558 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec. 



as good ground, we planted the same kinds of 

 potatoes in compost manure, and the coal ashes, 

 single handed, turned out the largest, best, fairest 

 and most numerous quantity of potatoes. In re- 

 ality, they were the best we raised on the farm. 

 Almost side by side, in compost manure, our po- 

 tatoes were somewhat infected with rot ; in the 

 ashes they were all healthy and sound almost to 

 a potato. 



In kindling fires, it is true, we use shavings 

 and a little light wood, but the quantity I con- 

 sider almost too insignificant to take into the ac- 

 count. 



These experiments convince us that as a ferti- 

 lizer, anthracite coal ashes possess the life and 

 energy to produce the above effects on common 

 crops. Hence, whatever theoretical lecturers or 

 writers may present to undervalue the better 

 qualities of the article, while it continues to im- 

 prove quantities and qualities of grass, and give 

 us sounder and larger crops of potatoes, we con- 

 clude to give it an honorable standing among 

 the general agents which have long held undis- 

 puted station in the farmers' compost. 



South Groton, Oct., 1859. Wm. Leonard. 



■WINTEK BARLEY. 



Winter barley is a variety of grain that has 

 only been tried in this State for a few years, and 

 has not yet got largely into cultivation. 

 Wherever it has been given a fair chance, it has 

 done well, as we know by the crops which we 

 have seen. In a letter to the Branch County lie- 

 publican, Mr. James Clisbee, a well known and 

 prominent farmer, thus writes of winter barley : 



"The winter barley has been grown in this vi- 

 cinity for the last three years, and is, consequent- 

 ly, no longer an experiment. With us it has 

 done well in every instance where it has had any 

 chance. The general yield is from 20 to 24 bush- 

 els to the acre. Judging from Avhat we have seen 

 of the grain, it is capable of yielding 80 bushels 

 per acre. During the past season, it has been 

 raised by the side of spring barley, and has pro- 

 duced four bushels to one of the spiing variety. 

 Mr. Amos Culver, of this place, (Quincy,) has 

 raised during the past season 60 bushels per acre 

 on oat stubble once plowed, or 180 bushels on 

 three acres, and on laud that has been cropped 

 for eight years in succession. 



We think it has decided advantages over 

 spring barley, viz : 



L It may be sown after farmers get through 

 with their hurry in sowing winter wheat. 



2. It may be harvested before wheat is ripe. 



3. It has no black, or false heads. 



4. It yields two to one, at least. 



5. The insect will not hurt it in the fall, and it 

 is so early that the weevil will not hurt it. 



We are in hopes this barley will prove a sub- 

 stitute for the wheat crop, if we should be obliged 

 to give up the cultivation of that grain in conse- 

 quence of the insects and weevil, which at pres- 

 ent threaten its destruction in Michigan. 



This variety of barley should be sown some- 

 time between the 15th of September and the 1st 

 of November, requiring about two bushels of seed 

 per acre. It will ripen ten days earlier than 

 wheat, and leaves the ground in good condition 

 for that grain. — Michigan Farmer. 



For the New England Farmet , 

 THE HYDBAULIC RAM. 



Mr. Brow^N: — Some months ago I sent you 

 an article upon the hyraulic ram. One of your 

 readers reminds me that something more was 

 promised. 



Perhaps I had better, at once, give you my ex- 

 perience. In the spring of 1858, I bought a hy- 

 draulic ram, and about one thousand feet of half- 

 inch lead pipe. At the time, the pipe was in the 

 ground, and the ram in the mud. It had been 

 set up where the fall was wholly insufficient, and 

 had proved of little value. 



I placed the ram near a little pond in my nur- 

 sery, from which there is a fall of four feet. 



The driving pipe is stout inch and a half size, 

 and sixteen feet long. The service pipe is half 

 inch size — weighs twelve ounces to the foot. This 

 is laid along in the brook, from the dam to the 

 Assabet River ; then on the bed of the river to 

 the opposite shore. I there dug a trench two and 

 a half feet deep, to the barn and houses, where 

 the water is carried. It was an interesting mo- 

 ment, I will confess, when I watched at last for 

 the water at the end of the pipe a fifth of a mile 

 from the ram, that, it was hoped, might force it 

 there. I was engaged in this work of getting the 

 ram in operation while the country was on tip- 

 toe about the Atlantic cable. I had dragged my 

 ■"able through a body of water (!) and felt, like 

 Mr. Cyrus W. Field, some anxiety. The water 

 came! It was, "All right — De Sauty!" 



This advantage about the ram was soon mani- 

 fest. Wherever I wanted the water, there I could 

 have it. I was bound to no "level of the spring." 

 I arranged to have an outlet in the barn-yard 

 for the cows to drink as they came in at night ; 

 — one in front of the cattle in the barn, where are 

 watered twenty-five head with pails, during the 

 winter ; and one in front of the horses. 



I also laid a side pipe into a rented house, 

 which supplied two tenants, who had previously 

 pulled up all their water with an "old oaken buck- 

 et," without ever discovering the poetry about 

 the thing either ! 



Then I attached another branch pipe which 

 carries the stream into my own dwelling-house, 

 where it keeps tv/o barrels full in a closet adjoin- 

 ing the chambers. Although I have two good 

 pumps at the sinks in the kitchens, it is less work 

 to draw down the water from the barrels when a 

 large quantity is required, as on wash-days. 



I consider these barrels of water, with pails 

 near, a great safeguard against fire. 



Then, having the water in every place where 

 it could be of use, I attached another pipe to the 

 "main," which, with a suitable nozzle, aff"orded 

 me a pretty fountain. To be sure, it was not much 

 like the Croton, or Cochituate fountains, but I 

 liked it far better. It was in my door-yard! The 

 site of the fountain is about fifteen feet above the 

 ram. The jet is thrown fifteen feet high. 



Not long after I got the machine in operation, 

 leaves and dirt got in and stopped its working. 

 This annoyance I easily remedied by making the 

 little enclosure at the dam, double, and packing 

 the space between the double boarding, with 

 sawdust ; so that the water was strained before 

 entering the driving pipe. I found out, too, that 

 it was not well to have a small strainer immedi- 



