90 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
■wheat in spring, pasturing lightlj' in autumn, and 
heavily with eheep the next spring, till I got it 
plowed. In this way I did well. 
" F.allowing is the true way to raise good whe.at 
crops, at least on clay soil. Still, if manure enough 
can be obtained, it is more profitable to take a 
barley crop and sow the stubble with wheat — the 
barley crop getting the first chance of the manure. 
Wheat does not require much manure, but I never 
yet g.ave spring barley too much. I had nearly 40 
bushels of spring barley per acre last year." 
It is not common to .apply m.anure directly to the 
barley crop, except artificial manure ; it is not con- 
venient to do so. Barley is usually sown after 
corn, .and the manure is applied to the corn. I 
presume this is the plan adopted by Mr. Johnston. 
He puts the manure on the grass the fall previous, 
and then plows up the sod in the spring and plants 
corn, followed by barley and then wheat. It is not 
considered a good plan to grow three grain crops 
in succession, but if you can manure highly enough, 
and cultivate the corn thoroughly, there is no ob- 
jection to it. If the land is not rich, however, 
better seed down the barley in clover and let it lie 
one or two years, and then brealc it up for wheat. 
If you like, the wheat can again be sown withgrass 
and clover, or it may be followed with barley. 
Clover is our great renovating crop. We cannot 
sow too much of it. We should grow our own 
seed, and sow it as often as possible. One of my 
neighbors threshed his clover seed a few d.ays ago 
and got 12}.^ bushels of clean seed fi'om 2}4 acres 
From the same laud, before letting the clover grow 
for seed, he cut li good two-horse loads of clover 
hay. Such a crop pays better than wheat. All he 
did to it was to sow a bushel of plaster per acre on 
the clover last spring. 
One of my horses sprained the muscles on the 
inside of his thigh. He was quite lame, and appar- 
ently in considerable pain. The leg became hot 
and swollen, and 1 was afraid he would be laid up 
for several weeks, It is a bad place to get at. 
Knowing that there is uwthing so good for a 
sprained ankle as pouring cold water on to it, I got 
the hydropult and forced a stream of ice cold water 
on to the inside of the thigh. It seemed to relieve 
the pain .at once. I repeated it every few hours, 
and in three days the horse was entirely well and 
at work again ! Great are the virtues of cold water. 
I have just sold one of my little pigs. They arc 
not quite four months old and the one I sold 
weighed 117 lbs. Is not that pretty good? I got 
$17.50 for her, while a farmer in the neighbourhood 
sold some of his last mouth that are .about the same 
age, at $7.00, and thought he had got a good price. 
So much for a little blood. 
In the neighborhood of large cities, where fresh 
pork is in demand, the small breeds of pigs, such as 
the Essex and Suffolk, are more profitable than the 
large breeds. I question if we can compete with 
the West iu the production of heavy hogs for 
packing or for bacon. Dressed hogs the past season 
have not brought iu Rochester over half a cent a 
pound more than in Chicago, while the corn on 
which they feed is twice as high. In most of the 
interior towns iu the far West, corn is not worth 
over 20 cents a bushel, and in some not over 10 
cents, while here it is from 7.5 to 80 cents. Can we 
feed hogs and compete with the West ? In raising 
nice, fresh pork for the butchers in spring and 
summer, we are not brought in competition with 
the West, .and this is the kind of hog-r.aising that 
will pay. You want a breed th.at will fat at any age, 
from six weeks to six months, that you can have 
ready at any time the butcher needs them. 
In the Ar/ricuUtirist last month there is a table 
showing the amount of produce exported from New 
York during the last seven years. It seems that in 
18.50 the total amount of wheat exported was only 
397,587 bushels. The next year we cxi)orted over 
thirteen million bushels! .and in 1861 nearly twenty- 
nine millions. Have we ever exported so large a 
quantity in any single year before ? In 1863 we 
again exported twenty-five millions, .and in 1863 
fifteen millions; in 1864 twelve millions, and in 
1865 only two .and a half millions. This is a great 
falling off as compared with the four years previous, 
but it is more than I expected. I think most of it 
must have been exported early in the year and is in 
reality a part of the crop of 1864 rather th.an of 1865. 
But is it not remarkable, that during the four 
years from 1861 to 1864, while we were engaged in 
a most gig.autic war, we were able to spare, and did 
spare, over 83,000,000 bushels of wheat, besides 
flour equal to 50,000,000 bushels more ; or in all, 
133,000,000 bushels of wheat ! These figures show 
how much the country was indebted to its agricul- 
ture for the means to carry on the war. 
The export of Indian coru last year was over 4}^ 
million bushels as compared with 846,831 in 1863. 
The English farmers are beginning to appreciate 
our corn .as a food for fattening stock, and doubt- 
less the demand will continue. One of the leading 
English agricultural papers recently asserted, and 
unquestion.ably with truth, that Indi.an corn is the 
cheapest food the farmers can purchase, and that 
there is no sense in their paying §.55 per ton for 
oilcake, when a ton of corn can be had for $33. 
There is an unusually largo quantity of corn in 
warehouses and in the hands of farmers, and we 
can meet any demand that can be made upon us. 
With the high price of meat, however, it would be 
well to feed it out ,at home more liberally. What 
a shame it is to send lean cattle to market when 
good beef is so high, and the means of fattening it 
so .abundant. In Chicago, inferior cattle are sold 
as low as Z}{ cents per pound, while choice fat 
cattle bring from 7J^ to 8 cents. A steer weighing 
1300 lbs. in the one case would bring $96, while one 
weighing 1000 lbs., if sold at 3,Y cents, would bring 
only .$33..50. Now, I do not say that the addition of 
200 lbs. of flesh and fat would convert one of these 
" scallaw.ags " into choice beef, but it would cer- 
tainly go far towards it. 
We must pay more attention to breeding cattle. 
There is a crying necessity for well bred stock. 
Greatly as our cattle h.ave improved within the 
last fifteen or twenty years, it is still difficult to 
find a good well bred steer. The m.ajority of .ani- 
mals are so ill bred, th.at it is impossible to fat 
them till they .are four or five years old. Now how 
much does it cost to keep a steer two years ? It 
seems to me, that this sum, varying in different 
localities, say from $40 to $75, is the difference iu 
the profit of feeding a good and a poor animah Is 
there any error in this statement ? I do not ask for 
thoroughbreds, only for grades. It may cost fifty 
cents or a dollar more to obtain such a calf, but 
will it not pay ? 
I do not know of a first-class Shorthorn bull in 
this county. A few years ago a liber.al-minded 
gentleman purchased one from Mr. Sheldon, and 
kept him a year or two ; but the farmers begrudged 
the extra 50 cents, and the geutlem.an sold his bull 
in disgust. Had he kejjt him a few years longer, 
until his calves showed their superiority, he would 
have been appreciated. 
" But the Shorthorns arc not good for milk !" 
Some of them .are not. They have been bred for 
beef. But a cross with our so-called " native " cows 
often produces excellent milkers, and if .any of 
them prove poor, they ran readily be disposed of to 
the butcher. I was talking to Lewis F. Allen about 
this matter the other day, and he s.ays he knows no 
way in which we can so readily and so surely obtain 
a good herd of dairy cows. Use a thoroughbred 
Shorthorn bull, raise all the calves — and they can 
be raised on very little milk — and then iftheheifers 
prove good milkei's they will he very good. If they 
do not, fat them for beef. 
I saw a statement the other d.iy in .an English 
paper, of a farmer who lives in a dairy district, that 
bought the calves from his neighbors when a fen- 
days old, and raised them by hand. Bj' buying 
them at different times, he said he had raised as 
many as fifteen calves on the milk of one cow. He 
gave them a little new milk for a few days, and af- 
terwards skimmed milk, with the addition of linseed 
tea, scalded meal, etc. This practice might be adopt- 
ed here. Get a good Shorthorn bull, and then buy 
the calves when a few days old. It would pay. 
SometMng that Will Pay. 
Every cultivator ouglit to raise enough first-rate 
seed of all his st.aple crops to at least supply his 
own needs. But comparatively few will give the 
extra care in cultivation, selection, etc., necessary 
to secure a prime article, and hence choice samples 
always have a ready demand, at top prices. Here is 
an opportunity for some one in every neighbor- 
hood to make money. Select some one or two 
staple articles, and make a specialty of raising them 
for seed. Each year, sow or plant none but the 
best, place it under the most favorable conditions 
possible, as to exposure, soil and cultivation, and 
in a few seasons by judicious management a grade 
may be reached and a reputation be made that will 
give a rich return. Whoever could to-day offer .500 
bushels of oafs, barley, or spring wheat acknow- 
ledged to be the best of their kind in the country, 
could command his own. price, within reasonable 
limits, and perhaps a little beyond. 
The Uses and Management of Cold 
Frames. 
BY PETER HENDERSON. JERSEY CITY. 
Wc use cold frames for preserving cauliflower, 
cabbage and lettuce plants during the winter 
and the forwarding of lettuce and cucumbers in 
spring aud summer. 
To make the matter as clear as possible, we 
will suppose that the market gardener, having 
five or six acres of land, has provided himself 
with 100 of 3 X 6 feet sashes. The cauliflower, 
cabbage or lettuce plants which they arc intend- 
ed to cover in winter, should he sown in the 
open garden from the 10th to the 30th of Sep- 
tember and wlien of sufficient size, which they 
will be in about a month from the time of sow- 
ing, they jnust be replanted in the boxes or 
frames, to be covered by the sashes as Tyinter 
advances. 
The boxes or frames we use, are simply two 
boards, running parallel and nailed to posts to 
secure them in line. The one for the back is 
ten or twelve inches wide, and that for the front 
seven or eight inches, to give the sashes, when 
placed upon them, pitch enough to carry off 
rain and to better catch the sun's rays The 
length of the frame or box may bo regulated 
by the position iu which it is placed , a conve- 
nient length is fifty or sixty feet, requiring 
eighteen or twenty sashes. 
Shelter from the North-west is of great im- 
portance, and if the ground is not sheltered 
naturally, a board fence six feet in l^ight is 
almost iudispensal.)le. The sashes should face 
South or South-east. Each sash will hold five 
liundred plants of cabbage or cauliilower, aud 
about eight hundred of lettuce. These numbers 
will determine the jjroper distance apart, for 
those who have not had experience. It should 
never be lost sight of that tliese plants arc .almost 
liardy, and consequently will stand severe 
freezing witliout inj'ury ; but to insure this con- 
dition they must be treated as their nature de- 
mands, that is, that in cold weather, and even in 
clear winter days, when the thermometer marlis 
1.5 or 20 degrees in the sliade, they must be 
abundantly aired, cither bj- tilting up the sash 
at the back, or better still, when the daj- is mild, 
by stripping the sash clear off. By this hardening 
process, there is no necessity for any other cov- 
ering but the sash. In our locality, we occa- 
