214 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
Ions daily is a common product. This large 
production is also sustained during a lengthened 
season. As this stock is now being introduced 
into this country, it would be well to note that 
amongst Norfolk and Suffolk farmers the great- 
est attention is paid to the health and condition 
of their cows, and to the production of proper 
feed for producing milk. Cabbages and turnips 
are raised largely for fodder, and it is not un- 
common to see the cows tethered in the fields 
and feeding on these crops. With equal care 
in their management, and with our improved 
dairy system, we should expect this stock in 
the hands of American dairymen to produce 
butter of a quality equal to that of the Jerseys. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm.— Wo. 102. 
"Tour "Walks and Talks," writes John John- 
ston, " are capital ; but liow you are going to 
get eight tons of barley straw from five acres I 
can not understand. I suspect it must be a 
mistake in tlie printer." Is not that a pleasant 
■way of putting it ? Criticism tempered with 
compliment! But there is no mistake about 
the matter. I have raised over 500 bushels of 
barley on ten acres, and expect to do still bet- 
ter, and I have no doubt there was 10 tons of 
straw. True, I did not weigh the straw. But 
did I not weigh with my own hands both grain 
and straw and chaff of Mr. Lawes's first experi- 
mental crop of barley in " Agdell-field" ? and 
have I not a right to trust my judgment? Mr. 
Judd, who has since visited it, will recollect the 
field — and the facts, are they not recorded in 
the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
Vol. XVIII, Part II? 
The barley was not manured. The field was 
in turnips the previous year. On Plot 1 the 
turnips were grown without manure; on Plot 
2 they were manured with superphosphate 
alone ; on Plot 3 they were manured witli 
superphosphate, potash, soda, ammonia-salts, 
and rape-cake. After the turnips were grown, 
the plots were each divided into two parts. On 
one part the turnips were carted off, and on the 
other part they were eaten on the land by sheep. 
The following was the result: 
Plot 3. 
Plot 2. 
Mixture of 
Superphos- 
artificial ma- 
Plot 1. 
phate/or 
nures and 
No manure. 
turnips. 
rape-cake. 
CO CO 
o= Co 
.«. 
.§■ 
•S-. 
•§• 
fH 
^S 
pfe 
» 
kJ| 
7-s 
ce'2 
■2 
■2 ~^3 
3K 
■22 
■5 e»*3 
°5 
I 3 
<S , 8~ 
ST c- 
Grain per acie, 
lbs 
2,CS1 
2.734 
1.676 
2,526 
1,943 
2,569 
Straw per acre. 
lbs 
O fJflO 
3,182 
1,0S9 
3,264 
2,463 
3,674 
Grain in bushels 
of 48 lbs., bus. 
659£ 
57 
35 
52J4 
40% 
53". 
I do not propose to discuss these results. I 
only give them to show that I was not so wild 
as Mr. J. supposed when I estimated that five 
acres of barley at 50 bushels per acre would 
give eight tons of straw. Or, in other words, 
that the crop would consist of six tons of grain 
and eight tons of straw and chaff. I am well 
aware that it requires very rich land and the 
best of tillage to produce such a crop. 
The largest yield of grain in Mr. Lawes's bar- 
ley experiments was 3,696 lbs. per acre, or ex- 
actly 77 bushels of 48 lbs. per bushel. This 
was the sixth crop of barley in succession, every 
year on (Tie same land! The plot was manured 
every year with salts of ammonia and super- 
phosphate. The yield of straw on this plot 
was 3,687 lbs. per acre. Two years before, 
however, one plot, dressed with salts of ammo- 
nia, superphosphate and sulphate of potash, 
soda, and magnesia, yielded 5,487 lbs. of straw 
per acre and 3,539 lbs. of grain, or a little over 
4} tons of total produce per acre. I only men- 
tion these facts to show what can be done. But 
I am well aware that not one farmer in a hun- 
dred believes them. When I told the Deacon 
that the barley on "Agdell-field" at Rotham- 
stead weighed 57£ lbs per bushel — that I weighed 
it myself, that the bushel was not moved or 
shaken while being filled, and was struck off 
level — I could see that he did not believe it. 
And when my first crop of barley on this farm 
was 12 bushels per acre, •weighing less than 40 
lbs. per bushel, I can imagine that the good 
Deacon after church the next Sunday, when 
talking to his brother farmers under the shade 
of the maple-trees, might in reply to an obser- 
vation remark: "An excellent sermon. — Yes, 
he thrashed last week. Wheat, 15 bushels per 
acre. But he did not sow that. Oats rusted — 
only 8 bushels per acre. Not worth thrashing. 
Barley, 12 bushels. Took it to the city. Couldn't 
sell it. Had it ground for the hogs." After a 
pause: "Well, they want it.— Yes; an excel- 
lent sermon." 
After Ezra Cornell visited Mr. Lawes's experi- 
mental farm, in company with Mr. Judd and 
others, he wrote au elaborate paper showing that 
the crops, though large, would not pay. He went 
to a chemist and druggist, and ascertained what 
the ingredients which Mr. Lawes used would 
cost. He doubtless thought the argument a good 
one. He overlooked the fact that if Mr. Lawes 
wanted to ascertain the effect of potash it was 
necessary to separate the potash from other in- 
gredients, and that this is a costly operation. 
But if Mr. Lawes proved that potash was good, 
Mr. Cornell, as a practical farmer, need not buy 
pure potash. He could use ashes, kainit, or 
any other article that would furnish potash in 
the cheapest form. Mr. Lawes used ammonia 
on one plot, potash on another plot, and soluble 
phosphates on another, and on other plots he 
used all three mixed together in different pro- 
portions. To do this, it was necessary to use 
these articles in an expensive form. But hav- 
ing ascertained that ammonia, phosphoric acid, 
and potash are the most valuable constituents 
of all manures, then it is no longer necessary to 
go to a " chemist and druggist " and pay high 
prices for them. We, as practical farmers, have 
only to study out for ourselves the cheapest 
form in which we can get these substances. It 
may be by fallowing the land, or growing 
clover, or buying bran or cotton-seed cake and 
feeding it to animals ; or by buying ashes, bone- 
dust, superphosphate, guano, dried blood, fish, 
or fish guano, castor-pomace, hair, horn shav- 
ings, hide or leather scraps, salts of ammonia, 
or nitrate of soda, according to circumstances. 
He is the wise farmer who accepts the teach- 
ings of true science, and uses them to his own 
advantage. Lawes's experiments have been 
worth millions of dollars to the farmers of the 
world. They did not pay directly. He never 
expected they would. I can recollect his buy- 
ing a quantity of rice (in order to ascertain the 
effect of carbonaceous matter), and grinding it 
into a fine flour, and then sowiug it on the land. 
How the farmers laughed ! But it was not 
many years before they presented him with a 
testimonial in the form of a new laboratory. 
I asked our path-master the other day if I 
might work a day or two on the road at this 
season (April), and have it deducted from my 
tax. I wanted to let off the water. I am as- 
sessed more days' work than any other four 
men in the district, and am very anxious to 
have a good road, and have offered to double 
my tax if the others will, and make the bed of 
the road dry and firm by letting off all the 
water. But no. We must "work out" our 
tax iu the old way. I am assessed eighteen 
days' work. Some time in June I am notified 
that to-morrow they are going to " work on the 
road." A man and team and scraper, or plow 
or wagon, count three. I send three teams 
and three men for two days, and the tax is paid. 
They do not half work. The path-master has 
had no experience in managing men. He does 
not know how to plan the work. To get rid of 
them, he sends a couple of teams to draw 
gravel, and they do not get back until half-past 
ten, and they think there is not time to draw an- 
other load before noon. Another team is started 
to plow along the side of the road, and the team 
with the scraper lies idle waiting until this is 
accomplished. There are stones to be picked 
up before the ground can be plowed. When 
this is done the plow is finally started. The 
ground is dry and hard. One man drives, an- 
other holds, and one or two more ride on the 
beam. The horses are overtaxed, and have to 
rest every few yards. The men rest too. All 
this time the scraper is waiting. By and by it 
starts, with one man to drive and another to 
hold the scraper. The plow is still going back 
and forward, and every bout it has to wail for 
the men with the scraper to get out of the way, 
and when the scraper comes back for another 
load it has to wait for the plow. And so the 
work goes on. Our path-master is an intelli- 
gent, industrious, and successful farmer. He is 
not to blame. It is the fault of the system. 
Fifty men, even if the work is well planned and 
properly executed, can not make as good a road 
in one day as one man can in fifty days. 
Mr. Root has written an article for the Rural 
Home advocating the non-drainage of swamps 
iu Western New York. He thinks it will not 
pay to drain them. "There are occasional ex- 
ceptions," he says, "when such lands are in the 
vicinity of cities, and can be made very valuable 
for garden uses, and thereby beautify the face 
of the country when it is desirable to bring 
them under improvement, but for the ordinary 
purposes of farm cultivation it is quite different. 
Nothing short of a thorough system of under- 
draining will fit these lands for profitable culti- 
vation. . . . That large tracts of waste lauds 
have been profitably reclaimed in the vicinity 
of large Eastern cities is no argument that the 
same course should be profitable here. The 
Hackensack salt meadows, near Newark, N. J., 
reclaimed at a cost of about $185 per acre, are 
now valued at $1,000 per acre ; and yet if those 
lauds were lying iu this vicinity, and were 
wanted for only ordinary farming purposes, 
their value would be hardly equal to the cost 
of reclamation." That is to say, they would 
"hardly" be worth $185 per acre. Coming 
from such a man as Mr. Root, and published in 
one of our most respectable agricultural jour- j 
nals, such sentiments are calculated to retard ' 
the operation of our new drainage law. Those 
of us who are endeavoring to drain our swamps 
meet with sufficient opposition already, and 
have a right to expect moral support and sym- 
pathy from all intelligent friends of agricultural 
improvement. Mr. Root seems to forget that 
these swamps render the whole vicinity for miles 
around unhealthy. I could wish the malaria 
