METEOROLOGY. 229 



his houses may be; for, depend upon it, ventilation will not cure disease, although it will go 

 a long way to prevent it, if assisted by order and cleanliness on the part of careful servants. 

 And here I may observe that, at all times, servants ought to be allowed by their masters 

 proper time for this part of their duty, for assuredly no part of their employment will in the 

 end remunerate the farmer better than when their stock is carefully and faithfully attended 

 to. In respect to cattle-boxes, where perhaps two cattle are loose and fed together, the dung 

 there, if the cattle are littered every day, may, without fear of doing injury by any oifensive 

 emanations, be allowed to lie for a month or six weeks, because, as the dung is firmly trodden 

 down by the cattle going loose, the ammonia cannot escape, and hence no injury can arise. 

 When the dung is removed, a little gypsum thrown over the floor (if water cannot be had) 

 will completely absorb the ammonia and moisture, and the atmosphere again become healthy. 

 It is a very common method to admit fresh air into a building for farm-stock by latticed 

 windows, but as these allow a direct current of cold air at an improper place, the plan is cer- 

 tainly objectionable, at any rate, for stables, which ought to be kept at a temperature of about 

 55° in winter, and from 60° to 65° in summer. Cow-byres, however, should be kept much 

 cooler, and therefore ought to have more air-holes or ventiducts than stables, which would 

 allow a temperature ranging from 55° to 60°. In order, however, that a good supply of air 

 may at all times be admitted, air-holes or ventiducts should be made through the wall behind 

 the cattle, at say every ten or twelve feet on each side of the entrance or outside door. Into 

 these openings, which may be made through the wall two feet above the floor, tubes of wood 

 or iron should be inserted four or five inches in diameter, or they may be made square, with 

 a grating on the outside end to prevent the ingress of rats or mice. The outside end of the 

 tube should be made flush with the wall when fixed in it, and its length should be five inches 

 less than the wall's thickness, in order that a groove may be cut of that depth and width from 

 its mouth downwards to within six inches of the floor. On this groove a thin flag or board 

 of two inches in thickness should be fixed flush with the wall inside, and the air is admitted 

 indirectly into the building below the end or bottom of the flag, and about six inches from 

 the floor, by an aperture which will be five inches wide and three deep. 



Grapes Ripening Earlier than Usual. 



The editor of the American Agriculturist states that in a recent conversation with an emi- 

 nent fruit-grower in the \ricinity of New York City, he was informed that the Isabella and 

 Catawba grapes are evidently ripening earlier from year to year. Ten to twelve years since, 

 the earliest bunches of Isabellas were ready for market about the 1st of October. The past 

 season they were equally forward on the 12th of September; this season has, however, been 

 a remarkable one, and some allowance is to be made on that account; but last year, and the 

 year before, the grapes were as mature about the 18th of September as formerly at the end 

 of that month. The authority referred to thinks the Isabella may be cultivated much farther 

 north than has been generally supposed, by reducing the amount of fruit to the vine, so 

 that there may be a greater flow of sap, and by this means an earlier growth and maturity 

 secured. He thinks much more depends upon the method of manuring, pruning, and the 

 general plan of cultivation than upon climate, since they often ripen poorly even in Virginia 

 and Maryland when improperly managed, and yet, in the same season, ripen well in Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Influence of Locality on the Growth and Ripening of Fruit-Trees. 



The Genesee Farmer publishes the following extract from an address by J. A. Matson, 

 Esq., before the Greencastle Horticultural Society, Indiana, which contains some useful hints 

 relative to the location of fruit orchards: — 



Another subject on fruit culture, which has always been of great interest, and has become 

 much more so within the last two years, is the destruction of fruits by hard freezing in win- 

 ter and by the late frosts of spring. Nearly all the orchards planted by the early settlers 

 of the West were located in the valleys, and, wherever practicable, near the margin of some 

 river or stream of water. This was done under the impression that the effects of the frosts 



