AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
horses, which could have done no harm, but still 
I have no doubt it was the late coming of snow 
and ice in the spring that was of so much bene- 
fit to the wheat. "At harvest," said the Deacon, 
" the wheat was so good that the men told me 
they got all their bands from this track to tic up 
the bundles from the rest of the field." 
But what a wretched picture of farming is 
this — the straw not long enough to tie up the 
wheat ! This, mark you, wa3 on the farm I now 
own, and if I ever have a crop of wheat that I 
cannot bind, it must not be ascribed to " book 
farming." For my predictions certainly are 
not open to such an accusation. If not strictly 
" practical " farmers, they did not ruin them- 
selves by taking agricultural papers or farming 
according to the books. Some of them spend 
more time at the card table and the grog shop 
than I do in my library. Those of my good 
friends who shake their heads at some of my 
performances will agree with me in one thing : 
It is better to buy bone dust than whisky ; better 
to spend your evenings at home, reading the 
experience of the best farmers of the past and 
the present than to be expending the hours 
in smoking in a grocery at the "corners." 
I do not know a more striking instance of the 
benefits of drainage on a small scale than one 
not half a mile from me. A city man, three or 
four years ago, bought a farm of some seventy- 
five acres. The house was situated on the top 
of an easterly slope, some forty or fifty rods 
from the road. He moved out to the farm the 
1st of May. The young ladies, who had had 
no experience of farm life, came out in a carriage, 
and when they came to turn up the private 
road that led to the house the horses mired, and 
the driver had to get out, and lay down rails for 
the ladies to walk on across this mud hole. 
Their feelings can be imagined. A quite re- 
spectable family had lived on the farm since the 
county was first settled — lived, thrived and died. 
They had pulled through that mud hole for 
thirty or forty years, without any attempt to 
drain it. Our city friend immediately cut a 
ditch along the_side of the road a distance 'per- 
haps of fifty rods, down to a natural water- 
course. He then put in some three or four 
underdrains, running up and down the slope in 
front of the house, and which discharge into 
the new ditch. The affect was magical. These 
underdrains'run -winter and summer, day and 
night, and cany off all the water. The meadow 
is one of the handsomest and most productive 
in the neighborhood. The young ladies have 
surrounded the house with evergreens and 
ornamental trees and shrubs. The mud hole 
has disappeared, and in its place is a nice gravel 
road, firm and dry at the wettest seasons of the 
year, and I question if the whole expense of the 
improvement amounted to two hundred dollars. 
"But did your city friend make farming 
pay ? " Yes, Sir. He has received more money 
from his apple orchard alone than he paid for 
the farm ! He has everything very comfortable 
around him, is an active, energetic man, culti- 
vates his land thoroughly, raises large crops and 
enjoys farm life well, about as much as I do. 
I am glad so many city people are turning 
their attention to farming. The country needs 
new blood. But there can be little doubt that 
many of these new comers will soon leave us. 
I have a neighbor who came from the city last 
spring. He bought a far - m that would be pro- 
ductive if thoroughly uuderdrained, but with- 
out, It is not worth cultivating. He has worked 
hard all summer, managed the land as well as 
any one could, but his corn was not worth 
husking, and the whole farm receipts were so 
small, he is about to return to the city in disgust. 
Our agriculture has much to hope from young 
men who, having a love for farming, the neces- 
sary capital, a good education, and abundant 
energy, make up their minds to study farming 
at some Agricultural College, or with some good 
practical farmer, and then settle down in the 
country for life, determined to " make farming 
pay." It will not be many years before our 
Agricultural Colleges turn out hundreds of 
such men. And the more of them the better. 
Milking Stools— A Hint. 
We published some time since an article 
about milking stools, which brought several com- 
munications in regard to them, among others, 
some advocating the use of one-legged stools. 
These are very common articles of cow-yard 
furniture in some placeSj»but probably unused 
in others, they have their advantage, however, 
upon side hills or uneven ground. 
There are multitudes of people who use 
3-legged stools while milking, for the very good 
reason that they will stand firmly wherever they 
are set down. And if the idea of a one-legged 
stool were suggested to them, it might not be 
entertained for the reason that such a stool will 
not stand alone. The quality of firmness is good, 
but that of being level is better. A one-legged 
stool will be level, or as nearly level as the 
milker wishes, at all times, and to enforce this fact 
we have had this illustration made. The artist 
has probably never milked a dozen cows morn- 
ing and night, winter and summer, during some 
of the best years of his life, or he would have 
given his milkman a better position, and pro- 
vided a bigger pail for the show of milk. 
Convenient Tools in the Garden. 
There are some implements very convenient 
and even necessary to have in the garden that 
are not usually kept by the dealers in garden 
tools, and they must be home made, if had at 
Fig. 1. — ROLLER. 
all. At this time of comparative leisure it is 
well to have all the tools repaired and to pur- 
chase or make such as are likely to be wanted. 
A Roller of some kind is an implement so 
useful that no large garden should bo without 
it. Those of iron, for rolling gravel, are too 
heavy for the main purpose for which a roller 
is required, that of rolling the soil after sowing 
seed. Figure 1, shows the form of roller used 
in market gardens in the vicinity of New York. 
It is a cylinder of hard wood about 5 feet 
long and 9 inches in diameter. It is bored 
through its whole length to receive a rod of 
2-inch round iron; this rod makes the roller 
sufficiently heavy, and being a few inches longer 
than the roller, its projecting ends furnish arms 
to which to attach the handle. It is of great 
importance, after sowing seeds, to pack the soil 
closely in contact with them, or to "firm" it, 
as the gardeners say. Iu a small way this can 
be done by means of a strip of board, but when 
a large sowing is made, the roller is necessary. 
Moreover, the smooth surface left by the roller 
allows the first hoeing to be done with greater 
facility, than when it is left lumpy and uneven. 
The Marker is another very convenient im- 
plement, used for tracing lines upon the surface 
of the ground, as a guide in setting plants or for 
making drills in which to sow seeds. The dou- 
ble marker shown in figure 2, has one set of 
teeth at 9 inches apart, and another at 12 inches 
distant. A marker of this kind will lay out 
lines at the distances ordinarily required, as by 
using every mark, or every alternate one, we 
can have rows at nine, twelve, eighteen, and 
twenty-four inches distant as may be needed. 
Fig. S. — masker. 
The Cultivator most in use in our market 
gardens is simply a harrow, made in the form 
of a cultivator, and adjustable to different widths. 
Fig. 3. — CULTIVATOR. 
The teeth are like ordinary harrow teeth ; and 
when unusually deep culture is required, a 
weight is put upon the implement to make it 
enter the soil to a considerably greater depth. 
The Dibbler, or Dibble, fig. 4, is of great 
use in transplanting. It is made from a bit of 
hard wood that has a convenient curve to fit the 
hand, and will be all the more durable if the 
point is shod with iron. The foregoing engrav- 
ings are from Mr. Peter Henderson's 
new work "Gardening for Profit." 
A Garden Line is necessary 
where one would lay out his' work 
with accuracy, and a wooden reel 
may be made to wind it upon. The 
iron reels, as generally sold, soon get 
out of order and become useless. We 
have found two stakes of hard wood, 
properly pointed, to be more satis- 
factory than any kind of reel. One 
of these stakes is made fast to each 
end of the line ; when not in use the ^" ' 
line is wound upon one of the stakes in the 
manner that a boy winds up a kite string. 
