286 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept. 
nure as this. I have seen an old field, which was 
nearly bare of herbage, enclosed and dressed with about 
two hundred pounds of guano, produce a good crop of 
wheat. I have such an one this season in oats, upon 
which I sowed, at the time of sowing my oats, 100 
pounds Peruvian guano per acre, and better oats are 
not often to be seen. You have many enterprising 
young married men who might purchase a farm here, 
perhaps, who would have to toil at home for many 
years to do so. They can purchase land at very low 
prices, and by paying a small part of the purchase 
money, in many instances get long credit for the bal¬ 
ance. There is very little of this land which is not 
very easily improved, especially the isinglass [micace¬ 
ous ?] soil. Yours, &c., W. B. Hamilton. 
Long Green, Md ., July 8, 1848. 
Farming in Wisconsin. 
A correspondent sends us the following notice of the 
farm of Dr. Richard M. Meigs, formerly a resident 
of this city, but now of Waterville, Waukesha county, 
Wisconsin. “ Dr. M/s farm contains 349| acres, of 
which 60 acres are now in wheat, 8 in oats, 4 in corn, 
2 in ruta bagas, 6 in rye, 8 in barley, together with a 
large garden. Sixty acres have been broken this sum¬ 
mer for fall wheat. On purchasing, the land already 
broken up had been cropped with wheat for six years 
in succession, and so reduced as to yield scarcely the 
seed. Dr. M. is known by Albanians as a practical 
horticulturist, and especially devoted to the raising of 
the grape—taking premiums for several years at the 
Albany Co. Hort. Society. He has a few vines from 
the nursery of John Gott; 190 peach trees from the 
same gentleman, planted from the pit a year ago last 
fall, which are now four feet high. Locust trees from 
Wm. N. Strong, taken from Kane’s Walk, in Pearl st., 
Albany. His orchard, comprising varieties of apples, 
looks well. The coming year, he will pay more atten¬ 
tion to spring crops, and prepare 60 or 80 acres for fall 
wheat, in addition to what is already under the plow. 
Wheat is in fine order, and is now being harvested. 
Barley has been cut. Every kind of spring crops ne¬ 
ver looked better. His barley and oats have been esti¬ 
mated to exceed 60 bushels to the acre, and by some to 
attain 70 bushels—all from old land.” July 18, 1848. 
Use of Cotton Cloth in Curing Hay. 
[We have been favored by A. A. Lawrence, Esq. 
with the following letter from Col. Pierce, of Green¬ 
land, N. H., one of the largest and most successful far¬ 
mers in New England. It affords some valuable infor¬ 
mation. We have formerly known cloth caps for hay 
used with advantage.— Eds.] 
A. A. Lawrence, Esq.—Dear Sir,—I take pleasure 
in replying to your inquiries about the “ Hay Caps” 
made from your Salmon Falls Sheetings.* They have 
fully answered my expectations, preserving the hay 
perfectly, both through long rains and heavy showers; 
not only saving a great deal of labor in shaking the rain 
out of the hay, but preserving all its good qualities, 
especially that agreeable aromatic perfume, which is 
always lost when much wet. 
I am indebted for the hint of this valuable improve¬ 
ment in haymaking, to a piece published in the Boston 
Cultivator, June 5, 1847, extracted from the Maine 
Farmer. Those there described were made of cloth 
thirty inches w T ide and were five feet square, which are 
too small. Those which I have ^made of your yard¬ 
wide sheetings, two yards square, are as near right as 
can be. The two breadths are sewed together with a 
stout hem at the ends, the corners turned back about 
two inches and sewed down strong, leaving a loop 
through which is run a stout string of the kind called 
marline, the ends tied so as to make a loop of an inch 
and a-lialf in diameter; through each of these is run a 
stick of eighteen or twenty inches in length into the 
hay, standing it up to prevent the loops from slipping 
off; the haycocks should be made higher than usual and 
the cloth drawn tight. 
The cost is about thirty cents each, namely four yds. 
of sheeting at seven cents and two cents for line and 
thread ; the making, if done at leisure hours in a fa¬ 
mily, will cost little or nothing. 
Upon the whole, with the experience I have had of 
their usefulness, I would not be without them if the 
cost was double what it has been. Yours truly, J. W. 
Pierce. Greenland , N. H., August 3, 1848. 
P. S.—I have waited several days to see the result 
of the last trial of the caps which we put on last Sat¬ 
urday afternoon—the weather at the time being very 
fine and promising well. We had about 350 cocks in 
the field; about 100 were not covered; on Monday it 
rained all day, the next day, the hay that was not co¬ 
vered was opened, dried, and got in at night; that un¬ 
der the caps was left, being safe, to be got in at leisure; 
which was done the next day with as little labor as that 
of the day before, though nearly three times the quan¬ 
tity, and in much finer condition—indeed the rain had 
no effect upon it. 
The 30 inch drillings would not answer a good pur¬ 
pose, and I am not certain, if I were going to have 
more of them, but that I should prefer cloth still wider 
than your sheetings, but I am perfectly satisfied with 
what I have. 
I have saved my hay three times already, and those 
which are washed free from starch, answer equally 
well as when first used. 
Management of Hens. 
I want information in regard to the best mode of ma¬ 
king hens lay eggs. I have about four hundred' hens 
in my yard, and they do not lay as well as they ought. 
I want instruction as to how the yard should be fix¬ 
ed, and how they ought to be kept, and how to pack 
eggs to keep them from spoiling. If I can adopt some 
plan to make the hens lay well . I intend to buy a thou¬ 
sand or two thousand chickens this fall, and buy many 
e ggs the coming spring. You now understand my bu¬ 
siness, and see the subject upon which I want informa¬ 
tion. A. J. Mears. Hubbard, Ohio, July, 1848. 
We shall be glad to receive the suggestions of any 
of our experienced correspondents in relation to the 
above subject. Eds. 
Loss in Burning Bones. 
I would be glad to know what is the amount of loss 
in calcining bones. If I am not mistaken, Liebig says 
none of much consequence to the farmer. Johnston, in 
his Agricultural Chemistry supposes the loss very great, 
and in Allen’s American Agriculture, burning bones is 
called a very wasteful practice. 
If bones from which the oil has not been extracted 
are thrown into a heap, they readily burn, so that ma¬ 
ny fall into powder and the rest are easily crushed. If 
in this process, they really lose nothing very valuable 
as manure, or if they do not lose more than twenty-five 
per cent, it would be by far the most economical mode 
for all farmers, who can collect bones at the ordinary 
prices given at the bone mills. As regards myself, this 
may be easily shown— 
Cost of bone-dust in Baltimore, ..50 cts. pr. bush. 
Bags, freight and drayage to York, .. 10 u “ 
* The sheetings weigh 2J yards to a pound. 
60 
