1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
87 
Btoinmor's Manure 3Ictkod. —Yes, 
we did get hold of some old pamphlets, which were form- 
erly sold, with the patent, for $X0. and offer them for 25 
cents, without any patent. We told our readers that the 
patent was so old that it had become public property. Is 
it not. then, absurd to claim that wc put it out as some- 
thing new. or intimate that we tried to deceive about it. 
Our readers know that the method is old. They may 
well wonder, as we do, that a patent was ever granted, 
and that it was pronounced valid. That does not alter 
the case, nor make the method of less value, to whoever 
does not know it. We remember well to have seen what, 
we presume, was the very same method, in use in Switzer- 
land, 12 years ago, and saw it also described, substantial- 
ly, by an enthusiastic Swiss agriculturist, who termed 
Switzerland ''the native country of the proud dung heap ;"' 
and we have often described, and urged upon our readers, 
practice very similar to Bommer's. Nevertheless, we think 
the book is worth much more than its price (25c) to every 
farmer in the country. We would be happy to sell to 
the Country Gentleman as many copies as he wants for his 
readers, at the usual discount, one-third off, for cash. 
Mope for the Farmers' Club. — 
The people who assemble under the name of the " Farm- 
ers' Club" 1 did not like the article, last month, headed 
"Sense at the ■Fanners' Club." Of course they didn't. 
It was intended as medicine, and they were expected to 
squirm under its operation, but it did them much good. 
In the report of the meeting of January 22d, there were 
only six " medical " articles, and in that of January 29th, 
only two ! — a recovery more rapid than that of any patient 
who will follow their published prescriptions. Here is a 
specimen of the effects produced by our strictures, from 
the report of the meeting of January 29th : 
'■•Management of the. Club.— An agricultural paper in 
this city speaks of our club as being more comic than 
wise, and as having better talkers than fanners. Now and 
Then, there is an Ishmaelite boy skulking through the lots. 
When he sees other boys enjoying themselves together, 
nothing pleases him more than to throw a stone. What 
can he expect? " 
"Boys enjoying themselves together' 1 is a capital fig- 
ure, and shows that the club possess the rare ability " to 
boo ourselves as others sec us." "Isnmaelite" is also 
onrl. and hints at a commendable kind of reading. 
Sweet Potatoes. — Several, who have made 
inquiries about Sweet Potato culture, will be glad to know 
that we have an article in type from an experienred culti- 
vator which will appear in season. 
Catalogues Acknowledged.— Seeds. 
—A. Bridgeman.STfl Broadway, N. Y., Vegetable Seeds. 
J. M. Thorbum & Co., Flower Seeds and Spring 
Bulbs James J. H. Gregory, Marblehead. Mass., includ- 
ing many novelties Collins, Anderson & Co., Vegeta- 
bles and Flowers, with very full descriptions. 
General Nursery Stock.— J. W. Dodge & Son, Po- 
mona Nursery, Cumberland County. Tenn Husmanu & 
Manwariug, Hermann, Mo... Calvin S. Goddard, Ever- 
greens and Fruit Trees, Portland, Me John Saul, 
Washington, D. 0. ; Roses a specialty. 
Small Fruits. — William Hacker, Philadelphia, Pa 
Thomas C. Andrews, Moorestowu, Burlington County, N. 
J Johnston's Nursery, South Bend, Ind Geo. W. 
Campbell, Delaware, O., full description of grapes. 
Florists' Plants.— Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. 
Y. . .Joseph W. Vestal, Cambridge City, Wayne Co., Ind. 
Wines.— F. C. Brehm, Waterloo, New York. 
Tlie Western Xew Yorlc Fruit 
Growers' Society, — The interruption of travel by 
the great snow si orm, prevented our attending the meeting 
In January, as we had intended. Wc observe by the re- 
port in the Country Gentleman, that the time was chiefly 
occupied in discussing the grape question. A great deal 
was said about different varieties, but we do not find that 
anything new was elicited. A vote was taken on the ques- 
tion " What one variety of grapes is best for garden cul- 
ture in Western New York?' 1 The Delaware was the 
choice of the majority. Wc do not see any report of the 
vote on the next best. It would be well if it were stated 
what are the limits of "Western New York,"' for which 
[he Delaware is considered the best. 
fjtti'g-e Barley— Selecting" Seed.— 
C. A. Brown, Stockbridge, Vermont, sowed the product 
of an accidental head of barley found in a field of wheat ; 
the product of four grains was 1.(11 grains; one stool 
had twenty-three large, fine, full heads. Any grain grow- 
ing by itself in good soil, will develops wonderfully. Se- 
lection of heavy seed will do much. Culling the large, 
lull, ripe heads, and saving for sowing only the heaviest 
grains from them, will greatly improve the result, but the 
climax Is reached by very thin sowing in drills, giving 
ImxxI See<l*. — " Where can I get good 
seedB?" is the purport of a dozen letters now on file. 
One says that he is poorer by a thousand dollars than he 
would have been if he had had good seeds last year. We 
believe that all the scedmen who advertise with us in- 
tend to send good seeds. Much of their stock, imported 
and otherwise, is bought upon good faith in others, and 
they may sometimes be deceived. One writes us that 
Tom Thumb Peas grew from eight inches to five feet, and 
were growing yet. Wc do not know a seedman who 
would intentionally mis seeds. Much of the failure is 
attributable to the sower, who sows too early, or too 
deeply. There is not a seedman of our acquaintance who 
has not been denounced to us as a swindler, and not one 
who has not been praised to us as the best of all his craft. 
There is no business in which a reputation is more essen- 
tial, simply as a business investment, than that of the seed- 
man, and no one who expected to continue long in the 
business would, simply as a matter of policy, sell a thing 
if known to be untrue. Scedmen are human and may 
err, and be deceived, and so with the purchasers. Let 
us encourage home grown sceds,and then we cau be able 
to trace everything to its source. 
A. Span-root* Cold Grapery.— "Con- 
stant Reader." Much will depend upon your notions as 
to style. Make out a plain statement of just what you 
want, and send to John Ellis, White Plains. N. Y., or 
Messrs. Woodward. No. 37 Park Row, N. Y.. and they 
will give you estimates, and. of course, will expect to be 
paid for their trouble 
Red. Legged E*0 Cits t.— What shall they 
do in Kansas? L. A. AJderson, of Atchison, thus states 
the case : " Last September we were visited by the Red 
Legged Locust (Acrydiumfemur-rubrum), the same insect 
that committed such depredation in Utah, Colorado and 
Montana. They spread over our entire State, and before 
cold weather they advanced about fifty miles into Mis- 
souri. They devoured all our buckwheat, turnips, to- 
bacco, and most of the green fodder, and all the young 
wheat that had been sown. (Several farmers have sown 
since their disappearance.) The surface of the earth is 
filled with their larva, and as further West, they will 
doubtless appear in force in the spring. The Agriculturist 
is extensively read in Kansas, and you would do us a 
great favor by Informing us through its columns what 
crops, if any, we may be able to raise next summer. It 
is said they will not destroy sorghum. I have noticed the 
Castor Oil Bean untouched by them : but I have seen 
them feasting upon a pod of red pepper and a quid of 
tobacco. As a general rule the young hntchod from the 
hand culture, weeding and hoeing, and continuing this 
with the most careful culling of heads and selection of seed 
by weight year after year. The improvement is rapid. 
Tlae Surprise Oats. — This, which claims 
to be a new variety of oat, is put before the public with 
apparent good faith on the part of the proprietors. The 
claim is that one Van Olinda. near Sandwich, DeKalb 
County. 111., found some strangely bearded oats growing 
among some other grain (Patent -Office wheat if we mis- 
take not.) We have seen what purports to be some of this 
original seed, and it looks almost exactly like the wild 
oat, from which it is known that our cultivated varieties 
sprung, and to which it is supposed that, under some cir- 
cumstances, they revert. After several years of care and 
culture the result is claimed to be that a very plump, 
heavy, prolific, early variety is established free from the 
bristly beards, and every way a first-rate oat. We have j 
no means of knowing whether the surveyor, who claims j 
to have measured the 138 square rods of ground on which j 
875 bushels of oats grew, knew anything abont his bust- j 
nessornot, or whether he is an honest man. Wc don't j 
know whether the weight of the oats was taken properly 
or not. They may have been weighed in bags, no deduc- 
tions made, and the total weight simply divided by thirty- 
two, the weight of the legal bushel of oats. The state- 
ments in the circular are unsatisfactory and meager, and 
there is a concealment of the fact that the 133 bushels per 
acre, means bushels of 33 pounds each, weighed as soon 
as thrashed. If the weighing had been done in Decem- 
ber the results would have required a different statement, 
and we presume also that the 45 pounds which the ■ 
measured bushel is said to weigh may be subject to the 
same drawback. We have admitted the advertisement 
because the proprietors appeared to be fair, honest men, 
and certainly showed us a very excellent sample of oats. 
Selecting Orain Seed lor Sowing - . 
—Take out the screens, except perhaps the top one. and 
arrange the fan-mill for giving the strongest and evenest 
blast. Then run the grain through, saving the heaviest 
half, and repeating the operation upon this several times. 
lava of the proceeding fall, leave about the first of July ; 
but this is too late for most of our crops.'' 
Beans. Peas, Millet, Oats, to cut for fodder, Corn for 
fodder, Buckwheat, Turnips, Rutabagas and Tobacco if 
the seed beds can be protected, are what we think of as 
most likely to produce a crop after July 1st; but their 
success depends on your having no second crop of locusts, 
and these are usually most abundant in August and later. 
VTse for Hickory Withe.— W. G. War- 
ing, of Tyrone, Pa., says, that when plowing he broke a 
clevis, and adapting a strong withe, cut from a neighbor- 
ing hickory, to the situation, it held well, endured the 
draft all day, and saved an hour's time of man and team. 
Sensible.— At a meeting of delegates from 
seventy-five of the Ohio County Agricultural Societies 
recently held at Columbus. Ohio, the following resolution 
was adopted. We hope that the agriculturists of other 
States will do likewise: " That the Convention adhere to 
the resolutions adopted at the session of 1865. and again 
indorsed in 1866, in favor of one College under the Con- 
gressional grant, and opposed to the division of the fund. 
The American Journal of Horti- 
culture and Florists Companion.— Boston, 
J. E. Tilton & Co. Monthly, 64 pages, at $3 per year. The 
Januury and February numbers of this journal have been 
received. We did not notice the first number, as the 
publishers apologized for its -want of variety and stated 
that it had b'een "issued under many disadvantages." 
The second nmnber contaius no such apology, and we 
suppose it is intended as a specimen of what we may ex- 
pect, and as several have asked our opinion upon it. we 
will say that it is a very handsome magazine, on excellent 
paper and in beautiful type, and is wonderfully cheap. 
The publishers deserve much credit for giving so many 
pages for so little money. Why it is called an " American 
Journal of Horticulture," we are at loss to understand, as 
it is most intensely Bostonese. The February issue has 
the bad taste to give the biography of our revered friend 
Col. Wilder. We hope that the day is far distant when 
any one shall have the right to make up his record, and 
we cannot conceive why he shonld be thus afflicted. The 
issue is all about Boston and its suburbs, and though 
Boston is our pet city, and its people are good to know, we 
can't see why they call it an '"American " journal. The 
articles on Garden Architecture will attract attention for 
the reason that the illustrations are nearly as good as those 
in Hughes* Garden Architecture, recently published in 
London. We supposed that Boston was the headquarters 
for pears, and they figure such novelties as the Bartlett, 
Seckel and Urbaniste ! But wc cannot give the space to 
an extended criticism. It is pleasant reading about hor- 
ticulture, and will no doubt be acceptable to the largo 
class who like to have the "road to learning" graded and 
rolled. Its wordiness is its most objectionable feature, 
and its diffused light, as compared with the other Horti- 
cultural monthlies, is as that of moonlight to sunlight 
Queries. — " young Farmer '■ asks the follow- 
ing questions : 
Is Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry a 
distinct work from his Elements of Agricultural Chem- 
istry, or an enlargement of the same. Att$U&:—A distinct 
work, the former much the fuller and larger. The full title 
is ,l Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology." 
Cabbages.— I have seven acres for cabbage in 1S67. 
This land without manure, with a year or two rest , I deem 
unsurpassed for cabbage, but having been cultivated 
without rest in com, I think manure is needed. What 
kind shall I use? Answer. — Lime, or a mink and lime 
compost, with super-phosphate, bone dust and ashes, 
Stable Manure and Lime— I haw about twenty 
loads stable manure (not compost), and an indefinite 
quantity of air-slacked lime; In composting, shall 1 put 
in lime, and what proportion? Answer. — Use no lime 
with stable manure ; the lime will prove a damage. 
Hmc- How shall I apply my lime broadcast, \\ hat 
amount per acre, and what machine, if any, shall I use P— 
Answer, — Spread from small heaps with 8 shovel, or from 
the tail of a cart. The amount applied may vary from tho 
least quantity you can spread evenly to 300 to BOObnshels. 
Heavy lands and those of a moist and mucky character, or 
dark from vegetable mold, will bear much more than light 
soils; 50 to 100 bushels is a common dose. Small quan- 
tities are best applied mixed with muck or soil, mid lu 
garden culture this is almost always best The effects of 
the lime on the soil in the compost are similar to those 
which it produces on the soil In the field. 
CSns Tar for Posts in Stable*.— 
This is one of the best safe guards against decay, and for 
a time at least would resist the action of liquid manure. 
