iSi 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



ear flies back, and the husk, which remains in the 

 hand, is thrown into a sort of hopper over the ma- 

 chine and is at once torn into shreds ready for mat- 

 tress making. I should think, when the machine 

 is in full motion, one child could husk at the rate 

 of 2 ears a second. It is a great invention. 



I noticed also "Kedzie's rain-water filter," man- 

 ufactured by J. E. Cheney & Co., Rochester, N. Y. ; 

 one of the boys that we used to see running about 

 the streets of Newport, N. H., when we rejoiced 

 in our youth, under the firm of "French & Brown," 

 in that beautiful village. I saw the practical result 

 of this filter, by which muddy and offensive water 

 was in a short time rendered perfectly pure and 

 drinkable. 



I have not yet been about visiting the stock, of 

 which it is said the show is not as good as was an- 

 ticipated. The show of horses is very splendid, 

 and I saw some Durham bulls this morning that 

 were very fine — fully equal to those famous bulls 

 of Bashan of which we have all read. 



I must make a note of some other matters for 

 a future letter, as I see plainly I shall not leave 

 here till late next week. 



The celebrities expected from different portions 

 of the Union, to grace this occasion, have not all 

 arrived, and probably we shall not see Lord Napier, 

 Ex-President Pierce, Vice President Breckinridge 

 (whose lady is sick) and some others who were ex- 

 pected. Our exhibition is now honored with the 

 presence of Gov. Morehead, Ex-Governor Powell, 

 Ex-Secretary Guthrie, Hon. Linn Boyd, all of Ken- 

 tucky, Gov. Willard, of Indiana and others not 

 now remembered. 



Our friend. Major Poore, is a working man, and 

 has been engaged early and late in his office ; but 

 no one has been inquired for or sought after more 

 than he has. He "struck a rich lead" with that 

 wheelbarrow, and without it, he was, and is, worthy 

 of all honor, for he is a genuine good fellow. God 

 bless him ! 



I have written this in the President's tent, amid 

 very many interruptions ; and may possibly write 

 again before I leave glorious Old Kentucky. 



Your friend, B. B. French. 



Louisville, Ky., Sept. 2d, 1857. 



For the iVew England Fanner. 



UNDERDRAINING. 



Mr. Editor : — I have read many articles in 

 your valuable paper, within the last few years, upon 

 the benefit of under draining, and am fully con- 

 vinced of its utility. The theory cannot be ques- 

 tioned. I am now about testing it practically, for 

 myself, to ascertain, (as we Yankees often ask) "If 

 it will pay." 



To talk, or write upon the beneficial effects of 

 underdraining, causing "two blades of grass to grow 

 where but one grew before," is easy, and a little 

 poetical, but when I wield the heavy pick and 



spade from morn till night, in a ditch of mud, the 

 poetry is changed to sombre prose, and I involun- 

 tarily ask, "will it pay ?" Being a tyro at the bus- 

 iness, I should be very happy to receive a little 

 practical information of the modus operandi. 



The land which I wish to underdrain has an 

 eastern inclination of from two to three degrees, 

 quite uniform ; to the west the land rises some half 

 a mile and is used as a pasture. The water from 

 this pasture, with what there is in soil of the piece, 

 renders it too wet to be plowed early in the season. 

 I have staked out the drains up and down the hill 

 some thirty to forty feet apart, and thought of 

 settling them three and half feet deep, and laying 

 a stone culvert and filling with small stone to with- 

 in eighteen inches of the surface. The soil is a 

 slaty loam, resting upon a clayey hard pan at about 

 two feet. I open the drain with a plow, and by 

 using a strong ox in a single yoke, am able to loos- 

 en up the dirt to the pan ; the rest is loosened with 

 the pick. Is it of importance to settle the drains 

 much below the hard pan ? I find it necessary 

 to have the ditch a foot and a half wide at the bot- 

 tom, for a stone drain. There is work in digging 

 such a ditch. I believe a ditch for tile might be 

 dug with one-half the labor. 



Can you inform me where tile can be obtained, 

 and at what price ? If drain tile are better than 

 stone, and as some assert, cheaper, I should like to 

 use them. J. R. Walker. 



Springfield, VL, August 14, 1857. 



Remarks. — You say you have "staked out the 

 drains up and down the hill some thirty to forty 

 feet apart," — that is very well, but the springs from 

 the high land must first be cut off by a lateral 

 drain and turned into those you have staked out, 

 then your drains up and down the hill may be fifty 

 feet apart. See advertisement, in weekly and 

 monthly Farmer, of the prices of tile manufactured 

 at Whately, Mass., by James M, Crafts. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CHINESE SUGAR CANE, AND SYRUP. 



I procured last winter from Nourse & Co, some 

 Chinese Cane seed, and have now stalks growing 

 that are 8 or 9 feet high and 4 inches in circumfer- 

 ence. Will you please inform me and others through 

 your valuable paper when is the proper time to cut 

 it for syrup or fodder ? also, will the juice be as 

 rich if the cane is allowed to seed ? 



A Subscriber. 



Guilford, Conn., Aug., 1857. 



Remarks. — We have had repeated inquiries 

 made in relation to the time of harvesing, and the 

 mode of expressing the juice from the sugar cane. 

 With regard to the first, we quote from Mr. Hyde's 

 treatise on the Cane, all we can find space for at 

 present. As to getting out the juice, it is not prob- 

 able that many persons will go to the expense of 

 purchasing a mill in the present uncertain state of 

 the whole matter. Each one must exercise his inge- 

 nuity and do the best he can until it is more clear 

 that the results will justify a larger outlay. But 



