Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 753 



Mr. A. B. Crandell. — A North Carolina correspondent of The 

 Country Gentleman, recently gave some account of the mode of cul- 

 tivation in his vicinity. The land, after receiving a dressing of lime, 

 which is considered the best fertilizer, is harrowed and laid off in 

 checks of twenty-four to thirty inches. Planting is done from the 

 last of April to the 10th of jMay, two kernels being placed in each 

 check together with a shovelful of barn-yard manure. Cover as corn 

 and cultivate both ways, keeping the surface flat, and not in ridges or 

 hills. Work the ground often enough to prevent weeds until the 

 vines begin to spread and the peas to form. Then leave them to 

 mature. If thrifty they will soon monopolize the soil. Seed may be 

 had in ISTewbern or Wilmington at $2.50 per bushel. There is an 

 article giving full details of the business in the latest annual report of 

 the jDepartment of Agriculture. 



MuLcniNG Sixty Yeaks Ago, 



John Daws, Imlaystowu, 1^. J. — I have read with profit the dis- 

 cussions of Geo. Geddes and Mr. Boyd on the advantages of cover- 

 ing the surface of the ground. I have been an observer and a lover 

 of farm knowledge for thirty years, and some of the best ideas I 

 ever obtained came from a book that is now sixty yeare old. I 

 bought the book when I was tending mill, and read it as the grist 

 ran out. It is Ackerman's Kepository, an English magazine. lie 

 published a prize paper, by W. Lester of Paddington Green, on the 

 relation of chemistry to firming, and the passage has done me so 

 mucli good I have thouglit it might profit the readers of the Club. 

 It has benefited me hundreds of dollars ; it made me a convert to 

 mulching long before the farm writers of this country started the 

 word, or began to preach the benefits of it. The farm I am on 

 Avould not rent for over $125, twenty-two years ago, when I bought 

 it; now it will command a rent of $1,500 a year. The secret of 

 making money by farming is to reacli important results by inexpen- 

 sive means. The best manure is not bone but brain. Here is Mr. 

 Lester's idea : 



" I had occasion to dig a pond in a field upon my farm, which had 

 been recently inclosed, to pave the bottom of which I had between 

 twenty and thirty loads of stone picked off the adjoining lands, and 

 shot down out of a cart, as near together as possible. They lay in 

 this situation about fifteen months. As I had found a more eligible 

 spot to make the pond in, I then removed the stones for the purpose 



[Inst.] 48 



