14 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
MILLET. 
A correspondent in Monroe county inquires of us relative to the culture, 
product and use of millet, as a field crop. 
Since our wheat crop is likely to be seriously diminished by the grain- 
worm, and the Indian corn crop is almost annually curtailed by autumnal 
frosts, the culture of millet may become a matter of interest; for although 
it is not adapted to household use, or but partially, the seed affords a good 
substitute for coarse grain to pigs and poultry, and its straw yields a tole¬ 
rable fodder for farm stock. 
Culture _This plant will grow upon any soil of tolerable richness, 
though it does best on a loam. The ground should be prepared as for or¬ 
dinary crops. The seed may be sown broad-cast, and covered with the 
harrow. If sown early, the crop may be gathered in August, though if 
sown any time before the 25th June, it will come to maturity. If seed 
is the object; four quarts of seed to the acre will be enough; but if in¬ 
tended principally for cattle feed, the quantity of seed may be increased 
to eight quarts. It grows to the height of from two to six feet, according 
to the quality of the soil. Birds are fond of the seed, and devour it as 
soon as it begins to ripen. The crop should be therefore cut before the 
whole has matured, and while the straw is green. It may be cut with a 
sickle, scythe or cradle, and should be housed as soon as it is sufficiently 
dry. 
Product. —The product will be according to the soil, and will vary from 
ten to thirty bushels of seed, and from one to three tons of forage, on the 
acre. It sometimes produces more than a thousand fold retuins. 
Use .—We have found it an excellent substitute for corn, in fattening 
hogs, either ground or boiled; and its early maturity renders it particu¬ 
larly useful for this purpose. It is an excellent food for poultry; and if 
ground would probably be useful for neat cattle and horses. The straw 
is eaten freely by cattle, and both the seed and straw abound in nutritious 
matter. 
Millet is extensively cultivated in Germany and the south of Europe, 
where it is sometimes used for puddings, &c. but from our little experi¬ 
ence, we cannot recommend it for household use. Birds, we believe, 
are the only enemies which the crop has to encounter. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 
STEEPING SEED CORN. 
We have the opinion of Lysander Chapin, of Chicopee, Mass, founded 
on his experience, that steeping seed corn is prejudicial, his steeped seed 
not having come up so well nor so quick, as the seed which was not 
steeped. This is the third communication we have received of like im¬ 
port. Were we disposed to canvass this question we might probably cite 
three thousand cases in opposition to such a conclusion, but it would be 
wasting time. Let us reason the matter. All seeds must be saturated 
with moisture before they can germinate or grow; and the sooner they 
become saturated, other things being alike, the sooner they will germi¬ 
nate and grow. Onion seed, thrown into scalding water, will sprout in a 
few hours, though its vitality is thereby destroyed. Corn immersed in 
warm water, probably begins to germinate in twelve hours, though if 
planted dry, it may not become saturated, and begin to germinate in less 
than three to six days, according to tempera’ure and the supply of moist¬ 
ure. These facts being granted, and we believe they cannot be contro¬ 
verted, it follows that steeping facilitates the germination. To account 
for a contrary result, in the practice of our correspondents, we must sup¬ 
pose one of three things, viz:' 1. The absence of heat in the soil, to carry 
on the germinating process, already commenced in the steep; 2. The ab¬ 
straction of the moisture from the steeped seed by dry earth, with which 
it may be covered, and which, on the supposition that the radicle has 
started in the steep, will destroy the vitality of the seed; or 3. That the 
steep must have destroyed the germinating property of the seed. If 
steeped corn is covered with moist earth, and the hill pressed upon by the 
planter’s foot, to prevent evaporation, we see no reason, according to our 
philosophy, and we have met with none in our practice, why it should 
not grow as well, and as quick, as seed that is not steeped. 
SMUT IN BAREEV. 
O. B. Ashmun, of Champlain, complains that his barley crop is great¬ 
ly injured by smut, and asks if there is any way of preventing a recur¬ 
rence of the evil. We have no doubt but the' smut of wheat and barley 
are identical, and that in both the seeds of the parasite may be destroyed, 
and the crop preserved from smut, by steeping the seed grain in pickle, 
and rolling it in lime, before it is put in the ground. Smut is of two 
kinds, provincially termed in Britain, the pepper brand and the dust- 
brand—the first appearing as the head is bursting the sheath, and the other 
in the fully developed head. The seeds are so minute as to be absorbed, 
it is believed, by the germinating seed grain, and propelled by the circu¬ 
lating sap into the young germens. The salt and lime, when applied to 
the seed grain, destroys their germinating principle. 
THE BARBARY BUSH. 
S. S. Breese, of Sconondoah, informs us, that he has a field of wheat 
ery badly blasted, so much so as to render the crop of little value; and 
that the blast has been ascribed to barbary bushes which are cultivated 
by Yankee emigrants, in his neighborhood; and that, in consequence of 
its pernicious influence upon the wheat crop, the culture of this bush is 
proscribed in Connecticut and in Spain. He asks our opinion of the 
I truth of these matters. The prevalent opinion among the farmers of 
I Britain, and on the continent, is, that the barbary bush is highly injurious 
to the wheat growing in its vicinity. “ The effect of (his shrub,” says 
Willich, “ upon wheat lands, is truly singular, and though well-known to 
botanists, is not familiar to every farmer. V\ hen growing in the hedge, 
or near corn [wheat] fields, it changes the ears to a dark brown color, and 
prevents them from filling; nay, its influence in this respect has often ex¬ 
tended across a field to the distance of three or four hundred yards, [in 
the direction of the prevailing yvinds.] It should be carefully eradicated, 
from lands, therefore, appropriated to tillage ” 
T-ruth requires us to add, that the above opinions are controverted by 
|some of the most learned naturalists of the day. Sir Joseph Banks went 
deeply into the'investigation of this subject, and spoke in doubt on the 
deleterious influence of the barbary bush upon wheat. All seem to agree 
that the rust fungus, or blight, is a parasitic plant, the seeds of which float 
in the atmosphere, attach themselves to grain, and there germinate and 
grow, to the prejudice of the crop. “ They germinate and push their 
minute roots, no doubt, (though these have not been traced,) into the 
cellular texture, beyond the bark, where they draw their nourishment by 
intercepting the sap that was intended by nature for the nutriment of the 
grain. The grain, of course, becomes shrivelled as the fungi are more 
or less numerous on the plant; and as the kernel only is abstracted from 
the grain, while the corlicle part remains undiminished, the proportion of 
flour to bran in blighted corn is always reduced in the same degree as 
the corn is made light Some corn of last year’s crop, will not yield a 
stone of flour from a sack of wheat .”—On blight in corn. The question at 
issue seems to be, whether the parasitic fungus that is observed upon the 
barbary bush, is identical with that which injures the wheat?—for there 
seems to be no doubt that the seeds are so minute as to be wafted upon 
the wind. Naturalists say no—practical men say yes. We will not pre¬ 
tend to decide. 
CIOVER AFTER CLOVER. 
David Miller, of Brownville, Pa. asks us, if clover will grow with wheat, 
which has been sown the preceding fall upon a clover ley? It certainly 
will, and this mode of alternating clover and wheat is extensively prac¬ 
tised in West N. York, though we think the practice a bad one, tending 
to exhaust too much the specific food of both crops. It has been found 
in the great clover county of Norfolk, England, that this grass fails when 
returned too often to a field; that it will not bear repeating, in many in¬ 
stances, in every four years course of crops; and that it is necessary to 
substitute other grasses for clover in every other course. 
GRAFTING ON WILD STOCKS. 
William Hecox, of Florida, Mich, says the thorn, wild plum, wild cher¬ 
ry and crab apple, abound in his neighborhood; and he inquires, 
1. Can the cultivated kinds of these fruits be grafted on the wild stocks 
of the same? Jins. —Yes. 
2. Can grafts be safely cut in winter. Jins .—Grafts may be cut any 
time after the fall of the leaf in autumn, and before the buds swell in 
spring—and may be kept in good condition, by placing the buts in moist 
earth in the cellar, or in a potato. And 
3. Will grafts produce fruit sooner if taken from bearing, than if taken 
from young trees. Jins. —Yes. 
The pear is not thrifty, and is generally short lived, when put upon the 
thorn. The practice is only warranted by necessity. 
We would advise Mr. Hecox, and all other frontier settlers, who wish 
to raise fruit, and who does not? to procure seeds of the cultivated kinds, 
sow them in nursery, and bud or graft them with choice kinds; a tree or 
two of the desired kinds will cost but a trifle. One tree of good fruit is 
worth half a dozen trees of bad fruit. The peach may be budded the 
year the seed is planted, and the apple, pear and cherry the second year 
after planting the seed. This is the mode we adopted sixteen years ago; 
and our trees have been in bearing many years. If wild stocks are used, 
young thrifty plants should be selected, and planted in the garden, and 
the graft inserted low, or in the collar or root, as the cultivated kinds are 
apt to overgrow the wildings. 
A WOOL DEPOT, 
For the reception and sale of wool, has been established, by John A. 
Parker, corner of Wall and South-streets, New- York. For particulars 
wool growers may address Mr. Parker, -it not being consistent to publish 
advertisements except with our February number. 
STUMP EXTRACTOR. 
We have a communication of E. Cornell, of Ithaca, confirming the state¬ 
ment of Judge Drake, of the utility of Pratt’s Stump Extractor. Col. 
Cobb, of Dryden, has had one long in operation—has 500 rods of stump 
fence, substantial and permanent, and takes out from 40 to 120 stumps in 
a day, according to size, with two ox power, and five men. 
