282 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
cow and horse manure, and when compost- 
ed with salt, is even, more so. We wish a 
compost made of one-third fresh horse dung, 
and two-thirds muck, had been introduced in 
the experiment. Something of the value of the 
horse and cow dung was probably lost by evap- 
oration, which the composting would have 
saved. We think such a compost would have 
shown better results than either of the manures 
specified. Muck must be worth about a dollar 
and a half a load, delivered upon the field, for 
top dressing, and if the farmer can furnish it for 
fifty cents, as many can, he has a strong induce- 
ment to enter the muck swamps, which are 
usually accessible this month and the next. 
How can farmers be content to do without ma- 
nure when there is so much profit in applying it 
with a liberal hand ? Muck and its composts 
can be spread upon grass land with safety at 
any time after mowing. 
Fig. 1. 
Cutting and Curing Grain. 
— •— 
The high price and scarcity of wheat flour of 
the best qualities, in comparison with the abund- 
ance and low price of poor flour, indicate 
more strongly thau any statement we can make, 
the immense losses our farmers have sustained 
on account of bad management and unfavora- 
ble weather in harvest time. In our opinion, a 
very serious loss accrues, annual ly, from the no- 
tion, which teachers of agriculture have be- 
lieved and promulgated for years, that grain 
ought to be cut before it is ripe, 
ia order to get the most fine 
flour. The latest thorough ex- 
\ periments seem to disprove this, 
and so we presume the advocacy 
of not cutting wheat before it is 
ripe will be general, and farmers 
may swing over into the other extreme, and meet 
with loss from shelling. This is not, however, the 
great fault of our grain harvesting, especially at 
the West. Labor is scarce and high ; as much 
as possible is done by horse-power, but the work 
of binding and shocking is not yet done by 
machinery, and this is what is slighted. The 
bundles are poorly made, and they are poorly 
shocked. The shocks are wet through and 
through by heavy rains, and more or less by 
every passing shower. The grain grows, and 
the shocks mould or become "musty," of course. 
The market is spoiled, the merchant embar- 
rassed, and the farmer gets poor pay and goes 
behindhand year after year. Meanwhile he 
buys a barometer, studies the weather, grum- 
bles, and, perhaps, honestly thinks he does his 
best, and that the weather must take all the 
blame. The prosperity, thrift, happiness of any 
particular agri- 
cultural region 
depends directly 
upon the good 
farming, measur- 
ed by the profits, 
of its individual 
farmers. It is 
therefore for ev- 
ery man's inter- "t 
est to improve 
his own practice 
and that of his neighbors as much as possible. 
In the matter of shocking grain, great im- 
provements are to be made. before the country 
can feel that an abundant crop on the field can 
be reckoned upon as sure to add materially to 
the wealth of the nation. We received a com- 
munication from John Molony, Jr., of Dubuque 
Fig. 2. 
Co., Iowa, a few weeks since, on shocking grain, 
and since then have taken pains to assure our- 
selves of the fact, that the common practice in 
shocking grain over large sections of the West- 
ern States is shockingly careless. Mr. Molony 
writes : " I think there is more grain lost by 
bad shocking and wet weather following, than 
in an} r other way. I gener- 
ally have a hand to gather 
the sheaves in piles, twelve 
in a place, six on the right 
and six on the left, with a 
place in the middle for the 
Fig. 3. shock — buts all turned in, 
and the rows straight through the field. I then 
commence by taking one sheaf in each hand, 
by the heads, and set them down firmly on 
the ground, closing the heads together ; then 
setting two more pairs in the same way, 
I have six in a double row ; I then put two 
up on each side, making ten in all in the 
shock, and two left for caps. This makes a 
round shock, (see fig. 1). I put my arms around 
the top of the shock and squeeze the heads to- 
gether — kicking in the buts if they are slant- 
ing too much. I then take one of the remain- 
ing sheaves, and pull the band back within a 
few inches of the but ; then put the but against 
my chest, the left hand holding up the sheaf, and 
with the right hand divide the sheaf into three 
parts, bending the straw first to the right, then 
to the left, then bend the middle straight down. 
I put it on the shock and prepare the other cap 
in the same manner, and place it across the 
first, and press down firmly, pushing in any 
heads that may protrude from, under the caps, 
(see fig. 2). We 
had a fair chance 
to test my plan 
last harvest, it 
being very wet 
here. The shocks 
that I put up 
were perfectly 
safe, while those 
that nryhelp put 
up were nearly 
all spoiled. The Fig. 4. 
men could not be induced to put the shocks 
up as I did, but threw from 20 to 25 in a 
shock — dung pile would be the right name — 
setting the sheaves down so lightly as hard- 
ly to break the stubble, and resting very easily 
and insecurely against each other. They would 
break no caps, but only throw five or six on 
top. With the first wind, down came the shocks ; 
or the weight of so many wet bundles on top 
spread them and caused them to fall. It is a 
poor policy to make a shock so large that the 
cap will not cover it well, and it looks like go a- 
head farming to see the shocks of uniform size 
and in straight rows. My help and others laugh 
at me, and say that I am too particular, but 
I find advantage in it, and don't care." 
The method differs little from the common 
Eastern practice, in which the number of 
bundles varies from 10 to 14 in a shock, 12 be- 
ing usual. When 14 are used, 12 are set as in 
figure 3. The cap sheaf is made by taking two, 
having the longest straw, slipping the bands 
towards the buts a little, then binding them to- 
gether. It is opened, set over the top of the 
shock, and well packed down, as shown in fig. 4. 
This makes,if well done,a very secure thatching, 
as well as very substantial shock. The use of cot- 
ton cloth hay-caps offers an advantage in mak- 
ing shocks stand firmer, but little, if any, better 
security against rain. These caps which will add 
to the firmness of the shocks, should be at least 
4 feet square, with loops iu the corners, and 
wooden pins passing through these loops should 
enter the sheaves near the bands. The time re- 
quired to put the caps on and off, and to take 
care of them, is full_v equal to that necessarily 
spent in making good shocks. Agoodsetof caps 
will often pay for themselves in a single season. 
Monet ln Oyster Shells. — Large quantities 
of these shells are thrown into the streets in the 
countiy villages and market towns. They make 
a good road bed, but can be more usefully 
employed in improving the soil. They are easily 
decomposed by fire and w T ater. Pile any com- 
bustible material in a row, about ten feet across 
and three feet high, as compactly as possible. 
Brush, turf, peat, or old roots will answer the 
purpose. Upon these pile your oyster shells, a 
foot thick or more ; then pile on more brush 
and another layer of the shells. Bank the sides 
with old turf or sods, and put sods on the top. 
Fire the heap on the windward side, and with a 
little attention the whole mass will burn down 
and make a splendid ruin for the farmer's pur- 
poses. Clay burned by the same rude process 
makes an admirable dressing for the soil. 
Southwestern Georgia for Fruit. 
We have seen very fine specimens of fall pears 
from Albany, Georgia, brought north by a resi- 
dent of that place, in good eating condition July 
1st. The early varieties of pears and apples 
ripen there about the 1st of June, and peaches 
from the 1st to the 20th of that month. The 
Catawba grape grows iu the greatest perfection, 
and is ready for market about the 20th of Juty. 
Tins gentleman says there is a large district, em- 
bracing several counties, between Albany and 
Savannah, where these and other northern fruits 
grow iu the greatest perfection. These lands 
can now be bought from 1 to 10 dollars per 
acre, without improvements, and from five to 
thirty with improvements. The wild lands are 
mainly covered with a heav} - growth of yellow 
pine. The diseases and insects which so greatly 
annoy the fruit grower at the North, are hardly 
known in this region. Would not this be a good 
opening for northern emigration in large col- 
onies ? A projected railroad will bring this fine 
fruit region within 10 hours of Savannah, and 3i 
days of New York, and make it another feeder 
of our city markets. Our fall fruits in midsum- 
mer will be worth looking at. 
Insect Enemies. — The appearance and dis- 
appearance of insects, which destroy our crops, 
are governed by laws which we understand very 
imperfectly. Last year over large portions of 
New England the fruit trees and elms were de- 
prived of their leaves by the Canker-worm, 
where this year scarcely one is to be found. 
The good people of the States west of the Mis- 
souri were making the plans to do battle with the 
locusts where they were so abundant last year; 
yet they have beeu very generally disappointed. 
Still, in other localities the locusts (grass-hop- 
pers) have appeared, and eaten almost every 
•rreen thing. The ten-lined spearman, or striped 
potato-beetle, is, iu spite of every effort to stay 
its progress, moving steadily eastward — now 
crossing Northern and Middle Illinois. Each 
year its ravages become more extensive. The 
only hope of checking them, seems to be in at- 
tacking them in their winter quarters. How lit- 
tle do we know about what so nearly concerns us i 
