PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 85 



" Oats and broom corn may be worthless as manure plowed under as a 

 grass crop, but I suspect the fault is in their time of maturing-, and not 

 from any unfitness or intrinsic fault of the plants." 



Solon Robinson — This sensible letter is in exact ag-recment with my ex- 

 perience in farming upon the prairies of Indiana, and I have no doubt the 

 theory is correct — that a very light crop of clover, turned under in June, 

 is better than a heavy one in September. 



This letter awakened a good deal of interest, as the doctrine advanced 

 that green sward or green crops for manure, should only be plowed under 

 in the fore part of summer, was new to several of those present, and if 

 the theory is correct, it is very important that farmers should know it, and 

 act accordingly. 



Prof. Mapes said that it was a well ascertained fact, that the juice of 

 young plants has more power to decompose matters in the soil, which serve 

 to fertilize it, than that of more mature plants. 



John G. Bergen — If the theory is correct, the common practice of turn- 

 ing itnder green sward in autumn, should be abandoned. 



Tools to Cultivate Tobacco. 



John B. Elliott, New-Harmony, Indiana, wants to know how they are to 

 cultivate all the tobacco that is being planted in that section, having 

 never been accustomed to use a hoe for anything more than stalk-cutting, 

 covering corn, &c. " No hoed crops have heretofore been raised here, iu 

 consequence of which wo are very deficient in tools required for such pur- 

 poses. There will be great quantities of tobacco and cotton planted here 

 this year, and much more would be, were it not for fear of the great labor 

 of hoeing with our common implement. Will you be kind enough to let 

 me know the name of the best implement for the purpose of hoeing 

 tobacco or cotton ? The price ? Where to be had ? I know the 

 old corn hoe is good as far as it goes, but has not enough of the go about 

 it to suit scarce and expensive labor. Will the tools mentioned in your 

 Club as the Carrot-Weeder, Langdon's Cultivator, &c., work as well on 

 land ridged by ploughing four furrows together, as the cotton-scraper, 

 such as is used in the South, and will they dispense with any considerable 

 amount of hoeing in a tobacco crop ?" 



Prof Mapes — I really believe that one smart man and horse, with 

 proper tools, can do more work than fifty men with hand hoes, taking into 

 account that the work is so much better done by a horse hoe than it can 

 be by hand. The Langdon cultivator has been modified and superseded 

 by several others. The one known as Knox horse hoe is retailed at about 

 $8.50; anothei-, called Armsby's, $6. There are three sizes of carrot- 

 wceders, cutting from twelve to twenty-four inches, price $4, $5, and $6 

 respectively; an expanding cultivator, $9. These tools can be found at 

 any large agricultural warehouse, and for the culture of cotton are far 

 superior to the old "cotton sweep." 



Grape Vines in an Orchard. 



C. B. Darrow writes to the Farmers' Club for information. He asks : 

 "Would grape vines and apple trees do well set together; apple trees 



