68 
Kentucky Farming. 
for she evidently has a fine climate and soil for 
their production. 
Hemp has now become a very important crop 
here; the dew-rotted, answers admirably for 
bale rope and cotton bagging, while Govern¬ 
ment, in its manufacture of cordage, gives a de¬ 
cided preference to the water-rotted article of 
Kentucky, over that of any foreign importation; 
and now that vats for clean, warm water are 
easily constructed to rot in any season of the 
year, and simple machinery is introduced for 
breaking and preparing it for market, there is 
no doubt but the South-West will not only soon 
drive out the foreign article, but eventually be¬ 
come a considerable exporter. 
Wheat is pronounced a very uncertain crop 
here, especially on the richer soils, where it 
finds many enemies to contend with, such as the 
fly, rust, and mildew. Some think that the 
State is too far south for profitable wheat pro¬ 
duction, and they will have to give up the grow¬ 
ing of it except for family purposes, to their 
Northern neighbors. But in this opinion we 
think there is an error, since very fine crops 
are produced in Mississippi, at 5° lower latitude, 
and so far from thinking of abandoning the 
roduction of so indispensable an article for 
read, we hope that the intelligent minds of 
Kentucky will set themselves to discover the 
cause of these devastations, and a remedy for 
them, which may be possibly found in a pre¬ 
paratory steep of some kind for the grain just 
before sowing, or some properly prepared top 
dressing on the ground during the autumn, or 
early spring’s growth. 
When it is too thick and rank in the spring, 
to lessen the growth of straw, and increase the 
product of the grain, it is recommended to feed 
the whole field down a week or two with stock. 
Rye succeeds well here, and is grown mostly 
for early spring pasture. It is usually sown in 
the corn fields, at the rate of two bushels to the 
acre, during the month of August, and if the 
corn stands up sufficiently straight, it is covered 
with the shovel plow, but such a cultivator as 
is used at the North, we are confident would 
prove a faster worker, and much more perfect 
instrument for this purpose. If the corn is too 
much lodged to plow in the rye, it will gene¬ 
rally catch, though not so evenly and well as 
when it can be slightly covered. If it has re¬ 
ceived a good autumn growth, young stock and 
sheep may be pastured on it all winter, when 
the ground is frozen sufficiently to prevent 
poaching; and as soon as the field is dry in 
March, they are again turned on and kept there 
till the 10th to 20th April, according to the sea¬ 
son, by which time the clover and grass pas¬ 
tures are sufficiently advanced to receive the 
stock. They are then taken off and the rye 
allowed to grow up, and as soon as ripened, 
hogs are turned on it. These continue till com 
is sufficiently forward to commence the fatting 
process, they are now removed from the rye, 
and enough being left for seed, it again com¬ 
mences growing up for pasture, or it is plowed 
in as a fall dressing for the succeeding year’s 
crop of corn. 
Oats do well here; barley , buckwheat and 
millet have only been partially cultivated, but 
we believe always with fair and certain success. 
They answer as an excellent change of feed for 
hogs to run on the same as rye, and are also fed 
to horses. 
Peas are scarcely ever sowed as a field crop, 
at which we are very much surprised. They 
would probably produce as well in Kentucky 
as in New-York, where the product in bushels 
is generally equal to that of corn, the labor of 
the cultivator much less, and we think them 
more nutritious for hogs. Peas and barley are 
the heaviest feed given to swine in England, 
and make the finishing in the fatting process. 
Some are now recommending the cultivation of 
the English bean for the same purpose as peas, 
we are only apprehensive that the stammers may 
prove too hot and dry for it, hut perhaps it will 
soon acclimate itself, and as it can be sown 
broad-cast and harrowed in and needs no after 
cultivation, an experiment on different soils is 
well worth making. The northern white bush 
bean ., we are certain, would do well in Ken¬ 
tucky, and may even be planted among corn* as 
is usual here, or at the South as they do the 
cow-pea. 
Roots, with the exception of the Swedes 
I tumep, they have been very successful in culti- 
| rating, till the last year, when clouds of grass- 
| hoppers, blister flies, and other enemies ap- 
| peared, eating off the leaves of beets and other 
roots, and even devouring such course herbage 
as the vines oi the potatoes. It is desirable that 
some remedy should be discovered for the pro¬ 
tection of the root crops, as the beets would 
answer well for fall feeding, and a tumep that 
| grew wholly beneath the ground , we are confi¬ 
dent, in so wild a climate, would keep all win¬ 
ter, and could be pulled for stock during the 
broken weather, and answer also for early 
spring food. But perhaps the Jerusalem Arti 
choke, upon the whole,maybe considered their 
best root, especially for stock hogs. Turned to- 
a field of these in the fall, they will get a good 
subsistence all winter, with the addition of a 
little corn fed to them when the ground is hard 
frozen, and the preparation of the ground from 
the rooting of the hogs is the best possible cul¬ 
tivation for the succeeding year’s growth. We 
are not sure but this root is better suited to the 
climate of Kentucky, than any other that can 
