346 
age price being about $1. They are caught in large 
numbers from May till October, in schools varying from 
100 fish to 100,000, and are applied to the soil in vari¬ 
ous ways. Some persons, during the hurry of haying 
and harvesting, spread them on the surface of the 
ground, and allow them to dry up by the sun, a stench 
in the nostrils of every passer by. Others spread them 
year after year on their rye stubble, as long as they can 
get ter. or fifteen bushels of rye per acre, and until their I 
land is actually fished to death, and overrun with sorrel 
and noxious weeds. 
They are usually spread evenly over the surface of 
the ground, at the rate of about 10,000 to the acre, 
and plowed in in the course of twenty-four hours, it 
being less work than to compost them. But the best 
way in which they can be used, is to mix them inti¬ 
mately with muck and coalpit dirt, and let them remain 
over the winter, when they will be changed into a black 
inodorous mass, forming one of the richest and most va¬ 
luable composts known. Ten thousand of them com¬ 
posted in this way, at a cost of ten dollars, will pro¬ 
duce a rotation of crops without any other manure— 
say from one to two hundred bushels of potatoes, or 
fifty bushels of corn, thirty bushels of rye, and two or 
three crops of grass. This compost spread upon old 
grass lands, has a most surprising effect. A Young 
Farmer. Madison Conn., Sept. 22, 1848. 
Greenbush Premium Farm. 
The Rensselaer county Agricultural Society offer 
premiums for the best cultivated “farms in the several 
towns in the county. From the report of the doings of 
this society for the present year, we find that our friends 
Messrs. McCulloch & Kirtland, occupants and 
owners of the Cantonment Farm , Greenbush, have 
been the successful competitors for that town. Having 
on several occasions visited this farm, and witnessed its 
judicious management and its progress in improvement, 
we readily endorse the statement of the committee. 
1 he examination by the committee was made on the 
18th of September last. We give the following extract 
from their report: 
“ The farm is situated about one and a-half miles 
east of the lower ferry to the city of Albany; contains 
about 130 acres, all in cultivation, and is a part of the 
tract of land upon which the United States barracks 
were erected during the last war with Great Britain. 
It was purchased by Mr. McCulloch of the govern¬ 
ment in 1831, and was then in a deplorably neglected 
condition; a portion of it having been under the plow 
for many years in succession, by which it had become 
greatly impoverished; another portion was wet and 
marshy, producing only a scant and sour herbage, and 
the whole nearly overrun with bushes. Mr. McCul¬ 
loch immediately commenced a system of improvement 
and melioration by clearing, ditching, underdraining, 
and manuring; which, with a judicious rotation of crops, 
has been continued to the present time, and has result¬ 
ed in converting a tract of land, unsightly in appear¬ 
ance, and by many deemed nearly worthless, into one 
that will compare with any in the county for product¬ 
iveness and beauty. 
“ The face of this farm is partly undulating and part¬ 
ly nearly fiat; the soil of the former portion is a sandy 
loam, well adapted to a convertible system of husband¬ 
ry; that of the latter is a clay loam, with a close sub¬ 
soil, equally well adapted to meadow and grazing. 
“ The principal production of this farm is milk, 
which is carried to the Albany market. The present 
stock consists of 27 cows, 3 head of youngcattle, 4 hor¬ 
ses, and 10 swine. Mr. Kirtland informed your com¬ 
mittee, that the entire product of the 27 cows for the 
year ending with the date of the visit of your commit¬ 
tee, was 64,005 quarts by actual measurement, [being 
Nor, 
an average of about 62 quarts per day to each cow, 
the year round.] The stock of cows are in admirable 
keeping; several of them are fine specimens of the im¬ 
proved Durham breed and its crosses, and, taken to¬ 
gether, your committee have seldom if ever witnessed 
as fine a stock of cows as that upon this farm. 
u About 45 acres of the farm are in pasture, and 
about the same quantity in meadow, which it is estima- 
I ted will produce a surplus, after wieter-feeding the 
stock, of 25 tons of hay.” 
It is a practice with Messrs. McC. &. K., to plow 
their pasture and mowing grounds in August and sow 
them to rye and grass-seeds, the principal object being 
to renew the grass as soon as practicable. We are 
told that they have sown 12 acres in this way the pre¬ 
sent season. The usual yield of grain thus obtained is 
20 bushels per acre. 
As this is a grazing farm, the principal object is to 
keep the land in grass, and hence but a small portion 
is at any time appropriated to grain or roots. Of the 
cultivated crops for this year, there were 7% acres in 
barley, which was sowed 25th April, with two bushels 
of the two of the six-rowed variety to the acre, and 
ten pounds of clover and half a bushel of timothy seed 
to the acre. There were 2£ acres in oats; three acres 
in potatoes; and four acres in Indian corn—the latter 
after potatoes, which were planted upon sward without 
manure. The corn was manured with compost in the 
hill, and planted on the 16th of May. 
As the yield of these crops was only taken by esti¬ 
mation at the time they were examined by the commit¬ 
tee, we have applied to Mr. Kirtland for the result 
actually obtained; and he informs us that the barley 
turned 44^ bushels per acre—weighed 47£ pounds per 
bushel, and sold for 76 cents per bushel—being one cent 
per bushel above the market price; the oats gave 63 
bushels per acre, and the corn 75 bushels. The pota¬ 
toes suffered by the disease, and only gave about half a 
crop. 
Hoove in Cattle. 
Perhaps there is not a greater loss of cattle in this 
country, from any one cause, than from the complaint 
known as hoove or blown. It is a distention of the ru¬ 
men or paunch, by gas arising from vegetable substan¬ 
ces, which are eaten by the animal in greater quantity 
or with more rapidity than they can be digested. The 
distention causes great pressure on the lungs and 
heart, impeding their action, and from that cause, or 
rupture of the rumen, producing death. Green clover, 
if the animals have an opportunity of gorging them¬ 
selves with it when they are very hungry, is very likely 
to produce hoove, as it quickly ferments after being ta¬ 
ken into the stomach. Any kind of vegetation, if wet 
with dew or rain, and especially if it be in a frosty 
condition, frequently occasions this difficulty. Turneps, 
potatoes, apples, or pumpkins, if eaten in large quan¬ 
tities, sometimes produce the same effects. Some ani¬ 
mals seem constitutionally liable to hoove, probably 
from defective digestive organs. Choking, by some 
substance being fastened in the gullet, also produces 
the difficulty. 
As to remedies, many of our farmers never use any 
—the animal is often left to itself—if it recovers, the 
owner is satisfied; if it dies, he has the hide. Those 
who pretend to offer relief, sometimes give doses of 
beef-brine, lamp-oil, or soap suds, but more frequently 
plunge a small knife into the paunch. 
The writer has formerly had many animals affected 
with this complaint, and seldom failed to relieve them 
by administering alkalies; but care was always taken 
to give the medicine as soon as the necessity for it ap¬ 
peared. It was the general practice to give a large 
table-spoonful of pearl-ash or salseratus, dissolved ia 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
