76 THE CULTIVATOR. 
the crop may be about 6 or 700 bushels. I believe the price of good 
Dutch madder for twelve years past, has averaged about fifteen cents 
through the year, and eighteen cents in the fall in the New-York 
market. The madder of this country is worth three or four cents 
more; at any rate, 1 have not known any sold at wholesale to mer¬ 
chants in the country short of twenty-three cents. The cost of 
raising this article is about seven cents per pound, that is, the whole 
expense of cultivating, washing, drying, grinding, &c. including a 
fair rent for land. The least quantity I have seen dug from an acre 
is 1,600 pounds, and greatest 2,400 pounds, four years. If I had first 
rate of land, and price of madder good, I should dig third year. Mr. 
Jefferson in one of his letters from France, says “ they cultivate mad¬ 
der here at an immense profit, they dig it once in five or six years.” 
I estimated that in planting the nine acres I should furnish a supply 
for the county of Oneida, since which time a calico manufacturer of 
Otsego county has informed me that he uses 100 pounds of madder 
per week through the year, which is more than I raise. I will now 
give you my reasons for thinking that it is not an impoverishing crop ; 
the 250 hills that I planted first, was on a hemlock soil of ordinary 
strength, and at the depth of fifteen inches was a brown dead sand, 
hard pan, if I may so express it, and as the madder roots penetrate 
two feet or more, they could not have done so well as on a rich deep 
soil, still I had over 1,600 pounds. I have on the same ground an 
uncommon heavy crop of oats, and no manure has been put on it for 
six years past. 
Notwithstanding I have extended this communication to a greater 
length than 1 expected when I commenced writing, still I should 
wish hereafter to say something more should you think the subject 
worth the trouble it may be to you. 
With great respect, yours, RUSSEL BRONSON. 
Note. —Mr. Bronson’s further communications, on this or other 
subjects of husbandry, are respectfully solicited.— Conductors. 
Canaan Centre , July 21s/, 1834. 
Sir —As I have seen but little in the Cultivator on the manage¬ 
ment of sheep, and am interested in that pai t of agricultural pursuits, 
I venture to diiect to you a few thoughts in hopes it may call the at-' 
tention of others to the subject, more competent than myself. It is 
allowed by all, as far as I am informed, that the grub in the head of 
sheep is caused by a fly in the hot season ; to avoid the bad effects j 
of which, I would recommend that they have better pasture in the 
months of July and August, so as to be able to get their supply of 
food without being obliged to feed in the middle of the day. I have 
observed that sheep will do well on very short feed early in the sea¬ 
son, and think it best if they are to be kept short, it should be done 
at that time, and reserve for ihem good feed through the hot season. 
Flocks of sheep kept close are more likely to be troubled with them 
than those well kept, and some suppose want of strength to throw 
off the g' ub makes the difference, but I think it is being under the 1 
necessity of feeding in the heat of the day. Short keeping makes 
fine wool, but I believe it is best for every wool grower not to over¬ 
stock, but keep well what he does keep. My practice has been, to 
select in the fall my poorest sheep from the others and give them 
better feed, so that all shall be in good condition for winter; in ma¬ 
naging in that way, I have lost less sheep in winter than in summer 
—my lambs I wean the latter part of August and give them the best 
feed 1 have, till winter ; about the first of November, or whenever 
the feed becomes injured with frost, I begin to feed them oats in the 
sheaf; to sixty or seventy lambs I give two bundles a day till about 
the first of January, and then one bundle a day till February, after 
which I feed no more grain. In that way, I have been aide to get 
my lambs through the winter, strong and healthy, and out of the 
above number, for several years I have not lost more than to ave¬ 
rage one a year. D. S. C. 
Tillage II iisSuutdry. 
EXPERIMENTS IN TOPPING CORN. 
It was discovered early in August, 1810, that proper grasses for 
soiling my cattle would soon be very deficient; and on the 20lh of 
that month, one row of corn, in a field of thirteen acres, was topped, 
to ascertain how the plant would bear early cutting. It was thought 
that it had received no injury. On the 31st of the same month I 
commenced feeding the cattle with the tops cut daily, as wanted. 
These lasted them until the 18th of September. After this the blades 
were stripped, commencing where the topping began. They fed the 
cattle until the 5th October. 
In the process of topping and blading, one row was left entire, 
standing between the row which had been topped on the 20th of 
August, and another row that was topped on the 2d of September. 
These rows were cut off by the roots on the 2d of October, and 
hauled in and set up separately under my own inspection. They 
were husked and measured on the 8th of November. 
Produce of the row that had not been topped and stripped, nine 
bushels and five-eights of corn in the ear. 
One of the rows which had been topped and stripped, measured 
seven bushels and six-eighths; and the other topped and stripped 
row measured seven bushels and three-eights of corn in the ear. 
Thus it clearly appears that mutilating the corn plant before its 
fruit is perfected, is a very injurious practice. The injury done to 
my crop by this mode of management was clearly seen some time 
before the three experimental rows were cut off. Throughout the 
whole field the husks were generally dry and open, except on the 
row which had not been topped and stripped. On this, they still re¬ 
tained a greenish hue, and were close set to the* ear when the plants 
were cut off by the roots. 
In 1811 I selected three rows of maize in the middle of my field, 
as nearly alike as possible. The plants were then about two feet 
high. I cut off the tops of the middle row as low down as might be 
readily done without injuring the tassels, which were wrapped in 
their own leaves within the stalks. I could not observe that the 
stalks in the row which had been cut, grew any thicker, until new 
leaves had been formed from the crown of the plants. Before this 
| happened, the stalks in the rows on either side of it, seemed to be as 
thick again as those standing in it; and the ears grown on the plants 
in this row, shot, filled, and ripened, about two weeks later than the 
rest, of the field. 
As several writers on agriculture had asserted that the tops of po¬ 
tatoes might be cut and given to the cattle, without injury to the 
crop, I cut off the tops from a row running through the middle of a 
very luxuriant patch. Care was taken to cut them in that way 
which vvassupposed least likely to prove injurious to the future growth 
of the plants. The debilitated appearance of the second growth of 
the tops, determined me not to risk a second cutting of them. When 
the crop was gathered, the roots in the row that had been cut did 
not seem to be more than half as large as those in the rest of the 
patch. 
In fact, I have never seen any advantage arise, either from care- 
good housewives and ignorant gardeners will continue to tread and 
mutilate the tops of their onions, as long as the world may happen to 
last, for the express purpose of making the roots grow much more 
luxuriantly; unless, perchanc*’, they may happen to reflect, that the 
tops would not have existed, if nature did not consider them as ne¬ 
cessary to the well being of the plant as its roots. Certain it is, that 
the writings of many gentlemen, who ought to have known better, 
are exactly calculated to confirm them in this truly avage practice. 
— Lorain. 
IMPORTANCE OF MANURE BEING FERMENTED IN THE SOIL. 
Some cultivators, in order to make the soil open and mellow, turn 
it from the plants into the first cultivation, but after harrowing well, 
turn it immediately back to them, least injury might be done by leav¬ 
ing the roots exposed. This is a more rational practice than either 
of those just mentioned, but it is laborious and aLo imposing. The 
open texture of the soil is obtained at the expense of the roots of the 
plant and the useless waste of the animal and vegetable matter con¬ 
tained in it. As fermentation is greatly checked by this practice, 
the soil (unless it be sandy or very rich,) settles, and becomes hard¬ 
er than it would have been if the grounds had not been so carefully 
pulverized; especially if heavy rains follow this inconsiderate and 
laborious practice. 
It should, however, be recollected, that the powerfully expanding 
force of fermentation cannot exist in a soil where perpetual plough¬ 
ing and cropping has destroyed too much of the animal and vegeta¬ 
ble matter that had formerly existed in it. In this case, a sufficien¬ 
cy of vegetation ought to be introduced, by red clover and the use of 
gypsum. Or if the grounds have been so often excited by that sub¬ 
stance that it will no longer cause good crops of this grass to grow 
on them, withont the aid of enriching manure, such other plants as 
