102 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Bloomfield, Me. —E. W. says, “ Red clover 
is not materially injurious to horses, provi¬ 
ding they have it all sweet. The great dan 
ger lies in the leaves of early summer. They 
die as the clover shades them, and become 
dust, which the horse inhales, sadly to his 
cost and value.” 
Rupert, Vt . — I. P. says : “ He has no 
experience to show that red clover is detri¬ 
mental to horses.” 
Newport Co., R. I . — D. F. “ does not think 
red clover injurious to horses.” 
Hillsboro' Co., N. H. —A. G. C. says : 
“ Clover, to be free from danger to working 
horses or oxen, ought to be cut and wet with 
cold water.” 
Crafton Co., N. H. —H. M. says : “ I have 
no doubt but clover will give horses the 
heaves, by over feeding when they are not 
at work.” 
Columbia, Conn. —.T. L. Y. says : “ Clover 
is thought to be injurious to horses, by most 
people, tending to an irritation which results 
in heaves. Others contend that if the clover 
is cured in a proper manner, it will not pro¬ 
duce cough or irritation in horses, sooner 
than any other kind of hay ; and this opinion 
seems to be gaining ground, and people are 
more particular about curing it.” 
Salem Co., N. J .—D. P.—“Experience 
does not show that red clover is injurious to 
horses when fed in moderate quantities.” 
Another, T, S., from the same State and 
county, “ thinks it is not safe to feed red 
clover, unmixed, to horses.” 
Seneca Co., N. Y. —“ Timothy hay is pre¬ 
ferred for horses ; it is thought that clover 
inclines them to cough and heaves.” 
Chatauque Co.,N. Y. —L. R. says: “Hav¬ 
ing for the past twenty years had in constant 
employ from 20 to 30 horses, I have been 
led by experience to believe that red clover 
hay, fed to horses in the usual manner,’is in¬ 
jurious, and many times creates a cough and 
heaves. It may be fed in small quantities 
when ivet or soaked in icater, without injury. 
It undoubtedly makes much difference in the 
manner clover hay is made, as it never 
should be spread, and remain so until thor¬ 
oughly dried, but wilted and cured in the 
cock ; and when put into the mow, a little 
salt applied will tend to keep it in a state in 
which the dust will adhere to it, and not rise 
when fed, which I think is the great cause 
of injury.” 
Ontario Co., N. Y. —G. W. says : “ Have 
no reason to think that clover that is cut at 
the proper season, and well cured before 
housing, is at all injurious to any animal.” 
Big Flat, N. Y.—I. H. says : “ My expe¬ 
rience does not show that clover is injurious 
to horses; but, on the contrary, good for 
pasture, and if properly got and cured, also 
for hay.” 
Westmoreland Co., Pa. — F. I. G. says: 
“ Cure clover in the cock, and find it the 
very best hay for our stock. If properly 
managed, I consider it superior fodder for 
horses. The prejudice against its use for 
horses arises entirely, I am persuaded, from 
improper treatment in curing. If suffered to 
parch in the sun, as is the common practice, 
the leaves crumble into powder that the 
beast inhales, which produces a cough, and 
ultimately the heaves. My horses, eleven 
in number, are fed exclusively upon it, with 
a small allowance of corn or oats when at 
work. They are always in good condition, 
and are able to draw heavy logs to the saw¬ 
mill, at which they are generally employed 
during the fall and winter. Upon every tun 
of hay, as it is housed, I scatter a peck of 
salt.” 
Warren Co., Pa. —F. F. says : Red clover, 
well cured, will never prove injurious to any 
horse or other animal.” 
Chester Co., Penn. —N. L. says : “ Red 
clover hay is injurious to horses that have 
not sound wind, and some think that very 
dusty hay will produce heaves. But if clo¬ 
ver hay is properly cured, and‘ got in 1 with¬ 
out rain, it will keep horses in better condi¬ 
tion than any other hay.” 
Lucerne Co., Pa. —H. F. M. “ Red clo¬ 
ver hay is not injurious to horses.” 
Mark Co., Ohio. —M. R. ‘-Red clover is 
not injurious to horses.” 
Rush Co., Ind. —J. M. says : “ I have not 
found good clover hay injurious to horses.” 
Bedford Co., Tenn. —W. B. says : “ I $o 
not know that red clover is injurious to 
horses.” 
Iowa. —D. M. C. says: “We have never 
known red clover to injure horses.” 
From the foregoing extracts, as might 
have been expected, it will be seen that men 
differ much in their opinions in regard to the 
good or bad qualities of red clover hay, as 
food for horses ; but it will also be seen that 
a large majority of the responses to Mr. Ew- 
bank’s question, are strongly in favor of clo¬ 
ver hay as dry forage for horses, if cut at 
the right time and properly cured and housed. 
I think most farmers would find it for their 
interest to sow clover-seed liberally with 
their other grass-seeds—to sow it also for 
the purpose of plowing in—green manuring 
with oats, or barley, or other spring grain, 
even if the stubble is to be plowed in in the 
fall. To sow clover-seed liberally, the farm¬ 
er should raise his own seed. The second 
crop usually produces the best seed ; "tis not 
necessary that the clear seed should be 
sown—it will vegetate just as well when 
sown in the chaff. Farmers, try it.—L. B., 
in Farmer and Visitor. 
Watermelon Molasses. —An article has 
been going the rounds of the papers about 
the practicability of making molasses from 
watermelons. We felt incredulous on the 
subject, but have recently been presented 
with a bottle of it by our friend Philip A. 
Mason, of Woodbury, New-Jersey, who is 
well known in this market as a successful 
grower of the mountain sweet watermelon. 
It was really a nice article, clear, sweet, and 
of a very pleasant flavor. He informed us 
the only process was to boil down the pulp 
to about one-half. The boiling was con¬ 
tinued for several hours. Whether it will 
pay to manufacture molasses in this way is 
another question, and a matter of very great 
doubt.—Pennsylvania Farmer. 
That which is known to three persons is 
no secret. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
LET YOUIi SEED COEN SUIT YOUK CLIMATE. 
In your last month’s number of the Agri¬ 
culturist, you say that the Hon. E. Everett 
exhibited an ear of corn containing 720 ker¬ 
nels, and that you have an ear from Virginia 
containing 863 kernels. 
Last October, I underdrained, subsoiled 
and manured with muck and stable-compost, 
three acres of worn-out clay soil that had 
been in grass, but now yielded nothing 
worth cutting. This spring, I harrowed, 
cross-plowed and planted it in corn, about 
3b feet apart, 4 grains in each hill, throwing 
a handful of hen manure and ashes in every 
hill, having previously soaked the corn in 
brine, and dusted it with plaster. It came 
up well. 1 plowed and hoed it only once ; 
but it matured late—indeed some of my 
neighbors said I should not make one-third 
of a crop, because it was a kind of corn un¬ 
suited to this climate. I procured the seed 
from Mr. Allen, but without indicating what 
kind I wanted. The error was mine, not 
his. Had I planted the usual corn of the 
country, I am satisfied from the results of 
this, that I should have had a very large 
crop. As it is, it has not turned out a good 
crop of hard corn, nearly one half being pig- 
corn. The stalks were very large and very 
tall, some measuring 15 feet high, and aver¬ 
aging 13 feet. It varies from 8 to 10 rows 
in the ears, averaging 12, and I have some 
ears containing 880 grains—many from 600 
to 700. You have thus my first year’s expe¬ 
rience in corn-raising. With the suitable 
seed for this climate and the same treatment, 
I am satisfied that I can raise large crops. 
A. Goldsmith. 
Ninety miles up the North River. 
ELOQUENT EXTRACT. 
We quote the following extract from an 
address delivered by Hon. J. W. Miller, be¬ 
fore the New-Jersey Agricultural Society, at 
Camden : 
The epochs through which our globe has 
passed have been characterized by the names 
of various metals. There has been the 
golden age, the silver age, and the iron age. 
The era in which we live might be called 
with propriety the quick silver age; for 
everything seems to be on the move. Each 
individual particle quivers in trembling haste 
to run upon its neighbor, and thus form a 
massive body, which when once formed, rolls 
into some crooked direction which neither 
mathematics could calculate, nor wisdom 
foretell. Politics, religion, manufactures, 
navigation, every art, seems pregnant with 
revolution and heaving into new birth. Even 
Agriculture the oldest and most universal of 
human pursuits seems inspired by the genius 
of innovation. Let not, therefore, the old 
farmer, surrounded by his broad acres, sup¬ 
pose that he can entrench himself behind the 
natural advantages of soil and location, and 
defy the inroads of modern improvement; 
for before he is aware, some invention of art 
or discovery in science, may deprive him of 
his natural superiority. Let him remember 
that in these da^s of marvelous invention 
