370 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



Aug. 



Reaumur's hungry parasites, for they were not 

 there to eat them. Like many individuals of 

 the human race, unless we take into the ac- 

 count their own enjoyment of life, they seem 

 to our imperfect mental vision to have been 

 made in vain. LB. Hartwell. 



Wilkinsonville, Mass., 1867. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 TALK WITH AN" ILLIJSTOIS FAKMER. 



Potatoes. — I think you use too much seed. 

 I find two eyes better than more. I cut my 

 potatoes into t^mall pieces generally containing 

 one eye ; I put two in the hill. After they are 

 cut, let them lay and dry a week or more be- 

 fore planting. The cut surface will become 

 dry and the moisture from the pieces will not 

 be absorbed by the soil, but will goto nourish 

 the shoots. \V'^hen the potatoes begin to show 

 themselves in the rows, take one horse and a 

 small plow, and throw the s-oil on one side on 

 to the row, then come back on the other side 

 doing the same, and cover the young shoots 

 from one to two inches deep. They will grow 

 up through the soil strong and stocky. Then 

 go through the rows the other way. throwing 

 up the soil in the same way. If there should 

 he need, go through the row with a horse hoe 

 or cultivator. We never use a hand hoe in 

 field culture of potatoes. 



Corn. — With the machinery we now have, I 

 can cultivate eighty acres as easily as I could 

 fifteen acres when I went there, thirty years 

 ago. With four good horses and a gang plow, 

 which turns two furrows at one time, 1 mount 

 my seat and go around an eighty acre lot. A 

 skilful hand will drive the team, and manage 

 the levers that throw out or in the plows. If 

 the land is full of roots, it is be?t to have one 

 man to guide the team and one to work the 

 plows. Such a team will plow from four to 

 five acres a day. This is as much as two teams 

 with two men and single plows, will do, thus 

 saving tlie labor of one man ; and then, having 

 rode all day instead of walking l)ehind the plow, 

 I am not used up, but can take care of my 

 team and do my chores, and am ready for the 

 work to-morrow. Thus with about si,\teen 

 days of good weather, 1 have my lot plowed. 

 Then if 1 wish to make a nice job of it, 1 take 

 two harrows and set them abreast, and three 

 and sometimes lour horses abreast, and harrow 

 ten or twelve acres a day. This takes si.\ or 

 eeven days. The next machine is the go[)her. 

 This is a plank a foot wide, with three pieces 

 of wood like sled-runners, four feet apart, at- 

 tached to one edge, and a pole to die other. 

 This pole goes between a pair of horses. With 

 this machine 1 mark out the rows one way as 

 straight as possible ; then 1 take the corn 

 planter, fill the hopper, take on a bag of seed 

 corn for ballast, hit^h on a pair of horses, and 

 take one man to drive and one to work the 

 planter, and we can plant ten or twelve acres 

 a day. The marking and planting will occupy 



about twelve days. Then my eighty acre lot 

 is planted. This, taking out the Sundays and 

 rainy days, will take about si.x weeks ; so if a 

 man has but one four horse team, he must be- 

 gin in season — and it is easy to see how rainy 

 weather and long storms put us back in culti- 

 vating large fields. When the corn begins to 

 show itself, I take my harrow and a pair of 

 horses, and harrow the field again. It does 

 not injure the corn, and is the best way of 

 keeping down the weeds. The work after this 

 is done with the plow or cultivator. When the 

 corn is ripe, we take a wagon and pair of 

 horses, and go through the field, taking five 

 rows at a time, and pick the ears ; then with 

 another machine we cut the stalks and throw 

 them into rows, ready to be burned. Thus 

 the whole work of cultivation is done by ma- 

 chinery. 



Follow the com with spring wheat, and sow 

 a part, or the whole field with clover and feed 

 it off" in the fall. Cattle will thrive on this till 

 December. The next year you may cut a large 

 crop of clover, and when you plow it, the clo- 

 ver roots will be equal to a dressing of manure. 



Rye. — I raise more rye than formerly. I 

 think there is more raised in the State. Have 

 raised four hundred bushels in a year. I have 

 two reasons for it : First, it makes good pas- 

 ture in the late fall and winter. Sow it early 

 and let it get a good start, and it makes fine 

 pasture. 1 sow three pecks to the acre. Sec- 

 ond, grass seed is more sure to catch well with 

 rye than with any other grain. We sow two 

 bushels of wheat and three of oats, and they 

 are apt to smother the grass, but with three 

 pecks of rye the blades come up so far apart 

 that the grass has a chance to get rooted, so 

 that when the rye tillers out, it will not kill it. 

 When it is ripe, a sufficient quantity of the 

 grain will shell out, to bring up quite a crop of 

 rye, which is valuable in the fall and the next 

 spring for pasture. I sow clover with rye and 

 wheat, expressly for pasture in the fall and 

 winter. Cattle will eat blue grass in the field 

 all winter in preference to corn fodder and 

 oat straw, and will thrive on it. Colts will 

 paw off the snow and eat clover and blue 

 grass, in preference to fodder from the stack. 

 Clover is the most profitable crop of grass. It 

 yields two crops. I p.asture the second crop, 

 unless I wish to save the seed. I seldom cut 

 a crop of hay when I can manage to make the 

 cattle or horses mow it for themselves. By a 

 little management, so as to have a crop of grass 

 or rye lor winter pasture, our cattle re(]uire 

 feeding only from four to six weeks. Some- 

 times a few ears of corn a day is all they need. 



Concord, Mass., June, 1867. R. 



CUTTING GRASS EARLY. 



As the haying season will soon be at hand, 

 there is, 1 think, one point which was not no- 

 ticed last season in the discussion in the Coun- 

 try Uenileman, in favor of cutting grass early, 



