1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
153 
The Wheaten Loaf. 
There is probably no part of the United States 
where general farming can be profitably con- 
ducted, in which the farmers may not raise their 
own wheat. Much as we may rejoice in our 
golden harvests of beautiful maize, and in the 
homely luxuries of corn bread, Johnny cake, 
and classical "Hasty pudding," or delight in rye, 
both in the field and upon the table, as associa- 
ted with ideas of frugality and economic thrift— 
we must still give to wheat the first place among 
the cereals, as the exponent in agriculture of 
fertile soils, good farming, and prosperity, and 
in housekeeping of good, and even luxurious 
living. Wheat is indeed the basis of all our 
most delicate and nutritious articles of farinace- 
ous food, but among the long list, wholesome and 
palatable as they are, first and last is the Wheat- 
en Loaf.— Bread, tender and white, light and 
spongy, full of nutriment, and full of flavor, 
is indeed the stafi' of life. 
We liavc long had in contemplation to pre- 
sent to our readers the pictorial history of a loaf 
of bread. On the adjoining page, is the first 
chapter of this history in the three landscape 
views entitled "Seed Time," representing the 
operations attending the preparation of the soil 
and sowing the seed. The deep loam is well 
manured, plowed, subsoiled, and harrowed; 
then the grain is sowed by hand, and harrowed 
in, or drilled in, and rolled. Our artist gives 
the drilled field especial prominence, that we 
may direct attention to the thousands of bushels 
of grain annually wasted in the heavier seeding, 
when it is sown broadcast, and to the fact that 
the crop of the country numbers hundreds of 
thousands of bushels less every year than it 
would were all the wheat possible sowed in 
drills. Next to rye, wheat is perhaps the best 
of grains with which to seed down to grass. 
So behind the harrow will be noticed a man 
sowing grass seed, which falling among the still 
moving earth is only slightly covered. The 
wheat which is subjected to the whole operation 
of the harrow being covered much deeper. 
Grain for Sheep. 
If there is one period more than another at 
which sheep should have a little grain daily, 
that time is in the spring, a few weeks previous 
to being turned to grass. A small quantity is 
good for them during the entire foddering sea- 
son. Some farmers reverse this order, by feed- 
ing grain every day, as soon as they commence 
foddering, and then discontinue the grain a short 
time before grass is large enough for pasturing. 
As the warm weather comes on, sheep need a 
little better feed than when the weather was 
pinching cold. The appetite is not so sharp at 
this season of the year; but a little grain if 
not more than five or six ounces for each sheep, 
will give an appetite and induce them to con- 
sume more hay, straw and corn stalks than 
■would be eaten if no grain were fed. If "wet" 
ewes be daily fed half a pound each of some 
kind of grain in connection with hay, straw and 
other feed, it will make their wool grow, fatten 
their lambs, and keep them in a strong, thrifty 
condition. Grain will not be thrown away 
when properly fed to sheep, even if it com- 
mands a high price in market. A certain 
amount of fat is essential to good health in all 
kinds of animals. It is exceedingly undesirable 
and most unprofitable to have sheep or any 
stock grow poor just before being turned to 
grass, and this 
they are apt to do, 
unless they are 
fed grain or roots 
or both, during 
the warm period 
in the spring with 
its consequent 
lassitude, before 
grazing time. The 
farmer who with- 
holds a few bush- 
els of grain from 
his sheep, because 
it commands a 
high price in mar- 
ket, may rest as- 
sured that he will 
lose more in wool, 
fat and flesh, and 
in the size of 
lambs than the 
grain would be 
worth. Even after 
sheep have been 
turned to grass, 
it is well to feed 
a little grain dai- 
ly until they have become accustomed to 
green feed. If the hay be all fed out, feed half 
a pound of grain per head, and let them have 
constant access to good straw, and to grass for 
about one hour daily. When managed thus 
they will not grow poor, nor have the scours. 
The New York Flower Markets. 
Though New York has not, like P.aris, a sep- 
arate market for the sale of flowers, yet the 
number of plants sold every spring is enormous. 
In each of the principal markets there are sev- 
eral dealers in plants, and during the season 
there are venders at the corners of the streets, 
besides frequent auctions in the business part of 
the city. When we see plants offered for sale 
at any of these places, we are both glad and 
sorry : glad to see that even in a crowded city 
like this there is a demand for plants with which 
to beautify the small space yet uncovered by 
buildings ; sorry to think that nine out of ten 
who purchase the plants will be sorely disap- 
pointed. The majority of those who buy at 
these flower markets are tenants, who wish to 
have something to beautify their yards for the 
present year, without much regard to the future, 
and they get that which gives them very little 
satisfaction. This is in part the fault of the 
purchasers who, having but little experience 
in such matters, will only purchase plants in 
flower, and to comply with this prejudice the 
gardeners force a great variety of plants into 
premature bloom and send them to the spring 
sales. We find Deutzia gracilis, Dicentras, 
Iris, Pansies, and numerous other things all in 
full bloom, in which condition they meet with 
ready sale. These plants, when set out, soon 
pass out of fiower and spend all the rest of the 
season in recovering from the eflfects of the 
forcing process to which they have been sub- 
jected, and the purchaser is, most generally 
disappointed. To those who live in towns 
where flowers are sold in the way we have de- 
scribed, we say, if you buy plants in bloom, 
make up your miudt that you see them at their 
best, and though the plant is oflen worth the 
price asked, merely for tne present enjoyment it 
affords, it will in the majonly of cases fail to 
bloom any more until anothei >-ear. 
The Bladder-nut Tree.— (SKopXi/iea trifoUa.) 
Along the edges of woods there is occasional- 
ly found, in most parts of the country, a small 
tree which has some qualities that ad.apt it to 
the purposes of ornamentation. It grows only 
to the hight of about 15 feet, but is quite tree- 
like in its habit and may be considered as a 
small tree or a large shrub. The trunk is of a 
grayish color, marked in a characteristic man- 
ner with white lines. The leaves are three 
parted ; the shape of the young ones, and a 
flower cluster of 
the natural size, 
are shown in the 
engraving. The 
flowers are pretty, 
though not very 
showy. They are 
borne in pendent 
graceful clusters 
and are of a 
greenish white 
color, often tinged 
with a pale rose 
color. The most 
noticable thing 
about the tree is 
the fruit, which is 
shown of the na- 
tural size in fig. 3. 
It appears like 
'S' three pea pods 
grown together. The texture of the pods is thin 
and bladder-like, whence the popular name. 
Bladder-nut. The pods bear but few seeds, which 
are about the size of duck shot, hard and polish- 
ed. The seeds of a related species in Europe, are 
strung and worn as beads. The tree is readily 
transplanted from its native localities and may 
be propagated from both seeds and cuttings. 
^ I ■■■ — .-• 
' LrLiTTM AtTRATUM. — This splendid lily from 
Japan, which only a year or two ago was so 
great a rarity that the bulbs sold at $40 each, 
is now oifered by florists at $5. It will doubt- 
less soon become as abundant as the Liliumlan- 
cifolium, now so generally known and admired 
as the Japan Lily. This last, formerly held at 
a high price, may now be had for 50 cents. 
