Proceedings of tee Fabmers^ Club, \ -fQ'S ^v 



lately been abandoned in the Prussian army. The saving^^fr^sing (/j^ 

 nitro-glycerine arises from the fact that it is several iimGS^^B^^eC p 

 powerful than gunpowder, and consequently requires a hole of lesS"^ m 

 diameter than that drilled for the reception of powder. If the 

 amount of rock to be removed is large, it will pay to use nitro- 

 glycerine; but if it is essential to use the limestone raised for 

 building purposes, the object will be best attained by using gun- 

 powder. 



FLAX CHIVES. 



Mr. H. C. Randolph, Plainfield, N. Y. — Are flax chives good for 

 mulching blackberry bushes? Some say they injure plants, others 

 say not. My soil is a clay loam. 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — Yes; and when rotted they make good 

 manure. 



HARVESTING EST CALIFORNIA. 



Mr. T. Woodhaus, Santa Clara, Cal. — An account of harvesting 

 in California may interest many of 3'our members. The climate of 

 California (no rain in the season of harvest) is peculiarly favorable 

 to securing the crops by machinery. The cereals are the only 

 crops raised there to any considerable extent — wheat being the 

 principal crop, and yielding from fifteen to as high as forty bushels 

 to the acre, or even more in some locations, but that is not com- 

 mon. The great disparity between the price of labor and the pro- 

 ducts of the harvest, as compared with the East, may account for 

 the waste we often make in the hurry of hai'vesting in California. 

 The account of my harvesting, as given below, is a fair specimen 

 of the usual mode of harvesting. Threshing is always included 

 in the harvest work, as much as the reaping, and is done iu the 

 field where the wheat grows. Where the grain stands up, and 

 the land is tolerably level, it is harvested with a clipper; this 

 requires a force of ten horses, seven men, and three large box 

 wagons. With this force, I enter my field, the clipper going in 

 front of the horses, cutting a space eleven feet wide, which is thrown 

 on the elevator belt and carried up into the accompanying wagon. 

 As soon as that is filled another takes its place. It takes three 

 •wagons and seven men to keep the clipper going and stack the 

 grain. The stacks are made ten to twelve paces square, and near 

 enough together to allow a thresher to stand between them. I was 

 eight days in thus getting cut and stacked ninety-eight acres, and 

 paid two dollars an acre, and boarded the hands. Once stacked, 

 it may safely stand some weeks till we get a thresher. The grain 



