THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



75 



growth of weeds. It should be cut as soon as 

 it gets its growth, and before frosts. The best 

 method is to use a common corn-cutter, laying 

 the stalks upon the ground in small bunches, 

 and when wilted, binding them in small bun- 

 dles, and stacking them in the usual manner of 

 stacking corn. From seven to nine bundles 

 placed in a stack, and bound around the top, 

 will cure well. The stacks will need to stand 

 a long time in good weather to be thoroughly 

 cured ; and after all, they will almost assuredly 

 heat in the mow, and become mouldy, unless 

 well salted. 



Of their value as food for stock I need not 

 speak, as horses, cattle or sheep will discuss 

 that matter to your entire satisfaction, provided 

 you place them within reach. 



The great difficulty with corn sown broad- 

 cast is in the harvesting and curing. I knew 

 a crop on rich land, which grew about seven 

 feet high, and the stalks were so limber as to 

 scarcely bear their own weight. It had to be 

 cut with a sickle, which was a slow, tedious 

 process. If they can be mowed or cradled, 

 there is still much danger of their becoming- 

 spoiled before they can be cured; and there is 

 no safe manner of curing them except by stack- 

 ing. Farmers will at once perceive that they 

 are much more readily bound and stacked when 

 in drills, and cut with a sickle or corn-cutter, 

 than when scattered over the whole surface. 



There is another use for corn sown for fodder, 

 which is practiced by some farmers near Boston, 

 viz: for soiling — and it is represented as a crop 

 equal to any of the articles used in England for 

 that purpose. If, instead of trying to introduce 

 foreign articles, of which we are entirely unac- 

 quainted, we should try experiments in using 

 corn, we should probably find our account in it. 

 We know it is congenial to our climate, and 

 will afford wholesome food for man and beast. 

 Yours, Myron Adams. 



East Bloomfield, January, 1845. 



TOBACCO. 



To the Editor of the Southern Planter: 



Sir, — Tell the farmers, in re hanging their 

 tobacco not to open or split the bundle to 

 straddle the stick; but have enough strips of 

 shucks prepared, and then put two bundles of 

 tobacco together; put a strip of shuck around 

 them and give it one tie, and let one bundle 

 (whole) hang upon one side the stick and the 

 other upon the other. It will require less than 

 half the time to put. the bulk (if it be in bulk) 

 of tobacco upon sticks after it is tied, than singly, 

 because you can hang the two bundles in the 

 same time as one, even if one of the two bun- 

 dles had to be opened to straddle the stick, which 

 is not done. The time lost in opening carefully 



the one bundle and hanging it, is more than 

 compensated for, by hanging the two bundles 

 together, neither of which has to be opened at 

 all. Moreover, you avoid making those ugly 

 and permanent bends in the stems of the leaves 

 composing the bundle, which are seen in the 

 stems on both sides of the stick, if the plant be 

 put on straight, and in the' stems on one side 

 the stick, if the head or tie be put on one side. 

 These bends, as you know, are rarely gotten 

 out, and the tobacco does not break so smoothly. 

 Tell tbem, too, never to bulk tobacco down 

 which has to be re-hung, but hang as they strip ; 

 bulking and weighing, or either, presses the 

 leaves, making the bundle close together, and 

 in re-hanging (in the usual way) the} 7 are just 

 opened in or near the middle of the bundle, 

 leaving the rest close from bulking. Now when 

 you want to strike it down to prize, the tails of 

 the tobacco will be high in order, whilst the inner 

 part of the bundle which was pressed by bulk- 

 ing, will be dry, or comparatively so, (i. e.) your 

 tobacco will be unequally in order. Remember, 

 when I recommend re-hanging the two bundles 

 at once, or the one bundle, that they have neither 

 been bulked, because if you are re-hanging to- 

 bacco which has been bulked, it would be better 

 to open the bundle. 



Ask the farmers if they never mean to leave 

 off burning plant patches in sobby, wet, low land. 

 Last year I had patches on the steepest hill sides, 

 and made plants for myself and one of my neigh- 

 bors, who, in the general failure of plants, was 

 without. Burn on hill sides and cover very 

 thick. 



Your obedient servant, 



M. M. Harrison. 



LECTURES ON AGRICULTURE. 



We observe by a notice in the Cultivator that 

 Dr. Lee, of Buffalo, has been employed by ihe 

 New York State Agricultural Society to make 

 a tour of the State, for the purpose of collecting 

 agricultural information. Fie will at the same 

 time deliver lectures, occasionally, upon the sub- 

 ject of agricultural improvement. 



This is an excellent plan ; agricultural jour- 

 nals are doing a great deal to rouse public at- 

 tention, but a competent individual to address 

 the people in person would do much more; 

 thousands will attend a meeting and listen with 

 pleasure to an interesting address, that could 

 never be persuaded to take a paper or read a 

 book. 



We have often expressed the opinion that the 

 true way to make a good agricultural paper, is 

 for the Editor to visit the farmers in person, and 



