1853 . 
TflE CULTIVATOR. 
239 
of every one who hears me, would help you in the 
matter of dollars and cents. It would lead you 
to economise in the quantity of soil you cultivate . 
You now spread your labor and your manure over 
too much surface. The average produce of corn 
per acre in the state is not over forty bushels. 
The experiments of educated farmers in Massachu¬ 
setts and in other IS’ew-England states, have de¬ 
monstrated that a hundred bushels and more can 
just as well be grown upon the same acre. Pre¬ 
miums upon tins crop, in almost all the counties 
of Massachusetts, have been awarded, varying 
from ninety to one hundred and forty-five bushels 
shelled corn to the acre. It takes more labor and 
more manure, but a bushel of corn is produced, 
at least twenty-five per cent, cheaper, by tho¬ 
rough culture than by the common process. So 
of all other crops. They can be grown much 
oheaper on a little land than on a greater surface. 
The educated farmer would see this and practice 
upon it. Almost every farmer could sell half of 
his land and get rich faster on the remaining half. 
He would also economise, by a thorough me¬ 
chanical preparation of the soil. Most men own 
a second farm, beneath their present surface which 
has never been disturbed by the plow. Indeed, 
the shallow surface plowing, has only served to 
harden and consolidate the subsoil. There are 
more or less of the elements of crops in this sub¬ 
soil originally, and some of the salts of the ma¬ 
nures, with which the surface has been dressed 
for ages, have found their way down into this 
“terra incognita.” The roots of crops cannot 
penetrate thither, to get hold of this aliment, and 
it remains worthless, like undiscovered gold in the 
mine. There is more wealth of this kind in the 
subsoil of our farms, than in all the gold of Cali¬ 
fornia. 
The educated farmer will put his sub-soil plow 
into this mine of wealth, and give the roots of 
plants a chance to draw up its treasures, and 
wave them in the golden harvests. And the re¬ 
sult ot this mechanical disturbing of the soil, will 
not only give new pasture ground for the roots of 
plants, but will put the soil itself, in a better condi¬ 
tion to foster vegetation. The soil is loosened, 
and the air circulates freely, to the depth to 
which it has been disturbed. The air circulates 
there, charged with more or less of moisture, and 
moisture is also drawn up by capillary attraction 
from the earth beneath, so that the evils of a 
summer drouth are in a great measure guarded 
against. So also the excessive rains of spring, 
and the summer showers, do not flood the crops 
and destroy them. A more abundant harvest is 
secured, and larger returns to the farmer’s pocket. 
The educated farmer, will increase the depth 
of his acres, just as he reduces their breadth and 
grow rich by the operation. 
The New-York Jgricultor says that in the 
lower part of Dutchess county, serious ravages 
are being committed upon the forest trees by a 
bug. The inserts strip the tree of all its foliage, 
and leave nothing but the naked limbs. They 
appear to move in straight lines, as they can be 
tracked through a grove. They eat through a 
narrow strip, leaving the trees on each side un¬ 
touched. Their noise resembles the buzzing of a 
swarm of bees. 
Apples for Milch Cows.- 
We have long been satisfied that one of the best 
and most profitable crops which any land owner 
could raise, is sweet apples for milch cows. Late 
in autumn all cows shrink very much in the quan¬ 
tity of milk they afford, more especially as soon as 
the sharp night frosts destroy the succulence of the 
pastures. It is at this period that moderate feed¬ 
ings of sweet apples, say six quarts given morning 
and evening, have restored the quantity of milk and 
increased its richness 5 and a great advantage has 
resulted where a supply could, be had for feeding 
through winter. An unfavorable opinion of ap¬ 
ples, as a food for cows, has sometimes arisen from 
the furious over-feeding of half-starved animals, 
which have accidentally broken into orchards, and 
brought on disease, fever, and consequent drying 
of the milk by immoderate gorging,—a reason for 
renouncing such food, would as well apply to the 
exclusion of .oats from horses and cold water from 
men, because they are sometimes injured by an 
excess. 
Amid the profusion of tree-planting of late 
years, we are surprised to see so few orchards set 
out for feeding domestic animals, by a selection of 
some particular varieties especially adapted to this 
very purpose. Wc want a different sort from 
those ordinarily selected for table use, which are 
admired for their pleasant and delicate flavor; 
while a stock-feeding apple should be in the first 
place a free grower and most abundant bearer; 
next, of firm and rather dry texture, and of rich 
but not delicate flavor. If dry and firm, they are 
more easily gathered without bruising, more easily 
kept from freezing, and contain more substantial 
uutriment than light, juicy, tender sorts. And 
as a general ritle, such apples are the best keep¬ 
ers,—take, for example, the firm and dry Eng¬ 
lish and Roxbury Russets, and the Black Gilli- 
flower, the latter of which has been already proved 
a good sort for spring feeding, and would be still 
better if perfectly sweet. The present is likely to 
be one of. the most abundant fruit seasons ever 
known; and we believe - that a more acceptable 
service could not be rendered by pomologists to 
the enlightened agricultural public, than a tho¬ 
rough examination among the innumerable native 
apples, fora pre-eminently productive sort, adapt¬ 
ed to stock-feeding. Would it not be well wor¬ 
thy the attention of a state agricultural society, 
to offer liberal premiums for the best, second, and 
third new variety that should be presented for 
this purpose, the decision to be founded on a bushel 
placed before the awarding committee, accom¬ 
panied with statementSj-'properly authenticat¬ 
ed, of the size and age of the tree, treatment, pre¬ 
sent crop, and former character for bearing ? We 
should like to see something of this kind attempt¬ 
ed, instead of perpetually repeating the same old 
premiums on what has been well known for a 
quarter or half a century, all through the land. 
It is the cheapness of the apple crop, when thus 
raised under the most favorable circumstances, 
that strongly commends it to the attention of 
stock-raisers. A very prolific sort will bear five 
times the quantity of the ordinary average of 
table apples; and forty such on an acre of land 
might be easily made to average ten bushels each 
annually. The Rhode Island Greening, in West¬ 
ern New-York, has in repeated instances, in a sin¬ 
gle neighborhood, yielded forty bushels per tree; 
and in New-England the Baldwin has yielded over 
