wan i goo1adr443? Bay eee SAISON App retys ra) an ee, y Hp ee Ue (a : FACTS FOR FARMERS; ALSO FOR THE FAMILY CIRCLE. A COMPOST OF RICH MATERIALS FOR ALL LAND-OWNERS, ABOUT DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY; FARM BUILDINGS; Gardens, Orchards, and Vineyards ; AND ALL FARM CROPS, TOOLS, FENCES, FERTILIZATION, DRAINING, AND IRRIGATION. Pllustrated vith Steel Enurabings, vem y Oe EDITED BY SOLON ROBINSON, AGRICULTURAL EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK ‘PRIBUNE,’’ AND AUTHOR OF SEVERAL POPULAR WORKS. NEW YORK: JOHNSON AND WARD, PUBLISHERS, No. 118 FULTON STREET. 1864. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by A. J. JOHNSON, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. ee ee! a DAVIES & KENT, Steveotppers and IElectrotprers, 183 William Street, N. Y. PREFACE. THE AUTHOR TO HIS READERS. “Facts ror Farmers?” ‘‘ What facts?” ‘‘ What new theories have we here in a ponderous volume? Is it filled with dry dis- sertations about what farmers should or should not do?” ‘‘ What does this author know about farming ”” The author answers—the last question first. Nothing. Who does? He does not advance new theories. He only collects old ones. He has made a ponderous volume, not of dry dissertations, but of short, crisp facts. The book is full of little things ; glean- ings from many fields; from all the agricultural papers ; from con- versations of farmers; from talks at farmers’ clubs; from books a little ; from personal experience much ;—from the memory of a long life devoted to the practice and study of agriculture, this volume is born. It is the fruit of years of labor in a great and good field. It certainly contains much that will be useful to all classes who till the earth, or live in farmers’ houses. It should be in every rural home, as a work of reference. It is arranged in the most con- venient form for this purpose. Hach chapter comprises one general subject. Each section embraces a separate branch. Each num- bered paragraph is complete in itself, and conveys an item of infor- mation. Each subject is completely indexed. As a whole, though containing much, it is not an encylopedia of agriculture. It does not pretend to teach all that a farmer should know. That must be learned by daily perusal of agricultural papers and books. iv PREFACE. Though not perfect, farmers will find this book a useful one. If not invaluable, I hope it is one that they can not afford to do with- out. In its compilation, the author has enjoyed many facilities and much experience ; he has also labored under many difficulties, while daily engaged as an agricultural editor of a great daily and weekly paper. You will find here stored up for future use many of the valuable little items that you have read approvingly in the TripunE, and many from other sources, useful to every farmer’s family, and worthy of preservation. Usefulness instead of elegance has been aimed at. I have given more facts than theories. I have often given the opinions of several upon the same subject, and, as some of these vary, I leave the reader to adjust differences. In trying to avoid diffuseness, I have left much for inference, and purposely treated subjects in such a manner as to induce readers to make further research. A word of explanation. At the end of the volume you will find a list of agricultural papers, which the author had read for years previous to the commencement of this compilation. Also a list of individuals, some of whonr are eminent authority in agricultural knowledge. From all these he has drawn matter, sometimes with, and sometimes without, credit to individ- uals, when facts have been condensed from their articles. Con- ciseness has been a study ; else, how could twelve hundred subjects be crowded into a thousand pages® Those whose articles I have used, must not complain that I have pruned too closely, or failed to give credit in all cases where credit is due. I freely acknowledge my obligations to all. This book is one that may be opened at any page, profitably, to occupy five minutes’ leisure. It is printed in such large, clear type that it can be easily read. The author and publisher hope that it will be. Then it is illustrated as no agricultural book published in America ever has been. Look at the many large, handsome, PREFACE. Vv steel engravings! These alone are worth the cost of the whole volume. Farmers! you are earnestly invited to read, if nothing more, the titles and contents of chapters, and their subdivisions of, sections. If you do that, and find nothing that promises instruction, lay the volume aside. If so far it is promising, turn over its pages, glanc- ing at the black-letter titles of paragraphs. Of one thing be as- sured ; lengthy as the volume appears, it is not made so by extreme dilution ; the last chapter is better than any that precedes it. Throughout, no subject is lengthily treated ; no subject is treated that does not contain something useful to some one ; something that you can not always remember, but which you should always have! at hand, convenient for frequent consultation. To those who know the name of the author—and the number is large—I hope this book will be a welcome bequest. I hope it will be the means through which that name may live in love and honor with your children and children’s children around many an American hearthstone. Of the author’s portrait, a word. It is the publisher, and not the author, who inserts it. It represents him correctly, as he is at the age of nearly sixty. In conclusion, I earnestly hope these Facts will be an acceptable offering to a very large number of those whose prosperity I would promote, for I am one of the BrorHErHoop or AMERICAN FARMERS. To them it is commended, with the love and respect of their old friend, SOLON ROBINSON. New Yorx, May 1, 1863, ; re wen mene patient ae j oes Sepp SES CS IRIS hs ie 7 S24 : Se, Glories mit ty ‘ete-od? sliaecr: an caclaumeodt.- legates ron ‘ ay i y ie i ie Peat. by “ ‘fl jdb 2ronT scidion pas Ghboh er 7 dito: Lawl if ) uy i : at : 2 ye beads fagr ry 1 os se - . . () ged trad) ‘ina (ed Qw IRD) Et con ada.dngh JoigSgrath hi Site x ee sild.cn MOM ORGO Bi, f Sioa bovshy er +1 fede i b yas 2 AME On 2 art y Bait TES pAbd. D4 4 i® bo AUS ioe], 4 tage tod Phan 4 “ug Le n i ay iii ioe SSCL 4 gets Ue orb eI btu lout Rotate ho ig, ae oe ae Tt y " ry eh rs {it hi J ALY 4 uy a ° PA Fr - he. we Ot i A d ; ey ry r wc | i : E 6 - Ls i? a us ; ; : ats ries We ae ( qi Hit: rarer it anions a) Oy C5) patti ia «ee ney niles ms OW ail | spare pt ye Pisek Hite, rota oF AS eM! atin) oct at ioilnoy atieavreade oer sto + 2. ee wimwiogaidt Io ining sdicmdinnwroad aise: OT MNES | “4 as n Monge: Sgt wevaitord oul aabeig ely aay lita sdb osteo ovolome Reem) way Spons pa oud ay lied a Laos Ode i, gaguls; wd lls AHL 8 { 71 : : : a 0 33. See Ll becky gp erspplilfiia nee a HIER, Sb haa ab is BY My? Bic j is (a! as ig, The bere , Tul eta. 4 nag ee witli Zod aoe * io 40 mist hd pid Agha. vaolinn ua 2OFIL yrote o 7 a i MLL | in rs nS # ri me eet ets Be ert ae Pomot™ cut to i tens onsq a ni 4 Pa NEY PO Hoth fe ec Loris 98 poe j boc sheen = ae HyebHAT fii fyi’ bitahg ht wa ene eu ay i itne PisohbAy WSIeD W a secrnsadiodoritseteen atin: C ut | gnitanvtbe cotinwc ve awaniiglobiie etien ov leg tosis tat nee eon kei oi atlohin ote bus \ddomoreraat dong ee siesovbs juoies bos “yioi0® lnusilyongA lecoWey ol Fi feos big, coldaai8). eit zsideiooa BS 9 ¥ ‘ni. Wis-of nuitestotni owdoig vid sate Uiy, OGé me orl See cid Sagres watt) ject EmrOBROT onalt Ich t ek PLATE f. (THE FRONTISPIECE.) Tus is the genial face of a farmer, engaged in a work of love for his calling. It is placed here in opposition to the wishes of the author. He has been persuaded to allow his face to be seenby those.who ‘purchase this collection of things useful to a very numerous class through the solicitation of the publisher, who knows that it will be a satisfaction to them to see how their old friend looks at the age of sixty. An old friend he will seem to those who read his earnest appeals for agricultural improvement twenty or thirty years ago. As a writer and lecturer upon agri- culture, and extensive traveler to observe its condition in the United States, few men are better known than the original of this portrait. Therefore this likeness will be, the publisher believes, highly appre- ciated as well by those who look upon a familiar face as those who see it here for the first time. The author was born a farmer, and will probably end his days where he now lives (a few miles out of the busy hum of the city), ’ where this volume of facts for farmers has been prepared as a last legacy of his good-will to the brotherhood. Like other farmers’ sons of New England, he learned to follow the plow there, though in early life he became a Western pioneer, and while a prairie farmer, became widely known as a writer advocating agricultural improvement, and more widely, in 1841, as the origin- ator of the National Agricultural Society, and earnest advocate of State and County societies. His connection with the New York Tribune since 1850 will make this picture interesting to all its readers. It is for these reasons that the publisher has incurred the expense of its production. in the peaceful quiet of his ‘“‘home in the country,’ in : ri 7 e 4 iT . J Sa ee ea en errr — — “ f pote Se to tn a - | yaaa aimee tic mndiieedtnee serenembie hae Meaieiaeah a ee bene . ‘ : ' j i ft f . eS ae 7 f ti } Pile. ee | > | Fs i r } ' \ : 3 7 2A J ek -£ '= NY \ aa / : a4 . ——-- _—- >t t ae A Me Pe f bd f yp ho GT SEND &) biting He uel { p ‘ b ; ' ze iI , eee de te a Matin a TR Ce, Oe * =- + { ROY = ’ toh. <9 3 it 2s “= ton } ish 50 Pee et ene 2 HE Bone BrAT OT HOVROT MTT r a Serene) Sauces |)-20s.. 20. syocitaliniuus, wild, dagen abl eeln a Hi Be Dag tory ayalhas) te pdyee tea bow boost’ Stet oxy turog a yd sh poegral pa ; » be . : ‘ P 5 + 9F ERtasds Srinayset boots seta: atiddls “of work fate hod Loose at Walt” \ TE le ee a ee ere ma techy rondetgfirt ES 5 mt. Sere ngtanen 14 ‘ ’ 5 ft i TA rans ls ae mame thei a Ioctas oat tonal nubs 3 Lapp! asian. “ny ie brrrqad’ fe TGA wi TAG Bay Meats fer 40 Tera - alll : , Maas Payle cn are tie Bb aT Lada Ti pgoeias cur bth’ eon sestwt sco ash 4A OUPTES GERI 4 rN DO ezine sseolt 24. ei0by, . eytlaplowe i Lave Mn vite (dhe Vy 0b fast to aelier) plinbgidiy y te ale " t ee ee SS ae 4 “ ‘Ye : 2 egal, ¥ en an eas sepst aa sda jIioxsaguans bey ener pasts jo clam? 7 YRG4MAsSTH. pret a cae! : Tost re senda © ONY 4! fine antines ; Pome fyrnd vil We pole alate yi eeoteiae baal widget wid pailico: he laocghant, ; ih . dow To stae"f berg > ary.) 2a ad wad hap awapoil Sedition ee a DE Al yeaa Satan + Hayes o Sebel cede beep) * . 4 J 4 i = " 5 a Pe bg seid 5 i ete... tisaneret sega Tira eat sa ie 2h fd, tin 7) payee Sut i 4 C18 tee} 7 ati a ah ihe eit UIbaeeg \ ahd ipipitrent: aN Mar tecitiat yo! A Lapeer o's, nisi hotisad abode et pe 4 as OFLMIAA TEL Ma Sie UNI (Mat mide etiths nit iota ues Pir ye spol & = ee Balbrs oy CZ t0k Ain oe 7 vO raedt tw PNG WO aia’ Brirtal Ita dena ed tates Lek wife Suite OTE $aseG 2 Oe Fee egisomet ajatier bps stonk exon? shenetk ye hele tea a tee atu atlas © a eraily 1 ales vod | ee sw ‘fou 3 wt led auller od 3 id vs capac gus jal = Wee: ‘hey? t « ene 2: a* Pues tay “a Trt ; 4 hy Lis te . ‘orn sen Ag Ph Gaby. venti go Beatie this yieghi in bal Ushg hei i 2 Need RE gs Series > os Pazwaag 2uT ee HES are SSAGT ITP G28, STII95 aay PAVE) AMBRE Fi + scaaEDEA PETS IHg, may RUT Ww eeaniaya iat . pbaaliiasy as (itm 4 Jewlaarnte of Glvodta-yodt § a alae aed ai ala i ae Let Sas 4 4 “oy ny Sig ce i al aA CHAPTER I. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. PAGE Section I.—INTRODUCTION TO FACTS ABOUT STOCK.............sesceseeeeeneeees 13 ae DN SIIVUNEY rch shits cr casgeun tpincd Wide sanders chad rsbemnintht Set stan a sina ee 19 This section embraces facts about the best breeds, and best mode of feeding, gross and net weight, etc. Sec. I1I.—COWS : What is a good cow, and how to choose one; food necessary; health ; PROM LANG NBO Ula Brel SNe od eee eo bop sense TaN ROU Orone doen pbaconqoorpouonS sta, al . Sec. IV.—BEEVES : Record of the largest known, and their weights...................... 51 Sec. V.—STATISTICS OF THE NEW YORK CATTLE MARKET, and Improvements in Breedaiarttl Were its: Sar. caiclicerrerrare tite same cle sails are erecerwlors ©)e @ Gis ora ea) sitaralata Siam sclers cate 56 Sec. VI.—FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM STOCK: Selecting calves; shelter ; training ; kindness; value of kinds of feed ; use of salt; watering ; diseases of cattle.... 60 Sec. VII—SHEEP HUSBANDRY: Breeds of sheep; care and management; weight of hay necessary ; mutton and its use; shearing and care of wool .................-..00- tea.) St Sec. VIII.—HORSES AND MULES: History of the horse ; varieties; how to use ; proper size; color; diseases; treatment of colts; how to shoe horses; breeding horses and Pues is JHOLSE earn Passos < cer aise He RIS NTO SUITS «ye CUNpNee fe Ai els ays lalate ses Tala, «| etaTeReae 97 Sec. IX.—POULTRY : Full description of all kinds of poultry, and proper treatment ....... 123 ° CHAPTER II. SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. Sec. X.—BEES: Their history, use, and value, management, and reasons for kecping ....... 157 Sec. XI.—BIRDS : Reasons for preserving ; their food ; and laws for protecting ............ 76 Sec. XII.—ENTOMOLOGICAL : What are insects, and what kinds infest and injure various crops, and how to detect friends from foes, and various remedies.....................-. Sec. XIIJI.—WILD AND TAME ANIMALS OF THE FARM: Dogs, cats, rats, mice, moles, rabbits, squirrels, gophers, skunks, toads, goats, camels, and breeding fish for family use. 248 CHAPTER III. THE FARMERY. THE BUILDINGS, YARDS, WE?Ls, CISTERNS, AQUEDUCTS, AND STRUCTURES NECESSARY TO CARRY ON THE BUSINESS OF THE FARM, BRIEFLY DESORIBED. Sec. XITV.—FARM-HOUSES : They should be convenient, roomy, light, ventilated ; their in- fluence upon character ; old-style farm-house described CONTENTS. PAGE Sec. XV.—CELLARS, CHIMNEYS, AND ICE-HOUSES: How to build them, and their proper size and use ; how to store and keep ice ec. XVI.—THE BARN AND ITS APPURTENANCES : Location, size, and use of barns; stables, how to build; stable yards and cheap sheds . XVII.—WATER FOR THE FARMERY : Cisterns, size, cost, and how to build; aque- ducts and wells, how to construct ; hydraulic rams . XVIIIL.—STACKING AND STORING GRAIN; CORN CRIBS, PIGGERIES, AND PIG FEEDING ; SMOKE-HOUSE, AND CURING BACON ; FRUIT-DRYING HOUSE. 318 . XIX.—ECONOMICAL FARM BUILDINGS: Balloon frames, concrete walls, and other cheap styles of building ; how to make balloon frames, and their cost . XX.—ROOFS AND ROOFING: Paints and whitewash for farm buildings; nails; mor- tar; farm gates ; sawed shingles, their value, and how to preserve shingles . XXI.—LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS : Protection of farm buildings from fire ; windmills Aang | WiGhe Ws aa sanmaponce es s- of ahd ques) ss Siete! Spine dete a nantes Sts nebctattl—— oe eee | ; a Kian Mains PRenuoll tu Joskiue ae zeae i 1 ait to eee mice anne act 497 As 4 4 pale ire ps b weaken? 3G stewie 30 yas ot bybastad ei ogatt } SRR eR a ae ee | oth vba hugh: nee a Weis wevae : inh Aste ie £645 ot Yoo Yd se i a Mie # Persaret Caihh yh bie: WRRIERAG ED, PFT Rose: lds wild Yvon if lib “napa 20, ary) ina, ) se B faples of word BE Sempud 10M aft — soem yy, 7 d j c vee Wa Waa : ras sat Pst ail ; a er cS 6 eo, es x ao! riw2 hee q9ade iG aber tate | Bars) noes OIE KITS Yo a al FY 708 to moglgaigon—-IEF meaath H Fig so opt 9 rfid iehae’ pede ace ily od. aa: ahr end ter mauiiarionl{i—- 2 Mma ny? each’ A i MAES tient wierd gia oa nothagh dt sete oh FT =: Sis Fey orcs SI 4 eyo) wlietl of gockp aorta X wpaat, i i SHES thaws a8 hae ened pawue® culo agoubad— IF staat, | 4 * pis. 08 2 ’ ik sat Wie Hae Taha ald is “rigged. re niet: - uz a ‘ Sagano ae robe h Gene Bee sane Yo psd aie TE ae! i eh sae A apnde? Ray: sy be quit) zi rah eh bat Sethee wale % soiqeitinos Wh ib % eran’, ii 7 aus Ca KEK a nba AvHOLA srt Us oni wor —~ EA ats nt i j y Lege: a hag! jarousrt AeSY “gest Janine wiht ay slquifinn't— IV Z esd ues } ws pagal: eens) eae ya CUO AE Se, indo linad shaky bua waa : Nachle Rae sa ait deorollen 1s, sped éf wornigabacars a eae mrt eee me PP eee nee me ‘ Ronee actor ’ pers oot ses eurerety: a. > pe em PLATE. Tf. (Page 13.) Every American farmer will look upon this picture with pride. It is a fitting illustration of a chapter upon Domestic Anmats. It contains representatives of a well-stocked farm, assembled in the farm-yard on the south side of one of the farmery buildings in one of the sunny days of spring, which are so well calculated to make such a collection of well-fed animals feel, as these look, full of gladness. There is no danger that such hogs as these will destroy young lambs and poultry. Here we see the sheep and lambs, goats and kids—goats that yield valuable fleeces, which are described in this’ chapter—the work-horses and brood-mare and colt—the mules and their progenitor, who is in an attitude of war with a well-fed heifer that is absorbed in admiration of the peacocks on the roof of the poultry-house. How surlily the bull looks upon the white- faced cow, which is deeply interested in contemplating the two hens that the cock has just called to enjoy a few grains of corn! By the earnest looking of one cow and two horses, we judge that they see their good friend and master approaching. Geese, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and pigeons, and a boat on the water, enliven the scene, which, altogether, is one of tranquil beauty. It is a scene to con- template and admire. It teaches a lesson. It will stimulate many a young man to a determination to become the owner of such a one, - or something equally worthy of the artist who desires to represent American farm life. It will stimulate all, we hope, who look upon this pictorial index of this chapter to read it carefully. ee eee EN \ ea ¥ ! ; Fee MY ip as 7,4 y nt rs nae! id = 1 - ty , at Cabeanan ae} BUR F sb ait VERRY ALLY task . i Py of aii ‘ ; OVO aay oa #4 cuts 2 14 : it aay: east Mane a TO MaRiteseeT. GAR we | ) y T art esas: Thi tite } } eit: pogiicrit- 210% moe: Nah ape 3 be ik ‘ 1 = AY eran ear xe Mee a i te thi oat (ts Iiveergnaas iat he er laa Wee bw bp pe aoa jadeness ee cue ¥ Mt sioulh ny bie purconid bos ypiieidor | hf eer aie! pio, AID } ve tf " Era 8 a ‘alt i, spsigslin i bar ely ” me ia . MST 8 ai a aati si i eit had si: . ie ens 12 ons —. a es as ma sl’ Settee ae eet * ea ucanc> Vario. Aw Aner ic ax FACTS FOR FARMERS. : CHAPTER I. "DOMESTIC ANIMALS. SECTION. I-INTRODUCTION TO FACTS ABOUT STOCK. HE very foundation of all farm improvement is the f domestie animals which consume the coarse products ) of the farm, such as are not fit for human food, or “ grown in greater abundance than is needed for that purpose, which, being so fed, are converted into milk, butter, cheese, beef, pork, mutton, wool, leather, and the many other valuable animal products. But above all are animals valuable to the farmer, because they convert the coarse products of the farm into manure, without which the owner can not produce food for his own sustenance. Viewing, then, as I do, successful farming as based upon stock, it seems to me very fitting that I should make the treatise of it the leading chapter of the volume. And as swine are more universally kept by all classes of Americans, and the flesh more universally used every week in the year, it will be very proper to make this branch of farm-stock the leading subject. I am not going to give learned dissertations upon stock-breeding, nor, in fact, long essays upon this or any other subject, but such little fugitive facts as come to hand, in short paragraphs, consecutively numbered for reference, with black-letter titles to each subject, to attract attention, and so arranged that facts may be gathered at a glance, and valuable information obtained during leisure moments which might otherwise be lost. Many of the statements given are not only for the purpose of giving interesting information—such, for instance, as the weights of the largest animals ever slaughtered—bnt as an incentive to others to try to produce the like. It is not to be expected that a man who never saw a bullock of over 12 ewt. should attempt to make one of 36 ewt.; nor will he be likely to make the attempt before he learns the important fact, that the particular breed which he has kept all his life never attain that weight. It is for the purpose of inciting improvement that I give some statistics 14 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. of the New York livestock market, which I have been familiar with for many years. Farmers should know that there is a certain market for all the meat-giving animals they can produce, and what they realize, as well as what varieties sell best. I have purposely adopted a desultory method, because I think it will be more satisfactory to my readers, whom I do not expect to read the work in consecutive order, and because I find it more convenient to pick up the fugitive facts and jot them down in a sort of mosaic-work, something as nature does its autumn tints, which are now glowing before my window in the full effulgence of an October sun. And here, too, as I look abroad upon my neighbors’ fields, and at their cattle gnawing the short pasture, and running after every chance apple dropping from the trees, and then stretching up their necks, looking for more, and browsing off the lower limbs of the trees, I am forcibly reminded that this is not a profitable method of keeping farm-stock. Day by day the milch cows fail to give the supply that good pasture will always give in this good butter-making month of October; and day by day the flesh of all the animals is wasting, so that, by-and-by, when the cold and storms of November force their owner to bring them into winter quarters, they are not in such a condition that he may carry them economically through. There is a great error in farming, that the scene before me forcibly reminds me of—it is the error of keeping any kind of farm-stock upon short pasture, and most particularly in autumn, so that they come to winter quarters falling off in flesh, rather than gaining, which is the condition that all animals should be in when brought from the pasture to the stable or feeding lot. Some of the farmers of the Eastern States of the kind just alluded to, who keep their stock upon the shortest possible pasture, and consequently generally have scrubby animals, and always meet with great difficulty in wintering those, would learn a useful lesson if they would visit the blue- grass pastures of Kentucky, and see in what luxuriant feed the sleek Durhams of that region are kept. They would there learn one of the secrets of value of that breed, and why they attain at three years old a size and weight of beef never equaled at six years old by the scrub breed common in Virginia and in the hilly regions of Ohio and Indiana, which are sometimes designated in the New York market as “pony cattle,” or “old style,” and averaging, when fat, about six hundred pounds in the beef. A similar serub breed is known in Kentucky as “mountain cattle,” and the same style is very common in North Carolina, Georgia, and other Southern States, where I have often seen full grown steers, and fat, killed for beef at four years old, that would not average four hundred pounds of beef. These cattle were treated, too, all their lives, just like too many of the same class in all the New England and Middle States—like those now before me, eking out their existence upon the scanty herbage of autumn, in a closely-cropped summer pasture, and never fed with forage prepared for winter, until the owner is driven to it by an early winter storm. ——- ~~ Seo. 1.] CATTLE ON A MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT. 15 ] Such is not the right way to keep stock; but so long as men will keep it thus, it is not of much advantage to try to improve the breed. There is a great want of information, not only upon the subject of improvements in the kinds of stock, but in the modes of keeping it. It is not my intention, in this chapter upon domestic animals, to attempt to give all this information, but only a few brief hints, which may lead to reflection and improvement. Above all things that will tend to improvement, are annual visits to great cattle-shows, where the varieties in the breeds of cattle may be studied, and judged as to which would be the most profitable, or whether either would be more so than the old-style breed at home. It would be of great importance, too, to all farmers to travel more. How strange it would seem, at first sight, toa Yankee farmer, who had occupied a forty-acre farm all his life, to see a thousand hogs, and half as many bullocks, all turned into a grand-prairie corn-field, of a size large enough to cover his entire farm and that of twenty or thirty of his neighbors! His first exclamation would probably be, “Oh, what a waste!” His subsequent opinion would be about like this: “ Well, after all, I begin to believe that is not so bad a way of harvesting corn as I thought it was.” And this is not the only curious thing that he might see in relation to farm-stock in traveling through the West. He would see the same bad management as at home, about bringing the stock into winter quarters, for they are too often allowed to run in a corn-field, after the grain has all been harvested, living upon the dry stalks until after the first snows of winter. He might also see some very amusing, as well as instructive things, in connection with cattle. Shipping cattle on a Mississippi steamboat, as I once witnessed, afforded infinite amusement; and I am disposed to give a photograph of it, before I take up the more practical details of farm-stock. Engagements for boats to stop and take cattle on board at various landings are frequently made before leaving port, and it often happens that the boat reaches these points in the night; and then a scene occurs which might employ a more graphic pen than mine to describe, or which would have been a fit subject for Hogarth to paint. I will try to give my readers some idea of such a scene, although one so common on the Mississippi it rarely meets a passing notice; yet it is full of interest. The steamer left St. Louis about sundown of a dark day, during the latter part of which the rain came down in torrents, corresponding to the size of the great river they were destined to fill. Of course mud was a component part of all the little tributary streams; but it did not discolor the great river—that is always muddy. At ten o’clock we saw a light on the right bank, and run in for it. Though the rain had ceased, the night was dark—one which gave the pilot but little chance to see any but the most prominent landmarks. 16 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. “Whose place is this?” sung out the captain, when he had approached as near the light as he thought safe—for in time of “a fresh,” the master of a boat always approaches shore with great care. “Why, dis is my massa’s place; what boat dat? If you is de Henry Clay, den dis nigger mighty glad, ’cause, gorra, cap’en, hab been watching all dis two free nights for de old Clay.” “Have you got your cattle there?” “ All in de lot—gorra bress you, den you is de Henry Clay, sure—right here by de light.” “Ts the water good in shore 2” “Why, spec him is good for the steamboat, but not very good to drink.” “ How deep is it near the bank ¢” “Oh, Lord, massa, dat mor’n dis nigger knows for sartin, ’cause him mighty deep.” “That will do. Forward there. Get your lines ready. Light them torches—let’s see where we are. Call all hands; here is a hundred head of cattle to be got aboard.” In a few minutes the lights flashed a bright glare over the boat and shore, bringing to view a scene worth a long journey to behold. The torches are composed of “light wood,” which is the concentrated pitch of old pine trees, of the long-leat variety—the richest of all the family in turpentine. This wood is split in small pieces and put in an iron frame; with a staff not unlike the common hod used to carry mortar, so it can be carried about or stuck in the ground, where by a little replenishing it will burn for hours, giving a light unequaled by any other portable contrivance Iever saw. In the present case, it disclosed more mud than anything else. The whole bank was alluvial clay loam. The face was steep, and sixty or eighty feet high. The boat, made fast to stakes driven into the soft earih, lay within twenty feet of the shore, between which and the guards was a gangway made of long planks lashed together, about six or eight feet wide, without side-railing, or anything to prevent springing down in the center. The cattle were in a yard on the top of the bank, where, around the wateh- fire, huddled about a dozen sleepy negroes, amongst which. the anxious face of massa soon made its appearance, having been awakened at his house, two miles distant, by the tremendous noise which is made by one of these river steamers, by the puffs of her high-pressure engine. ‘ “ Halloo, Captain Smith, is that you? I might have known it, though, for no other fool would come here in the night for such a job as this. What are you going to do—hold on till morning ¢#” “ Hold the P? “Well, I might just as well as hold you. I do believe, if the Clay’s engine should break going up stream, the boat would not stop—there is steam enough in the captain to keep her going.” Evidently pleased with this compliment, he jumped ashore, with that most encouraging of all words,“ Come, boys,” and floundered up the muddy 17 Sxo. 1.] HANDLING A WILD STEER. road, to greet his planter friend with one of those hearty shakes of the hand which alone is equal to a whole volume on the man’s character. “ Well, captain, you see how it is. I am all ready ; the cattle are here, wet, wild, and muddy, and the bank awful. I couldn’t help it. It would rain, and the river is on the fall. I doubt whether your men can stand on the slippery bank. My boys will take down some of the gentle ones, but Lord help you with two or three; we had to bring them in with the dogs.” “So much the better, then, that the road is wet—they will slide the easier. Ropes and men will bring them down ; don’t you fret, colonel.” “ Well, welly Pll leave it to you; I'll risk the cattle, if you will your necks. Better wait for daylight, though—what say ?” “ Never! what should I do with that surplus steam you say Iearry? Wait —no; I intend to have them all aboard, and win half of them playing poker with you before morning; and at daylight I am going to take in Tom Kilgore’s, at Rocky Landing. So bear a hand, boys. Stir up your lights, and rouse ’em out, one at a time, and often.” In a few minutes there was a line of men and bullocks from the top of the bank to the boat. The first dozen or two came down very orderly to the end of the gangway, where, if they hesitated, a rope was thrown over so as to encircle them behind, and two or three stout fellows at each end gave them material aid about coming on board. The owner said we should sce fun directly, but not caring to participate in it personally, he took care to make himself one of the spectators, in a safe, comfortable position on board the boat. Upward of half were brought down without giving us a taste of the promised amusement, though the whole scene was exceedingly interesting. At length they got hold of one of the animals, which the colonel said was wilder than forty deer, and vicious as an old buck in running time; and then there was fun. - He'was a great, long-legged, five-year-old steer, of the mouse color, long taper-horned Spanish cattle, who had never before felt the weight and strength of a man’s hand upon his heretofore unrestrained wild-woods liberty. Round and round the yard he went, carrying or dragging through the mud as many negroes, sailors, and firemen as could find horn, ear, nose, or tail to hold to. Finally they got a rope round his horns and drew him up to a stake at the edge of the bank, to wait till others were caught to lead down first, thinking that he would better follow than take the front rank. He did follow. When about a dozen or fifteen head were on the way down, the wild one was cast off from his moorings and led up to the edge of the bank, when just at that moment the engineer blowed off steam, at which the frightened animal leaped forward on to the slippery path, lost his foothold, and down he went against the next, and the next, and so on; like a row of bricks, one tumbled or slid against another, upsetting men and beast, till the whole came down like an avalanche upon the end of the platform with such force that the strain upon the mooring line of the bow drew out the stake, when the strong current almost instantly swung her off shore so far, before the men could get hold of the line and make fast again, that the platform - 2 18 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. dropped off into the water, and with it eight or ten men and steers, among which was the one'that caused all the mischief. I must say the fun was not so great as the fright, for a minute, as it did not take much longer to finish off the greatest feat of “sliding down hill” which I have witnessed since the haleyon days of hand-sleds and boyhood upon the snow-clad, wintry hills of my native land. That all were got out safe was owing to the instant thought and action of the mate, who sprang ashore with a pole which he placed in the wheel, so as to prevent the cattle from floating down past the stern, where it would have been impossible for them to get up the soft, slippery bank. As it was, some of them were in the water over an hour; the catamount, as the colonel called him, being purposely left until the last, and severely threatened with being towed to New Orleans. But when he was at length taken out, there was not a more docile animal in the herd; he had been completely subdued. The whole affair, though fraught with danger at first, afforded all hands a scene of most uproarious mirth. Even at the time when it looked as though half a score of men might be killed in the grand tumble, it was almost impossible to avoid laughing, the whole thing was so extremely ludicrous. One big negro fellow, finding himself hard pressed by the bullock he was leading and half a dozen more behind him, either for sport or to save his shins, jumped upon the animal’s back and came down with a surge into the water; but he never let go till he had him safe ashore again, where he met some of the most hearty, though rude congratulations of his companions, for his skillful feat of horsemanship on an ox. Finally, in spite of mud and peril, the grand entertainment of shipping cattle on the Mississippi was concluded, and the boat was off before daylight for the next landing, where the operation.was to be repeated. Owing to better ground and a different plan adopted, this was not quite so entertaining. The cattle were yarded in a long, narrow pen, which came near the shore. A rope being passed over the horns of the forward steer, with the other end through a snatch-block on the boat, a dozen or fifteen men would lay hold of it, while two men by the tail to steer, and one on each side to keep him on the gangway, would have the fellow out of the pen and sliding up the planks before he knew what he was bellowing for. As in all cases where science and skill direct human efforts, the labor was lessened and business expedited. And so in all cases where science and skill are exercised in regard to all kinds of domestic animals, success may be looked for. And now, after this little incidental digression from the main intent of this chapter, in the exhibition of a life-like seene on the Mississippi, we will begin to arrange our facts in order and shape for useful reference, always aiming more at the practical than ornamental. As we shall arrange each subject under its separate and proper head, we will begin the chapter upon domestic animals with that kind in most universal use. SECTION IL—SWINE. ceding Pigs and Fatting Pork.— Next to procuring a good breed of swine—that is, a breed suitable to the purposes for which it is required—the so) best way to feed the stock hogs, and the cheapest and is ROS best way to fatten them, is the most important matter qn ~~ for a farmer to consider. No man can say, “ My breed 2 is the best of all,” unless he specifies for what purpose it is best for. A good grazing breed would be best for some situations ; quite the contrary for some others. The Berkshire, Essex, and Suffolk have each been denomi- nated “the gentleman’s pig,” because well fitted for keeping up in close pens, one or two to a family ; while a much larger breed is required by the great corn-growers of the West. And this brings us to the next most important question. 3. Corn and Pork—How much Pork will a Bushel of Corn make ?—This is one of the most important questions that can be asked by every man who raises a bushel of corn or feeds one to a hog. Yet it is a question that not one in ten can answer. To see the ignorance of mankind upon subjects of most importance to them, makes us ready to exclaim, Does anybody know anything about anything? In conversation with many farmers, we have not yet found a man who could say how much corn it required to make a hundred pounds of pork, and consequently could not fix upon any relative price of one or the other, at which it would be profitable to feed corn to hogs. In some experiments made by Henry L. Ellsworth, at Lafayette, Ind., in warm weather, with thrifty young porkers in a pen, fed with corn in the ear, if we remember aright, he gained 12lbs. of pork per bushel of corn. Samuel H. Clay, of Kentucky, gained 171 lbs. per bushel, feeding the corn in the form of cooked meal. As a general thing, we should like to know if corn, fed as it usually is in the West, averages six pounds of pork to the bushel of shelled corn. We have received several answers to this question, but they only prox mately settle the point. Leroy Buckingham, of Cadiz, Cattaraugus Co. N. Y., says, a pig that weighed 521bs. when commenced with, fed on the spare milk from one cow and 800 lbs. of raw corn-meal,weighed 364 lbs. (live or dead not stated) when killed at seven and a half months old. He thinks each bushel of corn made about 20 Ibs. of pork. The two following letters we print entire, and commend them to the careful attention of all farmers, although they do not contain all that is necessary to be known upon the subject: 20 DOMESTIO ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. ‘*Guenn’s Fats, N. Y., Oct. 23, 1858. “Sm: You think it important that farmers should know how much pork a barrel of corn will make. It ¢s an important question, and I am sorry to say Lthink there are ten lawyers and mechanics to one farmer that can answer the question correctly. I once made a very accurate experiment in New York; the first day of September I weighed into the pen two hogs, a year and a half old, and three pigs, six months old. I measured old corn accurately, and had it ground. At night I wet with boiling water (to a consistency that would run freely) meal sufficient for the next day’s feed. The hogs had no slops from the house—nothing but the meal and water. I killed them the first of December, deducted five cents per pound for what they weighed the first of September, and found, at six cents per pound for the pork, they had paid ninety-eight cents per bushel for the corn, which would give about sixteen and one third pounds of pork to the bushel. One year since I fatted fifteen old hogs and thirty-five pigs on India wheat and potatoes. I measured the feed accurately, steamed the potatoes, and mixed the meal in while hot, twelve hours before feeding. At five cents per pound for the pork, they paid forty-two cents per bushel for the India wheat, and fifteen cents for the potatoes. Of course the relative value of the wheat and potatoes is guessed at in that experiment. I “worked” the hogs in the manure business, carting in muck, weeds, ete. I got 15 cords of manure although less pork—I suppose for the working the hogs. I would like much to know if any one (especially in the Western States) has made the experi- ment of turning hogs into the corn-field, with free access to water, and let them help themselves. “Tf any other class of business men knew as few facts in regard to their business as farmers do, they would all fail every year. New Marsu.” A. G. Perry, of Newark (State not named), weighed a thrifty pig, five months old, 150 Ibs., and then fed it 56 lbs. corn-meal, mixed with hot water, thin enough to answer for victuals and drink. This was eaten in six and a half days, and the gain was 18 lbs. A correspondent writes from North Chatham, Columbia Co., N. Y.: “The 24th of August I put up a sow to fatten—a large proportion Suffolk —her weight, 235lbs. Price on foot, 4 cents per pound. For food from August 24th to October 4th, gave her 309 Ibs. rye bran. Rye bran is worth here $1 12! per 100 lbs. October 4th her weight was 295 1bs., making 60 lbs. increase from the bran. From October 4th until November 17th I fed her 10 bushels, by weight 5601bs., of marketable corn. Killed her Nov. 17th. Her live weight, just before killing, was 413 lbs. Increase from the 10 bushels corn (or 560 lbs.), being 118 lbs. pork—it taking a fraction more than 41 ]bs. corn for 11b. pork—and is a fraction less than 12 1bs. pork from, 1 bushel of corn, making the increase per day a little less than 2? 1bs. The present price of corn here is 70 cents per bushel, and the pork 7 cents per pound, being barely a paying business.” a ant Src. 2.] SWINE—PROFIT OF FEEDING. 21 J. J. Carter, of Hornville, Chester Co., Pa., says that B. P. Kirk Kapts a debt and credit account with his pig. He fed 4975 bushels of corn, at 60 cents a bushel, and added the first cost of the pig, at two months old, $5, making a total of $34 46. At 17 months old the animal weighed 649 lbs., and sold for 71 cents a pound, making $48 67, giving a profit of $14 21. A little bran was fed, but that was reduced to the equivalent of corn, and counted as above. The breed of hogs common in Chester County is one of the best in the world. The hogs are of a white color, medium-sized, easily fatted to weigh 300 to 400 Ibs. at 10 to 15 months old, and have small bones, fine-grained flesh, large hams, well marbled, and large leaves of kidney fat. It is a distinct American breed, and one of the best for farmers who desire to graze their hogs in part, and then fatten them easily upon house-slops, apples, potatoes, and coarse grain. Even for large farmers, and for making pork upon a large scale, there are not many, if any, breeds of swine in this country superior to that known as.Westchester, or Chester County (Pa.) hogs. And as I consider it an important fact that farmers should know where to get a real good breed without paying fancy prices, I am glad of the opportunity to make this breed better known. D. C. Nye, of Lexington, Mass., in reply to an inquirer in the Genesee Farmer, writes that— “The Chester County hogs are distinguished for their early maturity, great facility for fattening, and are very quiet and docile. They are well covered with bristles, and, unlike the Suffolks, can endure the heat and cold. The Chesters will probably make as much pork (and of a superior quality) on a given amount of food as any other breed—some of them, when well fed, having attained the weight of six or seven hundred. pounds.” Another correspondent of the same paper says, in addition, that the thorough-bred Chester hogs are always white, and that “they are peculiar in being fit for slaughtering at any time.” But to proceed with the subject of feeding hogs. The second letter is very much to the point. It says: “Tn answer to your question, ‘How much pork will a bushel of corn make? I send you the result of two experiments, made some years ago, while occupying a farm in the northern part of Chester County, Pa. “ My first experiment was with five very ordinary pigs that I bought of a neighbor ; weighed, October, 1851, 249 lbs ; fed on corn and cob meal, boiled into mush, of which they consumed in 30 days 279 lbs., and ghined 87 Ibs. live weight. Clk the next 32 days they consumed 875}]bs., and gained 75 lbs. live weight, making a gain of 157 lbs. in 62 days, having consumed 654} lbs. of corn and cob meal, which is equal to about 91 bushels pure meal; or one bushel pure meal cooked made 16.8 Ibs. live weight. “My second experiment was with a lot of five very superior pigs, of the Chester breed; they weighed, Feb. 7, 1853, 695lbs; consumed in 9 days DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. 1 | Ee ne 252 lbs. corn and cob meal, scalded, and gained 78lbs. In the next 9 days they consumed*1251bs. whole corn, boiled, and 128 lbs. of corn-cob meal, scalded, and gained 57 lbs. “In the next 9 days they consumed 278 lbs. corn-cob meal, scalded, and gained 70lbs., making a gain in 27 days of 205lbs. on a consumption of 658 lbs. corn-cob meal, and 1251bs. whole corn. Assuming that 70 lbs. of the cob-ineal contains 561bs., or one bushel pure meal, we have 92 bushels-of pure meal and 2} bushels whole corn, making a consumption of 113 bushels nearly, and a gain of 205 lbs. flesh; or 561bs. of pure meal, scalded, made 17.44 lbs. of live weight. “The above surprising gain for food consumed was the result of very eareful feeding, clean and warm bedding, and a tight house. >) “ Ricnarp Tuarcurr, Darby, Pa.” Thomas Hoag, of Somhanock, N. Y., has sent us a detailed statement of the feeding of ten pigs, out of a litter of twelve from a native-breed yearling sow, taken from her at seven weeks old, and fed till slaughtered, at forty weeks old, with the following substances, with estimates of expense added : 2123 bushels of corn, at 75 cents $159 38 63 bushels of oats, at 45 cents 28 35 Paid for grinding 14 79 13 bushels of small potatoes, 124 cents. 1 63 6 loads of pumpkins, at $1 6 00 = 209 Ibs. of carrots Motal si::'o be smabiondok as eaaaee sans $248 15 These hogs weighed, dressed, 4,066 pounds, and sold, (in 1853), at Lansingburg, N. Y., at $7 50 per cwt $304 95 Rough fat, 175 lbs $322 45 Balance This is the amount of profit, or, rather, pay for labor, and the spare milk of four ordinary cows fed to them, and not estimated as above. At six cents a pound the result would have been 4,066 lbs., at 6 cents $243 96 Rough fat $261 46 This certainly does not give a very flattering picture of the probable profits of pork-making in this section of the country, where every kind of feed is salable at high prices. Other letters were subsequently received, from one of which we gather the following information: Wm. Renick, of Circleville, Ohio, a large farmer, and long engaged in the raising of cattle and hogs, writes more extensively than we can find room for. Mr. Renick thinks that farmers are not ignorant of the fact “how much pork will a bushel of corn make,” and says: aes \ a . Sro. 2.] SWINE—GAIN IN FEEDING. 23 *‘ Probably nine tenths of our best practical farmers could, without hesita- tion, give you an approximate answer in general terms.” This is exactly what we supposed, and that they would give nothing but an approximate answer in general terms, because there is a general lack of positive information upon this and many other important matters connected with the farming interest. Mr. Renick gives the gain upon five hogs fed by himself in the common rough method of the West—that is, turned into the corn-field, 200 head together. Three of these hogs weighed, at seven months old, 140 Ibs. each, and two older ones weighed 125 Ibs. each. After feeding 120 days, the three weighed 286 lbs. net average, and the two 185 lbs. “ Now, say that hogs on an average will eat 20 bushels of corn per hundred head per day for the first 60 days, 16 bushels for the next 30 days, and 12 bushels per hundred head per day for the last 30 days, and we have 21 bushels per head for the whole time of 120 days (though this is under rather than over the mark), and we have a production in the ease of the three hogs of 101 1bs. of gross pork for a bushel of corn, and but a small fraction over 5 lbs. per bushel for the two hogs.” Now, this is exactly in proof of what we originally stated. It is all guess- work. Mr. Renick further says: “The large feeders of hogs and cattle are oftentimes greatly mistaken in their calculations in regard to the quantity of stock their corn will feed, sometimes largely overrunning, and again falling largely short of their calculations.” This is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that no one pretends to have any settled rule of action, but buys as many lean cattle or hogs as he guesses he can fatten. Mr. Renick thinks the most common answer to the question would be something like this: “That hogs fed in the ordinary way will gain from one pound to one and a half pounds per day, and they will consume some twenty bushels or more of corn in three and a half or four months; that it all depends upon the quality of the hogs, quality of the corn, weather, and other contingencies.” The gain varies from five to twelve pounds gross per bushel. So he says: “We will compromise the matter by guessing that, all things favorable, one bushel of corn, fed in the ordinary way, will make seven pounds gross weight.” It is, after all, then, nothing but guessing. And we guess that feeding corn, where it is worth a dollar a bushel, as it frequently is in and about New York, won’t pay while dressed hogs are sold from the hooks, as they gener- ally are, at seven or eight cents a pound, and the average price of live hogs is less than six cents a pound. With our arithmetic we can not figure up any profit for a farmer hereabouts to keep a single hog more than he wants to eat up the milk and house-slops, and a little waste grain; and pxobably that could be more profitably fed to poultry. The greatest advantage from feeding grain to make pork in all the New England States must be looked for more in the manure than in the meat. Where manure must be purchased, it may be profitable to purchase corn- 24 DOMESTIO ANIMALS. meal to convert into manure through the pig-pen manufactory. The next paragraph is to the point in this connection, of feeding pigs to make manure. 4, Working Pigs.—We once recommended farmers to make their pigs working animals. To this a writer in an agricultural paper objected; be- cause, as he alleges, the same amount of food consumed by an idle hog will make 12 pounds of pork as easily as it will make 8 pounds if the animal is allowed to exercise his natural propensity to root. In this we entirely agree, and have often contended that when a hog is shut up to fatten, if he was confined in a slip so narrow that he could not turn round, having one side of his narrow prison made so as to be moved out as he increased in bulk, he would fatten faster than in any other position. Now, will the writer, who thinks that we differ from him in opinion, read over again the article that he criticises, and see that it is the pig-pen, and not the fatting-hog pen, that we were talking about. Our facts are not intended to be elaborated into proofs and arguments for farmers, but rather as texts for thinking men to think over and reason upon with themselves and neighbors. Our opinion is, that all the swine family should be kept imprisoned, if not in close pens, certainly in strongly fenced lots; and in all the Eastern States, where manure is so valuable, it is very doubtful whether a farmer can afford to let any of the family out of the pen—which, as we before hinted, should be a great manure manufactory—except, perhaps, for a short season to eat clover, peas, or glean a stubble-field. If there is a greater neighborhood nuisance than hogs in the highway, we have yet to find it out; and as we would always keep “Mr. Pig” in the pen, we recommended to make him work in the manufactory, furnishing a part of the materials to be worked, and the farmer the remainder. In his immediate preparation for death we don’t care how idly he spends the last of his days. As long as farmers will persist in making the flesh of swine their leading article of food, we shall contend that the flesh of an animal that has worked his way up to a mature age, and is then fattened ready for slaughter, will make more healthy food than the oily fatness of one always kept in a state of obesity and idleness from his birth to death. It is this great physiological fact that causes the flesh of the wild hog to be sought after and eaten with gusto. We fully agree with the orthodoxy of E. M. Brewster, a model farmer of Griswold, Conn., who says if he was to fatten a half-dozen hogs upon a flat rock, he would be sure to have two rings in each nose. The latitude that we desire our readers to give to our suggestions is just this: to make a distinction between working and fattening animals, and make the pig a useful one. “Keeping pigs eighteen months to fatten them the last three is not a paying business. Feed a decent pig well from weaning until eight months old, and you will get 250 Ibs. to 300 Ibs. of pork, and you do not usually get 50 lbs. more for those ten months older. There can be no question but an animal can consume much more to produce in eighteen months about the same quantity of meat which is made by another in half that length of feeding. If the object of raising a hog is to make pork, that end should be COOKING .FOOD FOR SWINE. kept steadily. in view—his swineship should see it, and eaé¢ for it.” This is our view exactly. Winter none but autumn pigs, keep them in pens, and always growing. “To keep a pig growing, one must keep him eating, and eating about all the time. To do this, there is nothing like ‘change and variety’— now a little corn, then a little milk, a few boiled potatoes, a few raw apples—now a pudding, then a dish of greens—anything to keep them eating and stufting when awake, even if it does require a little extra atten- tion.” 5. Cooking Food for Swine.—Circumstances must govern the feeder. If corn is worth*but twenty-five cents per bushel, it is plain that it will not pay to expend much money either for cooking or crushing it; but where food is’ high, a small quantity saved pays for considerable labor, etc. It will hardly pay to expend dear labor upon cooking cheap roots to make low-priced pork. It has been proved that crushed barley, soaked in cold water 46 hours, gave more increase of weight to sheep than when not soaked; but crushed malt did not. The figures are: Four sheep in 10 weeks ate 280 Ibs. of crushed barley not steeped, and 3,867 lbs. of mangel-wurzel, and increased in live weight 81lbs.; while four sheep, with barley crushed and steeped, ate 280 Ibs. and 5,321 lbs. mangel-wurzel, increasing 101} 1bs. Four sheep, with crushed malt, not steeped, ate in 10 weeks 227} 1bs., and 3,755 lbs. mangel- wurzel, and increased 84 1bs.; while four sheep, with malt crushed and steeped, ate 226} 1bs. malt and 4,458 lbs. mangel-wurzel, and gained only 78lbs. In the above experiment, the question is, Did the additional 202 lbs. pay the extra trouble and extra feed of roots ? An experiment in Ireland, lately made, proves that hogs gained more upon raw than cooked vegetables. Eight hogs were selected and divided into two lots, as evenly as could be, and put in to fatten, on the 27th of November. Each lot was fed regularly three times a day, having each 12 lbs. of bran and barley meal, the only difference being that one lot had steamed ruta bagas, and the other pulped or rasped ruta bagas. The experi- ment was continued 39 days; the lot having cooked food ate 468 lbs. bran, ete., and 10,920 lbs. ruta bagas, and increased 103 Ibs. ; while the lot having uncooked food ate 468 lbs. bran, ete., and only 5,460 Ibs. ruta .bagas, and gained 110 lbs. Samuel H. Clay, of Bourbon, Ky., has been experimenting in feeding several lots of hogs, changing them from raw to cooked, and from ground to unground food, with the following results: One bushel of dry corn made 5lbs. 10 0z. of live pork ; one bushel of boiled corn made 14]bs. 7 oz. of pork; one bushel of ground corn, boiled, made in one instance 16 lbs. 7 0z., in another nearly 18 lbs. of pork. To get the value of corn, estimate the pork at 8 cents a pound; we have as the result of one bushel of dry corn, 45 cents’ worth of pork; of one bushel of boiled corn, 115 cents’ worth of pork; and of one bushel of ground corn, 136 cents’ worth of pork. 6. Pig Feed—Boiled Weeds.—A widow, who was short of feed for her pig, said, in presence of her little boys, that she thought she would have to sell 26 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. it, for she had so little to feed it with, and could not afford to buy feed. One of the little fellows promptly answered that he knew what would be good to feed piggy with, and of which they had plenty. “ What is it, my son ?” “Greens, mother—boiled greens. They are good for us, why not for pigs? And we can gather them, and pick up wood and boil them in the big kettle out doors, and it will be real fun.” So it was settled that pig should eat greens—all sorts of weeds boiled ; and eat them he did, and liked them, and fatted on them, with the small addition that could be made of bran and honse-slops, mixing the slops and greens together. This is a hint worth remembering and acting upon. The weeds were destroyed, the boys employed, the pig kept growing, and the boys had the satisfaction of feeling that they had been usefully employed. 7. Hog Pastures.—It being generally understood that hogs live by “ special providences” until it is time to fat them, there is little attention paid to the most economical way of growing them up. Certain it is that a good, easy-keeping variety will make commendable progress on grass. It may be safe to calculate that a good-sized, thrifty pig will gain in six months, on grass, 100 lbs. or more. If an acre of grass would keep three hogs and add 100 lbs. to the weight of each, that would be $12 for the acre of pasture, reckoning the 300 Ibs. gain at four cents a pound, live weight. Instead of being forced to bite twice at a short, dirty, dried, and battered spear of June grass by the roadside before getting any off, imagine a clean and comely Suffolk in a fresh, green pasture of clover, four inches high, filling himself with evident relish. 8. The Pig-Pen and its Value——As a manure-maker, there is no animal equal to the hog, provided he is furnished with suitable facilities. The eating and sleeping apartments of Mr. Pig should always be a good frame building, with a plank floor and shingle roof, and it will in many places be found economical to give him an iron eating trough. His house should be cleaned out every day, and washed as often as necessary to keep it clean. All the washings and cleanings should go into an adjoining pen, which may as well be made of fence rails, on account of cheapness and convenience of removal, into which the tenants of the hog-house must be invited by a little corn, scattered in every day, to induce them to mix up a compost of their own offal with sods, mold, leaves, weeds, and all sorts of trash. This pen should be equal to ten feet square for every two hogs, and so long as it is worked every day it will not much injure by exposure to the weather; but it should afterward be covered, and it should always have stuff enough put in it to keep the hogs from getting into a very muddy condition. If you have not mold enongh to entirely absorb the ammonia, you must use plaster or charcoal dust. It must be kept sweet, or you will lose much of its value ; and where manurg is valuable, if yon neglect to use your swine for the purpose of increasing it, you Will lose about all the profit of making your Szo. 2.] SWINE—FEEDING THEM HONEY. 27 own pork. There is another way in which yon can make the pig-pen valuable. If you have a spot of ground that you want to enrich and work deeply and thoroughly for fruit-trees or for garden vegetables, plant it with Jerusalem artichokes, and then yard your hogs upon it, taking care to give them room enough, so as not to necessitate them to make a quagmire. Again, you may use these animals to advantage if you have a piece of grass land infested with grubs. Fence off a piece, and shut your swine in upon it for a few days without feed, and if they leave a sod unturned or grub uneaten it will bea wonder. It is the best preparation of such a spot for a hoed crop, orfor sowing again in grass, that can be given. There is no good reason why the pig should be always kept in idleness or mischief. Let him be trained to be useful in his life as well as at his death. 9. Hay Seed for Hogs.—A correspondent of the Country Gentleman writes : In addition to the grain and meal given to growing hogs in the sty, they should have a daily allowance of green clover, or in winter, when this is not available, a liberal allowance of hay-seed from the barn, mixed with their slop, which they will eat with avidity. He knows of no mode by which so great an amount of growth and weight can be induced, with equal cost of food, in the winter season, as by this haying system. 10. Cinders for Pigs —J. J. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, England, says, in publishing his experience in fattening swine, that among other things, he has learned the fact “that pigs are very fond of coal-ashes or cinders, and that you can hardly fat pigs properly on boarded floors without giving them a moderate supply daily, or occasionally.” He says: “In the absence of coal-ashes, burned clay or brick-dust is a good substitute. If you do not supply ashes, they will gnaw or eat the brick walls of their sheds. I leave to science to explain the cause of this want. It is notorious that coal- dealers, whose pigs have access to the coals, are generally successful pig feeders. Those who find that their pigs, when shut up, do not progress favorably, will do well to try this plan. A neighbor of mine found that a score of fat pigs consume quite a basket of burned clay ashes daily. We know that there is an abundance of alkali in ashes.” 11. Parched Corn and Honey for Hogs.—A correspondent of the Z/ighland Democrat, published at Peekskill, N. Y., furnishes that paper with the f@l- lowing communication : A few years ago I chanced in Albany to meet a farmer who is noted for raising unusually heavy hogs. The year before he had brought to market one that weighed over 700 lbs., and said that year that he should have one of 900 Ibs., or near that mark. As there always seems to be a cause for every effect, I was anxious to know the course he pursued. “ Well,” said he, “you must first select the right kind of a critter. Get the right breed, and then pick out the good-natured ones from the litter; I ean’t afford to feed a cross critter ; I sell them when they are pigs.” “ How ean you judge?” said I. “ Well, if you watch them when they are feeding, . you will find that some pigs are allers fighting about their victuals, and 28 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. (Cnapr. I. RRR eee some goin for eating. There is as much difference in pigs as there is in folks.” “ Well, when you have selected the right kind of a pig, what next is important ?” “ Well, then you must have a nice place for the critters to live in, and feed them on the right kind of victuals.” “ What kind of food ?” “Well, the best and cheapest kind of food I have found, when it comes time to put on the fat, is parched corn. I generally manage to buy a barrel or two of Southern honey, if it is cheap, which I mix with the parched corn, for my fatting hogs.” i2. Feeding Standing Corn to Hogs—in the Field—or Gathered, Ground, and Cooked—Comparative Advantages of these Methods—The method often practiced by large farmers of turning fattening hogs into the fields of standing corn, if properly conducted, has its advantages over that of gathering the corn and feeding it dry to the hogs in the pen. The earlier in the season the process of fattening swine is begun the better, after the grain has reached a certain period of maturity, whether it be rye, oats, or corn, because all farm animals, and hogs in particular, will fatten much faster in warm than in cold weather. And the grain between the periods of its doughy state and full maturity, or rather, before it becomes dry, is more easily digested, and assimilated, and converted into flesh and fat than when it has passed into its dry state. It is clear, then, that the sooner the hogs are turned into the field after the grains of corn are fully formed, and while yet in the milk, the more speedily they will fatten; for if the weather be dry, the corn hardens very rapidly. A very interesting experiment in feeding hogs is detailed by Mr. James Buckingham in the Prairie Farmer. On the 6th day of September (in ordinary seasons corn, at this date, is too far advanced to commence feeding to the best advantage), the hogs, 189 in number, were weighed, and footed up in the aggregate 19,600]bs. A movable fence was used, confining the hogs to an area sufficient to afford feed for two or three days. The entire field, thus fed, contained 40 acres, with an estimated average of 40 bushels yer acre. The consumption of this corn gave a gain of 10,7401lbs. The hogs, when turned into the corn, cost three cents per pound, equal to $588 ; worth, when fed, four cents per pound, or $1,213 60—giving a return for each acre of corn consumed of $15 64. Adding to this $1 per acre for the improvement of the land by feeding the corn on the field, making the actual gain per acre $16 64, equal to 40 cents per bushel, standing in the field. The whole cost of corn per acre, exclusive of interest on the land, is set down at $3 65. By way of comparing the advantages of ground and cooked food over that which was merely ground, and that which was unground, Mr. B. put up three hogs into separate pens. To one he fed two and a half bushels of corn in the ear, during a period of nine days, feeding all he would eat; this » ‘ 2 carpesnned ceria i: Reeeieeaneial GS ee ere eee ne tee aie : ' - : - aay a beats ie bs! ly He vine oh ee ee fel nitte Zaye tue parE) Mey Aten (aes ie = Te gi * r 4 . Lad ? 3 I tai R at i wre ae the 4. sits but “” er 1} we platters -iq }: ey will te ao én he, ~~ oF. a, FAP OTA ee Cet tT eee 1 a he ae er RE pT hs ORS, ER ME PSE s. fy 7 rir : ae ghana, § ni vier oes hjasd bul 7" pitta Bikes Fir lo w Beg} ty ui Seale! - aa ida See a Rs 5 ” at Tear tat SPS & aoe 5 so) “ hy die Se) A Ra eee So WE a aa" gs 4 ’ y ‘ o i i 4 f ri t — Pd oO a ; . . pint eae — - . raammng A anna etal pnarere lary grote aarti arpa tel ml att ete an aie: 7+ hirer < . ter earc. te w sila EDA to gehen d Robey) sh Athy nas ye Gt Do nipnten Nespas f apabea ys oe ‘Me fits, % ie ean Par te. ivi aT. losis tot LS corr Bina cd teoe anu ast eth ia Wi sun fos of BABB) 74 jain “Eig we rst melee nd, wathhs. oak 5, wi bork Weer: ve ee ie 4 ’ “ ”_ ie at Re a nt 7 ‘: Bais SO! WOT sit > austin oA nd URE HAE tr at: at head etnery Ub.o) lgwpp be iB PROBA) atitahy (yeaa Me aes preciosa? eer Fenny he: 23 earets K.Abiote ve e hk os 4 en's. 5 hi 0 gabe oaths Feietis opal ae oi. rahropne aie ; 4 4 PLAT Kit (Page 31.) Tus plate is intended to answer the question: ‘‘ What is a good cow?” It shows a model cow, without regard to breed, as described in J 45, and a portrait of the ‘‘ Oaks Cow,” which was one of the most remarkable of the early age of stock improvement as a great butter producer. She gave 467 pounds from May 15 to December 20, 1816. Another portrait gives the side view of what is taken as a model of a good dairy cow. The Dutch dairy cow is also con- sidered a model, not only of that breed, but of a form that shows a good cow for milk. The Hereford cow and bull, and Devon cow and bull, also give good studies, and make up a picture no where else to be found in such compact form and such beauty of execu- tion. u % ¢ ) , p " Be te ies —- Ns *: - 1 ~ * “* A ‘ & i ry 3 “| rf ae ’ y / ; A 4 - , ‘ ae ° tLe: , bes ‘ " oh as : y 4 wa oi Re! mii sie rr) r avr ’ i: <5 yy f Jel al < ‘as + t Ve 2 2 a ; 4 ‘te fs : Baan tbe DSS or ie ete tana oe ELS ee pia { ; : a , Ta aay OTS) Pave) iy) he! ) 4, fet RY Fray Ba ae tte yr Sat hs aaah 7 of) wo 4 F uN ce be Moet hips teal : ‘ i 4 } 1 ‘ q ak ‘ / ’ , i ro) rte 2 ay ‘ * : ' \ ‘4 Bj, “ ts 1 - mr A xe aah MARA) TAMA Bt aay eb ine Hip srgy warp PP ts ULLS all} Hereford Cow Hereford Bull Devon Cow Deyon Bull Dutch Dairy Cow Oakes Cow A Good Dairy Cow A Good Milch Cow DIFFERENT BREEDS or CATTLE oom USrrkp STATES [ Seo. 2.] SWINE—EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING. 29 ~~ gave a gain of 191bs.; another ate in the same time one and three quarter bushels of corn, ground, and gained also 19lbs.; and to the third he fed one bushel of corn, ground and boiled, which gave a gain of 22 Ibs. By this it will be seen that one and three quarter bushels of corn, when ground, will give a gain of flesh equal to two and a half bushels of unground corn, and that one bushel, when ground and cooked, gave a gain greater than either. The comparative results of these three methods of feeding may thus be set down: one bushel of corn, ground and cooked, is equal to nearly three bushels when fed dry and unground; and one and three quarter bushels when ground”and uncooked is equal to two and a half bushels when fed whole. Or it may be stated thus: one bushel of dry corn in the ear makes 8} Ibs. of pork, which at four cents per pound is equal to 33 cents per bushel for the corn; while one bushel of corn, ground and boiled, makes 22 lbs. of pork at four cents per pound, and is equal to 88 cents per bushel for the corn. This result about sustains our calculations made upon the experiments by Mr. Samuel H. Clay, of Kentucky, as appears in { 5. It is worthy of remark for those who wish to feed corn in the field, that had the hogs been turned into the field when the corn was in the milk, it would have given a result more nearly like that of the hog fed upon ground and cooked food. The obstacles which seem to be in the way of adopting an improved method of fattening hogs result from the imperfect apparatus used for preparing the food. Sending corn a long distance to mill to be ground, and then to cook the meal in an ordinary kettle, even if it holds a barrel, will prove an expensive operation, as all have found who have undertaken it. But to realize the full advantages of feeding prepared food, a complete grinding and steaming apparatus must be erected on a large scale, with the view to perform the grinding, cooking, and feeding with the greatest facility and at the least possible cost. This may be done to advantage by employing steam for grinding, using the same boiler to furnish steam for cooking the ineal. 13. Origin of the Chester County Hogs.—It is stated that Captain James Jefferis, a sea-captain, somewhere about 1820, or a little later, in one of his voyages from England, brought over a pair of pigs of the Bedfordshire breed, which he sent to his farm on the Brandywine, whence the breed has been disseminated, and lost its original name. Some of the characteristics of the Chester County hog are, large size, remarkably symmetrical form, easy keeping, comparatively little offal, great depth and length of carcass, and producing large quantities of lard. Spring pigs are often put in market at nine or ten months old, and weighing at that age from 200 to 250 lbs. This weight is of course produced by good feeding and proper attention. 14. To prevent Sows Killing their Pigs——A correspondent of the Maine Farmer speaks of several cases of sows destroying their pigs—which, indeed, is not unusual—and commends as an easy and sure prevention, “ to give 30 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cmar. I. the sow about half a pint of good rum or gin, which soon produces intoxica- tion, and the drunken mother becomes entirely harmless toward her young, and will ever accommodate her position to the best advantage of the pigs, retaining this disposition ever afterward.” The editor confirms this statement from cases within his own knowledge. 15. Pig-Breeding.— Notwithstanding the fact that more people are interested in the breeding of pigs than of any other class of domestic animals, the atten- tion paid to improvement of the stock is very small. How few farmers know that the sow should always be larger than the male, and that he should always be of the most perfect form, of good color, and perfectly sound and healthy, because almost invariably the pigs take the qualities of the sire in- stead of the mother; that is, his good or bad points will preponderate largely over those of the sow. Farmers, please think of this fact, and profit by it. 16. Large Hogs.—Isaac Harrison, of Burlington County, N. J., fatted, in 1858, 32 hogs that averaged 569 Ibs. each; and William Taylor, of Ocean County, fatted 80 that averaged 537 Ibs. each. Thomas Hood, of Ocean County, fatted 41 that averaged 533lbs. each. So says C. W. Hartshorn, of Burlington County, who sends us a list of weights, among which are very few under 500 lbs.; the lightest that we notice weighs 428 lbs. 17. Gross and Net Weight of Swine.—The rule of ascertaining the net weight of fat hogs is to deduct one fifth of the gross weight. It is an easy way to make the calculation, or reduction of gross to net weight, by using the decimal 8-10 as a multiplier, cutting off one right-hand figure of the prodnet, to show the net sum. Thus: 10 hogs weigh 2,729 1bs.; multiply by.8, which will make net 2,183.2 lbs. If you have the gross weight of a drove of hogs at home, which you may have taken to market and sold at net weight, and wish to ascertain how the net and gross compare, take your sum of the net weight, say 2,183.2. Divide by 8-10, and you will find the quotient 2,729. This will be found a very convenient and useful rule. Sometimes a person may be offered one sum as a gross price, and another as a net price of the saine lot, and would like to know at once which offer is the best. This is quickly done. You have simply to apply the same rule of division by eight tenths to the price, instead of weight. For instance suppose the offer is— as it sometimes is in New York—$5 25 per ewt. gross, or $6 50 net. Divide $5 25 by 8-10, the quotient will be $6 56.2, showing that it will be six cents and two mills per ewt. gross to the owner’s advantage to sell at $5 25 gross. 18. Salting Meat Warm.—C. Bovie, of Gullprairie, Michigan, asks: “ Will pork cure, if packed before the animal heat is all out of it?’ He then answers: “Last year I killed my hogs and packed them while warm. I have some of the pork now, and I never ate any sweeter pork than this is. The most of farmers think pork salted, while warm, will not keep.” We have tried the experiment repeatedly of salting pork as soon as we could cut it up after dressing, and certainly prefer it, as it will, when dry- salted, cure much quicker. Seo. 3.] COWS. 31 19. Species of Animals.—The Revue Horticole, of Paris, gives a very inter- esting account of a discussion in the Academie upon the species of animals. The primitive source of animals is lost; the fossil bones of the horse are identical with those of the present day. There is no account of anything new in animal life since the Mosaic account of creation. 20. Animal Structure.—‘ The bony frame-work of the animal owes its so- lidity to phosphate of lime, and this substance must be furnished by the food. A perfect food must supply the animal with these three classes of bodies, and in proper proportions. What proportions are the proper ones we have at present no means of knowing with accuracy. The ordinary kinds of food for cattle contain a large quantity of vegetable fiber or woody matter, which is more or less indigestible, but which is indispensable to the welfare of herbaceous animals, as their digestive organs are adapted to a bulky and rough food. The addition of a small quantity of feed rich in oil eand albuminous substances to the ordinary kinds of food, has been found highly advantageous in practice. Neither hay alone, nor concentrated food alone, gives the best result. A certain combination of the two presents the most advantages.” The above is the view of an eminent professor of agricultural chemistry (S. W. Johnson), and it contains a great fact that should be adopted into the every-day practice of every farmer, and not only for his stock, but his own household. Every animal of a higher organization than a worm needs a diversity of food te make up a healthy animal structure. SECTION III—COWS. HAT is a Good Cow ?—This is a question that many owners of cows can not answer, because there is no standard. Every one has his own, and one person may recommend a cow on sale as positively good, that is not half as valuable as one that comes only up to the standard of another person’s idea of good- ness. Besides, one cow may be good for producing milk for sale by the quart; another good for making butter, where that alone is the object; a third one may be good for a cheese dairy and very poor for butter; and a fourth not good for either purpose, aud should at once be turned out for beef. Farmers do not experiment enough with their cows to ascer- tain these facts. We have known one cow discarded from a butter dairy because she gave less milk than another, when one was to be sold, without any other proof that the rejected one was not equally 32 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. Cuap. I. good. For butter-making, we think a cow which gives 14 quarts of milk a day, when fresh, and 141bs. of butter a week, a good cow, and that that might be adopted into use as the meaning of a good butter-dairy cow. A good many cows, it is true, go above that, but they should be ranked as extra good. A cow that gives 12 or 14 quarts of milk a day, and 10 Ibs. of butter a week, might be called a fair medium cow; and one that gives 8 to 12 quarts a day and 6 or 7 lbs. of butter a week, should be called com- mon, and all below that inferior, as in fact they are; and so is a cow that gives 15 or 16 quarts of milk a day that yields only a pound of butter, and there are many of this description. The lowest rate we ever heard was 3 quarts of milk for 11b. of butter; but that is very rare, the average being over 12 quarts. It would be an excellent plan for some leading agricultural society to establish a standard for a good cow. We think a cow that comes up to the standard of that owned by Otis Hunt, of Eaton Village, N. Y., will pass fons a good one. He gives the following statement of the amount of butter made from her: ‘* Amount made from April 8 to July 8, 191 Ibs. ;. amount made during the month of June, 741bs.; amount made during the year, 516 lbs., besides furnishing all the milk and cream used in a family of four persons (and occasional visitors) all the time.” The breed of this good cow is given as “native,” and the quality of milk and butter excellent. 22. Garget in Cows.—A letter from Fort Independence, Castle Island, Boston Harbor, Mass., says: “Within the last two years I have purchased at different times three cows, say about one every six months. After they are on the island a few months they become ‘ gargety ;) therefore I should think the complaint is brought on from eating some weed peculiar to this island, which is limited in extent, say about thirty acres.” No, sir; it is because they have not eaten some weed—a weed called poke or scoke, producing the “ scoke-berries” that robins and school-children are both fond of gathering in the fall. This scoke is the natural cure for garget. It is said that the disease never affects cows that run in pastures where it grows. We have known the dried. roots sell for $2 a lb. in Vermont to feed cows, and to make little plugs to insert in the teats to cure the garget. It is there known by the name of garget root. (phytolacca decandra). 23. How to Increase the Value of a Cow.—Every one who owns a cow can see at a glance that it would be profitable to increase the value of her, but every one can not see how to do it. We can, and we think that we can make it equally palpable to our readers. If a cow is kept for butter, it cer- tainly would add to her value if the butter-making properties of her milk should be improved.. In summer or winter this can be done, just as the yield of a cultivated crop can be improved by what is fed to each, and it is simply a question of, will it pay, in manuring one or feeding the other. Indian corn will add to the quantity and quality of the butter to a very sensible degree, ‘ Sxo. 3.] COWS, AND THEIR FOOD. 33 and it is simply a question of easy solution, by experiment, whether it will add to the profit of the butter-maker to buy corn at one or two cents a pound, and convert a portion of it into butter at 25 cents a pound, or whatever the market price of corn and butter may be, and another portion of it into fat, and another portion of it into manure, for that is the natural result of the chemical change produced in the laboratory of the cow’s stomach. The same result will follow any other kind of feeding. Good pasture will produce an abundance of milk, often as much as the cow can carry ; but does it follow that even then it will not be profitable to feed her with some more oleagi- nous food toincrease the quantity of butter, just as it sometimes proves profitable to feed bees, to enable them to store more honey? It certainly does appear to us that the value of a cow feeding upon ordinary winter food may be almost doubled by making that food suitable for the purpose of increasing the quantity of milk, if that is the object, or the quantity of butter, if that is the purpose for which the cow is kept. Farmers generally understand that they can convert corn into beef, pork, and lard, and some of them know exactly at what price per bushel it will pay to convert it into these substances; but does any one know at what rate it will pay to convert corn or any other grain into butter, or any other kind of feed into any of the dairy products? Is the whole business a hap-hazard one? We fear so. Some persons know that they can increase the salable value of butter by adding the coloring matter of carrots to it. Does any person know the value of a bushel of carrots fed to a cow to increase her value as a butter- producing laboratory? Experimental proof upon this point would be far more worthy of agricultural prizes than it is to see who can show the largest- sized roots; for by a few carefully-conducted experiments we should be able to increase the value of a cow almost at pleasure. 24. Pasture—How many Cows to an Acre.—In Cheshire, England, which is a great grazing county, the land that has been under-drained and top- dressed with ground bones, will carry one cow to each acre through the summer, but the land not thus treated will only carry one cow to two acres. The dressing of bones upon pasture land is 12 to 15 ewt. per acre once in seven years. But even if not repeated at that time, it still continues better than it was before the bones were applied. Now, how many acres of pasture, on the average, does it require in this country to the cow? Would it not be economy to improve our pasture lands up to the Cheshire standard ? 25. Food Consumed by a Cow.—It is generally estimated that a cow needs each day three per cent. of her weight in hay. That is, if she weighs 8 ewt., which a fair-sized cow will do, in working order, she will require 241bs., or its equivalent, of hay. For five months’ feeding—150 days—you will require 3,600 lbs. In the New England States the feeding period averages nearer six than five months, and therefore two tuns of hay should be allowed for each cow. 26. Feed, Exercise, and Shelter have a powerful influence upon the health and comfort of all domestic animals, and upon none is it more marked than upon the most valuable of all, the cow. Every judicious farmer, who has an eye only to his purse, will see that his cows are bountifully supplied with proper food to produce the largest flow of milk, and rich in cream, and that his meadows and pastures are free from noxious weeds, that will impart a disagreeable taste to the milk and butter. A mixture of timothy and white clover is the most desirable pasture for the dairy ; and the best and sweetest butter is generally produced in May and June; for then kind Nature sends up a spontaneous supply of rich, juicy food, and the air is cool and pure, and all things combine to render the dairyman’s task easy and delightful. But when the sun has scorched the vegetation and impaired its nutritive properties, and the temperature of the atmosphere is like an oven, then there is need of skill to counteract the opposing influences of nature; and the task, though difficult, can be accomplished, and a cool atmosphere created in the milk-room, and proper food supplied, as the reward of well-directed labor. Every farmer should practice, at least on a small scale, growing extra feed for his cows, when pasture fails. One of the easiest things grown for fall feed is cabbage. It gives an immense amount of food per acre. i 27. Feeding Cows for Butter-Making.—A writer in the Furmer and Gar- dener (Phila.) says: “The use of corn and cob-meal in my practice has produced more fat than butter. The best feed I have tried is two bushels of ship-stuff to one bushel of ground corn. In the use of corn fodder, I have found great advantage in not only cutting, but steaming it. Many cows will not eat it without its being steamed. Turnips are good enough, if the taste they impart to the butter is not objectionable. Pumpkins add largely to the quantity of milk, but the cream, in churning, is always frothy, and requires a longer time to be converted into butter. “‘ My plan of feeding is as follows: I always let my cows go dry about the first of the new year, giving them, by this plan, a rest of some two months. During this period of rest I feed them on hay, corn-fodder, and straw. As soon as they begin to spring, I add four quarts of meal to each cow, which, after being mixed with the long straw and fodder, is steamed, and fed a little warm. Until the calves are separated from the cows, this amount of food is given once a day, after which time I feed them three times a day.” 28. Health of Cows.—A sickly cow not only yields a diminished profit, but she yields sickly milk, and sickly in a higher degree than her flesh. If a cow eats anything that has a strong or disagreeable odor, it appears in her milk. If she eats anything medicinal, it comes out in her milk. If she is feverish, her milk shows it. If she has sores about her, pus may be found in her milk. If she is fed upon decayed or diseased food, her milk, since it is derived from her food, will be unhealthy. It is as impossible to make good milk from bad food, as to make a good building from rotten timber. Sro. 3.] COWS—DIRECTIONS FOR SPAYING. 35 eee If there is anything wrong about her, it will appear in the milk, as that is an effective source of casting it from her organism. These facts should at all times be well impressed upon the minds of dairy- men, but more especially in the cold season of the year. Closely confined in their narrow stalls through the long winter, where the air is not always fresh and pure, nor water and exercise always had when desired, nor their food always free from foul medicinal weeds, as thistles, daisies, white top, ete., cows are very likely to vary from a perfectly healthy condition; spring Ghicese will be faulty enough, do the best we can—that every dairyman knows. The health of the cows should not, at any rate, be allowed to become a cause of deterioration. Green food should now, if it has not been before, alternated as often as possible with the dry; for this purpose, beets, carrots, turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsneps, and apples are valuable. Ventilation and watering should be promptly attended to, and salt and meal, made by pulverizing burned bones, should be kept where daily access ean be had to them, if desired, nor should their strength and flesh be allowed ' to fail for the want of a sufliciently nutritious diet. The best flavored butter and cheese can not be made from cows that are badly fed, or ailing, or poor. As bad health in parents transmits a tendency to disease in the offspring, it is important that every kind of animal we desire to continue on our farms should be kept vigorous and healthy. As an unhealthy animal can not consume food to as good advantage as a well one, it is again economical to avoid disease. 29. The Amount of Hay required for Cows—The Cost of Milk.—Otis Brig- ham, of Westborough, Mass., after seventy years’ experience in farming, says, in the Vew Frigland Farmer, that good cows will eat, on an average, 201bs. of hay per day when giving alle and 15lbs. when dry—not by guess-work, but tested by actual ae for months at a time. Then it is easy to calculate the cost of anilies Tn the neighborhood of New York, the average value of hay is one cent a pound, and the quantity of milk not over six quarts. “At three and a half cents a quart, it will pay the hay bill, and one cent a day over. If other feed is given, the increase of milk must pay for that. The manure will be worth at Tee the cost of attendance and milking. If the milk is worth more than three and a half cents, it gives a profit; and if less, a loss. 30. For Kicking Cows.—Take a short strap, and fasten the ends together. Next prepare a pin of some soft wood, about six or eight inches long , one and a half inches in diameter. Take the cow by the off fore-leg, and double it at the kneejoint close; pass the strap or loop over the knee, pressing it back until you can insert the pin between that and the knee-joint, and she can not kick. 31. Directions for Spaying Cows.—Dr. Dadd, veterinary surgeon, in and American Stock Journal, says that the milk of spayed cows gives more cream than ordinary milk, and that the butter made from it is more delicious in taste. The milk is also invaluable for nursing infants. He thinks there is | 86 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. no danger in performing the operation, if skillfully done, and the animal put under the influence of sulphuric ether. Dr. Riggs, a veterinary surgeon, does not approve of giving chloroform to cows. He says: “It is no easy task to give ether or chloroform to animals generally, and it is usually quite as distressing to them as so slightly painful an operation as spaying. The operation of casting is a very awkward one, and needless, and interferes with the ease, if not the certainty, of the opera- tion. The ovaries are attached near the back-bone; hence, when a cow stands up, the paunch and intestines fall away from them, and leave clear working space; but when she is thrown upon her side, the case is different, and when the cow is in good flesh, there is none too much space any way.” Dr. Riggs allows the cow to stand up, her head tied short, and an assistant holds her by the nose with clasps; a rope is tied loosely about her hind legs, to keep her from kicking; an assistant pushes her up against a partition or wall, and another aids in the first part of the operation. Thus, the cow is not at all alarmed or uncomfortable. The skin is folded so that the hair can be shaved off where the cut is to be, and thus a straight line, three quarters of an inch wide and five inches long, is laid bare. The skin is then drawn up in a fold, at right angles, to this line and in the middle of it. The operator grasps this fold on one side of the shaved line, in his left hand, and his assistant grasps it on the other side; then, with a single, well-directed stroke, with a sharp knife, he severs the two thicknesses of hide exactly in the shaved line, letting go at the same time; a straight, clean cut through the skin is seen, and the cow suffers almost no pain at all—not so much as that produced by the blow from a whip. If the cut is made slowly, it is the most painful part of the operation. There is little feeling in the tissues forming the walls of the cavity of the abdomen, and when these are cut through, the hand may be easily introduced. The cow winces a little when the edges of the skin are rubbed, but shows no signs of pain. The removal of the ovaries appears very easy, but it is not. If the opera- tor has a strong, sharp thumb-nail, he can work or cut them loose; but if not, or if the ovary is strongly attached, the operator is obliged to do as the books say—‘‘ in short, pull them away”—and in this is the great danger to the cow; internal hemorrhage or inflammation is apt.to ensue. Dr. Riggs avoids all this by the use of the “steel thumb-nail.” This is simply a sharp knife, shaped like and bound upon the thumb-nail of the right hand. There is no danger of cutting in the wrong place. A clean cut does not produce bleeding, as was feared at first, and it greatly simplifies and shortens the operation. Dr. Riggs has never operated upon a cow with this instrument when she struggled or attempted to get down, but once, and then she was a little nervous, and came down upon her knees, but soon got up again. Usually there is no struggling throughout the operation. 32. Calomel for Cows.—A correspondent of the American Kurmer writes: “T wish you would say to your readers that calomel, in one-ounce doses, will SEo. 3.] COWS—DAIRY STOCK. 37 cure a cow of almost any disease. At least, let me give my experience. I have two fine, valuable cows; they have had, it seems to me, some of the worst diseases that prevail—black-tongue, murrain, dry murrain, e‘e.—and when I saw they were dying, I mixed one ounce of calomel in dry corn-meal, which they would lick up, and it has never failed to cure.” 33. Keep Cows Gentle.—If you milk out doors, with the cow loose, provide good stools for each milker. See that they are never used to pound the cow with; and never allow man or woman to kick or pound a cow in the stable or milking yard. If gentle means will not make a cow gentle, harsh means never will. Itmay be necessary to reduce a cow to obedience by a little punishment—to teach her, as you would a horse or ox, that you are master; but to accomplish this, never use anything but a light lash or smart switch, and never use that in anger. An angry man is a fool, compared with a sensible cow. 34. Ayrshire Cows.—In Massachusetts, the improvement of dairy stock by the introduction of Ayrshire blood has become so apparent, that no argu- ment could induce those acquainted with their value to return to the hazards of native breeding. We could point to farmers in Essex, Middlesex, and Worcester counties, who, under the most prudent management, avail them- selves of every opportunity to introduce Ayrshire blood into their herds, and our own observation teaches us that the importations of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, of Capt. Randall, of New Bedford, and others, have been vastly beneficial to our dairy stock. The bulls of this breed can be traced wherever they have been, by the good stock they have left behind them. One of them was kept upon a secluded farm in Essex County, and rendered it famous for its fine dairy cows. Another gave superior character to the herd of one of our well-known farmers, and to all the dairies in his neighborhood. An imported Ayrshire cow, not far from us, has produced, through a variety of-mixtures and pure breeding, a little herd of cows and heifers of the highest uniformity of excellence. 35. Poor Butter Cows.—The Veterinarian gives a remedy for this difficulty with cows that are well kept, and whose milk has been previously rich in butter. It is to these that the remedy is principally directed. The remedy consists in giving the animal two ounces of the sulphuret of antimony, with three ounces of coriander seeds, powdered and well mixed. This is to be given as a soft bolus, and followed by a draught composed of half a pint of vinegar, a pint of water, and a handful of common salt, for three successive mornings, on an empty stomach. This remedy, according to the author, rarely fails, and the milk produced some days after its exhibition is found to be richer in cream. The first churning yields a larger quantity of butter, but the second and third are still more satisfactory in their results. ; A letter from a farmer states that he had fourteen cows in full milk, from which he obtained very little butter, and that of a bad quality. Guided by the statements of M. Deneubourg, which had appeared in the Annales Vet- 38 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. ~~ erinaires, he had separately tested the milk of his cows, and found that the bad quality of it was owing to one cow only, and that the milk of the others yielded good and abundant butter. It was, therefore, clearly established that the loss he had so long sustained was to be attributed to this cow only. He at once administered the remedy recommended: by M. Deneubourg, which effected a cure. 36. Winter Feed of Orange County Dairy Cows.—Mr. C. Edward Brooks, one of the best dairymen in the county, claims that rye makes more milk than corn or oats, or other meal. Brewers’ grains were formerly bought so as to cost 6 cents delivered at the farm, but now, at 12 cents, they are not so profitable as rye feed at 75 cents per bushel. Oats he esteems the poorest kind of grain for milk. He thinks that by currying a cow, and keeping her and her stable scrupulously clean, she will give her full quantity of milk on half the feed required if she is neglected. His daily allowance to each cow is five pounds of meal, either corn, corn and oats, or buckwheat or wheat bran, changing the kind frequently—for practice approves what theory teaches, that animals thrive best on a frequent change of diet. The animals are fed and milked at regular hours—generally at four o’clock in the afternoon and six in the morning; in winter, somewhat earlier in the afternoon and later in the morning. Care is taken to observe great punctu- ality as to time of milking, for the animals give much less trouble and thrive better. Mr. Brooks chaffs his hay, steeps it in warm water to soften it, and sprinkles the meal over it, mixing it thoroughly. Throughout the day as much long hay is fed as the cows will eat. The feed is mixed in a long box, shaped like an ordinary bath-tub, which runs on small iron, truck-wheels, one at either end, and two atethe sides, half way between. This is a very convenient method for carrying the whole mess along the passage between the stalls, and with a wooden scoop giving to each cow her share as her stall is passed. The water to steep the hay is heated in a caldron, in a small out-building, and conducted to the cow-stable through a small tin pipe. Mr. Seeley C. Roe, near Chester, a large dairyman and an intelligent farmer, thinks that half-clover hay, well made, and half grain, is better for milk production than twice as much timothy with grain. He does not cut and steep his hay, but dampens it with cold water, and adds meal, as usual. He finds it an excellent plan to feed buckwheat whole, and prepares it by boiling the grain with the hulls on, and when it has become thoroughly soaked, puts it into the feed-box at the rate of two quarts to each cow. He adds to this two quarts of dry meal, and the heat and steam of the cooked buckwheat cooks the meal. Four quarts of this mixture are allowed to each cow—two in the morning and two at night—and the animals are kept on this feed until turned out to grass. Mr. Gregory has an eight-horse power engine for eutting hay, threshing, grinding, etc., and uses the waste steam for steaming his hay. He has constructed a large chamber, capable of holding one hundred bushels of cut hay, which, before being steamed, is dampened. The steam-pipe an | _— COWS—FEEDING ROOTS, the engine empties into the chamber, and the hay is steamed for about a quarter of an hour, and then fed to the stock unmixed with meal—that is, given in the form of a warm mash. 37. Sugar-Cane for Cows.—If the Chinese sugar-cane does not prove to be a profitable sugar-making plant, we think it will be a profitable one for forage. The Homestead says that Deacon Edward Hayden, of East Hartford, Conn., has raised the Chinese sugar-cane for two years, and has used it for feeding mileh cows with great success. The first year the stalks were left in the field, scattered about, we believe, and occasionally in dry weather brought to thebarn to the cows, which ate them up clean, stalks and all. This was merely a sort of accidental experiment, as no especial value was set upon the canes. The past year he raised more, shocked in the field, and left it there. It cured well, and the cows ate it with great avidity, and Mr. Hay- den esteems it as a great milk-producing diet. 38. Feeding Roots.—I have a word to say on winter feed for stock. It is more by way of query, and for feeders to think of, than by way of instruc- tion. My experience in feeding domestic animals is not sufficient to warrant me in giving instruction. I have served my time in too rough a school for that. I have fed a good deal of hay, worth from $1 50 to $5 a tun; and corn from 10 to 25 cents a bushel, and other grain in proportion, and straw absolutely valueless. While living in such a district, I have often been asked the question, Why I did not raise more roots for my cattle? I answered: Simply because it would not pay. Idid buy a lot of ruta bagas one autumn, delivered at my house at six cents a bushel, and the use of them taught me that they were dear food. I would now, if living in such a dis- trict, feed roots to stock just so far as I thought necessary to keep the animals in good health, and no more; not if I could buy at the same price, which was one fourth the price of sound corn; and I question the economy of feed- ing any kind of roots at the same rate of value to any greater extent than is required for health. That roots, particularly white turnips, are too largely fed in cold weather to young cattle, I have no doubt. They are so full of water that too much of it is taken into the stomach with the food. If roots, or any other watery food, are too largely fed to milch cows before and after calving, you will be sure to have a mean calf. If we will think, and take reason for a guide, as to what man requires for healthy food, we shall not go far wrong with domestic animals. Man likes roots occasionally, and so he does soup, or other sloppy food ; but what would he be good for if fed week after week upon such watery stuff as turnips, or such porridge as some people compel their cattle to eat? After all, this question of winter feeding is a question of values; and it is not alone the value, counted by first cost, but the value of results. Now, what is the use of giving my opinion that this or that kind of food is the best, or most economical, when I can not say of a single thing, I now. I don’t know, and don’t know anybody who does. It is all guess-work, and at the present price of cattle-food. it is expensive guessing. 40 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. 39. Wintering Cows.—The method of feeding cows in winter is not so im- portant as it is to make the change from grass to hay and from hay to grass without producing any deterioration in their condition. It is highly import- ant, if your cows are giving milk upon autumn pasture, that you do not allow them to fall off in milk or flesh for want of a little extra feed. I have never found anything quite equal to corn-meal for cow-feed, particularly when you are making butter. It may not be necessary nor economical to feed cows meal in autumn, even if pasture does fail, if you have green corn- stalks, pumpkins, turnips, cabbage, etc., which must be consumed, because not good to keep through winter. But in spring, when cows are first turned to grass, they are very apt to fall away, and then it will be found to be good economy to feed meal every nightsin the yard, and so it will before the cows are turned out, if not in first-rate condition. Isee the calculation of one writer that corn-meal, thus fed, was worth $3 a bushel, fed at the rate of one quart a day to a cow, for twenty, or thirty days. He says: “‘ Lhave also found, by other experiments, that there is a great difference inthe manner of getting animals to grass. When turned out early, with little or no other feed, they fall away greatly; on the contrary, if fed all the good hay they will eat, night and morning, with a judicious feeding of meal of some kind (and I prefer mixed feed—that is, mixing the different grains together before they are ground—to any one variety), they will soon begin to gain finely by such a course, and carry their extra weights through the season. In an experiment now being conducted, I have a cow that has, since the first of December last, been quietly laying on her two pounds per day (or nearly so), and her feed has been only moderate, as I am no advocate for forcing, but simply good fair keeping and care ; then, with good animals, we are sure of a fair remuneration for care and feeding. “JT would that what I have already written could reach the eye of every farmer in these United States, and that each one would set himself about making at least one experiment in the care of farm-stock.” 40. Cows Badly Wintered are Unprofitable—A farmer can not afford to winter any stock poorly, and least of all, milch cows, or those which are to produce calves in the spring. Look at the following statement, and see if the Western Reserve farmers can afford thus to winter cows. A letter from Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, written in April, 1860, says : “The present times are the worst we have ever known in this country. Cows and cattle are dying by the hundred; six hundred head have died within the three adjoining counties this winter for want of food. The weather is still dry and cold.” This is only one, among many illustrations, of the folly and wrong com- mitted by Western farmers in keeping more stock than can be housed and fed. This is the case all through the Western country. Travel over any portion of it, and you will see scores of cattle shivering in the cold storms of winter, without shelter, and sospoorly fed that if they live through the ts Sro. 3.] COWS—HOW TO CHOOSE A GOOD ONE. 41 severe season it is more by chance than for any care which they receive. On the prairies, cattle can be kept so easily in summer that every one is tempted to overstock himself to such a degree, while the grass is green, that a portion must die in winter. Now we would say to the farmers, you can not afford this. Every one of these six hundred cattle which perished in Ohio could have been sold at a low price by the owners, who were short of feed, to others who would have carried them through the winter. And how infinitely better this would have been than to allow such an amount of stock to die of starvation ! It is not only in Trumbull County that cattle have perished in winter ; the entire West has suffered equally in this respect with Ohio. On the Illinois prairies, where there is no limit t#the amount of hay that might be cut, cattle have died in large numbers for the want of a quarter more hay than they had eaten during the winter. And yet the farmers of those dis- tricts persevere in their criminal folly, although the result of each year’s experience ought to be sufficient to open their eyes to a proper realization of the truth. No farmer can afford to keep more cows or horned cattle than he can provide hay for at the rate of two tuns per head; he should never attempt to keep more cattle than he can house warmly, unless he has hay to waste, and is willing to sacrifice at least one fourth of the stock. Tt is one of the most painful sights to be met with in traveling through the West, while passing the little cabins of the new settlers, to see cows and calves, oxen and young stock, all huddling together, without any shelter from the cold winter storm. Is it any wonder that one half of these famished, neglected things should perish before spring? Farmers, you must learn wisdom from the calamities of severe winters. Keep fewer cattle, and keep them better, and you will make more money. We might give hundreds of extracts from country papers to convince you that feed is scarce every year, but it would be superfluous. The richest corn country of Indiana has suffered quite as much as its sister States during many hard winters; and this is because it is a rich corn country, and rich in nothing else. Large farms without grass; cattle without food, dying by thousands; farmers losing all their stock, “because it is a late spring,” or, rather, because they undertook to winter an unreasonable number. Will the farmers of our country never take advantage of the experience of the past, and learn that they can not afford these wasteful and ruinous sacrifices ? 41. To Choose a Good Milch Cow.—Select from a good breed. We prefer the Devons—bright bay red. The Durhams are roan, red, white, and mix- tures of these colors. Ayrshire cows are generally red and white spotted. Herefords, red or darker colored, with white faces. Alderneys, pale red and mixed with white. These are the principal colors of the several breeds, of which the Durhams are the largest and Alderneys the smallest. Different individuals will contend for each breed being the best and only one that should be selected for their milking qualities. But animals of each breed, and of crosses of them, often prove remarkable milkers, and so do some of the 42 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. native stock of the country. Two families of cows—one owned by Colonel Jaques, of Ten Hills Farm, near Charlestown, Mass., and one owned by Major John Jones, of Wheatland Farm, near Middletown, Del.—were called native breed, yet were the most remarkable butter-makers we have ever seen. We have seen Col. Jaques produce good butter in three minutes, by simply stirring the cream in a bowl. If we were about selecting a milch cow, we would endeavor to get one out of such a herd of good milkers; one with a soft, velvety-feeling skin, slim neck, fine legs, broad stern, with what is called a large escutcheon—that is, the hair of the stern pointing inward; a large udder, slim teats, and large veins, commonly called milk veins, on the belly. Above all things, select your cow of a gentle, pleasant countenance, because a first-rate milker may be*so vicious as to be worthless. Do not look for flesh, as the best cows are seldom fat; their hip-bones are often very prominent, and they have the appearance of being low in flesh. A beefy cow is seldom a good milker. The next thing’is, what isa good milker? That is, how much milk must she yield per day? A cow that will average 5 quarts of milk a day through the year, making 1,825 quarts, is an extraordinary good cow. One that will yield 5 quarts a day for 10 months is a good cow, and one that will average 4 quarts during that time is more than an average quality. That would make 1,200 quarts a year, which, at three cents a quart, is $36. We believe the Orange County milk dairies average about $40 per cow, and the quality of the cows is considerably above the average of the country. It is as important to keep a cow good as it is to get her good. This can never be done by a careless, lazy milker. Always milk your cow quick and perfectly clean, and never try to counteract nature by taking away her calf. Let it suck, and don’t be afraid “it will butt her to death.” It will distend the udder, and make room for the secretion of milk. Be gentle with your cow, and you will have a gentle cow. Select well, feed well, house well, milk well, and your cow will yield well. 42. The Different Breeds of Cows.—We advise you to examine, in this connection, the different breeds of cows, so that the general appearance, so far as outline of form is concerned, may be very well understood. Good and full descriptions may be found in a standard work upon “ Milch Cows and Dairy Farming,” édited by Charles L. Flint, secretary of the Massachu- setts State Board of Agriculture, and we give a ne: short extracts from that work, upon each breed, as follows: 43. Ayrshire Cows Described. — “The Ayrshires are justly celebrated throughout Great Britain and this country for their excellent dairy qualities. Though the most recent in their origin, they are pretty distinct from the other Scotch and English races. In color, the pure Ayrshires are generally red and white, spotted or mottled—not roan, like many of the short-horns, but often presenting a bright contrast of colors. They are sometimes, though rarely, nearly or quite all red, and sometimes black and white ; but the favorite color is red and white brightly contrasted, and by some, straw- Szo. 3.] COWS—BREEDS COMPARED. 43 berry color is preferred. The head is small, fine, and clean; the face long, and narrow at the muzzle, with a sprightly, yet generally mild, expression ; eye small, smart, and lively; the horns short, fine, and slightly twisted upward, set wide apart at the roots; the neck thin; body enlarging from fore to hind quarters; the back straight’ and narrow, but broad across the loin; joints rather loose and open; ribs rather flat; hind quarters rather thin; bone fine; tail long, fine, and bushy at the end; hair generally thin and soft; udder light color and capacious, extending well forward under the belly; teats of the cow of medium size, generally set regularly and wide apart; milkeveins prominent and well developed. The carcass of the pure- bred Ayrshire is light, particularly the fore quarters, which is considered by good judges as an index of great milking qualities; but the pelvis is capa- cious and wide over the hips. “On the whole, the Ayrshire is good-looking, but wants some of the sym- metry and aptitude to fatten which characterize the short-horn, which is supposed to have contributed to build up this valuable breed on the basis of the original stock of the county of Ayr.” 44, Yield of Milk of Ayrshire Cows.— Youatt estimates the daily yield of an Ayrshire cow, for the first two or three months after calving, at five gallons a day, on an average; for the next three months, at three gallons; and for the next four months, at one gallon and a half. This would be 850 gallons as the annual average of a cow; but, allowing for some unproduetive cows, he estimates the average of a dairy at 600 gallons per annum for each cow. Three gallons and a half of the Ayrshire cow’s milk will yield one and a half pounds of butter. He therefore reckons 257 Ibs. of butter, or 514]bs. of cheese, at the rate of 24 Ibs. to 28 gallons of milk, as the yield of every cow, at a fair and perhaps rather low average, in an Ayrshire dairy, during the year. Aiton sets the yield much higher, saying that “thousands of the best Ayrshire dairy-cows, when in prime condition and well fed, produce 1,000 gallons of milk per annum; that in general three and three-quarters to four gallons of their milk will yield a pound and a half of butter; and that 274 gallons of their milk will make 21 lbs. of full- milk cheese.” Mr. Rankin puts it lower—at about 650 to 700 gallons to each cow; on his own farm of inferior soil, his dairy produced an average of 550 gallons only.” 45. Yield of Milk of Breeds Compared.—“ In a series of experiments on the Earl of Chesterfield’s dairy farm, at Bradley Hall, interesting as giving positive data on which to form a judgment as to the yield, it was found that, in the height of the season, the Holderness cows gave seven gallons and one quart per diem; the long-horns and Alderneys, four gallons and three quarts; the Devons, four gallons and one quart; and that, when made into butter, the above quantities gave, respectively, 38} ounces, 28 ounces, and 25 ounces. “The Ayrshire, a cow far smaller than the Holderness, at five gallons of milk and 34 ounces of butter per day, gives a fair average as to yield of Ad DOMESTIO ANIMALS. ies I. milk, and an enormous production of butter, giving within four and a half ounces as much from her five gallons as the Holderness from her seven gal- lons and one quart; her rate being nearly seven ounces to the gallon, while that of the Holderness is considerably under six ounces. “ According to Mr. Harley, the most approved shape and marks of a good dairy cow are as follows: Head small, long, and narrow toward the muzzle; horns small, clear, bent, and placed at considerable distance from each other ; eyes not large, but brisk and lively; neck slender and long, tapering toward the head, with a little loose skin below; shoulders and fore quarters light and thin; hind quarters large and broad; back straight, and joints slack and open ; carcass deep in the rib; tail small and long, reaching to the heels; legs small and short, with firm joints; udder square, but a little oblong, stretching forward, thin-skinned, and capacious, but not low hung; teats or paps small, pointing outward, and at a considerable distance from cath other ; milk-veins capacious and prominent; skin loose, thin, and soft, like a glove; hair short, soft, and woolly; general figure, when in flesh, handsome and well proportioned.” 46. The Ayrshires for the Dairy — Their Value Considered.—Upon this point Mr. Flint quotes and indorses the following opinion : “For purely dairy purposes, the Ayrshire cow deserves the first place. In consequence of her small, symmetrical, and compact body, combined with a well-formed chest and a capacious s‘omach, there is little waste, compara- tively speaking, through the respiratory system; while, at the same time, there is very complete assimilation of the food, and thus she converts a large proportion of her food into milk. So remarkable is this fact, that all dairy farmers who have any experience on the point, agree in stating that an Ayrshire cow generally gives a larger return of milk for the food consumed than a cow of any other breed. The absolute quantity may not be so great, but it is obtained at a less cost; and this is the point upon which the question of profit depends.” 47. The Jersey or Alderney Cow.—There is a great diversity of opinion about the value of this breed of cows. It is our opinion that they are the most valuable of all, where only one or two are to be kept, and when butter is the main object. The milk of an Alderney cow is the richest of all for household consumption, and makes the most and best butter; and the cow is generally very docile, and in her native country is frequently kept upon * very much such food as we keep a pig upon in this country. The greatest objection that we have heard urged upon them is their small size and lack of beauty, as compared with ie symmetrical forms of Durhams, Devons, Ayrshires, and some of our natives. It is objected, too, that butter and cheese made from Alderney cows’ milk will not keep, because it is “ too rich.” If it is mixed with other milk, it improves both, for then the butter and cheese are rich, and have no lack of keeping qualities. 48. Origin and Description of Jersey Cows.— The Jersey race is supposed ~ to have been derived originally from Normandy, in the northern part of ne Ayrshire Cow Jersey Cow Imported Dutch Cow DORMER? Baeweps | Jersey Bull Short-horn Bull Imported Dutch TH STATES Bull I\ Aaa A nL: Behe etic Ace: eats ee" Ds toatl ; Mega se. Tes ‘Vom “y dima Tel eweay “ive ey Rast Le Foie OB | “elie PLATE IV. (Page 44.) Tus picture is a study of four of the improved breeds of cattle which are briefly described in Chapter I., pages 31 to 51; and with the other two upon Plate III., the reader has, as it were, at one view, representatives of the Durham, Devon, Hereford, Ayrshire, Jersey or Alderney, and the improved Dutch—six of the most im- portant breeds of imported cattle. These beautiful pictures, with what we have said of the animals, will give those who have no op- portunity of studying them alive, a very good insight of their varied form and character. For this they should be highly valued, as they are true representations from life. : Petoetieds: eplgfeecsvietiap 6 a re -- ane ae ee 4 . gitlew Lae yaaa ah aaj 2B ayy txt kee. v Lid oi b ’ , ' . 5 vie . - Ae ; ‘ ag , a oe ai ro , ; de ¢ i ef) } > ) * Ps “§ ROR Da aE : C0") eae en i kintradt i OL. oem bush nase aes Doan gat di ott itt fo eke Sod fervenere f-6gt eh spss + | ey ‘bps As pr ae mene gids Rickmggh Sa lap dak oe outlays): Hive pinasiceaog8 bier oon ee Seba Se 9g Sane ee yore. pore Sete wish a. | cantonal tie Saar tte? aeathetgion i Valaut © Seo. 3.] COWS—BREEDS COMPARED. 45 - and from the top of the hip to the setting on of the tail; tail fine, at right ——————— EEE France. The cows haye been long celebrated for the production of very rich milk and cream, but till within a quarter of a century they were com- paratively coarse, ugly, and illshaped. Improvements have been very marked, but the form of the animal is still far from satisfying the eye. The head of the pure Jersey is fine and tapering, the cheek small, the throat ‘clean, the muzzle fine and encircled with a light stripe, the nostril high and open; the horns smooth, crumpled, not very thick at the base, tapering, and tipped with black; ears small and thin, deep orange color inside; eyes full and placid; neck straight and fine; chest broad and deep; barrel hooped, broad and déep, well ribbed up; back straight from the withers to the hip, angles with the back, and hanging down to the hocks ; skin thin, light color, and mellow, covered with fine, soft hair; fore legs short, straight, and fine below the knee; arm swelling and full above; hind quarters long and well filled; hind legs short and straight below the hocks, with bones rather fine, squarely placed, and not too close together; hoofs small; udder full in size, in line with the belly, extending well up behind; teats of medium size, squarely placed, and wide apart, and milk-veins very prominent. The color is generally cream, dun, or yellow, with more or less white, and the fine head and neck give the cows and heifers a fawn-like appearance, and make them objects of attraction in the park; but the hind quarters are often too narrow to look well, particularly to those who judge animals from the amount of fat they carry.” 49. Fattening Properties of a Jersey Cow.—“ Ii is asserted by Colonel Le Couteur, of the island of Jersey, that, contrary to the general opinion here, the Jersey cow, when old and no longer wanted as a milker, will, when dry and fed, fatten rapidly, and produce a good quantity and excellent quality of butchers’ meat. An old cow, he says, was put up to fatten in October, 1850, weighing 1,125 lbs., and when killed, the 6th of January, 1851, she weighed 1,530 1bs., having gained 205 lbs. in 98 days, on 201bs. of hay, a little wheat-straw, and 30 lbs. of roots—consisting of carrots, Swedes, and mangel-wurzel—a day.” 50. The Short-horn Durham Cow.—There is no room for dispute about the Durhams being good for beef. For butter or ‘for general dairy purposes, I should not choose them. Mr. Flint says: “In sections where the climate is moist and the food abundant and rich, some families of the short-horns may be valuable for the dairy; but they are most frequently bred exclusively for beef in this country, and in sections where they have attained the highest perfection of form and beauty, so litile is thought of their milking qualities, that they are often not milked at all, the calf being allowed to run with the dam.” Crosses, however, of this breed upon other breeds have produced excellent milkers. In Westchester County, N. Y., there is a valuable strain of dairy stock known as “ Dutch and Durham.” 51. The Dutch Cow.x—The old Holland stock shows a very symmet- J 46 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. rical, handsome form, but not quite as much so as the Durham, which was made up, it is generally supposed, by a cross of the Dutch breed upon the Teeswater stock. The Dutch cow is not as heavy an animal as the improved Durham, but she is more highly esteemed for dairy purposes. 52. The Hereford Cow.—‘ The Hereford cattle derive their name from a county in the western part of England. Their general characteristics are a white face, sometimes mottled; white throat, the white generally extending back on the neck, and sometimes, though rarely, still farther along on the back. The color of the rest of the body.is red, generally dark, but some- times light. Eighty years ago the best Hereford cattle were mottled or roan all over; and some of the best herds, down to a comparatively recent period, were either all mottled, or had the mottled or speckled face. The expression of the face is mild and lively; the forehead open, broad, and large; the eyes bright and full of vivacity; the horns glossy, slender, and spreading ; the head small, though larger and not quite so clean as that of the Devons; the lower jaw fine; neck long and slender; chest deep ; breast- bone large, prominent, and very muscular; the shoulder-blade light ; shoulder full and soft; brisket and loins large; hips well developed, and on a level with the chine; hind quarters long and well filled in; buttocks on a level with the back, neither falling off nor raised above the hind quarters; tail slender, well set on; hair fine and soft; body round and full; carcass deep and well formed, or cylindrical; bone small; thigh short and well made; legs short and straight, and slender below the knee; as handlers very excel- lent, especially mellow to the touch on the back, the shoulder, and along the sides, the skin being soft, flexible, of medium thickness, rolling on the neck and the hips; hair bright; face almost bare, which is characteristic of pure- bred Herefords. They belong to the middle-horned division of the cattle of Great Britain, to which they are indigenous.” There are individual good milkers among the Herefords, as there are among the Durhams, but like them, we must say they are better for beef than milk. We certainly never should select the Hereford breed for dairy purposes. The form of the cow, as represented among the specimens we have seen of the best herds in this country, is that of a beef-producing ani- mal, or a breed for good working oxen, for which it is noted. 53. The Devon Cow.—“ This beautiful race of cattle dates farther back than any well-established breed among us. It goes generally under thie simple name of Devon; but the cattle of the southern part of the county, from which the race derives its name, differ somewhat from those of the northern, having a larger and coarser frame, and far less tendency to fatten, though their dairy qualities are superior. “The North Devons are remarkable for hardihood, symmetry, and beauty, and are generally bred for work and for beef rather than for the dairy. The head is fine and well set on; the horns of medium length, generally curved ; color usually bright blood-red, but sometimes inclining to yellow ; skin thin and orange-yellow; hair of medium length, soft, and silky, making Szo. 3.] COWS—BREEDS COMPARED. 47 theanimals remarkable fine handlers; muzzle of the nose white; eyes full and mild; ears yelfowish, or orange-color inside, of moderate size; neck rather long, with little dewlap ; shoulders oblique; legs small and straight, and feet in proportion; chest of good width; ribs round and expanded; loins of first-rate quality, long, wide, and fleshy; hips round, of medium width; rump level; tail full near the setting on, tapering to the tip; thighs of the bull and ox muscular and full, and high in the flank, though in the cow sometimes thought to be too light; the size medium, generally called small. “ As millers, they do not excel, perhaps they may be said not to equal, the other breeds, and they have a reputation of being decidedly below the average. In their native country the general average of a dairy is one pound of butter per day during the summer. “They are bred for beef and for work, and not for the dairy, and their yield of milk is small, though of a rich quality. “On the whole, whatever may be our judgment of this breed, the faults of the North Devon cow can hardly be overlooked from our present point of view. The rotundity of form and compactness of frame, though they contribute to her remarkable beauty, constitute an objection to her as a dairy cow, since it is generally thought that the peculiarity of form which disposes an animal to take on fat is somewhat incompatible with good milking quali- ties, and hence Youatt says: ‘For the dairy, the North Devons must be acknowledged to be inferior to several other breeds. The milk is good, and yields more than the average proportion of cream and butter; but it is deficient in quantity.’ He also maintains that the value of this breed for milk could not be improved without probable or certain detriment to its grazing qualities. “But the fairest test of its fitness for the dairy is to be found in the estimation in which distinguished Devon breeders themselves have held it in this respect. A scale of points of excellence in this breed was established some time ago by the best judges in England ; and it has since been adopted, with but slight changes, in this country. These judges, naturally prejudiced in favor of the breed, if prejudiced at all, made this scale to embrace one hundred points, no animal to be regarded as perfect unless it excelled in all of them. Each part of the body was assigned its real value in the scale: a faultless head, for instance, was estimated at four; a deep, round chest at fifteen, ete. If the animal was defective in any part, the number of points which represented the value of that part in the scale was to be deducted pro rata from the hundred, in determining its merits. But in this scale the cow is so lightly esteemed for the dairy, that the udder, the size and shape of which is of the utmost consequence in determining the capacity of the mileh cow, is set down as worth only one point, while, in the same scale, the horns and ears are valued at two points each, and the color of the nose and the expression of the eye are valued at four points each. Supposing, therefore, that each of these points was valued at one dollar, and a perfect North = 48 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. Devon cow was valued at one hundred dollars; then another cow of the same blood, and equal to the first in every respect, @xcept in her udder, which is such as to make it certain that she can never be,capable of giving milk enough to nourish her calf, must be worth, according to the estimation of the best Devon breeders, ninety-nine dollars! It is safe, therefore, to say that an animal whose udder and lacteal glands are regarded, by those who best know her capacities and her merits, as of only one quarter part as much consequence as the color of her nose, or half as much as the shape and size of her horns, can not be recommended for the dairy. The improved North Devon cow may be classed, in this respect, with the Hereford, neither of which have well-developed milk-vessels—a point of the utmost consequence to the practical dairyman.” 54. The Miik-Mirror.—This is a term given in the Guénon method of selecting good cows, to the escutcheon formed by the change of direction in the hair on the rear part of the udder and parts adjacent. If this mirror is large, it is supposed to indicate a good milker. For the better understanding of it, we recommend a careful study of the “ milk-mirror,” and see how it is generally developed upon all real good milkers—that is, good for quantity rather than quality. “ Milk-mirrors vary in position, extent, and the figure they represent. They may be divided, according to their position, into mirrors or escutcheons, properly so called, or into lower and upper tufts, or escutcheons. The latter are very small in comparison with the former, and are situated in close proximity to the vulva, as seen in different breeds of cows. They are very common on cows of bad milking races, but are very rarely seen on the best milch cows. They consist of one or two ovals, or small bands of up-growing hair, and serve to indicate the continuance of the flow of milk. The period is short in proportion as the tufts are large. They must not be confounded with the eseutcheon proper, which is often extended up to the vulva. They are separated from it by bands of hair, more or less large, as you will find from careful examination.” It requires some skill to determine the exact size of a milk-mirror, since it is not equally well defined in all cows, being at first sight apparently large in some, which, upon close examination, will show faults—that is, that the escutcheon of out-growing hairs is broken by tufts of down-growing hairs. Mr. Flint says: “ We often find cows whose milk-mirror at first sight appears very large, but which are only medium milkers; and it will usually be found that lateral indentations greatly diminish the surface of up-growing hair. Many errors are committed in estimating the value of such cows, from a want of attention to the real extent of the milk-mirror. ‘ All the interruptions in the surface of the mirror indicate a diminution of the quantity of milk, with the exception, however, of small oval or elliptical plates, which are found in the mirror, on the back part of the udders of the best cows. . : ow 4) - IV YA ysed savas annoy sTpUOUr Wealphy ised saeaX aarqy, SON ASUS IC, ‘sqyuour aApoMy, “SpaM PAUL ‘ysed saeak oxy, NT GSI TL, syPmoUr wey, “STPMOUL MOOI OTA “STPUOU YYSTe OL arty ‘yaw puovs “TMITg ye Wmeay etek pak dro Ebene iri ere cia raiags Bey! a ang ew oft, : : ; ; y he X be . ror ) . ‘ i Se Write Bayer dant dun gies. Ae zeit et at ht @ 4 MCh ‘ h 17 Hg his end a Wii hia t : fr i \ rm i Ep? GS at PEE? , ‘ . ‘ t a TDA MaQy ihn Ley MGRATE out teat amige? PEATE Vv. (Page 48.) Tuls is a very instructive picture to every young farmer, and there are a good many old ones who may make of it a valuable study. Many persons are not aware that the age of a suckling calf, week by week, can be told by examining the teeth. Look at these drawings and see how easy it is to learn the art—an art which every farmer’s boy should understand. So the age of a cow, as well as a horse, can be told from year to year, by looking at the teeth, more cer- tainly than by the horns. For this purpose this plate possesses great value; but it has a greater one in the illustration of what is now well known as the ‘‘milk mirror,” which is described at J 54, and much more fully in Guénon’s work, from which the theory is derived. In this plate the mirror is represented by coloring the pic- ture so as to show the field of upturned hair around the udder in its most fully developed form upon No. 1, and quite defective in No. 4. By studying these, and comparing them with living cows, something of the theory may be learned. It is very fully illustrated in Flint’s work upon milch cows and dairy farming. It is a subject worthy of the attention of all farmers. : , +3 Rte elet Oe LA eee eda ih - sf iner soot hy wate if join. Ve: Ar . bw, a . ieee vile Sea: 3 pe, Ne SAL eg eee aa See og ‘ A GEE See Bass goth a eb ew (siarke. a Pale chanel arse) FU: f “2M yer v F Fier ny “f i: ope gives! ie Seabsaoner ate: e a we al ba tii ol! wn 6 eee Taepclt i eeale

Wea \sieis« sfeie «dee piaiat 2,910 Ibs. Weight of meat Loss, 33 per cent. Robert L. Pell’s two-year-old heifer, fatted at Pellham Farm, 30 miles up the Hudson, Weighed alive Weight of beef Loss, 31 per cent. 66. A Big Ox in Olden Time.—We print, as we find it, the following extract from “ Thacher’s Military Journal of the Revolution,” under date of June 24, 1779: “T have just had the satisfaction, with a number of gentlemen, of viewing a remarkably large fat ov, which has been presented by some gentlemen in Connecticut to his Excellency, Gen. Washington. He is 6 ft. 7in. high, and weighs on the hoof 3,500 lbs., the largest animal I ever beheld.” 67. The Ox Leopard.—An ox called “Leopard,” raised and fed by Dr. Sro. 4.] BEEVES OF GREAT WEIGHT. 538 Wm. Elmer, of Bridgton, N. J., was slaughtered, Feb. 24, 1832, at the age of 6 years and 8 months. His live weight was 3,360]bs. Size—length from nose to rump, 10ft. 6in.; from nose to end of tail, 15 ft.; girth behind fore shoulders, 9 ft. Sin.; around the body, 10 ft. 9in.; around the brisket, 10 ft. 8in.; length from shoulder to rump, 7 ft.; along the back from horns, 9 ft. ; width across the hip, 2 ft. 101in.; hight of fore shoulder, 5 ft. 6in.; behind, 5 ft. 8in.; circumference of feg below the knee, 1 foot. 68. Two Big Oxen in Pennsylvania.—We have a letter from James Stewart, Pennsylvania, and another from Andrew M. Frantz, giving the weight of two bullocks héavier than the Washington. One known as the “ Lancaster County Ox,” Mr. Stewart writes, “was owned and fed by Emanuel Landis, near this city; was a half-bred Durham, deep red, large fore quarters, long, fine horns, and was over seven years old. Wm. F. Miller, of Lancaster, purchased him for $800, and slaughtered him on the 22d of February, 1858. This ox weighed : Live weight Net weight Weight of one fore quarter Weight of the other fore quarter: Weight of one hind quarter Weight of the other hind quarter 2,418 Ibs. . 9 Deduct weight of hooks for weighing Motabuwet weights. 50s s. Mise editor c onan sae lees saieerag ed cae ok 2,409 lbs. “The Berks County ox, that was butchered some years ago in Philadelphia, weighed as follows: Live weight INTRON? Jere 6 35 CGURO Ca aC OOS OEOD. COOL MMO CEE Ee Merine ocitcr air 2,388 ‘ Weight of one fore quarter Weight of the other fore quarter...............-...2-00005- : Weight of one hind quarter Weight of the other hind quarter ee Total net weight 2,338 lbs. “There has long been a generous rivalry between the farmers of Berks and Lancaster counties in regard to which could grow the fattest and largest oxen. As it now stands, Lancaster is ahead, but we may look out for some- thing ere long greater still from Old Berks, for the resources of that county are astonishing, as even politicians can testify. “There was another steer butchered in this city, in Febrnary, 1856, by David Killinger, owned and fed by Abram Landis, of Manheim towuship, that netted 2,108lbs., but that weight, and greater, has been frequently attained in this State, and even in this county. The first two (whose weights I have given) I will not say are the largest cattle ever slaughtered, even in Penpsylvania, but they are the largest that have ever come under my obser- vation, and in regard to whose weight there was no dispute. I, however, entirely concur with the writer in the Zribune, that there never was an ox fed to the weight of 4,000 lbs. gross. An animal that will weigh 613 lbs. more than the one butchered in this city in February last, has certainly never been yet produced.” 54 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. (Crap. I. Mr. Frantz says the Berks Copnty ox was fed by a man named Soetz, and was slaughtered, he thinks, in 1846. If so, his weight should have been known here and remembered, but it was not by one of the butchers and others that we thought likely to know, of the many of whom we sought information. We have often heard of heavier bullocks, but lack the proof, as in the case below. The above figures are now matters of record, where | they can be referred to in future. » 69. The Saratoga Big Bullock.—Since writing the above, we see the fol- lowing in the Country Gentleman of May 27, 1860: “The Saratoga County Press says that J. M. Cole, of Saratoga Springs, slaughtered an ox, in 1847, whose live weight was 3,520 lbs.; dressed, 2,567 Ibs.” ; Let Mr. Cole give us the vouchers. If he has made an ox of that weight, he has probably beaten the world, and should give the world the proof. It wants to know certainly the weight of the heaviest bullock. 70. Weights of the Crystal Palace Show Cattle.—The following are the net weights of the nine head of fat bullocks, exhibited as a show at the Crystal Palace. Some of them were full-blood Kentucky and Ohio Durhams, afd others, grades of that blood. They were bought by Jim Irving, of Washing- ton Market, and fairly weighed as follows: The best pair weighed—one, 2,178 ]bs.—and his quarters, 604 and 612 lbs. for the fore quarters, and 480 and 482 lbs. for the hind quarters. The other weighed 2,066 lbs.—the fore quarters 570 and 568 lbs., and the hind ones 470 and 458 lbs. Another pair weighed together 3,680lbs. The old cow, which was excessively fat, weighed 1,460 lbs., dressing, it is said, 73 lbs. per ewt. The best steer dressed 721 1bs. per cwt. The other four head weighed 2,024, 2,008, 1,930, and 1,860 Ibs. Forty head of Illinois grade Durhams, five and six years old, sold in 1858, in the New York market, averaged 22 cwt. each alive, and one hundred head averaged over 20 ewt. each. 71. The Haxtun Steer.—The Haxtun steer was raised by E. Haxtun, in Beekman Township, Dutchess Co., N.Y. He was out of a cow bought from a drove that came from near Cleveland, Ohio, which was probably three fourths Durham, and a full-bred short-horn bull, of Mr. Sheat’s (Dutchess County) importation. The steer was called }3ths Durham, part of the blood appearing to indicate a descent from the long-horn of the old Kentucky importation. His color was nearly all red, having some whitish roan spots, and he was, notwithstanding his great size and fatness, one of the hand- somest-formed fat bullocks we have ever seen, and as firm on his legs almost | as he ever was, and was in appearance as fresh and healthy as ever, taking his rations regularly. His feed was 14 quarts a day of meal, made of two parts Indian corn and one part oats, and as mnch hay as he would eat. His feeding commenced in the fall, after he was four years old, and he was seven years old the spring before he was killed. His weight at home, Dec. 1, 1859, was ey ha Seo. 4.] BEEVES OF GREAT WEIGHT. 3,472 lbs. He was probably weighed full at that time; but after a railroad passage of 75 miles, he was weighed here, Jan. 9, 1860, before he was filled up with food and water, and his “ honest nent as given by David Allerton, who weighed him, was 3,4521bs. Three days afterward, weighed upon the same scales, by the same man, with scales carefully balanced, he weighed 3,418 lbs. Afterward, upon two other scales, his weight was 3,419. He was sold Jan. 10, 1860, to Wm. Lalor, of Centre Market, for $850; and was slaughtered and dressed at Patterson’s slaughter-house, Jan. 19, by the same man who dressed the Washington, and hung until Jan. 26, when the quarters were weighed, under the careful supervision of Barney Bartram, John Harris, John M. Seaman, and James L. Stewart, and in the presence of a large company of lookers-on, many of whom were considerably interested, having invested largely in the way of bets upon the net weight. The following was the result: fore quarters, 700 and 668 lbs.—1,368 lbs. ; the hind quarters, 482 and 469 lbs.—951 lbs. ; total, 2,3191bs. This was 23 Ibs. over 672 lbs. per ewt. of the last live welche: The shrinkage was esti- mated at 501bs.; but he was hung just the same length of time as the Washington, and, like him, has had his hide stuffed and form preserved, being, up to that time, the largest bullock ever bronght to New York, The fatting of this steer has been one of the most perfectly successful experiments to produce a monstrous animal, so evenly formed and faultlessly shaped, that no one could say where he could be improved. 72. Other Large Bullocks.—A pair of oxen, called the “Cayuga Prize Oxen,” was also sold in the New York market, the same week, for $700, which was considered remarkable; their live weight, however, was 2,865 lbs. each ; they were six years old. The Michigan Farmer of Jan. 20, 1860, says: “ We lately gave an account of several fat cattle which were killed in this city on the week before the New Year. The pair weighed 6,437 lbs., or 3,218 lbs. each. The net weight was estimated at 68 lbs. per cwt.” Of some others the Harmer said: “The actual yield of the cattle killed by William Smith, in this market, was 66 lbs. to the 100 lbs. of live weight, or 2,150 lbs. from 3,218]bs. It will be seen by this, therefore, how those great oxen killed in the Detroit market approximated to what is considered the largest and fattest animal ever killed in the United States.” We have a letter before us from Isaac Hubbard, of Claremont, N. H., who is ninety years old, but not too old to read with interest the accounts — of these fat bullocks. He says that, seeing an account of the Haxtun steer, which interested him very sane induced him to give the history of a fat bullock fed by him twenty odd years ago. The calf was dropped Jan. 4, 1832, and was then estimated to weigh 100 Ibs.; Jan. 4, 1833, he weighea S74'lbs. ; Dec. 3, 1833, 1,280 ]bs.; Jan. 5, 1835, 1,800Ibs.; Dec. 26, 1835, 2,350 ]bs.; Feb. 15, 1837, 2,910 lbs. In Oct., 1838, Mr. H. sold him, and he was conveyed to Hartford, Conn., and weighed 3,370Ibs. This steer was bought by Paran Stevens, since of 56 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Crar. I. great hotel notoriety, and was extensively exhibited in this country as “the largest ox ever seen.” Perhaps some persons in this State may remember the exhibition of this mammoth ox. In 1840, this great show animal was sent to England for exhibition there, and, it %s said, attracted much attention. From there he was taken to France and Belgium, and exhibited as the great bullock of the world. He was brought back to England and slaughtered, but his weight at thé time, either alive or dead, was not published, but it was less in this country than that of several whose weights we have published. ‘This is one of the great show bullocks which have been exhibited and advertised as weighing over 4,000 lbs., a weight that never has, so far as we have any satisfactory records, yet been attained; and although we believe that 4,000lbs. is above the limit that can be attained by one of the bovine race, we would not discourage the efforts of those who have made noble attempts to improve this class of livestock, both in form and quality, and who will not be content until the utmost possible limit of weight is accomplished. The name of Mr. Hubbard’s steer was ‘‘ Olympus,” in this country, but in Europe he was exhibited under the name of “ Brother Jonathan.” He was of the “native stock,” common in New Hampshire; his color a dapple-bay or red, a little changeable in the sun, with white spots on the face and legs. It is not, however, generally profitable to feed such great bullocks as we have noticed; but, to see what has been done, it will always be an interest- ing matter of reference. So will be the matter we shall give in the next section. SECTION V.—STATISTICS OF THE NEW YORK CATTLE MARKET. 1, "a va umbers of Butchers’ Animals Annually Sold in New 7’ i { York. — Farmers are very justly accused of a af ik neglect of statistical information in relation to the 4 i 54 business upon which all their prosperity depends. In the very important matter of furnishing the cities with bullocks, the producers had no means of forming estimates of the needed supply, until we instituted reports of the cattle markets of all the prin- cipal cities, and particularly the city of New York, which is an enormous consumer of fresh beef. To this market we have devoted many years, attending almost every weekly market, and have given the farmers statis- tical tables of immense value to them. We now embody some of this useful statistical information, where it can stand as a table of permanent reference; and we earnestly - commend it to all who are engaged in agricultural pursuits. =x (> >) \G [as ~ Szo. 5.] STATISTICS OF THE NEW YORK CATTLE MARKET. ANNUAL RECEIPTS FOR TEN YEARS—1854-1863. Cows. Calves. Sheep. Swine. Ann. Totals. 18,181.... 68,584.... 555,479....° 252,328.... 1,059,386 12,110.... 47,969.... 688,741.... 318,107.... 1,152,491 12,857.... 48,081.... 462,739.... 345,911.... 1,051,645 12,840.... 384,218.... 444,086.... 288,984.... 942,321 10,128.... 37,675.... 447,445 551,479.... 1,238,601 9,492.... 48,769.... 404,894.... 899,665.... 1,068,092 7,144.... 39,486.... 518,750.... 828,918.... 1,116,181 6,749.... 32,868.... 512,866..... 559,421... 2. 1,383,239 5,378.... 380,465,... 484,842.... 1,148,209.... 1,907,880 6,470.... 35,709.... 619,816. ;..1,101,617.... 1,927,203 Total ....42,055,219.... 95,299.... 418,774.... 4,938,108. .., 5,289,639.... 12,797,039 Av. pr. year... 205,522.... 9,580.... 41,877.... 493,811.... 528,964.... 1,279,704 WEEKLY AVERAGE OF ALL ANIMALS FOR TEN YEARS—1854-1863. Beeves. ¢ E 3. i * Tota 20,359 22,669 20,224 18,119 28,809 22,365 21,465 25,637 36,000 37,062 The increase of bullocks in this decade is 55 per cent. Cows have fallen off more than half, and calves nearly the same. The supply of sheep remains nearly stationary, but swine have increased enormously. The fol- lowing is the estimated number of pounds of meat, derived from slaughtered animals in 1863, and the wholesale value. In the estimate, cows are added to the bullocks, because the most of them, eventually, go to the butcher. Beeves—270,561, av. 700 Ibs. net. 189,392,700 Ibs. at 94c. per lb. $17,513,824 7! Veal—35,709 calves at 75 lbs 2,678,175 “ at 10c. ; 267 ,817 Sheep and lambs—519,316, at 42 Ibs.... 21,811,272 ** at 10c. 2 2,181,127 Swine—1,101,617, at 150 lbs 165,242,550 ** at 63c. per lb. 10,740,765 $30,708,535 It is also very important for farmers to know where the supply comes from. Of 210,384 bullocks sold in 1863, the six following States furnished the respective numbers, viz.: Illinois, 118,692; New York, 28,985; Ohio, 19,269; Indiana, 14,232; Michigan, 9,074; Kentucky, 6,782. As the same proportion holds good for all the cattle received in New York, it will be seen that Illinois furnishes 56} per cent. True, a good many credited to that State come from Jowa, Missouri, and other States. The proportion of hogs from Illinois is probably greater than upon beef cattle. The great bulk of pork from the hogs slaughtered here is packed and sent to other places for consumption; large quantities of it to Europe. A small portion of the beef is packed and sent abroad. The great bulk of it, and all the veal and nearly all of the sheep, and a vast quantity besides that comes in ready dressed from the country, goes to furnish fresh meat to the cities of New York and Brooklyn, three small cities in New Jersey, and several towns within fifty miles, ships in port, and most of our armed ships and forts and soldiers on the coast between Hampton Roads and Key West. I 58 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I.” Estimated average price of beef cattle per net pound each year, 1854-63: 1854, 9 cents full; 1855, 10 cents; 1856, 91 cents nearly; 1857, 10: cents nearly ; 1858, 81 cents nearly; 1859, 9 cents; 1860, 8 cents full; 1861, 72 cents; 1862, 72 cents; 1863, 9} cents. Up to March, 1864, prices have ranged from 9 to 16 cents a pound net, which was higher than before since 1857. During 1863, the live-weight price of corn-fed hogs ranged from 4 to 7 cents per pound. In February, 1864, it reached 8} and 9 cents per pound, which was the highest price for Western stock ever attained. That all who read this page may see what an immense interest is involved in the live-stock trade of the country with New York city, we add the fol- lowing calculation of number of pounds of meat and estimated value: CONSUMPTION OF TEN YEARS—1854-1863. Beeves—2,160,518 head ay. 700 lbs: net. ..1,505,862,600 Ibs. at 9 cents per Ib. net.. $135,482,634 Calves—418,774 head av. 75 lbs. net...... 31,408,050 ** at 10 cents per lb. net.. 8,140,805 Sheep and lambs—4,938,108 headay.421bs. 207,890,536 * at 10 cents per Ib. net.. 20,739,053) Swine—5,289,639 head av. 125 Ibs........ 661,204,800 “ at 6 cents perlb.net.. 39,672,288 0112) ba eee hb ea 254065865, 86 Ibsen). }.doe seas be aetd $199,034,7£0 Average per annum for the ten years.... 240,536,598 ‘* 2.0.00... cece eee eee 19,903,478 Farmers, look at these figures. They teach you an important lesson ; one well worthy of being placed upon this permanent record, to remind you and your children of the great importance of the live-stock interest of the country. You see by the tables the rapid increase of the trade, and the enormous sunr that it amounts to in ten years. Lest you should be confused by the sum in numerical figures, let us repeat it in words. Two billions four hundred and five millions three hundred and _ sixty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-six pounds of meat, amounting to one hundred and ninety-nine millions thirty-four thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars. This is the sum that New York city has disbursed to the farming interest for ten years’ supply of meat, derived from the slaughter of twelve millions seven hundred and ninety-seven thousand and thirty-nine animals. These statistics enable us to realize the vast resources of America. The country is now feeding a million of men in the army, fighting for freedom, full rations of meat, and sending nearly two millions a year of animals to the city shambles of New York, for which the city is sending back to the country twenty millions of dollars. This is the greatest meat-eating country in the world; it produces all that it consumes and a great surplus to send abroad. 74. Cattle Transportation.—Nearly all the stock sold in the New York market is transported upon railway cars. We assume that the beeves for ten years’ supply have paid a tariff of $10 a head average to railroads, making the sum of $21,505,180; calves at fifty cents a head, $209,387; sheep at seventy-five cents, $3,703,681; hogs at $1 25 each, $6,612,048. Total $32,030,296, as the estimated amount paid for the transportation of animals butchered in New York for ten years. Improvement is needed in transportation. Animals are forced to stand without food or water two or three days, or as long as their tired legs will Seo. 5.] STATISTICS OF THE NEW YORK CATTLE MARKET. 59 sustain them, and when they fail, as sometimes they do, the fainting creature falls and is trampled to death. We must have an improvement in cattle-cars. It certainly would not be difficult to construct them so that cattle should stand with heads to one side, where water could be given them in a trough by means of hose; and if this can not be done, it must be made a criminal offense to keep the animals on a car more than 30 hours without water. In fact, it would be better for all parties if the number were limited that a car should contain, and that in no ease should the stock remain on the cars over 30 hours, without being unloaded, rested, fed, and watered. The present practice is a loss to owners and an injury to consumers, by making the beasts feverish and unhealthy, besides being an outrageous act of cruelty to animals. The whole commu- nity is interested, and should ery out against the wicked practice, which is enough to make betbanity, shudder. 75. Comparative Measurements of Cattle.—Inquiries are often made in regard to the relative size of different breeds of cattle. It is not easy to give a very definite answer to questions of this kind; but as several of the leading breeds of this country were derived fyom England, where they are bred in greater numbers than they are here, an idea of hex comparative size may Be had from certain measurements taken of prize animals at the English shows. We give the following tables in reference to Short-horns, Her efor ds, and Devons, which took prizes at the shows of the Royal Agricultural Society, in 1858 and 1859, The first was prepared for the Society by Mr. Robert Smith. CLASS. Average Age. Average Girth. CLASS. Average Age. Average Girth. SHORT HORNS. Yrs. mos. ft. in. HEREFORDS. yrs. mos, fl. in. Aged bulls.......... Aas aerate. 8 Bh [COWS saiteouettels 5= ss 7 Site ee eee 7 2 Yearling bulls ...... 1 RES oh be 7 2 | Two-year-old heifers.2 UG Seen conten cee 7 4h Bull calves. ..2:....-- GE Went 5 8° | Yearlings 70. 25. .m- 1 Le eee eee 6 64 WGWss ences kicsin 3 Oat SONAL: (meg Two-year-old heifers .2 Secn oer sere 7 4} Devons. Wearlings.<..-...-<. Yo 4.......... 6 53] Aged bulls.......... 3° Ghee 2 Roane Yearling bulls ...... i “GPeee on. eee 6 2 Hererorps. Bull calves. ....... Sa es 5 2 Aped'bulis.......... Lite ites eee eRe ae 8 Bi NK COWS ie Sates rerescralen ao 6 Co ae Eee onta ae 6 93 Yearling bulls....... AG PLOT ee 7 03 | Two-year-old heifers .2 Gt. eee 6 10 Bull calves =........ LOR tes n3) 5 ATA Vearlings....s:n;.% 2.0.5 3 1 i} ecettoe a. 6 The next table was furnished by Mr. Thos. Duckham, the editor of the “ Werd-Book of Hereford Cattle.” As far as it goes, it comprises measure- ments of Short-horns and Herefords, which received prizes at the Warwick show that year, the rank of the awards having been according to the order observed in the table. CLASS. Average Age. Average Girth. | CLASS. Average Age. Average Girth. SHortT-HoRNS. Yrs. mos. fran inten HErerorps. yrs. mos. ft. = in. Aged bulls.......... 4 OY a seek 8 6. | Aged bulls. s4...1... 7 a een TS ee 8 5 i eee cassis i 4 Dae disso sheiis 8 6 Se ee cctandva a aicicid 4 AOS See Doone 8 Le le ot eee 2 7 ies ae Sie 7 7 pia Gt inci ay MPLOLER sccm 8 hate Bip did ae Leanne bas ..9.5 55k 2} DS Gea. peau Laods 5,2 ea “ nr SAy mee tid ia Bullicalvessesye3. 8 ee: See are 5 93 Bull calves priieistats ee 6 “ee Reg Th jeg aA 1 sapere aed tei tierce maga 60 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. 76. The Improvement in Breeds and Weights of Cattle —What has raised the average weight of beef cattle from 500 to 800 1bs., and some individuals up to 3,6001bs.? What has raised the crops of corn to doublé their former yield, and in several instances produced over 190 bushels of corn to the acre —that was in Kentucky; but in the State of New York whole fields have averaged 100 bushels. In Connecticut, 134 bushels of ears of corn have been produced upon half an acre, at an expense for culture and harvest of less than $3. What has induced men to root up old orchards of natural fruit, “five to the pint,” and plant hi ios baldwins, greenings, russets, etc., some of which have been sold from $8 to $20 a barrel, and retailed at a guinea a dozen? What has induced ingenious men to devote the best energies of their minds to inventing plows, harrows, drills, reaping-machines, and every other implement of husbandry, while every class of domestic animals has also been improved—neat cattle probably the most of all? The answer is, the publication of just such facts as we are now giving, which tend to show what has been done by some men, and may be done by others. This encourages us to continue our labor. SECTION VI—FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. fo} fs electing Calves for Rearing, — Use judgment in \ selecting such heifer calves as are to be reared. Select only those whose mothers are good milkers, and whose sires have come from good milking stock; at the same time, the calf itself should have those characteristics that indicate an aptitude to develop good milking qualities, viz.: small, fine head, rather long in the muzzle; bright eyes; thin, tapering neck; small, well-shaped legs; long body ; large hind quarters, set wide behind ; soft skin ; fine hair—the color of which is immate- rial; and, above all, the milk-mirror or udder-veins should be large and well developed. The raising of bull calves for breeders had better, be left to those who have time and means to devote their attention to it, who procure the best animals to begin with. It would be no loss to the country, were the numerous specimens of scrub bulls, too often seen, condemned to perpetual exile. But there is no reason why a portion of the male calves, at least, should not be reared as bullocks, either for the team or the butcher; and it is important that such as are reserved for this purpose should possess certain points indicative of future excellence, viz.: well-shaped head; small ears; short, thick neck; deep brisket; broad chest and shoulders; fine bone; long 61 Sec. 6.] FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. body, well rounded behind the shoulders; straight back; wide loins; full quarters; tail thin and tapering ; skin soft, and not too thin. It is too often the case that animals are selected for rearing from being of pretty color—that takes the fancy of some member of the family—or the calf of some pet cow of the dairy-maid, without attention being paid to its promise of excellences. Not unfrequently valuable calves are fattened for veal, simply because their color is unpleasing to the eye. This is about the most important branch of the stock-raiser’s business. Too many persons pursue the careless mode of the person who wrote the following item? “Tn the spring of 1858 my two cows had bull calves, which I determined to raise for sale, and so gave them a good chance to grow, adding an extra in the shape of a handful of barley meal, with their feeds of milk. They grew finely, or rather Bobby did, for Billy, taking a sudden dislike to sour milk, had rather slim ratious for the last six weeks before weaning. I told him he might starve if he liked, and took no special pains to humor his fancies. In September I had an offer of $6 for Bobby, and concluded to let him go, but the buyer was behind time about. two weeks, and thought the additional keeping worth nothing, so I did not turn him off. So, of course, Bobby was kept, and grew up to propagate the race of Bob calves.” 78. Calves—Give them Shelter.—It is almost impossible to winter calves without shelter; if they survive the winter, they are mere skeletons, and have to be lifted up before spring, and never make anything but poor, raw- boned, unprofitable stock. Sheep are many times allowed to pick up what they can get for half the winter; but the dead lambs, and probably dead’ sheep, that lie scattered over the fields, tell the profit of such a course. When protected, all food not required to maintain the natural waste of the system goes toward increasing the growth of the animal. To obtain perfect form, animals should be kept continually growing until they arrive at maturity. They are often turned out in the spring so poor that it requires half the summer to make them as good as they were the fall before—a loss of three quarters of the year in the growth of the animal. A grazier lately said to us, in speaking of such a lot of cattle that he bought, “It took the whole summer to soak their hides loose, so that they could begin to grow. They seemed as hard and dry as a pair of old boots, and in some spots as destitute of hair.” 79. Training Steers—At the Maine State Fair, a boy of fifteen years, from the town of Woodstock, had a pair of three-year-old steers, which obeyed him as an obedient boy will his parents. By a motion of his hand they would go forward, halt, and return, go to the right or left, kneel down, and perform other things, much to the surprise of some older farmers, who are in the habit of putting the brad through the hide. At a New York State Fair there was a perfect Rarey of an ox-tamer, who practices breaking steers for farmers, and as he never treats them inhumanly, he soon has them under perfect control, and as bidable as well-trained children. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. { [Cmar. I. Sa aa ata attr tree tae ot cao ot a oa naa mena a annette 80. Unruly Animals—As a general rule, our domestic animals are never unruly, except when taught to be so. For instance, some persons, in turning stock from one field to another, only let down a few of the top rails or bars, and force the animals to jump over. Too lazy to put up as well as to let down, they leave the gap half closed, as a temptation to the stock to jump back again. A few practical lessons of this kind make stock unruly. Care- lessness in regard to putting up fences when thrown down, or in repairing weak spots, confirms the habit. A writer says his practice has always been to teach his cows, calves, sheep, and hogs to go through or under, rather than over, the bars or fences, always leaving a rail or bar up at the top. Taught this way, they never think of jumping, and he has never been troubled with unruly animals, even when his fences were low. 81. Kindness to Brutes——No man can afford to be unkind to his domestic animals, because animals which are treated the most kindly are the most gentle and obedient, and also thrive the best; hence, no one can afford to use them unkindly. By kindness, mingled with firmness, the most ferocious animals are subdued, and it is vain to suppose that the same means would not be effectual in training domestic animals. Surely, no one should degrade himself by continuing a practice which is both unprofitable and inhuman— a practice that makes man the brute instead of the quadruped. There is no economy in half starving any stock through the winter, and causing them to take all the storms without any shelter; but, on the contrary, it is a clear waste and loss to the owner. 82. Shelter for Cattle.—Next to the necessity of an adequate supply of food for stock, comes the ¢mportance of shelter. It needs no argument to prove the truism that animals can not live without food; and it is just as certain ‘that our domestic stock, artificially susceptible to the storms and changes of our Northern climate, can not thrive without proper shelter. It seems now to be well settled, that a due degree of warmth is equivalent, in a measure, fo food; and we all know that an entire abandon to ease and comfort, while in a state of rest—a perfect freedom from apprehension of any kind, which may arise from a lack of food, or from exposure, or any other cause—is necessary to the maximum of thrift or usefulness. On old, improved, rich lands, it would be policy in the farmer to stable or yard his cattle and horses during the whole year; but I should prefer yarding in the summer season, as more air and room for exercise would be allowed, both of which would be conducive to the health of the animals. . One acre of land, in good condition, sown to-corn, and cut and fed from the time it begins to tassel until it begins to glaze, will keep six head of cattle during the time, and perhaps more—say two months—while it would have taken six acres of pasture to keep them the same length of time. On farms where the pasture is generally the roughest, poorest part of the farm, and that which could not be applied as profitably to other purposes— on such lands the cattle must be allowed to get their own living in summer. The above are excerpta from several excellent essays in the Genesee | Seo. 6.] FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 63 ee I aa aa ma a aie be ies Dasa aaa eed Farmer, and might have been much more extended, only that we have a great many other good things to glean from other sources. 83. Straw for Cattle—Mr. Johnson says, in a letter to the Genesee Farmer : “You say that I put straw in my boxes for my cows. This is not so. No man ever saw me feed straw to cattle, at least for the last twenty-five years. If they choose, they can eat the straw spread out for litter, but I never compel them to eat straw. I know cattle can be fatted on grain and straw, but I don’t think so profitably as part grain and part hay, or part oil-eake and part hay. Grass is the natural food of sheep and cattle; and hay made from grass, if {properly made, puts on fat, even if very little else is fed. I am satisfied that either cows or fatting cattle do much better in yards, with ample sheds and plenty of straw for clean, dry beds. I can not feed any kind of stock profitably unless they have such beds.” 84. Wintering Cattle—There is yet a good deal of wisdom to.be learned upon this subject, even by those whose talk is of bullocks, and particularly in wintering calves. The one great error is in neglecting them in autumn, after the frost has destroyed the sweetness of the grass, and allowing them to commence getting poor before winter feeding is commenced. There is no error more fatal to success than such neglect. It is often the foundation of disease that the animal never recovers from. There is no condition so good for an animal going into winter quarters as a thriving fatness; and if that can be kept up till mid-winter, the danger of starvation upon very light feed in the spring is greatly diminished. It is one of the worst things in all farm economy to neglect feeding stock in the fall, because it is not yet time to begin to fodder. You had better begin in July, if your pasture fails, so that your animals begin to lose flesh. All that is saved of fodder in the fall, upon the plea that “cattle can shift a while longer,” exactly verifies the old saw about “saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung.” 85. Feeding Pumpkins.—A subscriber sends a long communication against feeding pumpkins to cows. The writer’s reasoning is not entirely sound, and does not agree with our own experience and observation. As a general rule, we are quite sure that pumpkins increase rather than diminish the quantity of milk; and instead of making neat stock grow poor, we have fattened large numbers of cattle on pumpkins alone. There is one suggestion in our correspondent’s letter, however, which may be worthy of attention. He refers to the fact that the seeds of pumpkins have a decided diuretic (urine- producing) effect upon the human organs, and that if they have the same effect upon cows, the excessive flow of urine must necessarily reduce the flow of the milky fluid. He advises that when pumpkins are fed, the seeds should be taken out. The idea is plausible, and worth being acted on. 86. Keeping Stock Warm, and Variety of Food.—Man craves a variety of food; that is, a variety of substances, either one of which would sustain life, but would not be satisfactory. Nature demands the variation, and the mix- ing together the several substances. Why? Simply because no one will give all the elements that go to make up the animal economy. One article 64 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. furnishes phosphate for bones, which another article is destitute of, yet it may contain matter that will clothe the bones with muscle. Food that con- tains neither fat nor sugar will be found sufficient to keep up the animal heat. Food that contained all the elements of bone, muscle, fiber, fat, and heat-producing qualities, might be so concentrated as to be unhealthy. Aman fed upon pemmican, would have a disposition to eat straw, husks, and twigs, or gnaw the bark from trees, to get something to distend the stomach and enable it to perform its functions healthily. Let this be thought of in feeding domestic animals. It will furnish an easy rule for your guidance. Judge them by yourself, and act accordingly; you will find it an easy and sure road to success. We do not for animals, quadruped or biped, recommend a variety of food at the same meal—only a change from time to time, so as to give variety, and consequently all the elements neces- sary to produce growth. Never neglect to give your cattle water until you learn to do without it yourself, and never offer them drink where you would vomit if compelled to slake your own thirst. Never leave a horse, a cow, a sheep, out in a cold winter storm, until you arrive at that condition of unfeelingness that you could endure it yourrelf. When you think you could find comfortable shelter under a common rail fence, you may leave your cattle there. No domestic animal can ever reach the highest state of perfection its nature is capable of unless always kept in a healthy, growing condition, in an equable climate, or in warm shelter if the inhabitant of a cold one. ' Farmers do not pay sufticient attention to the warmth of their stock, but suffer them to roam about in the open air, exposed to the inclement weather. The amount of exercise is another most important point to attend to. The more an animal moves about, the quicker it will breathe, and the more starch, gum, sugar, fat, and other respiratory elements it must have in its food; and if an additional quantity of these substances be not given to supply the increased demand, the fat and other parts of the body will be drawn upon, and the animal will become thinner ; also, as before observed, every motion of the body produces a corresponding destruction of the mus- cles which produce that motion. It is therefore quite evident that the more the animal moves about, the more of the heat-producing and flesh-forming principle it must receive in its food. Hence we see the propriety of keeping our cattle in sheds and yards, and not suffering those (particularly which we intend to fatten) to rove about, consuming more food, and wasting away more rapidly the various tissues of the body already formed, and making it more expensive and difficult to fatten them. 87. Fattening Cattle upon Hay.—Speaking upon this subject, a committee of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, of which John Brooks and Paoli Lathrop are members, remark: “ Fattening cattle in winter upon hay alone is a resort of many farmers, and where hay is plenty and distant from market, the practice is not incon- Szo. 6.] FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 65 DR EU ae sistent with economy. If well attended, good animals consuming four per cent. of their live weight of good hay daily, will gain daily two pounds of flesh. Suppose the flesh gained to be worth 16 cents, it will be equal to $8 a ton for the hay. The better practice, however, is to give only three per cent. of the live weight of the animal in hay daily, and an equivalent for the other one per cent. in Indian meal or roots. The gain would be greater for the same cost of food.” - Another remark worth quoting is the following: “The best age for feeding cattle for beef is from four to eight years. Young growing cattle may be fattened, but it will require more food in pro- portion, and longer time.” 88. How to Feed Roots.—There seems to be much diversity of opinion as to the value of turnips, carrots, ete., for feeding. One man feeds his hogs a ereat amount of them, but neglects to provide a bed secure from the intru- sion of cold winds and snow, and then wonders they do not grow ; or feeds a cow four bushels per day, and wonders she does not fat. How could she? She is almost physicked to death, and her urinary organs are injured by over-exertion ; and although she is thoroughly littered with straw, still her feet are in the water; and when she lies down, her side is wet. After many trials in a similar way, many have come to the conclusion that root feeding is an unprofitable business in our climate. If hogs must sleep in snow-banks, give them corn by all means, and give them plenty of it. If cattle can not be stabled, or kept so sheltered that they may be dry, then roots will not give one half the return they would under a judicious system of management. ; After many trials of fattening sheep and horned cattle, and feeding store stock of all kinds with roots, I came to the conclusion that they are all valu- able when properly fed with hay and grain, but that their relative value to grain is often overrated in this country of cheap corn. Roots, unless cooked, are not economical food for swine. The great error in relation to feeding roots is, that they are too much fed to the exclusion of grain. A farmer has shoats to winter, or horned cattle to fatten; he first feeds his turnips, carrots, beets, small potatoes; next his corn or meal, This is wrong. The corn should be fed from the first. A dozen shoats of 100 Ibs. each would profitably receive a bushel per day of roots, if cooked with corn. A fattening ox should have one bushel, or not over two, per day, with six or eight quarts of meal. Cows should have one half bushel per day, whether being milked or not. That amount will bring them out, in the spring, fat and ready to do good service at the pail, provided, of course, that they have hay and stalks in due proportion. Calves and yearlings should always have one fourth bushel per day, with a very small allowance of grain. The above is partly from the Stock Journal, and the following from the Working Farmer ; both of which are good authority. We beg again to remind our readers, particularly those who are engaged ; 5 66 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. I. RR ememmmee0EEmEmEEEEeEmEE in dairy and stock farming, to appropriate a full amount of land to root- growing. Carrots, beets, turnips, parsneps, may all be raised with profit wherever stock is to be fed. For horses, carrots are invaluable. For milch cows, they not only furnish a milk of superior flavor, butter of fine color and odor, but, when used as a portion of their food, they guarantee a healthful condition. The power of the pectic acid of the carrot to gelatinize all veg- etable matter held in solution in the stomach, puts its contents in such a condition that the peristaltic motion of the intestines can manage it. Flat- ulence is prevented, and thorough digestion secured. The dung of the horse fed partly on carrots, never contains the undecomposed shell of the oat, nor large amounts of starch uwnappropriated ; and it is for this reason that a bushel of oats and a bushel of carrots will do more for the horse than two bushels of oats; and not because the carrot contains as much flesh- making material as the oat, but because it causes all the flesh-making ma- terial of the oat to be appropriated, instead of being voided with the excretia. For cows and oxen, other roots may occasionally be substituted with profit, as variety to all animals is pleasing in their food; and no one root should be so continuously used. Since the introduction of pulping machines, pulped roots mixed with cut hay, cut straw, and other cheap material, add much to the economy of the farm as well as to the health of the cattle. 89. Feeding Linseed and Cotton-seed Oil-Cake.—Never having had per- sonal experience enough in feeding oil-cake, having always preferred corn- meal, to give an opinion which we would ask others to rely upon, we select the following from a lecture by Prof. Voelcker, before the meeting of the council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in June, 1860. It is worthy of attention from all cattle-feeders. He says: “It is not my object, in giving a practical turn to the lecture to-day, to record any experiments of my own, or in any way to presume to teach the feeder of stock in what way he may best expend his money in the purchase of food, but I shall endeavor simply to give to the practical man some indi- cations whereby I hope he will be enabled to form for himself a trustworthy opinion respecting the relative value of different cakes, and likewise what is perhaps of more importance to him, to introduce some remarks which will enable him to distinguish a good from a bad cake; and in conclusion, shall allude briefly to the various substances with which oil-cakes are at the pres- ent time often largely adulterated. 90. Fat in Feod.—“ Let me first point out to you some peculiarities in the composition of oil-cakes. A reference to their composition is necessary to the understanding the remarks which will follow. I would then observe, that what characterizes oil-cakes, distinguishing them from all other articles of food pre-eminently, is the large amount of oil that is left in the cakes, obtained by expression of the oilseeds. If you glance at the diagram (see table on page 71), you will find that they contain a considerable quantity of oil—from 6 to 12 per cent.; and in some instances, as in the decorticated cotton-cake, even 16 per cent. of oil. I may observe at once that the value Seo. 6.] FEEDING CATTLE AND CARE OF FARM-STOCK. 67 of oil-cake in a very great measure depends upon the amount of oil which is left in the cake. And I may further say, that the tendency of the manufac- turer at the present day is to produce an inferior description of cake, inas much as improved machinery enables him to squeeze out more oil than formerly, and thus to render the refuse less fattening, less valuable to the feeder of stock. I am very much inclined to believe that the oil is by far the most valuable constituent of all oil-cakes. Iam aware that it was the fashion, not many years ago, to measure the feeding properties and even the fattening qualities of articles of food by the amount of nitrogenous or flesh- forming matters; but these views are not supported by any practical experiments, nor, indeed, by the every-day experience that we have respect- ing not only human, but cattle food. We pay more for food rich in starch, mucilage, and matters capable of producing fat, than we pay for food which, like bean-meal, is extremely rich in nitrogenous matter, but which does not produce so much butchers’ meat. It is a matter of much importance to the farmer to know how much he gets back for the money he expends in the purchase of food. I have no hesitation in saying that more money is made by the purchase of food rich in oil, starch, or sugar, than in the purchase of food which contains an excess of nitrogenous matters. 91. Flesh in Food.—“ Still, we ought not to leave unnoticed that the flesh-forming matters are very important indeed, and that oil-cakes are peculiarly rich in them. In one sense they are perhaps most essential—per- haps even more essentially necessary than the cther constituents of food which produce fat, or are employed in the animal economy to keep up the animal heat. They are more important in this sense ; whereas the animal or- ganization has the power to make fat from gum, sugar, mucilage, and even from young cellulose or young vegetable fiber, it has not the power of making a particle of flesh. Unless, therefore, food is given to animals which contains ready-made flesh, an animal can not grow, and the other constituents of food remain unavailable. It is in this sense that the nitrogenous matters of food are extremely valuable; but in a purely practical sense they are not so val- uable as the oil, starch, or sugar of food, because by spending a certain amount of money in food, we do not get so great a return in the shape of butchers’ meat by purchasing these flesh-forming matters as by purchasing feeding substances rich in oil or starch. However, in speaking of the relative value of the various constituents, especially the oily and the flesh-forming constit- uents, we are not to overlook that the quantity of nitrogenous matter which is not applied for the formation of flesh, passes through the animal, and is obtained again in the dung, with the exception of a small quantity that escapes by evaporation through the skin or through the lungs. ) SN Ee ee et is, : We 4 5 aE oP pr i ey 4 4 ‘ohne y ol i . ly ee tr fst gales ot : : Tine My ds : ¢ , _ Bets ’ , , ° 3 ren ne? f ; tt NET & teas f ‘y ey tNeA r b ; HN Hel teens ot ee y PE + S Mire ahi ee 4 ‘ TP A — * ? é i ie Bt V “Fag A St . ds : if . 4. ” i ai. ee tas : he Sire tet A at pa 4 ? ty yf dn, F ? toe fay eget rt ap RE 8) +4 : er " +) Oe 4 ~ . t U2 5 ~ ge iv ; { ~ , a ; 7 ° ie gi hi how i ae : Sea ¢ ae 4 > , ‘ ar if r i ie ‘ iW - + Sa” oy ies t a : rj Wey “ LA = r ‘ . ae . eS Ke ‘a rs . 4 ‘ x q Por i i, SC ifiaeiist.-0-« Visca ye is ' oii iat a wtentibit, Ai aie eA ParepRas ic ar xt at Myc dictates, baw phish caskd) A Marge ‘Geary 7 Yee 4 a 7 Pi i a ee wie ee ~ ? Sie seed oF ~eark rbebip tt ai “anes ie Sk ers : $4 “toy ne PLATE VII. (Page 97.) In this plate we present to the reader such a collection of excellent portraits of the most celebrated horses in America as can nowhere else be procured. The four upper figures will be at once recognized as correct likenesses of animals that have won a name that makes them famous in equine history. That of the Justin Morgan horse will be found in this chapter. He is the progenitor of a family that has won the hearts of the people. Flying Childers stands as the representative of the race-course. Patchen and Flora Temple are the most noted of the great family of American fast trotters. The Arabian here represented is a portrait of one of the noted horses presented to Hon. William H. Seward, and by him to the New York State Agricultural Society, and this picture gives one a good idea _ of the spirited appearance of that breed. The Cleveland Bay is the representative of a class of noble carriage horses which has given character to many of the same class in this country, particularly in Central New York. The Norman horse, as we see him here, gives a good idea of the appearance of the heavy diligence and common work-horses of France, having a thick neck, short, strong legs, and round, compact body, capable of sustaining great burdens, and pulling immense loads at a slow gait, as compared with some of our American fast horses. This breed was made quite notorious in this country by the import- ation of the late Edward Harris, of New Jersey, about twenty years go. The portrait of the Canadian horse is a fine representative of his class, which was formed by a mixture of the Norman horses of the early French settlers of Canada with some smaller breed, which, by neglect and exposure, and carelessness of improvement in breeding, has produced a race of small, hardy horses, known as Canadian, which are sometimes, though erroneously, called ponies. A careful study of these portraits will be useful to all farmers, as well as many other persons. a tee ny e is 1h Pees wey Secret NaN le Woke tet Doe. A yes PTT ida bettiaetia! rtd, (OME IRIRIIEIDS DIF IRCOIRSIES » V =— anus Patchen Klying Childers Flora Temple Arabian Cleveland Bay Canadian Sxo. 8.] HORSES AND MULES. 97 For 100 Ibs. of wool, take four gallons of urine and eight gallons of rain- water; mix and heat a little above blood-heat, until the scum rises, which skim off. Keep it at the same heat in a kettle on coals or a little fire out of doors. Putin what wool the kettle will conveniently hold, and let it remain about five minutes; take it out on a board that will drain the liquid back into the kettle, or else put it in a basket over a tub, so as not waste the liquid, for it will be equally good for the last batch as the first. When it is drained, put the basket under a stream of water running on it if convenient, or in a running stream if you can, or else with plenty of clear water in a large tub; it will wash Very easily, and be as “ white as wool.” Don’t forget to sprinkle the dirty liquid upon the poorest spot in the gar- den, for it is a powerful manure. The same kind of liquid is the best thing known to take the dirt and grease out of any kind of foul woolen clothes or yarn. SECTION VIII—HORSES AND MULES. GENERAL history of the horse and his uses, and ’ how to use him, will not be looked for in a work that only professes to give little items of informa- tion upon a great many things. It would occupy a volume larger than this one to give a tolerably full history of the equine race, since it has been sub- jected to the use of man. Fquusis the generic name of the quadrupeds which have a single digit and hoof upon each foot, as has the horse, ass, zebra. The horse has been a domestic as well as a wild animal from a very early time. He is mentioned in Genesis as being in harness whien Joseph transferred the remains of his father from Egypt to Canaan. Horses exist in a wild state in various parts of the globe. They were once quite numerous in the territory embraced in some of our most western States. Domestication works material change, the most marked of which is an increase in the size of the trunk. Then follows an increased size of all parts, and a loss of the fleetness natural to the horse in his wild state. The Arabian horse, though domesticated by a semi-savage race, still re- tains some of his wild characteristics, one of which is fleetness and long endurance. The Arab tradition in regard to the horse is, “that he was created out of the wind, as Adam was out of the earth.” Hence, “ fleet as the wind,” is often applied to the horse. The tradition is, that the male of the horse was created first, as the more noble of the two, and that the horse a 98 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. was created before man, and after he was created he was told to choose the most beautiful of all animals, and he chose the horse; upon which God said to Adam: “ You have chosen that which is a glory to you, and will be to your children.” The Arabs profess to know the pure Arabian horse, the descendant of Zad-el-Lakeb, which Solomon presented to their tribe, by the firmness of his lips and cartilage of the lower part of the nose; by the dilata- tion of his nostrils; by the leanness of the flesh about the veins of his head ; by the elegance of the neck and shoulders ; by the softness of his hair, mane, and skin; by the fullness of his breast ; by the large size of his joints; and by the dryness of his extremities ; and also by his moral indications, for a noble horse has no malice in him. He loves his master, and frequently will suffer no other to mount him. He refrains from doing what nature prompts as necessary while his master is on his back. He will not eat food left by another horse. He loves to splash limpid water whenever he meets it. His instinct, smell, sight, hearing, intelligence, and address are all used for his master; and he will fight for him. Hence the Arab’s love of his horse. It will be well for us all to remember some of the traditions of the Arab, for they describe valuable points in a horse. 130. Thorough-Bred.—This term does not appear to have any very def- inite meaning in this country. It.is generally supposed to trace back to something in the way of pure blood, of a better stock than the common one of the country; but what that stock is, perhaps not one in ten who owns horses can tell. A writer in the (English) /wrmer’s Magazine says : “The term thorough-bred is an expression not clearly defined as regards any of our domestic animals, but it would be very desirable to have some rule established. It may be accepted as a principle that breeding from ani- mals endowed with certain properties and perfections through several gen- erations, constitutes the claim to distinction ; but there ts no adopted rule to determine how many generations are sufficient to establish the title.” Yet, according to our understanding of the term, a “‘ thorough-bred” horse must trace back, free from contamination of baser blood, to the pure Arabian stock. The original of that stock in England, so far as pedigrees are at- tempted to be traced, was the “ Darley Arabian,” brought from “ Araby the blest” by a Mr. Darley. That horse was the sire of Flying Childers, and grandsire of Eclipse, one of the most remarkable horses ever on the English race-course. He was not what would be considered a handsome horse, by a breeder of Morgan stock, but his fleetness and endurance were beyond com- petition, and his stock have followed in his footsteps. He died at the age of twenty-five years, after having begotten a greater number of prize-win- ning colts than any other horse that ever lived. If a horse ean trace back to old Eclipse, or any of his famous colts, there is no mistake about his being “thorough-bred.” So he would be if he traces back to the “Godolphin Arabian,” a Barb that was introduced into England at a later period than the Darley Arabian. There should be some definite rule established among horse-breeders and Szo. 8.] HORSES—ENGLISH BREEDS. 99 I our several State agricultural societies as to how far back and to what stock the pedigree of a horse should go to make him eligible to a prize as a “ thor- ough-bred.” 131. English Hunters.—This is a term given to a breed of English horses which are high up in thorough-bred blood, with a strain of other blood possessing great powers of endurance. The head of a hunter of perfect form is small; his neck thin, particularly below; a firm and arched crest ; jaws wide, and very light on the bit. 132. An English Coach-Horse.—The type of this variety is the ‘“ Cleveland Bay,” some of which have been imported into this country, and have left their mark upon the finest coach-horses we have in the United States—such as are to be found more abundantly in Central New York, than in any other locality. 133. English Roadsters.——The term more common for this class in En- gland is “ Hackney”—a term seldom heard in this country, and if heard, would be more likely to be understood as meaning a “hack-horse.” The nearest type of a hackney that we have, as a distinct breed, is the Morgan horse. Youatt says: “ A hackney is a hunter in miniature. His hight should rarely exceed fifteen hands and an inch. He will be sufficiently strong and more pleasant for general work below that standard. He should be of a more compact form than the hunter, of more bulk according to his hight. It is of essential consequence that the bones beneath the knee should be deep and flat, and the tendon not tied in. The pastern should be short, and less oblique or slanting than that of the hunter or race-horse. The foot should be of a size corresponding with the bulk of the animal—neither too hollow nor too flat, and open at the heels. The forelegs should be perfectly straight; for a horse with his knees bent will, from a slight cause, and espe- cially if overweighted, come down. The back should be straight and short, yet sufficiently long to leave comfortable room for the saddle between the shoulders and the 7wek without pressing upon either. Some persons prefer a hollow-backed horse. It is generally an easy one to go. It will canter well with a‘lady, but it will not carry a heavy weight, or stand much hard work. The road-horse should be high in the forehead, round in the barrel, and deep itt the chest.” 134. The English Dray-Horse.—There is a variety of horses known as the dray-horse, or more generally in this country as the English cart-horse; a very heavy, strong, slow-gaited horse, originated by a cross of the Flanders or Norman horse with the Suffolk Punch, a sorrel horse of fifteen or sixteen hands high, with low, rounded shoulders; thick on the top; low back; deep, round chest; long back; high croup; large, strong quarters; full flanks ; round legs, and short pasterns. This is a good detceiption of a strong work-horse. We have something like it, though rather increased in size, in the Pennsylvania wagon-horse. 135. Morgan Horsesx—The most distinet strain of American horses—in fact, the only one which assumes the character of a race—is that now widely -— 100 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Cuap. 1 | known as the Morgan. The origin of this race is given in the following ex- tracts from letters written by a son and a relative of the original owner of the old Morgan horse : The following is an extract from a letter of Justin Morgan, originally furnished for the Cultivator (vol. ix., p. 99), dated Stockbridge, Vt., March 1, 1842. After stating that his father owned the horse from which the race of Morgan horses sprung, he says: “‘] will now relate the facts relative to said Morgan horse as I recollect them. My father, Justin Morgan, brought said horse, or rather said colt, into Randolph, Vt., in the summer or autumn of 1795. Said colt was only two years old when my father brought him to Randolph, and had never been handled in any way, not even to be led by a halter. My father went to Springfield, Mass., the place of his nativity, and the place from which he removed to Randolph, in the spring or summer of 1795, after money that was due to him at that place, as he said; and instead of getting money, as he expected, he got two colts—one, a three-year-old gelding colt, which he led ; the other, a two-year-old stallion colt, which followed all the way from Springfield to Randolph ; having been, as my father said, always kept with and much attached to the colt he led. Said two-year-old colt was the same that has since been known all over New England by the name of the Morgan horse. My father broke said colt himself, and, as I have before remarked, owned and kept him to the time of his decease, which took place in March, 1798, and said horse was five years old the spring my father died; and, as before stated, soon after my father’s decease, he passed from my father’s estate into the possession of Wm. Rice, of Woodstock, Vt. I can not state positively that my father purchased said colt in Springfield, Mass., but I am very confident that he purchased him in that town or in the immigdlinié vicinity, on Connecticut River.” We next offer an extract from a letter of John Morgan (see Cultivator, vol. ix., p. 110), in which it will be seen that the material points set forth by Justin Morgan are confirmed, and some further light given in regard to the blood of the first Morgan horse. John Morgan resides at Lima, New York, and is, we believe, a relative of Justin Morgan, Sr., and was a near neighbor of the latter previous to his removal from Springfield to Vermont. In reference to the colt above described by Justin Morgan (2d), John Mor- gan says: ‘ He was sired by a horse owned by Sealy Norton, of East Hart- ford, Conn., called the ‘True Briton, or Beautiful Bay.? He was kept at Springfield one season by the said Justin Morgan [Sr.], and two years after, I kept him two seasons. This horse was said to have been raised by General Delaney, commander of the refugee troops on Long Island, and rode by him in the Revolution. It was said that one Smith stole the horse from the General at King’s Bridge, while the General was in the tavern; ran him across the bridge and took him to the American army, near White Plains, and sold him to Joseph Ward, of Hartford, Conn., for $300. It was also said at that time that he was sired by the imported dhotse called ‘ Traveler,’ hat fey ee Sro. 8.] HORSES—THE MORGAN BREED. 101 said to have been kept in New Jersey. Wes d was a merchant, and kept the horse three or four years for a saddle and carriage horse, and then traded him off to Norton, and Norton kept him for mares while he lived. The description of the Morgan breed given by Mr. G. Barnard (Cultivator, vol. ix., p. 33), answers well to the stock of ‘True Briton.’ I have always under- stood that Morgan kept the colt fora stallion at Randolph, and was very celebrated for his stock.” The above statements of Justin and John Morgan comprise, as we believe, the true history, so far as it is known, of the origin of the far-famed Morgan horses. From the position of the Messrs. Morgan, they have had the best possible facilities for obtaining correct information on this subject, and we are not aware of anything which should hinder their statement from receiv- ing full credence. “‘ Of the old Morgan’s progeny, three became famous as stallions, viz., the Sherman Morgan, the Woodbury or Burbank, and the Chelsea. Of these the Sherman Morgan was greatly the most distinguished. I have ascer- tained toa certainty that he died in the winter of 1835. Black Hawk was sired by him.” 136. Black-Hawk Morgans.—Fifteen years ago, S. W. Jewett, of Vermont, wrote of these as follows: “‘T believe the Morgan blood to be the best that was ever infused into the ‘Northern horse.’ They are well known, and are esteemed for activity, hardiness, gentleness, and docility throughout the New England States ; well adapted for all work; good in every spot, except for racers on the turf. They are lively and pinitedy lofty and elegant in their action, carrying them- selves gracefully in the harness. They ‘have size in proportion to hight; bone clean ; sinewy legs; compactness; short, strong backs ; powerful lungs; strength and endurance. A mixture of the Morgan blood, though small, may be easily known from any other stock in the country. There is a re- markable similarity prevailing in all of this race. They are known by their short, lean heads, wide across the face at the eyes; eyes lively and prom- inent; open and wide in the under jaws, large windpipe, deep brisket, heavy and round in the body, broad in the back, short limbs in proportion to size, broad quarters; a lively, quick action; indomitable spirit; move true and easy in a good round trot; fast on the walk. Color: dark bay, chestnut, brown or black, with dark flowing wavy mane and tail; head up, and move without a whip; about fifteen hands high ; action powerful and spirited. “They are highly celebrated for general usefulness, make the best of roadsters, and live to a great age. In fact, they are the perfect ‘Yankee harness horse.’ “The Morgans are very like the noble Arab, with similar eyes, upright ears, high withers, powerful quarters, hocks well placed under their weight, vigorous arms and flat legs, short from the knee to the pastern, close jointed, _ possessing immense power for their size, with great fire and courage. But a few of the Morgans, however, evince extraordinary speed. 102 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Caar. I. “Tt is said that the best stock of horses in the New England States are found among the progeny and descendants of the Sherman Morgan, which was owned by Mr. Bellows, of Vermont. “The figure given on another page is a portrait of Black Hawk, ‘a colt of the Sherman Morgan, which was got by the old Justin Morgan horse. The dam of Black Hawk was a three-quarter-blooded English mare, raised in the province of New Brunswick. She could trot a mile in less than three minutes, and weighed 1,025 lbs., and was in every respect a most perfect animal.’ “ Black Hawk was bred by Mr. Matthews, of Durham, N. H. He isa jet-black color; weighs, in good flesh, 1,040 lbs.; his hight is fifteen hands and one inch. -s Ft $ r ; E < . ¢ Be fi a Oey a ’ . A re eye Ae thanortinathn = r, « \ i ene ER pees: © . n Vy es feb bv bab oie AR waa | , fost { Wt ae hie 5 p =. « — ; 5s hte Letres! 6 Bion Spat » EASE) DE QesRe Ee et) aby MF LON BIS yee : ihe 3i fie é. 2a orion , me 9] a ph ae Ps wad eerie Ses) fn pres fe aha Kheige nf hia Fe 3 Fay / jane ER I I Ny in gee He 0 a st tien «cnt te, 0 htt ni wenn ip oes ee bry pad nso T hives (-¢ he, a jets poe Leesan ores we Be Pee: 4 reas ait Recs) aah? ey ace “y cre seme it st bist At as One, ae a, 7 ee HO Ming enter fat = : te 6 tors f are eae i Szo. 8.] HORSES—WHEN UNSOUND. 107 PPP Contraction of the Hoof is a considerable deviation from the natural form of the foot, but does not necessarily constitute unsoundness. It requires, however, a most careful examination by the purchaser to ascertain that there is no fever or ossification of the cartilage ; that the frog is not diseased ; that the animal is not tender-footed or lame. Unless some of these symptoms are indicated, he must not be pronounced unsound. A special warranty should be required where the feet are contracted. Corns manifestly constitute unsoundness. Although few men lay much stress on this malady, still much inconvenience, and many times serious difficulties, must be encountered by them, as they are seldom thoroughly cured. Many horses are almost constantly lame with corns, through a scrof- ulous habit of the system. A warranty against such animals would be safe. Trembling Knees.—This can not be considered unsoundness, yet it is a precursory symptom of knee-sprung. Trembling of the knees, after a smart exercise, indicates weakness, and should be regarded as objectionable. A Cough constitutes unsoundness, however slight or of short standing. If a horse is noticed to cough before the purchase, or immediately after- ward, he is diseased; but if warranted sound, and the cough is not discov- ered till one or two days afterward, he is not returnable; for a few hours are sufficient to contract a cough, by taking cold while standing in a damp, musty stable, or by eating different feed, musty hay, ete. Roaring, Wheezing, or Whistling is unsoundness, being the result of alter- ation of structure or disease in the air-passages. Although there have been decisions to the contrary, courts and jurors are often at a loss for the want of intelligent witnesses ; and if a veterinary surgeon is called to the stand, not having seen the animal, he is liable to be mistaken from misrepresenta- tion. Broken Wind is still more decidedly unsoundness. Crib Biting.—A difference of opinion exists as to this being unsoundness, and courts have given opposite decisions in respect to it. There are cribbers that can scarcely be said to be unsound, as they are not perceptibly injured, and it does not interfere with their condition or endurance. Others inhale and swallow a great amount of wind; they bloat and are subject to colic, which interferes with their health and strength; this would constitute un- soundness. A warranty should always be taken against injury from crib- _bing; then if he breaks his teeth or injures himself, recompense may be had. Curb constitutes unsoundness as long as it lasts, and perhaps while the swelling remains, although no inflammation exists; for a horse that has once thrown out a curb, is liable to do so again on the slightest exertion. A horse, however, should not be returned if he spring a curb five minutes after purchase, for it is done in a moment, and does not indicate any previous unsoundness. 149. Soiling Horses.—We commend the following statement of J. C. Ad- ams, of Seymour, N. Y., to the attention of all owners of small farms, Pee the little one where we practice the same course : “T have in close proximity to my barn a patch of ground, 71 rods - 16 108 DOMESTIO ANIMALS. [Cuar. I. ——e (three quarters of an acre), seeded to clover, from which I kept one span of horses in thriving condition from the first day of June last to the last day of August, besides cutting 900 lbs. of good hay, which I put into the barn, and harvested of the second mowing seed sufficient to stock an acre or two of ground. This may, and undoubtedly will, seem to many like a big barn well stretched. In fact, I should doubt the reality of such a story myself, had not my eyes seen and my hands felt the truth of such a statement. By the time I had mowed two thirds of this little patch, the remainder was fit to be made into hay, which I accordingly did up after the most approved fashion. And that part mowed first was sufficiently large to mow again. I fed them three times a day all they could eat. They smelt not, touched not, tasted not one particle of grain during the three months; used them more or less every day, and at the end there was a perceptible gain in flesh. Never, since I could say my team, have I summered a team so cheaply. The great- est cost is cutting and putting it before the horses. I offered them water, but they did not drink to exceed a pailful a week. “JT am of the opinion that if they had been turned loose upon this piece of ground, ten days would have been sufficient time to eat up and trample into the earth everything green upon it. As five aeres of good pasture is little enough to summer a span of horses when allowed to run, there is almost an incalculable saving in soiling them.” 150. Breeding for Longevity We have had a few instances of horses liv- ing to the age of thirty years, but they are so rare, that such an old horse is looked upon as a curiosity. Lewis B. Brown, of Westchester County, N. Y., has a team of four, the aggregate age of which is 108 years, the oldest being over 30 years, and all in such vigor of constitution that but few teams can hold their own with this upon the road. The exhibition of this old team at the Springfield show, in 1860, attracted universal attention. This shows that such old horses are rare, and it proves that old horses are not worthless. It also induces the question, whether we can not breed with a special reference to longevity. If selections were made upon both sides, of stock which had ancestors noted for longevity, and this course continued through several generations, with mares and stallions which have arrived at mature age, still retaining a vigor like that exhibited in Mr. Brown’s team, who can say that we should not obtain a breed noted for longevity, and that horses forty or fifty years old would then be no rarity? This is a subject worth thinking about. 151. Treatment of Colts—When first foaled, if parturition is at maturity, the colt should have eight front teeth, four in each jaw; but it sometimes happens that these are not all cut through, and the gums are inflamed and so tender that the colt can not suck well. This should always be looked to, and the gums cut with a sharp knife, and, if need be, the colt fed until it can suck freely. Colts as well as calves are sometimes affected by lice ; these may be got rid of in various ways. Take white-oak bark, boil it in water, making a strong Sec. 8.] HORSES AND THEIR DISEASES. 109 decoction ; wash the animals on the back and on the sides. In twenty-four hours the lice will be completely tanned. Tanner’s oil is also first-rate. So is snuff or a decoction of tobacco; and we have heard of Peruvian guano being used and answering the same purpose as snuff. 152. Remedies for Some of the most Common Diseases of Horses.—There are a great many little simple complaints that can be cured without sending for a veterinary surgeon. We can afford room for only a few, because every farmer should take an agricultural paper, and such papers are stored with valuable remedies such as the following : 153. To Cure Seratches.—When the horse comes in at night, his legs should be washed clean and rubbed as dry as may be; then apply good -| vinegar, rubbing it well to the skin. Two applications a day are sufficient. Lhave always found it a sure preventive and a certain cure. If the legs have become cracked and sore, apply the vinegar freely and add a piece of copperas the size of a common hickory nut to a quart of vinegar. Another excellent remedy, which we have used a great many times, is beef brine. If the dirt is carefully washed off with warm soap-suds, and then the legs well bathed with the brine, it will require but two or three applica- tions to eure a very bad case of scratches. The Maine Farmer gives another remedy. It says: “ Take fresh slaked lime, and dust the affected parts well with it twice a day. It will not cause the horse any uneasiness, and will be sure to effect a cure in a few days. 154. For Heaves in Horses.—Take smart-weed, steep it in boiling water till the strength is all out ; give one quart every day for eight or ten days. Or mix= it with bran or shorts. Give him green or cut-up feed, wet up with water, during the operation, and it will cure. 155. Chafing Under the Collar.—A gentleman who has tried the plan sue- cessfully for five years, communicates the annexed method of preventing horses from chafing under the collar. He says he gets a piece of leather, and has what he terms a false collar made, which is simply cutting the leather in such a shape as to lie singly between the shoulders of the horse and the collar. This fends off all the friction, as the collar slips and moves on the leather, and not on the shoulders of the horse. Chafing is caused by fric- tion, hence, you see, the thing is entirely feasible. Some persons put pads or sheep-skins under the collar; these, they say, do as much hurt as good, for they augment the heat. “ ~ \ ¢ . Sie Ce ee ee ; 3 -, ¢ a a ees fee Ag si-* = Din tele a) : rs - me ; 4 2 Som ox cae Lgl ih meme PLATE X. (Page 123.) Tris picture speaks for itself, and does credit to the artist. It is one that will interest more persons than any other. The descrip- tions of these fowls will be found in Section IX., J 180, 181, 182, together with several other kinds. Those here illustrated comprise most of the best improved varieties, and quite as many as any farmer will care to possess. By comparing the descriptions with the pic- tures, it will enable any one to make a suitable selection. The de- scription of poultry fails to give satisfaction without pictorial aid. It is here complete. We may well feel proud of this picture. . . MeAp hi ‘ Or AS rs, Aart se Saree Pe = A LOE IL oft aoe aaa SYUTQ,) UNO] fF FP SkE4) WOITO{, 10 "Sapo Ee SpPAOT Sanqurey “99 aia “spPAog oures) Keay “ce “ST MO SyTsog - PLES AME] Th Kkawsy W UPC oe ea Suo. 9.] POULTRY. 123 PRA SECTION IX.—POULTRY. ya aT axims for Poultry Keepers.x—Those who expect to = be successful in raising or managing poultry, or hope to make it a paying part of farm business, -- should observe a few simple rules which will ~ save them from much disappointment and trouble. 1. It is not advisable to keep large numbers of hens gy together, or go into the poultry business on a large scale. It is found impracticable and unprofitable ; besides, they ean not be kept in so healthy a condition as where but few are together. 2. It is impossible to keep hens to advantage without having a properly arranged house for their aceommoda- tion.. This is as necessary as that a farmer should have a stable for his cattle or a dwelling for his family. 3. In connection with the house, a poultry-yard should be provided, which should contain a grass-plot, gravel, some quantities of slacked lime, and dry ashes. 4. The inside of the poultry-house should be whitewashed twice a year, or oftener, which will serve to keep it free from vermin, and the hens will be kept in better condition. 5. Pure water, in sufficient quantities, must be provided several times a day, in winter and in summer. 6. Feed should be given at regular periods. To fatten fowls, they must not be allowed to run at large. These rules are subject to variation under certain circumstances. A new settler in the woods would not consider them applicable. It would be more profitable tolet his poultry run at large. So it is upon all farms at some seasons, but there are but few farmers who would not sometimes find it prof- itable to shut up all his poultry, the gallinaceous portion of it particularly. For this purpose a poultry-yard will be found always a great convenience, if not a great profit. It should be so constructed that its first cost will not be money unprofitably spent. Many persons have found it profitable to have a tolerably large inclosure for poultry, and plant that with plum-trees. It is asserted that curculio insects never disturb plums upon such trees. It is our opinion that it would be found very profitable to have a portable poultry house and yard, which could be conveniently moved from place to place, keeping it upon one spot one year, and upon another the next. By this means some bad brier-patches would be subdued, and some poor spots cheaply enriched. If poultry are kept in a yard, the ground should be often dug up. If the yard is large enough, it may be plowed. It isa good way to have a large 124 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. [Onap. I. GAARA PAPA LALLA ALARA yard in two parts, and plow and sow grain in one, and when it gets large enough for the hens to eat, turn them in and plow and sow the other. Hens that run at large are often very troublesome, sometimes doing “more mischief than their necks are worth.” The following device is for such mischievous pests. ; 173. Shoeing Hens.—‘‘ We observe a recent notice, in some paper, of the practice of making woolen shoes (or rather boots), to prevent hens from scratching. A flock of fifty fowls, like our own, would require considerable labor in the manufacture of a hundred woolen boots, which might be worn through in a short time and need renewing. It is much better, we think, to procure a breed that will not scratch. There is another point of import- ance—that is, to keep the animals well fed during the season when scratch- ing is most feared.” : 5 One man says: “I keep from thirty to fifty of the white Shanghae—a very quiet, well-behaved, and profitable fowl—and adopt the most econom- ical mode, namely, regular feeding with grain; and although there is no barrier between their ordinary range and the kitchen garden, they do not scratch yearly enough to do twenty-five cents’ damage.” 174. Number of Hens to Keep, and Time to Sell.—A correspondent of the Ilinois Prairie Farmer says: “We have kept as many as 150 fowls, and fed them three pecks of shelled corn daily. But our experience has been, that we could get more than half as many eggs from twenty-five fowls as we could from one hundred. We have carried chicks the size of quails to market and found them ready sale at twenty-five cents each. We might have kept them four months longer, and found them dull sale at a dime apiece.” 175. Feeding Hens Meat——We have been advised to feed plenty of meat to our hens, if we wanted them to lay steadily. Now there is a time to feed meat and a time not to feed it. When the temperature is low and the ground is frozen, feed meat, but when the weather is warm, or even mod- erate, if the chickens can scratch the ground and find worms and insects, they need no meat. The insects and worms furnish meat sufficient, and too much in many cases, causing them to lay eggs without any shell. They should then have plenty of lime or old mortar, gravel, ete. Young chickens generally do best in coops, raised some inches from the ground, until they are six or eight weeks old; if they droop after this, the next hour of warm sunshine will bring them up again. A pigeon nesting-place is a still greater curiosity than a pigeon-roost. It covers hundreds of acres of dense forest, and every tree is covered with nests almost as closely as the birds can build them, by laying a few loose twigs together among the branches. It is an easy matter to load a wagon with squabs. Often they fall out of the frail nests, and fall a prey to wild animals and wood hogs. Audubon gives a very truthful picture of the immense numbers of wild pigeons in the great West. To us it is the more interest- ing, begause we know it to be true. Those who have read Audubon, or others who have written accounts of pigeon-roosts, and can believe the truth, will be able to realize the extent of the trade we have spoken of. Having now, we hope, said enough about birds to create an interest in their behalf, and induce a study of their character, and their value to the farmer, we shall leave the subject for another, which, though about small things, is of great importance to all our readers. Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 203 SECTION XII—ENTOMOLOGICAL. Ni > oe NN hat are Insects ?—The term is applied to all, or nearly > all, the family of bugs, worms, flies, wasps, moths, %) millers, and small creeping things that infest a farm, and all are generally ranked as pests, though erro- neously, as we will show by-and-by, some of them being highly beneficial. The word insect comes from two Latin words, signifying cut into, or notched; and the body of a perfect insect, as a wasp, is cut into and divided into three distinct segments—the head, thorax, and abdo- men, with two or three pairs of legs, and one or two pairs of wings, and it breathes through holes in the sides of the body. Insects commence life in eggs, which hatch into worms or larvee, such as maggots or caterpillars, and these, after doing immense mis- chief, as in that state they are voracious gormandizers, undergo transforma- tion to the pupa or chrysalis state, and from that to the bug or butterfly form, during which the eggs are laid in such vast numbers, that the species are propagated so rapidly that the art of man seems insufficient to stay their ravages, if of a ravaging breed, and hence he must look to natural aids. It is for this that we have advocated protection to birds, because they are great insect destroyers. Pestiferous insects also have several other natural ene- mies, which must be studied and protected by farmers. Besides what are considered and treated of in natural history as perfect insects, there are a great many sorts that come under the general name.of insect that do not answer the above definition, such as some of the aphis, or plant-lice family, the striped and other bugs, and various worms. Some of the latter—for instance, the earth-worm, or angler’s worm—are thought to be beneficial to soil. We think, rather, it could be made more beneficial in its death than in its life. Anything, such as salt, lime, potash, ammonia, that would kill all the earth-worms, would add all the animal matter of their body to the soil’s fertility. We can not go into a general examination of entomology, though we do earnestly advise a study of the science by all farmers, who are, above all other classes of the community, most in want of knowledge of insects, and how to distinguish between those that are pests and those that are harmless, or, perhaps, actual destroyers of those that are devastating our orchards, gar- dens, and grain-fields. Of a few of these we shall give correct pictures, with brief hints about their character, depredations, and such preventives as have been tried and proved valuable or useless. The great difficulty with the management of the greatest pests is their 204 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. . [CHar. IT. diminutive size. The great destroyers of wheat, the midge, Hessian-fly, and joint-worm, are so minute that a microscope is needed for their examination. It is the same with the aphis tribe, and what is called the “scale insect,” which cover the limbs of fruit-trees like a second bark, until millions of mouths, although very diminutive, suck away the life of the tree. Neither man nor bird notices these minute destroyers until it is too late to stop their ravages. Now let us look at what some of these insect pests do to the farmer’s crops. As cotton is considered the great American staple, and as America is, above all competition, the land of insects, we will first enumerate the cot- ton destroyers found upon that plant by that indefatigable student of ento- mology, Townend Glover, who was employed by the Patent Office to collect information upon the subject. 242. Insects Infesting the Cotton-Plant.—A species of cantharides, similar to the striped potato fly, feeds upon the nectar or pollen, and sometimes eats the petals of the flowers. These are injurious, and several others found in the flowers did not appear to be so. A leaf beetle eats holes in the petals, and, some’say, injures the bolls. A large, green, thorny, poisonous caterpillar damages the foliage in August and September. It also attacks Indian corn. If handled incautiously, its spines inflict painful wounds. This large worm is in strong contrast with the diminutive cotton-louse, which destroys the young plant in wet seasons. The boll-worm, however, is the great destroyer. Their presence in a cot- ton-field is indicated by the great number of young bolls fallen to the ground, after the inside has been eaten out. Before it falls, the worm crawls out and attacks others, which in turn fall; and if the worms are numerous, all the bolls may be destroyed, just as all the plums of a tree are destroyed by eurculio. A small green caterpillar feeds upon and rolls itself in the leaves of the cotton plant; and a solitary hairy caterpillar, of a yellowish color, eats the leaves; and a green, smooth-skinned one feeds upon the blossoms ; and also several very slender, brownish span-worms. A small beetle, of a greenish, metallic color, barred with dirty cream-color, often seen in the holes made by boll-worms, is not thought a destroyer. It only follows in the path of insects that do destroy. 4 Various other small insects are found on the plant, but it is not certain that they are destructive, while several are well ascertained to be highly beneficial to the cotton-planter. Among these we enumerate the lady-bird (Coccinella), which, both in the larva and perfect state, devours myriads of cotton-lice. The planter and overseer should learn to distinguish these from noxious insects, and instruct their hands to protect them. The larva of the bee-winged fly also destroys lice, and ichneumon flies de- posit eggs in their bodies. Tiger beetles (Cicindella) are also destroyers of the noxious insects. Ants Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 205 climb the cotton-stalks to feed upon aphis, and not upon the plant. Spiders, too, catch moths in their nets, and also seize and devour other insects. The great aim should be to learn which of all the insects found in the cotton-field are friends, and which foes. The boll-worm, and the one which is some seasons so destructive to Indian corn in the milk, aredeclared by some, upon pretty good authority, to be identical. The chrysalis is of a bright chestnut brown; the moths, a tawny yellow color. The upper wings yellowish, shaded with green or red, in some, with a dark band, and crescent-shaped mark near the center of the wing. The under wings are lighter colored, bordered with black. To prevent depredations from the boll-worm, it is recommended to light fires arownd the field at night, to attract the moths when they begin to make their appearance. Doubtless many will be attracted to the light and de- stroyed. They have also been destroyed by placing plates upon stakes set among the cotton, in which-about half a gill of vinegar and molasses is placed, mixed, four of vinegar to one of molasses. This attracts the moth, which perishes in the mixture. This kind of moth-trap requires a good deal of labor, for the plates must be visited every evening and replenished, while the moths last. The same plan will be found a good one to catch other moths than those which infest cotton. 243. Insects Destructive to Indian Corn and Wheat.—The insect which eats into the grains of Indian corn is not only a destructive one, but when it in- fests the ears that are wanted for cooking in their green state, it is trouble- some and disgustingly offensive. It only feeds while the corn is in the “roasting ear” condition. At first it is so small as to be almost impercept- ible, and doubtless many a one gets between the teeth of the eater of early green corn, even in this city, for here we have seen a great many marks of their ravages. It is, however, much worse at the South. Sheltered under the husk, it eats voraciously, and increases in size rapidly, until about an inch long. Some are brown, some green, some striped. In fact, there is no uniformity in color. The body is sparingly clothed with short hairs, rising from black spots or warts. The worm leaves the ear and goes into the ground to undergo its transformation. If farmers, particularly Northern ones, would watch the first appearance of these insects, and try to destroy the moths, they might save themselves much loss in the future, for all insects of this*kind are wonderfully prolific. There is an ichneumon fly which preys upon this insect, and the habits of that fly should be Studied, and, if possible, the family increased. Birds, too, are fond of this species of worms; probably because the food it fattens upon makes sweet morsels for their palates. The destruction of the grains of corn eaten by this worm is only a part of the damage that ensues. The grains eaten are upon the small end of the ear, and here grows a fungus, which often destroys the ear. It also oftentimes affords a secure harbor for other insects, which destroy what the worms have left. The corn-worm does more damage in dry seasons than wet ones, owing 206 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuap. II. ee to the fact that the silk grows irregularly, or continues longer green, and the — worms often eat off the ‘silk before the kernel is fructified. Another insect infesting Indian corn at the South is called Sylvanus quadricollis—a diminutive beetle, which hides between the grains, and loosens them from the cob, devouring the germ first, and then the white starchy part of the kernel. These insects sometimes exist in vast numbers, and are then very destructive. Sometimes they destroy the germ in such a way that its absence is imperceptible, and that causes disappointment when it is planted as seed. Kiln-drying is recommended when the corn is to be used for food, but not for seed. Quick-lime is recommended, strewed among the ears of corn in the crib. If put up with husks on, salt has proved beneficial. There is another insect that troubles corn in the Southern States—the corn-borer. This is called a bill-bug, or corn-borer. It bores into the stalk just at the surface of the earth, and deposits its eggs. The grub eats the sub- stance of the stalk, and the transformation takes place in the cavity eaten out, where the pupa remains till spring, and then comes forth a beetle, in its turn to deposit eggs in the young corn These insects have been very destr uetive in Alabama and several other Southern States, and, like many other pests, may gradually become acclimated farther and farther north, till all the corn-growing region is infested. Farmers should be on the look-out for these “ borers,” and also bear in mind that the best remedy yet found is to pull up all corn-stalks, after harvest, and pile and burn them. These insects are usually most troublesome in swamp lands. The larva of the angoumas moth is very destructive to corn, as well as wheat and other cereals, when stored; and in the South, in the open field. The grub is one fourth inch long in corn, and less in wheat. It spins a cocoon in the cavity eaten out when it goes into the pupa state. From a small round hole previously made, it emerges a moth, with long, narrow wings, of a yellowish gray color, of satin-like luster, fringed with long hairs. The insects grown in maize are larger, though identical with the wheat in- sects. This insect is not confined to warm latitudes, but is more troublesome there than farther north. We have seen the moths swarming in myriads about corn-houses and around wheat-stacks. The female lays from sixty to ninety eggs, which hatch into minute white worms in four to six days, each one of which makes a lodgment in a grain of corn, where it eats, and ma- tures in three weeks; so that two sets mature in one season, the pupa of the second growth remaining in the grain till spring. It is said that this insect was first observed in North Carolina, about forty years ago. They will fly into a candle sometimes, in a granary, in such numbers as to extinguish the light, and doubtless could be destroyed by fire to a great extent. Smear a cask with one head, on the’ inside, with tar or molasses, and place a light in it, and you will catch quantities of the moths. Where they abound, it is advisable to store corn unhusked; and salt is also useful, sprinkled in as the corn is put in the crib, just as hay is salted. Sro. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 207 We know places where this insect is so troublesome to farmers, that it is only by great care that they can keep corn or wheat over from one erop to an- other. In west Tennessee and northwest Mississippi they are excessively annoying. Several remedies have been tried, with success in some eases and failure in others, under apparently the same circumstances. We will name some of them. After the grain is thoroughly cleaned, spread it upon white sheets, or boards, or a tin roof, or, if convenient, a flat rock is better than either, and some use a clay floor, and let it lie in the sun until it gets hot, and then put it up in tight casks. Kiln-drying at 176° kills the insect and the germi- nating power of the corn at the same time. If grain is placed in tight casks, and the’ gas arising from burning charcoal conveyed to it by a tube, which may be iron next the fire, and flexible tube next the cask, for convenience, so as to fumigate the grain, the insect is destroyed without injury to the germ. An infusion of the fumes of chloroform will kill these or any other insects in a close vessel. Even a few drops put in a bottle with insects, corked up, deprives them of life directly. It will not, however, destroy eggs, as the heating of the corn does. Heating it, by piling it up damp, has been prac- ticed; but care must be taken, if this is practiced, that it does not overheat and get musty. If it does, it should be washed before grinding. fest has been effectively tried, entirely preventing the ravages of the insect, by storing the grain, reatys prepared for the mill; in tight casks or bins, and covering by sifting over the top an inch or two deep of finely- powdered lime. Whenever the grain is wanted for the mill, ran it through the winnowing machine, and blow out the lime. A trifle will adhere to the furze of the kernels, but it does no harm—it is rather beneficial to the flour or meal. 244. The Rice Weevil.—This is another pestiferous insect, which not only destroys rice, but attacks other grain upon the upland portion of a rice plantation. This weevil (Calandra orysw) resembles the one whose ravages we have noticed in 243, which is the Calandra granaria. All true weevils are beetles, with long snouts, and only depredate upon dry grain. Many of us consumers of rice have seen the rice weevil, which has hatched out of eggs deposited by the female parent, one in each grain, where it hatches, and the young larva eats out all the substance, making food of its habitation. By-and-by the weevil comes out, and the sexes meet, and the female deposits its eggs in sound grains, ae so on until all are destroyed. When very plenty in rice, it makes anything but a savory dish. It is the same with wheat. We have eaten bread that tasted as though we had about an even mixture of bread and meat. “ Weevilly flour,” we have heard said, was not unwholesome. Perhaps not; to us it is most decidedly anpalatable, and no art of cooking wheat or rice will hide the weevil flavor. It looks and tastes of weevil, even in the buttermilk and saleratus biscuit of the most liberal user of that salt. 208 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuar. IT. The rice weevil has often been found in rice imported from China, and it may have been introduced into this country from thence. It differs, both in appearance and habits, a little from the grain weevil. It is said to attack rice in the field as well as after it is stored. It also attacks Indian corn in the field, if left out till late in the fall, or until it becomes quite dry, in those States at the South where this insect most abounds. The same remedies that will answer for one variety of weevil will answer for all. We give a few more remedies. 245. To Destroy Weevil.—Grain subject to depredations from the weevil, which develops and matures in the heart of the seeds, and which imparts considerable heat to the bulk of the pile, equal to or ve blood-heat, is easily detected on thrusting the hand into the body of the grain, by means of the great heat of the mass. In France, large quantities of grain are stored up against time of scarcity; and in order to protect it from the depredations of the insects that prey upon it, commissioners have been appointed to examine into the means of destroy- ing them, who have reported that a small quantity of chloroform or sulphuret of carbon put into the interior of the grain pit (which is usually in the ground), and then hermetically sealed up, will destroy all the pests. About seventy-five grains of sulphuret of carbon are suflicient for about four bushels. Grain put up in rail pens, as is the custom in the West, may be treated with equal success with this agent, by covering the heap with a tarpaulin or close woven cloth. A successful farmer in Broome Co., N. Y., recommends eutting wheat while in the milk, and the straw green, and salting it in the mow or stack. He says: “ About fourteen years ago the weevil appeared upon this farm, and quite seriously affected the wheat crop. We commenced also about that time cutting our wheat very green, as soon as it was’ out of the milk, no matter how green the straw or heads; and in order to preserve it the better in the mow or stack, always applied sa/¢ liberally. For many years I have salted my grain mows and stacks, but put none upon my hay. I am now cutting my wheat as green as usual. “From my own experience, I am satisfied that if the wheat is thus treated, and not thrashed until after it has been some time piled up, the insect will be destroyed in some of its transformations. At any rate, whoever tries the experiment will be well surprised in the value of his wheat and straw. Where straw is fed to stock—and all mine goes that way—it is sought for with keener relish, and makes better manure, while the wheat is much heavier and plumper than when not so treated. “JT ought to say, perhaps, that the weevil has not troubled the farm since that year, although wheat has been grown every year. Almost any year a few may be found, but none to do any damage. My soil is a slaty, gravelly loam, and my seeding is usually all done from the Ist to the 10th of Septem- ber, and the best variety of wheat thus far has been the dlwe-stem, a beauti- ful variety of white wheat.” r Sec. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 209 Another Broome County farmer, who thought the yellow-birds destroyed his wheat, wished a neighbor “ would get a gun and kill some yellow-birds, which farmers generally suppose destroy the wheat. Mr. R. declined, as he does not like to kill birds of any kind. Out of curiosity, however, he killed one of the birds and opened the crop, when he found that the bird, instead of eating the wheat, ate the weevil—the great destroyer of the wheat. He found as many as two hundred weevil in the bird’s crop, and but fowr grains of wheat, and these had the weevil in them. This is a very important dis- covery, and should be generally known. The bird resembles the canary, and sings beautifully.” 246. Wheat Insect vs. Weevil.—There is a confusion of tongues in relation to the weevil that we have described (244, 245), and the one that attacks the wheat in the milk. The insect that has injured the wheat crop so extensively in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, is not the one generally known as the weevil. This insect, called “red weevil,” “ wheat-midge,” “the insect,” ete., differs very much from the Calandra granaria, as that only injures the ripened kernel of wheat or corn after it is stacked or housed, or even after it is in the bin of the granary or grist-mill. The weevil exhibits in swarms around the barn, the female laying her eggs on the grain, and the grubs as soon as hatched work into the kernel, consuming all but the bran, without breaking that, so as to show that all is rottenness within. The ravages of this insect, as we have already stated, are so destructive at the South, that it is difficult to keep wheat and corn. The latter is generally put up with the shucks on, which is damp or else heavily salted. Wheat is kept in close casks or tight bins by covering with flour of lime an inch deep over the surface. “The insect that has destroyed so much grain in past seasons is a yellow fly (with blue wings), about one tenth of an inch in length; it deposits its eggs, while the wheat is in blossom, within the chaffy scales of the flower, during the evening twilight and dark stormy days, in numbers from two to forty, which hatch in ten days and completely destroy the germ of the berry. The maggot is reddish yellow, about one sixteenth of an inch long, or perhaps an eighth when full-grown.” “It is supposed that it leaves the wheat and winters in the ground. That is . the time to kill them. Salt is undoubtedly the remedy. The fly is hardly ever seen; they never fly in the sunshine. The weevil fill the air like mus- ketoes in aswamp. This insect hides on the stems and leaves, shaded from the heat of the sun. This is a northern insect; the weevil is a southern one.” “This insect was first seen in America about the year 1828, in the northern part of Vermont and borders of Lower Canada. It first made its appearance in northern Ohio in the year 1843, and its ravages have rapidly increased from year to year.” Dr. Harris recommends brimstone fumigation of the plants. That would be impossible, almost, on whole counties. Flour of lime sown on wet wheat has appeared to prevent the work of destruction. Deep plowing the stubble, 14 A APLPLLLL A LELEILELLLLLLLL OLLIE OLE LE LOE Bit 210 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cuapr. II. and not sowing any grain upon it next year, might eradicate the insect, if all who are affected would unite in that course, as all must in any other that should be adopted. The remedy recommended by our correspondent in Broome Co., of salting the cut wheat in the mow or stack, would not answer, for the maggots already burrowed in the ground for winter, but the salt must be applied to the land in liberal quantities—say five to ten bushels per acre. We cut up the eut- worms effectually upon our corn ground this season with a handful of salt to a hill. The corn fired a little at, first, but it is growing beautifully now. Every bug or worm can be killed in the soil, with salt, and we have no doubt that will be found the most sure way of ridding the country of this terrible pest of wheat-growers. The Cecidomyia tritici of Kirby is what we take to be the insect called the “red weevil.” A “close observer” of the habits of the midge, says of one who had written of the insect’s wintering in the ground: “The writer is mistaken in some of his facts as to the habits of the insect, as he can very easily satisfy himself by getting a few heads of wheat in the proper season that are affected and putting them in a small glass jar. He will see that the worm does not go into the earth, but comes outside of the head after destroying the grain of wheat it hatched in, and weaves itself up into a snug little cocoon on the under side of the outside chaff. If he exam- ine that cocoon after a time, he will find the worm has changed into a new shape, and will ultimately come out a winged insect. I have never yet been able to find the worm seeking shelter in the earth. It is this knowl- edge of the habit of the insect that induces the belief that liberal salting of the grain in mow or stack is fatal to it.” Townend Glover, who is pretty good authority, says of this pest: “The parent fly deposits her eggs in the beginning of July, and in the opening flowers of the grain, or when the wheat is still in the milky state. The eggs hatch in about eight days, when the little yellow maggots, or worms, may be found within the chaffy scales of the grain. The seed scales of grass also sometimes serve as a shelter for these depredators. The worms, which are of a bright yellow or orange color, do not exceed an eighth of an inch in length, and are often much smaller. I have seen as many as twelve within the chaff of one single grain, sent to the Patent Office from Ohio. These maggots prey upon the wheat when only in a milky state. When they begin their depredations, soon after the blossoming of the plant, they do the greatest injury, as the grains never fill out. Toward the last of July or beginning of August the full-grown maggots cease eating, and become sluggish and torpid, preparatory to shedding their skins, which takes place in the following manner: The body of the maggot gradually shrinks in length within its skin, and becomes more flattened and less pointed, as readily may be seen through its delicate transparency. This torpid state lasts only a few days, after which the insect casts its skin, leaving the latter entire, except a | little rent at one end of it. These empty cases, or skins, may be found sf ' Sec. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 211 great abundance in the wheat-ears, after the molting process is completed. Mr. J. W. Dawson, of Pictou, Nova Scotia, says that sometimes the maggot descends from the plants and molts on the surface of the ground. After shedding the skin, it recovers its activity, and writhes about at first, but takes no food. It is shorter, somewhat flattened, and more obtuse than before, and is of a deeper yellow color, with an oblong greenish spot in the middle of the body. Within two or three days after molting, the maggots either descend of their own accord or are shaken out of the ears by the wind, and fall to the ground. They do not let themselves down by threads, as has been supposed by some, for they are not able to spin. Nearly all of them disappear before the middle of August, and they are rarely found in the grain at the time of harvest. Hon. William D. Lindsley, of Sandusky City, Ohio, however, sent me several specimens of wheat with this insect in it as late as the beginning of August. From observations and remarks made by intelligent farmers, it appears that the descent of these insects is facilitated by falling rain and heavy dews. Having reached the ground, the maggots soon burrow under the surface, sometimes to the depth of an inch, those which have not molted casting their skins before entering the earth. Here they remain without further change through the following winter. It is not usually before June that they are transformed to pup, this change being effected without another molting of the skin. This pupa state lasts but a short time, a week or two at most, and in many cases only a few days. Under the most favorable circumstances, the pupa works its way to the surface, before liberating the included fly, and when the insect has taken wing, the empty pupa shell, or skin, will be seen protruding from the ground. In other cases, the fly issues from its pupa skin in the earth, and comes to ' the surface with flabby wings, which soon expand and dry on exposure to the air. This last change occurs mostly in the months of June and July, when great numbers of the flies have been seen apparently coming from the ground in fields where grain was raised the year before. “The wheat-midge, or fly, ‘is a small orange-colored gnat, with long, slender, pale-yellow legs, and two transparent wings reflecting the tints of the rainbow, and fringed with delicate hairs. Its eyes are black and prom- inent ; its face and feelers, yellow; its antenne, long and blackish. Those of the male are twice as long as the body, and consist of only twelve joints, which, except at the base, an oblong-oval, somewhat narrowed in the middle, are surrounded by two whorls of hairs. These insects vary much in size. The largest females do not exceed one tenth of an inch in length, and many are found toward the end of the season less than half this length. The males are usually smaller than the females, and somewhat paler in color.’ Mr. Lindsley sent several of these insects to the Patent Office in August, 1855, and stated that they have been extremely destructive in several parts of his district last year (1854), and that in some places the cattle were turned into the field in order-to eat the straw and what little was left of the grain, the main crop not being worth harvesting. These flies are likewise said to be | | 212 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Crap. IT. much more numerous and destructive on the edges of fields than in the center, and in some cases when the edges were completely worthless, the center bore comparatively a good crop. “ Fumigation with sulphur, and burning weeds on the windward side of the field, when the grain is in blossom, have been recommended. Air-slacked lime or wood-ashes, strewn over the grain when in blossom, in the proportion of one bushel of lime or ashes per acre, to be scattered over the field when the plants are wet with dew or rain. Two or three applications have some- times been found necessary. Plowing up the ground, also, to destroy the maggots ; and the dust-chaff, or refuse straw, if found to contain any of these insects, should be immediately burned. In those parts of New England where these insects have done the greatest injury, according to Dr. Harris, the cultivation of fall-sown or winter grain has been given up, and this for some years to come will be the safest course.” 247. The Joint-Worm.—One of the greatest pests that Virginia farmers have had to contend with in wheat-growing is the joint-worm. It has been more destructive than the weevil, and in some cases as great a pest in that State as the midge has in New York. The following is Glover’s description of this insect : “The joint-worm (Znrytoma hardet), which has committed such ravages in the wheat-fields of Virginia, comes from a small, black, four-winged fly, about an eighth of an inch in length. The female lays several eggs in the outer sheath of the stalk above the joints. After they hatch, the worms commence feeding within the sheath,.and the constant irritation produced by them forms a woody gall, or rather succession of galls, in the cavity of each of which lies a small, footless maggot, about the seventh or eighth of an inch in length, having a body with thirteen segments, and of a pale, glossy, yellowish color. The number of worms in each cluster of galls varies from four to ten, or even more. The substance of the stalk attached becomes brittle, and either partially or entirely fills its central cavity, and frequently distorts it into various irregular shapes. I have often observed young root- lets putting out immediately below a joint so affected. The worms on the stalks of wheat, when examined in February, were yet in the larva, but early in March several had assumed the pupa state. They were about an eighth of an inch in length, of a pale yellow color, which as the pups were near coming out, became afterward nearly black. These pupx had the rudiments of wings, legs, and antenne as in the perfect fly, but were motion- less. Late in April and the beginning of May thie flies made their appear- ance through holes gnawed through the tough, woody covering of the gall- like excrescence in which they had passed the winter. This transformation, however, took place in a warm room. These flies are about an eighth of an inch in length, of a black color, the knees, joints, and feet being tinged with yellow. The males, according to Dr. Harris, vary from the females by being smaller, and in having no piercers. The joints of the antenne are likewise longer, and surrounded with whorls of little hairs. The hind body Sxo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 213 is shorter, less pointed at the extremity, and is connected with the thorax by a longer stem. He also says, that among fifteen females only one male was found. This corresponds with what I have observed, as out of sixty to eighty joint-worm flies, produced from diseased stalks of wheat, I only pro- cured one male answering to his description, and eight parasites, not quite a tenth of an inch in length, of a dark metallic shade, with yellow legs, and the antennze much thicker at the end. These flies were furnished with four transparent, dotted wings. It is somewhat incomprehensible how it happens that so many females appear at the same time without more males. “ Another four-winged fly also made its appearance from the same stalks, of about an eighth of an inch in length, with an abdomen and legs of a bright yellow. The head and thorax were of a dark color, and somewhat metallic luster. The wings were transparent, dotted, and fringed with short hairs, and the piercer reached to the middle of the under part of the abdo- men. Dr. Harris states that it has been found in Massachusetts, that plow- ing in the stubble has no effect upon the insects, which remain alive and uninjured under the slight covering of earth, and easily make their way to the surface, when they have completed their transformation. A free use of manure and thorough tillage, by promoting a rapid and vigorous growth of the plant, may render it legs liable to suffer from the attacks of the insect. It has been stated that this fly, like the wheat-midge, does more injury on the edges of fields than in the middle. * At the Joint-Worm Convention, held at Warrentown, Virginia, in 1854, the following was recommended: Prepare well the land intended for wheat, and sow it in the beginning of autumn with the earliest and most thrifty and hardy varieties, and do nothing to retard the ripening of the crop by grazing or otherwise. Use guano or some other fertilizer liberally, partic- ularly when seeding corn-land or stubble. Burn the stubble on every field of corn, rye, or oats, and all thickets or other harbors of vegetable growth contiguous to the crop. Sow the wheat in as large bodies and in as compact forms as practicable ; and if possible, neighbors should arrange among them- selves to sow adjoining fields the same year. Feed all the wheat, or other straw, which may be infected, in racks or pens, or on confined spots; and on or before the first of May carefully burn ali the straw which has not been fed. The refuse of wheat, such as sereenings, etc., should also be destroyed, as the pupa case is hard and not easily softened by dampness or wet.” We can add nothing to this preventive, except a recommendation to com- post the refuse of the cattle, instead of burning it. Make a heap that will undergo a heating fermentation, and the eggs will be destroyed, and the manure will be more valuable than the ashes. 248. The Hessian-Fly.—This is the common name of an insect that at one time threatened to put a stop to wheat-growing in all the Northern and Middle States. This insect (Cecidomyia destructor) obtained its name from the fact of its (supposed) importation with the Hessian soldiers of the Revo- lution, though this fact has been strongly disputed. It might have been in ~——- == —- eee 214 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cuap. IT. woe the country before, and it might also have been imported. It was first pub- licly noticed in 1776, at Flatbush (L. 1.), and on Staten Island, in the vicinity of Sir William Howe’s debarkation of those mercenaries of King George, and it was quite in keeping with the feelings of the people that they should readily credit the charge, that they had brought this among the other evils of war. At any rate, it multiplied and spread rapidly, and was for a time looked upon as a scourge almost as great as fire and sword. Of late years, however, it appears to be dying ont. It is subject to the attack of parasites, which have done more than all the arts and strength of man to rid his land of this pest. The greatest destroyer of the Hessian-fly is a shining black four-winged fly, about the tenth of an inch in length. Do not mistake this friend for your foe, and compass its destruction. Many sensible men have made this mistake, and very aptly, too; for, as they will tell you, they have actually seen the fellow come out of the dried skin of the Hessian. So they did; but not until the destroyer of wheat had been destroyed by an insect that fed upon his vitals. The parasite of the Cecidomyia destructor is the Ceraphron destructor of Say, and it is a question of vast consequence { wheat-growers what they can do to promote the growth of this insect, whith has already been of such vast benefit to them. We have no doubt that the parasite of the wheat-midge will do the same kind of service, and perhaps exterminate that pest. The Hessian-fly is a very small two-winged gnat. The female deposits ° her eggs soon after the wheat begins to grow, say in October, for lat. 39°, 40°, 41°, in the cavities between the little ridges of the blades. In from four to fifteen days the eggs hatch, and the diminutive maggots work down into the leaf-sheath and there spend the winter. The fly works from August to January, according to latitude and climate influences, so that what would be a remedy in one place would not be in another. In fact, it is asserted that the fly sometimes works upon wheat in the spring; so the following recom- mendation would not be effectual. That is: About the middle of August sow a strip of wheat adjoining where you intend to put your crop—say one or two acres. About the middle of Sep- tember sow your field. When that has come up and shows cleverly, plow under the first sown ; turn it under well. Your fly is headed and your crop is safe. In the particular locality of the man who says “ that remedy wont fail,” perhaps it will not. The maggots within the leaf-sheath lie dormant through the winter, and do not stop the growth of the wheat until just before it is ready to blossom, when if there are several on a stalk, it withers and dies. The worms do not eat the stalk, but suck up the sap and poison it. A full-sized maggot is three twentieths of an inch long, with a hard skin, of a bright chestnut color, and looks as much like a flax-seed as anything it can be compared to. This S. a Sxro. 12.] ENTOMOLOGIOAL. appearance remains, but the outside is a dried skin inclosing the pupa, which advances to perfection in April or May, and it is these early flies that lay . eggs upon spring wheat. It is asserted that there are three broods in a year. The fly is about the tenth of an inch long; the head, antenne, and thorax, black ; the hind body tawny, the wings tawny at the base, and black and hairy at the ends, expanding about a quarter of an inch. The legs are pale, red, or brown, and feet black. The antennz are jointed, and surrounded with whorls of short hairs. ; With the above short description and microscope in hand, it will not be difficult for any observing person to determine the character of an insect found upon his wheat, so as to decide whether it is the Hessian-fly or the Ilessian-fly destroyer. 249. Insects Injurious to Fruits——Probably of all the tribe of pests that infest fruit-trees, that known as curculio, or plum weevil (Lhynchenus nenupkar), does the most damage. It has nearly driven the plum-trees away from every farm, and has in some seasons destroyed the peaches, and done incalculable damage to the apple crop. In fact, for many years pre- vious to 1860, there was not a good apple crop in all the Eastern States, owing, in a great measure, to the curculio. Small as this pest is, it is capable of doing great mischief to all the fruits, and its sting is death to plums, apricots, and nectarines, and very injurious to cherries and pears. The finer the fruit, the greater the injury. A very hardy plum or cherry may survive a sting from this insect, which leaves a peculiar, crescent-shaped wound, and makes an ugly scar and a hard gnarl in the fairest fruit. This insect is found in nearly all the States of the Union; it is worst in the Middle ones, or between latitudes 39° and 41°. By the following minute description by Glover, the little villain may be known by any one, though not previously acquainted with him: “The perfect curculio is about two tenths of an inch in length, of a dark brown color, with a spot of yellowish white on the hind part of each wing- case. The head is furnished with a long, curved snout, or bill, with which it is enabled to bore into the unripe fruit by means of jaws placed at the end of the bill. The wing-cases, which are rigid, uneven, and humped, cover two transparent wings, by which the perfect weevil is enabled to fly from tree to tree; but when these wing-cases are closed, the back appears without any suture, or division, which has led to the very erroneous idea among farmers that the insect can not fly. When disturbed, or shaken from the tree, it is so similar in appearance to a dried bud, that it can searcely be distinguished, especially when feigning death, which it always does when alarmed. As soon as the plums are of the size of peas, the weevil com- mences the work of destruction by making a semi-circular cut through the skin with her long, curved snout, in the apex of which she deposits a single egg. She then goes to another plum, which is treated in a similar manner, until she has exhausted her whole stock of eggs. The grubs, which are hatched by the heat of the sun, immediately eat their way to the stone in an | 216 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSEOTS. [Cuap. II. oblique direction, where they remain, gnawing the interior, until the fruit is weakened and diseased, and by this treatment falls from the tree. The grub, which is a small, yellowish, footless, white maggot, then leaves the fallen fruit, enters the earth, changes into a pupa, and in the first brood comes to the surface again, in about three weeks, as a perfect weevil, to propagate its species and destroy more fruit. It has not yet been decided whether the latest generation of the weevil remains in the ground all winter in the grub or in the pupa state. Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, Mass., asserts, however, that the grubs, after having entered the earth, return to the surface in about six weeks as perfect weevils, which must remain hidden in crevices until spring. The most popular opinion is that they remain in the larva or pupa state in the earth during the winter, and only reappear in the spring in the perfect state. The worm, or grub, is often found in the knots or ex- erescences which disfigure and destroy plum-trees, and has been wrongfully accused of being the cause of these swellings; but it is highly probable that the weevil, finding in the young knots an acid somewhat similar to that of the unripe fruit, merely deposits its eggs therein, as the nearest substitute for the real plum. “Some of the remedies recommended for preventing the ravages of these insects are actually absurd, such as tying cotton round the trees in order to prevent them from ascending, when it is known that they are furnished with wings, and fly from tree to tree with perfect ease. Among the remedies at present in use, one is to cover the fruit with a coating of whitewash mixed with a little glue, applied by means of a syringe. Another is to spread a sheet upon the ground under the tree, and then jar the principal branches suddenly with a mallet covered with cloth, so as not to bruise the bark, when the perfect insects will fall into the sheet and feign death, and may be gathered and destroyed. Hogs are sometimes turned into plum orchards, where, by eating the fallen and diseased fruit, they materially lessen the evil. Coops of chickens, placed under the trees, have also been recommended. . Then shake the trees often, and the chickens will catch and devour the insects. All fallen fruit should be gathered up several times in the course of the season, and burnt, or given to hogs, or destroyed in some other way.” We shall now give, besides the above remedies, a few more, “ infallible,” of course, that float annually through the newspapers. 250. Curculio Remedies.—To one pound of whale-oil soap add four ounces of flour of sulphur. Mix thoroughly, and dissolve in twelve gallons of water. To one half peck of quick-lime add four gallons of water, and stir well together. When fully settled, pour off the transparent lime-water, and add to the soap-and-sulphur mixture. Add to the same, also, say four gallons of tolerably strong tobacco-water. Apply this mixture, when thus incor- porated, with a garden-syringe, to your plum or other fruit trees, so that the foliage shall be well drenched. If no rains succeed for three weeks, one application will be sufficient. Should frequent rains occur, the mixture should be again applied until the stone of the fruit becomes hardened. ees * Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 217 The person who used and recommended this remedy says: “The trees that received the application ripened an abundant crop of as perfect and beautiful plums as ever grew, while not a single plum was ripened on those trees to which the wash was not applied.” He also recommends a little salt to be added to the mixture. It has been stated as an important fact, that plum-trees planted in such a position that the fruit will hang over water, will never be stung by curculio; so that nothing is more easy than growing this delicious fruit wherever the trees can be so planted. Dr. Underhill, of Croton Point Vineyard notoriety, states that he is never troubled, not having seen an insect upon one of 150 trees in six years. He formed an artificial pond, with banks constructed on purpose to set the trees slanting over the water. He gathers the fruit in a boat. He has many of the best varieties of plums so planted, and never saw finer fruit than he thus produces. It is an experiment that should be tried by every man who has the necessary conveniences. The ravages of the curculio have been so great for many years that we have had but few plums, and those inferior and high priced, in this market. We have the following account from James Taylor, of St. Catherine’s, C. W., a few miles from Niagara Falls, of a pretty effectual remedy for the great pest of the pluam-grower—the cureulio. He says: “ Our locality being much infested with the curculio, and observing in one paper issue, last spring, what had been pronounced by a Mr. Jos. H. Mather, of Goshen, twenty miles southeast of the place where the writer resided, an effectual remedy against its ravages, allow me, for the benefit of . your readers, to state my experience of its efficacy. The proposed remedy was a mixture ef sulphur, lard, and Scotch snuff, to be rubbed freely on the trunk and branches. This I applied according to the directions, and it is true that I had a splendid crop of plums, some of the choicest varieties, always most subject to the attacks of this insect, viz., the Bolmar, Huling’s Superb, etc., being perfectly loaded; but mark the result. On examining my trees last fall, Z found all that I had applied the mixture to in a dying state, and I have lost them all, with the exception of one or two young trees. The operation being rather a troublesome one, I did not apply it to as many as I should otherwise have done, or I should have lost more. So much for quack nostrums. The remedy proved worse than the disease. Perhaps my experience will be useful to others.” It. G. Pardee gives the following remedy for the cureulio, which has been successfully practiced by a person of his acquaintance. Take fresh cow- droppings, and a little wood-ashes, some lime, and a little sulphur, and make all into a thin decoction, and throw it over the trees with a hand-basin. This lasts until it rains; it is then pnt on again. A half pound of sulphur to a half barrel is sufficient, and of the other substances it is not very im- portant as to the proportions. We think the labor of this application would be too great. Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, says that he has tried all sorts of offensive | f 218 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuar. II. odors to keep off ecureulio, without effect. ‘I have found no remedy equal to that of manual labor in catching and destroying the insect. It is a fact that some plum-trees are not infested by the curculio.” The following is a conversation of some experienced fruit-growers upon curculio remedies, and the character of the insect: Henry Srretr, a New Jersey nurseryman, said that he had prevented eurculio by the use of black soap from the tallow-chandler’s, dissolved in water and much diluted, with which the trees are syringed directly after the blossoms fall, after a rain, and repeated, if necessary, in consequence of being washed off. R. G. Parpee—A person present assures me that a neighbor of his yarded his hogs around his plum-trees, and that saved them from the cureu- lio. Mr. Pardee said that he thought that fresh cow or pig manure, dis- solved, and the water sprinkled over plum-trees, would prevent curculio. They dislike any strong-smelling substances. Wa. Lawron—You may apply cow or pig manure raw to all fruits and berries, but not horse manure; that never should be used fresh—make it first into compost. Dr. Trmeitzr—The curculio has already commenced its ravages this spring. Tam also satisfied that the curculio stings the bark of plum-trees and pro- duces the disease known as the black knot. I have made a great many experiments to prove the insect identical with that which destroys all of our smooth-skinned fruit. The jarring of trees to shake off the curculio is effect- ual, but it isan immense labor, as it must be attended to every day, and some sunny days several times a day. I think that, unless some remedy for this insect can be discovered, we shall be unable to raise any fine fruit. It is the curculio that causes the disease in apples known as gnarly. We get no good apples in Jersey, and it is out of the question to raise plums, apricots, or fine peaches. We import prunes from Germany cheaper than we can make boxes to pack them in—the plums grow to such perfection in that country. Wm. Lawron—I have removed bushels of black knots from my cherry-trees and burned them. I found in all these knots a living worm. I destroy the common caterpillar by collecting them in the nests and destroying them. Mr. O. W. Brewster, of Freeport, Ill., gave a statement of his success in repelling the attacks of the curculio on his plums. Early in spring he scat- tered lime, which had ‘been mixed for whitewashing, under his plum-trees once a week, until the eureulio quitted the field. He also scattered soap-suds and chamber-lye under them in liberal quantity. He said, I have twice tried the same remedy, with complete success. I once applied it to a small tree, which matured its whole crop; several other trees near it, which set full of fruit, did not ripen a specimen. If plum-trees succeeded with us well, I should have no fears of the curculio. P. H. Perry, of Collins Center, N. Y., says: “ A gentleman lately informed me that he had raised a good crop of plums SxEo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 219 simply by spreading a heavy coat of fresh horse manure on the ground under his trees. He said it entirely prevented the ravages of the curculio, when on their account he had not been able to gather a crop of plums for years before.” Soron Rosinson read the following letter from Dobbs’ Ferry. The man certainly can read, at least he says so, but we wonder how he can own a tree liable to the attacks of the curculio, and know so little about it. He says: “T have been much interested in the doings and sayings of the Farmers’ Club, but in the various debates before that body, I have seen no statement advanced concerning the habits of the curculio. I have also read several articles concerning its depredations, but I have yet to learn whether it is a flying insect, or simply crawls up the body of trees. I have several cherry- trees in my garden of choice varieties, and I can safely say that every cherry was punctured by the curculio this spring. “The trees are growing and have just commenced bearing. “ The soil is sandy. “ My neighbor, less than a hundred feet from me, has escaped its ravages. “ Does it fly or crawl ? “Would a barrel or trough similar to those used on the elms of New Haven be of any service in staying its ravages ? “ Are the worms in the common black cherry, which is universally inhabited, produced by the curculio ? “Ts there any remedy for this pest ?” That question—“ Is there any remedy for this pest ?”—has been answered in every agricultural paper in the world, and so it has been stated that the insect has wings, and yet the writer of this letter has not read of it. Let me ask another question: “ How is it possible to enlighten people who will not read? or, reading, will not understand ?” Dr. Trmerr—I am now trying several experiments to prove that the same insect that stings the fruit makes the knots on the limbs. No attach- ment to the bole of a tree can be any protection against a flying insect like the curculio. The excrescence on the limb is no more remarkable than the insect that produces the balls upon oak-trees. Dr. T. showed specimens of the cureulio of plums, that he had hatched out in earth covered to pre- vent escape, to show that the insect becomes perfect from the first laying of eggs in young plums, and, as he thinks, these perfect insects lie dormant till spring. The question is, Where do they hide themselves until the young fruit is ready for them to deposit their eggs ? Prof. Mares said that a preparation called Persian Powder is said to be very effectual in destroying insects. Ww. S. Carrenrer thought that no bug-powder would rid a farm of cater- pillars. Something else must be done. Wma. Lawton said that he had cleared his farm of tent caterpillars by pulling down the nests by hand, with all the worms in them, when they are easily destroyed. ———————— 220 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cuap. II. Dr. Triusie gave a history of the cockchafer, which remains in the ground, like the locust, four years, and then comes forth in immense numbers, but in the flying state. They do not feed, and consequently do no damage to plants. In our opinion, the best remedy for cureulio is pigs, poultry, and birds. We have seen fine crops of plums grown in a curculio neighborhood, in a season when these pests were active, in a small lot occupied as a poultry-yard, in which several pigs run at large. The hens scratched, and the pigs rooted the ground, and the dove-cot also had something to do with the matter. At any rate, the barn was inhabited by swallows, and they catch flies, and per- haps curculios. 251.—Apple and Peach Worms.—The codlin moth, or apple moth (Canpo- capsa pomonella), is the name of an injurious insect which deposits its eggs, in June or July evenings, in the calyx of the young apples, where they soon hatch, and the little worms eat their way to the heart of the fruit, where they continue till ready to change into the chrysalis state. ‘‘ Wormy apples” generally ripen prematurely and fall. The worm is of a reddish color when fully grown, and ready to leave the fruit and creep into crevices of the bark to spin a semi-transparent cocoon, where it changes into a small chestnut- brown chrysalid, and that produces a moth in a few days, measuring seven tenths of an inch aeross the wings, which are of a brownish-gray color, crossed by many dark-colored lines, with a dark, oval spot on each wing. The under wings are lighter colored, shaded near the margin. As aremedy against this pest, it has been recommended to wrap cloths loosely around the forks of the trees, for a shelter for the worms to form cocoons, and then destroy them. We fancy that this remedy will cure but a very small part of the evil. Picking up and putting all wind-falls where the worms can never see daylight will kill more of them. Perhaps the best remedy for this, and many other little pests, is the Serip- tural one—“ Dig about the tree and dung it.” That is, give it greater vigor of growth; make it more productive, so that a portion of the fruit will come to maturity in spite of all insects. It is a well-known fact that the most vigorous-growing, thrifty trees exactly correspond with thrifty farmers—the more they have, the more they gain. Insects mostly attack the most neglected trees. 252. Peach-Tree Borers.—The peach-tree borer (4yeria ewxitiosa) is one of the greatest pests of the farm, because it has almost blotted out of exist- ence this most valuable fruit in large districts of the country. It is believed — by most careful observers to be the cause of nearly all the diseases which affect the peach-trees, the most visible of which is ‘‘ the yellows,” where the leaves gradually take on a yellow, sickly appearance in midsummer, and frequently at the age of three or four years show scarcely a green leaf, when they should be clothed in the richest green, and finally wither and gradually perish. The epitaph of tens of thousands of peach-trees all over New En- gland, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, 3 =e Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. would be, “ Died young—attacked by borers—the disease exhibited in yel- low leaves—speedy death followed.” This boring worm is produced from eggs deposited at the foot of the tree by a wasp-shaped moth, of a steel-blue color, with an orange ring about the abdomen. Sometimes the eggs are placed in wounds, or between forks, but generally in the bark, close to the ground, where the worms can easily pene- trate into and devour the inner bark and wood just below the surface. Sometimes a vigorons tree will retain life year after year, with these worms gnawing at its vitals. Sometimes the tree is girdled and destroyed in a single summer. There appears to be a succession of broods in a single season. In the latitude of New York city, the moths come out in June and July. Nee- tarines and apricots are also attacked by the same insect.. The plum wood appears too hard, and peaches engrafted on plum stocks sometimes succeed where, if upon their natural roots, they would never bear fruit. These borers, when full-grown, are about an inch long, colored yellowish white, with an amber-brown head. The chrysalis is brown ; it is formed in a case made of the gnawings of the worm, which it glues together around its body. The moth expands wings an inch across, transparent and veined, and bor- dered blue in the male, and dark blue upon the female’s upper wings, and her body 3s belted with orange. The remedies, as preventives or cures of the peach-tree borer, are numer- ous. Dr. Harris, the great American entomologist, says: “Remove the earth around the base of the tree, crush and destroy the cocoons and borers which may be found in it and under the bark, cover the wounded parts with the common clay composition, and surround the trunk with a strip of sheathing-paper nine or ten inches wide, which should extend two inches below the level of the soil, and be secured by strings of matting above. Fresh mortar should then be placed around. the root, so as to con- fine the paper, and prevent access beneath it; and the remaining cavity may be filled with new or unexhausted loam. The operation should be performed in the spring, or during the month of June. In the winter the strings may be removed, and in the following spring the trees should again fe examined for any borers that may have escaped search before, and the protecting ap- plications should be renewed. The ashes of anthracite coal have also been recommended to be put into the cavities made when the earth has been re- moved from around the~trunks when searching for the worm; and if the trunks are thoroughly searched three or four times a year, especially in the earth near the roots, and the grubs and chrysalids dug out and destroyed, these insects would soon cease to be as injurious as they are at present.” The following conversation in the Farmers’ Club conveys some useful in- formation upon this important subject: Soron Rogiyson read a letter from the Rev. J. S. Weishampel, Sen., Bal- timore, Md., upon the use of hot water to kill insects upon trees. He alludes to a letter read here some weeks since, about scalding wheat, and then says: “This scalding process destroys the egg of the fly, and the same process 222 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cmap. II. has been known to destroy the eggs as well as the grubs themselves, that injure the peach, plum, and other trees so greatly. Scald the stem of the tree well, letting the hot water get well into the ground around the tree, where the grubs do the most harm, and a destruction of both eggs and grub follows; and, in addition to this, the scalding appears to add to the vigor of the trees. “ An old lady in Berks County, Pa., had a plum-tree that for many years bloomed and brought forth crops of fruit till half ripe, and then shed them. She often besought her husband to remove the tree, but he still pleaded, ‘Let it stand another year.’ At length, one spring, after she had boiled her soap, she heated the kettle full of the refuse lye to a boiling degree, and poured it all down the stem of the tree, intending to ‘scald it to death,’ as she said. It soon blossomed most abundantly, and bore a profuse crop of plums, which it brought to the greatest perfection, which greatly pleased the old lady. “This same principle could be applied to the destruction of every kind of destructive insect upon the various choice fruit-trees, either by pour- ing boiling water upon the limbs and stems, or by conducting a stream of steam through a hose or pipe, from a movable boiler, to kill both eggs and insects. “Chestnuts, too, are very liable to be worm-eaten. If they were subject- ed to a momentary heating (wet or dry heat), to a sufficient degree to scald, it would kill the germ of the worm that destroys that sweet nut. And the same principle would also prevent all wood used in building and machin- ery from becoming worm-eaten.” Prof. Maprs—I have used it on peach-trees, until I have satisfied myself that a peach-tree can not be injured by hot water. Mr. Carpenter said that lime was the best thing he ever tried around peach-trees. Mr. Wueeter said that lime will not kill the grubs in the wood. Mr. Sarrn, of Connecticut—I have found no remedy except manual labor, though wood-ashes are valuable, and so is lime. Ihave an orchard in full bearing that is fourteen years old. Prof. Marrs—I have never found any remedy equal to hot water. It cooks the worms. A letter from East Wilson, Niagara County, N. Y., says: “A large and interested community, comprising at least five thousand peach-growers in this county, ask for 7ight. What can be done to stay the ravages of the red-headed peach-grub? To dig him out and kill him will only insure an armistice for about ten days. Fresh wood-ashes applied to the trees only seem to sharpen his appetite for destruction. Hundreds of orchards and thousands of trees are dying from his operations. There are half a million of peach-trees in this vicinity suffering from this pest. Will tar pre- vent his operations? and will it injure the tree? Can you or any of your numerous readers or correspondents tell us of any specific which will kill BES So. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 223 eee eee the grub without injuring the tree? If you can do so, you will confer a ” substantial favor upon many hundreds of your readers. Awnprew S. Furter—The best remedy is to preserve the birds—the natu- ral insect destroyers. It is their decrease that has increased destructive insects. Wm. Lawron stated that he had taken great pains to preserve birds around his place, and was now reaping the benefit. As to any outward application to kill the peach-worm, he did not know of anything that would destroy it without destroying the trees. If the worms are dug out, and a plaster of soft cow-manure is applied, the tree may recover. It is a very tedious operation. Wrens.—The Secretary advocated the cultivation, or rather protection, of wrens and insect destroyers. Mr. Furter said that the wren was a mischievous bird, and destroyed the eggs of other birds. A letter from P. M. Goodwin, Kingston, Luzerne County, Pa., says: “T observe in the transactions of the Club of July 2, it is thought that if a discussion of the topic of the peach-grub would elicit a remedy, it would be universally entertaining. My conclusion is, that trying to cure the peach- grub, unless where the soil is light and but few are found, isa humbug. I have a preventive, which I will give cheerfully : “When I purchased my little place on Rose Hill, overlooking a portion of ‘Wyoming Valley,’ there were one hundred neglected peach-trees thereon —budded, and of excellent varieties—which were full of grubs. Early in April I commenced operations by carefully clearing away the grubs by means of the knife and wire. I then made a funnel-shaped hole around the base of each tree, which would hold three or four quarts of water. I filled the holes with boiling water, which effectually destroyed the progeny. I then filled the holes with a tenacious clay, and tamped it hard, leaving the surface around the tree cone-shaped and hard compacted. I have examined these trees at various times during the intervening five years, and have found but one tree affected, and that with but two grubs. This mode, with me, has acted as a perfect preventive, and, I have no doubt, will with all who adopt it and exercise the same care. “These trees were three or four years old, and, at the time the experiment was made, much inferior to some from the same lot growing elsewhere, which were regularly examined and carefully cleared of grubs in the usual way. My trees are sound in wood, and look well, while the others have dis- appeared. “In planting peach-trees now, I would cut away the tap (not top) root close under where the horizontal roots put out. Having driven a stake firmly for each tree, I would plant it so shallow that after the heavy rain the upper side of the roots will become exposed. In this way the trees are not so liable to become infested with the grub. I planted some trees so a year ago, and find the non-appearance of the grub satisfactory.” 224 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Caar. II. I eet R. G. Parpee—I have tried the hot water very often, and have always found it effectual; and I thought that by this time everybody had heard of it, but if they have not, I hope this letter will be read and remembered. Instead of clay I used leached ashes, as they were more convenient, and they answered a good purpose. The Chairman presented a new pest of the peach—a dark-colored worm, about an inch long, that fixes itself in the foot-stalks of the leaves and destroys them. Wa. S. Carrenter—This insect discussion is one of great importance to farmers. These little, insignificant things are great destroyers of our crops. What if we could discover a remedy for the bugs that eat up the potato vines, or a remedy for the effect of cold upon fruit-trees ; for I have noticed, within a day or two, that the northerly sides of the pear-trees are blasted and turned dark by the cold wind. The cold of a day or two in spring often destroys many tender vegetables. It was observed that cold nights sometimes have a beneficial effect upon fruits, by destroying some of the insects that usually prey upon them. It did in the spring of 1860. That season proved the most productive of fruit of any year in the memory of most young people. Of the hot-water remedy for the peach-grub, we speak from experience, that it is the best of all we ever knew. Lime, too, has been tried with good results. Hon. John M. Clayton, of Delaware, assured us once, at his house, that the peach-trees we were then looking at, which were so vigorous, had been treated with half a bushel of lime, placed in contact with the body and upper roots, and he be- lieved it would continue to be a preventive of the peach-grub. 253. Insect Remedies.—We give the following various remedies for insects, all of which are vouched for by good men; some believing one infallible, and some another. The following wash is recommended for all sorts of trees, as a preventive remedy against caterpillars, ete.: Potash, 20 lbs.; air-slacked lime, half a bushel; sifted wood-ashes, half a bushel; fresh cow dung, half a bushel. Mix in water enough to be of the consistence of whitewash. Scrape off the rough bark, and rub the wash in well with a brush. Caustic soda wash is one of the best things we ever saw applied to a fruit- tree. It will make the bark as smooth as if wax-polished. It leaves no harbor for insects. under pieces of dead bark. It is made by heating the common sal-soda red hot in any old iron vessel, and then making a lye of it —say about one pound of the salts to a gallon of water—and washing the trees with a brush. It is best to put it on in the spring. A piece of old stove-pipe, battered up at one end, and stuck into one of the stove-holes, answers very well to heat the soda in. The wash should be too caustic to put your hands in, and, while putting it on, it will not be worth while to wear a fine broadcloth coat. The Liquid Brimstone Remedy.—M. Letellier states in the Journal of the Paris Horticultural Society, that a liquid formed by boiling 63 grains of red 1 i Seo. 12.] EN TOMOLOGICAL. in 12 pints of water, is most excellent and efficacious in destroying insects. If it requires to be stronger, the quantity of potash and sulphur may be doubled, but the soap must remain the same. Upon immersion, the insects —ants, caterpillars, cockchafers, grubs, ete.—are instantly killed, while the solution occasions no injury to plants. The liquid will destroy ants and grubs when poured into their places of resort. Preventive of Canker- Worms from Apple-Trees.—A letter from Malden, Mass., gives a most sensible plan for a cheap preventive of canker-worms, which climb the boles of apple-trees: “Take pine boards of suitable width for four to box a tree. Cut them in pieces two feet long on one edge, and four feet long on the other edge. Nail them together in a box around the tree, with four sharp points up. This box is to be adjusted about the tree before the grubs come from the ground, and a peck of powdered lime or ashes thrown between the trunk of the tree and the inside of the box. The caustic lime or ashes will destroy the grubs near the tree, and the boxes will invite all the grubs near them to ascend and de- posit their eggs. I found the pinnacles covered with grubs and eggs, and the insects apparently contented with this highest point as a safe place, and there the eggs were deposited. I then removed the boxes to a considerable distance from the trees, and heard no more from canker-worms ; they all died for want of proper food.” Another plan, lately patented, to prevent worms climbing trees, looks as though ‘it would be effectual. A tin trough is made in two parts, large enough to encircle the tree and leave a space four or five inches betiveen the trough and bole of the tree. From the outside edge of the trough a strip of cloth extends all around, wide enough to have its upper edge tacked to the tree, by which the trough filled with oil is sheltered from rain and sus- tained in its place, so that worms creeping upward come first in contact with the cloth, and if they crawl down that to get around the edge and so up the tree, they are caught in the oil, which, being sheltered, remains in good con- dition longer than when exposed. Now it is an experiment worth trying, and for which there is no patent, whether a strip of cloth nailed around the tree at one edge, and having the other extended six inches from the bole by a wire or limber rod, would not answer the purpose without the oil-trough. The under side of the cloth could be coated with some kind of pitch that would not harden soon, being protected from sun and rain, which would effectually prevent the ascension of insects—certainly much more so than the belt of tar as it is usually applied. Dr. Troe, in answer to the question, what remedy to apply to this pest, said that the only remedy is the ichneumon parasites. These, in their proper time, will attack the worms and destroy them. In the mean time, while one section of the country is ravaged, another is extraordinarily fruitful. He introduced specimens of the caterpillar that preys upon the grapevine, to show that it has its parasite, one of which had just emerged from the — 226 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuar. II. Sa aaa aaa aaa eee ~~ body of the caterpillar. This, he hoped, would prove a sufficient check to the ravages of this particular pest. 254. Another Conversation at the Club about Insects——Ww. S. Carpenrer— All classes of insects have their favorite plants, but if these favorite plants fail, the insects will take to others. Last year I saw ailanthus trees in this city completely covered with a worm known in the country as the canker- worm. The trees were wholly stripped of foliage. We are continually im- porting insects in various ways. Iam told that every banana stem contains a worm, and some of the same sort of worms have been discovered preying upon the quince. The rose-slug is easily killed by hand in the after part of the day, by an application of quassia decoction, sprinkled upon the leaves, as the slugs are then on the upper surface. Extra cultivation, by which the plants grow rapidly, is the best remedy for squash bugs. Mr. Parprr said that the best remedy is to expose the soil dug from a deep hole several days to the sun, and then put it back in the hole, patting it down solid, and then putting in the seed, and covering it lightly, and then spreading fine charcoal over the hill. Mr. Furter—I tried this charcoal remedy, last year, most thoroughly, without deriving a particle of benefit. Mr. Parpee—I have used charcoal, and was not troubled with bugs. Now it is possible that, without it, the plants would not have been troubled. So, after all, it is uncertain whether the charcoal was the preventive, or whether there were no bugs to be eradicated. Mr. Garvrey—I have tried a great many remedies, and have never found anything so good as careful watering, and hand killing the bugs. R. G. Parpee—I wish every man would try the solution of aloes—two | ‘ounces to the gallon of water. It is such a bitter vegetable that it is offensive to all insects. It may be used just as strong as it can be made— from one fourth to a whole pound to the gallon. Mr. Carrenter—The canker-worm, in the northern part of Connec- ticut, is now ravaging the orchards’ to an extent that is destructive to all prospects of fruit. On some large orchards there are no apples— in fact, nearly all the foliage of the trees has been destroyed. Can this be prevented ? Washing Insects from Fruit-Trees.—Mr. Parvex read a letter from Charles Lincoln, of North Bridgewater, Mass., which stated that he succeeded in saving his plum-trees, last spring, from insects, by washing them frequently with clear cold water, using for the purpose a little hand instrument called the “hydropult.” Dr. Trimester contended that all the rot in plums is caused by the sting of the curculio. Mr. Parprr thought that this statement was incorrect; that plums fre- ar rot where there are no cureulio. He said, thirty years ago, at Seneca ——— Seo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 227 Falls, there was no cureulio to disturb the plum, and we grew great crops, and sometimes nearly all on a tree rotted, almost all at once. Geisharst?s Compound for Insects.—P. B. Mean (editor of the Horticul- turist) said that he has tried the above compound upon several kinds of in- sects, and found it sure death to all he had applied it upon. The objection to it is its high price—too high for common use; if it would rid us of the curculio, it would make the plums too costly. Joun G. Bercen—lIt is a fact that we have a prospect this year of a larger crop of plums than we have had in many years, and therefore persons should be careful of their hasty conclusions about this or that nostrum driving them off. Mr. Meav—tThe preparation I mentioned, dissolved in water and used as a syringe upon plum-trees, had the effect to drive off the cureulio, even upon one side of a tree, while the other was still infested. Remedy for Lose-Slugs.—Gxo. H. Hrre—I have found an effectual rem- edy against the depredations of these pests, in sifting dry dust upon the bushes. It is just as good as snuff, or any other bug-powder. Of course, it wants frequent renewal. Bark-Lice.—Anvrew 8. Furrer—lIf a tree is properly cultivated, it will grow so vigorously that it will outgrow all bad effects from attacks of plant- lice. Worms Destroying Gooseberry Bushes.—R. Dixie, of Painesville, Ohio, inquires for a remedy for a pest upon his gooseberry and currant bushes. He says “ they have been stripped of their leaves entirely, in one summer, by hosts of green caterpillars or worms about an inch in length—a number of broods during the season. What shall we do to get rid of the pests? I have used lime in powder, and dry unleached ashes, without any apparent beneficial effect.” Sotron Rosryson—I would try the new preparation of “attenuated coal- tar,” which we have had exhibited here in the form of a dry powder. So far as I have been able to try it, Ihave found it particularly offensive to all insects. A. B. Dickmyson—If soft soap is placed in the crotch of a tree, and left to work down by the rain, it will keep off all insects, even the eureulio. Many insects are kept away by offensive smells, which do not kill them. Smoke, for instance, keeps off many insects. Pests of Grapevines and other Plants —Dr. Trarste—Here is a specimen of the insect that curls the grape-leaf. Spring is the time to look after them, and pick them off by hand and destroy them, or they will destroy the vines. Here is another curious insect that infests the currant bushes. It is what we call lice, and these lice furnish food for a colony of ants, by their exudation of a sort of sweet substance. Here is the worm that curls the currant-leaf ; and here is another curious insect that binds itself up in a web and a leaf, and what is remarkable, this insect is itself full of other insects—parasites that live sili and in a great measure destroy it. I wish that some para- —- 228 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. ~ (Crap. II. eee site could be found to destroy the cureulio. Perhaps it may be destroyed in time, as the Hessian-fly has been. The Measuring Worm.—Soton Roziwson—If any one desires to extirpate the worms that infest the trees in our parks, now is the time to do it by de- stroying the eggs. Scraping and washing with potash is the best protection of the boles of the trees. If we had plenty of birds we should get rid of the worms. It is only in cities, where there are so few birds, that these pests are so troublesome. Insects are the natural food of all birds. Even the » domestic ones that we keep about our homestead destroy untold quantities of pestiferous insects that could not be got rid of in any other way. The greatest profit in keeping poultry is the good the animals do in their inces- sant pursuit of bugs and worms, which, if not destroyed, would in their turn destroy the food-plants that we cultivate. I know of no contrivance of man that will protect him from insects. Mr. Parper—In New Haven, trees have been protected by zinc troughs, filled with oil, around the boles. Destroying Trees to Get Rid of Worms.—Anvrew S. Futter stated that the worms in Brooklyn were so bad that the city councils were talking of cutting down all the trees in that city, to get rid of the worms. Soton Rosmson—They had better cut down the boys who destroy the birds. More than forty years ago, the “canker-worms” were terribly destructive, for several years, of apple-trees in Connecticut, and attempts were made to prevent their ravages by making a band of tar, two or three inches wide, around the bole of the tree. It proved effectual while the tar was soft; but, unless renewed every day, and sometimes twice a day, the surface dried so ' that the worms crawled over; and I have seen them so thick that they crawled into the tar and stuck, and then others went over them, and so on until they formed a bridge, and thus defeated their strong opponent. Dr. Trmmite—The lindens of New Jersey, in former years, have been very much affected, but this year they have not been injured. I believe the in- sect has been destroyed by parasites, and I hope it will be in Brooklyn. I hope that no one will think of cutting down trees to get rid of the worms. Origin of “ Bug-Powder.”’—The Secretary stated that Lyon, the great bug-powder man, has gone home to Europe, worth an immense sum, and it is now published that the powder is made of a common French field-plant of a species of the chamomile. All the effective insect powders now offered for sale owe their efficiency to red chamomile. Itissold by some of the druggists. Rub it to a fine dust, mix it with some cheap divisor, and it is the best insect powder known. When dusted into the cracks and corners of ceilings, etc., out walk the cockroaches and all other intruders without fail. Dust the affected plants, and you may keep them clear of insects. Mons. Radiguet states to the Society of Agriculture, Paris, that the plant known as “ Whiteflower Margaret” (Chrysanthemum cuanthemum), used as e I ~ * Seo. 12] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 229 ~~ WI RRA AAA AAA ARR AAE a decoration, is very destructive to insect life. This plant is not a native of this country, but is cultivated here, and can be easily multiplied. Disease of the Coffce-Tree—Dr. Montague stated, at a meeting of the Society, that a disease has attacked the coffee-trees of Ceylon, similar to the oidium of the grapevines. The same disease has been observed in the West Indies. Olives and mulberries are attacked; insects are observed upon them, something like the cochineal insect. There is also an exudation of a sweet gum that attracts insects. Milk of lime and purin—an extract of manure—are used as a preventive. Ailanthus, as a food for silk-worms, has been used in France with success. Kerosene Oil for Insects —Wm. G. Le Due, of Hastings, sends us a rem- edy for caterpillars and other insects, easily applied. It is kerosene oil. He says: “Finding some large nests of caterpillars on my plum-trees, I took a can of illuminating oil, as it is called, and applying a few drops (sufficient to saturate the web of the nest), found that it worked like a charm. It is in- stant death to the vermin. Care should be taken not to apply it to the leaves of the plant or tree, as they will be scalded at once. Lhave but little doubt that, in the hands of your careful experimentalists, it will prove of value. The coarser oils of coal will no doubt be equally efficacious in many instances. I may as well mention here, also, that I have found kerosene oil a most excellent diluent of printers’ ink, which I use in my flouring-mill for stencil-plate marking. It wouid be a thorough cleanser of type, though, per- haps, not so cheap as potash.” Coal-Tar for Insects—Prof. Marrs—We are very free of destructive tree insects, this year (1860), in New Jersey, but have a fair show of other pests of the farm and garden, and we are obliged to resort to some remedy. We can not grow early turnips without using something to keep the insects off, and I am glad that the necessity stimulates invention to assist farmers in the de- struction of these pests. I have lately tried one called “attenuated coal- tar,” and find it effectual. It is likely to be a very valuable aid to fruit- growers and gardeners. It is in the form of powder, and wherever sprinkled upon insect-infested plants, the insects leave at once. It is coal-tar mixed with some substance so as to retain all its odor, and yet remain in the form of a dry powder. Mr. Lawron—The Black Tartarian is a good sort of cherry, but I prefer the Black Eagle; it is a very hardy variety, and very productive. The En- glish Morello is an acid cherry, and the tree very free from insects. We have not had a rose-bug with us this year. Soton Rosrnson stated that, only five miles from Mr. Lawton, the rose- bugs infested his cherry-trees by myriads, destroying more than half the fruit. Mr. R. inquired of Mr. Lawton what it was that ate his cherry-leaves, if it was not rose-bugs, as they were evidently eaten by some insect, and if coal-tar or anything else will prevent their ravages, it should be extensively known. 230 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuar. II. Whisky for Ants.—Wm. Davis, of Marengo, Morrow County, Ohio, offers the following plan for protecting fruit-trees fro ants, which, he says, have killed many trees for him. It is the same plan pursued in this city to make loafers, and then get rid of them—that is, feed them with whisky and make them drunk, and then wipe them out. He says: “ Mix whisky, molasses, and water, in equal parts, and fill a tumbler about two thirds full, and set it partly in the ground at the foot of the tree infested by ants. When it gets full of the drunkards, scoop them out and kill them.” We suggest feeding them to fowls. : Do Worms Rain Down ?—A person at Angola, Ind., who notices that the Club talks about all sorts of miscellaneous matters, wants us, in the absence of more important questions, to talk about this: “Do fish, worms, and small toads, such as are often seen after a shower, in places where it appears they must have fallen with the rain, actually come from the clouds?” Dr. Warersury replied—They do not; it is one of the popular errors which are so hard to eradicate. The Locust Question.—A long discussion ensued upon the locust question between Professor Mapes, Professor Nash, Wm. Lawton, Wm. R. Prince, Dr. Trimble, and Andrew S. Fuller, about the habits of the seventeen-year locust, which appeared in great numbers in the summer of 1860, in the vicin- ity of New York. Every schoolboy of any pretension should read all about these locusts, and study their natural history. Wherever they appear, try to learn their habits, and whether they do injury to plants, either above or be- low the surface of the earth. Prof. Mares exhibited the effects upon branches punctured by the females to lay their eggs, he still thought without permanent injury to the trees. Wm. R. Privce declared the whole theory of the seventeen-year locusts a humbug. Prof. Nasu thought they return in some localities in thirteen years, and inquired if the nature of the soil had any effect upon their maturity. Varieties of the Locust.—Anvrew 8. Furter—We have many varieties of what are called locusts, among which are the Cicada Septemdecim, Cicada Canicularis, Cicada Rimosa, Cicada Marginata, Cicada Superba, Cicada Robertsonia, and perhaps several others. The habits of these are well known, and have been for many years, The seventeen-year locust has ap- peared regularly every seventeen years for more than a hundred years, as is well attested by numerous writers upon natural history. Dr. Trae, of New Jersey, gave a lengthy lecture upon the locust, show- ing how the insect deposits its eggs in the limbs of almost every variety of trees. A great number of these twigs were distributed among the compauy, to show the curious manner in which these eggs are deposited. This peculiar insect appears once in seventeen years ; but the year of its appearance differs in every part of the country. In 1855 it infested south- ern Illinois. In 1800, 1817, and 1834 the trees ef Delaware and Maryland were literally covered by them; and in 1843 many of the river counties on i Src. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 231 the Hudson were infested with the Cicade. The male insect has a pair of | drums on each side of the*head, and, when infesting an orchard or woods, | the noise is frequently so great that no conversation can be heard in the vicinity. The insect appears about the 25th of May, and remains six weeks. The female is armed with an ovépositor, with which she inserts her eggs in the smaller portions of limbs of fruit-trees, oaks, chestnuts, etc., always selecting new growth, of an eighth to a quarter of an inch in diameter. The incisions, about twelve in number, are made at an angle of forty to fifty degrees, with an egg in each, and sometimes the twig is girdled near the eggs, so that when the end of the twig dies it falls to the ground, and the eggs are carried in by dews and rains. Miss Morris, of Germantown, Pa., a well-known entomologist of close observation, claims that she found them attached to the roots of pear-trees. | “While plowing at our place, May 10, these insects were thrown out in | | large quantities. The holes through which they ascend in the soil may be | traced to a depth of four feet or more. This locust is not to be dreaded, as | they do but little harm; are not known to feed, and the shortening-in of | limbs by the depositing of their eggs may give a useful hint to those who | do not understand the benefits of the shortening-in process.” | He also gave an account of a maple-tree in Newark, which appears to have a sort of bohun upas effect upon flies; they lay dead by thousands under this tree. Prof. Marrs stated that, in plowing upon his farm near Newark, in May, the seventeen-year locusts were turned up in vast quantities. Dr. Tree stated that this insect does not consume vegetation. They | are within a few inches of the surface, waiting for the right condition of the temperature to issue forth. Seventeen years ago these insects came forth on the 25th of May, and immediately commenced their musical notes. They remain about six weeks above ground, eating nothing. The injury they do vegetation is by puncturing the limbs to deposit their eggs. This kills the ends of the branches. The apple-tree and elm-trees are favorite trees with these seventeen-year locusts. The time of their appearance varies in differ- ent localities. This is the year for all this vicinity and up the Hudson River. My opinion is that the life of the insect is sustained under-ground by attach- ing to the roots of plants. The limb selected for puncture is always small. The Secretary stated that the size of the limb punctured is not usually over an eighth of an inch. Mr. Doncx stated that the locusts were very plentiful on Long Island five years ago, and that he has seen them every year in this city. Prof. Mares thought that these fellows would be a little too much for “insect powder.” Still, he had received great benefit from one called the “Persian Powder.” That will enable me to grow early turnips, and it will kill caterpillars. Mr. Gare—In 1809, in Orange County, the locusts were plentiful enough to allow me to gather bushels of them, and the apple-trees were covered. 232 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuap. II. The only injury was to the small twigs. Wheat-fields were covered, but not injured. Anprew S. Furter—In 1855 the locusts were very abundant in Illinois, and came forth out of heavy clay land, from more than four feet in depth, in oak forests. They appeared to prefer the oak-trees. The Chairman stated that he had observed their preference for oak in some instances, but upon the whole, he thought they had very little care for any ‘particular sort of trees. Dr. Trmzez thought the chestnut was their favorite. I found, yesterday, the eggs of the locust are beginning to hatch, and the young insect is as perfect in shape as the old ones, of a pure white color, and no larger than one of the eggs. Habits of Grasshoppers.—A Goliad correspondent of the Colorado (Texas) Citizen gives some curious facts in relation to the grasshoppers which have recently swarmed in that region. He says: ‘“‘They have an especial fondness for wheat and cotton, but don’t take so kindly to corn. The only vegetable they spare is the pumpkin. The most deadly poisons have had no effect upon them; fumes of sulphur they rather like than otherwise ; musketo-nets they devour greedily; clothes hung out to dry they esteem a rarity; blankets and gunny-bags they don’t appear to fancy. They swim the broadest creeks in safety, sun themselves a while, and then go on. The whole mass appear to start and move at the same time, traveling for an hour or two, devouring everything in their way, and then suddenly cease, not moving perhaps for a week, during which time no feeding is noticed; and finally, they carefully avoid the sea-coast.” Grusshopper Parasites—Soton Rosmson—I have a letter from L. B. Rice, Middlebury, Vt., inclosing specimens of grasshoppers, showing a para- site that is preying upon them, which, it is to be hoped, will help to annihilate this pest. This parasite is a small red insect, which attaches itself to the grasshopper just under the wing. 255. Canker-Worm Preventives.—The following letter to the author, froma New York city friend, is worthy of attention by all whose trees are eaten by worms: “Sir: Your recent discussions upon the canker-worm, which is so seriously devastating the foliage of the city, stir me up to lay before your readers the information which some years of careful observation have enabled me to gain respecting this pest of our neighborhood. Ido this the more because I notice some suggestions in your conversations which look to the adoption of remedies; and before any remedy is tried, it is essential that we have some assurance that it will be effectual. : - “T was a student in New Haven at the time when the ravages of the in- sect were so severe in that city, and witnessed the extreme desolation which the creature produced. The magnificent elms which are the glory of that beautiful city, stood bare and wintry at the end of June, with every vestige of their foliage utterly consumed. I noticed, and have since repeatedly ob- Src. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 233 served, how perfect a protection is afforded by the metallic girdle which you describe. Whether the plan of a Mr. Taylor, spoken of in the papers, is an improvement, I am not able to say. “The whole merit of the plan, however, consists in its adaptation to the habits of the insect. The female—which deposits its eggs upon the body and branches of the tree before the opening of the spring—is wingless, apterous, as we say in Entomology; and being incapable of flying, is effectually arrested by the barrier which is presented by such an open tube encircling the tree. The protection is complet® the application is easy, and the remedy is effectual. “ One fact, however, is to be taken into view, which effectually alters the case with us. After familiar study of our New York insect, for several years past, I am convinced that it is an entirely different specics, of different habits in many respects; and, above all, different in the one particular which gives all its value to the New Haven remedy ; our species fully possesses the power of flight. Its progress, therefore, to the body and limbs of the tree | for the purpose of depositing its eggs can never be in the least arrested by any such measure as your correspondent proposes to adopt. Protection against | the worm in our city can be obtained only by the same method by which New Haven derived hers, viz., the thorough and careful study of the habits of our own species of insect. “The very positive assurance of your correspondent, Mr. Webb, that ‘it is a law of nature that all the millers which produce the measuring worm have no wings by which they can fly one inch,’ is in the main true, though perhaps rather strongly stated; but it applies only to the canker-worm of New England. Our species may be seen flying abundantly, both males and females, ascending above the tops of our highest trees, and reaching the large branches with absolute ease. After having observed the whole process very carefully, [ am in a position to speak confidently about it; and I beg to assure your readers that any attempt blindly to imitate the New Haven method will only prove a mistaken and unprofitable, because ignorant, attempt. In order to ascertain with greater certainty the truth upon this point, I transmitted specimens of our New York miller, last summer, to Mr. E. C. Herrick, the accomplished librarian of Yale College, whose investiga- tions of the New Haven canker-worm were published at length, some years ago, in the American Journal of Science, and received from him the assur- ance that my impression that the two species were entirely distinct was no doubt correct. Mr. H. also concurred with me in thinking that the power of flight possessed by the New York moth would require entirely different methods for the prevention of its ravages. “The one method which my observation has suggested as effectual, con- sists in thoroughly scraping the tree after the eggs of the moth have been deposited upon it. The worm with us does not, as in New Haven, go into the ground and remain there till the winter, but goes through its changes in a very brief period. After coming down from the tree, it lays itself up in a eae 234 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cuap. IT. cocoon, formed of a few thin fibers of silk, in the crevices of the bark of the trees which it frequents, or upon posts and fences near the tree. There the insect may then be found, undergoing its change. After about a fortnight, it comes forth in the shape of a white moth, somewhat less than an inch long. At that period our parks and public squares are alive with these millers; the grass is studded, the paths covered, the air filled with them. Any one may easily satisfy himself of their power of flight by a careful ob- servation of them. The antenna, or feelers, projecting from the head, are in tlie males feathered, or, entOmologically, pectinated ; a row of fine fibers, like the teeth of a comb, lines each antenna upon one side; the females have the antenna plain and straight; and they may also be distinguished by the larger size of the abdomen, which is distended by eggs. No difference, however, in the power of flight will be observed between the two sexes. On coming out from the cocoon the sexes meet, and the impregnated egos are at once laid upon the bark of the tree. They may be seen in patches, varying from a dozen to fifty, or even more—minute, green globules, which soon change to a dusky gray or brown, scarcely distinguishable in tint from the bark. They adhere by a glutinous secretion very firmly to the tree, and remain through the year until the warmth of another spring hatches them into life. “ At any time after the eggs are laid in the beginning of July, and before they are hatched in the beginning of the following May, a careful scraping of the tree will remove most of them, and so prevent their ravages for the next summer. “Having frequent occasion to pass through Washington. Parade Ground, I have pointed out the eggs upon the bark to the persons intrusted with the care of that spot, and the trees have been sometimes scraped in the spring, with very good results. This year it was omitted, and the deserted shells of the eggs of last year may now be seen on the trunks of the trees so seri- ously injured by them this summer. No other method than this affords the least security ; but this, if faithfully carried out under any competent super- vision, can be made entirely effectual. The eggs remain for nearly a year before they are hatched, quite obvious, and tolerably accessible. A couple of men would in two or three days clean any one of our parks of this de- stroying agent for the next summer; and careful attention for a few years throughout the city would nearly exterminate the pest.” 256. Garden and Field Crop Pests —The amount of damage done to farmers every year by bugs and worms, if it could be exhibited in figures represent- ing dollars and cents, would exceed the whole value of the wheat crop, or corn crop, or cotton crop, and it would not surprise me if it exceeded the value of all of them. If we could give certain preventives of the ravages of any one of the pests, we could afford to devote much more space than we shall allot to this head. But we will urge farmers to give the subject more attention. Buy the best works upon entomology, and devote many a winter evening to the careful study of the appearance, character, and habits of all Szo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 235 the insects that consume your crops. Give, we pray you, good attention to what we have already said and shall say in this section. You can not fail to find something that will repay you well. You certainly will find valuable information in the following paragraph, written by A. S. Hall, of Malden, Mass., in May, 1860: 257. Salt for the Onion Maggot.—Much has been said and written about the onion maggot, and I don’t know that there is any cure for him; but I will tell you how I treated mine last year, and with good success for once, and shall try it again this year, and will tell it to you and the farmers free of charge, for I don’t think I could get “$60,000” for it if I should ask it. I sowed last year in my garden, on good soil, three rows, about thirty feet long each, to onion seeds. I expected the maggots, and watched diligently their progress. When they were first up about one or two inches high, I put some strong salt and water on about three feet of one row, to see if it would kill the onions, and, in case it did not, perhaps it might kill the mag- gots, if they came. The young onions stood it well, and it did not hurt them. After the onions had got about as large as a pail-bail wire, there came a spell of warm, wet weather, and my onions began to be affected. I watched them several days, and they grew worse, and were fast dying out, for about one in every eight or ten were wilting and dying, and I fond a maggot at the roots of every one that appeared wilting, and sometimes the maggot was nearly as large as the little stock itself, and had eaten the bot- tom all away, and was making its way up, the stem; at the rate of havoc they were making, it appeared there would not be one onion left in the bed at the end of four weeks more. I took a pailful of strong pickle from my pork-barrel, and, with a watering-pot, put it all on to the three rows, as though I were watering them; the onions never faltered or changed. The salt killed all the grass, young clover, and weeds, except purslane, which came up later, and the maggots were entirely killed, and I never saw any after, though the flies continued to lay their eggs down the side of the little plant, and between it and the dirt, just as flies will blow a piece of fresh meat; but the salt prevented their maturing or hatching, and I raised a good ae of fair-sized onions. I think they did not ripen as well as usual, but I am not convinced that the salt prevented them, for I have often seen patches remain as green as mine were at harvest-time. I put on two or three slighter sprinklings of brine after the first, during the summer. 258, Essay on the Cut-Worm.—/ead before the Chicago Gardener's Soci- ety, August 6th, 1860, by Jno. Prertam.—I acknowledge my inability to do justice to this subject, from not having given it my attention, except in a general way. It is, nevertheless, one which interests agriculturists, and par- ticularly horticulturists, as much, perhaps, as any other entomological sub- ject with which they have to do. The farmers, working on a more , extended scale, using larger fields, and planting fewer varieties of hoed crops, do not 236 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuape. If. notice, nor perhaps suffer as much from the ravages of these families of the Lepidoptera as the horticulturist proper. And the great order of insects to which this class belongs are, perhaps, the greatest scourge with which the worker in the soil has to contend. According to Dr. Fitch, the most of this species belong to the genus Agrotis, of the family Noctuidze, or Owlet-moths. In England, the insects of this genus are named Dart-moths, from a peculiar spot or streak which many of them have near the base of their fore wings, resembling the point of a dart or spear, and he says that much the most common species of this genus in the State of New York can be nothing else than the Gothic dart, Agrotis subgothica of the British entomologists. They are the same which flit about the lights in summer evenings, and are found hid by day within crevices and shutters. To show still further the import- ance of this class of insects, I will quote from Dr. Harris, showing some of the families. He has divided them into three sections, called Butterflies, Hawk-moths, and moths corresponding to the genera Papilio, Sphinx, and Phalena of Linnzeus. To the first of these orders belong the caterpillars of our common butter- flies, many of which are very destructive to vegetation. To the second be- longs that class of caterpillars which infect the potato, the grapevine, ete. ; the Algerians, or, as they are commonly called, Borers, which latter name, however, is equally applicable to the larvee of insects of many other orders. The third great section includes a vast number of insects, sometimes called Millers, from their dusty covering, or Night Butterflies, but more frequently Moths. Among these are the Cut-worm, the Bee-moth, and all other insects belonging to the order Lepidoptera which can not be arranged among the butterflies and hawk-moths. The most common of the Cut-worm tribe which have come under my ob- servation the present season, are the Striped Cut-worm, the Red-headed Cut-worm, and the Black Worm. The first is of a dirty whitish color, inclining to brown, with darker stripes. This worm works upon the surface of the ground, and may be found at any hour of the day, if damp and cloudy. The red-headed cut-worm has, as its name implies, a red head, and is of a uniform pale brown color, and has this season been particularly destructive; and as it works under ground, it is death to whatever it attacks. The Black, or (as it is sometimes called) Tiger worm may easily be known when seen by its dark, dull brown color and black head. It works under ground, just below the surface, drawing the stems and leaves after it into its hole. There are a number of others, among which are the faintly-lined cut- worm and the white cut-worm. Of the latter, I have not found a single specimen this season, though last year I found several. They are rare, and consequently do but little damage. In this day of patent discoveries, any one who has plenty of money and ample time to spend may furnish himself with a thousand-and-one nostrums which are said to be effectual extermi- So. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 237 — nators. Snuff, strong liquid manure, powder, charcoal dust, ete., will pro- tect, provided they can find plenty to eat elsewhere; if not, they care about as mach for them as I should about wetting my feet in wading a brook for my dinner, if I could not get it by-any other means. I am satisfied that they might be, in a great measure, exterminated by neighbors joining, dur- ing the prevalence of the moths, and setting torches or building fires for them to fly into. I saved my tomato crop, the present season, by having my men go over the ground in the morning, soon after daylight, and pick up the worms by hand. The first morning we secured over two thousand by count, and the next morning we gathered over a half peck of them on about an acre and a half. After that they began to diminish, and in a few days scarcely one could be found. I protect dahlias, and other choice plants, by wrapping paper about the stems; vines, by planting plenty of seed, and killing the worms ; vine shields, if set two or three inches below the surface, will gen- erally protect. I have never succeeded in trapping them in holes, because, if they fall into them, they can dig out, if they can not crawl out. The best way to protect against their ravages is to plant plenty of seed, protect the birds, and then help them kill the worms. The London Gardeners Chronicle says there is a prospect of a total de- struction of the grass in the London parks, by the grub of an insect known as “ Daddy Longlegs,” which eats the roots of the turf and totally destroys it. ‘ Various remedies have been tried without success.” Have any of those remedies been a heavy dressing of salt? If not, it should be tried at -onece. And besides that, we should like to know what this “‘ Daddy Long- legs” is. It can not be our cut-worm, that sometimes destroys the turf in old meadows; and certainly it can not be the “ Daddy Longlegs” of our ac- quaintance, for that, so far as our youthful entomological researches went, was a very harmless Daddy, which had very long, slim, crooked legs, attached to a round body, the size of a small pea. 259. Wire Worms.—‘“‘ A Young Farmer” wants to know what he shall do to get rid of wire worms. He says: “An old gentleman not far from me says: ‘Soak the seed over night in copperas water, and the wire worm will not trouble it... Who knows whether this is so or not?” Ah! who knows? Does anybody know anything? . Another says soaking seed in a solution of niter will prevent destruction. If so, how easily practiced! Again, who knows? Probably the best remedy against wire worms is not to grow them. Keep no old meadows. Break them up. Plow all your sod and stubble land in the fall. Either bury your worm seed too deep to get out in time in the spring, or else freeze it to death in the winter. There is probably no remedy equal to deep plowing in the fall of the year. Perhaps we might all learn useful lessons from nature if we would more carefully read her printed pages. For instance, one who does try to read such lessons says: pei 238 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cnap, II. OOOO “So far as my observation goes, the wire-worm is most troublesome in seasons after a mild winter, or when there has been a heavy coat of snow on the ground during winter, thus preventing the frost penetrating the earth to any considerable depth. Consequently, the worms remain near the surface, and are not frozen to death or driven so far below the surface that they must starve before they can return. Two successive crops of buckwheat will generally rid any soil of wire-worms.” And we add, so will ten bushels of salt per acre, and every worm that is killed by it will fertilize a whole handful of grass. Salt, alone, is an excel- lent manure; salt and lime still better, prepared according to the formula under the head of “salt and lime mixture.” Thirty bushels of lime, in powder, sown broadcast, will destroy the worms in many a field that has been almost barren, and make it productive of fine crops of wheat, clover, corn. “ How to get rid of the worms,” is one of the most important questions that a farmer can ask, and the want of a knowledge how, is not confined to young farmers. Hence, all we say upon the subject is worth treasuring up in the great store-house of knowledge, the human mind. 260. Worm-Killers.—A reliable South Carolina acquaintance, Col. A. G. Summer, of Pomaria, declares that China berries applied like manure to soil will expel all grubs and worms. “China trees” are as common all over the South as locust or ailanthus here, and they are very fruitful, the berries resem- bling small cherries in size, and pulp surrounding a hard seed. Only afew years ago, the fact was discovered, rather accidentally, that the wood of this tree would bear a high polish, and that furniture made of it was as strong and handsome as that of some of our most expensive imported woods, and that its natural pleasant odor, like that of cedar or camphor wood, remains, and is a great preventive of moths. The botanical name of the “China tree” is Melia azedaraeh ; sometimes called the great Jndian lilac. Tt is a hot- house shrub here; at Charleston, it grows fifty feet high, and is a beautiful shade-tree, its greatest objection being“ts abundance of berries falling upon the ground, notwithstanding which it is a great favorite in all the most Southern States, and its berries, if of any value, could be had here at a small price. 261. Tobacco-Worms.—These destructive pests of the tobacco-planter, it is well known, can be subdued with a flock of turkeys better than in any other way. As both turkeys and worms are large, the operation can be seen and appreciated ; yet we have no doubt that a flock of wrens do just as much toward the destruction of some other family of worms, and really effect as much good to the farmer. And so of every other class of birds. Cultivators of other crops ought to take lessons from the tobacco-growers. The first glut of worms, in July, is easily subdued by the turkeys, while tobacco is small, and the worms are doing but little damage. The trouble comes in August, but the destruction of the worms a month sooner may save the crop. Mr. Wm. Sheppard, of Ann Arundel Co., Md., has been very successful Szo. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL. 239 in poisoning the moth that produces the tobacco-worm, by the use of cobalt —a quarter of a pound toa half pint of water. This is made quite sweet with refined sugar, and the mixture is put into a small bottle, with a quill in the cork, and two or three drops through the quill deposited in the blossom of the Jamestown weed, or in the blossom of the tobacco-plants. The horn- blower will suck the poison till he dies. The trumpet blossoms of the Jamestown weed are favorite resorts of the moth, and are gathered fresh, and fastened to the tobacco-plants, or upon sticks set through the field. It may be worth while to grow the weed on purpose for traps. The cobalt is the same black powder often sold by druggists as “fly poison.» It should be reduced in a mortar to a fine powder before using. It is worth while to try it for other insects, placing it upon plates in their haunts. Mr. Sheppard thinks any planter may protect himself against the tobacco- worm with this poison. John G. Bergen, of Long Island, stated to us, in the spring of 1860, that he had been obliged to send all his laborers into his tomato-field to kill worms that are destroying the plants and young fruit. He thinks it identical with the tobacco-worm, having grown tobacco a few years ago and been troubled with the same kind of worms. One of Mr. B.’s neighbors told us afterward that the worms were not only very troublesome on the tomato vines, but were eating the potato-vines ravenously. The New Haven Courier said the potato-vines in that State were being eaten by worms, so as to destroy the prospect of a crop, and these worms, we judge, are the same kind as those on Long Island. In this city, worms have been for years destroying the trees; none but the ailanthus escapes them. Is it not worth while to try to poison the insects while on the wing, in the way indicated above, or some other way ? The Jamestown weed mentioned above, we take to be the same weed that grows along many New England waysides, called “ Jimson weed,” or “ stink- weed.” Itis the Datura stramonium. 262. Bug Remedies.—Here is a good one! We haven’t a doubt as to its efficacy—not one! try it. A correspondent says: “I have seen many plans recommended for removing and keeping bugs and other insects from vines, and among them, snuff, soap, mustard, etc., all or any of which articles must, in my opinion, more or less injure the plant. I have found this the case from experience; and I have also found, by the same means, that the best preparation for this purpose is a cold and very strong decoction made with water and manure from the hen-roost and cow-yard, and applied morn- ing and evening. The insects do not relish this preparation, while the plants to which it is applied do.” Another one says: “I preserved my vines last year from the ravages of the striped bugs by placing little wads of cotton, saturated with spirits of o — 240 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Onar. II. turpentine among the vines near the roots, using care to have them not touch the vines. The turpentine should be renewed from to time.” Another says: “These pests. of the vines may be easily got rid of by building a fire of light wood that will blaze freely in the evening. All insects fly into a blaze, and are thus destroyed in myriads.” It is recommended by J. M. Dimond, of Eaton Co., Mich., to plant in the same hill with summer squashes or melons, etc., some seeds of the winter squash, such as have the largest succulent leaves. He says the bugs will not molest the smaller vines under such circumstances. When danger from bugs has ceased, then the plants can be removed. Another one gives the following as a sure specific for bugs on vines: “ Having seen by your paper that many truckers in your section are anxious to ascertain a simple and sure remedy to destroy bugs on squashes, cucum- bers, and the like, I will give you one which is almost a specific, and within the reach of every one, especially those living on the sea-board. “ Procure fresh fish—of any kind whatever, the commonest and cheapest just as good—a sufficient quantity according to circumstances, say one peck to a barrel of water. Let them stand therein a day or two, in order to com- mence decomposition and emit their necessarily unpleasant odor; then dampen the leaves with the liquid. “Tn addition to driving away the bugs, your plants will become green and healthy, and soon grow beyond the reach of any future swarm of depreda- tors. It may be necessary to use the water two or three times in the course of two weeks, but remember that every application is equivalent to a dress- ing of manure, which will amply repay for the labor, which is very trifling. Fresh fish offal is of equal value with the fish.” 263. Potato Bugs.—It is quite as useful to report failure as success in farming. We are therefore obliged to Horatio J. Cox, of Zanesville, Ohio, for telling us that he tried powdered lime, and also ashes, sifted upon his potato vines to prevent them from being eaten by the potato bugs, but he found them. at work as usual, with their backs white with lime. His eon- clusion, therefore, is, that that is no remedy against the depredations of these pests. He remarks that “there are two kinds working in concert, but, from my observation, keeping up separate breeds—the black shell and the striped shell; the latter is more active than the other, and not quite so plump.” A French paper gives an opinion that nearly all the diseases of plants, including potato-rot, are occasioned by insects. The insects, in many cases, are microscopic. The little aucaris, for instance, although so very minute, isa great destroyer. It causes little scabby pustules upon fruits, particularly fine pears. Whether the potato bug always found on the diseased vines is the cause or effect of the disease, is a mooted question. Although My. Cox did not stop their depredations, we still recommend liberal dressings of ashes and plaster, and if these do not kill the bugs, they will give the vines a vigorous growth. © So with lime and salt. Sexo. 12.] - ENTOMOLOGICAL. 241 264. Protection of Turnips.—The following, from an English newspaper, is equally worthy of attention in America: “Tn the list of patents for which provisional protection has been taken out is a machine of a novel and somewhat curious character. The specifica- tion, as taken from the list, describes the machine as a ‘blast drill,’ the object of which is to protect the turnip crop from the ravages of the fly and the slug, and its other numerous enemies, and secure, as far as human inge- nuity can accomplish it, this most valuable of all bulbous roots. The com- mon practice of protecting the turnip from the fly is by dusting the row with lime during the night and while the dew is upon the plant. This operation is difficult, and imperfectly performed. Besides the slow process of doing this by hand, the difficulty of dusting the under side of the plant as well as the top side offers an insuperable objection to this mode of applying lime, soot, or any other compost, to the young turnip-plant. This difficulty is now overcome, and the lime (a mixture of one sixth of soot with it is recom- mended) is thrown, by means of a blast fan, upon every part of the plant, both on the upper and under side. The fan is put in motion by the travel- ing wheels of the drill, and receives its velocity in the usual manner by gearing wheels. The blast thus created by the fan is brought to bear upon the plant, which, yielding to its action, bends from the current, and as it acts upon a falling stream of lime or other composition, the plant becomes completely covered with the powder. But this is not the only object the blast drill will accomplish. The fly, disturbed by a simple contrivance, hops away, but is at that moment caught by a current of air entering the blast fan and instantly destroyed, and thrown out again with violence from the vortex into which it had been drawn. This operation is simple, and the pro- cess of annihilation is similar to that of a mouse or rat going down a thrash- ing-machine. The fly and the lime are so completely mixed and incorpo- rated that the mischievous yet delicate insects are destroyed by the atmo- spherie pressure thrown upon them, and the plant is also secured, by the dusting of compost, from all future attacks of the enemy. All farmers can not fail to know something about the insect which does so much annual mis- chief to the turnip crops. Sometimes a fallow, which in tillage and labor has cost £5 or £6 an acre in preparing it for a crop of Swedes, has had all the labor and capital expended made vain by the fly. Can this evil be rem- ediad? It seems possible; and if this invention of a blast drill should be the means of securing a turnip crop, or even improving it, by the application of a top-dressing of soot or guano, or any other soluble manure, a great good has been accomplished, not to farmers only, but to the community at large.” 265. Pea-Weevii—How Destroyed.—One of the greatest pests that growers of peas have to contend with is the pea-weevil, Bruchus pisi, which some- times attacks every pod, and leaves an egg to hatch into a disgusting insect in every pea, so that, if intended for food, when dry, we shall find a modi- cum of meat ready mixed in our pea-soup. If intended for seed, when we are ready to plant in the spring, we find the life of our peas eaten out. 16 242 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cuap. II. we Although several birds, of which the crow and Baltimore oriole are the chief, feed upon the pea-w eevil, they are very far from destroying it, and the evil is aunually increasing. How can this insect be destroyed, is a question worth solving. We think it can be, if farmers and gardeners would make a united effort, totally annihilated from the country. The remedy is very simple. It is to steam all the seed peas. This can be done in a small way in families by taking the seed, so soon as gathered, shelled, and dried, and placing it in a cullender, boverel with a cloth or plate, and placed over a kettle of boiling water nntil the steam is thoroughly passed through the peas, when they are to be dried in the sun and put away in paper bags. Upon a large scale, the peas may be steamed in bags or barrels, by inserting a steam- pipe from a boiler at so low a pressure that it will not cook the peas, but it will the pupze of the pea-weevil. Let it be remembered that steam, prop- erly applied, will totally eradicate the pea-weevil from the land . And if from peas, why not from wheat, corn, and rice, easier and better than by kily-drying? It would be very easy to dry the steamed grain. Passing it through a fanning-mill would probably be sufficient; or pouring it out of a basket, where it would fall fifteen or twenty feet through the air. 266. Preserving Insectsx—Insect collectors will find le following method of killing the insects they wish to preserve one of the most conv venient of any they have ever tried. Dissolve cyanide of potassa in water to satura- tion, and keep it tightly corked in a small vial, and it will always remain in good order for use. When you catch a fly, moth, insect of any kind, or a beautiful butterfly that would be injured in fluttering, dip a needle- point in the solution, and prick your captive just under the wing, and see how quick and calmly they will lie down and die. Some large or hard-to-kill insects may require more than one stab to make them die peace- ably. This solution is used by scientific entomologists in making their collections. 267. Househo:d Insects.x—/all’s Medical Journal states that household vermin may be got rid of as follows: Half an ounce of soap boiled in a pint of water, and put on with a brush while boiling hot, infallibly destroys the bugs and their eggs. Flies are driven out of a room by hanging up a bunch of common plantain (fleawort) after it has been dipped in milk. Rats and mice speedily disappear by mixing equal quantities of strong cheese and powdered squills. They devour this mixture with greediness, while it is in- nocent to man. When it is remembered how many persons have lost their lives by swallowing mixtures of strychnine, etc., it becomes a matter of hu- manity to publish these items. The Scientific American says: “*‘Common red wafers scattered about the haunts of cockroaches will often drive away if not destroy them.” These wafers, like candies, are colored red by oxyd of lead, a most deadly poison ; and s0 is the acetate of lead, or sugar of lead, as it is sometimes called, on visiting cards, which, being a little sweetish, has been known to destroy young children, to whom they were handed to be amused with. Fashion Src. 12.] ENTOMOLOGICAL., 243 PLLA LL LILI LLOLLSLLLLILLPLPLLLPLD ODPL EE ELLE PLL LL LLP PLL P LP LPO POPOL OOP LLP S IPP. for once acts sensibly in discarding glazed cards, using instead Bristol board, more pliant, less cumbersome, and really more delicate. We have found that bugs can not stand hot alum water. Take two pounds of alum, bruise and reduce nearly to powder, and dissolve in three quarts of boiling water, letting it remain in a warm place till the alum is dissolved. The alum water is to be applied hot; by means of a brush, to every joint and erevice. Brush the crevices in the floor of the skirting-board, if they are suspected places. Whitewash the ceiling, put in plenty of alum, and there will be an end to their dropping from thence. To kill moths in carpets, spread a wet cloth on the carpet, and iron with a hot flat-iyon round the edges and places where you suspect them to be. Do this a few times in the course of the summer, and you will save your carpet from the moths. Silk-worms lave been induced to work in France by electricity. M. Sauvageon reports to the Academy his experience in the matter. Finding the little things torpid and unwilling to work, the idea struck him to stir them up by electricity. The results, as he gives them, are really marvelous. Tle took fifty-three worms at random from among thousands belonging to a neighbor, put them every day on a sheet-iron plate, through which a current of electricity was passed, kept them each time as long as they could stand it, and now has fifty-three beautiful cocoons, an amount which his neighbors will not obtain, to all appearances, from several thousand ungalvanized worms. If these results may be relied on, he has made a yery valuable discovery. 268. Moth Protectors.—Camphor is one of the most useful moth protectors about the household. and therefore have a right to speak of them from expe- rience. In some respects we have suffered severely by them. They have killed many choice things that we have planted, including several valuable grapevines ; but we are not yet willing to destroy the moles. We do not look upon them as pests, although they have pestered us. They undermine the plants, but do not eat them What for? It is not for sport, nor merely accidental in boring their subterranean galleries. It is in pursuit of food. And as that food consists of insects noxious to the farmer, this paragraph upon moles comes in course very well after the section devoted to insects. In fact, we believe that the mole is one of man’s best friends, and that it never occupies land that is not already so preoccupied with destructive worms as to render it unfit for culti- vation. So impressed with this belief are some European people—all Prussia, we believe—that they have enacted laws to prohibit the killing of moles. As with the crow, opinions vary in this country whether the mole is beneficial or injurious to farmers. For our own part, we must say that we never see an account of a “new mole-trap” without wishing the inventor might get his own fingers caught init. Itis a great pity that farmers can not learn that moles are one of the good things that Providence has bestowed upon them—that they do not destroy seeds and plants, but the insects that are great pests to the farm and garden. In this opinion we shall continue until better informed upon this question. In the mean time we give some opinions of others. The following is the sketch of a report of a conversation at the New York Farmers’ Club about moles: Soton Rosgrnson read a letter upon the subject of moles, which elicited a lengthy discussion. The following portion of the letter we print: “This animal, as you probably know, has a very small apology for eyes, which can not be discovered till the skin is removed, and it can not be ascer- tained that they are of any practical use. His sense of hearing and of smell is yery acute, and he is enabled to elude cbservation, and to avoid anything unusual that may be placed in his track. No device, however, with which I am acquainted will force him to abandon a well-cultivated track, abound- ing with earth-worms, which are his chief attraction. He will pass from me Seo. 13.] WILD AND TAME ANIMALS OF THE FARM. 249 to hill, severing the corn, melon, or other seeds from the tender plant, thus greatly impeding its progress, and in many instances wholly destroying it. In a scarcity of earth-worms he will prey upon beets, potatoes, and other roots with voracity ; still the damage he thus does is of little account com- pared with that produced by his relentless plowing or rooting. Where the soil is fertile and not too wet, this intruder will be found undermining all vegetation, and is a source of discomfort to the agriculturist, which must be realized to be appreciated. “Wailures in field and garden, which are often attributed to drouth or in- sects, are many times produced in a great, measure by moles. At morning, noon, and evening the mole goes forth on his depredations, making the most rapid movements (for an underground performance), and in less than twenty minutes finishes his repast, and returns again to his hiding-place deep in the earth, beyond the reach of all intruders. “The Yankee mole is too shrewd for the English trap, or, indeed, for any, with a single exception. I have examined several traps, beautiful in theory, but they are splendid practical failures.” Wx. 8. Carrenrer—I am satisfied about the injury of moles to the farmer, being much more than all his benefit in eating worms. I had a bed of tulips destroyed by moles. I traced them by their paths from root to root. Prof. Marrs—I have tried careful experiments with moles in confinement, and have never succeeded in getting them to eat any kind of vegetable matter. Mr. Moopy, of New Jersey—I have found that moles do cut off the stems of thorns in my hedge. I can not say that they eat thorns. I am satisfied, too, that they will eat potatoes. Prof. Marrs—I find that potatoes are eaten in the vicinity of moles, but I am satisfied that they are eaten by grubs that the moles feed upon. Dr. Tromie—The potato is eaten by the grub of the cockchafer, and not by the mole. Mr. Futter—I have known moles to gnaw potatoes, but not for food. The Chairman, Rosrerr L. Pett, made the following remarks upon this subject : Mole-Hills.—In rich alluvial soils, mole-hills are thrown up in immense numbers, because such soils usually abound with the food that these subter- raneous creatures seek for. They destroy the roots of grass immediately contiguous to their mounds, besides often impeding the free action of the scythe, for these reasons. Some think it well to exterminate them; still they no doubt do a vast deal of good by destroying obnoxious worms and grubs. In the spring of the year it is an easy matter to spread out these mounds over the surrounding ground, as they are dry and powdery, and act to a certain extent as an enriching top-dressing. The mole can not bear access to the atmosphere, being wholly subterra- neous by nature; they never drink, but live entirely upon worms, insects, and the roots of grass, and are never found in gravelly or clay soils. | a TREE | 250 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. ices Il. mA A an en een enn we SN RRS SR Re SR re en en inn nnn an eee They breed in April sai lias seep generally roden four at a birth. The tunnels that they make are invariably parallel to the surface of the ground, and about six inches deep, unless they become alarmed, when they immediately sink to the depth of fourteen inches, rarely deeper. They have cities under ground, which consist of houses, or nests, where they feed and nurse their young ; communicating with these are wider and more frequented streets, made by the perpetual journeys of the female and male parents, as well as many other fess frequented streets, with diverging branches, which they extend daily to collect food for themselves and families. Moles are exceedingly active in April and May, during the pairing season, when the tunnels become very numerous, for the purpose of meeting each other. I do not believe that they are blind, from the fact that I have never observed that the mole-hills increase except in the day-time, showing that they do not work by night, which they would probably do if deprived of sight. They commence very early in the morning, when you may often see the mold or grass moving over them; you may then readily cut off their retreat by thrusting in the ground a spade directly behind them, when they may be dug out very easily and killed by the attendant terrier. By placing your ear on a newly-raised hill you may hear them scratching at a considerable distance, and thus be able to find them. You may always dis- cover the locality of their young by observing the hills, which are larger and the color different, a portion of the subsoil being thrown upon top. If you desire to set traps in their tunnels, it will be necessary to discover which are the frequented streets and which the by-roads. This may be accomplished by pressing the foot lightly on the hill, and if the mole passes that way he will nearly obliterate the mark. You may then set a subterranean trap, and he will be caught. These may be made from-a piece of wood, in a hollow, semi-cylinder form, with grooved rings at each end, in which are placed the nooses of horse-hair, one at each end, fastened by a peg in the center, and stretched above-ground by a bent stick; when the mole has passed through one of the nooses, and removed the central peg, the bent stick, by its elasticity, rises and strangles the animal. The structure of this quadruped adapts it admirably to the underground life that it leads. Its head is very long, conical in shape, and tapers to the snout, which is much strengthened by a bone, gristle, and very powerful muscles, The body is cylindrical, very thick on the back of the head, from which it dimin- ishes to the tail. It does not appear to have any neck, but where it should be, there is a mass of muscles, all of which appear to act upon the fore legs and head. These are the instruments with which he excavates the ground; they are harder, shorter, and stronger, in proportion to the size of the animal, than in any other of the mammiferous class. I have never destroyed one of these little animals, because I consider the damage they do to a few roots of grass is entirely counterbalanced by their immense destruction of wire-worms, slugs, etc., besides aerifying, disintegrating, and lightening the soil, and thus fitting it admirably for the purposes of top-dressing. | Seo. 13.] WILD AND TAME ANIMALS OF THE FARM. 251 en ee ee PI RRA a i. never permit the common crow to be desieavod, because he preserves my corn-fields from numerous enemies, keeps off hawks, destroys slugs, snails, grubs, and eats carrion. Nor the black snake, whose constant employment seems to be the destruction of field-mice, and other enemies to the orchard. Nor the cherry bird, because he is always on hand ready to eat the first cherries that ripen prematurely, which invariably contain the worm. Nor the king-bird, wren, or robin, all of which are employed from dawn to dusk in relieving me bon my enemies. 275. An English Opinion about Moles.x—The Royal Agricultural Society’s Transactions contains the following opinion about moles. The report affirms that “in one year, and every year, 60,000 bushels of seed-wheat, worth £30,000, are destroyed by wire-worms! This prevents 720,000 bushels from being grown, worth £300,000. If our farmers and others, instead of killing moles, partridges, and pheasants, would protect them, 720,000 bushels more wheat would go every year into the English market. Butthe creature designed by a kind Providence to perform the chief part of this immense good is the mole! Some years since I had two fields, one of which was full of wire- worms, the other perlaps a third full. My crops failed on these fields for the first two or three years, but afterward improved rapidly, for I bought all the live moles I could find at three shillings a dozen, and then two shillings a dozen, and turned them into these fields. I had eight quarters of barley per acre and seven of wheat where the moles were at work all summer, making the ground like a honey-comb. Next year, the wire-worms, being all cleared out, my innocent little workmen, who had performed for me a service beyond the powers of all the men in my parish, emigrated to my neighbor’s lands to perform the same service, but of course they met death wherever they moved, so that my little colony was wholly destroyed. Now I will receive all the moles that the farmers will give me, and turn them into my glebe.” 276. An American Opinion about Moles—An American writer undertakes to criticise what is said above, and says: “This I know from every-day observation to be very erroneous. I do not know that moles eat insects; be that as it may, I have no doubt their living is principally seeds, and roots, and other vegetables. In the winter time, when snow is deep and the ground not frozen, I have known them to destroy whole nurseries of apple-trees, and even young orchards that have commenced bearing.” Now this man don’t know what he is talking about. He has confounded mice and moles together. It is the mice, and not the moles, that have been running about in this man’s orchard eating his trees. But he believes it is moles, and has a fixed prejudice in his mind against them, which no argument perhaps can remove. We beg of farmers to learn facts about things in - which they are so much interested. 277. Mice and their Mischief.—Mice, we willingly concede, are mischievous —in young orchards excessively so. Wet seasons are favorable to the rapid oS of field mice, and when followed by snowy winters and unfrozen | 252 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. [Cuap. II. RRA OR SS en nn ee ees turf, so they can nee access to the grer roots, aloe become a scourge. The late dry summers nearly exterminated both rats and mice—probably more from thirst than hunger. The variety of mice that does most damage to trees is known as the “‘meadow mouse,” which always works under cover, girdling the trees most when the snow lies deepest, particularly if it lies lightly or is held up by weeds and grass, so as to allow the vermin easily to make their paths from tree to tree, or from the tree to their resting-place. 278. Remedies for Mice Eating Treesx—Tramping the snow down around the trees is a pretty sure remedy, and where the orchard or nursery is not extensive, will answer to be put in practice, but it would be troublesome on a large scale, as it may have to be repeated several times in the winter. Some persons have found it a good plan to tramp down the snow and wet it. It then forms ice, that often remains nearly all winter, keeping the ground warm, as well as keeping the mice off. Downing, in his “ Fruits and Fruit-Trees,” says: “‘ The following mixture will be found to be an effectual prevention. "Take one spadeful of hot- slacked lime; one spadeful of clean cows’-dung; half spadeful of soot; one handful of flour of sulphur—mix the whole together with the additiop of sufficient water to bring it to the consistency of thick paint. At the approach of winter, paint the trunks of the trees sufficiently high to be beyond the reach of these vermin. Experience has proved that it does no injury to the tree. A dry day should be chosen for the application.” Coal-tar has been recommended, but we advise great caution in its use, since many persons have destroyed their trees by it. We would sooner try a coating of strong alkaline soap; that, at least, would not injure the trees. 279. Mice and Osage-orange.—J. D. Cattell, of Salem, Columbiana Co., Ohio, says the field-mice are eating up all the roots of Osage-orange hedges in that region, so that they are utterly destroyed, and their cultivation must be abandoned unless somebody can give a remedy. He says: “Tt has been my understanding, heretofore, that one of the greatest excel- lences of this plant for fencing was its freedom from all animal destroyers. If no remedy against the ravages of the mice can be found, it will be folly to set a plant of the kind in this part of the country. One of my neighbors has already given up half of his for lost, and grubbed out the balance. No doubt others are troubled in the same way. I have tried traps, terrier dogs, and poison, butvall in vain. What shall I do?” Who can tell ? We heard one nurseryman say that he should dig up an Osage-orange hedge, because it attracted mice, and also because it entirely exhausted the soil of a wide space, so that he lost the growth of one row of trees. 280. Rats.—This species of the genus mus is an almost intolerable nuisance in some portions of the United States. In fact, we do not know of any portion now exempt. They follow man into the wilderness. When we a Sxo. a WILD AND TAME ANIMALS OF THE FARM. 2538 Peta on the prairie, in 1834, eit 15 miles £ from ee and 40 miles out from what has since grown to be the city of Chicago, there was not a rat to seen or heard of. For several years we were exempt from this pest. There came abundance of shipping to Chicago, and with it abundance of rats, and they soon spread over the whole land, multiplying and devastating. Now they are great pests in the barns and stacks of prairie farmers. Our common breed is called “ Norway rats,” from the supposition that they originated in that country. British naturalists, however, assert that they were introduced into the British Islands from India. If they are tropical animals, all we have to say is, that they easity adapt themselves to a rigor- ous climate, where they multiply at a most prolific rate. What we are yet to do with them is a problem not easily solved. All the receipts to cure the nuisance are only preventive, not eradicative. 281. Rat Antidotes ——A correspondent of the Gardener's Monthly says: “T tried the effect of introducing into the entrance of their numerous holes, runs, or hiding-places, small portions of chloride of lime, or bleaching pow- der, wrapped in calico, and stuffed into the entrance holes, and thrown loose by spoonfuls into the drain from the house. This drove the rats away for a twelvemonth, when they returned to it. They were again treated in the same manner, with like effect. The cure was most complete. I presume it was the chlorine gas, which did not agree with their olfactories.” Another correspondent writes: “Some four or five years since, my cellar became musty, to overcome which my wife sprinkled a solution of copperas (pretty strong) over the bottom. Since that time we have seen no sign of rats about the house, notwithstanding there have been plenty of them about the barn and other buildings on the premises.” Arsenic is considered, by some who have tried it, a failure, when used for the purpose of clearing premises of rats, because they are too cunning to partake of it after witnessing the death of two or three of the family. It is effectual, if the vermin will take the bait. Strychnine we consider far preferable, and although so much more costly, it requires but a few cents’ worth to do the work of death upon a hundred rats. It is also the very best thing to use upon a troublesome dog or cat that comes prowling about your premises. One grain for a dose is sufficient. We have killed numerous wolves by inserting one grain of strychnine in the center of a piece of fresh meat, just large enough ie a mouthful for a wolf. As rats do not bolt their food, it is a little more “dificult to get them to take strychnine, it isso intensely bitter. Ifit is mixed with corn- Sata and a few drops of oil of anise are added, it will attract the rats. Tarving and feathering rats, and then letting them run, has been practiced, to give the tribe a hint that it would be well fa them to leave. One rather smart individual, not having tar, used spirits of turpentine. He was going to drive the rats out of his house cellar. He was entirely successful; for when he let the rat loose in his kitchen, with a “Shoo!” to it to go down the cellar stairs, it took the kitchen fire in its course, and then a pile of flax that 254 SMALL ANIMALS AND INSECTS. (Cap. II. lay in the cellar way. In two hours there was not a rat in the house, unless it might be a roasted one. Plaster of Paris has proved a successful poison for rats; and it has the advantage of being quite harmless to have about the house. A tablespoon- ful of the flour of plaster, mixed in a cup of Indian meal, and slightly sweet- ened, will be eaten by rats, and kill them. A little grated cheese makes the food more attractive. Oil of anise would be still more so. In fact, by the use of it, rats may be coaxed out of a house to eat poison, and die where their dead bodies would not be a nuisance. Phosphorus, powdered and mixed with meal, a few grains to a teacupful, has been often used successfully as a rat poison. Powdered potash, strewn in the paths frequented by rats, has been known to drive them away from a house. The theory is, that it gives them very sore feet, and disgusts them with the place. 282. English Rat-Catchers.—In England, rat-catching is a profession, sons often following it as the business of their fathers. The rat-catcher visits a farmer, and contracts with him at so much a head for all the rats he destroys. His trap is a large bag, which is set with the mouth open, baited with a piece of bread scented with oil of anise and oil of rhodium, the scent of which attracts the rats, and thus he bags enough to fill the contract. He does not desire to rid the premises, as that would “spoil business.” with an entry and double doors at one end, and double windows at the other. At first our design was to arch this over and make a grassy mound; but upon - Sxc. 15.] CELLARS, CHIMNEYS AND ICE-HOUSES. 289 second thought, we earthed it up as high as the top of the wall and then put on a building for a smoke-house, the fire for which was built at the bottom and earried up in a flue. Where there is a hillside, a cave cellar may be made more easily, though we did not find it a serious job to heap up the earth from the level ground, taking care to slope it off so as not to leave any noticeable depression. Such a cellar is very convenient, dry, pleasant, and not unhealthy. If built where a building over it would be unsightly, or not needed, it may be arched and covered with earth and made quite an orna- ment of the house surroundings. Wherever a cellar is it should have as uniform a temperature as possible, the year through; it should never sink much below 38° Fahrenheit, nor rise above 50°) and it should be always moist, yet never wet. It should be also well ventilated, and that should be by a flue of the chimney, constructed specially for that object, when the cellar is under the dwelling. 311.—Chimneys—How to Build them.—A new combination of chimney and ventilator has been patented by a Philadelphian (Mr. Leeds), and is very strongly recommended by many who have tried it in that city. The brick wall of this chimney is without flues, no matter how large the house, but the smoke is carried up, say half the height of the building, through a cast-metal box or square flue in the centre of the stack, while pure, cold air is intro- duced at the bottom of the building into the chimney outside of the flue. The heat of the flue causes this air to ascend with great rapidity and force, earrying the smoke with it from their juncture at the top of the box, and rendering it wholly impossible that the chimney should ever smoke. Venti- lation is effected by valves opening from the external or air-chimney into the rooms, so as to throw out a column of air, warmed by its contact with the flue, into the room near its floor, while another valve near the ceiling sucks in and carries off the impure air—the draught of the heated flue being aided by the influx of heated air through the lower valve into the room. This arrange- ment, it is claimed, saves the expense of brick flues, saves heat, which other- wise passes off uselessly through the chimney, insures a thorough ventilation without trouble or cost, and affords a perfect security against fires from defective or overheated chimneys, through the gradual charring of the wooden beams or other timbers imbedded or ending against the chimney. A connection with the cellar, by an opening into such a flue, would draw off all the foul air that would be generated in any but a very badly kept cellar ; besides proving a valuable safeguard against the carelessness of carpenters, who do sometimes place wood in fearfully dangerous places. If all stove- heated houses had such means of ventilation, it would do something toward bringing back the same state of health that existed in connection with open fire-places. The comfort of a dwelling depends in a great degree upon its having good chimneys, always maintaining a current of air upward within, and secuned externally against the entrance of water. Form, size, location and workman- ship, all unite in producing a good or bad article. 19 * 290 THE FARMERY. [Crar. IIT. The ridge or highest part of the roof is the best place for the exit of the chimney, for it is less liable to those sudden gusts of “blowing down chimney ” than when in proximity to higher objects. In this place too, the roof is more easily rendered tight and secure against wet. In small houses with but one chimney we need not seek any other place for it. In buildings larger, where several chimneys are needed, keep the same object in view, and approach as near to it as possible. In brick houses, if the chimney is built into an exterior wall, it will sometimes fail to draw well, because the air outside of the house cools the warm ascending current within the flue. If the flue is in a south wall, the heat of the sun sometimes aids the draught. The size of the chimney is also important. The modern fashion is quite too small for utility. Economy of space and a desire to conceal entirely an object merely of utility, have caused its dimensions to be contracted until a few months’ deposit of soot entirely chokes the passage. While we no longer need the huge “ good old-fashioned chimneys” of former days, the flues should not be contracted so as to hinder the current of smoke, which needs a channel as smooth as for the flow of water. We often find the curves, where the most room is needed, half filled with mortar carelessly dropped and loosely adhering to the bricks. By making a proper table above the roof, it can be made water-proof; but this, if not well done at first, always proves a vexatious and difficult matter to accomplish. Mortar, putty, cement, and paint, in all their variations, have been tried with various success. An old grafter recommends for this purpose “ grafting wax,” as the cheapest, surest, and most durable application. But we say, build so that they will all be unnecessary. Always begin your ae from a good foundation on the earth. He who builds a small “stem” in the garret, builds a large nuisance for himself. The soot tea, black and penetrating, will leak out to discolor the walls, the gathered soot and ashes cannot be removed, and the thing proves a chimney only in name and in its appearance on the roof. All unused stove-pipe holes and fire-places should be closed to secure the best draught. Where there are two chimneys in the same building one will sometimes overpower the other, with the most provoking results, This is a contingency to be regarded in forming the plan. The top of the chimney may be full size and open where there is no danger of down currents; otherwise it should be arched or provided with some cap or ventilator of sheet iron. Those who have built will see the importance of these hints; those who are to build, will do well to regard them. 312. Tee-Houses.—Next to a good cellar, an ice-house is a necessity of a farim-house. Here we can do without an ice-house, and north of latitude 40° we cannot do without a cellar—at least, not comfortably; and, in our opinion, any family who have once enjoyed the comforts of an ice-house, Sxo. 15.] CELLARS, CHIMNEYS AND ICE-HOUSES. 291 will ever after think that they cannot live quite comfortably without one. We have often witnessed in good farm-houses the necessity of a supply of ice, in the character of the butter placed upon the table—even among those who know how to make good butter, we find a quality far inferior to the samples made where there are cool spring houses or an abundant supply of ice. We give a few other reasons in favor of every farmer’s having an ice-house, and we beg farmers to read and consider them well, and then we will tell them how to build one. 813. Reasons why Farmers should have Ice-Houses.—It is August ; hot, faint and exhausted, the farmer comes from the field so thirsty that he cannot satisfy himself with water from a well so shallow that the burning rays of the sun haye reached the surface and penetrated into the water, warming it almost hot enough for dish-water. Some draw their water from springs, and others from cisterns. It is only here and there that we find a spring that comes gushing to the surface, or that feeds a deep well with water, cool enough to satisfy the over-heated, thirsty harvester. How refreshing such water is, not only to drink, but to lave the face and hands and breast, before sitting down to a meal, or lying down to repose to recupe- rate tired nature. We have no doubt that the laving is far better than the drinking, and it should always be the first step taken to quench thirst. Again, how refreshing is a cool drink with the lunch in the field, but how difficult to have it there, at only half a mile from the coldest spring or well. How easy it would be if there was an ice-house on the farm. >» _—>_ EEE 332. The Hen-Roost.—Every farmery must have a hen-roost, if it does not have a poultry-yard; and this should not be an open shed, nor a cold open room, but one so arranged that it will be well sheltered from cold winds and storms, and lighted by a glass window upon the sunny side or in the roof. It will also be found a most excellent provision to give hens access in winter to a cellar, where they can scratch gravel and wallow in dust. The hen-roost, too, should be afranged with special reference to saving all the droppings of the fowls, because it is the most valuable manure that is made about a farmery. SECTION XVII—WATER FOR THE FARMERY, BOUT half of the farms in the United States are deficient in water—that is, the water is not con- venient for stock; and in many situations cattle can only be watered by pumping, or by the still more tedious process of drawing water in a bucket from a well. This is a serious piece of labor, and a useless one, because the wind can be made to do the work a great deal better, cheaper, and more certain ; and the whole expense of a wind-mill, pump, and putting into operation, in a well twenty feet deep, would not probably exceed $50. You may use any one of a dozen iron pumps, to be found in almost every hardware store. Our own choice would be West’s Anti-Freezing Pump, which is made of iron, and is very durable. The wind-mill for the motive power is simplicity simplified. The wind-wheel is four feet in diameter, divided into eight parts, curved from the center, just as we used to whittle out wind-mills from a pine shingle forty years ago. The wheel may be made of wood or iron. If of wood, fix the points of the sails ina wooden hub and secure the outer ends by a rim, just like that of a large spinning-wheel. Fix this wheel firmly upon an inch iron-bar, say two feet long, with two bearings to run in iron or hard wood; and a crank in the center suited to the stroke of your pump. If the valve works four inches, make your crank short two inches. Now make a frame of three pieces, three quarters of a square, with bearings for the wind-wheel shaft upon two, and an inch and a quarter hole in the center of the other piece. Upon this frame attach a vane of strong, thin wood, about three feet long and one foot wide at the outer end. Now erect a gallows-frame seven feet wide and fifteen feet high over the pump, fixed with a pipe in the well. No matter whether that pipe is straight or not. Now put a bolt, with a big head and washer, through the hole in the frame that holds the shaft, and Sro. 17.] WATER FOR THE FARMERY. 309 EEE EE through the center of the cross-piece of tha’e gallows, so that the aX frame will be held firmly by the head of that bolt, yet will turn freely in the wind. From the piston-rod of the pump, extend a rod with a swivel-joint in the center to the crank, and, let the wind blow high or low, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your cattle are supplied with water. It is a good plan to make a cistern to hold a supply in case the pump stops at any time for repairs or want of wind; the latter will not be apt to occur, as it will run with a very slight breeze. From your watering-tub or trough, con- duct a pipe back to the well, and you need not fear frost unless the pump stops. By making use of a force-pump you may get a supply from a well in the valley up to your house and barn on the hill, or to irrigate your garden. See Nos. 869, 370. How to get water most convenient to all parts of the farmery should be the leading consideration; because water is indispensable——neither man nor beast can do without it a single day. All else may be inconvenient—water should never be. It should be brought in pipes from a higher level, when- ever it is practicable at any reasonable expense, because that is the most convenient of all forms in which water can be had at the farmery; and no farmer can afford to neglect to supply his place with water, if he owns a spring or stream that would afford such a supply, because it is the greatest labor-saving fixture that he can make. If aqueduct water can not be had, then convenient wells and pumps should be; and if water can not be had by easy, shallow digging, in wells, it can and should be in cisterns: and upon this question we will give some useful information. 333. Economy of Aqueducts.x—Some farmers neglect to make provision for watering domestic animals until drought actually arrives, and then they can not. We well knew one who, during a drought, drove his cattle a mile to water, at the same time that he had roof enough on his large barn to give them all the drink they needed, if a cistern of proper capacity had been pre- pared to retain it. The barn cost $1,000—the cistern might be built for $50—yet every animal of his large herd must travel miles every week for necessary drink. He might construct a cistern now, but it will be another year before he can derive benefit from it, and so he puts off the labor. There are many others who do the same. We know another farmer, who has lived till past eighty years of age upon a farm where there is a gushing spring of excellent water within sixty rods of his house and barn, high enough to run through pipes over the top of every building, yet this man draws water with a bucket from a well, which sometimes fails, when he has to go to a more distant and inconvenient well, or haul water in barrels from the river; and his stock, all the long winter, go down the road to the river- side for drink, wasting time (and that is money) and manure, to replace which he buys fertilizers. Saving the first cost of an aqueduct, in such cases, is not saving money. Neither is the neglect to construct cisterns a good piece of economy. 310 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. III. 334. Value of Cisterns—their Size and Contents.—No man, whose only sup- ply of water is in a deep well, or where the well or spring water, however convenient, is hard—that is, like all the water of limestone countries, unfit for washing, or making butter—-can afford to do without a cistern. If the earth where the cistern is to be-built is compact clay, it can be dug out in the form of a jug, with only a man-hole at the top; and in all ground but caving sand it can be dug and plastered without any brick walls, and the top ame’ with durable peer, which should be placed at least four feet from the surface to its under ley as it will, when thus covered, last enough longer to pay for the extra work. Wherever flat stones abound, a moderate- sized cistern should be covered with them, laid shelving over each way, if not large enough to reach clear across. The earth-bottom and walls are easily made tight by cement (water-lime mortar), made with three parts of clean, coarse, sharp sand to one of lime, which has to be wet up only as it is wanted for use, or it will set wherever it has a chance to dry upon the bed where mixed. It should be very thoroughly worked in, mixing while pretty wet, and plastered on the bottom first and then up the sides, one coat after another as fast as one is dry—two or three coats—taking care that no defect is made in the joining of the sides and bottom together. The bottom should be dug hollowing, and corners full; and to save cement, any little in- equalities in the walls may be filled with Ser or lime-mortar before putting on the cement plaster. In situations where cement can not be obtained, a good cistern can be made as follows, which will last a dozen years certain. We know one good at twenty years old. Take one and a half-inch plank, six or eight feet long, six inches wide at one end and six and a quarter at the other ; joint and dowel the edges, and fit the ends with a croze upon heads six or eight feet across, and hoop just enough to keep together to roll into the hole, biggest end down, upon a soft mortar bed of clay, four inches deep; then fill the space between the tub and walls, which should be four or six inches wide, with clay just moist enough to tamp in the most compact manner, and the cistern will never leak, and will give great satisfaction for its small cost. The top should be covered over with timber and earth, deep enough to keep warm in winter and cool in summer. Upon the roof of a barn 35 by 70 feet—if three feet of rain fall annually —three cubic feet of water will be afforded by every square foot of surfaee— more than 7,000 cubic feet from the whole roof—which would be about 1,700 barrels. This would be enough to water daily, the year through, thir- teen head of cattle, each animal drinking four twelve-quart pails full per day. But if the water were reserved for the dry season only, or when small streams are dry, thirty or forty head might be watered from one roof. People are apt to make their cisterns too small, so that often they do not hold a tenth part of the water from the eaves. In the above-mentioned instance it would not be necessary to construct one large enough to hold the entire 1,700 barrels. If the cattle were watered from it the year round, and its contents thus constantly drawn as it fills, one large enough to hold 400 Sees Sro. 17.] WATER FOR THE FARMERY. 311 barrels would do; but if neede@ for the dry season only, it should be more than double. A cistern fourteen feet in diameter and twelve feet deep would hold about 450 barrels—twenty feet in diameter, and the same depth, would be sufficient for 900 barrels. If built under ground, and contracted toward the top, it would require to be a little larger in dimensions, to allow for the contracted space. Such a contraction would be absolutely necessary to admit of convenient and safe covering at the top, and could be effected without any difficulty if built of masonry. The pressure of the water out- ward would be counterbalanced by the pressure of the earth against the exterior, especially if well rammed in as the wall is built. There are some portions of the country where the subsoil is underlaid by slate or other rock which may be excavated. In such cases, it sometimes happens that with a little care in cutting, the water-lime mortar may be ap- plied immediately to the rocky walls, a shoulder above being made on which to build the contracted part of the wall. We have such a cistern, dug in tolerably compact earth, and plastered with cement, put on in two or three coats, using about two and a half barrels for a cistern eight feet wide and six feet deep. It was designed to be deeper, which would have made a better proportion, but the excavators came upon a ledge that could not be blasted, and was very difficult to pick up, and the bottom being very rough, required more plaster. The top is covered with chestnut plank, over which is earth, and the water is let in through a pipe beneath the surface, and taken out by another that leads to the pump in the kitchen. There is also an outlet pipe under the covering for surplus water, so that when full, there is a body of water five feet deep by eight wide, and this gives about sixty barrels; and being supplied by 1,600 superficial feet of roof, is not likely to fail for family use. The water is perfectly filtered by the most convenient filtering arrangement for a cis- tern that we ever saw. This is by Peirce’s patent porous cement pipes, which are laid in a sort of net-work in the bottom of the cistern, and the pump-pipe attached to them, so that no water can reach the pump that has not passed through the substance of the pipes, which are in appearance much like solid stone, and more than an inch thick, which certainly forms a very perfect strainer to free the rain water of all impurities. A writer in his recommendation to every- body to build cisterns, says : ‘T have one in my house cellar, entirely below the bottom of the cellar, six and half feet deep and five and a half in diameter, holding about 1,000 gallons. It was dug six feet eight inches deep and seven feet in diameter. The bottom being made smooth, was laid over with brick. The mason then began the side with brick laid in cement, leaving a space all round between the brick and earth about five inches. Afterraising the work about eighteen inches, he carefully filled the space between the brick and side of the hole with earth, well and carefully pressed down. If you wet the earth or clay as you fill it in, it will be more compact. 312 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. III. “ When you get within about two feet ofthe top, commence gradually to draw in the work toward the center, leaving, when finished, a space open about two feet across. The next thing is to plaster the inside with cement ; also the top on the outside, commencing where you began to draw in. About two courses of brick are laid round the mouth of the cistern, forming a neck, which adds to the strength of the top. Now cover the whole with earth, except the neck. The water is conducted to my cistern through a small brick drain laid in cement. I also have a drain near the top to let off the . surplus water. Ifa cistern is made out of doors, it must be below the reach of frost. Lead pipe would probably be cheaper than brick to conduct water to and from the cistern. “T have no doubt but that a cistern made this way of hard brick would last a century. Mine, holding 1,000 gallons, cost $18. The larger the size, the less the cost in proportion to the capacity. If the earth is firm and hard, you may lay the brick close against it, thus saving the trouble of filling in and digging so large. I have known them made by cementing directly on the earth, using no brick, and covering the top with timbers or plank. One made with brick will cost more, but I think it best and cheapest, taking into consideration safety and durability.” Tastes or Contents or CmcuLtar Cisterns.—The following tables of the size and contents of circular cisterns may be convenient to those about to build them. For each foot of depth, the number of barrels answering to the different diameters is as follows: “ce ee “cc “ce “c “i 4} ae “ce 5 car 8 ce You will find by this table that a cistern six feet deep and six in diameter will hold 1,260 gallons, and each foot you add in depth will hold 210 gallons. Therefore, one ten feet deep and six in diameter will contain 2,100 gallons. To find the contents of any cistern in wine gallons, the diameter and depth being known: 1. Multiply one half the diameter (in feet) by itself. 2. Multiply the above product by 31, which will give the area of the bot- tom of the cistern nearly. 3. Multiply this by the number of feet in depth; this will give the cubic contents in feet. 4. Multiply the last product by 1,728 (the number of cubic inches in a foot), which gives the number of cubic inches. Sec. 17.] WATER FOR THE FARMERY. 313 5. Divide the whole result by 231 (the number of cubic inches in the wine gallon), and the result will be the number of gallons in the cistern. Divide the gallons by 30, and you will have the number of barrels, and thus you can calculate how large to make a cistern for the use of house or barn; and be sure not to neglect so important and so inexpensive an im- provement as making a cistern. 335. Digging Wells.—There is no better improvement put upon a farm than wells, either in their every-day convenience or value in estimating the price of a farm. In some localities it will pay to dig a well at the house, at the barn, in the stable-yard, and in almost every field. In com- pact earth, a well can be dug without curbing to support the earth sides during the excavation. Where curbing is necessary, the best way to do it is to build the wall upon a wooden or iron ring, and let that down as the excavation proceeds, adding brick or stone at the top as fast as may be necessary to keep the wall even with the surface. 336. Horizontal Wells—Here is a new idea for dwellers in mountainous, or even moderately hilly districts to think of. Mining after coal in Penn- sylvania, and gold in California, has clearly illustrated the fact, that wells may be dug into hillsides, or banks, or bluffs, as well level or horizontalty, as down perpendicularly, which would save dangerous and severe labor. Water, so troublesome in digging common wells, has not to be bailed in the horizontal, as it takes care of - itself, The certainty of discovering or cutting off veins of water is greater with the horizontal well than the perpendicular, if it starts in near the base of a hill, or anywhere as much below the surface as a common shaft would be likely to besunk. By laying down wooden rails, all the dirt can be brought out in a little railway car, and the stone or brick carried in to build the well as fast as the digging progresses. It will not be necessary to make a horizontal shaft any larger than a perpendicular- one, though it should be of a different shape. We would make it in the form of the figure we call a naught or cipher in numerals. Two feet wide and four feet high will be large enough, with a gentle descent for the water to run to the outlet ; and in many situations it can be made to run through a short pipe into the house ; or if it will not run, it can be drawn by a pump through a horizontal pipe any distance. There is another advantage in such a well. It would not be constantly liable to have things falling, or being thrown into it, and the water would remain purer. There are a great many pastures where water for siabuke has to be drawn from wells, which might have a natural flow from hillsides, with an expend- iture of no more time and money than is required for a perpendicular well. There are some dairy farms that could have valuable spring-houses sup- plied by such a horizontal well, and such a supply of cold running water would add to the value of the farm almost as much, in some cases, as its whole value is now. Ms 314 THE FARMERY. [Cuap. IIT. Such wells have been constructed in California, and we earnestly com- mend them to the attention of all the farmers in the hilly portions of the Atlantic States. In rocky hills a horizontal shaft can be drifted in much easier than it can be bored perpendicularly ; and the work either in rock or earth digging can be much better done in winter in a horizontal than in a perpendicular well. We hope to see them extensively adopted. 337. Wells on Hills.—We have seen a great many wells on the tops of hills affording a large supply of water, while the bottom was above the plain or valley in which the farmstead was situated. How easy to obtain this water by a siphon, or a pipe inserted on a level, which can be done without dig- ging a ditch the whole depth and distance. Ascertain where the level of the bottom of the well will strike on the face of the hill, and dig in there, and set up a frame to support an earth-boring auger, and drive a bore straight through to the well, which can be easily done one or two hundred feet, if .artesian wells can be bored one or two thousand feet perpendicular. Where the distance is too great, or the hill is rocky, put in a siphon pipe, with a little hand-pump to start it, and you can always have running water in your yard or garden at the foot of the hill. 338. Causes of Impure Water in Wells.—It sometimes occurs that the water of a well, noted for its purity and delicious drinking quality, becomes offensive to the taste and smell without any apparent cause. Sometimes it is occasioned by surface water from an impure source finding its way to the well, after many years of exemption; and sometimes it comes from roots of trees growing into the water and decaying; and sometimes worms work their way in and decay ; and occasionally rats, mice, or other pests burrow in the wall and injure the water. And not unfrequently a new vein of water finds its way into an old well and materially changes the character of the water. Generally a well is improved by cleaning, but we have known the contrary. In a well of our own, in the trap-rock district north of New York city, the quality of the water was materially injured by sub- stituting a pump in place of a bucket. The reason was obvious. The water was seven or eight feet deep, and the bucket drew it from the surface and the pump from the bottom, and in the water drawn from the bottom we found a strong sulphur taste and smell. Cleaning it out did no good ; the water at the bottom was decidedly different from the top. The only remedy, if we continued to use the pump, which was iron, and costly, and extremely convenient (it is one of Gay & West’s force-pumps—very valu- able for farm use), was to attach a gutta-percha pipe to the bottom of the iron pipe, and to a float, so that it would always draw the water from the surface, at whatever hight it might be in the well by the fluctuations of the seasons. Where wells are injured by surface water, resort should be had at once to the most thorough draining. Lay tile or stone drains five or six feet deep, so as to cut off all leaking into the well. If injured by trees—which, by-the-by, should never be set near a well—dig a deep trench so as to cut So. 17., WATER FOR THE FARMERY. 315 off all the roots, and fill that trench with coarse gravel, or a stiff mass of clay, that will not be attractive to the roots. Remove all that you.can from the wall and earth near the well, and time will cure the water. Sometimes, to get rid of roots, insects, or other pests, it will pay cost to unwall the well and build it anew. Fill in charcoal, cinders, or other sweet substances ; and sometimes it will be well to lay a portion of the top wall in cement mortar. It is recommended in all cases, where well-water becomes unpalatable, to agitate it freely, and very often. If drawn with a bucket, set a man at work pushing the bucket down deep and drawing it up full, and pouring it back again, so as to fall in the water till it is all thoroughly mixed and all the stones™washed, and then when it settles clear again it will probably be found as good as ever. This plan of agitating the water may also be applied to cisterns to good advantage. Looking into a well, so as to see anything at the bottom, can be easily done any sunny day (the morning is the best time), by using a looking-glass so as to reflect the rays of light and throw them quite to the bottom of a deep well. We have used this means to discover the position of a bucket that had broken loose and fallen to the bottom, and then with the steel- yards hung to a rope have been able to hook on to the bucket and draw it up at once. We once recovered a tin pail of butter in the same way. 339. Self-Emptying Well-Bucket.—If the water is drawn from a well by a bucket and windlass, two ropes are better than one. . Fasten by a staple to the center of the windlass and wind each way toward the ends, so that the ropes will be widest apart when the bucket is up. Instead of a bail, attach a short chain or piece of iron rod to each ear of the bucket, and set the ears low down, so that the bucket will tip easily. Cut a hole in the bottom, four inches across, and cover it with a block coated with soft sole leather, like the valve of a pump-bucket, which will open to let in the water as the bucket descends, and close as soon as it starts upward. To empty the water easily, there are two ways—first, and best, by a flat iron hook about eight inches long, fastened to the well-spout in such a way that it may eatch the edge of the bucket as it is drawn up, and tip and empty. The other way is to have a pin in the spout that will strike the valve and open it when the bucket is placed upon the spout. Two buckets with two ropes will work much steadier and easier, and in the long run cost less than with one, and the valve to fill, and hook to empty the bucket, are great labor- saving fixtures. It is almost as important to keep water pure for stock as for family use. Pure water is a great luxury to the palate of a thirsty horse, and every man who is fortunate enough to be the owner of so noble an animal, should see that the wants of the same are properly provided for. Unfortunately, very few péfsons realize the importance of supplying domestic animals with pure water; yet they stand in need of it whenever 316 THE FARMERY. [Crar. IIT. thirsty, and as a matter of profit to ourselves and humanity to them, we should see that their wants are well supplied. Pure water is very nutritious, and as a nutritious agent its value is im- paired when of inferior quality, or when mixed with indigestible foreign substances, such as are often found in watering-troughs located by the way- side. Some very interesting experiments have lately been made on _ horses belonging to the French army, in view of testing their endurance as regards the deprivation of water, and it was found that some of them lived twenty- five days on water alone ; it is a singular fact that seventy-five per cent. of the weight of a horse’s body is composed of fluid. Strange water, as it is called, often has a bad effect on the digestive organs “when first used, and in order to guard against its consequences, English grooms always provide for the wants of their horses, when away from home at the race-course, by furnishing them with an abundant supply of pure water to which-they have been accustomed, which is transported from place to place in hogsheads. 340. The Hydraulic Ram.—To those who have no spring above the level of the house, but have one below, we press the subject of a water-ram—a simple, little, inexpensive machine that can be made to throw about one eighth or a tenth of the water that flows through it up a steep hill and along a pipe half a mile or more, discharging it in a cistern in the garret of a house or loft of the barn, whence it is drawn as it is wanted in any apartment, while the overflow or surplus of water will give you a constant little stream in the cattle water-trough. Hundreds of these rams are in use all over the country ; but there are thousands of places where they are not in use, where equal natural facilities exist. Our object here is only to call attention to the fact, that every farmer who has a spring in a valley where he can get three or four feet fall from it to work the ram, can get a portion of that water on top of a hill; and in many places where no running springs naturally exist, sufficient water can be obtained by digging. We have seen a stream dis- charged at the outlet of an underdrain sufficient to drive a ram—water ob- tained without any expectation of obtaining it; because the object was to drain the land of its surplus water, and prevent it from oozing out of the surface of the hillside. The house of the late John C. Stevens, at South Amboy, is 120 feet above the level of a spring, near the bay shore. At this spring he set a water-ram, with a two-inch drive-pipe, about sixty feet long, laid upon an inclination of five feet. About one eighth of the water which runs through this pipe is sent, by the action of the ram—a little affair, about as big as a teakettle— up through a small lead pipe into the house, nearly half a mile distant. Perhaps the whole may have cost $100. We know a good many places where $50 has secured a full and constant supply of water from the bottom of a hill almost impossible to climb, yet which ld been climbed from the first settlement of the country till the little water-ram was set to work. We know Sgo. 17.] WATER FOR THE FARMERY. 317 a great many other places where it is worth a dollar a day to ¢o¢e the water up the slippery rocks in buckets, where all that labor could be saved by an expenditure of $50, and an annual expense for repairs of a shilling a year. Yet those who own such places do not improve them, because they do not know they can. 341. Durability of Wooden Pipes for Aqueducts.—Charles Stearns, of Spring- field, Mass., has proved by a somewhat lengthy experience that wooden pipes are nearly indestructible, if acd deep—deep enough to prevent atmos- pheric action upon the wood. His rule is six feet deep in sandy or porous earth; four feet deep in compact, clayey earth, and three feet deep in swampy earth, where the peaty condition of the soil, which is antiseptic, pre- serves wood from decay. Thus laid, Mr. Stearns thinks wood will outlast iron or lead; and the wooden pipes are cheaper than any material that can be used, where a bore of two to six inches is required. In one instance, an aqueduct laid by Mr. Stearns of three fourths-inch caliber lead pipe, cor- roded and failed in fifteen years, and had to be replaced. Another one, made with very heavy lead pipe of two-inch caliber, laid through a wet meadow, in the very kind of soil that preserves wood the most perfectly, failed so as to need repairs within three or four years, and at the end of ten years had to be replaced with new pipe, which he then made of wood, and which, after twenty years of use, is still in good order. The aqueduct pipes supplying Springfield with spring water, that comes to the surface on the sandy plains above the town, have been in use fourteen years, and bid fair to last many years longer. The bore of the logs is from one and a half to seven inches, eheureds on the inner surface by forcing flame through the bore, or by the insertion of a heated rod, to prevent the timber from giving any unpleasant taste to the water. Mr. Stearns thinks, from experi- ments made, that lead pipe will last enough longer to pay for the expense of burying it deep, or packing it closely in clay. He also thinks that the interest upon the difference in cost between well-made and properly laid wooden pipes and those of a more costly material, called indestructible, will keep the wooden pipes in repair forever. For the branch pipes leading into the houses, Mr. Stearns used lead pipes in all the houses supplied from the Springfield Water-Works, and has never known any injury to occur to any one using the water; and his own family have used water passed through lead pipe a long distance for many years, without suffering any of the effects frequently ascribed to such water; nor has he ever heard of a ease based upon any better testimony than “they say so.” The water that sup- plies Springfield comes from several springs, improved by digging, and we have no doubt that there are hundreds of other villages that might be watered in the same way, greatly to the comfort and health of the inhabit- ants. There is another advantage besides cheapness in wooden pipes. It is the ease with which they are tapped, wherever and whenever a branch is to be taken off, and they are also easily repaired. We hope that not only vil- + lages, but farmers, wherever a spring exists above the level of the farmstead, 318 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. IIT. will avail themselves of its benefits. Many farmers have chestnut or cedar, the best of timber, which they could have prepared at very small expense by their own hands, and get an aqueduct that would, in case of sale of the farm, pay ten times its cost; and it would be worth still more to the owner, for it would afford him a constant enjoyment. 3 There is a very curious manufactory of wooden aqueduct pipes at Elmira, N. Y. A large pine log is cut up into a series of pipes, from an inch bore to ten or twelve inches, taking one out of the other, leaving the sides from one to two inches thick. These pipes are then banded with hoop-iron, drawn by a powerful machine through hot coal-tar, and being buried below the action of the atmosphere, are expected to last for an indefinite period. SECTION XVIII—STACKING AND STORING GRAIN ; CORN-CRIBS, PIG- GERIES, AND PIG-FEEDING ; SMOKE-HOUSES, AND CURING BACON. ~ LTHOUGH, like most of our subjects, these are treated briefly, each is worthy of notice, and must have enough, if nothing more, to attract attention, so as to incite the reader to look further into the matter. One of the indispensable buildings of a farmery is a good storehouse for grain. Upon asmall farm, a room in the barn can be set apart for the storage of small grain, but it is more liable to the depredations of rats and mice than in a building made purposely for a gran- ary. Every farmer who annually raises a hundred bushels of ears of Indian corn can not afford to do without a corn-crib, because corn can not be stored safely except in a room with very open sides. 342. Corn-Cribs.—The best kind of a corn-crib is a building twenty feet wide, and of such length as will give sufficient capacity —say thirty feet long—for a farm where ten to twenty acres of corn are usually grown. The sides should not be less than ten feet high, and boarded up and down with strips two inches wide, one inch apart. Six feet from the sides, partitions are made in the same way. This leaves a drive-way eight feet wide, so that you can drive in a wagon-load of corn and throw it right and left over the beam into the crib. This drive-way should be made to close at both ends with slat-gates, or lattice-work gates, so as to allow a free cir- culation of air. 343. Rail-Pen Corn-Cribsx—Cribbing corn, after the Western fashion, in open rail-pens, is considered down East a very slovenly method. Yet it is one of the best ways in which it din be stored. It is true it wastes a little - Sxo. 18.] STACKING AND STORING GRAIN. 319 by shelling if it remains till spring, but not much if the pens are so located that the pigs and poultry can be let in to pick up the scattered grains. The way to make a rail-pen corn-crib is to take straight fence-rails, as near of a size as possible, and saw part of them into halves of equal length, so that you can lay up a pen half as wide as it is long, notching the corners so that the rails will come close enough together to prevent the ears falling out. If this can not be done with all of the cracks, they must be stopped by “chinking” from the inside, or by boards nailed over. It is usual to build the pen upon a floor of rails, which are sometimes laid on the ground, and sometimes raised upon logs, stones, or blocks. The pen should not be over eight feet high, and when full is covered with boards held on by a heavy rail or pole. In woodland regions the covering is usually made of “ shakes” —split clap-boards, such as log-cabin roofs are generally made of. On the prairies, we have frequently seen straw used for a covering; and we have also seen many thousands of bushels of wheat, both in the chaff and after it is winnowed, stored in the same rude way, by simply calking the cracks with straw. Nor is it a very wasteful way of storing wheat, if the pen is built upon a hard-beaten spot, where all the grain can be swept up when the pen is emptied. We have also seen corn put up in rail-pens without any covering, and kept through the winter without damage, the ears being simply rounded up on top. We have often been told by those who have had a good deal of experience in storing corn in this way, that rain does not hurt it—all that does not run through dries out the first windy day. Wheat in the chaff will not injure in a long rain-storm, when simply piled in a conical heap, if it does not wet at the bottom. Great boat-loads of Black Sea wheat are brought down long rivers, being many weeks on the passage, without any covering. The wheat is rounded up in the center, somewhat in the form of a roof, and the outside gets wet and grows into a mat, sometimes two inches thick, and that shelters the mass below. It does not strike us as an economical method, but that depends upon circumstances, as it does in cribbing Indian-corn. It certainly never would pay to build expensive cribs to store some of the great crops of the West; and it has been found good economy, for want of better storage, to let the corn remain where it grew until wanted for use. Even with smaller crops, it may not always be evidence of bad farming where we see the corn, stand in shocks until wanted. It certainly keeps better there than it would in a badly ventilated store-room. 344. Stathets for Stack Bottems.—In England, it is not considered good economy to build barns enough to store all the grain, and it is therefore stacked out. In this country, if. economy warranted the practice of storing all under roofs, necessity would often forbid, and require our great crops of wheat to be put up in stacks. In England, upon well-conducted farms, where the practice of stacking prevails, the stathels for the stacks to rest EE — ees sips 820 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. TT. upon are permanent structures. Some of them are made with stone pillars and caps; and some with a wooden frame on stone pillars ; and in some in- stances iron has been substituted for wood. The stack being elevated a foot or two, allows a circulation of air, and very much assists the curing of the grain. We recommend farmers, wherever they are in the regular practice of stacking hay and grain, to have a permanent stack yard, provided with stack bottoms, after the English fashion. Even for temporary stacking, building the stack upon the ground is a very wasteful practice. We have seen stacks upon the Western prairie built in a spot, dry at the time, become saturated with water, and half rotted two feet above the ground, before they were used up in winter. For a temporary stack bottom, there is nothing more convenient than fence-rails. We have built long wheat-ricks on the prairie in this way. We took fenee-rails and laid them up as though build- ing a worm fence, pretty straight, in two lines about two feet apart at the bottom, and about four rails high, leaning inward so that the two lines of fence touch. Against this upon each side the sheaves were set with butts on the ground, leaning toward the center until a sufficient bottom for the rick was formed. This leaves an air-pipe through the bottom, and keeps all the heads from the ground, and although the water stood some inches deep in a wet time over the spongy soil, all the wheat came out bright and sound. The butts of the lower sheaves only were rotted. The fence sustained the greatest weight of the rick, besides giving it air. 345. The Pig gery.—No farmery is complete without a well- -arranged pig- gery, which consists of a grain-room, a root cellar, a cooking-room, a feeding- room, a sleeping-room—all under cover. All this is requisite upon a farm where only two or three pigs are fatted annually. It is still more requisite where a dozen or more pigs are kept—where the leading object of the farmer is to convert coarse farm products into pork; except where pigs are wholly fatted in cornfields, as at the West. Upon all other farms a well-arranged piggery is indispensable, and, as we have shown in Section 11, that cooking food for pigs is advantageous, the greater the conveniences for cooking, the more profitable will be the feeding. The best arranged piggery we ever saw for convenience and saving of la- bor was built upon the side of a Vermont hill, where potatoes were a lead- ing article in the manufacture of pork. The potatoes were stored in a cave cellar, from which they were shoveled upon a screen, over which they rolled to the large potash-kettle set in an arch some twenty or thirty feet distant. Generally the potatoes thus screened needed no washing; if they did, pro- vision was made for doing it by a copious stream of water let on as they traversed the screen. The water was let into the kettle from the source sup- plying the washing water. The floor where the kettle stood contained bins for meal, which were filled from the bags emptied into a spout on the out- side. The cooked food was shoveled from the kettle into a hopper that conducted it into a cooling-trough on the floor below, which stood high enough to allow the swill to run through a long conductor to the feed- Seo. 18.] PIGS AND PIGGERIES. 821 troughs. The objection to this last arrangement was, that the swill had to be made thin enough to flow freely. The arrangement, however, was a very perfect one, and worthy of imitation upon all similarly situated farms. 346. Railway Cooking Arrangement for Pigs.—We suggested the following arrangement, more than twenty years ago, for cooking food for pigs or any other stock, and we afterward had a model made and exhibited at the fair of the American Institute, which awarded it a silver medal. This is the plan: arrange a steam chamber of any given dimensions—say three feet by six feet, and three feet high—over a furnace kettle, or any- where that steam could be conveyed into it from a boiler. This chamber has a door at one end, made steam-tight, and rails in the bottom upon which a car travels, and these rails should extend outside to the root-bin, or meal- tubs, or reservoirs of food to be cooked. The car being loaded, is rolled into the chamber, and door closed. When the food is cooked, shut off steam and open an escape-valve, and then the door, and roll out the car over cooling vats, and open a trap in the bottom of the car, and let the contents drop. These cooling vats may be placed near enough to dip the swill into the feed- troughs, or it may be carried in another car along an alley, and thence dipped into the feed-troughs, or made to run into them through conductors. Such an arrangement would, without doubt, save a great deal of hard labor, and it would not be very expensive. Whatever the arrangement of the piggery, keep this fact constantly in view, that in some sections of the country the manure which you can make while fatting your pork, if your piggery is well arranged, will prove to be the most profitable part of the pork-making process. There is another necessary farm-building which we may as well speak of here, particularly as it is one that may, whenever the situation will admit, very properly be located in the immediate vicinity of the piggery, and it is equally valuable to the farmer as a mine of manurial wealth. It is— 347. The Temple of Cloacina.—Every farm-house must have a temple set apart for this heathenish deity, but no farm-house should have such a neces- sary appendage a disgrace to civilization, as too many of them are. Such a building should be placed convenient to the house, but never in sight. It should be located in a clump of shrubbery, mostly evergreens, out of sight from the house, or else it should be made part and parcel of some of the out- buildings, so as never to be a prominent object. We have often seen these buildings so placed that they were the most conspicuous things about the place. A very little refinement in a farmer’s family will make it revolt at ex- posing the part of a farmery that should be hidden from publie gaze. A very little knowledge of the deoderizing effect of fine, dry, swamp muck, or charcoal, or plaster, or copperas will serve to keep a place that must be visited every day, by every member of the family, so sweet that it never will be offensive; and the valuable contents of the vault, which should be always shallow and easy to clean, will then become a source of profit, instead of a nuisance both disagreeable and disgraceful. 21 [ 322 THE FARMERY. [Cuap. III. 348. Smoke-Houses—How to Build and how to Use Them.—We lay it down as an axiom, that the best smoke-house ever built is a log cabin, with the eracks all open. In sucha building you can not confine the smoke so as to smother the meat and spoil it, as it easily can be and often is in a very” tight room. It is not generally understood how much the excellence of bacon depends on the manner in which it may be smoked. Indeed, we look upon this part of the process as more important than a good receipt for pickling. A ham that is well pickled may be spoiled in smoking it, and then no skill in cookery will take away its dark color and strong,-rancid taste. To make good hams, there must be a free circulation of atmosphere, so that the smoke never shall become heated. A smoke never should be made in a damp, foggy, or rainy day. In building a smoke-house the farmer is more apt to regard external appearances than the object for which it is intended. It may be very strong and neat, but if it be built on wrong principles, it will never give satisfac- tion, and the good wife will be always wondering how it is that her bacon is not equal to that which she eats away from home. Now, there is no ~ bacon in this country superior to that produced in Maryland, where the smoke-houses are certainly rather primitive in their construction. They are usually made of logs, rudely plastered with clay on the outside, and thatched with straw. The hams are hung upon hooks driven into the rafters. The fire of chips—covered with saw-dust in order to prevent a blaze—is in the middle of the floor—ground floor, generally ; and the smoke, after having done its duty, escapes through the innumerable cracks and openings in the wall and thatch. Such a building is not very ornamental, but it is much more efficient than those we frequently see constructed of brick or stone, with tight roof, a close-fitting door, and but one small saper- ture for the escape of the smoke. The great secret in the art of smoking hams is to dry them in smoke, but not by heat. When they are kept close to the fire, they invariably acquire a disagreeable flavor, and often become soft and greasy. The smoke should not be allowed to reach them until nearly or quite cool, and to effect this some farmers have the fire outside of the building, perhaps twenty or thirty feet distant, and conduct the smoke to the interior through a narrow covered trench. By its passage through the trench, it is cooled and purified, and there is no danger of its giving an unpleasant taste to the meat. A still better plan is practiced by the people of Westphalia, which, as all the world knows, is celebrated for its bacon. The smoking is performed in extensive chambers, in the uppermost stories of high buildings. Some are four or five stories above the ground, and tlie smoke is conveyed to them by tubes from pipes in the cellars. The vapor is condensed, and the heat absorbed by the tubes, so that the smoke is both dry and cool when it comes in contact with the meat. Many of the farm- houses in Pennsylvania have a somewhat similar arrangement. A room is partitioned off in the garret, next to the kitchen chimney, and the hams are hung from the rafters overhead. Near the floor is a small opening in the Szo. 18.] SMOKE-HOUSE AND FRUIT-DRYING HOUSE. 323 II I I en chimney, by which the smoke enters the apartment; and instead of return- ing to the flue, it finds its way into the open air through the innumerable _ crevices in the roof. The meat is thus kept perfectly dry, and it will be found to have a color and flavor unknown in that treated in the common method. A smoke-house can hardly be too open; where the walls and roof are tight, or nearly so, the smoke condenses on the bacon, rendering it flabby and ill-colored. To be sure, when there is good ventilation it takes much longef to complete the process, but this delay we believe to be rather bene- ficial than otherwise. Some people have the fault of always being in a hurry, and their bacon is never well smoked. It should be cured gradually and slowly, and this is another reason why the Germans are so successful in the business. In Virginia, two months is not considered a long time for the operation. Green sugar-maple chips are the best for the fire, and after maple are ranked hickory, sweet birch, and white ash or beech. Some think well- dried corn-cobs superior to everything else; and they certainly furnish a sweet, penetrating smoke. Saw-dust from hard wood is also excellent for the purpose, but rotten wood should never be used; and it is said that locust bark will actually spoil the flavor of hams; and we doubt not that there are many other substances which will produce the same result. Some persons are always very particular about hanging their hams with the leg end down. They should never be allowed to touch each other, nor touch any flat substance. In hanging large numbers of hams in a crowded room, we have often kept them apart by a small piece of a corn-cob. No farmery is complete without a smoke-house, and where the amount of meat to be annually smoked is insufficient to make it an object to erect a building specially for that purpose, it will be found very easy to set apart a small room in some of the outbuildings, and convey the smoke to it through along flue. As the building mentioned in No. 349 never will be wanted for the purpose for which it was constructed, when bacon should be smoked, it could, perhaps, be made so as to answer both purposes. 349. A Fruit-Drying House.—In some sections remote from cities, and upon some farms, fruit-drying is quite an object, and is relied upon by the female portion of the family as a means of replenishing their wardrobe, independent of the general products of the farm. Upon fruit farms it is also made a considerable item of the regular business. All such farms should have a fruit-drying house, built upon scientific principles, to accomplish the object in the most expeditious manner, at the least expense. The true principle of drying fruit would be to place it on open-work hurdles, in the flue of 2 heated air furnace, so that there would be a continual draft of hot air pass- ing through the fruit, carrying*off the moisture into the upper air, The best one we ever saw neaced the air in the basement of a three-story building. In the third story, one side of the large brick flue was arranged like the drawers of a bureau, the bottom of the drawers being basket-work. In these, each of | = = 324 THE FARMERY. [Cuap. IIT. RRR ee which held about a bushel of apples or peaches cut in quarters, the fruit dried with wonderful rapidity. It needed no other attention than changing the drawers once from top to bottom, to equalize the drying, so as to finish all at once. Other things besides fruit were dried in this flue, such as sweet corn, okra, pease, tomatoes, ete. The following, taken from the Valley Farmer, is the description of a dry- ing-house in use in Wisconsin: “Tt consists of a building of logs, brick, or stone, of any convenient size, say ten feet wide by twelve or fourteen long, and one story high, having an ordinary roof, with a ventilator to admit of the escape of the heat and vapor arising from the fruit. “The furnace should open on the outside of the building, at the end. It should be about two feet square. The sides should be of brick, and as thin as may be to sustain the top. The flue should be extended to near the entire length of the building, and then return, forming a parallel flue, which may be reduced to two thirds the size of the furnace or main flue, terminating in a chimney near the door of the furnace. The top of the furnace and flue should be covered with plates of thin boiler iron; thicker iron, or a covering of brick or stone, will not admit of a sufficient escape of heat to facilitate the drying process. The fruit is dried on trays or hurdles, arranged in three tiers, one above another, with a space of twelve or fifteen inches between them. The hurdles may be two and a half feet wide, six or seven feet long, and three inches deep. These are made of common boards, with a lath bot tom, made thin; the laths should be made of hickory, as the fruit is found to dry much more readily on hard wood lath than it does on poplar or other soft wood. Through the length of the building frames are put up to support the hurdles of fruit. These frames or rails extend through openings made in the end of the building opposite the furnace, and corresponding with each pair of rails are wooden shutters. The rails extend on the outside about six feet; upon these the hurdles are placed crosswise; upon each of the hurdles are rollers corresponding with the rails; being filled with the fruit to be dried, the hurdles are run in like cars upon a railroad. Thus arranged, with the three tiers of rails filled with trays of frnit, about one and a half barrels can be dried at once, requiring about twenty-four hours to complete the opera- tion. The trays neareSt the fire will, of course, dry the fastest, and, with the convenience of the railroad and the shutters in the end of the building, they may be drawn out and changed to the upper rails, when the whole may be finished within the twenty-four hours in the most perfect and uniform man- ner, and without the least burning. The fire should be made without grates, on the bottom of the furnace, which consumes less fuel, and keeps up a more uniform heat than if placed above the draft. “In some instances we have seen pieces of old steam-boilers substituted in the place of brick walls for a furnace; to the boiler is connected and re- turned a pipe of somewhat smaller dimensions, a sheet-iron pipe, which ad- mits of the free escape of heat and speedy drying of the fruit. Sec. 19.] ECONOMY IN BUILDING.—BALLOON FRAMES. 325 «The iaionney nahed of devin! paolo and ables in amines aha Tennessee is to construct a kiln of stone, with a broad flat top, upon which the fruit is laid, and a fire kept up in the flue beneath till the fruit is sufficiently dried. This is more expeditious than drying in the sun, and the fruit is not so liable to be soiled by flies, yet it is objectionable on account of liability to burn the fruit in contact with the over-heated stone.” SECTION XIX—ECONOMICAL FARM BUILDINGS, BALLOON FRAMES, CONGRETE WALLS, AND OTHER CHEAP STYLES OF BUILDING, NY, E are satisfied that we can do those who desire to build no greater favor than making them acquainted with the peodere style of building, known as “ bal- loon frames”—a name that was at first conferred upon them in ridicule on account of their lightness and unsubstantiability. This name is»only true as it applied to their lightness. Balloon frames are not ridiculous from any lack of sufficient strength. There is need of no stronger building than one made upon this plan, except where it is necessary to have strength of timber to sustain weighty storage or ponderous machinery. For all ordinary farm buildings, we earnestly recommend balloon frames. And we are not alone in our recommendations, though, so far as we know, we were the first in recommending them to farmers in aie Eastern States. Of late, Geo. E. Woodward, an ar chitect and builder of New York city, has written some exceedingly valuable articles upon this subject, and published them in the Country Gentleman, with illustrations, and to him or them we respectfully refer readers, who may be incited from what we say here, to make further inquiries. Among the sensible things said by Mr. Woodward, are the following: “Economy in the construction of all buildings adapted to the habitation or convenience of man has been a study of much interest to those who con- template the erection of buildings for their own use or for the purposes of a profitable investment; though we are inclined to think experimental or in. ventive talent has applied itself more to produce some new and eheap build- ing material than to develop the full resources of such materials as are found best adapted to our wants. “ Necessity has done much for the building public by introducing to their favorable notice the balloon style of framing wooden buildings— a style which is not well understood in the old settled-and well-timbered portions of our country, but is, with few exceptions, the only plan adopted ® 326 THE FARMERY. [Cmar. III. throughout the magnificent agricultural districts west of our great inland seas. “The increasing value of lumber and labor must turn the attention of men of moderate means to those successful plans which have demonstrated econ- omy in both, and at the same time preserved the full qualities of strength and security so generally accorded to the old fogy principles of framing, but which, we presume to say, is inferior in all the true requisites-of cheap and substantial building. “ Any intelligent man who can lay out a right angle and adjust a plumb line may do his own building, for it is without a mortice, a tenon, or brace, and a man and boy ean do all the work. This principle is the one applied to the construction of what are technically as well as sarcastically termed bal- loon frames, which, instead of proving a failure, stands with more than 80,000 examples of every conceivable size and form, a perfect success.” 350. How to build Balloon Frames.—The following remarks upon the sub- ject we printed some years ago, not only to show that much labor and much timber may be saved, but that sawed timber may be dispensed with where it is very expensive. We know that this article enabled many persons to build cheap frames, and as it once did good, we reprint it that it may do much more good in future. The remarks were an answer to the inquiry how to build balloon houses. “T would saw all my timber for a frame house, or ordinary frame out- building, of the following dimensions: two inches by eight, two by four, two by one. I have sometimes built them, when I lived on the grand prairie of Indiana, many miles from saw-mills, nearly all of split and hewed stuff, making use of rails or round poles, reduced to straight lines and even thick- ness on two sides, for studs and rafters. But sawed stuff is easiest wrought, though in a timber country the other is far the cheapest. First, level your foundation, and lay down two of the two-by-eight pieces, flatwise, for side- sills. Upon these set the floor-sleepers on edge, 32 inches apart. Fasten one at each end, and, perhaps, one or two in the middle, if the building is large, with a wooden pin. These end-sleepers are the end sills. Now lay the floor, unless you design to have one that would be likely to be injured by the weather before you get the roof on. It is a great saving, though, of labor to begin at the bottom of a house and build up. In laying fhe floor first, you have no studs to cut and fit around, and can let your boards run out over the ends, just as it happens, and afterward saw them off smooth by the sill. Now set up a corner post, which is nothing but one of the two-by- four studs, fastening the bottom by four nails; make it plumb, and stay it each way. Set another at the other corner, and then mark off your door and window places, and set up the side-studs and put in the frames. Fill up with studs between, 16 inches apart, supporting the top by a linesor strip of board from corner to corner, or staid studs between. Now cover that side with rough sheeting-boards, unless you intend to side up with clap- boards on the studs, which I never would do, except for a small, common HOW TO BUILD, BALLOON FRAMES. Ie Dailitine: Make no calculation about the top of your studs; wait till you get to that hight. You may use them of any length, with broken or stub- shot ends, no matter. When you have this side boar ded as high as you can reach, proceed to set up another. In the mean time, other workmen can be lathing the first side. When you have got the sides all up, fix upon the hight of your upper floor, and strike a line upon the studs for the under side of the joist, and cut a gain four inches wide, half-inch deep, and nail on firmly one of the inch strips. Upon these strips rest the chamber-floor joist. Cut a notch in the joist one inch deep in the lower edge, and lock it on the strip, and nail each joist to each stud. Now lay this floor and go on to build the upper story as you did the lower one, splicing on and lengthening out studs wherever needed, until you get high enough for the plate. Splice studs or joist by simply butting the ends together, and nailing strips on each side. Strike a line and saw off the top of the studs even upon each side of the building—not the ends—and nail on one of the inch strips. That is the plate. Cut the ends of the upper joist the bevel of the pitch of the roof, and nail them fast to the plate, placing the end ones inside the studs, which you will let run up promiscuously, to be cut off alongside of the rafter. Now lay the garret floor by all means before you put on the roof, and you will find that you have saved 50 per cent. of hard labor. The rafters, if sup- ported so as not to be over ten feet long, will be strong enough of the two- by-four stuff. Bevel the ends and nail fast to the joist. Then there is no strain upon the sides by the weight of the roof, which may be covered with shingles or other materials, the cheapest befig composition or cement roofs. To make one of this kind, take soft, spongy, “thick paper, and tack it upon the boards in courses like shingles. Commence at the top with hot tar and saturate the paper, upon which sift fine gravel evenly, pressing it in while hot—that is, while tar and gravel are-both hot. One coat will make a tight roof; two coats will make it more durable. Put up your partitions of stuff one by four, unless where you want to support the upper joist; then use stuff two by four, with strips nailed on top for the joist to rest upon, fasten- ing altogether by nails wherever timbers touch. Thus you will have a frame without a tenon, or mortice, or brace, and yet it is far cheaper and incaleu- lably stronger when finished than though it was composed of timbers ten inches square, with a thousand auger- -holes and a hundred days’ work with the chisel and adze, making holes. and pins to fill them. To lay out and frame a building so that all its parts will come together, requires the skill of a master mechanic, and a host of men, and a deal of hard work to lift the great sticks of timber into position, To erect a balloon building requires about as much mechanical skill as it does to build a board fence. Any farmer who is handy with the saw, iron square, and hammer, with one of his boys or a common laborer to assist him, can go to work and put up a frame for an outbuilding, and finish it off with his own labor just as well as to hire a carpenter to score and hew great oak sticks and fill them full of mortices, all by the science of the “square rule.’ It is a waste of labor that 328 THE FARMERY. {Cuap. III, ee Ee we should all lend our aid to put a stop to. Besides, it will enable many a farmer to improve his place with new buildings, who,though he has long needed them, has shuddered at the thought of cutting down half of the best trees in his wood-lot, and then giving half a year’s work to hauling it home aud paying for what I do know is the wholly useless labor of framing. If it had not been for the knowledge of balloon frames, Chicago and San Francisco could never have arisen, as they did, from little villages to great cities ina single year. It is not alone city buildings, which are supported by one another, that may be thus erected, but those upon the open prairie, where the wind has a sweep from Mackinaw to the Mississippi—for there they are built—and stand as firm as any of the old frames of New England, with posts and beams sixteen inches square.” To this we add something more from Mr. Woodward. He says: “We hear and read very much about the policy of cutting mortices, tenons, gains, etc., in the various pieges which go to make up the balloon frame. Now it is our opinion, based upon a long and thoroughly practical experience, that he who does much of this will have some misspent time to account for hereafter, besides weakening his building and hastening the decay of the frame. A gain must be cut in the studding for the side girt, unless the dwelling be lined. Gains are sometimes cut in floor joists for the purpose of locking them over partitions that run through the hight of the building. Rafters projecting over the sides should be notched, to give them a foothold on the plate. These causes would, as a general thing, constitute all the cutting necessary. “Tn building houses one-and-a-half-story high, never cut a gain for the side girt on which to rest the upper-story floor joists, unless the thrust of the roof be well guarded against by secure collar beams. We prefer, when we cut this gain, to use studding one inch wider for the sides. Where the building is lined, the side girt rests on top of the lining, and no cutting is necessary. “ Unplastered buildings, of a moderate size, are sufticiently strong if the girt be nailed directly to the studding without cutting the gain or recess. “We have recommended, in the construction of a barn 24 by 40, alternate studs on the sides, 2 by 4 and 2 by 5, the side girt to be nailed to the narrow stud and let one inch into the wide stud. This would not answer for a plastered building, as the surface is not flush for lathing. “ Two full story buildings are abundantly strong with 2 by 4 studding and gains cut into them for side girt; the third floor ties the top of the studding, so there is no yield. The joists of the third floor should be placed upon the plate, the ends beveled to the same pitch of the rafters, and each joist nailed at both ends to each rafter. “We prefer to build the second story full for a dwelling-house, as we get more strength, more convenient room, and the real difference in expense is practically nothing. Where the studding is more than five feet high above the second floor of a barn, two or three tie-strips across the foot of the rafters will make allsnug. There should be tie or collar beams on all rafters. ~~ sae | Si 19.] COST OF A BALLOON-FRAME HOUSE. “Tn story-and-a-half buildings, it is very desirable that collars be put on securely, so as to prevent any thrust of the rafters; where the side girt is not gained in, as in small unplastered buildings, the collars may be nailed or spiked to the rafter. If the side girt is set into the studding, as it should be in a plastered building not lined inside, it makes a weak point in the studding, reducing them from 2 by 4 to 2 by 3, and the collars should be put on in such a manner as to guard against any thrust whatever. The size of the building and the judgment of its constructor will indicate the best course to pursue. Buildings of one, two, or more full stories have no collars ; the joists of the upper floor tie the top of the building, and take the thrust of the rafters. In the usual mode of inside lining, one side laps the stud. The ends of the lining of the adjoining side are nailed to a strip fastened to the stud to receive them. “ We have built balloon frames with green oak studding, basswood siding, and butternut trimmings, that have never yielded. There is a system of compensation among the light sticks of a balloon frame by which the sea- soning process goes on without injury to it. We have seen warped surfaces produced by using green oak siding and by careless building, but there is no good reason why a balloon-frame building should not be always square and plumb, and the outside boarding remain secure. “The subject of tapering rafters has been pretty thoroughly discussed here- tofore. The same amount of strength can be had with a less amount of lumber. There is an additional laber in sawing such rafters, as well as a different calculation to be made in using up a log to the best advantage. It is necessary always to order this special bill of rafters direct from the mill, and the result will be that the extra cost will, nine times out of ten, over- balance the amount saved.” 351. The Cost of the Author's Balloon House and Barn.—There is not only a saving in first cost of lumber, but a very large item will be saved in the bill of carriage, particularly where it has to be hauled a long distance on a wagon. The saving in the carpenter’s bill is very large, because so much of the work may be done by persons less skillful than a well-bred carpenter. And then there is a total saving of all that troublesome, dangerous, hard work attendant upon an old-fashioned “ raising.” We have lately built (that is, we were our own architect) a house and barn, a few miles out of the city of New York, upon the plan we are advocating, and therefore can speak from actual experience of the benefits of the plan in an old as well as in a new country. The house, or rather the addition to an old one, is 18 by 24 feet, with an attachment eight feet square upon one side, and a piazza six feet wide on the other. It is one story of 10} feet, and has nine windows and seven doors. Both floors are deadened by a course of boards and heavy coat of clay mortar. The siding is nailed upon studs 2 by 4 inches, and there are two courses of lath and plastering—one half way between the siding and inside lath. The roof projects, and is orna- mented, and the garret is lathed and plastered, and the lower part divided 830 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. III. 7. Rt into four rooms, and all is of good materials and workmanship, at a total cost, except painting and papering, of $450. The sills and sleepers are pine, 3 by 7, and the joist 3 by 6, spruce, and all would have been just as good, if procurable, 2 by 6 inches; and there is not an upright stick larger than 2 by 4 of hemlock. This house, notwithstanding its cheapness, is strong, durable, warm, and good-looking. "What more could we have of a ponder- ous, expensive frame ? Our horse barn is 22 by 24 feet, and 13 feet high, and has but one upright stick in it larger than 2 by 4 inches. As the hay-loft is a high half story, it was thought best to have a center-post, which is 3 by 7, to support the ridge pole in the middle. The studs are covered with smooth pine siding, and the lower story is lined with rough boards, and the building is as strong as we desire, and cost, completely finished, with good floors, stale, mangers, doors, and windows, $300. The carpenter’s work was only $50. We have dwelt more fully upon this subject of balloon frames than upon many others, because we look upon it as one of very great importance. It is one that, if fully understood, would induce and enable farmers to have better dwellings and other farm buildings. 352. Concrete Walls.—The best advice that we can give one who asks for information about making concrete walls, or how to build houses of gravel, or broken stones and lime and sand, is that he buy a little book called a “Wome for All,” published by Fowler & Wells, which gives all the details of this mode of building. Mr. Fowler directs mixing a large mortar-bed of lime and sand together, with twice as much sand as slacked lime, made quite thin, and well worked. Into this mixture of lime and sand and water the gravel or broken stone is put and evenly mixed, and then shoveled out into a barrow or hoisting tub, and from that dumped into a smaller mortar- bed on the scaffold, where it gets another good mixing, and wetting if needed, and is then shoveled into the box that forms the mold to give bhape to the walla: In this mold it hardens in one day so that the mold can be removed, but it takes a longer time to dry hard enough to put on the next course. Such walls, if well made, are almost as solid as hewn stone, and much cheaper where-lime is not costly, and where sand and gravel or broken stone can be had for hauling. The proportion of materials given in the book referred to for a concrete wall are eight wheelbarrows full of lime, mixed with sixteen barrows of sand into a thin mortar, to which add sixty or eighty barrows of pebbles or rubble- stone, The lime may be of the coarsest kind, and not over one bushel of stone lime to thirty bushels of sand and stones, A wall three stories high is reeommended—twelve inches thick for the first, ten inches for the second, and eight inches for the third. To protect the outside plastering, the roof: should be a projecting one, Wedo not know how far this plan of building can be recommended upon the score of economy. We think that will depend very much upon cireum- stances. If broken stone or pebbles are very convenient to the building site, Sro. 19.] CONCRETE WALLS. 331 and lime to be had for the burning on the place, or at a small cost, the building will be a cheap one, and not otherwise. Horace Greeley built a large barn of concrete upon his farm in Westchester County, of such stones as are spread over the surface of these granitic hills. Although it is a very substantial building, our opinion is that we could build a good frame, and put the surplus money into other improvements, to a better profit. 353. Building with Billets of Wood.—A new style of building has been adopted in several places at the West, where brick and stones are inconve- nient, and sawed Inmber and carpenter’s work are expensive. The plan is to saw billets of wood of an even length, say one foot long, from limbs of trees ; or split stuff; slabs, we suppose, would answer a good purpose, if split up into fire-wood size. These billets must be straight enough to pile up well. The wall is made by laying them in lime mortar, and, we believe, in some cases, in good clay mortar, where lime and sand are scarce, and then plastering “the wall outside and in. The great objection seems to be that the outside plastering cleaves off, as it does from all plastered buildings exposed to rain, frost, and heat. A friend writes us inquiring whether there is any composi- tion for outside plaster that will stand the weather. We answer, none that can be wholly depended upon. A mortar made of hydraulic cement (water lime), of good quality, mixed with clean, coarse, sharp sand—two parts of sand to one of cement—would stand until some crack occurred, and water and frost get in behind. Perhaps the mortar described in No. 359 will answer the purpose. But as it is cheaper, and perhaps equally good, we ‘would recommend an ordinary coat of plaster, and then take cement and any cheap oil, and mix a pretty thick paint, and put on thoroughly two or three coats. Another good paint may be made as follows: Take four pounds of rosin and one pint of linseed oil, and boil together, adding about an ounce of red lead, and put it on hot, and afterward paint any color you like. If a crack ever occurs, stop it at once with the rosin and oil mixture. We have no doubt that these billets-of-wood houses can be built in many places cheaper than any other, and that they can be made neat, comfortable, and durable. = 332 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. III. So DA EOI COL A ALIN LIE ELAINE ELA IL LTE ICD A TET Ye SECTION XX.—ROOFS AND ROOFING—PAINTS AND WHITEWASH FOR FARM BUILDINGS—NAILS AN D MORTAR—FARM GATES, yy HATEVER the style of building adopted for any of the farmery structures, a good roof never should be lost sight of, for upon that, much of the farm economy depends. A leaky roof on a dwelling de- stroys comfort and property, and is the source of many unpleasant days and nights to the family, and sometimes productive of sickness, as well as injury to furniture. A leaky roof upon a barn will destroy every year a greater value of hay and grain than it would cost to make it tight. Itis for this that we give special attention to this part of the farm buildings. We also give some valuable hints upon painting and whitewashing, because both beauty and economy may be thus promoted. 854. Sawed Shingles.—Of all the inventions ever contrived, that of sawed shingles has proved to be one of the least value to the country. The only profit is to the patentee and manufacturer. To every one who has used them, sawed shingles have proved a loss, no matter what the saving has been in first cost, unless the shingles, previous to laying on the roof, were prepared so as to prevent their saturation with water every time the rain fell upon them. It is this repeated saturation of sawed shingles that rots them, and gives us leaky roofs in one fourth the time that split shingles remain sound. It is true that good shingle timber is becoming scarce, and more and more so every year, and that farmers must have something as a sub- stitute. What that something is we know not, but are quite sure, where economy is studied, that it will not be sawed shingles. If they must be used, let the roof have a very steep pitch. On a flat roof we have known them rot entirely through in five years. Another roof, ten years old, both shingles and roof-boards, when taken off, crumbled into a mass of rotten wood, that searcely bore any resemblance to boards and shingles. “ A retired mechanic” writes us that he followed building eighteen years, and prefers sawed shingles if they are planed on the upper side, and says that a smart hand can plane from two to three thousand a day. We think a machine might be constructed to plane one side of sawed shingles without adding much to the cost. Without planing or dipping in boiling oil or tar, we do not believe sawed shingles should ever be used by any one who wants a good roof, or who cares for economy. The writer of a letter now before us speaks in very severe terms of the manufacturers of sawed shingles. He says they are often made of small cross-grained, sapling spruce, and that = oe So. 20.] ROOFS AND ROOFING, 338 the bark of the tree will last about as long as such shingles on a roof. The carelessness of persons employed to lay shingles is notorious, and a cross- grained shingle is just as apt to be laid wrong side up as right. Then the surface wears rough, and water soaks into the wood and rots it through so as to leak in a few months. This writer thinks the fault of sawed shingles is much more in the timber than in the manufacture; that is, that sawed shingles from good, sound, straight-grained timber will last as long as split ones. Another letter writer suggests that sawed shingles should never be :aid upon a boarded roof, but upon narrow laths, one to each course. He says: “T know of a building where the shingles were put on boards and the boards put close together, which have been on but a few years and are very leaky ; the shingles and boards have rotted through in places, while other parts are sound and good. I think the reason is, the shingles lie so close to the boards that when they get wet they never dry through; while if laid upon laths, sawed shingles will last as long as split ones from the same timber.” Another writer, speaking of the absolute necessity of using something as a substitute for split shingles on account of the scarcity of timber, wants to know why we can not have tile manufactured that will be a better substi- tute for shingles than anything else that we have, both for economy and certainty of having a good roof. % A correspondent speaks of shingles cut by a machine patented by J. L. Brown, of Indianapolis, Ind., at the rate of 50,000 a day, that are altogether superior to sawed shingles, even should the latter be planed. This may be so, but we have no faith in the economy of using shingles made by any kind of machinery that cuts wood across the grain. No shingles thus made will be as durable as split ones, unless saturated with oils or resins, or kyanized, and then they would be as expensive as those made by riving and shaving, or perhaps as much so in the long run as slate or tin. Depend upon it, using poor shingles upon farm buildings is very poor economy. 355. Preserving Shingles on Roofs.—‘‘ Some paint roof shingles after they are laid. This makes them rot sooner than they otherwise would. Some paint the courses as they are laid ; this is a great preservative if each shingle is painted its full length, and not by courses.” Mr. Ed. Emerson, of Hollis, Mass., thus gives, in the Vew England Farmer, some hints that are worthy of preservation upon shingling roofs. He says: “Twenty-three years ago I had quite a lot of refuse shingles on hand, both sappy and shaky, and I laid them on the back kitchen and wood-shed. I have just examined them, and think they will last at least seven years longer. The building has not leaked, to my knowledge. I soaked these shingles in a very thin whitewash, made with brine instead of clear water. There has been nothing done to them since, although I have no doubt that to have whitewashed or served a coat of dry-slaked lime or fine salt once in two or three years on them, would have been of great advantage to them. # ——— 334 THE FARMERY. [Cuar, III. “ As I shingle differently from almost every one else, I will give you my method, and my reasons for it. However wide the shingles may be, I do not allow the nails to be put more than two inches apart. /2cason—If your shingles are wet or green, and the wide ones are nailed at the edges, the shingles must split or one of the nails must draw when the shingle shrinks. If the shingle is dry, it must huff or crowd the nail out when it swells. Thus your nails are kept in constant motion by every shrink or swell of the shingle till they are broken, pulled out, or the shingle is split. I do not want the nails driven quite in, or so as to sink the head. cason—The heads of the nails hold up the butts of the next row of shingles, and give the air a free circulation. “T Jay all my shingles in whitewash. I prefer brine for making it. I line with red chalk. I then whitewash the last course laid down to the line, and after the building is shingled I whitewash the whole of the roof. Reason—To make the shingles last twice as long as they would without the whitewash, and I consider it much better than just whitewashing the roof after shingling.” “ Whitewashed shingles are never mossy. If slaked lime is sprinkled upon wet roofs, it will prevent moss from growing, and if the shingles are cov- ered evergo thick with moss, putting “thie lime on twice will “take all the moss off afid leave the roof white and clean, and it will look almost as well as if it had been painted. It ought to be done once a year, and, in my opin- ion, the shingles will last almost twice as long as they will to let the roof all grow over to moss.” One who has tried this plan says: “T tried it on the back part of my house ten years ago, when the shingles were all covered over with moss, and appeared to be nearly rotten. I then gave the roof a heavy coat of lime, and have followed it nearly every year since, and the roof is better now than at first.” 356. Roofs—their Form—Shingled and Composition.—It is a serious defect in our roof architecture that the roofs of most buildings are so flat that the rain finds its way under the shingles. Sharp roofs keep out rain and last longer, and although the first cost “is a trifle greater, they are cheaper in the end. We know of no composition we can recommend to cure leaky shingled roofs, though several are advertised as sure cures. We are afraid they are like the Indian’s gun— cost more than he worth.” There is a patent asphalt roofing felt that can be easily put on by any person. ' It weighs only about forty-two pounds to the square one hundred feet. It must be stretched tight and smooth, overlapping full one inch at the joinings, and closely nailed through the overlap. It should then receive a coating of coal-tar and lime—two gallons of the former to six pounds of the latter—well boiled to- gether and kept constantly stirred while boiling, and put on with a swab, and while it is soft some coarse sand may be sifted over it. This coating needs renewing once in five or six years. There is. also roofing-paper—a soft, spongy substance, saturated with tar, which comes in rolls, and is sold fig about four cents a pound. It is un- 4 | — Seo. 20.] ROOFS AND ROOFING. rolled upon a flat boarded roof, and tacked sufficiently to hold it in place, and then saturated with tar, which glues it to the boards, and it is covered with sand; then more tar and another coat of sand. - Another receipt for composition roofs is given as follows: Take coal-tar, 800 pounds; hydraulic lime, 150 pounds; ocher, 75 pounds; and whiting, 40 pounds. Mix these substances together thoroughly, and they will mele a sufficient quantity of cement to cover 1,000 square feet of roofing. It should be laid down upon strong cotton ieehon nailed to the roof- boa ds, and on the top of all a coat of dry sand or gravel is to be laid and pressed firmly down. The cost of such roofing is about $2 80 per ten square feet. It answers very well for sheds and other outhouses. 357. Protecting Reofs from Fire.—In a country where wood is used as fuel, and where roofs are made of pine shingles, and where droughts are among the things occurring every summer, there is constant danger of eanflagration of the dwelling fous sparks on the roof. This may be guarded against in a very great measure in a very inexpensive manner. A roof carefully washed with three coats of either composition mentioned in Nos. 360 or 361, once in three years, would be a hundred times less liable to take fire aes sparks than an unwashed roof. Such a wash would be a very cheap preventive of danger from fire. So is the paint mentioned in the following extract: “A wash composed of lime, salt, and fine sand or wood ashes, put on in the ordinary way of whitewashing, renders the roof fifty-fold more safe against taking fire from falling cinders or otherwise, in cases of fire in the vicinity. It pays the expense a hundred-fold in its preserving influence against the effect of the weather. The older and more weather-beaten the shingles, the more benefit derived. Such shingles generally become more or less warped, rough, and cracked ; the application of the wash, by wetting the upper surface, re- stores them at once to their original form, thereby closing the space between the shingles, and the lime and sand, by filling up the cracks and pores in the shingle itself, prevent its warping for years.” 358. Cheap Nails——The cheapest nails are not the lowest priced ones. Cut nails, made of iron of good quality, will outlast such as can be bought at the lowest rates about two to one. Never use nails for siding or shingles that break very easily; and be*sure not to allow your carpenter to use nails of very light weight. First-rate cut nails of suitable size may cost twenty-five per cent. more than the poorest and lightest, but in the end they - are a hundred per cent. the best. Nails made of poor iron will rust out a great deal quicker than nails made of good tough malleable iron, like that known as old sable. It is about-on a par with sawed shingles to use the cheapest or lowest priced nails, particularly for shingling. In building balloon frames none but the very best quality of nails should be used. Those known as “fence nails” are far the best, being made of thicker iron than the ordinary nails of the same number. Weather-Proof Nails—are described in the Ohio Cultivator. It says: 336 THE FARMERY. [Cmar. III. “Everybody knows what a difficult thing it is to nail roof-boards and weather-boards so that they will hold for a good length of time. There are many other places in which it is nearly impossible to make nails do the office for which they are intended. A remedy—and the only one I ever saw—I discovered a few years ago; it is very simple and never fails. Take tenpenny, malleable nails, and place the head in a vice, and with a pair of pincers grip the nail near the point, and twist it half-way round, minding to make the twist somewhat elongated. In driving, the nail bopaiios a screw, and neither sun nor hammer can withdraw it.” 359. To make Mortar Impervious to Wet.—‘ Provide a square wooden trough, say 8 by 4 feet, and 2 feet deep; put in a quantity of fresh lump lime, and add water quickly. When the lime is well boiled, having assisted that operation by frequent stirring, add tar (the heat of boiling lime melts the tar), stir it well, taking care ‘that every part of the lime is intimately mixed with the tar; then add sharp sand or crushed clinker, and stir it well as before; after which, in about twenty hours, it will be fit for use.” 360. Cheap Paints for Farm Buildings.—Tar and lime may be used, in order to make either wood or mason-work waterproof. The best way to prepare gas or coal tar for coating wood-work with, is to get some of the best stone lime, avoiding chalk lime, and slake it to a fine powder; boil the tar for about half an hour, and then add about one pint of hot lime-powder to a gallon of tar, and boil it about half an hour longer, stirring it continu- ally, and using it hot. We give the above as we find it, but prefer the following: Take the com- mon “ Rosendale cement” (water lime), sift it, and mix the fine powder with coal-tar, or any kind of oil, and it will make an excellent paint, of a drab or brown-stone color. 361. Permanent Whitewash Paint.—Another excellent paint is made of the following ingredients: that is, one bushel of well-burnt white lime unslaked, 20 Ibs. Spanish whiting, 17 Ibs. rock-salt, 12 Ibs. brown sugar. Slake the lime, and sift out any lumps or stones, and mix it into a good whitewash, say with 40 gallons of water, and then add the other ingredients, and stir all well together, and put on two or three thin coats with a common whitewash brush. Five dollars’ worth of this cheap white paint will give the farmery such an improved appearance that it would sell readily for $100 more than it would in its old wood-colored coat and neglected-looking con- -dition. This mixture makes a paint that is very cheap, and makes a coat that does not wash off or rub off, and looks well—that is, makes the rough boards of a barn, shed, outbuilding, or fence look much better than in their natural wood-colored condition; and it will, by its antiseptic qualities, tend beneficially toward the preservation of the wood. It can be tinted by any of the articles mentioned in 362. This is intended for the outside of build- ings, or where it is exposed to the weather. In order to give a good color, three coats are necessary on brick and two on wood. Another cheap and good paint may be made of any pure clay; such as SEo. 20.] PAINTS AND WHITEWASH. ae: Sa aa a a potters use is the right sort; or that known as “blue clay” will answer a good purpose in its natural condition. Even such as brick-makers use can be washed of all its impurities, by thoronghly mixing it with a large bulk of water, and letting it settle and then draw off the water, and also reject the bottom of the mass, which will contain all the sand. To prepare clay for paint, first dry it, either in the sun or by fire, and then pulverize it fine, which may be done with a cannon-ball in a swinging iron pot. Then sift it, and mix with boiled linseed oil, pretty thick, and you will have just as good a fire-proof paint, or a weather-protecting paint, as any that are sold as such in the shops. In some localities soft slate, or slate-dust from a manufactory, can be had, and that will make a good “ mineral paint.” 362. Zine and Lime Whitewash Paint.—Take a clean barrel that will hold water. Put into it half a barrel of quicklime, and slake it by pouring over it Bgiling water sufficient to cover it four or five inches deep, and stirring it until slaked. When quite slaked, dissolve it in water, and add two pounds of sulphate of zinc and one of common salt, which in a few days will cause the whitewash to harden on the wood-work. Add sufficient water to bring it to the consistency of thick whitewash. To make the above wash of a pleasant cream color, add three pounds of yellow ocher. For fawn color, add four pounds of umber, one pound of Indian red, and one pound of lampblack. For gray or stone color, add four pounds of raw umber and two pounds of lampblack. The color may be put on with a common whitewash brush, and will be found much more durable than common whitewash. 363. Stucco Whitewash.—To make a brilliant stucco whitewash for all buildings, inside and out, take a bushel of clean lumps of well-burnt lime, slaked; add one fourth pound of whiting or burnt alum pulverized, one pound of loaf sugar, three quarts of rye flour, made into a thin and well- boiled paste, and one pound of the cleanest glue, dissolved. This may be put on cold within doors, but should be applied hot outside. The following is another receipt for stucco whitewash: Take half a bushel of nice unslaked lime, slake it with boiling water, covering it during the process, to keep in the steam. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve or strainer, and add to it a peck of salt, previously well dissolved in water ; three pounds ground rice, boiled to a thin paste, and stirred in boiling hot ; half a pound Spanish whiting, and a pound of clean glue, which has been previously dissolved by soaking it first, and then hanging over a slow fire, in a small kettle inside a large one filled with water. Add five gallons of hot water to the mixture, stir it well, and let it stand a few days covered from the dirt. It should be put on quite hot; for this purpose it can be kept in a kettle on a furnace. It is said that about a pint of this mixture will cover a yard square of the outside of a house, if properly applied. 22 338 THE FARMERY. [Cuar. IL. _— a ae The size of the brushes used should be adapted to the work required. This composition answers as well as oil paint on wood or stone, and is cheaper. It retains its brilliancy for many years. Coloring may be put in, and made of any shade you like. Spanish brown stirred in all make red pinks more or less deep to the quantity. A delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls. Finely pulverized common clay, well mixed with Spanish brown, makes a reddish stone color. Yellow ocher stirred in makes yellow wash, but chrome goes further, and makes a color generally esteemed prettier. In all these cases the darkness of the shades is determined of course by the quantity of coloring used. It is diffi- cult to make rules, because tastes are different; it would be best to try experiments on a shingle, and let it dry. We have been told that green must not be mixed with lime. The lime destroys the color, and the color has an effect on the whitewash, which makes it crack and peel. When walls have been badly smoked, and you wish to have them a clean whie, it is well to squeeze indigo plentifully through a bag into the water you use, before it is stirred into the mixture. If a larger quantity than five gallons be wanted, the same proportion should be observed. The above is the receipt that has been so long in circulation as that which gave the original whiteness to the “‘ White House” at Washington. In oil painting, never suffer a painter to use unboiled oil upon any of your buildings or farm implements, and certainly never suffer yourself to leave any of them unpainted. Take care that the painter is not too liberal in the use of his “driers” in your paint. Tint is to please the eye. Oil preserves the wood, and one coat of boiled oil is worth three of unboiled. All farm buildings should be oil-painted or whitewashed. Whitewash tends to preserve wooden buildings more than any ordinary coat of paint, particularly such a one as would be given to unplaned boards, which is a better condition for whitewashing than when smooth. The ice-house should be whitewashed on the outside as often as it is necessary to keep it perfectly white, as that is an important aid toward keeping it cool. 364. Farmery Gates.—No farmery can be considered at all complete that ‘is not amply furnished with gates, constructed with particular adaptation to their several situations, and arranged in the most perfect manner with hinges, latches, and fastenings. There is to us no greater evidence of a slovenly farmer than is furnished by half-dilapidated, or at best ineon- venient, bars. These bar-ways may answer in field fences, where they are seldom to be opened, but they are a nuisance about the farmery. Most of the farmery gates should be self-closing, and made to swing so that an animal could not push against and open the gate. In some places a gate can not be made to swing either way; then it must be made to open upon some one of the several plans that have been made for convenient opening in a straight line. -One of the sort patented by some one in Oneida County, N. Y., is a very easy working gate. It is made of very light stuff, and for a wagon-way a pair, each five feet long, are set between posts nine feet 339 IMPROVED FARM GATES. Ne Sxzo. 20.] apart, and held against the posts by guides, which allow of their easy work- ing. Attached by bolts to the upper outward corner are two light strips of boards, one on each side, and two others in the center. These strips are hinged to posts at the bottom in the same way they are at the top to the gate, and when the gate is shut they stand at an angle with the gate like braces, and when the gate is to be opened it lifts upon these centers, and passes over and stands alongside of the fence in a straight line. Such gates are very convenient in case of snow, as they lift up right out of the drift, so as to allow a passage without shoveling. When closed, the two gates are fastened together by hooks or bolts, or any convenient fastening. As they are not hinged to the posts, these may be made quite light. Another plan of a gate, to open without swinging, is to suspend it upon rollers running upon a rail overhead. Some one has improved upon this plan to make the gate openable by a person driving up in a wagon. This is done by lifting the gate at the front end by a lever, which changes the level of the railway-bar upon which the gate hangs, so that it rolls back by its own gravity. The principle will be understood by looking at any gate made to run off on rollers upon a bar above the top, by supposing one end of the har raised, when the gate rolls down. A touch of another lever, as the wagon passes, reverses the position of the bar, and the gate rolls back again to its closed position. The great objection to this, and almost all the plans for opening gates from the wagon, without alighting, is the unsightly appearance of the gallows- frame necessary to support the levers, ropes, and pulleys. We have seen gates which opened by the weight of the wagon passing over a bar, and shutting it by another touch of a bar on the other side. There is a good deal of machinery to this plan, as well as to nearly all of the contrivances to open and shut gates without labor, and the most of them are very liable to fail of working easily. The most simple one of the kind, and, so far as we could judge from a single examination, the least liable to get out of working order, was one ex- hibited at the New York State Fair of 1860 by Jasper Johnson, of Genesee County. One of the greatest advantages of this invention is, that it can be applied to gates already in use, so that one can be opened by a person in a wagon and shut as he passes through without stopping. Any erection that will sustain a single cord upon each side, and a bar of iron about four feet long, of the size of an ordinary crowbar, and one or two small rods, comprises all that need be added to any gate to fix it for this convenient way of opening. This bar of iron is made in a peculiar form, and attached to the gate-post by a loose joint at one end, while the other works in a long staple attached to the gate. Its position is moved by pulling the cord, and its specific gravity being thus changed, throws the gate open, and shuts it by another pull at the same cord, or the other one, as the person drives through. The attachment certainly is a very cheap | one, and its operation was entirely satisfactory. 340 THE FARMERY. [Cuap. III. | Re en eet et ns RR Robinson’s Farm Gate is the name given to one invented, and not patented, by Dr. D. A. Robinson, Union Springs, N. Y., of which we think pretty highly. One of its good points is the cheapness of the hinges. These are figured and fully described in that excellent pocket manual, the “ Rural Register,” published by Luther Tucker, from which we copy the following description : “This gate may be made of any light, tough, and durable wood, but an- swers a good purpose when made of pine, with the upright or cross-bars of white oak. The upper horizontal bar is 11 feet long, 3 inches wide horizon- tally, and 5 inches deep at the hinge, and 2! at the latch. The mortises are only two thirds through, to shut out rain, and § by 3 ineches—except in the heel-piece they are an inch and quarter. The heel-piece is 3 by 5 inches, and the four lower bars are boards 1 by 5 inches. The eross-bars, the brace, and the two pieces forming the head-piece are 1 by 3 inches. They are secured at each crossing by wrought or annealed nails. The head-piece consists merely of two boards, nailed on each’ side of the horizontal boards. The hinge is made by driving an iron rod, at least three fourths of an inch in diameter, into the top of the post, which turns in a hole seven eighths of an inch, bored two thirds of the distance through the large end of the upper bar. Another formula says: “Trim off the leaves, and grind and press the stalks in any cider-mill. To each gallon of juice add one gallon of water and six pounds of refined sugar, and fill the casks, leaving the bungs out. A moderately cool cellar is the best place to keep it. Fill up occasionally, either from juice kept on purpose or with sweetened water, so that the im- purities which rise to the surface while fermentation is going on, may be worked off. When sufficiently fermented, which will require from one to two or more months, bung tightly, and let it remain till winter, when it may be racked off into other casks, or bottled. Some persons refine it before DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [CHar. IV. bottling, by putting into each barrel two ounces of isinglass, dissolved in a quart of wine.” Cahoon’s seedling yields the greatest quantity of juice. Mr. Cahoon’s method of making wine is to mix equal quantities of water with the juice of the stalks, and to each gallon three and a half pounds fair quality of New Orleans sugar, filling the barrels quite full, and refining with isinglass, and allowing the wine to remain till spring, when it is bottled. By adding or diminishing the quantity of sugar, it will vary the strength of the wine in the same proportion. The pure juice, without water, makes a very strong wine by nsing four pounds of sugar to each gallon. Mr. Cahoon estimates that 2,500 gallons of wine can be made from an acre planted with his seed- ling. Sold at from $2 to $4 a gallon, this would yield a return of $5,000. The fault of the above is the unrefined quality of the sugar. Well-made rhubarb wine will cease to ferment in about eight weeks, and then it should be corked tightly, and kept one year undisturbed before bottling. In three years it will become like a dry sherry wine. 472. Bottling and Corks.—Use none but strong, heavy bottles, and look to your corks if you would have your wine keep. One of the greatest mis- takes made by those who are new beginners in wine-making is the using of poor corks; they do not reflect that the common cork permits the air to reach and destroy the wine. Besides this, a poor one can not be drawn without breaking, and thus injuring the flavor of the wine. If wine-makers would desire to have their wine keep well and taste well on opening, let them wever use any but the very best velvet corks. The use of the best quality will more than doubly pay by securing the wine from spoiling, and retaining the flavor, which is often lost by a bad cork. Bottles should always be stored upon their sides, or in racks, with the corks down. If poor corks are used, they must be covered with sealing-wax. 473. Wine of Grapes.—Most of the wine made in this country is barely drinkable ; what is called pure juice of the grape is often but little, if any, better than very poor sour cider, and is not generally palatable to the com- mon taste. In a trial of wine that I attended, a number of first-rate judges of wine finally settled upon a specimen of currant wine, as superior to any of the sweetened specimens of grape juice; yet the concoctors of it label it “pure juice of the grape,” “ fit for sacramental purposes and for the sick.” They insist that fermentation of sugar does not produce alcohol. They are mistaken; fermentation produces it, and distillation separates it. This sugared wine is not pure—it is one fourth alcohol. Much of the imported wine is sugared. Some of the best wine can not be imported; we can not move from place to place the very best wines made of pure grape juice. These sweetened beverages all lack one very essential element of wine, and that is the géwt, which all genuine grape wines possess. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, American grapes have proved so deficient in grape-sugar, that they would not make wine without adding cane-sugar, which makes rum instead of brandy, which is the true spirit of wine. Some Seo. 26.] DOMESTIC WINES. eo Neal a ae aaa oe ed of the best wine-makers of the country now believe that they have dis- covered, in the Delaware grape, one that will make wine equal to the best European varieties. Some Cincinnati Catawba is a good substitute for Rhine wine. Some good wines are made in California. 474. How to Make Grape Wine.—For the benefit of those who may wish to do a little in the way of domestic wine-making, we will give a few simple rules, such as are followed by wine-makers on a small scale: Massie tar Grare.—tThere are various methods of mashing the grape now used by the more careful wine-makers. Previous to the mashing, however, when first-rate wine is to be made, the bunches are carefully ex- amined, and all unripe and rotten berries are plucked off and thrown away ; then the grapes are thrown into a tub and mashed by tramping with the feet, or bruised with a club, or crushed by passing between two large wooden rollers, which are far enough apart to allow the seeds to pass with- out being broken. The seeds, if mashed, would give a bitter taste to the wine. To tramp grapes, wear India-rubber boots. Pressine THE Grape.—The pressing of the mashed berries is a simple process, like the pressing of cheese, or apples for cider. The grape-press is usually made to hold about 150 lbs. of grapes at each pressing. If white wine is to be made, the grapes are pressed as soon as mashed; but if red wine is wanted, the whole mass is left to ferment for six or seven days, in which time the juice takes the dark color of the skin. Frermentation.—The juice for white wine, as it comes from the press, is put into pipes measuring 140 gallons, about 115 gallons of juice being put into each cask, leaving one fourth of it empty. The bung-hole is left open, and in two or three days the fermentation begins, and its force is over in three or four days. The wine-maker then proceeds to fill up the casks, gradually pouring in six or eight gallons at a time, so that the casks are filled in the course of three or four days more. The casks should be filled up before the strength of the fermentation is over, so that the dirt or scum may be borne up to the bung-hole and there thrown out. Racxiye.—The vigor of the movement being over, the bung-hole is closed and the wine is left for a period varying from four weeks to three months. It is then drawn off through a cock placed a couple of inches above the bot- tom of the pipe, taking care not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. The clearer wine is poured into a clean cask; that filled with sediment is filtered through a doubled cotton cloth, and is then mixed again into the first drawing, or it is used without filtration in making brandy. About one twentieth of the juice as it comes from the press falls down as sedi- ment. The process of transferring wine from one cask to another is termed “racking off.” After the first racking, the new cask is completely filled, the bung closed, and the wine is not disturbed till March or April, when it begins to feel a more lively fermentation, for that process never ceases entirely. When the vine sprouts in March or April, and when it blossoms in June, and the grape 426 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuap. IV. ripens in September, the new wine ferments; and at those times the bungs must be raised, and care must be taken not to disturb the barrels. Between times, when there is no perceptible fermentation, the wine shonld be racked off two or three times in a year, and at the end of a year and a half it is clear and good, but it continues to grow better with age. The red wine is treated in precisely the same manner, except that it is allowed to ferment before pressure. Immediately after the pressure the wine should be placed in as cool a cellar as can be obtained in the country, and should be kept there always. This cellar should have no moldy matter about it, no vege- tables or salt meat in it, nor anything that can corrupt the natural sweetness of the air. Rep anp Warre Wine.—Branpy.—All the white wine made in this man- ner resembles hock or sauterne; the red wine may be made to resemble claret, burgundy, or port. When the berries are picked early, the red wine is like claret, but has more body ; if the grapes are left upon the stem until they are nearly dry, they give less juice, but the wine has a much stronger body, and rivals port in strength. The method of making champagne is held as a secret, and we shall not attempt to describe it fully. The main facts, however, are that the wine is bottled about six months after pressing; it is again re-bottled in eight months more. The bottles are laid down upon their sides in racks, and a large per-centage of them are broken by the activity of the fermenta- tion. The refuse of the press and all the sediment of the new wine may be used in making brandy, which is obtained by distillation in the same manner as whisky is distilled from maize or potatoes. For every hundred gallons of wine about twenty-five of brandy are obtained. 475. Wine of Tomatoes.—We have no experience of wine from this fruit, but a lady writes us from Iowa as follows: : “ Are you aware what very excellent wine can be made from tomatoes ? I tried it on a small scale last year, and find it serves as good a purpose for using in sickness and in cooking as the compounds of nauseous drugs usually sold for wine. Many who have tasted it were unable to tell it from grape wine. If people will use wine, it is certainly well to have it free from poison, and tomatoes. are so abundant that it could be afforded cheaply. If vinegar can be made from it, it will be a blessing to the West, where we have such horrible compounds under that name. The recipe: One pound of white sugar to a quart of juice, and similar treatment to cur- rant wine.” 476. Blackberry Cordial.—This is not wine, though an article called black- berry wine is often made in the same way that wine of other small fruits is made, and is a very good beverage; but this is what the name implies, blackberry cordial, and it should be provided in every family, particularly where there are growing children; it is such) an excellent remedy for chil- dren troubled with diarrhea and all other diseases of the bowels generated Szo. 26.] DOMESTIC WINES AND CIDER. 427 in the spring season. To make it, to two quarts of blackberry juice add one pound of loaf sugar, half an ounce of nutmeg, half an ounce of cinnamon, pulverized fine, quarter of an ounce of cloves, quarter of an ounce of allspice, finely pulverized; and a handful of raisins. Boil all together for a short time, and when cold, add one pint of fourth-proof French brandy. Black currants also treated oe the same way make an excellent cordial. See 472. 477. Cider—Preserving it Sweet.—The following is the plan recommended by Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass. : “When the cider in the barrel ‘is undergoing a lively fermentation, add as much white sugar as will be equal to half or three quarters of a pound to each gallon of cider, and let the fermentation proceed until the liquid attains the right taste to suit; then add an eighth to a quarter of an ounce of sul- phite (not sulphate) of lime to each gallon of cider in the cask; first mixing the powder in about a quart of the cider, and then pouring it back into the cask and giving it a thorough shaking or rolling. After standing bunged up a few days for the matter added to become incorporated with the cider, it may be bottled or used from the cask.” Do not mistake sulphate_of lime—which is a natural production, and known as plaster of Paris—for sulphite of lime, which is a manufactured article, and is worth by the barrel about thirty-three cents a pound, and by the ewt. thirty-seven and a half cents, and by the single pound fifty cents. It has been of late years much used by sugar-makers to prevent fermentation of cane-juice, and in our opinion it will be found more effective as a pre- yventive of fermentation in cider than an arrester of it after it has proceeded nearly to completion. We kept cider on tap that was treated as above for six months, which appeared to possess exactly the same degree of acidity as it had when first treated, but it had an unpleasant sulphur { taste. Usine Hear anp Borrtwwe.—The following is the formula: Fill bottles with sweet cider and set them on a board in a flat-bottomed boiler with cold water, which heat to the boiling-point until the cider begins to run over, but not to boil so as to alter its flavor; then cork and seal just as fruits are treated, and the cider will keep equally well. Conpensep Crper is the name of a new article first made by Gail Borden, Jun., in 1863, using the same process which he invented for condensing milk ; that is, boiling it in vacuum with steam-pipes, reducing the cider direct from the press to a stiff jelly, which will keep as well as any fruit-jelly made by domestic process. For transportation it is put up like the condensed milk, in tin cans. It is reduced to its original condition by adding as much water as it had parted with. It is, probably, the best plan ever devised for keep- ing cider sweet. 478.—Oiling Cider.—When a barrel of cider is tapped, it grows hard; that is, more and more acid, until it gets too hard to drink, if it is kept long on tap. This is occasioned by the air, which fills the cask above the cider as fast as it is drawn out. The air can not be excluded, even if the cask were 428 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. AAA ee air-tight, because the cider will not run from the tap if there is no air to press it out. If cider is exposed long to air, it will become vinegar. In fact, the way to make vinegar of cider is to expose it to the air as much as possible. To prevent the cider on tap from becoming acid, it is recom- mended, as soon as one or two gallons are drawn out, to pour in the bung-hole about half a pint of clear sperm oil, or sweet oil if it is preferred. It should be warm when poured in, and it will spread in a thin coat over the surface, and keep spreading as the cider is drawn down, and thus exclude the air, without giving any taste of oil to the cider. This plan of preserving cider is worthy of further attention. We have faith in it from knowing that oil-casks are the best we know of for storing cider, imparting no flavor, and keeping it sound as bottled cider for years. Sperm-oil casks are more valuable for cider-casks than for any other purpose. 479. Filtering Cider.—Cider is very much improved by filtering. This should be done when the first fermentation is over, by racking it off into clean barrels. A good plan for a filter is the following: “Take a square or round wooden box, made of inch pine plank, three feet in diameter, and one toot four inches deep. Make it with a bottom perforated with numerous one-quarter-inch augur holes, over which should be laid coarse hemp bagging. Now fill in the box for eight inches with pieces of charcoal—animal charcoal is the best—about nut size, and on the top of this place a four-inch layer of clean washed sand, and cover all with coarse hemp bagging, and you have a cheap and good filter. Any num- ber of such filters may be used, according to the quantity of cider to be operated upon, and the cloth can be frequently washed without dis- turbing the sand and charcoal. Before any cider is filtered through, pass a stream of clear water into the filter for fifteen minutes, so as to remove any fine, loose particles of charcoal that otherwise would be mixed with the cider.” , 480. Aerifying Cider.—If cider, when it first comes from the press, could be filtered, and the clear liquid allowed to fall from an upper story in a thin stream into a large tub in the story below, or, if feasible, to continue falling from one to another through several stories of a building, it would become greatly improved, and we are assured by one who has tried it, that it may be bottled at once without any further fermentation, and it will remain in its sweet or slightly acidulated state, and when at a year old it is uncorked it will sparkle like champagne wine. The grand secret of having a cider equal to pure wine is in checking any further fermentation. If the cider is left to itself, the acetous fermentation follows—the sedimentary matter at the bottom of the cask rises, and the liquid becomes muddy—this, acting as yeast, produces a second and more violent fermentation, resulting generally in hard cider. By straining out the crude and useless matter from the liquor, the liability to excessive fermentation is greatly lessened, and so it is by fumigating casks with burning sulphur as well as aerifying. Remember, however, that Sxro. 26.] CIDER, VINEGAR, AND PRESERVES. 429 this airing process must be confined to cider while quite new. If fermented cider were treated in the same way, the result would be vinegar. When cider is kept tightly bunged up, it changes little and very gradually ; bottled, it changes none at all, except a certain improvement by age which takes place. Air will at once begin to change the alcohol into vinegar if it comes in contact with it, and this will make the best cider hard and sour before long. 481. Vinegar—How to Make it.—If you have cider that “won’t turn to vinegar,” just try the following plan: Fill a barrel, tub, box, or any other clean vessel, with clean shavings, or small twigs of any sweet wood, such as maple, biréh, beech, etc., and wet them with vinegar, if you have it, and if not, cider, or even warm water will answer. This barrel must be full of holes, sides and bottom, and set over a larger vessel, to catch the drip as it leaches through. The cider is to be conveyed to the leach by any con- venient method. A good way is to put it in a pail, set on the barrel over the shavings, and carry it over the edge by siphons, made of rags, or cotton lamp-wicking, or a hank of cotton yarn. These conductors should be cut long enough to reach from the bottom of the pail or pan used, up over the edge, and down an inch below the bottom. This gradual emptying of the pail, and trickling down through the filter, exposes the liquid to the atmos- phere, and that is what is wanted to make vinegar. If the first operation is insufficient, let it be repeated, and good strong vinegar will be the result. Currant Vinecar.— Last year,” writes a lady, “for trial, I took fourteen pounds of currants, mashed them as for wine, put them into a tub with two or three pails of water, stirring it two or three times a day. After standing several days, I strained or pressed it, and with molasses enough to make it as sweet as new cider, I had ten gallons. I put it into a keg, and did not open it till December, when I found it to be as good vinegar as was ever made.” - Blackberry vinegar may be made in the same way; or, if you are making wine, do not throw away the seeds and skins after drawing off the must. Pour warm water over these until they are entirely covered, and let them stand in an open vessel three or four days. Then draw off the liquid and let that stand until the acetous fermentation takes place. A small quantity of coarse sugar or molasses will hasten the process. In this way a most excellent article of wine vinegar may be obtained by many who have not the means of making cider vinegar. 482. Preserving Fruits for Winter Use.x—We have already given a plan in 337 of a fruit-drying house, and have recommended preserving various kinds of fruits by drying for winter use, and now we give some directions for various other preparations for preserving fruit, cooked and uncooked. Apples keep best in a dry, cool room, just above the freezing-point. If headed in barrels, apples will keep in a room where water would freeze quite solid. They will-not keep well in a warm cellar where cabbage, 430 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuap. IV. turnips, or any strong-smelling substances are stored, for they absorb the un- pleasant odor. If packed in straw or chaff that becomes damp and musty, they will spoil. 483. Grapes—How to Keep Them.—There are three easy ways that will serve the purpose in some degree—that is, it will preserve them somesweeks into the winter in a tolerable state of freshness. The first is to hang up the bunches separately by the stems in a dry room, barely warm enough to pre- serve fruit from freezing. The next is to pack the bunches, each separately, - in absolutely dry sawdust, of some sweet wood, in layers, in a box or cask. The other is to pack the bunches separately between layers of clean cotton fiber or batting. In each case the fruit should be kept in a dry, cool room, and, when packed in cotton, the room may be so cold that it would freeze water, yet will not injure the grapes. Care must be taken that the fruit is dry and clean, and that there are no decayed, mashed, or imperfect grapes on the bunches. Another direction says : “In gathering grapes for keeping fresh, they should be allowed to hang on the vines until fully ripe, and then gathered with care to avoid bruising. The fairest bunches should be chosen to put away, and with a pair of small scissors all defective and bruised berries should be cut off. They shonld then be placed in boxes well ventilated, and remain for a few days, when they should be packed in boxes holding six or eight pounds each. It is not important that the box be tight; it is better that it should not be. These should be put in the coolest place in the house, where the air is dry. On the approach of freezing weather they may be removed to upper shelves sus- pended in the cellar, or in any dry room where the temperature is as near the freezing-point as possible. “ While grapes may be grown‘in such profusion and with so little labor, it is a little remarkable that a supply for every household in the country is not secured, not only in the regular season of them, but to last until spring. There is no trouble in keeping grapes through the winter as fresh as when they are first gathered.” 484. Preserving Fruit in Air-Tight Cans and Bottles.—The modus operandi of putting up fruit so as to preserve it in a fresh state without cooking, dry- ing, or packing in sugar is not yet fully understood by all farmers’ families, though largely manufactured for sale by many persons in cities; and many contrivances have been invented for sealing up cans, some of which are very convenient; but the same thing can be accomplished with bottles corked and sealed according to these directions. It is a business that can not so well be done in families as in large manu- factories, where everything is arranged for convenience; but still, with a little experience and careful attention, every family can save enough of the various fruits of the season to furnish their tables with a great delicacy during that portion of the year when they can get nothing of the kind. The whole secret consists in expelling the air from bottles or cans by heat, Szo. 26.] PRESERVING FRUIT IN AIR-TIGHT CANS. 431 and then sealing up the contents hermetically. If the article to be pre- served is peaches, select such as you would for sweetmeats, and pare and cut them so that they can be put in the bottle, and you must do this with the least possible delay, or they will be colored by the atmosphere. Some per- sons who want them to retain their natural whiteness peel them under wa- ter. When the bottle is full, cork it tight and wire down the cork with very little projecting above the glass. When you have bottles enough to fill a kettle, such as may be most convenient, put them in and boil with the water all around up to the nozzle for about fifteen or twenty minutes, er until the bottle appears to be full of steam, the atmosphere having been forced out through the cork. As soon as the bottles are cool enough to handle, dip»the corks in sealing-wax, so as to cover them quite tight. An additional precaution is used by some in putting tin-foil over the wax. Another plan is to cook the fruit slightly in a kettle, and then put it into cans or bottles, and pour hot syrup of sugar in to fill up the interstices, and then cork and seal, the heat of the fruit and syrup answering to expel the air. But the less they are cooked or sweetened, the more natural will be the taste, like fresh fruit when opened. We have eaten peaches a year old that we could not tell from those sugared ten hours before. Tomatoes are very easily preserved, and retain their freshness better than almost any other fruit. The small kind only are used. Scald and peel them without breaking the flesh. Bottles should hold about a quart only, because when once opened, the contents must be used up at once. Bottles made on purpose, with large throats and a ring on the inside, are the best, and bottles are better than cans for all acid fruit. The cans, however, are more easily secured by solder than the bottles by corks and wax, as the air is let out through a small puncture after the large opening is soldered up and cans heated, and that hole stopped with a single drop of solder. Every article of fruit will keep fresh if the air is exhausted and the bottle sealed tight. The least particle of air admitted through any imperfection of the sealing will spoil the fruit. If the air could be driven out without heat, there would be no need of any cooking, and only just enough should be given to expel the air and not change the taste. Many persons prefer to add syrup made by about one pound of sugar to a quart of water to all suitable fruits. Green corn, beans, peas, tomatoes, pie-plant, currants, gooseberries, cherries, plums, raspberries, strawberries, peaches, are the most common things put up in this way. They add greatly to the pleasures of the table and to the health of those who consume them—in that respect quite unlike the common preserves. We have known fruit for pies put up in three-quart cans by partially the fruit in the cans hot and soldering immediately. It kept thus perfectly. Some fruits keep much better and with less heating than others. Peas are among the hardest articles to keep, they contain so much fixed air. We advise every family in the country to try this plan of putting up cooking in an open kettle in a syrup just sweet enough for use, and putting | : 432 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. : [Cuar. IV. fruits for winter use on a small scale this year, and if successful, enlange upon it next year A new mode, to us, of canning fruit is recommended as follows : “Take a common wide-mouthed crock or jar of any size; prepare the fruit in the usual way; fill the jar and tie two waxed cloths tightly over the mouth. The jar must not be very narrow-mouthed in proportion to its size. A common, straight, stone gallon jar is of good proportions. If the mouth is too small, the cloths can not follow the surface of the fruit down in a cold time. The cloth must touch the fruit at all times, and if the mouth is wide it can rise and fall with the weather. In order to have the jar very full, it is well to let the fruit cool down a little below 212 de- grees; then fill up with more fruit just before putting on the cloth. The cloths may be of the common muslin, but they must be soaked in melted wax. The wax should be beeswax chiefly ; a little rosin and tallow will help it.” 485. Dry Sugar-Preserving.—Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cher- ries, and peaches can be preserved in this manner: Lay the ripe fruit in broad dishes, and sprinkle over it the same quantity of sugar used in cook- ing it. Set it in the sun or a moderately heated oven until the juice forms a thick syrup with the sugar. Pack the fruit in tumblers, and pour the syrup over it. Paste writing-paper over the glasses, and set them in a cool, dry place. Peaches must be pared and split, and cherries stoned. Pre- served in this manner, the fruit retains much more of its natural flavor and healthfulness than when cooked. The paper which is usually pasted over jars of preserves is porous, and admits air. To render it perfectly impervi- ous to air, apply the white of an egg with a brush to the paper before cover- ing the jars, overlapping the edges an inch or two. 486. Dry Pressure Preserving.—By submitting vegetables to a powerful pressure, they have been prepared in France so that they have been kept in a dry state many months. Cabbages, beets, parsneps, peas, apples, ete., are divested of all moisture by a powerful hydraulic press, and thus are packed in small compass for use of men on ship-board. They are a tolerable sub- stitute for fresh vegetables, but as unlike them as bull beef is to tender lamb. Upon such a voyage, however, as that of the Grinnell expedition, where the ships were frozen up nine months, a taste of such food as this would have been not only palatable, but extremely beneficial to health. We understand it is not expensive. 487. Currant Jelly —As currant jelly is pleasant and useful to both the sick and the well, we give the following directions for making it of excellent quality, which retains the beautiful crimson color of the currant much bet- ter than that made by the old mode: “Squeeze the juice out of the cur- rants, strain and measure it, put it in a porcelain or very well-cleaned cop- per or brass kettle, and boil it until the scum ceases to rise; then, without taking the juice off the fire, stir in one pound of well-refined sugar to every pint of juice, and as soon as the sugar is fully dissolved—which will be Szo. 26.] PICKLES AND PRESERVES. 433 in less than a minute—take it off and pour it into the vessels prepared. to receive it.” Cmwrr Jetty.—Boil three quarts of cider just from the press till it is re- duced to one. Skim well, and add not quite one quart of white sugar. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes, and strain through a coarse linen cloth into your jelly glasses. 488. Pickling Cucumbers, Melons, Tomatoes, Peaches.—The great art in making good pickles is to have good vinegar. The best vinegar for pick- ling is made of sound cider. As good vinegar is not always at hand, the best way is to prepare a brine strong enough to bear an egg. When the tub is full of pickles, allow the brine to cover them; then cover them over with cabbage-leaves, and a board and weight to keep themin the brine. For use, freshen in warm water, and put them in a bright brass kettle, with vinegar enough to cover them, and scald them fifteen or twenty minutes ; put them in jars, and pour hot vinegar over them; flavor them with cloves, mace, black pepper, an onion or two, and a little horseradish and ginger. For Pracn Picxies.—Stir two pounds of white sugar into two quarts of the best cider vinegar. oil it ten minutes, skimming it well. Have ready some large, fully-ripe peaches; rub them with a clean flannel to take off the down, and stick four cloves into each. Put them into glass or whiteware jars, rather more than half full, and pour on them the vinegar boiling hot. Cover them closely, set them in a cool place, and let them rest for a week. Then pour off the liquid, and give it another boiling. Afterward pour it again on the peaches; cover them closely, corking the jars and tying leather over each, and put them away till wanted for use. Instead of cloves you may stick the peaches with blades of mace, six blades to each peach. If you find a coat of mold on the top of a jar of pickles, remove it carefully, and do not throw away the pickles, as they may still be quite good be- neath. 489. Apples, how Preserved, and their Use-—Where apples abound, as they do in a‘large portion of the Northern States, they should be found in some form upon every farm-house table at nearly every meal. Several very choice sorts can be kept through the winter up to the time when apples come again; and where they abound, there is really but little occasion for preserving small fruits, as indicated in preceding paragraphs. Apples, when first taken from the tree, if laid in a heap eighteen inches in depth, and covered with a cloth, or a little straw, will soon sweat and become quite moist ; then the cover or straw should be taken off, and the apples suffered to dry as suddenly as possible. Then packed in barrels and kept till they sweat again, and finally dried, repacked, and stored in proper situations, they will always be ready for furnishing some of the best sweetmeats at short notice that a farmer can enjoy, for they furnish healthy food. Apples brought to the table raw should be only such kinds as can be eaten after sweet things, as pastry and custards, hence all intensely sour apples, 434 DOMESTIO ECONOMY. [CHar. IV. however grateful at other times, are not fit for the dessert. There is almost an infinite number, and among them our best varieties, which do not come within this stricture, though some of the choicest for culinary purposes are too sour far the dessert uncooked. The effect of heat on many apples is quite noticeable. Baked apples are always liked. We are not surprised when a tender apple bakes soft and delicate, but when one tough and corky loses all these characteristics, and surpasses in delicacy even the other, as is often the case, we appreciate better the chemical action which heat induces. Sweet apples, free from decay, worms, or gnarly spots, scrupulously cleaned and placed in pans, and baked in a slow oven till fully done, are excellent. The apples should shrivel and dry away very much, and the skin should not be broken so as to let the juice out. The sweetness is thus concentrated, and they are three times as good as if simply baked through. Sour or tart apples may be baked much quicker; the juice, instead of be- coming viscid and thick by heat, is apt to flow out, or the steam splits the skin and lets it out, and it is likely to burn to the pan. Baked tart apples should be eaten with sugar, or they may be baked with sugar. Tart apples, washed, placed in a pan with a little water, and sprinkled over well with sugar—or the same, cored and the holes filled with sugar—or pared as well as cored, and spice added with the sugar, are delicious. Some use one or two cloves to each apple, or a bit of cinnamon with some lemon-peel ; others grate nutmeg or sprinkle cinnamon over the apples in the pan. To our taste, plain baked apples, or slightly sugared if very tart, is the very best preparation of this valuable fruit for the ‘table. AppLe Custarp.—To make the cheapest and best every-day farmer’s apple custard, take sweet apples that will cook soft, pare, cut, and stew them; when well done, stir till the pieces are broken; when Ceol, thin with milk to a proper consistency, and bake with one crust, like a pumpkin pie. Eggs may be prepared and added with milk, though it will do without. No sweetening is necessary. It may be vewsoned with any kind of spice to suit the taste—the less the better. Raw Apries AnD Mirx.—A tender sub-acid, or sweet apple—the latter preferable—pared and sliced thin into a bowl of milk, for breakfast or sup- per, is a great luxury to some persons at any time of the year; and it is not less healthful than grateful to the palate. Seo. 27.] HYGIENIC. 435 een SECTION XXVII.—HYGIENIC. PREPARATION OF FOOD FOR THE SICK——-REMEDIES FOR POISONS, BITES, AND STINGS. {(E will not tire the reader with nostrums under this title; we simply ask attention to a very short section upon matters of great importance to those who are suffering, and which come properly under the head of this chapter. All of our readers who have, while recovering from sickness, asked, “‘ What shall T eat?” will appreciate all that is said in the next paragraph. 490. Food for the Sick and Dyspeptic.—Sickness occurs in every family, and during convalescence the appetite is sometimes so delicate it needs a good deal of pampering. In some families there is always an invalid, who can not eat the every-day food of those whose appetites are strong. To such, some of the following hints may be very acceptable, and equally acceptable to some who are not sick. ; What shall I eat? How often this question is asked by the sick, or those with delicate appetites! Nature demands food, but the appetite does not crave it, and the mind of the feeble invalid can not fix upon anything that he will relish. It may relieve such sufferers to point out a few suitable articles of food, such as are easily prepared and usually tempt delicate appetites. Here is one peculiarly New Englandish : “ Cut some codfish in bits the size of a pea, and boil it a minute in water to freshen it. Pour off all the water, and add some cream and a little pepper. “Split and toast a Boston cracker, and put the above upon it. Milk and | a little butter may be used instead of cream. “ Ham or smoked beef may be prepared in the same way. For a variety, beat up an egg and stir it in, instead of cream, or with the cream. “These preparations are also good for a relish for a family breakfast or tea.” Another excellent dish for sick or well, and economical withal, is made by taking a few cakes of pilot-bread and soaking them till partially soft, after breaking them into mouthfuls, in just water enough to be all absorbed ; then cut a slice of fat salt pork into very small pieces, fry it crisp, pour it the bread, and heat the whole in a stove or oven, or in a spider. 436 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IY. Another plan is to pour over the bread a sweetened butter gravy, or wine sauce, or the juice of stewed fruit or preserves. All are good. A very excellent food for delicate stomachs may be made by sweetening water, cold or hot, with refined sugar, and crumbling into it stale bread. Bread and cider used to be a favorite food in Yankee land in old times. Sweeten the cider, and crumb into it toasted bread. Sometimes a piece of codfish or a slice of fat salt pork, roasted upon live coals, will tempt a convalescent appetite when nothing else will answer. In making porridge of corn or oatmeal, be careful to cook it well. Do not think it done till it has boiled an hour. Rice gruel does not need so much cooking. It should not be given toa person of constipated habits. Simple boiled rice isa delicate food for the sick. Arrowroot, tapioca, farina, and corn starch are all of the same character— highly concentrated food. .A good gruel may be made of either, and fla- vored with sugar, nutmeg, lemon, or whatever would be agreeable. Stale bread, very dry, crumbed and made into a gruel, is perhaps the most di- gestible. Stale bread, toasted very dry and brown, and then steeped in wa- ter a long time, makes a good drink for the sick, and furnishes considerable nourishment. In all cases of sickness, when the appetite craves fruit we would give it, ripe and fresh in its season, or preserved and cooked in the most simple manner. Apples for the sick should always be roasted. So should po- tatoes. If the friends of the sick possess a little skill and neatness in the prepara- tion of dishes, the patient need never say, “ What shall I eat ?” The following is well relished by some appetites, but we doubt its di- gestibility: Shave a good crisp head of cabbage as fine as possible; add a tablespoonful of horseradish to each quart of shaved cabbage; let one pint of vinegar come toa boil; have ready three well-beaten eggs with a little salt; pour the eggs into the vinegar and stir until cooked; then pour it over the cabbage and set it away, as it is better when cold. This will keep some days, and is always ready. Roastiye A Cnicken may be thought a very simple operation, but, in our opinion, not one in ten of modern housekeepers can do it to per- fection. First, because they have no conveniences. The abominable cook- ing-stove has spoiled many a dish, and none more so than this of a roast chicken, which never has been and never will be roasted to perfection in any other way than tied up by the legs swinging by a string before a wood fire, dripping its gravy into a pan in which there is a little cream and a lump of butter, with which the roast is to be basted from time to time until the skin is brown and flesh thoroughly cooked. It is this cooking in the open air that gives it the peculiar richness. Ifa chicken must be roasted or baked in a stove-oven, it should be done with the oven door open. With some stoves it can be much better done in an open pan set down before the Sxo. 27] HYGIENIC. 437 grate. All holes in the body of a fowl should be sewed up as tight as pos- sible—not merely drawn together, but tight. A badly cooked fowl should never be set before an invalid, or one whose digestion is naturally weak. The following makes a nice dish for a delicate appetite : Lay half a dozen crackers in a tureen; pour enough boiling water over them to cover them. In a few minutes they will be swollen three or four times their original size. Now grate loaf sugar and a little nutmeg over them, and dip on enough cream to make a nice sauce, and you have a simple and delicious dessert that will rest lightly upon the stomach, and it is easily prepared. Leave out the cream, and it is a valuable recipe for * sick-room cookery.” Lremonapr.—Three lemons to a pint of water makes strong lemonade; sweeten to taste. This is a cool, refreshing, pleasant, and salubrious bev- erage for invalids. Merav.—Three pounds of sugar, five gills of molasses, three pints of wa- ter, three ounces of tartaric acid, one ounce of sarsaparilla. Stir it over the fire till at the boiling-point. When cold, bottle and cork tight. Add the superearbonate of soda when you drink it. Gincer Berr.—Two gallons of boiling water, two pounds of crushed sugar, one and a half ounces of bruised ginger, one ounce of cream of tartar, one lemon, two tablespoonfuls of yeast. Mix all together (except the yeast) and let it stand over-night; then add the yeast; strair and bottle it; tie down the corks. In twelve hours it may be drank. Brrr Tra is very nourishing if rightly prepared. Take perfectly lean parts of fat beef, cut it into cubes half an inch square, and soak it some hours in cold water, and then boil all together for an hour. You may improve this by adding a toasted cracker to each bowlful. The following formula is given by Liebig: Half a pound of fresh, lean beef, cut small in one pint and a third of pure water, with four drops of muriatic acid and half a small spoonful of salt, to stand an hour cold, and then strain without squeezing. It may then be cooked and taken hot or cold Mutton or chicken tea should be made according to the first of the above directions, and rice may be added, if not intended solely for drink. 491. Cautions about Preserving Health.—The art of preserving health is of more consequénce than all the prescriptions for pampering sick appetites. A great deal of sickness might be avoided by forethought. There is always some cause to produce sickness, and that cause may frequently be removed by a few hours’ labor. Stagnant water in the cellar is a great breeder of disease. Let there al- ways be a free passage of air through the cellar by taking out the windows, so that the air can circulate freely and keep it healthy. If there are stagnant ponds near your dwellings, they should be drained. Remove, as far as you can, every cause of disease; be temperate and regu- lar in all your habits ; avoid exposure, and be careful of what you eat. 438 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. 492. Poisons.—There are numerous poisons lurking unsuspected about many dwellings that tend to produce sickness. Among other poisons, we enumerate—- Oxalic acid used in solution for cleaning brass and removing stains from linen, is a virulent poison. Lime forms an insoluble compound with it, and proves the best antidote when it has been taken into the stomach. Among vegetable poisons we find the mountain laurel (Halmia latifolia), and the dwarf or sheep laurel (A. augustifolia). These not only are eaten by animals, but the leaves are mistaken by children for wintergreen, and we have known serious cases of poisoning to result. Poison sumach (Aus venenata) and poison vine or poison ivy (22. towico- dendron) produce excessive irritation of the skin, and even blistering from contact with most persons, and some are so sensitive that the odor only of the first or its smoke in burning produces most painful results. The wild or poison parsnep has a similar effect upon some persons, and some very del- icate skins are affected by the garden parsnep. The effect is hightened when the leaves are covered with dew; when dried, they may be handled with safety. Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata) is a virulent poison. From the form of its inflorescence and the aromatic odor of its seed and root, it is some- times mistaken for sweet cicely (Dfyrrhis odorata) by children. Pains should be taken to extirpate it wherever found, as also to prevent the spread of a similar plant, a foreigner, poison hemlock (Coniwm maculatum). Among poisonous garden flowers we have the larkspur, monkshood, and foxglove. Opium, the product of the poppy, in some form, either as laudanum or elixir, is a very frequent means of poisoning. These medicines are too pow- erful to be trusted in ignorant hands, as the yearly record of fatal accidents sadly attests. The green color on wall paper and on cards attached to various dry goods, often contains arsenic, a single square inch having enough to destroy a child. Green wall paper is unfit for use, especially for sleeping-rooms. The exhalation from such walls has been known to sicken the occupants. !The frequent use of poisonous colors upon candy or children’s playthings indicates the need of the utmost caution on the part of parents. The red, green, yellow, and blue colors may all be harmless, but fata® cases of poi- soning and the examination of chemists prove that the grossest ignorance or the deepest depravity prevails with some makers and venders. Copper in all its forms is poisonous. Acid or greasy food allowed to stand in copper or brass vessels, readily corrodes them, and proves their unfitness for such uses. The metallic or brassy taste of the articles usually affords reasonable warning. Common black writing-ink, made of nutgalls and iron, is not poisonous, but the blue ink has a different composition, and is so in a greater or less degree. Indelible ink and also hair-dyes having nitrate of silver as the es- = Szo. 27,] HYGIENIC. 439 sential ingredient, are poisonous. Corrosive sublimate used in alcohol as a bedbug poison should never be kept in families, as it has been the cause of very many accidents. Phosphorus, an ingredient in friction matches, is a deadly poison. Too much caution can not be used to keep them away from small children, who will put anything in their mouths. The free use of warm water will not only favor the vomiting which may ensue from the action of the poison it- self, but as a diluent it may serve to weaken its power and render it com- paratively harmless. Common table-mustard is a very prompt emetic. The dose is a teaspoonful of dry mustard; stir this in a tumbler of water and drink at one draught. It is quick, sure, and as agreeable as any emetic. If some does remain in the stomach, it does no harm. In a few cases some an- tidote may neutralize the poisonous substance in the stomach, but the main dependence must be in removing immediately its contents either by an emetic or, better, by the stomach-pump. Vegetable acids, as vinegar, are good antidotes to many of the vegetable poisons, yet no rules can be given upon which it would be safe to rely without medical assistance. ; 493. Bee Stings and Mosquito Bites—We have often cured the poison of bee stings, and relieved the pain almost instantly by an application of spirits of hartshorn (liquid ammonia). If that is not convenient, wet the skin and apply powdered saleratus or sal soda, which effects upon some persons in- stant relief. The same things may be applied with success to mosquito bites upon children or others, where they are particularly poisonous. Some- body has published a statement that, if a pie¢e of raw beef is placed in a room infested with mosquitoes, they will all suck the beef and let folks alone. 494. Snake Bites and Remedies.—The most virulent and fatal of all poisons, excepting always the poison of bad ventilation, comes from snake bites, which occur occasionally in some of the new settlements of our country. We have known death to supervene in several cases for want of a little knowledge of remedies ready at hand. One remedy is to drink whisky, or any spirit, as soon as possible, sufficient to produce insensibility. Another remedy is to kill a chicken, or any other animal, and cut it open and apply the warm flesh to the wound, holding fast, and renewing it when it loses the animal heat. Another is a poultice of equal parts of raw onions, tobacco, and salt, mashed together, moistened with whisky, and bound on tight and frequently renewed. Sweet or olive oil, we know as a very valuable remedy, taken in half-gill doses, and cloths bound upon the bitten spot soaked in oil. We earnestly recommend a trial of the following remedy: Wet a bunch of lint with a teaspoonful of chloroform, and lay it on the bite, and cover it with a watch crystal, a wine-glass, or a tumbler, pressed down so as to exclude the air, and hold it there fifteen to thirty minutes, which will probably raise a blister, and prove so painful that the pain of the poison will not be felt. 495. Hydrophobia—Cure of Mad-dog Bites.—A Leipsic—Germany—journal 440 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IY. gives the following, said to have proved many times a sure remedy for the bite of a mad dog: “Take immediately warm vinegar or tepid water, wash the wound clean | therewith, and then dry it; then pour upon the wound a few eae of hy drochlorie acid, because after al acid destroys the poison of the saliva.’ Brazi.ian Moss or Cure.—We have seen it stated that the bites of rat- tlesnakes and mad dogs and stings of scorpions are cured in Brazil by the use of spirits of hartshorn. It should be applied immediately, if possible, and the wound kept wet by cloth application or continual sponging, and doses of the spirits diluted, taken into the stomach three or four times a day. It is said that the spirits of hartshorn has a chemical affinity for the poison virus, and absorbs and decomposes it, and thus renders it harmless. If this is the case, then ammonia in any form would have the same effect. At any rate the remedy is simple and easily tried, and should be tested. We have faith in it, knowing it to be an excellent remedy for a bee sting. 496. Remedies for Lockjaw, Felons, and Ulcers.—We have heard a great. deal about the medicinal value of a poultice made of grated beet-roots, and now we find the following statement, which we consider worthy of attention, the remedy is so easily applied: “ A young lady ran a nail into her foot, which produced lockjaw of such a malignant character that her physicians pronounced her recovery hope- less. An old nurse applied a poultice of pounded beet-roots, renewing it often, and the result was a complete cure.” A good remedy for a felon is made of common soft soap and air-slaked lime, stirred till it is of the consistency of glazier’s putty. Make a leather thimble, fill it with this composition, and insert the finger therein, and our informant says a cure is certain. This is a domestic application that every housekeeper can apply promptly. A fig heated as warm as it can be borne, and cut open and applied to pilthoet any ulcerated sore, and renewed as it cools, is recommended for boils and similar affections as one of the best remedies. It may be applied to an ulcerated tooth. 497. Remedy for a Tight Finger-Ring.—If it can not be removed by such mechanical appliances as inserting a stout thread under it and pulling upon it, nor by thin strips of metal, then chemistry must be resorted to, and the strength of the ring destroyed, so that it can be easily broken. This is done by rubbing it with quicksilver, which has an affinity for pure gold, and makes it brittle. THE DAIRY. SECTION XXVIIL—THE DAIRY. BUTTER-MAKING, AS PRACTICED BY FIRST-CLASS DAIRYMEN—CHEESE AND CHEESE-MAKING. “(KE can not teach all who need to be taught the Z< perfect art of butter-making, which is one of the useful arts that but few households possess. In the great butter market of New York, we find that not one tenth is really first-rate; and probably more than one half is sold from one to three cents a pound below the first price, while tons are sold every year at the price of soft grease, and used for other purposes than food. What a loss to the pro- ducers! In hopes to aid this class, we have em- bodied in this section directions for making butter, as practiced by some of the best butter-makers in ofp ) the country. Among these.we may name A. Bb. OG Dickenson, Hornby, Steuben Co., N. Y.; Jesse Car- penter, of Elmira, N. Y.; John T. Norton, of Farmington, Ct., and others. 498. First Requisites in Butter-Making.—A. B. Dickenson says: “One of the first requisites in butter-making is care that all the utensils of the dairy are kept dry and sweet; that the milk-room is well ventilated, of a proper temperature, free from dampness and the unpleasant smell generated by moisture; that the cream is not allowed to stand too long upon the milk, nor after it is skimmed; that it be churned at a proper temperature, the operation being neither hurried unduly or carried too far; that it should be salted with the nicest salt obtainable, not injured by the addition of sugar or saltpeter, and that all the buttermilk be properly and effectually removed. “The utmost moisture which should be found in thoroughly worked but- ter is a very slight dew, and it should be of such firm consistency as to slice down, hardly dimming the brightness of a knife-blade. No butter is prop- erly made unless it will bear these tests. “For depositing the milk, when strained, the tin pail of the capacity of about twelve quarts is preferable to any other kind of vessel. It is suffi- ciently large to fulfill all the requirements in that particular, while its su- periority over the shallow pan—which is considerably used—is too palpable to admit of doubt. “No first quality of butter can be made either in November or August. While the one is too cold with frost-bitten grass, the other is quite too warm, and without ice it is impossible to make first quality of butter. Be careful in washing butter to handle it with a ladle, so as not to affect the 442 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Crar. IV. grain; then put it away in some sweet, cool place out of the reach of any bad odor which it might absorb. When it has stood long enough to get its proper rich color, work it over and lay it down and keep it with the same degree of care. It would spoil in sixty days in a common farm cellar, where meats, fish, and vegetables are kept. 3s “Tt would be a much easier task to teach a man to make a watch than how to make the first quality of butter, as it is the most sensitive and the most liable to injury of all the eatables extracted from the vegetable kingdom. It is so sensitive as to partake of everything that can affect it that it comes in contact with—as onions, carrots, parsneps, turnips, fish, or anything else that would make it unpalatable, either in the butter or the milk before churning. Not only so, but the butter partakes of everything the cow eats or drinks, and the longer it stands after being made, the more perceptibly will the unpalatable things on which she fed make themselves manifest. By this it will be seen that the most important thing for first quality of butter is the food for the cow. Neither from roots of any sort or kind, nor grain of any description, can first quality of butter be extracted. It must be from something that imparts a sweeter and finer flavor. The cow must give good rich milk, as first quality of butter can not be made from poor pale milk, for it lacks the essential quality of good butter.” Rest and quiet are as important to a butter-producing cow as good food. She should never be dogged, beaten, driven on a run, nor have her quiet in any way disturbed. 499. Churning, Washing, and Coloring Butter.—In spite of all the patented improvements, the old dasher churn still holds its position, not only in fam- ilies, but among dairymen. The following are A. B. Dickenson’s directions for churning milk and working butter : “The churn should be as nearly straight up and down as possible, as the dash should stir all the milk every stroke it makes, so that the butter in the churn should all come at the same time. If the milk is too cold, the only safe way to warm it is to place a pail of milk in a large boiler of warm wa- ter to bring it to the exact temperature, which is about 55 to 60 degrees—a few degrees warmer in cold than warm weather. As soon as the butter has come and gathered, take it immediately from the churn in its warm state and put it in a large wooden bowl, which is the best vessel for the purpose ; - then put it in cold, soft water; then commence pulling the butter over with the ladle in so gentle and eareful a manner as not to affect the grain, for as sure as that is injured at the washing or working, the butter becomes oily and can never be reclaimed. Every particle of milk must be washed out, and then season with the best Liverpool salt. Set the bowl away until the next day, and when sufficiently cool, work the mass thoroughly, but not so as to make it oily, and on the third day pack it away if it has assumed the right color. Examine it well before packing, and be sure that no milky water runs from it, for if packed with the least drop, you will hear from it next April. Seo. 28.] THE DAIRY. 443 PLO “Tf your spring or well is hard water, save ice from streams, as lime never congeals with ice. Save rain-water, and then with ice you will have soft, cool water to wash your butter, without which you can not get the milk out without injuring the grain. Soft water is as indispensable to wash but- ter as it is to wash fine linen. Washing butter is not positively necessary if it is to be used within a few weeks. “The idea of coloring butter with anything after it is made is as absurd as painting rye bread white, with the expectation of making it taste like wheat.” Jesse Carpenter says: “The milk in the churn, when fit for churning, should indicate 64 degrees Fahrenheit, and should be agitated with a move- ment of the dash at not less than fifty strokes to the minute. Less motion will fail to divide properly the butter from the milk. When done, the butter should be taken from the churn and thrown into a tub ora small churn partly filled with water 42 to 44 degrees Fahrenheit, and the butter- milk forced out with a small dash. It should then be put into trays and washed until the water used ceases to be the least discolored with butter- milk. It is then ready for salting, which done, carry the trays immediately to the cellar. Use one and a quarter ounces of salt to the pound of worked butter. Three or four hours after the first salting, stir with a ladle and put it in the form of a honeycomb, in order to give it the greatest possible sur- face exposure to the air, which gives color and fixes the high flavor. “ Butter, when well manufactured, while standing preparatory to pack- ing, is composed of granulated particles, between which are myriads of in- finitesimal cells filled wtih brine, which is its life. At this period it should be touched with a light hand, as too much and too careless working will destroy its granular and cellular character, and reduce the whole to a compact and lifeless mass, with an immediate loss of flavor, and a certain and reliable prospect, if packed, of a rapid change of its character from indifferently good to miserably poor butter. It should never be worked in the tray while in a dry state, or all the ill results just alluded to will be realized. As a general rule, after the butter has stood in the trays twenty-four hours, and has been worked three or four times as directed, it is ready for packing. After the firkin is filled, it should stand a short time, and then should be covered with a clean piece of muslin, and the whole covered with brine.” Mr. H. E. Lowman, a neighbor of Mr. Carpenter, states the following . fact about his butter, which is a strong one in favor of washing butter : “Mr. Carpenter for the last twenty years, besides fattening the calves to the customary age of four weeks, has averaged a fraction over two firkins to the cow per year. He has had butter stand in packages in his cellar for one year and a half, and open then with a. flavor so fresh and sweet that the very best and most critical judges and buyers were deceived one year in its age, none even suspecting it to be the product of a former year. He never has, during that period, failed to reach in New York market the highest figure representing the maximum market for Orange County butter, 444 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. and latterly he has very often exceeded the very highest market from } to 21 cents per pound.” “Butter is judged by its color, aroma, taste, and porciatanee Its color should be a delieate pale straw, not approaching white, and yet perhaps that is better than the deep orange tint, almost always a sure indication of ex- traneous coloring matter. The peculiar smell of good butter is easily rec- ognized. The better the quality the more delicate this aroma; while, as the quality degenerates, about in the same proportion does the smell vary, until it becomes positively offensive. This fragrance is dependent very much on the process of manufacture. Orange County dairymaids make “ Orange County butter” wherever they follow the same processes. The taste of the butter will betray any inattention to the proper care of either the milk, eream, or the vessels in which they are kept. So will the addition of any foreign matter, such as impure or too much or too little salt, sugar, or color- ing matter. A certain amount of salt is necessary to bring out the true flavor of butter in its greatest delicacy. _In texture or consistency, a greater difference is seen than upon any other point. Some are firm, leaving no mark upon a knife after being thrust into a lump, with hardly enough moisture to dim its brightness, while other lots are soft, leaving greasy streaks upon the blade, and large drops of an opaque liquid oozing from the newly cut surface. The existence of either of these signs gives sure indication of an imperfect, if not bad, process of making. 500. Number of Quarts of Milk for a Pound of Butter.—The number of quarts of milk required to make a pound of butter varies very widely. By many trials in England, it is found that one pound of butter requires from fourteen to sixteen quarts of milk; that is about one ounce from a quart, varying with the feed and the season. Although it may be true that the milk of a majority of the cows in this country would require an equal number of quarts to make a pound of butter, yet there are cows that will give a pound to four quarts of milk. Col. Jaques, of Massachusetts, and Maj. John Jones, of Delaware, both had a “ cream-pot” breed of cows which we saw a few years ago produce this result. But we believe that it requires an average of fourteen quarts to a pound, and that is why farmers prefer to sell their milk where it brings over two cents a quart. At that rate a milk- dairyman can not even afford to make his own family butter; he can buy it - from a farmer, who can not sell his milk, at a rate more economical. William Buckminster, 6f Framingham, Mass,, in 1855, exhibited a Devon cow for premium, as the best butter-maker, with satisfactory proof of the following yield of milk: “In June and July last she filled a common milk-pail, at night, as full as any dairymaid would wish tocarry. Andon June 17 her milk weighed, morn- ing and night, each 341 pounds; June 10, morning and night, 343 pounds; June 19, morning and night, 34 pounds; June 20, morning and night, 32% pounds; June 21, morning and night, 322 pounds; June 22, morning and night, 30} pounds; June 23, morning and night, 301 pounds.” Sxzo. 28.] THE DAIRY. 445 He also certified at the time she was offered, in October, that four quarts of her milk, when fed on grass only, and that of an ordinary pasture, pro- ._ duced one pound of the finest yellow butter. “This cow,” he says, “is one of the six cows owned and bred by me, whose milk has repeatedly yielded one pound of butter from four beer quarts. Her keep through the autumn of the three years of her milking has been grass feed only, no grain, or roots, or corn stover having been given her.” This is the richest milk of any but Alderneys, and above their average. William S. Lincoln, of Worcester, Mass., produced from one cow, owned by him, in the spring of 1858, eighteen pounds of butter a week; and cows that produce fifteen or sixteen pounds a week are not uncommon in that State. The ‘Oaks cow” yielded her owner nineteen pounds a week at the best, and nearly 500 pounds in the course of the season. These are extra- ordinary cases, it is true; but if one cow can do it, others can. Now, if these are facts—and who can dispute them?—what are we to think of the quality of judgment, sense, or economy of men who will keep cows on their farms for the sole purpose of making butter, at an average of one pound to fourteen quarts, when they could have cows that would give a pound from less than half that quantity? Let this fact be thought of, that it does take fourteen quarts of milk for a pound of butter, which might be made from four quarts. While this is a fact, it is not to be wondered at that Orange County farmers have quit making butter, notwithstanding the high reputation it had attained, and prefer to send their milk to New York from every farm within reach of the river or railroad. If the milk averages two and a half cents a quart when sold, and it would take fourteen quarts to make a pound of butter, it would make the first cost of the butter thirty- five cents a pound, besides all the labor of its manufacture. The Homestead says: ‘* Mr. Coit, of Norwich, keeps two cows which, in the best of the season, furnish four quarts of milk daily for use, and make nineteen pounds of butter a week. The writer also thinks that an improved style of milk-room would be quite as likely to increase the yield of butter as an improved breed of cows. If only an additional pound a week from each cow could be secured in this way, it would be a matter worth looking into by our farmers, and would greatly increase the yield of butter in the State.” Think of it, farmers, in every State. An additional pound of butter a week to each cow! What would be the aggregate? Oan anybody tell? Can any body think of the*vast amount, and that itewould be all clear profit ? And it is just as easy as it is to do see instead of wrong. Good cows, sweet feed, and pure water are the first “of all requisites to the manufaciure of good buiter. Good cows, that proper color and right consistency be secured; sweet feed and pure water, that no flavor be im- parted to the milk which would render the butter unpalatable. Dependent, however, as the quality of the article is upon the cow and the goodness of the food, a proper degree of care and skill on the part of the dairywoman is of much greater conseauence. DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IY. Undoubtedly butter can be worked so as to keep sweet without washing ; so can wheat be cut with a sickle, and thrashed with a flail, but they are not great labor-saving machines. With successful butter-makers the churning occupies about half an hour. By increasing the temperature of the cream, it could be done in one half the time, but the quality of the butter would be much reduced. In winter, to facilitate the rising of the cream, the earthen pans for holding the milk are rinsed in hot water before use, and warm water is applied around them, not to heat the milk, but for a time to maintain its original temperature. When the temperature of the dairy is less than fifty degrees Fahrenheit, the milk will not ripen for churning, and in such case should be removed for atime to a temperature of fifty-five degrees. The sudden warming of the milk will not always enable it to yield up its butter readily. One butter-maker says: ‘Carefully conducted experiments prove that more butter is obtained from a given quantity of milk, when set in pans partly filled, than when full.” This is in opposition to the theory of A. B. Dickenson. A French chemist declares that butter may be made without churning, by the use of a filter, made of white felt, in the form of a bag, in the four corners of which are inserted porous strings, like candlewick, to hasten off the fluid portion of the milk. The bag being suspended by the four corners, from twenty-four to thirty hours, the contents of the filter will be found to be of the consistence of “smear case” (soft cheese). This solidified cream is then placed in a linen bag, tied tight, and the bag kneaded like a roll of dough. In a few minutes the mass grows liquid, and the butter and butter- milk are separated. One large butter-maker says: “I use a horse-power churn, of a capacity- sufficiently great to make one hundred and twenty pounds of butter. I always try the temperature of my churn before putting in the cream. If below fifty-five degrees, I raise it to that point with warm water, and keep the cream as near that point as possible. As soon as the cream is in the churn I start the horse, and keep him moving at a steady gait until the but- ter is broken, or begins to gather in small lumps. Opposite the opening through which the cream is poured into the churn is an inch hole, which is stopped with a plug. When the butter is formed as above stated, I open this hole and draw off all the buttermilk, then start the horse again, and keep him going until I gather the butter into a solid mass. This accomplished, it is taken from the churn and put into a tub prepared for it. I then weigh the whole mass, and transfer it to the butter-worker, when it is worked over ' twice, after which I add one dessert’ tablespoonful of the very best dairy salt to every pound. I again work it well, so as to incorporate the salt thoroughly. It 1s again weighed into pound lumps and printed. The human hand is never allowed to touch the butter, nor is water ever used to wash it.” UN ae Sxo. 28.] THE DAIRY. 447 ee Ree Of course it is sold immediately ; if it is to be kept, we think it must be washed. 501. Butter Affected by Food of Cows.—The quality of all butter is so greatly affected by the food of the cows, that no one can make good butter, although he has good cows, if their food is poor. In summer, there is nothing better than clover pasture. At any rate, the pasture must afford sweet grass, running water, and trees for shade and rest. A cowshould be selected for her quiet disposition, as much as any other quality, for a butter-making cow; for milk alone, this is not so important. If she has vicious propen- sities, she can not be cured by viciousness. In winter, clover hay, cured in the most perfect manner, is better for butter than any other hay. To this add slops once or twice every day, composed of bran, shorts, cut potatoes, corn meal partially cooked, and salt, and an occasional handful of bone meal, lime, ashes, or charcoal-dust will be found advantageous. Carrots are always good for a butter cow. Nothing should ever be given her that is not sweet enough for you to eat yourself. And even that is not always good food for a cow, as turnips, cabbages, and onions are considered good food for the table—they are not for the stable, if sweet milk is an object. Then she must be kept in a clean, sweet-smelling stable, warm and dry, but ventilated. The same stable should be used in summer for milking, after which the cows may be allowed to sleep out, if it is such weather that they can lie upon the ground in comfort; and if not, keep them in until after milking in the morning. Every cow should know her own stall as well as a man knows his own bed, and they will soon learn to be unwilling to eat or be milked anywhere else. Food and care of the cow, and perfect quiet and comfort for her in every respect, are the first requisites in making good butter. A stable can be kept sweet enough to lodge in by the daily use of plaster, charcoal, prepared muck, or an occasional sprinkling of dilute sulphuric acid or solution of copperas. It is necessary for a full flow of milk to maintain a continual supply of albuminous food, while in the latter period of fattening, such kinds of food are superfluous, and only tend to’enrich the manure heap There is one leading feature in his practice, to which the utmost importance is attached by Mr. Horsefall—an English dairyman—the maintenance of the condition of his cows giving a large yield of milk. This is done by the addition of bean meal in greater quantity to those yielding the most milk He refers also to the effect of clover upon the supply of milk as known to all dairy- men, the dry material of which is nearly as rich in albumen as beans, and the inference is drawn that “albuminous matter is the most essential ele- ment in the food of the milch cow, and that any deficiency in the supply of this will be attended with loss of condition, and a consequent diminution in the quality of her milk.” Te is of the opinion that “you can increase the proportion of butter in milk more than that of casein or other solid parts.” Rape-cake seems more efficient for this purpose than linseed-cake, the oily 448 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuap. IY. matter in this seed more nearly resembling that in butter than that of flax- seed. He also says: “It seems worthy of remark that a cow can yield a far greater weight of butter than she can store up in solid fat. Numerous instances occur where a cow gives off two pounds of butter per day—four- teen pounds per week—while half that quantity probably would not be laid on in fat if she was fed for that purpose.” These “English notions” are worthy of American attention. 502. Butter Affected by the Packages.—It is one of the greatest mistakes that butter packers make, to put it up in bad packages. Let it be taken for an incontrovertible fact that, as a general thing, a dairy of butter of uniform quality may be packed, one half in rough, untidy casks, and the other in neat, sweet-looking firkins, of suitable and uniform size, and that half will outsell the other at least ten per cent. The purchasers of butter, by the single package or by the hundred packages, are always influenced by the outside appearance. One of the reasons why Western butter sells at a price generally under the market is because it comes in bad order. How can people expect first prices for butter in mottled rolls, packed in a dry-goods box or a flour barrel? Such butter, when it arrives in New York, is de- nominated ‘ Western grease,” and sells at a price corresponding with its name. 503. When to Skim Milk.—The right time to skim milk is just as the milk begins to sour in the bottom of the pans. Then the cream is all at the surface, and should at once be removed, with as little of the milk as pos- sible. That housewife, or dairymaid, who thinks to obtain a greater quan- tity by allowing the milk to stand beyond that time, labors under a mistake. Any one who doubts can try it. Milk should be looked to at least three times a day. 504. Alderney Cows and Alderney Butter.—It is our matured opinion that the Alderney cow is the only one for a family, where but one is kept, and where rich milk and sweet cream are a leading object. (See 47, 48, 49.) There is no doubt of the fact, that this breed of cattle is superior to any other for making butter of rich flavor to the taste, and with a peculiar sweet aroma. We have thoroughly tested butter made from Alderney cows, by John T. Norton, of Farmington, Conn., and have submitted it to the sight, smell, and taste of some good judges of butter, who, without hesitation, pro- nounced it as unlike as it is richer than any other kind they have ever tasted. We kept it some weeks exposed to an atmosphere that would soften ordinary butter so that it could not easily be handled, and yet this remained almost as firm as though just from a cool dairy-room. There can be no mistake in its natural superiority and good keeping qualities over butter made from cows of other breeds. This fact is as well known in England as the fact that Southdown mutton is superior to that of other breeds of sheep. And the fact is beginning to be known here, for we have heard of Alderney but- ter selling in market, in places where it is well known in this country, at double the price of good butter of common stock. This much for the in- SEo. 28.] THE DAIRY.: 449 ~~ ee eee ee formation and benefit of those who do not know that there is a very great difference in breeds of cattle for butter as well as for beef. For the latter purposes the Alderneys are certainly superior to the Durhams. Herefords, Devons, Ayrshires, or natives. Another good quality of the Alderneys is, that they will live upon house- slops or garden or yard clippings, or upon short pastures. Mr. Norton says: “I live on one of the old worn-out farms of Connecii- eut, which I am trying to improve ;” and we say, upon such a farm he finds it not only pleasant for his own use to keep Alderney cows, but profitable to make butter from them for the Hartford market. Our recommendation, however, is not for dairy purposes, but strictly for private family use, and for that we do consider this small breed of cows most valuable. There are persons, however, of experience, who believe the Alderneys valuable for dairy farms. T. M. Stoughton, of Greenfield, Mass., says: ‘“ Alderney cows are not only good for private family use, but actually the best for a large dairy. “* My experience has been with a herd of cows imported by Mr. Jonathan Bird, of Belleville, N. J., from the island of Jersey, and selected with par- ticular regard to their milking qualities. The herd came under my care in 1856, with the request from Mr. Bird that I should give them the same care and feed as my native and Ayrshire cows, keeping a careful account of their product by measurement and weight, so as to be able to determine whether they are a profitable breed for butter-making. The following statement is offered as an answer to ‘ What is a good cow?’ “Cow No. 1 calved in January, 1851—came into my care last of May. In June, she made 10! pounds of butter per week; in July, 103 pounds per week; in August, 91 pounds per week; in the month of September, 30 pounds; in October, 28 pounds; and two weeks in November, 12} pounds; and calyed in December—making 198! pounds in five months. “ No. 2 calved in September, 1851, and through the month of October made 144 pounds of butter per week ; in June following she made 12 pounds per week; in August, 6 pounds per week; and calved early in October— making 317 pounds of butter for the year. “No. 3 was a three-year-old heifer, calved in September, 1856. In the month of October, made 111 pounds per week; in June following, 82 pounds per week; in August, 4 pounds per week—making 267 pounds for the year. “ No. 4 was a heifer two years old; calved in March, 1858. From the 1st of April to November she made 200 pounds of butter. Greatest yield per week, 10! pounds; and made 7 pounds per week in September. “No. 5, a heifer eighteen months old; calved in March, 1858. In the five months following she made 108 pounds of butter. 4 “The above five are an average of the ten milking cows. Their feed has been pasture only in the summer months, with hay and two quaris of corn meal and rye middlings in the winter months. From the above statement 29 450 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. it will be seen that the cows which have come to maturity will make 300 pounds of butter per year under favorable circumstances. Alderney butter sells in the different markets of the country for from forty to fifty cents per pound. The best dairies of New York and New England do not average over 200 pounds per cow (native and Durham). The average price of their butter is not over twenty-five cents per pound. “One of the most important peculiarities of the Alderney cow is her uni- formity of quantity, making nearly as much butter at the end of eight months after calving as at four. The objections urged against the Alderney cow are, that she is a voracious feeder, lean, awkward in appearance, and will make but little beef when old. “ Admitting the Alderney cow to be a pretty sharp feeder, it can hardly be expected that a cow will make from ten to fourteen pounds of first-rate butter by simply standing in a cold stable, and looking at a haymow, or by ‘ shirking round a stack of swamp hay. That she is inclined to be lean is an evidence that she is a good milker; for a cow that secretes fatty: matter can not secrete good milk at the same time, without being fed too high for the permanent good of the cow. If she is ugly.to look at she is a good one to go, for she will be worth -$100 when six months, especially if a heifer. And after being milked twelve or thirteen years, producing over 3,000 pounds of butter, it is of no great consequence whether she makes 600 or 900 pounds of beef.” 505. Heating New Milk.—The Dairyman’s Iecord gives the opinion that the heating of new milk to near the boiling-point just after it is drawn from the cow, is preferable to allowing it to stand, for a time before heating, and thinks both butter and cheese are improved in flavor by so doing, “ because the animal odors which are objectionable would be expelled,” and goes on to say that “tasteless and leathery” cheese is caused by manufacturing under too high a temperature rather than from high heating before mann- facturing. 506. Dust and Fly Covers for Milk-Pans.—To keep dust out of milk-pans, make hoops of ratans, or ash wood, a little larger than the tops of the pans, and stretch over and sew on them some thin cotton stuff that will not stop the circulation of the air, but will keep out the flies and mites, and when the milk is cool, lay these covers over the pans. To keep out flies, use mosquito netting or wire gauze instead of cloth. The wire gauze isa fine thing to cover all windows in fly-time. Some inventive Connecticut genius has contrived a portable, ventilated milk-closet, which, from the description, we should think a very good thing, but presume that any ingenious wood-worker could get up one a little dif ferent in form to answer the same purpose; and we recommend. all fami- lies who Reep but one cow, to provide themselves with such a cénvenient ventilated milk-closet ; or‘one that will let fresh air in and foul air out, and keep the milk safe from pestiferous insects and vermin. The following item shows the benefit of keeping milk cool: “In sending | Sco. 28.] THE DAIRY. 451 milk to market, though it left the dairy perfectly sweet, it was often found eurdled on delivery to customers. To remedy this, the cans were covered with thick cotton cloth, and this was wet with salt water. In this way the difficulty was entirely obviated.” 507. Necessity and Value of a Family Dairy Room.—Every farm-house should have a room for milk, solely devoted to that, and nothing else. In very dry soils this can be made easiest and best in the cellar, provided it has a chimney ventilator of ample dimensions running to the top of the house, which can be easily made when building, and no milk-room is perfect without such ventilation, and in our opinion the cause of bad butter is as much in the want of a suitable place to stand the milk, and a cool, sweet room to store the butter, as in the process of manufacture. It is all import- ant, also, that the milk-room should be of an unvarying temperature, so far as it can be kept so without extra expenditure over the profitable advantage. An attachment to the ice-house is the best place for storing butter. The fol- lowing is a good plan for a family dairy-room : xa Build very convenient to the kitchen, but not adjoining, an eight-inch wall brick building, eight feet by sixteen feet inside, with a door in one end and a window in the other, and arch it over ten feet high in the center, and plas- ter it all over outside with water-proof cement. The top should be covered with a coat of asphaltum, if to be had, or else with sand and tar. Give the inside a coat of hard-finished plaster, and paint that well, so that it can be washed. Where there is a good chance for drainage, the walls may be dropped two feet~below the surface, or the whole built into a hillside, in which case there can be no door nor window in one end, but there can and must be a large chimney ventilator. Make the floor of cement or flag- ging-stones, and, if not too expensive, use stone shelves, built in the wall. The outside is to be banked up with earth and sodded over so as to form a grassy mound, forming, in fact, a sort of cave cellar. A retaining wall must be built each side of the door-way, and a shed over it, with wire- screened windows in the door for ventilation, the sash being hinged to swing down and fasten to the lower half of the door. Such a room will keep milk sweet and of even temperature, and is not more expensive than a good frame building. The place where the milk is set, churning done, or butter stored, should be absolutely sweet, clean, and deodorized of every smell. Water—cold water, and its liberal application—is an essential about the dairy-house, and outside of it; upon everything ever used, hot water, soap and sand, and hard hand-work, to make absolute purity, are the essential requisites to produce good butter. Every woman should assure all the “men-folks,” and often repeat it to them, that no woman can make good butter if the cows are not provided with suitable food. [ecollect, food and shelter—airy, ‘roomy, clean stables, summer and winter; none of your milking in the road, among the hogs; setting milk for cream where the air is scented with hog-pen efflu- via, or any other but that of roses, mint, and new-mown hay. 452 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. Food is the first, purity the second, temperature the third requisite in making sweet yellow butter. The best way to make dairy shelves is to use strips sawed one by two inches, and set so that the pans will stand upon their edges, or else place them wide enough apart to receive the bottom of the pan, having cross strips nailed in to support the sides, so that the pans would only touch at four points, and so cause the milk to cool quickly, and save labor in keeping the shelves clean; for a pan of warm milk set upon a flat shelf in a room a little damp, or when the shelf has just been washed, will generate mold— certainly more than when set on strips, as here recommended. A Mr. Motley, of Massachusetts, has a dairy-room in the cellar of his house, and arranged to be ventilated by an area window, which is covered with wire netting. The floor is cemented, and of course kept scrupulously clean. Plain, broad wooden shelves around the four sides of the room hold the pans of milk. A marble-top table, standing in the center of the apartment, is used for working the butter, and preparing it for market. The milk is churned in one of the well-known Crowell “thermometer churns,” of a capacity of thirty gallons. A small gir-tight wood stove is used to insure an equable temperature in winter. About 100 pounds of butter are made weekly, which is sold to gentlemen in Boston at fifty cents per pound. It is put up in neat quarter-pound rolls, prettily stamped, and sent to town in tin boxes, fitted with shelves inside- to keep the layers of rolls separate. As to the delicious quality of the butter, that is proved by the price. 508. How to Make Winter Butter.—If cows are fed with roots, meal, or even whole corn, which, by-the-by, is only to be tolerated when corn is worth less than twenty-five cents a bushel, there will be no complaint of poor white butter, unless the fault is in the churning or the keeping of the milk. Milk, in -winter, should be kept about the same temperature as in summer-time, and should not be allowed to stand unskimmed merely because “it is taking no harm.” Take off the cream, and if not enough for an im- mediate churning, let it be kept cool and sweet till enough is accumulated, when, if it is necessary to sour it, it may be put in a warm place and done all at once. When put into the churn, it should be at a temperature of 62 degrees, and if kept at that, yellow butter will be got in thirty minutes by churning moderately, if your cows have had a little salt every day. 509. Butter Colored to Order.—Are the butter-eaters of New York aware that butter, so far as color is concerned, is made to order as much as their boots, hats, and coats? We assure them that such is the fact, as is well known to all dealers, and should be known to all consumers, and by them wholly discountenanced. Our present notice of the fact arises from hear- ing a woman bitterly denouncing the grocer who sent her “white butter.” After she had selected some “nice yellow” butter, at two cents higher price per pound, and retired, the grocer asked us to test the samples. We found the rejected white butter as sweet and fresh as could be desired, and worth twenty per cent. more than the other, according to our taste. The other, Seo. 28.] THE DAIRY. 453 ~ A NS Rn ee dn oe en ee in vee en however, was pretty to look at. It was of a deep yellow hue, but we at once declared that it was made so by annatto. “ Yes,” said the grocer, “you are right. That butter was made to order for me for just such cus- tomers as that woman, who do not know good butter by the taste—they judge only by looks. It actually cost me two cents a pound less than the other. You saw how I sold it.” A butter-maker, writing to the author about “coloring butter to order,” | says: | “We think you New Yorkers possessed of remarkable tastes, if you really prefer butter made yellow to order instead of that of a natural color, though perfectly sweet. If it is the color instead of the quality that you care. for, we shall have to solicit a sample of the shade desired, and order more dye- | stuff. We shall have to make butter for home use and for city use, as no | one in the country will eat colored butter in winter except as the milk colors it. There is but very little in the country at this season that an- | swers the orders from the city, except such as has been fixed up to suit your market.” Now, butter-eaters, you hear how yellow butter is made ‘fresh from the cow” in winter, aud how much you pay for the privilege of eating “ annatto and other dyestuffs.” 510. Rules for Salting Butter.—First, none but the very purest rock-salt, or manufactured salt, prepared especially for the dairy, should ever be used. An experienced Scotch dairyman says: “Take the best crystal salt, wash it, dissolve, strain, settle, and turn off; boil it down in some perfectly clean iron vessel, skim as boiling; when stirred off dry, it will produce fine salt, white as the drifting snow, which, if stirred up in a glass of water, will produce no sediment, and will be dis- tinct from any mineral or other possible impurity.” Three experienced dairywomen in Berkshire County, Mass., give the fol- lowing rules for quantity : “No. 1. A teacupful of salt to six pounds of butter. “ No. 2. One pint of salt to fifteen pounds of butter. “No, 8. An ounce of salt to a pound of butter.” Salting the cream before churning has been advocated as a good practice. To every quart of cream, as it is skimmed and put in the pot to accumulate until sufficient for churning, add a tablespoonful of salt. It is stated that the time of churning is very much lessened by salting the cream. 511. Packing and Preserving Butter.—A patent has been granted to W. Clark, of London, England, for a new method of treating butter. The but- ter is worked in the usual manner, and is then placed between linen clotlis and submitted to severe pressure, which removes the whey and water. It is then covered with clean white paper, which has received a coating on both sides with a preparation composed of the white of eggs and fifteen grains of salt to each egg. The paper is dried, and then heated before the 454 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Cuar. IV. ee eee RRA eee fire or with a hot iron just before it is applied to the lumps of butter. It is claimed that butter treated in this way will keep two months without salt in a cool cellar. Any ordinary cheese-press, or the presses accompanying the portable cider-mills, now common, will answer the purpose. Pressing removes the water, and the prepared paper excludes the air. Earthen jars, made of the size and shape of a fifty-pounds tub (not a firkin), and put in a wooden tub, made to fit, with a head in each end, are recommended as an improvement for packing butter. If desirable, the wooden tub may be made large enough to fill with salt between the two, or can be made close. The heads should be made close to the butter-pot in either case. Butter packed in this way will keep sweet any length of time, if well made, while in the present mode of packing, in nine cases out of ten, it will taste of the tub after being packed two months. The first cost of the two is about one dollar, and after being sent to market, they can be returned a distance of 300 miles at a cost of about thirty cents. We fear the expense of this improvement will prevent its general adoption, though we can perceive no reason to doubt its efficacy. There is no doubt that if butter could be rendered absolutely pure, it would keep, if excluded from the air, as well as sweet-oil. That it is hardly ever pure may be shown by a sample melted, and put in a bottle, to stand a few hours in a warm place, when the oily part will float upon the top of water or other impurities it may contain. 512. How to Cool Butter without Ice.—The following plan of cooling but- ter is founded upon the scientific principle of cooling a body by evapora- tion. Fill a deep plate or flat dish with water, and in that set a trivet, such as are often used upon the ironing-table, to hold a plate of butter above the water. Cover the butter-plate with a porous, earthen flower-pot that must have its edge immersed in water, and a cork in the hole in the bottom. Now dash water upon the pot, and repeat several times as it evaporates during the day, keeping it in a cool place, and at supper-time you may bring your butter to the table as delightfully firm as you would from an ice-house. 513. Milking by Machinery.—If anything has been or may be invented to relieve woman from the tiresome labor of milking, it will be hailed with in- tense satisfaction. We therefore chronicle the fact of the recent invention of a milking machine. The manner of its construction is simple enough. It consists of two diaphragm pumps made of tin and India rubber, so ar- ranged as to be easily taken apart for washing. The teat-cups are made tapering to fit any size, and attached by flexible joints, so as to be spread apart to suit wide-spreading teats, or those more contracted. It is possible that it will prove a very useful invention. If so, we presume that farmers will hear more of it. The machine is attached to a pail, and set on a stool under the udder, the four teats inserted in four tubes, and the pump operated, and the milk drawn and conveyed by a conductor into the pail, the inventor says in a marvel- Seo. 28.] THE DAIRY. 455 ously short time—say three minutes for an ordinary cow ; milking entirely clean, without injury and to her advantage, as it is beneficial to have the work done quickly, and the machine is intended to do it quicker than it is possible by hand. It is said also that cows gently stand this machine milk- ing; the contrivance is ingenious. and will work. Its practical utility we can not vouch for. 514. How to Make Cows give Down.—We have often heard that one man could lead a horse to water, but two could not make him drink. The great mistake of most people in the management of horses, cows, and even men, is trying to make them do things by force instead of milder means. The best way to make a cow give down is to coax her. Patience and _perse- verance will generally overcome the difficulty and effect a cure. We have seen cows that had been trained to being fed when milked until they would only give down when bribed to do so. Strapping up the fore leg of a cow with a strap slipped over the bent knee so that she can not walk until milked, will sometimes cure her refractory disposition. If a cow will not give down by gentle means, it is of no use to try to make her do it. 515. Milk Farms—Product, Price, Profit.—Milk for Cities—Condensed Miik, —The entire business of many farmers, near cities, is producing milk for sale. It is sent by railway more than 100 miles. The average value upon the roads that supply New York may be three cents a quart, ranging about as follows, as a general thing: for five months, at 2 cents; one month, 2! cents; two months, 3 cents; four months, 31 cents. Freight will average two cents a quart, besides a great loss of cans. It costs the farmer most to pro- duce milk in April. The cost of winter feed, 5 lbs. of meal and 15 lbs. of liay per day. The annual average product of good cows would be $60 each. If cream only is sold, say 10 quarts per week at 15 cents, and 9 lbs. of “skim cheese” at 8 cents, will make a cow yield $2 22 per week. The yield of milk of extraordinary cows has been, for one, 15! quarts a day for 150 days; for another, 144 quarts a day for six months, sold at 31 cents a quart, producing $107, from one cow, fed on grass and meal. The income of an Illinois cheese and butter dairy, owned by Mr. Savory, of De Kalb County, is given as follows, in a poor, dry season: 10,500 pounds of cheese, at 10 cents, $1,050; 500 pounds of butter, at 14 cents, $70; 50 calves, at $1 50, $75; whey and sour milk (estimated), $50; total income, $1,245. Dr.: 50 cows—to getting 100 tuns of hay, $150; care, milking, ete., $200; two hired girls, 30 weeks, and board, $180; interest on cash value of cows, $100. Total cost, $680—$24 per cow; and taking value of feed and labor into account, was perhaps as profitable as a New York milk farm. See ¥ 41, ete. _ Conpensep Mirx.—There is one method of sending milk to the cities, lately adopted, that will enable farmers living beyond the limit of shipping fresh milk, to send it to market. It can be done upon the same principle as associated cheese dairies. See § 518. There are two modes: the product of one, called ‘*condensed milk,” resembles rich, thick cream; the other, re Se ee te 456 - DOMESTIC ECONOMY, * [Cuar. IV. ~ called “ concentrated milk,” resembles and is composed in part of dry, white sugar. The former has nothing added, but much taken away. The process of condensing milk was invented by Gail Borden, Jun. (him- self an octogenarian). The first manufactory was established at Burrville, Litchfield Co., Conn., if we remember rightly, about 1854-55, and is still in successful operation, conducted by Wm. Borden. Another establishment has since been started at Wassaic, Dutchess Co., N. Y., on the Harlem Rail- road, 85 miles north of New York. This is conducted by the inventor him- self, whose residence is at that place, where parties desirous to commence similar operations can obtain the necessary information. The product of this invention furnishes to residents in cities who have a taste for pure milk all that they can reasonably desire. The process of condensation not only separates the water from the more solid elements of the milk, but absolutely frees it from all impurities, even including the unpleasant odor that is usually com- bined with the milk of cows, and which sometimes, when they are unhealthy, is exceedingly offensive. Samples of milk from all the dairies are constantly subjected to tests to indicate the quality and detect impurity. As it is brought in from the farms, it is emptied through fine strainers into tin cooling vats. These must be placed in running water or cooled with ice. The first process in the operation of condensing milk is to free the natural milk of all its animal heat; and during this cooling, if there is any sediment that was not removed by the strainers, it is found in the bottom of the vats and rejected. The milk is then heated by steam nearly up to the boiling-point. This brings up a very small per-centage of cream that makes butter. The milkis now ready to com- mence the process of condensation, and is drawn by. an exhaust-pipe into a steam-boiler heated by coils of pipe which raise the temperature to a given de- gree, converting the water into vapor which fills the upper part of the boiler from which it is pumped off; and as it is discharged into the air, it gives out a fetid odor almost equal to the swill-milk of New York. This pumping is continued until this odor is exhausted, and until so much of the water has been separated from the milk, that when it is once cooled again it has the appearance of thick, smooth cream. It is then packed in cans for transporta- tion; and we see no reason why milk could not be put up in this way upon” the prairies of Illinois as well as the pastures of Dutchess County. For many purposes the condensed milk is used in the same condition ; for ice-creams, eating upon fruit, and many culinary purposes, it is delicious. When milk is desired in its ordinary condition, add water until the con- densed milk is thoroughly combined with it, and it is like good, rich, fresh milk, except that it has lost a little of that piquancy which is found in some “ pure milk.” and which some city people seem to relish. The advantages to the farmer of this invention lre will readily understand. A milk-condensing factory established in any neighborhood, as it may be wherever there is a pure stream of water, would prove as great a conveni- ence as a grist-mill, and more advantageous, because he can sell his grain in the rough state, but can not dispose of his milk unless it is converted into Sec. 28.] THE DAIRY.—CHEESE-MAKING. 457 some condensed product. The advantage of selling milk instead of convert- ing it into butter or cheese, every farmer can calculate for himself, upon the basis that it will require four quarts of milk for one pound of cheese, or fourteen quarts for one pound of butter, taking the average product of cows and average process of manufacture. If intended for a condensing factory in the immediate neighborhood, the farmer would be enabled to carry the milk directly from the stable. , Another advantage would be gained in the saving of cans, many of which sent to cities are lost in spite of all the care of the owners. The establish- ment of such factories will open up new fields of industry in many parts of the country, adding wealth, comfort, and happiness to farmers’ families. We urge them all to consider the subject, and compare with other products of the dairy this new one of condensed milk. 516. Cheese—How to Make It.—The following directions are given by Ed- win Pitcher, of Martinsburg, N. Y., a noted maker of good cheese: “The way to make a mild, rich, good-flavored, sound cheese is to work the curd carefully, so as not to start the white whey, or, in other words, work out the cream; second, cook it well; salt even, and enough to make it good flavored; press it well, and keep it cool and dry when made. A neglect in part will spoil the whole. We set our milk 86 degrees, as nearly as we can, and put in rennet enough to bring the curd in half an hour. “ We use a cheese-eutter. Cut the curd carefully over once, and then let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes, till the whey begins to rise; then work it fine with a cheese-cutter ; then put hot water enough under the tin vat to raise the heat to 90 degrees. Stir often, so as not to let it pack down. We then dip off about one third of the whey, and increase the heat to about 102 degrees, and keep it at that heat till it is well cooked, keeping it fine all the time. When it is done, it will fall apart in the hand like wheat. We dip out of the tin vat (when it is cooled down to 90 degrees) into a sink, and when the curd is dry put in a teacupful of salt curd, enough to make fifteen pounds after it is pressed. If the curd is a little too soft, put in a little more salt to harden it. We cool in the vat, in hot weather, by putting in cold water under the vat, to 90 degrees, before dipping out. I think it hurts the cheese very much to dip it out too hot. “My cheese-room is plastered, and I let down my windows from the top in hot weather, and I have a ventilator in the center overhead. The floor is matched and made tight, so as to shut up the room in cool weather, with seven trap-doors to let in the air when necessary. I think it essential, in making good cheeses, to keep them cool. The cheese-room should never be over 75 or 80 degrees, and itis better not over 70 degrees. I use cold water on the floor, and a large piece of ice in a pan on the counter if the weather is too hot. Keeping cool is a great cure for almost everything. It saves cheese from fermenting and becoming strong. You can not very well cook your cheese too much in May or June, and you must be sure and keep your rennet sweet.” 458 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Crap. | I ae A first-rate cheese-maker of Herkimer County, N. Y., gives the follow- ing as her practice : “T set the milk at 90 degrees, in spring and fall, and 86 degrees in hot weather. Heat up three times—first 90 degrees, then 95 degrees, and last 100 degrees. I put about one teacupful of salt to sixteen pounds of curd, and use much eare in breaking it up and working; cutting at first with a dairy-knife of four blades, and using the knife with one hand during the whole operation, taking particular care not to squeeze the curd in any way, but pass one hand under, and lifting gently, and letting it fall off the hand and between the fingers, and with the other keep the knife in motion in the curd, cutting it as fine as possible by the time it is ready for salting. “Thought and care are essential in all the various operations. Intense interest and anxiety are necessary in order to do all these things well, for they influence the texture, flavor, and quality of the cheese. “ Renner.—The stomach of the calf should be taken when empty (no curd in it)—care taken not to get dirt on it—and, without rinsing or wash- ing, salted inside and out with one teacupful of salt to a rennet, and placed in an earthen dish. It should lie in the salt two days, then be stretched and dried upon a stick in the form of a hoop. When dried, take it off the stick, and place it in a tight sack for use. Those prepared one season are not to be used till the next. «When rennets are to be used, put three in an earthen vessel; then take two gallons of water, put one quart of salt in it, boil and skim, and cool till milk-warm. Then pour it upon them, and in one week the liquor will be fit for use. One teacupful of it will curdle the milk of two milkings from fifteen cows, fit to break up in forty minutes.” An experienced cheese-maker of Warner, N. H., gives her method as follows: “T first seald the tub, then strain the milk into it as soon as brought from milking. Next put in sufficient rennet, the quantity depending upon the quality to fetch the milk to a curd in from forty to sixty minutes. The eurd is then dipped carefully into the basket for draining until the next morning. The morning’s milk is prepared in the same manner (after the thorough sealding of the tub). The curd, when formed, is dipped in with that of the previous evening; then left to drain, with an occasional stirring with a knife or slice. I prefer a knife, as it is not so likely to injure the curd. When sufficiently drained, which it will be by nine or ten o’clock if properly at- tended to, I tie together the ends of the cloth, and hang in the cellar until the succeeding day, when the curd of that day is prepared in the manner of the previous day’s curd. It is now ready for scalding. I pour boiling hot water, at the rate of one gallon for ten pounds of curd, into the tub; next slice in the curd from the basket, handling it carefully, so as not to disturb the white whey. The curd is next brought from the cellar and sliced in the ‘same manner. It is put in lastly, for being older it does not require as much scalding as the newer curd. I now let it stand from five to ten minutes, SEo. 28.] THE DAIRY.—CHEESE-MAKING. 459 from the time the last slice is dropped in, then dip back into the basket, curd and water together, to drain. I check and stir it up with the knife four or five times, when it is ready for grinding. The mill is placed upon the cheese tongs over the tub; the eurde is then sliced into the mill and eround, when it is ready for the senubnitibs which consists of a common-sized teacup- ful of rock-salt and one fcabpoortull of saltpeter for every twenty pounds of eurd. It is thoroughly mixed—not squeezed—with the hands. It is then ready for pressing, which is done gently until night, when the cheese is turned, cloth changed, and put back to pressing with sufficient weight, where it remains until the next cheese is ready for the press.” We find in the best large cheese-dairies of this country, that where the curd is scalded by steam, that the right temperature varies among different cheese manufacturers; thus Mr. O. S. Cumings, of Trenton Falls, N. Y., sealds to 104 degrees; Mr. A. Coon, of Russia, from 108 to 110 degrees; Mr W. Buck, 102 to 104 degrees; and Mr. S. N. Andrews, 100 to 102 degrees. 517. English Cheese-Making.—The method of heating the milk by the ap- plication of steam to the cheese-vat, is a great improvement over the English method. So is the method of separating the curd from the whey by strain- ing it through a clotfi much more expeditious. In Cheshire the whey is re- moved by pressing down a flat-bottomed pan gently on the curd in the cheese-tub and allowing it to fill, When the curd is thus partially freed from the whey, it is again gently broken and allowed to settle and sep- arate and the whey is boiled out slowly, the curd being placed on one side of the tub, which is slightly raised, and a board is placed on the curd with heavy weights on top to press out the whey. , The curd is then cut into pieces six or eight inches square, and again pressed with heavier weights. When as much whey as possible is removed in this way, the curd is placed ina vat and gently broken. It is then put under the press and a slight pressure applied at first, which is gradually in- creased till no more whey can be pressed out. To facilitate the flow of the whey, the cheese is pierced with skewers. This preliminary pressing occu- pies four or five hours. The cheese is then taken out of the press, broken up again very fine, salted, put up in the vat again, and pressed under a heavy press for three or four days, clean and dry cloths being put round the cheese as the old ones become wet. This is a tedious process, and we think some of the operations of the American process might be adopted in England with advantage. The es- sential point of difference is the scalding s this renders less salt and less pressing necessary. There can be no doubt that the preserving action of the salt is greater in proportion to the absence of whey in the cheese when it is applied; and it is for this reason that the Cheshire dairymen press their curd before the salt is added. Many people prefer cheese made by the English process. 518. Cheese-Making by Associated Interest in Manufactories.—This system was originated, we believe, by Jesse Williams, of Rome, Oneida, Co., N. Y., 460 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. ~— I te Se PE ee somewhere about the year 1850. Since that time it has been greatly extended in Central and Northern New York, and considerably in Northern Ohio. is like the manufacturing of any other farm produce, except that this is usually carried on upon joint account of the producers of the raw material. The success of this mode of cheese-making has now become fully established. It not only lessens the expense of manufacture, but improves the quality of the cheese. The establishments vary greatly in size, using the milk of from one hundred to fourteen hundred cows. portant that regular organizations have been effected, both in New York and Ohio. To enable our readers to consult with those already engaged in the business we give the following list, naming the owner or superintendent and location of a number of establishments represented in a convention held at Rome in January, 1864. This list, though representing only a portion of the dairy interest, shows how the subject has affected the minds of farmers in the central part of New York. Names. Factories located. BRED OWN 5 \.\0,2:0.0:0 /)vie.« Oneida Co..... The business has become so im- Factories located. L. M. Dunton Asel Burnham, Jr Williams, Adams & Dewey.Oneida Co...... Re). LVIB rc cc's Sie. le Oneida Co...... (Og SS 2 Seta see acre Oneida Co...... Hiram Brown............ Chenango Co... James Rathburn......... Oneida Co...... Charles Rathburn........ Oneida Co...... DER ABLOOLS ie cltoia ls: ce. Oneida Co...... é BOD MLOIKE Sie misse eich: | a if i Sasepthik a re : x : ¥ oa : co aa - 7 « er b ihre f : A NAN SE NC A EB er a nr Nl A lp I ne ME ee ee ae ae PLATE XIVs (Page 461.) Tuis picture illustrates the subject upon which the chapter treats, where it is placed as a sign is sometimes shown, to indicate the things within. It is the sign of the garden. In it were grown the cabbage, corn, cucumbers, turnips, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, beets, carrots, parsneps, egg-plants, ornamental gourds, onions, and so on of all the rest. It indicates some of the subjects of this chap- ter, but not all. It would require a large picture to do that. So, after taking a glance at this, look well at every one of the next hundred pages. very paragraph about ‘‘The Garden and its Fruits” has a deep interest to every reader. The picture is only a sort of wayside resting-place for the weary reader’s eye. It is to amuse and lead the traveler on to more substantial fare. } ! / i . i { | “ - i * ; , ( : : ' 43 . t J | ; fthovieta Md ii ug)? \’ y * ¢ el Tees x B ie as a We LW J Se Soe el Saha T thig Haweign) . “ih ’ sha : Pyizas at iegenst aC ae : ‘ me ; f ? sen A, af a 3 ef eT at Lee a ce t - — a ced ne —s CHAPTER V. THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. SECTION XXIX.—PLEASURE AND PROFITS OF GARDENING—ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF VEGETABLES. T is an error, and one that prevails to a considerable extent, to suppose that all labor bestowed upon a gar- den is so much “ labor lost.” Many farmers pass through a long life without ever having anything worthy of the name of garden—a name which signifies: “1. A piece of £. ground appropriated to the cultivation of herbs or plants, m= fruits and flowers. 2. A rich, well-cultivated spot or tract 42 of country; a delightful spot.” y And colloquially, in the Northeastern: States, a garden is a spot not always delightful—where all the potatoes, beets, turnips, cabbages, onions, etc., grown for family use, are planted. It also includes a small patch of strawberries, a row of currants along the fence, and sometimes a few flowers. Often, however, it is as destitute of the latter as it is of all the other attributes of a “delightful spot ;” yet the vegetable garden is one of the necessities of life that no farmer can afford to do without. As a gen- eral rule, the garden of a farm should be in the form of a parallelogram, running north and south, with orchard trees and shrubbery at the north end and a grass-plat at the south end, and everything should be planted in long rows. This admits of plowing the ground, with a place to turn at each end, both in breaking up the soil early in the spring and in after-cultivation. It is just as well to have a row of beets twenty rods long as to have twenty rows of one rod—indeed, much better, because you can do more in one hour in deepening the soil sufficiently for beets with a stout horse than a man can in a day with a spade. Even in a spaded garden, the old fashion of raising beds and deepening alleys has come to us from Europe, particularly Ireland, where there may be a necessity for the practice; there is none here. It be- longs to the same family of antiquated notions as hilling up Indian corn. It is a foolish notion. Although a garden should be rich, it must not be made excessively so with stable manure. We believe a continuance of any one kind of manure to excess will render a soil unfit for crops in general. For an over-rich gar- den soil the best remedy is lime, and the best way to apply it is in the form of “lime and salt mixture,’ which is made by dissolving salt in water until ARES A ESE 462 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. it will dissolve no more, and then using that brine to slake lime. A bushel of salt may thus be mixed with three bushels of unslaked lime and the mix- ture applied at the rate of 80 to 100 bushels of the slaked lime per acre. If the lime after slaking is kept in a pile under a shed, the outward portion effloresces, and it may be raked off and put away in barrels as it aceumu- lates. The lime is then in the best possible condition for use. Of the profits of gardens there can be no doubt. Any one who is fa- miliar with the operations of the market gardeners near large cities, knows that the business is more profitable than ordinary farming. There is no reason why many other persons should not enjoy similar profits. There is not one village in ten in all the Eastern States that is 1arge enough to support a locomotive butcher that would not support a good market garden from the first year of its establishment, the produce being sent around to the houses in the same way that the butcher sends his meat. Of course, all the waste or refuse of the garden must be fed to the cow, pig, and poultry, and of course the owner would grow wealthy faster than the owner of a large farm cultivated in the ordinary way. The great secret of success in market gardening lies in the succession of crops. Heavy manuring, thorough cultivation, and a good market are of course important adjuncts, but all of these will not give maximum re- sults without the gardener’s skill in keeping the ground fully occupied ; and in that, more than in all other things, is where not only gardeners, but farmers, fail. They keep too much unoccupied land, allowing a grain crop, oats, for instance, to be followed by a crop of miserable weeds more worth- less than it is easy to imagine, for they are more exhausting than the grain, and of no use to man, animal, or soil. Land should never be left idle. In a well-arranged market garden one thing succeeds another so rapidly that one row of the first crop is off today and its successor growing in its place to-morrow. The owner can not afford to wait till all is off, because by planting one after the other, he has the ripening crop for sale in the same order, and thus secures the whole value of the manure. The work in a market garden properly begins in autumn. There are several vegetables that must be started at this season, and all the ground should be manured either then or during the winter. Much of the success of the garden pecuniarily depends upon having its products a little anticipate the usual season. Potatoes early in the season are worth two dollars a bushel. Three weeks later they are down to a dollar or less. There is a like falling off from most other articles, though hardly anything fails to re- -turn a paying price. Spinach is sown in September and October to furnish cuttings in April and May. Cabbage is sown about the same time to furnish plants for the cold frame, which are kept through the winter, transplanted in April, and furnish heads in June. They are put into the frame in rows very near to- gether in November, and when the winter sets in, are covered with boards, removing only in mild weather and increasing light and heat as spring ad- = 3 Sxo. 29.] PLEASURE AND PROFITS OF GARDENING. 463 eee vances, until the open ground is in condition to receive them. These are called cold-frame plants, and furnish heads about two weeks earlier than the hot-bed plants started in March. The best varieties for this early crop are the Early York and the Winnigstadt, which makes a very solid head of ex- eellent quality. Lettuce is also sown in the fall, and with a little protection keeps welt through the winter. About the first of March operations commence with the lot-beds. These are prepared with various quantities of manure, ac- cording to the heat required. The beds are generally from four to six feet wide, for convenience in attending to the plants. They are covered with a sash about three feet wide, the glass being not more than seven by nine. In these beds a great variety of plants are forwarded—cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, egg-plants, and other early plants. The whole ground is covered as soon as it is sufficiently warm, and ar- ranged so as to allow a succession crop. In the first course come radishes, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, potatoes, peas, turnips, corn, kohl-rabi. Early potatoes are off in time for late cabbage; early radishes in time for celery, sweet corn, or cabbage. Early peas are always followed by a crop of something that will ripen before frost. Early corn may be followed by tur- nips, or by spinach for spring, which will be off in time for tomatoes. Beets are followed by celery, and peppers are transplanted among the heads of let- tuce a week or two before they go to market; or squashes or cucumbers are planted. Quassia chips, steeped in hot water, and that sprinkled upon the vines, are found to be eflicient protection against bugs. Carrots form a good succession crop to the onions. They are sowed between the rows about the middle of June. Two crops, and sometimes three, are always grown from the same plot of ground in a season. Nothing but ignorance of these facts prevents a great many small owners of land in the vicinity of small towns from establishing market gardens for the supply of those who can not, or at least do not, grow a supply for themselves of the most common sorts of gar- den vegetables. It is a fact but little appreciated, that a very large portion of those who have lived all their lives upon a farm, and made its cultiva- tion their only business, are utterly incompetent to manage a garden—that is, a garden intended for supplying any market with vegetables. Illustrative of the pleasures and profits of gardening, we insert a report of a visit of the author to the garden of an artist, to show what an un- professional gardener may do upon a little spot of ground. Geo. H. Hite, of Morrisania, lives upon a village lot, and is by profession an artist. Not an artist in gardening—not one who professes or pretends to practice horti- culture upon a scientific or artistic plan. Nor do I mention his garden as a model of taste and skill which may be imitated by the wealthy at great ex- pense. I mention it rather as the garden of a mechanic, and just such a one as a great many mechanics or professional men might have if they would— if they only knew how. I mention it full of hope that it may be the moving cause toward inducing other men who have daily employment, as this one 464 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V+ Ae! vo aD has, at some trade or profession, to devote a little time, some money, and a great deal of sound common sense in the cultivation of the little half-acre plats that we often see surrounding village residences, which are mere ex- amples of the utter uselessness of land except to enable the owner to show how barren and worthless he can make it. There is no need of this idle use of land. There is no reason why every owner of a village lot should not revel in all the luscious fruits of the season, and treat himself and his friends to an occasional bottle of wine, equal to any that he could purchase for a couple of dollars, just as Geo. H. Hite is now able to do, free of expense; for his garden pays its own way, and a little more, of all cost of cultivation, leaving him in the enjoyment of its delicious fruits, fresh from the earth, or their products preserved to continue almost as fresh throughout the winter. And he is not by profession nor early education a gardener, being a native of a State less noted for its horticultural skill and fruits than for its pro- ductions of great corn crops, great bullocks, great men—physically and in- tellectually. Mr. Hite is a Kentuckian, and some of his early years were spent in painting portraits in Lonisiana. Then he came to New York, and during other years acquired fame as an artist uponivory. Then, some years ago, like a sensible man, he began to create a home for his old age, when it comes; it is only in the blossom now; and that home I have visited, and I wish I could take every one who hears or reads of it with me to learn what an artist has done, and what a mechanic, a lawyer, a doctor, or anybody else might do in a garden upon a village lot. Will the sluggards who sigh after an abundance of fruit, and envy those who have, yet take no steps to have it themselves, believe me when I tell them that in this garden there are grapevines of such extent, Iuxuriance, and fruitfulness, that several bar- rels are required to hold the juice of the surplus of the crop? The fruitful arbor that extends some fifty feet from the rear of the house, affords a de- lightful shady spot, which, independent of the fruit, is well worth its cost. Isabella grape wine, five years old, with no addition whatever to the juice of the grape, is excellent. Strawberries grow to perfection in this garden; and as a cultivator of currants, Mr. Hite excels. Not merely a few basket- fuls for family use, but bushel after bushel, red, white, and black. The ber- ries of the true red Dutch variety are upon the average as large as the cherry currants under ordinary cultivation; and as for productiveness, no state- ment can convey an idea. To believe, you must see. And this is the result of pruning. True, Mr. Hite follows the Scriptural injunction about a bar- ren tree, to “dig about and dung it,” with all of his trees, and vines, and shrubs, and flowers, and table vegetables; but with the currant the secret of success is pruning. ‘Keep no old wood,” is his injunction. Every branch that has borne three crops must be cut away at the ground, having been twice shortened in, by which the short fruit-spurs on the new wood are always loaded, and the bunches growing close to the canes, so that they look like ropes of red berries. To commence with a single plant, ent it away close to the ground, to induce several vigorous shoots, instead of one, SxEo. 29.] ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF GARDEN PLANTS. 465 growing tree-shaped. Next spring shorten all these canes, and let the fruit grow below and new shoots above, and next spring shorten these again. Some of Mr. Hite’s three-year-old plants. are now five or six feet high, so loaded with fruit that they have to be trained to stakes, which, by-the-by, is the true way to grow currants. Next spring these vigorous, fruitful branches, all that are three years old, will be unsparingly cut away. It is the secret of success. Meantime, new shoots come up in successive order to take their place. I have no doubt of the fact that currant bushes thus treated, of the sour sort that are now growing neglected along many a gar- den wall, untrimmed in half a century, may be made to afford a field crop of more than two hundred bushels per acre of superior size and flavor to those grown in the ordinary way, and that the cost of production will be far below twenty-five cents a bushel. The annual pruning would be the great- est part of the labor, and, in the vicinity of this city, the wood cut away would be worth nearly the cost of cutting; and in the country, where stone chimneys and brick ovens are still fashionable, the brush, when well sea- soned, would make superior oven wood. Besides what I have said of this garden, there is much more to be learned from it, and that where it blos- soms now, nine or ten years ago was a wilderness of wild bushes, blackber- ries, and rocks, and that he who has said “ presto, change !”’ is not a magician, but a very humble individual, with no more power to produce such change than the most humble one of the mighty multitude who have an idea above the gutter, with a will to work that idea out in the rich productions of na- ture improved. Besides the fruitful grapes I have alluded to, Mr. Hite has others, prin- cipally of the Delawares, now growing beautifully; and so satisfied is he with the advantages of growing superior grapes, that he dug up a fruitful bed of strawberry-plants to make room for more Delaware grapevines, which he thinks will be the greatest wine-grape in America. Some of the surplus products of his little plot of ground afforded the owner one year $400 in eash, which was more than enough to pay for hired labor and manure. This should encourage others to go and do likewise. I would have gone to this man for my miniature portrait, but who would think of going to an artist to learn horticulture? Yet I have learned, and in my opinion others may, from very unexpected sources. Let us try. 519. Origin and History of some Common Garden Vegetables.—The history of some of our fruits and vegetables is, in many respects, extremely curious. “The artichoke, we find, was so highly esteemed in Rome, that an arbi- tary law was enacted to prevent commoners from eating it.” This statement shows the importance of calling all plants by their botanical or scientific name, since we can not tell whether the writer means the Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke), which is a plant of the sun- flower species, or the artichoke which somewhat resembles a thistle, the Cynara scolymus, which grows the edible part at the top instead of the bottom. 80 466 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuap. Y- The plant used for flavoring, called das¢/, which now stands so high that a London alderman would spurn a basin of turtle made without it, was, 200 years before Christ, condemned by Chrysippus as an enemy to the sight and a robber of the wits. Pliny says they sowed the seeds with maledictions and ill words, believing that the more it was cursed the better it would ~ prosper. Lettuce appears, from an anecdote related by Herodotus, to have been served at the royal tables of the Persian kings, five or six hundred years before the Christian era, but they only knew one sort, which was a black variety. This esculent has been greatly improved by cultivation as well as cabbage. We can remember when a head of lettuce would have been a great curiosity, and the heads of cabbage fifty years ago were very unlike merchantable cabbage-heads of the present day. Mint appears to have been used formerly for other purposes besides making mint-juleps, which produce a disease which, in ancient times, mint was used to cure; for Pliny says, at a consultation of physicians. in his chamber, it was decided that a chaplet of pennyroyal was better for gid- diness and swimming in the head than one of roses. According to Ovid, mint was used by the ancients to perfume their tables, by rubbing the leaves upon them before serving the supper; and mush- vooms, both, edible and poisonous, were known to the ancients. They were considered, when good, a great dainty with the voluptuous Romans; and one of the poisonous sorts was used by Agrippina to destroy her husband Tiberius Claudius. ; Mustard, it will be recollected by Bible-readers, was cultivated in Syria at the time of our Saviour, as it is mentioned in one of his beautiful parables as being the least seed that was sown in the field. Garlic and onions must have been in high favor as food at a very early day, since it appears that the Egyptians worshiped garlic, and were said to wish that they might enjoy it in Paradise; though the Greeks held it in such abhorrence, that they regarded those who ate it as profane. The Ro- mans gave it to their laborers and soldiers to strengthen them, and to their game-cocks previously to fighting them; and the Israelites, while in the wilderness, lamented the deprivation of these stimulating roots, to which they had become so accustomed in Egypt. In this country, onions are eaten by all classes, and in New York city, we have noticed, are greatly esteemed in winter by the very poorest classes, particularly the dissipated. They are not generally considered unhealthy, though no dyspeptic should ever touch garlic or onions in any shape, particularly raw. Parsneps were held in high esteem by the Emperor Tiberius, who im- ported them annually into Rome from Germany, probably because they grew much betier in that colder climate, as they are greatly improved here by remaining in the ground to freeze during winter. Parsneps contain a large proportion of sugar; beer is made from them in the north of Ireland, and wine, closely approaching the malmsey of Madeira, Roe | dco. 29,] ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF GARDEN PLANTS. 467 eee i iP A is made from the roots. Marmalade, made with parsneps and a small quantity of sugar, is said to excite appetite, and to be a very good food for convalescents. Parsley was cultivated, as it is now in gardens, in the time of Pliny, and appears to have been highly esteemed as a seasoning of food. Radishes were so highly esteemed by the Greeks, that they made them of gold to offer at the shrine of Apollo. If these were made of the size that radishes are represented as growing in those days, we certainly should prefer the counterfeits to the real; for it is stated that they grew to the weight of forty or fifty pounds. Probably they were an entirely different article from our radishes, and perhaps were a culinary vegetable. Beets were made for the same purpose of silver, which shows the com- parative estimation in which they were held. With us it is quite the reverse. Turnips, too, do not seem to have been highly esteemed, since Apollo only got wooden turnips, while he got gold radishes and silver beets. This was somewhat owing to climate, undoubtedly, for we have observed that turnips are not esteemed in the cotton States, except for the tops to be used as greens. Thyme was planted in Greece, and thence imported into the Roman S.atec on account of its value as pasture for the honey-bees. Water-cress was esteemed as g stimulating article of diet, as well in olden time as at present, and was often eaten with salad to counteract its effects, which were thought to be chilly. An old writer says: “ Water-cress is one of the most wholesome of our salad-herbs, and one of the oldest in use. Its qualities are warm and stimulating, the reverse of nearly all other raw vegetables. Xenophon recommended it to the Persians, and the Romans gave it to those whose minds were deranged. Hence the Grvcek proverb: ‘Eat cress, and have more wit.’ It is an excellent anti- scorbutic ; and a salad so easily produced, and so important to the health of townspeople, can not be too highly recommended. The daily supply at Covent Garden, London, is about 6,000 bunches, but it is said if twice as many more bunches were brought in they would be all sold.” Cabbage appears to have been used for food from a very early period, and few vegetables have undergone-greater improvements, from the original sea-kale to the large drum-head cabbage, some of which have heads almost as solid as turnips, and of twenty pounds weight. Germany, of all other countries, grows cabbage for food most abundantly. It is considered a necessity for every family to have a barrel or more of sour-kraut, which is made by cutting the cabbage-heads into small shreds, with sharp knives or a machine, which is packed in barrels with a little salt, and sometimes a flavor of spice, and in this way it keeps (we can not say sweet) in an eatable con- dition all winter, and is usually stewed and eaten with vinegar, in place of other vegetables, with meat. Asparagus is another sea-plant, very much improved by cultivation. The 468 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. first time we hear of this vegetable is in the time of Cato the Elder, two hundred years before Christ. The Emperor Augustus was very partial to it; and at Ravenna it grew to such a size that three heads weighed a pound. Mr. Grayson, of Mortlake, near London, has produced one hundred heads that weighed forty-two pounds, perhaps the largest ever known in Great Britain; and hundreds of acres around the metropolis are devoted to its cultivation. The small heads are sometimes cut into pieces and boiled, as a substitute for green peas. Medicinally, it is considered diuretic, and is said to promote the appetite. It is considered antiscorbutic, and very good in dropsical cases, but is avoided by those having the gout. The most extra- ordinary virtue is that ascribed to it by Antoine Mizold, who says: “If the root is put upon a tooth that aches violently, it causes it to come out without pain.” Our modern dentists will, we are sure, thank us for this information, if it is true. Asparagus and cabbage are both benefited by the use of salt for manure. For asparagus, there is no danger of using too much salt. It may be used in a crude state, or dissolved, or in compost. Carrots, we are told, originated, or at least, were first cultivated for food, in Holland. They are not only nutritious, but the pectic acid which they contain has the effect to gelatinize other food, hence they are used in soups, making them richer. There is no root grown by farmers of quite as much value for stock as carrots. They are very nutritious food for our tables, simply boiled, and only require a little practice to be much liked. The white carrot is sometimes boiled, and mashed, and used in bread. The foliage of carrots is truly beautiful, and we read that, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, it was common for ladies to use the fresh, green leaves as orna- ments of their head-dresses. Potatoes have a history so wrapped in obscurity, that no one can tell for a certainty where they originated. Their adoption, as a general article of food, dates back only to a comparatively recent period; that is, since the settlement of America, yet they are now considered an indispensable article upon almost all the tables of rich and poor in all countries where the potato flourishes, as it does in the northern United States and England and Ireland. The potato-plant (Solanwm tuberosum) is said to belong to a family of poisonous plants, and an extract, powerfully narcotic, may be. made from the leaves and stalks, and a weak spirit is often distilled from the roots; and a pretty good starch is made, both in a domestic way and in large manufactories, from potatoes, with which sago is often adulterated. Potatoes make good yeast, and they are often used for making sizing; and the water in which potatoes are boiled is good to wash any fabrics in that arc liable to fade. Excellent as potatoes are for food, sad experience has proved that it will not do for any nation to rely upon them. This reliance brought famine, So, 29.] HISTORY OF GARDEN PLANTS. 469 misery, starv wate aha death ¢ to tr alaital wad diupputhenent to a great many who have lost entire crops from the potato-disease. Salad-plants have long been cultivated and eaten by the rich as a luxury, and by the poor as a necessity, or rather, in many cases, nore as an agree- able economic article of food. In all cities and large manufacturing towns, the laboring class are every year becoming greater consumers of Weees, radishes, and celery, and find benefit from their use. This kind of food is grown to great perfection, and is very largely consumed in France, Belgium, and Holland—more so than in this country. Salsify is a plant that should be known more extensively than it is, be- cause it affords an excellent article of food. Its roots grow like parsneps, and the cultivation is similar, but they have quite a different flavor, and on account of a real, though slight, resemblance in smell and taste to oysters, it is often called vegetable oyster-plant. The greatest resemblance to oysters is, when the roots, which have stood all winter in the ground, are dug in the early spring, boiled and mashed and mixed with butter, and cooked ata served hot, like oyster batter-cakes. Okra is another valuable food-plant not much known and cultivated, ex- cept in market gardens in the Northern States, though it is considered an article of prime necessity at the South, being largely used by black and white. The negroes make a very favorite dish with okra and bacon, called gumbo, and we have eaten gumbo in New York, but it is very rare. The principal use of okra here is in soups. The seed-pods are the part used, either green or dry. They give the soup a mucilaginous character. The bark of the okra plant is very fibrous—as much so as hemp, and more tough. Sweet corn (see 541), as it is now grown in a great majority of the gardens, affords one of the cheapest and richest luxuries that America enjoys. In the latitude of this city it is fit to eat in July, and continues in condition for the table, with a little extra attention, till late in October. There are several varieties, some of which are noted for keeping fresh very late in the season. There is no dish more universally liked than sweet corn while in the green or milky state, and every family who have the means of growing it should provide for a succession of crops during the season, so as never to be without it, because no food can be produced cheaper, and none is more nutritious, palatable, and wholesome. We might go on to great length with this history and deseription of garden plants, and at last should hardly know where to stop without breaking off abruptly ; so we do it here, to go more into particulars of garden cultivation of proper vegetables, plants, fruits, and flowers. 470 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [CHar. vi | SECTION XXX.—GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. XS UR plan of treating lightly a great variety of sub- ~~ jects will not warrant us in giving a complete “Young Gardener’s Assistant.” That can be bought in a separate volume, and it is a valuable book. But we shall give a little information about all the principal kinds of culinary vegetables usually cultivat- ed by farmers, or which should be cultivated by them, which we trust will be found useful. In treating upon some of the same things under field-cultutre, in the chapter devoted to “The Farm and Its Crops,” we shall probably give some further information, which may be useful to those who only plant a garden. And so will what we say here be useful to those who wish to grow vegetables upon a large, as well as upon a small, scale. 520. The Brassica Family—Propagating and Saving Seed.—This family of plants, which includes all that are near enough related to the cabbage to hybridize with it, is the most universally cultivated of any variety of euli- nary vegetables. In planting out cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, turnips for seed, great care should be taken to set each kind by itself, at considerable distances apart, to prevent hybridization, and no seedsman must keep bees, for they are the greatest hybridizers in nature, carrying the pollen from one blossom to another, and mixing the two together indiscriminately. All the different varieties of cabbage, such as Flat Dutch, Savoy, Drumhead, mix very readily and spoil each variety, or else by one chance in a score of millions, produce a new variety which may be worth cultivation. As a general rule, however, all farmers who raise their own seed should try to keep the varieties separate. This may be done in most cases by setting out the seed-stalks in different fields. It is not necessary to confine them to the garden. Where there is any great inconvenience about keeping the sorts apart, you had better plant only one sort for seed, and buy seed for all other sorts you may wish to cultivate. Do not try to grow your own seed, if it will cost you twice as much asit would to buy a small paper of a pro- fessional seedsman. The principal advantage in growing your own seed is to select carefully the very best and throw away all other s, and unless you do that, you had better not grow any. To grow good cabbage and turnip seed, select the very best roots to plant, and then select the best seed branches. A correspondent wants to know if turnip seed, harvestea from roots that were left out over winter, will produce good turnips if sown for a Szc., 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 471 crop. ‘ My neighbors,” says the writer, “tell me it will not produce tur- nips, but charlock.” We do not believe that it will change in a single season, but we do know oF one instance where such seed was sown, and it produced turnip-tops and seed, but few bulbs of any value; and we believe that if the seed of these bulbless plants had been sown again and again, the whole semblance of turnips except the tops would have been lost. And this being the fact, why may we not believe that the reverse will be the case, where the most perfect bulbs are selected for propagation ? 521. Cultivation and Value of the Turnip Crop.—The value of the ruta- baga turnip for stock-feeding (see 880) seems to be almost universally con- ceeded, while the common flat turnip appears to be under a cloud of preju- dice in this country. We haye, however, strong faith, from personal expe- rience, in its value as winter food for horned cattle and sheep, There is great difference in the value of the several varieties. One of the best is the Red Strap, which grows well up out of the ground, and all the upper part of the bulb is of a rich plum red. This sort, if sown upon good land, grows rapidly and solid, and such turnips always keep the best and afford the most nutriment when fed to stock, and every vacant spot in the garden may thus be profitably occupied. For garden culture, turnips should be sown at three periods: first, as early as the ground is dry and warm enough for the seed to vegetate ; second, about the first of June; and the third, after the peas have ripened, and in all other vacant spots from which a first crop has been removed. If seed is sown as late as the middle of October, or, according to latitude, as late as it will grow bulbs the size of pigeons’ eggs, and these are covered over with a mulch of coarse manure, straw, or leaves, and the mulch raked off very early in the spring, you will get a fine crop of sprouts for early greens, and sometimes the bulbs will grow again so as to be good eating. Remember, never save seed from such roots. 522. Protection of Turnips from Insectsx—The young plants are liable to suffer from the attack of certain insects, especially the turnip flea, or beetle —called in England “the fly.” Asa protection against such enemies, we recommend the following recipe: Mix one tablespoonful of sulphur with a pint of blood-warm water to half a pound of seed; let it soak a few min- utes, then pour off the water and mix the seed with ashes or plaster. Whether this would afford any protection against grasshoppers, could be determined by trial. There has been lately offered in market a new preparation of “ attenuated coal-tar,” that is, coal-tar mixed with a dryer, making a granulated sub- stance resembling gunpowder, which is said by those who have used it to be a good preventive of insects. We know that the scent of coal-tar is of- fensive to most of the farm-pest family. A board-fence painted with coal- tar appears to act as a protector of fruits trained alongside of it. l-tar mixed with dried loam in the form of a powder should be tried as a pre- THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. ventive of insects on the young turnips. In this form the expense would be very trifling. It may answer for all other garden plants just as well as the more expensive preparations sold for the same purposes. 523. The Kohi-Rabi—Its Character and Use.—This relative of the tuna and cabbage is comparatively a new garden plant, but one much approved by all who are acquainted with it, and extensively grown for the New York markets. It appears to be a cross between the cabbage and turnip, growing with a bulb like the latter, which has the outward appearance of a cabbage- stalk, with leaves like ruta baga. These bulbs, cooked, have more of the flavor and general character of cabbage than turnips. Those who are not acquainted with them should procure seed and give them a trial. They are largely grown in England as a field-crop for stock, the seed being planted by drills, four pounds per acre, and produce twenty-five tuns. Jor garden culture, pursue exactly the same course as with cabbage. 524. Cabbage Cultivation, and Value as Food.—Almost every family cul- tivates cabbage in the garden as an article of food, for which purpose we look upon it as of very little account. We know it is relished by a very large portion of the laboring class, and that class alone should eat it, as it is, particularly when cooked, one of the most indigestible articles of food ever taken into the human stomach. Eaten raw, in small quantities, it is more digestible, and serves very well as a relish in place of other green food at seasons when the garden does not afford a supply. We recommend the cultivation of cabbage in all gardens, even where the family do not care to grow it for the table, because a plant can be stuck in here and there to fill up waste places, and if the plants are not wanted by the family when grown, the cows will be very glad of them after the grass is frosted in autumn. If cabbage is wanted for very early use, the plants must be started in cold frames in autumn, and kept covered up all winter. Such plants are much more hardy than hot-bed plants started in spring. Seed may be sown, as soon as the ground is warm enough, in garden beds, for early cabbage, but for such as are wanted for winter use, seed sown late in May or June, or even in July, will be early enough to set where peas and early potatoes have been harvested. Cabbage requires a strong soil, and will bear heavy manuring, except with hog-pen manure. That, it is pretty well settled, causes the disease known as “ club-foot” in cabbage. This whole order of plants delights in bone-dust as a fertilizer and bones prepared as superphosphates are still better. . The distance between the plants when set out varies from one and a nalf to three feet. A moist, cloudy day is the best time for transplanting, and it is well to dip the roots before planting in a composition of black mold and a little soot, made into thin mud with the addition of liquid manure. Cabbages may be headed in winter by setting them with their roots in good rich earih, just as they grew, and covering the tops so that they will not freed This may be done with a roof of boards, hay, or dirt, or brush and rails and straw covered with dirt, with little air-holes. Cabbage grown in SEo. oo GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES, 473 this way is blanched, sweet, sated endian ~ ilk pay Se more than the cost of thus arranging the late stalks which failed to form heads in the fall. e work should be done just before the ground freezes, and at first only ightly cover the tops. . The heads can be kept very sound and clean, and convenient for daily use in winter, by packing them in wet moss in barrels or boxes, which should be kept in a room where the temperature is just above the freezing-point. The’easiest way that we ever put up cabbages for winter use was as fol- lows: Lay two common fence rails, or two poles on the ground, side by side, about six inches apart, and as you pull up the cabbages, lay them down, with the heads resting upon the poles and the roots on the ground on each side, at right angles with the poles. If you take off the loose leaves for feed, lay a thin coat of straw over the heads, and then throw up the dirt from each side, so as to cover the heads about six inches deep, and form a smooth mound, shaped like a winrow of hay. Of the kinds of cabbage, we recommend the “ Bergen,” for its large size and value for fodder. The “ Fawn-colored Savoy” is more delicate for the table. “Red cabbage” grows with very hard, small heads, and is esteemed for pickling. It is not as sweet or palatable as other sorts to our taste. A kind ealled ‘ Thousand-headed” is much grown in some gardens for eating green. It is a coarse variety. The “Green Curled Kale” is also grown for greens. It does not head. So is the kind called “ Brussels Sprouts.” The earliest variety of cabbage is the “Early York,” or ‘Early Wakefield.” Three other early varieties are called, “Early Sugarloaf,” “Early Drum- head or Battersea,” and ‘ Early London.” A new variety, lately introduced, is called “Stonemason.” It originated with J. J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, Mass. It grows a large, rich head on a very short stump. The “Marblehead Mammoth” is another new variety, introduced by Mr. Gregory, which grows heads that weigh thirty pounds each. There is a new kind called “ Pomerain,” which grows heads shaped like the Red Dutch, that is, conical, though much larger, and re- markably solid. 525. Cauliflower is a delicate vegetable of the brassica family, the edible part being the flower-buds, before they shoot up to seed. Cultivators have succeeded in forming these into a very compact mass of several pounds’ weight. This is done, first, by using seed of the very best variety and culti- vating in very rich ground; and second, by carefully tying up the leaves around the heads, to make it grow compactly. A heavy, moist, fresh loam is the best soil for cabbages and cauliflowers. The way the Dutch obtain cauliflowers, famous for size and delicacy, is as follows: “Tn the autumn they dig deep some ground that has not been manured ; at the beginning of May they sow the large English cauliflower upon a bed * of manure, ad cover it with straw mats at night. When the young plants are three or four inches higli, they harrow the ground that had been pre- fr AT4 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. pared the autumn before, and with a wooden dibble, eighteen inches long, they make holes about ten inches déep, at proper distances apart, and en- large them by working the dibble round till the hole at the top is about three inches in diameter. They immediately fill these holes with water, and repeat this three times the same day. In the evening they fill them with sheep-dung, leaving only room enough for the young plant, which they very carefully remove from the bed of manure and place im the hole with a litile earth. Directly afterwards they give them a good watering, and as soon as the sun begins to dry them, water them again. [urthermore, as the plants grow, they dig round them, and earth them up in rows. When the head is forming, they pinch off some of the lower leaves of the plant, and use them to cover the young head.” 526. Broccoli is nearly allied to cauliflower, and though inferior in quality is much cultivated. One of the secrets of growing cabbage is frequent hoe- ing, and in case of drought, watering. The ground can not be stirred too frequently, and it is well to hoe when the dew is on, if you are a little care- ful about getting dirt on the plants. Although cauliflowers are a little more difficult to grow than cabbages, we have no doubt they are much more nutritious and digestible as food. We have said more about the cultivation of the brassica family in gardens than we shall of any other, because the various sorts may be grown in a great measure as a second crop, or to fill up waste places, and therefore it is economical, because it affords such a great quantity of food. 527. Carrots, Beets, Parsneps, Salsify, and Horseradish.—All these plants require one grand feature in their cultivation, and one which many farmers neglect. It is a perfect trenching of the earth, not less than two feet deep, and far better if it is three feet. They all succeed best on a rather light loam, not too sandy, which was manured the previous year with old manure. If desirable to continue planting the same plat with these roots, let them come in rotation, and use no manure that is not in a very pulverulent con- dition. Guano, at the rate of three or four hundred pounds per acre; super- phosphate, at the rate of five hundred pounds per acre; lime, at the rate of fifty bushels per acre; unleached ashes, at the rate of ten to twenty bushels per acre, are all good fertilizers for root crops. All these roots are apt to grow pronged and ill-shapen in fresh-manured ground, as they always do in ground badly spaded or plowed, unless prepared by the very best kind of surface and subsoil plowing. 528. Carrots, for early use, may be sown as soon as the ground is dry. For winter use, the last of May or first of June in the latitude of New York. They are best preserved for winter use in dry sand. The best early variety is Early Horn; the best for winter, or stock, is the Improved Long Orange, though some prefer the Altringham. The large, white, Belgian carrot has been cultivated here, but the yellow is still the favorite. 529. Beets should be sown very early for greens. The Early Flat Bas- - sano” or Early Blood Turnip-Beet will produce food soonest; but for win- Seo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. ter, we prefer the Long Blood Beet or Smooth Long Dark-red. The last should not be sown till near the first of June. If it matures early, the part, which grows out of ground, is very woody. Always soak beet- d twenty-four hours, and then roll it in plaster, ashes, dust, or meal, to ry it for handling while planting. An ounce of seed will plant a row one hundred feet long. 530. Parsneps should be sown early, and may be left where they grow till the ground is wanted for a second crop. The soil must be trenched and rich, or manured deep below the surface, to grow good parsneps. An ounce of seed sows a row two hundred feet long—five pounds an acre. The Long Smooth is the best variety. Parsneps are excellent food for stock. 531. Salsify, or Oyster Plant, should be sown early in spring; an ounce of seed to a row thirty feet long. Like parsneps, they are improved by standing all winter where they grew. Horseradish, is a plant of the genus Cachlearia, which is a sort of scurvy- grass, and is unknown to, or, at least, uncultivated by many farmers. Its sharp, pungent root is very agreeable to most persons as a seasoning to meats, and it is considered a healthy excitant of appetite. It is easily grown from cuttings in any deep, rich soil, even a mucky one that is quite wet. It is best after standing out all winter. In the vicinity of cities it is extensively grown as a market crop, and is very profitable. For family use a ieee will suffice. . Onion Culture.—There are three principal sorts of onions grown from oa ee! on the top—the red, yellow, and white. There is a kind called Early Red, and the large Wethersfield Red; the latter grows the lar- gest, and is best for field culture. The Danvers yellow variety is mild fla- vored, early, and keeps well, and is preferred, where best known, to the Yellow Dutch, which is known in some places as Strasburg or Silver-skin. The White Portugal onion is the mildest, and good to grow for family use, but requires great care to keep it over winter. In some parts of the country scarcely any but top onions are grown. ‘This kind produces miniature onions on the top of the stalk, which are set to grow bulbs for use. Onions require a rich sandy loam, highly manured with thoroughly rotted compost, deeply and finely worked and rolled, and the seed sown, one ounce to a row fifteen feet long, in drills Se inches apart, and the plants left standing four inches apart. Unlike most other things, onions do best upon the same plat year after year. Wood ashes, applied as top- dressing, make one of the best fertilizers that can be given to an onion bed. To prevent the ravages of the onion maggot, which of late years has proved so destructive, it is recommended to sow poppies with the onion. 533. Peas—Choice Kinds and Cultivation.—The following are the best early peas in their order: Daniel O’Rourke; Early Princess; Early Emperor ; Prince Albert; Early Kent. The following are dwarf varieties: Tom Thumb; Bishop’s Early Dwarf, quite prolific and early ; Bishop’s New Long s = 476 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. Podded, productive and good quality ; Dwarf-blue Imperial, highly reecom- mended asa summer pea. The following are larger sorts, and are highly recommended: Champion of England; Fairbeard’s Nonpareil ; Champ of Scotland; Eugenie; Napoleon; Missouri Marrowfat; Large White rowfat, a late sort; Blackeyed Marrowfat, an excellent kind, worthy of gen--} | eral cultivation; British Queen, very prolific, long podded, and fine fla- vored ; to which add the sugar pea, with edible pods. Judging from the little attention paid by many farmers to the cultivation of garden peas, we suppose they look upon them as luxuries, only to be in- dulged in by a few, except in very small quantities. In this they are quite inerror. There is nothing grown that is more nutritious and wholesome, and much more attention should be paid to their cultivation, so as to have a full daily supply, early and late. The first planting should be made just as soon as the ground can be worked in spring, upon ground well manured the year before, or else with very fine old compost or guano in the hill, but not in contact with the seed. In small gardens, or where ground is scarce for early crops, plant potatoes and peas together. Land can not be too rich for peas, but if it is the richest of crude manure, more vines than seed will grow. Ashes and plaster upon peas while growing, when a few inches high, will help them remarkably. Plant in double rows, a foot apart, so as to set bushes between. The largest sorts require four to six feet between the lines, and we have found it advantageous to put them wide apart and plant a row of potatoes between. You want a pint of seed of the dwarf sorts, in a double row, fifty or sixty feet long. The large growing sort will take a pint to a hundred feet. Pea-bugs injure but do not destroy the germination of seed peas. It is recommended to keep them in sealed bottles, and if a piece of gum cam- phor as large as a pea is put in, it will destroy all bug life. One writer recommends planting peas five inches deep early in the spring to prevent the weevil. He plants beets at the same time between the rows of peas. Another writer recommends fall planting, or any time during winter when there is no frost in the ground. 534. Beans for the Garden—Good Sorts.—We recommend careful atten- tion to the cultivation of garden beans, because they furnish such good, cheap, palatable food. The following half dozen sorts are the best that we can name of the dwarf or bush variety, which give edible pods, called snap or string beans : The Early Valentine grows excellent, long, tender pods. Early Yellow Six-weeks is very productive. Early Mohawk is not only prolific, but hardy. The Early China is an old favorite ; it is a white bean, with red eye. The Thousand-to-One sort is also an old and very popular kind. As young bean-plants are easily killed by frost, you must not plant them till that danger is past and the ground is light and warm. A pint of seed will plant a drill eighty feet long. Cover lightly without manure, and never hoe when the vines are wet, but stir the soil very often, and use plaster and ashes. Seo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. ATT Of pole-beans, the Early Dutch Case-knife takes the lead. It is early, prolific, and good green or dry. The pods are sometimes eaten, but can not mmended. The pods of all the Cranberry beans are good. The Horticultural Cranberry or Wren’s Egg” grows in beautifully red-striped pods, is of a light red and cream color, speckled, of medium size, and very good, both in the pods and shelled. The White, or Marrowfat Cranberry, is very tender and nice, but is a shy bearer. The old Red Cranberry is more prolific and hardy, but the pods are less tender, and beans not so delicate in flavor, but it is a valuable sort to rely upon. The beans grow of good size, roundish, and deep-red color. 535. Lima Beans are a distinct order of plants from the others, and more difficult to cultivate, as they require a longer season of warm weather, and if planted before the ground is warm, are apt to rot, and each seed requires to be handled separately and put in the ground with the eye downward to insure their coming up. The best manure for Lima beans is superphosphate of lime. They grow in long, flat, rough pods, and the vines are such great climbers, that they would go to the top of poles thirty feet high. The best way is to use poles five or six feet high, and pinch back the vines, or train them horizontally. To get an early start, set each bean in a piece of sod two inches square, and place these sods in a shallow box in the kitchen, and keep them well watered till it will answer to set the beans out around the poles. 536. California Beans.—A variety of beans new to the Atlantic States, in- troduced from California, has been highly recommended. A letter, written by L. Norris, Windsor, Ashtabula County, O., says of if: “This bean is of medium size, of a peach-blow color, and very prolific. It requires only one, or at most two plants in each hill, as it produces many lateral vines. It is a short runner, only from three to four feet in hight. I find by planting them with corn, one bean in each hill answers the purpose well. By cooking these beans in the following way, they constitute a savory dish, and need only to be tasted to be appreciated : Having cleaned the beans, put them in cold water; add a little salt, and boil uniil done, but not so much as to have the beans crack open. Have ready a frying-pan, with some lard, which heat until it nearly boils; then take the beans out _ with a skimmer and put them into the frying-pan and fry them until they absorb nearly all the fat; then add about a pint of the bean liquor (of which you must reserve a plenty); then boil, or rather fry, a few minutes, stirring it gently ; but be sure the liquor does not all boil away, as it is this which gives the beans such a delicious flavor. They are now ready for the table.” 537. Flowering Beans are grown almost exclusively for ornament, and are known as * Searlet runners” or “ White runners,” being great climbers, and profuse in beautiful flowers, and not very prolific bearers. It is a mistake to suppose these beans are not edible; they are so, but not of such delicate ‘flavor as to be recommended for that purpose; they are very ornamental, | _ and may be planted to climb a pole in a showy spot in the garden, or near | 478 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Omar. V. TT TT RE eee eee the house trained to trellises, or climbing strings up the house side, around windows, or along a piazza front. 538. Asparagusx—Dut few farmers have this delicious, early spri table in perfection, because they do not know how to cultivate it p It is a perennial plant, which, if once well set, produces its crop of te rich shoots, year after year, with very little annual cultivation. It may be started from seeds or roots, which should be set in a deeply-trenched bed, well drained, and made just as righ as rich can be, and heavily salted. Every autumn, cut off the tops, and cover the bed with a thick coat of manure, salted; and in the spring, fork up the ground lightly, before the sprouts start, mixing in the manure, and if any of it is unrotted, lay it as a mulch between the rows. Lime and ashes are both excellent for surface- dressings. There are three varieties of asparagus—the Large Green,Purple Top, or Giant; the Improved Ghent; and Common Green—though some contend that the difference is more in cultivation than anything else. The common kind is certainly improved in size by high cultivation. In May, 1860, a Mr. Fecks, of Oyster Bay, L. I., exhibited, to the American Institute Farmers’ Club, specimens of a giant asparagus, grown at Oyster Bay, originated from seed at Matinicock, L. L., the bed of which is now over thirty years old. Some of the stalks were nearly an inch in diameter. THe stated “that he had about four acres, which he called only a ‘small patch,’ because other persons had more than twice as much, and he had been told that one man near Jamaica has seventy acres. His beds are ~ made upon good potato-land, plowed deep, and highly manured with stable or hog-pen manure. At one year from seed, the plants are set in rows four feet apart, and fifteen or twenty inches apart in the rows. We trench four- teen inches deep, with manure at bottom, which is covered with three inches of soil, and the roots set, and the trench filled gradually during the summer. In cultivation, we plow off the earth and put manure in the furrows abund- antly. My bed is so near the level of salt water that the tide rises upon it at very high water, and the yield is $300 an acre. We do not cut it much, if any, the first two years. We put fifty loads of manure per acre, and five hundred pounds of guano. Some growers use 1,500 pounds of guano per acre. The bunches of sixteen stalks weigh four pounds. The best asparagus is that which grows above ground. The white is always tough. We some- ‘times have bunches with eight inches of tender green.” It is a mistaken notion to cut or try to eat the white part of asparagus stalks. None but the tender green part is fit to eat. An article now be- fore us has the following sensible remarks upon this subject. The writer gays: _ “The stalk is generally cut about four inches long, often not more than two or three inches, and from one third to one half the length is white, showing it grew below the surface of the soil; this part is always tough and bitter, and unfit to eat. In truth, it is never eaten, so that fully one half of the weight of a bunch of asparagus, purchased in the market, is a dead loss. ) SEo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 479 I eee If the stalk be cut four inches long, and two inches below the earth’s surface, about one inch and a half of the top part is fit for use—no more. Aspara- uld never be cut till it is five or six inches out of the ground. I et it grow ten or twelve inches high, When five or six*inches high, uld be cut about a half inch above the ground ; but when ten or twelve inches high, it should be cut six or seven inches above the surface of the earth; or, if it be cut near the ground, all the bottom part should be rejected. “ After cutting it, take a sharp knife, and commencing at the lower end, feel your way along toward the top, till you come to where it is perfectly tender, then eut it off, throwing away the lower part. “Tt is only the green, tender part that is above the ground that is sweet, healthy, and nutritious, or fit to cook and eat. The white, tough, and bitter part, that grows below the earth’s surface, is not half as good as corn- stalks, and should not be allowed to be sold in any market in the civilized world. ‘For private families, asparagus-beds should be made at considerable ex- pense, and with much care. Four or five dollars will make a bed that will amply supply, for many years in succession, a family of eight or ten per- sons, if properly taken care of. To make a first-rate bed for that number in a family, make it about five feet wide and twenty feet long. Dig out the ground two and a half feet deep, and fill up with chips, sawdust, tan, or sticks of wood, packed close together, five or six inches from the bottom. Then put in five or six inches of the strongest stable manure, and fill up to the top with manure and dirt, about half-and-half. “The bed is now fit to plant. Put your roots about ten inches apart, each way, over the entire bed, and then cover them about three inches deep with the richest soil to be had, and sow evenly over the whole a peck of common salt and a peck of ashes, mixed together. Asparagus is a marine-plant, re- quiring salt and alkalies for fertilizers, which should be supplied every spring to make the plants flourish. “ Keep the beds clean of weeds and well manured, and for this quantity of ground you will have a rich and abundant supply for eight or ten in a family, every day, if desired, from about the first of April till the last of June. . The yield will be ten times as much as could be obtained from the same number of square feet planted in peas or beans. There is nof, among all the green vegetables brought to market, another so productive, palatable, nutritious, and healthy as this plant. ““Where it is raised for market, a warm, rich, vegetable mold should be selected. A sandy loam is better than clay.” 539. Celery.—This is another good vegetable for early spring, when there is a longing for something green or fresh from the garden, which is but little known to farmers in general. It is a hardy biennial, grown from seed sown in the spring, which will produce seed the second year. For the table, the stalks only are used, and generally raw, though good cooked, and to make THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuap. V. them tender and palatable, are grown in a peculiar way, which blanches and makes them crisp, tender, and pleasant to the taste, being aromatie and slightly pungent, sweet, and agreeable to all who are accustomed toe them. There are several varieties in cultivation, some of the best of are named as follows: White Solid, Seymour’s Superb White, Cole’s White, Cole’s Superb Red, Dwarf White French, Incomparable; this is a dwarf sort, of a short, stiff, close habit, growing crisp, solid, and white, and keeps juicy and perfect longer than some other sorts. Laing’s Mammoth Red is the largest sort, and is highly esteemed in England, but not as much so here as Nonesuch, which is said to possess an excellent flavor, and keep well in spring without seeding. Mead’s Improved White is a new American variety, getting into good repute. Celery-seed should be planted early in spring, and covered shallow in rich, mellow soil, beating the earth down com- pactly over the seeds with the back of a spade. When the plants are three inches high, thin them out to four inches apart, and keep them clear of weeds till six inches high, and then transplant into trenches about a foot deep, first filling them half full of fine manure, well mixed with soil, and set the plants six inches apart, first shortening roots and tops. As they increase in size, draw in the sides of the trench, and continue to earth up, keeping. the stalks and leaves all drawn close together, so the tops only show a few inches above the ridge. There is no better fertilizer than salt for this plant. Sprinkle the ground each time before earthing up, and take care each time to hold the stalks together, so that no dirt will fall into the center of the bunch. An ounce of celery-seed will produce some five thousand plants. Both in the plant-bed and in the trenches, celery will drink up a great deal of water or liquid manure. Some recommend keeping the plants in the trenches constantly saturated with water, tinctured witn guano, or strong manure and salt. If kept constantly moist, the earthing-up process may be deferred till late in the fall. One says: “Tate in autumn the whole bed is covered with forest leaves, a foot or foot and a half thick, with a few cornstalks to prevent their blowing away. From this bed the celery may be readily obtained at any time, fresh, sweet, and erisp, during the winter.” Another covers the ridge with coarse manure, so it will not freeze; and another takes up the plants, and packs them in an upright position in a trench three feet wide, and covers the whole with coarse manure. This is only necessary where the plants are required in winter for market purposes. For family use, a few can be kept in wet moss, while the ground remains frozen. As a general rule, we believe the blacker the earth that celery is grown in, the whiter will it blanch. Some persons blanch with boards, set up against the plants, covered with charcoal-dust. A writer in the Garden- ers Chronicle, London, recommends the use of sawdust, which he finds an- swers the purpose better than any other material, especially for late crops to be kept during the winter. He says: ‘“‘ Having had some trouble in keeping late celery from rotting, where the Sxo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 481 soil was very retentive and damp, and the plants earthed up in the usual manner, I used sawdust, and found that it answered perfectly. Last winter all the late celery was earthed up with sawdust, and it kept quite sound till il, and no slugs or insects attacked it underground, the heads being very solid, clear, and crisp, and well flavored. I had some doubts that the saw- dust from resinous trees might give the celery a disagreeable flavor, but on trial I found this not to be the case. Before the late severe frost occurred in October I had just finished the earthing up of all the late celery with sawdust, and I find it is now wonderfully fresh. the frost not having penetrated far through the surface to the hearts.” Another correspondent recommends charred earth in preference to saw- dust, “as it will not only answer the purpose as well, but will allow the rain-water to percolate more freely to the roots of the plants, and be of in- finite service to a soil of a damp, retentive nature.” The sawdust, he thinks, will induce an injurious growth of fungi in the soil. 540. Chiccory.—This is a garden plant, scarcely known to American farmers, though extensively grown in England,*and within the last ten years it has become a favorite article of growth and consumption. It grows somewhat like carrots, and its cultivation is similar, and its principal use is to furnish a substitute for coffee, or an article to mix with it, as it is to a great extent with all that is sold in a burnt and ground state for the pur- pose of reducing the price, or if sold at the price of pure coffee, giving the manufacturer a “larger profit. The ecarrot-like roots of the chiccory are washed, scraped, and cut into small pieces, and kiln-dried, and then roasted and etound like coffee. To give the chiccory an oily appearance like coffee, lard is put in the roaster at the rate of two pounds to a hundred of dried roots. It is colored with Ve- netian red, or logwood and mahogany dust, where the chiccory is to be sold nearly pure for “ pure coffee.” . Although not much grown here, we believe some coffee roasters in New York know its value to them, and import it in considerable quantities. No doubt it may be profitably cultivated, not only for sale or use as a substi- tute for coffee, but for a good forage crop in the tops. Sow it in April in drills a foot apart for hand hoeing, just as you should carrots, on rich, deep soil, on such ground as would produce a good carrot crop, and harvest in autumn. Some grow the leaves blanched, to use as a salad, by taking up the roots in autumn and trimming off the tops, and setting the roots in sand in a dark cellar, when young blanched leaves start out. The roots live over winter like parsneps, but, like them, are tough and stringy the second year. The leaves resemble dandelion, and tops and roots have a delicate bitter taste, and are slightly aromatic. For a forage crop, the tops grow very rapidly and thick, and may be cut four or five times. The roots, too, are very good for stock. We recommend its cultivation in gardens, in a small way, until its value is well tesfed. 541. Corn in the Garden.—There are several varieties of sweet corn suitable 81 ~ 482 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. for early and late use. We will mention a few, and advise all farmers to select such an assortment as will serve to give them ears fit for the table through the longest season possible. The earliest may be started in beds, and transplanted as well as any other plants, or it may be plante we have recommended for early beans, in square bits of sod, or in sm pots kept in the house, where it is warm and constantly moist. Smith’s Early White is a dwarf variety, which may be planted for the first yield in hills only two and a half feet apart. Darling’s Extra Early sweet corn is thought by some to produce ears the earliest of any variety; and the Early Red Cob is also a very early sort, growing short ears, eight or ten rowed, which fill well out to the end. The Karly Tuscarora is a large variety, and matures early, but not as much so as the dwarf sorts. It is eight rowed, with broad, white grains, and remains fit for boiling a long time. This sort requires a very rich soil. For the main crop, the kind known as Large Sweet is perhaps the most productive; and for very late eating, Stowell’s Evergreen or Burr’s Mammoth Sweet should be planted in rich hills, three and a half or four feet apart, as late as the middle of July. We have seen it yield well, planted late in August, by protecting the hills with stalks of the early sorts tied around them. It is also kept good till December by cutting or pulling up the hills and setting them in a dry cellar or out- building. Both of these late sorts grow ears with twelve to eighteen rows, large grains on white cobs, and very bushy stalks. There should be a planting of corn for family use every fortnight from April to August. Where land is scarce, we recommend planting corn and potatoes in the same hill. The corn will be just as good as though no potatoes were there, and if the stalks of the corn are cut away as soon as the ears are mature enough to boil, the yield of potatoes will be a fair one—in our experience just as good as hills alongside without corn. 542. Early Garden Potatoes.—It is quite important to farmers to know what are the earliest sorts of potatoes, since they are the most staple food article grown as garden vegetables, and we therefore name some of the most approved varieties. We have always found the nutmeg potatoes the earliest of any, but objectionable on account of their general small size, and because they do not yield well. There is a sort called ‘Mammoth Nutmegs,” which grow larger and yield better. The Nutmegs have a very smooth skin, light yellow, with white flesh, and keep well, but are good for nothing for winter use. The Early June is a good potato, and more productive. The Extra Early White is said to be productive, and capable of producing a very early crop. The Early-Wendell and Early Carpenter are both spoken of by those who grow them as the best early variety known. We have been well satis- fied with the Buckeye as an early growing potato, but it did not keep well with us. The Dykeman is not as early as some others, but answers first-rate to mature a week or two later. Either of these may be grown to great ad- vantage in the garden, and we recommend ffat all of them should be tried, and proved which is best for each particular locality. ‘ Szo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 483 | 543. CucurbitaHouttgThe family 0 of e apidstenptee! deibvaetis avebythtng from gourds to cucumbers, appears in an almost countless variety of ‘forms, er some of which it is to be found in almost every garden. In our uthful days, almost every family raised a few gourds, and very conve- nient things they were, not only for water dippers, but holders of a great many little articles. We used them for storehouses of small seeds. At the South, and in some of the new portions of the West, gourds are still grown to a considerable extent, and when we traveled through most of the South- western States between 1840 and 1850, we should have thought something was lacking if we had not found a pail and one or more drinking-gourds at some convenient spot about the house—generally on the front piazza, where every traveler could help himself to a drink of water. Often, too, on visit- ing the springs by the roadside or in the plantations, we have found the in- dispensable gourd hanging to a tree. They are grown of all sizes, from a gill to a gallon; and one kind that grows without the elongation for a handle we have seen of the capacity of half a bushel, and the shell so hard that they would last many years for dry storage. In Texas, a variety with . a depression in the middle, and bulb of equal size at each end, is frequently used to carry water on horseback, it is so convenient to lash to the saddle. A little drinking-gourd, as hard as wood, and almost white, holding about a third of a pint, was given us by a lady in Mississippi, which accompanied us during many thousand miles of journeying, and out of which we had many a sweet drink of water from roadside springs. No one thought it worth while to steal a gourd from the wagon, while a tumbler, tin cup, or earthen mug would probably have disappeared the first night. We heartily commend this good old fashion of growing gourds to the attention of all farmers. It will save many a dollar used up in tin cups and dippers, and costly, fragile glass and earthenware. 544. Cucumbers.—These rarely fail if planted in hills made as rich as it is possible to make them, six or eight feet apart, leaving only two or three plants to run to vines from each hill, and sometimes that is too many. The - gropnd must be kept free of weeds in all the stages of growth of vines, to insure a good crop. A very good way to raise a few early cucumbers for family use is to fill a barrel or larger cask with hog-pen or other rich ma- nure, govered with sand, and set it in the grass-plat, near the house, where it can be watered every day—no matter how often. We have seen a good lot of cucumbers grown by earthing over the ash-leach and letting the vines hang over the sides. This also requires frequent watering, for that is the great source of all great garden productions. Without it, high manuring is worthless. Perhaps the earliest variety is one lately introduced, called the Early Russian. It is prolific, and matures for the table ten days sooner than the Early Cluster, or Early Frame, or Short Green. The Early White-spined sort is considered best for the table. It is larger than the other early sorts, ‘straight, smooth, and dark green. For pickles, there are several good sorts: 484 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. Y. a the Long Green Prickly; Long Green Turkey; Stockwood Ridge; and Carter’s Long Ridge. For early use, cucumbers may be planted in sods inverted in a box t can be taken in and out of the house, according to weather, until it is wa enough to set them in place. You can not make the hills for cucumbers too rich. Some market gardeners divide the hills in quarters, and plant one fourth at a time, a week apart; so that if one planting fails, another will sueceed. The plants should be hoed frequently, and the bugs watched care- fully. Seed improves by age; an ounce will plant a hundred hills; though as they are planted on Long Island for market, an ounce would be needed for a dozen hills). The market gardeners put in such a quantity of seed, that the bugs are not able to eat all until some get too big for them. 545. Musk-Melons should not be planted till the earth gets warm, and then in hills dug deep and made rich with well-rotted manure. It is a good practice to pinch out the bud of the main shoot as soon as half a dozen rough leaves are formed, as that causes lateral branches, and makes the fruit set earlier. Light, dry, sandy loam made rich, and a dry, hot atmosphere, if the plants are kept moist, will grow fine melons. We think the Green citron, a sinall, rough green skin, roundish form, the best sort. The Pine- apple and Jenny Lind are similar, and excellent. The Nutmeg melon grows larger, with rough skin and greenish flesh, aromatic and sweet. Skillman’s Fine Netted looks as though the green melon was bagged in a brown net, and is a very fine melon, and ripens early. The Christiana is a yellow-fleshed sort that ripens very early. It is a Massachusetts seedling. 546. Water-Melons, though grown in all the Northern States, neyer come to such perfection of excellence as they do in warmer climates. Here they should be planted in May in light, dry ground, and they often do best upon al- most pure beds of sand, having hills prepared by digging out large holes and filling them with manure, and covering it with soil. If the plants are wa- tered with a solution of two pounds of Peruvian guano in a barrel of water, their vigor will be much increased. It is a great object to get them forward as fast as possible. A very successful grower of water-melons upon the gra- nitic soil of Westchester County, N. Y., says: “T dig a hole three feet wide and three feet deep or more, and fill it with cow-yard manure early in the season—say Ist of May, and cover thig with light soil, six or eight inches deep, before planting the seeds. For musk- melons I manure with well-decomposed manure, sown broadeast and worked into the soil. I would also work in a little of this fine manure in the top of the water-melon hills.” The vines fruit better if the leading shoots are frequently pinched back. Water-melon hills should be ten feet apart in rich, sandy loam or artificially enriched sand. Six or eight seeds to.a hill, not over an inch deep, in fine, black soil, over any amount of rich manure, will produce vigorous vines. The varieties of water-melons are almost innumerable. The Mountain Sweet and Black Spanish are our favorites. Cut-worms and bugs are the a Sro. 380.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 485 greatest pests of all vines, and the best of the many remedies in our opinion is the cheapest, which is simply inclosing the hill as soon as planted with a ard box six or eight inches high, drawing the earth up a little around the utside. It has been found unnecessary to cover the top with thin muslin or flakes of cotton batting, except for the *purpose of keeping the earth warmer. These boxes should be made about a foot square, and tapering enough to admit packing them in nests to stow away as soon as the plants are large enough to allow of removing their wooden walled protection, Other seeds may be protected by such boxes against scratching hens, as they will seldom, if ever, get inside to do mischief; aad so long as fen do not de- stroy seeds or aes or fruit in a garden, they are eer for they eat up thousands of worms and bugs. Other melons should be planted and treated as we have said of water- melons; and of all the various sorts of musk-melons, the small green melon that looks as though covered with a fine flaxen netting is the best, to our taste, though we have great hopes that the new Persian melon, that grows as big as the old musk-melon, will prove as rich as its first fruits indicate. Great care is necessary to save melon seed pure. Vines of cucumbers and melons never should grow near to each other. Let the truth be re- membered, that the varieties of all this family will mix, and that seedlings seldom improve cither sort, and that the best always suffer by the contact. Bees are great mixers of the pollen of flowers, and they can only be pre- vented by getting up earlier in the morning than the bees. Select a number of female blossoms which have opened during the night. They may be known by growing on the end of the young squash, melon, ete., while the male blossoms (“false blows,” as they are often called) have no fruit. Sceat- ter the pollen of the male blossems upon the stamens of the female ones, and carefully cover the latter with millinet, or anything which will protect them from the visits of the bees. A piece of cotton cloth, or even a squash leaf, kept in place by a few clods of earth, will answer a good purpose. When the blossom withers, the covering may be removed, and the fruit marked by a colored string tied loosely ata the vine. 547. Melons “Started in the House.—It is recommended by ¢ one -who has met with success, to fill some small open baskets with earth and start the plants in them by artificial heat. Suitable baskets to hold a pint may be made for half a cent each of bark or willow twigs, or split stuff, or even shavings, or old, worthless strawberry baskets may be used. Perhaps straw baskets would answer, and be very cheaply made. Anything that will hold the dirt until the plants are large enough to set out, will answer the purpose, and then the baskets and all the contents are planted in the hills. The object in using baskets is not to disturb the roots of the plants, as they are very tender, and do not bear transplanting. Any other tender plant may be grown in the same way. 548. The Apple-Pie Meton.—L. Norris, of Windsor, Ashtabula County, O., says: “The apple-pie melon, with good cultivation, will attain to 40 or 486 THE GARDEN AND ITS’ FRUITS. [Cuar. V. 50 lbs. each, and if gathered carefully when ripe, and kept in a dry, cool place, will keep sound a year, and will always prove a good substitute for fruit for pies or sweetmeats. To use, peel off the skin, take out the pulp, cut fine, and stew three or four hours, when the substance will resemble stewed green apples; to which add sugar and lemon-juice, and it will make pies that can not easily be told from those of apples.” Another cultivator says: “This melon attains a large size; I have grown specimens the past season, eighteen inches in.Jength, weighing from 30 to 40 lbs. They are cylindrical in form; color, when ripe, a golden tint, very solid, and flesh close-grained ; color of seeds, a dark green or blue; ripens in September, and will keep sound and good, it is said, for two years, but we have not as yet tested their keeping qualities. They prove hardy and of easy culture, and I consider this melon a valuable acquisition. We have tested the quality of them for pies, and find them very delicious. To pre- pare one for cooking, peel and cut up the melon small, taking out the seeds and soft pulp. Put the pieces in a preserving kettle with just enough water to keep them from burning, and stew over a tolerably brisk fire for three or four hours, or until the whole is reduced to a soft, pulpy mass, free from lumps, and thoroughly done. You have then a substance resembling green apples stewed, and by adding a little sugar and lemon-juice to it, and making it with crust in the usual way, it is impossible to tell it from a fresh apple-pie. If you desire a pie like pumpkin or custard of the melons, stew as above directed, but omit the lemons, and bring the pulpy mass to the proper richness and consistency by the addition of sugar, milk, and eggs. Little of either of these ingredients will be found necessary—only sufficient to give the melon color and flavor.” 549. Squashes—Summer and Winter Varieties——The varieties of squashes are so numerous, that almost every neighborhood has some favorité. The most universal one is the Boston Marrow, and next the Hubbard squash; the last the best, but being a newer variety, has only become generally known within a few years. They are both medium-sized, and are extremely rich food for winter use, simply boiled and eaten as a table vegetable, as a substitute for sweet potatoes, or for pies and other cookeries. The form of the first is ovate, pointed, with thin, salmon-colored rind, and flesh of deep orange color and fine-grained ; keeping all winter. Average weight, six to eight pounds. The Hubbard is a better substitute for sweet potatoes than the other. It has a hard shell, and is an excellent kind to keep through the winter. It grows about the same size as the Marrow, and is immensely prolific. The Lima Cocoanut is a variety much esteemed by some as a winter squash; it grows large, oblong, of a bluish color, very fine- grained, and sweet. The Honolulu, a new variety, is said to excel all others in productiveness, fine flavor, and good keeping qualities. A large, almost white squash, which we have grown several years, we like full as well as either of the above for pies, and it is more hardy, and sure to produce a good crop in all situations. The flesh is sweet and rich, but not as fine- ~ Seo, 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 487 grained as the,others, but it grows three or four times larger, with a smooth, polished skin, the color of white wax. In size of fruit and vines, it is more like pumpkins than ordinary squashes. Among all new varieties, we should ot forget the old Crookneck. It is a squash of good eating and keeping quality, and not so delicate in its growth as some others. There is also a crook-necked summer squash, which is considered by those who have grown it, the largest, the very best of all the summer varieties. It is early, pro- ductive, and one of the kind called bush, or non-running sorts. Its color is yellow, and has a warty skin, and hard shell when ripe. The Early . White, scolloped, a bush variety, we have grown with satisfaction as to its eating qualities, though we thought it a shy bearer. The hills for squashes should be highly manured with well-rotted stable manure or compost, but not with anything very putrescent, which will give off ammonia and kill the young plants, which are very tender. The seeds must not be planted while there is any danger of frost, as a very slight degree of cold will kill the vines while new. The use of salt in manure must be avoided with all the cucurbita family, but plaster may be used to great advantage both as a fertilizer and bug preventive. 550. Egg-Plants.x—These garden plants are not as much grown in Northern gardens as in Southern ones, because they can rarely be brought forward early enough in the spring without the aid of artificial heat, as the young plants are very tender. If you have no hot-bed, sow the seed as early as possible in a sheltered, warm, dry situation, and protect the young plants with hand-glasses or boxes, or some covering in cold nights, until they are three or four inches high; and when the weather has become steadily warm, transplant them into very rich, mellow soil, setting the plants two and a half feet apart. A fourth ounce of seed will produce more plants than any family wants. The earliest variety is called Long Purple, and grows a plum-colored fruit of several pounds’ weight, which those who are accustomed to eating it, call delicious. There is a sort, called Large Oval Purple, that grows larger than the above, and is perhaps preferable for general culture. The early and late sorts may be distinguished while growing by the stems. The earliest grows smooth and the others prickly. There are two sorts grown for garden ornament—one red and the other white—of much smaller size than the sorts generally grown for cooking. 551. Salad-Plants—Lettuce.—Lettuce is the principal salad-plant cultivated among farmers, and so far as our observation extends, the poorest varieties are most in use, and rarely made to produce semi-solid heads, such as we often see in the city market, almost large enough to be mistaken for cab- bages. The best sort for early spring use, sown in open ground, or for hot- bed forcing, is the Early Curled Silesia, because it makes a strong growth of yellowish-green tender leaves, which are very good eating as soon as they are large enough to pick, and will afterwards form loose heads. Do not pull up the young roots, but pick off the leaves, or clip them from the roots with a pair of scissors, and others will soon grow. The Early Tennis Ball is 488 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuap. Y. esteemed one of the best varieties which form heads. Recollect that some sorts of lettuce will not head, with all your care, but the leaves may be made more tender by tying them up, so that they will grow blanched. One of the best sorts of non-heading lettuce is the Ice Cos, the leaves of which are brittle, growing long, narrow, and dark-green, and of somewhat an icy ap- pearance. There are also four other sorts of Cos lettuee—the Paris Green, Paris White, Florence or Golden, and Spotted Cos—each of which you will be told is best by the person who grows it, and no other. The hardiest sort is the Brown Dutch, which may be started in autumn, and slightly protected . so as to endure winter, and grow early in spring. It will form a loose head, but is not generally grown for heads, but for the early young leaves ; the other sorts being preferable to it for heading. One of the largest varieties is called Large India; it is less curled than the Silesia, and the leaves are whiter, slightly edged with pink. This kind endures the summer heats well, and forms large, round heads, which cut solid and crisp. There are several other sorts, but what we have said of these is enough to show that there is a great variety in this family of garden plants. To grow good lettuce, the utmost care must be used in preparing the ground. The soil should be made as fine as the seed, and as rich as good garden mold can be. The seed should be sown every fortnight from Feb- ruary to June, to get a succession of young plants. The ground must be kept loose between the rows,tand it pays well to water with guano in a weak solution. An ounce of lettuce seed will grow plants enough for half a dozen families. It would require a bed about ten by twelve feet to sow an ounce of seed, and it would produce some 5,000 plants. . 552. Mustard is often grown for salad, the white or yellow seed variety being very good for that purpose. It should be sown in the fall, or it may be started in spring, in a hot-bed or warm southern exposure, in rows six inches apart, and no matter how thick in the rows, as it is to be cut when two inches high. The black seed kind is often sown for greens, as well as to grow seed for use or sale. It ripens seed in July or August. 553. Nasturtium.—This is another salad plant, when very young, though generally grown for its fruit, which is used for pickling. The pods are gathered before they ripen for this purpose, and some use the flower-buds, esteeming them as good as capers. The orange-colored flowers are also used for garnishing dishes. For salad, sow the dwarf variety early in spring, in drills an inch deep, along borders of beds, so that what is not cut for salad may grow for ornament. 554. Garden-Cress.—This is a favorite salad-plant, and in this character only the seminal plants are used. It is very hardy and prolific, and may be sowed once a week, from the opening of the ground in spring until the close of the season. Old rich garden soil is the most congenial to it, but # Sxo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. any lands of fine texture will, if properly pulverized and enriched with putrescent manure, produce a good crop. Do not mistake this for the plant more known as peppergrass than it is » ascress. The article we allude to grows annually from seed or from roots, forming compact bunches of twenty or thirty stalks, which grow a foot high, and bear smooth succulent leaves and an upright stem full of seed-pods, some- thing like turnip. It is very apt to seed itself, and may become trouble- some if care is not taken with it. It is so hardy that it keeps partially green all winter, under a very slight covering, and its greatest value is, that it affords something green very early in spring. 555. Water-Cress (Sisymbrium nasturtium) can be easily grown from seeds or roots, wherever there is a stream or spring in the ground near the house. It grows best in situations where the roots are always in water, and in winter the whole plant is overflowed, and it particularly delights in pure water, clear and cold, such as runs in the little spring-brooks. If you hap- pen to have one that does not freeze, you may have water-cress at any time during winter. It is started by sowing the seeds or setting the plants in a suitable spot for its growth. After it once gets fixed as a habitant of any place, it requires no care in its cultivation. 556. Endive, a plant of the chiccory species, is often cultivated for a winter salad, though more used in stews and for garnishing tables. The Green Curled is the hardiest sort, growing beautifully curled leaves, dark- green, which are tender and crisp when young; and much esteemed as salad by some persons, and are considered wholesome. The French use the Bata- vian Endive in stews and soups. It is a broad-leaf sort, which grows not much curled. This, when very young, is eaten as salad, but is not as good as either the Green or White Curled. The seed is sown late in the spring, or even middle of summer, for fall use, and the leaves are blanched for use by tying the outer leaves over the inner ones. An ounce of seed will sow a bed eight by ten feet. 557. Turnip-Sprouts, grown under a straw mulch, are blanched and tender, and make a delicate, sweet salad, and may be had early in the spring with a little care. 558. Okra,x—Under the head of “History of Some Common Garden Vegetables” we have told the uses of this plant. Its consumption has in- creased so much in New York since its introduction a few years since, that one market gardener of our acquaintance grew seven acres of it last year (1860), part of the crop selling green and part dried. There is no plant grown in the garden that affords cheaper food than okra. The pods, in soup, make it mucilaginous and nutritious. There is a dwarf okra plant which does not grow more than two or three feet high, and is very prolific of branches and pods, that for this latitude will be a valuable improvement over the large kind, which grows five or six feet long. Ripe okra seeds are sometimes used as a substitute for coffee. It is doubtful whether they are as good as the seeds of asparagus. 490 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. Okra seed should not be planted till the ground has become warm in spring, and may then be treated much like Indian-corn in all its cultivation, and grows well in soil suitable for corn. 559. Tomatoes.—The rapidity with which this vegetable has been brought into almost universal use is well-nigh beyond belief. It is quite within the memory of middle-aged people that it was grown only because its fruit was ornamental, and by many supposed to be poisonous. Its common name in New England was “Love Apple,” though no one loved it. Now there are not many families that do not esteem tomatoes as much as any garden vegetable, and gardeners are constantly making efforts to produce new varieties of im- proved quality. Let no one suppose he has got the best sort until he has tried several others. There is more difference in the quality and value for food of tomatoes than there is in potatoes. We will name a few of the best. We have grown a very large yellow tomato, which we prefer over all others, because it is less acid, and the meat appears to have more of the food prin- ciple in it than any of the red ones, unless it is one called Fejee Island Tomato, which we think identical with one called “ Perfected,” and said to have been introduced by C. Edwards Lester. It is a very large red sort, and very good eating, and a little finer grained than one called the Large Mammoth Red. The poorest tomato in existence is the one almost univer- sally grown for the New York market. It is of medium size, smooth, round- ish, with a tough skin, and sour, hard meat, frequently very hollow, partially filled with seeds and sour water, and being generally gathered in a green state, is no more fit to eat than the vines it grows upon. It is grown be- cause it bears transportation better than the good sorts, and it will sell to people who do not know how to appreciate a good tomato. As a general rule, to select good sorts of tomatoes for cultivation for family use, choose those which grow uneven-shaped rather than smooth, such as you can pull apart without cutting, the lobes separating with a glistening fracture. If you wish to have some ripen earlier than the large sorts, you may choose a round, smooth, medium size, called Early Apple Tomato. For pickles and pre- serves there is a sort known as pear or fig tomatoes, being about the size and shape of figs. There is a small yellow sort, grown for preserving, and so is the sort which grows about the size of potato-balls, and as round and smooth. A distinct variety, called Winter -Cherries (see 675), grows with a husk about the size of large cherries, and is much liked by some to eat out of hand. Care must be taken to prevent the different sorts of tomatoes from mixing, else, if you have a choice kind, you will be apt to lose it, as the in- clination is to run down rather than up the scale of improvement. The cultivation is very simple. In warm latitudes they are «self-propagat- _ ing. In this latitude, where the family has no hot-bed, the seed should be sown for early use in boxes or pots, in February and March. The seeds sown in boxes, if kept in a warm room, in the light of a window, will grow healthy plants, which, when two inches high, may be pricked out and set single in pots, and carefully nursed till all danger of frost is over, in some warm, SEo. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 491 sheltered situation, where they can grow out-doors. To hasten the first fruit, pinch off all shoots above the first formed ones as soon as the tomatoes are the size of cherries. Afterwards cut off most of the leaves, to let the sun have its full force upon the fruit; you will thus get a small crop several weeks ahead of the ripening when planted out at the ordinary time and left to the natural course of growth. To have really good tomatoes, fit to be eaten in a raw state, which certainly is the most delicious form in which they can"be eaten, you must have a good sort, and grow them on good land, and select the first fruit, and trim the vines so that the sun shines upon it, and let it become fully ripened before it is gathered. It should always be eaten while fresh to get its full value. Then it is both palatable and wholesome. If the seed be sown in May, in good rich soil, of a warm nature, with a sufficiency of old, well-rotted manure, there will rarely be any danger of failure. When the vines begin to show leaves, they should be provided with a trellis, or tied to stakes fixed in the soil, to keep the fruit from being injured by coming in contact with the dirt. There is, however, a new sort lately introduced, called “ Tomato de Lays” in France, and with us, the Upright or Tree-Tomato, that requires no sup- port. Its stem is two feet high or more, and so remarkably strong and stiff, that they are nearly self-supporting—a highly commendable quality. It branches less than the common Great Red Tomato, is less leafy, does not want so much pinching, does not bear so freely, but its fruit is larger and more regularly formed. Medicinally, the tomato is in high repute. Dr. Bennett, a professor of medicine of good standing, has published the following opinion of its good qualities : “1. That the tomato is one of the most powerful deobstruents of the Wa- teria Medica, and that in all those affections of the liver and other organs, where calomel is indicated, it is probably the most effective and least harm- ful remedial agent known in the profession. “2. That a chemical extract will be obtained from it which will alto- gether supersede the use of calomel in the cure of disease. “3. That he has successfully treated serious diarrhea with this article alone. “4, That when used as an article of diet, it is almost a sovereign remedy for dyspepsia or indigestion. “5, That persons removing from the East or North to the South or West, should by all means make use of it as an aliment, as it would in that event save them from the danger attendant upon those violent bilious attacks to which almost all unacclimated persons are liable. “6, That the citizens in ordinary should make use of it either raw, cooked, or in the form of a catsup, with their daily food, as it is the most healthy article in the Materia Alimentaria.” Prof. Rafinesque, of France, says: “It is everywhere deemed a very healthy vegetable, and an invaluable article of food.” 492 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [CHar. V- Dunglison says: “It may be looked upon as one of the most wholesome and valuable esculents that belong to the vegetable kingdom.” A writer in the Farmer’s Register says: “It has been tried by several persons with decided success. They were afilicted with chronic cough, the primary cause of which, in one case, was supposed to be a diseased liver; in another, diseased lungs. It mitigates, and sometimes effectually checks, a fit of coughing.” The method most commonly adopted in preparing this fruit for daily use is to cut them in slices, and serve with salt, pepper, and vinegar, as you do cucumbers. To stew tomatoes, remove them ripe from the vines, slice up, and put them in a pot over the stove or fire, without water. Stew them slowly, and when done, put in a small piece of good butter, and eat them as you do apple- sauce. Some add a little flour-bread, finely crumbed, or a couple of crackers pulverized, to a quart of the stew. 560. Radishes——Almost every family grows radishes, but every one does not grow them to perfection. The radish appears to have originated from China, where it is still grown to much higher perfection than in any country of its adoption, and is largely used as an article of food throughout the year, one variety being grown especially for winter use. Although not a very nourishing sort of food, it is a very palatable condiment, and very ac- ceptable upon all tables in the spring season. The tops are frequently used when quite new as a salad, and the green seed-pods make nice small pickles. To grow good radishes, your ground must be rich from manur- ing in previous years, or by guano in solution, or superphosphate, while the plants are growing, and not by fresh putrescent manures. Radishes are only good when the growth is rapid. To have this they must have a good soil and frequent waterings, either naturally or artificially. For early use, sow on mildly hot beds, or in boxes in-doors, and after- ward in sheltered places, and water frequently, thinning out the weakest plants. Putin a few seed every ten days, as long as you want to continue the production, in drills ten inches apart, or with other seeds of slower growth, to mark the rows. An ounce of seed will plant a bed ten feet square. One of the best early sorts is known by the long name of Early Short-topped Long Scarlet. It grows half out of ground, and very crisp. The Olive-shaped radish, lately introduced from France, is an early and fa- vorite sort. It resembles the scarlet turnip radish; is rose-colored, oblong ; top quite small, and if grown rapidly, is crisp and sweet. For our use, we prefer turnip radishes to the long sorts. For winter use, the Spanish, or Black radish, or a sort called Rose-colored China, is sown in the fall, and gathered before freezing, and packed in sand in a dry cellar. 561. Rhubarb, or Pie-Plant.—This valuable garden vegetable is easily grown, and affords the first thing in spring for pies and tarts. It is best to get roots for a start, as it is not always true to the kind from seed. Autumn is the best time to make a rhubarb or pie-plant bed, and the Sx. 80.] 493 roots may be put in at any time when the weather will admit. The great secret of success is to get a deep, rich bed to begin with. It can not be too deep or too rich. We would dig it five feet deep for family use, and fill one foot with cobble-stone, if we could, or with broken brick, timber, and brush, so arranged as to give a good drainage. Then fill up with sods, chip manure, wood’s mold, good soil, and well-composted manure in a homo- geneous mass, casting away the subsoil. Such a made bed will last as long as its maker will, and if ten feet wide and twenty feet long, set with three rows of roots, two feet apart in the row, it will furnish the largest family with more than they can use, so that some of their indolent neighbors can get a portion. Except when grown for market, we would not select the largest variety of rhubarb. Seedling plants may be cut after the first year to asmall extent. It is good to mulch the bed summer and winter. Seed stalks must be kept carefully cut away as fast as they appear, and the bed must be richly manured every fall. Some of the sorts in highest repute are the Victoria, Linneus, Royal Al- bert, Scarlet Nonpareil, and Mammoth. The largest sort is known as Ca- hoon’s Seedling. It is better esteemed for wine-making than eating. Fif- teen hundred gallons an acre have been made from this sort, grown upon well-drained, rich, loamy land in Wisconsin. The stalks are cut in lengths of two or three inches, and ground and pressed in a cider-mill, one hundred pounds of stalks yielding ten gallons of juice, which is mixed with an equal quantity of water, and about three and a half pounds of refined sugar to each gallon of the mixture. This, if treated like other small fruit wines, gives a palatable beverage, salable, and very profitable to the grower and manufacturer. 562. Savory and Medicinal Garden Plants,—There is a variety of plants which every farmer’s family should grow in the garden, which are useful in the kitchen, nursery, or sick chamber, a few of which we will name. LHoarhound.—This plant (Marrubium vulgare) is called hoar on account of the white, downy growth upon the leaves and branches, which resembles hoar frost. The plant isin high repute as a remedy for colds and coughs, It is not a native of America, but was introduced by the first settlers as a valuable medicinal plant, and from the garden it has spread to the road- side and fields in every favorable location, as it propagates readily from the seed. A good many other medicinal plants were introduced in the same way as hoarhound by the New England pilgrims. Among them we may name lavender, from which spirits of lavender and oil of spike are made, although another plant (Z. spica) gives the name. Comfy is another of the old-time medicines that our ancestors made use of in cases of inflamed throat and ii - testines, and for emollient poultices and salves. Peppermint and Spearmint are pretty well known and generally esteemed. One, if not both, come from Europe, and have been largely cultivated in this country for the oil which, when diluted, or ‘‘cut” with alcohol, forming 494 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. essence of peppermint, is esteemed as a remedy for flatulence. Until the dis- tillers of peppermint took to cheating by mixing oil of turpentine with their product, which spoiled the trade, the growing of peppermint was a good business in some of the New England States ; but since it has been so much injured by frand, it is not’ worth while for farmers to engage in its field culture at the present price of the oil, though it should be grown in gardens for family use. As a crop, this plant can be grown upon any moist, rich soil; that which will produce good corn will grow peppermint. The land should be plowed _ deep, and it will be found advantageous to use the subsoil lifter, and the crop must be cultivated while the plants are small to keep the weeds down, and therefore should be planted in rows eighteen inches apart. Spring is the best time to set out a new plantation by offshoots or subdivision of old roots. The yield will be small the first year, and upon some land, after two or three years, it gets so full of grass as to render it necessary to turn the whole sod over and let the mint grow up again, which it will do, and the process of turning under enriches the land. The mint is cut for distillation when in blossom, and we think yields from fifteen to twenty pounds of oil per acre. E Wormwood is another imported plant, and is a very hardy perennial. Its leaves, bruised and wet with vinegar, are esteemed a valnable applica- tion to sprains and bruises, and its bitter properties used to be esteemed as a tonic. Balm, Saffron, Hyssop, Lavender, Fennel, Bene, and Rosemary are all use- ful medicinal herbs to cultivate in gardens, and the following are grown for various uses in cookery: Anise, Sweet Basil, Carraway, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Sweet Marjoram, Summer Savory, Thyme, and Sage. The last is considered almost a necessity in some families, and is grown upon perennial roots. It is better, we think, to plant seed every year, and not keep the roots over two years. All of the above-named herbs are grown by gardeners near cities to sell in market. Parsicy is another agreeable, savory herb, much used as a garnish of meats on the table and seasoning of soups. It is easily grown in good gar- den mold. It is sometimes planted as a fringe for beds or walks in the garden. It is grown in some places for the roots, which are like small carrots, to feed to cattle. An ounce of seed is enough for a row two hun- dred feet long. : Peppers should always be grown in sufficient quantity for seasoning all soups and stews, as such is far healthier than pepper that we import. The Long Cayenne is a very pungent sort, and grows up dwarf-stalks. The Cherry pepper is also a good dwarf sort. For pods to pickle green, grow the squash pepper, which has a tomato-shaped pod, rather mild, and very-productive. The Sweet Mountain grows in a similar form, but much larger. The Sweet Spanish is the mildest of all for pickling or to eat green as a salad. So. 30.) GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 495 Peppers should be sown early in light, warm soil in a seed-bed, and trans- planted and manured with guano water or hen-dung in solution. 563. Jerusalem Artichokes.——This plant, the /Zelianthus tuberosus, should have a small corner in eyery garden, or somewhere convenient about the farmery, as it affords very agreeable food early in the spring, when some- thing is longed for fresh from the earth. It is one of the best antiscorbuties known. It also affords a great crop of good pig feed. One man in Ohio estimates the yield at the rate of 1,700 bushels an acre. We recommend this plant as altogether preferable for cultivation over the Chinese yam, Dioscorea batatas, about which so much has been written and said. All that is necessary to be known about that plant we give in the next par- agraph. ; 564. The Chinese Yam.—This new esculent has certainly been tested long enough in this country to determine its true value for cultivation. That it is palatable and nutritious, when properly cooked, no one doubts. That it would ever be adopted as a substitute for the common potato (Solanwm tuberosum), or of the sweet potato (Convolvulus batatas), among those who grow those roots as a sale crop, we have never believed, but have hoped that it might prove a valuable addition to our family of food-producing plants ; but as yet we have not the evidence that this will be the case. The London Gardeners’ Chronicle of September, 1858, says of the Chi- nese yam (Dioscorea batatas) that— “Many excellent results were obtained last year in various parts of the country, and gardeners begin to understand the nature of this strange pro- duction, which, although provided for the food of man, naturally grows in the ground in such a way as to make it impossible for him to pull it up. It is now, too, agreed that the quality of the root, when properly cooked, is excellent. P “When first introduced to Europe by the French, this esculent was re- garded as a mere curiosity, and maltreated accordingly; but eventually such information concerning it was obtained from M. de Montiguy, French consul at Shanghae, as led to its receiving the attention due to a root which might some day be found good to eat. “The herbage of the Chinese yam is singularly like that of Zamus com- munis, the common black bryony of this country, consisting of long, weak, angular, wiry, annual stems, covered with heart-shaped shining leaves. It ordinarily begins to push its roots as soon as the ground temperature tises to about 50 degrees, which, near London, corresponds with*the begin- ning of May. Shortly afterward the shoots appear and soon spread over the surface, not, however, with much vigor at first, nor, indeed, till the month of August. The plant is evidently occupied for some weeks in making these true roots and preparing for the singular development of that false root, which is the yam itself—the part to be eaten. When the roots and stems have attained the necessary vigor, which seems to be when the ground has become heated up to 60 degrees, or thereabouts, in August, there 496 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS# [Cmar. V. appears among the roots a soft, fleshy horn, which directs itself perpendicu- larly downward, and growing with considerable rapidity, soon becomes a club-shaped body, the small end of which is near the surface of the ground. This manner of growth is exactly like that of the arrow-root plant (Jfaranta arundinacea), and contiunes until the end of October, when the yam is completed, and under proper treatment will have attained the length of from 15 to 24 inches, weighing about one pound. In France, specimens have been dug up weighing two and a half pounds, and measuring a yard in length. In its perfect state it resembles a very long trumpet gourd or a large parsnep, with the crown downward. The tail, which forms one third of the length, is cut off and divided into inch lengths for propagation; the thicker part is eaten. In the course of its downward growth, the power of development is so great that the thick end will force its way into hard clay, and even bury stones or fragments of pottery in its substance if its progress is sufficiently opposed. All obstacles ought to be carefully removed. The best results in the cultivation of this yam have been obtained where the temperature was highest, and the first object of the gardener should be to obtain all the heat the sun can give him in soil three feet deep. The plant should be grown in ridges, made to run east and west, and rise eighteen inches above the level, in earth trenched three feet deep. The yam will not be worth growing in poor or worn-out land, nor among stones. There is no doubt of one beneficial result from the attempt to cultivate this root, if the above directions are complied with. If it does not produce a profitable crop of yams, it will fit the ground most admirably for any other crop; and any man who has ever planted, grown, and gathered them, and afterward planted any other crop upon the same ground, must be convinced of the advantage of deep cultivation, since the yams can not be extracted without digging two or three feet deep, which, even without manure, is a most excellent preparation for beets, carrots, parsneps, or anything else ever grown upon the farm, orchards included. 565. Sweet Potatoesx—The first step in the cultivation of sweet potatoes is to know how to sprout them, as they are grown from sets, not from tubers planted in the hill. J. W. Tenbrook, of atelies Ind., published the fol- lowing directions, which we copy and approve. « Arrangements should be made early in the winter to haye fare and covers fake and seed potatoes, manure, and all necessary material for the hot-beds ready in due time. “The potatoes should be kept in a warm, dry room, until they are placed in the hot-bed, which must be warm, as they will not bear a lower tempera- ture than 40 degrees without injury. 4 “The location of the beds should be near a street or public road, on dry ground, with a southern inclination, and convenient to pond or branch water. “The best material for a hot-bed is fresh horse-stable manure that has not been rotted; and if mixed with one fourth to one half its bulk of either MM Sro. 30.] GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 497 sawdust, fresh leaves, tan-bark, or ent the heat would be more mild and durable, and less liable to scald the potatoes. * About the first or second week of April, in this latitude, haul the materials for the bed, and mix them together in a ridge where the bed is to be made, and as soon as it is hot, shake it thoroughly, mixing the cold and hot, wet and dry portions together, forming a bed on the top of the ground, running east and west, which, when settled with the fork—not trampled— should be fourteen inches high, more or less, as there is a greater or less pro- portion of manure used, and six inches wider on all sides than the frame to be placed over it. “ Hot-bed frames should be made of two-inch oak plank, framed together at the ends with keys, so as to be easily taken apart and stored when not in use. They should not be over twenty feet in length, nor exceed four in width. The front, or south side, should be eight inches high; the north, from eight to twenty, according to the slope of the ground on which the bed stands, as the top of the frame should have a pitch of eight to twelve inches to receive the heat of the sun, and to shed off the rain freely. Temporary beds are made by setting slabs or plank on edge, and filling in the manure; but such beds are difficult to cover, and if used, the potatoes should not be laid within six inches of the sides. [See 598.] “ Cover the beds five inches deep with the mellow earth, on which set the frames and proceed to lay the potatoes two inches apart, with the top end of the potato toward the planks, and inure them to the open air. Glass- covered hot-beds cause the pleats: to spring up tender and weak, and such plants do not grow, when set ont in the hill, like those raised in open beds. “The best covers are made of strong oiled muslin, tacked on lath, so that they can be rolled up conveniently. These covers will admit the light, shed off the rain, and be cheaper in the end than other covering, and sufticiently warm except in extremely cold weather, when straw or some warm covering should be thrown over them. Trampled straw, or mats made of rye straw, answer in the absence of better covering. “The beds should be watered in the evening with a suitable watering-pot, to keep the earth in a good growing condition. If spring or well water is used, it should stand ne the sun or be warmed before using. After the plants are up, they should, if the weather is warm, be kept tolerably moist, to en- courage the growth of good strong roots, and light warm showers would be better than watering, but cold and heavy rains must be guarded against, as they would soak into the beds and ruin them. “Ditches should be formed around the beds, and the earth thrown up to keep the water from running under and chilling them. “When the plants are three inches high, and well rooted, they are ready to pull, which is performed by taking hold of the plants with the thumb and forefinger of one liand, while the potato is held firmly in its place with the other. Careless drawing, by inexperienced persons, frequently destroys half the profits of their beds. 82 — 498 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Caar. V. a ““When plants are to be sent a distance, they should be set in shallow boxes, with their roots in wet earth or moss, but they must not be packed in wet weather, nor have their leaves wet, or they will rot immediately. Plants may be taken off the beds and preserved in a cave or cellar for a week or more, with their roots packed in damp moss or earth, if not packed too close. “If by bedding too early, or crowding, the plants should grow long and slender, they may be cut down to two or three inches in length; but this should be avoided by giving plenty of room and air, and by working the earth in among the roots with the fingers as it is lifted up by the plants, and settling it by watering.” The best ground to grow a crop of sweet potatoes upon is sand, enriched with very well-rotted manure, leaf-mold, fine compost, guano, or superphos- phate. ‘The hills are rounded up like mounds, a foot or more high. All who live upon sandy land, south of latitude 41 degrees, can grow a few sweet potatoes in the garden, if not as a field crop. They are best preserved by packing in cut straw, in barrels, set in a stove-heated room, where the thermometer never will sink below 40 degrees, and rarely rise above 60 de- grees. See 438. 566. Hot Water for Seeds.—There are many seeds which may be greatly quickened in their vegetating powers by the use of hot water. Onion-seed, for instance, may be made to sprout upon the instant by pouring boiling water upon it. You need not fear killing it. Put some in a saucer, and pour on water from a tea-kettle, and after a half minute pour it off again, and you may see the sprouts shooting out the next minute; and if then planted, while hot and moist, in pulverulent earth, closely packed upon them, you will get them forward two or three weeks earlier. The same ef- fect will be produced upon all black, hard-shelled seed, such as onion, asparagus, sunflower, water-melon, apple, and many others. Locust-seed should be thoroughly scalded in boiling-hot lye, or several repetitions of hot water. 567. Cranberries in the Garden.—Cranberries have been so long looked upon as wild plants of swamps, that it is difficult for people to realize that they can be grown in gardens as well as strawberries, which are naturally a wild field growth. Cranberries do naturally grow in swamps, but they may be made to grow artificially in good loamy garden soil, or that which is naturally a little mucky, such as is the most suitable for potatoes, if deeply worked. The best soil, however, for cranberries, is almost pure sand, with water naturally standing, or percolating through it, within less than two feet of the surface. A bed oceupying one rod and two fifths, in the garden of Charles B. Phelps, Colebrook, Conn., planted in June, 1857, yielded three bushels in 1860. The vines were taken from a natural bed, and set in small tufts, one foot apart in the rows, which were two feet apart, and these were kept clear of weeds until the whole ground became matted with vines. The bed then SEo. ee GARDEN CULINARY VEGETABLES. 499 will continue penis in FP eavin® nee any bed of strtvbat ten without en- riching the soil. The cranberry is a semi-aquatic slender evergreen, content to occupy that part of a farm which is too low and too wet to be used for any other pur- pose, and is satisfied to feed on.water, and the slightly alluvial deposits afforded by the adjacent highlands, and does not, like some overgrown annual plants, make heavy drafts upon the soil. For field culture of cranberries, all that we have said here will be almost equally applicable, but the subject is treated more at large in No. 700. 568. Number of Trees, Plants, or Rows to an Acre.—The following tables will aid any one in determining how many trees or plants he can grow upon one acre, which contains 43,560 superficial feet : No, “4 feet apart. No. of Plants. No. of feet apart. No. of Plants. 3,56 9 4 The following table shows the number of rows, of different widths, in a square acre, and number of plants an acre contains : No. of feet apart. No. of rows. a Plants in a row. 12 in. apart. 15i in. apart. 18 in. apart. 24 in. apart. 2 14,700 11,025 It is a common practice to measure an acre thirteen rods each way; that gives an excess of nine rods. At the South, it is common to measure seventy yards each way for an acre, which is an excess of 540 yards. In calculating the number of plants per acre, set four feet apart—for instance, cabbages— it is common to say ten thousand per acre. This allows nearly nine hundred missing plants. In garden work these rules will always be useful. 500 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cnar. V. a a a a ae a ee ean SECTION XXXI—THE FLOWER-GARDEN—VARIETIES AND CULTIVA- TION OF FLOWERS. -IRST, let us talk a little about the moral influence of flower culture. We are just as well satisfied of the beneficial moral effects of flower cultivation, as we are that the effects of their MO beauty upon the senses of nearly all beholders is pleasing. A mother who loves flowers is apt to infuse the same feeling into her children. A love of flowers is Q a love of the Peanaital’ a love of the beautiful is a love pleasant paths of love, till its mind becomes thoroughly imbued with all the sentiments of moral goodness. There is no spot on the farm that grows such a “ paying crop” as the little parterre near the dwelling, devoted to the cultivation of flowers. If it does not pay in golden coin, it does in all that makes life worth staying here for. What golden hours of joy are spent by the family in the flower-garden! What blessed influ- ences such hours have upon the character of children! If you doubt the moral influence of flowers, look about you, and study the character of those who cultivate them in contrast with those who do not. We have long since ecttled the question of the beneficial influences of flowers upon all families, and therefore devote a little space to give, upon this subject, some very use- ful information. : 569. Suitable Soil for a Flower-Garden.—Upon the subject of soil, we copy from the catalogue of Benjamin K. Bliss, of Springfield, Mass., one of the most successful cultivators and sellers of flower-seeds in the United States, the following sensible observations : ‘ “The soil best adapted to flowering-plants generally is a light friable loam, containing a moderate amount of vegetable matter, and sufficient sand to render it porous; but as it rarely happens that the amateur has much choice of soil, it is fortunate that most of them will succeed in any but such as is of an extremely dry, sandy, or calcaréous nature, or of a stiff, heavy, retentive character. In the former, the plants are sure to be starved, and in the latter, if they ever fairly take root, there is generally an tidus ; development of the foliage at the expense of the flowers. In soils of this description much may be done by thoroughly breaking up the superficial crust, or, as it is technically termed, ‘trenching’ it at least one spade deep, — digging i in sharp sand or voad-scrapings, and if the operation be performed in autumn, so that the loosened soil is thoroughly exposed during the winter to the disintegrating influences of frost and other won ote agencies, the eeventage will be ae increased. Ba 8 ai ae ee , of the good; and so step by step the child walks in the * Se x y G x MOR s “oO Rm a GROW x Ra AIR uM CR } = \ W 5 ] ik a clip Gres Me teh we PLATE: XV. (Page 500.) Tus picture is placed here for the same purpose as No. XIV. in its place. That to indicate the vegetable garden—this to mark the entrance among the flowers. What woman looking upon this lovely vase will not feel a desire to be a producer of such beautiful things? Feeling that desire, she will be inclined to read what the author says of ‘‘ The Flower Garden.” Reading of flowers, she will never be content until she possesses them. And they will mark her elevation to a higher order of civilization as distinctly as this plate marks the entrance to the portion of this book devoted to a good purpose. It is for this that the picture was designed—to entice her to enter upon a path that leads to pleasant groves, to peace and happiness. entitle ne iene tne a ee — j ‘ ty ; Ph ad ‘ : i r ‘ 3 «lege r t = » : ¥ Tliced 2 rf * & & 43 i. v 7 sf] is > | qi iW : coe 4 ARGO Fee AGHA Nigh ERY Le | ‘ . “4 ‘ 4 ee take d A F « 4 ; Bs Mi e he c nm y feta} i 2 t d74 : } * : : , ‘eet : Y, be al 5 ¥ ~~ t ae pn? =r U ; if v5 1? ee ae ee cd aoagitta< sacs erin ttt et tet CE =| ie See? tae 2 eh eo ni Ee TR SR Bll eee die tle ae tomate etm: Sxo. 31.] 501 will obviously consist in the addition of loam, in conjunction with decayed leaves or old rotten manure; or where expense is no object, the surface may be entirely removed to the depth of eight or ten inches, and its place suj- plied with the best loamy compost at hand. The use of strong crude manure of an animal nature should be avoided. In ordinarily good soil an annual light dressing of Jeaf-mold, decayed turf, or thoroughly rotten manure, in quantities proportioned to the requirements of the soil, dug to the depth of a few inches, will be all that is requisite. These should be applied in spring, only just previous to sowing the seeds, or much of the benefit resulting from their application will be lost, though a single digging may be advantageously ‘given in autumn. In preparing the beds, care must be taken that they are so arranged that the ground may be a little elevated in the middle, that the water may run off and the plants show to a better advantage. “Tt is particularly requisite that seeds should not be sown too deep, whence arises most of the failures of inexperienced gardeners. The depth at which seeds are sown will vary with their size; large seeds, such as those of the Lupins, Sweet Pea, or Marvel of Peru, may be three quarters of an inch deep; other varieties from an eighth to a half-inch deep, according to the size or nature of the seed. Some that are very small require to be sown on the actual surface, a slight pressure being then sufficient to imbed them to a proper depth. For the majority of the seeds a very thin covering suffices ; if sowed too deep, they are longer in germinating; and the small ones are liable to decay. It sometimes insures a more even distribution of very small seeds, such as those of Campanula, Digitalis, etc., if they are intimately mixed before sowing with a little fine, dry soil, the mixture being sown in the same way as the seeds. Woolly seeds, which adhere to each other, like the Globe Amaranthus, ete., should be rubbed with a little fine sand, which will generally separate them. In all cases, the more thinly the seeds are strewn the better; when too thickly sown, the seedlings become elon- gated and sickly, an evil which no subsequent thinning out will entirely remedy. “Tf the soil be dry and the weather sunny, it will be necessary to water the seeds slightly from a very fine rose watering-pot. Rain-water is prefer- able. In the absence of rain, this application must be repeated every day or two, for it is important to observe that, when once the seeds have begun to swell, they are peculiarly susceptible to injury from drouth, and will speed- ily perish unless the soil be maintained in a moist condition; to a neglect. of this important precaution, many failures are solely attributable. On the other hand, an excess of moisture previows to germination will often cause the seed to decay, especially in cold seasons; early in the spring, therefore, the water-pot must be used with judgment, and never late in the day, when frosts threaten.” We have found the practice of warming water in the sun or by fire-heat very much preferable to the use of cold water. As it requires the very finest 502 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. preparation of soil, we recommend all who sow the most delicate flower- seeds to sift the earth through a sieve fine enough for corn-meal. 570. How to Make a Flower-Bed.—The following extract, from a paper read before the Farmers’ Olub, tells how the author made a flower-bed upon a very hard, rough spot. “IT do not expect to tell a professed gardener, nor an amateur who already knows how, anything new; but I wish to tell some who do not know, how to make a flower-bed. At least I will tell how I make one, and leave it to others to follow suit or not, just as they can afford. I received, May 10th, a package of choice flower-seeds, and a dozen bulbs of Gladiolus. As the old flower-beds had already been appropriated, new ones must be made; and as there is always a right place relative to:the house and other things, the right place in the present instance fell in a very bad place—on a spot of sod just beneath the window that gives light to my writing-desk and book-case. Here I marked out the forms of my beds in shapes to suit the ground, and not like any diagram laid down in the books. I first took ont a spading, as deep as I could drive the spading-fork, breaking up the turf and the remains of a mortar-bed left last autumn by the masons. This first spading and the loose earth left I threw one side, and the next spade-deep the other side. Then I took out another spade-deep and carted it away, and all the stones, and that not a few, and then broke up another course still deeper, and then threw back the second spading, and then the first, forking it all over loose and mellow. Next I put) in a heavy charge of rich manure, and over that garden-mold and leaf-mold, mixing all up and raking fine. Next I puta coat of sand, and then rich garden-mold, old rotted sods, and leaf-mold, mixed and sifted. Now the bed was ready for the seeds, and after being marked off to suit the fancy of her who does the planting, they were covered by sifting earth over them, and watered. It is true this was a laborious job, but once done, it is done forever. Here is a bed of earth, rich and mellow as an ash-heap, more than thirty inches deep, with a subsoil of coarse sand, gravel, and decayed granite rock, that gives good drainage. It will require only an annual dressing of compost, and a light forking and raking, to keep it in order to produce the most lovely ornament that ever added beauty to a farm-house—a beautiful bed of flowers. arly this spring—almost as soon as the snow was away—there came, first the little crocuses, and these were followed by the hyacinths, and tulips, and dielytra spectabilis—beauty upon beauty, enough to pay richly for all the labor of making a flower- - bed. “ What man with a head a whit better than a pumpkin or a cabbage-head would devote his whole soul to feod vegetables, and refuse his family the gratification and cheap happiness of a flower-bed ? “ What woman with a soul above soft-soap and scrubbing-brushes, that would live in a country home and not insist upon ‘woman’s right’ to have a flower-bed—ah ! to have her house surrounded with flowers, blooming from spring till snow comes again ?” ——— Seo. 81.] THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 503 571. Cultivation of Hardy Annuals—Hardy annuals are those plants that flower and ripen their fruits and perish in one season, but many of them may be sown in autumn to flower early the next year. Hardy annuals grow without artificial heat, and come to perfection in the open grounds; but what are known as half hardy plants need pushing a little, except in very favorable localities. Tender and small seeded varieties sometimes fail, _ hot on account of the bad growing properties of the seeds, but solely from bad management. Delicate seeds, like the Calceolaria, or Chinese primrose, must not be sown in the open ground. One party complained that some fine seeds failed to grow which were sown from one to two inches deep— literally buried. The most inexperienced in gardening matters can sow sweet peas, but it requires a practiced hand to look after such delicate seeds as Calceolaria, Cineraria, Fuchsia, and such like. Many persons think that when they make a hole in the soil with a trowel, and throw in such small seed as Mignonette, that it should be sure to grow; and if it does not, they lay the blame upon the seed, when in nine cases out of ten the fault is in sowing too deep. The proper depth for planting flower seeds is but little more than their diameter, though Lupine and Sweet Peas may be planted one inch deep; but such small seeds as Portulaca and Mig- nonette require to be sown almost upon the surface of the soil. Some seed are difficult to germinate. Cypress seed require to be soaked in warm wa- ter about one hour. The seeds of the Globe Amaranthus are covered with a thick woolly substance, which greatly retards germination, and if planted without soaking, few, if any, will come up. The most convenient method of sowing annuals is to take a round-pointed stick, with which draw a circle six or eight inches in diameter, and from an eighth of an inch to an inch deep, according to the size of the seed to be sown, placing a label with the name in the center. The labels ought to be five or six inches long, painted white, and marked with a lead pencil before the paint gets dry ; in this way the name will last a long time. Larkspurs, and many of the hardy annuals, when sown late in autumn, lie dormant all winter, thereby making much stronger plants, and’ flowering earlier than those sown in spring. The dwarf Rocket Larkspurs, when sown on the edges of the borders, present a beautiful sight with their various colors; the seed requires to be sown in October, and protected by a slight covering of straw during winter. Phlox Drummondii are of all shades and colors; they delight in a moist and shaded situation; seed sown one eighth of an inch deep in May, blooms from June until October. 572. List of Choice Annuals.—The following choice list of hardy annuals was made by Thomas Cavanach, a practical, sensible floriculturist in Brook- lyn, N. Y. It is worthy of the attention of all who desire to beautify their homestead. Nemophila Insignis, or Blue Love Grove-—Seed sown in May, blooms in July; likes a rich soil and moist situation; suitable for vases. Abronia Ombellata.—A verpretty annual, with long trailing stems, 504 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. bearing beautiful lilac and white flowers ; very fragrant suitable for vases ; seed may be sown early in April, flowering in June. Aster Chinensis, or China Aster—This beautiful annual comprises over twenty-five different varieties. Truffaut’s, for general cultivation, is the best, on account of the beauty of its flowers and variety of their colors; seeds sown in the open ground in May, in rich soil. All single or semi-double flowers should be pulled up and thrown away. Calliopsis, or Coreopsis.—This is a very showy annual—fourteen different varieties; flowers, bright yellow, mottled with a rich velvety crimson, highly ornamental; seed may be sown in October or early in April; easily transplanted. Balsam, or Lady's Slipper—A well-known tender annual. The ca- melia-flowered contains twelve var ieties, of all shades and colors, variously striped and mottled. Seed sown in the open ground in the latter part of May. To have them early, seed should be sown in pots in the house in April, and transplanted to the garden when fourinches high. Plant singly, pulling up all semi-double or single flowers. Cuphea Platycentra.—A very pretty annual or green-house perennial, with scarlet and purple flowers, suitable for vases; flowering all summer, and in winter, if taken up in autumn and kept in the house ; sown in pots in the house in April. Plants may be procured from any florist for a trifle. Cypress Vine.—A splendid running vine, delicate foliage, bright crimson flowers, of a star shape; Alba, pure white. Seed sown in the latter part of May; likes a rich soil. A very ornamental pyramid may be made by setting a straight pole in the ground six or eight feet high, surrounded by a hoop three or four feet in diameter, fastened to the ground with three pegs ; run strings from the top of the pole to the hoop. Sow the seed outside of the hoop. It may also be trained over arches or vases. Lathyrus Odoratus, or Sweet Pea.—One of the prettiest and most fragrant of the popular annuals which ornament the flower-garden. The sjveet pea grows four or five feet high in rich soil. The plants should be tied to a stake or an old tree. Sow the “seed in April; flowers in July. Ageratum Mexicanum.—A half hardy annual, with light blue flowers. Seed sown in May ; flowers in July, blooming profusely until killed by the frost. Alyssum Maritimum, or Sweet Alyssum.—This is a hardy annual, growing one foot high; flowers white; very fragr ant. Seed may be sown in autumn or early in spring. Cacalia, or Scarlet Tassel Flower.—A very pretty annual, with scarlet and orange tassel-shaped flowers. Seed sown first of May ; blooms from July until October. Exschscholtzia California, or California Gold Flower.—F lowers bright yellow, very showy. This, with slight protection during winter, will flower the second season; blooms from June until October. Clarkia Elegans.—A hardy annual, vefP showy. Seed sown in Septem- Sro. 31.] - THE FLOWER-GARDEN. * 505 ber flowers much better than when sown in spring. For spring sowing, plant early in April, in poor soil. Mirabilis Jalapa—commonly called Four-o’clock, from its habit of opening its flowers about that time in the afternoon. Mirabilis is a Latin word for wonderful. The roots of this plant, when dried, form the principal constituent of the jalap of druggists. It is generally considered an annual ; it has a large tuberous root which, if taken up in October, and stored in a dry cellar, will flower the second season. Seed sown in April; flowers in June. Scabiosa, or Mourning Bride.—A variety of colors, from a jet black to a deep lilac. , Seed sown in May; blooms in the latter part of June. Zinnia Llegans.—One of the most showy annuals in cultivation; flowers, brilliant scarlet, white, orange, and light purple. The new double-flowered Zinnia forms a beautiful addition to this class of annual flowers. The flowers resemble the double French marigold; they will bear transplanting. Seed sown in May; blooms in July. Clintonia Elegans.—A beautiful, tender annual, covered with deep-blue flowers ; grows about six inches high. Seed sown in May, in light, rich soil ; blooms in July and August. Gomphrena Globosa, or Globe Amaranthus.—Five different colors; the seeds are rather difficult to vegetate; they require to be soaked in warm water. The flowers, if gathered and kept in a dry place, will retain their color for several years. Seed sown in May. Mignonette is one of the sweetest of the annuals. Thousands of pots of it are sold annually in the markets of Paris and London. It has been found growing upon the walls of ruins near Paris, springing from every crevice where the seed could germinate, and scenting the air with its fragrance. The mignonette is of very easy culture; in rich soil it grows luxuriantly, but with poor flowers, that have little or no fragrance ; but in poor soil the flow- ers will be large and very fragrant. When once the seeds are planted, it will retain possession of the soil, springing up year after year. Seed sown in May almost upon the surface of the soil. Among the curious annuals is the Mimosa, or Sensitive Plant. Seed, sown in the open ground in May, in rich soil. This singular plant, at the slightest touch, closes its leaves. ‘‘ Weak with nice sense the chaste mimosa stands, From each rude touch withdraws her tender hands.’ Mesembryanthemum, or Ice Plant.—This curious plant has thick leaves, which have the appearance of being covered with ice; very ornamental for vases. Seed sown in May. Loasa Acanthifolia.—A running vine, covered with curious yellow flow- ers; the stem and leaves are covered with hairs or small bristles, which, upon being touched, leave a stinging sensation similar to nettles. Seed sown in May. Coie Lachryma, or Job's Tear#—A kind of ornamental grass. It is called 506 ° THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. {Cuar. V. / PADI IS. an eae PPP Job’s tears on account of its shining, pearly seed, which, by a considerable stretch of the imagination, may be likened to a falling tear. Seed sown in May half an inch deep. The Avena, or Animated Oat, is a curiosity. When the seeds have fallen off, their strong beard is so sensitive to the various changes of the atmo- sphere, that they are continually in motion, like some insect crawling on the ground. Seed sown in April. Anagaliis, or Pimpernel—A Awarf-trailing plant, with blue and pink flowers. The anagallis has been termed the Poor Man’s Barometer. Not the pimpernel alone closes its flowers when exposed to damp air, but many other plants are equally sensitive. Stellaria Media, or Chickweed, and many others, shut their flowers upon the approach of rain. Another gardener gives the following list as a choice selection for a small garden : Alyssum Maritimum—Sweet Alyssum.—A very desirable dwarf annual, with small, white, honey-scented flowers.in great profusion, blooms for a long time. Asters.—Showy, hardy annuals. The fine German and French asters are certainly among the finest flowers we have. Balsams.—The camelia-flowered balsams are most beautiful, and very desirable. Cacalia, or Tassel Flower. Calliopsis, or Coreopsis.—V ery showy and rich. Candytuft.—A large quantity should be grown of this plant for bouquets. Clarkia. Exschscholtzia.—V ery showy and handsome. Everlasting Flower.—Fine for winter bouquets. Four-o’clocks.—A. well-known plant, desirable in large gardens. Globe Amaranthus.—Excellent for winter bouquets. JSacobea, or Senecio.—V ery pretty. Marigold.—The dwarf varieties are pretty. Mignonette.—Sow plenty of this for bouquets. Nasturtiums.—The dwarf varieties much resemble Tom Thumb gera- niums, and are very desirable. Nemophila, or Love Grove.—Plants with very small but pretty flowers. - Dwarf. Petunias.—Among the very best plants; of easy culture, and flowering profusely the whole season. Phlox Drummondii.—The very best annual; of long duration in bloom, rich in color, excellent for bouquets; unequaled in all respects, in my esti- mation. — - . ; . : Poppies.—V ery showy, and great variety. fo oan of the Peat anmie ‘ Scabiosa, or Mourning Bride-—Showy. Stocks.—Many annual varieties are cultivated, and are very desirable. Sweet Sultan.—Quite pretty. Whitlavia.—A very beautiful blue flowering annual. Zinnia.—V ery showy, free flowering plants. 573. Hardy Flowering Herbaceous Plants—The following list gives a good Sro. 81.] THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 507 a ee PIAA RAR assortment of some of de most bedisiratite hardy flowering plants, some of which grow and bloom in beauty every year with almast no care. Of course the list can be greatly extended, or selections can be made from this and others to suit each taste. To many who do not know what to select, these lists will be useful guides. We will briefly notice some of the most desirable sorts. Achillea Ptarmica.—Of the double-flowering variety, dwarf, continues in bloom a long time, good for bouquets, flowers small, of a pure whi'e. Aconite.—Monkshood, mostly with blue flowers; various hights. Althea Rosea.—Hollyhock, double varieties, very beautiful, all colors ; six or seven feet high. Anemone Japonica.—Japanese Wind-flower, purplish red flowers. double; about two feet in hight. Baptisia Australis.—FYalse Indigo, fine blue flowers; two to three feet high. Campanula.—Bell-flower, many varieties, with white and blue flowers ; ‘various hights, all pretty. Delphinium.—Larkspur, one of the best herbaceous plants, with fine blue or white flowers. D. formoswm and grandijflorum are the best. Dictammus Fraximella, or Gas plant. Dielytra, or Dicentra Spectabilis—The very finest herbaceous plant. Funkia, or Day lily, many varieties; all desirable. Tris, or fleur de lis (flower de luce). Lychnis Chalcedonica.—The double variety has splendid scarlet flowers. Phloxes.—A. splendid class of plants, all beautiful, without any exception. Pyrethrum.—Feverfew, double white flowers, very neat and pretty. Spirea.—Meadow Sweet, many varieties, all desirable. Tradescantia.—Spiderwort, with white, blue, or red flowers, very pretty. Valerian.—A tall-growing plant, with fragrant white flowers. Viola Odorata.—Sweet Violet, very fragrant. Chrysanthemum.—Much improved of iate years, and in several varieties, is one of the most desirable of hardy flowering plants, and is very much loved wherever known. It is one of the very last to flower and cheer us with its many-headed blossoms for the last three months of the departing” year, when most other plants have gone their way. Then, again, it is one of the very best window plants. It not only flourishes, but luxuriates in- doors, if properly cared for. As floral ornaments for the green-house and conservatory, they are unsurpassed. To get early flowers from chrysanthemum seed-plants, you must sow the seed early in April in pots in the house, and transplant, or else sow seed in a very nicely prepared warm bed in May. Be careful to thin out, so as to give ample room for the plants to branch out. 574. Bulbous Flowering Plants.—The earliest flowers of the garden come from bulbs planted in autumn. In a well-prepared bed, nicely sheltered with a coat of leaves, the crocuses begin to bloom almost as soon as the 508 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. — PN ea ae a covering is removed, after the frost is out of the ground. All tender bulbs and perennials under a coating of leaves will keep sound till spring. It is necessary to lay brush or something else over the leaves, to hinder their blowing away by the winds. Leaves make the best kind of covering for all tender things. Frost rarely penetrates through a thick coating of them, as may be seen during our most severe weather; by removing a bed of leaves the ground will be found unfrozen. There is no sight more striking to the eye than the effect produced in early spring, when delicate snowdrops and the modest, many-colored crocuses enamel the lawn, or make the garden lovely with their stainless purity, and with the brilliancy of their colors. Coming, as they do, before the swallow, these firstlings of the season have a special claim to the popular regard. They are the harbingers of buds and blossoms, of leafy trees and unbound waters, of sunshine and of singing birds, and when their tender green spears begin to push themselves through the soil, we know that nature is awaken- ing from her winter slumbers, and that more genial weather is at hand. These little pilgrims that come to us with glad tidings, and that put on for our delight the gayest robes, and silently, yet eloquently, assure us that we are entering upon a new cycle of soft sunshine, and bland airs, and fragrant odors, deserve to be more cherished than they usually are by all country- women. Of all the flowers that bloom, those that come to us earliest are entitled to receive the most cordial welcome, and it is for this that we appeal in behalf of the more general culture of bulbous flowers. We appeal to all farmers’ wives and daughters for a more general cultiva- tion of flower gardens and parterres around the house, because we believe in their humanizing influences; in the lessons they teach, and the sympa- thies to which they appeal. We believe every family who has ground should cultivate Hyacinths, Tulips, Jonquils, Crocus, Crown ImpeFals, Tris, Snowdrops, Polyanthus, Narcissus, Double Narcissus, Lilies, Gladio- lus, and Dahlias. To these add Peonies, Dielytra (Dicentra) Spectabilis, and many other hardy herbaceous plants, such as Hollyhocks and the Phloxes, Yucca filamentosa, ete. Of all the bulbous flowering plants, the gladiolus takes the lead, accord- ing to our fancy. The varieties of G. gandavensis are numerous, robust, stately, with beautiful taper leaves of bright green, and long racemes of ex- quisitely beautiful lily-shaped flowers, comprising every variety of shade of colors, which can be kept up by timely planting from July to October in the open air; and then, before hard frosts come, if stalks with undeveloped buds are cut and set in water in the house, they will continue to bloom some time longer. The bulbs must be taken up for winter, and need about the same protection as onions. Several bulbs, hyacinths in particular, may be grown in any room where water will not freeze, in glasses adapted to the purpose, so that the bulb rests in the mouth of the glass, and sends its roots down into the water. Dark-colored glasses are preferable to white glass. The water should not Seo. 31.] THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 509 OOOO ETT TT TOOT ONT OETA OTT OTOL be allowed to rise more than to touch the bottom of the bulb; otherwise they will rot. When first put in glasses, they should be stored away in a dark, cool place, till the roots are about an inch long. If the roots do not grow vigorously, give two or three drops of hartshorn in each fresh supply of water, and put in the glass a small lump of charcoal. The water should be changed every fortnight, or three weeks at farthest; but to do this the plant must not be taken out, but the glass held horizontally, and the water poured off. Soft or rain-water should always be used. By this mode of treatment, and not keeping them in too warm or close a place, they will bloom beautifully. They may also be grown in the house in pots, in the open light and air. The bottom of the pot should have plenty of broken tiles in it to allow of perfect drainage, and be frequently, but moderately, supplied with water. Do not stand the pots in saucers of water. 575. The Hollyhock is a fine flower to grow in clumps about a lawn, and may be made perennial by not allowing the stalks to ripen seeds. As there have been great improvements made in these flowers, we annex the names that two dozen fine sorts are known by among seedsmen. 576. Select List of Hollyhocks,—1. Anak (Bircham).—Crimson ; flowers of a fine form and full. 2. Black Prince (Gibbon).—Flowers large and very double; black. 3. Brennus (Bircham).—Light crimson ; a fine, showy variety. 4. Charles Baron (Chater)—Flowers very large and full; color pink, shaded with salmon. 5. Beauty of Chestnut (Paul).—Flowers of a very fine form; spike .ong, and beautifully furnished with flowers of a beautiful bright rosy red; a very fine variety. . 6. Charles Turner (Black).—Spike very close ; flowers of fine form, large, and of good substance; color deep crimson; extra fine. 7. Commander-in-Chief (Baron).—F lowers large and showy ; dark-red. 8. Eva (Roake).—F lowers large, shape very fine; color peach. 9. Emperor (Roake).—F orm quite first-rate; color a beautiful pink; one of the finest. 10. Felicia (Bircham).—Flowers and spike of excellent form and sub- stance; color amethyst; extra. 11. General Bem (Veitch).—Spike very fine, flowers full size: color bright red. 12. Hon. Mrs. Ashley (Roake).—Flowers medium-sized, of great depth, and very double; color a delicate peach. 13. Lilac Model (Chater).—F lowers medium-sized, full, and of good sub- stance. 14. Mrs. Foster (Turner).—A noble spike ; flowers large, of first-rate form ; color beautiful light rose. 15. Miss Parsons (Parsons).—Spike full; flowers medium and close; color pinkish salmon ; fine. 16. Magnum Bonum (Baron).—F lowers very large; guard petals broad, but not quite substance enough; very showy. 17. Margaret Ann (Black).—Spike very fine; flowers good form, very compact; color bright rose. 510 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Crap. V. 18. Model of Perfection (Baron).—Many better models at the present day ; color creamy white. 19. Susannah (Veitch).—Flowers medium-sized and moderately smooth ; color creamy white. 20. Pyramid (Parsons).—Flower medium-sized; spike close and good ; color buff. 21. Poupre de Tyre (Bircham).—A noble spike; flowers large and free ; color rich dark-purple; a first-rate variety. 22. Penelope (Bircham).—A very showy and beautiful variety ; color fine rose. 23. Walden Gem (Chater).—Spike very fine; flowers large and of fine form ; color deep crimson. 24. Minnie Gray (Loring).—Size medium, form good; color white. As these have all been produced by planting seeds, and saving none but the finest flowering plants, we recommend a continuance of the practice by all who grow hollyhocks. 577. The Verbena is an almost indispensable plant in lawns, it is so pretty to fill up eut figures in the sward. The name, verbena, is an unmeaning one, being derived from the Latin herba, which means any low, spreading plant. This plant has been very long in cultivation, and it was used in ancient times in some of the sacred ceremonies, the altars and priests’ heads being wreathed with verbenas. Celsus speaks of the use of verbenas as a febrifuge in sickness, but it is doubtful whether it was the same plant known now by this name. The verbena is indigenous in the country of Buenos Ayres, and was taken from there to England in 1825, and to this country ten years later, by Robert Buist, of Philadelphia. Now it is known every- where and is everywhere a favorite, as its cultiyation is simple, and its low- creeping habit and pretty flowers will keep it in favor until some new rival comes to take its place. It flourishes best in sandy, rich loam, in garden- beds, and blooms from midsummer till late in autumn, and if potted, con- tinues in bloom through .the winter. Verbenas do not require frequent watering ; they will grow upon very dry ground, and wet in excess mildews and injures them. For pots, take half-and-half leaf-mold and good loam, and add sand enough to give a preponderance of sand in the whole mixture. As it is naturally a running plant, it must be cultivated in that way, and not, as we have seen it, with stiff, upright stems. Nothing is more easy than producing new varieties of colors in verbenas. We have only to grow seedlings and select the best and cast away the remainder. All colors, ex- cept light-blue and yellow, have been obtained. The following are the names of a few of the latest new varieties, with their characteristics an- nexed: Giant of Battles.—F lower and truss large, habit good, foliage large; color dark-scarlet, with purplish eye; a new imported variety. Dred.—Flower medium, habit weak, a good bloomer, but of a dull, pur- plish, lake color; pretty for variety. ~ Admiral Dundas.—F oliage and habit good ; color velvety scarlet; fine. Celestial.—A strong, rapidly growing variety, the leaves often two inches Seo. 31.] THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 511 across; truss large, elongated, forming a fine head; color pink, with darker eye; desirable for its size and color. Mrs. Abbott—Habit and foliage good, truss small; color very dark, velvety purple, light eye; fine. Evening Star.—Color dark-crimson, with well-defined whitish-pink eye ; growth small; a decided novelty, and a very striking flower. Rosy Gem.—A lovely verbena, foliage and flower of medium size; color rosy lake, with light eye; extra fine. For an ordinary purpose, however, some that have been long in use, that ean be bought for a tenth or a hundredth part of the price of these new sorts, might give equal satisfaction, for the varieties have been so multiplied that it is difficult to tell which are the favorites. 578. Flowers Grown as a Farm Crop.—There are many persons in France who grow flowers as an exclusive crop. It is their sole dependence. “The growing of flowers, for the production of fine essential oils and for medicinal purposes, is confined mainly to the southern portion of the department of Var, lying on the Mediterranean, adjoining the late Italian, but now French, province of Nice. There are extensive factories in Nismes, Montpelier, Nice, and in Algeria, but the great center of this branch of industry is the town of Grasse, lying some few miles inland, and its sea-port, Cannes, the winter residence of Lord Brougham. “It would be impossible to state, even approximately, the product of the flower-fields of this interesting region. There are no less than sixty factories in Grasse, giving employment, in the various departments of field and in-door labor, to 5,000 persons. Many manufacturers grow their own flowers, others buy them in the open market daily, and still others are supplied by con- tracts. The latter system prevails among the leading houses. Contracts are made at a fixed price for a term of years for the total product of a farm, at rates varying from 8 to 10 cents per kilogramme (2! lbs.) of rose leaves, up to $1 for tuberose leaves, and even higher rates for violet leaves, which last are mainly grown at Nice. The average prices are about as follows: Rose leaves WN CACIAE: Pretorets s/s 60 to 80 cents the kilogramme. Jessamine i fs ss Tuberose 100 se ee ue ‘f Violet 80 to 1 30 2 ‘ “ These are the leading garden flowers used in Grasse ; only small quanti- ties of the jonquil, narcissus, mignonette, etc., are cultivated. A great breadth of land is devoted to lavender, rosemary, thyme, and other medic- inal plants, which are sold at much lower rates than the above. “The preparation of all these plants divides itself mainly into four classes : essential oils, distilled waters, pomades and oils, and dried flowers. The great bulk of essential oils produced consists of lavender, rosemary, sage, thyme, spikenard, and others of a terebinthine nature; the most valuable oils produced in any quantity are those of Neroli and Petits Grains. The former is the result of the distillation of orange-flower water from the petals of the flowers of the Bigarade, or bitter orange (the sweet or Portugal or- ange yielding an inferior product), and the latter is obtained from the green THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. Vv. leaves of the same tree. The price of Neroli varies, with the seasons, from $30 to $45 the pound, and of Petits Grains from $8 to $12. These two oils are extensively used in the composition of Cologne water, and in combina- tion with bergamot, give it its distinctive character. The orange-flower water is consumed in immense quantities in France, in the ‘eau sucrée,’ so universally drank in the hot season. This, by the way, is the only shape in which a Frenchman will drink water at all. The Bigarade orange-tree re- quires ten years to mature and twenty to obtain perfection, and yields an average of seventeen pounds of flowers per annum. “Rose water is also distilled in large quantities. A result of its distillation is an exceedingly small quantity of otto of rose of the very highest quality ; it appears in small supernatant grains or drops, which are carefully skimmed off and rectified. It is superior to the famous Kizanlik, or Turkish otto, and congeals, at ordinary temperatures, in beautiful, transparent erystals. The ‘ Rose de Mai,’ or double May rose, is the one universally grown. “ Another very costly article, of which less than one ounce had been pro- duced in 1855, is the essential oil of jessamine. Up to that period its exist- ence in the plant was stoutly denied by the distillers, although to what other principle the fine odor of the plant was due, they failed to prove. In that year an Algerian chemist obtained a minute quantity, which cost him, as we were informed, at the rate of 17,000 francs the kilogramme, or $90 the ounce. It has, since then, been produced at a cheaper rate, but still toa dear for commercial purposes. The wild Arabian jessamine is grafted on the cultivated plant of the same species, acclimated, and bears for many years, if not winter killed, yielding 90 to 150 lbs. of flowers per thousand plants. It is closely trimmed in spring, and deeply covered in winter. The caterpillar is its most formidable enemy. “A most important branch, and one in which great rivalry exists, is the preparation of perfumed pomades and otto, which have a two-fold use: first, as bases for the finer kind of pomatums and hair oils; and next, as a me- dium for obtaining spirituous extracts for the toilet, such as Lubin’s well- known extracts for the handkerchief. Their preparation is the most in- teresting and curious feature of the Grasse establishments, and merits a word of description. For the oils, the inodorous virgin olive oil is used, expressed from olives just before their maturity. “The pomade ‘ body,’ which is prepared in winter, is composed of one ‘part of beef suet and two parts of leaf lard, thoroughly hashed, washed in several waters, and among the best ee it is washed several times in rose water to deprive it. of all unpleasant odor, and then carefully melted and stored away in huge tin cans in. airy, cool vaults, for use in the sea- son of flowers. The busy operations of the year commence with the rose season. “There are two processes for impregnating the pomade body and the oils with the floral odors—one by infusion, the other by ‘enfleurage.’? The first is employed for the strong, less volatile odors of the rose, orange, and Szo. 31.] THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 513 acacia; the latter for the sensitive, ethereal perfumes of the jessamine, tube- rose, jonquil, and all the bulbous tribe, which will not endure the applica- tion of even a moderate degree of heat. “ And first, by infusion; about 100 kilogrammes of the pomade body are put into a tin-planished copper water-bath, melted at a low temperature, and charged, at daybreak, with a certain quantity of the freshly gathered flow- ers, which are stirred constantly during the day and night, the mass being kept only warm enough to maintaim a semi-fluid state. About midnight it is removed from the fire, put into strong bags made of fish-cord, and sub- jected to heavy pressure in large, perforated, vertical iron cylinders, stand- ing on marble bed-plates, which are gently warmed to prevent the conge- lation of the exuding mass. Next morning fresh leaves are added, and the process repeated daily until the desired strength of perfume is obtained, when the pomade is put into cylindrical tin boxes and sealed up for ship- ment. ‘The oils are treated in like manner, but are filtered instead of pressed. “Tn preparing the oils, coarse, heavy, spongy cotton cloths, made especially for this purpose at Marseilles, are saturated with oil and spread upon the netted frames; flowers are then strewn thickly upon them, and they are piled up in like manner as the pomades. When sufficiently charged with odor, the oil is expressed from the cloths by powerful levers. “ Many hundred-weight of flowers and herbs are dried annually, and are variously used in the healing art, and in the composition of scent-bags, eachous, fuming pastils for the sick chamber, and kindred compounds of the perfumer’s art. “The Parmezan, or double violet, is grown under the shade of trees, and yields a delicate and delightful perfume. It was the favorite odor of the Athenians under Pericles, and is now the fashionable scent of the Parisian beaw monde. “The flower farms receive the highest culture; under-draining is not practiced, but great attention is paid to irrigation. Some fields have a com- plete network of irrigating tubes substantially laid in cement. A constant warfare is waged upon insects, each plant having, as with us, its pet borer, grub, or bug, and ‘eternal vigilance is the price’ of success. The heat in summer is intense, though tempered by the sea breeze, and the winter is at times as rigorous as in Washington or Richmond. “ Labor costs, per day, 35 to 40 cents for males, and 15 cents for females.” There is no other reason than that contained in the last sentence why flower farms can not be established in this country as well as France. The ques- tion rests entirely upon the cost of labor. 579. Soil for Flowers—Compost for Pottings—Protecting from Insects.—All flowers require a deep, rich, well-drained soil, and that should be annually fertilized with a fine compost, in which wood’s earth or leaf-mold predom- inates. The following directions of a practical gardener, though given mostly in reference to potting plants, will be found useful, the same soil being good for flower-beds, particularly for an annual dressing. 4 83 =—| 514 THE GARDEN AND ITS FRUITS. [Cuar. V. “To have suitable compost for plants, the different soils should be mixed for some time before they are wanted. In making composts, the following soils should be obtained: First, soil and turf from an old pasture ; second, decomposed horse or cow manure; third, peat soil or leaf mold from the woods; fourth, white sand; fifth, coarse sand or gravel ; sixth, charcoal and broken pots. The diarebal and ‘beolen pots are for drainage. A suitable compost for fuchsias, roses, and geraniums consists of one part white sand, one of leaf-mold, and one of decomposed manure and turf-mold. Thesd should be well fixed together and sifted before using. A compost for cac- tus is made of sand, leaf, and turf-mold, with a good drainage of charcoal and broken pots. All bulbous roots require a very rich soil pomporslaa of equal parts of sea sand, rotten cow manure, peat soil, and good turf-mold. “In taking plants out of pots, all that is necessary is to put the hand on top of the ditt and then turn the pot bottom up, and hit a gentle rap, and the ball of earth will slip out. Most people water plants too little. Two or three times a week is necessary, or oftener in a dry stove room. “To grow flowers in the greatest perfection, gardeners often cover them and take great pains to preserve them free from contact of insects or the pollen of other flowers. “The thing of most importance in potting is suitable soil. Many persons imagine that all that is requisite is earth, be it good or bad. We have seen plants potted in common street manure, the owners laboring under the im- pression that it was the very best kind because it was black. “ Unsuitable soil and large pots generally g riven to small, weak plants for the purpose of causing hun to grow, is, in nine cases out of ten, the cause of their death. “Giving small pots to weak plants encourages the growth of the roots toward the side of the pot in search of air and moisture. In potting plants, glazed pots should never be used, as they prevent the evaporation of all im- purities through the sides of the pot. “ Of all the insects which infest house plants, the green fly, red spider, and mealy bug are the most difficult to get rid of. They are easily de- stroyed in the green-house by tobacco smoke. For parlor plants, take a pail of soft water, invert the plant over the pail, cover the surface of the pot with a piece of paper to prevent the soil from falling out, and brush the leaves downward with a dust brush, dipping the plant in the water several times. The mealy bug may be found in the axils of the leaves of orange- trees, camelias, passion flowers, and various other plants. They look like small specks of cotton, and are only to be got rid of by picking them off. If plants should happen to get frozen, they should be syringed with cold water and screened from the rays of the sun. Thus plants are frequently saved that would otherwise be destroyed.” SECTION XXXII—LAWNS—HOW TO MAKE AND HOW TO KEEP THEM.— TREES AND PLANTS SUITABLE FOR LAWNS. COUNTRY house without a lawn! it is a house ina desert! Itis not a structure in the midst of beauty. There is nothing—not even expensive statuary, flowers, and shrubbery—that adds so much to the surrounding embellishments of a farm-house or suburban residence as green grass upon a well-kept lawn, and it is a beauty that is permanent and inexpensive. If the ground is well under-drained and the grass well dressed in the fall, it will start fresh as soon as the snow is off, and often earlier, and it keeps green through the most severe drouth upon ground that has been well prepared. With here and there a shade, what a lovely sight it is to see children | playing upon a smooth lawn! With what glee they | run from tree to tree, the old dog joining with great satisfaction in the sport! In spring,in summer, in autumn the lawn is beau- tiful, and even in winter it speaks of refinement of the resident occupants. It tells, too, of art and industry in man, since lawns are seldom, if ever, found in a natural state. The sea of grass upon the Western prairies is only beau- tiful when seen at a distance. It does not bear close inspection like the vel- vety sod of a lawn. Whenever we see a lawn turning brown in summer, we know that it was neither trenched with the spade nor subsoil plowed, without which manuring will not always preserve its perpetual green. Those who build country houses are too apt to expend their means upon a grand mansion, expensive out-buildings, ornamental fences, fine carriages and horses, and sometimes gaudy, inappropriate furniture, which is all un- satisfactory to visitors of refined tastes, if the grand house is not embowered | in trees, and has no grassy lawn. 580. How to Set a Lawn in Grass—A small lawn may be covered with sods; a large one must have the sod formed upon it. Two quarts of white clover seed, mixed with a bushel of the chaffy seed of red-top, and sown - evenly upon the third of an acre of well-prepared ground, will form a fine lawn turf. Some add a little seed of the vernal or sweet-scented grass that is so fragrant in new-mown hay. To make the ground perfectly level and smooth, if the space is small, rake it carefully ; if it is large, use the roller. If you intend to use sod, prepare the ground as smooth as possible after having worked it deep and finely pulverized, and then go with your bar- row, if the distance is short, to the spot where you will cut your turf. If al 516 HOW TO KEEP A LAWN. far distant, of course a cart must be used to haul home the load. If less distant, an ox-sled will be found more convenient. In cutting sods, do not take them up by the spadeful, but stretch a line and cut through the sod with a sharp spade. If much is to be cut, it would be better to do it with a plow-coulter, ground sharp, and set in a beam with handles, and guaged to the right depth. An implement could be made with but little expense that would cut the edges and bottom all at once. If cut with a spade, line off the courses exactly a foot wide, and cut the sods evenly one and a half inches thick and roll up a course upon a handspike as big as two men can carry to the vehicle that is to transport it, and carry the roll in the same way to the ground prepared for your lawn and unroll just as you would a carpet. Afterward use the roller or something to compact the sods down firmly in place. 581. Clipping the Lawn.—More persons fail in the care of than in the making of a lawn. They can not see the necessity of the frequent clip- pings, without which they can not have a good lawn turf. One has only to look at the sod of a once-a-year clipped mowing field and compare that with a closely-grazed pasture or roadside sod, and see which is preferable for a lawn. Let it be set down as arule, that a lawn can not be clipped too often, and that it must be clipped twice a month, and that it will improve the sod to roll it as frequently. If there is grass enough, so they would not wear it_ out, a troop of playful children upon the lawn every day would make the sod grow thick and firm and the grass fine and soft. It is a good thing for a lawn to go over it every spring in a rainy day and scatter grass seed wherever there is the least show of bare ground. 582. Watering and Manuring the Lawn.—If you have a hydrant, have a long hose with a showering nozzle, and use it often in dry weather ; other- wise you must, if you desire to see your grass always green, water by hand or with a watering cart or garden engine. It will greatly add to the ad- vantage of watering if you will dissolve some fertilizing substance in the water—a few pounds to a hogshead-full. You may use guano, salt, niter, lime, potash, soda, and several other ingredients. If there are grubs in the sod, salt them to death. Carbonate, phosphate, or sulphate of lime may all be used at times to advantage on a lawn, sowed on in moderate quantity. A dressing of well-decomposed compost is the only manure that should be applied, and that in the fall or early spring. 583. Cause of Grass Dying Out upon Lawns.—Many persons who have taken much trouble to make small grass-plats or lawns .around their dwell- ings have found the grass dying out without being able to account for it. Ruth Lynde, a practical woman of New Bedford, Mass., gives the following as the cause. The cure will be readily suggested by reading what she says. . “T have had the grass destroyed in two different places where I have resided, and found the same cause productive of the same result at each. “During the winter and spring the servant girls were in the habit of throwing soap-suds, after washing clothes or dishes, upon the grass-plat, and Sro. 32.] I noticed invariably that the plantain and sorrel came up instead of the grass. Here, at my mother’s, I have a bit of a garden, and there is a grass- plat also, and since I urged upon her notice the ill effects of soap-suds upon the grass, and she commanded its discontinuance, the grass has come in again, and much white clover with it. Most houses in the country have a patch of plantain around the kitchen doors, and the same habit of throwing out soap-suds is the cause of its growth.” Although this effect is produced by deluging grass with soap-suds at the wrong season of the year, there is no better fertilizer than it for grass, if di- luted and put on with a sprinkler. 584. A New Lawn Grass, or Evergreen Plant.——Within a few years, a new plant has been introduced into cultivation to a considerable extent in En- gland, and to a limited extent in this country. It is more successful in the moist climate of that country than it is in the drier climate of this, but it is still worthy of notice. It is thus described : “The new plant is ealled ‘ Spergula pilifera,’ and is a neat-growing dwarf, hardy, perennial-tufted Alpine plant, forming close, compact, wiry, grass-like stems, from a quarter to half an inch in hight—at first erect, afterward decum- bent, clothed with closely set green bristle-like leaves, which, by permanent growth and.oceasional rolling, form an unbroken, level, velvet-like surface of the richest conceivable verdure, remaining uninjured in severe drouth or intense cold, and assuming the same beautiful verdurous tint during the winter months asin summer. The seedling plant of this highly interesting object starts into growth with a single unbranched, perpendicular radicle or root, and afterward manifests a remarkable power of extension in its rami- fying hair-like roots, penetrating to the depth of one to two feet; a fact quite suflicient to account for its enduring the opposite extremes of severe heat and cold. In addition to its hardiness, under the vicissitudes of an English climate, its value is considerably enhanced in its adaptation to all the varieties of common garden soil, requiring but a thin firm surface- stratum of one-inch ordinary sifted or broken loam. Maintaining its ver- dant freshness alike beneath storm and sunshine, it combines every needful feature of adaptation with economy, and a uniform aspect of neatness with the least possible eare or attention. Its fertility in bloom during the month of July is equally beautiful, being at that period studded over with myriads of low, compact, salver-shaped snow-white blossoms, appearing not as in fancy, but in reality the living picture of an emerald-green velvet carpet, spangled with innumerable stars. From the preceding remarks it will be seen that the established growth of this plant maintains a dwarf close web of green verdure, and entirely dispenses with the extra toil and expense of mowing; its numerous small brittle flower-scapes being removed by the gentlest movement of a wing or brush over the surface of the lawn, either while in bloom or afterward, and these constitute the only surface-growth or tokens of its beauty, which require this operation but once a year. For small or medium-sized lawns, terraces, verges, mounds, etc., this remark- 518 ORNAMENTING LAWNS. ° [Cuar. V. ably interesting and beautiful little plant offers an object of great interest to every lover of gardening pursuits, and every lady amateur cultivator may superintend and personally manage the slight attentions required to pre- serve the terrace margins or velvet lawn in the highest condition. The permanent and uniform condition of dense growth, with the penetrative power of its roots, preserves it from all risks of being parched by extreme exposure in sultry weather, and the progressive accumulation of its moss- like growth gives an elastic pressure to the foot, much softer than the finest Turkey carpet. The seed may be sown either in or out of pots, -in the usual method observed for fine seeds, with a slight but uniform covering of soil, and placed within either a frame, cool pit, or green-house, using the usual precaution of shading the seed-pans from intense sunlight daily for a few hours, until well germinated, after which it may either be re-planted in stores of ten to fifty plants within dishes or large pots, or otherwise planted out in rather a shady border of the open ground for a few weeks, and ulti- mately transplanted upon the prepared lawn-surface in two or three plants, within one inch or more of each other, and such little plant-groups may be formed at a distance of six, nine, or twelve inches apart. In such positions the growths will progressively meet and form the rich and beautiful surface now described. It is also admirably adapted for picturesque green tufts and edgings on avenue lines and borders, for grouping the front spaces of massive rock-work, and surfacing partially raised mounds around classic fountains and basins or artistic columns, where grass is unavailable for mowing, and equally telling for cultivation in larger vases in alternate effect with the silvery sheen of the beautiful Cerastiwm tomentosum on terrace verges and architectural approaches.” Another account says: “ Plats established four years since, have grown into a close sod, and give promise of a continual healthy endurance.” 585. Ornamenting Lawns.—More ornamental tlian statuary, expensive rock-work, or any other structures, are’ well-arranged beds of flowers, and groups of flowering plants and shrubs. These may be provided for in lay- ing down a lawn, or the sod may afterward be cut out in forms to suit the fancy, for flower-beds. This kind of ornamentation should be attended to by the mistress of the house, and if she have daughters, let them always be advised or instructed in the plans, and in carrying them into execution. Select neat plans for cutting the sod for flower-beds. In this follow nature. Sometimes the form of a maple-leaf may be adopted. In other places, use a grape-leaf, or a grapevine with several leaves, for the form of your bed. Again, take the crooked branch and limbs of a tree for a pattern. 586. How a Woman Made and Ornamented a Lawn.—The following letter from a “ Housewife” of Colchester, Vt., is worthy of a place here, as en- couragement to all other housewives to persevere in the same way, until they also compel husbands to acknowledge their success. Our correspondeut says: “The cultivation of flowers, and beautifying the surroundings of home, should be attended to as well as in-door work, lest that love of the beau- Sxo. 32.] LAWNS. 519 Ne AR Aw ES ~ tiful, which is implanted in every heart, should perish through neglect. Many housewives are so entirely devoted to cooking, house- cleanin and sewing, that they can not have a minute’s time even for reading, except on Sundays, and then they ‘are so tired, they had rather rest than seal : “T hereby advise them not to eaok so much, not to scrub so much, and sew with a machine. Others will say they have so many human flowers to attend to, that they can not cultivate any others, and these will let their door-yards run to waste and weeds instead of having them seeded down, and flower-beds cut in the rich, green turf. “T have cultivated a few of the common kinds of flowers ever since I was a child, but lave lost the delight of seeing some new, strange flower expand its beauties to my view, because I knew not how nor where to procure an assortment of choice, rare seeds. Last spring, I accidentally looked over a flower-seed catalogue with much interest, because it was the first of the kind I had ever seen. I found I could have new and lovely flowers at a very trifling expense. My ambition was fired; I gave my husband no peace until he had the kitchen-garden removed to the rear of the house, and re- moved the fence which separated the old kitchen-garden and the door-yard, thus making a fine little lawn. I got a man to help me—not a gardener— we have no professed gardeners within ten miles. I drew the plan of my flower-beds myself, and had the man cut them out of the turf in the desired forms. “Previous to this, I persuaded three or four housewives—all mothers of ‘families, with plenty to do—to join me in sending for flower-seeds and roots. These we exchanged with each other, thus obtaining a fine variety at a small expense. We followed the directions given in the catalogue, and were very successful with the most delicate seeds. My lawn was beautiful; indeed, so rich and varied were the effects of French and German asters, German balsams, German stocks, English pansies, phloxes, verbenas, and dahlias, from seed the first season, that my husband, who had at first ridiculed my flower venture, was obliged to acknowledge its success. “Tast fall I sent for a few hyacinth, crocus, and early tulip bulbs, and had a fine display of flowers in our living-room during the dreary winter months. My room is even now filled with the exquisite fragrance of hya- einths, which still continue in bloom. I hope this article will attract the at- tention of my toil-worn sisters; they can have no idea what a source of purest enjoyment the cultivation of flowers will be to them. Its in- fluence has been very beneficial to my little ones, who watch the expan- sion of the delicate and wonderful buds with an interest fully equal to my own 587. Planting Lawn Trees.—We beg of you not to plant in rows, nor any form of mathematical precision. Follow nature; go to the woods for a pat- tern, or rather to some natural park, like the bur-oak groves of Michigan and Juans Keep in view “ what for?” every time you set a tree. The object is either ornament or shade; it is not to fill up. Keep also in view the fact, 520 TREES IN LAWNS. [Cuar. V. that the tree you are planting is to grow. It requires a combination of skill, taste, judgment, forethought, that few persons possess, to plant the trees in a lawn, great or small—from a door-yard to a royal park. . The great thing to remember is this: a short green grass and compact sod is the leading beauty of a lawn or park, and trees and flowers are only thrown in to fill up or hide ugly spots, or break the uniformity, or furnish agreeable shade. Make everything—grass, trees, flowers, rocks, water, walls, fences—to look as natural, and just as little artificial, as possible, and your lawn will excite admiration in strangers and satisfaction in yourself. You need not entirely exclude fruit-trees, shrubs, and vines from the lawn. In some places an applestree may be entirely suitable. In others a grapevine, to climb a blank wall or dead tree. A quince-tree at the north, and an orange-tree at the south, would be ornamental in a park or large lawn. Study fitness of things, and thus obtain beauty and utility com- bined. 588. Botanical Names of Trees and Plantsx—We do not know of a more appropriate paragraph for this section than the following, which gives a long list of names of trees suitable for planting in a lawn and other places, for ornament and shade, with their proper botanical names, as well as those by which they are most commonly known. It is so important for farmers, and particularly farmers’ children, to learn the botanical names of trees and plants, so as to be able to identify them by the names common to the same trees in different localities, and the means * of obtaining such information in the country not being easy, we employed Andrew 8. Fuller, a horticulturist of Brooklyn, who has been all his life in the nursery business, to make out such a list as will be most useful. In proof of the necessity of using botanical names, look at the variety of natnes in a single family; for instance, the oaks, and so of the maples or the birches. If a person speaks of a “ birch-tree,” what do we understand? For several years a paragraph has been floating through the press, recommending a de- coction of “ walnut leaves” with which to wash horses in fly-time, as a cer- tain preventive of annoyance from these pests of the horse and his rider; but we have never been able to find an individual that could tell for a cer- tainty what the writer of that article meant by “walnut leaves.” In New England the term walnut is almost universally applied to the hickory (Carya) family, not even distinguishing between: the five varieties of this class of trees, all of which are spoken of in that section under the general term of walnuts. At the South and West nothing is known by the name of walnut but the Juglans nigra (“black walnut”), and Juglans cinerea, the butternut of New England, known at the West as the “white walnut.” Now, with such a confusion of names, who can tell what a writer means when he talks about “walnut leaves?” Let him add the botanical name, and we can then understand. So. 32.] LAWNS. 589. Trees Indigenous to the United States: Botanie Names. Acer dasycarpum. . Acer macrophyllum. Acer rubrum. Acer saccharinum. Common Names, Silvér Maple Great-leaved Maple... Red Maple Sugar Maple Black Maple Striped Maple. . yee striatum. Bie Chestnut, or Buck- ZEsculus Ohioensis. Red- pee Chestnut. Pavia rubra. Yellow- flowering Chest- ZEsculus glabra. Betula populifolia. Betula excelsa, Betula rubra. Betula papyracia. Betula lenta. White-heart Hickory. ..Carya tomentesa. Shagbark Hickory... ...Carya alba. Shellbark Hickory..... Carya sulcata. Bitternut Hickory......Carya amara. Pignut Hickory Carya porcina Pecan-nut Hickory Carya oliviformis, American Chestnut. Castanea vesca. Chinquapin Chestnut. ..Castanea pumila, CHtaIpH SRE as ses cen oe Catalpa syringefolia. Nettle-tree Celtis occidentalis. Hagberry-tree Celtis crassifolia. Smooth-leaf-tree....... Celtis integrifolia. Wild Cherry Cerasus Virginiana. Choke Cherry Cerasus serotina, Judas-tree, or Red-bud- Cercis Canadensis. White Fringe-tree Chionanthus Virginica. White-flowering Dog- BRIO ale)a\chone)-) taae,chs Cornus Florida. Red-flowering Dog wood.Cornus Sanguinea. Persimmon Diospyros Virginiana Fagus ferruginea. Fagus Americana, Fraxinus sambucifolia. Fraxinus acuminata. Fraxinus juglandifolia. Fraxinus latifolia. Fraxinus longifolia. Fraxinus quadrangu- lata. Fraxinus pubescens. Gleditschia tricanthus. Gleditschia inermis. -Gymnocladus Canaden- sis. Juglans nigra. Juglans cinerea. Larix microcarpa. Laurus sassafras. Liquidambar styraciflua. Liriodendron tulipifera, Maclura aurantiaca. Magnolia acuminata. Magnolia cordata. 590. Evergreen-Trees Indigenous to Common Names. Botanic Names. White Spruce Abies alba. Hemlock Spruce Abies Canadensis. California Spruce Abies amabilis. Douglass Spruce Abies Douglassii. Broad-leaf Ash Long-leaf Ash Blue Ash Honey Locust Thornless Locust Kentucky Coffee-tree. . Black Walnut Butternut American Larch....... Sassafras Tulip-tree Osage Orange Cucumber-tree Common Names. Botanic Names. | Great-leaved Magnolia.. Magnolia macrophylla. Umbrella-leaved Mag- MOWAT pris Sasa yae nisi Magnolia tripetela. Broad-leaved Magnolia. Magnolia latifolia. Florida Bread-tree...... Malia azederach. Ash-leaved Maple......Negundo aceroides. California Negunda....Negundo Californicu Pepperidge-tree... ....Nyssa multiflora. Sour Gum-tree Nyssa aquatica. Ostrya Virginica. Platanus occidentalis. . Platanus Californica. Populus tremuloides. . Populus grandidentata. Populus pendula. Populus betulifolia. Populus Canadensis. Populus balsamifera. California Plane-tree. . American Aspen Great Dentate Poplar. . Weeping Poplar Birch-leaf Poplar Cottonwood Balsam Poplar Cotton-tree.........-.. Populus argentea. _ Various-leaved Poplar. Custard Apple. . Wild Plum . Populus heterophylla. ee eee Percelia triloba. Prunus Americana. Prunus Chicasa. Pyrus Americanus. Pyrus coronaria. Quercus phellos. Quercus imbricaria, - Quercus tribola. Quercus aquatica. Quercus tinctoria. - Quercus nigra. Quercus coccinea. Quercus ambigua. Quercus rubra. Quercus palustris. Quercus ilicifolia. Quercus obtusiloba. Quercus macrocarpa. Quercus oliviformis. Quercus alba. Quercus prinus. . Quercus cestanea. Quercus bicolor. Quercus montana. - Rhus typhina. -Rhus glabra. Rhus copallina. Rhus venusta. Robinia pseudacacia. Robinia viscosa. Taxodium distichum. Tilia Americana. Tilia alba. Tilia heterophylla. Ulmus Americana. Ulmus fulva. . Ulmus nemralla. Ulmus slata. Virgilia lutea. Crab Apple Willow Oak Laurel Oak Downy Black Oak... .. Water Oak Quercitron Oak Black Jack Oak....... Scarlet Oak Over-cup Oak Mossy-cup Oak White Oak Yellow Oks. Swamp White Oak. . Stag’s-horn Sumach.. . Smooth Sumach....... Mountain Sumach Poison Sumach Yellow Locust Gum Locust Paper Linden American Elm Slippery Elm River Mimi i7\2. verve oe Wahoo Elm the United States and Territories: Common Names, Botanic Names. Menzies Spruce Abies menziessii. Mexican Spruce. Abies Mexicana. Black Spruce Abies nigra. Red Spruce Abies rubra. PROPER NAMES OF TREES. Common Names. Botanic Names. Sabine’s California Abies Sabini. Cupressus thuyoides. Lambert’s Cypress......Cupressus Lambertiana. Great Coned Cypress... : Cupressus macrocarpa. Mexican Cypress Cupressus Mexicana. Red Cedar Juniperus Virginiana. Great Flowered Magno- lis Magnolia grandiflora. Picea balsamea. California Noble Fir... .Picea noblis. White Pinete sco. Pinus strobus. Yellow Pine Pinus mitis. [Cuap. V. Common Names. Jersey Pine Scrub Pine Pitch Pine Long-leaved Pine Pond Pine Botanic Names. Pinus inops. Pinus banksiana. Pinus rigida. Pinus palustris. Pinus serotina. Pinus pungens. Loblolly Pine Pinus taeda. Lambert's Californian. . Pinus Lambertiana. American Arbor Vite...Thuya occidentalis. Giant Arbor Vitez.......Thuya gigantea. California Torreya......Torreya Californica, Great Californian-tree..Sequoia gigantea. 591. Foreign Evergreen-Trees, common in the nurseries of this country: Common Names. Botanic Names. Silver Spruce Abies argentea. Dwarf Alpine Spruce. ..Abies crunoniana. Blue Spruce Abies cerulea. Norway Spruce Abies excelsa. Spruce, Himalaya Abies morinda. Spruce, Mucronate Abies mucronata. Spruce, New Holland...Abies Nove Hollandiz. Spruce, Yew-leaved....Abies taxifolia. Spruce, Narrow-leaved. . Abies tenuifolia, Chili Pine Araucaria imbricata. Chinese Lance-leaved Araucaria lanceolata. Araucaria Braziliensis. Araucaria Bidwillii. Araucaria Cunning- hamii. Norfolk Island Pine... .Araucaria excelsa. Graceful Pine Araucaria gracilis vel elegana, Cedar, African Green...Cedrus Africanus viri- dis. Cedar, Deodar, silvery foliage Cedrus deodara. Cedar, Green Deodar. ..Cedrus deodara viridis. Cedar of Lebanon......Cedrus Libani. Mount Atlas SilveryCedrus Libani argentea. Japan Dark-green Yew. Cephalotaxus adpressus. Fortune’s Chinese Yew.Cephalotaxus Fortunei. Mountain Yew Cephalotaxus montana. Chinese Yew Cephalotaxus Chinensis, Japan Weeping Cypress.Cryptomeria Japonica. Japan Dwarf Cypress. ..Cryptomeria nana. Cypress, Australian. ...Cupressus Austraus. Cypress, Spreading Cupressus expansa, Cypress, Chinese Cupressus funebris. Cypress, Graceful ..... Cupressus gracilis. Cypress, Weeping Cupressus pendula. Cypress, Pyramidal... .Cupressus pyramidalis. Cypress, Sacred Cupressus religiosa. Juniper, Silver-leaved. . Juniperus argentea. Juniper, Berry-bearing. Juniperus bacciformis. Juniper, Bermudas Ce- Juniperus Bermudiana, Juniperus Chinensis. 592. Our Native Creepers.—Three principal varieties of our native creep- - ing plants, that is, climbing by rootlets or suckers, are generally confused in the minds of the people, and all go by the name of Poison Oak. Common Names, Botanic Names. Juniper, English Juniperus communis. Juniper, Cracow........Juniperus Cracovia. Juniper, Himalaya Juniperus excelsa. Juniper, Irish Spiral... . Juniperus Hibernica. Juniper, Hudson’s Juniperus Hudsonii. Juniper, Japan Juniperus Japonica. Juniper, Phenician Juniperus Pheenicia, or Lycia. Juniper, Sacred. ...... Juniperus religiosa. Juniper, Swedish Juniperus Suecica. Juniper, Spanish In- Juniperus thurifera. Fir, or Spruce, European Picea pectinata. Fir, Weeping Silver... .Picea pectinata pendula. Fir, Kumaon Pindrow. . Picea pindrow. Vir, Altaic Picea pichta—Sibirica. Fir, Mount Atlas Picea pinsapo. Fir, Nepal purple-coned. Picea Webbiana. Pine, Austrian Black.. Picea Austriaca. Pine, Calabrian Pinus Calabriensis. Pine, Siberian Cembran. Pinus cembra, Pine, Nepal short-leavedPinus Gerardiana. Pine, Haguenea........Pinus Haguensis. Pine, Aleppo Pinus Halepensis. Pine, Dwarf mountain..Pinus mughus, or pu- milio. Pine, Italian stone Pinus pines. Pine, Scotch Pine, or Fir Pinus Sylvestris. Yew, English Taxus baccata. Yew, Silver-striped....Taxus baccata argenteis. Yew, Weeping. Taxus Dovastonii pen- dula. Taxus Hibernica fasti- giata. Yew, Irish Spiral Arbor Fern- Thuya asplenifolia. Arbor Vitex, Australian..Thuya Anstralius. Arbor Vite, Japan. Thuya Japonica. Arbor Vite, Nepaul, or : Tartarian Thuya Nepalensis. ~ Arbor Vite, Chinese. ..Thuya Orientalis. Arbor Vitx, Siberian. ..Thuya Sibirica, Vite, This mis- take has contributed to cause the neglect of several highly ornamental creep- —“ oa SEo. 32.] LAWNS. 523 ing vines, under the impression that they were poisonous. “We are obliged to confess that we, as a nation, are very ignorant in re- Szo. 35.] PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 559 gard to many things that pertain to the garden. Most of the European nations are in advance of us in this branch of industry. Besides, we have no patience—when we undertake to plant trees, we hurry through the job. If it is well done, so be it; if poorly done, we blame somebody—generally the nurseryman, but never ourselves. “Ts the fall of the year the best time to plant trees? We answer, Yes, for some kinds, but not for all. We would never plant evergreen trees in the fall, but always late in the spring, just at the time they commence to grow. — “* Apples, pears, hardy ornamental trees and shrubs we would plant in the fall, provided our soil was well drained either naturally or artificially. “Tf trees are planted in wet, heavy soil in the fall, the roots are very likely to rot or be very much injured before spring. “When trees are planted in the fall, in suitable soil, the wounds that are made on the roots while being transplanted become healed over; a callosity is formed, from which, or near which, the new roots put forth. “Tt is a disputed point among vegetable physiologists whether the cal- lous which is formed on the root is indispensable in the formation of new roots. “We know it seems natural for plants to form this callous before they emit new roots. “We make cuttings of hardy trees and shrubs in the fall, for we have . found that cuttings made at this time root much more readily than if de- ferred until spring. “This is evidently owing to two causes: first, they are not exposed to the cold, by which they lose inuch of their vitality and power of emitting roots from the alburnum or inner bark, which is always more or less injured by severe cold; second, when cut and put away in a dark place, where thé frost does not reach them, they are placed in a position to commence the change from branches to roots, which they must undergo if they live. Now it takes time for a plant to make this change, and it is evident that we had better give plenty of time than too little. Further, roots will form at a much lower temperature than that at which leaves are produced; and, owing to this fact, we can have our plants rooted and ready to furnish nourishment to the leaves as soon as they put forth. “Trees transplanted in the fall, and the roots properly prepared, cutting off all broken parts, and smoothing the ends with a sharp knife, will com- mence the formation of roots in the spring, long before the leaves are pro- duced. Yet most persons will succeed better with spring planting than with fall planting, because trees require much care to keep them in a_proper position through the winter, when they have lost a portion of their roots. “Tn transplanting trees either in the fall or spring, they should always have a portion of their branches pruned; no matter how carefully the operation may be performed, the roots will surely receive a check, and some of taem may be lost; therefore, to establish an equilibrium between root THE ORCHARD. [Caar. VI. and top, a portion of the latter should be cut away. We always shorten the branches at least one third when we transplant any deciduous tree. “If we receive trees that have become dry and shriveled by long ex- posure, we bury them, root and branch, in the ground, and let them remain there until they have swelled out to their original condition; then lift the top branches first; then, in a few days, lift a portion more, and so on, until the whole stem is exposed. Then take it out and prune it severely and plant it. A tree that has become so dry that it would never show a sign of life if planted immediately, will often make a vigorous growth the first Season if treated as we have described. “One fatal error into which many fall is in buying large old trees instead of small, young, and thrifty ones. The old adage, ‘Haste is not always speed,’ is wonderfully true in this case. “What we strive to get by fall-planting is to get the trees in a condition to grow at the earliest possible day in the spring. The roots of a fall-planted tree will heal and begin to grow in the fall, if properly planted, and not too late. That is why I advocate fall-planting. I transplanted some peach-trees in the middle of summer by cutting off all the limbs, and the trees lived, and are now growing finely. “ Pear-trees may be transplanted at almost any age or size, but as a gencral thing two or three years’ old are the most convenient size. In planting dwarf pears, we want all the quince stock to be covered; the junction to be one or two inches below the surface. If the root is too long, and there is danger of the lower roots becoming injured by being buried too deeply, cut off a portion of the lower end. If your soil is as deep as it should be, and well drained, then the quince root will remain perfectly healthy one foot below the surface; if it is not, then you had better defer planting dwarf pears until you can properly prepare the ground for their reception. “There is no danger of planting dwarf-trees upon land that is dug two feet deep. The quince stock should always be buried so as to throw out roots, but if the root is too long, be sure to cut it off. Trees should never be grown in the nursery wich deep roots. Care should be had in cutting back the first year’s growth of a tree, to cut it at a bud opposite the side budded, so that the main limb will balance the tree. Cut off all the ends of long roots and most of the fibrous roots, and all that are broken or bruised, when you transplant a tree.” “In Great Britain,” says Lovey’s Magazine, “planting is continued from autumn until spring, the weather usually being sufficiently mild to permit of this; besides this, the latter season is dull and moist compared with our own, and there is no heat of summer to disorganize and set at naught all that has been accomplished. No cloudless skies and torrid blasts of weeks’ duration disturb the fears of the planter or blight his hopes. Whether done at one season or the other, though there may be some preference even in that climate, there is little or no danger that any fatality worthy of con- Sxo. 35.] PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 561 sideration will attend the labors of the cultivator, and he may await con- tentedly the result. “But all is changed here. Spring arrives with its cold storms, making the ground as the frost leaves it, a cold, clammy, sodden earth, too wet to dig or plant, until so late in the season that the trees have already begun to swell their buds and put forth their blossoms. Yet, so rapid is vegetation, that the work must proceed with haste, or the opportunity be lost till another year. Even under these disadvantages, all would be well enough but for the summer heat and drouth. These set in at once, before the tree has had time to recover, and following so close, exhaust the sap, shrivel the wood, and if they do not kill the tree, enfeeble it more or less, so that at least one year is lost in the work of recovery. If these are the effects that follow in our climate, which we think will not be denied, then, at least, it must be acknowledged that climate must be taken into consigeration in transplant- ing; for however advantageously the operation may be performed in a cool, damp climate, like that of Great Britain, it will not do here. “There are few springs, unless late in May, when the soil is in such a loose, dry, and friable condition as it is in the latter part of October and November. Besides, it has not yet parted with its warmth, which is of more importance than is generally supposed; for the roots, yet active, continue their growth when not checked by cold and wet. Experiments have been accurately made by careful planters, who have found fresh roots from trees, transplanted in October, in a growing condition during the winter. The opportunity to prepare the soil, its better condition at the time of removal, and its greater warmth, are all in favor of autumn planting. “ As a general rule, do not have manure, unless perfectly decayed, applied in immediate connection with the roots, particularly in spring planting, for it acts as a stimulus when the delicate fibers are not in any condition to ab- sorb it, and the effect is to cause their decay rather than their growth and extension. Especially is this the case when the summer is dry and hot. But in autumn planting there is not so much danger of injury, even with fresh manure. The soil, cooling down as winter approaches; prevents any heating effects from the manure, while its mechanical operation is to lighten the earth when it would too rapidly become compact by winter rains. In autumn planting, manure is best applied upon the surface of the soil, by the application of a bushel or two immediately around the tree. This not only protects the earth from deep and penetrating frosts, but all the entire strength and virtue of the manure is carried into the soil.” 631. Simple Rules about Tree-Planting.—A great many other experienced persons just as earnestly advocate spring planting. Our opinion is, that both are right, under certain circumstances. Upon a well-drained or naturally dry soil we should prefer to plant in the spring, if it could be done early. If farmers will prepare the orchard ground by deep plowing and subsoiling in the fall, and by digging large holes, leaving them open, and the dirt thrown out in a pile, to be pulverized by the action of freezing” 26 THE ORCHARD. [Coar. VI. REESE Ee and thawing, and then set their trees early in the spring, there will be no doubt about their growing. As tree-planting is generally done in the hurry of spring work, we are sure it is not as likely to produce good results as autumn planting. But whether planted in spring or autumn, it is of the utmost importance that the tree has not been spoiled in taking it up. There is where most trees get their death-blow. Adopt these few simple rules, whether you plant in spring or autumn. First, have plenty of roots to your trees. Second, dig large holes and make the ground mellow at the bottom. Third, do not set your stocks too deep. Fourth, fill the earth carefully around them, and trample it solid. Fifth, raise the earth slightly, so the water can not stand in a puddle around the tree. Then cover the ground, four or five feet each way from the tree, with some kind of mulching, and depend upon it you will not complain of trees dying. There is one thing more for you to do. Keep your horses, cattle, sheep, and goats out of your orchard. The best form of setting apple-trees is that called guincune. Set four trees two rods apart in a square, and a fifth one exactly in the center. “ No tree should be planted in a hole less than four feet square and two feet deep. The bottom of the hole should be well loosened, and a compost of leaf-mold and manure mixed with it. In planting, care should be taken to cut off all bruised or broken roots. In filling, the soil should be finely pulverized and worked in among the roots, and the tree gently shaken up, so that the soil may reach every root. “ A tree should never be moved backward and forward, as every pull you give it draws the roots out of their places, and causes them to become doubled up, thus defeating the very object you had in view when you spread the roots. Great care should be taken in treading in the soil, for if not prop- erly filled in, the roots are very apt to be broken “off. “ Avoid deep planting ; more trees are lost every year from this cause sti any other. No tree should be planted more than a couple of inches deeper than it was before. “ Mulching trees after transplanting is a very useful practice ; in winter it helps to exelude frost, and in summer prevents evaporation of moisture, and prevents the roots from suffering from drouth. “In pruning the heads of trees Defore transplanting, much will depend upon the size of the tree; large trees require more pruning than small ones. It needs but little judgment to enable the planter to ascertain how much of the top it is necessary to prune, in order that the loss may be equalized between the branches and the roots. The poor success attending the trans- planting of the large trees in the Central Park of this city may be attributed to the fact of their not having been pruned; if one third of their tops had been taken off, the result would have been different. “Tn transplanting, two very important things are to be considered: first, preservation of the spongioles of the roots; send the prevention of evap- ‘oration. The next important part is to choose that season when the tree or =_—— Sro. 35.) PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 563 plant, according to its kind, is either losing its sap in a state of repose, or just before sap commences to start for another season; each has its advo- cates ; every tree, even of the same species, will not admit of transplant- ing at the same time, and it will therefore depend much upon the judg- ment of the planter. The majority are in favor of early autumn planting, but this has reference to the state of the plant as well as the state of the season.” Although large trees may be transplanted by following the advice given, it by no means follows that it is advisable to buy large nursery trees, be- cause both theory and practice indicate that it is more economical to trans- plant small. trees, that is, from three to seven feet high. The impatience of those who are about to establish new orchards is very apt to prompt them, whether buying trees, or moving them from their own nursery, to select trees too large for successful transplanting. Young, vigorous trees, of the size of a man’s thumb, three feet high, will generally produce a bear- ing orchard sooner than trees four times that size, and not one tenth as likely to die at first as the large ones are, and the mature trees will last much longer, because they need not losé much top or roots in transplanting, and the vigor of growth will scarcely be checked. Whenever it is possible, go yourself to the nursery and select your trees and see them dug, choosing always good stocky plants, rather than large sizes. The sooner you get them home and in their places the better; but if you can not move them home at once, see that they are carefully heeled in to await your order; and when they arrive at your place, if you are not ready to plant them, have them heeled in where water will not stand about the roots; and in so doing, let the trees rest easy at an angle of about forty- five degrees, with dirt well sifted among the roots, and if to remain over winter, you may cover the ground over the roots with mulching, but do not cover the bodies of hardy trees, lest you make a harbor for mice. If possi- ble, have your orchard ground, and the holes for trees, all ready before you go to the nursery. 632. How to Move Large Trees.—If you desire to move a large tree, whether an apple or any other kind of fruit, or a forest-tree, you must com- mence the year before, or at least the autumn previous, by digging a trench around and cutting off the roots, leaving a ball of earth with the tree in the earth. If the tree is very large, it is best to remove it while the ball is frozen, and this can be done with a pair of timber-wheels, lifting and keep- ing the tree upright. It can also be done with an ox-cart, by tipping it up and fastening the tree to it, and then tipping it down, with the root hanging off behind. It will generally be necessary to load stone on the forward end of the cart, or else have three or four men jump on to make it balance. The tree may be loaded on a wagon, withou! any box, by backing np to it and pulling the top down, so as to have the roots hang behind the hind axle. The tree may also be pulled over and rolled upon a sled, or set upright on a stone boat. If you move any tree with a large top, you must also move a THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. large root. The trimming of the tops and roots should correspond. It is a good practice to prepare trees of large size for moving two years in ad- vance, by digging and cutting all the roots around the center ball of earth, and then filling ‘the trench and leaving the tree over one summer to throw out new roots, oa heal the wounds of the ones cut off, and also the wounds of the limbs. By this process a very large apple, pear, cherry, or other tree can be safely moved. We have known a farmer to defer building a new house, year after year, because he could not build without destroying some favorite tree, and did not know how to move it. We have often known a new road fought against for years because it would cut through some man’s orchard, the owner of which finally had to yield to the necessity of the case, and see his valuable trees sacrificed, perhaps just as they were large enough to com- mence bearing, because he did not know how easily he could move them. It is our opinion that, as a general rule, trees from four to ten inches di- ameter can be moved at an expense not larger, per tree, than a dollar for each inch the tree is in diameter. An orchard, with half the trees prostrated by a gale, the trees of which would average eight inches in diameter, we have seen righted at an expense of not over a dollar atree. The broken roots were carefully cut away, and the earth behind properly excavated, and about half of the top cut away, and a tackle attached from a standing tree to the fallen one, when two men would set it up in five minutes and brace it fast with two poles. The second year after, these trees bore as good a crop as they ever did before. Thomas Cavenach, an experienced and observing gardener of Brooklyn, furnishes us some good rules about moving trees. He says: » “Large trees and shrubs can not be removed without injury to their roots and at their ends, the very parts of most importance to them, because there the spongioles are situated, and these, if once destroyed, must be reproduced before the plant can derive any nourishment for its future support. Trees removed in the fall will have these organs the soonest produced, and in the spring the latest, if at all in the later case; the trees are left without support at the very time they most need it, and in consequence the leaves wither, _the tree dies, or becomes greatly es ies The state of the weather has much to do with the successful removal of all trees. Dry, windy, and frosty weather, as well as very warm sunshine, is the most unfavorable of all; evaporation goes on more rapidly in such states of the weather than at any other time. A mild, damp day is the most fitting for the operation of transplanting, and this will be greatly enhanced if mild showers fall during the night. 6 Small trees and plants may be moved with iene chance of failure than large ones, because their fibers are less liable to injury than others. Ever- greens should always be removed when in a growing state, because the moisture surrounding the roots is absorbed, and at once assimilated as food . for the plants. The wounds where the roots have been injured quickly heal Sec. 35.] PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 565 over, and new roots are formed ; but if removed in winter, when the ground is frozen and the tree in a dormant state, the moisture which surrounds the roots has a tendency to rot the portion of the roots where they have been severed. “ Forest and fruit trees may generally be most advantageously moved in autumn, because the wounds made in their roots will commence to cicatrize and throw out granulous matter, and sometimes even spongioles imme- diately, so that by the time spring arrives the tree will grow with almost as much vigor as if it had not been transplanted. “Preparation of the ground is the most important matter connected with moving trees. I have known many who could not in other matters be called ignorant persons, plant trees much in the same way as we would set up a post in the ground, under the mistaken idea that a tree, when it is placed in the soil, will grow under any circumstances. 633. Preparation Necessary for Tree-Planting.—The greatest cause of fail- ure of success in growing trees isin the preparation of the soil. Let it be re- membered that the soil for a tree nursery should be as good and well worked as a well-cultivated kitchen garden. Manure, and particularly that-made of leaves or ashes, is valuable for tree nurseries, whether fruit or forest trees. Weeds must be exterminated, or they will destroy the nursery. Care must be taken in selecting soils. No wet soil, nora ferruginous one, should be chesen. The young trees, too, must be carefully guarded against the depre- dations of cattle, as all farm-stock are fond of young shoots of most fruit or forest trees. 5 Do not plant trees on a retentive soil in wet weather. It is almost as fiecessary to keep a new plantation of forest-trees or an orchard clear of weeds for two or three years, as it is to keep the nursery clean. In all cases farmers should be much more eareful in preparing the soil and planting trees. The want of success in grdéwing fruits is to be traced to negligence in this department, because a tree is a vitalized body, possessed of delicate organs, by means of which the tree is enabled to build itself up from the food to be found in the soil and the air—also to perfect its fruit. Study the habits of your trees, and give them all they require. But of one thing do not lose sight: all fruit-trees of value require a lpose, deep soil, free from excessive quantities of water, and well supplied with mineral food. If your soil is wet, drain it deeply ; if compact, loosen it with a plow as deeply as possible, and follow in the bottom of the furrow with the lifting subsoil plow, if ina field; andif in a garden, trench the soil deeply through- out the whole plat. Supply no manures but those well decomposed, such as woods-mold, muck, chip dirt, rich road scrapings, composted with ashes, or salt and lime, or both, some weeks before applying them to the soil, nixing in the compost a small quantity of fine barn-yard manure. When the soil has been thus prepared, place the tree no deeper than it grew in the nursery, unless it be a pear on a quince stock, when it should be left so as to entirely cover the quince with soil. None but the best soil 566 ‘THE ORCHARD. [Onap. VI: ee ~ —~ should be put under dr about the roots. No plaster, ashes, phosphates, or guano should touch them. No fomenting manures of any kind should be allowed under the tree to injure its roots by the escape of gases. Sprinkle fine soil on the roots while the tree is held still, regulating it as necessary to secure the natural position. In all but heavy clay soils pour a pail of water over the loose earth and allow it to settle away before setting the tree. Do not churn the tree up and down in the hole. Do not trample on the earth with your feet, leaving great spaces in which no soil finds its way. Do not throw in clumps of earth or stones. Fill up the hole carefully, keeping away grass and sods. Cover a wide space around the tree with coarse litter, leaves, salt-hay, sawdust, tan bark, or stones loosely piled around. These will shade the soil, keep in moisture, and enable you to water the tree without forming a thick crust on the top of the soil, or pack- ing it down too closely. Should you be unable to subsoil or trench all your land, dig wide and deep holes, leaving out all the subsoil, returning nothing but surface soil, and proceeding as before. For large trees, use strong, limber stakes, to which they should be attached by soft ties of willow or straw. Trees thus carefully set will grow and reward the planter. 634. How to Winter Young Apple-Trees.—A new beginner in the nursery business, in Wisconsin, wants information. He says: “I planted, last fall, about three acres of ground to apple-seeds, and have now some fifty thousand fine-looking plants. Now will it be the best way to take them up and house them in a cellar the first winter, or leave them standing, and shall I cover them or not? If taken up, could I graft them successfully during the win- ter? Which is best—to graft them in the root or stock?” : It is the safest plan to take them up and store them in a dry cellar, or else heel them down in furrows in the nursery grounds where they grew. They may be grafted, when of the size of one fourth to one half inch in diameter, inserting the graft in the stalk close down to the crown of the root. On ac- count of grafting, it is better to put all that are large enough in the cellar, where they can be got at to work upon in winter. If left standing and coy- ered, the trees are sometimes half cut off by mice. L. M. Parsons, of Waukau, Wis., speaking of the benefits of snow, says: “The virtue of perennial life is due to processes which can only be carried on in conditions which exclude the light, like that of snow, rubbish, or shade. Indeed, the tannin increment is almost limited to snow-clad districts; and perennials are the most abundantly supplied with it where the concealment of snow in winter is continued through the summer by the agency of moss, leaves, and shade. Hence it would seem, that to perpetuate an old orchard, | it should either be supplied with the perennial increment in solution, or that the ground should be so concealed from light as to secure a perpetual elaboration of that element. “This view is supported by the dwarfed appearance of perennial plants Seo. 35.] PROPAGATION, PLANTING, AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 567 throughout the prairie region of the West, where autumnal fires, from time unmeasured, have robbed the soil of every concealing object, thereby limit- ing the time of perennial gestation to the short period of shade afforded by cereal plants, and the quantity of perennial food to the simple want of such plants, wherewith to embalm their seeds. Hence young orchards, on our richest cereal soils, like our scattered forest trees, are weak in fiber, false in heart, and early show the marks of dotage, and on them the undying para- site makes his pre-emption before his time. Nothing is more fatal to prairie orchards than open culture, or blighting than the plow, and nothing more beneficial than straw, boards, or anything to make concealment. The soil of old orchards, however well supplied with the embalming element, in its virgin state, becomes exhausted by open culture, naked grazing, and usually deprived of shade by the unsocial distance of the trees, so that in the run of time the soil of Eastern orchards, like Western prairies, fails to do perennial service. “Six years ago I put out some nursery trees of three years’ growth, on prairie sod, digging the pits only three inches deep, with a drain, and coy- ered the roots with soil from an old cultivated field, and having scattered potatoes over the ground, covered them with straw fifteen inches deep, putting a little dirt on the top to pack the straw, and some sawdust around each tree to protect it against mice. I had a good yield of potatoes, all the trees lived, and now have the spread of an old orchard, and give a good yield of fruit. One tree was set where there had been a hog-pen; that tree has borne, for five years, the finest of fruit (though a seedling) to such extent that it has been necessary to support every limb, and it now measures fifteen inches around its body a foot above the ground. None of these trees have a blizht upon them, while trees near by, treated in the usual way of open culture, have not over one third the growth, and already show the mark of dotage, the yellow leaf, and the worm of time.” Snow sometimes proves detrimental to trees, by affording the mice an op- portunity to gnaw them. The following is given as a remedy by Andrew Kerns, of Grundy County, Ill. He says: “Last winter, the first we knew, ten or fifteen young apple-trees were completely stripped of their bark—some of them from the ground eight or nine inches upward. Upon examination, we found a number of mice-roads through the frozen ground and grass. We mixed two ounces cayenne pepper in a pan of soft-soap, and gave all the trees—about one hundred—a good coat of this wash with a brush, and not a mouse has touched them since. We shall repeat the dose next winter.” 635. Winter Protection—Fruit-Trees on the Prairies.—We advocated the plan, twenty-five years ago, of planting orchard trees on the surface, hauling up a sufficient quantity of earth to cover and support the roots, instead of putting them below the natural Jevel of the earth, where, in many sites that we have seen orchards planted upon, the water would stand for weeks, so as to completely cover every fiber of roots. This is not alone the case upon flat 568 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. prairies, but frequently where it is quite rolling, the soil being of such a na- ture that it retained water almost as well as a sponge. Had the plan been generally followed by those who have planted orchards upon rich, loamy, prairie soil, there would have been now many more thou- sands of apple-trees alive in Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Mis- souri, in all of which States we have annual moanings over winter-killed fruit-trees. If all orchards were planted and tended like the one mentioned in the following extract from a letter in the Prairie Farmer, we should cease to hear anything about winter killing. We advise all prairie orchard owners to put the plow at work. The letter alluded to says: “TJ visited, not long since, the successful orchard of 75 acres owned by Mr. James Wakeman, of Cottage Hill, Du Page County. One of the lead- ing features of this orchard is, that the trees have the appearance of being planted on ridges, which has been caused by annually plowing toward the trees. He commences plowing next to the rows of trees, and this leaves a deep furrow in the center between the rows, which acts as a partial drain—a very efficient surface drain in winter. For when the snow is thawed by thie influ- ence of the sun, the ground being frozen, it runs into the hollows, as it can not penetrate the soil, and if the slope is completed to the dead furrow, it flows there. But if there is a hollow immediately about the body of the tree, water settles in it. I have seen it stated recently that the expansion or lift- ing power of ice is nearly equal to twice the lifting power of gunpowder. Hence the effect of a body of ice immediately about the bole of a tree— hence, too, the importance and benefits of banking up with earth, in the fall, so as to shed off water. I have had trees destroyed in winter by ice form- ing about the collar, and I have seen hardy grapes ruined in the same way. Scores of trees, whose bodies are otherwise protected from freezing, are killed at the collar by this lifting ice. It is a good plan, I think, to bank up about trees in the fall, and especially to plow orchards as above described.” It is a good plan—there is no doubt of it—to plow every orchard upon retentive soil, in the manner indicated; and the advice, like the almanae, is suited to all places in this latitude. It is true the best plan is under-draining ; for there is not one acre in ten in all the West that will grow an orchard successfully until it has been thoroughly drained; and even then, we believe ridging the ground before planting the trees would be advantageous. Some kind of winter protection is also much needed, particularly for nurseries. When an exposed situation is unavoidable, then the very first step should be to provide shelter in the speediest possible manner. For this purpose, belts of rapid-growing trees—say double rows—should be planted so as to intersect the ground at intervals, and ward off the prevailing and most inju- rious winds of the particular locality. In the culture of dwarf trees, flowers, vegetables, and all crops of low growth, common hedge-rows of buckthorn, privet, Osage orange, or any rapid-growing shrub, will be of great service as a protection from cold winds, though some of them exhaust the soil. SEo. * PROPAGATION, ania AND CULTIVATION OF TREES. 569 “The v bales of ee for a winter diesranettioky of Srchanas is not Det ficiently appreciated. The prairies have never been wooded. The land is now just in the natural condition of the bottom of a lake, from which the water has receded and the land dried up, and which first produces weeds, then grass, and afterward trees, as the prairie land now readily produces them where fires are kept out; and one of the wisest things for any one who would grow an orchard or nursery of choice fruit upon sach open grounds, is to begin with a belt of forest trees. The locust, Robinia pseudacacia, will grow in five years so as to form quite a shelter. A correspondent gives us a detailed account of his observations upon a piece of wheat in Delaware, about five acres of which, alongside a grove, made a good crop, and seventy acres exposed to the full blast of an almost Siberian winter was not worth eutting. He says also of the effect of wood- land in Michigan upon fruit-trees: “Our orchards here did very well when the country was new and the clearings were small. But as our forests recede from the orchard, the bark on the west side of many a fine fruit-tree is killed by the piercing west wind. Some of our neighbors have very considerately preserved belts of timber and clusters of shell-bark, black walnut, and butternut; while others, like time, have cut down all, and are now gathering the fruits of their folly in- stead of their orchards.” The winter protection of snow is one of the causes of health in many trees. Without it they would perish. 636. Cheap Labels for Fruit-Trees—Take two pieces of wood, and hinge them together with a leaden wire, and write the name be!ween the two. The lead wire is preferable to all other metals, because it is always flexible and readily adjusted. The name being written on the inner side, is shielded from the action of the weather, which soon effaces the name when exposed. The cost is not over fifty cents a hundred. Zine labels, written over with a lead pencil, are also durable. If written upon with any acid ink, it will eat the name into the zine. The following recipe for making ink that is indelible, used on zinc labels, is recommended: Take one drachm of powdered verdigris (acetate of cop- per), one drachm of powdered sal ammoniac (muriate of ammonia), half a drachm of lampblack, and ten drachms of water. Mix the ingredients to- gether in a two-ounce vial, and shake it every time before using it afresh, and from time to time while using it. It is ready for use as soon as the verdigris and sal ammoniac are dissolved. In using the indelible ink there is one secret to be attended to, it is this—that the zine label should, just previously to being written upon, have been rubbed bright with some fine glass-paper. A steel pen is far better than a quill for writing on zinc. The best form of tree-labels we ever saw or used is made of a slip of zinc, seven or eight inches long, three quarters of an inch broad at one end, tapering regularly to a point at the other, with a quarter-inch hole in the big end. On these labels a number or name may be stamped, or the name of 570 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. the fruit written with ink prepared as above, or with a soft lead pencil, which latter is remarkably permanent, though not very conspicuous. The danger of cutting trees by attaching labels by wires is so great that it should be guarded against; the label is broken off, or forgotten, or unnoticed, and by the growth of the stem or limb it is nearly cut off by the wire. With these labels that difficulty is obviated. The zine strip is bent around a limb, loosely, and the pointed end tucked through the hole and clinched, SECTION XXXVI—THE ART OF PRUNING, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING, > RAFTING, budding, pruning, are all arts that must be acquired, like any other art or work of skill. A pruner must understand why he prunes, and never cut a limb without first being fully aware of the effect. Yet pruning is mostly done at random— a limb here and a limb there is cut away, the top lessened, and that isall. The fruitfulness of the tree is not improved, and its looks as a systematic work, such as nature builds, most decidedly injured. It is idle for any man of common sense to employ an itinerant pruner. They are often ignorant of the first principles of the art, and generally do more harm than good. If you doubt it, ask this question of one when he is about to cut off a limb: “ What for?” If he can an- swer that to your satisfaction, he possibly understands his business, provided you can answer the question yourself, This is the true law of pruning, Never suffer a tree to go unpruned that needs it, and never cut away a limb without first asking and answering that question—what for? If you understand the art, you may have a tree of any desired form, and always of handsome shape. The great feature of this was cutting back very short the first year’s growth. Never plant a tree with a full top. Pruning in autumn makes the strongest trees or vines. Spring pruning produces the most fruit. A weak-growing tree should always be trimmed in autumn. 637. The Right Time for Pruning.—The right time is in the growing season —the time when wounds heal the most readily. The time to begin is the first year of growth in the nursery; not to trim up sprouts to grow whip- stalks, but to shape the trees just as nature intended the particular species to grow. If an apple-tree, a short bole with a round, symmetrical head; if a pear-tree, a somewhat longer bole, with a top shaped like a well-formed, slim haystack. A peach-tree may be grown with a single short bole and a very open-branching top, or it may be branched from the ground by cut- a So. 36.] THE ART OF PRUNING, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING. 571 ting away the top of the young shoot the first year—a plan that we prefer. A quince-bush should always be grown in that way, branching from the root; and it always looks to us like forcing nature to prune a currant-bush into the form of a tree. A dwarf pear-tree should be pruned from the start to form a pyramid or sharp cone. Look at the extinguisher of your candle for a pattern. Cherry-trees do not need nor bear much pruning, except to eut away the winter-killed ends of limbs, and that should be done to all trees, As a general rule in pruning, study symmetry ; it is the first law of beauty ; if you can not see it otherwise, try it upon yourself. Lop off a right ear, a left eye, a right hand, and so on, just as some pruners do the symmetrical beauties of a tree. In pruning all sorts of fruit-trees, keep ‘“ What for?” constantly before your eyes. The answer is, to increase their productive- ness. This can not be done by cutting away many healthy limbs, but by disentangling them, so as to let in the light and air to the center of the branches. 638. Over-Pruning.—There is a tendency to over-prune among all amateur fruit-growers, and more particularly among all who are just beginning to grow ornamental shrubs and trees. There is no practice that needs reform more than this one. There is no quicker way of spoiling such trees than this injudicious over-pruning. There is not one forest-tree in ten that will bear the eternal clipping to which some are subjected. Autumn appears to be the most favorite time for this sort of vandalism. There is nothing like the let-alone system, and above all for all sorts of evergreen-trees. With very little assistance, nature will do all the pruning that is required. Use the knife and shears only to assist nature, when trees are brought into un- natural situations. Of evergreens, do not cut away the lower limbs till you make your tree look like a big broom with the handle stuck in the ground. In all pruning of fruit or ornamental trees, or shrub or vines, do not make a eut till you think what for, with what object, and what will be the effect. This is always necessary to prevent over-pruning. 639. Objections to Spring Pruning.—There never was a more certain truth uttered than the following words of the editor of the Wew England Farmer, who is not only a practical farmer, but one who never does a thing without first answering the question, ‘“‘ What for?” to the satisfaction of his own reason, and therefore is more entitled to attention than a mere utterer of dog- matisins. He says: “Never prune an apple-tree in the months of March, April, or May. All the borers in the world do not commit half the havoc in our orchards that the pruning-knife and saw do, applied at the wrong season of the year. In the spring the sap is abundant, thin, and active, and where limbs are taken off, it passes through the pores of the wood to the surface, and coming in contact with the atmosphere, becomes bitter and acrid, rnns down the bark and poisons it, so that it is often killed quite into the wood. This is what causes most of the black lines so often seen upon apple-trees, which fre- quently causes their death.” 572 THE ORCHARD. [Cnar. VI. 640. Objections to late Autumn Pruning.—William S. Carpenter, of West- chester County, N. Y., has devoted much attention to the cultivation of fruit, and he says: “There is no time so good as midsummer to prune all sorts of fruit-trees, and no worse time than late in autumn. That is rather worse than early spring. I am an advocate for pruning young trees in sum- mer with the thumb and finger, or a pocket-knife, so constantly and regu- larly that they will never require the saw. If that must be used, let it be applied in midsummer. With me that course is the most successful. In planting trees, apple or pear, I dig two feet deep and six feet wide, and fill the hole with good soil, and set the tree nearly level with the surface, and never use manure. I make the earth very fine, and am careful in setting them. In budding pears upon quince, set them on very short stalks. A dwarf pear set upon a quince stalk a foot high is almost worthless. It will be quite so if not carefully pruned.” Another practical fruit-culturist gives the following: 641. Practical Directions about Pruning.—‘ Trimming is now reduced to a system. By dwarfing various kinds of trees, such as the pear on the quince stock, we are enabled to train it and keep it within our reach, and make it both ornamental and useful. The most approved form is the pyramidal. In order to form a perfect pyramid, we should encourage the tree to branch near the ground, and train the side branches so that they will be regularly distributed along the body. To effect this, summer pruning or pinching must be resorted to. Having as many side branches as we desire, we may continue its shape by pinching off the laterals from the side branches when they have grown to about three inches in length, taking care to leave these laterals about one inch long after you have pinched them; these will again push and grow, and must be treated as before. This method of sum- mer pruning will check its woody growth and force it to expend its energies in fruit-bearing, and at the same time increase the size and quality of the fruit. For standard or orchard trees, a different treatment must be prac- ticed. For these, but little pruning is necessary, beginning when the trees are young, and annually going over the orchard. Cutting ont all suckers and crowded branches, you avoid the necessity of cutting off large limbs in after years—a practice that should always be avoided. I have seen whole orchards nearly destroyed by this injudicious pruning. A limb should never be cut from a tree when more than two inches in diameter. Pruning should never be done except late in the spring or in midsummer. I would never prune a tree in winter. A limb eut off when full of frost will cause the wound to crack and split, thereby admitting the air into its wound, which will soon cause it to decay. It is to be regretted that so little atten- tion is paid to the orchard. It is quite common to see suckers growing around the bodies of trees until they are nearly hid from view, their branches covered With moss, and putting on altogether a stunted and neglected appearance. You come to the conclusion that the owner of such an orchard does not think that fruit-growing is profitable. The wonder is Sxo. 36.] THE ART OF PRUNING, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING. 573 that such trees bear at all. But they will make an effort, as it is natural for all fruit-trees to reproduce, but the specimens will be miserably small and deficient in flavor. If we desire good fruit, an orchard that will pay, trees that will delight us and our friends, we must do something for them. We must clear away all suckers, scrape off all the old rough bark and moss that have been the safe abiding-places for the destructive insect, and then ‘with a solution of potash and water wash the trunks and limbs of the trees. If the orchard is yet young, plow it and put on a good top dressing of ma- nure, and then cultivate a crop of potatoes, or corn, or any other crop that will require thorough tillage; follow this practice for a few years, and you will find it will most effectually renovate your orchard, and you will be made to acknowledge that fruit-growing is profitable, and that your orchard is your dependence and delight, and you will be found encouraging your neighbors to plant, and thus extend this delightful branch of industry.” 642. Root-Pruning.—Root-pruning is apt to induce fruitfulness where the tree is making a too rapid growth, and pruning during the growing season in June will accomplish a similar result. Putting a wire around a branch of the grapevine so as to obstruct the flow of sap, will improve the quality. Root-pruning is to check the too rapid growth of wood. The result of ring- ing the vine is the same, and that enlarges the fruit. Various methods have been proposed for making fruit-trees bear early. As a general thing, it is not best to force trees into early fruitfulness, as it is necessary that they should have time to make a good and substantial growth, and obtain a proper form to bear, in after years, the strong demand made upon the vitality of the tree by successive crops. Root-pruning tends to in- duce a slower growth and more solid ripe wood, and checks the tendency to over-bearing, which always injures the young tree. 643. Grafting and Budding.—It is easy for any one to learn.to graft, but to be a skillful grafter or budder requires a steady hand and a good deal of practice. No farmer—indeed, no person having an interest in a garden spot—should neglect to learn how to perform both operations skillfully, because it is the true way of propagating almost all choice fruits. It is an art which women can practice as well as men. It has been practiced from a very remote time, as we have accounts of it in the earliest printed books. The proper time of grafting fruit-trees is in the spring, as soon as the sea- son is warm enough to put the sap in motion. This period comes earlier with the cherry and plum than it does with the apple and pear. In this vicinity apple-grafting often continues till the last of May in backward sea- sons. The best time is when April showers are prevalent, but the scions must have been previously cut. They may be cut and buried in autumn, or stored in a dry, cool cellar, with the lower ends in sand or dry soil. Tor scions, cut the thrifty wood of the last season’s growth from bearing limbs— not water sprouts. Those shoots found near the top or center of the head of an old tree are preferred by grafters. Never cut scions from sickly trees or 574 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar VI. branches. Scions from young trees are apt to grow most vigorously, and we prefer them from the upright branches. Stocks for grafting, if not grown on the spot, should be transplanted to the nursery at least a year previous to being used, as there is not usually vigor enough in a tree to recuperate its own powers and grow a graft the same seasou it is transplanted. 644. Grafting an Old Orchard, with the design of giving trees entire new heads, is practiced as follows: Commence the summer previous to cut away the old tops freely. Next spring set the grafts, cutting away all that is necessary to give them room, and free sunlight and air. Next spring, go over the trees about the first of June, and pull off all the suckers, particu- larly around the grafis, and eut off any limbs that interfere with their growth. We advise a side branch left upon each limb that has a graft in its end, to aid in keeping up a healthy circulation. Indeed, branching limbs should always be selected in grafting an old tree. Watch the growth of the grafts during the second summer, which is sometimes very rapid, and may reach overhanging limbs; in which case, cut them away. In June or July, after the grafts are two years old, nearly or quite all the old top may be removed, and, if necessary, the grafts trimmed slightly, to put the top into the right course of forming a new, handsomely shaped top. 645. Cleft Grafting is the mode practiced in putting a new top to an old tree. That is, a large limb, or one perhaps two or three inches diameter, is split by driving a strong knife or chisel in the end just sawed off, and the cleft held open by a wooden wedge, driven in the center, while the scions are sharpened and inserted in the edges of the cleft, so that the bark of graft and stock exactly fit, and then the wedge is withdrawn, and the end of the limb covered with grafting-wax. 646. Splice Grafting is practiced when the stock and graft are of equal size, by cutting the stock with a sharp knife scarfing upward, and the scion downward, so that the two will fit an inch or two together, the edges of the bark exactly corresponding, and then the two are tied together with bass matting, or woolen yarn, if the former can not be had, and covered over with grafiing-wax, or grafting clay, which by some is preferred. Some grafters spread their wax on strips of cotton cloth, and wind that around, and stick fast the end or tie it. Watch must be kept after the graft is grow- ing vigorously, that whatever is tied around does not get too tight before it is cut off. 647. Tongue Grafting is much like splice grafting, except that a shoulder or sort of cleft is cut at the bottom of the scarf on the stock, and the point of the scion eut to fit in it, or else the notch is ent in the upper end of the scarf, and the scion shaped to fit. By this mode small grafts can be set upon large stocks, or four can be set upon a stock so as to form a four- branched head, if ali grow. All that is necessary is to see that there is some point of contact of scion and stock, and that the inner bark of one exactly fits the other; the more the better, but the graft may live with a very Szo. 36.] THE ART OF PRUNING, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING. 575 small point in connection, if carefully fastened and covered. The covering should be removed about the middle of July. If clay is used, remove the ball after a rainy day. Care should be used, in cutting a scion, to have a bud come close down to the top of the stock. 648. Root Grafting is much practiced by nurserymen, the scions and roo's both being stored in autumn, and the work done in winter, by splitting the end of a root and inserting the scion, and laying these away in a cellar till spring, when they are planted out; the joint being entirely covered, no wax is used. Farmers may do the same. Sometimes roots are grafted while attached to the tree, by digging them up and cutting off an end and insert- ing the graft, and then putting the root back, with the end of the graft ont of the ground. When it is a year old, a section of the root is dug up and transplanted. 649. Saddle Grafting, which is done by cutting the stock to a wedge, and splitting the scion, is particularly recommended for cherry-trees, because it gives a larger surface of union. Sometimes one leg of the scion is fitted so as to insert between the bark and wood of the stock, while the other leg is brouglit down and fitted upon a scarf on that side of the stock. ~ 650. New Method of Grafting.—Horace Everett, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, writes us about a method of grafting common in Tennessee, that may be worth knowing in other localities, and which he says is not described in any fruit-book that he has read. The following are the directions : “A long, smooth shoot or limb is selected, cut from the tree, and a sharp iron wedge driven through the limb, every four or five inches. Upon with- drawing the wedge, the graft is inserted, allowing the shaved end to extend an inch or s» through, so that when a graft had been inserted in every split, the limb looked like a long stick, with the grafts extending from it at right angles, 2 shoot of four feet having about twelve grafts. This stick or limb was then buried in the ground, the top of the grafts only being allowed to come above the surface. During the year the grafts took root, and grew from twelve to thirty-six inches. The next fall the limb was taken up and sawed apart between the grafts, thus leaving every graft with a portion of the limb adhering to it in the shape of a cross. I planted these grafts, and the trees grew and throve well. It is certainly a very cheap and economical stock for grafting.” 651. Natural Grafting—We give the following reported fact for the encouragement of farmers who may happen to entertain any doubts upon the practicability of grafting: “There,is a white oak tree, of fine healthy growth, standing near Robin- son’s Coal-Oil Works, in Perry County, Ohio, on which, at fifty-five feet from the ground, is engrafted a black oak top of lofty and vigorous growth. It is about two feet in diameter at the usual hight of Gatting trees, and the -body stock is fourteen inches at the grafted portion, and the black oak imme- diately above it at once enlarges to twenty-two inches.” THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. The joining is perfect, and both above and below the limbs are true to the stock from which they spring. What freak nature performed in setting the graft is only to be imagined; its condition should admonish every one who owns fruit-trees to set grafts. . Antiquity of Grafting.—There is a style of grafting called the Aristotle graft, and also the Pliny graft. This shows the great antiquity of grafting. The Tschuda graft is another curious style of grafting, and by the process tomatoes are grafted upon potato vines, selecting stalks of the same size, and cutting both mth a knife as sharp as a picen chee per, if possible—the join- ing being bound together with a ligature, and the plant shaded until the two unite. It will then grow tomatoes above and potatoes below. An ancient writer speaks of grafting cultivated grapevines upon wild ones with success. 653. Grafting Clay and Wax.—Clay used to cover grafts is made by mix- ing one part of pure horse-dung with two parts of clay and a little plaster- ers’ hair. It must be very thoroughly worked several days before required, and made very plastic when used, by heating and tempering. Grafting-wax, which is made of three parts of beeswax, three parts of rosin, and two parts of tallow, melted together, and worked while warm by the hands in water, is much neater, and more convenient, and not much more expensive than clay, where only a little work is to be done. Where large limbs or wounds are to be covered, of course clay will be the cheapest. Grafting-wax is sometimes composed of six parts rosin, one part beeswax, and one part tallow; but this, we should think, would be too hard for cool weather. French grafting-wax is made of half a pound of pitch, half a pound of beeswax, a pound of cow-dung, boiled together, and spread on the graft, while hot, with a brush. Another sort is made of equal parts of beeswax, rosin, and turpentine (crude pitch), and spread on cloth or paper, to be used in strips wrapped about the graft. The most common American grafting-wax, and the cheapest, and easiest remembered and made, is composed of rosin, tallow, and beeswax, in equal parts, melted, and worked in water; if it is nected ": a softer texture, it is made so by increasing the proportion of tallow. Prof. Mapes gives ane following formula for making grafting-wax: Take Canada balsam one pound, clean beeswax one pound, and boil together and knead into a putty consistency, or keep in a kettle, to be warmed as wanted for use, and put on with a brash. It is very convenient, when spread thin upon cloth or paper, to be cut in strips for use, and its great advantage over any other material is that it will adhere to a wet surface. This is sometimes of great advantage, as the composition my be used to cover wounds in va- rious plants. “- 654. Preservation of Grafis.—Grafts packed in pure sawdust of any sweet. wood, it is said, will keep fifteen months. Moss for packing should be put Sxo. 36.] THE ART OF PRUNING, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING. 577 up slightly damp. Grafts set in crab-apple stocks, thorn stocks, or any other wild shrubs, generally produce one result—lost labor. The greatest advan- tage we ever found in setting grafts in such stocks was in preserving them over one season, in a new country, where apple stocks ordered failed to ar- rive in time to set the grafts. 655. What Influence has the Stock on the Graft?—Perhaps the only answer needed to this question is, ‘‘ None whatever.” And this is true, if the stock is of a character suited to grow the scion engrafted into it. An apple should be engrafted into a stock of similar texture to the scion to form a good tree. That is, a scion from a free growing tree engrafted upon a wild crab-apple may live, but it never will do well, because the graft outgrows the stock, but it has no influence upon the fruit. So it is with pears engrafted upon quince, which dwarfs the growth of the tree, but does not affect the fruit either in size or flavor, though the productiveness is increased; but that is owing to the obstruction in the descending sap when it reaches the stock, thus forcing more into the fruit-buds and limbs bearing fruit. Another influence that a stock has upon a graft is to enable us to produce fruit from a semi-tender plant, by engrafting it upon a hardy native; as the peach upon plum or almond, the pear upon quince or mountain ash, or fine plums upon wild stocks, or foreign grapes upon native vines. Make it a rule never to engraft anything upon a diseased stock ; not that it is likely to influence the fruit, except so far as it will affect the scion and make it unhealthy. It is asserted that a diseased graft will communicate the same malady to the stock, so that a shoot springing from the stock below the union will show the same symptoms that affect the graft. 656. Budding is a mode of engrafting which can be practiced after the season for grafting is past. The budding season does not commence until after the leaves have grown and the bark will slip. Then a bud of the pres- ent season’s growth is neatly cut from a thrifty shoot, avoiding double buds, which are fruit-buds, and the leaves being cut off, leaving half an inch of the foot-stalk to hold the bud by, it is set in a slit made in the bark of the stock, by a T-shaped cut, and loosening up the edges with the flat bone handle of the budding-knife. Some persons remove the wood cut from the: stick with the bud, and some insert it. After pressing the bud as far down in the slit as you can, cut off the upper end even with the cross-cut of ihe slit, and tie strips of soaked bass matting around to keep all snug. If the bud lives, it will look plump two weeks after it is set, and in four weeks will need to have the bandage loosened, or perhaps removed. Late buds may not have to be loosened till spring, and at tnat time the limb of the stock budded niust be cut away, and the bud goes on to form a new limb, or the whole tree, if a single stock was budded. Some trees do not grow buds as readily as others, and such may be tied with a band above and one below. The latter being first removed, allows the bud to grow, while the upper one checks the flow of sap up the stock 37 578 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI, two or three weeks longer. All buds must be watched and untied at the proper time, Another method of budding is called annular budding, and consists in cutting two rings around the stock, and taking off a ring of bark, a quarter or half inch wide, and filling its place by a strip taken from a budding shoot containing a bud, which will grow if the bark adheres, which it is likely to do if carefully tied and the joints covered with wax or clay. This mode is sometimes practiced to save mice-eaten trees. Many other kinds of trees and shrubs are propagated by budding, as well as fruit-trees. 657. Use of Bass Matting in Budding.—Bass matting is imported and used extensively in place of our native stock, we suppose, because people do not generally know how easy it is to prepare the bark for use. It is simply to take the whole bark of the bass-wood, or linden-tree, as it peels from the troes when the sap flows freely, say about June in this latitude, and sink it under water until the liber (inner bark) will peel and separate easily from the coarse bark. This soft, tough substance is then dried and stored away for future use, and the purposes to which it can be applied are almost num- berless. In budding it is almost indispensable, being one of the very best and cheapest articles for tying the buds in the stock. 658. Uses of Shellac and Colledion in Grafting.—Gum-shellac, or seed-lac, © dissolved in alcohol, is kept constantly on hand by some orchardists, and used to seal the ends of cuttings or accidental wounds in trees, or to cover tle stumps of large limbs pruned off at a time when they are liable to decay. The following method of preparing shellac is recommended as superior to that dissolved in alcohol, which will sometimes peel off. Take an ordinary glue-pot, which is in a water-bath, and put therein one part of spirits of ammonia (hartshorn) and eight parts of water; bring them to nearly the boiling-point; put in shellac gradually, until the whole is about the consistency of varnish, stirring all the while; when entirely dis- solved, take it from the fire, and continue stirring until it is cool ; then bottle, and keep for use. This makes an entirely waterproof coating, and in sum- mer pruning may be applied to the ends of the limbs with decided advantage. For all trees that exude gum, like the cherry, peach, plum, and many forest and ornamental trees, it is extremely useful when applied to all wounds and cuts, as it keeps out the water and allows the wood to heal quickly. Shellac can not be dissolved in water alone. The ammonia in the mixture dissolves it, and afierward evaporates, leaving nothing but shellac and water, which can not in any way be injurious. Seed-lac is about as good; it is certainly cheaper. , The above mixture forms an elastic covering, which is much better than shellac dissolved in alcohol. It must not be made in an iron kettle; it will not mix well. Use copper, zine, or tin. It is said that shellac may be dissolved in alcohol; then add water and Szo. 37.] APPLE AND PEACII TREES, ETC. 579 boil till the alcohol is evaporated, and it will make a coating that will not peel off; but a solution of an:mounia is undoubtedly best, and should be used whenever procurable. Some persons paint the wound or cut with white lead in oil, which, if thickly applied, answers very well. So would a coat of tallow, or covering of clay. A coating of dissolved shellac is sometimes used in cleft-grafting large limbs, instead of wax or clay. Collodion is made by dissolving gun-cotton in ether. It is sometimes called “liquid cuticle,” as it may be spread over an abrasion of the skin and form a substitute, perfectly impervious to air and water. This substance is excellent for all wounds, particularly slight burns, to shut out the air, and is invaluable and perfectly efficacious to prevent pits from small-pox. In England it has been applied to the purpose of preserving cuttings of plants, by dipping the end in the solution, which completely shuts up the moisture in the wood, so that they are more than twice as likely to live as when leit unprotected. It is an excellent thing to apply to wounds in deli- cate plants, is not very expensive, and is sold by druggists generally. The Imperial Journal of Horticulture, Paris, gives an article upon a new mode of grafting or budding. This method may be employed at any time of the year, provided the buds are cut at the right season and preserved. A little piece of wood is taken off when the bark will not peel, and the bud fitted and sealed over immediately with collodion. None but large, strong buds sheuld be used. SECTION XXXVII—APPLE AND PEACH TREES; THEIR GENERAL MANAGEMENT—CHOICE KINDS OF APPLES. HAT apples shall we cultivate? is a question of much importance. The short answer to this ques- tion, for farmers- who grow them principally for their own use, and with a view to sell the surplus to their neighbors or nearest village, without mak- ing a regular business of putting up apples for’ market, is this: you should select such as will give you a succession of fruit, from the very earliest summer apple to such as will keep sound till July. We can not give you a list that will suit all sec- tions, but for the vicinity of New York the follow- ing short list has been recommended by a committee of gentlemen who gave the subject careful consid- i eration, and who say: “The chief object in making this selection has been to guard the inex- 580 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. perienced cultivator against the errors so-often made when the lists of the nurserymen are the only guide. Many young orchardists buy everything recommended in the fruit-books and catalogues, and find, after years of careful cultivation, that a large portion of their trees are worthless, and the fruit of the remainder of but little value. Some fruits of the first considera- tion in one locality are worthless in another, and some trees are productive on one soil and barren on another. “This frequently involves the necessity of regrafting, causing years of delay and labor without reward, until in many cases patience becomes exhausted. As an instance, the Virgalieu pear, in western New York and most of the Western States, is probably without a superior; while here and on the sea-coast generally, it is only an incumbrance to the ground. The same may be said of many other though less known varieties. “Tn making this selection, we do not wish to be understood to discourage amateurs from planting any, or even all, the old varieties that the catalogues pronounce good, neither do we wish to discourage efforts to originate new kinds; but we do say, from our own experience, that, in this locality, we believe the list here recommended will prove satisfactory—that all these sorts, with proper cultivation, will be productive, and that none will require regrafting. ff Many persons will probably think, on reading this report, that better sorts have been omitted, and some of the committee will concur in this opinion ; but they beg leave to say that while they have left out such fine varieties of apples as the Northern Spy, the Swaar, Pennock’s Red, Newtown Pippin, Vandevere, Pearmain, Smith’s Beauty of Newark, Hubbardstown Nonsuch, ete., all could not be included without making too long a list, and that some of them are only superior in their native localities. Some have been proved inferior here, and others have not yet been proved at all. The same may be said also of all lists of pears, plums, and other fruits.” 659. Select List of Apples—The following is their list of apples: Summer Apples.—Early Bough (sweet), Early Harvest (acid), American Summer Pearmain, Summer Rose, Strawberry. Autumn—Autumn Bough, Gravenstein, Hawley, Fall Pippin, Porter, Jersey Sweeting. Winter.—Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Jonathan, Monmouth Pippin, ‘Spitzenberg (Esopus), Tallinan’s Sweeting, King of Tompkins County, English Russet. The ed Astracan apple we consider one of the very best early varieties. The Strawberry apple is also a very choice one, and the most fragrant of all. Its peculiar aromatic quality and its beauty should commend it, even though it were not, as it is, an apple of most excellent flavor. We believe it is rather a shy bearer. The Jersey Sweeting we think one of the best sweet apples ever grown. The Vandevere apple is a great favorite with some farmers. William Lawton, of New Rochelle, has a tree that is over 100 years old, perhaps 150 Sxc. 87.] APPLE AND PEACH TREES, ETO. ELLE le Oe eee years, which bore, in 1860, at least twenty bushels of apples. The tree is still very healthy, and several feet in diameter. The branches have spread very wide and high. He also has a tree of the same age, very large, sound, and healthy, ealled the Grandfather apple. The Aviag of Tompkins County we suppose has been or can be over- praised, but it is a very good apple, large, fair, and of a mild, pleasant acid flavor. It is larger, more mellow, but less pungent than the Spztzenberg, which is our “king” apple. The tree is said to be a free bearer, and to have many other good qualities which we are acquainted with at second hand only. The apple is very showy, of a color shaded between red and yellow, and is said to have sold in New York at $6 to $7 per barrel. It will not supplant the established favorites, but we think it may wisely be tried along with them by those who may now or hereafter be putting out an orchard. The Worthern Spy is a very highly praised apple, and one that usually com- mands the highest price, but in this vicinity it proves a very shy bearer; so much so that we can not recommend it for general cultivation, though a most valuable apple, particularly in spring. It originated as a seedling in East Bloomfield, N. Y. The trees grow slowly, and only bear well when fully matured. They grow best upon clayey loam. The Vorton Melon is an- other remarkably fine apple, which originated in the same locality. There is a great want of attention to the difference in soil in planting trees. What will succeed in one location utterly fails in others. John Buckholder, of Adams County, Pa., sent us some specimens of an excellent apple, common in that section of the State, which is not known , here. It is a medium-sized, red streak, roundish form, very white flesh, and delicious flavor, and is a good autumn apple, and keeps well in winter. The Gifford apple ripens in harvest-time, and is of fine size and excellent quality. It is a variety not well known, but one highly recommended. The following early apples are recommended by R. Peters, of Atlanta, Ga., as very well suited to that region: Yellow May.—Size small, ripe the last of May; valuable for its being the earliest known variety. It is extensively grown in southern Virginia for shipment to the New York market. Tree a slow grower, but productive. Red Astracan.—Size, medium to large ; ripe early in June; an apple of great beauty and fair quality; valuable for market purposes, its crimson color and rich bloom making it very attractive. Tree, a good grower and productive. Early Harvest.—Size, above medium; ripe early in June; one of our best early apples, of fine quality; valuable for the table and for cooking. Tree, rather a poor grower, but an abundant bearer. ved June.—Size, over medium ; ripe the middle of June; a well-known and truly popular Southern apple, valuable for all purposes. Tree, a fair grower, and a regular bearer. Yellow June. Size large; ripe from the middle to last of June. 582 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. The following are the names of Indian seedling apples which flourish at the South: Tillaquah.—tThe original tree of this magnificent fruit is still growing some four miles from Franklin, N. C. It is so great a favorite with all who pass the road, that but few remain on the tree to thoroughly ripeng Its name signifies “ big fruit.” Toccoa.—This apple was found in the orchard of Jeremiah Taylor, an old Revolutionary soldier living near the celebrated Toccoa Falls, in Habersham County, Ga. It ripens in August; is a very delicious, high-flavored fruit. Toccoa, when rendered in the English language, means “ beautiful.” Cullasaga.—lIs a seedling from the Horse-apple, raised by Miss Ann Bry- son, who resides on the bank of the Cullasaga, or Sugartown fork of the Tennessee River, in Macon County, N. C.; is a very aromatic, early winter apple. Its name signifies “sweet water,” or “sugar water,” and is pro- nounced cullasajah. Yahoola.—Was found growing on the banks of an old gold-pit near Ya- hoola Creek, a large stream in Lumpkin County, Ga., and was brought into notice by Wm. Martin, Esq., of Dahlonega, who informs us it is a desirable winter variety. The meaning of its name we do not know. Chestoa.—Takes its name from its resemblance to a rabbit’s head, being conical oblong in form, with one side near the calyx, jutting over the other like a rabbit’s nose. The Lellefleur in some localities is a very favorite apple, and in New York it always sells well. The Vewtown Pippin is one of the most favorite sorts grown by those who make a business of growing apples as a regular farm crop. It has been stated that Robert L. Pell, of Ulster County, N. Y., has 20,000 Newtown Pippin apple-trees. We have heard him say that some of his‘ early ship- ments to England sold at $20 a barrel, and in New York frequently at $7. Downing, in speaking of this apple, says: “The Newtown Pippin stands at the head of all apples, and is, when in perfection, acknowledged to be unrivaled in all the qualities which constitute a high-flavored dessert apple, to which it combines the quality of long keeping without the least shrivel- ing, retaining its high flavor to the last. It is very largely raised in New York and New Jersey for exporation, and commands the highest price in Covent Garden Market, London. This variety is a native of Newtown, Long Island, and it requires a pretty strong, deep, warm soil to attain its full perfection, and in the orchard it should be well manured every two or three years. For this reason, while it is planted by acres in orchards in New York and the Middle States, it is rarely raised in large quantities or with much success in New England. On the Hudson, thousands of barrels of the fairest and richest Newtown Pippins are constantly produced. The tree is of rather slender and slow growth, and even while young is always remarkable for its rough bark, “Fruit of medium size, roundish, a little irregular in its outline, caused by two or three obscure ribs on the sides, and broadest at the base, next the stalk; about three inches in diameter, and two and a half deep. =s Seo. 37.] APPLE AND PEACH TREES, ETC. 583 “Skin dull green, becoming olive green when ripe, with a faint, dull brownish blush on one side, dotted with small gray specks and with delicate russet rays around the stalk. Calyx quite small and closed; set in a narrow and shallow basin. Stalk half an inch long, rather slender, deeply sunk in a wide funnel-shaped eavity. Flesh greenish-white, very juicy, crisp, with a fine aroma and an exceedingly delicious flavor. When the fruit is not grown on healthy trees, it is liable to be spotted with black spots. This is one of the finest keeping apples, and is in eating from December to May, but is in the finest perfection in March. “The Yellow Newtown Pippin strongly resembles the foregoing, and it is difficult tosay which is the superior fruit. The Yellow is handsomer, and has a higher perfume than the Green, and its flesh is rather firmer and equally high flavored; while the Green is more juicy, crisp, and tender. The Yellow Newtown Pippin is rather flatter, measuring only about two inches deep, and it is always quite oblique, projecting more on one side of the stalk than the other. When fully ripe, it is yellow, with a rather lively red cheek, or a smooth skin, and few or none of the spots on the Green variety, but with the same russet marks at the stalk. It is also more highly fragrant before and after it is cut than the Green. The flesh is firm, crisp, juicy, and with a very rich and high flavor. Both the Newtown Pippins grow alike, and they are both excellent bearers. This variety is rather hardier, and succeeds best in the Eastern States. We have kept the fruit until the 4th of July.” Excellent, however, as this variety is, we would not recommend a farmer to plant a large orchard of Pippins unless he was so situated that he could ship the fruit to New York, because other sorts are more popular in other cities—the Baldwin, for instance, in Boston. Care must be taken, too, in buying trees, to get real Newtown Pippins, if that is the object, as there are about a dozen kinds of that name, one variety being strictly an autumn apple. Probably the best plan to adopt in making a selection for a new orchard is to examine carefully what sorts succeed best in that vicinity, if there are any orchards of improved fruit—of various sorts—in the neighborhood, and if not, go where there are such upon similar soil to your own, similarly located as to hight, exposure, distance from water, salt or fresh, in great bodies, and all other circumstances calculated to influence the growth of the trees and ripening of the fruit, since it is a certain fact that kinds which succeed admirably in one place, utterly fail in others. We have seen some of the “Indian Apples,” as the native sorts are called, growing finely in several of the Southern States, while those from the North failed entirely. As a general rule, in planting an orchard upon the rich soils of the prairies, we would select sorts of trees of the slowest growth. An idea of the varieties of apples known may be gathered from the statement that the London Horticultural Society have nearly 1,500, and this of course dues not include many of the seedlings of this country, where new 584 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. soris are constantly springing up, some of which flourish many years in the neighborhood where they originated without being known anywhere else. This is the case with the Kirtland apple, one of the best keeping apples of good flavor known to orchardists. It originated about the beginning of this century in Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y. The Baker apple is another in the same category; a large, handsome, red apple, of excellent quality, originating and known many years in Ridgefield, Conn., before it was heard of anywhere else. Indeed, there are numbers of such cases all over the country, besides the known varieties, which are so numerous that we can not say definitely what sorts shall be cultivated most profitably. 660. The Use of Apples—Apples for Stock.—The use of apples for food is hardly sufficiently appreciated. In short, no farmer can afford to do with- out an orchard that will furnish his family, including all his laborers, all that they can eat, because nothing that grows upon the farm affords such cheap food, nor anything that will keep his family in better health. Six months of the year we usually have baked apples upon our table every day, and almost every meal. Apples carefully dried and well cooked afford an excellent condiment for all meals, and apples cooked in almost any form really afford very hearty food. And who that was born upon, or even lived upon, a New England farm, in the “ good old olden time,” can forget the winter store of “apple-sauce,” made of boiled sweet apple-cider, and partly sweet and partly mild, sour apples cooked in the cider, with quinces enough to give their peculiar flavor ? Apples for stock are not sufficiently appreciated. There is no feed that will make fatting pigs grow so fast as sweet apples or cooked sour ones, and if corn is fed a short time before killing, there will be no complaint about the pork not being hard. In Westchester County, in 1860, the apple crop was very large; and as it had not been so before for many years, there was a scarcity of cider-mills, so that all the apples could not be ground up for that purpose, and many people fed them to cattle, and those who kept cows for milk-dairies found that apples increased the quantity very largely. It is probable that they would not much increase the product of butter. A milch cow will consume a bushel a day. Farmers certainly do not consult their own interest while neglecting so important a source of profit and comfort as a good orchard. If your old one is not good, employ a grafter. If that is not convenient, graft them your- selves. You can doit, and by that means make that portion of land covered with fruit-trees a source of more profit, with less expense, than any other portion. You must keep trees sufficiently pruned, and now and then draw manure to the roots of the trees; and if they are not in a thriving con- dition, scrape the bark with a sharp hoe, and wash them with solution of potash or caustic soda, and do all that is necessary, and then it is easier to grow apples than wheat and corn. Let the hogs root around the trees; it will do them good, and is better than plowing, aud it is much easier to feed Sec. 37.{ APPLE AND PEACH TREES, ETC. 585 your pigs upon apples than it is upon grain, which you can only grow by hard toil. Try it. Try also the value of apples fed to other stock. Even poultry will thrive finely upon boiled apples, with a very small quantity of grain or meal mixed with them. Try to get better sorts in your old or- chards for eating or for selling. Even for feeding stock, it costs no more to grow good apples than it does poor ones. 661. How to Grow Large Fruit.—A friend in Illinois writes us that he grows apples of twenty ounces weight each. One man near Alton averages ‘$1,500 a year, net income, from his orchards. Apples in that State generally grow much larger than the same sorts do in the Eastern States, and we have seen specimens from Oregon and California which show more than double the size of the originals. As this increase of growth is owing to the great richness of soil, it behooves us here to consider whether it would not be profitable to make the soil of our orchards better. A correspondent of the Gardener’s Gazette says fruits may be raised about one third larger than usual, of improved quality, by supporting them so they shall not hang thet whole weight upon the stock, or twist about in the wind. When fruit is allowed to hang naturally, the increasing weight strains the stem and lessens the quantity of nutritious food flowing to the fruit. It may be supported either by tying to a branch with a piece of string, or by inclosing it in a small net. Flowers, such as dahlias or peonies, may also be rendered much larger by this system. We do not suppose any one is going to adopt this plan upon a large scale, but he may do so very well with a few choice specimens for curiosity, if nothing more, and just to show how fruit can be made to attain a greater size. 662. The Natural Form of Various Apple-Trees.—The following state- ment about the natural forms of apple-trees comes from a committee of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, which says: “Tn ascertaining the habits of growth of various trees of the several popular varieties of apples that are largely cultivated in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, we have taken our own experience as a starting-point, and then added to this such additioval information as we have been able to obtain from other members of this Society. The result of our labors is the following classification : “Of an Upright Conical Growth—Benoni, Early Strawberry, Golden Russet, Early Sweet Bough, Lady Apple, Pryor’s Red, Northern Spy, Tal- man’s Sweeting. “Of an Upright Growth, but with a Round Head.—Red Astracan, White Pippin, Alexander Kaighn’s Spitzenberg, Michael Henry Pippin, Drap d’Or, Bohannan, Belmont, Raules’ Janette, Fall Wine, Rambo, Rome Beauty, Summer Rose, High Top Sweet, Myer’s Nonpareil, Fall Pippin, and Porter. “With Spreading Limbs and Round Head.—Smith’s Cider, Maiden Blush, Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, Newtown Pippin, Tulpehocken, Winesap, Broad- 586 THE ORCHARD. [Caar. VI. well’s Sweet, Gravenstein, Jersey Sweeting, Hubbardstown Nonsuch, Bel- mont, Vandevere. “Of a Drooping, Pendent Form—Head Symmetrical.—Y ellow Belle- fleur, Pennock, Rhode Island Greening, Newark Pippin, and Fall Pippin. “Of a Pendent, Drooping Form—Head Loose, or Straggling and Open. —Ortley, White Winter Pearmain, and Newtown Spitzenberg. “ Of the above, we would particularly refer to Smith’s Cider, Yellow Belle- fleur, White Pippin, Rome Beauty, and Raules’ Janette, as trees of a marked vigorous growth and healthy, hearty habit. The Benoni, Winesap, and Summer Rose are of only moderate growth, but appear perfectly hardy. “The Early Sweet Bough, Newtown Pippin, and Ortley (or White Belle- fleur) appear to possess a less vigorous and a somewhat unhealthy con- stitution.” This valuable information should be remembered by all pruners. 663. Dwarf Apple-Trees.—When scions of the common apple are engrafted on what are called Paradise-stocks, the trees become dwarfish in growth. They thus form, when in a bearing state, very pretty objects in the garden, and they oftentimes bear more apples, in proportion to their size, than com- mon trees of the same variety. As they are small, they can not of course produce a large crop, but are fine garden ornaments, combining both beauty and utility in a small compass, and will bear full, upon perfect trees not over two feet high, if the land is very rich, and rather moister than is suit- able for apples. These dwarfs are made by grafting the crab scion in a shrub known as chokeberry. We would suggest, in addition to this, that the common thorn-bush, which grows about our pastures, would make a good stock to engraft the apple upon for dwarfing. The pear will grow well upon it, and the apple will also probably do pretty well. But the best way to get dwarf trees is to order them from an experienced nurseryman, unless you are a skillful grafter and would like to try your hand to see what you can produce for your own use. 664. Peach-Trees—How to Plant and Treat Them.—Peach-trees of one year old are the only ones that should be planted. Shorten their side branches to two or three buds, and the main stem one third; wash the roots clean and examine them carefully; see that you do not plant a peach-worm with the tree. Trim the roots and then dust them over with ashes. After the tree is planted, put a handful of ashes or lime around the stem on the surface of the soil; this will almost invariably prevent the peach-worm attacking the tree the first year; next year, put a little more lime or ashes around them, close to the bole, keeping the ground clear of weeds with the hoe or cultivator during®the entire season. This is indispensable, and must not be neglected. Nectarines and apricots should be treated in the same way. It requires more care than is generally bestowed upon the planting of peach-trees to insure success. Prof. Mapes says: “In taking a tree from the nursery, I cut off all the limbs and set the tree Szo. 37.] APPLE AND PEACH TREES, ETO. 587 an inch higher in its new place than it stood before. I shorten in all the limbs next year two thirds the length by cutting off always at a leaf-bud, and not a fruit-bud; and I let the trees branch from near the ground. Natural seedlings are longer lived than budded trees. It is positively neces- sary to disturb the ground as early as possible in the spring. All peach limbs should be shortened in so as not to be pendent. No organic matter will answer for peach-trees. Barn-yard manure will kill them. Nothing but inorganic manures will answer. Trees should be trimmed early in the spring, as soon as the weather is warm enough to make the limbs supple.” 665. Soda-Wash for Peach-Worms.—These are frequently destroyed, or, rather, prevented, by using the caustie soda-wash—an application accident- ally discovered by a New Jersey gardener, a few years ago, to be the best thing ever applied to kill insects and make smooth bark. “This soda-wash is made as follows: Take common sal soda and put it in any old iron pot or other vessel, and heat it red-hot, and then put it hot into water—one pound to one gallon—and let it stand till cool, and use it with a, brush or swab to the body or limbs of the trees you wish to clean, and it kills all insects it comes in contact with, and makes the bark assume a smooth, polished appearance. It will not injure any growing plants.” 666. Cutting out Worms from Peach-Trees is a remedy somewhat like the Frenchman’s flea-powder. The only easy remedy is boiling water. Put a cloth around the tree and pour boiling hot water on, and the steam will kill the worms. There is no difficulty in killing peach-worms in trees with hot water. It would not hurt the tree to apply a jet of steam direct to the worm-affected part, but it will hurt the worm. It would be impossible to pick out the worms in an orchard, such as some in Jersey, of 80,000 trees. The best cure for the yellows is to give the trees as vigorous a growth as possible, by the use of inorganic fertilizers. 667. Winter-Killed Peach-Trees.—The severity of some of the past winters has entirely destroyed all peach-orchards, even of twenty years’ growth, far south of the center of Illinois, and committed great havoc in the apple- orchards. The same, or some other course, has produced a similar effect, we believe, generally, throughout the country. In the face of these in- clement winters, trials have been successfully made to produce fruit-trees in Minnesota under otherwise unfavorable cireumstances. Ought those of a milder climate to be discouraged on account of partial failure ? Let us notice some facts that favor the opposite opinion. As far as the hardier and more valuable fruits are concerned, they are easily produced in central New England and New York, where the climate is colder and not so uniform, and the soil less friable than it is in many places two or three degrees farther south. . The Lake Ontario slope of western New York produced peaches abund- antly before the country was laid open by the removal of the primeval forests, and is now one of the best fruit-producing regions on the continent, as it respects the really valuable fruits. 588 THE ORCHARD. [Crar. VI. The cold snap of the winter of 1859-60 killed a great deal of fruit in the State of New York, but-that- should not prevent further trials. C. Olney, of Pittsford, Monroe County, writes under date of Jan. 21, 1860: “The peach crop in. this vicinity bids fair to be almost an entire failure the coming season. I find more living buds upon trees that stand in the corners of the fences than upon those where the land was cultivated last season. On some of them nearly all are alive; on others, not more than ten feet distant, every one examined is dead. Iam unable to say whether any particular variety escapes more than another, for I have only owned my present premises one year, and last season there was no fruit on the trees by which I could tell the varieties. My thermometer has only indicated four degrees below zero. Who can tell the causes of destruction, if it is true, as it has often been asserted, that it requires a degree of cold 18 degrees below zero to kill peach-buds ?” 668. Seedling vs. Budded Peach-Trees.—A general impression prevails that seedling peaches are more hardy than those propagated by budding. This is true, though not in the sense in which it is generally received. The pro- cess of budding in no way changes the character of the variety budded, either for hardiness or otherwise. The fruit is no more liable to be killed by frost than the original seedlings from which the budded trees have de- scended. All varieties were once seedlings, and it is said are improved from the bitter almond. This improvement is the result of cultivation, crossing, and hybridization. The pulp is merely the envelop or covering nature has pro- vided for the protection of the seed. Hence the vital force is directed to this end, and the seed is consequently fully developed, and the product is hardy, and those varieties that are least removed from the original type are the most hardy. The improvement is the result of art, and so far as im- proved or removed from the state of nature, just in that proportion is it at the expense of the hardiness of the variety. This fact holds good throughout all the departments of animated nature as well as in the vegetable kingdom. Compare the native Indian with the present cultivated races of mankind, also our races of domestic animals with those in the state of nature—how different is their character for hardiness! One characteristic of the peach is, the power of the different varieties to withstand the effects of cold according to the character of the blossoms. Some—and this is generally true with seedlings—have large blossoms, the petals of which afford a thicker covering to the embryo fruit ; hence this class is generally most hardy, while those kinds with smaller blossoms are more tender, and others are still more so where the petals stand out, or the blos- som is the least cupped. It is only the improved kinds that are found most desirable to perpetuate by budding ; these have become tender because they are improved and far- ther removed from the state of nature, not because they have been propa- gated by the artificial process of budding. Src. 37.] APPLE AND PEACH TREES, ETC. 589 In our extremely variable climate the propagation of seedling peaches should be practiced to a greater extent than it is, but with more care and ealculation. In selecting seed to plant, choose from the best of those kinds that have large blossoms, as well as others most hardy with smaller cupped blossoms. The yellow-fleshed peaches can be depended on with more cer- tainty to produce their kind than the white-fleshed peaches. In some in- stances the seedlings may be superior to the parent; in more, they may be of equal quality, while a large proportion may be inferior ; but as the infe- rior peaches are most hardy, these may afford us a crop, while the others or budded varieties entirely fail; so that where land is cheap or in favorable situations, we advise that calculations should be made to produce seedling peach-trees every year of the seed of the most improved varieties. 669. Peach-Trees for Fue!.—Peach-trees should be grown upon the prairies for fuel. No tree grows more rapidly, and no seed is more sure of germi- nating than the peach. The stones should be planted in the nursery, and the first summer’s growth cut off two or three buds above the ground before autumn, or in time for the wound to heal and new shoots to start. The young trees may then be taken up and planted ont ten feet apart in or- chards. This mode of cutting back gives two to five trunks instead of one, which make more wood, and are less likely to be winter-killed. If the shoot is not cut back until the next spring, let the root remain another season in the nursery. Another good way is to plant the stones in drills, ten feet apart, in the orchard, the ground to be well prepared, and the rows kept free from weeds by the plow. In the fall, turn a good furrow from each side against the rows, and level them, if necessary, with a hoe, and then mow off the shoots even with the ridge. Draw out, for planting the next summer in other places, the weakest of the plants, and let the others grow, heading back each year. In three years the trees will begin to bear, and those which do not promise good fruit may be used for fuel. Of course, the fruit is a sec- ondaty object, and all that is got is clear gain—as the trees are grown that fuel may be had at less cost and trouble than to haul it from a grove four or five miles distant. 670. Manuring Fruit-Trees—Use of Hogs.—There is no better manure for an orchard than swamp muck, composted with lime and salt—that is, lime slaked by a solution of salt. Wood ashes, leached or unleached, are also good, and we doubt not coal ashes are beneficial. If the land is in grass, it should be thoroughly harrowed in the spring, and again after mowing. Use the orchard in the fore part of the season asa sheep | pasture, and graze close. When the apples begin to fall, turn in the pigs and let them eat the wind- falls. Valuable trees, or those of delicate nature, will be highly benefited by mulching, both summer and winter. The use of hogs in an orchard we have never seen so clearly demonstrated before as we did in the summer of 1862. The Shaker Society at New Leb- anon discarded the use of pork and quit keeping hogs about 1860. From « 590 THE ORCHARD. [Cuap. VI. ‘that time, an orchard that had been used as a hog pasture, declined in vigor and fruitfulness, and as the land could not be very well cultivated, it was determined to try the hogs again, and a number were purchased and set to work. In a few weeks, in pursuit of the worms, they had thoroughly rooted up the turf, and the effect upon the apple-trees was so visible as to be readily remarked by every one acquainted with their previous condition. Autumn or early winter is a good time to manure fruit-trees, provided you do not use such as will harbor mice, for that will be likely to injure young trees more than the manure will benefit them. Ashes and rotten wood and leaf-mold are particularly good for trees, and so is any well-rotted compost. Spread it over as much ground as the top covers, and do not be afraid of putting on too much. A heavy-bearing tree, or one that you want to make bear plenty of good fruit, must have some food to produce it from ; and a young tree needs as much cultivation every year as a hill of corn, and should have, in proportion to its size, about the same manuring. And there is no crop that will pay better for manure and cultivation than fruit of all kinds. It is the secret of peach-raising in New Jersey and Del- aware. 671. Lime for Trees.—We have seen a statement that lime has been most successfully used in England in transplanting trees by mixing a small quan- tity—a quart or two—with the earth in which the tree-roots are planted. It serves a double purpose—assisting to keep the earth moist, and converting vegetable substances into food for the tree. The statement looks so reason- able that we advise its trial. The English papers say that every tree in a large plantation served in this way flourished finely. We object to applying lime to trees in the form of whitewash upon the boles, but in no other way, whether liquid or powder. Tion. John A. Clayton, late of Delaware, assured us that half a bushel of powdered lime applied close about each peach-tree was the best thing that he ever tried to promote health and increase growth. Whitewashing trees is not a good practice. Indeed, we know of nothing that can be said 4n its favor. Water, saturated with lime, used as a caustic wash, would be bene- ficial, while the lime itself, plastered upon the tree in the form of thick whitewash, would be injurious. It would be of far more use to the tree spread over the ground; there it would add to the nourishment of the tree. Another benefit derived from the use of lime around fruit-trees, is the fact of its serio@ly affecting more or less all kinds of worms and insects that infest the apple-tree. Most of the vermin that annoy fruit-trees in the sum- mer remain in the ground during the winter. A quantity of lime spaded in around the roots of the tree will have a good effect toward destroying the canker-worm, if applied in season, and a small mound of lime around the collar of the tree will prevent the ravages of the borer, which almost always enters the tree in the tender bark near the ground. It is beneficial on all soils, except, perhaps, calcareous ones; it will greatly assist in destroying all vermin that harbor in the ground under the tree; it is always injurious s I Src. 37.] RENOVATING ORCHARDS. when applied to the bark, as it stops the pores and impairs the health of the whole tree. 672. How to Renovate an Old Orchard.—It may not always be practicable to renovate an old orchard with swine, as practiced by the Shakers, as men- tioned in 670, therefore the following account of what a woman did is valuable. Ruth H. Lynde writes us from New Bedford, Mass., as follows: “Some years ago I lived on a small farm in New York State, and one of the in- ducements held out for hiring it was, that there was a fine apple orchard of choice grafted fruit. This decided—but the trees were in a miserably sickly condition, and the fruit seanty and mean, knotty and wormy. In the fall, a ‘circle was dug around every apple-tree nearly two feet from the crown and over a foot and a half in depth. Dressing from the hog-pen was put into each hole until within half a foot of the top, and anthracite coal-ashes spread over up to the crown. In the spring the trees were pruned, the orchard plowed, oats sown, and the crop of oats was fair; the trees bloomed more, but the fruit was scarce and still poor. That fall, after the leaves lad fallen, the trees were scraped—the trunks, branches, g al he grubs seraped off that were in the loose bark sufficed to feed for two days a hun- dred fowls, consisting of turkeys, hens, and guinea-fowls. The fowls gen- erally were in an inclosed place, and corn kept ina trough for their daily use; as the corn was untouched and the fowls healthy, my statement can be relied on. Next spring the orchard was a mass of blossoms, and so beau- tiful, I never wearied looking at it. The trees were so laden with fruit that two of them split in the fork, and a person could not walk upright under them. I never saw such quantities of fruit, and fine fruit, too—Bell Flow- ers, Fall Pippins, Seek-no-Furthers, Summer Pie-apples, ete.” ‘The subject of renovating old orchards has been discussed several times by the American Institute Farmers’ Club, and here are some of the facts elicited. We give them with the names of the authors for what they are worth, as they are all men of experience in fruit-growing. Prof. Mares—There was an old orchard on my place that had ceased bearing, which I fully renovated and afterward cut down, because I can not afford the shade. The land is too valuable to grow large trees upon. I can produce fruit upon dwarfs more economically. All old apple-orchards are deficient in lime, but the lime must be properly prepared to be of use. The caustic soda-wash, spoken of last week, will clear them of insects and fungi, I subsoiled the old orchard, which was in grass, and applied lime. I recom- mend ten bushels per acre, sowed in a caustic state on the surface. Lime is only soluble in large quantities of water. The next spring I applied phos- phate of lime. This orchard was then in vigorous bearing, and had not before borne for years. The grass crop was also more than doubled. Run the subsvil plow up and down hill and it will serve to drain the land. I only run the subsoil lifter furrows some four feet apart, without disturbing the soil. Lime and manure should not be applied at the same time to orchards. The plowing is an important part of the treatment. 592 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. Mr. Vreeper, of Albany, said: A German, working for me, practices re- moving the earth from the apple-tree roots in the fall, and that has com- pletely renovated an old tree on my farm. I have great faith in the value of cutting off the long runners of tree roots. I know one apple-tree that bore, two years ago, in Schenectady County, seventy barrels of apples. Avrian G. Bercen said—I wish I could make the apple-trees on Long Island produce as they did thirty years ago. The trees have generally failed. I believe trees are failing all over the land. It is not all owing to want of lime. There is something besides this that affects apple-trees. Anprew 8. Futter—I recommend renovating old trees to find how far out the roots extend, and would dig so as to cut off three or four feet of the out ends of all the roots by a ditch three feet deep and three feet wide, which I would fill with good soil and manure. It will almost always renovate them. If trees are mossy, scrape them with a hoe. Tuos. W. Frrrp—I agree with Mr. Fuller in this recommicndtsaet Wm. P. Garers, of Windham, Ct., wants to know how to treat the soil in an old orchard, or where trees have been planted ten years. Plowing cuts and bruises the roots, and, he thinks, must injure the trees. How, then, shall the soil be loosened 4 Judge Frexcn, of New Hampshire—We generally keep our orchards plowed two thirds of the time, and work the land at first as deep as possible. We do not think it good policy to ripen grain in an orchard. Sow with oats and cut them for green fodder. Plant with corn, and cut green. Potatoes are the best hoed erop for an orchard, old or young. Tuos. W. Firrp—I have been trying to answer this question a long time. Some orchards on Long Island that are plowed often, have ceased to bear, while trees in the hedges and walls continue to bear fruit abundantly. Some pomologists contend that orchards should not be disturbed by the plow. Trees derive very little nourishment from deep soil; it nearly all comes from the fibrous roots near the surface. If we can keep the surface loose, it will be useful; but plowing I believe injurious. Prof. Nasu, of Amherst, Mass.—I concur generally with Mr. Field in this; but for naturally drained land, I have no doubt it is the best practice to let the land lie in grass. No general rule can be given, but it must be adapted to the situation and circumstances of each orchard. Roserr L. Pert—My experience is, that all orchards require plowing. Ihave found roots in my orchards as large as my arm, extending fourteen feet deep. Rye will kill an orchard quicker than anything else. I never stop to inquire whether my plow is cutting the apple roots or not. It does not injure them. Soton Rosryson—I hold to the Scriptural injunction to renovate an old tree; it was: “Dig about and dung it.” Success attends the same method now. Dig about certainly as far as S the branches extend, but do not dig too deep or inj ure the roots unnecessarily. Stirring the surface soil frequently is what they want. Try that, and you will be amazed at the renovation you Szo. 37.] RENOVATING ORCHARDS. work in an old apple-tree. Mulching, or cultivating with a hoe to keep down weeds and let in air and moisture, answers the same purpose. To clear suckers from orchard trees they shonld not be eut off, for new shoots will spring from every stub left. The right way isto keep the ground smooth, mellow, and clean; and then about the middle season of growth, or during the first half of summer, put on thick cowhide boots and stout buck- skin mittens, seize one sucker at a time, placing the boot upon it close to the tree, give a sudden jerk with the hands, and it will be torn out root and branch, leaving no stump. An occasional repetition of this process will keep the orchard clear. Suckers always give a slovenly appearance to an orchard, and favor the depredations of the borer. Trees growing on mucky soil sometimes make wood so fast that they ap- pear to have no power to produce fruit. In such cases we recommend heavy dressings of lime, salt, and bone-dust, and if convenient, sand and clay. The debris of an old charcoal-pit or a brick-kiln would be beneficial. When old pear-trees fail to bear, or, rather, to perfect their fruit, we would invariably dig about them and add all the above ingredients, and afterward stable manure spread on the surface as far around as the limbs extend, or far- ther, after having dug up the surface thoroughly. A caustic soda-wash, ora wash made of weak lye, or of a solution of two pounds of potash to eight quarts of water, and rubbed on the stems of the tree, will prove more beneficial and far less injurious than whitewash. There is probably no substance that can be applied at so small a cost as lime that will do so much toward the renovation of an old orchard. It will promote in an astonishing degree the flowering and fruiting of almost all plants, because calcareous salts promote evapora- tion and the concentration of the sap. Air-slaked lime is an excellent manure for fruit-trees as a top-dressing ; or if spaded in around the tree, it will render it much more fruitful where the soil is not too caleareous by nature. In the use of lime, do not use it in great quantities, because only a small portion can be appropriated by the growing plants. Our opinion favors about ten bushels per acre, though many persons apply thirty bushels. We believe if that quantity were applied at the rate of six bushels a year fo: five years, it would be more beneficial, and we would always apply it on the surface either in autumn or spring, according to the crop, and not work it in. It will find its way down as deep as water can penetrate. The worst situation that can be selected for an orchard is a deep valley with a small stream of water, for there the frost is much more apt to kill buds than it is upon exposed hill-tops. This is not the case with the bottom lands of large streams, nor on the borders of lakes, or ponds of considerable size. Where- ever fog follows frost, it will save the fruit from injury. 38 594 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VIL SECTION XXXVIII—CHERRIES—BEST VARIETIES, SOIL, SITUATION, AND CULTIVATION—HISTORY, USE, AND VALUE OF CHERRIES, a cherry, as one of the fruits of the farm, is not ap- N preciated as much as its merits warrant. The rea- 4 $ ) son that farmers do not appreciate it is, simply * because they do not know it. Not one farmer in a thousand, take the whole country through, ever had a tree upon his place that produced cherries of first quality, and not one in a hundred ever tasted of the best sorts; and some, we know, do not believe that cherries ever grow of such a size that it is necessary to ‘““make two bites of a cherry,” nor of such lusciousness that a family would sit down to eat and enjoy a dish of cherries as they would sweet peaches, plums, pears, or apples. The reason is, that their standard of opinion, of the character of cherries, has been fanaa from such as have been most generally cultivated, such as the Kentish, which is the old, common red pie-cherry, sour and bitter until very ripe; or the old-style Morello, or Cluster-cherry ; or the old Black Mazzard, the Ox-heart, Red-héart, and Remington, ete., none of which are hardly fit to eat out of hand; and with opinions based upon such a standard, itis no wonder that cherries are not esteemed by some as worth the time and trouble of growing, which, however, is very small, for no kind of fruit is easier grown, and none will give a family greater satisfaction. If any doubt this, we beg them to seek the opportunity of tasting some of the finest sorts in their perfection, a few of which we will name. 673. Choice Varieties of Cherries——The Bigarreau, most generally known as Yellow Spanish, is in perfection the last of June, and is a most delicious fruit; the flesh firm, pale yellow, juicy, and rich, and grows very large. This cherry is often picked before fully ripe, and is not then esteemed. The tree is a thrifty, though not a large one, but forms a handsome head. The Wapoleon Bigarreau is also an excellent cherry, ripening later than the other, of very large size and firm flesh, so much so as to be urged as objectionable. The skin is pale yellow, or amber, when shaded, dotted with red, with a crimson-marbled cheek, very handsome. The Black Turtarian is a superb cherry of large size and good flavor, and the trees are very productive, and of a remarkably rapid, vigorous growth, with crest head. The leaves are large and beautiful, and the tree very ornamental when full of ripe fruit, which is glossy-black, very rich and delicious, half tender, of a purplish color inside, with a very small stone, ripening from the middle to the last of June, and a few days after Mayduke. So. 38.] size, tender, melting flesh, sweet and delicate, ripening a little earlicr than Black Tartarian. It is too tender for a marketing fruit, but very productive and worthy of cultivation for family use. Downer’s Late Cherry is valuable because it is late. It is an’ excellent fruit, and comes after the other good sorts are gone. The color is red, flesh sweet, and fruit grows in clusters. The Liton is considered one of the best cherries grown. The trees are _ vigorous, with a singular mark of dark-red foot-stalks to the leaves. The fruit is large, with pale yellow thin skin, shaded on the sunny side with red; the flesh firm, and when fully ripe, tender and luscious, ripening middle of June The Governor Wood is becoming one of the favorites of this country. Indeed, it is esteemed by some above all others. The fruit is large, light yellow, marbled with bright red, nearly tender flesh, sweet, juicy, rich, and delicious, ripening middle of June. The American Heart is a tree of luxuriant growth, producing cherries in clusters, of pale red color, half tender flesh, very juicy, and sweet enough in dry seasons; ripens early in June. The American Amber ripens the last or June, the tree vigorous and pro- ductive, fruit medium size, tender flesh, of a rather sharp flavor; skin thin, light amber color, mottled with red. Downings Red Cheek is a very handsome and very good new cherry, originated by Charles Downing, of Newburg, N. Y. The fruit is large, white skin, with crimson cheek, or rather side, for more than half is red. The flesh is yellowish, sweet, and luscious, and what is termed half tender, ripening about the middle of June. It will undoubtedly become ap favorite. The Mayduke Cherry is better known than some of the other good ones we have named. It is really the most popular sort known, as it thrives in all countries equally well. It is a good cooking fruit before it is fit to eat out of hand, and the fruit does not ripen all at once, some parts of the tree being several days behind others. The tree grows in a handsome, upright form, and fruit in clusters, roundish form, dark-red skin, reddish flesh, tender, melting, juicy, and good-flavored when ripe. It is too often picked before fully ripe. In favorable seasons it begins to color, about New York, the last of May, but is never fully ripe in that month; nor does it take its name from ripening anywhere in May, but from the province in France where it originated, named Médoc, which has easily been corrupted into Mayduke. The Late Duke is of the same character, both in tree and fruit, except the period of ripening, which is the latter part of July, and the fruit hangs on during the first week in August. This is esteemed a very valuable variety, both for eating out of hand and for cooking. The Archduke is another good sort, of the same general character belong- 596 THE ORCHARD. [Caar. VI. ing to the family of Dukes; the flesh is light red, rich and juicy, of good flavor, ripening the fore part of July. Vail’s August Duke, as its name indicates, is a later variety, but much like the Mayduke in other respects. The fruit grows large, heart-shaped, of regular form, and the tree is naturally prolific. Princes Duke, though large, good fruit, is not much cultivated, because the tree is such a shy bearer. Jeffrey's Duke is a fine lively red cherry, with amber-colored flesh, rich and juicy, growing in thick clusters, the trees being of a slow growth, and _ therefore hardy and lasting. The Kentish Cherry i is one of the old English sorts, which has been ex- tensively grown in this country near market towns on account of several good qualities as a marketing frnit. The tree grows pretty large, and is very productive. The fruit, though not ripe, is in the New York market from New Jersey in May, and continues through June, growing larger and better after it has turned quite red; and when fully ripe is a good acid cherry, of medium size, round shape, always growing in pairs. A peculiarity of this sort is the adhesion of the pit to the stem, which enables one to pull out the pit by the stem in preparing the fruit for cooking or for drying, for which purpose it is excellent. The Carnation Cherry is much esteemed by those who preserve fruit in spirits, making excellent ‘ brandy-cherries,” and is also good for sweetmeats. The fruit is large and round, and usable when of a yellowish-white color, mottled with red, but is not ripe until nearly all red, and is then good for eating out of hand. The trees grow low and spreading, and bear well; the fruit hangs on Jong after it is ripe, which is about July 15. » Of the old variety of cherries bearing the appellation of “ Heart,” there are several worth cultivating, and we will mention one of each color. Early White Heart vipens first of June, medium size, skin a dull whitish or yellow color, and not good to eat until fully ripe, when it is specked with red. The Black Heart Cherry is an old variety, long grown in this country as a standard, on account of its fruitfulness and the large size and beauty of growth, as an ornamental tree. The fruit is glossy purple black when ripen- -ing, and dead black when fully ripe, of medium size, tender, rich, and sweet; in spetfiertion the last of June. The Led Heart is an old English sort, introduced into this country and much grown many years ago. It i is dark red, with reddish flesh, half tender, and not half as good as many other sorts. The Honey Cherry is a small, late variety, well worthy of a place upon every farm. It ripens the middle of July, and though small, the fruit is much esteemed, particularly by children, who love sweet fruit. One kind, called Sparhawke’s Honey, is said to be a profuse bearer, and the tree more vigorous than the older sorts; and the fruit, which is lively red when ma- ture, juicy and sweet, ripens in June. Src. 38.] CHERRIES. 597 RR eee The Black Mazzard is the parent of our extensive family of cherries, and is still adhered to by many farmers on account of its hardiness. It is the wild cherry of Europe, and has become semi-wild here, as it springs up al- most spontaneously. The fruit is small, roundish, on long, slender stems, flesh soft and melting, but the juice slightly bitter, even when ripe, and acid when unripe. It hangs well on the tree till late in July. Although we have not mentioned a tithe of the good cherries well worth cultivation, to make up a great variety, we have said enough, perhaps, to show readers how they can make up a little assortment of this excellent fruit, which should find a place upon every farm; and now we will name a few sorts that should find a place in lawns and yards, as ornamental trees. 674. Ornamental Cherry-Trees.—There is a variety of cherry-trees, bearing double blossoms, which produce no fruit, but are very ornamental in lawns or grounds about the dwelling. The kind known as the Large Double-flowering cherry throws ont blossoms an inch and a half diameter at the time of blossoming of other cherries, and being so showy is quite ornamental, although producing no fruit. The foliage is that of the common Mazzard, but the flowers bear greater re- semblance to white roses than cherry-blossoms. The tree is a free grower, and forms a large head, so it must be allowed sufficient room. There is, however, a double-flowering cherry-tree that grows quite dwarfish—more like a shrub than tree—which is very pretty, thongh the flowers are not so large and regular as the Large Double-flowering variety, but it is better suited to ornanient small places. There is also another kind, known as the Chinese Double-flowering cherry, that is medium between the large and dwarf sorts, which bears white flowers, tinged with pink, in fascicles and foliage, with cut edges, called serrulate, and is altogether an orna- mental tree. The Weeping or Ever-flowing cherry is a beautiful, small, ornamental tree, with slender hanging branches and myrtle-like foliage. It bears a red, acid fruit, which in favorable seasons continues a long time. If grafted on a Mazzard stock, five or six feet high, it grows into a sort of parasol-shaped top, the branches weeping half way to the ground. The native wild cherries of this country are often grown as ornamental trees, but still more often are left to grow naturally about the fields and fences because they are ornamental, and form fine shade-trees, and afford a good deal of food for birds. The fruit is not much used to eat out of hand, but is to a considerable extent for making a poisonous decoction cailed cherry rum ; poisonous, because the pits contain the essential principle of prussie acid. The variety known in New England as the “ Black Cherry,” which grows to a large tree in old forests, and to botanists as the Cerasus serotina, is the one we allude to. The Cerasus Viryiniana is a low-growing shrub, which is quite ornamental both in blossom and in fruit. We have seen bushes only two or three feet high loaded with the shining, reddish berries. This variety is called “ choke cherry” on account of its astringent 598 THE ORCHARD. [Cuap. VI. quality, which makes it entirely unfit to eat, while the other, the common wild black cherry, may be, when fully ripe, eaten with satisfaction. 675. Winter Cherries.—We mention these in this connection simply be- cause they have acquired the name of cherries among common people. They grow upon an annual plant (Physalis viscora) of “the family of Solanace, and of course have no relation to the Cerasus family. The fruit has obtained the name of cherries from its appearance. It is of the same habit as the to- mato; the fruit grows about the size of Mayduke cherries, of a yellowish or pale red color, inclosed in husks, or, rather, a thin, loose, skin-like semi- transparent covering, and it will keep till late in winter, if put away in its husks just as it grew. Some persons are very fond of these ‘winter cher- ries.” To us they are sickish sweet, and totally unlike in taste to any true cherry. They can be grown wherever tomatoes can, and in the same way. 676. Grafting and Budding Cherry-Trees.—An experienced propagator gives the following rules for grafting the cherry: “The trees should be taken up early in spring, before the swelling of the buds, the branches trimmed off and top eut bagk to within four or five inches of where the head is to be inserted. They are then to be planted in orchard or nursery rows, to be grafted as soon as the buds are ready to break and until the leaf is half grown, which is the seasgn of grafting. The scions should have been cut in the fall or winter and kept in some cool place, so that they shall not have materially swelled their buds. If the stock is half or three fourths of an inch in diameter, cut it off at an angle of forty-five degrees, square off the upper part of the cut, and insert as in cleft-grafting, with this difference, that the knife is held at an angle so as to cut instead of splitting the bark; but when the stock is of less size, make the usual splice graft, but without the tongue, simply putting them together and winding with linen thread. Cut in lengths of sixteen to eighteen inches, and protect by melted wax, put on witha br ush. So soon as the growth indicates that the thread will cut into the bark, it must be cut, and cutting down through the thread, even into the wood, will do no harm, but the thread should not be removed, as the wax will hold it so as to protect the graft from blowing off until it is firmly knit to the stock. «Do not prune too much before grafting, nor cut back the branches at the time of grafting; they are to be shortened in, as the graft is capable of ab- sorbing the sap. Those suitable for splice grating can be safely pruned at the time. The fault in grafting-the cherry has been mainly in doing the work before active growth. “Grafting the cherry and plum, even after they are in bloom, is safer than very early. The caution to be observed in rooted trees, is not to cut away too much of the top at once; and in newly transplanted trees, deprived of vigor and the growth checked, it is not safe to set the graft until the growth is resumed. No buds or sprouts should be rubbed or cut from the tree the first season after transplanting.” Most nurserymen prefer budding to grafting. They plant the common !. Sxo. 38.] CHERRIES. Black Mazzard cherries to produce stock. The cherries are gathered when fully ripe, and allowed to lie in bulk until the pulp will wash off easily, and then the pits are planted at once about an inch deep in seed-beds. At a year from planting, set the plants in nursery rows a foot apart. The next August the plants will be in order for budding. When setting the plants in nursery rows, place all of equal sizes together, so that the growth will be even. 677. Soil, Situation, Cultivation, History, and Uses of Cherries——Any rich, dry soil will grow cherries, but a sandy or gravelly loam or rocky situation produces the finest fruits. In wet soils the cherry-tree is apt to decay young; andif the soil is very rich, the young trees are apt not to ripen the wood and therefore winter-kill the ends of the limbs and make scrubby trees, or else produce more wood than fruit. It is well to set cherry-trees for fruit on northern exposures, wherever they are apt to start very early in the spring, as that is often fatal to the crop of fruit. This was almost uni- versally the case in the spring of 1861 in the vicinity of New York. Pruning cherry-trees should always be done in midsummer, and but little of it, only cutting out dead branches, or those that interfere. More harm is done than good, as a general thing, by pruning. It is believed that our cultivated varieties of cherries came from Asia, first to Italy, and then to all other European countries. The name Cerasus comes from the name of the place they were brought from into Italy, more than half a century before the commencement of the Christian era. Our stock came over with the early immigrants from England, Holland, Belgium, and France. As a dessert fruit, cherries are everywhere esteemed, and are better to eat out of hand than in any other way; that is, the varieties that are not only sweet, but lusciously so, rich and delicate, and the peculiar admixture of sugar and acid is exceedingly refreshing. Cherries are also excellent for culinary purposes, both fresh and dried. Some of the sorts are so particu- larly applicable to the purpose that they are called pie cherries. In Europe, intoxicating liquor is distilled from cherries. In Germany, a very fiery stuff, called kirschwasser, is made of Black Mazzard cherries, ground, so as to break the pits, and the mass then fermented. At Grenoble, France, a peculiar cordial is made of cherries, well known by the name of ratajia. In Italy, a celebrated liquor called maraschino, is made by mashing a small Mazzard cherry and fermenting it with pulps, pits, and leaves mixed, to which honey is added. In this country the common wild cherry, both the black and choke va- rieties, are used to make “ cherry rum,” which is done by filling a barrel half full of liquor, and then adding whole cherries to fill it, and bunging tight to stand a year or more. The wood of the cherry is hard and durable, and when this country was first settled, and large forest-trees of Cerasus serotina were abundant, the wood 600 THE ORCHARD. [Cuar. VI. was extensively used for furniture and house-joinery. One locality was so celebrated for the abundance and size of these trees that the town took the name of “Cherry Valley” (N. Y.), by which it will be known long after the origin of the name is forgotten. The gum of the cherry-tree is much like the gum known in commerce as gum-arabic, and is much esteemed by some for its medicinal qualities, and is called rich in nutritive matter, though but seldom used for either of these purposes. The cherry tree does not exude gum in large quantities while it is in a healthy condition, and when it does exude copiously, it is generally a sign of final decay. It is recommended to cut out gum spots when they first make their appearance upon young trees, being careful to injure the bark as little as possible. We think it better to keep the bark clean by good cultivation and in a healthy state of growth. Trees may be much im- proved by washing with soda or potash solution. Sometimes trees are hide- bound, and are benefited by slitting the bark in midsummer. The boles of cherry-trees sometimes burst by freezing. When this happens, it is a good plan to pare the edges of the bark in spring with a sharp knife, and plaster the crack over with grafting clay (653). Cherries and plums may be safely transplanted when they are two or three years old, but we prefer two-year-old trees to any others. All of our stone-fruits are liable to produce gum from their wounds, and this often prevents them from healing over, and the older the tree the more liable it is to become diseased from its wounds. This can be seen by exam- ining an old cherry-tree which has had a branch broken off; it takes a long time to heal over, if ever, while on a young tree it heals over quickly, scarcely leaving a sign of the accident. S. N. Coats, in the Gardener's Monthly, says it is reported on good evi- dence that a cultivator of cherries has met with signal success by training his trees with low heads, and at the approach of winter bending down the lower tier of branches all around and covering them up with soil, having the position of the tree so that no water can stand about it. At the ap- proach of spring he removes the soil, and the work is done. It is. stated that not only the branches and fruit-buds covered by the soil, but those left exposed to the winter’s cold, are perfectly preserved from its effects. VARIETIES OF PEARS. SECTION XXXIX.—PEARS—SOIL, SITUATION, CULTIVATION, AND VARIETIES. EARS may be named as the favorite fruit cf man- kind. Though not as universal as apples, nor quite as much sought after as peaches in their short season, they are everywhere appreciated as the best standard fruit we have, and in some of the numerous varieties having almost as long a season as the apple. The wonder is that farmers do not pay more attention to | the production of such a rich fruit—one that is not only uni- versally a favorite on account of its pleasant taste, but one that really affords a very cheap, healthy food, and can be grown near a market town as a profitable crop. At least, such is the opinion of a great many pear culturists, though some other persons declare that pears, as a general thing, can not be grown profitably. We think they can, and will try to tell how. In the first place, select good sorts. For asmall assortment, suitable for any farmer, the following list has been rec- ommended by a competent committee for the vicinity of New York: 678. Varieties to Grow, and Cultivation — Summer Pears.—Doyenné d’Eté, Dearborn’s Seedling, Beurré Giffard, Rostizer, Tyson. Autumn.—Bar tlett, Seckel, Beurré Anjou, Beurré Superfin, Doyenné Boussock, Duchesse a Angouleme (on quince), Flemish Beauty, Fondante d’Automne, Speldon, Urbaniste. Winter.—Beurré Gris d’Hiver Nouveau, Lawrence, Vicar of Winkfield. Some of the committee were anxious to place the Beurré Bose high on the list of pears, and if it was uniformly as good with others as it always is with Mr. Hayes of New Jersey and some few other cultivators, it could with propriety head the list of late fall varieties. We recommend all ama- teurs to try this also, and if they succeed in bringing it to full perfection, they will have a pear in size, beauty, and quality inferior to no other. In the second place, give your pear-trees deep, generous tillage, by which is meant a trenching and manuring of the soil from one and a half to three feet deep. In other countries, where labor is cheaper and fruits dearer than they are here, this work is often extended to a depth of four feet, receiving a profitable return even from so small a fruit-bearing plant as the straw- berry. It is from a want of such cultivation that the finest pear-trees taken from our nurseries often die or come to nothing. They have “no deepness of earth,” “no root,” and, as a natural consequence, they share the fate of the wasted seed of the parable. The following rules are also important : 1st. Cultivating or mulching the surface around the trees for a distance THE ORCHARD. [Cnap. VI. equal, at least, to the drip of their branches. But especial care should be taken to avoid the slightest bruising of the roots, and the mulch must not be so thick and heavy as to smother them. 2d. Under-drainage, wherever the subsoil is of a retentive nature. But all covered drains, whether of tiles or stones, should be not less than three feet deep—no less than six or eight feet distant from the trunks of the trees ; for many a fine tree set out directly above a shallow underground conduit has been poisoned to death by the foul air therein contained. 3d. Thinning of the fruit, especially of the class of trees known as great bearers, Pruning may be performed at any season of the year; but the best time is believed to be about the longest days of summer, while the worst effects that happen arise from using the saw or knife during the full flow of sap in the spring. An exception, however, must be made in cases where it is considered necessary to head in a newly planted tree. As to the kind of soil, almost any thoroughly drained soil will answer, but a dry one is absolutely necessary. A true loam, or sandy one, if enriched, will answer a good purpose. A rocky or gravelly soil, fertile for grass and other farm-crops, is good for pears. Pupa Maé* Perfect Insect oe Wheat as injured Nat's RICE WEEVIL 3 a s Pupa Ma¢* Perfect¥Insect Mag* Larva Natt size <@y SBE Weevil ae size Insect 5 Ze x Hes. 4 Natsize Nat! size \ { \ : Wy | Male | Mag? Hessian "Fly | Male | Mag SOIR aWORIE Earytoma hordei / ‘female Ma¢¢4 ky Joint Worm Male| Mag* quell © Joint Worm Pupa Maé* 7g INSECTS INJURILOUS voruE GrareVas 4 VINE HOPPER ’ > Injured Stalls ) 2 and Cells Larva Maé? = Nat! size , Wings of Vine ¥ Hopper Mag \ \ Head of Vane ss Mag? wey Nat size Perfect Insects M Joint Worm | female | Mag Chrysalis, Amertcan Proerts a oe — Pelidnota Aphis Nav’ size AMERICAN PROCRIS Procris Americana * ( Caterpillar Nat size YY y Caterpillar Nat SPOTTER, PELIDNOTA Nat! size Moth Nat! size ter aac Caterpillar Nat! size Desmia maculalis - ———~o Chrysalis Moth Natt VINE BORER Nat! size Male Case fromwhich the perfect insect has escaped ih: leawing the empty Clvysalis skim protruding. CHAPTER VIII. CEREALIA. SECTION XLIV—WHEAT, RYE, OATS, BARLEY, MILLET, BUCKWHEAT. »_.. NDER the title of this chapter we shall of course Y talk about Indian corn (zea mays), but as this is the Ii great staple crop of America, it must have a separate \\, section. Of all the cereals, wheat should really hold | the first rank, because it is the parent of great men— the chief fountain of brain food. All nations whose principal food is derived from wheat are elevated in f character over those whose food is derived from coarser materials. All food produces general results accord- ing to its quality, and as wheat ranks highest, the re- sults are most elevating to the human family. Let us look about us upon the nations of the earth, some of whom live almost exclusively upon the fat of sea ani- mals; others upon the flesh of animals obtained in the wild woods; others depend mainly upon insects and such things as can be readily picked up. Then approaching civilization, are found people who rarely taste animal food, living upon vegetables of a low order, some of which are subject to epidemical diseases. Compare any of these nations with one whose principal food is derived from the cereals, particularly wheat, and we shall at once see the importance of any work that treats upon its cultivation. 743. Wheat—Preparation of Soil.—In virgin soils, such as those obtained by chopping and burning a forest, a wheat crop is often obtained without much labor in the preparation of the soil, because the seed finds the proper sustenance to nourish its young shoot, and during all stages of growth, in the decaying vegetable matter, and in the ashes of the wood burned in the clear- ing. So upon the prairies, a good crop of wheat is sometimes grown upon the turned sod with but little other preparation. In old land, however, it will never answer to trust to making a wheat crop without the most thorough preparation of the soil, the first and best of which is underdraining; the next, subsoil plowing ; the next, a crop of clover to precede the wheat ; and finally before sowing, deep plowing, and again subsoiling and complete pul- verization ; and lastly, a proper addition of the necessary manuring for per- fect fertilization. As to subsoiling, none doubt that deep digging in the 668 : CEREALIA. [Crar. VII. ON garden is profitable, and none who try it under proper circumstances will doubt that deep plowing in the field is so. The subsoil plow is a valuable implement on most soils, in deepening the tillage and giving sufficient room for the descent of the roots of plants, and for the ascent of moisture in dry weather. = — Where no advantage has been found from the operation of subsoiling, the cause may undoubtedly be traced to the want of proper preparation of the ground by draining. Numerous examples have been given to the public, showing the great utility of this implement. By its use the subsoil is loosened deeply, mixed with the top soil, and gradually brought to the surface, where, by changes from the air, snows, and frost, it becomes improved, and restores in some measure many fertilizing substances that have been lost on old lands. An American subsoil plow, which is far superior to the English one, is the one generally known as ‘ Mapes’ Subsoil Lifter.” Its form is tolerably well represented by a sixth part of an orange-peel, pointed at each end and rising in the middle, where a thin, flat standard is attached that connects it with the beam. 744. Fertilization of Soil for Wheat.—Lime and salt are the first two things to be thought of on an old farm—that is, upon a farm where it is said the land is worn out so that it will not produce wheat, but will produce clover. If five bushels of salt are dissolved in water to a point of saturation, and that water used to slake fifteen bushels of shell lime under cover, the mass left until it effloresces, and then applied to an acre of land thoroughly pulverized, we venture to insure a good crop of wheat. We know whole farms, and many farms together, that have been raised from almost entire barrenness to a point that produces good wheat and clover crops by the use of lime alone, spread at the rate of thirty bushels of air-slaked lime to the acre on the surface after the wheat is sown. In Virginia, between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, there are large tracts of sandy land that had become so poor it would not produce five bushels of rye per acre, and this land has been made to produce fifteen to twenty bushels of wheat, followed by a fine growth of clover, from an application of 200 lbs. per acre of Peruvian guano. In some eases, a bushel of plaster per acre, sown in the spring, has benefited the wheat and been of the greatest importance to the clover crop. The use of guano as a fertil- izer of wheat has worked wonders in several of the wheat-growing States south of New York. Lime, plaster, guano, bone-dust, superphosphate, ashes, salt, potash, may be all profitably used as fertilizers of the wheat crop. But after all, the great fertilizer must be clover. A most celebrated successful wheat-grower in this country is Gen. Har- man, of Genesee County. He says: “We can take a wheat crop every third year and improve our land, if we feed off the clover with sheep. I always sow timothy in the fall and clover | So. 44.] FERTILIZATION OF SOIL FOR WHEAT. 669 | in the spring upon all wheat land, and so I do with all small grain. We turn under the clover sod in June with the Michigan plow, and then work it with a gang plow till first of September, and then sow Mediterranean seed by a drill machine. If the sowing is delayed till October, the fly will eat it all up, or, rather, that was the case. I have not lately seen the Hessian fly. The Golden Drop and Dayton wheat are much sown in my district. I tried spring wheat some years, but it does not pay for growing. There is a dif- ference of two weeks in wheat maturing from seed of the same district. I have sown forty sorts of wheat in one year from all sections. The Virginia May wheat ripens earliest of any with me. All of the finest strawed wheat ripens earliest. Iam not satisfied that seed from the South will ripen any earlier than the same sort grown here. I do not think there is any other crop that ean be grown to so good advantage as wheat. I turn down clover for corn, first spreading manure; then I sow oats or barley, seeding again with clover and timothy, and that clover I plow under after mowing or pas- turing it one year, so that I get a wheat crop every third year. I do not plant all my wheat land to corn, as I have about fifty acres in wheat and ten acres in corn. I average thirty or forty bushels of wheat per acre. Ido not believe that there is a gradual decrease in the productiveness of wheat land in this State, though the crop has decreased in consequence of the midge. The use of plaster on wheat tends to prevent its early ripening, yet I think one bushel of plaster and three bushels of ashes per acre will increase the crop four bushels per acre. Plaster sown broadcast will do more good than it will put on the hills of corn.” Another successful wheat-grower in the same county, Lewes E. Heston, says: ‘“ My farm is on limestone soil. I drill two bushels of seed wheat per acre, usually after peas, and harvest twenty-five bushels an acre. The straw I feed to sheep. I think it desirable for the farmers to increase the wheat culture, as we can graze sheep on clover, and feed them straw in winter. I sow one peck of timothy with the wheat, and six quarts of clover-seed per acre in the spring. Ido not cut clover for hay, but pasture it and plow it in. The soil is almost inexhaustible. I once spread the earth from the bot- tom of a cellar, and the wheat grew so rank that it did not head well. I cultivate 160 acres, and 50 of it in wheat. It is a common practice to sow clover and timothy upon all wheat land.” J. Jackson, of Butternut Ridge, Ohio, gives the following as his expe- rience in getting a good crop of wheat: * In 1857 I harvested a field of Mediterranean wheat that yielded 362 bushels to the acre; the ground was prepared in the following way: When it had lain in clover one year after a crop of oats, it was plowed in the fore part of June, about eight inches deep, with one strong yoke of oxen, and harrowed three times. The third week in August I gave it a light dressing of yard manure, about twenty loads to the acre; cross-plowed and sowed the last week in August. The soil is a clay loam.” It is the opinion of many that land which has ceased to be remuneratively 670 CEREALIA. [Cuap. VII. Re a ~ productive in wheat would again bear good crops if the ground were put in a condition to allow the roots-to penetrate deeply into it to search out and absorb new materials of stalk growth. The plant requires the mineral sub- stances of the lower strata brought up and mixed with the vegetable sub- stances of the surface, producing a mutual decomposition which will be fa- cilitated by the growing of the root plants, and penetration of their roots through all its comminuted grains. The roots of a plant will penetrate a great distance in search of food and drink if the soil is made friable, hence the productiveness of rich land is due to its naturally friable condition, which allows the roots to penetrate, rather than to the richness of the sur- face-soil. Of the use of plaster on wheat, one writer says: “The fact seems to be well established that plaster has a much better effect on clover than on wheat, while.superphosphate benefits turnips more than wheat. Liebig thought plaster drew ammonia from the atmo- sphere. To this there are two objections: first, it is very doubtful whether plaster will attract ammonia from the air; and, second, if it does, an appli- cation of plaster ought to have the same effect as a dressing of sulphate of ammonia, but it has one just the reverse. Sulphate of ammonia improves wheat much more than clover, while plaster benefits clover, and has little, if any, effect on wheat in the majority of cases.” Top-dressing wheat land with manure well decomposed, or with a rich compost, will always much more than pay the cost upon all the old farms of the Eastern States. One farmer who has practiced it says: “On the part dressed with fine manure at the time of sowing, the seed grew a week earlier and produced double the crop of that on the land un- manured. It is true that the land that was top-dressed was higher and drier than the unmanured portion, but that only affected the start. Top-dressing gives the young plants a good start in the fall, enables them to withstand the winter better, and brings the crop rapidly forward to maturity.” Salt for wheat we consider as indispensable as it is for animals, and there are not many farmers who can be made to believe that their stock would not suffer without it; and John Johnson, “the old Scotch farmer” near Geneva, N. Y., believes just as fully that his wheat crop would suffer with- out salt. In the autumn of 1858 he sowed five bushels per acre upon sixty acres of wheat, and we heard him say that he believed every bushel of salt used produced an extra bushel of wheat. But this was only a small item in the account of profit. The great advantage was in hastening the ripen- ing several days, by which he escaped the ravages of the wheat midge, while his immediate neighbors suffered great losses. It is believed to be also one of the best preventives known for rust, as it certainly stiffens the straw and gives it more vigor. The proper application of salt is five to eight bushels per acre, sown broadcast immediately after the wheat is harrowed in. To prevent lodging, one writer recommends to sow several varieties together, Szo. 44.] SPRING WHEAT. for the reason that some kinds bend less in storm, which helps the weaker sorts to stand up, or get up after a storm, and a larger crop is gained. But we believe that any of the fertilizers that we have recommended, particularly salt, lime, potash, and bone-dust, will so strengthen the straw that it will not lodge. 745. Naked Fallows for Wheat.—This old-style system of fertilizing land for wheat we hope to see give place to more enlightened views—such views as those of General Harman, detailed in a preceding paragraph. A clo- ver fallow is altogether preferable to a naked fallow. A few farmers who follow the old beaten path of precedent, who seldom take the trouble to think, still hold to naked fallows. An advocate of them, writing to us of another’s practice, says: “He plows once in Sx years, and lets the land lie fallow one year, that it may have the full advantage of the summer sun and the winter frost.” The full advantage of a want of thought! Expose land to the full ad- vantage of the summer sun! What for? What is the object? What is accomplished by the process? The land is drenched and washed upon the naked furrows, and some of the lightest portion takes its course toward the ocean’s depth, never to return, except in costly guano, sea-weed, or fish manures; and it is baked and burned and dried in the sun, and its volatile properties set loose to float away upon the wings of the wind to enrich the growing crops of some farmer who never commits the great error of expos- ing his soil to waste in naked fallow. There is one kind of land that is benefited by exposing naked to the action of the frost—it is a stiff clay. But there is a better way to ameliorate that. It is by aerification through tile drains and the furrow of the subsoil plow. We doubt whether autumn plowing can be advocated, in itself, as a good system of farming. It is only a resort of necessity, to help along the work of spring upon Jand not under- drained, which remains too wet to plow without injury, long after the frost has left it loose enough. As a general rule, we do not believe that land in good tillable order was ever improved by a naked fallow. If it is to be left one year without a productive or salable crop, how much more sensible to sow the fallow-plowing with any sort of grass or grain, even buckwheat, or with turnips, but far better with clover, and let the crop grow and fall down, shading, mulching, manuring, and really improving the soil. The man who practices in the manner quoted in the text of this item is spoken of as “a man of facts.” What facts has he, or his biographer, or anybody else, to prove that naked fallows are more beneficial to lands than green fallows? We should like to know. 746. Spring Wheat.—Spring wheat can be more profitably grown than winter wheat in some sections of the country, even where the winter variety can be grown. In some sections, winter wheat is so liable to kill out that it is an even chance whether a field sown will ever be reaped. Mr. Walworth, a wheat-grower of St. Lawrence County, thinks spring wheat exhausts the soil less than winter wheat. This opinion is entertained 672 CEREALIA. [Cuapr. VIII. by a very large portion of the farmers in that section of the State, also in all of the New England States. It is therefore of the highest importance to find out the most improved varieties, since there is a difference of full twenty- five per cent. in several kinds in common cultivation. Ambrose Stevens, of Genesee County, N. Y., speaks highly of a new wheat from New Mexico, that ripens earlier than Canada Club wheat, and almost entirely escaped the ravages of the midge that entirely destroyed the other sort in the same field. It is a red wheat, the herry flinty and pearl- like in character; the straw medium in size and strong, the heads well bearded, and the chaff thick and tough. It was sown on the Tonawanda Creek, April 16, and kept back by the cold, wet spring, and harvested August 1, yielding from a light seeding seventeen bushels per acre. Mr. Stevens says : “ Had it been more plentifully seededf#and had the wire-worm not troubled it, it would probably have produced from twenty-two to twenty- tive bushels to the acre; and it makes whiter flour and bread than the Mediterranean wheat; and when epee so as to allow of a fair comparison, has yielded better.” In the summer of 1861 a new spring wheat, supposed to be the same as the above, was grown in the east part of Westchester County, N. Y., that would average thirty bushels per acre, ripening in July a long bearded head and plump grain. George Miller, a large farmer in Canada, sows spring wheat upon ground that grew a crop of turnips in the previous fall, for which it was well ma- nured, and he says: “T can get ten or fifteen bushels an acre more of spring than winter wheat. I got from seven bushels of seed, which I sowed at the rate of less than a bushel per acre, 393 bushels of grain. I put manure upon all green crops. I carry manure in winter upon turnip land, and put that in the turnip drills in June. I prefer to plow under my wheat seed.” Hon. A. B. Dickenson, of Hornby, N. Y., does not believe in spring wheat in the southern tier of counties of New York. He says: “T have known fifty-four bushels of winter wheat per acre in this State— that can not be done with spring wheat.” Mr. Bowen, Orleans County, says: “Some of my neighbors raised thirty-five bushels per acre of Mediter- ranean wheat. Some of them sow sixty acres. It is put in the last of August.” How can a farmer spend a little time more profitably than in ithe ex- amination of the question of wheat-growing? First, whether by the use of proper fertilizers he can grow wheat profitably; and second, which sort, winter or spring; and third, which of the many varieties is the best. 747. When to Sow Spring Wheat.— from seed taken right out of the heap as it comes from the thrashing-ma- chine and winnowing mill? 753. What Becomes of Seed Wheat?—It Does Not all Grow.—Charles Brackett writes as follows, July, 1858: “T wish to present the following matter of vast importance in regard to the cultivation of wheat. “J planted last autumn five rows of wheat, with spaces between different rows of three feet, two feet, and eighteen inches; this was kept clean with the hoe, and the product is as follows—Average number of stalks from each seed, 32; number of grains to the head, 72 to.100. “ Now, if we count only thirty stalks from each grain of seed, and seventy- two grains in a head, we get at the rate of over two thousand-fold, and three thousand two hundred, counting the highest yield. From the year 1845 to 1855 the average of wheat in this and parts of the adjoining counties, ac- cording to my record, was less than eight bushels to the acre, the very best being thirty-three bushels. “Thirty stalks to the square foot will give 104,089,600 grains to the acre, which, allowing 898,560 grains to the bushel, gives nearly 116 bushels to the acre. This estimate is a correct one, based upon actual facts, and, although it looks like a wild calculation, will prove so nearly correct as to help reform our present slovenly and extravagant mode of wheat culture. The quantity of seed required to plant an acre is only a trifle over five pounds, if put in as above described. “Suppose every seed of the bushel sown, per acre, grew and produced, as some wheat usually does, three stalks to the grain of seed, each bearing thirty grains, would not the acre produce ninety bushels? But how much does it produce? Eight bushels and less on an average. “ What becomes of seed wheat? is an interesting matter for investiga- tion.” The following table shows an English calculation of the number of grains of wheat in a bushel, as well as several other seeds: 660,000 | Buckwheat 672,000 | Red clover 15,000,000 550,000 | White clover 40,220,000 1,230,000 | Sweet vernal grass 9,250,000 There is no doubt in our mind about the injury of wheat seed by thrashing- machines, and consequently there is an incaleulable number of grains of wheat which will not vegetate. Careful experiments are needed to show the per-centage of loss upon machine-thrashed seed over that thrashed by the flail, to determine whether true economy would not dictate a change, and that all grain for seed should be thrashed by hand. According to the above calculation of 660,000 grains of wheat to the bushel, there would be 2,640,000 grains in four bushels, and if we assume all to vegetate, there would be one wheat plant to every 23 superficial inches, if that quantity is sown upon an acre, as there are in an acre 6,272,640 superficial inches. A good strong wheat plant, upon good soil, with plenty Sro. 44.] WHEAT—WHAT BECOMES OF ALL THE SEED SOWN? 679 of room, will tiller ten-fold, and a field in proper condition should average that. Now let the advocates of thick seeding make their own estimate, and see how many plants they will have to the acre, and then go into the best field to be found, and see how many are actually growing upon each foot square, and compare the result with the number that four bushels of seed per acre should produce. In our opinion, a better preparation of the soil, a careful selection of perfect seed, and a careful planting of it, so that all would grow, and so that half a bushel would give better results than four bushels, would show the best economy. Before, however, any certain rules can be adopted by American farmers, the actual number of seeds in a bushel must be ascertained, and very care- ful experiments made. In the New York State Agricultural Society Transactions for 1849 there are some experiments reported. It is stated that wheat sown in squares one and a half inches each way, taking nearly four bushels of seed per acre, gave a product of almost seventy bushels, while one fourth the amount of seed, in squares of three inches, gave fifty-one bushels ; and other trial plots, using two bushels of seed, and three fourths of a aed, gave 3 respectively products rating at sixty pad at forty-five bushels per acre. English experi- ments give about the same result, pointing strongly to an even “distribution of the seed over the ground on all clean soils. Under a perfect system of tillage—giving all the ground and all the strength of the soil to the one product of wheat—no doubt the rule would hold good, that the greater the number of perfect stems and heads per acre, ihe greater the amount of grain produced. Weeding wheat, where needed, compensates for the loss of space in drill culture, and we are not without experiments showing thin seeding very favorably by the side of the more liberal supply, especially in cases of early sowing on rich or very carefully cultivated soils. These various discussions and experiments point at least to one fact for the guidance of the farmer—but one not very generally known and considered— that rich, deep, thoroughly worked soils do not need as great an amount of seed as those of a less fertile character. A new kind of wheat, or cheat, was extensively advertised in the spring of 1861, under the name of “Japan wheat,” which the issuers ats a ad- vertisement pretended will yield “three hundred bushels per acre.” That story is too big. It is a big effort to “raise the wind” at the farmer’s ex- pense. It is rather more than every grain of four bushels of seed per acre would produce. 754. When should Grain be Cut?—A most important question for every farmer. Careful observation and some little experience during twenty years’ residence in a great wheat-growing country, have convinced the writer that it is fully ten per cent. profit to cut wheat before the grain is fully ripe. Com- mence cutting as soon as the earliest part of the crop has passed from the milky into the dough state. There is no necessity to let it lie to cure, if 680 CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. cut while the straw is still partially green. Bind it up as fast as cut, and set the bundles in stooks, two and two leaning together in dozens or twen- ties, or any given number, so as to give an even count. Set in this way, the most unripe grain will cure and perfect itself. The advantages are: the grain is heavier, sweeter, and whiter; there is less loss of shattered grain; the straw, where that is an object, is so much better feed as to make it worth while to cut early, even if there were a loss on the grain, which is not the case. For seed, the best portion of the field should be set apart and left to ma- ture until fully ripe, and then carefully cut by hand and very carefully han- dled, because the very grains which should be saved for seed are the ones most easily shattered. Give these bundles a slight thrashing, and give the grain a thorough winnowing; screen out all but the most plump kernels, and sow those for your next crop, and you will succeed in improving both quality and product. In the 2d volume of British Husbandry, pp. 136, 137, it is said that grain should be reaped, as a general rule, before the uppermost grain can be shaken out. But in this a medium course should be adopted, for although grain, if allowed to become too ripe, assumes a dull, husky hue in the sample, yet, if not ripened enough, it shrivels in the drying. Cadet de Vaux asserts that “ grain reaped eight days before the usual time, has the berries larger, fuller, and finer, and better calculated to resist the attacks of the weevil. An equal quantity of the corn thus reaped, with corn reaped at maturity, gave more bread and of a better quality. The proper time for reaping is that when the grain, on being pressed between the fingers, has a doughy appearance, like a crumb of bread just hot from the oven.” Mr. C. Howard, in the Report on Select Farms, says: “ Wheat ought never to be allowed to remain uncut till itis fully ripe. By permitting it to stand until the straw has lost its succulency, gains nothing in plumpness or bulk of grain, and loses much in its color and fineness of skin, besides the risk of shelling, by high wind, or by its being cut under the influence of a burning sun. ““When fully ripened by standing in the shocks, no dry hour should be lost in getting it well secured.” Loudon observes, that “in harvesting wheat, the best. farmers, both in England and on the Continent, agree that it ought to be eut before it be- comes dead ripe. When this is the case the loss is considerable, both in the field and in the stack-yard; and the grain, according to Von Thaer, pro- duces an inferior flour.” An experienced Pennsylvania farmer of our acquaintance always cuts his oats while the straw is green. This he learned to do by accident, for it was contrary to the practice of his father and all his neighbors. His hay crop was short one year, and he determined to cut his oats green; that is, a few days too soon, as he thought, losing the grain, for the sake of the straw. For Szo. 44.] WHEAT—WHEN AND HOW HARVESTED. 681 seed, he left a strip through the middle of the field, where the oats Were best. The grain of those cut was just in the dough and milky state, and he expected they would all shrivel up. What was his surprise when he came to thrash, to find the early-cut straw yielding as much and as plump grain as that which stood till it was dead ripe, while the straw was in- comparably better—in fact, the stock ate it as readily as they would tim- othy hay. We have known many instances where early-cut grain was saved, while that left to ripen was lost. A farmer offered two samples of wheat, one cut on the 20th of July in a green state, when the crushed grain had the ap- pearance of thick dough; the other, cut six days later in a ripe state, the ears drooping, and the grain firm and hard. Both samples remained in stack until the 17th of October, when the grain was thrashed, the green-cut portion was equally dry with the other, and the green-cut grain weighed twenty-eight ounces per bushel more than that which was allowed to stand till it was quite ripe, and produced a better sample of flour with one twelfth less bran. 755. Shocking Wheat in the Harvest-Field.—It will be often found to be good economy to take the sheaves from the bunches or dozens which have been set up two and two to cure, and put them in hand stacks, when they can not be got into a permanent stack soon enough. The following is a good rule: Bring sufficient sheaves together, say 100, and place them in a circle or ring of about fifteen feet in diameter, with the butts to the center. Set a good- sized sheaf in the center of the inclosed space on the ground, and lay down successive sheaves, elevating the heads at first by laying them across the first sheaf, and so on around this nucleus until a circular bottom is formed sufficient to receive the quantity of sheaves brought together—always taking eare to keep the heads of the sheaves duly elevated until the stack is fin- ished. The bottom should be made of ample size, so as to permit the sheaves to have due space ; otherwise the center will be too high and cause the sheaves to tumble off, or the whole to assume a leaning position. It is better, therefore, to allow full size, and then to draw the stack to an apex rather suddenly in finishing. This is more especially necessary when the sheaves are large, for it is difficult otherwise to make the top sufficiently pointed. With the foregoing directions faithfully observed, a man with ordinary judgment may rapidly secure his wheat in the field against all ordinary weather for a month or more. 756. Storing Grain in Stacks——In England, where, for a certainty, there is no lack of means to build barns, and where the climate is quite as humid at harvest-time as it is here, there is a vast amount of grain put up in stacks, and it is contended that there is less loss upon the average of grain stacked than upon grain stored in barns. In this country there is an anxiety on the part of farmers to have barn room enough to store everything, and stacking 682 CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. is considered wasteful. And so it is, as stacking is generally done, but it need not be so; the fault is in the stackers, not in the system. In England, a farmer has a permanent stack-yard, with forms, or founda- tions upon which to build the stacks, and these are often made of stone pil- lars, capped with flat stones to prevent rats and mice from climbing up and getting into the grain. Here, some brush, old rails, poles, old straw, or a few loose stones may be placed under the grain or hay, though often the stacks are built right upon the ground, and we have seen a thickness of two feet of the bottom of stacks frozen together so firmly that the hay or grain could not be got at until after a thaw, and then only in a very poor condition. ‘The tops are frequently built equally faulty, and we once had a stack where the lazy lout who built it clung to the pole and pressed the hay down around it to such a degree that water settled in the cavity and penetrated down through the center to the very foundation. Sometimes wheat-stacks are so faultily built that the butts of bundles on the outside are higher than the tops, serving as conductors of water to the center; and such stacks by hun- dreds may be seen upon the prairies coated with green during a warm Sep- tember rain. With so many evidences of wastefulness in stacking, it is not to be wondered at that American farmers are prejudiced against the system, and only adopt that plan of storing grain when compelled by necessity- Some of the remarks about stacking hay (835) will apply equally well to grain. So well satisfied are English farmers about the economy of storing grain in stacks, that we see of late, in all the English agricultural papers, advertisements of iron stack bottoms—iron frames, supported by iron pil- lars, about a foot and a half high. 757. Thrashing-Machines vs. Flails,--Becance wheat must be cut by ma- chines, farmers are apt to apply the same idea to thrashing. The rule will not always hold good. Upon the great prairie farms of the West the grain must be thrashed by machines, because the work must be done in the open air, and it is like hay-making, it must be done while the sun shines, and therefore is usually done by a ponderous machine, driven by the power of four, six, or eight horses, attended by eight to twelve men; that is, one to feed the sheaves into the thrasher, one to cut the bands and plage the sheaves on the table convenient to the feeder, and one to three, according to the situation of the stack, to get the sheaves to the band cutter; and three to six men to take away the straw and grain, and one to drive, and a stout boy to do a score of nameless things. It isa heavy and always dreaded job to have the thrashing-machine about the place, and when we grew wheat on the prairie the actual cost of thrashing was 12 to 15 cents a bushel. The straw was of no value, and was often burnt after the thrashing was done to get it out of the way. We once took the trouble to pile up the straw of fifty acres, thinking it might be useful in just such a hard winter as the one that preceded the harvest, for our own or some other one’s stock, but it was not needed, and the stack stood until it gradually decayed several years after- Szo. 44.] WHEAT—STACKING AND THRASHING. 683 it will be good economy to thrash with a machine and get rid of the straw in the easiest manner, which will be by hauling it away from the machine with a horse-rake. But where straw is valuable, either for feeding or bed ding, on the farm or in market, we think it good economy to thrash with a flail or with a one-horse machine in the barn from day to day, as the straw isneeded. Upon this point we give the testimony of a very practical, ob- serving farmer, one who knows whereof he speaks—the Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Fairmount, Onondaga County, N. Y., who has most successfully con- ducted the farm that his father managed, and which his son is now con- dueting without deterioration in its productiveness. He writes under date of March, 1858, as follows: “T will give you some of the reasons that make me think that the flail is better than the large thrashing-machines for most of the farmers of central New York, except in those cases that require the grain to be thrashed soon after it is harvested. The ordinary price for thrashing wheat with the travel- ing machines here is five cents per bushel, the owner of the machine haying with it two men and four horses that the farmer must feed. The farmer must provide six more horses, and from five to eight men—say an average of seven. All the expenses will bring up the cost of thrashing to ten cents a bushel. I have paid that for thrashing a large crop. Wheat is the only crop that makes so good a comparison for the machine, for ten cents is just a fair price for flailing out wheat in the winter, the thrasher binding up the long straw, and feeding the short straw during the day to the sheep and cattle. “ Barley can be thrashed with a flail for three cents less than by machine. Oats about the same, and yet there are cases where we use machines. Last autumn we could sell our wheat for $1 50, and our barley for $1, so we hired a machine and put the crop into market, well knowing that the prices must fall before winter. We appeared to save about half a dollar on each bushel, but there is some drawback on that calculation. Our men being thrown out of this thrashing in the winter, we have had to look up work for them that we really did not want to do, and we have lost our straw nearly, as the heavy rains of October and November could not be kept from going down through the stacks and injuring them very much. Though our sheep have had a vast amount of good hay, they are not in as good order as usual at this time of the year. Most of the farmers in Onondaga raise grain, make some butter and cheese, raise a few cattle, horses, and sheep, and intend, during the winter, to make their stock eat and trample under foot the straw of their grain, so as to get it into shape to manure their fields. The plan of thrashing it during the winter, either by flails, or stamping it out with horses on wide floors, or thrashing with a very small machine, that two horses and three or four men can handle, has this advantage, that all the short straw is fed from day to day as it is thrashed, and thus nearly every grain saved in some way. The farmer will find it to his profit to keep 684 CEREALIA. | [Cnar. VIII. this winter work for his men, who he can not do without in summer, and by doing this he can raise a few sheep, calves, and a colt or two, without losing money on them. “Thrashing is the only winter employment the farm can give hirelings, and in this view, thrashing, in fact, costs but little, for the money paid to these men during the winter enables us to employ them in the summer at reasonable prices. The result to them is constant employment; to us, econ- omy in the first cost of thrashing. “ Machines do not thrash cleaner than flails. I have had a great deal to Jo with machines, but I never saw one at my barns, or my neighbors’, that did not leave grain enough in the straw to make the stacks green with sprouted grain as soon as the rain wet them. » showing insect % G WM depositing at worl vil Making é Z nt shaped cut 7 as Natural Ak elbabiit \ fue Natura Cy size joke GEe- Codling Moth, Caterpillar and Chrysalis Larva Codling Afoths Female wing from can of \phis Svirphus iva devour Aphis Mag Lace Wing Fly 4 Mer ade ephata \ Weevil or Curculio feigning death : Nat! s oa RE Weevil Mag? CODLING MO'TH rail we, PEACH TREE BORER Kw Peach Worm at worl: be, ’ / xy seers BEX EFICIAL to the AGKICULEURIS” ate sterpilla® ae BS Nat’ size r atwork {CHNEUMON FLY in LADY BIRD Nat! size ik jee = a ’ , Mag ; ocoon LACE WING FLY +a c—) q os ; of Lace Wing Fly Nat size Farpalus £ . 7 Larva devouring Aphis a. Reduvins Nov fNartug fr Ohrolina f REAR HORSE Ichneumon Fly Nat! size Src. 45.] HISTORY OF INDIAN CORN. 709 there. In the grazing town of Fabius, a small fraction over three acres of pasture and meadow is required for each head of stock, or eight sheep.” Assuming this as the proper ratio, he makes a three-year-old steer cost, for use of land $36, care $18, total $54, or about five cents per day up to that age, and the expense is far from being over-estimated where stock-raising is carried on upon expensive land unconnected with grain-growing. SECTION XLV.—INDIAN CORN—ITS HISTORY. NDIAN CORN (maize) is the poor man’s crop. It is often grown by the new settler in the little opening he N@z makes in the woods, amid stumps and fallen trees, by the RAYS aid of his hoe alone. Without Indian corn, this country could never have been settled and brought into such rapid cultivation. It is to America the most important crop that is grown. It enters into the food of all classes of people, either as bread or meat, so that it may be said that it is as much a ' universal food crop with us as rice isin India. It is more important than rice, for it produces a higher order of civil- ization. Indian corn takes its name from the American aborigines, among whom it was found growing before they knew the use or value of iron implements of husbandry. It has ever been a favorite food with them, and since we call them Indians, it is very proper to call this Indian corn. At first, Europeans who came to this country, as well as those who come now, were and are prejudiced against the use of this grain as food, not even relishing it when cooked in the milky state, of which Americans, like the Indians, have become so universally fond. The Irish, too, in time of famine, when supplies of this great American breadstuff were sent them, considered it but little better than starvation to be obliged to sustain life upon food only fit for fatting pigs. The same people had just as strong prejudices at first against potatoes, now called Irish potatoes, because so many of that nation live upon them almost as exclusively as some Americans do upon Indian corn. The value of the corn crop to America is beyond calculation. The two next greatest—wheat and hay—do not equal it, while beside corn, the boasted cotton crop is a mere fraction. Its importance is universal} no product common to all the States has ever been so extensively cultivated. So important was it considered by the native inhabitants of America, that in Peru the palace gardens of the Incas were ornamented with maize, with all the grains, spikes, stalks, and leaves, in gold and silver, representing the growth in its exact and natural shape; a proof no less of the wealth of the CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. Incas than of their veneration for this important grain. In further proof of the American origin of this plant, it may be stated that it is still found growing in a wild state from the Rocky Mountains to the humid forests of Paraguay, where, instead of having each grain naked—as is always the case after long cultivation—it is completely covered with glumes or husks. Co- lumbus found the natives of Hispaniola cultivating it in extensive fields, and those of other places first visited by him were also in possession of it. The first Englishmen by whom it was cultivated were those who settled in Vir- ginia in 1607. Tn all the wars against the Indians, the hardest blows given them were in the destruction of their cornfields. The burning of a wigwam town was misery to women and children, but destruction of the cornfields impoverished the entire tribe. The former could be quickly rebuilt, but the latter could not be replaced till next year. The Indians had not many varieties of corn, and its cultivation was a necessity with them, and the task was imposed on the women, who planted, gathered, roasted, pounded, and cooked the corn. The plowshare occasionally turns up, on the site of some forgotten wigwam, the rude stones which crushed the ripened grain. The whites quickly recog- nized the value of corn as food for man and beast, improved its culture, mul- tiplied its varieties, and by the invention of machines for shelling it rapidly and grinding it cheaply, raised it to the position of a staple so important, that if the whole wheat crop of this country weré suddenly annihilated, the corn crop alone would supply us plenteously with food. While Louisiana and Florida produce but 1,500 bushels annually of wheat, they give 14,000,000 bushels of corn; and slaves consume no more wheat than did the aborigines. Corn is their sole food, and if the corn crop could be annihi- lated, slavery would perish of starvation. It is cheap corn as well as high- priced cotton that keeps slavery alive. Corn hybridizes with great facility, so that varieties are constantly in- creasing, yet a rich reward is ready for whoever may propagate a new va- riety far surpassing any of the sorts now cultivated. It may be said of sorts now in use, that one is grown in one district of country because it was first introduced there, the growers being satisfied without looking farther. An- other, becausé great crops have been secured from it in a different section, where the soil had been found especially congenial. A third, because the grain was large and the cob small. A fourth, because the s‘alk grew very tall and yielded munch fodder; while a fifth was preferred for peculiarities directly opposite. It happens, fortunately, that all varieties are good for man and beast, and that where cultivation is well managed, good crops and certain profits are the result. Chemistry applied to detecting the peculiarities of Indian corn shows a great difference in varieties. ‘A grain cut in half, and immersed in a solu- tion of hydrosulphate of ammonia, will have the chit changed to a dark olive color, thus proving the presence of salts of iron. The exact limits of starch and dextrine contained in the grain are indicated by the tincture of iodine 2) ee Szo. 45.] CHEMISTRY OF INDIAN CORN. 711 striking an intense blue with the starch, and a deep port-wine red with dex- trine; so that this test, by producing a rich violet, indicated the presence of both starch and dextrine. If the oil be extracted from the transparent horny part of corn by alcohol or ether, the tincture of iodine will show the presence of starch in that part of the grain associated with the gluten. By these means one can readily cause any grain to define the extent and precise limit of each of its ingredients, and enable the naked eye to form a pretty correct estimate of their relative proportions in different seeds. The relative proportions of the phosphates-in grain depend on the appropriating power of each species or variety. Thus, an ear of corn being selected containing two different kinds, the Tuscarora and the sweet corn, and these seeds being split in two and immersed in the same solution, soon gave evidence of more than double the amount of phosphates in the sweet corn than in the other variety. The result was extraordinary, because the grains came from the same ear and grew side by side, yet they had obtained unequal quantities of phosphates from the same sap, drawn from the same soil.” Thus, a crop of sweet corn will appropriate twice as much of the phosphates as the other variety, and will consequently sooner exhaust the soil of them. Hence ground bones are the specific manure for sweet corn. This variety has re- cently come into extensive use for table consumption, and is annually in- creasing. Its numerous growers should freely make use of ground bones as its most valuable fertilizer. Its origin is unknown, but it appears to have been used by the aborigines of New England previous to the settlement of the country by the Pilgrims. In addition to a large proportion of the phos- phates, it contains a great quantity of sugar and gum, with but little starch. Its short and slender stalks take up a less proportion of the saline matters of the soil. Chemistry proves that corn possesses peculiar value as food for young animals, because it contains more of the phosphates than the smaller grains. Farmers know, without knowing the cause, that the bones of young animals are greatly strengthened ly being fed on corn, and they may learn from chemistry not only how to raise corn, but how to use it. Chemistry indicates the relative power possessed by each kind of grain of appropriating the phosphates contained in the soil, and consequently its wants. As oats and buckwheat contain the least proportion, they may be raised on soil not fully supplied with phosphates. Tuscarora corn is one of the varieties which does not contain oil. Rice corn contains the most, pop corn ranks next, Canada corn third, and brown corn next. There is a curious difference observable in the mode of distribu- tion of the oily and glutinous parts of corn, the Southern variety always having it on the sides of the elongated seed, while the starch projects quite through the grain to its summit, and by its contraction in drying produces the peculiar pit or depression in what is known as “ gourd-seed corn.” The Baden corn, which contains a very fine white oil, is still more remarkable for this arrangement. 712 CEREALIA. [Caar. VIII. ~ The uses of oil in corn are manifold. It is obviously to protect the grain from rapid decomposition in the soil, during long-continued wet, and to retain a portion of food until needed by the young plant, as the oil is uniformly the last -portion of the grain taken up. It serves to keep meal from souring readily, and kiln-dried flint-corn meal will keep sweet for years, when put up properly, while the Tuscarora meal will sour in a short time. The oil imparts a decided taste to the meal, not pleasant to persons accustomed to use varieties containing no oil. , There is from six to twelve per cent. of oil in corn, that of Southern growth containing less than Northern. When hulled by means of potash lye, the oil next to the epidermis of the grain is converted into soap, and the epidermis is detached. The caustic alkali also liberates ammonia from the mucilage around the germ. When corn is used for the manufacture of whisky, the oil is saved during the fermentation, as it separates and rises to the surface. It is held that 100 bushels of grain will yield 15 gallons of oil valuable for illuminating purposes. The colors of Indian corn depend on that of the epidermis, or hull, and of the oil—the latter, when yellow, showing its color through a transparent epidermis. In white varieties the oil is transparent and colorless, and the epidermis being also free from color, the meal is white. The Golden Sioux, a twelve-rowed variety, is colored by the oil. Red and blue owe their lively hues to the colors of the epidermis, and not to the oil. On inspecting very thin slices of corn under the microscope, the epidermis is found to be made up of hexagonal cells much larger than those of the glutinous and oily parts of the grain. The starch globules are distinctly seen in the starchy part; a drop of diluted tincture of iodine brings out their forms and character with beautiful distinctness. The phosphates are probably in the state of a fine powder, while the ammonia is in combination with the organic matters, forming a kind of ammid in the mucilage around the germ. Corn contains all the elements required for the perfect development and support of the bodies of animals. The ingredients make it a highly nutri- tious grain. The gluten and mucilage contain nitrogen, an element essen- tial to the formation of fibrous tissue, muscle, nervous matter, and brain. The oil is nearly-formed fat, easily convertible into animal oils by a slight change of composition. Starch also is convertible into fat, and into the car- bonaceous substances of the body, and during its slow combustion in the cir- culation gives out a portion of the heat of animal bodies, while in its altered state it goes to form a part of the living frame. From the phosphates are derived the substance of bone, as well as the saline matters of brains, nerves, and other solid and fluid parts of the body. The salts of iron contained in the food of animals go to the blood, and constitute an essential portion of it, enabling it, by successive changes of its degree of oxydation during the cireulation through lungs, arteries, and veins, to transport oxygen to every part of the body. “Chemistry has proved that ‘flesh is grass,’ that vegetable and animal — 4 Szo. 45.] INDIAN CORN. 7138 RR Oe RA fiber are identical, as are vegetable Endl einen albumen. Plants are there- fore organs of redaction, animals mere organs of combustion. Vegetables produce neutral mebeeenized matters, fat’ matters, sugar, starch, and gum; decompose carbonic seid gas, absorb heat and electricity, and are an ap- paratus of reduction. Animals consume what the vegetables produce, at the same time producing carbonic acid gas, giv ing out heat and electricity, being an apparatus of combustion.” * Corn j is unquestionably the prime national staple, and in every season of deficient crops of other grains, the corn crop has proved a granary upon which the nation could live, and the yield is annually increasing. In 1840 it was 377,000,000 bushels; in 1850 it was over 590,000,000; and in 1860, 900,000,000. In 1840 our whole export of corn and its manufactures amounted to only $800,000. In 1847 the famine in Ireland swelled the amount to $18,696,000, since which the export has never fallen below $2,000,000, while in 1855 it rose to $8,198,693, and in 1859 to $6,187,446. When a bushel of wheat is worth 95 cents, one of corn is worth 77, nutri- ment alone considered ; yet when corn has stood at $1 per bushel, wheat has stood at $2 50. Thus, in buying wheat, we obtain, for any given amount of money, a little less than half the nutriment we obtain when buying corn 1840. 1850. Product of the slave States......... bushels, 252,448,802 ........ 348,992,282 Product of the free States.......... Fe 124,988,072 ........ 242,618,650 877,431,874 591,610,982 Thus the increased production in the free States was about 75 per cent., while in the slave States it was only about 39 per cent. The greatest corn- * producing State in 1840 was Tennessee, whose crop was 44,986,188 bushels. In 1850 it was but a little over 52,000,000. In the same period Indiana and Illinois had risen from 50,790,098 to 110,611,347 bushels. Iowa had in- creased her yield nearly 500 per cent., Wisconsin as much, while New Jer- sey, Olio, Vermont, and Maine nearly doubled theirs. In Michigan the increase was more than double. In only two of the slave States, Missouri and Arkansas, was the production double. Virginia made poorer relative progress than any other State. These figures show that the great corn em- pire of this country is to be in the West. Nearly one sixth of the Ohio crop has heretofore been converted into whisky. In 1855, Ohio had 2,205,282 acres in corn, producing 87,587,434 bushels, an average of 39.7 per acre. In 1859, the quantity in corn was 2,431,312 acres, producing 68,730,846 bushels, an average of only 28.3. For ten years the average yield has been steadily declining; in two only, within that period, rising above the ‘yield of 1850. It then stood at 36.8 per acre, and in 1859 at 28. 3. Indian corn is the great American staple—the grand necessity of all Amer- ican agriculture. The grand success in its production is, first of all, in the preparation of the seed, and the soil in which it is to be planted. | [ 714 CEREALIA. a Vill. 779. cane atone; North ants South. ‘How ‘i. on Grew them Better. —We maa that in all the Southern States, excluding the alluvions, the average per acre will not equal ten bushels of Indian corn, while a crop of forty bushels upon some of the richest river bottoms is considered a first-rate one. It is not surprising that the yield is so light. Look how it is planted. In.all of the slave States the little one-horse shovel plow is in common use. This plow is made of a piece of thin iron like a pointed shovel, say nine inches across, which is fastened to the standard under the beam, and the whole is so light that I have often seen a negro girl of fourteen or fifteen years old, mount her mule and take her plow on her shoulder or on before her, to ride to the field. With this tool the ground is scratched over, and corn planted and tended by the same implement. As the subsoil is hard, the roots only spread through the loose earth on the surface, and the after-plowing serves to tear them to pieces. In lower Virginia it is common to throw the land all into beds about a foot high, five feet apart, and grow stalks one in a place, from two to four feet apart. The crop is ten to twenty bushels. One of the largest planters on the Roanoke cultivates about 3,000 acres in corn. His land is very rich, and subject to overflows. He does not manure, and burns his stalks and cobs to get rid of them. The yield averages perhaps thirty bushels. In the same vicinity the Messrs. Burgwin have brought the ave- rage yield of their Jand from seven bushels to thirty, principally by deep plowing. They plant rows five feet apart, and stalks one to two feet apart. Uplands in that vicinity, plowed by one horse and the little shovel plows, produce five to ten bushels to the acre. It is planted about the 20th of April, 4 by 43 feet, one stalk in a hill without manure. On the bottom lands of James River the average yield may be about twenty-five bushels. On the Sandy Point estate, where the land is a true loam, and plowed with « a three-mule team, and planted about 25th of April, five and a half feet be- tween rows and one and one fourth feet between stalks, the yield is thirty- five bushels average. The seed is covered with a harrow, and the crop tended with a double shovel plow. The annual crop is five hundred acres. Gen. Peyton, above Richmond, took an old plantation and renovated it by deep plowing. He runs what is called a coulter, which is a small subsoil plow, to mark the rows, and then again on each side after the corn is up. This lets the roots down sixteen inches to search for food and moisture. Ed- mund Ruffin has renovated an old farm on the Pamunky, east of Richmond, by the use of marl and deep plowing. He plants 4 by 5 feet, two stalks in a hill, and 5 by 2 feet, one stalk in a place. Mr. Ruffin is the champion of caleareous manures, and has caused many thousand acres of worn-out land to be restored. The Sandy Point estate has been limed three times, with first, fifty bushels ; second, thirty-five bushels ; third, thirty-five bushels; and cultivated on the five-field system—that is, corn, wheat, clover, wheat, fal- low. The annual wheat crop is 1,000 acres, which has heen increased from an average of three bushels to seventeen. There are 2,700 acres of plow land in one field. The corn crop is from 15,000 to 20,000 bushels a year, ‘ : Sro. 45.] CORN CROPS—UOW TO GROW THEM BETTER. 715 about two thirds of Kalki is sa ck This piled Ww will be isis venineubeat by “ the army of the Potomac,” as the one where the Chiekahominy, was crossed on the pontoon bridge. On Edisto Island, and upon the coast of South Carolina generally, the eul- tivation is all done by hoes. A negro will tend six to eight acres in cotton, corn, and potatoes. Upon the plantation of Mr. Townsend, who has made efforts to induce people to use the plow, the task of his hands is five acres of cotton, three acres of corn, and one of potatoes to each field-haud. In all the Southern States there are thousands of acres planted every year, upon ground scratched over by the little shovel plow, that does not yield ten bushels per acre, and much of it not five bushels. The great fault every- where is shallow plowing, and that is the reason why corn crops do not average better in all the corn-growing States. A negro scratches two or three marks about two inches deep in the loose earth, in the place where the rows are to be, leaving the “ middles” to be “broke out” after the corn is planted and has come up. This is a part of the cultivation, or “ tending the crop,” on land never manured. At the West, the average yield of all the acres planted is not thirty bush- els, although crops of ten acres each have averaged over one hundred and fifty bushels per acre, and crops of one hundred bushels are not unusual. Upon rich prairie soil, forty to sixty bushels per acre is accounted first-rate, and fully satisfactory to the producer. Most of the cornfields of all the Eastern States might be made to double their yield by the use of a plow that would reverse the surface ten inches, bringing the lower five to the top and leaving them loose and friable, and then following in the same furrows with a subsoil lifter that would loosen the compact earth eight or ten inches deeper, to say nothing of the advan- tage of turning under a strong grass or clover sod to decay and furnish food for the grain at the very time when it was most needed. All this is inde- pendent of manures, either from the farm-yard, or sea-side, or muck-beds, or city streets, or from Peru, or any of the manufactories of artificial fertiliz- ers, and is within the reach of all corn-planters who may be unable to pro- cure the other means of fertility and increase of the crop, without some of which it is now useless to attempt to grow Indian corn in New York or New England. In the fold States, Indian corn can not be profitably grown upon land that has not been underdrained or subsoil plowed, and that is noi plowed at least eight inches deep for each crop, and most thoroughly pulverized before the seed is put into the ground. As a general rule, half the labor of after- culture will be saved by proper preparation of the ground before planting. One of the best implements ever used for marking out the rows is a subsoil lifter. We have seen an ordinary plow coulter, eighteen inches long, fast- ened to a beam with handles, used for marking the rows with decided ben- efit, as it made a temporary drain for the young plants, which every farmer knows can not bear any excess of water, even for a few hours, in a hot sun, 716 CEREALIA. [Cnar. VIII. without serious injury to all the after-growth of stalk and production of grain. Upon the virgin soil of the prairies, or upon the bottom-lands of some of the Western rivers, men will not, of course, follow these directions, becanse they can get a large acreable yield with less labor, and some of them have been so long in the practice of raising corn in the slovenly, careless manner they do, that it is as useless to ask them to improveas it is to ask.a New England farmer who never grew 40 bushels of corn upon an acre to believe that his neighbor has grown 80. Both East and West, and North and South, the mass will still work on in the old way, notwithstanding all the facts spread before them, yet we will hope that one or two may be induced to re- solve upon improvement after reading this article. Upon the rich prairie soil of Indiana and Illinois, corn has been grown on contract for five cents a bushel. The late Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth had 3,000 acres one year grown by persons who contracted with Mr. E. to plow, plant, till, and grow the crop ready for harvesting for $3 an acre, and the yield gave sixty bushels per acre. One of the premium corn crops of Connecticut was grown by Nathan Hart, Jr., of West Cornwall. The soil was a rich, friable loam, which had been in grass for the last forty years, and had received no manure except the droppings of the cattle. It had probably been pretty well manured in this way. “Twenty-four ox-cart loads of manure from the barn cellar were applied; the land was plowed seven inches deep on the 9th and 11th of May. The seed was of the Dutton variety. It was soaked for thirty-six hours in a warm solution of saltpeter, and rolled in plaster and planted May 23, four kernels in a hill, the hills from two to two and a half feet apart in the row, and the rows three feet apart. It was hoed three times by hand after the horse-hoe at intervals of eight days, commencing June 13. “The crop was ent up by the roots during the week commencing Sept. 17, and husked the first week in November. The yield was 98 bushels, one peck, six quarts per acre. Estimated value of crop, including stalks and pumpkins ............. $103 43 NBOBE! OF TAIN sa) ES i SAS PSSST SE A a oa boa cores, cee Bee ees 387 50 Balance prout of the,crop . agers set ate enls easels cs «cee sad eres $65 93 “Wm. H. Putnam, of Brooklyn, grew another prize crop. The soil was a wet, black loam, with a heavy, compact subsoil, which had been three years in grass, with no manure. Sixteen full loads of stable manure from under cover were plowed in, and ten loads of compost, made from fer- mented stable and hog manure, well mixed with rather poor summer-made yard manure, were put in the hill. His land was plowed eight inches deep, and corn dropped upon the manure, in furrows three feet apart, and the corn two and a half feet apart in the furrow, and plaster upon the corn ; six quarts of seed to the acre of the Rhode Island premium variety, planted May 27. Cultivated and hoed twice, and thinned to four stalks in the hill, SEo. 45] WHEN TO PLANT CORN. ralrg a An and men ripe, cut up ip ine a roots a sai oil ‘The yield was 951 baaliels to the acre. WalneroneuheryweHOleKCtopy cis. cys ictal cals sites lela delalss aloe nieety. chides mate +..$96 40 CORRE Ah On OR A Owe Bie On CnaSe Ane Oooo amor OGmaeSee acer ac 26 50 Bal AM GelOPyPLOl Lint ascistel oy -loteepaele selec oi ais ofha/eis otal ate wee se lelars 6 eke $69 90 “ James A. Bill, of Lyme, took — third premium. His soil is a gravelly loam, cultivated the two previous years in corn, and the third year previous in grass. Forty loads of barn-yard manure were plowed in deeply for each crop of corn, and a dressing of 150 bushels of ashes the first year. No ma- nure was applied to the land when in grass. The land was plowed June 1, and planted June 5 with six quarts of Dutton corn three feet and a half apart each way. The seed was soaked until nearly ready to sprout, and ten days after planting it was up and hoed; and again the last of June; and the third time about the middle of July. The land left perfectly flat, no hills being made. The crop was cut Sept. 30, and yielded 89 bushels per acre. WWOLATANE Oi Gio ing an qado nnanonantiar Hoos coUUCOe a mone a ooor oendd $95 50 (COS) Oi GUN ZA MO) s seid co cedemodi OOS OIA tin occomcpio obo beacon 9 50 Ileana OD iigadana sigs ook abe oo UEe Goole Anat cetmerleb ore se $86 00 The value of the manure is not estimated, which would take off at least $20 from the profit, leaving it about the same as the other premium crops. It will be noticed that Mr. Bill plants very late, June 5. This is his practice every year. He plants, also, six inches farther apart one way, and a foot farther apart the other. With a smaller variety of corn, and closer planting, we think this acre would have taken the first premium.” Now, these crops were grown in as unfavorable a season as we have had in many years, in a State not marked upon our country’s map as one of the corn-growing States, and not, so far as we can see, with a very extraordinary amount of labor, and yet with a very handsome profit, leaving the soil in better condition than it was before. 780. When to Plant Corn.—There is a rule, and one of no little import- ance, homely as it may seem, for fixing the proper time for putting the seed corn in the ground. It is a day in the calendar of the aborigines, which our Pilgrim fathers found established among these original corn-planters. In answer to the question, “ What time in the spring do you plant corn?” the answer was, “ When the leaves upon the oak-trees are as large as the ears of the squirrels that sun themselves on the branches, then our squaws plant the seed that has been so carefully preserved in the smoke of our wigwams.” There is much truth in the old Indian rule, both in preserving the seed, which was hung up in clusters of ears, by the braided husks, to the poles of the wigwam, Badd in the time of planting it—the time pointed out by nature, not ie almanac, when the ground had become sufficiently warm to insure rapid vegetation. Experience has proved that the 20th of May, as a general rule, corre- sponds very well with the time of putting forth oak leaves “as large as a 718 . CEREALIA. [Cuar. VII. eee AA squirrel’s ear,” and then it is the fittest time for planting. The next most fitting time is when you are ready, for upon getting land ready, and proper cultivation, depend all your success. With straight rows, and a practiced hand to hold the cultivator, it leaves but little work for the hoes. Corn should be cut about the middle of Sep- tember by the roots, and shocked. There will be more corn and better fod- der. This process will give us corn at 50 cents a bushel or less. 781. Seed Corn—Selecting, Saving, and Preparing it to Plant——Any man claiming the name of farmer who does not systematically select his seed corn in the field before the crop is harvested, can never be written down in our books as a good farmer. And this is a work, too, that must not be trusted to a graduate from any Corkonian institution. It is the business of the farmer himself. No ear, however large and sound, should be taken from a stalk that does not carry two full- sized, sound ears. No ear that is not well filled out with perfect Kernels to the very point, should be accepted for seed, if a farmer—and a good farmer does—desire to improve his crop. The effect produced by Baden, by this practice of selection, was a universal regular production of four to seven ears upon all the stalks, until at length “Baden corn” became known as an improved variety. It is an improve- ment that any farmer can make. If you would grow great crops, the great- est pains must be taken with the seed. It should be carefully selected, and that from crops grown north of your own location, if only half a degree. Many farmers contend that no kernel should be planted which has not been soaked to the point of sprouting; not one should be planted deep. Then if you do not neglect the after-cultivation, you may have a good crop of Indian corn, notwithstanding the discouraging character of prospects in the spring. ~ If the weather is such that you can not plant a great quantity, remember that you can have more bushels now from half the number of acres intended te be planted than from the whole, if the manure and labor are concentrated. But always bear in mind that the first and most important step toward a good crop is in the careful selection of seed. Mr. Thomas Spencer, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., increased the yield of corn in three years, upon the samme ground, fully one third by simply selecting the seed in the following man- ner: Whien his corn was just coming into the proper state for roasting ears, he passed through his field, inarking the ripest ears, judging by the silk. If there were two ears on the same stalk, he selected the upper one. When gathering his corn in the fall, these ears were carefully put away for seed. Farmers! think of this every year. If you have neglected this course, or if the selection has been neglected while the corn stood where it grew, do not neglect it while you are husking. Save the best ear of all stalks that carry two or more, until you get an ample supply, and then put it away in a perfectly dry place. If you wish to change your seed, make it the busi- ness of a day to go about the country and see who has the best, and make your selection while it is on the stalk. The best time to gather seed corn is Sxo. 45.] SEED CORN—SELECTING AND PREPARING IT TO PLANT. 719 when it has just fully ripened, and the best way to keep it is to tie the ears in bunches by the husks and hang them up to the rafters. If in the loft of a smoky log-cabin, all the better. Smoke is as good for preserving corn as for corn-fed pork. Freezing weather in autumn injures more seed corn than anything else. It should always be saved before trost. Many of the improved varieties of corn are accidental. This is said to have been the case with the Improved King Philip, an excellent variety, which produces ears of unusual length, as long as the best Dutton, the kernels being very large and deep, eight rows on the cob, and it ripens per- fectly in one hundred days, producing very nearly double as much as the ordinary King Philip. One of the curiosities cf this improved variety is, that it does not appear disposed toward further improvement nor change. We have grown it in- termixed with half a dozen sorts, all of which hybridized, while the Im- proved King Philip remained as pure as tlie seed we planted. One of the best recommendations in relation to seed is this: Let each farmer plant, expressly for seed, from ten to a hundred hills in the richest ground he has, placing the hills six feet apart and allowing not more than three stalks to stand in each hill, so as to encourage each to develop three or four ears if possible. Let some of these hills be planted in the midst of potatoes, melons, cabbages, or other low plants, so as to secure them abundant air and sunshine, and thus no ground will be wasted, and in all probability seed will be obtained that will increase the next crop ten bushels per acre. It is an experiment that is worth trying. Farmers can 1.0t be too careful about providing good seed. If you have it not of your own, buy it. “Even if an exorbitant price is demanded, it will be economy in the end, for it requires labor to replant corn, and the second planting rarely amounts to anything in the way of ears; the first planting shades, and gets so much the start of it. In some seasons the corn is generally uncertain about germinating ; then it is best to get corn of the previous year for seed. If you can not get old corn, select new corn that you think will grow, and take one kernel from each of fifteen or twenty ears; put it, with some moist, mellow dirt, in an old crock or dish, and wet it occasionally with tepid water; keep it in a warm place, and you will soon have a test. In one experiment, where nine out of thirteen grew, we planted six or seven, instead of four kernels. If the germ of seed corn is feeble, and particularly if planted too deeply, the blade will curl up under the ground, and a great deal of it will never see the light; while some that does reach the top of the ground is so exhausted by the effort that it never recovers. Planting good seed, or so much poor seed that a sufficient amount will grow, is of more importance than may be im- agined. Some farmers lose hundreds of bushels of corn by carelessness in this particular, and a general carelessness would materially affect the entire crop. One of the best farmers in New Jersey says: “T would only use the best grains in the center of the ear. The land 720 CEREALIA. [Cuap. VIII. should be deeply prepared, and marked each way three and a half feet by three and a half feet, with seven or eight grains to a hill, and five stalks left to stand. We cover one inch deep, and cultivate with Knox’s horse- hoe, and never hill up. We use the subsoil plow in preparing land and in cultivating. We prefer to plant in May toa later day. The White Flint corn is the most productive sort we grow. I have never known crows to eat corn. They certainly pull it up, for I have seen it lying upon the ground uneaten where they pulled it out. Our greatest pests are the blackbirds, which destroy a good deal of corn that pushes its point out of the husks.” A kind of corn called Dutton, much grown in the State of New York, is a Yellow Flint variety, cight-rowed and long ears, and productive of good crops, and this, if planted June 1, would generally ripen in the latitude of Albany. It requires one hundred days to come to maturity. There are several valuable hybrids of this variety that will ripen in the same period. If corn is ever heated in the crib, its germination is destroyed. Great care should be used to plant corn when the earth is in exactly the right condi- tion of temperature. From an experiment reported in the papers a few years ago, to test the question whether the seed taken from the middle of the ear is better than that from the ends, we gather the following facts, which are at least sug- gestive, if not conclusive, and should induce farmers to continue the experi-’ ment for several years, until each one is entirely satisfied. The following is the statement: Two acres were planted on a light soil, well adapted to Indian corn ; manured with seven and a half cords of barn-yard manure to the acre, spread broadeast and cultivated in, and ten bushels of leached ashes and one hundred pounds of gypsum to the acre put in the hill. The corn was planted on the 3d day of June, in alternate rows, with seed taken from the large ends, middle, and tops of the ears. It was hoed three times in the course of the season. One acre was harvested and husked with eare, and the result noted on the 19th of October. The rows planted with seed taken from the large ends of the ears pro- duced 738 pounds of sound corn, 77 pounds of soft corn on the ears and 1,360 pounds of stover. That from seed taken from the middle produced 663 pounds of sound corn in the ear, 164 pounds of soft corn, and 1,290 pounds of stover. That from seed taken from the small ends produced 747 pounds of sound, 53 pounds of soft corn, and 1,320 pounds of stover. Comparing the crops on this acre, and estimating the sound corn at 1 and the soft corn at half a cent per pound, and the stover at 7 dollars the ton, the value of the crop, the seed of which was taken from the large end, was, 738 pounds sound corn, $7 38; 77 pounds soft do., 39 cents; 1,360 pounds stover, $4 55. Total, $12 32. That from middles—663 pounds sound corn, $6 63; 164 pounds soft do., 82 cents; 1,290 pounds stover, $4 51. Total, $11 96. That from the small ends—747 pounds sound corn, Sxo. 45.] WHEN TO PLANT CORN. 72) $7 47; 53 pounds soft do., 26 cents; 1,320 pounds stover, $4 62. Total, $12 35. From this experiment it appears that the very portion of the ear usually selected for seed is the least valuable, and the portion containing the small kernels actually produces the most sound corn, the least soft corn, and greatest quantity of fodder, and slightly exceeds either of the three divisions incash value. Taking this one case as a basis, and it proves that it is hardly worth the while of any farmer to shell off portions of the grains of an ear, rejecting one and saving the other for seed. An experiment made by Lan- sing Wetmore, of Warren, Pennsylvania, upon four adjoining rows, gave eleven and a half bushels upon those with unprepared seed, and seventeen bushels upon the other. The preparation consisted in soaking the corn over- night in just enough soft water to cover it, in which one ounce of copperas to each quart of corn was dissolved. To a peck of corn, when you take it out of the steep, stir in a pint of soft soap. Then add plaster enough to make it dry, so that you can handle it easily for dropping. The argument used by those who favor the various modes of preparing seed, is that it gives the young plant a vigorous start into healthy life before it could look abroad for pabulum. “ An old farmer” says, about saving seed corn: “ My own observation and experience, during forty years, convince me that the best preparation and treatment of seed corn is to keep it on the cob till the ground is prepared to receive it. No coating—no saturdting—no soaking. At the proper season, pulverize the ground well, and put the dry corn in immediately from the cob.” Still there are other farmers, of equal experience, who strenuously con- tend for the advantages of soaking seed corn, not only to hasten its vegeta- tion, but to save it from the attacks of destructive vermin. A young farmer writes that “an old gentleman not far from me says: ‘Soak the seed over- night in copperas water, and the wire-worm will not trouble it. Who knows whether this is so or not?” To this question another correspondent makes this answer: “A good many years ago, when I was farming in Mas- sachusetts, we had a field of corn that was at least two thirds destroyed by the wire-worm. A half dozen of these troublesome fellows were sometimes found sticking in a single kernel. We planted the second time, after soak- ing our seed over-night in a solution of copperas water, and I do not know that a single kernel failed. In after-years, we tried niter with equal suc- cess.” Probably the best remedy against wire-worms is not to grow them. Keep no old meadows. Break them up. Plow all your sod and stubble land in autumn. Either bury your worm seed too deep to get out in time in the spring, or else freeze it to death in the winter. There is probably no remedy equal to deep plowing in autumn. Another correspondent is equally sure that tarring seed corn is a sove- reign remedy against all pests, He says: “Dissolve a pint of tar in hot water, sufficient to immerse a bushel of corn, and you will coat every kernel so that plaster, bone-dust, or ashes will adhere and cover each grain; 46 Sead {22 CEREALIA. [Cuap. VIII. and this not only makes an unpalatable morsel for crows, squirrels, and other pests, but it will fertilize the young shoot so as to give it a vigorous ‘start. Every variety of seed that vermin depredate upon may be tarred with great advantage.” But another one says: “Tar is oftener injurious than otherwise. So are all other applications to seed corn—whether to keep off devourers or to promote growth. A better preventive is to scatter corn on the ground around the margin of the field, and through it in different parts, if the field be large. As much corn as crows will eat, thus fed to them, will be found cheaper than scarecrows of any kind.” 782. Fertilizing Seed Corn.—A great deal has been written of late upon the advantage of fertilizing seeds aby soaking them in a solution of some substance that a the property needed to give increased vitality to the young shoot. . Chamberlin, of Chicago, has made some experiments that convince wii that nearly half the time might be saved in germinating the seed by the use of chlorid of lime. In one of his experiments he had in his office four boxes; in the first, the corn planted without soaking the seed, had not germinated, when the second, with seed that was soaked in warm water, had just commenced to germinate. In the third, seed that was soaked in a solution of chlorid of lime, showed green blades just peeping from the ground. In the fourth, seed soaked in a solution of chlorid of lime and copperas, in equal parts, showed blades nearly three inches above the ground, All the seeds taken from the same ear were planted at the same time, in the same quality of soil, and the boxes all had an equal share of heat and light, and equal advantages. This experiment should attract the attention of farmers, and if from four to six weeks may be saved by the use of chlorid of lime and copperas, it is a matter of no ordinary moment, since a delay in the germination of two weeks may place the crop within reach of frost in autumn. The copperas used in soaking tends to prevent birds, squirrels, and worms from eating the seed. One pound of clilorid of lime and one pound of copperas, costing not over twenty-five cents, should be dissolved in sufficient water to soak seed enough for twenty acres; so every farmer could afford to make the experi- ment, even if he should fail to derive any benefit from it. 783. Shall we Grow Two Ears upon a Stalk ?—It is the general opinion of farmers, that a field which averages two ears upon a stalk would give more bushels of corn per acre than a field of stalks bearing one ear each. But we have a statement from O. 8. Murray, of Warren County, Ohio, that gives proof to the contrary of this position. He says: “ After having my attention often turned to the subject, by what had been so repeatedly pub- lished in the agricultural papers, I went about taking observations for my- self, several years ago. The result was, that in more than ninety-nine in- stances in a hundred, the largest ear on a stalk having but one had more grain than the largest two ears, or all the ears on any stalk having more than one. Ina field of two acres, very well eared, I searched in vain | sx 45.] PREPARING GROUND FOR CORN. 723 throughout to find a single instance where two or more ears on a stalk had as much grain as I could easily and often find on the largest and best ear where there was but one. In another season afterward, I mentioned the matter to a man who was helping me harvest a field of eight acres of supe- rior growth. He was astonished at my suggestion, and quite unbelieving. So we went about the search and comparison—he looking for two ears or ‘more on a stalk, and I for one. In a single instance, and that instance only, he found more on two ears on a stalk than I could find on one. We made numerous comparisons, and in every other instance my single ear had de- cided advantage over his two or more in amount and quality of grain; generally the difference would be considerable. These observations led me to the conclusion, that in the cultivation of our larger varieties, the true philosophy is to ascertain as nearly as possible the largest number of stalks that can stand on a given area with the largest single ears. Stop reducing the number of stalks at the point where in the first single instance the second ear will shoot on a stalk. Besides increasing the quantity and quality of grain, you save one half the work of husking. It is more work to husk a small ear than a large one. The swelling of the latter opens and loosens the husks for more ready removal.” In relation to planting corn very wide apart, Mr. Murray thinks there would be liability to failure of perfect filling on the cobs. Except in the most favorable conditions of weather as to winds and showers, there could not be a sufficient number of successful communications from the anthers to the stigmas at wide distances. 784. Preparing Ground for Corn.—This is the most important in all the laborious part of the work of making a crop of corn. Our choice would be a clover sod turned under in autumn, with a good growth of green clover, * running the subsoil plow in each furrow, or else, if the soil was already in a deep mellow condition, we would plow it with the Michigan, or double- share plow, and in the winter, while the ground was frozen, haul and spread such a dressing of manure as we intended to give it, and then plow that in with a light plow, so as not to turn up the sod. We would mark the rows with a small subsoil plow, or else with a coulter, neither of which will make a furrow for you to plant in below the level of the surface. Indeed, upon wettish ground the following plan has been successfully used: Instead of plowing a furrow and planting the seed below the surface, where it will rot in wet weather, use an implement that will draw the loose surface-soil from each side of the line of the row into a ridge, or rather a flat elevation, and plant the seed upon that. In the lower part of Virginia, nearly all the land, ‘particularly on the river bottoms, and what are called the “ flat lands,” is plowed in ridges. But we do not commend the plan, unless it is upon flat lands that can not be drained. On the other hand, we condemn the practice of planting in the bottom of furrows upon any land. If the soil is well prepared, by surface and subsoil plowing and harrowing, if the ground has broken up in lumps, there is no way that the seed can be so ae 724 CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. well put in as with a drill. If farmers would spend more time in destroying the weeds before they go to seed, it will pay better than almost any: other work. Three hundred years ago, Toralio wrote in Italy that the soil dug over eight times was better than manuring. The old Indian mode of. piling up the loose earth around the stalks was a mere thing of circum- stances by which they were surrounded, and like a great many other men before them, our sires and their sons became imitators. They never stopped to inquire or think why it was done. It was because the ground was not previously well prepared. If your ground was plowed in autumn or early spring, it has, of course, been beaten down by the rain, and is unfit for . planting until plowed again. If you can not afford to do that, do the next best thing. Mark your rows with a subsoil lifter, or a long coulter, and commence using the cultivator or plow as soon as the corn shows above ground. If June proves dry and hot, the growth will, in default of deep plowing, be likely to fail; and, if the land has not been previously plowed deep, the use of the subsoiler, run close to the rows upon each side, may be the means, perhaps the only means, of saving the crop from ruin. 785. Autumn Plowing and Wire-Worms.—Speaking of autumn plowing, a farmer of Livingston County, N. Y., says: “If the ground on which corn is intended to be planted the coming season is sward land, and infested with wire-worms, I would not, by any means, advise you to plow in autumn, but just before planting, giving only time to suitably prepare the soil—even two or three weeks’ difference in the time of plowing made more than one half difference with me in a crop of corn. It would be folly to think of planting the same ground to corn the ensuing year without plowing deep, and very late in autumn, for the wire-worms would most certainly destroy the crop.” By this it appears that his only reason for not plowing in autumn is on account of wire-worms. If he will dress this sod ground with three to ten bushels of salt per acre, a few days before the corn is plant- ed, we will insure him against the worms, and also insure the crop to be enough larger, on account of the salt, to pay for its cost. Dr. G. J. Locke, of Danby, Rutland County, Vt., gives the method by which he is sue- cessful in raising corn, which he thinks might be beneficially adopted by others : * Plow sward land six to ten inches deep; then drag smooth with a heavy bush; then spread twenty two-horse wagon-loads of barn-yard manure per acre; then harrow till well mixed with the soil; then mark off and put a handful of dry hen manure in each hill, and cover it two inches deep; then drop the seed and cover it lightly with a hoe. Since I have taken this course, about four years, I have not had a hill of corn eaten by. worms, while most of my neighbors haye complained of having theirs destroyed. Whether it is the general chemical action in fermenting, or whether there is one or more elements in the hen dung that keeps the worms from the corn, I do not know. If the corn is planted on the hen guano, without its being covered with earth, it destroys the vitality of the corn. In this way I " Sko. 45.] DEPTH AND DISTANCE APART OF PLANTING CORN. 725 eee Se get from 40 to 85 bushels to the acre. Twenty hens kept through the win- ter, in a good hen-house, as they should be, letting them run out in the day- time when convenient, with the chickens I usually raise, will furnish suffi- cient manure for one acre of land, and will pay their keeping if properly taken care of, leaving the eggs as a clear profit.” We have one suggestion to add to this, and that is, that the sward be turned with a Michigan plow, which buries all the sod, and leaves several inches of loose earth on the surface, in admirable condition for receiving the dressing of manure. The recommendation of saving hen manure, and the profit of it, we fully indorse. Remember never to put lime or ashes in the hen-honse, but you may use plaster, charcoal dust, fine muck, or loamy earth, so as to keep the mass, as it accumulates, quite inodorous. One who has tried it, says that an effectual way to prevent cut-worms from destroying the first planting of corn is to sow broadcast half a bushel of seed per acre, and harrow it in, and then mark off and plant as usual. The sowed corn sprouts first, and the worms eat it, and let that in the hills alone. At the first hoeing, if any hills are missing, fill them with plants from that sown broadeast, and plow under the balance. It will not hurt the soil any. An old corn-planter says: “To prevent the black grub from eat- ing corn, take strong ashes and plaster in equal parts, and put a good hand- ful on each hill as soon as planted.” A Michigan farmer plows in clover sod in autumn, and applies all his manure to it in the spring, working it in thoroughly with the cultivator and harrow. He says: “ Hoeing the corn fits the ground well for wheat, and I sow it as soon as the ripening of the corn will admit. After the wheat comes off, I plow in the stubble, and in the spring sow oats, timothy, and clover. I get three crops of grain, one of them wheat, in three years, and get the land back to clover in the time. Last year my corn yielded 100 bushels of ears per acre, and the wheat this year, on the same ground, averaged 14 bushels per acre, though it was badly shrunk These crops were raised on land which was thought nearly barren when it came into my possession.” 786. Depth and Distance Apart of Planting Corn.—If you prefer corn in checks rather than drills, we recommend putting at least five kernels to a hill, two of which may be pulled out if all grow. Let it be the law of your farm never to cover seed corn very deep; if it is, it will be delayed in its growth, and some will never reach the surface, and some that does will look yellow and feeble. You may be pretty sure that corn planted three and a half to four feet apart will grow as luxuriantly, and will be far better than if planted more sparsely; for, in the latter condition, the silk does-not receive the pollen so freely. The outside row, growing quite as rank as the other, is, for the above reason, not usually as well filled. Asa general rule, the closer the ground is planted, the better the corn grows and ears, if the soil is naturally or artificially strong enough to carry a heavy crop. Upon sparse planting, an observing farmer says: “I have always noticed that where single stalks have come up from seed accidentally drop- | 726 CEREALIA. » (Cuar. VII. ped in a garden, how rich soever the soil might be, they bore nothing but miserable pig ears. I account for it thus: the stalk standing alone, the wind blows the pollen from the spindle, not upon its own silk, but away from it.” In the Southern States, sparse planting is the rule. A farmer gives as a reason for shallow planting, that “corn planted at three quarters of an inch deep came up in six days; and corn at two inches, nine days; and five inches, seventeen days—the same seed and same preparation in the same field. I lost half of a crop once from deep planting. I would put the ma- nure four inches deep, covered with soil, and the corn covered only half an inch deep. All self-planted corn grows from shallow planting; and this is the case with all tree seeds. Much depends upon the state of the weather at planting, as well_as the condition of the soil. The distance between hills should depend upon the kind of corn. For Southern and Western, five feet is about near enough for a profitable crop. For Dutton, three and a half to four feet. For Early Canada I planted once twenty-two by twenty-four inches, four kernels in a hill, and I had one hundred and one measured bushels on a measured acre.” ; 787. Cultivation of Corn—One who advocates early planting says: “ As | a general thing, it is much less work to tend the crop. I say, drills for corn by all means. Each time you haul dirt to the stalk, it throws out a new set of roots, as corn requires breathing tubes at the ends of its rootlets. Go into a cornfield which has been left ‘decently alone’ after it is two feet high, and try to find an inch square of ground without corn rootlets pro- truding from it! Does the plant know best what it requires? If not, cut and haggle away at its roots, as your grandfather did before you!” From all that we can read or hear about corn, and after some experience, our motto is level culture, and such preparation of the ground as to fit it so as to require but little after-cultivation. There is no labor on the fatm, per- haps, that will pay better than working corn at the proper time, and in a drouth, all the time. Instead of hand hoeing, use some of the light horse hoes, with which one man will do more good than ten with hand hoes, fol- lowing a mold-board plow. As for manuring corn, that is a necessity in all the Eastern States. Upon the rich lands of the West it will not pay, It is idle in the older States to plant corn upon a majority of the farms without purchasing some kind of fertilizer. We have never recommended a farmer to neglect his barn-yard manure, but to add to that guano, bone-dust, im- proved superphosphate, and everything of the kind that he can buy, be- cause no farmer can make as much manure as he can use profitably. It is nonsense for a farmer to be content with forty bushels of corn per acre when he can get eighty bushels by $3 more expense. It is nonsense to say that barn-yard manure is all that is necessary to be applied to any land, or that it is not profitable for a farmer to purchase just such specific manures as analysis or experience shows the land requires. As to working among corn, commence as soon as the rows show, using a subsoil plow, two furrows be- a POP-CORN IS PROFITABLE AS A CROP. tween each pair of rows, running as close as you safely can to the corn, and follow with a horse-hoe to brush over the unbroken surface and kill any re- maining weeds, but leave the surface as nearly level as possible. In two weeks repeat this operation, keeping farther from the corn with your plow. Once or twice thereafter run through the field with a cultivator or horse- hoe, and if any weeds remain, uproot them with the hand or hoe, but do not let any plow go down three inches below the surface after the plants are a foot high. If the corn looks well, pull one or two of the feeblest stalks in each hill at the second plowing. If you have not applied ashes or plaster before planting, throw a handful of the two mixed upon each hill before plowing the second time. The distance traveled in cultivating an acre of corn is greater than most persons suppose. We have seen one statement made from actual calculation, that gave sixteen hundred miles as the aggre- gate travel in growing a hundred acres of corn. Is* it not worth the time and calculation of some farmers who grow very small acreable products to inquire how much they have traveled to produce each bushel, and what they shall do to lessen that distance? If it requires sixteen miles of travel with a horse to each acre of corn, farmers must get a better yield than some of them do to make the business pay a fair compensation for so much travel. ; 788. Transplanting Corn.—Transplanting corn can be done with as much ease and certainty of success as cabbage. For early roasting ears, corn could be started in frames so as to give it three or four weeks the start of corn planted the usual way. Transplanting would be valuable also in the field where hills are missing. The safest way to do it is to make up a mixture of cow-dung, loam, and water, of the consistence of thick porridge, and dip the roots in it as they are taken from the ground with a transplanting trowel, and carried in this to their place, where, being carefully set, and shaded, if it is sunny,with a bush or some artificial shade stuck in the ground, they will be almost certain to live and grow. Like all transplant- ing, it is best done when the soil is wet. 789. Pop-Corn is Profitable as a Crop.—lIt is said of a Boston merchant now engaged extensively, that he commenced business as a peddler of pop- corn by the cent’s worth. Is it any wonder that he grew rich—that is, rich enough to enlarge his sphere of action—particularly if he raised his own corn, or got it of those who did, at about first cost? Let us look at the profit. A writer in the Vew England Farmer “ calculates the value of an acre of pop-corn, at the prices which city residents pay for the article when fitted for their palates—that is, when parched and on sale by the grocers and candy men—at four cents a quart, and calls a quart the product of a mid- dle-sized ear. The corn may be planted three feet by eighteen inches. Al- low eight ears to the hill, which is not equal to the average, and it would be about eight thousand hills, or sixty-four thousand ears to the acre. This is $2,560 per acre, paid by those who eat the corn. Take away half the amount, if you please, for every contingency which may be thought of, and 728 CEREALIA. [Cuap. VIII. nee wii AAR alia NADIR SESE ECRES SE ata we still have $1,280, which the consumers pay for the product of an acre of ground ; and who among them pretends to call pop-corn dear eating?” But this, the farmer will say, is the price of the article manufactured. It is not what I should get. True, but still the price is liberal. The crop of 1860 we sold at 87 cents per bushel of ears, wholesale in New York, and we are told it has been worth that price, or more, in previous years. Wye are sure that one hundred bushels per acre can be easily grown, and the stalks being small, make excellent fodder. It is well worth growing to feed poultry ; and as a crop, we are fully satisfied that pop-corn is profitable. We have treated largely of its value as food (see 418), and now add the chemical cause of the effect produced by heat. The popping of corn is in reality chemistry made easy, by bringing it to the very fireside. It was formerly attributed to the conversion of the water contained in the starch into steam, but modern science has proved this phenomenon to arise from the rupture of the cells in the glutinous part of the grain by a conversion of the glob- ules of oil into gas. If an attempt be made to pop the Tuscarora corn, which contains no oil, it will never succeed. Popping effects a change in corn of considerable importance, for it is much more digestible by man after this decomposition and extrication of the oil, though not so fattening to animals 790. Various Experiments in Growing Corn.—Table showing the results of experiments on Indian corn, made in 1857, near Rochester, N. Y., by Joseph Harris, editor of the Genesee Farmer : A. D. 1—No manure 7 2—100 lbs. plaster (gypsum, or sulphate of lime) 8 8—400 lbs. unleached wood ashes and 100 lbs. plaster (mixed)... 10 4—150 lbs. sulphate of ammonia 9 15 5—300 lbs. superphosphate of lime 8 6—150 lbs. sulphate of ammonia and 300 lbs.superphosphate of lime (mixed) 85 7—400 lbs. unleached wood ashes (uncertain) 8—150 lbs. sulphate of ammonia and 400 lbs. unleached wood ashes (sown separately) 9—800 lbs. superphosphate of lime, 150 lbs. sulphate of ammonia, and 400 lbs unleached wood ashes 100 10—400 Ibs. unleached wood ashes 11—100'lbs. plaster, 400 lbs. unleached wood ashes, 300 Ibs. super- phosphate of lime, and 200 Ibs. Peruvian guano 95 12—75 Ibs. sulphate of ammonia 138—200 Ibs. Peruvian guano 88 14—400 lbs. unleached wood ashes, 100 lbs. plaster, and 500 lbs. Peruvian guano lil A. No. of the plots. . Descriptions of manures and quantities applied per acre. . Bushels of ears of sound corn per acre. . Bushels of ears of soft corn per acre. . Total number of bushels of ears of corn per acre. . Increase per acre of ears of sound corn. . Increase per acre of ears of soft corn. . Total increase per acre of ears of corn. The superphosphate of lime was made on purpose for these experiments, and was a pure mineral manure of superior quality, made from calcined bones; it cost about 2} cents per pound. The sulphate of ammonia was a good commercial article, obtained from London at a cost of about 7 cents Szo. 45.] VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS IN GROWING CORN. 729 per pound. The ashes were made from beech and hard maple (Acer Sacchar- nium) wood, and were sifted through a fine sieve before being weighed. The guano was the best Peruvian, costing about 3 cents per pound. It was erushed and sifted before using. In sowing the ashes on Plot 7, an error occurred in their application, and for the purpose of checking the result, it was deemed advisable to repeat the experiment on Plot 10. The following table gives the results of the other experiments : ee A. B. GPa a DISSERIu ., 4.657 PNG BUS DAT On tecjeg oes i San SP fos wos bye Scop siaxthnssges ue, s) ease, = lace 7 12 8% -— — — 2—20- loads DarN-VAard MABULE.noc-ssaecAsee ees aee cree eee cars 823 10 928 7 — — 3—150 Ibs. sulphate of ammonia................ 00000 ce ee ceeee 85/7800 M1 bite OLe 18h 4—300 Ibs. swperphosphate of lime..............5.2e.e eee ewes S8e LOD 98) 1s —— B—AOOUbs: Peruvian -CuanO. -cteacceds recess cocci cece seet ot tue 90° ° 30° 120° 15 «18° — 6—400 Ibs. of ‘‘ cancerine’’ or fish manure..................... 8 20 10 10 8 18 A. No. of the plots. Descriptions of manures and quantities applied per acre. . Bushels of ears of sound corn per acre. . Bushels of ears of soft corn per acre. . Total number of bushels of ears of corn per acre. Increase ears of sound corn per acre over unmanured plot. . Increase ears of soft corn per acre over unmanured plot. . Total increase of ears of corn per acre. As before stated, the land was of a stronger nature than that on which the first set of experiments was made, and it was evidently in better condi- tion, as the plot having no manure produced 20 bushels of ears of corn per acre more than the plot without manure in the other field. Plot 4, with 300 pounds of superphosphate of lime per acre, gives a total increase of 11 bushels of ears of corn per acre over the unmanured plot, agreeing exactly with the increase obtained from the same quantity of the same manure on Plot 5, in the first set of experiments. Plot 3, dressed with 150 pounds of sulphate of ammonia per acre, gives a total increase of 28 bushels of ears of corn per acre over the unmanured plot, and an increase of 22} bushels of ears per acre over Plot 2, which re- ceived 20 loads of good, well-rotted barn-yard dung per acre. ~ Plot 5, with 400 pounds of Peruvian guano per acre, gives the best crop of this series, viz., an increase of 33 bushels of ears of corn per acre over the unmanured plot, and 274 over the plot manured with 20 loads of barn- yard dung. The 400 pounds of “cancerine,” an artificial manure made in New Jersey from fish, gives a total increase of 18 bushels of ears per acre over the unmanured plot, and 12! bushels more than that manured with barn-yard dung, though 5 bushels of ears of sound corn and 10 bushels of “nubbins” per acre less than the same quantity of Peruvian guano. The result of the following detailed experiments was published in the Rural American. Ten equal quantities of White Flint corn were treated as follows : No. 1, I soaked in tar water eight hours, until it was perfectly black, then rolled in lime. No. 2 was merely immersed in tar water, ana rolled in lime. No. 3, soaked in clear water over-night, then immersed in tar water, and rolled in lime. Oe 0 bs 730 CEREALIA. EEE DD errr [Caar. VIII. No. 4, immersed in tar water, and rolled in ashes. E No. 5, soaked in clear water over-night, then dipped in tar (not tar water), and rolled in ashes. No. 6, soaked over-night in clear water, immersed in tar water, and then rolled in ashes. No. 7, soaked in tar water eight hours, until perfectly black, and then rolled in ashes. No. 8, immersed dry in tar, and then rolled in lime. No. 9, soaked in clear water over-night, and dipped in tar, and then rolled in lime. No. 10, immersed dry in tar, and then rolled in ashes. On the 23d of May I planted the several prepared parcels in similar soil, at an equal depth as nearly as possible, and each parcel received like treat- ment and culture throughout the season. JUNE 8. No. 1. Only about one quarter of the grain germinated—looks weakly. No. 2. All the grains up—looking middling well. No. 3. Every grain up, and looking nicely. No. 4. All up; look tolerably well—not 50 well as No. 3. No. 5. Tardy—just up—very weakly. No. 6. Every grain, up—looks first-rate. No. 7. Only one half the grains germinated— weakly. 5 No. 8. Every grain up—looking well, and growing finely. No. 9. About one third the grains up—rath- er weakly. ‘No. 10. Only about one tenth of the grains up—weakly. Now mark the result : JULY 26. About one half the grain up. Somewhat backward, but promises better than No. 1. Growing finely—promises well. Backward, weakly, and spindling. Very backward. Thrifty—promises well. Middling—rather better than Nos. 4 and 5. Looking exceedingly well—the best of the ten parcels. Tolerably well—a trifle better than No. 7. Remained long in ground before it germin- ated—very backward—about the same as Nos. 4 and 5. Soon after the corn came up, No. 6 appeared to be the most thrifty and promising ; No. 8 looked nearly as well, but No. 8 soon shot ahead of No. 6, and remained so through the season. Nos. 4 and 5 were the most backward of any. On July 26th, Nos. 3, 6, and 8 I judged to be from two to three weeks in advance of Nos. 4, 5, and 10; the former Nos. being silked and tasseled, while none of the others were. No. 8 was the most forward—ears best set, and largest. No. 8 finally produced the best corn, and the most of it. So of all the above preparations I give that mode of preparing the preference. There is an evil I think, however, attending the application of tar in any shape to corn previous to planting; it retards the germ, while at the same time I know of no benefit I have received from its use. 791. The Vield of Corn per Acre.—This question causes much controversy, as the modes of measuring have been so diverse. Weighing the ears grown on an acre is certainly better than measuring off one square rod, and shell- ing the corn, and multiplying by one hundred and sixty. “A good deal de- pends upon what we call a bushel, as corn will shrink from December to Sro. 45 ] YIELD OF CORN PER ACRE. 731 In May fifteen per cent. A good crop is sixty bushels per acre. Premiums are often awarded to a very rough manner of measurement. Never count your crops until sold; upon whatever they measure then, estimate the yield per acre.” Some say that corn shrinks twenty-five per cent. in weight between the time it is ripe enough to gather, and the next summer. If you wish to estimate how much an acre of corn will yield while standing, count the hills, or estimate the number upon an acre, and shell the ears from a given number, and measure the grain, and calculate from that base. If you have four thousand hills per acre, and a pint of corn per hill, your acre will yield sixty-two and a half bushels, as it measures at that time, and so in proportion. To make one hundred and twenty-five bushels per acre, each hill must give a quart, and there must be none of the number missing. You may find now and then a square rod that will yield a quart per hill, but who gets such a yield from every rod of an acre? and if one could, let him be sure that it does not cost too much. If we can grow sixty or seventy bush- els per acre, we are doing well. It is certified that James Armstrong, of Knoxville, Tenn., raised, in 1859, upon forty acres of land, four thousand bushels of shelled corn, measured in the half bushel, which weighed sixty pounds per bushel. The best acre of the forty gave one hundred and sixty-six bushels. The same forty acres produced, with the corn, fifty two-horse wagon-loads of pumpkins, forty bushels of Southern peas, and ten bushels of beans, yet we do not believe that the average yield of all corn crops in the Southern States is ten bush- els. The yield of nine lots of ten acres each, entered for premium at the State Fair of Kentucky a few years since, is given by the committee as fol- lows: Bbls. Bush. Qt. Bbls. Bush. Qt. J. Matson, of Bourbon.......37 4 1 per acre. | A. Hedges, Bourbon........ 21 2 1 per acre. Peter Pean, of Clarke........87 4 “ E. W. Hocaday, Clarke... ...20 st S. H. Chew, of Fayette......274 6 Dr. Dudley, Fayette........ 20 Co J. Hutcheraft, Bourbon......23 ub H, Varnon, Bourbon........ 19 3 = A. Vanmeter, Fayette.......21 3} sf A barrel of corn in Kentucky is five bushels of ‘shelled corn. About the year 1840 (or 1841), Mr. Bryant, and Mr. Young, of Jessa- mine County, Ky., each grew a crop of five acres, which averaged one. hundred and ninety bushels per acre, according to a well-certified report. Over one hundred bushels of corn per acre, in Maine, are reported by John H. Willard, of Wilton, Franklin County. He says: “T have repeatedly, within a few years past, raised from eighty to one hundred and ten bushels of dry shelled corn to the acre. All my farming is on a small scale; but the same cultivation would produce the same re- sults on a large as on a small scale. The best crop I ever raised was in 1858, which was the best corn season we have had in this vicinity for many years. The produce that year was fifty-five bushels and eight quarts from half an acre. I proceed to give an account of the various steps I pursued in raising that crop, and shall persevere in following nearly the same course till I learn a better. The soil is a gravelly loam, and the land stony. The stones near 732 CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. the surface had been removed, and put into a wall. As to the component parts of the soil, I am as ignorant as most farmers are respecting theirs, having no means of ascertaining. I only know it contains a fair portion of lime, having previously raised a good crop of wheat on the same land. The wheat was sown on the sward newly broken up. Soon after the wheat was cut, I plowed in the stubble, and plowed very shallow, say from two to four inches deep, so as to just cover the stubble, and not disturb the sward. In the spring, put on six cords of manure, twelve to the acre, one half spread, and the other half in the hill. I spread the manure, and harrowed previous to plowing; then plowed and cross-plowed about ten inches deep, being a little deeper than the land was previously broken ; plowed fine, that is, in narrow furrows, not more than two thirds the width the plow would turn. After harrowing, I furrowed the rows straight, three feet eight inches apart, and put the hills two feet four inches apart; covered the ma- nure in the hills before dropping the corn, which I put in liberally, nearly double what I wanted to grow; covered the corn thoroughly from two to three inches deep; hoed the corn thoroughly twice, having run a cultivator twice between the rows before each hoeing, and having thinned the corn to five stalks in each hill previous to the second hoeing, by pulling up the poorest stalks. I cut the corn up at the roots, when the stalks were wilted above the ears, and green below, and cured in shook before husking. The seed was thoroughly dried by the ears being hung near a fire. The manure used was stable, part cow and part horse, with a good deal of straw litter, kept under cover till spring, and one or two hogs kept on it. The largest part was from horses well grained. The coarsest part, or last made, was first hauled to the field and put in a heap to ferment for the hills, the other spread. When the heap got into a high state of fermentation, I pitched it over to prevent its burning. I know it is said that manure must be thor- oughly decomposed before it is food for plants; hence many infer it must be in that state when put on the ground; but I have had the best luck when I put it into the hill in such a state of fermentation as to be uncom- fortably hot to the feet through thick boots, and planted and covered imme- diately before it cools. I had no potatoes, pumpkins, or beans, and but few weeds among my corn, for weeds are the most unprofitable crop I ever raised.” We hope a good many small farmers who read this account will pursue the same course, and raise an equally good crop. The way to do it is simple and sensible. Dr. John T. Tuttle, of Rye, twenty-five miles northeast of New York city, near Long Island Sound, gives the following interesting statement of what kind of a corn crop can be produced upon such a forbidding soil as the most of the land in this region of country: “ According to request, I send you an account of my crop of corn grown on two fields, one containing eight and a half, and the other six acres, mak- ing fourteen and a half acres. I paid $150 per acre for the land. It being — $e Sxo. 45.] YIELD OF CORN PER ACRE. 733 ] too wet, naturally, for good corn land, I deter mined to drain it, and accord- ingly laid six hundred and forty rods of three-inch sole ee! tile, which was sufficient to thoroughly drain the fourteen and a half acres. The tile was laid about three feet deep; this is necessary, in order to get it out of the way of the frost. If laid too near the surface, and permitted to freeze, it will crack, fall in, and destroy it. This land being originally very poor and neglected, I was obliged to bestow much labor on it, in order to re- claim and make it productive. Completing this result, I valued my land at $400 per acre. I then plowed it, turning the soil up eleven inches deep, following with a subsoil plow, so that the entire piece was mellowed to the | depth of eighteen inches. I then carted on three hundred loads of good composted manure, and harrowed it in. I marked out eight and a half acres for planting, three feet each way, and planted it with Improved King Philip corn, four grains in each hill; the balance of the plot of six acres I marked out three feet in drills, and planted it nine inches apart in the drill, one grain ina place. The fourteen and a half acres yielded two thousand two hundred and seventy-six and a half baskets of ears ; each basket yielded -| eighteen quarts of shelled corn, making an average of eighty-eight bushels, one peck, two quarts per acre for the entire plot. The six acres planted in drills was much the best corn, and the yield much the largest; this I esti- mated at one hundred bushels of shelled corn per acre. I should recom- mend this mode of planting in drills; the yield is much larger than the hill system. I think the Improved King Philip the most productive corn in cultivation, and as it ripens in less than one hundred days, is sure to escape the early fall frosts ; it is a most valuable variety of corn. The following is the average result of the fourteen and a half acres : Dr. Cr. Interest on 1 acre, value per acre, $400. .$28 00 | Eighty-eight bushels, one peck, two qts., Twenty loads of manure, per load $1.... 2000] at 75 cts. per, bushels nc eee) es. $66 23 Plowing and subsoiling, per acre 6 00 | Three tuns stalks, at $5 per tun....... 15 00 Harrowing, per acre............. .... 1 00] Four and one half cords pumpkins, at Marking out for planting .............. MO co2 POV COLs cece ect e canes ete se 9 00 One peck/eorn Seed). ./-\F.i. fe la ware elon se 25 | Seventy-five bushels turnips, at 20 cents Pe baniiin eyper acre... sham cfsinverese sabe aihps o\s-0) 1 28 perl tals aeonnea apes tata 15 00 Running cultivator through four times.. 4 00 ' RI GSI MOR a ater a tite es saies amb bohe snl eget eee 1 25 Motall.i fq 4. ca Stasiderticang ia. ods $105 23 Cutting up corn from the ground....... 1 50 leno Tan Agha Bones SnGbobdas ac3 $36 40 Gathering 160 baskets, at 3c. per basket 4 80 1) 2 Ss Pe aOR oP aera $68 83 The following is the corn crop of an Ohio farm: About five miles below Chillicothe, Ohio, there is a tract of high river bottom-land, known as the “Claypool Farm,” now owned by the widow of James Davis. The corn crop of 1858 was forty-seven thousand bushels, sold at seventy-five cents a bushel to a distillery. Wesubmit the problem to political economists, of how many persons the products of this one farm would have fed one year, and how many its products will make miserable after passing through that distillery. 792. Two Hundred Bushels of Corn per Acre,—It has been published— | and, so far as we can see, duly certified—that Dr. J. W. Parker, of Colum- 734 ; CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. | bia, 8. C., grew, in 1857, upon his farm near that town, two hundred bush- els and twelve quarts upon one measured acre of ground, and one hundred and sixteen bushels and six quarts upon another acre. In the report to the State Agricultural Society, Dr. Parker states that the seed selected for planting was from North Carolina, and designated “ Bale Mountain Corn.” After soaking it during the night in a strong solution of niter, it was planted from eight to twelve inches distance in the row, cov- ered with hoes, and the ground rolled, leaving it perfectly level. The land was the border of a small creek, underdrained, and prepared by plowing in November, and manured in December with twenty-five two-horse loads of cow-house manure, plowed in, and followed by a subsoil plow drawn by two mules. About the first of March another coat of good stable and cow ma- nhure was spread, and plowed in. Early in April, three cart-loads of air- slaked lime, and two sacks of salt were spread over each acre, and lightly plowed under. On the 14th of May the ground was thoroughly plowed with Glaze’s large iron plow, harrowed level, and laid off thirty inches apart with a shovel plow. Guano and plaster were sprinkled in the furrows, near two hundred pounds of the former, and three hundred pounds of the latter to each acre. On the 14th of May the corn was plowed with a long, very narrow plow, and dressed over with hoes. On the 5th and 17th of June the same work was repeated, each time leaving the ground level. About the first of July it was necessary to draw a ridge about the roots of the corn to prevent its falling. During a protracted drouth, acre No. 1 was twice irrigated, and acre No. 2 had the water turned on it once. The yield of acre No. 1, as before stated, exceeded two hundred bushels. No. 2 was partly replanted, which the committee say prevented the yield being as large as the other. True, this crop cost labor and manure, but does it not pay better than the tens of thousands of acres that do not yidld ten bushels per acre, for such are as common as blackberries all over the Southern States. The land used being “sand-hill branch land,” required the high manuring, as it is-not naturally fertile enough to produce such crops. The secret, however, is in the underdraining, the frequent plowing, and subsoiling and irrigation. 793. iow to Bind Corn Shocks.—Hiram Harris, of Ohio, has made the world a gift of a valuable invention. It is a way easily to bind shocks of cornstalks, which have been cut and set up ready for binding, and which have to be hugged together tight enough to put the band on. This new plan saves that dirty, hard job. Any one can make the implement. It is a wooden spindle, round and smooth, sharp at one end, and long enough to thrust through the loose shock at the point where it is to be bound. On the other end is a crank and turning-pin, like the crank of a grindstone. A few inches from tlie crank is a cross-piece on the spindle, of a few inches in length, to one end of which a stout cord is attached, long enough to go round the shock and hitch a loop on the other end of the cross-piece. Now, So. 45.] HARVESTING CORN. 735 See by turning the crank, the cord is drawn tight, compressing the loose stalks as firmly as may be desired, when the band is put on firrfly and the crank unwound and applied to another shock. It enables the operator to do double the work, doubly better than he can without it; and as there is no strain upon the band in the attempt to draw it tight, as is usual in trying to compress the shock, there is no breaking of bands in putting them on, and they may be made of stalks, straw, bark, or twine. Any farmer can make one of these little implements, which saves so much labor. Indeed, a smooth young hickory, sharpened at one end, with a crank at the other, will be the best material. The rope should be small and very strong. 794. Requisites in Harvesting Corn.—1. Have a good corn-cutter. 2. Lay the corn (2 or 4 hills in a placeyso that the tops of the second two rows will lie toward the tops of the first two, the tops of the fourth two toward the tops of the third two, and so on. By throwing the left arm over, never under the stalks, bending them down slightly, one blow of the cutter will generally bring down the whole: and a large field may be leveled at short notice, far quicker than the top stalks can be cut. 3. Make yourself a good corn-horse. Take a small pole, about three inches through at the large end, 10 feet or so in length, light and dry; if a little curving, so much the better. With an inch-and-a-half auger, bore two holes near the large end, so as to insert two legs, standing outward and for- ward, the curving side of the pole being upward. Next, bore a horizontal hole about 21 feet from the large end, into which a broken rake-handle or smooth stick may be run. Here we have a complete corn-horse all ready for use; the horizontal stick forming with the other four corners, around which we may set up the corn, 16 to 32 hills in a stook. Then tie firmly with wilted suckers or small stalks, or, what is better, rye straw bands, and bend down the tops and tie a small band over them, to shed rain, and then draw out the horizontat stick; take hold of the horse just behind the legs, draw it along a few feet and run the stick in again, ready for another stook. . The husking may be greatly facilitated by first breaking off the ears. This is done by pressing the thumb and fingers firmly against the butt of the ears and bending over with the other hand. One may acquire the habit of breaking them off so that many ears will have few, if any, husks left. The stooks need not be untied. By a little ingenuity at contrivance, one may fix a low bench three feet wide, or so, throw a stook upon it, sit down with feet under the bench, begin at one side to break off, and make clean work as he goes; or he may kneel down to the stooks as they stand, or lie on the floor. If possible, let the corn be fairly glazed before cutting; but if a cold September morning, which threatens a hard frost at night, finds a field standing unglazed, I should prefer cutting and stooking, with the wilted side inward, to letting the frost take it. In such a case, it will harden off better in the stook than in the field. The corn-horse described above has been used by many, and declared by 736 CEREALIA. (Cuar. VIII. all who have used it to really save one third the time usually employed in cutting up and stooking corn. Never top corn, and why? The sap which is elaborated in the leaf and upper part of the stalk is fitted to perfect the grain. The best farmers in the country settled that question years since. In a large field of corn one topped several rows, left the same number to ripen unmutilated, and cut up by the ground an equal portion at two different periods of growth, viz., one when the kernel was fairly seared, and another when the corn was thoroughly seared. The result proved, conclusively, that the corn cut at the ground when fairly seared was the best and heaviest, and the fodder was also best of all. If you have not yet become fully convinced of the foily of cutting stalks, try the following experiment: Cut the stalks on fifty hills of corn at the usual time, cut up fifty hills at the ground when the corn is glazed, and let it mature in the shock, and let the stalks remain on fifty hills until fully ripe, and weigh the corn on each when dry. And try this: Plant the same quantity of ground with corn of the same kind, with compost manure, at the rate of twenty-five loads to the acre, and with guano, at the rate of 260 pounds to the acre, and weigh the corn in the autumn, keeping an account of the cost of each kind of manure on the land, and which ground is easiest kept clean of weeds. When there is no danger of frost, adopt the rule to cut no stalk till the corn is ripe, and do not try to swindle nature by fishing for a crop of beans, or turnips, or pumpkins among the corn. One good crop each year is enough to exact of land in this latitude, and these extras often hinder the harvest as much in the loss of corn as they are worth. 795. Corn Harvesting Machines.—The following is the description of a pa- tent corn-cutter : A driver sits upon a small-cart, drawn by one herse walking between two rows of corn planted four feet apart, either in hills or drills. Attached to the forward end of the body are two circular saws, arranged to work just as near the ground as may be desired. These saws are driven by gearing attached to the cart-wheels, and one is designed to cut a row one side and the other on the other side; the horse walking forward saws off the stalks right and left, and, like all circular saws, the faster they run the easier they will do their work. The stalks as they are cut off are held by an arm so as to fall on a platform upon each side, which tips them off out of the way of the machine. It will be easy to arrange a machine to cut rows of any regular width apart, and the plan looks, on paper, as though it would work well on land, and be a real labor- saving machine. Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth, when he was growing corn upon a large scale in Illinois, contrived a very cheap corn-cutter. Two pieces of wood, like the sides of a triangular harrow, were hinged at the point, and held apart at the wide end by a piece of hickory, represented by half of a stout hoop. The side pieces were armed with short scythe blades. The frame was sup- Szo. 45.] CORN HARVESTING MACHINES. 737 ported upon blocks that raised it above the surface, and ran on the ground like sled runners. This frame, drawn by one horse between two rows of corn, had the blades pressed against the stalks by the spring, and cut them off as fast as the horse could walk; men following picked them up rap- idly, setting them in shocks. The objection urged against this machine was, that unless the stalks were gathered row by row, as they were cut, they were apt to become tangled together, and the men said made, instead of saved, labor. At the New York State Fair of 1861 we saw a corn-cutting machine that looked as though it would prove effectual. A few stout cutters are fixed upon the bar of a mowing machine, and a box to hold the corn as it falls, until enough accumulates for a bundle, when the driver by a slight move- ment opens the box and drops the corn. The horses walk by the side of the row to be cut, just as they do by the side of the grass. The additional ex- pense to a mowing machine was stated at twenty-five dollars. A corn-shock cart is in use in West New Jersey, which we thought a great labor-saving machine, by which a boy and one horse would move more shocks of corn in a day, where the distance was not over half a mile, than two men and a team could do in the ordinary way. A horse-cart, with a frame to tilt, having rather long shafts, and a windlass on the shafts be- hind the horse, with a stout rope fast at one end of the windlass, consti- tutes the machine. The cart is backed up to a shock, and the frame tilted up against it, and the rope thrown over, and the loose end hooked on the windlass, which is turned by a crank or arms, and winds up both ends of the rope, drawing the shock tight upon the frame, and that down to its place, when the windlass is fastened by a catch, and the horse trots off to the barn, or out upon the grass at the side of the cornfield, if the object is merely to clear the corn-ground, and then the catch being loosened, the frame and shock tilt back by their own weight, and the corn is set upright upon the butts, just as it stood originally. A pair of old city dray-wheels answer a good purpose to make a corn-shock carrier, and such a machine will be found extremely useful to those who wish to sow rye or wheat upon the corn-ground. 796. Husking in the Field.—A letter from Tioga County, Pa., reeom- mends pulling down four shocks of corn toward a center, and then throwing the corn to that point from all, thus making one pile instead of four; and also laying the stalks, as the ears are stripped off, in, bun- dles of equal size for binding. In commencing to husk a shock, stand up and drop the first stalks at your feet; then kneel upon them until you get enough to form a seat, when tired of Rios. This change of position is said to be a great preventive of fatigue. It is recommended to pull down the shocks in the morning, when the’ dew is on, and bind them at evening, when a little moist. The best time to gather the ears of corn and store them in the crib is when they are hot and dry in the sun. The ears never should be thrown upon wet nor frozen ground, except the weather is. cold 47 _CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII- enough to keep it frozen. But, after all these directions for husking in the field, it is a question whether it is not altogether the best economy, where stalks do not grow larger than they generally do in the Northeastern States, and where they are valuable for fodder, to haul the shocks of corn up to the barn, so that all the fodder can be saved in good order, as fast as the ears are husked. Filling a large shed, or the barn floor, with the shocks of corn, to be husked on rainy days or evenings, is a good old fashion that need not be lost sight of in days of modern improvement, and the machine described in 795 will be found a very useful thing to thos¢ who wish to pursue this good old fashion. A Pennsylvania farmer, John F. Overshire, of Athens, Bradford County, gives his mode of cutting up and husking corn in the field, which appears to be a very good one. He says: “I cut and set my corn in stooks of thirty-five hills to each, set in squares. I do not leave a hill uneut to support the stook, but bind a bundle to set in the center; and I never throw the corn down, but set it up as fast as cut, which takes less time, and there is no liability to injury from rain while lying upon the ground. In husking, never throw sound corn on the ground, but in baskets, sorting it at the same time. Empty the baskets into a cart or wagon, and thence to the crib. I place a husking bench between four stooks, and pull them to it, and it saves many hours of back-ache and cramps of limbs. A good husker can put sixty bushels of ears in the wagon ina day. The bench is two by five feet, made of inch boards nailed upon cross-pieces that hold legs put in a two-inch auger hole, so as to stand two feet high. The legs at one end being set back from where the husker stands against the end of the boards, he can crowd his stalks in a pile down between his own and the legs of the bench.” 797. Sowing Corn Broadcast or Drilling for Fodder.—There are not many farmers who would not find a small plot of sowed corn the most profitable crop of the whole annually planted. Land produces of sowed corn a greater burthen of excellent fodder to use green, and, if cured, makes more of win- ter food for stock than any other grain. We have sown corn broadcast upon a mellow piece of ground, plowed in after the first of July, and got a very heavy crop. It should not be plowed in unless the land has been previously plowed, because plowing the land as deeply as the crop requires would bury the seed too deep. The best way to plant this fodder crop is with a wheat drill. The next is to sow broad- cast and cover with a gang plow, or share cultivator, that will turn the seed nearly all into straight rows. Some persons sow it wide enough be- tween rows to be cultivated. Warren Hutchins, Bethel, Vt., says. “TI plow evenly, sowing the seed in every third furrow, and roll the ground and harrow lightly in the direction of the furrows. I run a enlti- vator once or twice between the rows. If the crop is to be plowed in for manure, I commence about September 4, with a plank fastened on the Szo. 45.] DOURA CORN-SOILING CROPS. 739 - beam to break down the stalks, so that they will turn under well, making my furrow across the rows. I find this a cheap way to enrich land that lies far from the stables. “This day, June 1, I have sowed an acre for fodder, with the assistance of a boy half a day. Last year, a half acre left to ripen had 25 bushels of ears, besides a great yield of fodder.” It is preferable to cut the corn for fodder before the ears get of any con- siderable size, and as a general thing the crop is most valuable when grown so thick that ears are not likely to form; and when sown broadcast upon rich soil, and plowed in lightly, the last of June, it will grow of sufficient size and ‘Maturity for good winter fodder, before the usual time of frost, which in this latitude is usually about the first of October. 798. Doura Corn for Fodder.—This is one of the varieties of sorghum, much esteemed by some farmers for a fodder crop. Its great advantage over corn is that it will sometimes grow when and where Indian corn will not. One farmer says: “ Having found from experience that where sthnide of corn are broken it does not pay either to supply breaks with seed or to transplant, I have, for years past, done neither, but always plant Doura corn or sugar millet in all missing hills in my cornfields, and I have found it to do and pay well. When planted early, the Doura corn will make two or three heads to the stalk, and the first head will shell as much as an ordinary ear of flint corn ; when planted late, say in April or May, it will still make as much as the corn, and it answers as an excellent substitute for corn to feed to poultry, besides making very good bread.” The above word is spoken of a region where February and March are the corn-planting months. In a wet season, the Doura corn here would grow a good fodder crop‘after the first of August. It is only by experi- ment that it can be determined which is the best for the purpose, the Doura corn or sorghum saccharatum, known as Chinese sugar-cane. 799. Value of Sowed Corn for Soiling Milch Cows.—For a soiling crop we do not know of any plant cultivated that is of greater value than Indian corn. In a large milk dairy, where sowed corn is much used at the time of our usual summer drouths, when pastures fail, the following results were noted : From the first of April to the first of July there is a gradual increase in the quantity of milk produced ; during the month of March it is stationary ; it increases in April, as warmer and pleasanter weather comes on; and thenceforward the quantity keeps exact pace with the growth of grass and the advance of the season, until the maximum is attained in the first week of July. This point once turned, the yield decreases, by slow degrees at first, but with greater rapidity as the autumn months approach, and it can only be increased by feeding the green corn, and then the gain is sufficient to pay a large profit upon the soiling crop. For sowing broadcast it will require two bushels of seed per acre, and some prefer to sow three bushels. When used green, the objection urged against broadcast corn, that it is diffi- Beas): —~ 740 CEREALIA. (Cnap. VIII. cult to cure it, does not apply. With us the trouble about saving the stalks for winter was overcome with one heavy crop in this way. We com- menced cutting and setting the stalks against the fence, and after clearing a strip about 30 feet wide, hauled poles from the adjoining woodland, and laid them on forked posts, and then cut another strip and set the stalks on each side of the poles, and so on through the field. This plan will only answer where woodland is very convenient. The stalks, however, may be bound in small bundles, and set up in-rows, and will cure perfectly. When partially cured set them in shocks, to prevent bleaching. But we look upon this crop as more valuable for soiling than for preserving for winter use. In all cases where pastures are liable to be short in autumn, have a resource in reserve in a soiling crop of broadcast corn. 800. Corn in Drills or Hills——A correspondent in East Hamburg, Erie County, N. Y., gives the following as the successful practice of Wm. Ham- bleton, of that place, in raising corn: “ After a faithful plowing, he makes furrows with a light plow, one way at 31 feet apart. These furrows are then nearly filled with such a compost as usually accumulates every year about farm buildings, or by well-rotted stable manure, and on this the corn is drilled, the kernels six inches from each other in the row. From beginning to end he is death on the weeds, and the labor of raising corn in this way is hardly more than by the old method, while the harvest is doubled by it, and sometimes averages 100 bushels to the acre; and the greatly enlarged quantity of stalks pays every expense of cultivation.” We are much in favor of drilling corn, but not in favor of sustaining the practice by such statements as this, that “the harvest is doubled by it.” If the land is rich enough to sustain corn in drills, six inches between stalks and 42 inches between rows, it will give 24,891 stalks to an acre 10 by 16 rods square; and the same land would grow four stalks in each hill, planted three feet apart each way, and that would give 19,360 stalks; and, as the stalks will produce equally, the result will be that if the drilled acre pro- duces 100 bushels, the acre in hills will produce 79 bushels; or, say one fourth more, instead of doubling the crop; and that, we think, sufficient to induce any one to adopt the drill system. The estimate of Sonthern corn is 100 ears to a bushel. The ordinary Northern corn will require nearer two hundred than one hundred ears, as they average through the field, to make a bushel; but suppose we say 150 ears to the bushel, and that the stalks average one ear to each, the product in bushels per acre will be 165 bushels for the drills and 129 bushels for the hills. Is this result produced in one field in a thousand ? and, if it is not, is it not a question worthy of considera- tion by the owners of the 999 fields, whether the rule should not be reversed so far that in a good season not one field in a thousand should produce less than 100 bushels per acre? 801. Measuring Corn in Bulk.—A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer gives a rule for ascertaining the number of bushels of shelled corn in a crib ae Sxo. 45.] YIELD OF STARCH PER BUSHEL, AND ITS USES. 741 of ears, by multiplying the cubic feet in the pile by (forty-five hundredths) .45. “Example: In a crib or bin of corn in the ear, measuring ten feet in length, eight feet high, and seven feet wide, there will be two hundred and fifty- two bushels of shelled corn. Thus—10x8x7x.45—252. This rule agrees with weighing corn—seventy pounds to the bushel in the ear, Assuming this rule to be correct, it will be very important to keep it where it can be readily referred to at times when it will be found very useful. But the rule applies only to localities where three heaped half bushels of ears make a ' bushel of shelled corn. In the Eastern States, where it takes two bushels of ears to make one of shelled corn, in order to use said rule we must pro- | eeed as follows: To find the contents of a crib ten feet long, eight feet | wide, and seven feet high, 10x 8 x7 x 45252. Then 252 x 3—756+2—378, | the number of bushels of ears, or one hundred and eighty-nine bushels of shelled corn of Eastern varieties. It would probably come nearer the truth | | to multiply the cubie contents in feet by 3}, and cut off the right-hand | figure, to wit: the number of bushels of shelled corn. Thus, 10 x 8 x 7560 feet; 560 x 31—182—cutting off the right-hand figure.” 802. Corn—Shrinkage in Drying.—Experiments have been tried where the quantity of newly-gathered ears supposed sufficient to make a bushel of shelled corn, weighed seventy-five pounds, which, after being thoroughly dried, only weighed sixty pounds—nine of cobs and fifty-one of grain. The proportion of cob by weight to grain will generally average about one sixth; and we think the difference in weight of ears between the time of harvest and spring is never less than ten per cent., unless the corn stands until very ripe, and is then gathered in a very dry time. The shrinkage is | more in the cob than in the grain, but there will be a considerable Icss upon | the grain, stored in a good crib, from autumn till spring. 803. Yield of Starch per Bushel,‘and its Uses.—As the starch in corn is the principal ingredient of value as food we should grow the varieties that afford the most. The average yield is about thirty pounds per bushel, and if not separated from the other ingredients, it will not prove too nu- tritions, although we generally take our food in a highly concentrated form, that is, too much starch to the bulk. All grain is more wholesome when used without separating its parts. Starch will not make as much fat as corn meal, though it is much used for food, and saves flour. It is also .used in calico printing, not only as starch, but, by a chemical process, to make a sort of gum much required. It is very doubtful whether the largely increased manufacture of corn starch has proved beneficial to mankind, if it is true, as it has been stated, that nine tenths of it has been used for human food, since a corn-meal pudding is far more wholesome than a farina pudding, notwithstanding one is vulgar and the other fashionable— one tickles the eye as well as palate, while the other is the subject of an | apology whenever offered to guests, even at a farm-house. . The increased demand for corn starch within a few years past has caused the building of immense manufactories ; one in particular, at Oswego, N. Y., = J 742 CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. is very large; and the process, which is very simple, though requiring large space to conduct it in, separates all the starch contained in the corn, and makes as pure an article as can be made from any other substance. Indian corn yields a larger amount of farinaceous food to the acre than any other grain, and it is the most certain crop ever planted, but there is a great loss in going over a large space of ground—better make the same number of bushels usually made, upon one third of the space. 804. Corn and Pumpkins Together.—A writer in the Genesee Farmer objects, with a good deal of reason, to growing corn and pumpkins together, on account of the shade the vines give the land. He says: “TI believe more than the value of the pumpkins is subtracted from the value of the corn crop. In Illinois we raise them in great perfection on the prairie sod, the first season after breaking. An acre of land cultivated entirely in pumpkins will yield an immense quantity; and I think this method pref- erable to planting among corn. The crop is a valuable one—I have made excellent beef with no other feed but pumpkins and hay. The pumpkins should be eut up, and fed in a clean trough. I had two hogs, one of which I intended to fatten, and the other to keep through the winter. As soon as pumpkins were ripe enough to gather, Ishut them apart, and fed one on corn all he could eat, with an occasional pumpkin for sauce, with slops of the house, and milk. The other I fed entirely on pumpkins. They were both of an age, and size very nearly alike. In December I killed the one fed on corn, which weighed about three hundred pounds; the other was as heavy, but not quite so fat. I then concluded to fat the last one, and fed him on corn and pumpkins all he would eat. In about a month he was very fat, and weighed nearly a hundred more than the first. This experi- ment convinced me that pumpkins were good feed for hogs, and that corn and pumpkins fed together were much better than corn alone.” Several other farmers are convinced that there is no profit in growing corn and pumpkins together. 805. Corn Hybridizing—We planted one season some of the Improved King Philip corn, side by side with several other sorts, all of which hybrid- ized, while the King Philip remained pure. The sort most affected was the little rice corn. Now, what is the philosophy of this mixing and running out of old sorts? Nature never works at random, nor is there a foolish thing to be found in all her works. They are full of mystery, but not of wasted forges. In this, as in a thousand other instances of hybridization, there is something to be learned. My own theory is, that this rice corn is a very low type in the family, perhaps only one remove from the original wild state, where each kernel is enveloped in a separate hnsk; and therefore nature, ever willing to aid man in improvements, makes a greater show upon this than any of the others, toward a variety that will be more valu- able for cultivation; for that, though toothsome in its green state, is not to be compared to some of the best varieties of sweet corn for the table, and is not near as productive. The stalks are low and bushy, and may grow f THE COST AND PROFIT OF A CORN CROP. 743 Seo. 45.] close together, the ears small, and set near the ground. The principal object in growing it is for popping. The Improved King Philip has reached a high point toward perfection, that is difficult of further improvement. Hence it does not mix freely with any other sort. Natureshows plainly in this, that it has already expended its main force in bringing it up to its present point. 806. Corn and Crows.—Until the mooted question is settled, whether crows do more damage to farmers than they do good, we shall say: Frighten the crows, but do not kill them, except one to use to keep his fel- lows off your corn. Pick off part of his feathers, and scatter them on some spot in the field easily seen, and near by lay the carcass of the dead crow, and you will see his late companion sailing over the field, and looking down upon what has been done, but very careful not to light where he, too, might fall a victim. If you can not kill a crow, you may make a very good show of a dead one with a black hen. Crows are too valuable as ver- min-destroyers on a farm, to be wantonly destroyed because they pull up a little corn. One farmer says: “In protecting fields from crows, he has found the best remedy to tie young crows to strings stretched across the field. Their calls drew a great many old crows, which came to see what the matter was, and went off, and kept off that year and the next.” Another one says: “A very troublesome case of crow depredation was cured by suspending young crows dead, which so alarmed the old ones that they left in disgust. I find tarring corn seed a good preventive.” If crows are to be kept off by any kind of scarecrows, they must be put up as soon as the corn is planted, before the thieves get a taste. That is the “ ounce of prevention” that is “worth a pound of cure.” 807. The Cost and Profit of a Corn Crop.—The growing of corn; the varieties grown; the manner of planting; how cultivated; whether high manuring, and much labor to produce a great yield per acre; whether corn shall be grown—particularly in the Eastern States—will always depend upon the cost of production ; which, in all but the great fertile corn region of the West, 1s not less than thirty cents a bushel. There it can be grown for less—there it has been often sold below twenty-five cents a bushel. For many years in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, a sort of universal price of corn prevailed, at a dollar a barrel, which is a local measure of five bushels. Yet during those years we have known large car- goes delivered on the bank of the Ohio, or its tributaries, at half that price; of course, for that is the custom, always in the ear, and at the rate of three heaped half bushels of ears for a bushel of grain. The gene- ral price of corn upon the Illinois Central Railroad during the summer of 1861 was ten cents a bushel, delivered in the ear, at a measure that would make a bushel of shelled corn, On the rivers it was not worth as much, and we heard of sales upon interior farms at three cents a bushel. At these prices corn does not pay ordinary farm-laborers’ wages to grow it. The price it has sold for also proves that the great value of § CEREALIA. [Cuar. VIII. Jand is not its richness; the great source of profit is not the great crops produced, but the market for that produce; and land is valuable just in proportion to its nearness to a place where its produce can best be sold. It ought to be a leading feature in the calculation of every land purchaser, Where is the market? Every producer should also keep this question con- stantly before his eyes, and shape his productions accordingly. Before the age of railroads the price of wheat in the interior of Indiana and Illinois was twenty-five to thirty-five cents a bushel, “store pay.” It was not a eash article, because there was no market. Indian corn was still more a cheap drug on hand, and many a “ broad horn” has been loaded upon the Wabash and other rivers for the far-off New Orleans market, with corn at six to ten cents a bushel. The strongest incentive to high farming is a high market. Is it profitable to grow corn in New England ? 808. Early Ripening Sweet Corn.—Sweet corn, which is the kind ‘hat shows shriveled grains when fully ripe, and tastes sweet, is not an early ripening corn. Our pop-corn is fit for boiling two weeks before the sweet corn; but neither pop-corn, nor any other kind of corn, is to be compared to the sweet corn for table use, and is only tolerated by those who grow sweet corn until that is large enough to boil. There is a black variety of sweet corn that ripens early ; but this we would only grow for early use, on account of its color, and that probably is one of the causes of its early ripening, as all dark-colored things absorb the rays of the sun. Some of this black corn has black cobs and husks; others, the grains only are black. We have grown an excellent sweet corn with white grains and dark-colored husks, which is quite early ; that is, in ordinary seasons, fit to eat in July. 809. The Value of Sweet Corn.—There is no variety of corn that affords the farmer so much value, or gives so great a return for the labor of grow- ing it, as sweet corn; and it should be grown in sufficient quantity to give every farmer’s family an unlimited supply for the table at every meal, if desired, and also for the children and servants to roast and eat between meals, from July 20th to October 20th—three full months. Thére is no food that can be furnished so cheaply, and none that is more nutritious and wholesome. It is always a welcome dish to chance guests, and in case of deficiency of other food at such a time, a dish of ears of ~green corn can be gathered, husked, cooked, and put upon the table in 30 minutes. And upon two or three ears a hungry man makes a satisfactory meal, with very little other food. In first cost, in cost of preparation, in value as food, is there anything equal to green corn? In value as food, so far as nutriment is concerned, sweet corn is 25 per cent. above any other sort, and 50 per cent. above as regards its wholesomeness. Being softer it is easier masticated, and goes into the stomach in better condition for diges- tion ; .and Being almost entirely destitute of oil it is believed to be more easily digested than the common field corn. Sweet corn should be planted for family use in hot-beds for transplanting ; ; Sro. 45.] BROOM CORN. or, if you have no hot-bed, in bits of inverted sod, in a box in the kitchen, so as to have them ready to put out in a rich warm spot as early as possible, and at the same time you should plant a few hills, and after that every two weeks till the middle of July. Stowell’s Evergreen Sweet Corn can be planted so late that it will barely mature so as to be eatable when frost comes, previous to which if it is cut up and shocked, or packed closely in a room, it will remain fit for boiling till New Year’s. Green corn may be preserved very late in autumn, by tying a bundle of straw, or cornstalks, around a hill of corn while it is growing, and before it is injured by frost. Another value that sweet corn has is for drying for winter use. Scald the ears when the grains have acquired their full size, and cut them off and dry them in the sun, or in a very slow oven, leaving the door open to allow the moisture to evaporate. When dry, store it away for winter use in a bag of open texture, hung up in a dry store-room—on the rafters in the garret is a good place. It may be cooked by soaking and boiling alone, or with beans, as “ suc- cotash ;” and when boiled it may be eaten with meat or with milk, or with sirup; or it-may be stewed in milk, adding butter and salt, and form an excellent breakfast dish. A variety of sweet corn, known as the Excelsior, is considered the best where but one sort is grown. It grows two or three ears to the stalk, with twelve or fourteen rows to the ear, and is very rich when cooked, 810. Broom Corn—How it is Grown, and Value of the Crop.—We are aware that broom corn does not come properly under the head of this section, be- cause it belongs to the Sorghum family. But as it will be more likely to attract attention under the head of Corn, we give it a place here. In some sections of the country, particularly on the Mohawk River, broom corn is a leading crop upon many of the farms. It requires the best kind of soil—that is, soil that would produce forty or fifty bushels of Indian corn per acre. It also requires the best kind of preparation by disintegration and manuring, and then the seed is planted in drills or hills, like Indian corn, at about the same time in the spring, and it should be tended in the same way, thinning out the plants, which will probably grow in excess, as the seed is usually planted very thickly, and it must be carefully attended to at the first and second hoeing. When the broom corn is matured sufticiently, the heads are bent down before cutting. If the seed is to be saved in a mature condition, the corn is allowed to stand until the heads are well filled, but not dead ripe, when the heads are bent down by a man walking between two rows and bending all the heads inward. It is then allowed to stand until ripe, but not dry, when it is cut by a man walking between -the same rows with a keen knife—a large-sized shoe-knife is about the best kind that can be used—cutting off the brush with six or eight inches of the stalk at- tached. The brush is thrown in bunches by the cutters, and is or should be immediately gathered up and carried to the barn, or somewhere under cover. It must not be cured in the sun. It is frequently stripped of the seed as eee 746 CEREALIA. [Caar. VIII. fast as it is éut, and spread all through the barn, over the hay and grain lofts, or under sheds, or tied in bunches and hung against the walls. The seed that is to be saved must be handled carefully, as it is very liable tg heat. It may be cured in the sun, or spread upon the barn floor, or on a loft with a very open floor, and it must be frequently stirred so as to give it air. Sometimes the brush is cured with the seed adhering, but it is not as well, as it is more difficult to cure it perfectly, and it is bulky and heavy to handle, and really in the end requires a good deal more labor. It is said, also, that the dry brush scrapes much harder than when first cut, and certainly it is more liable to be injured. For some work the brush must be cut and eured quite green before the seed is mature. Then it is scraped off and fed out at once, and is of about the same value as hay. The ripe seed, cured for winter feeding, is considered by some nearly equal in value to oats. We have never been satisfied that it was worth half as much, Perhaps it would be if ground. The stalks are not considered nearly as valuable as Indian cornstalks. If neat cattle are turned into the field after the brush is cut, they will pick off the leaves, but never eat the stalks. So they will if the stalks are cut and cured, and fed out in the winter. About the best use that the stalks of broom corn can be put to is to litter yards in winter to give cattle dry beds. They may also be used to make temporary shelter, or wind-breakers, for stock, or for covering root piles, or protecting more valuable forage from the weather. They are not valuable for manure, and would probably be the most so as mulch. It is the most common prac- tice to let the stalks stand till spring, letting the stock pick and trample what they like, and then cut and burn the remainder on the field. Scraping off the seed is a laborious job. A machine has been extempo- rized for this purpose, and is described as follows : “Take an old fanning-mill (a new set of wheels in a strong frame, so that you could use a balance-wheel, would be better), put on two plank wheels in place of the fans, then take slats of the length you wish to make your cylin- der, three inches wide and three fourths of an inch thick, hollow them a little at the ends, so as to fit the wheels; drive eight or ten wrought nails through each slat, and nail it to the wheels with the nail points out, in such a way that fie will not be in straight rows around the cylinder, but bristling all over. One to turn the orank | pretty smartly, one to hold on the brush in handfuls, and a boy to hand it up, will scrape two or three wagon- loads a day.” The value of the crop is the most important consideration to those who may be tempted to embark in the business. We have seen various estimates of the amount of produce per acre. We think that a tun of brush from five acres is a pretty fair estimate, and this will sell at from $100 to $150, or it will make up about one hundred and twenty dozen brooms, and any man of tolerable skill as a farm laborer can soon learn how to make good twine or wire brooms. There are machines used by broom-makers which greatly facilitate the work. They cost about $35 each. Szo. 45.] BROOM CORN. 747 The quantity of seed grown upon an acre we have seen rated as high as sixty bushels. We do not believe that one crop in ten Will give that. The writer of an article now before us estimates the value of well-ripened seed for horses, sheep, and poultry higher than oats. The stalks, when left to ripen the seed, are of no value for cattle food. The seed is more valuable, but the brush is not; that is most valuable when cut green, and when the straw is fine, and retains a bright, lively color. In January, 1860, it was estimated that 2,000 tuns of broom corn had been received in this city within a year past from Illinois; from Ohio, 500 to 600 tuns, and the same quantity from the State of New York. The quantity grown in the New England States is mostly manufactured before it reaches the city. The average price of broom-corn brush is six cents a pound for the green sort, and four cents for the red brush. The average crop per acre at the West is 400 pounds; in this State, 850 pounds; in New England, 250 pounds. It is not considered profitable to grow broom corn on a small seale; but as a crop it does appear to be so. There is a dwarf variety which has been recommended as more profitable for cultivation than the large and more eommon kind, because it furnishes finer and higher-priced brush ; but for cultivation on a large scale there are serious objections against this variety —the sheaf of the upper leaf adheres so closely to the stalk it is very diffi- cult to separate it. For family use this would not be so objectionable. It would only make a little work for small fingers, while larger ones were © making brooms in winter evenings. Shaker brooms are so common, that people generally suppose that broom corn is one of the staple crops of the Shaker Society. It may be in some families of the community, but not in all. The largest and oldest Society in the country, that of New Lebanon, Columbia County, N. Y., find it more advantageous to use their tillable land for some other purpose, and buy the brush, which they manufacture extensively, from the broom-corn farms of the Mohawk Valley. The soil there is not only productive in this crop, but the quality of the product ranks higher than it does upon the richer lands of the West, where the yield is larger, but the brush is coarser and less valuable. In conclusion, we advise caution about embarking in the culture of broom corn, without more knowledge than we can impart. CHAPTERaTX. THE GRASSES—CULTIVATION AND USE. SECTION XLVI—MOWING AND PASTURE LAND.—SEEDING LAND TO GRASS.—VARIETIES OF CULTIVATED GRASS—WHAT IS GRASS? HAT is grass? may be more important to the bot- anist than to the farmer; but what farmer’s son of ordinary intelligence would not like to be able to answer that question? How can he, if he is never taught? Who has told him that clover is not grass, and that Indian corn and sugar-cane do belong to the grass family? But it is not so much our present object to answer the question, as it is to speak briefly upon several practical things about the cultivation of grass and clover, and making them into winter feed for farm stock, and all matters that pertain to this very important crop. We are sure that every one who studies what we have compiled under the head of the grasses, particularly young readers, must be instructed in very important useful information. Natural grasses extend over the whole globe. Very curious and various provisions are made for the diffusion of the seeds; many of them are furnished with creeping roots. They are not, like other plants, injured by the laceration of their herbage. The making of artificial meadows is an art yet in its infancy. We never hear of them in England prior to a. p. 1681, nor in this country until about A. D. 1720. So little is known of natural or uncultivated grasses, that very few know the names of the grasses growing on their farms, nor can they distinguish one from another. One sixth of all the plants on the globe belong to the family of grasses—two hundred and thirty genera, including three thousand species, are already known, and new species are constantly presenting themselves. Six tenths of the cultivated area of New York is devoted to the growth of grass, and the grass crop of the United States is estimated at $300,000,000 annual value. Think of that, and you will see the importance of every treatise upon this farm crop. 811. Varieties and Value of Grasses Cultivated.—J. Stanton Gould, of Columbia County, N. Y., has devoted much attention to the study of grasses. Of those most commonly cultivated, he gives the following brief description. First, of the Leseues : AIS | Timothy Grass. ———_ 7 Ttahan five Grass. Redop. ‘y Hungarian ssaa Tu: GRASSES, A SIUDY FOR YOUNG FARMERS 5 “ \ £. VF te Ter 2 Cel 7 Mi eay |) she A eS oe | F i b | ' Fi ' ; wy ; Sr em re en ane ana ee lt ec eeeeaemehts A see eee rth ee aie woes & eoemeen eee A a r . a ‘ * ee iano a ‘ * << ‘ a Li : : ' i im . 4 mre, re , p F ; 4 * H erry ‘ vat La R. sat ay a ee ibaa Pwr ayy CL Ase. SOR AT 4 ae tray, ei am «5k 4j, 24 A a Le etd) Miveutae Geary aly iy 64st) ee till’ vive wens ST tty waeseeh coe ig ny)\ rs: j ‘ ii vila “es Atty af hopped ih vii Abaig 239 at itapth ee tsi rol pal ire aL or ntl i bere a Weald ond Gatien ir, uaa a fl oA wotee 7 7 © J pak ial HN vy a er Lae ay! | PLATE XEX. (Page 748.) Tus plate needs no explanation. It is a beautiful picture of some of the most valuable of our cultivated plants, which, collectively, make a farm crop so much more valuable than that which has been falsely called king, that when the two are fairly compared, “king cotton” dwindles into insignificance. Compared with grass, it is no more than a word. Without cotton we can live. Without grass, the world would be a desert, and man and beast would perish. It is because it is of such vast importance, that we have devoted a whole chapter to its consideration; and for the purpose of attract- ing attention to it, we have placed this picture as a frontispiece. Each one of these grasses will be found pretty fully described in the following pages, which should be studied with careful attention. The pictures may be depended upon as true representations. - . ¥ or eS oe es a ne te en ee tat a mtn at nga P t ° ” bgts.egh tn minndactht wtien. we Senses rf eh ean el Nee nt Sart ; ; : Ke: hea? cs . > races yee Ton oe ’ a exe 4teres Ler ; : , ITY V itso BO A BT ae? a} nf I - + nm . - : eri i P r + j r 6 hie fi | a 4 : c sd 2 Saulge ord %, : a ‘ af , 4 ’ < 4 ¥ a z ar : N ve . ‘ 1 Le | rr A eer * : thar ‘ = : ie | . } is ni ) ‘ ¥ ef : ie : ‘ en R Cha b ‘s ae f 2 é , hi Ais 957 2 es tyy ‘ ev npehes hs WAG hle Sel: 72) ‘ ’ ¥ dry eee “+ tpt eal ei . . , ts ; 3 . > e ‘ P ier } ; , di chteteee He oo | 4 : ith if sl FL Liie anes rs 5 y? a ; ; . a aif od ] MAY ere anes Ae? pn APO eA | Ae ‘malice un ; 4 me | rk . x A « ‘ é .- Bree. Ibo? ay? dade Aig iS ory DRANG uF shite ak Sark UNI ell haa en see ett 2° = age f Ri Aae lth APSE fay we Vy Hcl, Take, ne, PRI pe srarriat: Meek de! we; Uggs caer rm mecental! ane - ’ ii ae rhiiy } ie ae, oes ig Pp WOU, tik, Us Bite ae! this 174 fos , % EQOA ita sibice ay Fastenotrtoskonrs aes mh stay "a Hi x aye ad 7 gine i ee it wy Pak it? am. 7a BO, ay hi ih Si re 0h abet - i slab. ie , he peers ; ae Pek toners tease +43 a x sie rset mcs ‘eh ioe SA ; eer a” for uwwe SSW Fi iy my cee i oe he ae ws; ‘Spates Re FeiSey. goa igen sit toe: "i aaah Sao von adie ier He boa oo : poedirons Saupshen Sro. 46.] VARIETIES AND VALUE OF CULTIVATED GRASSES. 749 “Festuca ovina is essentially a grass of the thin soils resting upon rocky uplands, as on the mountain limestone, and most mountain ranges. “FF duriuscula.—In the valleys between such hills, and in the more shel- tered pastures of the upland districts. “#. rubra.—In the more sandy loams of the lowland meadow, and by the sea-shore. “Ff. loliacea.—Rich meadows on river banks, or under irrigation. “F. pratensis.—Best lowland meadows, not liable to floods. “PF, elatior.—On sandy clays, or other stiff and strong lands, especially on the sea-shore. “The fescues are invariably present in our best pastures, and especially present in those of the most famous cheese districts. “The J. pratensis is worth $3 33 when timothy is worth $5 per ton. It follows next after meadow foxtail (alopecurus) as an early grass, and af- fords a bite earlier than orchard grass. “The Bromus family has a very bad name, being neither agreeable nor nutritious to cattle. Bromus erectus is said to be the only perennial species in the genus. Early mowing is recommended as a means of extirpating this family. “Loliwm perenne, or rye grass, is the favorite grass of England, and occu- pies there the same place that timothy does with us, and is probably better adapted to a wet climate like England than to a dry one like ours. Sixty varieties are cultivated in England of this one species. “Lolium Italicum, Italian rye grass, is worth $2 69 when timothy is worth $5. One hundred pounds of it give twenty-four and a half pounds of dry hay. It is best adapted to limestone and light soils, and is one of the most desirable varieties for irrigated meadows. “ Triticum repens, known as ‘ quack,’ ‘twitch,’ or ‘dog’ grass, is very easily recognized by its spikelet of etght or ten-awned flowers placed flat- wise toward the sachis. Itis a terrible pest in alternate husbandry, grow- ing in all sorts of soils, and robbing the cultivated plants of the richest por- tion of their food. In very dry seasons it may be killed by plowing it very thoroughly in July, and sowing the ground with buckwheat. Its stalks sometimes attain an altitude of three feet, but it ordinarily stands two feet high. It forms a tolerably good hay, and is much relished by the stock as a pasture grass. It operates as an emetic on dogs, and is very useful in binding the sloping banks of railroads. “Anthoranthum odoratwm, sweet-scented vernal grass, is not very valu- able for hay or for pasture, as one hundred pounds of it gives only nineteen pounds and three quarters of dry hay, and an acre three quarters of a ton. It starts very early in the spring, and continues to throw out leaves during the summer. : “ Glycerta nervata grows in wet places. Its culms are extremely succu- lent; it is the hardiest grass in existence, and always grows more vigorously | after a severe winter than after a mild one. | 750 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Ciap. IX. Poa serotina, or foul-meadow, is one of the earliest grasses cultivated in this country, and is still among the best. It does not injure by standing, as do other grasses, but may be cut at almost any time. It is easily made into hay, and never seems hard or harsh, and produces sound seeds in great abundance. “ Trisetum subspicatum is a mean, stingy grass, growing on stiff clayey side-hills which have a northern aspect. It is only fit to be grown on soils that will bear nothing else. “ Zigantia aquatica grows in places wholly covered with water. It is very sweet and nutritious, and cows fed upon it have a copious flow of milk. In favorable situations it produces five or six tuns to the acre. grow- ing to the hight of nine feet. Its seeds resemble rice. “ Phleum pratensis.—According to the analysis of Professor Way, timo- thy yields more dry hay from a given amount of grass, and more of albu- minous, fatty, and heat-producing matters, from a given amount of dry hay, than any of the grasses upon which he experimented. But it must be remembered that Professor Way did not analyze either Poa compressa or Poa serotina. A crop of pure timothy on the farm of George Geddes, near Syracuse, N. Y., gave three tuns to the acre, and it is reported that John Fisher, Car- roll County, Md., cut from an acre five tuns and one thousand six hundred and twenty-two pounds of dry hay. The proper time for mowing timothy is just when the first dry spot appears above the first joint. If mowed earlier, the plant is injured. If left to a later period, the starch and sugar are converted into indigestible woody fiber, and the nitrogenous compounds, on which its value chiefly depends, are transferred from the leaves and culms to the seed, which mostly drop out before they reach the manger. Timothy is not well adapted — to hot sands, gravels, chalks, nor hard, sterile clays; but thrives on peaty, damp soils, and especially on most calcareous loams. where it exhibits its fullest perfection. “The great drawbacks to its utility as a permanent meadow grass are, the very little after-math it produces, its liability to run out after two or three years, and the injury it receives from insects with which it is infested. “ Alopecurus (Meadow Foxtails).—There are five varieties of this genus, viz.: A. pratensis, A. agrestis, A. geniculatus, and A. ristulatus. The | Sro. 46.] NOTES ON MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 767 day or two, if the weather is favorable for hay-making; then turn them over, stir them up a little, and bind, and when cured, haul to the barn, and spread over a large surface, so as not to injure the vitality of the seed. Another way is to mow the grass with a scythe as soon as the seed is ripe enough, and allow it to remain about one day in the swath; and the next day, turn the swaths upside down. Should there be some very thick, green bunches, they should be stirred up, so that the whole would dry out in a day or so if the weather is favorable. *As soon as it is cured, we would bind in small bundles, and shock it, and allow it to cure for several days, when it may be stacked or put in the barn. Most farmers allow their seed to remain too long in the field after it is cut. In mowing timothy grass for seed, it is very desirable to have it all laid evenly and straight, as if it had been cradled, so that we can bind it. In order to do this properly, a man must be not only a good mower, but he must have the knack of fetching his scythe around at every clip in such a manner that his swath will not be tumbled over and over, as it sometimes is when we mow grass for hay. It is almost impossible to give the necessary directions on paper how to do it; but, in the first place, it is very important to point in low.. This must be done by dropping the entire scythe, from heel to point, flat on the ground, and keeping the heel down on the ground through the entire clip or sweep. 827. Notes om Meadows and Pastures.—The following excellent ‘article is from the pen of Professor Buckman, of England : “Plants are weeds in pastures, if they do not add to the crop either of grass or hay. The following plants take up spaces, but yield no produce. That is: Broad-leaved plantain (Plantago media); Dandelion (Leontodon tarawacum) Daisy ; (Bellis perennis). The leaves of these grow too close ‘to the ground to be eaten off by cattle or be cut by the scythe. “ Cowslip (Primula veris) ; Primrose (Prumula vulgaris) ; Green-winged orchis (Orchis moro); Early purple orchis (Orehis masculo). These take up room in growing, are not eaten by cattle, and being dead before hay- making, add little or nothing to the rick. “We have just been examining a pasture full of the first three species of the above list. Of the plantain we made out as many as twenty-five in the square yard, varying from two to six inches across; we removed them, and bare patches to the extent of a quarter of the surface was the re- sult. Of the dandelion we have as many as six tufts in the square yard, each more than halt a foot across: we remove them, and in so doing have sown some hundreds of flying seeds over the rest of this field, or sent them to our neighbor. And now for the ‘wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower,’ looking sv bright with its silvery stars dotting the green field, surely this 1s not a weed? Alas! yes, all is not gold that glitters, or silver that is bright, and on the spot where the daisy is growing, a grass root is not, and we have just stepped out to look at a meadow half daisies. However, as regards these three plants, there is no doubt that the first two are the most mis- 768 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Cuar. IX. Oe chievous, and the question of how to keep plantains and dandelions out of the pastures, and still more out of lawns, is one worth more attention than has yet been given to it. With respect to the plantain, we know of no better method than absolutely cutting them up with a common knife and dropping a bit of salt in each hole, as without this they sprout up again from any part of the old crown that might be left in. “Mr. Baily Denton invented an implement for this kind of weed destruc- tion, which would eject a caustic fluid as it cut up the plants, and he named it the scorpion spud. A boy with a knife can easily clean pastures very foul with plantain and dandelions, at one shilling an acre, a cost which would be amply covered by the first hay crop, for it would, indeed, be a comparatively small admixture of plantain that did not take up the space that would grow a hundred weight of hay. “ As regards seeds for laying down permanent pasture, care should al- ways be exercised to prevent this plant from being sown, as a few seeds will soon stock the ground; and if the new pasture is left pretty much to itself, for some two or three years the plantams will increase very rapidly. It should be considered that a single root may in one year produee from three to six thousand seeds. “ Care should be taken to prevent the seeding of dandelions in waysides and waste places, as each flower-head may produce one hundred and sey- enty seeds and twelve heads to a single root at one time, and they keep on forming for several months; it is indeed of consequence always to prevent, if possibile, all weeds from seeding. “© ‘One year’s seeding, seven years’ weeding. “There are many other plants in meadows that die out before grass- cutting ; but still, as they grow with the grass, and take up space at the most critical time, as far as yield is concerned, they are very detrimental, and to its hindrance; they are, besides, evidence of poverty and bad man- agement, which only exists in bad grass-farming. | Cultivate on proper prin- ciples a meadow in which they occur, and the amount of success will be indicated by their more or less rapid decrease. “ Plants which, though innocuous, yet take up space, and so dilute the quality of the hay and injure the productiveness of the pasturage, are named below. This offers a somewhat large list, as all the plants found in pastures, which have a tall growth, have neither spines nor other mechanical hindrances, nor any poisonous qualities, must be ranged under this head. These are injurious, simply because they take up space which might be bet- ter appropriated to the growth of grass or some nutritious herbage ; for, as they have no qualities to cause them to be eaten by cattle, so in the hay they do not nourish but simply dilute the bulk. * Blunt-leaved dock (Rumewx obtusifolius); COrisp-leaved dock (Rumex crispus); Marsh dock (umewx palustris). All three are rather common meadow plants, especially in damp places. “ Burdock (Arctium lappa). Often found in the borders of fields. Sro. 46.] NOTES ON MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 769 “ Butter burr (Petusztes vulgaris). Occupies the sides of water-courses. “ Cow-parsnep (Heracleum sphondylium) ; Wild-beaked parsley (Anthris- cus vulgaris). These two umbelliferse are very common, and most unsightly. “ Tadies’-smock (Cardamine pratensis), found in wet meadows, and Com- mon yellow rattle (2hinanthus crista gallz) in very poor meadows, and the Hawk-weeds and others (the several Composite), everywhere. “These, though only offered by way of examples, yet in themselves make up a formidable list of plants injurious to the pasture. Their large roots and tall stems take up much space to the injury of the grass; and though it is quite true that they go far in making up weight in the trusses of hay, yet the hay will always be of an inferior description; and in fields where plants of this character prevail we shall often have a good pasturage for cattle—that is, the animals will get on well on the grasses, of which only they will partake; and then one is too apt to be astonished that good feeding meadows should yield a poor hay ; but the truth is that hay, with a fourth of its bulk and weight of these objectionable plants, is diluted to that extent by rubbish with no feeding qualities, and well indeed is it if they do not many of them contain positively injurious principles. “Tow, then, are we to get rid of these pests? The simplest answer, with regard to the docks and umbelliferze, will be—Let them get tolerably strong in their stalks, and then take the opportunity, when the ground is soft, to pull them out of the land. They must not be mown, as in this way small branches, or buds that will make branches, will seed before the sum- mer is over, and then fifty new plants will appear for one old one that we have destroyed ; but by pulling, we take out the crown, and usually enough root to destroy it. : “ But now, as regards pulling docks when the flower has advanced, it is but right to caution the farmer against the practice of putting them in a corner of the field, out of the way, for the thick succulent roots will have sufficient vitality, and especially if kept moist by companionship, to grow again.” 828. Remedy for Short Pastures.—Those who have but a limited range of pasture, and keep stock enough to crop it close, are always at the mercy of the weather. If there chance to be favoring rains, and a good season for the growth of grass and clover, all is well; but if, as frequently occurs, there comes a long period of drouth, the brown fields, already close cropped, fail entirely, having little to protect the roots from the full power of the sun, and the eattle suffer, and milk-pails show serious diminution, the dairy profits shrink, and the effect of the drouth will be felt throughout the sea- son, for much of the pasture being thus summer-killed, the full flow of milk can hardly be regained. This may be guarded against by putting in a small plot of corn, sorghum, millet, or other suitable crop for cutting and feeding green. An acre of corn sown broadcast will very soon yield sufficient to give great relief to the short pasture. It is not necessary to stable the cows; cut a good supply | for them, and feed night and morning before they leave the yard; they will: | | 49 ==] 770 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. — [Cmar. IX. | eat it with a relish, and make ample returns in the milk-pan and the churn. Even if the threatened drouth does not come, and abundance of grass should grow, the soiling crop need not be lost. Cut at the proper season, and pro- perly cured, it will not come amiss next winter. 829. Mixing Stock in Pasture.—In Nos. 24 and 110 we have treated upon overstocking the farm, and how many cows an acre of good pasture should support, but no one will get the full value of his pasture if he has but one kind of stock. There is just as much economy in grazing bullocks and sheep upon the same farm, as there is in having hogs follow the herd while feeding corn. Every feeder knows that hogs will fatten well upon the drop- pings, and every grazier who ever tried it, knows that sheep will fatten upon herbage rejected by the bullocks, and the pasture for both classes of animals will be improved, and if not overstocked, both will do better than one sort alone. 830. Improving a Wild Pasture by Sheep.—Mr. Fay, of Lynn, Mass., states “that on a tract which was overrun with woodbine, briers, and other shrubs, he turned 150 sheep. At that time a cow could not have lived on the whole tract. The sheep were kept there several years, and so killed out the wild growth that the tract now affords good pasture for 15 cows.” We sup- pose the sheep were fed elsewhere, and were occasionally turned on this waste land merely to enrich it by their droppings, and kill out the useless herbage and shrubs. We have known a great deal of this work of killing out bushes and briers done by the aid of salt—fine salt thrown upon the leaves while wet, to induce the sheep to browse them off. In this way a thick plat of bushes may be so killed out in a single year, that the land will take grass seed. 831. Cattle Forage—How to Produce and how to Use it.—This is one of the most important questions for the stock farmer, both summer and winter. Manuring pastures is not as unprofitable as some persons suppose. A dress- ing of either lime, ashes, plaster, superphosphate, guano, bone-dust, niter, potash, salt, upon pasture, will almost always increase the feed to a value much above the cost of the application. If pastures fail in drouths, cattle must be fed. The question is, upon what? We answer, any green food that can be grown in season. At one time, rye—another, oats—then, corn, buck- wheat, turnips, ete. Grinding grain increases its value. One writer suggests grinding the entire straw and grain together. Will that pay? We doubt it. Much has been said and done about grinding : cobs to increase the forage. We would give just as much for basswood | rails as for corn cobs, to grind for any kind of stock. For hogs, we believe cobs are absolutely worthless. For horses, neat cattle, or sheep, clean cut straw is better than ground cobs. As to grinding corn fine or coarse, it does not make so much difference, if fed immediately to the hogs. For any other purpose on earth, coarse meal is better than fine; and for human food, fine meal that has been ground a month is absolutely deleterions—it is not fit to eat. Sze. 46.] AMOUNT OF FODDER NECESSARY. raat One farmer says: “I found that cob meal lessened the richness of the milk, though one animal fed with corn and cob meal did thrive better than upon corn alone. “Corn cobs weigh seven pounds to the bushel, and some of my neighbors say it will not pay the extra cost of grinding the cobs, as it costs a quart more corn to grind a bushel of the cobs and corn together, than it does to grind the corn alone, so that in fact we give a quart of corn for seven pounds of cob meal. I have ground a good many cobs, and have now thrown away my cob-mill, and would not give it house-room. I can not afford to grind cobs, nor to feed any grain unground; and I can not afford to feed hogs with uncooked meal. I cook meal six or seven hours, and I practice feeding it to hogs hot. The corn cob has some value, but not enough to pay for grinding. We can not grind cobs fine without great expense.” 832. Amount of Fodder Necessary.—‘“ The Springfield (Mass.) Republican states that William Birney has wintered forty-two cattle, three horses, and four sheep on the produce of sixty acres of land, which, supposing the whole stock to equal forty cews, gives an acre and a half of land for the annual sustenance of each animal. Wheat bran and oil-meal are purchased and used for the stock, which is balanced by the disposal of corn and hay of equal value. The amount of fodder consumed daily by Mr. B.’s stock is stated as follows: 878 lbs. of chaffed corn fodder and straw. .$1 89 | 20 bushels roots..............20.0.0e008 $2 00 77 lbs. long hay 70 | Fuel for steaming the above 120 lbs. wheat bran 2 10 lbs. oi 10 Ibs. “This makes a cost of about seventeen cents a day for each animal. It is stated that the stock is in fine condition, and that the quantity of milk diminishes when steamed food is withheld. Mr. B. generally cooks twenty bushels of roots per day for his stock, and on feeding, by way of experiment, the same quantity raw for three weeks, there was a diminution equal to a quart of milk a day to each cow.’ Estimating the roots at fifty pounds per bushel, and adding that to the other articles, will make 1,595 pounds of food daly divided SAAT ED: forty cows, is within a fraction of forty pounds of food to each, which is 14,600 pounds for the year. This is seven tuns three ewt. per annum for each cow, which looks like pretty strong feeding; but we have just read a statement of a writer who declares that it will require from five to six tuns of the best timothy hay, or its equivalent, to support an animal twelve months; and as no land in this country has produced this quantity, he argues that no man can sustain a cow per acre. With him, two horses and sixteen cows, mostly dry, consumed a tun of hay per week, besides brewers’ grain and turnips in abundance. THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. (Crap. IX. N the single, comprehensive word haying, we have the most important matter connected with American agri- culture. The hay crop is of more value than the cotton, farm produce, and upon many farms of more value than all others combined. Of what immense importance, then, is haying. Of what vast consequence to individuals, and to the whole country, that the best of all appliances that modern ingenuity has provided should be brought into use to save the hay crop—the crop upon which the lives of three fourths of all the horses, cattle, and sheep in the United States de- pend from November to April. One half of the year, in the States that produce the working animals, as well as beef, butter, cheese, hides, mutton, and wool—these animals so necessary to our existence as a civilized people, must be mainly sup- ported upon hay. We could find a substitute for every other crop grown. For hay there is none. Farmer! have you thought how much depends upon the four weeks of haying time? Are you provided with the tools necessary to secure this im- mensely important crop in the short season that nature gives you? For you must ‘make hay while the sun shines;” and that never again will shine enough during the haying season, in this country, to enable you to make it with poor old hand-scythes, fastened to crooked sticks cut in the woods, and forked sticks for pitchforks, with rakes to match—such as were in almost universal use in New England fifty years ago. You can not secure your crop with such tools. Fortunately, you have no need to use such. None but asloven will. None bat a bad manager will use hand tools, excellent as they now are, except to a very limited extent, because Yankee ingenuity has been at work, and machines have been in- vented, tried, improved, tried again, and now are exfensively manufactured in an almost perfect state, by which horse-power is substituted for man- power to mow the grass, to spread it, to rake it in windrows, and, in some cases, to pull it together in cocks, or to the stack ; to lift it from the ground to the stack, or upon the hay-cart, and then to lift it again from the cart to the mow—all by horse-power. Have you got these machines, or any one of them ? 833. Mowing Machines.—As most important of all farming tools, have you got a mowing machine? Of these, the family is numerous—all children of the original American reaping or mowing machine, invented and put into successful operation by Obed Hussey, of Baltimore, within the last twenty years, and all, with slight variations, working upon the same principle. — Seo. 47.] HAYING AND HAYING MACHINES. 73 Upon Hussey, McCormick improved, and carried off the palm of success, until ‘“‘ McCormick’s Reaper” has become of world-wide renown. Though both of these original machines would cut grass, they were not successful enough as mowers to come into general use. The honor of a suc- cessful mowing machine was reserved for Ketchum, of Buffalo. His first machines gave great satisfaction though requiring a strong team, and were too heavy and costly for small farmers. ‘‘Wood’s Improvement” of the Ketchum machine has been generally considered an important one. Of mowers, up to the haying season of 1858, the great want was a one- horse machine that would do the work as perfectly as the best two-horse machines, with speed proportioned to the power. In short, a machine for small farmers, such as compose nearly nine tenths of the population of all the Northeastern States. Since that date, such machines have been extensively manufactured. One made by Joel Nourse, of Boston, we have seen in successful operation. It is a machine that no man who has five acres of grass to cut can afford to be without. It is constructed entirely of iron, with 1 movable cutter bar, adapted to uneven surfaces, or it can be raised from the ground and held stationary while driving from field to field ; it certainly looks as though it had all the elements of strength and durability, and yet it is not heavy. One of the advantages of such a machine we will state: A gentleman bought a small place, which was mostly in what the owner called grass; it was, however, more than half weeds, upen a rough surface, and the first year afforded a meager crop of poor hay, cut at one mowing with a scythe. In the spring, he procured one of these little ma@chines, and as soon as the weeds were large enough, he harnessed his carriage horse to it, and mounted the seat _and shaved the lot. During the summer he repeated the operation, again and again feeding the crop to the horse and cow. The consequence is, that the weeds are killed, and the grass much improved. The swath cut by one of these machines is about four and a half feet wide, and the work done is at the rate of six or eight acres a day of heavy grass; and it will stop and start anywhere without-clogging. It has another advantage: it costs something like fifty dollars less than a two-horse machine. It works so easily that we have seen one man pull it through grass stout enough to make a fair swath; and one horse can work it without fatigue, and in very small inclosures—in almost any situation where mowing can be done with the hand scythe. The advantage of such a machine in a hilly region is very apparent. No farmer can afford to do without one mowing machine, and some can afford to have two. Every one who has one of heavy draft, or with any serious imperfection, can afford to buy a new one. The great hay crop hereafter must be cut by horse-power. There is another great advantage besides substituting brute for man 74 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Cuar. IX. power. With the scythe, the man must cut the grass while the dew is on, and that requires extra labor to cure it and extra labor in saving it. With the machine, the grass is more easily cut dry, and time is afforded to do it; and the man, while riding and guiding his mower, has no fear of the burn- ingsun. It is the horse that sweats, not the man. He rides at nearly as much ease as he would in his wagon on the road to mill. ' 834. Horse Rakes and other Haying Machines.—Of horse rakes there are several patterns, all good, and some of them operate with as much ease to the man as the mower; for he sits in a chair, mounted upon a pair of - wheels, to which the rake is attached. To rake hay by hand, when it can be so much more speedily done by horse-power, shows a great want of economy and sound judgment. Unloading hay at the barn by horse-power is such a simple operation, that it seems wonderful how a sensible farmer can continue the excessively hard labor of lifting it, a forkful at a time, in the stifling heat of the barn, of a July afternoon. To unload by horse-power, a tackle-block is attached to the ridge, the fall being brought down to a snatch-block at the door, to which the horse is hitched, and as he walks off on the ground, up goes the “ horse-fork,” with almost a fourth of the wagon-load at once; it is pulled to its place by a guy rope, when, by unloosing a catch, it is upset all in a heap. Stacking is done by the same operation ; using a set of shears—three poles in a triangle—set up over the wagon, to sustain the tackle. We have now indicated some of the most important labor-saving imple- ments of the hay-field, to which should always, on a large farm, be added a tool-wagon, made convenient to carry all the hand-tools, always including a grindstone, and the spare clothing of the men, and a large refrigerator of ice water as a substitute for that accursed old black jug that has been the ruin of so many men in haying. With this we close our homily upon haying, and repeat the question to every farmer, Are you ready? Have you got any, or all of these appli- ances? If not, there is no time to lose; the haying season comes round with the revolving seasons, always once a year. 835. Stacking Hay.—We ask the reader here to refer to what we have said in 756 upon stacking grain, as it is equally applicable to stacking hay, and in both cases we must advocate stacking in an economical point of view. Stacks of hay or grain, well built, will keep, with an amount of waste absolutely less than the interest of the money that barn shelter would cost. Whatever the size of a stack, a hen’s egg should be taken as the model of form, the small end up, which should be made to shed rain as per- fectly as the roof of your own house. The most perfect mode of doing this is to take straw, or long, coarse grass, and commence at the lower part of the taper, and thrust a little handful at a time into the stack until you en- circle it, leaving the long ends hanging straight downward, and then put in- another course a little above, lapping over the first one, and so on, tying the Aes Szo. 47] HAYING AND HAYING MACHINES. 115 apex to a little stick thrust into the top, making, with two or three hours’ work, a thatch that will preserve the stack for years. We have seen the thatching of a stack made somewhat as tassel fringe is made, by twisting the long hay into a small hay-rope on the ground, until enough was made to cover the stack-top, the whole being rolled up in bun- dles as large as a man could carry up a ladder, when it is unwound and pinned to the stack. This is more work, and only better when there is danger of the thatching blowing out when put on in the manner first de- scribed ; and that difficulty can be obviated by drawing hay-ropes or cords of twine around each course of thatching. After the stack of hay has settled, if it is found that the stacker did not allow enough for the settling, and the bulge comes down too near the ground, take a hay-knife and cut away enough to give the stack its proper egg-shape. If a mistake has been made in a grain-stack, it can not so well be remedied. Always remember that a well-formed stack will be, after it has settled, smaller at the bottom than it is a few feet above. In a stack of six tuns, there should be room enough for a man to lie down under the bulge and. b® well sheltered from a shower. In building ricks, or long stacks, the same rule as to form should govern the builder as in building a round stack, so that looking at the end we should see the same egg-shape; and in building ricks or stacks of sheaves, the secret of success is keeping the middle full, so that the butts of all the sheaves are a third lower than the tops. Such a stack will always shed rain. There is no doubt that hay or grain may be put up in a stack much greener than in a barn, with perfect safety, and if we make a hollow stack, as is sometimes done in England, by setting up four poles, three feet apart at bottom and joined at top, we could stack our hay as soon as it was what we now consider half-cured. This country, as a general thing, has a good deal yet to learn of the art and economic value of stacking hay and grain. 836. A Machine to Stack Hay is in use in some places in Ohio, but very little known in others. A mast is framed with braces into a foundation that moves like a sled, and can be drawn about from place to place in the field, or carried on wheels to distant fields. At the top of the mast is a yard, braced by a rope at one end, with a tackle-block at the other, from which a fork is suspended, upon which as much hay can be hoisted at once by a horse as a man could fork up at a dozen times. Sometimes the stack is so situated in relation to the cocks, that they are brought up to the frame by a drag-rope, and hoisted bodily to the top of the stack. A very convenient implement for moving cocks up to a stack may be cheaply made as follows: Two white oak or ash poles, about twenty feet long, framed together in the middle by three cross-pieces, three feet long, are formed like shafts of a wagon at one end, sharpened at the other and smooth, to run under a cock of hay. The shafts should be cut and framed while green, and then bent and seasoned in the proper shape, so that when attached to the horse the rear part will rest flat upon the ground. A boy i 776 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Cuap. IX. can operate it as well as a man. He trots rapidly between the stack and cocks, leading short distances or riding long ones. He backs up to a cock, running the poles under it, and then throws a rope around, which is attached by one end to the off-shaft, and draws it tight and hitches the other end by a loop to a hook on the other shaft, and then trots back, to the stack, casts his rope loose without stopping, and hurries back for another load. It is a very rapid, easy way of stacking hay—a man and boy and two horses will haul and send up the hay as fast as the best stacker can place it. 837. Storing Hay—Ventilation—Many farmers, those of New England in particular, have a custom of storing hay in large masses in the barn, in a place called ‘the bay,” without a sign of any ventilation under the bulk, which usually rests upon a few loose poles or boards on the damp ground. A “bay” should have ventilation, not only under it, but up through it, by means of a chimney made of four poles fastened together by rounds like a ladder. A loose stone foundation could be laid for the hay bottom, with an air-chamber from the outside leading to the chimney, directly over which there should be a ventilator in the roof. This simple contrivance would not only save many a tun of hay from mustiness, but it would enable the owner to put in his hay in a much greener state. That next the chimney would always come out very sweet. It is also an excellent plan to ventilate stacks. It can be done by setting up four rails, two feet apart at the bottom, fastened close together at the top with a rope, strip of bark, or a withe. We once put up a very large rick of wheat, that is, a long stack, which was thought too green to keep well, but it did, for we took a convenient rail fence and built a flue sixty feet long, big enough for a man to crawl through, in the center of the foundation, so that a current of air passed up all through the wheat. At another time, in building an immense rick of prairie hay, we made an air-tube of brush, which greatly aided in the preservation of the hay. A good timber bottom, elevating the whole stack so that air would circulate under it, would be still better. 838. Hay Caps, their Value—How Made.—We took upon hay caps as we do any other labor-saving implement in hay-making, and they are of such great advantage that we never heard of any one who had once learned their value, who was willing to forego their use. They are the means of saving thousands of tuns of hay after it is well cured, every year, in Massachu- setts, where they appear to be best known and most used. Simply cotton cloth caps, pinned with little sticks over the haycocks that are in danger from an approaching storm, are the kind most in use there. Grass may be cocked as soon as wilted, and hay improved, if you are provided with hay caps. One of four feet or four and a half square is considered ample. size; and of compactly woven, good, though light sheeting, much better than heavy, and a simple ring-loop of cord sewed in at each corner, but left so as to slip, finishes the cap ready for use. It is fastened at the loops by pins fourteen to sixteen incheslong. Take care not to pack them or let them Src. 47.] THE BEST TIME TO CUT GRASS. 177 lie in a heap when wet or damp. A season may pass, and they will be of no use; but another time they may pay the whole expense in protecting the hay through a single storm. A sheet twelve or fifteen feet square should always be kept on hand to cover a half-finished stack or load of hay caught by a sudden shower. 839. The Best Time to Cut Grass should be authoritatively settled, and not left to mere assertion ; one farmer contending that it is best to cut it in the blossom, and another not until the seed is partially ripe. Levi Bartlett, who is good authority, says: “As far as practicable, we cut our herds-grass when the seed is in the dough state, and before the bloom is much shed. It is said by those who have carefully investigated the mat- ter, that too early mowing of herds-grass results in great injury to the next year’s crop, much more so than to that of other grasses. It being a bulbous- rooted plant, if cut too soon, the bulb has not stored up the necessary nutri- ment in it to secure a vigorous after-growth. Clover should be cut when about half the blossoms have turned brown, and cured mostly in the cock.” When should grass be cut? Our answer to the question is this: While it is grass, and not after it has become hay. To make good food for cattle, the grass must be cut and cured, not cured and cut. A new and rather thinly- seeded piece of timothy will grow coarse stalks, which must be cut while younger than the crop of an old field which was thickly seeded, and has grown thick and fine. The field where the growth is thin we would cut as soon as it blossomed. The field where the stalks grow thick and fine we would allow to stand still until the seeds in the but-end of the heads were in the milk, and after the grass was cut, a portion of them would mature so as to grow. Other grasses and clover we would cut in full blossom, taking care not to dry them to death in curing. We would never mow while the grass was wet with dew or rain; and if cut with a machine, we would not care how soon after it was cut it was raked into windrows with the horse- rake. If cut with a scythe, turn the swaths over as soon as the top is well wilted, and, after an hour or two of hot sun on the other side, let a man with a three-pronged fork begin to pitch the swaths together into wind- rows. If not previously bleached; grass will stand a hard rain in swath or windrow without serious injury. It should always be put in good-sized, well-made cocks before it is dry, and then let it sweat. It may even turn black without injury, but it is preferable not to allow it to reach that stage, for fear acetous fermentation should take place. No matter how green the grass or hay of the cock looks, or how much it smokes from the sweating process when you pitch it on the wagon, if the air is hot and windy, it will dry out so as to keep perfectly in the mow or stack by the time you have pitched and carted and pitched again, and then again in mowing it away. Grass cut at noon may be cocked at four o’clock and hauled the next morn- ing and make better hay than it would if cut in the morning and afterward spread, and stirred, and raked, and pitched about, and finally cocked in the afternoon, and the cocks opened and shaken up again the next neem | THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Cuap. IX. because they felt a little warm inside, and finally, after getting as dry as tinder and puffy as feathers, hauled away to the barn. In our opinion, there is a foolish fashion of cutting grass with the dew on, and an unnecessary labor in curing it, and an altogether causeless fear of putting hay in the barn too green. It should be put away in such a condition that it will be green in color when fed out in winter. We can hardly set too high a value on flavor in hay. The relish with which food is eaten makes part of its value; and it goes further with man or beast than that which does not relish. 840. When to Cut Timothy for Seed.—When the heads have simply turned brown, the seed is fully matured; and if it is cut then, but little of it will be lost by shelling, and the stalks and leaves will make, sometimes, tolerably good fodder, especially if it is run through a straw-cutter. The spot for seed should be selected early in June, or July, where the timothy is the best and tallest, and where the heads are longest, and if there are any noxious weeds, improve some leisure hours in pulling or cutting them all out. When we come to cut it, if a single weed has escaped notice, let it be taken out at that time. We have known several prairie farms stocked with weeds, where none grew before, from sowing what was bought for pure grass seed. 841. How much Grass can Land Produce?—It has been published that, upon the Earl of Derby’s land, a field of one hundred acres was dressed with liquid manure, by a steam-engine and pipes, and a hydrant and hose to each ten acres, and this land was mowed seven times, and gave upon one acre one hundred tuns’ weight of grass, and estimated an average of seventy-five tuns upon each acre. The meadows near Edinburgh, watered with sewer- age water, grew fourteen feet of grass a year, which, cut at several times, weighed some eighty tuns. In Ayrshire, similar treatment of forty acres of land has enabled its owner to feed one hundred cows. If the grass upon one acre should weigh one hundred tuns, perltaps it would not make over twelve tuns of dry hay. Mr. Lincoln, ot Worcester, Mass., has done some- thing like this. 842. How much Hay must we Provide ?—How much hay to provide, or how much to feed to each animal, is a matter not sufficiently understood. The following is the English rule, said to be made from careful experiment with good sound English hay. An ox requires two per cent. of his own weight in hay per day if he does not work, and two and a half per cent. if he works. If you have an ox that weighs 1,500 lbs., he will require 30 lbs. of hay per day if he does not’ work. Apply this rule to all neat stock, and give to each animal twice as many pounds as it weighs hundreds. In this latitude, the period of winter feeding is never less than one hundred and fifty days, and oftener one hundred and eighty, and it is not safe to calen- late upon less than two tuns a head of sound hay, or its equivalent, for a stock of oxen, cows, heifers, and steers. The equivalent in turnips is 5 lbs. to one of hay. So if an animal requires 20 Ibs. of hay, and it is thought best to give only half that quantity, and make up the required quantity in Szo. 47.] HAY RIGGING OF CARTS AND WAGONS. 779 turnips, 50 lbs. must be given. The equivalent of corn meal is estimated at about 8! lbs. of meal to 15 lbs. of hay; but we have no doubt that a milch cow or a working ox would do better upon 10 lbs. of hay and 5 Ibs. of meal than upon 20 Ibs. of hay. Of milch cows, however, it should be remarked that they must have more than two per cent. of hay, or its equivalent, to give a profitable yield of milk. Carrots, beets, turnips, ruta bagas, may be calculated at nearly double the value of white turnips. In England, mangel-wurzel is preferred to all other roots for feeding milch cows. 843. Pea Vine Hay.—In the Southern States, the vines of the “ cow pea” (phaseolus), are sometimes used for hay. The peas are usually planted among corn after the last working, in hills four feet apart, midway be- tween the rows. For hay, the vines should be gathered while the pods are green, and well cured under shelter before stormy weather, or the leaves will mold. A planter in Mississippi says: “I gather my pea vines about October 1st, and cure them in windrows by turning several times daily. We know of no reason why this kind of pea could not be grown for hay in most of the Northern States. There is a sort called the Oregon pea, that originated in the State which gives it the name, which could be grown on this side of the continent, as far north asit growsatthe ‘ Far West.” 844. Hay Rigging of Carts and Wagons.—A properly constructed hay wagon is one of the important haying implements that should not be, as it too often is, neglected till the last moment, when a rack is patched up “so it will do for now,” and like nearly all patched-up tools it does very poorly. Every farmer should have a well-constructed hay-rack, made to fit the wagon or cart, of light, strong materials, put together with screw-bolts, so it could be readily taken apart for storing away when not in use. With the hay-rack there should be a light, strong, folding ladder, attached so that it could always go with the wagon, without occupying any more room than a round pole three inches diameter and of only a few pounds’ weight, easily drawn out from the load, and in one minute you open out a ladder twelve or fifteen feet long, being not .only convenient, but a real labor-saving imple- ment—saving time, strength, and danger, in climbing on or off a load of hay or stack. As it would be a great annoyance to have a wagon-tire come off while hurrying home a load of hay to avoid a shower, you must guard against such a misfortune by having the wheels manufactured in such a way that tires will never get loose. See that they are made of thoroughly seasoned wood, and then, before putting on the tire, saturate the felloes with linseed oil. To do this in the best manner, a cast-iron trough will be required in which to heat the oil and keep it boiling—not burning hot. Hang the wheel on a stick through the hub, so as to turn freely, and suspend a portion of the rim in the oil, where it must remain one hour or more for each portion. Then set the tire, and it will never run away and leave the wheel, since no change of the hygrometrical condition of the atmosphere will affect wood perfectly 780 THE GRASSES—THEIR CULTIVATION AND USE. [Cuar. IX. 1| saturated with boiling oil, and, besides that, it will be much more durable. An ordinary painting of felloes is of no more value than a coat of boot- blacking would be. Itis washed and worn off in the first mud puddle. 845. Carting Hay to Market.—The following is the statement of work done by one Long Island farmer, in carting hay to the New York market. Ten years—70 loads each, carried 24 miles, and the return journey added, gives 48 miles per load of travel—equal to, Say... ......eceee seen cece ctecceereeesecees 33,600 miles. Then by simply straightening the road, which should have been done at first, the distance was lessened six miles: Ten years—70 loads each, 18 miles, and the return, making 86 miles per load of neigh. 2c) h Cilio es 2a eee Ba Sea SeapoL bo che Ocala cake tonite mec Sorat rec 25,200 miles Eleven years—60 loads each, same distances. ........2.secce ence cece ence eee e eens 23,760 miles Minka oye raat ] “T do not suppose that the same result would always be obtained, but this being from actual experiment is of some little value. Those who advocate the planting of eyes, as in No. 3, usually dry them. Mine, however, were not dried, but planted when newly cut. No. 7 would probably compare better in a dry season; the vines were altogether more vigorous, and appa- rently more healthy. I also drew some young vines, as is usually done with the sweet potatoes, and transplanted them. From these I obtained beautiful tubers of nearly equal size. This suggests the idea of forcing the potato in a hot-bed, and transplanting when all danger of frost is over, thus securing an early crop. The variety used was the Nishanock.” 858. Planting without Plowing—The following item of information, we think, must be looked upon as a valuable discovery by a tolerably large class of American farmers, who are habitually behindhand with their spring work. We can not say that we are entirely satisfied that planting without plowing is worthy of commendation or adoption by those who can and should do better. Our informant says: ‘“ The best, or next to the best, crop of potatoes he ever saw was raised by a neighbor whom he saw planting on old corn-ground, by merely pulling over the stubs of corn and dropping a potato in the hole, and then crowding the corn-hill back and stepping upon it. The land was not plowed to begin with, but after the planting treated as usual. No manure was used, and the potatoes (pinkeyes) were the largest and best he had ever seen.” Upon mellow land, where the corn had been manured in the hiils, and in cultivation hilled up, it is possible that the result might be as above sta‘ed, if the ground between the rows was afterward deeply and thoroughly plowed both ways. 859. Planting Potatoes from Setsx—A farmer who has long practiced growing potatoes from sets, gives the following directions: “ Put the seed in drills just wide enough apart to hoe between, and when the sprouts are up four or five inches, draw them and. transplant where they are to grow, three sprouts in a hill. My second crop, May 26, is now nearly ready for trans- planting. This method has many advantages over the old one, especially as the young plants are as hardy as cabbages, and can be planted with as much speed as tubers. One bushel of seed goes as far as ten in the old way. “ You can have your ground fresh plowed at the time of transplanting. and thus get a good start of the weeds, and no small potatoes ; they are of uniform Sxzo. 48.] MICHIGAN THEORY OF WINTERING POTATOES. 799 860. Planting Potatoes in Autumn.—Egbert Lanpher, of West Lowell, Lewis County, N. Y., says he has successfully tried the experiment of wintering potatoes in the hill where they are to grow. He thinks it also a great pre- ventive of the rot. He says: “I cleared a piece of new mucky land, and planted two bushels, and hilled them, so that they did not freeze during the time that the ground remained bare of snow. The next spring I planted on the same kind of land, by the side of those planted in autumn. Those planted in autumn remained green two weeks longer than those planted in the spring. Isaved the crop, and used them for seed next spring. I put them up in pits or small holes, from three to seven bushels in each, not piling them over one foot thick, so that they would not heat each other; and now I have from last year’s crop as fine potatoes as any man ever need wish to eat. My belief is that potatoes should be planted in the full of the moon, a8 early as they can be planted in the spring, and remain undug as long as possible, and those intended for seed should be mixed with dirt, through the winter; they never should be put in large piles.” All this we agree with except the moon part of the story. It is a curious fact that in the year 1860, in a country boasting of its enlightenment, men of fair intelligence and good sense in other matters should still cling to that antiquated and thoroughly exploded old notion that planting potatoes “in the old of the moon” could, by any possible chance, have any effect upon the crop. Another person says: ‘“ With a view to obtain new potatoes earlier than by the usual process of spring planting, I prepared a small patch in my garden, as follows: i * Dug trenches nine inches deep, two feet and four inches apart—strewed on the bottom long stable manure—set Early Junes, whole, eight inches apart; then another layer of long litter, fresh from the stable, and filled up * with four inches of soil. All this, November 18th. “ As soon as the surface froze hard, I spread a light layer of straw. The sprouts appeared above ground on the 4th of May. Dug between rows, and planted Early York cabbages. On the 26th of July dug potatoes, leaving cabbage almost headed. The yield was good, but as an early crop the aitempt was a failure. Potatoes of the same kind planted on the 8d of April came up and matured ten days earlier.” 861. The Reberts, or Michigan, Theory of Wintering Potatoes —A few years ago, a new theory about potato seed was promulgated by a Mr. Roberts, of Michigan, which attracted much attention, and as it is a very reasonable one we put it upon permanent record. It is simply to let the seed remain as the tubers grow in the ground, by which they seem to ac- quire vigor and hardihood to resist any killing effects from bugs or any other blighting cause. His plan is certainly worth a trial, as the quality of the potato is un- doubtedly improved by the process. The following is Mr. Roberts’ plan in detail : f “Select one fourth acre of arable land, on which water will not stand, on 800 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. an eastern slope (new land is the best for this use), prepare it early in the spring, furrow four or five inches deep and two feet apart. Select seed roots that are about the size of a hen’s egg, that have touched the ground during the previous winter. Do not cut them; drop one every six or eight inches apart in the furrows; cover them by filling the furrows, and then put a top dressing of two inches of straw or forest leaves on each row. When the tops are two inches high, pass between the rows with a shovel- plow ; follow with a hoe, destroying the weeds and leveling the ground ; do not hill. Do nothing more until the ground begins to freeze; ‘then cover with half-rotten straw, chaff, or forest leaves, three or four inches deep. Your potatoes will now have a chance to ripen and rest during the winter. “The spring following, dig your potatoes, and plant a field crop for culin- ary use in drills four or five inches deep and three feet apart; drop a potato every eight or ten inches, cover by filling the furrows; cultivate or hoe twice, and plant another seed patch as above directed. In this way youw will get the greatest yield and best quality. Continue a similar practice from year to year, and judging from my own experience, I believe-you will find your potatoes yearly increasing in yield and quality. “he third year you may increase your field crop by plowing in fine manure. You have now had nature’s course pointed out to you; her laws are truths ; and I humbly believe I have given them a just exposition. All who follow my directions will, the second year, see many seed-balls on the vines. Seed of every variety should be fully matured, @. ¢., not harvested until fully ripe. That which approaches the nearest to perfection should be selected for seed, and all roots for seed purposes should remain in the ground where they grow until they, bear seed; this course will make the seed mature earlier, and make it the most perfect of its kind.” 862. Storing Potatoes in Winter.—There is no better way than covering potatoes in piles to preserve them through winter, care being taken not to cover them too warm, nor so shallow as to endanger freezing and thawing. They will bear freezing once slightly without injury, if thawed in the earth. Put about twenty bushels in a pile, on a smooth spot where no water can reach the bottom of the pile, and cover six or eight inches deep with straw and a little earth, making it a foot thick and compact, before the ground is frozen, and outside of that put a coat of litter, and hold it on with a few shovelfuls of earth, or some brush, or poles, or boards. If much warm weather occurs after the heap is covered, it must be ventilated. This may be done with a wisp of straw extending through the earth covering. When potatoes are stored in a cellar, we recommend them to be put in as large bodies as possible, in the darkest part of the cellar. Potatoes never should be exposed to the light; and they never should be heated in the sun. They should be stored cool, as fast as unearthed, in cellar or piles, where they are to be kept through the winter, and at once covered from the drying winds and light. It is not important that potatoes should be stored dry. Taken from the field in a rainy day, in a muddy condition, they have ae 801 ‘ Szo. 48.} COST AND MODE OF GROWING TWO CROPS OF POTATOES. kept well. One man dried his potatoes in the sun, and stored them warm. In a few days the pile was steaming and the center ina state of decay. His remedy was to spread them out upon the cellar bottom to cool, and sprinkle gypsum, two bushels to a hundred bushels of potatoes, which gave them the condition they would have had if stored ona damp day. Potatoes would keep better if buried with earth, filling all the interstices between the tubers, keeping them cool and dark. That is the great secret in storing potatoes. 863. To Keep Potatoes from Sprouting.—‘To keep old potatoes from growing, use boiling water, in a tub, with as many potatoes as the water will entirely cover; then pour off the water, and lay up the potatoes on boards, in a dry place, only one layer deep.” In Scotland, “ diluted ammoniacal water, in the proportion of an ounce of the liquor of ammonia to a pint of river or rain water, has of late years been successfully employed for checking the vegetative power of potatoes and prolonging their suitableness for food. Potatoes immersed four or five days in this liquid retain all their edible properties unimpaired fora twelve- | | month, improved in flavor and mealiness. The effect of the liquid is to con- solidate their substance and extract their moisture. After immersion the potatoes should he spread so as to dry.” _ 864. Cost and Mode of Growing Two Crops of Potatoes.—The following statements show the cost of growing crops of potatoes on Long Island. John McKunn, of Gravesend, says: ‘‘ My ground was plowed deep, mellow, and furrowed two and a half feet apart. I then sprinkled three hundred pounds sifted Peruvian guano in the bottom of the furrow, and on top of the guano four loads of stable manure, and then, after cutting thirteen bushels of potatoes to two eyes, dropped them fourteen inches apart on the manure, and covered three inches deep. As soon as they were well up, I plowed and hoed them, and twice afterward, and then fastened a wooden mold-board six inches wide upon the top of the iron one, extending ten inches back of the plow, so that the dirt was thrown quite up to the vines, covering all weeds. This comprises the whole labor of cultivation: Cost of plowing, per acre................ $2 00; Four loads stable manure, at $1 per load. 4 00 Cost of planting, peracreoacs. clo. e lake 3 00) Digging 245 bush. potittoes, at 6c. per bush.14 70 Cultivating the same................0% 3 00 — Cost of 13 bushels seed, at 50c. per bushel. 6 50 PPOGAIY Mtn yhisae rca tee ore $41 45 Cost of 800 Ibs. of guano, at 2%c. per Ib.. 8 25 —245 bushels potatoes sold for 50 cents per bushel, $122 50. “The variety was Red Cups, a fine potato, cake white and dry. Potato- ground I sow with wheat, and seed it down with Ee) using a small ad- dition of manure, with a fair prospect of a good crop.” John G. Bergen, also of Long Island, under date of August, 1860, gives the following statement of result of planting seven acres of potatoes—ex- penses—mode of cultivation—crop—marketing and proceeds, gross and net. Location, Eighth Ward, Brooklyn. Soil, sandy, sandy loam, loam, clay loam, clay and gravel with-all shades of admixture: Land all runaeed be- fore plowing with a broadcast application of either New York city street _ a J ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. manure or seaweed. Variety planted, Dikeman, except three quarters of an acre Mercers. The plowing and planting all done between the 9th and 26th of March; the planting between the 15th and 26th of March, inclu- sive. Depth of plowing, eight inches, except one quarter of an acre sub- soiled to the depth of sixteen inches. The crop dug and sold between the 2d of July and the 1st of August, 1860. Vines exceedingly green and potatoes about half grown when. digging commenced, and, with the excep- tion of about a half acre of the last dug, the vines continued green. Crop 1,590 bushels prime potatoes, 85 bushels culls, and 26 bushels small, hog potatoes ; total 1,701 bushels. The crop would probably have been increased 25 or 33 per cent. if all the potatoes had fully matured before harvesting. The yield was 243 bushels to the acre. Amount sold, $1,190, or $170 per acre. The ground since all planted with second crops. The potatoes before planting were all cut from two to six pieces, depending upon size, and were planted in drills—the drills were three feet apart, and from three to four inches deep—the sets were placed about fifteen inches apart. Well-rotted horse and hog manure was placed in the drills and the seed placed on the manure. The potatoes and manure were covered with a small one-horse plow running it on both sides of the drill, throwing up the ground in the form of a ridge over the drill. When the sprouts were within two inches of the surface, the ground was dragged nearly level with a light wooden-tooth harrow. As soon as up, the potatoes received a light dressing with the hoe without hilling, having previously been plowed from the hill with a small iron mold-board plow, run twice through the row. When about six or eight inches high the plowing was repeated, reversing by throwing to the hill. This was followed by another light hoeing, without attempting to raise up the ground to the vines, the plowing, however, having the effect to hill up to some degree. A few days later, before the vines closed up the rows entirely, a small cultivator was drawn once through every row. This process left the land almost entirely free of weeds, at the time of digging, which was all done with the potato-fork. All of the ground was cropped the previous year—most of it being sod or grass land. -The potatoes when dug were at once picked up in baskets and sent to Washington Market. Some abatement may be made in the number of bushels, as the cultivation is based on three bushels to the barrel, which is above the true measure. EXPENSE PER ACRE. 17 loads manure to the acre—broadcast— Plowing between drills ; harrowing ridges Ube LCL OA Sete oe Of cides icles «wis Saisie $17 00 | down with wooden-tooth harrow...... $3 50 Cost of cartage and spreading manure... 6 00 | Digging, at 4} cents per bushel......... 10 93 12 loads horse and hog manure to the Carting to Washington Market a fer- GERM. EN ee LO sts See. a ance othe Sere 27 00 riage and loadings... 2.2050 26 ¥en thee eee 10 00 Team and men to apply the manure..... 4 00 | Commission for selling $170, 10 per cent. 17 00 12 bushels seed and preparing it for plant- — DEPRESS Asn RR. TER Sis lciatinre s dyals oro ures 10:00 | ‘Total expense.........0550050.2- $114 93 Plowing, harrowing, and marking out Amount sold per acre. .....$170 00 PCOUME ene emis Sate chee eiete < iitenete 4,00 Direct: expenses. .......... 114 93 Two hoeings—4 days for one man,at75c. 3 00 ——— Dropping potatoes and covering with horse Apparent profit.......... $55 07 PATON Wate chelate: eyo lac Wrote Aree) olsiaiarelets olan 2 50 f Src. 48.] EXPERIMENT IN PLANTING POTATOES VARIOUS DEPTHS. 803 The potatoes were dug by contract per bushel; they might have been | gathered much cheaper by ordinary farm-laborers employed by the month | and boarded by the proprietor. No allowance is made for interest of value of land, and of the other capital employed in producing the crop, and the wear and tear of imple- ments, baskets, etc. The land, after a potato crop is taken off, is left in better condition than | before—the second crops receiving no additional manure, except sometimes a light application of guano. 865. Experiment in Planting Potatoes Various Depths.— Variety, Mercer ; planted May 12,1859. Dug September ith. Vines dead since the middle of August. Planted one moderate-sized potato to each hill, and manured alike in hills. Yield reported by John G. Bergen, of Brooklyn: as follows : Ibs. Ibs. lbs. lbs, Average. 2 hills, 2 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... a) 7 7 Wi: Ci-sio 3 hills, 3 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... Ik? ag AIG 2 hills, 4 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... 13 2 . 1.875 3 hills, 5 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... ese eratl Saphe Wipeina | secien ay 3 4 hills, 6 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... 2 1k 14 18 1.625 4 hills, 7 inches deep—each hill weighed separately........- 1@ 1 1g 1 «(1.4876 3 hills, 8 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......... 14 1 $1. 3 hills, 9 inches deep—each hill weighed separately........ 14, 14 # 1.166 38 hills, 10 inches deep—each hill weighed separately... 13 1 4 1.25 3 hills, 11 inches deep—each hill weighed separately......-. bead OE ea Pea les, 8 hills, 12 inches deep—each hill weighed separately........ be % 4% 1: 1.083 4 hil's, eye-end cut, one piece, 5 inches deep, 5} Ibs. ...........+-.++++--+-00-- 1.375 4 hills. middle cut, one piece, 5 inches deep, 5 Tbs. seg idiots yodanegeeeedodanes = 1.25 4 hills, stem cut, one piece, 5 inches deep, 44 lbs..........--.e2-e eee cece ee eee 1.062 2 hills, one potato each, with plaster, 5 inches deep, 33 Ibs............--.-..05- 1.875 2 hills, one potato, plaster and ashes, 3} inches deep, 34 MOSt deed. sere aie aa 1.625 2 hills, one potato, ashes, 5 inches deep, 3} Ibs...........-- 20+. e eee cece eee eee 1.625 “Tt will be observed that the best results followed the 4-inch plantings: and next in order, 6-inch, 7-inch, 8-inch, and 2-inch; while 5-inch, which is between these camnbers (and which I think is the Fa depth for our soil), produced less than any, until we reach the 8-inch plantings. The results are not uniform ; for instance, one hill, 12 inches deep, produced 13 lbs., which is larger Sa the average of any except the 4-inch planting; and so with other individual cases. The experiment is not conclusive, not being made on a sufficiently large scale, though carefully made. The yield was light in every case, but this was from other causes, and does not affect the general result. In all experiments of this kind, the size and quality or condition of the seed should be as near alike as possible. I deduce from these experi- ments, and from observation, the following, as bearing on this question : “ First, Time.—The depth of planting potatoes should be varied accord- ing to the time of planting, and possibly according to the character of soils. | Early planting, except to protect from freezing, requires the least depth. “ Second, Variety.—Those that mature early require the least depth. The | habits of varieties differ, and the treatment should vary accordingly. | “ Third, Season.—Much depends upon the season, whether wet or dry, or medium. This can not be known beforehand, and hence a medium depth | 804 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. , should generally be adopted. This, for early varieties planted early, and- which generally mature on Long Island soils before the crop is severely affected by drouths, should not be over three or four inches, and for later yarieties from five to six inches.” 866. The Potato Disease that Causes Rot.—We will not inflict the reader with a homily upon this over-written subject. Neither cause nor cure of the disease has yet been discovered. The signs of the disease usually are: A wilted leaf on the young rosettes of the “plant, which are the tenderest parts; steel-blue points on some of the older and outer leaves, and yellow iron-rust stains on the inner leaves; mildew, which quickly follows these signs, and which, if not arrested, kills the whole plant. These signs are pro- duced by cold and wet weather and hot, muggy atmosphere. In cool weather, the flowers fall without setting fruit; in hot and damp weather seed-balls set freely, but, with the whole plant, fall a prey to mildew. The only remedy is to cultivate as well as we know how, choosing new and hardy sorts of potatoes, plant early, and trust to chance for the rest. The mowing of tops has been tried over and over again, sometimes with success and sometimes the reverse ; and so have other remedies, each of which has in turn been proclaimed a specific. A prize essay in the Royal Society’s Jour- nal for 1858 gives us to understand that deep planting is the true and only remedy ; and yet we have planted deep—and so have thousands of others— and lost the crop. It is said that very wet, cold seasons, such as 1857, or hot, damp ones, like 1850, 1851, and 1855, cause rot; so do sudden alternations of tempera- ture—for instance, from dry, hot weather to wet, cold, and windy; and these changes destroy the cucumber, squash, melon, tomato, and egg-plant as well as the potato. The years 1847, 1848, 1854, 1858, and especially 1852, were favorable ones. If we plant in drained lands, or upon ridges where the water will not stand, the crop will rot less than in wet ground. The theory is that warm rains and a scalding sun produce the rot more than any other one cause. This theory is equally untenable with the thousand-and-one others. There is no cure for the disease—there are preventives. The one most easy of trial is early planting, dry soil, no stable manure, but other fertilizers, such as well-rotted swamp muck, or compost, lime, salt, plaster, phosphate, guano, potash, or wood ashes. It does not answer to allow vines to be so late that early frosts find them still green. Unfermented manure produces late growth of vines, and this as w ell as wet ground and late planting, leaves the vines green and liable to the influence that kills the tops and rots the roots. As preventives, use seed of hardy varieties, planted early on dry ground, hilling-up to shed rain, and sow plaster, lime, and sulphur on the tops. Lime on carbonaceous soil has the effect to make the vines less succulent and more hardy, and that may account for its prevention of rot on such soil. After all the discussion, we know nothing about the potato disease; but if we plant early we are more likely, or at least so far have been, to get good So. 48.] THE POTATO DISEASE THAT CAUSES ROT. 805 crops. Yet this may fail. Another point of a practical nature is this: that if we prepare our ground well, and feed it such ingredients as the crop needs, we are more sure to get a good crop than by the opposite course. The theory that the disease of potatoes is caused by insects has been advo- cated as a fixed fact. One writer says: “A little black bug, not much larger than the head of a pin, leaves an almost undiscoverable substance on the potato leaves, which turns black and kills the vines, and the rot of the tubers. follows.” He thinks some bug deposits a poisonous substance upon other vegetables, injuring them very much for food. Another one says: “The potato rot is unquestionably caused by an in- sect, resembling both the musketo and the common house-fly, which depos- its its larvee in the stock near the ground, and which does not make its ap- pearance before August and September. It passes over some entire fields in the same neighborhood, some hills in the same lot, and some stalks in the same hill. The weather has no effect except to quicken the activity of the insect or to hasten decomposition after it has commenced.” “ Unquestionably caused!” Isit? Let us see. Dr. Asa Fitch is good entomological authority. Now hear how he upsets this unquestionable cause. He says: “The cause of the rot is supposed to be an insect, and numerous experi- ments are given to confirm this view ; the insect itself is described at length. Its name, with the spelling corrected, is the Phytocoris lineolaris of Beau- yvois, and is supposed to be identical with the insect described by Say as the Capsus oblineatus. Now if the theory that the potato rot is caused by this insect is correct, there are these difficulties, which must occur to any one acquainted with entomology : “1. The insect referred to has always been known in this country, and was probably quite as numerous fifty years ago as it ever has been since. From the earliest times the farmers have found it infesting their potato fields, and have consequently given it the common name cf ‘the potato bug.’ Why did it never cause the rot until so recently ? “9. The insect referred to has never infested Great Britain—the only ex- amples of it seen there, so far as we can ascertain, having been carried thither as curiosities in collections gathered in this country. Why did the potato rot appear there? Could the devastations of the insect in the crops of America have caused the rot that carried off all the potatoes in Ireland one or two years before?” The disease that causes the potato rot is not a new one. A friend sends us the following “ extract from a German paper,” which says that “ potatoes were first introduced into Europe in 1583; fifty-nine years afterward the rot commenced ; eighty years after its introduction no good seed was to be had. In 1696 neweseed was imported from Peru; forty-five years after this the rot again commenced, and in 1779 no good seed was to be had. In 1797 new seed was again imported, and it did not get into general use until 1802 806 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cmar. X. or 1803.”° If this is a fact, it should be fully proved, and that would prove the necessity of frequently renewing the seed from the original locality. 867. Substitutes for Potatoes —Must we give up the cultivation of the potato? And if so, what will be the substitute? This is a question worthy of consideration ; for although we do not believe that we shall give up their cultivation, we may discover something else worth trying—something which may prove valuable as a farm crop. Already we have had the Chinese yam introduced and grown to some extent, and talked about being grown to a very large extent. Several varieties of lotus have also been proposed as food plants. 868. The American Lotus as a Substitute for the Potato.—The Apio or Ovate Aracacha having been named as worthy of attention as a food plant, a cor- respondent of the //omestead names “the Velumbium lutenum, or great nut-bearing lily, which, in his estimation, surpasses all other aquatic plants of the United States in beauty and utility. It grows abundantly in the shal- low and stagnant waters of our Southern and Western States, and has been found flourishing as far north as the bays and inlets of Lake Erie. It is properly the lotus of North America, yielding a collection of tubers, much like the sweet potato, at its roots under the water, and also a liberal supply of nuts at the top of its stem. The nuts are all ripe at the same time, are about the size and color of medium white-oak acorns, so that they might easily be mistaken for them. The nuts are used as food like the chestnut, and are a valuable substitute for coffee. The writer has gathered twenty- one perfect nuts from a single stem. By the extensive culture of this noble plant many of our pestilential pools and marshes, instead of exhaling poi- sonous malaria, will at once become fountains of life-giving fertility.” 869. The Dioscorea Batatas or Chinese Yam asa Substitute for Potatoes,— The degree of success in the cultivation of this root as a substitute for pota- toes has been very widely different, some condemning it as a worse humbug than “ Rohan potatoes,” while others have lauded it so high that it has ere- ated doubts of their veracity and its value. In No. 564 we have treated it so fully that we need add but little under this head. , A letter from M. D. Darnall, Bainbridge, Ind., January, 1858, says: “ In the spring of 1856, I obtained five small tubers or seed bulbs. These were carefully cultivated, and in autumn I had five hundred tubers and eight large roots. I planted next spring eight hundred hills, and raised sufficient tubers and large roots for planting one hundred thonsand hills. Ihave two bushels of tubers, which are not much larger than full-grown marrowfat peas; and over one thousand large roots that may be divided into from fifty to one hundred pieces each, capable of germinating. The tubers are raised by cut- ting the vines and planting the leaves in July and August. My roots vary in length from fifteen to thirty inches, and from one half to two inches in diameter. I have had them cooked in several ways, and find them to possess all the qualities that have ever been claimed for them.” 870. Sweet Potatoes—Where they can be Growa.—We can well remem- ee =— a aa ber when this plant, the Convolvulus batatas, was considered as much a Southern production as cotton is now, and when the commercial designation was “Carolina potatoes.” It would then have been considered foolish to attempt to grow sweet potatoes north of latitude 40°; now it is quite com- mon, though not generally as a field crop. They are raised very extensively along the eastern shore of the Delaware, on the light sandy soil that extends thirty miles southward from Camden. The principal markets are Philadel- phia, New York, Boston, Wilmington, Delaware, and Baltimore. The varie- ties enltivated are Nansemonds, Early Yorks, and Bermudas. The first- named grows large, long, and rougher than the second, yields abundanily, but does not suit the Philadelphia and Wilmington markets as well as the Early Yorks, which are marketable earlier, and grow more smoothly and compactly, and are the most generally cultivated. The third, a new variety, received from Bermuda, of a light red color, coarse and rough, is inferior to the first two for the table, but attains a marketable size earlier than they do, and produces a much larger yield. The isothermal position of this valuable plant has been gradually advancing, until it is now difficult to say where its northern line is or will be. O.S. Murray, of Warren County, Ohio, who is an extensive propagator of sweet potato plants, says: “Sweet potatoes can be grown successfully in much higher latitudes than has heretofore been generally supposed. They have already been produced, well matured, in Western, Central, and Eastern New York ; in Connecticut, in New Hampshire, in Addison County, Ver- mont, nearly as far north as the center of that State. In Iowa they are raised to considerable extent, and something has been done with them in Wiscon- sin. Ihave been a successful cultivator of sweet potatoes a dozen years in Southern Ohio.” Messrs. Eastman & Snell, of Maineville, Warren County, Ohio, say that a crop will grow and yield well in any ordinary dry soil, provided it is well pulverized with plow and harrow; and whether the ground is old or new, a light coat of well-rotted manure is preferable. If the soil be very strong, the vines will be large, but the yield of tubers indifferent. Warren County is situated upon the high lands of Ohio, back of Cincin- nati, between latitude thirty-nine and forty degrees, where the soil is no more favorable for growing this excellent food than it is in a great many other places in the same range of latitude in which sweet potatoes can be grown with profit to the cultivator, and as they can with pretty fair success up to forty-one degrees, the latitude of New York, and with varying suc- cess one or two degrees above that. The best variety for the North is called the Nansemond, from the name of the county in Virginia whence it was taken to New Jersey. Joseph Evans brought it into Warren County, Ohio, many years ago, where it has been successfully cultivated ever since. One peculiarity of this variety is, it is mature and good for use at every stage of its-growth. Another pecu- liarity is its adaptation to a great variety of soils—even loamy clays, quite = 808 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. heavy with clay, if lying elevated. Almost any soil that will produce corn well will produce this—except low, alluvial grounds, where there is too much vegetable mold, that causes excessive running to vines. 871. Making Seed Bed and Growing Plants—Mr. Murray says: “ We have never used glass for these plants, preferring to give them as much air as possible, making them the more hardy. Put the seed in the-bed about the middle of April; transplant after they have been above ground two or three weeks, or any time before they commence running. Place the potatoes in the bed so that they will scarcely touch each other—a bushel, on from twenty-five to thirty square feet, from the Ist to the 25th of April. Plants can be packed so as to keep perfectly good for fifteen to twenty days while transporied from the seed beds to other parts of the country. “The best method of sprouting sweet potatoes is in the ordinary manner of a manure hot-bed. This bed is made by building up the sides with plank and filling in to the depth of fourteen inches with fresh hard stable manure. The manure should be packed as hard as possible, then cover over to the depth of two inches with light soil, then, after laying on the potatoes, cover them to the depth of four inches, with light sandy soil or loam. By cover- ing the potatoes deep, the stems are longer and much more hardy and thrifty. “Cover the bed with coarse hay, two or three feet deep, to prevent the heat from escaping, and the rain from wetting it. Take off the hay in the heat of the day, from nine to three o’clock, if it is warm weather. When the * bed begins to heat it must be examined by running the hand into it—a moderate warmth is all that is necessary—more than that will be injurious, and must be counteracted by leaving off the cover at night, or by applying cold water. When the plants appear, and afterward, they must be watered daily, unless the bed should be too cold to allow it. Warm water from a pond or ditch is best. “As often as one growth of plants is pulled, another takes its place. Care must be taken, when pulling the plants, to hold the potato firmly in the bed by pressing on it with the left hand.” 872. Setting the Plants.—Put the plants in the ground from the middle of May to the middle of June. In some seasons you may commence earlier than this; in some you may continue later. Generally, the best time is from the 10th or 15th of May to about the same time in June. In.setting the plants, care should be taken to have them set well in the ridge, fully as deep as they originally stood in the hot-bed, and the soil should be well compressed about the roots. Sprouts should be set from twelve to fifteen inches apart in the ridge, and when in hills two or three to the hill. In setting out plants, a boy drops one on each hill, taking two rows at once; a man follows, and taking the plant in his left hand, runs three fingers of his right hand through the top of the hill into the manure; as he with- draws them he quickly thrusts in the root of the plant to the bottom of the Seo. 45. GROWING SWEET POTATOES. 809 hole, and then, with the thumb and finger of each hand, firmly presses the earth around the plant. Plants are best set out when the ground is not too wet and cold—much better before a rain than after. Some use a common mason’s trowel in setting, thrusting in the trowel somewhat obliquely, and as the trowel rises, the plant in the other hand takes its place. Light sandy soil, free from undecomposed vegetable matter, is generally selected for the crop. Plow as for oats, harrow thoroughly, mark it out thirty-three inches each way for the hills. Use animal, rather than vegetable manure—that is, manure from the stable, rather than the straw stack. The manure for sweet potatoes must be well rotted by composing it, or otherwise. Marl mixed with it is an advantage. From eight to thirteen two-horse loads, according to quality and abundance, are used per acre, a one-horse ecart-load will make from two hundred and fifty to four hun- dred hills, which should be made, or the manure covered as soon as it is putin. From four to six good hoefuls of earth are sufficient to make a hill. 873. Plowing and Tillage for Sweet Potatoes——Plow when the land is in good condition, no matter if a week or two before time for planting. At planting time pulverize well, if necessary with harrowing and rolling (or, what is better, drag-crushing), and throw the surface into high ridges by turning together two furrows with a two-horse plow, making the ridges about three and a half feet apart from center to center. It is not necessary for the ridges to be wide, but they must be of good hight, as the potatoes will only grow in length as they are accommodated with loose earth ; so if the ridges are flat, the potatoes will grow short in clumps. Those wishing to raise but a small quantity will probably find it more convenient to make their ground into hills with the hoe, about five feet apart. Commence tilling with an adjustable cultivator, that can be adapted to the breadth between the ridges, and throw back the earth with a wide shovel-plow, re-forming the ridges, finishing with the hoe. In using the hoe, particularly after the vines commence running, be careful not to strike into the ground deeply near the stem, lest you cut off the best of the project- ing tubers. Mr. Murray says: “ All land is the better for subsoiling. We subsoiled twenty-five acres for this crop last year, and are sure it paid. New grounds produce this crop well, where there is not too much vegetable deposit—not turf. Turf should be subsoiled first with another crop—corn or wheat is favorable. The cultivation necessary is to keep the ground clear of weeds, and should the soil become hard, to loosen the tops of the hills or ridges with hoe or rake.” In New Jersey, the crop is tended with small cultivators and hand-hoes. One hand is allowed to’attend 40,000 plants, or about eight acres. Perhaps no other plant cultivated for producing food possesses such eng of life—such a fund of vitality to resist and overcome unfavorable 810 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Caap. X. circumstances in transplanting as the sweet pototo. The plants can be sent in good growing condition a long distance. 874. Harvesting and Storing.—In harvesting, some use the plow—first cut- ting the vines near the stem. After the plowing, four-fingered hooks are used for hauling out. When the ground is light, it is about as well without plowing to throw out with flat-fingered spading-forks, or even common manure-forks. On asmall scale, get them out anyhow, as you do beets or carrots. In Delaware and Virginia the crop is generally dug with large hoes made expressly for that use. When stored for spring, they are carefully placed in baskets, in the field, and then emptied into boxes or barrels, and sometimes covered with dry sand, or leaves, or cut straw, but often without anything to keep the air from them but the lid of the box, which, if tight, is mostly sufficient ; but they must be kept in a dry, warm room. If the crop brings $50 per acre it is sufficient to pay expenses. All over that is profit ; and two hundred and fifty bushels per acre is a large yield. At the North they are kept through the winter in cellars, prepared ex- pressly for the purpose and kept warm. On asmall scale, with experience and plenty of manure, the crop should be, in a good season, from 150 to 200 bushels an acre, as far North as it will grow. Sweet potatoes should always be dug before the heavy frosts in autumn, as a frost which would be severe enough to kill the vines would injure the potatoes very much for table use. In South Carolina we have seen them kept in a very rude way; .simply by laying down cornstalks on the ground, and then covering with stalks, and perhaps a little earth. Frequently large piles are made, and over them rails set up in form of a roof and covered with straw. Sometimes pits are dug and a tight roof made, and the potatoes stored in pine straw. The greatest difficulty in growing sweet potatoes at the North.is in keeping them over winter. They will only keep in an atmosphere that is of even and mild temperature, and entirely dry. 875. The Jerusalem Artichoke.—The culture of the Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) was introduced into England in 1617, but it is seldom cultivated, except in. gardens. It will grow in any soil that is not too wet and cold, yielding a large amount of nutritive matter with little labor. It ean not be grown in any series of rotation ; for if the ground is once stocked with roots, it is almost impossible to clear them out, and they will come up like weeds, even if the land is seeded down to meadow or pasture. In Ohio, many good farmers bear evidence to its value for feeding stock. The usual method of cultivation is to plant the tubers in rows, three and a half or four feet apart, and eighteen inches to two feet in the row, and cultivate between the rows, as you do corn. The tops soon cover the ground and kill out the weeds, and no further culture is given. In the fall, after the tops have died, the roots are either dug up or the hogs are turned into the field. Commonly a portion are taken up, and the hogs are allowed to follow and dig up the = Szo. 48.] THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE, 811 remainder. Enough are always left to seed the field for the next season. In this way the same piece of land will bear a succession of crops of this plant without further seeding. The hogs dig or plow the soil very deeply in an- tumn, which destroys any grubs that may be injurious, and fits the land for the next crop. Cattle, as well as hogs, relish the roots. In France they are usually fed to sheep, with excellent results. In the Journal d Agriculture Pratique for April, 1858, M. Doniol gives the results of his cultivation of this plant on inferior soil for fifteen years. He fed off the stems and leaves with sheep in October and November, and then dug the tubers, feeding the sheep with them, either on the ground orin the pens. He bought the sheep in Octo- ber, and calculated the value of the crop from the inerease in money value of the stock. Half a hectare (one and a quarter acres) was sufficient to keep eighty sheep from that time until the following April, and the increase in value of the sheep was eight francs per head, or 640 francs ($111 04), the value of the acre and a quarter of artichokes on poor land. From this must be deducted, however, the cost of culture of the crop and care of the sheep, but both are necessary under all circumstances. It seems that the sheep obtained no other kind of food; and it is good evidence of the nutri- tive qualities of this root that they were able to increase in value upon it. Had M. Doniol given the weight of the sheep when newly bought, and the time of sale in April, his article would have been of more value. This plant has about the same amount of water in its organic composition as the potato (76.3) ; but instead of the large amount of starch which is in the latter, there is almost an equal quantity of sugar (14.80) in this, and the nitrogen compounds are nearly the same in quantity (2.38); but these amounts vary in tubers raised on different soils and the amount of ecultiva- tion they have received. Enough, however, is known to show that these roots are worthy of attention, not for feeding exclusively to stock, but along with dry feed during the winter. Thus used, they will prove highly advan- tageous. They should be grown on land which they can oceupy for a suc- cession of years, that from some cause is not well adapted to the culture of the more regular crops. If occasionally dressed with a good coating of ma- nure, they will soon repay the expense. Ten, and even fourteen, tuns (tops and roots, we suppose) per acre have been obtained in France, but in this country a much larger yield has often been secured, so that a greater num- ber of sheep could be fed on an acre in Ohio than in France, and the profit would consequently be much greater. This root should take a position among the crops raised in this country for green feed in winter and early spring, when stock need it most to keep them in good health. In Mississippi we found this root upon many tables of good planters? houses, dressed in the same way that mashed turnips are, and it is by no means a despisable dish. After a little use it is generally well relished. 876. Turnips—Importance of the Crop—Cultivation and Use [see No, 521].— | It sounds strangely to an English farmer to hear Americans underrate the | 812 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. importance of the turnip crop—a crop that he locks upon as the main stay of agriculture as much as Indian corn is here. Turnips are not so important here as there, but would be considered much more so than they are now if more grown. Some of the Orange County milk dairymen have raised tur- nips to a limited extent; but many think they can not raise them at such cost as will warrant feeding them in preference to grain or other dry feed. And some are of opinion that turnips cause a large flow of milk, but it is thin and watery, and will generally have a peculiar taste that renders it less salable. This may be in some measure true, but if milch cows can not be fed upon them, other stock can, and cheaper than upon almost any other food of equal value. é In the year 1860 we grew a fine crop of red-strap turnips, sown broad- east, after other crops, and wintered two cows almost exclusively upon them, feeding hay but lightly, and but little meal. The bulky food was cut corn- stalks. These cows gave a good mess of milk, and after the first two weeks the turnips did not injure the flavor materially. In the spring one of these cows was dried off and fed meal two or three weeks, and sold to the butcher, and was really good beef. This proved that turnips have some fattening qualities. : The best use, however, for turnips is to feed sheep. In England they are fed on the field by hurdling sheep, on small portions at a time, and as long ago as when Stephens wrote his “ Book of the Farm,” were considered worth $25 an acre for this purpose. The sheep eat off the tops and crown of the root, and then a man goes over with a turnip picker and pulls out the bottoms so they can eat the whole without waste, and at the same time enrich the soil. Turnips are most commonly sown in drills in England, and in this country broadcast. There, the bulk of the crop is fed as indicated above, and the feeding continues all winter; but in all the Northern States the winters are too cold for this; and where they are sufficiently mild, the summers are so hot that turnips are not a good crop. They are so in all the States north of Virginia, notwithstanding the trouble of storing them for winter. The best manure for turnips is bone-dust, or superphosphate of lime, or guano. With manure on well-prepared land, from three hundred to one thousand bushels per acre is a common crop. The best soil is on newly- cleared forest or reversed sod, not too clayey; but they will grow well on pretty stiff clay if finely pulverized. Turnips of great size are sometimes grown, weighing eight or ten pounds, and measuring two and a half or three feet around; but those of smaller size are esteemed the best—say one to four pounds. In sowing turnips, great care should be used not to get the seed too thick. This is the greatest fault of ninety-nine out of every hundred persons em- ployed to sow turnip seed. The common rule is a pound to the acre. That rule comes from England, where the seed is drilled, and if all of it grows, about nine tenths of the plants are thinned out. So. 48.] CULTIVATION OF TURNIPS. _ The time for sowing in all the Northern States is pretty well indicated by the old distich : ‘On the twenty-fifth of July Sow your turnips, wet or dry.”’ Turnips sown broadcast too thick to grow may be thinned with the har- row, after they are up enough to show, without injury to those that remain untouched by the harrow teeth. Indeed, it is a pretty good way to put them in rows as though planted with a drill. It also kills a great many weeds, and loosens the crust that forms over some land, so that the plants left take a rapid start and grow much better than they otherwise would. It is not a bad plan to treat corn in the same way ; and we certainly have seen winter wheat highly benefited by a thorough harrowing in the spring. The greatest trouble that farmers experience in turnip-growing in this country is from a small insect called the turnip-fly. We believe the best remedy is to prepare the ground in the best possible manner, and use some- thing that will give the plants an early, rapid start. Poudrette is good for this purpose. So is guano, by which we mean pure No. 1 Peruvian guano. We have found a liberal use of salt highly beneficial ; say five bushels per acre. We think it one of the best remedies for preventing the ravages of the turnip-fly; and we have never seen a sign of the disease known as “ fingers and toes,” where we have used salt liberally ; and we are satisfied that the bulbs grow not only heavier and healthier, but that they are more nutritious. The disease known as “ fingers and toes” probably affects ruta bagas more than round turnips, though it sometimes spoils the latter. This disease is said to have originated in Scotland forty years ago. The bulbs become de- formed and grow into excrescences, rendering the crop worthless. Some- times they run to fibrous roots, and sometimes they are filled with insects. Sometimes the excrescences resemble warts all over the bulb, drying the center to a brown, spongy mass. The solid matter of a healthy white turnip is seventeen per cent. One of these forms of disease of the turnips resem- bles the potato rot, and has done great damage. 877. Storing Turnips for Winter Feeding.—Where a farmer has no barn cellar, it is no trifling job to store a latge crop of turnips, and that is one of the causes that prevents their cultivation to the same extent as in Eng- ‘land. They can not be left out to be eaten where they grow in the grazing and stock-feeding States, nor kept for winter feed, unless safely stored in cel- lars or pits. “The easiest way to save them is to lay them on dry ground, slightly inclining south if possible, in piles like hay windrows, about three feet through, and cover with straw, sedge, or cornstalks six inches thick, and earth eight inches, with straw ventilators every ten feet. Another good plan is to put them in round piles, each of thirty bushels; but it makes more labor, yet has the advantage that a pile can be opened and taken in before freezing in a cold day, and without exposing the remainder, as in the long piles. 814 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR OROPS. [CHar. X. All turnips s¢ sibtled for winter use should be trimmed of tops and tails. A knife that will weigh half a pound, and is eight inches long in the blade, is the tool to trim with. Held all the time in the right hand, the operator seizes a turnip with the left by the top, and cuts off the tap-root with one blow, and at the same time tosses the turnip and catches it with the top toward the knife, with which he cuts off the top by another blow, and at the same time tosses the turnip into the cart, basket, or pile. One smart work- man at topping will do more than three poking ones who always pick up a turnip wrong end foremost. If you do not care to cut the tops very close, or if you can stand so as to let the turnip fall in the right place, you need not let go the first hold, but cut both tail and top, throwing the latter in a pile instead of throwing the bulb. Never pull turnips nor handle them in wet weather. 878. Ruta Baga Turnips.—All that we have said about the value of tur- nips, and preparation of ground, manure, cultivation, pulling, and storing, will apply to ruta bagas, except these should always be grown in drills, and hand-weeded and thinned. They must also be sown earlier—never later —than July 1, and generally not later than June 15. It is a good way to prepare the land for ruta bagas, after it has been plowed and cross-plowed, and mellowed, and rolled, to take a small plow and throw up ridges, say two feet six inches apart, rake the tops smooth, and plant the seed with a drill harrow. As soon as the weeds get to be half an inch high, run a one-horse subsoil plow midway between the rows, to loosen up the soil thoroughly, and then with Knox’s root-cleaner or horse- hoe, extirpate the weeds. The only hand-hoeing necessary will be in the row to thin out plants. When the crop is ready to be dug, run a large sub- soil plow close alongside the row, and the roots will be so loose that they ean be pulled up with the greatest ease and thrown into heaps, whence they are carted directly to the pit made for them on the dryest part of. the field, and there topped and buried. These turnips will grow upon a greater variety of soils than the round turnip, but the one best suited for a good crop is a rich, alluvial, sandy loam. It is advisable to set the gauge of the drill so as to scatter the seed very thick in the row, and thin them ont to stand ten or twelve inches apart, using the plants where too thick by transplanting them to fill up vacancies. In asmall way, these turnips may be sown in a seed-bed and all transplanted like cabbages. The vitality of ruta baga seed endures for several years, but it is not safe to use old seed of white turnips. The soil and kind of fertilizer used have a great deal of influence upon the quality of turnips. Some are worth double the value of others, either for the table or cattle-feed. Asa general rule, all applications of bone manure will be paid for in quality if not quantity. About 15 bushels of bones, or 600 lbs. of superphosphate, or 200 lbs of guano per acre, is a fair dressing. Szo. 48.] CARROTS AS A FIELD CROP. 815 In England, turnip-growers manure high—15 or 20 full horse cart-loads of strong stable dung, well rotted, to an imperial acre for ruta bagas, and about two thirds the quantity for white turnips. We have had turnip seed lie three weeks after sowing in a drouth, without vegetating. At such a time, if there had been moisture in the earth enough to cause the seeds to sprout, it would have been fatal to them, and we should have prepared the ground anew and sowed more seed. In all English publications the term “Swedes,” or “ Swedish turnip,” is made use of, and it is sometimes confounded with the ruta baga, because it is spoken of as a long root; but it does not appear to be identical with the variety grown in this country under the name of ruta baga. The Swedes, White Globe, Yellow Globe, White Stone, Red or Purple Top, are all good varieties of field turnips, and can be grown with less labor than ruta bagas. A bushel of turnips weighs about 42 to 45 Ibs., and it is stated that English sheep-feeders allow 18 to 23 lbs. a day to a young sheep, and 24 to 37 lbs. a day to a full-grown sheep; and that a fatting ox will eat a tun a week. 879. Carrots as a Field Crop.—We have already spoken of carrots in the garden (527), where they should always be grown, for they really are a most valuable article of food. Perhaps the reason why they are not more esteem- ed as esculents is because the kind grown in the garden is that which should only be grown in the field as food for domestic animals. Perhaps the best for table use is the “short-horn” carrot, but we esteem the long orange carrot the best for field culture, unless the crop is intended for some city market, and then we would grow the short-horn variety. There is no doubt of the fact that this carrot can be profitably grown as a field crop for market- ing, near cities and large towns. Whether it will pay to raise carrots for feeding stock, is a question often asked. “It don’t pay,” is an assertion often made. That it does we assert, without fear of contradiction, in all places where corn costs fifty cents a bushel to produce it, as it does upon many farms in the Eastern States. In Illinois, where corn is so very easily produced, and bears so low a price, it may be true that carrot growing is not profitable. Still, cheap as grain may be, as feed for stock, it will sometimes pay to feed carrots on account of the improvement in health to the animals consuming them. We consider carrots a very sure crop on suitable soil, properly pre- pared; and for stock, when taken in connection with other feed, they are invaluable. They are not only healthy, but will fatten cattle, sheep, and horses. One farmer who nas grown carrots for stock feeding for twelve years, says : “T have fatted and sold four head of cattle this winter on carrots, with one quart of meal sprinkled on them at a feed, together with cornstalks. One was a Durham cow, which was milked all the while until sold for beef, and was fat. This was an experiment, and proved satisfactory—that cows can be fatted on carrots and meal, and milked at the same time; at no time was 816 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR OROPS. [Cuar. X. the meal over two quarts per day. I also have six other cows, all of which give milk of the richest kind, and a good flow of it, that are fed on carrots once a day, and once on poor cornstalks and clover hay.” : From 700 to 800 bushels per acre is an ordinary crop, with good land and good culture, and 1,200 bushels may be raised by high cultivation. Allow- ing 250 pounds of carrots, which is conceded by practical farmers to be equal to 100 pounds of hay, and at 50 pounds to the bushel, we have at the highest above rate of yield the equivalent of 12 tuns of hay per acre, which will take seven acres of good meadow to equal. 880. Suitable Soil, and its Preparation for Carrots——The most suitable soil for carrots is a light, rich, sandy loam. Manure, if used, should be well rotted; otherwise the roots grow forked. What we call cheese manure is best—that is, manure that cuts in the heap like a soft cheese. Take a rich piece of sward, where the soil is deep, the longer seeded the better. Cover with manure; plow with a double plow; roll and drag fine the last of March or the first of April. Let it lie till the first week in May ; then gang-plow and drag fine again, to kill weeds, and sow immediately two pounds of seed per acre. If you have not a suitable piece of sward, tle next best is land that was cultivated the previous year in potatoes. Whatever the land used may be, give it at least two plowings, cross and lengthwise, and three har- rowings. It must be made loose—no lumps or stones. If you have got a roller, apply it after each harrowing. Some lands may require plowing half a dozen times, and will pay for all the labor. New ground will give you the best quality of carrots—old ground the largest roots. The prevailing system of carrot culture, to make drills by throwing two light furrows together, leveling them and sowing on top, is very erroneous, By this the roots and fibers run to the sides and are killed by the hot sun. In England, Ireland, and Scotland this plan is preferable, in consequence of their climate being moist and the soil being very heavy. This borrowed system should be discarded by all who wish to get good crops of carrots, turnips, and mangel-wurzel. 881. Sowing Carrot Seed.—One who grows carrots as a market crop, en- tirely by hand labor, gives the following directions: “I have a marker or large rake made of three-inch scantling—a handle in the center, with a brace on each side to guide and strengthen it. In this six wooden teeth one inch in diameter, six inches long, are set at twelve inches apart. Ove man works this, opening five drills at each through, as one tooth must be kept in the last-made drill to keep your rows straight. When marked, one man will sow an acre a day, at least, of those drills. I then sow radish seed in the same drills for market. They do not interfere in any way with the carrots. Ihave this season sold radishes enough from the carrots, at one dollar per hundred bunches, to pay fcr the whole working.” Another experienced carrot-grower says: “I always sow by hand, as I find it cheaper and better than by any machine I have yet seen, and any one can doit. If I sow at thirty inches apart, I take a piece of wood four Szo. 48.] CARROTS AS A FIELD CROP. 817 inches wide and two inches thick, drive a staple in the end so as to hold the point of the plowshare, and then mark with small plow and one horse. As they are marked I sow the seed, which should be rubbed in sand before sowing. I should advise the soaking of seed, but to inexperienced hands one hundred chances to one but they would let it rot. By sowing your seed dry, you run no risk. When sown, take some twiggy branches and tie them together, just large enough for one man to pull easily, and run this length- wise and crosswise of your carrot rows. This is suflicient for covering the seed.” Another thinks it is of great advantage to germinate the seed before sow- ing, by mixing it with fine sand. The mixture is laid in a heap, and occa- sionally watered for two or three weeks, and then sown in drills. By this plan the seed may be sown later and the plants come up quickly, and are enabled, in a measure, to get the start of the weeds. 882. Cultivation of the Carrot Crop.—The first thing to be considered is whether you intend to work them with manual or horse labor. Close to a city, or where help can be had when wanted, manual labor, when judiciously managed, or when you have only a small farm and wish to make every acre produce double, will not be found unprofitable, although it is a crop that requires a good deal of attention, and the amount of hand labor required, where that is wholly depended upon, we believe deters many people from engaging in the business of growing carrots. We wish to impress upon all such that hand labor, except to a limited extent, is not indispensable. Nearly all can be done by horse-power, or better by a trained mule. In the first place, plow deep ; subsoil deeper, if to be planted by hand; marking with a subsoil plow instead of a toothed marker will be found profitable. Sowing radishes with carrots enables you to see the rows sooner; then if to be horse-hoed, commence at once, so that the weeds shall not get the start. It is easier to kill ten little weeds than one big one. If the crop is to be hand-hoed, then as soon as the plants are up sufficiently to trace the rows, grind up your hoes sharp, and commence by hoeing between the rows as close as possible to the plants, and be sure to cut across the rows and leave the plants the width of your hoe apart, and if you are a good farmer there will not be many weeds left, because you will not try to raise carrots on a piece of land full of seeds of weeds and foul stuff. After about two weeks hoe in like manner, and what weeds are left pull with your fingers, and leave the carrots about seven or eight inches apart. You will not find it half as troublesome a crop to grow as most farmers imagine. One carrot- grower says the great and principal objection to carrot-growing is the thin- ning of them. Hand-thinning is not indispensable. Of course the carrots are not so large; for feeding, small ones are as good; for selling by measure, larger ones are better, as they fill up and leave very leaky crevices. At present they are frequently bought by weight, as all roots and fruit should be bought. 883. Harvesting, Storing, and Value of Carrot Crops.—A great deal of 52 818 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuap. X. the work of harvesting may be done by a hofse and plow, either by turning a furrow away from each side, or by running a subsoil lifter along the rows to loosen the ground and make the digging and pulling easier. Then a man with a fork works out a row very fast. Where it is not an object to crowd the crop upon a small space, we recommend the drills thirty inches apart, and this gives good room to plow them out. In commencing, take out one row in the middle of the plat with the spade, and then plow down one row and up the other, and have hands to follow and pull and throw in a row in the center. In storing carrots outdoors, put them on the surface, in a dry place, in long piles. Lay them four feet wide at bottom and four feet high, tapering to the top to one foot wide, keeping the crown or top at the outside, cover- ing all with one foot thick of straw, and on this eighteen inches of earth. The covering of course depends on the climate where raised. Leave a chimney every twelve feet apart to allow the heat to evaporate. _ This is done by placing a sheaf of straw on top and filling the earth to it. In storing, a few bushels of the best should be selected for seed, and put out in March or April in drills three feet apart, and one foot from plant to plant, the crowns one inch above the surface. As to the yield per acre, this alto- gether depends on your land, manure, working, and the season. One farmer says: “I know that carrots can be raised for five cents per bushel, and think they can be raised for less. Let’s figure a little: Use of one acre Gauging zows)<2-".;2.% plac. aes $1 00 10 00 | Seed and sowing Hoeing and harvesting Whole expense And this is liberal for one acre. Estimating the crop at one thousand bush- els, this would give us a cost of 4,3; cents per bushel on the average, and the value of the crop, at 121 cents per bushel, which is low, will be $125, a profit of $82.” 884. Carrots and Rye on the same Ground.—We have never seen this practiced, but having seen it suggested, think well of it, and call attention to the plan. ‘The ground is well prepared in autumn, as though for carrots, and is then sowed with rye. In the spring the carrot seed is sown with a drill, or a marker is used, and the seed put in by hand. Of course nothing is done till the rye is harvested, when a cultivator or horse-hoe is run through, or the stubble turned by two light furrows, turned from the row, and the plants thinned by hand-hoe. As soon as they get a good start, the furrows are turned back; afterwards the horse-hoe may be needed to run through once or twice. It is necessary to put in the seed earlier than for the ordinary field crop, which is usually after corn planting. If we were about to adopt this plan of growing rye and carrots, we would drill the rye, leay- ing out a drill every two and a half feet for the carrot rows; and the rye we would mow for feed instead of saving it for the grain. If corn were planted in May, and rye sown in October, and carrots in April, three full Szo. 48.] PARSNEPS AND ONIONS AS FIELD CROPS. 819 crops ould be HianY Bato in two years iva the shatindh prepar és for seether: Of course this kind of pushing would require high manuring and good cul- tivation. Let it always be remembered that all root crops require deep plowing, heavy manuring, a thorough pulverization of the soil, and good after-culture to keep down the weeds, and they then leave the land in fine order for spring grain, to be seeded down with grass or clover. Root crops prepare the ground for all other crops. Barley succeeds bet- ter after roots than after any other cultivated crop; and it is noticed that grass always takes well after turnips. 885. Parsneps as a Field Crop.—aAll that we have said of carrots, except storing for winter, will apply to parsneps. Instead of digging and storing, let them stand where they grow till spring, and then die and feed them from day to day, and they will make butter, beef, or mutton faster, in pro- portion to cost, than any other feed. If the ae are small in autumn, and a snow falls before the ground freezes, they will continue to grow, and will sometimes double in size. They must be dug before commencing a spring growth. There isno more productive root crop than parsneps, and we do not think there is any of more value during the month in which they can be raised daily from the ground in spring, and fed to any kind of stock. They are very valuable if cooked, for pigs. 886. Onions as a Field Crop.—We have already spoken of onions in the garden (532), but they are grown to such a large extent as a field crop, that we may give some of the best information upon the subject that we can select; and first, of the soil and preparation. The following statement is made by a large onion-grower, J. W. Proctor, of South Danvers, Massachusetts. He says: “ Any soil, of substance equal to 40 or 50 bushels of Indian corn to the acre, will grow onions—the better the soil the better the crop. Plow to the full depth of the soil, and liberally manure. Plant with corn and carrots, until completely pulverized. Plow early in the spring, and thoroughly intermingle the manure with the soil. Let all obstructions to the free distribution of the seed be removed, and the ground thoroughly prepared for the reception of the seed, which is distrib- uted by machines in rows fourteen inches apart, as true asa line can be drawn. This is essential, because of the facility afforded for the use of the onion-weeder. After the land has been once thoroughly plowed and culti- vated, shallow plowing is usually practiced—say not deeper than can be conveniently done with one horse—from four to six inches. The next ma- terial point is to get the land ready early. No good cultivator permits weeds to grow among his onions, and consequently is specially careful that the seeds of weeds shall not be scattered upon the land, either in the manure or otherwise. A bunch of purslane may destroy a peck of onions, “You must keep your onion field entirely free of weeds, and then you may expect 500 bushels an acre, raised at less cost and greater profit than potatoes. 820 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cmar. X. “The best soil is a sandy loam of a somewhat dark color. Onions will not do well upon clay, particularly if it is a white clay. The surface must be absolutely free from lumps, stones, and sods. A good crop, however, may be grown upon an inverted sod, even the tough one of the Western prairie. All varieties of onions are grown more or less, but chiefly the Silver-skin, which give the most profitable results in this section. “Never plant old seed, and the nearer the surface you can place your seed, if barely covered, the more perfectly it will vegetate, and the better the bulbs will be, as they naturally grow on the surface, not under it. “Good cultivators grow their own seed ; and they select, for this purpose, onions of the form they wish to grow, and set them where no bad seed can intermingle, as much depends upon procuring and preserving the seed pure. . may you hope to grow figs from thistles as good onions from poor seed. 887. The Fertilizers best fitted to Promote the Growth of the Onion.—Good stable manure, old and well fined, is always a healthy dressing. Let it be applied generously—six, eight, or ten cords to the acre. ‘“ Muscle-bed” is a good applieation for onions. Guano does very well; but there is nothing quite equal to barn manure, thoroughly rotted and fined, spread upon the surface, so as to give a quick start to the crop. Success depends very much upon an early start, as early onions are much better protected from every elass of blights, and especially from that chief of devourers, the maggots. Ashes, leached or not leached, are a good application, and are very much used by onion-growers. y The first difficulty in the way of raising onions is the worms. The next trouble is the weeds, and on this account swamp muck is admirable manure; "it will contain no seed. 888. Remedy for Onion Worms.—Benjamin Clifford, of Norwich, Vt., has discovered that tar is an effectual preventive against the fly that produces the onion maggot. An equal quantity of hot water and tar was stirred together, and after standing a few hours, the fluid part was sprinkled upon the onions on one of the beds. This application was made in June, when the young plants were first attacked by the fly, and the process repeated about two weeks afterward.- The result was a fine crop upon that bed, while upon the other not a single onion was raised. Dr. O. W. Drew, of Waterbury, Vt., writes us that the onion crops of that town Imad failed to such an extent for years that the people had to get a supply from Boston for their own use, instead of growing them for sale, as they did before the worms became troublesome. He says: ‘‘ When the plants get three or four inches high they begin to turn yellow ang die, and the bulbs become rotten and full of maggots. Many experiments have been tried with lime, salt, ashes, and plaster, without benefit. Last spring (1861) T sowed a bed with red onion seed, and when the plants were about four inches high, I found that they were affected as usual, and I ponred a full stream of boiling water from a large tea-kettle spout directly upon each row, and repeated the application, and the plants, instead of being killed, were refreshed, and looked as bright as though they had had a May shower, and no more died, though the worms did, and I grew as fine a crop of onions as T ever had in the most successful years. The remedy is apt to deter timid people from applying it, but I assure them there is no danger, and it is effectual.” If this should prove to be a remedy in other cases, it will be almost in- valuable to those who cultivate onions as a crop; many who have depended upon them as no inconsiderable item of annual income, have been obliged to abandon their cultivation. It appears that the fly which produces the maggot which has so seriously damaged the onion-growers, belongs to the same tribe of insects that deposit egos in manure, and it is therefore recommended to use no putrescent fer- tilizers for onions; nothing of animal production, unless it may be guano or bone-dust. 889. Profit of Onion Culture.—The production of a good crop of onions is estimated at five hundred bushels per acre, and the cost in Massachusetts is stated about as follows: Cost of preparing one acre of land and planting the seed, $10; six pounds of sced, $3; manure, $30; cultivation and har- vesting, $40. Total, $83. The harvesting is done by raking the onions into rows with an iron tooth-rake about the first or perhaps middle of Octo- ber. The planting should be done a week or ten days before corn. At one dollar a bushel, it will be seen that a good yield gives a handsome profit to the cultivator, and where the insect is not troublesome, the crop is about as sure as a crop of Indian corn, and it may be cultivated upon the same spot for an indefinite period. 890. California Wild Onions.—It has been stated in California papers that onions growing wild have been discovered in that State, an inch and a half | in diameter, covered with a thick husk like the soap-root. They are palata- ble and even preferable to garden onions, and it is thought may prove a valuable addition to the cultivated varieties. We give the statement as a hint to onion-growers to try this variety in a cultivated condition. * 891. The Quantity of Roots an Acre will Producex—Some persons wish to know how much feed can be obtained from an acre of any kind of roots. This they can determine by weighing a few of an average size and then cal- culating the number per acre. In this calculation the following table will be useful. It shows the number, weight, and measure of the g#owth of an acre planted at various distances apart : Dist. between Dist. of plants No per Weight of Bushels the rows, in row. each root. per acre. | Szo. 48.] QUANTITY OF ROOTS AN ACRE WILL PRODUCE. 821 + —o 822 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR OROPS. Cuap. X. eee Dist. between Dist. of plants No. per Weight of Bushels the rows. i * . ere. each root. per acre, This calculation of measure is based upon sixty pounds per bushel. The table shows that it is not necessary to have roots very close together in order to raise large crops. For instance ; if the rows are three feet apart, and the plants two feet apart in the row, with no vacancies, and the roots average ten or twelve pounds, the crop will be large. It also shows the importance of having the ground all occupied, as the yield will be seriously diminished when this is nct the case. SECTION XLIX.—SORGHUM SACCHARATUM—CHINESE SUGAR-CANE— AND SORGO SUGAR-MAKING, ITHIN a few years, the seeds of the plant generally Z; \known as Chinese sugar-cane, and that of Imphee, or African sugar-cane, have been disseminated over the United States, and cultivated with various de- grees of success. To sum up reports, in short, we should say that in all good Indian corn soil, where that crop can be grown to average forty bushels an acre, a crop of sorgo can be grown with profit, if the grower is provided with conveniences for con- verting the juice into sirup, the quality of which is excellent. W. Mathar, of Cuyahoga County, Chio, says: “TJ will give the figures, and state, from experi- ment, that sugar-cane is profitable to raise for family use: 58} rods of ground, planted May 27, 1858, harvested October 27, pro- ducing 425 gallons, yielding 911 gallons of molasses, worth 63 cents per gallon.” The Davenport (Iowa) Times states that one farmer has made sirup at a cost of sixteen cents a gallon. In many places in States where apples abound, the old-fashioned cider-mills have been used to grind cane with success. Sxzo. 49.] CHINESE SUGAR-CANE—PLANTING AND CULTURE. 823 Such facts as seem important to be known to farmers about this plant, we shall give in this section, followed by others about maple-sugar. 892. Soil and Situation for Sorgo.—E. F. Newberry, of Montgomery County, Ill., in the Prairie Harmer of April 18, 1861, gives a number of facts in regard to this matter, applicable to its culture in Illinois, from which we extract the following: “ The important point of selection of soil has been almost wholly overlooked. It has generally been supposed that the larger the stalk the greater the yield of saccharine matter, and of course the rich- est, deepest mold has been selected for its growth. This is a great mistake. I will illustrate by a little experiment of my own. Part of my cane grew on a southern slope of very moderate richness, and part on a bottom the very reverse in fertility. The stalks in the latter position were of much larger growth than those in the former, yet the first produced more sirup per acre and of a superior quality. Besides, I found no difficulty in procuring its granulation, while the latter would not crystallize. The soil of the slope was a reddish brown, slightly intermixed with sand. The cane brought to my mill by my neighbors from the borders of the prairie and from timber land invariably excelled in quality that grown in the deep, rich soil of the center of the prairie. 893. “ Preparation for Planting.—The ground should be put in perfect tilth to receive the seed, as the plant when young is quite feeble. As regards manure, the present richness of the soil should be the guide taken in connection with the facts stated above concerning the overgrowth of stalk. 894. “* Time of Planting.—Experience has proved that the seed can safely be sown a week or ten days earlier than corn; and as the manufacturing season is short, every day we can add to it is precious. A piece planted the 25th of March made the best cane in the prairie. A mild frost inflicts no injury. Cane planted the 16th of April was ready to grind the 21st of August, in Montgomery County, near the center of the State. Seed should be sprouted before sowing, and a week can be thus gained. As there is a period, embracing from four to six days, in which the cane is in a greater degree of perfection for manufacturing, I would strongly urge sowing in such succession as will insure its being Worked up during that ‘period. The cultivator will of course take into consideration his facilities for working up, in regulating their succession. I regard this as one of the most important points in the whole business. The spa made at such period will, if prop- erly managed, be of a beautiful transparent color, entirely free from any foreign taste or smell. Besides, this is the only time that erystals can be produced with any certainty. I have no doubt that the occasionally suc- cessful attempts at granulation which have occurred from year to year have resulted from accidental manufacture within this period. When the first frost comes, all the cane which remains should be ent and care- fully protected from the weather by being placed under a shed or cov- ered over with straw so that neither the sun nor wind can act upon it. | 824 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR OROPS. [Omap. X. By covering so as to prevent freezing, good second-rate sirup, but not sugar, can be made until the first of December, and thus lengthen the manufacturing season a whole month. It will not do to carelessly throw the stalks in a pile in the open air, expecting them to keep good for a month. 2 895. * Manner of Planting—Enough seed should be sown in drills three feet apart to insure one plant every twelve inches. Thinner than this I re- gard not only as a waste of land, but as rendering the stalks liable to too great a growth, which is an injury. Shallow sowing (from 1 to 12 inches) insures speedy germination most certainly. Cultivate carefully with the hoe and cultivator. 896..* Stripping and Topping.—The cane should be stripped at least one week before using. This course certainly does enrich the cane, and also ren- ders it easy to save the blades for fodder, which should be bound and shocked between the rows. The stripping can be performed either with the two hands encased in buckskin gloves or by means of a wooden knife about five feet long. Our experience led us to prefer the hands, as we could strip a stalk, and sometimes two or three, at a single stroke and retain the leaves ready to bind, saving thereby considerable labor. The cane should not be topped until ready for cutting. If this is performed sooner, the formation of sugar is immediately checked by the efforts of the cane to replace the lost heads or panicles. Some which I topped at the time of stripping, ten days before cutting, yielded juice which contained only twelve per cent. of sirup, while that from cane untopped until the day of using, yielded eighteen and twenty per cent. Neither would granulate. It can best be topped by hauling to the mill and laying the heads evenly and cutting them off with a hatchet. 897. * Time of Cutting —Do not cut until the very day of using, if it can possibly be avoided. From the day it is cut it commences to deteriorate. This is a fixed fact. A change in the chemical constituents immediately be- gins which soon destroys the granulating power, and if the weather happens to be warm, brings on acetous fermentation. 898. * Most Favorable Period for Manufacture.—This commences when the seed is fully in the dough and continues until it is nearly ripe. Cane fully ripe a month before frost, was allowed to stand uncut and commenced grow- ing acid, so as to require neutralizing agents, and both color and taste were injured. Acidity can be thoroughly neutralized by using sufficient alkali. In some very acid juice a tablespoonful of strong soda was required for a gallon of sirup. For a few days there was a decided smell of the alkali, but it presently passed away and the sirup proved to be quite a good article, and a portion of it has grained in the barrel. 899. ** Manufacturing Sirup.—The first consideration is a good iron mill, with which one horse can grind cane enough in twelve hours to make forty or fifty gallons of sirup. Hedge’s mill is the most reliable, and it should be placed so that the juice will ean to the boilers; and of all that I have il Sro. 49.] CHINESE SUGAR-CANE—YIELD AND PROFIT. seen, I prefer Cook’s, though I do not believe it makes as beautiful sirup as the common pan and kettle. If pans are used, make them of galvanized sheet iron, from seven to ten feet long. Turn up the sides and ends of the sheets about two inches and finish by nailing them to solid plank ten inches high, so as to form an oblong water-tight box with iron bottom. As many as you wish may be set in furnaces, the horizontal flues of which should meet in one perpendicular chimney. The juice should be clarified in these and afterward boiled down until nearly done, when it should be removed and the operation slowly finished in a cast-iron kettle. The reason I prefer to finish in a kettle is this: When the sirup is completely done, it can be ladled out without the risk of scorching, which is so imminent in using the thin, flat pan. 900. © Clarifying Agents.—Of these there are several. Lime-water made from fresh lime is about as good as any. Our finest sirup was cleared with some refuse saleratus which had been thrown away by a merchant here as worthless. It did not injure the color in the least. Carbonate of soda an- swers very well, but colors the sirup somewhat. Sugar of lead is a splendid clarifier, but it is poisonous. 901. * Profits of Sorgo Grinding.—TLese vary from $50 per acre to $100, just as the business is managed. One large mill in an adjoining county broke up its owners; twenty-five acres of cane remained uncut in their field, and the quality of sirup was so poor that they could not sell it until it was refined. Others on a small scale realized quite a per cent. on the outlay and labor. The result of my own was about thus: When the mill, which was a very poor one, ran steadily, the profits were $8 a day of ten hours. My Cook’s evaporator cost $47 50, and Douglass’ mill $68, freight included. The season ought to commence, at the latest, on the first of September, and continue for two months, or even longer, if the cane is properly taken care of, and suecess in a domestic way is undoubted; but we do not know enough about the business as yet to render it safe to invest any great amount. With more experience, we can supply our own State with sirup, and sugar too, I have no doubt.” ; 902. Sorgo as Food for Steck.—Upon this point Mr. Newberry says: “My horses, cows, and hogs have all had access to the pile of bagasse, and they eat it greedily. My milch cow will not touch hay or Hungarian grass, and she is in as good order as it is possible for a milch cow to be. My horses require very little fodder, and even the pigs chew away with com- mendable zeal.” Another Illinois farmer wrote to us in December, 1860, as follows: “ Our horses, mules, and cattle have had no other fodder since cane came in, and the more mature the better they seem to like it. I tried cutting and curing the immature cane last year, and found ita failure. The mature cane is the form in which my experience would lead me to use it for fodder. The proper way is to cut and shock like corn. We have been feeding it all winter so far; the only preparation is to cut the long stalks in two so as ROO! CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. to get them in the manger; the animals take care of it after that. The effect on milch cows, judging by our own, is very satisfactory. We have a very comfortable supply of milk from one cow, and her main feed is sugar-cane.” 903. The Yield per Acre.—He also writes: “Our yield per acre did not come up to the general estimate ; about one hundred gallons per acre was our product. We are satisfied our mill took out from 60 to 75 per cent. of the sap. We had a portable eight-horse-power engine and boiler, and a cast-iron mill, having two rollers fifteen inches in diameter and length, with set screws. Our evaporating apparatus was made of American sheet-iron, imitation of Russia, and consisted of three pans of capacity to hold over three hundred gallons of sap. We broke down in two respects: first, our machinery was inadequate to work up our crop; and second, we failed to make a perfectly satistactory article, nearly all having a scorched taste. 904. “Keeping the Cane and the Juice.—We have demonstrated that cane cut up and shocked like corn, before frost, will keep perfect for a month after. Some of the most perfect sirup we have made was from cane a month old. But if the unripe cane stands until killed by frost, the thing is done for; two days of warm weather will then sour it; but the sap does not run into decomposition immediately. We ground out for one of our neighbors, four miles off, enough to make eighty gallons of sirup; the sap was taken home, and in the course of the next two days was worked up. This was not all ground at one time, but four or five different times. The sirup thus made was the most perfect of the season.” 905. Fruits of Experience in Growing Sorgo.—The above writer says: “Tn conclusion, our experience (and we have bought it pretty dear) has sat- istied us that the manufacture of the sorgo can only be made profitable in two ways—either in large establishments, with perfect machinery and skill, or on a small scale by farmers, for their own use. The latter is the most favorable view, as to its prospective value at the North. We have no doubt human health and happiness will be largely increased by the improve- ment in diet which will result from bringing this valuable article of food within the reach of all. I am entirely satisfied of the fact that it can be grown in this latitude (41° 25’) successfully. The difficulty is making the manufacture of the cane into sirup profitable after it is grown.” 906. Chemical Character and Analysis of Sorgo.—A writer in The Farmer and Planter, Columbia, 8. C., says: “Careful experiments made by distin- guished chemists during the last year have settled the point that the sorgo belongs to the family of grasses which secrete ‘ glucose’ or fruit sugar—not erystallizable, or cane sugar. The value of cane sugar, compared to glucose or grass sugar, is three to one. We may give up, then, the hope of making sugar profitably. Carefully conducted experiments during the last year, how- ever, have satisfied the writer that a very good sirup can be manufactured at the rate of fifty cents per gallon, and for even less, by the small farmer who is not entirely engrossed with the cotton crop. This will prove an in- Szo. 49.] CHINESE SUGAR-CANE—ANALYSIS. estimable blessing, bringing it within the means of almost every farmer owning a horse and an acre of ground, to provide the family with a luxury.” This corresponds with our continually expressed opinion, that it was not worth while for those who grow the cane to think of making sugar, but con- fine the manufacture entirely to sirup. Dr. Augustus Voelcker, of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, England, has published some analyses of Chinese sugar-cane grown on the college farm. The analysis was made September 26, 1859, with the whole plant, with the following result: In natural Dricdiat 12' Wax and fatty matter Mucilage, pectin, and digestible fiber Soluble mineral matters _ fInsoluble protein compounds Indigestible woody fiber (cellular) Insoluble mineral matters *Containing nitrogen Containing nitrogen Total quantity of nitrogen “The sorgo contained nearly 6 per cent. of sugar, which is about the same proportion as in carrots. The canes proved sweeter near the ground, some of the stumps yielding 7.65 per cent. of sugar. Stems cut about twelve inches from the ground yielded 3.60 per cent. of sugar—not quite half the quantity found in the lower part The proportion of sugar and erude fiber was: in stems cut two inches above ground, per-centage of sugar, 7.65 ; per- centage of crude fiber, 6.50. In stems cut twelve inches above ground, per- centage of sugar, 3.60; per-centage of crude fiber, 13.01 ; while the principal or main stem was quite sweet, the stolons or side shoots were still bitter. It thus appears that all do not ripen together; the central or oldest stem is perfect before the lateral shoots.” Dr. Voelcker found the unripe canes in August contained no sugar what- ever. He says: “The taste of the plants on the 23d of August was anything but sweet. I did not expect, therefore, to find much, but I was unprepared to meet with a total absence of sugar.” 907. Effect of Frost on the Canes.—As most of the directions about harvest- ing the canes say that they must be cut before frost, we give the following counter statement from Preston Eyre, Darlington, Penn. He says: “A neighbor allowed his cane to stand about one month after it was frozen entirely dead; he then cut it off in the morning, when the juice was frozen solid, and laid it in the sun, and in the afternoon expressed the juice with iron rollers; the result was 165 gallons of juice, 5 of which made 1 gallon of excellent sirup, even superior to my own, which was cut before freezing. “T cultivated a small patch in my garden; I cut it off before the frost 828 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. | [Cuar. X. affected it; I expressed the juice with iron rollers the same day, and had 30 gallons; boiled it down next day and had 53 gallons of sirup; it had some- what of a green taste, which I think is destroyed in the process of freezing ; for let the season be ever so favorable, there will be some stalks not matured, but by freezing they are assimilated and lose that green taste so perceptible in the immature eane. “T have tasted several samples of sirup, and the best was manufactured from cane which stood several days after being frozen hard, and made with- out using lime or any other acid-destroying agent, My coneludions are, that the cane , does not lose any of its saccharine qualities by cca but they are rather improved.” Col. A. T. Morris, of Indianapolis, gives a detailed account of his success in making sirup. He says: “I made two efforts, both unsuccessful, to pro- duce sugar. I suppose that my want of success was mainly owing to the fact that the cane had all been frozen. The effect of the frost was to diminish the quantity of juice; also to neutralize, to some extent, its acid properties, and slightly increase its density, as indicated by Beaumé’s saccharometer. “The juice of my unripe cane, before frost, marked seven degrees, Beaumé; that of the ripe cane, nine degrees. After the frost, the juice marked ten degrees.” 908. Yield per Acre in Indiana.—“ Myself and friends have made about 1,500 gallons of sirup. My cane yielded 225 gallons of very thick sirup to the acre—requiring about six gallons of juice to one gallon of sirup. That grown by others yielded at the rate of 320 gallons per acre. I think 300 gallons may be relied on here as a fair average crop.” Col. Morris says: “I tested juice from several fields in this vicinity, and invariably found that the small, thoroughly ripe cane produced the strongest juice—the large, vigorous growth was very generally inferior from one to two degrees. I also found that the bottom of the stalk was not as sweet as the middle, nor the middle as sweet as the top. The juice from each third of the stalk indicated one degree more for the top third than the middle, and this one more than the bottom.” 909. How the Sirup was Made, and its Cost.—‘I filtered the juice, as it came from the mill, through finely powdered charcoal, placed in a barrel with a false bottom, covered with blankets, in the manner used in rectifying whisky. The juice thus filtered was boiled in the usual way, and produced a sirup, I think, equal to any Lever saw. This process I found to require too much labor and time. The charcoal soon became impervious, and had to be renewed, rendering its use too troublesome and expensive when a large amount of sirup was to be made. “After filling the large pan from the mill, I mixed in it a sufficient quantity of lime-water to nearly neutralize the acid in the juice, using litmus paper asatest. I also mixed, at the same time, about three pounds of ivory- black and one half dozen of eggs to every 100 gallons of juice, stirring all together thoroughly. The juice was then heated to near the boiling point, Szo. 49.] CHINESE SUGAR-CANE—FEEDING IT TO STOCK. 829 and the fire then removed from the furnace and the juice not disturbed until sufficiently cool to be in a quiescent state. The scum was then removed, and the remainder drawn off through a flannel bag into the other pans for boiling. Before boiling, a small quantity of dissolved borax was added, after which it was boiled moderately and skimmed, until the quantity was evaporated to about one third of its bulk; then the boiling was as rapid as possible, until the sirup was produced. By this process, I have made an article which is very generally considered nearly, if not quite, equal to the best of the golden sirup in our market. oy attempted to boil the juice in ordinary iron kettles, arranged in a fur- nace, in the way usually adopted here to manufacture maple- sugar, but found it impossible to avoid burning the sirup against their sides. I then procured four pans, with cast-iron Pheteons ade wooden sides. Three of them were two and a half feet wide and three and a half feet long, with sides fourteen inches deep; and one five feet long, and same width and depth as the others. I placed three of these pans in one furnace, made of brick, and placed the largest one in a separate furnace at right nue to the first. The smoke-stacks of the two were placed together. The bottom of the large pan was put on a level with the top of the small ones, so as to draw out its con- tents, by a stop-cock, into the adjoining small one. With this arrangement, I could concentrate about 400 gallons of juice each day, consuming about three fourths of a cord of wood. “Tt cost about twelve cents per gallon to make my sirup, estimating the fodder and seed to pay for the labor of cultivation, and not allowing any- thing for interest on the cost of the mill and boiling fixtures.” 910. Best Mode ef Grewing the Cane and Feeding it to Steck.—Upon this question Col. Morris says: “ My experience and observation induce the be- lief, that the best mode of growing the cane is to thoroughly break up and harrow the ground, then cross off at right angles, with something that will merely mark the surface, giving hills three and a half or four feet apart. Allow about six seeds to grow in each hill, and pull off all suckers that come from the root too late to ripen as soon as the main stalk, and strip from time to time all heads that make their appearance at the joints of the stalks. This method of planting will allow the use of the cultivator earlier, with less liability to cover up the young cane, diminish the amount of roasts and, I think, would require but little if any more labor than a corn crop. “By pull: ing off the suckers that start too late to ripen, and the seed-heads that ap- pear at the joints, I think the vigor and perhaps the quality of the growing stalks would be increased. “About the 1st of June I planted two acres in drills about four feet apart, running north and south, planting one seed every eight or ten inches. The soil was not rich, but light and sandy. I hoed and plowed twice. Its growth, after being plowed, was very rapid, and most of it was ripe about the middle of October. From two to five full-sized canes grew from each seed; perhaps the average would be three. The average hight was about 830 _ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. ~ ten feet, and the average diameter about one and a half inches at the ground. I made no attempt to ascertain the amount of fodder and seed yielded per acre, but have fed both—also the ripe and unripe stalks—to horses, cows, and hogs. They eat every part of the cane greedily, and, so far as I observed, seemed to thrive on the food eqnally with any other. “While making sirup, I fed the scum to my hogs, but on one occasion suffered it to remain in a barrel about twenty-four hours before feeding, when I found vinous fermentation had commenced, and it produced its legitimate effects—making some twenty hogs seriously drunk.” 911. A Cheap Boiler.—* It is constructed as follows: The sides are of plank one and a half inches thick, one foot wide, and four feet long. The bottom and sides are of a continuous piece of sheet iron, six feet long by two feet wide, the ends of the iron turned up to form the ends ot the boiler, nailed on the wood. It is four feet long and two wide, holding eight eubic feet, and pre- senting an evaporating surface of eight square feet. I rest the edges of the boiler on brick-work, the fire passing lengthwise under the bottom. Its cost was not over two dollars.” 912. A New Plan of Extracting Cane Juicex—H. G. Bulkley, of Kala- mazoo, Michigan, has made a successful experiment upon a new plan of extracting Chinese cane juice, and recommends it to others, as it saves the eost of a crushing-mill, and enables parties provided with ordinary farm im- plements to make a full supply of sirup for family use at a very little ex- pense. The plan is to cut the canes in a straw-cutting machine, and then steam themuntil quite soft and press out the juice in a common cider press, and then proceed with the evaporation as with maple sap. Boiling the eut canes will answer where no conveniences for steaming exist, though steam is preferable, and any ingenious man can make a steamer out of a cask, an old gun-barrel, a common kettle with a wooden lid cemented tight with clay and cow-dung mixed into a paste. But, after all, if the steaming pro- cess should prove more economical than grinding the green stalks, it will be found preferable to erect works designed for the purpose especially. Mr. Bulkley says that he pressed his steamed stalks while hot, in a small cider press, making them dry enough to burn; and made twenty-five gallons of good sirup by the work of two men and a boy in two and a half days. 913. Description of Cane Mills—The best cane mills are ponderous iron rollers, some five feet long and thirty inches in diameter, lying parallel, two at bottom and one at top, touching both the others, the canes being mashed by the first contact and squeezed dry, or as nearly so as possible by the sec- ond contact. The canes are fed to the mill upon a long apron or cane carrier, the whole driven by a powerful steam-engine. The next best mill is one of similar form driven by horses. Then there are upright mills of two rollers, both of wood and iron, in the South, of va- rious degrees of excellence, some of which do not save half the juice. Good small iron mills, for horse-power, for grinding the canes of sorgo, have been built in Philadelphia and Cincinnati. Without a good mill it is 5 Szo. 49.] CHINESE SUGAR-CANE—BOILING THE JUICE. 831 1| PR 0 ee as useless to attempt sugar-making, as it would be to attempt cider-making without a mill to grind the apples. Cider may be made by mashing apples between two stones, and squeezing out the juice in any rude way; and so niay sirup be obtained in the same rude way from sorgo, but the process will not be a profitable one. : An iron mill for family use on a small scale is described as follows: A pair of iron rollers, 7 inches diameter and 12 inches long, set in a frame one eighth of an inch apart, with spout to catch and collect the juice, and a erank turned by hand. 914. Boiling the Juice—Boiling must be done in the same careful manner that good maple-sugar makers pursue. As soon as the juice begins to boil, the albumen of eggs, blood, or milk will coagulate and rise, bringing with it most of the vegetable mucilage, gummy matter, and dirt, which must be carefully skimmed off, but not before it really does boil, which it will do at 215 degrees Fahrenheit. It will be best to take the kettle from the fire, or put it out, as soon as the scum has arisen, and let the juice cool a few min- utes before skimming it. You may then boil again, until nearly half evap- orated. The true rule is for the saccharometer to mark 15 degrees Beaumé. It marked in Mr. Lovering’s experiments 8 degrees to 12 degrees in the clear juice before boiling. After this second boiling, the juice should be cooled to 160 degrees Fahr- enheit, and more eggs, blood, or milk added, and again brought to the boiling point, and again stopped boiling and allowed to become quiet and then skimmed. Decolorization is the next process. This is done by decanting the liquid through granulated burnt bones (animal charcoal), from three to five feet deep. It may be filled into any long, narrow vessel, set on end, through which the liquid is to be leached. This filter must be prepared as a careful housewife prepares her leach, so that no ashes will be washed down into the lye. A board with holes in it, and a piece of wire gauze, may be fitted in the barrel above the bottom, and the bone-black thoroughly wet with *hot water, and that drawn off before putting in the juice. A thin blanket may be used instead of wire gauze. Boiling down the filtered liquid is the next point, and this requires care and skill, combined with experignee. Nothing else will answer ; for, “Tf we do not boil enough, the sugar contained in the solution will not erystallize when cold; or, “Tf we boil too much, the molasses will become so thick when it cools, as to impair the crystallizing of the sugar, and can not be separated from it. “ But how shall we know when to stop the boiling? “ By the heat of the boiling liquid, as marked by the thermometer. “ Pure water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit’s thermometer. You can not make it hotter without changing it to steam. ) “The sorgo juice, being a solution of about fourteen per cent. of sugar and molasses, etc., in water, becomes three degrees hotter before boiling, and 832 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. boils at 215 degrees Fahrenheit. As the water evaporates, a greater heat is required to keep the concentrated juice boiling; in other words, the juice grows hotter and hotter. When it reaches the heat marked on the thermom- eter 238 degrees Fahrenheit, there is just enough water left to enable the sugar to separ ate from the mdhasses when cold.” ‘A thermometer is therefore an essential implement in sugar-making. The water being evaporated, the sugar will crystallize as the sirup cools, if all the processes have been conducted perfectly, and if not, you will have instead of sugar an excellent molasses. Sometimes that, if kept exposed to the air, will half or more crystallize, weeks after it is put away. 915. Will the Sergo Juice Make Sugar ?—That question is settled that it will, notwithstanding all that has been said about its containing no true cane sugar. Mr. Joseph S. Lovering, the great sugar refiner of Philadelphia, has furnished the evidence that it will make sugar; not only raw sugar, but per- fectly white, granulated, sound refined sugar. A good many other persons have also made sorgo sugar. Among others, a gentleman living in Evansville, Ind., wrote me that from sixteen gallons of juice he made between ten and eleven pounds of gran- ulated sugar by following the process given in the “ United States Dispen- satory,” page 638. We shave now before us a handsome sample of sugar, made by Mr. Miller, of Laporte, Ind., ina boiler contrived by him, made of cast iron, circular form horizontally, with a division in the center, and set on a pintal, so that it can be turned off the fire as easily as a kettle is swung from the fire in the old kitchen fire-place, when hung upon a crane. Still we doubt whether in the ordinary mode of household manufacture, good dry sugar can be easily or profitably made from sorgo juice. To make sugar, either from the sorgo or the tropical cane, successfully and cheaply, re- quires costly apparatus. The principal difficulty is getting rid of molasses. One man details his experience as follows: I brought the juice to the boil- ing point slowly, skimming as the impurities arose to the surface. After re- moving the first thick scum, I boiled as fast as possible, until the sirup began to thicken; then slackened the fire and evaporated slowly, until the sirup would barely run when cold. It was then put in vessels and set aside. In two or three days the mass was filled with crystals. This was all very easy, so far, but I found the draining tedious. This I did by putting the mass in a conical bag, made of thin cotton cloth.” As every family, with the hand-mill above described, can grind cane enough at odd time to make a barrel of choice sirup, let that suffice, and leave sugar-making to large establishments; for it requires more apparatus than it does for aple sugar. The experiments of Mr. Lovering were very minute, and conducted with great accuracy, and proved to his satisfaction that a fair crop of sorgo will give 625 lbs. of sugar to the acre, of as good a quality as a fair average of canesugar. He published his experiments in detail in a pamphlet, and that was republished in the New York Zridune, and in several other papers. It Seo. 49.] CHINESE CANE SUGAR-MAKING. $33 is too long to print in whole in this book, and we only give his conclusions in form of a synopsis : “ First—That it is obvious that there is a culminating point in the devel- opment of the sugar in the cane, which is the best time for sugar-making. This point or season I consider to be when most if not all the seeds are ripe, and after several frosts, say when the temperature falls to 25° or 30° F. “* Second—That frost, or even hard freezing, does not injure the juice nor the sugar, but that warm Indian summer weather, after the frost and hard freezing, does injure them very materially, and reduces both quantity and quality. “Third—tThat if the cane is cut’ and housed, or shocked in the field when in its most favorable condition, it will probably keep unchanged for a long time. “ Fourth—That when the juice is obtained, the process should proceed con- tinuously and without delay. “Fifth—That the clarification should be as perfect as possible by the time the density reaches 15° Beaumé, the sirup having the appearance of good brandy. “ Siath—That although eggs were usea in these small experiments, on account of their convenience, bullock’s blood, if to be had, is equally good, and the milk of lime alone will answer the purpose; in the latter case, how- ever, more constant and prolonged skimming will be required to produce a perfect clarification, which is highly important. “ Seventh—That the concentration or boiling down, after clarification, should be as rapid as possible without scorching—shallow evaporators being the best. “With these conditions secured, it is about as easy to make good sugar from the Chinese cane as to make a pot of good mush, and much easier than to make a kettle of good apple-butter.” We dissent from his last proposition, and conclude by recommending farmers to confine their operations to making sirup. That they certainly can make, of superior quality. 916. Sorghum that has No Saccharum.—We have no doubt of the fact that two kinds of seed have been disseminated through the country so identical in character as to deceive the most careful observer, and producing canes so identical in appearance as to be undistingnishable, yet one affords a sweet juice, convertible into sugar or sirup, while the other has but little more sac- charine property than broom-corn, which is also a sorghum. This false cane is the Sorghum vulgare, called in some sections Turkey corn, Guinea corn, chocolate corn. This is a trifle earlier, and grows high, erect canes, which are erect because they are light. The sweet sorghum canes are heavy because they are loaded with sweet, and frequently for that reason, and for their high and slender growth, are prostrated by the winds. One plant of the false sorghum is sufficient to adulterate a whole acre of the true inthis way. The sorghums blossom first on the uppermost part of the 8 834 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. panicle, and then by degrees follow the panicle to its base, where it ceases. It being a long time in blossom, the pollen of the false, by the winds and insects, has the first and best opportunity to impregnate the true as soon it begins to blossom. It can readily be seen how easily a whole field of seed may be adulterated by a few seeds of the false intermingled, without the eul- tivator having any knowledge of the fact, until a subsequent crop ; and when it is considered that the seed is identical in appearance with the true, the mischievous consequences can readily be appreciated. “However this adulteration may be, sufficient facts are elicited to warn the Northern cane-planter to beware of a cheat that can only be detected after his toil has matured a crop of cither sweet or tasteless canes. This tasteless cane was a common plant in Connecticut forty or fifty years ago, and during the war of 1812 it was cultivated for its fancied value as a sub- stitute for coffee; and it is now asserted that at that time there were sweet canes as well as those not sweet, and many persons believe that the true Chinese cane was grown at that day, without any knowledge on the part of the cultivators of its being a sugar-producing plant.” It certainly requires the utmost care on the part of cultivators to keep the seed pure. Every one must utterly debar the cultivation of Sorghum vulgare on his own premises, and as far as possible on his neighbor’s; and if by chance his cane has become adulterated, discard the seed, and procure that which is pure, at whatever cost. 917. Cost of Growing Sorgo and Corn Equal,—A farmer of Chester County, Penn., has carefully ascertained the cost of growing sorgo to be the same as growing corn. The profit is greater. He says: ‘“ My calculations of the profits of sorgo are as follows: One acre will produce 1,500 gallons of juice, which at 4 gallons for 1 will pro- duce 875 gallons sirup, which at 30 cents per gallon is $112 50 And 80 bushels seed, worth 40 cents per bushel 12 00—$124 50 Deduct crop of corn, 50 bushels per acre, worth 60 cents per bushel delivered at market Leaves a difference in favor Of SOrgo0............ cee c cence ceesaceens .. $94 50 “The cost of raising the corn and sorgo until both are ready to cut from the ground—the one to husk and the other to express the juice—is ex- actly equal. The hucking, cribbing, shelling, and getting to market the corn will probably cost quite as much money and labor as it will cost to express the juice of the cane and convert it into sirup. 918. Stock Injured by Eating Sorgo Bagasse.—The statement given by some sorgo growers and manufacturers, that the bagasse is good feed for stock must be received with some caution. An item published in 1860, in the Independence (Iowa) Guardian, gives an account of the destruction of seven head of cattle, belonging to I. G. Freeman, from eating the refuse of Chinese sugar-cane, after it had been compressed in the mill. The coating of the stalks is of a very vitreous character, and in the stomach it produeed violent inflammation. A post-mortem examination in that case revealed this as the cause of death. ~ Sro. 50.} MAPLE SUGAR-MAKING. 835 - 919. cuit Sirup vinbear el regions sides aga vinegar can not be made easily, a very good substitute may be obtained from the juiae of sorgo. The quality will be improved by boiling it about one half away, though we believe a pretty fair vinegar has been made from the juice without boiling. It may be exposed to the air in open vessels, and should be frequently stir- red to allow the atmosphere to come in contact with it, because it is by the oxygenation that vinegar is formed of any fruit juice, which converts the sugar into acetic acid. Vinegar-makers leach cider through barrels filled with shavings of some swect wood, such as beech or maple, for the purpose of exposing every drop to the action of the air, to hasten the oxygenation, and the same plan may be advantageously adopted in the manufacture of vinegar from sorgo. SECTION LMAPLE SUGAR-MAKING. ‘HE Acer saccharinum has long yielded sugar to the pioneers of American settlers in the forest. Charlerois, in his history of Canada, written in 1721, speaks of the manufacture of sugar from maple-trees, and gives the process, and says it was first produced by the French immigrants, who taught the art to the Indians, who were previously ignorant of it, though the reverse of this has long been believed; that is, that the settlers found the Indians already in possession of the secret, and =~, learned the art of them. Although there are none of the nes re, difficulties in the way of converting maple sap into sugar, ap that we find in sorgo, we believe it is better economy to es éonvert the sap into sirup or molasses, where maple orchards are convenient to large towns, which will always afford a market for a real nice article of maple sirup at a high price. We have already given full directions as to Chinese cane, which will make excellent sirup, and will only make poor sugar, and that with much difficulty. Maple sirup is more easily converted into a very palatable but not very sweet sugar. It is never, at best, worth over two thirds of the price of pure cane sugar for family use, while the sirup is quite the reverse. We had rather nave’ a gallon of maple sirup than a gallon and a half of galden sirup, or two gallons of Orleans molasses. Although maple sirup is made with very little trouble, it requires much experience and great care to make good maple sugar. Since the sugar-maple is one of the handsomest of all of our beautiful American forest trees, and is as easily grown as an apple-tree, it is some- what surprising that it is not more cultivated, and its delicious products more 836 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Caap. X. used by farmers’ families. To aid in this, either from cultivated or natural trees, we shall give in detail the process of maple sugar manufacture. To those to the manner born, or bred in the camp (of sugar-makers), we do not suppose we can offer acceptable advice about the how to do it, or “how not to do it;” but to a few others, who have not yet learned the best way to conduct the maple-sugar business, we think we can say a word that will be useful. In the first place, get ready. For that, there is a very good time; it is now ; you never will find a better one. 920. Preparation for Sugar-Making.—No matter what is the season of the year, if it is mid-summer, or mid-winter, and you intend to tap your maple- trees next spring, you can get your spouts, pails, sap holders, kettles, sugar molds, sirup casks, ete., ready. At any rate you can read this article upon maple sugar-making and learn how. 921. Tapping the Trees.—Never tap your trees with an ax, even upon land that you are going to clear, because you may not live to clear it, and your successor may desire to save some of the trees that your wrong act has spoiled. Besides, boxing may teach your son the wrong way to do it. The right way is to bore the trees on the sunny side, two feet or more above the earth, with an auger not over one inch diameter, and at first not over half or three fourths of an inch into the wood, with a slant upward. This hole may be deepened or increased in diameter after the surface be- comes so dry that the flow of sap is checked. The right time is when the winter is so far over that we begin to have freezing nights and thawing days. Then be ready for sugar-making. 922. How to Make Spouts, and How to Use Them.—To conduct the sap into the buckets, use iron spouts which will cost you only the price of thin inch- and-a-quarter wide hoop iron, cut in lengths of two to four inches by your own hands with a small, cold-cutting chisel, using the end of a hard-wood block for an anvil. Now grind one end sharp before you make them into troughs, which you can do almost as fast as you can count, as follows: Bore an inch hole through a hard log and saw it asunder so as'to leave half of the hole in one end; drive two nails upon one side, an eighth of an inch from the edge for a gauge; lay the flat piece of iron over this hollow, and a round bolt on it, and hit that with a stout hammer or an old ax. You can im- prove upon this by extemporizing a hand-press, both for cutting and shaping your spouts. You need not go to a blacksmith’s, and you can not make wooden spouts half as fast, and they will not last half as long. Drive your spouts into the bark only, and when the season is over, pull them out and store away, unless you intend to die before the next year. Instead of boring a first or second time, you may use a gouge, cutting out a clean chip. This will not injure the tree. Boxing or boring with a slant down, holds water and produces decay. This is our opinion about spouts. Now here is somebody else's opinion, which may be equally good. He says: “There are two objections, in my mind, to the iron spout. The first is, it leaves the hole entirely exposed to Src. 50.] MAPLE SUGAR-MAKING. 837 the air, and the surface soon becomes dry, and the flow of sap is checked. The hole should be closed as nearly as possible, without obstructing the flow of sap. For this reason I prefer the wooden spout; and the expense is no more. There are in most towns in New England, shops and machinery where spouts can be made from spruce or pine at a cost of not more than one dollar per hundred. Where there is no such facility, they can be made in long winter evenings from elder or sumac, which grows on nearly every farm, with no other tools than a saw, a jack-knife, and a piece of wire with a handle on one end to remove the pith. “My second objection to the iron spout is, when driven into the bark it is liable to fracture it and cause an unnecessary wound to the tree.” Wooden spouts can also be made of any free-splitting wood, cut ten inches long and one and a quarter inches thick, which is split by a gouge or crooked iron, to give the right shape. Always commence splitting each block in the middle, and work it so till each piece for a spout is thin enough. One end is to be sharpened, and the hole made with a gouge, and the spout driven in as recommended for the iron spouts. Some bore holes slanting downward and drive a plug-spout in the hole. Still there is nothing, in our opinion, so good and cheap as iron spouts, made of scrap sheet iron or hoop iron, swaged to a trough shape, and ground sharp at one end, so as to drive into the bark —never through it—below the cut from which the sap is to flow. This cut may be made with an auger, gouge, or even an ax, if care is used to make only such a smooth, shallow cut as will soon heal over. Chopping great, rough holes into trees to get the sap is an act as foolish as killing the goose that laid the golden egg. 923. Sap-Buckets.—The best sap-buckets, and in the end the cheapest, are made of tin, to hold four gallons, and just enough tapering to pack together, with a loop in the rim-wire to hitch upon a wrought nail, driven into the tree. Such buckets should not cost over 25 cents each—perhaps not over 20 cents. They should be stored dry, in a dry place, in piles bottom up, and be good for your grandchildren. Painted pails make cheap, good sap-buckets. You can hang them by the bail upon a nail set slanting, or else by a piece of small wire twisted in one ear. Home-made pails can be made without much cost during the winter, if you have any genius for coopering, and will use the surplus heat of the stove or brick oven to season your stuff. Leave one stave long enough to bore a hole to hang upon the nail. Do not depend upon things that you ean pick up to catch sap, and if you catch a fellow upon your premises making sap-troughs, take a birch sprout and start the sap out of him. One old sugar-maker recommends making tin sap-buckets of a square form, of two sheets for the square sides and half a sheet for the bottom, with just taper enough to fit together when in store. The tin should be rolled around a wire at the top, with a loop to hang by, or else with a hole under the wire large enough to hang over a wrought nail head or stub horsenail. 838 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuar. X. We say wrought, because they must be pulled out of the trees when the season closes. If sap-buckets are not home-made, then tin is undoubtedly the most eco- nomical, and they may be kept clean more easily than any other kind, and never impart any sourness to the sap, and would soon pay for themselves in the increased value of the fine sugar and molasses afforded by their use. When sap-buckets are hung upon the tree, as they always should be, the spouts will rarely need to be over three inches long, and being close to the top of the bucket, the sap will not be blown away and lost, as it frequently is in falling a foot or two. 924. Storing the Sap.—It is very bad economy to neglect providing a suf- ficient reservior for sap. In some wooded regions, where stitable timber ean be had, a trough that will hold four or five barrels can be dug out with- out any expense, for the man who is tending the first boiling can do the work. Where a trough can not be made conveniently, a vat can be made of plank, set in a frame to key up tight with wedges. Sometimes a molasses hogshead can be obtained conveniently. A liquor cask will answer if it is brought home some weeks before wanted, and filled with water. If you can arrange your storage vessel to stand above the level of the boiler, it will save much trouble, as you can thus run the sap through a trough into the boiler. 925. Boilers and Boiling Sap.—Sap-kettles are antiquated. If you possess any of these, use them for the storage of sap, or concentrated sirup, and get a set of sheet-iron pans. These you can also make yourself. See how cheaply. Buy good stove-pipe iron in large sheets; punch two rows of holes, not in exact straight lines, around the edge, one row close to it and the other an inch and a half from it. Nail this upon a frame made of one-and- a-quarter-inch stuff, six inches wide, with one row of nails, which should be large-headed tacks or small wrought clout nails, in the edge of the frame, and the other in the sides, upon which the edges of the iron are turned up all round. You may, if you fear having an untight joint, use a little white lead, but it is not generally necessary. An old sugar-maker thinks copper bottoms would be more economical in the long run. A boiler has been patented that is made in such a way that by a motion given to it, the sap is made to flow into a series of troughs over the heated flues, in a small stream which evaporates rapidly. A man who has made sugar in Ohio since 1851, says: “I prefer heavy cast-iron kettles to sheet- iron pans, but would like them if of oblong shape with straight sides and ten inches deep, set over an arch. I use four eighteen-gallon kettles, and have often boiled down and sugared off 100 pounds a day ; of course work- ing all night. “ We gather our sap in tight barrels. Two make load enough for a yoke of oxen to haul onasled. We have a convenient place, so that one man can roll up and empty into the reservoir. Two hands can gather twenty barrels in half'a day. We boil in all the kettles, having spouts to conduct Pecae 7 Sxzo. 50.] THE PROCESS OF MAKING SUGAR AND MOLASSES. 839 sap into each as fast as it boils away. It is too much work and exposure to heat to dip from one kettle into another, and nothing is gained by it. When we first start our four kettles, we can boil away two barrels an hour. After the sap gets sweet, it will not boil away so fast. We boil in about enough for ten pounds to each kettle, and then boil down to sirup, strain off, wash and scour the kettles, and fill up again. By boiling too long we lose time and spoil the sirup. Great care must be used to keep the sirup clean. If necessary, use milk or eggs to clarify with. I do not recommend claying sugar, and all for sale I make in cakes—it brings more.” 926. The Furnace and Setting Pans.—Build two straight walls as long as all the pans you will use, and a little less wide apart than the width of your pan, raising at the end of each pan so that the second will discharge the juice through a cock or spout closed by a valve or cheap gate. Where the ends-of the two pans meet, there must be a flat stone, or brick-work, or iron plate. There is-no occasion to build the pans fast in the furnace—they are more convenient movable. If you have pans enough to use up all the heat in its passage under them to the chimney, you will be surprised to see how rapidly the water evaporates. You must fill in the bottom of the flue so as to keep the fire up to the bottom of the last pan. 927. The Process of Making Sugar and Molasses.—When the sap is boiled to the right point, which experiences teaches, draw it from the last pan and strain it through flannel, or cloth of somewhat close texture, into.a clean kettle or tub, and let it cool. The tub is the best, with a cock half an inch above the bottom, so as to draw off the clear liquor, leaving the sediment that passed through the strainer to be re-filtered. In the decanted liquor, put a quart of milk, or, still better, a pint of milk and two or three eggs to ten gallons, and heat slowly and skim carefully. The eggs should be well beaten with the milk, and thoroughly stirred into the sirup before it is heated. The kettle should not be over half full, and should be on a crane so as to swing off suddenly, or if set in an arch, with a furnace door and damper, by which the fire could be controlled in an instant, as upon this depends success; and great care is necessary to prevent scorching after the sirup begins to grow waxy, from which time until it is sufficiently boiled, the fire must be very gentle and under control. Waxy sirup will make drained sugar, leaving a considerable residue of molasses to be re-boiled or kept for use. Brittle, waxy sirup is required to make cake sugar. For dry grained sugar the sirup must be concentrated before stirring, until when dropped. upon snow and snddenly cooled, it is nearly as brittle as rosin. To make white sugar, the sirup when strained must be passed through animal charcoal several feet thick. Viltering through pulverized burned bones—animal chareoal—removes the coloring matter and other impurities. Charcoal is a purifier and acts both chemically and mechanically, but when made of wood it absorbs and wastes the sirup. Sand is only a mechanical strainer. Neither will injure the quality of the sirup, but only animal charcoal can be recommended. 840 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuap. X. Sugar is also made white by filtering white sugar through it, in draining molds. That is simply mechanical—washing the molasses from the grains. It is also whitened by covering the molds with a coat of plastic clay. Whitening is not at all important, if the sirup is well strained and clarified with albumen, and the sugar not scorched. It will then be rich, clean, and possessed of that delicious maple flavor that constitutes its greatest value, whether white or brown. Waste nothing. Wash all the sweet out of everything, and reconcentrate. Study economy in everything. Upon this alone depends the success of sugar-making. Do not suffer a hand employed in your sugar camp to ever carry such deadly weapons as guns and rum bottles, nor articles so destrue- tive to suecess as cards, dice, dominoes, and novels. You must watch and work, and then you need not doubt success. Sugar-making is pleasant, healthy, hard work. A camp is no place for lounging. . While boiling, large quantities of sap should not be poured in at a time, as that will stop the boiling and make irregular work; but a reservoir should be placed above the boiler, into which a faucet should be inserted, and the sap allowed to run in a constant stream, which a little practice will enable the operator to regulate to correspond exactly with the evaporation. A stop-cock should also be placed in the boiler to draw off the sirup. A correspondent writes from Windsor, Vt., as follows: “Two sheet-iron pans, four feet long and two feet wide, set in a brick arch, one forward of the’ other, will be sufficient for a sugar orchard of 300 trees, and will boil the sap to sirup in about twelve hours. Put the sirup, after straining through flannel, into a cask, and let it stand two days. Then draw it off and boil it down in one of the pans. I liave seen sugar made in this way as white as loaf sugar. In my opinion, milk or eggs should never be put in sirup, as I can not see why any advantage should result from it; and I know it has been practiced with injury to the sugar, and waste, as considerable sweet is thrown out with the milk and egg.” We can not see how the milk and eggs can injure the sugar, since the office of any albuminous substance added to the sirup is simply to gather up and hold all such impurities in such a manner that they can be easily re- moved. In short, dirt that is so fine that it can not be strained out will attach itself to the white of an egg, so that it can be lifted out with a skim- mer as easily as a potato. There is no need of waste of any sweet, because it can all be washed out in sap or partly concentrated sirup. 928. Making Sugar on a Small Scale,—J. Herrick, of Lyndeborough, N. H., wrote to us in 1857 as. follows: “ My orchard consists of seventy-five trees of second growth, scattered along walls or in a pasture of fifteen acres. I tap with a three-fourth-inch auger four feet from the ground, and hang the bucket by a ring, on a hook driven into the tree so close to the spout that the wind will not waste the sap. I tap at this hight that cattle can not dis- turb the bucket. Some might object on the ground that the lower a tree is tapped the more sap will run. This is not the fact, for the sap will flow as Szo. 50.) THE PROCESS OF MAKING SUGAR AND MOLASSES. 841 freely by cutting off a eats ebitat as it will from a root of the same size laid bare in the ground. And again, any one may learn this fact from the red squirrel, who, by the way, is a famous sugar-maker, and knows when to tap a tree and where to do it. He performs his tapping in the highest per- pendicular limbs or twigs, and leaves the sun and wind to do the evaporat- ing, and in due season and pleasant weather you will sce him come round and with great gusto gather his sirup into his stomach. “JT make only molasses, and clarify in the following manner: I take the sirup when of proper consistence, and while hot strain through a thick cloth into the, kettle for clarifying; and when cool, for every four gallons put in one egg and a half pint of new milk, well buster together and mixed with the sirup. Let no further agitation = had by stirring. Raise the heat grad- ually to boiling point, and all the impurities will rise at once to the surface, and must be quickly removed with a skimmer as long as any comes up; this will leave a sirup perfectly clear, to be evaporated either to molasses or sugar. If the egg and milk are put into the sirup when hot, the albumen of each is charred so that it will form no adhesion with the impurities, and of course will not rise together to the surface. I think that the rapid evap- oration of the sap, in sheet-iron pans, will make a more clear and light-coiored sirup than when done in deep, thick kettles; at any rate, it can be done at half the expense of time and wood. Mine has been a small enterprise com- pared with many in this town who have orchards that number three or four hundred trees. Six years ago I constructed a building for boiling, the whole, including a brick furnace and sheet-iron pan for evaporating, at a cost of $20; 75 buckets cost $10, which makes the whole capital $30. My son has done all the labor of gathering and boiling this season, at a cost, including ox help, of $8. I have used 1} cords of hemlock wood at $1 75 per cord, $2 62; and have made 29 gallons of molasses of a consistence that it shall not ferment in the hottest of weather. This is selling here at this time for $1 34 per gallon. The result of fay orchard is as follows: Interest on cap- ital, $1 80; labor, $8; wood, $2 62; total, $12 42. 29 gallons molasses at $1 34; total, $38 86. Dedueting labor, La and oy leaves $26 44, as the result of about eight days’ labor? Maple sugar-making Si truly a domestic institution. A woman in Van Buren County, Mich., made 61 lbs. of sugar and 2 gallons of molasses from 13 trees, the sap of which she boiled on the cooking stove. From 290 trees, in the above county, one family made 1,800 lbs. of sugar and 40 gallons of molasses. From 90 trees, another family made 400 lbs., besides a supply of molasses for family use. One Vermont boy, 16 years old, in a camp of 163 trees, not favorably located, but with good appliances, made 600 lbs. of sugar. One of his neighbors made 20 lbs. of sugar one season from one tree. From 62 trees tapped late in the season, two small boys, with a kettle on a crotch and pole to concentrate the sap to sirup, made 321 Ibs. of sugar. One man made $75 worth of sugar from trees that he planted for shade along the walls. Another man ‘epned a few trees left in the clearing near the ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuap. X. house, and his wife made sugar and sirup enough for the family all the year. A letter from Hughesville, Pa., says: “ Myself and brother, two beys, have made 400 Ibs. of sugar, besides molasses, this season, carrying our wood and sap mostly without team, or any sugar-house, or any conveniences, and losing a good deal of sap, besides suffering the want of dry wood.” 929. Is Maple Sugar-Making Profitable ?—Manlius Engle, of West Almond, Alleghany County, New York, says he has been a sugar-maker all his life, and that the business is not only pleasant and health-invigorating, but profit- able. He says: “The average from 200 trees during the past six seasons has been 1,300 pounds, and the net profits have averaged $125 per season. During the season that has just closed, 3,200 pounds of hard caked sugar have been manufactured from 300 trees, and sold in Angelica at 123 cents per pound. This gives $400 as the gross proceeds of the season, from which deduct the following: Two months’ labor by self, at $22 per month One months labor of VOKe OF OXED 04.00. mere oie ccia sip 3.0 6 s/n nine ecigheee elaim 18 00 Paid for cutting 24 cords of wood Half the interest on 20 acres of land, at $10 per acre Interest and wear on sugar apparatus For clarifiers, correctives, and incidental expenses Total expense........... SUGARS ae AMOR Ded ese ato domes gagkree $94 90 Net profit “The sugar orchard from which the above results were obtained is located on the summit of a ridge about 1,400 feet above Lake Ontario, and consists of 300 trees, mostly of large size, scattered over about twenty acres of ground, the soil of which is a deep yellow loam resting on a gray slate bottom. I boiled five kettles, and every twelve hours boil one kettle down to thin mo- lasses, which is stored in barrels. I use milk and white of eggs, and a tea- spoonful of saleratus in each kettle. From my experience, others may see what one man can do in the maple-sugar business. The reason why so many fail to make it remunerative is want of diligence and economy. There is no use for rifles, cards, dice, dominoes, novels, or rum bottles in a sugar camp. A tree should never be cut or bored more than two inches deep. Taking the average of years, 30 maple-trees will supply a family of six persons, and there are but few farmers that have not or might not have that number of trees without cost for land.” A sugar-maker of Monkton, Vt., gives the following results to show the profit of sugar-making in that section: Dr. To 3} cords of 4 feet seasoned maple wood, at $2 per cord Labor—4 days preparing, tapping, cleaning up, and 16 days collecting, [iota ee amr ereN Baar ORM SrSriac nacatioge Amb e Ae Sticco. co8ton Interest on capital in boiling-house, tubs, and pans, at 10 per cent Interest on 5 acres of land, at $50 per acre ($250), at 10 per cent Cr. By 800 Ibs. of sugar (allowing 7 Ibs. of sugar to each of the 3 gallons of mo- lasses made), at 12} cents per pound Src. 5v. | PREPARING SUGAR FOR MARKET. 843 ww The above crop was made from 195 trees, the largest of 500 second-growth trees, such as were not used in 1856, tapped with a five-eighth-inch auger, and the sap boiled in four sheet-iron pans, 24 by 28 inches, 4 inches deep ; one of which was, by way of experiment, covered, with very beneficial results. ” 930. How Much will Maple-Trees Produce ?—The yield of the spring of 1858 in Vermont was estimated by one writer at a trifle less than three pounds per tree, which, he says, is the average of years, and that the yield of 1857 was extraordinary, and perhaps without precedent, being over five pounds per tree. A sugar orchard of 100 trees, belonging to Wm. Searls, Eaton County, Mich., yielded one spring 950 Ibs. of sugar, at the rate of 9} lbs. toa tree. In Vermont, thirteen sugar orchards (1,600 trees) in Randolph made 6,100 Ibs. of sugar. Wm. Davis, of Pittsfield, made 1,000 Ibs. from 153 trees. LL. Carpenter, Rutland, made 1,000 lbs. from 160 trees. One sugar orchard that has been eighty years in use, tapped with a three-quarter auger, one spout to a tree, yields each 6 lbs. Another orchard, tapped with two or three spouts, yields but 31 lbs. per tree, in consequence of injury from long time over-working. In Hancock, J. G. Robinson made 2,362 Ibs. from 225 trees. A sugar place in Washington, Mass., containing 100 trees, owned by L. Johnson, produced one season 975 lbs. of clean, nice sugar, nearly one half of which sold for 16 and 18 cents per pound. The sugar was made by Mr. Arannah Mattoon, of Washington, aged 69 years. From a moderate-sized tree, standing in open ground in front of the residence of the Rev. David King, of Vernon, Trumbull County, Ohio, his wife made 34 lbs. of very fine sugar one season. It is thought if all the sap had been carefully saved it would have given 40 lbs. 931. Ratio of Sugar te Sap.—A letter before us gives the ratio of sugar to maple sap as follows: Sap concentrated 30 times makes what we call good sirup, and this sirup concentrated three eighths makes grained sugar, hard enough when taken out of a jar to require a stiff knife, which, as I calculate, is that sap concentrated 50 times in sugar. 1 quart water weighs........... 2 Ibs. 2 oz. | 1 quart sirup weighs..... v.....2 Tbs. 8 oz. 1 quart sap weighs............. 2 Ibs. 1 oz. | 1 quart sugar weighs.......... 2 Ibs. 9 oz. 932. Preparing Sugar for Market.—Large quantities for the New York market are made in cakes. The size and shape of the cakes will often make a difference of one or two cents a pound. We advise all who intend to make sugar for sale, to provide a set of tin molds, so as to make well-proportioned, square-sided cakes, in paralellogram form, of exact, marked weights, from ten pounds—never larger—down to four ounces, or perhaps twelve and twenty-four cakes to the pound, for retailers to sell at one and two cents each. Sugar made as directed and cast in such cakes, and those packed nicely in boxes and sent to commission houses here, can always be sold at high prices, and when the maker becomes known, his sugar will be espe- cially in demand. One sugar-maker thinks it is not profitable to make cake sugar. He says: * 844 ROOT CROPS AND SUGAR CROPS. [Cuap. X. Saeieae aaa aad “Jt is better not to make it into cakes at all, except for those that are near market or have an agent there, and then only in the first of the season, when it brings a high price. It is true that sugar made into cakes brings a higher price to the retailer, when sold by the cent’s worth, as it often is, at the rate of twenty-five or thirty cents per pound, but the producer gets no more, nor as much, counting the extra work, to say nothing of the shrinkage there is in concentrating the sirup into sugar, as he would for drained sugar. By drained sugar, I do not mean this black, hard stuff which we sometimes see in market, but sugar as light as the best white Havana, and nearly as white as refined sugar, and which can be made without any filtering process by boiling in copper boilers and clarifying with milk and eggs. ~~ “T have searely ever made a hundred pounds of sugar in any one season in any other way, and the result was I got from twelve to seventeen cents a pound, while my neighbors got but ten cents. But this is not all the loss in making it into cakes; every one knows that has had experience, that there is a loss in shrinkage of from three to five per cent. in the process of evap- orating the water in the usual way, and the lower the sirup is concentrated, in the same proportion is the loss or shrinkage, so the difference is from one and a half to two per cent. in favor of strained sugar, while it is almost im- possible to concentrate the sirup to dry-grained sugar without scorching or destroying its flavor. From actual experience I find the result as follows: “Suppose 100 lbs. of sugar in the cake to be worth $10, the same made into drained will give you 87 Ibs. dry white sugar worth 12 cts., $10 44; 1} gallons molasses worth 75 ets. per gallon, or 6} ets. per 1b., $1 123; making a total of $11 561—showing $1 56! per hundred in favor of drained sugar.” 933. Plant Maple-Trees.—It appears to us that we have said enough to induce reasonable men to plant maple-trees. If exposed, you can tap them above the reach of animals, and hang your buckets as we have directed, and the flow will be just as great as though tapped down at the roots. No tree can be planted with more certainty of profit than the sugar maple. Its form and foliage are beautiful; its shade delightful; its sap delicious and healthful in all stages, from the water that flows from the tree to its honey- like sirup on the hot buckwheat cakes; and its sweet products, if made as we have directed, will always be salably profitable. Maple sirup would outsell the very best golden sirup at any time in this city, if it were here for sale; and maple sugar is sold, tuns of it, every year in the confectioner’s shops and in the street, to be eaten like candy, at 30 to 50 cents a pound. There will always be a market for any surplus that the country can produce, but that is not the grand object with us in urging its increased production. It is because it will greatly increase home happiness—the farmer’s home. It is for that that we ask you to plant at least one maple-tree. CTR RT WR ED. FORESTS AND FENCES. are MERICA will soon be denuded of forests, unless we plant trees. Woodland in the oldest States is searce and dear, and but for coal, fuel would be almost beyond the reach of the city poor. We should plant trees for timber, if not for fuel, and to improve the health of those regions naturally desti- tute of trees, for they are capable of changing arid wastes to fruitfulness. Stripping the land of wood has produced great changes within the short period since the Pilgrims landed. England is already plant- ing trees. How long before America must follow her example? Let us consider. 934. What Trees for a Plantation.—To break the prevailing wind, there is no better tree than our con.- mon white oak, and none that looks more cheerful in winter. Its bleached leaves still adhering to the branches have a warm look and give an idea of shelter. Maples of all sorts are positively beautiful in green foliage, or after the leaves are variegated by autumn frosts. Black and white walnuts are both handsome and hardy, and produce fruit very agreeable to the children. Elms are good trees, and give us a pleasing impression of strength as their long limbs wave through the air. Chestnuts make a fine addition to a plan- tation, but their blossoms and burs are objectionable near the house. Hick- ory-trees should never be neglected in filling up a plantation; they can be transplanted by going the year before and cutting the tap-root. If you would attract birds to your lawn, you must plant cherry-trees here and there. In planting, let the rule be to put all small growing trees nearest the house, rising gradually to the highest in the back ground. 935. Adaptation of Trees to Particular Locations.—In all tree planting, adaptation should be kept prominently in view. The kind of tree best adapted to one situation would be the worst in another. The coniferous tribe—pines, firs, larch, spruce, hemlock, cedars—as a general thing, are best adapted to exposed situations and to barren sands. A sandy soil usually contains the food best adapted to trees like the pine. There is no part of the United States that does not produce several varieties and species of valuable and hardy conifera. But the tree which is most hardy and best adapted to ee 846 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar. XI. a particular locality is not necessarily indigenous to it. This is evidenced in the case of the ailanthus, a tree that grows vigorously in the crevices of rocks, or in drifting sands, or in the city pavements. Its growth upon New York island is unequaled by any other tree. Its roots are some- times thirty fect in length, and it has a trunk and branches of correspond- ing size after it has been planted only afew years. It was brought here from the South Sea Islands, where it seems to be completely at home in dry banks of coral sand. This tree, not only because it grows so rapidly, but because it makes excellent fuel, and because it originated upon a sandy sea- coast, will probably prove one of the most valuable in the world for coast planting. If not so much so as the pine, it will doubtless serve well as a first growth, acting as a nurse to pines, larch, or cedar. Another rapidly growing foreign tree in all the Southern States is known as the China-tree, the wood of which makes excellent cabinet work. An objection to it as a street shade-tree is the abundant crop of berries, which no animal will eat. The objection to the ailanthus is the odor of its blossoms, which may be ob- viated by propagating with grafts from trees which bear pistillate flowers, as the odor only comes from the pollen of staminates. Another hardy foreign tree is the paper mulberry, from China and Japan, where its inner bark is used for the manufacture of paper, and also for cloth- ing. In the heat and dust of New York there is no tree that keeps so per- fectly clean, fresh, and free from dirt, impurities, and insects as this. In planting hills, mountains, or sloping sea-coasts, there is one rule that admits of few exceptions. Plant around the bottom first, and as planting at intervals of a few years is continued, and the summit is gradually approach- ed, the lower and older trees act as a screen, and produce moisture and an amelioration of the atmosphere that are certain to serve as a protection to those on the highest and most exposed ground. Sometimes one sort only will be adapted to a given locality, but as a rule, there are several advan- tages in planting two or three species at once. It is not always possible to know which of several is best. Sometimes one species will grow fast, and will form a nurse for a slower-growing, longer-lived, and more valuable tree, which will remain after the first has disappeared. For house surroundings, which add greatly to the beauty, comfort, and health of a place, and for roadside planting, we will give the names of a few hardy trees. ; 936. Descriptive List of Hardy Trees.—Norway Marre.—This is one of the finest of all deciduous shade-trees. A round-headed, Jensely-leaved, vigorous and healthy tree, with deep green foliage, one of the first to come in leaf in the spring, and among the last to drop in autumn, succeeded after a frost by hues of the most beautiful colors. It is far superior to the popular silver maple, which affords by no means so dense a shade, and which is liable to breakage of limbs in every high wind. To make a good shade-tree of the silver maple, in the country, it should have a rich soil, inclined to moisture, and be liberally headed back. Sro. 51.] DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF TREES. 847 Suear Marte (Acer saccharinum).—One of the chief beauties of this tree is in the very graceful appearance it presents with its straight, slim trunk, when surmounted by its dense and regularly formed head of green. Rather slow in growth, late in putting out, in autumn foliage deep orange and red. Swamp Marre.—A native, and a very pretty tree on a lawn with its scarlet flowers and fruit, but liable to persistent attacks of the borer. Tur Asues are not general favorites. They are late in putting forth, among the first to drop their leaves, and liable to the borer. Brack Warnur (Juglans nigra) is worthy of a place in the farmer’s yard, both for shade and fruit. Pattonra Inprrtauis, of Japan. A few years since a rare tree, and one which has been greatly over-estimated. It is a rapid grower, closely allied in habit and appearance to the catalpa, but becomes a much. larger tree. Has a large leaf, with a light blue flower of a peculiarly disagreeable odor, but which perfumers use. Like the catalpa, it is late in putting out, and among thie first to drop its leaves ; accumulates much litter during the sea- son, has an ugly seed pod which hangs on the whole year, and withal pre- sents during half the year a bare- aried, desolate appearance. Sassarras (Laurus sassafras).—One of the prettiest of our small native or foreign trees. The suckers which it is liable to throw up, and which have caused most persons to object to it as a lawn tree, are easily kept down. Honey Locusr (Gleditschia triacanthus).—A tree of most rapid growth, but with thin foliage, and therefore a poor shade-tree, and very liable to attacks of the borer—throws up a great many suckers, and is apt to lose its limbs in a high wind. Tui Portar (Liriodendron tulipifera).—Slow of growth and difficult to transplant, but one of the noblest of our many noble-looking American trees. In planting trees, a common error we make is to plant them too near the house, or walk, or road, or fence, forgetting to allow for the growth of the tree in after-years. Evrerererns.—The Norway spruce (Abies excelsa) is one of the most healthy, rapid growing, and handsome trees, and never much out of place wherever planted. Tur Score Pryz or Fir (Pinus sylvestris)—A rapidly growing, rather coarse-looking tree, but of a very fine dark hue after passing its youthful days. It is liable to lose some of its limbs after a heavy sleet or snow. Being of coarse habit, it looks best at a distance from the house or road. Strver Fir.—A fine ornamental tree with its horizontal limbs and bright silvery foliage. Barsam Fir.—Very ftanddsatne in its youth, but with age, in exposed places, loses its beauty. Hemiock Spruce.—Perhaps the most beautiful and graceful of all ever- greens, but not as great a favorite as the Norway spruce. Tue Curstrnut (Castanea) is one of the most valuable trees that we know 848 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar. XI- of, and it is easily grown from seeds. If they are packed in sand as soon as mature, they may be transported a long distance, and should be planted in pots or seed beds. Tue Yettow Locust (Lobinia pseudacacia) is a very valuable timber tree, which can be grown from the seeds, no matter how old they are, if scalded in boiling lye. Linpen, or Basswoop (Tilia Americana), is a beautiful but neglected tree. The large leaves on its branches make it an agreeable shade in summer, and in the spring its profusion of blossoms, so grateful to the bees, make it a desirable tree to plant around dwellings and pleasure-grounds. 937. What Has Been Done in Planting Forest Trees.—Amos Otis, of Yar- mouth, Mass., is an extensive and successful planter of pine-trees, and he gives the following valuable information upon the subject. He says: “I commenced planting the pitch pine in 1832, as an experiment, and have since planted 200 acres. The growth is very slow at first, but after the third year the average annual increase in hight is about one foot. Ihave some lots that have averaged a foot and a half upon land that had been worn out by repeated crops without manure. A sandy, or a sandy loam soil—one that is too poor to sward over thickly with grass—is best. Lands that produce no vegetation are unfit. The young trees at first require some protection, and will not succeed in a loose, barren sand. March is the best month for planting. I have a machine with which a man and a horse can plant six acres a day. It plows a small furrow, drops and covers the seed, at once passing along. “Those wishing to plant pine seed can take a plow and make parallel fur- rows about six feet apart, and with a machine, used for planting beets or onions, run along in the bottom of the furrows, dropping three or four seeds in a place and about a foot apart, covering them not more than half an inch. If all the seeds vegetate, there will be ten times as many trees as can grow on the land; but they will die out in the course of a dozen years. When I was short of seed, I put the rows eight or ten feet apart, and drop- ped the seed about three feet apart in the rows. I have paid from $1 to $2 per acre for the land, and the seed and planting have cost me about.the same sum per acre. Adding interest, I have about doubled the money invested. It is a small business, I confess; but the world is made up of small affairs. “When I commenced planting, my neighbors laughed at me, but now they are all planting their old fields. At Middleborough the farmers are plant- ing their worn-out soils with the white pine, which is of very rapid growth. When planting with my machine, I rub off the wings and clean the seed. If you plant yours by hand, you should not rub off the wings.” The pine extensively planted on the seashores of France and Italy is the Pinus maritima. There are two other species: the Pinus larico, or Corsican pine; and the Pinus Calabriensis, or Calabrian pine, which is also a lofty and beautiful tree, with wide-spreading branches and long foli- age, and both these species are vigorous, very hardy, and of quick growth. So. 51.] WHY AND WHEN TO PLANT TREES. 849 ~~ The French Government has planted immense forests of the American cy- press (Taxodium distichum), obtaining the seeds from this country. In Germany, American pines and other American forest trees were plant- ed, many years since, and immense quantities of their seeds are furnished thence, to supply all Europe. Holland has spent many thousands of dollars in importations of seeds from this country. 938. Why and When to Plant Trees.—Now is the time, no metter when you read this article, now is the time to begin to plant the seed, buy the trees, cut the grafts, put in the buds, prune the branches, prepare the ground, dig the holes, or do something connected with the business of planting, trans- planting, or growing trees. If no more, plant one tree—only one; it is all we ask; it is a small job, a mere trifle of labor for an idle moment; a moment that may be spent in worse than idle occupation ; a moment that if spent in planting a tree, might be the means of raising a monument to your name, or a monument to mark a point of history in the country, like that of the Charter Oak, so renowned, so honored in the history of Connecticut. Trne, that was planted by One who needs no monument, yet has them by the million; One whom we should imitate; One whom we may honor by the work of our hands, for with them we can build a home for the birds and a shade from burning suns for beasts, besides gratifying the eye of man with new beauties—the beauty of trees with green leaves and flowers and fruit. Therefore we want every hand in which the warm blood of manly life flows to plant a tree—one tree. Not while the ice and snow hold dominion all over our Northern region, but while there is time to think, to promise, to determine, to begin to warm into life yourself, or else you never will come to the point of bringing into life one tree. While you sit around your warm winter fires, which you would not have without the products of trees, while you look out upon the almost tree- less landscape; while, if you live in towns, you see a hundred brick houses where you see one tree; while, if you live in the country, you see mile after mile of lanes, and remember that last summer there was not a single shade in gll that distance; and while, too, you read of the scarcity and high price of fruit, think how many more trees you might grow if they were once planted. We conjure you to resolve now, to-day, this moment, that when the ice melts and the ground softens, and the spring birds begin to sing, that you will plant a tree—one more tree; either for fruit, or shade, or ornament ; and let it grow free shade, free flowers, free fruit, in a free soil, and let it be the Tree of Freedom. Do not restrict the planting to the head of the family, but let every man, woman, and child plant a tree—a tree to mark the date of the passing year. Think of it; do not let the year pass without adding one more to our cultivated trees—one more monument to remind you of fleeting time; one more guide-mark by the roadside of life, that may in future years give you new aspirations of love for a free country, and for a people who planted trees. Plant them by the roadside—plant them in yards, streets, lanes, lots— 54 850 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cnar. XI. Dae ten ~~ — wherever you can find room for a tree to give shade or bear fruit. There is no better time than November to plant hardy fruit-trees, and every hun- dred dollars that may be spent in planting such trees along the highway of a farm that has a public traveled road running through it will add a thoa- sand dollars to the selling price of that farm twenty years hence. Take up large trees with plenty of roots, and plant them as though you intended them to grow, and they will grow. The public seem to need to be constantly reminded that trees will not grow where they are wanted unless they are first planted. All love fruit—all love shade—everybody admires flowers and green foliage, and even bare branches in winter are beautiful, yet how few lay the foundation of after-years of enjoyment by planting trees, shrubs, vines, for fruit, flowers, or shade! or shade-trees, the maple, elm, oak, wal- nut, butternut, hickory, locust, sycamore, willow, pine, cedar, fir, American tulip-tree, silver-leafed poplar, for the Northern States; adding the holly, magnolia, live oak, and orange at the South. Remember, too, that cherry and apple trees make magnificent shade-trees, and that so far as possible in setting roadside and pasture shade-trees, either those which bear fruit or nuts should always be preferred. And lastly, remember that nothing adds more to the value of a place than trees, and nothing gives beauty to a coun- try equal to shaded roads. 939. How to Plant Trees.—This is the way. Whether for fruit or shade, prepare your ground well before you attempt to put a tree in its place. Always dig your holes deep and wide, and no matter if the work is done a year before you want to use them. A little freshening with the spade and some loose soil in the bottom will be found by experience just what your tree wants to make it grow. Make it a rule never to injure a single root that you can save in taking a tree out of the ground for the purpose of trans- planting, and never buy a tree that has been taken up without some regard to the importance of having plenty of roots and a moderate amount of top branches. Some trees and shrubs, such as the willow, sycamore, or currant, will grow from a mere stick cut from atop branch and stuck in the ground, while a hickory, or oak, or long-leaf pine can only be transplanted by first cutting the long tap-root while it is growing, and then letting it stand long enough to form new short roots, which must all be moved with the tree, with as much soil as possible adhering; or by what is termed a ball of earth secured to the roots by freezing or mechanical means. If your ground is stony, lay a floor of stone around your tree; if not, cover up the surface with straw, old hay, or leaves, or small bushes. This is called mulching, and is one of the most useful things you can do to promote the growth of your trees. In planting an orchard, the whole tract should be deeply plowed and manured as a preliminary step. Land is seldom too rich for young trees. Ten per cent. of the nursery trees die from bad packing and being long out of the ground, and a vast number are killed by that stupid practice of trim- Szo. 51.) TRANSPLANTING EVERGREENS IN THE SUMMER. ming off all the roots and branches. If your soil is thin, make it deep by plow- ing and digging deep holes and carting rich earth to fill them. If your soil is stiff clay, change its character before you try to grow trees in it. If your soil is wet, you may grow swamp elms and maples, or water willows, or sycamore-trees, but it is labor lost to try to grow fruit-trees, for they will not live in water. Nothing tends more to the growth of young trees than underdraining ; and if the tiles are placed five feet deep, as they always should be, there is but little danger of their being closed soon by the roots. Trees in their growth should be fed with pabulum for the formation of wood and fruit. There is nothing better than potash; even coal ashes are bene- ficial. Any kind of decaying wood will give food to growing trees. The pruned branches of a tree should never be carried off the land. Pile them and let them rot, or spread them around the tree. Water your young trees every night ina drouth. If possible, wet the tops as well as the roots. The earth should always be wet when the trees are planted. Mulching serves to keep them moist. Trees that are transplanted with such tops as all trees should always have, must be supported by stakes to insure speedy growth. 940. Where to Plant Trees.——There are so few situations where a tree may not be planted, that it appears almost unnecessary to discuss the subject as to where it should be planted; but there is one position upon every farm which, more than any other, will pay for tree planting. “This is by the roadside. If it is a public road, so much the better; it will pay upon any of the farm roads. We have never seen a tree-lined highway through a farm without being impressed with the idea that its value was enhanced much more than the cost of the labor of planting. We have a vivid recol- lection of one of this kind, in the farm owned by John Jay, in Westchester Co., N. Y., the roads through which are lined by noble elms, planted by his grandfather, whose name is famous in American history. Let us add our mite of honor in recording the fact that a great and good man planted trees by the roadside. Let all boys, who would emulate so good a man as John Jay in all his life, follow his example and plant trees by the roadside. Do not listen to the selfish proposition that some land owners urge against planting trees along the road, that it shades and injures the crops. It is only so to a limited extent, where hoed crops are cultivated. If the shade is objectionable on one side of the road, it would not be so on the other. Besides the highway and farm roads, where trees may be planted, there are always nooks and corners about a farm that would support a few trees, all of which would add to its value, for they would add to its beauty ; and it is that which makes a farm salable. So we entreat you to teach your children to plant trees. Among other things, teach them their common and scientific names. 941. Transplanting Evergreens in the Summer.—One writer says: “In the very hot weather of July, 1856, I set to work ten men to remove old evergreens, viz., yews, Jumpers, arbutus, laurestines, and Portugal and common laurels from four to ten feet high. I made a hole first, not deep, = FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cnar. XI. but sufficiently wide to allow all the roots to be laid out straight. In the removal I cared but little for the ball of earth, but aimed to get all the small roots possible. In its new home, cover the roots with fine soil, and tread a little to make the plant stand upright. Then fill up the hole with water, and fill in the soil around the hole carefully as the water sinks away. Next day tread the soil somewhat firmly, after which make a ridye all round the edge of the hole,in order, as it were, to form a dish; fill this with water three times during three successive days, then level the ridge down, cover- ing the mud over with soil. After this no more water is required at the roots; if the weather be dry, syringe the shrubs overhead three or four evenings. Young laurels are treated the same as the large shrubs, except that they get no syringing. In my opinion the months of July and August are the very best for removing valuable large evergreens. Treated carefully as above they are sure to grow, and they get hold of the soil immediately, for the earth is like a hot-bed, into which the young roots soon enter.” Another one says: “The best time to transplant evergreens is when the tree begins to push its cones, or a little after. From the middle of April to June, in this latitude, is a good period. A calm, warm, cloudy day should be chosen for transplanting. The roots of an evergreen should never be al- lowed to get dry, or become chilled when taken up. It is the exposure of the roots to such fhfluences that kills so many of these trees. Care also should be taken to save all the roots. They are more injured by cutting the roots than other trees.” 942. Buried Seed of Antediluvian Trees.—The following statement of facts made by the late Judge Burnett, of Ohio, in his ‘ Notes on the Northwest Territory,” says: “In the year 1802, a well was dug at Cincinnati, within the central Indian circle, in which, at the depth of 93 feet, two stumps were found, one about a foot and the other about eighteen inches in diameter, standing in the position in which they grew. Their roots were yet sound, and extended from them horizontally and regularly in every direction. The surface of the earth over the place where they were found was 112 feet above the present low-water mark of the Ohio River. They must have grown on the spot where they were found. There is another fact connected with this subject worthy of notice. Before the well was dug, not a mul- berry-tree had been growing on the premises, though they were found in the neighboring forest; yet the next season they sprang up wherever the ex- cavated earth had been spread, in such numbers as made it necessary to destroy them, and they continued thus to shoot up for a year or two, though not one made its appearance on the remote parts of the lot, to which the excavated earth had not been carried. This fact produced the belief that one of them must have been the stump of a mulberry.” 943. The Age of Trees.—The age of trees is a marvelous and interesti1.y study. While there are some species that pass quickly away, others live to generations that knew not their planting. The elm has been known to live 350 years; the chestnut, 600; the cedar, 800; the oak from 1,000 to 1,500 ; Szo. 51.] VALUE OF TREES IN CITIES. the yew, 3,200, and the California giants are estimated from 3,000 to 5,000 years. The Charter Oak at Hartford, Ct., by estimate, was 945 years old, measuring nine feet across four feet from the ground. If we take this as a fair sample of the growth of oaks, a tree should be about fifteen feet in cir- eumference to be five hundred years old. The Rhodes’ Oak,” in Stonington, Ct., measures about 21 feet in cir- cumference, and has an age according to the Charter Oak standard, of 735 years. All over the country there are other “remarkable old trees.” In the city of New York there is one known as the Stuyvesant pear-tree. It was so venerable when the farm, where it was planted, was laid out into lots and streets, that the corporation inclosed it with an iron fence, and it is now, October, 1862, still alive, and three years ago it bore fruit, at which time the tree was supposed to be fully 210 years old. It stands at the corner of Third Avenue and Thirteenth Street. 944. Value of Trees in Cities——An eminent London physician expresses it as his opinion, that if all the trees and shrubs were removed from the two or three thousand acres of parks, and from the gardens and private grounds of the great metropolis, in one year the bills of mortality would show an in- crease of deaths to the extent of more than fifty per cent. If we consider that there are ordinarily ia London over 1,000 deaths a week, or nearly 60,000 a year, that the deaths by cholera in 1849, during the worst period of the visita- tion, were at no time over 5,000 a week, we see the bearing and influence of trees—according to the opinion quoted—on the health and longevity of the inhabitants of a crowded city. We might as reasonably expect that land animals could live without air, or fish without water, as that there could be a pure and healthy atmosphere where there are few or no trees or rapidly growing plants, or where, in an extended region, animal life vastly preponderates over vegetable life. ‘The winters of Salem (Mass.), instead of having been rendered more mild, as conjectured, from the eradication of the forests, have become colder by 6° Fahr., during the last thirty-three years.” 945. Growing Trees from Seeds—Oaks, Evergreens, Locust, Hickory.— There are now growing in England several very fine plantations of oaks, from acorns planted either by the present owners or their fathers. There is a noted instance in South Carolina, of successful tree planting, by Micajah Buchanan, early in this century. One who visited the place in 1860 thus speaks of it: “There was a lot of six acres of this new forest upon which oaks, pines, hickories, and dogwoods were growing. The pines meas- ured two feet in diameter; fine specimens being free from limbs, and of beautiful and thrifty appearance. Several of the oaks measured twenty-two and twenty-three inches in diameter, and from sixty to seventy feet in hight, smooth and thrifty in growth. Only seed of oaks was planted; the other kinds were self-seeded from the adjoining forest. The success of this ex- periment in growing trees shows how easily they may be reinstated when- ever it is desirable. But we must not leave nature to do what it is our duty to do for ourselves. We should gather the seeds, and prepare the soil for 854 FORESTS AND FENCES. (Cuar. XI. their reception. The soil for a tree nursery should be as good and well worked as a well-cultivate] kitchen garden. The proper way to plant small seeds of forest trees is to pulverize the soil well, and roll it, and then sow the seeds and cover ‘lightly with leaf mold. Great care is required to grow forest trees with success. Care must be taken in selecting soils. No wet soil, nor a ferruginous one, should be chosen. The young trees, too, must be carefully guarded against the depredations of cattle, as all farm stock are fond of young shoots of most forest trees. Sheltered situations should also be selected for the nurseries. Belts of sheltering trees should always be planted in all open places, like the Western prairies. The trees for these belts may be grown from seed, in advance, or purchased, or in some cases brought from their native localities in the forest. Hickory seeds and those of similar trees should be sown in autumn, in drills twelve or fourteen inches apart, and thick in the row, to be thinned out as the trees grow. Squirrels are great pests to the nurseryman, and much care is necessary to guard against their depredations. Manure, and partic- wlarly that made of leaves, is valuable for tree nurseries. So are ashes. Weeds must be exterminated, or they will destroy the young trees. The larch is recommended as a good nurse for other tr@es, as it grows rapidly in almost any soil. Do not plant on a retentive soil in wet weather. It is almost as necessary to keep a new plantation clean for two or three years as it is to keep the nursery clean. Locust seed is difficult to vegetate, owing to the very ard shell which encases the meat. If it is gathered in autumn and mixed with sand, and kept moist, exposed to the weather till spring, it will grow; or if it is soaked several days in hot water just before planting, it will grow. Instead of using hot water, you may use boiling hot lye, and plant the seed at once, and it will vegetate and grow immediately. Evergreen seeds may be treated as follows: Keep the seeds of arbor vite dry and cool till spring, and then plant in fine leaf mold in a shady place. Norway spruce seed, and pine, hemlock, and juniper, should be kept in boxes of sand as it comes from the bank, in a cellar, and next spring plant in shady or half shady spots. If planted in sunny situations, the young plants are apt to perish. If there is no other shade, erect an awning. The juniper family do not vegetate the first year. The common red cedar seed may be made to grow by scalding. The mulberry, which is also rapidly multiplied from seed, was first grown in England in the reign of James I. The white larch, now very abundant, was accidentally taken to Scotland in 1737. Mr. Menzies, of Ouldare, having procured four of these plants from Siberia, gave two to the Duke of Athol, which are still in full vigor at Dun- keld, and may be called the parents of all the larch-trees in the kingdom. The plum-tree was brought from Asia in 1580. The cockspur hawthorn in 1692. The maple-leaved hawthorn was introduced into England from America in the year 1783. . A beautiful variety of the alder was first culti- Sxo. 51.) AN ORNAMENTAL MEDICINAL -TREE. 855 vated in the year 1780, being brought from Switzerland, Siberia, and other cold countries, and the cedar in 1664. Now look at all of these trees in England—how extensively they have spread! “Why,” said one to an old — man who was planting acorns, “why do you plant things that never can benefit you?” “ Because I wish to leave the world better than I found it. If others had not planted trees, I should not have enjoyed their delightful and agreeable shade. I plant trees, that others may have the same pleasures, and sit beneath their outstretching and shady branches. The man who only lives for himself and his lifetime without adding his mite to human enjoy- ment, is worse than the veriest miser; the one leaves his riches, the other nothing but his bones—and those dry and withered.” Is that not a sufficient incentive to every good man to plant trees—at least one acorn ? 946. How Seeds are Diffused.—Many seeds are supplied with a feathery arrangement, which enables them to rise in the atmosphere and diffuse them- selves over creation. This is the case with some of the forest trees, the seeds of which waft upon the wind many miles. Others are water-proof, and float away upon the water. But what if all seeds should grow? Our farms, with all our care, would become a wilderness. 947. A Rare Ornamental and Valuable Medicinal Tree.—Rare only because it is rarely used for ornamental purposes; yet it is uncommonly beautiful, of rapid growth, and hardy, and easy to transplant from its native woods, where it abounds in all the States south of latitude 41°. This tree is famil- iarly known as the Sweet Gum—an accidental name given to distinguish it from the Sour or Black Gum (¢upelo), which is also known in the New Eng- land States by the name of Pepperidge. The scientific name of the Sweet Gum is Liquid Ambar. Both names are appropriate enough. The tree exudes a white wax, odoriferous and soft, which hardens and grows dark, somewhat like amber, by exposure to the air. The tree is one of the very cleanest, so far as regards insects, and its effects upon the earth or air where it flourishes most abundantly, with the exception of covering the ground with its curious fruit, which is about the size of medium “ button-balls,” the fruit of the sycamore (Planus occidentalis). These balls are full of boney- like cells that contain the seeds, which may be planted like those of the pine family. Michaux, the author of that great work the “ North American Sylva,” spoke of this tree as far north as Portsmouth, N. H., but we have rarely seen it north of the city of New York, where some native trees are in Jones’ Wood; it is quite abundant in New Jersey, and especially so in all the cotton-growing States. It abounds also.in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Southern Illinois. It is held in very low repute as a timber tree for the farmer’s use, though it would make good boards for many purposes. It is for shade and ornament/alone that we call attention to it, and in that respect it is deserving of special notice. It is also of great value as a medi- cinal tree. It is esteemed where best known as an infallible specific for all 856 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar. XI. complaints of the nature of diarrhea, for the treatment of which a tea is made of the bark. From what we personally know of its value in such _ cases, we can not speak too highly of it. Hovey, in speaking of this tree, and recommending it, in his magazine, says: “The sweet gum forms a large tree, having somewhat the appearance of a maple, from thirty to fifty feet high, according to the soil and latitude in which it grows; the trunk is straight, nearly uniform in thickness, to the. hight of twenty feet or more, where its branches begin to diverge. The bark of the trees while young is nearly smooth; but as they acquire size and age it becomes thick and deeply furrowed, the secondary branches being covered with a dry, flaky bark, the plates of which are attached at the edge and not on the face, as in other trees. The leaves are smooth and of a yel- lowish green, varying in size from three inches to six inches in diameter, and they are palmate, that is, they are divided into four deeply-cut lobes, resembling in shape a star. The male and female flowers appear on the same tree, the former being rather inconspicuous, while the latter are oval catkins one and a half inches long. These appear in March or April, and are succeeded by a globular fruit, bristling with points, and containing one or two small, blackish, perfect seeds. The leaves change to a deep red, or almost an orange scarlet, immediately after the first frosts, and keep their brilliant color for some time. As the tree is so extensively distributed, so it is found in all varieties of soil, from the dry and gravelly hights of the North to the deep river bottoms of the South and West. On the unpropitious soils it usually does not grow more than twenty or thirty feet high, but in favorable localities it attains its amplest dimensions. Michaux measured a tree which he found growing in a swamp in Augusta, Ga., that was fifteen feet in circumference, with a summit in proportion to the size of the trunk.” The shape of the leaves is much like that of the maple, and the tree is equally hardy and valuable for a shade-tree. When planted in open ground it branches low and forms a spreading top. In England, where it has been introduced as a rare foreign tree, it is much admired. If better known, we think it would be popular here. It might, at least in part, take the place of the omnipresent ailanthus. 948. The Elder—its Virtue.—It is free of insects, and ornamental. It was stated in England, more than sixty years since, that no insect or worm ever harbors upon the common elder (Sambucus), and that it is a protection to all other plants when grown among them. It is stated also that elder leaves scattered upon insect-infested plants will tend to drive away the pests. As a well-trained elder, grown like a tree, is really an ornamental shrub, why not try to grow plums in juxtaposition with the elders? If the plums failed, you would have the elderberries, which make better wine than most of the small fruits used for that purpose. 949. The Sumac.—We perfectly agree with Wilson Flagg, in an article in Loveys Magazine, that sumacs are, among our New England scenery, some of its finest ornaments. The foliage is beautiful in summer, and then come Szo. 51.] THE HAZEL. its bright crimson cones and green leaves; then its rich crimson. tints in autumn, and lastly, the spikes of red berries, that remain after all the high- colored leaves have blown away. There are several varieties of sumac in this country. Mr. Flagg says of that called “Staghorn” (Rhus typhina): “This shrub rises to the dignity of a tree in favorable situations.” Yes, toa dignity, in Mississippi, of a tree that is used for common split fence-rails, at least two ten-feet cuts to a tree. Of another variety, the Rhus radicans, Mr. Flagg says: “Its habits are very similar to those of the Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis), though it seems to have more tenacity, and to fasten itself more permanently to the objects it embraces, It seems to be almost parasitic in its habits; though I believe a branch will not survive the severing of the connection between it and the root. The numerous radicles with which it penetrates the surface of trees and fences, seem adapted only to support, not to nourish, the plant. I regard this as one of the most beautiful woody vines among our indigenous plants. Some may be inclined to give their prefer- ence to the creeper; but the foliage of the creeper is not so elegant, nor does it invest the object on which it clambers with so close and compact a mass of foliage. It would hardly be advisable, however, to encourage its growth, on account of the liability of many persons to be injuriously affected by contact with it, though it possesses these noxious properties in a less degree than the poisonous dogwood. The leaves are in threes, and by this arrangement are readily distinguished from those of the creeper, which are in fives. So small is the danger from this plant, that I should never advise one to destroy it in a favorable spot, when the different objects were fes- tooned with its beautiful green foliage.” This is the plant commonly known as poison ivy, that is so frequently to be found enshrouding an ugly old wall, and giving it the appearance of a live hedge. Its poisonous qualities are not very objectionable. As an orna- mental plant, it is valuable. See where it hides old walls, stumps, and dead trees, making them look alive again. See how it may be used to train over hedges or blank walls of buildings, or cover the boles of tall trees. It is a plant to be used, not despised nor eradicated. 950. The Hazel.—Of all other common bushes—so common as to attract little notice—the hazel (Corylus Americana) is the most neglected shrub, while one of the most worthy of cultivation. Such a modest little bush, too, willing to accept as its share of earth’s surface the corners of zigzag fences, or sides of stone walls, or little nooks about the rocks where the plow can not reach. Sometimes the woodland edges are still further bordered out with hazel, sometimes growing boldly out into grass or up to the corn-rows, and sometimes tapering down from the tallest bushes to mere little timid twigs. This is the bordering of many of the prairie groves; and often we find far out in the sea of grass a solitary oak, surrounded with a flourishing plantation of hazels, invariably standing as a living declaration to the home- seeking emigrant, that here he will find a rich, loamy soil, for in such the American hazel flourishes, and in suitable soil it is found in all the Northern 858 FOREST AND FENCES. [Cuap. XI. and Middle States. Instead of despising and trying to eradicate this pretty little shrub, we would extend its growth by cultivation. As a border of lawn walks, or for a separation of plats, where a high screen is not required, it is the best that we know; for it is a clean-growing one, and can be kept, by cutting out the old wood, continually sending up its new, straight shoots ; and then it is one of the first in spring to put forth its beauties; and what more pleasing sight than its fruit-loaded branches, except it is the squirrels and children that are equally attracted to gather its sweet nuts. We really wish that every unsightly fence or stone wall along the country roads were, as some of them in New England are, hidden with hazel bushes. It need not be said that such thickets would harbor the birds; it is just one of the purposes we wish to promote. 951. To Prevent Forked Trees Splitting —J.T. Moxley, Sheboygan County, Wis., recommends to twist or wind together a few of the smaller limbs above the fork, which will grow in that position as the tree increases in size, and form a natural brace. He states that he has treated many trees successfully in this manner. We have prevented forked trees inclined to split, and even secured those that had already commenced to part, by boring through with an inch auger and driving in a strong wooden pin. A small iron bolt, with a head on one end and a nut on the other end, is even better. The new growth will soon cover the pin or bolt. 952. Timber Made Durable.—We have often seen it stated, that timber to be used for ax-helves, flails, mallets, ox-bows, axles, etc., in Germany, is soaked several days in a strong solution of stable manure, and then smoke- dried, which greatly toughens and adds to its durability. As the process’is so simple, we advise every one to try it for himself. 953. Use and Value of Basswood Bark.—The linden (Z2lia Americana), which is more known under the name of basswood-tree, is a valuable as well as beautiful tree—beautiful as an ornamental tree, and valuable for timber, and its bark, out of which bass matting is made. This article is imported and used extensively in place of our native stock, we Suppose, because people do not generally know how easy it is to prepare the bark for use. It is simply to take the whole bark as it peels from the trees when the sap flows freely, say about June in this latitude, and sink it under water until the liber (inner bark) will peel and separate easily from the coarse bark. This soft, tough substance is then dried and stored away for future use, and the purposes to which it can be applied are almost numberless. 954. Value of the Ailanthus in Sandy Wastes.—This tree is good both for fuel and timber, and one of the most rapidly grown in the Northern States, and it has been demonstrated that the most sandy wastes can be re-clothed with trees by planting the ailanthus. Upon a bare, sandy plain, where neither trees nor grass now grow, we are confident that ailanthus-trees may be planted, with only a wheel-barrow load of rich loam to a tree, and that in ten years the growth would not only be such that it would hide the desolate barrenness of the land, but would make it of a salable value. Szo. 51.] THE ECONOMY OF FUEL—WOOD vs. COAL. 859 955. The Economy of Fuel—Wood vs. Coal.—The following table shows the relative value of different kinds of wood for fuel: ee Shellbark Hickory Yellow Oak Pig-nut Hickory Hard Maple White Oak Red Cedar Wild Cherry Yellow Pine Chestnut Yellow Poplar Butternut Although all trees of the nature of hickory, the fibers of which are densely packed, giving great solidity and weight, compared with pine or other light woods, are the most valuable for fuel, there is a great difference in the value of wood of the same variety, owing to its manner of growth and nature of soil where it grew. Trees which grow in forests or in rich wet grounds are less consolidated than such as stand in open fields, or grow slowly upon dry, barren soils. There are two stages in the burning of wood—in the first, heat comes chiefly from flame; in the second, from red hot-coals. Soft woods are much more active in the first stage than hard, and hard woods more active in the second stage than soft. The soft woods burn with a volu- minous flame and leave but little coal, while the hard woods produce less flame and yield a larger mass of coal. The purpose, however, for which it is needed, must be considered. A thorough white pine, compared to hickory, is only as 40 to 100 for heat. If a quick fire be needed for immediate warmth, or kindling for coal or other wood, the pine is most suitable. For kindling coal fires, we have always found a mixture of hard and soft wood good economy. Speaking of coal, is it economy for a farmer to burn it? It is a question worthy of consideration. It is one that we have already considered, and it has made us wonder at the error of some old farmers in the vicinity of tide- water and railroads, where coal can be had at a low rate, compared with the selling value of wood. They stick to the old-time fashion of days when wood was the only fuel, and maintain wood lots upon land worth $200 or $300 an acre, to furnish their annual supplies of back logs and fore sticks, with as much pertinacity as though their lives depended upon nothing but a sufficiency of firewood. Do such men ever think of relative value? Prob- ably not. Let us show them what we think. A tun of anthracite coal (2,240 pounds) measures 28 bushels. Its average cost at tide-water may be taken at $5 a tun, and hickory wood at $8 a cord. The coal is fully equal to two cords of wood of the best quality, and we do not know how many cords of such wood as we often find for sale, or such as farmers use, which they could sell at $4 or $5 a cord. No man in the vicinity of New York can afford to keep woodland or burn wood as a common fuel. Prof. Mapes contends that a man can not afford to keep arable land in the 860 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuap. XI. vicinity of this city, or any other high-priced locality, in apple-trees, much less in forest trees, except just so far as may be agreeable for shade and or- nament—certainly not for the purpose of growing fuel. No man ean afford to hire men to cut and haul wood, and prepare it for the stove or fire-place, if it had no other value, where coal is not more than $6 or $8 a tun. The most of the farmers in the forest-denuded portions of the country. have to haul their fuel, on an average, one mile; and if it is valueless where it is growing, it will be worth at home, when eut and piled under cover, at least $2 a cord; and in many cases counting the value at which it could be sold in the forest, and actual cost of labor, it will be worth $3 to $5 a cord, fitted for the stove. Now if good anthracite, or bituminous coal can be delivered, as it often is to the farmers twenty or thirty miles around New York, at $6 a tun, a farmer can not afford to burn his own wood, because coal will cost the least money. Wherever woodland is valuable, cattle should be fenced out, and paths located so as to drive through without destroying young trees, and proper care exercised in cutting fuel or timber trees. As to giving up the old worm-fence, there is no hope of that as long as there are ten trees to an acre; but certainly we can economize by having fewer divisions, fewer fences, and straighter worms. And we can economize in other ways—we can cut our timber at the season when it will be found most durable, and we can select timber the least valuable for fencing, and leave the best for more important uses. It is not only necessary for farmers to study economy in fuel, as to what shall be used, but if it is to be wood, then practice economy in growing and preserving a suitable supply. 956. How Should Fuel be Seasoned ?—The almost universal way of piling wood is not the best way to season it. Some kinds, if laid upon the ground at the bottom of a pile, will never season—they will rot. That is the case with cottonwood upon the Mississippi bottoms. Everywhere the bottom sticks of a pile are less valuable than the top ones. For this there is a remedy. Take nature for a guide and set our fuel on end, when we desire it to season. The following plan is an excellent one to season fuel or to store it, as rail- ways sometimes do, to keep several years: Commence with medium-sized sticks set two and two along in a row, leaning together, spread wide enough apart at the lower ends for a good-sized dog to run between them. Con- tinue to Jean up sticks outside until the rick is five or six feet wide, with the top ends always down. Now lay on the top a few sticks lengthwise to form a ridge, and then commence to shingle your pile with split wood, with which you can easily form a roof almost water-tight enough to prevent any rain from wetting the pile below. There is no position in which fuel will season quicker or keep better, remaining sound and dry, and actually increasing in value, instead of constantly deteriorating as it does in cord-wood piles. Do not continue the old way with no better argument for it than this: “Tt is the way my father did, and he says his father always did so; and I guess if it was not right they would have found it out.” Szo. 52.] STATISTICS OF FENCING. 861 This declaration is the end of all argument. It is a bold son that dares to do as his father and his father’s father never did. Yet, in this matter of seasoning fuel, he should have courage and shake off the shackles of prece- dent, and get out of the old hard path of our very respectable (in their time) old-fashioned grandfathers. 957. We Should Plant Trees to Grow Fuéel.—Wherever land is sparsely wooded, farmers should plant trees for fuel as certainly as corn for bread. The most rapid growing trees should be selected, such as ailanthus, locust, sycamore, and chestnut. Peach, we have already mentioned (635), and doubtless other fruit trees may be profitably grown for fuel. The ailanthus and sycamore are both good fuel trees, if the wood is properly seasoned. SECTION LIL—FENCES._THE COST OF FENCING ; LAWS REGULATING ; KIND OF FENCE MOST ECONOMICAL; KYANIZING FENCE POSTS; FARM GATES ; HEDGES ; WIRE FENCES ; STONE WALLS. C \ ALCULATING the cost of fencing is the only way that we can arrive at improvements in its economy. Those who have never considered the subject can not believe the facts; such, for instance, as that published by Nicholas Biddle, made from careful estimates, that §) the “fence tax” of Pennsylvania is ten millions of dol- - lars a year; or that of R. L. Pell, that the farm fences of the United States cost $1,350,000, and that the an- nual charge upon farms to maintain fences is equal to $250,000,000 per annum. These are startling statements, but who can show that they are not facts ? “They are at least worthy of consideration from all farmers. Ton. _. Joseph Blunt, who was a very observing man, and dur- ing all the latter years of his life devoted a great deal of “attention to the question of improvements in farming, estimated that there were in the year 1859, in the State of New York, 15,000,000 of acres under fence, and that this area was divided into 750,000 fields, requiring 120 rods to each field, making 90,000,000 of rods of fencing in the State. He caleulated the average cost of the fencing at the very low rate of seventy-five cents’ a rod, and that the average duration was not over ten years, His estimate makes the first cost $67,500,000. Interest and annual repairs may be reasonably caleulated on the cost at ten per cent., which makes $6,700,000. Dividing the cost of renewal through ten years, makes a like sum, and gives an annual cost for fencing the State of New York, $13,400,000. 862 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar, XI. Hon. T. C. Peters, of Darien, Genesee Co., who as one of the State assess- ors has had great opportunities to obtain facts in relation to farm fences, made the following calculations, which were presented to the State Agri- cultural Society, October, 1862. He had devoted much labor to the caleu- lation, because he thinks it necessary to enlighten farmers upon the subject of legislation in relation to fences, as the time is rapidly approaching when something must be substituted for rails, or else a different system adopted with stock. Tn calculating the length of road fences, he assumed that the average is one mile of road to each mile square of land in the State, and Burr’s Atlas makes the area over 28,000,000 acres. The State census gives: Improved acres, 13,657,490; unimproved acres, 13,100,692; total, 26,158,782. The town assessors make the area about 1,000,000 more. Mr. Peters divides the State into four districts, to show the waste lands in each. Thus: 1st District—North of the Mohawk Valley, and west of the line from its mouth to the north line through Lake Champlain. 2d District—East of that line, and east of the Hudson, including Long Island and Staten Island. 3d District—South of the Mohawk and east of the Chenango, including all the Catskill Mountain range. E 4th District—All the remainder of the State. He allots to each division the following number of acres of waste land: 1st district, 6,000,000; 2d district, 1,250,000; 3d district, 1,250,000, and 4th district, 1,500,000, making a total of 10,000,000 acres, still leaving 2,000,000 acres unaccounted for in and around cities and villages, which will give a remainder of 18,000,000 of acres of inclosed lands to bear all the burden of taxation for fences and roads, and will give, upon the calculation assumed, a mile of road to 640 acres of land, say 28,000 miles of highway and 56,000 miles of roadside fences. Assuming an average width of road of four rods, there are 224,000 acres occupied by the public roads of this State. The average cost of fence is $1 a rod, and cost of annual repairs equal to the interest upon another dollar. Supposing the average value of improved land in the State to be $40 an acre, it makes the interest $2 80 an acre, or $22 40 the square mile. Cost of road fence per mile Capital required for interest and repairs annually Interest per square mile as upon improved land, for that occupied by roads $1,202 40 The total 28,000 miles of road-fence cost $17,920,000 00 Annual interest 1,254,400 00 Annual cost of fencing the highways $2,508,800 00 Interest on value of land used and wasted for roads 616,000 00 Total annual cost of roads, besides labor of repairs : $3,124,800 00 Szo. 51.] STATISTICS OF FENCING. 863 The estimated average size of farms in this State is 100 acres, and the average size of the divisions of the farms ten acres. This requires 800 rods of fencing to each farm, which at $1 a rod makes $8 an acre as dead capital per acre, if we could devise some plan of carrying on farming without fences. Upon this basis, the total cost of fences in the State is $144,000,000, and the annual charge upon each farm, estimating them to average 100 acres, is $56, and it requires the interest of an equal sum to keep the fences in repair, making an annual fence tax of $1 12 an acre upon all the culti- vated lands in the State, while all the State, county, and local taxes of the rural portion of the State are only 33 cents an acre. This presents an array of figures well worthy the attention of all farmers who would understand the enormous amount of the fence tax. John J. Thomas, of Cayuga County, thinks Mr. Peters’ calculation too low ; he has carefully estimated the highways, by the large and by local maps, at 60,000 miles, and 120,000 miles of highway fence in the State. _Is this enormous expenditure necessary? If it is, the burden must be borne. Will farmers inquire whether nine tenths of it could not be dispensed with most advantageously to the owners of the land, dispensing with many other items of cost which are incidental to the present system ? In no other country in the world is the fence tax so onerous as in this. Our fence system has been gradually engrafted upon the people by acci- dental circumstances, growing out of the necessity of early settlers, who fenced around the first cleared field, and let the stock run in the woods, Laws made at first to protect such settlers have been continued, and men educated to bear the heavy burden they have entailed, until they appear to love the law, or rather the custom that forces them to pay such a penalty. The universal custom, and not the law—for really there is no such statute —has led men to believe that every owner of land is bound to fence all the world out, and that it is no trespass upon the rights of property to enter upon any uninclosed lot and despoil it of half its value. ~ To the cost of fencing should be added a very large sum in damages to railroad trains, which run over cattle wandering at large on the highways. Sometimes the value of human lives must be added to the account. To this add stock lost by accidents and straying, and the loss of costs of litiga- tion about fences; also, expense of pounds, besides the ill-will and quarrels about stock on the highways, and trespassing upon neighbors’ fields. Indeed, the expense of the fence system is almost beyond calculation, and its evils illimitable. One of these is the actual keeping out of cultivation of millions of acres of good land. Let us look at a case. If the law, or custom, which is stronger than law, were for every man to keep his own stock within his own boundaries, instead of fortifying himself to keep everybody’s stock out of his fields, a poor man could go upon the Western prairies without a dollar of capital and take up publi¢ land and hire it plowed, on credit, to be paid for out of the erop or by his labor, and thus could in a few years become the owner of a good farm. He is kept out 864 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar. XL. —~ eee A Si i EEE EE of this enviable position, because custom requires him first to fence his fields, and then plant them. To do this is impossible without capital. The lowest cost would be one dollar a rod, making the expense of inclosing an eighty- acre lot four hundred and eighty dollars. In many places it will cost twice that. Then custom requires division fences, say four twenty-acre lots, mak- ing a total of seven hundred and twenty dollars for fencing a lot of land that cost but eighty dollars for the soil. The pasturage of all the stock which the owner of such a lot should keep is not worth the interest of the cost of fencing and annual repairs; and this is true of a million of acres in this country. Take that of the author, for example. It consists of eight acres of the rough but costly land of West- chester County, ten miles north of the Central Park of New York. It is bounded on two sides by highways, requiring 1,375 feet of fencing, and on the other two sides it joins two cattle-pasturing neighbors, requiring 530 feet more fencing for the half that the law of the State of New York compelsan owner of the land to build, whether he has any use for it or not. To build such a stone wall, which is the common fence of the country, as any man of taste would be willing to have near his dwelling, is worth twenty-five cents a foot, making the first cost four hundred and seventy-five dollars for an outside fence, for which the owner has no use whatever. And this creates an eternal tax for interest and repairs, which at ten per cent. is forty-seven dollars and fifty cents a year, or nearly six dollars an acre—an annual tax of two per cent. of the salable value of the land, inflicted upon me by law and custom for the benefit of some poor neighbor who pastures his cow and geese and pigs in the highway, upon land he does not own. In effect he says: “The law, or rather custom, protects me, and you have no business to prevent my enjoying a privilege that I have always enjoyed, It is your business to keep your fences up and gates shut.” And if I do not, he will rob me as literally. as the highwayman who says, “ Your money or your life!” and of the two, the highwayman is the most honest. The division fence that I am compelled to build is equally onerous. It is” utterly useless to me. I never shall allow cattle to run at large on my side. If my neighbors do, they should build the fence to hold their own cattle; it is not right to tax me with the cost of fence built solely for their use. 958. Laws Relating to Fencing Highways.—Statute laws do not require land-owners to fence highways. It is the law of custom—a custom that has been so long in use that many persons suppose it is law. The whole system is founded upon error. The law does protect property; it can not take it away from any owner, except for public necessity. It never takes it from one owner to give it to another, as it would if it authorized one man to pas- ture his cattle upon another man’s land. ,The owner of land along a high- way owns all but the right of the public to use it as a thoroughfare. No law can constitutionally give another man the right to mow or pasture the grass, nor compel the owner to fence out the cattle of others. His business is to fence his own cattle in. He has no right to let them run out upon the Szo. 52.] LAWS RELATING TO’ FENCES. 865 highway, because they might obstruct travelers, who have a right to the whole roadway, to travel over it unmolested. If one pig is allowable, a thotsand are, and who so blind as not to see that a thousand swine in a nar- row lane wonld effectually blockade it against all travelers. And if one man can legally turn out one old cow to forage for her living upon the road- side, he may turn out a whole herd of bulls, which would break over any fence that a land-owner would build, and ravage his whole farm. It is not law, by any enactments of any legislature, that any man may pasture his cattle in the highway, and it has frequently been decided by courts in different States, that the owner of land could recover damage of | | -| the owner of cattle, fence or no fence. It is custom, and a wrong practice | long submitted to, that needs improvement. The idea that cattle can be lawfully turned out upon the highway is injurious to the great agricultural | | interest of America, and shows a dishonest principle in whoever puts it in practice. Is there any difference in a moral point of view between sending chil- dren or cattle out upon the highway to forage upon neighbors or travelers. A man has no more right to educate his cattle in dishonest practices than he has his children, and public opinion should condemn one as well as the other. If an owner of a dog taught him to steal, the man would be held respon- sible as a thief, and the dog killed. The same rule should be applied to all animals. A thieving hog should be no more allowed to live than a thieving dog, nor his owner escape responsibility. We can conceive but one greater nuisance in a neighborhood than a hog that is always on the watch for an open gate or hole where he can thrust in his nose and root a way into mischief, and that one greater nuisance is his owner. Every citizen should be made to feel that the law protects the owner of land as well as of houses, and that it is just as much a trespass to enter one as the other. Domestic animals should all be made more domestic. It is the best way to save expense in fencing. It is a duty that we all owe one to another, to make this subject of fencing better understood. What it costs and what the law is, not what has been customary in regard to highway fences, should be matters of constant thought and frequent discussion in all farmers’ club meetings. 959. Laws relating to Division Fences.—In the State of New York, by enactment of April 18, 1838, there is a most absurd and wicked law in rela- tion to division fences. It is absurd, because it fixes the form, style, and strength of the fence to suit a peculiar condition of things in one place that is entirely inapplicable to another. It is wicked, because it compels one owner to build fence wholly for his neighbors’ benefit, and declares that he shall not be entitled to any damages for trespass from his neighbors’ eattle unless he maintains his part of the division fence in a strictly legal condition, whether his neighbor does or not. In several States, the “lawful fence” is such a one as not one farmer in a } 55 Soe ee 866 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cuar. XI. a hundred ever builds. If it lacks an iota of what “ the law requires,” it is no trespass to break over it and steal; that is, suffer the animals that should be domestic, but are not, to take that which does not belong to them. Such laws are wicked, because they are intrinsically unjust, and promote neigh- borhood quarrels, and in more than one recorded instance have been the moving cause of murders. The law should be simply this: ‘‘ Every man shall fence in his own stock ; no man shall be obliged to fence his neighbors’ stock out.” This is founded in reason; it is common sense; it is justice. A common-sense law upon the subject of estrays, or cattle turned out upon the highway, and trespass- ing animals, would be to this effect: It shall be lawful for any one to kill a dog, goat, goose, or hog that comes upon his premises, or endangers them by running at large in the highway. Any land-owner in the State of New York may seize and confine any neat stock, horses, sheep, or swine found on his land or near it in the highway, and hold it till the owner pays the penalty and cost.of keeping, and the owner has no action of recovery until all charges are paid. The law should allow the taker-up to use the animal while he keeps it, without charge ; or convert it wholly to his use by paying its value, less the damage chargeable against the animal for its trespass, and those of the same owner in its company. All animals running without keepers in the highway should be liable to seizure as trespassers. Such a law would be good for all honest men, and would promote goo morals in society. Can any honest man say that he believes it would be unjust or impolitic ? The laws of the nations in times that we call barbarous, were better entitled to the appellation of “civil law,” than are some of our own about fences. 960. Unfenced Commons.—There is a tract within twenty miles of New York called Hempstead Plains, containing 12,000 acres of good arable land, which might have been in cultivation for two hundred years, if our fence laws had been adapted to a civilized state of society. Having been at first set apart as a “town common,” when land was of but little value, it has been kept as such ever since, in the wasteful condition of a public pasture, which affords not one hundredth of the value to the people it would in culti- vated crops. All over the country, around every village, there are similar, though rot as extensive, unfenced commons, all of which could be cultivated if law and custom required owners of cattle to keep them within their own inclosures. All over Europe are to be found highly cultivated districts, entirely free from fences. Every foot of common land, up to the very roadside, can be cultivated, and the most humble cottage upon the common can be beautified with its ala of flowers. Is America so much less civilized that we should give the possession of every unfenced common to hogs gs than to the use of the poor laborer and his family ? This is a fact connected with American farming that needs consideration. | — — ——+ Sro. 52.] KYANIZING FENCE POSTS. 867 961. Hew Fences may be Dispensed With.—Tirst by the system of soiling, which would dispense with interior fences; saving land as well as fence ; saving manure as well as time, in always having working animals and cows at hand; making animals more docile, so as to benefit the morals of farmers’ boys, which are apt to partake of the character of the animals, and wild animals make wild men; and trespassing animals make bad neighbors and breed mischief. It is one of the reasons why fences should be dispensed with and a better system of farming adopted. Order and gentleness among animals and men grow out of their greater domestication under the soiling system. Six leading, distinct advantages in favor of soiling are enumerated by writers upon the subject, to wit: Saving land; saving fencing; saving food ; keeping stock in greater comfort, good health and better general condition ; producing more milk ; saving the manure by which greater cultivated crops are produced. To these Mr. Quincy adds three more, which he considers equally important. The animals are more docile and easier disciplined ; they commit no trespass, as animals at large frequently do. The business of the farm can be conducted in greater order and comfort, and altogether more economically. 962. Waste of Land Around Fences.—A zigzag rail fence takes up a strip of land four or five feet wide, and if stake-and-ridered, the strip is about ten feet wide, which takes from every hundred acres, on the average, as fields are inclosed, full five acres—land which is rendered worse than useless; for it is a harbor for pestiferous weeds, animals, and insects, and often grows up into a most unsightly blur upon the face of the farm. What farmer would willingly endure a government five per cent. tax upon the value of his land? |~ Yet this is just what he voluntarily inflicts upon himself in thus losing the use of land, besides the cost of the fence. This waste of land by fencing is enough of itself to condemn the whole system, if there were no other ex- pense. Where land is valuable, as it is in many of the old States, crooked rail fences should be discarded entirely. No farmer can afford to keep such a fence upon land worth a hundred dollars an acre. If he must use rails, he should build the fence straight, which he can do cheaply by setting upright stakes, bound together by wire, to hold the ends of the rails in place. Such a fence looks more ‘pleasing to us, though the other is called picturesque. It may be, but it is not utilitarian. A board fence, although more expensive in the first outlay, would be the most economical on account of its saving of land; and on that accornt, wherever a fence can not be dispensed with, this saving should be consid- ered. Ifa board fence is built for a permanent one, the boards should be battened over every post and nailed with what are known as fence nails, and the posts, unless of the most durable kind, should be kyanized, and always set in a position reversed from that of their growth. 963. Kyanizing Fence Posts—The term kyanizing is taken from a Mr. Kyan, who introduced the subject in England within the present century. | — 868 FORESTS AND FENCES. (Crap. a It consists.in filling the pores of the wood with mineral substance, such as sulphate of copper, zine, or iron, which act as preservatives, just as salt does in meat. J. W. Fairchild, of Hudson, N. Y., kyanized posts for his garden in 1850, made of the refuse strips of a carpenter’s shop, by using one pound of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) to twenty pounds of water (you must not mistake pounds for quarts or gallons of water, as sometimes printed). In 1859 these posts were found as sound as ever. Without the kyanizing pro- cess every one would have been rotten and worthless. Even the pointed end of a small hand-stake, which had stood continually in the ground eight years, was found perfectly sound. Spruce posts, which will not last two years unprepared, remain perieade sound. Clothes-lines, or any other cordage, soaked two days in the solution used for the fence posts, are rendered more than twice as durable, and no doubt shingles would be greatly increased in durability. Posts, six inches square, need to soak ten days. The kyanizing liquor must be prepared in a square-sided vat made of plank, in a strong frame, with keys to tighten the joints. A barrel would serve while kept moist. An iron vessel would cor- rode. For small work a large earthen jar would do, or a vat might be made of water-lime cement. A vat that would only receive the ends of fence posts would answer, and it would soon pay cost upon any farm, where every post of every description, and many other things, might be kyanized with great profit. The solution must be renewed for every change of timber, by adding as much of vitriol to the water as will keep it at the standard strength. It makes no difference whether the timber is dry or wet, seasoned or green. Standing trees have been kyanized. 964. Creosote for Kyanizing.—In England, creosote has been found prefer- able to either sulphate of iron, of copper, or the chlorid of zine or of mer- eury, either of which is much more expensive than creosote. Timber which had absorbed about eight pounds of liquid creosote to the cubic foot was apparently as sound at the end of five years as when first treated. Its reli- ' ability has been tested on quite a large scale on the Great Northern and the Laneashire and Yorkshire railroads (England), on which roads creosoted tim- bers that have been down for ten years appear to be as good as when first laid. Creosote is a liquid which may be made from the refuse of the trees that make railroad timbers. It can be kept in wooden tanks in which the timbers may be steeped several days. All timbers for bridges, the sills of buildings, and the sleepers of railroad tracks should be treated with this substance, or some other equally as good. The refuse creosotie compounds of coal oil—those which are obtained from distilled coal as well as from the natural oil wells—may be as powerfully antiseptic in their nature as creo- sote distilled from wood. Experiments should be made to determine this, because such products are now thrown away as waste, whereas they may be usefully applied to render exposed timber ten times more enduring than it now is, and thus save millions of dollars to our country annually. 965. Salt and Fence Posts.—A correspondent says: “ After setting white = —! Sro. 52.] PORTABLE PICKET FENCE. 869 ee oak posts, I bored into each about three inches above the ground with a two-inch auger, at an angle of about 45°, and filled the hole with salt and plugged it up. The plugs are all in, and the posts look as sound as when set. I put in about one half a pint of salt to a post.” 966. Fence Posts Top End Down.—A farmer says: “TI split two bar posts, side by side, out of a chestnut log eight feet long, eight inches wide, and three thick, and set one but down, the other top down. At the end of ten years the one set but down had rotted off, and I re-set it in the same hole. At the end of six years it was rotted off again, and J put in a new one. The other lasted two years longer, when it got split, and I took it out and found it was about two thirds rotted off. Sixteen years ago I set six pairs of bar posts, all split out of the but-cut of the same white oak log. One pair I set buts down, another pair, one but down, the other top down, and others top down. Four years ago those set but down were rotted off and had to be replaced by new ones. This summer I had occasion to re-set those that were set top down. I found them all sound enough to re-set. My experiments have convinced me that the best way is to set them tops down.” The theory of this increased duration is, that moisture can not ascend as readily when the order of growth is inverted. 967. Charring Fence Posts——A writer in the Vew England Farmer, who tried numerous experiments in setting fence posts by reversing, salting, and charring, is satisfied that charring did noggood. Those eran lasted no longer than those from the same tree not charred. Salting dry posts is bene- ficial. Salting green ones did no good. The best thing was reversing the ends. 968. Portable Picket Fence.—The principal use of this kind of fence is for hurdling; being set up zigzag, it supports itself, and is easily separated at each panel The cost is abodt thirty feet of lumber for ten feet, and half the value of that for labor. A man and two boys can make fifty panels a day. Where lumber is not worth over ten dollars a thousand feet, this kind of fence could be made and sold with profit for one dollar a panel. Made of oak or similar wood, it will last in good order ten or fifteen years. The rails are cut exactly ten feet long, of stuff three inches wide and one and a half inch thick. These are bored by machinery very rapidly, twenty-nine holes in each rail. The pickets are sawed square and then turned one and a quarter inch diameter, at the rate of ten a minute. They are four feet long, pointed. The rails are keyed in a frame and pickets inserted and nailed in the top rail. The others are just tacked to hold them in place. If the fence is to be permanent, the rails are fastened to posts. If it is to be mov- able, the panels are held together by inserting a picket through the ends of the rails of two panels, which holds them together. Locust posts for this fence are sawed three by three inches at the top, tapering to six inches one way. This is sufliciently strong, as the wind has but little hold of the pickets. It is sometimes called ladder fence, when made with only two rails. The best form is to use three rails ; and sometimes, 870 FORESTS AND FENCES. {Cuar. XI. for variety, every other picket only reaches the middle rail. It is easily moved ly panels from permanent posts. It is a good kind of fence for the Western prairies, where it has been considerably used. The machinery, in- cluding saws to make pickets and bore rails costs about one hundred dollars. Rails can be bored at any angle, so that pickets stand upright, while the rails correspond to the form of the hillside. 969. Permanent Fence on Soft Ground.—We were troubled by the up- heaval and loosening of fence posts on the soft prairie soil of Indiana, and adopted the following effective plan: We laid down a sill two feet long under each post, at right angles with the line of fence just even with the surface, setting the posts in the center, nailed fast and supported by a small brace each side, nailed to the sill and post. This made a cheaper fence than with posts planted in the ground, because the timber used was much lighter, and except the sills, did not require to be of durable timber. 970. Hurdle Fence of Boards.—A plan for a cheap hurdle fence has been adopted, as follows: Panels of five narrow boards of some light timber are nailed with clinch nails through battens, one on each side of the ends and a pair in the middle. To make these, a mold should be made by cutting gains in three timbers, two inches broader on the face than the battens, so that when one is laid on the timber, the gain can be seen and the fence boards laid directly over. Then lay on the top batten and nail through ; the point of the nails will reaggthrough into the gains and not into solid wood. These panels being light are easily handled, and may be set up by braces on each side, or fastened to stakes driven into the ground. Buta better way is to fasten the ends of the panels together with wire, or with hooks and staples, which are better and not much more expensive. One of the advantages of this kind of fence is, it can be made by any farm hands in winter, or at such times as out-door work could not be carried on ad- vantageously. A similar fence to the above has been made of light round poles, of light straight rails, and of rived slats, in panels six or eight feet long. ‘ 971. Farm Gates and Barsx—We have given several good plans for gates in No. 364, and refer to the subject now mainly for the purpose of urging. farmers to substitute gates for bars wherever they are liable to be passed through once a month. The difference of time in opening will pay the in- terest on the cost of a gate over that of aset of bars. Where a gateway is but seldom used, a board panel, made as described in 970, is a good substi- tute for bars, fastening it to the fence by hooks and staples. 972. Wire Fence and Iron Fences.—Fencing with wire has not proved a success. If made cheap it is not effectual, if made effectual it is not eco- nomical. A good wire fence, built by Col. Capron, in Maryland, was con- structed as follows: The fence was forty rods long, made of No. 9 wire, attached to a permanent post at one end, and at the other end passed through holes in a post to keep them in position, fastened to a stout bar a few inches beyond the post. This bar was attached to a chain which passed around a WIRE FENCES AND IRON FENCES. 871 roller with a weighted lever, to keep the wires always strained. When the wires expanded, the lever fell, winding the chain, and the reverse when they were contracted by cold: There were but few permanent posts along the line; the wires were supported at short intervals of space by strips, which also supported bottom boards. The following detailed account of cost of wire fence is made by H. F. French, of Exeter, N. H.: “On the 14th of August, 1852, I put up seventy rods of wire fence through the woods, using the trees for posts, occasionally driving a stake where more than eight feet intervened. I used three No. 9 wires annealed ; the highest four feet from the ground, the spaces ten inches. I attached the wires to the trees, partly with small staples made of the same wire, and partly by sawing notches and driving nails over the wires. Four of us put up the seventy rods in one day. The cows have looked through each summer at my cornfields, but none broke through, and no repairs have been made. The cost was: 189 pounds of annealed iron wire at 61 cents per pound, $12 27; labor of putting up, $4; nails, 25 cents; total, $16 52—being about 231 cents per rod. To build a good fence against cat- tle, I should use No. 9 wire noé annealed, because it is said to be stronger. Galvanized wire does not rust, but is expensive. The tension of the wires makes the whole strength of the fence, and to get them straight, if the ground is level, stretch the wires the whole distance. A tree at each end is the best post. It is almost impossible to set a stone or a wooden post that will not yield to the constant strain. If you set posts, set them very deep, and brace them with strong timbers resting against short posts set for the purpose. To strain the wires, take a stick of sound, hard wood, four inches diameter and sixteen inches long, bore two holes at right angles with a two- inch auger, one near each end, and a small hole through the middle to pass the wire through. Make two hgndspikes, say two feet long, to fit the auger- holes. Secure the wire at one end, and wnroll it by trundling the coil along on the ground, so as not to get kinks in it, which you are sure to do in any other way. Bore a hole through the tree or post, and pass the wire through, leaving three or four feet spare length, and through the small hole in your windlass, and wind it round once or twice so that it will not slip; then put in the handspikes, and you can thus apply more power than four horses, and can hold the strain steadily. Then drive a hard-wood plug into the hole through the tree or post on the outside. This will hold till you take off your windlass and wind the wire a few times around the end of the pin. At eight feet distance along the wires drive small stakes and saw notches to receive and confine the wires by nails.” An Illinois farmer says his fence of No. 7 for upper wire, No. 8 for second, and No. 9 for two lower wires, built in stretches of forty rods, cost seventy cents a rod, and proved effectual. 973. Flat Bar Iron Fence.—There is a kind of flat bar iron fence with iron posts, made in New York by Hutchinson & Wickersham, at about $1 50 a rod, that answers a pretty good purpose, and is in one respect FORESTS AND FENCES. (Cuap. XI. superior to wire, because it is more movable; it can be used as a hurdle fence. Another kind of flat bar fence is made of )ioop-iron nailed to wooden posts. 974. Ornamental Iron Fence.—The firm mentioned above have the greatest assortment to be found in the United States, of ornamental iron fence, made of what is called wove wire; that is, stout wire bent into forms to fit to- gether, so that when properly connected and fastened in panels, and put together in the desired lengths, a light, strong, cheap fence is formed, suita- ble for yards, gardens, aud balconies, and is extensively used for all sorts of ornamental fencing, being trimmed with cast ornaments. Other ornamental fences are made of cast iron, in great varieties of pat- terns ; so that iron in some shape is very fast taking the place of wood for all ornamental fences, and in many instances where utility and durability are consulted, without reference to ornament. 975. Hedges, and Hedge Plants.—The two leading plants for fence hedges in this country are thorns, such as are native to the locality, and Osage orange. The latter is more used in Illinois than anywhere else, and the former is employed for fencing in Delawage to a greater proportionate ex- tent than in any other State. In Mississippi, and some other States south of lat. 32°, there is considerable fencing done with the Cherokee rose—a very rapid grower ; and when untrimmed it soon takes up a strip twenty feet wide, and grows as many feet high. Of course it is a fence, and that is more than can be said of thorn hedges in general. We have also seen hedges of yucca, or Spanish bayonet, that were fences. The handsomest of all is the Osage orange. Holly at the South also makes a handsome hedge; it is an ever- green, and bears bright crimson berries. In Virginia there are some red cedar hedges. John Taylor, of Caroline County, author of “ Arator,” the oldest agricultural book in this country, fenced his plantation with cedar hedges. When young they were very handsome, but with age they outgrew their beauty and value as a fence. Honey locust makes a hedge that certainly is not handsome, though it answers tolerably well for a farm fence. As a general rule, any plant that naturally grows to a tree, makes a poor hedge plant. This is the case with Norway spruce (Adces excelsa), and with hem- lock and white pine, which have all been tried for ornamental hedges. We believe for this purpose there is no evergreen at the North«equal to arbor vitee (Thuja occidentalis). It is very hardy, and limbs thickly from the ground, twenty feet high if desired ; is of slow growth and does not naturally grow to a large tree, and it flourishes in almost any kind of soil, if not very dry. Its verdure winter and summer is handsome—much richer than cedar, which wears a sort of brownish appearance, as though the foliage were dirty. 976. Forest Tree Hedges.—Oaks are used for hedges upon Long Island, not planted and cultivated for the purpose, but permitted to grow along the fence row, and lopped down by half cutting the body and bending in the limbs and suffering the sprouts to grow into a thicket. It is a poor excuse a a fence, very unsightly,and not very economical, as the fence row oc- (Aaa — Seo. 52.] ORNAMENTAL HEDGES. cupies’a wide strip of land. In France, the wild pear, wild apple, mahaleb cherry, elm, beech, hornbeam, Osage orange, buckthorn, hawthorn, Montpe- lier maple, scarlet oak (the horbeam or iron wood), and tamarax gallica are all used for hedging. The buckthorn is our most hardy and desirable hedge plant. It leaves out early, and no cold kills it, but it is not a certain barrier against unruly cattle. 977. Osage Orange Hedges.—The Osage orange is a native of the South- western States. It grows in great abundance in a wild state in Arkansas, where it takes more the form of a tree than a shrub, growing to the hight of thirty or forty feet, with a wide-spreading head, for which reason it is evi- dently unfitted for a hedge, except by constant severe trimming. It has been found hardy enough to stand most of the winters as far north as Detroit, the frost only affecting the young shoots. Plants are easily grown from seeds, and a quart will produce a thousand plants. The principal ob- jections to the Osage orange are that it grows too vigorously, and is a most greedy absorber of all the nutriment in the soil within reach of its long roots. Charles Downing, of Newburg, says of his Osage orange hedge: ‘“ Nothing goes through it; and it is equally true that nothing will grow near it. I shall have to dig it up, or dig a ditch alongside of it to cut off the roots so they can not destroy my valuable fruit-trees. You see how miserable the row next to the hedge looks.” 978. Ornamental Hedges.—The barberry, althea, shepherdia, mahonia, wil- low, Japan pear (Pyrus Japonica), and privet are all used. For a summer screen only, privet, lilac, and several other hardy bushes ; for a low screen, currants answer, and so do several kinds of roses. In setting hedge plants, the very first step is to deeply trench the ground, and unless the soil is naturally rich, work in some well-rotted manure—that composed of leaves is excellent. We would not cut away the tops either before or immediately after setting the plants in the hedge row, because we think they will take root more firmly with the tops on than off, and if cut away the next spring, will grow so much more vigorously that they will make a hedge quicker than by the other course. Six or eight inches a vear is all that you can safely increase a hedge. The clipping in May must be what persons unacquainted with the business would call very severe, leaving but a mere framework of stubs of branches. 979. Stone Wall Fences.—The author does not advocate their general adoption, though often hearing the remark, that “stone walls are the only permanent fences.” When very expensively built, they are permanent good fences against all stock but sheep, but, as a general thing, are not per- manent beyond the age of the generation in which they were built. The great Northern power that forms icebergs, and uplifts and carries off rocks of a thousand tuns’ weight, lifts wp and throws down stone walls, however firmly built; and then there is nothing meaner in the fence line than a mean, old, tottering stone wall. It is mean looking and a mean thing to depend upon (a afence. Sheep walk over it; hogs crawl over it; cattle push it over; high Ae 874 FORESTS AND HEDGES. [Cuar. XI. ne Oe a AR RN SR EE winds sometimes make gaps in it, and frost often does ; and when very old, it requires constant watching and frequent patching. The first cost of a good stone wall, fit to be called a fence, will be from three to ten dollars a rod, probably averaging twenty-five cents a foot in length. One of the strongest arguments used in favor of building walls, particu- larly by farmers who divide up their land into four-acre lots, is “ to get rid of the stone.” As a general thing, they had better bury them where they would serve as under-drains. Stone walls waste land. Each one oceupies a strip five feet wide, and it is not unusual upon pretty well cultivated New England farms, to find the earth, by repeated plowings, heaped up along each side, three or four feet wide, and occupied by bushes or briers, so that counting the wall two feet, and two feet each side, there is a width of six feet of land lost at each fence. If we calculate one half the contents of this strip around a ten-acre lot, for the portion chargeable to that side of the fence, we find the account stands thus: The equilateral sides of a ten-acre lot are 220 yards—660 feet long, making 2,640 feet around, which multiplied by half the width of the wasted wall strip, gives 7,920 superficial feet to be deducted from 435,600 feet, the contents of the ten acres. This is exactly one and eight tenths per cent., and is in reality equivalent to a tax of nearly two per cent. on the value of the land, besides the interest and annual repairs chargeable to the fence. If, then, a stone wall is a permanent fence, so is this self-inflicted land tax equally permanent. ‘Will farmers think a little upon this fact ? _ 980. How to Build Stone Wall.—Yor those who are not skilled enough to oversee and direct laborers, or know whether jobbers are cheating them, the following few simple rules will be useful. Have the surface soil removed so that the foundation stones will rest on firm earth. Contiguous foundation stones should be as nearly as possible equal in size, and large enough to extend the full width of the wall, and every foundation stone firmly bedded in the ground. If boulders, or stones of uneven form are used, always plant the roughest side downward, or at least so as to have a flat side up to lay the next course upon. If your wall is built of a double line of stones, whatever their shape, it should frequently be bound across with flat stones or wooden ties made of split pieces of cedar, chestnut, white oak, ash, or any durable tough wood, from half an inch to one inch thick, two to four inches wide. “‘ Break joints” should be rung in the ears of a young wall-builder inces- santly, until he would do it instinctively every time he laid a stone into the wall. You can tell at a glance, as you ride along the road, whether the wall was built by a workman, by the way the stones break joints. You may some- times see them so placed that a joint extends from top to bottom. That wall was built by a cheat or bungler, probably both. Beware of a jobber who is continually chinking small stones into the joints of the face of his wall and filling up the interior with stones thrown in as carelessly as you would fill up a hole in the ground. If you find your So. 52.] HOW TO BUILD STONE WALLS. 875 jobber working this way, discharge him peremptorily. He is both cheat and bungler. If your wall is built double, cap it with a course of even-sized stones, so as to give it a uniform appearance. If the stones are generally flat, cap your wall with flat stones of even thickness and of a width greater than the wall. This not only helps the appearance, but sheds off water, which is often the means of destroying badly built walls, by running down inside and freezing so as to bulge ont the two lines of stones with which the sides had been faced up and not bound together. Goodwwalls are sometimes built of very bad stones by using cross-binders of wood in the lower courses, and then near the top laying two boards, each about one fourth the width of the thickness of the wall along the line, and upon those building up the remaining hight. These boards will last many years and serve to hold cobble stone together quite firmly. It is a better plan, however, we believe, not to build the wall as high by a foot, and take the strips of boards designed for binders in the wall and nail them to small posts built in so as to give sufficient hight for the fence. A very common fence in some sections is built of cobble stone about two feet high, topped with two bars inserted in posts, or with strips of boards nailed on. 981. Ha-ha Walls—Walls built with one face and backed against a bank are called ha-ha walls, and are very common in hilly regions, where stone abounds. These walls are often to be seen in Westchester County, N. Y., where they are backed by earth scraped up or carted to form the bank. This always appears to us bad economy; for a good: ha-ha wall, even where the ground favors its construction, costs more than a plain wall, because it is necessary to build it very firmly to prevent the frost throwing it off from the bank. To guard against this, it should be built of large stones, made to lean heavily against the earth. A cobble-stone ha-ha wall would not stand many winters at the North+the frost would bulge it out, so that it would ‘fall or be pressed over by the dirt. Ditching each side of a wall appears to us of no great benefit, and adds very much to the waste of land already noticed (979). Throwing up a ridge to build the wall upon has no other advantage that we can see than saving stone where they happen to be scarce. This system is considerably practiced by Hon. A. B. Conger, of Rockland County, N. Y. 982. Wall-Builders’ Tools.—A: farmer who has not been bred upon a stony farm knows but little of the importance of having good tools to handle stone. Without good tools, wall building is not only expensive but very laborious. A set of wall-builders’ tools would for three hands comprise three crow-bars, of three sizes, one of which should be of steel, three feet long and about three fourths of an inch diameter. This is for moving stones on the wall. There should be a cant-hook, similar to those used in saw-mills, but with a lighter handle. Each man should have a stone hammer, but these should vary in size, so as to interchange as occasion requires, and there must be one 876 FORESTS AND FENCES. [Cnap. XI. heavy sledge. If any stones require splitting, a drill and wedges will be necessary. An iron square, a plumb, a line and stakes, a pick and spade will complete the assortment of tools for building the wall after the stones are hauled. For digging stones, use one of the lately invented stone-lifters, with which stones of five tuns’ weight can be raised by one horse, and while held up suspended between a pair of large wheels, hauled to the line of wall. This is a great labor-saving machine. In the absence of such a machine, have one lar ge and two peraller crow-bars, and a good lever and a well-made set of Sea bar hooks, which will often save rae of labor at a single stone, because you can pick two holes on the sides of a smooth stone to catch the points of the hooks in, by which the oxen will pull it out, when it would be a long, tiresome job s get a chain around. A good stone boat is “indispensable for hauling stones to a wall, and if the distance is long, it is a good plan to suspend the’ boat between wagon wheels just so it will clear the ground. If you have no wagon, use a cart, and sus- pend the forward end of the boat to the axle. This w “ill be a great assistance to the team. For loading stones on a wagon, it will be found a great saving of labor to have a frame , with no sides, except a three-inch piece of scantling. The floor should be one and a half inch oak or other strong wood plank. At the hind end haye a windlass roller fixed in posts about two and a half feet above the bed, with a chain and pair of grappling hooks, by which a man ean raise a stone of five hundred pounds by turning the levers of the windlass. When it is chock up, a piece of plank is slipped under, from which it can be rolled forward with a bar, or by another windlass at the forward end. With a wagon rigged in this way, one man can load stones with ease that four men could only get up by hard work and danger. A movable triangle and wind- lass will be found a great labor-saving machine in handling stone. Set over a heavy block, it can be lifted in two minutes high enough to slip the stone boat under easier and quicker by one man tlian three could load it with crow-bars and hard lifting. The same implement can be used to put stones on the wall. = CHAPTER XII. FERTILIZATION. SECTION LIIl—THE ART, USE, AND ECONOMY OF MAKING, SAVING, AND, APPLYING MANURES, AND FERTILIZING FARM CROPS. OW to make poor land fertile has always been, perhaps always will be, a mystery. If it is affirm- ed that barn-yard manure will do it, we reply, that is no mystery; but it is a mystery how to © obtain it or its equivalent where it is not to be had. ‘I Z WE No man will ever make or keep his distant fields fertile TiN. a) by carting the contents of his barn-yard. In some aaa ~j4—_ cases the farmer seeks relief by resorting to a great agricultural humbug—the analysis of soils. Then he applies the pinch of powder which the quack ree- ommends to restore the “ missing ingredient,” and sows his seed, and reaps disappointment. Ilow to make barren land productive, or how to keep fertile land so, is what farmers most desire to know. We can not teach the art, but the following paragraphs we hope will add something to the farmer’s stock of information upon this important subject. 983. Fineness of Soil Promotes Fertility—Remember tha; the great secret of all naturally fertile soils is extreme fineness of the particles. Pulveriza- tion, as a rule, is better than manure. Disintegration is, however, aided by manuring as well as plowing and harrowing. Fertility will increase by deeply stirring the soil with turning and subsoil plows, and by aeration from under-drains, and by growing plants with deeply penetrating roots. That is why— 984. Clover Promotes Fertility.—Its roots penetrate and aerify the subsoil, while its tops shade, and when decayed fertilize the surface. The fertility of our soils must be improved by growing the manure on the land. That is, growing clover and other green crops to plow in, so that by very small] addi- tions of purchased fertilizers, to replace the things sold and taken off the farm, it will not only maintain its original fertility, but increase it, becanse it will be constantly drawing from the atmosphere. The difficuliy about maintaining fertility is, that it is generally exhausted before the owner of the soil begins to think about saving. The question, therefore, is rather how to restore than how to increase fertility. Land will improve more while ot. a 878 FERTILIZATION. (Cuap. XII. growing a crop than it will in a naked fallow. Let that be forever remem- bered as the great seeret of “ How to increase fertility.” Give each food or forage crop the proper pabulum to enable it to draw upon earth and atmos- phere, and it will perfect itself, while it stores up in the soil pabulum for a succeeding crop, which should follow in rotation, without exhausting fer- tility. Won Thaer says feeding off a crop of clover with sheep will add twenty per cent. to the fertility of the soil. 985. Color and Moisture of Manures Effect Fertility—Though not richer in humus, a black soil will be more productive than a light one, because the color elevates the temperature. This has been proved in cold climates, where melons were ripened by covering the soil an inch deep with charcoal dust. In Belgium, grape-growers improve light soils by spreading fragments of black slate over the surface. In addition to its fertilizing qualities, peat improves light soils by its color. Earth must be in a hygroscopic condition to be productive. Manure and black earth, and all salts added to the soil, improve this condition. Sandy land is barren because it has no hygroscopic quality. Add manure, peat, black earth, which give that quality, and the land produces far more than can be fairly credited to the substance added. All clayey soils are improved by under-draining, which both prevents excess of moisture and at the same time aerates the soil and helps to keep it moist in a dry time. 986. Theory of Fertilizing Seeds by Incrustation.—This is not a new theory, though newly revived in France, where works are erected to execute the process. The fertilizer is agglutinated to the seeds in quantity sufficient to furnish food to the young shoot until it gains strength to draw it from the soil. It is simply carrying out the theory of giving the plants an “early start.” Boussingault planted the incrusted seed in calcined quartz sand, and added phosphate of lime, nitrate of potash, and vegetable ashes, and the plants grew luxuriantly, as though in garden mold. Sugar and soot mixed in water are recommended for coating wheat seed. Sugar, half a pound ¢o the bushel; soot to make the mixture black as ink; water to make the stuff as thick as cream: to stand thirty or forty hours; then stir in the wheat. The editor of Zhe Valley Farmer thinks this incrustation theory a dangerous doctrine, which if followed will reduce any soil to poverty. “ As well,” he says, “ might we encase an eggshell with food for the chick as a grain of corn with food for the plant.” We do not think so, and advise the incrustation to be tried by all farmers in a small way, and if it adds vigor to the young shoot, it may much more than pay the cost of application. To coat seeds with plaster and lime: For each bushel of wheat use half a pint of tar dissolved in hot water reduced to blood heat, into which pour the wheat gradually, stirring constantly for a few minutes; drain the wheat in a basket over a barrel, then put it into a tight box, and add as much lime or plaster as will adhere by stirring until the grain is dry. 987. Nitrates, Muriates, Sulphates——What are they? And which of them i EO. 53.] NITRATES, MURIATES, SULPHATES. is good for manurial purposes? We can not give this information in better form than in the following relation of Barnum’s experience : Barnum—the Barnum—is or was a Connecticut farmer. He has a passion that way. It isa hobby with him. He always has a hobby. Sometimes itis a “ Fire Annihilator,” and sometimes the Crystal Palace, or a Connecti- eut clockmaker, annihilates him. One year he had the hen fever. That was his hobby. He rode it till he spent about $2,000, and then found that he had neither e ses nor chickens for family use. His neighbors’ hens that “stole their nests,” under the barn or by the side of the fenee, hatched more chickens than his did, and when they were'grown, they were healthy and good to eat, while his were droop- ing and sickly in their costly house. Another of his hobbies was to renovate old fields by purchasing and hauling stable manure. That hobby broke down. It has broken down a thousand times before, but the more it broke, the more old-fogyism stuck to it. It was the ancient custom of the land to plow shallow and top dress with stable manure, sea-weed, and fish. Digging muck was an innovation. It was a good thing, but it did not bear long transportation. Something bet- ter was wanted. Somebody said, Use salt. That did not look reasonable. What virtue was there in salt to make plants grow? Somebody else said, Use saltpeter. But that was evident nonsense. Saltpeter was only to pre- serve meat—it was not manure. Another wise man told him Glauber salts were good, but a wiser one told him that Epsom salts were better. “ Bless your soul, man,” says Barnum, ‘do you suppose I want to physic my land? No, sir; I want to feed it, and make it feed me.” So he took to the study of agriculture. He took several learned agricul- tural papers, and read them, and—well, he concluded that he was not the only humbug in the world. So he went off lecturing upon humbug as a science, under the full impres- sion that he had been about as badly humbugged, in the agricultural line, hens and hundred-dollar ducks included, as he ever humbugged anybody with woolly horses and Feejee mermaids. Still he was not satisfied. He thought Connecticut soil had something in it, and if it could be stimulated to give it up, it would produce something bprsides daisies and mullens. As he did not need to study his lecture—that came naturally—he bought Johnson’s Chemistry, Norton’s Chemistry, and Liebig’s Chemistry, and de- yoted his leisure hours of traveling to search out what was the best and most concentra‘ed manure to apply to his old fields. He had already done one very essential thing: he had plowed the soil-deeper than it was ever plowed before; and now he wanted to manure better and cheaper, and make it more productive. So he studied agricultural chemistry. Therein he learned these facts : That an application of 100 Ibs. of nitrate of potash to an acre of land had doubled the crop of grass. 880 FERTILIZATION. [Coar. XII. Again, he read that the same quantity of sulphate of soda had produced the same or a better effect. It was also stated that sulphate of magnesia was still better, and that remarkable effects had been produced by a free use of muriate of soda. Nitrate of soda had also done wonders. The author suggested that the farmer might procure a portion of each of these sulphates and nitrates and mix them ‘together and produce a cheaper and more concentrated manure than stip oupesniiaie of lime or guano. Full of this idea, Farmer Barnum returned to New York, and went forth- with to a dealer in drugs, medicines, and chemicals, and inquired the prices of—Nitrate of potash?—6 cents a pound. Nitrate of soda?—4 cents. Sul- phate of soda?—2 cents. Sulphate of magnesia?—2} cents. Muriate of soda ?—1! cents. “Very well; put me up a hogshead of each.” In due time the farmer was ready to begin to use his new manures, or, rather, he was first curious—even showmen have curiosity—to see what these nitrates and sulphates all looked like. So he ordered the easks that ‘had arrived to be opened for inspection. That was soon done, and the man, with consternation written upon his face, came back with handfuls of the contents, and reported : “Mr. Barnum, you're sold—humbugged. Look here! that was marked “Nitrate of potash? *—what do you call that?” “That! that is saltpeter—nothing else.” “ And this? This was marked ‘ Sulphate of soda.’ ” “ Why, that !—that”—and he tasted— that—oh, pshaw!—that is Glau- ber salts.” “ And this—sulphate of magnesia ?” “ Rah !—that is Epsom salts.” “ And shall I send them back ?” “Yes—no—hold on! Perhaps the druggist in the village has sent for them, and they have made a mistake, and sent my nitrates and sulphates to him, and his physic to me.” So he posted down to inquire; but no—nobody had sent for any Glauber salts; and he came back to write a letter and blow up the dealer who had befooled him. In the mean time the man had got the cask marked “ Muriate of soda” opened, and reported that it conan he, ha, ha—simply common salt. “What on earth,” wrote Mr. B., to the chemist, “did you send me Glau- ber salts, Epsom salts, saltpeter, and common salt for? Do you think I want to pickle and preserve my land, and if I get in too much salt and salt- peter, physic it out? Only one of the casks contains what I ordered, and that is the nitrate of soda.” The return mail brought the answer: “ Nitrate of soda, of course, is right, because it is not known by any other name. “Glauber salts is, properly speaking, sulphate of soda, and sulphate of magnesia is nothing more nor less than Epsom salts. . | Szo. 53.]. PRIMITIVE SOURCES OF FERTILIZING SUBSTANCES. 881 EEE ee “Salt, as we use the term, is salt, but it isa very unmeaning term among so many salts. Muriate of soda is the right name of our common, or table salt. “ And nitrate of potash is nothing but saltpeter; don’t be afraid of it—it won’t explode.” “ But it did explode,” said Mr. Barnum; “it exploded my ignorance. I had studied agricultural chemistry, but I did not know salt nor saltpeter. I do now, and I mean to know that they are good for land.” 988. Sulphate of Lime—Plaster of Paris—Gypsum.—These names are syn- onymous, as used in common conversation, though not strictly so. “ Plas- ter” is the most common term used by farmers, as applied to sulphate of lime reduced to powder by grinding, when used as a dressing for land. Plaster of Paris is made of the gypseous rock of the vicinity of Paris, France, by grinding and heating, which prepare it for use iy the arts, as we see it in casts of various figures. Gypsum, or plaster, which is ground sul- phate of lime, is made of gypseous rock which is found in various localities in this country, and is composed of sulphuric acid and lime. It should al- ways be applied on a green crop, and it does the most good on a succulent one, such as clover or peas, and the spring season is the best time to apply it, when the crop, whatever it is, is in a fresh-growing condition, from natural fertility or manure, since plaster is not a manure, but an assistant, acting as an absorbent of floating ammonia, which it yields up again to the growing plants. Plaster sown upon a plowed field in the autumn would be of very little if any benefit to whatever crop might be put upon the field in the spring. It is generally found more beneficial to clover than to any of the true grasses, which is accounted for by the fact that the ingredients of which it is coin- posed are found most abundant in the ash of clover. One of the best purposes to which plaster can be applied about a farm is | | in the stable and places of deposit of manure, to prevent the escape of am- monia, and thus keep the air sweet and healthy. In some sections farmers complain of not seeing any benefits from plaster, while in others it is their main stay. We know two large graziersin Dutchess | | County, W. H. & David L. Belding, who have bought up worn-out farms and renovated them by the use of plaster, so as to produce the richest pasturage. 989 Primitive Sources of Fertilizing Substancesx—There is an abundance of mineral substance, of the same chemical character as the fertilizing portion of manures, locked up in rocks. The Academy of Science, Paris, having investigated the question, say that the primary substances found in rocks, particularly the phosphates, which are almost chemically identical with bones, are really of but little or no valne to growing plants in the first step of their progress; but that all mineral substances, the longer they have pro- gressed through animal and plant life, the better they are as fertilizers. Bones are better than mineral phosphate, and bones of an animal that con- sumes phosphatic food are better than those of one that did not. It has been found impossible by any mechanical or chemical means known to reduce mineral phosphates to such a devree of fineness as we obtain from bones. ae 6 i — 882 FERTILIZATION. [Cuap. XII. This is one reason why mineral phosphates are not readily assimilated by growing plants. 990. Value of Phosphatic Guano.—There may be some guano known as phosphatic that has some manurial value, but English farmers who have tried some of the substances sold under this name, have no faith in its value as afertilizer. The editor of the Agricultural Review says: “ From our own knowledge we can affirm that the guano from some of the West India Islands is not worth the price of the freight to this country.” B. M. Rhoads, a chemist of Baltimore, thinks a pound of phosphoric acid in bone superphos- phate worth three times as much as a pound in “ brown Mexican guano.” 991. Gas Lime—Its Value to Farmers.x—Dana’s Muck Manual says:“‘ Gas lime contains sulphureted hydrogen, sulphuric acid, and ammonia. It can not be used agriculturally till it has been exposed to the air for a year, by which it is converted into sulphate of lime and ammonia, and carbonate of lime. In this state, mixed with three times its bulk of soil, it forms a useful top-dressing ; or it may be added, before mixing with soil, to the compost heap or to meadow muck, say two bushels to the cord.” So we say it is valuable, but the farmer must know how to use it. The farmers of Lancashire, England, are well satisfied that gas lime is val- uable when applied in small quantities upon pasture lands and meadows, which show the good effects of the application for years. One of our cor- respondents does not believe that gas lime fresh from the works is injurious. He applied it with beneficial effects at the rate of a pailful per rod. 992. Lime Ashes——‘ Are the ashes of a lime-kiln valuable—that is, more valuable than lime?” Thus writes a correspondent. We answer, No; be- cause from his locality we know the kiln is burnt with anthracite coal, the ashes of which are not worth hauling five miles to obtain the small portion of lime mixed with them. Coal ashes are not entirely valueless, but they bear no comparison to the value of lime. Where wood is used for fuel, the lime-kiln ashes are very valuable for all soils and all crops. 993. How to Apply Lime.—After the burnt limestone has been some time exposed to the air, it becomes air-slaked, and in the condition of a dry pow- der, and of twice the bulk it was before slaking, and may be sown broad- cast by hand, or by amachine. If we were about-to apply lime to wheat ground, we should harrow it in when we did the seed. Ona potato field, we would sow it broadcast over tops and all, afterhoeing. If applying it to corn, we would scatter it all over the surface of the earth, either before or after the lasthoeing. As to the quantity per acre, the majority of opinions of those who have used lime most, favors thirty bushels of slaked lime per acre, continuing it every year, or every second or third year, until 120 bushels are applied. Lime is always beneficial to land full of vegetable matter. The quantity is to be varied according to the condition of the soil. One with much vegeta- ble matter in it will bear much more than a soil almost destitute. Shell lime is the best. Barren fruit-trees have been made fruitful by dressing the land with lime, for it combines with the acids of the earth, neutralizes them, and rs Sgc. 53.] HOW TO DISSOLVE BONES. 883 renders the earth sweet. In all muck land there is a resinous matter that prevents the decomposition of the vegetable fiber. This condition is always improved by adding lime. 994. Value of Old Mortar or Plastering—There is no valuable substance about a farm oftener wasted, by throwing into the road, or into some mud- hole, or out-of-the-way corner, than the old mortar of chimneys and lath- and-plastered walls. It is because the fact is not known that this old mortar— the older the better—is a most valuable fertilizer. It is good upon any soil and upon every crop, used as a surface-dressing. It is particularly valuable in garden soil, which, notwithstanding its richness in nitrogenous manure, sometimes lacks just what it would receive from a dressing of this old mortar. 995. Burnt Earth—Its Value as a Fertilizer.—In England, whole fields are pared off and windrowed up with brush, straw, stubble, peat, or dried sods, enough to start the fire and heat the clay to an almost brick-burning heat, and then the whole of the burnt mass is spread over the surface, adding greatly to the fertility. Remember this fact, that burnt clay will always prove beneficial to raw clay, and still more so to sandy land, or to soil charged with nitrogenous matter, such as what we term good garden soil. 996. Iron as a Fertilizer.—Sulphate of iron (copperas) naturally exists in many soils, and, unless neutralized with lime, injures some crops. Yet iron in certain forms is undoubtedly beneficial, particularly to fruit-trees. M. Dubreuil, a celebrated European horticulturist, says that it has been proven “that melons and various species of fruit-trees, the green parts of which had been watered on several occasions with a weak solution of sulphate of iron, yielded much larger fruits than those not so treated.” He adds: ‘“ One of my pupils repeated the same experiments in 1854 and 1855 on pear-trees. He gave the first watering as soon as the fruits were fairly set, in the end of June. He repeated the moistening every fortnight, in the evening, in order to prevent evaporation, and that absorption might be completely effected during the night. The solution was at the rate of 26 grains to a quart for the first three, and 35 grains per quart for the last two waterings.” The result appears to have been a large inerease in the size of the pears. Many soils contain iron, and such, if the iron is not in excess, are generally good fruit soils. Iron dust, from the forge, has frequently been used by florists to highten color of flowers. 997. Save the Bones—Their Value.—Never neglect to pick up a bone; it is worth saving. You would stoop for a copper cent; the bone may be worth a dime. True, it is of no value whole, except for grapevines, but it is easily made fine, and then its value is almost incalculable. Lying waste, bones are a nuisance in mowland or pasture. Pick them up and dissolve them into excellent manure. 998. How to Dissolve Bones.—Mix one gallon of sulphuric acid with five gallons of water and put in the bones, after having broken them as fine as you can with a hammer. The bones and liquid will form a pasty mass in a few days, if the acid is strong enough; if not, more must be added. The &84 FERTILIZATION. [Cmar. | a ELL_ ll ied water may be evaporated from the mass, leaving the acid combined with the phosphate of lime of the bones. This is unadulterated superphosphate, and is avery valuable manure. Bones may be also dissolved in unleached ashes, or horse dung, if broken up and mixed, or covered up. Charcoal-powder or plaster should be spread over the heap to prevent escape of ammonia. Sul- phurie acid (oil of vitriol) is very corrosive, and must be handled with great eare. We recommend a large iron kettle to be painted with a thick coat of earthy paint, or even clay dissolved in skim-milk, as the best vessel to dis- solve bones in. A Scotch farmer adds 340 lbs. of acid to 25 bushels of fine bones, wet with 18 imperial gallons of boiling water, and lets it stand two days, and then mixes with two cart-loads of light mold, and turns the mixture over. At this stage the bones are only partially dissolved, but they heat and decompose in the heap after being turned over three or four times; and in the course of seven or eight weeks the compost becomes dry and breaks down with a shovel. An American farmer says: ‘“ For every tun of bone I provide 500 Ibs. of best sulphuric acid and 300 Ibs. of guano, and get them distributed among the bone as equally as possible. By the fermentation and heating of the bone, better work is done with 25 lbs. of acid than we used to have with 40 lbs. One pound of acid requires nine pounds of water. Bones may be dissolved without acid, if crushed and mixed with fine earth or manure, and kept moist.” ° 999. What Manure will best sustain Fertility?—Undoubtedly, barn-yard manure must hold the first place with all farme s--and rightly—because it contains all the needed ingredients, though it may not have all in as great a proportion as would be profitable to apply. Thus, to barn-yard manure muck, salt, and plaster may be added; and lime, applied to the same land that has been highly manured ; and flesh, blood, hair, and bone will sustain fertility, and their constituents are all needed, because soil imparts nitrogen to its crops, and must have it returned. The following table will show the per-centage of nitrogen in-various sub- stances, by which the value of manure made from them may be calculated. The greater the amount of nitrogen the better for manure. n hee Dig Matter, in Teenie in dey ration Barley straw.......... LO rake Oftyatrany ahi: 2. e).iseme QAO wert ens Rive Btn aW shoe ac atare onic i SOs Wheat straw......... LSPA Buckwheat straw..... EG scrane g hayerets BS RG LS CES So TT LEG ie Red clover‘hay. ii... 12.7 Week Pea straw....... St iB, evant daa Carrote so. acctes ayaa (OM RSEELE! Potatoes. Seah i TOM Mangel-wurzel .-..... 87.0 ........ RS Dag as oc ase gre, TOO Og ets cia vin2 Barleyrictt ee LOO. SRE Mal teetire ttn Be Sfacisi ft hihy ad Olde rss ec uie? Sc. 53.] HOW TO PRESERVE MANURE. 885 RNR A RR SR RE EN ER Be SR RE i Nitrogen let Dry Matter. in ae ie a in dry mane Indian corn.......... ASO Ms. S20) aera GL SHAE. see 2100 Malt dusts 202 sf.) -icr | AUR Seema crte UR Hie serecin= 4.00) sccces ste 4.08 Malt grains.......... iD es eaaeaas SLT eeatecr ¢ 53) earecee 4.90 Tinseed eel t oi. Fant. PDO SIM. ee SROs. tees: SLTO res eaten 4.76 Beans, peas, or tares... 16.0 ........ Sd Osi 8 st BOD es eet 4.76 American oil cake..... 11.6 ........ CBee ie ais) < fey BOE Penne es 5.71 If the following substances are used as cattle food, the comparative value of each tun, in manure, is represented as follows : Decorticated cotton-seed Wei ORE eee reaeeOcoece $13.38 | Oat straw...........2.-% $2 90 AKG ine rir tievces ee te $27 86 | Locust beans........... 4 81| Wheat straw............. 2 68 Rapeicakeis io. ois) see DWOU || Oateye thse seca sels Hes 7 40| Barley straw............ 2 25 Linseed cake.™........ 19x02 | Wihe ative svcd ccc. wisps, aese Tp OS) WE OURUOCS Se ors Zonta) tos a) <9 1 50 Maw CUSt.- sss. c ce cess 18 21 | Indian:corn.........-%- GM Gaye Manooldse nce stias are iote ate 1 07 LDV ant ee rar eae LG G51) | Malo Geass i kee 6 65| Swedish turnips......... 91 ‘i RS Rene 1565) Barley 22 oie scowls cnet 6 32) Common turnips......... 86 RABCR Cs ce slo esse tees 15 75 | Clover hay............- SNGE Carrots. (. sw shea ewes sie 86 PRP RTRs eS): THly, fais Levees 15 75 | Meadow hay........... 6 43 1000. How to Preserve Manure.—Horége droppings are very liable to injury by heating. When any manure is burned in the heap, it is little better than ashes. This can be prevented by the application of water to the manure heap, frequent turnings, and making compact piles. Mixing with sod, scrap- ings of the roads and walks, and swamp muck will retard decomposition. The best way to preserve manure is to apply it to crops, to grass, corn, and roots, and the orchard, followed by a shallow plowing. Cattle droppings should be mixed with those of horses, to preserve and improve both. If you have no cellar nor shed to save manure in, pile it up, mixing muck, sods, weeds, waste straw, salt, and lime to help decomposition, and plaster or charcoal on the surface to absorb and retain the escaping gases, and use a pump to send back all the drainings and other rich liquid, including urine and soapsuds, and old brine, blood, and all sorts of dirty water. Use this well-rotted compost, and you will escape weeds and grow grass and grain. Use all heavy manure upon home-lots, and treat outlying ones with some concentrated fertilizers and clover. If a manure pile is kept continually moist, its value will be preserved if the drainage is not wasted. When com- posted with muck and other similar materials, and kept wet, the fluid pass- ing through the mass will pervade all parts, and without turning or forking in any way, the intrinsic value of each portion will be communicated to the whole, and improved by this mode of treatment. There is no item of econ- omy about a farm that will pay better than that of saving every old rag, old shoe, old bone, soapsuds, house sweepings, chamber slops, kitchen garbage, and garden weedings for the compost heap; which in a year, from these little bits of waste, will grow into a valuable pile. Unlike purchased fertil- izers, the cost of the compost heap is never felt in the pocket. It may be made in any convenient place, and will never taint the air if partly composed of swamp muck, or fine charcoal, or occasionally sprinkled with plaster. Every- thing that will decompose may be used. Every dead animal should be buried in its center, with muck or charcoal, or with fine clay, if neither of the first can be had conveniently. A cart-load of muck (decomposed with 886 FERTILIZATION. [Cuap. XII. lime and salt) or of fine charcoal, such as locomotive cinders, or debris of a coal-yard, or fine charcoal and burned earth of a coal-pit, will prevent any smell arising from the carcass of a horse, and where manure is worth two dollars a load, the value of the compost heap will be increased ten dollars by every carcass buried in it. 1001. How to Apply Manure—When and Where.—We do not believe iy is even a good practice to apply manure exclusively to hoed crops, or upon plowed land. We believe it would be found almost inconceivably better to apply it exclusively to grass lands, both mowing and pasture, and make them productive and capable of sustaining more animals, which would in- crease the production of manure, and then, by plowing under the enriched sod, any kind of grain or root crop would be produced at less expense per bushel than by the direct application of manure, except it was of some of the concentrated sorts, such as guano, phosphate, pondrette, or well-rotted compost, used to hasten the first gr@wth. Whether this is a correct practice or not is the question that needs discussion and positive determination. It was discussed by some of the good farmers of the State of New York, at one of the meetings of the State Agricultural Society, with an almost universal opinion in favor of spreading upon the surface, and mostly upon sod. We give a few of these opinions. In favor of top-dressing sod with ma- nure, and plowing it under, Mr. Morely, of Onondaga County ; T. C. Peters, of Darien, Genesee County; Lewis F. Allen, of Black Rock; Mr. Gold- smith, of Orange County ; Mr. Marks, of Onondaga County ; Mr. Leland, of Saratoga County; Mr. Williams, of Seneca County; T. W. Field, of Long Island ; George Geddes, of Onondaga ; Mr. Lyons, of Lewis County ; Mr. Huested, of Ulster County; A. L. Fish, of Herkimer County; Mr. Bartlett, of Dutchess County ; A. B. Conger, of Rockland County; and the author, of Westchester County. Mr. Lyons, of Lewis, has top-dressed meadows for fifteen years, without breaking up, with good results. Mr, Curtis, of Tompkins, said clover was the most economical manure for him. He seeds with rye, and uses plaster. Mr. Day, of Genesee County, is equally favorable to clover, but can not make it grow without manure. Judge Blodget, of Lewis County, finds ashes and plaster beneficial as top-dressing of grass lands, but thinks the most important thing is first to give the soil a vood preparation by plowing. Mr. Sylvester, of Wayne County, always plows in manure. A. B. Conger thinks the mauner of applying manure depends entirely on what sort of a crop is to be grown. If it is. a deep-rooted crop, the manure must be deep buried to ipvodade the best result. Upon grass crops it is probable that top-dressing is the most beneficial. 1002. Sundry Experiments in Surface Manuring.—Prof. Legnitz, of Elden, . divided a lot into four equal parts. To No. 1 no manure was given. No. 2 received about two tuns of farm-yard dung, which was spread immediately and covered in by means of the plow. No. 3 was treated in the same man- ner, with this difference, that the hoe was used instead of the plow. The 7) ea | Szo. 53.] LIQUID MANURE. 887 same quantity of dung was carried to No. 4, and allowed to remain spread three weeks on the soil before being covered in by the hoe. On the 10th of October, the four lots subjected to experiment were sown with about ninety- five pints of rye each. The following are the total results of the crops of each lot, grain and straw included: No.1 produced 583 pounds; No. 2 pro- duced 770 pounds; No. 3 produced 818 pounds; No. 4 produced 930 pounds. 1003. Renovating Old Pastures by Top-dressing.—One of the best things that can be applied to a rocky pasture infested with bushes, briers, or weeds, is salt. Salt them every week while wet with rain or dew, and let the stock look to that source alone for a supply. Pests of the pasture, including grubs, can be driven out with salt, while the grass will be improved, We doubt whether a pasture can be found that w vould not be so improved by a dressing of lime of from five to fifty bushels per acre, as to prove one of the most profitable investments that the owner could make. Plaster, at the rate of one half to two bushels an acre, may be applied to all old, rocky pastures. If any one doubts whether ashes would afford the most profit applied to a field of corn or a pasture lot, let him try the experiment fairly. A great many pastures have been grazed ever since the land was denuded of timber, and there is no lack of humus in the soil, but it is inert. Simple exposnre to the air, and consequent decomposition of the roots of the sod, would make the soil again productive, and this would be the cheapest as well as best application; but where that can not be applied, lime, plaster, ashes, salt, superphosphate, niter, guano, or some other fertilizer, will enable the owners to carry more stock, and we should like to find the farmer who would say that that was not profitable, whether he converted the grass into beef, mutton, milk, or manure for his hoed crops. 1004. Liquid Manure.—I am satisfied that the correct method of treating all manure is to put it in solution in tanks at the barn, and send it to the field by steam power, just as has been repeatedly described as practiced by Mr. Mechi and others in England. Upon any farm, level or hilly, where the amount of team work to haul manure is large enough to justify the first outlay, there is no doubt in my mind that steam power is the cheapest of any that can be used, and the time will come when carting manure will be looked upon as a very slovenly way of farming. It will be found far more economical to dissolve it where it is made, and send it to the field through pipes, by a stationary engine. The people that come after us will look back upon this age of the world as we do upon the dark ages of the past, and wonder how it is possible that we could have been so stupid as to cart manure with oxen and horses, when it would be so much better and cheaper done by dissolving it, and using steam. The best crops to which to apply liquid manure are grass, clover, and small grain, but it may be applied with advantage to all hoed crops. The same order may be advantageously pur- sued in applying any sort of farm manure. That is, to grass first, and make the sod manure the grain crops. Small farmers, who can not send their 888 FERTILIZATION. [Cuap. XII. liquid manure a-field by steam, may have a large cask or tank on wheels, with a sprinkler attached. A manure tank may be made just as we have directed for making cisterns. (333.) 1005. Use of Tan Bark as Manure.—Tan bark, when used as a manure, certainly produces very little effect, but when used as a mulch and suffered to decay, leaves all tle potash that its ashes would give, the value of which, as particularly applicable to young trees, no one will dispute. For straw- berries, we have never seen anything equal to tan bark. We would put it upon the beds in autumn, after forking up, and not remove it in the spring, except from the crown of the roots. In our opinion, not a bushel of tan bark should be allowed to go to waste, where there are farms within a mile or two of the tannery. Be sure that it will pay to cart it that distance to put around all fruit-trees, old or young, large or small, and upon all strawberry beds, because with it you can get good crops of this delicious fruit, upon almost any soil. 1006. Manure is Gained by Soiling Cattle —Hon. Josiah Quincey, Jr., of Massachusetts, says: ‘“‘ Farmers do not generally seem to understand the importance of soiling cattle, on account of the great increase of manure; nor do they seem to understand how much manure can be increased by the use of absorbents, or how great is the value of the manure of a single animal.” Upon this point the testimony of Dr: Dana is important, who states that one cow will make twenty-one cords of manure, equal in value to the average of good stable manure, if all her solid and liquid excrements are saved and composted with muck. In soiling cows, Mr. Quincy says, “ we calculate that a square rod will support a cow a day. Grass, oats, Indian corn, and barley are the plants we use for soiling. Early in April we sow oats at the rate of four bushels per acre. Our sowings are April 5th, April 20th, and May 1st. We sow corn May Ist, June 1st and 15th, three bushels per acre. We sow barley ten days apart till August Ist. Another advan- tage of soiling is the saving of land. An acre will support three cows during the soiling season. It is almost impossible to calculate the value of manures, and how much corn can be saved by soiling cattle.” In a discussion upon this subject, Mr. Stewart, of Erie County, N. Y., said: “I find soiling not only beneficial to the animals, but to the land. One acre will do more in soiling than in pasturing, and the manure will more than pay all the expense ; and I find that cut straw, steamed, with a pint of meal to a bushel, and fed three bushels a day to a cow, is better than timo- thy hay. I think soiling would double the value of farms, and that farmers would realize three times as much profit as in the old way. I grow carrots and turnips for spring feed. I consider sowed corn the best plant for soiling of any that I have tried. Butter made from corn will keep as well as that made from the best pasture, and have as rich a color.” Prof. Sprengel, the celebrated German chemist, asserts that each cow produces annually 18,000 pounds urine, which contains of solid matter 900 pounds. This solid matter is fully equal to the best guano, weight for weight, so that the liquid manure Sxzo. 53.] SPECIAL MANURES. forely) of every cow kept on a farm for one year is worth, when applied to the crops, more than $20 annually, and so in proportion to all the rest of the domestic animals. It may be said that in no other department of rural econ- omy does the American farmer lose so much by neglect, as in the manage-’ ment of solid and liquid manures. 1007. Special Manures—Their Use Considered.—Dr. Anderson (Scotland) gives as a reason why special manures should be used, that the diminished production of a field is rarely in consequence of general exhaustion of all fertility, but because one or more necessary ingredients have been carried off in the crops, or else were naturally deficient, and as plants can not grow without all their constituents are present in the soil, the absence of one may render the land comparatively barren. ‘A soil in this condition does not absolutely require farm-yard manure, but may be again made to produce abundant crops by the application of the one deficient substance, which is then called a special manure. When so treated, a soil will retain this re- newed fertility for a certain time, but at length becomes again infertile, even under a continued application of this manure, which is then said, in ordinary language, to have lost its effect (become ‘ guano sick’), although the real reason is that the supply of a second constituent has been exhausted, and it also must be supplied in the form of a new manure.” Dr. Anderson thinks special manures should always be used in combina- tion with those of the farm-yard. “A given quantity of the latter can, of course, produce only a certain amount of crop; but if mixed with a special _ manure, it is most rapidly converted into vegetable matter, and this is advantageous to the farmer. It may be urged that this is a matter of little moment, and that sooner or later the farmer receives back what he has put into the ground. But this is not the case; during six months of the year, manure lying in the ground is undergoing decomposition, although there age no plants to make use of it, and the constituents then set free are in part, at least, washed away and lost. Even if none of it were lost, it would not be altogether a matter of indifference ; for, to take an extreme case by way of illustration, if we suppose a part of the manure to remain undecomposed for fourteen years after its application, it will, if only five per cent. interest on its price be reckoned, have cost the farmer twice as much as that which was consumed during the year of its application. Though I consider the use of special manures alone a most injudicious and shortsighted policy, which can rarely be employed with advantage, there is no question that their proper combination with farm-yard manure is really one of the most important improvements ever introduced into the practice of agricul- ture.” This is knocking in the head the very thing that seems to be most depre- eated in this country—that is, using up the manure the first year of its appli- cation. The farmer forgets his interest account. It is, in fact, his interest to use up the manure in every crop it is applied to. His farm is simply a manufactory, where he takes in such crude materials as constitute manure, FERTILIZATION. [Cuar. XII. eee at a cheap rate, and converts them into salable crops, that he sells at a dear rate, or a profit upon the manufacture. 1008. Guano—its History—Peruvian guano, which is the best, and the kind now generally used in this country, comes from the Chincha Islands, three in number, on the coast of Peru, between latitude 13° and 14°, in the bay of Pisco, about twelve miles from the coast, where rain never falls, and the air is always so dry that the juices of flesh evaporate so rapidly that meat can be preserved fresh, or dried without salt. The waters surrounding these islands are almost alive with fish, upon which birds have fed and deposited their excrement upon the rocks for countless ages, which time has formed into a substance resembling yellow snuff, and almost as pungent as that article, and possessing the powers of fertilization to such an eminent degree, that two or three hundred pounds spread upon the poorest soil causes it to produce an abundant crop, even greater than a good dressing of farm-yard manure. The North Chincha Island, from whence the principal supply of guano has been drawn, is about one and one half mile long and half that in breadth, upon which the guano was piled up over the rocks, giving it a smooth, round appearance, and a depth in the center of two or three hundred feet. Exca- vations have been made at one end, not by any means in the deepest part, a hundred and thirty feet deep, without finding bottom, to prove that the quality of the guano at that depth was equal to that near the surface. _ It is so compacted together that it has to be dug up with picks; and notwith- standing the vast number of cargoes taken away, the proportion the quantity removed bears to the quantity remaining may be guessed at, it can not be understood, when we state that actual surveys made by the Peruvian goy- ernment gave the sum of the deposit upon the three Chincha Islands at TWENTY MILLIONS oF TUNS. This quantity appears so enormous that many have doubted its correctness. A French engineer, said to have been em- ployed at a subsequent period by his government to ascertain the truth of this statement, has reported his estimate of the quantity at twelve million tuns. This amount still appearing too large for belief, Admiral Moresby caused a reconnoissance to be made, which the person who made it says was done in a very imperfect manner, very hurriedly, and without proper instru- ments, and in a measure secretly, and which gives the quantity at eight million six hundred thousand tuns. Now if we take the mean of the three estimates it will give upward of thirteen million five hundred thousand tuns, and the mean of the French and English estimates is ten million three hundred thousand tuns, besides the deposits upon the Lobos and other islands, which have been reported at eight and a half millions of tuns. This would give eighteen million eight hun- dred thousand tuns as the mean of the French and English estimates, which would give to the world the same rate of supply as at present during the next century. | “American Guano” is the name given to the product of Baker’s Island, Szo. 53.] USE AND VALUE OF MUCK OR PEAT. 891 and other islands in the Pacific, much farther west than the Chinchas, and in a region subject to rains, which lessen the value of the deposit. It is nearly destitute of ammonia, but rich in phosphates. 1009. Value and Economy of Using Guano.—Although guano should not be exclusively depended upon, because it acts as a stimulant, and is mostly exhausted by one erop, yet upon all worn-out, sandy, or loamy soil the eul- tivator can afford to use No. 1 guano, at $70 a tun, at the rate of 200 Ibs. per acre, well worked into the soil with small grain, if with that grain he will sow clover sced, so that the growth of that will take up all that the grain does not of the fertilizing powers of the guano, and in its turn serve for a rich dressing of manure to the land, renovating it so as to produce other grain or root crops without further application of expensive fertilizers. The price of Peruvian guano has risen since it was first introduced and ex- tensively used in this country from about $45 to about $70 a tun, and at that some of our farmers fear its use is not economical. This depends whether he can grow a remunerative crop without purchasing some fertil- izer. If he can not, then it is probable that guano is as economical as any- thing in market, since many experiments prove that a dressing of 200 lbs. of Peruvian guano, upon grass and grain, has doubled the yield per acre. Its most profitable use is upon very poor land, to give it a start, so it will produce clover, which it will do upon an almost hopelessly barren soil. If its use is long continued, without other manures, the application becomes unprofitable. Where it has been most extensively and longest used in En- gland, the farmers say that the land has become ‘ guano-sick.” 1010. How to Apply Guano.—If we were applying guano to land for corn, potatoes, or any other crop, we should prefer to do it by sowing broadcast and lightly plowipg in. If applied as a top-dressing—which is rarely ad- visable—always apply it, if possible, before rain, or when snow is on the ground ; and if on arable Jand, harrow, hoe, or scufile immediately after. There is no benefit in mixing guano with anything, unless it be water, to be used for garden purposes. In that case it should be made a very weak solution, or it will kill all it comes in contact with, whether seeds or plants. 1011. Use and Value of Muck or Peat.—We lay it down as an incontro- vertible fact, in all the Eastern States, that every farmer who has a muck- bed can double the value of all his other manure by the use of muck, over and above the expense of digging and hauling any reasonable distance. It should not be applied fresh, but composted with stable, pig-pen, hen-roosts, and privy manures. It is a great deodorizer. Sometimes a mass of matter is found in the bottom of a pond or swamp, composed almost entirely of vegetable substance. Such will bear hauling a considerable distance. Where the deposit is very fibrous or peaty, it will be advisable to burn it and use the ashes. Occasionally a muck-bed is so largely composed of silt, the most of which is sand, that the deposit will not bear long transportation. It will, however, always prove beneficial where it is applied. Some deposits are so entirely composed of vegetable matter, that when dry they burn, and a eae ree ae 892 FERTILIZATION, (Cuap. XII. leave no more ashes than the same bulk of chips would. Such deposits are called peat, and are often used for fuel, and would be valuable to burn for ashes, which could then be hauled long distances with profit. All peaty substances have an antiseptic quality when wet, and a great deodorizing power when dried and pulverized. Hence its value as an absorbent of am- moniacal gases arising from stables, sinks, and decaying vegetable and ani- mal matters. One of the benefits of peat in soils is disintegration, and another, darkening the color. It is believed that the acid of peats exerts a powerful decompos- ing power, and ultimately solvent effects upon minerals in the soil. It cer- tainly influences the temperature. Potatoes have been found ripe two weeks earlier in a peaty soil than in one of a light color. By analysis, dried peat has repeatedly shown a greater per cent. of ammo- nia than the best stable-yard manure, and when mixed with that in equal quantities, the mixture has proved more valuable than the manure in a pure state. These facts are sufficient to induce all farmers, as soon as they learn them, to add to the bulk and value of stable, and all other manures, when- ever they can have access to a muck deposit. Every one who will look at the following table of analysis of two samples of peat, such as are found in all parts of the country in swampy places, will see at a glance that such sub- stances must possess manurial value. 1012. Analysis of Peat.—This analysis was made by Professor Johnson, of Yale College, who says: “It doubtless gives a fair idea of the inorganic ingredients of the majority of the peats,” in the State of Connecticut : Analysis of Peat Ashes. ¥ Il. Analysis of Peat Ashes. : .80 | Chlorine > Soluble silica 35.59 | Carbonic acid Magnesia i 4.92 Oxyd of iron and alumina.... 5. 9.08 Phosphoric acid : 17 99.13 100.74 Sulphuric acid 52 40.41 Another analysis of peat, suitable for fuel, is given below, made by George F. Barker, of Charlestown, Mass., and is compared with Professor Voelcker’s analysis of well-fermented farm-yard manure, composed of dung of horses, cows, and sheep : Peat. Manure. Peat. Manure. Water expelled at 212 degrees. 18.050 75.420 | Oxyd of iron and alumina 81 -673 Soluble in dilute solution Phosphoric acid : 450 Sulphuric acid of carbonate of soda— @ilorine soluble geine........... 27.190} 16.5380 Soluble in solution of car- ; bonate of soda Organic Matter. 491 -080 1.990 This analysis shows that peat contains five times as much organic matter, and four times as much potential ammonia as farm-yard manure; and it con- tains more lime, magnesia, and sulphuric acid, but less phosphoric acid and | f So. 53.] THINGS TO BE USED FOR MANURE. 393 potash ; and taken altogether, it will be seen why they are so well fitted for mixing together. Where not so mixed, bone dust and ashes, or phosphate and potash in some other form, should be used with the peat. It may happen that another deposit of peat would contain all the ingredients, and be actually more valuable than stable manure, as soon as it is decomposed. For heavy soils, peat or swamp muck should always be composted with strong fermenting substances, such as horse and hen droppings and animal matters. Some peats are so charged with iron that they are positively injurious to land until they have been long exposed to the air or mixed with some other substances. The best thing to decompose muck and fit it for convenient use in stables, is lime that has been slaked with water saturated with common salt. Ten bushels of this lime powder may be mixed with 100 bushels of muck. Where fish are used for manure, they should always be made up in a muck compost, until the whole mass becomes homogeneous. 1013. Mixing Muck with Night Soil,—Poudrette and tafen are names of manures sold in most of the cities, in barrels, at high rates, and much appreciated by farmers and market gardeners, to give vegetables an early start. Every farmer can make his own tafeu as well as buy it, for 1t is nothing but night soib and peat or muck in a fine dry powder, mixed with the excrementitious matters to absorb the moisture and deodorize the sub- stance, which is then thoroughly dried and packed for transportation. In the manufacture of tafeu, in a domestic way, one of the best divisors and deodorizers is charcoal dust. Fine clay or loam will answer every purpose, only requiring a greater bulk. Cinders of locomotives that burn wood are excellent. 1014. Sea-Weed for Manure.—Upon all sea coasts, the fertility of the cultivated fields may be much increased by the use of what is called sea- weed, which consists of marine plants cast ashore or gathered from the rocks under water. The latter is called rétk-weed, and makes a richer ma- nure than the variety cast up by the waves. Rock-weed is exceedingly gelatinous, and consequently valuable for manure. A good method of pre- serving all the properties of rock-weed is to spread the green plants upon the surface, and turn them deeply under by the plow. All sea-weed is used to the greatest advantage immediately after being taken from the sea-shore, in the freshest state possible, while perfectly saturated with salt water; if that is permitted to drain from it, decomposition at once takes place, and the value is diminished. In the wet, green state it will add fertility to land already rich, and improve the poorest soil. 1015. Tanuers’ and Glue-Makers’ Scraps for Manure.—One who has used them says: ‘ When I first used tanners’ scraps, I found they injured the crops. Now I consider a tun of them, properly decomposed by the aid of oil of vitriol, and composted with swamp muck, worth as much as three fourths of a tun of Peruvian guano. The horns and piths are also very valuable, as L contain much phosphate of lime. Bone earth is so valuable, that if 894 FERTILIZATION. [CHar. XII. applied to a lot covered with five-finger vines, it will renovate and make the field productive. Any way to decompose these tan-yard sopeecae ce will make them very valuable, more so than any farm-yard manure.’ We have used the waste of a glue manufactory with good results, applied directly to grass land, and also to oats. It consists of Shave and scraps of flesh, mixed with time, 1016. Forest Leaves for Manure.—At the beginning of - winter, every day not otherwise necessarily engaged can be profitably ‘oceupied in gathering leaves. There is no danger of getting too large a quantity ; they will be of service in many different ways, and prove of great value when decayed and united with the compost heap. There is no substance that can be used for mulching, or winter covering of plants, equal to the forest leaves, because they not only give protection, but in their decay, fertility to the soil. Leaves contain potash and tannin, which make them valuable for covering straw- berry beds ; and for stable-bedding there is nothing better, and their value in manure will more than pay the cost of gathering. Every acre of woodland would afford a pretty fair dressing for an acre of corn land, if the leaves were gathered and composted. If used as litter in yards and stables they are worth saving, but not worth half as much as they would be in compost. The same thing may be said of straw and cornstalks, Suffered to decay in the open air, more than one half their value is lost. Buried in compost, all would be saved and become fine manure. 1017. Turf Ashes for Manure.—Neighbor A. had a piece of swamp ad- joining the land of neighbor B., which in draining afforded him a vast quantity of material to fertilize his upland. Seeing what A. had done, B. went so far with his part that he cut off the tussocks and piled them up asa line fence on the edge of A.’s open ditch that he had dug to carry off the water of the tile-drains. By-and-by A. complained to B. that his fence was a nuisance, for it grew weed-seeds that blew over upon his tilled land. B. also acknowledged it was a nuisance, not in the growth of weeds, but that it was “of no account nohow as a fence.” f “ Why not haul it away, then, and put it upon your corn or grass lots on the hill?” said neighbor A. “ Well, to tell you the truth, I haven’t no faith in it.” “ Why, you buy ashes. Don’t you think that such a mass of vegetable matter contains potash ?”” ; “Well, I don’t know. May-be it does; but I guess it don’t contai. enough to pay for hauling. But as you like such stuff, [ will tell you what i- is: If you will haul it away, yon may have it in weleome—the whole string.” “ When shall I get it off ?” “Oh, any time you like, between now and planting-time next spring.” * Enough said. Tl do it.” “Very well. No half-way work; you must make a clean sweep of it; take everything off down to the surface.” “Tl do it.” on Sro. 53.] POTASH AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR ASHES. 895 So they parted. B. bragged a little that he had hitched A. to the biggest load he ever undertook, ‘‘ He has no idea how many loads he will have to pull up that hill. He won’t doit, but I shall have the laugh at him when he gets about half of it off and backs down on the balance.” Several times before autumn B. dropped a hint that he thought A. had better begin his big job. A. said it “wa’n’t quite dry enough yet.” It got very dry, however, in September—dry as tinder, B. said. A. took a look at it, and he thought it “was dry enough.” So, one hot, sunny day, he walked down with a few matches in his pocket—handy things those matches, for with them he lighted the old tussock fence into a roasting hot fire, that reduced the whole string in two days to a pile of biting strong ashes, which did not require a very great outlay of team-labor or hand-work to get up on the hill, where they made a mark that has not been effaced yet, and prob- ably will not be until after the owner has said to himself several times: “ Why the deuce didn’t I think about burning the useless old fence and haul the ashes on my own land? Youawon’t catch me in such a trap as that again.” We wonder if there are not some other people in the world who may profit by this man’s folly, and learn that dry tussocks will make ashes, and that ashes are ood manure. 1018. Wood Ashes for Manure.—No farmer in the old States can afford to sell ashes, for any price that the soap-boiler will pay. Where oats lodge, as they are apt to do upon manured land, an application of ashes would save the crop. Leached ashes are much used upon Long Island, but we doubt the economy of the application, as they cost about ten cents a bushel at Albany. When leached ashes have been exposed to the air a long time, they are more valuable than when first leached. Potash, the chief constituent of wood ashes, is a necessary element for most plants, not only as direct food, but as an agent for rendering silex and other constituents of the soil capable of being absorbed and appropriated in plant life. 1019. Fotash as a Substitute for Ashes—Although we believe unleached ashes a cheap manure at twenty-five cents a bushel, we have no doubt that the same effect may be as cheaply produced by purchasing a erude kind of potash, such as comes from the Syracuse salt works, and has usually cost fifty dollars or sixty dollars a tun. If potash is used, it must be in powder, mixed with dry muck, coal dust, or fine loam, as a divisor. Concentrated manures: generally contain very little or no potash. In guano it rarely ex- ceeds three per cent. Superphosphate of lime can contain none of conse- quence. Potash can not be economically added to manufactured manures, because nearly pure potash, or even the raw material from which it is made, can be more economically used separately. If any manufacturer of manure says it contains much potash, you may ask how he can afford to use it. 1020. Coal Ashes as a Manure.—“Are coal ashes of any benefit as a manure?” The Genesee Farmer says: “That coal ashes are of some benefit, there 896 FERTILIZATION, [Cuar. XII. ean be no doubt. Numerous analyses of them have been made. We have now before us analyses of ashes from different kinds of coal. They vary considerably in composition, but on an average contain about 45 per cent. of silica, 40 of alumina and oxyd of iron, 12 of sulphate of lime or plaster, 2 of magnesia, and 1 of phosphoric acid. Commercially, coal ashes have no value as a manure, but to every farmer are worth something, and ought not to be thrown away. It is said they are good as a top-dressing for lucern and red clover. They are frequently mixed with night soil for the purpose of absorbing unpleasant odors. They are often employed in the garden, more for the purpose of forming walks and preventing the ravages of mice, than as a manure. Covering early-sown peas with coal ashes is said to for- ward their growth, as they tend to absorb the rays of heat.” 1021. Value of Soot as Manure.—Soot is worth nearly as much as guano. Try it upon the grass plot, the flower bed, the melon patch, the grapevines, or any other plants. Mixed with water, and sprinkled upon vines, it will aid in keeping off bugs; spread dry upon the surface, it absorbs heat and hastens growth. Upon flowers it adds beauty to their colors as well as strength to the plants. Farmers, sweep your chimneys and save the soot, and you will save a very valuable manure. 1022. Magnesia as a Fertilizer.—Magnesia is found abundant in the mud of the Nile, which is very fertile ; and in some of the richest marls that have been analyzed, it was found in quantity sufficient to destroy instead of im- prove soils, if it had been as deleterious as some suppose. The salts of mag- nesia may be employed, as the salts of lime, for fixing ammonia, but in that case the profit of its application will depend upon its cost. In one reported experiment, the phosphates of magnesia and ammonia, when applied at the rate of one hundred and thirty to two hundred and sixty pounds per acre, had a powerful effect upon the production of Indian corn; at the rate of three hundred pounds per acre, it increased the crop of grain six times, and of straw three times. 1023. Theory of Atmospheric Fertilization—Whether the nitrogen which exists in the air, forming seventy-nine hundredths of its mass, supplies the nitrogen essential to vegetation, or whether this element is obtained, during growth, from salts in the earth, or from volatile nitrogenous compounds in the air, has never yet been satisfactorily determined, and until it is, our advice is: Look well to your manure heap; enlarge it as much as possible, by adding to it all the coarse straw, stalks, and offal about your buildings. You may also enlarge the pile, and add to the value of your store, by gathering weeds, or sods, or road-washings and muck. Sprinkle the heap occasionally with plaster, but never add lime. Slops of the house and soap-suds will add to fertility and hasten decomposition, and prove far more reliable than any dependence upon the atmosphere. 1024. Phosphorus as a Fertilizer.—Phosphorus is found in -all animals, combined with a particular organic substance in the brain, the spinal mar- row, the spermatic fluid, and in the milt of fishes, and certain mollusca, and Sxo. 53.] GREEN SAND—FISH-GUANO. 897 also in all vegetables. It exists in combination with oxygen in all rocks, in all soils, and in the flesh and bones of all animals, and their secretions. Some of the fossil excrements of extinct animals are of great value as fer- tilizers. The apatite rock of Estramadura, in Spain, contains eighty-one per cent. of phosphate of lime, and is so abundant that it is used as a building material. In the United States, mineral phosphates are found in many localities, particularly in Morris County, New Jersey, and at Crown Point, in the State of New York. The mineral was crushed and sold in our markets as a fertilizer, but it has gone out of use, because it was found that the phos- phorus of bones was, in a progressed form, of an almost inconceivably greater value than that in its native condition in the rocks. 1025. How to Detect Adulterations of eee tee superphos- phate of lime, from its comparatively high value, leads to adulteration. Water is added to increase the weight; ear ise chalks, lime, old plaster, and oyster-shells are sometimes mixed in a manner to deceive the eye. Some of these substances may be detected with the aid of a magnifier, by acids, or by simple washing with water and examining the residue after decanting. Tf old plaster is suspected, the hair will be seen ; if oyster-shells or chalk, the effervescence and particles of shells will furnish indications which will lead to closer scrutiny. The sulphate of barytes, or sulphate of lime, increases the weight of the mixture, and the former, particularly when thrown into a tumbler of water, will fall to the bottom more rapidly than the superphos- phate. 1026. Green-Sand-Mar] Manure.—This valuable manure abounds in New Jersey, and is one of the best things ever applied to a light sandy soil. Its appearance is not unlike common musket gunpowder, except instead of the grains being black, they are of a greenish color. The application of niter to grass, and potash to woody plants, has shown that both, in their place, are of almost inconceivable value to farmers, but not more so than green-sand- _ marl, which contains an appreciable quantity of potash. 1027. Norwegian Fish-Guano Manure.—In the year 1855 a company in Norway was organized with a capital of $100,000, to render available the great mass of refuse hitherto thrown away in the preparation of codfish at the Loffoden Islands, about 800 miles north of Christiania, where enough of this refuse is thrown away to make 2,500 tons of fish-guano annually. In comparison with good Peruvian guano, this new guano proved to be as fol- lows: Upon cereals, one pound of fish-guano was found, in twenty-five experiments, to produce an average increase of 9.1 pounds, while Peruvian guano produced, in an average of twenty-three experiments, an increase of 6.3 pounds. Upon root crops, one pound of fish-guano was found, in an average of seventeen experiments, to produce an increase of 15.6 pounds, while one pound of Peruvian guano, in an average of the same number of experiments, was found to give 17.3 pounds of increase. The whole of the experiments showed that the fish-guano was very nearly equal to the best Peruvian guano, weight for weight. BT = 898 FERTILIZATION. [Caap. XII. 1028. American Fish-Guano.—Iwo companies, similar to the above, are in operation in this country, one in the State of Rhode Island, and the other on the south side of Long Island. They make fish-oil of the seup or porgies, and the menhaden, caught so plentifully along the coast. The very consider- able residue after the extraction of the oil, composed of the skin, bones, and muscle of the fish, is dried and ground into a powder, which bears a close resemblance to the imported guano, and is sold at about forty dollars per tun. This manufacture might be widely extended if these companies would take the trouble to introduce their article to the notice of farmers generally. 1029. How Much Manure Should we Use ?—We answer: Just as much as can be converted into paying crops. Take five acres in corn: No. 1 with $10 worth of manure, 40 bushels, worth 75c $30 00 No.2 29" Be iy Ge 25 No.3 “ see ogi No.4 « be BB. a No.5 « Bey poe Let us now suppose that the rent of soil, taxes, cost of cultivation, will cost $15 per acre, so that with No. 1 the cost of manure and other expenses would be $25, leaving a profit of $5, besides the value of the stalks, which will range throughout in a fair ratio with the yield of corn—then the profit would stand thus: No. 1, $5; No. 2, $6 25; No. 3, $6 75; No. 4, $7 25; No. 5, $7 75. The second year, without any additional manure, 1 50 . 2 3 TE 75 oe 29 25 UA Go 4e fe 5 5 39 75 goon : 50 25 The true science of manuring is to convert the manure at a profit into salable products. If the land will produce, say a profit of $20 an acre upon the labor employed, without manure, and with the same labor it will produce a profit of $40 an acre over the cost of manuring, then it is cer- tainly much more profitable to buy and apply the manure, whether guano or any other suitable substance, than it is to work without manure. 1030. Manuring with Green Crops and Lime.—Green crops plowed under are powerful auxiliaries in rendering a light soil fertile. But if this is done too often successively, it eventually renders the soil too carbonaceous—~. ¢., too full of vegetable matter. This must be corrected by the application of lime. Some farmers complain that they do not get a sufficient increase of grain to pay for the use of guano. They would get the full value of the guano if they would always sow clover seed on the grain, so as to have a crop of clover to turn under as manure. Land that is kept rich by green crop ma- nuring never gets as full of weeds as it does from stable manure. The manure made from one tun of clover hay is worth as much as that made from a tun and a half of timothy or meadow hay. There is no doubt on this point; and it is one reason why we urge the importance of an increased growth of clover as a means of enriching the soil. If the manure obtained ° from the consumption of a tun of meadow hay is worth $6 43, that made Sxo. 53.) : WOW TO INCREASE MANURE-VALUE. from a tun of clover hay is worth $9 64, or half as much again—and this is true everywhere. 1031. Value of Manure Depends upon Fineness.—All costly fertilizers should be examined in regard to their fineness. If properly prepared, they are nearly in the state of impalpable powder. To prove this, pass a small sample through a fine sieve. This extreme fineness is the principal secret of the immediate benefit derived from guano. It has been stated that two bushels of bone-dust were worth more for immediate use than one hundred bushels of whole bones. Leather shavings, woolen rags, hair, oil-cake, and similar substances, are valuable manures, because they contain a large per- centage of potential ammonia, perhaps equally as large as the best samples of guano, yet their action is much slower. In all manures which contain potash, it is in such a mechanical condition that it is much more readily absorbed by plants than the native potash of rocks ; and this is true of nearly every other mineral substance. 1032. Value of Shelter for Manure.—In England, Lord Kinnard made a variety of experiments proving the value of protecting manure from the weather. Twenty acres of rich, dry loam were selected, one half of which was inanured with manure which had been housed, and the other half with that which had been exposed, at the rate.of twenty loads to each acre. The whole was plowed and planted to potatoes, each part receiving the same treatment. Here is the result: Unnousep Manure.—One acre produced 7 tuns, 6 ewt., and 8 lbs.; another acre, 7 tuns, 18 cwt., and 99 Ibs.. Housrp Manvre.—One acre produced 11 tuns, 17 ewt., and 56 Ibs. ; another acre, 11 tuns, 12 ewt., and 201bs. Difference in favor of housed mannre about 60 per cent. The field was then sown with wheat, and dressed in the spring with 300 lbs. of guano per acre, and yielded upon two acres, treated with unhoused manure, 84 bushels of grain and 6,864 lbs. of straw. The other part, two acres, gave 109 bushels of grain and 9,482 lbs. of straw. On the first part the wheat weighed 613 Ibs. per bushel, and on the other, 66 Ibs. 1033. Immense Value of Manures Used in England.—The value of manure annually used in England is estimated, from statistics carefully collected, at the enormous sum of $300,000,000. In making this calculation, all the home-made manures are put down at their commercial value, and all the im- ported bones, guanos, and other fertilizers, at the prices paid for them by the farmers. Is such high manuring profitable? That is the test question. It is the one that has governed English farmers—no other would be sufficient to cause them to use such an immense sum annually in manures. It is simply a commercial operation, based upon this question: ‘“ How much manure is my manufactory (the farm) capable of working up this year?” 1034. Value of Particular Manures on Wheat.—The following table shows the result of experiments made by Dr. Voelcker, at Cirencester, England, with fertilizers for wheat. The manures were all in fine powder, mixed with ten times their weight of soil, sown broadcast upon the growing crop March 22, and washed in evenly by a gentle rain. / > ae ee | 900 FERTILIZATION. [Cuap. XII. No. of Manures used, and Quantity Yield of Wheat Yield of Straw Increaseof Wheat Inc. of Straw Plots. per acre. per acre in bus. per acre in lbs. overunman’d plot. over unma. do, ee care WO MANUTCe fe cscs ate so ater roere 27 wae | Ly OGEs® ar te. «ces DUB] Unt wed ite Se Bees 280 lbs. Peruvian guano........ 4010 uci / DBIGs, Gasee IBAR10 os ib98 SaaSe 195 lbs. nitrate of soda.......... 38 See LOO DE tetera 1 ta Liat) es eA Se 180 lbs. nitrate of soda and 168 ne lbs. common salt........... B0/6-10 a. - At 86, ns: 1B G10 52) doe Desai 448 Ibs. Proctor’s wheat manure. ve vet 27008) ae oe acing OO Bi n'y. 672 Ibs. te . 441-5 vees S082 oe erator ee tose Whe suites 4 tuns chalk-marl.............. 27 peeenc 2,872 iat, SNone:t' 4280. sieider: The manures cost $7 80 per acre, except the large dose of Proctor’s wheat manure on plot 6, which cost $11 70. The wheat was worth $1 26 per bushel. Leaving the value of the straw out of the question, the profit from the use of the top-dressing was: With guano, $8 70 per acre; with nitrate of soda, $6 per acre; with nitrate of soda and salt, $9 33 per acre; with 448 lbs. wheat manure, $7 95 per acre ; with 672 lbs. wheat manure, $18 87 per acre. Taking the first four lots, where the same amount of money was expended on each lot for manure, the nitrate of soda and salt give the best result, guano next, the wheat manure next, and the nitrate of soda alone, the least. The extra heavy dose of wheat manure gave the largest profits, although the increase is not quite in proportion to the amount of ma- nure; that is to say, the extra 224 pounds on plot 6 gave an increase of about five bushels, while the 448 pounds on plot 5 gave an inerease of 121 bushels. The cost of producing an extra bushel of wheat was: With gu- ano, 60 cents ; with nitrate of soda, 71 cents; with nitrate of soda and salt, 57 cents ; with 448 pounds wheat manure, 62 cents; with 672 pounds wheat manure, 45 cents. In these calculations we have allowed nothing for any effect which the manures may produce on the next year’s crop. Asa general rule, the effect of such manure the following year is very slight, especially if the land is sown with any of the cereals. On clover, the mineral manure left in the soil sometimes proves beneficial. This is in accordance with theory, and agrees with the experience of farmers who. use guano on the poor soils in Maryland and Virginia. 1035. Value of Particular Manures on Gats.x—Joseph Harris, editor of the Genesee Farmer, Rochester, N. Y., sowed oats May 20, on clover sod, and May 26, just as they were coming up, top-dressed the land with the follow- ing manures per acre: No. 1,no manure; No. 2, 600 Ibs. of plaster; No. 3, 300 Ibs. superphosphate of lime; No. 4, 300 lbs. sulphate of ammonia ; No. 5, 800 Ibs. superphosphate of lime and 300 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia. The result was as follows: Straw per acre. Grain peracre. Bus. peracre. Weight per bus. Total straw & grain. ds The most striking result is the effect of plaster (gypsum or sulphate of SS - Szo. 53.] THE USE OF SALT AS A FERTILIZER. 901 lime) on the quality of the grain. The oats on all the plots, owing to the late seeding, were very light, but where the plaster was used, they were 4 lbs. per bushel heavier than on the unmanured land. In addition to this, there was an increase of 11 bushels of oats and 950 lbs. of straw per acre from the use of plaster. Mr. Harris has since obtained a similar result by the use of plaster on Chinese cane. 1036. The Use of Salt as a Fertilizer.—Salt has long been used in En- land, with most beneficial results, applied in all quantities, from three to twenty bushels per acre. An article before us, from an English farmer, says he applies it as a top-dressing to all his grain crops by sowing it broadcast in April or May, at the rate of four bushels per acre, taking care to do it after sunset. He has found this application an excellent remedy for the grub and wire-worm. He gets a much heavier crop of wheat from the salted than the unsalted soil, and finds that he not only obtained a bolder, brighter, and heavier sample, but the crop is entirely free from rust, blight, and smut in that portion of his farm where salt has been used, at the rate of from seven to ten bushels per acre, sown broadcast as long before the planting as cir- cumstances will permit, in order that the salt may in the different workings of the land get thoroughly incorporated with the soil, and he finds that grubs and wire-worms avoid land treated in this way. A correspondent of the Maine Farmer gives the following experiments in the use of salt. He says he put on six bushels to the acre, and harrowed it in before sowing his grain and grass seed. “ That is the very secret why I get so much hay. I have used salt many years on corn, putting it on the hill before hoeing, as we do ashes. Upon one piece, I put ashes on one third, on one third, plaster, and on the other third, salt, and the salted portion was decidedly the best. I broke up two thirds of an acre of poor land, and not having any common stable manure to put on it, I sowed, after harrowing over once, eight bushels of salt, and harrowed it in and planted potatoes and peas. They came up as strong and grew as rank as they would have done had there been a heavy coat of dressing plowed in.” ‘There is one peculiar feature in the effects of salt When put into the ground—it serves to make the ground very light and mellow. The following are opinions of Prof. S. W. Johnson, of Yale College, upon the use of salt. The constituents of salt are chlorine and sodium, which are ingredients of all cultivated plants. The use of salt has often doubled the amount of a crop. The growth of sugar plants and tobacco is much in- ereased by it, though it is said to injure the quality of tobacco. Asparagus will bear a large dressing of salt. Root crops are also benefited by it. It makes the straw of grain stronger, and is beneficial to all craps in drouth. One of the benefits of salt is to make inert potash and ammonia existing in the soil available to growing plants. In our own practice, we have used salt with decided success upon a loamy soil, in a gneiss rock formation, not many miles inland. It was highly beneficial in restoring vigor to old grass sod, and was apparently very bene- 902 FERTILIZATION. [Cuar. XII. ficial to all farm and garden crops, except the cucurbita family. To that, salt is injurious. 1037. Chandlers’ Greaves and Value of Hair for Manure.—Analysis proves that chandlers’ greaves are valuable manure, as it shows that they contain thirteen per cent. of ammonia, or—what is the same thing practically— nitrogen enough to yield that amount of ammonia to the soil. The best way to employ them would probably be to break fine, soak in cold water, and spread them in a compost heap. Their value may be calculated upon the cost by estimating the ammonia they would yield at 14 cents a pound; that is, 18 per cent. 260 Ibs., 14 cents. a 1b., $36 40, besides other ingredients. In addition to this value, they may be fed to pigs and poultry, without lessening their worth for manure, while they are frequently worth all they cost for feeding purposes. It is proper to observe that the flesh of poultry, and also the eggs, while fed upon greaves, have a rank, unpleasant flavor. Their great value is for manure, and for this purpose English farmers have bought up great quantities in New York. In the autumn of 1862, their orders kept the market quite bare, though, owing to the receipt of 50,000 hogs a week, and 5,000 bullocks and 10,000 sheep, the quantity manufac- tured was larger than ever before. The average price was $25 a tun, at which they are cheap manure. Of the value of hair for manure, we can say that we have used a good many loads of the refuse of a glue manufac- tory, composed mostly of hair, and found it a most valuable manure. A farmer inquires: “‘ What is the best manure for celery?” We auswer, hair; it surpasses all other fertilizers. The waste of farriers, cloth-dressers, glue- makers, tanners, and all other trades, where hair or wool forms the bulk of the waste, is worth ten times as much as stable manure. The sweepings of New York barber shops have been found very valuable, and in our opin- ion there is no substance saved upon the farm for manure, that would pay so great a profit upon the labor, as in preserving all the hair combed from live animals, or scraped from dead ones, feathers included. It is worth an average of six to ten cents a pound for manure. 1038. Can Worn-out Lands be Restored ?—4Vc answer, Yes, certainly ; but not by the common prescription of “ rest :” that is, to be thrown out of cul- tivation, as they always are at the South, and as they frequently are at the North. By no rest, such as and gets when allowed to grow up in old field pines and sedge grass; or in sumac bushes, mullens, and briers, will it ever be restored. It may be by continued cultivation, deep plowing, proper manur- ing, and growing clover. That is the way to rest and restore worn-out lands. Some fields are called worn-out, and are really unproductive, though lacking a single ingredient of fertility. If worn out so that wheat fails, add bone-dust ; if exhausted of potash, you can not grow plants that contain a large amount of that salt, until you restore potash to the soil by an applica- tion of some fertilizer in which it exists. Think, if there is no lime you can not grow the cereals until you give lime to the soil. If your land is deficient in chlorid of sodium, as almost all the old fields of New England are, think > Szo. 53.] THE USE OF WATER AS A FERTILIZER. 908 how easy to restore it by a dressing of common salt. Think, that whatever the condition of the surface, the productiveness of the land depends greatly on the nature of the swhsoil. If that is cold, wet, and poor, all efforts to improve the soil will be labor in vain, unless recourse is first had to under- draining. And finally, let it be your constant thought, that nearly all lands naturally fertile soon lose their fertility by growing successive grain crops on them, unless the organic elements abstracted by the crops are again restored to the soil in the shape of manures, 1039. Water as Manure—the Worth of Water.—Without water all manure is worthless. With it in abundance, crops can be grown almost without manure. There is fertility in the water of the clearest stream. Who can calculate the worth of water? Who knows, or even thinks, what a well of water is worth? Who ean tell the value of a spring? Can any one count in dollars the worth of a tiny brook that trickles down through a farm? The little brook where the horses, oxen, cows, and sheep go for their daily drink—for water that they can not live without; where the swine go in summer to cool their fat sides; where the old goose leads her young brood to teach them that water is a necessity of their life; where the old ducks and the young ones sail up and down, enjoying a listless life of nothing else to do; where even the old dog, as he runs over the fields, stops to quench his thirst and cool his panting tongue. Down at the brook! Ah, yes! down at the brook! What a charm in that word! and it speaks of the worth of water—a substance that no one can live without; a thing that if it does not naturally exist convenient to the house, the farm, the farm- yard, the field, should be made so artificially. Who can tell the worth of water for irrigation? It can hardly be computed. If no water came from the clouds or the atmosphere, in rain or dew, what would our crops be worth? Look! how everything is parched up even in a little drouth of a few weeks. And oh, how man and beast suffer if for a single day deprived of water! Think of it, farmers, and dig wells, build cisterns, make reser- voirs, that all may have an abundance of water. Above all other things, furnish your household with plenty of soft water, and you will have some- thing every wash-day to show the worth of such an abundant thing in nature as water. You will have, what you should always save, the soap-suds for manure. I wish you could see, as I do from the desk where I now write, the enormous growth of a grapevine made the present summer (1862) by the use of soap-suds. CHAPTER XIII. IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. PLOWS AND OTHER FARMING TOOLS. SECTION LIV.—IRRIGATION AND TILE DRAINING, E hold the following to be well-demonstrated agricul- tural truths : First : That where land is worth $50 or more per acre, itis cheaper to drain wet land than to pur- chase a greater area. Second: That such land must be drained before it can be cultivated with true economy. Third: That one half, if not three fourths, of the arable land of the Eastern and Middle States would be improved enough to pay for drainage. Trrigation is also a new art in American agricul- ture, but it is one that America can no longer afford to ignore—it should go hand in hand with drain- age; and American farmers should read what it has already done for other countries, and think what it may do for this. With- out irrigation, portions of Mexico would be almost uninhabitable; and in California it is of immense value, though the means employed are very rude. No country on earth, perhaps, was ever so favorably situated for irrigation as the northern portion of the United States. Notwithstanding aes gen- erally hilly surface, there are thousands of springs and rills that only need to be led by natceal descents into artificial channels; and where streams do not exist, a windmill can be made to pump up water from a lower level to a reservoir on the hill, to be let down when required for the use of growing crops. Yet the matter is scarcely ever thought of, and no laws or system have ever been adopted to promote the improvement. 1040. Irrigation—its Practice and Value in Italy—In Lombardy, irriga- tion has been in vogue for seven hundred years, and as may be observed i in the spread of particular manufactures where once planted, so of irrigation, it has continued to spread over all the land capable of being brought under the system. Whole fields have been graded, as we cut down and fill up the uneven surface of a city plot, to bring the land under the level of the canals and ditches. The title of all running streams in the Lombardo-Vene- tian kingdom has been reserved in the government, so as to prevent any individual monopoly of this necessity in all agricultural pursuits of that Seo. 54.] THE PRACTICE IN ITALY. 905 country. The right to use the water of streams for purposes of irrigation is . let out to individuals under certain restrictions, and the interest of the several parties likely to be affected is adjusted by a highly educated class of hydraulic engineers, no one of whom is allowed to assume the duties or practice the profession unless he is a regular graduate of the University of Turin. There is a government corps of engineers, and those who practice the profession on private account. It requires the highest degree of skill to construct the interminable system of canals in Lombardy, and to gauge all their capacity so as not to waste a gallon of water, and yet give each tract of land the exact supply stipulated for. Canals are often formed by landed pro- prietors without any immediate prospect of benefit; they look to the ultimate advantages, and if they can by that means save their land from deteriora- tion without getting back the first cost, they consider the outlay a profitable one. By the use of water, the capacity of the land to carry an increased number of cattle is almost inconceivable. It is estimated that the triangle included between Milan, Lodi, and Pavia, the sides of which are about twenty miles, contains 100,000 horned cattle, and as many swine, and one fourth of that number of horses. By the careful saving of animal ma- nures, and all the ¢afew made by a large population, the soil is kept in high condition. The profits of irrigation may be seen by the following statement: Signor Berna made careful measurements upon land of an average quality, and found the yield of grass per acre as follows: First cutting in February, 84 ewt.; second cutting in March and April, 126 ewt.; third cutting in April and May, 131} ewt.; fourth cutting in May to July, 731 ewt.; fifth cutting from July to September 15, 63 cwt. Total, 4772 ewt., or nearly 24 tuns. In the vicinity of Milan, where it is probable they enjoy the advantage of sewerage water, the marcite meadows yield fully twice this quantity. The grass is cut for soiling in November, January, March, and April; and in June, July, and August for hay; while the pasturage in autumn is rich and abundant. The gross average produce of an acre of winter meadow is estimated at $75, when the grass is consumed by dairy stock. Summer meadows are watered with three waterings a month from March to Septem- ber, to the amount of about forty-two inches over the surface. These mead- ows average something over three and a half tons of hay per acre. After the land has been three years in meadow it is planted three years in rice, and averages fifty-one bushels of paddy, or eighteen bushels of cleaned rice per acre. The soil is reduced to mud, and the rice sown from March to May, and kept under water until the plant blooms in July. After that it is irrigated occasionally, and harvested in the latter part of September. The rice crop is followed by Indian corn two years, and that by wheat one year, and then it goes down to grass again. Indian corn requires the smallest amount of water of any crop. That corresponds with the experience of this country, yet it often happens that a single watering would double the profit. It is usually watered in Lom- : ] 906 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Cuar. XIII. bardy once a month for six months, and yields about fifty bushels to an acre. The water sufficient for Indian corn costs about 75 cents or 80 cents an acre, and owing to the dry, calcareous soils of Italy, which are ill calculated to produce grass or Indian corn, and with the wretched plows that are com- mon, and the bad system of tillage, the population of the irrigated districts would starve if they were cut off from the usual supply of water. 1041. Irrigation in Piedmont.—In Piedmont two thirds of the land before it was irrigated was nearly barren. Now it yields fine grain crops. The marcite fields, or winter meadows, are highly manured, and then supplied with an enormous quantity of water, the purer the better; that from springs being preferred. These fields are continually flooded from the 8th of Sep- tember-to the 25th of March with one cubic foot per second, or 390 tuns of water daily, for three acres of marcite. The average cost of water for a winter meadow is $5 per acre. The extent of irrigated land in the valley of the Po, Piedmont, and Lombardy is not less than 1,600,000 acres. The great volume of the water is applied to the fields in grass and rice; corn, flax, and wheat do not require as much. The water comes principally from the melting snow of the Alps, so that it can not be said to contain any special fertilizing quality. The great source of fertility comes from the in- creased number of domestic animals that can be kept upon the land, and also that the water fits their manure for the immediate use of the plants, so that nothing is lost. What has been done by irrigation. in Italy may be more fully learned by studying a work published in England upon the sub- ject, by R. Baird Smith, captain Bengal Engineers; and what has been done there may be done here; that is, millions of sterile or very un- profitably cultivated acres may be made to produce most luxuriant crops by simply furnishing the growing plants with a supply of pure water, to say nothing of the advantage of water from some of our rich muddy streams, or from the sewerage of cities, or wasted liquids of stables and farm yards. Piedmont appears to have the oldest system of irrigation, reaching back to the fourteenth century. Both government and individual enterprise have been brought to bear upon the creation of the system. One canal, that of Caluso, on the Orca River, begun in 1556, and completed in four years, owned by the state, is a work of great magnitude, 20 miles in length, with expensive tunnels, numerous bridges, aqueducts, and expensive works of masonry, which cost $8,500 per mile, occupies 54 acres of land, and earries 366 cubic feet of water per second, watering 15,000 acres of land. The canal of Dora, 8 miles long, yields 70 cubic inches of water per second, and waters 500 acres of meadow, at a charge to those who use the water of about fifty cents an acre. The canal of Fiano, 10 miles long, gives 48 cubie feet of water per second, and waters 950 acres. Another, 5 miles long, with 12 feet per second, waters 200 acres. The canal of Soriis 442 miles long, and carries 700 cubic feet per second, and waters 30,000 acres, which is at the rate of 422 acres per cubie foot per second, the rice lands requiring double as much water as other lands. The charge for water is on Szo. 54.] THE PRACTICE IN FRANCE, BELGIUM, ETC. 907 the average about $1 80 per acre for a cubie foot of water per second. The eanal of Cigliano is 20 miles long, with a branch 10 miles long and 15 to 26 feet broad, 4 feet deep, and carries 650 cubic feet of water per second, and waters 32,500) acres, equal to 50 acres per cubie foot. The price is $1 80 per acre for dry land, ard double that and over for rice land. This canal is crossed by 50 bridges, and has 13 aqueducts. The Canal del Rotto, begun in the year 1400, is 8 miles long, and discharges 600 cubic feet per second, and waters 25,000 acres, giving 55 acres for a cubic foot per second. These are only a few of the many canals of irrigation in Piedmont and Lombardy, where the system is more perfect than in any other European country, and where the results have long been proved satisfactorily profitable. 1042. Irrigation in Germany.—In Germany, some of the best talent of the country has been devoted to this subject, and irrigation has been adopted with the most beneficial results. Thaer lays down the position, that irriga- tion is one of the most useful and important of all the operations of the farmer, because moisture is essential to all vegetable growth, and from all the information that he could gather from practice, observation, and study, he felt bound to urge the practice of irrigation upon his countrymen. Ex- periments made in Germany since the time of Thaer have fully proved the value of water, independent of all fertilizing substances it might contain. It has been well proved in Germany, where experiments have been most carefully conducted, that irrigation doubles the average crop of hay, taking a series of years, and that the nutritious value of the hay from an irygaied meadow is quite equal to the hay from the same land before irrigation was adopted; and where the water has been drawn from fountains rich in vege- table and mineral fertilizers, the irrigated land has required no manure. 1043. Irrigation in France, Belgium, and other Countries—Much atten- tion has been given to the subject of irrigation in France, and several years after it had been practiced to a large extent, a writer calculated that there were still more than ten millions of acres of land in the empire, the product of which could be tripled annually by irrigation. If that is true of France, how much more is it true of America ? In Belgium, lands that had long lain arid and worthless, have been made to produce two or three tuns of hay per acre, by means of irrigation, and the value of estates vastly enhanced. In France, land has been increased in value two and a half times, in large tracts subjected to irrigation. In some places expensive canals have been built, for the purpose of letting the water at fixed rents to farmers, just as it is in California to gold miners. Expensive artesian wells have also been bored in France, to obtain irrigating water, and this is also true to some extent in California. In France, Belgium, and Italy, the exact quantity required for each particular kind of soil, at each season of the year, has been carefully ascertained, so that it can be told to a degree of exactness how many acres a canal of given dimensions will irrigate. But none of the European calculations could be relied upon for America, so much depends 908 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. (Cuar. XIII. upon the rate of evaporation. Irrigation was common in the Roman empire; and we know how much it was depended upon in Syria and Egypt; and China has accounts of it at a period anterior to Jewish history ; and at the present time, throughout Persia, Syria, Egypt, and other countries, it is the farmer’s main dependence; and so it was in Peru, tong before America was discovered by the Europeans, for the Spanish conquerors found a most elabo- rate system of irrigation, under suitable regulations of law and competent engineers; just such a system as we must have here before irrigation can be practiced with general success. 1044. Irrigation in America.—Although irrigation is not generally adopted in this country, there have been experiments enongh tried to prove that all drained land, which water would not make cold and sour, would be bene- fited by irrigation. California farmers, and a few on the Atlantic coast, have learned its value. Mr. C. L. Metcalf, of Franklin, Massachusetts, by his own experience, has become an earnest advocate of irrigation. With him the effect has been highly advantageous to both clover and grass—red-top and timothy. His practice is to let on the water two days and shut it off two, through April and May, and if the ground is dry, also in June. Hon. A. B. Dickenson, of Hornby, New York, is not only in favor of irrigation, but of using the water as a means of conveying manurial sub- stances to the field, and he has derived great advantage from simply making the water muddy, by plowing through a pond, the water of which was then spread over grass fields. He believes that the purest water that runs con- tains some fertility, and it certainly assists the vegetation upon irrigated land, to assimilate matters in the soil which they could not without the aid of its dissolving power. He has also proved that water long exposed-to the air and warmed in the sun had a better effect upon vegetation than water from wells; partly owing to temperature, and partly to vegetable and min- eral matters held in solution, all of which, except iron, appear to be bene- ficial. Economy in irrigation must be studied. One farmer, who wished to carry water across a valley for irrigating purposes, built a stone fence, of the right height, level on the top, and formed it into a trough, with rubble and cement, thus making one wall answer two purposes. From necessity in California, irrigation has already been inaugurated, though without a proper economical system, laws, and scientific rules; but it is probable that necessity will in time produce all these, and then the system having become once rooted in American soil, will spread all over the land, and that some of those who may read what we have said to encourage its adoption, will live long enough to see the system successfully practiced, to the lasting advantage of the great brotherhood of American farmers. One of the American objections to irrigation is based upon the inter- ference of the conduits with the mowing machine. It is contended that numerous trenches in the face of a field, ten or twelve inches deep and only half that width, and these necessarily crooked, to conform to the level, would seriously inconvenience the mowers. There is some force in this | —— Sxro. 54.] WHAT IRRIGATION DOES FOR LAND. 909 = objection, but it is not insuperable. Where a surface is thus intersected by irrigating conduits, plant white stakes in them to indicate every turn, and then follow their course with the machine; and even though it is a little more trouble to cut the grass, the increased production will furnish compensation. 1045. What Lands are Most Benefited by Irrigation.—Even sandy soils, ap- parently destitute of humus, have been made to produce hay crops by irrigation. But in such land, unless the supply of water is abundant, it will be necessary to construct the irrigating trenches with a view to save water. This may be done by puddling the trench with clay, or conveying water in pipes. It is quite important to get as even a distribution of water over the surface as possible, and see that it nowhere stands in pools, as that will surely spoil the grass, and produce damage instead of benefit. Let it be remembered that irrigation will not make poor land rich, and unless fertil- izing substances are conveyed to the land in the water, it will do that land the most good that is furnished with the most manure. Irrigation should never be attempted upon land that is nearly level, as it will be likely to afford no commensurate advantage, unless it is so situated that a flow can be given to it of water rich in humus, at a time when the grass will not be in- jured by water standing upon its roots. Of course there are many farms that can not be irrigated for want of water; and there are others that have water but no land that can be used, because the lowest portion is too level and the higher parts too hilly. So we do not recommend irrigation as a general panacea to all farmers; but we do urge it upon the attention of many, as the best and most economical way of restoring their land to fer- tility. As to the quantity of water necessary for successful irrigation, that depends upon such a variety of circumstances that no definite rule can be given. In one case in Germany, where the upper stratum was fine sand, and gravelly clay in part, for the lower one, with a gentle slope to the surface, so that the water was used over and over upon sixty acres, it was found by twenty years’ experience that the quantity of water was 200,000 cubic feet for twenty-four hours’ irrigation. It was found, also, that the best time to commence watering was about the first of April, keeping on two to four days and then off the same length of time, till the grass is ready to cut. Repeat the operation for aftermath, and then keep the water off, because late watering proved prejudicial. Irrigation has changed arid wastes, inhabited by a sparse, poverty-stricken population, into well-cultivated districts, supg porting a dense and wealthy population, and the same result would be pro- duced in many places in this country, by the same enlightened system that prevails in Italy, where all kinds of cultivation are benefited far above the cost of the water, and grass lands are made to afford crops that could not otherwise be obtained, and this enables proprietors to keep many more cattle, increases the food crops, and enables the country to support a population that could not possibly exist upon the land if deprived of irrigation. 1046. Quantity of Water Required for Irrigation.—It is estimated that an irrigated meadow will absorb, by soaking in or evaporation, nineteen-twenti- 910 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. {Cuar. XITL eths of the water let on, before it would find its way off by natural drain- age, unless the slope was very steep, or surface very hard gravel or clay. A main conductor of water, twelve feet wide on the surface, four feet wide at bottom, and four feet deep, may be made on a descent of two feet to the mile. Smaller ditches may be constructed on a fall of one inch in twelve feet. The irrigating conduits should be nine to twelve inches deep, and very narrow, with a fall of a fourth of an inch to twelve to twenty feet. Ir- rigation can be conducted upon steep declivities, but the preparation is more expensive, as care must be taken to conduct the water so that the conduits will not overflow and let the water course down the hill uncontrolled. The cost of preparing the surface of a meadow for irrigation, after the water is brought to the border on the highest part, would probably be in this conn- try of high-priced labor from six to twelve dollars an acre. Where water is elevated by any power for irrigating purposes, we recom- mend the construction of a reservoir sufficient to give several days’ supply, to obviate the danger of a failure in the elevating power at a time when the crop, having been watered for some time, would be greatly injured by hay- ing the supply cut off. Great care must be used in regulating the quantity of water, which can only be determined by experiment, so as not to flood the land and sour the herbage, or give fitful waterings—a flood to-day and drouth-to-morrow. We have untold acres of land so situated that it can be irrigated by the natural descent of the water, but in many instances the owner of one field could not avail himself of the advantage without the con- sent of the owner of an adjoining field, unless we had some general system by which the right could be obtained, as is the right to flow land for mill- ing purposes, or to take it for public roads. There are a great many farms in hilly countries, without running streams in summer for irrigation, which have the means of storing up water in reservoirs, cheaply formed, to be let down over the fields and save crops from destruction in times of drouth. Windmills could also be used for irrigation. We see one in almost daily operation at a manufactory, which did not cost over one hundred dollars, which would be sufficient to store up water enough in a cistern upon a peighboring hill to irrigate a hundred acres. See 369. Any field that has a moderate descent ean be irrigated by open ditches and made to pay a greater interest upon the cost than any other farm improvement ever made. P 1047. Tile-Draining—its Importance and Advantages.—Though we. have said so much in favor of irrigation, we may say more in favor of under- draining, because it can be practiced where irrigation can not; and when the two systems can be connected, they will mutually benefit each other. In- stead, however, of giving detailed rules about draining, we will simply refer the reader to an American work upon the subject, published by Hon. Henry F. French, of Exeter, N. H. Tucker’s Annual Register, for 1859, also con- tains much information about draining. No one should expect to succeed in a work that requires so much scientific skill, without previous instruction from an experienced person, or from books and diagrams and sound judg- Szo. 54.] IMPORTANCE OF TILE-DRAINING, 911 ment applied to the work. The point upon which inexperienced persons are most apt to fail is in the course of drains, which should always be laid up and down the descent, and never less than three feet deep, if the outlet fall will admit. Still better for the land and drains if laid five feet deep. At this depth, wooden drains will last, nobody can tell how long, for except near the outlet they are almost indestructible. One of the greatest bene- fits of underdraining is, it deepens the soil. This has been proved upon the hardest kind of red sand-stone land; the aération of the subsoil from the open tile-drains, after the water leached off, had the same effect upon the hard pan that air has upon lime. Heavy lands are always so saturated with water that the productive soil must be naturally thin, and this is why deep plowing and the use of a subsoil lifter will double the depth of the produc- tiveness of such Jand, and why unrderdraining will quadruple it. Deep plow- ing and underdraining are the farmer’s cheapest manure, and the profit of the work is in the time gained in putting in spring crops, which is worth more annually than the interest upon all cost of underdraining. No matter what is the character of the soil, it will be benefited by underdraining ; but mostly those soils in which water stagnates, or which have no outlets for rains, except by evaporation. But all soils can not be profitably under- drained, because the land must have an intrinsic value much above the ordi- nary price of Western farms, or even some of the interior land of New England, before it will pay to drain it. A great many swamps may be profitably drained, because utterly worthless as they now are. 1048. What Land Should be Drained.—Rain-water falls on hills, sinks to an impervious stratum, along which it runs until it either finés a porous sec- tion through which it can fall to a lower level, or not finding such, continues on the hard bottom to the side of the hill, where it oozes out in the form of aspring. If this spring-water is suffered to run down hill, it washes the hill- side more or less, and coming to the lowland, sinks as far as it may into the soil, makes it sodden, and produces bad effects. To drain effectually, then, we must cut off the supply above, and fewer drains will be necessary below. It is the hill lands then, as a general thing, that first need draining. Enough water falls in one hard rain to cover the land three inches deep, and this sat- urates a clayey soil, and remains often until another rain falls. All such land should be drained. John Johnston, of Geneva, N. Y., the original tile- drainer in this country, does not think there are a hundred acres in any neighborhood that do not need draining, and would not pay well for it. Perhaps this may be thought an extreme assertion, but it is nearer the fact than most of us have been aware. His first purchase was one hundred and twelve acres of land, well situated, but said to be the poorest in the county. The soil was a heavy, gravelly clay, with a tenacious clay subsoil, a perfectly tight reservoir for water, cold, hard-baked, and cropped down to about the last gasp. In 1835 tiles were not made in this country, so Mr. Johnston im- ported some as samples, and a quantity of the “ horse-shoe” pattern were made in 1838, at Waterloo, N. Y. There was no machine for producing 912 IRRIGATION—DRAINAGE—PLOWING. [Cuap. XIII. Nee them, so they were made by hand and molded over a stick, at great cost. Yet he found draining profitable, and now he thinks, at the present cost of tiles, the increase of crops will pay the cost of draining in two years. In 1847 he drained a quagmire, so that it produced eighty bushels of corn per acre in 1848, and in that case the cost of draining was paid by the increase of one crop. The late John Delafield drained a piece of land that would only yield ten bushels of corn, at a cost of thirty-six dollars an acre, and the yield was increased to over eighty-three bushels per acre on the whole field, and ninety-four bushels upon the best part. The average cost of under- draining in France has been ascertained to be twenty-seven dollars an acre, and the increased value of annual products nine dollars an acre. Under- draining is advantageous in saving the elements of fertility in land from wash- ing away. A French writer says that six thousand cubic yards of the water of the Vaucluse or the Vosges contain all the elements of an ox, and that the Garonne carries out to sea every day more guano than is imported into France in a year. 1049. How Land Should be Drained.—Upon land that is nearly level, the first step is to have it carefully leveled. Ascertain first where the outlet of all the water must be, and whether you can have one or more main drains, with branches leading in at nearly right angles, or whether you must make all the drains from the farther side, each to empty its own water into a natural brook or artificial ditch. If the drain is very long, you must use large tile at the lower end. If the descent of a drain is small, say only one inch in a hundred feet, it will require tile of twice the diameter of a drain of rapid descent, say one inch in twelve. In many cases. Mr. Johnston has used two rows of four-inch, in others six-inch, and in one, a pipe nine inches bore. At first he had many to take up and replace with large pipe to secure a complete discharge. Main drains he makes six to eight inches deeper than those emptying into them, which are graded so that the descent may take place gradually, and always with a slight sidewise direction down stream. Although he uses large mains, he recommends farmers never to use laterals over two inches in diameter, and often one inch will be quite sufficient. No one can give directions for size of tiles. They must be adopted to cireum- stances. Let the rule be small laterals and large mains. It your land is wet, you will require large pipe, and if flat, the lines must be near together ; say 80 feet apart. Both ends of the drain should be open to the air, and, as tile are destructible by frost, make the outlet of stone, brick, or wood, and make an air-vent at the upper end by a pile of loose stone, a box, or a hole through a log, with such a mark at the surface as will enable the plowman to avoid disturbance. This will not only make the water run more freely, but the air will draw through and aerate the soil. Sometimes tile become obstructed, and must be taken up at the point of difficulty, which is easily determined by the water coming to the surface. But stoppages are not frequent—not half as frequent as it is to find good, durable streams of water running from the drains, which in some cases have proved valuable — Szo, 54.] DITCHING AND DITCHERS’ TOOLS. 913 sources of stock water for the farm, where it was previously very desti- tute. 1050. Laying eff the Ground, Ditching, and Laying the Tile.—A spirit level, mounted upon a tripod, is most convenient, but a rafter level will answer, and can be home-made, with a plumb-bob from the apex to indicate degrees of descent upon the eross-bar. To get your scale, make the legs of your triangle exactly twelve feet apart. Set it up on a level (ice is best of all places), and put an inch block under one leg, and mark 1 where the line hangs, and so on, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, as you raise the leg inch by inch, and then when you set the instrument upon land, the plumb will show the number of inches descent in each twelve feet almost as fast as you can walk. In digging a ditch for a tile drain, no more dirt is to be removed than is barely necessary to do the work and afford room for the tile at the bottom. To do this, a few tools not usually found on a farm must be had. That is, a long, narrow, blade-spade to cut the bottom of the ditch; a light pick with a long handle to dig where the earth is too hard for the spade; a long-handled scoop to take out the loose earth. This is like a narrow hoe with the edges turned up. A spoon shovel, with along handle, is sometimes convenient, particularly in taking out pebbles. If we were ditching a meadow, we would first plow two fur- rows, turning the sod carefully each way. To do this well, the second sod must be cut deeper than the first, or else the plow must have an attachment on the land side, like a knife-blade, projecting down to hold it up to the edge of the turf to be turned. The earth may be loosened two feet by this sod furrow, followed by a subsoil plow. It is then quickly shoveled out, and where it is to be dug deep, it may be found useful to cut the lower part so much narrower that a shoulder will be formed at this point, upon which the ditcher can stand. Tiles are easily laid at the bottom of a deep ditch by a tile-hook, which is simply a slim piece of iron fixed at right angles to the bottom of a slender handle. As one man lays‘them down, another throws a little loose earth in, which is rammed down to keep them straight and firmly in place. Then cover with straw, weeds, bulrushes, small brush, in- verted turf, or coarse gravel, to prevent the fine earth running into and choking the joints. It is not necessary to fill the ditch with anything but the dirt that came out, to enable rain water to find its way in. It will find its way through hard earth from a point twenty feet distant. 1051. Descent and Depth Necessary in Drains.—It is common to hear the remark, that such a piece of land can not be drained, because it is too level. As we do not believe in level land, we ask you to try the level before you decide. Again, it is surprising to see how little fall is necessary to make water run. Two inches fall in 100 feet of well-made drain has been found entirely sufficient. We know that water in rivers runs with a fall of two inches in a mile. With a descent of six inches per mile, a stream runs a mile per hour. As to the depth of drains, that, too, depends upon cireum- stances. We believe four feet is right. Where tiles are dear and labor cheap, the less tiles we can use the better. Drains three feet deep, at forty 58 914 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Cuar. XIII. Ne ee ee feet apart, are not so effective as at five feet deep and fifty feet apart. Tiles in this country must be laid below frost and subsoil plows, and thet should be at least three feet deep. Nobody contends now in England for less than three feet depth of drains, and those who advocate three feet are called shal- Jow drainers. As a general rule, it costs as much to dig the fourth foot as it does the other three feet. A four-foot drain is opened in England only one foot wide at the top, and just wide enough to lay the tile at the bottom. 1052. What Draining does for Land.—It not only dries the soil, but it enables it to endure drouth, because the lower strata being aerified and warmed, induces roots to penetrate it, and thus decomposition of organic matter in the soil is hastened, and nutriment formed for the growing plants. The mechanical texture being improved, the soil is thus deepened, and ex- cess of water quicker removed after a rain. The land is more productive because the season is lengthened. Grass holds in better, and grain is not thrown out by freezing and thawing. The land is sweeter, warmer, mel- lower, richer, and in every way better for all purposes, and healthier. In- deed, one of the great benefits of draining a country is the improvement of health. It is of great advantage upon uplands, and still greater when swamps are drained. It is particularly needed in all the cotton-growing States. 1053. The Cost and Durability of Tiles and Tile-Draining.—It has been estimated that the average price of two-inch pipe tile is about $1 67 a rod at the manufactory. Such as was made and used in this country eighteen years ago, by John Johnston, of Geneva, New York, he reports as sound as the day they were put down. Tiles should be about as well burnt as good wall brick. They are then strong enough, and can be cut, and are not likely to break in the earth. They should be hard enough not to dissolve, and the clay should be compressed sufficiently to make the tile strong enough, without such hard burning as will melt the clay. The following were the advertised prices in 1861-2: HORSE-SHOE TILE. At Hartford, Ct. At Albany, N. Y. At Hartford, Ct. At Albany, N. Y. 74 inch caliber. . $- $75 00 per 1000 | 44 inch caliber. .$18 per 1000. .$18 00 per 1000 64 inch caliber... — 55 00 per 1000 | 33 inch caliber.. 15 per 1000.. 15 00 per 1000 5} inch caliber.. 40 per 1000.. 5 00 per 1000 | 23 inch caliber.. 12 per1000.. 10 75 per 1000 , SOLE TILE (EGG-SHAPED CALIBER.) 6 inch caliber. .$150 per 1000. .$80 00 per 1000 2 inch caliber. ...$12 per 1000 $10 75 per 1000 4 inch caliber.. 40 per 1000.. 85 00 per 1000 | Round tile 1} inch caliber ..... 9 00 per 1000 3 inch caliber.. 18 per 1000.. 16 25 per 1000 | Round tile 2} inch caliber. .... 12 00 per 1000 To estimate the number of tile required for an acre, divide 43,560 by the number of feet your drains are to be apart. As that is the number of super- ficial feet in an acre, if your drains are to be 36 feet apart, then 43,560 divided by 36 gives 1,210 as the quotient. Always calculate one tile for every foot in length, to allow for breakage, and then you can easily ascertain the cost of any given line of draining. Upon one farm in New York, that of R. G. Swan, near Geneva, there are over sixty miles of tile-drain, a con- siderable portion of which cost only 28} cents a rod, complete. The cost of digging and filling ditches upon Judge French’s farm, Exe’er, N. II., where SEo. a THE COST OF TILES AND DRAINING. 915 the cath was so har ‘ it liad to abe wieitoas up, was for one tht of a sede of ditches, four feet deep, a day’s work to three rods. Upon another job, with ditches four feet deep, and twenty inches wide at top, and four inches wide at bottom, giving a mean of twelve inches, two men opened 14 rods of such ditch in a day, and in six days, opened, laid the tiles, and filled 574 rods; at a cost of 21 cents a rod for labor, at $1 a day. The total cost was: 847 two-inch tile at $13 a thousand, $11 01; 100 three-inch tile, $2 50; tan bark on joints, 70 cents, horse work, 50 cents, $1 20; labor, 12 days, $12. Total, $26 71. This is 464 cents a rod, besides engineering and super- intendence. The soil was sandy. In hard clay soil, it cost 50 cents a rod for the labor, which was done by the same hands as the others. Drains three feet deep cost only half as much labor. This is true on the average, and where the land is stony, the last foot will cost more than equal the cost of the first three feet. Where labor is hired by the day at one dollar, it may be calculated that the cost of digging and filling in ditches four feet deep, including placing the tiles, will average 331 cents per rod. If tiles cost one cent a foot, then the total cost will be 50 cents a rod; and per acre, accard- ing to the distance apart of drains. The following table gives the number of rods in an acre at the several numbers of feet apart, of the drains, to wit: At 15 feet, 176 rods; at 18 feet, 1462 rods; at 21 feet, 125% rods; at 24 feet, 110 rods; at 27 feet, 972 rods; at 80 feet, 88 rods; at 33 feet, 80 rods; at 36 feet, 731 rods; at 39 feet, 67°; rods; at 42 feet, 62% rods. Thus, the cost of draining an acre with tiles at one cent a foot, and labor two cents a foot, with drains at 30 feet apart, will be $44; at 42 feet apart, $31 42; at 60 feet, apart, $22. 1054. Wooden Drain Tubes.—S. P. G., of Racine, Wisconsin, says wooden tubes, with perforations through the sides, loosely jointed, will answer all purposes of tile, will last as long in places where they are constantly wet, and can be laid for half the expense. This may be true if the pipes are placed very deep in the earth, never less than four feet, and it would be bet- ter if five feet. These pipes are made of three-inch scantling, bored very rapidly by machinery, with an inch-and-a-half auger; and we recommend that they should be slit in two after being bored, and the halves mismatched, in every two pipes, so as to be sure that they do not fit together tight enough when laid to prevent the water finding its way inside. 1055. Brush Drains, and Substitutes for Tile—We have seen common sapling pine poles last long enough to pay the cost four times over; the drain-being formed of three poles—two an inch or two apart at bottom, and one on top. This only answers in land not liable to gulley out in the bottom of the drain. We have seen valuable service done with bush drains. Long, slim bushes are jammed down in a narrow ditch, with buts lapping on the tops, and always pointing up hill. We have heard of such a drain made of cornstalks that lasted six years, and was still good, and had paid its cost every year it wasin use. Very dnrable drains have been made of cedar, both round and split; and chestnut rails have also been profitably used. 916 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. Wood will always be found most durable in the wettest drains. We have heard of a drain laid through quicksand, by placing a board at bottom and on it two pieces of scantling and a flat slab, all of which were continually wet, which will apparently last forever. Wooden drains, however, we can not recommend for any place where stone or tile can be obtained. 1056. Cobble-Stone Drains,—The loose cobble-stone of many farms can be formed into a very good drain by careful labor, placing one each side and a larger one resting on the two, leaving a passage underneath, and filling in promiscuously to within plow-reaching distance from the top. With good wall-building stones an excellent drain can be made. But the objection to all stone drains is the extra labor over that with tiles, so that they can only be recommended in places where it is an object to get rid of the stones. Judge French estimates the extra cost of labor to lay stone drains, even where the stones are on the farm, at more than the cost of tiles. 1057. Cement Drain-Tilesx—Good drain-tiles have been made of cement and sand, at first porous, and afterward not so, dependence being made upon having the water enter the joints. As to the water going through the pores of the tile, ten times as much goes through the joints as through the pores, so that making them porous is not so very important. The joints will take in all the water in the ground. In some places these cement tiles can be made on the farm cheaper than terra-cotta tiles can be obtained. 1058. A Prairie Draining-Plow.—A machine is in use in Illinois that an- swers a good purpose in draining the ordinary soil. A strong beam, on four rollers, carries a small eutting wheel, which divides the sod; this is followed by a sharp coulter, set at an angle backward, to the bottom end of which a piece of iron, shaped something like a pear, is welded, supported by a flat bar, bolted, like the coulter, fast to the beam. To this “ mole” is attached a second, of similar shape, a little larger, by a link joint. Being set into the ground, it opens a hole, which it molds permanently by side pressure, three feet below the surface, and through this drain the water runs off as easily and continuously as through tile-drains. farmers consider it invaluable on our large prairies, in the broad, flat sloughs; as they say, that it not only thoroughly drains the land, but that it concentrates the underdraining of the marshes and sloughs to any particular point that it may be wanted, creating a permanent, never-failing spring of water for stock, on many farms where this convenience was totally lacking, in dry seasons, until the introduction of the ditcher. Many sloughs have been drained by running the mole-plow through them, and down the outlet or lowest spot, until the natural fall will allow the water to come to the surface, and there a durable spring is often formed. 1059. Proper Shape of Drain-Tile-—The Royal Scottish Society of Arts publish experiments in transporting lead ore from the mines to the stamping mills, by water, running through a trough. At first they tried a square wooden trough, twelve hundred feet long, with a slope of from thirteen to twenty degrees ; but the water had not force enough to move the lumps of [Cuar. XIII. Sxo. 55.] PLOWS AND PLOWING. 917 ore over the flat bottom of the trough. They then changed the position of the trough, having it rest on one corner, and the ore passed rapidly through without choking. A right-angle form kept itself clear with the least water. According to this theory, the proper shape of drain-tile is not round, but should be shaped with a sharp corner in the lower side of the pipe. 1060. Laws Needed to Regulate Draining.—Every State should regulate the drainage of land by statute, so that those who hold the mouths of natu- ral outlets for water can not deprive others of their use who own land far- ther up stream. Such a law was passed by Maine, in April, 1859, providing that any ne in possession of lands that can not be drained, approached, or used without crossing land held by another, may have drains established by commissioners who locate the route and assess the damages; and then the ditch is placed upon the same footing as to right of way and repairs as pub- lic roads. SECTION LY.—PLOWS AND PLOWING. HAT is the object of plowing? It is either to turn a sod or flat furrow, or stir and mellow the surface, or break up the subsoil without bringing it up. Then there is no such thing as a universal plow. The one invented by Governor Holbrook, of Ver- mont, comes the nearest to it, but that in reality combines four plows in one, by shifting mold-boards and land-sides. The best plow to turn flat furrows in sod ground would be the worst one to stir up a stubble field. The plow must be fitted to the object required ; but upon almost all soils you may lay it down as a rule in plowing, that you can not plow too deep nor too much. If you have disinte- grated the soil until it has become so filled with air that the particles are actually held apart so that it is in a condition that you call puffy, it will be useful, and for some crops necessary, to compact the surface together with a roller, or some other mechanical means. A turnip field, after having been pulverized with great labor, is often tramped by sheep. An onion bed is first made fellow, and then compacted quite firmly. A wheat field can not be made too mellow—can not be plowed too many times—can not be harrowed and pulverized too much; but after all that, it is benefited by a heavy roller. Plowing exposes the lower stratum of soil to the ameliorating action of air, by which it acquires fertility. We can not say how, though all experience proves the statement true. Plowing is there- fore necessary, and the more perfectly it loosens and pulverizes the soil, the 918 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Coar. XIIL OOS, more equally will it be penetrated, and the more numerous will be the roots sent out, until the whole soil is filled with their hair-like fibers. Asa rule based upon the truth of science, it may be said that while it is possible to divide the particles of earth—that is, to separate them one from another in the same way that the grains of sand are separated—the manipulation of it will improve its condition. Farmers must continue to look to the “ object of plowing,” and reach down a little deeper and deeper, and bring up and separate more of the particles of the earth, so that the growing plants can appropriate them to their use, and the earth will never become barren; pul- verization and water will make it produce forever, if the elements which crops extract are fairly returned in the shape of excrements of such crops when consuined. 1061. The History of Cast-Iron Plows.—The first cast-iron mold-board was invented by James Small, of Berwickshire, Scotland, about 1740. He con- tinued to manufacture diem for fifty years, still using the wrought-iron share ; cast iron for that purpose having been first applied by Robert Ransom, of Ipswich, England, in 1785. Eighteen years afterward, he made a valuable improvement, still in use among all good plow-makers, that of chilling the iron in the molds, by using bars of cold iron, upon which the cutting edges of the share are cast, making them harder than steel. A Suffolk farmer added the land-side, making three distinct pieces of casting to each, to which wrought or cast-iron beams and handles were afterward added in various parts of England and Scotland. The first cast-iron plow in America was made by Charles Newbola, of Burlington, N. J. His first patent bears date June 17, 1797, and is for a plow combining mold-board, share, and land-side all in one casting. Objec- tions being made to the cast-iron share, probably because it was not chill- hardened, he substituted wrought-iron shares. Great as these improvements were upon the old wooden plows, such was the prejudice against them—some even affirming that cast iron poisoned the ground and prevented the growth of crops—that after spending, as the inventor alleged, $30,000 in a vain effort to get his plows into general use, he gave up the business in despair, leaving American farmers wedded to their idols, the old wooden plows. In the year 1800, Peter J. Curtenas, a merchant of New York city, ad- vertised plows for sale, made of cast iron. In 1807, David Peacock, of New Jersey, taking his idea from Newbold, for which, however, he paid him a thousand dollars, patented a plow, the mold-board and land-side cast separate, to which he attached a wrought-iron steel-edged share. Thomas Jefferson wrote a treatise, in 1798, upon the form of the mold-board, insisting that it should be constructed upon scientific principles. These principles were probably first applied by Robert Smith, of Buckingham, Pa., about 1804-6, as he obtained a patent for a cast-iron mold-board, and wrote upon the subject about that time. In 1814, years after cast-iron plows had been in successful use in England, and partially so in this country, Jethro Wood obtained a patent for a cast-iron plow, in three parts, similar to one said to Hpi Sro. 55.) THE HISTORY OF CAST-IRON PLOWS. 919 have been in use previous to that time in Virginia. This was a very differ- ent article from those now in use. We do not believe that Wood ever was entitled to any credit as an inventor, though he was for his persevering efforts to get his plows into general use. In 1817, Edwin A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., took up Newbold’s plow, with a view to improve its form, so as to make the draft easier. He took his patent in 1821, included in which was the process of cold-chilling the cutting edges and parts of the share most likely to wear out. His plan was so perfect that it was highly approved of, but other engagements prevented him from,extending what he had so successfully begun. In 1810, Josiah Dutcher, of New York city, commenced a series of im- provements, which are to be found upon nearly all cast-iron plows, and which have been of immense benefit to the farmers of this country, notwithstand- ing which, we believe, he died poor, and his name is almost forgotten by those whom he has benefited so much; while those who have invented death-dealing implements, or stained them with the blood of victims immo- lated upon the shrine of military glory, are landed more than the godfathers of the Industry of All Nations. The first patent plow of which we have any record, was granted in 1720, to Joseph Foljambe, of Rotherham, England, and for many years afterward all similar plows bore the name of that place. It was a great improvement upon those previously in use; the mold-board and land-side were wood, sheathed with iron plates, the share and coulter wrought iron with steel edges, just such as were in universal use in New England early in the pres- ent century, and similar to those now in use in the Southwestern States. This plow was intended to be worked by one man and two horses—much larger than our common horses—and turn over an acre to an acre and a quarter a day. The following is the measurement of that plow: Length of beam, 6 feet; from end of handles to point of share, almost in a straight line, 7 feet 4 inches ; from point to heel of land-side, 2 feet 101 inches; hight from ground to top of beam, 1 foot 8 inches; weight, 140 lbs. Some twenty years after this plow was brought ont, the center draft-rod or chain was added, just like that now used, and supposed by some to be a very recent invention. Joel Nourse, of Boston, in connection with his partners, has probably done more toward making the cast-iron plow a perfect implement than any other individual, though many others are entitled to high praise for doing, to the extent of their ability, so much to lessen the labor of tilling the land. The most ancient plow, as represented on old coins and monuments, was a crooked stick, afterward improved by sharpening with iron. The imple- ment now in use in Hindostan is little better than the original, and even in this country some now in use are but slightly in advance of the Hindoo arti- cle, which consists of a slight beam, a narrow share, and a corresponding stick with a handle to guide it. The Chinese plow is similar, and the effect is what it would be if a man should hold a sharp-pointed shovel, back up, IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Cuap. XIII. with the handle at an angle of forty-five degrees, and it should then be drawn forward with the point in the ground. The plows of continental Europe have undergone but little change for centuries. The ancient Roman plow is still in general use in France. It has a beam, a share, and a handle. The share is a triangular-shaped piece of wood with an iron point, lance-head shaped, and sometimes a coulter, and rarely a mold-board. How much better was the old “ Carey Plow,” which in youth we followed many a day, with its clumsy wrought-iron share, wooden land-side and standard, and wooden mold-board, plated over with a piece of tin, sheet iron, or old saw-plate, requiring the strength of a man to hold it by the two pins in its upright han- dles, and at least double the strength of team now needed to do the same work. Then there was the old bar-share plow—a flat bar forming the land- side, with a thick clump of iron like the half of a lance-head for the point, in the top of which the coulter was clumsily locked, and of course a wooden mold-board without any pretensions to making a fit with the iron part. There is no longer any occasion nor excuse for a farmer’s using a poor plow, nor one not fitted to his particular soil and various kinds of work ; since plows of a great variety of patterns are made; right hand and left; and with shifting mold-board ; so that furrows on a hillside can allbe turned one way ; also with two shares on one beam; the first turning the sod and second lifting a course of loose earth from the bottom of the first furrow and placing it on top of the furrow-slice of the forward share. 1062. Subsoil Plows—their Shape and Use.x—Of all the useful improve- ments in plows we consider the subsoil plow the most important. The use of this plow is to follow the turning plow, entering the bottom of the fur- row and performing one of the most useful operations upon the farm, stirring and loosening up the subsoil. One of the best-shaped subsoil plows for soils free of stone was invented by Prof. Mapes, of New York. The shape of the share is somewhat like a flattened quarter of an orange-peel. Suppose this placed with the convex side up, connected with the beam by a thin, broad standard, with a flat plate at the top to bolt to the beam. The share, stand- ard, and top plate are cast all in one piece, and when one point of the share becomes dull by use, the plate can be unscrewed from the beam and reversed, thus bringing a new point of the share forward. A Wiscon- sin farmer—Mr. R. North, of Rochester, Racine County—has invented a subsoil attachment to the plow, which is described as readily applied to any plow, adjustable to any required depth from an inch to six or more inches, and which thoroughly pulverizes the subsoil without raising it from its natural position. In other words, by the help of this invention, land may, by one man and one team, be at the same time surface-plowed to the full depth of the former plowing, and subsoiled to the depth of two or more inches, the pulverized subsoil retaining its original place. We saw some- thing of this kind, made by a smith in N orfolk, sab ten years ago, that was very ; effective. It was a lance-head on a rod about a foot long, bolted to the heel of the plow, and curved over so that the point stood forward, and cut ' | —— Serco. 55.] PLOWS AND PLOWING. 921 four or five inches below the plow-furrow. This attachment is easily made and applied by any smith, and is a very useful addition to any plow to be used in mellow land. For stony soils, a subsoiler is made of steel, somewhat in the shape of a sharp-toed shoe, bolted to a standard in two parts, one act- ing as a brace when attached to the beam. This is stronger than the cast subsoiler, and better calculated to dig in among stones; and it is similar to an implement called a ditching-plow, except that the standard of the ditch- ing-plow is sometimes four feet high, and may be regulated to suit various depths, as the ditch deepens. 1063.,8teel Plows.—Within a fow years the manufacture of steel plows has been very largely extended, the invention, not only of the plows, but machinery for their manufacture, having been brought to great perfection. One of the most extensive establishments for making steel plows is that of Remington, Markham & Co., at Ilion, N. Y. We have had this year, 1861, several acres of strong land turned by one of these plows, which is so light that the English plowman was afraid to hitch the oxen to it, he was so sure it was not strong enough. He soon changed his opinion, and declared it not only very strong, but the best plow he ever saw. We have also a steel subsoil plow for one horse, which is a very useful implement for mark- ing rows to plant, and working between, to stir and loosen the earth, par- ticularly in drouth. One of the great advantages which steel plows have over all others, is in weight; for it has been fully proved that the heavier the plow the greater the force necessary to move it along the surface. This is a very important consideration. If a wagon is very heavy, after the inertia of its dead weight is once overcome it rolls forward easily, but the plow is a dead weight all the time. 1064. Deep Plowing—its Benefits——“ An increase of one inch in the aver- age depth of plowing throughout the United States would produce a larger amount of profit, as compared with present results, than all the gold received from California.” We believe this assertion; but we do not believe that all soils, without being previously subsoiled, are fit for this immediate increase in depth. Shallow plowing is the greatest error of American farmers. Millions of acres, though composed of mellow loam, a foot deep, were never stirred half that depth. Many a man owns a better farm beneath his fur- row slices than the one he cultivates. “Deep plowing saves manuring.” It is true that the soil derives no benefit from the plow, or other tool, only so far as it opens its particles so that the air can penetrate through the mass, and carry heat, moisture, and fertility to the roots of plants, which can pen- etrate a loose soil, but can not a compact one. A granite rock made pulver- ulent, and then stirred frequently in the air, and moistened, will become a productive soil. It has received the benefit of exposure to air, and that has fertilized it. All the plow, or any other tool can do, is to put the soil into the most favorable condition to receive this benefit. The best condition that any soil can be placed in, is that which will enable it to absorb the greatest possible amount of beat and moisture, with the least possible amount of — 922 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Cuar. XIII. surplus water, and loose free air, and that condition is not obtained by skimming over the surface. But remember that deep plowing is not ad- mittable as a first operation upon all land. The soil must be deepened gradually. This is the case with the prairies. Our experience in regard to the time that prairie should be first plowed, and the depth, is when the grass is most succulent, and then turn just as thin a sod as possible. An experienced prairie farmer says: ‘ From the time that the grass makes a vigor- ous growth, and while it continues to grow, prairie can be the most cheaply broken up with a good sixteen-inch prairie breaker, but should not be cut more than three inches deep. At other seasons, or when the grass is in a state of rest, use a double Michigan plow; set the top plow so that it will cut an inch deep, and the bottom plow two or two and a half inches deeper. 1065. Steam Plows and their Use-—We have faith that steam plows will yet be invented which can be economically used upon the Western prairies, though as yet that desideratum has not been reached in any of the locomo- tive machines tried for that purpose; and it is yet to be proved whether Fowler’s traction engine, an English invention, will effect the object. It appears from reports of committees in England, and from some experiments made near Philadelphia in the autumn of 1861, as though it would answer the desired purpose. The steam plow that has attracted most notice in America is the one invented by Mr. Fawkes, of Pennsylvania, and tried without much success on the prairies of Illinois. It was driven by a twenty- horse-power steam-engine provided with an upright locomotive boiler, having 151 flues set upon a long frame-work, which rested on a large roller-shaped driving-wheel behind and two guide-wheels in front. A tank and box for wood or coal rested over the driving-wheel. The guide-wheels are in. ad- vance of the boiler, and are 18 inches wide and 36 inches high.. The con- sumption of wood was one cord per day, and water one and a half barrels per hour; the weight about seven tons; cost, $2,500. The plows are on frame-work behind, capable of being lowered and raised by an assistant. The machine drew six plows, cutting twelve-inch furrows, between four and five inches deep. It plowed at the rate of one acre in forty minutes; on firm, hard ground it could go faster. On very wet ground the driving- wheel slipped. Mr. Fawkes has remodeled his machine, and several others have also been brought out, but up to the end of 1862, we do not hear of any steam plow in practical operation upon any of the great prairie farms. Fowler’s steam plowing is done by stationing an engine upon one side of the field, with an arrangement of wheels and pulleys, from which a rope is carried to the other side of the field, and through other wheels and pulleys and back to the starting-point. A frame on wheels carries two gangs of plows, one gang forward and one behind. This frame being hitched to the endless rope near the engine is drawn by its movement to the other side, when the hind gang of plows is elevated by a lever, and the other dropped, and the machine moved its width on the land to be plowed, and attached to the part of the rope that is moving toward the engine; and thus it traverses back and forth, the en- Ys 55.] IMPROVED FARMING TOOLS. 923 ~~ gine being moved along the headlands as the plowing proceeds. Of course this kind of plowing will not answer in small inclosures. 1066. Substitutes for the Plow—Digging Machinesx—Much money has been spent upon digging inachines, without any practical results. Mapes’ rotary digger; Evans’ rotary digger; Comstock’s rotary digger, have all given promise of good results, and newspaper reporters have often told the public that the days of the plows were numbered; and henceforth the soil must be dug instead of being plowed; but the public are either slow to believe, or else there is some radical defect in the digging machines. Mr. O. Coe, of Port Washington, Wisconsin, invented a sort of digging harrow that is a good substitute for the drag-harrows, and altogether superior to the revoly- ing harrows, and appears to be a tolerably good substitute for a small plow in preparing light land for small grain.. It has its teeth upon revolving wheels that dig up the surface as it is drawn forward, leaving it light as well as pulverulent, the effect being entirely different from that of the harrow. The teeth of Mr. Coe’s machine, he says, dig the soil six inches deep, and the machine does not pull any harder than an iron-tooth harrow, cutting the same width, and not nearly as deep. To dig the surface nine or ten inches deep, hd thinks, will not require half as much power as to plow it the same depth. It works admirably upon Indian corn stubble, tearing the roots out of the ground, and fitting it at once for wheat-sowing. Of course it will not work among roots, or fast stones, and, we suppose, not well upon sod ground. Prof. J. B. Turner, of Jacksonville Ill., has invented a machine which is rather a combination of other tools with the plow than a substitute for it It is a frame about six feet wide, fixed upon two broad wheels, which serve as rollers for the soil. This frame is arranged to carry two plows, when re- quired for plowing, and at the same time drop corn or other seed. The plowshares can be removed and implements for cultivating corn put in their place, by which the ground is cleaned and the dirt turned to or from the hills. There are knives that precede the cultivators and shave off all the weeds. There isa guard attached to the frame that covers the seed corn so that it is never covered too much by the teeth. This machine costs $100, and requires two to four horses to work it. 1067. A Home-made Clod Crusher is thus described by an Illinois farmer: Take two pieces of light timber, eight inches square, ten feet long, and fasten them together, three feet apart. Upon the under side of these timbers, pieces four inches square, eighteen inches long are fastened, eight inches apart, and so arranged that the rear ones are not in line with the forward ones. These teeth are beveled and set so as to pitch downward slightly, and the frame is drawn diagonally over a plowed field, by which Inmps are dis- turbed and pulverized. 1068. A Simple Method of Broadcast Sowing is thus described: The grain, or peas, or plaster to be sown is taker to the field in a light wagon, and a bag- ful emptied into a low box in the hind end, near which the sower kneels, 924 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLOWING. [Cuap. XIII, and sows with both hands as fast as the driver goes ahead, the quantity being regulated by the speed. By this mode sixty bushels of peas were sown in one day, with less fatigue than six could have been sown on foot. The wagon tracks are sure guides for the sower, and: enables him to sow evener as well as faster. 1069. An Improved Garden Hoe, invented by H. A. Lathrop, of Sharon, Mass., is made of three triangular pieces of sheet-steel, the middle one being riveted at the upper corner to the other two, and each attached to the three prongs of a forked socket on the handle, and is a very effective-looking im- plement for all purposes where digging instead of scraping is to be done. We look upon it as a decidedly good implement. Another effective hand- tool is made like a subsoil plowshare, the upper part of the standard having a socket for a hoe handle. 1070. An Improvement in Corn Baskets.—This improvement is particu- larly valuable where “basket stuff” is not found. The body of the basket is made entirely of upright splints or staves, without braiding in cross strands. These splints are nearly an eighth of an inch in thickness, and are held firmly in place between two pieces of thin board that form the bottom, and the two hoops that form the top binder or rim, by wrought nails that pass through each splint and clinch on the inside. The two pieces that form the bottom are placed with the grain of each piece running at right angles across the other, so that when the nails are driven and clinched, it prevents their warping or splitting, thus forming a very strong bottom on which the basket may be dragged about without danger of breaking or wearing out. The rim at the top being fastened with wrought nails that clinch, is very strong and does not become loose and let the handles slip out. A flexible wire hoop passes around the center of the basket, which is fastened to each splint separately, confining them firmly in their places at that point. They are made of a form to let into each other, like our peach baskets, and gauged to accurate measures, and being manufactured (of course, Yankee fashion) by machinery, are sold at about the same price of baskets made in the ordinary way, and are said to-be more durable. 1071. Hemp Harvester.—Among the recent inventions is a machine for harvesting hemp, patented in May, 1858, by C. B. Brown, of Alton, IIL We hope this latest attempt to substitute machine-work for the heavy hand labor required to cut the hemp of a large growth will be successful. It is something much needed. 1072. A Willow-Peeling Machine.x—A willow peeler, patented by J. M. Wood, is extremely simple, and is composed of a graduated screw which lies across a disk, so that the small ends of the willow being inserted in the small end of the screw, are rolled over and carried through to the but of the willow, which then has arrived at some of the large threads according to the length of the stick, and in its passage is entirely stripped of its bark. The whole machine can be carried on a man’s back. 1073. A Tire-Bending Machine, invented by Mr. Mosher, of Chenango So. 55.] IMPROVED FARMiN': TOOLS. 925 County, is a very simple, cheap, and effective machine, which every country blacksmith should have. It consists of a plank wheel, sized for large and small tire, with an inner roller attached to a lever that operates upon the straight bar, and gradually bends it into shape. The whole machine could be made for $5, and although not strictly classed under the head of agricul- tural machines, is one in which all farmers are interested, as they are in whatever cheapens the labor of the smithery. 1074. The Ox-Shovel, or Road-Scraper.—The ox-shovel is a very valuable farm implement. One called Arnett’s patent scraper, or ox-shovel, consists in an arrangement for opening the hind part and letting out the load Without upsetting it. This saves a deal of very hard labor. There is another scraper that for some purposes is an improvement upon the above, as it is suspended under a pair of light wheels, with a horse in the shafts, and is loaded in the usual way, and then the handles are borne upon and the shovel held ina level position by stay chains, until the horse is driven to where the dirt is needed, when the catch of the chain is easily unloosed, and the shovel emptied behind by bearing upon the handles, or by jumping on and pressing it down by weight. It was the invention, so it is said, of a man with one arm, who could then out-work a man with two hands, who used the old style ox-shovel. : 1075. The Horse-Hoe Road-Scraper.—This tool is so little known, and is yet so important, that we give it prominence in a separate paragraph. We have seen it much used in the vicinity of Chicago, and only in one or two other places. We feel satisfied that it would be adopted by all who see it work, wherever loose earth is to be scraped from the sides of a road into the center, in the operation of turnpiking. This machine is simply a horse-hoe, as the other is a horse-shovel. It is made for one or two horses, or oxen, with thills, or a tongue, the hind end of which is attached to standards just high enough to keep the tongue on a level when at work. To the lower end of the standards is attached the hoe, which is made of wood with an iron or steel edge, or the whole hoe is made of iron. If those who have seen a wire- toothed horse-rake will fancy a continuous iron plate in place of the teeth, they will have an idea of this horse-hoe scraper. 1076. Machinery Saves Manual Labor.—The following, though not a farm implement, is one that all farmers are interested in, because whatever cheapens labor connected with agriculture is to the farmer’s advantage. The great lumber mills are often necessarily located in places so inaccessible to teams, that getting lumber from them is very laborious and expensive. At Williamsburgh, Penn., the mill is 1,200 feet from the canal, on the opposite side of the river, which is lower than the canal. Formerly the boards were run down fo a boat and loaded by hand, and then ferried over and carried up the bank. Now, the whole work is done by the mill-power, which sends over 10,000 feet of lumber per hour, upon a lumber-shute sus- pended upon wire cables. The contrivance is so ingenious, and cost so little ($2,000), considering its value to the mill-owners, that we advise all who - 926 IRRIGATION—DRAINING—PLO WING. [Cuar. XIII. may have mills in such inconvenient situations, to adopt this valuable im- provement. The bottom of the shute is furnished with a series of rollers, upon which a pile of boards is plaged at the mill, and then a single board being sent through a pair of pressure rollers, pushes the pile its length ahead, when that board being loaded is also pushed forward and drives the load before it, in a continuous stream of lumber. 1077. The Grindstone.—There is no machine used upon a farm that is more important than the grindstone, and no farmer who knows the value of sharp tools, and the loss of time by using dull ones, will try to conduct farm- ing without one grindstone, and he will often find it good economy to have two or three. There is no surer mark of a shiftless farmer than that of a miserably mounted, rickety, old grindstone. No farmer can afford to do without a grindstone mounted upon friction rollers, so that it can be operated by a treadle, with the foot of the person who holds on the tool, as well as with acrank. It will save its cost every year. But above all other things con- nected with the grindstone, be sure never to be seen going to a neighbor’s house to grind your scythe or ax. You can not afford to borrow a grind- stone. 1078. A Variety of Agricultural Tools Noticed.—We can not give even the names of all other agricultural implements; much less a description of them, and only intend under this head to call the attention of farmers to some of the most indispensable of those of recent invention. Of course, the plow leads all other farm implements, and a good farmer will have one suited to all kinds of work, and will not attempt to do all his work with a single size, nor with plows all of the same shape. The same rule should hold with harrows and cultivators. If oxen and horses are both worked on. the farm, it should have a heavy ox-harrow, and one made strong and light, for a pair of horses to walk quickly over the field, for in the rapidity of the movement lies the perfection and economy of the use of a harrow on smooth land. A one-horse harrow will be found a very useful tool, even on a farm where large teams are kept; and no farmer can afford to do without one, at least, good steel-toothed cultivator, such as those made at Ilion, N. Y.; or the Knox horse-hoe; or some similar labor-saving implement. The best universal harrow, in our opinion, is the one invented and given to the world by Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Onondaga County, N. Y. It is a double triangle, one following the other, hinged in ee center, so that if drawn along a dead furrow the center would rest on the bottom, whilé the wings would rake the sides to the top. Chandler’s harrow is a single triangle, folding in the center. The Scotch harrow is two square frames hinged together and drawn at an angle. There is a similar one made for one horse. “ The expanding harrow” is a square frame, so arranged that its width is increased or decreased by shifting the link of a draft chain. This is a convenient, in- expensive form. The twenty teeth are set in four bars, and each one at the end passes with a round neck through a bar, serving as a hinge or pivot, so that taking hold of two corners the bars draw together, making an elongated LJ Sro. 55.] IMPROVED FARMING TOOLS. 927 diamond-shaped harrow, that would run between two rows of corn. Then draw upon the other corners and it comes back into a square form, and can be held there, or at any angle, by the chain that is hooked, on from corner to corner. 7 Of cultivators there are sizes and forms suited to all purposes, generally with three to five teeth, and these of various forms, in wooden or iron frames, made to expand so as to work wide or narrow rows, and as each tooth is a little plow, a horse makes five small furrows as fast as one with a plow. Some of these implements are especially designed for hoeing corn, and answer most admirably for that purpose. One is designed for hoeing cotton, and also answers Well for carrots and similar crops. The operation may be likened to that of a pointed shovel slipping along just under the roots of the weeds, with teeth on the upper end of the shovel, which combs out the weeds, leaving them on the dirt instead of under it. The implement called a “cotton sweep” is made to shave the surface with sharp knives, and rake out the weeds thus cut off, with small harrow teeth set in an expanding frame, to suit all widths of rows. This is an excellent implement for all hoed crops on smooth land. There are several forms of hand cultivators and machine hoes which some gardeners think well of, but all are not eco- nomically practical. Small seed sowers and planting machines are numerous, and are truly very useful and economical for planting all small seeds, as ruta baga, carrot, ete., and, in a small way, for corn. In large fields, corn should always be planted by a horse machine. And so should all small grain and grass, as there are simple, inexpensive machines arranged to plant wheat in straight rows, eight or nine inches apart, and each grain at an exact distance from, its fellow, and all at a uniform depth; and there are other machines for broadcast sowing; and machines for harvesting grain and hay, which we have spoken highly of in the chapters devoted to grain and grass. A very valuable machine for lifting rocks is noticed in No. 982. It is compact, won- derfully strong, has nothing liable to get out of repair or break but a chain, and costs $275. The substitution of machines for hand-labor within the last fifty years has been wonderful, and now almost every species of farm- work may be done by machinery, whether it be plowing, sowing, reaping, gathering, thrashing, winnowing, or grinding. Even the old well-sweep has given place to the water-ram. It is manifest from the great demand that has sprung up of late years for these new and useful inventions, that the light of intelligence is beginning to diffuse itself throughout the country, and that while improved methods of culture are being introduced, private and public interests are becoming more closely united. ieee ia nas CHAPTER XIV. STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. COTTON, CANE, RICE, TOBACCO, HEMP. SECTION LVI—THE HISTORY, GROWTH, AND MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. OTTON is king,” is the stereotyped phrase of those who have so long devoted all their energies to its pro- duction, traffic, or manufacture, that they know no other god. With those who know the value of the true grasses, it is not king of all the farm crops, though it has long held a mighty influence over the destinies of Amer- ica; and the events that have occurred during the com- pilation of this volume, in the years 1861 and 1862, are so intimately connected with cotton, that the author be- lieves a somewhat extended history of it, and the intro- duction of its culture into this country, will be interesting to many readers. Of course, many who read do not and can not grow cotton, because their home is in too rigor- ous a hitnate spat will that make its history any less interesting? To some who have never grown it, yet owing to their location in temperate portions of the Middle States, may desire to “do so, this section will possess interest, for it contains much useful information. Although we have never admitted the regal claim of cotton, we have always admitted the beauty of cotton- fields; not only because they are beautiful, but because with the production of this “ vegetable wool” there is connected a vast utility and improvement of the human race. Though in its production barbarity and cotton have grown upon the same soil, and misery has been interwoven with warp and woof in its manufacture, its use has greatly increased civilization in the great human family, because it has done more than anything else to clothe the naked, and that is the first great step in improvement of savage life. It not only furnishes the cheapest substantial covering for the half clothed, but it furnishes the material for more than half of the ornamental dress of man- kind, and therefore may be called, not king, but one of a good King’s best gifts to his subjects; because clothing next to food is their greatest want. It is unfortunate that a substance for which there is no substitute can only be grown in southern latitudes, for it is true that silk, flax, wool, hair, hemp, and skins are all insufficient. 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HIM hie HO Le dhy wicks ed vi herad WG #94 Lik, ol Wiehe pens Ane lige ssh imaurt! watt sty re rh sifcons con ? are ’ nn 4 i f? paar 49 . ie ¢ Hie? ‘bt how alg fey prs * j bite rh wn 53 sa dabie y+ os teste se Ae Spat Seemest tigen Yancy ee Sits Soke in Lalaansgieah te! np TE tee | F ee Aft ‘Sedat. ate nf ‘3 Uk 4 rm i ae Sro. 56.] THE HISTORY OF COTTON. 929 all together were used as much as cotton their cost would be beyond the reach of many, while cotton can be produced without limit as to quantity, and at so small a cost that all classes can afford the use of the cheap fabrics. 1079. The History of Cotton.—The genus Gossypium is divided into Gossy- pium Herbaceum, G. Hirsutum, G. Barbadense, and G. Arboreum. There are many hybrids of each. The plant is indigenous to the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, and is easily grown in all semi-tropical regions, and occasionally still farther north. The southern limit of Europe (36° 33’) is too far north for its natural growth, though it has become acclimated in much higher latitudes;in some of our Western States up to lat. 40°. The first cotton manufactured in Europe, it is said, was obtained from the Arabs. Being indigenous to India, cotton was early manufactured there, but we judge it was not known in Solomon’s time, for neither he nor Homer men- tions it, nor is it ever spoken of in the Bible, though linen is often mentioned. How long cotton cloth has been used in India is unknown, as it was abun- dant when the country was first visited by Europeans, though rudely manu- factured, and not much improved now; it is spun and woven much in the same way it was three thousand years ago. The first mention made of cot- ton in history is by Herodotus, who lived four hundred and forty years before Christ. He says: “There is a plant in India which produces wool, finer and better than that of sheep, of which the Indians make their clothes.” He describes a cuirass sent from Egypt to the king of Sparta, embellished with gold and with “fleeces from trees.” A century later, Alexander’s Grecian army invaded India, and first saw cotton. Nearchus, the admiral, who led the expedition down the Indus, gives an account of the clothing of the people, “finer and whiter than flax, which was made from a substance growing in pods on a tree, called by the natives Tula;” and his officers have left a description of the cotton dress and turban which formed the cos- tume of the natives at that remote period. Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, notices the growth of cotton both in India and Arabia, and ob- serves that the cotton plants of India have a leaf like the black mulberry, and are set on the plains in rows, resembling vines in the distance. On the Persian Gulf he noticed that they bore no fruit, but a capsule about the size of a quince, which, when ripe, expanded go as to set free the wool, which was woven into cloth of various kinds, both very cheap and of great value. Strabo, in the first century, spoke of flowered or printed cotton cloths, and beautiful colors of Indian dye; and that cotton was then grown at the head of the Persian Gulf. Pliny, later in the same century, says: “There grows a shrub called Gossypium or Xylon, in Upper Egypt, producing a stuff from which the white garments worn by the priests are made.” This was cotton, which had been but lately introduced from India, through Arabia and Persia, and no doubt had to work its way slowly against the interest and prejudice of. those who had long grown flax and made fine linen. But they had to give way to the mighty power of cheap production. That cotton was not in the pyramid age of Egypt, has been proved by microscopic 59 —— 930 STAPLE SOUTHERN OROPS. [Coar. XIV. examination of the fibers of mummy cloths. But Arian, in the second cen- tury, speaks of trade between Arabs and Greeks with India, in cotton cloths; though undoubtedly to a very limited extent, owing to the difficulty of sup- planting linen with a less valuable fabric before machinery was brought to its aid, by cheapening the production. The list of merchandise in the Roman tariff of those days does not mention cotton cloths, though it does silk, which was also brought from India, though mostly from China. It does indeed seem surprising that cotton manufacturing should have been known for thirteen hundred years, upon one side of the Mediterranean, before it crossed over to Greece and Italy. It seems equally strange that Rome did not import the exquisitely fine cotton fabrics of India, while she sought silks from a still more remote region in China. Cotton has often been found, by European travelers, growing wild in Africa; and it was found by Columbus in Hispaniola, and among the presents sent by Cortes to Charles V. were cotton mantles, vests, and carpets, of various figures, and in the conqnest of Mexico the Indian allies wore armor of quilted cotton, impervious to arrows. Cotton garments have always been held in high favor by faithful Moham- medans because their Prophet consecrated the fabric, in their eyes, by wear- ing pure white cotton garments asa sort of holy dress, upon public ocea- sions. On the other hand, there was a strong prejudice and opposition to the introduction of cotton into China, owing to the fact, probably, that the holy men of that country all wore silk and wool. Marco Polo, a traveler of the thirteenth century, found the manufacture of cotton cloth extensively earried on in Persia and the provinces bordering the Indus. He only saw it growing in one town in China, while in India it was the universal cloth. It is singular that it should have flourished in the latter country one or two thousand years before it was adopted by its nearest neighbor, China; and it might have remained uncultivated there still longer, only that after the Tartar conquest it was introduced by force. The worshipers of cotton in this country may wonder how people could be so prejudiced. History tells us that cotton was grown in Brazil in 1519. The Aztecs, however, were prob- ably the largest cultivators and most successful manufacturers of any of the races inhabiting this continent at the time of its discovery by Europeans, and it is also probable that the “‘cotton-tree,” now found in Central and South America, is indigenous to that region. 1080. History of Cotten Culture in the United States.—It is supposed that cotton was introduced into the territory of the United States from Barba- does, about 1664, as we have no proof that the Indians knew anything of its value. About 1778-9 a gentleman named Burden, living upon John’s Island, a few miles south of Charleston, 8. C., clothed his negroes with cotton cloth made upon the plantation. At that time the only manner of separating the lint from the seed was by the fingers; for then there were no cotton-gins, not even the rude affair still in use to clean Sea Island cotton (Gossypium herbacewm), which was the only kind cultivated—probably | aa 56.] HISTORY OF COTTON. 931 because the lint does not adhere to the seed as it does to the green seed, or upland variety. About 1849 or °50 we spent some days upon the Burden plantation, and learned much of the early history of cotton from a son of the Mr. Burden first spoken of, who said that when it was first grown, the constant evening work for all the family—men, women, children, and servants—was picking cotton; and that simple and inefficient as the roller- gin is compared with the saw-gin of the present day, it was hailed with joyous acclamations when it was found that it would do the work previ- ously accomplished by the very toilsome labor of the hands. Mr. Burden thought the first cotton ever shipped from this country was a bag sent from Charleston about the year 1740. Upward of fifty years elapsed between that and the next shipment. During the Revolutionary war, cotton was generally grown for family use in eighth and quarter-acre patches. In 1793, cotton was planted for a crop by a Mr. King, and in 1795 a million of pounds were exported from Charleston. In 1804, Mr. Burden raised the first crop of fine, long staple cotton in the State, This was produced from carefully selected seed, from stalks growing among that planted for family use, which seemed to possess the quality of a long, fine, silky fiber in an eminent degree. He continued his experiments of improving the seed more than twenty years. In 1826 he put up sixty bags of a superfine quality, which sold for $1 10 a pound. In 1828 he sold the same quality at $1 25; ordinary Sea Island sold the same years from 24 to 40 cents. His first crops were grown on a small island called Burden’s Island. The first crop on John’s Istand was grown by Mr. Legare, in 96. A good average yield of Sea Island cotton is 200 pounds to the acre. Where one planter makes that, one hundred do not, probably, make half that. Mr. Burden made an aver- age of 300 pounds to the a¢re, and 400 have been produced. He recollects the current price of cotton, about 1794, was 25 cents a pound, and that there was only one buyer in the city of Charleston. About the year 1785, the seed of upland, or short staple cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), was introduced into Georgia from the West India Islands. The difference between the two varieties may be easily’ known, if readers will recollect that the seed of upland cotton is of a greenish color and hairy— that is, the lint adheres to the seed, while the lint of the long staple sepa- rates freely, leaving a smooth, black cotton seed, much resembling that of the common sunflower. The cultivation of upland cotton for export now extends from the Ohio River to our utmost Southern limits, though not a certain crop north of latitude 36°. The neighborhood of Nashville, Tenn., and Raleigh, N. C., may be considered the northern limit of its successful cultivation, or rather as far north as it can be grown to compete with the more favorable localities south of that line, though we have no doubt that improvements in the mode of culture and use of proper fertilizers will enable farmers to grow it with considerable success much farther north. It is certain that the cultivation of land without manure, and with very shallow plowing, with such an exhausting crop as cotton, as generally practiced upon 932 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Caar. XIV. Southern cotton plantations, evinces about as much of the spirit of the darker ages, as did the Chinese when they stubbornly refused to grow cot- ton because their fathers had always been successful in growing sheep and feeding silkworms; or as the policy of the “ Confederate Government” of the rebel States, in ordering all cotton burned, rather than allow it to reach any civilized country, to be manufactured for the general benefit of humanity. 1081. Beauty of the Cotton-Fields—As a flowering plant, cotton might be cultivated for its beauty alone. The leaves are a deep, glossy green, grow profusely upon branches forming a handsome cone, which is covered with a continued succession of white, straw color, or pink flowers, according to their age; and then with its curious-shaped fruit, first small and green ; then forming squares, and changing brown; then cracking open, and show- ing glimpses of its snowy white interior; then fully expanding into a hand- ful of fleeey white wool; then gradually falling and hanging in pendants or dropping a snowy fleece upon the earth; and so, from the opening of the first blooms, the scene is ever-changing, ever-beautiful, beyond the power of artist’s pencil to portray. And the beauty of the scene is not, as with grain, marred by the harvesters; for in a cotton-field we see the pickers, like black ducks upon the white-capped waves of some wind-tossed sea. Even in mid-winter, when all else is black and drear, an unpicked cotton-field looks like a plantation of white roses or snow-ball flowers. The black shade of the picture is not the color of those who labor in the cotton-field, but it is “ man’s inhumanity to man.” 1082. The History of Cotton Manufactures,—DBy the Mohammedan power the use of cotton was introduced into Spain, and with that power it declined. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, cotton was manufactured to some extent in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, and it was carried, earlier than it otherwise would have been, to England, by the religious per- secutions of manufacturers on the Continent. That was the starting-point of the “cotton-power of England,” which has promoted, fostered, and upheld the “slave-power” of America. The earliest record of cotton manufacturing in England is in the “ Treasure of Traffic,” published in 1641. The author, Lewis Roberts, says: “The people of Manchester buy yarn of the Irish to weave, and they also buy cotton-wool in London, which comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, which they work into fustians, dimities, and other such stuffs for sale; it is sometimes sent into foreign parts.” Sometimes sent into foreign parts for sale! And that was only 200 years ago. The cotton manufactures of the present day are also sometimes sent abroad from England, and perhaps cotton-wool from Cyprus and Smyrna is sold in London; but we doubt whether in quantity sufficient to supply one single cotton factory. Two hundred years ago that same town of Manchester spun the said cotton-wool by hand upon a single spindle wheel, not much superior to its prototype, in India, where it has been used, without improvement, for three thousand years. At first, in Manchester, the cotton yarn was generally used for filling upon linen warp, -—— rR | Sxo. 56.] THE HISTORY OF COTTON. 933 and was woven upon a hand-loom also like that used in India for the same purpose. As this kind of fabric became better known, the demand increased, and then a new custom or system of manufacture was introduced. About the year 1760, the practice of Manchester merchants was to send agents into the country roundabout, with linen yarn and cotton-wool, who engaged the work of carding, spinning, and weaving to be done in families. Sometimes a weaver by trade took the job and sub-let the spinning. Sixty years later, it was a common practice for New England merchants to send cotton yarn around among their customers to be woven. The author has carried many a wagon-load of yarn to farmers’ families, and afterward gathered the webs into the store, to be measured, folded, and packed by hand for the wholesale market. Of course these were coarse goods—and so were those first made at Manchester—but the demand for them was great, and induced invention for their improvement. In 1768 the spinning-jenny was invented by James Hargreaves, an ingenious English carpenter, and rude as it was, it was found that upon this machine one person could spin as much as eight upon the common wheel. But still it only produced the same quality of yarn, which was not suitable for warp. The necessity of more warp than the flax-spin- ners of Ireland could furnish, and the desire to produce fabrics entirely of cotton, again stirred the inventive genius of the age, and Arkwright’s machine was given to work a world-wide revolution, not only in the manu- facture of cotton, but in the habiliments of mankind, and in almost all the economies of life. Then came Crompton’s mule-jenny, Cartwright’s power- loom, and Watts’ steam-engine, and cotton and its fabrics were sought after by all the nations of the earth. The demand in England for the raw mate- rial exceeded all human calculations. In 1780, and for four years previous, 6,766,613 lbs. per annum were imported. In 1790 the imports had inereased to 31,447,605 lbs. In 1800 they had increased to upward of 56,000,000 lbs., and in 1850 to upward of 758,000,000. Of the immense trade in cotton between this country and England, from 1850 to 1860, we need not speak— it is of the current history of the age, and has been the cause of much of its sorrow. In 1790, Alexander Hamilton called the attention of the Amer- ican people to the importance of the cotton crop, not as an article of export, but on account of the vast extent which the home manufacture of cotton fabrics had assumed in the households of the people. He alludes to the then remarkable fact that muslins, bed-ticks, checks, stripes, hose, fustians, coverlids, and various mixtures of cotton and wool, or flax, are made to a greater extent than required for family use by the manufacturers, and even hints at exportation. Both he and Mr. Madison spoke of the probability of extending the cultivation of cotton from the garden to the field, and of sending the products abroad for salé. With all their sagacity and far-secing power, they had no conception the product would reach 4,600,000 bales within seventy years. A bale of 400 Ibs. per acre (1,200 lbs. in the seed) is a good crop. The largest yield known was 6,300 lbs. of seed cotton, grown by Dr. Cloud, of Alabama, upon one acre. —_ 934 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuar. XVI. EEL Of the manufacture of cotton in other countries, we have already said that it was most ancient in India. Cortes, when he invaded Mexico, found the manufacture of cotton cloth in a considerable state of perfection. Humboldt mentions the use of cotton in the manufacture of paper. Some of the cloths made by the Mexicans were curiously figured by interweaving colors of searlet and blue, made from their native productions of indigo and cochineal. Columbus carried home specimens of cotton to prove that he had found the Indies. Time proved them to be the West instead of the East Indies; and time will probably prove that there are other fibrous plants which can be grown where cotton can not, which will serve as a substitute for it in cloth- ing mankind. 1083. The History of the Cotton-Gin.—The world is indebted to the in- ventive genius of New England for the vast quantity of cotton it has used within the present century. Without Whitney’s gin it could never have been prepared for market and manufacturing. It is due to his memory in connection with a great Industrial interest, that we should give a brief his- tory of the inventor and invention, for without it a portion of mankind would be but scantily clad. The inventor of the saw-gin, Eli Whitney, was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, Dec. 8, 1765. In the winter of 1791-2 he was a private tutor or guest in the family of Mrs, Greene (widow of General Greene, of Revolutionary memory, afterward Mrs. Miller), who first called his attention to the difficulty of separating the lint from the cotton seed, and afterward aided him by suggesting the use of a brush to clean the saw-teeth of the first model that he built. Crude as that model was, and unlike the highly-finished machines of the present day, the principle remains unchanged. That principle is for a revolving cylinder, armed with teeth, like a cireular saw (hence the name of saw-gin), to seize the lint and pull it through narrow slits between bars of iron, leaving the seed behind, and that lint is cleared from the teeth by revolving brushes, and generally blown away into a lint-room. An invention by Emory Brothers, of Albany, N. Y., is a’great improvement upon the blowing process, for it compacts the lint into bats ready for baling, and saves labor, room, and improves the cotton. It was in June, 1792, that Whitney presented his petition for a patent to Thomas Jefferson, and exhibited to him the model of his machine, which has in the seventy years since then worked such wonders in the agriculture of the Southern States. That model was destroyed when the United States Patent Office was burned, but a copy of it was exhibited in the New York Crystal Palace, where we examined and compared it with gins now in use. Whitney’s first gins were worked by hand, and one with a cylinder of 23 feet long was capable of cleaning fifty pounds of cotton a day. This was fifty timés as fast as it could be cleaned by hand. With the best gins of the present time, driven by the power of four or six mules, running a cylinder twelve inches diameter and five feet long} 250 revolutions a minute, 150 Ibs. of cotton ean be cleaned in an hour, and a regular day’s work is about three bales. Src. 56.] THE HISTORY OF THE COTTON-GIN. 935 The introduction of the cotton-gin raised the market value of the cotton lands of the South from 50 to 1000 per cent., and generally people grew wild with excitement, and unprincipled men thought to rob the poor in- ventor of his just rights, and excite popular prejudice against this “ Yankee invention,” or, rather, against his legal right to claim a fair compensation from those who were enjoying such great benefits from his ingenuity. As usual, they talked about the “ oppression to the South” of such a patent monopoly, and sought to “‘ compromise” the matter by asking Congress to pay Whitney for his patent and throw it open to the benefit of all the cotton-growing States. For once Congress refused what it never has been known, I be- lieve, since to refuse, that is, to grant all that Cotton had the modesty to ask. For ten or twelve years poor Whitney contended against the cotton interest, which seemed determined to use his invention without paying for his patent. The greatest wrong was done him in Georgia. The courts would not give him a verdict upon the clearest testimony. One judge decided against him upon the ground that cotton could not be profitably grown without the gin, and that a patent right upon it was too great a monopoly for any one man to possess. South Carolina first agreed to pay $50,000 for the patent, and after Whitney had received $20,000 of the amount, the Legislature repealed the law and sued him for the money. The law, however, was restored after several years. North Carolina and Tennessee also bought the right at so much per saw for all made in the State. Georgia fought to the last, but Whitney finally obtained several verdicts in his favor; yet not till the patent had nearly expired. Since the time of Whitney, improvements in the cotton-gin have been a constant source of revenne to the Patent Office, and its manufacture furnished employment to thousands of mechanics until the slave power rebelled against the United States Government and stopped the cotton cultivation, and the manufacture of cotton-gins ceased as a natu- ral consequence. 1084. Sea Island Cotton.—This variety of cotton received its name because it was first grown upon the islands near Charleston, S.C. We have already stated how it differs from the upland variety. It is more valuable, because the fiber is long and silky, and suitable for spinning the finest thread. Its value is also enhanced by the way it is ginned. This process we will de- scribe as we have seen it performed upon many plantations. 1085. How Sea Island Cotton is Ginned.—The gin is an exceedingly simple machine. It is merely two wooden rollers, about eight or ten inches in length, and less than one inch in diameter, made of some soft wood, usually common long-leaf pine. One of these rollers is inserted in the socket of an iron balance-wheel of about fifteen pounds’ weight, which is mounted upon a bench and operated by a treadle. These rollers are held together by a light spring, and put in motion by the operator’s foot, while he holds the cotton with his fingers to the roller. These seize the lint and carry it through while the seeds fall back into a box below. Great care has to be taken that a seed is never allowed to pass through the rollers, as the mash- 2 re 936 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuar. XIV, ing of seeds stains and injures the cotton. The rollers have to be renewed every day, and sometimes oftener, if the wood is not exactly suitable, which can only be ascertained by trial. If too hard, the wood polishes and will not take hold of the lint; and if too soft, it becomes rough directly, and winds the lint around so as to stop operations. Experience has shown that the rollers made of green pine, and not very smoothly made, are the best ; but even these should be renewed daily. Experience has proved, too, that the gin must be driven by the ginner’s own power, so that he can feel when a seed is caught between the rollers. A Sea Island cotton-gin may be com- pared, in its size and operations by the foot, to a sewing-machine. The bench is about 31 feet high, 11 feet wide, and 3 feet long, the balance- wheel having an opening at the left hand, so that the center is just above the table. It has a bearing on one side, and a short crank and a socket on the other, into which the lower roller is driven, and forms a bearing for that side. As the seeds are hard, they communicate, if caught in the roller, a little jar to the foot. The usual task of a stovt man is to gin 25 Ibs a day. When the weather is very favorable, that is, in a clear, dry atmosphere, 40 lbs. are sometimes ginned by an experienced workman. As the cotton falls from the gin it is gathered up and taken to a well-lighted table, where every mote, speck, and stain is carefully removed. If a mashed seed is found, the ginner is required to leave his machine and come to the “ moter’s” table and pick it out. This is done to teach him to be careful, and if the offense is often repeated, he will be likely to receive something more than words as a reminder of his carelessness. The ginning is always done by the most experienced men, and the “ moting” by the most careful women on the plantation. The work of the ‘ moters” is all overlooked by an inspector, who is held responsible for the perfect cleanliness of the cotton. After the cotton is ginned, it is injured by exposure to the atmosphere. The ginning can be done to advantage only in perfectly dry weather, and the packing in damp weather; it is therefore taken from the “ moter’s” table and closely packed in a dark room until ready for bagging. This process is very tedious. The empty sack is suspended through a hole in the floor; a portion of the cotton is then thrown in, and the packer gets in with a wooden rammer and continues to drive down successive layers until the bag is filled. The Sea Island bale is made from four yards of cloth, and holds 800 Ibs. ; and a packer’s task is to finish one bale a day. If pressed by machinery in square bales, like the upland cotton, the quality is said to be injured, and it will not sell for as much money in market as it does in the regular round bales. 1086. How Sea Island Cotton is Grown.—Upon a majority of the plantations visited by the author in 1850, nearly the entire work was done by hoes; the use of plows was almost unknown. The average yield of cotton is less than 150 lbs. per acre, and it requires four pounds of seed cotton to make one pound of lint. The plants are set in drills five feet apart, the stalks from eight to twenty-four inches apart, and one good field-hand can plant and | Sxro. 56.] HOW UPLAND COTTON IS GROWN. 937 _ I ae tend about three and a half acres. The manner of planting is to scrape all the manure and trash into the hollows between the old rows, then dig with hoes and haul one half of the old beds from each side upon the row of trash to form a bed for the next crop. The seed is put in the last of March or first part of April. When ready to gather, it is picked with great care, and at the same time assorted in the field; then assorted again on the drying scaffold ; afterward stowed away in the packing-house, and then taken to the trasher, which is something like a fanning-mill; then it is picked over by hand and spread in the sun; lastly taken to the ginner. 1087. How Upland Cetton is Grown.—This is the Gossypiwm hirsutum, the lint adhering to green seed, and it is killed by frost as easily as tomatoes. In its growth it somewhat resembles buckwheat, though as far south as Mississippi it becomes a woody shrub, tall and firm enough for walking- canes. In Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, where ectton is sparsely grown, the shrub seldom exceeds three feet in height, and is not so woody as to make the work of plowing under the dry stalks very difficult ; though it is quite so farther south, where they are either cut off and burned, or beaten down with clubs and plowed under as well as practicable, with the small plows in common use. As the cotton plant has a tap-root, the soil should be deep ; and instead of deepening it by plowing, the common practice is to throw up the land in beds. It would be better to underdrain, subsoil, and make all the soil mellow, and then plant nearly on a level; raising the beds only just enough to protect the young plants from injury by heavy rains. Owing to the extreme delicacy of cotton plants during the first stages of germination and growth, it is imperatively necessary to pulverize the beds thoroughly, by plowing and harrowing or hand hoeing. In the extreme uorthern limits of the cotton-growing region it will be found profitable to plow in autumn, and let the frost aid in the process of pulverization. The beds are made about as far apart as corn rows—farther at the South; say, five to nine feet. A slight furrow is opened in the top, and the seed drilled pretty thickly by hand, so as to allow for a great many to fail; and if too many grow, as they generally do, they are “thinned to a stand ;” which upon the rich canebrake lands of Alabama would be two feet between stalks in rows four and a half feet apart. Upon such land we have seen twenty bushels of seed to the acre used, to provide against the destruction of the plants by the crawfish. If most of the seed sheuld grow, a peck per acre would be sufficient. In the vicinity of Montgomery, Ala., which we take as the average isothermal line in the cotton region, the seed requires nine days’ exposure in the soil to vegetate and get above the surface; and the most approved planting season is the first of April, and the average yield is about 150 lbs. of ginned cotton per acre. In extending cotton cultivation northward, seed should be obtained as near the locality as possible, and soaked before planting. Afterward, select in your own field from early, five-lobed balls, and thus, like sweet potatoes, it may be gradually acclimated. At the South, very little care is exercised pee Ng hes A EES APM DT OWES MS ECS 938 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuap. XIV. in selecting seed. In planting, it is covered by hoes, or by harrows, or a wooden drag, drawn by a horse, and not over an inch and a half deep. The greatest trouble is during the first growth, when, if the ground is not kept clean, the crop will get a back-set that will put it in danger of autumn frosts. The best implements are such as successful carrot-growers use, which scrape the surface close to the plants. ‘“ Thinning to a stand” is the work of the hoe, striking across the beds, and cutting out the surplus plants. The thinning should not be done all at once—not at the first or even second hoeing; for allowance must be made for cut-worms and other depredators. The last work done is with a turning-plow, to throw up the earth to the beds, so as to leave deep water furrows between. The first dressing or cul- tivating commences soon after the plant puts out the second or third leaf, and the hoeing or cultivating should be repeated as often as the weeds, or the condition of the soil render it necessary, until the plant is in bloom and begins to show balls. Manure for cotton is just as valuable as for any other erop, and guano, superphosphate of lime, carbonate of lime, sulphate of lime, have all been proved good; and salt is undoubtedly beneficial—for Sea Island cotton indispensable. It is best to add the salt to a compost, where muck forms the principal ingredient. There are three pickings of the crop: first, when the earliest balls open ; second, the principal picking; last, the gleaning after frost kills the stalks. The sooner the cotton is gathered after it opens the better, as the sun dries up the oil that pervades the fiber. It requires practice to be an expert cot- ton-picker, and great care to be a good one; because the value is much injured by allowing any trash to get mixed with the lint. In picking, the lock is seized so as to bring it all away at once, and is thrust into a bag, the mouth of which must be kept nearly closed, to prevent leaves from getting in, and when full is emptied into large baskets which are generally carried on negroes’ heads to the drying scaffold, where the cotton is sunned one day before it is stored. The picking season is a laborious one. The slaves are all tasked, and have to work every minute of daylight, and often long after dark in getting the cotton home, and no one is exempt who is capable of doing the work. 1088. The Cost of Growing Upland Cotton.—To show the cost of production we give the following detailed account, taken by the author in 1849, from the books of one of the best conducted plantations in the State of South Carolina, that of Col. Williams, of Society Hill, whose plantation is on the Great Pedee River. He then worked 140 field hands, and planted 15 acres of corn and cotton per hand. The cotton averaged, the previous year, upon 1,180 acres, 1,000 pounds in the seed per acre; and the corn, on 980 acres, 25 bushels per acre. The cotton crop averaged six bales per hand. Cotton is planted in beds 4! feet apart, and left to stand 12 to 18 inches apart in the rows. Corn is planted 43 by 5 feet, two stalks in a hill. The following was the cost of making 331,136 pounds of cotton, packed in 796 bales, averaging 416 pounds each: Sro. 56.] THE COST OF GROWING UPLAND COTTON. 3,980 yards of Dundee bagging (5 yards ! 400 gallons of molasses.........@... . to a bale) at 16c : | 8 kegs of tobacco 3,184 lbs. of rope at 6c. (4 lbs. toa bale) 191 | 2 barrels of flour Taxes on 254 plantation negroes at 76c. 193 04/ Freight and commission, c. per lb. on Taxes on 4,200 acres of land, valued at ER apd cageer eae tuncean cote 2,059 60 $15 an acre 70 00 e ——— Wages of three oversecrs 900 00 Making.... 7 $6,791 48 Doctor's bill and medicine, on contract, To this add interest at 7 per cent. at $1 25 a head 317 50 on valuation : Tron for blacksmith’s shop 100 00 | $63,000 for land Cloth from his own factory 810 00| 88,900 for slaves . . 200 pairs of shoes from his own factory, 3,720 for mules, etc at 873 ¢ 175 00| 2,000 for cattle 100 oil-cloth capotes 125 00| 1,000 for hogs 20 woolen blankets, given one at each Calico dress and handkerchief, one to AGUS elton a eevee nana 823, 179 52 give to each woman 13,500 Ibs. bacon at 5 ¢ 675 00 Christmas presents, giveninlieuofallow- = =|pospandhutter ©... . 500 00 ing slaves to grow a crop shale 50 00 Annual average outlay for iron and wood =< ; 500 00 work of carts and wagons......... : 4 . ate 480 00 50 sacks of salt Ree 5 ; i 100 00 1 tun of plaster 7 125 00 100 barrels of lime panes Annual average expense of repairs of PGR Att cte ttt. bse choles $25,509 52 gins and belts This gives a profit of $7,615 04. Col. Williams owns 10,000 acres of land, but only estimates in the above calculation what belodes to the cotton plantation. The following are the estimated values: 4,200 acres of land at $15 $63,000 00 | A bed comforter biennially 254 slaves at $350 : 1 blanket 60 mules and mares, and 1 jack and | stallion, at $60 200 cattle ANNUAL BILL OF COST FOR FEEDING SLAVES (where 23 carts and six wagons full fed, as upon the plantation of Col. Wil- Plows—60 bull-tongue, 60 shaving, liams, and other first-class planters.) 25 turning, 15 drill-plows, and 16 | 33 Ibs. of bacon a week is 182 Ibs., at 5 ce. harrows. $9 All other tools 1 peck of meal per week is 13 bushels, at eh ROUT: 4 orare tet. cawern meron ne om eie me 6 $161,402 00 | Molasses, about 1 6-10 gallons “ANNUAL BILL OF CLOTHING PER HEAD. "Tobacco and salt 12 yards cotton cloth at 6} cents, for 3 Potatoes, and all other vegetables, es- shirts and 1 pair of pants 7 timated 6 yards winter cloth at 40 c 1 pair shoes and repairing : 1 oil-cloth capote or 50 c. a week. Upon most plantations the last three items would not be estimated, as the slave would have to provide his own tobacco, salt, molasses, potatoes, and other vegetables, out of his own crop, which he is allowed to cultivate Sun- days and moonshiny nights, or from the sale of eggs, chickens, brooms, mats, coon-skins, and other merchandise. In all the estimates of number of pounds of cotton per acre, where the calculation is made upon the crop in the seed, it is generally estimated that 1,000 lbs. of seed cotton will give 290 or 300 lbs. of ginned cotton, and about 30 bushels of seed. A neighbor of Col. Williams cultivated 21 acres of cotton and nine acres of corn per hand, and made 2,500 lbs. of clean cotton per hand. The average yield per acre in that district was calculated at 800 lbs. of seed cotton. The average | 940 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuap. XIV. time of planting is about the middle of April, as severe frosty nights occur as late as that, and once we saw snow fall April 15, all day. - 1089. Ginning Cotten.—The cotton as it is gathered from the field is dried in the sun and packed away in the gin-house, which is generally a very rough building, corresponding with barns upon new farms, and the gin is usually driven by horses or mules, working around an upright shaft, which drives a horizontal one, and often by exceedingly rough gearing, re- volving a drum for the band of the gin, which must run at a very high speed. The lint, which is estimated at 30 per cent. of the weight in the seed, is blown into a lint-room, and the seed thrown out of a window, just as some farmers throw out stable manure, where it frequently lies till half its value as a fertilizer is wasted. It is sometimes used as cattle food, but is not valuable unless ground. By those who value cotton seed for the oil, or the oil-cake for feeding, the waste around the gin-houses would be depre- cated. Many small farmers do not own gins, but get cotton ginned by those who work, as millers do, for toll. The bale (400 lbs.), as usually put up on the plantation, requires five yards of sacking and four pounds of rope, and occupies nearly twice as much space as a compressed bale, which is about four and a half feet long, and one and a half to two feet square. This compression is done in powerful steam presses at the cities where cotton is shipped oceanward, to save room in stowage. It is then often hooped with iron. 1090. Cotton Seed as Manure.—There is no doubt that cotton seed is a good manure for that or any other crop, but there is a doubt about its being an economical one, because the seed can be applied to other purposes with greater profit. If it is used for manure, it never should be, as it often is upon Southern plantations, applied in its natural condition, for then one half its value is lost. If cotton seed is used as a fermenter of compost, all its own fertilizing value will be saved, and the value of the compost greatly im- proved. Thirty bushels of seed mixed with 50 bushels of muck, or road serapings, or woods-mold, with an equal quantity of stable manure, will make an exceedingly rich compost. Those who have experimented with fertilizers for cotton, think that the greater the number of ingredients in a compost the better, and that such manure is the best fertilizer that can be used for the crop. A good many cotton growers are just beginning to realize that they can not grow cotton continually upon the same soil without manure. Upon such hard-worked land it is very difficult to get ““astand;” that is, to get the young plants to live long enough to begin to grow. Upon the principle that the ashes of any plant is good manure fof the same class of plants, there is no doubt that cotton seed will fertilize the next crop. 1091. Will Cotton Culture and Production Increase ?—In the aggregate it may, but it is likely to be more diffused, both in this country and in British possessions, and that the produce of slave labor will decrease, as old planta- -tions are constantly wearing out by the exhaustive system of culture pur- sued in all the cotton States. It is doubtful whether the American crop of Src. 56.] EXTENSION OF COTTON CULTURE NORTHWARD. 941 1859-60 will ever be exceeded. If we could be sure the consumption would increase as rapidly im the next fifty years as in the past, it would be worth while for all Northern farmers within the limit of its possible culture, to get into the business of cotton growing. We do not think the demand for American cotton will increase, because there is an immense area in other countries just as capable of its production as this. There is a belt around the earth’s surface of at least sixty degrees in width, adapted in great part to the culture of cotton. Great Britain now commands capital, while China and India overflow with labor. Let Great Britain divert a few millions of this capital and but half a million of coolies to any fertile area of 5,000 square miles within this belt, and she can in a few years double her supply of cotton, and command the residue of her importation at reasonable prices. Among these spots none is more promising than Central America, where the cotton plant is perennial, and a single acre, as we are assured by Mr. Squier, yields semi-annually a bale of superior cotton. American planters are at work in India, and Africa is constantly increasing the production. The high price of 1862 has given a wonderful stimulus to production in every country but America. It has also given a stimulus to the production of fiber from other plants, as a substitute for cotton. 1092. Extension of Cotton Culture Northward.—Independent of all political considerations, we think that the cultivation of cotton should be extended as far northward as the plant can be acclimated, to obviate failure in the supply from one locality, from any cause whatever. Many who can grow it, never thought of doing so till after the Confederated cotton States made war upon the Northern States. The cotton planters had so long and loudly declared that cotton could only be produced by slave labor, that many in the free States believed the statement true. But the truth is, that by slave labor the planters have been able to furnish cotton cheaper than any other country ; it is not because it can not be grown in other places. But here, with cheap land and cheap labor, the supply has been kept up at low prices. Unfortunately, the planters are wearing out the cotton lands with as great rapidity as the tobacco planters wore out their soil. Many plantations that once produced cotton are now barren; and if the world was really de- pendent upon the cotton States, the supply would certainly fail. It should, therefore, be extended northward. ; The growth of cotton in Illinois and adjoining States is not a question of experiment, but one of economy. The “cotton interest” have fixed upon lat. 36°, but incorrectly, as the northern limit of growth. In Europe and Asia it is grown as far north as lat. 41° upon low lands, in warm situations. Undoubtedly the cotton plant requires deep and thorough cultivation and a long season of fine growing weather, exempt from frost, and such situations can be found in the United States as far north as lat. 40°, and perhaps higher. A rich, warm alluvial soil is best, and there is nothing in the cultivation essentially different from corn, The average yield per acre in some of the best cotton counties in Georgia was given the author by many planters at i = 14 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. (Cuar. XIV. 400 Ibs. in the seed, and we have no doubt but that can be exceeded in southern Illinois. It is contended by those who profess to know, that cotton does not ex- haust the soil more than flax. We do not know how it would be under the management of Northern farmers, but we do know that as cotton is now grown it is the most exhausting crop in America, and has ruined more land than ail other crops together. Millions of acres of land, once produc- tive in cotton, are now lying barren wastes, all over the Southern States. One of the principal reasons for this is, because there is no general system of rotation. The forest is cleared off, and land planted in cotton and kept in cotton till it will no longer produce a paying crop. The only shift is from cotton to corn, upon a portion of the land. It is no wonder that it wears out. In a few instances the following system of rotation has-been successfully adopted. The rows of cotton are planted only one half as close as they would be upon strong land, the wide space between the rows is plowed several times during the summer, and next year the cotton is planted in that space, and the old row “left to rest.” By this simple mode the yield per acre has been increased, and the field continued to produce with- out diminution. If cotton is ever cultivated as a crop in regions not occu- pied by slaves, some system of rotation will be adopted, to prevent the general deterioration of soil that takes place everywhere that cotton has been cultivated in this country. It is certain that cotton is an exhausting crop, as all white crops always are, particularly one that ripens such a large product of oily seed; and it is certain that many farmers have given up the cultivation of cotton in regions where it will grow, because it exhausts the soil, and because it requires so much labor at the very time when corn must be attended to; and that, we believe, will be the great objection to cotton growing in the free States. 1093. Cotton from Flax Fiber.—A good many attempts have been made to reduce the fiber of flax to such a condition that it would be a pretty good substitute for cotton; but none of the processes have been carried to such a practical result as to produce any effect upon the market, though some fabrics have been manufactured, and much good anticipated. One of the plans that promises the greatest results is breaking the texture of flax-straw by the ex- pansive force of steam, by which the woody substance that makes the shives of the flax-dresser is loosened from the fiber, and that is left in a condition very much resembling cotton. This is effected by filling a large gun with flax and saturating it with steam, gradually raising the pressure to 160 lbs. per inch, when the gun is discharged, and the contents blown across a large room, in a great, fleecy cloud of cottony lint. The same process produces lint from many substances that if not.a substitute for cotton in all its uses will be for many things for which cotton is now used. For instance, the common reed-cane of the Southern States will blow into a lint that is exceed- ingly well adapted to the manufacture of paper. ea a a a ee ee ea ne a ae INSECTS INITRIOVUS to tor COTTON, eee! a, a 2 F S = ~ : —— z= . 5 ar \ mn oe 3 ie. i — AGU we aa OT A oe whoo 2S + Ff f ‘ pty it a Cotton Boll Worm “oltol 5 Cot \ p> Natural size Nat! size Cotton Louse magnified, aphis tow Louse‘m agmified.® “a als Nat- siz ; > iy ‘ | { ‘ A te 2 Die | oon { ia é Tt, S, ie aod ‘a } ! ag by | a iS as 4 M Tt) bee) ay & 2 : t @ , ‘ \ | Wag it: ’ ¥ ¢ 1 a , »; q wn ut x ee « 1 rit ¥ ul ri." “ ial a és é wt ‘ sal i ee 4 ye i s ae} “ oe “s' ne a: ae we Le ew) a at aris iT aE dish oT AER We IK tal ghee: Mabihass a ai goes 4 sale ENT Lage f sig a 4 ‘ ai Miners eidtod bemely epait win ae ¥ Jorn Pranthte eal a : thads ¢ Sahel) Ql ie oe Lye tae | Ate. nit % phen Vie veo ei ; ‘St Gitano Hoe ast een mialey atesi patie onde Rasa. Os ny sate > f aire ‘ ike bag ARIAS osteo 8 + te withitested a fonieosti eh ener; wih Wreisan HON \ einseee uel bt coi ih. et ot, 7m B ceh a wiley eaten ue ‘ronupa ‘hig? BAioita Leathe * en Ln} Seva Taf prtat bs nt rh aan voit Abr versabenh' a) aed eobit 0 i Mara il Pre Ghueis: 0.x a) iach oats ; erat Ht mits pt ost oe t i. i paced whit rr enon) ses tg Mi by i thot lee Mi tar see 4% re —— wal 2. is ‘ te ; ET 6 , +0 as CLAY sri € % c? be y. vw ; ys 4 sa g ty oh 4 Ane ate sles To “ihe Ny by Me ote As ythhs fo ote tir Blt yer Daa pier. ‘a weaned ABN. i ut Wb ART ea cee Sai Relea tp ion oe ve Mew nf a0 Hf ee og Bk Ket enntad OSes ain Aa boiey aw wreal aid; Lett Let pp ce iy: e498 Met vebess .4h554 iat yn ot, Dated patent ant ashe . ts ae hele ai migaddoea hires ee a ae va is Met tees elit 8 vaio x ds, te ans Blip ipbinn Ab Hele # J‘ Ap | ) Daa + Se ising y se, baer es eaters ee Szo. .57.] SUGAR-CANE CULTIVATION. $43 awe ee SECTION LVIIL—SUGAR-CANE CULTIVATION. E shall give in this section some interesting facts, gathered from personal observation about the year 1849-50, showing the magnitude of the sugar-making business in Louisiana, and the profits of well-con- ducted plantations. The cultivation of the true sugar-cane, Arundo saccharifera, is confined to a very small portion of the Gulf States (though it will perfect itself as far north as latitude 323°), and we shall therefore only mention a few facts connected with its growth and manufacture. We have already spoken of the Northern sugar-cane, Sorghum sac- charatum, which bids fair to render the farmers of the Middle States quite independent of the Southern sugar producers. 1094. Sugar Production in Louisianan—The census of 1840 gives the total production of sugar in the United States (nearly all in Louisiana) at 119,995,104 pounds; and in 1849, by census of 1850, at 247,577,000 pounds. That year we visited many sugar plantations along both sides of the Mississippi, and on Bayou La Fourche, and from our memorandums taken from statements of planters and overseers, or from the books, we will give a few statistics that will show the product per acre, or rather arpent, as all measurement of land in that section is given in French measure—7. e., 118 arpens equivalent to 100 acres. 1095. Statistics of Louisiana Sugar Plantations.—We will take some large plantations, including that of the Right Reverend Bishop of Louisiana, Major-General in the Confederate Army, and give their acreable productions, and number of hands employed to produce the crop, and in most cases a considerable portion of the corn required. And first, Bishop Polk’s place of 2,500 arpens, which lies 231 arpens wide on Bayou La Fourche, above Thibodeauville, and extends back four and a half miles. The crop of 1848 was 600 arpens of cane, 200 ditto of corn, and 200 arpens more cane land prepared. The yield of sugar was 720 hhds. from 470 arpens of cane, manu- factured one year, and 510 hhds. from 358 arpens. It may be well to notice here, that all the cane grown is never rolled (the term for. grinding for sugar), as about 25 per cent. has to be saved for seed, as one planting only lasts about three years. The yield of molasses is about 60 gallons to each hogs- head of sugar. From seven acres of “first ratoon” cane 21 hogsheads of sugar were made in January, 1849. That is considexed a first-rate crop. A lot of cane, weighed and crushed, and juice measured, gave 163 gallons of juice, 83 lbs. per gallon, 1,386 lbs. to 2,300 lbs. of cane. The crop of corn the same year was 10,500 bushels, which was 5000 bushels less than was re- 944 STAPLE SOUTHERN OROPS. [Cuar. XIV. quired for the stock, biped and quadruped, on the plantation. The average yield of corn was 26 bushels per acre. The working force of the place was 115 field hands and.mechaniecs, and 70 mules and horses. The total number of slaves was 370. The small proportion of field hands was owing to the fact that the slaves were an original stock, imported, in 1697, for Thomas Pollock, an ancestor of Mrs. Polk, and have been in the family ever since, and now include a large number of superannuated men and women, some of them over a hundred years old. There were also 70 children under ten . years of age. There is a historical anecdote connected with the slaves on this plantation. The original stock was brought into Bristol, R. L, and, probably owing to the same cause that decimates slave cargoes of the pres- ent day, the captain found that he had not enough to fill his contract with Mr. Pollock, and so he enticed some Indians on board, and immediately set sail for Edenton, N.C., and delivered his cargo at the full count. Traces of this admixture of blood are still plainly visible in this old Pollock stock. All the clothing of the slaves is manufactured from wool and cotton on the plantation ; and all the hoes, spades, plows, carts, wagons, harness, shoes, ete., as well as hogsheads and barrels for the crop, and all the carpenter and blacksmith work, is done by slaves, the rations of which are, to each adult, twelve quarts of corn-meal and three and a half pounds of pork a week, and the total annual cash expenses $8,(100—generally estimated at $100 per field hand—and the total value of the plantation, with all its stock and fix- tures, was estimated at $400,000, and cost, seven years before, without any slaves, for 1,800 arpens, of which 450 were cultivated, with 15 mules and 6 oxen, and the tools, $100,000. The cane is ground in a three-roller mill, driven by steam ; the rollers 2 feet 3 inches in diameter, and 5 feet 6 inches long; the juice is boiled in sets of iron kettles, and requires two and a half cords of wood to a hogshead of sugar. A few miles above Bishop Polk’s plantation, on the other side of the bayou, which is a narrow stream that looks like an artificial canal, and is kept in place by embankments, is the plantation of Thomas Pugh, one of the best sugar planters of Louisiana. He went there from North Carolina in 1825, with a small force, and began a new place, or nearly so, which, in twenty-four years, grew to the following dimensions, and capable of, pro- ducing the following crops: There were 3,000 arpens of land, about one third of it cleared, 550 arpens in cane, 250 in corn, and 200 in pasture, roads, lots, ete. The uncleared part was mostly eypress swamp, which afforded fuel and timber for the plantation, and lumber for sale. Most of the swamp land, like millions of acres in Louisiana, can not be cultivated unless drained by machinery. This place had 200 slaves, and worked 80 field hands, and made 700 hogsheads of sugar, and 60 gallons of molasses to the hogshead, from 440 arpens of cane rolled. All the corn required was also made on the place, which would yield, if well tended, thirty flour barrels full of ears of corn per acre. The team force required on this plantation is sixty mules, with appurtenances very complete, and one of the best kind of sugar-houses, ual SUGAR-CANE CULTIVATION. 945 Sxzo. 57.] and a short distance to haul the cane to the mill, and still shorter to haul the proceeds to the steamboat. The land is 17} arpens front on the bayou, and 80 arpens deep—28 arpens being a mile. The sugar-house is 40 by 340 feet, with steam-engine and three-roller mill, each 2! feet diameter and 51 feet long, which crush and squeeze the juice out of the cane so as to reduce it te about one third its weight. The estimated value of this plantation was given by the owner as follows: 1,600 arpens of land (1,000 cleared), capable of being cultivated without ma- chine draining, at $50 an arpent, $80,000; 1,400 arpens of swamp land, at $1 25, $1,750; the mansion house, at cost, $30,000—$111,750; 201 slaves, | at an average of $400, $80,400; 60 mules and horses, at $100; 6 yoke of work oxen, at $40—$6,240; 1 wagon, $75; and 16 carts, at $50; plows and other plantation tools, $2,000—$2,875 ; 10,000 bushels of corn in crib, at 40 cents, $4,000; lumber, small stock, and movables, $1,000 ;—total, $206,265. ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE PLANTATION. Overseer’s wages, $1,200; saw-mill and sugar-mill engineer, $700...................... $1,900 vpn esa UalsOn tay MOM MUGS. seicltatin ye nian) apaueraie tae Smile olor < f cieierelvicicle oS 34 ae etme 1,000 Cloth for negroes’ clothes : cotton, $850; woolen, $444; blankets, $200; shoes, $475... 1,919 225 barrels of pork, at $10; 50 barrels of flour, at $4 50.................. 00... cece eee 2,475 Average annual expense of plows, carts, spades, hoes, chains, harness, nails, and iron.... . 900 Average annual expense of repairs of engines, sugar-mill, and kettles................... 200 ERD OLEN ep AO OTL Deh eae captors te oe eeectarsye ate che nfepcle nies Cyovacein sion eter ee 6 Sienld Sieleley/s's 875 (Btryaroranign ANNeA Ly byl! Ars Trl GOICINIESY pro: stecalctacera aie ele: hs) aloisud =laiake Ps, e\utoyetelasabebalet ays =lefo. 4-2 eter 350 Incidental average annual expense of sundries not enumerated above..... .............. 200 PANS O IRR ss ve pV AP ace is tyat MpeoYns shoe oie eck 6 elo nitin eve Sars cfeuatale Meo njn-tuawnayerar seas gS oaEe $9,419 The proceeds of the crop the year under consideration might be estimated as follows: 700,000 lbs. of sugar, at 5 cents, $35,000; 42,000 gallons of mo- lasses, at 18 cents, $7,560—total receipts, $42,560. Net balance, $33,141. Yet this is one of the most liberally managed plantations in the State; the slaves being full fed, with three quarters of a pound of pork a day, and twelve quarts a week of corn-meal, besides all the vegetables they can grow for themselves, or that ean be produced by aman and wife and mule em- ployed for that purpose. Besides this, they have fifty barrels of molasses and nearly fifty barrels of flour a year. Their annual clothing is 4 cotton shirts, 2 cotton pants, 1 cotton and 1 woolen jacket, 1 woolen pants, 1 woolen hat, 1 woolen blanket, 3 pair of shoes, 1 straw hat; and to the old, or inva- lids, 2 woolen shirts; and 1 calico dress and handkerchiefs to women, besides extras to house servants. Other plantations produced, about 1850, as follows: On the Mississippi, 25 to 40 miles above New Orleans: Wm. Polk, 90 slaves; 55 field hands; 320 arpens of cane, 285 rolled, made 525 hogsheads of sugar and 36,000 gallons of molasses. Thos. Way, 75 slaves; 35 field hands; 350 arpens of cane, 280 rolled, made 350 hogsheads of sugar and 700 barrels of molasses. Col. Manning, on one of his places, rolled 75 acres, and made 140 hogsheads.’ On Bayou La Fourche: Gen. Martin; 87 field hands; rolled 256 arpens, and made 335 hogsheads. ar 60 ies 946 STAPLE SOUTHERN OROPS. [Cuar. XIV. NNN ee eee eee J. W. Tucker, 115 slaves; 80 field hands; rolled 500 arpens, and made 540 hogsheads of sugar and 28,800 gallons of molasses. Geo. D. Davis rolled 150 arpens, and made 160 hogsheads of sugar, which was nine hogsheads to the hand, but expects to average twelve. Jas. Tucker, 130 slaves; 70 field hands; rolled 300 arpens, and made 230 hogsheads. A. McCollum, 42 slaves; 24 field hands; rolled 120 arpens, and made 153 hhds. one year, and next year 131 arpens, and made 174 hhds. His opin- ion is, from careful observation, that the sugar crop of Louisiana averages per annum about four hogsheads per hand. A sugar-house to make eight hogsheads a day, cost $5,000; has a steam-engine of 11 inch cylinder, 32 ft. stroke, driving three iron rollers 4 ft. long, 2 ft. 2 in. in diameter. Four kettles of 44 to 66 inches across, are not sufficient to boil all the juice that the engine and mill can make. Plantation expenses, $4,800 last year; but sold besides the sugar crop, $3,300 worth of lumber and 300 cords of wood, at $2 a cord. . J. N. Tanner, on Terrebonne, 60 field hands; rolled 300 arpens, and made 260 hhds. one year, and 460 the next. Doct. Beatty, 92 slaves; 50 field hands; 500 arpens in cane; rolled 270, and made 200 hhds. Some land yielded 800 lbs. and some 1,300 tbs of sugar per arpent. Mr. Potts, 60 slaves; 30 field hands; rolled 150 arpens, and made 1481 hhds. ; and next year 150 arpens, made 150 hhds. and molasses, 25 gallons to the hogshead. Other plantations on the Mississippi, above Bayou La Fourche, show the fair average production of the sugar lands of the State. Henry McCall, 200 slaves; 100 field hands; 637 arpens of cane; 510 rolled, made 1,015 hhds. of sugar and usual quantity of molasses, which does not vary much from an average of 60 gallons per hogshead of sugar. J. I. Thompson (91 miles above New Orleans), 180 slaves; 100 field hands ; made one year 640, and next year 660 hhds. from 450 arpens. Doct. Stone, 86 slaves ; 50 field hands; rolled 220 arpens, and made 342 hhds., and next year from the same number of arpens made 387 hhds. and 80 gallons of molasses to the hogshead. His average in former years from about the same area of land has been 450 hhds. The average yield of corn is 18 to 20 bushels an acre. Daniel Hickey, 52 slaves ; 28 field hands; 180 arpens rolled; made 300 hhds., and last year the same quantity from 160 arpens, besides making more corn than was needed. Robert Richard, with 23 hands, and 18 extra in the rolling season, made 228 hhds. from 200 arpens one year, 310 another, and 210 another year. The next two places are below Baton Rouge, on that side of the river ; the first being one of the oldest American plantations in the State, owned by Col. Hickey, 80 slaves; 35 field hands; 240 arpens, made 264 hhds. ; next | Szo. 57.] MAKING PLANTATION REFINED SUGAR. 947 year 250 arpens made only 143 hhds. Has made sugar 35 years, and cotton 25 years before, on the same land. F. D. Conrad, 200 slaves; 80 field hands; 375 arpens, made 587 hhds. The year before made 410 and lost 100 lhhds. by breaking the mill. On the new land of this place corn averages 30 bushels per acre, and old land about half as much. On this, and other plantations, where the proportion of molasses is not given, it may be estimated at 60 to 80 gallons to the hogs- head of sugar. Judge Chinn, above Baton Rouge, made 595 hhds. of sugar, and had 12,000 measured gallons and 39,000 gallons calculated by weight, at12 lbs. per gallon. This gives over 94 gallons of molasses to each hogshead of sugar. Another place east of Baton Rouge, and away from the river, 100 acres of cane gave 130 hhds. of sugar and 11,900 gallons of mo- lasses, which is nearly 85 gallons to the hogshead. 1096. Average Vield of Sugar per Acre.—The average yield of sugar upon the above-named plantationsupon 6,835 arpens of cane rolled, is one and four tenths hogsheads per arpent. Reducing the arpens to acres, it makes 5,792 acres, and the average yield 1,%3, hhds. per acre. If we estimate an average yield of 70 gallons of molasses to the hogshead, it gives 115} gal- lons to the acre, to be added to the sugar as the salable crop of an acre. 1097. Average Yield of Sugar per Hand.—The average yield of sugar to each field hand employed upon the above plantations, appears to be about six and three fourths hogsheads, and at the estimate of 70 gallons per hogshead, 4721 gallons of molasses per hand. Counting the sugar at five cents a pound, 6,750 lbs. at 5 cents is $887 50, and molasses at 18 cents a gallon, 4721 gallons, $85 05, making a total cash value of the products per hand, $422 55 per annum. 1098. Making Plantation Refined Sugar.—Upon a considerable number of the sugar plantations of Louisiana ‘refined sugar is made directly from the cane. This we found the case upon the plantation of J. P. Benjamin, who averaged the year we were there, 300 lbs. of first quality refined sugar from 400 arpens of cane, which was considered only about one half the capacity of the place, which had 140 slaves, 80 of whom were field hands, and eight white men, mostly Germans, were employed in the refinery. The juice of the cane is boiled in vacuum, that is, in closed boilers, heated by steam, and a charge makes from three to four thousand pounds of sugar. The molasses that drains off is re-boiled, and partly granulated, and drained again, and the molasses boiled a second time, making a poor quality of sugar, but still leav- ing a portion of molasses that will not granulate, estimated to average ten gallons to every thousand pounds of refined sugar. There are a good many plantations that boil the juice in vacuum, making a grade of sugar mueh like what is known generally as “ coffee crushed,” not carrying the refinery process any further. Others, like Mr. Benjamin, go through all the pro- cesses known to the best sugar refiners. On the west bank of the river, above New Orleans, we visited the plantation of a Monsieur Lapice, who worked 120 field hands, and had 750 arpens in cane, all of which he manu- 948 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuar. XIV. renee eee are factured into refined sugar, making from a million to a million and a half pounds annually. His sugar-house and refining apparatus’are very extensive and costly. He estimated the value of the plantation, which covered some 1,700 arpens of cleared land and 2,000 arpens uncleared, and 220 slaves and other stock, at half a million of dollars. The annual consumption of corn upon this place is 18,000 bushels. SECTION LVIIIL—RICE—ITS CULTIVATION, PRODUCTION, AND PREP- ARATION FOR MARKET. E do not speak of rice because we suppose its mode 7 of culture will be practically beneficial to Northern farmers, nor because those who grow it will greatly benefit by our statements, but ea cause it is one of the great Southern staple crops, and therefore all facts connected with its production should be his- torically interesting to all agricultural readers, though they never expect to grow this grain as a farm crop. The facts which we give in this section are such as could not be obtained at the time of this writing—January 1, 1863; for they were gathered by personal intercourse with some of the great rice planters of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, at a time when a Northern man was not looked upon as a bitter enemy; and they are now interesting to Northern farmers, just as their mode of cultivation is to Southern planters. 1099. Rice—Where and How Grown.—Rice is grown in nearly all tropical climates, and is supposed by some to be a tropical, sub-aqueous plant. This is an error in both particulars. © It not only g grows a fair crop upon dry land, but is also a valuable one to cultivate in temperate climates, quite as far north as cotton ; though where it is grown as a crop, as it is along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and other States, land is usually selected that can be flooded with fresh water, partly because such land will grow rice, and would not grow any other valuable crop, and partly because, by the overflow of the land-in flood-time in the rivers, it is kept continually manured. The preparation of some of these lowland rice fields is very laborious. The swamp is divided into small compartments, say twenty acres in a square, surrounded by a main ditch, and subdivided by smaller ones. Some of the main ditches are boatable canals, two or three miles in length, in a straight line from the river to the high land. Each plantation is sur- younded with a strong embankment, high enough to keep out floods, and Seo. 58.] STATISTICS OF RICE PLANTATIONS. 949 RRA AAA each compartment is embanked so that it can be flooded without interfering with the adjoining one. The most favorably situated plantations are upon rivers so near the sea that the tide raises the water high enough for flooding the fields, and yet so far up the stream that the water will not be salt. Sometimes the lowland planters suffer very severely in consequence of streams being so low that the salt water sets back above their rice fields just when they want the water the most. Rice was introduced into Virginia by Sir William Berkley, in 1647, and into South Carolina in 1694; and in 1698 sixty tuns were shipped to England, doubtless in the rough state, in which condition it is called “paddy.” Upland, or mountain rice, was introduced into South Carolina in 1772, and is still profitably cultivated, as we know it has given sixty bushels per acre. The cultivation of rice in Louisiana commenced in 1718, but it has never been carried to such an extent as with some of the great rice planters of South Carolina and Georgia. Along the Mississippi the rice fields are watered from the floods of the river, which rise higher than the level of the land. This is extremely convenient, but not always reliable. When the flood continues to increase from the first of February to the first of June, and then gradually subsides, the rice planters can use the water to advantage ; but objections are made to tapping the levee, on account of risk of a crevasse, and because adjoining planters who grow cane are sometimes injured, as the water of the river fills up the swamps in the rear, and hinders the drainage of dry lands. 1100. Statistics of Rice Plantations.—These we propose to-give as we have cotton and sugar, and commence with that of ex-Governor Wm. Aikin, a celebrity in South Carolina history, and a large rice planter upon the island of Johasset, adjoining Edisto, some 25 miles south of Charleston. Our visit to this island was in 1850; it had then been owned by the Governor about twenty years, and had 700 slaves engaged in rice cultivation. The island contains 3,300 acres, 1,500 of them in rice; 500 in corn, oats, and potatoes; and per- haps 200 or 300 in yards, lots, roads, and pasture ground, and the remainder in swamp, or tide-water marsh. Gov. Aikin valued the island as follows: Rice land, $100 an acre; upland, $25 an acre; swamp, nothing. The upland is very sandy, and when planted in corn, two stalks in a hill, four by five teet, it yields about fifteen bushels an acre, if well manured. In sweet potatoes, it yields 200 bushels, and the swamp land, when dry enough, sometimes yields 400 bushels. Within a few years past, part of the work upon this place has been done by plows; and steam-driven thrashing and winnowing machines have been substituted for hand labor. The fuel used for the engine is rice straw. The hulling is done by a tide mill. The rice ground is laid off in compartments of twenty to forty acres, and is mostly cultivated by that great, awkward, heavy, square tool, with a handle six feet long and one and a half to two inches diameter, known as the “nigger hoe,” which is the tool in almost universal use in all slav@ States. In preparing rice lands, the stubble is burnt off, or hoed under, during the winter, and the land hoed up pe 950 STAPLE SOUTHERN OROPS. [Cuap. XIV. in beds in March, and the seed sown about the twentieth of that month, at the rate of three bushels per acre. The ditches, which serve to irrigate and also to drain the water from the rice, are all laid off upon this place exactly thirty-five feet apart, and all the plots being of a given size facili- tates the evenness of sowing the seed by the negroes. Many of the canals are boatable, and are used to bring the crop to the thrasher and take the grain to the hulling-mill. From thence it is put directly on board the Gov- ernor’s vessels and sent to market. The average crop is 1,500 to 1,800 casks of 600 Ibs. each. The average sales for some years had amounted to $25,000, and the annual expenses to $10,000—$2,000 of it to the overseer. The pro- visions of the negroes are generally made on the place, and consist of corn, rice, and sweet potatoes, with an occasional taste of meat-soup. During the potato season, the weekly rations are half a bushel of sweet potatoes; at other times, six quarts of meal or broken rice. All the negroes work by task, and in the time thus gained, reclaim portions of the swamp, upon which they produce little crops on their own account, the master giving fifty cents a bushel for their paddy—the name of rough rice before being hulled. In cultivation of the great rice crop, each hand is allotted five acres; and one field that we took note of, eighty acres yielded 5,100 bushels, averaging 46 lbs. per bushel, and this made 229 casks of whole or “ merchantable” rice ; and two casks of broken rice, called “ middlings;” and two and a half easks of “small (broken) rice.” The team force upon this plantation is usually forty horses and mules, and twenty oxen, but neither brute nor hu- man force is always worked to the best advantage, notwithstanding the owner is one of the most intelligent, progressive planters in the State. This we judged from seeing two hundred able-bodied men and women in one gang, repairing a breach in an embankment, by carrying dirt half a mile, in baskets, wooden trays, and boxes, on their heads, each load containing about apeck of dirt. , About forty miles by water, up Cooper River, we visited the rice planta- tion of Col. Carson (since dead), who owned 3,300 acres of land, one third of it in cultivation ; the other portion, part swamp and part © piny woods,” not worth cultivating. He owned 220 slaves, 120 of whom rated as hands, and included carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, millers, ete. His crop was 650 acres of rice; 90 acres of sweet potatoes; 26 acres of oats ; 180 acres of corn; the whole entirely cultivated by hoes, and with the exception of boating part of the crop, everything was moved by hands and heads. The thrashing was done on the ground by sticks, not flails, and the winnowing in the free air of heaven, until recently when a steam mill was erected for the purpose. The negroes, however, still pursue the ancient way with their own crops; and we saw more than a hundred thus employed one Sunday around the thrashing-floor. They also hull their rice by the plan once uni- versal, that is, in great wooden mortars, where the rice is beaten by hand with a pestle, until the hull separates from the white grain. The general crop of the plantation is hulled in a large tide-water mill. Corn is planted = Szo. 58.] RICE PLANTATIONS. 951 from March 20 to April 20, and is ripe in August, and harvested in October, and yields 15 bushels an acre. Oats average 20 bushels an acre. Sweet po- tatoes are planted, say 20 acres of roots, from March 15 to April 15, and 70 acres of slips, some of them as late as July. The average yield is 100 bushels an acre. From October Ist to February Ist, the slaves are fed exclusively upon potatoes ; afterward a peck of corn, or a peck of broken rice a week is given. Col. Carson said he never gave meat rations—did not believe in it, and thought his people would not eat bacon if given to them. They were re- quired to pound their corn for meal, because “it keeps them out of mischief.” The rice erop is planted about March 20, six acres to the hand, and the largest crop ever made was 45,000 bushels, averaging 45 lbs. per bushel. Rice weighing 48 lbs. per bushel is considered very heavy. The average per acre among Cooper River rice planters, take one year with another, Col. Carson estimated at 50 bushels. Twenty bushels of good rice will make a cask of hulled rice, wt. 600 lbs., and 2} per cent. of broken rice, besides a quantity of meal which is good pig feed. His best crop was 90 bushels per acre, and his average yield per hand six casks and three quarters, or, say, 4,000 Ibs. of marketable rice, worth about three cents a pound. All the food is made on the plantation, and the cash expenses only about $5,000 a year, includ- ing $1,000 for overseer, and $300 for engineer. In preparing rice land for a crop, three hands will turn an acre a day. The ditches on this place are 75 to 100 ft. apart, and most of the ground was made at an immense labor out of timbered swamp. It is flooded by the tide, but some of the planta- tions on Cooper River have fresh-water reservoirs. Thos. D. Mears, of Wilmington, N. C., had a rice plantation on the Cape Fear River, where the tide averages about five feet, giving a good overflow to some 3,000 acres of rice land in the vicinity of Wilmington, which pro- duces some 150,000 bushels of rice a year, of superior quality. Mr. Mears’ average was 55 bushels per acre, upon 250 acres, worked by forty hands, who do all the work with hoes. The average crop on the river is 50 bushels, and average price eighty cents a bushel for paddy. Hands average five or six acres each, besides making a provision crop. Mr. Mears’ father made one year an average of 113 bushels an acre upon a flat of eleven acres. 1101. Flooding Rice Land.—As soon as any one of the inclosed plots of a plantation is seeded, the water is let on so as to just cover the surface, and kept on till the grain is sprouted, and then it is drawn off till the plants shoot the fourth leaf, and then the hoes are put to work weeding, if the weather is dry, and the water is kept off till the second weeding, or else it is flooded and kept on fifteen or twenty days, which kills a great portion of the weeds. Then the water is drawn off and the crop cleaned, when it is flooded again, and the height of water regulated day after day, so that the plants just keep their heads out of water. A crevasse, or low flow of fresh water, or high salt tides, are equally fatal to the crop. Watchmen are kept day and night on the embankments, to guard against accidents. It is a crop that an enemy might easily destroy. A single gun-boat could ruin a mill- 952 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuar. XIV. ion of dollars’ worth of rice in the run of one night on a river lined with rice plantations. The rice crop ripens the latter part of August, when the water is drawn off, and the grain cut with sickles, bound into sheaves, and “toted” to the canals, or out upon dry land and stacked. Some years, the state of the weather is such that little or no hoeing can be done to the crop. Water is then the sole dependence. Upon “ Rice Hope” plantation, above Col. Carson’s, a crop of 90 bushels an acre was made one year upon 15 acres, ‘never touched with hoes afier planting. That plantation has fresh-water reservoirs, but the water is not as enriching as flooding from the river. These ponds cover 100 acres, to water 260 acres of rice land. But this is considered no loss, as none but rice land, and just enough upland for corn and potatoes is valued, no matter what the area of the plantation. 1102. How Rice is Hulled—There is no grain, not even oats and buck- wheat, that has such an uneatable appearance as rice. The delicious white grain that comes to us is inclosed in a hard, rigid husk, composed in great part of silex, so sharp that it would wear out the teeth of an ox in a short time: To remove this husk without spoiling the grain is a difficulty that ingenuity has overcome. The first process was rubbing between two stones, and then pounding in a wooden mortar; a process that commerce could not wait upon. The principle is still the same, but improved by machinery. The paddy is first run through a fanning-mill; then through a three-way separator, the screens of which take the largest rice to one place and smallest light rice to another, and the sand to a third; then through a burr- stone-mill, set so the grain is rubbed and most of the hulls separated ; then it is elevated and passed again through a fanning-mill that winnows out the loose hulls. Then it is carried to a screen that separates the hulled grains from the others, which have to pass again through the mill. The hulled grain now has a rough, dirty appearance, and if eaten in that state would have a slightly gritty taste. It is not in a merchantable condition. To make it so it is carried to a set of mortars, ten or twelve in a row, each hold- ing five bushels, where it is operated upon two hours by a large wooden pestle that is lifted up by cogs on a wheel and allowed to drop its weight into the mass, giving a rubbing motion that separates the pellicle, and mashes all the soft, defective grains, and those that were not hulled by the stones, making them into “rice meal.” Then it is again elevated to a screen that separates all the whole grains from the broken ones and meal. The broken rice and meal are carried to a fanning-mill that separates them—the broken grains being good food, and worth half price. The whole grains are carried to another machine where all the dust is brushed off, and the grains polished by rubbers. It goes once more to the fan and screen, and all that comes down in the right place is ready for packing, and all that goes over is sent back to the mortars. 1103. The Product of Clean Rice from Paddy.—The proportion of salable rice in a given quantity of paddy may be seen from the following statement of a crop sent from ‘* Rice Hope” to Charleston, to be hulled on account of - yest a0 AsahTe. k ae eR io ae ~ pnp et i age eater are sei oF 4 ghia tise figlieeighas disende rvgitoan ‘ ah i PLATE XXII. (Page 953.) A GREAT many readers of this book have never, probably, had an opportunity to see the plant here so perfectly represented in a grow- ing state. To all it is worthy of attention as a matter of curiosity and information. To those about to embark in the business of to- bacco culture, it is valuable, because it illustrates so beautifully what we have said in the section treating upon this subject. Here he will see the plant in all of its different stages of growth, from the small bunch of leaves when taken from the seed-bed to the perfect plant beginning to bud and ready to top, after which it will begin to throw out suckers, as seen upon the opposite corner. _ The full- grown plant in the center shows how it looks when permitted to bear seed. The section of one of the poles, or lath-strips, from the curing-house shows how the bands are fastened, as we have describ- ed, one upon each side, connected by twine. The tobacco curing-house should have been called a shed, as the curing-house, or barn, is made with close sides; but this for an illus- tration of the mode of curing, gives a better view, and in a dry climate is preferable to the building with closed sides and windows, as the tobacco requires a great deal of dry air to cure without in- jury. — Tee VOBACCO PLANT. XXII SHOWING I'TS DIFFERENT STAGES.AND THE PROCESS OF CURING pping Line. — Se ™ e ; i pe The Plant with suckers J po | The Plant ready forTopping ea eas “4 The Plant Set and growing LN oss SSR AT F The Plant and Ragt? growing The Plant Strung for Curing . TOBACCO CURING HOUSE l 3 Szo. 59.] ; TOBACCO CULTIVATION. 953 the planter: “2,159 bushels, average 45 lbs—97,155 lbs. made 54,222 Ibs. of whole ricé, which sold at three cents a pound, which, with casks 50 cents each, made $1,671 16. One cask of middling 628 lbs. at 12 cents, $10 70; also one cask 620 lbs., not sold, say, $10 605; four casks of small rice, say, $30 00; 202 bushels of rice meal, say, $101 00. Making a total of $1,823 46. And deducting $305 34 for milling, leaves $1,518 12, net pro- ceeds of 2,159 bushels. It is readily seen from what we have said, that it requires a large capital to establish a rice plantation, and a good deal of hard work to keep it in order; butyso long as the work can be done by slave labor, and produces such a paying crop, the business will be continued. .1104. Statistics of the Exportation of Rice.—By these we learn the rate of increase of rice cultivation in this country. We find that the exports from Charleston, S. C., 1724, are given at 18,000 barrels. We take it that the term barrels means tierces, for the tierces of the present day, which contain 600 Ibs. each, are called barrels. In 1740 the exports from Charleston, 90,110 “ barrels.” In 1760, 100,000 “ barrels.” From Savannah, in 1760, 3,285 “barrels.” The total amount of rice exported from this country in 1770 was 150,529 “barrels.” In 1800, the exports are given at 122,056 “ tierces;” in 1820, 88,221 tierces; in 1840, 101,617 tierces; in 1852, 67,707 tierces. The highest export any year up to the present time, 212,983 tierees. The smallest export since the commencement of the present cen- tury will probably be in 1861-2. SECTION LIX—TOBACCO—ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION, AND PROFITS OF PRODUCTION. OBACCO may be said to be the parent of American slavery ; but great as is that evil, it is not the greatest connected with its production. That is connected with the slavery to its use. We have ranked it y among the staple crops of the South, because there its culiivation originated, and there is where slaves were im- ported to increase its production, which they did to the ruin of the soil; for it is certainly true that it is a farm produc- tion that has destroyed the value of more land than all others put together. We say nothing of health and intel- ; lect destroyed by its use, as our present province is fo give ae, && facts about tobacco cultivation; but first some facts of its his- : tory may be interesting. 1105. Tobaceo History—The chemical composition of the plant is very remarkable, and worthy of serious study by present and prospective growers. 9o4 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. *(Cuap. XIV. Nicotin, the deadly principle to which all the ill effects of tobacco are due, is, as every one knows, a deadly poison. Besides this, the plant contains a number of acids, resins, and volatile oils. The name of WVicotin, which is applied to this plant, comes from John Nicot, embassador from France to Portugal, in 1560, who introduced the abominable weed into Europe. So says Torrey. Its original name in St. Domingo appears to have been ehobala, or choba, and also givia. The name tobacco is supposed to be derived from the name of a place in Yucatan, called Tasaco. Others say it comes from Tozasco, in the Gulf of Florida. Others say it was from Toxsaao, one of the Caribbees. It is not important what place gave it the name, since it has no historical nor botanical meaning. It is historical that it is an American pro- duction, used by savages, from the earliest period of our knowledge of them, as a means of producing intoxication. Columbus found the inhabitants of Cuba using tobacco in 1492. It is spoken of four years later as used in St. Domingo. It was found in use in Virginia in 1585, the natives smoking it in clay pipes, just as white men do in 1862. It was carried to England by Sir Walter Raleigh, and people became so fascinated by its use that a great demand was created, which induced the early settlers to cultivate it to an alarming extent, and its use increased in spite of all the ‘‘ Counterblasts” of James I. against the ‘damning, wicked practice ;” and so, we suppose, it will, in spite of all the blasts that we can fulminate. The price was a great inducement to the settlers upon James River to in- erease the cultivation. In 1617 it is given at 37 to 75 cents a pound. Still that was not sufficient to produce all that the managers of the colony de- sired; for we find, in 1621, that each colonist was required to cultivate a thousand plants, averaging eight leaves to the pound, which would make 100 Ibs. of the cured leaf. In 1622 the quantity made is given at 60,000 Ibs. In 1639 the production had got ahead of the demand, so that the price was likely to fall so low as to stop tobacco-growing. To obviate this, the strong arm of law was made to intervene and stop the excess of production, so that the entire crop should not exceed 120,000 pounds. All excess of that was ordered burned, in equal proportions among the planters, and creditors were ordered to accept 40 pounds for every 100 pounds due. Rather “com- pulsory legislation” that would be considered in our day. But neither that nor all the edicts of those in power have had any effect to stop the consump- tion of tobacco, and therefore it will continue to be produced. The quantity consumed in England in 1829 was 15,000,000 pounds. In 1840 it was 40,000,000 pounds. 1106. Exports and Consumption of Tobacco.—The value of tobacco ex- ported from the United States in 1848 is given at $7,551,122. The value of exportations has been largely increased with the last ten years, mostly to European states, where the use of tobacco is made a source of revenue; and as it is an article not at all necessary for the comfort of any human being, it is a very proper subject for taxation. The following is a statement of the consumption and tax per capita in different countries: “The average con- . \ + Sgro. 59.] EXFORTS AND CONSUMPTION OF TOBACCO. 955 stmption in Austria was 6.75 lbs.; tax, 26 cents per head. France, 5.50 Ibs. ; tax, 43 cents per head. Russia, 2.50 lbs. ; tax, 21 cents per head. Portugal, 3.50 Ibs.; tax, 46 cents per head. Spain, 4.75 lbs.; tax, 48 cents per head. Papal States, 2 lbs.; tax, 50 cents per head. England, 1.10 Ibs.; tax, 78 cents per head. Belgium, 9 lbs.; tax, 3} cents per head. Sardinia, 2.75 Ibs. ; tax, 27 cents per head. Tolland, 8.25 lbs.; tax, 1 cent per head.” It has been estimated that the average annual consumption of tobacco in the United States is 7,°; lbs. per head for each male inhabitant over eighteen years of age. At an average cost of only forty cents a pound, it makes an expense of over three dollars a head. It would not be unfair to make these con- sumers pay a war tax of ten per cent. on the cost. When it is considered that tobacco is a narcotic poison, and that its use is universally baneful to health, it is surprising that its consumption should increase in an age that is declared to be rising in the scale of intelligence and refinement. There is no disputing this fact, that the use of tobacco not only belongs to an wnezvil- ized race, but that its use has a debasing effect upon civilization. The enor- mous cost of its consumption is perfectly startling to the political economist. The Dean of Carlisle gave the consumption of England, in 1856, at thirty- three millions of pounds, costing £8,000,000, besides what was smuggled, which he supposed a very large quantity. Statistics show there, as every- where else, a steady increase far outstripping the proportional increase of population. In 1821, the average consumption per head per annum was 11.70 oz. In 1851 it had risen to 16.36, and in 1853 to 19 oz., or at the rate of one fourth increase in ten years. There are 12 city brokers in London whose business is exclusively the sale of tobacco, 90 manufacturers, with 7,380 workmen engaged in the different branches of the business. In the whole United Kingdom there are no less than 252,068 tobacco shops. The Dean estimated the increased consumption in other portions of Europe greater than in England, notwithstanding the great cost. In France this is enormous—equal to one thousand per cent. upon the American price, and is an imperial monopoly, which, it is said, yields $20,000,000 annually. Being a government monopoly, the quantity consumed is-easily ascertained. Thus, the Genie Industriel, a French paper, says: “In 1830 the value of tobacco consumed was $13,000,000; in 1840 the value was $19,000,000; in 1850 it was $24,000,000; in 1857 it was $35,000,000. Taking the average at only $24,000,000 a year, it gives a total for the 27 years of $675,000,000. We give the account as we find it, but it seems almost incredible that such a sum of money could be by any one nation puffed away in smoke, or consumed in the still viler practice of tobacco-chewing. Hamburg, a German city of 150,000 inhabitants, consumes 40,000 cigars a day, and employs 10,000 per- sons in the manufacture of 150,000,000 of cigars a year, requiring a capital of $20,000,000. The consumption of other European states is estimated upon the same grand scale. In Denmark, 70 ounces annually for each per- son; in Belgium, 34 Ibs. each; while in America the consumption is esti- mated by some writers as greater than in any portion of Europe, and the | 956 STAPLE SOUTHERN CROPS. [Cuar. XIY. entire annual consumption of the world at 4,480,000,000 pounds, or as mu@h in weight as all the grain consumed by 10,000,000 of Englishmen, and equal in value to all bread material consumed in Great Britain. Five millions and a half of acres are occupied in its growth, the product of which, at but the moderate sum of twopence per pound, would amount to the vast sum of £37,000,000 sterling, or nearly $185,000,000.” 1107. Exhausting Nature of a Tobacco Crop—tThe strength of tobacco is determined by the quantity of nicotin; the flavor, by the oils and resins. The ash is of all the most important to the farmer, for this is made up from his available plant food—in other words, from his farm capital. The oils, resins, and acids come from the air, and hence cost us nothing. Take a given quantity of tobacco and burn it to ashes, and we find that the propor- tion is enormous. The roots give 2 to 14 per cent. of ash, the stems dried, 16, and the leaves 17 to 24 per cent. As the leaves are the great bulk of the crop, the robbery of the soil is correspondingly great. One thousand pounds of tobacco take an average of 200 pounds of ash; and 2,000 pounds, which may be regarded as a large crop, 400 pounds of ash. Now, a crop of wheat of 30 bushels to the acre , takes but 386 pounds of ash from our farm. In other words, it would require eleven crops of wheat to do as much injury as a single crop of tobacco. The composition of the ash is variable, in some districts. one of the leading ingredients being replaced-by some other. In an average of samples tested by Prof. Brewer, potash salts formed a third part of their weight, and 75 to 80 per cent. of the soluble portion. Soda exists in but a small quantity. Sometimes the potash is replaced by lime. Thus in France, along the river Garonne, the tobacco has this peculiarity, and is noted for its mildness. In American tobacco, the potash salts pre- dominate, and most in the stronger kinds, which grow on new soil. 240 7) 283 °° 921 9s AB ial ie See "109 2 115 |) 148 "** 150°! 156 2) 163 "965 .”/ 380 |. 891 L221 281 |) 808 2. 335 55... 60.. 63 i hd lagibietomateag 20/) 28.) 85 Pe yee See Stallion. . SS ameMa19898% od no a orb ee Orie ce afs's Doe-Rabbit . ...-6 months.... Buck-Rabbit Bid ssssss OOO en ore 0100 © Seo. 61.] WHITE BEANS. 1001 1164. The Cultivation of White Beans as a Field Crop.—lt is often said of a man, “ He don’t know beans.” If it was said he don’t know how to grow them, the assertion would be often true. We do not know that we do, but we do know how to cure them. Here it is. 1165. How to Cure White Beans.——There is no crop that gives more trouble to the farmer in curing than beans, which from being late planted because grown among corn and from the shade, are often as green as ever at the time they must be harvested. With a good deal of trouble in hanging the vines on the corn, they will cure if the weather is propitious. Then they must be handled again and the whole carried by hand out one side of the field. Sometimes they are carried out in the first place and spread on fences, head lands, or green sward, to get them out of the way of cutting up the eorn. ‘This is hard work, and often proves labor lost, for if the season proves wet, the green vines will not cure, and the dry buds are often molded and beans blackened by the attempt to dry the vines. Now, if planted alone, there need be but one handling after pulling, and that will be to put them on the wagon, cured in the most perfect manner. We aflirm that there is no crop grown that can be cured easier than white beans, no matter how green the vines when pulled. To do this, take some stakes about five feet long—old garden bean-poles will do—and go through the field and set as close together as your present experience will tell you is necessary. Place any old trash, such as coarse weeds, sticks, sods, or stones around the bottom of the poles to form a raised bed as you would for a hay-stack bottom, and then pull your beans and stack them in a single course around the stake, the roots inward, and dryest vines at the bottom and a tangled bunch at the top to hold the stack to its pole, and your beans will cure and look clean and bright, and the leaves and pods will be eaten with great avidity by the sheep. There is no other inexpensive way to cure field beans. 1166. Suitable Soil for White Beans.—There is no crop that will produce so well as white beans upon a thin gravelly knoll. We have seen twenty bushels of beans per acre upon land that would not produce twenty bushels of corn, if stalks and all were measured. They do not produce well upon rich soil, running too much to vines. 1167. Growing Beans among Corn.—We are opposed to planting beans with corn, except solely to fill up vacant spots, because we do not think there is anything gained by planting the two crops together. The practice orig- inated in early times, when cleared land was scarce, and when the soil was rich, and when it was an object to get as much food off one acre as possi- ble, because the owner had no other ground that he could use; and so the practice has come down to the present day, each generation following it be- cause “father did so,” without even inquiring why. In our opinion the most advantageous course to pursue for a profitable bean crop, is to plant the seed upon land that it would not be profitable to use for Indian corn, making the rows in drills about twenty inches apart, and manuring them with fine compost to give them an early start and vigor while young, rather 1002 THE GLEANINGS OF THE FIELD. [Cuapr. XV. sarees sade a pi a pee ted MMe acca than a large growth of vines, which they get among corn. Beans must never be worked while wet with rain or dew, and that is a good reason for keeping them away from corn, for that may be worked to good advantage when dripping wet. The only advantage, besides the two crops upon one surface, that we ever heard contended for by planters of beans among corn, is the convenience of curing the vines upon the cornstalks. 1168. Hop Culture.—The hop is a hardy perennial, of easy cultivation, and will grow in any part of the Union. It requires a deep, rich, mellow soil, with a dry, porous, or rocky sub-soil. The exposure in a northern climate should be toward the south, as on the slope of a hill, or in any well-shelfered valley. It may be propagated by seeds or by divisions of the roots; but it is more usual to plant the young shoots which rise from the bottoms of the stems of old plants. These are laid down in the earth till they strike, when they are cut off and planted in a nursery-bed. Care must be taken to have only one sort of hops in one plot, that they may all ripen at the same time. The ground having been prepared for planting, it is divided by parallel lines six feet apart, and short sticks are inserted into the ground, along the lines, seven feet distant from each other, and so as to alternate in the rows, as is frequently done with fruit-trees and other plants, in what is called the quin- eunx form. By this method, every plant will be seven feet from each of its neighbors, although the rows will be only six feet apart, and thus one eighth of ground will be saved. Fresh dung should never be applied to hops. A watering with liquid manure will greatly assist their taking root. During their growth the ground should be well hoed, and some of the fine mold thrown up around the roots. Any good corn ground will produce hops. The roots are usually planted in corn land and grow with the corn the first year. They produce the second year $300 to $400 per acre at 85 cents per pound. Liberal applications of manure are needed, and they do not affect the quality of product, as is the case with tobacco. Besides farm-yard dung, wool, hair, bones, plaster, lime, and ashes are all useful fertilizers. In England, the Kent and Sussex hop-growers calculate upon spending about $50 per acre for special manures, in addition to what of the ordinary kind they make on the farm. With such care, they have hop plantations 300 years old. The ground must be trenched and worked deeply. About 1,200 hills is the proper number per acre, and for each 200 hills there should be one hill of malé plants. When picked, the hops should be at once dried, and this is better done by passing a current of hot air over them than in placing them in a room where they get only the radiated heat from a stove. 1169. What Constitutes the Value of Hops.—The yellow powder of the flow- ers contains all the value of hops. It is not in the leaves; they are good for nothing. If the powder, dupulin, was separated from hops and put up in soldered cans, there would be no need of transporting the bulky material of hop bales. Liebig recommends exposing hops to the fumes of sulphur, as thus the dwpulin, or active principle, may be preserved from one season oanother. The practice isopposed by some, but adopted by many of the [eee ec adelialibmrbaia oie ——s~ Seo. 61.] TEASELS AS A CROP. 1003 SRR ec Fa a EO OO best Munich brewers. The hop crop varies from year to year to such an extent that the price is very fluctuating, and even in a single season or a month may make a difference of 100 per cent. 1170. Growing Heps without Poles.—The great expense in preparing a hop- yard isa good set of poles. To avoid this, posts have been set and wires drawn across the yard, and vines trained up on strings fastened to a stake at the hill, and to the wire at top. In France, a hop-grower has discovered that he can train his hop vines horizontal to a low trellis. The French Acad- emy recommend this plan because it enables the grower to investigate the plant wile growing, and cleanse it from the numerous insects which injure it to so vast an extent; then it is protected from the sun, which always destroys the upper shoots; it obviates the great destruction of hops in stormy weather, when the wind lays low whole hop-grounds from the hight of the poles; and most of all, it enables the gathering of the cones to take place without uprooting the plant, besides permitting the selection of the ripest ones at first, and preventing the great loss which arises from the necessity of tearing down the whole plant to get at the ripest blossoms. 1171. Teasels as a Crop.—tIt is worth while for farmers to consider whether teasels as a crop are not worthy of more attention. We have seen it stated that a fair average crop is 200,000 burs per acre, and we think a fair average price is $1 50 a thousand. Their cultivation is nota new thing in this country, though but Kittle attended to. Nor is it difficult. A Mr. Wells (N. L., we think), of East Windsor, Conn., has grown them many years, and found them profitable. The most suitable soil is a rich clayey loam, of rather a moist nature, such as would produce two tuns of hay per acre. The best preparation is to grow potatoes upon the turned sod without manure; the next spring manure heavily, plow eight inches deep, pulverize the soil thor- oughly with a cultivator, and then level smooth with a bush-drag. The seed, after soaking one night, is rolled in plaster, and dropped by hand in shallow drill marks, thirty inches apart. It should be sowed very thick, sometimes half a bushel per acre, as it vegetates badly. Like cotton or broom-corn, if too thick it is “thinned to a stand.” The time of planting is when the ground is in good order, about the first of June. Do not cover the seed more than half an inch deep with fine earth, but press it hard with “a spatter,” made of a plank, with a convenient handle. In about two weeks the rows can be seen, when a hand or horse hoe must be put to work. At the second hoeing the plants may be thinned out, leaving them four or five inches apart. The after-culture is to keep the ground absolutely clean till about the middle of November, when the plants are covered with straw, held in place by dirt, to remain till first of May, or till freezing nights are past, when the plants are uncovered and weeds kept down till the plants grow, as they soon do, to cover the ground closely. Soon after the flowers drop, the burs must be cut with stems about four inches long, and carried to the drying-house, where they are spread upon open-work shelves of slats, poles, or small rails in tiers one above another, so as to give a free circulation of 1004. THE GLEANINGS OF THE FIELD. [Cuar. XY. 2 Asa Be SRST Ra a a ne ee len a air, They may be placed a foot thick upon shelves of this sort. A good hand can cut 15,000 or 20,000 a day, but the harvest should commence by the time half the flowers in a field are off. The top burs drop their flowers first; these are called “ King,” but are not quite as good as the burs next below, which are called “ Queens.” A stalk has from four to six No. 1 teasels, and twenty to thirty, and sometimes fifty which are merchantable. The most common method of disposing of the teasel stalks is by mowing, drying, and burning on the ground. Two crops in succession generally do well, but more than that is not recommended. 1172. Prices in Connecticut a Hundred Years ago.—From a curious and in- teresting document fully published in the Zhe Homestead, at Hartford, Conn., we have extracted the prices of farm produce and slaves, as sworn to in the inventory of the estate of Captain Thomas Wheeler, of Stonington, Dee. 11, 1755—a little over one hundred years ago. Captain Wheeler was one of the largest landed proprietors in that town, and the appraisement of his estate amounts to £12,669" 9s. 5d., Connecticut currency, which, at six - shillings to the dollar and twenty shillings to the pound, gives $42,231 55, which in those days constituted him a pretty rich man. The home farm is appraised at £7,000, and the prices of the following articles are given in pounds, shillings, and pence, which we have reduced to dollars and cents— which, by way of comparison with present prices, will be interesting; as well as the fact that only a hundred years ago Cesar, Scipio, and Hagar were part and parcel of a dead man’s estate; and also the prices at which these “ chattels” were valued at that time in Connecticut. Perhaps, how- ever, the inventory of a South Carolina planter dying in 1855 will be read with just as much curiosity and wonder, as regards both the price and exist- ence of slaves, a hundred years hence, as this is of a time a hundred years past. The quotations from Col. Wheeler’s inventory are as follows : Three hundred and ninety-eight bushels of Indian corn, £40 5s. 2d.—33c. per bushel. Eight bushels wheat, 30s.—62ic. per bushel: fifteen bushels rye, 37s. 6d. —412c. per bushel. Five bushels beans, 16s. 8d.—55ic. per bushel; fifty bushels salt, £6 5s. —412c. per bushel. One and a half bushels malt, 4s. 4d.—47e. per bushel ; twenty-seven pounds tallow, 9s.—5ie. per pound. Twenty-five hundred seventy-four pounds cheese, 3d. per pound—4tec. per pound. One hundred eighty-seven pounds flax, in ye swingle, 6d. per pound— 8c. per pound. One hundred twenty-five tuns hay, 25s. a tun—$4 17 per tun. Half bushel flax seed, 1s. 3d.—42c. per bushel. Three hundred fifty feet pine boards, 17s. 3d.—$2 871; eighty squares glass, 16s. 8d.—33c. per square. His riding horse, saddle, and bridle, £16 13s. 4d.—$55 55. One old sorrel horse, £7 18s. 4d.—$26 38. One black horse, £16 13s) 4d.—$55 55. ; Sec. 61.] PRICES IN CONNECTICUT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 1005 RN er ee wee One sorrel horse, swift nose, £11 5s.—$37 50. One sorrel horse, bald face, £12 5s.—$40 85. One pied horse, £10—$33 34. One small horse, swift nose, £6 13s. 4d.—$22 21. One sorrel stone horse, two years old, £9 11s. 3d.—$31 96. One sorrel year-old horse, $4 11s. 8d.; one do., £4 11s. 8d.—$15 28— $15 28. One old sorrel mare and mare colt, £2 18s. 4d.—$9 71. One old bay mare and horse colt, £3 6s. 8d.—$11 11. One old black mare and horse colt, £8 6s. 9d.—$27 80. One black mare and white face mare colt, £8 6s. 8d.—$27 78. One large sorrel mare, white face horse colt, £14 3s. 4d.—$47 22. One old bay mare, £2 18s. 4d.; one sorrel two-year-old mare colt—old bay, $9 715 colt, $12 21. One sorrel mare, swift nose, £10 8s. 4d.—$34 71. One black mare, swift nose, £10 16s. 8d.—$36 11. One brown mare, £5 16s. 8d.—$19 42. One fat ox, £5 8s. 4d.; two speckled lean do.. £11 13s. 4d.—one fat ox, “$18 06—one pair, $38 90. Two brown pied oxen, £10 8s. 4d.—$34 72. Two brown pied oxen, £10 16s. 8d.; two red pied do., £13—$86 11, $43 34. Two white pied oxen, £8 15s.—$29 17. : One brown fat cow, £4 33s, 4d; one speckled cow, £3 3s. 4d.—$16 90, $10 55. Twenty-three fat cattle, at £2 18s. 4d. per head—-$9 72. One bull, £2 18s. 4d.; thirty-two cows, £86 8s. 4d.—$223 61. Twenty-tive two-year-old cattle, £41 13s. 4d.—per head, $5 51—$138 90. Twenty-six one-year-old cattle, £30 6s. 8d.—per head, $3 89—$101 11. Twenty-five calves, £15 12s. 6d.—$2 08 per head; total, $52. : ; One hundred and seventy-nine store sheep, £26 2s. 1d.—48ec. per head— Si. . Five sheep rams, £1 5s.—838c. per head.—$4 17. Fifty-six fat swine, £65—$3 86 per head—$216 67. Sixty-five store swine, £14 15s.—75c. per head—$49 17. One negro man named Quash, £2 10s.—$8 34. One old negro woman named Juno, 16s. 8d.—$2 76. One negro man named Cab, £41 14s. 4d.—$139 06. One negro man named Cresar, £38 10s.—$128 34. One negro man named Cipeo, £45 16s. 8d.—$152 78. One negro woman named Hagar, £37 10s.—$125. One negro woman named Flora, £31 13s.—$105 50. One negro woman named Sarah, £40—$133 34. One negro woman named Jane, £37 10s.—$125. One negro woman named Cloe, £37 10s.—$125. One negro boy named Pharaoh, £8 8s.—$28. One negro girl named Phillis, £15—$50. One servant mulatto boy Harry, £8 6s. 8d.—$27 78. One servant mulatto girl Elizabeth, £5—$16 67. One servant Indian woman Mary, £1 13s. 4d.—$5 55. Corn is appraised at 332c.; rye, at 412c. a bushel. The price of horses, ~ || ieee Sey Se ee ee eee Ee | 1006 THE GLEANINGS OF THE FIELD. [Cuap. XV. 7 beeves, store cattle, sheep, and swine will strike every one acquainted with present prices of such stock as quite remarkable, but not more so than the - variation between the price of slaves in Connecticut in 1755 and the price of slaves in Virginia in 1855. Old Juno is valued at $2 76, which seems to be the minimum value of one of the human family, while the maximum is only $152 78—a valuation that lacks a cipher at the right hand to make it equal to the current rates usual south of that noted line of Mason and Dixon. The “mulatto girl Elizabeth” must have been very young or very ugly, or the appraisers were actuated by different motives from those which influence the “friends of the peculiar institution” at the South, or she would have been valued at a much higher figure than £5—$16 67—even in those days of cheap chattels. One servant Indian woman “ Mary,” rated at $5 A5, shows not only that the aborigines were enslaved, but that they were esti- mated at a low price. As an evidence of the little care for literature which prevailed a century ago, we notice that all the books of this rich man’s estate were valued at only 56 shillings—$9 33. That is not so singular, for even in our day slaves and libraries are not always found in abundance upon the same inventory. 1173. Winter Employment of Farm Laborers.—As a rule, our farmers are not employing a fourth part of the labor they might make profitable. Labor well bestowed would double the grass crop oft any State in less than five years. It is one of the greatest difficulties in the way of American farming, this six months on and ‘six months off of laborers. There is a constant complaint about the trouble of getting good farm laborers, and this trouble is con- stantly augmenting—growing worse and worse at every annual return of the hiring season. And why? Because our laborers are mainly made up of foreigners unaccustomed to our modes of farming, unused to the climate, and ‘unfitted for farm labor without previous training; and all that one of them gains in this line in one season is generally lost to the one who gave it, beatae he only employs his farm hands for the summer, instead of the whole year. We have never conversed with a farmer who did not deplore this state of things, and acknowledge that it would be much better, that is, more profitable to keep the same laborers on from year to year after they had learned “ the ways of the farm.” “Then why not do it?” “Oh, dear, bless your soul, I yl if I could, but I have nothing, or next to nothing, to do in the winter.” Now is this so? Have farmers nothing to do? Look about your farm and see. Have you no ditches to dig, no swamps to dfain, no muck to dig for manure—no stone, timber, fuel, or manure to haul—no les, large, deop, and wide to dig for setting fruit- trees in the spring—no land on your farm that needs and “will pay forunderdraining? For all of this work can be done during the many good out-door working days of winter, and, as a general thing, will not be done’ at any other season. a = | sre 61.] WINTER EMPLOYMENT OF FARM LABORERS. 1007 A good farmer can always provide work for stormy weather under shel- ter. There is fuel to be cut and split in the wood-house. There are gates, and bars, and fence-posts to be made in the workshop. There is manure to be piled in the yard—that should be done every day—and there should be manure to be forked over in the barn cellar. There are straw and stalks to be cut, and this may be done in quantity if the cut stuff is packed in boxes or barrels, so as not to dry up before it is wanted to feed out. There is corn to shell in the granary, and this is good work for dry, cold days, when it would be pretty severe to work out of doors. We liave long advocated thrashing to be done more with flails and less with machines, because it costs no more to thrash with flails, and the straw is better for stock, and it gives employment to farm laborers in winter, which is more important than all other considerations; for if they are not em- ployed, it frequently happens that actual suffering ensues, and at the same time their former employer will lose their services another year, and in the end will actually pay as much or more for what he gets out of a raw hand each summer than he would have paid, the winter included, for one good hand. If, as all well know, it is bad policy to part with a good hand, it is bad policy not to furnish employment for the winter. It is not only bad policy, but it is a wrong to the class who make up the farm laborers. Think of this in the first winter storm, when you think of your brute creatures, what may be the suffering condition of your laborers that you have discharged because you thought you had nothing to do. In this you are mistaken. You can find employment, and can make it profitable. But if not, you can not con- scientiously discharge your poor dependent laborers, many of them strangers not only within your gates, but upon our side of the great Atlantic. Tell them, at least, that the roof which has sheltered them in summer shall not be denied them in winter. If you really can not find full employment for them, tell them fairly what you can do—that you will feed them in all weather and employ them in all days when they can work to advantage. More than one half of the new emigrants that have found work upon farms during the summer within reach of this city will come directly here to spend their earnings while looking for city employment, and they will go back to their farm-work in the spring as ill fitted for it as half-starved oxen are to drag the plow, and cart the manure, and draw the fencing, and much other work that they could have done to better advantage in warm days in winter. Let every farmer who is about to discharge a farm laborer, put his hand upon his heart to mark its pulsations, while he asks it this question: ‘“ Am IT doing as I would that others should do to me?” The assertion that you have nothing or can have nothing to do is an erroneous one. There are but few, if any, farms that require three summer laborers that could not find profitable employment for at least two of them all the winter. It is ex- tremely bad economy to discharge hands that have worked faithfully, and 1008 THE GLEANINGS OF THE FIELD. [Cuar. XV. have just got used to the ways of the farm, and would be valuable help another year, and leave them to shift for themselves, more uncared for than your cattle, because you have nothing to do in winter. If you do so you must expect to meet with the same trouble in hiring help every coming spring that you have in every past one. There is a great influx to the cities every winter of persons willing to work, but who have been discharged where there was work to do, and have gone there as the most likely place to find shelter for the winter, but there they can find nothing to do; the city labor market is overstocked. Farmers, we appeal to you for your own interest; we appeal to you upon the “ golden rule ;” we appeal to you for the sake of all who are willing to work for their bread ; we appeal to you for those who, ignorant but not vicious, need your guardianship, that you do not send or leave one unem- ployed to come back to this city, where he will not only be idle, but as- suredly acquire vicious habits that will make him a less valuable servant next year than this. This common practice of discharging laborers in autumn is one iuat will in a short period quite destroy the efliciency of farm laborers. Their dispo- sition to come to the city to spend the winter, farmers should check, not en- courage. A man who has spent the winter in idleness in the city is not worth half as much in summer as one that remains continuously on the farm; and the same thing is true of in-door servants. “ What can I do in winter?” is the usual reply in argument against keep- ing laborers through the year. One thing that a farmer can do late in au- tumn, and often in many winter days, is to prepare for setting out a few more fruit-trees in the spring. We contend that not one farmer in a hundred has a sufficient supply of trees yielding fruit in their season. An orchard that gives good, marketable apples is always profitable to its owner if within reach of any large towns, for these apples are always salable and always at paying prices, if of good eating or cooking sorts, of summer or winter fruit, if carefully hand-picked and packed in neat barrels. Land for an orchard of any kind of fruit-trees will amply pay for draining with tiles or good stone underdrains ; these must be set deep—not less than five feet. The land must be plowed deep and subsoiled, if its character will admit of it; and if not, the holes for the trees should be dug out three feet deep and eight feet across. Leave these open all winter; in the spring put back the sods and surface earth at the bottom, and haul some rich earth, compost, chip manure, or leaf mold, to set the roots in. Getting this ready, is work for the last earth-working days in autumn. Time will produce $10 for every day thus occupied, when your trees yield their fruit. Every iota of fuel to be used in summer should be prepared ready for the fireplace, whether on hearth, or stove, or oven, during winter.. Many a farmer could economically employ a man all winter to thrash grain with a flail and cut the straw for stock. Much work at ditching, fencing, stone-digging, rock-blasting, ma- toto eeat =) nure hauling, and in some winters plowing, can be done to good advantage So. 61.] FARM ACCOUNTS AND FARM ECONOMY. 1009 in the latitude of New York city. And if nothing can be done, it is better for both employer and hireling that farm hands should be idle on the farm than in the city. If farmers have a surplus of leisure in winter, we advise ‘them to organize farmers’ clubs, and meet every week, and have all the farm laborers attend. Something will be learned. 1174. Rules for a Farmers’ Club.x—E. C. Packhurst, of York, Penn., says: “ A good many farmers would organize farmers’ clubs, if they knew how. Will you give us a copy of the Constitution and Rules of your New York Farmers’ Club, if you have them printed ?” There is a set of printed rules, but they are never referred to nor ever needed for any club. The members should agree to meet once a week or once a month, at a given hour and place. Select a chairman, to preserve order in debate, and open the meeting with any miscellaneous matter that any one chooses to bring up, and allow one hour for such discussion. Then devote another hour to some question agreed upon at the previous meeting, and adjourn punctually at the time. Make the whole discussion to consist of brief facts, but never dispute. Get some one to prepare a paper to be read at each meeting, if possible. We advise every farming neighborhood that can muster ten intelligent men, who will attend a farmers’ club, at once to form one. But do not make any formal constitution and by-laws, or con- ventional rules, but make your meetings social and conversational. Let your organization be of the simplest form possible, and avoid all formality in your meeting, except just enough to preserve order. Let one man act as secretary, to keep a few simple minutes, and advertise meetings; and let them be open to everybody, without fee or membership; and if money is needed, ask anybody and everybody to contribute. If they won’t do it, but leave all the burden of the expense and business of the club to rest on the shoulders of three or four persons, give it up. The time has not come for a farmers’ club in that neighborhood. It is a good plan, in the country, to meet at each other’s houses; but, to succeed, you must get your wives and daughters interested. A farmers’ club is a barren wilderness, unless smiled upon by woman. One excellent subject for discussion would be about im- proved farm stock. Another, farm implements. More than one half of the f benefit which might be derived from the various labor-saving improvements in agriculture, which have flooded our country for the last ten years, is lost by our general ignorance of their construction and the proper method of working them. How to use manure, and how to make land more produc- tive, and consequently more profitable, are questions that can not be dis- cussed too much. 1175. Farm Accounts and Farm Economy.—No man can be a good farmer and a successful one who does not keep accurate accounts. Be able to tell, at the end of the year, every dollar that came to hand, and what for, and every one that goes out, and why it went; and balance your cash account at least once a month—once a week is better. Keep accounts with everybody, debit and credit, and in some degree, with everything. Number your fields, and a | 1010 THE GLEANINGS OF THE FIELD. [Cuap. XV. charge each with manure, seed, and labor, and credit the crops, and you will soon find which is the most profitable. Open an account with your stable, your pig-pen, your pasture, and with your general stock, and with different classes and branches of it, if you would learn with accuracy which is the most profitable. To be successful, you must be accurate; to be accu- rate, you must keep account-books. True economy does not consist in mere saving and stinting; it requires far-reaching views and a generous spirit to decide practical questions upon that just basis which secures the greatest measure of success. We must look further than the first cost. In farm stock, for instance, when once obtained, it costs little more to raise, to any given age, a good animal than a bad one, while one may be far more remunerative than the other. And finally, as the very concentrated essence of farm economy, every American farmer, who is worthy of the name, will obtain this volume, and study it from title-page to FINIS. INDEX. [The number of paragraph on the left-hand side ; that of the page on right-hand side.] 974 845 1142. Acres, how to measure 935. Adaptation of trees to locations 1025. Adulterations of superphosphates . . . 1137. Age of seeds, when good aera AO) Ole CLECB «a7 (ota clnycfarsqaseiasasarenisinoa 1078. Agricultural tools noticed 459. Air, impurity of, in rooms 380. Albumen of meat, how extracted ... 945. Alder, where from 47. Alderney cow 818. Alfalfa, its use 398. Alkalies in bread 267. Alum water for bugs ..........5... 248 712. Allen’s hybrid grape 737. American wine-maker’s rules 101. Analysis of various cattle food...... 382. Analysis of food for men 98. Animal bones, use of “« species ss structure i: Animals, domestic 1159. se gestation and reproduction. 1000 80. ce unruly, how made so 62 552. 457. Ants, how kept away 269. ‘* in the house, how got rid of . 254. ‘* whisky cure ‘for 37. Sec. Apple and peach trees, manage- ment of 489. Apple custard 712. ‘* paring machines 662. Apple trees, form of various 663. ae “ee Gad. . ‘6 ‘« how to winter young... 482. Apples, how kept for winter 659. «in Georgia, list of Indian . 659. ‘¢ Newtown pippin, history of. bs 489.‘ — raw, and cooked as food 433 659. “ — select list of, descriptions. ... 660. ‘« use of, good for cattle 691. Apricots, history and cultivation of . 615 341. Aqueduct pipes, durability of 333. Aqueducts, economy of 1149. Art of being loved 563, 875. Artichokes, Jerusalem, growing, and use nure 1023. Atmospheric fertilization, theory of. . 733. Austrian vineyards 57. Ayrshire bull 34,438. <« cows described 1148. Axioms, proverbs, and maxims 446. Bacon, dry-salting 447. English mode of curing 445. facts about 348. ‘* how smoked 918 Baggasse of sorgo injures stock ... 392. Bakers’ yeast, ferment, spong . Sec. Balloon frames described 50. Balloon frames, how to build . Barley cultivation 3. .‘ seeds in a bushel 4. Barn boarded tight or open oo9, TOUNGAIONS iia) 35s s SOE PRS ‘* of Shakers at Canterbury U3 “© circular ‘* practical opinions about “ventilation of hay-mows . Barns, use, value, location . Barnum using nitrates, sulphates, mu- riates . Barrels, how cleaned 52. Basil, sweet. . c Beans among corn how to cook ae “e “sorts of, for garden ‘* white, as field crop . Bed-bugs, infallible remedy for...... : 35. Bec-comforters, how to make 8. Bed-rooms fit to live in . Beds and bedding : . Beef, corned, how to cure and cock. . “gall, its use 454, ‘455. Beef, pressed, how made—scraps, BOWsBAV Gd Fc Sersletresttere 3 seroaas 407 226. Bees, fourteen sorts in Honduras .... 174 222. hives, new way to make, of straw il 922,“ hives should be ventilated . 2238. how to keep from stinging 223. how to take honey from 212. history of their introduction. . . 227. Italian, their introduction 224. moths, how to protect, from .. 220. pasture and feeding........... 165 215. patent hives, bee houses, bee palaces proper form of hives reasons for keeping reasoning powers of stingless, not desirable straw hives swarm, proper weight of 217. swarming, how to manage, do- mesticate 218. swarms, what they consist of . 212, 2! 225. Bees, their introduction into Cal- 218. 228. 212. 226. 214. 219. 212. Bees, where they flourish best 216. ‘* where to keep hives 529. Beets, varieties of 4. Sec. Beeves, gross and net weight. . 662. Bene plant teetatemeiea eae eee Billets of wood, building with. ..... - Sec. Birds and children............ Birds destroy worms and bugs); .5 4 heauine Deeser. EEA, Sees ‘* protected by laws ............ “ ““skylarks and imported birds. . be bakers’, how made Boston brown ‘* chemicals in, Youmans’ “ec “ec good housewife’s rules for TAINS -HIe PL e' : INDEX. | Sec; Bigybullockst yu. ca seine 51-56 “swallows, swifts, and martins Gescribed wae) Se EIN” 192 Sec. Birds, the farmer's best friends . 176 Birds, the food'of Ho 4 | 184 “« the sap-suckers do not destroy Se tari ania Sa ea 191 ‘* to protect fruit-trees against.. 183 “wild pigeons, sending tomarket 201 Bites and stings, remedies for....... 439 Blackberries, cut-leaf............ .. 5951 ee Dorchester ........... 550 UG Lawton, or New Ro- Chelle este a et: 548 w parsley-leafed......... 550 ts running or trailing.... 551 0 thornlessete i eee. 550 u value for wine........ 551 cs variety and cultivation 547 te Whites 10.@ Rhy 650 Blackberry cordial................. 426 Black-hawk Morgans ........._. SLO Blindness in horses, how to detect... 11] Blind staggers in horses, cure for.... 110 Boilers and boiling maple fap....... 838 Boiling weeds for pigs.............. 25 Bone in different food.............. 68 Bones, how to dissolve............. 883 “of hogs in cholera .......... 73 gies their value:; 4 20 Re ae 2 883 Books useful for farmers’ Oye¥ sae: 991 Botanical names of trees ........... 520 412. 393. 391. 394. 393. SILOS IEE cn 404. Bread, various substances, prepara- on of | 5 San: nh ees 386 ny) Mangini corn ees Veen nm 892 “wheat and Indian........._. 372 ‘“ ~ wheaten, how to make 366 ‘when stale, how to use ....__ o74 “ae ankee brown .a) a eee 872 se lunch, and dinner of a «our- TNA ny ise eB 168. Breeding horses and mules......_.. 7 2. Breeds of pigs, Berkshire, Essex, Suf- folk Chiesters (1. enn mans 19 108. Brine, poison to cattle.........) ||| 78 1068. Broadcast sowing machine.......... 923 526. Broccoli, cultivation of......... 474 810. Broom-corn, how to grow, value 745 520. Brassica family, whatitig....... | 470 456. Brushes and knives, how cleaned ... 409 776. Buckwheat cultivation...........__ 706 753. Wi seeds in a bushel......., 678 657. Budding, bass matting for........., 678 656 ue how performed........... 577 204; Bug powder...fe ays anne Cia | 228 263. Bugs infesting potatocs ........... 240 262, 457. Bugs, remedies fer......... 239, 409 64. Bullock, the largest known......... 52 57. Bulls, Ayrshire, Jersey, Du “ham, Dutch, Hereford, Devon .......... 50 995. Burnt earth, value of............_. 883 1141. Bushel measure, cubic inches in 974 1140. Bushels of grain, ete., weights of 974 501. Butter affected by food.........._.. 447 502. ** affected by packages......... 448 509. “colored ‘tororder).., 2s 459 499. ‘* good, how judged ........... 443 512. ‘* how to cool without ice... .. . 454 £07. “33S howrtolkecp ie. Meenas 400 608. ‘“ how to make in winter ...... 452 498. ‘* making, first requisities for .. 441 504. of Alderney cows ........... 448 dll. ** packing and preserving ...... 453 500. © quarts of milk for a pound 444 510. f rules for’salting aes anaes 453 500. EO Stimeot churding ca. ee 446 499, 524. 536, man 738. 884. 879. 882. es how to head in winter ..... 472 o Varieties: Of) seen... 4 oe 473 California beans................... 477 a vineyards and wine cellars 653 “ Beichs rieet hic I Tclor how oS Oe 474 «and rye on same ground.... 818 ‘fo -sa8 aheldicropiee tits... oe 815 “> eultivationtofe fies... el 817 INDEX. 10138 883. Carrots, harvesting, storing, and value 487. Cider jelly, how made............. 33 OCR Da Gs MearAt Ga dooaoee S17 || PATS! ss omane: sop keepiaace emt saiclcit . 427 880. *¢ soil and preparation ........ 816 | 710. ‘* without pressing ............. 628 881. cee BOWAU PV Ub eIseedity tes -'.-1-- 816 | 1142. Circular acre, how to measure ...... 974 528. GERD SU ATIEWIEN: OL 2 cane thas = ticheiwic- =! 474 | 3834. Cisterns, value, size, contents, how to 467. Carpets and carpet sweepers ........ 416 build, cost, how to calculate ca- 845. Carting hay to market ............. 780 pacrby: a2 = cos Settee Seni eaeye. Ste 1s 310 1061: Cast-iron plows, history of ......... 918 | 758. Cleaning grain for market........ . 684 718, 725. Catawba grapes ...........-. 680, 689 |. 129. Cleansing wool............2.-:..6 96 6. Sec. Cattle, care and feeding ....... G0) }) 847.) Cloacina's temple’... 23 ae. 821 74. Cattle cars and transports RiGee h. 3 OS OST. Clodcrushersr:\-.07s so wee aca tele «1 923 104. GIRETS OVO NES Be ORR e ne eaege 76 | 3878. Clothing a man consumes in a life- 105. ‘diseases, the horn-ail, its cure. 77 TRG Sree ora cts Saw aN atdle's ore elevela 357 87. ‘* fattening on hay, value of. 64] 813. Clover growing..........0........- 754 Bole fo Med oil-cakels os cic sresscemyai-yer 66 | 817 fey Day, when). toentecus..s ssi... 758 Bey ic RCCUIME SETA W are cata’ singers sle © 63 | 814. ‘ how much seed peracre..... 756 TDi tS food analyzed rd ode Oo ter 75,76] 815. ** seed growing and harvesting . 757 BS. <2 ‘hOw vo feed TOOTS. 2h apec i721 -- 65 | 753 *S sseedsiinta bishels.:.c). .ist-cet- 678 Bae SP HOWitO WINtER: 5 )n5 a sceapatevsiwiatass 63 | 955. Coal and wood, economy of, compared 859 76. ‘* improvement of breed and _ | 1020. ‘‘ ashes for manure.............. 895 WEIN betes ceestiereielsteiare me e102 GO} 19925, 36 st. wale Ofisyseaeestawiee ts. 882 5. Sec. Cattle market statistics........ 56 51. Sec. Coal vs. wood for fuel ......... 845 76. Cattle, meisurement of ............ 59 | 267. Cockroaches, remedy for........... 242 Soe. 2. ” ‘on thevhiphways a): --7. «st. = 8657 17.9: Cocks; ‘choice ofits cae tes racine: 127 108. ‘* poisoned, with brine, with 431. Cocoa, how to buy good............ 397 cherry leaves! hi etiit- ses 78 | 486. Codfish, how to keep .............. 400 103. ‘* soiling, treated upon......... 76 | 432. Coffee, best sorts, how to prepare.... 398 1. ‘* transportation, on Mississippi 599. Cold frames for plants ............. 628 BUCHINDOS tr neriks eet cys cae" 15 | 658. Collodion, how made, and use of.... 579 107. ‘* with lice, cured with onions.. 78} 151. Colts, treatment of................ 108 1145. Castrating, when to perform........ 977 | 960. Commons should be cultivated ..... 866 284. Cats killing chickens, to prevent.... 255 | 960. “ UMLEN COD Nees serec aiatelsselece 855 525. Cauliflower, cultivation of.......... 473 | 101. Composition of various food for stock 75 539. Celery, how to grow and keep in aie: Concord grape’ ss 12R ese oie 632 RWATLCED:. 5/55, gialpoies an aye Gasrerate creas Bishens 479 | 352. Concrete walls, how made.......... 530 15. Sec. Cellars, chimneys, and ice-houses 288 | 346. Cooking arrangement for a piggery.. 521 310. Cellars, how tomake....,......... 288 5. S&« <“foodifor Swinetairrky. asa 25 BOON, CEMENT TOUIS «e'eiein ere id -cietenis sh o/s 827 | 380. Me how affected by hard water. 363 1182. Cemented caves for storing grain.... 971 | 384. fe reasons for improving ..... 362 100. Chaffing or cutting food for stock... 74] 383. «vegetables, changes produced 361 5 ACE Chandlers’ greaves for hens ........ 126 | 386. ‘vessels, improvement wanted 863 1037. ‘value as manure . 902 | 1147. Cooks cause sickness............... $83 967. Charring fence posts............... 869) | “806. Com)and! crows’ \scs\0a- peeks 2 sen 745 517. Cheese, English style.............. 459 3. ‘* and pork, how much will a as Pe “HOw UOT Keeps 2 sje sr oat = 400 bushelmake-- tite se hoe. - 19 616. fe) (NOW VOMINAKE pps is cisters =" 457 | 804. ‘* and pumpkins together........ 742 518. “ making in manufactories.... 459 | 1070. ‘‘ baskets improved............. 924 400. Chemicals in bread ................ BST} 405s , (6) dbreddy: sa Se Re sda) arse 387 401, 45. Sec. Chemistry and corn..... 883, 711 | “48: ‘* bread, receiptifor’...4---00-. 392 677. Cherries, history, cultivation, use... 599} 807. ‘‘ cost and profit of crop......... 743 673. a varieties of, described ..... 594 | 343. ‘* cribs of rails 676. Cherry trees, grafting and budding.. 598 | 342. ‘* cribs, how built 674. 5 ¥ ornamental... o8 2 hess 597 | 779, 797. Corn cultivation. See Indian 13. Chester County hogs............... 29 CORT Pare AOE OBES oo esi 709, 738 540. Chiccory, how to grow, prepare, and 100. Corn fodder foristock).:s Sdea. .. 2.2 74 LUBE aired Tees oases ge okecageeere te OMNES 481] 799. fodder, value of, for cows...... 739 183. Chicken coops, how to build........ 482 | 794. ‘“* harvesting Beetle oc ticles 2 735 183. ‘* houses warmed by stoves... 133 | 795. ‘* harvesting machines.......... 736 1148. Children, how to treat ............. 985 | 801. ‘* how to measure in bulk....... 740 311. Chimneys, how to build............ 289 | 408. ‘* hulled, good food ............ 390 892. Chinese sugar-cane growing ........ 822 | 794. ‘ husking Bo che =i Choe 735 892. ie —see Sorgo....... 823 | -796. ‘* husking i in the field .......... 737 869. *¢ yam, cultivation of......... 606'|) S057 est \ hybridizings ee be cle. os 742 564. 6S description Of. \s.ser <- 2. 495") 8005". 4° in‘ drille/or hills oem. so. os. pee et) Aolls Choeplatewtaecn nese es unen ene es ‘* popped, its use as food........ 893 499. Churns and churning.............. . ‘* roasting ears, sweet corn ...... 389 480. Cider, aerifying, effect of . ** shock-cart described .......... 737 479.‘ filtering, how done .......... 428 | 793. ‘* shocks, how to bind........... 734 477. ‘* how to keep sweet ........... 427 | 802. ‘ shrinkage in drying........... 741 7. Corn sown broadcast for fodder stalks, cutting yield of starch : Cost of the author’s alent: frame house and barn . Cotton cake, its quality and value Guiza. extension north . will it increase fields, beauty of, in blossom. from flax fiber gin, history of invention.... ginning, per cent. of lint and Cotton 5 history, ‘growth, and 79. Cotton, history of of culture in America 930 in woolen, how to detect. . manufacture, history of Sea Island, how ginned. upland, how grown 7. Cows, Alderney or Jersey Ayrshire breed, yield of milk. 43, 44 badly wintered unprofitable. . . cured with calomel Devon described directions for spaying......... Dutch or Holland breed exercise and shelter fed sugar-cane food consumed by hay required for health of, affects milk Hereford breed how many per acre how to increase value of how to keep gentle how to select a good one ... how to winter .... Jersey, origin and description. of different breeds of Durham breed poor for butter, how improved remedy for kicking y tons of hay for, needed 3. Sec. Cows, what is a good one, the winter feed of, with garget, cure of yield of milk of breeds com- P 1150. Country schools, ‘What they should Sere a aa eee 99 700. Cranberries as a field crop, how grown 621 62 564. . Cranberries, varieties of, planting . . . Creepers, DAUIVEN = yeen ge eee » 622 . Creosote for kyanizing ............. =», Cress, garden 5. 3. ugh -c ootand So) NUBILE ot; syria rae tr aet ee . Crows, discussion about usefulness of. 180 ‘* how to prevent mischief .... . . Crystal Palace show cattle.......... . Cubic feet in a tun of hay......... : Cucumbers, WaTIetles Of 55) o:- sisesars ioe : Coene black, how grown and use. 536 os descriptive List Qts..«:sjaeite My expense of growing ....... ns how to prune and grow... ¢ jelly, how made a productiveness of cherry... sf varieties and cultivation .. . Curcnliowremedies 42 «cx seks ite ~ ols : eae Dairy, butter and cheese making 441 . Dairy room, necessity of a.......... 5 . Days of the week and month, names . Deep plowing, its benefits .......... . Delaware grapes, history of......... . Descriptive list of hardy trees....... 2. DevOUDO ore cessfaxs fat te selsiohh oo wmnes ote FES. (COWRG@EBCTADEM «ari: )arereinne Seid Ke ay (wale for Guiry a 45 55 05 )-08 . Diana and Anna grapes ............ . Digging machines ..............5.. Dill . Dioscorea batatas, cultivation of . * is growth and use, 104-6. Diseases of cattle, horn-ail, scours, 459. 998. 959. 287. 288. 285. 289. Disinfectants, how made and used. . Dissolving bones. ....5....,.%4+ 0008 es : Division fences, laws relating to. ... Dog laws to protect sheep ......... "traps; owamade |< s,..chsi- aes nse Dogs generally a nuisance.......... ** ‘sermon about, keep them in Mops places c.ainp is .s25 sthes cg ** Shepherd, Scotch colley, En- PLSD Dish. ac cscs: -crne oo ‘* the Shepherd breed ........... . Domestie animals a5...) vee ote elie ais MERINO 870 879. ‘ how it is changed by cooking.. 858 | 192. Geese, how and where kept, breeds 90-92. *‘ properties for fat, flesh, bone. 66-68 and value wis piss c%eyejapere ee 140 875. ‘ quality of, suitable for farmers. 354 | 198 5 valueof corn.fed!t0,...jancoaee 145 are: <9 xationsiat slaves, cnch Sci. 352 | 1180. Germination of seeds, time of....... 971 378. ‘* rations of soldiers ............ 853 | 1163. Gestation, periods of............... 1000 382. ‘* relative value of substances.... 360 | 987. Glauber salts for manure........... 880 1134. ‘* substances, nutriment in ...... 972 61. Sec. Gleanings of the field.......... 971 22. Sec. Food, the question considered of 1015. Glue-maker’s waste for manure..... 893 quantity, quality, adaptation. 851 | 468. ‘‘ to keep sweet...........:.... 418 874. Food, time between meals.......... 854 | 296. Goats, Cashmere, introduction into 874. ‘* variety of, necessary ......... 853 the United States ...........0640% 265 888: vegetables, changes in ay 861 623. Gooseberries, varietics of........... 552 831. Forage, how to produce and use .... 770 | 292. Gophers described, beneficial to 1016. Forest leaves for manure........... 894 PATI CT iy srafaiy alee! «ale ghetatioaielotes silane 261 OrG>we ostres-hedpeses: ccmoccre vewire 872 | 192. Goslings, how managed ............ 141 51. Sec. Forests unprofitable on valuable 643.. Gourds actions seek sees baeaee 483 BOM sees whee. ons 845 86. Sec. Grafting, budding, pruning.... 570 181. Fowls, Chinese breeds ............. 128 | 652. Grafting, antiquity Of pieniccagher Bee 576 178. ‘¢ fed on putrid meat are un- 653. clay and wax, how made.. 576 npbolesonie iie:2is isisie ei Sk 126 | 646. is cleft, splice, tongue, root, 19%... “*veanodeofkilling. ages ee). 145 AAG is serch cae cds aan 574 182. ‘“ ornamental varieties of —Ma- 651. » new method, natural...... 575 lay, Guelderland, Dorkings, 644. ae on old orchards, ......... 574 Spanish, Game, "Java, Jer- 643. “W proper time of......6. 0.0.06 573 sey Blue, Poland, Hamburg, 654. Graits, how to preserve............ 576 Bolton Gray, Silky, Frizzled, 655. ‘« influence of stocks upon..... 577 Cuckoo, Blue Dun Crested, 778. Grain farms and stock farms........ 708 Bantam, Dominique, Forked 1183. mill, new one, described. ..... 972 Tail, Sonerat’s Wild Cock... 128 | 1182. ** stor ed in cemented CAaVeS. 525 Sub is: MAXISTANeS, «jeu Aek eke cele. 631 | 754 ‘* when it should be cut....... 679 786. French wine-maker’s rules ......... 659 | 783. Grape culture in Austria........... 654 1151. Frost, why more on bottoms than hills 993 | 782 ie e California......... 653 698. Fruit baskets and boxes............ 618} 730. ‘ KS Missouris «<3 <% < 645 35. Sec. Fruit books mentioned........ 555) | ae’ gf by Dr. Grani..... 638 549. Fruit drying houses).etawses.. ... 823 | 716. ‘* cuttings, caution about...... 636 661. how to grow large............ B85) | eaae.7 ws i how to grow....... 641 698... ‘* how to pack and transport .... 618| 716. ‘' grafting .........0..-20e0: 635 484. ‘* in air-tight cans....:......... 430 | 717. ‘‘ growing, profitof .......... 636 703. ‘ tree protectors .22............ 626 | 742 ‘© seedling, prize for.:......... 666 Ore. . «4% trees, manuring, use of hogs for 589 | 730. ‘* — soil, what is best............ 645 6am...‘ on the prairies. ......... 568 | 728 od UNAS cect halline so" swe wid salted 638 Gal. . ‘rules about planting... .. 61") (708. \ yinexeigantieve cae. teas 636 630. ‘* ‘* spring or autumn planting 558 | 729. Grapes, diseases of, remedy for...... 643 OZR: ‘* when and how to plant . 558 | 483. a how to keep.......0...600 430 482. Fruits, how preserved .............. 429 | 728. - order of excellence of five... 642 697. ‘* small, for field culture....... 617 | 722 Ke murder glass. s..ccisemeceress 6388 34. Sec. Fruits, small, of the garden.... 530] 713. be WAMIOHMERGEs 3. clothes «than 680 456. Furniture renovated........ ...... 407 | 780. Grapevines, care of, planting and 1152. Fur-skins, how to dress ............ 995 PIUNAN Pysioycajuishe. «cio ae 644 1154. % how to prepare for market 996 | 727. “ hardiness of sorts....... 641 457. Furs, how packed and kept......... 409 | 730. Bs object of pruning, rules 956. Fuel, how it should be seasoned .... 860 HOT etc tee Gblafos melas 643 51. Sec. Fuel, wood or coal............ 845 | 730. ze summer pruning,...... 647 3. Gain of pigs in feeding............. 22) 78l. as what are merchantable.. 652 161. Galls in horses, remedy for......... 111} 254. “ WOTTBB i jajeis [sic Fes0 sino of c's 226 202. Game, preparing for market ........ 151 | 254. Grasshoppers, habits of............. 232 Stile: GASdenICorm Wyte otto uennk. 481 46. Sec. Grass and its use and cultivation 748 1069. ‘¢ “hoe, improved ........ . 924 | 841. Grass, how much, land can produce.. 778 519. ‘vegetables, origin, use, culti- 825 ‘* plats, how seeded with sods... 766 MAGI Fic Bi he. at on 465 | 820 ‘* seed, how much per acre ..... 762 29. Sec. Garden vegetables, their history, 823. ‘ sowing inautumn........... 769 INDEX. 1017 753. Grass, sweet vernal, seeds in a bushel 678 ee Hereford! bullae eee. eae 51 ao: fey si whenstovontew As ee ees Senn. 3 777 os Cows) deseribed i. !ei/si06.s 46 811. Grasses, cultivated varieties of, de- a Hessian fly described .............. 213 SEMUDEA Ya wire eae si 748 | 945. Hickory seeds, planting............ 853 812. ‘« varieties recommended..... 752 | 958. Highway fences, laws relating to.... 864 468. Grease in silk, how to remove...... Aly ||) 2562., Hoarhounds 35 oe. aeaane eels cles 493 468. ‘¢ spots, how removed......... 418 | 456. Hodge-podge, how made........... 408 406. Green corn as food...............-. 389 (js LOB PASTURES pe ein cee eos 26 1030. ‘* crops and lime for manure.... 898 17. Hogs, gross and net weight......... 30 1026. <' sand marl, its’value..:...... 897 MGS sMes, olla rer te erent os 3 1077. Grindstone, its value on a farm..... 926 13. ‘* of Chester County breed...... 29 1151. Gross and net weight of swine...... 993 I> Efollandicowiseeriacries cece 45 1009. Guano, economy of using........ .. 891 6. Hollyhocks; listiob=\1..icwsees sss 509 1010. hows tovapplys 22 ie. eee. 891 | 409. Hominy, economy of, for food ...... 391 1010. ** ~~ in solution for gardens...... 891 | 410. ‘* how to cook, hominy cakes, GORE a 6 Se rte Mhistony see. atone es 890 PUAN Hs ere aie aisles -rele . B91 1028. ‘* manufactured of fish........ 898 | 411. KS) pelhowrithiss made cs ..<'..0--:2 392 990. ‘* phosphatic, value of........ 882 | 1168. Hops, culture of, and suitable soil... . 1002 916. Guinea corn, sorghum vulgare........ 833 | 1170. ‘* growing without poles........ 1003 190. et “LOWE Sens ie oa cates okie 139 | 1169. ‘‘ value of the lupulin......... 1002 OST eH a-hat wallah. js ote keene ss 875 | 105. Horn-ail, how to cure, false notionsof 77 1037. Hair, value of, as manure.......... 902s), vOolt, Horseradish sae oasis lsereler ek 475 1141. Half-bushel measure, how tomake... 974 | 150. Horse breeding for longevity ....... 108 448. Hams, good pickle for.............. AUG} | 9834. «<< jhe orakces een eee ee ok = os 774 PO ine” ae HO Ws LORCOOKS oan sient ethos 405 | 169. ‘ gearing, English and American 119 #45. i ‘how toveuresee3 8.5 404) 9162.7 Sstaeshoeing shi2s6 2 .acreeiek,. Meh +, 2 Aas HOW LOP KEEP oe tails cies ce es 405 | 144. ‘* stables should be light....... 105 145. Handying kteers? i) 22h... secs 978 8. Sec. Horses and mules, history of... 936. Hardy trees, ash, maple walnut, Pau- 148. Horses, diseases of, capped hock, con- lonia, sassafras, locust, poplar, fir, tracted hoofs, corns, cough, hemlcck, chestnut, linden........ 846 trembling, wheezing, crib- 712. Hirtford prolific grape............ - 632 itn ee ese «secant 106 945. Hawthorn, varieties of ............ 854) 152. ‘« diseases of, and remedies.... 109 71. Uaxtun steer, weight of the........ 54} 181. «English hunters........+.+- 99 838. Hay-caps, value of, how made...... 776 | 182-4 « English roadsters, coach and 47. Sec. Haying and haying machines... 772 TAY? SO IN Ns lahat iste: cicis 99 842. Hay, how much must we provide.... 778 | 142. ST elfortihe ‘saddles 885 23% ccs 105 1135. <‘* load of, how to calculate value. 972 | 140. SS) sfor-wallkinge: |... eee ee 104 846. ‘* measurement, cubic feet inaton 780] 138. fe" howto drivers: Aas 103 325. ‘' mow, ventilation of........... 305 | 146. ‘¢ how to remove from buildings 208 required for COWS = oes 6 ccs 35 ODM ATER Mega ears o is Silat 106 844. ‘ rigging of carts and wagons.... 779 | 154. Ss hheavestkcureiofen, 529.5. nes 109 Sor © sventilition of. santo. «sn 776 | 135. st) Morgamibreed 9s nner 99 117. ‘* weight necessary for sheep..... 85 | 157. ‘« old sores of, cured with white 950. Hazel grown for fruit.............. 857 Heed RSS VS. Preh oak 110 491. Health, cautions about ............. 437 | 171. «plowing with four, how to 390. “© is affected by early break- bitch ees skie sos 122 TEST coin worn ooneadiooes 365 | 149. “profits of soiling system..... 107 389. ‘© is affected by mode of eating 364] 147. ‘* proportion of, tomen....... 106 1147. ‘F | -maximsOfiesens OH 2 Asia 981 | 145. «« sand for bedding of........ 106 1188. Heavy men in*Ohio. >>2.0. <2. ).1) 973 | 163. “« scratches, how cured........ 109 975. Hedgesand hedge plants .......... 872 | 189. «¢ size of roadsters............ 103 976. SHOE 1GreS we tneeae sermtaterel« (tele se = 872 | 130. ‘thoroughbred !*: << /).. 202. 98 978. “ornamental more than useful 873 | 141. ‘« torturing with bitand harness 104 Dit 1S |Osape Orange. cers ee ys -:s' 873 | 148. ‘* unsoundness, what consti- 1120. Hemp, a new variety.....¢........ 966 putes itisnctectetei asta 106 1121. ‘* cost and profit of growing... 967 | 170. ‘« working three abreast...... 120 1124. ‘* cutting by machines........ 968 | 155. Horse’s collar chafing.............. 109 LOGS. Pett san Vester= sees ccs tal scien 924 | 143. ‘« color indicative of temper... 105 1119. ‘ history of introduction into 163. ‘« feet, contraction of, and rem- INIMEV Care etn at cies ee erie 965 Ody Fes he Se is 114 1125 «rotting and dressing ........ 968 | 565, 595-598. Hot beds, how made, and use 1122. ‘* sowing and harvesting...... 967 Of Mra wees cele os 497, 524 174. Hens, number to keepand time to sell 124 | 1150. Household science, book of......... 991 184. ©" “proper time to seis Wet. os. 133 | 1031. Housed and unhoused manure exper- 173. “shod to preven‘ scratching.... 124 AI CNIRES ot:s fetett eee esas cies «vi 899 332. Hen-roosts, how buil*, nd manure of 308 | 267. House flies, how got ridof ......... 242 195. Ry how constructed........ 143 | 408. Hulled corn, how prepared......... 390 1148) Herbs preservedts en e-em eee nee re 986 | 819. Hungarian grass..............0000 760 1018 970. Hurdle fence 5. Hydiophobia, remedy for . Hydraulic rams, how made, and use. . Hyssop . Ice, how to carry it to the field ‘* how to keep it in the house.... “how to store it “ce Ui their advantage . Illinois wheat growing, cost of . Imported stock deteriorates § vs. native stock : Improved King Philip corn . Incubation of eggs, time of various. . Indian corn land, seeding to grass. . 783. 780. 779. 791. 792, 45. 417. 416. 414. 415. 589. 1149. 12. 270. Insects beneficial to farmers........ 2 autumn plowing for crops North and South. . cultivation in hills or depth and distance of planting experiments in growing. . fertilizing seed great crops in Conn ES Kentucky . “ce “ manures used upon premium crops, cost of.. 7 preparing ground for.... 7 selecting, saving, prepar- 7 ing seed shrinkage in drying soaking seed transplanting, it can be two ears on a stalk, shall one grow when to plant where profitably grown. . yield per acre 200 bushels per acre .... Sec. Indian corn, a national staple... 2 As ‘* its history its use and value as food ‘« product in Ohio... es “« inslave and free states Indian meal baked pudding “ce “ac ac sc“ “ic “cc “cc «ck mush, how cooked Indigenous trees Indolence the parent of langur ... Sec. Insects, what are conversations upon coal-tar to kill destructive to corn and wheat how preserved for reference. . infesting the cotton plant ... injurious to fruits in wheat, how killed kerosene oil, to kill of the house, remedies for... remedies, caustic soda, liquid sulphur, oil troughs the rice weevil 996. 972. 54. 1044. 1043. 1042. 1040. 1041. 1046. 1045. 725. 753. 58. 48, 49. 875. 247. 696. 86. Introduction to facts. Tron as a fertilizer Tron fences. Sec. hrigation, practice and value of 904 Irrigation i in America France, Belgium, etc.. Irrigation, quantity of water required 909 a what lands are benefited. 909 Isabella grapes Japan wheat a cheat Jersey bull ** cow, properties of Jerusalem artichoke, how to grow Joint worms that destroy wheat Jujube fruit Keeping stock warm and variety of 5. Kelly’s Island vineyard 27. Kerosene oil for farm-house lights. . zs ** to kill insects - Kicking cows cured . Kindness to cattle . Kitchen knowledge and rules ‘© old style, described . Kneading bread, effect of . Knives and brushes, how cleaned... . 23. Kohl-rabi, its character and use . Kyanizing fence posts . Labels for fruit trees . Lambs, how to feed young . Larch, white, seed of . Lard, how to keep sweet 52. Lavender 32. Sec. Lawn, how to make Law. n, cause of grass dying upon .... clipping, watering, manuring, ‘grass, new sort 5 ‘« how to ornament ‘* how to set in grass ‘* made by a woman . ‘« trees, what sorts suitable . Laws relating to division fences ‘« relating to highway fences .... . Lawton blackberries, how to grow .. . Learning comes by observing . Lenoir grape . Lettuce, varieties of, and how to grow . Lice on cattle, how cured 5. Lights, cost of various ‘« farm-house ‘« kerosene oil best s* of candles, how improved. . ‘« oils and candles compared... . Lightning conductors considered, at- traction of, insulation. size of points, ” con truction. shade trees conduct. rs . Lightning rods, area of attraction... “ac “a opinions of use materials of “ce “cc . Lima beans, how to grow 744. Lime and salt mixture .... . Lime ashes, value of 671. 993. 93. «< for trees ‘* how to apply .., Linseed-cake for food ..... . 1147. Live in the light 496. Lockjaw remedy.........-:0.-25.-+. 945. Locust seeds, planting, how to vege- CRUE as ciara tele tererayaveln etnies ctols) wistalele ll» 855, 254. Locusts, are they injurious’? ........ 230 868. Lotus, American, substitute for pota- BOGS che bic icyoyie eels vi Skies «ole tbie 'e 806 914. Lovering’s experiments with sorgo.. 831 PRES eT NIGELTE ef el = cial. Rie taele i atesetal she crete iets «i 758 POEs eR ELITPILILO sc, ote siete VON IA tal= ante rete 12a /axe 758 1151. Machine belts, ae HOUSE areiciererata!« 994 836 fe to stack ia yoeyst atavers . * ‘why we should plant .. 844 168. Mares, size of, for breeding ........ 117 464. Mattresses, how to make........... 415 Mature trees, best apples for keep- ne frome ew scx. Seiepsis eieieielals « 28 “6 ae ‘ec “cc ve = MAQUI) Manure oa -isisyeineieee ts - « for all: farmers sae Jeti. 979 Ssfarmers:: DOYBuat.:: .<).'.!-\ 988 oa ES SWlorrieentnk does = « 987 oe SF PAW EV ER hers oZ5 20.8 984 “* young farmers.......... 975 INDEX. . Meadows, plants that injure........ 769 . Meals, what intervals between...... 354 75. Measurement of cattle compared .... 59 1142. Measure of acres, square, triangle, CIRCLE ec inlaiag SESAME shee SAS os 974 801. Measuring corn in bulk............ 740 380. Meats, boiling extracts albumen of.. 860 879. Meat, how it loses by boiling ....... 359 384. Meat and vegetable food compared .. 362 456. Meat and fowls, how made tender and COOKE ahsfsj te ainistateiers sc aiiis le olelSo w/o 408 562.) Medicinal herbaria. cise tle cjacieresiaree 493 548. Melons, apple-piew... /c.ec.%) eee. 485 545 Co howto grower. aleyereiow.s Sei cs 484 547 fa ‘« to start early.......... 485 279. Mice, Osage orange, destroyed by.... 252 277. ‘* and their mischief ......:.... 2651 278. ‘* remedies for eating trees...... 252 761. Michigan wheat growing, cost of.... 691 777. Millet, soil, cultivation, use ........ 707 489. Milk and apples fOr foods. AL: 434 29. cost of producing. ............ 35 OLS, | {5 farms; profitsioft: sees .octs 2s: 455 Bd.) «is heating NEW. seit cane 450 500. ‘* how much fora pound of butter 444 31: Re Ge “* to make cows give down.. 455 4. Sdn mirror deseribedss:cias\«i pansiandteonersss alee ue i ee 450 603. eos swhenuto\skimesse.5- es UAnees. 448 618. Milking machines ................. 454 761. Minnesota wheat growing, cost of... 692 562. Mint, spear and pepper............. 493 1147. Mirth is a-medicine .....//..02.-.6. 983 741. Missouri, German vine growers in... 665 740. a wine making in .......... 664 1144. Mixed husbandry best ............. 975 435. Molasses, how to buy............-- 399 927. sé Ofmapleisapeerthece 28.< <0. 839 276. Moles, American, opinions about.... 251 275. ‘“ English, opinions about...... 251 13. Sec. Moles, their character considered 248 958. Moral of pasturing highways........ 865 137. Morgan horses; faults’of......).0....:. 102 135. SSmphIStOnyy Oli. ck. 22!) 99 359. Mortar, made weather proof ........ 336 268. Moth, protectors from.............. 243 2 Bene Meigs nites loon eee, Sor cement 409 833. Mowing machines .......-........- 772 846. Mows and stacks, how to measure ERIS UTA Hen 2 rohit cdal Poteet ale eimratajrs 780 1012. Muck, analysis OL Steers siete arts 8 Paver 892 1013. ‘ mixing with night Boil cuales 893 IOUT.‘ -susevandivalueiofi.:.cnueek 891 167. Mules, horses, oxen, on the farm.... 116 164. ‘‘ history, first importation... .. 115 1G5., «°° .. Jlongeydtyafaen cect. /attelet. 116 166. ‘* the largest in the world..... 116 6935 Mulberry froitis. Steers - 616 443. Mushrooms, use and production... .- 402 645.. Musk-melonsi. 2132)-dkiieihasslsltie = - 484 ; Mutton SHCEP ASE Ofe ale lctal--..c'ce a0. . Nails made weather proof °, Nasturtium s at the West profitable. 91 iy ‘* preeds most profitable 91 3 272. Natural insect destroyers 3. Night air not as unhealthy as closed . Night soil, how prepared for use .... . Nitrates, muriates, sulphates, what are they 2. Nectarines, history and sorts of i» Neuralgia,.cure for Ie 2k sees. 983 846 397 . Norway maple . Nutmegs, how to buy 34. Nutriment in food substances....... . Nutritive value of various food for . Oak tree seeds, planting : Oats, cause of rust cultivation how much seed per acre seeds in a bushel how to make a good crop when to sow . Observe and learn . Odors, bad, how prevented . Offen grape . Ohio, what it produces ‘* wheat production . Oil-cake, about feeding