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REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY NO. OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
REVIEW OF THE FEBRUARY NO. OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
Planting the Isabella Grape Vine. —“He that 
runs may read and he that reads may plant his 
vines without any further directions. It needs no 
comment—turn back and read it. Please, Mr. 
Editor, give us the after culture in the same com¬ 
mon sense style. All of your readers cannot turn 
to the book you refer to. [Will probably do so an¬ 
other year]. 
Cisterns in Farm Yards. —Before reading the com¬ 
munication o‘f my particular friend, Dr. Underhill, I 
had made up my mind that “ cisterns in barn yards” 
meant rain-water cisterns for holding water for 
cattle ; a place quite as worthy of notice as those for 
holding manure, and in fact much more so in many 
places. There are many fine farms, within my 
knowledge, where stock water, at all seasons, is 
extremely inconvenient. How strange it is, that 
the owners of such do not provide cisterns. It 
must be because they are not aware how cheap it 
can be done. Will you publish some plain direc¬ 
tions, with quantity and cost of water and lime for 
a cistern to hold one hundred barrels ? In most 
cases the mortar can be plastered directly upon the 
earthen walls of the vault, without building a brick 
wall. 
American Agriculture. —These remarks upon the 
book of this title, lately published by Richard L. 
Allen, are just what might be expected from the 
good sense of the Editor of the Horticulturist. 
New Self - Sharpening Plow. —Long before this I 
had come to the conclusion that all the ingenuity of 
those cute Yankees, Rugglcs, Nourse & Mason, 
had been expended upon the numerous plows here¬ 
tofore given to the public. But it seems from this 
“ latest improvement” that there is “ one more left.” 
If they continue to make them equal to the sample 
now shown at your ware-rooms, nothing can exceed 
them in appearance. I am well satisfied that the 
improvement is a most valuable one. Speaking of 
plows reminds me that the editor of the Prairie 
Farmer, when he was here last year, promised to 
send you one of the much-bragged-of steel plows 
from Chicago. Has he done so ? If he has I have 
never noticed it while rambling over your museum 
of agricultural curiosities which you exhibit gratis, 
and with apparent pleasure, to all who will take the 
trouble to call at 187 Water street; a place which I 
am always pleased to visit when I am down town, 
and have an hour to spare. 
A MovAng Machine. —In a conversation with Mr. 
Hussey, at Baltimore, a few years ago, he told me 
that he had devoted a great deal of time and careful 
attention to this subject while perfecting his reap¬ 
ing machine, without ever being able to produce a 
machine that would be useful except upon very 
smooth meadows entirely free from stones, and 
cellent and healthy vegetable could be made to pro¬ 
duce great profits to the cultivator. It is a subject 
well worthy the attention of the Farmers’ Club, or 
American Agricultural Association. I think I will 
bring it before them at their next meeting. I would 
also suggest that the American Institute offer one of 
their agricultural premiums for the best plantation. 
The Land Sabbath, unless more profitably kept 
than the Christian Sabbath is by a large portion of 
this generation, had better never have been. The 
product would be a crop of very noxious weeds. 
The Army- Worm .—Has your correspondent “ M” 
ever seen the waste and ravages of an army of 
worms ? I have. Some years ago I was travel¬ 
ling in the southern part of the State of Indiana, 
and my attention was first called to notice the 
“ army-worm” by observing the blighted appear¬ 
ance of the vegetation on one side of the road, 
while on the other it looked green and beautiful. 
At first I did not notice the cause. But casting my 
eyes to the ground, I was alarmed to see the whole 
surface of the road apparently alive and moving 
from under my horse’s feet. So completely did the 
army-worm cover the ground, that I could see no¬ 
thing else, nor until I slackened my speed was I 
able to distinguish that the moving mass was com¬ 
posed of individuals all going the same way. I 
soon came to an opposing army of men and boys, 
horses, oxen, and plows. The commander of this 
force was cutting entrenchments and putting all his 
force at work to keep the invader's off his farm. 
To do this he plowed a deep continuous furrow 
around the exposed sides of his farm just inside of 
the fence, into which the worms tumbled and piled 
up until the furrow became so full that the invaders 
could pass over the mass of their comrades at the 
bottom of the ditch and reach the opposite bank. 
For they are unable to ascend the perpendicular 
side oi the furrow of fresh earth. To prevent the 
furrow from getting full, a boy and horse were 
dragging a heavy log along in the furrow at short 
intervals, followed occasionally by the plow to 
clean out the filthy mass. And it was by such con¬ 
stant attention that one blade of grass could be 
saved from the jaws of this voracious army. Can 
human means, with all its “ bonfires,” destroy the 
larvae of such an army ? 
Hints to Flax Growers .—Is there not a mistake in 
figures here ? Mr. Parker states the price of Rus¬ 
sian flax at six to twelve cents, and American at six 
to ten cents, while the whole tenor of the article 
seems intended to show that American flax is the 
lowest price of any in the world—and “is unable 
to compete with the worst country” in the culture 
of flax. Now I am of a different opinion. True, 
we cannot compete with the pauper labor of Eu¬ 
rope, where the wages of the laborer are calcu- 
, _lated at the lowest point above actual starvation ; 
even then, accidents would happen from meeting! but with our cheap lands of the West which 
with one that had been carelessly thrown there, 
was his opinion, and it is mine after much study 
upon the subject, that mowing machines will never 
come into universal use, because they cannot be 
made to cut close enough to the ground. 
abound in excellent soil for flax, we can raise flax 
in the very rough way that we do, for six to ten 
cents a pound, as well as the English farmer can his 
with all its laborious preparation for market, and 
upon a soil where the annual rent of an acre would 
a£er- i ess Cultivation .—This article I have', 1 buy the fee simple of twenty acres in the West for 
real wit very great interest. It strikes me that the price stated. I have no doubt but flax would 
mere ate many places within striking distance of Te found a much more profitable crop upon some of 
‘ 1S C1 y ( ew York), where plantations of this ex- the Western prairies, distant from market, than is 
