THE CULTIVATOR. 
13 
Spent Tan Bark. —A correspondent, who dates from 
West Haverford—asks us some puzzling questions abput 
tan as a manure, and the chemical combinations which 
take place on its being mixed with caustic lime. We 
can only answer, in general terms, that tan is among the 
most stubborn materials to render soluble in the vegeta¬ 
ble kingdom, and that until it is rendered soluble, it im¬ 
parts no fertility, but rather abstracts from it. It is 
doubtful whether lime will so decompose it as to render 
it fertilizing; as Sir Humphrey Davy lays it down, that 
it must undergo fermentation to render it nutritive, and 
that like peat earth, it will not ferment “ unless some sub¬ 
stances are mixed with it which act the same part as the 
mucilage, sugar, and extractive or albumenous matters 
with which it is usually associated in herbs and succu¬ 
lent vegetables.” Hence we should try fresh stable dung, 
instead of lime, to effect a fermentation, or the decom¬ 
position of tan. 
Ed. Carpenter, of Glassborough, having come into the 
possession of a worn-out farm, a year ago, has detailed 
to us his practice the last summer, and asked our advice 
as to the best means of improvting it. Mr. C. has began 
well, in gathering fertilizing matters, and in raising ruta 
baga—(at the rate of 600 bushels to the acre,) and in 
feeding these to his stock. All farm stock may be kept 
entirely on these roots, if desired, with the addition of 
straw. If Mr. C.’s land will bear clover, the seed of this 
may be profitably sown with every small grain crop; 
and, until he has succeeded in restoring fertility, no field 
should be cropped more than two, or at farthest three sea¬ 
sons, before it is again stocked with clover and other 
grass seeds. Marl, if good, may be profitably transport¬ 
ed four miles to improve his land. If Mr. C. will care¬ 
fully save and apply all the manure he can gather,— 
dress his land with marl, alternate his crops—and stick 
to clover and roots, with industry and good management 
—he will renovate the fertility of his soil, and prosper, 
in despite of the laugh of his neighbors. And we beg to 
be advised, of the fulfilment of our prediction. 
Experiments in feeding roots. —W. Catton, of Lenox, 
N. Y. writes us, that he has gone to some extent in the 
culture of roots; that he has made several experiments in 
feeding them to stock; and that he finds carrots and su¬ 
gar, beets to be the most profitable for fattening cattle, 
and the ruta baga for milch cows and sheep. He raised 
the sugar beet at the rate of 1,000 bushels to the acre, 
and thinks them preferable to the mangold wurtzel. 
Fred. Seitz, of Easton, Pa. having prepared apiece of 
ground, a sward, last fall, for ruta baga, asks if he can 
manure and crop it in the spring, with tares or other ve¬ 
getables, in time to sow ruta baga. He might have sown 
it with rye, in the fall, upon the ley, to be fed of!' in the 
spring, and he may yet do it early in the spring, cover¬ 
ing with the harrow—putting two bushels of seed to the 
acre. He can put on no crop that will mature in time. 
Tares, we believe, are not to be had in the country. Let 
the manure be reserved for the turnips, and the seed be 
drilled or sown upon the fresh turned soil. 
Tea wheat, Mr. Edgerton assures us, produces from 
twenty to thirty bushels per acre in Wallingford, and is 
sown there from 15th to 20th May. 
Ruta baga in Pennsylvania. —S. Mayleet, who dates 
at Montrose, Susquehannah county, assures us that he 
raised last year, 1,100 bushels ruta baga upon 132 perch¬ 
es land, equal to 1,333 1-3 bushels on the acre. Mr. M. 
boiled the roots, and fattened his hogs upon them, with 
the addition of coarse grain provender, and his pork, he 
says, is excellent. The root were grown in drills two 
feet apart, with intervals of ten inches between the plants 
—beech and maple soil, highly manured. We are glad 
to learn that this culture is extending. Ten thousand 
bushels, our correspondent advises us, were raised last 
year in his county, and 2,000 by one individual. A 
Steeping seed wheat to prevent rust. —Among other in¬ 
teresting facts communicated by Walter Scott, of Bovi¬ 
na, Del. county, in regard to farming, he states that two 
years ago, he dissolved a quart of salt in a gallon of wa¬ 
ter, boiled the pickle, and when sufficiently cooled, mix¬ 
ed it with his seed wheat in a tub, and sowed it. The 
crop was good, and was affected by neither smut nor 
rust. Some ears were selected when harvesting the 
grain, and sown in the garden last year, without being 
steeped; while some bushels were sown in the field, af 
ter having been pickled as before. The grain sown in 
the garden, was destroyed by rust; while that in the 
field escaped unhurt. The inference we are left to make 
is, that the salt prevented the rust, though we by no 
means consider the fact established. The probability 
seems rather, that the wheat in the garden was destroy¬ 
ed by rust, not because it had not been steeped, but be¬ 
cause the garden had been made too rich, with long dung. 
The experiment is, however, worth repeating. 
Several communications on hand will be published or 
noticed in our next. 
Acknowledgements. —Texian corn from S. Carolina 
and from Harrisburgh; a sample of twelve-rowed yel¬ 
low corn from S. W. Jewett, Weybridge, Yt. said to be 
very early; seeds of Prairie flowers, from G. W. Lee, 
Marion county, Mich.; Egyptian wheat, from several 
gentlemen—(see our remarks upon this grain;) a sam¬ 
ple of beautiful spring wheat from J. G. Soulard, Gale¬ 
na, brought from Lord Selkirk’s settlements on North 
Red River, lat. 50. This promises to be a valuable ac¬ 
quisition to our husbandry—(see Mr. Soulard’s letter, 
under correspondence;) tea wheat from S. M. Edgerton, 
Wallingford, Vt. a beautiful sample, for sale by Thor- 
burn; giant wheat from W. Thorburn. 
lET We shall take the liberty of forwarding this 
number to several gentlemen, as a sample of our work. 
Should it meet their approbation, we shall be happy 
to continue to them the subsequent numbers of the 
volume. 
CORKJ3SPONDJ2NCJU. 
Plan for a Barn, 
J. Buel, —Dear Sir,—I send you my plan for a 
barn, not because I think it perfect; but because I 
think it better adapted to the means and wants of 
common farmers than any I have yet seen published. 
I would prefer ground sloping to the south on east, 
about one foot in six or seven, for the convenience of 
digging out the basement, which in this plan is the 
full size of the upright part of the barn and the stable 
across the end, or thirty feet by fifty-eight, and walled 
on three sides. Having in prospect the rapid exten¬ 
sion of root culture among us, I consider a cellar as 
necessary to the barn as to the farm house. A suffi¬ 
cient share of the basement should, therefore, be par¬ 
titioned off from the rest, by double partitions, filled 
with chaff or tan-bark, to prevent frost. The re¬ 
mainder of the basement is to be used as a shelter for 
sheep or cattle, or a portion may be appropriated (as 
in the following plan) for a walk and the gearing of a 
horse power. I send two rough views and a ground 
plan. Figure 4 shows the upperhill side of the barn, 
[Fig. No. 4.] 
the ridge of which, if the ground on which it is built 
slopes to the east, will run north and south. Tim up¬ 
right part is forty-six feet by thirty, with a lean-to 
stable twelve feet by thirty. This stable has the first 
portion of it divided into stalls for horses, and the re¬ 
mainder for oxen. This side of the barn stands eigh¬ 
teen inches from the ground, and the cellar is lighted 
by double glazed windows beneath the sills. Figure 
5" shows an oblique view of the west end and lower- 
[Fig. No. 5.] 
hill side of the same barn, with a stable running the 
whole length of the upright part of it, that is, forty- 
six feet long. This stable is also twelve feet wide, 
and the floor of it is on the same level with the bot¬ 
tom of the basement; it has a manger the whole 
length of it, next the upright part of the barn, into 
which hay may be thrown from the barn floor, or roots 
may be carried from the collar through a door, shown 
in the ground plan. This figure also shows the open¬ 
ing, B, twelve feet wide and seven feet high to the 
basement, sufficient to drive in a cart to clean out 
the manure. Figure 6 is the ground plan; 1, bay 
[Fig. No. 6.] 
house sixteen by twenty, with doors at b , nine feet 
wide ; another at 4, into the horse stable; 5, tool 
room ten feet by sixteen. A scaffold extends over 
this and the wagon house, to be filled with hay fed 
through an aperture at the west end of the barn, into 
the manger m, or thrown to the cutting box on the 
barn floor. The dotted line shows the partition which 
stands two feet under the barn floor, making the cel¬ 
lar twenty feet by thirty. At this side of the barn 
floor is a narrow trap door/, down which roots may 
be emptied. The larger dotted circle shows the walk 
for horse power beneath the barn floor; d, is a cellar 
separated from the inner one ten feet by twenty, with 
a door at g \ h \s a well, furnished with a pump. Here 
also should stand a vat, large enough to hold a fod¬ 
dering for the stock. A vegetable cutter, driven by 
a band from the horse power, should likewise be placed 
here. Over that part of this cellar, which projects 
beneath the barn floor, should stand a straw cutter, 
and a small corn-cracker, (driven by the same power,) 
with tubes made of boards leading into the vat below. 
There is also a stairway leading down into this cellar 
at the extreme end of the barn floor S. It will be 
seen by this arrangement of these labor-saving ma¬ 
chines, that corn in the ear, or other coarse grain, may 
be cracked, and roots cut, by being previously placed 
in their respective hoppers, by the same operation of 
the horse, and by the same hand while he is feeding 
the straw-cutter, and all deposited in the vat below. 
Here, after moistening with water and stirring toge¬ 
ther, it is carried through the door i, and fed along 
the manger of the long stable, shown in figure 4, or 
carried out the north end of the same stable, and fed 
along the row of sheds that form the inclosure of the 
north side of the yard. 
I prefer the Yankee mode of fastening cows, or oth¬ 
er cattle, called stantials, a section of which is shown 
in figure 7, on account of cheapness, durability, secu- 
[Fig. No. 7.] 
rity, facility of fastening and economy of room, two 
feet ten inches being sufficient for cows, and three 
feet for oxen. Figure 8 shows the fastening key. 
A lean to shed may also be built against the north 
end of the barn, to be used as a shelter for carts, 
ploughs, &o. which will give the barn a good appear¬ 
ance. 
This plan may easily be adapted to level ground, 
only the basement must be dispensed with, the floors 
all on the same level, the roots brought up from the 
cellar below, the horse power in an adjoining shed, 
unless it is on the endless chain principle, which may 
be set in the floored recess, denominated tool room, 
5, shown in the ground plan. The upright part of the 
barn is framed as though there were no stables at¬ 
tached. The stables are all lean-tos of the most sim¬ 
ple structure, though well covered and ventilated by 
windows. 
Yours, L. B. ARMSTRONG. 
Kingsbury , Jan. 1st, 1838. 
Advantages of Agricultural Journals. 
Sir, —I fear that the trilling sum of fifty cents, add¬ 
ed to the price of the Cultivator, will curtail its use¬ 
fulness, by inducing many to withhold their patronage; 
and consequently put a damper on their further im¬ 
provement. Such a view of the subject has induced 
me to trouble you with this communication, hoping, 
that a statement of some of the advantages which I 
have derived from its perusal, may induce others to 
continue their subscription. Not having been bred 
a farmer, I was, of course, in a measure ignorant of 
the practice and theory when I commenced farming, 
eleven years ago. I then took some pains to inform 
myself of the most approved methods of managing, 
many of which I have since found to be (unaided as 
they were by the light of science,) materially wrong, 
and some, in fact, exactly the reverse from what they 
should be, both in theory and practice. For proof, I 
adduce the practice of applying manure. It was then 
thought the older the manure the better, and of course 
they did not apply it to their land, till it was eight 
months or one year old ; and then its application to 
meadow land was thought to be the most profitable. 
If applied to tilled land, the practice of man}'’ was to 
spread it on the surface, alleging as a reason, that the 
juices must progress downward, and if buried with the 
plough, must be lost in a great measure to the roots 
of the grain. So in securing the corn crop, it was 
supposed the corn must be topped, to have the grain 
ripen well; and I am sorry the practice still prevails 
with so many. Evidences of its absurdity were not 
wanting last fall in this section of the country. So 
with seeding land; two quarts of clover, and two 
quarts of grass seed, were then considered sufficient 
for an acre ; now four of each is little enough ; and 
the difference is, instead of johnswort, daises, and 
other pernicious weeds, our land is covered with clo¬ 
ver and herdsgrass, and any field may be a meadow. 
The culture of roots I consider a great acquisition 
to the produce of a farm, (not so much in the bare 
nominal value of the roots, as in the improvement of 
stock and the consequent larger production of meat, 
butter, and wool,) as it has enabled me to make more 
butter from one cow, than I formerly made from two 
