1854 . 
i 
49 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
way to ascertain its value, is to try a few experiments 
on a moderate scale. 
Nearly the same remarks will apply to ashes, muck, 
and superphosphate of lime. Ashes, however, con¬ 
taining all the earthy parts of plants, are more gene¬ 
rally beneficial than earthy manures of more limited 
composition, but lacking ammonia they scarcely ever 
produce any striking effect. Muck is very useful on 
such soils as are not well supplied with vegetable mat¬ 
ter, but is of no value on those that are. Under favora¬ 
ble circumstances, which are best determined by exper¬ 
iment, superphosphate of lime produces very powerful 
effects, many times greater than any of the other ma¬ 
nures mentioned. Glauber salt has never been tried ex¬ 
tensively ; in a few instances it has been found bene¬ 
ficial, but far less so than most other fertilizers, and 
sometimes injurious. As a general rule , all these 
single fertilizers are more useful and more certain 
when mixed with common manure ; because plants 
have many wants , and no one substance alone can 
supply them ; but ordinary manure, consisting of sev¬ 
eral ingredients, and more especially ammonia, these 
substances act in concert and they assist each other. 
Poudrette and compost are complete manures in 
themselves, and of course their value must depend on 
the amount of peat, earth, &e., which enter into their 
composition. The best poudrette is several times 
stronger than ordinary compost, but the poudrette of 
commerce is greatly diversified in its composition, so 
that it is hard to say without actual trial or analysis, 
what its real value may be. 
We do not know where Woodbury’s drill can be had. 
Raising and Harvesting Timothy, <&c. 
Messrs. Editors —In your paper I often read 
questions such as these—best time to put in timothy, 
how to put it in, how much seed to the aere, when to 
cut it, and how to cure-—1st. Any time between the 
middle of September and the middle of October. I have 
raised good meadow by sowing the latter part of No¬ 
vember. 2d. I never sow less than half a bushel of 
seed to the aere. 3d. I eut when the blossom is about 
to fall. 4th. What grass is eut in the morning, I turn 
over after dinner, provided the weather is fine with 
plenty of sun; if not I let it lay until the next morn¬ 
ing or longer if the weather is not suitable. I will tell 
you bow I do, if tbe weather is good. The next morn¬ 
ing when the dew is off, I rake up into winrows that 
whieh was turned over the day before; after dinner I 
put i^nto cocks, say from 150 to 200 lbs in a cock; tbe 
next morning I Gpen them and after dinner I stack it, 
or haul it in the barn. 
I put in grass seed after oats or wheat ; never sow 
any thing with it, I .have found out to my own satisfac¬ 
tion, that it does better put in by itself. I sow no oth¬ 
er kind of seed but timothy, as it brings the best price 
here. I plow my ground but once, 6 to 7 inches deep; 
harrow it onee or twiee according as it needs it, sow my 
grass seed and roll it in. 
I should add that I generally eut a first rate crop of 
grass the first season after the seed is sown, from If to 
2 tons to the aere. I then let it lay 3 years and plow 
it up—-put the land in with what you please; I put in 
corn the first year, then oats, and then grass seed 
again. 
Farm Roller —How Made.— By the bye I will 
tell you how I made my roller. In the first place I take 
a piece of scantling, 4 x 4, 9 feet long—I use yellow 
pine—then I make 3 wheels 3 feet 2 inches in diameter 
out of 2 inch plank, two of them being doubled over on 
each end of the shaft I spoke of ahove, which shaft pro¬ 
trudes past the wheels at each end 3 inches—the 3 
inches made round and a band drove on—2 iron gud¬ 
geons made a foot long, square If iron, 2 inches made 
round for the frame to set on. The single wheel is put 
in the centre of the shaft. Through the wheels I make 
my mortices square. Now for the covering of the 
wheels. I take 2 inch stuff 4 inches wide, and nail it 
on strongly; then over each end I put a good heavy 
iron hoop, 2 inches wide. This is what I call a first- 
rate roller, 8 feet 6 inches long, 3 feet 6 inches in di¬ 
ameter. As for the frame, there is no use of me de- 
rscibing that, as no man should be a farmer that does 
not know how to make one. 
Boiling Feed for Animals. —I often read about 
grinding food for stock. I boil mine. I have a 50 
gallon kettle set in an arch in which I put my corn (in 
the ear) and boil it until it is soft, and the way my an¬ 
imals thrive on it and good timothy is a caution, and 
ought to make dry corn feeders blush. It is much bet¬ 
ter than feeding raw ground corn. Eight ears of this 
will do an animal more good than 12 unboiled. There 
is nothing better to make a cow give good rich milk. 
John L. Moore. Cottage Farm, Quincy, 111 ., 
Dec. 22,1853. —<3*— 
Apple-Tree Hedges. 
An esteemed correspondent at Bloomingburg fur¬ 
nishes us a sketch and description of a hedge, or rath¬ 
er a fence made by planting apple-trees two feet apart, 
and uniting the side branches, as we understand, with 
an operation like inarching, at a height of about three 
feet from the ground. The trees, being grafted, are 
intended for bearing fruit. Our correspondent thinks 
this fence, which he has now growing, will form a per¬ 
manent fence in a few years. If this plan should suc¬ 
ceed after a full trial, we should be glad to hear further 
from it; but our impression is that the unnatural po¬ 
sition, and thick growth of the trunks, will be unfavor¬ 
able to the health and thriftiness of the branches, as 
the trees grow older. For a simple screen, we would 
greatly prefer the privet or buckthorn, or arbor vitce or 
hemloek for an evergreen screen. For a real substan¬ 
tial hedge to exclude beasts and boys, we have from 
present knowledge, more confidence in the Osage or¬ 
ange than any other hedge-plant, for the middle, west¬ 
ern and northern states, except at the extreme north. 
grgpMr. W. T. Wallard, of Castine. Dark Co., 0., 
the last week purchased a very fine four year old Ayr¬ 
shire cow of E. P. Prentice, Esq., of Mount Hope, 
near this city. 
