254 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
unacquainted with our operations can scarcely 
credit a true statement of the enormous sums paid 
for manure on Long-Island, and they will almost 
doubt my statement that many farmers cultiva¬ 
ting scarcely 200 acres, pay a thousand dollars or 
more for manure in a single year. They calcu¬ 
late to put on manure enough to produce a good 
crop of potatoes to be followed by wheat and 
grass without additional manure. 
Let us look at the cost of this manure. There 
is applied to each acre about 75 loads of purchased 
manure, costing at the landings, 621 cents per 
city cart load, of only 14 bushels each and small at 
that. This is over $46. Then in addition, about 
20 wagon loads per acre of home-made manure is 
applied, worth say $1 50 per load, making $30 
more, or in all say $75 per acre for manure alone. 
Now suppose the ground produces 100 bushels of 
potatoes per acre at 87 cents per bushel—which is 
about the average price at the New-York Mark¬ 
ets, fo.r several years past—how stands the ac¬ 
count 1 If potatoes enough are sold to pay for the 
manure, its cost comes back in less than a year, 
and the following wheat crop and succeeding 
grass crops furnish a pretty large margin for 
profit. 
Different modes of planting potatoes are prac¬ 
ticed, but all plant as early as possible, and on 
mellow ground. Some first spread both fine and 
coarse manure evenly over the field, and then 
drop the potatoes in every third furrow, when 
plowing, raking in the manure at the same time. 
Others plow the manure under first, then mark 
out drills with a light plow, drop the potatoes into 
this and cover by throwing in a furrow from each 
side This makes a high ridge, but as soon as 
the potato sprouts begin to show themselves a 
light barrow, with a quantity of bushes underneath, 
is run over, which levels the ground, leaving it 
light, and what is more important, if done on a 
dry day, this operation destroys the first prolific 
crop of weeds and greatly facilitates future labor. 
In all methods of potato culture, one or two har- 
rowings in dry weather, before the plants have 
made much growth, is a great labor saving oper¬ 
ation. 
A cultivator run between the rows as soon as 
they are a few inches high, is - considered of more 
service than a plow ; indeed some do not plow at 
all, to avoid covering the hills too deeply. We 
are anxiously hoping some implement will soon 
be introduced to supercede those now in use, and 
that the hoe, and the potato fork in so general vogue 
will become as obsolete as the scythe and flail. 
Perhaps no portion of the country is so free 
from rot as this part of Long-Island, and the cul¬ 
ture is greatly stimulated by the ruling high prices. 
In seasons like the present, we find that pota¬ 
toes have rotted badly on land highly cultivated 
for many years, and treated with fresh unferment¬ 
ed manure ; but where the soil is light, as on and 
around Hempstead Plains, they are nearly free 
from decay. Can any of your philosophers tell us 
the cause of this 1 It is a fact—the why we can 
not tell. We find of no avail all our doctoring 
with salt, lime, guano, cutting off tops, changing 
to seed from other localities, &c. S. 
North Hempstead, Oct., 1857. 
Agricultural Statistics op Austria._ The 
following statistics are given : 6,000,000 cows ; 
3,000,000 oxen and bulls. There is produced an¬ 
nually 6,666,666,666 quarts of milk ; 200,000,000 
pounds of cheese ; 60,000,000 pounds of wool, of 
which 25,000,000 pounds are sent abroad, and 
640,000,000 gallons of wine. 
Most men employ their first years so as to 
make their last miserable. 
OSAGE OEANGE HEDGES, 
THE OTHER SIDE-PRACTICAL DETAIIS OF THE 
MODE OF CULTIVATION. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
The merits of this plant and the interests of the 
public, demand that some one should comply with 
your request in the August Agriculturist, for the 
experiences of others. I am surprised at the lack 
of confidence in the Osage Orange as a hedge 
plant, both on the part of yourself ahd others, 
when the evidences of its great value are before 
us. In the August number, after detailing your ob¬ 
servations, mainly at the West, against this plant, 
you called for facts—not opinions—from those 
who have had considerable experience with it, and 
are not in the least interested in the sale of plants, 
and consequently have no ax to grind. I am one 
of these, and here is my experience. 
In the Spring of 1849, I set out (in Mason Co., 
Ill.,) a row of Osage Orange, half a mile in length, 
the plants nine inches apart. Not knowing much 
about their cultivation, little was done with them 
except to keep the ground clean, until the Spring 
of 1851, when I whipped down the entire line, after 
which the plants came up very thickly. (For the 
information of the inexperienced, I will explain 
that “ whipping down ” is performed early in the 
Spring, before the plants begin to bud, as follows : 
Take a large knife and beginning at one end of 
the hedge, hack each plant about half off, close to 
the ground; then turn the tops down into a little 
trench dug for that purpose in the row between 
the plants, and cover entirely with 1£ inches of 
well pulverized earth. Treated in this way, each 
bud on the plants will sprout through the ground 
and become a plant of itself, and the old plants 
bent down will turn to roots.) 
The next Spring (1852) I repeated the process 
of whipping down, and this time they came up 
much thicker than before. I think, however, that 
one whipping is sufficient, unless there should be 
vacancies, in which case these should be supplied 
with good plants, which should also be whipped 
down. By this means the hedge is made very 
thick at the base, an important point, especially 
where hogs are to be raised. 
The next process was to commence at the cor¬ 
ner and bind down the plants at the end of the. 
row, and then “ wattle ” in the whole row, which 
made it strong and substantial. 
By the above plan, I obtained a good hedge, in 
the open prairie ; and I can but believe this plant 
would succeed well, generally, if this method of 
tending it were adopted. I believe the majority of 
failures to result from negligence on the oart of 
the cultivator. Sometimes, however the cold 
weather injures them, but even this (as I have 
noticed) is generally where they have not been 
well tended. Some people seem to think that all 
they have to do, is to furnish the plants, and set 
them out, and then Providence will make the 
hedge ; and because this does not suffice they 
tell the public that it is worthless. In many 
places in this and adjoining counties, I find hedges, 
—or rather apologies for hedges—which by proper 
cultivation might have been made valuable ; but 
as they are, they only give evidence of the unfaith¬ 
fulness of the owners. Some are partially cul¬ 
tivated for a year or two, then turned out without 
further attention. Others are placed on the em¬ 
bankments of ditches; in such cases the owner 
need not expect them to be of any service. I 
would much sooner think of placing them in the 
bottom of the ditch than on top, for then they 
would have a better opportunity for receiving 
water by the rains, which they can not get, 
when on top of the embankment of the ditch ; and, 
by the way, water is a very essential consideration 
with the hedge. 
Judging then Mr. Editor, from the manner in 
which this plant has been treated, or rather not 
been treated, I am not surprised that you receive 
“conflicting reports in relation to it.” But I 
think the conclusion that the plant is of no value 
because some have failed, is incorrect. On the 
contrary, the success of others demonstrates tho 
practicability of using it for hedging purposes. 
It does not require a very great outlay, nor ex¬ 
tensive laborto make a hedge ofthe Osage Orange 
though a reasonable amount of care will be amply 
repaid .in after years. I will give you a brief es¬ 
timate of its cost per mile, which if not exactly 
correct, is very nearly so. 
Cost of plants, best quality...$26 50 
Setting them out. 8 00 
Cultivating. 5 00 
Whipping down and cultivation 2nd year. . 15 00 
Shearing “ 3d “ 6 00 
“ “ 4th ‘ 6 00 
Total.....$56 50 
Here then is a mile ofhedge fence at a cost of 
a little less than sixty-dollars. In the above esti¬ 
mate, I have calculated that the plants should be 
twelve inches apart, which I think is sufficient¬ 
ly close where whipping down is practiced. 
Some, however, prefer setting them nearer, in 
which case the cost of course, would be more. 
In order to keep the hedge in good shape, it is 
necessary to shear it every year, after it has 
attained its growth; this however, will not re¬ 
quire much more time than is usually spent in re¬ 
pairing rail fences. A common brier scythe is 
frequently used, and a man with one of these can 
generally shear from one-half to three-fourths, or 
even a mile per day. The time of shearing is of 
some importance, also, since when it is done 
late in the season, the young shoots will be in¬ 
jured. I prefer attending to this work in the early 
part of June. Early shearing and thorough culti* 
vation are important to the hedge in order that it 
may thrive well, and stand the Winter well. 
The soil best adapted to the Osage Orange, is 
a loose, rich, damp, or even wet soil, if there is no 
water standing on it. I have, however, seen it 
flourish on tolerably sandy soil. It may be seen 
growing in its native forest, along the Trinity 
River (Texas), where the land is quite wet at 
times, and frequently overflown. It usually grows 
well where corn does. 
In point of beauty, I think it superior to either 
wood or iron fences. Where a complete hedge is 
made of it, the foliage is so thick that it can not 
be seen through. 
I have never seen a decayed Osage Orange tree 
in my life. In the above mentioned bottoms, full 
grown Osage Orange trees may be seen, some of 
them three feet in diameter, which had sprouted 
from the roots of the original stock, while the lat¬ 
ter, though killed while small, three or four inches 
in diameter—is yet, to all appearance, perfectly 
sound. 
A correspondent in the July Agriculturist, (page 
164) inquires “ if it would not do to drill the seed 
in the row where the hedge is intended to stand.” 
This might do, but the object in pursuing the usual 
method is to have them of uniform size and thick¬ 
ness in the row. I have never yet found it neces 
sary to leave twenty feet of land on each side 01 
the row, as a citizen of this State formerly said, 
but I find that from five to eight feet is sufficient. 
I have thus given you the results of my expe¬ 
rience ana observation concerning the Osage 
Orange. I will not weary your readers with my 
mode of managing it, for it would be folly to give 
one set of rules for all sections of the Union. 
What suggestions I have made concerning it, are 
founded on my knowledge of it in this State only s 
