66 



To have good Crops. — Needle maldng. 



Vol. VIII. 



and proper rotation, I should calculate upon 

 as my security for a good crop, always. I 

 believe this practice to be not only the best 

 preventive of winter-killing and injury from 

 drought, but also of injury from the fly. By 

 this practice you secure a robust constitu- 

 tion to the plant, and, of consequence, thus 

 enable it to withstand, without harm, the 

 pressure upon the sap vessels occasioned by 

 the flaxseed pupa of the fly, as it becomes 

 embedded in its surface. In illustration of 

 the good effects of deep ploughing, I will 

 refer to the practice of garden culture. 

 Who ever doubted that deep spading — even 

 two or three spits deep — was not only useful, 

 but necessary to success"? And in what 

 does a garden differ from a farml In size, — 

 nothing else. 



Manure cannot always be obtained, nor 

 can enough be made by every one for the 

 whole farm. But a vast amount may be ob- 

 tained and made, more than is now usually 

 done. By a little management, the manure 

 now made may be increased in value, with- 

 out increase of quantity. . Properly con- 

 structed manure pits should be prepared, 

 with shed roofs to protect their contents 

 from the effects of rain and sunshine. All 

 manure should be deposited m the pits while 

 fresh, — before the rain has washed away its 

 salts, or the heat of the sun evaporated its 

 volatile principles. Every kind of vegetable 

 and animal offal should be thrown into the 

 manure pits. The pits should be so situated 

 near the barn or under it, that they would 

 receive the urine of all the animals. There 

 should be two pits, that the contents of one 

 might be digesting, while the other was re- 

 ceiving materials. The mode of preparing 

 the manure, time of applying it to the land, 

 the quantity to be applied to the acre, the 

 mode of application, &c., &c., are, and of 

 necessity must be, left to the discretion of 

 the farmer. There is, however, one kind of 

 manure that I think is too much neglected, 

 and it is often the only one that can be made 

 available. I allude to turning in green crops. 

 Turning in a clover lay for this purpose, is 

 common enough; but I think the object may 

 be attained more quickly by turning in crops 

 of corn sown broadcast. Two, if not three 

 crops of corn, could be grown and turned in, 

 in the course of a season. That this kirid 

 of manure should afford all the benefit of 

 which it is capable, the land should have 

 been previously limed ; or, if not previously 

 done, a good dressing of lime should be 

 turned in with the young corn. 



General principles suit all, and the details 

 of their application must be varied to suit 

 each particular case. In conclusion, theo- 

 retical knowledge is invaluable to a farmer, 



as it is to all other professions, but it requires 

 practical knowledge, intelligent persever- 

 ance, and untiring industry, to carry out its 

 principles and produce their fhll effects. 



Gideon B. Smith. 



Needle Making. — The following descrip- 

 tion of a needle factory at Haverstraw, will 

 be specially interesting to female readers: 



Among the curious things I was per- 

 mitted to examine, nothing awakened so 

 much interest as the machinery for making 

 needles. Let every good housewife rejoice 

 with me. We are no longer to be depend- 

 ent on foreign countries for an article of 

 such primary necessity as needles. This, I 

 am told, is the first attempt of the kind in 

 America, and is now almost perfected. I 

 saw needles in various stages of the pro- 

 cesses by which they are made, from the 

 wire prepared on the same premises, and 

 was surprised at the facility afforded by the 

 curious machinery which human ingenuity 

 has invented to lessen the manual labour, 

 and multiply the results of the numerous 

 operations. The wire is first cut into 

 lengths, which will make two needles each. 

 The depressions where the eyes are to be 

 made, and where the grooves are found in 

 the finished article, are stamped in both 

 needles by a single stroke of a machine, 

 with which a single hand can turn off thirty 

 thousand in a day. It is then turned over 

 to a boy, who with another machine punches 

 the eyes, and again, another separates the 

 two needles, and smooths away any irregu- 

 larities left or made by the former processes. 

 But the eye of the needle is still rough, and 

 must be bored by another process, which 

 leaves it so smooth as not to cut the thread. 

 After this, a man grinds a handful at a time 

 on a common grindstone, holding them in 

 his left hand, and giving them a perpetual 

 rotary motion with the right, so that, when 

 the operation is finished, they may be round 

 as well as sharp. They are now to be 

 "case-hardened," and finally burnished, all 

 which is done by simple processes, in which 

 immense numbers can be subjected to the 

 operation at the same time. — Christian In- 

 telligencer. 



Nitrate of Soda on Strawberries. — 



The proportion in which nitrate of soda has 

 been successfully applied to strawberries, is 

 three ounces to the square yard, sprinkled 

 regularly over the surface of the bed just 

 as the plants are beginning to grow. Al- 

 though it may injure the foremost leaves, 

 the succeeding one will soon put forth with 

 redoubled vigor. 



