THE CULTIVATOR. 
125 
of sands as well as limes, and tends to increase their productiveness. 
In this point of view, therefore, the Granville marl, if transportation 
is not too expensive, may be applied to sandy porous soils with per¬ 
manent advantage. On light sands, clay is of as much value as 
lime. Neither lime nor clay furnish food to plants, yet the pre¬ 
sence of both is necessary to adapt a soil to healthy, vigorous vege¬ 
tation. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
FROM MY MEMORANDUM BOOK. 
1 send you, Messrs. Editors, a memorandum of the produce of 
thirty-six and a half acres of land, the past season, in grain and grass, 
not on account of any thing worthy of notice in the result, but that 
others may profit by my errors as well as by my wisdom. The 
soil is a sandy loam, and no part received but one ploughing for a 
crop. 
17 acres produced 53 tons of hay, 
4 “ “ 74 bushels rye, 
I acre “ 2 “ wheat, 
II acres “ 574 “ rutabaga, 
4 “ “ 776 “ potatoes, 
5 “ “ 360 “ sound* corn, 
4 “ “ 87 “ barley. 
36i acres. 
REMARKS ON THE CULTURE. 
Hay. —The crop was impaired by the frost of last winter having 
killed much of the clover, particularly on about three acres laid down 
last year. Two acres were in a reclaimed swamp, which were 
cropped with potatoes in 1833. The wet spring not permitting the 
ground to be ploughed in due time, and the grass, which sprung up 
spontaneously, promising something of a crop, it was suffered to re¬ 
main. The product was but so so. Three and a half acres were a 
ley of four or five years, which ought to have been broken up be¬ 
fore ; as grass, with me, generally diminishes after the third year. 
The residue bore a heavy crop, and averaged, by estimation, three 
tons an acre. 
Rye. —As it is my maxim to sow this grain either very early or 
very late, I was obliged to sow late, in consequence of the ground 
having been encumbered with a potatoe crop. The product was a 
fair crop, though I think that if three or four pecks more of seed had 
been sown on the acre, there would have been a corresponding in¬ 
crease in the product. The grain was good, but thin, the late sown 
not tillering like that which is sown early. 
Barley. —One-half of the barley ground was over-manured, and 
the grain was prostrated before it got into blossom. The product 
of this part was of course trifling. It should have had no manure, 
as it followed a crop of ruta baga well dunged. Besides, it does not 
answer to have barley ground too rich, or to apply to this crop long 
manure. 
Wheat. —This was sown in February, on ground ploughed in the 
fall. It promised tolerably well, until it was attacked by the wheat 
insect, which virtually destroyed the crop. Scarcely a head con¬ 
tained more than three or four kernels, and in some cells, while the 
grain was standing, I found five and six insects. 
Ruta Baga. —This was the poorest crop I ever raised of the kind, 
and the failure is not attributable to any error of mine, but to the dry 
summer. It was sown upon an old grass ley, previously plastered, 
and dunged, ploughed and harrowed just previous to drilling in the 
seed. The soil was very dry when worked, and there was not suf¬ 
ficient rain afterwards to bring on a decomposition of either the ma¬ 
nure or the sod. Comparatively but few of the seeds grew, and the 
rows were not half filled with plants. In a favorable season the pro¬ 
duct would have been more than double. 
Potatoes. —Two acres were on a grass ley, well dunged with long 
manure, and gave a good crop for the season, of more than 300 bu¬ 
shels the acre. This crop received two ordinary dressings, but af¬ 
ter harvest I caused all the weeds to be pulled up, and carried to my 
cow-yard, which, I am confident, added very greatly to the potato 
crop. One acre was planted on ground habitually wet, and which 
had been underdrained late the preceding fall. The ground was but 
imperfectly ploughed, the crop was badly tended, and the product 
was hardly worth gathering, even in this season of scarcity. The 
* My soft corn and small potatoes, and some pumpkins, have fattened about 
2,500 pounds of pork, finished, during the last ten day, with hasty pudding. 
fourth acre was principally on ground where barley had been seri¬ 
ously injured by the frost of the 15th May ; it was planted late, with 
refuse seed. The ground was very dry, and from late planting, bad 
seed, and a very dry season, the product did not exceed 100 bushels. 
My practice is not to earth potatoes after the tubers have began to 
form, as earthing them is apt to cause a new set of stolens to start 
near the surface, which rob the elder ones of their food, and produce 
potatoes only of a diminutive size. Yet weeds ought to be carefully 
extirpated, as they not only impoverish the soil, but shade the ground, 
to the great prejudice of the crop. The labor of extirpating weeds 
is amply repaid in the increased product. I think I am warranted 
in saying, that a clover ley, and long manure, the latter well spread 
and ploughed under, are admirably adapted both to the corn and po¬ 
tato crop. 
Corn. —This and the unproductive acre of potatoes, were grown 
in a field abouuding in springs, and heretofore habitually wet, but 
which was underdrained the preceding autumn. A part of the ground 
had been in pasture, and a part under tillage, and the whole was 
well manured. The hills were planted three by two and a half feet 
apart, and there remained after the first dressing, four spears in al¬ 
most every hill. The corn was dressed with the harrow and culti¬ 
vator, and twice hoed, though but very slightly hilled. Four-fifths 
gave an uncommon fair crop. Sixty-three selected ears gave a half 
bushel of shelled grain, averaging more than half a pint each. The 
otherfifth was killed by kindness, or rather from want of personal at¬ 
tention. Having two loads of horn shavings and crushed bones, 1 di¬ 
rected them to be spread on two acres: but my men, being unac¬ 
quainted with these materials, and not appreciating their strength 
as a manure, thought to do me a kindness, and applied the whole to 
one acre. The consequence was, the stalks were too luxuriant and 
tender, and the wind prostrated them flat to the ground ere the 
grain was half grown, and but very little of the corn was fit for the 
crib. 
At present prices, the products I have enumerated are worth about 
§1,300, and average about §36 to the acre. 
The errors in my practice, against which I would guard the rea¬ 
der, are:— 
1. In sparing grass lands from the plough after the cultivated 
grasses have most run out, and after the product has materially di¬ 
minished. 
2. In sowing late rye too thin. 
3. Applying manure to a barley crop, the soil of which was alrea¬ 
dy rich enough—particularly long manure. 
4. In planting potatoes too late, and with bad seed. 
5. In the excessive and wasteful application of bone and horn ma¬ 
nure. And finally, 
6. In not superintending personally all the operations of the farm. 
We may hire men to work; but it is difficult, as my friend Delavan 
observes, to hire men to think correctly. 
By way of postscript I will remark, that I had made, in 1833, in 
the six acre field in which I grew my corn, about 200 rods of brush 
and straw underdrains, which cost me about §20, and that I think 1 
am fully remunerated for this outlay in the increased product of the 
field in the past season. B. J. 
New-Paltz, Nov. 3, 1834. 
Sir, —I have a very valuable apple tree which had the bark eaten 
off a few inches above the ground, by mice, in the winter, and I took 
the following method to save the tree. I took four small twigs from 
another tree, and engrafted them below the wound, in the manner 
of side grafting, and loosening the bark above, bent the twigs and 
slipt them under the bark until they came parallel with the body, 
then covered them well by banking the dirt above the wound and 
grafts. I left the earth around one season, then cleared it away, 
and found two had taken. These have commenced to form new 
bodies, and the tree, from all appearances, is as thrifty as ever, and 
the twigs have grown in two years to the bigness of your thumb. 
I am, dear sir, your humble servant, 
J. Buel, Esq. ABRAHAM STEEN. 
P. S. I have also obtained a few twigs or slips of the real Italian 
Mulberry ; the seed was imported three years ago; these I have in¬ 
oculated in the common white mulberry stock, and they grow very 
thrifty indeed. They have very large leaves and are very tender. 
Some of the largest I have measured, and find them from six to eight 
inches wide, and from seven to ten inches long. I shall have some 
fit for sale in a few years. A. S. 
