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In behalf of working farmers I will thank you for not Jerating us, as most ag- 
ricultural writers do, for our ignorance and~stolidity. We could improve our 
farms if it would pay, but most of us need present profits. 
FRUIT CULTURE IN MARYLAND. 
Baltimore County, Md—This county contains a great deal of unimproved 
land of good quality, though situated so near the large city of Baltimore, where 
amarket is found for anything the husbandman can raise. The waste and 
unimproved lands will be rapidly turned into cultivated farms, pomological 
gardens, &c. The great enemy to agriculture and improvement was slavery, 
and marked changes must take place where the institution existed. Itis worthy 
of note that the greatest care is being taken by farmers and others iggregard to 
fruit culture, and an enormous number of young orchards have been planted 
with apples The grape is also receiving much attention, while the pear, so 
long neglected, is not behind in the list. : 
HOG CHOLERA. 
Bedford, Indiana.—TVhe hog cholera has been more than ordinarily destructive 
in this county the present season, and unless some remedy be devised against its 
ravages the farmers will be compelled to abandon pork-raising as too hazardous. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 
Hamilton county, Ohio—I give you a statement in reference to experiments 
tried the last season, but first let me say that the last winter was the worst on 
fall grain I have experienced in thirty years, the ground being dry and bare and 
the grain seriously injured. I soaked my seed wheat in a solution of blue vitriol 
and salt. ‘The grain was badly affected with smut. It came up strong and grew 
well, stood the winter, and gave nearly a full crop, while one-half the wheat in 
the neighborhood scarcely paid for cutting. For my potatoes and corn I used 
super-phosphate of lime, a small handful in the hill, at the rate of about two 
hundred pounds to the acre; land naturally rich, upland soil ; planted the pota- 
toes in alternate rows with the lime; amount of land, one acre. Result, 200 
bushels of potatoes with the lime, 100 bushels without it. I thus obtained 100 
bushels of potatoes for three dollars, the cost of the lime, as it cost no more to 
cultivate with than without the lime. The experiment with the corn gave about 
one third more with the lime than without it. 
POTATO ROT. 
Clinton county, Ohio—Our potato crop bid fair to average 200 bushels to the 
acre, but the wet weather in the latter part of the season caused them torot. It 
was not the common potato rot, but an incident attributable entirely to a super- 
abundance of water. Over blind ditches and on our dryest ground they did 
not rot. 
HARDY GRAPES, UNDERDRAINING, ETC. 
Sandusky, Ohio—In my vineyard last season the following varieties of grapes 
had fair crops in about the ordernamed: York, Madeira, Oporto, Logan, Clinton, 
Concord, Hartford Prolific, Creveling, Delaware, and Catawba. These vines 
had no protection, though the thermometer runs.as low as 12° below zero. 
* * * We seldom or never fail ofa crop of apples in this locality. 1 exhibited 
at our State fair 150 varieties and took the first premium. The apple tree grows 
so luxuriantly and bears so profusely here that it is hardly appreciated, and the 
quality is far superior to that grown in the eastern States. I have been much 
surprised when travelling in Kngland to find apples with so little flavor, and 
