AMERICAN AGRICULTURISTS 
35 
is, it.accommodates itself wonderfully. Give 
it a good clean soil, and it will grow up thick, 
stout, straight and tall, like a parcel of fire or 
horse weeds. Keep it in the grass, and it 
will trail modestly about, with a few crooked 
and struggling stems, as if itdeemed itself un¬ 
worthy to live but with the violets or other 
paragons of modesty. It is as we say here 
in the west, “ all kinds of a plant.” 
Friends, do you want it on your farm 1 If 
you do, neglect it. You need not desire it, 
you do not need to run after it; it will come 
to you very likely, and once with you it will 
stay , however bad you wish it were gone ; 
provided you do not root it out, by the most 
determined and energetic action. The first 
plant of it must be dug up and kept dug up, 
the thing being done ten times in a season if 
needs be. It can not live if it be suffered to 
have no leaves, since they are its lungs ; and 
if kept extirpated it must die.—Prairie Far. 
ECONOMIC CULTIVATION. 
We have repeatedly seated ourselves with 
the intent of writing upon the best mode of 
cultivating the various crops, and almost as 
often have we actually had our attention 
turned to and written upon some other topic. 
The reason is this : No one, except the fa¬ 
vored few who have all the means at com¬ 
mand needful in carrying out their plans of 
farm operations, can do half as well as they 
know how to do. Their land is poor, and 
they have not the means of enriching it. 
Tell a man that a purse full of gold is only 
an inch beyond his utmost reach, and you 
do him no good but to excite feelings of dis¬ 
content and envy, and even lead him to fore¬ 
go certain improvements which are within 
his reach, because they pay so little com¬ 
pared with what he is really anxious but 
unable to do. Poverty is a terrible burden, 
and nowhere is it felt more than among in¬ 
telligent farmers. 
Notwithstanding these difficulties, we 
would now urge this class of farmers, first, 
to expend their labor and their fertilizers 
upon a much smaller quantity of land than is 
usually done. Instead of planting five acres 
of corn, plant two, or even one; and plow 
and cultivate this small field to the entire 
neglect, if need be, of other acres. If those 
lie fallow it will be useful to the soil, and at 
least no money will be wasted upon them. 
We say to such farmers, in the second 
place, you can do more than you have done 
in the preparation of various composts. 
There are very few farmers who can not 
double and treble the quantity and value of 
these necessary means of restoring vigor to 
worn out and barren soils. By diminishing 
the extent of surface under cultivation, and 
by proper industry in preparing composts, 
there is scarcely a farm in the country that 
can not be made to produce its sixty, and 
seventy, and eighty bushels of corn to the 
acre. And even though one acre only is 
brought up to this desirable condition, a se¬ 
ries of years will suffice to bring the whole 
farm to a high state of cultivation. If only 
small fields are made thus productive, the 
hopes and courage. of the farmer will be 
thereby excited, and he will stand up man 
fully among men, and tell of his success as 
well as they. 
We would not advise farmers of limited 
means to buy guano nor phosphates at any¬ 
thing like their present prices. Pay your 
poorer neighbor his six or eight shillings a 
day (if you can not exchange work with him) 
to help you colle'ct leaves from the forest, 
mud from the meadow, carting the latter 
only after it is tolerably dry, peat or marl 
from the bog ; and if you can buy barn-yard 
manures, mix them with turfs, sods, roots, 
weeds, dirty straw, spoilt hay, chips that are 
unfit to burn ; and if you are conveniently 
situated for it, get sea-weeds from the sea¬ 
shore, oyster shells, old bones, horns, etc. 
Dead animals are of great value. The offal 
from a slaughter-house, worthless scraps of 
hides, bones, etc., should be used only with 
large quantities of common soil, or of some 
other solvent. Not one in a hundred turns 
to the best account the contents of privies, 
hog pens, soap-suds, and other kinds of waste. 
Pardon us for asking why will you tax 
yourselves so severely by neglecting any of 
these modes of improving your lands ? It 
may be only such neglect that keeps you in 
poverty ; and though you enter upon the 
work with many painful doubts in relation to 
the result, we will assure you against loss 
from any such operations, if conducted with 
tolerable discretion. 
Now is the time to commence this system 
of operation for the next year. On every 
leisure day, let the time be occupied in these 
preparatory labors. Every hour thus spent 
is worth something, and will tend to fill your 
purse at the time of harvest. 
Almost all farmers sadly neglect their 
barn-yard manures. Were these properly 
cared for, their value, as a whole, would.be 
more than double. 
Having thus suggested the means by which 
manures may be provided, the next inquiry 
is, how and where shall they be used l Per¬ 
haps we are unable to give the information 
that many would desire, for reasons sug¬ 
gested in the last number. Perhaps you 
have an enclosure that for many years pro¬ 
duced very large crops, and you just looked 
on and watched your opportunity to take 
from it the most you could get, returning 
nothing to it. It may be that it is so situ¬ 
ated that it is almost able to take care of 
itself, like much of the intervale on the Con¬ 
necticut, which is annually enriched by being 
overflowed.—The Plough, Loom, and Anvil. 
To Preserve Pippins in Slices. —Take the 
fairest pippins, pare them, and cut them in 
slices a quarter of an inch thick, without 
taking out the cores ; boil two or three lem¬ 
ons, and slice them with the apples; take 
the same weight of white sugar (or clarified 
brown sugar), put half a gill of water for 
each pound of sugar, dissolve it, and set it 
over the fire ; when it is boiling hot put in 
the slices, let them boil very gently until 
they are clear, then take them with a skim¬ 
mer and spread them on flat dishes to cool; 
boil the syrup until it is quite thick, put the 
slices on flat dishes, and pour the syrup 
over. These may be done a day before they 
are wanted ; two hours will be sufficient to 
make a fine dish for dessert or supper. 
AETERMATH, OR SECOND HAY CROP. 
The intrinsic value of aftermath, does, not, 
by the generality of our farmers, appear to 
be properly appreciated. After many year’s 
experience, I am inclined to regard good 
aftermath one of the best and most salutary 
articles of food for young animals, that the 
farm affords. Many, I am aware, will dis¬ 
sent from this view in consequence of the 
injudicious methods usually adopted in cur¬ 
ing it. To be good, aftermath should be cut 
in clear, dry weather, and permitted to re¬ 
main in the swath till the grass has wilted ; 
it should then be turned, and, when wilted 
throughout, be carefully and evenly spread. 
A few turnings will be sufficient to “ make 
it.” or bring it to that state which will war= 
rant its being put in cock. When the grass 
is very succulent, a small quantity of salt 
sprinkled on as the cocks are found, will 
tend greatly to accellerate the curative pro¬ 
cess, and add also very considerably to the 
nutritiousness of the hay. Owing to the 
large quantity of moisture contained in after- 
math, it is rarely well cured, and being thrown 
into close and compact cocks—often when 
the weather is damp—the acid fermentation 
which results from the presence of excess¬ 
ive moisture, greatly deteriorates the arti¬ 
cle, and renders it unfit for use as a food for 
stock. 
In the autumn of 1834, 1 had a piece of 
soil on which there was produced a most 
abundant crop of aftermath, the grasses be¬ 
ing mostly red clover and herds-grass. I 
had previously been induced to consider the 
article as nearly valueless ; but at the sug¬ 
gestion of a neighbor—a man of much prac¬ 
tical experience—I determined to make an 
experiment, and ascertain, as near as cir¬ 
cumstances would enable me to do so, the 
value of the same for feeding purposes. The 
grass was mowed early in the morning, and 
was allowed to remain, the weather being 
very warm, till about five o’clock in the after¬ 
noon, when it was turned to prevent the 
portions that had received the benefit of the 
air and of the solar rays from the injurious 
effects of the heavy night dew, which, if it 
effects no other injurious result, renders the 
fibre crisp, and less disposed to become 
elastic and solid when finally cured. The 
next day, the swaths were spread, care be¬ 
ing had to shake out thoroughly all the dense 
and compact portions, and to disseminate the 
whole evenly and lightly over the ground. 
Supposing the same course would be judi¬ 
cious here as in the details of ordinary hay 
making, I kept the mass stirring during the 
day, and at night,before the dew commenced 
falling, the whole was put in cock. The 
same process was pursued the next day, 
with the exception that on putting the hay in 
cock, a pint of fine salt was sprinkled over 
the layers as they were deposited by the 
fork. In this condition, it remained two 
days, when it was carted to the barn, and 
mowed, about six quarts of salt being ad¬ 
ded, as there was some succulence which I 
