1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
337 
for the three acres being about one-third more than 
A.’s one acre, plowing and harrowing two-thirds, draw¬ 
ing manure about equal. B. harvests 50 bushels per 
acre, making 150 bushels. He gets a good crop of oats, 
not so large as to fall-and spoil, say a yield of 40 bush¬ 
els per aere, making 120 bushels. He obtains two and 
one-half tons of hay per acre, of good Quality, making 
seven and one-half tons. B. gets round and takes up 
his 33 acres once in ten year. 
Now, at is for the intelligent reader to judge whether 
Mr. A.’s or B.’s system is the best calculated to promote 
the interest of the farmer. We find that on many farms, 
fields want taking up and manuring as often as once in 
six, eight, or ten years, in order to secure a fair crop. 
I believe in manuring well, and cultivating well. Ex¬ 
perience has shown me that 30 to 33 loads (ox cart, 35 
bushes) of manure per acre, with good culture, will 
produce a yield of 50 to 60 bushels of corn, even on the 
hill tops of Connecticut. I think there is a gradual in¬ 
crease in the average yield of corn per acre in Ct., and 
that it will continue to increase I doubt not. I have 
often thought that the farmer that occupies the cold, 
rocky lands, far back in the country, away from mar¬ 
kets and the advantage of obtaining manure from large 
towns or cities, who has increased his average yield of 
com per acre from 30 to 50 bushels, is as much entitled 
to commendation or premium as the one that occupies 
the rich alluvial soil, for which nature has done all 
things, and who has in addition the advantage of ob¬ 
taining from cities the means of enriching his land, and 
produces his 80 or 100 bushels. Samuel F. West. 
ColumbiaConn ., Sept. 1, 1853. 
High Culture and Good Management. 
The farm of Sir John Conroy, near Reading, Eng¬ 
land, comprises 270 acres, all an one huge field, the only 
fence being the one that separates it from its neighbors. 
All the intervening hedges were removed by the present 
owner, when he came into possession, seven years ago, 
and the land was drained four feet deep, at distances 
varying from fifteen to thirty feet, which we should call 
very thorough work. It was then trenehed with the 
spade to a depth of twenty-two inches. The whole cost 
of these improvements amounted to £3,000, or nearly 
$15,000—something over $50 an aere. In this country 
subsoil and trench plows would much cheapen the 
trenching. Most of the subsoil appears to have been 
a sort of hard-pan gravel. As a proof of the necessity 
of draining, drains from some forty acres of the driest 
of the farm, lead out at a low place where water is"seed 
running at the driest part of the year. 
Prominent among the farm machinery, is a beautiful 
steam engine of ten horse power, which drives a very 
complete threshing machine, with two fanning mills 
attached, barley pummeler, &e. It also drives an oil 
cake crusher, turnep cutter, grain bruiser, and every¬ 
thing required in preparing food for srock. A passage 
in the building leads directly from the preparing room 
to the horses’ heads for feeding them. Their food con¬ 
sists, for each for 24 hours, of eight pounds of cut hay 
and ten pounds of cut straw, five pounds of oats, and 
one pound of bean meal, moistened with one pound of 
bruised linseed, steeped forty-eight hours in fifteen pints 
of cold water. The oxen are fed on similar food, but 
less stimulating, the oats being replaced with plenty of 
turneps, and with a portion of oil cake. Large herds of 
oxen, sheep and swine are purchased'and fattened every 
year, the stables and buildings being supplied in every 
part by means of pipes with an abundance of water. 
Nothing but one horse carts are used on the farm. The 
wheat yields from twenty to forty-eight bushels per 
aere. The grain staeks are to be built on trucks on a 
railway, so as to be run up to the thrashing machine as 
fast as wanted, a practice already adopted on some of 
the best English farms. 
Timber for Posts. 
The best timber for posts, in the order of durability, 
is red cedar, yellow locust, arbor vitas, (or white cedar 
of some places,) white oak and chestnut. Charring 
posts of the more perishable sorts to render them du¬ 
rable, is of little use ; for the charred portions are made 
brittle, and the only part of the post possessing strength, 
is the interior, whieh is as liable to the changes of 
dryness and moisture as ever, through the porosity of 
the charcoal. Salting posts—by boring a hole oblique¬ 
ly downwards at the surface of the earth, and plugging 
in salt, is far more effectual. Cases are known in this 
country, of red cedar posts nearly a hundred years old, 
perfectly sound. —o— 
Cutting and Steaming Fodder. 
I would ask for information from you, or some of 
your correspondents, as to the profits to be derived from 
cutting and steaming hay, and other coarse fodder for 
cattle. J keep a dairy of forty cows, and would like 
to winter them with cut and steamed feed, if it would 
pay labor and other expenses. I would also be obliged 
if you would give in the Cultivator as soon as conve¬ 
nient, the best kind of steam apparatus in use. I 
would like to fix my steaming apparatus some four 
rods from my barn, and carry the steam pipe in a box 
under ground to my barn, if it could be done without 
having the steam condense. W. A. Mayborne. May- 
ville , Chautauque co., August , 1853. 
Several experiments have been made on the saving 
effected by the use of chopped hay and straw, but few 
of them have been conducted with much accuracy. 
The general belief of those who have given the prac¬ 
tice a thorough trial, is that a saving of about one 
third of the amount used is effected by the use of the 
straw cutter, partly by assisting mastication, and con¬ 
sequently effecting a more thorough digestion, and 
partly by admitting the mixture with hay of chopped 
straw, a cheaper article. We are not aware that any 
accurate experiments have ever been performed in this 
country, on the specific benefits of steaming fodder. A 
few who have tried it, have been favorably impressed 
with its advantages. We are unable to furnish a de¬ 
scription of the best steaming apparatus. Will some 
of our correspondents who have had experience, do us 
the favor to furnish one ? There would be no difficulty 
in conveying the steam to some distance, and probably 
the best way would be to use a bright metallic pipe, 
(as sheet tin,) enclosed in a board box, and surrounded 
