98 
THE CULTIVATOR 
when the sulphate of ammonia has been actually formed, 
the moment it is brought into contact with lime will be 
liberated and driven off.” Now as plaster of paris is al¬ 
ready saturated with lime, how, according to my friend’s 
theory, can any sulphate of ammonia be formed at all 
by mixing ammoniacal liquids with plaster. I am really 
afraid my friend will have to adopt my process, before 
he can form his sulphate of ammonia, unless he has dis¬ 
covered some new principles of chemical action. 
New-York, April 9, 1842. Wm. Partridge. 
I think, Messrs. Editors, that you should obtain the 
French process for making urate, for the benefit of our 
farmers. 
Where can it be obtained?—E ds. 
COMMENTS ON THE MARCH NUMBER OF THE 
CULTIVATOR. 
Under the head of “ Work for the month,” although 
you have many observations well worth the attention 
of your readers, I must say that you treat with unmeri¬ 
ted lenity, those seedsmen who sell seed mixed with 
“ Canada Thistles,Charlock, Steinkrout, Johnswort,” etc. 
for they inflict on their confiding customers an injury, 
from the effects of which, it often takes years to recover 
their lands. Merely to remind such men that they ought 
“ to do as they would he done by,” would probably have 
no more influence on their conduct, than to sing psalm 
times to them. A severe fine would probably prove a 
much more effectual remedy. Indeed, something of 
the kind seems to be absolutely necessary, for I have 
found to my cost, that the practice of selling bad, adul¬ 
terated seeds is becoming more and more common every 
day—at least, such is the fact, if I may judge by my own 
experience. It might perhaps, be checked—if not en¬ 
tirely corrected, provided the sufferers in every case 
would unite—when near neighbors, in publishing the 
circumstance, and the name of the seedsman who had im¬ 
posed on them. 
Under the same head, you speak of sowing clover and 
grass seeds on winter sown grain, in March. To this I 
would add as the result of long experience, that unless 
the seeds—especially of clover, be harrowed immediate¬ 
ly after sowing, they will almost certainly be killed, 
should there be a drouth in the spring; and this has oc¬ 
curred oftener within the last ten or fifteen years, than 
good, seasonable weather. Harrowing, therefore, should 
never be neglected, particularly as it secures the seed 
from being killed by drouth, and at the same time actu¬ 
ally benefits the grain. 
The method which you mention of preventing certain 
insects from injuring peach trees, by planting a red ce¬ 
dar in the same hole with the tree, has been tried I be¬ 
lieve, by only one person, and not long enough to in¬ 
spire full confidence in its efficacy. It is, at best, little 
more than a conjecture, which may or may not be well 
founded, and of no use in those very extensive portions 
of our country where the red cedar is not a natural 
growth; to say nothing of its very soon checking the 
growth of the tree it was designed to protect, and thus 
injuring it as much as the insect themselves, although in 
a different way. 
I concur entirely with you in your remarks on Mr. G. 
Cook’s “ Observations on farming,” so far as they con¬ 
cern plaster of paris. I have been a close observer of 
its use by others, for forty years at least, and have used 
much of it myself. In no instance have I ever seen it do 
harm—although in many it has done no apparent good— 
whilst it has proved highly beneficial in a great majority 
of cases. Indeed, the idea of its injuring land has al¬ 
ways appeared to me of a piece with the notion of the 
old Dutchman mentioned by Judge Peters in his little 
work on the use of plaster, who objected to it because 
(as they said,) “ it attracted thunder.” 
Your correspondent W. K. has recommended a very 
simple, cheap, and effectual mode of preserving ruta 
baga during winter, as I can testify from my own expe¬ 
rience. But this root which is more hardy than the 
rough leaf varieties of turnep, (all which may be pre¬ 
served in the same way,) may be preserved by a still 
easier method. This is—to cut or twist off the tops as 
they stand, and to cover them completely, by running a 
deep wide furrow on each side the rows, and covering 
with the hoe all that have not been well covered with 
the plow. Having tried it myself, I can speak, as our 
Congressmen say ,—“ understandingly” on the subject. 
Under the head “ Live Fences,” there is a botanical 
mistake which I hope you will pardon me for correcting, 
at the same time that I assure you I am no botanist. 
But seeing that you spoke of Privet and Pyracantha as 
the same shrub, and knowing them to be very different, 
at least in appearance, I was induced to consult Loudon, 
and some of the botanical writers of our own country, to 
ascertain what they said of them. All describe the Pri¬ 
vet as a species of Ligustrum, and the Pyracantha as a 
species of Crataegus. I once saw a small hedge of Pyra¬ 
cantha. It was beautiful to the eye, with its numerous 
clusters of scarlet berries, thickly interspersed among its 
dark, glossy, evergreen leaves; but it was quite insuffi¬ 
cient to keep out mischievous stock. How a Privet 
hedge would succeed in our country, I know not, having 
never seen one. But this shrub spreads much from the 
roots wherever I have met with if, and of course, if 
planted for a hedge, would require frequent grubbing at 
the sides. Loudon speaks of it thus: “ Few shrubs ex¬ 
ceed it as a garden hedge-plant: it will thrive in the 
middle of coal-burning cities, in the shade, and under 
the drip of trees; though to flower well it requires an 
open, airy situation. Cows, sheep and goats eat it, but 
horses refuse it.” 
The remarks of your correspondent, Mr. Gaius Butler, 
appear to me very judicious in regard to some of the to¬ 
pics which he has noticed; although I beg leave to differ 
from him as to some others. For instance, he seems to 
appi’ove of manuring corn in the hill, in preference to 
broadcast. The whole of my own experience, and of 
my obsei'vations on the practice of others is opposed to 
it; and for reasons which I have stated in a former com¬ 
munication. Again, I should infer from what he says 
of fall-plowing, that he disapproves of it as a genei-al 
practice, although he admits that “ it is best in many in¬ 
stances .” This does not appear to me sufficiently expli¬ 
cit, considering the great importance of the subject. If 
I might be permitted to enlarge upon it, I would say,— 
that in all cases where lands have either sod, or much 
cover of any other kind on them, winter-plowing is best, 
particularly for stiff soils. But that spring-plo wing is 
best where there is little or no cover of any kind, espe¬ 
cially for light lands. 
Scotus seems to me to be certainly right in what he 
says about the seed-end of potatoes. Why, in the name 
of common sense, should any one incur the additional 
trouble and expense of “ stringing them up” after cut¬ 
ting them off; or why should it be done in winter so as 
to expose them to shrivel and rot, as Scotus found they 
did ? That a part of every potatoe may be saved for ta¬ 
ble use, and feeding stock, by cutting off the seed-end 
only, to plant, is a fact which was probably well known 
before the inventor of the stringing-up process was born. 
But I presume he will have to adduce very many proofs 
that such an opei-ation in addition to the cutting off, and 
in winter too, is better than the mere cutting off in spring, 
and burying or preserving in some common way the 
parts saved for eating, before he will prevail on many 
to try his projects. 
The remarks of our friend, Mr. Solon Robinson, on 
the Morus multieaulis, and “ the lamentable waste of 
land,” that had been planted therein around Philadelphia, 
where he says “ many patches of the trees ” and “little 
that looked like the owners ever intended to convert them in¬ 
to their only proper use—the feeding of silk worms ”—induce 
me to assure these sufferers, with whom I have some 
strong reasons to sympathise, that I have found out at 
least four other purposes to which those trees are admi¬ 
rably well adapted. No tree nor shrub makes better in- 
ding switches, rods such as the whipping class of peda¬ 
gogues use; nothing answers better for pea-sticks and 
wattle fences, whilst the leaves are actually preferred by 
many cattle, as I myself have often seen, to clover and 
orchard grass. Long life, then, say I, to Morus multi- 
caulis, for other purposes besides feeding silk worms; 
although, I dare say that there are hundreds—perhaps 
thousands of our countrymen—who, for at least half a 
century to come, will sicken at the very name. For 
their consolation therefore, I would respectfully suggest, 
that whenever hereafter, we have occasion to mention 
this exotic, we should always call it, Morus multidoloris. 
Although I have most studiously avoided, and shall 
continue to avoid, taking a hand in the Wobui-n and 
Berkshire war, I will venture to express a hope that it 
may soon be ended by mutual consent; or that the par¬ 
ties thereto will call in umpires who are neither breed¬ 
ers nor vendei-s of either Bei’kshires or Wobui-ns, to set¬ 
tle the matter finally, and place it “ on the best and surest 
foundations.” So long as this war is waged by such 
equi-potent belligerents as have been battling it in your 
paper for a year or two past, the misfortune is, that we 
luckless fellows who are utterly ignorant of the compara¬ 
tive merits of these two famous breeds of hogs—although 
very desirous to buy the best—have been kept pretty 
much in the same tantalizing situation of the poor ass 
between the two apparently equal bundles of hay; and 
have been drawn by such equality of temptation towards 
both, that we have not been able to choose either. This, 
I think, you will admit to be a sad predicament; and one 
from which I hope you will exert your influence to re¬ 
lieve all the sufferers—not excepting your friend. 
Commentator. 
THE POTATOE OAT 
Editors of Cultivator— In your paper of this 
month, is a letter of Mr. G. B. Smith, cautioning the pub¬ 
lic against the use of the Potatoe Oat, as having had an 
injurious effect on many hoi’ses. My experience being 
directly the reverse, I feel called upon to entreat those 
who have used this variety of oats, and those who might 
be about'to try them, to revise their judgment, and to 
ascertain whether some other cause than the oats may 
not have contributed to the ill condition of the horses 
fed on them. I do not raise many oats, but have had the 
potatoe oat in preference whenever I could get them. 
In 1839, I had about four hundred bushels, all of which 
I fed to my horse teams, with chaff, cut straw and roots, 
and very little hay; and the remark of a friend, who re¬ 
turned from Canada in the following spring, was, that he 
never saw my teams in quite so fine condition. That 
there is more nutriment in a bushel of the potatoe oat 
than in a bushel of the common kinds, the weight, 42 and 
45 pounds per bushel, would show. I have no doubt 
that Mr. Smith has stated correctly what was communi¬ 
cated to him. It is the fear that the influence of his well 
known name may deter some of my brother farmers from 
availing themselves of what I consider a valuable addi¬ 
tion to our means of feeding, that induces me to state 
publicly my experience. John Moxon. 
Charlotte, Monroe co., N. Y. April 18, 1842. 
HAY RIGGING OR PATENT SHELVES. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —In several numbers of 
the Cultivator, inquiries have been made respecting Hay 
Riggings. Your correspondent fi-om Knox co. Tenn., 
in the December No., has given the plan of one used in 
his part of the country; but as I think they are inferior 
to those used here, "I am induced to send our pattern_ 
New-York affox-ding a ready market, hay is carted a dis¬ 
tance of forty to fifty miles on riggings of this description, 
called here, “ Patent Shelves.” The enclosed drawing, 
(fig. 60,) is from one I use; some of my neighbors have 
three slats over the wheels, one inch thick and three inch¬ 
es wide. The slats are mox-ticed through the end rails 
and pinned; the other parts are fastened by bolts and 
screws. 
Side vie to of Shelves. — (Fig. 61.) 
A, the laddei’, at the bottom of which are hooks, which 
are hooked into eyes on the front rail. The slats of the 
ladder ai-e hollowed out for the pole or boom to rest in, 
over the load, the boom being cut with a notch. This 
ladder prevents the load shifting forwards, and rests 
against the feed or driving box B, at an angle of about 
85; this box is large enough to hold feed or to sit on to 
ride, and when the load arrives at market the traces are 
unhitched, the horses ax-e turned round and fed. C, four 
hickory or white oak pins, 18 inches long, which hold 
the hay from shifting backwards. D, two double pur¬ 
chase pulleys, fixed at the top to a beam or pole over 
the wagon house.; when the wagon returns from hay or 
straw cai’ting, it is run under the wagon house, the lower 
pully is hooked into a screw eye placed in front and back 
rail. One man can easily hoist it from the carriage out 
of harms way without taking it to pieces. The common 
sides can be placed on for usual cai’ting, till it is wanted 
again for hay or gi’ain, and is easily lowered on the bol- 
stei’s. A cleet is screwed on each side rail, to prevent 
its shifting on the bolster. John Harold. 
Oatland Cottage, South Hempsted, 1842. 
“ DUTY ON WHEAT FROM CANADA.” 
Our thanks are due to our friend J. K. of Canboro, U. 
C., for his well written paper on this subject. On most 
points we have the pleasure of agreeing with him per¬ 
fectly. Farmers do not need, nor should they desire 
much legislation on matters relating to labor, further than 
to defend them from the oppressive or injurious enact¬ 
ments of others. Reciprocity of exchange, equality in 
trade, is all that they can claim or reasonably desire; 
this granted, industry and skill must do the rest; and the 
present fearful condition of England proves that all be¬ 
yond this, is an attempt to thwart or obstruct the irrever¬ 
sible laws of natiu-e. If there is one article more than 
another, which all should be free to obtain at the lowest 
rates possible, it is bread; and the great fault in all gov¬ 
ernments, has been, that they do not make the necessary 
distinctions between the necessaries and the luxuries of 
life. We would cheerfully give our correspondent’s pa¬ 
per a place; but it would probably lead to a discussion 
which, if not foreign to the objects of the Cultivator, 
would in the crowded state of our columns, be inadmis¬ 
sible. 
