740 [Assembly 



ing drainage, he has tried on a lot of seven acres, having a subsoil 

 of clay pan. These drains are eighteen inches wide, and about four 

 feet deep. He has made ten thousand running feet of these drains. 

 The first twenty-four inches in depth of these drains, he has effected 

 at a rapid rate and small expense by oxen, the remainder by the work 

 of men. The bottom is covered with stones resting on side stones, 

 and all covered with cypress shavings made in the dressing of shin- 

 gles. The durability of cypress in its native swan)ps, induces the 

 Professor to think that their shavings in his wet drains will " abide 

 their time." This field has a surface of superior loam thirteen inches 

 thick, and under it ten inches of subsoil; a clay colored with oxide 

 of iron, that won't leak one drop. This is underlaid by a decom- 

 posed freestone, mixed with just enough clay not to pass water. I 

 have turned up the surface of this field fifteen inches, thus bringing 

 up two inches of the clay, and 1 have subsoiled in the furrows sev- 

 enteen inches more, making a depth of thirty-two inches, being two 

 inches less than the average of ploughing of other parts of my farm. 

 I have one thousand loads (half cord.s) of muck, dug, and a large 

 quantity dug some years since, to drain meadows. I mean to try 

 every experiment laid down in Dana's Muck Manual. Thanks to 

 friends! I have shells for lime, pigeon and hen dung from curriers 

 and morocco dressers, salt lay and peat ashes from soap boilers, and 

 currier's offals, butcher's hog pen manures, the hogs being fed on 

 blood and offals only, night soil from Newark scavengers, a boat load 

 of charcoal dust, ami any quantity of refuse salt hay, and a determi- 

 nation to get at the truth and nothing but the truth. I am in hopes 

 to give the Farmers' Club some facts next year, worth their knowing. 



I am feeding my working horses and oxen with hasty pudding 

 mixed with cut corn stalks, swelled by hot water, (all of course be- 

 fore fed). After a few days they eat it well, and my oxen improve 

 rapidly, even while working hard. I use one of Jordan L. Mott's 

 sixty gallon kettles to cook the meal. For swelling the cut corn 

 stalks, the hot water must contain some salt. Fresh water can only 

 be heated to 212 degrees, but with salt added it is capable of receiv- 

 ing a much higher degree of heat. In a hog.shead half full of cut 

 corn stalks, put in three gallons of boiUng water containing one 

 quart of salt, cover the hogshead with a blanket, and let them swell 

 and steam. When cold, take them as dry as they will drip, then 

 mix them with hasty pudding, and any animal of good fair common 

 sense will eat it. 



Sometime since, I named to vou that some farmers asserted that 

 onions were never annoyed with insects, and that if an onion seed 



