98 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
PL4.ECH, 
iu them that never ought to be. Allow me to 
give you a t'ev,' foots Fruit trees should 
neyer be trimmed iu Fehruiiry, iilareh or 
April ; the time is, Tvhcu they are iu blossom. 
. . . .The time to cut timber, to have it last, is in 
January and February, July and August 
Oue load of manure hauled outlu the fall after 
the sun crosses the line, and spread, is worth 
two to four loads hauled out in the spring, any 
way that you cr.n fix it Fall-plowing is 
beneficial on clay loam or muck soil, and on 
sandy and gravelly soil if you can plow liefore 
there is any frost Some men saj' that corn 
will degenerate and run out. 3Iy father got a 
kind of yellow 12-rowed corn in the year of the 
great eclipse 180G, which I remember very well. 
I took it from him iu the spring of 1830 and 
have it now. It is an early, sound corn, very 
easy to husk. I can raise 80 bushels of shelled 
corn to the acre with no extra labor, planting 
3'|i feet each way. I have another kind of 8- 
rowed yellow corn, which I got in 1838, which 
will grow and ripen in 90 or 100 days Wheat, 
oats and potatoes will degenerate and wear 
out [with ordinary culture: Ed.]. "We do not 
harvest our grain and cut our hay early enougli 
in this country When I commenced 
farming I was closelj' watched by my neigli- 
bors, who said I plowed too deep, cut my hay 
too earl}', and cut my grain too green. I have 
farmed on 13 different farms, and the result has 
been, I have tripled the crops on an average. 
I have drained three farms pretty thoroughly 
within the last 30 years, and am now Presi- 
dent of the County Agricultural Society." 
Barn-Door Fastenings. 
Several plans for barn-door fastenings are 
sent in by readers of the Agriculturist, who use 
them and prefer them 
to the perpendicular 
suspended bar, \vhich 
was illustrated iu the 
January number. Of 
these we select two 
winch have real merit. 
Figure 1 is suggested by 
AVm. W. Fish, of Clin- 
ton Co. The fastening 
consists of two bars of 
wood (A and B\ each 
a little more than half 
the length of the door.' 
These are lield in their 
places by three flat staples (<•, c, c) through 
which they move easily. The bars are shown 
shoved out, as when llie door is fastened. By 
raising the lower bar (A) until the middle staple 
will enter the notch (iZ), 
M I I I I I I 
■yr \ \"\ 
V: 
the upper bar may be 
dropped down and will 
icst on the shoulder (/.) 
In both the above posi- 
tions tlie bars are held 
snugly in their places. 
Tlie other plan is of- 
eredby "J. J.," of Bain- 
bridge, Clieu.ango Co., 
N. Y., not as any thing 
new, but as convenient 
and secure. B, B are 
1 wo bars secured by iron 
staples to tiie upper 
and lower cross-pieces of tlie door. They are 
attached by pins to a lever, ^1, whieli is fiislened 
to the centre cross-piece by tlie bolt C. The 
Fi" 
points of atlachment of the bars upon the lever 
are equally distant froui llie fulcrum bolt (C), so 
that any motion of the lever will move each bar 
equally up or down. The opposite door may 
be fiistened iu the same way, or by a simple 
wooden bolt. These fastenings may be operated 
from the outside, if a pin be set in either of the 
bars to go through the door and move in a slot. 
The Comparative Yield of Potatoes. 
Doct. F. W. Hexamer, of Westchester Co., 
has given us the results of liis last year's ex- 
periments with different kinds of potatoes. 
They were grown upon the same field, succeed- 
hig a crop of corn and without m.anure, with 
the following results. 
Cushejs pel- acre. Bushels per acre 
Cuzeo SliO Wliite Mercer 180 
Garnet Chili 290 Fluke 100 
Pink-eye Rusty Coat.... 280 Piincc Albert 160 
Peach Blow 240 Early June 150 
White Peach Blow 230 While Rock 130 
Prairie Seedling 230 Early Dykeman 120 
Blue Mercer 2-20 Early CoUage 110 
"Buckley's Seedling"... 210 Early Sovereign 80 
Buckeye 200 Rough and Ready ^56 
Experiments were made witli reference to 
the value of large or small seed ; equal areas of 
land being planted with the largest potatoes, 
cut once lengthwise, and with small potatoes. 
In planting cut potatoes many insist on the ne- 
cessity of placing the cut surface down, an 
operation requiring much care on the part of 
the planter. Doct. H. planted his cut pieces iu 
both ways with the result of showing tliat it is a 
useless waste of time to place the cut side down. 
Peach Blows, small seed, gave 160 bushels of 
marketable size and 40 bushels small, per acre. 
The same with large seed, 800 bushels large 
and 40 bushels small. 
White Peach Blows, small seed, gave 170 
bushels marketable, and 40 bushels small, while 
large seed cut in two, gave 190 bushels maket- 
able and 40 bushels small, in those jjlanted with 
the cut side up, and 3.5 busheis of small ones, 
where the cut side was put down. AVith those 
planted cut side up, or down, no difference was 
oljserved in the time the plants appeared, and 
the yield shows that the position in this respect 
is a matter of little importance. 
»^«> 
Agricultural Education.~The Public 
School. 
In our remarks upon this subject in our last 
issue (p. 55), we alluded to the fact that few 
seliool-books give anj' intimation that the 
knowledge imparted by them is the merest 
outline, the barest skeleton of the subjects on 
which they treat. It is surelj' not desirable to 
bewilder the child with the idea that knowledge 
is so vast and that the hill of science towers so 
high aliove him that he can never hope to 
clamber higher than its very base ; yet it is 
important when he manifests especial interest 
in any one branch of knowledge, to be able to 
tell him where and how he may follow this 
bent, and perhaps even findhimself investigating 
subjects upon which the wisest know but little. 
We consider this unfortunate impression, so 
often gained b}" school children, that if they 
know all that is in their books, it is enough, as 
one great reason why after leaving school so 
many give up all effort to acquire knowledge. 
Tlie dilTerence between teachers in respect to 
the desire to learn more, which they implant 
in their puiiils, is very great. Tliis is certainly 
the best thing a child or voulh can be taught. 
With the strong deshe to learn he icill learn. 
With the will, a way will be. If the best teacher 
the District will get is stupid, and cannot inspire 
the love of knowledge in the children, then the 
efforts of the parents to accomplish the same 
end must be stronger, and this part of education 
not be neglected, for with its neglect comes plod- 
ding mediocrity, or stupid listless life, or a life 
of drudgery and money-getting, the only aim 
being to add field to field, or dollar to dollar, and 
to receive the obeisance of those who bow to 
wealth. This object, however, is rarely accom- 
plished, and usually for the mere lack of know- 
ledge, that is, the reasonmg ability, or clear-head- 
edness, which conies of a love for knowledge. 
The farmer's business is so varied, and 
touches so many branches of knowledge, that 
he may well stand aghast at the contemplation 
of them all. In common with the rest of the 
world, he is interested personally hi all that 
affects the arts of comfortable Hving, the busi- 
ness relations of men, politics, religion, social 
life, etc. Besides, he has a great deal more to 
interest him and his children. He is in close 
contact with nature and her workings, and 
should know that thousands of the best minds 
iu the world are studj-ing the natural laws 
which have a bearing upon agriculture. Some 
study the relation of the soil to solvent influen- 
ces, its ability to gain and retain fertility, its 
relations to moisture and drouth, to the action 
of the air, to manure, etc. Others devote them- 
selves to gaining a knowledge of plants of all 
the different kinds, of vegetable physiology or 
plant structure, of the diseases of plants, of the 
changes which cultivation m.ay affect. Others 
still, applj^ themselves to the study of animals 
iu health and sickness, the principles of breed- 
ing, feeding, fattening, etc. Otliers study 
study the weather and its relations to full har- 
vests and scant ones, and to gain the ability to 
know bcforeh.aud and take advantage of what- 
ever may come. And so in such diftereut de- 
partments of the farmer's interests, wise men 
devote thought, zeal, and even life itself, to the 
fuller understanding of laws and facts which he 
may apply to his profit. Should he not know 
something about all this ? Shall our boys grow 
up as ignorant of subjects which will enlarge 
their ^-icws and make them better men and 
better farmers, as the veiy oxen they fodder ? 
Let us see to it then that our farmer boys, with 
that thorough groundwork of good knowledge 
of the English language and of the cardinal 
rules of arithmetic and other general knowledge, 
gain also the knowledge that there is a great 
deal more to learn about things whicli will be 
very interesting and instructive, and which will 
add not only to their satisfaction of life, but to 
their wealth in this world's good. 
Italianizing and Swarming. 
BY BIDWELL BROS., MINNESOTA. 
The method generally adopted by the best 
apiarians in both countries is, to compel the 
bees to replace tlie queeu removed, from worker 
eggs or larvos — Nature having provided tliat iu 
case bees accidentallj- lose their queen, they can 
reproduce one from that source, and the queeu 
so made, possesses force, soon after to acquire 
nearly the size and standard of an atural queen ; 
so a worker of diminutive size, when emerg- 
ing from an old comb, lined with even JOO 
cocoons, will gradually mature to an average 
sized bee. Tlie requisites necessary to success, 
are best obtained in a prosperous coloiu', during 
the working season, viz : eggs or laivce to con- 
vert into queens, honey and pollen from which 
