upon lands plowed in the fall, the fresh masses placed on top, preserving those underlying from being thoroughly frozen. VIII. When sheep are alone raised, they should be kept under sheds with small yards connected therewith, and their droppings may be treated either as in the case of fattening or growing animals in the discretion of the owner. IX. Where no portion of the manure is designed for top-dressing of pastures, that of horses and neat cattle may be always advantageously placed under the same cover, their different capacities for developing heat operating favorably against over-heating. X. As the value of straw as an article of food, if cut up, mixed with feed, thoroughly wetted and allowed to stand in mass for a few hours, so as to develop heat, or if steamed, is at its lowest price worth twice as much for food as for the manure, resulting from its use as litter, where beds of muck or peat exist on a farm, these should be ditched and afterwards pared, so that by the use of these materials when dried the straw may be used as an article of food, a greater number of animals kept on the farm, and greater masses of manure made, and with a material more valuable than straw as an absorbent and fertilizer, and for the preservation of the droppings of cattle, at a more uniform rate of temperature. REPORTS AND COMMUNICATIONS. A. B. BENHAM'S BUTTER DAIRY FARM, DRYDEN, TOMPKINS COUNTY. The farm of Mr. Benham contains one hundred acres. It is mainly devoted to the dairy. Twenty cows were kept in 1863. The quantity of ground usually tilled: ten acres each, corn, barley and winter wheat; fifteen acres in clover; twenty-seven acres in pasture; eleven acres of meadow; oats, barley and potatoes. The committee examined the whole farm and found it in excellent order, and, in the main, under judicious cultivation. The dairy of butter was an extraordinary good one, and all the details of its manufacture and preservation were very complete and satisfactory. DISBURSEMENTS, Including stock and implements at the commencement of the RECEIPTS. Sale of butter, 4,002 lbs.-whole receipts and on hand, 5,620 90 The committee considered this farm, in its management and condition, entitled to the premium of the Society, although no competition was had, and they recommend to the executive committee that a premium equal to the first be awarded, and that the statement of Mr. Benham be published in the Transactions. EZRA CORNELL. N. B. BENHAM'S DAIRY FARM-PREMIUM $50. SPRING BROOK FARM, 864. } DRYDEN, TOMPKINS Co., N. Y., January, 1864. To the questions proposed by the New York State Agricultural Society to competitors making application for premium for the best cultivated farm mainly devoted to grazing and dairying, the following answers are respectfully submitted: Soils, etc. 1. The Spring Brook farm is situated in the town of Dryden, Tompkins county, N. Y., and contains about 100 acres of land. Its location is about three miles distant from Dryden village, one mile from McLean, and six from Cortland, and consists of 10 acres of woodland, and from three to five acres in highway, yards, churning-pond, &c., leaving, as near as I can judge, about 85 acres of improved land. 2. The soil is a gravelly loam with a hard subsoil, generally situated from eighteen to twenty-four inches from the surface. There is but little limestone on it; the stone are generally of a sandy nature, and of good shape for making wall. There are no rocks near the surface, except those that are easily managed and laid into wall for fence. 3. There is but little variation in the soil on this farm-it is generally a gravelly, dark colored loam. I consider the best mode of enriching or improving its fertility, to sow plenty of clover and timothy, and thorough cultivation, and keeping sufficient stock to give it a dressing with barnyard manure as often as once in three to five years. 4. I plow different depths for different crops. I generally plant from seven to ten acres of corn each year on sod ground plowed in the spring as soon as the frost is out, from four to six inches deep, and fallow with barley, and plow from eight to ten inches deep; then sow winter wheat drilled in from three to four inches deep, rows from four to five inches apart, two bushels of seed to the acre; plow as soon as the barley is off as deep as you please and let it lay two or three weeks, then drag or cultivate with the wheel cultivator, which is far better, both ways; let lay two or three days, and then plow as deep or deeper than before; then level with the drag, and drill in the wheat from the 28th of August to the 10th of September; if you have no drill, use the cultivator both ways, and level off with the drag. I sow the medium clover, eight quarts to the acre, about the middle of April; if designed to cut the first crop for hay, and the second for seed, it should not be mixed with other grass seed, as it will not ripen as quick as the clover, and hinders in curing; if designed for pasture or meadow, mix as many other kinds as you please, as in my judgment you will get more pasture or hay by mixing. Always roll the ground after sowing your grass seed, which generally slightly covers the seed, or sufficiently to make it grow. I think rolling in the spring preferable to fall, for several reasons; one is, the surface being rolled smooth in the fall, leaves the plants to grow up exposed to the sweeping cold winds of this northern climate, whereas if left till spring the little unevenness of surface breaks the winds and holds the snows, which protects the plants. 5. I have never made any experiments to test the difference in a succeeding crop between shallow and deep plowing, except one year, I think it was 1859, I plowed three pieces of land, side by side, in the following order: The first four inches, the second six inches, and the third eight inches deep, and I was not able to discover any difference in the results in the corn or barley the following year. I have a subsoil plow, and have experimented some with it, and from what I have seen I have almost come to the conclusion that it is better for draining or preparing for laying pipe than any other purpose on our soil, as I am of the opinion that with a good plow and team, and withal a good plowman, we can go deep enough for the crops we raise; if we cannot do it the first time, give it a second plowing, or even a third, going deeper each time with about the same labor. 6. I have used the subsoil plow, and given some of my views in relation to it above; still, I am not disposed to condemn it until further trial. I have drained some of my land. I have several large springs on my farm which never fail, which mostly unite in one stream, and make an excellent water power for churning. We have also three barnyards plentifully supplied the year round through lead pipe. The result of what draining I have done has been to reclaim the ground from a cold, wet, and I may say, almost barren, to a dry, warm, and congenial state, adapted to any crop grown in this northern climate. 7. The trees indigenous to our soils are beech and maple, both hard and soft, basswood, white ash, cherry, white and red elm, iron wood, &c. The plants and grasses most nurtured to our soil, when cleared of the timber and left without being cultivated, are white clover and June grass; when cultivated, it grows most of the upland grasses in abundance. Manures. 8. I usually apply from 15 to 25 loads of manure to the acre; the amount would depend upon the quality of the manure, the crop to be grown, and the fertility of the soil. In my opinion, the quicker manure is applied after it is made, the better, if plowed under, unless there is foul seeds in it; there is then no waste by being washed, the land receiving the full strengh of it. Should there be foul seed in the manure, it should be heaped under cover until thoroughly rotted, then it will do to apply to the surface or plow under. 9. I have never used any manure except that made from rotted straw, stalks, and the droppings of the stock kept. I always keep plenty of straw, chaff, or some other absorbing substance to catch, as near as possible, all the liquid manure; we manufacture annually from 150 to 200 loads, and apply the finest of it as soon as convenient after it is made. 10. I usually manure in a green state, and plow it under from four to six inches deep, unless there should be much straw or stalks in it to hinder the plow from nicely turning it under; if so, heap it under cover and rot it, then it makes an excellent top dressing for meadow applied in fall, or to corn the spring following. 11. I am not aware that I could cheaply or essentially increase my supply of manure profitably from any source. I think my land under its past and present treatment, grows better and produces more every year. I purchase no manure except plaster or lime, and not enough of that to exceed $5 a year. 12. I have never used superphosphate of lime, poudrette, or any other substance not in common use as manure, therefore I am unable to judge of the benefits resulting from their use; that depends, in my judgment, upon the locality, cost of such manure, and value of products raised. 13. I usually till from seven to ten acres for corn, and about the same for barley and winter wheat, each year. A year ago last summer I summer-fallowed twelve acres, and was paid well for it in wheat. 14. The amount of seed corn is about eight quarts per acre, planted from the first to the middle of May, three and a half feet apart each way. I raised this year seven acres of corn, half acre potatoes, half acre oats, peas and barley mixed, seven acres barley, twelve acres winter wheat, one acre sowed corn, four acres clover, pastured till July 4th, then turned out for seed, which proved almost a failure; fifteen acres clover, cut twice, once for hay and once for seed; eleven acres of meadow, cut once, and twenty seven acres of pasture, or a trifle over one acre a piece for twenty cows, one bull and two horses. The yield of corn was 845 bushels. Six hundred bushels ears, 72 lbs. per bushel, sold to S. D. Freer for $1.17, amounting to $356.81. There was fifteen loads of stalks, and seven loads of pumpkins. Barley not filled good, turned 135 bushels; sold to A. Nettles, at $1.25 per bushel-$168.75. The wheat turned out twenty-five bushels per acre, or 300 bushels white Michigan wheat, which was sold for thirteen shillings per bushel, (except about eighty-five bushels,) amounting in all to $487.50. There were sixteen bushels oats, peas and barley, and three bushels pop corn, valued at $19. The pumpkins were valued at $7. There were forty-five bushels of potatoes, valued at 75 cents per bushel, $33.75. I am unable to give an estimate of the value of fertilizing matter by wheat or any other grain taken from the soil. 15. In answer to question fifteen I would say, I would prefer well rotted manure to green manure, for any crop-the more it is rotted the better; the better the quality, a lesser quantity in bulk is required. Apply at any time when the manure is fit, before the crop is put in. 16. I would not recommend covering manure, if at all, not over four inches on sod; on stubble it will do turned under deeper. The evener spread and mixed with the soil, the better the crop. 17. Potatoes rotted considerably in this locality, but I have never been able to discover the cause or a remedy; there are various opinions in relation to it. Grass land, etc. 18. I use principally clover; eight quarts of clover or twelve quarts of timothy. I sow generally about the middle of April. I never sow grass seed in the fall, as it chokes the grain. A variety, or a number of different kinds mixed is best for pasture or meadow, as there is no doubt a greater amount of feed can be produced per acre of several kinds of grasses mixed, than of any one kind. I raise clover principally for this reason: I can cut a crop of hay about the first of July, and then the second growth (in case I do not need it for pasture) is generally a very remunerative crop to cut for seed. My second growth this year, I think, is worth as much as one ton of good hay to the acre, beside the seed. The first crop yielded from one and a half to two tons to the acre of hay. 19. We cut this year eleven acres of meadow which, according to the best calculation I could make, turned about twenty tons of hay; also fifteen acres of clover, estimated as above, yielded twenty-seven tons. My timothy hay I cut as soon as out of blossom. The clover I cut when the heads are one-third or one-half turned. 20. My mowing land is generally good plow land. 21. I have never practiced irrigation to much extent, except wherever there is a chance to turn water in time of a shower or freshet over grass lands. I have always found it very beneficial, almost doubling the product. 22. I have no low bog or peat lands. 23. The most troublesome weeds I have ever had to contend with are Canada thistles, and white daisies or bulls eye. The most effectual remedy for thistles is to summerfallow or sow medium clover, and cut twice a year. |