1878 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
299 
life in his Sunday sermons, he is sure to make them 
more acceptable and effective, than when all com¬ 
posed of the text, precept, and theory of books. 
If not satisfied with the examples of success in 
this line among - his acquaintances, let the parson 
turn to his beloved tradition. Even the Head of 
the Christian Church taught by practical labor 
as well as by oral moral precept. The monks 
of the middle ages were the preservers of the 
best of agriculture of the earlier times for those 
who came after the dark ages had passed; in them 
was possessed all the farm lore of that day. And 
history tells us that for long years thereafter the 
clergy were the pioneers in agricultural progress. 
The spirit and thought of the people, and the 
needs of the calling for men of thought engaged in 
its work, open to the country minister an inviting 
field, and a promising harvest of increased influence. 
How to Kill Quack Grass. 
The writer has been engaged for two summers 
in eradicating this pest from fields of corn and po¬ 
tatoes, and the ground, until recently, was ap¬ 
parently as full of roots as when the work was be¬ 
gun. Ordinary cultivation does not seem to have 
any effect on it. We give 
in next column an illus¬ 
tration of the plant, by 
_ which it may be readily 
recognized. It will be 
observed that the grass 
has a long-running 
root-stalk, with roots 
springing from it at 
- very short intervals. 
6 Buds, one of which is 
seen at a, start from the root-stalk, so that if it 
be cut into small pieces, each bud will send up a 
shoot, and form a plant, which in turn will spread 
in the same manner. The spike (seen at the right) 
has its spikelets arranged as in wheat (Triticum 
vulgare), with the flat side towards the stem. 
Its manner of growth renders special treatment 
necessary to destroy it. Two methods may be 
used, in conjunction or separately : one is to em¬ 
ploy a cultivator with teeth, made as in fig. 2, 
having an edge of steel that can be ground sharp. 
This should be run about an inch deep, when 
it will cut off every shoot, leaving the root in¬ 
tact. If this is done frequently through the sea¬ 
son, our experience is that the roots die in time, 
their vitality being exhausted in the effort to throw 
up new buds. The other is to use a cultivator, or 
grubber, with teeth similar to those shown on page 
256 (July), fig. 6. This tears out the roots, when 
they may be gathered and burned. It is not safe 
to throw them aside, as they will sprout after the 
first rain, and send out new roots into the ground. 
Village Improvement. 
BY E. W. B. CANNING. 
The Laurel Hill Association, of Stockbridge, 
Berkshire Co., Mass. 
This Association had its beginning in the year 
1853, and was set on foot entirely by the efforts of 
one devoted lady—now Mrs. J. Z. Goodrich—whose 
personal and untiring labors to arouse the people 
resulted in an organization which has not only 
secured to the town incalculable benefits, but has 
become the inspirer and the model of similar asso¬ 
ciations in other States. [An account of a more 
recent effort of this kind was given in February.] 
After a thorough canvass of all portions of the 
town, by way of preparation, a meeting was held 
in August, which proved an enthusiastic success. 
Besides its own citizens, many sons of the town, 
settled elsewhere, were present, or responded 
by the proxy of a liberal subscription. All the 
preliminaries of a regular organization under the 
General Statutes of the State, were transacted. By 
its constitution membership was obtainable by an 
adult on the payment of §1, and of 25 cents by a 
child, or, on the part of the latter, by the planting 
•of a tree under direction ; and every child was en¬ 
couraged by this means to erect a memorial of him 
or herself, to bear thereafter the name of the planter. 
A remarkable knoll, where magnificent rocks are 
overhung by a forestry of oaks and pines, was 
purchased some years previously and presented to 
the village as a pleasure ground, by a public-spirited 
citizen. An abundant undergrowth of Laurels, 
suggested a name for the locality, and also the 
name of the Association. An aggregate of 
about $1,400 in cash and available subscriptions 
enabled it to commence operations with vigor. Its 
attention was primarily directed to improvements 
upon this hill; then extended to the village ceme¬ 
tery,, whose ruinous fence was replaced by a taste¬ 
ful structure of marble and iron, within which, a 
year or two later, was set a hedge of Norway 
Spruce. The latter is now kept about 15 feet in 
bight, and is a superb wall of perennial green. 
Within this enclosure walks and drives were con¬ 
structed, shrubbery and trees planted, leaning 
monuments set perpendicular, and provision made 
for repeated mowings. Then the streets of the 
village were taken in charge ; sidewalks straight¬ 
ened, trimmed, and gravelled ; crossings laid; gut¬ 
ters constructed with regard to thorough drainage, 
and shade-trees set along the sides of every street. 
Tear after year these improvements were pushed 
farther, and along the roads leading into the town, 
and the opportunity for pedestrian exercises great¬ 
ly enlarged. In undertakings involving more ex¬ 
pensive labor—such as grading and working the 
roads through and near the village—the Association 
has acted in concert with the municipal authorities, 
adding its own to the town’s appropriation, and 
thus securing a direction in the enterprise. The 
two have thus enjoyed mutual aid, to the invalua¬ 
ble advantage of both. 
The question is often asked us, Were there no 
opponents of this crusade of improvement?— 
Yes—but they were not numerous, and no long 
time was required to concilitate them entirely. It 
is not in human nature, when one puts his prem¬ 
ises in order and beautifies them with taste, for his 
next neighbor to endure for long the contrast sug¬ 
gested by the neglect and dilapidation on his own 
premises, and the chances are that he will not only 
not only fall in with the prevailing spirit, but be¬ 
come a formidable rival in betterments with the 
other. The little labor and trifling expense neces¬ 
sary to effect a change in his surroundings, of 
which,when made, he can not but be proud, ere long 
convert him from a brake to a spoke in the wheel 
of progress, particularly when he comes to find— 
as he will—that there is money in the operation. 
Once a year, in the month of August, our Asso¬ 
ciation holds its festival on Laurel Hill. A turf 
rostrum built against a huge overhanging cliff is 
the nucleus of operations. On that rural platform 
sit the officers and invited guests. Around and in 
front, beneath the shade of the oaks, on the level 
plat that once formed the Council-ground of the 
Housatonic Indians, stand or sit the town’s people ; 
the numerous summer sojourners and visitors from 
the neighboring towns, whom the occasion attracts, 
forming an appreciative audience, sometimes of 
several hundreds. After prayer (and often music 
also), the choice of officers, and the annual Report 
of the Executive Committee, an oration is pro¬ 
nounced—usually by some distinguished native of 
Stockbridge—which is supplemented by brief offer¬ 
ings in prose or verse, and extempore speeches from 
visitors. After some two hours of these pleasant 
exercises, the occasion is closed—at times with a 
dance by the young people on the verdant sod, to 
the music of the band. This is peculiarly the vil¬ 
lage festival, and tends to keep alive and transmit 
the influence of the institution to which so much 
pleasure and profit are due. In the course of its 
existence of 25 years, the records of the L. H. Asso¬ 
ciation show an expenditure of §6,692, with the 
following as some of the results: 
1. The acquisition by legacies of more than 
$4,000, most of which has been invested in public 
funds; the revenue from this, with the annual 
subscriptions, affords available means and secures 
the permanency of the Association. 
2. The setting of 1,686 trees, besides several 
hedges. These, from mere saplings have become 
magnificent specimens to afford a grateful shade 
and be the joy and pride of coming generations. 
3. Well ordered streets, sidewalks, gutters, and 
crossings, rendering locomotion convenient and 
agreeable at all seasons. 
4. A general tidying up of all the private dwell¬ 
ings and premises throughout the community, ren¬ 
dering ours, externally, the finest village in Western 
Massachusetts—the subject of admiration by all 
visitors and sojourners. 
5. The growing education of our people in the 
beautiful in nature, aided by art, tending to di¬ 
minish rudeness, and to the promotion of morality. 
6. An increased value of real estate of from 20 to 
100 per cent. Trees planted by the Association in 
its infancy in front of 6ome humble premises, have, 
on the acknowledgment of a later purchaser, added 
$500 or §1,000 to his offer therefor. Seldom is a 
larger income returned from so small an outlay. 
7. An example which has been copied by scores 
of communities that have obtained our constitu¬ 
tion as the foundation of similar organizations in 
distant localities. Such applications continue of 
frequent occurrence. 
Emasculate the Dog. 
With few exceptions, there is no place for the dog 
in agriculture. His ravages among the flocks in many 
places are an insurmountable bar to sheep keeping, 
rendering, as it does, so costly a watch over the 
sheep by night and day as to swallow up the profits. 
What can be done about it is not so clear. Those 
who wish to have dogs can hardly be prevented, and 
the impossibility of keeping the animals under con¬ 
trol is evident. So is also the difficulty of recover¬ 
ing compensation for damage where the law pro¬ 
vides for it, and the undesirableness of constant 
and costly litigation for this end, which is a poor 
remedy, even if successful. We gladly noticed in 
a recent article in the “Forest and Stream,” 
a suggestion, which seems to be practical and 
practicable. It is simply to bring these animals 
under the same control which is effective in 
restraining others, viz., to cause all male dogs, 
except those kept for breeding, to be emas¬ 
culated, and to suffer none others of this sex 
