14=0 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[April, 
and at the other end is a spring or snap-liook, to 
liook into the ring of the bit. "With this a horse 
may be hitched to a post and will find it impos¬ 
sible to get his teeth upon it. The removal of the 
manger is the best way to prevent cribbing in 
the stable. The habit may probably be broken 
tip, for a time at least, by an abundance of good 
food, good ventilation, and careful grooming, in 
connection with some efficient means of totally 
preventing its exercise both in the stable and out. 
The Cultivation of Sorghum. 
The past year was a very unfortunate one for 
sorghum growers. Confidence in the crop is 
seriously shaken, and the future is unpropitious 
for the makers of sorghum evaporators. Natu¬ 
rally enough, we have repeated inquiries as to 
whether w r e cannot or will not say an encourag¬ 
ing word to the farmers about planting sorghum. 
This word we are very willing to say. In fact, a 
crop which has for at least ten years excited so 
much interest that the cultivation of it has 
grown from nothing, in 1856, to 35,000,000 gal¬ 
lons, in 1866, would hardly, under any circum¬ 
stances, be condemned for a failure no worse 
than that made by Indian corn or by potatoes. 
We believe thoroughly in the crop, both for tli> 
North and South, East and West. The failureof 
the crop of ’67 was not so much the fault of the 
plant as due to the fears of its cultivators, who 
had not the courage to plant as extensively as 
usual in an unfavorable or unpromising season. 
Year before last we raised north of Mason’s 
and Dixon’s line one-tenth of the whole amount 
of syrup and molasses consumed; last year the 
product fell to between 6,000,000 and 10,000,000 
gallons. The syrup now is scarce and high- 
in fact, but .very little is in market, and people 
are willing to pay $1.00 to $1.25 per gallon for 
it, if well made. The processes for evaporating 
and purifying the syrup have been greatly im¬ 
proved since 1866, and it is not too much to 
say that the crop of the present year will far 
surpass in quality that of any previous one. For 
ourselves, we anticipate that it will be so good 
as to very easily supplant molasses with those 
who have hitherto refused to use it on account 
of its peculiar flavor. We cannot see any rea¬ 
son why all who cultivate sorghum this year 
with proper care, if they have good facilities for 
evaporating it, may not expect as profitable a 
crop as ever. It is not possible for enough to 
be planted seriously to affect the market. 
We advise extensive planting, provided reli¬ 
able seed can be obtained, and it can be put 
upon warm, generous corn ground. The soil 
must be well pulverized, mellow, and in good 
heart from recent manuring. It does well on 
fall-plowed sod. Give plaster, lime, or ashes, in 
the hill after the seed comes up, and keep clear 
of weeds. In regard to the variety of seed to 
plant, we can only say, that when sorghum 
growers and sorghum conventions disagree so 
essentially, we can only refer our readers to 
good growers or good seedsmen in their 
own sections of country for the best advice. 
Deep Plowing—Safe and Unsafe. 
‘‘Do not, Mr. Editor, advise deep plowing— 
many a crop has been ruined by it.”.... “ By 
deep plowing a farmer doubles the size of his 
farnj.”...You have another farm lying six 
inches under the one you now till; only run the 
plow down into it.” We have no hesitation in 
advising the gradual deepening of all soils that 
are retentive of manure, or that are inherently 
fertile, and the fertility of which can be depend¬ 
ed upon or kept up for a number of years. Thin 
soils, and those which do not hold manure, and 
are adapted chiefly to grain and grasses, need 
shallow culture, or such a system as will radi¬ 
cally change their character, such as turning un¬ 
der crop after crop of green manure until the 
soil is full of vegetable matter. Clayey loams 
devoid of vegetable mold below a few inches, 
are often underlaid by what is known in the 
vulgate as yaller dirt. It is dangerous to take 
up more than an inch or so of this untilled soil 
at each plowing, as it often contains salts 
of iron or other substances deleterious to vege¬ 
tation. In general, however, even if a crop be 
injured, in the long run the deeper plowing, ac¬ 
companied by good tillage, will be a great bene¬ 
fit. The greater portion of the Western prairies 
are of a character to be benefited by deep plow¬ 
ing. They even ought to be broken up by put¬ 
ting the plow down as deep as possible. We 
have held on to a letter from a Missouri corre¬ 
spondent, writing from near Hannibal, for some 
months, in order that, presenting it just at plow¬ 
ing time, it would do the greater good. He writes: 
“ In this section of our country we have passed 
through a severe drought. Our crops of oats, 
wheat, and hay, are the best we have harvested 
for many years, but our corn and potatoes have 
come nearer to being a complete failure than 
they have done here within the memory of the 
oldest settler. This season has not been without 
its lessons. Some farmers have learned a good les¬ 
son, and will profit by their experience, but more 
will not even learn at the fool’s dear school, but 
follow in the same old way, and fail as before. 
Such seasons as the past show who are the 
good farmers. In looking around we saw here 
and there, few and far between, in the midst 
of general failure, a good crop of corn. Ask 
the reason. ‘ Why, sir, we plowed for our corn; 
no surface scratching, but with three good 
horses abreast, and the plow in up to the beam. 
We turned the weed seeds under so deep they 
gave us no trouble, and this deep bed of loose 
soil has retained moisture enough to mature a 
good crop Avithout rain; that is the secret.’ 
‘ What is the cause of the difference between 
different parts of that field of wheat over there ?’ 
‘It is all in the plowing, sir. Twelve acres of 
that field were plowed in the common way, and 
six acres, joining in the same field, were plowed 
as deep as three horses could plow it. As a re¬ 
sult, the six acres yielded as much as the twelve 
acres did, lacking three bushels.’ It is deep 
plowing we need to insure our crops against 
drought. We have an abundance of rain in 
winter and spring to last our crops all summer, if 
we had some way of saving it; and the best 
way now is by deep plowing and subsoiling.” 
The Castor Oil Bean. , 
This plant is of tropical origin, and has about 
the same range of climate in which it may be 
profitably cultivated as the sweet potato. It is 
grown to a considerable extent in the southern 
half of Illinois, but the largest yield is in the 
extreme southern counties, showing that it needs 
a hot sun and a long season to give the largest 
amount of oil. The whole treatment of the 
plant up to harvest is much like that of Indian 
corn. The plants should not stand nearer than 
four feet, and the best cultivators place the rows 
seven feet each way. The plant is a rank grow¬ 
er, and wants plenty of food and sunlight. The 
Florida beans are considered better than the 
Spanish for producing oil. Two beans are usu¬ 
ally planted in a hill, but one should be taken 
out when the plants are six inches high. The 
cultivation may all be done by horse-power, but 
care should be taken not to wound the stalks or 
break off any of the limbs. Cultivating five or 
six times is none too much to secure the best 
results. The proper time for planting in south¬ 
ern Illinois is about the 1st of May, and by the 
middle of August some of the stalks will be fit 
to cut. This should be done when the bottoms 
of the spikes yielding the beans begin to turn 
brown and crack open. It pays to have a dry¬ 
ing house for the curing of the beans, and a 
plan of one is given in the May Agriculturist , 
1867. Drying yards are discarded by skillful cul¬ 
tivators. This crop is usually planted upon the 
poorest land, and is thought by some to improve 
it quite as much as clover. The average yield 
under fair treatment is about twenty bushels to 
the acre. The price of the beans varies much 
more than that of ordinary farm crops. During 
the past year the price has ranged from $3.90 
to $1.25 per bushel, in the St. Louis market, 
where most of the oil used in this country is 
manufactured. We have no doubt that our 
California correspondent can raise the beans in 
that State, but do not think the crop will be 
more profitable than many others he might 
grow. Previous to the -war it was so largely 
raised in Southern Illinois that it ceased to pay 
on account of over-production. The war caused 
a great advance in the price of the oil, and the 
cultivation is now increasing. An acre of the 
beans, or twenty bushels, will yield about 68 
gallons of oil, worth at present prices about $150. 
Those w T ho raise the beans think the manufac¬ 
turing pays much better than the cultivation. 
Possibly the farmers who raise this crop could 
form a joint-stock company and press the oil 
out of their owm beans to advantage. We be¬ 
lieve the business of pressing the oil in this 
country has been almost a monopoly, and 
that one man has made a large fortune by it 
• *- * 9-4 — > i a *- 
Lancaster Co., Pa.—Rotation of Crops. 
A correspondent,using the signature “Pequea,” 
gives so clear a statement of the mode of farm¬ 
ing pursued in the fertile valleys of the Cones¬ 
toga and other rivers of Lancaster County, 
that we present his letter, slightly abbreviated. 
“As an agricultural district, Lancaster County 
lias always held high rank; at this time, its prod¬ 
uce is double what it was fifty years ago. At 
no time has it advanced more rapidly than it is 
doing at present, and there is room for further 
increase of its agricultural productions. Com¬ 
mercial fertilizers, except lime, are not yet gen¬ 
erally used. Farmers are, however, alive to the 
importance of husbanding their means for mak¬ 
ing barn-yard manure. Very few of our farmers 
will sell straw, however abundant it maybe, and 
many will not sell hay under any circumstances. 
“ Rotation in crops is a universal practice, but 
not quite that which you designate in the article 
on page 57, (February No.). Lime is very gen¬ 
erally used, and as you say, put on the sod, and 
then plowed dowm, or else spread on the sur¬ 
face after plowing,—generally the latter. The 
first spring, corn is planted; the second season, 
either oats or ■wheat; the third, wheat again, 
seeding with timothy or clover; fourth and 
fifth seasons, grass; then corn again, and the 
old routine over. It is a very rare thing to see 
the land lie fallow the second year. It is too 
high in price to lose a crop. If it is designed 
to have a crop of wheat the second year, the 
com is cut off in September, about 2 or 2'l|a feet 
