4 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
or fifteen years, and hence speak from experience, and with confi¬ 
dence, of its manifest advantages over the common method of 
spreading from the swath. Put it into small cocks, with a fork, 
from the swath, as soon as it is freed from external moisture, or 
well wilted, and then leave it to cure. An hour or two exposure 
to the sun, previous to its being carted from the field, is all the fur¬ 
ther care it will require. This mode saves labor, prevents injury 
from rain, and secures the hay in the best possible condition. 
INDIAN CORN. 
There is no crop which habit has rendered more indispensable to 
the wants of our families and our farms than this. The late John 
Taylor, of Virginia, termed it our “ meat, meal and manure.”— 
Holding this high rank in our farm economy, it is a subject of mo¬ 
ment to adopt the best mode of culture. As manv districts are shy 
in producing whpat, and as this crop is seriously threatened by the 
new (to us) wheat insect, it becomes more a matter of solicitude to 
render our corn crops productive. But as this grain demands more 
labor in its culture than other grain crops, so it is more important 
on the score of profit, that it. should be well managed: for if thirty 
bushels an acre be considered only a remuneration for the labor be¬ 
stowed on the crop—all that the product falls short of this must 
be a loss—and all that it exceeds, a nett gain to the cultivator. 
The first consideration in regard to the corn crop, is to give it a 
dry mellow soil; the second, that this soil be rich, fat or fertile; 
and the third, that the seed be timely put in and the crop well tak¬ 
en care of. Neither wet grounds, nor stiff clays, nor poor grounds, 
will repay by their product, the labor required on a crop of corn. 
He who has no other lands but these, should not attempt to raise 
it as a field crop. He had bet'er bestow his labor upon other ob¬ 
jects, and buy his corn. We think the best preparation for corn is 
a clover lay, well covered with long manure from the barn-yard, 
well ploughed, and well harrowed. It is better to give sixty loads 
of dung to three acres than to ten, upon the ordinary lands of our 
neighborhood. The difference in product will not make up for the 
difference in labor. Corn can hardly be dunged too high. What 
we have to recommend, that is not common in the culture of this 
crop, is—that double the usual quantity of seed be applied—the 
number of plants to be reduced at the weeding—in order to ensure 
three or four stalks in each hill—that the roots be not broken, nor 
the manure thrown to the surface, by the plough, but that the har¬ 
row and cultivator be substituted for it, which will sufficiently 
mellow the surface and destroy weeds; and that the hills be but 
slightly earthed. By ploughing and hilling we conceive the ma¬ 
nure is wasted, the roots broken and brui-ed, and limited in their 
range for food, the crop more exposed to injury from drought, and 
the labor increased. 
If the fodder which the stalks and shucks afford is an object to 
the farmer, as they certainly will be when their advantages are 
appreciated, the securing these in good condition is a matter of 
importance. To effect this, as well as to secure the crop from the 
effects of early autumnal frosts, we recommend the practice we 
have long and satisfactorily followed, of cutting the crop at the 
ground as soon ns the corn is glazed, or the surface of the kernels 
has become hard, and of immediately setting it up in stooks to 
ripen and cure. This we have always been enabled to do early in 
September, and once in the last week in August. The quality of 
the grain is not impaired, nor the quantity, in our opinion, diminish¬ 
ed, by this mode of management, while the fodder is greatly in¬ 
creased, and its quality much improved. We refer the reader, for 
a corroboration of the correctness of our views upon this subject, 
to the article in to-day’s Cultivator, signed Agricola, which we 
copy from the Baltimore Farmer and Gardener. 
PRUNING FRUIT TRF.ES^ 
We deprecate the old practice of trimming fruit trees in autum, 
winter or spring. Vegetation being then dormant, the tree can 
make no speedy effort to cover the wounds inflicted by the knife 
and saw. These wounds, exposed to searching winds, and a scorch¬ 
ing sun, become diseases, and often bring on premature decay. 
Besides, an attentive observer must have noticed, that whenever 
pruning is performed in the spring, three shoots are offer thrown 
out where one has been cut away, so that the very evil which it is 
intended to remedy, a redundancy of useless spray, is increased 
rather than diminished. If pruning is performed in summer, after 
the first growth, say in the first fifteen days in July, or the last se¬ 
ven in June, the tree then abounds in elaborated sap, the wounds 
are speedily healed, and amply protected, by the foliage, from the 
malign influence of the sun and winds. We have remarked in suc¬ 
cessive years, and the fact is noticed by others, that when a tree is 
pruned in summer, there are very seldom any sprouts seen to 
shoot from the parts where the knife and saw have been employed. 
If the reader will try the experiment of summer pruning upon a 
few trees, we have little doubt he will agree with us, that it has 
a decided preference over that performed in any other season. 
The grand error of our farmers consists in not pruning at all, or on¬ 
ly at long intervals, when it becomes necessary to take out large 
limbs, and in doing this, the axe is too often employed, which 
mangles the trees so badly that they seldom fully recover from it. 
Pruning should be performed annually, while the limbs to be 
taken off, and the spray, are small. The operation is then tri¬ 
fling and safe, and the wounds speedily heal. We want no better 
evidence of a slovenly farmer, than to see his fruit trees so enveloped 
with succors as to render it doubtful which is the parent—a case 
which, bating a little fiction, is often witnessed by the traveller. 
ROOT CULTURE. 
Presents many advantages to the stock farmer. Roots are less 
exhausting to the soil than grain; they are admirably fitted to 
form a part of a course of crops; are very beneficial in pulverizing 
the soil; afford abundance of food for farm stock: mav be substi¬ 
tuted for grain; and serve to augment and improve the valuable 
product of the cattle yard. An acre of ground under good culture, 
will produce, on a fair average, twenty tons of Swedish turnips, 
mangel wurtzel, carrots, parsnips, or potatoes. Supposing a lean 
animal to consume one bushel a day, and a fattening animal two 
bushels, the produce of an acre will then subsist three lean bullocks 
110 days, nearly the period of our winter, and three fatting ones 
55 days. We merely assume these as reasonable data, and ask, 
if the result does not prove the profitableness of their culture. 
But we are not permitted to doubt upon this subject, if we credit 
the testimony of those who have tried them, and whose continuance 
■ n the cu'ture is the best proof of their value. Roots enter large¬ 
ly into the system of Flemish husbandry, which has been extolled 
as inferior to none other, and in many parts of Great Britian, tur¬ 
nips are considered the basis of profitable farming. In our country, 
root culture is winning its way to notice and to favor. Few who 
have managed it judiciously have been willing to relinquish it; 
while others are annually commencing it. The great obstacle^ to 
the more rapid extension of the culture among us, is the want of 
experience, the want of proper implements, as drill barrows, culti¬ 
vators, fee., and the labor of securing the crop in winter. The ap¬ 
parent magnitude of these obstacles is daily diminishing, and we 
shall ere long discover, that root crops may be cultivated, and se¬ 
cured for winter use, as easily as other farm crops. We have had 
very little experience in cultivating carrots, parsnips or mangel 
wurtzel as field crops; but the Swedish turnip has been a favorite 
crop for some years; and we can truly say, it has been one of the 
most sure and profitable that we have taken from our grounds. 
BARON VON VOGHT’S PATTERN FARM. 
We find in one of our recent foreign agricultural periodicals, the 
British Farmers’ Magazine, some account of the successful expe¬ 
riments in husbandry of this distinguished German, highly worthy 
of notice. We give an outline of his practice, under the persua¬ 
sion, that it will be found interesting and useful to the readers of 
the Cultivator. 
In 1313, the Baron undertook to improve the condition of an es¬ 
tate denominated Flottbeck, as a pattern farm, and to make it an 
experimental farm for the north of Germany. In 1829, he had 
carried his improvements to so high a state of excellence, that he 
published for the benefit of the visitors who thronged to see him, a 
pamphlet, developing the principles, by the adoption of which, his 
soil, naturally bad, had been raised to a state of high productive¬ 
ness. It is from a portion of this pamphlet, for we have not seen 
the whole of it, that we collate the following facts. 
The soil of Flottbeck is a mixture of sand and clay. Its origi¬ 
nal depth of krume (mould) was only 3 inches; the surface was 
uneven, and the soil wet, water standing for a long time, and ma¬ 
nure ineffectual on account of the consequent low temperature.— 
Fields could not be sown, owing to quagmires, often till June, 
