th£ southern planter. 



183 



From the Germantown Telegraph. 

 DRIFTING SOILS — THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



The management of this kind of soil in our 

 State (New Jersey) is generally attended with 

 considerable difficulty. Being so light and im- 

 ponderable, they are drifted by the winds, and 

 washed by the rains, consequently no sward can 

 be " set" in them, so that they are perpetually 

 growing thinner and weaker. As they are ge- 

 nerally of a hilly character, the difficulty of 

 conveying manure to them, together with their 

 great barrenness, often occasions them to be 

 neglected ; but this need not be, if proper at- 

 tention be paid to their cultivation. In the 

 first place it will be necessary to pay some atten- 

 tion to working them, or the manner in which 

 the ploughings and harrowings are performed. 

 In no case, indeed, should these implements 

 pass up and down the declivities, but around 

 them. When the former course is pursued, 

 water drains are opened, along which the water 

 falling during copious storms or showers is con- 

 ducted, deepening them, and affording excellent 

 channels for the transportation of the finer and 

 more valuable parts of the soil to the more 

 fertile lands below. 



In the second place, all the manure that is 

 applied? should be calculated to produce a con- 

 stitutional alteration in the land — clay, marl 

 and lime, for instance, with ashes and gypsum, 

 should be liberally applied. The first crops 

 should be such as will derive a large portion 

 of their nourishment from the atmosphere — 

 peas, beans, buck and Indian wheat, &c, and 

 the roller should be frequently used to commu- 

 nicate solidity to the mass. After breaking up 

 a drifting soil, I would sow on ashes to facilitate 

 the decomposition of the soluble silicates, and 

 plant beans the first year. I would then har- 

 row the soil the next season, and sow buckwheat 

 to be turned in as a green crop, and plough in 

 as many crops during the season as the land 

 would produce. Then roll solid in the fall, and 

 the third spring put on a good strong compost 

 with a rich basis of clay, and lay down to grass. 

 This I would turn under the second year after, 

 and again seed down to grass in August. After 

 this I would top-dress with good compost, using 

 the spike roller to facilitate the descent of the 

 nutritive and stimulant particles of the appli- 

 cation to the roots, and repeat the operation of 

 top-dressing annually. 



In this way a thick set and vigorous sward 

 will be spread over the surface, and no farther 

 difficulty will be experienced from the drifting 

 or washing for years. If clover be sowed in 

 such situations, with a small admixture of timo- 

 thy, the application of gypsum, lime and house 

 ashes, with a dozen or so pounds of saltpetre 



per acre, will produce wonders. The crop will 

 be green early in the spring, as such soils are 

 always forward, and the yield, under this ma- 

 nagement, will be good, even in dry seasons. 

 If such lands could receive from twenty-five to 

 forty per cent, of clay at the commencement, 

 according to their original proportion of sand, 

 which often varies greatly, they would be at 

 once redeemed. 



0. S. R, 



Burlington Co., N. J., Dec. 17, 1853. 



DOMESTIC BREAD. 



The Rhode Island Society for the promotion of 

 industry, gave the first premium on domestic bread, 

 to Mrs. Hiram Hill, of Providence. The following 

 is Mrs. Hill's receipt for making the bread exhi- 

 bited by her. 



For two loaves of the ordinary size, take eight 

 potatoes, pare them, slice very thin and boil quick 

 until quite soft, then mash to a fine pulp, and add 

 a little by little two quarts of water, stirring until 

 a starch is formed, let this cool, and then add 

 one-third of a cup of new yeast. This forms the 

 " sponge," which should remain in a moderately 

 warm place for 10 or 12 hours, or "over-night," 

 until it becomes very light and frothy, even if a 

 little sour it is of no consequence. When the 

 " sponge " is ready, add flour, and work it in until 

 you have formed a stiff, firm mass. The longer and 

 more firmly this is kneaded, the better the bread. 



Let the kneaded mass remain say from half to 

 three quarters of an hour to rise, then divide into 

 loaves, put into pans, where it should remain say 

 fifteen minutes, care being taken that it does not 

 rise too much and crack, then put the loaves into 

 a quick oven and bake, say three-quarters of an 

 hour. If the oven is not hot enough, the bread 

 will rise and crack; if too hot, the surface will 

 harden too rapidly and confine the loaf. — Maine 

 Fanner. 



EXPERIMENTS IN SUCKERING CORN. 



Some theorists, not knowing what ridiculous 

 thing to start next, having become pretty well ex- 

 hausted of schemes, hit upon the suckers of corn, 

 which they contend help along the crop very much, 

 by the pollen from the said suckers falling on the 

 tassels of the forming ears on the main stems. A 

 writer in the Cultivator — Mr. George W. Coffin, of 

 Armenia — observing these statements, tried an ex- 

 periment, whether or not the suckers had anything 

 to do with this procreative process, and the follow- 

 ing is the result : 



Space was left in the middle of an acre of pota- 

 toes, for 100 hills of corn — ten hills each way. 

 This was planted from the middle of an ear, five 

 grains to each hill, and of uniform depth. It came 

 up evenly, and grew without molestation until 

 about six or eight inches high, when small suckers 

 began to spring up from about the base of the 

 main stalks, which I proceeded to remove from al- 

 ternate rows, not by "stripping " as that might la- 

 cerate the main stalk and injure its growth, but by 

 cutting close down. As often as they attempted to 

 grow, through the season, I removed them in this 



