164 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
great measure the fineness of the Saxony, and improving the weight of 
fleece sufficiently to stand our winters with ordinary care. Such a course 
may be pursued, so as to obtain a flock two-thirds ewes and one-third 
lambs, that will yield an average of three pounds per head, and will bring 
within three or four cents in a pound as much as light fleeced Saxons. 
Such an article will in my opinion, when the value of the two are fairly 
tested, bring fifty cents a fleece more than an average of Pauluar merinos; 
besides being a fine good article, not subject to waste, or unsaleable when 
the market is well supplied. 
If instead of advancing in the science, we retrograde, we shall never 
accomplish what all would desire, an improvement. If we reject the ex¬ 
perience and practice of other countries, where wool growing has arrived 
to a great degree of- perfection, and has been an important business for 
ages, we shall, when too late, I fear, deprecate our folly. 
Yours respectfully, DANIEL S. CURTIS. 
Judge Buel —Sir—Seeing the result of some experiments of yours 
in the last Cultivator, we feel that we are not alone in failures. We are 
in the habit of adopting some new plan of agriculture almost every year: 
endeavoring always to improve our land and at the same time to increase 
our crops. In some instances I think we have been successful; in others 
the result of experiments remains to be proved. We wish at this time 
merely to state the exact product of a small piece of land of ours, lying 
near Connecticut river, containing one acre and five-eighths; the expense 
of raising, value of the crop, &c. 
The land in question, we planted last year with Indian corn, sugar beet, 
and ruta baga; manured with about twenty loads of dung to the acre, and 
ploughed it under. The corn, (a little more than an acre) produced ICO 
bushels of ears. The sugar beet was a middling crop; and the ruta baga 
was almost an entire failure, owing probably to too early sowing and green 
manure. 
Last spring we ploughed the ground a3 soon as it was dry enough; mix¬ 
ed one bushel of tea wheat with two bushels of oats for the whole piece, 
sowed it dry, I think, (though we commonly soak and roll it in lime,) 
harrowed well, then sowed 15 lbs. cloverseed and rolled with a heavy rol¬ 
ler. The crop grew full five feet high, and before harvest, was almost en¬ 
tirely blown dowrn with high winds, so that we were obliged to pick it up 
with sickles. Last week we threshed with a machine, and cleaned 98J 
bushels of excellent grain. This will sell readily at 84 cents per bushel, 
which amounts to $82.74. 
The expense of the crop, including threshing, was by accurate estima¬ 
tion $22.00, leaving for clear profit $60.74, besides the straw, which 
would probably sell for twelve or fifteen dollars. 
We have never raised so heavy a crop of spring grain before, and attri¬ 
bute this in some measure to the roller, having never made use of one 
till this year. In October, when the clover was fully grown, we plough¬ 
ed it under; which with the stubble, we think will be sufficient manure for 
a good crop of corn next year. 
If the above statements are of any value, they are at your service, 
. T. P. HUNTINGTON, 
Hadley, Mass, Lee. 28, 1835. T. G. HUNTINGTON. 
Hyde Park, Jan. 16, 1836. 
J. Buel, Esq.— Dear Sir —On the 1st of Jan. last, I communicated 
to you the result of my experiment on fattening hogs with apple pomace, 
&c. As 1 am confident your agricultural publication (the Cultivator) is 
weil calculated to promote and improve the agriculturist, and being anxi¬ 
ous that the cultivators of this productive soil may be found with the front 
ranks of improvement, I am willing to contribute my feeble help for its 
promotion, and forward you the result of my experience in fattening hogs 
this season with the same sort of material, apple pomace. On the 10th 
of Oct. I shut up to fatten, for E. Holbrook, Esq. Hyde Park, 20 swine, 
viz. 10 about fifteen months old, two China hogs, a boar and a sow, and 
eight shoats pigged in the beginning of June last. The whole, when shut 
up, were only in middling store order, in consequence of the scarcity of 
feed the cows producing very little wash from the dairy, and the scanty 
crop of apples we experienced this season, and given them nothing during 
summer but a small orchard containing one and an half acres of land, (with 
the premature apples which fell) in which is a pond of water, that is very 
essential to hogs, to which, under the powerful influence of the sun, they 
will resort for their comforts. The above were divided into three lots and 
closely confined; we proceeded to fatten them by steaming 4 bushels of 
small potatoes, 12 bushels of apple pomace, 4 bushels of pumpkins, and 
1 cwt! of buckwheat cornel, adding a little salt; the whole incorporated 
well together while hot from the steamer with a wooden pounder, and al¬ 
lowing fermentation to take place before feeding it away, (without the aid 
of the dairy wash which was given to the store pigs, &c.) supplying them 
with plenty of charcoal and pure water. On feeding the first steamer of 
the compound, I perceived more than ordinary moisture on their litter, 
which was occasioned by urine; my knowledge of animat nature convinc¬ 
ed me that more than an ordinary flow would weaken the system and re¬ 
tard the progress of fattening. I attributed this cause to the steamed 
pumpkins acting as a diuretic, stimulating the kidneys and increasing the 
evacuation of urine. In the next.steamer I substituted 4 bushels of ruta 
baga for the pumpkins, which had the desired effect. This experiment 
has convinced me that this mixture affords a greater mass of nutritive ma¬ 
terial prepared for the action of the stomach, and producing pork more 
rapidly than any combination of food I ever made use of. Using up all 
our pomace, and having a greater quantity of soft corn than usual, we 
commenced giving it to the hogs, but instead of improving their condition, 
they fell off, and we were under the necessity of procuring two loads of 
apple pomace from our neighbors, and commenced steaming and feeding 
again with the same good effect, until eight days before they were killed, 
during which latter period they were fed with sound corn, and slaughtered 
on the 1st of Dec. The expense of fattening, and the product of pork 
are as follows:— 
Dr. 
32 bush, of small potatoes, at 2s,... $S 00 
32 bush, ruta baga, including pumpkins, at 2s,... 8 00 
10 bush, soft corn, at 4s,.. 5 00 
10 cwt. buckwheat, at $1 cwt.,. 10 00 
20 bush, sound corn, at 6s, 6d,.••••... 16 25 
Cr. $47 25 
By 40 cwt, pork, at $7* per cwt.. 300 00 
Deduct expense,. 47 25 
Balance, $252 75 
Yours with respect, THOS. MIDFORD. 
IVatervliet, Lee. 28th, 1835. 
Friend Buel —Noticing in the December No. of the Cultivator some 
queries and answers respecting the Yellow Locust, I have concluded to 
place the following facts at your disposal. About 28 years ago I first sow¬ 
ed yellow locust seeds for a gentlemen with w’hom I wrought in the town 
of Claverack, Columbia county. Seventeen years ago I sowed the same 
kind of seed on the farm on which I now live. On both occasions, the 
seed was sown about the time of planting corn, I think, but not lo sow 
before the ground is warm. The most thrifty of those sown where I now 
live, were transplanted the next spring after sowing, and the rest in the 
course of the three following years. They were planted on the east and 
west sides of a field, close to the fence. Some were planted 2 feet apart, 
some 4 and some 7. They have suffered much from the borer; where 
planted closest, some were entirely destroyed by the worm. Three years 
since, those planted on the east, being the last planted, were cut down 
and used for posts. They made from 2 to 4 posts a piece. Those now- 
standing will make from 3 to 8 posts a piece. My method of preparing 
the seed was the following:—Cover the seed with boiling hot ley, made 
by putting a few ashes into the water while heating. Let it remain in the 
ley one minute, then pour the seed and ley into a cullender and instantly 
throw on to it a pail full of cold water. Roll in plaster, and sow in drills. 
Not one seed in a hundred fails to germinate. In rich soils, some of them 
will rise 3 or 4 feet the fiist year. The three thorn locust is much slower 
in its growth, but wholly exempt from the depredations of the borer. I 
have had one tree of the three thorn growing in my garden 12 years. 
The ground has been ploughed every year, yet I have never seen a sprout. 
Can you, or any of your correspondents, tell whether the timber be as 
valuable as the yellow locust? There is a very thrifty growth of sprouts 
where the yellow locusts were cut down for posts. 
Yours respectfully, A WATERVLIET FARMER. 
Note by the Conductor .—The three thorned locust is a Gleditschia, a genus 
of plants resembling the locust only in its foliage. It does not afford good tim¬ 
ber, nor send up sprouts from its roots. 
THE PLASTER REGION OF THE WEST. 
It is a subject of much importance to ascertain the extent or probable 
productiveness of the quarries of Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris, which 
are found in various parts of western New-York. Those who may pos¬ 
sess more geographical or geological information in relation to this mineral, 
would confer a favor and a benefit by communicating its localities, both in 
this state and elsewhere in the United States. Already in this section of 
the state its value as manure is highly appreciated, and its use becoming 
very general. Its consumption, however, is increasing so rapidly, that it 
becomes a question of some magnitude to the agricultural part of the com¬ 
munity, what is the extent of the supply on which we may calculate for 
the future of this mineral. Some few remarks on this subject I now pro¬ 
pose making, which I hope may elicit some more valuable communication 
from others. Quarries of plaster, or sulphate of lime, are to be found in 
various parts of the state west of Utica. In Madison and Onondaga coun¬ 
ties, the stone is of a light grey colour. In these counties there are many 
plaster mills. My information from these counties is imperfect, but I 
should suppose that exclusive of what is sent to the east in the stone, and 
sent to Canada, (probably 10,000 tons,) the consumptionin those counties 
for home purposes, cannot fall short of 7,000 tons per annum. In Cayuga 
county there are extensive quarries, from which, I am informed, not less 
than 15,000 tons per annum are dug, much of which is sent to Penusyl- 
