1684. 
AMERICAN AORIOUiyriTRTRT. 
QQO 
are a much m.>r>- valuable root than turnips, poun«l for 
pound— they will keep longer, j-eil for more, urn better 
for noise*, an I milch rows and working -cattle. We 
have never heard of rattle beinn fattened exclusively or 
even principally on carrots ; but they are often, ami very 
profitably, fed in connecilon with grain. Turnips how- 
ever, sometimes In this eountry, and commonly In Eng- 
land, constitute the exclusive feed. The cattle have no 
oilier Iced but all the turnips they will eat, and nothing or 
Utile to drink. They g»ln flesh fast and are often market* 
sd without '■ Onioning ofP 1 with grain, tiiough this is bet- 
ter, especially if the beef has to be drlvon far or stand a 
long journey. This practice is said to be better than 
.feeding hay Wtin the turnips. 
HeordicsN Barley.— "M. E. N." There Is 
a two-rowed beardless or bald bailey, which has a fair 
reputation. The Nepaul barley which wo received from 
California and distributed quite extensively Is almost 
beardless and hullcss. it has given great satisfaction in 
many cases we have heard from. There is besides a 
hullessomaked barley with beard, two-rowed, very good. 
A 1 .e^Mui in Hor*< -hna U i ng-. — Major 
Wlnthrop says in John Brent i '*I learned to govern 
horses by the law of love. The relation of friendship 
once established between man and horse, there is no 
trouble. All lower beings, unless spoilt by treachery, 
seek the society of the higher. As man by nature loves 
God, horses will do all they know for man, if man will 
only let them. All they need is a slight hint to help their 
silly, willing brains, and they dash with ardor at their 
business of galloping a mile a minute or twenty miles an 
hour, or leaping a gully, or pulling tonnage. They put so 
much reckless break-neck frenzy into their attempt to 
please that he must be brave logo thoroughly with them.'' 
Sorgfhnm Seed. — " J. B.," Putnam Co., 111., 
inquires, if Sorghum seed does not need renewing every 
few years, above latitude 40°? Our knowledge of the 
' progress of Sorghum culture, and of the nature of the 
plant leads to the belief that there is no such need if the 
seed is properly selected, from well ripened canes which 
grew at a distance from other fields, which may have 
been raised from carefully selected seed. Certain It 
is, there is a great deal of poor seed in the country, but 
there is also some Sorghum, the seed of which has never 
been changed, that has maintained Its character from the 
first uudeterioiated. It is important to select seed this 
autumn and not wait till next spring, when one must take 
what he can get. 
Book on Breeding:.— -"J. S. C." " Good- 
ale's Principles of Breeding" is an excellent practical 
treatise on this subject, and worthy the careful study of 
every fanner. This answers your last question, and il 
you gel tiie book it will answer all the rest. 
Sorghum Sugar.— Two beautiful samples 
of sorghum sugar (from a lot of 300 pounds made by 
Charles B. Ltnds of Kansas,) have been placed upon our 
table by Blymyer. Bales & Day, the manufacturers of 
Cook's Evaporators, Cincinnati, O., In refutation of a 
remark In the Agriculturist that sorghum sugar " has not 
a market value so high as the syrups it will make," and 
that, as it generally occurs, it is "a gummy mass and not 
marketable." There has never been the slightest doubt 
in our minds that sorghum juice contained crystal lizable 
*ugar; we know that it does, and that it is usually so 
mixed with grape sugar and other impurities, that, as it 
has been produced by 99 people in 100, it is a gummy 
mass lacking in sweetness and neither marketable, nor 
wanted by the sugar refiners. There ib :io doubt that as 
processes are studied and practice perfects the sugar 
boilers, and as the apparatus is improved, more sugar may 
be produced : and we certainly hope that we may be able 
bye ami bye to recommend to our readers, to aim at mak- 
ing sugar rather than syrup, as it is now j almost certain 
success aiten Is syrup making, so while we urge experi- 
menting, we cannot recommend Indiscriminate trying to 
make sugar, because disappointment would follow. 
Sour Sorrel-Sour Soil.— So many of 
the Intelligent correspondents of the Agriculturist allude 
to the presence of snrret as indicating "acuV in the soil, 
that we must again assure our readers that the two have 
no connection whatever. Soils which abound in vegetable 
acid are not the ones on which sorrel grows most readily. 
If by "sour" is meant only harsh, cold, unfriendly to the 
growth of crops, there is no objection to the use of the 
word, and so we employ It Such soils are often wet, 
cont:ijn salts nf protoxide of iron and vegetable acids. 
Sorrel and the coar>e grasses and sedees grow pretty 
well on them, and the character both of the soil and its 
products is changed by deeper plowing and the addition 
of lime and alkalies (ashes) in liberal quantity. The 
fallacy oi the reasoning we criticise is seen In the fact 
that we pet the he.«t Rhubarb (own cousin to Sorrel) on 
the "sweetest" and mellowest garden soil. 
The Uno of Fittii a* Manure* — "G, B. 
H.'\ Middlesex Co., Conn., writes to the Agriculturist 
that the use of large quantities of Whin* Fisn or Moss- 
bunkers, though at first producing excellent crops, after 
a while 'the soil becomes hard and bakcy, the crops 
steadily diminish, and an acid shows Itself (see Item on 
sorrel) In greater or less quantities of sorrel." lit.- has 
been successful in remedying these evils "by composting 
the fish or fish guano with swamp muck, adding 1 peck 
of lime, or its equivalent of wood ashes, to the load, and 
a small quantity of gypsnin to fix the ammonia." The 
compost may be very freely used with good results. 
Best Floor for Horse Nflahles. — "G." 
writes to the American Agriculturist : "For horses at 
all inclined to have tender or contracted hoofs, the best 
possible floor is one of earth. Remove the planks and 
joists, throw In a foot or so nf stones or hroken bricks, for 
drainage, then finish off with six inches of good clayey 
soil pnunded down firm. Such a floor will never rot or 
break through, endangering the horse's life or limbs: It 
will keep his feet soft, and In nearly as healthy a condi- 
tion as if he were at pasture. Having tried this and seen 
it tried on horses with tender feet, I can rerommend 
it with confidence." [The only fault with this floor is 
that the urine, the best part of the manure is chiefly lost.) 
Shelter for Sheep nt Pasture. — We 
find a suggestion in one of our exchanges and unerediled. 
In which there is wisdom. It seems that it has been the 
practice of Solomon Green of Massachusetts to give his 
sheep the shelter of small dark buildings put in their 
"pastures, and inio which Ihey may go at pleasure. The 
result is that during the heat of the day they retire into 
them and remain till about 4 o'clock in the evening. The 
houses are small and on runners so that by shifting 
them often the land is thoroughly and evenly manured. 
This is a good idea for breeders of valuable sheep, who 
think no labor lost which contributes to their welfare. 
Alderney Cows.- "Esther," Steuben Co., 
S. Y. Good to first rale cows cost from $200, currency, 
to $250 in gold ; half bloods or grades which are nearly 
as good for milk, $100 to $200 according to their milking 
qualities. There are few pure bloods offered for sale 
now. A few Guernseys ami Alderneys. a decidedly 
Inferior lot, were sold at auction in this city a few weeks 
since at very high prices, to rich city merchants. 
How Tobacco is handled in West 
Virginia.— Theo. Heineman of Marshall Co. writes 
out his method of treating tob:<cco, for the readers of the 
Agriculturist. After describing the early culture, hoeing 
and topping, he says, he keeps it suckered and wormed 
till it. is fit for housing. "Then 1 begin to strip the bot- 
tom leaves off, haul to the house and string them. When 
the house is full I close the doors and start a fire in the 
flues,— just enough to keep the hou<e warm, till it turn* 
yellow ; then I raise the fire so that il dries it out in -18 
hours. If I get the fire too high I throw open the door 
till it cools off. When it is dried out I let it hung several 
days until It draws dampness, so that it may be handled 
without breaking. Then it is taken down and piled In 
a house for the purpose, until it takes a sweat, when 
ready to 'hand', hang it again, and when damp enough, 
hand it and 'bulk it down*; and so it lies till all is 
'handed.' It is thep hung on sticks and dried out [we 
suppose by fire-heat] till il is perfectly dry. When il 
gets damp enough (by exposure to the air) to pack, I 
place it in hotheads and press it so as to get 8 to 10 
hundred-weight in a hogshead." 
Tobacco Worm Moth.— "S. B. W." ol 
Wanen Co., O., recommends the flowers of the "James- 
town weed" or "Jimsen weed" as the be*t Into which to 
put the poison honey for destroying the Tobacco Sphynx. 
In the article on tobacco in the American Agriculturist 
last month (page 201) this Is the plant mentioned under 
the more widely known name of Stramonium. It is de- 
scribed and figured on pace I4S (April). This practice of 
poisoning the sphinges is every way recommenduble. pro- 
vided the poisoned honey be put in plucked flowers or 
those that will will when the sun comes upon them. 
Aeration of the Soil.— u J", N. C ", Nia- 
gara Co.. N. Y. The aeration of the soil in connection 
with drainage takes place on this wise. The air pene- 
trating i he soil as low down as the water is drawn off. 
and being always subject to the law of "diffusion of 
gases" is always changing. The warm air above the sur- 
face contains much moisture ; that deep In the soil has. 
by becoming cool, parted with its moisture to the soil, and 
has lost Us ammonia also, and much of its carbonic acid. 
8o according to lha l,,w ol difllurfnn the air above will 
constantly bd changing places m I ih thai below, and ih* 
result is a perfect aamUiiii or airing *•{ the foil, with 
many attendant benefits as far down HI It Is .named, an-i 
ihe more pulverized and open tin better. 
Planting; Aoorn«.-J H, Graves, f»^le 
County, III., planted last autumn a quantity of a.- 
but did not succeed In getting oaks. They were probably 
planted too deep, as they are naturally sown just under 
the covering of fallen leaves In this country the rain- 
ing of oaks from seed has been so little practised that we 
are without much reliable information upon the Subject. 
AH our writers copy from the English. In England ihey 
gather the acorns and dry them in the sun. and then pack 
them with three times their bulk of sand, keeping them 
safe from vermin In a cellar. They are sown in the 
spring in drills, setting the acorns at about two Inches 
apart, if grown in the nursery, and covering y to 1J 
Inches, according to size. Some prefer to plant, where 
the tree is to stand. 4 or 5 acorns in a hill, and gradually 
thin out all but one. To grow oaks snrce^fully, the 
young plants should be protected for the first few years 
by other plants. Birches or Larch may be sown for Ihe 
purpose, or some of our pines which grow very readily 
from seed. In England they allow the pines to grow- 
first and when they are 4 or 5 feet high the oaks are 
sown under their shelter. As the oaks grow. Ihe nurte 
trees, as they are called, are gradually thinned out and 
the wood from these pays the expense of planting. 
Fence Posts.— "Subscriber" asks, will oak 
or cedar make the most durable fence posts ? We take It 
he means while oak and red cedar. We think the cedar 
will last much the longer, but it is quite Impossible to tell 
how long either will last, so much depends upon the 
character of the soil. 
Condensed "Hi I k, etc. — James Reld, 
Vicksburg. Miss. Condensed milk cannot be prepared in 
families, as it requires expensive machinery worked by 
steam power, and costing many thousands of dollars. 
The putting up of meats is a regular trade, and we can- 
not give any process which can be practised In the small 
way. The chicken, etc.. is first put into cans and solder- 
ed up, leaving a small hole in the cover; the whole Is 
then thoroughly cooked in boiling water, all # alr being 
expelled ; then Ihe hole is closed with a drop of solder. 
CJapes.— How to finn" a Chicken's 
"Windpipe.— "X", who wrote to the American Agri- 
culturist from Baltimore Co.. Md. (p. 204), thinks people 
will not find the chicken's windpipe unless they are told 
that, "the opening to it is a slit through the root of the 
tongue, which Is entirely closed excent wh^n the chicken 
is Inhaling or exhaling breath. The feather must be 
thrust down this opening and not down the throat." 
Ashes for the Curl in Peach Tree*. 
C. F. Raynard. Fairfield Co.. Conn., haa successfully 
cured the curl and killed the aphis which causes, or aj 
least accompanies it. by sprinkling coal ashes over the 
foliage. The use of ashes around the trunks of the trees 
has been frequently noticed in this journal. 
Pruning; Peach Tree*. — "A Boy," Dc- 
kalh Co.. III. It Is customary to cut back the previous 
year's growth one-half or one-third in February*" or early 
spring. If regularly followed on young trees It will keep 
them In good shape and Increase ihelr fruitfulness. 
The Peach on Plnm Stocks.— W. G. 
Kent, Lee Co., Iowa. By budding on the plum stock 
the peach is somewhat dwarfed and is thought to be 
made more hardy. The plum roots flourish better In 
cold wet soils than do those of tne peach, and hi England 
this mode of propagating is very generally followed. 
How to Clean Carrot Seed.— Tbo 
question asked through "the Basket" some time since 
is thus answered in a note to the Agriculturist by L. T. 
Robbins of Plymouth:— "I put them Into a tub of 
water and rub them hard, [hetween the hands we 
suppose. 1 this lakes off ull the bmrs. which, with all the 
light poor ^eed will rise to the top and may be turned off, 
while the good seed will sink to the bottom. This I 
spread out in the sun till dry, and put up for use." 
"Bnffs" in Peas.— Mrs. J. M. Coninnn, Ind. 
The cause of the burs In peas is a beetle which lays its 
egers in the creen pea. this eeg hatches Into a crnb which 
finally turns into n beetle. The insects maybe killed by 
scalding Ihe peas hefore sowing them. It Is prohahle 
that thee Insects damaged the peas before planting, eo 
as to injure the germs, though this Is not usual- 
