1864.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
10? 
fore slaughtering may produce the usual flavor 
of the flesh. Experiment alone can decide. 
Setting 1 Fence Posts. 
Among the special annoyances at this sea¬ 
son is the perpetual heaving of fence posts 
by the frost. When this occurs badly, the ex¬ 
pense and trouble of fencing is much increas¬ 
ed. A correspondent of the Agriculturist , A. J. 
Taylor, of Bradford Co., Pa., states his mode of 
setting posts in soil which heaves badly. He 
writes: “ I have had experience in fence-mak¬ 
ing, have tried different ways, and I think the 
difficulty alluded to can be entirely obviated thus: 
Dig a small hole 10 or 12 inches deep, drive down 
a crow-bar to the depth of about 1£ feet further, 
insert the post [sharpened doubtless,] and drive 
it thoroughly with a beetle, chinking up in the 
usual way around the post with stones [so that 
no soil comes against the post at the surface]. 
The post is set deeply in the ground, below 
the action of the frost, and the stones prevent 
the earth from freezing to it and drawing it out. 
Though it has been about eighteen years since 
some of my posts were first set, they have 
not been drawn out by the frost, and have 
only to be straightened up and re-chinked.” 
---- *-«■ - 
Cultivation of Barley. 
The barley crop occupies a place in the regu¬ 
lar course of cultivation in England, which it 
has never attained in this country. In a com¬ 
paratively few localities here it has been grown 
for many years, but some have abandoned it for 
various reasons, and over large districts there 
are farmers who have never tried it, or perhaps 
even seen it growing. This may be, in part 
owing to the fact that for its best growth it re¬ 
quires a soil specially adapted to it, but in part, 
we judge, because it has not been “the custom” 
of the neighborhood. Some think that the short 
Jiot summers of this country are unfavorable 
for this grain, but this objection would apply 
equally to oats and grass. It is, like wheat, li¬ 
able to attack from the midge, which has also to 
-some extent prevented its continued cultivation. 
The Transactions of the N. Y. State Agricul¬ 
tural Society for 1861, give a report of a crop 
raised by Daniel Dryer, Ontario Co., N. Y.,which 
shows that under favorable circumstances it may 
be profitable. 4 l-5th acres of corn stubble 
cwere enriched with 20 loads of stable manure 
.spread on the clayeyest part of the field. The 
whole was plowed eight inches deep and sowed 
.the last week in April with ten bushels of 
■ 6-rowed (commonly called 4-rowed) barley. The 
land was harrowed both ways and then rolled. 
About 500 lbs. of plaster were sowed before all 
was up. The crop was harvested the first week 
in August, and yielded 198 bushels, which was 
sold at 50 cents per bushel. At this low figure 
the profit on the crop was $62. The soil of the 
field was a sandy loam, a portion of it clayey. 
Barley succeeds best on a light sandy or grav¬ 
elly loam; a compact clayey soil is better de¬ 
voted to wheat. It does not thrive on sod 
ground, but follows corn well. Those who con¬ 
sider oats too exhausting for lands of this de¬ 
scription, might find barley a good substitute. 
The 6-rowed variety is esteemed the hardiest, 
though the 2-rowed is generally preferred in this 
country, because of its superior fullness and 
freedom from smut. A variety recently intro¬ 
duced called Nepaul Barley, described and illus¬ 
trated in the American Agriculturist , Vol. XX, 
page 261, is highly recommended by those who 
have tried it. It yields well and the grain is 
very heavy; one of our subscribers reports hav¬ 
ing raised some weighing 71 lbs. to the bushel. 
It should be sown as early as the ground can 
be properly prepared. From li to 2i bushels 
per acre is the usual quantity of seed, according 
to the character of the soil, the most being 
used on the best land. Smut may be prevented 
by soaking the seed in a solution of blue vitriol 
and water, the same as for wheat. After soak¬ 
ing, dry off the seed with slaked lime or plaster 
and sow immediately. 
Peas as a Field Crop, Cultivation, etc. 
It is a reproach upon American Farmers that 
(excepting clover) we have so neglected the 
Leguminous plants, as field crops. True, we 
raise white beans where we think nothing else 
will grow—when we are belated about getting 
in spring grain, or where crops fail in spots; 
but peas, lupins, leutiles, vetches, and to these 
may be added, crimson clover, lucerne, sanfoin, 
melilotus, etc.—are almost unknown to Ameri¬ 
can agriculturists. This ought not so to be. 
Of them all, peas offer the most attractions per¬ 
haps. They will thrive upon any good corn or 
wheat soil, delighting most in clayey loams, but 
doing well on calcareous soils, if used for feeding. 
This is an excellent crop to put upon a fresh 
turned sod, free from bad weeds. If the sod be 
heavy it need not be manured; otherwise, apply 
a reasonable dressing of manure. Sow the 
peas as early as the ground can be worked, af¬ 
ter pouring scalding water upon them, in quan¬ 
tities not exceeding 6 quarts of seed together, 
little more than covering them with water, let¬ 
ting them soak 8 to 12 hours, and drying them 
with plaster. This scalding operation kills the 
“pea bug,” a weevil which lays its eggs just 
after the blossoms have fallen. The grubs pen¬ 
etrate the pods and locate each in an embryo 
pea. Here they mature and remain till sown 
with the peas, when they appear and make their 
attacks at the proper time. Though unnotice- 
able at first (and not injuring green peas), they 
detract much from the value of the crop. Peas 
for seed should be sowed late—after June 12th— 
and will thus escape injury almost, if not wholly. 
The common Yellow" Field Pea is usually 
cultivated, and the Marrowfats are also recom¬ 
mended. Those which make a very rank 
growth of straw are undesirable. Sow 2 to 3 
bushels to the acre, broadcast, and plow the 
seed under about 3 inches deep. After plowing 
it is well to roll the land, but if the ground is 
likely to bake, it may be “ dragged ” with a har¬ 
row turned over. The haulm of the peas is so 
branching and tangled, and the roots are drawn 
from the soil so easily that, when the crop is 
mature, a revolving hay rake will easily throw 
it into windrows. It is best to leave till dry in 
heaps, which may be protected from rain by 
hay caps. The crop is fed to hogs or cattle 
without curing, when the peas are nearly ripe; 
ripe and threshed, the grain is excellent fatting 
feed for cattle, horses, sheep, or hogs, and the 
straw, well cured, is similar to clover in feeding 
properties and is a favorite fodder for sheep. 
Peas are off the ground early enough to pre¬ 
pare the land for wheat, which follows very 
well, and this will be found a very excellent 
crop to introduce into a rotation, either before 
or after wheat. Thin sowed peas lodge badly, 
but when sowed thick they stand by holding on 
upon one another by their tendrils. The use 
of lime and gypsum, though advantageous to 
the crop, make the peas hard when boiled,—the 
same is partly true of peas raised on lime soils. 
Concentrated Manures—Tests of Value. 
There are now many kinds of concentrated 
i fertilizers in market, but the energies of specula¬ 
tors are turned into other channels, and the sys- 
I tematic frauds upon farmers which were prac- 
1 tised a few years since are now less annoy¬ 
ing. The d'emand for such manures, however, 
is great, and the supply small. Farmers are 
thrown upon their own resources—and to 
great advantage to themselves, doubtless. 
The test of value almost universally received 
as reliable, is the test in the soil and upon the crops. 
This is almost uniformly fallacious when applied 
to mixed commercial fertilizers, because with 
the majority of these manures there is mingled 
a little guano, or ammonia in some form, 
which always produces a quick effect. Then 
too, the circumstances of soils differ greatly, 
and a few dollars’ worth on one soil will pro¬ 
duce a great effect, while on soils in general, no 
corresponding benefit is observed. The farm¬ 
er should know somethingof what his soil needs 
before he purchases. He feeds his animals roots 
(or a few farmers do), corn-fodder, hay, corn, ship- 
stuff, bran, oats, corn meal. Some of this is fed 
to the cows, some to the hogs, some to the poul¬ 
try, and so on. He would not be a wise man 
who would mix all kinds of feed together and 
give it out indiscriminately to hens and horses, 
sheep and swine. The man would be equally 
foolish who would buy feed ready ground and 
mixed, without knowing about how much of 
each kind of grain the mixture contained. We 
should all consider a farmer insane who would 
buy for hog or chicken feed, a mixture of corn- 
fodder, hay, saw-dust, etc., mingled in uncertain 
quantity, with grain, ground and ungroifnd, 
because somebody claimed to have fed it to 
old pulled-down cattle and that they did well 
on it. Yet this' case is exactly parallel with 
that of the man who, on the strength of some 
published recommendatory certificates, buys 
poudrette, superphosphate, tafeu, and a score 
of other fertilizers, without any idea of the 
needs of his land or his crops. No one doubts 
that there is good in both these mixtures— 
the feed and the manure. The chickens might 
thrive on the mixed feed by picking out a good 
deal of grain and grass seed, and the crops might 
flourish on the mixed manure, but no one can 
argue for the economy of the practice. 
There are certain kinds of concentrated ma¬ 
nures which a farmer can afford to buy, in order 
to increase his stock of fertilizers not alone by 
what they add to the soil, but by the use he 
makes of them. Hair, woolen rags, castor pom¬ 
ace, glue waste, and such things, composted with 
sods, muck, or the like, convert the mass into an 
excellent, fine, well-rotted manure. Knowing 
what he wants, the farmer can buy that which 
he can best get to answer his purpose. Lime, 
gypsum, bones, unleached ashes, leached ashes, 
each produce certain effects more or less de¬ 
finite, which may be calculated upon with con¬ 
siderable certainty. 
The test of manures, in the soil and upon the crop is 
reliable when we apply simple manures or those 
of known and uniform composition, upon very 
similar soils, and under the same or very similar 
circumstances of weather, seed, preparation of 
soil, etc, The chemical test is not properly a test 
of value, but simply a test of composition. The 
chemist tells what a manure contains, and the 
farmer must judge whether he can or can not 
buy the ingredients cheaper in some other form. 
