the roots of the trees and crops extend-neither wholly thin coarse material. The protection which such a coating affords the soil and the plants upon its surface from severe and cutting winds, is frequently of great importance. A screen of trees, or a high, tight board fence, often saves young trees or plants from destruction; and next to such a screen is a mantle covering the bare earth. tory confirms this remark as correct. All the great deserts of the world are composed mainly of shifting sands. The most fertile soils, wherever found, contain a large portion of clay. Clays, however, differ largely in agricultural value, as may hereafter be shown. One reason for the valuable character of clay soils, is found in the fact that they contain, more than any other soil, the elements of fertility within themselves. They are usually more or less productive, if rightly cultivated, without aid from stimulants or manures, but acknowledge such aid very gratefully when received. A recent writer says "they are deposits of various earthy compounds mixed in many cases with organic matter, and frequently require only aeration to render them productive."" As an illustration of cultivation or continued cropping without manure, we may refer to the Lois Weedon experiments of Rev. Mr. Smith of England. We find them noticed very opportunely for our purpose in a recent issue of the Boston Cultivator, and quote the conclusion of this paragraph therefrom. In these experiments, which have now continued for twelve consecutive years, the same ground has been cultivated in wheat, without manure, giving an average produce of thirty-five bushels per acre, and with as good a yield now as when the experiment first commeneed. "The method is to till the land by the spade to the depth of the subsoil; plant three rows of wheat, with a space of one foot between each, and then leave a breadth of three feet, which is used as a fallow and kept open by the spade. When the crop is taken off, the fallow spaces are seeded, and the ground previously occupied left vacant; thus in reality producing wheat on half the ground every year." While copying the above, we remember an exposition of this system given in the Mark Lane Express last summer, and on referring to that journal find that light land, dressed with clay, has also produced uniformly excellent The great practical question arises, how much and how crops of wheat under this system. So that clay is not only frequently is it most profitable to manure the surface? valuable as an original component of the soil, but as a maWhat proportion of the manure applied should be diffused nure for soils in which it is deficient. It is stated as above, through the soil, and what proportion left at the surface? however, that green crops-beans, roots and cabbage At what season of the year should the work be performed? have required animal manures to keep up the productiveWe have tried but a limited number of experiments to de-ness, not finding in the clayey soil all the elements required. termine those points, and those of not much accuracy; but We noticed some years ago a detailed statement where their general teaching was in favor of autumn or early corn on sandy land was manured with a shovel full of clay winter manuring, if to remain upon the surface of untilled to each hill, and the increased product was considerable-land, or to be plowed in in the spring; and on tilled clay equal in fact to that from hog manure applied in the same lands a small portion of the manure left on the surface, and manner. The soil on which the Lois Weedon experiment only harrowed in in the spring or early summer, has had a is in progress, is "a natural wheat soil "--a clayey loam good and sometimes excellent effect. On light soils, sur- with a subsoil of yellow clay. The depth to which it has face manuring during the summer has proved of little bene-been dug is sixteen inches, and this only for a single year in fit, even if harrowed into the top soil. We believe the the course. It is now found that the staple soil is richer subject is one worthy of further examination. than the subsoil, and in fact gives better crops of wheat than at first. Taking all things into account, the experiment goes far to show that clean and frequent cultivation, with abundant room for the crop, goes far on a clay soil to supply the want of manure. The alternate strips of fallow have time for storing up the aerial food which their mellow and friable state allows them to obtain. On a soil deficient in clay no such result would follow, sand having no attraction for ammonia, and but slight power to hold it when artificially applied. HINTS ON FARMING CLAY SOILS. Nearly two years ago (Co. Gent., May 20, '58) we called for light on the question of the best system of culture and cropping for improving a clayey soil, but so far as any definite reply is concerned, we called in vain. There are now, as then, scattered hints in the various agricultural publications of the day, but no writer has taken up the subject for a full and exhaustive discussion thereof. We do not feel competent to the task, but the want above stated has incited us to prepare the following hints and suggestions, originating in our own experience, or gathered from a variety of duly acknowledged sources, thinking them worth thus laying before our readers. The natural The practical lesson taught us is, that to farm clay soils profitably we must take full advantage of the property they possess of attracting and holding the elements of fertility supplied by atmospheric influences-air, water and light. To this end they must have exposure to the air, freedom from stagnant water, and a course of tillage which shall characteristic of clay is to attract and retain water, to keep them in a comparatively mellow state. harden in drying, and to become impervious generally to THAER says, in his Principles of Agriculture, that all ameliorating influences, and the more so the longer they "Land should be chiefly valued according to its consis- remain undisturbed. This, however, depends more upon tence; the greater the degree of this quality which it pos-naturally accords with the amount of clay present in the their state of drainage than upon anything else, and this sesses, the nearer does it approach to first class land; but soil, and the porous or non-porous character of the subsoil. the smaller the proportion of clay, and the larger the quanOther hints and considerations will be added in future tity of sand which enters into its composition, the more numbers, and we invite correspondents to join with us in rapidly does it fall in value." Experience as well as his-the more practical discussion of the subject. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] Management of Meadows-More Grasses Wanted. it, becomes agreeable in a little while. I have not the least doubt but that the Clinton will yet be extensively planted for wine. It is one of the hardiest, most vigorous my taste is quite an agreeable eating grape when fully ripe, and productive vines we have knows no disease, and to and will keep till mid-winter without any care scarcely. I am buying hundreds for my own use. S. M. Calmdale. Statistics of New-York Cattle Market for 1859. We quote the following interesting statistics from the New-York Tribuner FOR BEEF. MESSRS. EDITORS—It is generally admitted that good grass crops are one of the foundations of good farming, and this being the case, the importance of more attention being given to this subject will be at once apparent. A very excellent article upon this subject appeared in the Country Gent. of Aug. 4th. It contains much truth in a nut shell, and it is now alluded to in confirmation of the importance of top-dressing grass lands. On this point you remark with truth, "that even were it to be plowed the 139,000,000 POUNDS OF BEEF CONSUMED In One Year-OVER $12,000,000 next season, for a grain crop, the manure could not be The annual tables of the great metropolitan market of live stock better timed or applied." I have the past season, by top-will be read with interest by all who are engaged in the production. dressing the previous September with 15 loads of stable and they should be by all who consume the flesh of butchers' animals. These tables are particularly valuable to those who are engaged in the manure per acre, doubled the yield of timothy and also of business of buying and bringing live stock to market, and to all who orchard grass, as compared with portions of the field un-handle the cattle or meat between the producer and the consumer. We have had something over seven per cent. increase in the num aided in this manner. I have also trebled the product of ber of bullocks, but the general opinion is that the weight is from 25 to clover and blue grass, by an application of 10 bushels of 50 lbs, each less on the average than it was in 1858, owing to the eror mous influx during the fall and early autumn of small, lean stock. We unleached ashes, costing but $1.20 per acre, and have seen have estimated the average net weight of all the bullocks brought to the action of this cheap fertilizer on these grasses with nally nearly all go to the butcher, we have 211,764 head, which at 64 market during the year at 6% cwt., and adding the cows, which eventvery decided effect for three successive seasons--200 lbs. ewt, each, will give 139,596,600 pounds of beef. We find that the ave of Mexican guano has had an improving effect for two the sum of $12,738,189.75. This would make an average per head of rage price of the whole year is 9% cents a pound, net, which will make $59.32, and a fraction. Estimating all the bullocks sold at an average years, applied about the 1st of April. Mr. Flint, in his recent valuable work on grasses, states of the well-known fact that in England they rely more upon a mixture of grass seeds, than upon a variety sown separately. In the several tables Mr. Flint gives of mixtures of seeds, it is observed that there are none containing a less weight than 35 lbs. for one acre, but the majority contain 45 lbs. seeds. Therefore, if this be the weight of seed required for an acre, we have in most parts of the United States, been up to this time laboring under the error of sowing too small a quantity. In the middle States, the usual amount of timothy sown per acre is one peck, or 11 lbs.; (the seed of this grass weighing 44 lbs. per bushel,) and thus, according to Mr. F., we have been sowing but onefourth of the necessary quantity. With orchard grass, two bushels per acre has been considered liberal seeding-this weighing 12 pounds per bushel. We have therefore been using but little more than half the required amount. Cannot some of your practical grass growers enlighten us upon this important matter? We want, to sow with timothy, some valuable grass, or several varieties, that will take the place of it when it runs out, which it will do in a few years. Red top would in some measure answer this purpose, but there are no doubt other varieties that could be brought to aid in the matter, which could be suggested by some of your many hay-growing readers. The difficulty with that valuable hay and pasture forage, orchard grass, is its propensity to grow in tussocks, leaving so much land uncovered, and thereby reducing the product perhaps one-half. The great desideratum with this grass would be to obtain a variety ripening at the the same period, and which would fill up the intervening spaces. By this means the crop of hay might be doubled, and leave as good aftermath for grazing. What variety would suit best to sow with orchard grass? A SUBSCRIBER. Maryland, Dec. 30, '59. P. S. Since the introduction of mowing machines into this neighborhood, 10 years since, our timothy meadows do not run out so soon as they did when mowed with the scythe. The reason is that the mower leaves a longer stubble-say three or four inches-while the scythe cut so closely as to destroy the roots of the grass. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] THE CLINTON AS A WINE GRAPE. MESSRS. EDITORS-Your notice of the Clinton Wine reminds me of some I made a few years ago, which was pronounced by physicians an extra fine article. Your correspondent will find it equal to the best Port, such as we could get twenty-five or thirty years ago, without the addition of any sugar, but it requires time to lose a harshness which some dislike at first, but which pucker, as some call 860 a head, it will make the sum of $12,885,840. It is curious to observe that of the 154,878 cattle reported for sale at ved on foot. A few years ago none arrived in any other way. the great weekly markets in Forty-fourth street, only 2,413 head arriThere has been a considerable increase of the number of cattle reported from this State, and a large falling off from Illinois. The increase in New York is made up wholly of lean cattle, sent to market to save feed the present winter, as hay is unusually high. The falling off in Illinois cattle is owing to the failure of the corn crop in 1858, by ficiency will be made up in 1860, unless we are greatly mistaken in the signs of the times. which farmers were unable to fatten their stock for market. This de We have made some useful comparisons, and commend others to study these tables, and compare them with former years. ed effect upon the Hog market, reducing the number 150,000 head beThe deficiency of corn in the West last winter has had a very marklow the receipts of 1858. Of Sheep this year there has been an increase figures that we are decidedly a meat eating people. It must be underof 50,000 head over 1858. On the whole, it must appear from these stood, however, that this market supplies not only New-York City and try residences, within a radius of sixty miles. It is said that a good Brooklyn, but in part all the cities and villages, and many of the counmany of the animals included in our weekly reports of the Cattle mar kets go back again to the farmers. We have to answer that more than an equal number come to the city ready dressed, so that the aggregate given as our demand upon the country to supply our meat-eating propensities, is not too large. From the tables alluded to in the above, we gather the following facts. The arrivals at the New York market during the year 1859 were: 154,878 Sheep... 9,492 Swine... Beeves,.. The following states furnished the Beeves: Milch Cows, New-York, 42,085 Pennsylvania, 3,299 Virginia,.. Ohio, 35,153 Connecticut, Indiana, 8,692 Illinois,. Kentucky,. 15,188 Canada, New-Jersey, 504,894 399,685 1.001 3,997 818 542 5.334 3.309 PRAIRIE GROWN TIMOTHY SEED. The seed market is now largely supplied with timothy seed grown upon the Illinois prairies, and it is usually a very perfect article. The weeds which often crowd our meadows, are as yet almost unknown there, and good crops of fine quality can be grown and harvested at but trifling expense. A friend tells us of an instance where six hundred bushels were raised upon eighty acres, and harvested with a reaper, and then threshed and cleaned by machinery-paying a very handsome profit. He has given considerable attention to the subject, and commends the prairie grown seed as perfectly free from noxious seeds-an important consideration to every farmer. The land is usually cropped with different grains after the first breaking, but it must not be cropped too severely, or the soil will become somewhat foul, and worn so that the grass seed will not catch as well as upon newer land. The seed is generally sown with spring grain at the rate of a peck per acre, and rolling will usually sufficiently cover it, as well as better fit the ground for the employment of machinery in harvesting. Perhaps two crops of seed is as many as can be profitably taken off; then cut one year for hay, then plow up for other purposes, following here as in most places, a system of rotation. Timothy must be cut for seed as soon as it fairly begins to ripen, or it may be badly wasted by winds or beating showers. As soon as the seed is ripe at the upper end of the head, it may be cut, and will then perfect its whole product of seed in the shock, while drying. Let it be bound in small bundles and set up immediately after the reaper; it will cure in a few days, and should then be secured in the barn or stack, or better be threshed at once. In stacking particular care should be taken to secure from injury by rain and damp, or it may suffer loss which would go far toward providing a roof to cover it. It is also, it should be remarked, an advantage of early cutting that thus a fair quality of hay is secured. The best soil for timothy is moist rather than dry, but it flourishes well on any good wheat soil. We should be loth, however, to crop land which produced wheat well, with timothy, as it would injure it for the production of this grain, taking, as it does, nearly the same elements from the soil. But upon the newly opened prairie farms of the west, it is generally useless to talk of exhausting the soil; present profit is far more considered than the wants of the future. It is too much so everywhere. TESTIMONIAL TO JOHN JOHNSTON. especially when those opinions at first met with much op mitted as right, after an almost obstinate abiding by them position and some feeling, and have only come to be adon his part. And it very much gladdened me-indeed it did, that the merits of a system of farm management→→→ its stocks and its products, had been so well exhibited as to attract the attention of so many intelligent agriculturists as to be thought worthy of such a magnificent gift. Politicians and heads of mercantile and manufacturing establishments, and captains of packets, are not unaccus tomed to such reward for conduct or exertions considered meritorious; but I know not any practical farmer who has and his management by their fitness and good results, so ever attracted the notice of his fellows to his undertaking as to receive such a testimonial; and it very much pleased me that it was to a farmer, for his ordinary day by day and year by year management, that this has been done; and I hope it will stimulate others in like position with myself, to exertions and experiments in improving their eyes of farming men are looking about to discover, and farms and farming operations, when they know that the their tongues ready to praise efforts in this direction. For I feel sure that with an efficient system of underdraininga far more liberal method of feeding the cattle and sheep -a more plentiful manuring, and a higher state of generin independence, and push forward his class to the position al farm culture, the American Farmer may place himself it ought to occupy-the front rank of human society. It is the farmer that puts the bread in the mouth of the rich and the poor, and feeds alike kings, princes and beggars; and should the farm labor of the land cease from May tili to the inhabitants of this globe. November for but one season, dire would be the calamity I have for many years looked upon the occupation of the farmer as of vastly more importance than that of any other human being-not the mere drudging occupation of the daily labor he pursues, but that labor industriously lively and intelligent eye to all the teachings of the daily followed, directed by forethought, and carried on with a and yearly experience he has with the soil beneath lis feet, the elastic atmosphere about him, the insect life that swarms his fields, and the useful brutes under his control. For plenty makes peace, and he that raises plenty is a peace-maker, and it is in peace and plenty that man must the face of the earth, where so great results in husbandry reach his highest development, and I know of no land on and the elevation of the husbandmen (and men in general) may be reached, as in the United States. But I must not delay longer giving you and the gentlemen connected with you, my hearty thanks for your kindness and consideration in rendering me this gratifying pursuits which we love and follow, and in every way and compliment. May success attend you and them all in the effort in which I may assist in pushing those pursuits towards perfect results, I am with great respect and esteem, your and their obedient servant. JOHN JOHNSTON. [For the Country Gentleman and Cultivator.] FARMING AT HORNBY. gation and Draining-Seeding. In the Country Gentleman of Dec. 29, it was stated that a number of gentlemen interested in the promotion of the Culture of Potatoes and Carrots-Management of Grass Lands—Irriagriculture of the state, had presented to Jonx JOHNSTON of Seneca county, a testimonial of their appreciation of his services in the cause of agricultural improvement, consisting of a massive silver pitcher and a pair of goblets, embellished with appropriate agricultural emblems. They were forwarded to Mr. JOHNSTON by HENRY S. OLCOTT of the N. Y. Tribune, who has sent us the following acknowledgment from Mr. Johnston: NEAR GENEVA, 27th Dec., 1859. HENRY S. OLCOTT, Esq.: My Dear Sir-I received your letter of the 24th inst. and also the rich Christmas Gift mentioned therein. Truly, I may say that I was both surprised and delighted-surprised, because the present was entirely unexpected-delighted, for I suppose there is no man that lives who is not pleased by a compliment to his opinions and his way of showing them forth. More EDS. COUNTRY GENTLEMAN-I came to this country seven years since, to see the country and purchase some land in Missouri and Iowa. On my first visit, and every that has been made out of the forest in the last thirty subsequent one, I made a visit to Hornby, to see a farm years, and a farmer with whom I intend in 1861, to finish my agricultural education, at the age of seventy-if I should live until that time,-and take four of my grandsons with me, and stop from March to December, and if possi ble educate them practically, that they may not only farm well but cheaply. I have had some experience with the agricultural schools of Great Britain, as well as several of the best on the Continent, and am constrained to say that the art is very imperfectly taught at those I have visited, compared with Hornby, where agriculture is understood practically. The than on 100 acres of the common meadows of the country. The manner of seeding down lands, like most other things, is peculiar to himself. Every grass seed is coated with tar, (as every other seed is that is sown or planted,) and rolled in lime or plaster, which ever is best adapted to the plant. The grass seed is then sown on the newly cultivated ground, and only rolled after sown, if sufficiently dry to use the roller, and before the roller passes over it. If there are any sods of blue grass that have not been killed by cultivation, or have not been set out by the plowman, they are set out before the roller, with a hoe, and they, as well as the seed, never fail to GROW. Principal understands what his soil lacks for all the plants he grows, and applies the deficiencies with skill and profit. He has no use for guano, poudrette, bone-dust, or any of the popular commercial manures of the day; yet the most of his crops, on his hilly, cold, thin soil, are better than can be found on the richest land in Europe or America. As much as we boast of our root crops in England, there can rarely be found in her Majesty's Government, or at any of the government trial-fields of Continental Europe, such a field of potatoes or carrots as on this farm. The manner of his culture of potatoes is simple when understood. After the ground is put in order, his furrows are made with a wide plow that runs deep by going twice in the same furrow, turning the furrow each way. Then Let any farmer visit this farm in July or August, and a subsoil plow is run by the aid of three horses in each he will see one of the most beautiful sights I ever saw, in furrow; then a machine which he sets so as to make two the matured grass, the growing roots, and the ripening small furrows in the main furrow. The machine has four corn, and all this accomplished with one man to the 100 small plows made fast to two pieces of timber drawn by a acres, as nearly every thing is done with machinery and horse. The two forward ones are placed so as to throw horse power, The machinery is much of the farmer's own the mold out with a wide flat share that runs under the making or invention, among which is his drain plow, with soil; the two hind oues are set so as to turn the mold into which he makes drains for two cents per rod, that are the furrows, making a place on each side of the furrow quite as good on his clay soil, as those that cost a dollar. for the potatoes, so that the plow which is used for plow- I am now convinced more thoroughly than ever, that ing in cannot disturb them when plowing them in, the there is more in good farming than in good land, and to potatoes being planted zig-zag on each side, at twelve in-repeat his own language, a farmer must not only be a ches apart, making two rows in the same drill. They are working but a thinking man, and above all things else, an then rolled down with a heavy roller, and dragged until observing man, as he can learn from the wild plants of they come up, when the horse-hoe and shovel-plow are nature that grow on his soil, what it is best adapted to, freely used. Then the subsoil plow is used with three and what application is necessary to make it productive, horses twice between each row, which makes deep, mellow better than from all the chemists on earth. E. G. earth sufficient for three or four plowings with a double St. Louis, Mo. mold-board plow; and in case of a drouth, as there was last summer, he attaches wings to these plows, and raises the mold as high as he chooses, the work being done with horse-power and machinery. As he does not use a hoe, the furrows being exactly straight, they can be dressed with the plow better than is usually done with the hoe, and his potatoes are perfectly free from weeds. He substitutes the subsoil plow in cultivating his carrots instead of the spade, which saves nine-tenths of the labor. He usually plants them late in the fall. His mode of draining and irrigation is so far in advance of anything that I have seen elsewhere, that I wish to say one word, that those who lack hay may profit by his teaching, as it is so unlike anything that I have ever seen or heard of. He can irrigate almost anywhere, and in this lies the great secret of his enriching his land. By drawing the water to a given point where he makes a pond, which he plows when dry and cultivates when the water is in, and makes it thick as mud, and runs that on to his meadows and places along the roadside, and runs the hard-pan (or clay) on to his grass land. There is not a stream running on the farm that now runs where it formerly did. He has changed all the channels, and carried them to the highest ground possible, and used them to enrich his land. He showed me where he run on five hundred cubic yards of water in one day, by the use of two teams to plow and one to cultivate, besides leveling down a bank. He says, and I have no doubt of the fact, that clay run on to meadows is better than even barnyard manure, for the reason that the latter makes it grow more coarse and more likely to fall down, while the clay makes a solid firm growth, if put on with skill, so as not to rot the sod, which is too often the case even in Italy, where they have practiced it for the last 2000 years, and where they convey the water from rivers in canals, and have accomplished wonders, but I saw no such results, or the entire character of the soil so changed for the better, as on the hills of Hornby, where some as good alluvial soil has been made in the last seven years, as can be found on any of the river bottoms, where there is not even a spring or running brook on the farm that does not head on the same. There is a know-how to do everything, and when and where to do it. To say the least, I saw ten acres of meadow this unpropitious season, the best I ever saw in any country. The timothy and redtop stood even all over it, five feet high. I measured several stalks in different parts, that were 5 feet, where no manure had ever been put, and have no doubt there was more hay grown on it, TOP-DRESSING MEADOWS. meadow land is receiving considerable attention among EDS. Co. GENT.-As I see the subject of top-dressing your correspondents, I will throw in my mite, by giving my experience in top-dressing. So I have a piece of meadow, about six acres, that I seeded to timothy in the spring of 1856, after barley. It being a very dry season, it came in thin. The next season I mowed it, and got about half a ton to the acre. It was old land, clear from stumps, and rather a hard clay subsoil. Well, I concluded I would try top-dressing it with manure. the next winter I wintered twenty cows and four horses, all of which I stabled, and every morning through the winter, after my stock were let out of the stanchions, I would take my team and sled, and take up the manure that had been dropped through the night, and haul it out on to the meadow. I left it in heaps as even as I could. In the spring, as soon as it thawed out, I spread it evenly, and the result was the next haying I cut full two tous and a half to the acre, and it continues to do about the same yet. Since that, I have tried other pieces with the same good results. E. ROZELL. Bradford Co., Pa. AN AMERICAN AMONG THE ENGLISH FARMERS.-It of ten affords us pleasure to notice the accounts of the warm reception and hearty good feeling which is extended to distinguished Americans while visiting the mother country, by the lords, noblemen, and members generally, of the ag ricultural societies of that country. The prejudices that once existed between the citizens of America and those of England, seem to have given place to that brotherly regard that should ever characterize the intercourse of members of the same great family, and speaking the same tongue. These friendly visits and the interchange of thought and sentiment among the farmers of these two great nations, are productive of universal good. We have recently met with several notices from foreign journals, of the marked attention with which our fellowcitizen and co-laborer in the cause of agriculture every where received, on his late tour through England. We al lude to LUTHER H. TUCKER, Esq., of the Albany Country Gentleman. In attending various gatherings of farmers' and agricultural societies, in Great Britain, Mr. Tucker was often called upon to respond to toasts and sentiments, highly complimentary to him, and to the country which he represented.-St. Louis Valley Farmer, Beans and Indian Corn for Milch Cows, &c. R. H. Brown, of Greece, informs the editor of the Genesee Farmer, that he fed his cows early last spring, with three pints each per day of Indian Corn and white beans, ground together, in equal parts. He never had his cows do so well on any other food; they gave a large quantity of milk, and the calves were the finest he ever raised. He says he shall sell no more beans, but feed them to his COWS. Indian corn contains a large per centage of oil, starch, sugar, and other carbonaceous or fat-forming principles, and it is thought to be more productive of fat than of milk, when freely fed to milch cows; while peas, beans, and vetches, (according to the statements of some writers,) contain three times as much nitrogenous or milk and flesh forming matter as corn. depot, just one dollar per bushel. Corn is worth one dollar and ten cents. And now the question comes up-Will it not be more profitable for Mr. C., to have an equal number of bushels, of corn mixed and ground with the beans, than it will to feed the bean meal alone? If the views advanced in the third paragraph of this article are correct, it certainly would be better to give equal quantities of bean and corn meal, even if the corn should cost him one dollar and fifty cents per bushel, for then his feed would possess, in nearly the right proportions, the necessary requisites for the greatest production of "fat, muscle, wool, and milk,” and a much larger proportion of the nitrogen of the bean would be assimilated, instead of passing off in the excreIt has been believed by some persons that none but animal food, milk and meat, contained all the elements reTo render the largest possible amount of the nitrogen quired for the support of life; but such an idea is erroneof peas, beans, &c., assimilable, there must be, in the food, ous, for vegetable substances-the grasses, grains, fruits, a corresponding amount of available carbonaceous such-nuts, roots, tubers, &c.-contain all the elements, and in stances; but there is a deficiency of these substances in peas, beans and vetches; consequently, a large portion of their nitrogenous constituents--the true flesh, milk and wool forming principles-are not, when fed alone, assimilated, but voided in the excrements. If the above views are correct, they explain the good effects resulting from Mr. Brown's corn and bean meal mixture. ments. most cases in nearly the same proportion as they are found in animals. Now all these foods possess, in animal nutrition, a three-fold value-1st. Bedies containing nitrogen, like the gluten of corn, wheat and oats. When the flour of wheat is made into a dough, and this dough is washed in water upon a fine sieve, a milky liquid passes through, from which starch gradually subsides; but on the sieve, Beans are, doubtless, a valuable feed for milch cows. In when the water ceases to go through milky, there remains a late number of the London Gardener's Chronicle, Mr. a soft, adherent, tenacious and elastic substance, which can McAdam, of Staffordshire, who keeps a hundred cows, be drawn out into long strings, has scarcely any coler, says, in his experience in the dairy business: "After taste or smell, and is scarcely diminished by washing either, having tried various methods and different sorts of grain, with hot or cold water. This substance is the gluten of as oats, wheat, barley, Indian corn, oil cake, rape, &c., I wheat; and in cabbage and many vegetables there are decidedly prefer bean meal, both for quantity and quality compounds termed vegetable albumen. In peas, beans, of milk and butter." Bean straw, when properly prepared, and vetches, there abounds a substance termed legumin, is a valuable feed for milch cows. Mr. Horsfall says: in composition nearly identical with gluten and albumen. "Bean straw, uncooked, being found to be hard and un- These are called the nitrogenous bodies of vegetable food, palatable, it was steamed to make it soft and pulpy, when as in their chemical qualities they contain from 15 to 20, it possessed an agreeable odor, and imparted its flavor to or more, per cent. of nitrogen, and are nearly identical in the whole mass. It was cut for this purpose just before composition with the muscle, (lean meat,) of animals; the ripening, but after the bean was fully grown, and in this casein or curd of milk, and the albumen or white of eggs; state was found to contain nearly double the amount of and, from their solution in the blood, form the tissues-albuminous matter (so valuable to milch cows) of good muscle-the actual organism. meadow or up-land hay." Whether some of the varieties of our field or garden beans, would be more profitable to grow for feeding purposes, in preference to the English field beans, or not, I have no means of ascertaining. In the Co. GEST. of 25th of last August, it was stated that Mr. C. S. Wainwright, of Duchess county, "had been raising English beans for cattle feeding. His crop last year was successful, and this year it promises a very gratifying yield." Mr. W. is well known as one of the most successful and largest breeders of North Devons in the United States. Mr. WAINWRIGHT would confer a great favor upon many of the readers of the Co. GENT., if he would, through the columns of that paper, favor them with the result of his experience in the culture of the English bean, and the feeding value and profit of the English bean, when contrasted with Indian corn, oats, the common field bean, roots, &c. 2d. Bodies or portions of the food destitute of nitrogen, as the starch, sugar, gum, and woody fibre, as also the oil of seeds, nuts, &c. They consist chemically of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen-the two last, in the same propor tions in which they form water. As the above named substances consist so largely of carbon, they are usually termed carbonaceous portions of food, and by their decomposi tion or digestion they afford the necessary beat to the ani-. mal body. When fed in quantities larger than needed for the keeping up of the required temperature of the system, the overplus, or a portion of it, goes directly to the fat, for it is well known that cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry can be fattened on potatoes, which largely abound in starch-but still those varieties of food which contain the most oil, like Indian corn, oil and cotton-seed cake, fatten animals quickest; and recently, in England, linseed and cod oil have been somewhat extensively fed to fattening cattle. A farmer there fed a pair of North Devon oxen upon linseed oil and barley straw cut into chaff and mixed with a pint of oil per day. "The said oxen were not only fat out Some weeks since, JOHN COUCH, Esq., of Warner, N. H., who is one of the most successful growers of fine wool in that section, purchased in Boston 60 bushels of white beans, of fair quality, for feeding to his sheep. They were put "The organic food must then, in order to meet all the up in flour barrels, and cost him at the Warner Railroad wants of the animal, contain starch, sugar or gum, fatty side, but full of fat within." J |