178 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Juke, 
Tliis plan is designed for a situation upon the 
'north side of a road running east and west, and 
for placing the end of the house to the road, 
bringing the kitchen upon the east side of the 
house and the parlor to the east and south. The 
bay window would also give 
a western view. The plan 
would answer well also, with 
slight modifications, for a 
situation upon the east side 
of a road running north and 
south. In that case the en- 
trance should be toward the 
road, the kitchen and parlor 
retaining their positions to 
the east and south, and a transposition should 
be made of the back entrance and pantry as in 
fig. 4, bringing the entry more to the rear. The 
hood over the main entrance may be supported 
by brackets, from three-inch plank, seen distinct- 
ly in the engraving, fig. 1. The posts of the 
house should be fourteen feet, the roof project- 
ing at least twenty inches, with a sharp pitch. 
Thinning Corn in the Hills. 
Thinning should always be done as soon as 
practicable after the corn has come up. This 
is usually done at the first hoeing, but should 
be delayed till danger fi'om the grub, or cut- 
worm, is over. Unless careful laborers are era- 
ployed, many hills will be neglected. Super- 
fluous stalks may be removed at any conve- 
nient time, even in lowery weather, when the 
soil is too wet to be worked with cultivators or 
hoes. The best manner of doing this is to cut 
thera off close to the ground, with a sharp 
knife, and drop them near the standing corn. 
The stalks should be removed from the middle 
of the hill, that the remaining plants may stand 
as fiir from each other as possible ; the fai'ther 
they stand apart the larger the ears will grow. 
When the stalks are pulled up, they will often 
loosen and break the roots of those that are left, 
but, if cut otf as directed, the roots soon die. 
If care be not exercised in dropping only a pro- 
per number of kernels in a hill, much labor 
will be required to thin out a large field. Still 
it is better to do so than to allow five or six 
stalks to grow where there should be only three, 
or at most four. There will be more and better 
grain on four stalks than on a larger number. 
Top-Dressing Grass Land, 
The practice of burying organic manure 
deep in the soil is fast passing away. The air 
cannot readily reach it to decompose and render 
it available for the food of plants, and if it did, 
the great mass of the roots of grasses would 
not penetrate to find it. They prefer the first 
few inches of soil near the surface, where they 
get the benefit of the rain and air, and the well 
prepared food which abounds there. The plow 
aud the spade should indeed be thrust down 
deep, but the fresh manure should not be de- 
posited below the deep-turned farrow slice, but 
nearer the surface, to enrich the soil only as the 
rains carry it down, or as it becomes thoroughly 
incorporated with the soil. The letters of our 
subscribers continually testify to the benefits of 
top-dressing meadows and pastures. One de- 
clares that though the farmers in his section 
suffered from drouth last season, yet those 
fields which had been dressed early in the pre- 
vious autumn with muck, or muck and manure 
composted, or even strawy manure, suffered 
little and bore handsome crops. It is a grow- 
ing practice of many good farmers to apply 
manure over their meadows immediately after 
haying. They hold that it protects the newly- 
exposed roots from the scorching sun, and 
brings up the aftermath vigorous and abundant. 
The loss of volatile matter wliich probably 
takes place is not so bad as the effect of a 
parching heat on the exposed green roots. 
When the land is rolling, the knolls should 
receive heavier dressings than the low and level 
land. If carted out and spread after mowing 
or in autumn, it acts as a mulch, protecting the 
roots of the grasses, and preventing their being 
thrown out by the frost. This work can gener- 
ally be done cheaper in autumn than spring, and 
with less injury to the land from the trampling 
of teams. For lawns, fall dressing is always 
preferable to spi'ing, because the manure gets 
washed down close to the ground aud out of 
sight during the winter, and so does not inter- 
fere with the -close cutting in summer. 
Manuring Corn after it is Up. 
■ — 
Circumstances sometimes render it impossi- 
ble to thoroughly prepare corn ground before 
planting, and it is often advantageous to ma- 
nure it after it is up. Tins must be done at the 
time of the first hoeing. Along the seaboard 
where the Moss-bunkers or Menhaden are taken 
in such great numbers, they are much used. A 
shallow furrow is made with a small plow, 
on each side of every row, a few inches from 
the hills, turning the earth away from the row; 
then one fish is placed in liie furrow on each 
side of every hill. Should the furrows be too 
shallow in some places, tlie earth is worked out 
a little with the foot or hand-hoe, so that the 
fish may be placed below the surface of the soil. 
Then the earth is turned toward the hills, and 
the corn hoed. If the fish should be displaced, 
the workmen bury them again close to the hill. 
By the time of the second hoeing, they will 
be pretty thoroughly dsconiposed. Where there 
is not an excess of water in the soil, this kind of 
manure produces a very luxuriant and rapid 
growth, as well as good yiekt A similar method 
is sometimes practised with barn-yard manure, 
the earth being turned from the rows as pre- 
viously directed, a small shovelful of manure is 
placed on each side of every hill and covered. 
The manner of distributing this kind of manure 
is, to drive a loaded wagon astride of one row, 
so that two hands can each apply the manure 
to two or three rows on each side. When turn- 
ing a wagon around over the young corn, if a 
wheel is liable to run directly on a hill, place 
short pieces of planls or rails on each side of it, 
which will lift the wagon over without injuring 
the corn. .Lime, gypsum, ashes, guano, hen 
manui'e, or any other similar materials may 
often be ver}' profitably applied, at the first hoe- 
ing. They should always be sprinkled over an 
area of several inches in diameter, all around 
the hill, and covered and mingled witli the earth 
in hoeing. Guano, or strong hen manure, if ap- 
plied in this manner, will never work injury to 
the 3'oung plants, unless they come in direct con- 
tact with them, or an inordinate quantity be used. 
«-• -a-»B- •— 
To Pitch Hay into a Window with a 
Horse-Fork. 
To be able to use the horse-fork in pitching 
hay into a window, set a pole, in front, as high 
as the top of the window, aud distant the width 
of a load of hay — say 14 feet. Fasten a pulley 
at the top of the pole, and one at the bottom of 
it. Nail on two braces, or stay-pieces, from the 
top to the side of the building, to keep the post 
erect and firm. Now let the rope pass around 
the pulley, at the bottom of the post, thence 
over the pulley at the top, thence under a pulley 
at the bail of the fork, thence in at the window 
and over a pulley at the opposite end of the 
loft, thence back to the bail of the fork, where 
it is made fast. The fork, with its load, will 
rise as high as the window, and then move off 
horizontally, to the other side, or end of the loft; 
or its load may be dropped at pleasure. It 
will make no difference where the inside pulley 
is, if it be only placed higher than the window, 
and several feet directly back from it, so that the 
rope will not draw into one corner. When the 
window is in the end of a barn, let the pulley 
in the barn be attached as fiir back as it can be 
convenienllj', and considerably higher than the 
top of the window^ Windows should be not 
less than 4J feet square, in order to admit a 
forkful freely. Let these directions be followed 
out to the letter, and any one can put up this 
arrangement correctly, even if he has never 
seen it done before. We once put up a horse- 
fork rigging, with which hay was carried hori- 
zontally SO feet, and then after rising 10 feet 
over a beam, was carried onward 40 feet further. 
Castration of Calves and Colts, 
Every farmer who raises domestic animals 
ought to understand what effect castration of a 
young male animal is likely to have on the prop- 
er development of certain good pfiints, as well 
as what the effect will be on other points if he 
is not castrated. By pcrfu-ming this operation 
at a certain period, or by delaying it for a few 
months, or a year or more, results can be so- 
cured in developing a good form and sym- 
metry in some animals, which never could be 
effected by any other means. Take for exam- 
ple a bull calf having a large head and neck, 
aud deeper and heavier forward than behind, 
in short, bull-shaped : if altered when only a 
few weeks old, as he grows he will retain in a 
measure the same form, looking like a so-called 
stag. On the contrar\', if castrated when only 
a few days old, his liind-quarters will be much 
bettor developed ; and his liead, neck, and 
shoulders will be in much better proportion to 
the other parts of his l)ody, as an ox's should be. 
On the contrary, if a bull calf be very broad and 
heavy behind, and have a cow's head and neck, 
castration should be deferred for several months, 
in case he is to be raised for the yoke. It 
is a well-established rule, that the earlier a 
calf is castrated, the better will be the beef; 
while the longer he is allowed to go, the coarser 
it will be, and often the worse his form. 
Farmers do not generally pay sufficient regard 
to the fact that the time of gelding the colt 
makes a great differeuce in the shape of the ma- 
ture horse. The usual time is when the colts 
are a year old, without reference to their points. 
There are at least some views, in which all good 
horsemen agree, as to the effects on the develop- 
ment of certain points of the colt, as well aa 
on his disposition. In some special cases the 
castration of colts should be deferred until 
they are thrfic years old ; while others should 
be gelded at that particular period in their 
growth, which will favor the more perfect de- 
velopment of certain points of form and sym- 
raetrj'. This occui'S sometimes at the age of a 
few mouths, a year, two years, or more. It is 
quite difficult to lay down practical directions 
on this point. To be able to decide when a 
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