I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
anil in a powdered condition. It should also be 
thoroughly mixed through the muck. If only 
put in alternate layers, as some direct, it soon be¬ 
comes carbonated from the carbonic acid in the 
air and that produced by the decay of vegetable 
matter, and the carbonate is insoluble. This, 
however, is in a measure counteracted, for the 
excess of carbonic acid produced during the fer¬ 
mentation, will probably change it to a soluble 
bi-carbonate of lime. When placed in a compost 
heap with manure, or lime, the muck should of 
course be damp, even wet, to promote the diffu¬ 
sion of the alkali, and the general fermentation. 
In concluding this chapter, let us advise every 
cultivator who wishes to make his land more pio- 
ductive—and who does not 1—to go muck-hunt¬ 
ing over his land this very month—and if no de¬ 
posits of black earth can there be found, to extend 
the search through the neighborhood, and buy a 
privilege in some muck deposit. Then, during 
this month and next, have a large supply of the 
material dug out and placed where it will drain 
out, and be accessible at all seasons. It can be 
carted and mixed with the manures in the stables 
and yards, at a time when the teams are at leisure. 
We know a man who has a lot of pond mud, 
but it is always covered with a foot or two of 
water which can not be drained off, owing to high 
land on all sides. As soon as the water is at the 
lowest point in Summer, he has several men en¬ 
gaged with a large raft or flat boat. They dig 
out the mud with long shovels—sometimes 
standing knee or waist deep in the water with 
a plank sunk under them to keep from mir¬ 
ing—it is then floated to a convenient place 
where the bank of the pond is a foot above the 
highest rise of the water, and the mud is then 
thrown up and left for future use in the barn yard, 
stables, and compost heap. He has pursued this 
plan for several years and finds it pays largely 
in increased crops. 
Probably, in most instances where the ground 
is soft and miry, the better plan is, to throw the 
muck up into high heaps, and leave it to drain and 
dry until the ground is frozen hard, when the 
carting off can be readily done. The circum¬ 
stances—the nature of the ground, the distance 
to be carted, the amount of spare man and team 
labor at any season, etc.—must determine the 
best mode of procedure in each case ; but we say 
to one and all, lay in a large stock of peat, or 
muck, or pond mud, or black earth, during the 
coming dry season ; and our word for it, you will 
get good returns when you apply it abundantly to 
your cultivated fields. 
A Word for Buckwheat. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
I have had great faith in Buckwheat ever since 
I was a boy and loved the smell of the fields 
where it was in blossom, and of the steam that 
came from the kitchen on cold frosty mornings 
when the cakes were baked and the door was 
opened to call us in to breakfast. I don’t know 
what some of my neighbors would do without it. 
We live in a rather wet district and it takes our 
land until late in Spring to drain out enough to 
plant corn, except in fields where we have put in 
the pipes for it to run through, as the Agricultur¬ 
ist has recommended. When the season is very 
backward, it is of little use to try to put in com¬ 
mon kinds of corn. It comes up as yellow as it 
was put in, and never gets over the jaundice 
enough to bear half a crop. I suppose it’s owing 
to sleeping so long under a wet blanket, and 
feeding on cold sour stuffin the soil. Sometimes 
it happens that plowing can’t be done until the 
right time for planting is gone, unless one is wil¬ 
ling to turn over a stiff wet soil that cuts like 
cheese, and falls in great dead lumps, which might 
answer for building walls, but are no better than 
bricks to nourish corn roots. So when a man gets 
behind the times for corn planting, or his yellow 
corn makes the prospect for a crop look blue, he 
waits until July and turns all such land over for 
buckwheat. I have thought this arrangement a 
little too convenient for thrifty farming, because 
some take little pains to push their Spring 
work ahead, calculating to cover up their neg¬ 
lect with a large patch of buckwheat: some farms 
in this neighborhood will be pretty well patched 
in that way this year. 
But I find a good account in raising a few acres 
of this grain as a regular crop. It pays to ma¬ 
nure the ground well and to work it deep before 
sowing. This is kept, like knitting work, to be 
done at odd spells between first and second corn 
hoeings in June, and whenever nothing else is 
pressing. During the last of June, or early in 
July, the ground is harrowed thoroughly, and 
the weeds are soon roasted out by the hot sun. 
Then, if possible just before a rain, I sow about 
three pecks of seed to the acre, harrow it in, and 
if the season is favorable, by the middle or last 
of September, there are twenty five or thirty bush¬ 
els per acre to harvest, and sometimes even more 
than this. I think a crop or two of buckwheat, 
followed by corn, one of the very best remedies 
for Canada thistles, daisies, wild onions, and such 
troublesome weeds. The buckwheat starts so 
quick and shades the ground so completely, the 
weeds get discouraged, and a well tilled, hoed 
crop finishes them. Of course land so treated 
must be well manured—you can't get fat cuts 
from lean fields. Jonathan. 
Legislating' the Weeds Out. 
On May 14th, the Montgomery (Pa.) Agricul¬ 
tural Society appointed a “ Committee on Nox¬ 
ious Weeds,” consisting of Charles J. Elliott, 
Alan W. Corson, and Thomas P. Knox. This 
Committee reported at a recent meeting, and 
there are two or three important .suggestions, 
which we will extract : 
“....We have had under consideration the 
propriety of asking the Legislature for a law, the 
provisions of which might be as follows, viz. : 
That all incorporated companies, such as railroad, 
turnpike, and canal, should be required to keep 
their roadways through cultivated farms clear of 
certain noxious weeds—viewing as we do these 
thoroughfares oft-times as nurseries of weeds 
throughout their whole extent. 
Also, that it should be made the duty of the 
township Supervisors to keep the township roads 
free of such Weeds. 
And that it should be made the duty of every 
rightful owner or occupant of property to keep 
from going to seed, and even eradicate all such 
weeds upon said grounds. For neglect of these 
duties the penalty might be moderate—say $?5 
with costs.” 
[These suggestions seem very appropriate, and 
we do not see why the Committee should come 
to the conclusion, in the next paragraph, not to 
recommend any stringent measures at present. 
Are not farmers, everywhere, sufficiently en¬ 
lightened to see the importance of at once pre¬ 
venting the growth and distribution of noxious 
weeds that are everywhere springing up along 
the lines of railways completed or being con¬ 
structed in different parts of the country. Shall 
we “wait until the horse is stolen, before lock¬ 
ing the door”—wait until the weeds are thor¬ 
oughly established and propagated, before adopt¬ 
ing stringent measures of prevention 1 A stitch 
in time will here save ninety nine. We corn- 
197 
mend the action proposed above, to the early at¬ 
tention of all other Agricultural Societies, gener¬ 
al and local.—E d.] 
“ But while your Committee themselves may 
be fully satisfied of the legality and sound policy 
of such laws at some future lime ns would have 
a tendency to eradicate the most offensive weeds, 
we are scarcely prepared at present to recom¬ 
mend any stringent measures, until it is thought, 
an enlightened state of agricultural knowledge- 
had prepared a public sentiment necessary or 
proper to enforce their observance. Our Agri¬ 
cultural Societies and Journals are fast preparing 
the minds of the people for such measures as 
may prove partially effective. 
In the meantime, we would most earnestly re¬ 
commend that every agriculturist take early and 
most efficient steps toward eradicating all plants 
not properly the subject of cultivation. Webster 
defines a weed to he a “plant out of place al¬ 
though in the economy of nature some of them 
are of use medicinally, we cannot but regard 
them as out of place upon our cultivated farms. 
We would recommend that no farmer permit a 
Weed, under any circumstances, to go to seed 
upon his property. Before and during hay-making, 
see to it that no Weed in even a half ripe con¬ 
dition be so placed that the substance in the 
stalk or body of the plant may, in the barn or 
elsewhere, cause the seed even partially to ripen 
or mature. We are well satisfied that many, 
very many weeds, which at mowing, in their un¬ 
ripe condition, we consider not likely to give us 
annoyance, are thus taken to the barn in the new 
made hay, ripen in the mow, pass through the 
stables and manure heap, and are returned to the 
tield, where in time—immediate or remote—we 
are astonished to find them in abundance, and 
wonder whence they came. We are assured by 
careful Weed pulling farmers that they can, in no 
other way than this, account for the present abun¬ 
dance of that most pestiferous Weed, the Moth 
Mullein. 
Very many farmers arc in the habit of hauling 
hay to the city and boroughs and bringing in re¬ 
turn a load of manure. Any one observing the. 
vast quantities of Ox-eye Daisies throughout 
Philadelphia county, and now spreading and 
steadily advancing upon us in the lower part of 
Montgomery county, need not be surprised in a 
few jears to see us thus completely overrun with 
said Daisy and other Weeds, from such a source 
and cause. 
We would advise farmers to be careful, most 
careful, in the selection of their grass seeds, par¬ 
ticularly Clover and Timothy. The sowing of 
impure seed we regard as the chief cause of the 
spreading of noxious Weeds, and we may, with 
great propriety, examine carefully our parcels of 
seed from the Patent Office—many of them are 
impure. 
Your Committee are of opinion.that, although 
the common Rag or Bitter Weed is regarded by 
many with but little prejudice, it must necessari¬ 
ly be very exhausting to the soil. There proba¬ 
bly is no Weed so generally abundant. We are 
of the opinion that, if farmers would be more 
careful in keeping the headlands of their corn 
fields and open fields or grounds generally, free 
from them during the Summer and busy season 
of harvest, they would effect much toward their 
diminution....” 
--» -■—J «> - 
Potato Eot—Planting Small Tubers. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Though I do not profess to be a farmer as my 
practical experience in this department is con¬ 
fined to three fourths of an acre, yet on this I 
have made some experiments particularly with 
the potato. Formerly I followed the common 
practice of using small potatoes for seed. While 
this was continued, a large portion of the crop 
was diseased. I then tried using none but full 
grown and ripe potatoes. Some of these were 
cut and two or three eyes planted in a hill, others 
were put in whole. None of those raised from 
such seed have been affected with the rot. A 
few days since while visiting a relative in West¬ 
chester Co., N. Y., he informed mo that his ex¬ 
perience coincided with mine. The reasons lie, 
