360; 
AM EPJCAX AGHIC ULTURIS'I . 
| OCTOBEK, 
Mountains is a variety of the American Biack 
bear, ( Ursus Americanus,) which lias a reddish 
fur, varying also considerably iu different indi- 
viduals, but generally of a cinnamon color. 
It is, besides, usually more slender than the 
common black bear, but otherwise has the same 
habits and characteristics. Baird describes the 
fur of a specimen from Oregon as longer and 
softer than that of the black bear, and says that 
the color is of a nearly uniform dark chestnut 
or cinnamon hue, with a purple reflection in 
certain lights. 
The Use of the Plow in Draining. 
After such a season as we have just expe- 
rienced — wet in one section, and dry in another 
— farmers consider thorough draining, to see if 
the claims of its advocates are really true, and if 
the distressed tillers both of wet and dry soils 
may not find in it a panacea for their troubles. 
We encounter one stubborn fact at the outset, 
namely, that draining is expensive, even if we 
put the drains barely below the reach of frost 
and the plow. Next, we are forced upon an- 
other fact, which no sophistry can budge, and 
that is, that the most expensive draining is shal- 
low draining. As we make up our minds to do 
deep draining, the fact is turned up with each 
spadeful of earth, which, if we heed it, teaches 
that thoroughness and cheapness in the long 
run are identical. That is, reasonable expense 
for thoroughness' sake is the strictest economy. 
Referring our readers to arguments in favor 
of deep laid tile drains, in former numbers of 
the American Agriculturist, and the works on 
Drainage in our book list, we discuss now the 
cheapest way of placing a course of drain tiles, 
four feet deep on an average, in an ordinary 
soil. Every farmer who wants to dig a ditch, 
thinks of his plows, for they will turn out the 
soil ten inches deep with comparative ease. If 
a man is to have a ditch four feet deep dug with 
spades, he ought to try to move as little earth 
as possible, and as sixteen inches has been 
found about the least width that a man can 
work in, he should try to have his ditch no 
wider. If he -can use plows to facilitate his 
work, he need not be so particular about this, 
although a narrow ditch — the narrowest pos- 
sible — is best under all circumstances. 
We prefer to use, to cut the sod, a plow that 
will cut eight inches, and lay the slice over true 
and flat. Then we take a stout slick, like a 
short bean pole, as long as the plow beam, lash 
one end to the beam at the nigh handle, brace 
the other end out sixteen inches from the land- 
side of the beam, and attach a short chain to this 
end. The brace is a half-inch strip, three inches 
wide, made fast by the clevis bolt, and, if neces- 
sary, a big iron washer. In plowing, the team 
is driven so that the chain will drag along the 
edge of the first furrow, and aids the judgment 
of the plowanan materially in determining the 
width of the slice. Men must follow and throw 
the sods out. The trench will now take a plow 
of the largest size, and it should be drawn by 
two yokes of oxen, or two pairs of horses, work- 
ing so as to tread neither in the trench nor on 
the sod near the edge. This is accomplished 
iu either of two ways. Each team may draw 
independently, one upon each side of the ditch, 
being attached to the plow by a log-chain, and 
the chains being braced apart, so that the draft 
shall be reasonably true, that is, parallel to the 
line of draft. The other way is to work the 
oxen upon ten-foot yokes, and the horses of 
each pair upon long eveners, they being driven 
by outside reins only, and the heads of each 
pair being held apart by a stick. 
The large plow may be run iu the ditch two, 
three, or four times, according to the soil, or it 
may be best to use a smaller one, and as com- 
paratively little earth can be thrown out by the 
plow, men must follow, and shovel as fast as 
the soil is loosened. After the loose earth is 
removed to the depth of twelve to eighteen 
inches, according to its character, a sub soil 
plow will be found of more service than a sur- 
face plow. With this, we can work down, little 
by little, into the hard pan. So large a force of 
hands is not needed when the sub soil plow is 
used, for the earth broken up by this plow does 
not interfere with its deeper working as is the 
case when a surface plow is used. The success- 
ful employment of the sub soil plow is limited 
both by the difficulty of plowing in very hard 
ground with the plow two or three feet below 
the team, and in the handles interfering with the 
sides of the ditch. There are, however, plows 
constructed to run deep enough to be of very 
essential service to a depth of about three feet. 
This use of the power of animals greatly less- 
ens the expense of digging the ditches, and va- 
rious forms of scrapers expedite the filling, so 
that, after a little experience, the formidable 
difficulties which at first may appear as insur- 
mountable obstacles to a poor man's doing much 
thorough draining, disappear, especially when 
we consider that a moderate outlay of money or 
labor, expended with discretion, almost imme- 
diately begins to make large returns, fifty per 
cent, per annum being not uncommon. 
Earth Closets vs. Water Closets. 
The manure wastes of civilization are vastty 
greater than those of savage or nomadic life. 
Even on most farms we lose more or less ashes, 
bones, and other valuable fertilizers. Much of 
value escapes from the fermenting manure 
heaps, much is washed away, while four-fifths 
of all human soil and liquid is lost ; and we 
think if we were to say nine-tenths, we should 
be nearer the truth. In the cities almost the 
whole is virtually lost, and were the system of 
water closets, now so much in vogue, to extend, 
all would be washed out to sea. Among sav- 
ages and wandering tribes, the wastes are left 
upon the surface of the ground, or slightly bur- 
ied, and so the earth is not robbed to benefit 
the ocean. The manurial value of the sewage 
of cities, which is emptied into the rivers and 
flows out to sea, consists chiefly in the urine and 
soil of the inhabitants. A great reform has 
been commenced in England in regard to this 
subject, and the long known deodorizing and 
purifying effects of dry earth are systematically 
applied not only to rendering human excre- 
ments inoffensive, but at the same time pre- 
serving them for manure, in a form which may 
be economically transported many miles. This 
principle has been already explained iu the 
Agriculturist, but the w r ay of operating the 
" earth closets " was not described, the closets 
being a source of profit to somebody, and 
hence involved in a little nystery. 
A Sewage Congress has lately been held at 
Leamington, Eng., and at this meeting a paper 
was read by a Mr. James, in regard to some sim- 
ple closets which have been introduced upon 
the estate of the Jewish banker, Baron Roths- 
child, at Halton. These consist of simple boxes 
or shallow, tight vaults, which receive the soil 
and liquid of the family, and into which, at 
evening, enough thoroughly dried earth is 
thrown to cover all, being about a pound and 
a half per day to each adult. This quantity is 
found to be sufficient to deodorize the soil and 
absorb the liquid. The accumulations, when 
these boxes and vaults become full, are dried in 
the sun without any unpleasant odor, and when 
dried and pulverized, may be used again and 
again, the substance becoming a more concen- 
trated form of manure with each repetition. 
The author of the paper alludes to the natural 
instincts of animals, cats for example, and to 
the instructions of the great Jewish lawgiver to 
his people, (Deut. xxiii, 12 and 13,) as both pre- 
cept and example in favor of using dry earth in 
this way. The advantages claimed are, increased 
cleanliness, freedom from bad odors, that the 
waters of wells are not contaminated by privy 
vaults in the vicinity, that brooks and rivers are 
not rendered too impure for valuable fish to 
frequent them, that the closets may even be in 
the house, without offence, and the saving of 
great quantities of valuable manure. 
These seem to be strong and rather startling 
propositions, but the writer is able to cite his 
own experience during the heat and wet of the 
past summer, to corroborate many of the claims 
of the advocates of earth closets iu England. 
A privy was built with a simple draw of 2 inch 
planks, w r ell put together, and on runners set 
beneath the seats, and the deposits kept con- 
stantly covered with sun-dried and sifted garden 
soil, which entirety suppresses all odors. We 
have not thought it necessary to re-dry the 
earth, as fresh soil must be more easily prepared ; 
besides, fresh earth is a more agreeable sub- 
stance to handle, if one is inclined to humor his 
prejudices, as most of us are. We secure in this 
way a rich and concentrated manure, though 
proportionally more bulky than if passed sev- 
eral times through the closet. This manure is 
free from weed seeds of course, and may be ap- 
plied immediately, or, if desired, dried and kept 
under cover a long time. 
Improvement of Land by Grazing. 
» — 
If the soil can have all its crops returned to 
it in kind, or in the shape of manure made 
from feeding them to animals upon it, it will 
constantly improve. A worn-out soil left to 
grow up to forest will recover its fertility in due 
time. Cow pastures decline in productiveness 
because the cows are usually yarded at night, 
and a large part of the manure, as well as milk 
and calves, is removed from the soil. It is 
different with the grazing of beeves or of fatten- 
ing sheep. Where the object is to make beef 
for market, bullocks of three or four years of 
age are bought in the spring in good condition, 
and turned into the pasture as soon as the grass 
is sufficiently grown to support them, and are 
sold off in the fall. It is considered a matter of 
great importance by graziers that the pasture 
should be large, and should have only so many 
cattle as it can carry through the season. It 
has been found in experience that the changing 
of beeves from one pasture to another has a bad 
influence upon them. They become restless 
aud lose flesh. Iu many districts where ground 
piaster does well, it is sown at the rate of a 
bushel or two to the acre every spring. Even 
in this small quantity the effect is often aston- 
ishing, bringing in white clover, and on pastures 
where it has not been applied before, it will 
sometimes increase the feed four-fold. With 
this cheap dressing and grazing beeves, many 
run down farms have been brought up to a high 
degree of productiveness. Some boast that 
