AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
108 
t . . '' _ ■■ H" - 
character a ‘ fixed fact.’ I was prepared for a 
fair trial, but not to be thus silently but forcibly 
thrown aside.” 
What Mr. B. adds in regard to the favoritism 
shown the “Kirby” and “Wood Manny” ma¬ 
chines is doubtless correct. The latter won the 
Second Prize by mere trick and favoritism ; while 
the “ Ball, Aultman & Co.” machine won the 
first Prize through the ignorance of ■practical and. 
theoretical mechanics of the Judges. 
Mr. B. proposes that the United States Agricul¬ 
tural Society should return him his entrance 
fee of $50 for his unnoticed Reaper, or grant - 
him a new trial. As to the first proposition I can 
assure him he will never see the first red cent of 
his money again; and as for the second, they 
would probably do him a greater injustice than 
before, which would only be adding insult to in¬ 
jury. 
I learn that Mr. Allen entered a combined 
Mowing and Reaping Machine, for which he paid 
an entrance fee of $50. It worked on the first 
day’s trial, but on the second day it was over¬ 
looked by the Judges and not called, although it 
drew its lot and was waiting all day in the field 
with its team and driver. Mr. Burrall will see 
from this that he does not stand alone in forget¬ 
fulness ; for I do not find any notice in the Re¬ 
port of Mr. Allen’s combined machine. I pre¬ 
sume the entrance fee is kept all the same, how¬ 
ever, as if it were ever so elaborately reported. 
H. L. 
Syracuse, N. Y., March 17, 1858. 
[Owing to the crowded state of our columns by the un¬ 
usually large amount of advertisements of this season, 
we were obliged to divide the letter of H. L., leaving the 
larger portion of it over for future publication.— Ed.] 
Meadow, or Mowing Lands- 
Now that Mowing Machines are so rapidly com¬ 
ing into use, those farmers who work them are 
compelled to bring their meadows in a better sur¬ 
face condition than when the scythe only was used; 
as, on a good bottom depends greatly the success, or 
the want of it, of the machine. Some mowing 
lands are frosty, as it is termed; that is, a heaving 
up, by the winter frost, of the spongy soil which 
overlies the hard pan beneath ; and when the frost 
is wholly out of the ground, it settles unevenly, or 
hummocky, and requires the aid of a heavy roller to 
crush it back to an equal surface. Other lands have 
more or less small surface stone which are thrown 
upwards by the frost, and when the ground settles 
they remain there in the way of either scythe or 
machine. Others, again, have been top-dressed 
during the previous autumn, and the coarser parts 
of the manure lie loose on the surface, and will not 
sufficiently decompose before the hay harvest. All 
these require the roller, as soon as the frost leaves 
the ground in the Spring, and a heavy roller, too, to 
bring all the hummocky turfs, and small stones, 
down to an even surface. 
The meadows should be gone thoroughly over, 
too, to cut and take out all rooty grubs or bushes 
that may have sprung up since the last haying. 
Where roots are left in the ground, they frequently 
send up thrifty shoots late in the season, which, if 
left uncut, will be sure to break or cripple the ma¬ 
chine in passing over them. All these shoots, and 
the grubs from which they spring, are best taken 
out by the roots, at once, by the grubbing hoe, or 
ax. 
It is now a good time, also, to examine and see 
whether any bare spots are in the meadows; and if 
so, sow them with the proper grass seeds, raking 
them thoroughly in with a sharp iron-tooth rake; or 
if the barren spots are large, with a sharp-toothed 
harrow. Let the meadow be covered with grass in 
avery part; all low places drained off, that the 
young grass be not drowned, or foul stuff come in, 
and this should be among the first labors of the 
opening season. 
-o < . w awi" ■ m - 
Mr. Editor : I have on my farm, standing in a 
thick wood, a Beech tree which I think quite a 
curiosity. Above I give a correct pencil sketch of 
it. As you will see, it is a tree with two trunks, 
each upon separate roots. The roots stand about 
10 feet apart, and the full hight of the tree is 
about 20 feet. The strait body is about 3 
inches in diameter, and the leaning one, 3£. Can 
you tell how such a tree was ever produced. It is 
evident that it must have sprung from two sepa¬ 
rate nuts or seeds, but the junction is so smooth, 
regular, and free from knots, that one can hardly 
believe that they could have been thrust together 
by accident. Yet I am confident that man had no 
hand in joining them. D. L. Adair. 
Kawesville, Ky., Feb. 13th., 1858. 
Whence comes the Cut Worm? 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
I will answer the query of your Connecticut 
subscriber in the January Agriculturist by saying 
that the Cut Worm comes from an egg laid by an 
ash colored miller, moth or butterfly, whichever 
you please to call it. This miller is about an inch 
in length with wings expanding from one-and-a 
half to two inches, and legs about five-eights of 
an inch long. The whole appearance of the in¬ 
sect is much like a magnified musquito without 
his proboscis. 
The eggs are deposited to the amount of six or 
eight each, in a velvet cone among the grass roots 
close to the ground, where they are not affected 
by frosts or wet. The warm breezes of Spring 
hatch them, and they at once commence their de¬ 
structive work, rapidly increasing in size. They 
attain their full size about the end of May and 
then undergo a change, leaving their worm dress 
standing perpendicular in the earth with a hole in 
the top, whence the butterfly has escaped, and is 
now flying about a harmless insect, except de¬ 
positing its eggs for a future progeny. 
Now, to the direct question why “ subscriber’s” 
crop was so injured where the land was plowed 
the second time. Early plowing turns the eggs 
down beyond the influence of the sun, and the ac¬ 
tion of early frosts upon fresh plowed grounds 
has a tendency to close all openings between the 
furrows. The harrowing spoken of by your cor¬ 
respondent performed the same office. In this 
situation many of the eggs were not hatched at 
all, and others were so late as to do little damage. 
On the part that was plowed the second time, the 
eggs were turned up to the influence of light and 
heat, and a large proportion of them hatched, to 
the great injury of 11 subscriber ” 
Wm. Shinn, Jr. 
Sidney, Shelby Co., O. 
The Huckleberry. 
Yes, A«c/deberries. We have always called 
them so; and so every body else calls them; 
although, in the books they are spelled whort-\e ber¬ 
ry. But, never mind the name, every-one knows 
what they are—the most delicious, palatable, 
healthful fruit of the season. And in such vari¬ 
eties too, from the little black and blue things, 
not biger than a garden currant, up to the great, 
plump, glistening, jet black, and delightfully bloom¬ 
ed blue globules, nearly as large as a common pie- 
cherry ! They were the first wild fruit we ever 
picked. Sweet-ferns, and huckleberries covered 
the rocky pastures in the neighborhood of our 
birth-place, and the woods, hill-sides, and moun¬ 
tain tops were full of them ; and the higher the 
land, the more rocky and worthless it was for any 
kind of pasturage, the better were the huckleber¬ 
ries. Cultivated, we never yet saw them. In¬ 
deed, we doubt whether they can be cultivated to 
advantage, either in profit or improvement in size 
or flavor, although we hear of attempts being 
made. We have had no opportunity for a trial, 
having no garden land poor enough for them. We 
are not sure, however, but we may try it, and 
see how they will work. Were we a young man, 
and bad cash enough, we might buy a mountain, 
or part of one for the express purpose of growing 
huckleberries as a source of profit: for we have 
no doubt there are thousands of acres of land, 
which, in its natural condition is more profitably 
adapted to the growth of huckleberries than it 
could be, with the expense of drainage and taking 
the stone from its surface added, to any other ag¬ 
ricultural purpose. 
Poor land—that is to say, thin land—cold, 
frosty, spongy, heavy, sandy loam, rocky, and 
cobble stony, bears the best berries we ever saw 
They come into our city in their season, from the 
poor hills and plains of Jersey and Long-Island, 
from up the North-river, along on the mountain 
sides, and back in the country—all about, in fact— 
giving employment and revenue to thousands ot 
girls, boys, and poor people who probably give 
little, or nothing fur the privilege of picking them. 
We should really like to see the huckleberry 
statistics of New-York, for a single year, as a 
matter of curiosity, and know what a sum of mon¬ 
ey is paid out for this innocent luxury to its con¬ 
sumers, and how many people to whom, while 
picking them, could do little else to earn an honest 
shilling, they are a source of support and profit. 
We would like also to learn from some of the 
owners of huckleberry lands whether they derive 
any actual profit from the fruit itself, other than 
what is incidental to the gathering and marketing 
of the fruit. That is, whether they can sell the 
crops on the land to the pickers, and wnat it is 
worth per acre. When New-York gets to be as 
populous as London, the consumption of huckle¬ 
berries will be enormous, compared to what it is 
now, even, and it may be that on hill, and moun¬ 
tain, and plain, lands yielding them may be like the 
Highlands of Scotland, now annually let out is 
districts for deer-stalking, grouse-shooting, and 
other items of country sports, may be better set 
apart for huckleberry growing than anything else. 
We know wide patches of land which give a 
more profitable annual yield in blackberries and 
elderberries, than for any cultivated family crops, 
and can readily believe that large tracts, almost 
worthless for any other purpose, may be profitably 
devoted to huckleberries. 
