The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1855-01-24
Field Operations &c.

AS you have now begun q new year, a
few remarks with regard to your field ope-
rations, your farm economy, and the gener-
management Of your affairs, may not be
amiss.
Should the field you intend for corn next
spring be tenacious clay land, and an opportu-
nifty should offer through the winter to do
so, have it plowed, SO as that its texture
may be meliorated by the frost; if such land
be sound, that is, not wet, plow it at least
inches deep, lay your furrows at an angle
of about 45 degrees, in order that they may
lay, and thus expose the greatest possible
surface to the action of the weather. In the
spring, as soon as the ground is sufficiently
dry to permit your team to 60 on it without
poaching by the horses, have it rolled, then
apply your manure, and cross-plow it in
about inches in depth, then roll it, and har-
row until you have fine tilth. Recollect
however, that clay soils should never be
plowed while in wet state, or when very
dry, but when in moist condition.
AS corn requires to be grown either in
very fertile soil, or if the soil be not natu-
rally fertile, that if it be heavily manured-
as it requires much food, it is almost vain TO
expect good crop unless there be in the
soil the means ofsustenance. And as much
Is the case it is we'll not to permit the am
bition of having large fields of corn t. in
duce you to put in greater extent of acres
than you can manure well, unless your land
be really rich. To cultivate corn in an i'm
poverished soil, unless it be generously ma
nured, SO far as the prospect of product is
concerned, is illusory. In laying out your
work for the year, see to it that you do not
overcrop yourself. Let the crops which you
may put in be within the ability of your
force to cultivate thoroughly and WE'LL Make
your calculations to get in both your oats
and corn crop timely. as nine times out of
ten these crops, when early pitched, succeed
best. When we speak of the early plant
ing of corn and sowing of oats, we do not
mean that either should be put in before the
earth is sufficiently warm to encourage the
prompt termination of the seed, but we 90
mean, that as soon as the earth is sufficient
jy warm to cause the seed to sprout and veg
etate, that both crops should be put in
You should exert your utmost efforts to man
ure every acre that you may cultivate in a
spring crop. If the supplies Of your barn
and stable yards are not equal to this, add
to them sufficient quantity of woods mould,
pine skaters, or marsh, river creek mud, to
give ycu % horse loads per acre, form the
whole into compost, and let it remain in
bulk three weeks, when decomposition will
have sufficiently taken place to render the
mass available to your crops. If barn yard
end stable supplies are Lot competent to en-
able you to add the requisite number of
loads to give you twenty two-horse loads per
acres odd 100 Or $50 pounds of Peruvian
Guano, and / bushel Of plaster, to every
twenty loads that you put into the COM
post; and we risk nothing in saying that
should the season prove auspicious, you will
have a large crop of both corn and cats,
provided the former be cultivated judiciously
and well, and the cultivator and hoes be
used instead of the plow in its cultivation.
The volatile part of manure--that part
which feeds theplant, gives it vitality and
growth, is often, wasted and given to the
air by being exposed by the plow in the
course of the culture of a corn crop, instead
of being left buried in the soil to feed the
roots Of the plants. Every blowing after a
corn crop is pitched serves only to rob the
plants of its foo; for the moment the am
moniacal compounds become exposed to the
immediate action of the atmosphere--to
heat and moisture decomposition takes
place, and the ammonia flies off and be-
comes lost to the crop to which it had been
applied.
Before spring you should study out the
system yon mean to pursue throughout the
year, be careful in forming that system, let
itbe formed in accordance with your resour-
ces, and having, after mature refeetion,l
adopted il, be careful to carry out with en-
ergy and particularly. The work of each
week should be laid down week before
hand, and except when prevented by the
weather, should be adhered to- american