1861.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
National debt will just about equal the assessed 
value of the properly in New- York State. 
Notes from Northern Iowa— Crops- 
Breaking Prairie, etc 
C. A. Marshall, Howard Co., Iowa, writes 
to the American Agriculturist: The past sea on 
in u be considered an average one for the form- 
er. The wheat erop was decidedly above the 
average in quantity, and its quality extra; a 
•.leal deal of our Spring wheal weighed (13 lbs. 
per bushel. — Oats, about an average. — The fail- 
ures of the season were in hay and corn, owing 
to the severe drouth. The tame grasses on 
some prairies hardly paid the expenses of sav- 
ing, while natural grasses were very light. The 
corn was a sad failure in most places, the suc- 
cessive frosts having totally ruined half the crop. 
Your correspondent inquires about breaking 
prairie. The man who advises breaking clean 
prairie after July 1st, is either ignorant of his 
profession as a farmer, or if a "regular break- 
er," is guilty of improper motives. I know 
many " breakers" who, to spin out their break- 
ing season, recommend late breaking, and alas ! 
for the poor stranger who listens to their tale; 
he will find his sheaves at the next harvest 
"few and far between." Hazel brush is better 
broken later. Such is the experience of men who 
have bought their experience and paid dearly 
for it. I should recommend breaking any time 
between May 1st and June 20th, about 4 inches 
deep, plant no sod crop unless I was so hard 
up as to borrow a little the first year at a tre- 
mendous usury upon the crop of the next. Sow 
with wheat by all means, though corn does 
wonders ou new ground cross-plowed. (I get 
my seed wheat free from all weed seeds, and 
follow with corn the second year.) — Beware of 
oats on too rich ground ; if a moist season, they 
will lodge— Keep young cattle enough to eat 
up all straw and corn stalks, and young colts 
to consume all the hay mm can cut, and if on 
these rich prairies you do not get rich in a few 
years, be assured that the fault does not lie 
more than hundred miles from your own door. 
Sowing Fife Wheat in Autumn, 
lu the last April number of the American 
Agriculturist, page IOC, Mr. R F. Roberts, Ra- 
cine Co., Wis., communicated the fact that 
many cultivators in the eastern and southern 
counties of Wisconsin, and in Lake Co., 111., 
were experimenting with Fall-sown Fife wheat, 
several successful trials having beeu made dur- 
ing a few years previous. AVe have now to 
thank him for a report on the results, de- 
rived from extensive observation and inquiry 
throughout that section. He writes: "Sowing 
Fife wheat in the Fall has proved au entire 
failure. Iu the Autumn of 18G2 the experiment 
was tried extensively, and by many on a large 
scale. One farmer whose cxperimeLt had suc- 
ceeded admirably the previous year, he having 
raised 200 bushels of the first quality, sowed 40 
acres, and in the Spring, plowed it up and 
sowed with other grain. It was tried ou all 
kinds of soils. Some sowed at the usual time 
of putting iu winter grain, and it came up 
finely and promised a good crop. Others sowed 
late, that it might not sprout before freezing 
up ; but iu all except two cases which came un- 
der my observation, the results were failures, 
and the two excepted were not a satisfactory 
success. Some seeded witli Spring-sowed Fife, 
and some used the product of that sowed lie- 
previous Fall, but there was the same failure. 
Its success depends entirely on the character of 
the seasons. Fife wheat is not as hardy as any 
variety of winter wheat. If the ground is 
covered early with snow which remains on all 
Winter, this variety will succeed well, pro- 
ducing a much liner quality of grain and a 
large yield. All with whom I have communi- 
cated on the subject, agree that it will not pay 
to run the risk of such a contingency, especi- 
ally as when even Fife wheat sowed iu the Fall 
will succeed well, winter wheat will do better." 
Notes on Wheat. 
Rev. B. S. Schenk, D. D., Editor of the Rc- 
formiste Kirchenzeitung, Chambersburg, Pa., in 
a letter, says. "....I read the American Agri- 
culturist y/ith much interest, and frequently prac- 
tise with profit, upon its teachings, both in my 
small fields, and in the garden. . . .In our fertile 
Cumberland Valley, wheat yields tolerably well 
— sometimes unusually so. A 3-aere field of 
my own sown with the new Red Mediterranean 
produced 90 bushels of clean wheat. Another 
plot of U acres sown with the white Bough- 
ton, yielded 50 bushels, exact measure, of cleau 
wheat. The combined rakiwjs from both pieces 
gave 9 bushels, and the offals (screenings V) about 
5 bushels more, making the entire product of 
4| acres, 154 bushels. The " Boughton " is a 
new wheat here— ripens 5 or G days earlier than 
even the Red Mediterranean, and hence is the 
while wheat for our climate. I had so often 
tried various white wheats without getting 
ahead either of the weevil or rust, that I gave 
up raising it, the last trial being that beautiful 
variety, the Blue Stem, which, 30 years ago, was 
the stand-by of the farmers in Centre County, 
in this State. But it ripens too late for us at 
present. The Boughton seems to answer very 
well, has a good, heavy straw, and the yield 
is very respectable " 
•-. — »» —m. 
Measurement of Grain Bins. 
Joseph W. Wood, Sauk Co., Wis., communi- 
cates to the American Agriculturist the following 
convenient method of measuring grain bins, 
etc. He says ; A cubic foot is ^yVif-f 2 0I " a bush- 
el = .803. Three thousandths of a bushel is less 
than one-fifth of a pint : therefore to estimate a 
cubic foot as eight-tenths of a bushel, gives an 
error of less than one-fifth of a pint, which, in 
measuring a bin of ordinary size, would be of 
small account. By this estimate the capacity of 
any cubical vessel can be readily ascertained, by 
simply multiplying the number of cubic feet it 
contains by the decimal .S : Thus, iu a bin 8 ft. 
long, 3 ft. wide, and ft. high, 8x3x6=144 cu- 
bic feet, which multiplied bj' .8 gives 115.2 bush- 
els as the contents. The error in this example 
amounts to less than half a bushel. By fix- 
ing upon two dimensions of a box or bin, the 
other can be calculated so that the receptacle 
shall hold any required amount. For example, 
a bin is wanted to hold 250 bushels of grain. 
Suppose it be S ft. long, and G ft. high : what 
must be the width ? 8x6=48, this multiplied by 
.8=38.4 — that is, one foot of the width of the bin 
will hold 38.4 bushels, and 250 bushels di- 
vided by 38.4 gives 6.5 or 6i ft. as the requir- 
ed width. By carrying out the decimals, any 
required exactness can be attained. 
It is better to make ourselves loved than feared. 
A Plea for Boys. 
II. A. Trench, Baton Co., Mich., writes to tiio 
American Agriculturist : " Boyg arc usually eager 
to swing the axe, the scythe, eta, in in'iil.o 
of their elders, but lliey are seldom furnished 
with tools made to correspond with then 
strength; consequently, after a few trials they 
are often discouraged and repelled from such 
labor. In some instances they arc Battered 
or driven by their inconsiderate parents to la- 
bor with tools twice or thrice too heavy, and 
while thus being trained to industry, their weak 
bodies are permanently injured, if not dwarfed. 
Implements for boys arc manufactured to a 
small extent, but few purchase them, and thus 
manufacturers have little inducement to make 
or advertise them. Something should be done 
to remedy this. Let Agricultural Societies oiler 
premiums for the best set of farming tools for 
boys, and for crops raised by boys with im- 
plements adapted to their strength ; and let the 
identical instruments which they used in culti- 
vation, be exhibited with the samples of their 
produce. Let every Agricultural journal agi- 
tate the subject until it is fully before the public. 
"In this connection may he mentioned a 
field of labor well adapted to the juveniles. 
They almost invariably like to use a team. A 
large dog or a goat, if properly trained, will 
furnish considerable draught power. The boys 
might commence instructing their animals this 
Winter, by breaking them to draw wood on a 
sled. The blacksmith can, at a little expense, 
make three to five steel teeth for a small gar- 
den cultivator. Next Spring plant the onions, 
beets, carrots, etc., in long rows instead of beds, 
and the boys will take pleasure in driving their 
teams back and forth, with the cultivator at- 
tached, and the weeds will suffer, to the great 
benefit of the vegetables. It will be no great 
hardship for them to pull out the few remain- 
ing weeds in the rows, while the teams are 
resting, especially if this be made a condition 
of their being permitted to do the cultivating. 
When this becomes an old story, as an addi- 
tional inducement, allow them, when the garden 
is cleaned out, to hitch up to the wagon fit- 
ted for their use, and take a drive for pleasure. 
"If no shrewd manufacturer will take the 
hint and bring out all necessary apparatus for 
such operations, it will pay one having a 
family of boys, to have it done to order. Any 
good blacksmith can forge out a hoe, shovel, 
spade, etc., of the right pattern for boys' use." 
Experience in Artificial Swarming of 
Bees. 
L. L. Fairchild, Dodge Co., Wis., writes to 
the American Agriculturist : "Just before swarm- 
ing lime last season, I purchased a large old 
fashioned box hive, well filled with bees and 
honey. As there was no disposition to swarm 
shown, (though a new stock could apparently be 
easily spared,) I exchanged the location with a 
weak stock that had cast two large swarms. 
By so doing, the weak stock was made strong 
in numbers, and was soon at work iu the cap 
boxes. In some three weeks, the purchased 
stock had largely increased, and the outside 
of the hive was black with the outhauging 
bees. I then took two frames from each of 
three Langstroth hives containing early swarms, 
and placed the frames containing brood, eggs 
and stores iu a new hive, and added four 
more frames partly filled with empty combs, 
