AGRICULTURE. 



65 



walnut-cake, over which boiling water is poured 

 and bran and salt added. In a short time, the cattle 

 cast their hair, grow smooth, round, and fat, and so 

 improved as to double their value to the butcher. 

 The tomato or love-apple (solanum ly coper sicum), so 

 extensively used in Italian cookery, forms an article 

 of field-culture near Pompeii, and especially in 

 Sicily, from whence it is sent to Naples, Rome, an<i 

 several towns on the Mediterranean sea. AGRI- 

 CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The 

 territory of the United States is very extensive, and 

 presents almost every variety of soil and climate. 

 The agriculture of this wide-spread country embraces 

 all the products of European cultivation, together 

 with some (such as sugar and indigo) which are 

 rarely made objects of tillage In any part of Europe. 

 A full description of the agriculture of these states 

 would require a large volume. We shall confine 

 ourselves to such sketches as we may deem of most 

 practical importance to those who are or intend to 

 become cultivators of North American soil. The 

 farms of the Eastern, Northern, and Middle States 

 consist, generally, of from 50 to 200 acres, seldom 

 rising to more than 300, and generally falling short 

 of 200 acres. These farms are enclosed, and divided 

 either by stone walls, or rail fences made of timber, 

 hedges not being common. The building first 

 erected on a " new lot," or on a tract of land not 

 yet cleared from its native growth of timber, is what 

 is called a log-house. This is a hut or cabin made 

 of round, straight logs, about a foot in diameter, 

 lying on each other, and notched in at the corners. 

 The intervals between the logs are filled with slips 

 of wood, and the crevices generally stopped with 

 mortar made of clay. The fire-place commonly 

 consists of rough stones, so placed as to form a 

 hearth, on which wood may be burned. Sometimes 

 these stones are made to assume the form of a 

 chimney, and are carried up through the roof; and 

 sometimes a hole in the roof is the only substitute 

 for a chimney. The roof is made of rafters, form- 

 ing an acute angle at the summit of the erection, 

 and is covered with shingles, commonly split from 

 pine-trees, or with bark, peeled from the hemlock 

 (p\:ius Canadensis). When the occupant or " first 

 settler" of this " new land " finds himself in " com- 

 fortable circumstances," he builds what is styled a 

 " frame house," composed of timber, held together 

 by tenons, mortises, and pins, and boarded, shingled, 

 and clap-boarded on the outside, and often painted 

 white, sometimes red. Houses of this kind generally 

 contain a dining room and kitchen and three or four 

 bed-rooms on the same floor. They are rarely 

 destitute of good cellars, which the nature of the 

 climate renders almost indispensable. The farm- 

 buildings consist of a barn, proportioned to the size 

 of the farm, with stalls for horses and cows on each 

 side, and a threshing-floor in the middle ; and the 

 more wealthy farmers add a cellar under the barn, a 

 part of which receives the manure from the stalls, 

 and another part serves as a store-room for roots, 

 &c. for feeding stock. What is called a corn-barn is 

 likewise very common, which is built exclusively for 

 storing the ears of Indian corn. The sleepers of 

 this building are generally set up four or five feet 

 from the ground, on smooth stone posts or pillars, 

 which rats, mice, or other vermin cannot ascend. 

 With regard to the best manner of clearing forest- 

 land from its natural growth of timber, the following 

 observations may be of use to a " first settler." In 

 those parts of the country where wood is of but little 

 value, the trees are felled in one of the summer 

 months, the earlier in the season the better, as the 

 stumps will be less apt to sprout, and the trees will 

 liave a longer time to dry. The trees lie till the 



following spring, when sucli limbs as are not very 

 near the ground should be cut off, that they may 

 burn the better. Fire must be put to them in the 

 driest part of the month of May, or. if the whole of 

 that month prove wet, it may be applied in the be- 

 ginning of June. Only the bodies of the trees will 

 remain after burning, and some of them will be 

 burned into pieces. Those which require to be 

 made shorter are cut in pieces nearly of a length, 

 drawn together by oxen, piled in close heaps, and 

 burned, such trees and logs being reserved as may 

 be needed for fencing the lot. The heating of the 

 soil so, destroys the green roots ; and the ashes made 

 by the burning are so beneficial as manure to the 

 land, that it will produce a good crop of wheat or 

 Indian corn without ploughing, hoeing, or manuring. 

 If new land lie in such a situation that its natural 

 growth may turn to better account, whether for 

 timber or fire-wood, it will be an unpardonable 

 waste to burn the wood on the ground. But if the 

 trees be taken off, the land must be ploughed after 

 clearing, or it will not produce a crop of any kind. 

 The following remarks on this subject are extracted 

 from some observations by Samuel Preston, of 

 Stockport, Pennsylvania, a very observing cultiva- 

 tor. They were first published in the New England 

 Farmer, Boston, Massachusetts, and may prove 

 serviceable to settlers on uncleared lands. Previous 

 to undertaking to clear lands, Mr Preston advises, 

 " 1st. Take a view of all large trees, and see which 

 way they may be felled for the greatest number of 

 small trees to be felled along-side or on them. After 

 felling the large trees, only lop down their limbs ; 

 but ail such as are felled near them should be cut in 

 suitable lengths for two men to roll and pile about 

 the large trees, by which means they may be nearly 

 all burned up, without cutting into lengths, or the 

 expense of a strong team, to draw them together. 

 2d. Fell all the other trees parallel, and cut them 

 into suitable lengths, that they may be readily rolled 

 together without a team, always cutting the largest 

 trees first, that the smallest may be loose on the top, 

 to feed the fires. 3d. On hill-sides, fell the timber 

 in a level direction ; then the logs will roll together ; 

 but if the trees are felled down-hill, all the logs 

 must be turned round before they can be rolled, and 

 there will be stumps in the way. 4th. By following 

 these directions, two men may readily heap and burn 

 most of the timber, without requiring any team ; and 

 perhaps the brands and the remains of the log-heaps 

 may all be wanted to burn up the old, fallen trees. 

 After proceeding as directed, the ground will be 

 clear for a team and sled to draw the remains of the 

 heaps where they may be wanted round the old logs. 

 Never attempt either to chop or draw a large log, 

 until the size and weight are reduced by fire. The 

 more fire-heaps there are made on the clearing, the 

 jetter, particularly about the old logs, where there 

 s rotten wood. The best time of the year to 

 Fell the timber in a great measure depends on the 

 season's being wet or dry. Most people prefer hav- 

 ng it felled in the month of June, when the leaves 

 are of full size. Then, by spreading the leaves and 

 jrush over the ground (for they should not be heap- 

 ed), if there should be a very dry time the next May, 

 ire may be turned through it, and will burn the 

 eaves, limbs, and top of the ground, so that a very 

 rood crop of Indian corn and pumpkins may be 

 aised among the logs by hoeing. After these crops 

 come off, the land may be cleared and sowed late 

 with rye and timothy grass, or with oats and timothy 

 n the spring. If what is called a good burn cannot 

 je had in May, keep the fire out until some very 

 dry time in July or August ; then clear off the land 

 and sow wheat or rye and timothy, harrowing 



