180 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
June 
least their pastures are kept too close fed. Mr. Ju¬ 
lian, of Greene, though he keeps a hundred head of 
cattle, may be an exception; and I should like to 
have his mode of operation in print, as I believe he 
tills but very little, but manures very highly from the 
village, as well as husbands all his home manure. 
Although I am not in favor of top-dressing, as prac¬ 
ticed in our town, to the neglect of plowed crops, yet 
when I see a man manure his oat-field, I think he had 
better have top-dressed his meadows. But I have al¬ 
ready exceeded the limits of a letter. One thought 
more and I am done. 
When we see old pasture fields with a large propor¬ 
tion grown over with mossy knolls, or meadows, where 
the grass seems run out, and barren spots appear, and 
the general appearance of the grass is thin, who will 
not be reminded that they must be torn up, a crop or 
two succeed, and again seeded down; and who will re¬ 
fuse to see that heavy seeding is the best ? If all can 
not be immediately done, manure, lime, ashes, or plas¬ 
ter, must be applied. G. I). Phillips. Coventry, 
N. Y. —*— 
Culture of the Ruta Baga. 
Eds. Cult., and Co. Gent. —I have been a subscri¬ 
ber and a constant reader of The Cultivator , since 
1838, have them all bound, making a book some two 
feet deep; and if I wish any information in relation to 
agriculture, disease of animals, or anything else of in¬ 
terest to the farmer, I go to that library; also if I wish 
to see the time and degree ol the rage of any mania , 
—whether Multicaulis, Bohan Potatoe, China Tree 
Corn, or Poultry, so large as to be in danger of 
eating up the children thinking them grasshoppers, I 
find it all there ; and I trust you will excuse me when 
I say that I have often threatened, but never previous 
to this time have written a word for the Cultivator. 
I will tell you my method of raising ruta baga :— 
Plow sward land early in September or late in May, 
(late fall or early spring plowing is death to Becket 
lands.) If the soil is weak, cart on before plowing, 
twelve or fifteen loads manure; green will do, and 
plow in. Plow but once—that leaves the sod inverted. 
Spread on about May 25th, about twenty ox-cart loads 
of manure—if a little rotted the better—harrow tho¬ 
roughly. Spread on to the acre some 100 bushels coal 
dust or leached ashes—if the ashes are unleach¬ 
ed 25 bushels will do. Let them be spread just before 
or just after sowing. Sow the seed from first to fourth 
June. I sow with Emery's seed planter, the rows 
two feet apart, and then the leaves will cover the 
ground. Sow bountifully; then you will not have to 
transplant. Run cultivator between the rows, weed and 
thin, as soon as the leaves of the Bagas are the size of 
a cent, thin from six to twelve inches apart, and do all 
the thinning the first time of hoeing, or you will not 
get a crop. Cultivate and hoe as often after as the 
weeds show themselvos. 
When the crop is grown, say middle of October, turn 
in your calves or sheep, and let them eat off the leaves; 
when yon wish to gather, take a sharp hoe, strike the 
stems and tops off; clap the hoe against the side of the 
baga and rack it out of the ground. Take your cart, 
after they have lain a few hours to dry, drive along 
side, pick' up one in each hand, rap the two together 
to take off the dirt, and throw them into the cart as you 
would pumpkins. Be sure and watch the weather, and 
not let them lie in the ground after it begins to freeze; 
if you do they will heat in the cellar and smell bad 
Mine never have yet unless frost bitten. 
Follow the above directions, and if as successful as 
myself, your bagas will cost you from four to seven 
cents per bushel in the cellar. If you raise turneps 
feed them out before February, as they grow corky. 
Ruta bagas will keep well till June, and are worth 
more than cost to feed to stock with us. There is no bet¬ 
ter root for sheep. Yours very truly, C. C. Perkins. 
Becket, Berkshire Co. Mass., April 20. 1854. 
Saving of Labor in Sowing Plaster. 
I sow plaster out of a wagon, and it is such an ex¬ 
peditious and labor saving, pain saving method, that 
I would urge the practice upon every farmer who has 
occasion to spread this very cheap and efficacious fer¬ 
tilizer upon his meadows, pastures or grain fields. And 
this is the way I do it: 
I place a quantity, say six to ten bushels of plaster 
in barrels or boxes in the fore part of a wagon—a one 
horse lumber wagon is the kind I use. Provided with 
a shovel and a half barrel, (a common wash tub will 
answer just as well,) and a boy or man to drive, we re¬ 
pair to the field to be dressed. The half barrel is 
filled and placed at the hind end, the end board re¬ 
moved, and seated upon a board laid across the box, 
with my back to the horse, I am ready to begin. The 
horse is started upon a moderate walk, and I distribute 
the plaster upon the track of my wagon for a breadth 
of 16 to 20 feet. A little experience will enable any 
one to do this perfectly. The plaster is distributed 
more evenly, and with half the usual fatigue. At the 
end of the field, your driver turns back along the side 
of the land previously dressed. When the half barrel 
is exhausted, stop and replenish. I sowed nearly half 
a ton on six acres of clover, last spring, in less than 
an hour—in less time than six men could have perform¬ 
ed the same labor, and without inhaling half as much 
of the dust as any one of the six would necessarily do. 
I sow with either hand, as the other becomes fatigued, 
throwing the material high in air, and letting it fall in 
a cloud, rather than in lumps as happens in a greater 
degree where the operator is sowing from a pail. The 
conditions required by this method are merely a sur¬ 
face moderately level and smooth. Upon such ground, 
I should never think of sowing plaster in any other 
way than from a wagon. 
Clover, Potatoes, &c.—The clover, in clay soils, 
was drawn by the frost last winter, to an extent I never 
before witnessed. The Canada Thistle appears to have 
suffered in the same way—proving the old adage, that 
there can be no great loss without some small gain. 
A very general destruction of potatoes in the hole, or 
heap, has taken place throughout the county. The 
usual amount of covering was entirely insufficient to 
protect them from freezing. Where the gain that at¬ 
tends this loss is to be found, I am not able to say—un¬ 
less it be in the increased price to those who kept their 
potatoes in their cellars. They are very scarce, and 
bring six shillings a bushel by the wagon load, in our 
streets. In fact the supply of seed for planting must 
be very short. Y. W. S Syracuse. 
