166 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



July 



ty pounds, so t^iat five such crops would nearly ex- 

 haust it- The potash would last for a hundred crops ; 

 the lime about the same ; but the straw is not usually 

 sold oti" the farm, and as it contains much the most 

 lime, and an equal amount of potash, these substan- 

 ces would not be cxhaustf d by tlie removal of two 

 hundred crops of wheat of twenty-five bushels per 

 acre. The intermediate crops, as they are, or ouglit 

 to be, consumed on the farm, drain the soil of very 

 little except nitrogen and phosphoric acid ; the lat- 

 ter forming the base of bones, is largely exported 

 from tiie farm by the rearing of cattle and siieep. 

 Thus it will be seen that the soil is very likely to be 

 exhausted of. bone earth, and that the recent discov- 

 eries of this mineral on Lake Champlain and in New 

 Jersey, will be of great benefit, tiiough at present 

 little value will be derived from its application owing 

 to the want of nitrogen in the soil. 



A crop of clover equal to one ton of hay, would 

 contain forty pounds of nitrogen, and as it requires 

 five pounds of nitrogen to produce a bushel of wheat, 

 such a crop plowed in would give an increase of 

 eight bushels over the normal produce of the soil, to 

 say nothing of the clover roots, which would proba- 

 bly be equal to half the crop of clover, and thus ma- 

 king on the \Vhole an increase cf twelve bushels, 

 through growing clover. But as in plowing in clo- 

 ver no phosphates or alkalies are supplied, but what 

 are obtained from the soil, and the crop materially 

 increased, thereby consuming and exporting more of 

 these substances,- the soil will so much the sooner be 

 exhausted 6f them : or, if not exhausted, in the strict 

 sense of the term, the proportion which they should 

 leave in a gcod soil will be so much reduced that the 

 crop will be defective, though there might still be a 

 sufficient quantity for a crop in the soil. 



In the October number 1 attempted to show how 

 the nitrogen collected by growing clover might be 

 profitably increased, and potash, phosphoric acid, and 

 other valuable ash constituents, be supplied by feed- 

 ing sheep, or cattle, with clover, hay, and oil cake, 

 and, after a reconsideration of the matter, and an 

 examination of everything known on the subject, I 

 am still of opinion that something of that kind will 

 be found the best way of increasing the crops and 

 profits of the farm. 



With " Anti-IIiimbug," (who every one who reads 

 carefully and intelligently, will perceive has mista- 

 ken my reasoning,) I think the wheat crop of West- 

 ern New York would be diminished one-half by 

 discontinuing the growth and plowing in of clover, 

 and, therefore, would advise that much more clover, 

 peas, and roots, should be grown, and either con- 

 sumed by sheep and the manure carefully returned, 

 or plowed in — the latter giving the quickest return 

 for labor, but the other the greatest profit ultimately. 

 Joseph Harris. — Rochester, JV. Y., June, 1851. 



Comparative Value of Dung Heaps. — The 

 dung heap will, under the careless system, more rap- 

 idly diminish in bulk than in value, so that a load of 

 it unrotted is not worth much more than half a load 

 of the well-rotted manure ; while the wh(de bulk of 

 the heap after rotting in this way, may be worth, 

 perhaps, two-thirds or three-fourths of the whole bulk 

 in its original state. When carefully prepared, the 

 whole heap is worth as much as in its original state, 

 indeed, more, the labor spent upon it not being lost; and 

 as the bulk of the heap does diminish somewhat, the 

 value of a given bulk increases in the same proportion. 



DRAIN ING. 



Messrs. Editors : — Enough has been said and writ- 

 ton upon this subject, to convince the most skeptical 

 of its vital importance and practical utility ; yet, in 

 this vicinity, comparatively little attention has been 

 paid it. This is not by any means owing to the lack 

 of its necessity, on the contrary there is scarcely an 

 acre of land in the neighborhood that would not be 

 vastly benefitted by the operation, and a very largo 

 proportion of it would thereby be converted from al- 

 most uselessness to great fertility. We now see 

 most of the plowed fields (I will not say cultivated, 

 for that implies something more than the fact of its 

 having been scratched over for a series of years,) in- 

 terspersed w'ilh patches of grass, too wet to admit of 

 plowing — ^swales, spring-holes, Slc. The effect of 

 capillary attraction is such that the crops raised in 

 the vicinity of these places, are always very inferior. 

 Their unsightly appearance, and the inconvenience 

 of plowing around them, should furnish sufficient in- 

 ducements to try the benefits of draining. My object 

 is not to furnish new arguments in favor of tliis ope- 

 ration. Its undeniable utility has already been set- 

 tled by many able papers in the columns of your 

 invaluable periodical. It is merely to contribute the 

 results of some eight years experience and observa- 

 tion in the making and filling of drains. Some of my 

 neighbors have failed in securing permanent advan- 

 tages to their land?, through the slovenly manner in 

 which they have proceided, viz : the want of depth, 

 and proper care in filling up — such ditches becoming 

 obstructed in a short time. I am in favor of deep 

 drains — not less than three feet — as narrow as they 

 can be conveniently dug ; the bottom should be but 

 little wider than the shovel — the narrower the less 

 earth to be excavated, reducing the expense by facil- 

 itating the work. The culvert can be constructed 

 with more ease and permanency ; my mode of doing 

 which is as follows : With flat 

 stones set aijainst the edges of 

 the drain, and brought together 

 in the center, roof-like : break 

 joints with flat stones,and wedge 

 firmly at the sides — then nicely 

 level off" and sheet over with flat 

 stones ; fill in with such as you 

 have left, to within fifteen in- 

 ches of the lop, taking care to 

 leave the top level and closely 

 packed, to exclude the dirt ; cov- 

 er with plow, and your drain is complete and will 

 never fail, and is capable of conveying a large stream 

 of water. C. W. T.—Enjield, JV. Y., 1851. 



Renovati.ng old Treks. — The London Gardener's 

 Chronicle contains an intcrestering account of the 

 renovation of an old oak, the material facts of which 

 we will conJense in a single paragraph. The tree 

 was '20 feet in circumference, iiolluw, and the abode 

 of a famous swarm of bees, where honey was coveted 

 by some chaps who had no legal right to the same. 

 They set the dead wood in the hollow on fire, to 

 smoke out the bees and get their generous store of 

 sweet ; but justly fearing the combustion of the whole 

 tree, and punishment, with great efflirts and the aid 

 of a fire engine from the village of Buckinghamshire, 

 they finally succeeded in putting out the fire. By the 

 assistance of the ashes furnished from the dead wood 

 within the tree, it has been rejuvenated, bears abund- 

 ant crops of acorns, and may live another century. 



I 



