1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
489 
A Cheap Potato Screen. 
Sorting potatoes by hand is tedious, and 
the adhesive earth remains. With a very sim¬ 
ple, cheap apparatus, shown in the engrav- 
A SCREEN FOR POTATOES. 
mg, the small potatoes are quickly separated 
from the larger ones, suitable for the mar¬ 
ket. It consists of a slatted trough, 5 or 6 
feet long, provided with legs or standards of 
proper length, to keep it so inclined that 
when potatoes are shovelled upon the screen, 
they will roll down. The slats may be of 
inch stuff, attached to the two bottom cleats— 
their centers inch apart, a little closer at 
the top, and a trifle further separated at the 
bottom, so that the potatoes may not become 
wedged in the spaces. A suitable width for 
the screen is 20 inches, with side boards 8 
inches high. When unloading potatoes from 
the wagon, place the screen at the side or 
rear, and shovel them directly upon it. Those 
of suitable size will run into the basket, 
while the smaller ones, with the earth, little 
stones, etc., will fall upon the ground or into 
any receptacle placed to receive them. 
A Mixture of Grasses. 
Our grass lands are often less productive 
than they might be if a larger number of 
species were grown together. By examining 
an old pasture or meadow sod, a variety of 
grasses and other plants will be found, all 
contesting for the possession of the land. 
Tins is the result of natural sowing, and in¬ 
dicates the utility of mixed seeding. It is 
well known that mixed crops are usually 
more productive than single ones. Thus an 
acre of peas and oats grown together will 
yield much more than a half acre of each 
sown singly. Ground seeded to timothy and 
clover will produce nearly twice as much as 
when either is grown by itself. The periods 
of greatest vigor in different grasses do not 
come at the same time, so that in mixed seed¬ 
ing there is a succession of herbage and a 
. continuous demand for the plant food made 
available from day to day. Thus a pasture 
sod composed of a mixture of orchard grass, 
timothy, Kentucky blue-grass, and red clo¬ 
ver, will be in good grazing condition from 
early spring until late autumn. The orchard 
grass makes a fine April pasture, and the 
blue-grass is at its full vigor in October, 
while the clover and timothy, in the order 
named, fill the gap between the early and late 
grasses. The American farmer has much to 
learn from the English, in the making of per¬ 
manent and profitable pastures. Some of the 
English catalogues of agricultural seeds offer 
no less than a score of different mixtures for 
seeding to grass on various soils, with the 
name and quantity of each sort to be used. 
Some lists contain 25 different kinds of 
grasses, clovers, and other forage plants. 
With us, the list is not often longer than tim¬ 
othy, red top, and clover, and more frequent¬ 
ly only a single sort is sown. A field thus 
seeded is kept in pasture or meadow for only 
a short term of years before it gets foul with 
weeds, or ceases to be profitable, when it is 
plowed up and sown to grain. We are in 
great need of good strong pastures that, with 
top-dressing from year to year, may be both 
permanent and profitable, and that may be 
depended upon to produce a good supply of 
herbage throughout the growing season. In 
such pastures there should be tall grasses, 
with those that will do well when over-shad- 
owed ; those that are early to start, and those 
that grow until the close of the season ; those 
for a wet season mixed with sorts that do 
well in a time of drouth. Here is a good 
field for the experimenters to find what mix¬ 
tures of grass are best for various soils at 
our various stations, localities, and climates. 
Deserted Homesteads. 
In the north-east quarter of a Connecticut 
town, not far from our residence, there are 
many deserted homesteads, dwelling houses 
with doors and windows gone, chimney 
stacks still standing, or partially fallen, gaunt 
cellar walls, where the Nettle and Blackberry 
flourish. There are yards, where the lilacs 
and lilies still bloom, and old apple and pear 
trees remind us of the culture and thrift that 
have vanished. These old homesteads are 
generally upon the hills, and in the stony 
portions of the town, where cultivation al¬ 
ways must have been difficult, and industry 
meagrely rewarded. They are usually pic¬ 
tures of desolation, where the rank growth 
of wood has not had time to obscure the old 
landmarks. This district is a type of very 
many of the agricultural towns of New Eng¬ 
land. The census shows a loss of population, 
but not probably a loss of productiveness or 
of wealth. The outlook for these towns is 
by no means so discouraging as would appear 
to the careless observer. They prove that a 
great change has come over our husbandry, 
and indicate possibly a still greater change 
in the future. The people who cultivated 
these homesteads, reared large families, and 
gained a comfortable subsistence upon them, 
all belonged to the age of home-spun, which 
closed nearly fifty years ago. The old spin¬ 
ning wheels and looms that lumber the gar¬ 
rets, and occasionally find their way into 
antiquarian exhibitions, are vivid remem¬ 
brances of this vanished age. Almost every 
thing the family consumed was raised and 
manufactured on the farm. The wearing ap¬ 
parel of men and women, the bed linen and 
the stockings, were spun, woven and knit by 
the mothers and daughters. The village hat¬ 
ter made'the hats, and was paid in the pro¬ 
ducts of the farm. A circulating cobbler 
made an annual visit, and furnished the 
shoes. Other mechanics were mainly paid 
in barter. Whatever else was needed of for¬ 
eign products at the country store—tea,coffee, 
sugar, pipes and tobacco—was paid for mainly 
in dairy products and eggs, and the wife was 
expected to keep this department clear of debt. 
There were few luxuries upon the tables, and 
few of the comforts that are now to be found 
in almost every thrifty farmer’s home. There 
was a lamentable dearth of books and papers, 
no pianos, parlor organs, or melodeons, and 
the furniture, still extant in some of these 
old homes, was of the plainest sort. There 
was very little money in circulation and the 
want of it was not seriously felt by people 
whose tastes were adjusted to their circum¬ 
stances. Farmers with modern tastes and 
education could not support their families on 
these rough acres, and for that reason have 
sold out, gone West, to the cities, or into 
other employments. The land has passed 
into the hands of neighboring farmers, who 
occupy farms more easily tilled. Some of it 
is used for pasture, but the larger part has 
gone, and is going more and more to wood, 
which is on the increase in nearly all these 
districts. The remaining farmers on the bet¬ 
ter land, have all the advantages of improved 
machinery to cultivate their crops, and gather 
their harvests, and the value of these crops, 
in almost every town, is greater than it was 1 
fifty or a hundred years ago. By the increase 
of the population and wealth in the neigh¬ 
boring cities and villages, the local markets 
have been vastly improved, and the farmer 
has a ready sale for every thing he can raise. 
Animal products sell at three and four times 
the prices they brought fifty years ago. The 
old homestead may have gone to forest and 
pasture, but the State has doubled its popu¬ 
lation, and tenfolded its wealth. 
A Pig Box and Holder, 
Mr. W. A. Gregg, Grant Co., Ind., sends 
us a sketch and description of a device for 
holding pigs while ringing them. The box 
should be 3y 2 or 4 feet long, 2'/ 2 feet high. 
A PIG HOLDER AND NOOSE. 
and 20 inches broad inside, large enough to 
hold the largest hog, and yet not so wide that 
small hogs can turn around in it. The posts 
are 2 inches square ; the end, side, and top, 
slats 2‘A inches wide, 1 inch thick. The bottom 
is made tight with inch plank. The hog may 
easily be driven or led into the box by putting 
it close up to the door of the pen. When in, 
let down a perpendicular board behind the 
pig, between the slats, and the most vicious 
hog is as helpless as a child. Take four feet 
of common clothes line, tie a two-inch loop 
at one end, pass the other end through this 
loop until a second loop 12 or 15 inches long 
is formed. Tie a short stick to the opposite 
end of the rope to assist in holding. Let the 
