1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



431 



been collecting for ages, which I think makes 

 the best of muck. I also tried the same muck on 

 a subsoil of clay, for potatoes. I plowed the 

 ground and harrowed ; on one part of the field I 

 used fine horse manure in the hill, on the other 

 part I used muck, and the potatoes were much 

 more numerous, larger and better for the table 

 than those where I used horse manure. I think 

 there is great difference in muck. That which is 

 composed of decayed vegetation, in low places, in 

 woodland, is far preferable to that taken out of 

 swamps. C. H. Rood. 



West Windsor, Vt,, 1861. 



MOWERS — CORRECTION. 



I find two mistakes in the last Farmer in the 

 report I sent you of the mowing trial at Vernon, 

 viz : 



The Pony should be 162 pounds draft, instead 

 of 225, as you have it ; you have omitted the two- 

 horse 4 feet cut, draft 225 pounds, of Woods. * 

 Charles T. Parsons. 



Northampton, August 5, 1861. 



IRON GRIST-MILLS. 



In the Farmer of March 5. 1859, you insert a 

 plate of an iron grist-mill. Can you give me any 

 information in regard to the success of the mill, 

 durability, cost, &c. ? I wish to purchase a mill 

 to be propelled by water power. 



Sutton, July, 1861. B. L. Batcheller. 



Remarks. — We have no information on this 

 matter that would be valuable to you. 



STKAWBEHBT CUIiTURB. 



The last week in August is a good time to 

 transplant strawberry plants. A small piece of 

 land, and a little labor bestowed upon it by the 

 women — if the men cannot attend to it — once or 

 twice a week, will give a family of six or eight 

 persons a liberal supply of this delicious and 

 wholesome fruit. None need be without them 

 who have a square rod of spare land, as the 

 plants are hardy, and only need to be kept free 

 from weeds, and supplied with plenty of water. 

 There is no necessity that the land shall be made 

 very rich. Soil that will produce good corn will 

 bring good strawberries. Everybody has soap 

 suds, and most persons in the country have wood 

 ashes. Let the suds be applied freely in the early 

 part of the season, say until the fruit has fairly 

 set, and then continue with water that has been 

 standing through the day in the sun. Once a 

 week scatter a little ashes between the rows and 

 rake it in, and if Heaven sends sunshine and 

 warmth, a plentiful crop will be the result. 



There is no secret about raising strawberries. 

 Some persons are deterred from cultivating them 

 because they think some peculiar process must 

 be observed; but there is no need of this. The 

 process Is as simple as that of planting potatoes, 

 as they will grow, and do well, under any fair 



treatment, where they can have plenty of moist- 

 ure. But to be definite we give the process of 

 "Mrs. Baker," of Manchester, N. H., as we find 

 it detailed by her in the Journal of Agriculture. 

 She says : — "Late in the fall, after all the harvest- 

 ing is done, I dig up my old vines and throw 

 them into the hog pen. Then I spade the ground 

 six or eight inches deep. Then make beds three 

 feet wide and two feet alleys : set the most thrif- 

 ty young plants across the bed, ten plants in a 

 row, and rows about six inches apart. Then cover 

 them with leaves from the forest, and the work is 

 done, until spring. In the spring I sprinkle ash- 

 es over them, not disturbing them at all. As 

 soon as the crowns begin to show themselves 

 above the leaves, I water them every morning, for 

 a while. Then again in bloom. Then at grain- 

 ing of the fruit. I picked eighty quarts of big 

 strawberries from a small patch of about one rod 

 and a quarter." 



Her method is good one, and a considerable 

 degree of her success is undoubtedly derived from 

 the liberal watering they receive. The young 

 plants which she sets are probably the runners 

 which have gone out from the old plants and 

 taken root. 



THE DEAD SEA. 



One's first feeling, indeed, on gaining the beach 

 and looking out on the vast expanse of its rippling 

 waves dancing brightly in the sun, and reflecting 

 the glorious blue of the cloudless heavens, is one 

 of surprise at finding so little to distinguish it 

 from any other lake or sea. There can be no 

 doubt, however, that much of the pleasing impres- 

 sion thus produced, is due to the fact that after 

 riding for hours beneath a broiling sky and over 

 a burning soil, the very sight of water affords an 

 enjoyment of the intensest kind. It is necessary 

 only to stand for a little while by the side of that 

 sea, and to contemplate the depressing loneliness 

 and desolation that reign around, in order to re- 

 alize the character that truly belongs to it. Not 

 one solitary skiff sails that sea — not one solitary 

 fish swims in its waters — not one solitary habita- 

 tion, far as the eye or telescope can range, can be 

 descried within sight of its shores — no sustenance 

 for either beast or man, neither grass nor grain, 

 does the sterile region by which it is encircled, 

 yield ; and yet this is the very region that was 

 once the paradise of the land. Truly, "Sodom and 

 Gomorrah and the cities about them are set forth 

 for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal 

 fire." And yet sterile and dreary as is even the 

 northern end of the lake, the aspect of the coun- 

 try around the southern shore is more repulsive 

 still. It is, therefore, literally "all the plain," 

 from the one extremity to the other, which God 

 has overthrown. 



Improvement in Stock. — It is stated that iu 

 1839 the average weight of horned beasts from 

 Ireland, sold in the London market, was 640 

 pounds ; the present year the average is 736 

 pounds each. 



