VOL. Xi. KO. as. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



208 



CHEAP STRUCTCRB FOR HA.Y AND GRAIN. 



HoNTINGTON, AcGDST 15, 1836. 



Jesse Boel, Esq. — Sir, — The remarks upon 

 " stacking grain," contained in your August num- 

 ber of the Cultivator, induce me to recommend a 

 kind of barrack, which I have i sed for several 

 years, and which I think ()ayB for itself in a short 

 tin)e. We will siip])Ose that you wish to erect 

 one which shall contain one hundred loads of 

 grain or hay. Take twenty posts of twenty feet 

 in length, and about eight inches diameter, and 

 set them in two rows ; let the rows lie sixteen 

 feet apart, and the distanc:.- between the posts the 

 other way, twelve feet ; the posts must be put four 

 feet in the ground ; fr.'ime plates on tliese posts 

 from end to end of the jows, and bind them to- 

 gether crosswise by girts, let in about two feet 

 from the top ; strengthen this cro.ss-work by 

 braces eight feet long ; you will understand, of 

 course, that the braces go from the girt to the 

 posts. Set on the plates, rafters ol' such length 

 as will allow an Albany board, (when laid on for 

 covering,) to project one and a half feet below the 

 plate ; make use of one and i quarter inch stuff 

 for lath, laying one row at the ridge, another about 

 midway of the rafter, and a third just clear of 

 the plate. In putting on the root-boards, every 

 other one rides, and ought to lap upon the edges 

 of its supporters one and a half inches. The 

 ends of the building are to be boarded from the 

 peak till within six or eight feet of the ground, 

 (this makes a string-piece or two necessary, which 

 may be of plank,) and acconnnodated with a 

 large window, having a sliding shutter. On the 

 sides of the building, you l)oard down imni the 

 plate with three Albany boards, remembering to 

 have a strip of plank about six inches wide, to tie 

 them together in the middle. It wij^ be well also, 

 to cut pieces of board along the riilge under the 

 board that rides, — this to prevent rain or snow 

 from driving in. Your barrack is now completed 



In mowing away, you drive under, and fill one 

 joint, or the compartment included by four 

 posts, at once ; when you get to the last end, that 

 must be filled from the outside, through the 

 window. 



These buildings are cheap, they preserve grain 

 and hay in a perfect state ; they obviate the ne- 

 cessity (often a very galling one) of employing an 

 artist to stack ; grain never grows in them ; this 

 may appear like repetition ; but I must be ex- 

 cused for contrasting them with stacks, in this im- 

 portant particular, they will slielter several loads 

 at a time, when you are threatened with showers ; 

 or, you drive under sevei-al loads at nij;ht, and let 

 your hands store them away before lufakfast ; 

 being a part of the day often wasted, even in the 

 bitsiest season of the year. In winter-, when the 

 exterior sheaves of stacks are penetrated to the 

 bands with snow and sleet, so as to prevent 

 threshing for days, the grain in these buildings 

 may always be got in, in order, excepting perhaps 

 a very little on the windward side, which should 

 be kept by i'self till dry ; poultry make no im- 

 pression on gi-ain in these buildings. 



The last one which I built, (being No. 3,) was 

 calculated for forty loads, and tliiscost me (exclu- 

 sive of timber which was cut on the farm) $65, 

 20. Parsons who have not locust for posts, vvoirld 

 do well to char tfie surface which is to go under 

 ground. 



Permit me now to ask a question. Are you 

 familiar with the use of the horse-rake, the re- 



volving rake ; and did you intend to apply your 

 remarks about curing hay in cock, to a country 

 where this rake can be used ? 



With high respect, your obed't. servant, 



A SUBSCRIBER. 

 P. S. In mowing gia.n under these baiTacks, 

 it is best to keep the middle of the mow highest, 

 and to give the outer course of sheaves a good 

 pitch. Moreover, a flour of poles, or rails, laid 

 upon stones so that cats cair go under, answers a 

 good purpose. — Cabinet. 



Kxperlments irUli Plaster of Paris. 



Jksse Buel, Esq — Dear Sir, — I now, in 

 conformity with my promise, send you the result 

 of the various experiments which I ha\e made 

 with Plaster of Paris. Early in the spring I or- 

 dei-ed 50 barrels from Oswego, but owing to some 

 unknown cairse, they did not reach me till the 

 itdddle of May. I immediately had six barrels 

 sown on 22 acres of i-lover and tirjiothy, in a field 

 which had not been hall see-.leil by my pi'edeces- 

 sor ; the seed was sown in the prci-eding spring 

 on winter wheat — in less than a fortnight the 

 ell'ect was evident, and I cut our two tons an 

 acre where i am certain I should not wiihout the 

 plaster, have cut 15 cwt. The field being large 

 and rather undulating, the sower missed his line 

 in several spots, and oti these there was scarcely 

 grass enough to stand the scythe. The field had 

 been cleared more than 20 yeai-s, and hardly 

 cropped without ever having been manured — 

 previous wheat crop not over 18 bush(ds per acre 

 after sunuuer fallow — soil a deep loam, rather 

 light than heavy. 



Havins a field of fifteen acres of jieas sown 

 after a poor crop of wheat, which had been much 

 winter killed ; on the 20th of May, when the 

 plants were just appearing, I ordered one barrel 

 of plaister to be sown on about four acres thei-e- 

 of, merely to try the efleet, which was so great 

 that in less than a montii it appeared to have in- 

 creased the crop at least three-fold. Vexed at 

 having plastered so small a part, when I beheld 

 the result, without expecting to remedy my error 

 in any consi lerable degree, as the peas were all 

 now moi-e than a foot high, and those which had 

 been pl.iistered much higher I oi-dei-e I nty head 

 man, an excellent seedsman, to sow another barrel 

 at the rate of half a bushel per acr-e ; in less than 

 three weeks these last manured were fully equal 

 to the othei-s, while the live acres implasteied 

 were so inferior that they might be distingnislied 

 two miles off, though these were more than an 

 average crop. The plastered peas were so lux- 

 uriant tliat I feared they would neither ripen nor 

 pod well, but they are now nearly all cut, ami 1 

 find my feais wei-e gi-oundless. 



An experienced farmer, who for more than 30 

 years successfully tilled a very extensive farm in 

 the East Lothians of Scotland, walked over the 

 field with me the day befoi-e yesterday and he 

 declared that he never had seen a finer or more 

 productive crop in any country ; indeed the 

 ground could scarcely contain more plants, or 

 the plants more pods ; the tops, howev.:r, of the 

 plastered jreas contiimed to grow and blossom 

 till they were cut, and vvill make excellent fodder, 

 but the peas were quite ripe nearer the bottom. 



In a field wliich had been highly seeded with 

 timothy in 1834, and which last year was scarcely 

 worth mowing, I sowed on three acres of the shal- 



lowest and worst [)art, a barrel of plaster ; these 

 pi-oduce twice as much nay as all the rest of the 

 field, (7 acres) and the mowers said I lost eight 

 tons of hay, by not plastering the whole. I also 

 sowed half a bushel on an acre ©f a field which 

 had been left unseeded, and produced nothing but 

 natui-al red top, bent and blue grass ; a thick and 

 luxuriant coat of white clover, in a short time 

 marked the spot, which was eaten bare by my cat- 

 tle, and had a very singular appearance in the 

 midst of the coarse grasses which they left un- 

 touched. 1 also found plaster beneficial, though 

 in a less degree to spring wheat. The soil of the 

 three last mentionrd fields is a deep sandy loam, 

 containing a good many liitre stones. 



In my garden, my experiments \vere attended 

 with very different results; it contains exactly one 

 acre of deep rich vegetable mould, and was 

 never submitted to spade or plough till last Sep- 

 tei]d)ei', when it was well mamired with long dung 

 and trench plougliP'd ; last spring it was well 

 dragged and cross ploughed, and afterwards well 

 woi-ked with the cultivator, and the part inten.ded 

 for small seeds dug with the spade ; a part having 

 been planted with asparagus, rhubarb and seakale 

 early in last November. I tried plaister here on 

 beans, celery, melons and potatoes, and on none 

 of these, except the beans which were evidently, 

 and the potatoes, which vveie gi-eatly benefitted, 

 did it produce any beneficial efl^ects — on the mel- 

 ons it posit'iv .ly operated as a poison, destroying 

 every plant submitted to its intlnence. Hence it 

 seems that on over rich or highly manured lands, 

 plaister is of little or no benefit, but that its good 

 effects on dry, light soils are most extraordinary, 

 I am thoroughly convinced. 



I must add that 1 last week saw a field of oats, 

 the soil of whic'i was a piue running sand, that 

 could not, without such assistance as it received, 

 have produced a return of the seed — sown afler 

 peas, and yet on six acres thereof, where the )ieas 

 fieas had been jilastered, the crop is certainly not 

 less than sixty bushels to the acre, while on the 

 rest of the field it is not worth cutting. 



I hope, sir, many of your i-eaders will be in- 

 duced by what I have said, (and I ain sure, 

 though 1 write anonymously, for reasons before 

 staled, that you who know me will vouch for my 

 credibility,) to us,? this cheap but most valuable 

 manure, and their cuccess, of which I am confi- 

 dent, will highly gratify a sincere well wisher to 

 the agricultural eiiterprize of your coimtrymen, 

 and a warm admirer of your own praiseworthy 

 exertions in so good a cause. Coloncs. 



Upper Canada, Sept. 5, 1836. 



A Patriotic Family. — Capt. Simeon Cole, now 

 living in Bradford, and five brothers, being six sons 

 of the late Samuel Cole of that town, performed 

 twentyseven years and eight months service in the 

 revolutionary warl We doubt whether the same 

 is true of any other family in tho United States. 

 This little town furnished a very large portion of 

 soldiers in the revolutionary army; and no less than 

 eight of her sons were slain on Bunker Hill. — Ha- 

 verhill Gaz. 



The Barre Gazette cautions the ladies to keep at 

 a proper distance from the fire, as their clothes are 

 very liable to ignite and produce disastrous conse- 

 quences. 



