1869.] 
AMERICAN AaRTOULTURTST. 
283 
honor and intelligence of makers, arc frequently defraud- 
ed. It is noticeable that (he sample which contained the 
largest percentage of soluble phosphoric acid, and also 
of ammonia, was the lowest in price, though made out of 
the State. Mr. Johnson gave simply the number of the 
sample furnished him. Mr. Gold added the names of the 
manure, that of the manufacturer, and of the dealer of 
whom it was obtained in each case. The report is very 
unsatisfactory in one particular, the bearings and rela- 
tions of which we shall probably take an early opportu- 
nity to discuss more at length. That is, the commercial 
. B isides, the values are stated in gold; the prices, 
in currency. Some check should he put upon the cupid- 
ity of dealers, some strong inducements held out to 
manufacturer to understand their own business and to 
make good articles, for a man may be very honcs$ and 
yet put a very poor article upon the market, and ask ;i 
high price for it. It i^ a delicate matter in such cases to 
do exact justic ■ See item on Com. Fertilizers in Maine, 
l,c;irhrd or 3 n leached Ashes;. — 
Levi Hall, of Cumberland Co., Me., asks: "Are leached 
ashes worth more or less per bushel than nnleached?" 
Ans. — Commen ially about tin- same ; agriculturally, ordi- 
narily less— and always less, every tiling considered. 
Unlea* hed a shes are light, if dry, and contain a \ iryin * 
amount of potash, bat «.* i m »ti ^ 1 1 to give them always great 
value ae a fertilizer. In teaching, a large part of the pot- 
ash is withdrawn : tin 1 remainder i- very much com- 
pacted and still contains a good deal of potash. If poorly 
leached, tin- amount ol' potash, in a bushel of leached 
ashes sometimes equals that, in the same measure 
of unleached. In this case, of course, it would be worth 
more on account of the other valuable fertilizing ingre- 
dients it contain-. Though the potash, which is the most 
valuable ingredient,be removed byleaching,other articles, 
especially the phosphates, are proportionately increased. 
Hence for common use we regard one nearly as valuable 
as the other, though preference should be- given to un- 
leached hard-wood ashes, if well compressed in measur- 
ing, supposing the leaching of the others to have been 
thorough. 
If o>v Mneh Wheat Can a 31 an Cra- 
dle in a Duy ■—■'Mr. I. P. Walker, of Mississippi, 
says: "I had a dispute as to the quantity of wheat a 
good cradler ought to cut iu .i day. and refer the matter 
to yon. 11 — We have beard men claim that they have cra- 
dli (1 five acres of wheal in a day. and that one man bound 
it up after them. With a light crop, cut high, and calling 
16 or 17 hours a day, the thing is possible. But with a 
fair crop of wheat, of say 25 bushels per acre, two acres 
is a good average day's work. Here the question has 
lost its practical interest. What we now want are men 
who can bind up the win 'at into sheaves rapidly and well 
alter a reaping machine. If a man formerly could cradle 
5 acres a day, and one man bind it up after him. the race 
of binders is sadly degenerated. We have cut wheat for 
several years with one of Wood's Self-raking reapers, 
which leaves the wheat in [rood shaped bundles, and a 
man ought to be able to bind after it more rapidly than 
after a cradler, when the grain is left in a swath. But wc 
find that the very men who boast of having been able to 
cradle and bind three, four, and five acres a day. cannot, 
bind and stack lip more than two acres after the machine. 
And yet it is easier binding after a machine than after a 
cradler. Let these who boast of bow much they can 
cradle in a day in rn their attention to binding, and we 
can, for a few years, give them a chance to exhibit their 
t-kill and activity. Cradling is obsolete. We know of 
but on' 1 way to reconcile those (acts. The four and five- 
;i. re a-day performances were mere ■■spurts.'' 
Itarley vn. Corn.— 1 ' C. II. T." asks if a 
bushel of barley is worth as much to feed out as a bushel 
of corn.— A bushel of barley is only is i:>s._ and seldom 
comes up to the standard, while a bushel of com is 56 
lbs., and generally overruns. So that even if 100 lbs. of 
barley is as nutritions as 100 lbs. of corn, which i> doubt- 
ful, ii would require 7 bushels of bailey to be equal to 6 
bushels of corn. A little barley meal mixed with corn 
meal lor pigs i^ thought by many farmers to make more 
nnd better pork than corn alone. 
Farmers "Buying on their Oars." 
—To give an idea of the feeling of farmcrsover a large 
Miction of the West, a single letter will suffice. It comes 
from "J. C. K., 1 ' of Marshall Co., 111., and is dated July 
'2d. "We are literally drowned out here, and have been 
lying on our ' oars' now for almost three weeks, waiting 
for it to stop raining, and still it rains. What are we to 
do? Our spring wheat and oats will all go to straw, and 
onr rye will be lost on accounl of the ground being so soft, 
that we can't run a reaper to harvest it. Our corn looks 
as though it had the hollow horn, yellow as ripe wheat, 
md a great deal of it has nor been plowed the first time. 
and looks as green as a meadow with weeds. There arc 
farmers here iu the garden spot of Illinois, and of the 
world, who will not raise enough com to feed their stock-, 
as the corn is small, the weeds large, tic- ground wet. and 
hands scarce, so that we can't clean it out in time to 
make good fodder, -at least the most ol' it is so, and if I 
haven't been misinformed, it is pretty much the same all 
over tin.- West, Would n't thi - be n good time to organ- 
ize a Farmers' Club and discuss the laying of drain tiles 
and other matters connected with the farm, a- we have 
the 'blues' the worst you ever saw, nnd need something 
to put in our time, at these rainy days ! The salutation of 
every farmer you meet is 'Good morning. When do 
you think it will stop raining Y " 
Plata Ducks. — W. M. Brockficld, St. 
Louis. Mo. These duck- are a variety of the .Musk, (im- 
properly called Muscovj i. The original stock came from 
the La Plata River in South America, and is different from 
the common Musk ducks, chiefly in color, and in having, 
we believe, less of the red, caruncuiated skin about their 
bead-. Their color i- silvery-white, or white with slate- 
colored spots If Musk or Muscovy ducks have any ad- 
vantages over common ducks, we do not know what. 
they are. Theyare tender, not bearing our winters well ; 
they fly like kites ; and the drake- are large mid have a 
musky smell, from which comes their name. The ducks are 
no larger than common ducks, and pairs do notweigh 
more than jrood Rouons or Aylcsbnries. The "mon- 
grels " produced by crossing Mnsk drakes with cuinii< n 
ducks are kiriri- and ^ood eatiiiL'. They do nut breed. 
'1'hree-hors.e Kvener or Clevis.. — 
We find by an advertisement of G. II. Gale. Kalamazoo, 
Mich., that the idea of a Three-horse Evener, as described 
and credited to Mr. Mitchell, on pa^c •-*'.'3, is claimed as 
a patented right by a •'Three-horse Clevis Manufacturing 
Co.," iii the place above named. We have no knowledge 
as to priority of invention or of facts, tavc those given. 
XrisaJ of 3Bov* r ers nnd Reapers at 
Kedalia, Mo.— A trial of mowers and reapers which 
has excited a good deal of interest occurred under the 
patronage of the Pettis Co. Agricultural Society, on the 
22dof June, near Sedalia, Mo. There were forty entries, 
and an experienced committee of judge6, of which the 
President of the Society, Major Gentry, was Chairman. 
The machine were classified as follows ; Sclf-raking 
Reapers, Droppers, Hand-rakes, Combined Machines, 
Mowers. Interest centred in self-raking reapers, and 
in this class Wood's machine took the first prize. We 
have not seen a full list of awards in the other classes. 
This is considered the greatest, trial of harvesting 
machines ever held west of the Mississippi. 
Sights and Sensations in France, 
Germany, and Switzerland. By Edward Gould 
Buffhm. X. Y. : Harper & Brothers. The story of Euro- 
pean travel has been told over and over, btit never more 
pleasantly than in this posthumous work of a well-known 
American journalist. He takes ccrtain'salient points and 
tells all about them. We have derived much pleasure 
from this book. 
<j5r:i|>e fineries by "Johnny," Blairsville, 
Pa. -We do not know what you mean by •• slugs'" on the 
vine. If you mean caterpillars, band picking i-^ the besl 
remedy. If vine- are trained properly, all pari- arc 
within reach, and the task i- not a heavy one. As to 
keeping grapes, that depends upon the variety. Concord 
and other soft grapes will not keep under any circum- 
stances, while those with a thick skin, like the Catawba 
and Diana, readily keep until New Year's. After the 
-rapes have shrunk a little, put them in boxes of about 
five pounds each, and keep them cool. 
Strawberries at 111. Pnlaslci, Oil. 
— "O. A. A." write?: *■ r have l n- endeavoring for a 
few years past to ascertain by experiment what kind or 
kindsarc most profitable for me, and am fast settling 
down on the Agriculturist. I received it of you with the 
paper, ami set a bed of it in the spring of 18fi7, which 
ha-* remained ever since. At the same time I set the 
Russell, Triomphc, and some others. The first season 
the Russell did the best, but last year ami thi- th.3 Agri- 
culturist has been twice as productive as the Russell, and 
has proved itself the hardier. Last wilder, which was 
particularly tryingon strawberries, made an end of the 
Triomphc. Mine were all unprotected, and looked so 
bad in the spring that I expected no fruit, or very little. 
but the Agriculturist was really fine. Iu the fall of 1^(17 
I procured some plants of .Turunda and Wilson. Of the 
.lucundas I have now less than my original number, and 
have bad perhaps 3or4 fair-sized berries. I don't think 
it is going Io do any thing for me. still T intend to keep 
it a year or two longer and u'ive it protection, if it <i-n: n't 
Ii'- out before winter conns. The Wilsons gave me this 
year a moderate amount of fair fruit, but they must mend 
their pace if they catch up with the Agriculturist 11 
lCunnin$» out Ihe B,;iml Avif I» 4«ii;i- 
no.- " F. G.," Yineland, N.J. The larger the crops 
you take from the land, the quicker it will runout. If 
you have a credit at the bank for $10.00(1 and want to use 
the money now. \\ ill you draw it out a few hundred dol- 
lars at a time? No. You make a check for the whole 
amount at 0UC6, and use the money. The soil is a bank ; 
von uave a credit there which consist- of all the immcdi- . 
atcly available plant-food in it. without reference to 
whether it was formed there or you put it in. A crop is 
a check. It is impossible to draw out all the fertility 
with one crop, but if you wish to do so as nearly as yon 
can, use Peruvian guano and highly concentrated. stimu- 
lating manures. If you take care that you return to the 
soil as much as you draw out, or a little more, there will 
be no exhaustion ; but if you keep on drawing without 
making equivalent deposits, of course you will runout 
the land as truly as yon would your balance at the bank. 
We believe in getting as bi^ r crops a- possible, but in 
keeping the soil good, too. 
A Pi'oltleni — Rye. - A correspondent of 
the Agriculturist writes: "In this section of country 
(Ulster County, N. Y.), the snow and ice covered the 
gronnd for about four mouths last winter, and there was 
little or no frost in the ground. Where new rye of 1S6S 
has t>i en sown, it was damaged greatly ,and much appeared 
dead in the roots ; w here the old rye of 1867 was sown, it 
came out freehand green. Why this difference ?" If 
this i a fact.it is a very important one ; but we appre- 
hend more is due to the character of the soil than to the 
seed. Please thoroughly investigate soil, manurine;, 
time of sowing, etc. 
B>ry Karth as a B>«?od©rizer. — U M. 
L. II.," Lancaster Co., Pa., thinks that the talk about dry 
earth as a deodorizer is nothing new, and refers us to an 
article by the Rev. II. Moule, in the Patent Office Report 
for 1 3G0, It i* upon tin 1 basis of the investigations of this 
"!■ Rev. H. Moule that all the subsequent talk n 
The Earth Closet Co. give him lull credit lor bis discov- 
ery, and we have done so frequently. 
tomatoes from 4'atifornia. — Mr. 
Chas. Drake, No. 3 Hudson St.. N. Y M brought us on 
July 12th some tomatoes scjit by Drake A- Emerson from l 
Sin Francisco, by railroad. They wei*e picked too laic 
In so long a journey, and were a little over-ripe. 
Small lVnit Seed.-J. A. Hall, Wash- 
ington Co., N. Y. Crush the fruit and wash out the 
seeds of your raspberries, blackberries, etc., and mix 
them with sand. They will keep in a cool place until 
spring, when they should be sown early. Strawberries, 
for which it i< now too late, will make good plants if 
sown the same season the fruit ripens. 
BVnia Preserving Powder.- The many 
who have asked about this have already found their an- 
swer in the July number. We have there said all that 
we know about it, ami are sufficiently pleased with what. 
we have seen of it to give it a trial. 
Chinese Viims. — Wc do not recommend 
their cultivation, except as a curiosity. The little bulbs 
from which they are propagated are sold ;d all the large 
seed stores in the spring. 
.%]»l»los> and <£niiiees P com Cut- 
tings.— "J. s. B., 11 Wesl Falmouth. Ma—. Very 
i :w apple- will grow readily from cuttings, ami these are 
iiol of kinds desirable for fruit. Quinces ate nsually 
propagated from cuttings, which should be made in the 
fall, and either set then, or buried v. here they \\ ill callus^ 
and can In- put out very early in sprite.'. 
Calyeaiilhns or Swect-^renti'd 
Shrub.— " Polk City. 11 This shrub is not usually raised 
from seed. The plants are to be hi,! of all nurserymen 
who keep ornamental shrubs at all, as it is one of the 
most common. 
SI on tin^r a liireen-hoiise.— J. Do a ne, 
Norfolk Co.. Mass. Drain pipes will answer lor your 
flm- after the first 60 ft. Their diameter should be that ol 
the flue. Wood will not answer for any part of the Hue, 
nor is it safe to use it for the chimney outside. 
Seed Peas.-".!. P. F.," Grand Rapids, 
Mich. We are told on good authority that if peas aro 
placed iu a bottle or other closed vessel with a small 
quantity "T spirits or turpentine or chloroform, the larva 
of the beetle v. ill be destroyed. Wc have not tried it. 
