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AMBRICAN FAHMBaS* MAGAZINE.

Vol. XI.

JANUARY, 1858.

No. 1.

|i g r i ni 1 1 u r a L

THE NEW YEAR.

While tendering to our readers the
congratulations of the season, and wish-
ing as wo heartily do, that their coming
year may be a happy and prosperous one,
we do not forget that, in the relation we
sustain to them, something depends upon
us.

If we discharge our duties with a
sound judgment, and a heart in sympa-
thy with their avocation, knowing as we
do its difficulties, and having experienced
its pleasures, they can hardly fail to de-
rive from our labors some increase of
material wealth, but more we would fain
hope of intellectual riches, and still more
of those pleasures which are derived
from seeing their children advancing in
knowledge and goodness.

On the contrary, we are equally aware,
that if our writings should be ill-judged
and untimely, supercilious and arrogant,
pretending rather than reliable, in no
soulful sympathy with the working
farmer, dropped along the track of the
coming year in a care-for-nobody spirit,
or with a manifested preference for men
of any and all other callings over the
producer from the soil, they would be

VOU XI. 1

loosers rather than gainers, in whatever
goes to make up the sum of their happi-
ness. It would not be for their interest
to read us through the year, and pro-
bably they would not.

There is a middle ground. If our
articles should be pretty good, but no
better than are found every where ; if
our selections should be well enough, but
such that you would say they might be
a great deal better ; if our whole journal
should be made up of negative excellen-
cies, faultless and nothing more, it would
contribute no great to the material, in-
tellectual, or social welfare of our readers,
and might possibly damage them by dis-
placing one of a more positive character.

It is not b}' an Agricultural Journal of
medium qualities, faultless without ex-
cellence ; and certainly it is not by one
of positively bad characteristics, untrue
in its teachings, and unsympathizing to-
wards the farmer, that the great cause
of soil culture, with profit, and honor,
and happiness to the cultivator, can be
advanced. And yet to advance this
cause is to advance the cause of imiver-
sal humanity ; for it is impossible that
our country should make progress in
this line and the whole world not par-

AGRICULTURAL

ticipate, at no ver}'^ distant day, in the
benefits.

If a higher civilization is to dawn on
mankind, and if Christianity is yet to
have a more perfect work, in both of
which we believe, agriculture, to which
the Creator has destined at least half the
human family, must be honored in the
hearts of all men, and not merely by
the words of the wily politician when
he wants the farmer's vote. Improved
methods must be spread abroad. New
methods must be introduced. We are
not at the end of all improvement yet.
Brain work and labor-saving improve-
ments must relieve the severity of toil.
Farm work must not be a working of the
body at the expense of the mind, but a
business concern that makes both mind
and body strong and active.

One half of our community should be
farmers, and every one of them proud
that he is. A very large portion of the
other half should be mechanics, and not
a whit ashamed of it. Neither should
be in danger of hearing it said, or seeing
it acted, he's nothing but a farmer ; he's
nothing but a mechanic — mere workies,
and nothing more. As these two classes
create all the wealth, they should possess
a pretty good share of it. They need
merchants and bankers enough to help
in their exchanges, but not enough to
rule and ruin them. Merchants, clergy-
men, lawyers, doctors, teachers, are all
wanted; but in a well-regulated com-
munity they would not all together con-
stitute more than one in a hundred. If
one merchant could not make the ex-
changes for a thousand people, and one
minister do their preaching, and one law-
yer their quarreling, and one doctoi-
their healing, and half-a-dozen teachers
dispel their ignorance, it must be because
there is something wrong.

The great mass should be employed
either in drawing raw materials from the
earth, or in molding them into forms of
additional utiUty by their handiwork.
Above all things it should be no detri-

ment to any one to be so employed, and
yet it will be till more live by their in-
dustries and less live out of them.
There is, however, no use in scolding.
If there is " a good time coming," it
will be brought about by improvements
in the condition of those who do the
real, necessary business of the world.
First on the list are the farmers. In the
inauguration and carrying on of improve-
ments nearly every thing depends upon
themselves. If they are to have a good
year of this 1858, they, with the blessing
of God, must make it so.

So far as the peculiar duties of the
agricultural Editor are concerned, we are
fully convinced that no wrong side Jour-
nal will answer their purpose. No half-
way teachings will do them much good.
They want the best, and it is no easy
task to furnish it. We enter upon the
new year with earnest purpose, but not
without misgivings. Our purpose is to
give our readers a better Journal than at
any former time ; to furnish well-con-
sidered, reliable articles on all the lead-
ing questions of farming, gardening,
fruit culture, stock-growing, and dairy-
ing ; to adorn our pages more than here-
tofore with such engravings as may
illustrate the subjects and thus be of
practical utility ; to give our full share
of mechanical matter, and to select with
reference to its usefulness to the farmer
as well as to the mechanic ; and to en-
liven our miscellaneous pages with a
variety that shall be at once amusing and
instructive. We hope to enlist the in-
terest of young men in our scientific
articles, and shaU hope to give the chil-
dren occasional amusement, and perhaps
some words of kindly advice, that may
aid their mothers in training them to
virtue and usefulness.

Such are our purposes, such our hopes;
and although we have our fears, we con-
tinue our labors with a full conviction
of their importance, and a determination
to do what in us lies to advance the pros-
perity and happiness of our readers for
the year to come. — Ed.

AGRICULTURAL.

HINTS FOR THE SEASON.

There is little farm work on hand fur
this month. If the fanner takes a kindly
care for all around him, keeping every-
thing in an orderly, thriving condition,
laying his plans for the future, and mak-
ing such provision for their prosecution
as can be made now to better advantage
than at any future time, it is about as
much as should be expected, and if any
man living has a right to pause in the
bustle of life and take comfort, he has.

Self culture is the first duty of all.
Now is the time when the farmer, if he
seizes the golden opportunity, may out-
strip men in almost any other calling.
The stormy days and long evenings of
winter are his by a peculiar right. They
are a boon which he should value. The
lawyer, the merchant, and even the me-
chanic may become moi'e flippant, but
the farmer should Iciioic more than either,
and if true to himself he will.

Attend the evening lectures if you
have any ; and if you have none, be not
backward in helping to get them up.
Read j^our agricultural and other papers ;
and, more than tbis, read works on his-
tory, art, science, literature, political
economy, etc.; and learn not only the
duties of your own calling, but whatever
will make you an intelligent, influential,
and useful citizen. You are the cultiva-
tor of the earth ; you make it more
beautiful and more productive ; we sup-
pose you are improving everything about
you ; and if so, all praise is due ; but do
not neglect yourself.

Next is your fomily. Is everything
done for their comfort, for their advance-
ment in knowledge, for their present and
permanent well-being? It would be
well for you to look into the school, and
see that your children arc making pro-
gress. Of course you will tak" them to
the lectures with you. AVHiy should you
not take them to the formers' club?
Young people are social in their feelings,
and it is well that they are, and you
should encourage them in all rational

and innocent pleasures. If j^ou will pre-
pare yourself to speak at your evening
gatherings, it will do you good as well
as others, and why not encourage your
sons to take a part? A little study and
a little practice may prepare them to
take a high and useful position as citi-
zens of this free country. By all means,
encourage j'our sons and daughters to
read, and if possible, amid the trashy
literature of the times, persuade them to
read .such books as will make them ac-
quainted, not with mere fancy worlds,
but with the veritable world we inhabit,
and make them better men and women,
to enact a part in this same world.

See that the stalls, the folds, and the
pens are all warm ; that no feed is wasted,
either by being trodden under foot, or
by being devoured by animals so uncom-
fortably cold that the whole goes to keep
them from freezing, and none to produce
growth. Above all let the animals that
give milk be warm, and give them plenty
of succulent food. How can the pail be
filled, or how can the .suckling young
thrive, if the mother be not kindly dealt
by ? Every farmer knows, or should,
that there is more profit, twice told, in
keeping a milk cow, or a suckling ani-
mal of any kind, well, than by inferior
care.

The old wood pile, we hope, will not
be gone till May ; but early, before the
snow drifts, is the best time to get up
the next year's stock. What a bother,
when the plow should be going, to have
a child come and tell you that oven wood
is wanted! To have the dinner half
cooked for the want of well-dried wood
is almost as bad. There is no surer sign
of a good farmer, to say nothing of a
good husband and father, than never to
be out of dry wood.

Fencing stufi^, in many cases, can be
removed advantaguouslj'^ in January ;
and if there is lumber to be got to the
sawmill, the first snows arc the best.
Other things will suggest themselves to
the enterprising fanner. Nothing is

AGRICULTURAL,

better settled, than that such a farmer
never finds a time when there is " noth-
ing to do." It is only the shabby farm-
er that can find no work.

But our object was rather to call at-
tention to the great importance of self-
culture and the comfort and improve-
ment of the family. Winter is the har-
vest time for those things. The farmers
of our country should strive to be equal
— superior if they can — to any other
class.

Let not this winter go by without a
step towards a consummation so devout-
ly, so patriotically to be wished. Push
yourself on the race, start your children
on the race early. — Ed.

INTRODUCTION OF MERINO

SHEEP INTO THE UNITED

STATES.

BY CASTIGATOR.

S. G. Goodrich, alias Peter Parley,
feeling that he must needs write a book,
appeared to think that he could make
said book by writing down all that he
could recollect of a life time, but failing
in obtaining the requisite amount of ma-
terial, he was driven to the pitiable alter-
native, as we find on page 404, Vol. I, of
his Recollections of a Life Time, of quot-
ing from the Cyclopaedia of American
Literature, a work of no authority, a
statement with regard to the introduc-
tion of merino sheep into this country,
which he should have known was not in
accordance with facts, viz. : " The first
merino sheep brought into the United
States were imported by Chancellor Ro-
bert R. Livingston — a pair of each sex —
in 1802. M. Delessert sent a few others
soon after. Little attention, however,
was paid to the subject, and it seems
that about 1805 half-breeds were sold at
a price below that of common sheep.
Afterwards a larger importation was
made by Col. Humphreys, who had been
our minister to Spain and our Consul
Jarvis ; these were three hundred in
number and arrived in 1810."

Why did not Goodrich, when his re-
collections failed, refer us to some relia-
ble statement from Livingston, showing
the month and day when his " pair of
each sex'"' were introduced ? Why did
he not refer to Humpi'eys' works, pub-
lished in New-York in 1804, and which
are in all our libraries, and give us the
true state of the case ? There he would
see in a dissertation on the merino sheep, ,
dated Boston, August 25th, 1802, the
following, which I extract from page
349 : " Convinced that this race of sheep,
of which / believe not one (surply he had
an opportunity of knowing) had been
brought to the United States until the
importation by myself, might be intro-
duced with great benefit to our country,
I contracted with a person of the most
respectable character, to deliver to me at
Lisbon, one hundred, composed of
twenty-five rams and seventy-five ewes,
ft'om one to two years old. They were
conducted with proper passports across
the country of Portugal by three Span-
ish shepherds, and escorted by a small
guard of Portuguese soldiers. On the
10th of April last they were embarked
in the Tagus, on board the ship Perse-
verance, of 250 tons, Caleb Coggeshall,
master. In about fifty days twenty-one
rams and seventy ewes were landed at
Derby, in Connecticut, they having been
shipped at New- York on board of a
sloop destined to that river."

On page 356 is an engraved copy of a
gold medal inscribed, " Presented by the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Ag-
riculture, to the Hon. David Humphreys,
Esq., late minister to the Court of Mad-
rid, as a testimony of respect for his pa-
triotic exertions in importing into New-
England 100 of the merino breed of
sheep from Spain, to improve the breed
of that useful animal in his own coun-
try. 1802."

It is a sad reflection that our American
Literature is so unreliable, and that we
have so much gossip garnered up and
recollections unauthenticated, published

AGRICULTURAL

in our Cyclopaedias and filed away in
our Historical Collections, to perplex
and mislead our future historians.

ORIGIN OF HUNGARIAN GRASS IN
THIS COUNTRY.

Ed. Pkairie Farmer: — Numerous in-
quiries come to me about the Hungarian
j^rass — so called — which has lately been
introduced among our farmers, with such
unparalleled success as a hay crop.

I thought, perhaps, it might be of in-
terest to some of your numerous readers,
to have a little sketch of the history,
character, and qualities of this grass.
The seed was brought into this country
about three years ago by some Hungari-
an refugees, who were passing through
to their settlement west of this place, and
was highly recommended by them, and
after two years' trial, became popular,
and spread all over the country.

It is a species of millet^ though differ-
ent fiom any the farmers of this country
are, or have been, acquainted with. The
yield on our rich prairies is very heavy.
The premium acre at our last country
fair weighed eight tons and two hundred
pounds of well cured hay. This grew j
on fi'esh hazel brush land ; %'lb was the '
premium; other competitors came within
a few hundred pounds of this weight.
The average on our prairie lands is about
five tons i)er acre. This grass is an an-
nual, cultivated pretty much as oats,
though somewhat later. Any time in
May it does well here. One-third of a
bushel per acre is about the proper quan-
tity, covered very shallow, and harvested
when the blades and head begin to turn
yellow. Cutting time for this grass does
not come on till the other harvest comes
on.

As hay, it is of very nutritous quality,
and stock eat it with avidity, particular-
ly, when the seed is on. It has a very
heavy head of seed, and yields from fif-
teen to twenty bushels per acre. Farm-
ers tell me that horses will keep fot on
it without any other grain, and do mod-
erate work. — L. Phillips, i)i Prairie
Farmer.

EXTRACTS FROM A REPORT ON
ASIATIC GOATS.

ACCEPTED AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF
THE SOCIETY, AT THEIR ANNUAL MEET-
ING, OCTOBER, 1857.

1. By a resolution of the Southern

Central Agricultural Association, of
Georgia, we were appointed on a Com-
mittee to report on the Goats now in the
possession of Richard Peters, Esq., and,
in compliance, present the following re-
port as the result of our investigations :

2. Among all the domesticated animals
introduced into our country, the Goat
has hitherto been regarded as the least
valuable. The several large breeds, such
as the Scind, the ATaltese, and the Swiss
Goats, which were, from time to time,
introduced as milking animals, were, after
some time, neglected and considered as
of no great value, in comparison with
the Cow, and we are not aware that their
milk is converted into cheese in any por-
tion of our country. The hair was too
coarse for manufacturing purposes, and
the flesh was considered inferior to that
of veal or mutton ; hence the Goat was
scarcely regarded as deserving of notice
among the herds of the farmer.

The wisdom of Providence has, how-
ever, wisely so ordered it, that in all the
species of animals intended for the use
of man, distinct and permanent varieties
are produced in difiFerent localities, which
varieties, by proper attention, may be
preserved for ages without change or
deterioration. Breeds of Horses have
been produced, adapted to the various
necessities of man. The breeds that
have originated from our domesticated
horned cattle are equally varied and so
organized as to minister to the wants of
man in the different climates of the
world.

3. The Sheep, which in many of its
varieties is a coarse wooled animal, has
assumed various forms and infinite va-
rieties in the flavor of its mutton — in its
fleece and in its adaptation either to cold,
temperate or tropical climates. In Africa
and the West Indies, breeds have sprung
up, called by some Nubian Sheep, whose
wool has become converted into a short,
coarse glossy hair. In the mountains
of Spain and in Sa.xony, varieties of the
same species produce the finest wool.
These Merino and Saxon Sheep, having
become permanent breeds, have retained
their fine fleece in our country, during
successive generations.

4. The varieties of the Goat are equal-
ly numerous and equally varied in
different countries. They are all of
one species, the varieties mixing and
multiplying with each other ad in-
finitum. They all claim as their ori-
gin, the comm u Goat, (Capra hircus,)

AGRICULTURAL.

which it is admitted by nearly all relia-
ble naturalists, derives its paientage
from the wild Goat, (Capra asgagrus,)
that still exists on the European Alps.
Two individuals of this wild species
lived for several years in the menagerie
of Paris and exhibited all the manners
of the common Goat. We have, on
several occasions, seen herds of our com-
mon Goats, that had strayed away and
become wild; one of these might for
several years have been seen on that
wonderful production of nature, the Stone
Mountain of Georgia. They evidenced
all the peculiarities ascribed to the wild
Goats of the Alps. A herd of these
Goats exists on the precipitous side of
Ben Nevis, in Scotland, and are describ-
ed as still numerous on the rocky island
of Juan Fernandez, which the fertile
imagination of Defoe, by the aid of the
narrative of Selkirk, has invested with
such a fascinating romance.

5. An animal so easdy reared and
domesticated, must have been given to
man by a beneficient Providence for a
more valuable purpose than that of its
very sparing portion of milk, and its
rather inferior flesh. The Creator, who
gave to our first parents the soil, with
the command to "till" it, has also given
to the animals that accompany him in
his migrations over the earth, an organi-
zation adapted to the production of im-
proved and permanent varieties. These,
when produced, it becomes the duty of
man to increase and multiply. The in-
dividual who does this, by the applica-
tion of his time, his scientific knowledge,
his labors or his wealth, carries out the
designs of a superintending Providence,
and becomes a public benefactor. . . .

6. As we are obliged to regard the
different breeds of animals by the names
under which they are usually desigr-ated,
we are not allowed to consider the Goats
of Mr. Peters as the true cashmere. The
two kinds of hair, with an under vest of
delicate grayish wool which amounts
only to two or three ounces on a well-
grown animal — together with horns, not
spiral, draw a broad line of separation
between these probable crosses, and the
far superior Goats of Mr. Peters.

7. This animal differs also from the
Angora Goat, to which it has a -nearer
approach and from which this improved
variety has probably descended. In the
few specimens of the Angora Goat,
which we saw many years ago in Europe,
and in the figures now extant of this

variety — the ears compared with those
of the Goats of Mr. Peters were smaller
and less pendulous, the tail was much
longer, the neck was covered with a mane
of almost straight hair, reaching the
shoulders and uniting with the beard
under the chin — the body was larger
and more Goat-like, and had less the
appearance of the Sheep than the present
variety. The fleece was equally white
and glossy, but more than double as
coarse. By what local name this breed
of Goats, owned by Mr. Peters, is called
in the East remains for some future natu-
ralist, or traveler to determine. .
At present, we can only designate them
by the general term, Asiatic Goats, or to
be more definite, as the Davis Cashmere
Goats, from the individual who intro-
duced them.

8. It yet remains for us to consider
the most important subject connected
with this report. What benefit mav
our country be expected to derive from
this breed of Goats? They were intro-
duced into South Carolina in 1849, hav-
ing been brought from Turkey, in Asia,
by J. B. Davis, M. D. We examined
these animals on their first arrival and
pronounced them as destined to become
a valuable acquisition to our country.
We have since taken advantage of many
opportunities, from time to time, of ascer-
taining their adaptedness to our climate,
and saw them recently at the farm of Mr.
Peters, at Calhoun. We are much gi-ati-
fied in stating that the I'esult has far ex-
ceeded our most sanguine expectations.
We will give the result of our inquiries
and experience under several heads.

9. Their Constitutional Characteria-
tics and adaptedness to our Climate. —
They appear to be remarkably well
adapted to our climate, show no evidence
of suffering, and do not pant like the
Sheep during the warm weather of sum-
mer, when the thermometer often risfs
to 92°. In winter, when the thermome-
ter sometimes sinks to zero, their woolly
covering protects them from the cold,
which they endure fully as well as do
the Sheep. In the lower country of
Carolina, during recent severe winters,
we ascertained that many of the com-
mon Goats (as far as we could learn, one-
half of the whole stock) perished from
cold ; the Asiatic Goats, however, did
not appear to suffer the least inconven-
ience. Kids were dropped in a snow
bank, at Mr. Peters' farm in February,
and sustained no injury.

AGRICULTURAL

10. Three of these Goats were kept
during winter and summer near Utica,
in central New- York, and three others,
with their descendants, have remained
near ILirper's Ferry, Virginia, since the
autumn of 1854; all of them are doing
well and have suffered no inconvenience
either in winter or summer. This hardy
disposition is imparted to the dilTerent
grades, the half and three-quarter bloods,
produced by an intermixture with the
common Goat. They are all healthy.
No disease has appeared among them,
and there has not been a single sick
goat or anj' death by disease among
those originally imported, or in any of
their descendants during the eight years
since their introduction,

11. The oldest imported female is now
at least ten, probably eleven years old —
she produces a kid every year, and now
has at her side a very tine female kid,
dropped on the tenth of March last — she
is in tine order and looks as though she
would breed for several years. The
females are abundantly furnished with
milk, and are excellent mothers, never
losing their kids, they being strong when
dropped, and able to suck in a few
moments, the mother remaining over
and about them for forty-eight hours,
and afterwards always keeping a careful
watch. The half breed ewes inherit
from the Davis Goats this peculiar trait
of character, being the very reverse of
the common Goats in this particular, the
latter, especially when bred in large
herds, care little for their 3'oung, who
are often left to die for want of nourish-
ment, when a few hours old.

12. The Increase. — This has been less
than was at first anticipated. The fact
of the common goat having two, and
sometimes three young at a birth, and
often two broods in a year, led manj^
persons to the conclusion that this new
variety of goat would be equally prolific.
In this, experience has now undeceived
us. The animal produces young but
once in a year, and only one kid at a
birth. Mr. Peters received from Dr.
Davis in December, 1856, eight females
and two males — three of the females
having been imported. There were in
this number three small kids that failed
to breed until two years old. From
these females, Mr. Peters has raised
twenty-one, twelve of which proved to
be males and nine females. Thus it
appears that the constitution of this
variety, is organized like that of the

wild goats (CaiEgagrus) which produces
but one young annually. As, however,
it produces young when fifteen months
old, and continues to breed until over
ten years of age, taking into considera-
tion the strength and hardihood of the
kids, we may safely consider it as equal
to the French Merino sheep in the rapid-
ity with whicli a flock may be bred and
increased. There is, however, another
mode, both natural and certain, by which
this variety can be increased very rapid-
ly. To this we will direct attention
hereafter.

13. The preiwnderance of young males
over females. — It has frequently been
remarked, that animals and poultry of
various kinds brought from China and
Western Asia, produce a much greater
number of males than females. The
only experiment we made was on the
Shaughae fowl, which as long as we had
an old male, produced, on an average,
three or four male chickens to one fe-
male. Since we have kept young males
only, the sexes in their descendants are
about equal. It was at one time feared
that the experiments in the introduction
of these goats would be greatly retarded
from the fact that they produced ncai ly
all males. The following memorandum
may be of some service in the future
propagators of this goat :

14. In 1854, Dr. Davis used a two-
year old buck to five ewes. The result
was, two females and three males. In
1855, Mr. Peters used the old imported
buck to eight ewes ; the result was, two
females and six males. In 1856, he used
a buck kid of nine months old to six
ewes; the result was four females to two
males. In the same year he used the
imported buck to two ewes ; the product
was one mnle and one female. It will be
a matter of interest to the physiologist
to become acquainted with the result of
a further continuance of these experi-
ments.

15. Their Food. — Like all species and
varieties of Goats, they prefer weeds,
briars and leaves, to glass. Mr. Peteis
informed us that during the sunmier
months they are a decided benefit to his
grass lands, by feeding on, and finally
destrojing, briars, weeds and bushes.
They are especially fond of the leaves of
young pines and cedars, both in sum-
mer and winter; the balsomic character
of which is gonducive to their health
and thrift. During winter they should
be fed like sheep, but do not require

AGRICULTURA L

much attention, except in snowy weather,
as they are better able to shift for them-
selves than the sheep. Mr. Peters ad-
vises that during winter they should be
divided into flocks of about one hundred,
or less, as they butt each other at feed-
ing time.

16. Their Flesh as an article of Food.
— We have never indulged in the ex-
travagant luxury of feasting on a frill-
blooded animal of this variety, but we
have on several occasions made a hearty
meal on the quarter, half or three-quar-
ter bloods, and all who dined in com-
pany pronounced the meat of the half-
breed wethers superior to lamb, and at
eighteen months old superior to mutton ;
the flavor approaches nearer to venison
than to mutton. They remain fat nearly
throughout the year, and in November
are almost too fat for the table. We
observed a great improvement in the
progeny of the full bloods over their
imported parents, both in size and fat-
ness. The weight of the buck is given
as one hundred and fifty-five pounds,
that of the doe one hundred and two.

17. Their liaMlity to he destroyed T)y
Dogs. — If this animal was as liable to be
killed by dogs as the common sheep, we
would ti'emble for the perpetuity of the
race in our country. We have often
lamented that no laws were enacted and
enforced to prevent worthless curs from
depopulating the valuable sheep of our
country. Many a once sanguine raiser
of choice breeds of imported sheep, has
been caused to sigh over his massacred
flock, and then abandoned the raising of
sheep in despair. A flock of sheep
when pursued by dogs scatter in every
direction, and fall an easy prey to their
relentless, blood-thirsty foe ; but when
he approaches a herd of goats he finds
them formed into a ring — the kids in the
center and the old bucks in advance,
exhibiting their formidable horns. No
dog is bold enough to close in, but
usually runs, barking, around the flock,
thus attracting attention, and receiving
the reward of his carnivorous designs.
Mr. Peters informs us that he gave up
the raising of sheep after having a dozen
fine South-Downs killed by a pack of
dogs, when they also destroyed four
common ewe goats, but since there were
no sheep on the farm to tempt the dogs,
they have not come near the goats. Mr.
Peters informs us that he has lost none
of his goats, either of the pure breeds
or the grades, by dogs. He further

remarked that with a large herd he had
no trouble. They have a range of two
or thi-ee miles over fields and through
woods ; they return every evening before
sunset to their house, and in case of a
shower of rain run to their shelter, even
at the distance of several miles. He
believes that a thousand or more would
continue in fine condition during sum-
mer and fall, in one flock, on a large
range, as they are free irom disease, do
not crowd together like sheep, or suffer
from heat ; they are very easily driven
and managed, and do not run off and
get lost.

18. — The Fleece. — The quantity shear-
ed in April was from the bucks (aged)
from five to seven pounds, and from the
ewes from four to five pounds. Mr.
Peters shears but once a year, but in-
tends hereafter to shear the kids in
September and again in April.

19. In regard to the fineness of the
fleece, we find a microscopic examina-
tion of the hair of Asiatic goats, from
the stock now owned by Mr. Peters,
William P. Davenport, of Virginia, and
Dr. Ambler, then of New-York, printed
in the Patent Office Report for 1855, pp.
57-59. The examinations were made
by George 0. Schafier, M. D. He says,
"the degree of fineness is abovit that of
the finest Saxony wool." He gave also
an outline from a " piece of shawl stuff
imported from Calcutta, and said to be
the finest ever brought into this country."
He adds, "it is gratifying, then, to be
assured that the fleece may be raised in
this country with a fineness closely
approximating to that which it has ever
attained in Asia under the most favora-
ble circumstances."

20. We have lying before us specimens
from the fleeces of several young Asiatic
goats, which we have compared with
the finest wool of the merino sheep, and
find the former not only equal in fine-
ness, but of far greater length. It must,
however, be observed, that young ani-
mals, at their first shearing only, present
this remarkably fine fleece. In the old
female it is a little coarser, and in the
old males still more so. It is proposed
by Mr. Peters to divide the fleeces of
these goats at shearing time into classes,
thus :

Kids under a year old No. 1.

Yearling ewes and yearling wethers. No. 2.

Yearling bucks, old ewes No. 3.

Aged bucks No. 4.

21. The fleeces of old ewes and year-

AGRICULTURAL

9

linp; bucks would answer for cloth of a
valuable texture. The fleece of the
yearlini^ is much finer than that of the
old ewes ; and th.at of the kid is fine
enough for the very finest shawls, and
ought to be very valuable. There is a
large class of fabrics for which these
fleeces are peculiarly adapted, viz : Cam-
let and worsted goods and ladies' fabrics,
as shallics, mouslin delaines, gentlemen's
clothing for summer wear, hosiery, &c.,
promising a beauty, strength, durability,
luster and permanency of color, far supe-
rior to the W(»ol of the sheep or the
alpaca. The goat's hair is known to
receive and retain the most brilliant
coloring, which the hair of the sheep
and the alpaca has not the property of
retaining.

22. From the characteristics exhibited
by castrated animals, it is probable that
the wool from a pure bred wether, alter-
ed when quite young, would not become
coarser after the first year, and the quan-
titj' would certainly amount to eight or
nine pounds. A member of our family
has had in use for several years a pair
of stockings from the wool of this goat,
and they seem to be almost indestructi-
ble. Mr. Peters has also had an excellent
cloth spun and woven from it.

28. The results of Breeding with the
common Goat. — Familiar as we have
been througa a long life with the changes
produced by crosses jjmong varieties of
domestic animals and poultry, there is
one trait in these goats which is more
strongly developed then in any other
variety that we have ever known. We
allude to the wonderful facility with
which the young of the cross between
the male of the Asiatic goat and the
female of the common goat so readilj'
assumes all the characteristics of the
former. It is exceedingly difficult to
change a breed that has become perma-
nent in any of our domestic varieties,
whether it be that of horses, cattle,
sheep, or hogs, into another variety by
the aid of the male of the latter. There
is a tendency to run back into their
oiiginal varieties, hence the objection to
mixed breeds. But in the progeny of
these Asiatic and common goats, nine-
tenths of them exhibit the strongest
tendency to adopt the characteristics of
the male and to elevate themselves into
the higher and nobler grade, as if
ashamed of their coarse, dingy hair and
musky aromatics, and desirous of wash-
ing out the odorous perfume, and putting

on the white livery of a more respectable
race.

24. Mr. Peters has not bred any quar-
ter-breeds. He made wethers of all his
half-breed males of 185(5, and sold his
three-cpiarter blood rams. He now owns
one hundred and fifty half-blood females,
seventy-five three-qu-irter blood females,
and six seven-eighths blood females. He
has also four females three-quarters
Asiatic and one-quarter Thibet shawl.
There appears to be no improvement in
this mixture with the shawl goat, over
that produced by a union with the com-
mon goat; indeed, the produrt which
we saw in Charleston from what was
called the Cashmere and the Asiatic goat,
was decidedly inferior.

The half-bloods, as we have stated,
have an under coat of fine, downy wool,
closely resembling and equal in quality
and quantity to the fleece of the Thibet
shawl goats imported into this country.
The three-quarter breeds in midwinter
show an under coat of greater quantity
and length. In both grades, this under
fur drops out in summer. The fifteen-
sixteenths or one-sixteenth common
goat resemble the Asiatic goat in quanti-
ty and quality of fleece, and size of car-
cass so closely that m'c found it impossi-
ble to distinguish them from the fuU
bloods. Another advantage is likely to
result fi-om this admixture with the com-
mon goat : the half-blood females produce
two kids at abirth, and the three-quarter
blood females generally, although not
alwaj'S, two. Thus the breed maj'' be
rendered more prolific. AVe here per-
ceive in how short a period of time our
whole race of now almost worthless goats
may be converted into a breed valuable
both for its flesh and its wool.

25. The regions of our country to
which they are best adapted. — There
does not appear to be any part of the
United States to which the constitution
of this goat is not adapted. Damp
climates, like England, where there arc
almost daily drizzling rains, are injurious.
This animal scarcely needs water. Wc
were informed by Mr. Peters, that three
of them remained in a lot, feeding on
weeds and grass, without any water dur-
ing three months and keeping in fine
order. Our whole country is warm in
sunnner, and portions of it very cold in
winter. If this goat is constitutionally
adapted to brave the cold of the stcpi)es
of the eastern Caucassian, Himmaleh
and Altaian Mountains, it would not

10

AGRICULTURAL.

suffer (if fed in winter) in our coldest
regions, and would thrive along all the
sides of the Alleghany and Rocky
Mountains. It has improved in the
comparatively warm climate of Carolina.
It would do well in the hilly country of
the Carolinas and Georgia, many portions
of which are now scarcely cultivated.
The whole western country from Ne-
braska down to Western Texas and New-
Mexico, may be rendered a feeding ground
for this wool-bearing goat. The moun-
tain regions of Virginia, North Carolina,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, will be found
admirably adapted to the raising of large
flocks of these goats and their crosses.
The wild growth of the mountain sides,
with the native grasses of the rich val-
lej^s, will afford pasturage summer and
winter at a trifling cost. The worn-out
plantations and poor pine lands of the
Carolinas and Georgia might be brought
into requisition to supply meat for our
markets, which, by many persons, would
be preferred to venison. A single shep-
herd could guard a flock of several
thousands, more especially if he cdled
to his assistance the large shepherd's
dog, from the Swiss Mountains. They
would not only astonish the marauding
wolf, but his prowling relative, the cur.

26. It is not imposf-ible, that among
the many varieties of goats existing in
the far distant, and almost inaccessible
regions of the Eastern world, some breeds
may yet exist more valuable to our
country than this, but at present we
know of none that can be compared
with it.

27. What improvement can he made
in this 'breed of Ooats ? — Since it pos-
sesses the characteristics of all the other
domesticated animals, we have reason to
believe that, by judicious breeding, and
devoting to this subject the same atten-
tion that breeders in England bestow on
their horses, cattle, sheep, and swine, an
equal number of improved varieties will
be produced. We are at present unac-
quainted with any superior variety of
Goat with which this might be crossed
to improve the fineness of the wool. Im-
proved individuals, however, spring up
in these varieties themselves, without
any foreign admixture, and by selecting
these, and separating them from the
common stock, we have at once a new-
breed, which soon becomes a permanent
race. Let us in .these matters follow
the teachings of nature in all her depart-
ments. How w^ere the varieties of Sea

Island cotton, of large rice, of prolific
corn, wheat, &c., produced? A few
stalks of these superior qualities were
detected in the fields.

28. Thus far, it was the free gift of a
beneficent Creator. Man, his agent, now
selected and cultivated them separate
from all others. Thus a valuable variety
was obtained, that may, by proper care,
be perpetuated. In the Courrier des
Etats Unis we have a long and interest-
ing account of a merino sheep in France,
which, instead of wool, produced fine
silken hair. The breed was perpetuated,
and goes under the name of Cashmere
sheep. At the "universal exhibition,"
in Paris, it w^as affirmed by the examina-
tors of one of the shawls, made from
this hair, that " they found this (as they
named it) native Cashmere as soft and
as brilliant as the imported, and that it
was superior to the latter on account of
its regularity of detail." We notice in
a paper called the Homestead, published
in Hartford, Connecticut, October 25,
1855, a translation of the article, and a
note by the translator in which he states
that in Barnwell, South Carolina, where
merinoes had been acclimated, the pro-
portion of these kinds of cashmere lambs
were four out of five ; supposing the
flock to be degenerating yearly, and their
fleece of no value, they were handed
over to the butcher. In this way many
a good gift of Providence is cast away
on account of man's want of knowledge
and attention.

29. Some instructive lessons in Phys-
iology and Natural History, are taught
us in our experience in reference to the
History of this Goat. — Several learned
writers, regarded as authority, have as-
serted that these eastern goats, which so
much resemble sheep, were the products
of the sheep and the goat ; hence they
asserted, that the views of naturalists in
regard to species must be greatly modi-
fied. For the last ten or twelve years
persons, in several parts of the United
States, have been engaged in efforts to
produce an offspring from an association
of the sheep and the goat, which we do
not consider improbable, but which, if
the experiment had been attended with
success, would, we are confident, have
proved a hybrid incapable of propaga-
tion inter se. We have not yet heard
of a single instance of offspring having
been produced in the United States by
these eflForts. Mr. Peters, who, at our
request, instituted some experiments by

AGRICULTURAL.

11

carefully rearing up a young male sheep,
with several young female goats, informs
us that they copulated readily, but not
a single young was produced. We here
learn that God only is the creator of
species, and has drawn a barrier of sepa-
ration which can not be overcome.
Varieties may be crossed and improved
by breeding with other varieties of the
same species, but can not be improved
by crossing with other species, since
these, if produced, would be hybrids
and incapable of perpetuating a race.

30. Another writer was engaged in
deciding on species by a microscopical
examination of hair, and made the
cashmere goat a new s])ecies from this
test. If his supposed new species should
not prove a cross, it may at least be seen
now readily, the goats themselves are
converting one species into another, and
demolishing his whole visionary theory.
Another theory, almost universally re-
ceived by breeders, of stock since the
days of "Walker's book on intermar-
riage"— on " in-and-in breeding," &c., is
likely to receive a considerable shock, as
these experiments with the goats, and
especially with the Brahmin breed of
cattle, are in progress. Our doctrine is
that relationship and blood, and " in-and-
in breeding," as it is termed, has nothing
to do with the deterit)ration of animals,
but that this deterioration is the result
of the constitutions having been formed
in the same localities, and that the de-
scendants of a single pair, if separated,
and removed to other localities where,
from food and climate, the constitution
has undergone a change, and are then
brought together, they would continue
healthy and prolific till the end of time.
It is the settled opinion of physiologists
that from the changes which the bodies
of men and animals are daily undergoing,
not a particle of the original body or the
blood remains after seven years. Thus,
the Irishman who proclaimed himself a
native .Vmerican on the strength of his
having been seven years in America, was,
in a physiological sense, not far out of
the way.

3L Dr. Davis brought a small number
of goats to this country, some of which
were born after he left Turkey, they
must therefore be very closely related.
This will apply still more nearly to the
Brainnin cattle which he imported at the
same time. We saw the original pair at
the F]arl of Derby's at Knowesly, near
Liverpool. There has been in-and-in

breeding ever since. There is not one
animal of this variety in America that
has not descended from this single pair,
which, as far as we can recollect, were
brother and sister. They are scattered
throughout the West, breeding as fast
as cattle can breed, and we are assured
that they have improved rather tlian
deteriorated. The water Buffaloes, im-
ported at the same time by Dr. Davis,
and now multiplying among themselves,
but not mixing with our common cattle,
are progressing in their own natural way
to overturn an erroneous theory. Single
pairs of turkeys, ducks, or common
fowls will stock a farm-yard and in time
spread over a whole district or State. A
single pair of tame pigeons from the
same nest, brother and sister, will soon
fill the pigeon-house and give no evidence
of degeneracy or sterility, and a single
pair of fish will stock a iish-pond. Give
them healthy constitutions, by an occa-
sional change of food and localities, and
tliere will be no danger of degeneracy
by " in-and-in breeding." We give the
results of our own experiments pursued
through a period of fifty years. Let
these goats, cattle, &c., be bred in differ-
ent localities, and let there be an occa-
sional interchange, and we feel assured
that there will be no deterioration in
consequence of their close relationship.

32. In conclusion, we may be asked,
whether we are induced to believe tl,)at
from the many good properties of this
goat it will eventually supersede the
sheep in husbandry ? We answer, cer-
tainly not. A gift of Providence so
valuable as the sheep, is not to be cast
aside by any intruder on its rightful
domains. The sheep and the goat have
each their appropriate sphere in the
economy of nature, and there are good
properties in eacli that can not be sup-
planted by the other. The Creator, in
liis munilicent benevolence, has given a
limited number of valuable domestic
animals and poultry, grain.s, fruits, and
vegetables to man — all capable of pro-
ducing varieties and of accompanying
him in his migrations over the world.
Each has its hmits of usefulness, and one
species can not intrude on the rights of
the other. The maple tree of the North,
and the sugar beet and Chinese sugar
cane of more temperate climates, are ad-
mii-able substitutes and of inmiense
value. They are also well adapted to
check the cupidity of speculators in
syrups and sugars;" but they can not iu

12

AGRICULTURAL.

the end demolish the great sweetner of
the human palate of the world, the old
tropical sugar cane. Cotton is at this
time king, and is struggling, like Aaron's
rod, to swallow all the lesser products
of silk, flax and wool, but they are des-
tined still to hold their place in the ar-
ticles tha^ minister to man's comfort.
The sheep will not be depressed in the
scale of man's valuable commodities — the
goat will only be elevated to the stan-
dard to which it was designed to rise.
Thus each product revolves in its own
sphere like the lesser lights in the firma-
nent, reflecting glory on their great
Author and conferring benefits and bless-
ings on hifn "who was created in his
image and crowned with glory and
honor." Respectfully submitted,
John Bachman,
Chairman of the Committee.
We have published the foregoing,
though of greater length than we like to
present in a single article, for the sake
of the valuable information it contains
on an important subject, only regretting
that our space does not allow us to give
the full report, particularly the elaborate
discussion of the committee, as to the
breed of Mr. Peters' Goats. It would
interest many of our readers had we
made a place for it. But what we have
puolished is perhaps of greater practical
value. If more such reports as the one
from which the above is taken were pub-
ished — giving the results of patient,
thorough examinations, it would be well
for Agriculture. — Ed.

PUBLIC LANDS FOR AGRICULTU-
RAL EDUCATION.

Incredible as it may seem, says a let-
ter wr ter from Washington, in the N.
Y. Everting Post, there is actually a
prospect that the old States are going to
share in the distribution of public lands.
Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, introduced a
bill to-day providing for a distinbution of
public lands to the several States for the
purpose of establishing agricultural col-
leges, giving twenty thousand acres for
each presidential elector to every State.
Those States which have no public lands
within their boundaries will receive land
scrip, which can not be located in any
.other State, but may be so located by

any individual purchasing the scrip. The
interest of the fund must be devoted to
the maintenance of agricultural colleges,
and to nothing else. A limited amount
can be appropriated to the purchase of
model farms, but not to the erection of
buildings. Every State which accepts
the trust must bind itself to protect it
against contingencies.

There are some four hundred colleges
of this character in Europe, sustained
and conducted wholly or in part by gov-
ernment, and a desire to follow their ex-
ample seems to have awakened simulta-
neously in different States. The agricul-
tural college of Michigan was the first
one established on this continent, and is
now in very successful and useful opera-
tion, with more than one hundred stu-
dents. There have been some organized
in New- York, Pennsylvania and Mary-
land, and will be opened in New-York
and Pennsylvania next year. Virginia
has also taken some steps towards es-
tablishing one in the Old Dominion.

A memoi'ial was presented to the last
Congress by Washburn, of Illinois, ask-
ing for an act like this of Mr. Morrill's.
Michigan has asked for an appropriation
of lands for her cohege.

Prodigal grants of lands have been
made to railroads in the new States, and
to those States themselves, but with the
exception of the grant of lands to sup-
port the indigent insane, vetoed by
Pierce, I believe that this bill is the only
one for an equitable and comprehensive
distribution to all the States in propor-
tion to their population.

SUBSOIL PLOUGING.

BY AN OLD SUBSCRIBER.

Much has been said and written upon
subsoil ploughing, yet not half enough.
For few are so difficult to eradicate as
prejudices which are wholly devoid of
truth for their foundation. And until
the erroneous opinion entertained about
disturbing subsoil be extinguished, no
one deserving the name, in these days,
of an agriculturist, can believe that
he has done all the good he can to advance
the interests of his favorite pursuit, un-
less he has left no stone unturned to set
people right upon the subject.
Deep tillage is the essence of high farm-

AGRICULTURAL,

IS

ing ; high forming is the perfection of
farming. And the reason is, that by
high farming a greater return is obtain-
ed for the amount of capital and labor
emploj'cd, than by any other means.

It matters not how much land is culti-
vated. That is not the question. Taken
alone, the question which a farmer
should ask is not, " how much land can
I get?" but "how much land will the la-
bor and capital I can command enaUe
me to farm, so as to get the largest re-
turn for that capital and labor V"

The answer to the question should be
divided into two parts. 1st. How to
raise the greatest amount of crops. 2d.
What those crops should be with refer-
ence to the quality of that land and the
market that is iu the locality availaile.

It is the first part of this answer only
that we have to consider in this article.
A man, a horse, or an ox can only per-
form a given amount of labor in a day.
What that amount is, depends upon the
physical powers of each. Any waste of
expenditure of those powers is a loss of
so much productive labor. This every
farmer knows, and practises when he
sends half a mile instead of ten miles for
a load of manure. But the same thing,
(that is a waste of labor,) occurs wher-
ever more ground is gone over, or work-
ed, whether with the plough or the har-
row to raise a given crop, than is in
truth needful to raise that crop. And
every day's experience shows that this is
a waste of labor that does not always
occur in that light to the farmer. If a
crop is got from two acres, that in quan-
tity and quality could be got from one,
not quite double, but nearly that amount
of labor has been wasted in man and
team in the production of it. Nor is that
all ; because, of course, one acre of the
two would, if not so occupied, be availa-
ble for another crop.

There is no doubt whatever, that for
many crops (although not for all) the
proportion of two to one is by no means
exaggerated ; or, that deep tillage alone.

will, in many instances, make that, and
more than that, difference.

Many modifications of subsoil plough-
ing present themselves into which our
limits will not permit us to enter ; in
some cases it may be expedient to bring
up j)artially tlie subsoil to the surface ;
in other instances this would be inexpe-
dient. The nature of the land must de-
termine that question. But there is no
land that will not be materially benefited
by subsoil ploughing in one way or other,
unless the bottom be a pure gravel of a
very open texture. And even in such
land injury would not be done, unless,
indeed, the gravel were brought to the
surface, which of course no farmer would
dream of.

On a future occasion we may enter
upon the positive advantages resulting
from subsoiling, at present we have only
space to advert to one or two of the ob-
jections sometimes urged against it.

It is erroneously supposed by some
persons that in lands with a sandy bot-
tom the practice of subsoiling renders
them less capable of sustaining vegetable
life during the drouths of summer.

A greater follacy can not exist. The
more compact soil is, the more easily will
it conduct heat on the one hand, and the
less water or moisture will it hold, on
the other. A brick will heat through
much more rapidly than a volume of dry
earth or sand of equal size, and water
will never conduct heat downwards.

When, therefore, a sandy subsoil is
ploughed, the effect being simply to
make it thereby more porous and open,
the consequence is that it is in a condi-
tion mechanically to admit the roots of
plants more readily ; and also to place
it in a condition more freely to admit
moisture from the surface, or by capillary
attraction from below, whilst its greater
permeability to the passage of atmosphe-
ric air enables the vegetable particles di.s-
tributed through it to take up in that
passage a larger amount of anmionia
from which one of the most essential ali-
ments vegetable life is derived.

14

AGRICULTURAL.

Again we have heard raised an opin-
io i that the disturbance of subsoils con-
sisting of hard pan is injurious, on the
ground of its becoming intermixed with
the surface soil. This objection is as un-
tenable as the previous one. For, in the
first place, such intermixture need yot
occur, (though in certain conditions and
quantities tJiat might do good,) whilst the
benefits to be derived would be of a sim-
ilar kind, but in yet greater amount,
than in the case of the sandy land.

We purpose again to revert to a sub-
ject of such great importance to the
farmer.

THE FARMER.

We have seldom found any thing
more beautiful and true than the follow-
ing, which we cut from the New- Yoi^Jc
Ledger. If there is any thing in it from
which we dissent, it is, that the faimer
can live without the mechanic, but not
the mechanic without the farmer. This
is true, if we reduce the word live to its
lowest meaning. But in the sense of
living well — prospering — the farmer
needs the mechanic, not only to make
his plow and reaper, and to build his
house, but to create a maiket for his
produce. The truth is, the farmer and
the mechanic are very necessary to each
other ; and it is not easy to say which
needs the other most.

What a sovereign man is the intelli-
gent, industrious farmer. Within his
own realm of earth, he wields a sceptre
to which all must bend. The balance of
the world's life and comfort he holds in
liis stalwart hand. Neither courts, nor
camps, nor armies, nor fleets, can exist
without his aid. He is the feeder — aye,
and the garmenter, virtuall3^~of the race.
Cities spring from the traffic in the pro-
ducts of his industry. Commerce is
bom at his bequest. Of the State he is
" first Estate." Lord of the land, no
man has firmer hold of the essential title
of nobility. And he need be no plodder
because he is a farmer. The day is past
when the soil tiller was confounded with
the clod turned by his plow. The soil
is his servitor ; he smites it, and lo ! the

harvest comes forth. The hoe and the
sickle make him music braver than dul-
cimers, and sound the march of a tri-
umph, grand as it is peaceful and bless-
ed. But he is not forever in the furrow.
For him are broadest fields of study —
fairest fields of delight. For him are
honors linked to beauties and wisdoms ;
for him, periods of communion and rap-
ture, of which the birds, the flowers, the
streams, the stars, and all wondrous
things of the universe, may bear witness.
A brave man art thou, wielder of the
mallet and plane ; and thou, skillful
worker of webs ; and thou, deviser of all
machines whereby the labor of man's
hand is speeded or abridged. But ye
are all second to the farmer. He is mas-
ter of the needfulest of toils, and the
most serviceable products. He can live
without you, but you can not exist for a
day without him. Honor to the farmer ;
may his sphere widen and his stature be
exalted. And honor to all honest toil, for
of such are the fruits that form the
crownina; glories of the world.

A WORD TO FARMERS.

An exchange says, afd we approve
and adopt, the following :

Now, farmers, is the time to com-
mence writing for your paper. Now the
long winter evenings aie drawing on,
you have time to write, and your brother
farmers have time to read your letters ;
do so then at once. Give us the fruits
of your experience, in facts and facts
only.

Short letters are best, so give us your
ideas in as compact a form as possible.
We should like to hear from some one
upon sheep, swine, poultry — upon ma-
nures, the various methods of cultivation
as at present in actual use in the Gran-
ite State.

SYRUP FROM THE SUGAR CANE.

Mr. Charles Keeny, of Chester, in
this county, presented us last week with
a bottle of syrup manufactured from the
Chinese Sugar Cane, which for clear-
ness, deliciousness of taste, and excellent
quality, far exceeds, iu our judgment,
the best Southern Sugar-House syrup.
It has none of the raw, sti oug, cane
taste peculiar to the latter article, but is
rich in taste and color. Mr. Keeny in-
forms us that he procured in the spring
only Jlfti/ cents' worth of the seed, in-

AGRICULTURAL,

15

tending simply to try its saccharine
qualities as an experiment. The result
far exceeds his anticipations. From that
fifty cents' worth of seed he obtained half
a barrel of delicious syrup, worth at
leiist seventj'-five cents per gallon. His
method of manufacturing it is similar to
that adopted in making syrup and sugar
from the maple, by boiling, cleansing,
skimming, etc. We regard Mr. Keeny's
experiment as entirely successful, and if
any one wishes to satisfy himself of the
truth of the above statement, let him call
at our office and tante for himself —
Jeffersonian Democrat.

ON STEAM PLOUGHING.

BY ?. MANNY.

Wadam's Gkove, Nov. SO, 1857.

Messrs. Editors — Dear Sirs : — I no-
tice an article in your November number,
headed Steam Plough, stating that Mr.
Bronson Murray, of Illinois, has offered
$50,000 for the best practical steam
plough. This, I think, is a mistake ;
and, as I have reason to believe, the pro-
position he did make some time ago to
try to raise that amount of money as a
bonus for the best invention, is likely to
prove an injurious stimulent to our in-
ventive genius, in as much as it will no
doubt induce a number of our hard-
working, industrious mechanics to spend
too much of their time on that which I
believe never will benefit anybody. I
am an inventor myself, and my success
may clearly be traced back to the start-
ing point, which is this: In the first
place ascertain as clearly as possible
whether such an invention will prove
profitable and beneficial to the public.
As I have investigated many years ago
the practicability of steam ploughing, I
will state the result of my investigation.
In the first [)lacc its cost will be $4,000
or $5,000 at least, the interest on which
in our State will be $500 a year. The
wages of two men to run it three months,
which is about the average time of plow-
ing in a year, at $1 50 per day each,
added to the interest, makes $734. Al-
lowing it to plough li) acres per day,

this would be 780 acres, leavmg out the
cost of fuel and repairs, and the expense
is nearly $1 per acre. Except the prai-
rie sod, we can hire our land ploughed
for 75 cents per acre; but there is a
more profitable way than this, which we
shall some day universally adopt ; —
stock our farms as they should be with
cattle, and while they are growing up
into bullocks, they will not only do all
our ploughing, but will give us about 25
per cent, in their growth. Now the dif-
ference between ploughing with our
steers and gaining 25 per cent, in their
growth, or ploughing with a steam en-
gine and losing 10 per cent, on its cost,
is so great that I could never make my-
self believe that any sane man would
adopt steam ploughing on our prairie
forms, where we have such abundant
means, for raising stock. If steam
ploughing proves to be profitable any
where, it must be among our eastern
farmers where their farms are too small
to keep stock sufficient for ploughing.

The writer of the above is a veteran
in a good cause. He has done well in
the reaper and mower line, and we be-
lieve he is now doing better and better
every year-«-making realh^ valuable im-
provements. But he has fliilcd to prove
to our apprehension that some one else,
or even he himself, niaj' not yet do a
greater thing for agriculture in the way
of steam ploughing. We have an idea
that his objections to it are answerable,
but we leave them to some of our cor-
respondents, only stating our belief that
the time is not fiu' distant when steam
ploughs will be manufactured for less
money, and will plough more land per
day than he estimates. — Ed.

AUTUMNAL CULTIVATION— AS A
MEANS FOR GOOD FARMING.

AVe could not subscribe to every word
of the following, from the (London) Farm-
ers' Magazine, but we believe that it is,
in the main, true and important, and that

16

AGRICULTURAL.

very much is gained by the fall cultiva-
tion of soils, especially those of a heavy
nature, and we very much doubt wheth-
er the cultivation of even light sandy
soils, in autumn, is as injurious as has
been sometimes represented. Will some
of our readers give us the results of their
experience in fall cultivation, noting par-
ticularly the character of the soil ?

It is highly necessary we should pos-
sess clear and distinct views upon every
subject connected with the practice of
agriculture ; and we again revfcrt to the
system of autumnal cultivation, because
we feel it to be a subject of vast import-
ance to the farming interest of the king-
dom at large, while it is our observation
and conviction that the practice is nei-
ther generally understood nor sufficient-
ly appreciated. It is certainly but par-
tially and imperfectly carried out, both
as to efficiency and in extent.

"We do not presume to the position of
tutors in agriculture ; but we do desire
to see more of the autumnal fallow, and
less of the curse of creation in the shape
of the thorn and the thistle, and the com-
mingled mass of grass and rubbish which
feast upon and impoverish the soil. We
want good forming to be general ; we
want bad farming to be the exception.
We desire to see comparative garden cul-
ture abounding ; and well may you who
have already attained to it plume your-
selves at your will and at your pleasure
upon your superior skill and surpassing
judgment; but where weeds exist and
abound, there is other and more import-
ant work to be done. Weeds and self-
laudation and self-satisfaction will not
do ; they are our admitted enemies ; they
are as a stealthy foe, and as insidious
robbers. Therefore Extirpation! must
be our watched and our cry, whilst the
autumn system of fallow must be our
practice. It is unquestionably the cheap-
est and best means by which to secure
and maintain a clean occupation, and it
has but to be tried in practice to be ap-
preciated ; and, when appreciated, it will
be considered worthy of strenuous eflforts
to be carried out generally as a common
system of culture. The time is coming
when it must be viewed not as secondary,
but of primary, importance ; for the fu-
ture will be far too competitive an age for
the farmer manacled and tied with the
fetters of his couch to stand a chance, or
find either existence or breathing-space

in the straining exertions of the hard-
fought race for profit. He must be dis-
tanced. Extra weight will tell. If clean
farming won't pay, foul-farming can't;
and the landed proprietors are gradually
learning the worth of a good tenant,
whilst they reject and eject the bad.

Autumn cultivation has for its main
object the eradication and destruction of
all the perennial weeds which infest the
soil ; and it is to this end every operation
should, in the first instance, be fully di-
rected. The annuals are but secondary ;
therefore for couch and so forth it is
highly necessary to cultivate deeply, and,
whether with Biddell's, Bentall's or Cole-
man's scarifiers, or the common plow, it
is essential to thoroughly break up the
soil to its accustomed depth. Above all
things, it is requisite {o be careful that
no couch remains in the solid soil be-
neath the passage for the share. We re-
peat, the soil must be broken to the
depth at which it is usually plowed, or
perfect cleanness will not be efiected.
We know that this is often no light task,
and a master's eye must watch the pro-
gress of the work, or it will be but par-
tially and inefBciently performed. The
truth is, every horseman has his favorite
"Sharper" or "Pepper" or "Boxer,"
and these animals, in his estimation, are
of far more consequence than good tillage,
therefore spare them he will if possible.
Besides, the weather is hot, the flies
sharp, the land hard, and Tom or Jem
will ease the depth a little too much, or
swear point-blank it can't be done at all.
Now comes the master's firmness and
sound judgment to dictate what can and
what shall be done, and how. We have
seen many a complaisant man foiled and
overruled by the plausibility or perver-
sity of his men, but almost any land can
be properly broken up by the use of the
proper means ; and, if the value of au-
tumn cultivation were really understood,
the country at large would jjresenta very
different appearance at the present time.
Truly the system is on the increase ; but
how many a set of horses have we of late,
and especially at the commencement of
harvest, idly swinging their tails in some
rough pasture, under the shade of some
old oak or ash, instead of being first fed
with a good feed of corn, (which they
require,) and then attached to an effect-
ive implement for the cultivation of some
neighboring stubble — which by-the-bye,
contained " such good sheep-fed," " such
laying for birds," and, in short, such an

AGRICULTURAL

11

amount of deviltry as would beggar des-
cription, and even defy spring-cleansing,
with all its operations of many plowings
and endless harrowings. To 1)0 brief,
two or three scarifyings or stirrings un-
der a scorching sun, in August, would
have been sufficient to destroy the thou-
sand-and-one enemies which have floui-
ished through a course of years, and still
Nourish on without molestation ; and the
horses would have been far better occu-
pied than in doing nothing. Although
ever}^ county is the best-farmed in the
kingdom, according to local tradition and
agricultural banter, yet every county
needs to be much better farmed than it
\>>. We are sickened at the sight of foul
stubbles ; and so infinite are the advan-
tages arising from fallowing in the au-
tumn, that it is both the system and the
season we can not afford to neglect. We
allow there are diflBculties to overcome
in the cultivation of a wide breadth at so
busy a time of the year ; but to how
many minds do any innovations present
insurmovmtable obstacles ! We do not
say this in the spirit of condemnation
or complaint; for many even sensible
men do not comprehend, or appreciate,
at first sight, the benefit likely to ai ise
from any new but sound practices.
Further, we need to be cautious, and
there is no reason why autumn cultiva-
tion should be swallowed wholesale. Tf
the utility to arise is unappreciated, the
trouble of its accomplishment will appear
incompatible with the advantages accru-
ing— consequently, by such the task will
not be undertaken, and thus men may
or may not live on with a mental hedge
of thorns to all progress, content to swim
with the tide, because slow to appreciate,
and far too local in education and in
knowledge. Realize the value, and ar-
range the work of the farm, that some cul-
tivation at least can be done. We pre-
pare for, and plant our wheat crop ; why
not eradicate and destroy our weed crop ?
The one is as important as the other, and
the latter should be considered as pri-
mary to the former.

We have advocated deep autumnal
cultivation for the destruction of the pe-
rennials, and, as time is an importjint
consideration, the rubbish must be kept
at the surface for exposure to the sun's
rays. It may not be buried snug in the
soil, to be shaded from the influence of
the sun, but have the couch out for pub-
lic exposure and the bright noon of day.
Presuming a shower of rain to fall, how

beautifully, by harrowing, the clods
come to powder and the couch to the
surface, to be baked by the sun, or
burned in a series of bonfires !

With fineness of tilth and moisture of
soil, now comes the turn for the vegeta-
tion of the annuals, and an abundant
crop of young weeds present themselves.
Tims perennials and annuals are alike
destroyed, and the land freed for the
growth of any desirable produce. Man-
ure, too, can now be applied with un-
abated success ; the expense of hoeing,
in future, is reduced ; and a crop can be
grown which is worthy of the soil and
the skill of the cultivator.

We know of men this year, who, just
previous to harvest, broke up and per-
fectly fallowed tlieir clover-stubbles.
This was after once mowing the crop
and feeding the after-growth, and only
upon such lands where the succeeding
wheat-plant is usually subject to wire-
worm, and to be root-fallen. They have,
further, since cultivated their hundred
acres of corn-stubbles deeply, and with
full success. And nothing but the wet-
ness of September has prevented much
greater progress.

As a finale, cultivate deeply, keep the
weeds at the surface, avail yourselves of
your existing horse-power, and you will
find autumnal cultivation much to your
individual profit, and to the good of the
country at large.

FROM EDWARD EVERETT'S AD-
DRESS AT BUFFALO.

In the first place, the earth which is
to be cultivated instead of being either
a uniform or a homogeneous mass, is
made up of a variety of materials, dilfer-
ing in different places, and possessing
different chemical and agricultural prop-
erties and qualities. A few of these ele-
ments, and especially clay, lime and
sand, predominate, usually intermixed
to some extent by nature, and capable
of being, so mingled and treated by art,
as to produce a vastly increased fertility.
The late Lord Leicester in England,
better known as Mr. Coke, first carried
out this idea on a large scale, and more
than doubled the productive value of his
great estates in Norfolk by claying his
light soils. To conduct operations of
this kind, some knowledge of geology,
minerology and chemistiy, is required.
The enrichment of the earth by decay-
ing animal and vegetable substances, is

18

AGRICULTURAL

the most familiar operation perhaps in
husbandry ; but it is only since its scien-
tific principles have been explored by
Davy and Liebig, that the great practical
improvements in this branch of agricul-
ture have taken place. It is true that
the almost boundless natural fertility of
the soil supersedes for the present, in
some parts of our country, the impor-
tance of artificial enrichment. I in-
quired last spring of a friend living in a
region of this kind, on the banks of the
Ohio, how they contrived to get rid of
the accumulation of the farm-yard, (a
strange question it will seem to farmers
in this part of the world,) and he answer-
ed, " By carting it down to the river's
side, and emptying it into the stream."
In another portion of the western coun-
try, where I had seen hemp growing
vigorously about thirty years ago, I found
that wheat was now the prevailing crop.
I was informed that the land was origin-
ally so rich as to be adapted only for
hemp, but had now become poor enough
for wheat.

These, however, are not instances of
a permanent and normal condition of
things. In the greater part of the Union,
especially in those portions which have
been for some time under cultivation,
the annual exhaustion must be restored
by the annual renovation of the soil. To
accomplish this object, of late years
every branch of science, every resource
of the laboratory, every kingdom of
nature, has been placed under contribu-
tion. Battle-fields have been dug over
for the bones of their victims ; geology
has furnished lime, gypsum and marl ;
commerce has explored the remotest
seas for guano, and has called loudly on
diplomacy to assist her efforts ; chemis-
trj'' has been tasked for the production
of compounds, which, in the progress ot
science, may supercede those of animal
or vegetable origin which are prepared
by nature. The nutritive principles de-
veloped by decaying animal and vegeta-
ble organization are universally diffused
throughout the material world, and the
problem to be solved is to produce them
artificially on a large scale, cheap enough
for general use. In the mean time, the
most simple and familiar processes of
enrichment, with the aid of mechanical
power and a moderate application of cap-
ital, are producing the most astonishing
results. The success which has attend-
ed Mr. Mechi's operations in England is
familiar to us all. By the application of

natural fertilizing liquids, sprinkled by
a steam engine over his fields, they have
been made to produce, it is said, seven
annual crops of heavy grass.

Simple water is one of the most ef-
fectual fertilizers, and in some countries
irrigation, carried on with no moderate
degree of hydraulic skill, is the basis of
their husbandry. While walking, on
one occasion, with the late Lord Ash-
burton, in his delightful grounds in
Hampshire, just before he departed on
his special mission to this country, in
one of the intervals of our earnest con-
ference on the North-eastern Boundary,
he told me that he had expended ten
thousand pounds sterling in conducting
round his fields the waters of the little
river — the Itchen, I think, that flows
through the property, and that it was
money well laid out. Pardon me the
digression of a moment to say that I
could not but honor the disinterested
patriotism which led this kind-hearted,
upright and intelligent man, at an ad-
vanced age, (with nothing on earth to
gain or desire, and with everything of
reputation to risk,) to leave the earthly
paradise in which I saw him, and to
cross the Atlantic in the winter, in a
sailing vessel, (bis voyage was of fifty-
one days,) to do his part in adjusting a
controversy which had seriously men-
aced the peace of the two countries.
The famous water-meadows of the Duke
of Portland, at Olipstone, have been often
described, where the same operations has
been performed on a still more extensive
scale. Mr. Colman's interesting volumes
on European agriculture contain accounts
of other works of this kind, but I confine
myself to those which have fallen under
my own observation.

Nor are these the only operations in
which agriculture calls for the aid of
well-instructed skill. That moisture,
which in moderation is the great vehicle
of vegetable nourishment, may exist in
excess. Vast tracts of land are lost to
husbandry in this country, which might
be reclaimed by dykes and embank-
ments, or become fertile by drainage.
Land is yet too abundant and cheap in
America to admit of great expenditures
in this way, except in very limited lo-
calities ; but the time will no doubt
come when in the populous portions of
the country, especially in the nighbor-
hood of large cities, the sunken marshes
which now stretch along our coast will
be reclaimed from the ocean, as in Hoi-

AGRICULTURAL

19

land ; and thousands of acres in the in-
terior, now given up to alder swamps
and cranberry meadows, be clothed with
grass and com. There are few forms
of any size in the country, which do not
contain waste spots of this kind — the
harbor of turtles, frogs and serpents —
which might be brought at moderate
expense and some hydraulic skill, into
cultivation. Other extensive tracts are
awaiting the time when the increase of
population and the enhanced value of
land will bear the expense of costly ope-
rations in engineering. The marshes on
the sea-coast of New-England, New- York
and New-Jersey, probably exceed in the
aggregate the superhces of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands, the greater part of
which has been redeemed by artificial
means from the ocean — a considerable
tract, covered by the Lake of Harlem,
within a few years. Now, if we could
only add a new territory to the Union,
as large as the Kingdom of the Nether-
lands, by the peaceful operations of hus-
bandry, it would be a species of annexa-
tion to which I for one should make no
objection. All the resources of science
have been called into operation in that
country, under the direction of a sepa-
rate Department of the Government, to
sustain the hydraulic works which pro-
tect it from the ocean. The state of
things is similar in the fens of Lincoln-
shire and Bedfordshire. All the spare
revenues of the Grand Duke of Tuscany
have been appropriated for years to the
improvement of the low grounds on the
coast of that country, once the abode of
the powerful Etruscan Confederacy,
which ruled Italy before the ascendancy
of the Romans, now, and for ages past, a
malarious, uninhabitable waste.

But when science and art have done
their best for the preparation of the soil,
they have but commenced their opera-
tions in the lowest department of agri-
culture. They have dealt, thus far, only
with what we call lifeless nature, though
I apply that word with reluctance to the
genial bosom of our mother earth, from
which everything that germinates draws
its life and appropriate nourishment.
Still, however, we take a great step up-
ward, when, in pursuing the operations
of husbandry, we ascend from mineral
and inorganic substances to vegetable
organization. We now enter a new
world of agricultural research •, the mys-
teries of assimilation, growth and decay ;
of seed time and harvest ; the life, the

death, and the reproduction of the vege-
table world. Here we still need the
light of science, but rather to explore
and reveal than to imitate the operations
of nature. The skilful agricultural
chemist can mingle soils and compound
fertilizing phosphates ; but with all his
apparatus and all his reagents, it is be-
yond his power to fabricate the humblest
leaf He can give you, to the thousandth
part of a grain, the component elements
of wheat — he can mingle those elements
in due proportion in his laboratory — but
to manufacture a single kernel, endowed
with living reproductive power, is as
much beyond his skill as to create a
world.

Every topic to which I have thus
hastily alluded, in connection with the
vegetable kingdoms of nature, suggests
inquiry for the naturalist, in some de-
partment of his studies, and forms the
subject of regular courses of instruction
in some of the European universities, es-
pecially those in Germany.

The insects and vermin injurious to
vegetation present another curious and
difficult path of inquiry. A very con-
siderable part of every crop of grain and
fruit is planted, not for the mouths of
our children, but for the fly, the curculio,
and the canker-worm, or some other oi
these pests of husbandry. Science has
done something, and will no doubt do
more, to alleviate the plague. It has al-
ready taught us not to wage equal war
on the wheat fly and the parasite which
preys upon it ; and it will, perhaps,
eventually persuade those who need the
lesson, that a few peas and cherries are
well bestowed by way of dessert on the
cheerful little warblers who turn our
gardens into concert-rooms, and do so
much to aid us in the wai'farc against
the grubs and caterpillars which form
their principal meal.

Agriculture is looking anxiously to
science for informatian on the nature
and remedies of the formidable disease
which has of late years destroj^ed so
large a portion of the potato crop. Th«
naturalist who shall solve that problem
will stand high among the benefactors of
his race.

Closely connected with this depart-
ment of agriculture is another, in which
the modern arts have made great pro-
gress, and in which inventive sagacity is
still dilligently and successfully employ-
ed. I refer to agricultural machinery —
improved implements of husbandry.

20

AGRICULTURAL.

This is a field in which the creative
powers of the mind seem to be at work
with an activity never before equalled,
and which is likely to produce more
important results in this than in any
other country. The supply of labor in
the United States has not kept pace
with the demand, as it can rarely do in
a new country, where strong temptations
exist for enterprising attempt in every
branch of industry. This state of things
has furnished very powerful induce-
ments for the introduction of labor-sav-
ing machinery and implements, and the
proverbial ingenuity of our countrymen
has been turned with great success in
that direction. Your exhibition grounds
fully j ustify this remark. Even the good
old plow has become almost a new ma-
chine in its various novel forms ; and
other implements of the most ingenious
contrivance and efBcient action have
been invented. The cultivator, the
horse-rake, the mowing-machine, the
reaper, and the threshing-machine, are
daily coming into use in Europe and
America, and producing the most im-
portant economy of labor. Successful
attempts are making to work them by
steam. It was said long ago of the
cotton-gin, by Mr. Justice Johnson, of
the Supreme Court of the United States,
that it had doubled the value of the lands
in the cotton-growing region ; and the
mowing-machine, the reaper, and the
treshing-machine are destined, almost to
the same extent, to alleviate the severest
labors of the farmer's year. The fame
of the reaper is not confined to this
hemisphere. At the great exhibition of
the Industry of all Nations, in London,
in 1851, it mainly contributed to enable
American art to hold up her head in the
face of the civilized world.

But there is still another department
of agriculture which opens the door to
research of a higher order, and deals
with finer elements — I mean that which
regards the domestic animals attached
to the service of man, and which are of
such inestimable importance as the di-
rect partners of his labors, as furnishing
one of the great articles of his food, and
as a principal resource for restoring the
exhausted fertility of the soil. In the
remotest ages of antiquity, into which
the torch of history throws not the faint-
est gleam of light, a small number, se-
lected from the all but numberless races
of the lower animals, were adopted by
domestication into the family of man.

So skillful and exhaustive was this se-
election that 3,000 years of experience,
during which Europe and America have
been settled by civilized races of men,
have not added to the number. It is
somewhat humbling to the pride of our
rational nature to consider how much of
our civilization rests on this partnership
— how helpless we should be, deprived
of the horse, the ox, the cow, the sheep,
the swine, the goat, the ass, the reindeer,
the dog, the cat, and the various kinds
of poultry. In the warmer regions this
list is enlarged by the lama, the elephant,
and the camel — the latter of which, it is
not unlikely, wiU be extensively intro-
duced in our own southern region.

It may be said of this subject, as of
that to which I have already alluded,
that it is a science of itself No branch
of husbandry has, within the last cen-
tury, engaged more of the attention of
farmers, theoretical and practical, than
the improvement of the breed of domes-
tic animals, and in none perhaps has the
attention thus bestowed been better re-
paid. By judicious selection and mix-
tures of the parent stock, and by intelli-
gence and care in the training and nour-
ishing of the young animals, the improv-
ed breeds of the present day dilFer pro-
bably almost as much from their prede-
cessors a hundred years ago, as we may
suppose the entire races of domesticated
animals do from the wild stocks from
which they are descended.

There is no reason to suppose that the
utmost limit of improvement has been
reached in this direction. Deriving our
improved animals as we generally do
from Europe — that is, from a climate
differing materially from our own — it is
not unlikely that, in the lapse of time,
experience will lead to the production of
a class of animals, better adapted to the
peculiarities of our seasons than any of
the transatlantic varieties as they now
exist. The bare repetition of the words
draft, speed, endurance, meat, milk, but-
ter, cheese, and wool, will suggest the
vast importance of continued experi-
ments, on this subject, guided by all the
lights of physiological science.

Among the most prominent desidera-
ta, in what may be called animal hus-
bandry, may be mentioned an improved
state of veterinary science in this coun-
try. While the anatomy of the lower
animals is substantially the same as
man's, their treatment when diseased or
overtaken by accidents is left almost

AG RICULTURAL.

21

wholly to uneducated empiricism. It
rarely, I may say, never happens that the
substantial farmer has not considerable
property invested in live stock, to say
nothing of the personal attachment he
often feels for some of his favorites —
horse, or cow, or dog. But when their
frames, as delicately organized and as
sensitive as our own, are attacked by
disease, or they meet with a serious ac-
cident, they are of necessity in most
parts of the country committed to the
care of persons wholly ignorant of ana-
tomy and physiology, or imperfectly ac-
quainted with them, and whose skill is
comprehended in a few rude traditionary
operations and nostrums. There are few
of us, I suppose, who have not had some
painful experience on this subject, both
in our pockets and our feehngs. The
want of veterinary institutions, and of a
class of well-educated practitioners, is
yet to be supplied.

CATTLE SHOW IN THE METRO-
POLIS.

An exhibition of stall and grass fed
fat cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry was
opened at the Crystal Palace yesterday
morning, under the auspices of the Amer-
ican Institute. The variety and size of
the exhibition was by no means as ex-
tensive as might have been expected, al-
though it is very creditable, and compri-
ses many very fine and valuable speci-
mens of cattle, sheep and swine, among
the most prominent of which are tho fol-
lowing :

One pair of four year old Durham
steers, owned by Charles G. Teed, atSo-
mers, Westchester county, and weighing
together 4,580 pounds. These were of
the Durham breed, very fine and fat, and
drew the first premium on grass fed cat-
tle. ■

A remarkably fine pair of Durham
steers, 4 years old, owned by Thomas
Wheeler, South Dover, Dutchess county,
weighed 4,480 lbs, and drew the second
premium on grass fed cattle. Also a
very fine pair of Durham steers, of
four years, owned by T. Van Alstyne,
Ghent, Columbia Co., N, Y. These drew

a third, or special premium on grass fed
cattle.

A very handsome Devon bull, dark
brown, weighing about 1,200 or 1,4U0
pounds, very fat, broad and sleek. This
animal presented a somewhat novel ap-
pearance, being chained to a post by
means of a large ring through his nose ;
notwithstanding which he appeared very
restless and desirous of paying his affec-
tionate regards to some of the bystand-
ers who were, ever and an«n, attempting
to stroke and caress him. This animal
is owned in White Plains, Westchester
county.

A pair of grade Devon oxen, stall fed
and very fat, owned by Levi Van Vliet,
Clinton, Dutchess Co., N. Y., but sold
during the exhibition to Col. Devoe, of
this city. The price we do not remem-
ber precisely. It was between $300 and
$400 ; we think $337. These were not
remarkably large, but were very fat.
Weight, 4,000 lbs. We should think
them to be half Devon and half our native
red cattle, which by the way, are good
cattle, as good, in oiur humble opinion,
for dairy and working purposes as any
other, and pretty good for beef. If bred
and cared for in the best manner, they
would become a splendid race of cattle
in a few generations. After so much
haphazard breeding, so much neglect
in rearing, and after killing so many of
the fine calves for veal, and raising the
inferior, the only wonder is that they are
as good as we find them, more or less, all
over the country. Mr. Van Vliet's, sub-
sequently Col. Devoe's cattle, di-ew the
first premium on stall fed oxen.

Two Durham heifers, from West
Farms, very fine.

One pair of very fat oxen weighing in
the neighborhood of 4,000 pounds, be-
longing in Newcastle, Westchester coun-
ty. Very fine.

Seventy-two Nankin sheep, the origi-
nal stock consisting of three ewes, were
imported from China by Capt. Smith,
twenty months ago, and have since that

22

AGRICULTURA L

period increased to the present number,
seventy-two. Among this lot are three
very young lambs, apparently not over a
week old. The flesh of these sheep, it is
said, is far superior in sweetness to any
other kind of mutton, and brings a much
higher price in market ; while the wool
is said to be much coarser. They are
easily designated from the common sheep
of this country by the formation of their
head and ears. This lot is, as a general
thing, in good condition, and made a
very fine appearance. They are owned
in Pelham, Ulster county.

Ten very fine and large fat lambs, from
Oarmel, Putnam county.

Five Suffolk pigs and one Hampshire
hog, from Sixty-fifth street, this city.
Very fat and fine.

A beautiful collection of imported pi-
geons from various portions of the globe,
by Messrs. Howland & Aspinwall.

One four year old Maltese jack, in fine
trim. Owned in this city.

The above list comprises but a small
portion of each kind of animal named, on
exhibition ; but was selected from the
number merely to serve as specimens.

The number of visitors yesterday was
very limited, and if the exhibition is not
better patronized during the remaining
days which it is to be continued, the
American Institute will not reap a very
handsome harvest from the enterprise.
In addition to the cattle show, exhibitors
who have machinery in the Palace, keep
the same in motion throughout the day.

EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS,

BY GEN. H. K. OLIVEB,

At the State Fair, Concord, N. H.

I MAKE a high estimate of agriculture
from a long and deeply seated conviction
that reason as we may about other arts,
either in reference to their antiquity,
their universality, their value, or their
necessity, we are clearly compelled to
revert to agriculture, not only as the
fount of their existence, but as the sus-
tenance of their continued vitality, the
liberal feed root of all the branches, and
all the fruit of the tree of human life.

We are compelled to concede that it is
the great and only enduring and reliable
fount of national greatness and prosper-
ity ; that the whole pulse of commercial
and monetary operations is affected by
the healthful and unhealthful beatings
of the agricultural heart; that stocks
and prices in the market and on
" change," rise and fall as the agricul-
tural tide ebbs and flows ; that, as come
the crops, either plenteous or meagre, so
darts or limps the gigantic business of
the busy world ; that it prevents human
poverty, human misery, and human
wickedness ; that it has a positive favor-
able influence upon private and public
morals ; that it is pre-eminently propi-
tious in securing habits of virtue and tem-
perance in all things, in individuals, and
through them, thus purified, operates
with equally good results in purifying
the public mind, and in establishing the
pillars of the State upon the steadfast
foundation of persistent, unbending vir-
tue ; that it is a faithful and powerful
auxiliary of Christianity itself, in gen-
erating civilization, and nourishing it
into vigorous life ; civilization itself be-
ing, in its matured growth, enabled to
refund its great debt by inventing new
implements of labor, and, by their aid,
putting into operation new modes of til-
lage.

There are certain facts in relation to
agriculture so plainly manifest, that the
most blear-eyed observer can not fail to
perceive them. In China, a close and
perfect cultivation keeps alive all of civi-
lization that its teeming millions enjoy.
There agriculture has been honored and
encouraged beyond every other pursuit,
and the culture of the land and the na-
ture of its produce, are such as to afford
the largest returns to the labor employ-
ed, while the ruined husbandry of Cen-
tral Asia has opened the flood-gates and
let in upon its people a deluge of barbar-
ism. The ancient high culture of Sicily
made it the exhaustless granary of
Rome, and carried its people by rapid
advances to civilization, riches, and re-
finement. The husbandry of ancient
Britain, once not adequate even to the
wants of its own sparse population, made
it, under the teachings of its Roman
masters, the surcharged storehouse,
whence issued the food of uncultivated
Germany, while, at the same time, it
softened the manners and refined the
hearts of its own rude people. And
when, under the Saxon sway, agricul-

AGRICULTURAL

23

turc declined to its lowest degradation,
and the mass of the people became de-
graded with it, they only began to im-
prove with the restoration of the art, a
restoration due to the influence of the
monks in introducing into England the
better agriculture of Normandy. The
northern sea pirates of the 9 th century,
those savage and remorseless marine
vagabonds, who, in the year 876, invaded
and subdued Normandy, became, when
driven to the culture of the soil by their
leader RoUo, a comparatively civilized
gentle race, and so successful in the art
of tillage, that their systems were ac-
knowledged to be the best of Europe,
and were introduced into England, upon
the lands of the English monasteries,
making them to be the most fertile in
the Island, and laying the foundation of
the attachment of the English to country
life, and consequent future success of
English agriculture ; a success which is
now to be seen in the general neatness,
exactness, and thoroughness which is to
be met with all over the kingdom, and
in the abundant yield of her well tilled
acres. And can any one presume to say
that the high civilization of England has
no connection with the high culture of
her soil, and that the two have not
made their successful march with equal
step?

It is among the most propitious cir-
cumstances for agriculture in every na-
tion, that it has addicted itself to it with
the devotion that agriculture may legiti-
mately demand, that it has enlisted in
its behalf, not only the best mechanical
skill of its earnest devotees and artizans,
but that it has attracted in an eminent
degree, the friendship and the service of
many of the noblest intellects with
which God has endowed man. Head
has come in, in the plentitude of its
strength, to advise and to operate with
hand. Had the art always been under
the pasturage of unlettered men, so un-
lettered that we may justly look upon
them as mere agricultural drudges, there
would be danger that beaten paths only
would be pursued, and that the farmer,
like the toiler in a treadmill, would be
always returning upon his own footsteps
and never be achieving any progress.
They who do so, I am sorry to believe,
yet exist, though in diminished and di-
minishing numbers. May this remnant
not be saved nor abide long in the land.
Cultivated minds originate new ideas ;
they try experiments, and all experi-

ments can not be fruitless of good issue.
Weary years may pass away in the pro-
cess of research and investigation. God,
who made the soil with all its cunning
complicities and wonders, moves in a
mysterious way, and his ways are often
past finding out. Men may grope, and
falter, and stumble in the dark scrutiny
of experiment, and the uncertainty of
practice, occasionally hitting the mark,
and perhaps more frequently missing the
truth. But mind, always superior to
mere matter, always able to cope with
and subdue it, comes in to illumine the
darkness, and to supply the thread that
shall guide through the tortuous lab-
rinth — mind, thinking, reasoning, inqui-
sitive, prying, searching, obstinate, un-
yielding, indefatigable, investigating
mind, comes in and questions, and cross-
questions, and examines and re-exam-
ines, and "puts that and that together,"
and compares, and hammers away, and
thrusts itself forward after the truth and
facts, till at last the weary dark gives
way, far up in the east, slowly open the
gates of morn, the dim dawn appears,
the ruddier glow of the orient flashes up,
and now, behold, up comes the gorgeous
sun, great lustrous giant of the skies,
and all is light and day, and the truth
is grasped. Everybody w'ho has taken
the smallest pains to find out the facts,
knows and testifies, willingly or unwill-
ingly, that agriculture has advanced
just in proportion as mind, mind as de-
veloped in men of intellect, intelligence,
education and reflection, has given at-
tention to it. The condition of English
agriculture, as an obvious and sugges-
tive example, bears ample testimony to
the influence of mind upon it. Let us
see if this is not so. In the middle of
the 14th century, the produce of a farm,
in the parish of Hampstead, in Suffolk,
was at the rate of

8^ bushels of wheat per acre.
10 " barley "

5 " oats "

8 " peas "

The farm contained 600 acres of land,
of which 321 were under tillage. Land
rented from $2 75 to $4 50 per acre per
annum, and in one case, 18 acres were
let on a lease of 80 years, at $1 80 per
acre per annum. In the latter part of
the 16th century, under the teachings
of the monks, the sole educated men of

24

AGRICULTURAL

the times, the monastery lands yielding
at the rate of

20 bushels of wheat,
32 " barlev,

40 " oats,'

40 " peas,

a very respectable yield. Let us pur-
sue this point a little further. The Eng-
lish agricultural community is divided
into three classes, the laborers, the farm-
ers, and the great land owners. Of the
undesirable condition of the first named
class, I do not now stop to speak. The
middle class, the farmers, are not gener-
ally owners of the land they till. They
hire, on long lease, of the last named
class, who own land by thousands and
tens of thousands of acres. Nor are
they generally actual workers on the
knd they hire. If one of them have no
more than a hundred acres, he seldom
or never handles a tool. He supervises
— he controls — he directs — he bosses
the farm laborers whom he employs.
His head directs their hands. His head
devises modes of operating which the
same head, through its peep holes, the
eyes, sees that their hands put into prac-
tice. His head, and that means his brain,
is in communication with the brains of
other farmers, who are overseers of their
laborers, and the mutual conflict of brain
with brain, of thought with thought,
educates each into a better understand-
ing of his craft. I am a great advocate
of professional and practical specialities,
for I believe that a devotion to one pur-
suit, the doing of one thing well, tends
to a better understanding of a given sub-
ject, and elevates its practitioner to
improved degrees of skill therein, and
every degree of knowledge attained by
the directing head, acts immediately
upon the operating hand, and the op-
erating hand, in this instance, acts upon
the clods of soil, and makes it yield two
grasses, two blades of wheat, two tur-
nips, two pumpkins, and two units of all
products else, where but one was yielded
before. But to return. The great land-
holders are comparatively few in number.
I have seen them variously computed at
from 30,000 to 40,000, who hold land
property yielding an annual rent of not
less than $500.00 per annum — the num-
ber rapidly diminishing as the annual
rent increases. The incomes of the
wealthiest range from $100,000 to $1,-
500,000 per annum. One hundred
years ago, the land-holders of England

proper were numbered at 230,000, which
number has been ever since rapidly
diminishing by the purchasing of the
laflds of the thriftless and wasteful, by
the more prudent and wealthy. The
Marquis of Bredalbane rides out of his
house a hundred miles in a straight line
to the sea, on his own property. The
Duke of Sutherland owns the county of
Sutherland, sti-etching across Scotland
from sea to sea. The Duke of Devon-
shire, besides his other estates, owns
96,000 acres in the county of Derby.
The Duke of Richmond has 40,000 acres
at Goodwood and 300,000 at Gordon
Castle. The Duke of Norfolk's park, in
Sussex, is 15 miles in circuit. An agri-
culturist bought lately the island of
Lewis, in the Hebrides ; it contains
500,000 acres. Their large domains are
growing larger. The great estates are
absorbing the small freeholds.

Among these great soil owners are
many men of the highest intellectual
powers and attainments, of the highest
social position, and of the most refined
culture ; noblemen, not only by tlie
right of geniture and rank, but noble
men in the noblest sense of the word,
who are carrying forward upon their
enormous estates, the most magnificent
operations in the highest culture of the
soil, winning from their well fed and
well tilled acres, the richest reward of
the wisest husbandry. One contem-
plates with amazement the magnificence
of their arrangements for irrigating
hundreds of acres, as may be seen on
the estate of the Duke of Portland, at
Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire ; the vast
extent of their systems of drainage anfl
subsoiling, the enormous capital invested '
in carrying on their agricultural process-
es and improvements, sind the enormous
revenues by which they are enabled to
push forward their splendid designs. I
thank God that he has put in the hearts
of such men to devote their splendid
talents and their great resources to an
enterprise so unspeakably important,
and to exert their powerful influence in
the promotion of so great a cause — a
cause which holds concentrate within
itself every inducement which should
allure the loftiest minds and the fullest
means to its support, because on its suc-
cess humanity itself, the noblest creation
of the divine mind, depends for the con-
tinuance of its very existence. I venture
to assert that but for the high culture
which the soil of England has received

AGRICULTURAL

25

under sucli influences, and the conse-
quent development of its exuberant
riches, her population could not have
made the great strides that have carried
it from 4^ millions in IGOO, to nearly 25
millions in 1850 ; nor could the nation
itself have attained that immense power
and wealth, that make her now to stand
foremost among the nations of the world,
aud her nobles the richest and the
noblest of all earth's nobles. Under the
influence of the culture, created by the
action of such minds upon labor, we find
a yield of 50 to 80 bushels of wheat per
acre in England, and from 40 to 70 in
France, and the productive power of an
acre of land in the well cultivated part
of Europe to be double what it was 75
years ago. In proof of the influence of
improved tillage in England in enabling
her to sustain her own people with
diminished reliance upon importations
from foreign countries, I may here state
the interesting fact that while in the first
ten years of the present century, she
imported foreign wheat, at the rate of
eight quarts per annum for each person
in the realm ; in the next ten years she
imported but six ; in the next five years,
but four, and in the last three years of
these five, at the low rate of a single
pint — the soil of the kingdom supplying
all the rest consumed. More land had
indeed been brought under tillage, but
every acre, old and new, had been better
tilled, and had made a better yield.

And now, here in dear New-England,
how hath stood, and how stands the
great art, when viewed by the light of
English husbandry ? Conceding that,
as a whole, ours is now inferior, though
probably at the outset ours was better
than theirs, at their outset, (all outsets
savor of crudeness,) we may justly insist,
in relation to the two when brought
together for comparison, that Dogberry's
saying is specially appHcable, that "com-
parisons arc odious."

The climate of England is, if the ex-
pression may be allowed, more strictly
an agricultural climate, and generally
highly favorable to her farming. Her
frequent rains, coming at brief intervals,
and her nourishing fogs, give a vigorous
life and a Vjeautiful freshness and green-
ness of look to the grasses. These, indeed,
they sometimes do have in excess, and
damp, and wet, and want of sunshine
thus become severe obstacles. But these
are the exceptions and not the rule.
With us, heat and cold, wet and dry, in

sudden succession, like unlooked for and
unbidden guests, just when least desired,
or drouths of intense endurance, burning
up and killing of every green herb upon
the face of the land, and then deluges of
rain, as though " the windows of heaven
were opened," flooding field and farm,
and which would sweep and wash ofl"
houses and barns, and the very land and
all before them, in one resistless, watery
devastation, had not the merciful Al-
mighty provided outlets in our huge
riverbeds, through which the accumu-
lated torrents may find their way back
to their ocean home ; these are to us
the rule and not the exception. Nor is
the English farmer, banished from his
fields, as is his American brother, near-
ly one half the year, by winters of the
h'orrible severity of those which bind
our soils in their icy shackles. Ditch-
ing and draining, which may be per-
formed in England after all other labor
is ended for the season, during their
comparative mild winter, is impractica-
ble against our adamantine frosts of four
feet deep. Their soil, too, better than
the general average of ours, never har-
dened by beating rains, nor baked by
fervid suns, yields more easily and kind-
ly to implements of tillage. But then,
to contend with all hindrances, we have
the great advantage of Vjringing into im-
mediate conflict with the soil a much
better agricultural population.

There are with us no owners of huge
estates, no middlemen leasers, and no
degraded laborers. Our farmer is the
owner of his land, his house, his barns,
his tools, and his stock, and he is the
laborer on his own acres, and whatever
help he employs, are his sons or his
hired men, and he and they all work to-
gether. Being, moreover, men of V)etter
education (God ])rosper the common
schools ! ) than their compeers of the old
country, they bring to assist them in
their work the help of mind far more
matured. Ours are descended from a
race of men, C!od-feaiing and God- serv-
ing, who, " accustomed in their own na-
tive land to no more than a plain coun-
try life and the innocent trade of hus-
bandry," followed, in their voluntary
exile here, both from choice and nece.s-
sity, the same harmless occupation.
Their difficulties and their danger.s were
equally terrible, -and would have dis-
couraged any men other than those of
the iron will and unflinching nerve, and
the steady perseverance which marked

26

AGRICULTURAL.

the primitive fathers of New-England.
No imaginings of ours can picture the
intense agony of their suiferings. Rude
cabins, affording a ruder shelter, rude
storehouses and rude fortifications were
the earliest doings of these early days of
our country. For years, sweeping
through their ranks, death stalked with
merciless sickle, and the living could
scarcely bury the dead, or the whole
care for the sick. All evils pressed upon
them but despair, and all comfort for-
sook them but the comforting assurance
that God cared for them. Their first
acts, after the weary and dreary winter
which dated their landing had worn it-
self away, and nearly worn them to
death, were acts of tillage to secure the
naked necessities of life, and so fruitless,
did their early harvests prove, that even
in the third year of their settlement their
supplies were so scanty, that they often
*' knew not at night, where to have a bit
for the morning." A lobster, a fish, a
few clams, or quahogs, a cup of cold wa-
ter were frequently all the meagre hos-
pitalities they could extend to any new
comers.

Ah, my friends, in the midst of our
fullness, how can we realize their desti-
tution! In the midst of our success,
how can we realize their weakness ! As
little as in the midst of our ii'religion
and our ingratitude, for like Jeshuran,
we have " waxed fat and we kick," we
can realize the intensity of their confi-
dent hope, and the fervency of their
piety. Out of these small beginnings,
these simplest elements of all colonizings,
a result has been matured, out-roman-
cing the wildest imaginings, and a peo-
ple whose influence must be felt in all
coming ages ©f the world.

CHINESE SUGAR CANE.
Last spring, through the kindness of
Col. B. P. Johnson, I received a paper
of Chinese Sugar Cane Seed, which I
planted at the time of planting my corn,
on the 2Gth of May, It was planted the
the same as the corn in hills, about three
feet each way, with from four to six
grains in a hill. The ground was quite
gravelly and stony, being on a diluvial
formation. The grouod was also quite
rich, being a sod where cattle had run
more or less for years. In ten or twelve
days the young plant begun to show,

but appeared very feeble. At the time
of first hoeing one would suppose it
would amount to nothing. The whole
field of corn and cane was much injured
by worms — a number of hills wholly
gone. The cane did not fairly start to
grow till after the middle of July, when
it grew very rapidly till the middle of
September — a majority of stalks send-
ing out two large suckers. The stalks
were about ten feet high and much thick
er than any I had seen. On the morn-
ing of the 30th of September our first
killing frost came, that stopped all vege-
tation. The cane at that time looked as
much as two weeks of being ripe — hard-
ly a seed had begun to turn black. On
the 5th of October we cut the cane at
the ground, stripped the leaves, and cut
near two feet of the tops off", and drew
the stalks and run them through a
scrach cider mill, and pressed in the
cider press. The yield of juice was as
much as fifteen gallons, from about 400
stalks, the whole boiled away in a large
kettle out doors. After being cleansed
with lime and skimmed a number of
times, the boiling was continued till
there was about one and a half gallons,
nearly equal in goodness to West India
molasses. If the plant had been ripe and a
different process gone through with, the
result would have been much better. It
is well worth raising for cattle alone.
R. Howell.
Nichols, Dec. 14th, 1857.

WHEAT PER ACRE.
The London Ecotiomist says : " The Eng-
lish wheat crop is remarkably good, of
unusually fine quality, and the weight fully
up to sixty-four pounds per bushel. In
Kent and Essex, the produce is from forty-
six to fifty-six bushels per acre. In the
Midland districts the yield is forty-four
bushels to the acre. In the north, north-
eastern and western districts the growth
may be considered the best on record.
Hence it would be no exaggeration to state
that England has produced this year near-
ly, if not quite, eight million bushels more
wheat than in 1856. The Economist does
not anticipate any great reduction of price
in consequence of this great produce, but
says there will probably be a proportional
increase in consumption.

AGRICULTURAL.

27

BREEDS OF CATTLE.

We purpose to give in a few short ar-
ticles, in this and succeeding numbers,
some of the distinctive characteristics of
the leading breeds of cattle. Our design
is not to draw upon what others have

said, but to give in brief our own im-
pressions. Not professing to be a cattle
man, and not having had of late much
experience in stock growing, we have
nevertheless had our e3'es and ears

28

AGRICULTURA L

open to the importance of the subject,
and have enjoyed pretty extensive op-
portunities for observation. With these
remarks, we shall give our opinion free-
ly about the leading breeds, not expect-
ing to agree with everybody, and quite
willing that what we say should go for
its worth only. In the meantime our
columns shall be open on this subject to
all candid discussion, as well from those
disagreeing as from those agreeing with
us. Will the advocates and the oppo-
nents of the several breeds give us short
articles, presenting the results of their
experience and observation ?

Our cuts will be of advantage in help-
ing to fix in the mind of those not fami-
liar with the appearance of the different
breeds, the more striking peculiarities of
each. We shall not aim at an exhibi-
tion of the finest specimens — those ne-
ver seen but in the stalls of mere fan-
ciers, kept only because they are beau-
tiful to look upon, and give the owner a
pleasing notoriety. To see these you
must not look at an engraving, but upon
the living animal, for no engraving can
do full justice. We shall endeavor ra-
ther to represent, in our cuts, a fair re-
presentative sample of the breed — well
conditioned, but not much superior to
what should be seen on all farms, such
as we believe will be seen every where,
iis soon as the advantage of keeping
good cattle and keeping them well is un-
derstood. We begin with the race of
which we think the least. The cuts
over this article represent an Alder-
ney Bull and an Alderney Cow. A
variety of this breed is called the Im-
proved Jersey ; and this we believe is
an improvement upon the old Normandy
cattle, or the Alderneys, as they are
called, from the island whence many of
them have come ; but the same tenden-
cies and general characteristics belong
to both, and when we speak of Alderneys
we mean the Normandy cattle, under
whatever changes they have undergone.
The color is light red, dun, yellow.

fawn color, and generally varies much
on the different parts, sometimes spot-
ted, black and white, black and yellow,
and but seldom in such a way as to give
in our eyes a pleasing effect. In size
they are small — considerably smaller
than the original Normandy cattle from
which they sprung. Their shape is any-
thing but good — long, slim necked, big
bellied, rump short and small, hollow
back, thin in the brisket, and exceeding-
ingly feeble, frail looking. In appear-
ance they have one redeeming quality —
a bright, beautiful, gazelle, or fawn eye ;
and for practical use they have some re-
deeming qualities. One is that they
give milk of a very superior quality,
little in proportion to their feed, for they
eat like Pharoah's lean kine, and are
usually about as lean, but remarkably
fine, adapted to family use, and if pro-
perly cared for, they give milk nearly
the whole year. This commends them
for such families as keep a single cow,
and can afford to supply themselves at all
times with a choicer article of milk than
can otherwise be obtained. Their milk is
excellent for butter ; and no doubt some
specimens of these cows are profitable
for the dairy. The veteran editor of the
Massachusetts^ Ploughman still aflirras
that his favorite Alderney cow gives
milk, four quarts of which will make a
pound of butter. But the quantity in
most cases is small, and we do not be-
lieve that, with rare exceptions, the Al-
derneys can ever become desirable for
the dairy. The cows are gentle, but for
the bulls, if highly kept, it is necessary
to look out.

Another half-way redeeming quality
is, that they fatten easily and quickly
when dried, though one would suppose,
from seeing them in milking order, that
they never could be fattened. Their
principal excellence, we believe, is for
the one purpose, before spoken of, that
of affording the finest, richest milk to
families keeping but one cow, and desir-
ing a home supply with the least possi-

AGRICULTURAL

29

ble intermission. We would recommend
them for this object and for no other ;
and we sincerely hope their blood will
never be commingled with the general
stock of this country.

Any admirer of this breed may over-
throw evei'y word we have said, in our
future numbers, if he can ; and if we feel
obliged to oppose his views, we will be
a fair opponent.

The cuts above do this breed a little
more than justice, as far as we can judge
from samples we have met with in this
country and abroad, especially that of
the male. We can not admire them.
—Ed.

AYERS' WATER ELEVATOR.

Toe Wisconsin Farmer thus describes
a contrivance by which cattle are ex-
pected to draw their own water, while !
the owner warms his toes by a good fire
and reads his agricultural paper, or is at
liberty to attend to other business. It
says : — " A platform eighteen feet long,
and three or four feet wide, is keyed at
the gi'ound at one end, and suspended
on puliies at the other ; these pullies are
upon a wrought iron shaft, with a wheel
in the center, four feet in diameter, over
which runs a rope, suspending a bucket.
While this platform is raised, the bucket
is under water in the well ; the weight
of the animal causes the platform to
sink, turning, in its descent, the wheel,
whicli brings up the bucket. The water
is discharged from a pipe at the bottom,
into a trough before the animal. Under
the platform is fixed a leaking air cush-
ion, which causes it to sink to its bear-
ings very gradually, and without jar.
The descent of the platform is propor-
tioned to the depth of the well. One
foot of descent causes twelve feet rise of
the bucket. A simple system of valves
in the bucket, causes the water to dis-
charge from it while in the well, until
t!ie weight of a light animal is suflBcient
to counterbalance the weight of water,
when the valve closes, and all the water

that the weight of the animal will move, is
brought up. .In ordinary wells the water
elevated is about one pound for every
twelve of the animal on the platform,
which is more than is required, being al-
ways an excess, which can, by a water
pipe, be carried into another trough, or
back into the well."

TRUTH OR FICTION— WHICH.

A WRITER in the Rural New-Yorker,
over the very respectable name cf Plow-
handle, one, it would seem, who eschews
roguery, yet for once consented to have
a hand in it, just like a great many
would-be-honest people, says:

CoL. Moore: — Some years ago I got
acquainted with one of your contributors
who edited the Wool Groicer, and he
used to put me in print, I must say my
vanity was flattered by seeing my name
printed in the paper, with some things I
said and some I didn't say, and we've
kept the papers ever since. After all,
everybody likes a little fame, but some
are satisfied with a smaller amount than
others. Well, I have not the editor any
more to set me out, 'so I have been
thinking I would just try and see if you
would not put me into the Rural on my
omi hook — especially as I want to tell
you all about my going to the State Fair
at Buffalo the other day.

Concludes to go.
As it was not so far but what we could
go with our own team, mother and I
concluded we would hitch up and have
a week to see the sights and some cou-
sins we had not seen for a long time.
Mother (that's wife, you know) thought
we ought to take something to the Fair.
I told her to take a tub of her butter, but
she said she didn't think it was good
enough, but thought I might take some
of the .stock. But I thought it would be
a great bother. However, Sam was
pretty strong in the faith that we could
beat everybody on horses, and wanted to
take old Nance. She's a right smart
beast, is that old mare, you may depend.

Takes the mare.
Well, we packed off Sam, for I was
willing to give the boy a holiday. It
does the boys great good to attend these
kind of Fairs, I do believe, after seeing
all I saw there.

80

AGRICULTURAL.

Goes in.

We got safely to town Monday night,
and Tuesday I went up early to the Fair
grounds to see what was going on. I
got in and hunted up Sam, and found
he'd got the mare entered, and had got
his eard on her head, and a good stall,
and all things comfortable. The animal
arrangements were first-rate generally,
and during all the time of the Fair the
supply of fodder was good. I think that
Maj. Patrick, who was everybody in
managing things, a trump sort of a man.

Hears something.

As I was standing up near the busi-
ness office in the crowd, I heard a cou-
ple of men talking about premiums.
One said to the other :

" Are you an exhibitor ?"

" Yes."

" So am T, and we had better look to
the committees,"

" Why so ?"

" You see the committees are never all
full, and if you are on hand at the big
tent when they are called, it's easy to
slip in a friend, which is a mighty nice
thing sometimes."

"Well, I am showing a patent for
making cowcumbers, and if I can get the
premium it will make my fortune."

" And I am showing a new kind of
bob-tailed hens, and a premium won't
set me back."

" Well, you get me on to your com-
mittee, and I will name you for mine."

"All right; go in to win when you
can."

Thinks I, perhaps if that's the way
the thing leans I may as well take care
of myself as anybody else. Everybody
for himself seems to be the rule on these
occasions. So off I streaked it to the
cattle pons to find Smith, who is my
neighbor, you know. Smith is in the
patent bull line. [Mr. P. emdently
means '■'■ improveciyi^ Says I, "Smith,
you're showing bulls, and I am showing
old Nance, and I guess if merit counts
we can win." And that's the talk here
on paper. Then I told him what I'd
heard about the committee.

" Is that so ?"

" Exactly."

" Well, I think old Nance is the best
mare in the yard."

"And you've got the best bull on the
ground."

Then I told him that we must be up
at the tant in time.

Well, sure enough, when the commit-
tees were made up I was on Smith's bull
committees, and he was on the mare com-
mittee.

The Committee goes out.

The head man took the book as had
the things in it, and we were all intro-
duced to each other, and went down to
look at the bulls. We were on the red
bulls. So we went along and looked at
them, and I didn't say much till we came
to Smith's bull, and I looked at him
pretty carefully, pulled his tail, punched
my fingers into his ribs, and went
through the motions as I had seen the
others. Says I, " that's a bull that looks
like it." Smith had combed him all over
with a fine-toothed comb, and brushed
him with a hair brush, and he did look
slick, for he was just as fat as a hog.
And fi-om all I saw, I think fat at fairs,
like M'^hat the lawyer said about charity,
covers a multitude of sins.

Gets the horns poked at him.

Just as I said that, the fellow who had
a bull in the next stall comes up to me
pretty fierce, and says he :

" What do you know about bulls ?"

"Well," says I, "I think I know
what they are used for in my section."

"May be," says he, "you are on the
committee ?"

" I have that honor," says I.

"Oh! well, that makes a difference,
but you ain't the man I expected to see,"
says he.

" Very likely," says I.

" But," says he, "that bull hain't got
any pedigree."

"Well," says I, " he had a father and
mother, didn't he?"

"Oh! yes, but then nobody knows
who they were."

"Well, then nobody knows but they
were just as likely as your bull's pa-
rents."

" But, sir, look at my bull's pedigree.
There it is, sir. Got by irapoited Shirt-
tail, out of Skimmilk by Thunder, etc.,"
and he showed a string of names as long
as your arm.

" Well," says I to the committee,
" are we to judge the pedigree or the an-
imal ?"

And they said, "The animal, of
course."

" Then," said I to the fellow, " will
your bull get better stock than this ?"

" Of course he will," says he, "for he's
got a pedigree, and that bull hain't."

AGRICULTURAL

31

"Well," says I, "your bull has got
somebody to brag for him, and the other
hasn't, that's certain." And that sort o'
knocked him. " But," says I, " I've
known people who felt grand over their
pedigree, and I've seen a heap of people
who couldn't go farther back than their
father and mother that banged them all
to pieces for smartness, llandsome is
that handsome docs," says I, "and, as
the hymn-book sa3's, * a man's a man for
a' that.' Pedigree go to grass, I go in
for the animal."

Smith's hill wiiin.

When we got through and looked at
our marks the other two had Smith's
bull second. I had him first. So we
talked it over, and finally, as they didn't
care much about it, they altered the fig-
ures and gave Smith the first premium,
which I think was right.

And the old mare.

Smith had a great time over old Nance.
It turned out that each of the other two
committeemen had friends whose mares
were to be judged, and they pretty soon
picked out their favorites. So he kept
still and let them talk, and they soon got
into a quarrel, and then they appealed
to Smith, and he kinder sided with one,
but thought old Nance was the best
mare, and finally, to keep the other from
getting first, they sided with him, and
he went in for both of theirs. Smith
says he saw somfe queer things on that
committee.

You see we got our premiums, but
you don't see, perhaps, Col., as well as
I do, that it wants something more than
merit to be sure of winning.

Gets irreverent.
The State of New- York is a great
State, the biggest in the Union, and the
New- York State Agricultural Society is
a great institution, but if there ain't some
ol the allliredest big humbugs crawhng
around its Annual Fair, then I'm a teapot.

Concludes.
I want to tell you a heap more, but I
have used up so nmch paper I fear you
won't have patience to print my letter.
Yours to command,

John Plowhandle.

Labor and capital judiciously applied
to the improvement of agriculture, are a
no less sure investment than in any
other business.

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT AGRICUL-
TURAL JOURNALS.

A CORRESPONDENT suggests, what we
are willing to consider, and that our bre-
thren of the press should take into con-
sideration also, if they think proper, as
follows :

I have noticed what I consider three
defects in all agricultural journals I am
acquainted with. The first is, there is
too little space devoted to horses, their
breeds, qualities, and diseases. An an-
imal so indispensably useful surely de-
serves more notice than he generally re-
ceives. Secondly, farm buildings re-
ceive too little attention of a kind suita-
ble for the mass of farmers. As a mat-
ter of course we get a few plans of la-
borer's cottages and suburban residences,
but comparatively few good models of
farm houses, suited to the majority of
country farmers. A special department
occasionally set apart to the lay ing out of
grounds and placing the buildings, stat-
ing the proper distances from the public
highway, the distance between house
and barn, hog-house, hen-house, shop,
etc., and the most advantageous way of
placing each, would be of value to the
community, as well as the internal ar-
rangement and construction of barns and
all other necessary outbuildings. Third-
ly, agricultural tools, implements, and
machinery are too much neglected; that
is, the ever-day necessities, such as
plows, harrows, cultivators, horse-rakes,
straw-cutters, corn-shellers, etc., are not
suflBciently known to the mass of larm-
ers. For instance, the latest improved
Eagle plows, Ramsey's and other newly
invented harrows, Boughton's and other
wheel cultivators, Gilbert's straw-cutter,
etc., etc., are not to be found in any ag-
ricultural periodical within my know-
ledge. It appears to me that good and
properly placed buildings, improved and
labor-saving implements, beautifid, pow-
erful, and enduring teams of horses suit-
ed to the road and farm, arc three things
that outweigh, ynih the exception of a

32

AGRICULTURAL.

good soil, nearly all other requisites of
successful farming, and are first and
foremost.

LICE ON YOUNG CATTLE.

Look closely into the coats of young
cattle now, and let no vermin live on
their necks and backs. It is an easy
matter to kill those lice, and as all lousy
come out poor in the spring, it is bar-
barous to let such small mites as lice
have their own way through the winter.

Farmers find out in the spring that
their calves are poor and lousy, and they
make a stir for a remedy.

Any greasy matter, well rubbed in,
will kill these lice. Ashes sifted on their
backs will do it. Yellow snuif costs but
little, and is better than the juice of to-
bacco. Fine sand sifted on them will
drive off lice ; the only objection to sand
i-; that it causes an itching on old cattle
in the spring. — Ploughman.

APPLICATION OF MANURES.

It is now pretty generally agreed
among practical farmers that manures
of all kinds may be buried too deep in
the furrow — so deep with a deep plow
as to. entirely destroy their efficacy for
a number of seasons, if not forever. The
reason why this is so is not very satis-
factorily explained — for it is proved that
manures never work down to any great
depth, else the subsoil would be valuable
after many years of deep manuring.

One great point with farmers should
be to prevent loss of their barn manures
by checking great fermentation. Strong
manures heaped up, soon ferment and
rairn unless much extra matter is mixed
in the pile. Some heaps heat so much
as to turn white. They are "fire-fanged,"
as the old gardeners used to express it,
and they are almost worthless when this
excessive heating has been permitted.
We incline to think that more of the es-
sence of our manures is wasted by this
fermentation — this heating process —
than in all other modes of waste.

It is certain that excellent crops of
corn are grown where the manure from
the barnyard was buried no deeper than
;. common harrow would bury it when
spread on the surface. This we often
see on dry ground and in dry summers,
and with only a moderate dressing of
manure.

So we find that all kinds of manure

spread in October and November on
grass land or meadow land, work well
and increase the crop abundantly though
exposed through the winter to all kinds
of weather.

The truth seems to be that not much
of the essence of barn manures is lost
by evaporation when they are spread
out where no fermentation takes place.

Still if we would secure all the essence
of barn manures, we must mix them
with fresh earth immediately, or in the
yard, or in the field with a light furrow
or a harrow. When this is done no ef-
fluvium, or ammonia, is perceived to
pass away. — Mass. Ploitgliman.

AN EXTENSIVE FARMER.

It is said by a correspondent of the
Silver Creek' (Texas) Mirror that Col.
Jacob CarroU, of Texas, is the largest
farmer in the United States. He owns
250,000 acres of land (nearly 400 square
miles) in that and adjoining counties.
His home plantation contains 8,000 acres,
nearly all valuable bottom lands, along
the Gaudalupe River. On this farm he
has over 600 acres in cultivation, on
which he raises annually about 300 bales
of cotton, worth at the plantation from
$75 to $100 per bale, and 20,000 bushels
of corn, worth about 50 cents per bushel.
He has a force of about fifty field hands,
and he works about sixty mules and
horses, and fifteen yoke of oxen. Col.
Carroll has, on his immense ranges of
pasture lands, about one thousand horses
and mules, worth $50,000 ; one thousand
head of cattle, worth $70,000 ; six hun-
dred hogs, worth $2,000 ; fifteen jacks,
worth 9,000 ; three hundred Spanish
mares, worth $15,000 ; fifty jennies,
worth $2,000 ; and five stallions, worth
$2,500. Col. Carrell's property, in stock
and negroes, is worth at least, $150,000 ;
and the value of his landed estate will
swell the amount to over half a million
of dollars. His annual income from the
sale of stock amounts fi-om $5,000 to
$10,000 ; and fi-om the sale of cotton, to
from $15,000 to $20,000.

ARRIVAL OF LLAMAS IN NEW-
YORK.

The brig E. Drummond, which ar-
rived at this port yesterday from Aspin-
wall, brought a flock of forty-two llamas,
consigned to James Fisher & Co. They
were purchased by a French gentleman

AGRICULTURAL.

33

for a company in this city, for the pur-
pose, we believe, 'of introducing the
breed on the mountainous lands of New-
England. The wool of the llama is ex-
ceedingly valuable, and as the animal is
very hurdy and flourishes in high moun-
tain regions, delighting in pure, rarified
air, and feeding, like the camel, on al-
most anything in the shape of grass, no
matter how coarse, it is possible that the
breed may be planted successfully in the
sterile regions of New-England.

The llama is probably familiar to most
people who have been visitors to the
traveling managerie, as a specimen is
usually to be fovuid there. It belongs to
the group ruminantia, of the family of
camel. Indeed, they are known to nat-
uralists as the camelus lama, and are
frequently called the camel of the new
world. They are found exclusively in
South America, and in the greatest abun-
dance on the Andes. They are chiefly
used by the natives as beasts of burthen,
though they can not carry more than
about a hundred pounds weight, and do
not travel far without rest. In the tran-
sit of treasure from the mines of Potosi
they have been found most valuable from
the eai'liest period. The llama is much
smaller than the camel of the East of
Europe. It has no hump, but in shape
it much resembles the camel. The neck
is long and arched, and the face, in mild-
ness of expression and the peculiar itj^ of
the split lip, is precisely like that of the
camel. It rarely measures more than
three feet in height. It is covered with
a thick fine wool, which makes the ani-
mal impervious to cold, and renders
housing quite unnecessary. Like the
camel and the ox, its feet are cloven ; but
unlike the former animal, it has no com-
mon horny sole, uniting the toes at the
bottom. Appended to the foot behind
is a kind of spear, which assists it in
moving over precipices and rugged paths.
It is accordingly as sure-footed as the
goat, and, l)eiiig very agile, it is ex-
tremely difficult to capture it when it
takes to the mountain crags, as it inva-
riably docs when jiursued. It is found
much oftener on the northern than the
southern side of the Andes, and is said
to become vigorous in proportion to the
coldness of its situation. Thus, though
essentially a tropical animal, the cold-
ness of our northern climate is not likely
to prove detrimental to its increase.

The animals on the brig E. Drummond
were taken from the Cordilleras, and
3

were sent from Guayaquil to xVspinwall
by railroad, where Capt. Chapman, of
the Drummond, took them in charge.
Tliere were seventy-one of them shipped,
but owing to severe weather twenty-nine
died and were thrown overboard, leaving
only forty-two alive. These, however,
are in good condition. This is a novel
importation ; but if the experiment
should prove successful, it may become
one of some importance to the improve-
ment of the growth of wool on this con-
tinent.— 2^. V. Herald.

THE FALL.

Recent financial troubles have pro-
duced their effects upon the agriculture
of this country. From the Southern to
the Northern extremities of our Union,
agriculture has declined, not in merit
but by way of pecuniary disasters.
Witness the fall in breadstuffs, in the
staple products of the soil generally, and
then you are convinced that we have
either heretofore paid too mueh for food,
or that we are now getting too little for
it. For the good of humanity, for the
good of the poor, provisions are to-day
high enough to satisfy all reasonable
minds. There are some kinds of food
that are too low ; wheat, for instance, but
you may rely upon it that beef and pork
are up as high as any rational mind could
ask for.

The great "West is full of cheap corn,
in many localities it being worth only
twenty cents per bushel, and, therefore,
can not pork be afforded in New-York
market at $6.00 or $6.25 per hundred
pounds dressed weight? The fall would
seem to be equal upon most everything.
Look, if you please, at the manufactur-
ing interests. Now cotton and woolen
goods have gone down in price almost
equally with barley and wheat. Indeed,
cast an eye towards the mechanical de-
partments, and you are equally surjiriscd
to Ond those trades amazingly depressed,
with no activity to brace them up.

Happily for the prosperity of the
country, some of our machine shops,
woolen and cotton factories have again
commenced the noise of active labor.

u

AGRICULTURAL.

But the great fall to which attention
has akeady been called, will not last al-
ways. Matters are bound to regulate
themselves, and I believe that money
will again be plenty within a short time.
Farm products will again sell with the
same activity that formerly chai'acterized
their sale, though they may not bring as
high prices. For the past few months,
it has been almost impossible to dispose
of anything, so tight has been the money
market. Everybody "most" has got
something to sell, but no buyers appear.
Instead of the purchasers running to
you for your products, you are compelled
to run to them, and then are put off
with the answer that "we don't buy
now, sir ; our doors are closed," &c.

Mark our prediction, that unless some
remarkable change takes place between
now and June next, farmers will not sow
nor reap more than one-half as much as
they did in the year of 1857. Sluggish-
ness always marks the energy of the
country after the fall of provisions.

But I believe the community at large
will be better off by reason of the low
price of produce, provided the working
classes will consent to work in propor-
tion to the value of provisions. Now
look at the matter, — wheat has been
sold in Oswego this winter for seventy-
eight cents per bushel — " the Milwaukee
Club." What must that wheat have been
bought for per bushel in Wisconsin?
Probably fifty or sixty cents.

Bi*t these prices are in accordance
with the times, and hence we shall have
to succumb to them, and go on, paying
but little attention to them, if we would
be prosperous as a people.

Whether lands in the Eastern States
will go down in price in consequence of
low prices, I am illy able to say. I am
confident lands in the West must be
lower than they have been. Railroad
companies have raised their prices for
carrying ft-eight, and every cent so add-
ed must, I believe, finally be paid by
the Western farmer. And it does seem

as though speculators, in the West, will
cease to be operators any longer, parti-
cularly in lands. These sharTcs must
have lost large sums in lands which, of
course, nobody cares for except those
who are directly interested. The whole
people have been taught a good and glo-
rious lesson. Agricultural interests are
now dormant, and will be for some time to
come. The people can live cheaply ; the
poor can procure the necessaries of life
reasonably. Men are not so amazingly
gi'eedy after wealth as they were one
year since. The farming world, and the
rest of the people, are, I think, taking
more rest and comfort than they were
under old prices. And on the whole,
though we may not get rich so fast, will
not the great fall be a blessing to our
country ?
Baldwinsville, N. Y., Jan., 1858.

WASTE OF FERTILIZERS.

" The amount of manure wasted in
the United States, is a subject of amaze-
ment and alarm. A judicious observer
has put it at one hundred millions of
dollars worth annually, passing off into
the air in lost gasses, or washing away
from barn-yards out into the road, or
moulding away unnoticed in secluded
corners all over the farms. And the
worsts yet truest view of all this, is, that
this great amount of fertilizing material,
came originally from the soil, and ought
to be restored to it, for if it be not, it is
a theft of the worst sort, impoverishing
both the land and the owner thereof
All decaying vegetable substances when
they shall have reached that point
of decay best suited to the farmer's con-
venient handling, must be restored to
the soil, there to complete their decay
to such perfect degree, that Nature can
again spread them upon her ample board,
at her great annual feeding and feasting
of her multifarious vegetable childi'en."

So said Gen. H. K. Oliver, at the late
Fair of the New-Hampshire State Agri-
cultural Society ; and we do not believe
that he at all over estimates ; for though
a hundred million is a large sum, still it
is but a few dollars for each farmstead
in the United States; and we should

AGRICULTURAL

36

think that the aggregate of individual
losses from bad management with ma-
nures would be greater rather than less.
This is not however so much lost out
of the world ; nor is it lost for all time.
The gasses that pass into the air, are re-
turned in the rains. It is true that a
portion of them fall into the ocean, and
therefore do not immediately promote
vegetable growth. Other portions fall
so as to promote a less valuable gi-owth
than if the application were made by a
wise cultivator. They are undoubtedly
very widely diffused, and but a small
poj tion of them, can it be supposed, will
find their way back to the same farm
from which they ascended, or to other
farms with much immediate, practical
benefit. Still not all is lost. The am-
monia which ascends from a fermenting
mass of manure, being arrested and
brought down in rains, benefits, not ap-
preciably, because of its wide diflfusion,
V)ut really, a thousand farms, and some
of them at great distances from where it
had its origin. But its benefits are pro-
bably not half as great in the the aggre-
gate as if it had been kpet on the farm
from which it escaped. Practically,
then, it is not materially incorrect, to
speak of the escaping gases, as lost or
wasted.

It is so with the soluble salts, which
are washed away into the streets. Those
are not absolutely lost. They are not
without effect. Vegetation of some
kind, more generally useless, is promot-
ed by them. If any of them find their
way into the brook, its banks extract
them from the water, and are made to
produce more grass either for the scythe
or for grazing beasts, and even the fish,
all the way to the ocean and in the ocean
itself, receive from them a greater growth
and a higlier flavor. But these will be
regarded rather as fanciful than real re-
turn.s, and we will give it up, that the
soluble salts which tiow from the farm-
yard into the street or the brook are
about as good as lost. To say the least,

they are likely to be kept out of the
market for a long time to come.

It is much so with those substances,
of which Col. Oliver speaks as "moulder-
ing away unnoticed in secluded corners
all over the farm." If let alone, they
will eventually be turned into food for
man or beast. Such is the law of God,
and no human negligence can always
prevent. We or our descendants shall
sooner or later consume that beef's skull,
that lies in the corner of the fence. If
ground fine, mixed with half its weight
of sulphuric acid, and put into the soil
now, we should have it back next fall in
the form of wheat, corn, or some other
product. If let alone it will sooner or
later come to the same thing. But it
may be a very long time first; and there-
fore we think Col. Oliver quite right
in speaking of such things as lost or
wasted ; and we do nor believe it extra-
vagant to estimate the losses fi'om the
neglect or wrong management of the fer-
tilizers within the reach of the farmers
of this country, as high as one hundred
millions of dollars a year. It may seem
wild to some, but less so, we have not
the least doubt, to those who have re-
flected on the subject, than to the un-
thinking.— Ed.

WALL ROSES.

The secret of growing roses against
a wall might be packed in a lady's thim-
ble. A two feet deep border of strong
loam, four or five feet wide, to be as rich
as rotten dung can make it ; the border
to be thorouglily soaked with soft pond-
water twice a week in dry weather, and
when the roses are in bloom, to keep
them thin in the branches, as if they
ihey were peach trees, and to play tlie
water-engine against them as for a house
0 n fire, from the first appearance of in-
sects till no more come. There is a rea-
son for everything under the sun, and
the reason for insects attacking roses in
general, and those on walls more partic-
ularly, is from too nuich dryness at the
roots causing the juices to be more pal-
atable through the action of the kavte.

36

HORTICULTURA L

(ortinUtural

CALENDAR FOR JANUARY.

FLOWERS.

Bulbous Hoots. — Those who have not
purchased bulbous roots may yet be in
time to get some at the seed stores, such
as Crocus, Hyacinth, Narcissus, Tulips
and others. These will do well if now
put into pots in a compost of thoroughly
decayed stable manure, white or river
sand and garden mould in equal parts.
When potted they should be placed
in a cellar or shed, or under the stage of
of a greenhouse, and covered over their
tops with six inches of ashes, sawdust or
sand. In a month's time they may be
taken out, a few at a time, and brought
into the parlor or greenhouse to bloom.
Ttiey wiU require water every two or
three days, and should be near the light.
Hyacinths may be grown also in glasses.
The water should have a pinch of salt in
it, and should be changed every week,
using tepid water the temperature of
the room. The glass should not be filled
so full as to let the bottom of the bulb
quite touch the water.

The G^reenhouse. — Give water only
■when really required; do not spill it
about the house. Give air whenever the
temperature outside is above freezing,
for a few hours in the middle of the day,
bat shut up early (by 3 o'clock). Avoid
letting in drafts of wind. Air is best ad-
mitted at the top.

K frost happens to get in, syringe the
plants all over with quite cold water, and
sliade from the sun until the frost is out
of the house. Do not raise the tempera-
ture suddenly by heat, or the frozen
plants will die. The art is to get the
frost out of them as gradually as possible,
which is best done by ice-cold water.

If. B. — These remar'ks apply to green-
houses that are hept at low temperature,
that is from which frost only is intend-
ed, to he Tcept out.

Vegetable Garden. — The vegetable
garden should have been ridged up in
the fall to expose the soil to the benefi-
cial influences of the winter's frost. If
not done, do it now if the weather permits.
Coldframes covered with glazed sashes
should also have been filled in October
and November, with young cauliflowers,
cabbages and lettuces for early spring. If
that has been done they will require
covering at night with mats or litter
which should be removed in the day
and air admitted, except in very hard
weather. Look also to fruit trees, and
when the snow comes tread it hard
round their base, which helps to keep
vermin from attacking their bark when
the rigor of winter makes them short of
food.

From the Pear Culturist.

PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES
OF PEARS.
In their natural wild state, each of the
different kinds of fruits, such as the
Cherry, the Peach, the Pear, etc., con-
sisted of one or more species, inferior in
their original quality, or which became
afterwards degenerated by unfavorable
changes of climate, exhausted soils, or
other causes. These several species,
while in this wild and uncultivated state,
always reproduced the same, with occa-
sional slight modifications occasioned by
local or incidental causes. To change,
therefore, this naturally fixed habit of
the tree, and obtain new and improved
varieties of its fruit, has long been the
subject of diligent and persevering effort
on the part of many of the most distin-
guished Pomologists. But it is a pro-
cess attended with a great degree of un-
certainty, and requiring much time and
patience. To the interested and enthu-
siastic culturist, however, it has peculiar
attractions. By slow degrees he com-
pels unwilling nature to bend to his con-
tinued efforts. " The sour and bitter
Crab expands into the Golden Pippin ;
the wild Pear loses its thorns, and be-
comes a Bergamot or a Beurre ; the Al-
mond is deprived of its bitterness, and

HORTICULTURAL.

37

the dry and flavorless Peach is at length
a tempting and delicious fruit." Such
are the results that attend the persever-
ing efforts of the skilful culturist.

To produce new and improved varie-
ties of the Pear, Dr. Van Mons, of Bel-
gium, so distinguished in Pomological
science, has labored with indefatigable
energ}' and perseverance nearly his
whole lifetime for this object, the results
of which are a great number of new va-
rieties of rare excellence. II is theory,
however, could not be expected to be
perfect^ although much valuable instruc-
tion has been drawn from his experience.
His theory was briefly this. — The aim of
nature is simply a healthy, vigorous
state of the tree, producing nearly per-
fect seedn for its own contiiuied propaga-
tion. The object of culture should be,
to reduce excess of vegetation in the
tree, diminish the size of the secd.s, and
increase the size and improve the quality
of the pulp or fruit which encloses them.
He also maintains that the older the tree
of any cultivated variety of the Pear, the
nearer will the seedlings produced from
it, approach its original wild state ; while
seedlings from the fruit of young culti-
vated trees of good sorts, more frequent-
ly produce improved varieties.

Dr. Van Mons, acting on this princi-
ple, selects his seeds from young seed-
ling trees, sows them in his seed bed,
where they remain until they are of a
size sufficient to enable him to judge of
their character. He then selects the
most vigorous and promising, plants
them out and patient!}^ awaits their
fruiting. The first seeds from the best
of these he again sows, and repeats the
operation. Each generation comes more
(juickly into bearing than the one pre-
ceding it ; iha fifth sowing often coming
into bearing in three years, and produc-
ing fruit, in many instances, of rare ex-
cellence. Whatever we maj^ think of
his theory, the results, as before remark-
ed, have been several new varieties, pro
ductive in habit, and of delicious flavor.
Following this plan, in order to produce
improved varieties of the Pear, we must
first be careful to plant the seeds of seed-
ling Pears of healthy and vigorous
growth, and continue the process until
we have attained our object, viz., new
varieties of a high degree of excellence.

This is the Belgian method, from
which some of the fruit culturists in Eng-
land and our own country dissent, and
maintain that new varieties may be ob-

tained from the seeds of the most valua-
ble sorts of our grafted, Pears, equally
as good as by the Van Mons mode, and
without his long and repeated process of
successive plantings ; and claim that some
of our native favorite fruits were obtain-
ed at once from the seeds of the old
grafted varieties. In some instances,
this is doubtless true, but whether the
result is from chance or otherwise, we
can not with certainty determine.
Should the Amateur desire to engage in
the pleasant but somewhat tardy pro-
cess of propagating new varieties, it
would be advisable to employ both me-
thods, carefully keeping each distinct
and separate from the other, and com-
pare the results.

New Varieties by Fertilization. —
This is a process for obtaining new va-
rieties by cross impregnation, or fertiliz-
ing the pistil of one variety with the pol-
len of another. It was advocated and
practised by T. A. Knight, Esq., for-
merly President of the Horticultin-al So-
ciety, of London, and is now generally
practised in England, as well as by many
of our own fruit growers, with success.

The Pear blossom has five central or-
gans elevated above the others, calkd
the pistils, the upper or enlarged ex-
tremities of each of which is called the
stigma. These are surrounded bj^ other
delicate thread-like organs called the sta-
mens, supporting on their upper extrem-
ity the anthers. These last arc little re-
ceptacles containing the pollen or fertil-
izing dust. In their natural operation,
when the flowers open, the anthers be-
come distended, and when perfectly ripe,
burst and discharge their pollen on the
stigma, whose gummy exterior receives
and retains the fertilizing shower, ren-
dering fruitful the young seed lying at
its base. This same process artificially
performed, by impregnating or fertiliz-
ing the pistil of one variety of fruit with
the pollen of another, will produce a
fruit partaking in some degree of the
properties of both. This is performed
by simply clipping off, with a pair of
fine scissors, all the stamens, (before the
blossom is fully expanded,) of the variety
which is intended to be impregnated,
carefully leaving the pistils untouched,
and when the flower is fully expanded,
and the stigma properly matured, (which
will be indicated by its glutinous sur-
face,) transferring to it with a camel's
hair pencil, the pollen of the sort with
which it is to be crossed. This process

88

MECHANICAL.

does not particularly aSeci the J'ruit, but
the seeds partake of the nature of both
the original sorts, and produce trees
which yield intermediate varieties of
new, and frequently of rare and valuable
qualities. By this means some of the
present excellent sorts have been ob-
tained, both in Europe and our own
country.

It will be seen at once that the process
should be performed before the stigma
of the blossom is impregnated with its
own pollen, or that of the surrounding
flowers, as it is impossible after that to
innoculate it again. To prevent this, a
thin gauze covering should be placed
over it for a few days before and after
the operation, to protect it from the pol-
len floating in the air, or from the in-
trusion of insects, by which, sometimes,
the flower becomes accidentally impreg-
nated.

HAVE YOU A CHOICE GRAPE

CUTTING THAT YOU WANT

TO GROW.

Then go to the woods, dig some roots

of a wild grape vine, cut them into pieces |

of about six inches long, cut your choice I

grape vine or cutting into pieces of only |

one, or at most, two buds ; insert the j

lower end by the common cleft grafting i

method, into the piece of wild vine root ;
plant it in the earth, leaving the bud of
the cutting just level with the top of the
ground. Every one so made will grow,
and in two years become bearing plants.

SHOULD WE PLANT FRUIT TREES
IN THE HIGHWAY?

I ANSWER yes, for several reasons ;
the first is, there is a lack of fruit in
this country, the demand being much
greater than the supply ; and every fruit
tree that is planted and properly taken
care of will bear fruit sometime, and of
course hel^) to supply the demand.
Another reason is, trees properly planted
and arranged on the side of the highway
help to beautify it, and make it pleasant
for those who travel on it, besides being
an addition to the farm upon which they
are planted, and a source of constant
pleasure to the owner.

Now, while I write this, I have have a
particular Icind of fruit tree in view,
and that is the Cherry ; — not that there
are no others as good, but because there
is the greatest lack of fruit at the season
of the year when cherries are ripe, and
because they supply food for those ti'ue
friends of the farmer, the birds. — Qen.
Far.

llti^rhanintL

METHOD OF CLEANING CASKS.

The London Engineer describes the
following process, which may be worth
the notice of our agricultural friends
who, in the manufacture of cider, etc.,
have occasion for such contrivances. A
square frame of sufficient size is hung
upon 'standards of suitable strength, in-
to which a barrel is fastened, at the
chimes, by V-shaped prongs, or any
other convenient process, and the whole
is made to revolve by a crank, water, or
other cleansing mixtures being previ-
ously poured in in suitable quantities.
This process may be repeated as many
times as is desirable. This may be con-
structed by any one of tolerable mechan-

ical genius, and will save much time and
unpleasant labor.

GELATINE, MANURE, ETC., FROM
BONES.

A PROCESS has been patented in Eng-
land by Mr. A. E. Schonersahl for an
improvement in the process of making
gelatine, glue, etc., from bones. He
first separates them from aU putrescent
matter soluble in water, then treats the
bones with acid, which dissolves the
phosphates and leaves the gelatine in a
solid state, and is easily separated. The
water used in separating the soluble mat-
ters is reserved for other processes which
prepare it for application as a manure.

MECHANICAL

S9

IMPROVED GAS STOVE.
A GAS stove is formed of an outer case
made double to contain water, or a slow-
ly conducting material. Within this
casing a series of vertical tubes are
ranged round its circumference, which
extend from the bottom to the top of the
casing and are for the passage of air,
which entering below becomes heated,
ascends and escapes at the top. A pa-
tent has been applied for.

IMPROVED HORSESHOE.
A PATENT has been applied for in Eng-
land for the manufacture of horseshoes
as follows : The corks are made tapering
and with a small screw at the end. The
shoe is pierced at the requisite places,
and the cork is screwed into them. This
may be an econorhical process, if the
screw holds well, since tiie corks may be
renewed without disturbing the shoe.

MANUFACTURE OF IRON.
Iron is one of the greatest sources of
future wealth in this country, and the
processes by which the ores may be
profitably treated for the production of
iron of various qualities, naturally re-
ceive the careful attention of all engaged
in such pursuits. New facts are con-
stantly developed which vary these pro-
cesses, more or less, and some of which
create an important revolution in this
department of art. Mr. Harding, of
Leeds, Eng., has recently found an econ-
omical method of separating the shales
from the metallic ore. This has hitherto
been done by spreading the ore upon the
ground and exposing it to the action of
the atmosphere. Mr. Harding now ex-
poses the ore to the action of steam, and
thus secures results in a few hours
which have hitherto occupied months.

HARVESTING MACHINES.
Messrs. Cox & Newton, of Greenville,
N. C, have secured a patent for a ma-
chine which cuts off the ears of corn,
leaving the stalks standing iu the field.

WASHING MACHINES.
We have long believed that any con-
venient process securing a constant
stream of water through clothes that
need cleansing, would be exceedingly
useful, by avoiding very much of the
wear and tear occasioned by severe rub-
bing. This destroys under-clothes per-
haps quite as much as does the wearing
of them. It is this feature which re-
commends, to our judgment, the inven-
tion of Mr. Thomas King. A method
for securing this important point has
been invented by Mr. A. Dickson, of
Hillsborough, N. C, whose specification
claims "the combination of the oscilla-
ting rubber, stationary bed, and the
pumps, arranged to act conjointly." The
water is discharged as rapidly as it en-
ters.

Another recent patent, secured by Mr.
Abraham Huffer, of Hagerstown, Md.,
includes certain contrivances for lifting
the clothes out of the water and exposing
them to the air, and again immersing
them. This, it is claimed, both bleaches
and cleanses them at the same time.
We can not judge of the details of this
invention, not having seen any drawings
of it, but the idea seems to be a very
good one.

Mr. John D. Jenkins, Jacksonville, 111.,
has also invented an anti-friction ma-
chine, but the means he employs are not
published in detail.

PRINTING PRESSES.
Mr. Richard M. Hoe, the great king
among inventors in this department of
ai-t, and whose reputation is now world-
I wide, has secured a new patent, which
' adds to the simplicity and economy of
I his great press. The fly-frames which
have hitherto required some complica-
tion of machinery, are now worked by a
cam shaft at each end of the machine,
which is in immediate connection with it.

STRIPEING TOOL.
An implement which will be found

40

MECHANICAL,

very useful to painters has been patent-
ed by Mr. J. J, McCormick, of this city,
and Mr. George Crossingham, of Croton
Falls. It will stripe a line of any defined
fineness, from a mere thread to two
inches, in straight lines or in curves.
The paint is fed by means of a piston.

SEGAR MACHINE.

A PARAGRAPH has been going the
round of the Provincial papers, stating
that M. Practorius, of BerHn, has " con-
structed" a machine for making segars,
and that it rolls out 5,000 segars a day,
and economizes both tobacco and manu-
al labor. Upon the admitted principle
that " honor should be given to whom
honor is due," it is only right to state
that the paragraph in question is not
quite correct. It is true that M. Practo-
rius, of Berlin, possesses such a machine,
and that it combines all the useful quali-
ties attributed to it; but it Avas from
Liverpool that it was obtained. America
claims, and is entitled to, the honor of
the invention ; but, many years ago, a
Liverpool firm, James Steel & Co., 78
Duke street, purchased the patent, and
subsequently made considerable im-
provements in its construction and work-
ing. The patent has many years yet to
run, and it is still in the hands of the
house just mentioned, who have the ex-
clusive right of using it or permitting its
use in the United Kingdom. M. Practo-
rius, of Berlin, purchased his machine
from a firm in Hamburg, to whom
Messrs. Steel & Co. had sold it, and it
has since been patented for the kingdom
of Prussia. There can be no doubt of
the ingenuity and value of the machine ;
but while a foreign manufacturer only
buys it, he must not be allowed to steal
the honor of construction from England,
or invention from America. — London
Mechanics^ Magazine.

WHAT WILL A GLASS OF WATER
HOLD?

It is generally thought that when a
vessel is full of water any solid substance
immersed in it will cause it to overflow,
and such will be the case if the substance
is not soluble in water ; but the philo-
sophic truth, that in dissolving a body
you do not increase the volume of the
solvent, may be proved by a simple and
interesting experiment.

Saturate a certain quantity of water,
at a moderate heat, with three ounces of
sugar ; and when it will no longer re-
ceive that, there is room in it for two
ounces of salt of tartar, and after that for
an ounce and a dram of green vitriol,
nearly six drams of niter, the same quan-
tity of sal ammoniac or smelling salts,
two drams and a scruple of alum and a
dram and a half of borax. When all
these are dissolved in it, it will not have
increased in volume. — Scientific Ameri-
can.

SWIMMING LIFE PRESERVER.

The saving of human life, whether
from fire or water, and the prevention
of accident generally, is a noble and
philanthropic aim, and every one who
directs his attention and inventive pow-
ers to such a purpose is to be regarded
as a benefactor to the human race at
large, by those who have any humanity
in their hearts. We are happy then to
chronicle the invention and patenting of
an apparatus for saving life from ship-
wreck and similar catastrophies, by A.
J. Gibson, of Worcester, Mass. This in-
vention consists in making a deep, broad
belt of India rubber or other elastic and
waterproof material, constructed with
air chambers, and having combined with
it hollow floats which extend along each
arm and expand at the hand to furnish
broad paddles or means of pi'opulsion in
the water, which aid the person wearing
it, in swimming, and by this means gain-
ing any desired place of rest or refuge.
Scientific Ame?'ican.

HOW MOISTURE AFFECTS THE
VALUE OF WOOD.

When wood is newly cut it contains
a large quantity of water, (sap,) varying
in diiferent varieties from 20 to 50 per
cent. Trees contain more water in those
seasons when the flow of sap is active,
than when the growth is suspended ;
and soft wood contains more than hard.
Exposed to air a year, wood becomes air
dried, and parts with about half its wa-
ter ; 15 per cent, more may be expelled
by artificial heat ; but before it loses the
half of its moisture it begins to decom-
pose, or char. The presence of water in
wood diminishes its value as fuel in two
ways — it hinders and delays the com-
bustive process, and wastes heat by
evaporation. Suppose that 100 pounds
of wood contain 30 of water, they have

MECHANICAL.

41

then but 70 of true combustible mate-
rial. When burned, 1 pound of the
wood will be expended in raising the
temperature of the water to the boiling
point, and six more in converting it into
vapor, making a loss of 7 pounds of real
wood, or 1-10 of the combustive force.
Besides this dead loss of 10 per cent, of
fuel, the water present is an annoyance,
by hindering free and rapid combustion.

HOW TO MEND CHINA.

Fkom an English almanac we, a long
time since, cut a recipe for mending
china, and the opportunitj' having occur-
red for trying, we found it admirable, the
fracture being scarcely visible after the
article was repaired. It is thus made :
Take a very thick solution of gum arabic
in water, and stir it into plaster of Paris
until the mixture becomes a viscous
paste. Apply it with a brush to the
fractured edges and stick them together.
In three days the article can not again be
broken in the same place. The white-
ness of the cement renders it doubly
valuable. — Exchange.

CEMENT FOR JOINTING STONE.

A CEMENT which gradually indurates
to a stony consistence, may be made by
mixing 20 parts of clean river sand, 2 of
litharge, and one of quick-lime, into a
thin putty with linseed oil. The quick-
lime may be replaced with litharge.
When the cement is applied to mend
broken pieces of stone, as steps of stairs,
it acquires after some time a stony hard-
ness. A similar composition has been
used to coat over brick walls under the
name of mastic.

AMERICAN MECHANICAL SKILL.

TnE viceroy of Egypt gives a decided
preference to the works of our American
artizans, in which he shows excellent
sense. A banjue is loading at Boston
for Alexandria, with a complete ponton
train manufactured by Boston mechan-
ics, to the order of the viceroy. The
train consists of twenty-six wagons, and
will carry tlie materials for constructing
a bridge three hundred feet in length.
The cost of this is upwards of $30,000.
There are also boxes of tools, of every
description, for the use of a moving
army. One box of joiner's tools, from

the manufactory of F. G. Gouch, of
Worcester, are much admired for their
superior make and exquisite finish. Os-
good Bradley, car manufacturer, has an
order from the viceroy for a train of
eight-wheeled passenger cars, the cost
of which will exceed %\00,0m.— Kenne-
bec Journal.

MAKING WOOD FIRE-PROOF.
Propessor Rochelder, of Prague, has
just discovered a new antii)hlogist mate-
rial, which promises to' become of im-
portance. It is a liquid chemical com-
position, the secret of which is not yet
divulged, which renders wood and other
articles indestructible by fire. Several
successful experiments have been made,
and others are promised on a larger
scale.

LAMPS FOR THE BURNING OP
KERASINE OIL.
These lamps are manufactured by
Messrs. Dietz & Co., 182 William street,
New-York. For producing a brilliant
light at a small expense we think they
would be hard to be outdone. No un-
pleasant odor, as far as we can perceive,
arises from the kerasine, as burnt in this
way. Having tested these lamps, we
can cheerfully recommend them to our
friends.

ANOTHER GREAT SHIP.

A GENTLEMAN of Livcrpool, England,
has proposed to build a ship which will
dwarf even the Leviathan, to be called
Palmerston^s Foresight. The proposal
was first received as something worthy
of attention, but it has been found from
his model that it would be unfit for any
practicable purpose, being almost flat
bottomed, with vertical sides, and no
visible keel ; in fact,' it is but a gigantic
box that might swim, but would be of
no value as a ship. We chronicle this
fact to illustrate the mistakes tliat per-
sons make when undertaking to invent
or improve upon anything without first
fully understanding what they are about.

42

SCIENTIFIC.

riiJnti|ir.

CHEMICAL.

8 OXYGEN 1 HYDROGEN 9 WATER.

Water with other substances forms hydrates, as hydrates of hme, of iron, etc.
16 OXYGEN 6 CARBON 22 CARBONIC ACID.

Carbonic acid forms carbonates, as carbonate of Hme, (chalk, marble, lime-stone,)

carbonate of soda, (washing soda,) bi-carbonate of soda, (cooking soda,) etc.
14 NITROGEN 3 HYDROGEN 17 AMMONIA.

The three compounds above, water carbonic acid, and ammonia constitute a very-
large part of the food of all growing plants. Nothing could grow if deprived
of either of them. Decaying plants and animals are always giving them
off; and living, growing plants are always receiving them.

Carbonic Acid.

Of oxygen as compounded with hy-
drogen in the form of water, and of its
uses in vegetation, we have spoken at
length. By the second formula above
it will be seen that 16 lbs. of oxygen
combined with six of carbon form
twenty-two lbs. of carbonic acid. The
young reader should keep in mind, that
oxygen in its pure state is a limpid gas,
constituting the vitality of the air we
breathe, and that carbon, in a state of
purity and crystalized, constitutes the
diamond, but is better known as char-
coal. In the latter form it is not quite
pure, having a little ash mixed with it.

About one part in twenty-five hundred
of the atmosphere is carbonic acid. This
gas is once and a half as heavy as at-
mospheric air. When thrown into the
air, its first tendency is to settle down
into low places, as near the floor of a
room, or into an open well, and conse-
quently lives are sometimes destroyed
by it, by descending into dry wells or
into cisterns or vats in which liquors
have been fermented. But a secondary
tendency is to an equal diffusion of itself
through the whole extent of the atmos-
phere. The air slowly takes it up and
diffuses it through its whole mass. If
you put a drop of alcohol into a barrel
of water, it will mix equally with the

whole. So with this gas in the air. If
you put a few drops of strong vinegar
on a piece of chalk, this gas will escape.
First it falls to the floor, but soon will
be taken up and equally diffused through
the whole room.

Its proportion in the air varies a little
at different times and places; but is gen-
erally, as we have said, about one part
in twenty-five hundred. Growing veg-
etables are always drawing carbonic acid
from the air. Other causes are constant-
ly throwing it into the air, so that the
above proportions are very nearly pre-
served. Now if the air contained much
less, plants could not grow, for no plant
can flourish without this gas ; and if the
air contained much more, animals, in-
cluding man, could not live, for it is
poisonous when breathed in much larger
proportions than is usual. In future
numbers we shall show how the air is
kept constantly and certainly supplied
with this gas to meet the wants of vege-
tation, and yet not over-supphed to the
destruction of animal life.

Few subjects are more gratifying to a
laudable curiosity, or attended with
more valuable practical results, than that
of the exhaustion of this gas from the at-
mosphere, its constant re-supply, and its
influences on vegetable and animal life.

SCIENTIFIC

43

FOR THE AMERICAN FARMERS' MllGAZIAU.

THE WEATHER.

Appearance of Birds, Flowers, etc., in Nichols, Tioga Co., N. Y., in November, 1857.

By B. Howell.

Place of Observation, 42 degrees North, on a Diluvial Formation, about AO feet above the

Susquehanna River, and 800 feet above tide, according to the survey

of the Netv-York and Erie Railroad.

Oct.

6A.M.

1

30

2

33

8

33

4

31

5

30

6

52

T

36

8

56

9

66

10

40 !

11

24

12

26

13

41

14

30

16

14

16

19

17

34

18

36

19

39

20

16

21

18

22

29

23

24

24

22

25

8

26

17

27

12

28

14

29

13

80

86

IP.M

50
53
44
47
56
62
66
72
72

43
44
60
47
29
86
36
38
40
39
22
29
35
42
25
18
25
36
42
40
48

9 P.M.

40

N.&S.

41

s. w.

40

North

86

South

64

"

55

"

54

"

66

"

68

27

West

28

45

South

36

S. W.

24

North

22

"

85

South

34

North

30

South

29

"

14

S. W.

25

S. E.

21

s. w.

28

South

18

s. w.

15

N. W.

14

North

21

«

22

South

81
46

u

Cloudy.

Light rain at 9 P. M.

Rain commenced at 2 P. M.

Liglit rain in the evening at 8 o'clock.

Light rain in tlic morning.

Very hard rain from 3 to 6 in morning. Small
streams over the banks. Rain from 9^ P. M. to
2 or 3 in the morning.

Light rain in the afternoon.
Snow squall.

Snow squall in the morning. Rain the afternoon.

White hail in the forenoon.

Rain commenced at 10 o'clock and turned to snow.

Snow squall in forenoon. [till 4 P. M.

Hard rain commenced at 11 A. M. and continued
Snow squall in the afternoon.
Susquehanna river froze over 4 miles above Owego.

Clear.
Cloudy,

Clear.
Cloudy.

The storm of the 9th was the most se-
vere ever experienced for the length of
time of its continuance. Small streams
over the banks. The force of the vrater
was so great that logs and stones were
moved that had lain more than twenty
years. This storm could not be far
above here in a south-east course, for
the large creek running in that direction
was not half-banks. In the evening of
the 9th was a rain nearly equal to the
one in the morning. These two storms
took place at the same time as the great
storm that inundated the central and
west part of the State, and, as far as I
can learn, lasted from 35 to 45 hours.

METEOROLOGICAL.
chapman's pkecalcclations.

{Entered according to Act of Congrena, in the
year 1S.56, 6y L. L. CHAPMAN, in the Clerk's
Office of the District Court, for the Eastern Dis-
trict of Pennmjl/oania.)

FIRST DEPARTMENT.

explanatory.

VISION, (instead of being a faculty
posses.scd and e-xerted at will on distant
objects,)is simply a sense of feeling ex-
cited on the nerves of the eye by cur-
rents of electricity radiated or reflected
from the object seen. Hence, light is
identical with electricity, wliich, hence,
instead of being confined to our earth, is
the common property of the solar system.

44

SCIENTIFIC

The angles of incidence and reflection
are Positive and Negative angles, induc-
ing (with other causes) a successive se-
ries of positive and negative conditions
of the atmosphere and elements.

THE TERM POSITIVE is here given
to conditions abounding more with vital
electricity, inspiring more health, vigor,
cheerfulness, and better feelings for bu-
siness, intercourse, etc., and consequent-
ly greater success, enjoyment, etc.

THE TERM NEGATIVE is given to
those conditions which abound less with
electricity, and consequently are more
unfavorable to health, feelings, business,
social intercourse, ets.

IF Indicates Sundays.

FIRST MONTH, (January,) 1858.

Tendency. Time o'clock

1st, Negative, from 5 morn to 12 noon.
Positive, from 1 to 3 eve.
Negative, from 4 to 10 eve.
2d, Positive, from 1 to 8 morn.
Negative, from 5 to 10 morn.
Positive, from 11 morn to 12 eve.
3d, IF Positive, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Negative, from 5 to 12 eve.
4th, Mixed, from 1 to 6 morn.

Negative, from 7 morn to 7 eve.
5th, Positive, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Mixed, from 4 to 12 eve.
6 th, Negative, from 4 morn to 2 eve.

Mixed, from 3 to 12 eve.
7th, Positive, from 1 morn to 11 eve.
8th, Mixed, from- 1 to 11 morn.

Positive, from 12 noon to 12 eve.
9 th, Positive, from 1 to 9 morn.
Mixed, from 10 morn to 2 eve.
Positive, from 3 to 12 eve.
10th, IF Positive, from 4 morn to 3 eve.

Negative, from 4 to 11 eve.
11th, Negative, from 1 to 8 morn.

Positive, from 9 morn to 12 noon.
Negative, from 1 to 12 eve.
12th, Positive, from 7 morn to 12 eve.
13th, Positive, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
14th, Mixed, from 6 morn to 12 eve.
15th, Mixed, from 1 to 6 morn.

Positive, from 7 morn to 10 eve.
Negative, from 3 to 12 eve.
16th, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
17th, IF Positive, from 1 to 10 morn.

Mixed, from 10 morn to 12 eve.
18th, Positive, from 3 to 8 morn.

Mixed, from 9 morn to 12 eve.
19th, Positive, from 1 to 8 morn.
Mixed, from 8 to 10 morn.
Positive, from 11 morn to 12 eve.
20th, Positive, from 1 morn to 3 eve.
Negative, from 3 to 12 eve.

21st, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
22d, Negative, from 1 morn to 5 eve.

Positive, from 6 to 7 eve.

Negative, from 7 to 12 eve.
23d, Positive, from 4 morn to 11 eve.
24th, IF Positive, from 3 morn to 7 eve.
25th, Positive, from 3 to 1 1 morn.

Negative, from 10 noon to 9 eve.
26th, Negative, from 2 morn to 12 eve.
27th, Negative, from 1 morn to 1 eve.

Positive, from 2 to 10 eve.
28th, Negative, from 6 morn to 1 eve.

^ Mixed, from 2 to 12 eve.
29th, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
30th, Negative, from 1 to 7 morn.

Positive, from 8 morn to 12 eve.
31st, IF Positive, from 1 morn to 12 eve.

SECOND DEPARTMENT.

The changes are four minutes earlier
for each degree of longitude (60 miles)
west. Difference of latitude in the same
meridian is immaterial. The dry condi-
tions are fair, and the damp conditions
cloudy or wet, at least three or four times
out of five in the average. When fair,
the damp conditions diffuse a cool, damp
sensation through the atmosphere.

Blanks indicate very weak, or mixed,
or uncertain conditions.

IF Indicate Sundays.

FIRST MONTH, (January,) 1858.
Time o'clock. Ray-angle. Tendency.
1st, At 2 morn B" wind stirring.

At 5 morn G, warm.

At 12 noon R" warm, dry.

At 3 eve V, cool.

At 10 eve G' warm.
2d, At 3 morn 0, damp.

At 8 morn Y, warm, dry.

At 10 eve V" cool, damp.

At 11 eve Bv, cool, damp, windy.

At 12 eve 0,, damp.
3d, IF At 4 morn G,, warm.

At 4 eve R,, warm.
4th, At 5 morn G' warm.

At 6 morn Y,, warm, dry.

At 11 morn B' wind stirring.

At 7 eve R' warm.
5th, At 3 morn V„ cool.

At 4 morn I,, cool, damp.

At 12 noon R, warm.

At 2 eve GV, cool, windy.

At 4 eve B,, wind stirring.

At 5 eve G" warm.
6th, At 3 morn I' cool.

At 8 morn V cool, damp.

At 8 eve Y" warm, dry.

At 11 eveB'

At 12 eve YO, damp, windy.

SCIENTIFIC.

46

7th,
8th,

9th,
10th,

11th,

12th,
13th,

14th,
15th,

16th,
17th,

18th,

19th,

At 2 morn Y, cool, damp.

At 7 morn VI,, cool, damp, windy.

At 10 morn G, warm.

At 11 eve 0- damp.

At two morn B" wind stirring.

At 7 morn •

At 10 morn G,, warm.

At 11 morn R" warm, dry.

At 12 noon Y, warm.

At 3 eve GR,, warm, dry.

At 1 morn B,

At 9 morn G, warm, dry.

At 1 eve Y,, warm.

At 2 eve BO" damp, windy.

At 4 eve .

At 2 morn I,, cool.

At 3 morn V" cool, damp.

At 1 2 noon .

At 1 eve B„

At 3 eve .. warm.

At 11 eve Y' warm.

At 8 morn I' cool, damp.

At 12 noon R. warm, dry.

At 10 eve 0'

At 6 morn R' warm, dry.

At 8 morn I. cool.

At 4 morn 0,, damp.

At 12 noon V, cool,

At 2 eve R,,* warm, dry.

At 2 morn G- warm.

At 5 morn 0, damp.

At 6 morn V cool.

At 3 eve BV„ cool, windy.

At 12 eve Y- ^

At 12 eve I" I

At 1 morn YB- o /-. i

Ai 1 ^ T} See General

At 1 morn ii- }• ti i

A i o -irTM ! Remarks.

At 2 morn YI v «iixo.

At 2 morn BI" ]

At 3 morn V„ J

At 2 eve YV„ cool, windy.

At 6 eve 0" —

At 10 eve R" warm.

At 11 eve ..

IT At 9 morn R, warm.

At 10 morn GO, wind stirring.

At 1 1 morn V" cool, damp.

At 8 eve I, cool.

At 2 morn G' warm.

At 3 morn .. windy.

At 5 morn O,,

At 8 morn R„ warm, dry.

At 1 eve r cool, damp.

At 8 eve V, cool.

At 10 eve Y' warm.'

At 3 mom GB- windy.

At 8 morn G,, warm, dry.

At 9 morn .

At 10 morn 0'

At 5 eve I„ cool, damp.

20th, At 2 morn, end of the zodiacal pe-
riod, or natural month.

At 4 morn Y„ warm.

At 7 morn G, warm, dry.

At 8 morn .. warm.

At 3 eve BO' windy.
21st, At 2 morn RO" windy.

At 10 morn B" wind stirring.

At 7 eve G" warm, dry.

At 10 eve I" cool.
22d, At 12 noon Y" warm, dry.

At 5 eve .

At 7 eve R- warm, dry.

At 9 eve 0" damp.
23d, At 2 morn GI" cool, windy.

At 12 noon B,, wind stirring.

At 11 eve GV,. cool, damp, windy.
24th, IT At 2 eve B' wind stirring.

At 6 eve G, warm.

At 7 eve Y,, warm, dry.
25th, At 2 morn I' cool.

At 11 morn O,

At 9 eve Y' warm, diy.

At 12 eve . warm.
26th, At 1 eve Y, warm, dry.

At 12 eve R' warm, dry.
27th, At 4 morn YR" warm.

At 1 eve B" wind stirring.

At 7 eve R, warm.
28th, At 3 morn I- cool, damp.

At 5 morn V,, cool.

At 1 eve G" warm, dry.

At 12 eve V, cool.
29th, At 4 morn Y" warm, dr3^

At 7 morn 0"

30th, At 7 morn V" cool.

At 2 eve 0, J

31st, IT At 5 morn R,, warm, dry.

At 12 noon 0,, damp.

At 11 eve B„ wind stirring.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Cool Periods, longer and more promi-
nent, are more liable near the 7th, 15th.

Greater tendency to windy, cloudy or
stormy periods, or gusts, near the 7tli,
9th, 14th, to ICth, 23d, 24th.

Periods more prominently negative
near the 9th, 14th, to IGth, 21st, 23d,
27th.

Periods of greater electrical deficiency
25th to 31st.

The number of combined and single
currents intercepted on the 15th, is un-
usual. I judge that earthquakes, auro-
ras, popular excitements, etc., will be
more liable near the 14th or 15th.

Natural tendency of the zodiacal pe-
riod from the 1st to 2Uth, dry. — From
the 21st to 31st, damp.

46

CHILDREN'S CORNER

(S hi c a t i 0 11 a

None have a higher stake in the edu-
cational interests of the country than
the farmers and mechanics. They are
not laborers in that offensive sense in
which the term is known in other
countries, and yet they are the real work-
ing men of ours. Of their position they
are not ashamed. They have no reason
to be. Most of them very wisely desire
that their sons may follow their own or
an equally useful profession. But they
would be sorry that they should do this
from necessity and not from choice. Far
be the day when professions and employ-
ments shall become hereditary with us,
as with many of the older nations, and
when the sou, unless possessed of extra-
ordinary ability, shall have no choice but
to follow the occupation of his father.

But what instrumentality shaU prevent
power and wealth, and place and station,
and employment, and poverty even, and
ignorance and degradation from becom-
ing hereditary .? We answer our public
schools. Men in eminent positions will
rarely fail to procure for their children
high educational privileges. Their sons,
if not destitute, as too often happens, of
common sense and common prudence,
will start in life with real, substantial
advantages over the children of the poor
and of the working classes generally, un-
less our public schools are made compe-
tent to give about as good an education
as wealth can procure. When the son of
a wood sawyer in one of our commercial
cities carried off a hardly contested prize
from the son of a merchant prince, it was
a glorious promise that, however unequal
one generation may become, the next
shall start in life vmder circumstances of
hope for all if such schools are main-
tained.

We would not be understood to say
that the children of farmers and mechan-
ics, and much less that those of the poor,

should be expensively educated ; but we
do say that through the home influences
and those of the public school, they must
be well educated, their minds developed,
a taste for reading formed, and ability to
thiriTc given, or each generation will com-
mence life more and more unequally.
The son will follow the avocation of his
father whether fitted for it and relishing
it or not, and our republican institutions
will yield to others that provide special-
ly for the few, and care little for the
many, except to make a convenience of
them.

On the great producing classes of this
country, and especially on the farmers,
rests the question, whether education,
through our public schools, free to all
shall be general and of that high and
thorough character which alone can
make our descendants, as our fathers
were, capable of self-government, or
whether, while our fathers wrested the
sceptre from tyrants, our sons shall suf-
fer a yoke to be put upon their necks.

CHILDREN'S CORNER.

Flowers are rather out of season just
now, but we always think of them when
we think of children, and here they are

CHILDREN'S CORNER

47

— cnil)lt'ms of Spring. "Well, those for
whom wc write are in the spring-time
of life, and so flowers are in good time,
though it be the dead of winter.

The weather for some time past has

been spring like, and some of our boy
readers, not so far off but that wc seem
to see them, have been playing at mar-
bles.

One of them is a strong, vigorous boy,
about ten years of age. His name is
William. We might here tell what a
noble hearted boy he is, how obedient to
his father, how kind to his mother, how
loving and gentle to his younger brothers
and sisters, and how everybody likes
him — but let his actions speak for him.
The world judges boys, as it does men,
very much by their actions ; and it is no
uncommon thing to judge of looks very
much by the same rule, for although
William has not what would be called a
handsome face, having a nose of rather
huge dimensions, thick lips, a little too
much rolled, and not a very smooth fore-
head, yet everybody says, what a fine
looking fellow he is. This is because
his conduct wins for him a favorable
judgment. But let all this go.

William is playing marbles with some
other boys. One of them is named
Samuel. He is a beautiful boy, as any
one would say, on seeing him for the first
time; tall, straight, with symmetrical
features, and a fiiultless complexion.
Yet those who know him best, have hard-
ly obsei-ved this. He is selfish ; often he
is abusive. If another boy says or does
what can be interpreted into an insult to
him, it is too much to be borne. If he
insults another boy and gets a flogging
for it, he thinks himself very badly used ;

and when people see him, they do not
think so much of his fine looks as of his
selfish acts, and so they hardly find out
that he is really handsome.

While the play is going on, and Wil-
liam is stooping down to throw his mar-
ble, Samuel by a sudden movement push-
es him over. Had William done the
same to him, it would not have been
easily forgiven. But as William knew
his temper pretty well, he concluded,
after brushing off the du-st to let it pass.

Samuel attempts the same thing again,
but William saves himself by a sudden
spring, and Samuel pitches into the dirt.
He jumps up, and without stopping to
brush himself, thinks only of revenge.
With an "I'll pay you for that," he
rushes at William, and if he had been
strong enough no one knows what would
have followed. But William keeps cool,
and only defends himself, till Samuel has
worried himself out in fruitless attempts
at him, and then goes off home to tell his
mother. Whether his mother has the
good sense to ferret out of him the whole
truth and then to administer a reproof
that should make him ashamed of him-
self, is more than we know. But the
boys all said that Samuel was a mean
fellow; that William had used him bet
ter than any other boy would have done ;
and everybody, who has seen as much

48

DOMESTIC.

of boys as we have, knows that their
opinions in such matters are very apt to
be about right.

LESSON IN SPELLING.

Write, we know, is written right
When we see it written icrite ;
But when we see it written right,
We know it is not written icright;
For write, to have it written right, *
Must not be written 7'ig7it or wright.
Nor yet should it be written rite.
But write ; for so 'tis written right.
Old lia/per.

ENIGMA.

I AM composed of 23 letters.

My 7, 12, 3, 14, 21, 6 and 19 is the
name of a country.

My 5, 8 and 22 is a hotel.

My 3, 8, 18, 5, 22 and 13 is a very
useful machine.

My 9, 17, 4, 16, 23 and 11 is a culti-
vator.

My 11, 10, 20 and 3 is to erase.

My 1 and 15 is ancient coin.

My 2 and 13 is myself.

My whole is not far off.

0mi^j)tir.

THE SMITHSONIAN AQUARIUM
AT WASHINGTON.

A FINE marine aquavivarium, or aqua-
rium, has been prepared at the Smith-
sonian Institution, where the public can
now inspect its curious contents. It is
said that an eminent French zoologist,
in order to prosecute his studies on ma-
rine animals of the Mediterranean, pro-
vided himself with a water dress, glass
helmet and breathing tubes, that he
might walk about under water and mark
the habits of the various creatures pur-
suing their avocations. Any one who
will visit the Smithsonian aquarium may
enjoy the same opportunities, and be-
come acquainted with the strange ani-
mals and plants of the sea without div-
ing to gaze on them.

The aquarium is simply a glass tank,
erected on a table, and filled with sea-
water, in which flourish marine plants
and animals without any aid, or even
changing the water.

The bottom of the Smithsonian aqua-
rium is an imitation of the bottom of the
sea, composed of silver sand, coai'se sand
and pebbles. In the center is a mass of
rock, giving shelter and concealment to
such animals as like concealment, while
jotted about are growing specimens of
fuci and algae. In this miniature ocean
cave are about three hundred specimens
of animal vitality, belonging to some
thirty-eight species of fishes, molluscae,
crustacse and polypes. Some of these
burrow in the sand, or modestly hide
among the pebbles ; others, like the her-
mit crabs, having taken possession of

vacant suits of submarine armor, flourish
about belligerently, ready for a fight.
Some are perfectly transparent, like ani-
mated particles of jelly ; others are en-
shrined in their shells. The curious
"horse-fish" paddles about with his
filmy dorsal fin ; and a lethargic clam pro-
trudes its siphons, enveloped in a shaggy
fringe ; a solitary flounder was evidently
annoyed when rooted out, and imme-
diately burrowed himself again in the
sand ; while two pugnacious crabs fought
gallantly over an amphitrite auricoma,
which had been obligingly sacrificed that
we might see its golded combs. — Wash-
ington Union.

THE DIGNITY OF PRAYER.

BY ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

Consider the dignity of this, to be ad-
mitted into so near converse with the
highest majesty. Were there nothing
to follow, no answer at all, prayer pays
itself in the excellence of its nature, and
sweetness that the soul finds in it Poor
fallen man, to be admitted into heaven
while he is on earth, and there to come
and speak his mind freely to the Lord of
heaven and earth as his friend, as his
father ! — to empty all his complaints in-
to his bosom, to refresh his soul in his
God, wearied with the follies and mise-
ries of the world. Where there is any-
thing of His love, this is a privilege of
the highest sweetness, for they that love,
find much delight to discourse together,
and count all hours short, and think the
day runs too fast, that is so spent. And
they that are much in this exercise, the

DOMESTIC.

49

Lord does impart his secrets much to
them.

GRAPE WINE.

Express the juice, as with the cran-
berries, washing the pulp in the same
manner ; the liquor will be about one-
tenth part water. Add sugar, three
pounds to a gallon of juice, and ferment
as before.

We have before us a sample of wine
made from each of these recipes. The
cranberry and barberry wines make a
very pleasant drink when mixed with
about four or five times the amount of
water. The other two kinds are excel-
lent in their present state. — AT. E. Far.

.SALERATUS.

Use as little of this pernicious article
as pos.sible about your household; every
particle taken into the stomach is inju-
rious to the natural functions. This has
been proved beyond doubt by careful
tests among chemists.

TO MAKE CRACKERS.

Two cups of flour, one cup of butter,
(or half lard and half butter,) two cups
of water, two teaspoonfuls of cream of
tartar, one teaspoonful of soda, and a lit-
tle salt. They require only a common
kneading and are very nice.

THE BEST.

Never grow a bad variety of anything,
if you can help it. It takes the same
room, and wants the same attention as a
good one. Never buy cheap seed. Never
waste animal or vejjefable refuse. The
very soap-suds from the laundry are rich
manure.

CORN nUSKS FOR UNDER BEDS.

Corn husks for this purpose are too
generally undervalued. Those who have
used such beds for a number of years
speak of them as light, cleanly, durable
and generally superior to under beds
made of any other material. The esti-
mate of the value of one such bed made
by a lady in a village, who had been
brought up in a farm house in which
several such were in use, and who offer-
ed a farmer acquaintJince five dollars for
one well filled, was probably not an ex-

travagant one. And if of this value,
might not the labor of children, as also
of men and women not more advantage-
ously employed, be profitably used in
taking care of the husks for this pur-
pose ? Those who may be induced to
make a trial of this mode of converting
husks into most desirable articles of
household comfort and convenience,
should be particular about excluding all
the outer and stiffer husks, allowing
none to be put into the bed save the
softer and smaller ones. Some strip
them with a fork, while others, with
whom we should agree, use them whole.

A MOTHER'S LOVE.

In some spring freshet, a river widely
washed its shores and rent away a bough,
whereon a bird had built a cottage for
her summer hopes. Down the white
and whirling stream, drifted the green
branch, with its wicker cup of unfledged
song; and fluttering beside it, as it
went, the mother bird. Unheeding the
roaring river, on she kept, her cries of
agony and fear piercing the pauses of
the storm. How like the love of the old-
fashioned mother who followed the child
she had plucked from her heart, all over
the world. Swept away by passion, thut
might be, it mattered not; bearing away
with him, the fragments of the shattered
roof tree, though he did, yet that mother
was with him, a Ruth through all his
life, and a Rachel at his death. — Lamar-
tine.

PUMPKIN BATTER.

Wash the pumpkins clean, take out
the seeds, and scrape the inside out with
a strong iron spoon. Boil till sofr, and
rub it through a coarse sieve. Whm
strained, put it into a kettle and bod
slowly all day, stirring it often. Put in
a large handful of salt. When nearly
done, add a pint of molasses, or a pound
of sugar, to each gallon of pumpkin. Be-
fore it is ([uite done, add allspice, cinna-
mon, ginger and nutmeg, one or all, as
3-ou may fancy. Put it into jars when
done — large ones are best. Tie it uj)
tight, and it will keep luitil April or
May, in a cold place, if you scald it when
spring comes on. It is a good sauce for
table use, and is always ready for pies,
with the usual addition of salt and milk.
It is nuich less trouble, and fur better
than dried pumpkin. — Gran. State Far.

50

EDITOR'S TABL E

(Bdtor'^ iBi\b\t

Progress — the steady and earnest ef-
fort onward — may well be selected as the
distinguishing feature in American char-
acter.

To assist that effoi't, to ease the diffi-
culties that beset the traveler, and to
point out the straight road where cross-
ways meet, should be the watchful duty
of the journalist, whatever be the objects
to which his lucubrations are devoted.

We are not without hope, judging
from the testimony of our numerous
friends, that our past efforts in the pages
of this journal have given a firm helping
hand to many a farmer, and answered
the expectations of other readers who
turned over our pages for information.
Yet if we have satisfied our readers, we
have not always been successful in pleas-
ing ourselves. For as month by month
has rolled on, and we have become ac-
quainted with the wants of our friends
from their numerous letters of inquiry,
we have ever and anon felt regret that
we could not anticipate all their require-
ments. Nevertheless we have thence at
least gained experience ; and therein we
trust we have the ground- work for more
amply supplying for the future the wants
of every class of our readers.

With this object in view we have, up-
on entering on our editorial duties for
the new year, determined in some mea-
sure to remodel the arrangement of our
joiirnal, in such a way that whilst on
the one hand no important feature of it
has been omitted, on the other the vari-
ous topics discussed have been so classed
together and separated the one from the
other, that every class of our readers
will be enabled at all times to turn read-
ily to the subjects that for the moment
become the special matter of interest to
them.

The pages of this number will show
the method that has been adopted, and

the same order will be observed in the
subsequent numbers.

Our improvements are not confined,
however, to merely typographical ar-
rangement. We have made engage-
ments which will enable us to present
our readers with a series of articles of a
popular, but at the same time, scientific
character, connected with agriculture
and horticulture which, whilst they will
be written with special reference to prac-
tical utility, will also afford our readers
the opportunity to become acquainted
with the scientific principles upon which
the practice depends. The importance
of such knowledge can only be fully ap-
preciated by those who possess it ; but
when presented in the familiar aspect in
which we hope to place it before our
readers, we feel much confidence that it
will prove as acceptable to them as it
will afford pleasure to us to impart it.
The man who does a thing right without
knowing tohi/, may be a lucky man ; but
the man who does right and knows loTiy,
is a wise man, and moreover can then
repeat his past practice.

Many a luclcy farmer would be more
lucky still if he were a wise one. Though
far from wise in all things ourselves, we
should be unfit to fill our editorial chair
if we could not teach something at least
to some amongst our readers.

We are able to promise our readers
an article which we believe will be of
very great value, in our February num-
ber, from Capt. Ralston, Veterinary Sur-
geon in the British Army, on the struc-
ture of the horse's foot, and its require-
ments, with regard to shoeing.

The subject of veterinary surgery is
one of great importance, and one which
has till of late been sadly neglected in
this country. We are glad to learn that
Capt. R. has recently lectured on the

MISCELLANEOUS

51

subject in this city, that his lectures are
highly appreciated by good judges of
such matters, and that he proposes to lec-
ture in other places, if desired. His lec-
tures arc accompanied with admirable il-
lustrations of the organism of the horse,
and are eminently scientific and instruc-
tive, as we are informed by persons on
whom we rely.

J. W. Field, an eminently successful
cultivator of the pear in Brooklyn, we
learn, is about to come out with a book
on the cultivation of this fruit, which
we have no doubt will be a very valuable
work. It is in process of publication by
A. 0. Moore, 140 Fulton street, N. Y.

TO OUR OLD SUBSCRIBERS.

We have more to say in another place.
We will only say here, that as we have
lowered our price from $3 to $2 for sin-
gle copies, and to $1 50 for clubs, and
as we now offer to send it to such as can
not conveniently club with others in or-
der to economize in these hard times,
seven months for ^1, fifteen months for
$2, and two )^ears for $3, we hope they
will not complain of our urgency to adopt
the cash-in-advance principle. Low
prices and pre-pay, is the order of the
day. Well, we have lowered our price,
and now you will come in to the cash
sj'^stem. Let us hear fi-om you this
month.

I— I ■ I 1^

isuIlaiuauK.

THE PAST YEAR AND THE PRESENT.

BY SENEX.

Some fifty years ago there lived in a
famed but distant city an old man, by who
dint of tact, with the aid of keen percep-
tive faculties, had acquired much celebrity
with a large class of his neighbors as some-
thing between a prophet and a fortune-
teller. He did not, however, assume the
character either of a religious fanatic or
of a crafty disciple of Dr. Faustus. But
he was well read iu the Scriptures, he had
a good share of common sense, and a volu-
ble tongue, and by degrees he acquired a
fame for wise sayings and for capability to
advise, which he owed more to his natural
talents and a loquacious disposition than
to any less worthy means. Being advanced
in years, and his lot humble, he turned the
good opinion formed of him to the account
of his livelihood, by discussing questions
put to him by liis visitors in a frank and
nanly spirit, and without ever demanding
;'econipense, he was ready to receive any
gratuity that was offered by them on their
departure. Moreover, his advice was
always if not valuable at least good in
kind ; and few if any quitted his humble
dwelling without leaving their good wishes
in a substantial shape ; or without having

also formed a favorable opinion of their
mentor.

So considerable became this good man's
fame, at length, that many from curiosity
alone were induced to visit him, and hear
his " wise sayings."

His counsel was usually couched in short
and terse sentences ; frequently in proverbs,
and often too in the language of the Bible,
to which he would sometimes refer his in-
quirers for passages that would be found
ap2)licable, he stated, to their case. As
these passages were usually selected from
the Proverbs and other portions of some-
what similar description, which contained
some rule of morals, or which advocated
Christian duty, he seldom failed to be
right.

Amongst others who were led by curios-
ity to this wise man was a young farmer,
then not long entered upon the threshold
of life, whom after some of the Scripture
references above adverted to, he dismissed
with the parting advice, " To keep a smil-
ing countenance and a good exertion."

The young farmer lived to become an
old man, and is now gathered to his
fathers! But for many years the writer
of this article heard him from time to time
revert with pleasure to his visit, and say

52

5ITSCELLANE0US.

that this simple aphorism had frequently
cheered him in the hour of difficulty, and
that the thoughts of the old man's con-
tented countenance and encouraging voice
when he uttered it, had gone far to make
him place confidence in his counsel.

The past year has been one to many of
much pain and distress, to most of great
anxiety and labor. The signs of the times
have called for unusual exertion both of
body and mind. And now that the waves
of adversity which have thus ruthlessly
swept over our countiy, have, we may
reasonably hope, spent their violence and
given way to less turbulent billows that
require yet time to settle down into the
calm of every day life, let us look around,
survey the ravages of the past hurricane,
and see whence we can best place our foot
as the starting point for our onward course
of duty.

Firmness of principle, and courageous
determination must be the banner under
which we renew the fight ; can we do bet-
ter then than take our old man's counsel ?
" To keep a smiling countenance and a
good exertion."

Let those amongst us who have lost, in
the late struggle, much, may be all, of their
hoarded treasures, reflect on the blessings
still spared to them.

Who that has a healthy, cheerful wife
to share his sorrows as she does his pleas-
ures would wish to regain his worldly loss
at the price of her languishing frame
stretched out upon the bed of sickness ?

Who that rejoices in a son springing
forth into manhood, a blessing to his
father, the joy of his mother, would regain
his worldly loss at the cost of that boy's
debasement in vice and debauchery ?

Who that has a sister or a daughter,
happy in the innocence of blooming youth,
the pride of his eyes, the sharer of his
hours of recreation, and his Sabbaths,
would regain his worldly loss at the price
of her fall from honor to despair ?

Too prone are we all to brood over the
clouds of our atmosphere, and too little do
we keep the eye of hope fixed on the first
sun-beam that pierces through to disperse
them. Some slight glances at a blacker
picture still, go far to deck in brighter
hues the one that is now our own.

With " a smiling countenance and a good
exei:tion," let every one of us, be his lot
cast as it may chance to be with either the
Plough, the Loom or the Anvil, — put forth
manfully his powers, and thankful for the
blessing yet spared, be it our effort in our
worldly duties to follow the example set
us in higher things, " forgetting those
things that are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, let us
press towards the mark for the prize ;" and
if we thus demean ourselves we shall not
fail, in earthly any more than in spiritual
things, to obtain our reward.

Let one and all then commence tliis good
new year resolving throughout its course
"To keep a smiling countenance and a
good exertion."

WHO LIVETH?

'Tis he who heals the wounded breast

And wipes away the mourner's tear —
Whose words of tenderness flow forth

As fountains in a desert drear —
Upon whose lip Eternal Truth

Sits 'mid a world of sin and shame —
Presiding in perjietual youth.

She breathes a dying Savior's name.

'Tis he who stamps upon his brain

The lore of glorious aged flee —
Holding high converse with the Past,

And dwelling with the mighty dead !
Stealing true inspiration's fire

From Suns that never can go down ;
Chained to his task with iron zeal.

And wearing Labor's thorny crown.

'Tis he who strikes Apollo's lyre.

Whose burning songs can never die —
That echo through the vast of years,

As angel's anthems through the sky,
Who girt by woe and want and pain,

In a dark wilderness of years —
Wins an imperishable name —

A broken hearted Man of Tears.

CONUNDRUM.

Why are the females of the present day
like the lilly in the scriptures ?

Because " they toil not, neither do they
spin ; yet Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these."

Very true of a part of the sex, and it is
a shame that it should be so, but not true
of the sex in the aggregate, nor true com-
paratively with the other half of the race.
From the felling of the first tree and the
building of the first cabin on this continent

MISCELLANEOUS.

53

to the present time, when we liave become a
Efreat country, woman lias nobly born her
part, has endured and toiled, has wrought
lier full share of our present greatness.
This being so, the more's the pity that
there should be such miserable exceptions,
as give point and force to the above con-
undrum.

EMPLOYEES.
As the following relates to a matter of
general interest we gladly give it a place
ill accordance with the request of Mr.
Mrace, Secretary of the Children's Aid So-
ciety :

TO BOUSS KEEPEBS AND FARMERS AT
TUB WEST.

It has long been the greatest complaint
with housekeepers at the West, that suffi-
cient female help could not be obt«iined.
There are now in our city thousands of
industrious, sober girls, of good chai-acter,
who are thrown entirely out of employ-
nicnt. Many of these are desii'ous of going
to the West, and becoming house ser-
vants or domestics.

The difficulty has hitherto been, to find
some responsible medium to connect those
without work and those wanting work
done. The .Children's Aid Society has de-
termined— though the effort is somewhat
out of its usual field — to attempt during
this season to connect this supply and de-
mand. To do this, and to aid these thou-
sands of poor girls, the West must also
lend a hand. They must not expect well-
trained servants in these girls, as they are
not accustomed to house labor ; still they
are willing and able to learn, and only
need patience and kindness. Every allow-
ance should be made for mistakes and
dflays in the beginning of such an enter-
prise. Those applying must send the fares,
as far as they are able ; in all eases the So-
ciety will return the money if no girl is
found to answer in general the description
forwarded. Let not that, which is said to
have broken down all j)revious enterprises
of this kind, ruin this — the utter neglect
of the West itself to give a helping hand.
It is an effort to benefit both sides ; the un-
employed here, and the families there.

All letters must be addressed to Branch
Office, Children's Aid Society, Clinton
Hall, Astor Place, New -York,

The applications enclosing fares will al-
ways be attended to first. There will be
an understanding, and, if possible, a writ-
ten agreement with each girl, that her fare
is to be deducted from her wages.

Parties applying will state exactly their
wants, the wages offered, their town.

county and State, and the cheapest and
l)est way of reaching the place. References
from the clergyman, magistrate, or other
responsible persons of the town will in all
cases be demanded. It will be the en-
deavor of the Society to send out none but
girls with good references, and who are
represented to be of good character.

C. L. Brace, Sec,

LECTURES.

The long winter evenings are fast ap-
proaching, and still the question of a
course of lectures, whether we shall have
them or not, is unsettled. We are in-
formed by the committee, tliat about one
hundred dollars more is necessary' than is
now subscribed, in order to warrant them
in going forward and making the neces-
sary arrangements for a complete course of
lectures. We know the times are hard ;
but because they are so, shall we deprive
ourselves of either food for the body or
food for the mind? There is scarcely a
person of any grade of intellectual capaci-
ty, but would be instructed and amused
double the value of the cost of a ticket.
Every man who has a family should pur-
chase tickets for them, and as we stated
last j'ear, no young single man can better
show his liberalit}' and gallantry than by
purchasing tickets for two, and inviting a
lady friend to share the mental feast.

We copy the above from the Brockport
Republic, not because we suppose that vil-
lage behind all others in the matter of in-
struction by lectures, but because we fear
that many villages are behind that ; and
we say to parents, provide this instructive
amusement, or amusing instruction, which-
ever you please to call it, for your chil-
dren. Get some of the favorite lecturers.
It is a great treat to hear an Everett, a
Phillips, or a Symmes. But get more lec-
turers, who are sen.sible and sufficiently
amusing, and will lecture these hard times
at cheaper rates. Why should not all
courses of miscellaneous lectures embrace
at least two on agriculture and one or two
on the mechanic arts ? Surely these sub-
jects are not without interest. — Ed.

CLEANING SADDLES, ETC.
The follo\\ing is a good recipe which
will give saddles and bridles a good polish,
and be entirely free from all stickiness: —
The whites of three eggs evaporated till
the substance left resembles tlic common
gum, dissolved in a pint of gin, and jiut
into a common wine bottle, and filled up
with water.

54

MISCELLANEOUS.

LEAVES AS MANURE.

No manure is so well worth saving in
October and November as the now falling
leaves of the season. According to Payne
they contain nearly three times as much
nitrogen as ordinary barn-yard manure;
and every gardener who has strewn and
covered them in his trenches late in the
fall or in December, must have noticed the
next season how black and moist the soil
is that adheres to the thrifty young beets
he pulls. No vegetable substance yields
its woody fibre and becomes soluble quick-
er than leaves, and from this very cause
they are soon dried up, scattered to the
winds and wasted, if not now gathered and
trenched in, or composted before the ad-
vent of severe winter. — Ex.

The value of leaves is rather overstated
in the above. Nevertheless they possess
a great value. Those about the premises
should be thrown into the pig-pen or the
barn-yard, or what is better, preserved for
litter in the stalls. In an open forest, with
no under-brush, they may be drawn into
large heaps, with great facility, if taken
when wet after a rain, by a yoke of cattle
and a scraper made from a plank 10 or 12
feet long and one or two wide, and cleats
nailed across for handles. An ingenious
man will make such an implement while
the boy is yoking the oxen. An immense
quantity can be gathered in a day ; and
if a little lime be mixed with them, they
will be ready to compost in the spring;
but it should be remembered that the forest
trees will suffer by taking off their natural
aliment. — Ed.

GOOD ADVICE TO FARMERS.

The following beautiful passage is from
George Bierce's late address at Twinsburg.
His closing is peculiarly beautiful :

Let the farmer's motto be, then, " good
farms, good stock, good seed and good cul-
tivation." Make farming a science in
which your heads as well as your hands
are employed ; let there be system and
reason in all your operations; study to
make your farms beautiful and your lands
lovely ; entice, by kindness, the birds to
visit and cheer your dwellings with their
music ; I would not associate with the man
or boy that would wantonly kill the birds
that cheerfully sing around our dwellings
and our farms ; he is fitted for treason and
murder. Who does not, with the fresh-
ness of early morning, call up the memoi'y
of the garden of his infancy and child-

hood? the robin's nest in the old cherry
tree, and the nest of young chirping birds
in the currant bushes ? the flowers planted
by his mother, and nurtured by his sis-
ters ? In all our wanderings the memory
of childhood's birds and flowers are asso-
ciated with our mother and sister and our
early home. As you would have your
children intelligent and happy, and their
memory in after life, of early home, plea-
sant or repulsive, so make your farms and
your children's home.

BE GENTLEMEN A.T HOME.

There are few families, we imagine, any-
where, in which love is not abused as
furnishing the license for impolitenest^.
A husband, father, or brother will speak
harsh words to those he loves best, and
those who love him best, simply because
the security of love and family pride
keeps him from getting his head broken.
It is a shame that a man will speak more
impolitely, at times, to his wife or sister,
than he would to any other female except
a low and vicious one. It is thus that the
honest affections of a man's nature prove
to be a weaker protection to a woman in
the family circle than the restraints of so-
ciety, and that a woman usually is indebted
for the kindest politeness of life to those
not belonging to her own household.
Things ought not so to be. Tie man who,
because it will not be resented, inflicts his
spleen and bad temper upon those of his
hearth-stone, is a small coward and a very
mean man. Kind words are circulating
mediums between true gentlemen and la-
dies at home, and no polish exhibited in
society can atone for the harsh language
and disrespectful treatment too often in-
dulged in between those bound together
by God's own ties of blood, and the still
more sacred bonds of conjugal love.

RICE MILK.

Wash a pint of rice in two waters. Add
half a pound of good raisins carefully
picked and cleansed, and boil well; pour
off the water, and mix one quart of rich
milk with the rice by stirring. Put again
on the fire, and allow it to boil again for
five minutes, and mix with it four table
spoonfuls of brown sugar, and two eggs
beaten light stirring well, and after tlie
ingredients are thoroughly mixed, boil for
five minutes longer, and the dish is ready
to serve.

Sunflower seeds are said to be the
best known remedy for founder in horses.
As soon as ascertained he is foundered, mix
one pint of the seed whole with the feed,
and an entire cure may be expected.

MONTHLY REVIEW

66

GREAT ENTERPRISE.
A GIGANTIC enterprise is now going on in
Holland, being nothing less than blocking
up two arms of the sea, and replacing them
by a navigable canal for merchant vessels
of the largest burthen. By this operation
an extent of land of 14,000 hetares (35,000
acres,) of the finest quality will be gained
from the Scheldt. This canal, which will
be completed in the course of two years,
crosses the island of Sud-Bevoland, be-
tween the villages of llanswert, on the
western branch of the Scheldt, and Wem-
erdins on the eastern.

SOUP, BEEF TEA, MUTTON
BROTH, ETC.
In the preparation of these, our object is
the reverse of that which has been pre-
viously considered. "VVe desire to take the
nutritive and savory principles out of the
meat, to a liquid extract of meat, in the
form of soup, broth or tea ; the flesh is
finely chopped and placed in cold water,
which is then slowlj' heated and kept boil-
ing for a few minutes, when it is strained
and pressed. In this manner we obtain
the very strongest and best flavored soup
which can be made from flesh. Liebig
eays : *' When one pound of lean beef, free
of fat, and separated from the bones, in
the finely divided state in which it is used
for beef-^usages or mince meat, is uni-
formly mLxed with its own weight of cold
water, slowly heated to boiling, and the
liquid, after boiling briskly for a minute or
two, is strained through a towel from the
coagulated albumen and fibrin, now be-
come hard and horny, we obtain an equal
weight of the most aromatic soup of such
strength as can not be obtained, even by
boiling for hours from a piece of flesh."
To make the best article it is desirable not
to boil it long, as the effect is to coagulate
and render insoluble that which was ex-
tracted by cold water, and which should
have been dissolved in the soup. It is
obvious from what has been said, that a
piece of meat introduced undivided into

boiling water, merely thickens and appar-
ently enriches the soup. This is effected
by the gelatin, which is gradually extract-
ed from the tissues, bones and other parts,
but in a nutritive point of view, this in
gredient is a fiction, as will be shown.
Soup making is a kind of analysis of ali-
mentary substances used in its preparation
— a part is taken and a residue usually re-
jected. Yet it is clear that we shall have
the corapletest nourishment by taking both
parts, as the fibre of meat and the soft-
ened peas and beans of their respective
soups.

FORNWALDER.

The true name of the apple which a cor-
respondent in Uppor-Merion asks for, and
which he says is sometimes called Fall
of Water, Fallawater, Polly Wolly, Fally
Wolly, etc., is Fornwalder. It was origin-
ated by a man so named, near Reading, Pa.

|J^° Sandy land is productive in propor-
tion to the amount of fossils in the rocks
of which the sand is made ; but it is, in all
cases, leachy, and requires lime, clay and
ashes to puddle it ; otherwise manure will
soak through, and do but little good.

OUTSIDER IN.

In a country playhouse, after the play
was over, and most wretchedly performed,
an actor came upon the stage to give out
the next play. " Pray, what is the name
of the piece you have played tonight?"
said a gentleman. " The Stage Coach, sir."
" Then let me know when you perform
it again, that I may be an outside pas-
senger."

The Berks County (Pa.) Snow was a
great success. It lasted four days, and
more than four thousand dollars was re-
ceived at the gates! It is spoken of as
the best county fair ever held in the State.
Bravo !

ont^la f\^H^to.

The weather to this time, Dec. 27th, has
been remarkably mild, with none or few
storms. Here in New-York we should
hardly know it is winter but for the al-
manac. As there are more of the improvi-
dent and the poor here than almost any-

where else this is a great mercy, and
should be so regarded at this time of general
depression, when employers are living, if
at all, on past earnings, when many who
have heretofore contributed to the general
beneficence are utterly unable to give, and

56

MONTHLY REVIEW

when some, whose charities have been
wont to flow in a broad stream, are now
themselves almost the objects of charity.

But the times are brightening. Money-
is beginning to show itself. Business,
though dull at present, will soon revive.
The factories are letting on the water or
steam, and setting the machinery in motion.
Men out of employment will soon be earn-
ing their living, and contributing to the
general wealth. If the signs of returning
activity and confidence do not prove falla-
cious, as some predict, but as we hope will
not be the case, it will be a remarkable
proof of the energy of the American people ;
for if we can easily outride the tempest
created by our exhorbitant issue of paper
money and our consequent extravagance,
and over-trading, and too fast living, it
would seem as if we were equal to any
emergency.

Crime, it must be admitted, is rife among
us. No less than four men are now under
sentence of death in this city, and we be-
lieve that if all who as richly deserve
hanging were to experience it, the number
would be forty instead of four. But when
we consider what an asylum our country
is for vagabonds from other lands, and that
a large share of the atrocities over which
we mourn are perpetrated by men trained
under other forms of government and other
religious arrangements than our own, the
abundance of crime and rascality need not
Bhake our confidence either in republican
institutions or in religious freedom. It is
doubtful whether crime, as confined to na-
tive Americans, those who have grown up
under the influence of civil and religious
liberty, is on the increase. We hope it is
not, and that future developments will
fully vindicate our institutions against the
charge of a demoralizing tendency, which
certain parties abroad would fix upon
them.

There is always a tendency to compare
the present unfavorably with the past.
Homer's heroes at the siege of Troy could
tell of greater heroes in a previous age. It
has always been so; men were larger,
stronger, better in the olden time. So tra-
dition has always said, but has not always
said it truly. We do not believe we are

degenerating, growing old, decaying so
fast as the London Times and some other
foreign journals would have the world be-
lieve. There is some reason to suspect that
they wish to have it so, and that the wish
is father of the thought. Nevertheless we
shall do well to heed the warnings. Every
American citizen shoiild feel that he has
something to do in deciding our future,
whether we are to be a virtuous, intelli-
gent, moral and religious people, capable of
self-government, or to be ignorant, immoral
and debased, fit only to be the subjects of
a despot. If one thing is more evident
than another, it is, that without the just
restraints of religion, without morality,
without a high toned respect for integrity
of life, no people can long avoid the pres-
sure of a tyrant's foot.

England, as the intelligence of the last
month has come in, stands fully vindicated
on the score of bravery. But alas, that
her men in power should have thought it
necessary to be more revoltingly cruel than
the sepoys themselves. That the latter
deserved to be blown into shreds before the
cannon's mouth, there is little doubt. But
why should Christian England exercise
such implacable revenge? Would she
drink water, like her Druid ancestors, from
the skulls of her enemies? Ler her remem-
ber that the East Indians have some reasons
for hating her. We remember hearing it
shown by one of her lords, in the House
of Peers, that the excise on salt had been
so high for more than twenty years that
the people there were compelled to forego
its iise — were actually driven from the
privilege of evaporating their own sea-
water, and eating salt on their meat.
There is something to be said for the rebels.
Let England remember this. If her peo-
ple do not raise one long, loud, distinct
voice of dissent from the revengeful cruel-
ties of her army, we shall be more glad
than ever that we are far from the swoop
of her power. Englishmen have often
told us that the present, living England is
not the same England that inflicted direful
cruelties on our fathers, and that would
have hung our best men as traitors if she
could have got hold of them ; and we have
been inclined to believe it ; but if her peo-

MARKETS

51

pie consent to the late doings of her brave
army, we shall fear that England is not
much better now than in the days of Lord
North and George III., and we shall thank
God more fervently than ever that we are
not in her power. We confess to a disap-
pointment in hearing no more signs of dis-
sent from the people to the tragedies in
the East after victory, but, perhaps, it is
only because we have had little time to
read the news. The English government
is not the god of all India. Why do not
the English people tell it so, loud enough
for all the world to hear 1

Agriculture has received a check for the
present in the low prices of agricultural
products. Our sympathies are with the
farmers. The calculations which they
made when putting in the seed will not be

verified. But after all are they better off
than others? Let them remember that
not a few profit by lower prices than we
liave had for the past few years ; and let
them build their future hopes rather on
cheap production than on high prices, and
the present discouragement may in the
long run redound to their benefit.

The people of this great city seem to be
enjoying the holidays as if nothing had
happened. Some will, undoubtedly, re-
ceive less costly presents than usual.
Many, who have been accustomed to make
princely gifts, will now be compelled to
ask that the will be taken for the deed;
and if there is good will — love and friend-
ship sincere — it will be about as well, and
all will be happy. May our friends be so
all over the country'.

a r lu t s

NEW-YORK STOCK MARKET.

The average number of beeves brought
to the market of New-York weekly is
3548. Number for week ending December
15, 2972; for the week ending December
22, 2497. Prices, former week, from 6^
cents for the poorest to lOf, for the best,
averaging from 8J to 8^ ; for the latter
week, from 7 for the poorest to 11^ for the
best, averaging a trifle higher than pre-
vious week. Beef cattle were sold in this
market by the weight of the four quarters,
rejecting the fifth quarter, as it is some-
times called, the hide and tallow.

It is common here to estimate the weight
of the four quarters, when cattle are sold
by estimate, as 56 lbs. to 100 lbs. of live
weight, in medium cattle, but more in
those above medium and less in those
below.

Thus, if an ox weighing 800 lbs. of beef,
hide, 100 lbs., and tallow 100, if sold here
for $100, would be quoted at 12^ cents, the
price he brings per pound, reckoning only
the four quarters; whereas if the same ox
were sold in Boston or some other city,
where a different practice prevails, for the
same price, the hide and tallow would be

reckoned in, and the quotation would be
10 cents per pound.

A person not acquainted with these facts
would be led to suppose that beef in
Boston was always from 2 to 3 cents per
pound lower than in New-York, whereas
it is probably higher in Boston, the aver-
age of beeves taken to that market, bring,
we believe, a little better than of those
brought to this.

Milch cows, with calves at their side
sold last week for $25 to $30 for common ;
$40 to $50 for good ; $50 to $60 for extras ;
and a trifle higher this week.

Veal calves sold last week at 4^ to 7
cents per pound, live weight, according to
quality ; this week at the same, or a trifle
more.

Last week sheep and lambs sold from
6 to 10 cents per pound, net weight. A
considerable advance upon the previous
week. This week mutton is coming in
plentifully, and prices remain just about
the spmc as last week. Sheep will dress,
if fat, 55 lbs., and sometimes as higli as
60 lbs, 100 lbs. live weight. Usually about
half

Tlie price of swine last week was about
5^ cents, gross, and from 6 to 6f, net, for
corn fed. Market not as well supplied thia
week, and prices advancing.

68

PATENTS.

''§,tttnt f atents.

Churns. — Benjamin Beers, of New-Fair-
field, Conn. : I claim a rotating dasher
with spring floats, constructed and ar-
ranged substantially as described, so as to
churn the cream and work the butter, sub-
stantially in the manner set forth.

Corn Planters. — J. H. Bonham, of Eliz-
abethtown, 0. : I claim a conical seed re-
servoir, G, in combination with the caps
or disks, A, figs. 4 and 8, operated by the
handle, x, and constructed and arranged in
the manner and for the purpose set forth.

I also claim the conducting spout, F, in
combination with tilting pins, I, and block
or bottom, E, constructed and arranged as
set forth.

Cutting Apparatus of Mowing Machines.
— Chester Bullock, of Jamestown, N". Y. :
I claim first. The mode described of at-
tacking the cutters to guard teeth, and to
the cutter bar, in combination with the
shortening lip, b, by which I am enabled
to readily detach said cutters for grinding
or for other purposes as set forth.

Second, A hollowed cutter, so arranged
in connection with other parts as to pre-
sent the same or nearly the same cutting
angle in every part of the stroke, when the
teeth are hinged to their axes, a, forward
of the cutting parts as set forth.

Treating Hemp, Flax and other Fibrous
Material. — J. W. Burton, of Eye, England,
and George Pye, of Ipswich, England.
Patented in England March 20, 1856: We
do not claim merely heating or boiling fi-
ber in water.

But we claim the described mode of
treating flax or fibrous matters requiring
like treatment, the same consisting in sub-
jecting such as described to the action of
a press, and to water impregnated with
Fuller's earth and heated or boiled.

Seed Planters. — James Carroll, of La-
porte, 0. : I claim the employment of the
handle, B, furnished with a discharge pas-
sage, in combination with a slide, f, which
,has a hand trigger, n, and with the pecu-
liar conducting tube. A, which is furnished
with shares, a a, substantially as set forth.

Plows. — Jarvis Case, of Springfield 111. :
I claim hinging the tongue to the beam of
a plow, and extending a lever or lever
seat, from one to the other, so that the
driver mounted on the plow may, by said
lever, throw the plow or plows out of the
ground, as set forth.

I also claim supporting the front of the

beam on the center of an axle, c, supported
in wheels, c c, so that said beam may be
raised or lowered on said axle, but not af-
fected by the passing of said wheels over
the rough ground, as set forth and ex-
plained.

Agricultural Forks. — Charles Clow,
Abram Clow, and Charles N. Clow, of Port
Byron, N. Y. : "We are aware that manure
forks have been constructed with cast mal-
leable iron heads, with sockets for the
tines; but in all such forks the sockets
have been parallel with the sockets in
in which the handle was inserted, which
can not be done with barley forks, for rea-
sons heretofore given.

"We therefore wish it expressly under-
stood that we do not claim a fork con-
structed with a cast malleable iron head of
itself considered, nor any such head in
which the sockets for the tines are parallel
to the socket in which the handle is in-
serted.

But we clain jointing the bow, E, on to
the head, for the purpose and in the man-
ner substantially as described.

Planing Machine. — John D. Dale, of
Philadelphia, Pa. : I disclaim all parts sep-
arately of the before described machine
that are not hereinafter specifically claim-
ed by me.

But I claim, first, The arrangement as
described by which the support rollers.
No. 17, and the feed roller, C, are raised,
and the carriage, E, simultaneously secur-
ed, whereby I make a permanent bed and
continuous feed, and by lowering the
same, I make a reciprocating moving bed
plate or carriage, and am enabled to
change from one to the other, at the will
of the operator.

Second, I claim the arrangement, where-
by an adjustable cutting head. No. 37, is
formed on the end of the movable carriage,
E, for the uses and purposes as described.

Third, I also claim the combination and
arrangement of the method set forth for
attaching side cutters, by which they are
both rendered adjustable in the manner
specified and described by letters, G G, re-
presenting cranes supporting the side cut-
ters hanging on arms, K K, supported and
adjusted by guide braces, L L, and screw
nuts, J J, all for the purpose and in the
manner set forth and described.

Fourth, I also claim the particular ar-
rangements in combination, by which the
pressure bar, N, and the transverse bar, Q,
are made to raise, and by which they are

PATENTS

59

made to correspond with the circumference
of the rotary cutter by raising the superior
feed roller, D, for the purpose as set forth.

Machine for Boring Hubs. — Zini Doo-
little. Perry, Ga. : I do not claim the use
of a shaft or a knife set in the shaft ; nei-
ther do I claim the yokes, F F, or feed
spring, H.

But I claim the employment of a hollow
sliaft, the rod, C, and the projection, a,
with the nut, E, for the purpose of expand-
ing the cutter, B, when the whole is ar-
ranged as shown, substantially for the
» purpose specified.

Life Preservers. — A. J, Gibson, of Wor-
cester, Mass. : I do not claim the belt, nor
do I claim the construction of an inflated
life-preserver with separate air chambers ;
neither do I claim|(if itself the use of buoy-
ant paddles fitted and attached to the
hands as an aid in swimming.

But I claim a life-preserver, composed of
a belt. A, arm floats, B B, and buoyant
paddles, C C, arranged and connected and
furnished with straps or their equivalents
to attach it to the person, substantially as
described.

Machine for Cutting Metallic Bars. —
Samuel Hall, of New-York City : I claim
the employment of one or more revolving
shear blades, fastened to the end or face of
a revolving hollow cylinder as described,
in combination with a stationai-y shear
blade or blades for the purpose described.

Printing Press. — Charles W. Hawkes, of
Boston, Mass. : I claim, first. The cam lever,
C, operated by a vibrating platen, sub-
Btantially in the manner and for the pur-
pose set forth.

Second, I claim securing carriage ways
to the adjustable bed, so that when the
bed is moved by altering the impression
the roller carriage will move with it, and
keep the rollers always in a proper posi-
tion to roll the form evenlj", in combina-
tion with the roller carriage, substantially
as described and set forth.

Third, I claim the nipper lever operat-
ing in the manner and for the purpose set
forth.

Fourth, I claim the trip, in combination
with the ni|)])er lever, Bubstantially in the
manner and for the purpose specified.

Fifth, I cluim the combination and ar-
rangement of mechanism specified, for re-
ceiving the cards to be printed, and deliv-
ering them after they are printed, substan-
tially as described.

IIarvester-h. — Seymour and Leicester
Johnson, Jr., of Avon, N. Y. : We claim
the arrangement of the outer wheel, C,
drive wheel. A, and inner wheel, B, in
combination with the adjustable draught

pole, R, and movable blocks, v v, the
whole being arranged for joint operation,
substantially as set forth.

Propellers. — Aimer Johnson, of Buffalo,
N. Y. : I claim constructing propellers,
which embody the distinctive features of
my invention, substantially as set forth.

Arrangement of Life and Treasure
Buoy for Vessels. — F. D. Lee, of Charles-
ton, S. C. : I claim the arrangement of the
buoy provided with the means and appli-
ances set forth, in relation to the chest or
safe and indicating buoy, and the decks of
the vessel as and for the purposes described.

Plows. — Joel Lee, of Galesburg, 111. : I
claim the combination and arrangement of
of the two wheels, E and E', attached to
the different sections of the beam swivel-
ing quarter around in opposite directions,
and bracing the plow as described when
used in the manner and for the purpose set
forth.

Seed Planters. — Joel Lee, of Galesburg,
111. : I claim the bevel wheels, D D, con-
structed, arranged and operated in the
manner set forth, when combined with the
swivel tube, C, for the purpose described.

Steam Boilers. — David Mathew, of Phil-
adelphia, Pa. : I claim the arrangement of
the draft plates, e and f, in relation to the
inclined tubes or flues, D, as and for the
purpose set forth.

Securing Hatches of Vessels. — Edward
S. Keyser, of New-York City : I claim the
securing of ship hatches, and making the
joints water tight, by means of the hollow
flanged ribs, B, and the rubber and plates
contained within it, which are pressed
down over the seams or joints by the
screws, d, substantially as set forth.

Bed Hives. — Samuel Kelly, of Washing-
ton, D. C. : I claim the sliding frames, F,
removable pins, I, and dividing zinc plates,
B', in combination with the movable pas-
sage ways, and the sliding valve, O, ar-
ranged in the manner and for the purposes
set forth.

Potato Planters. — Stephen H. Strong,
of Brunswick, O. : I claim the seeding
wheel, B, armed with adjusting buckets,
I), and checks, E, in combination with the
hopper, C, and sliding bottom, R, in the
manner and for the purpose set forth.

Ice-Breaking Boats. — James D. Foster,
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and H. C. Foster and
John Q. Miller, of Springfield, Ohio: We
claim making the breaking bars detacha-
ble in the manner and for the purposes set
forth.

Shingle. — Stephen R. Tenney and Asa
Bennett, of Uubbardstown, Mass. : We do

60

PATENTS

not broadly claim the preservation of wood
by carbonization.

But we claim a carbonized shingle, made
substantialljr as set forth.

Reaping and Mowing Machines. — Henry
(t. Vanderwerken, of Greenbush, N. Y. : I
claim the combination of the stationary
and bracing gear, F, with the auxiliary
frame, A', main frame, A, driving wheel,
G, and pinion, H G, arranged as and for
the purposes set forth.

Construction of Salt Pans. — William S,
Worthington, of Newton, N. Y. : I claim
the employment within a bi-ine-evaporat-
ing pan, of a grating or perforated fiilse
bottom, C C, substantially as and for the
purpose specified.

Machine for Sticking Pins on Paper. —
Thaddeus Fowler, (assignor to the Ameri-
can Pin Company,) of Waterbury, Conn. :
I claim the combination of the plate or
form, A, with the slotted form, C, when
constructed, and made to deposit the pins,
substantially as described.

I also claim the combination of the slid-
ing frame, E, with the slotted form, G,
when constructed and used as described.

Reaping and Mowing Machines. — J. W.
Brokaw and Thomas Harding, (assignor to
Benjamin H. Warden, John W. Brokaw
and Jonathan G. Child,) of Springfield,
Ohio : We claim the peculiar method of
regulating the bight of the cut, and reliev-
ing the draft on the joints of the tongue,
by means of the bar, K, in combination
with a tongue, I, hinged to the finger bar,
G, or front of the main frame of the ma-
chine, both being constructed, operated
and arranged in relation to each other, in
the manner as described.

Steering Apparatus for Vessels. — Chas.
Weed, (assignor to himself and Stephen B.
Cram,) of Boston, Mass. : I claim placing
the parallel screws, E and F, one immedi-
ately above the other, and connecting
them by the gears, H and G, the steering
wheel being attached to one of the screws,
in the manner substantially as described.

Second, I claim the stationary guide bar,
L, as arranged with the grooved nuts, M
and N, and bearing blocks, D, as set forth.

Revolving Fire-Arm. — Ethan Allen, of
Worcester, Mass.

Cut-off Valve Gear of Steam Engines.
— Horatio Allen, of New-York City.

Adjustable Gage for Dovetails. — Juan
S. L. Babbs, of Boston, Mass., and Amos
H. Ray, of Providence, R. I.

Cultivators. — David P. Daggett, of Pal-
myra, N. Y. : I claim the peculiar con-
struction of parts whereby the frame of

the cultivator may be elevated or depress-
ed in relation to the surface of the soil,
either parallel to the plane of the surface
or inclined thereto forward or backward
at any desired angle by means of the lever
beam, D, swivel wheel, I, swivel clevis, H,
and adjustable wheels, C, combined, ar-
ranged and operating in the manner and
for the purpose specified.

Machinery . for Lifting Water. — Isaac
C. Foster, of Union City, Tenn.

Corn and Cob Mill. — Harvey Hall, of
Mansfield, Ohio: I claim the coneandmeal
trough, east in one piece, for the purpose
of strengthening the cone, and giving a
firm base for its attachment, as set forth.

Corn Planters. — J. J. S. Hassler, of Rip-
ley, Va.

Tubes for Seed Planters. — Joseph G.
Haines, of Dublin, Ind. : I claim as new, in
the described combination with the tooth
of a grain or seed-drill, the tube or grain
duct, I, composed of a close coil of wire
constructed and applied as set forth.

Dress of Millstones. — Nelson Hay ward,
of Cleveland, Ohio.

Egg Beaters. — John B. Heich, of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio.

Horse Rakes. — Valentine Hyatt, of
Westfield, Ohio : I claim the combination
of the lever, L, cross bar, C, levers, C C,
and arms, G G, for raising the rake from
the ground when not in use, as described.

Cooking Stoves. — ^Samuel Pierce, of
Troy, N. Y.

Seeding Machines. — Charles G. James, of
Dayton, Ohio.

Seeding Machines. — Hiram Kellogg, of
McHenry, 111.

Cotton and Hay Presses. — James Mas-
sey, of Thomasville, Ga.

Hubs of Carriage Wheels. — Cornelius
Merry, of New-York City.

Seeding Machines. — Samuel Mills, of
New-Castle, Ohio.

Portable Field Fence. — ^Tliomas B. Page,
of Laurel, Ohio.

Portable Sawotll. — T. T. Prosser, of
Oconomowock, Wis.

Cheese Presses. — C. H. Robertson, of
Middleport, N. Y.

Lubricating Oil Gups. — Enoch N. Ro-
land, of Baltimore, Md.

Steam Cotton Press. — John Roy, of New-
Orleans, La.

Bracing Springs of Vehicles. — C. W.
Saladee, of Columbus, Oliio.

A D V E R T I S E ?\I E N T S .

61

Bayonet Fastemnu. — J. N. Ward, of
New-York City. !

Draaving Knike. — R. N. Watrous, of i
Charlestown, O.

Machines for Pegging Boots and Seiols. |
— Wm. Wells, (assignor to Edgar M. Ste- j
vens,) of Boston, Mass.

Sewing Machines. — Henry Belin, (as- ;
signer to himself and Thomas Sewell,) of j
New- York City.

Seeding Machines. — John Critcherson,
(assignor to John Warren,) of Boston, Mass.

Snow Plows. — Newcomb Demary, Jr.,
of Attica, N. Y., assignor to James Yates,
of Philadelphia, Pa.

Grate Dampers. — John O'Brien, (assign-
or to Owen Collins and John Dunley,) of
New-York City.

Straw Cuiters. — Moses Clements (de-
ceased,) late of Worcester, Mass.

Winnowing Machines. — John Shipley, of
Princeton, Wis.

Feet Warmers. — Heber G. Seekins, Sen.,
and Heber G. Seekins, Jr., of Elyria, Ohio.

Life-Preservers. — James E. Serrell ami
William Davis, of New- York City.

Pumps. — Harmon A. Sheldon, of Middle-
bury, Vt.

Mode of Supporting Reels for Harvest-
ers.— ^Thomas I. Stealy, of Middletown, Va.

Boring Machine. — La Fayette Stevens,
of Elmira, N. Y.

Infantine Exercising Chair. — John Sa-
win, D. J. Goodspeed, and John H. Minott,
of Gardner, Mass.

Bagasse Furnaces. — Moses Thompson, of
New- York City.

Steam Boiler.— F. R. Walker, of Tully.
Mo.

^ Jr b e r t i s e 111 ni t s .

NEW AND IMPROVED SELF-EAKING REAPER.

The best yet offered. Address PELLS ilANNY, Freeport, III.

DEPOT OF THE
Breckenridge Coal Oil Co.,

98 Greenwich Street, New- York.

J. THOMPSOJV, AGKNT.

Office of the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western Uuilroad Company,

ScBANTON, Pa , June 16, 1857

![

Capt. Joseph M. Brown,
President Breckenridge Coal Oil Company:

Dear Sir : — We have been using the Breckenridge
Lubricating Oil in the shops and on railroad en-
gines. It gives entire satisfaction — is free from

gum and works free — Is superior to Sperm oil, re-
quiring one-third less than Sperm oil to do tlie
same work, and one-half the labor to keep machi-
nery and locomotives clean.
Very respectfully,

WATTS COOK, Master Mechanic.

JAMES ARCUIBALD, General Agent.

Crystal Palace, New-York— Exhibition of the >
American Institute for the year 1857. J

I have made several Photometrical tests of the
power of the light given by Ihe Breckenridge Coul
Oil, burned in " Dietz A Co.'s Breckenridge Lamp
for tlie Million," and find it to give a light equal to
SEVBN Pporm candles.

WM. W. BATCIIELDER,

4G3 Broadway, New-York.

62

ADVERTISEMENTS.

f lillS' iPiVO Sm M4EI1IE.

PATENTED MARCH 6, 1855.

Farmers, Mechanics, Road-Builders, Speculators,

and all progressive men, your attention is

called to this valuable Patent.

My Stump Machine must go before the Mower and
Reaper. It hag no equal. It ia simple in its construction,
easily worked, and not liable to get out of repair. lis
common weight is about 1500 lbs It is easily borne from
place to place, and it can be loaded in three minutes, and
unloaded, set up, and a lusty stump drawn, all within
fifteen minutes. Once fastened, it will pull an acre and a
half of stumps without changing anchorage. A single
yoke uf cattle, or one strong horse, is siitficient to work
iU With such a team, if necessary, a power of from
three to five hundred tons can be made to bear upon a
8in!{le stump !

One man can work it, though two work it at better
advantage. Tlie time requited to extract stumps from
8i.\ inches to four feet in diameter will vary from two to
ten minutes. With this Machine, standing trees may be
taken out. and large rocks removed from their beds ; and
It is tlie best Machine ever invented, not only for pulling
Slumps, but for moving buildings, and other heavy bodies.
All the iron used is wrought, of peculiar quality, imported,
fanstaming 57 tons to the inch !

Th ■ price of these Machines varies according to weight
and size — the weight of the largest being about 1500 lbs.
For the purpose of transportation, it can be b'jxed up, with
the exception of the lever and wheels, in a box ten feet
long and about fifteen inches square. I reside at Orange,
Massachusetts, where I manufanure this article on a
larfje scale, and hold myself ready to furnish it, or sell
rif.'hts to use it, in any State or town in the Union, now
unsold, on terms most reasonable.

Ttiis patent begins to be appreciated. All who wish to
brill.; so good a thing into use, and thereby make a " pile
of moaey,'" should come to Orange, see the inventor, see
the workings of the Machine with their own eyes, and if
not perfectly satisfied respecting its merits, all their ex-
penses shiiU be cheerfully paid.

Tr.ese Machines, properly boxed for transportation, are
8,ild by NouRSB, Mason & Co., Parker, White & Co.,
and ScuDDER & Co., of Boston ; and by E. L. Allen, 189
Water Street, New- York.

WILLIAM W. WILLIS.

REFERENCES. — Hon. Simon Brown, Editor New-
England Farmer; 3. A. Nash, Editor Plouoh, Loom,
and Anvil; and Mr Moore, Editor Rural New-Yorker.

Ladies' Companion Sewing-Machines.

Price from $12 to $30.

Fob simplicity, durability, and good work,
they are unsurpassed by any others, are made
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aMHRtcAK umzm' mamm.

Vol. XI.

FEBRUARY, 1858.

No.

1^ g r i ni 1 1 It r a I ,

HINTS FOR YOUNG FARMERS.

We are older in the business of prac-
tical farming than most of our readers ;
and although not a few of them may be
wiser than we, there are others who
think they have much to learn.

We have correspondents and many
readers who are young in years, or
young in their business, and have the
good sense to think that the sober expe-
rience of a sober man, who has traveled
the same path before them, is worth
something. Some are young men who
have just commenced farming. Others
are retired citizens just turned farmers.
Others again are mercantile men who
have amateur farms at their country
place — to help get rid of some of their
city profits ; and these classes are ex-
actly the people for whom these articles
are intended.

Our wiser readers will be willing that
we should give a limited space to their
brethren of less experience. We mean
to tell them how to do every-day, com-
mon work, at the best time, and in the
best way. There are as many ways of
farming as there are of killing cats ; and
there is a wide diflcrence at the end of
the year, depending upon the time and

way in which work is done. So all you
wise men who know everything, turn
over a leaf, while others, who want to
learn how to make the pot boil and to
keep it boiling, read on. We begin
with

THE WINTER CAKE OF STOCK.

Horses should be kept in warm but
well-ventilated stalls, and apart from
other animals, so as not to be offended
with their breath. Pure air is almost
as important for the lungs of a horse as
for those of a human being. Early cut
hay is not as important, perhaps, for the
horse as for some other animals ; but it
should be well cured, free from must,
having no smoke when handled. Oats
are the best grain, and probably herds-
grass, cut when nearly out of the bloom,
and thoroughly dried, so as not to have
been heated in the mow, is the best hay
for this animal. If a horse is fed on hay
in the least smoky, it is better tcv sprin-
kle a little water on it, that the smoke
may not rise and be inhaled. But wc
sliould be sorry to feed a horse on hay
so foul as to require this precaution.
Cut feed, with corn or oats, or a mixture
of both ground and mingled together,
with water to soften the hav or straw, i^

66

AGRICULTURAL.

better for horses that work constantly,
because they will eat it sooner, and
thereby get more time to lie down and
rest. Corn is a better food for horses
hard at work than for those that are
standing much of the time idle. If a
horse is fed partly on carrots, it tends
strongly to keep his digestive organs in
good condition, and to secure a perfect
digestion and assimilation of all his food.
Hence we believe that a peck of oats and
a peck of carrots will go as far in sus-
taining a horse as two pecks of oats ; not
that the carrots, watery as they are, con-
tain as much nutriment as oats, but be-
cause they secure a better assimilation.
The floor of the horse-stall should be
tight. Many a horse has caught the
consumption from lying on a single floor
with wide cracks, and with insuflBcient
bedding. Unless the barn is well
sheathed, there should be an inside lin-
ing around the stall, that no current of
air may strike the horse when put, wea-
ried and sweating, to his night's rest.
Never allow a horse to drink cold water
when hot, unless you intend to drive
him again immediately, and then not too
much. To leave a sweaty horse stand-
ing in the cold air is barbarous. We
honor the piety of our fathers who built
churches, but we think it was not the
worst part of their piety that led them
to build good warm horse sheds at the
same time; and if there is anything that
we fear these good men will never be
forgiven, it is that some of them, we
hope not many, built their churches on
tall hills, heard long sermons on bleak
wintry days, and left their horses tied to
a rail fence the while.

In any climate but the mildest, horned
cattle should be stabled by night, and
have warm sheds to retire to by day. If
the sun shines they will find it out, and
will prefer the open air. Let them have
water in the yard by all means. If they
can have it in the manger, as is now
practiced by some farmers, so as never
to be deprived of it an hour when thirs-

ty, it would be better. But this is per-
haps more than can be expected in gen-
eral practice. The stabling of cattle
really adds but little to the labor of car-
rying them through the winter. Their
manure, if plenty of absorbents are used,
has a greatly increased value ; much
food is saved ; and they come out in far
better condition in spring. The stabling
is of more importance to working oxen
and milch cows, but is worth the extra
labor for all. The ox is a patient crea-
ture ; will endure imcomplaining what-
ever you put upon him, even if you
leave him to sleep on snow in the cold
wind after he has done you a good day's
work. But is this a good reason why
he should be left to suffer ? Humanity
forbids ; interest forbids ; the generous
and the selfish in our nature alike for-
bid ; and we believe the Creator of man
and of the inferior animals will hold the
former to a strict account for the treat-
ment of the latter. The horse and the
ox are grateful to man for his care of
them. Shall man be ungrateful for their
invaluable services ? Cattle should be
fed as regularly as possible from day to
day. They know the time about as well
as the old clock in the corner can tell
you. If hungry, they will fret but little
till the time comes, but are very uneasy
if there is much delay after the usual
time. The secret of thrift in cattle, with
but a fair allowance of food, is quiet,
contentment. Who does not know that
a cow taken from her wonted home, will
diminish her milk for a few days, even
on better food than she had been used
to ? Almost any animal will loose flesh
if removed to a new place. If the keeper
is changed and less kind usage is expe-
rienced, the same place and the same
food will not produce as much thrift.
Neither cattle nor horses should be made
to swallow their own breath. If hay is
saturated with their breath, they loathe
it. It is better, therefore, to feed twice
in the morning and twice at night, and
to give them a lunch at noon. A little

AGRICULTURAL

C7

at a time, to be devoured before being
much dampened by their breathing on
it, is attended with less waste.

Early-cut, clean, well-cured hay can
not be much improved by cutting, be-
cause it is perfectly digested without
cutting ; whatever nutriment it contains
is assimilated ; and nothing more than
it contains could be extracted if cut ever
so finely. With straw, corn stalks,
coarse, late-cut hay, it is otherwise. If
cut, these will be more perfectly digest-
ed, and the result will be more favora-
ble. It has been asserted that forty per
cent, is gained by cutting forage for cat-
tle. This may be true, as an average
gain. We rather think it is. But it
can not be true of each kind of forage.
We must throw our common sense over-
board before we could believe that
bright, June-cured hay can be much im-
proved by cutting. The cattle love it
without ; it is tender, luscious to their
taste, and they masticate it perfectly.
Cutting can not enh-.nce its value 10 per
cent, nor 5. The buts of corn-stalks,
on the other hand, may be 90 per cent
better, if cut a quarter of an inch long
and steamed, with the least possible
sprinkling of salt, because in this state
they are pretty good food for cattle,
whereas, if left whole, the animals would
about as soon perish with hunger as eat
them. That the value of forage as a
whole is increased by running it through
the straw-cutter, there can be not doubt ;
but the idea that all kinds are equally
improved is absurd.

Let the stables be kept clean, also the
barn-floor and the open spaces about the
barn, as well as the entrances. It re-
quires but little more labor — some think
less — to be neat, than to be slovenly.
Tidy housekeepers, if they do not live
as easily, certiiinly do as comfortably as
untidy. It is so with the keepers of
stock. Neatness outside of the parlor
and kitchen are of some consequence.
It is attended with comfort and adds not
a little to prosperity.

Sheep should have a warm retreat,
but should also be allowed at pleasure
to run out and take the sun and pure
air. Early-cut hay, or well-cured second
crop, with a little corn, is their best food.

The pig-pen should be constructed
with two apartments, one warm and dry,
with dry nesting ; the other such as to
indulge the filthy occupant in his root-
ing, manure manufacturing propensities ;
and these propensities may be turned to
a good account by throwing in plent}' of
materials for the pigs to work over and
compost. In good farming, where the
home manures are principally relied up-
on, ten loads to every swine will be car-
ried out in the course of a year, not as
active as Peruvian guano, but worth
more in proportion to its cost. Corn,
ground ordinarily fine and scalded, and
then reduced in temperature to about
blood heat, by the addition of skim milk,
whey, slops, etc., is the most economical
food for swine. In England pork is
made mainly from barley, but would not
be if that climate was adapted to the
corn crop as ours is.

Hens should be laying smartly by this
time, and if they are not, it is the fault
of the owner. The true economy on the
farm is, to keep a pretty good flock of
hens and chickens, to have facilities for
shutting them up certain parts of the
year, when they would do injury out,
but to let them run at large, to de-
stroy insects and get for most of their
living what nothing else would consume,
when it can be done with safety to the
garden and other crops, and when no
broils will be created by their depreda-
tions in the neighborhood. When con-
fined for security to crops or for the
sake of peace among neighbors, let them
have access to gravel and to carbonate of
lime, in some such form as broken
shells, ground bones, or slacked lime,
sprinkled about their premises. The shell
of the egg consists mostly of carbonate
of lime ; and the ordinary food does not
contain enough of this to answer the de*

68

AGRICULTURAL

mands of the hen in laying time. Hens
require a meat diet in part. Throw them
bones to pick, and occasionally bits of
meat useless for other purposes. In
summer they will supply themselves
with animal food in the form of grass-
hoppers and other insects, but should
be supplied with it in winter in other
forms, if you would have plenty of eggs.
February has the reputation of being
the coldest month in the year, and sure-
ly the coming February will not have
much to boast of in that line, unless it
shall be colder than its predecessor, Jan-
uary, has yet been. Yesterday and this
day, January lith and 15th, have been
like May or October days, strayed away
from their proper place in the calendar.

ON THE SUBJECTS FOR A FARM-
ERS' MAGAZINE.

BY A farmer' S SON.

Mr. Editor : — You asked the other
day my opinion as to the most desirable
method of conducting a farmers' period-
ical. Your motive doubtless arose from
your anxiety to supply your readers
with the information most required by
them; and although your own experi-
ence and good judgment can hardly be
likely to hear from me anything new
upon the subject, I shall be glad if any
remarks of mine should suggest one
hint to you that may further your views,
and aid you in the arduous task that de-
volves on you, in common with others
who seek to please or to instruct a large
class of readers, distributed over thou-
sands of miles of greatly varying cli-
mate.

The wants of many, I know I can lay
before you,; and the wants of many
more, you doubtless already amply sup-
ply. But I need not tell you that read-
ers of aU classes and on all subjects, are
often unreasonable and thoughtless. —
They forget much you have told them
already ; and every reader too often takes
up a magazine as if it had been written,
or should as he thinks have been writ-

ten, for himself alone. His own wants
he knows ; the wants of others he neith-
er thinks of nor cares for. If he does
not find exactly what he wants, or what
he thinks it should contain, he throws
down the number disgusted and annoy-
ed, and vents his impatient displeasure
on the "incompetency of writers," if not
their ignorance ; and " vows to take in
such a milk-and-water thing as that no
longer." Fortunately however for the
publisher, before the gentleman's sub-
scription runs out, some article in a sub-
sequent number is lucky enough to
please him, and then he forgets his ill
humor, and on he goes with his maga-
zine. Now this line of proceeding is fool-
ish. It is unjust to editors. It is the
way to remain in ignorance; and con-
sequently the man who so acts is unjust
to himself.

Magazines and periodicals of all des-
criptions are written each for some par-
ticular class ; and to subjects connected
with that class should be, and usually
are, their contents directed. But when
the individual of that class takes up
such a paper, he should do so in the
spirit, not of search for the special sub-
ject that happens to interest him at the
moment, (for it is obvious that as each
reader may do the same, the editor
could not please all,) but, in the spirit
of general research to see what he can
glean from the pages that will add to his
stock of knowledge. Taken up in that
spirit, if he finds the subjects treated of
bear a fitting relation to the character of
the periodical, and that they are written
in a fair, common sense style, he has no
cause to complain if there are other mat-
ters that he would have preferred to see
in the pages. The pearl fisher does not
find a pearl in every oyster, but is con-
tent to open many fruitlessly for the
sake of the one that has the pearl. —
Readers of periodical literature may
with advantage to themselves follow the
fisherman's example.

But to be entitled to expect that course

AGRICULTURAL

69

of conduct in their readers, editors must
also do their part ; and if they can not
fill their literary oyster with pearls, they
must at least take care that their oyster
is " full of meat." In short, the editor
must provide always good substantial
literary food for a hungry reader ; but
the choice of that food, provided it be
digestable by the class for whom he
writes, must be left to himself.

Now in the spirit, as regards editor
and readers, that I have penned the
above remarks, let us consider the sub-
jects for a farmers' magazine.

The great failing in the farming com-
munity is a proneness to routine. As
their fathers did, so do they. Distrust-
ful of the discoveries of science, and I
fear I must add, too little inclined to
take the trouble of investigation, there is
a disposition to go on in the same beaten
track, heedless of the future, thoughtful
only of present wants, and if not content,
at least willing to drag on a listless ex-
istence if those wants are satisfied.

I know there are numerous exceptions
to this picture ; which many may sup-
pose to originate in a feeling of superior-
ity if not of conceit in the writer. That
is not so. Let any man coolly reflect and
compare the energy displayed in the life
of a merchant or a trader in any large
city, with the coiu"se of life pursued by
the agriculturists, as a body, and then say
if there is not far too much ground for
the correctness of the character I have
sketched above.

The old adage, that " We may take a
horse to the pond, but we can't make
him drink," is true. But we must take
the horse to the pond, or he can not
drink if he wishes. So the agricultural
editor's first care should be to lay before
his readers the improvements of the
age. His first duty I think is to take
care that all new discoveries, whether in
implements to facilitate tillage, of new
crops for culture, or of improved meth-
ods of cultivation, are explained in de-
tail, so that the advantages of the seve-

ral subjects are fully made known ; and
this as completely and sufficiently as
may enable the farmer, without refer-
ence beyond the pages of the paper, to
avail himself of the information. For
it should always be borne in mind that
the time of the farmer is valuable, and
that much traveling is not properly
within his province, and consequently
unless the information is afforded him
in a shape that he can either from the
perusal of it or by letter, make it avail-
able, the benefit to him is only pros-
pective.

The first requirement I set down,
therefore, for the /armers^ magazine is,
papers explanatory of new discoveries in
agriculture.

The subject next in importance appears
to him to be, to keep the farmers well vp
to their work for the season. With this
view there is much utility, especially in
a monthly periodical, in having a good
paper by the editor surveying the gene-
ral work of a farm for the month, point-
ing out the kind of work requiring at-
tention, and containing suggestions as to
the most ehgible mode of executing it,
with reference both to cost and labor.

In furtherance of the same object, ori-
ginal papers on particular subjects, ap-
plicable to the season at which they ap-
pear, are also very useful, and in this
the readers may contribute frequently to
aid the editor and benefit their fellow-
laborers in the agricultural world. It
requires no literary skill to write an ac-
ceptable article. Plain, practical facts,
the result of experience, is what farm-
ers want ; and these any farmer can ex-
press in familiar language.

In my opening remarks I alluded to
the individual wants of particular read-
ers ; and although as I then said, it is
impossible for an editor to anticipate
these, there yet remains a mode in which
they can be satisfied. Because when-
ever information is wanted by one read-
er, the chances are that man}' more
stand in need of the same. Therefore

70

AGRICULTURAL.

such being the case, a periodical paper
is the precise channel through which to
obtain it.

Let every farmer who is in doubt, or
in want of information, write to the edi-
tor and ask for it. And this brings me
to the next head of subjects for the Mag-
azine, namely :

Correspondence, and discussion ty
means of it, relative to farming matters
of all descriptions.

If the readers of any periodical will
only take up their pens and discuss their
opinions freely, but in the language and
spirit of good humor, and a desire for
knowledge, (as opposed to a desire for
victory in a contest of words,) there is
no department of a magazine that will
become more useful and interesting. —
Life and activity should pervade every
page of a periodical, and correspondence
of such a nature is precisely the element
to impart that vivacity which it is diffi-
cult for a single individual, tied dowia to
the monotony of the editorial chair, al-
ways to give to his effusions, however
valuable they may be in substance.

Moreover, ignorance on subjects that
our calling assumes we are acquainted
with, is regarded by too many as prefer-
able to the exposure of it to others.
Hence we too often remain in ignorance
which inquiry would speedily dispel. The
pages of a magazine present the ready
means for us to learn, without our identity
being known, and consequently there is
no better mode by which we can avoid
remaining in a state of ignorance, which,
when there is open a way to avoid it, is
decidedly unjust to ourselves no less
than to those dependent on oui* exer-
tions.

My paper has, I fear, aheady exceeded
useful limits; and having pointed out
what appears to me to be the more im-
portant topics for agricultural periodi-
cals I will close with the hope, not that
you can derive information from it, but
at least that your readers will aid j^ou, by
attending to my last suggestion, freely

to communicate their own experience,
and by their inquiries, point out to you
their wants. I know well enough that
your best exertions will then not be
wanting to fulfill them.

ON THE TREATMENT OF MA-
NURE.

BY A PRACTICAL FARMER AND GAEDEKER.

To talk intelligibly about manure, it
is quit*} important to know what manure
is. Manure, if intended to convey the
idea of food for plants, is often a terrible
misnomer. Fresh dung, or fresh urine,
is never food for plants. There is no
element in the fi'esh excretia of animals
in the undecomposed vegetable waste of
farms, such as straw, stalks, weeds, etc.,
or in the muck and peat of swamps that
can afford sustenance to vegetation.
Plants can never appropriate an element
until it is prepared for them. They
have no digestive organs, and the change
in their food must be perfected in the
soil, which is at the same time the gra-
nary and the stomach of plants. The
waste of manures can take place only by
two methods.

First. By solution 'in water, which
may run off upon the surface or sink
into the ground.

Second. By their preparation for food
of plants prematurely, or in such posi-
tions that plants are not present to ap-
propriate them, which preparation al-
ways reduces manures to gases. Now
let any one thoroughly comprehend
these positions, and he will never be at
a loss to discover whether his manure is
exposed to waste.

Until manure has undergone such fer-
mentation as to produce sensible heat,
there can be no loss of the essential ele-
ments of vegetation by gaseous escape.
If manure lies upon an impervious bot-
tom, there can be no waste by the solu-
ble elements passing downwards into the
soil, and if its position is such that no
water can flow from it, no M'aste can
take place by any amount of saturation.

AGRICULTURAL.

"Zl

While saturated with water the putre-
factive fermentation can not proceed;
and the offensive smell that issues from
it is of no sort of consequence. The es-
caping gases from fresh or saturated ma-
nure form no part of the gaseous ele-
ments which are the food of plants.

The great objection to the too abun-
dant saturation is not only the excessive
weight to be removed, but that the pre-
paratory fermentation, which is not ex-
haustive, can not proceed, "\\rhen ma-
nures are removed to the soil they are
intended to fertilize before fermentation
has taken place, and partially spread
so that the heaps are too shallow for it
to commence. There is no essential waste
during winter, except it may be by so-
lutions from it flowing off upon the fro-
zen surface before they can sink into the
soil. The rains do not materially affect
them while the earth is thawed, as what
they dissolve sinks into it.

Professor Voelcker, of the Agricultural
College of Circenster, England, and John
Johnston, an extensive farmer of Western
New-York, have alfnost from the anti-
podes simultaneously announced — one
the theory and the other the practice of
— this principle, and its seeming antag-
onism to the favorite sentiment has eli-
cited great needless discussion. They
have both asserted that there was no es-
sential difference in the effect of manures
carried in fall or winter to the fields to
be fertilized, and those made under shel-
ter or in heaps in the yard ; and in this
they are right, when they refer to ma-
nure uncombined with foreign sub-
stances, and exposed to fire-fanging or
saturation. But when they assert the
same regarding those manures combined
with foreign substances which they re-
duce to a condition for pabulum, they
are wrong. Manures removed to the
soil from a yard saturated with water
are not, nor ever can be, distributed
equally over the soil. Clumps and
pastcy masses are flung around with
dry and saturated stalks and unrotten

straw, which not only afford unequal
nourishment to the soil when prepared
by putrefaction, but actually destroy
most of the germinating seeds in their
vicinity by the virulence and abundance
of their first crude solutions. Now, Mr.
Johnston's success and Professor Voelck-
er's truth consists in a condition being
met which they had entirely overlooked.
This condition I had observed twenty
years before Professor Voelcker and Mr.
Johnston announced the principle with
which it is connected. During the win-
ter the frosts and winds have disinteg-
rated and dried these masses, until they
admit by their pulverulent condition of
being more thoroughly distributed over
the soil. We then approach the annun-
ciation of this maxim.

Manures, to produce their best effect,
must be thoroughly distributed over and
through the soil. Reduced to its finest
and most pulverulent condition, each
small particle of manure should be divi-
ded from its fellows by many particles
of soil. How to do this without waste
is the great secret, and the methods are
various. 1st. By frequent turning. 2d.
By composting with swamp muck, peat,
straw, soil, and other crude materials.
8d. By returning the water that flows
from a heap to its surface by pumping
and otherwise. 4th. By combining the
dung of different animals, as the easily
heating dung of the horse, with the cold
and unfermenting dung of cows and
swine. 5th. And worst and most com-
mon of all, by allowing the dung and
litter of the stable to decay undisturbed
in heaps, heating and fire-fanging to
ashes in the center, and wasting many
times the value of that which remains.
I do not propose here to analyze and
compare these various methods, but
simply to endeavor to clear away the
mist which surrounds some simple prin-
ciples.

Amid all the discussion of the value of
manures and their treatment, their crea-
tive power of inducing the sustaining

n

AGRICULTURAL.

principle of other substances, has never
been treated of. No wonder is excited
by the fiict that a small piece of ferment-
ed bread placed in the center of a batch
of dough will excite the vinous fermen-
tation, and entirely change the chemical
condition of the whole mass. In the
same manner may a comparatively small
portion of actively decomposing matter
reduce a large bulk of inert and even
poisonous substances to an active and
valuable agency in fertilizing the soil.
Many a man has laboriously hauled the
muck of his swamp upon his field, and
with disgust and chagrin beheld the
death of every vegetable in its vicinity.
The heat and active fermentation of dung
mixed with muck would have excit-
ed a kindred fermentation that would
have rendered it fit food for plants. All
other inert or slow decaying or acid
matter would have been treated in the
same manner. The changes they would
undergo are not a little remarkable and
instructive. Let us trace them for a
moment. The dung having in the intes-
tines of the animal undergone partial
decomposition, is more nearly ready for
complete putrefactive fermentation, and
commences to heat as soon as its super-
abundant water has been pressed out.
The cause of the heating is twofold. 1st.
The combustion of decay or absorbing
oxygen. 2d. The compression or les-
sening of bulk as the heap settles down.
As soon as the heating commences, the
carbon, the hydrogen, and the nitrogen
lose their hold upon each other, and are
free for new associations. The carbon
unites with oxygen, and carbonic acid
appears. The hydrogen and nitrogen
unite, and ammonia appears, for it is
only until rotting or decomposition takes
place that ammonia (that much talked
of but httle understood substance) is to
be found. And now the game is opened,
the mass of muck or other inert matter
heated many degrees above blood-heat,
is prepared by the expansion of its par-
ticles to receive a new influence. The

tannic acid that has preserved its liquid
and carbonaceous character so long,
is met by the ammoniacal gas escaping
from the rotting dung, and neutralized
by this potent alkali to a harmless agent.
The muck now greedily absorbs manj'-
times its bulk of ammoniacal vapor, and
becomes not only a vessel for its preser-
vation, but is itself rendered a soluble
carbonaceous substance fitted for giving
up its elements to living plants. Not a
bubble of the precious nitrogenous va-
pors, not a drop of the liquid gold of the
compost can now escape. But the muck
accomplishes more than its hunger and
thirst dictates. It operates as a divider
to separate the particles of manure, and
render them better fitted for complete
division and distribution in the soil.
Now, whether one very imperfect me-
thod of using manure is better than an-
other very imperfect method, ought not
to occupy the attention of any man.
Whether John Johnston could obtain
equal or even better results from fresh
manure carted to his fields in winter
than he could from it hauled from his
barnyard half decayed in spring, or from
the same source piled with care and fre-
quently turned, but still so as to lose by
that very turning a great part of its
value, ought not to be the question ; but
whether he might not have employed
his fresh manure to multiply itself many
times, to render soluble and fit food for
plants, inert and vicious substances. Of
the second condition of loss of value in
manures, not much need be said. As I
have before stated, the four great gaseous
elements of plants — oxygen, hydrogen,
nitrogen, and carbon — are combined in
such proportions and relations in disor-
ganized plants, in ripe or dry vegetables,
and in fresh dung, and half rotted plants,
as to be totally unfitted for food for
green and living ones.

Now the moment that fermentation,
heating, or decay commences, these
gases separate from each other, and are
set free for new combinations. As they

AGRICULTURAL

•73

occupy vastly greater bulk than before,
they burst forth and escape, unless de-
tained by some absorbing substance that
would hold them until combined again.
The carbon unites with the ox3-gen and
combustion takes place, precisely like
the burning of charcoal in a flame, and
the result is the same — ashes. The
ashes of fire from the hearth and the
ashes of fire-fanged dung are precisely
similar. By this fire fanging, the hy-
drogen and nitrogen which would have
formed ammonia, have nothing to de-
tain them, the carbonaceous matter
which forms their natural storehouse
has been biu-ned up. There are but
three methods of preserving manure
from this species of loss : 1st. Saturation
with water. 2d. Drying in the sun. 3d.
Composting with considerable bulks of
inert matter. All these are objectiona-
ble, but the last presents the vast ad-
vantage. That while the bulk is greatly
increased the value is not diluted — that
every pound of the compost is equal to
a pound of the original.

I am convinced, therefore, that the
whole subject of manure might be con-
densed into the following propositions :

1. Manure does not waste so long as
it is unfermented and undissolved, and
these conditions are effected by drying
or by saturation, by spreading too thinly
for heating, or by heating in contact
with absorbing substances, (opposite
conditions and yet not different.)

2. Fresh or unfermented excrement is
unfit for food of plants, and requires a
new combination of elements for which
time and heat and moisture are requisite,
and to which saturation and dryness are
equally opposed.

3. Fermenting manure in contact with
inert matter, has the power of neutraliz-
ing vicious properties, (as the tannic
acid of peat and the pcroxyde of iron,)
and of dissolving and rendering soluble
properties that were otherwise locked up.

4. The waste of manure is effected in
only two ways — ^by the escape of its

gaseous elements into the atmosphere
when heating, and by the dissolving of
its soluble salts in water that flows away.
Any method that prevents these is valu-
able.

5. The creative or effervescing effect
of unhurt manures is more valuable than
the original matter, and is capable of
multiplying its value many times.

6. The value of any manure is in the
ratio of its division through the soil.
And the golden rule of farming is,
small quantities of manure well divided
and intermingled with the soil, will pro-
duce better crops than large quantities
not well divided.

For the American Farmers' Magazine.

EXTEACTS FROM THE JOURNAL
OF A TENNESSEE FARMER.

Oct. 21, 1857.— This was the first
morning this fall that Jack Frost showed
his white teeth. Much of the Indian
corn is yet unripe, and I venture to pre-
dict that if Jack's nip of the green corn
proves as hurtful as I have known it in
North Missouri, much complaint lies in
store against him for this first visit to us
on this mission. It is to be hoped that
a sufficiency has been impervious and
secure from his grip, for this crop almost
failed in Eastern Tennessee last year on
account of the continued drought. This
year our farmers gave to its planting
and culture unusual attention. The his-
tory of this corn is too well known to
command but a passing notice now,
having been found here in cultivation by
the Indians on the discovery of the con-
tinent. No State wheresoever turns to
moral account the production of this
valuable cereal more than our beloved
Tennessee ; very little " TangU foot'' is
manufactured from it, but fat hogs,
mules, horses, and cattle revel and luxu-
riate in the bounty, whilst our farmers
are content with the profit thus obtained.
At one time our State stood first in the
quantity grown, and it would, I think,
be no exaggeration to say she grows

74

AGRICULTURAL

the lest in the Union. We have nearly
all known varieties except the new Pea-
body kind, now so much talked of in the
prints. It is in our border for sale, and
will soon be compared with the white
flint in yield, etc. The name Maiz, I
believe more properly belongs to this
grain to contradistinguish it from other
corn. Will some one say what kind of
corn it was that Joseph, governor of
Egypt, sold to the people, and in seven
years got aU money, lands, and cattle,
except that owned by the priests, by its
sale ? (It was the same cereal which
our English brethren denominate corn,
viz., wheat of some variety. — Ed.)

November. — About the middle of this
last fall month the cold weather mili-
tates against the almanac makers, and
one would think on being here that by
some freak of nature we are sojourning
in the Arctic region. The ether in the
thermometer is 8 degrees below 0, Faren-
heit. Our oldest people say this is an
innovation upon their whole experience
here.

Decemler came in like a lamb, and up
to this writing has passed with warm
rains and sunshine, comparing favorably
with April. Most of our farmers have
gathered the greater part of their corn
crop, and are sure enough complaining
that Jack has damaged them. Some say
one-half their corn is unfit for keeping
uses, but must be fed away to stock
forthwith. I went through my fields
the 14th. I found on many stalks ears
of corn that had dry, white mould on the
stalk. That in the crib looks as yet
good. I am confident my corn was as
ripe as most of my neighbors when the
frost came, and I am satisfied it is much
injured by this. I premise a general
loss of this grain in our district by early
frost. My experience in growing this
grain in Tennessee is, that if the grounds
be well plowed in winter, cross plowed
in the spring, planted about the first
week in April, with good seed, thinned
early and well cultivated after, no fears

need be had of early frosts ; but except
the main features here named appear
with our farmers, we well may always
dread early frosts and freezes.

Dec. 18. — I had neglected in the proper
place to name anything of my success in
raising sorgum, or in making syrup from
the Chinese sugar cane. The seed was
sent me from the patent office last year
by a friend. It was planted in good,
rich soil. My health was too poor to
superintend it, though it was cultivated
as broom corn, the cultivation of which
I think is fully understood here. When
the seed had become of a dark brown
the stalks were cut. We had no machine
to express the juice. It was beat with
pestles and put in an apple cider press,
a very common one. The juice was
boiled in a copper kettle to a good gold-
en yellow syrup, equal, I think, in taste,
to any we get in this country except the
maple, which, I think, stands ahead of
all syrups I know of. I have no doubt
that if our farmers will pay a little atten-
tion to its cultivation, and manufacture
into molasses, it will prove to be a short-
ening of expense in this article. Wheth-
er it can be made in such quantities as
to compete in sale with other southern
countries remains, I think, for the fu-
ture. A great mania prevails for the
seed. It is being very generally distri-
buted in small parcels, and another year
may give more reliable facts than this
one has aiforded in relation to the new .
article. So far as we tried it I do not
think any sugar can be made of the
syrup. A. L. B.

Mill Bend, Tenn., Dec. 1857.

For the Farmers' Magazine.

PROCESS OF SAVING CORN, &c.

The old year is at its close. With us
the Christmas week has been one of joy
and mirth with the lads and lasses of our
community. Everywhere in our favor-
ed Valley plenty abounds, and notwith-
standing the monetary crisis which has
passed over the land, there is, compara-

AGRICULTURAL

75

tively speaking, little or no real want in
our community. The crops of the past
season, if not abundant, have been am-
ple, and there is some surplus for mar-
ket. The corn crop was very fine, but
owing to the early and severe frosts of
November, and the warm, rainy, and
damp weather that followed, much of the
crop has been seriously injured, amount-
ing to one-third, and in some places one-
half the crop. Many of my neighbors
have been under the necessity of remov-
ing the corn from cribbing too early, and
have suffered loss. Where corn was cut
up and well shocked, it has not been
much injured, particularly where cut be-
fore the heavy frosts.

The process of saving corn has been
so often commented on, that it would
appear almost unnecessary for me to say
anything on the subject. Yet, as I have
saved my corn sound this year, I will
give you my method, and if it is worth
anything, make use of it.

I usually begin cutting as soon as the
corn is glazed. This, with us, is usually
about the 20th of September, this year
the first week in Oct. When the crop
is good, say 50 or 60 bushels per acre,
I put 13 rows, to the row of shocks, cut-
ting as near the ground as I can, so as
to give the whole nutriment of the stock
to the maturity of the grain.

We commence on one side of the field,
a stout hand taking the lead, and form-
ing the shocks by bending four or more
stout stalks together, making half shocks
or six rows, well set up, and secured by
a good band of fodder, grass or straw.
After going over the field in this way,
let it cure two or three days, or more if
necessary, and then complete the shocks
by bringing the six additional rows, with
a good band about the ears, and another
at the top. If the shocks are well put
up and banded they will stand all win-
ter without injury. I have half my
crop yet in the field, in excellent preser-
vation, and shall only get it in as my
cattle need provender.

The two past winters should admonish
farmers to have better accommodations
for their stock. There is much gain
every way from having good shelter for
cattle and stock of every kind. Less
feed suffices, and what you give thein
they get the benefit of. The merciful
man is ever merciful to his beast. The
man who can hear his cattle and sheep
bleating, his pigs squaling, and see his
horses shivering in the fence corners,
while he makes no efforts for their com-
fort, must be calous to the finer feelings
of our nature. (It is so. — Ed.)

We often hear persons complaining
about bad luck, but if you trace the mat-
ter, it is bad management. The careful
manager, who has a place for everything,
and keeps everything in its place, who
divides his stock in such a way as to
prevent the feeble from being run over
by the strong, or driven from their feed,
does not often suffer loss in this way.
Good feed and careful attention, will
generally keep man and beast in good
health and condition. (Yes. — Ed.)

One cow well fed, is worth two or
three poorly cared for. Keep good
stock, feed well, and my word for it, you
will find a proper return. (How slow
the world is to find this out. — Ed.)

On Christmas day we had quite a snow
storm, with wind from the east ; since
then the weather has been mild, with
rain every alternate day. The snow is
gone, and this day is wet, with deep
mud everywhere. Where the land is
good, wheat looks well, but to some ex-
tent it is an uncertain crop.

The crop of oats last season was fine,
but owing to the scarcity of corn, much
of it has been fed. The hay harvest was
very good. Of potatoes about the usual
crop. Apples scarce. Pork rather
scarce and high, $7 being about the
average price. Beef is not abundant,
and is worth from $6 50 to $7, and will
be very scarce before Spring, as the
usual stock is not on hand. South
Western Virginia produces very fine

76

AGRICULTURAL.

cattle, but the supply from that quarter
is less than usual. The graziers suffered
much in their cattle last winter, from
cold and short supply of provender.

I have written this letter rather hasti-
ly, correct errors if you give it a place
in your valuable journal.

Wishing you the compliments of the
season, I subscribe myself.

Your obedient servant,

Henry B. Jones.

Near Brownsburg, Dec. 30, 1857.

The above remarks about shelter for
cattle, implying humanity to brutes, (?)
as well as profit to the owner, are quite
to our mind, and we thinTc and feel that
they can hardly be too often repeated.
Would not shelter for the food of cattle
be well also? We ask this question
without answering. It has been our lot
to know little of so delicious a climate as
the above writer may enjoy. In these
boreal regions it is good policy to shelter
our fodder as well as our cattle, and we
can not but doubt whether the same
would not be good policy for the greater
corn growers and stock breeders of the
West, the South-West, and even the
South. But the farmers in these regions
know perhaps of reasons for a contrary
course, which we may not fully appre-
ciate— Ed.

SNOW AND VEGETABLE LIFE.

BY A FRIEND.

In mundane affairs no one finds an ex-
cuse or an apology for ingratitude. A
man may commit crime after crime
against both life and property, but rare
indeed is the instance, however henious
the offence, in which the criminal does
not find some people ready to palliate it
or to extenuate its guilt. But nobody
forgives ingratitude, even when not the
object of it.

Why is it that we do not apply this
to holier things ? Why do so many peo-
ple who profess to live, and who we be-
lieve mean to live a Christian life, par-
ticipate, day by day and year by year, in

so many blessings, heedless at all events,
if not ungrateful for them ? Why ? For
two principal reasons. Because being
blessings enjoyed in common with all
their fellow-men, they are regarded as
" things of course." And because they
do not tMnk.

It may be thought a cold subject with
which to stir up the heart. Yet, not-
withstanding that, the winter's fall of
snow should be, with every farmer es-
pecially, a cause of thankfulness and gra-
titude to our gracious Father in heaven.
Yet so common is snow, and moreover,
sometimes so unpleasant to our personal
feelings and convenience, that it is to be
feared it too often engenders grumblings
rather than thankfulness.

Let us see why it is that we have cause
for this gratitude ; and, perhaps, the con-
sideration may engender the feeling.

In the first place the snow protects the
ground from the intense severity of frost,
and thereby preserves vitality in the
roots of may trees, and in the seeds that
the ripening of the autumnal crops' have
sown in the ground ; and many of which
but for such protection would be de-
stroyed.

That this is so has been proved by nu-
merous experiments. It has been found
that the temperature of the surface of
the ground, beneath six inches of snow,
was nineteen degrees of Fahrenheit's
thermometer less severe than the tem-
perature of the atmosphere at the time of
the experiment. And as snow is a bad
conductor of heat, there is little doubt
that the surface would not have cooled
more, even if the temperature of the at-
mosphere had fallen several degrees still
lower.

The preservation of seeds by the com-
bined action of snow and frost is very
remarkable. Although the temperature
of the winters in New- York State is much
more severe than in England, there are
many seeds of flowering and other plants
that are of a tender nature, which are
here preserved perfectly through the

AGRICULTURAL.

11

winter, being self sown in the summer
and fall, and which in the following
spring make their appearance in the
garden. In England the same seeds in-
variably perish. The balsam is one flow-
er of that description. The reason is
this. In England there is usually in
mid-winter a temporary breaking up of
frost for a few daj-s, which is followed by
a short season of severe frost again.
During the thaw the genial warmth
causes the tender seeds alluded to to ger-
minate ; but the return of frost arrests the
process, which in a seed can never be re-
newed, and it dies.

Again, although many evergreen trees
can endure a great amount of cold with-
out destruction, their leaves require Ugh t
at all times*; otherwise the vital princi-
ple in the leaf could not be sustained.
Now snow being white and opaque, the
quantity that falls on a tree does not pre-
clude the light from penetrating through
it, and, consequently the functions of the
leaf can progress, notwithstanding its
winter covering, which at the same time
protects it also from the intensity of the
frost.

Independently of the foregoing bene-
fits derived fi-ora the presence of snow,
there is another of equal value, which is
not probably so apparent to the casual
observer. The effect of frost upon the
organization of vegetables is principally
injurious bj"- rupturing and tearing apart
the vessels forming their structure. This
arises chiefly from the contraction of the
water or sap whilst freezing within them.
The tissue fomicd by these vessels is it-
self elastic ; but to a greater or less de-
gree in different families of plants. Now
when frost is not severe, the clastic force
enables the internal structure of the plant
to conform to the altered position of the
vessels forming the tissues — to some ex-
tent at least — and it is only when the
severity of the frost is sufficient to ex-
iiaust this clastic power, that the organi-
zation of plants is destroyed, by these
results of the freezing process.

But if the preceding paragraph is un-
derstood, the reader M-ill perceive that it
follows as of course, that the plant is li-
able to injury by the process of thawing
as well as that of freezing. And such is
the fact ; for those who have investigated
the subject have arrived at the conclu-
sion that more plants arc killed by the
thaw than by the preceding frost. Be-
cause usually the thaw is much more
rapid than the freezing process. Hence
there is more time for the elastic force to
be gradually brought into play through
the whole fabric of the plant in the latter
case.

We all know the effect of a hot win-
ter's sun for a couple of hours at mid-
day upon a frozen tree. And now the
friendly snow comes into play. The white
mantle guards the covered limbs from
the direct action of the sun's rays, which
first have to melt into water the snow on
the branches, thus they become bathed
with water of a temperature just below
freezing point. It follows that the frost
is thereby removed gradually from the
tree, and frequently that saves from
death many a plant that would have suc-
cumbed to the disruption of its tissues
that the action of a hot sun on its frozen
limbs, had they beeu uncovered, would
have occasioned.

Many years ago the writer of these
remarks, had accidcntly exposed a dozen
or more succulent geranium plants to a
severe frost, which so completely pene-
trated through them as to give their stems
as well as leaves the transparent appear-
ance of sugar candy. Knowing the above
mentioned facts, he determined to see if
it was possible to thaw one of them with-
out the destruction of vegetable life. lie
therefore placed the plant with its whole
head inverted in a vessel of ice-cold wa-
ter, by supporting the flower-pot con-
taining the frozen plant on sticks placed
accross the top of the vessel, which was
then put in a dark cellar, the tempera-
ture of which at the time was only three
or four degrees above freezing point. In

78

AGRICULTURAL

this position the plant was left for two
or three days, at the end of which time
(but not before) the leaves and stalk by
their change to their natural color, show-
ed that the frost was all out of them.
This plant lived. It is needless to say
that the other geraniums were all killed
before night of the day on which the ex-
periment commenced, for the first rays
of the sun disposed of them in an hour !

From the foregoing remarks it will be
seen that vegetation is preserved by snow
in a two-fold manner. The one, by pre-
serving the vital principle from the effects
of extreme cold ; the other by preventing
the destruction of the organization, by
reason of its disruption by intense frost.

Are not these blessings ? Truly of so
great extent, that the sustenance of ani-
mal life, on large districts of the earth,
may he — for ought we know — dependent
on their presence. How grateful should
we be then for them!

How many people live? How few
amongst them think ?

A CORRECTION.

Gentlemen : — In the Farmers' Maga-
zine for January, just come to hand, it
is stated, page 28, " The veteran editor of
the Massachusetts' Plowman still affirms
that his favorite Alderney cow, gives
milk, four quarts of which will make a
pound of butter." This is a mistake.
He affirms in relation to his Devon stock,
and not Alderney. We do not know
that he ever had any of the Alderney or
Jersey stock. We have seen his Devons
— and they are very fine — though we
were never satisfied that their butter-
producing qualities were equal to his re-
presentations. We do not believe that
any cow can be found, or ever has been
found, that will yield a pound of butter
to each and every four quarts of her
milk. It is a good cow that will yield a
pound of butter to double tids quantity,
through the season. On this point we
speak with confidence, because we have
examined it. We have said the same
thing to the veteran editor named, who

is but a few years older than ourselves,
and who has boasted much of his stock,
still we doubt whether he has seen more
or better butter producing cows than we
have. *^*

January 9 th, 1858.

We stand corrected. A Devon not an
Alderney cow, is the mother of a pound
of butter to four quarts of milk, and we
knew it, and can not account for the
blunder, but are glad to be put right.

Some cows, we all know, are remark-
able for the quantity, and others for the
quality of their milk. We believe it
possible that a cow, giving naturally a
very little and very rich milk, may be so
fed and watered as to give still less and
still richer ; and if the editor of the
Ploicman says that four quarts of a par-
ticular cow's milk have made a pound of
butter, we will not dispute him, for we
believe him to be a truthful man ; but if
it was so, then that cow's milk, owing to
some extraordinary characteristic in the
animal, or to some peculiarity in the
manner of feeding, or to a selection of
the strippings instead of taking the whole,
was about three times as oily as the
avarage of cow's milk. It must have con-
tained at least 10 per cent, of oil, instead
of about four, as is usual.

The gentleman, who has kindly cor-
rected our mistake, is, we believe, an ad-
mirer of the old red cattle of New-Eng-
land. He knows, as we do, that the
breeding has been bad ; that the best
calves have gone to the butcher ; that
males have been kept more for the pur-
pose of rendering the cows fit for the
dairy, than any other consideration. Is
there any other race of cattle that would
have been as good this day, as these
same old reds, if through a long line of
ancestry they had been as badly bred ?
We should like it much if that gentle-
men would give for the Farmer's Mag-
azine some account of these cattle, their
history, their abuses and their excellent
qualities after all. If we are not mistak-

AGRICULTURAL.

Id

en, he ranks them high ; thinks it would
be wise to breed from them, instead of
relying on importations ; and that by a
rational procedure they can be made
the foundation for a better stock than
the world yet affords, at least for our
Northern States. We suspect he may be
right, and should Uke to have his reasons,
though we have supposed that the coun-
try owes much to the importers of fine
cattle, and that both importation and
careful breeding from the best samples of
our acclimated stock should go on par-
allel, in order to reach the best results in
the shortest time, for the whole country,
and for every part of it. — Ed.

A THEORY SPOLIED ; OR ARE

SOUTH-DOWNS PURE BLOOD-

■ ED SHEEP.

BY C. M. CLAY, ESQ., OF KENTUCKY.

Mr. Editor : — After all the accumulat-
ed science of ages applied to the pre-
servation of health and the cure of dis-
eases, one of the first phj^sicians and
teachers of Paris lately said to his stu-
dents, very naively, " What do I — what
does anybody know about medicine ?"
It was said of a learned traveler that he
went from home a goslln and came back
Vi gander ! "Common sense" is not
universal ; learning can neither give it,
nor take it away. Science has its fan-
atics as well as religion and politics ;
and in either case whenever one mounts
his hobby, like a beggar on horseback,
he "rides to the devil!" No wonder
then that " book learning" is so much
distrusted by practical men. In practi-
cal life false theory dees not run long
before it butts itself against some im-
possible law of nature, and is abandoned.
But let a book man, or a man of science
if you please, get hold of the tail of a
thing, and he is dragged to starvation or
death before he will loose his hold !
Henry Coleman, Esq., the author of Eu-
ropean Agriculture, tells us that pulver-
ized granite and other insoluble sub-
stances produced with simple water un-

expected vegetable life ; but when they
were all mixed together, just as we
might suppose in nature and capable of
the greatest results, it turned out that
the product was less in combination
than in individual separation. So much
for chemical agriculture ! Still we ai'e
no enemies of science, although we do
not credit the report that silk has been
produced by chemical processes without
the aid of the worm from m\ilberry
leaves. There is more truth than poe-
try in that verse :

" A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian

spring 1"
I have been led to these reflections by
reading an article in the patent office re-
ports of 1851-2, ("agricultural,") by D.
J. Browne, LL.D. In that article, page
88, he says the South-Down sheep " is
itself a hybrid, being a mixture of the
hairy and wooly species." Now to this
dictum I give in refutation theory and
facts. Let us premise, however, that the
learned doctor is led to this assertion no
doubt incidentally by a theory, alias a
hobby, which is that there are but two
species of sheep, one having wool and
the other Tiair exclusively, and that,
therefore, all with mixed wool and hair
are hybrids ! Now, upon what data is
this broad assertion made? Upon the
inference, according to the Baconian
Philosophy, of facts — a classification de-
rived from individual ties ? Not at all.
For of the sixteen kinds of sheep (I will
not say species) there laid down by him,
whose wool had been subjected to micro-
scopic analysis, none but the Saxon and
Merino varieties, one species, had fine
wool. Then if the doctor's logic be right,
all the principal breeds of sheep in Eu-
rope andAmerica are hybrids. Nay,more,
as every sheep enumerated had some of
the characteristics of " wool" in his pile,
there is but one pure breed — the Merino
— that is, one pure breed has been the
progenitor of all the hybrids ! A reduc-
tio ad al)surdum !

From analogical reasoning the doctor

80

AGRICULTURAL,

is just as wide of the mark. When told
that change of climate reduces the hair
and increases the wool, or the reverse,
the doctor claims this as a proof rather
than a disproof of his theory. What is
there in the first place in the nature of
things why a sheep should not have hair
and wool? Nature is wiser even than
so-called science; and common sense
stands by nature. Wool is, in conse-
quence of its eliptical form, curly ; if it
extended to the hoofs it would be con-
tinually catching against the many ob-
stacles which the legs of every animal
meet in locomotion. Thus, while nature
for our benefit allows wool on the sheep's
back, she very generally, and sensibly I
think, with due deference to the doctor,
supplies hair, which is straight, on the
legs. It is the mass of facts which make
a rule, so also is it the mass of facts
which in their invariaMlity and univer-
sality constitutes " species." Now if
the mass of known breeds of sheep have
wool and hair mixed, or separate, on the
same body, then by what logic does the
doctor infer that a mixed coat of wool
and hair constitutes of necessity without
other data of proof hybridity — an anom-
ily — a departure from nature's unaltera-
ble laws ? But to return to analogy.
There are some animals which lose their
fur in summer and regain it in winter ;
are they according to the doctor's rea-
soning hybrids returning to one or the
other original types of their progenitors ?
Again, why may not a pure blooded
sheep have hair and wool as well as a
pure blooded fox or rabbit have both
hair and fur ? They are both, in each
case, similar elements in dissimilar
structure. Again the learned doctor
makes a long argument to prove the
trite and well admitted fact, that hybrids
soon return to one or the other original
types, or run out. Here then is the
South-Down, traced in its characteristics
to the times of William the Conqueror,
the oldest authentic breed known, not
excepting the Merino — the most thrifty

and the most prolific — then by all the
highest proofs as adduced by the doctor
himself, 7iot a hybrid, but a pure race.

Again the doctor quotes authority
which he approves, that species do pro-
duce or may produce varieties, by which
he attempts to account for the difference
between the Saxony and the Merino,
French and Spanish, which he claims
are pure bloods of the same species.
Now no man living who did not have it
told him that the Saxon, and the Span-
ish, and French Merino were the same,
would ever suppose that they were of
the same species. If then the Pure
Blooded Sheep, the Merino, has changed
its type in weight, in size, in quality
and quantity of wool and of grease, in
hardiness, and in pr-olificness ; then fol-
lowing the law of hybi'ids thus far, it is
not a hybrid — a fortiori — how much the
more is the South-Down which eminent-
ly preserves its characteristics in all
countries and ages, not a hybrid, but a
pure blooded species and race.

Another of the doctor's broad asser-
tions is, that ioool is the thing to be
raised from sheep, and that wool only,
and not mutton, must be always looked
to, that mutton will follow as a conse-
quence. The doctor does not conde-
scend, however, to tell us lovers of mut-
ton how! This is "pulling the wool
over our eyes" with a vengeance.

Now it is too well known to require
authority to support my assertion, that
England, the greatest sheep-raising
country in the world, having certainly
the most intelligent agriculturists as a
mass now existing, just reverses Dr.
Browne's dictum. They have ceased to
raise sheep for the icool, and look alto-
gether of primarily to the mutton. The
Merino and the Saxon have become
almost extinct in England. The con-
test seems to be solely between the large,
coarse wools, the Leicesters, the Bake-
weUs, and the new Oxfordshires, and the
smaller but superior flavored South-
Downs. In what sense then docs Dr.

AGRICULTURAL

81

Browne mean to impose this new idea
upon us ? Does he mean to say that
"the finer the wool the finer the mut-
ton," is a true maxim, and that no ex-
ceptional circumstances and characteris-
tics are to be taken into account ? Then
is all Europe at fault in their taste ; for
all agree that the small, coarse wooled
sheep of Wales and the Highlands of
Scotland are the finest flavored mutton
in the world. Whoever heard of the
Merino being superior mutton in quality
or quantity ? We of Kentucky, (north-
west of the doctor's ideal line of separa-
tion between the " hairy" and " wooly"
sheep, (about which I shall say a word
presently,) have tried the Merino, giving
thousands of dollars for a single sheep,
breaking men of large fortunes, and
found him poor in flesli, and making us
poorer in pocket. The Merino is a mean,
ragged, diminutive, unthrifty carcase,
but when got fat, tolerable mutton, with
the fat and lean too much separated.
The Saxony is no better. The French
Merino has not been tried here, I believe,
but he is " some more of the same sort."
In the Lexington and Louisville mar-
kets a South-down wether will bring
from ten to twelve dollars dressed. A
Merino would not bring much over "nine
shillings" wool and all, and yet this
learned doctor talks to us of wool, and
about sheep-o-thermal lines.

The doctor's sheep line is, beginning
at the south-eastern boundary of New-
Hampshire, and running " diagonally,"
pursuing pretty much the line of tide
water, and ending in Texas ; that north-
west of that the " wooly^^ sheep must be
bred; and south-east the ^* hairy ''^
.sheep ; if kept pure, they will do well ;
if not, they will prosper on neither side.
Let us see, it must be the sea air wliich
is to cause this seemingly artificial line.
Now the doctor's Saxony and Merino
are from and natives of Spain, a penin-
sular— the most peninsular of all Europe.
At the world's fair in London thirty-two
governments were represented as con-

testants for the prize for the finest wool ;
and yet that honor was borne off by
Marke R. Cockereli, of Tennessee, U, S.,
south-east of Dr. Browne's sheep-o-ther-
mal line. Let us leave science then
and come down to practical ^^ common
sense,''' Dicta 1. Where wool is more
valuable and more accessible to market
than mutton, raise wool. 2. Where fine
wool is more in demand and at a higher
price than coarse, {'jT " hair,") raise fine
wool ; and the reverse. 3. In conse-
quence of the modern facilities of trans-
portation, the wools of all countries must
of necessity be competitors in the same
market ; therefore, the rich lands and
the poor lands are equalized to a certain
extent ; and therefore rich valuable lands
must cease to raise wool, either coarse
or Jine, as a primary source of revenue.
4. As mutton is perishable, and there-
fore not capable of distant transporta-
tion, it may have a local monopoly of
market, and consequently may command
extraordinarily high prices. 5. As
mutton is not only a necessity, but a
luxurj^, good mutton, like South-down,
wiU "pay better" than any sheep raised
for wool. Witness the sales in Lexing-
ton and Louisville, and the recent im-
portations of saddles of South-downs
from England into the New-York market
for the dinner parties of the wealthy.
6. As the demand for wool is substituted
in a great measure by the culture of flax,
silk, and cotton, its consumption by the
human race must be retarded, whilst
mutton, becoming more and more a ne-
cessity and a luxury, as the most
healthy and the most palatable of butch-
er's meats, must become more and more
in demand, and of consequence "pay"
more and more.

Now, Mr. Editor, I am a breeder of
" South-down sheep," especially tenaci-
ous of the idea of "purity of blood" in
all animals, biped and quadruped. Mr.
Browne, in riding his hobby of " pure"
breeds, rode on to my hobby of " South-
downs." I give him congratulation for

82

AGRICULTURAL

his demolition of that miserable Tium-
hug, ^^ improved crossed breeds'''' on one
side, and that equally false theory of
" in-and-in-'breeding" on the other side.
But he has by too much learning al-
lowed himself to be " mystified," and
become one of that ancient but still ex-
istent sect, "the blind leading the blind."
I beg you will be careful how you let
my name transpire, lest I should be ex-
posed as intruding still more and more
upon the doctor's domain, and have some
learned corporation bestowing the title of
LL.D. upon me.

For the Farmers' Magazine,

CORN IN NEW-HAMPSHIRE.

BY D. L. HARVEY, EPPING, N. H.

Mr. Editor : — With your permission,
I will here make a statement of some im-
provement I have made on a piece of land
the past year, and also the amount of a
crop of corn grown on the same, thinking
it perhaps would be interesting to some
of your readers. I will endeavor to be
as brief as possible.

Land one himdred and fifty rods. In
1849 the farm came into my possession.
This piece formerly had been in a field,
but had become exhausted and turned to
pastiu"e for some years ; how many I do
not know. In 1850 it was plowed in
the spring and planted with potatoes
without manure. The yield was small,
not more than paying for the labor. The
next year it was sown with barley vrith
no better success. At the same time clover
seed was sown, which set very well. The
next year it was turned to pasture
again.

In the fall of 1856 I thought of mak-
ing another attempt to improve it by a
fall plowing, and see what effect it
would have on the soil or the crop. In
November I applied twenty loads of com-
post, (a cart of forty bushels,) and im-
mediately plowed it in with a side hill
plow five inches deep. The middle of
May last it was well harrowed, and the
23d planted with corn, five kernels in a

hill, rows 3 ft. 6 in., hills 2 ft. 6 in. as-
sunder. As soon as it was up I applied
two bushels plaster to the corn. The
cultivator was run through three times,
and it was hoed twice. The middle of
September the stalks were topped and
well cured. It was harvested the 20th
of October. The corn at harvest was as
dry as corn usually is, dryer than most
corn in our vicinity this year.

I have endeavored here to ascertain
the difference between the harvest mea-
sure of corn and the actual dry or mark-
et measure.

I had ninety baskets of good corn,
weighing 57 lbs. each, making 5,130 lbs.,
allowing 70 lbs. to the bushel, making 73
bush, and 2 lbs, I placed one basket on
the 20th of October, spread thin, in a
warm chamber to dry. The 12th of
December I weighed again to see what
the shrinkage was ; whole weight Dec.
12th. 4,005 lbs. A basket was shelled,
and made by measure 56 bushels and 1
peck of shelled corn. The corn was
weighed and made 58 bush, and 37 lbs.,
allowing 56 lbs. to the bushel according
to the statute of N. H. Weight of cob
81bs. to the basket, making 720 lbs. of
cob and 3,285 lbs. of corn,

I make up the account by weight
thus:

Fifty-eight bushels of corn, . $58 00
Top stalks and buts equal to

two tons of Hay, ... 18 00
Half-bushel beans and 1 load

pumpkins, 2 00

Eight baskets small corn, . . 2 00

$80 00
Whole expense of cultivation,

interest, &c., .... 31 39

Balance, $48 61

I have charged nothing for the manure
in the yard, but the labor of drawing
and spreading, and claim no better rent
on the land, which now appears equal to
fifty per cent. It will be sown to wheat
and clover in the spring without man-
ure. I have charged one doUar per day
for labor, board included.

AGRICULTURAL.

8S

But some of your readers may wish to
know the situation of the land. It lay.s
on a northerly slope of a red oak hill,
exposed to the north and west. When
plowed in 1850 it was quite light col-
ored, a mellow loam. In 1856 it had
become a good deal darker, and quite
mellow. It contains a few round stones,
or boulders, and is underlayed with a
kind of rotton stone or ledge, that, when
detached with the plow, readily decom-
poses by the frost, rain and air.

The last winter it was blown clear
from snow and exposed to the severe
frosts of winter. I have no doubt but
the frost penetrated to the depth of three
feet, breaking the soil, which, in part, I
think accounts for the change in the soil
and crop.

We like just such particular, yet brief
statements as the above. Our Western
and Southern friends will pity,perchance,
our small way of farming in these North-
ern regions, when we talk about a single
acre, but never mind, we have some
good things which they have not, and
we are bound to go a-head, and improve
upon such advantages as we have.

Our correspondent, we think, should
have charged his compost to that field,
at its fair value. It must have cost him
labor, if nothing more, previously to its
removal ; and we do not like any calcu-
lation which seems to imply that form
labor — all of it — is not to be paid for.

" Where there's a will there's a way,"
is as true of the farmer as of the mer-
chant or the mechanic. Charge to the
farm what you do on it, and if you read,
think and improve, you will make it
pay.

We can not endure the thought that
farming should be regarded as an unpaid
drudgery. It must pay, and pay a pro-
fit too, if you icork it right, and that,
although your produce .should not always
be so high that none but the rich can
afibrd to use it freely. — Ed.

NEW OXFORDSHIRE SHEEP.

By John M. Larmoutd, in the Wool Growers' Ilf-
porter.

Messrs. Editors : — Among the great
advantages of the agricultural press to
the farmer, is the rapidity with which it
informs him of improvements or discov-
eries in his profession. The introduc-
tion of an improvement, formerly the
work of a life, is now made known in a
week, all over the land, by the omni-
presence of printing. Then, the thought-
ful farmer groped his way slowly by the
light of his experience ; now, the agri-
cultural press brings to his aid the ex-
perience of millions of other minds ;
knowledge runs, and improvements, vi-
tal to the farmer's success, formerly re-
stricted and hindered in their progress,
now become the common property of the
mass. The best modes of culture, the
most recently improved implements, and
the most profitable farm stock, are thus
brought at once within the reach of the
farmer ; his best apology for thriftless-
ness is taken away, and his ignorance of
his art shown to be no longer a misfor-
tune, but fault. It is true that the good
seed of agricultural ti'uth, sown broad-
cast by the press, falls, like the blessing
of heaven, upon the evil as well as on
the good. Some falls on the frivolous and
unthinking mind, too shallow for its sus-
tenance, and it is withered. Some falls
on the very hard and stony ground of
fogyism, from which it bounds off and
is lost ; and yet some, very much, falls
on the more congenial soil of honest, ac-
tive minds, where, carefully pondered
and judiciously applied to the business
of life, it brings forth the appropriate
fruits of agricultural prosperity. Many
farmers owe their success, and some
their fortunes, to some useful informa-
tion, some valuable suggestions or happy
thoughts from their agricultural paper.
The grateful acknowledgment of such
obligations on the part of the farmer,
would be but simple justice to those who.
in editorial labor, devote their lives to
the advancement of his interests. I am
myself under frequent obligation to your
Gultkator, which I think, for fullness of
information, reliability, and cheapness,
unsurpassed. I often make it my guide,
and it has never misled me. Rut my
principal object in writing at present is
to report to you the result of an experi-
ment into which I was led by the Culti-
vator.

The raising of fine wool has long been.

84

AGRICULTUEAL

here, unprofitable, and while considering
what stock I would substitute, I noticed
occasional articles in the Cultivator from
those who had recently purchased the
sheep called the New Oxfordshire, des-
cribing them as just the variety I wanted,
I had never seen them, but relying on
the representations of them, at last de-
termined to venture on a small purchase,
and ordered from John T, Andrew, Esq.,
of West Cornwall, Ct., a pair of New
Oxfordshire lambs. In due time they
reached me in good order, and gave me
an agreeable surprise. My highest ex-
pectations were more than realized. I
had seen beautiful animals at our fairs,
and noticed the sheep particularly, but
had never seen anything approaching the
appearance of these beautiful animals.
They were only seven months old, and
weighed two hundred and fifty-five
pounds. They had great square forms,
short limbs set wide apart, long, white,
silky wool, small bones, fine little heads,
large prominent eyes, and most intelli-
gent countenances. They were perfect-
ly gentle, would not roam, and loved to
be petted. With ordinary care they grew
rapidly through the winter, and on the
11th of April the ewe lamb, not then a
year old, surprised me with a fine male
lamb.

About the first of June my two lambs
were shorn, and yielded twenty-one
pounds of clean and beautiful wool, about
a foot long, a specimen of which I send
enclosed. At the shearing, my buck, a
year old, weighed 168 pounds. The in-
fant lamb, eight weeks old, weighed 48
pounds.

On the 21st of August they were
weighed again. The yearling buck
weighed 190 pounds, the nursing year-
ling ewe weighed 130 pounds, and their
baby, four months and nine days old,
weighed 100 pounds.

In the month of September I was
obliged to shut them up at night on ac-
count of dogs, and they lost weight, —
the buck 20 lbs., and the lamb 10 lbs., —
While attending the fairs they gained
nothing. They now have their liberty,
and are gaining finally. On the last of
October last, they weighed, notwithstand-
ing their confinement, the yearling buck
190 lbs., the ewe 160 lbs., and the little
one 125 lbs.

I exhibited my lambs at our County
fair, and also at the fair of Jefferson
county. They took prizes at both. —
They have a great many visitors, who

pronounce them the finest they ever saw.
I am fully satisfied with them, and intend
to procure an addition to my Hock. They
are so large, hardy, prolific, and as ob-
jects of taste, so ornamental, that they
must prove profitable.

From the New-England Farmer.

HAY CAPS.

We have used hay caps for several
years, and have no more doubt about the
economy of such use than we have about
the economy of cutting the grass after it
is grown, or of cocking it after it is cut.
The abuse which has been heaped upon
the use of hay caps is like that bestow- .
ed upon keeping manure under cover, or
of gradual deep plowing, and springs
from those miserable prejudices which
some cling to as to life itself Some of
these persons stoutly aver that a piece of
cotton cloth is no sort of protection to
hay, that it will become wet through in
a few moments, and yet they may be
seen plodding about with an old cotton
umbrella over them for hours together,
with their heads as innocent of rain as
they are of fairness and observation.
There are few men but have had an oppor-
tunity o{ seeing the effects of hay caps with
their oion eyes, if they would but open
them and look. A set of thirty hay caps
will more than pay for themselves in a
single summer such as the last was, on
a farm where twenty tons of hay is cut.

An excellent hay cap may be made of
four yards of twilled cotton cloth, a yard
wide, by sewing two breadths together,
which will give a cap six feet square,
and that is sufficiently large to be han-
dled comfortably. They should be well
hemmed, and each corner turned over
about one inch and sewed down; into
these twine should be tied to form loops
for the pegs. The pegs may be made of
white pine, and should be at least fifteen
inches long, and whittled out smooth and
sharp at one end.

Such caps need no paint, and when
placed on a cock of hay that is made up
tall and peaked at the top, and the side
well raked down, will almost entirely
protect it from a rairpstorm of three
or four days ; and we have known hay
and grain kept quite dry with such a
cap, when the storm had continued for
seven days !

We have little sympathy with those
who rail against the introduction of
everything brought upon the farm that

AGRICULTURAL.

85

was not there fifty years ago ; but wc
have considerable for the animals under
their care who arc to subsist upon their
fodder. " I object!" seems to be as na-
tural to some persons as the breath of
their nostrils ; they do not stop to in-
vestigate, but as they/eeZ like objecting,
out it comes, " I object!"

Well, every weed, however useless it

may seem to us, undoubtedly has its use,
and serves some good purpose, though
it may be hidden from our view — and
these objectors may stand in the same
category — so we will try to believe that
some valuable lesson may be drawn from
their ohjectiovK, and exert ourselves to
find out what it is.

BREEDS OF CATTLE.— DEVONS

A L D E R N

Here is another Alderncy, sister, we
suspect, to the one we profiled last
month. Bating our mistake, now cor-
rected, in ascribing the richness of a cer-
tain cow's milk to the Alderncy blood,
*when it belongs, for what it is worth, to
.-mother breed, we remain in statu quo
as to the peculiar merit and the strong
demerits of the Alderneys ; and we re-
produce the above simulacrum of the
race, with the hope that our readers will
gaze on it till fully satisfied to have no-
thing to do ^pth them, except for the
one-cow purpose of supplying the family
with extraordinarily good milk at all
times. For such as are willing to sacri-
fice all other good qualities to that one,
the Alderney is the very thing. Who-
ever would commend them for any other

E Y cow.

quality, or would commingle their blood
with our general stock, wc think, should
be voted an enemy to his country.

Below is represented a working-ox
and a milch cow of the Devon breed.
No matter whose they are ; for we arc
grinding nobody's ax. Our object is to
represent medium samples. These
plates represent cattle thin in tlesh, and
in general appearance f;ir inferior to
North Devons, exhibited by Col. Capron.
of Illinois, Mr. Osborn, of Otsego Co.,
N. Y., and many other breeders whom
we could name. Our impression of
them, made by what wc have seen and
heard, both in England and this country,
is that for any region where the forage
and climate are but ordinarily favorable,
these are the best cattle that have yet

86

AGRICULTURAL.

been imported. A general impression
is that they are small. Col. Capron's
cattle, exhibited at some of the western
shows in 1856, demonstrated that with
perfectly pure blood, and that perfection
of form for which most of this breed are
I'emarkable, size can be obtained ; good
size, large, we will say, though not as

large, it is true, as with some other
races. But we have yet to learn that
the largest cattle are the best. We do
not believe they are, except for peculiar-
ly favored regions ; nor are we yet quite
certain that this exception need be made
in favor of the Durhams.

It should be understood that our cuts

DEVON WORKING OX.

represent the general characteristics
of the Devons at large. The North
Devons, which, so far as we know, are

much the most common in this country,
are an improvement upon this, of finer
m.ould, plump, clean, having all the im-

f-

DEVON COW,

portant points admirably developed,
beautiful as one could desire even were

that the only object, and yet as hardy
as the hardiest, and their blood so strong

AGRICULTURAL,

87

i\s generally to predominate in any
cross.

In milking properties we believe them
fair, at least, but, like most other breeds,
varying greatly. The Devon cow of Mr.
liuckminster, which we unwittingly
characterized in our last as an Alderney,
is undoubtedly a remarkable milker.
We have known others inferior. Our
impression is that they are more remark-
able for the quality than for the quantity
of their milk, and are, on the whole,
medium, or a little more, as milkers.

For the yoke nothing can exceed the
Devons, unless it be the old red cattle of
New-England. With these we have
worked down many a summer's sun in
the field; we remember them like old
friends ; and we hardly feel like admit-
ting that anything can beat them.

It is enough to say that the Devons
are like them, spry as horses, strong as
giants, docile, always ready to do one's
bidding. If there is anything for which
man should be peculiarly grateful to the
giver of all things, it is for the services
of th§ horse, and, hardly less, for those
of the ox.

CURE FOR SHYING.

If a lady's horse be addicted to shy-
ing, I will give her a sure and simple
cure for the same ; one which I have
never known to fail. Let us, for in-
stance, suppose the existence of a large
heap of stones on the near side of the
road. The horse sees an indistinct gray
object, and prepares to shy at it. The
moment he shows such symptoms, let
his fair rider turn both her eyes on ex-
actly the opposite side of the road, (i. e.
the off side) and look steadily away from
the offending heap, and I'll engage that
the horse will walk quietly by.

For many years I have ridden horses
i)f all tcmpc^and dispositions, some of
them much ^vcn to shying, and have
never yet found this simple remedy to
fail in its effect. Let those who scoff at
me try it. The reason is this. The hu-
man eye, has, doubtless, a great influence
on all animals, and there is a strong and
secret sympathy between the horse and
his rider ; the horse sees an indistinct

object and looks doubtfully at it; his
rider becomes alarmed, imagining that
the animal is going to commit some ec-
centricity ; the fear is communicated to
the animal, and he starts in terror from
the object which has frightened him;
whereas, if he finds that his rider sits
unmoved and unconcernedly he regains
his confidence, and goes on, "in the
even tenor of his way." I believe that
one-half of our horses are ruined for life
by being "hit over the head" by grooms
to cure them of shying.

HARD TIMES— YANKEE CONTRI-
VANCES—CHINESE SORGHUM
—SYSTEMATIC FARMING.

BT JOHN A. MONTQOMERT, WILLIAMSPORT, PA.

Your January number is received, and
although you have nearly deserted my
business, yet I wish to see you once a
month. Having often desired to write
to you on various matters, I shall not
promise to be short or long, knowing
that when you get tired of reading you
can stop. I had intended to give you
an account of the lumber business of this
section, but have not had time to collect
reliable statistics, having been busy get-
ting people in our debt, trying to collect,
and fighting hard to supply our hands
with clothing and food. The fact is the
shops here shut up ; but as I had found
from experience that an idle man re-
quired food as well as one employed, I
said to our hands that we would work
on as long as we got food and clothing,
and when one starved we aU would, and
I believe none have gone hungry as yet.
But, sir, I can almost say, that so far as
our usual business is concerned, "our
occupation's gone," yet you know " nc-
cessfty is the mother of invention," and
" we three" being Yanl'ees, and two of
us of that miserable class called invent-
ors, %nd seeing men's fingers doing what
machinery should, we got up some little
machinesi (to surprise the Dutch,) and
they sell.

Last spring, having no garden, I gave
one of our hands seeds of the Chinese
sugar cane, which he planted eight feet

AGRICULTURAL.

by sixteen, and by using a pair of rolls
we happened to have in the shop, he ex-
tracted the juice and boiled it down to a
good, very thick sjTup, which measured
three gallons, or at the rate of one thou-
sand and twenty gallons per acre. This
speaks large, but it is true, I having seen
the syrup myself He made a little into
tolerable sugar.

If I live I shall the coming season
have a garden, and intend to raise a suf-
ficient quantity of cane to test the mat-
ter fairly and make some sweetening.
And I shall make this offer to others
here : " If they will raise cane, I will
make a three-roller mill and allow them
to use it without charge." If "cotton
is king," sugar shall not be, if I can help
it. Let me suggest one thing ; having
seen several experiments, I am led to
conclude that the cane should not be
planted on very rich soil, for the reason
that when so planted it does not suflB-
ciently mature before frost.

Now, sir, I am going to be very pre-
sumptuous— to differ from Mr. Manny
on the subject of steam plowing. In the
first place I feel satisfied a good steam
plow can be built at a fraction of the
cost stated by Mr. Manny. In the next
place I believe it would pay on many of
our Western farms, but not on the
patchwork farms on which that curse of
the farmer (inside fences) are made to
cover the best land. Now I am just so
confident in the matter, that if I live I
will probably try it, and can say, if I
don't succeed, it will be the first time I
have failed in inventing, except once
when a boy. I used to be told I could
lift myself over the fence by my breeches.
Perhaps I can ; I never tried.

I have often thought I would like to
give you a letter on "Systematic Farm-
ing," and if possible induce farmers to
try a plan I adopted in old l!>utchess.
In the first place make a map of the
farm, numbering each lot. Next in a
small book open an account with each
lot, and then every night charge each

lot with the labor, seed, manure, etc.,
which has gone on the lot, and credit the
lot with what comes off of it. Then in
the winter figure up and see what pays
and what does not.

Again I would like to make a calcula-
tion as to the cost in all points of inside
fences, and let the farmers look at it.

But I must stop or we will both be
tired out. Put my thoughts where you
please, not excepting the stove.

That is right ; figure up the cost of
inside fences, and show that most farm-
ers have twice too many of them, and
we will put it into the stove, or other
where if it shall be adapted to enlighten
our readers. — Ed.

SORGHUM AND IMPHEE.

As there has been considerable dis-
cussion as to the relative value of the ri-
val sugar plants, the Sorgho and the Im-
phee, we give an extract of a letter from
Governor Hammond, of South Carolina,
now a Senator at Washington from that
State, to a person in this city. Refer-
ring to the Imphee, he says :

. . . . " I think these seeds well
worth distributing. They produce a su-
gar cane at least equal to the Sorgho in
all respects, and some of them are twice
the size. I am inclined to think we
shall ultimately find several of them (ri-
pening at different periods) superceding
the Sorgho altogether.

" I plant this year sixty acres of the
cane ; of these four will be planted in "
Sorgho and the remainder iu Imphee.
"Yours respectfully,

"J. H. Hammond.

"Washington, Jan. 13, 1858."

It is quite possible that the smaller
varieties of the Imphee may be better
for the north, and the larger for the
south. We incline to the opinion that
for northern latitudes the Sorghum will
surpass the Imphee. But we would ad-
vise farmers to try these varieties of the

H O'RT ICULTURAL

89

Imphee, of which there are some ten dif-
ferent ones, but in such a way as to
cause themselves no serious loss if un-
successful.— Ed.

DEPRECIATION.

A FARMER in Wilmington, says the
Vermont Phoenix^ has recently sold a

pair of oxen, weighing about 3,740
pounds, at four and a half cents a pound,
ior which he was oifcrcd six i'^ Septem-
ber. Another sold a pair for $15U,
being fifty dollars less than the same
cattle were estimated to be worth three
months since. Butter has been sold in
the same town for fifteen and a half to
twenty cents.

lorticultiiral

CALENDAR FOR FEBRUARY.

FLOWERS.

Bulhs placed in pots and covered over
as recommended last month, may be
brought, some of them, every few days
into the parlor or green-house to bloom.
They should be kept as near the window
as possible, if in the parlor; and the
soil in the pots must be kept moist. As
they advance in growth the quantity of
water may be increased.

The Greenhouse. — For greenhouses
kept only just so warm as to exclude
frost, the directions in last month's Cal-
endar apply equally to this month also.

Where it is wished to bring plants
forward for early bloom, the tempera-
ture must not be allowed to fall below
45° or 50° Far., at night; and in the
day the sun will raise it higher. In such
a house flowering .shrubs may be brought
forward for bloom : as LUars, Hoses,
Spirwas, Weigelias, Jasmine, Forsythias,
and many others ; Deutzia Gracilis
among them, being one of the most desir-
able. Syringing in the morning in sunny
days, will tend to keep down insects in
a warm house of this kind, and benefit
the plants. Camellias and Azalias will
expand their blooms also in such tempe-
rature. Give a little air at the top of
the house in mild days for a few hours
only.

Geraniums should be shifted into large
pots to bloom. A compost of light loam
and decayed stable manure with a little
white sand will suit them. The old ball
of earth should not be broken in re-pot-

ting them; and they will not require
much water for three weeks until the
roots get through the new compost.
Only keep the soil moist. As they ad-
vance in growth tie. out the shoots to
sticks, so as to spread the head of the
plant, and let light and air into the
middle. Syringe them freely, daily, to
encourage growth and keep down green
fly. They are best kept at a maximum
temperature of 50* for six weeks to come.
After that rather warmer.

Fuchsias, towards the end of the
month, may be treated in the same way.
One third vegetable or leaf mould added
to the Geranium compost will suit them.
Treat them like the Geraniums.

Annuals, such as Alyssum, Mignon-
ette, Stocks, Candytuft, Sweet Peas,
Nemophila, and many others may be
sown in pots, to bloom in them, or to
turn out at the breaking up of winter
in order to forward the bloom in the
parterre.

KITCnEN GARDEN.

Lettuces, Radishes, Mustard, and other
small salad, as well as Caulifloicers, and
early Calihages may be sown in hot-beds,
or in cold frames, according as it is want-
ed to have them carlj', or for succession.

Rhubarl) or Pie-plant may be forced
by turning a large flower pot or a half
barrel over the crown of the root, and
then heaping upon the bed a quantity of
manure, fresh from the stable yard. Put
it a foot thick or more around and over
the barrel ; and watch after ten days
for the crop, by raising the barrel every

^0

HORTICULTURAL.

few days. It will depend on the weather
and the quantity of manure laid on.

Give air daily for a few hours to all
plants in cool frames when the external
temperature is above freezing ; and re-
move any decayed leaves from Lettuce
or Cabbage plants, stirring between them
with a pointed stick to keep the surface
soil open and to let it dry freely.

Grape Vines should be pruned the end
of tliis month, if they were not done in
the fill. Do not prune them during
severe frost ; but it is better to prune the
Grape too early than too late in spring.

Currants and Gooseberries should be
pruned. Keep the center of them open.
Have a certain number of clean branches
according to the strength of the plant ;
and cut in all side growths on these to
within an inch, or rather more, of the
branch. These will bear fruit spurs next
year.

Apples and Pears may be pruned as
soon as the severest of the winter's frost
breaks up.

INSECTS, FLOWERS, LANDSCAPE
GARDENING.

In copying the following extracts from
a very able report of a Committee of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, we
are aware that we do injustice to the
committee by severing these portions
from others, but we do it with a view to
present our readers with what we con-
sider the most instructive parts. There
is no more effective way of teaching how
to do a thing, than to show how others
have done it.

Landscape gardening is a beautiful
art. Flowers everybody should cultivate.
They are a living presence, connecting
man with whatever is pure and elevat-
ing. Fruits ! who would not have them ?
Health giving, they exhilarate but not
intoxicate. Would that our country
could be so full of innocent pleasures
and harmless luxuries, as to diminish
many fold the temptation to hurtful in-
dulgencies.

What a paradise of delights is such a

home as are some of those described be-
low ! The city is a mass of deformity
compared with it. Those who have
money to spend can make such homes,
and lay the world under obligation to
them for doing it. But what is a more
comforting thought t6 us is, that the
well-managed farm, with its orchard, its
plot for vegetables and its little flower
garden, its buildings, and enclosures all
neat, though cultivated for profit more
than for ornament, is nevertheless beau-
tiful. Its flowers and fruits and tasteful
arrangements do not render its staples
less abundant or less valuable. They
only add pleasure to profit. God and man
have conspired to make the well arrang-
ed, highly cultivated form beautiful,
and it is beautiful. But hear what the
committee say.

On Tuesday, January 6th, the com-
mittee visited the grapery of Mr. M. H.
Simpson, in Saxonville. The weather
was clear and cold, the thermometer
standing at zero out of doors, and the
change from the freezing atmosphere
without to the genial warmth of the
greenhouse could not fail to be agreeable,
while the beauty and novelty of seeing
at such an inclement season the clusters
of ripe grapes hanging overhead, could
scarcely fail to produce the most pleas-
ing impressions.

The grapery of Mr. Simpson was built
in 1848 ; the house is span-roofed, 66 feet
in length, with a border inside and out ;
it is divided by a glass partition into two
equal parts, each house containing twen-
tj'-two vines, thus enabling Mr. Simpson
to bring the vines into bearing at dif-
ferent seasons. The vines grown were
Syrian, Hamburghs, Muscats, Black
Prince, Zinfindal, Frontignans and Mac-
ready's Early, and in vigor and luxuriant
growth could not well be surpassed.
The theory of Mr. Simpson is too well-
known to need comment, and in the opin-
ion of the committee the experiment he
has so fully tried has been crowned with
the most satisfactory results and com-
plete success.

The time required to fully ripen grapes
averages from four and a half to five
months ; and thus, leaving a month for
the full ripening of the wood, a crop
might be matured once in every six

HORTICULTURAL

91

months, ilr. Simpson's practice, how-
ever, is to allow the vine to grow natu-
rally without forcing every other year,
thus preventing any exhaustion which
might ensue from continued forcing.

The committee can not but express
their gratification at this visit, and trust
that the time is not far distant when
giapes will be as plenty in our markets,
(luring the inclement winter months, as
in the more sunny summer seasons.

Our next visit was on Wednesday,
June 28th, to the estate of II. H. Hun-
ntiwell in West Needham. The situation
IS unsuri)as.sed, being on the banks of
Lake Wabaan, a beautiful sheet of water,
which, unlike most of our New-England
lakes, has high, bold shores, its banks
being thus peculiarly fitted for residen-
ces. The estate consists o£ about two
hundred acres, most beautifully laid out
in garden, lawn, woodland and orchard.
The house is approached by two avenues
on eitlier side of the lawn, each seven-
teen feet in width ; the one bordered
with white pines, silver maples and
larches, the other with native deciduous
tree, magnolias and Pinus excelsa.

Here a pleasant surprise awaited us ;
l)askets of magnificent grapes, mammoth
strawberries, the famous Stanwick nec-
tarines, peaches and figs were set before
us, and resolving ourselves into a fruit
committee we did ample justice to the
merits of the fruit and to Mr. Hunne-
well's kind and liberal hospitality. Next,
passing some thriving specimens of the
magnolia in front of the house, and beds
of roses, verbenas, andjusticia, we visit-
ed the fruit garden and greenhouses,
marked by the same characteristic neat-
ness. Here we found tlie choicest straw-
berries, each variety in its separate bed ;
l)lackbeiTie.«!, currants, raspberries, and
pear, ajiple and plum trees, growing
most vigorously and fruiting abundantly.
Taking a hasty view of the greenhouses,
from which most of the fruit had been
cut, we passed on to a peach house just
erected, where we found the trees looking
finely. In one of the graperies a pecu-
liar manner of wiring is well worthy of
note and imitation ; the wire being fast-
ened to one end of the house is drawn
across to the opposite end and fastened
to a large screw which is passed through
the end wall ; a small nut upon this
screw permits the wire to be loosened or
tightened according to the expansion or
contraction caused by heat and cold ; the
neatness and simplicity of this ari-ange-

ment are commendable. Stopping for a
moment to notice some fine trees, of the
famous Stanwick nectarine, we turned
towards a small building on the brow of
the hill overlooking the lake, where we
were shown a small steam engine of six
horse power, by means of which the corn
is ground, wood sawed, and water pump-
ed from the lake into large reservoirs in
the barn, whence it is distributed by
pipes all over the garden, so that in a diy
season the labor of watering is compara-
tively small. AVe were informed that in
order to keep the place supplied with
wood and water it was only found neces-
sary to work the engine for a few hours
each week; altogether this seemed the
most perfect arrangement for saving labor
and trouble which it had been our for-
tune to see. Thence we turned to view
a noticeable feature of the place, lar
more interesting in a botanical or horti-
cultural light ; the choice evergreens and
deciduous trees and shrubs imported by
Mr. Hunnewell, and which, though as yet
young, gave promise of a vigorous fu-
ture.

In conclusion, the committee would
not have it supposed that in a condensed
report they can do justice to a place like
Mr. Hunnewell's. What has been written
can only show what can be accomplished
in a short time, by care, industiy, and
judicious expenditure of money. Six
years ago Mr. Hunnewell's estate was a
pitch pine forest, the soil barren, and the
place only possessing the advantage of
situation. By the judicious application
of manures, and the admixture of peat
fiom a meadow near by with the native
sandy soil, it has been brought into its
present fertile condition ; and Uie com-
mittee can not refrain from expressing
their entire satisfaction, not only with
the means employed, but also at the re-
sults, both apparent and perspective.

On Wednesday, July 8th, the commit-
tee, by invitation of Henry W. Fuller,
Esq., Treasurer of the Board of Trus-
tees, visited VVoodlawn Cemetery in Mai-
den. The ground already laid out con-
sists of about one hundred acres, pleas-
ingly diversified by hill and dale, and
ottering variety in wood and meadow.

Approaching the Cemetery from Chel-
sea we were at once struck with the
neatness which marks the roads and
avenues. The entrance is through a
tasteful gateway, with porter's lodge on
either side, and it is shaded by trees, the
original growth of the place. Turning

92

HORTICULTURAL

to the right we were pleased to observe
the attention paid to fiowering shrubs ;
among which we noticed deutzias, maho-
nias, azalef\s,wegeHa, andrhodondendrons
in great variety ; the latter seem to grow
in the greatest luxuriance, and intermin-
gled with Kalmia latifolia, will soon in
many places form large masses, the effect
of which can not fail to be most striking
and beautiful ; and the committee can
not but express their surprise that these
two of our most lovely and hardy flow-
ering shrubs, alike beautiful in foliage
and flower, should be so rarely cultivat-
ed and so little known.

The trees of Woodlawn form one of
its distinguishing features ; they are of
every species which our woods afford,
and those of foreign birth which our
severe winters permit to be naturalized.
Oaks of many kinds, walnuts, maples,
beeches and kindred trees mingle with
the choicer foreign deciduous trees and
evergreens. The tupelo, one of our most
beautiful forest trees, also abounds, and
forms clumps of great beauty in many
places.

Paths and avenues of the most solid
constru' tion have been laid out in pleas-
ing curves, each turn affording some new
prospect ; and what is most worthy of
comment, the construction of all the
walks is such, and so perfect is the sys-
tem of drainage, that even in the most
violent rains they wash but little, thus
materially reducing the expense and la-
bor of keeping them in repair. From
many points most lovely vistas stretch
through the wood, and small ponds with
fountains, here and there interspersed,
give new beauty to spots already lovely
and attractive by nature. Kustic arches
covered with native vines, growing with
wild luxuriance, span the avenues ; and
arbors embowered in trailing climbers
penp out at convenient points. The view
from the higher ground is extensive and
pleasing; we see the neighboring vil-
lages, each nestling in a canopy of wood,
and catch not unfrequent glimpses of the
distant ocean.

The committee can not but feel their
indebtedness to Mr. Fuller for the kind-
ness and courtesy with which he treated
them, and most fully commend the good
taste which characterizes every part of
the grounds. In his labors Mr. Fuller
has an able and zealous assistant in Mr.
Cruikshank, the superintendent, whose
judicious labors have done much to beau-
tify Woodlawn.

A visit to Woodlawn can not fail to be
satisfa<'.tory to all who love the beauty
of nature", only so far fettered by art as
to enable it to shine with truer loveli-
ness ; and the growing disposition in the
community at large to render pleasing
and attractive the resting-place of the
departed, while it takes little from the
sadness of bereavement, can not fail to
exercise a salutary influence on the pub-
lic mind. Well pleased with their visit
the committee left Woodlawn feeling how
much taste may accomplish towards
making even the sad things of nature
shine in lovely and attractive guise.

A pleasant ride of about an hour, on
the morning of July 30th, brought us to
the station at Randolph, where we found
carriages in waiting to convey us to the
place of C. S. Holbrook, Esq., which is
situated in East Randolph, about two
miles from the railroad.

In the fruit garden the dwarf apple
trees appeared far better than any the
committee had seen elsewhere ; many
of the trees being well filled with fruit.
The gieenhouses are three in number ;
one used as a peach house, connected
with which is a pit for vegetables ; the
two others being appropriated exclu-
sively to grapes.

The season of peaches being almost
past, we only found two trees from
which the fruit had not been gathered ;
the growth of all the trees was vigorous
and the trees healthy. The vegetable
house or pit has, during the present sea-
son, been used entirely for forcing cu-
cumbers ; and though the vines were, as
we were assured by the gardener, long
past their prime, yet the abundant fruit
still clinging to them gave evidence of a
flow of sap which would h;ive done
credit to younger vines. The two other
graperies are each sixty feet long by
twenty wide ; one of these is divided by
a glass partition into two equal portions,
in order to force the vines at different
periods. The principal grapes grown
are the Muscat in variety, Hamburghs,
Frantignans, White Chesselas, and Black
Prince ; the size of the berries was good,
and their flavor excellent ; the vines
were in fine condition, being free from
disease, with a clear rich foliage. Much
credit is due to Mr. Walsh, gar dener to
Mr. Holbrook, for the skill and attention
everywhere exhibited, and for the neat-
ness and artistic merit of the flower gar-
den, and the committee can not but
think that were the same care bestowed

UORTICULTURAL.

98

on flowers in general, gardening could
not fail to acquire a new charm.

Oil Tui'sday and Wednesday, August
25tli and 20th, the Secretary, in com-
pany with another gentleman of the
committee, made visits to the following
places visited by the Committee in July.

A pleasant ride brought us to the gar-
den of tialvin & Hogan in Somerville,
where the growth of the trees and their
healthy appearance gave good evidence
of a rich and well cultivated soil. The
flower garden was not in as fine condi-
tion as we had been led to expect, though
the heavy rains of the preceding fort-
night were mainly the cause of the dis-
order. The pears were in good bearing,
especially the Easter Beurre, Louise
bonne de Jersey, Bartlctt and Duchess
d'Angouleme ; wliile a heavy crop of to-
matoes gave evidence that, in vegetables
Somerville is not at all behind the neigh-
boring town.s. As a matter of course
there was but little of interest in the
ilower houses at this season, all the
plants being arranged out of doors ; but
an examintation of the camellias, ericas,
epaciis and azaleas, was fully satisfac-
tory, and attbrded proof of the care which
produced such abundance of promising
buds and rich luxuriance of foliage.

By a walk of half an hour we reached
the well known establishment of the
Messrs. llovey, so often described in the
reports of the Garden Committee The
pears were in full beauty and afforded
no evidence of lack of attention of care-
ful, well-directed pruning. In the green-
house a fine collection of achimenes and
Bome beautiful specimens of Cissus dis-
polor were worthy of notice ; we also
found Psidium calleyanum in fruit, and
were informed that from the fruit of half
a dozen small trees a couple of boxes of
guava jelley were manufactured last
year. In the open border the Japan
lilies were just bursting into bloom, and
some fine new phloxs showed in full
glory.

The well known country-seat of Jona-
than French, Esq., was next on our list;
and we need only say that in every res-
pect it maintains its previous reputation ;
the greenhouse i)lants and flower garden
were in line order, and a collection of
new seedling verbenas worthy of espe-
cial praise. We here saw some choice
new petunias, fuchias, lantanas and sal-
vias; but to u.s, with the exception of
the Countess of Ellesmere petunia, they
did not appear so striking as to recom-

mend them above others longer and bet-
ter known. Two noble Seckcl pear
trees, loaded with fiuit, were noticeable
objects, as the largest and finest speci-
mens of the kind it had been the fortune
of the committee to see.

The following prizes and gratuities,
among others, were awarded:

For the best cultivated and most
neatly kept grounds through
the season, to 11. 11. Hunne-
well, a prize of $20 00

For the same, to Wm. Whiting,

a gratuity of. 10 00

For the most economical!}' man-
aged, best cultivated, and most
neatly kept fruit garden,
through the season, to John
Gordon, a prize of 20 00

For the same, to Ariel Low, a

gratuity of 10 00

For the most economically man-
aged, best cultivated, and most
neatly kept flower garden,
through the season, to C. S.
Holbrook, a prize of 20 00

For the same, to William Wales,

a gratuity of 10 00

For a well managed cemetery, in
its keeping in accordance with
the true principles of beau-
ty and art, to Woodlawn Cem-
etery, a price of 20 00

To M. H. Simpson, for a novel
and well conducted experiment
in the culture of the giape, a
gratuity of 20 00

To F. L. Harris, gardener to II.
H. Hunnewel), for floral gar-
dening, the society's silver
medal.

To E. P. Ilollis, for a well con-
ducted vegetable garden, the
society's silver medal.

HOW TO MAKE STRAWBERRY
BEDS.

Two points must be understood, to
grow the best strawberries: 1st, that
the soil must be deep, and 2d, that it
must be rich. If you look at the leaves
of a strawberry, and because they aro
not very large, presume that the roots
will extend but little depth, vou are
greatly mistaken. I have seen the roots
of strawl)erries extend five feet down in
a rich, deep soil ; and those plants bore
a crop of fruit five times as large, and
twice as handsome and good, as tho

94

HORTICULTURAL.

common product of a soil only one foot
deep.

And this reminds me of a capital in-
stance of strawberry dehmon, which
most of our readers doubtless know
something about, but which many even
yet, perhaps, do not fully understand I
mean the history of the "Washington
Alpine Strawberry," which Mr. Stod-
dard, of Western New-York, advertised,
and sold a great many dollars' worth of,
some four or five years ago. Mr. Stod-
dard, I believe, was quite honest in the
transaction; and yet the whole public
were completely deluded by the " Wash-
ington Alpine," which was nothing but
the old Alpine or Monthly Strawberry.
The long and short of the matter was,
that Mr. Stoddard had a corner of his
garden which was made ground — a rich,
deep, moist soil, (I think it had been an
old bog, or bit of alluvial, afterwards
filled up) not less than eight or ten feet
deep. Mr. Stoddard had raised some
seedling Alpine (which, so far as I know,
always comes from the seed;) he had,
by lucky chance, planted thera in this
corner of his garden, where the soil was
t so unusually rich and deep. There they
grew so finely, and bore such enormous
crops, that his neighbors could scarcely
credit their senses. The story of the
miraculous crop got into the papers.
People came to see with their own eyes.
In short, they bought, and carried away
the " Washington Alpines," at extrava-
gant prices, with the full conviction that
"seeing is beheving," and that such
strawberries were never before grown,
gazed on, or tasted. Well, great was
their surprise to find, on planting and
cultivating the " Washington Alpines,"
that there was nothing new or wonder-
ful about them ; and that, in fact, they
all dwindled down to the old-fashioned
Alpine Strawberry. Mr. S., naturally
enough, now has as many hard names
bestowed upon him for the fancied de-
ception as he had before had hard dollars
for really great crops. And yet, Mr.
Stoddard sold his plants in good faith,
and was probably as much deluded as
the buyers. The whole secret of his un-
heard of crops, and the large size of his
fruit, lay in the depth and richness of
his soil ; and as none of his customers
had, like him, a rich ten feet mold to
grow giants in, they had no " Washmg-
ton Alpines."

The " moral" your readers are to draw
out of this digression is, that they can

not well make their soil too deep for the
strawberry. Perhaps they can not afibrd
to make it three feet deep, which is the
right depth for an extra fine crop ; but,
at all events, they can make it two deep.
And now, a word as t© manuring it.

It is all very well to talk about com-
posts and "well rotted manure." The
real truth is, that in our careless country,
not one gardener in a hundred has such
things ready for use at the moment he
wants to prepare his strawberry patch.
What people have at hand, fi om one end
of the country to the other, is fresh
stable or barn-yard manure; and the
question is, how to use that to the best
advantage.

The true way to do this, is to throw out
the soil where your beds are to be made,
two feet deep. Fill up the bottom eight
inches, or a foot deep, with fresh stable
manure, mixed with the litter, treading
it down firmly. Then cover this with
two-thirds of the soil thrown out, reject-
ing the worst part of it. This will raise
tlie bed four inches above the surface ;
and as it will settle about four inches, it
will be about level after it is settled.

This is all the preparation which I
give my soil, and it is all that any soil
of fair quality needs ; only that I would
much prefer to have it three feet deep,
than two feet, and to have sixteen inches
of stable manure and litter at the bottom
than eight, though the latter brings
heavy crops in a good soil.

You may put out your plants in Au-
gust (September in Ohio,) or April.
The only dificrence is, that if planted in
August, you may lose half of them by
the heat and drouth, unless it is a rainy
season ; while in April, you are certain
not to lose a single plant, unless it is un-
sound when you transplant it.

To my mind there is no way of grow-
ing strawberries half so complete as in
beds three and a half feet wide, with
three rows in each — the plants in the
rows kept clipped of their runners, and
the ground between the rows nicely
covered with straw all the year round.
The largest and finest fruit is obtained
in this way, and the beds themselves will
last many years ; while if they are al-
lowed to cover the bed, you can, at the
most, expect only two crops, and, gene-
rally, the fruit is of little, or no value,
after the first crop.— TAe late A. J.
Doicning, in the Horticulturist.

It may seem like intolerable arrogance

HORTICULTURAL

95

for us to take the attitude dissent from
so universally and justly honored au-
thority. But though one arise from the
dead, we could not believe in burying
fresh stable manure two feet under
ground, much less three feet or three
and a half It might do on "some soils,
but not on all. That it operated well in
Mr. Downing's grounds, we have not the
least doubt ; but his success was owing
partly, it is probable, to a natural adap-
tation of his soil to such treatment, but
more to a perfection in his cultivation
which few will reach. We presume his
soil was often stirred, and that to a great
depth the air was let in ; and under its
influence that manure was first dccom-
■posed, and then recomposcd into com-
pounds tit to feed the strawberry.

With but ordinary skill in cultivation,
and especially on compact soils, the ele-
ments of fresh manure, buried two or
three feet deep, either lie dormant, or if
decomposed, are again recomposed into
compounds, hurtful instead of beneficial
to plants. The influence of sun and air
is wanted to secure the best operation of
fresh manure.

B. V. French, Esq., of Braintree,
Mass., tells a story in point. He once
plowed in an enormous quantity of ma-
nure fi-om one to two feet deep on a sub-
stantial, but not very heavy soil. The
crop was not improved. He looked for
that manure the second year. It did
not come. He looked in vain for a good
effect the third year, the fourth, and on ;
and he wonders whether there is science
enough in the world to tell where his
manure has gone, as he has never heard
from it. The fact is, he had shut it out
from the influence of sun and air, and it
formed other compounds than those
which nature designed as the food of
plants.

No man shall outdo us in a high ap-
preciation of the instructions of the late
A. J. Downing ; and we believe those of
his son are destined to a like salutary,
elevating, enriching and refining influ-

ence on the country. But we never can
subscribe to a two or three feet burial of
fresh manure, except in the lightest soils,
and even for such we think a less depth
better.

A better way of manuring for straw-
berries, if you have none but fresh ma-
nure, is to mix with it large quantities
of leaf mold, well cured swamp muck, or
other substances of a like nature, ten
loads at least to one of the manure, and
to incorporate well with the soil, from
the very surface downward as deeply as
you please. In the September number
of the Plough, Loom, and Anvil, for
1850, at page 14G, is an article on the
cultivation of the strawberry, embracing
all or nearly all that need be known for
the cultivation of this delicious and
health-giving fruit, in any and all quan-
tities.

Before the proper time to commence
a strawberry plot, we will revise and en-
large that article, and give it in an im-
proved form to our readers. — Ed.

From the Magasine of Horticulture.

WINTERS OF '55-6 AND '56-7.

The winter of 1855 and 1856 was one
of unusual severity at the West, doing
immense damage to firuit trees of all
kinds, killing, in many instances, plan-
tations of many years' standing, and its
disastrous effects will long be remem-
bered. That of 1856 and 1857, though
not, perhaps, equally severe, will, how-
ever, long be remembered by the oulti
vators of New-England, having been
more injurious to trees than any winter
since the memorable one of 1835. In
Maine the damage to trees was very
great, killing many outright of several
years' growth ; the Bartlett and other
of the more tender pears suffering the
most. What appears to be one pecu-
liarity, so far as our experience goes,
was the death of pcai s on the pear stock,
the quince suffering little or none, show-
ing conclusively that it is quite as hardy
as the pear, and much better capable of
sustaining frost in damp localities, where
the pear invariably suHered. Another
peculiarity was the almost entire exemp-
tion from injury of the peach buds, not-

96

HORTICULTURAL,

withstanding the thermometer stood at
20° below zero. Heretofore it has been
believed, and we have latterly given cur-
rency to the idea, that 12* below zero
was the point at which the germ of the
peach buds was likely to be destroyed.
The experience of the past winter quite
upsets this theory, evidently showing it
is not the intemUy of tbe frost that does
the injury, but the condition of the
weather before or afterwards, or the pe-
riod of the winter when it occurs. The
same trees which in 1855 and 1856 lost
about all their buds when the mercury
fell to 12° below, now produced a full
crop.

As regards fruit generally, the season
has not been very favorable. Apples in
some localities bore tolerably well, but
in New-England the crop has been very
light. Pears were not near up to the
average. Cherries suffered from the
wintei', and from the cool and damp
summer. Grapes were a failure, the
vines mildewing badly, and the crop not
coming to maturity before fiost. Of all
the fruits the pear gave the best results
this year, as it did the last.

From the Magazine of Horticulture.

HORTICULTURAL LITERATURE.

There have been very few publica-
tions during the year. The only work
of note has been The Fruits and Fruit
Trees of America, revised by Mr. C.
Downing, and noticed in our last num-
ber. The first number of the third vol-
ume of The Fruits of America has ap-
peared, and other numbers will soon be
published. The Patent OflBce Report for
1856 is a considerable improvement upon
the preceding ones, both in the charac-
ter of the reports and general informa-
tion, and in the typographical execution
of the volume. The Transactions of the
Massachusetts State Board of Agricul-
ture for 1856, by Mr. C. L. Flint, the
secretary, has been prepared with unu-
sual labor and care, and contains very
minute descriptions of all the principal
grasses, with engravings ; and will prove
a most acceptable work to all interested
in agriculture. New editions of McMa-
hon's Gardening, Allen's treatise on the
Grape, and some other works have been
published. The illustrated annuals,
from the officers of the Albany Cultivator
and the Genesee Farmer, are both small
works of much interest to all who can
not readily obtain more complete treatises

on the same subjects. The agricultural
papers have been improved considerably,
and the Ohio Farmer, one of the best, is
to appear in a more convenient form for
preservation.

In addition to the record we have al-
ready given we have to add tbe name of
James D. Fulton, nurseryman, of Phila-
delphia. He died very suddenly, in New-
Jersey, in his 43d year. Mr. Fulton was
one of the most intelligent nujserymen.
He served his time with Messrs. D. &. C.
Landreth, was subsequently foreman of
the establishment, and after the relin-
quishment of business by Mr. T. Land-
reth, became a partner with his brother.
Mr. D. Landreth. At the closing up of
the business of this firm a iQw years
later, Mr. Fulton established a nursery
on his own account, and at the tmie of
his death had considerably extended his
grounds, and enjoyed a lucrative trade.
Ilis loss will be deeply regretted by all
who had the pleasure of his acquaint-
ance.

For the American Farmers' Magazine.

Mr. Ed. : — I would be pleased if you
would answer the following question
under your head of Interrogatories :

My residence stands upon a slight ele-
vation, about sixteen feet above the
level water of a clear stream. Now, I
should like to know whether I could, by
means of a " Hydi-aulic Ram" and leaden
pipes, force the water into my yard, a
distance of about forty yards from the
body of aforesaid water ? The current
is very slow, being only about one mile
per hour. An elucidation on this sub-
ject would much oblige a constant reader.
Will you recommend a work from which
I can gain knowledge on this subject?
R. J. F.

Answering the last question first, we
know of no book to recommend but
" Ewbanks' HydrauUcs." This contains
all you want, with much more which
you might not care to pay for. It would
be $2 50, if sent post-paid from this of-
fice. Very possibly the common School
Philosophies, found in almost every

HORTICULTURAL

97

family, would explain all you want to
know on that subject.

But we have procured a rough engrav-
ing for the purpose of illustrating the
principles of the hydraulic ram, bfecause
we believe that many of our readers will
feel an interest in this subject akin to
yours.

In this cut you will readily distinguish
the drive-pipe by its sloping position,
and the lift-pipe by the water issuing
from its top. The water passes down
the drive-pipe, and by its force lifts the
valve opening upward into the air-cham-
ber, but will rise in the air-chamber no
higher than the fountain from which the
drive-pipe is supplied. This is on the
simple principle, that water seeks its le-
vel— will rise in the spout of the tea-ket-
tle as high as in the kettle itself, but no
higher.

To the right of the air-chamber is the
escape pipe, through which the water is
discharged, and wastes till its velocity
becomes sufficient to raise the valve of
the waste-pipe. The effect of the shut-
ting of this valve is to suddenly stop the
whole body of water in the drive-pipe.
The downward flow of this water is
overcome; but we know that the ten-
dency of a heavy body, once moving, is
to keep moying. If you strike a nail
with a hammer, the hammer stops, but
does not stop the instant it hits the nail,
nor till after it has settled the nail a lit-
tle into the wood. So this body of water
in the drive-pipe stops, but not till after
7

it has forced a little water into the air-
chamber and thence into the lift-pipe,
raising the water in the lift-pipe some-
what higher than the fountain. The
valve in the lift-pipe shuts by the weight
of the water above it, and prevents a re-
flux. This done, the valve in the waste-
pipe falls open of its own weight, and
remains open till the water down the
drive-pipe acquires a new motion suflB-
cient to raise the valve again in the es-
cape-pipe. As soon as this rises, or
shuts upwards, the whole body of water
in the di-ive-pipe is again stopped, but
does not stop till it has forced another
portion through into the air-chamber,
and thence onward into the lift-pipe.

Thus alternately the rushing of the
water through the escape-pipe shuts the
valve leading into it, and the sudden
stopping of the downward flow in the
drive-pipe opens the air-chamber valve
and forces at each time a portion of wa-
ter tlirough, till the lifting-pipe 'is filled
to the top and overflows. The object of
the air-chamber is to equalize the up-
ward motion, as without it the water,
instead of flowing regularly, would flow
irregularly — a little at each closing of
the valve, then to cease till another clos-
ing of the same valve.

A fall of at least two feet is necessary
to a reliable action of the hydraulic ram,
where the elevation is as great as the
one above described ; and it is evident
that a large amount of waste water
would be required in such a case. A
greater fall would be desirable if it could
be obtained. The distance fr m the
water to the yard i^ not objectionable.
Your only question is, can you, by dam-
ming the stream, or cutting a race-way,
or both, get a fall of two feet or more, and
at the same time keep clear of back
water? If you can, then the hydraulic
ram affords the best means of carrying
that water into your yard. Otlierwise,
a pump connected by a lead pipe with
the brook would be preferable, _

A. W. Gay & Co., 118 Maiden Lane,

98

HORTICULTURAL

are selling a pump which would proba-
bly answer the purpose well, as also a
self-adjusting wind-mill, adapted to the
drawing of water for cattle. See their
advertisement on our advertising pages.

The query of another correspondent
relates to a similar subject. He has to
draw water for a large stock of horses,
cattle and sheep from a very deep well,
and asks, " Would it be good economy
to sink a tank, and turn into it the rain
water from the barn and sheds?" We
think it would. No water is better for
stock than rain water, properly pre-
served in a clean tank. If filtered, it is
the best water in the world for all pur-
poses. But we have not at hand the
means of estimating the expense of a
tank of suflBcient capacity for a large
stock. One thing we can say positively,
and that is, it is more economical to con-
struct a tank, at whatever the expense
may be, or even to draw water from a
deep well, than let your cattle stray
abroad for water. In many cases a tank
might be sunk on ground a little higher
than the yard, and the water be drawn
from it without the labor of pumping.

Another correspondent asks our opin-
ion about the different breeds of cattle :
" Which are the best, all in all, for the
various objects the farmer seeks to ob-
tain, as working, milking and fattening?"
Hold still a little, friend ; we are trying,
from month to month, to tell you some-
thing about that, not that we are over
confident in our opinions ; but you see
we have invited all the world to come
and refute us on our own ground, if we
get on a wrong track. It will not be
long before we shall run foul of some-
body's opinions, or tread on somebody's
corns, or dash against somebody's inte-
rests, and then there will be "light on
the subject" struck up in these pages,
beyond a peradventure.

A lady reader puts us some tough
questions of a culinary nature. Alas !
our better half has gone into the country,
and we d&n not answer such questions

just iiow. When she returns there is
no knowing how wise we shall be in
these matters. — Ed.

Ed. Farmers' Magazine : — Some three
years since I saw in a lady's flower-pot
a plant of remarkable luxuriance, and
thinking it might be a valuable accession
to our field grasses, proposed to her to
let it ripen and I would pay her any
price for the seed. I have not been dis-
appointed. Its growth in the garden
was ten feet high, foliage very thick and
fine, large pendant heads a foot in length,
full of heavy seed resembling millet.
The last spring I had several bushels of
it, and sold Breck and Nourse, seedmen
of Boston, each a bushel, which they
circulated in small parcels, hoping to
have it spread through the country.
They asked me what name they should
give it. Not knowing its origin, I said
perhaps Chinese Millet for the present.
It being an object to get all the seed
possible, I have cut none early {or fodder.
After gathering the ripened seed, I have
fed the dry stalks to the cattle. They
eat it as well as those of the Chinese su-
gar cane. Having read an article in
your Farmers^ Magazine for January, on
Hungarian Grass, it struck me that
mine might be a superior variety of that,
while yielding more fodder and more
than twice the quantity of seed.

Yours truly, Benjamin Willabd.
Lancaster, Mass., Jan. 7, 1858.

GRAPES.

A wbiteb in the Louisville Journal
says:

I keep my vines about 6 feet in height
for convenience in gathering the clusters.
All kinds of animal substances are good
for our vines. Street manure is excel-
lent for them. They ought not, how-
ever, to be stimulated too highly, for
then they become profuse in foliage, and
the fruit mildews and rots. 'An even re-
gular growth ought to be kept up. Rot-
ten sods mixed with barn-yard manure
is good for vines. Blood is good. Long
Island might, by means of the fish call-
ed Manhaden, be made one beautiful

MECHANICAL.

99

vine-yard. Take the fish in June, make
a hole near the foot with a crowbar,
push down a fish — there will be no smell
from it, and it is an admirable manure
for grapes.

Composts of sea-weed, black earth,
and cow and horse dung are good.

Ashes are excellent on sandy lands,
where their prosphates are leached off
by rains.

Prune in March ; they bleed, and my
bleeding vines present a magnificent
spectacle in the rays of the sun. Slight
bleeding does not hurt them a bit. The
bud starts the better for it. The Ger-
mans say " if the juice runs out of the
vines, we know we shall have a good
crop." In France and Italy, however,

they do not prune so as to bleed their
vines. •

SCATTERING SALT ON APPLE
TREES.
Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, sends to
the editor of the Advertiser of that town,
a specimen of Porter apples gathered
from the tree on the 19 th of November,
which he thinks were kept on the
branches by throwing salt on them.
The editor, after having tasted the apples,
remarks, that, " whether from the salting
or the late gathering it imbibed such a
delicious flavor, we do not know ; but
this we do know, that it was one of the
best Porter apples that we have ever
tasted. We think the experiment M'orth
a further trial."

Jttt^rhanirnL

From Newton's London Journal.

IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTU-
RAL IMPLEMENTS, ETC.
An improved method of purifying water,
by Henry Medlock, of Great Marlbo-
rough, London,

This invention consists of a method of
purifying and rendering more wholesome
and useful water which either contains
in solution only organic matter or the
products of its decomposition, or which
may also contain in solution inorganic
matter, by separating and removing
from the water a portion of such organ-
ic matter, and rendering the remainder
of such organic matter innocuous ; and
in case the water also contains in solu-
tion inorganic matter, by separating and
removing from the water a certain por-
tion of such inorganic matter, and by
rendering innocuous any phosphides or
sulphides which the water may contain
in solution, by converting such phos-
phides into phosphites or phosphates,
and such sulphides into sulphites or sul-
phates respectively.

The water, previously to its filtration,
is placed in a vessel or reservoir of con-
venient size, and there allowed to re-
main, in contact with certain solid bo-
dies of metal or other substance present-
ing a sufficient extent of surface to the
water, for twenty-four hours or longer,
according to the quantity of water as
compared with the exposed surface, or
until the precipitation of organic matter.

occasioned by such contact, <^ases, after
which, any of the precipitate occasioned
by the aforesaid process, which may re-
main suspended in the water, should be
removed by filtration in the ordinary
manner.

The solid body preferred to be used is
iron, (on account of the little injury the
water sustains by contact therewith,)
and in the form of scrap-iron, iron turn-
ings, iron wire, or sheet-iron.

The following is the mode of applying
the invention : — Suspend in a tank or re-
servoir containing the water to be puri-
fied, by means of iron rods passing across
it, iron wire of about one-sixteenth of an
inch in diameter, loosely packed in bun-
dles or coils, and in the proportion of
about one pound weight of such wire to
every one hundred gallons of water. Al-
low the water to remain in contact with
the iron wire from twenty-four to forty-
eight hours, according to the rapidity
with which the precipitation of organic
matter, occasioned by such contact, takes
place ; and then pass the water through
any kind of filtei 'ng medium now in use,
which is capable of retaining the precip-
itate formed. For the filtration of water
in large bulk, the ordinary sand filter
may be used.

The effect of the contact of the water
with the solid bodies above described,
when the water contains nitrogen in any
form, is to decompose or oxydize the or-
ganic matter, and the ammonia contain-
ed in the water whereby a certain part of

100

MECHANICAL,

the organic matter and ammonia is con-
verted into nitrious or nitric acids, or both
of them, by which the rest of the organic
matter is rendered insoluble. The ni-
trous and nitric acids finally combine
with the iron or other solid bodies above
described, or with some of the inorganic
bases, if any, contained in the water ;
and the organic matter rendered insolu-
ble is precipitated, together with some
part of the inorganic matter, if any, con-
tained in the water ; and any phosphides
or sulpMdes which may be contained in
the water are converted by oxidation
into phosphites or phosphates, or sul-
phites or sulphates, respectively, which
are comparatively harmless.

Improved machinery for cultivating land,
by Alfred Vincent Newton.

This invention relates to the cultiva-
tion of land by spades, operated by lo-
comotive power as the machine progress-
es in the field ; the machine will also
more thor(lughly break up, disintregate,
and turn over the sward than can be done
by ploughs. The entire machine is pro-
pelled in the field, in any direction re-
quired, and turned at the will of the at-
tendant; and the same power which
does this, operates a series of spades,
which enter the land, each in succession,
and cut into it in the arc of a circle, and,
after cutttng down to the required depth,
suddenly throw up the cut slice against
a shield plate, so as to reverse it, and at
the same time to break it up, so that,
when it falls down, it will be thoroughly
disintegi'ated ; the forward movement of
the machine determining the thickness
of the slices to be cut by the spades.

Improvements in giving motion to ploughs
and other agricultural implements, by
John Fowler, Jun., of Havering, near
Romford, Essex, Eng.

Heretofore when ploughs and other
agricultural implements have received
motion by means of ropes wound round
capstans or drums, driven by steam or
otherwise, two of such capstans or drums
have usually been mounted on the same
horizontal axis, or ' on axes parallel to
each other, which arrangements are in
practice found to be inconvenient. Now
this invention consists in mounting such
capstans or drums on separate axes,
placed at an angle to each other.

The invention also consists in moving
the pulley anchors along the headlands
by the power of the engine acting
through the same rope as that which

draws the plough. The rope from the
winding apparatus passes first over a
stationary puUey and then over the move-
able pulley on the headland, from which
it passes at right angles to the plough.
To overcome the tendency which exists,
when the strain is on the tackle, to draw
the anchor of the moveable pulley to-
wards the fixed pulley, the anchor of the
moveable pulley is secured to an addi-
tional or supplemental anchor, which
prevents it from moving while the plough
is traveling ; but when it is wished that
this anchor should be drawn along the
headland, it is only necessary to slacken
the tackle which secures it to its supple-
mental anchor, and then the strain on
the rope which draws the plough will
cause it to move forward.

The invention also consists in a method
of supporting and carrying the rope by
which the plough is drawn, so as to pre-
vent the rapid wear of the tackle which
takes place when the rope lies on the
land.

An improvement in ploughs, by William

Dray, of Swan-lane, London.

This invention relates to such ploughs
as are provided with a share in the form
of a pointed bar, and consists in the
means of securing the bar in its position
after having been pushed forward, as re-
quired from the wearing away of the
point thereof.

The patentee claims the " construction
of ploughs, which are provided with
moveable share bars, in such manner
that the share bars can be tightened or
slackened by means of an excentric roll-
er or collar, or by more than one roller
or collar, as described."

Improvements in machhiery for delivering
manure for agricultural purposes, by
Robert Reeves and John Reeves, of But-
ton, Westburg, Wiltshire, Eng.

This invention has for its object im-
provements in machinery for delivering
manure for agricultural purposes. For
this purpose the manure is placed in a
suitable box or trough, mounted on a
proper carriage. The box or trough is
formed with a curved bottom, and may
be made with any number of openings
for the passage of the manure ; and
over each opening is a slide or cover.
At the lower part of the box or trough
a rotating axis works, and on this axis
there are fixed inclined blades or por-
tions of screws being each of such a
width as to move the quantity of manure

MECHANICAL.

101

desired ; and the peculiarity of the in-
vention is, that the inchned blades or
portions of the screws which are to
bring up or move the quantity of ma-
nure to an opening, are inclined to the
axis in opposite directions. The manure,
after it has been caused to pass through
the openings of the trough or box, may
be deposited or distributed on or in the
earth, as heretofore, or in any other con-
venient manner,

ImprovemeiUs in hor'se hoes, by JonN Nay-
LOR, of Winterton, near Brigg, Lincoln-
shire, JEng.

The object of these improvements in
horse hoes is to render each of the hoes
capable of being moved to and from its
neighbor, in order to admit of vary-
ing their distance apart, and yet allow
the whole series of hoes in the ma-
chine being moved laterally, according
to the requirement for the time being.

ARTIl^ICIAL FIRE CLAY.
Common clay is very fusible ; this is
owing to the presence of lime, iron and
magnesia in it. By removing these sub-
stances, it can be employed for making
very refractory vessels, such as crucibles,
to withstand a very high degree of heat.
The way to do this, is to steep the clay
for some hours — (from six to twenty-
four, in dilute muriatic acid, according
to the quantity of these substances in it)
— then washing it with water, and dry-
ing it afterwards. The muriatic acid
takes up and dissolves the substances
named, which are removed with the
washing.

TELEGRAPHIC IMPROVEMENTS.

Edward Highton, C. E., of England,
has just obtained a patent for, firstly,
sending telegraphic messages hoth ways
through one and the same wire, at the
same instant, without interfering in any
way with each other ; secondly, for pre-
venting the destruction of a wire in the
sea or underground ; and, thirdly, for
mending a telegraphic wire in the ocean
without raising it out of the mud.

PATENTS.

Seed Planters — II. F. Baker, of Cen-
terville, Ind.

Sewing Machines. — D. W. Clark, of
Bridgeport, Conn.

Flouring Mills. — Edwin Clark, of
Lancaster, Pa.

Husking and Shelling Glove. — Emil
Cohen, Washington, D. C.

Rakes for Harvesters. — SamuelCom-
fort, Jr., of Morrisville, Pa.

Seeding MACnmES. — I. H. Conklin, of
Rockford, 111. -

Railroad Car Coupling. — J. M. Con-
nel, of Newark, Ohio.

Hydr.a.nt. — Richard De Charms, of
Philadelphia, Pa.

Lime Kilns. — H. R. Fell, of Texas,
Md.

Flour Bolting. — David Geib, of Mif-
flintown, Pa.

Attachment of Adjustable Foot
Boards to Splints. — John Gruol, of
New-York city.

Seed Planters. — Marshall Hunt and
J. H. Haines, of Rising Sun, Md.

Operating Telegram Keys. — John
J. Hayden, of Rising Sun, Ind.

Bit Holder.— B. B. Hill and S. W.
Adams, of Chicopee, Mass.

Hydrant. — John Hyde, of New- York
city.

Measuring the Superficies of Boards.
-^S. C. Kennerd, of South Newmarket,
N. H.

Shingle Machine. — Robert Law, of
Portage City, Wis.

Churn. — S. F. Lefler, of Racine, Wis.

Dovetailing Rotary Cutters in their
Heads. — G. H. Mallary, of New- York
city.

Process for Dyeing Silk. — Nicholas
Mary Aine, of Philadelphia, Pa.

Washing Machine. — Samuel P. Me-
cay, of Killburne, Ohio.

Bending Tin. — George W. Merk, of
Leavenworth, K. T.

Construction of Brooms. — Abner
Mitchell, of Eaton, Pa.

Metal Tips for Toes of Boots and
Shoes. — George A. Mitchell, of Turner,
Maine.

Cotton Gins. — James F. Orr, of Orr-
ville, Ala.

Electko-Magnetic Speed Governor.
— George M. Phelps, of Troy, N. Y.

Construction of Ships. — John Reeves,
of Brooklyn, N. Y.

Attachment for Ltghtino Lanterns.
— Albert C. Richard, of Newtown, Conn.

Manufacturing Paper. — Stephen
Rossmanj of Stuyvesant, N. Y.

102

SCIENTIFIC.

Shears for CuTxraG Bank Notes, &c.
— Stephen P, Ruggles, of Boston, Mass.
LiGHTKNiNG Sea-going Steam Ves-
sels.— John C. F. Salomon and George
W. Morris, of Baltimore, Md.

Harness Saddles. — Henry Sanders, of
Utica, N. Y.

Turning Lathes. — William D. Sloan,
of New-York city.

Rails for Railroads. — Levi B. Tyng,
of Jersey City, N. J.

Potato Planters. — H. "Wainwright
and S. T. Williams, of Farmingdale, N.
J.

Harvesters. — Jesse Whitehead, of
Manchester, Va.

Mathematical Dividers. — John E.
Earle, of Leicester, Mass., (assignor to
himself and Samuel Shepherd, of Nashau,
N. H.)

Lathe for Turning Wood. — Amander

N. Wilcox, of Watervliet, N. Y.

Oscillating Steam Engines — Adam
Wood, of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Sewing Machines. — George Fetter,
(assignor to himself and Edward Jones,)
of Philadelphia, Pa.

Hominy Mills. — Ezra Farhrney, of
Deep River, Iowa, (assignor to John
Donaldson, of Mount Morris, 111.)

ri^nti^r.

CHEMICAL.

SUPPLY AND EXHAUSTION OF CARBONIC
ACID. ITS USE IN AGRICULTURE.

Animals, including man, inhale such
atmosphere as happens to be where they
are.

The atmosphere, in a normal state, is
made up of about 79 parts of nitrogen to
21 of oxygen, with about one part in
2500 of carbonic acid, and something
like one in 10,000 of ammonia.

These gases are inhaled in about the
foregoing proportions ; but are exhaled
in very different proportions. The oxy-
gen of the air comes in contact with the
carbon of the blood, and forms with it
carbonic acid, by a process in the lungs
very similar to combustion.

Burn a wisp of hay ; it creates heat,
its carbon combines with oxygen and
forms carbonic acid, it entirely disap-
pears with the exception of a little ash.

Give that same hay to an ox ; it creates
heat, its carbon combines with oxygen,
and it disappears, with the exception of
such portions as are entirely indigesti-
ble. Thus all animals are constantly
supplying carbonic acid to the atmos-
phere.

We have already explained that com-
bustion effects the same result. All our
fires then, our lights, every burning

body is constantly throwing carbonic
acid into the air. This is one of the
reasons why open fire-places are health-
ier than close stoves ; — they carry the
carbonic acid, generated by the fire and
the lights up the chimney. It shows
also why strong gas lights are unhealthy
— they fill the air with this acid.

A third source of supply is decaying
matter. When you put a stick of wood
on the fire, the largest part of it passes
into the air in watery vapor, carbonic
acid and a little ammonia ; and a small
portion remains as ash. But decay is
much the same thing as combustion in a
slow way.

Throw another stick of wood into the
field. In a few years it will have disap-
peared. What has become of it ? Much
the same as if you had burnt it. Most
of it has gone into the air as watery
vapor, carbonic acid and a little ammo-
nia ; and what would have remained as
ash, if it had been thrown upon the fire,
has been dissolved, and washed into the
ground.

All decaying matters, then, whether
vegetable or animal, are incessantly sup-
plying carbonic acid to the air.

In many parts of the globe, where
there are extinct volcanoes, carbonic acid
oozes from the ground, or issues fix)m

SCIENTIFI C

103

caves and crevices in the rocks, gene-
rated, as is supposed, by subterranean
fires ; and this same gas is, in part, a
product of all active volcanoes ; so that
the volcanic action of the globe, past and
present, afifords a further source of sup-
ply-

All marble, limestone, shells of fish,
coral, and many of the shields of insects,
consist largely of carbonic acid. A pint
of pulverized marble, or chalk, will give
off, if heated, several gallons of carbonic
acid. Now, if we consider what quanti-
ties of limestone, coral, shells, chalk, &c.,
are burnt into quick lime for agricultural
and mechanical purposes, we shall find
that this affords a very abundant source
of supply. A large lime kiln, burning,
would destroy every thing living near,
if it were not for that great principle, or
law in nature, by which gases are taken
up by each other, and equally diffused.

With this law in operation, there is
no more carbonic acid in a given region,
after the burning of a lime kiln, than its
due proportion, as compared with other
regions ; because, under the law for the
diffusion of gases, it has become about
equally distributed throughout the
whole atmosphere of the globe.

These are the chief sources of supply :
1. Respiration. 2. Combustion. 3. De-
cay. 4. Volcanic action. 5. The de-
composition of carbonates, as when we
burn limestone, chalk, shells, or corals
into quick lime. The fermentation of
all vinous liquors, beer, cider, wine, &c.,
as well as the fermentation of com'posts,
and the heating of hay and grain, pro-
duce this gas ; and the bubbles escaping
from mineral waters are, for the most
part, notliing else.

With these sources of supply ever
active, the question arises, why the air
does not become overcharged with it.
This leads us to consider the means of
exhaustion.

In the first place, this gas is very ab-
sorbable by water. Every rivulet, brook
and river takes a portion of it from the

air and bears it along to the ocean. It
is probable that the ocean itself absorbs
it, as analysts affirm that over and near
the ocean, the air contains slightly Jess
than in far inland regions.

When mingled with the ocean, a por-
tion of it goes to form the substance of
fish ; some to form the shells of shell-
fish ; and more to form the coral reefs
and coral islands that are always in pro-
cess of formation.

There is pretty good evidence that in
remote periods past the air was more
heavily charged with this gas. It is in-
ferred by some, that, as it has dimin-
ished in past ages, it will continue to
diminish, and that the time will come,
when there will be too little to sustain a
vegetation adequate to supply food, and
that so, by a process, which is continu-
ally going on, the earth will become un-
inhabitable.

It is undoubtedly true that the waters
of the globe are gradually absorbing it.
And it is true also that much of it is
being locked up in the form of submarine
carbonates, such as coral rocks of vast
extent, shells, &c., which can not be ex-
pected very soon to come to light. But
it is true, on the other hand, that vast
quantities of this gas, which for ages
past have lain dormant in the mountain
lime-stone, and in the coral strand, and
greater quantities still, which have been
locked up in immense coal formations,
but which the spirit of commerce and
manufactures in this age of steam is now
unlocking.

It is true also that in every cargo of
fish which is landed from the ocean, is
the carbon for millions of gallons of this
gas, and that it is thus being brought
back to the land and made to rcsup-
ply the air ; and it would seem probable
that the activity and enterprise of an in-
creasing population may nearly or quite
balance the absorption by the ocean ;
and the globe, including its atmosphere,
continue as rich in plant food as at pre-
sent. We have an impression, strong,

104

SCIENTIFIC

though we might not be able to support
it by reasoning, that this globe is to be-
come better, not worse, for the suste-
nance of man and those animals designed
for his benefit. At any rate, we shall
not yet give in to the fear that the re-
sources for man's sustenance and com-
fort are likely very soon to be exhaust-
ed.

But, in the second place, plants, by
their growth, are the chief means for ex-
hausting the air of carbonic acid ; as, by
their destruction, they are a prominent
means for supplying it. They are the
great regulator. If by any means the
atmosphere were overcharged with car-
bonic acid, they would grow more luxu-
riantly, and thus bring it back to its
normal state. If it had less than its nor-
mal proportion, they would grow less
luxuriantly, and so leave the carbonic
acid to accumulate from its various
soiu-ces of supply.

A tree grows ; the mineral elements
— a very small part of the whole — only
what constitutes its ash, when burned —
comes from the ground. All the rest
comes from the air. Suppose it to be a
sturdy oak. It may have been a hun-
dred years in growing. The solid mat-
ter of its roots, trunk and top might
weigh, when perfectly dried, 6,000 lbs.
At least half of this, or 3,000 lbs., is car-
bon. But it should be remembered that
6 lbs. of carbon are equal to 22 lbs. of
carbonic acid, in as much as the compo-
sition of carbonic acid is 6 lbs. of carbon
to 16 lbs. oxygen. The accumulation
of 3,000 lbs. of carbon, then, during the
growth of that tree, must have taken
from the air 11,000 lbs. of carbonic acid,
an immense volume, since the weight of
this gas is but once and a half that of
common air.

But sooner or later this tree is des-
tined to restore that carbonic acid to the
air. If consumed as fuel, it would re-
store it in a short time ; if left to decay
on the ground, in a few decades of years ;
or if wrought into the carved works of

the most magnificent building, in a few
centuries ; and then that same carbonic
acid that fed the oak will go into other
plants, will thus become food for ani-
mals, only to be soon released again, and
so to go on in successive rounds.

To get some idea of the amount of
carbon drawn by growing plants from
the air, let us consider the immense
amoimt of vegetable growth for a single
year. At dry weight, about half of all
this is carbon. Now if we multiply half
the dry weight of aU the vegetation of a
year on this continent by 3f , it would
give the weight of carbonic acid drawn
from the air over this continent in a sin-
gle year.

The rounds which this gas takes are
in some cases very slow, as, for instance,
when a panel from an old English oak
got into the ceiling of White HaU in
London seven hundred years ago, and is
there yet undecayed. But in other cases
it is very rapid ; as if an ox in a clover
field should clip forage in the morning,
exhale its carbon at noon, to be taken
in by another plant, and that plant to be
devoured by another ox before night ;
in which case the same carbon would
have been food for two plants and for
two oxen in one day.

We do not think this is an extr:ivagant
supposition. The transformations of na-
ture are very rapid ; and probably there
is at this day no food for man or beast,
the identical particles of which, some of
them at least, have not been consumed
as food a thousand times before. An
enterprising farmer, near a large city,
once said to a living man in it, " Give
me your dead horses this week, and I'll
bring them back to you next week in
the form of as fine butter as you ever
ate." He contemplated dissolving them
by a chemical process, to be applied to
dairy pastures in a diluted state ; and
there is reason to believe that in that
way his promise would have been veri-
fied to the letter.

Soils, however rich in the mineral in-

SCIENTIFIC

10$

gredients of plants, require, in order to
their highest productiveness, carbona-
ceous manures.

By carbonaceous manures are to be
understood those which consist largely
of decaying vegetable matter, such as
txirf^ the roots of former crops left in the
ground, green crops plowed in, swamp
peat, decaying leaves, leaf mould, and
harn-yard manure.

The action of these manures is two-
fold:

1. Mechanical, to vary the condition
of the soil by mingling a lighter sub-
stance with it, to separate the heavier
particles from each other, and prevent
their so compacting as to exclude a free
circulation of the air.

2. Chemical. Air and moisture, hav-
ing access to the carbonaceous matter
in the soil, cause it to decay rapidly.
The oxygen of the air combines with the
carbon to form carbonic acid ; and the
carbonic acid, when formed, produces at
least three distinct effects :

1. It produces a further mechanical ac-
tion. As when yeast is put into dough, the
carbonic acid generated from it, by its
expansive force, pushes the particles of
dough apart from each other, and makes
the bread light and tender; so that,
generated in the soil from carbonaceous
manures, exerts an expansive force upon
the soil, making it lighter, more pervious
to the roots, and more accessible to air.

2. It is dissolved in water, and the
water, by absorbing it, is rendered ca-
pable of dissolving several mineral sub-
stances in the soil, and rendering them
fit for plant food, which are insoluble in
water not impregnated with this acid.
Lime, for instance, is nearly insoluble in
pure water, but dissolves to a considera-
ble extent in water impregnated with
carbonic acid.

8. It becomes food for the growing
plant, a portion of it being taken in by
the roots, dissolved in water, but more
being seized by the leaves as it oozes
from the ground and seeks to mingle
with the air.

Plants, so far as their carbon is con-
sidered, are, in the first place, fed from
that carbonic acid which is always in
the air in its normal state, this being
taken in through the leaves ; and then,
in the second place, in a well manured
field, they receive extra food from that
which is generated about their roots, by
the decay of carbonaceous manures. The
latter, there can be but little doubt, is ta-
ken in both by the roots and leaves. — Ed.

METEOROLOGICAL.
chapman's precalculations.

[Entered according to Act of Congress, in th«
year 1856, hy L. L. CHAPMAN, in the Clerk's
Office of the District Court, for the Eastern Dis-
trict of Pennsylvama.']

FIRST DEPARTMENT.

EXPLANATORY.

THE TERM POSITIVE is here given
to conditions abounding 7nore with vital
electricity, inspiring more health, vigor,
cheerfulness, and letter feelings for bu-
siness, intercourse, etc., and consequent-
ly greater success, enjoyment, etc.

THE TERM NEGATIVE is given to
those conditions which ahound less with
electricity, and consequently are more
unfavorable to health, feelings, business,
social intercourse, etc.
IT Indicates Sundays.
SECOND MONTH, (February,) 1858.
Tendency. Time o'clock

1st, Negative, from 1 to 8 morn.
Positive, from 8 morn to 1 eve.
Mixed, from 2 to 12 eve.
2d, Positive, from 1 to 11 morn.

Negative, from 12 noon to 12 eve.
3d, Negative, from 1 morn to 6 eve.

Mixed, from 6 to 12 eve.
4th, Negative, from 2 morn to 12 eve.
5th,' Mixed, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Positive, from 5 to 12 eve.
6th, Mixed, from 1 to 9 morn.

Positive, from 10 morn to 12 eve.
Yth, IT Mixed, from 1 morn to 1 eve.

Positive, from 8 to 12 eve.
8th, Positive, from 1 to 10 morn.

Negative, from 11 morn to 12 eve.

9 th, Negative, from 1 morn to G eve.

Positive, from 7 to 12 eve.

10th, Positive, from 5 morn to 12 eve.

11th, Positive, from 5 morn to 4 eve.

Negative, from 5 to t2 eve.
12th, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.

106

SCIENTIFIC.

13th, Positive, from 5 to 10 morn.

Mixed, from 11 morn to 12 eve.
14th, IT Negative, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Positive, from 5 to 12 eve.
15th, Positive, from 1 morn to 7 eve.

Mixed, from 8 to 12 eve.
16th, Positive, from 1 morn to 3 eve.

Negative, from 4 to 12 eve.
I7th, Mixed, from 1 morn to 1 eve.

Negative, from 2 to 12 eve.
18th, Positive, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
19th, Positive, from 2 to 11 morn.

Negative, from 12 noon to 12 eve.
20th, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
21st, IT Positive, from 1 to 9 morn.

Negative, from 10 morn to 12 eve.
22d, Negative, from 1 morn to 1 eve.

Positive, from 2 to 12 eve.
23d, Mixed, from 1 morn to 12 noon.

Positive, from 12 noon to 12 eve.
24th, Mixed, from 1 to 8 morn.

Positive, from 8 morn to 12 eve.
25th, Negative, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Mixed, from 5 to 15 eve.
26th, Negative, from 1 morn to 12 eve.
27th, Negative, from 1 morn to 5 eve.

Positive, from 6 to 12 eve.
28th, IT Positive, from 1 morn to 4 eve.

Mixed, from 4 to 5 eve.

Positive, from 6 to 12 eve.

SECOND DEPARTMENT.

In this department the first letter of
each colored ray is given, instead of the
word in full, after the words morn, eve.
They show the angles of the solar spec-
trum in which the current of reflected
light that produces the condition is in-
tercepted.— Thus^ R for the red ray, 0
for the orange, etc. Currents intercept-
ed in the angles of the Y, or R, or G-
rays tend to a warm and usually fair
temperature. R, sometimes showery ;
V or I to cool and damp ; three or four
times out of five, cloudy or wet. B, and
often V, to electrical, and more or less
wind stirring. 0 to variable — in most
cases cloudy or wet ; but when dry to
sultry or exciting. Single letters show
single currents. Double letters show
combined currents, which usually ope-
rate longer and with greater force ; often
so superceding the effects of passing sin-
gle currents that the latter become only
modulations in a long dry or wet, warm
or cool period, induced by the former.
They can not be calculated so accurately
as the single currents, but seldom vary
many hours. ,

Combined currents ending with V or
I tend to longer, more prominent cool

periods. With R or G, to warm peri-
ods. _ When ending with B, V, I, or 0,
to windy, or cloudy, or stormy periods.
Periods of greater electrical deficiency
tend more to vegetable defection, or
blight, to the cholera, etc.

All the combined currents tend more
to electrical disturbances, earthquakes,
auroras, etc.

Periods, (.) in the place of letters, show
currents under investigation. Bouile
periods, (..) combined currents. £[y-
phens (-) after letters show confluent
currents. Commas (,) after the letters
show positive — apostrophes () negative
condition. See second department. —
They also show the force of the inter-
cepted current. One comma or apostro-
phe shows weaker, two commas or apos-
trophes (,, ") stronger currents.

Many of the weaker changes are per-
ceptible only by instruments. Those in-
struments are the Prism, Thermometer,
Barometer, Hygrometer, and Electrome-
ter.

The changes are four minutes earlier
for each degree of longitude (60 miles)
west. Difference of latitude in the same
meridian is immaterial. The dry condi-
tions are fair, and the damp conditions
cloudy or wet, at least three or four times
out of five in the average. When fair,
the damp conditions diffuse a cool, damp
sensation through the atmosphere.

Blanks indicate very weak, or mixed,
or uncertain conditions.

IT Indicate Sundays.

SECOND MONTH, (February,) 1858.
Time o^cloch. Pay-angle. Tendency.
1st, At 1 morn YO" damp, windy.

At 6 morn G' warm.

At 8 morn R' warm.

At 9 morn I,, cool.

At 1 eve V„ cool, damp.

At 6 eve Y' warm.

At 12 eve R, warm, dry.
2d, At 8 morn I, cool, damp.

At 11 morn G„ warm.

At 5 eve V cool, damp.

At 12 eve GR" warm, dry.
3d, At 9 morn V cool.

At 6 eve I" cool, damp.
4th, At 1 morn . — - —

At 5 morn G' warm.

At 11 eve R' warm, dry.
5th, At 4 morn G" warm, dry.

At 11 morn 0

At 4 eve Y" warm, dry.
6th, At 2 morn B„ wind stfrring.

SCIENTIFIC

107

7th,

8th,
9th,

10th,
11th,

12th,
13th,

14th,
15th,

16th,

17th,

18th,
19th,

20th,

21st,
22d,

At 5 morn I„ cool.

At 9 morn V" cool, damp.

At 10 eve G, warm, dry.

IT At 8 morn Y, warm, dry.

At 11 morn I' cool, damp.

At 1 eve BI" cool, damp, windy.

At 11 eve G,, warm, dry.

At 10 morn Y,, warm, dry.

t 7 eve R, warm,

t 5 morn GO" damp, windy.

t 8 morn G' warm.

t 9 morn 0

t 6 eve Y' warm, dry.

1 12 eve BV„ cool, damp, windy.

t 4 morn V cool.

t 11 morn .. warm.

t 4 eve 0„

t 12 eve .

t 4 morn I" cool, damp.

t 9 morn V„ cool.

1 1 eve B- wind stirring.

t 4 eve 0,

til morn R" warm, dry.

t 4 morn 0" damp.

t 10 morn G- warm, dry.

t 5 eve Y- warm, dry.

t 6 eve V" cool, damp.

t 7 eve .. warm.

t 10 eve R, warm.
IT At 2 morn YV"cool,damp,windy.

t 4 eve I' cool, damp.

t 8 eve R,, warm.

t 3 morn V, cool.

1 12 noon O

t 7 eve I cool, damp.

t 11 eve R' warm.

1 12 eve V,, cool, damp.

t 3 eve B„ wind stirring.

t 9 eve GV" cool, windy.

t 8 morn 0,,

t 9 morn Y' warm, dry.

1 1 eve B, wind stirring.

t 12 eve I" cool, damp.

t 8 morn G,, warm, dry.

t 1 eve Y,, warm.

t 5 eve, end of the zodiacal pe-
riod, or natural month,

t 10 eve GR, warm, dry.

t 1 morn •• windy.

t 5 morn R- warm, dry.

t 5 morn G, warm,

t 8 morn I, cool, damp.

til morn Y, warm, dry.

t 12 eve O" damp.

t 9 morn V- cool, damp.

t 4 eve (J" warm, dry.

t 10 eve Y" warm.
•Vt 9 morn B,, wind stirring.

t 5 eve BR" windy.

1 1 eve B' wind .stirring.

t 3 eve 0,

At 12 eve G„ warm, diy.
23d, At 11 morn ..

At 12 morn V cool.

At 1 eve R,, warm, dry.
24th, At 1 morn 01,, cool, damp, windy.

At 4 morn G' warm.

At 3 morn I- cool, damp.

At 9 morn 0" damp.

At 2 eve V„ cool.

At 9 eve G, warm, dry.
25th, At 4 eve R" warjn, dry.
26th, At 2 morn B" wind stirring. •

At 2 eve YU cool, windy.

At 5 eve V" cool, damp.

At 12 eve GI' cool, damp, windy.
27th, At 4 eve G" warm, dry.

At 5 eve Y" warm.

At 9 eve R,, warm, dry.
28th, IT At 4 morn .. cool, damp.

At 7 morn YG- warm.

At 4 eve I„ cool.

At 8 eve 0,, damp.

At 11 eve R' warm.

At 12 eve V„ cool.

GENERAL REMARKS.

Cool Periods, longer and more promi-
nent, are more liable near the 14th, 26th.

Greater tendency to windy, cloudy or
stormy periods, or gusts, near the 1st,
7th, 9th, or 10th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 24th,
26th.

Periods more prominently negative
near the 1st, 3d, 7th, 9th, 14th, 17th.

Periods of greater electrical deficiency,
1st to 9th, 11th to 21st.

Natural tendency of the zodiacal pe-
riod from the 1st to 18th, damp. From
the 19th to 28th, the same tendency.

The electricity supplied by the re-
flected light of the moon in her increase,
is more positive. During her decrease,
more negative. Hence, fruit trees should
be pruned and vegetation maturing above
the ground should be sown, etc., be-
tween the first quarter and the full
moon. Esculent roots, potatoes, etc.,
should be planted in the decrease of the
moon.

U^^" V.VLUABLE Discovery, — About
three miles from Clear Lake, Napa Co.,
California, and near the Borux lakes, is
a sulphur bank from twenty to thirty
acres in extent, and supposed to be thir-
ty feet thick, sufficiently pure for the use
of the mint at San Francisco. The sul-
phur seems to be constantly forming
from a dam, steam rising over the whole
surface continually.

108

LITERARY.

FOE THE AMERICAN FAKMBRS' MAGAZINE.

THE WE ATHEE.

Appearance of Birds, Flowers, etc., in Nichols, Tioga Co., K Y., in December, 1857.

By B. Howell.

Place of Observation, 42 degrees North, on a Diluvial Formation, about AS) feet above the

Susquehanna River, and 800 feet above tide, according to the survey

of the New- York and Erie Railroad.

ec.

BA.M.

1P.M.

9 P.M.

1

42

40

36

N. W.

Cloudy.

^

22

41

32

South

"

36

38

32

West

"

4

27

32

23

"

"

5

28

39

26

S.&K

"

6

29

36

38

S. E.

"

7

28

48

32

West

Clear.

8

42

56

39

s. w.

Cloudy.

9

41

45

48

S. E.

"

10

35

38

27

West

"

11

24

30

14

N. W.

<(

12

13

27

14

North

«

13

14

41

26

South

Clear.

14

25

50

29

((

Cloudy.

15

24

45

36

north

16

32

44

36

South

17

37

44

40

"

18

47

48

40

S. W.

19

32

36

27

West

20

26

30

18

North

21

12

38

31

South

22

27

35

32

North

23

24

38

34

South

24

35

35

24

West

25

19

24

18

"

26

16

23

12

North

27

18

33

21

South

28

29

39

34

"

29

31

41

33

North

30

32

38

34

South

"

31

33

36

32

S.&N.

"

Reuabkb.
Hard rain before day.

Light snow in the morning. Rain in P. M.

Clear till 4 P. M.

Light rain A. M.

Rain at intervals all day.

Light snow in the evening.

Quite hard rain in morning before light.

Small Aurora seen at 9 P. M.

Rain all night. Light rain.
About one-half inch of snow felL

Light snow.

[P. M., 3 inches.
Snow commenced at 7 A. M., and continued till 4
Drizzling snow between 6 and ten A. M. Light

rain at 3 P. M., continued all night.
Quite hard rain A. M.

it^rarg.

TO OUR READERS.

In our last number we promised to
enliven our pages with a variety of new
matter, that should be at once amusing
and instructive ; and we are now about
to introduce, with that object, a new fea-
ture into our journal.

Information for the farmer has ever
been the leading feature in our pages,
and will continue for the future to be
the primary object of it.

But if improvement in agriculture
should be the chief aim of an agricultural

journal, there is another subject equally
dear to the farmer's heart, as it is also
of equal importance to the happiness of
himself and his family. We allude to
the literature which is sought for and
read by the younger members of his
family.

The influence, for good or for ill, of
that which constitutes the lighter litera-
ture of the day, is too well known to
need comment. We fear we must with
regret add, that too much of that which
finds the easiest access into families

'LITERARY,

109

throughout the length and breadth of
our land, is of a character little calcu-
lated to improve the morals, or to tend
towards the cultivation of a high stand-
ard of self-government, in the young of
either sex.

This consideration is not, however,
new to our age ; and the weight of it has
from time to time induced men, whose
literary attainments have rendered them
luminaries in the world of letters, occa-
Bionally to endeavor to introduce a better
class of works, which, whilst they amuse
the mind, at the same time tend to lead/
the morals in the direction of rectitude
and virtue. To such praiseworthy ef-
forts do we owe some of that literature
which has now become part of the clas-
sics of our language.

Having by good fortune had a propo-
sal of similar character made to us, and
feeling that the ladies of our farm-houses
have some claim upon oiu* pages, as well
as on our gallantry, we propose to devote
a portion of our journal each month to
this object. ^ And we doubt not that the
arrangements we have made to secure
the aid of talent of a high order for this
department, will insure for it a welcome^
from the farmer's wife and daughter that
will amply reward our exertions.

THE HERMITESS OF SOUTH
SALEM.

[Entered according to Act of Congresa, in the year
1862, by J. A. Nash, in the Clerk's office of the
District Court of the United States, for theSouih-
ern District of New-Yorli.] '

AN OKIGINAL TALE OF THE REVOLUTION,

FOUNDED ON FACT.

On a bright summer's evening of the
year seventy-six, a group filled the porch
of an old farm-house not many miles
east of New- York Bay, on the shores of
Long Island. The elder member of the
party was a farmer, whose help-mate had
not long before been removed from the
turmoils of time, to enter upon the peace
of eternity. Beside him sat his two
daughters, in whom were centered all
his hopes and fears. For those were

times when hopes and fears bore, in
these parts, close relation to each other.
A stalwart yeoman of thirty years danced
on his knee the first pledge of the love,
which a glance at the joyous counte-
nance of the elder daughter told she
bore her husband ; and the anxious look
of the only remaining person in the cir-
cle, a young stout countryman just en-
tering upon man's estate, bespoke the
interest which the. other daughter ex-
cited in his bosom, although she seemed
advanced beyond his age by some few
years.

The farmer seemed musing o'er the
past, and maybe o'er the stining events
of the present ; and ever and anon a tear
was seen to fill his downcast eye, and
trickle down the furrows by which his
care-worn cheek was channeled.

After a prolonged silence which none
of the party appeared inclined to break,
as if some weighty matters were the sub-
ject of discussion, the son-in-law at
length exclaimed :

" 'Tis better, father, I am sure, that
you and Sally should return home with
us. Hannah has now our boy to see to,
and Sally will, I know, like to help her.
Our house is big enough for all, and now
these parts are sure to become battle-
fields : for our sakes you should come
amongst us."

"No, George, no," replied the old
man ; ." I can not leave the old home-
stead where I was born and bred, and
where so many years of blessings have
been showered down upon my head.
My girl's mother, my sainted wife, loved
the place, and I will breathe my last
where she died. For battles I have no
fear; if my arm was younger, my coun-
try should have my strength. As 'tis,
my weakness is not worth the keeping.
You, George, will take care of the girls ;
that is if John here does not relieve you
of part of the trouble. But Sally will
not leave me whilst I live. You, my boy,
must to your farm ; and by-and-bye
when these storms of war are past, we

no

LITERARY.

may yet spend some hours together in
this old house."

The next day separated the friends.
George Vortin, with his blooming wife
and child, returned to his Connecticut
homestead, leaving Butler and his daugh-
ter in their island home.

John Frazer, the accepted lover of
Sarah, being the son of a neighboring
farmer, was perfectly satisfied with the
old man's decision ^ for belonging, like
most of his age, to the militia, his duties
were of too imperious a character to af-
ford him much opportunity for " spark-
ing," and he consequently would by no
means have approved of the removal of
his ladylove to a distant abode ; and he
knew full well that her beloved father's
word, to her affectionate heart, was law.
Frazer's duties for the time, however,
formed no insurmountable barrier to the
indulgence of his inclinations, for Gen.
Washington, expecting New- York to be
attacked, was then making his disposi-
tions to meet the anticipated event. Al-
though aware of the proximity of danger
to those so dear to him, Frazer knew
that he should have early intelligence of
the movements of the enemy ; and con-
sequently he felt no distrust of his power
to give them timely notice to remove
from the scene in the event of serious
operations supervening.

Some weeks passed on after the sepa-
ration of the friends, and the excitement
of anticipated troubles had nearly sub-
sided into the confidence of security,
when in the haze of early morning the
heavy tread of distant footsteps alarmed
the dogs that guarded the homestead,
and awoke Sarah Butler from her morn-
ing's dream. Throwing open her window
she looked out to speak to them. Her
well known voice the dogs obeyed ; but
their silence revealed to her ear the cause
of their vigilance. Friends or foes, she
knew not which, but strangers were at
hand.

Scarcely had Butler, aroused by his I
daughter, glanced at the men who now |

had approached within a short distance of
house, when the full measure of the mise-
ry that awaited him was disclosed. They
were a party of the enemy's troops. A
hurried parley confirmed the worst fears ,
of the inmates ; the door was burst open,
and the half-mad soldiers brutalized the
once happy home !

The wail of female anguish, the aged
cry for mercy, were answered by the
ribald jest and withering jeer. A bay-
onet was raised to pierce old Butler
through, when a musket shot from with-
out suddenly laid low the arm that held
it. The soldiers rushed out as quickly
as they had entered, and for a few mo-
ments Butler and his daughter were left
alone with the dead body of the fallen
man.

" Daughter," said the old man, " I feel
my hour is come. I see Frazer without ;
doubtless he has brought us this relief;
they will not kill you, and Frazer will
protect you. I must shortly fall, if only
to avenge the dead at our feet. Grieve
not for me — I shall be happy ; but trust
in God my girl through life'; and "

A shot from outside performed its
deadly ofiice, and Butler fell and breath-
' ed his last.

At the same moment Sarah Butler
found herself in the grasp of one whose
regimentals showed him to be of that .
rank that should indicate the character
of gentlemen, a protector of innocence, a
lover of mercy. Was he this ? No — that
he was — 'tis not in language to tell. Sa-
vage he was not, for he was civilized.
Slave he was not, for he was free. Brute
he was not, for he was man. Devil he
was not, for he was human. What was
HE ? Let heaven declare, for words can
not at that day when

" We shall know even as we are known."
*******

*******
The sun rose in its full majesty upon
a cloudless sky on the morning follow-
ing the dread day that closed the life of
honest Butler. The sound of man's

LITERARY

111

cursed artillery was unheard, and the
young birds of the last spring rejoicing
in their youth, carolled forth the song of
pleasure and of love.
• Awaking from a swoon, o'erwhelmed
with shame, half conscious of existence,
poor Sarah Butler found herself stretch-
ed upon the straw of her homestead
bam. Weighed down by misery and
grief, the anguish of her soul almost un-
nerved her from the power of motion.
Mistrusting her distracted and confused
recollection of the occurrences of the pre-
ceeding day, and doubting each phase,
save oiie of the scenes in which she had
borne a part, she dragged her weary
limbs to the window that looked on her
cherished home ! Could she believe it ?
A smoking pile of blackened walls and
half charred timbers only remained of
the house in which she first saw the light
of day. An involuntary shriek burst
from her lips, and she again sunk into
unconsciousness.

A few days after the preceding events,
"Washington saw fit to alter his tactics,
and to withdraw his troops from Long
Island; and rumor, with its many
tongues, quickly conveyed to George
Vortin and his wife the unwelcome in-
telligence that the enemy had carried fire
and sword into the homesteads on the
coast of Long Island. George forthwith
sought the camp, where he learned from
the lips of his friend Frazer, whom he
found in hospital disabled by a mus-
ket wound in the head, the dreadful
story of his father-in-law's death.

" And where is Sally ?" cried George.
"Alas! I know not," replied his
friend. " I fell insensible from this
cursed shot-wound, whilst springing for-
ward to rescue her from the grasp of a
hellish officer who had seized upon her,
and I know no more. As soon as I re-
covered my reason, I begged my com-
rades to go seek her, or ascertain her
fate ; but our troops having been with-
drawn from the Island, their attempts
were futile. My cup of misery is full.
May God protect her !"

Resolved to learn something of his
sister-in-law, George spent many days in
fruitless inquiries and abortive attempts
to communicate with friends on Long
Island. In despair, he at length was
about reluctantly to give up the search,
when he chanced to meet an old ac-
quaintance who was a fisherman on the
Sound. He informed him that some
days after the affray at Butlers, Sarah
had been to his house on the coast when
he was from home ; and that his part-
ner had at her request taken her at night
across the Sound to the mland shore.
Rejoiced at this intelligence, George not
doubting that her object was to get to
his farm, made his way home with all
dispatch ; having on his way afforded
some consolation to poor Frazer, by
communicating the information he had
received.

Contrary to his expectations, Vortin
and his wife heard nothing of Sarah.
Each week that passed held forth to
them hopes, only to be disappointed. By
slow degrees Frazer, whose anguish of
mind tended materially to delay recovery
from his wound, at length was sufficient-
ly convalescent to permit his removal
firom the camp, and Vortin took him to
his home; for already did his wife regard
him as her brother.

How mercifully is the future before us
in this life, hidden from our gaze ! How
beautiful the dispensation which causes
the slow course of time to assuage griefs
that 'tis not in our power to avoid, or
otherwise, to relieve. One by one come
our joys ; one by one our sorrows ! Did
either come in mass, poor humanity
must equally break down beneath the
burden. But when tempered by the
calm self-possession of confiding hope in
Him whose promise can not fail, how
joyous pass the happy hours of prosper-
ity— how serenely do we bow the head
and yield submission to the blasts of ad-
versity I

So it was at George Vortin's farm-
house. Ilalf-expecting hope for many

112

LITERARY.

months sustained the drooping and
agonized feelings of Hannah Vortin,
and the no-less wounded spirit of the
wounded soldier : until at length they
almost persuaded themselves that poor
Sarah was released from her earthly-
trials, and though snatched from them,
was then — at rest.

Time rolled on. George Vortin pros-
pered. Frazer, whose wound, although
healed, had produced a marked influence
upon his constitution, was long in recov-
ering his strength. The ties of friend-
ship between him and his kind hosts had
been sealed by events too appalling to
be evanescent; and thence had sprung
up bonds of affection which precluded
the thought of separation. The children
of the Vortins, which were now many,
had of their own accord appropriated to
Frazer the cognomen of " Uncle John" —
an appellation which all appeared to ap-
prove. Still amidst sufficient prosperity
to supply more than the wants of all, and
the enjoyment of many of those cheer-
ful hours which it is the peculiar privi-
lege of children to impart to those
around them, there was a pensive sad-
ness that overshadowed the household,
and told the observer that something yet
was wanting to make that household
happy. The truth was, the uncertainty
attending the fate of Sarah Butler still
weighed upon all.

* - * * * * *

Thirty years and more had passed
away, and some members of the family
of the Vortins had grown up to man's
estate. The eldest daughter, Hannah,
was wooed and won by Jim Smithson, a
young farmer at Ridgefield, twenty miles
from her parent's farm. Settled down
some months in her novel station, she
urged " Uncle John" to visit her new
home — an invitation which he was not
slow to accept. For having given up all
idea of married life himself, the children
of his friend had long been regarded by
him as his own, and he divided with
their parents the cares and pleasures
that attended them.

On a fair morning in the fall of 18—,
Frazer set out on his old grey pony to
pay his promised visit at Ridgefield. A
small valise strapped behind his saddle
carried his wardrobe ; and at the pora-
mel were sundry small parcels of crea-
ture comforts, intended as presents from
" home" to the new married couple.

Since the Revolution, Frazer had been
but little of a traveler. The ardor and
elasticity of youth had been softened
down at an early age by his physical
and mental sufferings ; and his time had
been devoted to the service of his friend
Vortin on his farm, and to the indul-
gence of the wishes and wants, whether
real or fancied, of the wife and children.
For in such occupations it was that he
found the greatest comfort, and a relief
from thoughts and regrets that too fre-
quently would intrude upon his leisure
hours.

Having thus remained almost constant-
ly on the farm, out of the reach of the
turmoils of the world, and of the excite-
ment consequent on a more active life,
he knew little of the scenes around him,
save those disclosed by the weekly news-
paper. Beyond the homestead circle,
however, he had no wants ; and the ab-
sence or presence of more extensive ac-
quaintance with men and things was
to him a matter of equal indifference.

Arrived at Ridgefield, Frazer was over-
whelmed by the multitudinous series of
welcomes that awaited him; for his young
hostess was a warm-hearted creature,
full of buoyant spirits, bright hopes, and
affectionate feelings, which rendered it
out of the question with her to receive
her old friend without a reiterated redu-
plication of every endearing epithet that
her vocabulary could suggest.

In those days, before railroads had
solved the problem of annihilating space,
and made modern philosophy doubt the
truth of the axiom that nature abhors a
vacuum, (since some are dreaming of a se-
ries of subterranean vacuum tubes as the
best medium for locomotion) — in those

LITERARY

113

days, the entrance upon the duties of life
of anew married couple in Ridgefield was
no ordinary, every-day occurrence, but
an event of importance ; one which,
as soon as its possibility was bruited
abroad, caused an excitement and com-
motion among the middle aged aud more
aged members of the female community
there resident, which showed that at
least they were deeply interested parties.

The recent wedding had produced a
more than ordinary amount of this inte-
rest ; for, the coterie of the district,
that, by some invisible, but doubt-
less well organized authoi'ity, exercised
a considerable control over the due coup-
ling together of the juvenile branches of
their generation, had been, for once, ut-
lerly at fault in disposing of the bride-
groom to their satisfaction. If the truth
must be told, he chose to select a wife
for himself, instead of having one select-
ed for him ; a circumstance which, con-
trary to the innocently ignorant con-
clusions of some people, was, by the
Ridgefield Sociable-marriage-and-suita-
ble-settlement Committee that consti-
tuted the coterie aforesaid, deemed to be
subversive of that course which these
ladies had, as the result of their united
wisdom, chalked out for the onward
progress of civilization.

True it was, that in many cases the
committee declined to interfere to select,
or recommend a partner for life to some
poor wight But then in all such cases
the unhappy individual, somehow, al-
ways happened to be a poor wight ! In
no case within the legal memory of man,
(which in B^nglish law means the time of
good King Richard II., and in American
law, that of some other period either
before or after,) was the contingency
known, of a young man, well to do,
either present or in prospect, remaining a
bachelor for want of being provided,
through the care of the committee, with
a " suitable partner."

The exertions made to secure this end
were extraordinary ; and it can only be
8

attributable to the continued persever-
ance with which they were prosecuted,
that the result was attained. The system,
however, was so well arranged, and the
energy of the committee so unremitted,
that miscarriage was usually impossible.
Yet, like most unknown discoveries, the
means employed were simple, and con-
sequently less likely to become deranged
in operation. A principal method was,
the selection of matrons, as members of
the Committee, who had themselves a
great number of eligible daughters. For,
so disinterested was the Committee in
the performance of its self-imposed du-
ties, that there was never an instance of
any member refusing to consent to her
daughter's union with the young yeoman
assigned to her. Whether there is or
not ground for supposing that in
the development of their anti-malthusian
practices, certain members allowed their
feelings of self-sacrifice to urge the se-
lection of their own daughters, in prefer-
ence to those of others, for a youth
whose numerous acres or recently
acquired fortune pointed him out as
requiring immediate provision, is doubt-
ful. The best and most praiseworthy
acts of us all are liable to misconstruc-
tion ; to say nothing of the malignant
acrimony occasioned sometimes by dis-
appointed hopes in others ; and it is not
to be supposed that the benevolent exer-
tions of the Ridgefield Sociable-mar-
riage-aud-sui table-settlement Committee
should altogether escape calunmies and
aspersions, to which all philanthropic
eSbrts are exposed !

With such elements of concord and
discord at work, it may readily be be-
lieved that the new married couple
would not settle down into that peaceful
quietude supposed to be the fitting phase
of old married life, without their acts
and deeds, their existing condition, and
future prospects being fully and duly
revised, considered, and adjudicated upon
by the benevolent body to which the
preceding paragraph refers.

114

LITERARY.

The result of the Committee's deliber-
ation on the subject can only be presumed
from its effects, inasmuch as secrecy was
a point that was deemed by this benev-
olent institution requisite to the success
of its decisions. Nevertheless every
now and then, through the confidential
disclosures of Committee mamas to anx-
ious and expectant daughters, inklings
would eke out of the prospects of those
who for the time, were the objects of the
Committee's proceedings. Judging from
rumors originating in such sources, the
prevalent opinion was, that as the gen-
tleman had slipt through their fingers,
the Committee thought the better thing
would be to make a virtue of a necessi-
ty, and admit the new married folks to
take their place in the village circle, with
the full enjoyment of the inestimable
privileges to be derived from the counte-
nance and sanction of the RidgefieLd
Sociable - marriage - and - suitable-settle-
ment Committee. A resolution, the una-
nimous vote in favor of which, was said
to have been specially influenced by the
opinion expressed by one of the mem-
bers, (whose gi-eat grandfather's brother
had been a physician,) "that she should
not think it likely that a poor, young
creature like Jim Smithson's wife could
live long, for she looked as white and
liverish as a mushroom that was sick
with chills and fever, and who could tell
but Jim might afore long want another
wife." Whether this dictum was the
concentrated effusion of medical skill or
not it is needless at present to inquire.
Like all other legal decisions we have
only to deal with it as we find it, without
going into the reasons, if any there were,
by which the tribunal in question was
guided in arriving at it.

Jim Smithson himself was by no

means unconscious of the solicitude that

the Ridgfield Sociable-marriage-and-suit-

able-settlement Committee had manifest-

■ - his behalf; seeing that having

own counsel, and courted his

rt at some distance from Ridge-

field, unknown to the Committee, that
body had, for some months previously to
his marriage, commenced their prelimi-
nary attack upon his bachelorship. But
these preliminary advances were, in this,
as in all tbe proceedings of the Commit-
tee, made with the caution which from
so accomplished a body of tactitians
might naturally be expected. The
modus operandi of attack was varied,
both as regards means and persons ; but
the object was in all of them intended to
converge to one point, namely, the work-
ing a conviction upon Jim's mind, that
he wanted a wife. Had they been aware
that Jim had himself arrived at that con-
viction, doubtless the ladies would have
reserved their ammunition for use in the
next step of their siege operations, and
would have advanced boldly to the
breach in his heart, with the view to fill
it up with a wife that their mature judg-
ment found suitable for him. Jim, how-
ever, saved them that trouble, and,
moreover, was on one occasion heard to
declare, when returning home late at
night from a social party given by a
near neighbor, to which he had gone
upon a most pressing invitation, that the
"canting old toads were an infernal set
of scandal-mongers, and that if they
thought to hook him they were con-
foundedly mistaken."

Whether this hasty but impetuously
expressed opinion related to the ladies of
the Ridgefield Sociable-marriage-and-sui-
table-settlement Committee or not, can
not be 'positively asserted ; or if it did,
whetli er it took its rise rather in the effects
of over-excitement, or an impudent ad-
'Vance upon him made by that bodv, than
from a well considered review of the cha-
racters of the members forming it, is
equally uncertain. However this may be,
Jim Smithson went to no more parties
from that day to his wedding day ; and
consequently it is to be assumed that he
saw no reason to change, upon reflection,
the opinion that his evening's potations
had induced him to give utterance to
upon the subject,

[to be coktinued.]

LITERARY

115

ENGLAND AND INDIA.

BY AN ENGLISHMAN.

Mr. Editor : — " Audi alteram par-
tem" is a maxim which must be so fami-
liar to you as a citizen of a country that
claims to set an example of freedom to
the world, that I conceive the bare refer-
ence to it is enough to secure for me the
insertion of the following reply, altliough
it be to obversations of your own ; which
I am free to believe had their origin in
(allow me to say) kindly feelings rather
than sound judgment. I should how-
ever not trouble you with this letter, did
I not think and believe that anything
that tends to lessen England and her
citizens in the eyes of American citi-
zens is, if untrue^ a positive injury to
both countries.

In the Monthly Review of the Amer-
ican Farmers' Magazine for January,
you say in allusion to England, " Her
men in power have thought it necessary
to be more revoltingly cruel than the
sepoys themselves." And you proceed
to characterize the fact of sepoys being
blown from the cannon's mouth, as an
exercise of " implacable revenge" by
" Christian England."

Now " implacable revenge," exercised
hj' a " ChrhWavi'' individual , is undoubt-
edly a very wicked and heinous offence,
which even the impulsive outbreak of
passion can not justify. How much
greater, therefore, must it become, if it
has been, as you assert, exercised delib-
erately, and by the authorities of a great
nation ?

Your accusation, then, is a heavy one
indeed, against my country, and the
land of your forefathers. You will not
think me wrong, therefore, in seeking to
satisfy you and your readers, that it is
made in error. But first — one remark —
you say " more revolting." Do you call
to mind that the sepoys, who all admit
have been well treated, and fed and
paid better than either English or Amer-
ican soldiers are, commenced their pro-

ceedings by butchering their officers in
cold blood? No one yet has contested
the fact that the conduct of the Europe-
an officers has uniformly been kind to
the men. Let that pass, however, and
assume the contrary if jou please. Do
you call to mind that they more than
butchered their officers' wives, daughters,
and children, and committed such atroc-
ities upon the females, that language
adequate to portray these facts could not
be printed for the public eye? Would
you think "blowing from the cannon's
mouth" more revolting than such atroci-
ties committed on your own wife or
daughter. I need not tell you that the
proper object of punishment for crime
consists not in vengeance, but in inflict-
ing such punishment on the criminal as,
whilst it is not unjust to him, is the best
calculated to deter others from the conv-
mission of similar offences. And this
latter object, on reflection, you will per-
ceive to be, in all communities, of para-
mount importance. That the punish-
ment was not unjust to such demons in
human shape, (which is not too strong
an epithet for any man capable of such
conduct to woman,) I take for granted,
and you, in your remaiks, admit it. Let
us see, then, how it was calculated to
effect the more important object of de-
terring others. And that leads me to
the pith 6f my letter, and at the same
time explains why that particular mode
of punishment was inflicted.

The superstition of the sepoy induces
him to believe that the burial of his body
apart from the remains of others not of his
own religion, is essential to his happiness
in a future state. This mode of death
rendered the probability of such a burial
highly improbable, if not impossible ;
and for that reason it was selected. If
in itself the mode of death inflicted was
of a lingering kind, calculated to torture
the criminal, I would condemn it as
" revolting" and as cruel. But the one
under consideration is not so. On the
contrary it is more instantaneous and

116

EDITOR'S TABLE

less painful than even hanging or the
guillotine. For although the latter of
those two is instantaneous enough, that
from the cannon's mouth must be un-
known evon by an instant's conscious-
ness. And that in anticipation it may
be feared or dreaded, appears to me, as
a preventive to crime in others, to be a
recommendation for its adoption. Whilst
we know how fallacious are the sepoy's
fears as to its effect on his future state,
so far as the mode of death is concerned,
we avail ourselves of those fears to
operate upon the conduct of his fellows ;
and if in so doing we succeed in sup-
pressing crime, a benefit of no insignifl-
< cant amount is the result.

Mercy is a bright jewel in the crown
of justice ; but no injustice is so great as
that which confounds the duty of the
judge with the province of well-directed
clemency. Stern justice towards un-
doubted guilt, is the surest pledge that can
be given to insure the greatest happiness
to the greatest number — an axiom which
I should like to see acted upon by Amer-

icans towards miscreants from Europe,
who too often require it in this country,
as I would have it acted upon in India
and elsewhere, be the offender of what
country he may.

This son of England has defended his
mother right gallantly, and we praise
him for it. If any pen could maintain
the honor of England his could. He has
given us a pretty hard blow, but we are
not knocked down nor stunned, nor are
we fully convinced that he really meant to
hurt us very badly. We even doubt whe-
ther he himself would not rather that
England should learn the art of ruling and
Christianizing the Indians without kill-
ing them first. It will be seen that the
whole force of his argument turns upon
the point of inflicting unheard-of severi-
ties for the sake of their moral influence.
This looks a little too much like doing
evil that good may come ; and we have
something to say about it. But as our
thoughts may not be worth much, we
defer them to a less prominent place in
this number. — Ed.

M\\m^ M>Mt

OUR THOUGHTS ON VMIIOUS
SUBJECTS.

Invention. — "Wonderful," we often
hear it said, " are the inventions of the
age." With us the wonder is right the
other way. Natiu-e has a mighty store
of resources and powers yet undevelop-
ed, all capable of benefitting the human
race, but as yet lying dormant for the
want of an inventor, like Watt, Fitch,
or Fulton to harness them and set them
to work. But for fogy adherence to old
ways, a witless reluctance to new, and a
grin for all who strive after improve-
ments, we should have made more pro-
gress than we have. Twelve years ago
wise senators were afraid to give up the
twenty-five cent postage and take the

three cent ; and some are so intolerably
stupid that they would fear to give up
the three cents and take two now. It
took six thousand years for mankind to
learn how to plow ; and yet the pro-
blem is not more than half solved. They
would have learned it sooner if they had
been wiUing to try different ways, to
see which was the best, or even to with-
hold their senseless laugh at any who
were disposed to try something new.

"/ would not live alway, I ash not
to stay^ A beautiful old hymn is this.
As pointing to an onward, higher des-
tiny, we love it. But we do not believe
there is much use in finding fault with
our present state. This is a pretty good
world after aU, In fact it is an excellent

EDITOR'S TABLE.

117

w«rld, so long as there is enough to do.
Man's happiness lies in action. Don't
be grumbling, but go to work. If your
own fortune is not yet made, go to work
and make it. ff it is, help somebody
else. There are enough that need.
Strike in somewhere, and do some good.
The man that docs good, gets the best
part of the reward. To do good and to
get good are about the same thing. La-
ziness is the greatest enemy, after self-
ishness, to human welfare. Fudge of
the dignity of living without active em-
ployment of some kind — of the hand, or
the head, or better of both ; for yourself,
or your friends, or somebody. To be
useful is the only true dignity. It is
the only way to be really happy.
"Count that day lost," etc.

Moral Influence of Capital Punish-
ment Illustrated. — " England," says the
sepoy, who has learned a little English
from his betters, "has compelled the
East Indians to grow opium these fifty
years, at a price too low to keep soul
and body together. By the all-pervading
network of her laws has she effected
this, and is likely to effect it permanent-
ly. She has compelled the Chinese, at
the cannon's mouth, to take this opium
at an enormous profit, pocketing by the
operation from thirty to fifty millions a
year. Moreover ^she has taxed our pri-
vilege of making salt from oui' own wa-
ters, till we have long ago learned to eat
our meat without salt. The poor In-
dians may not produce food fit for their
own stomachs, but must produce what
will fill Englands coffers. It is getting
no better, but rather worse. Let us kill
off a few hundred of the English, men,
women and children, inflicting on them
every possible cruelty and disgrace.
This, it is true, is rather savage for a
race so far civilized as we are, after a
century of England's schooling; but
then we do it for sake of the moral ef-
fect ; it is that England n\ay be driven
home to attend to her own business and
leave us to ours. Surely the end sanc-
tifies the means."

England says, "These sepoys have
outraged all decency ; we must riddle
them; stretch their necks; blow them
up ; avail ourselves of their superstitions
to make vengeance doubly terrific ; kill
the king's sons to rid ourselves of a pre-
sent enemy ; let the king live, as he is
too old to do us much harm, but butcher
his grandsons, lest they should grow in-
to powerful enemies. It is all for sake
of the moral effect; it is that the 150,-
000,000 Indians may never again dare
complain. The end sanctifies the means.
Swing the match, let go the drop, bore
the wretches with cold lead, and all In-
dia will be Christianized."

Which has the best of the argument ?
We say, the sepoy, by so much as he is
the less educated and Christianized.
We do not believe that God requires
England to Christianize India, unless
she can compass it by more Christian
means.

We have spent much time among the
English people, have enjoyed their hos-
pitalities, seen their wonderful improve-
ments in agriculture, heard their expres-
sions of friendship for our own country,
and we thought we loved them ; but if
they do not put forth a long, loud, un-
blanching condemnation of the late do-
ings of their government, why then we
don't love them so well as we thought we
did. And if England can notgovern India
better than she has of late, or ever did,
we do not want her foot this side of the
Atlantic ; and we would be a fillibustcr,
badly as we dislike to fight, not having
an over stock of courage, to drive her oflT.

Lest our opinion of the manner in
which England has governed India
should seem harsh, we will refer the
reader to that of a distinguished clergy-
man, Rev. Mr. Bellow, of St. Phillip's
Church, Regent street, London, and late
chaplain io Calcutta, one of the most
popular divines in England. His ser-
mon on the day of National Humiliation,
Oct. 7th, has been printed, and is excit-
ing attention on the short comings of
England towards India.

118

E D I T O R'S TABLE

" I speak now of us," savs he, "as a
nation ; and I think it is impossible to
say how far this terrible sound of battle
and of great destruction might have been
averted if we had earnestly fulfilled our
moral and religious obligations towards
our Indian empire. Possessing so great
a realm, we have nationally been indif-
ferent to it. We have left it for a cen-
tury, regarding it as a mere mercantile
interest, and forgetting that we had in
charge the bodies and souls of millions
of our fellow-creatures. To those inter-
ested in India, the one subject of inter-
est has been Indian stock, and the one
subject of indifference has been the In-
dian people. Verily, and indeed, we
have sown the wind, and we are now
reaping the whirlwind. England! what
hast thou done for those children of the
East ? How has thou fulfilled thy mis-
sion there ? By self-aggrandizement, by
selfish appropriation and annexation.
Year by year have we withdrawn mil-
lions of money from that land, levied by
taxation upon the people, for which we
have given them back — nothing !"

The above, we suppose, is not all to
be taken as rhetorical flourish. It should
be considered, however, that Dr. Bellow
was addressing a London audience.
Some of the government functionaries
may have been on hand ; and it is al-
ways better to say plain things in men's
faces than behind their backs. Besides,
Dr. Bellow's object was not so much to
enunciate exact truth about the past, as
to arouse the government and the people
to a just sense of their duty for the fu-
ture. But if we take as strictly true one-
half of what he says, and we are willing
to make that allowance in behalf of Eng-
land, still there is enough left to confirm
our bad opinion of British rule abroad,
and to induce the wish that it may be
Tery scarce on this continent. — Ed.

Book Notices, etc. — Philips, Samp-
son & Co., Boston, have just published
Autobiographical Sketches and Recol-
lections During Thirty-five Years Re-
sidence IN New-Orleans, hy Theodore
Clapp, a book replete with personal in-
cident and rich in historic reminiscences,
adapted to interest and instruct. Buy

it and read it, but do not adopt its re-
ligious views, unless you find them to
accord with scripture and reason. Shut-
ting our eyes and ears to all but what
our own sect say is no liberal search af-
ter truth, and we Americans, liberal in
other respects, ought to be ashamed of
it. 419 pages, 12mo.

Philips, Sampson & Co. have also just
published Why and What am I ; the
Confessions of an Inquirer ; Part 1st.
Heart Experience, or the Education of
THE Emotions ; By James Jackson Jarves.
This also appears to be a book well filled
with anecdote, personal incident, and re-
flection. From a brief view of here and
there a page, we should think it might
be rather bewitching, but how instruc-
tive we can not say. 320 pages, 12mo.

TicTcnor & Field, Boston, have issued
Twin Roses ; A Narrative, hy Anna
Cora Ritchie, Author of ^'■Autobiogra-
phy of an Actress,^'' '•'■ Mimic Life," ^'■Ar-
mand," etc. ; a sprightly and agreea-
ble narrative, we should judge, from a
hurried perusal. 273 pages, 12mo.

TicTcnor & Field have also issued
Stories and Legends of Travel and
History, by Grace Greenwood. The
name of the book encourages, and the
soubriquet of the authoress quite assures
us, that this is a good book, well worth
the price and the time. 290 pages, 12mo.

The same firm has also issused The
Plant Hunters ; or. Adventures among
THE Himalaya Mountains, by Captain
Mayne Reid, Author of the ^'■Desert
Ilome^'' " The Yagers^'' etc., etc., etc.
The student of geography can find much
topographical information, and the stu-
dent of human nature a pretty good
share of fun in this book. 353 pages,
12mo.

The New- York Musical Review is
published every other Saturday, by Ma-
son Brothers, New-York, and presents a
rich amount and variety of musical mat-
ter. Dr. Lowell Mason, Wm. B. Brad-
bury, George F. Root, and other of the

EDITOR 'S TABLE

119

most eminent musicians of the country,
are among its regular contributors, each
number containing more or less from the
pen of one or all of them. A very use-
ful and instructive feature of The Re-
view is its "Answers to Correspondents."
All questions on musical subjects, as to
its theory or practice, are carefully an-
swered, often at length. The Review
also collects musical news from all
sources, and keeps its readers well post-
ed as to what is doing in the musical
world. Each number also includes sev-
eral pages of new and popular music.
In this department, it is announced in
the present number, will be presented
hereafter the gems from the modern
operas performed in New-York. Terms
of The Review : One copy per annum,
$1 ; tive copies, %i ; eight copies, $6 ;
ten copies, $7 ; twenty copies, $12.

Prof. Mapes' Working Farmer, 24
pages quarto, 3 columns on a page, and
always filled with matter of a very high
order, both the original and the selected,
comes to us bright, readable, and in-
structive as ever, and we think a little
more so.

Prof Mapes and his once pupils, but
now full grown co-laborers. Vail, Olcott,
Lowe, Waring, and others, are doing a
capital work for soil culture, and we have
not a pnrticle of that envy which can
deter us from saying so,

A prominent trait in the WorMng
Farmer is, that while it is largely and
richly original, it republishes the best
and most reliable articles from the agri-
cultural literature of this and other coun-
tries, which is just as much as to say
that its conductor has the good J>ense,
when he has given his readers the best
of his own and of his co-laborers'
thoughts, not to keep his and their pens
running, till they must needs run slops,
but to give instead such of the masterly
productions of other pens, as his readers
would not be likely otlicrwise to see.

The price of the Working Farmer is
one dollar a year, a trifle less perhaps in

proportion to the amount of matter than
ours, because we publish in a more ex-
pensive form. But we are bound to ex-
pend on ours its whole income ; to en-
large it as soon as the pay will possibly
admit ; and to make it not only as good
as any other, but at least as large in
proportion to the price.

American Farmers want good journals
of their business ; they want them at a
reasonable price, and we will do our part,
as Prof Mapes has, to meet their wants.

By arrangements made with the edi-
tor of the WorMng Farmer^ we will fur-
nish the current volumes of that journal
and ours for $2.50 advanced to this oflBce.

The College Journal of Medical Sci-
ence for January is on our table, well
filled as usual with instructions for the
prevention and cure of disease. It is a
valuable monthly in its way. Cincin-
nati, 0.

The Scientific American greets U6
promptly each week, a work of great
value to the mechanics of the cities and
laige villages, to whom we would hear-
tily commend it, while we as heartily
and as honestly commend our magazine
to the mechanics of rural districts, who
in addition to their trade, are cultivating
a piece of land, however small. The
sixteenth of an acre cultivated by a
man who reads an agricultural journal
well pays its price in extra produce.
We mean not to omit mechanical mat-
ter in our future numbers. ,It is too im-
portant not to find a place in an agricul-
tural journal ; important even for the
farmer. But were we a mechanic of a
progressive spirit, with no land to till,
we would have a work on our own busi-
ness. It is with this spirit that we cheer-
fully commend our neighbor, the Scien-
tific American.

DON'T BLAME US;

For we are receiving so many just
such letters as the following, that we
feel greatly encouraged, and want our

120

E D I T O R'S T A B L E

friends to. .eiyoy with us the reading of
one as a sample. ,

;. Pquohkeepsie, Jan. 6th, 1858.

Me. Na^H'-t3ie :-!^Among the valuable
agricultujal works which W^ read, we
think yours one of the moSit valuable
and reliable;, and we think it iqjproves
in value every year. Such articles as
your " Division of Labor" in the Novem-
ber number ought to be read by every
man, not merely everry, farruej;, in ,the
Union. Ijt will be read by the. readers
of our political papers of this place.

But we have read all itg articles for
the last six months without ihaving paid
for the pleasure and, pyofift derived frojn
so doing, and thinking (as doubtless you
do) that it is 'time to I'At tjp[ we inclose
two dollar^. Respectfully yourtef ^'- •

''''' ' '' ■'■&. &'J. CASpkNTEK."

■''■''' ANOTHER. -■ -:i;:;; '
Mb. Editor: — T got yesterday your
January numbers Wheu it .was first put
in my hand, the alteration in the title and
general appearance from my old friend
' ' the Plough; Loom and AnviU' induced
me to think that a wrongjournal had been
sent tome in mistake. But the man
plowing on the cover soon told me it was
all right, and that it was my old friend
with a new face.

Upon looking it over I found the alter-
ations were not confined to the outside,
but that the inside was not only altered
but much improved, which is not, by the
by, the case with all alterations,

Why, Mr. Editor, we country: fogies
do not pretend to be great critics, but
we know what we like, and my, friend
and neighbor Smith and I used some-
times toi! say that we thought there
was some old fogyism .elsewhere besides
with us. But now I find ; you have
waked up with the new year, and some
of your New Year's good cheer seems to
be coming out through your pages ; for
somehow it seems to me and my friend
Smith that there is more than one .spice
of Young America in some of your arti-
cles this month. . . y .^i^^nxii .■

Well, go on friend as you have begun.
I am going round to my neighbors, and
if I don't get you some new subscribers
in our village before this month is out,
my name is not Jacob Patchum.

PUBLIC LANDS FOR AGRICUL-
TURAL EDUCATION.

Such, in brief, is the voice of Michi-
gan. She has laid broad and deep the
foundations for an agricultural college.
She has contributed nobly towards its
permanent existence and wide-spread
usefulness. It is already in operation ;
wise and earnest men have it in charge ;
and its fruits are even now demonstrated
to be good. But with greater means,
she could render the fruits more wide-
."^preading and more abundant. At this
stage she petitions Congress for aid.
Could a more fitting use be made of the
public lands? We think not; and
though we do not claim to be over and
above constitutionally wise, we are sure
that nothing in the tenure by which
these lands' are held by Congress can
forbid their distribution for such a pur-
pose ; and we can not but hope that
Congress wiU grant the prayer of Michi-
gan, and that all the States and all the
people will approve. Agriculture is our
weightiest national interest ; and nothing
will so hasten its development as the
thorough education of the future farm-
ers of the country, scientifically and
practically— just what the directors of
the State College and farm at Lansing
intend. — Ed. • ' ' ■

Children's Corner.— Where is it?
If the children can not find it in this
number, they will in the next.

Wonder if all the children,, can spell
wright, right, write, and rite right ; that
is, wright, a mechanic;, right, not
wrong ; write, to form letters ; and., rite,
a ceremony. . . ,.

One boy and two girls have written
us solutions' of the conundrum in our
last, all agreeing that it is American
Farmers^' Magazine, in which they are

MONTHLY REVIEW

121

AN EXPLANATION.
Capt. Ralston, owing to unanticipated
occurrences, has not been able to furnisli
us the promised article on the horse's
foot and the requisites for shoeing this
animal, in time for this number. It may
be expected in our next. — Ed.

For the Farmers' Magazine.

If one end of a piece of wood or metal
ten feet long, and of equal size from end
to end, be made fast in a block and
power applied to the other end so as to
bend the piece, it will not bend all the
way alike, but will bend most nearest
the block.

Will some of the readers of the Farm-
ers^ Magazine give me a rule by which
to find what taper or shape pieces of me-

tal or timber must have, so that when
one end is made fast and bending power
applied to the other end, as above men-
tioned, the piece will bend all the way
alike, and make a part of a circle ? If
such a rule was followed by mechanics,
it would be the means of saving thou-
sands of dollars yearly.

In most machinery I have seen, th«
builder put more material than was ne*
cessary, or put some in the wrong place,
and a break may be the consequence.
By such a rule much trouble, time, and
material could be saved. Will some one
send a rule to the Farmer'' s Magazine
for publication, and thus confer a favor ?

Merchant Kelly.

Bentonville, Ind.

O '-0 — ^

Our own affairs are reasonably prosper-
ous. We have shouldered pretty heavy
responsibilities, and launched forth on the
enterprise of giving our readers a better
monthly than can be afiforded at the price
we ask without a larger number of sub-
scribers than we yet have. We have done
it with a full determination that, as soon
as the number will permit, we shall eitlier
put our price down to one dollar, continu-
ing the amount of matter about the same
as now, or enlarge our work to the size of
the three dollar magazines, and keep the
price the same as at present — at any rate
not to be beat in the value of our work,
nor in the reasonableness of the price. So
far our experiment is successful. New
subscribers are coming in daily ; old ones
are expressing their high approbation;
and we are satisfied.

Our readers, during the past month,
have enjoyed mild, and mostly pleasant
weather for the care of the homestead and
and the prosecution of such farm work of
the old year as may have fallen behind, or
such as they are pushing on for the new,
in order to be in readiness for the ensuing
spring. January, we are sorry to say, has

done but little to brighten the prospects of
better prices for general farm produce.
Cotton is, however, looking up ; and we
believe that farm produce generally will
be in better demand soon. But the mar-
kets for the past few weeks would seem to
indicate that the farmers of our country
are to depend rather on good management,
economy of production, and prudence in
genei'al expenditures, than on the expec-
tation of either low prices for labor — a
thing not on the whole to be desired — or
extravagantly high prices for produce.

Of the wide world outside of ourselves
and our readers, we know less than we
should, but for the fact that we have been
intensely busy in our own matters. Our
own city seems to be the more busy the
less it has to do ; at least there is more
running up and down, and men seem in
greater haste than when business is good.
It seems that business has to be done at a
small profit, and so they are practising to
do the more of it, to make the ends meet.
In our national character is a great deal of
tiie Yankee, which will do one thing, if it
can not do another — do something — make
a stir at least. And it is well that it is so.

122

MONTHLY REVIEW.

■well that we have the hope and the ener-
gy, when such a tempest, as that of the
last four months, has blown over us, not to
lie down in the furrow, but to try again.

Great Britain has fought and continues
to fight bravely in India ; but, as we have
pretty plainly indicated otherwhere, she
is tempering victory with less of mercy
than suits our peace-loving notions. We
would rather have the honor of taking a
100 bushels of corn, 40 of wheat, or 400 of
potatoes from a single acre, than of saturat-
ing ten acres with even sepoys' blood, es-
pecially if shed after the fury of battle was
over. The British Lion is also thundering
about the walls of Canton. We hope for
more humanity towards the celestials.

The monetary panic seems to be over in
England. Money is there easy, and confi-
dence is restored. In France, a relapse is
threatened, but may not come. In Ham-
burg, where the crisis has been severe,
things are now easy.

Present appearances are, that the Mor-
mons are not yet ready to submit to
wholesome laws, nor to quit the country,
but that in conjunction with the Caman-
ches, Cheyennes, and other Indians, they
mean to fight, or at least to assume the at-
titude of resistance, and to make as much
trouble as they can.

Markets. — Cotton, at the last moment
of our going to press, Jan. 2()th, is quoted
at 10^ for Uplands; 10| to lOf for Gulf

Flour, from common to good superfine,

$4 25 to $4 35 ; extra State $4 50 to $4 15 ;
Southern fancy and extra, $5 to 6 70;
choice extra family, $6 50 to $8 ; rye, $3
to $4 ; corn meal, $3 50 ; the grades ,of

wheat flour range from $4 25 for the low-
est to $8 for the dearest ; and wheat, per
bushel, from $1 15 to $1 68 ; rye, from
70c. to '72c.; buckwheat, from $2 12 to
$2 25 per 100 lbs.

Hay, from ordinary to choice. 50c. to
75c. per 100 lbs. Hops in moderate re-
quest at 5c. to 10c. per lb. for common to
best.

New- York Live Stock Market, Jan.
20th, 1858. — Average receipts of beeves
weekly for 1857, 3,143. Receipts last
week, 3,774. This week, 2,940; less by
834 than last week, and less by 203 than
the general average.

Variations in price according to quality,
from 6c. to lie. ; average of all sales, from
8jc. to 8|c. ; average advance this week
over last, from J to ^ cent per lb.

The trade in milch cows with calves is
now (Jan. 20) dull. A fine cow can be
bought for $40 ; pretty good, from $30 to
|40, ordinary, from $25 to $30, and re-
markably good for $50 or less.

There is not an overstock in the country
at large, and we are quite confident this
state of things can not last very long.

There has been a medium supply of
sheep and lambs the past week, and prices
have been slightly advanced. Sales from
7 c. to 9c. per lb. live weight.

Arrivals of swine not as numerous as
last week ; stock nearly all sold, at from
5c. to 5^c. gross, and 6jc. to 6f c. net, an
advance of J to ^ cent per lb. for dressed
swine.

Reports from the Philadelphia markets
are not as favorable this week to the farm-
ing interest as those of this city.

It would seem by the following from the
New-York Times as if we were enormous
meat eaters here in Gotham, and yet it is
probable that some of our population
would eat more if they could get it.

MONTHLY TOTALS.

Bullocks
at market.

January 8,139

February 6,590

March 8,513

April 11,373

May 9,186

June 8,564

July 13,257

August 9,342

September 13,923

October 10,180

November 8,883

December 8,596

Bullocks

M. Cow3

Veala

Sh'p & La's

Swine

sold.

rec'd.

rec'd.

rec'd.

rec'd.

12,607

725

1,200

28,448

27,622

12,182

985

1,681

33,598

11,800

12,597

1,341

2,448

21,210

17,029

15,105

1,703

4,905

17,401

26,806

11,914

1,475

4,135

16,329

24,894

10,765

1,138

3,808

30,285

16,356

16,503

1,185

3,806

65,492

15,406

12,246

940

3,263

46,873

9,047

19,279

1,112

3,467

65,284

18,231

12,955

613

1,794

44,291

23,671

13,221

688

1,598

44,995

33,501

12,970

945

3,013

39,830

64,821

Total 116,546 162,243

12,840 34,218 444,036 288,984

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