284r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
<■ i alia in Meal. — "L. S." Graham meal is 
made by grinding wheat without bolting. It contains 
all of the wheat, the same as corn meal contains all of 
the corn. If our people would eat more of it they would 
be healthier. 
** Supposed to l>e a SMaanocnl." — 
A correspondent in Indiana send-* us a fragment of a 
stone which weighs between 8 and 9 ounces, and which 
is "supposed to be a diamond." The specimen is gran- 
ular quartz, and breaks between the fingers almost as 
readily as a piece of loaf sugar. Had it been a diamond 
our friend could not have broken oft* the sample, and a 
diamond of the size of the bit sent would have made us 
rich. It is one of our disagreeable duties to dispel illu- 
sions, and the Bender will not thank us for telling him 
that his stone is of no more value than any other stone 
of the same size. There are probably "diamonds" on 
the place where this was found, but they must be plowed 
for, the harrow must be used, seeds must be sown, and 
there must be reaping and gathering into barns,— but 
the jewels are hidden there. 
Butter Malting- in Kentucky.— An 
energetic and intelligent young farmer in Kentucky pro- 
poses to go into the dairy business, and w T rites to ask our 
opinion in regard to his probable success or failure. He 
has a farm of over two hundred acres of excellent land, 
with abundance of good living water, lying near a rail- 
road station, giving direct access to Louisville and Cin- 
cinnati, where choice fresh butter commands a high 
price. Near the house is a fine spring, running out of a 
blufl", affording a splendid site for a spring-house, milk- 
room, etc. The soil is a blue and gray limestone, with a 
clay subsoil, and, when impoverished by overcropping, is 
epcedily restored to a high state of fertility by allowing 
it to lie in grass. Winter wheat is not a very profitable 
crop owing to freezing out in winter ; but rye, oats, and 
corn, flourish admirably, and they have the finest, of blue 
grass pastures. Timothy and clover grow finely, 
but the blue grass crowds them out of the permanent 
pastures. We can see no reason why a dairy 
would not succeed. It seems to be just the situation for 
cither butter or cheese making. We should combine 
with the dairying, cattle raising and fattening. The profit. 
of butter making for regular city customers will depend 
a good deal on having a steady supply of fresh butter at 
all seasons of the year. The blue grass pastures, which 
afford green food in winter, will be especially valuable in 
enabling our correspondent to make winter butter. By 
keeping a thoroughbred Short-horn bull, calves would be 
obtained from good common cows that would probably 
be excellent milkers, and if not. would fatten readily for 
the butcher. With liberal feeding, a dairy of such cows 
should average two hundred pounds of butter a year. 
Half the cows should come in in the fall, and half in the 
spring, and pains should be taken to provide a liberal 
supply of corn fodder, carrots, mangels, and other 
milk-producing food, so as to insure a good quantity of 
nice, well-colored winter butter. Rightly managed, such 
a business will yield good profits. 
Brown Bread. — "L. S." This is a very 
fcnuch misused name. IuN. Y. City it applies to bread 
made of Graham meal. In New England the term 
4 ' brown bread " is given only to that delightful com- 
pound made of rye meal and Indian meal. 
Kaspberrics in Georgia. — "A. N.," 
Rome, Ga., says that the Brinckle's Orange makes its 
growth early, ripens its wood, and then makes a second 
growth which is cut by the frosts. We do not believe 
that any of our Northern varieties of raspberries will do 
well in the Southern States. The Fastolff has been the 
best. Our friends in the warmer States have been re- 
markably successful with apples, and they must now try 
to get a raspberry from the seed that will succeed with 
them, and it will be pretty sure to do well with us. Mrs. 
" A. X." has an excellent field for experiment. 
Xlie First Mills of a cow after calving is 
purgative, and might have a bad effect on bogs, but we 
should think it could not be dangerous unless fed regu- 
larly, day after day. It is used as human food to some 
extent in some parts uf Europe, without any evil effects. 
White Clover. — In seeding down land in- 
tended for pasture it is a great mistake not to sow a pound 
or two of white clover with the red clover and timothy. 
It will add greatly to the growth and value of the pasture. 
The Alton (111.) Horticultural So- 
ciety. — This Society now puts out its proceedings in a 
neat pamphlet. We have a notion that it is doing more good 
than all the other Societies in the country put together, 
and for this reason : its members get together, have their 
talk, and immediately publish it, and one does not have 
to wait until the end of the year to find out what has 
been done. In the last report we find the raspberry rust 
under discussion, and according to our observation Mr. 
Riley is right. We have it in plenty on both wild and 
cultivated plants. The following resolution was dis- 
cussed, but laid on the table,— " Resolved that we rec- 
ommend no variety (of strawberries) for market but the 
Wilson. " It was tabled by a close vote, and yet the So- 
ciety could have passed a much worse resolution. 
The Hoou Again.- " L. M. Y.," Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. It is said that the Japanese say their play- 
ers by revolving a stick which is hung by a pivot in 
the center. We wish there was some such rapid way by 
which we could answer moon, chess, quack-doctor, and 
other ever-recurring questions. With some years' experi- 
ence we have had average success in gardening, and 
we have never given a thought to the moon. We have 
a notion that if one manures well and sows at the proper 
time, and transplants when the weather is moist, or if in 
dry weather, waters the holes into which he puts the 
plants, the moon won't trouble him if he don't trouble 
her. Our correspondent may not be "answered scientif- 
ically," but we believe that he is coramon-sensically. 
Another ISircl-house. — A correspond- 
ent in Danvers, 
Mass., sends a 
drawing of a bird- 
house made from 
flower-pots and 
saucers. lie says 
nothing about 
fastening the 
parts together, 
which we should 
think it necessa- 
ry to do with a 
little water-lime 
or other cement, 
else the birds 
might find them- 
selves houseless 
during a violent 
storm. " The 
bottom board is 
nailed to the top 
of the pole ; 
upon this is set 
a five-inch flow- 
er-pot, which is 
covered by the 
saucer 1 of an 8- 
inch pot; npon 
this is placed a 5-inch saucer, and the whole surmounted 
by an inverted 2-inch pot. The hole can be easily knock- 
ed out, and trimmed with a jack-knife— the soft burned 
ware whittling as easily as slate pencil. 11 
By " Return Mail."— A letter before us 
is a sample of others. A correspondent writes to have 
an address changed, order a book, and then propounds a 
question which he wishes answered by u return mail." 
A letter of this kind goes first to the book clerks, then 
to the mailing clerks, and after several days it reaches 
the editors. If the editors see that the question is a 
purely personal one, and there is no return postage en- 
closed, they answer it after they have disposed of all of 
the prepaid letters, and it will usually happen that many 
mails will "return" before the writer gets an answer. 
Our editors are as good-natured as most people, and 
spend much time that they might devote to their own uses 
in answering correspondents, but they have a way of first 
disposing of the letters in which postage is enclosed. 
Veterinary l^lt&eation. — U C. G.," 
Trumbull Co., O., writes: " Please give me the address 
of the best Veterinary College in the United States — one 
that you can recommend to a person wishing to study for 
a veterinary surgeon. Good veterinarians arc needed all 
over the country."— We are glad to get letters like this, 
and wish a thousand young men were inquiring where to 
■I veterinary educations. The New York College of 
Veterinary Surgeons (Lexington Avenue and 32d Street, 
New York City.) has good facilities for instruction, and 
as instructors, veterinary surgeons not only highly educa- 
ted in their profession, but high-toned scientific men and 
physicians, who. though ministering to the wants of ani- 
mals, eschew quackery in all its forms, secret remedies, 
nostrums, ointments, and the like, from which most per- 
sons, who claim to be veterinary surgeons, and write V. S. 
after their names, derive a good part of their incomes. We 
believe that there is no profession which offers to young 
men of the right principles such brilliant opportunities 
to make money and character, and to be of great service 
to individual patrons, to the community at large, and to 
the government, as this. Many horse doctors are and 
have been quacks aud charlatans, and at the same time 
well-meaning men, who impose upon themselves as 
much as upon the public. With a thorough education, 
the veterinarian is in a position to interpose bis skill and 
his counsels to prevent those terrible plagues which 
often sweep away national and private wealth, and bring 
disease and death to both animals and mankind. We 
believe that the time will soon come when people will 
wonder that it could ever have been a reproach to be a 
" horse doctor." Dr. John Bustced (the President of the 
X. Y. College of Veterinary Surgeons) and his associates 
have established the only veterinary college iu the* 
United States, which, so far as we are aware, ha ; the 
confidence of our best physicians and scientific men 
Sia te Fairs — A Sngg'estlou. — Every- 
body who has ever been to a fair knows how difficult it 
is to get anything to eat. One would suppose that pro- 
vision would be made for this; but we seldom succeed 
iu finding even decent food at any fair, though none so 
noticeably bad as at the N. Y. Slate Fair, held last year at 
Rochester. One must have been on the verge of starva- 
tion to eat the " hunks " of muddled meat placed before 
him. We dined on beets, and left feeling glad it was no 
worse. At the Ohio State Fair there was an admirable 
arrangement whereby all who came with baskets and par- 
cels had them checked and taken care of without charge. 
The majority of these baskets contained eatables. Let 
this feature be introduced into our fairs, and visitors wilt 
go with greater comfort. It. would not cost much to do- 
it, and it would give satisfaction to hundreds of visitors. 
Improvement of Agriculture in 
Kentucky.— A farmer in Kentucky writes: " Our sys^ 
tern of cultivation and crops arc undergoing many 
changes. We accept the new condition of labor with 
the hope that it will redound much to our social as well 
as agricultural advantage. We have more railroads and 
turnpikes under project and construction than during 
the whole period of slavery, and I think that Kentucky 
will soon become one of the very best agricultural States 
in the Union. We neglect too much the making of 
manure, but it is now receiving more attention. If our 
farmers would study politics less, and agricultural papers 
more, it would be much to their advantage."— This is the 
true doctrine, and we are glad to know that the power, 
influence, and circulation, of the agricultural press are 
constantly increasing' in all parts of the country. 
John X. Morion. — Mr. John T. Norton, 
of Farmington, Conn., died at his home on the 13th of 
June, in the 75th year of his age. lie has been for many 
years known as a worm friend of progressive agriculture, 
and a breeder of choice stock. Several years ago he bred 
Short-horns, and was one of the earliest importers 
and breeders of Southdown sheep in the country; but his 
reputation as a careful breeder rests upon the fine herd 
of Jerseys which he imported iu connection with the 
late John A. Ta inter, and bred with great care for many 
years. Mr. Norton was bred a merchant, and was asso- 
ciated in business in Albany. N. Y., with Henry W. & 
Edward C. Delevan, and with Erastus Corning. That ac- 
curacy, energy, and liberality in his dealings which 
enabled him to retire from business comparatively early 
in life with a handsome property, made him an unusually 
successful farmer. The first funds for the establishment 
of a Chair of Agriculture in an American University were 
contributed by Sir. Norton, and his son, the late Professor 
John P. Norton, of Yale College, was the first incumbent. 
lie will long be remembered as a noble and liberal 
Christian gentleman, and patron of agriculture. 
IVhai Fowls to Keep. — The choice of 
breeds is so much a matter of fancy, that one can hardly 
advise another about them without a long dissertation. 
Brahmas arc good layers. sitters. and mothers, and are great 
favorites ; heavy fowls, active, but will not fly ; flesh good. 
Light Brahmas arc not very expensive ; Dark, now. arc 
qnite so. White Leghorns are persistent layers, do not Bit, 
fly like pigeons ; very pretty, nice, economical fowls. 
Of French fowls, select Houdans, which are good sized, 
speckled, homely fowls, persistent layers, and hardy; 
excellent for the table. If yon must be economical, buy 
two trios of the breed you prefer, and a lot of common 
fowls, selecting light-colored, large bodied, feather- 
legged pullets ; nest spring save the eggs from your pure 
pullets, and you will stock your yard with forty or fifty 
fowls with little expense. Should you wish a breed of 
more fancy fowls, you have your choice among Polands 
of various colors. Hamburghs, etc.. which are great 
layers; Cochins, which are not superior to Brahmas; 
Black Spanish, which lay the handsomest eggs laid by any 
fowl, and many of them, are very beautiful, but delicate, 
as are also the Creve Cceurs and La Fleche breeds, which 
excel most others as layers and table fowls. 
