Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

The common practice of covering the stems of tender shrubs with straw is a further illustration of the same principle. An inch or two of straw could not of course keep the tree actually warmer while the thermometer is ten degrees below zero, and the wind sweeping through it for twenty hours; the protection it affords is not unlike that given by the thin coating of earth, but less efficient. Evergreen branches operate partially in the same way.

Raising New Sorts of the Strawberry.

measure) used in its structure-nearly all of which was tected, being erroneously attributed to east wind instead of white Norway and yellow pine; 30,000 of No. 1 pine of the morning sun. shingles were used in covering the roof the barn and an L part, which is 40 by 16; also six thousand of clapboards for covering the sides. The hovel, or tie-up, on the south side of the barn, is 80 by 14; in which thirty-six cattle can be tied up the cattle standing on a raised platform. There are four sliding doors of good width, hung upon rollers, opening from the yard into the hovel, which is well lighted with several sliding windows, of large squares of glass (not the little 7 by 9 lights.) There is a cellar under the whole, (80 by 40,) the walls of which are of split granite. The south side and ends, only, of the cellar are walled; the back side is boarded and clapboarded from the eaves nearly down to the bottom of the cellar. In this large cellar there is neither "post nor pillar." The floor timbers, sills, &c., are all supported by numerous round iron rods passing through the sills, girths, beans, and rafters-these last are double. The cost of the iron was from $75 to $80. After his barn was well filled with his hay, grain, and corn crop, the floor had settled only about two inches. The lower part of the L is used for calf-pens and a few sheep. The upper part for his fowls; the chamber is well lighted, and the fowls have the range of the cellar-for which they appear to be very grateful. He has 22 hens, all except one are last season pullets. From the 1st day of Jan. to the 24th, he has sold twentyeight dozen eggs. They lay upon an average, fifteen eggs per day.

A. W.

Will you inform me how I can raise new kinds of strawberry best from the seed? Plant the fresh newly washed-out seed, a fourth to half an inch deep in very rich and finely pulverized beds, and keep the surface moist and shaded. Many new plants spring up spontaneously in bearing strawberry beds, from the fallen and decaying berries, and thus excellent sorts become mixed with poorer. The strawberry is the easiest fruit to raise new sorts from by crossing. For if the bearing sort which produces the seed is a pistillate, it must be fertilized by some staminate; and thus every seed is a cross between the two-the seed, not the berry, being affected The cost of his barn, without taxing anything for his the first year. Every seed in every berry of Burr's New his own labor and that of his oxen, nor reckoning any- Pine, Hovey's Seedling, and other pistillates, are necesthing for board of bands, &c., foots up $1,200. To spout sarily always crosses. We would recommend the followthe eaves and paint the barn, will add another $100 to the ing as suitable varieties to produce seed for this purpose: cost. Mr. Sawyer, by fourteen years' labor, has fully settled the question that money can be made by farming, even here, on the almost worn-out farms of the "Old Granite State." He is no believer in what is termed "luck;" but he is a firm believer in the necessity of the farmer's exercising care, diligence, and a love for his vocation, if he wishes to succeed in his business. Warner, N. H.

LEVI BARTLETT.

COVERING TENDER STEMS.

"I observe that directions are often given for covering tender grapevines, raspberries, &c., with only two or three inches of earth. How can this be of any use, seeing that this covering freezes as solid as stone, and the frost often goes down a foot lower? A NOVICE."

Burr's New Pine, fertilized with Hooker and Wilson; old Hudson fertilized by Hooker; Hovey's Seedling fertilized with Early Scarlet and Walker's Seedling, &c.

Requisites for Making Good Butter.

What are the requisites for making the best butter? A. There are a few butter-makers who have established such a reputation for making the very finest article, that all they above the market price. So far as we know, they all adopt can spare for market is engerly taken at several cents a pound the following rules; or if they do not, they practice them:

1. A perfectly clean cellar, not only clean from all dirt, but from every bad odor-pure, sweet, and fresh.

them.

3. Churning before the cream becomes old.

4. Securing such a temperature that it will require about half an hour for churning-if performed much sooner, a loss of butter must occur, and it is not so good.

work no longer, which is still more rarely, but sometimes 5. Work all the buttermilk out, which is rarely done-and

done.

6. Use the purest salt-and add an ounce to a pound.
7. Pack the butter in the jars or firkins solid-put as much
a small space as possible.

Protection of half-hardy stems does not have so much 2. Perfectly clean, well aired vessels. Not an infinitessiinfluence on the actual temperature, as in modifying chan-mal speck of any foreign or sour substance adheres to any of ges. If for instance, a young peach tree is dug up for transplanting, and while the roots are out, it is frozen stift. If set into the earth before any thawing takes place, the, tree will not sustain any injury; but if it thaws in the air it is ruined. The difference is entirely owing to the manner in which the frost is abstracted. This result is obvious if we look at young nursery trees-the roots of which are frozen in the earth and thawed again, every winter. A covering of an inch or two of earth is sufficient to alter wholly the effects of the thawing on the grapevine or rasp-in berry-cane. Some difference has often been observed by fruit growers, even in the manner in which plants are thawed in the open air. If, for example, after an intensely cold and clear night, the morning sun bursts out and produces a sudden warmth, the destruction of the parts is much more complete than if the change is gradual through the influence of a mantle of clouds. Gardeners have often observed that box edging, if shaded by a building, will be fresh and green in spring; while, if exposed to the full rays of the sun after a hard freezing, they will be turned brown or killed. The shading of buildings or steep hills on the east side of fruit trees, has sometimes saved the crop, the cause of the loss on adjacent trees not thus pro

8. Lastly, and first also, provide good sweet pasture, and plenty of perfectly pure water for the cows at all times.

If any have practiced all these, and have not succeeded, we should like to hear from them. It is proper to state, however, that there are some who assert that their vessels, &o. are clean, when in fact they are far from it.

CURE FOR SCRATCHES.

I will send you a receipt to cure the scratches. Take a little white percipite pounded fine, mix with fresh butter or lard, and wash the part affected with suds, and dry it— cations is sufficient. This I think is ahead of all others. then apply the ointment once a day. Two or three appliButternuts. J. H. R..

[graphic]

Smith & Winegar's Tile Machine.

This machine was invented by SAMUEL M. SMITH and CALEB WINEGAR of Union Springs, N. Y. Having had an opportunity of witnessing its working, we can commend it to tile manufacturers as a valuable invention. Its prominent advantage is in performing at one operation the work of grinding the clay, screening it from gravel and forming it into tile. It is usually driven by horse power, but water or steam may be employed. The tile thus made we find is better formed generally, than such as is made by hand machines, on account of the stiffer consistency of the clay which may be employed by the more powerful propelling force. The softer material required for manual labor often causes the tile to settle out of shape.

The annexed figure is a well executed representation of this tile machine. clay, with a sufficient portion of water, is first supplied to the mill A, and when ground by the power applied to the shaft E, it passes down into the box D, and is pressed by a reciprocating plunger through screen, F, and drops into the box, G. It is again pressed by the same moving power through the dies, I I, on the carriages, and ready to be placed on the drying boards. This machine makes all sizes and forms, from one and a half to twelve inches in di-c ameter, and the inventors say it will make twelve hundred 2-inch tile per hour, which statement we have no reason to doubt. For ordinary every-day work, about 600 are made in an hour. It is made of iron, and appears substantial and durable. The working parts being visible and accessible, any coarse gravel or foreign substance is quickly removed from the screen, and the

[ocr errors]

dies readily changed. Further information will be given by A. LATOURETTE, Waterloo, Seneca County, N. Y., who is one of the proprietors.

FILTRATION vs. EVAPORATION.

That evaporation is a slow and tedious process, is a fact of which the farmer who has undrained retentive soils, which he would plant or sow in good season, is often reminded, and the thought can scarcely fail to arise, that some quicker way of getting rid of the surplus water would be both convenient and agreeable. If it can be shown that a certain remedy for this source of delay has been found, and can in most cases readily be put into operation at a slight expense compared with its beneficial results, surely none need longer suffer from this cause. That draining is such a remedy--that its application is profita ble to the farmer-that in nearly every instance the expense is repaid by longer seasons and better crops, let us attempt briefly to prove.

Look at a retentive soil in spring-time-a stiff clay or hard-pan subsoil, for instance. The water then abundant on the surface and saturating the upper soil, must pass off either by drainage or evaporation. It cannot sink or filtrate away-the impervious subsoil prevents-it cannot drain off; the surface is too level and too retentive of water-hence it must remain stagnant until the warmth of the sun and passing currents of air effect its evaporation. And evaporation is not only a slow process, but a cooling one-the heat passing off with the vapor-and in proportion to the quantity of water thus passing, will be the loss of heat from the soil. On the same soil, when drained,

filtration will dispose of a like quantity of water without any change of the temperature, save to increase that of the undersoil-equalizing it with that of the surface soil-in spring always warmer than the subsoil. It will dispose of it in a few hours-in a very short time after the frost leaves the ground in spring, or after a heavy shower. Filtration not provided for, the much longer time-weeks instead of hours-required for evaporation, shortens the season of preparation, or totally destroys the chance of a crop.

Could the water now making mortar of many an undrained clay, find an outlet or passage through the soil, the character of that soil would rapidly be changed. Who has not observed how soon heavy clays become friable when placed where the water freely flows from beneath them, or who can fail to see that a like result would follow the deep and thorough draining of even the heaviest soil. And the evils of stagnant water, or water waiting evapotion, can scarcely be overrated. As said above, it shortens the season of preparation for crops, and it also prevents the proper pulverization and culture of the soil; it causes wheat and other winter grains and the grasses, to heave out and winter kill, and fills lowland meadows with wild grasses and weeds, instead of wholesome herbage.

In ease and extended time of working, in the effect of manures applied, in the increase and certainty of productiveness, and in many other things which we might name, the difference between a porous or well drained clayey soil, as compared with an undrained and hence compact and

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] MOLE PLOWS.

retentive one, is almost marvelous. And this difference is simply "filtration vs. evaporation." In the one, the excess of water has free course through the soil, passing EDITORS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-In your issue of March away by the drains without delay; in the other, it must 1, Mr. Lewis C. Smith, of Mo., inquires, "whose is the wait the slow process of evaporation-a process leaving best mole plow for draining purposes-the team necessary the soil more compact than before, and every way less fit-to draw one a foot or more deep through a heavy tenacious ted for producing any crop of value.

This difference in the soil "drained, or drowned," as it has been quaintly characterized, is not only observed in early spring, but is the heat and drouth of summer. A heavy soil becomes far dryer and harder from the effect of dry, hot weather than a light one. The porous soil takes up moisture from below, as well as absorbing it readily from the air. Thus a well drained and deeply plowed soil is little injured by drouth-its increased depth of mellow, friable earth gives greater extent to its power of supplying moisture to vegetable growth.

INFLUENCE OF THE MOON.

We published a few weeks since a few remarks on the influence of the moon on the decay of timber, in reply to a communication in the American Farmer. Those marks have brought a reply from a subscriber in Kentucky. He says, "I have tried it, and I know that hickory cut in the new or light of the moon is safe for ever from the worms; and if you cut it in the dark or wane of the moon, you may dress it out in what shape you please, and the worms will eat it up."

clay soil ?"

[blocks in formation]

The beam of the plow ranges from 15 to 18 feet in length, the front end, as well as the rear, resting on a truck; the length of the cutter or coulter is from 4 to 5 feet; the breadth from 6 to 9 inches. The mole is of various shapes and sizes, ranging from 4 by 5 inches to 5 by 8 inches in diameter, and making a drain a section of which is a to a circle, and an oval, the shortest diameter of which is the breadth of the drain. Experience has determined that the employment of a capstan is the better method of re-operating these plows. The capstan is fixed on a frame with legs inclined in the direction of the plow, which (when the power is applied) sink 12 to 18 inches into the earth and hold it firmly in its place; the capstan is 15 to 18 inches in diameter, 2 to 3 feet in height, on the top of which a lever from 15 to 18 feet is firmly fixed; at the extreme end one or two yoke of oxen, or a span of horses is attached to operate the plow, from the front end of which a two inch cable passes to the capstan. This cable is usually 100 making a drain 5 by 8 inches in diameter at 38 to 40 infeet or 6 rods in length. The draft to operate the plow ches in depth in a stiff clay is from 250 to 325 poundsas tested by a dynamometer-the draft of an ordinary plow in loamy soil, cutting a furrow slice of 12 inches wide, and 8 inches deep is 500 pounds.

Now we are willing to give our correspondent, who says this is his first attempt, all the credit possible for accuracy; but when he says he has "tried it," and found that the timber is "safe forever," we hope he will excuse us for involuntarily doubting his veracity. It is true, we have heard of the man who said "cedar posts would last forever, for he had frequently tried it," yet we think he must have been an older man.

We have been so often told of results produced by the moon, in quite as confident a manner as that of our correspondent, which results frequently conflicted directly with each other, that we could not possibly believe them

all.

On examining further, we found that confident opinions had been either founded on isolated cases; or if a number of examples had been taken, all the exceptions, usually about one half the whole number, were singularly overlooked. We never yet failed to cure any person on whom we tried the experiment, by invariably and repeatedly reminding him of the exceptions only. We cannot see how the sun shining on this or that side of the moon can make any difference, and must therefore ask the privilege of doubting a little longer.

We should perhaps have added that our correspondent says that the time for cutting is just the reverse with white oak. "You cut an oak tree in the dark of the moon, and the worms will never touch it." What is the reason of this difference between the hickory and oak? What is the rationale? The light of the sun flies ninety-five million miles and strikes the moon; it shines on it equally all the while; a part of the time we see the shade, and a part of the time we do not; but why this faint shadow more than two hundred thousand miles off, has any more to do with the decay and preservation of oak and hickory timber here in Kentucky, than the whisk of a sturgeon's tail in the bay of Biscay has on the boiling of a tea-kettle at Pike's Peak, we are unable at the present moment to perceive.

Gentlemen from Fayette and Clinton counties testified a few days since, before the U. S. Circuit Court in Cincinnati, that one thousand rods of drains could be made in one day with a mole plow, at an expense not exceeeing 14 cents per rod.

Ten or twelve years ago mole plows, made somewhat alter the style of that of Col. Dickinson of N. Y. State, were used; the mole was a cone not exceeding 3 inches in its greatest diameter, but required three to four span of horses to operate; the consequence was that they trampled the ground in operating it so much that it required several extra plowings to bring it into "good heart" again. In Fayette, Clinton, and Highland counties the Marquis & Emmer|son mole plow, which does not materially differ from any of the above named ones, is used to a considerable extent. Mole-plow draining has been introduced into Greene, Warren, Clark, Madison, Union, Pickaway and Ross counties. The soil in many portions of these counties is a stiff clay-drains made by the mole plow three or four years ago are said to be as good as when first made.

After all, the great proportion of arable land in Ohio which requires underdraining, cannot be drained by the mole plow, the substratum not being sufficiently tenacious.

I may as well say a word or two about the progress we are making with tile drains. In Lake county there are two tile drain manufactories, at Cleveland four, in Lorain county two, in Champaign Co. one, and in Franklin Co. (Columbus) one, which have sold all the tile they are able In the Northern to manufacture during the past season. portion of the State twelve new establishments were erected into active operation next summer-the demand for tile during the past summer and autumn, and which will go appears to be unlimitted; before five years we will have one, if not more, tile establishments in every county in the State. The style of tile mostly used is the horseshoe and pipe, from 2 to 3 inches in diameter. JNo. H. KLIPPART

Columbus, O., March 10. Cor. Sec. O. S. B. of Ag.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] SOILING CATTLE.

the time 16 cows-we had just passed through a "dry spell"-he said his cows did not average over three and a half pounds of butter a week, while we were making, at MESSRS. EDITORS-I feel constrained to say a few words the same time, nearly six pounds to the cow. The reason more upon this subject, although others would do it greater was, his cows were pinched, and mine had enough. justice. Yet "in the multitude of counsellors there is 4. A Much Larger Quantity of Manure is Made.safety." I will therefore mention a few things which, to This is the last thing I shall mention, and though last, it my mind, give this system the preference over that of is not the least in importance. The manure heap is the pasturing, and hope some one will "enlarge" and "im-farmer's "bank," where he can make his "deposits,” and prove" upon it.

1. The Fences.--You are aware, Messrs. Editors, that fences are a heavy tax upon the profits of a farm-the material, and the labor of keeping them in repair, under the most favorable circumstances, amounts to quite a sum annually. But in many localities fencing stuff is getting to be quite scarce, is very expensive, and difficult to obtain, even at high prices; and this evil will continue to increase for time to come. Now, by adopting this method of keeping stock, the greater part of this expense may be saved, as but few fences are required; and not only so, but the land now occupied by them, and also, in many cases, by a variety of shrubs and flowering plants-such as elders, willows, Canada thistles, mulleins, and the likemay be made available in raising valuable crops. This would add much to the appearance of the farm, and the land thus gained for tillage would, in many instances, go far towards keeping the stock upon it.

2. The Saving of Land.—I think there can be no question about this. In my opinion one acre of good clover will afford as much feed as four acres of the average pastures-corn and sorghum about the same; with millet the difference is not quite so great. There may be other crops that could be as advantageously raised, but these are all that I have tried to any extent. If this be so, it is evident that the stock upon the farm may be greatly increased, or there will be quite an additional number of acres for other purposes. Often two crops may be raised from the same ground-as where rye is sown in the fall, and fed off early in the spring, any other crop may follow it. Early corn may be followed by millet or turnips, and later corn by rye for the following spring, and so on.

3. It is Better for the Stock.-Cattle are often turned to pasture too early in the spring, before the feed is sufficiently large to give them a good "bite," or sufficiently nutritious to do them much good; the consequence is, if there happens to be a "dry spell" in the spring, as is often the case, they will be very likely to have short feed through the summer. Of course, they will thrive but little, and will scarcely get over a hard winter's keep, before they enter upon another. When pastured, they are subject to all the vicissitudes of the season-the usual drouth in July and August diminishes, often very materially, the quantity of milk, and checks the growth of young stock. But if soiled, the case is different. Where proper provision has been made for them, they have their food regularly, and all they require, and are in a great measure exempt from the changes thus mentioned. The flow of milk is more uniform the only diminution being the natural one as they advance in the season, and I think the quality of the milk richer. Butter made from cows thus kept, is decidedly of a better quality, and in hot weather has not that oily appearance so often the case with it at that season of the year. I presume this is owing to the fact that the cows have not had a long drive, it may be, to pasture, and been exposed to the hot sun through the day, and so become heated, affecting their milk. Whatever may be the reason, we have had no difficulty in making butter, in the hottest weather, that would work into nice rolls when it has stood a sufficient time after being salted-this I think an important consideration. We use neither ice or cold water in making butter. (Our butter is furnished to families, weekly, in rolls.) Similar advantages attend the keeping of young cattle in this way—they grow faster, and it tends to make them gentle-if heifers, they become docile and quiet milkers with very little trouble.

I will mention a circumstance that will convey the idea I wish to, perhaps better than I have done it. A friend called upon me the latter part of last September, who has a farm of about two hundred acres, and I think milked at

present his "drafts "-his "deposits" must be equal to or exceed his "drafts," else he will be out of "funds." If then the stock may be considerably increased by soiling, he has the means of enlarging his "pile," and thus preventing his "drafts" from "protest."

It should be the aim of every farmer, to make, save, and apply to his land, every thing within his reach that will enrich it-this it seems to me, is one of the great se crets of successful farming; and I am of the opinion, that after one has tried this method of keeping his stock, he will be astonished at the amount of manure made annually, and for this and other reasons, will be quite unwilling to abandon the system.

But as a good deal is said upon the subject of making farmers to look to their own interests-it is needless for and applying manure, in the agricultural papers-urging me to say any thing more in regard to this matter. Every one knows that to raise large crops, his land must be made capable of producing them, and I have no doubt that the soiling of cattle will contribute largely towards producing this result. J. L. R. Jefferson Co., N. Y.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] "FARM IMPROVEMENT.”

EDITORS OF THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-On the first page of your paper of Feb. 9, is an article with the above heading, and having some experience in that line, I have concluded to give your readers some of my ideas and some of my experience also. In the first place, I came into possession April 1st, 1853, by purchase, of the old homestead of the Yardley family, which had been in the family since March 21, 1681, with the exception of about four months, viz., from March till June, 1710. The original grant (in my possession,) from WM. PENN to WM. YARDLEY, dated March 21st, 1681, is for "500 acres of land, to be located in the Province of Pennsylvania,”-197 acres of which remained in the family at the time of my purchase. I first purchased 135 acres with the buildings, and some months afterwards purchased 35 acres more, and I then sold ten off, leaving 160 acres, the present size of the farm.

The property had been rented about twenty-three years, and was somewhat out of order at the time of my purchase. On looking about me to see what was necessary to put the farm in the best shape possible, I came to the conclusion that the whole thing needed remodelling. I immediately commenced taking down the inside fences, and laid out the fields anew, so as to equalize the size thereof, and also to bring as many of them as possible to the stream of water, which runs from west to east, through nearly the middle of the farm. I also laid out a new farm road, which began at my wharf on the Delaware Division of Pennsylvania canal, (the canal being the eastern bound. ary of the farm,) and passes by the barn and by all the fields to west end of the farm, where said road crosses the creek. I have built a large bridge of stone side walls, and covered the aperture for the water with stone, and then continue the side walls on upwards, and the space between I fill with stone which I pick from the fields. The bridge is passable thought not finished, and never will be until raised up to a level with banks on both sides of the creek, and as long as any offal stone remain on the farm and the bridge is unfinished, there is a place to dump them.

In laying out the fields, I first began by setting the two fences which enclose my lawn, so as to enclose also all the farm buildings, thereby enclosing the whole in a plot of about two acres, with the outside fences parallel. I then

laid out the fields parallel to the western and northern lines of the farm, and in size about twelve acres, and so arranged that five twelve-acre fields of farm land and ten acres of meadow have running water in them, and a strip of meadow along the creek of about six acres, which is only fitted for grazing purposes. I disagree entirely with Mr. J. J. Thomas in his 7th proposition. I deny that hills should govern the size or shape of fields, or that they should be always plowed down-hill, for by so doing you would soon have the soil plowed down the hill, which if left to the action of the rains, will get off much sooner than I want it to.

In your editorial remarks on the size of fields, you say, "We would propose then, that the amount of manure which the farm can furnish, determine the size of the field." I would propose no such thing, but would lay out my fields to suit the farm and system of farming to be adopted, and then work up the manure heap in some way to correspond therewith.

And now, Messrs. Editors, having got my stakes set for the new fences, I commenced overhauling and assorting my rails. I first selected all the large rails suitable for a four-rail fence, and put them on a bank along a public road. I then took all the straight and small ones and put them along the farm road. I then took the same size but of a rougher quality, and put them on the line between me and my neighbors; and lastly, I took all the most crooked ones and put into the division fences. All my line and most of my division fences are five rails high, and nearly all of best chestnut timber, and put together by an experienced fence-maker, who I consider an adept at the trade.

And now, having got my farm fenced, I will give you some idea of the natural lay and quality of the land, and my plan of farming it. To begin, I would say that the soil is a brown sandy loam, well adapted to all kinds of grain and grass, the stone in it being brown sandstone, with an open gravelly underlay, considerably rolling, and therefore needing little underdraining.

The fields have formerly been plowed in lands of dif ferent sizes, and both ways, thereby creating artificial inequalities in the soil, and the water driven into bodies so as to wash many of the fields badly into gullies of more or less extent. I immediately commened a different system of plowing, for I felt satisfied that unless some other system was adopted, my farm, with all the manure I might put upon it, would wash off on to somebody else, or into the Delaware.

I first commenced the smoothing system, by plowing the old lands to their proper level, and then if the ground was not in proper shape, I used the shovel and cart and hauled the hills into the hollows, and have thus moved nearly four thousand ox cart-loads of dirt in seven years. In moving dirt I sometimes use a board about eight feet long and six inches wide, set edgewise under the hind part of a triangular harrow, and then with an engineer to manage the horse and two men to manage the harrow, a field of ten or fifteen acres may be smoothed down in double quick time.

Having got my field smooth, I endeavor to keep it so. Sometimes in plowing for corn, I begin at the fence and plow around the field outward until finished, and then haul the outside furrow and fill the corners and middle "clear up." Last spring I sowed my oats on the corn stubble without plowing the ground at all, (having first cut away the cornstalks with a hoe when the ground was hard frozen.) I first sowed the oats and then harrowed the ground three times, and rolled it down, and had plump fifty bushels of oats to the acre, the uniervsal prediction of the knowing ones "to the contrary notwithstanding."

sharp spade and go on the other side of the fence and turn the back to the rail, and cut all loose under the fence, and let a man follow with a potato rake and pull the dirt and trash into the oatfield side, where the harrow will effectually exterminate it. This method effectually destroys the mole and mice harbors, and does away with the old system of raising a fringe of noxious trash around the fences, to be sown broadcast over the field by every blast that blows. Lastly, in preparing the field for wheat, I plow and scrape the dirt all down to an even surface, that is, an equal depth of soil all over the subsoil, and fill up all the pie-dishes that may be in the field-then harrow the field well, and pick all the stone off, and then roll it down by running the roller as close to the fences as possible drill in my wheat and timothy seed, (some time from the 1st to the 15th of Sept.,) and follow the drill with a light one-horse harrow; then pick the stone again; and then roll down the field in the most complete manner, drive out the team, and put up the bars or shut the gate.

And here, Messrs. Editors, I might also observe that I sow nothing but the best of seed, and never let a noxious weed go to seed if I can possibly help it. In conclusion I will only say, "He that knows better how to tame a farm,' why let him teach-'twere charity to show."

Prospect Farm, Bucks Co., Pa. JNO. KELSEY. P. S.-I find on looking over the above article, I have forgotten to say anything of the amount of stone I have removed and the manner of doing it. In plowing any other than a sod, I place a grubbing-hoe axe downward in the coulter-hole in the plow beam, and then say to the plowman, take out every stone of sufficient size to disturb the plow, and if he finds any too large, I have him mark the place, and take them out afterward. By this method I cleaned nearly all the farm of stone-in all some 300 or 400 perches, nearly all of which are first-rate building stone, and many of them so large as to require blasting before they could be removed-in addition to all of which, I grubbed innumerable loads of briers and elders from along the fences.

In a communication I wrote you some days ago, I believe I omitted the finishing stroke on my wheat field.

It is this:

After the last harrowing, or perhaps during its progress, I pass round the field with a garden rake, and push the dirt back under the fence, and smooth it down nicely, so as to give the scythe a fair chance; and then after drilling my wheat, I take a pan of timothy seed, and go round the field, and sow the ground along and under the fence; then follow with the rake, and rake the seed in, and break up the clods that the roller cannot reach. The next spring I sow clover seed around the fence in the same way. Thus you will perceive that when I come to mow the field, I have hay about the right stripe. Bucks Co., Pa. JNO. KELSEY.

PROFITS OF FRUIT.

The New-England Farmer states that the Northern Spy apple now sells for fifty to seventy-five cents a dozen at retail in the Boston market. This remark of course applies to those only of fine quality and well kept. Fruit that is better than the average will always bring not only a high price, but will also command a ready sale. The Northern Spy is one of those fruits that will always show the effect of good treatment, and those are the sorts that afford the highest profits under skillful hands. It has been objected to this apple that it is hard to convey to market, on account of its liability to bruise. This is the very quality that gives it its high value in selling. A half a day's labor in extra pains in packing, will repay the cost of a In preparing my field for wheat, I first put on the ma- week's labor in putting up. It is the difference in the renure, and plow the field into large lands, say thirty or sults of common and skillful management, in raising, gatherforty paces wide, and then plow them back again for seed-ing, ripening and packing that gives such great prices to ing. I always endeavor to destroy all signs of vegetation the finest pears. Farmers! if you wish to make money by inside of my fences before putting in my wheat, and my marketing fruit, pursue such a course as will enable you method of doing it is to plow the oat stubble from the to exhibit specimens, finer in quality and more splenfence on all sides, and by putting a single horse to a plow, did in appearance than those around you, and you can comI can plow within six inches of the posts. I then take a mand almost whatever you choose.

« AnteriorContinuar »