THE CULTIVATOR. 
75 
ramble over the fields late in fall, until snow obliges 
the farmer to bring them into his enclosures. They 
may look full on the frost-bitten herbage, but it does 
them little good; there is but little nutriment in it.— 
They should be confined in dry enclosures, between the 
10th and 20th of November, while in good heart, and 
fed on the best of early mown hay. In wintering lambs, 
the foundation of so much loss is more frequently laid 
in the fall, by leaving them to cut their own fodder un¬ 
til winter sets in, than by all other neglects. 
The different kinds of wethers, ewes and lambs, should 
be separated; and each flock of a size, that they not 
materially get the advantage one over another. It is 
also necessary to keep the old and poor sheep separate. 
As soon as one begins to decline, it ought to be remov¬ 
ed into the hospital, where it can receive better atten¬ 
tion; and it is highly beneficial that dry airy sheds are 
prepared, that they may not be exposed to the rigors of 
the winter, and cold storms in the spring. 
Smut or ergot was very abundant the two last sea¬ 
sons, on the heads of June or spear grass. When this 
abounds, hay must be thrown out more abundant, that 
they may have a selection of food. I have known large 
flocks nearly all destroyed by this vegetable poison. They 
should be winter fed to the degree of commencing the 
grass season in good store order, without having sus¬ 
tained any check in carcass or wool. It is of the ut¬ 
most importance to keep them on as dry grounds as 
possible in the spring. Wet feet will relax the system, 
it introduces a general debility, and loss of appetite. 
One of the principle causes of the internal rot in sheep 
is by their wading in wet yards, and feeding on wet 
grounds. 
We often hear the idea presented, that the breed is 
nothing and feed is every thing; that this is in fact all 
that is necessary to make fine animals; but this notion 
is one that ought to be exploded. Good keeping is an 
excellent thing, and is not doubted; the farmer that 
keeps his flocks well is paid down; a fat sheep requires 
less hay by one-fourth than a lean one; they also pro¬ 
duce more weighty fleeces, and more lambs; but it was 
never known to produce any material change in animal 
physiology. 
The yolk, or oil, which by perspiration is secreted in 
the wool in warm weather, returns again into the sys¬ 
tem in a cool day; this gives a fat sheep the advantage 
to withstand the sudden changes of the weather, better 
than a poor one; and this yolk adds weight to the 
fleece, when shorn in a hot day; by the same rule wash 
them in moderate weather to preserve the oil. I have 
often seen flocks of sheep decline in spite of all the care 
and feed that could be given; but in this case, it is not 
wholly depending on good attention and a plenty of nu¬ 
tritious food for a remedy; any species of animal na¬ 
ture will decline in a few generations, when propagated 
by the same family blood. 
Exercise is one very essential point, which may be 
produced by feeding them Avithin ten or fifteen rods of 
a warm fount of abater, that should not stand in a bleak 
windy field; and if they can have another barn or stack 
to run to once a day, it will give them exercise, a change 
of food and an appetite. To satiate their thirst on snow 
for a length of time is a Avrong notion, and ought to be 
exploded. Unless they are fed on roots, they will not 
do as well without Avater, which should be convenient 
to them at all times. 
It is very healthy for sheep to run among burned 
logs and stumps after being shorn, through the summer; 
the coal dust drives into the wool, and is a sure and 
simple remedy for ticks. I have tried no other method 
in summer to prevent these vermin, and have always 
been successful in preventing or expelling them. 
Pine or hemlock tops should be put in their way, 
when they have been kept from the ground for any 
length of time, to invigorate their health. Where the 
hay is not salted, it is of importance also to brine it in 
mild weather now and then. 
I always cut my mows, and first feed out one-half. 
“ I then can judge on candlemas day, 
Whether I have more stock than hay.” 
It is also an economical way of saving fodder. Fresh 
hay is as much better for stock, as a slice of bread is 
for man, just cut from a loaf. 
The agriculturists generally throughout our state, are 
applying their serious attention to the grovving of wool, 
with the hopes of a fair remuneration for their enter¬ 
prise. The price of the last clip did not range so high 
as was expected; still Ave are inclined to believe, that 
avooI will do a shade better the present season; an un¬ 
usually small stock of old wool remains on hand; it has 
not been so generally sold off and manufactured for a 
number of years, in this state. Our increase in sheep 
for the last five years has been very rapid. The pre¬ 
sent number may be estimated at two millions. In one 
toAvnship, rising seventy thousand have been assessed, 
and probably a greater number were owned. The ave¬ 
rage annual expense of keeping sheep in Vermont will 
not much exceed one dollar the head. 
Dear sir—I respectfully submit the above for your 
consideration. And believe me, with great respect and 
esteem, to be, very truly, your obedient servant. 
SOLOMON W. JEWETT. 
Weybridge, Vt. May, 1838. 
Italian Spring Wheat in Ohio. 
Waterville, Lucas co. Ohio, April 16,1838. 
J- Buel, Esq.—Sir—I have thought for some time, 
that I would send you the result of my experience in 
the culture of Italian Spring Wheat, in the valley of 
the Maumee, believing as I do, that the dissemination 
of information upon the agriculture of this region, will 
be acceptable to a large class of the readers of your 
paper. I soAved last spring, six bushels of wheat pro¬ 
cured of J. HathaAvay, of Rome, N. Y. a part upon the 
bottom lands of the river, and the remainder upon 
what is called the “ second bottom,” which is a light 
sandy soil of moderate richness. No more than ordi¬ 
nary care was taken with the crop, even for this coun¬ 
try, where the business of agriculture is carried on ra¬ 
ther loosely at the best. Some of it suffered considera¬ 
bly from weeds, and I was far from considering this 
experiment a fair trial. I harvested one hundred and 
twenty bushels, the product of the six bushels of seed, 
of plump, fair, heavy grain, in all respects as good as 
the seed, while from twenty-five bushels sowing of win¬ 
ter wheat, every way as well put in and taken care of 
as the other, I only harvested one hundred and sixteen 
bushels, so great is the loss from winter killing in this 
part of the state. As an evidence that I consider the 
spring wheat one of the most valuable acquisitions to 
the agriculture of this country, I have already sowed 
eighty bushels of my crop upon my best lands, and 
shall continue soAving till I have exhausted my stock. 
Some of the wheat is already up, and looks finely. 
With respect, I am yours, &c. 
HENRY REED. 
Scotch Turnip Drill. 
J. Buel —Dear Sir—When in Scotland for a time, 
some years since, I remarked a good method they had 
of cultivating ruta baga. You may have published it; 
if so, I have not seen it. (It is but lately I have read 
that excellent periodical of yours.) 
It is this. Having first ploughed the land in ridges, 
about three feet apart; then, with a drilling machine, 
the drills of which are graduated to the width of the 
ridges, and whose Avheels run in the centre of the fur¬ 
rows, having four or five ridges between them; the 
drills of the machine entering the top of each ridge, 
and depositing the seed there, which is covered over by 
two irons inclined to each other at the hinder ends, and 
attached to the machine. 
The chief good resulting from the plan, is in the 
thinning out and hoeing the crop; the former is done 
by one stroke of the hoe between the plant to be re¬ 
served and that part of the roAV which is untouched, 
pushing the refuse plants, &c. into the furrows, leaving 
the proper plants, Avith a small portion of their roots 
in the ground, and bloAving about in the wind, Avhich 
causes them to grow the faster; (so the farmers there 
assert.) When the weeds are groAvn, and the ground 
requires hoeing, the ridges although flattened doAvn in 
the thinning of the crop, are again submitted to the 
same operation of pushing and pulling the earth and 
weeds into the furrows on each side, where if they vege¬ 
tate again, they are removed by the horse hoe, till totally 
eradicated. The crops groAvn by this method are very 
great, although I have no means of informing you of 
the number of bushels, at this space of time. Suffice 
it to say, that part of Scotland, (East Lothian,) is re¬ 
puted to be as well farmed as any part of the kingdom. 
A. Box for holding seed. B. The drills, pointed Avith 
iron, and hollow for conveying the seed to the ground. 
C. Irons for covering the seed. D. Pieces connecting 
the drill, &c. to axle tree. E. Hinge attaching the axle 
to the pieces, &c. 
If the above is new and Avorthy a place in your pa¬ 
per, you are welcome to it. It may be interesting to 
some of your eastern readers, Avhose lands are not 
crowded with stumps. Yours, J. E. 
Lockport, N. F. April 24th, 1838. 
Indian Corn. 
April 25th, 1838. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir—As every thing relative 
to Indian corn and its culture is particularly interest¬ 
ing to your subscribers throughout that great extent of 
our country Avhere this grain constitutes the chief sta¬ 
ple, I hope you will permit one who has been a corn 
maker for nearly half a century, to qffer a few remarks 
upon several articles on the subject in your number for 
this month. 
And first, of Dr. Brown and his varieties, in regard 
to which, as well as to his criteria for selecting seed- 
corn, I differ from him essentially. He has fixed upon 
the number of rows of grain on a cob as constituting a 
variety; yet nature has caused the same stalk of corn 
very often to produce ears having cob and gram exactly 
alike in color and shape, but differing in the number of 
rows upon each, from two to six or eight. Difference 
therefore in the number of rows, should not be consi¬ 
dered as constituting a variety. Again, he names as a 
variety, but one kind of gourd seed, Avhich he calls 
“genuine,”—that is the yeilow—yet nature has made 
another which is Avhite, and much more common to the 
south—having, not unfrequently, from twenty-four to 
thirty-four rows on a cob. The grain, hoAvever, has the 
same shape with the yelloAV gourd seed, and is evidently 
so called from its resemblance in shape to the seed of 
the common gourd. Of the doctor’s classes, I can only 
say, that the rules by which he has formed them, and 
the characteristics which he describes as peculiar to 
each, appear to me both too vague and inapplicable to 
be useful. Some of his names, for example, are known 
only in a very small extent of country, and cannot of 
course, be intelligible at a distance; while he gives to 
some of his varieties the names of particular states; 
although in regard, at least to Virginia, I can certainly 
say, that it would puzzle a jury of the most experienced 
planters among us, to tell which variety of corn, out of 
fifteen or twenty, had the best right, if either had, to 
the name of our state. His third principal class I per¬ 
ceive, he has christened “ Haematite, or blood-red.”— 
Now if he means the second term as a translation or 
explanation of the first, it hardly applies to any one of 
the ten sub-classes which he has ranged under this chief 
one. In fact, it is inapplicable to any kind yet known; 
for haematite is a hard mineral substance, either red, 
black or purple, but the powder of which is always red; 
whereas, the powder of all the varieties of corn I have 
ever heard of is always white, or yellowish. The va¬ 
riety which the doctor calls “ Guinea corn,” if it be the 
same so called in Virginia, is not a corn at all, but a 
species of millet. His No. 32 is said to be quite as 
common in South-America as in Texas, where a small 
yellow grain corn is more generally cultivated than any 
other, at least in the country round about Galveston 
Bay. The proper name of his No. 32, is “tunicata” 
corn, from the circumstance of each grain having a dis¬ 
tinct cover or coat. 
Permit me noAV to examine his criteria for choosing 
seed corn. That which he ranks first is, “ the most 
stalk," and if he goes upon the principle of “ first nam¬ 
ed, most honored,” Ave have a right to conclude that 
the doctor considers the quantum of stalk the most va¬ 
luable of all the qualities of the corn-plant. My expe¬ 
rience tells me that it is the least valuable; for it by 
no means follows that the variety which has most stalk, 
will produce either most fodder or most grain. The 
first depends more on the number of joints in a stalk 
than on its height; for the number of joints differ mate¬ 
rially in the different varieties, and each joint bears a 
blade; while the quantity of grain depends more on the 
number of ears, than on their relative size, and the 
number is almost invariable smaller on very tall stalks 
than on those of a medium height. In verification of 
this, there is no remark which is more commonly heard 
among us southern corn-makers, than “that corn,” 
(speaking of some particular crop,) “is running quite 
too much into stalk, and shooting too high.” Again—as 
to the value of corn stalks: no animal to which we sou¬ 
therners have ever offered them Avhen dry, naked and 
stripped of all their blades and imperfect shoots, Avill 
eat them, unless Ave cook them somewhat after the re¬ 
cipe for making good soup with common pebbles—that 
is, to put in such ingredients as Avill make good soup 
of themselves, and call it “ stone soup.” In fact, corn 
stalks of themselves, are fit for little else than to act as 
absorbents of manure, Avhen throAvn into farm-yards, 
and would not be Avorth the labor of collecting, but for 
this circumstance. 
The doctor’s second criterion is, “the largest cob a 
recommendation to those Avho love corn cob pipes; but 
for nothing else. For although it is certainly true, that 
the largest cob Avill generally contain most toavs of 
grain, yet there are several exceptions; for some varie¬ 
ties have very large cobs and grains comparatively 
broader, in all Avhich cases the rows Avill be fewer in 
numbfer than on cobs of equal size with narrow grains. 
Again—the greatest number of rows will not always 
produce the greatest quantity of grain by measure, un¬ 
less the grain be considerably larger than the kind Avith 
Avhich it is compared; for all which reasons I deem the 
doctor’s second criterion no better than his first. 
Let us next examine his third, Avhich is, “ the longest 
grain." Noav it is notorious to every southern corn- 
maker, that all the longest grain varieties are what Ave 
call chaffy ,” and are far less weighty, measure for 
measure, than the short grain varieties. This we con¬ 
sider a decisive proof that they have less of “the fari¬ 
naceous product ,” although I have not heard of any ac¬ 
curate experiments having been yet made to ascertain 
the fact. 
The fourth and last criterion named in this fanciful 
classification is, “ early growth and quick cult ure." This 
last term, (if 1 understand it,) is merely an incident 
that may or may not happen to all cultivated plants 
whatever, but is not a quality in any. “ Early growth ,” 
or I should rather say, early maturity, is certainly a 
recommendation; but far more important to the north 
and east, than in what may properly be called the corn 
region of the United States. Within its limits it is 
universally true, that the varieties which ripen very 
early—say three or four Aveeks before the kinds most 
generally cultivated—although heavier are much less 
productive: so that his fourth criterion would be still 
less suitable in the southern country, than either of his 
others. In short, if urn southern corn-makers Avere to 
go by the doctor’s rules, in choosing our seed corn__ 
rules indeed which are so incompatible Avith each other 
that they never could be true of any one of his thirty- 
five varieties—we should soon have to apply to some 
other corn doctor for farther advice. 
The next remarks which I beg leave to notice relative 
to Indian corn, appear to be editorial. They are con¬ 
tained in an enumeration of the advantages of “cutting 
