338 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
greatest value is secured. When used as a ferti¬ 
lizer in its raw state, the oil is lost, but the other 
matters are utilized. But there is a waste in using 
it whole, and a saving if guound or crushed into 
coarse meal. An experiment made with 5 bush¬ 
els of crushed seed, composted with lime, and ap¬ 
plied to an acre of corn, produced 30 bushels of 
grain, while 5 bushels of rotted whole seed pro¬ 
duced only 19 bushels. The labor of crushing, 
therefore, was repaid by 11 bushels of corn. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm—No. 141. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
Dr. Harlan, Wilmington, Del., has compiled a 
table showing the amount of nitrogen in a ton of 
different crops, as compared with some of our 
standard fertilizers. It is as follows : 
Nitrogen in one ton. 
Hungarian Millet, in blossom. 20 pounds. 
Green Clover. 12 “ 
Green Rye. 11 “ 
Barn Yard Manure. 10 “ 
White Mustard. 9 “ 
Green Buckwheat. 8 “ 
Green Corn. 4 “ 
Turnips. 4 “ 
Ground Raw Bones.100 “ 
Peruvian Guano.280 “ 
Nitrate of Soda.300 “ 
“Now that we know the value of these green 
crops,” writes the Doctor, “ what shall we do with 
them? Shall we plow them in for manure, and 
thus save all the nitrogen, or shall we feed them to 
animals, and lose one-half or three-fourths of this 
most precious and most costly constituent of the 
food of grain ? ” 
There is no necessity for losing one-half or three- 
fourths of the nitrogen. We lose one-half or more 
of the carbonaceous matter, but not more than 10 
per cent of the nitrogen—often not more than two, 
three, or five per cent. 
Dr. Harlan quotes me as saying “ a ton of corn- 
meal contains 36 lbs. of nitrogen, worth at 25 cents 
a pound, $9.00.”—“Now,” remarks the Doctor, 
“I can take a ton of corn and sow it on 15 acres, 
and have 675 tons of green manure, all evenly 
spread over the field, and worth for the nitrogen 
in it, $675. That is, for the same amount of grain 
that he gets $9 worth of manure by feeding cattle, 
1 get $675 worth by feeding the land 1 ”—This 
sounds well. The Doctor “feeds ” the land with 
36 lbs. of nitrogen, and the land returns back 2,700 
pounds. Put a dollar in your pocket and pull out 
five hundred dollars. You can do it. It is an 
easy matter. All there is to it, is to have $499 in 
your pocket to start with. But I would not advise 
a young man to build his hopes of gaining a liveli¬ 
hood on such a process. There are some young men 
whose pockets are not well lined with greenbacks. 
This plausible plan of putting in one dollar and 
pulling out five hundred, will not work well in 
their cases. If Dr. Harlan has got 15 acres of rich 
land, well drained, and in high condition, he can 
doubtless sow a ton of eoru on it, and get back 
675 tons of fodder. He can sow 36 lbs. of nitrogen, 
and get back 2,700 lbs. He can put one dollar into 
his pocket, and take out five hundred. 
“I had,” continues the Doctor, “27 tons of 
green buckwheat per acre, and in this way obtained 
available nitrogen for a trifle over one cent per 
pound; yet you cannot buy it in stable manure, 
guano, nitrate of soda, or in ground bones, for less 
than 25 or 30 cents per lb.”—What an easy thing it 
is to make land rich ! Sow buckwheat, and plow 
under a crop of 27 tons per acre, containing 216 
lbs. of nitrogen. You can raise two crops a year. 
Keep doing this a few years, and what rich land 
you would have I Put in a dollar and take out five 
hundred, and keep on doing it, and you will soon 
be richer than Vanderbilt. 
But to be serious. You take an acre of land and 
sow it to buckwheat. You get a splendid crop, 
27 tons, containing 216 lbs. of nitrogen. You 
plow it under and sow it to buckwheat again, and 
plow under a similar crop in the fall, also contain¬ 
ing 216 lbs. of nitrogen. T1 iq next spring you sow 
corn-fodder. You get a grand crop—45 tons per 
acre, containing 180 lbs. of nitrogen. This you 
also plow under in September, and sow winter 
wheat. You get a noble crop of wheat, which, if 
allowed to ripen, would give 50 bushels of wheat 
and 24 tons of straw per acre. Such a crop con¬ 
tains 864 lbs. of nitrogen. You plow it under and 
sow turnips afterwards. You get 15 tons of tur¬ 
nips, containing 60 lbs. of nitrogen. And now 
what have you gained ? How much richer is that 
acre of land than when you started? How many 
more pounds of nitrogen does it contain ? 
But is not the nitrogen in a better or more avail¬ 
able condition ?—No. It is precisely the other way. 
What we mean by “ available nitrogen,” is nitrogen 
in the form of nitric acid and ammonia, or in some 
such form as urea, or uric acid, which readily fer¬ 
ments and becomes available. Organized nitrogen in 
green buckwheat or corn-fodder, is not “ available 
nitrogen.” The crop must decompose before the 
nitrogen becomes available as plant-food. 
But I see the Deacon has gone to sleep. And in 
truth I do not blame him. I am somewhat tired of 
the subject myself, until we get more light upon 
it. It is one of vast importrnce, and I desire to 
thank Dr. Harlan for his table and for his state¬ 
ments of the yield of corn-fodder and buckwheat. 
I hope he will continue his experiments. There 
are vast sections of poor sandy land, where green 
manuring seems to be the only available means of 
getting the soil rich enough to produce paying 
crops. Plowing under green crops makes the land 
rich in carbonaceous matter, and at the same time 
it prevents some of the nitrogen in the soil from 
running to waste. The plants gather up what 
available nitrogen they can find in the soil, and 
organize it into good food for animals. We can 
feed out this food, and have 90 or 95 per cent of 
the nitrogen left in the liquid and solid excrements, 
or we can plow under the crop and have all the 
nitrogen left in the soil for future crops. 
W. Hunter, of Canada, asks, “ Is it better to 
sow clover seed early in the spring, on the last of 
the snow, or wait until the ground is dry enough 
for a team to harrow fall wheat ? ”—My own prac¬ 
tise is to harrow the wheat three times in the spring. 
We go over the wheat both ways with the harrows, 
and then sow the clover seed-and follow with the 
harrows to cover the seed. If the ground is very 
hard, the harrows do not break up the crust suffi¬ 
ciently to afford a good covering for the seed, and 
if dry weather follows we have a poor “ catch ” on 
these hard spots. I have my doubts as to which is 
the better plan, but am inclined to think that so 
far as securing a good catch of timothy and clover 
is concerned, it is better to give up the idea of har¬ 
rowing winter wheat in the spring, and to sow 
timothy seed in the fall, and the clover seed very 
early in the spring. It depends very much on the 
soil and season. The harrowing helps the wheat 
and kills a good many weeds, and on sandy loam 
the harrow leaves a good seed-bed for the clover, 
and if we are favored with a few showers, we are 
pretty sure of a good catch of clover. 
Last year all my clover failed. My wheat also is 
a poor crop. And I do not feel like giving advice. 
I am enjoying a short spell of humility. I have to 
whistle and keep working. I try to look at the 
bright side. I have 32 acres of capital barley, 
seeded down with clover and timothy, which seems 
to be a good catch. But my clover last fall was 
just as promising, and yet it was all winter killed 
except along the fences and dead furrows, where 
the snow protected it. I do not like to own it even 
to myself, but I think I weakened the young clo¬ 
ver plants by letting my sheep and pigs pasture it 
too close last fall. I shall at any rate keep them 
out of my young clover this fall. 
I had an old timothy meadow which I pastured 
last fall pretty close. This year the hay was not 
over half a ton per acre. I had another meadow, 
which, owing to the fact that we sowed part of the 
field to rye, we could not pasture after the first of 
September. The grass on this meadow was as 
thick and heavy as it could grow. We got more 
hay from one acre of this meadow, than from four 
acres of the other. I have always thought it did 
not hurt meadows to pasture them in the fall, but 
last winter was so unusually cold and the soil so dry, 
with little or no snow to cover it, that a slight coat 
of grass was of great value as a protection from 
the severe cold winds, and also probably proved 
useful as a mulch during the dry weather of spring. 
I have also 22 acres of good rye, seeded down 
last fall with timothy, and the drier portions sown 
also with clover this spring. The field has a cheer¬ 
ful look. Three or four acres, where I manured 
heavily for mangels four years ago, is a particularly 
pleasant spot to visit during a fit of the blues. 
The rye is six feet high, and as stout as it can grow. 
It is the cheapest and most profitable crop I have- 
raised for years. It was a rough piece of low land, 
which we sowed with oats two years ago, and 
seeded down. But the seed did not take well, and 
so 1 concluded to plow it up and seed it down again 
early in September, with timothy alone. But after 
the field was all prepared, the Deacon persuaded 
me to sow rye and seed down with it. I am glad I 
took his advice, though I am not sure but 1 should 
have done better to have sown timothy alone. 
I have another crop which has also a cheerful 
look—potatoes. We have a few Extra Early Ver¬ 
mont, Snowflake, Brownell’s Beauty, Compton’s 
Surprise, Early Rose and Late Rose, Peerless, and 
Peachblow, all growing in the field. I expected the 
bugs, and got five pounds of Paris green ready for 
them. The field was a clover sod. It was pastured 
with sheep last year until September. There were 
a good many thistles, and we plowed the land 
early in the fall. This spring we did not plow it 
again, but spread on a moderate dressing of fine, 
rich manure—say eight tons per acre, and worked it 
thoroughly into the surface soil with harrows and 
cultivators. Never have I had a field of potatoes look 
so promising. The bugs came and deposited their 
eggs, but the vines grew so luxuriantly, that the 
plants did not seem to miss the sap which the cater¬ 
pillars ate. So far the bugs have done us no seri¬ 
ous damage, and the Paris green is reserved for the 
next brood, which I suppose will soon make their 
appearance. We can still grow potatoes. But the 
"true plan will be to make the land rich, and plant 
good varieties which will stand manure. 
We weaned our lambs to-day, July 16th, and 
weighed them. The oldest were a “ pair of twins, ” 
born February 27. The ram lamb weighed 92 lbs., 
and the ewe lamb 84 lbs. They will be 20 weeks 
old to-morrow. Ram lamb bom March 2, 87 lbs. 
Twin lambs, born March 3, 81 lbs. and 83 lbs. The 
next oldest were from a ewe that had three 
lambs, born March 8. We raised them all—mother¬ 
ing one on a Merino ewe. The three weighed 71 
lbs., 76, and 78 lbs.—225 lbs in all, at 4 months and 
8 days old. m 
I will give the rest in order : 
Ram lamb, Born March 11, Weighed, July 16, 91 lbs. 
“ “ “ “ 13. “ “ 107 “ 
tt 
(( 
it 
13, 
tF 
107 “ 
tt 
tt 
tt 
14, 
ti 
tt 
89 “ 
Ewe 
it 
ii 
14, 
ti 
tt 
81 “ 
Ram 
tt 
tt 
it 
15, 
it 
ii 
72 “ 
u 
tt 
tt 
17, 
tt 
it 
91 “ 
Ewe 
(1 
t i 
tt 
19, 
ii 
it 
92 “ 
It 
ti 
tt 
19, 
it 
tt 
86 “ 
Ram 
u 
tt 
tt 
20, 
it 
ii 
81 “ 
t< 
. u 
tt 
23, 
tt 
ti 
89 “ 
ti 
tt 
ii 
tt 
24, 
ii 
it 
91 “ 
** 
it 
tt 
it 
28, 
ii 
tt 
76 “ 
it 
ti 
April 
5, 
t« 
tt 
77 “ 
The following are the weight of the grades : 
Ewe lamb. Born March 2, Weighed July 16, 91 lbs. 
“ .. 18, “ “ 75 “ 
“ “ “ « 20, “ “ S3 “ 
“ “ “ “ 22, “ “ 70 “ 
Ram “ “ “ 28, “ “ 78 “ 
These grades have all two and some of them 
three crosses of Cotswold blood—starting from a 
common Merino ewe. The following are the 
weights of three ram lambs, from common Merino 
ewes, and a full blood Cotswold ram, 85 lbs., 72 
lbs., 70 lbs. 
There is a common opinion that such sheep de¬ 
generate after the first cross. It is not so in my 
experience. But in all cases I used a full-blood 
Cotswold ram. If cross-bred or grade rams were 
used, I have no doubt the lambs would degenerate. 
Another point ought to be mentioned. 1 should 
not think of selecting full-blood Merino ewes for 
the purpose of crossing with the Cotswold. The 
weaker the “ prepotency ” is in the ewe, and the 
