these are so wasteful and slovenly as not to merit consideration. || thy, &c. Critical observation for years has confirmed me in this The stalks, blades and tops of corn, if well secured, are an excellent conclusion. Gypsum must be rendered soluble before it can be tafodder for neat cattle. If cut, or cut and steamed, so that they can ken up by the mouths of plants, and it requires 600 parts of water be readily masticated, they are superior to hay. Besides, their fer- to dissolve one of this mineral. I infer from these facts, that by tilizing properties, as a manure, are greatly augmented by being fed burying it in the soil, it more readily dissolves, and is more accessi out in the cattle yard, and imbibing the urine and liquids which ble to the mouths of plants, than if spread upon the surface of the always there abound, and which are lost to the farm, in ordinary ground. I am induced, from these views of the subject, to sow yards, without an abundance of dry litter to take them up. By the plaster, on grass grounds, in March, and upon corn and potato first of these methods, the crop may be secured before the autumnal grounds before the last ploughing for these crops. The latter was rains; the value of the fodder is increased, and the ground is clear- recommended and practised by the distinguished agriculturists, the ed in time for a winter crop of wheat or rye. The second mode late Mr. Taylor of Virginia, and Judge Peters of Pennsylvania. impairs the value of the forage, requires more labor, and does not (e) The following table exhibits the difference in product of variincrease the quantity, or improve the quality, of the grain. The ous methods of planting, and serves also to explain the manner in third mode requires the same labor as the first, may improve the which large crops of this grain have been obtained. I have assumquality of the grain, but must inevitably deteriorate the quality of ed in the estimate, that each stock produces one ear of corn, and the fodder. The corn cannot be husked too promptly after it is that the ears average one gill of shelled grain. This is estimating gathered from the field. If permitted to heat, the value of the grain the product low; for while I am penning this (October,) I find that is seriously impaired. (i) my largest ears give two gills, and 100 fair ears half a bushel of shelled corn. The calculation is also predicated upon the supposition, that there is no deficiency in the number of stocks, a contingency pretty sure on my method of planting. 1. Sowing seed. The fairest and soundest ears are either selected in the field, or, at the time of husking, a few of the husks being left on, braided and preserved in an airy situation till wanted for use. In making choice of sorts, the object should be to obtain the varieties which ripen early, and afford the greatest crop. I think these two properties are best combined in a twelve rowed kind which I obtained from Vermont some years ago, and which I call Dutton 2. corn, from the name of the gentleman from whom I received it. It 3. is earlier than the common eight rowed yellow, or any other field 4. variety I have seen, and at the same time gives the greatest product. I have invariably cut the crop in the first fourteen days of 5. September, and once in the last week in August. The cob is large, but the grain is so compact upon it, that two bushels of sound ears have yielded five pecks of shelled grain, weighing 62 lbs. the bushel. In securing the fodder, precaution must be used. The buts become wet by standing on the ground, and if placed in large stacks, or in the barn, the moisture which they contain often induces fer- 6. mentation and mouldiness. To avoid this I put them first in stacks so small, that the whole of the buts are exposed upon the outer surface; and when thoroughly dry they may be taken to the barn, or left to be moved as they are wanted to be fed out-merely regarding the propriety of removing a whole stack at the same time. NOTES. (a) Estimated expense of cultivating an acre of Indian Corn: Two hoeings, 4 days and horse team, ..... Cutting and harvesting stalks, 2.00 3 75 150 150 500 The fifth mode I have tried. The ground was highly manured, the crop twice cleaned, and the entire acre gathered and weighed accurately the same day. The product in ears was 103 baskets, each 84 lbs. nett, and 65 lbs. over. The last basket was shelled and measured, which showed a product on the acre of 118 bushels 10 quarts. I gathered at the rate of more than 100 bushels the acre, from four rods planted in the third method, last summer; the result ascertained in the most accurate manner. Corn shrinks about 20 per cent after it is cribbed. The sixth mode is the one by which $15 75 the Messrs. Pratts, of Madison county, obtained the prodigious crop (b) Stable and yard manures lose 50 per cent by the fermenta- of 170 bushels per acre. These gentlemen, I am told, are of opition they undergo in the yard during the summer This loss con- nion, that the product of an acre may be increased to 200 bushels. sists of the gases which are evolved in the process of rotting, and (f) I am told the Messrs. Pratts, above alluded to, used seven of the fluids which sink into the earth, or are carried off by the bushels of seed to the acre, the plants being subsequently reduced rains. Plants receive their food either in the gaseous or liquid form. to the requisite number. If manure rots in the soil, neither these gases or fluids are lost: the earth retains, and the roots of the plants imbibe them. Yet recent manures are not proper to be applied to small grains. They cause too rank a growth of straw, and are apt to induce rust and mildew. Thus a crop of corn, potatoes or ruta baga may be fed and fattened, if I may use the expression, upon the dung which is destined to nourish the wheat crop, without deteriorating its value for the latter purpose, if it is applied to the corn, &c. before it has fermented. (c) We are on the northern border of the maize zone, and should make up for defect in climate by selecting soils into which the heat readily penetrates. Air, besides conveying warmth in summer, imparts fertility by the vegetable food which is always suspended in it in the form of gases. Dews are also charged with these properties of vegetable nutriment, and when the soil is porous, they settle down as in a sponge, and impart fertility to the roots, (the true mouths,) of plants. (g) The cultivator is made in the form of a triangular harrow, with two bulls; or if intended to be graduated to different width, a centre bull is added, to which the exterior ones are attached by hinges. Iron slats, fixed to the exterior bulls, pass through a mortice in the centre one, perforated with holes, through which an iron pin passes to hold them at the graduated width. The teeth may be in any approved form, or reasonable number. The cultivator I use has five teeth, two in each of the outward, and one upon the centre timber. The teeth have a stout shank, with a duck's foots termination, four inches broad, somewhat cylindrical, rounded at the point, and inclined forward in an angle of 30 or 40°. This implement is useful for other purposes; and may be used, like Beatson's, as a substitute for the plough, in preparing light soils for a crop. The handles are attached to the centre piece. The teeth have a shoulder, on the under side of the timber, and are fastened with screws and nuts above. (h) Some entertain a mistaken notion, that it is prejudicial to stir the soil among corn in dry weather, and others that weeds serve to prevent the evaporation of moisture by a hot sun. The reverse of these opinions is true. The exhaustion of moisture by a plant is in the ratio of the surface of its leaves and stocks presented to the (d) I adopt the opinion of Davy, as the modus operandi of plaster of Paris, that it forms a necessary constituent of plants which it benefits, and is of no direct benefit to plants which do not afford it on analysis. Among the first are the clovers, corn, potatoes, and generally such plants as have broad or succulent leaves; while the latter embrace culmiferous grains and grasses, as wheat, rye, timo-sun and air. (i) The leaves are the necssary organs for elaborating the food || ploughing down farm-yard dung, it is commonly necessary to go of plants, and when these are taken away the plant must cease to rather deep, that no part of the manure may be left exposed to the grow. The sap is useless until it undergoes elaboration in the atmosphere. In the first ploughing for fallow or green crops, it is leaves. Hence, when corn is topped in the usual way, the supply of advisable to work as deep as possible, and no great danger is to be food is cut off from the grain, except what may be elaborated in the apprehended, though a small portion of the sub-soil be at that time husks. On comparing corn gathered by the first and second modes, brought to the surface. it was the opinion of those who assisted in husking, that the first The furrow-slices are generally distributed into beds, varying in was soundest, brightest and heaviest. The third mode I have not breadth according to circumstances; these are called ridges or lands, tried. But it seems probable, that the grain might acquire an in- and are divided from one another by gutters or open furrows.crease of volume, though it would lose again by depredation and These last serve as guides to the hand and eye of the sower, to the waste. The first method has these further advantages that it pre-reapers, and also for the application of manures in a regular manner. serves the cob from being saturated with rains, and secures the fod-In soils of a strong or retentive nature, or which have wet, close subder, when it is in its highest perfection and greatest quantity. Science of Agriculture. PLOUGHING. soils, these furrows serve likewise as drains for carrying off the surface water, and being cleared out, after the land is sowed and harrowed, have the name of water-furrows, Ridges are not only different in breadth, but are raised more or less in the middle, on different soils. On clayey retentive soils, the Ploughing is justly considered the most important of agricultural great point to be attended to is the discharge of superfluous water. operations, as on the manner in which this is performed, depends But narrow ridges or stitches of from three to five feet, are not apthe facility of executing all succeeding operations on the same piece proved of in some of the best cultivated counties. In these a breadth of land. The manual operation of holding the plough in a proper po- of fifteen or eighteen feet, the land raised by two gatherings of the sition, and directing the horses or cattle which draw it at the same plough, is most commonly adopted for such soils; such ridges being time, is only to be acquired by experience; when once attained it is thought more convenient for manuring, sowing, harrowing, and reapperhaps one of the most agreeable and healthy of agricultural exer-ing, than narrower ones; and the water is drained off quite as ef cises, the body being kept upright, the arms and legs being brought ||fectually. into action, and also the eye and the mind, to keep the furrow straight, Ridges on dry porous turnip soils, may be formed much broader; and of regular width and depth, and the voice to speak to the horses. and were it not for their use in directing the laborers, may be, and Three different points require particular attention in ploughing: sometimes are, dispensed with altogether. They are often thirty or 1st, The breath of the slice to be cut; 2d, its depth; and 3d, the thirty-six feet broad, which in Scotland are called ban-win ridges, degree in which it is to be turned over;-which last circumstance because reaped by a band of shearers, commonly six, served by one depends both upon the construction of the plough, particularly the binder. If it be wished to obliterate the intermediate furrows, this mould-board, and the care of the ploughman. may be done by casting up a narrow ridgelet, or single bout ridge, The breadth and depth of the furrow-slice are regulated by judicious-between the two broad ridges, which is afterwards levelled by the ly placing the draught on the nozzle or bridle of the plough; setting harrows. it so as to go more or less deep, and to take more or less land or The mode of forming ridges straight, and of uniform breadth, is as breadth of slice, according as may be desired. In general, the follows: let us suppose a field perfectly level, that is to be laid off plough is so regulated that, if left to itself, and merely kept from fall-into ridges of any determinable breadth. The best ploughman being over, it would cut a little broader and a little deeper than is re-longing to the farm conducts the operation, with the aid of three or quired. The coulter is also placed with some inclination towards more poles, shod with iron, in the following manner: The first thing the left or land side, and the point of the stock or share has a slight is to mark off the head ridges, on which the horses turn into plough tendency downwards. ing, which should in general be of an equal breadth from the boundThe degree to which the furrow-slice turns over, is in a great mea-ing lines of the field, if these lines are not very crooked or irregular. sure determined by the proportion between its breadth and depth, The next operation, assuming one straight side of the field, or a line which for general purposes, is usually as three is to two, or when that has been made straight, as the proper direction of the ridges, is the furrow is nine inches broad it ought to be six inches in depth. to measure off from it with one of the poles, half the intended When the slice is cut in this proportion, it will be nearly half turned breadth of the ridge, if it is to be gathered, or one breadth and a half, over, or recline at an angle of forty or forty-five degrees; and a field if to be ploughed flat; and then the ploughman sets up a pole as a so ploughed will have its ridges longitudinally ribbed into angular direction for the plough to enter. On a line with this, and at some drills or ridglets. But, if the slice is much broader in proportion to distance, he plants a second pole, and then in the same manner a its depth, it will be almost completely overturned, or left nearly flat, third, fourth, &c. as the irregularity of the surface may render newith its original surface downwards; and each successive slice will cessary, though three must always be employed-the last of them at be somewhat overlapped by that which was turned over immediate the end of the intended ridge, and the whole in one straight line. ly before it. And finally, when the depth materially exceeds the He then enters the plough at the first pole, keeping the line of poles width, each furrow-slice will fall over on its side, leaving all the ori- exactly between the horses, and ploughs down all the poles successginal surface bare, and only laid somewhat obliquely to the horizon. ively; halting his horses at each, and replacing it at so many feet Ploughing with the breadth and depth nearly in the proportion of distant as the ridges are to be broad; so that when he reaches the three to two, is best adapted for laying up stubble land after harvest, end of the ridge, all his poles are again set up in a new line parallel when it is to remain during winter exposed to the mellowing influ-to the first. He returns, however, along his former track, correcting ence of frost, preparatory to fallow or turnips. The shallow furrow of considerable width, as five inches in depth by eight or nine wide, is understood to answer best for breaking up old lays, because it covers up the grass turf, and does not bury the manured soil. Ploughing with the depth of the furrow considerably exceeding the width, is a most unprofitable and uselessly slow operation, which ought seldom or never to be adopted. The most generally useful breadth of a furrow-slice is from eight to ten inches, and the depth, which ought to be seldom less than four inches, except in soils uncommonly thick and fertile. When it is necessary to go deeper, as for carrots and some other deep rooted plants, a trench ploughing may be given by means of a second plough following in the same furrow. Shallow ploughing ought always to be adopted after turnips are eaten on the ground, that the manure may not be buried too deep; and also in covering lime-especially if the ground has been pulverized by fallowing, because it naturally tends to sink in the soil. In any deviations, and throwing a shallow furrow on the opposite side of his former one. This mode has a decided preference over the common practice, of laying the two furrows first towards each other. By first throwing them from each other, and then reversing them, the whole ground is ploughed; and, if the first furrows are shallow, the ridge has but a slight elevation in the centre. These furrows, when reversed, form the crown of the ridge, and direct the ploughmen who are to follow. The same operations are carried on until the whole field is marked out. The direction and length of ridges are points which must evidently be regulated by the nature of the surface, and the size of the field. Short angular ridges, called butts, which are often necessary in a field of irregular boundaries, are always attended with a considerable loss of time, and ought to be avoided as much as possible. In ploughing steep land, it is advisable to give the ridges an inclination towards the right hand at the top, by which, in going up the acclivity, the furrow falls more readily from the plough, and with less fatigue to the horses. Another advantage in forming ridges in a slanting direction on such land is, that the soil is not so likely to ox-husbandry should visit the valleys of North or South Devon, to be washed down from the higher ground, as if the ridges were laid see what this animal is capable of performing, and how he performs at right angles. Wherever circumstances will permit, however, the it. best direction is due north and south, by which the grain on both sides of the ridge enjoys nearly equal advantages from the influence of the sun.-Enc. Britanica. "The profit derived from the use of oxen in this district, arises from the activity to which they are trained, and which is unknown in any other part of the kingdom. During harvest time, and in catching weather, they are sometimes trotted along with the empty wagons, at the rate of six miles an hour, a degree of speed which no other ox but the Devon has been able to withstand. 66 In ploughing relatively to season, it. is well known, that clayey or tenacious soils should never be ploughed when wet; and that it is almost equally improper to let them become too dry; especially if a crop is to be sown without a second ploughing. The state in which They are usually taken into the work at about two years, or such lands should be ploughed is what is commonly indicated by the twenty-six months old, and they are worked till they are four, or phrase "atween the wet and the dry,"—while the ground is slight-five or six; they are then grazed, or kept on hay, and in ten or ly inoist, mellow, and the least cohesive.-Enc. Ag. Cattle Husbandry. MIDDLE HORNS-DEVON COW. "There are few things more remarkable about the Devonshire cattle than the comparative smallness of the cow. The bull is a great deal less than the ox, and the cow almost as much smaller than the bull. This, however, is of some advantage, and the breeders are aware of it; for although it may not be necessary to have a large bull, and especially as those of any extraordinary size are seldom handsome in all their points, but somehow or other present coarseness or deformity, it is almost impossible to procure large and serviceable oxen, except from a somewhat roomy cow. These cows, however, although small, possess that roundness and projection of two or three of the last ribs, which make them actually more roomy than a careless examination of them would indicate. The cow is particularly distinguished for her full round clear eye, the gold coloured circle round the eye, and the same colour prevailing on the inside skin of the ear. The countenance cheerful, the muzzle orange or yellow, but the rest of the face having nothing of black, or even white about it. The jaws free from thickness, and the throat free from dewlap. The points of the back and the hind quarters different from those of other breeds, having more of roundness and beauty, and being free from most of those angles by which good milkers are sometimes distinguished." QUALITIES OF THE DEVONS. "Their qualities may be referred to three points; their working, fattening and milking. twelve months, and without any further trouble, they are fit for the market. If the grass land is good, no corn, or cake, or turnips, are required for the first winter; but, of course, for a second winter these must be added. The grazier likes this breed best at five years old, and they will when usually taken from the plough, fetch as much money as at six. At eight or nine years, or older, they are rapidly declining in value. "Lord Somerville states, that after having been worked lightly on the hills for two years, they are bought at four years old by the til lage farmer of the vales, and taken into hard work from four to six; and, what deserves consideration, an ox must thus be worked in order for him to attain his fullest size. If he his kept idle until he is five or six, he will invariably be stinted in his growth. At six he reaches his full stature, unless he is naturally disposed to be of more than ordinary size, and then he continues to grow for another half year. 66 "Their next quality is their disposition to fatten, and very few rival them here. They do not, indeed, attain the great weight of some breeds; but, in a given time, they acquire more flesh, and with less consumption of food, and their flesh is beautiful in its kind. It is of that mottled, marbled character, so pleasing to the eye, and to the taste. Some very satisfactory experiments have been made on this point. Mr. Carpenter a very intelligent farmer, informs us, that the Duke of Bedford had some prime Hereford oxen sent to his Tavistock estate in the month of April, and he ordered some Devons to be bought at the latter end of the same month. The Devons were not in so good condition as the Herefords when they were put to grass, and cost about £5 a head less than the Hereford; but at the latter end of December, when they were all sold to the butcher, the Devons were superior in fatness and weight. "A more satisfactory experiment was made by the same nobleSix oxen were selected in Nov. 16, and fed until Dec. 10, the following year, and the following was the result: "Where the ground is not too heavy, the Devonshire oxen are unrivalled at the plough. They have a quickness of action which no other breed can equal, and which very few horses exceed. They have also a degree of docility and goodness of temper, and also stout-man. ness and honesty of work, to which many teams of horses cannot pretend. Vancouver, in his survey of Devonshire, says, that it is a common day's work on fallow land, for four steers to plough two acres with a double furrow plough. Four good Devon steers will do as much work in a field, or on the road, as any three horses, and in as quick, and often quicker, time, although many farmers calculate two oxen as equal to one horse. The principal objection to the Devonshire oxen is, that they have not sufficient strength for tenacious clayey soil: they will, however, exert their strength to the utmost, and stand many a dead pull, which few horses could be induced or forced to attempt. They are uniformly worked in yokes, and not in collars. Four oxen, or six growing steers. "There is a peculiarity in driving the ox-team, which is very pleasing to the stranger, and the remembrance of which, connected with his early days, the native does not soon lose. A man and a boy attend each team; the boy chants that which can scarcely be regarded as any distinct tune, but which is a very pleasing succession of sounds, resembling the counter-tenor in the service of the cathedral. He sings away with unrivalled lungs, as he trudges along almost from morning till night, while every now and then the ploughman as he directs the movements of the team, puts in his lower notes, but in perfect concord. When the traveller stops in one of the Devonshire valleys, and hears this simple music from the drivers of the ploughs on the slope of the hill on either side, he experiences a pleasure which this operation of husbandry would] scarcely be supposed to be capable of affording. This chanting is said to animate the oxen somewhat in the same way as the musical bells that are so prevalent in the same country. Certainly the oxen move along with an agility that would scarcely be expected from cattle and the train may be watched along time without one harsh word being heard, or the goad or whip applied. The opponents of VOL. I. F Hereford, 2 do 5 Susses, result: 1 Devon, 2 do 3 Glamorgan, "We are aware that experiments have been instituted with different results. " "For the dairy, the North Devons must be acknowledged to be inferior to several other breeds. Their milk is good, and yields more than average proportion of cream and butter; but it is defi *The difference in the richness of milk in oleaginous properties often amounts to one-third. The writer of this note tested the milk of five cows, about the same time, with the lacotmeter. The cream was found to vary from nine to fifteen per cent. cient in quantity. There are those, however, and no mean judges, whole premises. The first led me (but not in time by many years) who deny this, and select the North Devons even for the dairy. to adopt some method more effectual than cutting off the tops to "Mr. Conyears, of Copt Hall, near Epping, a district almost ex-stop their progress. clusively devoted to the dairy, preferred the North Devons, on ac- It is well known to all farmers as well as botanists, that the roots count of their large produce, whether in milk, butter, or by suckling. of no tree or plant, whether annual, biennial or perennial, can long He thought that they held their milk longer than any other sort that survive, if prevented from vegetating, and coming to the light of he had tried; that they were liable to fewer disorders in their ud-day. My theory was based on this principle. I commenced operaders; and that being of small size, they did not eat more than half tions about eight years ago on some small patches in a field planted what larger cows consumed. He thus sums up his account of them: with corn, as soon as any thistles appeared after planting, cutting Upon average, ten cows gave me five dozen pounds of butter per them off twice a week at first and was very particular never to week in the summer, and two dozen in the winter. A good North have it neglected. It would take but a few moments to go over a Devon cow fats two calves a year. My 30 North Devon cows have patch two or three rods square, with a hoe; at the same time being this year upon an average, produced a profit of £13 14 0 per cow.' very careful to leave none: and to be sure of this I generally went [About $61.] As nurses they are excellent; and the calves thrive over the ground, row by row, a second time. The deeper they are from their small quantity of milk more rapidly than could possibly cut off with the corner of the hoe, the longer time of course it will be expected." require the new shoots to reach the surface again. I followed them up in this way, and about the middle of August they began to come up thin and scattering, and appeared of a sickly, yellowish hue.This was encouraging, and we continued the operation, (though I found it was not necessary to look to them quite as often as at first,) to about the first of October, or until no more appeared, and none Miscellaneous. CANADA THISTLES. Although we gave an abstract of the following communication, which we copy from the Genesee Farmer, in our first number, yet from the high cha-have since shown themselves in these spots. racter of the gentleman who wrote it, THOMAS HILLHOUSE, Esq. as a citi- By digging down to the main roots in August or September, they zen and a farmer, the importance of the subject, to our agriculture,—and a were found in a state of decay, being of a blackish colour. The reperfect conviction, arising as well from a conversation with Mr. Hillhouse,sult of this first attempt, is already given; but I will give something as from the laws which govern vegetation, that the mode here recommend. more of the details of the operation. That there should be no diffied, if strictly attended to and persevered in, is the most effectual mode of culty in finding the several patches when the corn had attained its full height, 1 placed high poles at each spot so that they could be destroying this noxious cumbrance of the ground,-we are induced to copy seen over the tops of the corn, and kept a hoe on the ground to be it entire. ready at hand whenever I happened, in walking over my premises, I have recently noticed in the Genesee Farmer several articles to take them in my way, and cut them off if any were to be seen. on the destruction of the Canada thistle; but none of them seem to In this way, but little time was spent; in fact none worth noticing. reach the root of the evil. I am, however, pleased to see the pub-And as early as the first of October, as before observed, they were lic attention drawn to the subject. completely conquered. I ascribe the early season at which these patches were subdued, to their being allowed no breathing spell, and no omission being made through the season of operation, of cut The extermination of this pest of our plough fields, is an object of great importance to all farmers, who are unfortunate enough to have them on their lands; and it is therefore, in a measure, incum-ting them off as fast as they appeared. bent on them to communicate to each other whatever methods they have taken for that purpose, and particularly such as have had the desired effect. I have sometimes in lieu of, or rather for the want of a hoe, used a piece of hard wood, flattened to two or three inches wide at one end, and sharpened; or what is still better, a piece of iron or steel, like a chisel, fastened to the end of a stick or walking cane. It is proper to have some kind of tool in hand, or at the spot, otherwise some might escape, when one was accidentally passing near them. I have no expectation that this thistle is to be totally and entirely eradicated, and banished from the country, as it is a perennial plant, and is to be found on the road sides, in woods, and in all unoccupied lands, (at least in this vicinity.) All that can be done with such, if Although the actual labor and time spent to destroy thistles in this near at hand, is to cut them off and prevent their seeding. But way, is but trifling, at least in small patches: still it requires consibeing possessed of another manner of propagating themselves, more derable patience and much diligence, that the thing may never on sure and certain, by their side or horizontal roots, which the cutting any account be neglected during the season of their growth; and I of the tops of the plant does not affect or check; they therefore would caution all such as may have an inclination to try the experimust be permitted to remain, in such places, by a sort of compro-ment, that unless they are fully determined to persevere, and have mise, that they are to be prevented from scattering their seeds on full confidence that they can do it for at least four months, not to atto our plough fields, from which I am confident they may be expel-tempt it; because by any neglect during the season, the previous led, and after which, easily kept out; any further than this I shall time spent, is in part lost; as by allowing the plants a breathing not attempt doing or advise others to do. spell in the sun and air, now life and vigor is communicated to the Some enactments of the legislature, as recommended in the Farm-roots, which is the thing intended to be destroyed. er, would undoubtedly be of use. Such as obliging the owners of As an evidence of this, in the season of 1828, I undertook to kill land (at least such as is under improvement,) to cut them at the the thistles on a field of about fifteen acres planted with corn; and proper time-imposing a penalty for neglect and making it the duty on which there were near twenty patches. Having placed the of overseers of highways to have this done on the margin of roads. poles as before, I began cutting them as soon as any appeared after It would likewise have the effect of calling the public attention to planting. They were followed up without any neglect, and as fast the thing, and spread the alarm. as they appeared, until about the 20th of August, when they appeared nearly subdued or in a fair way for it, beginning to come up scattering and yellow. At this time I was called away on a journey. and was absent nearly four weeks, leaving strict injunctions on my men not to neglect the thistles in my absence. How far they attended to it, I cannot say, for immediately on my return, I was taken sick, and was confined until after corn harvest. The thistles of course were forgotten. To make the matter still worse, the ground instead of being planted again as it should have been, was sown with barley and peas, and in September following with wheat, and the next spring stocked with clover for pasture. The same patches of thistles having revived, began to show themselves, on the barley and peas, but being few in number and scattering, no attention was paid them. They have since continued to increase and spread by their horizontal_roots, so that there is nearly or quite as many on the field as at first; although they have been regularly mowed off every year, and sometimes a second time, and have not In articles of this sort, intended to guide the operations of others, unless one goes somewhat into detail, the object is in a measure lost; for those (if any there should be,) who may be induced to adopt the method recommended, will have a wish to know all the particulars of the process before they commence. I shall therefore be compelled to make this of greater length than I supposed at first setting out would be necessary. What is here stated, however, is all from my own knowledge; nothing is given on hearsay. When I purchased the farm which I now occupy, about thirty years ago, excepting some meadow lands, near a river, and some other small pieces, there were little or no improvements on it; being thrown out to commons, and mostly covered with small sapling wood and bushes-or as my Dutch neighbors expressed it, "it had run out to bush." In open spots in this bush, the Canada thistle was sprinkled pretty liberally; and after clearing and ploughing they began to spread to an alarming extent, and threatened to overrun the 66 seeded. This failure was evidently owing to the business not being main patch, and at every few inches send up a branch to the surattended to as it should have been the latter part of the season; but face. On carefully uncovering a space several feet square, I have might have been remedied had the ground been planted with corn found them in a manner connected and tied together with this root. the second year, and which I shall do soon, and hope to avoid a like Whenever they can be taken up below the horizontal root, they are neglect, by which our labor in experimenting this season was lost. mostly destroyed with once going over, and with the iron tool before The season of 1830, I planted another field with corn of about described this is frequently done; and where there may be a very the same size of the last mentioned. There were on this field a small patch in a distant field, the inconvenience of looking to it as number of patches of the thistle, some of them large, say over half often as would be necessary with a hoe, might be avoided by taking an acre, some small. It was calculated that altogether they would this course. In wet rainy seasons, like the two last, I find they have covered two and a half acres of ground. Having as usual spread themselves much fasten than in dry ones. The ground being marked the spots with poles stuck in the ground, we commenced soft, and the roots strong and vigorous, and meeting less resistance, cutting them at the proper time. The labor required on this field they will push along a considerable distance in one summer. was more than on any I had yet taken in hand-the patches be- About nine years since, I had made a string of half stone fence, ing large, and the thistles thick and strong. At first, and while with posts, and boards on top. The ground on which the wall was vegetation was quick and rapid, the labor to go over them was equal placed, was rich bottom, and was set there to withstand the spring to two men a day; but in a short time one man would do it in the floods. It was made on the line of one of my neighbor's land, on same time, and towards the close of summer, in three or four hours. which at a small distance was a large patch of Canada thistles. In Some of these patches were very obstinate, so that we were obliged a short time they pushed along and reached the wall, and have run to follow them up into October; others gave up sooner. On the along in, and under it, more than thirty rods, or fifteen each way, in whole, they were totally destroyed. None escaped, and none are about seven years. Having heard that salt and strong brine would now to be found in any part of the field that has been ploughed.- kill them, I procured, three years ago, a quantity taken from fish Although we succeeded in destroying the thistle on this field the barrels, and taking off the top stones of the wall so as to come nearer first year, I should advise, where killing them is the great object, to the roots, the brine and salt was put on very bountifully. It had the plant with corn two years in succession, (although this in other effect of killing the tops of the thistles, and wilted them down; but cases might be bad management,) that should any thistles escape the next summer they came up through the wall as thrifty as before. the first, they may be finished the second year. I see no remedy in a case like this, but to remove the wall, otherover the adjoining field. And I have no doubt, that if a strip of rich mellow land, reaching a distance of twenty miles, could be had, unobstructed by rivers, swamps, &c. a low stone wall placed there on, and a family of thistles set a going at one end, but that they would in course of time reach the other, and without the agency of any seed. On my mowing and pasture lands, such as are wet and never ploughed, there are some patches of the thistle, which have for twenty-five years past remained nearly stationary. They are always mowed off in July, before the seed is ripe, and if necessary, a second time, to prevent their seeding. In this kind of hard sward land, they are small and puny, and compartively give but small trouble and annoyance. I cannot state the expense of this experiment, as I kept no memo-wise they will travel to each end of it, and from this lodgment spread randum; but should think it would amount to not more than twenty dollars, if men had been hired for that express work: but as it was done mostly by boys, with myself, or some careful hand to overlook, I paid out nothing extra for labor that season on account of this job, and there was no neglect of other farming operation. But twenty or even forty dollars, would be nothing compared with the object at tained, by clearing a good plough field of this nuisance. Had they been left to their natural course, they would in a few years, by the running of their horizontal roots, and scattering with the plough and harrow, have spread over the whole field and ruined it for tillage. The last season I planted with corn a small piece of about four and a half acres, much infested with thistles. It was planted with the express view of killing them-they were spread over a great part of the ground, but were small, the land having laid in pasture 12 years without ploughing, and had become what is termed swardbound, which checks the growth, although it does not kill the thistle. The same course was pursued as in former years, and the business was well and regularly attended to. But few appeared after the first of September, but they were not neglected as long as one was to be found. I think they are all destroyed; but to make the thing doubly sure, I intend to have it planted next season. A small piece at one end of this ground was planted with potatoes, on which I had never noticed any thistles. They however made their appearance, and were cut off with the rest. But when the tops of the potatoes began to fall on and cover the ground, it was with difficulty that the thistles could be found, and probably enough has escaped to keep the roots alive, and more or less will make their appearance another year. I therefore would advise never to plant potatoes where, and when, the great object is to destroy the thistle. On another account, I consider corn much the best crop to plant with this view. The roots of this plant, if it grows strong, run through and fill the ground with small fibres, which has a tendency to keep the ground dry and hard; at the same time the tops form a shade, and altogether seem to have the effect of checking the growth of the thistle, and aid in the operation of destroying it. Whenever we have succeeded in expelling the thistle from our tillage lands, which is the extent of my expectations, in respect to my own, and all that I would at present advise to others to attempt doing, they may, I am confident, with little care and no expense, be easily kept off afterwards. The seeding thistle is very small, and as easily destroyed as a pigweed, should they happen to be observed. It requires several years for them to form any considerable patch-their greatest security is their not being noticed, until by their side or horizontal roots they have run out in a different directions. Small patches may be killed by a deep covering of anything that will keep them under, and prevent them from shooting up to the surface. This I have done with pummice put on to some very small bunches near my cider mill. Salting cattle and sheep often on small pieces will have the like effect; but this must be done very often and through the season of growing. The salt itself does not have the effect of destroying the roots, because it cannot reach them, but the frequent licking of the spot by the cattle takes off the shoots as fast as they come above the ground, which is the same in its effects, as hoeing them off. All these methods, however, cannot be practised except on a very small scale. 1 know of no plant or bush, with which the Canada thistle so nearly compares in its habits and modes of propagation, as the common elder. This, like the thistles, has its seed, and its horizontal To prevent the necessity of going over the ground as often as was roots with which to form patches; and like it, also, in not being to required with the hoe, I last spring had made some iron tools not be destroyed by cutting off the tops once, or even twice a year, but unlike a small light crowbar, flattened at the lower end to about a must be rooted out. The same treatment which kills the thistle hand's breadth and length, and steeled. With this tool, in soft mel-would have the like effect on the elder: but this would be attended low ground, the thistle may be taken up to the depth of six to twelve with too much trouble, for the same number usually on ours farms,— inches; but the process is much slower, and perhaps the time em- the better way, therefore, is to dig and root them out at once. ployed in killing them in this way, although the operation is not so I think it is as great an absurdity for a farmer to say that he will often to be performed, is equal to doing it with a hoe, with which not attempt to destroy the clumps of elder on his mowing land, bethe ground is much quicker gone over. cause his neighbor lets them alone to seed, as to refuse to kill the thistle on his plough land for the like cause. Since in either case, when they are once eradicated they are easily kept out; let his neighbors' practice be what it may. The horizontal root of this plant, so often mentioned as its principal instrument of propagation, will be found at various depths, according to soil. In lands under the plough, and in other rich mellow ground, they push themselves along, in every direction from the But In my various experiments, I have tested this method of destroy. |