1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
259 
■with three parts skim-milk and one of new. A 
few experiments will make a green hand quite 
an adept at this branch of housekeeping. 
The model of the above cheese-press was de- 
signed and made by a boy of fourteen, and it 
answered its purpose admirably. 
Root Crops. — The great objection among 
farmers to raising root crops is the great danger 
of the destruction of the young plants by weeds. 
There is no remedy, that we can see, but in 
greater care to clean the ground by thorough 
fallowing and thoroughly rotting the manure, 
■which must be well incorporated in the soil by 
at least three plowings and harrowings. This 
■will permit the weeds to start, and be plowed 
under and torn up and rooted out by the teetb 
of the harrow. In the fine, rich soil thus 
produced, the seed will germinate quickly, and 
get ahead of the -weeds that remain. A 
well-grown root crop is the most valuable, 
and will carry the most stock per acre. 
How to get Thorough-bred Stock. 
LETTER FROM A TOUSQ KANSAS FARMER. 
C. F. T., a young Kansas farmer, writes to 
one of the editors of the Agriculturist asking 
the price of pure-bred Essex pigs, and adds : 
"I cannot afford to pay fancy prices. I am a 
young farmer, trying to make my two-year-old 
farm support me. - Stock-raising is money ; but 
to do it well you must have a large herd, and a 
herder, and this requires a large outlay of 
money, and hence I am turning my attention 
to hogs. I have two sows of Silver's ' Ohio 
Improved Chester's,' long, coarse, well-made 
hogs, though hardly enough shoulder, and I 
c:in trade around and pickup fair grade sows at 
$8 and $10 each. Now, if I can cross a pure 
Essex with these common hogs, and also with 
my Chesters, would I not be able to turn out 
thirty or forty hogs a season. At the same 
time, by raising some pure Essex, I could show 
intelligent fanners what I was doing, and dis- 
pose of them at good prices for stock pigs. 
Now will you give me some good, substantial 
advice. I have read Harris on the Pig, and also 
the Agriculturist regularly, and I would like to 
be a good farmer, but it is almost discouraging. 
I now own four good cows and 11 two-year-old 
heifers, and for common stock they are good. 
My neighbor proposed' for us to buy a Short- 
horn bull together, and I wrote to five different 
breeders and received elegant catalogues, fine 
engravings, etc., with prices $100 and $500 for 
14 months old, and $250 for an October calf. 
Is not this enough to get one vexed? I would 
be willing to pay from $100 to $200 for a good 
yearling, but these prices put it out of our reach." 
This is a very sensible letter. Our young 
friend lias got hold of the right ideas, and we 
prophesy that he will be heard from by and by. 
Our advice is : do not be in a hurry. Improve 
the farm, and at the same time improve the 
stock, gradually. Do not pay " fancy prices." 
See what 3 i can do nearer home. There has 
been some g d stock taken into Kansas. The 
writer has sent as good Essex pigs there as 
he ever raised. And there are superior herds 
of Shorthorns in the State. Patronize the home 
breeders. Visit them and tell them what you 
want, and you will very likely find a pure-bred 
animal that is just as good for your purpose as 
one from abroad costing three times as much. 
If a man with abundant capital likes to pay 
$10,000 for a Shorthorn bull, no one has any 
right to complain. It is a good thing for the 
man who raised the animal. He gets well paid 
for his skill, judgment, and experience, and the 
fact should encourage other practical breeders 
to persevere in their efforts to improve their 
stock. But it is folly for an ordinary breeder 
to pay such prices. "We must not lose sight of 
the fact that the ultimate object in keeping 
Essex pigs and Shorthorn cattle is to raise ani- 
mals for the butcher. And while it is certain 
that nothing will pay our correspondent better 
than to give $25 or $50 for an Esspx boar, or 
$100 to $200 for a Shorthorn bull, it is doubt- 
ful if he will get any corresponding benefit by 
paying fancy prices for fancy animals. 
^-» _»o«— »~» 
Thrash the Grain Early. 
It, is always economical to thrash early. We 
would advise every farmer, who can possibly do 
it, to thrash his wheat, rye, or oats, as the crop 
is drawn from the field. There are many con- 
siderations in favor of doing this. 1st. By rea- 
son of the state of dryness in which it is hauled 
off the field, the grain is in better condition for 
the thrashing machine (or certainly as good), 
than at any other time. 3d. Only one handling 
is necessary, and thus labor is saved. 3d. At 
harvest-time grain is almost always in better 
demand by millers, and in the general market 
often brings a higher price than at other times, 
Taking one year with another, it will be found 
that this is the most advantageous time to mar- 
ket grain*. If the farmer holds his grain for 
speculation, very well : he has aright to become 
a speculator if any one has; but we hold as a 
general rule, that so soon as a farmer has his 
produce ready for market, then is his best time 
to sell. The earliest markets are almost inva- 
riably the best. We were once enabled to sell 
the whole of our crop of wheat at a high price, 
for seed, because we had thrashed in time and 
none of our neighbors had. Lastly and most 
worthy of consideration is the fact that, by thus 
early thrashing and marketing, the destruction 
by vermin — mice, rats, weevil, etc. — is prevent- 
ed. We believe that ten percent at least of the 
"rain put into barns is put there, — unintention- 
ally of course, but not the less surely, — for the 
benefit of rats and mice. A granary may be 
made rat-proof, but a barn cannot, and if it 
could, would soon be stocked by the animals 
carried in from the field among the sheaves. 
If four horses are kept on the farm, one pair 
maybe hauling while the other is at the ma- 
chine. If only a single team is kept, they can 
be unhitched from the wagon, put into the 
machine, and as soon as the load is thrashed, 
taken to the field again for another load. While 
loading, two extra hands may be profitably en- 
gaged putting away the straw or cleaning up 
and bagging grain, or storing it in the granary. 
If it is impracticable to thrash the grain as it 
is drawn, we would stack it close to the barn, 
make the top secure for a few days, ajul as soon 
as possible, thrash it out. Even this mode would 
tend to save labor as well as grain, and on a 
small or new farm where machines are not yet 
introduced, any plan whereby labor can be 
saved is worthy of consideration and adoption. 
Saving Clover Seed. — It is not an uncom- 
mon occurrence for a field supposed to have 
been sown with clover seed to prove to have 
been sown with many other seeds not men- 
tioned in the catalogues. While the seed pur- 
chased from responsible seedmen is generally 
free from admixture with seeds of weeds, in 
consequence of the care with which they select 
it, many a farmer has permitted impure seed 
bought at country stores to be put into the 
ground, and has in consequence, reaped a plen- 
tiful harvest of mulleins, ragweeds, and other 
abominations. This might have been avoided 
had he raised his own seed. For clover seed, 
select a small piece which was well summer- 
fallowed, and freed from weeds and laid down 
with carefully selected seed in the first place ; cut 
early and save the second growth for seed. 
This would be a profitable experiment on any 
farm. Any surplus seed so grown would meet 
with ready sale at a high price, by reason of its 
purity. Clean seed will often bring a dollar a 
bushel above the market price, while impure 
seed will be begging a sale unsuccessfully at 
any price. Clover for seed may be conveniently 
cut and gathered by attaching a light frame be- 
hind the cutter-bar of the mowing machine and 
covering it with a piece of cotton cloth. The 
heads will fall on this cloth and may be raked 
together by a boy following; when a sufficient 
quantity has been gathered, one sweep of the 
rake will leave them on the ground in a heap. 
Being at this season almost free from sap and 
moisture, seed clover is very easily cured. A 
wetting with rain and subsequent drying will 
make it thrash more easily. 
Substitutes for Hay. 
A dry May makes a short hay crop. We 
have experienced the former, and shall suffer 
from the latter in all probability. Farmers who 
bestir themselves in time may secure abundant 
crops of hay, or substitutes for the general hay 
crops thus cut short. That which will first sug- 
gest itself to most persons is 
Fodder Corn. — This requires soil in a fair 
state of fertility, a fresh sod or manure. It may 
be sowed at any time before the 10th of July. 
There are three kinds of corn commonly used 
for seed, viz., any large sweet corn like the 
Evergreen or R. I. Asylum, the southern White 
Dent or Yellow Western Dent; besides, any 
tall-growing variety will do. It is sown in drills, 
24 or 30 inches apart, or broadcast. Drill-cul- 
ture requires less seed; a better and eveuer 
stand is usually secured ; cultivation with horse- 
hoe is possible, and usually remunerative, and, 
where green fodder in small quantities is re- 
quired, the rows may be easily thinned. 
In planting, the ground should be laid off with 
a marker, furrows opened, manure dropped in 
them, and the corn scattered by hand, or by a 
sowing machine, at the rate of about eighteen 
to twenty kernels to the foot. This requires three 
to five bushels to the acre, according to the size 
of the kernels, and the distance the rows are 
apart. In furrowing, if a common one-horse 
plow be used, the furrows should be alternate, 
turned together in pairs, the plowing being done 
back and forth across the field in the most nat- 
ural way. Then, if one has a Shares' cultiva- 
tor, the teeth being removed, and the wings 
opened, two drills may be covered by once 
passing through, which will greatly expedite 
matters. Corn sowed broadcast, if the ground 
be rich enough, and the stand be thick enough, 
gives an excellent return of fine, tender fodder. 
It is hardly possible, however, to get so heavy a 
yield, and it requires fully one-third more seed, 
which, when seed-coru is worth two dollars per 
bushel, is an item worth considering. 
Millet is another summer crop, which af- 
fords an excellent substitute for hay. This will 
grow well on light, rather dry soils, bears drouth 
well, and produces on ordinary land some two 
to two-and-a-half tons of excellent hay to the 
