1863. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



313 



For the New Knifland Farmer. 

 THE SEASON— HAYING, &c. 



We have had a very remarkable hay season. 

 Commencing about the 2()th of June, we had a 

 few days of pretty good weather ; since that, say 

 about six weeks, the proportion of cloudy and 

 rainy weather has been quite unusual, averaging 

 about two days of hay weather a week. Prof. 

 Snell, who has kept a record of the weather for 

 many years, says that the proportion of fair and 

 cloudy weather ranges from 48 to 52-100. July 

 was 73-100 cloudy. Many of the best farmers 

 had not more than one-quarter of their hay cut 

 in July, whereas, usually, haying is chiefly done 

 in that month. Much of the hay is injured by 

 rains, and that standing is ripe and hard ; the 

 crop is large, but of far less value than the avei*- 

 age of years. 



And now a word about hay caps ; with the aid 

 of them, I have saved most of my hay in good 

 condition, finishing the third of August. Hay 

 veil cocked and capped has stood from four to six 

 days uninjured, except at the bottom. I think 

 mine have paid tlieir cost the present season. I 

 have used them several years, and 1 would advise 

 every farmer to procure a set, as soon as cotton 

 is to he had at a reasonable price. One who cuts 

 from 40 to 60 tons of hay should have from 100 

 to 150 caps ; 30-inch, heavy twilled cotton, two 

 widths, makes just the right size ; the corner 

 sowed over to hold the cord is better than eyelets. 

 With a "Davis" one-horse mower, a horse rake 

 ^and caps, haying, in an ordinary season, is easily 

 done. 



Spring wheat is not as good as usual. Oats 

 are badly lodged, owing to the wet. Corn is very 

 promising, but I am sorry to say the crop is rap- 

 idly giving way to tobacco. S. SwEETSER. 



AmJierst, Aug. 10, 1863. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 DURABILITY OF SEEDS. 



Messes. Editors : — In this vicinity, it is a well 

 known fact among our farmers that however thick 

 and rank kail may be on our new stocked mead- 

 ows, that after mowing two years the kail disap- 

 pears and we see no more of it until the meadow 

 IS ploughed up again, no matter whether it be ten 

 or twenty years. But when it is ploughed there 

 is nothing more certain than that the kail will 

 grow up again as thick as ever. 



Now, as you are supposed to understand this, 

 please say in the Farmer, whether the kail starts 

 again from the root, or the seed, after being out 

 of sight for twenty years. There is a great dif- 

 ference of opinion about it here, and we have 

 agreed to leave it to you to decide. 



SMburne, VL, Any., 1863. H. N. Newell. 



Rem.\RKS. — We do not know what plant our 

 correspondent refers to as "kail," but that will 

 mot affect the inquiry. In replying, we will state 

 a case which took place on our own farm. We 

 recently ploughed two or three acres of an old 

 pasture, which was ploughed and planted with 

 corn ilihiy years before. It had been in our pos- 

 session about ten years, during which time no 

 noxiovi' weeds or p'""*^ vurh ns dock, mullei" 



or iliuiiles had been ollmoed to ripen their seeds. 

 The surface had become mossy and the land 

 nearly worthless as pasture. It was ploughed 

 and laid down in the autumn. The grass seed 

 came up well and got pretty well established be- 

 fore severe frosts came. In the spring, however, 

 mulleins appeared on every part of it, and were 

 so numerous that two or three hands were sent 

 with horse and hay-cart to weed them dlit, when 

 they had attained a height of eight or ten inches ! 

 It required the time of two or three days to clear 

 the field ! Where did these mulleins come from? 

 Not one had seeded there for ten years, and few, 

 if any, for thirty years. To our mind, undoubt- 

 edly, from seed deposited there before the com 

 was planted there tliirtu years before, and, perhaps, 

 a hundred years before that time. Similar instan- 

 ces are constantly occurring. 



Where seeds are kept in a proper condition 

 with regard to heat and moisture they will keep 

 indefinitely. A grain of wheat taken from a 

 mummy, satisfactorily proved to have been em- 

 balmed a thousand years, sprouted and grew vig- 

 orously. 



We do not know when the land was ploughed 

 for the corn crop of which we have spoken, but 

 probably in the spring and immediately planted 

 and cultivated, so that if mulleins appeared, they 

 were exterminated in the cultivation of the crop. 

 But they might not have appeared at all the cir- 

 cumstances not then existing, perhaps, to excite 

 the germination of the seeds. Who can tell ? 



Food For Fattening Poultry. — The cheap- 

 est and most advantageous food to use for fatten- 

 ing every description of poultry is ground oats. 

 These must not be confounded with oat meal, or 

 with ordinary ground oats. The whole of the 

 grain is ground to a fine powder; notliing of any 

 kind is taken from it. When properly ground, 

 one bushel of the meal will more effectually fatten 

 poultry than a bushel and a half of any other 

 meal. The greatest point in fattening poultry is 

 to feed at daybreak. 



L.\st Year's Crops in Iowa. — According to 

 the official returns from twenty-four counties of 

 this State, the average yield of wheat last year 

 was not over six bushels per acre ; sorgo syrup, 

 75 gallons ; butter, 46 lbs, per cow. 



Figs. — It is said by a correspondent of the 

 Prairie Farmer, that figs ripen every year in the 

 southern part of that State, but they must be im- 

 mediately kiln-dried, or canned, as they sour in 

 less than twelve hours after being gathered. . 



Large Load of Wool. — Isaac Dunn, of Ann 

 Arbor, Mich., delivered his clip of wool in that 

 city, at one wagon load, weighing 2,160 jjounds, 

 "-^f.-mtini; tn nearly .$1 300, at 60 cts. "f^' !'»- 



