THE CULTIVATOR. 
163 
E say nothing of the labor, as we have drawn our living From the farm. 
1 remain your friend, &c. SAMUEL T. VARY. 
Dr. J. P. Beekman. 
Pittsford, Monroe Co. Jan. 9 th, 1836. 
Mr. Bcel —Dear Sir—Being unwilling to hide my light under a bush¬ 
el, however humble it may be, when thousands of others are shining so 
bright around me, illuminating my path and rendering my labors more 
easy, more productive, and more pleasant, I have taken the liberty of for¬ 
warding for your disposal, an account of my past season’s agricultural la¬ 
bors, so far as they are connected with the cultivation of the corn, the 
carrot and the rata baga crops. 
Under the influence of a strong disposition to innovate upon old theo¬ 
ries and practices, and to mark out a new and untrodden path, where 
there appears to be room for improvement; with no reverence for usages 
whose merits are founded upon mere antiquity, I have commenced the 
agricultural life, prepared to think and to act for myself. With such a 
disposition, and knowing, as every man of reflection must know, that there 
is a great degree of ignorance on agricultural science in our country, you 
may well imagine that I see many things among our hard working and 
well deserving farmers, that most emphatically require a thorough and ra¬ 
dical change—that there is a vast amount of labor, of hard, back-aching 
labor, which from improper application, produces not its suitable reward— 
and that there are many acres of fine productive soil, which by improper 
management are not made to yield a return of simple interest upon theircost. 
I will acquaint you with my experiment upon the cultivation of a field 
of corn, of three and one-third acres. The land was of the kind here de¬ 
nominated the oak timbered land; a strong, loam soil, with a clay bottom. 
It had been three years down, after wheat, without seeding, and had been 
previously worked pretty close. In May, I carted on about thirty loads of 
rotted manure upon two acres of the poorest part of the land, and the rest 
was without manure. I then ploughed it very carefully, being particular 
to turn the sward all under. I then dragged it twice with the harrow 
across the furrows, and then with a hand-marker having seven trails, I 
marked out for the rows, three feet six inches one way, by one foot nine 
inches the other. The ground by this time had, owing to the drought, 
become very dry. It was now the I9th of May; I intended to have plant¬ 
ed by the 12th, by which I should have avoided the bad effects of the drought. 
I soaked my corn, and rolled it in plaster; it was of the twelve rowed 
kind; I put from five to eight kernels in a hill, and covered with moist 
earth. The corn came up unevenly, some not till three or four weeks 
after planting. On the 2d June, I put on thirty-five bushels per acre of 
leached ashes. On the 11th, ploughed out the corn with the cultivator, 
and hoed, throwing a little fresh earth around each hill, first thinning it 
out to four of the best spears in each hill. It came forward now very fast. 
On the 23d, went through the second time with the cultivator, but owing 
to a press of other business, did not hoe it. July 2d, used the cultivator 
the third time, and hoed the second, throwing a little fresh earth in each 
hill. This was all the labor bestowed in the tillage of the corn; it now 
presented a most healthy and thriving appearance, and almost completely 
shaded the ground. At this period my neighbors began to prophecy the 
result of my experiment, and with no very flattering terms. Without a 
single exception, they told me I would have but little corn, and that that 
little would be poor, as it grew too thick, and was too much shaded. 
With this array of prophetic judgment, from old and young, against me, 
I almost began to doubt the wisdom of my experiment, and to repent 
having wandered from the footsteps of my fathers. Some advised me to 
cut out every other row, but as I had begun the experiment, I thought it 
proper to carry it through. The corn grew rapidly, grew strong, and 
maintained its healthy colour. On the 3d of October, after an unusually 
cold and unfavorable season, with frost every month, and one particu¬ 
larly on the fourth of August which materially injured the corn crop, and 
one on the 16th September, which put a stop to its growth, I cut up my 
corn by the roots and stouted it off the field, and left it till the 10th of 
November, when I completed the husking, and stored into my grainery 
three hundred and twenty-two bushels of ears of good corn, besides sixty 
of soft or pig corn; being at the rate of about fifty bushels of corn per 
acre. Besides the corn, I had double the usual quantity of stalks, which 
in this season of scarcity, I have found very valuable. 
I will now inform you of the carrot crop. Early in the spring I carted 
eight loads of long manure on to one-eighth of an acre of tolerable rich 
bottom land, deep and loose, and ploughed it under; and on the 12th of 
May put the seed in the ground by hand, in drills fourteen inches apart. 
The seed did not come up well, there being frequent vacancies of from 
one to ten feet in length. In the course of the season the carrots were 
hoed twice and wed three times by hand. On the 29th October I harvest¬ 
ed the crop, which turned out two hundred and ten bushels of carrots, at 
the rate of 1680 bushels per acre. The whole cost of tillage and harvest¬ 
ing was $14, including interest on land at $50 per acre; the value of crop 
at two shillings per bushel, $52.50, from which deducting cost, leaves a 
balance of $38.50 nett gain from one-eighth of an acre. I have no doubt 
that had the seed come up uniformly over the field, I should have had 250 
bushels, which would have been 2000 bushels per acre. 
Adjoining the carrot field, and of the same kind of land, and prepared 
in the same way, 1 had one-tenth of an acre devoted to the culture of the 
ruta baga. The ground was made perfectly level, and on the 26th June 
the seed was sown in drills from eighteen to twenty inches apart, and 
came up well, as the weather was very favorable. On the first hoeing 
they were thinned to twelve inches apart They were hoed but twice; 
and on the 12th November I harvested one hundred and twenty-two 
bushels; being at the rate of 1,220 bushels per acre. Value of crop at 
eighteen pence per bushel, $22.87; tillage and harvesting, $6.25, leaving 
a balance of $16.62 nett gain from one-tenth of an acre. 
With regard to the carrots, they were not thinned, but left to grow as 
they came from the seed; but the looseness of the soil allowed them to 
spread, and they grew to a very great size; some measuring 17J inches 
ia circumference, by 30 inches in length, weighing lbs. The largest 
turnip measured 25 inches in circumference, and weighed lllbs; very 
few weighing less than 5 and 6. 
I would respectfully solicit the attention of your correspondent, Thos. 
Midford, to the account of Ruta Baga culture, as exhibiting the result of 
the level system, which he considers the least enlightened and the least 
productive. Respectfully yours, 
EDWARD MILLER. 
Canaan Centre, Dec. 18 th, 1835. 
Sir— I have been much interested with the perusal of what has been 
published in the Cultivator, as to the best breeds of sheep, and as my 
views are different from some of your correspondents, I will, with your 
permission, submit some of them to the consideration of those interested, 
through the medium of your paper. I refer to the interest taken to pro¬ 
cure heavy fleeced merinos, and I believe the moving cause was the pub¬ 
lication on Pauluar merinos, representing them beyond their fair value. 
Connected with that, is the fault of running too much to short staple 
Saxony; making the fleeces too light for our climate with the care ordina¬ 
rily bestowed on flocks; or not making the care equal to their wants. The 
unprecedented loss of lambs last spring, had also a tendency to increase 
the excitement, and has been charged principally to the feeble constitu¬ 
tions of the Saxons; not making allowance for the severe drought the sea¬ 
son before, which prevented the growth of after feed, and necessarily im¬ 
poverished all flocks on farms fully stocked; nor for a winter unusually 
cold and long; nor for a stormy backward spring; nor for the scarcity of 
hay; all of which tended to facilitate the loss of Iambs, and discourage 
many who had just commenced with improved Saxony bucks. But I said 
that heavy merinos had been represented to be better than they really are, 
which I believe to be the case, in the estimate value of their wool, though 
I have known it sold for sixty cents per pound; still that does not alter the 
intrinsic value of the article. The sale of different lots of wool to differ¬ 
ent purchasers, is no criterion whereby to judge of the value of such lots; 
as some purchasers may not be judges, or may pay higher for wool of the 
same quality. 
As far as I have been acquainted with the sales of Pauluar merino wool, 
they have been made to speculators, as manufacturers acquainted with the 
article will not buy it except at reduced prices; and for the simple reason 
that it wastes very much in cleansing, and to that fact I can attest from 
experience, having had bucks after being washed, shear 7J lbs. which in 
cleansing would be reduced to 4 lbs; but as the speculator sells in large 
quantities, he probably passes it off without loss; still some one is cheat¬ 
ed, and the article remains the same, subject to waste and harshness from 
cleansing. If we were always to have a market as good as at present, 
and speculators as plenty, the controversy would be at an end; but if not, 
it is the interest of the wool grower to produce an article that will suit the 
manufacturer, and will stand competition. It is acknowledged by all that 
Pauluar merinos are much coarser than Saxons, and I believe the differ¬ 
ence in fineness to be twenty-five per cent, which is the difference in the 
estimated prices heretofore made in the Cultivator; and the difference in 
weight in favor of merinos is made to over balance the Saxony in value. 
It is likewise acknowledged that merinos have a far greater proportion of 
yolk; the question then arises, what does that difference in weight con¬ 
sist of? a considerable part ot it must be yolk, and of course is lost in 
cleansing; leaving in my opinion not more than 3^ lbs. to a 4 lb, merino 
fleece. This will materially alter the estimate heretofore made. The 
above is, I believe, allowing less difference than any well informed ma¬ 
nufacturer would make. The fact that Pauluar merinos have long since 
been discarded, and are bred in their native country only on plains, where 
better breeds will not flourish, and which is probably the cause of their 
wool being so greasy, should be a sufficient reason to induce wool growers 
to pause, before they adopt them as the most profitable, as it is undenia¬ 
ble, that after speculation subsides, intrinsic worth must be the standard 
of valuation. 
As wool growing may well be termed a science, and as it is in its in¬ 
fancy in this country, and will require many years to bring it to any de¬ 
gree of perfection, I believe a middle course between the short staple 
Saxons and the heavy merinos may be pursued to manifest advantage; 
and my opinion is founded on practice. I would recommend crossing 
long staple Saxony bucks on Escurial merinos, thereby retaining in a 
