378 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
the wheel, and quadrupled by being applied 
first upon one side of the load.and then upon 
the other. This principle may be frequently 
applied upon the farm ; and may save many an 
hour of hard work in ineffectual attempts to 
get a wheel over an obstacle, or to back a cart 
so as to turn in the woods, or elsewhere. 
Eradicating' Weeds. — Fallow vs. 
Crops. 
Hoed 
A fouler piece of laud than that we took in 
band in the spring of 1869, we do not wish to 
see. It was just what might be expected on a 
farm rented to a slack tenant for eight succes- 
sive years ; potatoes hoed once, and corn twice, 
and a glorious crop of weeds allowed to go to 
seed every year. Charlock took the lead, and 
the only comforting thing about this was, that 
it was so thick that no other weed stood any 
sort of a chance. Ten days after stirring the 
soil the ground would be completely covered 
with this weed. * "Where oats were sown, the 
charlock grew so stout that the bloom made an 
unbroken sheet of yellow. About seven acres 
were planted with potatoes. Two weeks after 
planting, a lovely crop of charlock was in sight. 
We went over the ground with a bush-harrow, 
making a clean sweep of the whole crop. A 
few days later the potatoes began to break 
ground. We went through them with Share's 
cultivator throwing a very light covering over 
the tops, and completely scarifying the surface. 
The potatoes received three cultivations after 
this, and were dug partly with Allen's potato 
digger ; making sis crops of charlock and other 
weeds killed in one season by tillage. Auother 
crop started vigorously but w T as cut off by the 
frost while in blossom, and before the seeds had 
time to mature. This made seven crops, and it 
was thought some impression ought to have 
been made upon the stock of seed in the ground. 
The ground was manured liberally with yard 
manure and sea-weed this spring, and planted 
with Early Rose potatoes. The weeds started 
as promptly as ever, but not quite so numer- 
ous. The spaces between the charlock seemed 
to widen a little. We pursued the same course 
with bush-harrow and cultivator, the charlock 
growing fainter hearted with every crop destroy- 
ed. The potato crop came off in Jul}', and the 
land was immediately dressed with slaughter- 
house manure, and fish pomace, and sowed to 
turnips. This crop will smother the charlock, 
we think, if any remains. We know it to be 
practicable to destroy fourteen crops of weeds 
in two seasons •without losing a crop. The cul- 
tivation was no more than the potatoes needed ; 
and as the hoe was used but once in each sea- 
son and that very slightly, the cultivation was 
not very expensive, and that expense is not to 
be charged to the weed crop, but to the pota- 
toes. Fourteen crops might have been destroy- 
ed in one season by a fallow, harrowing every 
two weeks, but then this^expeuse would have 
to be charged wholly to the weed crop, or to the 
cleansing of the land. On the whole, we are 
very well satisfied that foul land can be more 
economically cleansed with cultivated crops 
than with a fallow. In the fallow all our labor 
is a dead loss. If there is an ameliorating proc- 
ess in the stirring of the soil, we get that quite 
as well when crops are upon the ground. There 
is a choice of crops for this purpose, and there 
would be a great advantage in having a suc- 
cession of crops so as to get ten or twelve scar- 
ifying^, instead of seven in a season. There is 
also an advantage in high manuring. The weeds 
start more rapidly, and we think a larger num- 
ber of the foul seeds germinate and are destroy- 
ed every time the surface is disturbed. Potatoes 
are better than corn, because they can be plant- 
ed earlier, and two crops of weeds can be de- 
stroyed before they are above ground. If these 
are early and are removed bj r the middle of 
July, there is ample time for a crop of the sweet 
German turnip, or of common white turnips. 
The plowing that occurs between the crops is 
of great advantage, especially if it be a little 
deeper than the spring plowing. It brings up 
a new stratum of soil to sprout its crop of 
weeds, and to be benefited by the atmosphere. 
The old adage, " One year's seeding makes 
seven year's weeding," is true enough, if you 
hoe but once or twice and let the weeds go to 
seed. But if 3 r ou plan your crops so as to cul- 
tivate ten or twelve times, it puts another as- 
pect upon the question. Every stock farmer 
we believe can raise potatoes and turnips at a 
profit, however distant he may be from market. 
If he is near, so much the better for him. We 
believe that clean land is a possible thing, and 
that it can be economically attained. * 
«=>-* -«a-^p ' " » * ' 
Cheap Draining. 
a 
So many farmers are deterred from com- 
mencing to under-drain their land on account 
of the expense, that any device which will render 
draining cheaper has at least one merit ; name!}', 
that of inducing experiments to be made. Many 
a farmer has labor which at certain seasons is 
not fully employed, and by which he could do 
a good deal of digging. Stones perhaps are 
scarce, or, from all that has been said and read 
about the uncertainty of stone drains, perhaps 
he has a notion that they are really expensive 
to lay and not reliable. Tiles $re only to be 
had at a great cost. The first cost is something ; 
then to this must be added, water carriage, 
railroad freight, and cartage — all of which make 
a pretty big bill for a thousand feet of tiles. 
We alluded not long ago to the fact, that 
hemlock boards sawed into strips three and 
four inches wide, and nailed together so as to 
form a gutter, furnished a very cheap material 
for draining — a substitute for tiles, though not 
WOODEN DRAIN. 
nearly so good. However, they will last long 
enough to pay the expense of draining many 
times over. Mr. John S. Brower, of Keyport, 
Monmouth Co., N. J., has brought to the office 
of the American Agriculturist a model of an 
improvement on the wooden drains. It is rep- 
resented in the accompanying engraving, and 
consists of narrow pieces of board nailed across 
the trough. In construction the trough is made 
first, then inverted upon the pieces of board 
and the nails driven perpendicularly. This 
makes the channels, or conduits, easy to handle, 
and they may be made up in the winter for use 
in the spring in needed quantities. The board 
supporting one end is twice as wide as the 
others, and serves as a rest for the next chan- 
nel. In use, the earth soon fills up the bottom 
of the drain as high as the top of the cleats and 
so a smooth flow is not interrupted, while in 
case of a violent rushing flow of water which 
might wash the channel deeper, these have a 
tendency to prevent it, and to check any ten- 
dency to undermine the drain. Such drains have 
been laid in Monmouth County for many years, 
and have answered every purpose so far. If not 
submerged most of the time they are liable to rot 
of course, but this will not usually occur for 
Dix to ten years. Even when the drains are so 
much decayed that they cannot be taken up, 
but would crumble at the slightest touch, the 
earth will be found to have so compacted itself 
around them, that the flow of water will in 
many soils remain uninterrupted, and for aught 
one knows, in some it might be permanent. 
We advocate and fully believe in tile draining as 
cheapest and best in the long run, and as a rule, 
everywhere ; but as before said, the first cost 
deters many who could cut the timber on their 
own place, and do all the work themselves except 
sawing the stuff. 
Hints and Notions about Poultry Raising, 
Everybody in the country keeps chickens. 
There is a close picket-fence around the gar- 
den, and the fowls have free range everywhere 
else, on nine-tenths of the farms. The hens be- 
gin to lay in the spring when warm weather 
comes on, and, as they find but few attractive 
places in the hedge-rows, they lay in boxes and 
barrels; in corners of the wood-sheds ; in emp- 
ty mangers, and sundry nooks about the barns 
and out-buildings. When they want to sit, 
they are not moved, but are set where they have 
laid, and no more is thought of them until one 
after another they come off with their broods. 
The hens are usually cooped, and the chicks 
run; the hen sharing the feed wdth the brood. 
The result is, that before the chicks are old 
enough to do well without maternal care, the 
hen begins to la} r , and deserts or drives away her 
young ones. Such chicks are checked in their 
growth, and are never so large and fine as when 
cared for, for a longer time by the hen. 
Later in the season the hens will " steal " their 
nests; that is, hide them away in the hedge-rows 
and bushes, under foundations, and in out-of-the- 
way places. If one is missed at the morning 
feeding time, it is supposed she is sitting ; and in 
due time she will probably bring out a brood, 
hatching every egg of the 15 or 18 which she 
can cover. She will be let alone in all probabili- 
ty, and rear a beautiful brood of chickens, los- 
ing but few, if any, and allow them to follow 
her until long after she has commenced laying 
again. When she finally drives them from her 
they will be either accustomed to roost with her, 
or well able to take care of themselves by night 
and by day. The second brood will probably 
be the larger and better at Christmas. 
The first brood, or any early brood, can not 
be given a free run with the hen, because the 
weather is too cold, — the nights are severe, the 
mornings wet or frosty, and rains are frequent. 
The only way that we know to prevent hens de- 
serting their chicks too soon, is to starve them ; 
giving the chicks plenty and the hens little to eat. 
Thus giving them a run in the middle of the 
day, but no feed, they remain attentive, careful 
mothers a long time. It is clear that the hen's 
own hunger suggests the wants of her brood, 
and if she is " warmed and filled," the conclu- 
sion to her mind is that they are so too. 
When one of our readers takes a fancy for 
chickens, and wants to raise some pure breed, 
we notice he begins with the idea that he must 
build a new poultry-house, or in some way keep 
the whole of his flock of favorites shut up. Of 
course they will not be so healthy, nor do so 
well as the dung-hill fowls, to which he gives the 
range of his farm. Why not change, and shut 
up the common fowls, and let the others run ? 
