146 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
level meadows of mingled grass and flowers, 
giving promise of the abundant hay harvests, 
■whilst the wooded crests rustle their leaves to 
the passing breezes, and protect the farm stock, 
with their deep shades, from the mid-day sul- 
triness ? And what man fitted for country life 
but finds one of his highest and purest pleasure 
when, of a Sabbath day, he walks among his 
stock grazing on sunny slopes covered with 
•green carpets, and adorned with the flowers of 
May and the yellow dandelion? His cows, 
fragrant with the grasses they have eaten, re- 
pose beneath the shade of the trees, and his 
fleecy slieep gather around him, testifying their 
affection for him who provides these pastures 
and guards them from danger. "Well indeed 
might the angels rejoice, as, contemplating the 
Almighty power, they beheld the dark land 
clothed in living green, when the Creator com- 
manded it to bring forth grass, the food of the 
nobler and more useful animals that were to 
follow." 
Now that is what we call "pooty tasted." 
This is not a country newspaper nor a school- 
girl's composition we quote, but an official do- 
cument, emanating from a Department of our 
Government, printed on government paper at 
government expense— or rather, reader, at your 
expense. When some future D'Israeli makes 
up the " Curiosities of American Literature" he 
must not overlook the publications of the De- 
partment of Agriculture. The attempt to issue 
an agricultural paper at "Washington being a 
failure, its efforts at conducting a government 
seed business are not the less so. AVhile we 
frankly admit that the seed shop is a decided 
benefit to those who have gardens and truck 
patches around "Washington, as the proprietors 
of these can get seed without cost to themselves, 
the concern is to other people a nuisance. A 
gentleman of our acquaintance was informed by 
the Department that it had sent him a valuable 
collection of seeds. Being on the lookout for 
novelties, we requested him to show us the 
parcel when it arrived. The " valuable package 
of seeds" came and here is a list of its contents : 
Double Curled Parsley, Tuscarora Corn, Apple 
Pie Melon, Flack's Victory Pea, Long Red 
Mangel-"Wurzel, Tuscarora Corn (this being so 
"valuable" it was duplicated). Improved Long 
Orange Carrot, Large "White Lima Beans, 
"White Turnip Radish, Mountain Sweet "Water- 
melon. Now, with the exception of Flack's 
Victory Pea — which by the way is the wrong 
name — there is not a thing which may not be 
bought at any country store, out of the most 
meagre assortment of Shaker garden seeds. 
This is a fair specimen of what the Department 
does in the seed business. The Department 
knows that it does not meet the expectations of 
the agricultural community, and it tries to make 
capital among agriculturists by this kind of 
seed distribution. Knowing the influence of the 
local agricultural societies, the Department 
makes them the special recipients of these "valu- 
able seeds." "We have in mind the experience 
of a friend, who was Secretary of one of these 
societies, in one of our best agricultural com- 
munities. From his oflicial position, our friend 
was inundated with these " valuable seeds" by 
the wheelbarrow load, and finding that he could 
not get the members of the society to take the 
old stuff from that Philadelphia Seed store off 
his hands, he had to take some trouble to get rid 
of it. A place was hired in a store in a neigh- 
boring town and stocked with these " valuable 
seeds" which were sold for the benefit of the 
society, while the grain seeds he used to feed 
his chickens, and very fat chickens he made at 
"Uncle Sam's expense. A system so useless, so 
Btupid, and so injurious to the seed dealers of 
the country could not be persisted in, by any 
one but the present head of the Department. 
"We can scarcely take up an agricultural paper 
without finding expressions of disapprobation 
in regard to the mismanagement of its affairs. 
The Prairie Farmer, whose editor has recently 
passed some time at the Capital, says : " Not 
fully knowing the facts of the case, and wishing 
to do no harm from over-zeal, we have waited 
until now for our say, and after a week spent 
in "Washington, in free intercourse with many 
who are familiar with the institution, among 
tliem many members of Congress (who would 
demand the removal of the Commissioner, if 
they thought such a demand would avail any- 
thing), and from personal observations, we have 
been compelled to the conclusion that the De- 
partment can and ought to have a more com- 
petent Commissioner, and one more acceptable 
to the agricultural people of the country." The 
agricultural press throughout the country has 
expressed the wish of the agricultural people 
that this thing shall be reformed altogether. 
Eminent and scientific men and influential mem- 
bers of Congress are with the agricultural com- 
munity in this matter, and we doubt not that 
when the weightier national matters have ceased 
to occupy the attention of the Executive that he 
will give heed to their remonstrances, and a 
person who is not suited to the position will be 
no longer kept as an encumbrance on the work- 
ing of the Department. Should all these fail it 
only remams for the people to take the mat- 
ter m hand and demand of their represen- 
tatives that the Department shall have no 
fiinds to squander, or that it be abolished. 
Congress has given money enough and the 
Department has an efficient corps of subordi- 
nates, all that is needed is_ a head. 
How to Plant Potatoes. 
Potatoes require different management on 
different soils. If planted as deeply on heavy 
soils as on those lig'ht or sandy soils where pota- 
toes are often made the staple crop, the yield 
would not be so great, and much more labor 
would be required to dig them. "When potatoes 
are planted on heavy soils in sod, it is a good 
way to plow the ground with lapped furrow 
slices, and to drop the sets in the channels 
formed by the lapping of one slice on another, 
which will be equivalent to planting the pota- 
toes 2 or 3 inches deep. The plowing must be 
performed in a workmanlike manner, witli 
straight furrows, 6 or 7 inches deep. This will 
require a good plow with a sharp point, a sharp 
and well-adjusted coulter, and a good plowman. 
"With a reversible mold board plow, one should 
begin at the side of the field and plow back 
and forth until it is finished. "With a common 
plow it is best to strike out lands six or eight 
rods wide, to have few dead furrows, leaving 
the headland about ten or twelve feet wide. 
If it be desirable to have the rows 30 incites 
apart, which is far enough for potatoes, adjust 
the plow to cut a furrow slice ten inches wide 
and five or six inches deep. This size of furrow 
slice will be of good proportion to turn well. 
The ground should not be harrowed after plow- 
ing. If it be desirable to have the rows two 
ways, the ground may be marked across the 
furrows with a light horse-marker, or with a 
log chain. A skillful workman will drop them 
in straight rows without a mark, walking across 
the furrows. "When the ground is not in sod, 
plow with narrow furrow slices, harrow, roll if 
there be lumps, mark out with a small plow, 
and drop the sets as directed for sod ground. 
"Whenever the place for a hill is not deepcnough, 
the man who drops the sets may press each 
one deeper into the soil with his foot. "When 
the drills are not too deep it is well to al- 
ways step on the sets as they are dropped. 
How to Cover Tliera. — "When the sets are drop- 
ped as directed, they may be covered expedi- 
tiously with hand hoes. But the covering may 
be done very much faster and easier with a 
horse and rude contrivance made in the follow- 
ing manner: Fasten a chain to each end of a 
piece of plank about four feet long and eight 
or ten inches wide ; hitch a horse one side of 
the middle of the chain, and drive him between 
two rows, drawing the plank sidewise after 
him, with a man standing on it. This will cov- 
er two rows at a time veiy well. "Where the 
ground is moderately mellow, and not stony 
we sometimes turn a harrow upside down, using 
two horses to cover three rows at once. The 
crotch of a tree drawn either end foremost, 
makes an excellent implement for covering pota- 
toes, as it may be made large enough to cover 
four rows at once, if the soil is not too hard. 
But on heavy sod ground just plowed, the plank 
above described will be found most effective. 
« I — ■« » — —^ 
Kelative Profits of Hog and Cattle Raising. 
The constant sale off the farm of animals 
which were grown upon it is one of the most 
surely and thoroughly exhausting practices, 
for farmers thus remove just those elements of 
fertility most readily exhausted and most ex- 
pensive to replace. A correspondent, "J. S. B.," 
of M'Henry County, Ind., writes in regard to 
the so-called "hogging" system of the "West, 
as follows below. At the East hogs occupy a 
very different position, being emphatically ma- 
nure makers, and converting more inert vege- 
table matter into good manure, than any other 
kind of stock. 
" It appears to me that the comparative ad- 
vantages of hog-raising and cattle raising are 
not fully understood, out here in the "West Our 
ftirraers are looking to immediate results — to the 
amount of money put into their pockets, rather 
than to the condition of their farms, and the im- 
provement of their lands. My observation is, 
that although hog-raising puts money into 
the pocket of the farmer for the present, it per- 
manently damages him more than enough to 
cover all his present profits. Dr. Franklin's 
maxim, that continual taking out and never 
putting in will soon find the bottom of the meal 
tub, is applicable to the land, which must nec- 
essarily be run down by continual cropping, 
without making proper returns. The hog con- 
sumes next to none of the rough feed of the 
farm; must have the grain, the corn in the 
ear; he eats neither the stalks of the corn, the 
straw of the wheat, nor hay, but he must have 
the best of every thing. A farmer in this vicin- 
ity, who is a great hog-raiser, when asked by a 
neighbor how he always had such good hogs, 
replied that he always fed his hogs with a '■^corn 
sJwvel" — that is, he gave them plenty of grain. 
Another who is equally famous for fine horses 
and cattle, gave as the reason of his sitccess, 
that he always rubbed his horses off in the 
morning with locks of hay left in their man- 
gers. Generous feeding in both cases. The 
cattle and the horses consume the rough mate- 
rial raised upon the farm, converting it into ma- 
nure to be returned to replenish the exhausted 
soil, while the hogs, as treated in the "West, make 
little or no manure, and consume a greater and 
more important and valuable part of the crops 
