46 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
and eggs in the winter, but she only got enough 
for family use. 
In the milk-room the homespun theory was 
carried out to perfection. There were wooden 
milk pails and linen strainer, and milk trays of 
beech and poplar, as if no peddler with tin-pans 
and milk pails had ever invaded her dwelling. 
The cheese press was evidently of home manu¬ 
facture, and I looked round half expecting to 
see wooden cheeses upon the shelf; but these 
manifestly were made with all the cream in. 
She had learned her dairying before wooden 
hams and nutmegs were invented, and cheese, 
with her, meant all that could be pressed solid 
out of new milk into a cheese hoop. “ Martha 
Gregg’s cheeses,” she said, “ were known in the 
market, and she never had one sent back in 
more than forty year.” 
The homespun idea ruled through the house. 
Her cotfee was systematically pounded in a 
mortar, because she preferred it to a coffee mill. 
•She had seen one of the things at her daughter 
'usan’s, but she did not like the noise of it about 
ae house. She believed in Johnny cakes bak- 
id upon the head of a flour barrel, and in rye 
biscuit fresh from the good old fashioned bake 
kettle, that would hold coals upon the top. She 
had never come to a stove yet, did not think 
they were healthy, though she supposed they 
saved a good deal of wood. Her husband rais¬ 
ed his own wheat, and had done it ever since 
they had kept house. She thought the unbolted 
meal made the most wholesome bread that was 
ever set upon the table. 
A very interesting relic of the olden times was 
this woman of homespun. We get a better idea 
of the progress of agriculture, and of society in 
the farming districts, from such a household, 
than it is possible to form in any other place. 
The adage of the age of homespun, “ make every 
thing you can, and buy only what you must,” 
was admirable in its time. But, with the ad¬ 
vent of machinery, and the thousand new uses 
for human muscles, another law must rule upon 
the farm and in the house. “ Make only what 
you can make best, and buy whatever you 
need,” is now sound doctrine. Farming has be¬ 
come a science and a trade; and skill in buying 
and selling is one of the secrets of the farmer’s 
thrift. His wife should not overlook it. What 
can she make best ? 
Pulverize the Manures. 
Few farmers comprehend the importance of 
attending to this item in the preparation of their 
stock of fertilizers. They are often carried to 
the field in the Spring, in the coarsest form pos¬ 
sible, the hay and straw not fermented at all, 
and the coarse clods carried in to the yard last 
Summer, not broken. They are spread in this 
state, and the large lumps are plowed under 
30 that they are not immediately available for 
the sustenance of plants. Plants feed mainly at 
the extremities of the rootlets, through mouths 
too small be seen by the naked eye. The finer 
the manure is made, the more easily it is dissolved 
in water, and the sooner it passes into the circu¬ 
lation. This doubtless is one reason of the al¬ 
most immediate visible effects of Peruvian guano. 
It has been passed through the digestive appar¬ 
atus of birds, and reduced to a much finer pow¬ 
der than it could be by any mechanical means. 
So small a quantity as a hundred pounds, spread 
upon an acre of mowing in a wet May day, will 
improve its appearance in a very short time. 
All observing farmers have noticed that the 
finest and most thoroughly worked compost, 
other things being equal, gives uniformly the 
best results. The minute division of the parti¬ 
cles is favorable to the chemical combinations 
that take place in the soil. It becomes much 
sooner available, and the cultivator gets an ear¬ 
lier return for his investment in fertilizers. 
Fortunately, at this season, we have a very 
powerful agent that we can put to this work of 
comminution without any expense. The frost, 
with a fair chance to work, is better than any 
clod-crusher or mill to powder a compost heap. 
One of the best means of economizing frost for 
this purpose, is to plow up the yard when¬ 
ever there comes a thaw, or say twice a month. 
Every turning of the contents of the yard exposes 
new surfaces to the action of the frost. We have 
found it a very profitable employment to fork 
over the compost heaps in the barn cellar, and 
in the field, during the Winter. Where the heaps 
are large, this can be done quite rapidly, even in 
freezing weather; and the more it freezes and 
thaws, the finer it becomes. Heaps thus turned 
and thoroughly beaten up with a shovel, come 
out in the Spring, a fine homogeneous mass, good 
to spread and plow in, admirable for dropping in 
the hill, and first rate for top-dressing grass land. 
* 
Good Corn in Connecticut—The “ Argument 
Acre.” 
James H. Linsley, Litchfield Co., Conn., 
adds an interesting P. S. to a letter renewing his 
subscription to the American Agriculturist —in sub¬ 
stance as follows: “ Although not a farmer, I 
feel interested enough in agriculture, to try to 
show cultivators how much better they might 
do; and I think I have succeeded. Last season 
I planted corn on a lot containing 2f acres, 
which had been begging for a purchaser at $30 
per acre. The expenses were as follows : 
Digging Stone and making wall.$160 
Manure. 60 
Cost of Tilling and Harvesting.... „ _50 
Total............. .$270 
Returns. 
220 bushels shelled corn fa) 75 c.$165 
11 Cart loads fodder... 50 215 
Balance against the crop.$55 
This boks like losing money; but the land 
would now sell quickly at $150 per acre and pay 
10 per cent interest at that price. This changes 
the appearance of the account thus. 
Increase in value of 2% acres of land.....$315 
Deduct Balance above. 55 
Profit, (about $98 per acre).260 
This seems, and is, a large show, and some in 
my neighborhood doubted the statement, until 
I exhibited th a pile of corn, which satisfied them.” 
Such an argument tells in favor of improved 
culture, or “ book farming ” as it is often styled, 
more than volumes of essays. Let like facts be 
multiplied. Set aside a small plot and try high 
farming upon it. If judiciously treated, the re¬ 
turns will very likely give it the name of the 
“ Argument Acre.” 
-- <—— - 
How Thistles are Disseminated—An Im¬ 
portant Suggestion. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
You would do the community a good service 
by cautioning them against introducing the 
Canada Thistle with their fruit trees. The straw 
and litter used by many nurserymen in packing 
trees,contains I histle seed, and unless it be burned 
as soon as the trees are unpacked, they are quite 
sure to find a lodging place, and perhaps cover 
the farm. A neighbor of mine received a lot of 
trees from a Northern Now-York nursery last 
Fall, which were packed in straw full of Canada 
thistles, with much of the seed still in the burr. 
Had he not been acquainted with the pest, hia 
premises would soon have been covered with it. 
There should be a law against using anything 
containing thistle seed, for packing trees. To 
show how difficult it is to exterminate a patch 
of thistles when once established, I will mention 
a spot in my neighborhood, which, though 
mowed every year, when in bloom, is rapidly 
spreading. Geo. Beaver. 
Perry Co., Pa. 
[Cutting but once a year will never exter¬ 
minate the Canada Thistle. There will be vital¬ 
ity enough left in the rhizoma, or underground 
stem, to propagate it. Cut it down once in 
three weeks, or as often as the stalks are high 
enough to be reached with the scythe, and in a 
few seasons, at most, it must succumb.—E d.] 
•-—•——«*»—-—- 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Composting Night Soil—Its Value. 
Messrs. Editors : 
You remember that premium corn crop of 
mine last Fall—961 bushels to the acre, on a 
three-acre lot. If you don’t, I do, and the splen¬ 
did growth of the stalks, and the remarks of 
the neighbors upon that piece of com, as it 
pushed right on through the drouth, as if it had 
a rain every night, and as much food in the soil 
as it could dispose of. The thing that carried 
the day with that corn, was night soil in the 
hill, and I prepared it for use thus: 
The farm is only a mile from the village, 
where I market my wood, milk, butter, and all 
other farm products. The night soil could be 
had for the carting—indeed, most people would 
even pay something to have their privies cleaned 
out now and then—and I had a box rigged for 
the purpose, holding about one-third of a cord, 
and fitted into a horse cart. The box has a 
trap door on top for receiving, and another be¬ 
hind for discharging the contents. These doors 
are made to shut water tight, so that the box 
can be carried without any leakage. Hard coal 
ashes also can be had in the village for the 
cartage. I have often tried them in the garden, 
and upon the meadow, and think they will pay 
for carting a mile, to spread upon any moist 
land. They are one of the best absorbents I 
have ever tried. I procured a large heap of 
them last winter, and had them stored under a 
shed. When the night soil was brought, I made 
a layer of the dry ashes, about a foot thick, ele¬ 
vating the edges so that the water could not run 
off, and dumped several loads into it. The 
quantity of water these ashes will absorb, is as¬ 
tonishing. No accurate measurement was made 
of the relative quantities of each, but it was not 
far from two parts of ashes to one of night soil. 
The whole mass was shoveled over twice, mix¬ 
ing the parts intimately, and left in a pile until 
the corn was planted, the last week in May. 
The mixed soil lost its strong smell, becoming 
nearly inodorous after the first working over, 
and, at the time of dropping, was about as dry 
as coal ashes, and handled with as little incon¬ 
venience. A handful of this mixture was 
dropped in the hill, and the result was, the best 
crop of corn I ever raised. 
To be sure the ground had other manure. I 
believe in using that article, and all the money 
I have made in farming, I have made in that 
way. I had about ten cords of good compost 
plowed in to the acre, and seldom take a crop 
from the land where I do not use as much. The 
night soil did the rest, and I think at least thir¬ 
ty bushels of the grain to the acre was made by 
