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Contents of this Number.

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Draining, Rotation and Crops--Manuring-Hoeing the
Wheat-Labor, &c.,.

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EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE-Mr. Conger's Sale-Visit at Mr.

Thorne's, &c..

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Visit to the Society of Shakers at Canterbury, N. H., by LEVI BART

A Note from Virginia, by E.,

Farming Hilly Land...

Hay and Grain Racks,

A Good Farm Gate, by J. M. KINKKAD,.

Mole Trap, by M. D. BowMAN,

Manuring the Wheat Crop,

Surface Manuring again, by J. L. R.,.

Letter from JOHN JOHNSTON,

Draining and the Mole Plow, by HAWK EYE,

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North Devon Cattle;

Brood Mares, Colts and Stallions;
Berkshire, Essex and Suffolk Swine,
And a small flock of South Down Sheep.
"THE ALBANY COUNTY BREEDING ASSOCIATION," will
sell at Public Auction at the "Log Tavern Farms," on the New-
Scotland Plank Road, two miles from Albany, N. Y., on WEDNESDAY,
SEPTEMBRR, 12th, 1860, at 12 O'CLOCK, M., a select and large herd of
SHORT-HORN Cows, Heifers, Young Bulls, and Calves; including
"Minna," by imported Duke of Gloster (11382.) and the imported
cows Flattery, bred by Earl Ducie, and got by 4th Duke of York,
(10167;) Bloom, bred by Mr. Fowle, and imported by Col. L. G. Mor-
ris; Finella, bred by S. E. Bolden, Esq., and imported by Mr. Alex-
ander, got by Grand Duke, (10284,) and her calves by imported Sirius
and imported Neptune--also imported Neptune 3192, (11847,) and
several Bull and Heifer calves of Neptune's get.

NORTH DEVON Cows, Bulls and Calves, mostly bred from imported stock, including the celebrated prize bull Empire (424,) and his 241 get.

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247

TWENTY BROOD MARES, of the BLACK HAWK and MESSENGER breed, including the celebrated Black Hawk Maid, by the original Vermont Black Hawk; "Rose Allen," by "Ethan Allen," and others sired by Black Hawk, Messenger and English Stallions.

Also 13 spring colts, 13 yearling colts, 10 two years and three years old, nearly all of which were sired by the noted trotting stallions 247 "Black Murat," George W. Adams' English Horse "American," "Hen247 ry Clay ""Logan," "Gray Messenger," "Ethan Allen " The Spirit 248 of the Times, Chevalier the Black Hawk, Gray Prince, the sire of 249 General Darcy, and Addison, who was sold for the sum of $5000. 251

The proprietors have been many years engaged in breeding the 253 FAST TROTTING HORSE, and they flatter themselves that there 254 has never been offered to the public for sale, at any one time, such a 254 numerous and desirable stock as can be found named in the Cata254 talogue. Sale positive, without regard to weather.

TERMS.-Good notes at four months, without interest.

CATALOGUES now in press, and will be mailed by applying by letter or otherwise, to either of the undersigned, or to R. H. BINGHAM, 48 Steuben Street, Albany, N. Y.

Carriages will run hourly from the Stanwix Hall.

WILLIAM M. BULLOCK, Bethlehem, near Albany.

JOSEPH HILTON, New-Scotland,

WILLIAM H. SLINGERLAND,Norman's Kill.

WILLIAM HURST, Albany, N. Y.

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Inquiries and Answers......

256

NOTES FOR THE MONTH,

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239 When very large quantites are wanted, the price can be fixed by negotiation. The following $1 per 100, $5 to 7 per 1,000. Alpine Wood, (red and white.) Boston Pine, Burr's Pine, Crimson Cone, Early May, Early Scarlet, Genesee, Hooker. Hovey, Hudson, Iowa, Mc 246 Avoy's Superior, McAvoy's No. 1, Moyamensing, Orange Prolific, Peabody's Prolific Hautbois, Rival Hudson, Scarlet Cone, Walker, 247 Wilson's Albany, $5 per 1,000. These, $1.50 per 100, $7% to $10 per 250 1,000,-Alpine Monthly, (red and white,) Bicton Pine, Baltimore, 252 Bridgetown Pine, Charles' Favorite, Durfee's Seedling. Imperial 253 Scarlet, Jennie Lind, Jessie Read, Longworth's Prolific, May Queen, 255 Omer Pascha, Read's No, 1, and Gold Seed, and Black Pine, Primate, 261 River's Eliza Seedling. Prince's Scarlet, Magnate. $7 per 1.000, Scarlet Melting, Trollope's Victoria, Triomphe de Gand, Vicomtesse HerIcart, Western Queen. These, $2 per 100-Boyden's Mammoth, Cut240 ter's Seedling, Cornucopia, Diadem, Eclipse, Globose Scarlet. Le Bar249 on, Ladies' Pine, LaReine, Malvina, Myatt's Prolific, Montreuil. Sir 253 Harry, Stewart, Triumphant, Scarlet, Voorhis, Ward's Favorite. The following by the dozen-Austin's Seedling $3; Fillmore, Randolph Pine, Prince's Scarlet Climax, Prince's Excelsior, $2. These 91250 Bartlett, Chorlton Prolific, Downer's Prolific.. Elizabeth, Ladies' Fin250 ger. These $1.50 per dozen-Minerva, Perfumed Pine, Prince's Glo250 bose, Fortunatus, Florence, Fragrant Scarlet, Hermine, Seraphine, Scarlet Prize, Victorine, Waverly, Oscar, La Constante, Wonderful, Duc de Malakoff, Nicholson's May Queen, Bonte de St. Julien,

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N. B. Many other varieties are for sale, and are described in our Catalogues.

REJECTED. Black Prince, Cushing, Brighton Pine, Jenney's Seedling. Climax Scarlet, Bishop's Orange, Dundee, Harlaem Orange, Monroe 247 Scarlet, Marylandica, Pennsylvanica, Kitley's Goliath, Rival Hud955 son, Scarlet Cone, Scott's Seedling.

255

In our New Descriptive Catalogue we offer 160 varieties, including 257 all the new varieties. July 26-w&mit.

Cocoa Nut Drops and French Loaf Cake by MARY,
Good Rhubarb Wine, by CHARLES STEWART,..
Recipe from Another Correspondent, by H.,
On Currant Wine Making, &c., by F. A. NAUTS,

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AND CLEANERS.

PLEASE LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP!!

I am at present manufacturing and prepared to supply a necessari ly limited number of the very best

THRESHER AND CLEANER extant. Just look at the advantages that I have over others, any one of which is sufficient to induce you to buy, if you wish to be suited to 248 a dot. The whole machinery is driven by a single band, and conse quently less power is taken to drive it. The cylinder and concave is wider than other two horse machines, enabling more grain to be threshed in a given time. The separator is much wider than the cy linder, so that plenty of room is given for the straw and grain to ⚫ spread and separate thoroughly, and no grain is carried over. The separation is also more fully insured by means of forks which raise and lower at every vibration of the straw carrier, keeping the straw in constant agitation. The shoe containing the seives has the side shake of the common fan-mill, giving the grain a more thorough cleaning. Each machine is furnished with a dust spout, entirely relieving the feeder from the usual annoyance of dust. Those who have ever used a threshing machine, will appreciate this. ORDERS MUST BE SENT IN EARLY if you wish to have them filled promptly.

NURSERY, ILL. WILSON'S ALBANY STRAWBERRY, Large Early Scarlet, Crimson Core and other good sorts, pure, 100 plants packed. $1; 1000, $5. Tulips now :eady, 300 named sorts, 100 strong roots, double and single, of 20 fine named sorts, $4; 12 roots of 12 named sorts, 50c, to $2. Mixed Tulips, $1, 1.50 and 25c. per dozen. Hyacinths, choice named, $2 per dozen, mixed $1 per dozen, with a general assortment of bulbs, fruit and ornamental trees. F. K. PHOENIX. July 26-w13t.

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PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER & SON, mates he should add at least two-fifths for the interrup

AND PROPRIETORS, 395 BROADWAY, ALBANY, N. Y.

J. J. THOMAS, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, UNION SPRINGS, N. Y.
AGENTS IN NEW-YORK:

C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & Co., Ag. Book Publishers, 25 Park Row.
THE CULTIVATOR has been published twenty-six years. A NEW
SERIES was commenced in 1853, and the seven volumes for 1853, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8 and 9, can be furnished, bound and post-paid, at $1.00 each.

TERMS-FIFTY CENTS A YEAR.-Ten copies of the CULTIVATOR and
Ten of the ANNUAL REGISTER OF RURAL AFFAIRS, with one of each

free to the Agent, Five Dollars.

"THE COUNTRY GENTLEMAN," a weekly Agricultural Journal of 16 quarto pages, making two vols, yearly of 416 pages, at $2.00 per year, is issuedby the same publishers.

ORDER AND SYSTEM.

A well conducted Farm is a beautiful machine. We have seen a steam-engine of fifty horse power, that ran with such perfection that it could not be heard at a distance of twenty feet. We have heard some, much smaller, that gave out a mixed jargon of thumps, rattling of iron, and rushing of steam. At a celebrated trial of agricultural machines, there were two mowers-one could be heard nearly a mile;-the other scarcely more than a few rods, and the cutters went through the grass like a hot knife through butter. There were likewise two threshers -one was huge and ponderous, and when in motion trembled throughout, with a noise somewhat like thunder. The other, a two-horse tread machine, ran so perfectly that nothing could be heard at ten paces, but the tread of the horses' feet on the rolling platform, and the whistle of the grain and straw as they were shot from the cylinder. It is precisely so with the machinery of a farm. If well conducted, every part will move on noiselessly but efficiently-all will be promptly done in its season, there will be no confusion, and a great deal will be accomplished. A badly managed farm, on the contrary, if not wholly neglected, will be hurry and disorder, with every thing out of joint, and very little will be done. The farm is a complex machine; and like all other machines made up of many parts, must be perfect at all times, or one small part will suspend the motion of all the rest. A broken cog, a missing bolt, or a bent axle, will derange the whole.

To come somewhat to particulars: The farmer must know at the start what he is going to do. His yearly operations must be distinctly before him. It will not be profitable for him to stop, and consider, and plan, after a piece of work is partly executed. He must begin at the beginning-must have his fields well laid out-his rotation digested-and the extent of each crop prescribed. If he is a practical farmer, he will of course know how much time will be required for the preparation of the land, sowing, cultivating, and harvesting each crop,-to which esti

tions of rainy weather and other contingencies. This will prevent him from undertaking too much, which is, next to laziness, the most fruitful cause of all bad farming; of hurried operations, and undestroyed weeds.

There are two great requisites in all successful husbandry,-to make the best use of all spare moments; and to be always ready in advance for every emergency. These two essentials work together, for by properly using the spare moment, ample preparation may be made. Slip-shod farmers are too much like the man with a leaky roof; in fine weather no repair was needed, and in rainy he could not do it. It may perhaps be laid down as a universal truth, that success in all enterprises depends on being able to predict beforehand what will be wanted. The need of a single tool in haying time, may result in arresting the labor of ten men, and in the loss of ten tons of hay by an approaching storm. The want of good implements of tillage may delay the sowing of a crop, till rains may post"For want of a nail the pone the operation a fortnight. shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost." A workshop with tools is indispensable for every farm. The owner should supply himself with a complete list of all implements. A place should be provided for every one, and every one should be in its place; and on every rainy or stormy day, an examination should be made and repairs promptly performed. Tools should be kept constantly in order, as a standing rule, and not be left broken till wanted for use. This is still more important, if they are to be sent to the village mechanic; for if taken in time the errand may cost much less than to wait till the moment required for actual use, and then to take a horse from a plow or from a hay wagon, to send three miles for a trifling but necessary repair.

In order to be able to accomplish farm labor promptly and in season, teams must be healthy and in the best working order. To be healthy, they should be fed with great regularity and uniformity, whether working or not, with good wholesome food and not with musty hay and grain or short pasturage. Their apartments must be clean and pure, and they themselves well curried. Some farmers lose much by giving their horses more work than they can perform comfortably-they are consequently worked too hard, enfeebled and made poor, and prematurely worn out. Not being supplied with sufficient animal force, favorable chances are lost and work allowed to accumulate, and increased labor will be required for its performance, and a waste result from delay. An extra working animal partly pays its way in manure, and sometimes its whole yearly keeping is returned in increased crops from early seeding and prompt cultivation.

Every farmer should carry a memorandum book. It is wheat-stubble, when there is danger of their getting much his compass and log-book combined. A page for each week, by way of assisting the memory, laying out every thing clearly before the eye, and for recording the numerous suggestions for future experiments, which must constantly occur in practice, would prove invaluable another year, and in ten years would develop an inexhaustible fund of facts.

CARE OF SHEEP IN SUMMER.

It is not "good management," to say the least of it, to leave sheep to take care of themselves through the summer-merely giving the attention of washing and shearing. They need constant looking after-the eye and care at least of the owners, to see that they suffer no neglect during the grazing season. To make sheep husbandry profitable, the animals should always be thrifty and improving, and it requires no great expense, save in attention, to secure this important end.

"Sheep well wintered are half summered," is an old and very correct adage, for if the flock comes in good condition to a fair bit of grass from their winter yards, they will retain that state very easily. Ewes with lambs should have a better pasture than store sheep require, as the flow of milk and growth of the sheep, as well as the flesh of the dams, depend upon their being supplied with an abundant supply of nutritive herbage. If on red clover pasture, it should be in full supply, that it may not be eaten too closely; and the same is true of timothy. Blue grass, white clover, and the like, will bear shorter grazing without injury.

of this inflammatory grain. On oat or barley stubble they may fallow without danger, unless it be to the young clover, to which these and wheat fields are, or should be, generally seeded. Upland pastures are the best for sheep, though on lowlands, when dry, they may run without injury to themselves, and very generally to the improvement of the character of the herbage.

Lambs should be weaned at from sixteen to eighteen weeks old, and when separated, the ewes should be given short pasturage for a week or ten days, the better to dry off their milk. The lambs should have fair grazingsomething new, like young clover, and if a few tame sheep are put with them they will be far less wild, and will learn to eat salt, and to follow the shepherd very readily. disturbed, save by the presence of some one to whom they Lambs should not be placed where they will be frequently are to become accustomed; quiet is best for sheep if we would have them orderly and always thriving.

We have said nothing of salting or watering sheep. The first we regard as occasionally beneficial-say once in ten days at first, and less frequently afterward. The last does not seem particularly necessary while heavy dews fall, and the pastures remain succulent. Our sheep seldom come to the spring for water at this season, though they could easily do so. A change of pasture occasionally is and cows, where we could conveniently do so, both for beneficial, and we would divide the time between sheep the benefit of the pasture and the animals themselves.

To conclude, we repeat that it is important to give sheep that care in summer, which will fully prepare them to endure, without loss, the rigors and deprivations of the sheep husbandry, and it should be the golden rule of manwinter season. This is the only profitable method of agement, "Keep the flock always in thriving condition."

LIME AND WHEAT.

When shearing, the farmer should select out all the sheep he intends to dispose of during the year-the old ewes first, as well as all that are in any way defective in GEORGE H. CHASE, an enterprising young farmer of wool, form, or constitution. In this way a flock of ewes Union Springs, N. Y., has tried an experiment the present can be kept right, and looking right. We would never season with salt, ashes, and lime, on wheat. An acre each suffer a sheep to get old on the farm, unless it were a very was selected for the three experiments. About two barrels of choice breeding animal. These sheep should be given salt were applied to one, two two-horse loads of ashes to good pasturage, so that they may attain good marketable a second, and a hundred bushels of lime to the third acre. condition, and then find ready and profitable sale. We said, The result has not been measured as yet, but the effects of let the farmer select these at shearing time. No good each are very visible. The salt proved least useful; the sheep-keeper allows purchasers to pick from his flock-ashes more so; and the lime most so of all. The line of superiority marking the boundaries of the limed portion was as distinct as a line fence. The increase of the crop by liming, over the portions not dressed with anything, is at least ten bushels per acre.

and at shearing he can judge most correctly of the age, character and value of his sheep, and mark or sort out at that time. At any rate, whenever he sells, let him make his own selection, and be sure and "weed out" his flock. In selling wethers, various circumstances are to be taken into consideration. An old sheep farmer once gave us some rules on this subject, rules by which his practice was guided. If pasture was scarce, he would sell immediately after shearing. If pasture was plenty, and winter feed scarce, he would sell in the fall. Pasture and feed both abundant, he fattened for drovers or butchers in the early spring months, never keeping a wether over five years old, and seldom selling them under two years age. When good prices for lambs prevail, we may profitably sell wether lambs in the fall, especially if all our older sheep are of good character, and we desire only a small advance in number, such as the best ewe lambs will supply. But as a general rule, we should seek to "keep our flocks always composed of young, healthy and thrifty sheep. Better that old and inferior ones should be sold at half their value, than good, young, thrifty ones at a fair price."

Wheat harvest is now in progress, and it may be well to remark that sheep cannot safely be allowed to glean

would not have produced an equal result. This will re-
The question occurs whether a smaller quantity of lime
ceive the test of another trial. The land is a strong or
of a limestone region, where the country is underlaid by
clayey loam; and what is worthy of notice, is in the midst
the rocks of the corniferous limestone, which is abundant-
bonate of lime in the surface soil.
ly scattered over the surface. But acids do not show ear-

Ready-made Yeast.

In a late number we gave directions for making yeast. A successful housekeeper who has just read it, informs us that she has adopted that mode for many years, but that she finds the addition of the potatoes of no benefit and no injury, and

for years has used only Indian meal, which is simpler and easier to make. In using the yeast for making bread, she omits the soda, believing the bread better and more wholesome without; and those who have eaten bread of her manufacture, would have to travel a lone road before they would find better.

THE FARM AND THE WORKSHOP.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] FRUIT-GROWING IN NEW-JERSEY. Our correspondent, Mr. S. E. TODD of Tompkins county, has prepared a volume, announced several weeks ago Much attention is now given to the cultivation of small in the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, under the title of "The fruits, which are far more profitable in this vicinity than Young Farmers' Manual." The "Farm and the Work-common farm crops, and many persons having but a few shop," which is added on the back of the book as a sub-acres of land devoted to choice fruits, clear more money title, expresses its character much more nearly. Every good farmer should possess an acquaintance with the use of many tools, the employment of which he has never learned as a trade, and the "various operations of the farm" which the Preface of the present volume announces it to be the author's purpose 66 to instruct the young farmer how to perform," are mainly those of the workshop, together with such outside matters as locating the farmbuildings, and putting up fences of various kinds. Brief chapters are also given upon Draining and Plowing.

than others who cultivate large farms in the ordinary way.
Strawberries have yielded abundantly, and brought re-
munerative prices. Wilson's Albany produced with the
writer over two hundred bushels per acre, and averaged
four dollars per bushel. One gentleman in this neighbor-
hood gathered one hundred bushels of strawberries daily
sults have followed the use of the subsoil or mole plow,
The most favorable re-
through the height of the season.
by which the beds and alleys are thoroughly loosened to
the depth of 15 to 17 inches. The plan is, soon after the
fruit is gathered, to take a strong team and pass the plow
several times through the beds, going below the plants,
admit air and moisture, and gives to the plants new life
which lifting the earth a little makes it so mellow as to
and vigor; there being a greater depth of soil prepared
for the roots to penetrate, they will better resist the ac-
tion of frost in winter, and the drouth in summer.

It is not the object of the present notice to review critically "The Young Farmer's Manual," but to give to our readers who have not as yet purchased it, a general idea of its contents-in the progress of which endeavor, it cannot fail to be apparent that the book must include a considerable store of useful information. It may not be imRaspberries have yielded better this season than usual; the high price at which they have been selling, has inducproper to remark in the beginning, that Mr. Todd has ac-ed cultivators to introduce new varieties and give better quired this information-almost exclusively, unless we are treatment. The earliest varieties commenced ripening mistaken-from his own experience. He has gone very here about the 20th of June, and have yielded with me fully into detail with regard to many particulars on which forty bushels per acre, and brought eight dollars per bushel. this experience has shed light in the saving of labor and expense, and while this will be a recommendation to the class for whom the book is primarily intended, namely, for beginners,- -some may be found to wish that its design had admitted of a little greater condensation, particularly upon one or two subjects that quite overshadow all the rest in the length at which they are treated. For instance, on the title page we are promised "full directions for performing nearly every branch of farming operations," while the following table will show the divisions of the work itself, after we pass the 25 pages composing a general intro

duction:

Chapter I-The Buildings of a Farm,
II-Fencing,.

III-Tools for Fencing,

IV-Fence Laws,

172 pages.
57 do..
2 do.

Total pages about Fencing..

V-Underdraining...

VI-Plows and Plowing.

VII-Harrows and Harrowing,

VIII-Sowing Grain, &c..

IX-The Farmer's Workshop,.

80 pages.

231 do.
34 do.
24 do.

6 do.

14 do.

82 do.

In other words, more than half the book is made up of the chapters on Fencing and Fence Tools, first published in the Transactions for 1858 of our State Ag. Society, but now to some extent re-written or re-arranged. A second volume is to follow, as we learn from the introduction of the present one,-in which we are referred (pp. 15, 16,) to it for "Fitting up Machinery," "the Principles of Draught," &c., and also, as we are glad to find in another place, for a chapter on "how to make a good farm better." For, in a farmer's "manual "-however important more at. tention to better machinery may be and is-it should not be overlooked, that, after all, a tolerably fair proportion of what the young farmer must learn in order to become a good one, is disconnected very widely from the mere keeping of his fences in good order, or the ability to "plane a board true and smooth." The more, in fine, that Mr. Todd can tell us of his own PRACTICE, the higher the rank we shall award his work as a Manual for other

mers.

The Allen raspberry is being extensively grown, and when properly treated yields large crops of perfect berries, and the most delightful flavor. Some persons having depended on it alone for a crop of fruit, have failed, as the blossoms are deficient in pollen, and unless impregnated by some other variety, will not develop its fruit any more than a plantation of Hovey Seedling strawber ries. Allen's Red Prolific, however, which is an upright grower with red canes, bears abundantly by itself of most beautiful berries, which have brought 31 cents per quart and upwards during the whole season, and is amply sufficient to impregnate the Allen Antwerp, and should be mixed with them in planting. Thus treated, the Allen has continued to yield a full crop of fruit with me to the close of the season, and has suffered less by exposure to the sun and dry weather than other varieties. The luxuriant growth of young suckers thrown up around each hill, protect the fruit and bearing canes from the direct rays of the sun, which upon other varieties not producing suckers sufficient for shade and protection, have withered up prematurely. The proper plan for field culture is in hills, and by farming each way with the plow and cultivator, superfluous plants can be destroyed as easily as grass and weeds, and are not so objectionable as has been stated for a family garden.

As the raspberry season is about closing, blackberries are commencing. The Dorchester is now at its height, having been ripening for ten days past, is yielding a full crop, and will be mostly over by the time the New Rochelle is fairly under way; price thus far has been 25 to 31 cents per quart. My whole crop last year averaged 21 cents per quart, although the market at the same time was overstocked with the common wild blackberry. Several farmers in this vicinity have from 12 to 25 acres each in cultivation for market.

Currants and gooseberries have done well. One gentleman having 12 acres in gooseberries, informed me that they yielded him 100 bushels per acre, and he was then receiving $2.25 per bushel, and paid 25 cents per bushel for picking them.

We are now preparing to sow buckwheat and rye tofar-gether on new stump land; for two years past I have adopted this plan, and had excellent crops of both buckwheat and rye from the once plowing. Both crops being

AMBER VARNISH.-Will some of your subscribers give a well adapted to destroying the wild nature of the ground, recipe for amber varnish through THE CULTIVATOR.

B. F. SEVERANCE.

leave it in fine condition for succeeding crops with but little labor. WILLIAM PARRY. Cinnaminson, N. J.

Editorial Notes Abroad.

No. XXXIV---Across the Irish Channel.

Into Sleaford, then, I came on the Monday morning of the week in which the Irish Show was to take place at Dundalk, and consequently with too little time at command to learn as much as I should have liked of the good farming of the Messrs. Lowe and their neighbors, whose farms I visited upon Lincoln Heath. But there were two peculiarly English features of the visit, which are worthy of a moment's attention.

notes.

Market Day and Rent Day.

In the first place it was the Market day at Sleaford. My friends, like many others of the farmers of the vicinity, were in attendance with little bags in their pockets containing samples,-as, greatly to the convenience of both parties concerned, the buying and selling is all transacted by sample, as was remarked in the course of my Norfolk These markets are constantly increasing, I understood, in number and importance throughout England; and there can be little doubt but they would be found essentially of service to the interests of farmers in this country. We might not require them, at first, so frequent in their recurrence, or so numerous in a given area, because there are seasons of the year when our roads are not so passable as theirs, and because, moreover, the demands of purchasers here would scarcely warrant it.

Mangold crop, and to the directions Mr. L. had furnished him for its culture. These directions I copy below:

"Take dry land, well drained,—not clay-that will work fine, say after wheat. Manure with twelve tons of good manure to the acre, at least, and the more the better. Plow it in six inches and leave it till spring; then when dry enough, harrow deep, roll and work fine with plow and harrow. Sow broadcast at least 560 pounds of salt; twice the quantity is better. Throw into ridges, twentyseven inches apart with a common plow. Soak the seed eighteen hours in water, and lay on a dry cloth twentyfour hours. Drill with a hand-drill, three to six pounds of seed to the acre. Examine and see if the seed is sound or has been eaten by an insect. Drill 100 pounds of superphosphate with ashes, the more the better, with the seed on the ridge, the ridge having been first rolled lightly to flatten it. Sow one inch deep, dropping the seed six inches apart. Hoe as soon as up-thin out to one foot apart. Horse hoe and keep clean. Look over and be sure to have but one plant in a place.

"In October or November gather without breaking the skin, cut or twist off the top an inch above the root, remove the earth with a dull instrument, so as not to cut the root. They are usually stacked and covered with straw and earth in England, but will probably, (says Mr. Lowe) keep like potatoes anywhere. Average crop 26 to 30 tons of 2240 pounds to the acre. Spread the leaves evenly over the ground and plow in. By no means remove them from the land. Do not feed out till February, because the mangold is poisonous early in the season, and will scour the cattle and do them no good."

In the second place, Tuesday (July 26) was the Rent day-an occasion of considerable importance, you may be sure, to an English farmer-and the Agent of the proprietor was in waiting during the morning to square the accounts of the year with the tenants. In the evening, in the absence of the landlord, the same gentleman presided in his stead at a dinner to those who had previously been contributing so much to render his exchequer a heavier and their own a lighter one. Although by agreement, I think, the rent is due quarterly, unless I am mistaken, it was the usual custom here to make the four settlements at once, at the same time each year. The which having been completed in a satisfactory way, one naturally feels that the burden of a twelve month is ended, and enters upon that of the coming year the more cheerily for a re-union in which kind wishes and good healths may be mutually interchanged. I suppose that the class spirit, if it may so be termed, is getting to be nearly as strong among Englished farmers, as a body, as it is among the manufacturers and commercial men of the country; it is at least much stronger than here—the farmers are consequently a more united and influential body, understand their interests better, and feel a correspondingly greater sympathy with each other, and jealousy of any interference with their affairs by any other class in the community.

By the kindness of Mr. Lowe, I was present at this dinner, which, succeeded by tea and subsequently by pipes, kept many of the company together until after midnight. It afforded me a fresh opportunity of discussing agricultural matters with the intelligent and energetic tenantfarmers of that part of the county, and illustrated throughout quite forcibly the prevalence of the feeling alluded to above.

Culture of the Mangold Wurtzel.

It was to my friend, Judge FRENCH of New-Hampshire, that I was indebted for a note to Mr. L., and many were the references made to his visit there two years previously -and, among other circumstances, to his interest in the

Agricultural Education in Ireland.

How I was obliged to hurry away, the journey to Dundalk, and the story of the exhibition that there took place, were all recorded in my letters at the time, with brief reference to a visit at the Agricultural School at Glasnevin, the notes of which last, accompanied by a sketch of what is now going on to advance the cause of Agricultural Education in Ireland, even at this late date, will be new to many readers here. The official report of the Commissioners of National Education for the previous year, (1858) has been published since my return home, and was at once kindly forwarded to me by Dr. KIRKPATRICK, Inspector of the National Agricultural Schools, with some other interesting papers, from which, and the information gatherat the time of my visit, I draw the following facts. Although the subject had been previously discussed and partial action taken, it is to "the deplorable effects of the famine of 1846-7 on the agricultural community of Ireland," that the present extended plan of operations is ascribed, having, as its object, "to bring agricultural knowledge within the reach of the great mass of the small tenant developed by degrees until, December 31, 1858, it infarmers and laboring poor." The system has since been cluded, beside the Albert National Agricultural Training Institution at Glasnevin, with 71 pupils, schools partially or entirely under governmental control as follows, if my which there does not appear to be any aggregate table ap-summary is correct of the statistics given in the report, of pended:

Twenty schools under exclusive management of the Commissioners,
with..
666 pupils.

ment, with.

Twenty-one Model Ag. Schools under Local manage-
Forty-seven ordinary Ag. Schools, with
Add for Glasnevin,

Sixty-seven Workhouse Ag. Schools, with

Total, 156 schools, with

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