1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
255 
His live weight was 386 lbs. ; dressed weight, 
354 lbs. This is a shrinkage of only about 
eight per cent. 
L. R, of Tennessee, asks: "Why do you 
recommend wheat after oats ? Why not wheat 
after clover? Is not the oat crop better to seed 
down with than wheat ? " — Not in this section. 
Winter wheat is the best crop we have to seed 
with. Barley is our best spring crop to seed 
with ; oats the worst. I was not aware that I 
had "recommended" sowing wheat after oats. 
I rarely, if ever, adopt the practice on my own 
farm. True, I sow wheat after oats and peas, 
but oats and peas together are a different crop 
from oats alone. 
Mr. R. adds : " I hope you will excuse me if 
I say that I was sorry you remarked (in Walks 
and Talks for May) that wheat can be grown 
after wheat, corn after corn, etc. Not because 
1 think that you are not right, but because a 
great many will make it an excuse to drop 
their established rotation." — I am not afraid to 
tell the readers of the American Agriculturist 
the truth. 
"The rotation," continues Mr. R., "which I 
and others have practiced here with success is : 
Corn ; oats ; clover mowing ; clover pasture ; 
wheat. The wheat stubble plowed and sub- 
soiled in the fall, hauling manure on it, during 
the winter, and cross plowing in the spring. 
Then plant corn. We can not get a stand of 
corn on clover sod on account of worms." — 
If this suits the soil and climate and enables 
the farmer to clean the land to the best advan- 
tage it is not a bad rotation. It affords a capi- 
tal opportunity to clean the land. Tou can 
plow immediately after the wheat is harvested, 
or perhaps, what is better, break up the surface 
with a heavy four-horse cultivator. You have 
three or four months to clean and mellow and 
aerate the soil. In Tennessee, too, I suppose 
land can be plowed more or less in winter. At 
any rate it can be plowed again in the spring 
and got into splendid condition for corn. This 
system has some of the features of my " fall- 
fallow." I would use it as a stepping-stone to 
something better. I would use it to thoroughly 
clean the land. But as soon as I got my farm 
clean I would sow clover with the wheat ; mow 
it or pasture it one year and plow it up the 
next spring for corn. The worms would not 
be likely to give much trouble on a year-old 
clover sod, turned over immediately before 
planting. After corn, follow with oats or 
barley and seed down again. Mow the clover 
for hay and for seed the first year. Pasture 
the next spring ; plow up in June or July ; and 
sow wheat in the fall and seed down again. 
I have a field I am going to serve in this way 
this year. It is a two-year-old clover sod. 
Was mown for hay and for seed last year and 
again for hay this year. As soon as the hay is 
off I propose to plow it carefully with three 
horses, and then roll and harrow, and after- 
wards keep the surface clean by the frequent use 
of the cultivator, harrows, and. roller until the 
first week in September. Then sow on a barrel 
of refuse salt to the acre. Then drill in 1| to 
2 bushels of Diehl wheat per acre, sowing at 
the same time in the drills with the seed 150 
lbs. of superphosphate and 100 lbs. nitrate of 
soda. In the spring, seed down with a peck of 
clover seed per acre and 100 lbs. nitrate of 
soda and 100 lbs. plaster. 
J. D. W., of St. Croix Co., Wis., wants to 
know how to use straw to the best advantage. 
"I purchased the farm last year," he writes, 
"and there is in the stock-yard an accumula- 
tion of straw from the last ten years in all 
stages of decomposition, from pure muck to 
solid straw stacks. There is probably 500 loads. 
Which is the cheaper, to haul manure from 
town, 3i miles, where I can get it for nothing, 
or to attempt to make manure out of straw ? I 
hate to burn the straw, as my neighbors do, 
but if I keep on as my predecessor did my farm 
will be all straw stacks." — I do not think I am 
capable of giving good advice on this subject. 
Thirty years ago or less, farmers in this section 
threshed their wheat in the field and afterwards 
burned their straw to get rid of it. This spring 
I saw the poorest kind of poor straw sold in 
the Rochester market for $18 per ton. 
"What of that," said the Deacon, " it would 
not have paid us to keep our straw until now." 
— Of course not, but it would have paid us to 
keep up the fertility of our land. 
"But you are always saying that straw 
makes poor manure." — So it does when used 
alone. But in connection with clover hay, 
corn, bran, peas, and oats it can be used to 
great advantage. The most difficult thing I 
have to contend with in keeping so many pigs 
is to get straw enough for bedding. I could 
use four times as much as I grow. If J. D. W. 
will keep more stock, raise more clover, and 
sow less wheat he will find no difficulty in 
using all the straw he can grow. The straw 
and manure now on hand I would draw out at 
every leisure time and spread on the grass land. 
At the same time I would draw as much 
manure as possible from the stables in the city. 
It will certainly pay. J. D. W. gives a list of 
prices. Wheat, $1.10; timothy hay, $13 to $14 
per ton ; potatoes, $1.00 to $1.25 per bushel ; 
onions, $1.50 to $1.75; oats, 60c. ; com, 70c. 
With manure for the hauling, and straw burned 
to get rid of it, I would pile on the manure 
until the land was rich enough to grow 400 
bushels of potatoes, 800 bushels of onions, and 
100 bushels of shelled corn per acre. 
W. F., Centre Co., Pa., wants to know 
which is best to cross with common ewes — a 
Cotswold or a Leicester. If he could get a 
pure-bred, old-fashioned, genuine Leicester, 
such as Mr. Sandy, of Nottingham, used to 
breed twenty years ago, I think he would be 
better than the Cotswold. But there are now 
no such Leicesters. The so-called Leicesters 
of the present day are as large or nearly as 
large as the Cotswolds, and^ I do not know 
that they are in any way superior. My own 
opinion is that the Cotswolds are good enough. 
I do not want any better sheep than well-fed 
grade Cotswold-Mcrinoes. 
"This is true enough for the first cross," 
remarked the Judge, "but after that they de- 
generate. " — I know this is the common idea, 
and it is true provided you breed from cross- 
bred rams and ewes. But if you continue to 
breed to a pure-bred ram you can continue to 
"grade up "with very decided advantage. I 
have now lambs with three crosses of Cots- 
wold, and they are very strong and healthy. I 
do not think it will make much difference 
whether W. F. uses a Cotswold or a Leicester. 
The important point is to get the right sort of 
sheep, and to get one that is pure bred. 
A. S. Tipton, of Howard, Pa., asks: "Do 
you know of a cheap and better steamer than 
the Prindle ? " — While I think it would be easy 
to make a better, I continue to use my old 
Prindle steamer. It is safe, simple, and conve- 
nient. I have had it changed so as to burn 
coal, and it is now far more effective, as we 
can keep up a hotter and steadier fire with 
less labor. 
Steel Bars for Bells. 
N. II. D., Fillmore Co., Minn., wishes a sub- 
stitute for bells, which are very costly. He has 
read that steel bars have been used in place of 
a peal of church bells, at very little cost, and 
thinks, if this is true, that steel bars might be 
appropriately used for school-houses and farms. 
We believe the substitution of bars in place of 
bells for use in churches to any large extent has 
thus far only been proposed but has not yet been 
made. Yet as we have seen them frequently 
used in place of bells in mining districts to call 
the miners to work, there is no doubt of their 
fitness for farm and school-house uses. A bar 
such as is used for miners' drills, of octagonal 
steel, an inch in thickness and six or eight feet 
long, is bent into the shape of a triangle and 
suspended at one 
corner by a string or 
wire. When this is 
struck with an iron 
rod the vibration pro- 
duces a sound which 
may be easily heard 
at a distance of a mile. 
Tne weight of such a 
bar is about three 
pounds to a foot, and 
the cost of Pittsburgh 
steel, which is equaiSy 
R3 wnorons as' the 
more costly English, 
is about fifteen cents a 
pound. A bar six feet 
long, of three-quarter inch steel, would answer 
for farm use ; for a school-house the steel should 
be 1J inch thick, and the bar should be nine 
feet long. In the engraving we have shown 
the shape into which the bar is bent and the 
proper shape of the striking rod. The rod • 
should have a wooden handle, and when not 
in use may be hung upon the triangle. The 
bar should be heated in a blacksmith's fire and 
bent over the horn of the anvil to the required 
shape. The heated portion should be allowed 
to cool gradually, lest it might break off at the 
bend when rung in very cold weather. 
TRIANGLE AND STRIKER. 
Getting Out Swamp Muck. 
At the request of several of our subscribers 
we describe a method of digging muck from a 
swamp which can not be entirely drained, and 
illustrate it with two engravings. Figure 1 
represents a very common kind of swamp, one 
in a hollow with high ground all around it, 
from which it receives the drainage. Many 
swamps of this character have a layer of shell 
marl beneath the peat, which, as well as the 
peat, is of considerable value as a fertilizer. 
To procure either the peat or the marl is a 
work of difficulty, because the soft nature of 
the ground forbids the use of oxen or horses 
until it is drained and dried to some extent. 
To commence to dig the muck under such cir- 
cumitauces we would level off a portion of the 
hill-side on the edge of the swamp, making a 
road of as easy a grade as possible to the mar- 
gin. Then a boat should be constructed such 
as is shown at figure 2. It is of pine boards, 
nailed very securely to side pieces of pine phi'V, 
and has a center board to strengthen it. i he 
