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are sanguine that what has been made in small quantities by a few, will yet be made in large quantities by many. While sorgho may be considered a success, it may be added, that it succeeds best in the southern half of the State, and here is where it is grown to the greatest extent. In some of the northern counties considerable is grown, but unless the soil is warm and naturally underdrained, so as to hasten its ripening, the climate is too cold for its perfect maturity. There is no doubt, however, that when underdraining is generally practiced in the State, as it certainly will be, cane can be grown with success much further north than it now is.

OATS --This crop is generally considered a reliable one in Ohio. It is necessary that they be sown as early in the season as March and April for the best results. Late sown oats do not ripen well; the grain is light, and they are more subject to rust. They succeed in a soil heavier and wetter than does wheat or corn. The quantity of seed used per acre in the State is usually two and a half bushels. A thin, dry or loose soil never produces a good crop without manuring, and unless it be deep and rich they are severely affected by drought. Very wet seasons produce a great growth of straw, render them extremely liable to lodge, rust, and produce a poorly filled head. Except in wet seasons, they are affected by no disOat straw, well cured, especially if cut green, is more valuable for stock than that of any other grain, and is always carefully saved by nearly all farmers. For the horse, no grain grown in Ohio could be substituted to advantage. For young stock, especially for lambs, colts and calves, they are better than corn. Not that these animals fat more readily on them, but it produces a better development of muscle. Oats contain much more of the muscle-producing element than corn, and in young animals not designed to be slaughtered, the development of muscle is of more importance than fatty matter.

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For animals that are required to labor, there has been a difference of opinion, whether corn or oats was best, but the opinions of most farmers are in favor of the latter. This accords with what might be expected from a chemical analysis of the two grains. If we wish to use the muscular system of an animal, we must feed that animal on food rich in substances that produce it; if we wish to fat an animal, corn contains great abundance of material for its production, and is universally acknowledged to be the superior grain. It has been suggested by some that barley or rye might be substituted for oats, but neither could be raised in so great abundance by the same labor, and rye would be too heavy a food unless mixed with less nutritious grain. There is one complaint against oats as food for horses, viz: that it too often passes through the digestive system of the animal undigested. This ditt culty is easily overcome by grinding the grain, and the gain by this would be more than sufficient to pay the expense. The thick outer covering of the oat is not sufficiently broken by mastication to enable the gastric juice to come in complete contact with its nutritious portion, and it is for this reason that so much of its value is lost. A mixture of about half oats with equal quantities of corn and rye has been found by experience to produce the best feed for the horse. The quantity of corn may be increased in cold and

diminished in warm weather, with profit. Such a mixture, ground together and fed on finely cut straw, is in very common use throughout the State.

CORN.-The corn cultivated in Ohio is most commonly known under the names of Gourd seed and Dent. Of these there are many varieties, some of which have doubtless arisen from the change in climate and soil to which this grain is so commonly subjected. The yellow dent gourd -seed with red cob is more generally cultivated than any other. The white is grown to some extent in southern Ohio, but requiring a longer season to ripen, is not much cultivated in the north part of the State; but in many counties in this section, in soil where early planting is impracticable, flint corn is sometimes planted, and so is an early variety of gourdseed, known among farmers as "sheep tooth" or "hackberry" corn.

TIME TO RIPEN.--The time required to ripen corn depends something on the soil and variety planted Four and a half months may be considered the average. VARIETIES FROM NORTH OR SOUTH.-The practice of changing the seed for that grown in other soils and other localities, is very common. Corn is supposed to deteriorate if planted on the same farm more than three seasons. Unless good soil and thorough culture is given, this is doubtless true; with these corn does. not deteriorate, even though the same varieties be planted for many years in succession. There are many instances in all parts of Ohio where farmers have not changed their seed corn for thirty years, and the crops they raise attest that there has been no deterioration. The reason why a change of seed produces such favorable results is, that farmers either get an improved variety, or, if the same variety, that which has had a more perfect growth. A farmer raises a poor crop of corn; if he plants seed from this, its imperfect development produces deterioration in the succeeding crop; but he goes to his neighbor, who has seed grown from rich soil and under the influence of good cultivation, and from this, even without the best of care, he gets fair returns. Corn will deteriorate in any soil not adapted to its growth, and for this reason it is not well grown; corn will improve in any soil fitted for it either by nature or culture, if the best ears are selected and planted, though the seed is never changed. Seed from either north or south of the place where it is to be planted is less likely to produce a good crop than that chosen from the immediate vicinity, or from the same latitude. If brought from the south, the season will not be long enough for it to ripen well, and in a few years it will deteriorate and adapt itself to the change of climate; if from the north, it will mature early, and although this may be an advantage in short seasons, yet up to a certain period, the longer corn can grow the better the crop will be.

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For the improvement of our corn the same course adopted by Mr. F. F. Hallett, of Brighton, England, for the improvement of wheat, could be pursued with similar results. The details of Mr. Hallett's experiments are thus given in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society: "A grain produces a stool,' consisting of many ears. I plant the grain from these ears in such a manner that each ear occupies a row by itself, each of its grains occupying a hole in this row; the holes being 12 inches apart every way. At harvest, after the most careful study

and comparison of the stools from all these grains, I select the finest one which I accept as a proof that its parent grain was the best of all under the peculiar circumstances of that season. This process is repeated annually, starting every year with the proved best grain, although the verification of this superiority is not obtained until the following harvest. During these investigations no single circumstance has struck me so forcibly illustrating the necessity for repeated selections, than the fact, that of the grains in the same ear, one is found to excel all others in vital power."

This plan was followed for four years, without manuring or any system of forcing, with the following remarkable results: In 1857 he selected his first head of wheat, which was four and three-fourths inches long, and contained 47 grains. In 1858, at harvest, he found the finest head was six and one-fourth inches long, and contained 79 grains, with ten heads on the finest stool. The grain from the best head was planted, and the best stool had twenty-two stalks, with one head seven and three-fourths inches long, containing 91 kernels. These were planted, but the season being the wet one of 1860, only two heads ripened, but these were on a stool of thirty-nine stalks, and the best head contained 74 grains. One of these produced a stool with fifty two stalks, the best head of which was eight and three-fourths inches long, and contained 123 kernels. Thus in four years the length of the head was doubled, and the number of kernels increased from 47 to 123, and the number of stalks from one grain from 10 to 52. In the fall of 1860, Mr. Hallett had sufficient seed of his "pedigree wheat" to sow 10 acres, with one peck to the acre, and although he says it was the "worst wheat field on his farm,” yet the yield was 57 bushels per acre.

In improving corn the same general principles are applicable, varying the experiments only to adapt them to the nature of the plant.

EFFECT OF WAR ON AMOUNT OF LAND CULTIVATED --As yet the war has made no perceptible difference in the am unt of land cultivated in Ohio. It would seem at first thought that if we have 130,000 men in the field, drawn from every department of industry, it would seriously affect the farming interest. The war has not yet drawn largely upon this class of our population. Comparatively few of the owners and tillers of the soil have enlisted for the war. Settled in life, with cares and responsibilities that bind him to his home and the soil, he does not loose his hold on the first "tap of the drum." True, he is every inch a patriot, and would give his last drop of blood before he would see his country in ruins; yet from the very nature of the case, men's occupations and relations in life determine who shall be first and last on the tented field. True, thousands of farm hands have joined the army; but such have not usually been farmers. That these have been missed is also true, but the agriculturist, when he cannot hire, with his own muscle, with the aid he gets from increased machinery, and with that greatest of all labor-saving instruments, the brain, he does all the work he would have done had help been abundant. Not so many houses are built, not so many farm improvements are made, not so many days of leisure are taken; but ust as much and in some instances more land has been planted and sown since

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the war than previously. Agriculture must go on in order that the war may be prosecuted; though one of the "arts of peace," it is as much a supporter of the contests between belligerents as the manufacture of arms, ammunition, and army blankets. Though we may look for a decline of those pursuits which minister to the elegancies of life; though many luxuries and articles not at all necessary to our health and comfort will be dispensed with, yet unless this war continues much longer than with the present number of men and vigor with which it is being prosecuted, it seems possible, the number of acres under cultivation will not be decreased.

MACHINERY.

"Is there a disposition among farmers generally to employ more machinery than formerly?

Are reapers and mowers in general use in your county?

"What reaper is considered the best?

"Are horse-rakes in general use?

"Are grain-drills in general use?

"Are any hay-pitching machines used?

"What mower is considered the best?

"Are any double plows used; and to what extent?

"Is subsofling practiced in your county?

"Do farmers plow deeper than formerly?"

MACHINERY USED BY FARMERS.-The advantage gained by using machinery is, with it a power which would otherwise go to waste is utilized. The amount of this power, treasured up in wind, water, electricity, and in the muscular system of animals, is almost infinite; and it is the greatest triumph of human genius, when, by the arrangement of wheel and axle, lever and pulley, it applies it to its own use. The stream of water, that goes rushing on to the lake or ocean, never grumbles when we ask it to just give a little turn to our water-wheel when it passes; the wind is ever going our way, and will just as readily carry a freighted ship to Africa, China, Japan or London, as to go empty; electricity never grumbles when we ask it to do an errand for us in New York or Boston-"it is going there every minute," and had "just as soon do it as not." Some writers seem to think that it is the nature of man to own slaves, but it is only a perversion of this nature when he claims human ones; his true slaves are the forces of nature, which are ever ready to work at his bidding. They only ask to be harnessed, after which they will work for nothing and board themselves." Machinery gives us the long end of the lever, and, by little more than the touch of our finger, do what, with our hands alone, we could never accomplish. The progress of the human race, in a great measure, depends upon the substitution of machinery for human muscle. It emancipates the man, and gives him leisure for culture in the pursuit of science and art, or for the extension of his enterprise. The use of machinery has done much to ennoble the pursuit of agriculture. The excessive toil to which the farmer is subject without it is degrading. Labor is ennobling, and man is all the better that he cannot pluck and eat his daily food, and surround himself with elegancies, without working for them; but when that

labor is excessive it makes him a slave. Its effects upon the body, though not as disastrous to health as a sedentary life, where one is ever breathing a polluted atmosphere, and affording so little exercise that the body becomes dwarfed, and unfitted to perform properly its functions, are such as to give stiffness and awkwardness, and destroy all gracefulness of movement and nobility of appearance. Like a wheel that has been battered out of its proper shape, the slave to toil moves irregularly. Its effect upon the mind is worse than upon the body. Excessive labor consumes upon the muscles that nervous energy intended for use on both muscle and brain; and the latter, like a wheel with little water to turn it, goes with uncertain force. If we would have the brain act with power we must save a portion of our strength to expend upon it. The application of thought to agriculture makes it an entirely different pursuit from what it is without it. Thought, which is but another word for the application of science to the culture of the soil, ennobles it. From being a pursuit which exhausts it in a vain endeavor to extort a meagre subsistence from it; from being a pursuit in which man only vegetates, and hardly makes his income for the year cover his expenses, it becomes the noblest business in which man can engage. A celebrated painter was once asked by a young student" with what he mixed his paints to produce such fine results ?" "With brains, sir," was the reply. The answer, though it gave no light on the details of the art to the young man, was full of truth. So with agriculture. If we would make it what it is capable of becoming, we must use brains in the preparation of our soil. The use of machinery on the farm, the substitution of brute labor for human labor, enables the farmer to do this. With it he can perform the same work to-day, with one hand, that without it required four. These three hands can engage in other pursuits-join the army, or, if sons of the farmer, are released from toil, and can now attend college and obtain an education.

MOWERS AND REAPERS-The increased use of machinery on the farm in Ohio, within the last ten years, has been immense. The mowing and reaping m+chine has saved many harvests which, owing to the demand for men in other directions, could never have been secured without them. They are now in general use in almost every township and on almost every farm in Ohio. The saving they effect in the number of men employed depends upon the preparation of the surface of the ground for their use, the efficiency with which they are worked, and the perfection of the machine. As yet farmers have not taken much pains to remove stones, stumps and level inequalities in their meadows and grain-fields, for the better working of machinery. The efforts have rather been on the part of inventors to produce implements that would work almost anywhere-and their success has been complete. The improvement in the style of mowers and reapers within the last five years has been very great. Combinations of the improvements made by different inventors have been made-till now there is little more to ask. The greatest improvement have been in the saving of power required to work them. Now, a light team, going at a slow pace, will do, with the machines of present manufacture, what five years ago would require a heavy team, going at a rapid

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