AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
217 
MIDDLESEX COUNTY (Ct.) AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
We are indebted to Mr. D. Barnes, Secretary, 
for a copy of the rules and regulations of this 
Society for their Cattle Show and Fair which is 
to be held at Middletown, on the 27th, 28th, 
and 29 th of September. This is one of the old¬ 
est Societies in that State, and we speak from 
personal observation, when we say it is one of 
the best-conducted and most prosperous. The 
officers are: 
President —Chas. Hubbard. 
Vice Presidents —Jedadiah Wilcox, Brainard 
Montague, Levi Coe, David Harrison, Enoch 
Coe, George Stancliff, M. F. Pelton, Alfred 
Camp, Wm. C. Bull, and Alexander Sage. 
Duane Barnes, Secretary and Treasurer. 
REVIEW OF BOOKS. 
Farm Implements, and the Principles op their 
Construction and Use ; an Elementary and 
Familiar Treatise on Mechanics, and on Na¬ 
tural Philosophy generally, as applied to the 
ordinary practices of Agriculture. By JonN 
J. Thomas. New-York: Harper & Brothers. 
We should have somewhat altered the title of 
this valuable little work had it been our own, 
giving to the Farm Implements the secondary, 
not primary position in its title, as their des¬ 
cription occupies but a few of its 267 pages. 
They are mainly devoted to stating the more 
familiar and practical principles of natural phil¬ 
osophy. The subjects treated are all of an em¬ 
inently practical character, and such as should 
be thoroughly understood, not only by every 
agriculturist, but also by every mechanic and 
working man, of whatever craft he may be. It 
is this kind of reading we should desire to see 
taking the place of many of the gossiping and 
aimless daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals ; 
whose only object would seem to be the em¬ 
ployment of printers and paper makers at a 
round profit, by a heavy tax on whoever is 
weak enough to exchange their money for these 
commodities. 
Although but little comparatively is said about 
the principles of construction and use of farm 
implements, yet a great many valuable princi¬ 
ples are laid down, which are essential to be 
understood in manufacturing them; and which 
must always be the case where natural and me¬ 
chanical laws are correctly stated, as they are 
in this work, so far as we have examined it. 
We should be glad to see the book in every one 
of our school and other popular libraries; and 
every principle in this and its kindred subjects 
of chemistry, botany, physiology, minerology, 
ought to be thoroughly understood and ap¬ 
plied by those who aspire to excellence in the 
exalted profession of an agriculturist. 
The Transactions of the Royal Hawaiian 
Agricultural Society, at its third Annual 
Meeting, in June, 1853. Yov. 1, No. 4. Hon¬ 
olulu : Printed for the Society. Government 
Press. 
A novelty this—well-printed, in clear type, 
on good paper, and neatly bound in a volume of 
171 pages; the production of a government, 
that scarcely thirty years since, was the rudest 
kind of the barbarian type ; and which we can 
only account for by noticing the leading names 
among the officers of the Society as American. 
But however, or by whom originated, here 
they are, employed in describing the culture, 
and elucidating the best principles and practices 
employed in raising the various products of the 
Hawaiian and the adjacent islands. The subjects 
are further extended, and embrace descriptions 
of domestic animals connected with the agricul¬ 
ture of the Islands, implements, statistics, labor¬ 
ers, finance, the mechanic arts, the construc¬ 
tion of roads, the improvement and extension of 
domestic manufactures, and all the cognate 
subjects connected with the advancement of 
their agriculture. We can hardly recall a more 
pleasing incident, than the reception of this in¬ 
teresting and instructive document; and we are 
sure that if the productive industry of the group 
of islands, of which Hawaii is the chief, is as 
intelligently followed up as it has been com¬ 
menced, less than half a century will show it to 
be one of the leading rural communities of the 
world, and the very paradise of modern and ag¬ 
ricultural development. 
- *6*- 
GRASS SEED. 
Will you be so kind as to inform a subscri¬ 
ber, through your paper, what kind of grass 
seed would suit best for woods’ pasture; what 
time in the year is best for sowing, and how 
much seed it requires per acre, in latitude 40 
and 41 north? Veazey Price. 
Somerset , Wabash CoIaMay 28 , 1854 . 
The Blue Grass of the West is the best for 
this purpose. It is called June Grass and 
Goose Grass in the East. In your climate you 
can sow any time, as soon as frost is out of the 
ground in the spring, till the middle of Septem¬ 
ber, although March and April are the best 
months for sowing. It will require about one 
bushel of seed per acre. 
You should harrow the ground as well as you 
can before and after sowing. Orchard Grass 
would do pretty well, if you could mellow the 
ground by plowing previous to sowing, but as 
this is not practicable in forest land, it is hardly 
worth while to attempt it. All the underbrush 
should be cut out of the woods previous to sow¬ 
ing the Blue grass seed; it would also be better 
to thin them enough to give them a park-like 
appearance. 
CRYSTAL PALACE. 
Grand Musical Congress. —On Thursday of 
this week, (June 15th,) we are to have at the 
Crystal Palace what may be termed a World’s 
Musical Show. We have now in this country 
fit representatives of Europe’s best musical tal¬ 
ent, in Jullien and his troup of artists. On that 
occasion are to be gathered around him many 
hundreds of the best singers and instrumental 
performers that can be drawn from Boston, 
New-York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New-Or- 
Ieans, and a score of other cities. We think the 
simple announcement that Jullien is to be at 
the Crystal Palace with some 1500 such per¬ 
formers as the above, will be enough to draw 
together as many persons as even the spacious 
Palace will hold. 
- • • • - 
I think our church will last a good while yet, 
said a waggish deacon to the minister. I see 
the sleepers are very sound. 
The French say, “He who has a good son-in- 
law has gained a son; he who has a bad one 
has lost a daughter.” 
CULTIVATION OF FLAX, 
In our recent observations upon fiax, and in 
earnestly recommending the attention of farm¬ 
ers to its improved cultivation, we desire to 
refute the oft-repeated assertion that flax is a 
very exhausting crop. Experience has taught 
the foreign grower that flax really withdraws 
fewer valuable properties from the soil, than 
either potatoes or turnips, and such as it does 
abstract, can be readily restored by suitable ma¬ 
nures. 
Another fallacy, is the supposition—equally 
common and equally unfounded—that to have 
good straw the seed must be sacrificed, and to 
have good seed the straw must be lost. It has 
been abundantly proved that a good crop of 
both seed and straw fiber can be produced on 
the same stalk. 
Flax is considered an excellent rotation after 
grass, and before potatoes or green crops, and 
in the old countries they rotate it once in eight 
to ten years ; and when it is once introduced as 
a standard crop upon a farm, it will not be aban¬ 
doned. How far our farmers can profitably 
employ the labor of children or young people— 
as they do abroad—at weeding and pulling, re¬ 
mains to be proved; of course, careful super¬ 
vision is always needed with this crop. 
We have mentioned that there is a large con¬ 
sumption of flax seed for oil, which is used very 
extensively to mix paint. In Ohio there are 
several oil mills, some of them crushing as much 
as five thousand bushels per day, and near New- 
York city there is a very large mill—the largest, 
it is said, in the world—requiring a vast sup¬ 
ply. No doubt others would start up every 
where, simultaneously with a demand for them. 
The mills at present depend almost exclusively 
upon a foreign supply of seed. We hope it will 
not be long so. It seems strange, that what 
can be so easily grown at home, should be 
brought from the antipodes. It must not be 
concealed, however, that the East Indian seed 
is grown almost wild, gathered by natives, 
whose food and clothing costs almost nothing, 
and is brought over at a mere nominal freight, 
by vessels which must come without other 
freight, and hence it can be sold at a low price, 
while it yields more oil of a purer kind than the 
seed at present grown in the United States. On 
the other hand, the straw of the flax in Ilindos- 
tan is valueless, while to the American farmer, 
his straw, properly handled, should be by far 
the most valuable part of his crop. 
To those who know little about flax, we would 
also mention that the oil-cake —or the residuum, 
after pressing out all the oil—is highly valuable 
for fattening stock. It is especially good for 
young calves, heifers, or milk cows. It seems 
to have a peculiarly healthy effect upon the 
skin of the animal, rendering it mellow, and the 
hair sleek and shining, while its nutritious quali¬ 
ties are fully equal to corn, pound for pound. 
The “ bolls” in which the seed is contained, 
may also be used for feed, after threshing, and 
arc excellent when mashed with green feed or 
corn. They are also very good to manure the 
land after flax ; so also the other waste part of 
the plant after rolling and scutching the flax, 
are excellent to return to the soil. 
In Ireland, where the increase of this crop 
has been very great of late years, the farmer 
finds it the most profitable he can raise. 
