1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
4,9 
Connecticut Farmers’ Convention. 
An important gathering of the farmers of Con¬ 
necticut, under the auspices of the State Board of 
Agriculture, was held at Woodstock, Dec. 15-18, at 
the invitation of the Agricultural Society of that 
town. The leading farmers of the State were well 
represented by nearly a hundred earnest, enterpris¬ 
ing cultivators. Morning, afternoon, aud evening 
lectures or reports were arranged, and each lecture 
and report was followed by a lively discussion, in 
which those present well filled up the time with 
conversation, asking and giving information. Dairy 
topics, as milk, butter, cheese, milking value of 
different breeds of cows, kinds and quantities of 
feed, occupied most of the time. Well prepared 
and generally instructive papers were read by 
Messrs. T. S. Gold, N. Hart, Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, 
Hon. X. A. Willard, of Little Falls, N. Y., and Hon. 
F. D. Douglass, of Whitney, Vt., while discussions 
on dairy topics were led by Messrs. S. M. Wells, 
Wm. Clift, aud Hon. Albert Day, and participated 
in by many others. Prof. W. O. Atwater gave an 
extended and interesting lecture on late European 
experiments on the relation of fodder and milk pro¬ 
duction. There was a fine exhibition of apples, : 
aud a paper on the Orchards of Connecticut, with ! 
suggestions on raising and keeping fruit, by Mr. 
P. M. Augur, Pomologist of the State Board of 
Agriculture. The Committee on Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Stations reported their efforts toward get¬ 
ting a Legislative appropriation, and were desired 
to continue their efforts until they achieved suc¬ 
cess.. Several hundred dollars were subscribed to 
make a beginning, as noted elsewhere. We trust 
the Board will issue in pamphlet form, and adapted 
to general circulation, a pretty full resume of the 
information brought out during the meeting, and 
stereotype it, so that they can multiply copies, and 
put a small charge upon them, when others out¬ 
side the State can feel free to send for them to the 
Secretary, T. S. Gold, at West Cornwall, Ct. 
By invitation of the farmers of Windham County, 
the writer spent most of the winter of 1852-3 in Sev¬ 
eral towns there, lecturing and holding agricultural 
meetings nearly every night for a dozen weeks, and 
it was gratifying to meet at Woodstock several of 
his auditoi'S and pupils in agricultural science, 
some of whom he had not seen personally in the 
intervening 21 years, though he has held converse 
with them from time to time through the columns 
of this paper. It was gratifying also to learn that 
the spirit of investigation, then developed, has not 
died out, but that the farmers of Old Windham 
are as wide-awake to improvement as ever. 
-- „<», com- 
Cotton Seed as a Fertilizer. 
Cotton seed is valuable for the ammonia, phos¬ 
phoric acid, and potash it contains. Applied alone 
it is less effective as.a fertilizer, than in compost; 
the most economical method of utilizing it is as 
feed for stock, the manure from which has a very 
high value. Until the system of cultivation gener¬ 
ally followed in the Southern States, is greatly 
changed, the whole value of the cotton seed can 
not be attained. The plan of composting must 
therefore be taken as the next best method of 
using it. There are several ways of doing this. 
The seed may be thrown into the stable and trodden 
by mules, and made to mingle with their droppings. 
As it is removed from beneath the animals, it 
should be thrown into heaps along with all the 
trash and weeds from the cotton and corn fields, 
and such other refuse vegetable matter as can be 
gathered. These heaps will rapidly heat and fer¬ 
ment, and will need frequent turning to prevent 
burning or “fire fang.” A mixture of swamp 
earth will help to prevent injury from this cause. 
Some labor in the preparation of this compost, will 
be amply repaid, as it will be worth, if well made, 
at least §15 to $20 per ton, taking guano as the 
standard. The quality of the compost will be fur¬ 
ther improved by adding some good phosphate or 
plaster, or both. The difference in the value of 
raw seed, and that composted in the way here de¬ 
scribed, is illustrated by some experiments made 
last season, by a planter in South Carolina. Raw 
cotton seed at the rate of 35 bu. per acre, were put 
into the drill, upon soil of medium fertility, and 
covered in February. Early in April the beds were 
made up, and cotton was planted. With good 
culture the crop yielded was 100 pounds of seed 
cotton per acre. Upon another piece of ground, 
125 bushels of raw seed were scattered broadcast, 
the land was plowed, bedded, and planted at the 
usual time. Only TO pounds of seed cotton per acre 
resulted. Another piece was manured with a com¬ 
post equivalent to 20 bushels of cotton seed, 50 
bushels of cow pen manure, and 125 lbs. of phos¬ 
phate of lime per acre. The yield was 1,000 lbs. 
of seed cotton per acre. From the absence of any 
regular system of stock feeding, in connection 
with farming or planting in the Southern States, it 
is impossible to determine exactly what would be 
the result, if cotton seed were used as a feeding 
material in connection with hay or straw, corn- 
fodder, or such roots as could be readily grown in 
the South, as beets for instance. But as the refuse 
cake from the cotton seed oil manufactories is 
largely used in England as cattle feed, for the 
express purpose of enriching the manure, with 
profit, there is no doubt that it might be profitably 
used here in the same way. That by the use of 
some capital in the purchase of lean stock from 
the West, and thei growth of fodder crops upon a 
considerable portion of the land now devoted to 
cotton, a sufficient supply of rich manure could be 
procured; whereby an equal product of cotton 
to the present, could be raised upon the remainder 
of the laird, can hardly be doubted. The condition 
of Southern farmers is not favorable for experi¬ 
menting. Their whole attention is necessarily 
given to making crops for profit. To experiment 
successfully, requires time and some expenditure 
that may give no present return. But in no part of 
the country is improvement in agriculture more 
needed, than in the Southern States, and in none is 
a richer reward offered for improvement. Agricul¬ 
tural Colleges have opportunities for experiments, 
and we can not conceive of a more hopeful experi¬ 
ment than such a one as this, to be undertaken 
by some one of the Southern Agricultural Colleges. 
Experiment Stations. 
Their Value and Importance to American Cul¬ 
tivators.— A Beginning to be Made Here. 
We call special attention to the articles of Prof. 
Atwater in this and the previous number of the 
American Agriculturist. The subject is of the high¬ 
est importance. Science can be of immense ser¬ 
vice to the farming interest of our country. There 
is a good deal of prejudice against science among 
practical men, nor is this surprising. It is but a 
few years since the first successful attempt was 
made to call science to the aid of the farmer. En¬ 
thusiastic novices, encouraged by the first gleams 
of light, were carried beyond the bounds of reason¬ 
able expectation, and claimed too much. Charla¬ 
tans seized upon a few striking discoveries, and 
perverted them to personal ends, and by frauds in 
fertilizers, and in other ways, gave unlearned men 
good reason to stand aloof, and even to cry out 
“ humbug.’’ 
Meanwhile careful, honest investigators have 
kept quietly at work. During a score years or 
more past, valuable discoveries have been accumu¬ 
lating, and to-day science is a positive and valuable 
help for the cultivator of the soil. Prof. Atwater’s 
future contributions will give us some of the re¬ 
sults obtained by our careful, painstaking German 
brother farmers, that will be of great use to us. 
But we want to have investigations here. W T e need 
Experiment Stations, not only to reduce to our use 
the knowledge obtained abroad, but to make new 
investigations,. specially adapted to our soil, cli- 
1 mate, and condition. We don’t want merely the 
j puny political machine run at Washington in the 
| interest of personal favorites of the administration 
of whatever political party happens to be in power. 
We want Experiment Stations among farmers, 
managed solely in their interest by men of integrity 
and common sense, having thorough scientific, 
knowledge and practical skill as well. Such men 
are scarce as yet, but a demand will bring them 
out. Connecticut is favored with two such men — 
Prof. S. W. Johnson, author of the well-known 
books “How Crops Grow” and “How Crops 
Feed,” is one of the first living authorities in Agri¬ 
cultural Chemistry, and as Chemist to the State 
Board of Agriculture has been more than any other 
man a pioneer in introducing agricultural science 
in this country. Prof. W. O. Atwater, formerly a 
pupil of Prof. Johnson, has more recently devoted 
much time to investigations in Europe, and he is 
doing good service in bringing before our farmers 
the information there gathered. 
At the recent Connecticut State Farmers’ Con¬ 
vention, referred to elsewhere, the committee ap¬ 
pointed at the previous annual convention, to se¬ 
cure from the Legislature an appropriation for an 
Experiment Station, reported progress, and it is 
confidently hoped that the next Legislature will 
provide for an annual grant of the necessary funds. 
But the farmers present, feeling the need of work 
immediately, determined to make a beginning 
themselves at once. We have only space to say 
that several hundred dollars were promptly raised 
at the Convention, and it is expected that this sum 
will be largely increased. The use of the large, 
new, and convenient laboratory of the Wesleyan 
University was offered free of charge, as were the 
services of Prof. Atwater, with the advice and aid 
of Prof. Johnson in superin tending the work. With 
competent assistance, as much as the funds sub¬ 
scribed will allow, the work of analyzing fertilizers 
will be commenced immediately. A very important 
addition to the good work done in this line by the 
Board of Agriculture, through its chemist, will thus 
be made. It is proposed not only that the fertilizers 
offered for sale in the State shall be tested, as is 
clone by the Board of Agriculture, but also that 
analyses shall be made for farmers and others, who 
wish to know the value of the fertilizers with which 
they are dealing. With the aid of the subscription 
referred to, it will probably be practicable to make 
analyses for $2.00, that would otherwise cost $20.00 
or more. Other investigations of interest to agri¬ 
culture will be made, and information will be given 
freely, so far as the time of the chemists will permit. 
By chemical investigations of manures, and by 
experiments on the nutrition and growth of ani¬ 
mals and plants, hundreds of thousands of dollars 
are saved to European farmers every year, while 
the higher benefit of this, as of every other form of 
true science, is priceless. To this most worthy ef¬ 
fort iD our own country, we most earnestly wish 
the most abundant success. 
Sheep-Raising in Virginia. 
BY TIIOMAS WALSH, ALEXANDRIA, VA. 
[An article in the Agriculturist for November last 
upon sheep-raising in Virginia, has called forth a 
letter from Thomas Walsh, Esq., of Burgundy 
Stock Farm, near Alexandria, which should have 
been published in December, but was crowded out. 
The article referred to was by one of our associates, 
who was in Virginia on a tour of observation, and 
was based upon information gathered a longdis¬ 
tance from Mr. Walsh’s farm. We gladly give 
place to Mr. W.’s note, as it confirms our view that 
sheep-husbandry in some form is the great reliance 
for the restoration of a now rather desolate region. 
We have no doubt that Mr. Walsh’s farm, within 
two miles of a good market, is much cheap er at $80 
an acre than the old fields 50 miles inland, at a 
tithe of the money. But Virginians, or those who 
seek new homes in the old State, cannot all live in 
the valley of the Potomac. The people who are 
already scattered through the poorer sections of 
Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, Culpepper, 
and Orange Counties, must live, and if they are 
not able to buy sheep at $3 or $4 each, it would 
