216 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
American ^grkttlturist. 
New-York, Wednesday, June 14, 1854, 
Expiring Subscriptions. —As we have before 
announced, the Agriculturist is sent no longer 
than ordered and paid for; so that any one re¬ 
ceiving the paper need not expect to receive a 
bill for it afterwards. With the last number of 
any subscription we send a notice that the time 
is up, or what is equivalent, we generally send a 
bill for another year. The bill is made out at 
the full price $2 a year. Those belonging to 
clubs will of course remit only the club price. 
CROPS STILL IN SEASON. 
It is not too late to urge upon our readers 
the propriety of carrying the products of their 
farms the present season to the highest point. 
The comparative exhaustion of last year’s crops, 
owing to the long and severe winter and late 
spring, the demand from abroad for our bread- 
stuffs, and the great home consumption, (on ac¬ 
count of the diversity of employment, and the 
consequent diversion from agricultural pursuits,) 
has increased prices beyond any since 1836-7. 
Most of these causes will continue to give an 
active demand for our products, and we look for 
largely remunerating prices for all our farmers 
have to part with during the coming year. 
Though the season is comparatively late, 
owing to protracted cold and excessive rains, we 
do not apprehend any deficiency of the incom¬ 
ing crops where intelligently cultivated. There 
is generally a compensation observed in nature, 
in which the exhaustion produced by long-con¬ 
tinued cold, drouth, extreme wet, disease in 
some of the crops, and the like, is fully made 
up by subsequent heat and favoring seasons. 
We confidently look, therefore, to an ample re¬ 
turn for all w r ell-directed agricultural labor the 
present year. 
Of grass there is a certainty we shall have an 
abundant supply. The yield is already large 
on properly-prepared meadows; and we have 
seen one field that was well-laid down in lawn 
grass, and thoroughly manured, which was cut 
on the first of June, and yielded not less than 
one and a half tons of thoroughly-dried hay per 
acre—as nearly as we could judge. The Eng¬ 
lish ray grass now predominated in this field, 
and a more luxuriant crop we have never seen. 
Much of it had been lodged by the heavy rains 
the latter part of May. 
Other forage crops may yet be advantage¬ 
ously grown, especially Indian corn, sown in 
drills or broadcast—though we greatly prefer 
the former—as we have before repeatedly 
urged. Enormous crops can be raised where 
the land is highly manured, the seed well put 
in, and the cultivator used two or three times 
between the drills, to kill the weeds and help 
forward the early growth. It will take care of 
itself afterwards. Do not be afraid of using too 
much manure for corn. It will bear all you will 
be likely to put on, and of nearly all kinds— 
muck, barn-yard droppings, guano, ashes, lime, 
plaster, bone dust, or super-phosphate, and 
generally some salt is beneficial. 
You may be troubled in curing this crop if 
very heavy, as it comes in when the sun 
less power than in the summer, and the thick, 
succulent stalks require a long time for curing; 
but if properly stooked where grown, or on ad¬ 
joining fields if necessary, it may be suffered to 
remain uninjured through successive rains; and 
if stacked between layers of dry straw, and 
slightly salted as put up, it will be found a most 
valuable fodder when cut up by the stalk-cut¬ 
ting machines. 
Ruta bagas can be sown at any time during 
this month, and if these are judiciously man¬ 
aged, and they can be kept from the fly, bugs, 
slugs, &c., you may rely on large ’yields. As 
with corn lands, you cannot make the soil too 
rich for ruta bagas, and the same is essentially 
true with all root crops. More choice, however, 
is required in the selection of manures than for 
corn. Unfermented barn-yard manures ought 
not to be used, nor undigested muck, neither 
should ashes or salt be employed too freely. 
The former is supposed to produce the disease 
termed fingers and toes, in unpropitious seasons. 
Thoroughly-fermented manures are always a 
safe application, and they have a wonderfully 
stimulating effect on turnips, and indeed on all 
crops, approximating in their effects to guano. 
Fine bone dust, or phosphate of lime is an ex¬ 
cellent application for turnips, so also is guano, 
at a rate not exceeding 300 or 400 lbs. per acre. 
A great many tons can be easily produced on 
an acre, where well cultivated, and an excellent 
food they will be found for all your horned cattle 
and sheep, and they may be advantageously 
fed in moderate quantities to store pigs, horses, 
and mules, when not hard worked. Most other 
field turnips may be sown later. 
Potatoes may still be planted on choice local¬ 
ities, and with a favoring season and proper 
management, may be made to produce largely. 
\Ye have known satisfactory returns of this 
root, made from planting the last of June. 
But we must urge the necessity of using, in 
all late crops, thoroughly-digested manures, 
such as will yield their elements at once to the 
growing crops. We are very much in favor of 
a frequent overhauling of the contents of the 
barn-yard and muck heaps, and thus promoting 
their decomposition before hauling to the fields. 
The fermentation, if judiciously managed, will 
throw off, only water and carbonic acid; and 
these will again be attracted to the soil, where 
the residuum is applied, as they are elements 
abundantly furnished by the atmosphere, and 
we have the further great advantage of having 
to carry to the distant fields, less than one- 
third or fourth or the original bulk and weight; 
and this is wholly freed from foul seeds, which 
have been burnt up or decomposed in the fer¬ 
menting mass, and your manure is already 
cooJced for the crops. The moment it is applied, 
it is ready to minister to the growing vegeta¬ 
bles, and their early and rapid germination, fre¬ 
quently secures a large yield, where otherwise 
there might be almost an entire failure. 
It may be too late for planting any other of 
the forage roots, but it is not too late to stimu¬ 
late their growth, as well as corn and some 
other crops, by a top-dressing of such appro¬ 
priate manures as we have enumerated, which 
can be slightly buried betweon the rows by the 
cultivator or a light plow. 
Millet is another cVop that may be sown to 
great advantage for hay or green feed. Sown 
broadcast or in drills, on rich soils, one to two 
tons may be easily secured to an acre. Much 
of it might ripen as grain. It is acceptable 
food for most kinds of stock. 
Some unreflecting farmers may say, there is 
very little that is saleable among the foregoing. 
If you have a good supply of stock on your 
farms, all may be converted into milk, butter, 
beef, pork, mutton, eggs and poultry; and in 
this shape, we think, no man will have cause to 
complain that he cannot get a remunerating 
price for his labor and the use of his farm. 
Of the remaining articles that will repay for 
planting in June, there are but two that will 
merit the farmer’s attention. White, or garden 
beans, are the most condensed and nourishing 
vegetable food that is grown ; and there will be 
no difficulty in raising large crops of these with 
proper attention. Plant them closely together, 
on light, warm land, not too highly manured, or 
you will be likely to get more vines than fruit. 
They are easily cultivated, a very sure crop, 
and generally afford a good price; and if con¬ 
sumed in your own family, one bushel will go 
farther than one and a half bushels of wheat, 
two of corn, or ten of potatoes. They are 
easily cured by stacking around a pole with the 
vines outward, or scattered over a rail fence or 
stone wall. For sheep, some consider the vines, 
when well cured, almost equal to the same 
weight of timothy hay; and the beans are the 
best corn feed (as the English would call it) you 
can give them. 
Buckwheat may now be sown with the prob¬ 
ability of a paying crop. The soil ought to be 
light, mellow, and well-prepared for this grain, 
but not too rich; sow two to four pecks per 
acre, and cut before the frost touches it, whether 
ripe or not. A part of it will have matured ; 
and if the frost is not too early, you may rely 
on a large crop ; and under any circumstances, 
the straw when carefully cured, will afford for¬ 
age for sheep and cattle. Bone dust is a good 
fertilizer for this crop. 
The foregoing are some of the means in the 
hands of our farmers for yet taking advantage 
of the high prices of agricultural products. In 
addition, we advise careful attention to be given 
to the best'methods of securing crops. These 
consist in the proper time for harvesting, the 
proper mode of curing, and the proper disposi¬ 
tion of grain and other valuable productions. 
Let these be gathered at the right time, when 
fully matured, yet before they have deteriorated. 
Many farmers lose a great deal by letting their 
crops stand too long, by which a considerable 
portion of the hay becomes converted from a 
nutritive grass to woody fiber, distasteful to the 
animal, and undigestible in its stomach. Grain 
is frequently allowed to stand till over-ripe, by 
which the quality is impaired, and the berry 
shells on the field, and a considerable portion is 
wasted. Both hay and grain are oft-times badly 
cured, and badly housed or stacked, by which 
their value is greatly lessened for sale or use. 
The employment of the best harvesting ma¬ 
chines, mowers, reapers, horse-rakes, &c., now 
within reach of all, renders every man inex¬ 
cusable for neglecting to secure his crops at the 
proper time and in the best manner, as by their 
use a gang of hands can do many times the 
work they could do without them, thus bring¬ 
ing the harvesting of his fields absolutely under 
his control at any moment he chooses. 
