THE SOIJTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
137 
cut in blossom, produced 10 parts of nutritive 
matter, and the same taken in seed; timothy, 
10 parts in blossom and 23 in seed. This, in 
timothy, is probably too much ; but tha' the nu- 
tritive matter in timothy improved after the fall 
of the blossom, he had no doubt. Red-top comes 
to maturity latei, and he did not think there was 
much difference whether cut in blossom or soon 
after. He believed timothy cut in blossom 
would, pound for pound, produce more milk, 
when feLo cows or sheep, than it would cut 
afterwards ; but for horses and other stock, he 
thoufflit it more nutritious to stand a little long- 
er. It certainly improved in weight. 
He preferred mowing his hay, as far as he 
could, when free from dews or water. He let 
the swaths take the sun a few hours, until the 
top got a little wilted or seared, before turning. 
It thus held up the greener parts when turned 
over and spread, and permitted the air to circu- 
late under it. It also jave the ground between 
the swaths time to dry, which was important in 
hastening the curing. In this way, he avoided 
the necessity of turning the hay after being 
spread, which was one of the most tedious pro- 
cesses through which the hay had to be passed, 
and of course the most expensive. He never 
permitted his hay to take dew when it had sun 
enough to wilt it considerably, if he could help 
it. The de-w discolored it, and he had never 
been able to restore the fine fresh color after 
wards. He preferred letting his hay stand over 
night in the cock. He could then better tell of 
its fitness to be housed. It is very easy to break 
up the cocks and give it more sun if necessary, 
and the slight fermentation or sweating in the 
cock; which is checked and dried oft in catting, 
is a gre it preventive against heating in the mow. 
Hay heated in the mow is sure to be discolored. 
Some people insist that it is not injured for feed- 
ing, especially to cattle. It may be so. I know 
that flour, corn, or oats, which have been heat- 
ed until they are musty, are thought not so good. 
I do not know why hay should be. 
On the approach of rain, I always put all the 
hay that has had any sun of consequence in the 
cock. If the-storm is a long one, it m.ay turn 
yehow, so that it cannot be restored, but it will 
retain most of its nutritive matterandits weight ; 
whereas, if left spread out to take the rain, it 
loses both, andis much worse discolored. I nev- 
er use salt upon my hay but upon compulsion. 
When the weather is good, I dry my hay suffi- 
ciently to kee,', and as soon as I can I house it : 
but sooner than leave it out to take a storm, 
even in the cock, 1 would put it in a little short 
dried, and apply salt to save it, as I would soon- 
er have it salted than musty. 
Dr. Lee thought it the best way to mow grass 
after the dew was oft ; spread it, dry it as much 
as possible, and rake it into winrow. If it was 
dried enough — and it would frequeittiy be so — he 
would load it from the winrow, and save the la- 
bor of cocking it up. 
Sumach. 
Ever since we called the attention of Southern 
Planters to Sumach as a crop Likely to be profit- 
able, we have been endeavoring to collect the 
information necessary to enable vs to answer such 
inquiries as those contained in the following let- 
ter. As yet we have not been able to get the 
information we wanted. We have no personal 
experience on the subject, and those persons to 
whom we have written have not as yet replied to 
our inquiries. Our readers must, therefore, ex- 
ercise a little patience, resting assured, in the 
meantime, that they shall have, in due season, 
all the information we can collect on the subject 
from any trustworthy source : 
Mr. Camak : — Some of your readers with my- 
self are anxious to know the mode of cultivating 
and preparing for market the Sumach, and if the 
planter would be remunerated for abandoning 
other crops. We would be glad to know the 
value of the consumption in the United States, 
the probable quantity grown here, and the quan- 
tity impoited. Your readers, no doubt, will be 
glad to hear what information you iray possess 
upon the subject at length, as many may not 
have the books you may refer to. Yours, &c., 
Bath, August \, 1846. C. W, 
Asparagus. 
Coming so early in spring, and being withal, 
when properly grown and cooked, so palatable 
and so healthful, every thing connected with the 
growl h and improvement of Asparagus must be 
interesting. We have, therefore, given to the 
following article a prominent place in our paper, 
in the hone that it may induce those who have 
Asparagus beds to treat them properly, and those 
who have none, to set about furnishing them- 
selves with the means of enjoying the luxury of 
good Asparagus. Every direction contained in 
the article is good — and the results stated are 
sure to follow — saving and excepting the size. 
We don’t underwrite, by any means, that it will 
be as large as “ my hoe handle ” It wil, be large 
enough, however, for any use. Particularly as 
to cutting, is the direction important. Let any 
one try it, and our word for it, he will never 
thereafter have his Asparagus cut underground : 
How TO Raise “ Giant” Asparagus. — There 
are sold in the seed stores several sorts of aspa- 
ragus, which claim to grow to unusual size, and 
produce giant stalks. I have bought and planted 
these sorts, and found them not perceptibly dif- 
ferent from the common old sort. 
I want to tell you and your readers, if you will 
have a little patience with me, how i grow com- 
mon asparagus, so that it will always rival any 
g'ant production, whether from Brobdignag or 
Kentucky. Every one who has seen my beds 
has begged £e for the seed — thinking it a new 
sort — but I have pointed to the wanure heap — 
the farmer’s best bank — and told them that the 
seciet all laid there. The seed was only such as 
might be had in every garden. 
About the first of November —as soon as the 
frost has well blackened the asparagus tops — I 
take a scythe, and mow all close to the surface 
of the bed ; let it lie a day or two, then set fire 
to the heap ot stalks, burn it to ashes and spread 
the ashes over the surface of the bed. 
I then go into my barn-yard : I take a load of 
clean fresh stable manure and add thereto half a 
bushel of hen dung ; turning over an J mixing 
the whole together, throughout. This makes a 
pretty powerful compost. 1 apply one such load 
to every twenty feet in length of my asparagus 
beds, which arc six feet wide. With a strong 
three pronged spml, or fork, I dig this dressing 
under. The whole is now left for the winter; 
In the spring as early aspjssible, I turn, the 
top of the bed over lightly, once more. Now, as 
the asparagus grows naturally on this side of the 
ocean, and loves salt water, I give it an abun- 
dant supply of its favorite condiment, I cover 
the surface of the bed about a quarter of an inch 
with fine packing salt— it is n at too much. As 
the spring rain comes down, it gradually dis- 
solves. Not a weed will appear during the 
wholeseason. Everything else, pig-weed, chick- 
weed, purslane, a 1 refuse to grow on the top of 
my briny asparagus beds. But it would do your 
eyes good to see the strong, stout, tender sta'.ks 
of the vegetable itself pushing through the sur- 
face early in theseasen. I do .lOt at all strelcli 
a point, when I say they are often as large round 
as my hoe handle, and as tender and succulent 
as any I ever tasted. The same lour.d of treat- 
ment is given to my bed every year. 
I have a word to say about cutting asparagus, 
and then I am done. Market gardeners, and I 
believe a good many other people, cut asparagus 
as soon as the point of the shoot push s an inch 
or two through the ground. They have then 
about two inches of what grows above ground, 
and about four or six inches of what grows be- 
low. The latter looks while and templing; I 
suppose people think that for the same reason 
that the white part of celery is tender the white 
part of asparagus must be too. There is as 
much difference as between a goose and a gander 
It is as tough as a slick; and this is the reason 
why people, when it is boiled, always are forced 
to eat the tops and leave the bottom of the shoots 
on their plates. 
My way is, never to cut any shoots of aspara- 
gus below the surface of the ground. Cut it as 
soon as it has grown to proper height, say five or . 
six inches above gro.und. The whole is then 
green, but it is all tender. Served with a little 
drawn butter, it will melt in your mouth. If 
your readers have any doubt of this, from hav- 
ingbeeninthe habit, all their lives, of eating 
hard sticks of white asparagus, only let them cut 
itboth ways, and boil it on the same day, keeping 
the two lots separate, and my word for it, they 
will never cut another stalk below the surface of 
the bed. 
North Carolina Farming. 
In the Southern Cultivator for February 
last, (page 27, vol. 4,) we gave an account of the 
production of 11 3^ bushels of corn, on an acre of 
land, in Buncombe county, N. Carolina. This 
statement naturally excited a good deal of in- 
quiry as to the means by which this result was 
produced. The editor of the North Carolina 
Planter, addressed a letter to Mr. Patton, on 
whose farm the corn grew, and received the fol- 
lowing very interesting answer : 
Pleasant Retreat, N. C , Jan. 2d, 1816. 
Dear Sir — I hasten to rep y to your favor of 
the 19ch ult. Vour request would have been 
complied with sooner but for the absence of Mr. 
Patton and myself, until the present time. 
1 he land on which the corn in question was 
produced is river bottom, dark sandy soil, one 
year previous in clover pasture, turned under (in 
December) from 10 to l2 inches deep, with a 
large casi mould-board two horse p ow. It laid 
in that condition until the first of April. It was 
then what we call 1 sted, which is to make one 
urrow the width we wish our rows and then run 
one on either side of the rirst lurrow, so as to 
make a small ridge where the first furrow was 
made. Ours was done with what ave call the 
twisting shovel, called by some the half shovel, 
about two-thi ds the depth of the first breaking, 
and the rows 4 feet distance; and the last of 
April we laid it off’ for planting, crossing the 
ridges 3 feet distance about the same depth of 
the last plowing ; so making the hills distant 4 
feet one way, and three the other. 
We then took manure from a hog pen, avhere 
hogs has been fed a considerable length cf time, 
and putone common shovelfull to every three 
hills on a part of the ground; 'he other part we 
put manure in from a cow pen, where cows were 
penned and f d every night, the manure put up 
in heaps in winter ar.d let stand so until taken 
to the field. The manure, after put out in the 
hills, was mixed up with the soil with shovels, 
and then the corn dropped on it, and covered 
three or four inches deep. I put 4 grains to a 
hill, and when the young corn had from four to 
five leaves on it, I thinned it, leaving three sia'ks 
in a hill, taking out generally the middle stalk, 
so as to give what was left better room. At this 
stage I gave it the first plowing with the com- 
mon shovel plow, deep and as close as 1 could 
run the plow, without covering the corn, follow- 
ing with the hoes levelling the earth round the 
hill, not hilling or hoeing up any earth round the 
corn. I gave it a second and third plowing, fol- 
lowing, in the same manner as at first, with the 
hoe. 1 L not r, collect the exact number ot 
days between the plowings, but think about 14 
or 15. The two last plowings were performed 
with the twisting shovel, and the last plowing 
considerably shallower than the first, and not so 
Close to the corn. 
The part that was manured from the hog pen 
grew up lasterin the spring and was of a darker 
green throughout the season, and was better 
corn than the par' manured from the cow pen. I 
am inchned to think, and from experience too, 
that either is better on sandy soil than stable ma- 
nure, and not as liable ;o fire on any kind of soil 
we have. 
I have endeavored to give you as correct a 
statement as I could do, how the thing,” (as 
you term it,) "is done in Bunkum.'’ I am no 
more than a plain h .'iuespun Buncoinbits, and 
hope you will excuse my plain and blunt manner 
of writing. ’Very respectfully, your ob’t. serv’t., 
A. Porter. 
Thos. J. Lemay, Esq., Raleigh, N. (J. 
CORB ECTION.— In the remarks prefacing a letter from 
W. R. Ross to Dr. Cunningham, under the head of “Subsoil 
Plowing,” in our Jub' No., page 106, 4th line, the words 
“ ConscUntmh point” should read “ commencing point.” 
