On Gypsum, 53 



duced all mine to food, litter and manure. But my ex- 

 periments reject the use of cutting boxes, after trying 

 the best for a long time, on account of the expence and 

 inutility of the labour. The expence on a very small 

 farm is not seen ; on a very large one, it is felt at once. 

 On mine, the removal of stalks, straw, corn shucks, 

 cobs and tops to the places of consumption, is nearly 

 sufficient for the winter's work. To cut the stalks and 

 straw, would employ the whole labour of the farm. If a 

 good farmer ought to have a vast surplus of dry vege- 

 table matter for litter, beyond What is necessary for food, 

 why should this expence be incurred ? Is it not cheaper 

 to feed in waste, and let the waste go for litter ? It is 

 with difficulty I reduce this coarse food to manure and 

 apply it in the spring. If the stock is increased and 

 made to eat it, the manure is diminished, and the addi- 

 tional stock is soon killed by the want of a dry warm 

 bed, and a deficiency of summer pasturage. 



I find corn stalks gradually became less valuable as 

 food and litter, the longer they stand, therefore I begin 

 to use them as soon as I begin to gather corn, by remov- 

 ing every day the weather will permit, about eight or 

 ten heavy waggon loads, into the stable yard and farm 

 pen ; keeping a parcel near each to resort to in less 

 quantity when the weather is bad. Horses and mules 

 thrive better at this crisis, than at any other time of the 

 year. Whether the saccharine juice of the stalk agrees 

 better with them, or whether it is owing to their being 

 able to masticate more of it than the cow, who is chiefly 

 confined to stripping it, they seem to thrive better on 

 this food than horned cattle. Between two and three 

 thousand load of manure is made on the farm I live on, 



