NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



285 



A Practical Treatise on Manures. — This is the 

 title of a duodecimo of 204 pages, discussing the 

 suhject of manures. It purports to be a republi- 

 cation from the British Society for the diffusion of 

 useful knowledge, and has found its way to our 

 table from some source unknown ; but has the im- 

 print of E. S. Jones & Co., Philadelphia. It speaks 

 of all the various kinds of manures, and occasion- 

 ally of their application. On page 150, in speak- 

 ing of the quantity of ashes necessary to be applied 

 to the acre, it says, — "we think it should never be 

 laid on any land in a less quantity than 800 bush- 

 els per acre." Now we should value ten bushels 

 of ashes as quite a valuable help to any acre of 

 land we possess ; if we could apply twenty, or a 

 hundred bushels to the acre we should like it bet- 

 ter, but would by no means reject it altogether, 

 because we could not apply 800 bushels. From 

 the cursory examination we have found time to give 

 the book, however, we believe there is a great deal 

 in it that is good sound doctrine. Price, and place 

 at which it may be found, unknown.* 



Farmer and Artisan. — W. G. Edmandson, edi- 

 tor and proprietor, Keokuk, Iowa. 



Farmer and Artisan. — Marcian Seavet, editor 

 and proprietor, Portland, Maine. 



These two papers appeared upon our table at the 

 same moment, both with the same title, purposes 

 and interests. Separated by a territory wider than 

 that which composes powerful nations in the old 

 world, and yet but a hand's breadth, as it were, 

 of our extended country. The singular coincidence 

 of the birth of these two papers , excited a train of 

 reflections, among which was that of the magni- 

 tude of agricultural interests, of the increase of 

 publications on the subject, and the popular favor 

 which they are everywhere receiving. 



Both papers are handsomely printed, and filled 

 with instructive articles. We extend to them the 

 right hand of fellowship, welcome them to the 

 broad field of industry, and wish them all success. 



ITALIAN SPRING WHEAT. 



Col. Artemas Fat, of Southboro', has left with 

 us a sample of this wheat, raised by Mr. Asaph 

 Andrews, of Shrewsbury, Mass., which he says 

 averages thirty bushels to the acre, and has done 

 so for the last eight years, on a fair soil ; and one 

 year he raised forty-four bushels to the acre. 



He prepares the seed by soaking it in w r ater — if 

 all the foul seed does not rise, he adds salt to the 

 water, which brings up all the light seed. Sows 

 as many bushels of salt annually per acre, as he 

 does of spring grain of any kind, and thinks he 

 profits by it. Sows wheat after corn. Plants the 

 Button corn, and gets from 75 to* 90 bushels per 

 acre, and says he has gathered this crop for many 

 years past. 



If Mr. Andrews does this, others can do as well, 

 if they know how. 



SWEET POTATOES. 



This vegetable requires a dry, sandy loam, in 

 good condition ; for ordinary crops, it is not nec- 

 essary, however, to be extra rich. In deep and 

 highly manured garden soils the tubers run to a 

 great deptli and are long and slender. I have had 

 them in such soil full two feet long, and one-half 

 to three-fourths of an inch in diameter, eatable 

 the whole length — but the same amount of food 

 iu a potato four to five inches long is in a more 

 desirable form. The form of the tuber is said to 

 depend much on the form of the hill, kind and 

 quality of soil, &c, — all of which I have not fully 

 tested. 



Plants should be set three to four feet apart 

 each way. The form of the hill may be very well 

 represented by a large tin milk pan, bottom side 

 up. Keep clear of weeds, and coil the vines 

 round on the top of the hill. The vines frequent- 

 ly run 15 feet from the hill, if left to take their 

 own course. They should be dug soon after the 

 first severe frost and put away in dry sand. In 

 winter they must not be exposed to frost or mois- 

 ture . — Rural New- Yorker. 



AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS. 



The New York Tribune, in an article on inven- 

 tions, throws out the following important hint for 

 the benefit of inventors and mechanics : — 



And this brings us to the moral we had intend- 

 ed ere this to inculcate — that the field of inven- 

 tion in aid of agriculture is broad, inviting, and to 

 a greater extent still untrodden. We have barely 

 begun to bring the potent resources of science to 

 the aid of the food-grower, and very much is to be 

 done in their development and application within 

 the next ten years. There is now obvious need 

 of a locomotive plow, able to break up and thor- 

 oughly pulverize the soil to the depth of two feet 

 or more if required, at the rate of ten or fifteen 

 acres per day, tossing stones of two or three hun- 

 dred pounds aside and uprooting stumps in its 

 steady progress. The value of such a machine 

 would not be measured by its cheapening of the 

 cost of plowing per acre, for it would prove an an- 

 tidote to drought, and would soon secure at least 

 double the harvest usually obtained from our shal- 

 lowly and shabbily plowed fields. And more : it 

 would enable the farmer to plow at precisely the 

 right time, when his soil is in the proper condi- 

 tion, instead of being obliged to break up the soil 

 out of season and in all weathers in order to have 

 it done at all. Thus the high British estimate of 

 McCormick's reaper is based less on its estimated 

 saving of expense than on the fact that it enables 

 the farmer to take advantage of any temporary 

 break in the dull weather so common there, ana 

 harvest a hundred acres of wheat while he would 

 be saving a quarter of it in the old way. Yet 

 the economy of this and kindred machines is 

 also very great. In the pamphlet before us, we 

 note that the saving by the reaper is variously 

 estimated by farmers who have used it at $15 to 

 $25 per day. 



Why should not our young men of talent and 

 energy devote both to the contemplation of our 

 implements of agriculture, with a, view to their 

 improvement 1 Consider what strides the last cen- 

 tury has witnessed in the improvement of machin- 

 ery for the production of fabrics, while the ma- 



