1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRTCULTQ1UST. 
341 
bit, and not by the neck, as my friend found when 
he tried him under the saddle. When I took occa¬ 
sion to mount, for curiosity, I tried the neck pres¬ 
sure, and the throwing of the end of the reins 
over to strike on one or the other shoulder, which 
usually accompanies the movement of pressing the 
Fig. 1.— SECTION OF DAM. 
neck with the rein, and was pleasantly surprised to 
find that the horse so quickly took the idea, that it 
was clear that previous training was thus brought 
to mind. He proved well trained to this practice, 
and it would be very easy to teach him to guide by 
knee or stirrup pressure without the use of the rein 
at all. This, every saddle-horse ought to know, and 
it requires but a little patience to teach them. 
Ladies’ saddle-horses ought always to guide by the 
neck. It gives the rider so much more ease and 
freedom than if the horse must always feel any con¬ 
siderable pressure on the bit. I do not hold myself 
up as a good rider, but I enjoy riding highly, and it 
certainly would lose half its charm if I felt obliged 
to keep a tight rein all the time. I want to give 
the horse his head most of the time, and to be 
able, to trust him to not do anything foolish. Then 
an almost unconscious motion to the right or to the 
left, of the hand holding the reins, bringing the 
opposite rein against the horse’s neck with a very 
gentle pressure, must turn him in the direction indi¬ 
cated. This is the way we used to ride, when boys, 
bare-back, and with only a halter, the end being 
sometimes passed around the horse’s neck and tied 
in the ring, but oftener not. One has always the 
bit as a final resource, and it is always used to stop. 
A Dam for a Fish Pond. 
In making a fish pond, by placing a dam across a 
stream, it should be borne in mind that success 
depends upon the proper construction of the dam, 
whether it be large or small. Any defect here, will 
make the whole useless. The main point in the 
construction of a dam is, to have a complete union 
Fig. 2.— STAKES AND BRUSH. 
between the earth of the bed, and that of the dam. 
This cannot be done by throwing the earth upon 
an old surface. A new surface must be made solid 
and firm, to receive the new earth. In addition, 
there should be a central core of some strong ma¬ 
terial, that will serve to strengthen and bind the 
new construction. In making a dam or embark- 
ment to retain or exclude water, the beginning 
should be to dig a shallow ditch, removing sod or 
uneven ground, or if the earth is bare, to disturb it 
thoroughly with the pick, so as to provide binding- 
material to unite with the bottom of the dam. The 
ground is prepared as shown at figure 1. The dotted 
line is the original surface line ; the hollow repre¬ 
sents the portion of the surface removed, the per¬ 
pendicular line in the center of the embankment, 
shows the position of a line of stakes driven into 
the ground, and filled with brush woven in, or wat¬ 
tled as in fig. 2 ; the dark outline, in fig. 1, represents 
the dam on one side, and the excavation on the 
other, from which the earth has been taken. In 
building the dam, all the sods and vegetable matter 
should be placed on the outside, where these will 
root, and bind the surface together ; the rest of the 
earth should be well trodden, or rammed down 
firmly, and if the soil is puddled by admixture of 
water in the process of ramming, the work will be 
better for it. The water-way in the stream should 
be tightly boarded or planked. Three posts may 
be driven or set on each bank of the stream, 
and boards nailed, or planks spiked for a larger 
structure, so as to retain the earth of the embank¬ 
ments on each side, figure 3. A timber is fitted as 
a mud-sill, to the front and rear posts, and one to 
the central posts; the latter at such a bight, as 
will raise the water to the desired depth. The 
spaces between these timbers are boarded and 
planked, and may be filled in with earth, well 
rammed, and mixed with straw and fine cedar 
brush, under the covering. If it is desired to raise 
the water to a greater depth, loose flash-boards may 
be fitted with cleats, on the center of the waste-way, 
or a wire-gauze fence may be placed there, to pre¬ 
vent the escape of the fish. If freshets are apt to 
occur, a sufficient number of these waste-ways 
should be provided, to carry off the surplus water, 
and prevent overflowing, and wasting of the dam. 
Fig. 3. -WASTE-GATE FOR POND. 
The dam of a fish pond should always be made high 
enough for safety against overflow, and to guard 
against percolation, and washing away by under¬ 
mining, it should be made three times as wide as 
it is high, with slopes of one and a half foot 
horizontal on each side, to one foot in perpendicu¬ 
lar higlit. If any plants are set upon a dam or 
embankment, they should be of a small, bushy 
growth, such as osier willow, elders, etc., but noth¬ 
ing larger, lest the swaying caused by high winds 
should loosen and destroy the bank. 
Sowing, and Cultivating Wheat. 
The Hessian fly seems to have done but compara¬ 
tively little injury to wheat the present season. If, 
as may be supposed, this pest lias succumed to its 
natural enemies, and to the measures which have 
been taken to repress it, and we are to be relieved 
from its presence for another period of years, it may 
be well to return to the practice of early sowing. 
Early sown grain, both wheat and rye, have far ex¬ 
ceeded the later grown, in yield and quality. The 
latter part of August, is not too early to sow. 
This gives the plant abundant time to tiller, and 
spread over the ground, and there is far greater 
danger that a thin stand maybe winterkilled, than 
that a thick growth may be smothered by deep 
snows. Wheat, or rye, sown in August, may be 
thinly seeded. One bushel 
per acre, is sufficient upon 
well prepared ground; 
and it will be worth while 
to try an acre or two, sown 
in wide rows, at least 16 
inches apart, for the pur¬ 
pose of testing the utility 
of cultivating them. As 
it may be considered a risk 
to purchase a costly im¬ 
plement, especially for 
cultivating wheat, before 
the practice lias been test¬ 
ed and approved, we sug¬ 
gest the use of a home¬ 
made cultivator, similar 
to that shown in the ac¬ 
companying engravings. 
A frame may be made of 
the form shown at figure 
1, of li-inch liard-wood 
plank, put together with 31-inch carriage bolts. 
Those who have disk harrows, may fix a disk in 
the center, and one at each side. Otherwise a 
wheel may be fixed in the front of the longitudinal 
bar, for the puipose of steadying the cultivator, 
and either common harrow teeth, small shovel 
Fig. 2.— WHEAT CULTIVATOR. 
plows, or cultivator teeth, whichever may be at 
hand, can be used. A tool of this kind may be 
constructed in a few hours, which will serve to test 
the value of the practice of cultivating wheat. To 
sow the seed for this purpose, a drill with 8 inch 
spaces should be used, and each alternate spout 
should be plugged up, or stopped in some manner. 
In the absence of a grain drill, an experimental 
piece of wheat may be sown, without much diffi¬ 
culty, by the use of a garden seed drill, properly 
arranged for the work. The cultivation of the 
wheat should begin as soon as the rows are dis¬ 
tinctly visible, and it should be repeated twice be¬ 
fore the ground freezes, and at least once in the 
spring, as soon as the soil is in good condition for 
the work. It is safe to expect the yield to be 
doubled ; at least half the seed is saved, and the 
ground is cleaned of weeds. If grass seed is to be 
sown, that should be done after the spring cultiva¬ 
tion, when it will be most likely to succeed. The 
completed cultivator is shown at figure 2. 
A Method of Using a Roller. 
-- 
The engraving shows a method of bitching to a 
roller, which is recommended as preferable to using 
a tongue. When uneven ground is rolled, the 
roller falling into hollows, causes the tongue to 
work back and forth, sometimes so violently, as to 
strike and injure the horses. This trouble is a- 
voided, by use of the chain and hooks. This method 
is much cheaper than the tongue, which requires a 
strong, and comparatively costly frame. Each 
horse is hitched to the chain separately, but neither 
can take more or less than his share of the work, 
without drawing the roller out of line, and show¬ 
ing the irregularity; so that the objection which 
might occur at first sight, is really without force. 
The driver will be obliged to keep the horses work¬ 
ing equally, to cause the roller to move in a straight 
A CHEAP CLOD ROLLER. 
line. The roller here shown, consists of a white- 
oak log, 7 feet long and 26 inches in diameter. An 
iron "pin, with a large head, is driven into each end, 
the draft chain is hooked to each pin, and, as shown 
in the engraving, an iron bar spreads the chain. 
Which Is the Most Prolific Corn ?—It is a 
question worth considering in what direction we 
shall “breed” our seed corn. Whether it is better 
to encourage a growth of one large ear upon each 
monstrous coarse stalk, or aim at getting two or 
more smaller ears, upon a medium sized stalk, one 
which may be used for fodder, and thus allow the 
whole plant to be utilized. In the West, the aim is 
to have one large ear, of which 100 will produce a 
bushel of shelled com at least. In the East, some 
corn growers are striving to “breed ” a corn which 
