1853 . 
THE CULTIVATOR 
before the stock from day to day, and the stock none 
the better for it, when the other quality would not only 
be “eat up clean, but they would lick the spot where' 
it had lain.” 
I have now given you some information a? to our 
manner of farming in these Helderburgh mountains. 
Some farther improvements suggest themselves, which 
I have not mentioned. It frequently happens that wet 
or cold patches are found sometimes lower than the 
surrounding surface. These patches are so wet as to 
be unfit to till when the rest of the land is ready, and 
if tilled when wet, produce nothing. When they are 
not caused by springs, my method is to excavate them 
when dry to the depth of about three feet with plow 
and scraper, sufficiently wide to drive in with an ox¬ 
cart. All the small stones are then collected that we 
can lay hands on, and dumped into this excavation, 
until filled within a foot or foot 'and a half of the sur¬ 
face. The soil hauled out, is then hauled back again. 
The result is that the water settles down amongst these 
stones, and leaves the surface of the ground dry as 
soon or before the rest of the field is; and I will add, 
you would be astonished to witness the growth in grain 
or grass around these places thus underdrained. In 
case of springs, I dig a trench some three feet deep 
and cart in all the small stones and cover it up as be¬ 
fore—this answers a double purpose ; it rids the land 
of small stones that are unfit for walls, and furnishes a 
permanent drain. The stones should first be covered 
with inverted sods, straw, weeds, or some other sub¬ 
stance, to prevent the dirt settling down in the crevices 
and thus obstructing the water. A drain that I laid 
some six or seven years ago, does as well now as ever. 
The standing objection to all these improvements is 
that they cost too much. I reply, we may estimate the 
price of land here at about $25 per acre. Now, by 
laying out, say $15 or $20 on the acre, it will then be 
less in price than land in western New-York, and I 
cannot see why it is not equally as good, the difference 
in advantages to market excepted. Our plank roads 
to Albany, New-Baltimore, Coeymans and Coxsackie, 
when completed, will bring us within less than half 
the distance we now are from those several towns. 
But more of this when I call your attention to the 
raising of buckwheat, the great staple of this county, 
and I may say of the western towns particularly. 
I must now.close this sheet and apologize to you for 
these fragmentary remarks—these “crumbs” that 
seemed to fall from my last. Wishing you much suc¬ 
cess in your enterprise on this “ new year,” I remain, 
as ever, very respectfully yours, G. W. Durant. 
RensselaerviUe , Jan. 10, 1854. 
Experiments with Super-phosphate of Lime. 
Messrs. Editors — I am going to inflict upon you 
some of my notions and experiments. First, were you 
aware that your bump of cautiousness was pretty large 7 
In the course of my reading last winter, I became 
mightily tickled with the name of “ Super-phosphate of 
lime,” and the wonderful properties it was said to pos¬ 
sess, and looked carefully over each number of tho 
Cultivator for your opinion; but you, I suppose, was 
pleased to keep that to yourself, though repeatedly in¬ 
quired of. Well, I went to Lowell, six miles, and there 
not being any on hand, ordered a bag of that made by 
“Professor Mapes”—went again and brought home 
my bag, being told by the dealer that the directions for 
using it were within the bag ; but upon examining, no 
directions were to be found; but I made another dis¬ 
covery, viz., that the bag was marked “ Deburg, Cliff- 
street, N. Y., Longett & Griffing.” Well, being left in 
the dark, I went on to experiment as follow’s: 
May 21st, planted corn, and put one large spoonful 
of the phosphate in each hill of eleven rows, in all 
about 850 hills, leaving spaces between without the 
stuff. 
On the 23d, on summer squashes and cucumbers in 
alternate hills, 2 spoonfuls—on pole beans, alternate 
rows, one spoonful in a hill, and on beets, carrots, pep¬ 
pers and cabbage seed, in drill, alternate rows. 
On the 24th, 18 lbs. with twice its bulk of moist earth, 
sowed on 30 square rods of wheat, at the rate of £ lb. 
per square rod. On the same day, same quantity 
sowed on strips of oats. On the 1st of June, put on 
beans after the first hoeing, one row in four, 8 spoon¬ 
fuls in the hill—one of two rows of early corn, one of 
three rows of potatoes, all the same. On one of three 
rows of peas, and on three hills of cucumbers, three in¬ 
ches high, so as to cover The ground one-eighth of 
an inch thick. 
After having done as above, I watched for the re¬ 
sult, and behold, what 7 Nothing, nothing—all moon¬ 
shine, with the very slight exception of the beets, car¬ 
rots and peas, in the first period of .their growth. On 
all the rest, its operation was perfectly invisible 
throughout the season. 
My soil is a granite soil, yellow loam, with some 
cobblestones. Now wherein did I fail 7 Who can, or 
who will tell 7 The dealers in, and makers / of, these 
manures, as they term them, accuse us poor farmers of 
being shy of buying their stuff'. I for one own the soft 
impeachment, now more than ever, for I have not 
$5,00 to throw away every day, nor am I remarkably 
fond of being totally disappointed. 
A correspondent of yours in the Dec. No., put no 
more phosphate on his hills of corn than I did on mine, 
yet he says he had a large increase from its use. I 
think his was of the same make as mine. Now if the 
information can be had, I should like to know why I 
failed and he succeeded 7 Luther Butterfield. 
We have certainly been chary in recommending the 
general use of superphosphate of lime, for the reason 
that we are as yet w^houh* sufficient accurate ex¬ 
periments to show on what crops and upon what soils 
it may be profitably used. It is well worth while for 
farmers, whenever they can without too much expense, 
to test the value of such fertilizers; but no one can 
safely recommend them for general use without better 
data than has yet been presented to the public. 
