348 
PREPARE TOUR WHEAT FOR WINTER. 
PREPARE YOUR WHEAT FOR WINTER. 
A vast portion of winter-killed wheat comes 
in consequence of wanton neglect of the plain- 
est dictates of common sense, while putting in 
the seed. Thousands of acres are sown every 
year upon hollow places in the field, which, 
although the richest spots, are covered with a 
pool of water whenever a heavy rain falls. 
Without offering our own opinions or stop- 
ping to discuss the mooted question, whether 
wheat will produce chess or not, we can safely 
say that all such spots in the wheat field will 
be much more likely to produce it than the 
adjoining ground that is free from standing 
water ; and that spots are often to be seen at 
harvest, covered with this worthless grain, 
where a single furrow, or fifteen minutes' labor, 
would have opened a drain and kept the soil 
dry, and given the owner several bushels of 
sound wheat for such a very small outlay of la- 
bor. 
It is a wanton waste of labor and seed to throw 
it away upon a flat clayey surface without turn- 
ing water furrows to carry off the winter rains 
as they fall. It is only upon* such neglected 
spots that the advocates of transmutation con- 
tend the change takes place. And as wheat is 
so much more valuable than chess, it is per- 
fectly surprising that any people will prepare 
the ground exactly right to produce the latter. 
So well do the wheat growers of Lower Virginia 
understand the benefits of drainage, that they 
sow aimost universally in beds, and in many 
places, these are only five feet wide ; that is, the 
wheat is sown upon beds of the same width as 
Indian corn is planted, and the advocates of 
narrow beds contend that they can make more 
wheat than those who sow upon nine or fifteen- 
foot beds. 
Until American farmers learn the great value 
of underdraining, we must constantly remind 
them of the necessity of keeping the surface 
dry by open ditches. To every one of our 
readers, therefore, who has an acre of wheat 
sown, we say most earnestly, go at once and 
examine whether any little pools of water stand 
after a shower, and if so, take steps immediately 
to drain it off as fast as it falls, or you cannot 
expect to grow wheat, though you may grow 
chess or weeds. 
TO PREPARE ASPARAGUS BEDS. 
Select a rich spot exposed to the sun ; trench 
it four or five feet deep, and pulverise all the 
lumps of earth. If the earth were sifted, it 
would be all the better. Put six inches of good 
strong manure at the bottom, and on it a layer 
of thick grass sod ; then another layer of ma- 
nure, and afterwards, six inches of earth. Re- 
peat these layers, and put on top, twelve or 
eighteen inches of soil and fine manure, well 
mixed together. Make your beds about five 
feet wide and set the roots out in the com- 
mencement of garden work in the spring, about 
fifteen inches apart, placing the crown about an 
inch and a half below the surface, with a stick 
to mark the location of each root. 
The plants should be two years old when set, 
and in placing them, care should be observed 
to spread out the roots into a natural position. 
After the bed has settled, give the surface a 
dressing of white sand, and do not forget to put 
salt enough upon it every year to kill all the 
weeds. It will then yield an abundance for 
many years. 
EMPLOYMENT OF POORHOUSE CHILDREN. 
We have heretofore made repeated sugges- 
tions in our paper, of the practicability of prof- 
itably employing the children of poorhouses in 
agricultural labor. Nothing would more cer- 
tainly benefit them morally and physically. 
But in order properly to carry out this plan, it 
would be necessary to have eligibly-situated 
farms and gardens, with capable and trustwor- 
thy superintendents, to watch over and direct 
them. Children have a much greater capacity 
for profitable labor at an early age, than is 
generally attributed to them. They are full of 
activity, and yearn for employment ; in fact, 
employment of some kind is absolutely essen- 
tial to their health. 
If advantage is not taken of this desire for 
activity, and a right direction is not given to it,, 
then it will take a vicious, or at least, an idle 
course, and great waste, or incalculable injury 
is the result. Stimulate a child by giving him 
some little remuneration, and he will take as 
much delight in work as play. There never 
was a better field for a benevolent mind to op- 
erate in than that of obtaining agricultural em- 
ployment for the thousands of poor children, 
annually thrown upon our shores by foreign 
imigration; for of our own poor, thanks to the 
advantages bestowed upon America by a bene- 
ficent Providence, there are very few. 
California Mode of Constructing Dams. — 
The Californians now make their dams for 
turning the course of rivers, on a plan which 
the French engineers, who have emigrated there, 
have taught them. They fill bags made of dril- 
lings, about one yard square, with sand. This 
makes a good dam with a tenth part of the ex- 
pense and time of digging a race. It will prob- 
ably make an increased and continued demand 
upon drills, and thus help the manufacturers of 
this article which has been so long selling be- 
low the cost. — Exchange. 
The Importance of Leaves to Plants. — 
Leaves are the principal organs of nutrition, 
through the pores, (stomates,) of which they re- 
ceive a large proportion of their food. The 
number of absorbing pores upon a square inch, 
is shown in the following table, the chief part of 
which, it will be seen, are found on the under 
side of the leaf: — 
.. Upper Side. Under Side. 
Vine, None 13,600 
Rhubarb, 1,000 40,000 
Lilac, None 160.000 
Cherry laurel, None 90,000 
Misletoe, 200 200 
Olive, None 57,600 
Holly, None 63,600 
Clove pink, 38,500 38,500 
