4U 



FARMERS' REGISTER— GRASS SEEDS— FARMING, &c. 



lot of pijis averaf^e four hundred and ten pounds. 

 Let the planters think of this, and some of them 

 try the experiment fairly for one year, and publish 

 the result. And let them not forget the real plea- 

 sure they felt at seeing business properly done, at 

 observing fine animals daily prospering, with a 

 promise of sure reward. Let them not forget how 

 much anxiety and trouble they have saved ; how 

 much destruction of crops and fence-mending they 

 have prevented. Neither let them forget what an 

 advantage this system of pork feeding may prove 

 to Virginia. Let something be done for the sake 

 of the country : there would be some patriotism in 

 an experiment of this kind, better than a good 

 deal of that Roman patriotism, sometiiAes talked 

 of in the newspapers ; at least, it is my opinion, 

 and I am of Roman descent, as my signature will 



show. MAUK-US, PORK-US, BRUT-US. 



I find the grass is sowed more regularly, that much 

 time and labor is saved, and it is almost impossi- 

 ble for the wind to affect the seed at all, since they 

 are nearly touching the ground by the time they 

 are out of the box. 



I should be very much pleased for some person 

 to furnish the Farmers' Register with a full and 

 correct mode of the management of meadow lands ; 

 and also, the best time for seeding and the most 

 approved manner of curing the different kinds of 

 hay. B. s. 



AN KASY METHOD OF SOWING GRASS SEEDS. 



To the EJitor of Farmers' Register. 



To fulfil a duty which, I consider every subscri- 

 ber to your valuable paper owes, I send you the 

 following description. of a box or machine which I 

 have used, and still continue to use, for sowing 

 Herd's and other similar grass seed. It is true, 1 

 am but a novice in farming as well as in most other 

 things; but as the following remarks are not cal- 

 culated at least to do much injury, and it is possi- 

 ble they may be of service to some, I have deter- 

 mined to write them, right or wrong. From the 

 commencement of my farming career, (which, 

 however, does not exceed five years,) I have found 

 the sowing of grass seed to be exceedingly tedious ; 

 and, indeed, unless in very favorable weather, very 

 difiicult to soAV with any degree of accuracy or re- 

 gularity. This dilTiculty and uncertainty induced 

 me to inquire, if there was no other way to sow 

 them, except with the hand, as they are commonly 

 sowed ; but could get no satisfactory information. 

 I then attempted to use a long box with a tin bot- 

 tom, having holes punched through it at distances 

 of half an inch each way. With this 1 found I 

 could sow much faster than with the hand, but 

 with no more regularity, because the wind had the 

 same chance of blowing the seed about, before they 

 could reach the ground. Throwing the box aside ; 

 I had a piece of sheet iron about four feet long and 

 twenty inches wide, punched with small holes at 

 distances of about half an inch or three quarters 

 each way, and then made into a cylinder similar to 

 a stove pipe. An axle passes through the cylinder, 

 on each end of which is attached a wooden wheel 

 of double the diameter of the cylinder, and on each 

 end of the axletrec are fixed the handles or frame 

 by wliicli the machine can either be pulled after, 

 or rolled before the seedsman, as he may prefer. A 

 cylinder four feet long and six inches diameter, 

 will hold rather more than a half bushel of seed, 

 and will sow about a bushel to the acre.* Here 

 let me observe that the seed should be very nicely 

 sifted — for if there be much filth or chatt" left in 

 the seed, they will not be sowed thick enough. 

 The seed may be put into the cylinder either by 

 taking off one wheel or by having a door cut in 

 the cylinder after the manner of the barrel cluirn. 

 Since using this grass sower, (if I may so call it,) 



* The lioles should be about the size of thoue com- 

 monly punched in tin for safes. 



PRACTICAL EFFECT OF SEASONABLE FARM- 

 ING. 



From the Columbia (Kinderhook) Sentinel. 

 I have heretofore enjoined the necessity of sea- 

 sonable farming, because I have repeatedly com- 

 pared the appearance of farms thus cultivated with 

 others, perhaps naturally as good, but which by a 

 different course of management — that is when all 

 the work was done late in the season, or in other 

 words, not until the owners were driven to it — the 

 difference made in every instance is so manifest, 

 and so much in favor af the " go ahead" farmer, 

 tiiat I have often been astonished that the example 

 of the latter was not always followed. Reflections 

 of this nature have occurred to every farmer of the 

 least observation ; and if there are some who yet 

 practice delay in their work, I trust they will not 

 also advocate it as the best method. It is not in 

 one branch of agriculture alone that the effects of 

 this kind of management have been observable; 

 it extends through all the operations of the year, 

 and uniformly results in this — while the one makes 

 money, the other is gradually becoming poor. I 

 now design to give a practical illustration of this 

 rule, exactly as it has occurred in this vicinity, and 

 as I mean to state simply facts, I trust no one will 

 accuse me of exaggeration. 



Within a few miles of my residence are two 

 farmers, who each have a field of corn, and as 1 

 have often seen them at work in their respective 

 lots during the season, I am enabled to state the 

 method of cultivation pursued by each. First, the 

 soil of both was that of our pine plain — a mixture 

 of sand and gravel, but the largest proportion is 

 sand. The two pieces were both sod, or land put 

 down to grass ; one had been in grass two years, 

 the other longer, but in both, previous to plough- 

 ing, the grass was abundant and vigorous. If a 

 choice had been offered me of either of the lots for 

 a crop of corn, I would have selected the one which 

 had been the longest in grass, not only on this ac- 

 count, but because I thought it more inclined to 

 loam than the other lot. Now what I will call the 

 best lot, for 3uch I really conceived it to be, was 

 ploughed late and with two horses. It then lay 

 sometime before planting, and the grass was be- 

 ginning to sprout. It was now furrowed and 

 planted. The corn as it came up had to encounter 

 the grass, which had the start of it, and was per- 

 mitted to grow sometime, so that at the first hoeing 

 the former was small and sickly. However, at a 

 late day this operation was performed, and before 

 the last of the field was finished, the grass in the 

 part first hoed liad become vigorous. The plough 

 was after this occasionally used, but never until 

 the grass shoots were so numerous and large as to 

 interfere with the young sprouts of corn. This 

 field has now come to maturity, and if the owner 



