There is another bad practice with us in managing our wood-lands; and that is, we cut large trees promiscuously over a wood-lot. In felling, working up, and drawing away a large tree, we must unavoidably destroy a large amount of young timber. I am fully of the opinion that it is better to cut timber on a wood-lot as clean as you can, than to cut in every part of the lot, and so haggle it all over. There might be some advantage in taking out such trees as had begun to decay, if it were not for the liability to destroy the young timber; but the loss of young trees is a greater evil than the loss of a few scattering old ones. If you cut clean as you go, you give the young growth a chance to start all together, and it is not overshadowed by trees of a larger growth. Forest trees make the most rapid growth while they are young; probably before they are forty or fifty years old. I have seen a great number of young groves of forest trees of a second growth; they would, in my opinion, at the age of forty years produce fifty cords of wood. A family would consume of fire-wood about ten cords a year. An acre of fifty cords would last five years, and eight acres would last forty years. Every family should have at least eight acres of good forest land; it should be well fenced against cattle and sheep. Then begin on the back end, and cut all as you go. Time your cutting so as to get over your lot in forty years. An acre of land will produce, if managed right, one and a quarter cord of wood in a year. That sold at $3 a cord would yield but a small profit; but there is every prospect that in time, timber of every kind will sell dearer by far than it now does. Manures. For my views in regard to the best plan of saving manures, see Patent Office Report for 1850-'51, at page 431. Very respectfully, yours, To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. GERSHOM WIBORN. BIG FLAT, N. Y., November 6, 1852. SIR: I received an Agricultural Circular from your department a few days ago. So far as I am able to contribute anything that will beuseful, I will cheerfully do it, as I regard the Report of the Commissioner of great importance to the agricultural community. In the first place, I cultivate an alluvial soil, situated on river flats; consequently my experience will be mostly confined to that. I regard it as of great importance to the farmer to have a rotation of crops in a regular system. My first crop after clover is corn. I plough up well and thoroughly, with three horses, about 10 inches deep. I then plant my corn in hills about 3 feet apart; use as manure in the hill, plaster and ashes mixed together, and drop the corn on it. Then, after it comes up, plaster alone, once. Then cultivate thoroughly by keeping the weeds down and moving the ground often-keeping it loose and free to absorb the dews, particularly when it is dry. The yield is from 70 to 75 bushels to the acre; and the price in this market is 63 cents per bushel. The spring following I sow barley or oats on the corn stubble. By proper cultivation, without any manure, the yield is 40 bushels of barley and 60 bushels of oats per acre. The price in this market for oats is 37 cents; for barley, 62 cents; and always ready sale. In the fall I sow with wheat on the stubble; and in the spring following sow with red clover-the large kind on the wheat ground, which I pasture for one year or two is preferable-before ploughing up again, to pursue the same system as before mentioned. Wheat is worth $1 per bushel. I keep mostly cows to eat my pasture, except what my teams eat. Average yield of butter per cow, during eight months of the season, is 200 pounds; price this year, from 20 to 25 cents per pound. Neat Cattle.-I keep none, as I think they are not profitable on lands worth $50 per acre, as long as there is so much cheap land near market which is worth just as much to keep cattle on. Hay.-Timothy grass is the best in this latitude. My experience does not show that clover is injurious to horses; but, on the contrary, is good for pasture, and, if properly got and cured, also for hay. Rearing horses and mules is undoubtedly profitable, for it costs no more to rear a horse until he is four years old, than it does a steer; and then he is worth four steers, on an average. Sheep are not profitable on low, flat lands; but do better on the hills that surround them. Tobacco. It is now reduced to certainty that this crop is well adapted to the river flats in this region of country. Any information with regard to the culture, curing, and management of this crop, would be thankfully received by the farmers here. Roots, potatoes, beets, carrots, and turnips, of all kinds, do well here, and yield a good profit to those who cultivate them. Manures.-Guano is not used here, as other manures are plenty, and cost less. Lime would be good for the land here, as well as on all alluvial soils, but it costs too much to use it as a manure. Plaster is extensively used on grass of all kinds, in particular. Price here at the mills, $4.50 per ton. - Fruit Apples grow well here, and are paying well those who cultivate them. I consider them good food for hogs, if cooked; and would here remark, that all food for hogs, if cooked, is worth 50 per cent. more, from the fact that a hog does not masticate his food very well; consequently, his digestive organs do not extract the nutriment from it; and grain should be ground for all animals-it richly repays for the trouble. I would here say, that the system I have pursued in regard to rotation of crops has increased the yield of my crops steadily, from year to year, for the last eight years; consequently I can speak with confidence of the method. I take care of all the manure that is naturally made on the farm; but buy none but plaster and ashes. If anything I have said will be of any use, I shall be happy to think I made the effort; and if not, I shall be satisfied, hoping that others will be actuated by the same spirit, the advancement of the greatest interest of the American people-agriculture. Yours, respectfully, To the COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. JOHN HAGGERTY SCOTTSBURG, SPARTA, LIVINGSTON Co., N. Y., SIR: Having received your Circular, and feeling an interest in anything that tends to enlighten the cultivators of the soil, I proceed to give you what little information my limited experience may have produced. Wheat. The average product of wheat per acre varies with "soil and culture, but I think a rough estimate will set the average at from 12 to 20 bushels per acre. Time of sowing, from first to the last day of September-about the middle. I think the best time of harvest from the 20th of July to the 10th of August, according to time of sowing and location of soil. No particular preparation of seed, more than cleaning from foul stuff; quantity per acre, from a bushel and a peck to a bushel and a half. I prefer a bushel and a half to the acre. Farmers usually plough twice, various depths-from four to eight inches. Yield increasing. Price has ranged from 87 cents to one dollar per bushel. Sow clover and Timothy for meadows-clover for pasture; sow in the spring. Corn. So little raised, and product so uncertain, that it is difficult making an estimate. I prefer grinding corn for feeding; and for hogs, scalding the meal. Oats.-The yield varies from 20 to 50 bushels per acre. Our best wheat lands will not produce oats very bountifully, without being well manured; our swampy grounds, that have been ditched and made dry, bearing much the heaviest oats, though usually the grains are not so heavy and plump as on high ground. Sow from two to three bushels per acre. Barley requires loose, rich ground, and on such usually pays well; produce, from 20 to 30 bushels per acre; seed, from 2 to 3 bushels. Rye, scarcely any sown. Peas, very few. Peas, very few. Beans, as a field crop, not usually planted. I have planted in drills, the way I prefer. The yield varies much with ground and season; I consider 12 or 15 bushels the acre a tolerable yield, although more may be grown. Sowing in drills requires from two to four bushels per acre, according to thickness. Clover and Grasses.-The yield of hay varies, like everything else, according to soil and season, from 1 to 3 tons per acre-average, about 1 ton per acre. Plaster is used on meadows with decided advantage, about one hundred pounds to the acre; clover and Timothy, about eight pounds clover seed to four of Timothy seed the acre. Hay, when made in barn or stack, is generally worth from $5 to $10-average, about $7. Dairy. The average yield of butter per cow depends much upon breed and keep. I consider six pounds per week for six months a good yield, although individual cows, with more than common keep, do much better. Butter has ranged from twelve and a half to twenty cents at our nearest markets. Neat Cattle.-Young cattle, unless kept mostly on straw, will consume more, at a fair market value, than they will bring at three years old; yet I consider it better economy for farmers to raise stock to consume the produce of their farms, than sell it off, even if the stock does not net them anything. Average value of three-year old steers and heifers, about $20. Good dairy cows-that is, the average that farmers keep-sell for about $20 in spring, and $12 to $15 in fall. Horses. I consider the growing of horses profitable. I think a colt can be raised, simply considering the amount he will eat after weaned. till three years old, for but little more than a steer, and will sell for three times as much. Sheep and Wool.-I consider wool growing, where a farmer is prepared for it, decidedly profitable. Good-sized Merino sheep I think, taking all things into account, the most profitable. A pound of good Merino wool can be grown for about the same as our common coarse wool, and is worth nearly twice as much in market. Where a farmer is prepared for raising sheep, and takes care of them, he can raise ninety out of every hundred lambs dropped in his flock. But understand me when I say prepared; I mean, he must have plenty of grass and good hay, and good sheds, and must keep up his bucks and take good care of his sheep, and must take care of them himself. Hogs.-The raising of hogs, any more than will consume the wash of the kitchen and coarse food, with a little grain to finish off, is a losing business at the present price of grain. Potatoes.-Irish, average yield about one hundred bushels to the acre; but this season, on good land, they have doubled that amount. The best kinds with me are pale reds-some call them Sardinia reds. Potatoes have rotted so for a few years past, that few farmers planted more than a few in the garden, and potatoes sold last spring for $1 per bushel for seed. This season they have not rotted, to speak of, and sell for about 30 cents. Fruit culture is receiving increased attention, both by setting out trees and grafting old ones. I think it may be made a very profitable crop, decidedly. More worth of first-rate fruit can be grown on an acre than there can be of any kind of grain. I consider good apples worth as much for feeding hogs or cattle as potatoes; and more, if both are in the raw state. (The value of potatoes is materially increased by cooking.) Northern Spy, Swaar, Roxbury Russet, and Newtown Pippin, seem to be considered the best long-keepers in this section. It seems strange, when we consider the many ways that apples can be used profitably, that farmers do not raise more; but apple trees require care and attention to do well, and this a great many do not understand. Many seem to think they require as little care as the trees in the woods; and with such, apple-trees are not very profitable. The many ways they contribute to the comforts of the kitchen, gives them a decided prominence in my estimation. Thus, sir, I have given you a hasty sketch of my notions on some of your queries; of many of them I am wholly unable to say any thing interesting, and therefore have omitted them altogether. I think your inquiries should have extended to soil nearest market, railroad, or water communication, and in this way affording a history of the country, including price of lands, &c. This would give those wishing to change location a good chance for choosing a place to suit. COLLINS GARDNER. To the COMMISSIONER OF Patents. CLINTONDALE, ULSTER COUNTY, N. Y., December 15, 1852. SIR: A Circular from you has been received, and I proceed to reply as follows: Wheat. This crop in the early settlement of Ulster county was considered the safest and most remunerating of all the grains then raised on the newly cultivated lands. But a continued cultivation, without any regard to rotation, in process of time exhausted some of the elements necessary to its production, and introduced to us an increased number of insects, which, by nature, appear to acquire their life and growth almost solely from the wheat plant. From these discouraging causes, the fariners, after many years of fruitless toil, were compelled in a great measure to abandon the cultivation of this favorite grain, except in isolated cases, and on highly fertilized soil. The cultivation of rye was substituted, and for many years was considered the staple crop of this county. For the past ten years, the cultivation of wheat has gradually increased, and at present, in its turn, bids fair to supersede rye. Now, the cause of this change may, to some extent, be accounted for by a reproduction of the elements necessary to its growth during the time it was withheld from occupying the soil, and also a corresponding decrease of insects from a lack of food to subsist on during that period. Be that as it may, we farmers of Ulster hail the return of the wheat crop with feelings of gratitude. I believe the average production of wheat to the acre in this county to be about 20 bushels, and annually increasing. In some instances 40 bushels and over have been produced from the acre, but these instances are rare. The seed is generally sown without preparation, at the rate of from 12 to 2 bushels to the acre, from the 1st to the 20th of September, on fallow ground, with twice ploughing, or immediately succeeding a crop of oats; in the latter case, after manuring. This system of rotation in crops varies with us; but most generally a crop of grass is succeeded by Indian corn, followed the next season by oats; the ground is then manured and sown with wheat or rye, and seeded down with grass. The season for harvesting our wheat is from the 10th to the 20th of July. Various trials and experiments have been resorted to in order to remedy the evils of the Hessian fly, but so far without effecting any worthy of consideration. The manures chiefly used for fertilizing our land are barnyard and stable manures. Lime, plaster, ashes, hen and hog manures, and muck, are all applied to lands when obtainable. The subject of renovating our soils after a rotation of exhausting crops is claiming the attention of our farmers more than formerly, and manures and stimulants are sought after and applied to our lands whenever practicable. Guano is not yet brought into general use in this county, except in gardening and horticultural operations. I applied Peruvian guano to a part of my wheat, sown this fall as an experiment, at the rate of 250 pounds to the acre, sown broadcast, and immediately covered; the increased growth and vigorous appearance of the wheat plant where the guano has been applied, over that manured with other fertilizers, augurs very favorably for the guano. Another year I may be enabled to give you the particulars of the experiment in profit and loss. The average price of wheat at our landings along the Hudson river is about $1 12, ranging |