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147 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
not mould or sustain injury in the field ; but it is due to truth to 
say, that it required much watchfulness and care to prevent moul¬ 
diness after it was husked—-constant stirring 1 and exposure,—and 
that we were obliged to uncrib a quantity, and to spread it, to save 
it from being injured. We think that com dries and ripens better 
in stooks, than in any other situation, even than when topped and 
left in the hill. In the later case it is receiving a constant acces¬ 
sion of sap from the roots, which, for want of leaves to elaborate 
it, instead of being beneficial to the grain, serves but to bring on 
fermentation, as was stated by our Coxsackie correspodent, in 
the last Cultivator. The experience of the year seems to admo¬ 
nish us,—1. to fit our corn grounds tor early planting, by freeing 
them from excess of moisture, by underdraining, or by ridging, 
where the surface is flat, or the subsoil tenacious. 2. To plant as 
early as the temperature of the season will admit. And 3. To se¬ 
lect the earliest kind of corn for our crop. We have heretofore 
recommended a 12 rowed yellow variety, which we termed Dutton 
corn, and so far as we have learnt, this has ripened well where it 
it was planted in ordinary season, and was not destroyed by the 
grub. The growth is rather dwarfish, but it will the better bear 
to be planted close ] the product is abundant, and the grain hard, 
heavy and bright. Much of our seed has been sent, during the 
two last years, to New-Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. We 
should be gratified to learn the result of its culture in those states 
as well as in New-York. On the whole, we do not think the corn 
crop has been half of an ordinary yield. 
Barley , which ranks next in importance to the preceding in the 
husbandry of many of our counties, has been a good, we think bet¬ 
ter than an ordinary, crop. On lands which will not carry wheat, and 
which are neither very light nor very stiff, this is a profitable crop. 
It gives nearly the same yield as oats, while it sells for nearly 
double in the market ; and it is a question of some doubt, consi¬ 
dering its superior nutritive properties, whether it cannot be as 
profitably raised for horse feed. In many of the eastern countries 
it is extensively cultivated exclusively for this purpose. The cul¬ 
ture of this grain is extending in our state. Barley, for malting, 
should be threshed with a flail, as the machine, with the awn, of¬ 
ten takes off the germinated part, which injures it for malting. 
Rye is the bread corn of Germany and Russia, and the natural 
bread corn of many parts of the U. States, for we are disposed to 
adopt, in this case, the opinion of St. Pierre, that every country 
produces what is most congenial to the wants, and conductive to 
the health, of its population. One great difficulty is in reconcil¬ 
ing this axiom with the actual condition of our bretheren in some 
parts of New-England. Wheat they cannot grow,—of corn they 
grow but a modicum—and rye, they will insist their soil is inca¬ 
pable of producing. Whether this latter difficulty arises from ac¬ 
tual sterility in the soil, from the absence in it of the peculiar pa¬ 
bulum of this grain, or from the difficulty of tilling the ground, 
we do not pretend to say ; but the fact will not readily be erased 
from our memory that in passing from Worcester in Massachusetts, 
to Enfield in Connecticut, in October, a distance, we believe, of 
40 or 50 miles, we did not notice a soilitary fieid of rye or wheat. 
The puzzle is, what, according to St. Pierre’s theory, constitutes 
the natural food of the population ? But, to leave this question 
unsolved, the crop of rye has been good, and the grain heavy. 
According to Yon Thaer, this grain abstracts 30 parts in one hun¬ 
dred of the nutriment contained in the soil where it is grown. It 
is less exhausting than other small grains, and is ranked next to 
wheat in its nutritious properties. It contains a substance, in the 
opinion of Thaer, which facilitates digestion, and has an action 
particularly refreshing and fortifying on the animal frame. 
Oats have been unprecedenedtly fine. The cold season has been 
propitious to this crop. A large amount was sown, and both straw 
and grain were heavy. In many cases the crop was not secured 
till late in September. 
Potatoes have, like oats, been favored by a cool summer ; and 
where not cut down by the frost, before they were ripe, the crop 
has been a very large one. The scarcity of cattle forage and corn, 
however, will cause heavy requisitions to be made upon the oats 
and potatoes, to make up the deficiency, and present prices of 
these articles are likely therefore to be sustained and increased. 
Mangel Wurzel and Rut a Raga. The culture of these roots, 
as field crops, has been greatly extended, and as far as we can 
learn, with very encouraging success. We are yet hardly well 
enough versed in the management of these crops, and the labor 
saving machines which should be used in their culture, to enable 
us fully to appreciate the advantages they are capable of affording 
to our husbandry. 
Hops have made but a very light return for the labor bestowed 
in their culture. The crop was light in New-York, and the quali¬ 
ty generally inferior, on account of their not having matured well 
before the arrival of the autumnal frosts. 
The dairy has been a source of handsome profit, on account of 
the high prices which butter and cheese have sustained in the mar¬ 
ket. This branch of husbandry is being considerably extended 
among us. It probably affords as sure a profit as any other depart¬ 
ment of husbandry. The gains may not be the greatest, but they 
are obtained at the least risk and expense. 
Butcher’s Meat, though rather scarce and high in the early part 
of the season, has been abundant and cheap towards the close of 
the year. The apprehension of a scarcity of fodder, has led to the 
slaughter of a vast number of neat cattle and sheep ; and induces 
an apprehension that both will be high the current year. Pork has 
been rather light, but the article has sustained a very liberal price. 
BONE MANURE. 
From our restricted limits, we are often compelled to give, in a 
condensed form, articles which we should prefer to copy entire. 
The Farmers’ Register contains a communication from A. Nicoll, 
on the effect of bone manure on corn. He induced his servants, 
by a small reward, to gather bones in his neighborhood, and to 
break them in a wooden trough with pestles shod with iron, into 
small pieces. He selected four rows in his corn-field, deposited a 
small quantity of broken bones in each hill, before dropping the 
corn, and covered both with earth. The corn in these rows be¬ 
came the most thrifty, maintained a vigorous and rapid growth, 
while on each side, the crop suffered from drought, the grain ri 
pened better than that in the other parts of the field, exceeded in 
product that manured with dung at least one-third, and more than 
doubled that of the land which had received no manure. 
We have had considerable experience with this species of ma¬ 
nure, appreciate it highly, and have been restrained from recom¬ 
mending its use, from a fear that we should be charged with 
quackery —from the scarcity of the material, and from the want of 
mills among us to break and pulverize it. The neighborhoods of 
cities and towns alone abound with the material in sufficient quan¬ 
tities to make it an object for the farmer. In 1834, we purchased 
60 cart-loads, from an individual who collected bones from the 
butchers to fatten hogs, and collect grease for the soap boiler. 
We had them crushed in a plaster mill, and applied to various crops, 
upon a light sand soil. In most cases, they were applied in ex¬ 
cess ; and the crops became too luxuriant and lodged. It is ex¬ 
tremely difficult for common laborers to appreciate their fertiliz¬ 
ing properties, and to apply them as sparingly as they ought. An 
incipent state of fermentation should be induced, when they are 
intended to operate immediately upon the crop. We effect this 
by mixing them in a pile, with ashes, and saturating the mass 
slightly with water. A fermentation soon ensues, when they may 
be strewn upon the ground, and buried either with the harrow or 
a shallow furrow. The quantity applied should never exceed forty 
bushels per acre, and may range from that to twenty-five. We 
applied them in one instance in the fall, without fermentation.— 
The crop received no apparent benefit from them ; but the second 
crop, although the ground was not manured, was treble or quadru¬ 
ple the ordinary product afforded by the same field. We esti¬ 
mate that their beneficial influence will not be exhausted under 
five or six years. It is stated by English husbandmen, that bone 
manure produces no effect upon stiff clays—we have not tried the 
experiment—and that it profits the turnip crop most, when drilled 
in with the seed. 
The truth is, all animal matters are manure in a concentrated 
form, and should be applied sparingly. We have lately publish¬ 
ed two notices of remarkable fertility induced by the flocks, or 
tag-locks, and sweepings from woollen factories. We have used, 
to the extent of fifteen wagon loads in a season, the piths of cat¬ 
tle’s horns, after being divested of the homy part by the comb- 
maker, and we have used some hundred bushels in a season of 
comb-maker’s shavings. We apply the latter at the rate of about 
thirty bushels to the acre. We first cut the former upon a block, 
with an old axe, into pieces, then strew them upon the land and 
plough them under. These are years in decomposing. 
