H4 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
April, 
dent; for I have always heard that corn after buck¬ 
wheat would be a failure. Why it is so, is a fit ques¬ 
tion, it appears to me, for our agricultural chemists to 
settle. 
As to the yield per acre, I cannot say with accura¬ 
cy. I will hazard, however, this general statement, 
that the average number of bushels per acre is double 
the number of bushels of wheat per acre throughout 
the state. If this statement should be found to be cor- 
rect, then I see no reason why our land in this Heidel¬ 
berg region, is not worth as much per acre as any land 
in the state, the advantages to market only excepted. 
I must defer any further remarks until I get leisure, 
or until some of my townsmen, better qualified than 
myself, shall take it up. G. W. Durant Rensselaer- 
ville, Feb. 16, 1854. — 
Experiments with Guano, Superphosphates, &c. 
L. Tucker, Esq.. —I have read your journal from 
month to month, hoping that I should find some relia¬ 
ble facts in relation to the use of guano and phosphate 
of lime, but as yet the statements of different persons 
and journals are so conflicting as to leave me in the 
dark. My experience is as follows: 
Last spring I purchased a few bag3 of guano and 
fifty pounds of lime. Early in May I transplanted 
some cabbage plants and put lime in the hilL Having 
a little left in the field, I sowed it on the grass near 
by, and never saw nor heard more of it afterwards. 
My cabbages were eaten off by the worms, and that 
ground applied to other purposes. 
My corn ground was broken up the fall previous. 
In the spring forty loads of manure to the acre were 
spread and plowed in The guano was mixed with 
Plaster of Paris, one to two parts. My foreman was 
directed to put about one table spoonful in each hill, 
and cover two inches, and then plant the corn and cover 
the usual depth. 
Six rows were selected, and treated as follows: First, 
two tea spoonfuls of guano; second, two tea spoonfuls 
of phosphate; third, guano and Paris; fourth, ashes; 
fifth, Paris; sixth, nothing. That part of the field 
planted first came up well, and the rest badly. This I 
attributed to there being but very little rain after the 
last was planted, and the guano was not dissolved; 
consequently the corn was burned. Of the six rows, 
all but that which had the guano in, came up well; 
and those were replanted, and after which all were 
treated alike. 
Result. —The phosphate took the lead, and could be 
told a mile off, until it tasseled out, it being much 
larger and of a darker color than the rest. At harvest 
time each row was gathered separately. Result—No. 
1, 125 lbs.—No. 2, 120—No. 3, 108—No. 4, 100—No. 
5, 100—No. 6, 95. The phosphate was the dryest, and 
the worms had eaten the roots of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, 
badly. 
Another small piece was planted with no other ma¬ 
nure but a little phosphate in the hill, one row being 
left without any manure, which grew less vigorously, 
was of a poorer quality when gathered. 
On the eleven rows I put four quarts of phosphate 
and harvested about fifteen bushels of ears, while on 
the other row I only got on© bushel. 
Conclusions. —Either of these manures may be used 
with profit, for corn. The phosphate is the best for 
com, as it brings it forward early, but the guano is the 
most lasting, and more apt to burn the seed. 
In July a piece of mowing land was clipped and 
turned over and sowed with- buckwheat, with a light 
dressing of guano and Paris. A great crop was the 
result. 
Plaster of Paris. —Two years ago I bought twenty 
acres of land, which had been cleared ten years; a 
part had been seeded and the rest was full of brakes, 
brush, and wild grass. On this last part I sowed 1,500 
pounds of Paris. The cows did not trouble this part 
until the other had become very short, and then but 
little. In October I noticed that it was full of clover 
roots, except here and there a place where it had been 
passed over. Last spring the remainder was sowed in 
the same way, with a like result. During the summer 
the cows always fed the brushy part of the pasture 
first, that being full of white honeysuckle, while on the 
best part it was just putting forth its roots. 
This piece of land is on a steep side-hill and cannot 
be tilled. I want to manure it, but am at loss to know 
whether to use the guano or the phosphate. From my 
own observation I should be led to use the guano, but 
from others, the phosphate. Here it is almost sprin , 
and I am still undecided. Cannot some of your nu¬ 
merous readers come forward and help a poor doctor 
out of this quandary. Yours, L. W. Curtis. South- 
bridge, Mass., Feb. 8, 1854. 
V Cheap Cisterns. 
Mr. Tucker —Within three years I have built four 
cisterns. The first held 25 barrels, and of course was 
a small one, for it was only an experiment, and cost 
me six dollars. Two men came along, and offered to 
leave me a good durable cistern if I would show them 
the spot and pay them six dollars, and it should hold 
25 barrels. I showed them the place, and told them 
to go to work. They dug the hole larger at the top 
than bottom, and shaped somewhat like a stone crock, 
and plastered right on to the ground. It stood well, 
but the second winter was a tough one, and the cistern 
in rather an exposed place, and the water froze in it 
pretty hard. When the frost came out in the spring it 
caved in, and was lost entirely. 
The last one I built myself, to hold 70 barrels, and 
in a less exposed place. I dug it shaped like the other, 
and laid the bottom over with brick, laid in water lime 
cement, and plastered over the brick. The sides I 
plastered back of the brick as fast as I laid them, but 
did not plaster on the brick, and set the brick up and 
down so that no cement came to. the water but what 
was between the bricks and over the bottom. I thus 
laid one layer above another'until I came to the top of 
the hole; then laid four joists across, and sound oak 
plank upon them, leaving an eighteen inch square hole 
on one side, and inserted a curb—then banked up high 
with dirt around the curb and over the plank. 
Now, sir, let me know through your invaluable pa¬ 
per a better or more durable mode of building a cis¬ 
tern. James II. Mattison. Oberlin, Ohio. 
