Tire gext:see farmer. 



though it is, is capnble of being increased tonfoUl, 



as only onc-tenih of the fertile lauds of tins State | 



are believed to be yet brought under cultivaUon. | 



Of the prairie fanns, he says: "Some corn, 



[grain] fields are of uncommon magnitude. One| 



vast sweep of 2,200 acres was all in new-sown 



wheat, a sparkling sheet of verdure in the morning 



gxin. The towns, most of which are not four years 



old are growing rapidly. There is a plan of gomg 



'shares,' in which a prudent farm-laborer meets 



witli great success. He has a farm given to hun 



to cultivate, fenced and broken up and seeded; he 



performs the rest of the labor and carries on the 



farm, and pays his rent by delivering at the nearest 



station the half of the crop." 



The pioneer of a settlement on the prairie, own- 

 ing 2,500 acres, after telling him his history, and 

 adverting to the failure of the crops in 1858 havmg 

 disheartened the farmers, concludes with: "But 

 personally he had no apprehension, as he had the 

 utmost confidence in the natural fertility of the 

 Boil, which he did not believe could be exhausted." 

 He called on a dairy farmer from the Eastern 

 States, and says: "He has a dairy stock of thirty- 

 eight cows, and makes his milk into cheese. He 

 cm sell his cheese on the spot at 42s. a cwt., [about 

 eight cents a pound,] which is not far short of the 

 average price realized by dairy farmers in Scotland, 

 ^v-here the rent is higher than the price of land m 

 Illinois. He finds the natural prairie grass very 

 productive of milk till September. His cows yield 

 him two pounds of cheese each, daily, during the 

 period of good grass, and they can be foddered very 

 cheaply during the winter on prairie hay." 



He says : " The same sum which would be needed 

 to start one son as a fanner on anotlier man's high • 

 rented land in England, would start three sons as 

 the owners of farms, fenced, stocked and under 

 crops, on the fine prairies of Illinois." 



LUPINS FOR ENBICHING LAIID. 



Cement foe Roofs, Ikco^ibustible Wash, &c.— 

 In answer to the inquiry of 0. P., I Avould say : 

 Slack stone lime in a large tub, or barrel, witli 

 boiling water, covering the tub to keep m the steam. 

 T\-hen thus slacked, pass it through a fine sieve 

 Kow, to six quarts of this hme add one quart ot 

 rock salt, and one gallon of water ; boU the mix- 

 ture, and skim it clean. To every five gallons ot 

 this mixture, add one pound of alum, half a pound 

 of copperas, and, by slow degrees, three-fourths 

 of a pound of potash, and four quarts of fine sand. 

 This mixture will now admit of any coloring mat- 

 ter you choose, and may be apphed with a brush. 

 It looks better than paint, is as durable as slate, 

 and will stop small leaks in roofs, rendering^ them 

 incombustible. When laid upon brick work, it ren- 

 ders the brick impervious to ram or wet.— L. Davis. 



In the April number of the Genesee Farmer, we 

 gave a out of the lupin, and recommended its trial 

 on the poor light soils of the Atlantic slope as a 

 green manure. The London Marh Lcme Bcprm, 

 for April 25th, contains an article on this subject, 

 from an "English farmer in Belgium," which fully 

 confirms all that we have said of the value of this 

 plant. We make a few extracts : 



" In Germanv, there are whole districts of the 

 very poorest sands. For some few years past on 

 these soils the agriculturists, or rather the propria 

 tors on these miserable lands, have been much im- 

 pressed with the immense advantages to be derived 

 from tiie ''Yellow Lupin;' as a green crop to bo 

 plowed in. It is so effective that, where it has 

 been followed up, as in Pomerania, Saxony and 

 Braudenbourg, those estates, which before wero 

 worthless, now produce splendid crops o rye and 

 lupins, without any manure being employed but 

 that which arises from these crops. 



"It is not a high-growing plant, but very leafy, 

 and branches much ; consequently it may be dnllec 

 thinly at eighteen inches, and hoed or not, as yor 

 please. It is a sort of bean with a spotted skm 

 Lwn in the spring at the rate of two bushels pe, 

 acre, and plowed m when m full flower. Tb 

 ground may be then sown again with it, and tha 

 crop also biiried. I should say after the first frost 

 but in Germany they sow it after harvest and turr 

 it down in the spring for rye or oats, and have thui 

 obtained a white crop and this 'manure crop fo 

 three or four years together on the sanie land! 



"If it would stand our winters, it is just wha 



we want to occupy our stubbles from harvest t 



February, and it is well worth trying. There ar. 



many gentlemen in the north of Germany who gro% 



as many as one hundred and twenty to two hun 



dred acres of this plant annually, as the tarms ru: 



larcre They grow it for corn, and also occasional], 



cut^t for hay. The grain ripens in August ; but^ 



is difficult to harvest, because the plant it.ell is s 



succulent, and the pods do not all ripen at the sam 



time It is mown in swaths, and, after laymg 



few days, is set up in single sheaves, as we do som« 



t mes our beans with a bean-stalk twisted roun 



near the top of the sheaf, the lower par stand n 



out like an umbrella. Another difficulty is, th 



pods are so liable to open, and shed the grain. Bi 



there are ways to meet all this. One man mat 



.mall stacks of it, with alternate layers of oa 



.traw: it heated a little, gave the oat-strawa ti; 



vor, and dried itself without iujurmg the grain. 



" It might be made into long stacks of only tv, 

 sheaves in width, and the height of long poles s. 

 in the ground on each side, at intervals of a doz 

 yards, fo keep them up. I ha^;e seen this done wi 

 the cammeline oil plant ; but I can not see why tl 

 French plan of round shocks of a dozen sheav 

 with three-hood sheaves should not answer and 

 let them remain out some weeks, tiU thereby dr 

 and then carted home in wagons, with old tilts 

 the bottom to catch the shed lupins 



"Another man had it half thrashed m the fiel 

 lads going round and giving each sheaf half a doz. 

 , knocks with a stick, and shocking them. Thia 



