152 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



wide and three inches deep, making six drawers at 

 each end. These drawers are made Avith slats in 

 the bottom an inch wide and one-sixteenth of an 

 inch apart. On the inside of the house there are 

 three pieces of laths three inches wide by one inch 

 thick, built into the wall on each end as far as 

 the door will admit, so as to support the inner end 

 of the drawers; they are just opposite the lower 

 edge of the frames that holds the drawers; there 

 are also strips that run from the frames to the laths 

 to hold the drawer as it runs in. Each drawer has 

 two knobs to draw it out with. The top frame that 

 holds the drawer is two rows of brick from the top, 

 and there is one row of brick between the frames. 

 On the top of the brick work is a frame and tight 

 floor, and on the floor is built a brick chimney for 

 a stove pipe. Over all is a good shingle roof put 

 on as other houses, and the gables weatherboarded 

 up. It has a good stove in the centre of the 

 house. 



I have given you a description of the Detrick's 

 dry house, according to your request; but I would 

 advise that the dry house be made of timber, and 

 made larger. It has been found that the brick 

 ones are damper than the wood, and do not dry 

 fruit so well. The house should be much larger 

 and plenty of space between the drawers. 



From what I have seen of dry houses, if I were 

 about to make one, I would take four posts, four 

 inches square, and plank them together as if I 

 were making a goods-box, using inch plank and 

 making the joints tight, and have the timber per- 

 fectly dry. I would make it twelve feet by ten, 

 and six feet high in front, and five behind, cover it 

 tight by laying the plank on the top, and then bore 

 holes in the plank and put poles across to hold the 

 common dryers ; making three or four tier of poles 

 on each side of the stove. Make the door in the 

 high side and make it tight. 



SOWING CORN FOR FODDER. 



In answer to an inquirer, the Albany Cultivator 

 gives the following directions to cultivate this crop 

 with the most success, which we copy as being 

 valuable, especially to farmers and dairymen who 

 read the Telegraph. 



We have cultivated corn for fodder for many 

 years, and find it, all things considered, the most 

 profitable crop we can raise. It may be sown dur- 

 ing the comparative season of leisure just after 

 corn-planting, and secured at the next season of 

 leisure just after haying and harvesting. After 

 repeatedly cropping the same ground, we are satis- 

 fied that it rather enriches than impoverishes the 

 land, no grain being formed, and a-vast bed of roots 

 remaining. Nothing is equal to it for reducing 

 rough, turfy, weedy land, to a state of cleanliness 

 and good tilth. We believe it the best fallow crop 

 in the world, to precede wheat. 



It should never be sown broadcast. The imperfec- 

 tions of this mode are the chief reasons that the 

 crop has not become more generally introduced. 

 It requires more seed, and leaves the ground in a 

 fouler condition than when sowed in plowed drills. 

 We have tried both ways to our entire satisfaction 

 as to the comparative value of each. The follow- 

 ing is the best mode for sowing, cultivating, and 

 securing the crop : 



Plough and harrow the ground as for any other 

 crop ; furrow it with a one-horse plough, three feet 



apart; let a man pass along one of these drills with 

 a half-bushel basket on his left arm containing 

 shelled corn, and strew the seed in the furrow at 

 the rate of about forty or fifty grains to a foot, 

 which will be about two and a half or three bushels 

 per acre. He will do this evenly with a little prac- 

 tice, as fast as he can walk. If sowed thinner, the 

 crop will be smaller. We have found by accurately 

 weighing and measuring, that twenty grains to the 

 foot yielded only two-thirds the crop afforded by 

 forty grains to the foot. Immediately after the 

 sower, follows a man with a one-horse harrow or 

 cultivator, or with a two-horse harrow, Ungthwise 

 with the furrow, and covers the seed. Two men 

 will thus plant six or seven acres in a day. 



When the corn is six inches to a foot high, run a 

 one-horse cultivator between the rows. This is all 

 the dressing the crop needs. No hoeing is neces- 

 sary, for the dense growth soon smothers all else; 

 and in the autumn, when the crop is cut off, the 

 earth is left as clean as a newly ploughed field. 



It is to be harvested about the first of autumn. ' 

 If the crop is very heavy or much " lodged," it is 

 cut by reaping. If straight and even, a common 

 scythe will answer the purpose, a little practice 

 enabling the operator to throw it smoothly with 

 the heads in one direction. After partly drying, 

 for a day or two, the best way is to tie it in bun- 

 dles and put it up in large shocks, although raking 

 by a horse into winrows for cocks, "might answer 

 well for large fields. It must dry for some weeks. 

 It can never be safely put into large stacks. The 

 most perfect way would be to place it in small 

 stacks or long upright rows, under a large shed. 

 Even if the stalks appear perfectly cured after 

 several weeks exposure, they will certainly heat 

 and spoil if stacked in the ordinary way. Hence, 

 the stacks must be quite small, freely salted, and 

 well ventilated by meajas of three or four poles 

 placed upright in the centre. We have found the 

 stalks to retain a good condition when left in large 

 well made shocks on the field, till wanted in winter. 

 Curing is the only difficulty with this crop, and 

 this ceases when understood. 



Land that will yield thirty bushels of corn to the 

 acre, will afford about five tons of dried fodder. 

 Moist land is better than very dry, as it is more 

 affected by drought than ordinary corn crops. We 

 have not found the cost, including interest on the 

 land, to exceed $1 .50 per ton for the dried fodder. 



For soiling, or feeding green, corn fodder often 

 proves of the highest value, when pastures are 

 burnt by drought. For this purpose, it may be 

 sown at different periods till mid-summer. 



We have ourselves repeatedly tried to cure corn 

 fodder and have never yet succeeded. If a prac- 

 ticable plan of curing it could be found, it would 

 be well nigh invaluable to the farmer and planter 

 of the South. Mr. Lewis Bailey of Fairfax, in his 

 Essay on the Management of Milch Cows, lately 

 published in the Southern Planter, says it can be 

 easily and economically cured by making a top 

 stack of it, as they are now made in many places 

 to hold shucks and pumpkins. Only he counsels 

 that the layer of fodder be a good deal thicker 

 than is usually put on the rails in that form of 

 stack or shed. The plan having succeeded per- 

 fectly with him is well worth a fair trial by others. 



