250 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
ostracism, but none of free labor. These appre- 
hensions, we think, will soon be removed. 5. 
No doubt the freedmen will be much better 
consumers than they have been. As fast as they 
earn the means they will want land and cottages 
of their own, better furniture, clothing, and food, 
books and papers. This will be no tax on cot- 
ton growing, but by these they will be made 
rnore industrious and skillful laborers, and so 
will produce cotton at less cost per pound. 
Nothing pays so well as skilled labor. This kind 
of labor will manage the new tools that are soon 
to come into the cotton field, and diminish the 
cost of production at least one half. The freed- 
men will be better consumers, and for that reason 
better producers. 6. Small planters will, no 
doubt, greatly multiply in the South, but it will 
be for the want of capital rather than because 
large capital can not be made to pay. With 
capital enough one could get a better interest 
from fifty hands than from five. The pro- 
duction would be quite as large per hand, 
and the cost of overseeing much less. 
The tables of expense and profit, we think, 
are fairly open to criticism. When cotton is 30 
cents a pound the planter will receive more 
than 20 cents a pound nett. In these estimates 
no manure is included This should be used, so 
that the product will be at least one bale of cotton 
to the acre, and 30 bushels of corn. If he should 
apply, say, one ton of fish guano to the acre, cost- 
ing $35 delivered, and should get thereby one 
bale, instead of one-third of a bale, it would make 
a great difference in the look of the balance sheet. 
The cost of cultivation would not be increased. 
A little extra would have to be allowed for 
picking, baling and transportation. Our pre- 
mium essays on cotton will show this fully. 
1. Impassable dams. Over these, fish-ways 
may be built with little waste of water. 
2. Pollution of water by lime, dyes, soap, 
sawdust, and other mill refuse. Much of all 
these should not be thrown at all into the water. 
-FISH-STAIRS AT LOWELL, MASS. 
Re-stocking our Fresh Waters with Fish. 
■ 
We are glad to learn that this good cause is 
making progress. There are not nearly as many 
fish in our rivers as formerly, and from many of 
them the salmon has entirely disappeared, and 
shad are not caught in sufficient numbers to pay 
for setting nets and se^es. Commissioners have 
been appointed in five of the New England 
States, two from each State, to act jointly in 
this matter, to arrest destruction by improvident 
methods, and to provide for the re-stockin°- of 
the rivers. H. A. Bellows, of New Hampshire, 
is Chairman, and Theodore Lyman, of Massa- 
chusetts, the Secretary of this Commission. 
The causes of the destruction offish, as set forth 
by these gentlemen, are as follows, namely: 
Fig. 3. — FOSTER'S FISH- WAT FOE SMALL 
As to the dirty water from wool or cloth wash- 
ing, it may be confined to one side of the river 
by a plank screen placed opposite the race-way. 
3. Destruction of young fish by mill-wheels, 
which may be avoided by a lattice placed across 
the mouth of the canal, or flume above the mill. 
4. Destructive modes of fishing, among which 
we may include gill-nets, weirs, very long seines, 
pots, set-hooks, fire-fishing, and fishing through 
the ice; all of which should be forbidden by law. 
5. Fishing too much, and at wrong seasons. 
For migratory fish, certain days in each week 
should be " closed," — that is to say, no fishing 
should then be allowed ; and the taking of 
trout on their spawning beds should be rigor- 
ously interdicted. 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire have al- 
ready passed laws for the opening of the Mer- 
rimack and the Connecticut to sea fish, and for 
the encouragement of the breeding of valuable 
fresh water fish. Fish-ways have been erected 
upon the Merrimack, and many thou- 
sand salmon eggs have been planted 
in its upper waters. We regard the 
impassable dams as the greatest hin- 
derance to the multiplication of the 
migratory fish. The rich manufactur- 
ing companies that profit by these 
dams should be compelled by law to 
provide fish-ways over them. The 
times when the fish wish to use them 
are generally times of abundant water, 
so that the interests of manufacturers 
would suffer little from loss of power. 
As to the second cause, much of the 
mill refuse is valuable as a fertilizer, 
and should not be run into the river, 
but into the compost heap. We ear- 
nestly commend this object to the favor 
of our readers. In many ways the 
people may aid it, especially by de- 
manding suitable legislation to help it. 
We should like to, and now even hope 
that we may see the day when fresh 
salmon will be the poor man's dish again, instead 
of a luxury hard to get at a dollar a pound. 
Fish-ways, fish-stairs, Salmon-steps, etc., are 
names whicli convey distinctly the object of 
the various structures, which are erected for 
the purpose of allowing fish to pass over dams 
to spawn. Figure 1 represents the fish-stairs 
at Lowell, on the Merrimack, in Massachusetts. 
They consist of nine tanks, in which the water 
stands one foot deep, and through which it flows, 
falling from pach, one foot into the one below. 
The tanks are of heavy plank, bolted together, 
and placed upon substantial masonry. An open- 
ing in the flush-boards of the clam permits a suit- 
able stream of water to pass down the stairs, to 
afford the fish an easy passage to their breeding 
grounds. Figure 2 shows " Foster's "■ fish-way, ' 
which is better adapted (so say the Com- 
missioners), to small streams, as it uses little 
water. On a basis of masonry, a straight, slop- 
ing flume conducts the water, from the flood- 
gate on the dam, to the still water below. The 
water, in its course through 
this flume, or trough, is 
interrupted by a series of 
" cross bulk-heads," ex- 
tending alternately from 
one side and the other, 
neari}' across. They have 
an upward slant, and thus, 
repeatedly, check the flow 
of the water, dam it back, 
and make a series of still 
pools, with a constant flow 
streams. of deep water between 
them. Both these stairs are known to be suf- 
ficient for the passage of Salmon and Ale-wives, 
but Foster's, it appears, have not been thorough- 
ly tested for shad, which are the most fastidious. 
Using Three Horses Abreast. 
People, who have tested it, agree very well 
that it is a fact, that three horses working 
abreast, will pull, if well harnessed or " yoked," 
much more than if drawing in any other way. 
The usual method of arranging the wliiffle-trees 
and "eveners," is that shown in fig. 1, and 
when the team is used for hauling logs, or any 
similar work, it is very well. When used to 
draw a cart, the center horse works in shafts, 
while the horse on each side is attached to an 
independent whiffle-tree, hooked upon an out- 
rigger, with a chain running back to the end of 
the axle outside the wheel. In backing or turn- 
ing, there is a great advantage in this arrange- 
ment, for one or both of the side horses may be 
taken around and made 
to pull back, thus turn- 
ing or backing easily, 
except in very cramped 
places. The side horses are guided by a short 
rein, fastened to the hames-ring of the horse 
in the shafts. See figure 2. 
In plowing, the advantage of three horses.is, 
perhaps, more apparent than at any other work. 
Experienced plowmen are strenuous advocates 
of this practice, but agree that much depends 
upon the correct proportions of the whiffle-trees 
and eveners, and upon the length of the traoes. 
This system of whiffle-trees is shown in fig. 3. 
If the three horses are of about similar weight, 
and of medium size, the whiffle-trees may be 24 
£139* 
Fig. 2. — THREE HORSES ABREAST BEFORE A CART. 
inches long, the simple evener 30 inches, and 
the irregular one 45 inches — that is, measuring 
between the draft-points. This will bring the 
horses very close, too close, if they are not 
driven with long traces; but it will allow them 
to draw very directly, and it is the only way, 
we know, in which the off horse can be made 
to walk in the furrow. If the nigh horse is a 
strong one, and may be made to do a little more 
than his fair share of the work, this will make 
it better all around, for the pair can be worked 
on a longer evener, and the irregular evener 
may be hitched to the plow, so as to favor the 
