THE CULTIVATOR. 
207 
growth, and barring them from receiving any benefit 
from dews or showers, unless they come in copious ef¬ 
fusions. 
And now I have given you, in as concise a manner as 
possible, my manner of cultivating the potato, which I 
think has the decided preference of any other way, that 
I have ever learnt, both in labor saving as well as in 
product and tillage. One thing, in preparing the ground, 
slipped my mind, that is, when I spread my manure, I 
sow on plaster before ploughing in, at the rate of 1| 
bushels to the acre, which I think very beneficial where 
your manure is very long, and in that way it helps in 
some way or other to decompose it, so that it more rea¬ 
dily mixes with the soil, but how I am unable to tell; 
but that it does, in some way, I am pretty certain. I 
have practised it several years. Two years since, I 
omitted sowing any, for an experiment, and I do not 
wish to try it again, as it gave me much trouble in 
clogging my plough, and when I have used plaster, I 
have had none of this trouble. 
If, sir, you should think this worthy of a place in 
some corner of your valuable paper, and will in any 
way benefit the agricultural interest, I should be pleased 
at some future time to give some further experience on 
the same subject. Respectfully yours, 
EBEN. W. FRENCH. 
Remark. —We are free to say, that we think the ma¬ 
nagement of the potato crop, as described above by Mr. 
French, is the cheapest and best mode that can be adopt¬ 
ed; and although the details may to some appear te¬ 
dious, they are well worth reading and being treasured 
up. The effect of fall ploughing, Mr. F. remarks, is to 
cause the land to settle down into a hard state at bot¬ 
tom. We suspect Mr. F. turns a flat furrow. If he 
would lap his furrows on to each other, in an angle of 45°, 
every furrow would form a drain for the water, air 
would come to the sod, and the bottom would not be¬ 
come hard: yet it would not rot, with air and moisture, 
until aided by a warm temperature.— Cond. 
Salting Calves. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir—Early in autumn, I visited 
Mr. Samuel Look of West Schuyler, Herkimer county, 
N. Y. who showed me many things connected with his 
large farming establishment, which are worthy of re¬ 
cord, and to be practised by others. Mr. Look is well 
known to be a skilful agriculturist and herdsman; but 
it is as the latter that his qualifications are pre-eminent. 
Among the many useful contrivances, is his method of 
salting calves. 
As soon as his pumpkins become sufficiently ripe for 
the purpose, he takes a quantity equal to half the num¬ 
ber of his calves, divides them through the middle with 
a knife, and lays them on the pasture ground where the 
calves run, with the core uppermost; into these, he 
sprinkles as much salt as the calves require at one time. 
This kind of trough is not recommended for its dura¬ 
bility ; it will not generally last longer than two or three 
days; but Mr. L. says this should be no objection to 
their use, as they are easily replaced, and he adds, he 
never knew calves to be injured by devouring troughs 
of Ihis kind; on the contrary, he thinks the more of 
them they swallow, the better they appear. A large 
portion of his stock consists of the improved short horn 
breed. Mr. Look, at this date, has some half a dozen 
bulls, and a few heifers of this sort, all bred from some 
of the best families ever imported, which he would sell. 
Yours, &c. N. 
Butternuts, Dec. 31, 1838. 
Brining and Liming Seed Wheat. 
Trenton, Oneida co. Dec. 14, 1838. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Sir—Having observed in the Cultiva¬ 
tor, some difference of opinion as to the effect of brining 
and liming seed wheat to prevent smut, hoping by stat¬ 
ing to you the little experience, I have had on the sub¬ 
ject, I may do no harm, but be of some benefit, is my 
excuse for addressing you at this time. 
It has been the practice among farmers in this region 
for something like forty years, to wash and lime their 
seed wheat to prevent smut. Having noticed in a news¬ 
paper, nearly thirty years since, an account of a vessel 
loaded with wheat having been sunk on the coast of 
England, and before it could be taken out was so satu¬ 
rated with salt as to render it unfit for bread, some of 
it was used for seed, and where that was sown, it was 
observed there was but little or no smut, while in the 
same neighborhood, where other wheat was sown, the 
wheat was quite smutty, which circumstance led to the 
practice of using brine for seed wheat. Seeing that 
lime and salt, when separately applied, were beneficial 
to prevent smut, it occurred to me, if both were applied 
at the same time, the remedy might be effectual. I ac¬ 
cordingly adopted the practice of washing my seed wheat 
in a brine as strong as can be made, stirring it until tho¬ 
roughly wet, say from five to ten minutes; drain off the 
brine and spread the wheat on a floor; put on slaked 
lime that is dry, (when a sufficient quantity of wheat is 
washed,) four quarts to a bushel is sufficient; work it 
over with the hoe and shovel until each kernel is cover¬ 
ed with a good coat of lime; then spread it over the 
floor to dry several days before sowing—the drying is 
necessary to prevent the moisture of the ground causing 
the lime to cleave from the kernel before the harrowing 
is finished. There is no danger of injuring the wheat 
by its lying after being limed—have had it lie two weeks 
or more—and have never been troubled with smut since 
the above mode of preparing seed was adopted, and am 
firmly of the opinion, when the seed wheat is well pre¬ 
pared as above stated, the remedy against smut will be 
found effectual. The circumstances stated by J. Hatha¬ 
way, Esq. last spring, of his neighbor having sown some 
of his wheat soon after liming, and was prevented from 
sowing the remainder for several days on account of 
rainy weather—the former being some smutty, while 
the latter had little or none—I think goes.to show the 
benefit of letting the wheat dry before sowing. 
Others may have prepared their seed wheat in the 
manner above stated before me, but I had never known 
an instance. After having prepared seed wheat as 
above for several years, and being satisfied of its good 
effects, I sent an account of the above mode of prepar¬ 
ing seed wheat, to the editor of a newspaper in Utica, 
Mr, Maynard, I believe, which he published about 
twenty years ago. Yours very respectfully, 
JOHN STORRS. 
Mode of Curing the Hoof-Ail. 
Paine’s Hollow, Jan. 12, 1838. 
Mr. Buel —Sir—In the current volume of your Culti¬ 
vator, at page 55, you have said something on the sub¬ 
ject of the poison of the ergot on rye and the grasses, 
both to man and brute, which would be of great use to 
the farmer, if he would follow your suggestions in al¬ 
ternating his crops and seed down thick with the more 
healthful grasses. There is no doubt but the ergot on 
the grasses produces the hoof-ail in our cattle. I will 
here give you my treatment of that complaint, which I 
have never known to fail in a single instance. When I 
find one of my cattle has this complaint, I put it in the 
stantials in the stable, then take a mallet and a carpen¬ 
ter’s chissel, and set the chissel on the toe of the hoof, 
three-fourths of an inch from the point of the hoof, then 
with a brisk blow of the mallet, repeating the blows 
until the hoof is cut off; if it does not bleed freely, take 
a thin shaving more, and so continue until the blood 
runs freely; no matter if the small artery in the point 
of the toe is cut off, the blood will stop in fifteen or 
twenty minutes; if the creature should prove refracto¬ 
ry, let an assistant take and hold up the opposite foot, 
which will make it stand firm on the floor, and stand 
still through the operation; this being done, it is only 
necessary to keep them in stable two or three days, to 
keep them out of wet and mud, and in six or eight days 
the creature will walk about as well as ever. I have 
never failed in a single instance of effecting a cure on 
any of my cattle. The sooner it is done the better, as 
there will be less danger of their freezing, which is 
worse than the hoof-ail to cure. 
In 1836, I raised from one seed of the potato ball 
26 potatoes, 14 of which were as large as eggs; last 
spring I planted the same, and last fall dug a crop of 
more than two bushels, of a round white potato. How 
many years will it take to bring them to full maturity? 
Yours respectfully, THOMAS PAINE. 
Brining Seed Wheat—Cure for Stifle. 
Lawrcnceville, Tioga co. Pa. Dec. 27, 1838. 
Mr. J. Buel —Dear Sir—1 think I may safely say I 
have discovered the cause of Mr. Hathaway’s brined 
spring wheat not coming up well, to be owing to the 
smut machine and brining also. This fall, my wheat 
being some chessy, I took it to the mill to have it screen¬ 
ed, and as that and the smutter were connected, the 
wheat had to pass through both; after which I brined 
the most of it, from 12 to 18 hours, then limed and 
sowed immediately. 
Not brined or limed came up well, though it had been 
through the smutter. 
Brined 18 hours, then limed, came up badly if smut¬ 
ted, 
Brined 18 hours, and having passed the smutter twice, 
not one kernel came up. 
Brined 12 hours and once smutted, came up pretty 
well. 
Brined 18 hours but not smutted, all came up fine. 
Inference—the smut mill opens the grain in some way 
so that the brine kills it. 
The grain worm has made its appearance here the 
past season, though not extensively. 
1 will here give you a receipt for curing a stifle, which 
I consider invaluable, and as for its being infallible, I 
think no man can gainsay it. At any rate, I have cured 
many horses, and sold the receipt for many dollars, 
thus:— 
A handful of sumach bark and a handful of white oak 
bark, boiled in a gallon of water, down to two quarts; 
bathe the stifle with this lotion twice a day for three 
days; then put on a salve made of the white of an egg 
and rosin, and bathe the same in with a hot shovel two 
or three times, and the horse is cured. Yours with es¬ 
teem and respect, W. KILBURN. 
Experiment in the Culture of Rape. 
Hill-Side, (near Meadville,) ) 
Crawford co. Pa. Nov. 29, 1838. ) 
J. Buel— Sir—By referring to vol. 3, p. 110, of the 
Cultivator, you will find the following remark, in reply 
to a Mr. Davis, of Saratoga, on the culture of “Rape, 
colze, or cole seed,” viz.:—“An important article in 
Flemish husbandry, &c. though not at all cultivated in 
the United States.” * * * “As rape is biennial, it 
is doubtful whether it would withstand the cold of our 
winters.” If of interest to you, I take pleasure in com¬ 
municating as follows: 
Mr. Frederick W. Rockier, of this county, lately im¬ 
ported from Holland, some rape seed; he sowed three- 
fourths of an acre in August of last year; the produce 
in seed this year, amounted to twenty bushels, although 
the seed was not taken at all clean from the stalks, and 
the land was very illy tilled for this crop, as well as for 
the previous crops taken from it. The produce would 
have been thirty bushels undoubtedly, had the crop been 
properly harvested. The crop was taken in on the 12th 
day of July. The rape stood the effects of the last se¬ 
vere winter well; it was uninjured, although grown in 
an exposed situation. According to Mr. K. who is an 
experienced cultivator of the article, the rape seed is 
committed to the ground on the 24th August, in Hol¬ 
land—the 12th of August, he thinks late enough for this 
climate. He thinks that in rich, dry and well wrought 
soils, no crop could be more profitably cultivated in this 
eountry, and in the western states especially. In Hol¬ 
land, they have hard winter freezing, but not much 
snow, which characteristic corresponds with the climate 
of some of our western country. The cultivation of this 
crop, has been successful in some parts of Ohio, and 
only discontinued from want of oil mills convenient suf¬ 
ficiently to make its culture profitable. The above 
communication would have been made to you by Mr. K. 
himself, but he feared that his slight acquaintance with 
our language, would have made his communication 
somewhat unintelligible to you and your readers. 
If I recollect right, the subject of rape culture is 
treated of by that enterprising gentleman, Col. John 
Hare Powel, of Philadelphia, in a communication to the 
Pennsylvania Agricultural- Society, some years since. 
You probably have the volume of “Transactions,” and 
can by reference discover whether it is of sufficient im¬ 
port to copy. I will mention here, (although foreign to 
Mr. Kockler’s expectation,) that a few bushels, say 
eight or ten, of the seed, can be had of him, delivered 
in Meadville, at four or five dollars per bushel, which 
announcement, I hope, will not injure the usefulness of 
the intelligence contained in the general statement.— 
His object in dictating was not to bring his seed into 
market, but simply to make public his experience, in a 
branch of agriculture comparatively new in this coun¬ 
try, but of great importance to our agricultural inte¬ 
rests. Mr. Rockier will take pleasure in communicat¬ 
ing his experience in this matter, in both Holland and 
this country, to any who think it of sufficient conse¬ 
quence to address him on the subject. Respectfully, 
JOS. C. G. RENNEDY. 
(}CP= See our remarks under editorial head. 
Making Pork. 
The business of fattening pork for sale is practised to 
some extent by many farmers, and when performed 
economical^, it is a source of profit; yet all will admit, 
when carried on in the manner it often is, it drains in¬ 
stead of replenishing the farmer’s pocket. To make 
fattening swine profitable, it is necessary, in the first 
place, that the breed of swine should be good. There 
is a vast difference in swine in the respect of fattening, 
proper proportion of bone, weight, Sec. There are se¬ 
veral good breeds of pigs now in the country, and any 
farmer who is willing to make the effort, may have a 
lot of fine looking pigs, as well as to have long-nosed, 
slab-sided fellows. The time has gone by when a pig 
must be kept four years to weigh four hundred. The 
business of fattening swine is little understood, and 
poorly attended to. Pigs a year and a half old should 
come up to that, and some have exceeded that weight. 
Rext to a good breed, it is necessary that they should 
be kept in a thriving situation. There must be some 
foundation for fattening, when the process commences, 
or ifluch time will be lost, and food consumed, in mak¬ 
ing a carcass to cover with fat. Swine should have a 
field allotted to them, so large in proportion to their 
numbfers, that their grass feed will be fresh. They 
should have the slops of the kitchen, whey of the dai¬ 
ry, &c. in addition to their grass feed through the sum¬ 
mer season. The manner in which their food is pre¬ 
pared and given, has a decided influence on the fatten¬ 
ing process, and of course on the aggregate profit. If 
given out raw, much of the value of the article is lost. 
Grain is much improved by grinding, but the full value 
is only brought out by cooking. Corn is the best arti- 
cle for fattening swine ; yet there are but few who fat¬ 
ten their swine altogether on corn. I will now inform 
you of my manner of fattening swine the year past. 
My swine were kept in a fine growing state through 
the summer season; and in the fall I enclosed in dry 
warm places ten pigs, a year and a half old, with the 
exception of one two years and a half old. I commenc¬ 
ed feeding potatoes boiled dry, and then added the dairy 
slops. This I continued through the month of Septem¬ 
ber. Then I mixed oats and barley, equal quantities, 
had it ground into meal, and mixed this with the pota¬ 
toes boiled, and continued this through the month of 
October; and then I added corn with the oats and bar¬ 
ley, equal quantities, ground together, added to the po¬ 
tatoes, and continued this food until I slaughtered them, 
which was the 26th of December, and the weight of 
each was as follows: 
5351bs. raised 10 pigs this season. 
5641bs. 
6251bs. raised 5 pigs this season. 
sow 
do 
do 
do 
do 
2k 
n 
n 
a 
u 
barrow lk 
do 1& 
do lk 
do lk 
do 1| 
years old, 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
4851bs. raised 
3831bs. raised 
4451bs. 
4251bs. 
5191bs. 
4561bs- 
5161bs. 
do 
do 
Total pounds weight, 4,953 
NEWTON WILCOX. 
West Winfield, Herkimer co. N. Y. Jan 4, 1839. 
