146 
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ffrops. 
ABOUT THE BARLEY CROP. 
is there not danger of a barley fever biking 
hold of farmers this spring? For the past 
two years the price of tins grain lias t ided 
unprecedentedly high. Heretofore no cereal 
lias had its “ ups and downs” like barley ; if 
high one season, it was sure to bo low the 
next, and, vice versa. Lately it has been 
maintained lit. a high figure, and now, with 
no surplus stock on hand, the price will 
average, in all our markets, a quarter higher 
than wheat. Yet, as a general thing, barley 
is as reliable as spring wheat, though loss so 
than oats. 
No doubt a large breadth will be sown to 
barley this spring. The comparative low 
price of spring wheat will induce many a 
farmer to sow hurley in its stead. It is a 
crop ea^y to manage, and brings quick 
returns; but our readers should not forget, 
that, as prices in the past have been very 
unreliable, in the immediate future they may 
tumble, and, under the impetus of a large 
crop, go very low. We don’t wish to croak, 
or discourage farmers from sowing barley — 
by all means stick to your system of cropping 
if a good one—hut we think it will do no 
harm to suggest that you will he. safer to 
base your calculation of profits on a lower 
price than ruled last year. It may be that 
oats will he neglected just enough to enable 
those who grow a good crop of them to make 
a nice thing. 
Whether the price be high or low the 
farmer who grows a large crop will he satis¬ 
fied best. A warm, rich, kind soil, is best 
adapted to this cereal. A light sand, a. st ill’, 
cold clay, or a worn field are unsuitable. 
Fall plowed land should lie well cultivated 
to the depth of three, or five inches. By all 
means avoid such culture as will leave the 
soil liable to hake and crust, over alter the 
sowing is done. It is well to sow early, If 
the soil is dry enough to work well, hut it is 
better to sow late than “mud in” the seed. 
Early sown barley is usually heavier than 
late sown, hut the stand is very liable to he 
thin, from the rav ages of worms and the rot. 
With barley at a dollar and a half per 
bushel it pays very well to top-dress with 
guano, superphosphate, or a compost of ashes, 
plaster, fine barn yard or hen manure, mixed 
and applied at- once. Two bushels of seed 
per acre are suitk ent, Barley is a good crop 
to follow potatoes, or, more plainly, the potato 
crop, if planted on a sod, fits the land well 
for barley, and soil well adapted to potatoes, 
in general, is'good barley soil. It is unsafe to 
sow on fVesldy turned sod, or even on that 
late fall-plowed. After sowing roll the field, 
if it is not so wet as to cause the formation of 
a crust. 
A crop of barley has been grown, threshed, 
sold and t he money used to pay a note on 
maturity, that was duo ninety days after the 
sowing. It is the easiest of all grain crops to 
harvest. Lot it stand until quite ripe, and if 
the weather is fair, nit with a reaper and 
leave it in full-sized gavels. In this state It 
will cure in a day or two, if the weather be 
favorable, without, turning, provided there is 
not too much grass or weeds with it. Then 
drive the wagon into the field and let two 
hands pitch it on with barley forks. Handled 
in this way, it is bright and free from dust.. 
If a rain falls on it w bile in the gavel it does 
no serious injury, and one turning will suffice 
to dry it, if thoroughly wet,; but the gavels 
are generally admirably shaped to turn rain, 
and they will rarely he wet to the center. 
Bright barley straw is highly relished by 
cattle, and barley meal is excellent feed for 
all kinds of stock. If there should be too 
much of this grain for the boot makers the 
surplus could he turned to good account by 
the beef-makers. 
-- 
THE FUTURE OF HOPS. 
Who is the person wise enough to tell 
what will be the luture of hops? There has 
undoubtedly been enough said for and 
against hop raising, but it has proved so 
detrimental to the interests of many that it 
may lie well, perhaps, to compare past prac¬ 
tice and experience with future prospects, 
and see what there is to encourage one in 
the business. 1 think we have a fair exam 
pic of the past in this section.of the country, 
as many have been in the business lor the 
past twenty years, and the result has been 
anything but Haltering. The great amount 
of labor attending a hop yard has a tendency 
to cause neglect to the farm, which has been 
the case invariably. 
The great demand for manure in a hop 
yard has generally taken all, and that for a 
small purl of 4he farm. Now, the result can 
readily be imagined. This section, which 
was at one time considered excellent for 
grain raising, has not for the past two years 
produced sufficient, for home consumption. 
This deterioration is the greatest considera¬ 
tion, yet, when I see allfiost all in close 
quarters as regards money matters, 1 am sure 
there cannot have been any profit, but rather 
a loss in this point of dollars and cents. We 
realized this full well in 1862 and 3, when 
it was necessary to raise money for volun¬ 
teers. We were then in our greatest pros¬ 
perity, and yet there was no money to be 
had here, while just across the Mohawk, in 
the town of Palatine, an old dairy section, 
many farmers had a surplus on hand, from 
whom we were compelled to borrow. But 
the great question is, “ What of the future?” 
In regard to the practical effects, we cannot 
reasonably look fur any better results in the 
future than in the past. And is not the busi¬ 
ness overdone, and likely to remain over¬ 
done, for a long time to come ? It has been 
the practice of some to set out when prices 
were low and thus secure large crops for 
large prices. I find many are going to set 
out again in the spring, and I fear they will 
not realize a golden harvest in return. My 
opinion is that it is only safe for those who 
are well settled in the business to prosecute 
it, and those that are not eau find a much 
safer investment. A. Parsons. 
Sharon Center, N. Y. 
-♦♦♦- 
POTATO GROWING UNDER GLASS. 
Wu were looking through some extensive 
green-houses lately and came unexpectedly 
on a very flourishing potato patch under the 
glass. The tropical heal and damp air gave 
the foliage such broad dimensions and bright 
green hue, that, it took the second glance to 
recognize our humble friend. But, sure 
enough, there were long lines of veritable 
Irish potatoes, dubbed “ King of the Earlies,” 
or some name equally grand, and, on inquiry, 
we found the whole patch had sprung from 
only three or four specimens. 
They were sprouted, like sweet potatoes, 
the sets removed and planted, cuttings taken 
from the tops and rooted, and so on, as a 
skiIIfill gardener knows how, until the only 
limit to the patch was the extension of the 
glass. By this means several bushels of 
tubers could be grown from a very few, to 
start with, to a size (it, for planting in Mayor 
.June. With good culture, the product by 
fall would be immense, in comparison with 
the amount of seed originally planted. 
-♦♦♦- 
NORWAY OATS: 
A Practical Parincr’H I'.xpcrii'mc anil lilnn*. 
Friend Moore: — I was very much in¬ 
terested in the letter of Mr. James Vick, in 
the Rural of March 27th, on the subject, of 
seedling potatoes; and ns Ids experience with 
some of the new sorts fs so similar to some 
of my own experiments in that line, and also 
with other highly pulled varieties of farm 
grains, will give you a little of my own ex¬ 
perience. 
I notice in the Rural of March 20th a cut 
of tin' so-called Norway oats, also the adver¬ 
tisement of the Messrs. Jones and CLARK 
of No. 20 Liberty street, New York, in re¬ 
gard to them. I shall not notice the testi¬ 
monials in regard to their great, yield, &<•., 
except Mr. Luther Phase’s, but will tell 
you of a small, experiment with them the. 
past year. In the spring of 1808 I received 
t wo pint packages of these oats, which meas¬ 
ured more than one quart, and weighed one 
pound and one half ounce on Fa mu an Kg* 
family scale. They were sown by hand, as 
carefully as if they were onion seed, on well 
prepared soil where potatoes bad grown the 
previous year, and had been w ell manured 
with rotten sheep manure the fall after the 
potatoes were dug; the manure was made 
from a lot of fattening sheep, and was wliat, 
I call first rate. 1 expected from the flam¬ 
ing hand-bill that was sent me (if but one 
half true) that I should get an extra crop. 
The oals grew to a moderate height, were 
reaped by hand so that all could be saved, 
and threshed after standing in stock long 
enough to get perfectly dry, and 1 harvest¬ 
ed the immense yield of seventeen and a 
half pounds, or quite twenty-two quarts of 
oats, which would give the enormous weight 
of nearly twenty-five and a half pounds per 
bushel; while a few New Brunswick oats 1 
also had under experiment yielded mack bet¬ 
ter in measure, and weighed nearly thirty- 
five pounds per bushel, thus showing that 
they were much the best oats, so far os this 
simple trial goes as a test. 
Mr. Luther Pease says “ their average 
yield upon one acre of good ground w ith 
one bushel of seed is from eighty-live to one 
hundred and even one hundred and twenty 
live bushels to the acre.” Now, from that 
assertion one would suppose that if be had 
a field of ten or fifteen acres that he wanted 
to sow to oats, that if he sowed us many 
bushels of the. so-called Norway oats as h« 
had acres of ground, that he would be mor¬ 
ally certain of 1,000 or 1,500 bushels of oats 
ns a crop for nis outlay for seed, labor, and 
flic use or his land for the season. 1 will, as 
per contra, give the other side of the pic¬ 
ture. Mr. INOALMUKK of Washington Go., N. 
Y m told me at Albany in February that seven 
acres of first rale land, well prepared, on his 
brother’s farm, was the past season sown to 
Norway oals from the celebrated Vermont 
seed, and that, be threshed the crop and the 
entire yield was less than two hundred bush¬ 
els; that these oats he was told were thou 
in New York to be sold for seed; that he 
knew of fifteen acres that yielded less than 
thirty bushels per acre; also that the oats 
were no better than the common black oat 
of the country. 
1 am sure that the oats I liad were no 
heavier than the conuuou oat, and the oats 
I have are not as heavy as the common 
white oat grown on my farm, neither are 
they so good. T have seen some of those 
sent out by Messrs. Jones & Clark, this 
winter, and they were certainly not a good 
sample of oats. A gentleman residing in 
this county, who purchased two bushels of 
said Norway oals a year ago, and had them 
sown on Ids brother’s farm, (In Chenango 
Co., I think he told me,) said to me the past 
winter that he did not consider them a 
humbug, as a humbug is a worthless article, 
and the Norway oats had some value; but 
they were sold for a great deal more money 
than they were worth. In regard to their 
assertion that “they will neither rust nor 
lodge," I can say that they did show in¬ 
dications of rust. On my farm the past, year, 
but they will not lodge if they do not, grow 
longer heads and heavier oats than with me. 
The assertion that, “ Horses eat them more 
readily and require a less quantity,” needs to 
lie taken with great caution, sis also that one 
hundred and twenty-six bushels have been 
raised from seven pounds of seed at a single 
sowing, in one season; that is not stated, 
however, as the fact, but left to conjecture 
as to how many times the product might 
have been sown to get, the amount named. 
And any person knows, that has had the 
earc of horses for any length of time, that 
light oats are not us good for any animal as 
heavy ones. My oats were certainly light 
when received, and are lighter now per 
measured bushel; those that. J have seen 
sent out this winter were light, weighing, 
one man said, about twenty-eight pounds 
per bushel. 
In conclusion, Sir. Editor, I intend to sow 
my oats of the so-called Norway, the present 
season, on the best land 1 have on the farm, 
and if they do well will report to the read¬ 
ers of the Rural; if not will also do so, and 
then discard them — which 1 have no doubt 
I shall have to do, for they are a light oat, 
with thick, hard husks, and small kernel, 
very pointed; and many farmers to whom 1 
have shown them say horses fed on them 
would he apt to have their mouths hurt and 
sore by their sharp points. There have 
been great stories 1pld about the length of 
the heads of these oats. I measured mine 
carefully, and they were also measured br¬ 
others ; about seven Inches was the average 
length, with about three-fourths as many 
oats in each head as the New Brunswick; 
another year may reverse the past year’s ex¬ 
periment. I have a passion, Mr. Editor, for 
the trial of new grains and seeds, and I have, 
very frequently been disappointed in results, 
consequently place very little confidence in 
new seeds till 1 have tried them, and found 
them valuable with me. Have a number of 
different sorts ordered for the coming season, 
and will report results for Rural readers if 
anything valuable is elicited by their trial; 
but my advice to fanners is, when ten dol¬ 
lars per bushel is asked for oats, or three 
dollars per pound for potatoes, to give, them 
a wide berth, for anything of real value is 
not generally sold at such prices. 
Jonathan Talcott. 
Home, N. Y., April, 1809. 
-- 
POTATO EXPERIMENTS. 
There have been a variety of opinions, 
with farmers, in regard to planting potatoes, 
some contending that they get a better yield 
to plant whole ones; others that it is best to 
cut them, and some will cut more than 
others, Ac. Therefore, on the 2(1(1) day of 
May last, 1 thought that I would experiment 
a little in’plant.iug. I planted eight rows of 
twenty-six hills each. Boil a light gravel; 
variety, Peachblow ; yield in the fall as Ibl- 
lowfi:— 
1st row, seed very large, whole ones, one in a 
hill: product, merchantable ones, 100 lbs.; small, 
•t lbs. 2d row, seed very large, out in t wo pieces, 
one piece in a bill; product, merchantable ones, 
90 ft is.: small, 2 ttis. .3d row, seed medium sized, 
whole,one in a bill; product, merchantable ones, 
88 lbs.; small, lif lbs. 4th row, seed medium 
sized, cut in three pieces, two pieces in a hill; 
product, merchantable ones, sllba-; small. IM 
lbs. 6th row, seed very annul. wiiOlo, two in a 
find ; product, merchantable ones, •*>lbs,; small, 
i '4 lbs. 0th row, medium sized, cut in two pieces, 
one piece in a hill; product, merenantable ones, 
79 lbs.: small. I V. 7th row, seen medium sized, 
rut. onoo crosswise, seen enu planted one in a 
hill; product, merchantable ones, 7411ns.; small, 
2W lljs. 8th row, seed medium sized, cut once 
crosswise, stem end planted, one piece In a bill ; 
product, merchantable ones, 78 lbs.; small. 2 lbs. 
The fore part of the season was quite dry, 
which somewhat accounts for the largest 
yield where the largest seed was planted, as 
the largest seed retains the most moisture. 
II. P. Harmon. 
Kirtland, Lake county Ohio, 1809. 
--- 
Vitality of When! Seed,—The experiments of 
Engl is! i scientific agriculturists have resulted in 
finding that wheal will not germinate after hav¬ 
ing been kept seven years, though every system 
of koepiug It t hat could be devised was adopted, 
ft is doubtful if the vitality of the germ can be 
kept live years. 
Eural 
$ __ 
THE FARM BARN. 
BY J. WILKINSON. 
[Concluded from page XU. last number.] 
Ventilation. 
Second in importance to nothing in and 
about a building in whic h a large number 
of animals are to he kept, is not generally 
appreciated or understood. Healing, or the 
production of a proper temperature, and a 
malutalnance of a temperature aa nearly 
uniform as possible, can only Ik; accom¬ 
plished in conjunction with the arrangement 
for ventilation ; being thus inseparable, and 
each so readily affected by imperfections in 
the oilier, and each requiring modification 
to suit all the peculiarities of the site, and 
the form, and character of the building, 
renders healing and ventilation the most 
difficult features that pertain to the art of 
architecture. Although the writer has made 
the subject, a diligent study for years, he 
feels himself to-day quite as much a learner 
OS he did ten years since. 
Gentleman of a high order of intellect 
and cultivation have indorsed and recom¬ 
mended some of the most absurd and erro¬ 
neous plans for effecting ventilation, so- 
called, and have overlooked, or misapplied, 
the most simple and effective modes for ac¬ 
complishing the purpose of their aim. 
The writer claims to be the discoverer and 
the first to apply a system of ventilation 
which, while it. secures a constant change of 
the air in a building iu which there is no 
artificial heat and no motive power by which 
to change the air, either on the plenum or 
vacuum principle, it at the same time operates 
on the principle of gravitation, and elevates 
the temperature of the air in the building to 
a point considerably above freezing, while 
the external temperature is at zero or below. 
The chief advantages are perfect safety, 
convenience, great economy, and its special 
adaptability to use in all buildings in which 
animals are to be kept. It consists simply 
in supplying air to the building in winter, 
when the temperature of the external at¬ 
mosphere is so low as to he uncomfortable 
and unprofitable as the temperature of Un¬ 
stable, through an ascending duct, laid in 
the ground below the influence of frost. 
This duet receives the air at the lower end, 
quite remote from the building, and dis¬ 
charges it through the floor of the stable, 
directly in front of the animals. 
The air in the duct absorbs heat contin¬ 
ually from the earth in which it lies, which 
rarities the ail- and causes it to rise into the 
stable at an elevated temperature. By hav¬ 
ing t he stable close, except, the ingress and 
egress openings for ventilation, with the 
animal heat, given oil from the. bodies of the 
animals and in their respiration, and by 
placing close egress ventilating shafts per¬ 
pendicularly through the mows over the 
stable, so that their lower ends will receive 
the air at the ceiling, over the rear of the 
stalls, and by placing the ingress opening in 
the feeding passage in front of the animals, 
their heads will be a direct line between the 
points of ingress and egress, so that the ex¬ 
halations are continually removed in the 
direction of the egress opening, thereby 
securing a continuous fresh supply without 
a perceptible current, or draft. The amount 
of air to lie supplied is regulated by the use 
of valves in the egress flues, an effective 
means of controlling supply and exhaust. 
The Manure Ilouso 
should he located on the south side of the 
barn yard, which is to be on the south of the 
barn, and is to have a gentle slope from it to 
the mansion house. The south side of the 
yard should be sustained by a bank wall, 
wliick should form the north side of the 
manure house. This arrangement of the 
manure house makes its position such that 
the manure may be precipitated into it from 
the yard, and, by having a road on the south 
of it, a little lower than the earth floor of 
the manure house, the manure may be 
forked down into the vehicles, thus taking 
the advantage of the principle of gravita¬ 
tion in all manipulation of the manure. 
With the manure house thus located, all 
the urine may be drained from the apart¬ 
ments in which the animals arc kept, and 
conducted by natural flow to the manure 
house, into which it should be discharged 
at the lace of the bank wall, some three feet 
above the floor. The urine will then be 
absorbed by the manure, and, with a proper 
roof over it, there will be no waste, if re¬ 
moved and applied as frequently as it 
should be. 
The writer has had eight years’ experience 
on different farms, with this mode of saving, 
storing and removing, both the solid and 
liquid excrement of domestic animals, and 
has found it superior to all other modes. 
The most objectionable of all is that of 
keeping the manure in a cellar under the 
animals and their provender. Three years’ 
experience with an arrangement of this 
nature led me to the conclusion that it be¬ 
longed more properly to the age of barbar¬ 
ism than civilization. 
Tlie Barn-Yard 
should he well graded, with a gentle slope 
to the South, and lie paved. It should he 
kept clean, and only be used as a place for 
sunning and exercising animals, and not as 
a place for the manufacture of manure. The 
droppings from the animals may readily he 
gathered and deposited in the manure-house, 
as it is located. The yard should be flanked 
on the east and west by high, close fences, 
and not with sheds, ns the sheds exclude 
entirely from the yard the sun when it is 
near the horizon ; if sheds are provided, the 
room is all monopolized by a few of the 
lions of the herd, and those most needing 
protection from storm get none. Cattle 
should never be turned into the yard in a 
storm. The food saved by keeping the 
stock dry and at a comfortable temperature, 
is infinitely more than is generally known. 
There are no valuable secretions in the sys¬ 
tem so long ns the animal shivers. Nothing 
should be fed in the yard. 
Hay pitching can no longer he done on 
a scale of any considerable extent, without 
the aid of the power fork; hence the ham 
should be constructed with special reference 
to its use. The writer arranged six of these 
forks in a barn in New England fifteen years 
since, which could all be operated at. the 
same time, or separately, by water power, 
and by their use, worked by six men, six 
tons of hay could he removed from the 
vehicles in eight to ten minutes. 
The mangers and hay racks, especially 
for the horses, embrace some important fea¬ 
tures in their const ruction not generally un¬ 
derstood. The former should be iron, and 
should he hung on hinges. This material is 
more economical than wood, as they are 
not subject to injury from gnawing, arc 
more easily kept sw eet, and their portability 
is a great convenience in cleansing them, 
they may he taken out of the building. 
The rack should he so arranged and lo¬ 
cated that it maybe filled without liability 
of getting hay seed and dust in the eyes and 
manes of the animals, and should be closed 
after it is filled, so that no dust or odors from 
the stable will he absorbed by the hay. 
Hacks should be filled from the hay loft floor, 
that no hay need be thrown down into the 
stables for either cattle or horses. 
All the stall floors should he so construct¬ 
ed that the urine may be directly removed 
out of the stable, and that it cannot be ab¬ 
sorbed by the bedding. 
All grain, roots and rough fodder fed should 
he steamed, and should be ground to a pulp 
at llic same time it is being steamed, which 
is perfectly practicable, and, if judiciously 
performed, may be made to produce a net 
saving of fully thirty per cent, over feeding 
whole and uncooked. Mills for farmers to 
grind their own provender in a dry slate are 
generally unprofitable, and will, no doubt, ere 
long be superseded by an apparatus for 
steaming and grinding all kinds of proven¬ 
der to a pulp whilst it is being steamed. 
Tl»»( Momi Economical HuIIUIiik Material 
will depend on local circumstances, the 
scarcity or abundance of the variety it is 
proposed to use. It has been recommended 
to use stone or brick as a protection against 
loss by fire; but the experience of the writer 
in observing the effect on the walls of a bare, 
the contents of which h;is been consumed by 
fire, is that they are generally very materially 
injured by falling floors and roof and by 
excessive heat, so that there is, after all, 
little value in the walls where the contents 
and frame have been destroyed by fire. This 
is especially the case with stone or concrete 
w alls, but brick w alls may be taken down 
and relaid, thus saving a large portion of the 
material; hence brick is consequently more 
economical than either of the others men¬ 
tioned. 
In districts in which lumber is expensive 
and scarce, and bricks and good quarry 
stones are not obtainable, and sand, small 
rubble stones and lime are plenty and rea¬ 
sonable, a concrete building will he most 
economical, and, if skillfully constructed, 
will be found to be durable and strong, free 
from all serious defects, and should take the 
place of the frame structures so common in 
many districts. 
Where more power is required than, can be 
obtained from a two-horse endless-chain 
power, which may be kept and used for all 
purposes on the main drive-way floor, a 
steam engine should be used. In the use 
of either power, the drive-way floor should 
be used for threshing, cutting fodder, shell¬ 
ing corn, &c., until a portion ot the mows 
are cleared, when such work may be done 
and the material manipulated in the mow 
apartments, leaving the drive-way clear for 
use as a shop for preparing fencing mate¬ 
rial, &e., as it is near the power for boring, &c. 
Mixing the excrement of all the domestic 
animals is much preferable to using them 
separately. With the arrangement that I 
have recommended, if the sties and fold are 
cleaned out and re-bedded frequently, as they 
should be, the excrement can be mixed 
with that of the horses and cattle with a 
trifling amount of labor. 
mm 
