EXTRACTS AND REPLIES. QUERIES ABOUT HOPS. Island, N. Y., about the year 1817, said he believed nothing in the timber way could be so great MR. BROWN:-For some months past, I have a benefit as the general cultivation of this tree. been thinking of engaging in the cultivation of He carried seeds back to England with him, sowed hops on a small scale, but I hardly know how to them, and says he sold more than a million of the begin. Will you, or some of your correspondents, trees. The seed is ripe in October, and if not please inform me through the Farmer, the whole sown immediately, should be kept in the pods till process of the propagation and cultivation of hops, also with regard to soil and manure to be used. the following spring. It is well to steep the seeds Especially inform me whether they are raised from in cold water before sowing them. the root or the seed, and if from the root, the best time for transplanting. Thus doing, you will much oblige, A SUBSCIBER. Kennebunk, Me., 1854. REMARKS.-Dr. BROWN, of Wilmington, or some gentleman in that land of hops, we have no doubt will reply to these queries. BRITTLE WHEAT STEMS-THE LOCUST TREE. years The other questions we are not able to answer. SHELL-MARL. MR. BROWN:-You will confer a favor upon many of your readers by answering the following questions, through the columns of the New England Farmer. What is the value of shell-marl compared with other fertilizers ? To what kind of soil is it best adapted? Rockingham, Vt., Aug. 28, 1854. T. B. L. MR. BROWN-I wish to inquire through the columns of your valuable paper, what is the cause of wheat straw being brittle? We have a nice piece of wheat which is very heavy headed and of a good growth of straw, but it is very brittle. It will not bear a half day's sun without REMARKS. If you have found a deposit of good being so brittle that it cannot be bound, unless the marl, strongly impregnated with calcareous subdew is on. The land is a mellow loam, with roundish stone in it. It was broken up 4 stances, you will be able to bring your lands into ago, sowed to oats in the spring, and bore a good a high state of fertility. We have seen lands excrop; the next year corn, with a fair crop, it be- hausted with tobacco and wheat crops, in Marying manured in the hill, also some spread on and land, brought into the most luxuriant clover at plowed in. The next crop was corn, with the adonce by the use of marl. The land itself being a dition of more manure, and brought a heavy crop, clay loam. Not having had any particular perand this year wheat. The land is a gentle slope to the south, with wood-land on the west, a part sonal knowledge of the effects of marl in our own of the way. agricultural operations, we prefer to give you the What kind of tree is the locust, and to what opinion of another on the subject, and introduce uses is its wood applied? I never saw any of some extracts from the address of Lord SOMERthem, and you will greatly oblige me, by giving VILLE, President of the Board of Agriculture, in me information about it. If it is of any use as a forest tree, I should be glad to know it, as wood England, some fifty or sixty years ago. He says; is getting scarce here. L. HOWARD. Ludlow, Vt., Aug. 18, 1854. REMARKS.-The locust tree is deciduous, a native] here, and valued highly for its timber-particularly for posts and for ship-building. They are readily propagated by seeds, or by cuttings of the roots, and will grow in almost any soil that is not too wet. They grow rapidly, and are highly ornamental as well as useful tree. Marl is a substance, containing calcareous earth, found in the bowels of the earth, in different situations and at various depths. Clay Marl.-Clay marl is so called from its resemblance to clay, of which it contains a considerable quantity in its composition. It is of many different colors; but all of these agree in one particular point. Stone Marl.-Stone-marl is so called on account of hardness; and differs from the former in being less easily soluble in water. Slate Marl.-Slate-marl is found in thin lamina, In this country there are three popular varieor layers, like slates, and is of a consistence hardties, distinguished by the color of the heart-wood; er than clay, and softer than stone-marl. This viz., the red locust, when the heart-wood is red, substance is also of difficult solution in water. and which is esteemed by far the most beautiful Shell Marl.-Shell-marl is distinguished from and durable timber; the green locust, which is the every other substance of that nature, both by the most common, which has a greenish yellow heart, well as its specific gravity, being less than either shells it contains, and the cohesion of its parts, as and is held next in esteem to the red; and the of them. It is most frequently met with in situawhite locust, which has a white heart, and is con- tions where the ground has formerly been covered sidered the least valuable of all. In the wes- either by lakes or pools of stagnant water. When tern States there is another variety called the the shells are in a fresh state, and covered with black locust. These trees sometimes attain the the enamel on the outside, shell-mar! is of very little value; but when they are in a decayed state, height of 70 or 80 feet. it is by far the richest and most efficacious of any that we are acquainted with. WILLIAM COBBETT, that eccentric genius, when he engaged in farming and gardening on Long The benefit of all marl in agriculture, is, in a great measure, owing to the quantity of calcare-ged branches, throwing themselves straight out ous earth they contain; and according as they with odd twists and angular lines, and might put possess more or less of it, they are more or less one in mind of an old raven with some of his valuable. The principal distinguishing mark of feathers pulled out, or a black cat with her hair good marl is its effervescing readily with the acids. stroked the wrong way, or any other strange, unThis circumstance, while it proves the existence canny thing. Besides this they live almost forof the calcareous earth, may be made use of to de-ever; for when they have grown so old that any termine the quantity of it; which is a matter of respectable tree ought to be thinking of dying, they only take another twist and so live on another hunconsequence for farmers to ascertain. In all cases, therefore, where lime and marl can dred years. I saw some in England seven hunbe obtained with equal ease, a preference should dred years old, and they had grown queerer every be given to lime for deep soils and coarse meadows; century." CHAPIN'S PORTABLE CIDER MILL. The old cider mills of the country which were once considered as indispensable adjuncts to the farm-house, have become sadly dilapidated and out of joint. Cider-orchards as they were called, have also become unfashionable since cider-drinking has given way to tea and coffee, and a better In speaking of turnips, in his article on "Fodder Crops, No. 3," the Editor of the Journal of sort of apples will bring from $10 to $20 per Agriculture illustrates his point by the use of a barrel in European markets;-so that now, one paragraph which he credits to the Monitor, pub-sometimes finds it difficult to get a jug of liquid for mince pies or to replenish the nearly exhausted lished at Bockville, Canada West. By referring vinegar cask. to the Monthly Farmer, for June, p. 284, he will find an editorial article with the title-"Importance of Roots," and in that article the paragraph in question; it was a brief statement of an experiment with our cows in the winter of 1852-3. We find no fault with the Journal, for its editor is scrupulously careful to make the handsome acknowledgment for what he uses; but to show the blundering work occasioned by a neglect to give the proper credits in the first place. Therefore, to enable those who have a few apples to grind and press, to do the work with facility, we give above a cut which represents a Portable Cider Mill. The manufacturers say it is operated by two men, and is capable of making five barrels of cider moved from place to place by two men, and is per day, one barrel at a pressing. It is readily very convenient in neighborhoods. The utility of this mill has been certified to by many reliable men. It is made of a size to be operated by a horse; placed on four wheels and drawn by one horse from place to place, and is capable of making "Here in England, I think, they have vegeta- from 12 to 15 barrels of cider per day, with the ble creations made on purpose to go with old, Either size is taken into the orchard, and saves witched air, with its dusky black leaves and rag-the transportation of apples to distant mills. For the New England Farmer. MESSRS. EDITORS :-In your paper of the 26th of Aug., a writer styling himself Farmer," asks, if lightning rods are not humbugs? stolid ways, you would think them perfectly earthly; but an ethereal fire is all the while working in them, and bursting out in most unexpected little jets of poetry and sentiment, like blossoms on a cactus. Nowhere in Europe is railway travelling so enThere are various kinds of lightning rods, and different modes of erecting them, and "Farmer" Prussia. All is systematic and orderly; no hurtirely convenient as in Germany, particularly in asks which is the best? Why, truly, mine is the best; so each one says. One relies upon its top, The second class cars are, in most points, as good rying or shoving, or disagreeable fuss at stations. another, on its fixtures, another, on something as the first class in England; the conductors are else, for sure protection. But the cause of failure lies not usually in its top, nor in its fixtures, but dignified and gentlemanly; you roll on at a most at the foot of the rod. Here is the place of its agreeable pace from one handsome station-house failure. It does not enter the ground in the best with everything. There is but one drawback to to another, finding yourself disposed to be pleased place, or it has not been well-imbedded in the all this, and that is the smoking.-Mrs. Stowe. earth. It has been my practice for many years to examine, thoroughly, those rods which the lightning has left, to ascertain what, and where, the defect or difficulty was, and I have invariably found it to be at the foot of the rod. Had Franklin's directions been followed, there doubtless would have been no failure. He directed to have the foot of the rod enter the ground in the wettest place about the building. The well was a good place, he said, if convenient, or sinkhole, or put it down so deep as to have it always moist; and at the same time, he would have old iron, or charcoal, which is better, placed about the foot of the rod, so as to form a larger fountain of electricity at the foot of the rod than there was in any other place about the building, for he said lightning would not leave a large fountain of electricity for a small one. Here is sound philosophy and good common sense. And when his directions have been followed, I have not found a failure. NICHOLS' PATENT CORN AND COB CRUSHER AND PULVERIZER. N Some place much reliance on glass insulators, of which there are a number of different patents. But I have found none but what have failed to protect. And why should they not sometimes fail? Electricity will run on glass when wet as well as on anything else. When it lightens, it usually rains, or at least, the atmosphere is so humia that the glass is moist, affording no obstacle to the lightning passing over it. In theory, they seem very scientific, but in practice, they are real scientific humbugs. I might point to lightning This is a most valuable machine for cracking rods with glass insulators, which have uid to corn and cobs previous to passing through millprotect. But as an illustration familiar to all, stones; for crushing and pulverizing corn, and look at the telegraph. Its wires run through cobs, and all other kinds of grain suitably for glass insulators, and yet every year, more or less provender; and for cracking corn alone, making frequently, the lightning comes down upon the it suitable for hominy, and the use of stables. It wires, runs over the glass, demolishing the post on which the glass sits. I have examined hun-is adapted to horse, steam, or water power; will dreds and perhaps thousands of places where the crush a great amount of grain, and remain in aclightning has actually struck, and have always tive use a long time without needing repairs; is found it coming down in connection with the na- easily and quickly regulated to crush or pulvertural fountains of electricity in the earth. These ize grain to any degree of fineness, from coarse to fountains are the oars and veins of water in the that which is very fine; will crush oats and all earth. Find the natural fountains of electricity about the building, and place the foot of the rod other grain of like dimensions,-the necessity of over the largest one, and then you form a railroad which is yearly becoming more apparent, as kerfor the lightning to run safely by the building to the place which it is seeking. Yours truly, Mendon, Sept. 6, 1854. A. H. REED. nels of grain must be denuded of their coating, or pellicle, previous to entering the stomach of any animal whatever in order to be digested and do the animal the greatest good; for even Nature's THE GERMANS.-These Germans seem an odd powerful solvent, the gastric juice of the animal's race, a mixture of clay and spirit-what with stomach, is not equal to the decomposition of the their beer drinking and smoking, and their slow, pellicle covering the kernel of oats. For the New England Farmer. CHAPTER ON HUSBANDRY---No. 3. turn over old mowing land and sow down to grass, and if well manured, a good crop is obtained the next year and no loss of a season in the grass MESSRS. EDITORS:-With your permission I re-crop. sume my chapter No. 3; should any objection- 29. Beverage, or farm drinks, are not out of able matter appear draw your pen across it. I place here,although changed somewhat from former continue with article times. When a boy, I was allowed two swallows 21. Keep clean work around your field-walls; from the old jug, against four swallows with the brambles, briars and bushes denote a slovenly men. But these were emphatically, the days of farmer, and are neither useful or ornamental-badrum and molasses." Every farm was then a well for hay cutters. organized nursery for drunkenness; rum, molasses 22. Plow from the walls and carry the soil into and wormwood, was the established worm vermithe barn-yard or cellar; this drift of vegetable fuge for all the children. Now, men believe that deposite makes excellent manure, but suffered to rum riots in the blood-enrages the brain-deadlie, it proves a rich nursery for bushes. ens the appetite for food-enervates and prostrates 23. Surround your mowing fields with apple- the system-embroils the peace of good neighbortrees; this plan helps out the orcharding, and hoods-brings wreck,ruin and the sheriff to a once avoids shading the land and crops; if your neigh- happy home-and while the outer man works in bor adjoins, (friendly or unfriendly) place your the field and cringes under a blistering sun-he intrees 8 to 10 feet from the wall; this gives the wardly scalds with an unnatural fire, turned into treble advantage of plowing between them and his body at every round or two of the mowingthe wall, and of saving on your own land all the field, and becomes a well-prepared subject for sunfruit that falls, and above all the wrath of the stroke, a broken neck, or a crushed body from his spiteful man, who seeks revenge by chopping off loaded team. Molasses, ginger and water, cold the limbs perpendicularly with the line wall, should they happen to overlie his field. Such depraved instances have occurred, even among men, "professing and calling themselves Christians." 24. Apple-trees thrive best near a stone wall. 25. Never plow land when it is wet; it cakes and hardens and does not easily meilow again; wait if it is a wet spring, (even like the past) and you are the gainer; soil cannot be made too mellow for the tender reaching roots of the vegetable, to whatever class it may belong. It would pay well to plow twice for Spring crops; yet I know how anxious the farmer is to finish plowing, but "Haste often makes waste." water, simple beer, are good and safe substitutes Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 8, 1854. H. P. 26. Never cultivate a two-acre corn-field for a As timber for posts is becoming scarce, it may product of 60 to 75 bushels. The same quantity be well to sow a few quarts of locust seed, to of manure will give the same result on one acre, raise plants for the formation of a grove. It will and nearly one-half the labor is saved; no other not be time for some weeks to sow the seed, and we doctrine will stand law-predicated on the relia-anticipate it, to enable our readers to make the ble principle that the great merit is in the man- necessary preparations. The ground to be selecure, as we all admit; in times of drought it stands ted should be a deep, well-exposed loam; it should better; at harvest time-it is a cornfield. be manured ploughed deep, harrowed, and the 27. Never manure corn in the hill for the rea- seed sown thinly, in drills two inches deep, four son that its roots immediately run away from it feet apart. Before being sown, the seed should and lose its nourishment; spread, and the roots be soaked in hot water for twenty-four hours; will journey through and get the benefit; they are all the seeds which float to be cast aside. The many and long, and seek sustenance on their way. plants, when they come up, must be kept clean. In the hill it forces and looks more vigorous at At one and two years old the young trees will be first-but spread even the little which you design fit to be transplanted. They should then be set for the hill and test fairly the experiment; al-out in a deep, warm soil, which has been well ways plow in manure as soon as spread, to save manured, ploughed, and harrowed, in rows twelve the gases in the soil. feet apart, ten feet asunder in the row, which 28. Top dressing is much in practice, even by will give to each acre 363 trees. In twelve years good farmers; in my humble judgment it is of they will be large enough for posts-and we all doubtful utility, and I will give my reasons. In the know they make durable ones. A grove once set first place, the ground is required to be wet when it is will, after being cut down, renew itself, and furspread, or rain is necessary to soak it into the sur- nish a new supply of post-timber every twelve or face; we will suppose all this to be accomplished fifteen years. and the season's crop is increased, perhaps, near We have stated that these trees might be cut ly sufficient to pay the expense of the dressing, over every twelve or fifteen years for purposes of yet one season exhausts all its value; suppose it fencing, and we will add, that such of those as to have been spread, and it turns out a dry sea- remained from twenty to twenty five years, if son; then dry sand is of about as much value as fair, vigorously grown, healthy trees, would be top-dressing. When grass-land needs to be top- worth three dollars apiece for ship buildingdressed, and it is done, it needs the plow most to would at all times command ready sale to shipfollow and bury it; then, and in after-time you wrights, as also with railroad companies, for use get its fertilizing effects. This is the month to on the tracks. What an acre of land would bring for such purposes, if sold, can easily be calcula-power in writing down what we know. It fixes ted. As a matter of convenience and profit, it is the thoughts; reveals our ignorance; methodises with the owners of land to determine whether our knowledge; aids our memory; and insures their interest would be subserved by setting out a command of language. "Men acquire more knowlgrove of a few acres in extent; the number, of edge," says Bishop Jewell, "by a frequent exercourse, to be determined by the size of their re-cising of their pens, than by the reading of many spective farms.-Am. Farmer. books." HINTS TO YOUNG MEN. The All men of high attainments agree in saying that the more valuable part of every one's education is that which he gives himself. In this there Give a young man a taste for reading, and in is high encouragement to go on and prosper. that single disposition you have furnished him mental accomplishment which is fully within your with a great safeguard. He has found at home reach will double your capacity for action. When that which others have to seek abroad, namely, Aristippus was asked, wherein a learned and unpleasurable excitement. He has learned to think, learned man differed, he replied:"Cast them both, even when his book is no longer in his hand; and naked, on a foreign shore, and you will see." it is for want of thinking that youth go to ruin. Education will do for you, what sculpture does Redeem time for reading.-Perhaps you think for the marble. Hence the famous saying of Socthis impossible; but the busiest life has some rates:-"I marvel that people should be willing to give so much for turning a stone into a man, When I see the large amount of time spent by and so little to prevent a man's turning into a some over the lowest sort of newspapers, I am con- stone."-Tracts for the Times. vinced that the most industrious young man might obtain a few minutes for study; and it is aston- THE FITCHBURG CATTLE SHOW. ishing how much can be learned in a few minutes a day. What cannot be done to-day, may be acThe annual show and plowing match of the complished to-morrow. It is as true of time as of Worcester North Agricultural Society took place money-"Take care of the pence, and the pounds at Fitchburg yesterday. After the usual plowing will take care of themselves." Or as Young more match and the trial of working oxen, a procession poetically expresses it,-"Sands make the moun- was formed under the direction of Col. Ivers tain, moments the year." pauses. Do a little every day.-Constant dropping wears away rock. When Apelles, the famous Greek painter, was asked how he had been able to accomplish so much for art, he replied: "By the observance of one rule-No day without a line." Phillips, the chief marshal, which proceeded to the Unitarian Church. Here an able address was delivered by Gov. Washburn. The church was crowded. At its conclusion, the procession reformed and proceeded to the Fitchburg Hotel, where the society and its friends dined. The president of the society, Hon. Moses Wood, preexcellent practical address. He spoke of the rugsided, and introduced the speaking by a clear and Be not discouraged by difficulties.-These are chiefly at the start. The French proverb says truly "It is only the first step that costs.". The tree of knowledge has a rough trunk, but deged character of North Worcester, the need there licious fruit. You must crack the shell, to come at the kernel. Be assured that a little resolution here will insure success. was of such efforts as this society are making, and the value of the encouragement given by the state to this and kindred societies. He was folBegin at the beginning.-Do not smile: the lowed by Mr. Flint, the secretary of the board of rule is important, and broken every day, in every agriculture, Governor Washburn, Hon. Nathaniel employment. In unravelling a tangled thread, Wood, and Mr. Brooks, in eloquent speeches.— who does not know that everything depends on The several committees made their reports at the getting hold of the end? Just so is it in learn- Town Hall, at 4 1-2 o'clock in the afternoon. This exhibition is pronounced the most successNever be ashamed to learn.-And in conformity ful of this society. The show of fruit was excelto this, never be ashamed to confess your igno- lent, as was that of mechanical and manufactured rance, in the presence of those who have more articles. These were exhibited in the hall of the information than yourself. Many of us would be wiser, if it had not been for the conceit of being wise enough already. ing. Value the smallest fragments of knowledge.-In manufactories of gold, I have observed that they save the very sweepings of the floors, and put network at the windows: the little morsels and fine dust of the precious metals, thus saved in this city, amount to hundreds of dollars in a year. new town house. The ladies, as usual, patriotically contributed in this work; and specimens of taste and skill were seen not only from the parlor, but the kitchen; but the premiums on bread were only awarded "to ladies less than twenty years of age." The day was beautiful, and thousands of the citizens of North Worcester thronged the streets of Fitchburg.-Boston Post. Lay aside a little money to buy books.-There A BIRD SEEKING LODGINGS.-During the cold are certain books which every man should possess as his own and every reading man desires by degrees to gather a little library for his wife and children. A trifling sum, set aside each month, and redeemed from amusements or luxuries. wil soon give an account of itself on your shelves. storm of Monday night, at a late hour, a small bird knocked for admittance at a window of a hotel which was illuminated by a light within. The occupant, supposing the noise to be the pattering of hail against the pane, gave it no attention. Presently the "rapping" commenced again, when Employ your pn.-This counsel, though less the window was opened and in flew the little creafrequently given than others, is nevertheless far ture, apparently delighted to get into comfortable from being superfluous. There is a marvellous quarters, and confident of shelter and safety. |