136 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



abroad, is good ; exempt from the prevalent disease, 

 productive, and developing, from the seeds obtained 

 not long since from different parts of the %vorld, viz., 

 Prussia, England, South America, Mackinaw, and 

 other I'.laces, varieties promising a valuable acquisi- 

 tion to the potato market. The crop, of about one 

 thousand four hundred bushels, shows distinctly, in 

 its healthy and strong foliage, loaded with balls, its 

 strongly marked and distinct varieties, and the in- 

 crease of new varieties of fine appearance, the bene- 

 fits of the progressive alternate culture. 



N. S. SMITH. 

 Buffalo, Januarj 4, 1849. 

 — Albcmy Cultivator. 



Remarks by Editor New Exglaxd Farmer. 



We are much pleased with the course taken by 

 the Rev. Mr. Smith, in regard to the potato. He not 

 only gives judicious advice as to management, but, 

 by collecting various kinds from different sections of 

 this, and from foreign countries, and raising new 

 varieties from seed, and disseminating seeds and 

 superior kinds, he is rendering essential service to 

 the cause of agriculture, and doing much to im- 

 prove the most valuable of all roots. From some 

 seeds which we obtained of Mr. Smith, we raised 

 last season, in several cases, a quart of potatoes from 

 a single seed, and some of them nearly the common 

 size of potatoas. 



DEEP TfLLAGE-SUBSOIL PLOUGHS. 



The advantages of deep culture have been so often 

 written upon, and such uncontrovertible facts in 

 relation thereto have been piiblishcd, that it would 

 seem almost useless to issue another word upon the 

 subject. 



There is not a farmer to be found, I think, in Ohio, 

 v/ho has not noticed the superior size of his grain or 

 grass crop where grown along the bank of a ditch 

 that has been cut within a year or two ; and yet with 

 such evidence before him of the practical truth of 

 the benefit of deep culture, too many pass on, over- 

 looking the evidence before them, and too often 

 ti'enting the statements made by others of the actual 

 profit derived from deep tillage as "book learning." 



Some remedy for improvement of some farms in 

 Ohio, it is certain, must soon be made, or the farmer 

 who intends to reap when he sows must move farther 

 v/cst. Farms are now to be found that have been 

 skimmed about four inches deep with the plough, 

 year after year, and changing from lot to lot, until 

 the occupant has become impressed Avith the idea 

 that he must " move off," as lands arc " worn ovit in 

 Ohio." That this is a dark statement, or one of a 

 very general application, I would not have the reader 

 believe ; but that it is applicable in many instances I 

 can prove. 



Now, as some remedy for these apparent worn-out 

 lands must be had, or the occupant "move to a 

 better," let me call attention to the subject ; and if a 

 man is not disposed to believe, that by ploughing 

 the land eight or twelve inches, or even eighteen 

 inches deep, whore before he only ploughed it foiu- 

 inches, that ho will ajiain reap large crops, and 

 increase more than double the expense of extra 

 labor, let him but make the experiment, and he will 

 be satisfied the statement is correct. 



In Thaer's Principles of Agriculture, (a work, by 

 the way, that every farmer should read,) there is 

 abundant proof of the value of deepening soils ; and 

 it is there stated that a soil four inches thick, and 

 which may be estimated as worth forty-two ; one six 



inches thick or deep, worth fifty ; one eight inches 

 deep, worth fifty-eight ; one ten inches deep, worth 

 sixty-six, and one twelve inches deep would be 

 worth seventy-four ; and that every additional inch 

 of depth beyond twelve adds five per cent, to the 

 value of the soil. 



The Transactions of the New York State Agricul- 

 tural Society abound in statements, from practical 

 men, of the benefit derived from an extra depth of 

 ploughing over the common practice. 



Subsoil ploughs have been described and illus- 

 trated in this journal, that it may be presumed every 

 reader knows of them and the mode of using them. 

 I will only add, therefore, for the benefit of farmers 

 residing in Waye county, or Avho make "Wooster their 

 market place, that they can obtain subsoil ploughs, 

 made after the eastern pattern, of Mr. James John- 

 son, at his agricultural warehouse in AVooster. 



Very respectfully, 

 — Ohio CuUimtor. F. II. ELLIOTT. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH GUANO. 



I am one of the pioneers in the use of guano in 

 this section of the country, having used it for about 

 five years. My first experiment was on an old, worn- 

 out sedge lot, on which I applied at the rate of three 

 hundred pounds of Peruvian guano to the acre. The 

 product was a fraction over twenty bushels of clean 

 wheat per acre. 



My second experiment was upon the same lot, 

 with the addition of three acres adjoining. The 

 quantity of guano applied was about four hundred 

 pounds per acre, part Peruvian and the balance Pat- 

 agonian. The product was twenty-five bushels of 

 clean wheat per acre, exclusive of scrapings. In 

 each of the above experiments, previous to sowing 

 the wheat, 1 mixed about a peck of gypsum to every 

 hundred pounds of guano. 



My third experiment was also made Avith wheat, on 

 six acres of the same kind of land as the other two, 

 which were ploughed up directly after harvest, and 

 manured with four hundred pounds of Patagonian 

 guano, mixed Avith tAvo bushels of charcoal dust per 

 acre, applied at the time of soAving. The wheat noAV 

 looks fine, better than the years previous ; but Avhat- 

 CA'cr the result may be, next harA^est Avill tell. 



It may be proper to state, that in my first experi- 

 ment, owing to the previous season being Avet, about 

 one third of the seed sown did not come up ; and in 

 the second experiment, at the time of seeding, the 

 ground Avas somewhat like a mortar bed, and a con- 

 siderable quantity of the Avheat plants Avere Avinter- 

 killed. The quantity of seed sowed iia each case 

 Avas two bushels per acre. 



My fourth experiment was Avith potatoes, by 

 spreading a handful of guano, mixed with plaster, to 

 every one or tAVO yards along the furroAvs after the 

 tubers Averc dropped. The product Avas middling, 

 size of the potatoes good, quality first rate, and no 

 rotten ones. 



I have also tried guano to Indian corn by applying 

 it in the hill ; but OAving to the dryness of the season, 

 I have not reaped that advantage I anticipated. In 

 one instance, I soAved a small square broadcast, 

 ploughing in the seed, which resulted in from one 

 third to one half more corn than Avhcn the guano 

 Avas applied in the hill. The quantity of guano used 

 Avas from three hundred to five hundied pounds per 

 acre. 



I have also applied guano to my young fruit trees, 

 as AvcU as to almost every vegetable and flower on 

 my grounds, Avith marked success. 



JACOB IIEWES. 



Leipera'ille, Pa., January, 1849. 

 — American Agriculturist. 



