42 



oak, walnut and chesnut, vvhicli, he says, will replace itself once in 

 twenty years. 



His average yield of crops is, corn, 25 30 bs., has raised 55 bs.r 

 oats, 30 bs., weighing from 30 to 34 lbs.; winter rye,20bs.; winter 

 wheat, 25 bs.; grass, 1 to 2i tons. 



His rotation is corn on green-sward, oats with clover, rye or wheat 

 and the land stocked down to grass. He sows a peck of herds grass and 

 clover, equally mixed, to an acre. But he uses no barn manure. He 

 is accustomed to sow one bs. of plaster yearly, to an acre. He says he 

 knows nothing of land becoming, as it is termed, plaster-sick. His crops 

 are not large, but they are raised at a small comparative expense. This 

 mode of management prevails in the neighboring district of New York, 

 Columbia and Rennsellaer counties, where the whole country is ag- 

 ricultural, and in no part of the country is agriculture more suc- 

 cessful. One farmer, for example, within ten miles of this farm, 

 plants annually, in corn, 100 acres and raises upwards of 2500 bs. of 

 corn. The oi)eration of gypsum on these lands, which is obtained 

 lie're prepared at about 10 dollars per ton, is singularly efficacious. 

 But it is not the plaster alone that supplies the place of manure. It 

 will be observed, that he turns under a large amount of vegeta- 

 ble nutriment, when he ploughs up l)is green-sward for corn ; and 

 when he ploughs in his oat-stubble charged with clover. This es- 

 tablishment on the side of the mountain, and near the turnpike-road 

 leading from Sheffield to Hudson, is a fine example of highly pro- 

 ductive and profitable agriculture. 



4. Teasels. — Of other crops raised in this county, the one that 

 principally deserves attention, because the cultivation is not much 

 known, is the Fuller's Teasel — {Dipsacus Fullonum.) This, in 

 some few places, has been cultivated with eminent success. The 

 burr produced on this plant is of great use in the manufacture of wool- 

 lens, being employed to raise a nap on the cloth, that it may be pre- 

 pared for the operation of the shears. Substitutes have been at- 

 tempted in machinery made of steel ; but there is an elasticity about 

 the vegetable, which cannot be given to steel in this case ; and the 

 steel machinery is liable to tear the cloths. The amount of teasels 

 consumed in the country is considerable, and is likely to increase. 

 We have not, within reach, the means of determining the precise 

 quantity. 



