i mm .-m.tsz'-pm ;*r$c
#
. *
VOLUME VI.
i' .. . jg
By M. M AC LEAA. ,
?
Tutus:?Published weekly at three dollmre
jeer; with an addition, when not paid within
throe month*, of twenty per cent per annum.
Two new aubscrihers may take the piper at
fire dollar* in advance: and ten at twenlv.
Four subscriber?, not receiving their paper?
in town, may pay a year's subscription with ten
dollars, in advance.
A year's subscription always due in advance.
Vapor* not discontinued to solvent subscribers
in arrears.
Advertisements not exceeding lf? lines inserted
et ene dollar the first time, and fifty cents each
nbeeqnenl time. For insertions at interval* of
two weeks 75 cents after the first. and a dollar,
if the intervals are longer. Payment due in
advance for advertisem mis. When the number
of insertions is not marked on the copy, the
advertisement will be inserted, and charged til
ordered out.
V The postage most be paid on letters to the
editor on the business of the office.
df
Diseases of Shekp.
L. Island Farm,, near Fort Penn. )
Delaware, Jan. 1840. J
To he Editor of the American Farmer:
'Dear Sir.?in perusing your hints on j
theeubject of diseases of Sheep in vour I
valuable publication of the 23d ult., I find
you refer to your friend Barney for information;
if it is the case, which I fear it
is, ray friend J. S. S's imported sheep have
got the scab, and if I can do him any good
0 on the subject, I will freely and with
much pleasure. I have imported a num.
ber of sheep, and but very few have escaped
bringing with them this much to be
dreaded disease. I have thought there
are but very few ships which traverse the
seas but what are contaminated with
matter to give this pest of diseases to the j
poor sheep. To come to the point, the,
most certain manner to prove when the
sheep has got it, is to apply your finger to
the diseased part?scratch the scab or
acurfhard, and the sheep will turn his
head, and similar to a dog dying in a rab
id state, he will show a disposition to bite;
frequently rubbing against the fence, or
wherever he can, and lying down, turning
his head to his shoulders and side,
nabbing and pulling the wool, &c.?And
now for the cure: without delay, every
aheep which is, and those which are not
diseased, must be anointed or salved, as
the English Shepherd terms it,?for if
hut one in a flock should be diseased, the
whole of the flock, no matter how great
number, it'left to mntrnfl with
*"v -- 1.1b
disease without applying the remedy, will
all have it?but if timely attended to, you
might confine it to one sheep, provided
but one has heen diseased: dress him im- '
mediately with the ointment I shall pre- '
scribe, and if properly applied, not one 1
more of the flock will take the disease; hut 1
a proper time must be particularly attend- 1
ed to, or you kill instead of cure; the !
weather must be clear and the sheep kept '
dry undercover?an open shed will do: 1
not at the season when the ewe sheep lias '
got her lamb by her side suckliug I have
done so myself, and killed the lamb. The
method of using the ointment, is this:
Beginningat the head of the sheep, and
proceeding from between ears, along the
* */v?kn j>nH nf (Kr? tnil* ;a
UtttR IV """? ?>?v nwi 13 IV
be divided in a furrow till the skin can be !
touched?and as the furrowis made, the I
finger slightly dipped in the ointment is;
to be drawn along the bottom of it, when |
it will leave a blue stain on the skin and
adjoining wool; fiom this furrow similar'
ones must be drawn down the shoulders I
and thighs to the legs, as far as they are
woolly; and if the animal is much infected,
two more should be drawn along each '
aide parallel to that on the hack, and one
down each side between the fore and
hind legs: in a few days the blotches dry
up?the itching ceases, and the animal is
completely cured. To prepare the ointment,
take one pound oi'quicksilver?half
a pound of venice turpentine?and four
pounds of hogs lard; let them he rubbed
in a mortar till the. quicksilver is thor- j
oughly incorporated with the other ingre- |
riients; for the proper mode of doing which, j
it may be proper to take the advice, or J
even the assistance of some apothecary ;
or other person used to making such mix- '
tures. This quantity of ointment is sufficient
for a large number of sheep. You
can make as much as you think will do
for the number of sheep you havetoanoint.
I have tried tobacco water, ajid injured
my sheep, for a number of years past I
have not made use of any other medicine
than the ointment above described, and
always found it a certain cure.?I keep ;
it generally in my house in a stone jar, seeluded
from the air. One skilful hand
would anoint the sheep?but I should recommend
three, if they have not been
accustomed to perform the operation: one
to hold the sheep?one to ?pen and divide
the wool while the other applies the ointment.
I have found it to take aboufone
pound to ten sheep; a smaller or larger
quantity will not do any norm, a skiitui
hand commenoes in the following manner
to anoint his sheep: he makes a small
leather bag of the upper of an old shoe?
a very small one, and pins it to the sleeve
of his coat?puts a small quantity of the
ointment at a time in if?selects a clean
spot in the sheep yard?sits down, and
lays the sheep on his lap and commences
salving. But when I commenced, I performed
as above, with two to help me,
with my sheep standing on his legs.
After all I have said on this subject,
your sheep may not have the scab. I
s
if iw
I
CHER A
wish you may be so favoured. . The cause
of your sheep losing their wool, &c. might
arise from too kind treatment?-in giving
too much corn?keeping them too warm
?in not using the vagctable articles freely?and,
I might add, plentiful use of salt,
4..
VK.V,.
While I have pen, ink and paper at
hand, suffer me to give you my manner
of keeping my sheep. At this time, in a
perfect state of health, my sheep number
about sixty: get one bushel of bran, with
about two bushels of turnips and sugar
beets, mixed, per day?given night and
morning in troughs, with good hav in
racks, twice a day under an open shed
facing the south?a pump that feeds two
troughs?one in the cattle yard, the other
in the she?p Yard?the bran moistened a
little with water, n?l.xed with the beets
and turnips, cut fine by the use of Neveil's
patent vegetable cutter, a very good
article?the sheep yard kept well littered
with straw or coarse hay. Owing to my
land being principally marsh meadow,
divided by ditches, the sheep remain in
the yard altogether in the winter. Were
I to let them run at large, I should lose
numbers at this season by crossing on the
rotten ice. Owing to my land being
pregnated with salt, my sheep do not re.
quire it,?but on upland farms, situated
in the interior of the country, salt is certainly
requisite; also, tar and salt, for the
snuffles or foul noses. When I wish to
make my sheep fat for market, I use corn
in proportion to a pint or upwards to each
sheep per day, in addition to the above
mixture; I have always found it to be the
very best feed to correct costive habits in
both cattle and sheep, and particularly the
latter. If it should lead to scour the aninvil
u tiifli usimn I iino< it in II 5, lit tip n:its
in the sheaf given will correct it.
I must come to a close, having filled
my sheet. I do hope and trust you will
be able to save your valuable sheep.
Yours truly, John Barney.
X. B. I have thought a few words added
to the above on the subject of the use
of bran, wherever it can be obtained,
would be a word in season for any one
turning their attention to sheep. About
the year 1812, 1 made a number of lambs
fat, early in the spring, for the Philadelphia
market, and they were pronounced by
the butcher who bought them to be very
fine, and wondered howl made them so.
My]first object was to produce a flow of |
milk in the ewe's hag; moistened bran
with vegetable articles had the desired ef-'
feet; and ever since, I always, whenever
[ can obtain it, lay in a quantity in the
fall to use through the winter with the
aforesaid mixture; in addition I add cut
hay of the best quality for my cattle. By
the aid ofa patent straw cutter I use it
freely?give it to feeding cattle, cows,
vcarlings, calves and horses; they are nil
fond of it, and I feel assured it is quite
economical. I get one hundred bushels
of bran at a time from Brandy wine Mills
?twonty-two miles to haul it, at the cost
of fifteen cents per double bushel;?one
hundred bushels arc allowed to weigh one
ton. I state this to show you the value
i mit unon it in mv system of wintering
"I 1 .
stock. It is quite preferable in ray estimation
to any other article. To give it
to yearling sheep, tlicv will eat turnips
freely with it. but without it, frequently rQfuse
them. J. B.
API'LKS FOOD FOR STOCK.
From twenty-five years experience I am
more and more convinced of the value of
apples as food for hogs and other farm
stock* When I began to feed my hogs on
apples, in 1815, it was generally said that
there was no nourishment in an apple; at
length it was admitted that there might
he some in a sweet apple. Now there are
some that goto the opposite extreme, and
attribute too much to them, and expect
too much from them. The object of these
remarks, is to set the business in its true
light. There is scarcely any food, of
which hogs are more fond, than apples;
but it is obvious that they are not rich
food, and it is vain to think of shutting
up a land shark,'and in six or eight weeks
making good pork of him; you must do as
you would do in fatting an ox on grass;
take longer time for it, than if you fat him
on grain and provender.
I have never failed of making my hogs
very fat, and my pork of the first quality
on apples. I wiil state how I manage. 1
lav up in the fall two or three hundred
I
bushels of apples. I store them in a room
in my barn with eight or ten inches of
chaft' over them. Thus secured, they
freeze very little. I feed them to my
hogs and inilch cows very freely; I give
my hogs all they will eat, and keep them
in good flesh till spring. Through the
summer I feed them so as not to lose
flesh. After harvest thev are turned into
my wheat stubble, where they live very
well for a few weeks till the apples hegin
to fall; by this time I design to have them
half fatted. From the first of September
to December they run iq my orchard, or
are full fed in the pen. I prefer their run.
ning at large iq the orchard unless the
apples are so abundant that they will waste
and destroy them, for they will never go
hungry; they will lie very quiet and never
run so as to waste their flesh.
I am aware that most of those who have
written upon the subject, recommend
picking up the apples and boiling them ;
this costs too much jn labor and fuel, and
I have doubts whether there is iquch ben
d 4
,W. SOUTU-CAKOLINA,
,ii ?? wmmm?mmamm?
efit derived from it. The stomach of the
hog was made to digest the raw material,
and no doubt is adequate to that purpose.
I see no more need of boiling the apples
for the hog than the grass for the ox; I
have in a few cases boiled-them, but found
the animals preferred them uncooked, and
I suppose they were the most suitable
judges of what was best for them; at any
rate, in the way I recommended, I reade
very good pork, with very little trouble;
and I am certain that to pick the fruit and
boil it for 13 or 20 hogs, for three months,
would he a verv serious deduction from
1 "
the profits of the concern.
[ Albany Cultivator.
From the Farmers' Register.
EXPERIMENTS OP BONE MANURE.
Fairfax county, Va. December 10.'&^840.
On reading the article headed 'Extraneous
Manures,'page 589, October number
of the Farmers' Register, I am reminded
of my promise to give you the result, of
ni}* experiment with bone-dust, or more
properly speaking, crushed bones, as manure.
My first application of bone manure
was on turnips, in 1838; the result, SO far
as relates the first crop and the expense
is stated at page 152-3, vol. 7th of the
Register- I have therefore to add only
the results of two years' additional experience
in the use and effect of bone manure
in comparison with stable or other putre
scent manures produced on a farm.
In order to ascertain, with as much precision
as I could, the requisite quantity
of bone per acre, as well as to be precise
in its application and comparison with
other manures, I laid off an acre of ground
which I designed for turnips, and divided
it into eighty-one equal parts by cross furrows
at the proper distance. Upon twothirds
of the ground thus laid off, a good
two-horse cart load of stable or farmyard
manure was dropped in each square, which
of course was manuring at the good rate of
81 loads per acre. To other parts of the
ground, crushed bones, from the Roxbu.
? W _r
rv luass. mills, weru uppnuu m me ruiu 01
15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and 81
bushels to the acre, pure as they came
to me, without adulteration or admixture
of any kind. On the residue of the acre,
a compost, consisting of the summer
scrapings of the cow yard, without straw
or litter of any kind, with only 8 per cent.
| of bone, was applied at the rate of 12 loads
i of 25 bushels each, per acre. The ground
had previously been well ploughed early in
the spring, and a dressing of sixty bushels
of good fresh lime had been applied on the
furrow, immediately preceding the harrowing.
The farm-yard manure was
regularly distributed on the ground and
lightly ploughed in as fast as spread; having
previously, as well as every other part
of the ground, received a good dressing
of plaster of Paris. The bone manure and
compost were harrowed in with a heavy
two-horse harrow, and the ground so rested
until the appearance of rain, the 8lh
of August, when, immediately proceeding
a shower, the seed were sown and icell
harrowed in. The rain which fell was
not a soaking one, but a transient summer
shower, much of wh'ich ran off, especially
from that portion of the ground to
which the bone manure had been applied;
ihe part manured from the farm-yard,
presented a rather more uneven surface,
'? p t-i? r -
1 one consequently more larormiie iur me
reception and retention of rain, which fact
was well establised by an examination of
the ground the next morning, when I found
that the moisture had penetrated at least
two inches deeper in the one case than in
the other, and which circumstance gave
to that portion of the ground manured from
the farm.yard a very decided advantage
over the bone manure for the first two
weeks, or until ample rain supplied sufficient
moisture. The ground upon which
this experiment was made is high and dry,
and was, at tho time, exceedingly poor
stiff clay land, upon which I had in vain,
two years in succession, tried to produce
black-eyed peas.
The growth of turnips on such parts of
the ground as had received not less than
sixty bushels of crushed bone, was quite
equal in the end to the best growth when
the farm manure was used at the rate of
81 cart loads to the acre; whilst the growth
on all smaller allowances of bone, was inferior,
and most so where the least quantity
was used. But on that portion of the
ground which was dressed with the bone
compost, as above stated, throughout was
decidedly superior to any other part,
at maturity, was at least one third
more than was produced on an equal
quantity of the ground manured from the
the stables. The succeeding year, 1839,
the entire acre was planted with sugar
beets, and every part treated precisely
dike, viz: the seed drilled and covered by
hand with a light compost from baskets;
- * r> 1-1 _
me crop, owing 10 an uniavorauie scawu
and neglect of tirhj receding, was nothing
extraordinary, though decidedly best
where the bone manure had been applied.
The beet crop was followed, this year,
(1840) by Italian spring wheat. The
growth of straw was most splendid, but
like our wilder sown wheat and rye, this
season, was almost ruined by the rust; but
in this, the third crop in two years from
one manuring, the superiority of the bone
manure was more apparent than ever, and
as before, on that portion of the ground to
which the compost was applied was groat
mvmmwimm
WEDNESDAY, JAMIt
ly superior to ever)* other part, and even
I on those parts of tho ground where the
smaller portions of bone had been applied,
I the straw was as heavy as it was on the
ground which had received manure from
the farm at the rate of 81 loads per acre.
The wheat stubble was not grazed af^er
harvest, aud although the season was very
dry, the volunteer rcd-c!over and crabgrass}
following a sjrring crop, was so rank
as to make it exceedingly difficult to turn
it under, with a first rate two-horse plough,
with the usual appendage of a heavy chain!
Thus affording incontcstible proof of the,
as yet undiminished effect of the bone manure
under most severe cropping.
Of the compost a.bove described, I applied,
at the rate of a hundred bushels per
acre, to a poor piece of newly mowed
meadow, (in 1833;) the succeeding crop
was more than doubled by the application;
the crop of the present year (1840) still
better than the last, uand from the aftergrowth
this year, I fiave little doubt of
* further and progressive improvement for
several years to come; as the coarser
particles of the bone are not yet entirely
decomposed. A piece of wheat on which
a like proportion of the bone compost was
applied, and harrowed in with the seed, was
Teatly benefitted by this application; and
the clover which followed the wheat was
100 per cent, better than on either side of
the bone compost belt, which ran through
the field, although the other parts of the
field were similarly treated, excepting only
the addition, of not more than at the rate
^ a < I It / I _ ' A. _ it
| ot 24 Dusneis or Done manure 10 me acre.
| The conclusions, then, to which my mind
i is brought by the forogoing experiments
arc.
First, That when applied at the rate of
from 50 to 80 bushels per acre, on the exhausted
lands of Virginia, one bushel of
crushed bone, is more than equal to one
; cart.load of 25 bushels of good farm-yard
j manure, in its effect upon the first crop.
Secondly,that the effect of bone mauure is
' more durable than that of any putrescent
manure usually produced on a farm.?
Third, That when applied to land which
' is in good hearty the effect i9 much more
1 powerful than it is on very poor land.?
j Fourth, That when combined with ma1
nure and applied in the form of compost,
| the effect, both instant and remote, far exceeds
any other application of the com!
ponents when separated with which I am
acquainted or ever witnessed. And lastly,
if stable manure has to be -purchased or
even hauled more than half a mile from
your otm stables, bone manure at fifty
cents per bushel, the price it cost me delivered
on the farm, is the cheapest manure
of the two. Yours.
Tiiomas Ap C. Jones.
From the Yankee Farmer.
hoots.
Ma. Editor.?There is perhaps not a
particle of soil, wet or dry, cold or warm,
which does not have a peculiar adaptation
to some species of useful vegetable. Rice
and hemp choose the swamp, the watermelon
rejoices in the sand drifts that in
some parts destroy all other hopes of the
farmer. To one who shall steam himself
across our country from Boston to St. Louis,
it would seem that the plough and the
hoe would soon utterly forsake the rocky,
springy, cold soil of New England for the
open, warm and fertile plains of the West.
But let us dismiss the locomotive and
study the soil of New England. We
may possibly discover in it something
which will give it higher claims upon the
farmer than the prairies of Illinois, something
which is destined to make it like a
garden, from the peat-bog to the hill top.
This something I believe to be its peculiar
adaptation to the growth of roots.?Whether
the manufacture of Sugar from the
beet shall ever become profitable with us
or not, there can be no failure in the application
of the sugar beet to the raising
of stock. The system is perfect in all its
parts. Our cold soil will raise the largest
roots in the world, provided it be well
manured from the barn-yard. The cat'
tie that eat the beets will furnish the ma.
nurc, and may be aided by our peat-hogs
which need only ditching to make capital
meadows. Let inegive my own experience
on this subject. In 1839 I settled
nrvvn a ninro r?f (rrnunrl. fhp tillprl n:irf nf
- i?? a ? ? i -which
had been exhausted for want oi
manure, beyond the power to produce
weeds; It is of the coldest sort. Having
come upon it too late to cultivate it thoroughly,
I ploughed it up and threw in corn
i and potatoes, which of course failed to
bring a crop. I then procured a dozen or
twenty horse loads of mud from the ditches
of a peat-meadow and mixed it from
time to time with the litter from a horse,
two cows, and a pig. As early in the
spring as the land could be moved without
sticking altogether to the ploughshare,
I ploughed it with a horse, going twice
in a furrow. Drills were made, about
two feet apart, as deep as could l>e done
with the plough. In these the compost
waa laid and then cohered with a ridg^.
When the beets first appeared they prow,
ed fechlc, as there was not sufficient
warmth in the soil whioh composed the
ridge, But as soon as the roois reached
the compost, they took a wonderful start
, and in a few days were large enough to be
of use in feeding a cow. Tho weeds
were prevented from appearing al all by
canstunt use of the plough and hoe, and
The Rata Baga, in common with most
other root crops, succeeds best on a deep
as well as a rich soil; and a frequent cause
of the partial failure of many cultivators,
is the want of sufficient depth and richness.
This difficulty may, in a great degree,
be obviated by ridging. This throws
a large portion- of the fertile surface together,
and gives quantity and depth to
each ridge. Ridging also proves beneficial
where soils are liable to prove too wet.
As a large portion of the soil of our
country is a clayey loam, we would recommend
those who possess such soil,
except it he deep and rich, and in a dry
situation, to prepare their ground for ruta
baga as follows:?Plough ridges by throwing
two furrows together, about two feet
and a half apart, fill the intermediate furrows
with manure, then split the ridges
with the plough, throwing the earth upon
and forming new ridges over the manure.
Pass a roller over the whole to flatten
them, and then sow the seed in drills
along the tops of these flattened ridges.
This treatment, with subsequent culture,
can hardly fail to ensure a good crop.
Nim Gen. Far.
Devon Cattle.
Does or docs not the impression exist,
that Devon cattle do not lay an fat eatilyl
VVe enquired the other day of Doctor
T., near Baltimore, a gentleman of the
highest respectability. He had procured
some Devon s from the late lamented H.
Thompson, and his observation was that
his objection to the Devons laid in their
too great a propensity to take on fat. We
- " * L!_L
know ot a herd ot anout a uozcn which we
have lately seen in a pen of near forty
head together.?The Devons are all of the
same beautiful color, sleek as race horses
and looking decidedly better than the
country cattle, which went through the
winter with the Devons?in the same
yard and with the same treatment, subsisting
exclusively on corn tops or wheat
straw. Of all laboring animals the Devon
Or, appears to be the most docile and
ready to comprehend and obey his driver
?however often the driver may be
changed, and whether he be an inconsiderate
negro, or an uncouth and impetuous
Irishman.
Wc believe an impression exists, to a
certain extent, that Devons are hard to
I ' 9
keep, and we mention the above fact to
the contrary. In a word, without being
over size for the pasture and keep to be
generally met with in a slave holding
country, they are easier to keep than country
cattle generally?give richer milk,
and make the best oxen.
Amer. Far.
AX KSSAY ON GRASSES.
Lucerne?Me die a go saliva., is a deeprooting
perennial plant, sending up numerous
small and tall clover-like shoots,
with blue or violet spikes of flowers. It is
a native of the south of Europe, is extcn.
sivelv cultivated in 3pain, Italy, France,
Persia, and Lima, in the two latter, being
cut all the year round, and is particularly
cultivated in Great Britain and the United
Slates. With us it is found to be as
1 j hardy as red clover. It was extensively
cultivated by the Romans, and commended
by Calumeila, as the choicest of all
i fodder. Three quarters of an acre of it,
he thinks abundantly sufficient to feed
* I I ? J.oi'no iho wIidIa Vftar.
llircu IIUI3C9 UUIIJig ? %? " ..w.~ J
The soil for Lucerne must be dry, friable,
inclining to sand, and with a subsoil
not inferior to the surface. Unless the
subsoil be good, deep and dry, it is in vain
toattempt to cultivate lucerne. A friable
deep sandy loam is excellent for it. No
land is too rich for it.
I The preparation of the. soil consists in
| docp ploughing and minute pulverization.
! Loudon recommends trenching for it.
j But a good preparation is a potato crop,
, heavily dressed with long manure, the
ground ploughed very deep, and the ma
tiff#
U
' + m
,W 1 I
(Y m, 1641
r ?' " ?
the beets at they grew *ere decimated or
thinned, time after time, till at last they
! stood twelve inches apart. For sevitsl
weths they furnished nearly the whole
forage of a cow and yearling heifer. ?
had 68 rods of ground in beets, one half
sugar beets, and the other IBangcl Wurtzel.
The crop just gathered amounts to
at least 250 bushels "or 6 1-2 tons. Scores
of roots of either kind might be selected
which would exceed ten pounds apiece,
as we ascertained by the actual use of the
scales. By the side of the beets, ground
prepared" in the same manner was planted
with potatoes, and gave a very fair, but
cot extraordinary crop. One swallow
does not make a summer, but it is clear
to my mind that no man who can comraand
half an acre of ground (not granite)
in Massachusetts need to be without a
good supply of milk through the winter.
The sugar beet has an excellent effect
both in the quantity and quality of the
milk, and in this respect is far preferable
to any of the other roots. Farmers who
can figure will certainly figure great
advantages out of the sugar beet, and
among others that of raising for themselves
smooth, p.til filliug cows, instead of
milking, or rather stripping the raw-boned
and droulhy animals which are sometimes
raised on the starvation plan.
E. WltlGHT, JB.
Dorchester Nov. 11, 1840.
Ridgixg for the Ri ta Baga.
NUMBKR II.
nure buried at the bottom of the furrow,
and the crop kept perfectly free froiD
weeds.
the season most proper for sowing in
the nortiiem and eastern states, is about
the first to the fifteenth of May, when the
ground has become sufficiently warmed
to promote quick germination.*
The manner of wring lucerne is either
broadcast or in drill, and either with or with
out an accompanying crop- Broadcast and t
.... .f .ua is mnst ffPrlHP.
*uij#uiiu wiwji ui miiiT-i i yc, 10
afly preferred in the United States; though
drills, by enabling the cultivator to keep out
grasses and weed^ promises the greatest p<*r.
manem-y to the crop. A gent eman who has
sown in drills, three feet apart, and cultivated
alternate rows of mangel wurtzel with the
lucerr.c, speaks in high commendation of the
practice. Arthur You.vo rec?in.uen<ls
drilling at nine inches.
The quantity of Seed, when the broadcast
method is adopted, is froin fifteen to twenty
pounds in the United States, sixteen pounds
is the usual quantity, and when drilled* eight
to twelve pounds suffice. The ground should
i be peifectly pulverised; the seed put io with a
tine harrow, and the operation of sowing finished
wi'h the ro' er.
The af'er culture of lucerne, sown broadcast,
consists in hirrowing, in the spring, to destroy
grass and weeds; rolling, alter harrowing, to
smooth the soil for the scythe and such occasional
top dressing of gypsum ashes, or rotted
manur *, as the plan's may require, or the con<
veniences of the best farm afford. The harrow,
ing may commence the second year, and the
weeds collected should always be carefully removed.
I n suc< eeding years, two harrowing?
may be applied, one in spring and the other in
the latter part of summer. If in drills, the
crop must be kept clean with the hoe. drillharrow,
&c. Liquid manure from the rattle
yard, is an exec I erst manure for'h this crop.
The taking of lucerne by mowing for soiling,
or hay, or by tethering, hurdling or pasturing,
may bo considered the same as clover. Lucerne
frequently attains a sufficient growth
for the scythe from the 10th to the 20th of
May ; and in soils that urn favorable lor its
cnhtire, it will be in a state of readiness for
cutting in the course of a month or five weeks
longer, being capable of undergoing the same
operation, at nearly similar inltrvals of time,
during the whole summer season. In the
Uni ed Stales, in a good soil it m iy be cut for
soi'ing four, and some imes live limes in the
season.
The application of lucerne, is with us general
ly for the purpose o soiling, with the exception
sometimes of the last cutting. It is advanta*
f?/l in i?q (Troon ulsitP til linraM. C.altlc.
8c"u?"7 ,
and hogs ; but as a dry ladder, it is also rap*,
ble of affording much assistance, and as an
early food for ewes ai d lambs, may be of
great value in particular cases. All agree in
extolling it as food for cows, whether in a
green or dried state ; and it is said to be much
superior to clover, both in increasing the inillt
and bitter, and in improving its flavor. In it#
green state care-is necessary not to feed inucts
at a t;m??_ esDcciallv when moist, as cattle miy
become hoven or blown with it It is a good
precaution lo cut it the day before it in uaed,
and to let it wilt in the swathe. When made
into hay, lucerne should never bespread from
the swailie, but managed as directed for clover.
It may be housed before it is perfee:ly
dry, if it is alternated on the mow, with layers
of straw, which imbibe the superabundant jut.
ices and thereby becom?s grateful and nutiiciuu8
to the farm slock, when fed with the lucerne.
Soiling m a term applied to the practice <?C
cutting herbage crops green, tor feeding or
ftttening live stock. On all farms, under correct
management, a pari of this crop is cut
green lor the working horses, often milch cows,
even when at pasture, and, in some instances,
both for growing and fattening cattle. On
ama I farms this crop is of immense advantage
as affording a ready, substitute for pasture.
The produce of lucerne, cut three times
in a season, has been slated from three to
five, and even eight tons per acre. In I he
first volume of the Memoirs of the Society
for the promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and
Manufactures, in New York, is the detail
of various experiments made by Chancellor
Livingston, with lucerne; and one
of the results gives twenty-five tonsofhay,
at five cuttings in a season, from an acre.
In soiling, one acre is sufficient for six
cows during the soiling season. One of
our farmers has kept eight cattle, two oxen
and six cows, upon an acre of lucerne,
during the season, with a range of three
or four acres of pasture. Say, however,
that the produce is equal to a full crop of
red clover, in value, then, if continued
yearly for nine or ten years, (its ordinary
duration in a productive state) at an annual
expense of harrowing and rolling, ami
' * " 1 Ml
a terrennial expense of :op dressing, 11 win
be of sufficient value to induce farmers who
have suitable soils and climates, to lay
down a few acres of Ibis crop, near their
homesteads.
To save seed, the lucerne may be treat,
ed precisely as red clover, i. e., obtained
from the second cutting, or even the third,
the crop being left to ripen its seed. It is
easily threshed, the grains being contain,
ed in small pod?, which readily seperate
under the flail, threshing machine or clover
mill.?BueVs Cultivator, vol. 3d
* In the Carolines September is the best
season?Early Spring may answer.?Fae.
Gaz.
Productive Oats.?This day our at.
tcntion is called by a gentleman who visited
Pembroke yesterday, to some heads
of oats produced from the field of Mr.,
Tilton, near his tavern on the main street
of that town. They are of a kind, several
bushels of which were brought from
Vermont during the last winter, and sold
for one dollar a bushel, called the Scotch
oats, Mr. Tilton sowed two bushels of
them upon an acre of ground along-side
of the common oats. Our informant judg- *
ed that the crop of the Scotch oat# would