394 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUNE 34, 1835. 



to acknowledge, that it is notliing but sheer neg- 

 ligence in providing other means of su])plying 

 fodder or hay, that induces me to do so from year 

 to year. I will give you as nearjy as my memory 

 serves, the result of an experiment made by me 

 when a lad, under the special direction of my 

 father, who made a record of this experiment, 

 as well as of a great many others, which would 

 now probably be very useful, but which were all 

 lost or destroyed by his servants during the latter 

 declining years of his life. I cannot pretend to 

 rememljer accurately the quantities of corn and 

 fodder produced iti the experiment vliich was 

 made more than thirty years ago, and is nearly as 

 follows : 



Thirtynine rows of corn, CO hills long, 54 feet 

 each way, and two stalks in each hill, were plant- 

 ed on tolerably good land, and cultivated as com- 

 mon, till it was thought proper time for pulling 

 fodder. I then carefully pulled the fodder oft' of 

 each first and second row alternately through the 

 piece, leaving each third row to stand with all the 

 fodder and tops on, till perfectly dry. When it 

 was thought the proper time, 1 cut the to( s oft" 

 each first row, so that there were 13 rows of corn 

 with fodder pulled and tops cut, 13 rows with 

 fodder ])ulled to one blade above the ear and tops 

 left to dry, and 13 rows from which neither fod- 

 der nor tops were taken at all. Each parcel of 

 fodder was cured and kept a]iart from each other, 

 and the blades were stripped from the tops of 

 each first row, at the time of cutting the tops; 

 and when cured, put with the fodder that had been 

 pulled from the same rows. Each |]arcel of corn 

 was gathered, and when jierfectly dry, shelled and 

 weighed separately, and the fodder from the 13 

 first rows and that from the 13 second rows, each 

 weighed separately. The quantity of corn raised 

 from the 13 first rows, from which the fodder was 

 pulled and the tops cut, was considerably less 

 than that raised on the 13 second rows, from 

 which the fodder was pulled and the t0[ s left 

 standing till dry, and still much less than the corn 

 raised on the 13 third rows, on which both fodder 

 and tops were left till perf ictly dry. The quanti- 

 ty of corn raised on the 13 third rows, weighed a 

 few ounces more than the corn and fodder both 

 together, which was raised on the 13 second rows 

 from which the fodder only was pulled, and tops 

 left standing — and weighed a few ounces less 

 than the corn and fodder, with the addition of the 

 fodder stripped from the tops raised on the 13 

 first rows, from which the fodder was pulled and 

 the tops cut. I remember the conclusions to 

 which my father and myself came were, that the 

 whole jiroduce in each case, was so nearly of 

 equal value, as to make scarcely an object worth 

 consideration, even in a large crop, and that the 

 whole labor of gathering and curing the fodder 

 and tops (a considerable item in u farmer's ac- 

 count by the by) was entirely lost. 



Another experiment which I made about the 

 game time, of which I have not as perfect recol- 

 lection, was to strip the fodder from a number of 

 rows of corn, quite from bottom to top, taking oft" 

 all the blades at the usual time of pulling blade 

 fodder, from below the ears. My recollection of 

 this experiment is, that this last is the most un- 

 profitable management of any 1 have mentioned 

 in this communication — not being practically ac- 

 quainted with any other Juodcs of managing the 

 corn crop with a view to saving the fodder. 



I will suggest to your readers, the propriety of 



extending the experiments so as to test the relative 

 profit of cutting down the corn, fodder and all, 

 just before the fodder would die and dry up on 

 the stalks ; or rather at the time of pulling fod- 

 der. Those who have secured corn and fodder 

 in this way, generally approve the practice, but I 

 have not seen that any person has made a fair ex- 

 [leriinent by actual weight and measure, which is 

 the only way to avoid delusion. 



It now occurs to me that I once made an ex- 

 [leriment on wheat that bears some analogy to 

 this practice. In a large field two adjoining 

 squares were accurately laid oft" to the same size, 

 where the wheat on both squares was supposed 

 to be equally good. One square was reaped with 

 a sickle, about three days before ripe, the time is 

 not certainly remembered, when the grain had 

 just attained the dough state, and dried and secur- 

 ed separately. The other square was left to get 

 full ripe, when it was reaped as the first in the 

 morning whilst moist with dew, to avoid shatter- 

 ing — I do not think a single head was lost in either 

 square. When both were perfectly dry, they 

 were each very carefully tlireshed, cleaned, and 

 weighed separately. The parcel which had stood 

 to get fully ripe, weighed so much more as to per- 

 fectly astonish me. The result was stated to my 

 father, who said he had tried the same experiment 

 several times with wheat, and once with barley, 

 and it had always turned out nuicli in the same 

 way — but in carefully picking up all the heads of 

 wheat that were left upon the ground in an ad- 

 joining square which had been well mown and got 

 in as common, we supposed that rather more good 

 wheat would generally be housed by cutting when 

 fully in the dough state, than by suflTering it to get 

 fully ri])e, when it would inevitably shatter and 

 scatter more than in the dough state. 



Charles Woodson. 



[The foregoing experiment on corn and fodder, 

 is precisely of the kind that is wanting to decide 

 this and many other controverted points in agri- 

 cultural practice — and which, when sufliciently 

 varied and repeated, will serve better to remove 

 doubts and establish valuable truths, than an hun- 

 dred tiil'.es as much space occupied by general 

 reasoning, and deductions from untried and there- 

 fore doubtful premises. This experiment is only 

 deficient in one respect — the long time which has 

 passed since the facts were observed and recorded. 

 But though this lapse of time lessens the force of 

 the result, by permitting doubts to rise of some- 

 thing having been forgotten, such are in some 

 measure counteracted by the internal evidence of 

 acciuate and particular observation, which the 

 manner of JMr Woodson's statements carries with 

 them. But even if this experiment had been re- 

 cently made, and was free from every objection 

 on the score of accuracy, it would need confirma- 

 tion (as in all other cases) by other experiments 

 made for the same object, and by different per- 

 sons and under various circumstances. It is to 

 be hojied, that even if none of our agricultural 

 societies will promote the institutions of regular 

 courses of experiments on doubtful points, that 

 enough individual farmers will make experiments 

 on the eftects and cost of gathering fodder during 

 the next season, as to settle this most important 

 question. If the absolute loss of labor in this 

 usual and long prevailing practice of Virginia is 

 as great as we have supposed, and even half as 

 great as may be inferred from the result of the 

 experiment above, the amount of the whole annual 



loss and tax so paid, if saved, would be enough to 

 defray the cost of constructing all of the canals 

 and railways now in progress in the state, and the 

 expenses of the General Assembly to boot. 



The experiment on reaping wheat green, or in 

 the dough state, though less accurately observed, 

 and reported in still more general terms, agrees io 

 the main with our own opinions, founded on the 

 practice of reaping green for about twelve years. 

 We have never made any one accurate exiieri- 

 ment on this matter — and should not have suppos- 

 ed the diff"erence to be near so great as is stated 

 in general terms above ; but the conclusion reach- 

 ed and acted upon, was the same as that which 

 seems to be supported by Mr Woodson's experi- 

 ment, viz. that however great may be the loss from 

 the shrinkage of the grain when reaped green, 

 there is much greater loss, on the average, from 

 waste by permitting wheat to stand until ripe.] — 

 Farmer's Register. ' 



Wool. — This article is becoming one of the 

 greatest importance to our country. Indeed, it 

 would be difficult to account for its culture having 

 so long been neglected, where all the means ' of 

 producing it are so abundant. We know of no 

 part of the world where Wool has been higher, 

 on an average, for the last ten years, than in this 

 country ; and no one better calculated to raise it 

 for export than this. Instead of making it an ar- 

 ticle of remittance to Europe, we have been, and 

 are at present importing it in large quantities, the 

 importer realizing, it is said, a fair profit for his 

 enterprise. By the growth and manufacture of 

 Wool, England has added iiumensely to her wealth 

 and power. Her clip has been estimated for 

 some years past to exceed one hundred and forty 

 millions of pounds annually ; while hei-e with a 

 soil better adapted to its growth, with lands at 

 about one eighth the price, and ten times more ex- 

 tensive, we do not produce more than seventyfive 

 millions of pounds. 



In 1830, after a careful investigation, the num- 

 ber of sheep in the United States was estimated at 

 twenty millions, producing fifty millions pounds of 

 wool. At the present time a fair estimate wouldii 

 probably be above tweutyeight millions. 



Pennsylvania especially, with her unoccupied 

 hills and dales, should look seriously tn this matter. 

 We believe that no state in the Union is better 

 adapted to the growth of wool, yet New York is 

 at ])resent ccmsiderably in advance of her. The 

 clip in New York is estimated at six millions of 

 pounds, while that of Pennsylvania is only fouri 

 to four aiul a half million. Either of these states 

 could annually produce twenty millions of pounds 

 without decreasing any other of their present pro- 

 ductions. 



There are several counties in the western part 

 of this State that have entered with great spirit 

 into this business, and "sheep farms," (as they are 

 called) are rapidly advancing in value. Among 

 these we could instance Washington, Fayette and 

 Green counties. ']"he former county alone, wil 

 probably sell this year above half a million pounds 

 of wool, yielding at least two hundred thousand 

 dollars in cash, as the finer qualities of wool are 

 principally grown there. — Philadelphia Com. 

 List. 



An iron bridge of a single arch, 186 yards span 

 has recently been erected in the Gironde. 



