132 
THE CULTIVATOR 
continued with her. I do not know that the ten which 
left the turkey for the eall of the hen, were the same ta¬ 
ken from her nest, for they were too near like those 
hatched out by the turkey, for me to detect them. I 
could state many other experiments, all going’ to prove 
that young turkies can be raised by a hen as successfully 
as with the turkey. But no more upon this subject be¬ 
fore thanksgiving. R. L. 
Hartford, Ct., June 20, 1843. 
LETTER TO SOLON ROBINSON, 
Of Lake C. H., Indiana, in reply to his of Marsh 24th, 
1843, iy his friend Richmond, of Oakland Farm, 
Richmond co., and State of New-York, on the difference 
of farming in the Eastern and Western parts of the 
United States, 
Dear Sir—The Cultivator for the month of May, 1843, 
has been received, and your letter (page 81,) has been 
read with gratification and pleasure. It is to me entirely 
satisfactory, and answers the queries suggested by my 
neighbor, as published in the March number of the Al¬ 
bany periodical, where we meet and commune. I take 
also, as part of your reply, an article in the February 
number, which I saw after despatching to the editors my 
communication to you: likewise the information you 
refer to in the American Agriculturist. 
In reply to your friendly answer to my first letter, I 
will commence by noticing the last paragraph, Avherein 
you complain of me as an anonymous correspondent. I 
must confess that when writing, I was somewhat appre¬ 
hensive that you might take it amiss, and not reply; and 
I accordingly sent my communication to the editors of 
the Cultivator, with the remark that it was out of no 
disrespect to them or you, that I did not subscribe my 
name, and that I wished to be useful without being con¬ 
spicuous. The information which I desired to elicit, I 
knew you could furnish; and if given, would be agree¬ 
able to me, and satisfactory to many. You have an¬ 
swered, and I thank you for it, in behalf of myself and 
and other readers of the Cultivator. 
When you was making your agricultural tour, I ea¬ 
gerly read your remarks as they appeared in print, and 
I watched the progress of your journey with the inten¬ 
tion, had you come within hailing distance, to have 
seized you by the hand, and drawn you here to the sea 
shore, where the mighty deep sometimes gently laves 
our shores, and sometimes in its terrible and majestic 
fury washes away some of our best lands; here, where 
you would have seen how farmers have to toil to keep 
their cultivated fields in good heart, by buying or mak¬ 
ing manure, without which, and plenty of it, our crops 
will not pay for the expenditures upon them. Hence it 
is that we manure at the rate of seventeen dollars or 
more per acre, though your prairie cultivators can hard¬ 
ly believe it, but it is nevertheless true; and the fact has 
caused me to turn my attention to the subject of making 
manures, of which I shall give you some account. 
Now if ever you come within a reasonable distance of 
this remote corner of the State of New-York, seek out 
your friend Richmond, and you shall have a hearty 
welcome: and if he travel westward, he will take the 
liberty of calling to make himself personally known to 
Solon Robinson. This latter is by no means improbable, 
as he has a son residing west of you, in Wiskons-an, 
which may lead him, though advancing in years, to 
travel that way. 
Methinks I hear you say, and why does my corres¬ 
pondent still keep himself incognito? I answer, be¬ 
cause I am past the meridian of life, and am not ambi¬ 
tious of honors or fame. But it is due to you to know 
something more about your correspondent than his as¬ 
sumed name. I will tell you, then, that I am a farmer 
of only four years’ practice, and any hints or sugges¬ 
tions would not be heeded by old practical agriculturists, 
if known as coming from a new and a book farmer. 
Now in a short time, I have made great improvements 
on my farm, and I raise better crops than some of my 
neighbors, although they won’t believe it, but doubt, 
though they see it with their own eyes. I was born and 
brought up in New-York to professional business, where 
I remained until declining health compelled me to seek 
a change in the country, which has had a salutary effect. 
An d here, while I live, I wish to make myself useful as 
far forth as my situation will allow. In the 8th vol. of 
the Cultivator, p. 65, you will find a communication to 
the editors, with the real signature of your correspond¬ 
ent: also in the ' Transactions of the New-York State 
Agricultural Society for 1842, p. 188, where he is a 
neighbor to Solon Robinson’s communication on the 
Prairie Culture of Indiana, (p. 221.) 
Now I find, by comparing notes, that you western 
agriculturists raise crops, and large ones, with little la¬ 
bor, and no manure; while we, in this region and far¬ 
ther east, can raise nothing without much labor and high 
manuring, sometimes even at an expense equal to the 
value of the land, and often more than the value of the 
first crop succeeding such application of manure. With 
us, then, manure is the life of agriculture. Crops well 
manured will resist the frosts of winter and the drouth 
of summer better than those poorly manured or without 
manure. For this purpose, then, we must either buy it 
or make it. If we buy all that the land requires, the 
price of our crops will not justify the expense. If we 
make it ourselves, it requires time, attention and labor, 
as well as materials and stock. Few are so situated as 
to be able to make all they want. Hence most of the 
farmers in this part of the State both buy and make; 
and some compost their barn yard materials with .street 
dirt and horse manure, which they buy in the city of 
New-York, and transport by water. 
By reference to my manure account, the expenditure 
stands thus: 
Manure and materials for 
manure bought in N. Y., 1839, cost $207 00 
“ “ 1840, “ 291 35 
'• “ 1841, “ 250 07 
“ “ 1842, “ 331 04 
Manure made on farm, 1839, 160 ox cart loads, valued 75 00 
“ . 1840, 300 “ 160 00 
“ 1841, 612 “ 306 00 
'• 1342, 737 “ 368 50 
$1,978 96 
Here we have manure bought and made of the value 
of nineteen hundred and seventy-eight dollars and nine¬ 
ty-six cents, distributed on a farm of one hundred and 
thirty acres (thirty of which is woodland) in four years, 
or an average of four hundred and ninety-four dollars 
and seventy-four cents per annum. To enable me to 
make the number of loads of manure above stated, sea 
Weed, among other things, has been liberally used. The 
first year of my residence in this place, (1839,) I was 
not aware of its importance, and therefore neglected to 
secure it, as it washed upon my shore. 
In 1839, there were collected 42 ox cart loads of sea weed. 
1840, 
it 
94 
a 
it 
1841, 
tt 
167 
(( 
1842, 
i{ 
173 
it 
a 
This sea weed was employed to litter the barn yards 
and hog pens. The hogs were kept up the year round, 
and the pens occasionally cleaned out, and the contents 
spread over the barn yard, and thus mingled with the drop¬ 
pings of the cattle and the stable manure, which was 
also spread over the yard as it accumulated. The ma¬ 
nure is part of the profit of keeping hogs, and will pay 
for their keeping. The waste hay, straw, and refuse of 
the cornstalk fodder which accumulate during the win¬ 
ter in the barn yai’d, mingling with excrementitious 
matters, make a mass of animal and vegetable material 
capable of forming a compost of the best manure. My 
yards are hollow'ed to save the liquid part of the manure, 
and my two barns have gutters to carry otf the water, 
and to prevent the yards becoming too wet. In winter 
and in stormy weather, my cattle are tied to the racks 
under cover, and to prevent the stronger from driving 
the others from their food and into the weather. In the 
day time, they have the range of the yards, and when the 
manure accumulates at their stands, it is spread over the 
surface. Thus, with the use of sea weed, hay, straw, 
cornstalks and swamp muck, I was enabled in 1842 to 
make seven hundred aad thirty-seven (737) loads of 
manure, all of which was used to improve and ferti¬ 
lize my lands, in addition to street dirt and fertilizing 
materials bought, to the amount of $331 04. These 
materials were Ibne, plaster, soda-ash, potash, crude East 
India saltpetre, (or nitrate of soda,) ground glass, (or si¬ 
licate of potash,) and poudrette. 
Now with these facts before you, could your prairie 
cultivators think it wonderful that we manure at the rate 
of seventeen or more dollars per acre? I think not. 
With the same system of management, I shall be ena¬ 
bled this year (1843,') to make more manure than the 
last, as a way has been cleared to a swamp where I have 
muck in reserve for use, when the summer heat shall 
have dried it sufficiently to be entered with a team. The 
animals which enabled me to make the above amount 
of manure, were two horses, eighteen hogs, and twen- 
two head of cattle, large and small. 
I was about to give you some account of my use of 
potash, soda, saltpetre, &c., but the details will make 
my communication too long and tedious. I will there¬ 
fore only give you at present some of the results of my 
manuring. 
On one lot of ten acres, marked No. 1 West, on a map 
of my farm which was made by a surveyor, there was 
grown in 1839 a good crop of corn; in 1840, a fair crop of 
oats, after which it was well manured, plowed, harrowed 
and sown with wheat, and seeded with clover and tim¬ 
othy. In 1841, after the wheat was taken off, the grass 
came forward so strong, that twenty-two loads of hay 
were cut and secured from the same lot in September. 
Mj' neighbors said I would impoverish my land by such 
cropping. The soil being clay, I gave it a top dressing 
of sand, and lime and potash. In 1842, two crops of 
hay were cut from the same field, making together fifty- 
eight loads, nearly equal to three tons per acre. When 
the aftermath was gathered, four calves had the run of 
the field, and in October and November, it received a 
top dressing of soda-ash, partly distributed or sown by 
hand, and partly mixed with lime and sand, and scat¬ 
tered from the cart with the shovel. And now (the be¬ 
ginning of June, 1843,) the field promises a double crop 
of hay and grain. 
But this, you may say, is only one field, and a partial 
statement. It is true, I have had some poor crops,where 
the land has not been so well manured as the above 
mentioned field. Let us take hay, then, the staple crop 
of Staten Island, and see what the manure has done: 
In 1839, I cut 85 loads of hay 
1840, “44 “ 
1841, » 120 “ 
1842, “ 233 « 
The least quantity was cut in 1840, because, as the 
grass was running out and the weeds predominating, se¬ 
veral of the fields had been plowed to go through a 
rotation of crops, and again to be brought into grass. 
Again: let us see the result of manuring in the total 
amount of crops, on a farm which cost $12,000: 
In 1839, produce of my farm was valued at $1,556 50 
1840, “ « 1,984 15 
1841, « “ 2,522 10 
1842, “ “ 2,576 73 
Here you have a statement of increased crops, by an 
ample quantity of manure, and they ought to have 
amounted in 1842 to three thousand dollars; but this 
was prevented by the exceedingly low price of every 
article of agricultural produce. 
Among other means to add fertility to my lands, I save 
all my wood ashes, burn up all the rubbish about my 
premises, and the l<k-ush about the wood pile, and while 
burning, throw into the fire bones, clam shells and oys¬ 
ter shells, which are converted into lime and mingled 
with the ashes, and these ashes are mixed with my com¬ 
post heaps. 
And now if any of your western husbandmen doubt 
wliat I stated in my former letter, you here have facts 
to prove the assertion, both as to labor and manure. We 
have to be industrious to keep pace with the times. You 
and I agree in many things, but we differ in this respect; 
you “ plead guilty to a love of indolence.” I love to 
see people work, and work myself, as far as my health 
and strength will permit. Now on this account, I should 
make a bad western farmer, as I should be uneasy as a 
fish out of water while the prairie crops were growing 
without my looking after them. I should want to be 
plowing, or hoeing, or making manure, or seeing these 
things done. % 
I find myself running into the garrulity of old age, 
and making my letter too long, and must stop. But a 
word or two of my neighbor: I read your letter to him, 
and he joined me in a hearty laugh at its contents, par¬ 
ticularly where yon balanced the account of the seven 
acre crop of corn, and where you commented on “ sev¬ 
enteen dollars an acre for manuring.” Your letter put 
him in a verjr good humor, but still he is undecided 
whether he will take the Cultivator. Accept assurances 
of respect and esteem from your fellow laborer in the 
field of agriculture, Richmond. 
Staten Island, June 5th, 1843 
MANURES—INDIAN CORN. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —We have in this sec¬ 
tion of country, a set of men who pretend to call them¬ 
selves farmers, with about the same justice as the boot 
black who styles himself “ a leather dresser by profes¬ 
sion.” Men who let cattle and hogs run in the roads all 
summer long, and in the winter turn them into the corn¬ 
fields to browse upon the stalks which are left standing 
till spring, and then what the cattle have left is raked to¬ 
gether and burned. I do not mean to say that there are 
no exceptions to this class, for we certainly have some 
good farmers among us, but there are yet far too many 
of the above breed, and they are very hard to root out. 
And yet these men are not insensible to the value of ma¬ 
nure, for many of them spend large sums annually for 
stable manure in Philadelphia; but they seem obstinately 
blind to the fact that they might manufacture as much 
more at home with scarcely any more labor. I kept six 
dry cows through last winter, upon nothing but corn¬ 
stalks and oat straw, cut up together with a machine, and 
they came out in the spring in the best possible condi¬ 
tion; and from those six cows, with three horses and 
four hogs, I made 75 two horse wagon loads of manure, 
which having no whole stalks or straw among it, was as 
easy to spread as compost. I hauled 60 loads of this up¬ 
on three acres of clover land for corn, and some of my 
neighbors (of the abovementioned class,) told me it Was 
a clear waste to put so much manure upon so little land. 
Their practice is to put no manure on their cornfields, 
which generally contain from 12 to 40 acres, and 25 to 
30 bushels per acre is considered a fair crop. I told 
them I thought it better policy to put out one dollar at 
six per cent, than six dollars at one per cent. 
Having seen a difference of opinion in some of the 
the back numbers of your paper, as to the best mode of 
applying manure, I determined to try some experiments 
for m 3 ’self. Part of the field therefore was manured, and 
then plowed under immediately, and part was plowed 
first; the manure then spread and harrowed in; and then 
the whole field was rolled and struck out in rows three 
and a half feet apart. A small piece was left without 
manure, and dressed with unleached ashes. I ought to 
mention that the land was a light sandy loam, and had 
been sowed with plaster in February, in order to give as 
good a start as possible to the clover. Having been 
much annoyed last year by the black birds, I adopted the 
plan recommended in various nos. of the Cultivator, of 
tarring my seed corn. It was soaked 24 hours in hot 
water, then tarred with a pint of far to a bushel of corn, 
rolled in plaster, and planted seven kernels in a hill, in¬ 
tending to thin it to three stalks. The hills were made 
two feet apart in the rows. More than a week elapsed 
before I visited the field after it was planted, yeti found 
no sign of vegetation, and on examining the hills I found 
only^ here and there a weak sprout, but almost every ker¬ 
nel rotting. I was not a little disappointed at this result, 
having been exceedingly careful the preceding fall in 
saving the best ears for seed, so that it was unlikely that 
I could find as much more equally good, and moreover I 
was so driven with work that I could ill spare the time 
for replanting. However, regrets were useless, so I 
picked out the best seed I could find in my corn crib, 
soaked it 24 hours, and then planted it between the hills 
which were first made. It came up finely, and now 
looks as well as any about here, though it was planted 
much later than is usual. I can account for the failure 
