28 



THE FARMERS MONTHLY VISITOR. February, \B^2. 



muck ; in the otlier heap he put as many dollars 

 worth tif new slaked hme and mixed this with 

 the heap as he had mixed the ashes. VVitliinlen 

 days the muck Iieap wliich contained the ashes 

 had become ijuitc hot, and lie carted this heap to 

 his field and used it for a crop of potatoes. T 

 ashes caused tlie ra|)id decomposition of the 

 fibrous matter of the muck and made excellent 

 manure, giving him an unusual harvest of pota- 

 toes. 



But the heap in which he put the slaked lime 

 did not ferment — the lime seemed to have no 

 operation upon it — the mixture caused no heat, 

 and the whole mas.s seemed of very little service 

 on his potato field. Still we constantly sec lime 

 recommended by those who guess at con.^equen- 

 ces, but will take no method to prove clearly its 

 nee on lands. 



Capt. Porter manaaes his little farm in a very 

 judicious manner, fle has a fine cellar under 

 his large barn where he keeps his manures, his 

 pigs, and his roots to feed them. His cows are 

 in excellent order and are as clean as most cows 

 in the sunulier season, since a gutter behind them 

 conveys all the liiiuid manure directly into the 

 cellar, and the remainder falls below the planks 

 on which the hind feet of the cows stand. — Mass. 

 Ploughman. 



Form the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Subsoil Ploughing. 

 Mr. Editor-t-I am glad to see the notice of a 

 day's ploughing, imder the auspices of the Penn- 

 sylvania Agricultural Society, for the purpose of 

 testing the merits of the Centre-draught plough, 

 as also for the trial of the subsoil plough, an in- 

 strument of whii-li we hear so much and know 

 so little. I had understood that thoy were always 

 made of inonstroii:* size, requiring great power 

 of draught, but Mr. ProiUy informs us the plough 

 intended for trial is to be a two-horse ijlough 

 only, and if with that we are enabled to break up 

 our subsoils, I shall coni'ider the implement above 

 all price, for although 1 .have never witnessed the 

 operatioii, I am prepared to expect the greatest 

 and best results from a jnode of management 

 ■which carries conviction to the mind of every 

 practical man. The efiectof a pulverized subsoil 

 must indeed be i)eculiarly friendly to the growth 

 of potatoes, while to any crop, be it of what de- 

 scription it luighl, its power of retaining moisture 

 in a season of drought, or of permitting a super- 

 abundance to pass away, must be of paramount 

 importance to any soil. 



In a late number of the Southe.'Ji Cidtivator 

 mention is made of a person who, " while taking 

 in his corn fodder, observed a great difference 

 between two pieces which were plantod at the 

 same time and in the same soil : the fodder in 

 one piece of ground dried up so fast that he could 

 scarcely get through with stripping it, bcfoTC it 

 was entirely burnt up, to use the common phra-'^e ; 

 when, on going to the other piece, he fbimd it 

 green to the ground, and in good plight for strip- 

 ping. He was struck with this diflferencc in the 

 two lots of corn, and, on reflection, recollected 

 that, on getting ready to plant his corn in the 

 spring, he ran a furrow with a large bar-share 

 plough, after which he followed with .-i small 

 |)lough, called a Bidl-tongue, running it pretty 

 deep in the same furrow, until he had proceeded 

 over half the piece, when he concluded to plant 

 the balance in the single furrow, and discontinu- 

 ed the use of the bull-tongue. The result was, 

 the part plained in the opening made by the small 

 plough, where the large one had been previously 

 nm, produced a tliird more fodder, and of abetter 

 quality than that planted in the shallow one made 

 by the large plough alone ; besides the great dif- 

 ference there must be in the weight of the corn 

 when dryini; too fast, for the purpose of niakinjx 

 hread. This should ho rrniemhered, and the 

 evils of slmllow |il;;iiting l)f avoided." Now, here 

 was an iiislancc of sul.isoilinu' on a very simple 

 plyr., wliicli all iiiiuht adopt and reap the benefit 

 of, wiiliout luucli e.Mia i-n.-tor labor. I look for- 

 ^^•aril to tliR trial of the ahovo ploughs M'.tli very 

 great iiitm-^st, and consider tliat Mr. Prouty has 

 taken just the best mode possible to bring his 

 ploughs into notice. 1 hope he will provide a 

 very strong span of horses. 



A. C. 



The Cut-VVokbi.— My corn i\ns been almos 

 totally destroyed several times by the deprcda 



tions of the cut-worm ; in fact, their ravages have 

 become truly alarming. I have resorted" to vari- 

 ous expedients to avoid this great evil, but have 

 observed that the lands ploughed in the fall, the 

 winter, and the spring, botU in the sanio field and 

 in different fields, to sulFer equally by the mischief 

 occasioned by the cut-worm. I flatter myself, 

 however, with the belief that I have at length dis- 

 covered a remedy for this scourge, which consists 

 in mowing the crop — not feeding it. I connnonly 

 mow for iiay in the sixth month, and again in the 

 fall for seed ; then, early the next spring, I plough 

 up the same field for corn, and have never known 

 a ])iece of land thus prepared to be attacked hy 

 the cut-worm. One close mowing in the eighth 

 month may probably answer the same purpose ; 

 but of this I am not so positive. In the few cases 

 which have come uinlcr my notice, however, the 

 plan seemed to answer. Now, I am not prepared 

 to otier any reason lor the success of this plan ; 

 it may be that the egg of the fly being deposited 

 on the high grass, is carried with the hay into the 

 the barn ; or it may be destroyed by the scorch- 

 ing rays of the sun on the removal of the crop ; 

 or the fly may seek other fields better adapted to 

 their purpose than that which is fresh mown. I 

 e.\pect to make farther observation respecting 

 this very interesting matter, but wish the reader 

 of the Cabinet to know all that 1 know about it at 

 present, and to profit hy the information if they 

 will. — Farmers' Cabinet. 



rdlCAJAH T. JOHNSON. 

 Short Creek, Harrison Co., Ohio, 23d of 1st mo., 

 1842. 



The Yankees : Their Mode of Begging. — 

 Our Yankees, if they beg at all, never beg as 

 other people do — once a month perhaps you are 

 accosted by somebody well-clothed, and so well- 

 fed that he would not touch your cold victuals, 

 who has been shipwrecked, or starved out — per- 

 haps by the deluge, perhaps by the last eruption 

 of Vesuvius, or the last earthquakes of the south, 

 and who comes up to you with a specific sum, or 

 specific article ; and even this he will ask of you 

 as one neighbor would ask it of another. A ii;w 

 years ago a fellow who had lost his arm in the 

 late war, as he said, for which he enjoyed a |ien- 

 sion of eight dollars a month, went about among 

 our houses on the Sabbath day, refusingfood, but 

 demanding foin-pence-balf-pciinies, which were 

 given him, I dare .say, at almost every door. He 

 probably picked up, therefore, about irve times as 

 much as another would by a hard day's v\ork. 

 Such men live by travelling, spend their time as 

 they like, and eat of the iiit of the land. They 

 have literally retired from business; they beg for 

 sport, and live upon their incomes. 



But to give the rentier a more failhfiil idea of 

 the imimdence of a Yankee beggar — he should 

 be wished a happy new year by some hoy in the 

 street ; and after giving a smooth nine pence have 

 him turn it over, and eye it, and perhaps ask if it 

 would pass for more than half a pistareen ? 



The very beggar alluded to above, in the course 

 oi" conversation at the door of a friend's house, 

 let fall a remark which, apart from the pension 

 advrited to by him, proved that he was not obli- 

 ged to beg for a livelihood — he was returning from 

 ^it to his relations in a distant part of the 

 country ; they were poorly ofl^, and he had been 

 trying to g-ive them a lift. 



I knew ot" one who walked up to the window 

 of a room where a laige company were taking 

 tea. A good iiHtured girl handed him out a plate 

 of cakes, for him to choose one for himself He 

 took the plate and emptied the whole into his bag 

 with a look that sltowed he knew belter. Yet 

 the scoundrel got olT without a horse wliipi)ing. 

 PortsnwtUh Trihime. 



Fifteen Minutes to Spare. 



In passing liom one engagement to another, 

 during the day, there are often small portions of 

 time for which many make no special provision, 

 .-uid so lo.-'e them entirely. A good economist, 

 however, of lime, which is money, and to many 

 their only capital, will always have something to 

 fill up these sjiaces. Put together they make days 

 and months and years, and are worth saving.— 

 Some persons are so constituted, that it is next 

 to impo.^sible for them to be systematic, method- 

 ical, and steadily and continuously diligent. They 

 can work only by fits and .starts; and they work 

 best when the spirit moves liiem, compensating. 



by the earnestness and enei'gy with which they 

 labor, for the seasons during which they loaf or 

 lounge. Such gentlemen of genius are, however, 

 rare ; a good inany lazy fellows, who imagine 

 themselves members of this class, having, in iiict, 

 no right to be ranked with them, and deserving 

 to be talked to first (or their idleness, and second- 

 ly for iheir impudence in trying to excuse their 

 drone-like propensities, by pretending to he like 

 the few eccentric great men, who are, in respect 

 to the way in which they do things, a law unto 

 themselves. Most people, to accomplish any 

 thing, need to be constantly industrious ; and for 

 them, it is wiser never to have "fifteen minutes 

 to spare," and always to have some little matter 

 to which they can turn their hand. A certain 

 mathematician, we liii-j;rt who, is said to have 

 composeil an chihoiate woik, when visiting with 

 his wife, during the imcrval of lime between the 

 moment when she first started to take leave of 

 their friends, and the moment she had fairly fin- 

 ished her last words. We heard once of a young 

 man, eager for knowledge, who read the whole 

 of Hume's History of England whilst waiting, at 

 his hoarding house, for his meals to be served. — 

 No excuse is more common for ignorance, than a 

 want of time to learn ; and no excuse is more 

 frequently false. Jt is not always false. Uncon- 

 sciously one may get engrossed in business and 

 entangled with engagements, so that he cannot 

 well release himself and escape. But it is bad to 

 do this ; and against it one should be on his 

 guard. In many cases, however, such entire oc- 

 cupation of time is not the fact; it is only imag- 

 ined to be the fiict. Every body, every day, wastes 

 moments, if not hours, which might be devoted 

 to useful ends. "Where there is a will, there is 

 always a way," says the proverb. A systematic 

 arrangement of business, habits of rigid punctu- 

 ality, and a determination to gather up the frag- 

 ments, will enable a man to make wonderful ad- 

 ditions to his stock of knowledge. The small 

 stones which fill up the crevices have almost as 

 nmch to do with making the fair and firm wall as 

 the great rocks : so the right and wise use of 

 spare moments contributes not a little to the 

 building up in good proportions and with 

 strength, a man's mind. Because we arc mer- 

 chants and mechanics, we need not be ignorant 

 of all that lies without the boundaries of the 

 counting-room or the shop. Because the good 

 woman looketh well to her household, she need 

 not abstain entirely from looking into hooks. If 

 to make money, oi' get a dinner, the mind must 

 be entirely neglected, it were belter lo be poor 

 and starve. But there is no such necessity as this 

 as any one may discover, who will with justi- 

 fiable avarice make good use of every "filtcen 

 minutes he has to spare." — Muiwi/port Herald. 



To WASH Iro.n or Steel with Copper. — Dis- 

 solve sulphate of copper in water, in the propor- 

 tion of one lo three ; wash iron or steel with it, 

 and it will instantly be covered with reduced 

 copjier. This is best performed by applying the 

 solution with a brush, which must be followed 

 directly with a sponge of clear w.iter. In this 

 manner any letters or figures may be drawn with 

 a camel-hair pencil or a pen, and if it be on pol- 

 ished steel, the letters or flowers will assume the 

 brilliaucy of the steel, and appear like highly 

 polished copper. It may sometimes be requisite 

 to cleanse the metal by washing it with diluted 

 muriatic acid, that the copper may adhere the 

 more readily. If the steel thus ornamented be 

 held over a charcoal fire, the copper figures be- 

 come blue first; and when the steel becomes 

 blue, the copper lakes a gold colour ; but is re- 

 stored airain to its original color by diluted mu- 

 riatic acid. 



Coloring Walls.— It may not be generally 

 known, particularly in the country, that blue vit- 

 riol, when mixed with lime, foims a very beauti- 

 ful as well as exceedingly cheap coloring matter 

 for walks. Take good lime and slack it as usual, 

 one and a half pounds of blue vitriol, dissolve the 

 chrystals with boiling water, when dissolved mix 

 it with the white-wash, and add one pound of 

 glue well dissolved. Tliis should he prepared in 

 a glue pot if possible, to prevent its being burned 

 or scorched. When well mixed the first coat 

 must be put on horizontally, or from side to side, 

 and the second coat vertically, or iij) and down. 

 The wall will be of a bright blue color, rcscni- 



