1870.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
4.-15 
nure, and the yield in 1S70 was exactly 15 bush¬ 
els per acre. The plot which has received an 
annual dressing of 10 tons barn-yard manure 
yielded first year (1844), 22 bushels, and the last 
year (1870), 36‘| 2 bushels per acre. The plot re¬ 
ceiving a liberal allowance of ammonia and 
other artificial manure, produced this year, 45‘| 2 
bushels per acre. In 1863, which was one of 
the best wheat j'ears ever known in England, 
the yield on the no-manure plot was 17 1 )* bush¬ 
els per acre; with barn-yard manure, 44 bush¬ 
els, and with artificial manures, over 55'| 2 bush¬ 
els per acre. In 1863, one of Mr. Lawes’ fields 
of wheat in ordinary rotation, averaged 63 bush¬ 
els per acre. This year his fields averaged 34, 
44’ ] Q , 39 5 | 8 , and 44 1 1 4 bushels per acre. The sea¬ 
son has been remarkably dry and hot in Eng¬ 
land, but on highly manured laud the yield is 
fully up to the average. 
“It should be mentioned,” says Mr. Lawes, 
“that the yields of 34 and 41*| 2 bushels were 
both in the same field, the smaller produce be¬ 
ing due to loss of plant, so much complained of 
over large wheat-growing districts this year.” 
In another field, the whole of which was uni¬ 
formly manured, thirteen different varieties of 
wheat were sown, and the average results of 
five lots already thrashed is 48 3 | 4 bushels per 
acre, and more than 65‘| a lbs. per bushel; the 
weight of one variety reaching very nearly 67 
lbs. per bushel. I am exceedingly glad that 
Mr. Lawes has undertaken to test different va¬ 
rieties of wheat, with his great experience in 
the art of experimenting we may look for the 
most trustworthy results. 
One of my neighbors sowed Poland oats this 
season on the best field he had, and reports 
them “ no better in yield or quality than com¬ 
mon oats.” For my part I never had faith 
enough to try them. In fact, I have very little 
faith in any improvement in farming until we 
drain our land, and work it thoroughly and re¬ 
peatedly to kill weeds, and make ad the manure 
we can. 
At the N. Y. State Fair Trial of Implements, 
a cultivator was exhibited for killing thistles 
and other weeds, by shaving them off an inch 
or so below the surface of the ground. The 
exhibitor gave the judges and spectators an in¬ 
teresting lecture on how crops grow, the main 
idea of which was that the leaves were the lungs 
of the plant, and that by cutting off the leaves 
you prevented the plauts from breathing and 
consequently killed them. For my part I 
should much prefer to tear the soil all to pieces 
and expose the roots again and again to our hot 
sun and dry atmosphere. This will not only 
kill the weeds, but will pulverize the soil at the 
same time, and develope a large amount of 
latent plant-food, especially on clayey land. 
Mr. William Smith, of Woolston, in Bucking¬ 
hamshire, an English farmer, well known as an 
earnest advocate for the use of the steam plow 
and cultivator on clay land, has recently pub¬ 
lished a statement to the effect that by thorough¬ 
ly working the land he has grown on two fields 
fifteen crops in succession—wheat after beans, 
without, a fallow; and that the yield of wheat 
this year is fully 40 bushels per acre. On two 
other fields of heavy soil he has grown wheat 
after wheat, and estimates the crop this year at 
“quite 40 bushels per acre.” “The produce 
of these four fields under horse culture was,” 
he says, “ about 20 bushels per acre on an aver¬ 
age of years.” And notwithstanding the heavy 
and continued cropping under steam tillage, the 
land is so clean “ that the total cost of working 
the seed-bed for each crop, from the smashing 
up of the previous stubble to the pulverization 
of the surface in readiness for the drill, is only 
6s. 8d. ($1.62) per acre.” 
This is a good illustration of the benefits of 
thorough cultivation. On 14 acres of what 
Mr. Smith calls his “ light land,” but which we 
should call rather a heavy loam, he obtained in 
1867, 43 bushels of wheat per acre; in 1868, 54 
bushels of barley per acre; in I860, 63 bushels 
of barley per acre, and in 1870, a crop of barley 
not yet thrashed, but estimated at over 63 bush¬ 
els per acre. “This land,” says Mr. Smith, 
“ has had no cart manure for these four white 
crops—a little superphosphate for each crop, 
that is all.” I suppose the bushel of barley re¬ 
ferred to is 56 lbs., so that G3 bushels would be 
equal to 73 1 | a of our bushels of 48 lbs. This is 
certainly a great yield, and speaks well for the 
system of “ fall-fallowing ” I have talked so 
much about. 
Mr. James M. Budd, of Maryland, w/ites: 
“ Please do not let the editors scr. c you off 
from your talks in regard to fallowing. I 
want to know 1st, if I plow my cornfield this 
fall, and cultivate and plow and keep it clean 
and mellow until next seeding time, whether I 
can raise, with the aid of 200 lbs. of guano and 
phosphate, any such crops as you do. My land 
is in fair order, grows great crops of straw, and 
for a red, clay soil does pretty well with corn, 
but the profits are small; and in fact take our 
peaches away and most of us would be poor. 
Since peaches pay and grain does not, our 
country is becoming a large peach orchard, and 
greatly to the detriment of improved farming; 
since with peaches to pick it is almost an im¬ 
possibility to give proper attention to preparing 
land for wheat.” 
I cannot tell whether “ fall-fallowing ” would 
produce as good results on this land as it does 
on mine, but, unless it is naturally poor land, 
I do not see why it should not. My fall-fallow¬ 
ed corn this year, without manure of any kind, 
and without plowing in the spring, and with 
less hoeing and cultivating than usual, is by far 
the best crop I have ever raised on the farm. 
I hope Mr. Budd will try the system on his red, 
clay soil. I suppose in that climate he can 
plow r pretty much all winter, and it would be 
an easy matter to make the land for corn as 
clean and mellow as a garden. 
“2nd. I have five fields ranging from 30 to 
40 acres. In following such a fallow with grass, 
would you seed down with clover alone? I 
should mow one year and pasture the next. I 
suppose your system would provide for manur¬ 
ing the sod.”—If I fall-fallowed for corn, I 
should sow barley after the corn and seed it 
down with clover. If I used guano and phos¬ 
phates, I should put them on the barley rather 
than on corn. 
“3d. Are five divisions enough on a farm? 
I am determined to improve my land, and have 
done wonders with five fields and lime, guano, 
phosphates and clover, but the manure question 
bothers me. [Who does it not bother?] I do 
not make manure enough, and here is where it 
puzzles. I see that an English farmer will keep 
one sheep for each acre of land, which would 
give me 200 sheep, 15 head of cows, and 8 
horses, all to be pastured on 30 or 40 acres of 
clover, which, with my hogs, is father high! 
They would have to live on dirt before harvest.” 
It is quite true that an English farmer would 
easily keep that amount of stock, and besides 
have half of his land in grain every year. But his 
land must be rich and in a high state of cultiva¬ 
tion ; and besides he would buy a considerable 
amount of oil-cake, and would raise, by the aid 
of artificial manure, 40 or 50 acres of turnips or 
other roots every year, to be eaten off by sheep 
on the land where they grew. Comparative¬ 
ly little hay is raised. The straw, turnips, and 
oil-cake, enable him to winter a large amount 
of stock and make a big pile of manure. 
I do not know that I understand what this 
five-field system is; but I suppose it is on a 200 
acre farm of arable land—40 acres of corn, 40 
acres barley or oats, 40 acres wheat, 40 acres 
clover hay, and 40 acres pasture. I should 
want to divide each field into two, and have only 
20 acres of corn; after corn, barley or oats seed¬ 
ed with clover. Mow the clover for hay and for 
seed, and pasture until after harvest; then break 
it up and fall-fallow for barley; seed this down 
again Avitli clover, and cut it for hay and seed; 
pasture the next year until June or July, then 
break it up and sow wheat, and seed this down 
with clover. Mow and pasture it two years, 
and again plant it to corn. In this way half the 
land is in clover and grass all the time, although 
no field lies in grass over two years. 
“ Will you be kind enough to enlarge upon 
these items, and let us know how you till your 
own farm and how you make it pay. These 
things are objects of interest to all the readers 
of Walks and Talks, and since an editor is 
public property, you must excuse our inquisi¬ 
tiveness.”—The Deacon got off a good-natured 
joke at my expense the other day. A reader of 
the Agriculturist came to look at my farm, and 
afterwards called on the Deacon to see whether 
his corn was better than mine. After saying 
that he found my drilled corn well eared, etc., 
he asked: “ What is his best paying crop ? ” 
“Well,” said the Deacon, “you go to his house 
and they will ask you into a large room sur¬ 
rounded with shelves full of books, and in the 
middle of it a writing-desk covered with papers. 
That is the best paying field on the farm! ” And 
it is a fact that the Agriculturist does pay me 
very liberally for writing. And some of my 
neighbors think if it was not for this that I 
could not make a living by farming. On this 
subject I shall have more to say in due time, 
giving all the facts and figures. The profits of 
even the best farming are not large; but I think 
I shall be able to show that I have made farm¬ 
ing pay. My farm is certainly improving every 
year. The land is getting cleaner, richer, and 
mellower, and this is due to nothing but a little 
draining and to thorough cultivation. 
Some of the operators of Corn Husking Ma¬ 
chines at the State Trial of Implements at Utica 
disputed my assertion that, with good corn, an 
active man could husk 40 bushels of ears per 
day. Out West I suppose they can husk a 
good deal more than this. I would like to know 
what the facts are in regard to this matter. Last 
year I paid 6 cents per bushel of ears for husk¬ 
ing corn. This year I paid only 5 cents, and 
the buskers could earn more in a day than they 
did last year, as the corn was riper and better. 
At the trial, Aspinwall’s One-horse Machine 
husked the first bushel in 3 minutes and 10 J | 3 
seconds; Russell’s Two-horse Machine husked 
a bushel in 2 minutes 46 seconds, and David¬ 
son’s in 2 minutes 41 seconds. The best time, 
therefore, was less than 25 bushels per hour, 
and this required three men and two horses. 
It should be remarked, however, that the corn 
was not up to the average. The machines cost 
