46 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
which are heavy. Early sowing is generally recommended; and, in 
fact, the finest samples of every kind of grain are thus usually pro¬ 
duced. We do not specify any particular time, nor quantity of seed, 
because the time will depend on season and climate, and the proper 
quantity of seed upon these and other contingencies. It is usual to 
sow much less seed of all grains in the United States than it is in 
Great Britain. Our soils are generally inferior in artificial fertility, 
while, from the warmer temperature, in summer, of our climate, the 
grain tillers better here than there. It is well to sow barley at least 
some ten or fourteen days before we plant Indian corn. When clo¬ 
ver and grass seeds are to be sown upon barley, it is considered best 
to let the barley plants first grow above the ground, and then har¬ 
row in the grass seeds with a very light wooden-toothed harrow, and 
follow with the roller. 
OATS, 
Are a northern grain, particularly adapted to high latitudes and 
elevated or cold locations. In these they make a better return, and 
the grain is heavier, than in warmer climates, and in more genial 
soils. ' Oat soils are identical with rye soils, neither requiring carbo¬ 
nate of lime, or much clay—though, in regard to moisture, the rye 
wants a dryer soil than the oat. Oats are grown upon almost all kinds 
of soil, but make the best return on fresh land and reclaimed moory 
or swampy soils, and, like every other crop, will repay care and la¬ 
bor. This grain is indigenous to the north. There are many vari¬ 
eties of this grain, of which may be named the common, the Poland, 
the Dutch, the potato, the Hopetown, the Tartarian, &c. The com¬ 
mon kind is the most generally grown, and is the most certain in its 
product upon poor expended soils. The Poland and Dutch oats have 
severally had their day in Scotland, and both have been somewhat 
circumscribed by the potato oat, and these again by the Hopetown 
and other new varieties. The skinless oats are highly commended 
in Ireland. In this country they have not been sufficiently tried to 
judge of their relative profits. 
Soil and culture. —Oats, like rye, are seldom sown upon land 
which will make a good return in a more valuable crop ; and yet in 
many districts they form the most certain and profitable crop. They 
do well upon land broken up from rough pasture, as they flourish be¬ 
fore the sod is decomposed, or the soil is brought into a fit state for 
finer crops ; and are hence often advantageously grown upon a grass 
ley to precede wheat, in which case long manure may be applied to 
the oats with great advantage. This is almost the only case in 
which two crops of small grain may be made to succeed each other 
with advantage. The practice of seeding down with oats is object¬ 
ed to, on account of the oats shading the ground so much, and be¬ 
ing apt to smother the young clover. The Poland and potato varie¬ 
ties require rich ground; and the Tartarian, the black and the red, 
are best adapted to mountainous districts and late climates. It is 
thought advantageous to procure seed from inferior ground. Early 
sown oats are found almost invariably to produce the largest quan¬ 
tity of grain ; late sown of straw. They require more moisture in 
the ground than any other kind of com ; and it is important to have 
the grain formed before the commencement of the parching droughts 
of summer. The average produce upon medium soils throughout 
Great Britain, is estimated at thirty-two bushels per acre, of the ave¬ 
rage weight of forty-two pounds the bushel. 
“ In the mealing ‘process, the oats, after being previously dried on a 
kiln, are made to pass through the mill stones, to divest them of their 
coarser husks before being ground. The kernels are then named 
‘grits’ or ‘groats;” and are next ground over again into a coarse 
rough meal, varying in fineness according to the custom of different 
districts. This is afterwards baked upon a heated iron into thin flat 
cakes, or made up with water, usually boiled into a thick consis¬ 
tence, and is eaten either with skimmed milk, butter, molasses or ale. 
It is thus very generally used as the common breakfast and supper 
of the greater portion of the peasantry of the northern parts of Eng¬ 
land, Scotland and Ireland, and forms a very nutritive and healthy 
food.” 
“ The indications of ripeness, in all sorts of grain are few and sim¬ 
ple. When the straw exhibits a bright golden colour from the bot¬ 
tom of the stem nearly to the ear; or, when the ear begins to bend 
gently, the corn may be cut. But—as the whole crop will not be 
equally ripe at the same time—if, on walking through the field, and 
selecting the greenest heads, the kernels can be separated from the 
chaff when rubbed through the hands, it is a sure sign that the grain 
is then out of the milky state, and may be reaped with safety ; for 
although the straw may be green to some distance downwards from 
the ear, yet if it be quite yellow from the bottom upwards, the grain 
then wants no further nourishment from the earth, and, if properly 
harvested, will not then shrink. These tokens will be found to in¬ 
dicate sufficiently the ripeness of wheat, barley and oats ; but that 
of rye arises from the straw losing some of its golden hue, and be¬ 
coming pale.”— Br. Hush. 
FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO 
A society was instituted in this state, “/or the promotion of Agri¬ 
culture, Arts and Manufactures .” Among its most active members 
were Chancellor Livingston, Simeon De Witt, Ezra L’Hommedieu, 
and others, distinguished as statesmen and patriots. This society 
continued its labors till 1804, when it became merged in the “ Soci¬ 
ety for the promotion of the useful arts and at a more recent period, 
this again was merged in the “ Albany Institute .” During the ex¬ 
istence of the first society, five volumes of its transactions were 
published, we believe at the expense of the state. These publica¬ 
tions, together with the active exertions of the members, gave an 
impulse to improvement in some of the older counties, which has 
now placed them at the head of American husbandry. These vo¬ 
lumes contain much of interest and instruction. We propose to ab¬ 
stract from them, occasionally, such matters as we deem most im¬ 
portant, and best fitted to forward the work of rural improvement. 
The first anniversary address was delivered before the society, in 
January, 1792, by Dr. S. L. Mitchill. It admonishes the farmer to 
beware of exhausting the fertility of the soil by injudicious cropping; 
“ The time will come, and indeed in many places now is, when the 
land repeatedly wounded by the ploughshare, and exhausted of its 
richness, shall be too weak, of itself, to make plants grow with their 
former luxuriance.” The prediction has been woefully verified in 
many places. Let the new counties profit from the lesson. The 
address happily illustrates the excellence of good tillage, by the fol¬ 
lowing story from dolumella:—“ Gracinus, in his book concerning 
vines, relates that he had often heard his father tell of a certain Pa- 
j ridius, who had two daughters, and a farm planted with vines. Of 
this farm he gave one third part, as a marriage portion, to the man 
who wedded his eldest daughter, and notwithstanding, received as 
much produce as before, from the two-thirds which he reserved to 
himself. Afterwards, on the marriage of the younger daughter, he 
gave away half the remaining land, and found his income in no re¬ 
spect diminished. What concludes he from this 7 But that the 
third part of the farm was at length better cultivated than the whole 
used to be before.” How many have we now a days, who, like Pa- 
ridius, might do better by tilling a third than they now do by tilling 
the whole of their farms. All admit the error of the practice of 
tilling loo much land, and yet few seem to profit by their own con¬ 
victions. The address recommends attention to the saving of ma¬ 
nures, though it avoids the then vexed question of “ What is the 
food of plants V’ It recommends attention to the manufacture of 
maple sugar, to the propagation of the locust, (robineapseudacaciaf) 
and the white mulberry, and the culture of potatoes and hops. It 
states, on the authority of Sir Joseph Banks, that the Hessian fly is 
neither known in England or in Germany. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH GYPSUM. _ 
We find next in order an interesting communication from Chan¬ 
cellor Livingston, who, we believe, was the first to introduce the 
use among us, of gypsum, detailing a great number of experiments 
which he had made in 1789 and subsequent years, with this fossil 
manure, and also with carbonate of lime, in the form of ground 
oyster shells and pulverized lime-stonq—and stating the results of 
these experiments. The applications were generally from five to 
seven bushels the acre. The applications now a days are generally 
limited to one or two bushels per acre. The Chancellor’s experi¬ 
ments go to confirm the opinions we have long entertained, that 
gypsum is not beneficial upon all soils, nor to all crops. After stat¬ 
ing the experiments and their results, the Chancellor draws the fol¬ 
lowing inferences: 
“ 1. That gypsum, in small quantities, has no visible effect on wheat 
or rye. 
“ 2. That it is uniformly beneficial to Indian corn, unless it be in 
very rich or very wet soils. 
“3. That it is beneficial to flax on dry poor sandy lands. 
« 4. That it is peculiarly adapted to the growth of clover in all dry 
soils, or even in wet soils in a dry season. 
“5. That limestone pulverized has similar effects with gypsum ; 
whether it is better adapted to wet soils, I cannot yet determine. 
