1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
259 
and cart t<> draw water and fuel, lo intend it. 
The cost of breaking up I lie ground 13 or 15 
inches, and then cultivating or breaking or 
loosening the subsoil, not turning it over, to 20 
or 30 inches deep, is there $3 (three dollars) per 
acre for botli operations. (Here our circum- 
stances would about double that cost.) There 
it pays it tenant farmer with but 200 acres to 
own a set of plows and tackle, the cost of which 
varies for different styles from $13,000 down to 
$3,000. Mr. Fowler estimates that the original 
cost of stocking a farm that could fully employ 
an engine and tackle would be butlitlle more 
than an equivalent force of horses with the 
harness and implements. 
Tl e engines used in England are wholly on 
the round-about system; that is, the plows are 
drawn across the field by two locomotive en- 
gines, one at each headland, or by one assisted 
by an anchor on the opposite headland. The 
plows in a gang of seven, plowing a land six 
feet wide, are drawn by a steel rope which is 
wound upon a drum on the engine. The direct 
traction-engines are found to be inferior in ope- 
ration. Not the least important benefit attach- 
ing to this method of cultivation is that the 
great deptli to which the soil is opened not only 
renders it porous fur the escape of surface- 
water, but renders it almost completely unaf- 
fected by drouths of the most serious character. 
Tliis, then, is the present condition of steam 
culture in its native home and adjoining coun- 
tries, and as one crosses our magnificent level 
Plains from Ohio westward the thought occurs, 
What a field for the use of steam in place of 
the horse and plowman, who " homeward plods 
his weary way" after painfully breaking an 
acre and a half of soil in ten hours of toil. 
The Soiling Question. 
"We note the following evidence of the value 
of'the summer stall-feeding of stock : Mr. Harry 
Sedgwick, of Cornwall, Ct., tells us of a young 
man in his neighborhood who bought eighty 
acres of land for eleven thousand dollars. This 
land had previously kept eleven cows, four or five 
yearlings, and one or two horses. The first 
year he sowed fourteen acres of corn fodder, 
and increased his stock to twenty-five cows. 
He kept them during the soiling season on the 
product of twelve acres of this crop, and his 
receipts the first year were three thousand dol- 
lars cash. The next year, by the u?e of the 
same system, he kept twenty— even cows, which 
made an average of one hundred dollars each, 
though using only a comparatively small part 
of the products of the farm. 
J. R. B., in the Practical Farmer, gives nn 
account of what be produced from two and a 
half acres of land put in first-rate order, and 
used for soiling and root-growing. The land 
was used from August 1st, 1871, to the end of 
the season of 1872. The corn fodder, green rye 
(for autumn use), and white mustard, furnished 
food for twenty-five cows for two months, and 
for thirly-five cows and two oxen for one month. 
In addition lo this, he raised 840 forty bushels 
of round turnips, the same quantity of beets, 
and 250 bushels of rutabagas. 
It is not necessary for us to say that such 
farming as this must inevitably pay, and that 
the more we have of it the better will be the 
average standard of our agriculture. 
OiL-PBOtwrorNS Chops. — Some of our West- 
ern cities, but notably St. Louis and Min- 
neapolis, are greatly encouraging the growth 
of oil-producing crops in ihe parts of ihe coun- 
try from which they can draw supplies for the 
manufacture of oil. Linseed oil and castor oil 
are the chief results aimed at. In both these 
cities there arc extensive manufactories of lin- 
seed oil, and the former is the headquarters of 
the trade in castor beans. There is no reason 
why a large breadth of land should not be de- 
voted to such crops as these where the soil and 
other conditions are favorable. Not only are 
they directly profitable in themselves, but their 
growth will tend to reduce the excessive abun- 
dance of corn ; while in addition the produce 
furnishes material for Ihe employment of capi- 
tal and labor in the vicinity of its growth. 
Milk-pail Holder. 
"An Old Subscriber" sends us a description 
of a milk-pail holder, which we have had drawn 
and engraved that it may be more plainly un- 
derstood. It is a ring of heavy hoop-iron made 
Fig. 1. — MILK-PAIL HOLDER. 
large enough to receive the pail and hold it 
about one-third of the distance below the top. 
There is riveted on each side of the hoop a 
curved piece of hoop-iron large enough lo^fit 
easily upon the leg of the milker just above the 
knee. The holder is shown at fig. 1 as it is put 
together. When in use it is slipped over the 
bottom of the pail, and enables the pail to rest 
upon the milker's knees (fig. 2), so that it need 
Fig. 2.— HOLDER IN USE. 
not be placed upon the floor of the stable or 
yard, nor be held tightly between the knees, as 
is sometimes done, with very much inconve- 
nience. By this little conlrvance the milking 
is made much more cleanly and agreeable, and 
easy for the milker. 
■ ■ «<»i ■ w 
"Which should Yield the Best Crop? 
J. G. C, of Tennessee, writes that be went 
to that state from Dutchess Co., N. Y. He reads 
the Agriculturist, and " has faith in the highest 
of high farming," but has not implements and 
means necessary to carry out Ins ideas, ne 
and a neighbor treated two adjoining fields of 
sandy loam mixed with shale as follows: 
J. G. C.'s Rotation.— Field of 13 acres, that 
bad been several years in grass. Broke up in 
1870 and planted to corn. In 1871, sown to oats. 
In August, 1871, was turned over with a two- 
horse plow. Harrowed in September, and a 
bushel of Lancaster (Mediterranean) wheat sown 
per acre broadcast, and covered with one-horse 
shovel or bull-tongue plows; all in fine order. 
December 1st, turned on 7 head of sheep, and 
let them remain on the wheat till March 1st. 
In February, when the ground was covered 
with snow, 21 loads of winter-made stable ma- 
nure were spread on the wheat. In March, 
sowed clover and harrowed thoroughly. 
Tennessee Farmer's Rotation.— Field of 
the same kind of soil, but which had been 
cropped successively for several years. In 
1S70, planted to corn. In 1871, sowed to oats. 
In August, 1871, plowed. In September, gown 
with thesame variety of wheat and harrowed in. 
Result.— At the harvest of 1872, this field 
yielded more bushels of wheat per acre than the 
other field. 
Mr. C. says : "The result did not, as I had 
fondly anticipated, develop the superiority of the 
' Yankee mode of farming.' Can you point out 
where my method was defective?" 
We do not see that the rotation and treatment 
differed essentially. A field which has produced 
grass for a number of years is not necessarily 
any richer in available plant-food than a Held 
which has been under cultivation. Mr. C. 
covered his wheat with a plow, his neighbor 
harrowed it in. Perhaps Mr. C.'s seeil was 
buried too deep. The 7 sheep on 15 acres 
could do no good — perhaps they did harm. 
The 21 loads of fresh stable manure, spread 
over 15 acres, could have little or no effect as a 
fertilizer. The harrowing in March may have 
pulled the manure into heaps and smothered 
some of the wheat. On the whole, therefore, 
there is nothing very surprising in the result. 
Unless the land is in high condition, corn, 
oats, wheat, is not a good rotation. We should 
try to introduce clover more frequently. How 
this can be best done depends on climate and 
other circumstances. Where the winters are so 
mild as not to injure the young clover plants, 
we should try sowing clover seed amongst the 
corn in August, mounting a horse so that the 
seed could be scattered above the growing corn- 
plants. We have seen good clover raised in 
this way as far north as Western New York. 
Blue-fishing. 
BY R . B. M I NTURN . 
In the last days of June or in July the 
blue-fish appear in our Northern waters. 
They come at a lucky lime for the fisherman. 
The cod and mackerel seasons are over; that 
finest of sea fish, the striped bass, and the tau- 
tog, vulgarly called black-fish, are few and far 
between, ami Ihe "senppaug" arc so small that 
there is little profit in their taking. Blue-fish 
come to the rescue of Ihe fisherman, and give 
him a busy and often a profitable: season. 
There are three modes of taking blue-fish. 
The most common of Ihesc, and Ihe one best 
known to our amateurs is "drailing." This ij 
always done in sail-boats, with some forty or 
fifty fathoms of line; but the length of this is 
graduated by the speed of the vessel, the object 
being to keep the "drail" just under water. 
This last-mentioned article is made by running 
about a pound of lead on to the "shank" of a 
large No. 1 Limerick hook. This "drail " when 
finished is cylindrical in shape, tapering to a 
sharp point at both ends, beginning two-thirds 
of its length from the hook, and growing smaller 
each way until it meets the shank of the hook 
at one cud and a "cock-eye" at the other. Into 
this latter is fastened a stout thong of leather, 
to -which is attached the line, a "cable-laid" 
cord of the best material, one-sixteenth of an 
