204 



THE ILLmOIS FAEMEPw. 



July 



The Best Time to Sow Grass Seed. 



I have an impression that experimental knowl- 

 edge is the most valuable for the farmer. For 

 more than half a century I have been experiment- 

 ing to find the best time to sow griiss seed. For 

 more than 30 of the first years of my farming, I 

 did as my neighbors did ; we supposed that the 

 spring months were the only proper ones for that 

 purpose. But later in life, by reading agricultural 

 papers, I discovered that some enterprising farmers 

 were successful in sowing their grass seed in 

 August or September. I tried the experiment 

 with complete success; that being the season it 

 would naturally fall, it appeared evident to my 

 mind that it was the right one. But still later I 

 have not been particular, and have sowed grass 

 seed at any season when my ground was prepared 

 to receive it, and if the seed was good it has uni- 

 formly vegetated and done well. 



Last fall we (my son and myself) after harvest- 

 ing my potatoes from the low, wet soil, which 

 would not admit of seeding down in early sp'ing, 

 sowed herds-grass and red top seed on the 14th 

 and 15th of October upon said potato field, doubt- 

 ing, but still hopiug for the best; and now the 8th 

 of July, it bids fair to give us the best crop of hay 

 produced on any of my faim lots. This grass prob- 

 ably will require two weeks longer to grow than 

 that which has been seeded down longer. I think 

 I never saw seed vegetate better at any season. 

 Grass seed will vegetate a long time after being 

 sowed. In the spring of 1862, I seeded down a 

 lot of good ground, but rather dry, with red-top 

 seed ; the months of June and July were uncom- 

 monly dry and at the middle of August there was 

 no appearance of a grass sprout on the piece. On 

 the 10th of August, the same year, it began to rain 

 profusely and continued raining for several weeks 

 till the ground was saturated. In September, more 

 than four months after the seed was sown, every 

 seed seemed to vegetate, and the ground appeared 

 like a beautiful lawn. And on the wliole, I have 

 concluded that any time when our land is in a good 

 state of preparation to receive the seed, is the best 

 time to sow it. — Silas BRowif, in Boston Cultivator. 



West Virginia. 



The Parkersburg Gazette has the following ac- 

 count of the natural resources and attractions of 

 the new State of West Virginia : 



The largest portion of the State of "West Virgin- 

 ia is diversified with hills, and much of it is moun- 

 tainous ; but nearly all is adapted to some species 

 of profitable agriculture. Yet the main value of 

 this large tract of country will ultimately be found 

 in its extraordinary mineral wealth and its capacity 

 for manufacturing. 



In proportion to its territory it is superior, as 

 an agricultural field, to Massachusetts or Western 

 Pennsylvania, for all purposes of manufacture, we 

 far surpass either. With all the water power either 

 of them possess, our climate gives us better use of 

 the power, and it has, beside its streams, the most 

 abundant supplies of coal for steam power, and 

 iron in immense quantities. 



But the great wealth of this State is in its min- 

 erals, which are abundant beyond conception. The 

 product of petroleum oil as a source of wealth, is 

 scarcely yet in infancy. Wells are often bored, 



yielding from one to two hundred barrels a day 

 and the oil is daily sold upon our wharves at eight 

 dollars a barrel, the cost of which with the praeent 

 low water, is not over lour dollars. A well is now 

 equal to a mint that makes its own gold There 

 is in the Eastern markets a demand still greater 

 than the supply. A question arises in some minda 

 whether the supply of this oil will continue. It is 

 inexhaustible, and all the evidences bear us out in 

 the hypothesis that it is neither an animal nor 

 coal product, but formed of interior gasses, as coal 

 is formed, constantly being upheaved to the sur- 

 face by the action of those gasses, and slowly dis- 

 charged through the rock fissures, aiid there lying 

 until tlie pump comes for it. It is in the power 

 of the pump to raise faster than the supply ; but 

 our whole earth for a hundred miles around us is 

 filled with these scams of oil, and while one is be- 

 ing exhausted another will be filled. 



Undoubtedly oil is among our richest sources of 

 mineral wealth, but there are others of no small 

 magnitude. In the vicinity of the oil wells lead has 

 been discovered, evidently in sufiicient quantities 

 for profitable mining. The ore has been analyzed 

 by competent men, and yields 80 per cent, of pure 

 lead. This is equal to the Galena mines, and we 

 have no doubt they will be profitably worked. 



There are thousands of acres of iron ore that is 

 as rich as can well be worked, yet there is not a 

 furnace in the whole territory. It would forever 

 have remained so had we not been relieved from 

 the oppressions of Eastern Virginia. Professor 

 Roffers was employed eight years in a geological 

 survey of the State, and what is now West Virgin- 

 ia proved so rich in minerals that the contemptible 

 politicians of the East refused to publish this re- 

 port because the West would thus become known 

 and populous, taking the power from the East. 



Good Milkers. — It is an easy matter to distin- 

 guish a good milker. The farthest removed from 

 the bull the better. As the male has no milking 

 properties, and the female is devoted to them ; and 

 none so much as the cow ; so we are to judge from 

 this principle. 



No person of ordinary intelligence would select 

 a cow with thick neck, heavy bones and a bull- 

 like disposition. On the other hand, the true c«w, 

 the good milker, is easily known by its thin neck, 

 sometimes almost amounting to deformity (the case 

 with one of ours) ; small bones ; thin, sensitive 

 hide ; thin tail ; and, most of all, a mild, plaeid 

 disposition, showing absence of animal heat, which 

 consumes, or prevents milk from fo'rming. A quiet, 

 motherly face, denoting intelligence and domestici- 

 ty, is what is wanted. The reservoir of milk, of 

 course, must be large, or there cannot be stored a 

 large quantit)'. A large, well-formed bag, there- 

 fore is a necessity. A small udder is an invariable 

 sign of a poor milker. The form and size of a coyt 

 are not always to be depended upon. The dispo- 

 sition is perhaps as much, if not more, than any 

 other one point ; some say than all other points. 

 We remember a heavy-headed, coarse-bodied cow, 

 but with the mildest of dispositions, as one of the 

 best butter makers we know. A good eater, al- 

 ways healthy. She made during the month of June 

 15 lbs. of the best butter a week ; and gave a good 

 flow of milk nearly the whole year round. Avoid 

 the bull, and seek the farthest opposite qualities 

 for the best milker. 



