332 
[September, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
safety; but as much of the late soiling corn is also 
on the deeply plowed land, we may some short 
again iu the autumn. On the whole, we shall 
have done about as much pasturing as soiling 
this season, and shall suffer in consequence. 
All of this is very annoying but is not discour¬ 
aging. The land in clover, except where sea¬ 
weed was spread, (where the clip was pretty 
fair), was in a condition of unmitigated pover¬ 
ty, and it is, to-day, only necessary to look at 
that land, and imagine how much worse it was 
before it was drained, to find ample justification 
for the old name of the place: “ Poverty Farm.” 
These 20 acres were simply plowed up and seed¬ 
ed, because there was no time and no manure 
for anything more, and it will he a year or two 
yet, before we get fairly around to it. The deep 
plowing was a mistake that will not be made 
again; and another year’s manuring and cul¬ 
tivation will probably make a top-soil good 
enough to give plants a fair start, and enable 
them to take advantage of the final and per¬ 
manent benefits that deep plowing must ensure 
even on such a soil as that of Ogden Farm. 
It has not been all bad luck with us this year, 
for the corn crop is first rate. It would not be 
modest, and probably not true, to say that this 
is the best field of corn in the county, but I see 
and hear of none better, hero or elsewhere.— 
The growth is vigorous, the color strong, and 
the whole appearance most luxuriant, in spite of 
the drouth—thanks to subsoiling. It is too ear¬ 
ly yet to decide positively which treatment, as 
described in the April number, will have the best 
effect on the crop, because there was an interval 
of ten days between the first and the last plant¬ 
ing, and time counts for a great deal in the 
growth of corn. Nothing can be determined 
until near the end of the season, when the later 
planting shall have completed its growth; but the 
present indications arc very strong in favor of 
the narrow strip that was plowed in the fall, 
some time after the manure had been spread.— 
One thing is very evident: the corn is decidedly 
better where cow manure was used than where 
v r e applied horse manure. This, I take it, does 
not indicate that cow manure is better than 
horse manure—only that the latter is diluted by 
so much straw that less actual manure was ap¬ 
plied. It is with no little satisfaction that I offer 
this cornfield for a sample of what Ogden Farm 
can do, and give notice that in due time, (and by 
perfectly legitimate means), I shall make the 
whole farm equally good. 
Probably the most unsatisfactory thing about 
the position of any farmer who attempts to 
diverge from the old trail is, that for every 
word of encouragement, lie gets ten sneers, and, 
although people are not usually so rude as to say 
disagreeable things to one’s face, there will be 
ten men to call him a fool where there is one to 
help him with kind words. This can be en¬ 
dured—but to have the whole race of detractors 
transformed into old adherents as soon as one 
does succeed, takes away one great source of the 
satisfaction that success ought to bring. I know 
more than one man who insisted, three years 
ago, that my land could not, by any possible 
means, be made to grow “ nothin ,”—also that 
there was no use in draining it, for the land was 
too poor to raise a crop if it was drained. Now 
I always supposed that I had good healthy op¬ 
ponents in these men, opponents that it would 
be a sort of triumph to convince of their error. 
I met one of tlrem the other day on the road :— 
“Mornin’, fine growin’ weather. Pretty good 
crop of corn you’ve got this year. I alius 
knowed you would. Just what that farm want¬ 
ed. I alius said drecnen’ and manure ’d tell qn 
that land quicker ’n on most any other. It 
never had no chance you see,—so awful wet 
and poor.” 
I don’t mean to imply that these men, any 
more than my neighbors generalljq had any ill 
feeling toward me, and I suppose they are pret¬ 
ty good fellows in their way. The great trouble 
with them is, that they have ridden on one rail 
so long, that it rather shocks them to suggest 
that there is any better way to get along, and 
when the way is shown them, they are ashamed 
to confess that they have not always known it. 
Let me repeat that, in what I have said about 
deep plowing, I refer only to a few soils. I 
firmly believe that in a very large majority of 
cases it would be a sourco of immediate benefit, 
and there is no doubt that in all cases the ulti¬ 
mate result will be good. Wherever the subsoil 
is dry, that is, where it is not saturated during 
the greater part of the year, and where it has a 
mealy, gravelly consistence, it will do to bring 
it up little by little, even without additional ma¬ 
nuring; and with a good manuring, probably 
two or three inches at a time would do no 
harm. But where the subsoil is, as mine was, a 
slimy, blue, cheesy paste, for weeks after every 
heavy rain, where the chemistry of the earths 
has long been getting ready to re-convert it to 
stone, where no air and no vegetation have 
helped to ameliorate its condition, it would be 
wise for enthusiastic young farmers to avoid 
pitching into it, pell-mell, and bringing up such 
a quantity'- of unhealthy material as will poison 
and stunt everything they attempt to grow.— 
This is one of the cases in which we must make 
haste slowlj'. 
One of this season’s ventures has resulted 
somewhat unfavorably. I paid a very high 
price for an imported English sow, with a pedi¬ 
gree like a race-horse’s, and supposed to be with 
pig to a famous English boar. Time came and 
time went, and we have no litter of pigs to show 
for our money, only one splendid sow that has 
to be boxed up and sent by Express 250 miles, 
to find a boar suitable for her service. On the 
other hand, we have a fine litter of Essex pigs, 
which are good enough to compensate in part 
for our disappointment. 
The plan of keeping a record of the morning 
and evening milking commends itself more and 
more to.our approval. The amount of labor is 
trifling; it really delays nothing. In addition 
to the advantages noticed in the last of these 
papers, we find that it insures clean milking.— 
Each girl seems ambitious to have her own cows 
appear well on the record; or if, through haste 
or carelessness, sire neglects to strip any animal, 
it is pretty sure to be detected by a comparison 
of the weight with the previous record. Of 
course there are considerable variations growing 
out of different causes, but as a rule, each cow 
will give a pretty uniform quantity, and if there 
is a falling off from this, the foreman naturally 
looks to see what is the matter. If there were 
to be a neglect of clean milking, he would be 
quite certain to notice it. At the end of the 
week, I take away the sheet, add up the total 
yield of each cow, divide it by 7 for the daily 
average, add up the total yield of the herd, put 
down the amount of butter made that week, and 
write a memorandum of the kind and quality of 
the feed for the whole or any part of the week. 
The paper is then laid away in a drawer with 
its predecessors. There is not much benefit to 
be derived from keeping such a record for a 
single week; but if it is faithfully kept during 
the seven years that the Ogden Farm experi¬ 
ment is still to continue, it will furnish material 
for a most valuable treatise on Dairy Feeding. 
It will show the comparative results of soiling 
and pasturing, of steaming, of raw feeding, and 
of root feeding; and as both winter and summer 
we shall undoubtedly use a variety of food, it 
will give very good ground for deciding the rela¬ 
tive values of each, and what is of rpucli im¬ 
portance, will show whether it is best to change 
the food frequently, or to find out what gives the 
most nutriment for its cost, and stick to that 
alone as long as possible. 
In short, it will furnish a very strong argu¬ 
ment on the side of the book-farming people ; 
for lie would be a self-conceited farmer indeed, 
who would deny the superiority of such a posi¬ 
tive record as this, to his own notched stick of 
personal impressions and traditional reports. 
I have done something to advance the use of 
wooden water-pipes, and I still think they have 
some decided advantages; but for use under a 
head of 30 feet or more, they must be selected 
with much more care than is usual. If every 
piece were chosen for its freedom from knots 
and checks, I think that the l’[ a inch pipe, 
(which is 4 inches square, outside,) would stand 
under a head of 50 feet or more,—but taking the 
run of a pile—weaknesses will be overlooked, 
which may make much trouble. The worst of 
it is, that there is no way to take out a defective 
section and putin afresh one; so it becomes 
necessary to saw out the leaking portion, and to 
make a rather costly patch with iron and lead 
pipes. Any one who will bear these facts in 
mind, may safely use this excellent pipe, and 
even the most defective pieces may be used for 
carrying water down a slopp,—where there is no 
head,—as from a spring to a horse-trough. If 
kept constantly wet, and if it be not destroyed 
by too heavy a strain, it is much the most dura¬ 
ble of all pipe, as wood that is so saturated with 
water that the air cannot enter its pores, is not 
in the least affected by decay. 
A Western subscriber, referring to my doubt 
about the profit of corn raising, says: “ I plant¬ 
ed three to five acres of corn each year for 13 
years past, 4 feet apart each way, and beans one 
way. My beans pay for all the work on the 
corn. Sold from five acres last year $36. One 
year, from one acre, raised 74 bushels of shelled 
corn, worth that year $1.12‘| 2 . Sold the beans 
for $16; had 800 pumpkins. The crop was 
worth as follows: corn $83.25, beans $16, corn 
fodder $8, pumpkins $8. Total $115.25. Good 
farming pays.” 
My doubt was not whether it pays to grow 
corn at the West, but here at the East. Thirty- 
six dollars won’t pay for the labor on five acres of 
corn here, nor, by a very great deal, for the large 
amount of expensive manure we have to use. 
Neither can we be sure of 74 bushels to the acre, 
nor of 9 York shillings a bushel. Neither can 
my Western friend by a great deal, for that mat¬ 
ter. My doubt was based on the idea that so 
long as corn is largely raised where it will grow 
without manure, and whence the cost of freight 
to us is low, we can better afford to buy than to 
raise. I still think I am right, but will not be 
too sure of it until I can figure on my very good 
crop of this year. One argument in favor of 
giving up the crop is that it would release labor 
that cau.bc profitably used in other ways. 
With my friend’s final statement I fully agree. 
“ Good farming pays." But there cannot be 
any really good farming at the East with¬ 
out a large outlay for manure in some form. 
