14, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
them. Cut a narrow ditch through the land 2'1 a 
to 4 feet deep. Make it level at the bottom aud 
so that the water will run. Lay the tiles, or 
stones, carefully commencing at the upper end. 
If the water follows you, you may be sure you 
are all right. Theu throw in the soil on the 
top of the tiles, and the work is done. Better 
get Wai ing's book, " Draining for Profit and 
for Health." In regard to liming, I do not think 
it makes much matter when you apply the lime, 
so that you get enough on per acre. One of 
my neighbors applied 100 bushels on an acre of 
heavy clay land fifteen years ago, and he sees 
the effect in every crop to this da}'. It has en- 
tirely changed the character of the soil. My 
father used to put on 150 bushels per acre, and 
always contended that a small dose of lime 
did little good. It is not a popular doctrine 
nowadays, but I believe he was more than half 
right. There is no question iu my mind in re- 
gard to the benefits of liming. Drain first, sum- 
mer-fallow next, and then lime. The land will 
not forget it in 30 years. There are several oth- 
er inquiries which I have not now time to notice. 
I take a brotherly interest in every one engaged iu 
farming, aud am always glad to hear from such. 
— ■ i ■■» — —~- 
Can the United States Raise its Own 
Barley ? 
Large quantities of barley are annually im- 
ported into the United States from Canada, and 
in addition to this it is said that orders have re- 
cently been sent to England for many thousand 
bushels. The fact is a significant one. Barley 
requires good land aud good culture. We have 
abundance of good laud, but what shall we say 
of its culture ? Let the price of barley auswer. 
There was a time when it seemed doubtful 
whether we could afford to improve our farms 
in the older settled parts of the country as long 
as we had to compete with the cheap and fertile 
land of the West. To spend $30 in draining an 
acre of land in Western Xew York, while this 
sum would buy 20 acres of choice land in Iowa, 
required more faith in good farming than most 
of us possessed. But the truth seems to be that 
land, iu itself considered, has comparatively 
little value. What is it worth in parts of Texas 
or South America? It is the labor, skill, and 
capital, expended upon it directly and indirectly 
that gives it value. We build roads, canals, 
railways, towne, cities, churches, aud school- 
houses, and every dollar so spent adds to the 
value of the land. Iu this view, the laud in the 
West is not so much cheaper than at the East 
as is generally supposed; aud at all events we 
need not hesitate to expend capital for needed 
improvements on our farms, for fear that the 
fertile lands of the West will so flood our mar- 
kets with cheap produce that we cannot make 
a living. At any rate, if we cultivate our land 
at all we must cultivate it well. The only 
farmers who have been greatly benefited by 
the high prices of the last six years are those 
whose land is in good couditiou ; and this will 
always be the case. We think there can be no 
doubt that our general system of farming is im- 
proving, but there is still great need of more 
thorough culture aud mattering. The high 
price of barley, and the fact that we obtain such 
large quantities from Canada, where the soil 
and climate are no better than with us, and that 
the freight, duty, and premium on gold, give us 
at least 25 cents a bus'uel advantage in price, is 
a sure indication that we are not farming as 
well as it is for our interest to do. Barley, as we 
have said, requires high culture, aud at present 
prices we can certainly afford to put our land 
iu proper condition to produce a large yield. 
We do not, at this time, propose discussing 
the best methods of growing barley. Our ob- 
ject is to call attention to a fact that affords en- 
couragement to those who are expending capi- 
tal in the improvement of their land. Poor 
farmers can raise good barley. Let those who 
are underdrainiug and otherwise improving their 
laud, and are sometimes frightened at the ex- 
pense, take courage. There is an absolute ne- 
cessity for an improved system of agriculture, 
aud those who are getting their land in good 
condition will assuredly liave their reward. 
» ■ ■! ■ i ■ 
Ladders for General Use. 
We all have need of good ladders. There is 
not a farmer in the land who has not occasion 
now and then to use one, aud, perhaps, often 
trusts or risks his life upon one. It is a criminal 
thing to have weak, shaky ladders about, espe- 
cially tall ones ; for while the risk to life and 
limb is next to nothing upon a good ladder, he 
who uses an unsafe one is in great danger. In 
making a ladder, we prefer to use red cedar for 
the poles, and oak for the rounds. White cedar 
will answer well, and so will white pine or 
spruce for poles, aud the rounds may be made 
of mauy different woods. Dogwood is good, 
cutting stemsofthe right size, and the bark may 
be left on. Hickory does well, if the ladder be 
kept painted, and not exposed to the weather — 
otherwise it rots at the ends where inserted in 
the poles. Cut a straight cedar pole of at least 
six or eight iuches iu diameter at the but, and of 
crane's ladder support. 
the desired length, if such an one can be found. 
Lay it up to season six months or a year, aud 
take care that in drying it does not get a bend. 
AVith a little painstaking it may be improved iu 
straightness while seasoning, if not straight. 
Then shave off the bark and branches with a 
drawing knife; cut it of the right length ; plane 
down a strip of three inches wide on opposite 
sides, aud mark it and saw it in two in the 
middle, lengthways. If well done, we shall 
have two long, straight, sound, tough, stiff 
poles. Mark off the points for holes for the 
rouuds alike in each ; 14 iuches is a good dis- 
tance to have the rounds apart. If the ladder 
is to be a wide one, the lower rounds should be 
an inch and a quarter in diameter, and the holes 
an inch, while the upper rounds need not be 
more than an inch in diameter. For a ladder 
14 iuches between the poles, inch rounds are 
large enough for the bottom ones, and five- 
eighths inch for the top. Split and shaved 
rounds are as good as turned ones, unless one 
is making a very nice job, when the rounds may 
be split out and then turned. It is well to make 
the rounds with a slight shoulder, so that the 
poles cannot be driven together at all by a fall. 
This is apt to split them, aud if the rounds are 
simply shaved down to enter the holes, it is 
imperatively necessary to insert several flat 
rounds two or two and a half iuches wide and 
three quarters of an inch thick, having tenons 
at the end, with stroug shoulders, and fitting 
into mortises. When the ladder is put together, 
dip the ends of the rounds in paint ; set all the 
rouuds in one pole first ; then put on the other, 
aud finally, after sawing off the ends of the 
rounds, drive hard wood wedges in each alter- 
nate round, so as to spread the ends and prevent 
their drawing out. Wedge the flat ones par- 
ticularly. With a plane, a drawing knife, and 
a little sand paper, the ladder is easily fin- 
ished, aud a good coat of varnish will make it 
last a long time as good as new. 
The engraving represents a ladder with a 
support, for use in the orchard or elsewhere, 
applicable to medium-sized ladders, aud far bet- 
ter, to our notion, than most such contriv- 
ances. The peculiarity is in the support, which 
consists of two stiff poles, very nearly as long as 
the ladder, fastened together by a bolt near the 
top, so that the bottoms may be moved apart or 
nearer together. There are two stroug hooks in- 
serted in these poles below where they are bolted 
together, and upon these one of the upper 
rounds is made to rest, as shown in the en- 
graving. This is the invention of Mr. J. C. 
Crane, of Kewark, N. J., and combines effi- 
ciency and safety. The supports are readily 
removed, wheu the ladder is needed for uses 
in which they are not required. 
A Rotation for the West. 
The agriculture of the West is, if possible, iu 
a still ruder condition than that of the East. 
The course pursued by the great majority of 
farmers has been well calculated to destroy the 
fertility of the laud. The aim has almost always 
been to get the greatest amount of present profit, 
with the least labor. The improvement of the 
laud has not been thought of, or cared for. The 
emigrant has pitched his tent in the forest, or 
upon the edge of the prairie, and, with very lit- 
tle capital, has begun the struggle for life. Corn 
has been the essential crop, for it furnished food 
for his family and for his animals, and prepared 
the way for wheat, which was the main reliance 
for money. Corn was planted among the 
girdled trees, and sometimes for several years 
in successiou, uutil the limbs and many of the 
trunks of the trees had fallen. Iu some of the 
states there are large tracts that have been 
planted with corn for thirty years or more, and 
are said to still produce forty bushels to the 
acre, which is a reduction of one-half from its 
primitive fertility. In many places corn and 
wheat, both exhausting crops, have been grown 
iu alternate succession uutil both have ceased 
to be remunerative. In all the older Western 
States, the average yield of wheat has been re- 
duced one-half or more, so that on many farms 
it is given up as an uncertain crop. Troublesome 
weeds have come in so abundantly that it is no 
