1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
411 
surface might help a little, but not much ; 
besides, the surface was covered with a dressing 
of common earth, which might interfere with 
burning. Subsoiling would help a little also, 
but the trouble is deeper seated than any sub- 
soil plow will run. If tile-drains will not work, 
we would advise brush drains, of no less depth 
than the main drains were originally, and that 
the old drains should be deepened; then, with 
more earth liberally put on, deep plowing and 
subsoiling, we think we might almost warrant 
good crops of corn aiid grass for five years 
more. Open drains, for some reason, never do 
so effective work as covered ones — probably 
because the sides dry and become partly im- 
pervious to water. It would be better to lay 
tile-drains, two rods apart, (laying the tiles on 
strips of board would secure a true grade and 
stability), and it is a matter to be looked closely 
into whether it would not pay to lay a tile- 
drain all around the swamp, to keep the water 
of rains and springs from flowing into the low 
ground. By all means stop grazing, for the 
trampling of cattle makes the soil compact, 
and is one source of the increased difficulty of 
drainage noticed in our correspondent's state- 
ment. We have never had to deal with just 
such a piece of ground, and if any of our read- 
ers have, their experience would doubtless be 
of value to Squire Oaks, as well as many 
other readers of the American Agriculturist. 
Accurate Knowledge on the Farm. 
In a recent talk with Squire Oldschool, be 
advocated the stacking of hay and the winter 
feeding of cattle at the stack-yard, — two heresies 
that we have always opposed. His idea was, 
that it saved labor in storing the hay, in fodder- 
ing, and in spreading the manure. Had he 
ever tried any experiments to ascertain how 
much the hay wasted in value by exposure in 
the stack, how much more it took to support 
an animal unsheltered, and how much of the 
manure dropped around the yard was wasted ? 
He confessed his ignorance on all these points, 
but thought his animals came out about as well 
in the spring as any of his neighbors', who put 
everything in the barn, and he was quite sure 
he saved one-half the labor. Now these, and a 
great many other disputed points in husbandry 
can be definitely settled by the scales. Weigh 
four bullocks on the 1st of December, and feed 
them at the stack sixty days, weighing the hay 
they consume and the animals at the close of 
the trial. Put four others in a good barn, well 
ventilated, and give them the same daily allow- 
ance of bay, and water at the barn temperature, 
and weigh them at the close of the same 
period. The amount of flesh gained in the two 
cases would be a pretty good indication of the 
respective value of the two practices. If two 
pounds of bay in the barn made as much flesh 
as three pounds out of it, the advantage of 
shelter would be clearly indicated. If, on the 
other hand, the out-door feeding showed the 
bet tcr results, that would be a good reason for the 
continuance of the old, and, we may add, the 
still prevailing practice. Feed equal quantities 
of stack hay and barn-cured bay to the same 
animals, for the same periods, and ascertain the 
flesh made in the two cases, and you will have 
some reliable basis for an opinion of the respec- 
tive values of hay cured by the two processes. 
The manure of the four animals fed at the stack 
might be confined to a half acre, and that made 
in the barn, from the other bullocks, using the 
same amount of fodder, might be spread upon 
another half acre of land, in equally good con- 
dition. If the sheltered manure showed crops 
twice as large, we should gain some definite 
knowledge of the waste of manures at the 
stack-yard. These experiments, of course, in- 
volve some painstaking and expense, but, if 
fairly made, they would determine something, 
and lead to better husbandly. They would 
prove a much better investment than more 
land, or more railroad stock. We want more 
accurate knowledge, ascertained from careful 
experiments. This kind of knowledge — the 
personal experience of practical men — we arc 
most anxious to secure and spread before our 
readers. The doctrine is certainly true, and has 
been demonstrated again and again. That 
which convinces our substantial, old-school 
farmers, is what they can prove for themselves. 
Make More Butter. 
Butter is very high, and it is desirable to in- 
crease the supply of an article in such general use. 
There is but one way of doing this. We can- 
not increase the number of cows so as to meet 
the demand this fall and winter, but we can by 
liberal feeding enable the cows that we have to 
give more milk, or at least we can get milk con- 
taining from one-third to one-half more butter. 
That liberal feeding will do this there can be no 
question. What extra food to give depends on 
circumstances. The quality of the grass at this 
season is apt to deteriorate, and even when there 
is an abundance of it, a little richer food can be 
given to the cows with great advantage. When 
grass is short, there is still greater necessity for, 
and advantage in, providing extra food. In many 
sections there is much corn imperfectly eared, 
and there can be no better way of disposing of 
it than to feed it out, stalks and all, to milch 
cows. This will save busking. If well cured 
and put in small stacks, or in a barn, with lay- 
ers of straw between the corn, very few of the 
soft ears will mould. A liberal supply of such 
fodder will keep up the flow of milk until Christ- 
mas, and if the cows are provided with warm 
stables, butter may be made nearly all winter. 
When there is no fodder of this kind on the 
farm, feed ordinary corn stalks, or hay and straw, 
with a liberal allowance of some kind of grain 
or of oil-cake. Probably corn meal is the cheap- 
est food that can be used, and so far as the 
writer's experience extends, he has never found 
any trouble in using it. Four quarts a day to 
each cow have been used with great advantage, 
and at the present price of butter such feeding 
is quite profitable. Some dairymen prefer to 
feed half corn meal and half bran. When peas 
can be obtained at about the same price as corn, 
a mixture of equal parts of corn and pea-meal 
is perhaps the very best food that can be given 
to a cow. If wheat bran was cheap, say but, a 
little higher than hay, we would feed that also. 
But our object is not so much to say which is 
the best grain to feed milch cows, as to urge 
farmers to feed grain of some kind. It does not 
so much matter what,— only give the cows 
a liberal supply of food, and they will return a 
liberal supply of butter. The kind of grain and 
the way of feeding is left to the judgment and 
good sense of the readers. When it is con- 
venient it is better to "slop" the cows, but if 
not convenient the fodder may be chaffed and 
moistened with water, and a due proportion of 
meal mixed with it, care being taken that the 
mangers arc so constructed as to avoid waste. 
With a good supply of food, regularity in feed- 
ing, comfortable stables cleaned out daily, prop- 
er ventilation, and water easily accessible, there 
is no trouble in doubling the ordinary quantity 
of butter from now until mid-winter or later. 
Wood Ashes as a Fertilizer. 
Thi3 is one of the most valuable fertilizers 
within reach of the farmer. The unleached ar- 
ticle has the more potash, but the leached is 
thought to be quite as valuable. In leaching 
they shrink a good deal, and lime is usually ad- 
ded, which increases their value. They are 
generally sold, too, at a less price. Ashes are 
well suited to all farm crops, and are very bene- 
ficial in the fruit yard and orchard. Most farm- 
ers still sell wood in the cities and villages, and 
rather than go home empty, they should carry 
back ashes and other fertilizers, to replace the 
potash, lime, and phosphoric acid that have 
been carried off in the crops and animals sold. 
Ashes show immediate effects from their appli- 
cation, and 'at the same lime last long in the 
soil. They are very highly appreciated in the 
onion growing districts, but may be applied with 
equal advantage to ordinary farm crops. They 
should be kept as near the surface as possible, 
spread and harrowed into the seed bed, or ap- 
plied directly to the growing crops. Make a 
business of saving, buying, and storing ashes dur- 
ing the winter for the next season's operations. 
A Defect in the Pennsylvania Rotation. 
The presence of daisies, flea bane, and other 
weeds so generally visible in the districts where 
the Pennsylvania rotation prevails, leads us to 
doubt its perfection. This system embraces, 
1st, corn upon a limed sod ; 2d, oats or fallow; 
3d, wheat upon well manured stubble or fallow; 
4th, clover; 5th, Timothy, one or two years. 
The system is, on the whole, an excellent one, 
anil the fact that it is so generally adopted, and 
keeps up the fertility of t lie soil, is the best tes- 
timony we could have to its utility. But the 
result is weeds, very largely mixed with the 
clover and Timothy, damaging their quality 
and frequently rendering the clover and hay 
seed from these districts a very bad bargain to 
the purchaser, at any price. The rotation, it 
will be seen, provides for but one hoed crop, 
and the cultivation of this is almost exclusively 
by horse-power. Frequently the rows run but 
one way, and the cultivator fails to cover or de- 
stroy the weeds that grow between the corn. 
They mature their seeds, and make work for 
future years. The meadows grow increasingly 
foul, and the nay is of poorer quality, however 
abundant it may be. AVe are not aware that 
liming has anything to do with the multiplying 
of these weeds, except as it increases the fertil- 
ity of the soil. They grow abundantly in land 
that has never been limed. It is impossible to 
clean the meadowswith a single cultivated crop 
in the rotation, even with the most careful til- 
lage. It wants two or three seasons of cultiva- 
tion under hoed crops, and this may be had 
with corn, which should have manure, or by 
improving the fallow, which sometimes takes 
the place of the oat crop to exterminate the 
weeds. The latter would be the more effectual. 
By starting early in the season, 8 or 10 crops of 
weeds could be killed, simply by harrowing the 
land, after the first plowing, before it would be 
time to sow wheat. Then, if absolutely clean 
clover and grass seed were sown, the meadows 
would present a much more inviting appear- 
ance, and the big barns would be filled with 
a much better quality of hay, and more of it. 
