394 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



JUKE 81, 18'7. 



ns to tlie imliituts and best modi; (^ cMlliviiting tlic 

 UiL'ciii, viz : 



" Tliut it appears to bo full as liardy as clover, 

 but like it, to deli^Iit in a warm, dry soil, tli(mj!h 

 it will lloiirish in a moist clay — subjcrt, however, 

 to the same casualties in open winters, wlieu both 

 \Till be thrown out by tlie frost. 



That " when very younir, it requires a natural 

 or artificial warmth in the soil, otherwise it lan- 

 guishes* and when the weeds and natural grasses 

 come lip, it is unable to contend with them. That 

 it should be sown in a warm soil, in tolerable 

 lieavt ;" that he should prefer for it, ground thai 

 had been manured and bore a jiotato crop the 

 preceding year. That the seed may be so^wn the 

 first of July. That if the crop becomes yellow, 

 it should be immediately mown, and that it will 

 come forth again free from disorder. That the 

 time for cutting for soiling, is whenever it will fill 

 the scythe — should be cut the first year, to des- 

 troy weeds. That it may be fed down by any 

 kind of cattle with as much safety as clover, &c. 

 He urges upon young farmers, not to be discour- 

 aged in its culture by older ones, who tell him 

 they have tried it, and that it will not do ; but to 

 persevere, and they will succeed in rendering it 

 profitable. 



We have had considerable experience in rais- 

 ing lucern during the last sixteen years. Until 

 recently, we have found it a valuable crop, — hav- 

 ing been enabled to feed six or seven cattle upon 

 an acre of it during the snnuner months. For 

 two or three of the last years, our efforts to cnlti- 

 Tate it have been less successful, on account of 

 the severity of our winters, which h.is destroyed 

 in; ny of the plants, and of tlie vexatious intrusion 

 of other grasses, [mrticidarly of the spear-grass, 

 (Poa pratensis.) We think a potato or a riita ba- 

 ga crop, manured and kept clean, is the best crop 

 to precede lucern ; that it should not be sown be- 

 fore the middle of Hb-iy ; that there should be 16 

 pounds of seed sown to the acre, and that if ])iit 

 in broadcast, winter rye, at the rate of a peck to 

 the acre, is the best-grain to sow with the seed of 

 the lucern. We design to make an experiment 

 in cultivating it in drills, the mode generally adop- 

 ted in FrancBj and to keep the crop free from 

 weeds and grass with the cultivator, for which 

 Van Bergen's machine is admirably adapted, by 

 merely taking out the forward and central share, 

 »nd dispensing with the wheel. — Jllbany Culliva- 

 tor. 



(From ttie Albany CuIIiv.-itor.) 

 DRAINING— SWAMP MUCK. 



Nortliami)ton, Ms. March 15, 1S37. 



Judge Boel: — Dear Sir, — In a former com- 

 munication, 1 remarked that I might say some- 

 thing on the subject of draining. You recollect 

 1 spoke of my miniature farm, in full view from 

 my house, and gentiy slojiiug, a canal passes be- 

 tween them, the house being distant from it ten 

 rods, and about forty feet elevation, gives me a 

 bird's eye view of what passes below. This farm, 

 extensive as it is, (si.v acres) lies in common, like 

 the rolling prairie of the west, with only one en- 

 closure. The various crops lie side by side, par- 

 allel with the canal, north and south ; a narrow 

 swale from one to two rods in width, commenc- 

 ing at the canal, runs easterly, and is kept con- 

 stantly in a wet or moist state by the water from 

 it, percolating through the soil; from my elevated 

 situation I can, from day to day, watch its effects ; 



and in the cultivation of corn, potatoes, carrots, 

 and ruta baga, (the crops in which I have had 

 experience,) 1 ain entirely satisfied that the best 

 land, by a superabundance of water, is entirely 

 worthless for these crops at least ; and by wet 

 land, 1 do not niean that only, which has some 

 three or four inches of water for months laying 

 on its surface, with here and there a bog peeping 

 through, on which sits jierched a frog ; this obvi- 

 ously can be good for nothing ; but us is the case 

 with mine, like a wet sjionge, may be detected by 

 the touch, or [ircssure of the foot. I could dis- 

 tinctly trace the line of wet from my house, by 

 the meagre growth of the vegetables, through the 

 whole season, notwithstanding this is the richest 

 part of the ground, having received not only its 

 equal proportion of manure, i. e. at the rate of 38 

 loads to the acre, but the wash from the adjoining 

 ground. The corn through this swale did not 

 give one ear for every twenty hills ; while that on 

 each side gave over one hundred bushels to the 

 acre. Wy ruta baga, yielding eight hundred bush- 

 els to the acre, on this, was hardly worth gather- 

 ing. So with the potatoes and cnrrots. Here 

 then is cause and effect, in which there can be 

 no mistake ; and here, in miniature, are distant 

 fountains, issuing springs, producing wet, boggy, 

 useless land ; here then, is enough to sati.-fy the 

 most incredulous, of the importance of draining. 

 You will take it for granted, that I shall run an 

 underdrain, tliree feet deep, through this lot ; in 

 this you are right; and not only through this, but 

 every like jiiece, on a more extended scale ; thus 

 redeeming some of the best lands, now lying a 

 waste and blot. Indeed, 1 have already, the past 

 autumn, made eightyseven rods of nmlerdrain, 3 

 feet at top, tapering to one and a half at bottom, 

 three feet deep, and carefully laid with large 

 stones, from eight to sixteen inches in size at bot- 

 tom, placing them endwise, so as tn luuva olmn 

 nels for the water ; on these a second size, and so 

 on, throwing the smallest on top, which forms a 

 good pavement, and will prevent the earth work- 

 ing down ; over these are placed sods, turned up- 

 side down, and the remainder filled with earth ; 

 the ditch is about two-thirds filled with stone, 

 vvhicli leaves sufficient earth on top to be unin- 

 jured in ploughing ; the digging cost thirtythrec 

 to fortytwo cents |)er rod, and laying the stone 

 and filling up, fortyfive cents, (estimating labor at 

 one dollar per day) making the average expense 

 per rod, eightythree cents ; for picking up and 

 carting the stone, I make no charge, as 1 have 

 stone enough near at hand, and independent of 

 the drain,! consider it matter of economy for good 

 tillage, to have the land well cleared of them. I 

 have also dug upwards of one hundred rods more 

 ill the same manner, ready to be filled this?|)ring, 

 and shall continue to thoroughly underdrain ad 

 my wet lauds. There is nothing, however, I have 

 undertaken in the way of improvement, in which 

 the public have been so sceptical, and not a few- 

 have ridiculed it outright. There are those who 

 must see water enough run to carry a fulling mill, 

 beforr; they can be satisfied of its injurious effects, 

 and are even then too indolent to dig a common 

 ditch to take it away. Indeed, I heard one who 

 is called a pretty good fanner, i. e. who is eco- 

 nomical, never expending a dollar, for fear he 

 shall not see it ag'ain, but doing every thing with- 

 in himself, say, (on being advised to run a drain 

 through a grass lot, so wet that yon could not mow 

 it without standing over shoes in water,) "there 



are different opinions about it; some think it is 

 butter wet; that they get more grass on wet land. 

 I have my doubts ; I am not satisfied ytt." Not 

 so with ine, sir ; I have no doubt about it, and 

 am as confident of success in this, as in any thing 

 I have undertaken. I expeiit, the coming season, 

 to be entirely remunerated for the expense, be- 

 sides permanently reclaiming, and making first 

 rate land of that which was mostly of little value. 

 And why, it may be asked, have you written this 

 article ? You have told us only, that you have 

 seen the injurious effects of standing water, and 

 to jirevent if, have made a drain. True ; but even 

 this is more than all have done ; and if its effect 

 is only to revive the subject, and lead your nume- 

 rous readetsto review the many excellent articles, 

 together with the minute detail of the work, ac- 

 companied with the plates you have from time to 

 time, given in your very useful paper, my desire 

 will be accom;)lished, and others will, I have no 

 doubt, do what I have done. The truth is, in 

 farming, as well as morals, we need to be told a 

 thing more than once. To the most casual ob- 

 server, there is need enough of draining ; and I 

 would recommend all, to cxainiue the subject ami 

 act ujion it at once. I shall hereafter prepare a 

 statement of facts in relation to the result of crops, 

 &c. from this land. 



I am now in the course of some experiment* 

 with swamp muck. I have on my farm a piece 

 of about two acres or more, from one and a half 

 to seven feet deep, enough to enrich the whole 

 farm. I have weighed, after drying over the fire 

 for twentyfour hours, two hundred and forty 

 grains of it, which, after binning, left a residuum 

 of only twenty two grains, giving two hundred and 

 eighteen grains, or ten parts out of eleven of veg- 

 etable matter, or food for plants, besides the alka- 

 li, &c. in the ashes of the remaining eleventh part. 

 I .nm pieijuiiiig a compost of it with lime, and 

 one also with putrescent manure ; and the mate- 

 rials were put together last fall, are fermenting, 

 and so far doing well. Almost every farmer with 

 us has mines of this, better than mines of gold for 

 the industrious. A pro]ier application of indus- 

 try here, will be found much more profitable than 

 grinding apples for cider. Let the children gath- 

 er and feed them to the stock, while the men and 

 boys, with their teams, get out the muck. 

 Y^ours very respectfully, 



H. G. BOWERS. 



New method of propagating Apple Trees.— 

 A ])aragra|.h under the above interesting cajjtion, 

 has taken its annual trot through our country's 

 papers for quite a number of years, — wc do not 

 know how many, — but it is quite an old acquaint- 

 ance. Now if the editoi-s who give it circulation, 

 would try to jirojiagate njiple trees in this new 

 way, they would soon be able to prove to their 

 readers all about the new method. For ourselves, 

 we feel perfectly satisfied, and feel willing that 

 our readers should know as much about it as we 

 do ourselves. The method alluded to is to "take 

 shoots from the choicest trees, insert them into a 

 [lotato, and plunge both into the ground, leaving 

 about an incli or two of the shoot above the sur- 

 face." We have tried this new method, and 

 known it to be tried by otlier.s, and the result has 

 been invariably that only one of the combined 

 material would grow, viz. the potato. — Yankee 

 Furmcr. 



