216 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
and thinned out the plants to 18 inches distant in 
the rows. But many farmers thought it better to 
have the rows two feet apart, and thin out to 12 
inches in the rows. The roots are smaller, hut they 
think they are more nutritious. In the former case 
you have 11,616 turnips on an acre, and in the lat¬ 
ter 21,780 turnips on an acre. If the former aver¬ 
aged 5 lbs. each, which is not by any means a large 
turnip, there would be 29 tons per acre ; and in the 
latter case, if the bulbs weighed 2 lbs. each, there 
would be 211 tons per acre. And it is thought that 
20 tons of the small roots contain more nutriment 
than 30 tons of the large.” 
“ In this country we are not at all likely to thin 
out too much. The prevailing error is in the other 
direction. It seems such a pity to cut out a dozen 
nice plants and leave only one, that I have hard 
work to persuade my men, when hoeing by the day, 
to use the hoe boldly. If hoeing by the acre, they 
would soon learn to thin out severely.” 
“Do you mean to say,” said the Squire, “that 
you would leave only one plant to each 15 or 18 in.” 
“ That is exactly it; or if you do not want large 
roots, leave one at every 10 or 12 inches. For later 
use, or if sown late, it is perhaps better to thin out 
to 10 inches apart I once sowed Swede turnips as 
late as the 4th of July, and had a good crop, and of 
splendid quality for the table. For feeding to 
stock, it is, of course, better to sow earlier—as early 
In June as you may be able to get the land ready.” 
—--— 
plan of a granary; figure 1 shows the mode of 
constructing the bins. The posts ( B , B,) have 
grooves, into which the boards are slipped as the 
bins are filled, and they can be removed when not 
needed. The boards 
should be numbered, 
that they may always 
be properly placed. 
Portable steps (E ) are 
very convenient when 
the bins are deep. 
Brush Harrows are 
cheap and useful for 
many purposes, such as 
leveling the surface of 
fields newly planted 
with corn, or potatoes ; 
for mellowing the soil 
when it is crusted,and 
for covering light seeds. 
Figure 3 shows a very 
simple one, made of 
a scantling (or a round pole) 9 feet long. Holes 
are bored 6 inches apart; small branches are 
inserted into these, and wedged tightly. Another 
method, seen in figure 4, is to place the brush be¬ 
tween two planks, which are afterwards drawn 
closely together with screw bolts. If it is desira¬ 
ble, a farmer may make a riding harro «v by fasten¬ 
ing bundles of brush to a long axie by means of 
wire, and affixing a seat to the axle (figure 5). 
Hauling Manure. —In Western New fork,where 
some farmers haul out several hundred loads of 
. 1.—ARRANGEMENT OF BINS IN GRANARY. 
Hints and Helps for Farmers. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
Grain Bins. —“Without proper bins for grain, 
much that is hard earned in the field is easily 
wasted in the 
barn. The floor 
of a granary 
should be of 
doublehemlock 
boards one inch 
in thickness, 
dressed and 
tongued - and - 
grooved. Some¬ 
times it may be 
desirable to lay 
a floor of plank, 
and cover this with a layer of hydraulic-lime cement 
three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Either of 
r~ 
6*4 
4 *4 
4x4 
4 * 4 - | 
ALLEY 
4 * 12 - 
6 * 4 - 
4 x 4 
4 x4 
4x4 | 
Fig. 2.—-FLAN OF GRANARY. 
Fig. 3.— SIMPLE BRUSH HARROW. 
'these floors will be rat-proof. There should be a 
window in every granary, with fine wire gauze shades 
to exclude weevils and grain moths. Figure 2 is q 
manure, the following plan is adopted. Two or 
three wagons are used, one being left in the yard 
to be loaded, while the other is drawn to the field 
and unloaded. Thus it is necessary that the un¬ 
loading be done quickly. For this, the box is re¬ 
moved, and bottom planks (Tt 7 ^ fig. 6,) with side¬ 
boards a foot wide, are provided, upon which cleats 
( T ., T,) are nailed near each end to prevent splitting 
A notch is cut out, as at A, that the board may be 
easily lifted from the wagon, as is shown in the 
engraving. With this arrangement of the wagon, 
one person can unload the manure, by removing 
the side-boards and pulling or pushing the load 
oil in heaps upon each side with a manure hook. 
Staking a Rail Fence. —To stake a worm rail 
fence, proceed as follows: When the foundation is 
laid, and the fence is three rails high, stakes are to 
be driven in the angles close to the rails, and then 
fastened with a piece of annealed wire, as shown at 
figure 7. A few more rails are laid, and the stakes 
are again tied ; and to finish the job, a wire should 
be fastened above the top rail. In figure 8, 
the stakes are set and wired as the fence is built. 
An English Milk Farm. 
In the management of a milk dairy, the profit is 
made up of a number of very small items. A few 
of these small matters are sufficient to cast the bal¬ 
ance upon the side of loss, instead of that of profit. 
It is, therefore, important that every detail in the 
work of a milk farm should be carefully scrutinized. 
Only one-tenth of a cent per pound in the cost of 
the milk, in a year, amounts to three or four dollars 
per cow, and a loss or gain of one quart per cow, per 
day, will amouut to ten dollars in the year. The 
objects to be gained in a milk dairy are: to keep the 
expenses as low as may be, and to increase the pro¬ 
duct as much as possible. Every thing tending to 
secure these objects, is valuable to the dairy farmer. 
There are few farms from the management of which 
we can learn so much as from some of the best 
conducted English milk farms. Generally the best 
milk farms in America are managed very much up¬ 
on the same system, 
because there is no 
secret in selecting tire 
best cows, or in 
choosing the best 
milk-producing food, 
but we do not make 
so much use of roots 
and oil-cakes as do 
the English farmers, 
and these are the 
cheapest and best 
milk producers. An 
outline of the man¬ 
agement of an Eng¬ 
lish dairy, which is 
of great interest, is 
given in the “ Lon¬ 
don Live Stock Jour¬ 
nal Almanac.” This 
farm is in South Derbyshire, a limestone country, 
in which the grass forms the best and most nutri¬ 
tious pasture in the world, and with which none of 
our pastures can bear comparison. With this ex¬ 
ception there is nothing in the system of which we 
can not avail ourselves if we wish. The cows are 
nearly all purchased when fresh, and sold off for 
fattening when failing in milk, but are not fattened 
on the farm. No calves are reared, except a few 
bred from the best milkers. The cows are well fed 
the year round, to keep up a regular and maximum 
supply of milk. In summer the feed is pasture, in 
the fall, the aftermath is fed, along with cabbages, 
until winter feeding begins. This consists of hay, 
brewer’s grains, roots, cut straw, and 5 or 6 pounds 
of oil-cake,or corn-meal, 
per day. The roots 
(Swedes and Mangels) 
are pulped and mixed 
with the grains and the 
chaffed straw ; 8 cents 
a bushel is paid for 
brewer’s grains. Tares 
are 6cwn in May for 
soiling, and if the grass 
is abundant, these are 
not fed, but are cured 
for winter feed. A 
large portion of the 
farm is arable, and 
only 40 cows are kept 
on the 300 acres. A large quantity of pur¬ 
chased food is used, but, as may be expected, very 
little of fertilizers is purchased. The advantage, 
upon milk farms, of this system of using artificial 
Fig. 7 .—wiring a fence. 
