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larvæ of insects are destroyed;" and he adds the bypothesis that "by promoting the attraction and deposit of vegetable effluvia, extensively given off by decayed vege tation at this season the productive powers of the soil are much increased."

finely shaped mould-boards, rather short broad shares, are stimulated to vegetate, and grubs, worms, and the straight coulters, and with the two wheels on level land, can almost move unattended. It is difficult to lay off land into ridges with them, and drilling cannot be done, neither do they answer for the mode of plowing which is called gathering in Scotland [described in Letter xv, Co. GENT. Sept. 15, 1859,] as the space which is left when the last furrows are taken out is very broad; and they don't make the neat close finish, that the swing-plow, when well handled, does. It may almost be said, that, with the wheel-plow, it is the plow that does the work; with the Swing, it is the man."

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For this "Y. L." plow there are upwards of twenty varieties of mould boards made, "adapted," say the manufacturers, "for every description of soil; and by changing the mould board only-as was the case in the great trial at Southampton in 1844-it will answer equally well for heavy as for light land, and upon the occasion referred to, it obtained the double prize of the Royal Agricultural Society as the best plow both for heavy and light land."" Another kind of plow is made by the same firm for Ridge culture, to which, as above remarked, the "Y. L." is not well adapted. This is shown in fig. 3, fitted with

Another favorite plow is that of the Howards at Bedford, shown in fig. 5. They seem to have secured easier draught than most of their competitors, and have received many important prizes, including ten first prizes from the Royal Ag. Society of England, and the Gold Medal of Honor at the Paris Universal Exhibition. In fig. 6 is shown their double furrow plow, which is intended for light land where two furrows can be turned at once without over-burdening the team. They make also, among other varieties, a double-breast or ridging plow, which is represented in fig. 7, accompanied, as will be observed, by a marker to determine the distance of the next drill. In this plow the breasts are made of steel, and can be readily expanded or contracted to any desired width, either together or independently of each other.

So much for some of the manufactures of two of the largest implement making firms in Great Britain. Revert

Fig. 3. Ransome & Sims' Universal Ridge Plow. a share of 12 or 15 inches' width, in which form it "will open and close the land in ridge-work, at any distance, where the manure is deposited; it also serves the purpose of setting out lands for common plowing, or opening surface drains."

Fig. 4.

By shifting the fittings accompanying this plow, it is made to assume several different forms-serving as a "moulding plow" in moulding up root crops, peas or beans, as a horse hoe or scarifier, or, as shown in fig. 4, as a skeleton or broad share plow. The use of this last mentioned kind of plow was referred to at some length in my letters from Kent, where it is in high esteem for the purpose of breaking up the soil, leaving it in the best state of pulverization, or merely for cutting up weeds, in which case the prongs are no put on. I found the practice there

ing now to the comparative demand existing for English and American plows in other countries, we shall find, I think, that even on the continent of Europe, where it has hitherto been supposed that any agricultural implement to be really firstrate, must be of English manufac ture, our plows are just beginning to attract attention; there have been statements published of considerable exportations ofthem from this country to Syria and Russia, while in England's own colonies-new countries, where the cost of labor would naturally lead to the selection of the most "labor-saving " kind of implement-it is well known that our manufacturers are securing a large share of the trade. In the Co. GENT. for Nov. 24, 1859, we quoted a statement from the Mark Lane Express that of forty-two kinds of plow shown at the Ag. Exhibition at Cape Town, in Africa, "for English colonists to purchase," the whole were of American make-not an English manufacturer being represented. At that time we suggested that some of our correspondents interested in the matter, should furnish for publication the details of this same trade as carried on with Australia, but unsuccessfully-many of our larger manufacturers being apparently so engrossed with these shipping operations, and with their few scattered business correspondents at one point and another, as to quite over

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Fig. 5. Howards' Improved "Champion" Plow.

in consonance with the observation annexed in Ransome's | look the existence of the several hundred thousand farmers Catalogue, viz., that "by broad-sharing or skeleton plow-who read our agricultural papers and depend upon them, ing in the autumn, not only is the soil brought into a pul- with all the principal establishments, horticultural or agrather than upon agencies, as the media of intercourse erized state, but the seeds of annuals, roots, weeds, etc., ricultural, in our chief cities.

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In conclusion I make an extract from a private letter from JOHN JOHNSTON with regard to the inquiry with which I began. He Bays; "For more than thirty years I have known the long heavy plows used in Canada to be a very unprofitable plow to work with, having tried one here myself about or over thirty years ago. They ought all to be beaten into plowshares [of another pattern] orpruning hooks. But the Scotch and English Canadians were so prejudiced against the Yankee plows, that I was afraid to come out in print against theirs, although I told

Fig. 6. Howards' Double Furrow Plow.

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them often that their plows were not only horse killers, but less than fifteen or twenty cows, and would pay much betmen killers also. On a two weeks' tour in Canada, from ter with twice that number. which I have just returned, I find, however, that many far-We are inclined to think that every farmer who keeps mers have laid aside their long 250 lb. plows, and are using plows made of the pattern of ours. At Oshawa they make cast-iron plows similar to those in use here; they also make plows with steel mould boards, similar to those made by Messrs. Remington, Markham & Co. of Ilion, in our State, but not equal to them, I think. Indeed it won't be many years until these long plows will be only things that were once in use-at least, this is my opinion."

cows on a grain farm, should not stock his pastures entirely with them, but keep besides sheep, in favorable localities, also a few steers or beef cattle. And this for two reasons; first, that they require far less labor in their care, and the same feed will keep them in good growing order, and constantly increasing in value. In the second place, our pastures depend largely upon the season-if favorable for grass, we have a large supply-if unfavorable from drouth or frost, we find cows getting very poor, the product of milk small, and the number of animals entire

As coming from a man of so long practical experience, this opinion is entitled to weight, but lest our friends across the line should suppose that the admirable character of their plowing is not appreciated by Mr. Johnston, we may refer them to his letters published in the Co. GENT. after a Canadian tour last autumn, in which he speaks mostly disproportioned to the food we can furnish. We have eulogistically of its excellence.

L. H. T.

accord with the product of the pastures.
grain-and we could thus without loss reduce the stock to

a remedy for this, to some extent in growing green crops for soiling, or in selling off a portion of the herd, but at Stock and Dairying on Grain Farms. such times the green crop does not grow very luxuriantly, "A mixed husbandry" has always been found most suc- he knows well what to do with. But young stock could and cows are very dull of sale; every one has more than cessful and profitable, because it is in some sense self-be sold more readily-very readily if first fattened on sustaining, and also that all branches seldom fail alike or at the same time, always leaving the farmer one or more good crops or products to depend upon. Grass-growing and stock-feeding, to some extent, must be combined with grain-raising in order to keep up the fertility of the soil for the latter purpose-the production of grain being an exhausting process, while stock-growing and dairying furnish means for constantly improving the soil. Woolgrowing has paid well on grain farms, especially under an attentive management, and it will be found that careful and thorough farmers receive by far the greatest profit from their stock-cows, sheep, beef cattle, swine, and horses. Our present purpose, however, is to offer a few hints on dairying on grain farms as a business, and as compared with other forms of stock-growing, and also to offer a word of caution. It must mainly be confined to the production of butter, because few farms are large enough to allow the keeping of a sufficient number of cows, (and at the same time keep more or less sheep, horses and swine, and raise grain,) to produce cheese very profitably. We see that this is the case in Western New-York, from the comparative prices of the two products, cheese being much more profitable than butter, though the latter is now in improved demand. Butter can be made from any number of cowe, but a cheese dairy would be a small affair with

from the present, this subject was brought to our attention, Some years ago, and in a very different grass season of the wheat-growing region of the State. We remarked by the suggestion that "more stock" was the great want that more stock required more pasture, as well as more hay and grain. It needs nice calculation to balance the one to the other three, especially when a dry summer folwould carry six cows and fifty sheep, will barely yield half lows a wet one, and farm pastures which the first year the number a scanty living the succeeding year, and meadows produce in like proportion. There is an essential difference in the profit of feeding swine when grain is making beef or mutton. It may be better to sell grain scarce and high, and when it is plenty and low, and so of than to feed it out, or at least may figure up so. A difference of ten cents in the pound on wool, is often a diffinds his farm overstocked with them, as seems very likely ference of profit or loss in sheep, especially when one to be the case with many farmers next season. A month's extension of winter weather and the season of foddering, turns the scales heavily against "more stock," when one has hay to buy, while the cereals may not be injured in productiveness by the lateness of the season.

ever,

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Perhaps this word of caution is now needed. had a remarkably productive season-grain, grass, roots, We could fruit-the earth fairly groans with its burden. feed a large increase of stock, and grow more grain than if sure of such seasons regularly hereafter. But we are not, so let us be moderate in our anticipations and preparations for rapid money-making, and take care of the present and the gifts a bounteous Providence has already bestowed upon us. It will not do to over-stock our farms, neither will it answer to over-crop them-one course is as ruinous as the other to the farmer's advancement. If the stock now owned by every farmer is thoroughly well-wintered, its value next spring will be nearly double what it would be under the usual management, take the country together. Here is a great chance for profit, and a good use of our plentiful products, and this seems to be the point or moral of our article: Make the best of what you have, and eschew speculation and covetousness.

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] "BALLOON FRAMES"--7th Article.

To convey an idea in the most effective manner, it must be delineated; pages of print will fail, while a charcoal sketch succeeds, and written and verbal descriptions, although good in their place, must yield to a drawing that We have sometimes expresses plainly its intention. thought, after we had labored hard to make an article intelligible, whether all understood it alike, or understood it at all. We strive to condense, to say as much as possible with the least number of words; and in architectural, mechanical and engineering details, a drawing is the "multum in parvo" that expresses our intentions. To one not accustomed to, use, or unfamiliar with the object of working drawings, it requires some argument to convince them of their utility; but the world of talk and time that is saved, in telling another how long, how wide, how high, and in what manner, &c., you want your woodshed constructed, suffices to doubly pay the cost or trouble of preparing such drawings as express exactly your wishes. It is only within a week that our attention was called to an out-house that was built without a plan, and as the mechanic said, as well built and in as good proportion as if he had had a dozen architects. The defect was, that it was one-sixth longer than was necessary, and had cost $100 more than if ten dollars had been expended for a well studied plan. We have even arranged furniture in a room, by first drawing the floor plan to a scale, and then with pieces of paper, the size of the ground plau or horizontal projection of each piece of furniture, have arranged them to suit us-instead of wheeling a piano or sofa into every recess to see whether it would fit and harmonize with the rest of the furniture. A certain knowledge of mechanical drawing would be of service to everybody, and particularly to the agricultural community, who are more in the way of developing principles that are new and valuable, and which ought to be communicated for the good of each other,

We were led to these remarks, as we propose to illus. trate the balance of our articles on this subject, showing the application of the Balloon Frame to all classes of wooden buildings, commencing with a Corn Crib. We show in the engraving a half section of two modes of framing. The lumber or timber may range in size from 2 by 4 up, according to the capacity, required-2 by 4, except for floor timbers and sills, is sufficiently large for the ordinary size of these buildings.

Where the building is supported on posts, heavy sills are necessary, and the frame should be securely nailed or epiked together. The bents may be 16, 24 or 30 inches apart, and covered in the usual manner. The thrust of both the rafters and contents of the building are outward; the tie, 1 by 4, is abundantly strong, as each one will practically sustain in the direction of its fibre, three tons. The floor joists are nailed to studs at each end. No one

No. 1.

No. 2.

need fear any lack of perfect security, as it surpasses in strength any hold that a tenon could have.

There are many ways other than those shown, of constructing a "Balloon Frame" for a building like this, and many original plans will suggest themselves to a thinking mind that undertakes their construction, and is familiar with their principles. Light sticks, uninjured by cutting mortices or tenons, a close basket-like manner of construction, short bearings, a continuous support for each piece of timber from foundation to rafter, and embracing and taking advantage of the practical fact, that the tensile and compressible strength of pine lumber is equal to one-fifth of that of wrought iron.

The Balloon frame has for more than twenty years, been before the building public. Its success, adaptability, capability, and practicability, have been fully demonstrated. Its simple, effective and economical manner of construction has very materially aided the rapid settlement of the West, and placed the art of building, to a great extent, within the control of the pioneer. That necessity, that must do without the aid of the mechanic or the knowledge of his skill, has developed a principle in construction that has sufficient merit to warrant its use by all who wish to erect in a cheap and substantial manner any class of wooden buildings.

We call attention to this manner of framing corn eribs, as we believe money enough can be saved, which, if judiciously invested, will supply any one with the "COUN TRY GENTLEMAN " for the rest of his natural life."

GEO. E. WOODWARD,

Architect and Civil Engineer, 29 Broadway, N. Y.

Gas Tar Injurious to Fruit Trees. EDITORS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-In your issue of 8th March I notice a communication from H. H. EMMONS, relative to the application of gas tar to finit trees, and although rather late to offer any suggestions on the subject, am induced to give you the result of my own experience, trusting that it may prevent others from attempting so injurious an application.

I

Some years since I read in an agricultural paper, that an application of gas tar to fruit trees would prevent the depredations of mice, and our section of Canada being the consequence of which was, that I was near losing all that year overrun with those pests, I was induced to try it, or most of my trees. It certainly succeeded in keeping away the mice, but the succeeding summer the tar became so hard that the bark could not swell, and I was obliged to make a perpendicular slit in the bark as far as the tar extended, to save my trees. It is in my opinion a most dangerous experiment, and if your readers would keep their orchards clean, and leave no harbor for vermin, there would be no necessity for using gas tar or other application. JAMES TAYLOR,

Prest. St. Catharines Hort. Society.

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again, the corn they had eaten having been weighed also, and calling 70 lbs. a bushel of corn, and pork as before, 4c. (gross,) it was equal to 80c. per bushel for corn. The weather was quite warm here for the season of the year. The first week in November I tried the same experiment on the same lot of hogs, and the corn only brought 62 cts. per bushel, the weather being colder. The third week, same month, with same lot of hogs, corn brought 40 cts., and the weather still getting colder. The fourth week sanie as above, corn brought 26 cts.; weather still colder." This lot of hogs were sold off the last of November and another lot of hogs put up, which had been fed in the field on corn in the cob.

"This lot was weighed and fed as above, the five weeks of December, and the corn fed averaged 26 cts. a bushel, the weather being about the same as the last. This lot was tried again in the middle of January, the corn fed for that week averaging only 5 cts. per bushel; at that time the thermometer stood at zero. This same lot was tried again and just held their own, the thermometer being below below zero, sometimes as low as 10 degrees."

From these facts the writer comes to the sound conclusion that it will not pay as a general thing to feed corn to hogs after the middle of November," unless the price is very low. It will not pay to find fuel in the shape of corn, to keep hogs or other stock warm in winter. We should either fatten early, or provide comfortable shelter and accommodations for our swine, &c."

[For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] SOUR FOOD FOR FATTENING ANIMALS. R. L. PELL, before the American Institute, said that sour feed fattens animals more rapidly than sweet "that "green herbage of all kinds, collected and allowed to get sour in water, will fatten pigs that would not thrive on it before "--that "brewer's grains, when sour, will fatten cows and other animals more rapidly than when sweet." If this theory is true, the great grain distillers of the cities, instead of throwing away so much of their slops, might condense them by boiling until the excess of water had steamed away and the slop was made profitably portable, so that it could be fed to cattle and hogs in the country. We should then hear no more complaint of diseased cows and poisonous swill milk at the city distilleries. Milk made from such slop with rations of hay, straw, or roots to the cow, (to compensate for the loss of starch in the slop from distillation,) would be much richer than farm milk generally.

A perennial-rooted weed, and one of the worst the farmer has to contend with, on account of its extensive spreading, and the great difficulty of its extirpation. The seed are very tenacious of life, and will vegetate after passing through the stomach of an animal. The wide foothold it has obtained, is of course the result of slovenly farming, and is most conspicuous in pasture fields, whitening the whole surface when in flower. Various means have been devised for destroying it. Attempts have been made to turn it to account by compelling animals to eat it. Sheep may be made to feed on it by depriving them of all other food, especially early in the season, while the young plants are tender and less bitter than afterwards; but it is bad economy, and they cannot thrive when driven by starvation to eat unpalatable food. A correspondent of The Cultivator says that a large farmer succeeded in killing most of the daisies on a sixteen acre lot, by turning in five hundred sheep a week at a time-but it was a very expensive experiment, for the sheep became extremely poor, and he regarded his loss at one thousand dollars. Thorough cultivation is the best remedy, and may be given as follows: Plow the sod thoroughly, plant corn, hoe and cultivate well once a week. Next year sow and plow in FRIEND TUCKER & SON-Seeing in your Co. GENTLEtwo crops of buckwheat, and the third year manure and MAN an account of Chester County hogs, permit me to add plant corn again; then again two crops of buckwheat for my experience. I received last fall from Chester county, two years more, when the daisies will have vanished, and Pa., a pair of the above-September pigs. In July last the land be left rich.-Tucker's Illustrated Annual Reg.I had a litter of three pairs, and a fair prospect of anoth

Fattening Hogs in Warm and Cold Weather. A correspondent of the Ohio Farmer, writing from Duncan's Falls, gives an account of an experiment made with one hundred hogs, averaging two hundred lbs. each, and placed in nine large covered pens, with plank floors and troughs. They were fed as follows:

"The corn was ground up, cob and all, in one of the "Little Giant" steam mills; steamed and fed at 6 and 9 A. M., 12 M., 3 and 6 P. M., or five times a day, all they could eat, and in exactly one week they were weighed

Mr. PELL tells us of a man who boasted that he never watered his milk to sell in the city, but he took care to feed his cows on succulent food that contained more than 80 per cent. water; the result was, his milk had no better reputation than watered milk.

er in January next, which to me shows they will be prolific. They are white, short legs, with thick, heavy bodies, and seem peculiarly calculated to fatten at an early age. Unlike the Suffolks, they have sufficient covering to shield them from cold or heat. And with their little heads and short noses, I say to farmers try them, and see if we cannot make them weigh 500 lbs. at 18 months old.

HEMLOCK FOR GRAIN-BINS.-H. Poor of Brooklyn, L. I., says in the New-England Farmer, that grain-bins built of hemlock, are positive proof against the depredations of rats and mice, as they will not gnaw it.

PREPARING FOR WINTER.

"Chill November's surly blast makes fields and forests bare, and old Winter with his frosty beard," will soon be upon us; and in the northern and western states, winter is not a myth, but a substantial reality that can neither be hushed up, coughed down, or thrust aside. There is no shirking its cold and driving storms. It is a palpable thing-one that can be felt by both man and animals; and it is the part of wisdom, in the farmer and all others, to be prepared to meet it, and as far as possible to guard against its severity upon the inmates of the barn as well

as of those of the house.

The dwelling-house should be well banked up if necessary, so as to prevent the cold from entering the cellar and frosting the potatoes and other vegetables stored therein. From neglect in making their cellars frost-proof, we have known many farmers to lose large quantities of potatoes in their cellars, by freezing, and in the following spring they were obliged to purchase, (and sometimes at a high price too,) potatoes for planting and for table use. A few hours of well directed labor early in November, in fixing up their cellars, would have saved their potatoes, money, and whining.

Broken windows should be attended to; glass and putty are cheap, to what they were half a century ago, and there is no longer any excuse for filling the broken windows with old hats, cast off undergarments and unmentionables, as was so frequently the case in the "good old times" we occasionally hear of. Everything connected with the house should be made snug and comfortable, both inside and out. The principal living-room should be upon the sunny side of the house, and be furnished with good sized windows. The burrowing of families in ill-lighted rooms, in the cold, dark, north side of the house, where the sun scarcely peers in upon the inmates from November to April, is poor economy indeed, and still poorer, to stint the children, who wish to read or study, to the feeble light of a small sized, greasy, tallow candle. Good oils of various kinds, for illuminating purposes, with lamps to match, are now everywhere obtainable, and at prices within the reach of all. But abjure camphene and other burning fluids, as you would the fangs of the deadly serpent. Furnish the sons and daughters of the farmers with suitable books, agricultural and other papers and periodicals, and good lights and pleasant rooms, and we should hear less of their fleeing from the paternal roof, and the leaving of "the old folks at home," in their downhill of life. Over large sections of the country, the frosts of a few of the last nights of September found much corn unripe. It has dried somewhat, and much of it appears tolerably sound, but yet the cob contains a large amount of water. Where the corn is stored in cribs, or in latticed corn houses, there is danger of its becoming mouldy, and sometimes the corn is very much injured by having the cob frozen. This was the case with tens of thousands of bushels of corn in the western states, in the autumn of 1857. The corn was harvested and cribbed as usual, and near the close of November of that year, a few days of extreme cold occurred which froze the juicy cobs, and when the weather became mild enough to thaw, most of the corn was found to be nearly worthless, becoming slimy and useless except for the compost heap. In the latticed corn-house a close box stove can be profitably used for kiln drying the corn, an experiment we have known to be successfully tried on several occasions. Where the corn is spread upon the gar

ret floor it should be daily raked over, and in fair weather the windows should be kept open for the purpose of keeping up a free circulation of air, which will much hasten the process of drying, and prevent mouldiness.

A few days since we saw some newly harvested corn, which had been thinly spread upon a garret floor. The owner thought when harvested, that it was well ripened and dry, but upon examination a few days afterwards, the underside of a large portion of the ears was mouldy. Such corn will not make good sweet bread, nor do well for seed. The raising of the windows, and daily use of the rake in moving it about, arrested all farther mouldiness. This is a matter worth attending to, as is also that of picking over and assorting the potatoes stored in the cellar, if there is much appearance of rot.

The good economy of carting out manure, and depositing it in conical or ridge like heaps, in the autumn, near where wanted for next season's crops, is well understood by all who have practiced it. If there is danger of the heaps freezing badly, and not thawing in the spring as soon as wanted, a good covering of brakes, leaves, or something of the kind, and this covered with large bows of evergreens, will prevent freezing, and the process of decomposition will in a greater or less degree be carried on during the winter months. Where the manure is coarse, or not well rotted down, when carted out, a farther rotting process is desirable.

It is also good economy to plow during this month, clayey and other stiff soils. The furrow slices as left by the plow, are generally in a much better condition to be operated upon by the winter's frost, and atmospherical agencies, than if they were harrowed fine and then rolled. Corn and other stubble ground, intended for wheat, barley, or oats, the coming spring, according to the experience of some good farmers, should be well and deeply plowed in the fall. Such land needs only the cultivator and harrow to prepare it for sowing the grain, and the presumption is, a better crop of grain will be harvested than if the land was spring-plowed. Everything should be done in autumn that can be, towards spring's work. A scarcity of hay, and wet backward springs, sometimes puts the farmer so far in the back ground that he can scarcely "catch up" through the whole season--much of which might have been avoided by having a portion of his spring's work done in the previous autumn.

If not already attended to, the dark drizzly days of November afford the farmer a favorable time to repair and put in order his sleds, chains, axes, and handspikes, for getting up the year's supply of fire-wood, timber, millWhere the wood and timber lot is not too logs, &c. rough and broken, it is much the better way to have the sledding done in early winter. Eight to twelve inches of snow frequently affords good sledding to the wood lot, and if the sled-shoe does occasionally get a severe grazing on the uncovered rocks, it is no killing affair--it is better to shoe sleds than to break paths through three feet snows, and crowd the team over or through five feet snowdrifts.

Most farmers are now aware of the important fact, that warmth and shelter for farm stock, to a certain extent, is equivalent to an extra amount of food, or in other words, cattle, &c., kept in good, warm, well ventilated hovels, stables, sheds, &c., require a much less amount of food to keep up or increase their growth, than the same stock would if exposed to the out-door cold and storms of our northern and western winters for months together, as is too often the improvident and cruel practice of farmers in

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