No. 8. 



Ploughing near Salerno. — Agricultural School 



235 



j^ear when applied — the subsequent wea- 

 ther — the nature of the soil — the lay of the 

 land — the quantity of the manure yielding- 

 carbonic acid — the quantity of carbonic acid 

 produced in the surrounding country — and 

 numerous other circumstances tiiat have 

 occuired to my mind, but do not now pre- 

 sent themselves. Under these circum- 

 stances I should advise this course to be 

 pursued: give but a handful of ashes to a 

 hill at the time of planting, and if at an ad- 

 vanced stage of growth the tops look very 

 green and luxuriant, sow good ashes over 

 them when the dew is on in the morning, 

 until tiiey look light with them. If after 

 this you observe the luxuriance still con- 

 tinue, and the soft leaves die and turn black 

 and crisped, lose no time in giving them a 

 heavy dressing of good ashes; or if such 

 ashes be not at hand, take your refuse salt 

 from your fish and pork barrels and scatter 

 it thinly over the patch every few days, 

 until the potatoes again present a healthy 

 appearance. Such a course, judiciously pur- 

 sued, will not fiiil to secure a large and 

 healthy crop of potatoes when there is dan- 

 ger of disease ; and where the danger is 

 greatest, there will the extra produce be 

 sufficient abundantly to repay the trouble 

 and expense of the application of the pre- 

 ventives — not taking into consideration the 

 advantage of a healthy crop. 



Trusting that the foregoing remarks may 

 be of some, service, I remain 



Yours, &c., 



Chemico. 



Wilkesbarre, Feb. 23rd, 1846. 



Ploughing near Salerno. 



The fields being without fences, have an 

 open look ; and the mingling of men and 

 women together in their cultivation, gives 

 them a chequered appearance, and renders 

 them very picturesque. In the middle of a 

 large green wheat field would be a group of 

 men and women weeding the grain; the red 

 petticoats and the blue spencers of the latter 

 contrasting beautifully with the colour of 

 the fields. In one plot of ground I saw a 

 team and a mode of ploughing quite unique, 

 yet withal very simple. The earth was 

 soft, as if already broken up, and needed 

 only a little mellowing: to effect this, a 

 man had harnessed his wife to a plough, 

 which she dragged to and fro with all the 

 patience of an ox, he in the mean time 

 holding it behind, as if he had been accus- 

 tomed to drive, and she to go. She, with a 

 strap around her breast, leaning gently for- 

 ward, and he bowed over the plough behind, 



presented a most curious picture in the mid- 

 dle of a field. The plough heie is a very 

 simple instrument, having but one handle, 

 and no share, but in its place a pointed piece 

 of wood, sometimes shod with iron, project- 

 ing forward like a spear; and which merely 

 passes through the ground like a sharp-point- 

 ed stick, without turning a stnoolh furrow 

 like our own. — Lellers from Italy. 



Agricultural School. 



Dr. Lee commences the Now Year by 

 announcing that he has made arrangements 

 with Gen. Rawson Harmon, of Wheatland, 

 Monroe county, N. Y., to open an Agricul- 

 tural School for Western New York. It 

 will be located on Gen. H.'s farm, which 

 contains 200 acres of improved land, under 

 excellent cultivation. 



Gen. Harmon's farm is regarded as admi- 

 rably adapted to the establishment of such 

 an institution. He turns out some 1.5,000 

 bushels of superior seed wheat every year, 

 beside considerable seed corn, and between 

 45 and 50 fine wooled bucks. As a breeder 

 of sheep, he has few equals in the country. 

 His facilities for soiling, or for keeping up 

 sheep, cows and swine, can be estimated by 

 practical farmers, when they are informed 

 that his basement rooms, walled in with 

 stone laid in with lime morter, cover an 

 area of 8,916 square feet — or more than the 

 whole basement surface of seveii 30 by 40 

 feet barns. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



Old Bread the Best. — It has been found 

 that baked bread on the first day produces 

 from seventy-one to sevejity-nine per cent, 

 of nutritive matter, while that five days old 

 yields from eighty-one to eighty-two per 

 cent. New bread loses the five per cent, of 

 its weight by evaporation in cooling. Aside 

 from the advantages of stale bread in its nu- 

 tritive matter, it is more wholesome, more 

 easily digested, has more taste and is sweet- 

 er; while new bread lies heavily in the sto- 

 mach and is of difficult digestion. With 

 these advantages it is strange that most 

 people reject stale bread or prefer the new. 

 It has been found that, on feeding the poor, 

 very stale bread mixed with soup is far more 

 satisfying than any other they can obtain. 

 Thus the labouring classes consume one- 

 eighth more bread than would be necessary 

 if^stale bread were used ; or a family that 

 consumed six pounds of bread per day would 

 expend, at the present price, some ten dol- 

 lars more a year by eating new, than by 

 eating stale bread, with all the other disad- 

 vantages we have mentioned. 



