174 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
experiment should be tried. If, as some natur- 
alists claim, the animal is more of a sheep than 
an ox, interesting, and it may be useful, hybrids 
might result from crossing it with the sheep. 
Walks and Talks on the Farm— No. 89. 
The Managing Editor of the Agriculturist 
•writes: "Your 'Walks and Talks' would be 
more interesting if you would tell us more 
about your own agricultural operations. People 
want to know what you are doing on your farm." 
A detailed account of all we are doing would 
make him growl when he reads the proof. But 
he will have no one to blame but himself — and 
that very fact will only make him growl the 
louder. So here goes : 
To-day, March 21, a neighbor called early in 
the morning to say that the dam on the creek 
■which floods our land and prevents us from 
draining, had been washed away; and I went 
to a lawyer to see if we could not get an injunc- 
tion restraining the mill-owner from putting it 
up again. He told us if those interested would 
stand by each other (which means foot the bill), 
it could be done — and we are going to do it. 
Another thing I did was to go to our railroad 
station. Last night the sheds, containing several 
hundred cords of wood, caught fire, and this 
morning there was a noble pile of ashes that I 
wanted to get for manure. I should like to put 
them on my Northern Spy Orchard. This 
orchard has been set out about fifteen years, 
and last season was the first year it has borne 
fruit. The soil is sandy, and I think ashes 
would help the trees. Many farmers have 
urged me to graft the trees with Baldwins, but 
I am persuaded that, with liberal manuring and 
thorough pruning, the Northern Spy will prove 
almost equally productive and more profitable. 
We have just finished pruning the trees, and 
have drawn off the brush into a large heap to 
be burned. It seems a shame to burn up so 
much wood ; and I once bought a German hook 
tor the purpose of chopping it into lengths to 
burn in the steamer. It makes capital wood 
when dry, but ought to be chopped while green; 
and the trouble is to store it away. In the old 
country, even in sections where coal is half the 
price it is here, every stick would be used for 
fuel ; but, then, labor costs less than one-third 
what we have to pay. I am now paying $1.25 
a-day; and to one extra good man I pay $1.50. 
He is better worth $2.00 than some men are 
worth $1.00. I have said all along that there 
would be no marked decline in wages, and in 
this section such proves to be the case. We 
are paying full as much as we did during the 
war, when gold was worth more than double 
what it is now. The railroad is paying $1.50 
per day, and farmers, whether they can afford 
it or not, must pay the current rates. They do 
not control the labor-market. 
We are making some lye from wood-ashes, 
intending to use it for washing the trunks and 
limbs of the apple-trees to clean them of moss 
and fungus. We scraped off all we could, first, 
with a piece of hoop-iron. I think crude car- 
bolic acid, which is quite cheap, would be bet- 
ter than the lye ; but I am afraid to use it on a 
large scale lest it should injure the trees. I 
used a weak solution of it last year to kill cur- 
rant-worms, but it did far less damage to the 
caterpillars than to the bushes. 
One man is plowing in the garden, right in 
front of where I am now writing, and some fifty 
hens, more or less, are running along the fur- 
rows picking up worms. We get about 40 eggs 
a-day ; and the ducks have commenced to lay. 
Last year we had capital luck with the turkeys, 
owing, I suppose, to the dry weather. On the 
whole, poultry is the most profitable live-stock 
on the farm, except the pigs. But the money does 
not come into my pocket ; and if things go on 
as they are, we shall soon have as many hens 
as Warren Leland. 
The soil is dry, and turns up beautifully this 
spring. Last fall I manured the garden and 
plowed it under. That which was applied 
early has nearly all disappeared, while that 
turned under, just before winter set in, is com- 
paratively unaltered. The former soil is in 
capital condition for onions, parsnips, and other 
small seeds, while the latter should be reserved 
for corn, cabbage, beets, and other coarser 
vegetables. We sowed peas ten days ago, and 
planted potatoes yesterday, and purpose sowing 
onions to-morrow. It is the earliest spring I 
can recollect ; but I can hardly believe that 
spring has really come, and expect to wake up 
one of these mornings and find two feet of 
snow on the ground. 
We are still cooking food for pigs. It is a 
good deal of work, and it is doubtful whether 
the saving of food would pay for the expense. 
But I cook to save digestion rather than to save 
food. I want to enable the pigs to eat and di- 
gest more food. And if cooking will do this, it 
will pay. Cooking does not increase the amount 
of nutriment in the food. It may make it more 
palatable and more easily digested — that is all. 
I am inclined to think that the assimilating 
powers of a well-bred pig are greater than his 
digestive capacity. If they are not, there is 
little to be gained by cooking the food. 
We are still feeding our cows cooked corn- 
meal — say three quarts of meal per day to each 
cow. I am satisfied that it pays. We have 
made just as nice yellow butter all winter as I 
wish to eat — better butter than we make during 
the hot summer weather. I am inclined to 
think that the best time to have cows come in, 
where nothing but butter is made, would be in 
September, and let them go dry during the hot 
weather of July and August. We should then 
have plenty of skim-milk, just when we most 
want it, for young pigs. And the cows would 
run in the pasture, and require no milking dur- 
ing the busy season of harvest. 
An English farmer who is staying with me, 
and who formerly kept some 300 breeding long- 
wooled ewes, was at first quite disposed to laugh 
at my Merinoes. But he is now quite converted. 
It is really amusing to hear him talk so enthusi- 
astically about the motherly qualities and milk- 
producing capacity of these little Merino ewes. 
So far, we have had 34 lambs from 26 ewes, 
and have saved every lamb, except one whose 
mother had no milk. The lambs are from a 
thorough-bred Cotswold buck. The ewes are 
common Michigan Merinoes, that cost about 
$2.50 each. They have been well wintered, 
and the lambs come strong and healthy, and 
the ewes give very rich milk. But both ewes 
and lambs should be well fed. Butchers ought 
to pay a good price for such lambs in May. 
Some farmers have thought that the cross be- 
tween a Leicester or Cotswold ram and a Merino 
ewe was too violent, but such is evidently not 
the case. I do not desire better luck than we 
have had with these ewes and lambs; and the 
ewes have had no roots. 
We are plowing up our oat-stubble, where 
the clover and grass-seed failed last year, and, 
on the recommendation of my English friend, 
design sowing it with cole-seed and white mus- 
tard, to be fed off by sheep next fall. Hs wants 
me to plow it three times, while I argue that 
twice plowing aud twice cultivating and har- 
rowing would be cheaper, and do the land more 
good. There are 12 acres in the piece, and we 
have figured out the expense of the two meth- 
ods as follows, reckoning a horse at $1.00 per 
day, and a man $1.50, and that a two-horse 
team will plow one and a half acres per day : 
March 20.— Plowing 12 acres $58.08 
May 1.— Do. go 28.03 
June 18.— Do. do 28.08 
11 " — Harrowing 12 acres 5.50 
Total $S9.74 
The method I propose would cost — 
March 20.— Plowing 12 acres $28.08 
April 14. — Harrowing do 5.50 
May 1.— Cultivating do 5.50 
May 14.— Harrowing do 5.50 
June 1.— Cultivating do 5.50 
June 18.— Plowing do 28.08 
" " — Harrowing do 5.50 
Total $83.06 
I contend that this would do the most good, 
as the laud is stirred seven times instead of 
four. A greater number of weed-seeds would 
be likely to germinate and be destroyed, and 
more fresh soil would be exposed to the decom- 
posing influence of the atmosphere. 
If we had a double plow, the second and third 
plowings might be done with three horses, get- 
ting over two and a half to three acres a day, 
and this would be cheaper and better than cul- 
tivating. Now that our fields are getting free 
from stones and stumps, there is no reason why 
we cannot use these double plows ; and it is 
surprising to me that our manufacturers do not 
turn their attention to the subject. 
The cultivating I purpose to do with a four- 
horse cultivator, which would go nearly as deep 
as the land was plowed, and get over the twelve 
acres in a day. I have a cultivator made on 
purpose for this work. The horses are attached 
four abreast, the pole going between the two 
teams. The harrowing should be also done 
with four horses, using two sets of harrows, and 
going round the field, so as to avoid sharp 
turnings. 
Whichever plan is adopted, the whole suc- 
cess will depend on getting the land clean and 
mellow. It is necessary to plow up fresh moist 
soil immediately before sowing the mustard or 
cole-seed ; aud the land is to be seeded down 
with clover and grass-seed at the time of sowing 
the mustard aud cole-seed. This is the plan ; 
and though I have some doubt in regard to its 
success, I propose to try it. My English friend 
assures me that he has done it frequently, and 
that it is the best of all methods of seeding 
down land to grass. 
Another thing we are doing is turning over 
the manure in the barn-yard. In the center of 
the yard we scooped out a basin about five feet 
deep, and, say, fifteen feet wide and thirty feet 
long. The long way, the sides slope so grad- 
ually that there is no difficulty in drawing out 
the manure. Into this basin all the manure is 
thrown, or wheeled, or carted, as fast as it is 
made. 
We are now turning over the manure in this 
basin, to the infinite disgust of my English 
friend. He thinks " all the ammonia will 
escape ; " and he is going to the city to-morrow 
to get some litmus paper to prove it. We 
are cleaning out the sheep-yards and carting 
the manure to the heap, mixing it as we draw 
it with that in the heap. We ought to have at 
