1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
89 
** Shakers."- The so-called " Shakers" have 
one peculiarity that might be copied by everybody. If 
one is told that a flannel, a pair of stockings, sweet corn, 
sage, dried pumpkin, apple sauce or brooms, or any such 
thing, is made or put up by the Shakers, there is no more 
to be said. The seller knows that he has given it the 
highest praise, and the buyer knows that it is just what 
it pretends to be, both in quality and quantity. If every 
one who sends things to market would be a " Shaker " in 
these respects, we should have no more " topped off" 
barrels, baskets and boxes of fruit ; five pounds of grapes 
would not include a half pound of pine wood, very nice 
pine but dear at 20 cents a pound,— lard would not be 
one-third water, and soap half anything else but soap. 
We sometimes expose these little ways of dealers, but 
the task is great. People do like to be cheated, but the 
Shakers, so far as we know them, arc as much behind the 
age as was old Sol Gills, — they do business in the old way. 
Material for Cellar Walls and 
Floors.— It Is well-nigh impossible to make a cellar dry 
in the midst of a wet soil. The best place to lay a drain 
to secure a dry cellar is directly beneath the foundation 
stones— lay tiles if they can be got, otherwise a small 
A r -shaped drain of small stones. The walls should be 
laid of stones in a mortar 4 parts lime and 1 part cement, 
with plenty of clean, sharp sand. Any kind of earth or 
gravel maybe used to fill iu between the standing earth 
and the wall. The best cellar floor is made of a grouting 
of broken stones spread over the surface ; this pounded 
flat and coated with a cement mortar mixed with coarse 
gravel, and smoothed down level before it sets. If cellars 
are wet, deeply laid drains on the up-hill side will usually 
prove a cure. Shallow drains through the cellar and car- 
ried off down the hill would usually be effective. 
Fresli Garth for Staoled Animals. 
— " H.," of Morristowu, N. J., writes as follows : "From 
an experience of many years, I am satisfied of the bene- 
ficial results from giving stabled auimals,— horses, cattle, 
or swine — what fresh earth they will eat, say twice a week, 
or oftener. It promotes and regulates their digestion, 
gives tone to their appetites, prevents disease, keeps their 
coats in fine condition — promoting their general health. 
I usually lay in a good supply of thickly cut sods, and 
throw some into their troughs, twice a week. Let those 
who have doubts try the experiment, giving the same 
to part of their stock and withholding from the rest for a 
few weeks, and their doubts will he removed." All cat- 
tle in grazing occasionally pull up a tuft of grass, and 
eat it, roots, earth, and all. This certainly does no harm, 
and we are not surprised to learn that in "H.'s' 1 long 
experience he has found earth to supply a want of the 
animal economy essential to the highest state of health. 
Green Grass and Weeds for Ma- 
nure.— Mr. Fortune, to whom we are indebted for so 
many new plants from Japan and China, gives the follow- 
ing account of the use of green manures in those countries. 
" In China, bullocks and buffaloes are employed to plow 
the laud, but in Japan it is prepared by manual labor 
alone; a pronged fork is employed to dig and break up 
the soil. Vegetable matter is used in a fresh state for 
manure, as in China. Women, old men, and children 
were employed on the edges of the fields and on every 
hill-side, in cutting grass and weeds for this purpose. 
These, being scattered over the land and mixed with 
mud and water, rot in a very short space of time, and af- 
ford nourishment to the rice crops. A week or two after 
this fresh manure is thrown upon the land every trace 
of it disappears from the surface. It probably goes on 
decaying for some time underground, thus feeding in a 
peculiar manner the roots of the paddy witli those gases 
given off during the process of decomposition." 
Lime for CalVbagres. — "Gardener," who 
lives on u sand prairie" land in Illinois and can get no 
stable manure, wishes to use lime as a substitute on his 
cabbage fields. Lime is properly no substitute for 
animal manure, yet it may be, and probably will be, an 
excellent application for this crop. As a rule, on pretty 
good land lime alone with good culture will probably 
Insure a fair crop of cabbages. Salt is useful also, and an 
excellent application is lime slaked with a strong brine. 
Fermented Manure. — "J. S., 1 ' Mas.-. 
The use of heaping up manures in the yard and under 
the sheds is to give them a chance to ferment. Whatever 
may be the philosophy of the matter, it is pretty well es- 
tablished that it pays to compost all manures and fork 
them over once or twice before using. The most valua- 
ble constituent of green manures, the nitrogen, is not 
immediately available to plants. In the compost heap 
this becomes ammonia, which is plant food, and is 
diffused through the whole ma-s : the vegetable fiber is 
also-decom posed and all coarse lumps are broken down. 
A part of the efliciency of manure depends upon its 
fineness. Besides it is often an advantage to mix the 
manures of all the domestic animals, and makk; the 
whole mass as uniform in quality as possible. 
>lill-|>ond Mud. — "Is the mud which has 
accumulated in an old mill-pond valuable as a top-dress- 
ing for grass ? Should it be mixed with lime ? ' There 
can be no donbt of its value. If it contains many sticks 
and leaves, partly decayed, it would he well to compost it 
with lime. Have it ready to apply after the grass is cut. 
Transactions of tlie I\e>v Vorlc 
State Agricultural Society lor 1866.— This 
report brings the record of the Society's doings up to 
April, 1867. It was received towards the close of the 
year, long after the very important information with 
which it is replete had ceased to be of interest as news, 
but simply valuable as matter of record. Such elaborate 
and thorough trials of implements as the Auburn trial 
of Mowers and Reapers in 1S06, or that of Plows in 1867, 
excite great interest at the time they take place, but a 
year and a half afterwards there are very few persons 
who wish to read, or even to refer to the reports. This 
delay is now supposed to be unavoidable. We think it is 
not so, but that if the reports where placed in the hands 
of some energetic publishing house, to be furnished free 
or nearly so to the Society, and put upon the market 
while interest in the subjects is still warm, they would 
benefit ten times the number of people they do now. 
This volume is, we believe, the largest ever issued by 
any American Agricultural Society, being an octavo of 
1006 pages. It contains, besides the usual reports of the 
Society's meetings, fairs, addresses, etc., and the abstract 
of the reports of the County Societies, and of the Ameri- 
can Institute, the report of the entomologist D. Fitch, 
the report of the Mower and Reaper trial at Auburn, an 
elaborate exhibition of the Agricultural Statistics of the 
State, by Dr. Franklin B. Hough, and numerous other 
papers, valuable not only to the citizens of the State of 
New York, but to agriculturists everywhere. 
Bees in March, »y Wm. "W. Cary. — 
Bye meal to promote early breeding.— As eoon as the 
weather is warm enough for bees to fly freely, unbolted 
rye meal should be set out in shallow boxes, say six 
inches deep, in a sheltered place, protected from the 
wind. where the bees can have free access to it until early 
blossoms appear. Many colonies of bees are deficient in 
bee bread ; these would not breed to any extent until the 
appearance of early blossoms, unless supplied with a 
substitute. Rye meal is the best known. Many com- 
plain that they cannot get their bees to work on meal. 
My method is very easy and simple. On a day when your 
bees are flying freely, set out your boxes with two quarts 
or more of meal in each box, then take a small piece of 
comb with a little honey in one side, hold it to the en- 
trance of a hive until a few bees commence to take the 
honey, place it in the box directly on the meal— in a short 
time you will have plenty of bees working on the meal. 
"Water is another important requisite. When not to 
be obtained near the apiary, supply it ; they prefer to take 
it from a warm, sheltered, sunny spot where straw or 
something of that nature is thrown ont. 
Spring* Wheat. — Theo.Gaasch, La Fayette, 
Ind. There is a great confusion of names of the spring 
wheats— Club. Fife, Tea, etc., are popular names. The 
same wheat may be bought in different markets under 
different names, and various wheats under the same. Un- 
less you have neighbors, good farmers who have clean, 
plump wheat to sell, send to some seedsman or dealer in 
agricultural implements in one of the large Western 
cities, for samples and prices of spring wheat, then make 
your choice, order by telegraph and have the wheat come 
on by the next train. The old Italian Spring, or some- 
thing bearing its name, has now a reputation at the West. 
It was discarded or fell into neglect a few years a::o. 
Wheat-€hess-A $lOOO OtTer.— 
BomD still complain because we do not open onr columns 
to a wider discussion of this subject. We have been 
looking into the matter for more than twenty years past 
—have studied it in its scientific relations— have received 
and read thousands of pages of manuscript, pro and con. 
—have offered prizes, and hud men come hundreds of 
miles with specimens to claim the prizes, and seen them 
return perfectly satisfied that they had made a mistake. 
We doubt not that many are honest in their belief that 
wheat will really produce chess ; but we are just as sure 
that it will not — can not : and while seeking to devote our 
columns to such topics as will most benefit tin- I u 
number of onr readers, it does not seem profitable to take 
up further space on this particular subject. Please allow 
us the same liberty of judgment in this respect, that we 
cheerfully accord to others.— We will only add here, that 
Mr. L. Gore, Chagrin Falls P. O.. Ohio, an old and suc- 
ggBStbl farmer, is fully convinced that wheat mil turn in- 
to chess, and to show his faith, and, if possible, settle the 
question, he offers to wager $1000 that he can produce 
chess from wheat or rye, or both. His neighbor, Mr. 
David Bobinson, will make affidavit that he has taken a 
kernelof chess from a wheat stalk, where it certainly 
grew. Mr. Gore's direction^ for securing the change are 
as follows: 1st. Sow rye in spring, and pasture it all 
summer; the next spring it will yield chess. 2nd. Sow 
winter wheat, or rye, or both, in June, pasture until De- 
cember, and let it grow the next season.— If any are dis- 
posed to try the question with Mr. Gore, they can cor- 
respond with him— we give his full address above. We 
have not time to take part in the correspondence, but we 
advise Mr. G. to look out for his $1000, if any enterpris- 
ing man should accept his proposition. Perhaps he could 
not better use the money for the good of mankind, than 
to lose it in " settling" this "vexed question." Please 
excuse us, if we do not publish or answer the next hun- 
dred letters that come in about Wheat vs. Chess. 
Cob Meal.-"B. D.," Hartford. Our im- 
pression is that there is too little nutriment in cobs to 
pay for grinding. The cobs famish bulk, but food should 
be selected that has nourishment in the bulk. If Indian 
meal is too concentrated, add roots, either cooked or raw, 
and you will find a gain of flesh and milk. 
Poultry j^fotes and Gleanings.— 
Poultry in a Small Enclosure.— You can keep a score 
of hens and rear chickens from them on 500 square 
yards. If it is not all grass, you will have to supply them 
with green food. They must have green food and dust. 
To Make a Hen Sit in a Strange Nest.— A broody 
hen may be made to sit in a strange place by being put 
on her eggs at night, in the dark, and shut down closely. 
After a day or two she will keep to them. 
Camphor Administered to Cure Gapes.— The dose 
for a chicken five or six weeks old is a pill of camphor 
the size of a small garden pea. Where the camphor 
julep given to them to drink is strong, they seldom re- 
quire a pill. It is the odor of the camphor that kills 
the gap-worms ; there is no real contact with it, which 
is impossible, because the parasites are in the windpipe. 
Hens Eating Each Other's Feathers.— Spanish 
fowls arc more prone than any to eat each other's feath- 
ers, and, like most bad habits, it finds many imitators. 
There is no doubt it arises in the first place from the lack 
of some necessary food— something they require at this 
season of the year. Those that have no access to grass 
always do it. We believe if they are supplied with a 
grass run they always discontinue the habit. A good sup- 
ply of lettuce cures them, and those that are gone to 
seed are the best for the purpose. If yon cannot give 
your fowls a grass run, let them have large sods of grow- 
ing grass, cut with plenty of mould, thrown into their 
pens daily, and supply them with lettuce freely. 
American Herd Book, (Short- 
horn, i Vol. VIII.-This invaluable register (edited 
by Hon. Lewis F. Allen, Buftalo, N. T.) comes to us 
with the beginning of the year. It contains the pedi- 
grees of upwards of 1,000 bulls, and a proportionate num- 
ber of cows of this royal breed. No man can enter upon 
the breeding of Short-homs with a view to establish a 
herd of them and to raise animals which shall be a credit 
to his breeding, without a familiarity with pedigrees, 
such as can only be gained by the faithful study of these 
volumes. The editor assures us, in his preface, that be 
" has always been careful to exclude such pedigrees as 
had not, on their face, or by accompanying credible docu- 
ments, a fair evidence of good breeding." Nevertheless 
he adds : " It is presumed that every cattle breeder and 
buyer of pure blooded cattle will form his own judgment 
of the quality of the pedigrees, (of the stock,) he breeds 
from, or buys, and place such estimate upon their value 
as he chooses, or his interest may dictate." There is, 
therefore, the necessity for intelligent study of these 
pedigrees, to learn which show simply good breeding 
enough to be admitted, and which purity of blood. The. 
work is embellished with a number of lithographic plates 
and engravings on wood of animals, each filling every 
point in the scale ofahsolnte perfection of Short-horns so 
accurately that any one not having implicit faith in the 
artist. i."Mi\ Pui-ciand in the faithfulness of his drawings. 
might suppose that much of the likeness to the originals 
had been flattered out. The frontispiece of the volume 
is a picture of the piece of bas-relief statuary occupy- 
ing a niche in a tower of the Cathedral of Durham, En- 
gland, representing a cow and two milkrnaifls. The cow 
has a good small Ayrshire head, a very straight back and 
belly, a deep body, full udder, and coarse legs and feet. 
She is very small, as one of the milkmaids is nprcsented 
as laying her arm over her back. After noticing the ex- 
ceeding squareness and depth of the body, we look for 
the inevitable initial (P) in the corner, and, finding it, 
wonder if the artist ha- flatten d the subject to please the 
patron saint of the church, or from sheer force of habit. 
