1858. 
TIIE CULTIVATOR. 
369 
Draining—Steuben County. 
Messrs. Editors —I was in Yates and Steuben coun¬ 
ties last week and part of the week before, and must 
tell you about draining, &c. I found a farmer some 
12 miles west of this, who has thoroughly drained this 
season some 40 acres, putting his tiles all three feet 
deep. He began by deepening and widening a brook 
that runs through bis farm This he straightened, made 
it fifteen feet wide at the top and five feet deeper than 
it was before, which gave him a good outlet for his tile 
drains. He had fifty men at work for him, and did up 
the work in a short time. He had been draining on a 
small scale for a number of years, but got tired of 
working wet land lor nothing, and concluded to go at 
it in earnest and get something to till that would pay. 
Now this man is no fancy farmer; he is a working far¬ 
mer; when you take him by the haqd, it is as hard as 
the bark of a hickory tree; yet he enjoys it, and has 
means enough to make any improvement as soon as he 
is sure it will pay. 
I saw another field where thirteen men were at work 
digging ditches and laying tile. I went into the field 
to see how they were doing—I found them making 
what I think very thorough work, but wasting money 
in putting larger tile than necessary in the lateral 
drains. This is a prevailing error. Everywhere I 
went , I found more or less draining going forward. 
Almost every one who goes to market with grain 
or eord-wood takes home tile, especially west of Geneva, 
and a great many east of it. 
I found the corn a good crop where I have been, and 
farmers busy gathering it. Buckwheat is not a good 
crop in many places. Gats and barley have been a 
light crop Mediterranean wheat good every where— 
white wheat very poor; much of it mown and put up 
for fodder without threshing. 
Sheep are in much better condition than last year. 
I have got some 500 for winter fatting; most of them 
were fatted last winter—at least, fed grain in order to 
sell them for mutton as soon as shorn; but the mar¬ 
kets falling, were held on. I have bought no cattle. 
They are held too high in the country, according to 
eastern markets. 
Steuben county, in my opinion, has never at¬ 
tracted that notice as an agricultural county that 
it deserves. There is a great quantity of excel¬ 
lent land there, for raising all kinds of grain, and ex¬ 
cellent for grass. True a large portion of it is hilly 
and tedious to plow, but wherever naturally dry, or 
artificially made so, it bears fine crops of every kind, 
even on the tops of the hills Where the farmers are 
progressive, there are corn and wheat crops that sur¬ 
pass more celebrated locations. An immense quantity 
of the land requires draining, and would pay abun¬ 
dantly for it. There is a tract of land from Penn-Yati, 
in Yates county, to Wayne, in Steuben county, that is, 
I think, part of it nearly worthless in its present state, 
that would be the best of land if drained, and you can 
find plenty of land all over the county of the same 
kind. Many of the farmers are doing a little at drain¬ 
ing with stone, but then they generally only put in a 
ditch here and there, which is of little use in drying 
the soil. What they want, is tile works somewhere in 
Wayne and in Tyrone—also somewhere in the neigh¬ 
borhood of Bradford, and in many other places, as 
wherever tiles are made the land will be drained. 1 Then 
they want a few more enterprising men among them 
to lead the way, and then I have no doubt Steuben 
county would be second to but few counties in the State. 
I have for years bought stock for feeding purposes 
there, and am more and more convinced that what I 
write is correct. Wherever you meet with reading 
farmers, you find their crops, and all around them, 
looking well. I mean those who take agricultural pa¬ 
pers. In the towns of Prattsburgh and Wheeler in 
this same county, some enterprising farmers have made 
great improvement,*but a great many more are need¬ 
ed. The great complaint with them is the want of 
capital to drain with, but if they would only do enough, 
they would immediately have faith that it would pay 
all the expense of draining in about three years, by 
the excess in crops. They would then soon find the 
means to drain it. Yours truly, John Johnston. 
Near Geneva , N. Y. Oct. 25. 
- > -« » -- 
Shallow Culture. 
Messrs. Editors —The uniformity of testimony of 
farmers at their discussion at Syracuse, in favor of 
shallow plowing for the culture of Indian corn, strikes 
me as extraordinary. Col. Brewer and others speak of 
raising their best crops when they plowed not more 
than four inches deep. Can this be true of the culture 
in your State generally 1 I had supposed it well to 
plow from six to nine inches deep, according to the 
condition of the soil; but never less than six inches. 
It may be that the character of the soil in New-York 
varies from that in Massachusetts, but not in a manner 
to warrant a more shallow culture. If it does, I should 
like to see a reason therefor. P. Mass. 
Where a few inches only of the top soil has been made 
fertile by the growth of turf and by manuring, the 
present crop of corn will be heavier by shallow culture 
than if a more unfavorable subsoil is turned up and 
planted upon. But such crops, although fine, are not 
the largest of all. The heaviest product of corn is 
obtained from both deep and rich soils. 
Soils vary greatly in different part3 of this State, 
requiring various modes of management. But although 
corn may not need so deep culture as some other crops, 
yet the most perfect farms in nearly every region are 
those which have been gradually deepened in cultiva¬ 
tion, applying a corresponding quantity of manure as 
the deepening process advances. 
-e—•—s- 
Treatment of Ringbone. 
Messrs Editors —Will you or any of your numer¬ 
ous subscribers, tell me the best and safest way to cure 
a ringbone, and not leave a scar or blemish on the foot. 
Stbscuiber. Franklin. 
We have never known a case of confirmed or decided 
ringbone cured by any process. A scar should never 
be made in treating it. Cutting and burning should 
never be allowed—they are both cruel and useless. 
The best medicine for man or beast, to preserve 
health, is exercise; the best to restore it, is rest 
This latter is the king of medicines, and we could 
enumerate some of its surprising cures. For incipient 
ringbone, this is emphatically the remedy. Dr. Dadd 
recommends in addition, an application of acetate of 
cantharides, as being milder and better than common 
blistering. When the part becomes hot, apply cold- 
water bandages. 
