ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

have a gangway, full length of the stable in front, to feed without entering the stalls; and as the cattle never turn round, (but, at the same time, can lick themselves,) they are easily cleaned out every morning, and placed under the manure shed; and the stalls are littered down again for another night; so that all liquid manures are absorbed in the litter, and carried out under the sheds every morning.

Towards spring, as the weather gets warmer, I use ground plaster to sprinkle the stalls, which absorbs all gases. Charcoal dust is better, however, when it can be had. In summer, I never stable cattle except in very stormy nights; but I find, in winter, cattle do much better in stalls; and, having them separate, you may feed each one with what you choose, without the others interfering.

Very respectfully, yours,

JAMES CAMPBELL.

To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS.

SALEM, SALEM COUNTY, NEW JERSEY,

December 25, 1852.

SIR: Having received a Circular, propounding certain questions relative to farming operations, I here with send the following answers-being to some of the questions which apply more particularly to this locality:

Wheat.-Guano is used in the production of wheat to a considerable extent; about 200 pounds per acre is the quantity generally applied; sometimes of little benefit-at other times it produces from five to ten bushels per acre extra, besides adding to the after crop of grass.

It is thought to be most beneficial ploughed in; quantity of seed per acre, from five to six pecks when drilled, and from six to eight pecks when sown broadcast. The drill is much used here. The average yield is from 15 to 20 bushels per acre, and increasing. Timothy and clover seeds are generally sown; the former in the fall, the latter in the spring; average price, 95 cents per bushel. The rotation of crops generally practised here is, corn after grass, which is followed by corn, oats, or potatoes; then wheat; and grass follows wheat.

Corn.-Guano is not much used in the production of corn; average crop, 50 bushels per acre; some fields yield nearly 100 bushels; the season having been all the farmers could ask as regards moisture, but rather cool for corn. A sod is considered best for corn, ploughed soon after the frost leaves the ground-the earlier the better, so as to give the rains and other influences time to pack the ground previous to planting; which gives the young corn a better chance to take good root and grow off early.

Oats. Not much grown, having given place, within a few years, to potatoes. The crop good-from 40 to 50 bushels per acre.

Barley, rye, peas, and beans not much cultivated.

Clover and Grasses.-About an average crop, one and a half ton per acre. Experience does not show that red clover is injurious to horses when fed in moderate quantities.

Dairy husbandry is not followed to any great extent, but must increase, owing to the facilities which are being made to convey our productions to market. A neighboring woman made 3,000 pounds of good

cheese, from ten cows, in four months, and sold the same in Salem for eight cents per pound.

Buying store cattle, and fattening them for market, has been followed

in this section.

Root Crops.-These have not been cultivated to much extent.

Irish Potatoes.-The cultivation of this crop has been much extended, but the crop per acre has diminished; average this year, not over 50 bushels per acre-not so profitable as corn. A very large yield was anticipated until near the end of summer, when the vines died suddenly, without any satisfactory reason having as yet been assigned. Some say worms in the vine killed them; but I could find none in mine. Others say a hot sun after a heavy rain; but this is only conjecture. Best system of planting is in rows, in every third furrow, with a small plough. We manure from the yards, and spread broadcast; some plough twice, and some only once, and some rake the manure on the potatoes. Where marl is easy of access, (this being the marl region,) it is used to a great extent on potatoes, and produces the best. As soon as planted, run the fallow harrow over the ground, and continue to do so after every rain, sufficiently heavy to pack the surface of the ground, and start the weeds and grass, until the vines begin to bud; then use the cultivator and plough.

I have had a machine made far preferable to the plough, as a boy 10 or 12 years old can work it. Half a round to the row is sufficient, and it does the work better than a plough. I had 5 small ploughs set in a frame similar to a cultivator, 2 on each side of the frame, so as to throw 2 furrows to each row; and another, with 2 mould-boards to follow, to clear up the middle. In order for the machine to perform well, it is necessary to keep the ground mellow.

Fruit Culture-The cultivation of fruit is receiving increased attention; and it is profitable both for market and home consumption. So much has been written and published on the cultivation of fruit within the last year by the pomological societies, that, although a nursery-man, I pass it by.

Manures.-Lime, plaster, and marl are much used as fertilizers. Plaster is used on clover at the rate of from a half to a bushel per acre, which more than doubles the crop in many places. Soaking seed corn and rolling in plaster help to give it a start; and also a good color.

Respectfully,

DAVID PETIT.

LOWER ALLOWAY'S CREEK, SALEM COUNTY, N. J.,
December 22, 1852.

SIR: I find thy Circular still lying beside me unanswered, after having had it in my possession some months. It will be but little information I can give in answer to thy queries. Yet I will take them up in order as they are asked, and pass over such of them as relate to crops not cultivated in our section of the country; endeavoring, to the best of my humble abilities, to give satisfactory answers.

1st. Wheat.-Guano is used to some extent on this crop in our section of the State. As to the exact increase 100 pounds of guano will produce, I cannot say; there being no experiments (that I know of) in

my neighborhood made with sufficient accuracy to ascertain it. I will attempt, however, to approximate it in the following manner, which those acquainted with the raising of wheat can interpret for themselves, and judge whether, in their own cases, the reasoning would be correct. I have now growing on my farm a field of wheat, part of which was manured with 300 pounds of Peruvian guano to the acre, and the other part with barn-yard manure, about 18 two-horse loads to the acre, and the appearance of the guanoed wheat is fully equal to that manured from the barn-yard. From my former experience, I can, I think, safely conclude that the guanoed wheat will continue as good until harvest, and produce as much as my other wheat. Wheat will not do well in this section without manure; and I believe that the difference between my manured and unmanured wheat will generally be one half. My general average is about 25 bushels per acre; allowing one-half to be produced by manure, 12 bushels, it will be 4 bushels increase to 100 pounds of guano.

The average product of this (Salem) county is, I believe, about from 18 to 20 bushels to the acre; although 30 and 35, and even 40 bushels, are sometimes raised on our best farms. The Mediterranean is the variety most generally raised; and it appears to suit our soil and climate very well. The blue-stem is somewhat cultivated; and the white, golden, and Australian are also sown by myself and others in my neighborhood. It has a very handsome grain, yielding well both in quantity and quality of flour; and in warm, rich lands, it promises to become a very valuable variety. We sow about the last of September, or the first week in October, using about 2 bushels of seed per acre; and harvest the last of June, or first of July. We usually plough twice before sowing, 6 or 7 inches deep. Our yield is, without doubt, on the increase. Our system of rotation differs some in different situations. Some farms have meadow lands lying on our creeks and rivers unsuitable for tillage, but enabling the owners to crop their uplands oftener. We may, perhaps, set it down at 4 years. My own system is, however, once in 3 years. That is to one crop of Indian corn followed by either oats or potatoes; and these again by wheat, sown down with clover; but the clover is not suffered to remain, for I plough it under the next spring for corn again; and so on, as before. I set apart a portion of my land for grass, and allow it to remain a number of years, giving it an occasional top-dressing; believing a three course system better suited to Indian corn than a four, and, with proper manuring, no disadvantage to the wheat crop. The best remedy for the Hessian fly is, in my opinion, to sow early. Our average price for all kinds of wheat for this year may be set down at $1. When Timothy is used, we generally sow in the fall; clover, early in the spring-as soon as the frost is out of the ground.

2d. Corn.-Guano is beginning to be used with us, and I believe with advantage in the production of corn. It is generally sown broadcast, and ploughed in in the spring, when breaking up the ground for planting; the quantity used is from 200 to 300 pounds to the acre. It is sometimes mixed with dirt and applied in the hill to advantage, particularly in low and cold lands. It is not easy to ascertain the average product; but in this county we may average from 40 to 50 bushels; some of our best farms have yielded in favorable seasons as high as 75 or 80. I believe from my own experience Indian corn is best planted on a clover

if

lay; ploughed late in the spring, harrowed before planting and rolled, the ground be dry enough. Cross-furrowed four feet three inches apart each way, with from three to four grains in a hill.

Oats have formerly been extensively raised in this county; but potatoes are now fast taking their place. They are a very uncertain crop, avera ging from 30 to 50 bushels per acre. I do not consider them profitable, but they come off the ground very seasonably to be followed by wheat. The quantity of rye raised is very small compared with what it was some years ago-perhaps not over one-tenth; and in my immediate neighborhood there is none. We are in the habit of sowing clover and Timothy, about equally mixed, on our uplands for hay; and the yield is from one and a half to two tons the acre. The best fertilizer for meadows with us is winter flooding and top-dressing with upland dirt, because most profitable. For upland pastures I prefer long barn-yard manure, spread over the ground in the month of February. In our best banked meadows Timothy is preferred. The quantity of seed used is one bushel to five or six acres. In our low meadows we use the herdsgrass, (red top,) one bushel to the acre. I believe that it is not safe to feed red clover unmixed to horses. We are too far from market to do much with butter; the average price here this season being about 15 cents the year round. Cheese brings about 8 cents. I think we cannot raise a good steer until three years old for less than $20, and the usual price with us is from $25 to $30. Good dairy cows will command from $25 to $30, there being but little difference between spring and fall, owing to our having plenty of fodder, which we prefer feeding on the farm to selling it off and buying manure. In addition to our native breeds of cattle, we have Durhams and Devons, and it is thought that a given quantity of grain will produce more meat in them than in the native stock. Oxen were formerly used for work in our section, but they are now almost entirely abandoned for horses and mules; the rearing of which I consider profitable. The expense of rearing a colt until three years old will vary much according to feed, &c.; but I believe a good colt may be raised for $50.

Hogs.-The Berkshire and Chester county are both very good breeds. Our method is to raise on clover, and fatten on corn in the fall, which is mostly fed to them whole; but some grind it. I generally rub my hams with fine salt and sugar mixed together, lay them in the cask dry, and in the course of 4 or 5 days make a pickle, sufficiently strong to bear an egg, adding about one-half gallon of molasses and one-half pound of saltpetre to 100 pounds of ham, which I pour over them in the cask, so as to cover them, and let them remain in the pickle about 5 weeks.

Root crops are not cultivated with us as field crops, although I think they might be with profit. Irish potatoes have been extensively raised within a few years past in this part of our State. We consider the

Mercer the most profitable variety on account of its ready sale; it generally brings about 50 cents a bushel at Salem or Hancock's Bridge, our nearest markets, yielding about an average of 75 to 100 bushels to the Sweet potatoes are also extensively raised on our light lands for the Philadelphia and Wilmington markets, yielding a good profit to the owners of those soils.

acre.

Manures.-We gather everything we can into our barn-yards, composting very little, and finishing out with lime, guano, and gypsum.

We use about 50 to 100 bushels of slaked lime to the acre once in about four to six years. Gypsum, in my immediate neighborhood, does not appear to answer well as manure-supposed on account of salt air; but it is extensively used further from salt water. It has frequently been tried here, but uniformly without success. One of my neighbors tried it in four different places on three different crops this season, but without the least sign of effect; another one tried it upon clover, but without any perceptible effect. All this, it is true, was very well known to those who read before; but it has been said that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty:" so also truth can only be maintained by an eternal warfare with superstition and error. In the case of plaster, the evidence formerly adduced, that salt air would destroy its effects, seems to be losing its hold on the community.

:

Thine truly,

THOMAS SHOWRDS.

NEW YORK, January 15, 1853.

SIR Presuming that the interests of agriculture are within the consideration of your department, I would ask your attention to the growth of hemp upon the extensive marshes along the coast.

These marshes can be reclaimed by enclosing them in a water-tight wall of hydraulic cement and sand, 2 feet high, in sections of 160 acres, at an expense of about $4 per acre.

Hemp prepared in salt water is of a much finer quality, and more of its original strength of fibre.

preserves

Respectfully,

EDWARD C. COOPER.

To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS.

OVID, SENECA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
December 27, 1852.

SIR: Your Circular in relation to the agriculture of this county for the current year was duly received. One of the undersigned having received one of the like kind last year, and answered it at some length, makes it difficult to respond to this and avoid unnecessary repetition.

The last winter was cold and the spring backward; wheat injured by the winter and also by the weevil; estimated at from 25 to 30 per cent. below a common yield; quality inferior; price here since harvest ranged from 87 cents to $1 a bushel; price of transportation to New York by canal, 14 cents a bushel; quantity sown to the acre of land, bushel, and many of our practical farmers think it does best put in with the drill; varieties most esteemed are the Soule, the Hutchinson, and the white flint; some blue-stem was sown a year ago last seed time, but it did no better than other varieties. No satisfactory remedy has been discovered for weevils; they appear to do the most damage in such parts of the crop as have been injured by the winter; hence some conclude if we sow earlier and have an earlier spring, we may escape their ravages. The first remedy suggested may, and probably will, subject it to injury by the Hessian fly; and whether the same warm weather that will mature the wheat early will not at the same time bring to maturity the weevil, is yet to be tested.

« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »