hesitate not to say that having water aiway. au 

 hand will make a difference of 25 per cent, in favor 

 of their yield. In winter no n.an should pretend 

 to keep a cow to the pail who docs not provide her , 

 twice a day with either good rich slops, pnmpkins 

 or roots. How in the name of St George can it be | 

 expected that a cow fed upon dry hay, fodder or, 

 tops, from November till April, can secrete any 

 considerable quantity of milk: we know that there | 

 is a lar<re quantity of nutritive matter m each ot 

 these kinds of provender ; bnt to repleni^^h the ud- , 

 der it is necessary that some such liquids or sue- 

 culeni pabulum named, be daily given. No one 

 should keep a cow to the pail who' does not keep 

 her well ; humanity as well as tme economy are 

 both consulted in so doing. 



Marl —The meliorating effect of marl has been 

 known in Europe for a long time and clay, stone 

 and shell marl have been severally used with de- 

 cided advantage, and as our tide water rogionsare 

 well supplied with each of those varieties of calca- 

 reous matter, we trust, as a beginning has been 

 made, that wherever obtainable, our farmers will 

 freely use it. Of this they may be certain, that 

 nothino- like permanent improvement can be eject- 

 ed without the use of calcareous manure ot some 

 kind With the aid of lime, or marl in some one 

 of its forms, with the addition of grass leys or green 

 crops of some kind turned in, almost any soil may 

 be pushed beyond even its primitive stale of fertil- 

 ity. 



Accumulation <,/JWani,res.— The scrapings of the 

 road the lanes, leaves collected from the woods, 

 weeds from fence corners and any where else, 

 marshmud,fieshor salt, and indeed all vegetable 

 or animal offal, if spread on the surface ot your 

 cow yard, becomes in a few months as good ma- 

 nure as stable or cow dung, for in addition to their 

 own specific virtues, they sponge up and retain 

 great portions of rich liquids which would other- 

 wise be lost. All cow yards should be basin-hke 

 in form so as to prevent the escape of such liquids. 

 Farmer Sf Gardener. 



AGRICULTURE AMONG THE ROMANS. 

 Agriculture, among the Romans, was the great 

 business. The first men studied its principles, di- 

 rected its operations, and wrote treatises for the in- 

 struction of the unlearned. Some of the writings 

 of Cato, Varro, Virgil, Columella, Pliny and Palla- 

 dius have reached the present age. They show a 

 familiar acquaintance with all the details of far- 

 ming. The wealthy citizens who spent their win- 

 ters°in the city and their summers at their villas in 

 the country, personally s'lperintended every de- 1 

 partment of their business. "Though the opera- 

 tions of agriculture," says the author of Ancient. 

 Husbandry, "were generally performed by servants, 

 yet the great men among the Romans C(mtinued to 

 give particular attention to it, Btud'ied its improve- 

 ment, and were very careful and exact in the man- 

 agement of all their country affairs." " After the 

 landlord," says Cato, " has come to the villa and 

 performed his devotions, he ought that very day, if 

 possible, to go through his farm ; if not that day, 

 at least the next. When he has considered in 

 what manner his fields should be cultivated, what 

 work should be done and what not ; next day he 

 ouo-ht to call the bailiff, and inquire what of the 

 wo"rk is done and what remains; whether the labor- 

 in" is far enough advanced for the season, and 



all other things. When he has made himself ac- 

 quainted with all of these, he ought to take an ac- 

 count of the workmen and working days. On hol- 

 idays, old ditches may have been scoured, a high- 

 way repaired, briers cut, the garden digged, the 

 meadows cleaned from weeds, twigs bound up, 

 thorns pulled, far (bread-corn, maize,) pounded, all 

 things made clean. When he is fully satisfied in 

 all these things, and has given orders for the work 

 that is to be finished, he should inspect the bailifTs 

 1 accounts; his accounts of money, corn, fodder, 

 I wine and oil ; what has been sold, what exacted, 

 I what remains, what of this has been sold, whether 

 I there is good security for what is owing. He 

 should inspect the things that remain, buy what is 

 wanting for the year, and let out what is necessary 

 i to be employed in this manner. He should give 

 orders concerning the works he would have exe- 

 cuted, and leave his orders in writing. He should 

 inspect his flacks, make a sale, sell the superfluous 

 wine, oil and corn; if they are giving a proper 

 price, sell the old oxen, the refuse of the cattle and 

 sheep, wool, hides, the old carts, old iron tools, &c. 

 Whatever is superfluous he ought to sell. A far- 

 mer should be a seller, not a buyer." 



And Columella directs the proprietor, on return- 

 ino- to his farm in the spring, "to view his marshes, 

 inspect every part of his farm, and observe wheth- 

 er in his absence, any part of discipline or watch- 

 fulness has been dispensed with ; and whether any 

 vine, any tree, or any fruits are missing. Then, 

 likewise, he ought to review the cattle and servants, 

 nil the instruments of husbandry and household 

 furniture. If he continues to do all these things 

 for some years, he will find a habit of discipline es- 

 tablished when he is old ; and at no age will he be 

 so much impaired with years as to be despised by 

 his servants." 



These directions are valuable, even in our day, 

 to landed proprietors, particularly in the south, 

 whose farms or plantations are managed by over- 

 seers or agents. There is great truth in the saying 

 of Poor Richard, that a man who would thrive by 

 the plough, must himself either hold or drive.— 

 Cultivator. 



GRAIN CROP OF 1831). 

 Having lately traversed the great grain growing 

 district of New York in various directions, from 

 Onondaga to Buffalo, and having availed ourselves 

 of all accessible sources of information in regard 

 to the grain crops, which have now been secured, 

 we shall here give our impression of the actual 

 state of the harvest, particularly wheat, respecting 

 1 which such conflicting statements have been circu- 

 llatcd. 



'1 hat there was an unusual quantity of land sown 

 to wheat in the western district, both in the au- 

 tumn of 1838 and in the spring of 1839, is evident 

 to every one acquainted with the region. With 

 the autumn sown wheat, there was some little fail- 

 ure from the extreme drouth about the time of sow- 

 ing, but the injury from this source was not serious 

 or^extensive. The wheat plant stood the winter 

 remarkably well, and the low temperature of June 

 and July with the frequent recurrence of rains, con- 

 tributed to give an unusual growth of straw, heav- 

 ier it is believed, thun was ever before produced in 

 New York. The only thing that has caused much 

 loss, was the blight, rust, or mildew, which in some 

 districts struck the wheat while in its milky or 



saw that had been left without an aiiempi w "<ii- 

 vest them ; but they were rare, and we have no 

 doubt that the whole damage sustained from this 

 cause has been much overrated by many. Low, 

 moist locations, a rich soil, and a rank growth of 

 straw, were the places and the grain that suffered , 

 most. From multiplied observations and enquirie3,J 

 we are convinced that the average loss on tha 

 wheat crop cannot exceed from five to seven pej 

 cent, while some have estimated it at from fiftee^ 

 to twenty, and even higher. Where the blight did 

 not operate, the wheat is unusually fine, and thd 

 berry plump and heavy, yielding flour of the besfl 

 quality. The wheat crop of 1839 then, if not exj 

 travagantly large, as some have supposed, is a goo^ 

 one, more than a medium one, and far greater thaii 

 those of '36 and '-37. As the country had been al| 

 most drained of wheat, the surplus of the preset 

 year cannot be excessive ; and under such circuni^ 

 stances the notion that wheat must sink to ruinousl 

 ly low prices to the farmer, is absurd and groundl 

 less. Fair remunerating prices are already realized 

 and will doubtless continue ; while the extravagan 

 ones of 1838 cannot be expected, and are hardl] 

 to be desired. 



In those counties where the growing of barley 

 a prominent object, as it is in the eastern part i 

 the district, the crop is unusually fine, the berry 

 an excellent quality, and the yield large. Barle 

 is the crop that is usually first sold by the farmed 

 and is generally threshed and marketed within & 

 1 days after harv'esting. It may be considered a foJ 

 tunate circumstance that this crop is good this yeal 

 as it furnishes one of the very best materials fJ 

 making pork, and the partial failure of the corj 

 crop will cause it to be extensively used for thq^ 

 purpose. Improved cultivation and experience itt 

 growing barley, has gradually increased the quan- 

 tity raised per acre, and given grain of a much su- 

 perior quality to that first produced in the district. 

 As it is a good grain to sow when lands are to be 

 seeded, and sells quickly, and at fair prices, inde* 

 pendent of its farm value, it is likely to remaii^ 

 rather a favorite crop, particularly in tliose parta 

 where wheat is at times liable to be injured by th^^ 

 severity ot the winters. | 



New York has never produced a better crop of 

 oats than has been grown the present year. Not 

 an instance of failure has come to our knowledge 

 from any quarter. In the wheat growing sectionJ, 

 few cattle are kept, very little hay is cut, horses 

 are almost wholly relied on for farm labor, and the 

 oat crop is devoted to their subsistence. Hence 

 on many farms scarcely any crop is grown othe? 

 than wheat and oats ; while on those where the; 

 husbandry takes a wider range, and the growing of' 

 cattle and sheep come in for a share of attention, 

 the making of hay forms a prominent object of culj 

 tivation. For several years past, oats have bee« 

 one of the most profitable crops grown for sale bJ 

 the farmer, and the present is not likely to provJ 

 an exception. 



The quantity of spring wheat sown this year wa 

 larce, and as a whole, the crop is excellent. Id 

 some instances it suffered from the blight, and th* 

 heaviest, latest growths, were,, as in the case of 

 winter wheat, the mo,- 1 injured. For making the 

 finest flour, spring wheat can never compete witli 

 autumn sown grain; but it makes a bread preferred 

 by many to any other, and the greater certainty of 

 its growth in many places will cause it to increase 



