1854. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
147 
Culture of Millet. 
Ma. L. Tucker —Would you, or any of your sub¬ 
scribers, be so kind, by mail or through the columns of 
The Cultivator , as to give me some information rela¬ 
tive to the culture of Millet—1. Where the seed can 
be obtained, and the prioe—2. How much seed to sow 
per acre—3. What soil is best adapted for it 4. What 
time best to sow. and, 5 —What stage best to cut for 
hay? And any other information you or any of your 
subscribers may be in possession of, and oblige James 
Wallace. Victory , N. Y. 
We hope some of our readers, who have cultivated 
Millet, will answer the above. In the mean time, we 
will state that it is said to do best on light soils, but of 
sufficient strength to bear good oats, and which should 
be in fine tilth. It may be sown for hay from the first 
of May till the middle of June, or even as late as the 
first of July, at the rate of three to five pecks per 
acre. It should be cut as soon as the seeds in the up¬ 
per parts of the heads begin to harden. It will pro¬ 
duce two to three tons of hay per acre—sometimes 
more, and it is said cattle prefer it to the best clover 
hay. It stands the drouth well, and is particularly 
valuable to sow in dry seasons when the hay crop is 
light, as it will produce a good crop of fodder when 
sown the last of June or first of July. The seed can 
be obtained of Wm. Thorburn, Seedsman, Albany, at 
about $2 per bushel. o— 
Restoring Worn Lands. 
Editors of the Co. Gent, and Cultivator—I 
wish to make some inquiries through the medium of 
your papers respecting the best-means of restoring and 
sustaining the fertility of exhausted lands—the appli¬ 
cation of ashes, plaster, &c. 
There are many farms in this vicinity, some portions 
of which are what is commonly called old field, being 
at so great a distance from the center of the farm, or 
of such a character that they cannot be manured to 
good advantage in the usual manner of hoed crops, 
and have therefore been sown to rye in many cases, so 
often that the crop will hardly pay for the labor. My 
practice for some years past has been to sow clover 
seed in the chaff on rye in the spring, with much suc¬ 
cess; yet the application of ashes or plaster would 
probably make the grass more luxuriant. 
I wish to know if, in your opinion, ashes alone would 
benefit the grain as much as the straw and clover crop; 
if not, would gypsum do it, and will two bushels of the 
latter and thirty of the farmer mixed, be a good ratio ? 
I should like your theory or experience in regard to 
the proper and best use of these ingredients, also their 
effect singly and combined. 
If we can by some such application benefit our grain 
crops, and obtain also a good crop of clover to plow in, 
or feed off when it is well grown, would the land be 
impoverished if three or four years intervened between 
each grain crop'? 
Cannot hand be brought to a given degree of fertili¬ 
ty sooner by turning under green crops of clover in 
succession, as fast as they can be grown without any 
regard to the immediate profit of such a course, as the 
soil would lose but little, and gain much from the at¬ 
mosphere ? A Subscriber. Vernon , Ct., Feb., 1854. 
It sometimes happens that ashes and lime are of 
great benefit to old worn-out lands, and produce extra¬ 
ordinary results for a time, or until the fertility is re¬ 
stored by auxiliary manuring. But in what localities 
this beneficial result may be produced, can be detei'- 
mined only by experience—theorizing has done much 
more harm than good in these matters; slip-shod, care¬ 
less experiments have not been much better ; careful, 
accurate, closely measured trials, are alone reliable, 
and even they require many repetitions and modifica¬ 
tions to become of general applicability. We would 
advise our correspondent to measure off a few quarter- 
acres, and try the experiments he proposes, weighing 
or measuring the results, side by side with those on 
untreated lands. 
One of the best and cheapest modes of manuring is 
plowing in green crops of clover, and the process may 
be repeated until the soil is fully supplied with vege¬ 
table matter. A succession of two or three plowed 
crops, followed by a year or two of clover with a heavy 
growth plowed in, will generally increase the fertility 
of the land. A shorter term of cropping, with a simi¬ 
lar practice’in other respects, and an occasional intro¬ 
duction of two or three years of pasturing, is still bet- 
Guano for Corn. 
Please let me know the best method of using guano 
for planting corn. Will not plaster be of service to it? 
E. K. A. Tom’s Creek , N. C. 
Mr. Moore, a good farmer in this vicinity, whose 
soil is a sandy loam, informs us that he has used gua¬ 
no successfully on corn, applied in the hill and sown 
broadcast. He uses it mixed with plaster—2 parts 
plaster and three of guano—well pulverised and mixed 
on the barn-floor. When applied in the hill, a talble- 
spoonful is dropped in the drill, and covered about two 
inches with soil before dropping the seed. In this way, 
it takes about 150 lbs. to the acre. When used broad¬ 
cast, he applies 250 lbs. per acre, mixed with plaster 
as above—spreads it on the ground after plowing, and 
then cross plows about six inches deep. This is un¬ 
doubtedly the safest way of using it. 
Advertised Manures. 
I have a piece of land that I wish to sow with oats 
and grass seed this spring. The soil is thin and cold. 
I wish to buy manure enough to insure both crops, and 
be of lasting benefit to the land. Will you have the 
kindness to inform me through The Cultivator which 
of the advertised fertilizers would be the most advan¬ 
tageous to me ? Likewise for corn land, same as above ? 
and oblige a Young Farmer of Dutchess. 
The most certain manures for all purposes, are the 
different varieties of yard manure, and the composts 
manufactured from them. Poudrette, provided it is 
honestly manufactured, has all the advantages of those 
composts, combined with greater strength—but we can¬ 
not inform our correspondent, from our own personal 
practice and knowledge, of its relative value as com¬ 
pared to yard manure, in connexion with its price. 
Next to these in certainty of effect is guano, but as 
commonly applied, it is not regarded as lasting more 
than one or two seasons. If used as a component part 
of composts which contain a large proportion of loam 
and turf, it would doubtless make a more durable fer¬ 
tilizer Superphosphate of lime, and all other special 
manures, (that is, such as consist of one or two ingre¬ 
dients only,) are very uncertain in their results, as we 
