478 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
The lluck ;m<l l*es»t Supply. 
With many farmers, peat or muck is the cheap¬ 
est and best addition they can make to home¬ 
made manures. We have tried these for many 
years, even within a short distance of tide water, 
and the wrack of the sea shore, and found them 
always a paying investment. The fall when the 
swamp or peat bog is comparatively dry, is usually 
the best season to get out a year’s supply. Dig it 
in broad trenches, six or eight feet wide, and go 
down at least six feet if there is that depth of 
muck. In this way, you can work with little trou¬ 
ble from the water, below the water level in the 
bog. Thrown out upon the bank, the material 
will soon become dry, and will be improving under 
the action of the frosts, and the atmosphere, all 
through the winter. Six inches of dry peat cov¬ 
ered with leaves, or litter of any kind, makes ex¬ 
cellent bedding in a stall, and when mixed with 
the urine and dumping of the cattle produces a val¬ 
uable fertilizer. The success of a farmer is gener¬ 
ally measured by the length, breadth, and bight 
of his compost heaps. Study the arithmetic of 
your muck and peat beds, aud work out the salva¬ 
tion of your soil. 
The ISool Harvest. 
A large part of the work of harvesting of the 
root crop is done this mouth. Potatoes are not 
roots, but are often, and quite naturally, classed 
with them. They should be dug so soon as growth 
Fig. 1.— A SERIES OF FOTATO BINS. 
is completed, and ought to be in winter quarters 
before the middle of the month, and in most sec¬ 
tions much earlier than this. The rot, which has 
been so destructive some seasons, is favored by 
the tubers remaining in the soil, especially if the 
weather is wet and the ground is much soaked by 
water. Store the potatoes in bins (fig. 1) in a dry, 
cool cellar, with ample ventilation. They may be put 
in pits in a dry place in the field, and covered with 
straw, boards, and enough earth to keep the tubers 
from freezing. If there are any rotten pota¬ 
toes at digging time, they should be thrown in the 
burn heap and destroyed, to prevent the spread of 
the rot fungus. Those that are only slightly af- 
Fig. 3.— CROSS-SECTION OF ROOT CELLAR. 
fected should also be removed and fed to farm 
6tock. If a decaying potato remains in the bin or 
pit, it will communicate the rot to others, and may 
do much damage. Beets aud mangels should be 
harvested so soon as the growth is finished, or the 
leaves have wilted from the action of the frosts. 
These roots will bear only slight frosts without in¬ 
jury. Much of the labor of digging may be done 
by a horse and plow. Run a furrow with a com¬ 
mon plow close to one side bf a row, and after¬ 
wards pass a subsoil plow near the other side 
when the roots are loosened and can be quickly 
removed from the soil. The method of pitting 
roots has been considered on page 488. A more 
substantial structure for keeping roots and other 
Fig. 3.— LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF ROOT CELLAR. 
like products is shown in the accompanying en¬ 
gravings. Figure 3 shows a cross section of a field 
root cellar dug in dry ground. The excavation is 
5 feet deep, 8 feet wide, and 10 feet longer than it 
is desired to have the cellar. One-half foot below 
the surface cut a place, g, g , to form an oblique 
support for boards 8 inches wide. Rafters,/,/, 5 
feet long, are set in pairs upon these boards every 
3 feet the whole length of the cellar. The roof is 
covered 13 to 18 inches with earth, and sodded, 
with a gutter provided at each side, h, h, for the 
removal of water. The ends are closed with 
double boarding, filled with sawdust, and provided 
with doors. Openings over the doors, supplied 
with movable shutters, give the necessary ventila¬ 
tion. A longitudinal section of the root cellar is 
ehown in figure 3 ; a is the approach ; 6, steps ; c, 
body of the cellar; d, the board roof ; e, the earth 
covering ; f, rafters. In light sandy soils it will be 
necessary to wall up the sides with stone or posts 
and boards. Such a cellar will last for many 
years, and be thoroughly frost-proof. If 30 feet 
long, and of the other dimensions given above, 
it will hold about 700 bushels of roots. 
A Great Step Forward. 
Our October number, with its great improvements 
in every direction, will give our subscribers some 
idea as to what the American Agriculturist is to be 
in the future. We are determined not only to 
make each number as good as the last, but still 
better. No expense will be spared in securing the 
very best journalistic and artistic talent to be had. 
Every day we are asked “ flow can you furnish so 
much original matter and so many beautiful en¬ 
gravings for the small sum of $1.50, when other 
magazines cost $4.00 a year.” We ask you to 
direct the attention of your friends and neighbors 
to the merits of this Journal. If any of them 
would like a copy with a view to canvassing for 
subscriptions, please forward us their names. 
Fio-veiiitoer ^otes on Farm Stoclc. 
• 
Horses, with their winter coats, sweat easily. 
When brought in warm, they should be rubbed dry 
and blanketed for an hour. Work horses should 
not be blanketed in the stable, but carriage horses, 
or those used only upon the road, may be kept 
warmly blanketed, for though by this they become 
more sensitive to cold, and must have more care, 
yet their coat does not grow so close and long, and 
they are much less likely to sweat when driven. 
Ground or crushed oats go farther, are better di¬ 
gested, and mix better with other feed than whole 
ones. They are the best winter feed for horses, 
but may be mixed with corn or barley meal or 
wheat-bran and middlings for work horses to ad¬ 
vantage. Whole grain is not fed without waste. 
Beeves .—In feeding for beef, the notions of 
each animal should be consulted—his preferences, 
likes, and dislikes. The object of feeding usually 
is to get the animal to eat all that he will digest 
well. Hence a variety should always be at hand, 
and the ration should be varied by feeding cooked, 
soaked, or dry meal, as the case may be, with hay 
and roots. Take great care not to over-feed, and 
in case of over-feeding, let starvation be the cure. 
Thus the animal will soon take to feeding again, 
but will be less likely to fall off much in flesh, than 
if “physicked.”—Nature is the best physician. 
Cows in milk need roots, pumpkins, or similar 
food, to make up for the lack of grass. Where 
silos are used, a moderate quantity of ensilage, if 
of good quality, is the best substitute for grass we 
can have in cold weather. 
Sheep should have airy, well-littered sheds, with 
plenty of sunshine, and protected from snow. One 
great advantage of keeping sheep is to convert 
straw into manure. Hence much litter is usually 
strewn in sheep sheds, to the distress of the sheep, 
unless they have hard places to lie upon, because 
tbeir feet and legs get so hot. A few platforms, 
like old doors, which can be shifted about every 
few days by turning over, will be greatly enjoyed, 
and will promote both health and comfort. 
Swine .—Push fattening hogs forward as rapidly 
as possible. Keep them warm and cleanly. Char¬ 
coal broken fine and mixed with the cooked feed, 
is an excellent regulator and tonic, aiding digestion, 
and promoting fattening to such an extent that it 
is hard to believe it does not serve as food. 
Propagating: toy Itoot-Ciiltings. 
There are but few perennial plants that may not 
be propagated by cuttings of some sort. With the 
majority, cuttings of the stems, if properly treat¬ 
ed, will produce roots and form new plants. A 
few, notably some Begonias, the Gloxinias and 
others, are most readily propagated from the 
leaves, which are treated as cuttings. Still other 
plants are multiplied by cuttiDgs of the roots. 
The use of root cuttings, to judge from their 
works on propagation, is much less common with 
European nurserymen than with our own, who 
employ this method for Raspberries and Blackber¬ 
ries almost exclusively. Unlike the stems, roots 
do not have regular buds, but they can, under 
proper conditions, be made to produce them. 
Hence, in making root-cuttings, we must give them 
the needed time, and place them under conditions 
favorable to the formation of these unusual, or 
“ adventitious buds,” as they are termed. As a 
rule, the cuttings should be made in autumn, and 
if properly kept during the winter, they will be 
ready to plant in the open ground by spring. The 
method with the Blackberry and Raspberry will 
illustrate this kind of propagation. When the 
season of growth is over, and before the ground 
freezes, the plants are taken up and their roots 
made into cuttings. Sometimes the larger roots 
are cut off with a sharp spade and taken up, leav¬ 
ing the plant in place. The roots of the size of a 
lead pencil and smaller, are cut into lengths of 
two or three inches. These are then stratified 
with earth in boxes. Any common box will an¬ 
swer, as it need not be tight. Bore several inch 
holes in the bottom, and place over these a layer 
of straw. Put in an inch or two of earth, a layer 
of root-cuttings ; cover these with a layer of earth, 
and so alternating until the box is full. Nail on 
the cover, and bury the box in a well-drained 
place, so covering it with earth that it will not 
freeze. Another method is, to place the root- 
cuttings in alternate layers with damp Sphagnum 
Moss, and keep the box in a cool cellar. In spring 
the pieces of root will be found to have formed 
fibrous roots and one or more buds or shoots, and 
are ready to be planted in the open ground, where, 
by the end of the season, they will make strong 
plants. This method of propagation has a much 
wider application than is generally supposed, and 
may be tried with all plants of which the stems 
do not root readily, with fair prospect of success. 
Some plants grow so readily from root-cuttings 
that this previous preparation is not required. 
This is the case with those trees and shrubs which 
