The Ruta Baga, therefore, when set out for bearing seed, should be placed at a distance from every other seed plant of the Turnip or Cabbage kind. So likewise the Mangel Wurtzel intended to bear seed, should not be set near any other seed beet plants. It may not be amiss to add, that for the same reasons, pumpkins, squashes, melons, cucumbers, in all their varieties, in order to preserve them in purity, should be planted at some distance from each other.
Pumpkins, as food for domestic animals, seem closely connected with the roots before-mentioned. Every farmer knows their value for milk cows, for fattening cattle, and for swine. Their consumption conveniently precedes that of the Mangel Wurtzel.
With ample supplies of the Vegetables whose culture I have mentioned and described, our present Stocks may be better fed, their numbers enlarged, our coarse fodder be more advantageously consumed, our manure increased, and pork and beef and the products of the dairy, probably doubled. The latter, in particular, are miserably deficient, from the want of juicy food for cows, in continuance of the supply yielded by our common pastures just at midsummer. Pumpkins and the roots, indeed, will not be ready to keep up that supply; but oats and barley, and above all Indian corn, may be sown and planted, to be cut green, and carry along our cows to the last of September, when pumpkins will begin to ripen. The consumption of these green crops and roots, by producing vast additions to our manure, will enable us to enrich our fields, and to make annual additions to the products of our farms.
The immense importance of providing for cows a full supply of food, and of food which they relish, to the extent of their appetites, has been demonstrated by many examples of very large products of milk, butter and cheese, from cows so supplied. The following statement from a recent English publication, is a further illustration of the fact:—"A farmer, some years since, kept eighteen cows upon a Common, and was often obliged to buy butter for his family. The Common was enclosed, (which deprived the farmer of his pasture,) and the same person supplied his family amply with milk and butter, from four cows well kept."
III. On Indian Corn and Winter Grain.
The ancient, and to this day the general practice, in cultivating Indian corn, has been to plant it in squares, and in the course of its growth to draw up earth about the stems of the plants, forming hills; under the idea of supporting them against strong winds; but the necessity or utility of this practice has long been doubted. I have sometimes cultivated Indian corn without raising any hills about the plants; and, from the result, am satisfied that hills are not necessary. If, indeed, winter wheat, or rye, is to be sown among the corn, at its last dressing, I think the hilling must be injurious; for the richer mould being drawn up into hills, the intervals are robbed of what is requisite to produce an even crop.
I am aware that some intelligent farmers consider it bad husbandry to sow winter grain among Indian corn—to double-crop the ground. But if this be rich, and in fine tilth by deep ploughing before the corn crop is put in, and good and clean tillage accompanying its growth, I can perceive no solid objection to the practice. With us, the early sowing of winter grain is of the first importance, to insure a full crop, early ripe, and most secure from mildew. The husbandry of Mr. Ducket, already described, justifies the practice. I know it is already common amongst us; but without the deep tillage which enabled him to put in seven crops with only four ploughings. With such complete tillage, of a soil so enriched as to yield forty or fifty bushels of Indian corn to the acre, grown on a level, without hills or ridges; and if, in harvesting the corn, it be cut close to the ground; I see no reason why grass seeds may not properly be sown on the winter grain, in the spring. In this way, may be obtained a crop of Indian corn the first year—a crop of wheat or rye the second year—and hay the third and fourth years; and all from one deep ploughing, and a handsome culture of the Indian corn.
By the early sowing of winter grain among Indian corn, it quickly vegetates, and sends forth numerous branches; and soon covering the ground, prevents or checks the growth of weeds. Probably, too, the plants, acquiring so much strength by early sowing (for the roots must multiply and extend in proportion to the growth above ground) are less liable to be winter-killed.
IV. On Live Stock.
I have now to present to your notice the other of the three celebrated English Farmers, described by Arthur Young—Mr. Bakewell—the most distinguished improver of live stock, on principles of his own, in Great Britain. "The principles he began upon (says Mr. Young) were fine forms, small bones, and a true disposition to make readily fat, which is indeed inseparable from small bones, or rather fine bones, and fine forms, or true symmetry of the parts." Before Bakewell's day, the rules which governed Breeders of Live Stock, Mr. Young pronounces a tissue "of absurdities."