EDITOR'S TABLE. 



85 



tj, [aine Farmer: Devoted to AgT«cnlture, Mechanic Arta 

 ; General Intelligence. Ezekiel Holmes, Editor. Au- 

 J a, Ga. : Kussell Eaton, Publisher. AVeekly. $1.75. 



ranite Farmer and Visitor : Devoted to Agriculture, 

 iculture. Manufactwea, the Mechanic Arts, Literature 

 General Intelligence. C. E. Potter and Levi Bart- 

 Editors. Manchester, N. II. : J. U. Potter & Co., 



prietors. "Weekly. $1.50. 



he Massachusetts Ploughman : For Farmers and Me- 



lios. Wm. Buckminster, Editor. Boston: W. & W. 



luokminster, Publishers. Weekly. |3. 



he Boston Cultivator. Jas. Pedder and Sanford How- 

 Editors of the Agricultural Department. Boston, 

 s.: O. Brewer, Publisher and Proprietor. Weekly. $3. 



he Practical Farmer: A Weekly Home Journal of 



tical Agriculture and Horticulture, Mechanic's Litera- 

 News, &c. Wm. 8. King, Editor ; Prof. J. J. Mapes 

 L. Bartlett, Associates. Boston : W^m. S. King & Co., 

 Ushers. $3. 

 iilturist and Gazette. Stephen Reed, A. M., Editor. 



field, Muss. : Reed, Hull &; Pieraoa, Publishers. 



kly. SI. 



ne Country Gentleman. J. J. Thomas and H. F. 



ren. Editors. Albany, N. Y, : Luther Tucker, Pub- 

 r and Proprietop. Weekly. $2. 

 oore's Rural New Yorker. Joseph Harris and Ed- 

 1 Webster. Editors. Rochester. N. Y. : D. D. T. 

 re, Publisher and Proprietor. Weekly, $2. 

 *e American Agriculturist: Designed to Improve the 

 ner, the Planter and the Gardener. A. B. Allen and 

 ige Judd, A. M., Editors. New York: Allen & Co., 

 I Ifcshers. Weekly. $2. 

 le Ohio Farmer and Mechanic's Assistant. Thomas 

 ,vn. Editor. Cleveland, O. : Thomas Prown, Proprie- 



Weeldy. $2. 

 ormantown Ttlegraph : A Family and an Agricultural 

 cr. P. R. Freas, Editor. Philadelphia : P. R. Freas 

 o., Publishers. Weekly. £3. 



HE Power of different Soils to retain Water. 

 it n experiment which any one- may try for himself, will 

 V much plainer than words the relative power pos- 

 ed by different kinds of sails to retain water and ita 

 :)lved contents. Put on a paper filter (strainer) half an 

 :e of dry pulverized clay, and on another half an ounce 

 and. Pour water over each, and weigh them as soon 

 le filtration h-as ceased. The clay will weigh three- 

 iths of an ounce, and the sand only one-eighth of an 

 ce, more than before. With very coarse sand, the in- 

 ise in weight will be still less. Clay is insoluble in 

 er, but, Bponge-like, it can retain a large quantity of it. 

 ice the importance of underdrainiog cold, wet soils, in 

 er to render them warmer and dryer, 

 .gain : expose an ounce of thoroughly dried clay to the 

 for some weeks, when it will be found to have gained 

 veight. This increase in weight results from the ab- 

 ptton of water, carbonic acid and ammonia. The smell 

 1 convince you of the presence of ammonia. Or more 

 ■sfactory still, mix it thoroughly with quick lime and a 

 ' drops of water, when the smell of ammonia {or harts- 

 ■n) will be distinctly perceived. By this experiment is 

 n the utility of exposing clayey soils to the action of 

 frosts of winter, by throwing it up in ridges and letting 

 emain till spring; but the full benefit of that, or any 

 er mode of tillage and pulverizalion, cannot be realized 

 Lhout svstematic and efficient drainage. 



Pulverization of Soils. — A writer in the Lojidon 

 Agricultural Gazette says that "you may talk to a boy by 

 the hour on the advantage of stirring the soil and of deep 

 cultivation, inasmuch as it admits the air more perfectly 

 throughout the substance of the soil, and thereby facili- 

 tates the chemical processes by which the soil and its con- 

 tents are fitted as the food of plants ; but no quantity of 

 verbal instruction will equal in its force, either upon the 

 nnderatanding or memory, the lesson on that subject which 

 that same boy would receive, if, after having dug a hole in 

 the hardened ground, he were told to put into it again all 

 the earth he had just taken out of it. The heap remaiinng 

 over, which he could not return to its place, would repre- 

 sent more distinctly to him the bulk of additional air thus 

 introduced into the soil by its drsturbance, than any argu- 

 ment unsupported by this simple experiment could do." 



Sheep from Vermont to Virginia. — The Frederick 

 (Md.) Examiner states that a flock of 1800 sheep were 

 driven past its ofiico on their way from Vermont to Fau- 

 quier county, Va. From the fact that several other large 

 flocks have recently been driven to Fauquier county, the 

 conclusion is that the formers of that region are entering 

 largely into the wool business. And we would add that 

 in no other way can they improve their lands and reftlixe 

 a fair profit, than by attention to sheep and wool-growing. 

 Nearly one-third of the wool iLsed by our manufacturers 

 is imix)rt,ed from foreign countries ; and the money thus 

 paid out, if kept at home, would add largely to our own 

 ability to purchase as well as consume. 



Old Horses. — At the New Hampshire State Fair, Gen. 

 W. P. RiPDLE, of Manchester, entered the lists with a 

 pair of white horses, one of which was twenty-six and the 

 other twenty-eight years old. The way in which these old 

 chaps came to the right about face at the end of the fur- 

 rows without long rein or driver, evidently showed that 

 they had been well drilled under the discipline of the 

 General during the past quarter of a century, as they 

 finished their task in nineteen minutes, with Doe's No. 6 

 plow, with a sharp-edged revolving cutter. 



The managers of the Salisbnry Iron Works say that 

 from an experience of sixty years, they had ascertained 

 tlie most profitable period for cutting timber for fuel was 

 to cut once in about sixteen years, when every thing was 

 removed of a proper size, and the wood left entirely to 

 itself for renewed growth. 



A COMI'ANY of capitalists have purchased thirty thou- 

 sand acres of land in Atlantic county. New Jersey, to bo 

 divided into shares ef twenty acre farms. The land is 

 situated upon the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. It is 

 said that the prcyect has been received with so much favor 

 that but a moiety of shares remained unsold. 



We can furnish bound copies of the Genesee Farmer 

 for 1854 by the first of January, 1855. Those who wish 

 them should send in their orders at once. 



