THE SOUTHERN CULTI VATOR. 
79 
WEDN^ESDAY, MAY 15, 1844. 
Patent Office Report.-— We make our l 
acknowledsemenls of the Hon. H. L. Els- 1 
WORTH, Commissioner oi Patents, and the Hon. j 
A. H. Stephens, for copies of the Annual Re- I 
port made hy the former to the present Congress. | 
Like his former valuable report, it contains 
much matter of lively interest to the Agricultu- 
rist; from which we shall, in our future num- 
bers, make such extracts as we deem of interest 
to our readers. 
From the American Farmer. 
L\RGE YIELD OF CORN. 
The Farmer’s Visiter gives the following ac- 
count of a large yield of corn, grown in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia; which shows that even an 
indifferent soil may be made by manure to send 
forth abundance of the fruits of the earth. The 
quantity of manure used w'as to be .‘ure heavy, 
but when the difference in the price of the labor 
of cultivating but 4 acres, instead of twenty, is 
considered, the account of cost will be pretty 
nearly balanced, without taking into considera- 
tion the difference in the value of the land after 
She crop was grown ; 
“The capacity of the soil in and about the 
city of Washington, is demonstrated by an ex- 
periment of Mr. Hickey, a Clerk in the office of 
the Secretary of the U nited States Senate, v, ho 
fesides about two miles from the Capitol, near 
the turnpike road leading to Bladeasburg. Mr. 
H. has a family of slaves by whom, overlooked 
by an Irishman, his labor is performed. The 
last year, instead of pursuing the old practice, 
and going over some twenty acres to be planted 
in Indian corn, producing at the rate of two to 
three barrels to the acre, he prepared and plant- 
ed oaly four acre.s. This land he manured at 
the rate of about 130 small horse cart loads to 
the acre, plowdng the ground more than once 
until it was well pulverized. The ground was 
furrowed ia row's at four feet distance, and the 
hills in the rows were suffered Jo stand two feet 
apart with three stalks in a hill. A practical 
farmer of the neighborhood is of opinion that the 
crop would have been larger if there had been 
two instead of three blades in a hill The corn 
In Maryland is of much higher and larger 
growth than the New England corn, and requires 
a less number of blades and a greater distance 
to the hills. In the lighter lands, they have on- 
ly a single blade to the hill, and the hills four 
feet distant — in the better lands tw’o blades at 
the same distance. Mr. Hickey’s field was 
three blades at only two feet one way and four 
feet the other. Had not the season been pecu- 
liarly favorable for corn, Mr. H. now thinks 
his crop would have been a failure, from the too 
great number and contiguity of the blades. But 
his crop turned out to be an uncommon one— 
22i barrels of shelled corn, (five bushels to the 
barrel,) on one acre, and 30 barrels to the acre 
on the three oiher acres— making his whole 
crop 412^ bushels. 
The largest producing acre was upon a young 
apple orchard, which had but now commenced 
bearing, and produced besides the corn with the 
growth of the trees, about ten bushels of choice 
apples. R may be readily perceived that the 
four acres of ground is now in a condition to i 
produce double, and perhaps treble crops, with- ' 
out further manuring from three to five years. 
How great must be the gain of capital and la- ' 
ber expended on such improved cultivation.” 
lea’ll is in Agriculture, as in every part of 
creation, a wise and paternal Providence has 
in.separably connected our duty with our happi- 
ness. 
|;^A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, 
says a lady of his acquaintance colors wool and 
woolen goods, blue, wi\.h pur slaw;, a common 
garden w'eed— that the lady assured him it was 
equal in every respect to the best inuigo blue. 
Asparagus.— For manure, guano mi.xed with 
sea-salt, and applied in a liquid form, has prov- 
ed most beneficial. 
y^ The eye of a master will do more work 
than both his hands. Not to oversee workmen, 
is to h ave them your purse open. — Franklin. 
Valuable Salve. — Take three carrots and 
grate them; place in a vessel and cover with 
lard, without salt. Boil thoroughly, strain, and 
add sufficient beeswax to make a paste. This 
is a most invaluable ointment or salve, for cuts, 
burns, scalds, or wounds of any kind. 
Broom Corn.— The Connecticut Farmer’s 
Gazette says : Immen.se quantities of broom 
corn are raised on the Connecticut river, in 
Massachusetts. It yields about 1000 lbs. of 
brush, and 60 to 70 bushels of seed to the acre. 
The brush sells for 5, and sometimes as high as 
12 cents the pound, and the seed at 33 cents per 
bushel. Its cultivation is like that of the In- 
dian corn. 
Manure for Melons. — The Lundon Garde- 
ner’s Chronicle says : It is conteniled that hen- 
dung is equal lo pigeon-dung, iu producing a 
large quantity and fine quality of melons. 
I^When we take people merely as they are, 
we make them worse; when we treat them as if 
they were what they should be, we improve 
them as far as they can be improved. — Goelke. 
Happiness. — An eminent modern wmiter 
beautifully says : 
“The foundation of domestic happiness is 
faith in the virtue of woman ; the foundation of 
political happiness, a confidence in ffig integri- 
ty of man: the foundation of all happiness, 
whatsoever, temporal and eternal — reliance on 
the goodness of God.” 
From the New Genesee Farmer 
ORLEANS COUNTY PREMIU.M CROP OF INDIAN 
CORN. 
Asa Williams, Jr., of the town of Barre, in 
the county of (Jrleans, having received at the 
last annual fairol ti>e Orleans County Agricul- 
tural Society, the first premium awarded for the 
best acre of Indian corn, makes the following 
.statement of the manner of cultivating the saoie, 
soil, seed, ; 
The soil was gravelly loam, containing a 
good portion of black vegetable mould. I plant- 
ed in corn stubble : it was first plowed in the 
spring of 1812, having laid in pasture ever since 
it was rdeared, some twenty years since. It vas 
a swale, and had been ditched and drained the 
year before it was plowed. In the spring of 
1842, I spread on about twenty-five loads to the 
acre, of well rotted barn-yard manure. In the 
spring of 1843, I puton, and plowed under, about 
the same quantity of the same kind of manure ; 
plowed it twice— one each way, about the 6lh 
of May; about the lOth, planted on the furrows, 
in rows about two feet apart, and hills about 
one foot apart in the row’ — three kernels in each 
hill. It was hoed three times, making as little 
hill as possible, and no cultivator or drag was 
used on it. It was cut uo by the ground, about 
the 15ih of September, and put up in shocks or 
stocks on the ground. Tuecommiitee of the 
Agricultural Society came to the field andmea= 
sured off one acre ; they counted tiie rows in 
the acre, and then selected one row, which they 
deemed to be an average row. They then ap= 
pointed a man to hu.sk and shell it: when that 
was done, the product was measured, and the 
crop on the acre from the product of this row, 
was estimated at one hundred and fitty-seven 
bushels and thirty quarts, by measure ; and by 
weight, at one hundred and filty-lour bushels and 
twenty-one pounds. 
I w’ould add, that I personally superintended 
the harve.sting of the whole acre measured, and 
have no doubt but it would average the product 
of the row' that was u easured. The seed used 
in • planting, was what is called the wdiile red- 
blaze— eight rowed. 
Asa Williams, Jr. 
Barre, April 10, 184-1. 
Remarks. — The foregoing statement was fur- 
nished at our request, in order that the county 
of Orleans might have the credit of having pro- 
duced one of the largest crops of Indian corn on 
record in the annals ofagiieulture in the empire 
state. It is a great pitv that the whole crop was 
not accurately measured and attended to, so 
that it would have obtaine I the premium oi the 
State Agricuhural Society, and so that those 
who read the account w’ould not feel inclined to 
doubt its accuracy. From our ow'n knowledge 
of the parlies concerned, w'e have full confi- 
dence in their integrity; but at the same time, 
we are aware that the statement show's such an 
extraordinary product, that manv farmers w'ill 
think there is some mistake, or deception about 
it. We know, however, that Orleans County 
contains some of the best r-orn land and btst far- 
mers in the State ; and as other counties cl.dm 
to have produced crops equal to this, we see no 
good reason w'hy, with a favorable season, and 
improved mode of culture, w'e may nut advance 
a leetle beyond all that has been done before. — 
We have alw'ays conten.led that perjedion has 
not yet been reached, in the culture of this, and 
other crops. — E d. 
From the New Genesee Farmer. 
HOW MY FRIEND COOK RAISES WHEAT. 
Few farmers m our county raise as good 
crops of wheat, am none better, than Mr. Ira 
Cook, of Byron. His method is a good one, 
and can be adopted by any farmer in the wheat 
region. It also proves that the same crop may 
be grown upon the same land for any number 
of years, and at the same time have the land 
consiariUy improving in value. The whole se- 
cret is, deep plowing, gyp.^-um and clover. He 
stocks his wheat ground in the spring with clo- 
ver, and .sows on [ilaster. The next spring the 
clover is plastered again. When up, rank and 
heavy, he goes on with a strong 'earn, and turns 
under the clover, and sows on his wheat. He 
says he has turned under clover that would yield 
at least tw'o tons of hay to the acre; and he fur- 
ther says that from his ow'n know'ledge the land 
W'ill bear a hea'W crop of wheat every other 
year, and still improve in fertility. Wheat can 
be raised in this w'ay at much less expense than 
in any other, as summer fallowing can be dis* 
pen.sed with entirely. 
Mr. Cook also pays great attention to his 
garden, and has his privy so constructed as to 
be able to save all the night soil, or contents of 
the vault. He keeps a pile of sand han<fy, and 
occasionally throws in sufficient to keep the 
vault dry. This is every year applied to his 
srarden— anda most excellent application it is. 
I think muck, if at hand, would he better than 
sand, unless the sand was quite loamy. Any 
kind of light earth that is fit for a garden, will 
answer the purpose, and should be used; lor 
