13G9.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
205 
To Kill Briers.— "J. N. B.," of Rocking- 
ham Co., Virginia, has a great many "running briers" on 
his farm, and wants to know how to destroy them. If 
the land is under the plow, thorough cultivation will kill 
them. If not, wc should mow them down with, a brush, 
scythe, and then pasture the field heavily with sheep as 
soon as they are sheared, so that the briers would not 
tear off the wool. The sheep would cat the leaves and 
weaken the plants, and ultimately kill them. 
ff,nn<l and Fresh Water Shells of 
North America.— The Smithsonian Institute is do- 
ing an excellent work in publishing in its Miscellaneous 
Collections treatises that it would be difficult to produce 
otherwise. This monograph of our land shells, so much 
needed by those who study shells, and calculated to aid 
the worker in this branch of natural history, would with 
difficulty find a publisher, as the demand for such works 
would not make it 2>ay. It docs, however, pay to have 
such works as this; they are useful not only here but 
abroad, and wc are glad that the Smithsonian takes this 
method to " diffuse knowledge among men." It is to be 
regretted that the book docs not inform us how it may be 
obtained. The illustrations are numerous, and the whole, 
&ivcs indication of honest and thorough work. 
4- as-Sso i!*<* Ijme, and the Ammoni- 
ocal Liquor of Gas-works.— These substances 
form a valuable source of manure, of which, thus far, but 
little use has been made. The ammoniacal liquor is 
very strong, and should be filtered through dry earth, 
or used to saturate earthy compost heaps, aud even then 
bad better be employed with some caution. Applied in 
its raw state, it is very likely to kill all vegetation. The 
refuse lime from gas-works consists largely of compounds 
of sulphur and lime, all or most of which arc injurious 
to vegetation ; but if composted for a few months with 
refuse matter, such as chips, sods, leaves, weeds, or other 
porous rubbish, the chemical changes which take place 
reduce it gradually to the condition for the most part of 
lime, and sulphate of lime, or plaster, both of which arc 
beneficial ; this refuse, so treated, would have a greater 
agricultural value than would freshly burned lime. 
Stoohs. — Those -who write us to know if there 
is any book on this or that subject should first look over 
the Book List, which usually is to be found in the adver- 
tising columns. Wc intend to keep every work relating 
to agriculture, horticulture, etc., whether published by 
us or not, provided it is a good and useful one. There 
nrc some works — generally neither good nor useful — that 
arc Bold by subscription. Farmers as a geueral thing 
would do well to be shy of agricultural book canvassers. 
A few good books arc sold in this way, but the majority 
of such are trashy, and could never be sold if their sale 
depended upon their own merits, and not upon the rep- 
resentations of glib-tongned peddlers. The safest way is 
to order of the nearest bookseller, or by mail of the pub- 
lishers, whoever they may be. There are some depart- 
ments of agricultural and horticultural literature in which 
there are no good books, and these are being rapidly filled 
by the publishers of this journal aud others. No one 
should undertake a special culture or branch of farming 
of any kind without first becoming familiar with the lit- 
erature of the subject. Some one has happily remarked 
that experience is none the less valuable for being print- 
ed. But the prejudices against book farming are rapidly 
passing away. 
Cultivation of Potatoes in I¥* C— 
*' S.," of Salem, writes: " With us a good clay, not too 
heavy, yields better potatoes than a sandy loam. If too 
rich, we get tremendous vines but a poor yield. Are 
these facts at variance with Northern experience ? If so, 
is the climate the only cause?"— It is probably the only 
reason why clays are better than sandy or gravelly loams. 
The former hold moisture better. The kind of manure 
makes much more difference than the mere richness of 
the soil. Rank fresh manure makes vines, but well- 
rotted manure, especially if it has been composted and 
well worked over, may be freely applied to the benefit of 
the crop. The same must be true at theSouth, we think. 
Snpcrphosphale vs. Peruvian 
Guano.— "J. L. C," Saratoga Springs, writes: "My 
farm comprises a variety of soils, such as sand and 
gravel, together with clay and alluvial lowland; and I 
wish to try some of the commercial fertilizers. What is 
the relative value of Baugh's superphosphate and Peru- 
vian guano ? Iu this vicinity, the former has been used 
with satisfactory results, but very little guano has been 
tried. We depend mostly on gypsum."— Wc have used 
several tons of Baugh's superphosphate, and find it an 
excellent fertilizer for turnips, tomatoes, cabbage, straw- 
berries, lettuce, cucumbers, melons, and garden crops 
generally. In an old garden, that has been liberally ma- 
nured for many years, it has a magical effect. But on 
corn, on the writer's farm in Western New York, it has 
not been found profitable. And the same is true of Peru- 
vian guano. Gypsum is our cheapest manure for corn. 
For potatoes, guano is better than superphosphate. On 
the lighter and poorer soils of the Atlantic slope, super- 
phosphate may prove profitable for corn and other farm 
crops. On a farm having light gravelly upland, with clay 
and alluvial low land, our aim should be to develop the 
resources of the low land, and use the crops obtained 
from them to make manure for the upland. With thi3 
barn-yard manure, with artificial manures as an auxiliary, 
the fertility °f the land may be maintained, and increased. 
PJowing Heavy Land. — u G. C.,*" 
Staunton, Ya., writes that he has been trying to plow a 
meadow of about thirteen acres, which has not been 
plowed in fifteen or twenty years, and has been most of 
the time covered with water. '■ I ditched it, and it is 
now apparently dry, but four horses arc unable to pull a 
No. 5 Livingston plow through it on account of the 
toughness of the sod, and the stiff character of the soil. 
Can you or your ' Walks and Talks ' give me any sugges- 
tions?" — Wc presume the draining has been accomplish- 
ed by surface drains, and is still quite imperfect. Instead 
of plowing, it might be better to harrow the sod thor- 
oughly, and sow grass seeds on it. If the toughness of 
the sod is owing to the ground being full of quack, and 
it is decided to plow it, we would put on a three-horse 
steel plow, with a sharp coulter, and not attempt to go 
any deeper than the three horses can draw with the ease 
of ordinary plowing. '"W. aud T." had a heavy clay field 
that had not been plowed for a dozen or more years, into 
which he could not get the plow more than three inches. 
He scratched it over with the plow the best way he could, 
sometimes going in for a yard or two four or five inches 
deep, and sometimes not more than two inches, and 
sometimes not that. It was wretched work. But during 
the summer, the sod rotted more or less, and being occa- 
sionally harrowed, it acted as a mulch, and kept the soil 
underneath moist, and in the course of a few months it 
was plowed again, deeper and better, and sown to wheat. 
This was a mistake. It should have been " fall-fallowed." 
After the fall rains it might have been plowed a reasona- 
ble depth, and after a winter's exposure, would have 
been in fair condition for a crop of oats. Should we have 
such a case again, especially if there was quack grass in 
the land, we would fallow it for eighteen months, and 
then seed it down with timothy in August or Septem- 
ber without any grain sown with it. On heavy clay land, 
an eighteen months'* fallow, if the work is thoroughly 
done, would develop a large amount of plant-food, and 
there is no danger of its leaching out. Such treatment 
ought to make a splendid meadow. 
Potatoes manured. with Loave«i. 
Much on the principle of raising potatoes uuder straw. 
*'S.," of Salem, N. C. says that one of the best potato 
growers in North Carolina practices covering the pota- 
toes with S to 12 inches of leaves. He raises the same 
crop year after year, and makes no other return to the 
soil, yet has noticed no falling off. Others put on the 
leaves after the first plowing, wheu the plants arc well up. 
"On a Ruxa-dotvn Farm, and no 
Manure, will leaf mould help me any?"— l *D. S. II.," 
Ossipee, N. H.— Yes. Get all you can, and compost it, if 
only for a week, with lime, using a bushel of slaked lime 
to a cart-load of mould, or mix it with fresh manure of 
any sort — one-third manure to two-thirds mould. It will 
heat enough to be of great service iu ten (lays. If there 
is absolutely no time to wait, apply the mould to the 
land, and lime it well at the same time. 
Raising Poultry i'or Market.-"! 
F. V." Arch St., asks : " Where can I find some one that is 
engaged in raising poultry for the market? I intend going 
into the business."— Poultry-raising is a branch of busi- 
ness usually followed on the farm, and you can hardly go 
amiss of good poultry men in any farming district. It is 
seldom followed as a distinct business, and whenever 
attempted has generally failed, mainly, we think, through 
too close crowding. A thousand hens, turkeys, ducks 
and geese ought to have at least twenty acres of land. part- 
ly covered with wood and brush. Ducks, geese, and 
turkeys are very extensively raised about Narragansett 
Bay, in R. I., and it would pay a man who wishes to raise 
waterfowl to visit Tiverton and Little Compton in that 
State to learn how it is done. 
Blow much ILime to the Acre? — 
" II. G. L.," of Maryland, writes : " Wc find by analysis 
that lime is required only in c\ very limited degree; and 
I am inclined to think the excessive use of lime iu soma 
sections of the country a waste of time, money, and la- 
bor, and also that the liberal use of superphosphate of 
lime, potash, ammonia, and gypsum, would make nearly 
if not quite unnecessary the use of lime."— The value 
of quicklime as a manure is not merely in supplying an 
actual constituent of the plant. If it was, a few pounds 
per acre would be sufficient. Its value consists in chang- 
ing the chemical and physical character of the soil— in 
developing the latent mineral plant-food, and in decom- 
posing and rendering available organic matter, and in 
forming compounds which attract ammonia from the at- 
mosphere. It may be that We can purchase this ammonia 
aud other plant-food cheaper than wc can get it by using 
lime. It depends a good deal on the nature and compo- 
sition of the soil. At present, this question cannot 
be definitely settled, except by actual trial on the farm. 
Iu England, where lime was formerly used in large quanti- 
ties, the tendency for some time has been towards a more 
liberal and direct use of ammonia and phosphates iu ma- 
nures, rather than to develop them out of the soil by the 
use of lime. A judicious combination of the two systems 
will probably be found the most profitable, 
Bfiovr Does Water Get Into Drain- 
ing Tiles ?— Many correspondents ask this question, 
and it seems to strike everyone as the first mystery of 
tile draining. The answer is a very short one. It leaks 
in. The soil outside of the pipe is saturated with water, 
which is pressing downward, seeking an outlet. Tho 
open joint between the ends of two draining tiles is a 
crack through which it can find its way. Once inside tho 
tiles, it runs off and leaves room for more to follow. 
3f. Y. State Fair.— The next Fair of the 
N. Y. State Agricultural Society will be held at El mi ra. 
The officers announce that " The books of entry for 
premiums will be closed three weeks before the opening 
of the Fair." This means we do not doubt exactly what 
it f-ays, and it is important that all intending to exhibit 
should remember it. Entries may be made up to that 
time by letter or personally, at the rooms of the Society, 
Albany. Corresponding Secretary, Thos. L. Harrison. 
IfaUctt's Pedigree Wheat.— A gen- 
tleman at Wilkcsbarre, Pa., asks what became of the 
wheat distributed from the Agriculturist office in 1S61 ? 
It does not poem to have proved as valuable as wc ex- 
pected. The truth is, that few farmers have the time or 
taste to experiment with a small package of wheat. It 
i3 generally sowa in the garden, and the birds cat it, or 
it gets hoed up, or accidents of one kind or other befall 
it. But there arc also other reasons why Ilallctt's Pedi- 
gree Wheat has not proved more useful. It is a variety 
that has been carefully "bred" until it is adapted to 
produce a very large crop on very rich land. If it is true 
that our wheat crops are deteriorating, the trouble is not 
so much in the want of better varieties as in the want of 
better tillage aud manuring. There are good farmers 
who have, by underdraining and good management, 
brought their land to a high state of fertility, and on 
such farms improved varieties of grain are needed. But 
such men have more faith in good culture and manure 
than in new varieties of seed, while those who arc dis- 
posed to try improved varieties- of seed arc frequently 
indisposed to use the means necessary to improve aud 
enrich their land, without which such varieties arc use- 
less. What we should aim at is to induce good farmers to 
secure good varieties of seed, and poor farmers to devote 
all their energies first to enrich tlic land, and not waste 
them in searching for a variety of grain that will produce 
a large crop of superior quality on poor land nnregenerat- 
cd. There is no 6uch variety, and there never will be! 
A H«vw Rotation of Crops Wanted 
in Maryland.— "M. J. H M " Cecil Co., Md., writes: 
" I have one hundred and fifty acres of light clay loam,— 
five fields, of fifteen acres each, and the balance in pas- 
ture. My rotation has been corn, oats, wheat. Yield, 
sixty bushels corn per acre, oats, thirty bushels, and 
wheat, twenty bushels. But I wish to give up the oats, 
a3 the soil is of such a nature that they will not stand 
until ripe. What crop shall I substitute? Would oats, 
sown as wc now sow them, on the corn stubble, and 
plowed under for wheat, be a good fertilizer, or would 
peas answer better ?"— The peas would be the better 
crop, turned under when in blossom, say in June or 
July, and the surface afterwards kept clean and mellow 
uutil the wheat is sown. But why not try red clover, 
sown iu August among the corn ? If it does well, it 
would be just what you want to plow under for wheat, 
and if not, there would still be time to sow peas or oats 
in the spring. Bat we do not like cither plan. With 
good land, good markets, and easy access to fertiliz- 
ers, it is poor economy to plow uuder a crop of oats, 
peas, or clover, for manure. We would try to keep more 
stock. Why would it not do to plant beans instead of 
the oats after corn ? They would allow the use of the 
horse-hoc, and they are off in good season for sow- 
ing wheat afterwards. The money obtained for them, 
expended in manures, would enrich the land far mora 
than turning under a crop of oats, peas, or clover. 
