1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
321 
Agriculturist strawberry will stand neglect as 
■well as Wilson's Albany; certainly Triomplie 
de Gand will not. We have a tree that bears 
every year bushels of small insipid peaches. If 
we should wake tip some morning and find 
them all turned into Royal Kensington's, I 
should conclude the millennium had come, and 
send word to the good people in the Dutch Set- 
tlement, who have had a sharp fight with the 
weeds, that they might bring their baskets to 
gather the fruit, but leave their hoes at home. 
As thiugs now are, it is easier to raise a crop 
of thistles than a crop of wheat, and we can 
raise poor wheat more easily than good. But what 
of it ? It is far better to raise wheat than thistles, 
and better to raise good wheat than poor. 
It is a mistake to suppose that any real farmer 
or intelligent horticulturist will be discouraged 
by a knowledge of the fact that if he wants well 
bred animals, or the best grains, or the choicest 
fruits, he must bestow the requisite care and at- 
tention. For 25 years, Thomas Bates did not 
show an animal at any of the fairs. He was 
quietly at work. But when he did exhibit, at the 
Royal Agricultural Fair, at Oxford, in 1839, 
he swept all before him. One thousand guineas 
were offered for one of his bulls — and he was 
worth it. And to-day, all our high-priced short- 
horns can be traced back to this twenty-five 
years of care and labor of the Yorkshire farmer. 
It is always so. Bakewell, Ellman, Webb, 
other agricultural worthies, paid an honest price 
for their success. It was no lucky hit, but the 
result of persevering and intelligent effort. 
The Agriculturist for July calls attention to 
the value of corn husks for making paper. If 
there is a demand for them at good prices, it 
will be an additional reason why we must have 
a machine for husking. I have great hopes of 
"French's American Corn-Picker and Husker." 
From what I saw of its operation, at the New 
York State Fair, last year, I shall be disap- 
pointed if it does not husk corn to perfection. 
All that is now needed is some method of oper- 
ating it by horse-power in the field. This ma- 
chine separates the husks from the stalk as well 
as from the corn, and they could easily be gath- 
ered up, pressed, and sent to market. Out 
West, I was once offered shelled corn for " ten 
cents a bushel in trade, or nine cents cash." I 
do not know how they husk it. Here it costs 
me at least twelve cents a bushel to husk and 
shell corn. I pay five cents for husking a bushel 
of ears, and by the time we get it to the barn and 
shelled, it will cost at least a cent more, and it 
takes nearly two bushels of good corn to make 
a bushel of shelled corn. We need a good ma- 
chine for husking, and I hope this fall will not 
pass by without giving us one. If French's will 
do it, let it be introduced. The person who ex- 
hibited it at the fair seemed more anxious to 
sell "rights" than machines, which is not a hope- 
ful sign; if it worked well, it would be for sale. 
We may as well make up our minds, first as 
last, that we must fight insects and fungi. It 
Will not do to fold our hands, and wait till they 
pass over. Study their habits, find out their 
Weak spots, foster their natural enemies, and 
We shall soon conquer. 
One reason why we have so much fungus is 
owing to the slovenly practice of throwing the 
branches of trees, etc., into fence corners, and 
allowing them to decay, instead of burning them. 
No wonder that so many varieties of pears 
and apples are specked and cracked by fungus 
growth. I have an orchard of Virgalicu pens, 
and I do not think there is a single specimen 
free from specks. And even the Louise Bonne 
de Jersey begins to show symptoms of the dis- 
ease. Flemish Beauty and Seckel have been 
liable to it for two or three years. Several va- 
rieties of apples crack as badly as the Virgalieu 
pears. We ought to be careful to remove all the 
fallen fruit, and to keep our gardens neat and 
clean, and especially should all the affected fruit 
be removed from the trees before winter. Be- 
cause it is worthless, it is not nnfrequently al- 
lowed to stay on the trees as long as it will 
hang. We could not devise a better plan for 
propagating the disease. 
We do not use lime as freel}' as we should in 
our gardens and fruit orchards, or, for that mat- 
ter, on our fields either. It would not only en- 
rich the land, and give us larger crops, but they 
would be of better quality, and not so affected 
by disease. This is the experience of all who 
have used it. If we could burn our own lime, 
so that it would not cost more than ten cents a 
bushel, we could well afford to use it freely, at 
the rate of 100 to 200 bushels per acre. Large 
dressings at once, are better, I think, than small 
quantities more frequently applied. We want 
enough to change the character of the soil, lib- 
erate its potash, decompose the organic matter, 
and destroy fuugus. We have plenty of lime- 
stone in this section, and there is more or less 
rough wood that could be used to burn it. What 
we want is a method of building a cheap kiln, 
or some plan of burning without kilns. As the 
lime is to be used for manure, it is not at all im- 
portant that it should be free from charred sods 
or burnt clay. In fact, both these substances 
make excellent manure. 
The probabilities are that we shall have a 
great deal of immature corn this fall. Where 
the corn and stalks are both fed out to cattle, 
sheep, and horses on the farm, why is it not just 
as well to cut the crop while rather green, cure 
it, aud feed the stalks and corn together? We 
do not let our timothy get ripe, and then thrash 
out the seed, giving thehorses the timothy straw 
in the rack, and the seed in the manger. Why 
should we do so in the case of oats or corn ? If 
my corn matures, I shall husk it, and feed it 
out separately, because this is the orthodox way. 
But if it does not mature, I shall cut up the crop, 
and make it into fodder, and shall try and per- 
suade myself that the method is in strict accord- 
ance with the teachings of science. 
The Deacon says, in old times, when they 
sowed wheat after corn, and it was desirable to 
get the crop off as early as possible, he frequent- 
ly put the stalks, while quite green, into the 
barn, and by putting a layer of six inches of dry 
straw between every two or three layers of corn 
stalks, they never mildewed,and the whole made 
excellent fodder. 
«~l — -oe— *-m 
The Use of Steam for Farm Work. 
In this country we concede great advantage 
in the use of steam on large farms where sta- 
tionary engines, or those used as such, may be 
placed aud do a variety of work, such as cut 
wood, hay, and stalks, thrash, and grind, pump 
water, etc., and where the steam may also be 
used to cook feed for swine and other stock, but 
so far we have not used this power much in 
plowing and otherwise cultivating the land. In 
Great Britain, where steam tillage is more in 
vogue, it is except on a few very large estates, 
accomplished by joint-slock companies, the 
shareholders consisting chiefly of farmers. 
The directors employ competent engineers aud 
hands who go about with their different ma- 
chines to do the work required, thrashing or 
plowing as the case may be. Some of these 
steam cultivating companies are quite success- 
ful, and declare handsome annual dividends ; 
others are less prosperous. Much is found to 
depend upon the character of the country, much 
upon the hands employed, and also upon thesu- 
perintending engineers. First class hands are 
needed, but they can not be employed at all 
seasons, as there are many days when the} 7 can 
not work on account of the condition of the soil, 
and the men must have some other employment. 
Where the engines are well managed, and the 
fields are of a character to allow of their being 
profitably employed, the companies find no lack 
of custom, for the work is done more thorough- 
ly and better than it could be by horse-power, 
and it costs less. The company usually fur- 
nishes every thing except coal and water for 
the engine. This requires a boy with a horse 
and cart, furnished by the farmer. 
Ordinary surface plowing and tillage even 
upon farms where steam is regularly employed, 
are done by horse-power, but the steam plows 
are used for subsoiling and deep working, and 
for accomplishing deep tillage by powerful cul- 
tivators adapted to the purpose, which, by once 
or twice working a field over, will accomplish 
more towardsthe reduction of a stiff fallow than 
four or five times plowing and harrowing. 
Some of the managers have employed their en- 
gines at mole-draining with marked good re- 
sults, the drainage being at the depth of two 
feet, aud the drains four feet apart. The 
opinion of the Secretary of one of the most 
successful companies is that before declaring 
any dividends, 10 per cent, of the whole capital 
should be reserved as a sinking fund, besides 
10 per cent, of all earnings thereafter, and 5 
per cent, for interest on the investment. The 
engines used are Howard's, and Fowler's, and 
between these public opinion seems divided. 
We have no doubt that there are many dis- 
tricts in this country where a similar system 
would prove most advantageous, and are wait- 
ing to learu particularly in regard to some ex- 
periments now being conducted on the prairies, 
before giving our readers pointed advice in re- 
gard to either English or American steam plows. 
Drilling- Wheat. 
We found the practice of drilling wheat almost 
universal in the grain districts of Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey, and the only exceptions are 
among the small farmers who do not feel that 
they can afford a drill. At the West, the practice 
of drilling is coming rapidly into favor. Those 
who have their farms sufficiently cleared of 
stumps, and can own a drill, generally use the in- 
strument. There are many patented drills, which 
cost from §90 upwards. Some, drawn by two 
horses, sow eight inches apart, and make eight 
drills at a time. We found at Terrc Haute, Ind., 
a sulky cultivator and drill combined, costing 
%7fi. In that neighborhood the sale of drills is in- 
creasing very fast. The advantages of the drill 
are that it saves seed, which in the case of wheat 
is a very important item; that, it gives the grow- 
in"' grain more air and sunlight, aud guards 
against winter killing. It plants the seed at a 
very uniform depth in the bottom of a narrow 
trench, the sides of which crumble under the 
action of the frost, and cover the roots of the 
plant, if they are thrown out. The conviction 
is universally in favor of the practice, and a 
good drill will prove a good investment. 
