330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



Chess is remarkably insidious in the numberless 

 ways in which its seeds get possession of the soil, 

 besides its rapid increase under favorable circum- 

 stances, which has in some instances been five 

 thousand fold in a single season, making five thou- 

 sand plants tlie second season, twenty-five mil- 

 lion the third, over a hundred thousand million 

 the fourth, and so on, provided every fiacility is 

 given to its growth. Wild mustard, like red root, 

 increases by seed, which if buried deep, will re- 

 main dormant a long period, ready to spring into 

 life when the soil is turned up ; but being an an- 

 nual, instead of a biennial like red-root, annual 

 sown crops are not favorable to its destruction, 

 but it is best eifected by hoed crops, or by frequent 

 plowing and harrowings. 



The scythe, the hoe, the plow, and the cultiva- 

 tor, if kept in motion, should be looked to as the 

 great exterminators of weeds, but there are cer- 

 tain crops that oft^ prove powerful auxiliaries. 

 Dense grass is unfriendly to nearly all weeds ; 

 buckwheat often exerts a cleansing eiFect on peren- 

 nial rooted creepers, by its smothering influence, 

 besides the mellowing tendency of its deep roots ; 

 but we have never seen anything equal to corn 

 sown in thick drills, in reducing both annual and 

 perennial weeds, as well a? the tenacious grasses. 

 Sown at the rate of three bushels per acre in fur- 

 rows three feet asunder, and then covered with 

 the harrow ; dressed with the one horse cultiva- 

 tor when a foot high, with no hoeing, it has left 

 the land in autumn as clean as a newly plowed 

 field, which without its effectual shade would have 

 presented an unbroken crop of weeds and grass as 

 thick as they could grow. — The Country Gentle- 

 man. 



CORN— FLAT VS. HILL CULTURE. 



In your last number, under the head of "Spring 

 Work," you express a desire to be informed as to 

 the "relative advantages of hilling up corn, or let- 

 ting it remain as planted, merely keeping it clean 

 by horse and hand hoeing." After experimenting 

 both ways for some time past, I have not the 

 slightest doubt as to which mode is preferable. 

 The planting being in rows at right angles, I sim- 

 ply use the Corn Cultivator crosswise, and thus 

 leave the field mellow and level. This may be 

 done as often as necessary ; but, as it is easily 

 done, I do it three times, and at each time let a 

 man follow up with a hoe to repair injuries, which 

 is done in a short time, and also to destroy the 

 suckers at the last time. A ten acre lot can thus 

 be easily and thoroughly dressed very soon, com- 

 pared with the tedious hoeing and hilling system. 

 It is obvious that this method decidedly economises 

 both tinip and labor, as the horse and driver do 

 nine-tenths of it on a walk. But this is not all. 

 The stalk, having but one set of roots (which are 

 long and strong,) shoots up vigorously and well 

 supported, and consequently is not much affected 

 by strong winds ; the growth being steady and 

 strong, the yield is more productive ; there being 

 no furrows, ridges, or hills, but all on even surface, 

 it is quite natural tliat this is the true way to re- 

 sist a drouglit. This was abundantly demonstrated 

 .the last season, so unusually dry, with my yield. 



If it be desirable to seed the field with clover 

 and timothy, or either, it can successfully be done 

 at the last cultivating in July, for pasture or mea- 

 dow the next season. If this be done, the stalks 



should be cut off close to the ground in the fall. 

 It is surprising to see the happy effect of this way 

 and time of seeding. I can show a field treated 

 thus the last season, having grass six inches high 

 and looking as rich as an old meadow of two or 

 three years husbandry. 



Persuaded that the cultivator ought to be adopt- 

 ed, instead of the old fashion hoeing and hilling 

 system, I am prepared to believe that it will not 

 be long before farmers will have but one opinion 

 on the subject. To become fully satisfied, I think 

 they need but one trial in a fair field. The result 

 will readily establish this way of managing corn, 

 for vigorous growth and yield, for security against 

 the gale, for resisting a drought,for facility of seed- 

 ing to grass, and above all, for economy of time 

 and labor. — Genesee Farmer. 



For the New England Farmer. 



LAYING LANDS TO GRASS—STONES-- 



TURNIPS. 



Comfort for fHrmrrs in New England — Laying new land to 

 Grass — Turnips and Super-phosphate of Lime— The Dou- 

 ble Michigan Plow. 



My Dear Brown : — My professional harness has 

 been fretting me so, of late, that even the glories 

 of the "leafy month of June" have been floating 

 around me for a whole week, without wholly en- 

 ticing me from such antique companionship, as 

 Coke and Blackstone. 



But at length, "Richard is himself again," and 

 now, for a season, as Daniel Webster said in his 

 famous letter to John Taylor, "our talk is of ox- 

 en," and we will see whether we cannot render 

 ourselves worthy of a place in the list of those 

 "benefactors of mankind" who "make two spires 

 of grass grow, where but one grew before " There 

 is infinite satisfaction in overcoming difficulties, 

 whether in mathematics, or agriculture, in conic 

 sections, or sections of earth by the plowshare. 

 Scott resolves all this satisfaction into "the con- 

 scious pride of art," the glory one takes to him- 

 self for doing what other men have f\xiled to do, 

 perhaps have not, even, had courage to attempt. 

 "Hence we see" how much more happiness is to 

 be derived from the cultivation of New England 

 hills and valleys, than of a western prairie. You 

 ought to be thankful, for the inexhaustible store 

 of comfort treasured up for you and James, in the 

 stones which adorn your homestead, and /for the 

 stumps, which give such scope for genius on my 

 new place ! Shakespeare found "sermons in stones, 

 and good in everything," and by the way, it oc- 

 curs to me, that on this idea of the illustrious 

 bard, your family need not go far from River Cot- 

 tage to attend as much preaching as may be need- 

 ful ! 



The great hero, who wept that he "had not 

 another world to conquer," might have saved his 

 foolish tears, had he baen comfortably "located" 

 on a hundred acres of New England land. 



Perhaps my mode of subduing the earth, and 

 making many spires of grass grow, where none 

 grew before, may differ enough from the common 

 f;ishion to be worth the notice of those readers of 

 the Farmer who think as I do, that grass is the 

 most profitable of all the staple crops. Having a 

 new fiirm, my object has been to make grass fields,- 

 in the cheapest and most expeditious manner. I 

 have pursued the same course on bog meadows, on 



