costs but one vol. i. page 413] " a quarter of an ouuce of sa(f' 



acre. This quantity I have found to be most prof- 

 itable. When the lime is burnt, and as soon as it 

 is cool enough to handle, it ought to be hauled on 

 tlie land already marked, and a half-bushel depos- 

 ited in the centre of eacii square, in as compact a 

 heap as possible. If water is convenient, I prefer 

 to slack the lime immediately, rather than to wait 

 for rain, as it becoiTies finer and can be more even- 

 ly spread. As soon as it has slacked, it is imme- 

 diately spread and well harrowed. This method 

 I prefer for Indian corn, barley, oats, rye and po- 

 tatoes. On all the above croj)s I have experien- 

 ced a great benefit from lime the first year after 

 its application. With potatoes I add about 15 two- 

 horse loads of barn-yard manure to the acre, be- 

 fore planting. A second liming is otten given, and 

 much approved of,after an interval of three or more 

 years. This amalgamates better, and can be more 

 intimately mixed with the soil. 



The~re are good farmers who differ as to the 

 quantity of lime that is most profitably applied. — 

 Some '^ay (JO bushels on the acre, some 70, and 

 some more. I have applied 100 on an acre of lime- 

 stone land, at a dressing ; but have not been able 

 to discover any benefit from using it thus freely, 

 nor any injury, except in the loss of lime. 



Wheat seldom receives any benefit from lime 

 until the second or third year after it h;is been ap- 

 plied, except it luis been mixed in a compost of 

 yard manure and earth. This method is much 

 practised in the lower counties of this state ; tlio' 

 not by good farmers until tliey have applied lime 

 as the basis of melioration. By this management 

 they have raised their land from an impoverished 

 state, produced by an injudicious cropping, to such 

 a state of fertility, as, I am informed, to enable 

 them to fatten a bullock of six hundred weight on 

 an acre, and to cut grass from the same acre suf- 

 ficient to winter another. 



Sandy soils are greatly improved by the use of 

 lime. I lately purchased some of that kind, which 

 was originally covered with chesnut timber, and 

 was called mountain land. It has been cleared 

 seventy years; but laying a distance from the farm 

 buildii'gs, had never received any manure but a 

 dressing of lime. This land I have had repeatedly 

 farmed since I owned it ; and although to appear- 

 ance it seemed to be almost a caput mortuum, with 

 the aid of ten or twelve four horse loads of the 

 gleanings of a yard of a public house, it has pro- 

 duced as much, and as good, wheat, rye, oats, tim- 

 othy and clover to the acre, as any land in the 

 township in which it lays. I consider the iimir.o' 

 which it had fifty years ago, as the principal cause 

 of its fertility. 



It is a general opinion amongst good fanners, 

 that liming should be repeated every ten or fifteen 

 years, and that the increased crops richly compen- 

 sate the expense. It matters very little how it is 

 applied, provided it is evenly spread immediately 

 after it is slacked. If suffered to air-slack, or to 

 lie after it|^has ^been water-slacked, it re-imbibpg 

 carbonic acid, which the fire had expelled, bo- 

 comes lumpy, iind is more difiicult to be incorpo- 

 rated with the soil. Some spread it upon the sod, 

 and plough it under, and think tliey have as much 

 profit from it in this way as in any other. When 

 thus applied, it powerfully contributes to decom- 

 pose the tougher fibres of the sod, and to convert 

 tliem into nutriment for the crop. 



The price of lime is governed by the price of 

 \i ood, the distance the stone has to be transported. 



those who burn it _.- , . „ . , , 



dollar a cord at the kiln, — where the stone has to per day to sheep; and one ounce per day to coulf" 

 be carted not more than the fourth of a mile, — the and oxen is an alloivance ample enough." A^ 

 kiln well constructed to contain 800 or 1000 bush- cording to other writers this is more than is m 

 els, and the workmen understand their business — j cessary. Salt will perhaps be the better, if inci 

 the lime can be sold at eight dollars the hundred [ cated witli a little wood ashes. A scientifi.- ar 

 bushels at the same kiln, and leave to all concern- practical farmer told us that in giving salt [•• h 

 ed a fair compensation for their labor and expense, sheep he always mixed it with unleached v.oc 

 I have paid .$'25 per hundred bushels, delivered on ashes, at the rate of one quart of fine salt to oi 

 the field, at ten miles distant from the lime-kiln, 1 half bushel of ashes. To this composition his ca 

 and think I could not have applied my money to : tie and sheep always had access.* Too much 

 better advantage. This was applied to land of is said by some writers to be injurious to sheep, 



the old red-stone formation. The produce has far 

 exceeded my expectation. I however make use of 

 barn-yard manure and plaster of Paris ; the form- 

 er at the rate of ten four-horse loads the acre ; 



and the latter at the rate of a bushel and a half, on i jurious, and often injures the digestion so t 

 rye, timothy and clover. Yet I consider lime as ; best grain will pass through them unaltered 



Mr Grove, — the Saxon shepherd — says "sal 

 required by sheep at intervals during the whffl 

 year, but it is often given in too great quantiti^ 

 and often forced upon the sheep, which is often i 



t tl 



the real mother of all the sweet grasses. 

 I am, with sentiments of esteem. 



Your obedient servant, 



DANIEL BUCKLEY 

 Salisbury, Pa. Dec. 19, 1824. 



P. S. 



best mode, where rock salt is to be had i 

 tach pieces here and there in the stable or pa 

 ture and let them lick it as they wish. The ui 

 calculation is from one to two pounds, yearl; 

 head, but 1 have usually found that something 





, , ,. , i than one pound was quite sufficient, and mo 

 I have omitted to state, that on land which I ^, . . , . ■ I, . .,. i. > j 



1 iiavi.c'iiin.Loi* ..uo ., , this IS not given in Saxony to the best manai* 



has been much ex-hausted, or has naturally a thin ri,, Vg " 



soil, we do not apply more than 30 or 40 bushel- 



to the acre, at the first dressing ; but in three or 

 four years afterwards the liming may be repeated 

 to advantage, to tlic extent of fifty bushels on the 

 acre. 



NEW ENGLAND FAR MER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, NOV. 24, 1826. 



Sheep will not endure close and confined air.. 



i They should have a shelter close over head, i 

 not so close at the sides as to preclude a free 

 culation of air. It should contain some 



' apartments in which to keep ewes a few daysj 

 , ious to, and after they have lambs. If the 

 >e large, the wt-thers should be kept by tl 



I selves. Tney do not require so good keeping ., 



the ewes and other sheep, unless you wish to ( 



ten them, and in that case they require bet 



SHEEP FEEDING. 

 It was a maxim of Columella, an old and mucjrj ''^^P'^ff- 

 approved writer on agriculture, that "t7 is/:,- more] Mr Daiibenton observes that when sheep 

 profitable to keep a small mimbcr of sheep in g-oorf fed on dry fodder during the winter season 



f the younger ones, and those whicli were 

 ly dropped off; tiiat, on opening these, he 

 tlie food in the third stomach, or that whic 

 ceives the food after the second chewing, to 1 

 dry as to be unfit for digestion, and to this i 

 he ascribes their death. Tins state of the 

 ach, he very justly concludes, is produced 



condition ikan a large nuvibcr in porerty." Thi 



maxim will apply as well to other stock as to sheep. 



There are, however, some peculiarities relative to 



the management of sheep, which it may not he 



amiss to advert to. They will not so well bear 



confinement, and require more exercise. They 



should likewise have variety in their food. Change 



of diet makes healthy and thriving sheep. Pota- 1 sudden change of food from grass to dry foi 



toes, English turnips, Swedish turnips, mangel I and the remedy poirted out, which is very m 

 wurtzel, carrots, and Indian corn, may all be well | is tnerely to feed' them with a due proportii _ 



and profitably disposed of as winter food for sheep. | succulent food. For this purpose, turnips, pot* 

 The.sc should be properly alternated with jjood (parrots, &c. will answer. 



hay or cut straw. If you use the latter you should The food which is given to sheep or neat ort 

 allow the more roots or corn. Do not let them , should either be placed on clean snow or in an 

 run over your pastures after tlie nourishing quali- \ or trough. Many scientific directions have lie 

 ties of the grass are destroved by frost. If you given by writers respecting the best mode of « 

 permit them to lose flesh' to any considerab'e structing a sheep rack. But anything which* 

 amount in autumn or the beginning of winter, you I present their fodder to sheep in such a posit 

 will find it hard work to clothe their dry bones , t'lat they can easily reach and obtain it in SB 

 asrain ; and moreover you will probably have bad j quantities at a time, without trampling on it,» 

 luck with your lambs. " Stock sheep, however, or j serve the desired purpose. The front part of t 

 ewes with lamb, should not be kept too high.-^ j rack, however, should be perpendicular, and » 

 Give them now and then some pine boughs, if ban- (as is often the case) project or lean forwa«) 



dy, to pick upon. These, say the sages in agri- 

 culture, will cure their colds, and preserve tliem 

 from rot. But if you have not pine bouglis within 

 an easily procurable distance you may put a little 

 tar on boards or in troughs, and sprinkle a little 

 salt over it, and let them help themselves. This 

 though recommended for the grazing season can- 

 not be amiss at any season. Moreover your sheep 

 as well as your neat cattle v.'ill want a little salt 

 winter and summe.-, though not so much in the 



such a manner that the sheep in feeding will ae 

 ter dust and liay seed over their fleeces. Tho 

 however, who are curious in this matter may 

 gratified by consulting N. E. Farmer, vol iii. pt 

 3.50, vol. iv. page 234, Mass. Ag. Repos. vol. 

 page 25. 



Hawthorn Berries. — We have received froij i 

 Lemuel W. Briggs, of Bristol, (R. I.) a quant% 



■ See N. E. Farmer, vol. iv. page .362. 



i 



