116 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
March, 
ment, is making great improvement in farming. A 
httle book knowledge would not injure such a farm¬ 
er. 
Barley —1st premium to John W. Vail, of Ben¬ 
nington ; 50 bushels per acre; sowed after corn, 
with the two-rowed variety, 3^ bushels per acre; 
weight 47i pounds. Four bushels is recommended 
to the acre, for seed. 
George Barnard, of Dorset, raised 25 bushels 
from I 4 bushel of seed. 
Spring Wheat— Premium to Nathan Bates, of 
Shaftsbury; 22^ bushels, on msadow land turned 
over; one bushel western plaster per acre; no other 
manure. 
Rye —Premium to M. Wheelock, of Shaftsbury; 
22^ bushels per acre; meadow turned over; no ma¬ 
nure. 
Buckwheat —one acre; premium to F. H. Can- 
field, Arlington, 33 bushels per acre. 
Oats —1st premium to Alonzo Hinsdill, Benning¬ 
ton, 503 bushels on five acres. 2d premium to L. 
Bottom, Shaftsbury, 90£ bushels per acre. 3d pre¬ 
mium to S. Ames, Shaftsbury, 78 \ bushels per acre. 
Broom Corn —1st premium to Alonzo Hinsdill, 
Bennington, 444 lbs. clean brush per acre. 2d pre¬ 
mium to P. M. Henry, Bennington, 375 lbs. per 
acre of clean brush. 
Growing Potatoes from Seed. 
Eds. Cultivator — I see by the January number 
of The Cultivator , that Mr. Charles W. Taylor, 
of Bucks Co., this State, has given you a statement 
in regard to the rot in potatoes still prevailing in his 
vicinity, and then goes on to say that he received 
some seeds of the potato from Rev. N. S. Smith, of 
Buffalo, and after giving tho result of his experi¬ 
ment, is 11 sorry to add that they rot as bad, or even 
worse, than any of our other kinds; although they 
had the advantage in regard to time of planting, 
manure, situation, &e.” 
Now as I also was a recipient of Rev. N. S. 
Smith’s favors, having received a half-ounce of his 
seed last spring; my experience with these seeds 
being somewhat different, or at least my success 
with them, leads me to a different conclusion, as re¬ 
gards their healthy nature; I will state the result. 
I also started the seeds in a hot bed, (about one- 
half of them) in the spring, and at the proper time 
transplanted the small plants to the open ground. 
As we had a long spell of dry weather in this sec¬ 
tion, commencing about the middle of June, and 
(with the exception of two or three sprinklings of 
rain,) continuing to the first week in October, a pe¬ 
riod of over 100 days. During all this time, vege¬ 
tation was at a stand still. These small potato 
plants consequently suffered severely, many , nearly 
one-half, died from the heat and drouth. The ba¬ 
lance remained stationary and barely alive, till a 
few weeks of moist and warm weather in October 
gave them a start, when frost arrested all further 
growth. I then took them up, and the produce was 
over a bushel, from the size of a pea, up to the size 
of eleven inches in circumference—of all sorts, si¬ 
zes, shapes, colors and qualities. 
Now as regards the rot. Although we had no 
rot, properly speaking, on any of our potatoes in 
this section of country, that I am aware of, last sea¬ 
son, yet the plants of all the old varieties appear to 
lack that healthy, vigorous and flourishing appear¬ 
ance, which in former times, (that is previous the rot 
being known,) belonged to the plants. Indeed it is 
a rare thing now, to find the common, or old varie¬ 
ties, producing flowers and seed balls, and the plants 
generally have a yellow and sickly appearance. On 
the contrary, these seedlings, when the wet weather 
commenced, at once put on a healthy, robust, and 
thrifty appearance, such as I had not seen for years. 
The plants were literally covered with blossoms, 
and had more the appearance of a row of flowering 
plants, than an esculent vegetable, producing seed 
balls in profusion; owing to the lateness of the sea¬ 
son, however, they had not time to ripen. Now of 
course, I am not prepared to say that these seedlings 
will retain this healthy condition another year—or 
that they will escape the rot any more than the old 
varieties; but the presumption that they will do so, 
is greatly in their favor. J. B. Garber. Colum¬ 
bia, Lans. Co., Pa., Jan. 14, 1850. 
Application of Marl. 
Eds. Cultivator—“I have a great quantity of 
blue marl. I spread some on grass land one year, 
and it took all the grass out by the roots. I again 
spread some on the land another year, and plowed 
it in, but did not perceive any benefit from it. The 
marl is about one hundred feet above the tide, and 
is full of different kind of sea shells. My farm con¬ 
tains 477 acres of land, and there is about one hun¬ 
dred underlaid with this marl. The surface is a 
tough sod for about eight inches, and then you come 
to a rusty sand, about a foot deep, and then to a 
black or dark blue marl, soft and full of shells, about 
three feet deep; then to a whitish marl, rather hard¬ 
er and full of shells, and when it comes to the air 
it slackens, like lime, so that you can shovel it up 
as you might a heap of ashes. I would like to 
know in what way it can be made profitable. Jo¬ 
seph Warton. Saint Andrews, N. B., January 
15, 1850. 
We should be glad to receive suggestions in re¬ 
ference to the above. Eds. 
Sheep Husbandry. 
Eds. Cultivator —Mr. St. John, whose profita¬ 
ble sheep husbandry was noticed in your paper of 
this month, is beyond doubt a skilful shepherd, and 
many of your readers will be divided in opinion whe¬ 
ther his profits were 27 or exceeding 100 per cent. 
Now Mr. Pettibone, whose very intelligent com¬ 
munication was published in your paper in April 
last, will tell you that the hay those sheep consumed 
during the winter at $7 per ton, would cost $60. 
Mr. St. John will tell you that seven of those sheep 
did consume as much pasture as one cow. Estima¬ 
ting the pasturage of a cow at two shillings per 
week, would make the summer pasturage of these 
sheep worth at least $50. Now add two dollars and 
fifty cents for washing and shearing, and it would 
leave a little less than 7 per cent, profit on the cost 
of those sheep. In the estimated expense, no ac¬ 
count is made for grain fed to make sheep fetch,with¬ 
out their fleeces, 18 shillings per head, which cost but 
9 shillings at their purchase, or for their care in 
summer, or the foddering of sheep and nursing 
of lambs during winter. 
Another consideration. Those lambs, to be year¬ 
lings now, must have been winter lambs; and their 
feed from January to July, is deserving some little 
consideration in the account; particularly when 45 
sheep with them included, are estimated to be wmrth 
more than fifty of the original stock. 
It certainly can be no imputation upon our farm¬ 
ers that they do not grow wool enough to meet the 
consumption of the country, when they have no 
greater encouragement than the success of Mr. St. 
