230 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



heat is hay that has stood and sweated upon the load. 

 And another advantage of hay early cut and cured 

 as .above, is, that it is more healthy ; keeping the 

 stomach and bowels of our stock in good condition, 

 without the necessity of feeding roots ; and I be- 

 lieve in a better condition than would be possible to 

 keep them on late-cut hay with the addition of roots. 

 The practice of treading hay much in the mow, is a 

 bad one, unless the want of room strongly demands 

 it, as hay thus pressed down is far more liable to 

 heat. 



I can fully respond to your remark in the last 

 number of the New England Farmer upon salting 

 hay. Those who use salt to preserve hay, should 

 use fine salt, as the hay may become of so high a 

 temperature as to injure its quality before coarse salt 

 would dissolve and allay the fermentation. 



I think much the best way of preserving hay im- 

 perfectly cured, is, to mix with it old hay, straw, or 

 coi-n fodder, in the proportion of from two to four 

 hundred of one of these to a ton of new hay. I have 

 fi-equently put up hay in quite a moist, green state, 

 and by mixing in layers of old hay, have ever had it 

 come out very bright, sweet, and heavy in the spring. 

 I believe old hay summered over, and used for this 

 purpose, will pay twenty-five per cent. Straw or 

 corn fodder will answer equally well, but it gives 

 the hay a slovenly appearance when feeding it out. 



One word in relation to horse-rakes. I have used 

 both the revolving and wire-tooth rake, and think 

 that they make a great saving of time ; yet there is 

 one strong objection against the use of the latter, 

 which is, that on ground that is top-dressed and 

 newly seeded, or where there is fog or dead grass, 

 it will scrape up and mix with the hay much dirt, 

 old stubble, and fog, which is injurious to all ani- 

 mals that oat of the hay, and very much so to horses 

 — often producing the heaves ; and hay intended 

 for horses should by all means be raked with the 

 revolving or hand rake, unless the turf is very free 

 from these injurious substances. I think more cases 

 of the heaves are brought on by horses eating dirty, 

 musty, and lifeless hay than bv anv other cause. 

 EBENEZEK BRIDGE. 

 PoMFRET, Vt., June 26, 1849. 



HONEY-DEW. 



There have been a variety of opinions, and thou- 

 sands of people are to this day ignorant in regard to 

 what is the cause of honey-dew. For many years 

 I was taught to believe that it fell from heaven, as 

 did the manna on which the children of Israel sub- 

 sisted during their journey in the wilderness. But 

 upon a dose search for more than four years, and a 

 critical examination, I find this is not the case. 



I reason as follows : If it falls from heaven, as 

 other dew, why docs it not fall upon all trees, loaves, 

 and shrubs alike ? which is not the case. It cannot 

 be found upon buckeye, polk leaves, and many 

 others. And another reason is the fact that there 

 are often bushes whose leaves are covered with honey- 

 dew, and this, too, while they stand directly under 

 large, bushy trees, so that it would be impossible for 

 honcy-dcw to fall on the smaller shrubs, which are 

 so rich with it, directly under them. 



I next conjectured that it might be owing to cer- 

 tain states of weather. But the same objections met 

 this conjecture. Why is it not on all leaves that are 

 subject to the same influence of weather ? I come 

 now to the point. 



There is a certain insect that is formed and grows 

 on the under side of the hickory leaf. When this 

 insect comes to maturity, it is a small yellow gnat, 

 with black wings. It can skip from one loaf to an- 

 other, and it crawls over the leaf and throws out this 



honey in specks and rows over the surface of the 

 leaf ; and as it crosses and recrosses its path, it drips 

 this deposit in the same place till it forms a small 

 drop. When the wind blows and shakes the leaf, 

 the dew spreads itself in splotches on the leaf. I 

 have seen this gnat throw out this honej'. I have 

 taken it before it could crawl, crushed it on the leaf, 

 and found it rich with honey. I have tasted it, and 

 found it sweet as honey. 



These gnats do not like to stay on those leaves that 

 do not hatch them. Therefore the most honey will 

 be found on hickory leaves, as this leaf is a favorite 

 of theirs. This accounts for the fact of some leaves 

 having more honey-dew on them than others. 

 Yours, with great respect, 



ABRAHAM MILICE. 

 — Valley Farmer. 



♦ 



POTATOES EXHAUST THE SOIL. 



Eds. Cultivator : I was taught, when a boy, that 

 potatoes were not an exhausting crop, drawing but 

 little strength from the ground. I have always taken 

 this for granted, and I have made no experiment on 

 the subject, more than to satisfy myself that they 

 would not succeed well a second year on the same 

 ground. If you should conclude that I have been 

 indiscreet in taking any thing for granted, and passing 

 on forty years without examination, I could not find 

 much fault with your conclusion. But to the sub- 

 ject. In the summer of 1847, a neighboring farmer 

 requested me to go into his lot and look at his clover. 

 On reaching his lot, he showed me a field of clover, 

 one part of which was of a vigorous growth, while 

 the other part was small — not more than half, if 

 more than a third, as large as the other, and the line 

 distinctly marked through the lot. The clover was 

 sown with oats the previous year. The year before 

 that, my friend informed me, that the part of the 

 field where the clover was best, was planted with 

 corn ; while the other part was devoted to potatoes. 

 The whole, he said, was manured and cultivated just 

 alike, and the clover was sown on all at the same 

 time, and from the same parcel of seed. Here was 

 a thing so different from all my former notions, that 

 I began to think I had, all my life, been laboring 

 under a mistake. 



I had several times had corn on a part of the field, 

 and potatoes on the other part ; and had noticed that 

 the subsequent grass crop was much the best where 

 the corn had grown ; but so deep was the impression 

 that corn was a greater exhauster than potatoes, that 

 I attributed the difference in the grass to other causes. 

 At the time my attention was turned to my neigh- 

 bor's clover, I had a piece of ground, which was 

 seeded with grass, the previous summer with oats, 

 after a crop of potatoes. The ground was well ma- 

 nured for the potatoes, and had previously borne 

 large grass crops. I was much disappointed with 

 the grass crop on this piece, and after mowing a very 

 light crop two seasons, I last summer turned in the 

 sward and sowed grass seed : whether this will im- 

 prove the crop of grass remains to be seen. Will 

 some of j'our correspondents, who have made obser- 

 vations, enlighten us on this subject ? R. R. P. 



Manchi!steii, Ct., Fob. 15, 1849. 

 — Albany Cultivator. 



Remarks by Editor N. E. Farmer. — It is well 

 known that potatoes do not bear a succession of 

 crops without very high manuring. They are very 

 exhausting as it relates to their own crop to follow ; 

 they arc also very exhausting in regard to clover as 

 a succeeding crop, and it maj- be the same with some . 

 other crops. But because it will not bear a succes- 

 sion of crops, and is exhausting for clover, it should 



